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China remains Africas top trade partner for 16th year, cooperation in various areas continues to expand: official

09:51, May 22, 2025 By Zhang Yiyi ( Global Times

An aerial drone photo taken on Dec. 16, 2024 shows the cargo ship "GREEN NAGOYA" being loaded at Qingdao Port in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. The vessel is expected to arrive at the Dar es Salaam Port in Tanzania in about 20 days. A new direct shipping route between China's Qingdao and southeast Africa was officially opened on Monday. Running on a weekly basis, this route adds a safe and fast maritime shipping alternative between China and Africa. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

China remained Africa's largest trading partner for the 16th consecutive year in 2024, with bilateral trade hitting a record $295.6 billion, up 4.8 percent year-on-year, while cooperation in areas such as investment, industry and technology continues to deepen, according to an official from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Wednesday.

Tang Wenhong, assistant minister of commerce, revealed the data during a State Council Information Office press conference on the upcoming 4th China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, which will be held from June 12-15 in Changsha, Central China's Hunan Province. Co-hosted by the MOFCOM and the Hunan provincial government, the event is one of the most significant platforms for China-Africa economic engagement this year.

Tang said that China's vast market offers major opportunities for African goods. For instance, 90 percent of South Africa's pecans are exported to China, making it the world's third-largest producer of pecans. Overall, China's imports from Africa rose 6.9 percent to $116.8 billion, while exports hit $178.8 billion, up 3.5 percent, according to the official.

China has long been Africa's largest trading partner and a leading investor, reflecting the strong complementarity in China-Africa trade, Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Chinese investment in Africa has also gained strong momentum in recent years, with companies expanding industrial parks and boosting supply chain cooperation. In Egypt, the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has formed clusters in sectors such as textiles, glass, building materials and home appliances, serving as a model for African industrialization. In Tanzania, more than 430 Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have joined a commercial and logistics park that is expected to create more than 20,000 local jobs. In Zambia, the China-Zambia cooperation zone is building a complete copper industry chain to raise the value-added of mineral exports, according to Tang.

Song said that China has consistently supported Africa's development with sincerity, viewing trade as a vital means to help ease development bottlenecks and build the continent's capacity for self-sustained growth. She noted that since the launch of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China has steadily advanced trade facilitation measures, including the 2024 announcement of zero-tariff treatment for exports from Africa's least-developed countries that have diplomatic ties with China, an initiative that has sharply boosted the flow of agricultural and specialty products into the Chinese market.

"Amid rising US protectionism, China and Africa should deepen cooperation under the Global South framework, using platforms like FOCAC and BRICS to expand ties in digital and high-tech sectors and support Africa's sustainable development," Song said, adding that stronger trade and investment cooperation is needed to safeguard economic security and unlock market potential on both sides.

Tang also said on Wednesday that cooperation in emerging sectors is also deepening. Chinese companies have built major data centers in Africa, offering cloud services and applying 5G technology in mining and urban management. In green development, the capacity of jointly built solar power stations has exceeded 1.5 gigawatts, enough to power more than 1 million African households. In finance, Egypt and the African Export-Import Bank successfully issued yuan-denominated panda bonds in China in 2023 and 2025.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Members of the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation from India, that is in Tokyo as part of India's global outreach against Pakistan sponsored terrorism, met Takashi Endo, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security, in Japan. During the meeting, India's resolute commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms was unequivocally emphasised. Takashi Endo conveyed Japan's solidarity in India's fight against terror. The All-party delegation led by JDU MP Sanjay Jha, also met with Yoshihide Suga, Former Prime Minister of Japan, Vice President of LDP and Chairman of Japan India Association. India's commitment to combating cross border terrorism was reaffirmed. Yoshide Suga reiterated Japan's strong commitment to support India in its fight against terrorism. The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Sanjay Jha comprises Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MPs Dr. Hemang Joshi, Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, and Pradan Baruah; CPI(M) MP John Brittas; and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee. As part of this outreach, India's All-Party Parliamentary Delegation earlier engaged with leading Japanese think tanks in Tokyo, briefing them on India's firm zero-tolerance policy towards terrorism. As per India's Embassy in Tokyo, the participants supported India's fight against terrorism. In a post on X, India's embassy to Japan stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation interacted with leading Japanese think tanks in Tokyo and briefed them on India's zero tolerance to terrorism. Regional security challenges including state backed terrorism was discussed during the interactive session. Participants expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism." Earlier in the day, the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation met with Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan, reiterating India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms. The Japanese Foreign Minister expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by India, urging strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts. Delegation lead, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said," We presented India's stand strongly. He appreciated it and said that action should be taken against terrorism. He also appreciated the restraint India had shown. He supported India's stand against terrorism. He said that terrorism should be eliminated. He added that EAM S Jaishankar had briefed him on this. He offered his condolences on the Pahalgam attack and said that they (terrorists) should be punished." (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], May 22 (ANI) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday announced heightened security at Israeli embassies worldwide following the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. "We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost," the Prime Minister of Israel said on X. In a statement, Netanyahu said, "My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the state's representatives." He said he has been brief by the Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US Attorney General Pam Bondi who "detailed everything that is known at this time about the identity of the murderer and the two embassy employees." "Prosecutor Bondi expressed deep, heartfelt sorrow. She informed me that President Donald Trump was closely following the incident, and that US authorities would do everything they could to bring the killer to justice. She also asked to convey her condolences to the families of the young couple who were about to get engaged, " Netanyahu said. Meanwhile, the Israel Embassy in Delhi in a statement on X said, "We are deeply saddened by the tragic and brutal murder of our colleagues, Yaron Lischinsky and his fiance Sarah Milgram, this morning in Washington DC. Israel stands united against terror. Terror will not deter us from continuing to represent our country with pride." CNN reported that the suspect named after Wednesday night's deadly shooting is being interviewed by the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police along with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces, according to Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino. Bongino said the shooting happened close to the FBI's Washington Field Office, and that FBI police officers responded immediately and rendered aid after the attack. The suspected shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was apprehended at the scene. Witnesses report he shouted "Free Palestine" during his arrest. Israeli President Isaac Herzog denounced the shooting as a "despicable antisemitic terror attack," adding, "America and Israel will always stand united in defending our peoples and common values. We won't let terror and hate break us." Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called the attack "terrible news," and insisted "Israel won't give in to terror." according to The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL). US President Donald Trump has condemned the "horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism" In a post on the Truth Social social media platform, Trump said, "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA." Israeli state media TPS reported that two Israeli embassy staff members were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC on Wednesday night in what Israeli and US officials are calling a targeted act of antisemitic violence. According to Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy, the two staffers were a young couple about to become engaged. They were "shot at close range" while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a post on X said, "We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share," adding, "We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice." Washington, DC, Police Chief Pamela Smith in a press conference late Wednesday said, "Despite all life-saving efforts, both victims succumbed to their injuries," Smith said. "The attack occurred as the victims were exiting the museum. A suspect had been seen pacing outside shortly beforehand." Smith identified the shooter as 30-year-old Elias Rodriquez of Chicago, Illinois. "The suspect opened fire on a group of four, killing a man and a woman. While in custody, he chanted, 'Free, free Palestine.'" After the shooting, the gunman entered the museum and was detained by event security, Smith said. Once handcuffed, he told security where he had discarded the weapon, which was recovered by authorities. Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter was cited by The Press Service of Israel as saying that the male victim had recently purchased an engagement ring and was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem. "The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of 'Free Palestine' was a couple about to be engaged," Leiter said. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also denounced the attack as "a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism." "Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line," Danon said. "We are confident US authorities will act decisively." The fatal shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday occurred on the same night as the American Jewish Committee was holding an event for young professionals, CNN reported. The man accused of killing the young couple "pretended to be a witness" and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming he "did it for Gaza," eyewitness Sara Marinuzzi told CNN. (ANI)
Japanese strategic expert Satoru Nagao, a Fellow (Non-resident) at the Hudson Institute, has praised India's Operation Sindoor, calling it a "responsible and proper" response against state-sponsored terrorism. He called out Pakistan for supporting terrorism and called it a "suicide" as no one can control terrorists. The expert whose primary research area is the US-Japan-India security cooperation in an interview with ANI, termed the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam as "terrible". As many as 26 people were killed and several others were injured in that terrorist attack The Japanese expert emphasised that India has suffered from terrorism and Pakistan supports this terrorism. He also noted that support Islamabad's support for terrorism has a long history. On the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, he said, "That was terrible, of course, because even the Japanese got a chance to see what happened. In one picture, we see a picture in which (a woman is) just side of her husband...ofcourse we were moved emotionally. But at the same time, we want to know more because India's voice is always good." "But at the same time, Japanese should know more about this because for a long time, India suffered this terrorism and this is terrorism supported by Pakistan, that is ... crime...So we need to tell Pakistan, they must crackdown on such kind of terrorists, not support terrorists. That is a very important message. And in this case, one by one, step by step, the Japanese has understand why India needs to deal with this terrorism and what is the Pakistan supported terrorism. So, that's why this is a very important issue." "But at the same time, we need Indian voice more. I personally, of course, support India strongly, of course. ...Pakistan support of terrorism has a long history. They do not think this is a wrong thing, that is a problem. We need to tell this is a wrong thing and indeed, this is suicide for Pakistan, too, because terrorists, is indeed, no one can control. So that's why this terrorist is very risky, not only against, of course, India, but in other countries, ...at the same time, Pakistan itself will suffer because they support them. This is tragic situation. They should regret it, I believe," the expert said Satoru Nagao, praised India for targeting terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 7 and called it a "good example of punishment." He stated that Pakistan should know that supporting terrorists is a risky strategy. When asked about his views on India targeting terror sites in Pakistan and PoJK under Operation Sindoor, he responded, "That is responsible attack, I believe, because only terrorist camps they attack. This is very responsible because India's operation is careful manner military operation. Firstly, they attack terrorist-related facility in Pakistan carefully because this is punishment of the Pakistan support terrorists and terrorist activity. Many terrorists have died, but these terrorists were perpetrators of many terrorist in the past." "So, that's why this is a good example of the punishment, proper response, I think. And at the same time, Pakistan should know this is risky strategy, supporting terrorism is risky strategy because for long time the world just waits at their response towards terrorists. But now one by one India punishes each terrorist and each terrorist activity that's why the other sending the message this operation Sindoor is a very good responsible, proper response against state sponsored terrorism," he added. In response to the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and PoJK, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). When asked whether international community has failed to hold Pakistan responsible for state-sponsored terrorism, the Japanese expert responded, "That's a little bit tragic but yes people in the world start to understand Pakistan is supporting terrorists, this is a problem. But at the same time, still many people believe this is a regional issue not a world affair. So, that's why the people should know this properly and reply to the terrorists is very important. "Recently there are too many wars in the world and there's big news...So that's why the US without the effort of the experts or of course Indians of course, but we should take charge to tell the people to understand the situation. That is also the responsibility for us. We need to know India's right and supporting terrorism is tragic crime. And at the same time, cracking terrorists is indeed not a regional problem, this is a world problem," Satoru Nagao said. Nagao who was awarded his PhD by Gakushuin University in 2011 for his thesis, "India's Military Strategy" has praised India for sending a delegation to Japan to explain India's viewpoint, as people of Japan cannot get enough chances to read about it in the Indian media. He called India a "strong country" to deal with terrorists. On a Indian Parliamentary delegation's visit to Japan, he said, "Yeah, I think so. Because without visiting Japan, there is no chance to exchange opinion about it. So this is very clever way, I think, sending the delegation to the other country and explaining India's view, which is right view, of course, and proper view. Because Indian media for Indians. So that's why Japanese cannot get enough chance to read it." "Only some experts like me can access these media. But if the delegation come and explain in front of the many media experts at the same time, in this case, this is a very precious chance for them to get access to Indian viewpoint. That is very important because India is right in this case because India is a victim, but India is a strong country to deal with terrorists because of India's strong and India's right. These kind of facts people should know., even in Japan, people should know. So that is the reason this delegation contributed a lot, I believe," Nagao said. Meanwhile, Hirose Hiromi, Political Science Professor, Kindai University, said, "The terrorist attack is very bad, killing innocent civilians, visiting the tourist sites, nothing to do with international conflict or nothing to do with religious conflict, this kind of attack should be condemned very severely. We Japanese do not know much about the background of the conflict. I think we should know much more about the deep cause of this conflict." The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah, arrived in Tokyo today. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. (ANI)
The delegation emphasized India's resolute commitment to combat terrorism.

In a post on X, Indian Embassy in Japan said, "Members of the All Party Parliamentary Delegation met with H.E. Mr. Takashi Endo, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security, Japan. India's resolute commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms was unequivocally emphasised. H.E. Mr Takashi Endo conveyed Japan's solidarity in India's fight against terror."

https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925457145610268847

India's All Party Parliamentary Delegation also met Yoshihide Suga, Former Prime Minister of Japan, Vice President of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Chairman of Japan India Association.

As per Indian Embassy in Japan, Yoshihide reaffirmed Japan's support to India in its fight against terrorism.

In a post on X, he said, "All Party Parliamentary Delegation from India, led by Hon'ble MP Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha, met with H.E. Mr. Yoshihide Suga, Former Prime Minister of Japan, Vice President of LDP and Chairman of Japan India Association. India's commitment to combating cross border terrorism was reaffirmed. HE Mr Suga reiterated Japan's strong commitment to support India in its fight against terrorism."

https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925452966435450892

Earlier in the day, India's All-Party Delegation interacted with leading Japanese think tanks in Tokyo and briefed them on India's zero tolerance to terrorism.

As per India's Embassy in Tokyo, the participants supported India's fight against terrorism.

In a post on X, India's embassy to Japan stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation interacted with leading Japanese think tanks in Tokyo and briefed them on India's zero tolerance to terrorism. Regional security challenges including state backed terrorism was discussed during the interactive session. Participants expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism."

https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925448338998202830

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held talks with Takehiro Funakoshi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue in Tokyo. (ANI)
Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were fatally shot near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., in what officials are investigating as an anti-Semitic attack. The incident took place around 9:15 p.m. local time outside the Capital Jewish Museum, near an FBI office building on F Street. According to law enforcement sources, the two embassy staff were shot as they exited an event at the museum. An embassy spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the Israeli ambassador was not present at the scene when the shooting occurred. Meanwhile, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem confirmed the attack on social media, describing the killings as "senseless" and stating, "We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice." Shortly after, the White House strongly condemned the violence. U.S. President Donald J. Trump said, "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on anti-Semitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA." He extended his condolences to the victims' families, adding, "So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" Senator Marco Rubio echoed this strong condemnation, describing the attack as "a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence" and vowing, "Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice." Both leaders emphasized the urgent need for accountability and justice. Israeli politician Gideon Sa'ar expressing his shock on social media stated, "Horrified by this morning's terrorist attack, in which two of our Embassy staff in Washington D.C. were murdered," highlighting the ongoing risks faced by Israeli representatives worldwide. He affirmed close coordination with American authorities and declared, "Israel will not surrender to terror," underscoring a unified stance against such acts of violence. Authorities continue their investigation into the shooting, working to uncover all details and bring the perpetrator to justice. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has condemned the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington, DC and called for bringing the perpetrators to justice. Jaishankar stated that his thoughts and prayers are with Israeli diplomats' families and colleagues. "Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice," Jaishankar posted on X. https://x.com/drsjaishankar/status/1925477116038070729 Jaishankar's statement comes after two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, officials said, according to local media. "Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC," US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X social media platform. The Israeli Embassy in India lowered their national flag to remember Israeli diplomat. Taking to X, the Israeli Embassy in India stated, "In profound sorrow, we lower the flag today to remember Yaron and Sarah, victims of a brutal terrorist act in Washington D.C. May their memory be a blessing." https://x.com/IsraelinIndia/status/1925477440081863076 Law enforcement sources told CNN that two people were shot as they exited an event at the museum.The shooting occurred at around 9:15 p.m. local time near an FBI office building on F Street, according to the news outlet. The Israeli ambassador was not involved in the incident and was not at the location when the shooting happened, an embassy spokesperson told CNN. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on social media that she and acting US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro have arrived at the scene of the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum. According to CBS News, two people familiar with the investigation said a suspect believed to be the shooter is in custody. Two sources said the shooter yelled "free Palestine" prior to the shooting. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took to X to post, "Horrific act of terror that the people of Israel are waking up to this morning. AG Pam Bondi called to let me know and was at the scene. 2 dead in shooting targeting Israeli embassy staffers outside Jewish Museum in Washington DC." Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also wrote in a social media post that the shooting occurred "outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum." Danon wrote that two other Israeli Embassy employees were wounded in the shooting, but that number has not been confirmed by authorities. "The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives - everywhere in the world," Danon posted on X. Ben Williamson, an FBI spokesperson, posted to X that FBI personnel were responding to assist the Metropolitan Police Department with the situation."There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on X. Spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington Tal Naim Cohen posted, "Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States." (ANI)
An all-party delegation of MPs for Operation Sindoor global outreach, led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, conveyed how India has been a victim of terror activities by Pakistan during their meeting with Jamal Mohammed Obaid Al Kaabi, Director-General of the National Media Office in Abu Dhabi. Shinde, who is leading the all-party delegation, while speaking to ANI on Thursday said that Kaabi affirmed that UAE will not support terror in any ways. He said, "They said that innocent people were killed in the attack in Pahalgam. We did not explain a lot to them - that how the attacks took place. There have been attacks on India for years now - Mumbai terror attacks, Pathankot attack, Pulwama attack. They knew about this. They have given a straight message that they can never stand with such terrorist organisations or a country which shelters terrorists; that they are against terrorism and it is important for all countries to come together and fight terrorism." Shinde said that UAE stands with India and it was affirmed even during the delegation's meet with Chairman of the Defence Committee, Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi and Minister of Tolerance, Nahayan. He said, "We had a very fruitful meeting with the UAE counterparts. We met the Chairman of the Defence Committee, Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi. We also had a meeting with the Minister of Tolerance, Sheikh Nahayan. I think UAE is standing shoulder to shoulder with full commitment with India against terrorism. The clear-cut message given by the UAE was - we stand against terrorism with India, fighting terrorism," he said. Shinde said that the support from UAE was very important, given how diverse it is, just like India. He added that the UAE supports its minorities, just like India does. Hence, it is important to note its support to India. "I think this is a very important message because a country like UAE, who is in a neighbourhood where diversity is the main culture of UAE - like that of India, India is also a very diverse nation. Still, the peace and prosperity which exist in the UAE, I think the number of people, number of Indians who stay in the UAE feel protected and the way UAE is progressing, I think a nation like UAE to stand shoulder to shoulder with India in these tough times, tested times is very important," he said. Shinde said that the message form the UAE leaders is very significant as it is important for both nations along with their respective neighbourhoods. "I think the message has been very clear from the UAE counterparts that we are with you against this terrorism and message was given that terrorism cannot proliferate in the name of any religion. A clear-cut from both ministers was very much clear. I think it is very important for the progress of both nations and also the nations in the neighbourhood," he said. Shinde added that terrorism is no just related to India, but affects the entire humanity. "Terrorism is not only related to India, the message was given that it is not an attack only on India but an attack on humanity. I think all of these hold great importance. UAE is the first one to condemn the attack on India," he said. (ANI)
The Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM) strongly condemned the severe and unprovoked assault carried out by the Pakistani state intelligence agencies and police against peaceful Sindhi nationalist activists in Moro. The gunfire resulted in the death of Zahid Laghari and serious injuries to Irfan Laghari, along with several others. JSFM Chairman Sohail Abro, alongside senior leaders Zubair Sindhi, Amar Azadi, Farhan Sindhi, Hafeez Deshi, Mark Sindhu, and Hosho Sindhi, condemned the incident in the strongest terms and announced 10 days of mourning throughout Sindh to honour the fallen comrade. Chairman Sohail Abro further insisted, "An FIR must be filed immediately against the officers of Pakistani intelligence and police accountable for the targeted killing of Zahid Laghari. They must be brought to justice and held responsible under international human rights law." The JSFM leadership stressed that this atrocious act is part of a larger systematic campaign by Pakistan's military, ISI, MI, Rangers, and police to violently suppress the peaceful resistance movement in Sindh. The ongoing struggle against corporate land grabbing and the illegal construction of canals on the Indus River has faced increasing state brutality. This brutality encompasses enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, fabricated criminal charges, and the criminalisation of peaceful political activism. "We caution the world that Pakistan's establishment is intentionally driving peaceful Sindhi political activism towards conflict. They aim to justify a comprehensive operation to eliminate the national movement of Sindh. We will refuse to allow them to stifle our democratic voices," stated JSFM leaders. "Our nonviolent resistance will persist for the rightful ownership of Sindh's natural resources, for the entitlement to self-determination, for the freedom of our unjustly detained and forcibly disappeared activists, and for the freedom and dignity of the Sindhi nation," declared Sohail Abro. The Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement urged the United Nations and its Special Rapporteurs on Human Rights and Enforced Disappearances, as well as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Human Rights Defenders, and Journalists to urgently acknowledge the escalating state oppression in Sindh and the severe human rights violations being perpetrated by Pakistani authorities. The international community must act to halt the crackdowns, ensure accountability, and advocate for the Sindhi people's right to peaceful political expression, autonomy, and justice. (ANI)
UAE parliamentarian Ali Rashid Al-Nuaimi, who met with an all-party delegation of MPs on Thursday, affirmed his support for India in its fight against terrorism. An all-party delegation of MPs led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde called on the Chairman of Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee, Federal National Council of UAE in Abu Dhabi today. "Terrorism has no religion, no nationality. It is an evil for all humanity," Nuaimi said, adding that "Terrorism is an enemy of humanity.... Wise people should rise and speak against terrorism." He said that terrorism is a global threat and the international community should condemn it. "We are in agreement that terrorism is a threat not just to a single nation or region, but it is a global threat. We believe that we as an international community should come together, especially the Members of Parliament, we have to work on putting plans and strategy and engage in creating a better future for all humanity...This meeting emphasises our commitment to work together to counter terrorism and create a better future for our people and the region," the UAE minister said. Nuaimi added that he had a successful meeting with the Indian counterparts and said that India and the UAE face the same challenges and have the same opportunities. "We had a very successful meeting with our friends from the Indian parliament. We discussed the strategic relationship between the UAE and India, and we emphasise that, you know, we are in the same boat. We face the same challenges. We share so many opportunities. We have to have more engagement working together for, not only for a better future for the two countries, but for the whole region and globally," he said. He added that India and the UAE, both agree that terrorism is a global threat, and is not limited to any nation. "We have so many things in common our commitment for peace, our commitment for prosperity for all, and also our commitment to fight terrorism. And we are in agreement that terrorism is not a threat to a single nation or a single region, but it's a global threat. This is where we believe that we as an international community should come together," he said. The delegation led by Shinde includes BJP MPs Bansuri Swaraj and Atul Garg, Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, BJP leader SS Ahluwalia, IUML MP ET Mohammed Basheer, BJD MP Sasmit Patra, and Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. (ANI)
A member of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) has reportedly gone missing in Karachi after allegedly being detained by Pakistani security forces, while two other cases of enforced disappearance have been reported from Balochistan's Panjgur and Nushki districts in recent days. According to local sources, security personnel raided a residence in Jam Goth, Malir, late Tuesday night and detained Mir Balach Baloch, son of Abdul Latif. Balach, an active member of the BYC, had previously participated in several protest movements in Karachi over the past year and was also subjected to enforced disappearance in July last year. https://x.com/TBPEnglish/status/1925290541077442615 His family confirmed that he has gone missing again, and they currently have no information about his whereabouts. They have appealed for his immediate and safe release. In a separate incident reported from Panjgur, a man named Mehrullah, son of Maqbool Ahmed, was allegedly taken from his home in Tasp on May 18. According to his family, he is a labourer with no political ties or affiliations. They have called on the authorities to disclose his location and ensure his safety without delay. Meanwhile, in Nushki district, 25-year-old Naveed Jamaldini was reportedly abducted on May 19 while travelling with friends near Killi Badal Karez Cross. His family stated that two unmarked vehicles intercepted the group, and men in plain clothes took Naveed away at gunpoint. "His companions were released hours later, but Naveed remains missing," the family said. They suspect that he was taken to Nushki Cantonment and have demanded his immediate release. Enforced disappearances continue to be a serious human rights concern in Balochistan. International watchdogs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly urged Pakistan to investigate such cases and take steps to end the practice, which leaves families in anguish and despair. (ANI)
An All-Party Parliamentary delegation from India, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, Member of Parliament, is visiting Japan from May 22 to 24, 2025. The visit follows the recent Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, with counterterrorism cooperation central to discussions, an official statement from the Indian Embassy in Tokyo said. On the first day of the visit, the delegation met Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya. At the beginning of the meeting, Iwaya expressed heartfelt condolences to the victims of the Pahalgam attack and extended sympathies to those injured. He said terrorism cannot be justified in any form and conveyed Japan's solidarity with India and the international community in the fight against terrorism, the statement added. Jha described the Pahalgam incident as a nefarious attempt to disturb development and peace in Jammu and Kashmir. He said India responded through Operation Sindoor "in a precise, targeted, proportionate and non-escalatory manner." https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925448338998202830 He stated that "India has zero tolerance for terrorism and that it does not differentiate between terrorists and those supporting them." He requested Japan's support in the global fight against terrorism and called for the implementation of the UN Security Council Press Statement of April 25, 2025, which underlines the need "to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and to bring them to justice," as per the press release. Iwaya reiterated Japan's support for India's counterterrorism efforts and expressed appreciation for the restraint shown by India. He said those responsible for terrorist acts must be punished. The delegation also met Yoshihide Suga, former Prime Minister of Japan and current Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party and Chairman of the Japan-India Association, as well as Takashi Endo, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security. Both leaders affirmed Japan's continued support for India's efforts against terrorism, the official statement added. The Indian delegation also held an interaction with leading Japanese think tanks, briefing participants on India's zero tolerance policy on terrorism. Participants expressed strong support for India's counterterrorism stance during the discussions. The visit also included a tribute ceremony in Tokyo, where the delegation offered floral tributes at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Edogawa. (ANI)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday reiterated India's claim over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), stating that the region rightfully belongs to India outlining a historical context that Jammu-Kashmir joined India during the partition in 1947. During an interview with "de Volkskrant" in Netherlands, Jaishankar said, 'As for Jammu and Kashmir, it is a historical fact that it joined India when India and Pakistan separated in 1947. Our position is that the illegal occupiers should return their illegally occupied parts to the rightful owner. And that is us." Further he condemned terrorism, stating that "no, for us terrorism is an independent, completely unacceptable international crime that should not be condoned or justified." "The terrorists targeted the vibrant tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir with their attack. So they are prepared to destroy things in Kashmir for their own, very limited, selfish purposes. They also deliberately gave the attack a very religious tint (Hindu versus Muslim, ed.). The world should not accept such practices," he added. Jaishankar also made it clear that the Kashmir issue is a "bilateral issue" between India and Pakistan, rejecting any offer of mediation by the international community. "No, it is a bilateral issue between the countries involved," Jaishankar said, emphasizing India's stance on the matter. Emphasising India's aspirations to expand its manufacturing capabilities, citing new technology as a potential entry point. "Our hope is indeed that the manufacturing of products in India will grow and that we will be more integrated into global production chains. New technology can be an entry point. So our interests in market access cover a much broader spectrum of modern products, such as electronic hardware, chemicals or all kinds of pharmaceuticals," said Jaishankar when asked about India's ambition to take China's place as the world's factory. On imposing sanctions on Russia, Jaishankar affirmed that "that sanction culture is a very Western way of maintaining international relations. We do not do national sanctions." "India has a position that many countries in the Global South probably share. We strive for a peaceful solution to this conflict. If we can do something about it, we are open to it. But of course, this depends on the parties involved," Jaishanakr said on India's playing a mediating role in ending the Russian war against Ukraine. Jaishankar also underlined India's aspirations for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, citing the country's growing economic and global influence. "That permanent seat on the Security Council is indeed one of our goals. We believe that if the much-needed reform of the UN and the Security Council finally comes about, we will receive a lot of support for our claim," he said. "Many international initiatives have come from India in recent years. We understand what our position entails. We are now the fourth largest economy in the world, we have just overtaken Japan. And we know that comes with responsibilities. We are ready," he added. In response to the Pahalgam attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities. Notably, EAM Jaishankar is on an official visit to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany from May 19 to 24. (ANI)
India expects Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism, said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal during the weekly briefing on Thursday. "We expect Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades. Relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other's concerns," Jaiswal stated. MEA spokesperson mentioned that the Celebi matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy. "Celebi matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy here. But I understand that this particular decision was taken by the Civil Aviation Security," he said. Turkish ground handling firm Celebi Airport Services whose clearance for ground handling at various Indian Airports were recently revoked by the Bureau of Civil Aviation. Meanwhile, Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of Turkish firm Celebi Aviation, has filed a plea in the Delhi High Court against the Indian government's decision to revoke its security clearance, citing national security concerns. The company, which provides airport ground handling services across India, argued that the move will jeopardise thousands of jobs and threatens investor confidence. The revocation reportedly stems from growing concerns over Turkey's support to Pakistan in the India-Pakistan conflict. However, Celebi maintains that its operations in India are independent and professionally governed, distancing itself from any political affiliations. In response to the Pahalgam attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan. During the press briefing on May 9, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi revealed that 300 to 400 drones were deployed across 36 locations, with several being shot down by Indian forces using both kinetic and non-kinetic methods. Initial investigations suggest the drones were Turkish-made Asisguard Songar models. On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities. (ANI)
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) has expressed support for the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (MAPIM), which has urged ASEAN leaders to take strong action regarding serious human rights violations against the Uyghurs. This appeal was made before the ASEAN Summit 2025, scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur, as announced by WUC on X. MAPIM has called on all ASEAN representatives to prioritise the Uyghur crisis in the summit discussions and to adhere to the principles of justice and human rights as specified in international law. The organisation noted that both groups face systematic oppression that may amount to crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The statement pointed out numerous reports of arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour, and cultural erasure targeting the Uyghur population, as highlighted in the MAPIM release. In his remarks, MAPIM President Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid emphasised that ASEAN cannot stay silent in light of such atrocities. He urged the regional group to issue a unified statement condemning these violations, take diplomatic and legal measures to ensure accountability, and strive for sustainable solutions that safeguard the right to life, dignity, and identities of the affected communities, according to MAPIM release. The World Uyghur Congress stressed that a principled approach rooted in rights by ASEAN is essential for justice, regional credibility, and the safeguarding of minority communities, according to WUC's shared post on X. For years, Uyghur Muslims have endured harsh repression by China, characterised by systemic human rights violations and cultural erasure. The Chinese government's oppression of Uyghur Muslims includes extensive surveillance, arbitrary detention in "reeducation" camps, forced labour, and attempts to eliminate religious and cultural identity. The Chinese authorities deny these abuses, framing their actions as anti-terrorism efforts. International organisations and human rights advocates have condemned these policies as crimes against humanity and potentially genocidal. (ANI)
Stating that India has conveyed to China its "resolute stance" against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said "Chinese side is aware that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity remain the basis of India-China relations." Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Jaiswal said this when asked about the call between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval with his Chinese Foreign Minister (FM) Wang Yi on May 10. "Our NSA and the Chinese FM and Special Representative on Boundary Issue Wang Yi had spoken to each other on 10th May 2025, when NSA conveyed India's resolute stance against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. The Chinese side is aware that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity remain the basis of India-China relations," Jaiswal said. Addressing media queries about recent trilateral talks in China between the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the MEA spokesperson said, "We have seen some reports. I have nothing further to say beyond that." On EAM Dr S Jaishankar's conversation with the acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, he says, "We had put out a release. External Affairs Minister thanked acting Foreign Minister for his very strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terror attack; they also agreed to advance bilateral cooperation in several areas. External Affairs Minister also welcomed his firm rejection of recent attempts to create distrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports." Recently, the Pakistani federal cabinet also approved the promotion of its Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir, to Field Marshal, citing his "leadership" during its confrontation with India. Despite Pakistan projecting the outcome as a "historic victory" and praising Munir's leadership, the promotion follows recent military setbacks, particularly after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack. The operation resulted in significant losses for terrorist infrastructure and critical Pakistani military sites, exposing vulnerabilities in Pakistan's airspace and territory. General Asim Munir becomes only the second officer in Pakistan's history to be elevated to Field Marshal, following Ayub Khan, who awarded himself the rank in 1959 after taking over as president. The field marshal rank is symbolic, permanent, and held until death, signifying a dominant position for the army chief in Pakistan's power structure. Munir's promotion, just weeks after significant losses, is seen as consolidating the military's authority over the country's civilian leadership, as even General Pervez Musharraf, who held power for years, never assumed this title. (ANI)
Misri met his counterpart Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi and exchanged views on issues of topical importance.

"The two sides reviewed the salient issues in the multi-dimensional bilateral ties between India and Japan, including political relations, defence and security, economic cooperation and people to people exchanges," a Ministry of External Affairs release said.

Foreign Secretary also met National Security Advisor of Japan Masataka Okano, and Senior Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Hiroyuki Namazu to discuss regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Misri appreciated the support to and solidarity with India demonstrated by the government and the people of Japan following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam.

Foreign Secretary's visit and his meetings today provided yet another opportunity to reflect on and reaffirm the two countries' shared determination to fight terrorism in all forms and manifestations as well as the support infrastructure behind acts of terror, the release said.

During the visit, the Foreign Secretary delivered the spotlight address at the 2nd edition of the Raisina Tokyo Dialogue, organized by the Observer Research Foundation, ORF America, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives).

The release said that Foreign Secretary's visit was in continuation of the regular high-level contacts between the two sides in effort to further deepen the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership. (ANI)
Jamil Ahmed, a representative of the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), has strongly criticised Hafiz-ur-Rahman for his lack of action during his tenure as head of the Muslim League from 2015 to 2020. Speaking to WTV, Ahmed described how Rahman failed to use his two-digit majority in the Assembly, leading to missed opportunities to resolve important issues such as land rights for the people of Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. "Hafiz-ur-Rahman was given a two-digit majority by this nation, but he wasted five years making commissions. There was a clear opportunity to act, but he failed, whether it was due to bad intentions or incompetence," said Ahmed. According to WTV, Ahmed also pointed out the ongoing division within the Muslim League. "Today, Hafiz-ur-Rahman is opposing this bill, but members like Ghulam Ahmed, Anwar and my sister Sanam supported it. Despite Rahman's opposition, they voted in favour of the bill. They understood its importance," Ahmed remarked. He noted that Rahman's failure to act left a void, but some members of the party had demonstrated genuine leadership by supporting the legislation for the people of PoGB. The bill at the center of the discussion, tabled to secure land rights for the people of PoGB, is described as a historic step by Ahmed. He emphasised that this legislation is crucial for people who have struggled for decades to reclaim their land from both colonial and post-colonial authorities. Ahmed continued his criticism of the Muslim League's record. "Even with a majority, they failed to pass this bill. They made a commission, but never moved forward. The opposition wasn't about the bill itself; it was about politics," he stated. Reflecting on the bill's passage, Ahmed expressed pride in his party's achievement in securing land ownership for PoGB. "Today, we have fulfilled our mandate. Our slogan was the right of ownership, and today, we've made the people the rightful owners of their land," he said. (ANI)
Hakeem Baloch, a representative of the Baloch National Movement's Foreign Committee, described the situation in Balochistan as a "slow genocide" perpetrated by the Pakistani military and governmental bodies during an exclusive interview with ANI. He pointed out the widespread cases of enforced disappearances, the repression of peaceful protests, and the escalating resistance within the area. Baloch stated that over 20,000 individuals have been forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces, with many of them missing for more than a decade. "In Balochistan, families consider themselves fortunate if they manage to recover the body of their missing loved one," he stated. He condemned the targeting of peaceful civil rights advocates such as Maharang Baloch, Bebarg Zehri, Saeeda Baloch, and Sabiha Baloch. He remarked, "These individuals are not linked with armed groups but are detained or intimidated merely for advocating and seeking dignity. Even the relatives of these activists are being arrested to stifle dissent." Baloch observed that voices advocating for independence or rights are met with severe repression. He mentioned notable leaders from the Baloch National Movement, including Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and Mannan Baloch, were killed by Pakistani forces. Nevertheless, he insisted that the Baloch struggle persists, with a new generation carrying on the fight. Baloch criticised the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a project developed without the approval of the Baloch populace. He claimed it has forcefully relocated entire communities, failed to provide any economic advantages, and only exacerbated military presence. "Not a single job has been offered to Baloch locals," he mentioned, adding that CPEC primarily benefits Chinese and Pakistani strategic interests. Challenging Pakistan's assertions that the situation in Balochistan is the result of foreign propaganda, he argued that social media and mobile connectivity have revealed the reality. "Denial is the only tactic the Pakistani state has remaining," he stated, appealing to the global community to see beyond the fabrications. Hakeem Baloch concluded by urging the international community, especially India, to back the indigenous and enduring Baloch freedom movement. "This is not a case of foreign meddling; it is our right according to the UN Charter," he asserted. "We welcome assistance from any nation that upholds justice and freedom." (ANI)
https://x.com/IndembAbuDhabi/status/1925565331164275021

Sharing the pictures on X, the Indian Embassy wrote, "Honouring the ideals of peace and tolerance of Bapu! The All-Party delegation led by @DrSEShinde paid floral tributes at the bust of Mahatma Gandhi in the Embassy."

Earlier in the day, the delegation held meetings with UAE leadership on the significance of Operation Sindoor and reaffirmed India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism.

UAE is the first stop of the broader four-nation diplomatic outreach by the all-party delegation.

"The delegations held meetings with UAE leadership and media to brief on the significance of Operation Sindoor and reaffirm India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism," Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, said in a press release.

The delegation met Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Co-Existence.

Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan conveyed his deep condolences for the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

The delegation highlighted the perpetration of cross-border terrorism and Pakistan's efforts to cause social disharmony in India

"India and UAE will tackle terrorism together. The UAE will always stand by India," the UAE Minister said

The all-party delegation comprises MPs Bansuri Swaraj, ET Mohmd Basheer, Atul Garg, Sasmit Patra, Manan Kumar Mishra, BJP leader Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia, and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy.

The delegation held substantive discussions with Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of Federal National Council and other senior Emirati parliamentarians.

The delegation underscored the precise, measured, and non-escalatory nature of Operation Sindoor against the barbaric terrorist attack on the tourists in Kashmir on April 22.

The UAE was among the first countries to issue a statement categorically condemning the Pahalgam terrorist attack. UAE leaders, President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally conveyed their condolences to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over phone calls. (ANI)
Tel Aviv [Israel], May 22 (ANI/TPS): An Israeli military investigation into Hamas' October 7 attack on Kibbutz Kissufim and the nearby Kissufim army base found glaring failures in the Israel Defense Forces' preparedness. The report, released on Thursday, found that soldiers, trained primarily for combat in Gaza's open areas, were ill-prepared for fighting within a civilian setting. Forty-five people -- mostly soldiers, but several civilians and Thai workers were killed during an assault by about 150 terrorists from two of Hamas's elite Nukhba Force battalions. The report highlighted how the absence of specialized training and clear operational protocols for urban warfare led to serious tactical errors, including "two-sided shooting" incidents, where IDF troops fired on each other and at fellow civilians. In one case, Tom Godo, a 52-year-old civilian, was killed after soldiers heard Arabic nearby and opened fire without confirming the source -- only later realizing it came from a neighboring Israeli home. Despite initial successful resistance by the IDF's 51st Battalion at the Kissufim base, the investigation details how the lack of proper division of forces and poor coordination hampered the defense efforts. The report notes that IDF reinforcements, including the Egoz unit and the 450th Battalion, arrived hours after the initial attack but faced repeated ambushes by Hamas terrorists who had entrenched themselves in the kibbutz. Fighting continued for days, with daily skirmishes recorded as late as October 12, exposing that the area was never fully cleared on the first day. The report also criticized the Israeli Air Force's limited role during the battle, stating its support was insufficient to halt the attackers due lack of coordination with forces on the ground. The probe also noted systemic weaknesses, such as poor security measures around the kibbutz and base, which contributed to the high casualty count. Seventy Israelis were wounded in the battles, and one, Shlomo Mansour, was kidnapped and later killed in Gaza. The probe also found that despite the operational failures and friendly-fire incidents, no disciplinary actions were taken against those responsible. The report called for improved rules of engagement and clearer communication protocols. "The community's resilience, the courage of the defenders, and the willingness to fight -- are what saved the kibbutz from complete destruction. Not the state," a kibbutz statement said in response to the report's release. Thursday's report is the latest in a series of army probes -- summaries of which have been released in recent weeks -- some 5,000 terrorists from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad managed to attack numerous Israeli communities and overrun the army's border positions. The army's chain of command broke amid the chaos and soldiers were outnumbered. They also found that the army misunderstood Hamas's intentions for years, and as October 7 approached, intelligence about the looming attack was misinterpreted. The military was also more focused on threats from Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah in Lebanon. The IDF probes only deal with issues of operations, intelligence and command, not decisions made by the political echelon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted calls for an inquiry, saying he opposes a "politically biased" probe. Critics accuse Netanyahu of delaying the inquiry and trying to water down its mandate. State commissions of inquiry have broad authority to summon witnesses and collect evidence and are headed by a senior Supreme Court justice. They may include personal recommendations about individuals under investigation, though the government is not bound to act on them. The last state commission of inquiry, which investigated Israel's worst civilian disaster -- a stampede that killed 45 people at a holy site on Mount Meron -- held Netanyahu personally responsible for the tragedy in a report released in 2024. At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 59 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead. (ANI/TPS)
The arrests came after an operation conducted by detectives from the Crime Fighting Unit (CFU) of the Judea Region, in which what the police called "disturbing videos" were found documenting severe abuse and fatal shooting of animals, along with the possession of illegal weapons.

The investigation began on March 13, 2025, upon receipt of information against a Bethlehem resident suspected of possessing an illegal weapon.

In a targeted operation in Bethlehem carried out by Yehuda Police Detectives and IDF soldiers, a gun was seized as well as the suspect's mobile phone. As part of the investigation, hard-hitting footage was found showing the suspect and others shooting dead animals, including pigs and a horse. (ANI/TPS)
Tel Aviv [Israel], May 22 (ANI/TPS): A dramatic High Court of Justice ruling against the Israeli government's controversial attempt to dismiss a security chief triggered fierce political reactions. On Wednesday night, the justices struck down the dismissal of Ronen Bar, director of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), calling his firing "improper," "unlawful," and tainted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conflict of interest. "The government failed to provide a factual basis for removing the Shin Bet chief," wrote Court President Justice Isaac Amit in a sharply worded majority opinion. "At best, it rested on a thin and shaky foundation. At worst, it was arbitrary." Amit stressed that the Shin Bet's independence is vital for maintaining Israel's democratic institutions and that Bar's dismissal represented a "neglect of basic concepts concerning the Shin Bet and the position of its director as an apolitical and independent state official who owes, first and foremost, a duty of loyalty to the public." Though Bar had already announced his resignation effective June 15 and the government technically withdrew its decision to fire him, the court ruled that the matter was of such public importance that it warranted a binding legal interpretation regardless. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara responded swiftly, informing Netanyahu that due to the court's finding of a conflict of interest -- arising from active Shin Bet investigations into the prime minister's close associates and their relationship with Qatar -- he was barred from appointing Bar's successor until new legal guidelines were established. "The court found that the prime minister acted in a conflict of interest," Baharav-Miara wrote. "Therefore, he must refrain from any steps concerning the appointment of a new Shin Bet director until legal instructions are established to ensure the process is conducted properly. These will be formulated in the coming days." But Netanyahu lashed out at the decision, calling it "disgraceful" and accusing the court of overreach. "This ruling harms Israeli democracy and national security," the prime minister declared, insisting that he would move forward with appointing a new Shin Bet head regardless of the attorney general's directive. Justice Minister Yariv Levin joined the backlash, saying, "There is only one answer to the unbridled rampage of the High Court - the appointment of a Shin Bet head and a civil service commissioner without delay." Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich went further, accusing the judiciary of undermining democracy. "Mr. Prime Minister, neither the Ministry of Justice nor the High Court are responsible for the security of the state - you are," he said. "If the court rejects the appointment, you must still transfer responsibility for managing the Shin Bet, including its budget, to the new director." National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed the ruling was politically motivated and accused Bar of working against the government. "Ronen Bar attempted to fabricate cases against ministers," he said. "Now he's been granted cover by a court that is once again trampling democracy." Ben-Gvir added, "The sooner we part ways with Bar, the better. We need a director who understands Hamas is the enemy, not Israeli citizens." Opposition figures, however, hailed the ruling as a defense of democratic norms. "It's proof of a dysfunctional government when the High Court must remind it to act lawfully in appointing a Shin Bet head," said opposition leader Yair Lapid. "The prime minister is clearly in a serious conflict of interest." Netanyahu and Bar have been blaming each other over what was known before Hamas' October 7 attack and whether it could have been prevented, as well as the "Qatargate" scandal. Bar claims that Netanyahu's decision to dismiss him was influenced by a conflict of interest related to the ongoing investigation. The government argues that Bar should have resigned after the agency completed its internal investigation in March. The Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence service, is responsible for counterterrorism, counterintelligence, internal security, VIP protection, and cybersecurity. The only Shin Bet director to ever leave before the end of his five-year term was Carmi Gillon, who resigned in the aftermath of the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. (ANI/TPS)
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal said that Pakistan High Commission staff members, who have been declared "persona non grata" are "conducting activities that are not in keeping with their official status." Speaking at the weekly briefing on Thursday, Jaiswal highlighted that one staff member has already left India, while the other was given 24 hours to depart. "Pakistan High Commission staff members who have been conducting activities that are not in keeping with their official status and for that reason, they have been told to leave India. One has left India, the other one was given 24 hours yesterday to leave India," Jaiswal said. On Wednesday, India declared a Pakistani official persona non grata for engaging in activities not consistent with his official status in the country and has been asked to leave India within 24 hours. "The Government of India has declared a Pakistani official, working at the pakistan-high-commission-in-new-delhi">Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, persona non grata for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in India. The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours," read the Ministry of External Affairs press release. Persona non grata is a formal declaration of disapproval by the host country. The host government requests the diplomat's departure, effectively ending their diplomatic immunity. The host country is not obligated to provide a reason for declaring someone persona non grata. According to the MEA, the Charge d'Affaires of the Pakistan High Commission was issued a demarche to this effect today. "The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours. Charge d'Affaires, Pakistan High Commission, was issued a demarche to this effect today. He was asked to strictly ensure that none of the Pakistani diplomats or officials in India misuse their privileges and status in any manner," added the MEA release. This comes a little over a week after India had declared a Pakistan High Commission staffer persona non grata on May 13. The MEA declared a Pakistani citizen working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi 'persona non grata' for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in India. The relations between the two countries have deteriorated in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 and the subsequent response from India by launching Operation Sindoor, targeting nine infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in the intervening night of May 6-7. In addition to eliminating over 100 terrorists, the strikes targeted 11 Air bases inside Pakistan and inflicted significant damage on their military capabilities. The air, land and sea operations were carried out with calibrated restraint, with an emphasis on minimising civilian casualties. Meanwhile, Jaiswal also said,"Pakistan, through the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) that we had exercised its right to respond under Operation Sindoor, so we told them (about the attack) after the incident." (ANI)
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Thursday interacted with members of the German parliament during his official visit to the country. The EAM held discussions on wide-ranging topics, including India's firm commitment to combatting terrorism in all forms and manifestations. Sharing the details in a post on X, EAM appreciated the support of the members of the Parliament for the growth of India-Germany ties. He wrote on X, "A good interaction with members of German Bundestag this evening in Berlin. Appreciate their strong support for continued growth of India-Germany relations. Also discussed with them India's firm commitment of combatting terrorism in all forms and manifestations." https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1925609547525210232 Earlier in the day, EAM Jaishankar also chaired the regional conference of Ambassadors in Europe, where he discussed Operation Sindoor and India's message of zero tolerance for terrorism. EAM said that they also discussed on various aspects of further deepening engagements with Europe. He wrote on X, "Chaired the regional conference of our Ambassadors in Europe today in Berlin. We discussed #OpSindoor and our message of zero tolerance for terrorism. Also deliberated on various aspects of more deeply engaging Europe at a time of change." https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1925556052268892160 India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. After this, on May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced. EAM Jaishankar is on an official visit to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany from May 19 to 24. Earlier during his visit to the Netherlands, EAM Jaishankar had highlighted India's resolve against terrorism. In an interview with Dutch daily de Volkskrant, EAM said, "We want a definitive end to terrorism. Our message is therefore: yes, the ceasefire has put an end to military actions against each other for now, but if the terrorist attacks from Pakistan continue, there will be consequences. The Pakistanis must understand that very well." Jaishankar also held a productive meeting in Copenhagen on Wednesday (local time) with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen to advance Indo-Danish relations. During the discussions, Jaishankar also lauded Denmark's solidarity and its support for India's fight against terrorism. (ANI)
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj addressed the Indian diaspora in the UAE regarding India's action against terrorism during the global outreach program on Operation Sindoor. As a member of the high-level all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Bansuri Swaraj thanked the UAE for its unequivocal support to India. She said the reason for this is the Indian diaspora. "It is because of your contributions. It is because the love that UAE has for you. It is because what you bring enriching their culture. It is because of your ethos that today Bharat stands tall. So please give a huge round of applause to yourself." She said that the delegation is in the UAE to discuss the pain of the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack, the achievements of Operation Sindoor and share the roadmap for the future. In her moving remarks, she said that Sindoor is now a new synonym for justice, strength, because of the valour shown by the Indian armed forces. She reiterated the remarks of Lok Sabha MP Atul Garg, "All of you (Indian diaspora) are ambassadors in your own being. We have come here so that you carry forward the message through your strengths". She highlighted the strength of the Indian diaspora in carrying forward the message of India's fight against terrorism and called them "brahmastra". Swaraj gave the diaspora a call to spread India's word to their communities, workplaces, worship places, and homes that India was not the aggressor. "What happened on 22nd April, that was a barbaric attack on our faith, on our existence. When we gave a befitting reply, we touched on nine terrorist bases. But, Pakistan instead of joining us in the global war against terrorism, chose to escalate the issue militarily. If you are going to bring war to our door, then we are going to bloody well finish it." Swaraj highlighted that India's response has been that of "tremendous restraint, tremendous maturity" She highlighted that in response, Pakistan attacked our holy places. Speaking on the actions which India is taking to counter the propaganda being spread on social media, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde said, "Negativity spreads faster than the positivity. But we are tackling this. The exercise we are doing, it will improvise things on social media also." He added that as the delegation travels, the exercise which will be of 13-14 days will "change the perspective and narrative and the false propaganda which Pakistan is spreading". He underscored that truth can't be silenced no matter how much it is suppressed and said that the delegation will put in its best of efforts. The Indian delegation in the UAE is being led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde. The all-party delegation comprises MPs Bansuri Swaraj, ET Mohmd Basheer, Atul Garg, Sasmit Patra, Manan Kumar Mishra, BJP leader Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia, and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. UAE is the first stop of the broader four-nation diplomatic outreach by the all-party delegation. The delegation met Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Co-Existence. Al Nahyan conveyed his deep condolences for the Pahalgam terrorist attack. The delegation highlighted the perpetration of cross-border terrorism and Pakistan's efforts to cause social disharmony in India. The all-party delegation will project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. It will convey to the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
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OSAKA, May 23 (News On Japan) - A massive outbreak of insects is causing serious problems at the Osaka-Kansai Expo site, prompting alarm both on the ground and online.

The unusual phenomenon began drawing attention last week when multiple social media posts described the situation as "out of control." One widely shared photo showed insects swarming a pillar of the Expos iconic circular roof structure, nicknamed the "Great Ring." While some visitors claimed they hadnt noticed any insects during their visit, others reported swarms that appeared to cling in thick clusters to walls, vending machines, and elevator shafts.

A site inspection revealed large numbers of tiny, pale-winged insects gathering especially on the upper sections of the ring. Although less dense than in the most extreme social media images, the presence of insects was undeniable. In particular, the Expo venues wooden pillars and shaded areas were found to be heavily coated. Visitors expressed discomfort, with some saying the insects nearly got into their food while eating, and many fled from areas thick with the bugs.

The insects have been identified as chironomids, or non-biting midges, often mistaken for mosquitoes but harmless to humans. According to researchers, they typically breed in aquatic environments and do not bite. A field investigation confirmed that they were originating from water-adjacent zones within the Expo grounds, especially near the ocean-facing sections.

One hotspot of the infestation has been the upper area of the Great Ring. While the insects are less active during the day, by around 6:30 p.m., massive swarms begin to emerge. Video taken on site shows a near-panic among visitors and even security personnel, with clouds of insects visibly filling the air. The scene became so chaotic at one point that reporters could not continue filming without being engulfed.

Expert Yamamoto from Suiken Co., who has researched midges for over 20 years, visited the site and confirmed the bugs are a salt-tolerant species of chironomid, capable of surviving in brackish water. According to Yamamoto, they likely existed on Yumeshimathe artificial island housing the Expoeven before construction began. The Expos environment, including the large wooden structures and artificial water bodies, has unintentionally created a perfect breeding ground.

The insects are known to lay eggs in water and then emerge in large numbers at dusk to seek high perches for mating. The wooden ring, elevated above the ground and facing the ocean, acts as an ideal rest and breeding site. Yamamoto warned that unless interrupted, this cycle would repeat daily through the summer.

Although some suspected the insects were emerging from stagnant puddles, further investigation pointed to the Expos southern "Water Plaza"a 3-hectare saltwater pond popular with visitors. The absence of natural predators like fish has likely allowed the chironomid larvae to thrive. Upon closer inspection, signs of larvae were found in nests along the waters edge.

In response to the escalating problem, Osaka Governor Yoshimura announced cooperation with a private sector company to implement control measures. He stated that he had directly requested support from the head of Kosei Seiyaku, a firm expected to aid in countermeasures.

Despite the discomfort, Yamamoto emphasized that the insects are not dangerous and will not bite. However, repellents and sprays are unlikely to be effective. He advised visitors sensitive to insects to avoid outdoor areas around sunset, especially the elevated sections of the ring. He added that the outbreak may naturally subside once peak summer temperatures arrive, although a second wave could emerge in September.

For now, Expo-goers are being urged to plan accordingly and remain aware of the insect-prone times and areas to ensure a more pleasant visit.

Source: KTV NEWS
SENDAI, May 23 (News On Japan) - Refund troubles are mounting across Japan over a now-defunct English camp program promoted through elementary schools, with a former staff member revealing that unpaid debts linked to the operation could total billions of yen. Run by a general incorporated association based in Sendai called the Miyagi Reconstruction Support Center, the international exchange programwhere local children interacted with foreign studentswas abruptly canceled without refunding participation fees.

One parent, who paid 30,000 yen after seeing a flyer distributed through a school, said her son contracted influenza just two days before the scheduled departure. "I understood I wouldn't get the full amount back due to the last-minute cancellation, but we had also purchased ski gear. I hoped at least the tour fee would be refunded," she said. According to the cancellation policy listed on the application, a 30% penalty should apply for cancellations two days in advance, meaning around 20,000 yen should have been returned. However, no refund has been received.

Many parents say they trusted the program because the flyers were distributed at schools. "That gave us a false sense of security," one parent said, adding, "I just hope no more children end up going to camps run by this organization."

While many education boards were listed as sponsors of the events, a former employee revealed that about half of the camps had not actually been approved by local governments. "Some parents started contacting city offices because of refund issues," the former employee said. "That's when cities started refusing to grant approvals. It affected about half of the events."

The scope of the problem extends beyond parents. Hotels that hosted the camps and bus companies that provided transportation have also reportedly gone unpaid. "There are likely hundreds of millions of yen in unpaid fees to facilities, and between 150 million to 200 million yen still owed to bus companies," said the former employee. "As for the refunds to parents, were talking tens of millions of yen. Altogether, the total could easily approach the one-billion-yen mark."

When FNN visited the associations Sendai office on May 22nd, there were no signs of activity, though a file labeled "2025 Refund Documents Sent" was seen on a shelf. A visit to the home of the organizations current registered representative also yielded no response.

The former staff member described the groups leader as being financially desperate. "It seems like hes just trying to collect money to get by. He keeps opening up recruitment simply to make ends meet."

FNN later spoke with the groups former representative director, a woman who said she had resigned three or four years ago and had no knowledge of the current situation. "My heart aches when I think of the children," she said.

According to the Miyagi Prefectural Government, consultations over refund issues surged beginning in March 2025. On May 1st, the prefecture conducted an on-site inspection and confirmed that at least 216 refunds were overdue. On May 21st, Governor Murai expressed strong regret over the situation, saying, "As the registering authority, we find the continued refund issues deeply concerning. This may be the result of overly aggressive sales practices."

The prefecture has issued administrative guidance instructing the organization to issue refunds by May 23rd. If payments are not made, it is considering an operational suspension.

As government authorities begin to intervene, parents remain dismayed not only by the financial losses but by the breach of trust. One parent commented, "Were not just talking about moneythis is an organization we entrusted our children to. Its shocking and painful. My child not only missed the camp but also lost the money. Its a double blow." There is growing urgency for the organization to respond sincerely and fulfill its refund obligations.

Source: FNN
OSAKA, May 23 (News On Japan) - A growing number of foreign nationals are converting their overseas driver's licenses into Japanese licenses through a process known as gaimen kirikaea system that has come under scrutiny due to apparent loopholes and increasingly lax enforcement.

One man who took the written test said, "I got a perfect score after just an hour of study." Meanwhile, recent cases of wrong-way driving and hit-and-run accidents have raised alarms about the safety risks tied to this system, which, in some cases, has allowed people to obtain a license using a hotel address and even while on a tourist visa.

In Japan, gaimen kirikae refers to the license conversion system that allows foreigners holding valid drivers licenses from abroad to obtain a Japanese license by passing a written and practical exam. In recent years, services assisting with the process have proliferated on Chinese e-commerce platforms, claiming to help users obtain Japanese licenses with minimal effort.

A collision earlier this month on the Shin-Mei Expressway in Kameyama, Mie Prefecture, involved a wrong-way vehicle and led to the arrest of a Peruvian national, Rossy Cruz John Alias, on suspicion of fleeing the scene. Just days earlier, in Saitama Prefecture, another hit-and-run incident involving a Chinese national who was allegedly driving under the influence resulted in injury to an elementary school child. Both suspects had obtained their licenses in Japan through the gaimen kirikae process.

The number of foreign nationals converting their licenses in Japan has more than doubled in the past decade, with Vietnamese and Chinese applicants accounting for the largest share. One expert explained that while Chinese licenses are valid in only a dozen or so countries, a Japanese license can be used to apply for an international driving permit valid in nearly 100 countriesmaking it a backdoor route to global driving privileges.

At the Osaka Prefectural License Center, it was observed that on a single morning, about ten Chinese nationals, accompanied by interpreters or friends, arrived to convert their licenses. According to officials, reservations for conversion slots fill up within a single day. The written exam, which consists of ten questions requiring seven correct answers to pass, was described as extremely easy by one test-taker who studied for only an hour using sample questions found on social media.

Even those staying in Japan on short-term tourist visas have reportedly been able to acquire licenses, using hotel stays as proof of residence. A Chinese interpreter accompanying applicants said, "I've helped about 20 people so far, mostly international students or people here for work, but also some on tourist visas."

Online searches on Chinese platforms for "Japanese license" reveal dozens of services promising fast-track assistance. One such listing advertised a license conversion exam in Osaka for 169,000 yen. When contacted, a Chinese vendor said the process could be completed in about six months and confirmed that even without residency, applicants could proceed if they had proof of hotel accommodation.

When pressed on the legality, the vendor replied, "This is a legally recognized procedure. We also understand that Japan values traffic safety and hope the system will eventually strike a better balance."

One striking case showed a Chinese tourist's Japanese license listing a hotel as their registered address. Experts voiced concern that in the event of an accident or violation, it would be difficult to trace responsibility. One commentator said, "The bar for obtaining a license is far too lowit absolutely needs to be reviewed."

In response to growing concerns, Japans National Police Agency has begun considering tighter regulations, including requiring formal residency registration to verify addresses. In apparent anticipation of upcoming restrictions, Chinese websites have begun warning users that the "last chance" to obtain licenses under current rules may soon close.

The gaimen kirikae system highlights the need for urgent reform to reduce traffic incidents and restore trust in road safety enforcement. Although some have criticized the system for being too lenient, others warn against overgeneralizing. One panelist noted that many foreign residents genuinely need licenses to work and live in Japan, saying, "We must be careful not to vilify all foreign drivers based on a few cases."

Still, the current written test is considered too simple and fails to adequately assess a persons understanding of Japanese road rules and culture. While the skills test remains strictwith a pass rate around 29%calls are growing for raising the difficulty of the written portion as well.

As Japan moves toward tightening this system, it faces the challenge of balancing accessibility for legitimate foreign residents with the need to uphold traffic safety and regulatory integrity.

Source: KTV NEWS
New Visions Homeless Services received its largest operational grant from Iowa's state government.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority chose New Visions as a recipient of a community development grant for $300,000.

Brandy Wallar, CEO of New Visions, said the grant will be transformational for the organization and will allow for overnight and weekend staffing at the emergency shelter New Visions runs.

The reality is behavioral health has increased, substance use has increased. We need some more professional staff, Wallar said. This allows us to hire nighttime staff, and then overnight staff so that we can continue to make the efforts that New Visions has been working with the police department on to best serve our neighbors experiencing homelessness.

From Jan. 1, 2024, through May 4, 2025, New Vision's emergency shelter has served 910 people, of whom 261 were assisted in getting into permanent housing. Nearly 74% of those in the shelter are from Council Bluffs or elsewhere in Iowa.

Out of the 900 men that stayed with me the last 15 months," not one is still on the streets, Wallar said.

The decision to accept the grant was placed before the Council Bluffs City Council earlier this month, where it received a mixed response. Council member Chris Peterson expressed concerns using grant money to pay wages.

"What I would like to see with this is less on salaries and more on the deliverables helping the clientele, the people that they serve, and less on paying the employees, Peterson said.

Meanwhile, council member Roger Sandau said he believes there hasnt been enough progress to justify spending more money on the shelter.

I just think that throwing more money at something that isnt working isnt going to solve the problem, and so I cant support this until we make some significant changes, Sandau said.

Sandau was the only council member to vote against the grant resolution.

Council Bluffs Fire Chief Justin James and Police Chief Matt Davis spoke in support of the resolution, saying extra staffing at the shelter would help not only the shelter but also first responders.

These funds would really enable us to run a safer, more productive facility," Davis said. "We've been meeting with Brandy and her staff over the course of the last few weeks, planning out all of these little logistical tweaks that will help us keep the place safer, cleaner, etc. So while it seems that, you know, the funds going to personnel might not be the preferred course, I think here it's totally appropriate.

James noted that having a professional in the building will help direct first responders to the emergencies. Currently, those responding to 911 calls from the shelter often struggle with figuring out where to go in a timely fashion.

We're wandering through a facility with no escort and not really understanding where we're going or where the patient is, because there's no staff there, James said.

James also said having a staff would help monitor that what gets called into 911 is an actual emergency.

Council members Steve Gorman and Jill Shudak also came to the defense of the shelter. Shudak argued that, while money wont solve everything, it can help.

Money does help the situation. It's not the end all be all. We're always going to have those outskirt people that you know should not be at the homeless shelter, Shudak said. Money helps the situation, so we can get those people that are one paycheck away or one bad decision away back on the right course.

Gorman reminded the council that their job was to represent all people, regardless of their circumstances.

As leaders and as a community, we have to represent everybody in our community, and that means even those that are homeless, Gorman said.

Homelessness is a problem that the whole country faces, not just Council Bluffs.

Homelessness is increasing everywhere in the nation, and it's because of a system fail, not a Council Bluffs fail, Wallar said.

Homelessness is something that will continuously need to be addressed  it's only a matter of how.

Theyre either going to be in the community or going to be where we can try to get them some resources, James said.

Shudak said there needs to be order but the shelter helps keep people off the streets.

There needs to be rules. But if they're but if they're not at the shelter, then they're out on the streets and they're messing with businesses. They're messing with homes. They're in people's backyards or in the alleys, Shudak said.

New Visions has a 100% success rate in keeping each person assisted into permanent housing from becoming unhoused again.

We have the best outcomes out of the shelters, and we do it with the least amount of money, Wallar said.
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Never let the guy with the broom decide how many elephants can be in the parade. Even if I was the guy with the broom, Id have 10 elephants. Youve got to love a parade, and if you or your kids or your grandkids havent already done so, this is the year to be part of the walking party cal
The largest banking gathering in Libya, the Electronic Payment Forum and Exhibition, will now be held at the Tripoli International Fairgrounds from June 1517, 2025, according to a statement from the Central Bank of Libya (CBL). The event was postponed from its original May 20 date because of recent security incidents in the capital.

The forum, the first of its kind in Libya, seeks to examine opportunities for digital transformation in the banking and financial industries as well as to present the newest digital payment solutions and technologies. The forum will help build digital infrastructure for financial services and support the nations financial inclusion strategy.

Commercial banks, technology firms, government agencies, and local and foreign experts and specialists are anticipated to attend in large numbers, establishing the event as a premier forum for knowledge sharing and showcasing digital transformation projects and initiatives in the financial industry.

The Central Bank further stated that this forum is a component of its endeavors to foster financial innovation and introduce contemporary payment systems.
After the Algeria-backed Polisario becomes a terrorist organization and magnet of extremists threatening regional peace & stability, two major U.S. National security Institutes have joined several think-tanks urging the Trump administration to take immediate action and add the Polisario armed militia to the U.S. black list, which includes Iranian proxies such as the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah.

In a joint report, the Allison Center for National Security at The Heritage Foundation and the Heritage Foundations Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security said today, Polisario fighters field Iranian-type drones, share desert corridors with tax smuggling routes that feed Sahel jihadists. All this takes place within missile range of the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the worlds most critical maritime choke points.

In 1988, Polisario missiles brought down two U.S. Agency for International Development aircraft, killing five Americansand the U.S. failed to respond with sanctions, said the report, citing the Polisario unilateral withdrawal in 2020 from the U.N.-brokered 1991 ceasefire and resumption of rocket attacks along Moroccos 1700-kilometer berm; and warned that foreign consulates, airlines, and companies were legitimate targets.

Polisarios threats rest on a foundation of Algerian sanctuary plus three mutually reinforcing pillars: Iranian military assistance, a growing Russian influence network, and a mature trans-Sahel illicit economy that overlaps with jihadist financing streams, said the authors of the report.

The Polisario militiamen operate from camps around Tindouf, on Algerian soil, beyond the reach of international monitors. This safe haven allows the group to stockpile ordnance, experiment with new systems, and cultivate external sponsors at minimal risk, warned the research paper.

Algerian military aid and budgetary subventions, which cover everything from Washington lobbying budgets to earmarked funds, underwrite administrative operations and payroll, without which the insurgent group could not sustain an armed infrastructure of this scale.

Iran also plays an increasingly well-documented role in supporting Polisario. The affinity dates back at least to 1980, when Polisario guerrillas posed for international cameras holding a portrait of Ayatollah Khomeini. Hezbollah officers have also been involved in training Polisario fighters in Tindouf on assembling and operating Iranian armed drones.

In 2023, the Polisario launched deadly rocket attack against Smara, killing three civilians. Furthermore, Polisarios long-standing role in the Sahel-Sahara illicit economy now feeds directly into jihadist finance and talent pipelines, said the report, noting that Polisario fighters move bulk hashish east, cocaine north, and Libyan weapons west, with transit taxes flowing to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

The report also sounds the alarm bell over the nexus of terrorism, illicit traffic and separatism, saying Tindouf has become now a desert hub where traffickers, Polisario logisticians, and terrorist couriers swap loads and intelligence.

Polisario terrorist Adnan Abu Walid Al Sahrawi, who was killed by French forces in 2021, is clear evidence of this dangerous connexion. Abu Walid Al Sahrawi trained within Polisarios ranks before founding the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, orchestrating raids across Mali and Niger.

In November 2021, Polisario warned more than a dozen Spanish companies, including Siemens Gamesa and Acciona, which employ thousands of Americans, to withdraw from Sahara.

Both Trump administration have endorsed Moroccos autonomy plan as the ONLY feasible solution for resolving the Sahara issue. But that diplomatic track must be matched by a security policy that confronts the reality of an armed and violent Polisario network thats now plugged into Iranian proxy circuits and Sahel-wide terrorist and contraband networks, said the American experts.

The Houthi precedent shows how, if unchecked, a movement initially dismissed as a local insurgency can evolve into a fully-fledged proxy force. If Washington intends to secure its long-term strategic interests in the Western Mediterranean, it cannot allow North Africa to follow that trajectory.
Gotion Power Morocco, part of the EV battery giant Gotion High-Tech, will start producing at its gigafactory in Kenitra by the third quarter of 2026, company chairman Khalid Qalam said.

In June last year, the Moroccan government unveiled an investment deal with Gotion High Tech worth $6.3 billion, including $1.3 billion in a first phase, for the gigafactory.

The plant will be located in Kenitra and will start with a capacity of 20 gigawatts per hour and 40 gwh in a second phase, Qalam said at the International Chemical Industry conference.

The batteries made by the factory will be exported to Europe, he said, noting that 70% of battery components will be sourced from Morocco.

As demand surges on electric vehicles, Moroccos vibrant automotive sector is preparing for the shift attracting multiple investments by Chinese EV battery giants.

Chinas Hailiang and Shinzoom announced two separate plans to produce copper and anodes respectively for a combined total nearing 1 billion dollars in Tanger Tech.

BTR New Material Group signed a deal with the Moroccan government to set up a cathodes plant, critical to EV battery manufacturing.

In 2023, CNGR Advanced Materials partnered with Moroccan private investment fund Al Mada to build an electric vehicle battery plant in Jorf Lasfar worth 2 billion dollars.

With the outbreak of the Trump administrations new tax rates, Morocco has received only 10% the minimum levy, helping it keep its trade advantage.

But many observers fear that the next stage in the trade war would target Chinese investments abroad.
The Republic of Slovakia has voiced firm support for the Autonomy plan offered by Morocco under its sovereignty, saying the plan is a basis for reaching a definitive solution to the Sahara regional conflict.

The supportive stand comes in a joint statement issued Thursday in Rabat following the meeting of Slovak foreign minister Juraj Blanar with Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita.

The Central European country also praised the serious and credible efforts made by Morocco to advance the political process to reach a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution to the Sahara issue based on UN Security Council resolutions, including the resolution adopted October 31st, 2024, said the joint statement.

Slovakia also pledged to continue to support Moroccos interests within the European Union and triangular cooperation initiatives between the Visegrad Group and Morocco for the benefit of the African continent.

Visiting Slovak Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Defense, Robert Kalinak was received the same day in Rabat by Moroccos Minister Delegate in charge of the National Defense Administration Abdeltif Loudyi.

They discussed bilateral relations and cooperation prospects in defense industry which is gaining momentum in Morocco which has attracted several foreign investors in the sector.
Morocco will allocate 3 billion dirhams this year and 3.2 billion next year, or a total of 670 million dollars to restore its national herd, including through financial support to farmers, agriculture minister Ahmed El Bouari said.

Under this program, the government will earmark 700 million dirhams to restructure and cancel debt owed to 50,000 livestock farmers, El Bouari said.

Small farmers represent 75% of those who will benefit from debt relief, he said.

The program also covers animal feed aid, including 7 million quintals of barley feed, he said.

Female livestock will also be registered and farmers keeping them will receive 400 dirhams in compensation, he said.

Treatment campaigns will be launched to counter drought-triggered diseases, while farmers will also receive support to improve cattle reproduction.

Moroccos King had urged citizens to abstain from slaughtering sheep this year on Eid Al Adha.
Moroccos multidimensional poverty rate has nearly halved over the past decade, driven by significant improvements in rural areas, according to a new report by the national statistics agency, the Haut-Commissariat au Plan (HCP) said.

The share of the population living in multidimensional poverty fell from 11.9% in 2014 to 6.8% in 2024, with the number of people affected dropping from around 4 million to 2.5 million, the HCP said in a new study.

The intensity of poverty, measured by the average percentage of deprivations experienced by the poor, also declined slightly from 38.1% to 36.7%. As a result, the overall multidimensional poverty index was cut nearly in half, from 4.5% to 2.5%.

Despite the progress, the report highlights persistent regional disparities, with rural areas continuing to bear the brunt of poverty.

In 2024, 72% of poor individuals lived in rural areas, down from 79% in 2014. The rural poverty rate dropped from 23.6% to 13.1% over the same period, but remained more than four times higher than the urban rate, which stood at 3% in 2024.

The vulnerability ratedefined as the share of the population facing moderate deprivationsalso declined from 11.7% to 8.1%, affecting nearly 3 million people, 82% of whom live in rural areas.

All regions recorded a decline in multidimensional poverty, with the steepest drops in Marrakech-Safi (-7.9 percentage points), Beni Mellal-Khenifra (-7.5), Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima (-6.8), and Draa-Tafilalet (-6.7). These regions had some of the highest poverty levels in 2014.

In contrast, reductions were more modest in southern and urban regions where poverty rates were already low. Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra saw a 0.9-point drop, while Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Sale-Kenitra recorded declines of 2.4 and 3.4 points, respectively.

As of 2024, six regions still had poverty rates above the national average, with Beni Mellal-Khenifra (9.8%) and Fes-Meknes (9.0%) topping the list. The lowest rates were observed in Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra (2.4%) and Dakhla-Oued Eddahab (2.5%).

Five regions, Fes-Meknes, Marrakech-Safi, Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, and Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, accounted for nearly 70% of the countrys poor population.

The report also noted that vulnerability remains concentrated in a handful of regions, with Draa-Tafilalet (11.8%) and Marrakech-Safi (11.5%) posting double-digit rates. Together with Fes-Meknes, Beni Mellal-Khenifra, and Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, these regions represent nearly 60% of the vulnerable population.

The HCP emphasized that traditional poverty measures based solely on household spending fail to capture the full scope of deprivation. The multidimensional approach includes indicators across education, health, and living conditions, offering a more comprehensive view of social inequality.

The study aims to provide policymakers with a detailed territorial map of poverty and vulnerability to better target interventions and improve living conditions, particularly in the context of Moroccos ongoing regionalization process.
Arizona Governor Forms Heat Safety Task Force to Protect Workers

A new statewide effort brings together employers, workers, and safety officials to address rising heat risks on the job.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed an executive order Wednesday establishing a Workplace Heat Safety Task Force aimed at protecting workers from rising temperatures across the state. The initiative directs the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health (ADOSH), under the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA), to lead the task force in developing statewide employer guidelines on heat safety by the end of the year.

The move builds on the ICAs Heat Stress State Emphasis Program, launched in July 2023 to reduce heat-related illnesses and injuries through inspections, training, and compliance assistance.

We are taking action to protect Arizonans from heat risk in the workplace, Hobbs said in a statement. Whether building our homes, growing our produce, or manufacturing the next advanced technology, Arizonans deserve to be safe at work. Through this executive order, we are partnering with employers to ensure the health and safety of all Arizona workers.

State officials say approximately one in five Arizona workers is employed in an industry vulnerable to heat hazards. In 2024, the number of heat-related workers compensation claims decreased significantly, which officials attribute in part to measures introduced by the Hobbs administration.

ICA Director Gaetano Testini called heat safety a smart business decision as well as a regulatory responsibility, citing benefits such as improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, and higher morale.

ADOSH has already conducted more than 460 free and voluntary consultations with employers since the Heat SEP was launched. Officials say many employers are already exceeding baseline safety requirements.

Task force members, including industry leaders and worker representatives, emphasized the need to standardize practices across the state.

It is our duty to our employees and to the economic development of Arizona to provide heat safety guidelines that protect them and enable them to thrive, said Sidney Hawkins, Safety and Training Director at Canyon State Electric.

Labor representatives voiced similar support. Jason Sangster, Business Manager of Ironworkers Local 75, said workers need training to identify and prevent heat illness, starting with access to cool water, shade, and rest.

Grace Appelbe of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Arizona Manufacturers Council noted that Arizonas diverse economy demands customized solutions rather than federal mandates.

David Martin of the Arizona Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America added that the construction industry has long managed heat risks and welcomes clearer OSHA-aligned guidelines.

The executive order builds on recent heat resilience initiatives launched under Hobbs administration, including the states Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan and the creation of the nations first statewide Chief Heat Officer role. State officials say the task force will play a key role in ensuring Arizona remains proactive in addressing the risks of extreme heat.
Exploitation of the vast Vaca Muerta shale in Argentinas central southwest has unlocked a gargantuan unconventional hydrocarbon boom for the crisis-riven South American country. Rising oil and natural gas production from the 7.7-million-acre shale play is responsible for Argentinas burgeoning hydrocarbon output, which is proving to be a silver bullet for the crisis-prone economy. President Javier Mileis economic shock therapy, coupled with soaring oil and natural gas production, has put Argentina on the path to recovery. Growing petroleum output will eventually see the country overtake Colombia to become South Americas third-largest oil producer.

The Vaca Muerta, a vast shale oil and gas play ranked in the top five globally for its hydrocarbon resources, went unnoticed for a decade until the leftist Peronist President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner pushed for its development. Due to the failure of Spanish integrated energy company Repsol, the owner of Argentinas YPF, which controlled the oil acreage, to exploit the Vaca Muerta, President de Kirchner opted to nationalize YPF in early 2012. The government of Argentina acquired 51% of the integrated energy company, with the remaining 49% held by private investors.

Despite the uproar surrounding YPFs nationalization and fears Buenos Aires would pillage the company, it was a move crucial to igniting the Vaca Muertas unconventional hydrocarbon boom. Indeed, in recent years, Argentinas national oil company has proven to be among the best-managed national oil companies globally with minimal interference from a succession of leftist Peronist governments. This is responsible for the successful exploitation of the Vaca Muerta and Argentinas surging oil production, which for December 2024 hit a record high, seeing output, for a moment, beat Colombi,a making the country South Americas third-largest petroleum producer.

Source: Argentina Ministry of Economy and Colombias National Hydrocarbons Agency (ANH).

During December 2024, Argentina pumped a record 757,122 barrels per day, slightly greater than Colombias 755,469 barrels per day. This outstanding number was 59.79%, comprised of unconventional petroleum, the highest ratio ever until February 2025, when shale oil made up 60.19% of Argentinas oil output, which was then surpassed during March 2025 when it hit a new high of 60.35%. It is the Vaca Muertas surging unconventional hydrocarbon production that is responsible for Argentinas soaring oil output. Shale oil production hit an all-time high of 452,667 barrels per day for December 2024, and this has yet to be surpassed.

Source: Argentina Ministry of Economy.

Economically crucial natural gas production is also increasing, hitting a record high of 5.4 billion cubic feet per day during August 2024. Since then, natural gas output has declined, although it still averaged a respectable 4.7 billion cubic feet per day for March 2025, representing a 13% decline from that all-time high.

Source: Argentina Ministry of Economy.

Though Argentina's hydrocarbon output is projected to grow over time, oil industry activity has declined recently. A key measure of industry operational tempo, the Baker Hughes rig count, shows drilling during the first four months of 2025 had fallen when compared to the same period a year earlier. April 2025 data shows 44 active rigs, comprised of 32 oil and 12 natural gas, that month against 49 active rigs (39 oil and 12 natural gas) a month earlier and 51 active rigs (39 oil and 12 natural gas) for April 2024. This decline is also reflected in the number of wells drilled during March 2025. According to Argentinas Ministry of Economy, 64 wells, made up of 4 exploration, 51 production and nine service wells, were drilled during March 205.

The marked reduction in drilling activity can be blamed on weaker petroleum prices since the start of 2025. The March 2025 international Brent benchmark price averaged $72.73 per barrel, which was 15% lower than the $85.41 pr barrel recorded for that period a year earlier. The April 2025 average Brent price declined further to $68.13 per barrel, which is a whopping 32% less than the $89.94 per barrel recorded for that month in 2024. For the immediate term, oil prices will remain soft due to the economic uncertainty unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trumps tariffs and OPECs focus on lifting production. This will impact investment in drilling and other operational activities in Argentinas energy patch, explaining why, since the start of 2025, oil output fell and is again lagging Colombia.

Activity in the Vaca Muerta is tipped to soar because of strong global demand for lighter, sweeter oil, which is easier and cheaper to refine into high-quality, low-emission fuels. The shale oil lifted in the Vaca Muerta has an API gravity of 39 to 42 degrees, indicating it is light, with a sulfur content of less than 0.5%, which is particularly sweet, making it highly desirable for refiners seeking to produce low-cost fuels complying with strict modern emission requirements. Furthermore, Argentinas main conventional crude oil grades, Medanito and Escalante, with API gravity of 40.8 and 24.1 degrees, respectively, are popular in China and the Middle East because of their extremely low sulfur content of 0.15% and 0.91%.

The Vaca Muertas appeal to energy companies is further enhanced by it possessing one of the lowest carbon intensities of any hydrocarbon operations globally. According to industry consultancy McKinsey & Company 15.8 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO?) is released for every barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) produced, compared to 23.0 kg CO? per BOE. On top of those desirable characteristics, the Vaca Muerta is among the lower-cost crude oils to extract globally. The formation has an estimated breakeven cost of around $36 per barrel. This is significantly lower than Colombias $45 per barrel and Brazils $40 per barrel. This makes the Vaca Muertas shale oil profitable to lift even with Brent trading at $65 at the time of writing.

Those characteristics make the Vaca Muerta an attractive prospect for international energy companies, which will drive greater investment and activity in the shale play. This is being bolstered by the construction of much-needed infrastructure to improve storage and takeaway capacity. Indeed, the development of crucial hydrocarbon processing, storage and transportation facilities will govern production growth. The most important facility currently being developed is the Vaca Muerta Sur pipeline. The $3 billion, 550,000 barrel per day pipeline will transport crude oil from the Vaca Muerta shale play across Patagonia, one of the worlds most sensitive ecological areas, to the Atlantic port of Punta Colorado. On completion in 2026, the pipeline will significantly boost takeaway capacity from the Vaca Muerta, not only lifting Argentinas oil exports but crucially facilitating further production growth in the shale play.

For these reasons, Argentina will be lifting at least one million barrels per day by 2030, with industry analysts claiming production could climb to as high as 1.2 million barrels daily. This could very well make Argentina the second-largest oil producer in South America after Brazil, particularly with Colombia and Venezuelas hydrocarbon sectors in decline. Greater oil and natural gas production will give Argentinas crisis-prone economy, particularly gross domestic product, a solid boost while reducing a dangerously lopsided current account balance. This is apparent from Argentinas March 2025 economic data (Spanish) where exports exceeded imports by $323 million because of rising hydrocarbon production. Growing oil production and exports, along with controversial President Javier Mileis economic reforms, will stabilize Argentinas crisis-prone economy and bolster growth.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

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Both the United States and China are at the forefront of developing these nuclear battery technologies, with companies like Zeno Power and Betavolt producing advanced models for various applications.

Nuclear batteries offer a power source that can last for decades, utilizing radioactive materials and their decay to generate energy, making them ideal for remote and extreme environments.

"With great power competition rising, the ocean floor, Arctic, and lunar surface are becoming the front lines of global security and economic progress  but they remain energy deserts," says Tyler Bernstein, the Chief Executive Officer of a venture-backed nuclear battery startup called Zeno Power. Zeno Power just received $50 million in Series B funding to continue its work to develop nuclear batteries for extreme environments. With this round of funding, were on track to demonstrate full-scale systems in 2026 and deliver the first commercially built nuclear batteries to power frontier environments by 2027, Bernstein continued.

Nuclear batteries hold immense potential for frontier innovations because they can last for decades, or even a century, without needing a charge. The way that the battery powers itself is through capturing the particles emitted by radioactive materials as they decay, and harness their energy. Since these radioactive materials  such as Strontium-90, Nickel-63, and Carbon-14  have lengthy half-lives, these batteries have enormous potential for longevity.

Zeno Powers investing tractio is just the latest development in a long legacy of nuclear battery experimentation in the United States. The U.S. government began experimenting with nuclear batteries way back in the 1950s through NASA, and the nation led the global research and development charge for 70 years. But now, the United States is quickly being overtaken by China.

While Zeno Power is closer to getting its batteries off the ground, Chinese labs are already producing them. Early last year, China-based nuclear battery company Betavolt rolled out a tiny, coin-sized nuclear battery named BV100 with an estimated half-century lifespan thanks to its use of Nickel-63. But this battery isnt just a lab innovation, reports Popular Mechanics. Its already being mass produced, with the intention to power technologies ranging from medical and aerospace devices to future smartphones.

Betavolts technology differs from that of traditional (for lack of a better term) nuclear batteries. Rather than using a thermoelectric method, like NASAs models, Betvolts betavoltaic batteries use a radioactive emitter and semiconductor absorber which is specifically designed to capture beta particles  the electrons and positrons that are emitted by the decaying Nickel-63. While this process produces less power than NASAs thermoelectric method, their power production is reliable and incredibly long-lasting, with potential to endure a century or even longer.

Another team of researchers in China has been working on another nuclear battery with a 100-year lifespan based on Carbon-14. However, Carbon-14 is much more rare than Nickel-63, suggesting that Betavolts technology will be more scalable. In both cases, China seems to have enough supplies of these isotopes to make the research and development of these technologies worthwhile. Mimicking its photovoltaic playbook for solar energy, China is building the entire supply chain for these devices within its own borders, Popular Mechanics reports.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Zeno Power has locked in a strontium-90 fuel supply from the U.S. Department of Energy, and boasts contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA, totalling tens of millions of dollars according to reporting from Axios. The company is also collaborating with the commercial space sector, and is working with the lunar robotics company iSpace-U.S. to develop nuclear-powered systems that can survive the extreme cold of the lunar night according to Space News.

Nuclear energy is having a renaissance, and Zeno is at the forefront of bringing it to places no other energy can reliably go, said Lior Prosor, partner at Hanaco Ventures, one of Zenos key funders. Zenos nuclear batteries will have an immediate impact in defense and space, and long-term potential to transform how energy is delivered in remote and distributed environments.

The potential for scaling these technologies range from the high-minded (think outer space and the ocean floor) but could also lead to more practical day-to-day innovations like a cell phone that never needs to be charged. The disruptive potential is enormous and constantly evolving. Together, the United States and China are the clear frontrunners in the nuclear battery battle, but some European nations and South Korea are also making headway on their own models.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

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The U.S. license allowing companies to operate in Venezuelas oil industry will expire as planned on May 27, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said amid reports that the U.S. could extend the license to U.S. supermajor Chevron.

The pro-Maduro Biden oil license in Venezuela will expire as scheduled next Tuesday May 27th, Rubio posted on his personal X account.

Reports emerged earlier this week that the U.S. federal government would extend a sanction waiver allowing Chevron to keep doing business in Venezuela by another 60 days, as negotiations with the Maduro government continue, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed source familiar with developments.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration revoked Chevrons license to operate in Venezuela and export oil from its oilfields, setting May 27 as the deadline for Chevron to wind down its operations in the South American country.

U.S. President Donald Trump has also announced that any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela will pay a 25% secondary tariff on the goods it exports to the United States.

Venezuela saw its oil exports slump by nearly 20% in April from March to the lowest level in nine months, after state-owned oil firm PDVSA canceled cargoes for Chevron.

Last month, the country holding the worlds largest crude oil reserves exported just 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and fuels, according to shipping documents and tanker-tracking data compiled by Reuters.

PDVSA revoked in early April authorizations to Chevron to load and export crude from Venezuela, following the Trump Administrations increased sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports and tariffs on its oil buyers.

Further declines in Venezuelas oil shipments are expected in May and going forward, as the U.S. Treasury has revoked a license for French oil firm Maurel & Prom to operate in Venezuela and is no longer allowing firms, including Eni and Repsol, to receive oil from PDVSA in lieu of payments.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Despite concerns over rising US inventories, there is an expectation that the upcoming summer driving season will draw down stocks and limit further price declines.

Geopolitical developments, including the possibility of strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and ongoing talks between the US and Iran, are creating volatility in the oil market.

Crude oil prices, which had been on the rise earlier this week, retreated partially following a report of an inventory build in the United States that traders apparently did not expect as well as uncertainty surrounding geopolitical developments in the Middle East.

At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading at $64.82 per barrel and West Texas Intermediate was changing hands for $61.50 per barrel, both down from Wednesdays close.

The dip followed the U.S. Energy Information Administrations latest weekly inventory report, released yesterday, which revealed builds across the board. Crude oil inventories added 1.3 million barrels, the EIA said, and gasoline and middle distillates rose by 800,000 barrels and 600,000 barrels, respectively. Despite the modest build in fuel inventories, the trajectory pressured oil benchmarks.

While rising U.S. inventories have raised concerns, some investors expect the summer driving season starting after Memorial Day weekend to draw down stocks, limiting further downside, Nissan Securities analyst Hiroyuki Kikukawa told Reuters.

According to Bloomberg, the prospect of an end to the war in the Ukraine and the fast-faltering nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran also applied downward pressure on oil prices. Both developments would have bearish implications for oil prices, indeed. However, both of them are far from guaranteed in the immediate term.

Earlier in the week, prices moved higher on reports that Israels government had plans for direct strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The reports were attributed by CNN to U.S. intelligence community members and government officials, one of whom told the media that the likelihood of such strikes has gone up significantly in recent months. The news report about these plans pushed oil 1% higher.

The next round of U.S-Iran talks begins tomorrow in Rome. The outcome remains uncertain as the two sides appear to still have irreconcilable differences with regard to Irans nuclear plans.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The petrochemical plant next to Africas largest refinery, Dangote, will export polypropylene to the global markets under an exclusive partnership with petrochemicals distributor Vinmar International.

Polypropylene (PP)  a common, versatile thermoplastic polymer  is used in many applications, including plastics, fibers, packaging, and automotive components.

This collaboration marks an important step in expanding the reach of high-quality polypropylene produced at Dangotes new refinery and petrochemical complex in Lekki, Nigeria, Vinmar International said.

Dangotes $2 billion Petrochemical Plant is designed to produce 77 different high-performance grades of polypropylene in the country.

The Dangote Petrochemical plant has a 900,000 metric tonnes per annum capacity and is situated alongside the Dangote Refinery. Once fully operational, the plant will be Africas biggest petrochemicals facility.

The petrochemical plant launched polypropylene production in March for the local market. Now the petrochemical unit of the Dangote Group is looking to not only meet domestic demand but become an exporter of polypropylene.

Were pleased to partner Vinmar to introduce Dangote Polypropylene to the global markets, Fatima Aliko Dangote, an executive director at Dangote Group, said at the launch of the petrochemical plant, as carried by Reuters.

Nigeria imports 90% of its annual polypropylene needs, which are at around 250,000 metric tons. The Dangote plant will cover the domestic requirement and export the rest of the polypropylene produced at the site.

The Dangote oil refinery, Africas largest crude processing facility, began fuel production in 2024. The refinery started up in January last year with the launch of diesel and naphtha production and began producing gasoline in September.

The refinery, built by Africas richest person, Aliko Dangote, has total processing capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd), which makes it Africas biggest and one of the worlds largest crude processing sites.

The refinery is expected to meet 100% of Nigerias demand for all refined petroleum products and will also have a surplus of each of the products for export.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Chinas decades-long reign as the worlds top oil demand driver is nearing its end, according to new research published by Moodys Investors Service demonstrating that Chinas crude demand is expected to peak within the next 35 years, while India will continue to hold the lead in global oil demand growth through at least 2030.

Moodys attributes Chinas demand plateau to slowing economic growth, a shrinking population, a plateau in vehicle ownership, and a rapid shift toward EVs and energy diversification. In contrast, India is poised for 35% annual oil demand growth this decade, underpinned by rising per capita consumption, population growth, and rapid infrastructure expansion.

"India will remain the primary source of incremental global oil demand through 2030," Moodys analysts noted, adding that the countrys oil import dependence will increase as domestic production remains subdued.

According to Indias Ministry of Petroleum, crude consumption is already tracking 4.3% higher year-over-year in Q1 2025. The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects Indias oil demand will rise from 5 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2023 to over 6.5 million bpd by 2030.

Meanwhile, signs of a peak in Chinese demand have been mounting. Earlier this year, OilPrice.com reported that Chinese refiners were already scaling back crude importsdown nearly 600,000 bpd from last yearamid weak industrial activity and record EV adoption.

This eastward demand shift has major implications for long-term pricing, global refining strategy, and upstream investment. For exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, India is now the market to watch. For oil markets, the era of China-as-demand-engine is rapidly fading, with India more than ready to hold tight to its status as lead driver of oil demand growth.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Venture Global is on track to surpass Cheniere Energy to become the biggest U.S. LNG company by liquefaction capacity if regulators approve the CP2 export project, Reuters reports, citing LSEG and project data.

Venture Global is urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to greenlight its third liquefaction plant, CP2 in Louisiana, by the middle of the year.

The CP2 LNG facility will be located adjacent to Venture Globals Calcasieu Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

CP2 LNG was initially proposed to be a facility with a capacity of 20 million metric tons per annum (mtpa), but Venture Global has raised the maximum capacity to 28 mtpa.

Venture Globals two operational LNG export terminals, Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines, have a combined capacity of 38.5 mtpa. CP2 would add another 28 mtpa and raise the companys total export capacity to 66.5 mtpa, above Chenieres 60 mtpa, according to Reuters estimates.

Venture Global more than doubled its first-quarter revenue from a year earlier as its Plaquemines and Calcasieu Pass plants have launched operations and exports in recent months.

Last month, Venture Global started contractual deliveries from its first LNG export project, Calcasieu Pass, to its long-term customers amid an ongoing dispute with major oil and gas firms over the delays to the official commercial operations date at the export project.

Shell, BP, and several other European energy majors have been in a dispute with Venture Global after the U.S. LNG exporter refused to start deliveries to them under long-term contracts in favor of selling its LNG on the spot market, making billions of dollars, according to the clients.

Venture Global plans on contracting currently uncontracted capacity at CP2 as well as expansion capacity at Plaquemines under a blend of three to twenty-year contract tenders, Venture Global CEO Mike Sabel said on the earnings call earlier this month.

The current regulatory environment is supportive of the U. S. LNG industry and we have been thrilled with the backing we have received from President Trump and the current administration, members of Congress, governors including Governor Landry, Louisiana state legislators from both sides of the aisle and government and industry representatives from allied nations, Sabel added.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Petronet LNG, the Indian state-owned terminals operator, has delayed the launch of expanded import capacity at the Dahej facility due to logistics challenges and security concerns following the flare-up in India-Pakistan relations.

Petronet LNG was initially expected to commission additional import capacity of 5 million tons per year at Dahej in March. The launch has now been pushed back to September, the companys chief executive officer Akshay Kumar Singh said this week, as carried by Argus.

Petronet LNG is on track to raise the capacity at the Dahej import terminal to 22.5 million tons per year. The timing has been delayed also due to the security concerns after the cross-border attacks which nuclear powers India and Pakistan exchanged at the end of April and early May.

Indian companies are looking to raise LNG import capacity as the countrys natural gas demand is set to surge in the coming decades.

The latest Indian LNG import terminal, owned by state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), received its first cargo of the super-chilled fuel in January.

India plans to ramp up LNG imports and the use of natural gas as a fuel cleaner than coal and needed in many industrial processes.

Natural gas demand in India is set to surge by 60% by 2030, supported by upcoming global LNG supply wave, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said earlier this year.

Indias gas consumption is set to reach 103 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually by the end of the decade, the agency reckons.

India's gas market is entering a new phase of growth, supported by significant infrastructure development and clear policy direction, IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security, Keisuke Sadamori, said in a statement.

The prospect of higher gas demand in India coincides with an expected wave of new global LNG supply. However, it will require careful planning and market coordination to ensure supply security and to help gas to compete in a price-sensitive market, Sadamori added.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Iraqs government has signed a deal with Chinese Geo-Jade Petroleum to expand production at the Tuba oil field, build a refinery and two power plants.

Per an AFP report, the deal will also involve the construction of a petrochemicals facility and a fertilizer plant. The refinery that Geo-Jade Petroleum will build will have a capacity of 200,000 barrels daily. One of the power plants will have a capacity of 650 MW and the other, a solar power facility, will have a capacity of 400 MW.

These projects with Geo-Jade represent a big leap in the development of Iraqs oil wealth and supporting of the national economy, Iraqs oil minister, Hayan Abdel Ghani, said, adding that the deal would create thousands of jobs.

Geo-Jade Petroleum already operates in Iraq  it is in charge of the Khana field, which is slated to begin expanded production in 2026.

Chinese companies as a whole have built a solid presence in OPCs number-two, driven by Beijings strategy to expand supply availability through both domestic and international investments. To date, more than a third of Iraqs proven oil and gas reserves and as much as 66% of production are under the management of Chinese firms, Simon Watkins reported earlier this year.

The Iraqi governments ambition to boost production significantly, to as much as 7 million bpd, Chinese companies are among the best placed to take advantage of the opportunity. Currently, Iraq produces around 4 million barrels dailyabove its OPEC+ production quota, which has created tensions with OPECs number-one, Saudi Arabia.

Chinese companies entry into Iraqs oil and gas sector is a result of an agreement inked back in 2019 and dubbed Oil for Reconstruction and Investment, under which Chinese companies are granted entry into Iraqs energy infrastructure sector as investors in return for oil supplies.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Nigerias government is urging the oil companies operating in the country to collaborate to increase oil output in the producer that hasnt been able to pump to its OPEC quota for years.

Nigerias crude oil production averaged 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of the year, well below the 1.8 million bpd quota in OPEC, Ekperikpe Ekpo, Nigerian Minister of State for Gas, said at a local industry conference.

Production growthhinges on optimising our existing resources and exploring new frontiers, Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), said at the event.

Oil theft and pipeline vandalism have long plagued Nigerias upstream oil and gas industry, driving majors out of the biggest OPEC producer in Africa and often resulting in force majeure at the key crude oil export terminals.

The top African oil-producing country has consistently failed to pump to its OPEC+ quota due to oil theft and vandalism and struggles to launch new projects.

Nigerian authorities have been clamping down on oil theft and have been supportive of an increase in oil and gas output in recent months.

NUPRC said earlier this month that U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil plans to invest as much as $1.5 billion in deepwater oil and gas exploration and development offshore Nigeria.

The governments call on Nigeria to boost oil production comes just as reports emerge that the OPEC+ producers that are withholding supply are discussing another large hike in output for July.

Another 411,000-bpd production hike is among the options that the OPEC+ member countries are discussing for the July production, unnamed delegates from the group told Bloomberg News on Thursday.

OPEC+ has already announced two consecutive production increases for May and June, each of 411,000 barrels per day, triple the volume the group had previously planned.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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The OPEC+ alliance is discussing the idea to make another big production increase in oil production for July, delegates from the group told Bloomberg News on Thursday.

OPEC+ has already announced two consecutive production increases for May and June, each of 411,000 barrels per day (bpd), triple the volume the group had previously planned.

Another 411,000-bpd output hike is among the options which the OPEC+ member countries that have been withholding output are discussing for the July production, according to Bloombergs sources.

OPEC+ producers Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman will make the final decision on July output levels at a meeting on June 1.

As of today, no final agreement on July oil production levels has been reached, the unnamed OPEC+ delegates told Bloomberg.

In the early-May meeting to decide June output levels, the OPEC+ producers cited once again current healthy oil market fundamentals as the basis for their decision to continue boosting production by larger volumes per month than previously expected.

The latest OPEC+ production policies suggest that top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia is willing to endure a short-term pain with lower oil prices to punish the overproducers in the OPEC+ deal and to start spoiling the shale party in the United States. In America, shale producers are cutting spending and scaling back drilling activity with WTI oil prices close to or lower than the breakeven price for profitably drilling a new well.

Saudi Arabias goal is long-term oil market stability, while the Kingdom is always ready for multiple oil price scenarios, Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning, Faisal Alibrahim, said earlier this week.

Oil prices were down by 1% in Asian trading early on Thursday, with WTI Crude at $61 and Brent at $64 per barrel, as Wednesdays war premium on reports that Israel could attack Iranian nuclear facilities fizzled out after the EIA report of crude and fuel inventory builds in the United States.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Frances supermajor TotalEnergies is launching its biggest solar project cluster in Europefive solar projects with a total installed capacity of 263 MW near Seville, Spain.

The solar field will produce 515 GWh per year of renewable electricity, equivalent to the consumption of over 150,000 Spanish households, and will avoid 245,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, TotalEnergies said on Thursday.

Most of the electricity produced will be sold through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the rest will be sold on the wholesale market, said the French supermajor, which hasnt scaled down its ambitions in renewable energy generation despite a general drive among Europes Big Oil firms to reduce investments in green energy solutions.

As of the end of March 2025, TotalEnergies had 28 gigawatts (GW) of installed gross renewable electricity generation capacity and aims to reach 35 GW by the end of 2025. The company also targets more than 100 TWh of net electricity production by 2030.

Apart from oil and gas production and trading, TotalEnergies is building an Integrated Power portfolio that combines renewables and flexible gas-fired power plants to deliver clean firm power to customers.

TotalEnergies is currently the 4th largest provider of electricity, gas, and related services in Spain, where it has more than 2 million residential and professional customers.

The Seville solar project contributes to Spains ambition of 80% of renewables in its mix by 2030, said Olivier Jouny, Senior Vice President Renewables at TotalEnergies.

While the majors arent abandoning all the renewable projects they embarked on in 2020 and 2021, they have started to scale back investments and are streamlining these on developments and energy solutions that they see as profitable.

Frances TotalEnergies is the outlier in the group, as it has continued to focus on growing renewable energy capacity and power generation through acquisitions and joint ventures globally.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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The passage of a new law aimed at reforming practices of industry intermediaries called pharmacy benefit managers is a step in the right direction toward easing financial pressures on Nebraska pharmacies, backers of the measure said Wednesday.

Gov. Jim Pillen signed Legislative Bill 198 into law Tuesday. It takes effect Jan. 1.

The measure, according to State Sen. Tony Sorrentino of Omaha, its sponsor, is intended to prohibit practices by PBMs that are hurting not only pharmacies but also health plan sponsors and participants. The final package included portions of another measure sought by hospitals in the state, which also cited concerns in working with the groups.

Its a great start, but theres more to be done, Sorrentino said Wednesday.

One of the biggest accomplishments behind the measure, he said, may not be the language of the new law itself but the fact that lawmakers and parties on various sides of the issue met multiple times to hammer out a compromise.

PBM and insurance officials initially expressed concern that the bill as originally drafted would cost Nebraska residents and companies money.

Pharmacists also welcomed the law as a step in the right direction. Dave Randolph, owner of Daves Pharmacy in Alliance and Hemingford, Nebraska, told lawmakers the state faces a crisis in the closure of pharmacies, particularly rural ones.

In Nebraska, according to the Nebraska Board of Pharmacy, some 69 community pharmacies  roughly 14%  have closed since 2020. That includes 14 in 2024. Going back to 2018, the state has seen a total of 137 pharmacy closures. As of August 2023, some 20 Nebraska counties had no pharmacy and 60 counties had between one and five.

Its an exciting step for us, Randolph said in a telephone interview Wednesday, pausing to give a client advice about taking a medication. But weve got more work yet to do.

Haley Pertzborn, CEO of the Nebraska Pharmacists Association, noted that the measure advanced through the full Legislature without opposition, thanks to the collaboration that went into the process. Senators, she said, also understand that patients are losing access to pharmacy services.

Not only do pharmacy closures leave patients without convenient access to medications, vaccinations and health care advice, Randolph and others have said, they increase the pace  and the pressure on staff  at remaining locations, adding to wait times, causing medication shortages and potentially adding to the risk of error.

Nor are closures just a rural matter. Pharmacies also have closed, or reduced their hours, in Omaha and Lincoln.

While pharmacies face a number of pressures, Randolph and others have said they are increasingly being squeezed by declining reimbursements for the medications they dispense. A key player, they say, are PBMs, which negotiate prices with drugmakers, determine which drugs are covered by health plans, arrange rebates from drugmakers and set payments that pharmacies receive when selling covered drugs.

The measure prohibits PBMs from steering patients to pharmacies directly or indirectly owned by PBMs and from paying pharmacies in a patients insurance network less than they pay PBM-affiliated ones.

It also phases out spread pricing. Under that model, a PBM keeps a portion of the amount or spread between what a health plan pays it and what the PBM reimburses the pharmacy for a patients prescription.

In addition, the law allows pharmacies to decline to fill prescriptions for which they would be paid less than it cost them to buy the drugs, known as the right to refuse.

Pertzborn said that provision wont save pharmacies from receiving underwater claims. If a patient is ill, they wont deny care. But it will allow them to be more transparent with patients than they can under current contracts.

Sorrentino noted that the measure would apply not just to private insurers but also to Nebraska Medicaid, which could have a big impact on the states drug spending under that program.

Randolph said enforcement of the law also will be key. While a growing number of states have PBM regulations on their books, not all enforce them.

In Nebraska, Sorrentino said, oversight will fall to the Nebraska Department of Insurance. An interim study will delve further into the complexities of the issue this summer.

Pertzborn said the pharmacists association plans to work with Nebraska Medicaid to make sure the managed care organizations that administer benefits are in the loop.

The measure also addresses some PBM practices that hospital officials say are affecting them and their patients, even delaying care.

Among those are whats known as white bagging, which involves a specialty pharmacy shipping a medication directly to a health care facility.

Amanda Pekny, pharmacy supervisor with St. Marys Hospital in Nebraska City, said the practice has delayed care in cases where the hospital hasnt received a medication in a timely manner. Shes also used the hospitals supply in such cases, but that risks not being reimbursed for expensive drugs. Medication also has been wasted when patients stop the treatment and it cant be returned.

If hospitals, on the other hand, can buy such medications from their wholesalers, she said, they know when it will arrive and how its been handled.

If we could just directly get the medication from where we want to get it from, she said, I think thats important.
By Lars Larson,

Your kids may not be able to read or write or do simple math, but if they attend Portland public schools, theyll soon sit in the most expensive classrooms in America.

A ballot measure allowing borrowing of more than 1.8 billion got approved by just over 8 percent of voters.

Turn-out totaled only 16 percent even with automatic registration of every eligible voter, plus foreigners and illegals.

A 15 percent majority carried the day.

This, in a school system where just about half of all the kids test proficient in math and reading.

And these 450-million dollar schoolhouses are dooziesbuilt to hold 17-hundred kids even though those buildings currently house about two-thirds of that number and forecasts project dropping enrollment.

As my friends at Willamette Week have documented for months, other similar-size schools have been built in places like Denver for literally hundreds of millions less.

So, we have a district that ran itself 40 million into the red fulfilling promises to unionized teachers and now billions in debt so construction companies are happy.

But theyll surely have some pretty buildings.

As for all that unnecessary space for hundreds of non-existent studentsmaybe they can house the homeless.

Thats the Rose City Rap. Join me at noon on KXL for 4 hours of Honestly provocative talk. Im Lars Larson
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Left: Near-infrared image of a nearby galaxy VV114 and the background monster barred spiral galaxy J0107a at z=2.433 captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA. Right: Stellar and molecular gas distribution of J0107a. Credit: NASA, ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Huang et al

A research team led by Shuo Huang (NAOJ and Nagoya University) has observed a massive and extremely active barred spiral galaxy in the early universe with ALMA and the James Webb Space Telescope. They found that compared to modern galaxies, this monster galaxy has important similarities in shape and differences in the gas motion.

This discovery improves our understanding of how barred spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, grow and evolve. The study is published in the journal Nature.

In the early universe, more than 10 billion years ago, numerous monster galaxies were in the process of forming stars at a rate that is more than 100 times faster than that of the Milky Way. Although there are a few galaxies that are undergoing star formation at a similar pace even in the present-day universe, almost all of them are colliding or merging galaxies.

Based on this, scientists assumed that such intense bursts of star formation in monster galaxies are also caused by substantial gas influx at their centers as a consequence of galaxy collisions or mergers, and that they evolve into giant elliptical galaxies once the gas is depleted.

Monster galaxies are far from Earth and obscured by massive amounts of dust generated by intense star formation, making them difficult to observe at optical wavelengths. Until recently, their shape and the mechanism (physical process) that drives such bursts of star formation remained unanswered questions.

However, recent infrared imaging observations with the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered dust-veiled monster galaxies, revealing the existence of many monster galaxies with a remarkable disk structure. This prompted a new question: Why are monster galaxies that appear to be ordinary disk galaxies experiencing such intense bursts of star formation?

A research team led by Huang targeted a monster galaxy with a barred spiral structure in the universe 11.1 billion years ago. The galaxy called J0107a, located at a redshift of z=2.467, was serendipitously found in 2014 during the observation of the nearby merging galaxy VV114.

The James Webb Space Telescope near-infrared images of VV114, released in 2023, revealed that J0107a is an exceptionally massive example of a monster galaxy, with a mass more than ten times that of the Milky Way and a star formation rate approximately 300 times that of the Milky Way.

Left: The galaxy J0107a observed in infrared light with the James Webb Space Telescope. The two galaxies seen in the lower part of the image are unrelated foreground objects. Right: The gas distribution in J0107a observed with ALMA. The large amounts of gas visible on the leading edges of the bar are being channeled towards the galactic center. Credit: NASA/ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO, Huang et al.

Even more surprisingly, J0107a has a perfect barred spiral structure, one of the largest and most distinct of any galaxy in this cosmic epoch. The shape looks more similar to modern barred spiral galaxies than any other previously observed monster galaxies.

While more information on gas kinematics is needed to explore the factors behind J0107a's intense star formation, spectroscopic observations of a dust-covered galaxy are extremely challenging, even with the James Webb Space Telescope.

The research team then used ALMA to observe the emission lines of carbon monoxide and neutral carbon atoms and discovered that J0107a closely resembles modern barred spiral galaxies, such as the Milky Way, in terms of the shape of its bar structure as well as the distribution and movement of the associated gas. But the team also found that while the proportion of gas in the bar structure of a modern galaxy is less than 10% of the total mass, that of J0107a is very high at around 50%.

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The data shows that J0107a's bar structure, which consists of stars and gas with a mass far greater than that of modern galaxies, stirs up the disk, creating a gas flow at a speed of several hundred kilometers per second over a radius of 20,000 light years around the center of the galaxy, which is equivalent to the distance from the center of the Milky Way to the solar system.

Some of this gas falls into the center of the galaxy, resulting in intense star formation. No previous theoretical studies of galaxy formation predicted the existence of a monster galaxy with such a bar structure.

This is the first successful direct observation of a burst of star formation induced by gas inflow from a bar structure in the early universe. The conventional theories of monster galaxy formation and evolution assume that intense star formation occurs due to galactic collisions and mergers, or gravitational instability in their disks, subsequently turning them into elliptical galaxies over the course of hundreds of millions of years.

Meanwhile, J0107a is assumed to have developed a shape resembling that of a modern barred spiral galaxy, while retaining the extreme physical properties of a monster galaxy, over hundreds of millions of years in the early universe just 2.6 billion years after the Big Bang.

The detailed data on gas distribution and kinematics obtained from this observation will provide important clues not only about the origin of monster galaxies, but also for research into the formation and evolution of bar structures in other galaxies, because we are witnessing the bar structure formation process in the early universe.

Huang says, "The substantial amount of gas required for the growth of giant galaxies is supplied by galactic mergers or inflows from the cosmic web. While there is no sign of a galactic merger, a large gas disk has been detected around J0107a.

"This gas disk has a diameter of about 120,000 light years, which is twice the diameter of the main body of the galaxy visible as stars, and its motion roughly follows the galaxy itself. Based on this, we assume that it was created from a large amount of gas that is spiraling towards the galaxy from the cosmic web.

"This is a new picture of a monster galaxy, in which a disk galaxy is formed from a cosmic-scale gas flow, followed by the emergence of a bar structure during the galactic evolution, leading to rapid galactic-scale gas flows and bursts of star formation. We will continue our observational studies with ALMA to look into this further."

More information: Shuo Huang et al, Large gas inflow driven by a matured galactic bar in the early Universe, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08914-2 Journal information: Nature
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Dive images show the habitat differences between a kelp-dominated reef (top) compared to a turf-dominated reef (lower). Researchers involved in the study have documented how kelp forests along large swaths of the Maine coast have collapsed and turf algae has proliferated in their absence. Credit: Shane Farrell

As the ocean warms across its temperate regions, kelp forests are collapsing and turf algae species are taking over. This shift from dense canopies of tall kelp to low-lying mats of turf algae is driving biodiversity loss and altering the flow of energy and nutrients through reef ecosystems.

It's also fundamentally altering the chemical ecology of coastal ecosystems.

New research in Science, led by researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, has shown for the first time how turf algae release chemicals that can kill young kelp. That creates a feedback loop where more turf algae means more harmful chemicals, which further inhibits recovery and reinforces kelp forest collapse.

This chemically mediated interaction, which scientists call allelopathyor what the authors more bluntly call chemical warfarereveals an indirect way that climate change is reshaping ocean ecosystems, complicating kelp forest recovery along Maine's rapidly warming coast.

The study also includes researchers from the University of Maine, University of California Riverside, University of Tubingen, Perry Institute for Marine Science, and Harvard University, working together to combine extensive field surveys, advanced chemical analysis, and novel lab experiments.

"That's why this study is so powerful," said Bigelow Laboratory Senior Research Scientist Doug Rasher, the study's senior author.

"It moves logically from describing a pattern in naturethe lack of recovery of kelp foreststo revealing that the chemical landscape of kelp forests and turf reefs are fundamentally different, to pinpointing that turf algae and the chemicals they exude prevent kelp recruitment."

Lead author, Shane Farrell, examines algae samples in the lab. Farrell spent several multiple months on a research visit with co-author Daniel Petras's former lab at the University of Tubingen to learn the methods for non-targeted metabolomics analysis. Credit: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

The impacts of kelp forest collapse and replacement by turf algae have been well documented in temperate ecosystems around the world.

"This shift from kelp to turf is analogous to a terrestrial forest transitioning into a grassland," said the study's lead author, Shane Farrell, a UMaine doctoral candidate based in Rasher's research group. "With the loss of kelp forests, we see decreases in biodiversity, productivity, and the ecosystem services they provide to humans."

Previous work has shown that once turf algae are established, they can inhibit kelp recovery by taking up space on the reef or harboring small grazers that eat baby kelp.

In tropical ecosystems, such as rainforests and coral reefs, scientists have previously shown that changes in the chemical environment also play a role in locking ecosystems into a degraded state and preventing the recovery of foundational species. But no studies had considered whether that kind of chemical change could be at play in temperate kelp forests.

To answer this question, the researchers completed three years of field surveys across the Gulf of Maine, documenting a pattern of new kelp struggling to survive in the southern reaches of Maine's coast where forests have collapsed. During those surveys, the team collected water and seaweed samples for chemical analysis.

UMaine Ph.D. candidates Shane Farrell and Dara Yiu dive off of Allen Island, Maine. Researchers involved in the study spent several months completing reef surveys to document kelp forest loss along the Maine coast and collect samples for chemical analysis. Credit: Rene Francolini

Rather than focusing on known substances, they teamed up with Daniel Petras's research group at the University of California, Riverside, employing non-targeted metabolomics analysis to understand the diverse chemistry in the samples.

This approach involves analyzing all the small molecules within a system, which enabled the researchers to broadly identify the unique chemical featuresin the water, in the seaweeds, and on the reef itselfat both kelp- and turf algae-dominated sites.

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To characterize the suite of waterborne chemicals present, these methods rely on separating the molecules and breaking them into fragments, which are then matched against reference libraries, much like identifying a person from a fingerprint.

But, as Farrell pointed out, less than 2% of the chemical features the researchers found in this environment had been previously described.

To fill in those gaps, the team turned to novel computational tools, which use chemical fragmentation patterns to predict compound identities, molecular formulas, and even chemical structures. These predictions allowed the researchers to classify unknown compounds into broad chemical families, highlighting just how distinct the chemical environment of a kelp forest is from a turf-dominated reef.

"It is awesome to see how our non-targeted metabolomics tools can shed new light on the fascinating chemical complexity caused by shifting environments, such as invasive algae," Petras said. "This becomes especially powerful when we combine our chemical data with functional information, such as kelp survival."

In a series of laboratory experiments, the researchers then tested the effects of both all the waterborne chemicals around the turf-dominated reefs, and the specific chemicals released by the five most abundant species of turf algae, on gametophytes, an early life stage of kelp.

The experiments showed that gametophyte survival declined dramaticallyup to 500% in some caseswhen exposed to chemicals released by turf algae, confirming that the new chemical environment is directly responsible for kelp mortality.

Twenty milliliter vials reflect the internal chemistry of different types of brown, green, and red seaweed tissue after being freeze dried and ground up into powder for analysis. Credit: Shane Farrell

"Our study is the first to reveal that chemical warfare can underpin the rebound potential of cold-water kelp forests. And surprisingly, some of the same types of molecules we identified on turf reefs are involved in the recovery dynamics of tropical coral reefs too," Rasher said.

"It shows we have a lot to learn about chemical warfare on temperate reefs, the organisms and molecules involved, and how this process varies globally."

Previous work by Rasher's research group confirmed that ocean warming is the primary driver of kelp forest decline in the Gulf of Maine. But these new findings, showing how turf algae can lock an ecosystem into a degraded state, will make it more challenging to promote kelp forest recovery.

"Once turf algae are established, just curbing global carbon emissions and reversing ocean warming is not going to bring Maine's kelp forests back," Farrell said. "Because of these feedback mechanisms, we need local interventions to remove the turf algae before kelp will actually recover."

More information: Turf algae redefine the chemical landscape of temperate reefs, limiting kelp forest recovery, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adt6788 Journal information: Science
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Successfully fused coral fragments (Acropora aspera), one from the wild and one from coral nursery. Credit: Colin Anthony

A recent publication by University of Guam Marine Laboratory scientists, "Restoration innovation: Fusing microbial memories to engineer coral resilience," suggests a novel framework that pairs fundamental biology with applied biology to innovate in restoration ecology. The research is published in the journal One Earth.

Marine Lab scientists have witnessed extreme bleaching events in Guam waters and are on the forefront of coral restoration. With ocean warming trends causing detrimental effects on coral reefs, researchers are working feverishly to unravel the complexities of these marine communities to protect them. They are finding there are massive unknowns in the basic biology of corals.

It is common knowledge that corals live in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae, bacteria, viruses, and fungi, but what is not fully understood are the dynamics of how these relationships and their resulting microbiomes improve resilience in corals.

"We believe our study is a large conceptual step forward and acts as a call to action for scientists to integrate subfields, identify missing basic information, and develop new techniques to maximize sustainability of restoration efforts," said lead author Colin Anthony.

Their research represents the first attempt to integrate coral microbiology, fusion, fragmentation, restoration, and environmental resilience into a unified theoretical approach. They believe this framework will provide valuable insight as coral restoration ecologists work to keep pace with climate change.

Colin Anthony examines a healthy colony of (Acropora cf. virgata) cultured in Piti Marine Preserve, Guam. Credit: Colin Anthony

Colin Anthony monitors freshly fragmented corals (Acropora cf. virgata) for signs of stress. Credit: Colin Anthony

This synthesis was inspired by the work of the Raymundo Coral Lab in successfully culturing all of Guam's staghorn Acropora species across two large coral nurseries. The authors: Colin Anthony, Drs. Sarah Lemer, Laurie Raymundo, and Heloise Rouze observed that nursery-cultured Acropora have different morphology, physiology, and microbiomes than their wild counterparts.

Building on this, they began focusing on Guam's most endangered staghorn corals, while looking for ways to enhance restoration success using a combination of fragmentation and fusion.

"We are in the process of testing, evaluating, and developing integrative restoration techniques on critically endangered staghorn corals in Guam," Anthony said.

"I have moved to the University of Tokyo to pursue fundamental questions on coral symbiosis that will spark innovation in coral reef management and conservation, while Dr. Rouze has moved to Mayotte as a researcher for IRD (French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development) to implement similar frameworks into local research efforts.

"Despite both of us moving to different countries, Dr. Rouze and I plan to work closely with Dr. Raymundo's coral restoration group and other biologists in Guam."

In applying the framework proposed in their publication, the authors acknowledge there are a variety of potential outcomes, which underscore the need for continued studies of coral interactions with their endosymbiotic communities.

The UOG Marine Lab has successfully undertaken coral restoration projects resulting in raising more questions than answers, which is science at its best.

More information: Colin J. Anthony et al, Restoration innovation: Fusing microbial memories to engineer coral resilience, One Earth (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101193 Journal information: One Earth
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Photogrammetric reconstruction of the submarine USS F-1 on the seafloor west of San Diego, Calif. Credit: Zoe Daheron, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

A deep-sea training and engineering dive off the coast of San Diego provided an opportunity for never-before-seen imagery of the U.S. Navy submarine USS F-1, lost at sea in an accident on December 17, 1917, that resulted in the death of 19 crew members. The detailed, high-definition images of the final resting place of the WWI-era sub were made possible by a group of interagency teams, as well as advanced deep-sea imaging technology.

From February 24 to March 4, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) used the human-occupied vehicle (HOV) Alvin, and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry, both workhorses of the National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) underwater vehicle fleet, to capture up-close images of the more than 100 year-old wreck, located in approximately 400 meters (more than 1,300 feet) of water.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) supported the cruise to conduct Alvin and Sentry systems and engineering testing. During the cruise, the team completed meticulous surveys of the submarine using sonar systems on Sentry and the research vessel Atlantis, as well as video cameras on a tethered vehicle and still and video imaging systems on Alvin. The team also surveyed a Navy torpedo bomber training aircraft that crashed near the same location in 1950.

Forward section of the wreckage of a WW II-era Avenger torpedo bomber that crashed in the ocean off the coast of southern California during a training flight in DATE. Credit: Anna Michel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; NSF GEO; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

"Advanced ocean technology and simple teamwork played a big part in delivering these new images," said WHOI's Bruce Strickrott, manager of the Alvin Group at WHOI and the sub's senior pilot who helped lead the expedition.

"Once we identified the wreck and determined it was safe to dive, we were able to capture never-before-seen perspectives of the sub. As a U.S. Navy veteran, it was a profound honor to visit the wreck of the F-1 with our ONR and NHHC colleagues aboard Alvin."

The surveys and subsequent images of the wrecks were made possible by the expertise and support of partners from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), NHHC, and WHOI. NSF funds the NDSF fleet with support from ONR and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The NDSF provides essential equipment for reaching the deep ocean," said Lisa Clough, the acting division director for the NSF Division of Ocean Sciences. "Although HOV Alvin and AUV Sentry are critical for revealing deep-sea geologic hazards and studying remote ecosystems, they also offer opportunities to train the next generation of scientists and uncover crucial moments from our nation's history."

The seven dives were part of a previously planned training and engineering mission conducted by the Alvin Team to give pilots-in-training time to hone their skills diving the submersible and to allow for the development of new technology and capabilities that serve the deep-sea research community.

Video taken from inside the Human Occupied Vehicle Alvin as the submersible passed over the conning tower and forward hull of USS F-1. Credit: Bruce Strickrott, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The non-invasive, visual surveys of F-1 also took Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) Underwater Archaeologist Brad Krueger on his first Alvin dive, and first in-person dive on a historical wreck site. NHHC's mission is to preserve and present an accurate history of the U.S. Navy, which includes locating, interpreting, and protecting U.S. Navy ships and aircraft.

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"It was an incredibly exciting and humbling experience to visit these historically significant wrecks and to honor the sacrifice of these brave American Sailors," said Krueger. "All of us at the NHHC are grateful for this collaboration, which also enabled us to document and assess the condition of the crafts."

"As a Navy veteran, making this divetogether with another Navy veteran and a Navy historianwas a solemn privilege," said ONR Program Officer Rob Sparrock, who was in the DSV Alvin as it surveyed and analyzed the sub. "Lasting nearly eight hours, there was time to contemplate the risks that all mariners, past and present, face. It also reminded me of the importance of these training dives, which leverage the knowledge from past dives, lessons learned and sound engineering."

A remembrance ceremony took place on board Atlantis above the location of the wreck after the dives. A bell rang out 19 timesone for each service member lost at sea. "History and archaeology are all about people and we felt it was important to read their names aloud," said Krueger. "The Navy has a solemn responsibility to ensure the legacies of its lost Sailors are remembered."

Rapidly improving imaging technology enhanced the team's ability to survey and document the F-1 wreck site. Multi-beam sonar systems on R/V Atlantis and AUV Sentry produced detailed, high-resolution maps of the wreck and surrounding seafloor.

Complementing this, high-resolution cameras on Alvin captured detailed video and still photos of the wreck that WHOI imaging specialists stitched into photogrammetric models capable of providing precise measurements of the sub and the animals that have colonized its wreckage over the years.

The use of new tools and techniques provided real-time training for use on future missions, including mapping strategies in complex seafloor topography.

This wealth of data and imagery allowed the ocean imaging team at WHOI to reconstruct the F-1 submarine using photogrammetry, resulting in stunning 3D models.

"While these depths were well within the dive capability for Alvin and Sentry, they were technical dives requiring specialized expertise and equipment," said Anna Michel, NDSF chief scientist and co-lead of the expedition. "We were careful and methodical in surveying these historical sites so that we could share these stunning images, while also maintaining the reverence these sites deserve."
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Credit: University of Florida

A new University of Florida study published in HortScience shows how drones can do more than just take aerial pictures and videosthey can help farmers grow better hemp by seeing the health of their crops with some artificial intelligence assistance.

Researchers at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) in Homestead used drone-based imaging to help determine how much nitrogen fertilizer hemp plants need for optimal growth and flower production.

Their findings could help growers optimize fertilizer use to save money and preserve the environment.

"Farmers are looking for ways to assess their crops throughout the year to make informed fertilizer decisions," said Zack Brym, associate professor of agronomy at UF/IFAS TREC.

"We've shown that farmers with access to aerial images using red and near infrared (NIR) detection can spot differences in plant health by their color when scanning their fields."

This is crucial because timely and precise fertilizer applications can significantly impact hemp crop yield and quality, Brym said.

"Since nutrients move through the soil so fast in Florida, farmers are applying fertilizer multiple times each year. Technology like the use of drone imaging will help determine how much fertilizer might be needed mid-season, promoting more efficient use of resources and supporting sustainable farming practices," he said.

Tamara Serrano, a lead author on the study, is a former agroecology graduate student at UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education who worked on the drone team. Here, she stands by the hemp variety known as Wife at the research site. Credit: Zachary Brym.

Hemp, a plant reintroduced in 2019 for cultivation research in Florida agriculture, provides an alternate opportunity for farmers due to the potential demand for hemp products across various industries. Low-input systems for fiber production may also offer benefits to soil health and carbon sequestration.

One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how much nitrogenan essential plant nutrientis needed for optimal crop growth and yield. Too little, and the plant suffers with chlorosis or yellowing of the foliage, stunted crop growth and reduced yield. Too much, and the plant may grow too much leafy material with little benefit to the valuable flower production, while excess nitrogen can leach into the environment.

Brym and his team set out to study this problem using aerial imaging. They grew a popular floral hemp variety called "Wife" over three years and applied six nitrogen fertilizer rates, from none to very high.

Using drones equipped with multispectral cameras, they flew over the fields one month before harvest to capture images of the crop from above. These images measured how green and healthy the plants were, indicating how well they grew under different nitrogen rates.

The study found that using a moderate amount of nitrogen112 to 168 kilograms per hectare or about 100 to 150 pounds per acreresulted in the healthiest plants and greatest flower yields. Drone images picked up clear differences in plant size and color, which matched the actual amount of plant material harvested. The drone images provided real-time, accurate insights into the plant conditions on the ground.

As a final step to the research, scientists incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) technology to process the images captured by the drone flights of the canopy's reflectance. Reflectance refers to the measure of the proportion of light or other radiation that is reflected off the surface of the hemp canopy. Reflectance is critical in remote sensing and agriculture studies, allowing researchers to analyze how much light is being reflected by the plants, which helps identify and map the canopy areas accurately.

Credit: University of Florida

"I was eager to see how effective the automated AI would be at identifying hemp canopy," said Tamara Serrano, a lead author and former agroecology graduate student on Brym's team. "To my surprise, the process wasn't as seamless as expected and required manual corrections to address errors in canopy identification."

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This research is especially important in Florida, where fast-growing crops and shallow soils mean nutrients like nitrogen can easily be lost to runoff. Using drones for in-season monitoring could help growers fine-tune fertilizer use, reduce waste and improve profits, all while practicing environmental stewardship. With the hemp industry still evolving, these insights offer a valuable step forward.

"Despite the challenges they faced with AI technology, weed intensity and weather, the data consistently demonstrated a strong positive correlation between canopy size and aboveground biomass across years," said Serrano.

"This shows that drone-based aerial imaging can effectively monitor crop growth and health in field-grown flower hemp and inform nutrient management decisions for growers."

More information: Tamara Serrano et al, Nitrogen Fertilizer Effects on Hemp Biomass Production Detected by Drone-based Spectral Imaging, HortScience (2025). DOI: 10.21273/HORTSCI18264-24 Journal information: HortScience
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As legally required by the European Union, sustainable fisheries may not extract more fish than can regrow each year. Yet about 70% of commercially targeted fish stocks in northern EU waters are either overfished, have shrunken population sizes or have collapsed entirely.

So why does the EU continue to miss its sustainable fisheries targets, despite a wealth of scientific data and policy instruments? Researchers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel and Kiel University have examined this question using the well-explored seas of northern Europe as a case study, with a particular focus on the western Baltic Sea.

Their analysis is published in Science.

"We analyzed the problems and concluded that they are driven by short-sighted national calls for higher, unsustainable catches, compromising all levels of decision-making," says lead author Dr. Rainer Froese, a fisheries scientist at GEOMAR. "Environmental factors such as warming waters and oxygen loss also play a role, but overfishing is so strong that it alone suffices to collapse stocks.

"We propose a new approach to EU fisheries management that would overcome the problems, be doable within existing legislation, and lead to profitable fisheries from healthy fish stocks within a few years."

The European path to setting annual quotas

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which states that fish populations are to be maintained or restored to levels that can support maximum sustainable catches. In northern Europe, this is implemented through legally binding total allowable catches (TACs), which are advised scientifically by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), an intergovernmental organization with working groups consisting mostly of scientists from national fisheries institutions.

Based on this advice, the European Commission proposes annual quotas, which are then discussed with member states and stakeholders. Ultimately, the Council of EU Fisheries Ministers decides on the legally binding total allowable catch for the following year. Unfortunately, this process often results in quotas that are increased at every stepwith harmful consequences for fish stocks.

Mismanagement in the western Baltic Sea

The western Baltic Sea is a window into the dynamics between fish and fisheriesa relatively simple ecosystem for which extensive data are available, and which is fished solely under EU control.

"The western Baltic is dominated by three commercially important species: cod, herring and plaice," explains Prof. Dr. Thorsten Reusch, Head of the Marine Ecology Research Division at GEOMAR.

"Long-standing overfishing of cod and herring has led to the recent collapse of these fisheries, whereas flatfish such as plaice, flounder and dabwhich are less demanded and fished less intensivelyhave shown stable or even increasing stock sizes."

In 2022, overall, less than a tenth of what could have been sustainably caught from healthy stocks was actually landed.

Reusch continues, "It's the small-scale coastal fishers who are suffering the most, often without having done anything wrong, except perhaps relying on fishing associations that lobbied for unsustainable quotas."

Systematic overestimation and phantom recoveries

In order to manage catches sustainably, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advises on how much fish of a given species can be extracted annually without threatening the long-term viability of the stock.

However, ICES's assessments repeatedly overpredicted stock sizes for the upcoming year for which sustainable catches were to be advised. These overly optimistic projections suggested that fish stocks were recovering and could support much higher catches, when, in reality, the stocks were stagnating or declining.

"We're talking about 'phantom recoveries,'" says Froese, "recoveries that were predicted but never happened."

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The overfishing ratchet: When the system undermines its own goals

Building on the already too high ICES advice, the European Commission often proposed even higher catch limits, which the ministers in the EU Council usually approved, or sometimes increased further. As a result, official quotas permitted the capture of far more fish than the stocks could replenish; in some years, even more than there were fish in the water.

The authors call this process the 'overfishing ratchet': like a mechanical ratchet, it only turns in one direction. This process strongly favors higher catches at every step, leading to total allowable catches (TACs) that often exceed what fishers are able to catch.

As Froese notes, "Interestingly, actual catches often remained below these inflated quotassimply because fishers stopped fishing when the cost of chasing the last fish exceeded the value of the catch."

A new independent authority for ecosystem-based catch advice

The Common Fisheries Policy included an explicit deadline of 2020 to end overfishinga goal that was clearly missed, as Reusch points out.

"Europe must play a leading role by making its own fisheries sustainable if it hopes to encourage other regions of the world to adopt sustainable fishing practices. The EU must take its sustainability goals seriously and implement the CFP according to its stated objectives, urgently."

To make the process more transparent and ensure accountability, the researchers propose creating a new politically independent institution with a clear mandate to provide robust scientific estimates of the highest sustainable annual catch for every stock, in line with ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) principles. This would enable the EU to finally implement its own laws and effectively end overfishing.

Froese concludes, "To be successful, such an institution would need to operate with the same level of independence as a central bank. Implementing sound scientific advice can lead to highly profitable fisheries from large fish stocks in healthy European seas in many cases, and within a few years."

More information: Rainer Froese, Systemic failure of European fisheries management, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adv4341. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv4341 Journal information: Science
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Image illustrating AI braiding fractional charges ("anyons") in a quantum Hall fluid. Credit: ChatGPT.

When two-dimensional electron systems are subjected to magnetic fields at low temperatures, they can exhibit interesting states of matter, such as fractional quantum Hall liquids. These are exotic states of matter characterized by fractionalized excitations and the emergence of interesting topological phenomena.

Researchers at Cavendish Laboratory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) set out to better understand these fascinating states using machine learning, specifically employing a newly developed attention-based fermionic neural network (FNN).

The method they developed, outlined in a paper published in Physical Review Letters, was trained to find the lowest-energy quantum state (i.e., ground state) of fractional quantum Hall liquids.

"AI has transformed many areas of society and science, but we are yet to see an AI breakthrough in quantum physics," Liang Fu, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org.

"Solving quantum many-body problems is known to be extremely difficult, because a quantum system can be in a superposition of exponentially many states: literally, everything everywhere all at once! So, we wanted to find out whether AI has the power to conquer the quantum world."

The main objective of the recent research by Fu and his colleagues was to assess the potential of advanced machine learning tools for solving complex quantum problems. Working towards this goal, the researchers developed a new FNN and tried to use it to uncover the hidden patterns of electrons in topological quantum liquids.

"Our recent paper was inspired by the rapid development of AI, in particular the FNN, to tackle quantum chemistry problems," said Yi Teng, co-author of the paper. "We wanted to demonstrate that this neural network based variational approach can also be applied to complex condensed matter systems, proven challenging for traditional numerical methods."

Fractional quantum Hall liquids are intricate states of matter known to emerge in 2D electron systems when a strong magnetic field is applied to them. The computational method developed by Fu, Teng and Dai can capture rich physical phenomena, successfully uncovering microscopic features of fermionic quantum Hall liquids and competing states.

"The fractional quantum Hall liquid hosts emergent particles-neither bosons nor fermions-that carry a quantized fraction of electron's charge," explained Fu. "While great success in this venerable field came from the best human minds, there remain long-standing open questions that require numerically accurate solutions beyond the capability of traditional methods. So, we gave AI a shot."

This study is among the first to demonstrate the potential of AI and machine learning for studying fractional phases of matter. Using their FNN, Fu, Teng and Dai generated a variational ansatz, which is a flexible mathematical structure that can be optimized to estimate a system's ground state.

"We then used Monte-Carlo sampling to minimize the total energy in search of ground state," said Teng. "We also performed extensive benchmarks and found neural networks consistently outperform traditional methods. The biggest advantage of our method is that no human biases are put in by hand, and the neural network captures all possible states of electrons without truncating the Hilbert space."

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The team's demonstration highlights the promise of FNNs for the study and estimation of states that can be difficult to predict theoretically. As part of their study, the researchers successfully used their FNN to accurately predict the transition of a 2D electron system from liquid to crystal.

"We demonstrate that an unbiased neural network can be used to solve different phases (fractional quantum Hall liquid and Wigner crystal in our case) in a unified manner with unprecedented accuracy," said Teng. "This shows the capacity and versality of the NN-based variational method in quantum condensed matter physics."

In the future, the model developed by Fu, Teng and Dai could be improved further and used to predict the quantum phase diagram of various 2D electron systems. In addition, it could inspire the development of other FNN-based models for quantum research and could potentially contribute to the discovery of new quantum states of matter.

"For me, this project was a mind-blowing experience," said Fu. "I am now fully convinced of the transformative power of AI for quantum science, offering a vast opportunity.

"Looking ahead, I also believe that solving challenging quantum problems provides an objective benchmark for different large language model architectures. Think of it: no training data is involved in such test, and the ranking is objectively determined by the variational energy. The best of all is the rewardAI solving the quantum phase diagram of real materials and discovering new quantum states of matter."

As part of their future studies, the researchers plan to use their FNN-based method to study a wide range of other quantum systems. For instance, they would like to use it to gather new insights into non-Abelian states, unconventional superconductivity and quantum spin liquids.

"Going forward, I'm also excited to both use AI to solve challenging physics problems, and to use challenging physics problems to learn more about AI," added David Dai, co-author of the paper.

Written for you by our author Ingrid Fadelli, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

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Credit: Biomaterials (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.123079

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a scalable, non-viral technology that efficiently delivers genetic material into human immune cells. The platform, called Nanostraw Electro-actuated Transfection (NExT), uses tiny hollow nanostructures and electrical pulses to insert a wide variety of biomoleculesproteins, mRNA and gene-editing toolsinto immune cells with high efficiency and minimal disruption.

The team, led by Assistant Professor Andy Tay from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering as well as the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology at NUS, demonstrated that NExT can transfectthat is, deliver genetic material intomore than 14 million immune cells in a single run, including difficult-to-engineer cell types such as gamma-delta T cells, T regulatory cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, natural killer cells and neutrophils which are being developed as alternative immune cell therapies.

NExT makes gene delivery quicker and less damaging, which in turn helps lower manufacturing costs and improve the consistency of engineered cell products, including those used in chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapies for cancer. This could potentially widen patient access to advanced treatments that are currently limited by high costs and production challenges.

The team's findings are published in the journal Biomaterials. Researchers from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine also contributed to the research breakthrough.

Next-generation gene delivery

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death globally, responsible for nearly 10 million lives each year. Among the most promising treatment strategies to emerge in recent times is CAR-T cell therapy, which involves reprogramming a patient's immune cells to recognize, target and kill cancer cells. This personalized approach has demonstrated success in treating blood cancers, especially in those who have exhausted conventional options. However, it remains expensive and logistically complex.

On 1 August 2024, the Singapore Ministry of Health began to provide subsidies for cell, tissue and gene therapy products (CTGTPs) that are assessed to be clinically and cost effective. The first CTGTP eligible for subsidy is a treatment known as tisagenlecleucel, a type of CAR-T cell therapy for treating blood cancers.

"In Singapore, a single CAR-T cell infusion can cost about S$670,000. Although subsidies are available, they typically cover only a fraction of the cost. This may limit access to the therapy for a significant number of patients, even as demand grows," said Asst. Prof. Tay.

One of the main hurdles in CAR-T manufacturing lies in the delivery of genetic material into immune cells. Current industry-standard methods include viral vectors and bulk electroporation. On the one hand, while viral approaches are effective, they raise concerns around safety, immunogenicity and random gene integration. On the other, bulk electroporation, which relies on high-voltage electric pulses, can stress and damage cells, thus reducing their therapeutic quality.

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The NUS team's NExT platform overcomes these limitations. It works by interfacing cells with a dense forest of nanostrawsmicroscopic hollow tubes less than a thousandth the width of a human hair. When a mild electrical signal is applied, the nanostraws open temporary pores in the cell membrane, allowing biomolecules such as mRNA or CRISPR/Cas9 complexes to enter the cell cytoplasm directly.

"Our NExT platform can handle a wide range of immune cell types. This is particularly timely as the field of cell therapy expands beyond traditional CAR-T approaches to include other cell types," said Arun Kumar, the paper's first author and a Ph.D. student at NUS supervised by Asst. Prof. Tay.

"Think of gene delivery like selecting a food delivery service. Ideally you want one that's fast, reliable, keeps the food fresh and doesn't cost a fortune. That's what gene delivery should be likeefficient, cost-effective, doesn't stress the cells too much, and adaptable to many different 'orders,' or biomolecules," added Kumar.

Assistant Professor Andy Tay (right), Arun Kumar (left) and their team have developed an innovative 'food delivery service'known as Nanostraw Electro-actuated Transfection (NExT)to transport cancer-fighting genes efficiently to immune cells, boosting their ability to detect and kill cancer cells. Credit: National University of Singapore

In preclinical experiments, the NExT platform achieved transfection efficiencies of up to 94% for proteins and more than 80% for mRNA in primary T cells, while maintaining key biological functions such as proliferation, migration and cytokine production.

"We were very encouraged to see that even after transfection, the immune cells retained their essential tumor-fighting characteristics. This suggests that the platform delivers both the efficiency as well as the cell quality needed for effective therapy," said Asst. Prof. Tay.

More accessible and adaptable cancer treatments

The NExT platform can engineer alternative immune cells that are less likely to trigger severe immune reactions, and in some cases can function without matching the patient's immune profile, making them suitable for "off-the-shelf" allogeneic therapies.

In addition, the high-throughput nature of the platform is designed to address the scale and cost bottlenecks of cell therapy production. The NUS researchers' multi-well version of the platform can transfect more than 14 million cells in a single run, enabling the simultaneous delivery of different genetic cargoes into multiple immune cell types from various donors to reduce production time.

Working towards clinical translation, the team's next step is to validate the technology in preclinical studies before advancing to human trials. They are also working with industry partners to explore how the system can be integrated into existing cell therapy manufacturing workflows and are actively seeking opportunities to test the platform in real-world commercial settings.

More information: Arun R.K. Kumar et al, Non-viral, high throughput genetic engineering of primary immune cells using nanostraw-mediated transfection, Biomaterials (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.123079 Journal information: Biomaterials
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Americans are deeply divided about the use of quotas in hiring and education, but quotas are used in many countries to assure a balance of power between men and women in legislative bodies. New research co-authored at UC Berkeley finds that when governments are gender-balanced, people believe the political process and policy outcomes are more fair and democratic.

In a major study that included 17,000 people in a dozen countriesin Europe, the Pacific and the Americasresearchers found overwhelming support for a balance of representation between men and women, even when quotas are needed to achieve it. The U.S. and the U.K. don't use such quotas for national office, but even so, respondents in the study saw strong benefit, said Berkeley political scientist Amanda Clayton, the lead author.

The most important finding "is that citizens in democracies around the world strongly prefer women's equality to women's exclusion, regardless of how the equality is achieved," Clayton said in an interview.

"In the best-case scenario, citizens would prefer a gender balance achieved without quotas," she explained, "but we know from centuries of male dominance that that either doesn't happen or happens at a glacial pace. So compared to men's political dominance, women's inclusion via quotas is perceived as more democratic and more legitimate than women's exclusion."

The study, "Electoral Gender Quotas and Democratic Legitimacy," is published in the latest issue of the American Political Science Review. Clayton is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, and her research has focused on gender in politics.

Gender quotas in politics began to emerge about a half-century ago, with Norway and Sweden as pioneers, but their use boomed in many countries beginning in the 1990s. Some quota efforts are focused on the number of women that political parties consider for office, or the number of women nominated; other laws mandate a specific percentage of seats for female lawmakers.

The most popular electoral reform in 50 years

Today, more than 130 countries worldwide use quotas to drive gender balance, and an increasing number require a 5050 balance between male and female legislators.

Gender quotas "are the most popular electoral reform" of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and they have been a highly effective way to bring women into political power, the authors write. Some analysts, however, have worried about a "quota penalty"a sense that voters may reject the quota-driven increase of women's political power as illegitimate and contrary to democratic values.

That was the question that Clayton and her co-authors set out to explore. They surveyed voters in a dozen democraciesArgentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S. Except for the U.S., all of those countries have used some form of gender quotas in national or local nomination processes or in legislative bodies. In some cases, the quotas are voluntary or used only by left-leaning political parties in nominating candidates.

The researchers asked the study subjects to read different versions of a short, fictional newspaper article about a city council in a neighboring town. In some of the articles, that council was made up of eight men. In others, it was composed of four women and four men, with no mention of quota policy; and in others, the readers were told specifically that the four women were elected under a gender quota policy.

The researchers also looked at how the subjects responded to the council action on two fictional measures: one that required training against sexual harassment, and a second, unrelated to women's rights, on the mistreatment of animals on commercial farms.

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A powerful rejection of male-dominated politics

The results? Voters perceived that the gender-balanced council was "overwhelmingly" more legitimate in its process and its policy outcomes than the all-male council, the study found. The council elected under quota requirements was seen as only slightly less legitimate.

"We find little evidence to support quota skeptics' claims that raising women's  representation via affirmative action would diminish democratic legitimacy," the authors wrote.

Clayton said that voters are often skeptical of quotas when the gender-balancing policies are new, but that the skepticism fades within a few election cycles.

"What we've found is that, typically, once a party has a mechanism to include women, it doesn't get rid of it," she explained. "So the quota just becomes sort of part of the electoral environment. People might not even refer to them as quotas anymore. They just expect that women will be equally represented."

For countries like the U.S. and the U.K., where single lawmakers are elected to represent single districts, it's more difficult to impose a gender quota, the authors wrote. And conservatives in the two countries lean hard against quota systems.

In both countries, voters viewed policy actions taken by all-male councils and quota-balanced councils as about equally legitimate. However, they saw the quota-balanced councils themselves, and their decision-making processes, as more legitimate."

The authors of the study noted one irony: that authoritarian countries will sometimes use quotas to enhance their reputations for fairness and to distract from their abuses of human rights, including women's rights. They did not mention any such countries by name.

Even in democratic countries, the quotas are not a panacea. Women still can face a backlash as they take a greater portion of power or advance into areas that have remained dominated by men, Clayton and her co-authors said.

But, they conclude, policy debates will be more effective if they focus on the fair representation of women in political power.

"The choice is not between decision-making bodies composed of women who can make it on their own versus institutions composed of women benefiting from affirmative action," the authors wrote. "Rather  the choice is between women's inclusion via quotas or the continued persistence of male-dominated political bodies."

More information: Amanda Clayton et al, Electoral Gender Quotas and Democratic Legitimacy, American Political Science Review (2025). DOI: 10.1017/S0003055425000176 Journal information: American Political Science Review
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Credit: Sveta K from Pexels

With an estimated 50,000 people warned to prepare for isolation across New South Wales' Mid North Coast and Hunter regions, experts are reminding residents that entering floodwaters often poses the most significant risk to life.

Natural Hazards Research Australia CEO, Andrew Gissing states the critical importance of not entering floodwaters, as NSW Emergency Services continue to carry out rescues, following 339 flood rescues in the last 24 hours.

"Research shows that 84% of motorists ignore road closure signs. It also shows us that children and young adults under 29 years oldespecially menmake up the greatest proportion of floodwater-related fatalities," Andrew said.

"Four-wheel drives may provide a false sense of security when attempting to cross floodwater, but research shows that 75% of all floodwater-related fatalities in the past 15 years are associated with these vehicles."

The research, carried out after the devastating 2022 northern NSW and southern Queensland floods also showed residents are most at risk close to home.

"Nearly two thirds of floodwater-related fatalities occurred within 20km of peoples' homes. This is people going about their daily business," Andrew said.

"The Manning River is flooding at a level never seen before at Taree, surpassing the 1929 record level of six meters and I am asking residents to not take the risk of entering floodwater.

"You never know what is under the surface. Floodwater can easily wash away the surface of the road and in seconds your life is in danger as you're off the road, into the current and your vehicle is sinking.

"The average frequency of the Manning River reaching peak flood level at Taree is once every 500 years. Though it is too early to know the extent that climate change has contributed to these extreme rainfalls, we do know that a warmer climate means the atmosphere holds more water, making heavy rain more likely.

"This flooding once again highlights the importance of investment in flood mitigation to reduce the impact on properties, as well as risk-based urban planning policies to avoid future development in areas at high risk of flooding."

Provided by Natural Hazards Research Australia
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

On a recent warm May day, bundles of small sun-kissed-colored fruit droop from a towering tree in Raffy Espiritu's backyard in Milpitas. They soak in the light and ripen in the heat before suddenly splitting from the branches at the slightest tug of Espiritu's hand.

At first glance, the harvest looks like a puzzling mixture of familiar fruitsthe color of a mango, the shape of a baby apricot, the texture of a ripe peach. Peel off the paper-thin skin and take a bite, and the flesh is an even more mysterious combination of flavors: tangy, tart, sweet.

"It's beautiful, the fruit and the leaves of the tree," Espiritu said. "It's very, very awesome."

Meet the loquat: a large evergreen shrub that bears dozens of bulb-shaped orange fruit in the late spring and early summer. Loquats are native to China and popular in subtropical regions worldwide, including Asia and Latin America. In California, the trees thrive off the Bay Area's mild and temperate climate.

The English word for "loquat" derives from the Cantonese pronunciation of the fruit's name. It's known by other names as well: "Pipa" in Mandarin. "Nispero" in Spanish. "Biwa" in Japanese.

There isn't a public record of how many loquat trees call the region homebut San Francisco is rumored to have the highest concentration, with around 2,700 trees planted throughout the city. They also grow all over the South and East Bayalong busy public streets, neighborhoods and private backyards, like Espiritu's.

Across the region, this time of year, locals get a kick out of harvesting the fruit. They pluck them off trees by the bagful or purchase them in bulk from generous neighbors or local farmers' market vendors.

Some even eat loquats raw, not only for their addictive taste, but also for medicinal purposes. In Eastern medicine, the fruit, seeds and tree leaves are used to treat a variety of ailments, including coughs and inflammation.

"When you eat loquats, it harmonizes the different elements in the body," Espiritu said. "It balances the ecosystem in your stomach."

Loquat-picking has become a springtime hobby for the 73-year-old, ever since he bought his house in the early 2000s and inherited the tree.

He does it mostly out of enjoyment, but also out of necessityhundreds of loquats will sprout in just a matter of weeks. He'll invite family members and friends, and even encourage the occasional neighborhood squirrel to pick the loquats and feast on the bounty.

The number of people looking for good loquat trees and fruits is on the rise. Locals can purchase them from nurseries, farmers' markets or online.

On Craigslist, dozens of listings are available for Bay Area trees at a range of price points. A 20-year-old, 10-foot-tall loquat tree sells for $300 in Alameda. "Come and dig it out from ground," the listing reads. A small 5-foot tree goes for $39 in South San Jose. "Organic and healthy," says the advertisement.

On Facebook Marketplace, bundles of loquats sell for as low as $2 to as high as $15 in San Jose or Milpitas. Ebay listings show Fremont growers selling 30 fresh loquat leaves for around $6, or 8 pounds of fruit for $65.

There are reportedly more than 900 varieties of loquat tree, each yielding fruits of varying colors, sizes and textures.

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Martinez resident Benjamin Fogle knows plenty about them. Growing inside his home are several different kinds of young loquat trees.

"It's addicting to collect all the different flavors loquats can come in," the 35-year-old said.

There's the "Argelino" that bears some of the sweetest fruit and is more orange in color. The "Peluche" produces the largest fruits and leaves. And then there's "Michael," which yields a more teardrop-like loquat with uniquely white flesh.

Fogle and his family eat the loquats raw, and even experiment with adding them to food, including ice cream and chickena recipe that involves mixing the fruit with ginger and garlic.

"Loquat is such an underrated fruit tree," Fogle said.

Although many locals enjoy eating loquats, not all can say they reap its benefits.

For the past six years, Pablo Lugones, the owner of Small Batch Jam Company in Pacifica, has been selling a limited-edition loquat jam among his other unique fruit jams, jellies and marmalades. Small Batch is one of the few businesses in the region taking a chance on jellying the fruit, despite seeing little interest.

"It's not a popular seller at all," Lugones said.

There are several possible explanations why the jam doesn't sell well, he said. Customers are unfamiliar with loquats, or opt instead to buy more zesty and palatable Small Batch bestsellers like Pineapple Pepper Jam or Raspberry Jalapeno.

While Lugones likes the loquat jam's flavor profileit tastes like a tropical blend of apricot and pineapple once it's cooked down with cane sugar and a little citrus pectinhe said the work to pluck the stems off, deseed the fruit and then squeeze small amounts of juice can be tedious.

For all those reasons, Lugones said he's considering phasing out the jam. He plans on making one last batch this month from the remaining commercially grown loquats he bought last year.

"It's not something we go out of our way to make; it's a niche product," Lugones said. "If it goes away, it's not going to hurt our business."

2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Comparison of the morphology (Cryo-TEM) and chemical composition (Cryo-OrbiSIMS). Credit: Communications Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s42004-025-01526-x

A team led by scientists at the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy demonstrated a new cryogenic mass spectrometry approach for depth profiling frozen tiny lipid nanoparticles to reveal the layers and orientation of the constituent molecules.

The findings have been published in Communications Chemistry.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) came to prominence for the delivery of RNA with the success of the Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. They are also used to deliver therapeutic treatments, including using small interfering RNA-based drugs to treat the rare hereditary disease of polyneuropathy (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals).

Areas of development include lung-targeted gene therapy, which is particularly challenging, but LPNs have the potential to treat a range of diseases including cystic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma and more.

This research provides insight into the relative positions of each component within lipid nanoparticles. This knowledge can help clarify the intricate behavior of LNPs and contribute to the design of formulations with unique bio-properties that are more efficient and safer.

The research findings could also be used in the future to help quality control during the scale-up of manufacturing processes, enhancing the translation of LNPs from the laboratory to clinical applications.

The research team, which also included Sail Biomedicines, Cambridge, MA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA and the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK, utilized Cryogenic Orbitrap secondary ion microscopy (Cryo-OrbiSIMS) to provide structural details of the lipid nanoparticles. This high-pressure-freezing cryo-preparation facility keeps biological samples maintained close to their native state.

Professor Morgan Alexander, who led this research, explains, "Characterizing the native surface of delicate hydrated pharmaceutical systems used in the body has been a significant challenge for some time. This cryogenic molecular surface and interfacial analysis advance makes this exciting possibility real.

"We expect to apply this new method to many systems, including lipid nanoparticles, other pharmaceutical delivery systems and hydrated biomaterials."

Dr. Robert Langer, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is also an author of the research paper. He said, "Effective drug delivery relies on an intricate mix of molecules in lipid nanoparticles to effectively deliver RNA therapeutics, but these can vary in efficacy and can be difficult to engineer.

"This research provides a new way of characterizing and understanding the make-up of lipid nanoparticles which could pave the way for engineering more potent and targeted LNPs to enable the broadest application of RNA therapies for all types of diseases."

"At Sail Biomedicines, we are proud to have contributed to advancing the understanding of lipid nanoparticle surface structures," said Kerry Benenato, Ph.D., Chief Platform Officer at Sail Biomedicines.

"The surface of lipid nanoparticles plays a critical role in shaping their behavior in the human body. By enabling precise surface characterization, the technology the team has developed paves the way for the engineering by design of LNP-based medicines with tunable properties, including biodistribution, thereby expanding the potential of RNA-based therapeutics."

More information: Anna M. Kotowska et al, Study on molecular orientation and stratification in RNA-lipid nanoparticles by cryogenic orbitrap secondary ion mass spectrometry, Communications Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s42004-025-01526-x Journal information: Communications Chemistry
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An Australian police helicopter rescues residents stranded on rooftops in flooded areas near the New South Wales town of Taree.

Record floods stranded more than 50,000 people in eastern Australia on Thursday, killing three as a muddy tide swept through towns and swollen rivers cut off roads.

Police have pulled three bodies from rising floodwaters on the Mid North Coast, a river-braided region of rugged hills and fertile valleys about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Sydney.

Authorities launched a major search-and-rescue mission as people clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges to escape fast-moving flash floods.

The storms have dumped more than half a year's worth of rain over just three days, the government weather bureau said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.

"We are seeing levels in local tributaries, creeks and rivers that we haven't seen since 1920," New South Wales (NSW) state premier Chris Minns told reporters.

"Many people will have never seen this level of inundation or flooding in their communities."

The town of Kempsey, a farming hub on the banks of the Macleay River, had been cut off with little warning, Mayor Kinne Ring told AFP.

"You often think of rain on a tin roof as relaxing, but at the moment it is deafening and horrible," Ring said.

"The downpours are torrential and every time it rains, you wonder what is going to happen next."

Ring said more than 20,000 people were isolated in her local government area alone.

One man was found dead in a flooded home in eastern Australia.

About 140 kilometers (85 miles) south in the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the "gut-wrenching" flood was among the worst he had seen.

"It is pretty tough, we've had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on," he told AFP.

"We are reliving it every secondhearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren."

Authorities said more than 50,000 people were cut off, with some rivers still to reach peak levels late on Thursday.

An elderly couple climbed on to the roof of their car to escape a fast-rising flash flood before a rescue helicopter winched them to safety, NSW police in Taree said in a statement.

Others sought sanctuary on a raised highway bridge before they were spotted and rescued by a navy Seahawk chopper.

Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.

The government has declared the emergency a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.

Police said they were still searching for one person reported missing.

The storms have in some areas dumped more than half a year's worth of rain over just three days, the government weather bureau said.

'Abnormally warm'

Flood modeling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said the unfolding disaster provided "compelling evidence" showing how climate change could affect regional rainfall patterns.

"These events demonstrate that our understanding of flood probabilitybased on past hydrological studiesis no longer adequate in the face of present-day climate realities," said the Australian National University's Sedighkia.

Swaths of Australia from the arid outback to the tropical coast have been pummeled by wild weather in recent months.

The oceans surrounding Australia have been "abnormally warm" in recent months, according to the weather bureau.

Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.

Although difficult to link to specific disasters, scientists warn that climate change is already fueling more extreme weather patterns.

"I don't think there is a question that climate change is having a significant impact on weather events right across the world," Australian Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain told reporters.

"In Australia, we're not immune to that. We're seeing more devastating events like this happen more frequently."

About 2,500 emergency workers have been deployed to the region, alongside rescue boats, a fleet of helicopters and hundreds of search drones.

Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Steve Bernasconi said some towns had recorded more than half a meter (1.6 feet) of rain in the space of three days.

But he said rain was expected to slowly taper off from late Thursday night as the weather system moved south.

 2025 AFP
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Former visiting researcher Burcu Tenderis works on the recipe for lentil hummusin a Washington State University lab. Credit: Burcu Tenderis.

Washington State University scientists are using microwave technology to extend the shelf life of hummus while eliminating the need for chemical preservatives, as demonstrated in a Journal of Food Process Engineering paper.

The Middle Eastern dip, which is growing in popularity around the world, was associated with 20 illness outbreaks in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018 that resulted in 65 hospitalizations and five deaths. Because of those outbreaks, many commercial hummus makers use chemical preservatives to extend shelf life and prevent the development of pathogens.

Now, WSU researchers, led by Shyam Sablani, a professor and corresponding author on the paper, are using technology to make the food more shelf stable. One process, microwave-assisted pasteurization, is a milder treatment that produces better-tasting hummus and keeps it fresh for up to 30 days in a refrigerator if unopened.

The other process, microwave-assisted sterilization, is harsher. It reduces flavor intensity but ensures hummus can be stored at room temperature for two years if unopened.

The two technologies, developed by Juming Tang and his team at WSU, use the same microwaves to produce high-quality food with extended shelf lives in different storage conditions. The technology allows for predictable and rapid heating of pre-packaged food that eliminates food pathogens and replaces traditional industrial methods such as canning.

"After testing for storage, quality, texture, color, and vitamin retention, both processes held up quite well," said Sablani, who is in WSU's Department of Biological Systems Engineering. "I tried it several times and thought it tasted very good."

Lentil hummus after undergoing the microwave sterilization (MATS) process. It was then subjected to other tests to see how long it was safe from pathogens. The process was found to keep the hummus safe for up to two years at room temperature if unopened. Credit: Burcu Tenderis.

Instead of using chickpeas, the most common primary ingredient, Sablani and his team made lentil-based hummus for their research. It's unusual, but Sablani said visiting researcher Burcu Tenderis, the paper's lead author, had heard of communities in her native Turkey that used lentils.

Lentils are cheaper and more readily available, especially in the U.S. Tenderis conducted many different trials to create a lentil hummus that worked, said Sablani, who is currently in Thailand as a Fulbright Scholar.

"Water absorption abilities and the chemical makeup of the two legumes are quite different," he said. "I'm from India and have often made chickpea hummus at home. It never occurred to me or anyone else in our lab to use lentils. For me, it wasn't too different, and I really enjoyed it."

The researchers also enriched the hummus with vitamin C, documenting how much remained after the microwave treatments.

"Lentils and other grains, along with most vegetables, are not rich in vitamin C," Sablani said. "Vitamins are heat-sensitive, so you lose a significant amount of them while cooking. We measured how much remained after each process so we knew how much to enrich the product later."

Trays of lentil hummus after undergoing the microwave pasteurization (MAPS) process. This process can keep the tasty dip safe for up to 30 days in a refrigerator if unopened. Credit: Burcu Tenderis.

The microwave process retained 75% of the vitamin C, a good sign for the team.

The next step will hopefully be asking panels to evaluate responses to taste, smell, and other sensory attributes, Sablani said.

"This project was part of the Soil to Society program, which looks at how to get healthy, nutrient-rich grains into publicly available food," he said. "That program provided the funds for this research, but now we are looking for industry partners to commercially produce the product. If that's successful, then commercialization would follow, and consumers could see the end results."

Though that could be several years away, Sablani is excited about the research's prospects.

"It's important to have safe, shelf-stable foods that provide a variety of healthy nutrients," Sablani said.

More information: Burcu Tenderis et al, Development of Vitamin CEnriched Lentil Hummus With Innovative Microwave Technologies, Journal of Food Process Engineering (2025). DOI: 10.1111/jfpe.70104
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Orbital characteristics of  Octantis. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09006-x

A small international team of astronomers has confirmed that a binary star system with an odd signal has a companiona planet roughly twice the size of Jupiter, which may have emerged from a circumbinary orbit or from a second-generation protoplanetary disk.

In their study, published in the journal Nature, the group used improved measuring devices to confirm the existence of the planet and to explain how the system can remain stable. Kendall Sullivan, with the University of California, Santa Cruz, has published a News and Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team.

In 2004, an astronomer at the University of Canterbury, in New Zealand, observed something odd in the v Octantis binary star systema repeating signal between the two stars that made up the system. That finding led to debate within the astronomy community regarding its nature. Many felt that it was evidence of a large planet; others disagreed, suggesting that the characteristics of the stars would make the existence of such a planet impossible.

In this new study, the researchers found evidence via HARPS spectrograph data from the European Southern Observatory's telescope in Chile, showing that not only is the signal from  Octantis evidence of the existence of a planet, it also offers evidence of the planet as retrograde.

They also found other planetary evidence using other new technology and point out that the signal has remained stable for over two decades, proving it was not due to stellar activity.

The main star in the system is a sub-giant. The smaller star, a white dwarf, and the planet both orbit the larger star. But, oddly enough, they go around the star in opposite directions. The researchers suggest that is why the system remains stable.

They also note that for such a system to have developed, the planet may have once have circled both stars or developed from the material ejected from the white star as it was transitioning from a red giant after it ran out of fuel and its core collapsed.

Written for you by our author Bob Yirka, edited by Lisa Lock, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Eganthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.

More information: Ho Wan Cheng et al, A retrograde planet in a tight binary star system with a white dwarf, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09006-x Kendall Sullivan, Dying stars give a second wind to exoplanet formation, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/d41586-025-01445-w Journal information: Nature

 2025 Science X Network
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A Heriot-Watt scientist has worked with colleagues at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute to develop a method to detect a deadly oyster parasite without harming the shellfish.

The European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) has seen its numbers plummet over the past two centuries due to overfishing, habitat loss and disease. They are now rare and protected in the wild.

Among the most persistent threats is Bonamia ostreae, a microscopic parasite that causes a condition known as bonamiosis, which can devastate oyster populations but is harmless to humans.

Until now, detecting the presence of the parasite has involved dissecting a sample of oysters, an approach that is not only destructive but also impractical for monitoring rare or restoration-targeted populations.

The Heriot-Watt and Roslin Institute team has pioneered a new method that uses oyster poo to screen for the parasite's DNA.

By analyzing the waste material left after holding oysters overnight in aerated seawater, scientists can determine whether any oysters are infected, without harming a single animal.

Test sites in Essex and Argyll

Lead author Dr. Tim Bean from the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute says the technique is a step forward for oyster conservation and aquaculture biosecurity.

Dr. Bean said, "Oysters poo contains traces of Bonamia DNA if they're infected. By sampling this material, we can screen large numbers of oysters at once without the need to sacrifice them."

The team tested the method at several sites across the UK, including Bonamia-positive waters in Essex and West Loch Tarbert in Scotland.

They found the non-invasive method was at least as sensitive as traditional tissue sampling and histology, and often more effective than water-based environmental DNA techniques.

The work is published in the journal Aquaculture.

Schematic of field-based sampling procedure. Oysters are held overnight in aerated seawater. The following day, faeces/pseudofaeces sediment is physically disrupted and lysed before extracting DNA via Biomeme M1 cartridge. This DNA is then added directly to tubes containing TaqMan qPCR master mix. The qPCR is performed using the portable Biomeme Franklin device and results are visualized via phone app. Credit: Aquaculture (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2025.742153

Protecting the future of native oysters

Once widespread across Europe's coasts, the native flat oyster has become a conservation priority due to its ecological importance. Oyster reefs provide vital habitat, filter water, and stabilize marine sediments.

But efforts to restore wild oyster populations and expand sustainable farming have been repeatedly thwarted by Bonamia ostreae. The parasite, which invades oyster immune cells, spreads silently and can wipe out populations.

Professor Bill Sanderson from Heriot-Watt University, who leads several oyster restoration projects across Scotland, said, "This is excellent news for oyster restoration across Europe.

"Oyster restoration involves growing and then moving thousands of oysters from one site to another. We mustn't take parasites or diseases with us, especially ones as deadly as Bonamia ostreae.

"This new tool gives us a way to quickly and cheaply monitor for infection while protecting precious oyster stocks. There are more than 50 restoration sites throughout Europe now, and this test could be a lifesaver for all those."

The method has already been validated in field and lab settings and is portable enough to be used on-site with mobile DNA testing kits. It also proved highly accurate in negative control sites, with no false positives detected.

Scalable, cheap, and field-friendly

Unlike other DNA-based detection methods, which often rely on complex lab setups, the new approach uses a field-ready extraction and PCR system.

According to the research team, it is scalable, cost-effective, and adaptable to other marine pathogens.

Dr. Bean said, "This is about giving restoration teams, oyster farmers and regulators the tools they need to respond quickly and effectively to disease threatswithout compromising the very species they're trying to protect."

The scientists are now working on refining the process further and exploring whether similar techniques could be used to detect other diseases or even invasive species.

More information: Tim Regan et al, Non-invasive detection method for Bonamia ostreae infected Ostrea edulis, Aquaculture (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.aquaculture.2025.742153
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Bird watchers look out under dark skies at Kettle Cove State Park, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Whittle

An unusual May nor'easter soaked New England on Thursday and threatened to bring snow to higher elevations as the states prepared for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Nor'easters usually arrive in the end of fall and winter and bring high winds, rough seas and precipitation in the form of rain or snow. This week's nor'easter could bring wind gusts over 40 mph (64 kph) and more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain in some areas. Forecasters said snow was possible in the mountains of Maine and New Hampshire.

The storm brought dark skies to New England during a time of year usually reserved for sunshine and cookouts. It was also unseasonably cold, with temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) in Portland, Maine; Providence, Rhode Island; and Montpelier, Vermont. The storm was expected to linger into Friday.

What is a nor'easter?

A nor'easter is an East Coast storm that is so named because winds over the coastal area are typically from the northeast, according to the National Weather Service. The storms can happen at any time of the year, but they are at their most frequent and strongest between September and April, according to the service.

The storms have caused billions of dollars in damage in the past. They usually reach the height of their strength in New England and eastern Canada. The storms often disrupt traffic and power grids and can cause severe damage to homes and businesses.

"We have a stronger jet stream, which is helping intensify a low pressure system that just happens to be coming up the coast. And so that's how it got the nor'easter name," said Kyle Pederson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Boston.

A man walks in the rain across a pedestrian bridge in Providence, R.I. on Thursday, May 22, 2025. Credit: AP Photo/Kimberlee Kruesi

Rain arrives, and snow could follow

The storm hit Boston with heavy rains and stiff wind starting Thursday morning. Southern Massachusetts was also dealing with heavy rains that made for messy morning and evening commutes.

The heaviest rain was expected to fall in Rhode Island and southern and eastern Massachusetts, Pederson said. Localized nuisance flooding and difficult driving conditions were possible Thursday, but catastrophic flooding was not expected.

Providence was hit with wind and steady rains by midafternoon. Further north, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, lobster boats shook on the water as high winds brought choppy seas.

More than 60 flights were canceled Thursday at Boston Logan International Airport, where there were also more than 300 delayed flights. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority shut down three commuter ferries because of rough seas.

There were other cancellations and service disruptions in some coastal areas, including a shutdown of the Block Island Ferry because of adverse sea conditions.

A man walks in the rain across a pedestrian bridge in Providence, R.I. Credit: AP Photo/Kimberlee Kruesi

Coastal flood advisories and gale warnings were issued for many coastal areas of New England and New York on Thursday.

The storm was then expected to pass, leaving light rain and patchy drizzle, on Friday.

"It's just really a nice dose of rain for the regionnot expecting much for flooding," Pederson said.

Snow was expected to be confined to mountainous areas, but accumulations there were possible.

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Why nor'easters are rare in May

Nor'easters are usually winter weather events, and it is unusual to see them in May. They typically form when there are large temperature differences from west to east during winter when there is cold air over land and the oceans are relatively warm.

But right now there is a traffic jam in the atmosphere because of an area of high pressure in the Canadian Arctic that is allowing unusually cold air to funnel down over the Northeast. The low pressure system off the East Coast is being fueled by a jet stream that is unusually south at the moment.

Dark skies at Kettle Cove State Park, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Whittle

"It really is a kind of a winter-type setup that you rarely see this late," said Judah Cohen, seasonal forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.

If this type of pattern in the atmosphere happened two months earlier, he said, "we'd be talking about a crippling snowstorm in the Northeastern U.S., not just a wet start to Memorial Day weekend."

 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Natasha Ducre surveys the kitchen of her devastated home, which lost most of its roof during the passage of Hurricane Milton, in Palmetto, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File

With warmer than normal ocean waters, forecasters are expecting yet another unusually busy hurricane season for the Atlantic. But they don't think it will be as chaotic as 2024, the third-costliest season on record as it spawned killer storms Beryl, Helene and Milton.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday unveiled its outlook for the Atlantic hurricane season that begins June 1 and stretches through the end of November, with a 60% chance it will above normal, 30% chance near normal and just 10% chance it will be quieter than average.

The forecast calls for 13 to 19 named storms with six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to five reaching major status with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph). A normal season has 14 named storms, seven of which strengthen to hurricanes and three power up further to major hurricanes.

Ocean warmth is not quite as high as last year's off-the-charts heat. But it's sufficient to be the top reason for the busy forecast, National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said.

"Everything is in place for an above average season," he said.

Despite massive job cuts at NOAA from the Department of Government Efficiency, "our ability to serve this country has never been better and it will be this year as well," Graham said at a news conference Thursday in Gretna, Louisiana, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

A property owner who preferred not to give his name peers into the remains of the second floor unit where he lived with his wife while renting out the other units, on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Fla., following the passage of Hurricane Milton, Oct. 13, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File

"The hurricane center is fully staffed up and we're ready to go," acting NOAA administrator Laura Grimm said. "We are making this a top priority for this administration."

Since 1995, 21 of the 30 Atlantic hurricane seasons have been officially classified as above normal, with nearly half of those considered "hyperactive," according to NOAA. It classifies seasons based on their Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index, which takes into account the number and strength of storms and how long they last. In the last 10 years, only 2015 was below normal and 2022 was near normal.

Last year started with a record early Category 5 hurricane in Beryl but then had a lull during the early part of peak storm season from mid-August to mid-October. But then six storms, including Helene and Milton, formed in just two weeks. With 18 named storms, 11 of those becoming hurricanes and five major hurricanes, 2024 was considered a hyperactive season in the Atlantic. And it was the third such in the last 10 years.

"With a warming climate, forecasting above the long-term mean is always a safe bet," said Kristen Corbosiero, a University at Albany tropical meteorology professor who was not part of the NOAA research.

Human-caused climate change has generally made storms more intense, wetter and slower-moving so they drop more rain, Corbosiero and other experts said.

The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. Credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File

"The main fuel source for hurricanes is warm ocean waters," Corbosiero said. "Warmer ocean water, warmer atmosphere above it can hold more moisture, more fuel for storms."

Corbosiero said there are three main factors: Water temperature, the El Nino/La Nina cycle of natural ocean warming and cooling, and "seeds" of storms coming off Africa as thunderstorms. The warmer-than-normal water pushes toward a busy season, the El Nino cycle is neutral and it's too early to know what's coming off Africa, she and other hurricane experts said.

With climate change, hurricanes are powering up from almost nothing to intense storms more quickly, giving people less notice for whopper storms, meteorologists said. Every Category 5 hurricane that hit the United States was a tropical storm or weaker just three days earlier, Graham said.

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Several other groups besides NOAAprivate, public and academichave already made forecasts for the upcoming season and they average out to a busy, but not hyperactive year with 16 named storms, eight of which become hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

Phil Klotzbach, who coordinates Colorado State's pioneering forecast program, is calling for a bit more than other forecasters17 named storms, nine hurricanes and four majorsheavily based on the warm waters and past trends. Still, it should not quite be like last year, he said.

Dustin Holmes, second from right, holds hands with his girlfriend, Hailey Morgan, while returning to their flooded home with her children Aria Skye Hall, 7, right, and Kyle Ross, 4, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Sept. 27, 2024, in Crystal River, Fla. Credit: AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File

"At least we're not looking at a crazy hot Atlantic like we did last year at this time," Klotzbach said. "We're still pretty toasty out there. So I don't have the warm fuzzies about 2025."

Even if it's a quiet year, Corbosiero said just one storm can change everything, recalling an ultra quiet 1992, when that one storm was the devastating Hurricane Andrew.

"We don't need a hyperactive season to have devastation in the U.S. or the Caribbean or anywhere," Corbosiero said.

 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Artisanal fisherman Luis Levil cleaning a southern hake (Strait of Magellan, Patagonia, Chile). Credit: Katrina Pyne

Practicing reciprocity between humans and naturenamely caring relationships between people and nature when they perceive benefits from naturecan contribute positively to both the planet and societies. This is the main conclusion of a comprehensive international study that explores the different ways in which this concept is understood and enacted worldwide, providing evidence of its impact on sustainability and social well-being.

Human activities are the root causes of global change, yet current societies are far from effectively mitigating and adapting to the effects of industrialization and capitalism. However, a newly released Guest Editorial in the journal People and Nature of the British Ecological Society highlights the existence of numerous cultural practices that foster reciprocity with nature, revealing that there is still room for optimism.

The study, conducted by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, and the University of Victoria (Canada), stems from the need to promote alternative ways of living in the world. This article brings together scientific case studies from across five continents that showcase the myriad ways of living in reciprocity with nature.

"These wonderful examples of the multiple ways people and nature benefit each other provide hope for the future because they illustrate that there are better paths," says Natalie Ban, co-editor of the paper.

After more than two years of work, the article demonstrates that reciprocity is core to the lifeways of Indigenous and local Peoples, illustrating the diverse and beneficial ways in which people and nature support each other. Arising from direct experiences and interactions with species and spaces, grounded on a culture of gratitude and respect, and often experienced as a moral duty, enacted reciprocity can result in positive social and ecological outcomes.

"Many of the articles demonstrate that humans can care for ecosystems in ways that sustain biodiversity," explains Irene Teixidor-Toneu, co-editor of the study.

"This is a heartfelt compilation of 18 scientific articles from different corners of the world and features rich accounts of the pathways through which ideals and values of reciprocity are applied in the everyday practices of Indigenous Peoples and other local communities," explains Alvaro Fernandez-Llamazares, researcher at ICTA-UAB and co-editor.

The case studies compiled are highly diverse in nature, including works on palm management in the Ecuadorian Amazon, protection and gathering of abalone along the Northwest Pacific coast of North America, and seabird nest construction and egg collection in Estonia, among others. "These studies highlight the strong emphasis on cultivating positive, reciprocal, and responsible relationships among humans and their non-human kin," he says.

For example, food gathering for community sharing in Cameroon, the creation of intertidal habitats that facilitate fish spawning and reproduction in Chile, or the return of fish offal to the sea to feed seabirds in the Chilean Patagonia are just a few examples of simple yet beneficial practices for both people and the planet.

Additionally, the article highlights that reciprocity stands in stark contrast to unilateral, exploitative, and growth-oriented globalized capitalist societies. By offering an alternative way of relating to and being in the worldone that seeks fair resource distributionreciprocity holds great potential for transformative change.

"Reciprocity can be a cultural norm for a certain culture, but it can also be the result of accurate observations of the consequences of trespassing ecosystem boundaries. People can learn from their immediate actions and change their relationship with their environments for more sustainable outcomes rather quickly," says Teixidor-Toneu.

More information: Irene TeixidorToneu et al, Humannature relationships through the lens of reciprocity: Insights from Indigenous and local knowledge systems, People and Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1002/pan3.70036 Journal information: People and Nature
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Seasonal variations in atmospheric and soil temperature, soil moisture and daily precipitation, and soil methane uptake. Credit: Liu Yuqi

Scientists from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed an automated monitoring system to continuously track methane absorption by forest soils. A four-year study at a temperate forest site revealed a strong correlation between soil temperature, moisture, and methane uptake rates, enhancing understanding of methane oxidation dynamics.

Methane (CH 4 ) is a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 28 to 34 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) over a century. Forest soils serve as a major biological sink for atmospheric methane, naturally removing it through a process called methane oxidation. This process is carried out by methanotrophic bacteria in the soil, which utilize methane as an energy source.

Traditional methods of measuring methane uptake, often involving infrequent manual sampling, may not capture the rapid changes in environmental conditions such as rainfall, limiting the ability to fully capture how soil temperature and moisture affect methanotrophic activity.

To overcome this, the researchers led by Professor Fang Yunting established an automated monitoring system at the Qingyuan National Forest Ecosystem Research Station, conducting continuous measurements over four years.

The study, published in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, showed that the forest soil consistently acted as a methane sink, absorbing an average of 5.24 kilograms of methane-carbon per hectare per year. The rate of methane absorption varied seasonally, peaking in the summer at 244 micrograms of carbon per square meter per hour and decreasing to a low of 0.8 micrograms of carbon per square meter per hour in the winter.

Analysis shows that methane absorption in these soils is primarily controlled by soil temperature and moisture. While the abundance of methane-oxidizing bacteria and soil organic carbon also play a role, simple linear regression models showed that soil temperature alone explained 36% of the variability in methane uptake, and soil moisture accounted for 56%. A dual-factor model considering both temperature and water-filled pore space (Temp-WFPS) explained 86% of the annual variation in methane uptake.

The researchers also found that traditional monthly sampling can bias annual methane absorption by up to 19%. The high-frequency monitoring provides detailed daily, seasonal, and annual measurements of methane absorption and its response to changing environmental factors, offering valuable insights into the regulatory mechanisms of soil temperature and moisture on methane uptake.

This advancement aids the refinement of biogeochemical models and improves global methane budget estimates, providing essential knowledge for climate change mitigation efforts.

More information: Yuqi Liu et al, Temperature and moisture both control net methane uptake in a temperate forest soil, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110574 Journal information: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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Ancient sloths lived in trees, on mountains, in deserts, boreal forests and open savannahs. These differences in habitat are primarily what drove the wide difference in size between sloth species. Credit: Diego Barletta

Most of us are familiar with sloths, the bear-like animals that hang from trees, live life in the slow lane, take a month to digest a meal and poop just once a week. Their closest living relatives are anteaters and armadillos, and if that seems like an odd pairing, there's a reason why. Today, there are only two sloth species, but historically, there were dozens of them, including one with a bottle-nosed snout that ate ants and another that likely resembled the ancestors of modern armadillos.

Most of these extinct sloths also didn't live in trees, because they were too big. The largest sloths, in the genus Megatherium, were about the size of Asian bull elephants and weighed roughly 8,000 pounds.

"They looked like grizzly bears but five times larger," said Rachel Narducci, collection manager of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Narducci is co-author of a new study published in the journal Science in which scientists analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so big.

Ground sloths varied widely in size, from the truly massive Megatheriumwhich could rip foliage off the tops of trees with its prehensile tongue and acted as a sort of ecological stand in for giraffesto the modestly chunky Shasta ground sloth that terrorized cacti in the desert southwest of North America.

The same cannot be said for sloths that developed an affinity for tree climbing. Those that lived entirely in the canopy were and are uniformly small, with an average weight of 14 pounds, while those that spent part of their time on the ground averaged about 174 pounds.

You don't have to be a scientist to puzzle out why trees enforce a strict weight limit. It's the same reason why modern tree sloths have a strange elastic quality to them: Branches break when put under too much strain, and sloths are not generally known for their ability to swiftly avert sudden disaster.

Tree sloths have reportedly survived falls of up to 100 feet. However, given that falls from even moderate heights can cause severe damage and some trees in the Amazon Rainforest top out at just under 300 feet, it makes evolutionary sense to be as small as possible when going out on a limb.

What's less clear is why some ground sloths grew to such excessive sizes while others seemed content with being merely large. There may have been several reasons, which is why it's been so hard for scientists to answer the question with confidence.

Larger sizes might have been advantageous for finding food or avoiding predators, for example. Ground sloths had a special fondness for caves, and their size undoubtedly played a role in their ability to find and make shelters. The moderately sized Shasta ground sloth favored small, natural caves bored by wind and water into the cliffsides of the Grand Canyon, like the alveoli of a gigantic, geologic lung. These also doubled as convenient latrines; in 1936, paleontologists discovered a mound of fossilized sloth poop, bat guano and packrat middens more than 20 feet thick in Rampart Cave, near Lake Mead.

Larger sloths weren't restricted to pre-existing caves. Using claws that are among the largest of any known mammal, living or extinct, they could carve their own from bare earth and rock. Many of the caves they left behind are still around with claw-mark decor along the interior walls, evidence of their ancient nesting excavations.

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Other factors that may have contributed to their size discrepancy include climate, the degree of relatedness among sloth species and metabolic rates. The ability to accurately discriminate between these several possibilities required a substantial amount and various types of data.

The authors combined information about the shape of fossils with DNA from living and extinct species to create a sloth tree of life that traced the sloth lineage all the way back to their origin more than 35 million years ago. With this scaffold in place, they added results gleaned from decades of research about where sloths lived, what they ate and whether they were climbers or walkers.

Scientists analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so big. Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History, Kristen Grace

Because the authors were specifically interested in the evolution of size, they collected data for the final analytical ingredient by measuring hundreds of museum fossils, which they used to estimate sloth weight.

This is where the Florida Museum played a special role. "We have the largest collection of North American and Caribbean-island sloths in the world," Narducci said. She carefully took several measurements of 117 limb bones and shared the numbers with her colleagues.

The authors mixed all this information together, computationally stirred it and got back a fully baked answer.

The result: Size differences among sloths has been primarily influenced by the types of habitats they lived in and, by extension, climate change.

"Including all of these factors and running them through evolutionary models with multiple different scenarios was a major undertaking that had not been done before," Narducci said.

The sloth dynasty coincided with significant, life-altering changes in Earth's climate. The oldest thing that scientists can reasonably consider to be a sloth is called Pseudoglyptodon, which lived 37 million years ago in Argentina. Analyses from the study indicate the earliest sloths would have likely been small ground dwellers, about the size of a great Dane.

At various points throughout their evolutionary history, sloths adopted a semi-arboreal lifestyle. Not all of them stayed in the trees, however. The largest sloths, including Megatherium and Mylodon, likely evolved from a tree-adapted sloth that ultimately decided to stay firmly planted on the ground.

Against this background of indecisive climbers and walkers, the size of sloths hardly changed at all for about 20 million years, irrespective of their preferred method of locomotion. Then something earth-shattering occurred.

A giant wound opened up between modern-day Washington state and Idaho down through parts of Oregon and Nevada, and magma boiled out of it. This left a nearly 600,000 cubic mile scab over the Pacific Northwest. It's still visible in some places along the Columbia River, where millions of years of running water have cut through and polished a colonnade of basalt.

These rock pillars have a distinct hexagonal shape caused by the way in which the magma hardened and cracked as it cooled. The volcanic event that made them was a slow burn that lasted roughly 750,000 years and aligned with a period of global warming called the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum. The greenhouse gases emitted by the volcanic eruption are currently considered the likeliest cause of the warming.

Sloths responded by getting smaller. This may be because warmer temperatures brought increased precipitation, which allowed forests to expand, thereby creating more habitat for smaller sloths. Size reduction is also a common way for animals to deal with heat stress and has been documented in the fossil record on several different occasions.

The world remained warm for about a million years after the volcano fell silent. Then, the planet resumed a longstanding pattern of cooling that has continued in fits and starts to the present. Sloths reversed course too. The more temperatures fell, the bulkier they became.

Arboreal and semi-arboreal sloths had the obvious limitation of having to live near trees, but ground sloths lived just about anywhere their feet would take them. They climbed the Andes Mountains, fanned out through open savannas, migrated into the deserts and deciduous forests of North America and made a home for themselves in the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. There were even sloths adapted to marine environments. Thalassocnus lived in the arid strip of land between the Andes and the Pacific. They survived in this harsh region by foraging for food in the ocean.

"They developed adaptations similar to those of manatees," Narducci said. "They had dense ribs to help with buoyancy and longer snouts for eating seagrass."

These varied environments presented unique challenges that ground sloths met, in part, by beefing up. "This would've allowed them to conserve energy and water and travel more efficiently across habitats with limited resources," Narducci said.

"And if you're in an open grassland, you need protection, and being bigger provides some of that. Some ground sloths also had little pebble-like osteoderms embedded in their skin," Narducci said, referencing the bony plating that sloths had in common with their armadillo relatives, a trait that was also recently discovered in spiny mice.

Equally as important, larger bodies helped sloths contend with cooling climates. They reached their greatest stature during the Pleistocene ice ages, shortly before they disappeared.

"About 15,000 years ago is when you really start to see the drop-off," Narducci said.

There's still debate about what happened to sloths, but given that humans arrived in North America at about the same time sloths went extinct in droves, it's not hard to speculate. Paradoxically, the large size that kept them safe from most predators and insulated from the cold became a liability. Neither fast nor well-defended, ground and semi-arboreal sloths were easy pickings for early humans.

Arboreal sloths watched the carnage unfold below them from the safety of the treetops, but even there, they didn't escape without losses. Long after their ground-dwelling relatives had gone extinct everywhere else, two species of tree sloth in the Caribbean held out until 4,500 years ago. Humans arrived in the Caribbean about the same time that Egyptians were building the pyramids. Caribbean tree sloths went extinct not long after.

Alberto Boscaini, Nestor Toledo Francois Pujos, Eduardo Soto, Sergio Vizcaino and Ignacio Soto of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Daniel Casali, Susana Bargo of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Max Langer of the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Juan L. Cantalapiedra of the Universidad de Alcala, Gerardo De Iuliis of the University of Toronto and Timothy Gaudin of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are also co-authors of the study.

More information: Alberto Boscaini et al, The emergence and demise of giant sloths, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adu0704. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu0704 Journal information: Science
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Mean trust in scientists using Besley's Four Dimensions. Credit: Irish Educational Studies (2025). DOI: 10.1080/03323315.2025.2488804

Trust in scientists in Ireland is ahead of global averages, but lower among younger people, according to new research by education experts from Trinity College Dublin.

The research, part of the global Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism (TISP) study, found that trust in scientists in Ireland is generally moderate to high, exceeding global averages, but notably lower among younger respondents.

The findings, according to the authors suggest a need for targeted science education and communication efforts in Ireland, which emphasize critical thinking skills, promote understanding of the scientific process, and explain the ethical responsibilities of scientists.

The TISP study is the most comprehensive and geographically diverse post-pandemic investigation of public perceptions of scientists. It involves 241 researchers across 68 countries and data from more than 71,000 respondents, including many under-researched countries in the Global South. The sample size for the Irish segment of the study was some 500 people.

While the global study was published in Nature Human Behaviour in January of this year, this new paper, published recently in the journal Irish Educational Studies, provides much more detail about the Irish findings of the study.

It shows Irish participants expressing moderate to high levels of trust in scientists. This exceeds global averages across key dimensions of trustworthiness, including competence, integrity, benevolence, and openness to feedback.

However, the Irish study also highlighted differences in trust based on age. Adults with the lowest trust in scientists were those in the lowest age-range (1829). Those with the highest confidence in scientists had a mean age of 48.

Overall, the findings aligned with many of the global trends, that people were more likely to have higher trust in scientists if they are: women, older, educated, liberal, urban dwelling, with a high income, and see themselves as left-leaning on the political spectrum.

Professor Joseph Roche, School of Education, explained, "Our research sheds light on the complexities of public trust in scientists which is central to evidence-based policymaking. The specific Irish findings highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of how trust is developed and maintained, particularly within the context of the Irish education system."

The paper offers recommendations for strengthening the link between science and society in Ireland. It recommends targeted science education and communication initiatives that prioritize critical thinking skills and the ability to navigate misinformation.

It also calls for science education initiatives that reinforce "nature of science" approaches in education, which help understanding of the scientific process and its limitations and initiatives. Programs that emphasize the ethical responsibilities of scientists and the importance of transparency and accountability are also recommended, according to the authors.

Professor Joseph Roche added, "By improving our understanding of how public trust in scientists is earned and maintained, we hope to learn how to better support people in Ireland to make informed decisions on socio-scientific topics and promote a more resilient relationship between science and society."

More information: Joseph Roche et al, Science and society in Ireland: examining public trust in scientists against a global background, Irish Educational Studies (2025). DOI: 10.1080/03323315.2025.2488804 Journal information: Nature Human Behaviour
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Travelers visiting Antarctica participate in a FjordPhyto science boat sampling activity. Credit: Allison Cusick

Travelers visiting Antarctica have helped scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography learn more about the polar ecosystem through a citizen science program called FjordPhyto. This NASA-funded program engages citizen scientists to investigate how warming temperatures are affecting phytoplankton life around the Antarctic Peninsula by collecting data and samples.

In a preliminary study of the program's impact, survey data showed that participants expressed an appreciation for learning about ecosystems and climate change while feeling enriched by citizen science engagement. These responses provide an understanding of how citizen science projects like FjordPhyto are fostering a positive and educational impact in polar tourism.

"Citizen science projects like FjordPhyto can provide that childlike spark of curiosity, motivation, appreciation, and exuberance instilling an additional motivation to visiting the Antarctic continent," the study concluded.

The study was published in The Polar Journal and was co-led by Scripps postdoctoral scholar Allison Cusick, Scripps biological oceanographer Maria Vernet, Scripps alumna Brooke Dixon, and others.

More information: Allison Cusick et al, Can a citizen science project enrich travellers' experience in Antarctica? Case study of a preliminary evaluation of the FjordPhyto project, The Polar Journal (2025). DOI: 10.1080/2154896X.2025.2492488
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Vibrio cholerae bacteria, photo taken with a scanning electron microscope. Credit: Graham Knott & Melanie Blokesch (EPFL)

Cholera bacteria aren't just battling antibiotics and public health measuresthey are also constantly under attack from bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect and kill bacteria. These viruses don't just influence individual infections; they can make or break entire epidemics. In fact, certain bacteriophages are thought to limit the size and duration of cholera outbreaks by killing off Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium behind the disease.

Since the 1960s, the ongoing seventh cholera pandemic has been driven by what is known as "seventh pandemic El Tor" (7PET) strains of V. cholerae, which have spread globally in successive waves.

In this evolutionary arms race, bacteria have adapted to fight back, developing defense mechanisms against these phages. For example, many bacterial strains carry mobile genetic elements that arm them with antiviral tools.

So why are certain cholera strains so successful at evading phage attacks? Could this either enable or enhance the pathogen's devastating effect on human populations?

One event stands out. In the early 1990s, a cholera epidemic swept through Peru and much of Latin America, infecting over 1 million people and causing thousands of deaths. The strains responsible belonged to the West African South American (WASA) lineage of V. cholerae. Why these WASA strains caused such a large outbreak in Latin America is still not fully understood.

New research by the group of Melanie Blokesch at EPFL's Global Health Institute has now uncovered one secret behind these strains. The study, published in Nature Microbiology, shows that the WASA lineage acquired multiple distinct bacterial immune systems that have protected it from diverse types of phages. And this defense may have contributed to the massive scale of the Latin American epidemic.

The researchers looked at Peruvian cholera strains from the 1990s, testing their resistance against key phages, especially ICP1a dominant virus that has been extensively studied in the cholera endemic area of Bangladesh, where it is thought to contribute to restricting cholera outbreaks. Surprisingly, the Peruvian strains were immune to ICP1, while other strains representative of the 7th pandemic weren't.

By deleting specific sections of the cholera strain's DNA and inserting these genes into other bacterial strains to test their function, the team identified two major defense regions on the WASA strain's genome, namely within the so-called WASA-1 prophage and the genomic island known as Vibrio seventh pandemic island II (VSP-II).

These genomic regions encode specialized anti-phage systems that work together to create a bacterial immune system capable of defending against phage infections.

One such system, WonAB, triggers an "abortive infection" response that kills infected cells before phages can reproduce, sacrificing a few bacteria to save the larger population. This strategy is different to classical bacterial immune systems such as restriction-modification systems that degrade the phage DNA as it enters the cells.

"Instead, it stops the phage from replicating but only after it has already hijacked the cholera bacterium's cellular machinery, effectively locking the infected bacteria in a standoffbut at least the phage doesn't spread," says David Adams, the study's lead author.

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Two further systems, GrwAB and VcSduA, contribute distinct protective functions: GrwAB targets phages with chemically modified DNAa strategy employed by phages to camouflage their genomes and evade other bacterial immune systems.

VcSduA, on the other hand, acts against different families of viruses, including another common "vibriophage," offering layered protection that broadens the bacterial population's resistance spectrum.

Essentially, the WASA lineage of cholera bacteria harbors an expanded arsenal of anti-phage defense systems, which allows it to counteract a broad range of bacteriophages in addition to protection from its major predatory phage ICP1.

Understanding how epidemic bacteria resist phage predation is crucial, especially as interest in phage therapythe use of viruses to treat bacterial infections has re-emerged as an alternative to antibiotic treatment.

If bacteria like V. cholerae can acquire increased transmission potential by obtaining viral defenses, this can reshape how we approach cholera control, monitoring, and treatment. It also underscores the importance of considering phage-bacteria dynamics when studying and managing infectious disease outbreaks.

More information: David W. Adams et al, West AfricanSouth American pandemic Vibrio cholerae encodes multiple distinct phage defence systems, Nature Microbiology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41564-025-02004-9 Journal information: Nature Microbiology
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Gender-based violence and harassment is a widespread issue in supply chains. Women workers in garment manufacturing, food production and hospitality are routinely subjected to unwanted touching and sexual advances and inappropriate comments, while promotion and advancement are often conditional on sex. In the most severe cases, this abuse escalates to sexual assault and rape.

Despite decades of awareness and an International Labor Organization convention passed in 2019 and ratified by 49 countries, research indicates little progress has been made.

A 2024 report from Statistics Canada, for instance, has found that 47% of women have experienced some form of harassment or sexual assault in the workplace.

Rates of gender-based violence and harassment are thought to be even higher in some countries and industries. In Bangladesh, a 2018 study found at least 60% of garment workers had experienced it in the previous year. Another found 85% of garment workers in Indonesia were concerned about sexual harassment at work.

In the face of such a persistent global issue, women working in garment supply chains have pioneered a highly effective solution for tackling gender-based violence and harassment.

Worker-led binding agreements

Supported by labor unions and organizations like the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, Worker Rights Consortium and Global Labor justice, women workers have led the development of legally binding agreements with brands and suppliers to eliminate gender-based violence and harassment.

The latest of these is called the Central Java Agreement for Gender Justice. Signed in July 2024, it covers 6,250 workers producing clothing for brands like Nike and Fanatics, Inc. under licenses with universities affiliated with the Worker Rights Consortium.

Worker Rights Consortium persuaded Fanatics, which is also licensed to produce apparel bearing the Nike logo, to enter into the agreement in response to complaints of gender-based violence and harassment at two garment factories in central Java, Indonesia, owned by the Korean-based firm Ontide.

This agreement creates a union-led program to address the problem at two Indonesian factories; if factory management does not comply, it risks losing business with Nike and Fanatics.

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Building on success from India to Indonesia

The 2024 Central Java Agreement builds on and incorporates key features of previous worker-led agreements to address the issue.

In particular, it builds on the 2022 Dindigul Agreement to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in India and the 2019 Agreements to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Lesotho.

The Dindigul agreement was led by an independent, majority-Dalit trade union run by women. It established a set of legally binding agreements with major garment companies including H&M Group, Gap Inc., PVH and Eastman Exports Global Clothing Ltd.

The Lesotho agreements involved brands such as Levi Strauss & Co., Nien Hsing Textile Co., unions, women's rights advocates and labor organizations.

While each agreement is unique, they all adhere to the principles of worker-driven social responsibility.

Under this governance model, "worker organizations and unions, suppliers, and brand companies enter into enforceable and legally binding agreements" and "transnational corporations use their leverage and supply chain relationships to effect change among supplier worksites."

A new model of accountability

These agreements include worker-led detection and remediation systems to address gender-based violence and harassment. For example, under the Lesotho agreement, workers can access a 24-hour hotline operated by a local women's organization to lodge complaints or bring them directly to the unions involved in the agreement.

The Dindigul agreement also provides multiple channels for workers to raise complaints of gender-based violence and harassment, including shop floor monitors selected by the local union (one for every 25 workers). It also offers multiple avenues for raising complaints, including to the union or to sexual harassment committees required under Indian law.

Under the Central Java Agreement, workers can bring complaints to committees aimed at eliminating the problem, to shop floor monitors or their unions. Not only do each of the agreements permit workers to request independent investigations, they all provide a wide array of remedies in the case of any incidents and violations of freedom of association.

What sets these agreements apart from most other initiatives to combat gender-based violence and harassment in supply chains is that they actually work. One study of the two-year impact of the Dindigul Agreement by Cornell University's Global Labor Institute found that 76% of grievances were resolved in two weeks.

The report said the program "constituted a powerful monitoring mechanism, ensuring effective remediation and deterring violations" of both gender-based violence and harassment and freedom of associationbriefly put, the right to voluntarily join or leave groups (like unions), and for those groups to pursue collective action.

Now, a key question is whether and to what extent these successful programs will continue to thrive and grow under the current "America First" agenda of the U.S. government.

Progress under threat

Despite their success, these worker-led initiatives face mounting challenges.

Labor organizations that support these agreements are under strain, with some potentially at high risk of collapsing. The U.S. Bureau of International Labor Affairs is cutting US$500 million in funding that supports labor enforcement efforts across 40 countries.

At the same time, company rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion programs are constraining, if not eliminating, the political space in which labor groups negotiate such agreements.

Tariffs and upheaval in global tradeespecially efforts to redraw supply chains to evade costly tariffsgives brands cover to withdraw commitments to worker-led initiatives and change sourcing patterns to circumvent them.

Within the United States, cuts and funding freezesincluding to sexual assault prevention groupsare a worrying sign that support for preventing gender-based violence and harassment and helping its survivors are being undercut and failing.

If labor stakeholders lose the resources to support such initiatives, the impacts on women and workplaces within supply chains across the world will be devastating. These programs show that when workers lead, real change is possible, but they need continued investment and political support to survive.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Survey showing SK manufacturing GDP highly reliant on Chinese market highlights growing economic complementarity

09:51, May 22, 2025 By Chu Daye ( Global Times

South Korea's manufacturing sector remained highly reliant on overseas market demand, including from the US and China, in 2023, the Yonhap News Agency reported, citing a domestic survey.

The survey, carried out by the Korea Enterprises Federation and published on Wednesday, showed that the South Korean manufacturing sector's GDP was most dependent on demand from the US, at 13.7 percent. This was followed by China with a reading of 10.8 percent and Japan at 2.6 percent.

Notably, the report said that compared with 2000, the South Korean manufacturing sector's GDP dependence on demand from the US in 2023 decreased to 13.7 percent from 14.8 percent, while its dependence on demand from China more than doubled from 4.8 percent to 10.8 percent.

A Chinese expert said that the findings again highlighted the growing trade ties between the two East Asian neighbors and their economic complementarity, against the backdrop of accelerating cooperation among China, Japan and South Korea.

"The survey results are reflective of development trends in the past two decades, which saw increasingly intensified economic and trade cooperation between China and South Korea, and such links are going to be further strengthened under uncertainty brought by the unilateralism and protectionism of the US," said Lu Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula issue, at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

The report also highlighted the absurdity of some South Korean politicians in ignoring such a growing economic bond, the expert said.

On Wednesday, the South Korean government pledged more support measures for key export industries such as biopharmaceuticals and autos, as sweeping US tariffs weigh on the trade-reliant economy, Reuters reported.

Since the US administration slapped tariffs on various products and announced 25-percent duties on South Korea, Seoul has prepared support packages for its auto and chip sectors, as well as for small and medium-sized exporters, according to the report.

South Korea's first-quarter GDP contracted 0.2 percent as exports and consumption stalled amid fears over the impact of Washington's tariffs, according to a separate report by Reuters on April 24.

Since the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in 2020, economic integration among China, Japan and South Korea continued to advance.

China is committed to high-quality development and expanding high-level openness, vowing to share opportunities with all nations, including South Korea and Japan, said Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao at the 13th China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting held in Seoul in March.

Amid downward pressure on the global economy, China, Japan and South Korea, as major regional and global economies, have to make joint efforts to safeguard free trade and the multilateral trading system, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and advance regional economic integration, said Wang.

At the meeting, the economic and trade departments of the three countries agreed to discuss accelerating negotiations on the trilateral free trade agreement, strengthen supply chain cooperation and dialogue on export controls, deepen collaboration in the digital and green economies, enhance local cooperation, and jointly foster a favorable environment for business collaboration.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Testimony continued Wednesday in the trial over city-paid settlements with three former Davenport employees made in 2023 for claims of harassment.

Mike Meloy, plaintiff Allen Diercks' attorney, called to the witness stand Wednesday former city administrator Corri Spiegel, former assistant city attorney Brian Heyer, and several current and former elected officials.

Meloy, through questioning of the elected officials, established that the city council members had not voted in a public session on any of the agreements prior to the Dec. 13, 2023, meeting where council came out of a closed session meeting and then voted in open session to "ratify" settlements with Spiegel, Tiffany Thorndike and Samantha Torres.

Former city attorney Tom Warner testified Tuesday he had individual conversations with some aldermen about Thorndike's and Torres' claims and that he sent an email Sept. 6 to all but three aldermen asking for any objection to settling with Thorndike for $157,000 and with Torres for $140,500.

Warner also testified that council members gave him consent to settle with Spiegel in an Oct. 4, 2023, closed session. The city paid Spiegel $1.6 million. A judge earlier in the case said after reviewing the recording that all council members in attendance "assented to the proposed settlements."

Meloy also questioned elected officials on when they'd seen the three former employees' settlement request letters or the actual agreements.

The elected officials Wednesday ranged in their answers and recollection of when or whether they'd seen the letters and agreements, but most did not believe they saw requests or agreements until after the agreements were signed, when they were made public by Freedom of Information Act requests. Several elected officials also said they were not provided a copy of the signed settlement agreements when the council voted on them in December.

Along with Spiegel and Heyer, Meloy on Wednesday called to the stand Mayor Mike Matson, 1st Ward Alderman Rick Dunn, 3rd Ward Alderwoman Marion Meginnis, 5th Ward Alderman Tim Kelly and former At-Large Alderman JJ Condon.

In cross examination, the city's attorney Richard Davidson asked Condon whether he was informed on the amount and substance of the settlements and what he was voting on. Condon said yes.

In response to questions from Davidson, Meginnis said it's not unusual for purchases on an agenda to not have the full contract online because of the size of the files.

Meloy also asked elected officials whether they believed the city council should have voted on the agreements in open session. Some elected officials said they didn't know or had relied on legal counsel. Others gave a more definite answer.

Kelly said he believed the agreements should have been voted on prior to being signed. He voted "no" to ratify the agreements in December 2023.

Kelly, who had allegations against him in the settlement requests, said he believed he should have been afforded an opportunity to respond to the accusations, and that an accusation in one of the letters that he had made an inappropriate comment was not in accurate context.

Kelly said he didn't recall giving approval to Warner to sign off on Spiegel's settlement.

Meloy also asked why the agreements were not put on an agenda prior to December 2023. Most elected officials said they did not know.

Dunn said he believed the city council was following advice of its attorneys, as they advised that the city's legal department could settle the claims.

Of the email sent about Thorndike and Torres' claims, Matson said he believed all aldermen should have gotten the email and that he didn't know why not everyone did.

Matson said he talked with Warner generally about Spiegel's concerns outlined in her Sept. 15 settlement request letter and said he urged Warner to set up a closed session meeting to talk with all the council members about a potential settlement, rather than Warner meeting individually with council members.

Meloy also tried to draw a comparison between an item on the Dec. 13, 2023 agenda for engineering services and the city's ratification of the settlements on the same agenda.

Spiegel says city handles worker's comp cases privately

Spiegel was city administrator of Davenport for about eight years before departing at the end of 2023.

Meloy asked if Spiegel considered herself "good friends" with Warner, to which Spiegel responded, "we're friends."

Meloy also asked Spiegel if she was Warner's supervisor. Spiegel responded that she had operational control over the budget, but was not his personnel supervisor.

Spiegel, like Warner, denied helping the other two administrative employees with their settlement demand letters.

Asked about whether she was aware of other settlements approved privately through email, Spiegel said the city handles workers' compensation cases that way, too.

Asked if she believed all council members should have been included on Warner's email about the Thorndike and Torres settlements, Spiegel said, "I believe he (Warner) explained why he excluded them in the very last sentence and I would reasonably understand that being a rational approach."

Asked if she believed an alleged offender should have knowledge of the allegations made against them, Spiegel said "I believe the organization has a responsibility to protect all parties from anything, including retaliation."

Spiegel said she did not attend the Oct. 4, 2023, closed session meeting.
Despite gains in habitats in and along the James River, key fish populations have declined, and the iconic American shad is still nowhere to be found, according to the James River Associations biannual review.

The association gives the river a B grade, or 66, up from 65 in the 2021 report, but a big improvement from 50 years ago, when the Clean Water Act took effect and the James was polluted with raw sewage and industrial waste  including Kepone, the toxic insecticide dumped in the river from Allied Chemicals Hopewell plant for nearly a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.

Overall improvements to the State of the James score have slowed in recent years, which is a reminder that we must remain vigilant to continue making progress in the face of new threats caused by climate change, said William Street, the associations chief executive officer.

The rivers water is doing well  measured by dissolved oxygen, which fish, amphibians, crabs and oysters need in order to survive, as well as the clarity of water and declines in algae, both of which help plants.

One indicator of that is a 14% increase in underwater grasses, which now provide 3,663 acres of habitat for fish, crabs and waterfowl.

But there arent any shad to be found.

Researchers literally caught zero American shad in their survey for the first time. For centuries, shad have played an integral role in our history, our culture and our economy, in addition to the river ecosystem, Street said.

Their absence comes despite Virginias effort since 1992 to stock nearly 126 million shad in state rivers, along with whats now a nearly 30-year ban on catching shad and work to create fish passages so they can get over or around dams, there still arent any to be found in the James.

And juvenile striped bass are struggling.

Already stressed by habitat loss and pollution, last years dramatic increase in recreational fishermens catch and climate change have added to pressure on the rivers population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has found striped bass are overfished.

The James River Association said protecting the species James River nurseries and making sure there are enough forage fish, including menhaden in the Bay, will be needed to restore the striped bass numbers.

In addition, smallmouth bass are struggling, especially in the middle section of the James, around Richmond, in part as climate change warms the water and in part with the loss of spawning habitat, the association said.

The arrival of Alabama bass, which can out compete smallmouth bass for food and space, also is putting pressure on the species.

The James does support one of North Americas densest populations of bald eagles  352 breeding pairs of a species that nearly disappeared in the 1970s.

And its oysters are doing better, as evident in the 25% increase in the rivers public oyster grounds, while brook trout are holding their own, found now in 74% of habitat targeted by the federal, state and nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Program.

Whats helping is that 78% of the banks of the James and its tributaries are covered with trees or shrubs, which act as filters to keep damaging pollutants, including nitrogen and phosphorus, out of the river. These are nutrients that feed the Bays algae blooms that every summer create large dead zones, where theres not enough oxygen for fish, crabs or oysters.

The trees and shrubs also reduce erosion, which helps keep the rivers water clear.

But bacteria from livestock, pet and human wastes still pose health risks along much of the James, with only 61% of testing sites meeting state standards. The association says more livestock fencing and regular inspections of septic systems are key to tackling this problem.

Stormwater runoff is another source of pollution. New development along the river is outpacing efforts to contain this pollution with techniques to divert of slow the flow of rainwater and snow melt.

Fortunately, Virginia has started investing in clean water programs at the level needed to meet its goals for the James River, Street said, adding that the states most recent two-year budget appropriated over $600 million each year, enough to fully fund the identified need for wastewater and agriculture pollution controls for the first time.

The James is like a person recovering from multiple illnesses who has made significant improvement but has not seen as much progress recently. Street said.

The doctor would say keep it up. Now is not the time to let up on all of the hard work.
In the wake of a sudden retirement announcement by Virginias longtime state police superintendent, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced that a nationwide search would take place to hire a replacement.

But in the end, Youngkin chose an internal candidate while the recommendations from the nationwide search didnt get a final-round interview, according to two sources familiar with Youngkins recruitment for the state police job. Both asked to remain anonymous given the sensitivity of the deliberations.

Terry Cole, Youngkins departing secretary of public safety, spearheaded the search alongside his chief of staff, Lisa Walbert. The duo communicated to recruiters that the governor was seeking culture change within the Virginia State Police, according to a person familiar with the conversations.

More than 30 candidates from across the country were considered for the position, according to the person. The top applicant in the pile was Fairfax Assistant Chief of Police Bob Blakley, who was vocally recommended by recruiters as a superstar capable of delivering the change they believed the governor had wanted. Recruiters told Cole and Walbert that Blakley, who is also an associate professor at George Mason University, remains beloved by Fairfax police officers and had begun his career as a state police trooper, the person said.

Blakley and two other candidates were advanced to Youngkins desk, but never received a final-round interview. Instead, Youngkin appointed Col. Matthew D. Hanley, the agencys interim superintendent, to the full-time job.

The Times-Dispatch submitted a public records request for records relating to the hiring. The governors office withheld nearly all records with the exception of a receipt for services purchased by the firm: a D.C.-based group that was paid $50,000 for its work vetting candidates. The governors office cited a working papers exemption, as well as a personnel file exemption, as justification for not releasing the records.

The executive search firm declined to comment on the hiring process.

A spokesperson for Youngkins office did not refute a point-by-point description of the recruitment process but called the premise that another candidate was recommended over Hanley absurd.

As the individual named by the governor as the Superintendent of Virginia State Police, Col. Hanley is by definition the top candidate, said Peter Finocchio, a spokesperson for Youngkin.

Walbert, reached by phone, said The Times-Dispatchs description of the hiring process was not true but declined to comment further.

The state police superintendent is tasked with leading Virginias flagship police agency. The force has approximately 1,900 troopers, who police state highways and lead Virginias most advanced counterterrorism and public safety initiatives. State police investigators are also frequently tasked to conduct reviews when local police officers use lethal force.

Since 2018, the agency has been run by Col. Gary Settle. Settle was re-appointed by Youngkin in 2022, but two years into that term his retirement was announced by the governors office. Its unclear why Settle, who was well-liked by both Republicans and Democrats, left the position early. Annual reports and budget requests show the agencys staffing levels have strained in recent years, with the force increasingly asked to do more, even with a staffing shortage of approximately 300 troopers.

Hanley led the agency as interim superintendent while Youngkins office conducted its promised nationwide search. When Hanley was given the full-time job, Youngkin said Hanley had unmatched experience and expertise.

He has served the VSP with dedication and distinction and is committed to further accelerating the transformation of the Virginia State Police, Youngkin said in the release.

Earlier this year, the Times-Dispatch reported that Hanley had been suspended in 1996 after drinking and driving, an incident for which he was never prosecuted. Hanley was reinstated after an internal board review.

In 2023, The Times-Dispatch reported that then-Lt. Col. Hanley and Lt. Col. Kirk Marlowe allegedly retaliated against a trooper who they feared would scuttle a legislative pay raise.

The trooper had written an email to the agencys human resources department with concerns that the raise would give deputy superintendents a $40,000 bump, while troopers would get only a $2,000 bump. Hanley and Marlowe scheduled a one-on-one meeting, with Marlowe concerned that the trooper could tank our entire effort. Marlowe later joked that commanders had to find him and shut him up, according to the internal affairs complaint.

Marlowe was the subject of an internal affairs investigation and was cleared of wrongdoing. At the time, a state spokesperson said the trooper had mischaracterized the conversation.

In April, Hanley elevated Marlowe to the newly created position of Chief Transformation Officer. In the new role, Marlowe will directly support the Superintendents vision of implementing what the agency said will be high-impact projects.

Recruiters did not issue a recommendation for Youngkin to pick Hanley, but also did not advocate against his nomination because of the politics of being critical of an interim candidate, the person familiar with the recruitment discussions said.

Virginias police organizations offered mixed statements on Hanleys appointment. The Virginia State Police Association vocally endorsed Hanley for the position.

Colonel Hanley has demonstrated unwavering dedication, integrity and leadership, making him the ideal candidate to lead the agency into the future, the group said in a statement signed by Timothy Confroy and Bill Carrico, the groups president and executive director. A single disciplinary incident should not define a career marked by success, service and personal growth.

The Virginia Police Benevolent Association offered a more hesitant comment, saying they remained deeply concerned about ongoing staffing shortages.

The VAPBA has consistently advocated to the Governor and the Secretary of Public Safety for meaningful change and greater accountability within the department. We believe that true progress at VSP requires more than policy adjustments, it demands a cultural shift that prioritizes transparency, support, and respect for the men and women who wear the badge, said Rich Gozka, a spokesperson for the association.

We look forward to working with Colonel Hanley to help lead that change and better serve both our troopers and the communities they protect.
Two Virginia Republicans in congressional seats Democrats are targeting joined their GOP colleagues in voting for President Donald Trumps big domestic policy package, saying it will protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable while providing tax relief.

Reps. Rob Wittman, R-1st, and Jen Kiggans, R-2nd, had joined 10 other Republican representatives in an April letter to House GOP leadership that declared their opposition to potentially deep cuts in the federal-state program that provides health care to elderly, disabled and poor Virginians.

Wittman, whose district includes parts of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties, said in a statement Thursday: Today, I voted to deliver once-in-a-generation investments that will strengthen Medicaid for Americans who need it most, invest in rural schools, bolster our national defense, and lower energy costs  all while delivering historic tax relief and preventing the largest tax hike in American history.

Kiggans, whose district is based in Virginia Beach, said: I voted YES to the Big, Beautiful Bill this morning because this budget reconciliation puts people first by protecting Medicaid for vulnerable families, delivering tax relief and child care credits to working Virginians, investing in our service members and shipbuilders, and cutting wasteful federal spending. This is what Americans voted for in November ... and Congress is delivering!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement that Wittman, Kiggans, and House Republicans passed their tax scam that would put 874,000 Virginians at risk of losing their health care, risk food assistance for 337,930 households, and cut Medicare, all to pay for massive tax breaks for the wealthiest few.

The House of Representatives voted 215-214 Thursday morning to pass Trumps package that includes trillions in tax cuts, key changes to Medicaid and nutrition programs, and billions in new spending for defense and border security. The Virginia delegation voted along party lines, with five Republicans supporting the bill and five Democrats voting against it. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-11th, died Wednesday and his seat is vacant.

According to The Associated Press, the package would reduce spending on the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP, by about $267 billion over 10 years. States would assume 5% of benefit costs, beginning in fiscal 2028, and 75% of the administrative costs. Currently, states pay none of the benefit and half of the administration costs.

AP reports that the package would include nearly $700 billion in reduced spending in the Medicaid program. The measure would expand work requirements for some recipients to receive food aid and create new community engagement requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents to receive Medicaid.

GOP House leaders did not include the kind of Medicaid cuts that would trigger a kill switch for Medicaid expansion in Virginia, by reducing the federal share of the costs by more than 1%.

Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, whose district includes Richmond and parts of Henrico and Chesterfield counties, said House Republicans passed a bill that betrays the American people.

Too many people find it harder and harder to put food on the table, afford quality health care, and keep a roof over their heads, McClellan said. Instead of addressing those rising costs, House Republicans chose to nickel and dime our nations most vulnerable and gut the programs children, seniors, veterans, and low-income communities rely upon to survive  all to make room in the budget for tax cuts for the wealthiest in this country.

Wittman has represented the 1st District since 2007. In his 10 elections to Congress, none of his opponents has reached 45% of the vote. In 2024, he topped Democrat Leslie Mehta by nearly 13 percentage points.

Wittman has pushed back on several of Trumps efforts, including his plan to dismantle the Department of Education. He also has questioned cuts to research funding at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kiggans has represented the 2nd District since 2023. The 2nd is Virginias most politically volatile congressional district, with eight different representatives since 2000  five Republicans and three Democrats.

The Trump factor

Bob Holsworth, a veteran Virginia political analyst, said Thursday that Republicans like Wittman and Kiggans likely concluded that theyre better off with other Republicans, than sticking out like a sore thumb in opposing the president.

I think theres a little more wiggle room for Wittman than Kiggans, Holsworth said, noting that while his district changed in 2021, picking up part of the Richmond suburbs, he still won pretty easily.

Holsworth said Kiggans, who won in 2024 by fewer than four percentage points, could face a greater challenge if Democrats produce a good candidate in 2026.

Shes been a good candidate before, he said of Kiggans, who topped Democrat Missy Cotter Smasal in 2024. But he noted that Trump has lost Virginia for president three times. In 2018, during Trumps first term, Virginia Democrats flipped three seats in the congressional midterms, as Elaine Luria won in the 2nd, Abigail Spanberger in the 7th and Jennifer Wexton in the 10th.

In a Virginia election, (Trump) can be an anchor, Holsworth said.

Kaine and Warner

The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate, where Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both Virginia Democrats, oppose the measure.

This bill would do real harm to Virginia families, workers, and communities, the senators said in a joint statement on Thursday. It would raise taxes on working families and rip health care away from more than 262,000 people in Virginia in order to give tax breaks to Donald Trump and his billionaire friends.

Virginians deserve better, and we will oppose this bill with everything weve got as it comes to the Senate.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that Virginia FREE Executive Director Chris Saxman previously served as a paid consultant to Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears after her election in November 2021, through March, 2023, and led her transition team. Saxman is a former Republican delegate from Staunton.

Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, holds a four-percentage-point lead over Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the race for governor in a new poll commissioned by Virginia FREE, a statewide business advocacy organization.

Spanberger, who stepped down in January after three terms representing a formerly Republican swing district in Congress, holds a 52-48% lead over Earle-Sears, according to a poll of 1,000 likely Virginia voters that two firms, Pantheon Insight and HarrisX, conducted for Virginia FREE. The margin of error in the poll is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The survey, conducted May 9-13, shows independent voters favoring Spanberger by 53-47%, while Earle-Sears, the first Black woman to serve as lieutenant governor, has support from 32% of Black voters.

The winner of the election would become the first woman to serve as Virginias governor, and, if Earle-Sears were to win, she would be the first Black woman elected as governor in the United States.

Spanbergers advantage widens to seven percentage points (53%-46%) among voters who say they have a high level of interest in the election and 20 points among those who say they have a very high level of interest the election, according to a memorandum this week by Amanda Iovino, at Pantheon Insight, and Dritan Nesho and Alex Braun at HarrisX.

Iovino, a former principal at WPA Intelligence, served as polling director for Gov. Glenn Youngkins victorious gubernatorial campaign against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in 2021. Nesho is founder and CEO of HarrisX, and Braun is the firms chief strategy officer and global executive vice president.

The pollsters said Spanberger also has a larger base of support, with 31% saying they would definitely support her candidacy, compared with 23% for Earle-Sears.

The Democrats advantage would narrow to 48%-45% over Earle-Sears in a race that includes former Rep. Denver Riggleman, R-5th, who has publicly floated the possibility of an independent campaign. A third-party candidate would reduce Earle-Sears support among Black voters by 9 percentage points at 23%, while Spanbergers share of that vote would remain unchanged at 68%, the polling memo states.

The poll suggests that the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas will be highly competitive battlegrounds in the November election. Spanberger, who lives in western Henrico County, holds a 50%-49% edge in the Richmond media market and a 51%-49% advantage in the Norfolk media market, the poll said.

The former Democratic congresswoman, who represented a portion of Northern Virginia in her final term, holds a 59%-40% lead in the Washington, D.C., media market, while Earle-Sears leads by 57%-43% in Roanoke and a collection of smaller media markets around the Commonwealth.

The poll shows what the pollsters called a noticeable division based on education, which has been a major factor in national elections. Spanberger holds a 57%-43% lead among voters with college degrees, while Earle-Sears holds a 53%-46% advantage among voters without college degrees.

With all 100 seats in the House of Delegates up for election this year, the poll shows an advantage for Democrats, with 53% for a generic Democratic candidate and 47% for a generic Republican.

Enthusiasm gap

Democrats also have an advantage in voter enthusiasm, the polling firms said.

In a potential warning sign for Republican turnout, Democrats are showing more interest in the election with 86% saying they will definitely vote in Novembers elections, compared to 76% of Republicans and 74% of Independents, the pollsters say.

They say that consistent with off-year elections, the poll shows a higher interest among college-educated voters than those without degrees by a margin of 46%-33%, and among people 65 years and older, compared with voters 18 to 34 years old by a margin of 54% to 26%.

The poll findings generally track the history of the so-called Virginia curse. Since 1977, the political party that wins the White House almost always loses the Virginia governorship the next year. The only exception came in 2013, when Democrat Terry McAuliffe edged Republican Ken Cuccinelli by 2.5 percentage points in a three-way contest in which Libertarian Robert Sarvis received 6.5% of the vote.

President Donald Trump, who won the presidency in November while losing in Virginia to Vice President Kamala Harris by almost 6 percentage points, remains unpopular in Virginia, according to the poll. It shows that 56% of voters disapprove of his performance in the first four months of his term.

The poll also shows that 54% of voters surveyed approve of Youngkins performance as governor.

Virginia FREE, established in 1988 as the Virginia Foundation for Research and Economic Education, also commissioned the polling firms to survey likely voters on issues important to the business community. The nonprofit organization released those findings earlier this week, showing likely voters opposed to tariffs that Trump has imposed on U.S. trading partners and cuts in federal employment and spending by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a White House operation previously led by businessman Elon Musk.

Virginia FREE Executive Director Chris Saxman previously served as a paid consultant to Earle-Sears after her election in November, 2021, through March, 2023, and led her transition team. Saxman is a former Republican delegate from Staunton.

Trumps policies are particularly unpopular in Northern Virginia, which has a high concentration of federal employees and contractors affected by the DOGE cuts.

However, the poll also showed overwhelming support for maintaining Virginias right-to-work law, which prohibits requiring employees in union-represented jobs to join unions or pay dues. Earle-Sears has challenged Spanberger on the issue, saying that as a member of Congress, Spanberger cosponsored legislation that would have outlawed right-to-work laws in all 50 states.

Spanberger was one of 213 co-sponsors of 2021 legislation that Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, introduced that said that when employees receive wages and benefits negotiated by a union, they need to pay a fee to cover the cost of those negotiations. The bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 225-206 but died in the Senate.

Spanberger said recently that she would not sign legislation to fully repeal the Virginia law, adopted in 1947, but would consider reforms to it.
Mayor monitors blackout situation after residents block roads in protest

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  PDC Mayor Estefania Mercado says she has been working with the CFE regarding the power blackout in west Playa del Carmen. On Wednesday, a large area of Villas del Sol was left without electricity.

After hours of waiting, residents began to take to the streets as nightfall arrived. Residents in Xcacel, Mision de las Flores and Paseo del Sisal were affected by the sudden power cut.

On Wednesday evening Mercado stated through a video that her municipal government had maintained constant communication with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) due to the interruption of electrical service in various areas of Playa del Carmen.

In her message, the mayor reported that the CFE confirmed the restoration of service while stressing these types of power outages cannot be repeated.

As a municipal government we will take all necessary action because its unacceptable for our people to have to live through this. The demand is clear: decent and reliable service for the families of Playa del Carmen, she said.

Hundreds of residents were still without power as nightfall arrived, prompting the mayor to increase police surveillance in the affected areas.

We will remain there with constant attention and in contact with the public. We continue to listen to your reports and monitor the situation. The safety and well-being of our people will always be our priority, she said.

Residents of the Xcacel, Mision de las Flores and Paseo del Sisal began blocking roads Wednesday night in protest of the ongoing power outage. Residents said they have had interruptions in the electricity since Tuesday. By the time they took to the streets, some had been without power for nearly 24 hours.

According to the Municipal Government Director Erwin Aguilar, the blackouts were due to underground work being done by CFE personnel.
Two sent to hospital from scene of car bus crash outside Tulum

Tulum Q.R.  A brutal head-on collision outside the town of Tulum sent two to hospital. Ambulances rushed to the scene of the evening crash along the federal highway Wednesday.

National Guard and Tulum firemen met paramedics at the scene around 8:00 p.m. near the entrance to the Aldea Tulum subdivision where a tour bus and private car collided.

The driver of the compact car and his young passenger were injured after crashing head-on into a Cancun Discovery bus that was headed for the town of Tulum.

The bus was driving south on the federal highway when, according to the Municipal Traffic Police report, the male driver of the car crossed into the oncoming lane. The driver, who was found unconscious, and his daughter, both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Traffic was partially closed while paramedics transferred the two injured to hospital and authorities dealt with the removal of the vehicles involved.
The Virginia Department of Health has announced a change in how it will issue swim advisories due to harmful algal blooms, and a Smith Mountain Lake group is saying it may reduce protections for public health.

This summer, advisories will be issued based solely on the toxin levels of the harmful algal blooms. In previous years, advisories were issued when high levels of toxins were being produced by the algae or when the concentration, or cell count of the algae, exceeded 100,000 cells per milliliter.

The toxin itself is where the risk is to the public, said Danielle Schools with the VDH.

By focusing on toxin levels, Schools said the VDH will be able to more quickly provide information to the public. Advisories are sent out after samples of reported harmful algal blooms are collected and sent to a lab to be analyzed.

The switch to the toxin testing is more targeted, its designed to be more efficient and its designed to be more responsive to where the risk is with a quicker turnaround time, Schools said. We are trying to be more protective of public health because we know that toxin is where the risk is.

Harmful algal blooms or HABs are a type of rapidly growing algae, known as cyanobacteria, that is often blue-green in color. According to the Virginia Department of Health, the algae can produce toxins that can damage kidneys, liver, nervous system and brain. In extreme cases, the toxins can cause severe illness or death in humans or animals when ingested.

The VDH notes more than 400 samples from HAB investigations have been analyzed since 2020 across the state. In that time, almost one-fourth of the samples exceeded the cell count threshold and none exceeded the toxin level threshold.

The VDH collected samples from multiple algal blooms at Smith Mountain Lake in 2023, which led to a swim advisory for the lakes Blackwater River arm that lasted most of the summer, causing major impact to recreation and to local businesses. At the time, those blooms only had high cell counts and were not producing toxins, which means there would not have been a swim advisory based on the recent changes by VDH.

The Smith Mountain Lake Association, which has been collecting data on HABs following their significant impact in 2023, has announced it opposes the changes in reporting by the VDH. They have stated the change in testing may not be as protective of human health.

Its critical that all available data is evaluated when it affects human health, said Keri Green, SMLA Lake Quality Council chair. We owe that to everyone who swims in Smith Mountain Lake and other inland waterways in Virginia.

In a news release issued by the SMLA on Wednesday, the group stated that no data exists that definitively points to when a HAB produces toxins. But exposure to elevated concentrations of cyanobacteria cells can trigger health concerns. By eliminating this important measure of analysis, users of the lake may not be protected from the potential health effects caused by contact with elevated levels of cyanobacteria, even when a bloom is not producing toxins. These include skin irritation, allergic reactions and gastrointestinal distress.

Schools said that VDH maintains a dashboard on its website where there have been reported HABs. Alerts can be issued when HABs are discovered until testing is done to see whether it exceeds toxin levels.

HABs will also continue to be monitored by VDH, Schools said. If an algal bloom is found to not exceed toxin levels continues to grow, VDH can return to test it again to assure it hasnt started to produce toxins.

While a swim advisory may not be issued for a portion of the lake where HABs have been discovered due to them not exceeding toxin levels, Schools said individuals should usually refrain from swimming in algal blooms to be safe.

When it doubt, stay out, Schools said.

The VDH has a list of tips for safe swimming on its website at vdh.virginia.gov. Some of those tips include showering before and after swimming, dont swim in water that has a green film or is cloudier than usual and dont swallow water you swim in.
SIOUX CITY -- Syphilis is surging in Woodbury County, with cases of the sexually transmitted disease up 111% since last year.

Thirty-four cases of syphilis were reported in 2021. So far this year, 72 cases have been tallied, according to data from Siouxland District Health Department.

"We've had more syphilis in the last year or so than we've ever had in a number of years," said Tyler Brock, the health department's deputy director. "We've been definitely concerned about the syphilis numbers in our region. Not just Sioux City, but in our tri-state area."

In 2018 and 2019, syphilis cases in the county were in the single digits, before increasing to 12 in 2020. Brock said he doesn't have an exact explanation for the rise.

"Syphilis can be fairly silent," he said. "We would just be speculating on exactly why. You might try to blame the lack of health care during the pandemic when people just kind of let things go. It wouldn't explain why our area is higher than others."

Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis nationwide in 2021. Syphilis cases jumped 26%, followed by chlamydia (3%) and gonorrhea (2.8%). David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the situation in the United States "out of control," according to a report from the Associated Press.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said in a statement that syphilis has reached its highest numbers in the state in a generation. There were 554 diagnoses of infectious syphilis reported to the health department in 2021, a 55% increase from the preceding year. The majority of cases are being diagnosed in men, although diagnoses among women nearly tripled in a single year.

"The increased number of women affected has led to historic increases in congenital syphilis, which occurs when the infection is passed from a pregnant person to the fetus or newborn," the statement said. "In 2021, there were 11 cases of congenital syphilis in Iowa -- more than the last 20 years combined. Additionally, rates of syphilis among our Black and Indigenous populations, and populations of color overall, are increasingly disproportionate."

Rachel Wurth, assistant medical director for Rosecrance Jackson Centers, is treating more cases of syphilis than she ever has. Rosecrance Jackson Centers offers behavioral health and addiction treatment services in Sioux City for children, adolescents and adults.

"In my 10 years here, I don't remember treating syphilis. This year, we have treated many cases of syphilis," she said.

Since pandemic restrictions loosened, Brenda Iliff said Rosecrance Jackson Centers' men's units have been full and that an increased number of women are also seeking addiction treatment services. Iliff, Rosecrance Jackson's vice president of clinical services, said people with addictions have always been at significant risk for STDs.

"If someone's not quite aware of what they're doing or remembering, they're just at greater risk for STDs," she said.

Iliff said a representative from Planned Parenthood talks with patients in Rosecrance Jackson's adult and adolescent units about STDs. She said she has noticed that the men in treatment seem more interested in the educational information being shared than in years past.

"The guys are asking for testing, which is a good thing," Iliff said.

At this time, Brock said local health officials are more alarmed about the syphilis numbers than they are by the chlamydia and gonorrhea data. He noted that the spread of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the community is at "normal or even slightly below normal levels."

So far this year, 605 cases of chlamydia and 262 cases of gonorrhea have been recorded in the county. From 2018 to 2021, annual cases of chlamydia ranged from 700 to 838 and gonorrhea from 343 to 426.

"The worse case scenario is worse with syphilis than it is with some of those others, that's why it concerns us a little bit more than with chlamydia and gonorrhea," Brock said.

Brock said syphilis is "fairly easy to treat" with a form of penicillin. But, he said the antibiotic is "very expensive" at the moment.

Sores on the genitals is one of the first signs of syphilis, however, Brock said the lesions can be missed if they are internal, particularly in females. If the disease goes untreated, he said a rash may appear on the hands, feet and other parts of the body. Then, neurosyphilis, a bacterial infection of the brain or spinal cord, can develop.

"Literally this organism gets into our nervous system," he said. "It can cause all kinds of different neurological-type things."

In the last year or two, Brock said there have been cases of congenital syphilis in Siouxland. Babies born to women who have the disease can become infected through the placenta or during birth. Congenital syphilis causes severe illness in infants, including premature birth, low birth weight, birth defects, blindness and hearing loss. It can also lead to stillbirth and infant death, according to the CDC.

Brock said Siouxland District Health Department has been educating local physicians about the need to test women for syphilis during the third trimester of their pregnancy, rather than just the first.

"As they're getting closer to delivering the baby, test them again, just in case something has changed since that first visit," he said. "We've really tried to raise awareness in our medical community about looking for it, testing for it and just trying to get that diagnosis before it turns into something serious."
SIOUX CITY -- As cases of measles continue to rise around the country, local health officials are urging unvaccinated Siouxlanders to consider rolling up their sleeves and getting the MMR vaccine.

This week, Siouxland District Health Department announced it would offer free Measles, Mumps, and Rubella vaccinations as part of a state of Iowa initiative to help prepare the community in the event of a local measles outbreak.

As of May 8, 1,001 confirmed cases of measles have been reported in 31 jurisdictions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No cases of the virus, which produces fever, cough, pink eye, runny nose and a rash, have been confirmed in Iowa, Nebraska or South Dakota this year.

"It's concerning to us, but there's very little fear of just wide, widespread measles cases, because most people have immunity," Siouxland District Health Department Deputy Director Tyler Brock said.

Iowa hasn't recorded a case of measles since 2019, when an unvaccinated northeast Iowa resident contracted measles on a trip to Israel and transmitted the virus to an unvaccinated "household contact."

"Measles is very contagious. So when you have one case of measles, you almost always have more," Brock said. "When you see some ongoing spread like this has done this spring, there's always some concern."

The largest outbreak is in West Texas, where more than 700 cases have been confirmed since late January. Two of the three measles deaths this year also occurred there. There were two fatalities in school-aged children who lived in the outbreak area. The children were not vaccinated and had no known underlying conditions, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The other states with cases are Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York City, New York State, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Dr. John Jones, chief medical officer at UnityPoint Health -- Sioux City, said in a statement that vaccines are "one of the most important tools we have to prevent serious illness." He said the MMR vaccine is "safe, effective and provides lifelong protection for most people."

"Measles is preventable," Jones said. "By making sure you and your family are vaccinated, you're helping protect not only yourselves but also those who are most vulnerable -- like infants or individuals with weakened immune systems."

If a case of measles were to be detected in Woodbury County, Brock said it would probably be travel-related.

"Measles is imported. It gets imported into the United States, and then it can spread among unimmune people that way. It's not native to the United States. You run the risk traveling into an area where there's measles," Brock said of those who don't have immunity to the virus. "Different parts of our country, right now, have cases, but even there, it's not widespread. Most of the measles cases have been confined to communities of folks who tend to have low immunization rates."

Unlike chickenpox, which is also highly infectious, Brock said measles can be much more serious. Before the MMR vaccine was introduced, an estimated 48,000 people were hospitalized and 400 to 500 people died in the United States each year, according to the CDC.

"Any time you have a population of nonimmune people, you do worry just a little bit about measles catching hold in a community," said Brock, who said measles can lead to pneumonia, which can land people in the hospital. He said another serious side effect of measles is encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. "You can get ear infections, but, a lot of times, it tends to be pneumonia that is a most common occurrence that makes the infection more serious than others."

In Woodbury County, 90.1% of kindergarteners are fully vaccinated against measles with the MMR vaccine, which also protects against mumps and rubella. In order to prevent the spread of measles, at least 95% of a community needs to be fully vaccinated.

"This is one vaccine that actually prevents the disease it's intended to prevent," Brock said the MMR vaccine. "There's all kinds of statistics out there in terms of how effective it is. Most of the data out there shows 95% with one, 97% with two. You have a very, very low chance of getting measles if you've been immunized. It doesn't mean it can never happen, but it is very rare. This does a very, very good job of actually preventing measles altogether."

Brock said the majority of people living in the community are immune to measles. However, he said there is a segment of the population who are at risk. He said infants who are too young to get vaccinated are the most vulnerable population. Children should receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine starting at 12 to 15 months of age and the second dose at 4 to 6 years of age, according to the CDC.

"School aged kids -- we have a variety of exceptions whether it be religious or whatever the case may be. We have a pocket of people who have chosen not to get immunized. It's a fairly low percentage, but it is increasing."

As far as adults go, Brock said those born before 1957 probably have had measles. Those born after 1957 should have at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, but Brock said two doses are preferable.

"If you're not sure, check your records. Check with your doctor," he said. "Most people probably got at least one shot. What we're finding is most people are probably immune to measles. Boosters are probably not necessary, at least in the immediate time frame. But it would be something to be checking on."

Siouxland District Health will be holding MMR vaccination clinics every Tuesday morning at 1014 Nebraska St. To schedule an appointment, call 712-279-6119.
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The Supreme Court deadlocked on one of its biggest cases of the term on Thursday, delayingfor nowanother blow to the separation of church and state. The 44 split left in place a lower court decision prohibiting the creation of a taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma. But this legal battle is far from over: The court will almost certainly revisit the issue in a future case when no justice is recused. And when it does, the majority seems likely to rule that the First Amendment requires states to establish and fund religious charter schools. Still, Thursdays divided ruling is a welcome reprieve from the Supreme Courts crusade to dismantle secular public education in America.

On a more rational court, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond would not have been close at all. The case revolves around St. Isidores, a proposed Catholic school that seeks to participate in Oklahomas charter program. By its own admission, St. Isidores would indoctrinate students in the Catholic faith, and reserves the right to discriminate against students and teachers who do not share those beliefs. It would compel students to attend mass and abide by Catholic doctrine at the risk of expulsion. Despite St. Isidores religious nature, Oklahoma certified it as a public charter school, granting it access to public funds. In response, the states attorney generalGentner Drummond, a Republicanfiled suit in the Oklahoma Supreme Court, citing a violation of the state constitution. The Oklahoma Supreme Court sided with Drummond and blocked the schools approval as a charter, prompting an appeal to SCOTUS.

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At oral arguments in April, it was clear that at least four conservative justices believed that St. Isidore had a right, under the First Amendments free exercise clause, to secure public funding. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh sounded convinced that the exclusion of religious schools from the charter system amounted to unconstitutional discrimination against religion. But they had a problem: Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself, apparently because she is close friends with a key lawyer on the case. And Chief Justice John Roberts sounded a tad wobbly during arguments, asking a handful of questions that indicated discomfort with the breadth of St. Isidores constitutional claims.

It now appears that Roberts did, indeed, defect from the conservative bloc, siding with the three liberals. (When the court deadlocks, it does not say how each justice voted, but no other conservative seemed skeptical of the schools arguments.) Under the courts long-standing rules, this stalemate resulted in an automatic affirmance of the Oklahoma Supreme Courts decision without creating new precedent. But it did not put off the underlying question forever: A different state will probably approve another religious charter school, engineering a new test case from which no justice will have to recuse. When that occurs, SCOTUS will get another opportunity to declare that the First Amendment forces states to certify and fund religious education.

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Related From Slate The Trump DOJ Tells SCOTUS Its Plan to Ignore the Courts Read More

If it was Roberts who flipped, his move comes as a bit of a surprise, though not an outright shock. The chief justice wrote all three opinions that gradually expanded states constitutional obligation to fund Christian schools. St. Isidores lawyers argued that the logic of these cases also requires states to invite these schools into their charter programs, effectively incorporating religious institutions into their public education system. But past cases involved subsidies for truly private schoolsplayground refurbishments, tax credits, and tuition assistance. St. Isidores sought a radical expansion of this precedent by demanding direct public funding for the proselytization of students. Roberts was dubious: This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement between the government and the school, he said, than in past cases. He also sounded dubious of St. Isidores assertion that it deserved this money because, despite its quest for charter status, it would still operate as a private institution. Highlighting Oklahomas extensive control over the curriculum, Roberts questioned whether there was too much state involvement to view St. Isidore as anything other than a public school.

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These concerns may have carried the day for the chief justice. The big question now is whether Barrett will share his hesitation in the future when the next religious charter comes before the court. The network of Christian lawyers who manufactured this case will have little trouble persuading another state to adopt their experiment, and can surely avoid involvement by any of Barretts friends next time. Barrett, a devout Catholic herself, is a staunch proponent of religious liberty and reliable foe of churchstate separation; she has long favored an interpretation of the First Amendment that expands the right of religious people and institutions to secure accommodations and taxpayer support. In a different case this term, she appears poised to join the majority in giving religious parents of public school students a broad right to shield their children from exposure to LGBTQ-themed books. There is little reason to think she would pass up the future opportunity to greenlight Catholic charter schools. (A cynic might hope that a blue state will invite a madrasa to participate in its charter program to remind the conservative justices that its not only Christians who would benefit from this regime, a point Justice Elena Kagan raised at arguments.)

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For the time being, however, Thursdays decision is as big a victory as anyone can expect from this court for the separation of church and state. The conservative majority has been marching ineluctably toward a future in which there is no barrier between the government and religionwhere, in fact, the Constitution requires the constant intermingling of the two. It has used public education as its main vehicle, diverting more and more money away from secular schools toward Christian academies. For the first time in years, that drive has faced a real setback. It may not last long. But it shows that the momentum is not entirely unstoppable.
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When President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 people convicted of crimes related to the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, he used the power of the presidency to protect convicted criminals whom he incited to stop the certification of his electoral defeat in 2020 and the peaceful transfer of power.

Recently, in a blunt and ham-fisted attempt to again undermine the rule of law, he used his social media bullhorn to call for the release of Tina Peters. The former Colorado county clerk was last year convicted of crimes committed in 2021 in order to facilitate unauthorized access to Colorados voting system.

This may be regarded as simply another instance of Trumps immoral support for those who tried to help him steal an election. But the scheme Peters was involved into improperly access voting systems and make unauthorized copies of sensitive voting system softwarehas serious, ongoing implications for election security.

The Colorado plot was just one of several severe voting system security breaches that were carried out by Trump allies following the 2020 election. In Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, operatives hired by Trump-allied attorney Sidney Powell accessed voting systems and, in multiple instances, took copies of the software that records votes, counts votes, and reports vote totals. The voting software was then shared with a network of Trump loyalists, like in Peters scheme in Colorado.

Related From Slate The Trump DOJ Tells SCOTUS Its Plan to Ignore the Courts Read More

Unlike in Colorado, no criminal investigation was ever initiated in Pennsylvania. In Georgia, despite overwhelming video and documentary evidence of the unlawful voting system security breaches, neither the Trump-supporting local prosecutor or state attorney general brought any charges. Only Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought to hold anyone accountable for the Georgia software heists. She charged computer theft, computer trespass, and computer invasion of privacy in the Georgia RICO case, successfully obtaining a guilty plea for the charges stemming from the software breaches from Powell and another accomplice before the case fell apart for unrelated reasons. In Michigan, criminal trials are pending for only three individuals, though more were implicated.

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What is important here is how this returns to Trump. More than three years ago evidence surfaced showing that the breaches in Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were all coordinated and financed by Powell. Records also indicate that many of the same people were involved in all the plots, including in Colorado, and that copies of the software were shared across state lines, suggesting a broad, coordinated, multistate effort that could implicate federal crimes.

Instead of investigating, the feckless Merrick Garland Department of Justice and FBI ignored it. So when Trump returned to office, there had been no federal investigation to determine what happened to the voting system software, how far it was shared, and where it is now. That same software is still in use in many states across the country, counting votes.

Having copies of the proprietary voting system software could allow a bad actor to study it for weaknesses and develop ways to tamper with vote counts, with minimal physical access. And thats exactly what some of those involved have done. Matt DePerno, who is currently awaiting criminal trial in Michigan on charges associated with unauthorized voting system access, reportedly told an audience that he had a lab where he could manipulate vote counts with ease. Jeff Lenberg, a computer technologist implicated in the breaches in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, made a video demonstrating how to compromise vote totals with software allegedly obtained in the breaches.

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The spotty and limited state-level criminal probes have focused only on the actual access to voting machines. There has been no evidence of any investigation aimed at tracking and recovering the misappropriated voting software, and no known effort to mitigate the increased risks caused by the distribution of proprietary software into the wild.

With extraordinary yet predictable self-interest, the voting equipment vendors pointedly ignored the unauthorized appropriation, copying, and distribution of their proprietary intellectual property. Presumably to avoid exposing or amplifying existing election system security problems, no legal actions were brought by the vendors against those involved in taking and sharing the software. Similarly, state election officials confined their criticisms to the actual act of accessing the systems, heedlessly ignoring risks associated with the well-known and documented fact that the voting software was taken and shared by partisan actors.

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In other words, this is the largest known breach of election system security in the U.S., ever, and its been effectively swept under the rug.

Trumps interest in Peters status renews questions about his knowledge of breaches. Testimony from the House Jan. 6 committee revealed that at the infamous unhinged meeting in the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, Trump was told by Rudy Giuliani that there were plans to gain access to voting systems and software. But it wasnt probed further by the committee or the DOJ.

Americans committed to democracy and voting rights are rightly fighting Trumps assault on elections and voting access. We cant afford to continue to ignore the voting system breaches, or forget that when Trump speaks on behalf of someone like Peters, he may very well have something more sinister in mind.
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Had you scanned any of the latest headlines around the TAKE IT DOWN Act, legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law Monday, you would have come away with a deeply mistaken impression of the bill and its true purpose.

The surface-level pitch is that this is a necessary law for addressing nonconsensual intimate imagesknown more widely as revenge porn. Obfuscating its intent with a classic congressional acronym (Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks), the TAKE IT DOWN Act purports to help scrub the internet of exploitative, nonconsensual sexual media, whether real or digitally mocked up, at a time when artificial intelligence tools and automated image generators have supercharged its spread. Enforcement is delegated to the Federal Trade Commission, which will give online communities that specialize primarily in user-generated content (e.g., social media, message boards) a heads-up and a 48-hour takedown deadline whenever an appropriate example is reported. These platforms have also been directed to set up on-site reporting systems by May 2026. Penalties for violations include prison sentences of two to three years and steep monetary fines.

Public reception has been rapturous. CNN is gushing that victims of explicit deepfakes will now be able to take legal action against people who create them. A few local Fox affiliates are taking the government at its word that TAKE IT DOWN is designed to target revenge porn. Other outlets, like the BBC and USA Today, led off by noting first lady Melania Trumps appearance at the bill signing.

Yet these headlines and pieces ignore TAKE IT DOWNs serious potential for abuse. (Jezebel and Wired were perhaps the only publications to point out in both a headline and subhead that the law merely claims to offer victims greater protections and that free speech advocates warn it could be weaponized to fuel censorship.) Rarer still, with the exception of sites like the Verge, has there been any acknowledgment of Trumps own stated motivation for passing the act, as hed underlined in a joint address to Congress in March: Im going to use that bill for myself too, if you dont mind, because nobody gets treated worse than I do online, nobody.

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Sure, its typical for this president to make such serious matters about himself. But Trumps blathering about having it worse than revenge-porn survivors, and his quip about using that bill for myself, is not a fluke. For a while now, activists who specialize in free speech, digital privacy, and even stopping child sexual abuse have attempted to warn that the bill will not do what it purports to do.

Late last month, after TAKE IT DOWN had passed both the House and Senate, the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote that the bills legislative mechanism lacks critical safeguards against frivolous or bad-faith takedown requests. For one, the 48-hour takedown deadline means that digital platforms (especially smaller, less-resourced websites) will be forced to use automated filters that often flag legal contentbecause there wont be enough time to verify whether the speech is actually illegal. The EFF also warns that TAKE IT DOWN requires monitoring that could reach into even encrypted messages between users. If this legislation has the effect of granting law enforcement a means of bypassing encrypted communications, we may as well bid farewell to the very concept of digital privacy.

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A February letter addressed to the Senate from a wide range of free-expression nonprofitsincluding Fight for the Future and the Authors Guildalso raised concerns over TAKE IT DOWNs implications for content moderation and encryption. The groups noted that although the bill makes allowances for legal porn and newsworthy content, those exceptions are not included in the bills takedown system. They added that private tools like direct messages and cloud storage arent protected either, which could leave them open to invasive monitoring with little justification. The Center for Democracy and Technology, a signatory to the letter, later noted in a follow-up statement that the powers granted to the FTC in enforcing such a vague law could lead to politically motivated attacks, undermining progress in tackling actual nonconsensual imagery.

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Techdirts Mike Masnick wrote last month that TAKE IT DOWN is so badly designed that the people its meant to help oppose it, pointing to public statements from the advocacy group Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, whose entire existence is based on representing the interests of victims of nonconsensual intimate imagery. CCRI has long criticized the bills takedown provisions and ultimately concluded that the nonprofit cannot support legislation that risks endangering the very communities it is dedicated to protecting, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, people of color, and other vulnerable groups. (In a separate statement, the CCRI highlighted other oddities within the bill, like a loophole allowing for nonconsensual sexual media to be posted if the uploader happens to appear in the image, and the explicit inclusion of forums that specialize in audio files, despite otherwise focusing on visual materials.)

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The concerns are not theoretical, Masnick continued. The bills vague standards combined with harsh criminal penalties create a perfect storm for censorship and abuse.

Related From Slate The Supreme Court May Pick the Worst Possible Case to Cede More Power to Trump Read More

Lets be clear: No one here is at all opposed to sound legislation that tackles the inescapable, undeniable problem of nonconsensual sexual material. All 50 states, along with the District of Columbia, have enacted laws criminalizing exploitative sexual photos and videos to varying degrees. TAKE IT DOWN extends such coverage to deepfake revenge porn, a change that makes the bill a necessary complement to these state lawsbut its text is shockingly narrow on the digital front, criminalizing only A.I. imagery thats deemed to be indistinguishable from an authentic visual depiction. This just leads to more vague language that hardly addresses the underlying issue.

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The CCRI has spent a full decade fighting for laws to address the crisis of nonconsensual sexual imagery, even drafting model legislationparts of which did make it into TAKE IT DOWN. On Bluesky, CCRI President Mary Anne Franks called this fact bittersweet, proclaiming that the long-overdue criminalization of exploitative sexual imagery is undermined by the final laws lack of adequate safeguards against false reports. A few House Democrats looked to the groups proposed fixes and attempted to pass amendments that would have added such safeguards, only to be obstructed by their Republican colleagues.

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This should worry everyone. These groups made concerted efforts to inform Congress of the issues with TAKE IT DOWN and to propose solutions, only to be all but ignored. As Masnick wrote in another Techdirt post, the United States already has enough of a problem with the infamous Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the only other American law with a notice-and-takedown measure like TAKE IT DOWNs, albeit designed to prevent the unauthorized spread of copyright works. Just ask any creatives or platform operators whove had to deal with abusive flurries of bad-faith DMCA takedown requestseven though the law includes a clause meant to protect against such weaponization. Theres no reason to believe that TAKE IT DOWN wont be similarly exploited to go after sex workers and LGBTQ+ users, as well as anyone who posts an image or animation that another user simply doesnt like and decides to report. Its not dissimilar to other pieces of proposed legislation, like the Kids Online Safety Act, that purport to protect young netizens via wishy-washy terms that could criminalize all sorts of free expression.

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Heres a hypothetical: A satirical cartoonist comes up with an illustration of Trump as a baby and publishes it on a niche social media platform that they use to showcase their art. A Trump supporter finds this cartoon and decides to report it as abusive pornography, leading to a takedown notice on the cartoonists website. The artist and the platform do not comply, and a pissed-off Trump brings the full force of the law against this creator. The process of discovery leads prosecutors to break into the artists encrypted communications, revealing drafts of the drawing that the cartoonist had shared with friends. All of this gets the illustrator punished with a brief prison sentence and steep fine, fully sabotaging their bank account and career; the social media platform they used is left bankrupt and shutters. The artists are forced to migrate to another site, whose administrators see what happened to their former home and decide to censor political works. All the while, an underage user finds that their likeness has been used to generate a sexually explicit deepfake that has been spread all over Discordyet their case is found to have no merit because the deepfake in question is not considered indistinguishable from an authentic visual depiction, despite all the Discord-based abusers recognizing exactly whom that deepfake is meant to represent.

Its a hypotheticalbut not an unimaginable one. Its a danger that too few Americans understand, thanks to congressional ignorance and the medias credulous reporting on TAKE IT DOWN. The result is a law thats supposedly meant to protect the vulnerable but ends up shielding the powerfuland punishing the very people it promised to help.
Cynthia Ann Smith Frey, daughter of Frederick F. and Shirley E. (Talbert) Smith Jr. was born April 9, 1951 in Baltimore, MD. She graduated from Hereford High School class of 1969 and continued her education with college and career-oriented classes.



On December 19, 1970, Cynthia was united in marriage to Tom Alfred Frey. To this union two adopted children Kimberly and Michelle; and two natural children Jennifer and Christopher were born. Cynthia being a military wife, home was various locations till retirement to Lexington Park, MD in 1984.



Cynthia was a member of the Lexington Park United Method Church where she took great joy in the operation of the church close closet along with a group of wonderful volunteers. Also, a member of the LPUMC she and her husband Tom became United Methodist NOMADS (Nomads On a Mission Active in Divine Service) volunteers traveling to projects in their RV.



Cynthia was a Special Education teacher at Great Mills High School for 15 years. She left a wonderful legacy of making every day count. She was proud of her children, and ten grandchildren whom she always talked about. She sold Home Interior and was the owner of Favorite Things (antiques, collectables, and gifts) located within Grand Mothers Store in Dowell, MD. Cynthia was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and a member of the Southern Maryland Blue Crab Fun Bunch RV Club she so enjoyed camping with. Cynthia enjoyed antique and doll collecting and she really loved shopping.



Cynthia passed away on Monday, May 12, 2025 due to pneumonia, having reached the age of seventy-four.



She is preceded in death by her parents Frederick and Shirley and her daughter Michelle.



Cynthia is survived by her husband Tom; Daughters Kimberly Frey and Jennifer Fenwick and son Christopher and his wife Deserae; and ten grandchildren.



Family will receive friends on Tuesday, May 27, 2025 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m., with a Service celebrated by Pastor Don Geller at 7:00 p.m., at Brinsfield Funeral Home, 22955 Hollywood Road, Leonardtown, MD 20650. Interment will be held at a later date at Arlington National Cemetery.



Condolences to the family may be written at www.brinsfieldfuneral.com



Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P.A., Leonardtown, MD.
A streak of dominance and a pair of worthy challengers make for a compelling trotting feature on Thursday, May 22 at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

The 10-dash Thursday card gets underway at 6 p.m., and the spotlight lands squarely on race eight with a deep field of trotters vying for a $3,850 purse.

Buckhead Ridge, to be driven by Marc Campbell, has been perfect in two Island starts and will try to keep that record intact from post four. Landon Campbell trains for owner Brady Doyle of Stratford, P.E.I. The Nuncio gelding has steamrolled his foes in back-to-back outings, including a 1:56.4 performance last week where he sprinted home in :29 flat.

New Legacy has been the runner-up to Buckhead Ridge in both his May starts and draws post seven this time. The Father Patrick gelding trained by Jennifer Doyle and driven by David Dowling has banked more than $242,000 in his career.

Fight Song (Hughes) rounds out the trio of top contenders. The Kadabra six-year-old has just returned from racing at Woodbine Mohawk Park in Ontario.

Also in the feature trot are Baskin Robin (Corey MacPherson), Jessiejesorjessica (Ken Murphy), Glider Man (Myles Heffernan Sr.) and Curadh (Ryan Desroche).

The Backstretch Beat nods to Buckhead Ridge: Hes been perfect since arriving on the Island going gate to wire in back-to-back starts. Moves to the mid-pack and Campbell will have him up close to the action so theres a strong chance he scores a natural hat trick.

The featured pace is in race nine with Lyons Shining making her Charlottetown debut from post one. The Sweet Lou mare comes in from Ontario and lands in a prime spot for her Maritime premiere with Marc Campbell driving for trainer Landon Campbell and owners Ryan and Everett MacLeod and Matt and David Burke. Lyons Shining is a seven-time winner with a 1:54.1 lifetime best taken at Rideau Carleton Raceway. Her foes also include Acefortyfour Dome (Hughes), Shake N Blake (Murphy), Elm Grove Mistress (Dowling) and Ms Meaghan Sparkel (Desroche).

To view Thursday's harness racing entries, click the following link: Thursday Entries - Charlottetown Driving Park.

(Red Shores)
Early this year, the Nebraska Public Power District paid $5 million for a piece of rural Lancaster County land.

The land  sold for around five times the assessed value  was owned by married couple Ronald and Donna Starzec.

Ronald Starzec is NPPDs land management manager, responsible for the department that manages land purchases like this one.

Donna Starzecs title: chief audit and ethics officer.

An ethics officer engaging in a transaction with a public entity is practically unheard of, said Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who served as an ethics lawyer to the George W. Bush administration.

The chief ethics officer is one of the people selling the land to the company? Thats a laugh, Painter said. I havent seen that before.

Neither of the married NPPD executives filed a conflict-of-interest statement with the state, either before or after the sale, said David Hunter, executive director of the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Thats despite a state statute that requires any employee of a political subdivision to identify potential conflicts if their salary and benefits exceed $150,000.

Donna Starzecs pay in 2024, as reported to the Flatwater Free Press, was more than $250,000.

NPPD general counsel John McClure and CEO Tom Kent defended the purchase, saying the specific piece of land was crucial to meeting Nebraskas future energy needs. NPPD leaders kept the transaction transparent and objective, they said.

A law firm managed negotiations with the Starzecs on behalf of NPPD to avoid pressure on employees who have worked directly with the couple, McClure said.

He said that, based on his reading of state law, the couple werent required to divulge the sale to the state because the conflict didnt arise in the course of their employment.

We took them out of being required to do anything in the course of their employment.

NPPDs board was notified of the situation, discussed it in executive session and voted on it, Kent said.

As I look back at this particular transaction and how it was approached, I think we did all things right, Kent said.

Why this land?

The newly acquired land sits just north of NPPDs Sheldon Station power plant. There, the public utility plans to build a new power plant called Princeton Road Station.

From a geography standpoint, its right where we needed to be, Kent said.

NPPD is expanding its power-generation capabilities to meet growing interest from businesses in rural areas of the state, Kent said in a press release announcing Princeton Road Station.

Its becoming sort of an energy center, if you will, McClure said about the station.

Donna Starzec is from the Hallam area and had purchased the land about three years before she started working for NPPD in 1991, McClure said.

Im sure she never thought about it, McClure said. She just happened to be in that area, from that area, and purchased that property.

The Starzecs did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment.

A private energy developer made an offer to the Starzecs in mid-2024 to buy 40 acres of the tract, at $30,000 per acre, to build a battery storage facility.

Ronald Starzec knew that NPPD was interested in acquiring their entire 202-acre tract, according to purchase documents, and told NPPD leaders that they had received an offer.

That information was shared internally, and it was recognized that, wow, we may have an interest in that property  and we need to think about making a counteroffer here, McClure said.

Donna Starzec submitted an internal ethics document indicating her ownership of the property, McClure said. Both Starzecs signed a statement declaring that they represent their individual interests and would not make decisions on behalf of NPPD.

Most of the discussion around the purchase happened in executive session with the board, closed to the public, McClure said, because staff were providing legal advice and engaging in negotiations.

At the August 2024 public board meeting, the board unanimously adopted a resolution, without any public discussion, to authorize the purchase.

The agenda posted before the meeting identified the Starzecs as employees, though the actual resolution made no such reference. Kent acknowledged their employment during the meeting.

Market value

After the district closed on the property on Feb. 28, the amount paid to the Starzecs and closing costs totaled just over $5 million, around five times the assessed value of the land.

Farmland is regularly assessed lower than the market value for tax purposes, said Anthony Schutz, a University of Nebraska College of Law professor. It is not unusual for sale prices to exceed the assessed value, he said.

But this particular sale price does appear to be an outlier, according to a Flatwater Free Press analysis.

In previous Lancaster County land purchases, NPPD has paid an average of 150% more than the assessed value of the land, the analysis found.

I would say that real estate transactions between state employees and any state-owned entity should only be at the tax-assessed value, said Painter, the government ethics law professor. Anything else  no go.

The board agreed on a final sale price of about $25,000 per acre, McClure said, determined by the private developers higher offer and an appraisal conducted by NPPD that estimated the land could be worth $20,700 per acre for a high-end investment.

But that appraisal also priced the fair market value of the whole tract at just under $2.3 million, less than half the sale price.

You do an inside transaction with your own officers and exceed the appraised value, Painter said. Thats whats most shocking, because appraisals tend to be fairly generous.

Unlike other states, Nebraska doesnt place legal limits on the amount a government body can pay above fair market value for land, Schutz said.

The only real check in Nebraska is political, Schutz said. Generally, public agencies and elected officials want to appear as good stewards of public dollars.

The 11 members of NPPDs board of directors are elected to serve six-year terms.

Transactions like this one can also set an informal precedent, Schutz said, where sellers hold off because they know NPPD may be willing to pay far above market value for property under the right circumstances.

Setting the floor for future transactions was a concern for NPPD, too, McClure said, because appraisals rely on comparable sales. If the private buyer had paid $30,000 per acre, that would have become the market value for future sales in the area, McClure said.

And Schutz noted that NPPD had another potential tool to acquire the land: eminent domain.

The desirability of land near Sheldon Station, he said, doesnt necessarily justify spending 50% more when you also have the condemnation authority that would keep your public costs at fair market value, plus whatever transaction costs are associated.

Eminent domain, an authority that NPPD has to condemn land that it needs for development, may have kept the price at the appraised market value  potentially saving around $2.7 million.

But it also might have ended with higher costs if the private sale went through and reset the market value before the eminent domain process was complete, Kent said.

We work to negotiate first, McClure said. That really never came across our thinking that were going to go condemn this, try to acquire this through eminent domain.
Nicusor Dan, Independent Candidate, Becomes Romanias New President. Constitutional Court Confirms Election Results

The Constitutional Court of Romania officially confirmed and validated on Thursday the results of the presidential elections held on May 18, 2025, declaring Nicusor Dan as the new president of the country.

The independent candidate won with 53.60% of the vote, defeating George Simion (AUR), who received 46.40%.

Validation Ceremony at the Constitutional Court

The ceremony organized by the Constitutional Court was attended by both Nicusor Dan and interim president Ilie Bolojan. The two were welcomed by the president of the Constitutional Court, Marian Enache, in a moment marking the beginning of a new chapter for Romania.

In his speech at the Constitutional Court, Nicusor Dan expressed his gratitude to the citizens who turned out in large numbers: I want to thank the Romanian people who came out in great numbers for the May elections, thus giving legitimacy to the new president.

The new president emphasized the historical significance of the moment: We are entering a new chapter in Romanias recent and contemporary history. I want to assure Romanian citizens that I fully understand the responsibility of the mandate they have given me.

Toate meciurile de la FIFA Club World Cup pot fi vazute pe VOYO cu comentariu in limba romana.

Top Priorities of the New Mandate

Nicusor Dan outlined the main directions of his presidential term. I will fight for the consolidation of state institutions. It is a necessity, he stated, adding that he will also fight for the countrys economic prosperity, and that he will be a partner of the business environment and a guarantor of civil liberties.

The elected president acknowledged the challenges ahead: There will be many challenges, and I hope we will successfully overcome all of them, while also expressing confidence in the wisdom of Romanian society.

Final Election Results

According to the official report published by the Central Electoral Bureau, Nicusor Dan received 6,168,642 votes (53.60%), while George Simion garnered 5,339,053 votes (46.40%).

A geographical breakdown reveals significant differences in voting behavior.

In Romania, Nicusor Dan won decisively with 55.16% (5,445,052 votes) compared to 44.84% for George Simion (4,426,247 votes). The situation was reversed among the diaspora, where George Simion prevailed with 55.86% (912,553 votes), while Nicusor Dan received 44.14% (720,996 votes).

AURs Complaint Rejected

The Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the complaint filed by AUR leader George Simion, who had requested the annulment of the elections. This decision grants full legitimacy to Nicusor Dans victory and removes any legal uncertainty regarding the election outcome.

Next Constitutional Steps

According to the joint regulations of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, within 24 hours of the validation by the Constitutional Court, the presidents of both Houses of Parliament must convene a joint session for the oath-taking ceremony.

As stated in Article 82 of the Constitution, Nicusor Dan will take the following oath before Parliament:

I solemnly swear to devote all my strength and knowledge to the spiritual and material advancement of the Romanian people, to respect the Constitution and the laws of the country, to defend democracy, the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, the sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Romania. So help me God!

The oath will be recorded in a statement by Parliament, which will mark the official start of Nicusor Dans presidential mandate. He thus becomes the fifth post-communist president of Romania, and for the first time in recent history, the highest office in the state is held by an independent candidate

*This article was translated and adapted using AI-assisted tools and has been reviewed for accuracy by human editors. While every effort has been made to ensure fidelity to the original Romanian version, minor differences may exist due to translation nuances.

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Spurred by lingering safety concerns regarding the contractor for its $44 million rail expansion project  including new safety violations this spring and a potential felony charge  Port of Longview commissioners say they are reviewing all their legal options.

The ports three commissioners each voiced concerns at a meeting earlier this month and mentioned behind-the-scenes efforts with their legal team regarding its contract with Vancouver-based Rotschy Inc.

They came in response to new public comments from union labor leaders highlighting Rotschys track record; new scrutiny on the contractor including a recently-passed child labor law stemming from a 16-year-old Rotschy worker losing his legs in a 2023 on-the-job incident; an investigation into possible felony charges for potential child labor law violations; and recent citations all compounding the worker safety concerns that have lingered since a split commission voted 2-1 on Jan. 22 to award the project to Rotschy.

I already prior to this meeting have tasked our legal team with seeing what our options are for this, port commissioner Evan Jones said on May 7. Obviously we have to strike the balance between what we can do legally and what we should do  which is right  but we are working on it, and we will be addressing this.

Jones was the sole opposing vote in January when the contract went to Rotschy. At the May 7 meeting, however, commissioners Allan Erickson and Jeff Wilson  who is also a Washington State senator  said they too were discussing the contract with the ports legal counsel.

Wilson spoke for several minutes on the topic, saying at least two of us and maybe three of us are looking into the options of what we can or cant do in this situation. Erickson said he took the union leaders public comments to heart, and that he would address them in an executive session with special counsel following the meeting.

I share your concerns. What you bring to the table here is obviously very serious, Erickson said at the meeting.

Prior concerns and recent actions

During the January Port of Longview meeting, a standing-room only crowd of union laborers filled the meeting chambers as labor organizers made public comments highlighting Rotschys history of worker safety and child labor violations that notably included a June 2023 on-the-job incident where a 16-year-old lost his legs while operating a trencher in LaCenter.

Scrutiny and controversy has continued to follow. Earlier this year, the injury catalyzed lawmakers to pass House Bill 1644, which increases penalties for companies that violate youth labor laws. According to an April 28 release from Gov. Bob Fergusons office, the law makes it easier for the state to bar problem employers from hiring young workers.

The company had already paid six figures in fines to the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries last year, but earlier this year the state agency recommended criminal charges. L&I Public Affairs Manager Matt Ross confirmed that the state agency recommended that the Clark County Prosecutors Office press criminal charges against Rotschy.

As first reported by Cascade PBS in a news story also published by The Columbian, the state agency recommends prosecuting under section two of Revised Code of Washington 49.12.410 relating to violations of child labor laws.

Violations that result in the death or permanent disability of a minor employee is guilty of a Class C felony, the law states.

Rotschy spokesman Nick Massie declined comment citing the L&I felony charge referral when he was asked a question about the juvenile worker.

A company charged with a crime?

The criminal investigation is in review/follow-up status, according to an email last week from Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Erik Podhora with the Clark County Prosecuting Attorneys Office. Podhora said he sent what he received from L&I to local law enforcement for additional follow-up investigation.

No charges have been filed. No charging decision has been made, Podhora wrote.

When asked whether a company can be charged with a crime in the state of Washington  or whether the criminal investigation would focus on the actions of individuals  Podhora said that is a question his office still needs to answer.

While there may be a legal mechanism to charge a corporate entity in theory, to the best of my knowledge, no corporate entity has been charged in Clark County Superior Court with a crime before, Podhora said.

New violations this spring

At the May 7 port meeting, Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council President Terry Carlson was among several union leaders, who called on the Port of Longview to put the contract out for rebid. He argued that Rotschys history of safety violations made the port liable if workers get hurt during the yearlong project.

With the passage of the child labor law bill (HB 1644) and everything thats happened, this contractor should not be receiving our tax dollars to do this project, Carlson said. You guys are playing Russian Roulette with our citys biggest asset.

You are forewarned how dangerous this company is, so when somebody gets hurt on that project the port is going to be liable, Carlson added.

Tara McElligott spoke representing the Washington & Northern Idaho District Council of Laborers, brought to the attention of the board a litany of Rotschy worker safety violations going back years, and also included safety violations as recently as last month.

They have a track record of being irresponsible and unsafe with workers lives, McElligott said. And I find it embarrassing that we awarded them a bid here.

She shared the results of an L&I public records request with port commissioners that showed Rotschy as having 188 violations between Jan. 1 2022 and March 5 of this year. Commissioner Jones said of McElligotts findings, I learned something new, and I consider myself pretty well-informed on this.

Based on McElligotts presentation, The Daily News was able to independently verify from claims that showed Rotschy received three citations totaling $24,600 earlier this year: (1) $12,000 on March 27 for multiple trench worker safety violations at a job site at Northwest 15th Avenue and 99th Street in Vancouver; (2) $9,900 on April 7 for fall hazard violations working a job at 240 Kalama River Rd. in Kalama and (3) $2,700 on April 18 for a worker doing Class II asbestos work  intact removal of a cement asbestos water pipe  who were not provided required training at a job site in at Northwest 16th Avenue and 99th Street in Vancouver.

Each of the violations were classified as serious, which according to L&I describes hazards that could lead to serious injuries including permanent disability or death. The trench violation, for instance described how a worker  who was a foreman  was exposed to engulfment and fall hazards while working in a trench more than 4 feet deep without cave-in protection or a safe means of access or egress. The violation falls between general and willful violations on L&Is scale.

Massie, when reached May 9, said the violations are under appeal, and that Rotschy is not in a position to comment.

That said, Rotschy remains firmly committed to the safety of all employees and subcontractors. As part of that commitment  and in coordination with settlement discussions  we are in the process of hiring an independent safety consultant to conduct comprehensive audits of our worksites and safety practices. This is one of several proactive steps we are taking to strengthen our safety program and ensure continued improvement, Massie said.

Among the safety violations McElligott highlighted was a 2024 violation involving confined space entry in a stormwater system with an 8-foot entry. The company had no confined space permit, no working LEL meter, no retrieval devices, no attendant looking out for the individual and no monitoring for hazardous gases.

Commissioner Jones said in a follow-up email that he was particularly alarmed by the safety violations highlighted. He said confined space and a lack of shoring are some of the leading causes of construction worker deaths.

The risks are universally understood in this business  or should be  and the hazards are documented in blood, Jones said. Moreover, for an excavation company the mitigation of these hazards and the procedures required should be muscle memory at this point.

Legal options discussed

The union officials called on port commissioners to pull the contract and put it up for bid again, but commissioners Jones and Erickson did not specify what legal options were on the table regarding the ports contract with Rotschy.

Wilson advocated for a pathway towards a compromise. He said the commission president, Erickson, could gavel him at any time as he floated ideas and asked port legal counsel questions that included, Can we modify an existing contract such as the one we have on a particular company and put a qualifier in there that says going forward or on our job site ... you know, if theres any violations on our job site it would trigger disciplinary or contractual change in obligation?

When asked whether Rotschy would be amenable to a modification of their contract, Massie said that their understanding was that Wilson suggested a potential agreement related to safety provisions, not a modification to the existing contract.

Rotschy is always open to constructive dialogue around safety and would be glad to consider such an agreement if presented.

Wilson said in his comment that wanted some recourse if something happens on site right then and there. He called it a tricky situation.

We have to be careful at the Port of Longview in that we cant have trial by social media, we cant have trial by newspaper, Wilson said. In fact, we really cant have trial.

Im just looking for something good faith, Wilson said. Im certainly not an attorney and I dont play one on TV.

Port CEO Dan Stahl said he is also not an attorney, and will review his options with staff.
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Credit: Stanford University

New research explores the communities and cultures being excluded from AI tools, leading to missed opportunities and increased risks from bias and misinformation.

Scholars find that large language models suffer a digital divide: The ChatGPTs and Geminis of the world work well for the 1.52 billion people who speak English, but they underperform for the world's 97 million Vietnamese speakers, and even worse for the 1.5 million people who speak the Uto-Aztecan language Nahuatl.

The main culprit is data: These non-English languages lack the needed quantity and quality of data to build and train effective models. That means most major LLMs are predominantly trained using English (or other high-resource languages) data or poor-quality local language data and not attuned to the rest of the world's contexts and cultures.

The impact? Not just inconvenience, but systematic exclusion. Entire cultures and communities are being left out of the AI revolution, risk being harmed by AI-generated misinformation and bias, and lose crucial economic and educational opportunities that English speakers gain through effective technology.

In this conversation, Stanford School of Engineering Assistant Professor Sanmi Koyejo, senior author of a new policy white paper on this topic, discusses the risks of this divide and, importantly, what developers can do to close it.

What are low-resource languages, and why is it so hard to make LLMs work well for them?

Low-resource languages are languages with limited amounts of computer-readable data about them. That could mean few speakers of a language, or languages where there are speakers but not a lot of digitized language data, or languages where there might be speakers and digital data, but not the resources to engage in computational work around the data. For instance, Swahili has 200 million speakers but lacks sufficient digitized resources for AI models to learn from, while a language like Welsh, with fewer speakers, benefits from extensive documentation and digital preservation efforts.

All of machine learning is highly dependent on data as a resource. We consistently find that models do really well when the tasks that they're asked to solve are similar to their training data, and they do badly the further away the data is. Because low-resource languages have less data, models perform poorly on these languages.

Why does this digital divide matter?

AI models, language models in particular, are having more and more impact on the world; they give people the potential for economic opportunity, to build businesses, or solve enterprise or individual problems. If we have language technology that doesn't work for people in the language that they speak, those communities don't see the technology boost that other people might have.

For example, there's a lot of promise in AI models and health care deliveryhelping with diagnosis questions or clinical support questions. There are assumptions that these models will have meaningful societal health benefits, long-term impacts on people's well-being, and potential economic impacts for large communities.

But all these assumptions break if people can't engage in the technology because the language isn't one that they understand. In regions where universal health care remains a challenge, AI-powered diagnostic tools that only function in English create a new layer of health care inequality.

We anticipate these gaps will get bigger. Think about global citizenship, or the ability to engage across companies, across cultures. This could be a lever for economic development or for advocacy for individual or group rights. These things could be harder for people who don't have access to AI tools in their languages.

Another potential growing gap is in employment. As AI transforms workplaces globally, workers fluent in English will advance while others face technological barriers to employment, widening economic inequality.

What approaches are developers taking to make LLMs perform better for low-resource languages?

I see a few techniques to close this gap. One way in which these techniques differ is in model size. Technologists can train very big models that capture lots of languages all at the same time; they can train smaller models that are tied to very specific languages; or there's a mix between the tworegional, medium-sized models that capture a semantically similar group of languages.

We have both technical theory and observed practice that suggests that you can improve performance faster if models can share information across different languages. For example, all of the Latin languages share words, phrasings, and linguistic structure. The particular language can be very different, but there's actually a lot that one can get across with, say, Spanish and Italian. Just as bilingual humans learn new languages faster by recognizing patterns, AI models can leverage the similarities between Spanish and Portuguese to improve performance in both.

People are also trying to use automatic translation as a way to fill the gap. The downside is error propagationanything complicated is hard to translate. In fact, in a paper we wrote recently studying models and the Vietnamese language, we found that a lot of baselines had used automatic translation, and they failed often because the phrasings were highly unnatural for Vietnamese. Word by word, they made sense, but it was culturally completely incorrect. Translation is scalable, but it doesn't capture the nuance of the way language is spoken and written. Because of this, I think translation can be a good bootstrap, but it is unlikely to solve the problem.

Another way to solve this is to get more data on these languages from the communities. That's actually a challenging problem. There's a long history of people parachuting into different communities and taking data without any benefit for the local community. Some communities are developing new data licensing models where language contributors maintain rights to their data while allowing AI development, ensuring both technological advancement and cultural sovereignty. Other communities decide to build their own models. It can be a deeply political, societal problem; data use can often slip into exploitation when we're not careful.

What's the most promising of these solutions?

The honest answer is, we don't know. My best sense right now is that the answer is context-dependent. What I mean is, what are the purposes for the model, and what is the societal and political landscape that we're building in? In some cases, this will matter more than the technical aspects. Think about language preservation, when there are so few speakers that a language may become extinct. For those, there is an argument that a separate model just for that context is most productive.

Meanwhile, a company may want a large-scale model for the economies of scale. That company may be concerned about model governancehow does it keep all the models updated? This is much easier if it's one big model that you have to maintain, rather than hundreds of models across languages.

Right now, I think the decisions are shaped by factors other than performance. However, I will highlight that we need more evaluation approaches specialized for low-resource languages that go beyond English-centric performance measures.

Language is not the only challenge here. Cultural values are imbued in LLMs. Does it matter?

It does a ton. We know that models out of the box often don't capture cultural values appropriately. Sometimes it's the awkward phrasing I mentioned before. There's a lot of old automatic translation that comes from well-structured sources like political gatherings. This has a fascinating effect because it's a very special version of language from congressional hearings or something similar, which is very different from a conversational style and extremely awkward when applied out of the box. They're not capturing how people actually speak.

There are other cases where this cultural gap can be bigger. There's been excellent research showing that many language models pick up values that match the language they've been trained on. My colleague Tatsu Hashimoto asked language models to answer PEW surveys to see what political perspectives they align with, and showed that many of the models ended up aligning quite strongly with California political perspectives.

That makes sense when we think about who's training the models and what they're picking up. Diyi Yang has done some excellent work looking at how language models work with dialects of English, showing they can be systematically incorrect for, say, African American dialects of English.

Language models, when not designed carefully, run the risk of collapsing rich language and cultural diversity into one big blob, often a U.S.-centric culture blob. Arguably, a lot of culture gets shaped by technology. The way people think about problems and the way they think about culture will often get shaped by the way they engage with technology.

Many cultural leaders across the world are worried about the erasure of their culture the more as language models become a dominant mode of technology. However, the white paper suggests strategic investments, participatory research, and equitable data ownership frameworks as specific recommendations for stakeholders moving forward.

More information: Mind the (Language) Gap: Mapping the Challenges of LLM Development in Low-Resource Language Contexts. hai-production.s3.amazonaws.co  the-language-gap.pdf
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers, including Kevin Butler, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida, is sounding the alarm on a disturbing trend in artificial intelligence: the rapid rise of AI-generated sexually explicit images created without the subject's consent.

Butler and colleagues from UF, Georgetown University and the University of Washington investigated a growing class of tools that allow users to generate realistic nude images from uploaded photostools that require little skill, cost virtually nothing and are largely unregulated.

"Anybody can do this," said Butler, director of the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research. "It's done on the web, often anonymously, and there's no meaningful enforcement of age or consent."

The team has coined the term SNEACI, short for synthetic non-consensual explicit AI-created imagery, to define this new category of abuse. The acronym, pronounced "sneaky," highlights the secretive and deceptive nature of the practice.

"SNEACI really typifies the fact that a lot of these are made without the knowledge of the potential victim and often in very sneaky ways," said Patrick Traynor, a professor and associate chair of research in UF's Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering and co-author of the paper.

In their study, which will be presented at the upcoming USENIX Security Symposium this summer, the researchers conducted a systematic analysis of 20 AI "nudification" websites. These platforms allow users to upload an image, manipulate clothing, body shape and pose, and generate a sexually explicit photousually in seconds.

Unlike traditional tools like Photoshop, these AI services remove nearly all barriers to entry, Butler said.

"Photoshop requires skill, time and money," he said. "These AI application websites are fast, cheapfrom free to as little as six cents per imageand don't require any expertise."

According to the team's review, women are disproportionately targeted, but the technology can be used on anyone, including children. While the researchers did not test tools with images of minors due to legal and ethical constraints, they found "no technical safeguards preventing someone from doing so."

Only 7 of the 20 sites they examined included terms of service that require image subjects to be over 18, and even fewer enforced any kind of user age verification.

"Even when sites asked users to confirm they were over 18, there was no real validation," Butler said. "It's an unregulated environment."

The platforms operate with little transparency, using cryptocurrency for payments and hosting on mainstream cloud providers. Seven of the sites studied used Amazon Web Services, and 12 were supported by Cloudflarelegitimate services that inadvertently support these operations.

"There's a misconception that this kind of content lives on the dark web," Butler said. "In reality, many of these tools are hosted on reputable platforms."

Butler's team also found little to no information about how the sites store or use the generated images.

"We couldn't find out what the generators are doing with the images once they're created," he said. "It doesn't appear that any of this information is deleted."

High-profile cases have already brought attention to the issue. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Melania Trump have reportedly been victims of AI-generated non-consensual explicit images. Earlier this year, Trump voiced support for the Take It Down Act, which targets these types of abuses and was signed into law this week by President Donald Trump.

But the impact extends beyond the famous. Butler cited a case in South Florida where a city councilwoman stepped down after fake explicit images of hercreated using AIwere circulated online.

"These images aren't just created for amusement," Butler said. "They're used to embarrass, humiliate and even extort victims. The mental health toll can be devastating."

The researchers emphasized that the technology enabling these abuses was originally developed for beneficial purposessuch as enhancing computer vision or supporting academic researchand is often shared openly in the AI community.

"There's an emerging conversation in the machine learning community about whether some of these tools should be restricted," Butler said. "We need to rethink how open-source technologies are shared and used."

Butler said the paperauthored by student Cassidy Gibson, who was advised by Butler and Traynor and received her doctorate degree this monthis just the first step in their deeper investigation into the world of AI-powered nudification tools and an extension of the work they are doing at the Center for Privacy and Security for Marginalized Populations, or PRISM, a center housed at the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. The paper is available on the arXiv preprint server.

Butler and Gibson recently met with U.S. Congresswoman Kat Cammack for a roundtable discussion on the growing spread of non-consensual imagery online. In a newsletter to constituents, Cammack, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the issue a major priority. She emphasized the need to understand how these images are created and their impact on the mental health of children, teens and adults, calling it "paramount to putting an end to this dangerous trend."

"As lawmakers take a closer look at these technologies, we want to give them technical insights that can help shape smarter regulation and push for more accountability from those involved," said Butler. "Our goal is to use our skills as cybersecurity researchers to address real-world problems and help people."

More information: Cassidy Gibson et al, Analyzing the AI Nudification Application Ecosystem, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2411.09751 Journal information: arXiv
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US President Donald Trump has helped Tesla CEO Elon Musk -- a former close aide -- promote his company from the White House.

US senators on Thursday blocked California's landmark mandate phasing out gas-powered cars, dealing a blow to the state's move toward electric vehicles in a pointed rebuke of Democratic climate change policies.

The Republican-led Senate revoked a waiver instituted under then-President Joe Biden that allowed the state to set aside national pollution standards for cars and set its own more stringent regulations.

But the Senate's rubber stamp of a House-passed bill was immediately set for a challenge, with California's liberal government announcing it would sue President Donald Trump's administration.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said the vote was a "big day for big oil, big day for GM and Toyota, big day for China.

"Terrible day for your kids, terrible day for air quality, terrible day for innovation and entrepreneurship."

The state, especially its biggest city, Los Angeles, historically tolerated the nation's worst smog before decades of efforts to clean up.

Part of that push was a mandate ensuring that one-third of new 2026 model cars sold in the state must be zero-emission, rising to two-thirds in 2030 and 100% in 2035.

Republicans in Washington argue that this is costly, unworkable and anathema to consumer choice.

"California got special permission from the Biden administration to ban gas-powered cars. Because of their market share, this would impact the entire nation," said right-wing Utah Senator Mike Lee.

"But Gavin Newsom doesn't get to ruin 49 other states."

Republicans argue that the Congressional Review Act gives them the right to overturn California's carve-out on a simple majority vote.

But Democrats say Thursday's move was illegal, as nonpartisan watchdogs including the Government Accountability Office and the Senate Parliamentarian said the CRA could not be applied to waivers.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he would sue over the Senate's move.

"The president and his administration are attempting to trample on our authority to maintain long-standing clean vehicle standards and keep our air breathable," he said.

"We're not going to let that happen... Our lawsuit will be about ensuring California can enforce its state laws."

The Senate has only overruled its parliamentarian a handful of times since the role was launched in the 1930s.

Trump harshly criticized electric vehicles (EVs) as he sought reelection, despite significant federal funding allocated to projects in Republican districts, where thousands of jobs are expected to be created.

He took aim at the sector as part of his flurry of executive orders on his first day in office in a bid to ensure what he called a "level" playing field for gasoline-powered motors.

But he has not been consistent in his oppositioneven taking time out of his schedule to promote his ally Elon Musk's prestige EV company Tesla at the White House.

US EV sales reached 1.3 million units last year, up 7.3% from 2023, according to Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book, but automakers have recently scaled back investments, pointing to slowing demand growth.

 2025 AFP
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

An East Bay Democrat in the state Legislature announced the details on May 21 of a hard-fought partnership between California and Google to kick financial assistance toward the state's news media, an industry that shrunk dramatically in the digital age.

But critics, including a former state senator, say the agreement falls short of earlier proposals that would have forced Google and other tech giants to pay newspaper publishers for using their content or harvesting data.

State Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a Democrat representing Oakland and Richmond, announced on Wednesday the creation of the California Civic Media Fund. The partnership between news media, Google and philanthropists would dole out a mix of public and private funds to media outlets. It would also fund an artificial intelligence "innovation accelerator" to develop tools for newsrooms, a spokesperson for Wicks said.

The agreement has the blessing of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last year, Google launched an intense, $10.7 million lobbying effort to derail lawmakers' plans to regulate tech giants and divert proceedings to the struggling news industry, Cal Matters reported.

So far, the partnership involves much less funding for newsrooms than Wicks, Google and Newsom originally intended when they reached an initial agreement in August.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, has agreed to contribute at least $10 million for the project's first year. The tech giant, which has a market capitalization of $2.05 trillion, may pitch in "additional matching dollars if more public, private or philanthropic money is raised," Wicks' office said in a news release.

Alphabet also said it will continue funding other programs, including the Google News Initiative. Last year, the company threatened to axe the program as lawmakers attempted to regulate the company, Axios reported.

The new agreement is far short of Google's pledge in August to contribute $250 million to the fund over five years, along with the AI accelerator. However, the company could contribute more in future years.

Newsom has also reduced the state's share to the media fund. The governor last week slashed proposed funding for the journalism fund from $30 million to $10 million for the 2025-25 fiscal year that starts in July. The cut came after Newsom's office said California faces a $12 billion deficit that it blamed on President Donald Trump's tariffs and spending on Medi-Cal. California lawmakers, a majority of whom are Democrats, must sign off on the allocation.

Erin Ivie, a spokesperson for Wicks, said in an email Wednesday that the media fund is a "good start."

"We're focused on what's possible, and right now that means securing real support for newsrooms, even if it's not everything we'd hoped for in past proposals," she said. "Something is better than nothing, and this approach lays the groundwork for even stronger investments ahead."

"We appreciate the leadership of Governor Newsom and Assemblymember Wicks in fulfilling the framework established last year," Jaffer Zaidi, vice president of global news partnerships at Alphabet, said in a statement. "We're committed to its success, and based on the agreement, we're pleased to match the state of California's initial contribution to the Civic Media Fund."

Last year, Wicks introduced AB 886, the Journalism Preservation Act, which she modeled on laws in Canada and Australia that require the tech giants to pay news organizations. Former East Bay Sen. Steve Glazer, who recently left office, introduced SB 1327, which would have supported media outlets through a tax on gathering user data.

Technology companies vigorously opposed the legislation, which the industry policy coalition Chamber of Progress called a "link-tax-funded news bailout."

Publishers countered that dominant online platforms, especially those of Google and Meta, use news content and divert advertising revenue from news publications, with most searches ending at the results page with answers snipped from online news articles that don't require clicking through to news websites.

When readers do click through to publishers' websites, they said, Google's control of digital advertising technology means it gets most of that money, too.

Glazer told Bay Area News Group on Wednesday that his proposal would have given California newsrooms a $500 million windfall each year in the form of a tax credit.

In a text, he called the new agreement "a 1% solution that will do little to arrest the massive decline of independent local news reporting in California."

"The long-term solution to resurrecting local news is making the tech platform financially mitigate the damage they have done to news advertising," he said. "They have acquired individualized data from Californians without compensation and used this info to steal ad dollars that have sustained news outlets for a hundred years."

Chuck Champion, president of the California News Publishers Association, declined to comment on the record.

The media fund will be administered by the California State Library with a nine-person advisory board representing newspaper publishers, media associations, the state library and the Media Guild of the West, a union that represents newsroom staff.

Glazer said the media fund would apparently be overseen by the California State Librarian, who is appointed by the governor. That could open the door to "political influence" in how the money is spent, he said.

Anthony York, a consultant and former spokesperson for Newsom, helped hammer out the agreement to establish the media fund. He said the funding approval process could be tweaked in response to concerns about political interference.

"We're open to having more checksthe idea was having public oversight over public dollars," York said.

The agreement in August had called for the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism to administer the fund. It's unclear why the California State Library will run the project instead of the school; York said he wasn't sure, and Wicks' office didn't say.

2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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The ultra-large photoelectrode system developed by the research team led by Dr. Jihye Lee at the Nano Lithography Research Center. Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM), under the National Research Council of Science & Technology, has developed a technology that stably generates high photocurrent under natural sunlight to efficiently produce hydrogen.

By simplifying previously complex multi-step processes, this advancement drastically reduces fabrication time and is expected to accelerate the commercialization of solar-powered hydrogen production technologies.

The research team led by Dr. Jihye Lee, a principal researcher and head of the Nano-lithography & Manufacturing Research Center at KIMM's Nano-convergence Manufacturing Research Division, has developed a technique to enhance the productivity of BiVO 4 (bismuth vanadate) photoelectrodes, thereby maximizing hydrogen production.

The results have been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A

BiVO 4 is a metal oxide recognized as a key material for solar water-splitting systems due to its high light absorption and solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency.

Previously, BiVO 4 precursor solutions could only be prepared at concentrations up to 100 mM. This limitation necessitated over eight repetitions of spin-coating and heat-treatment steps to form high-performance thin films, which significantly slowed the process and increased material consumption, resulting in low productivity.

The research team led by Dr. Jihye Lee, Director of the Nano Lithography Research Center at KIMM, has successfully demonstrated a 576 cm ultra-large photoelectrode system using a high-concentration BiVO (bismuth vanadate) precursor solution technology(From left in the photo: Dr. Jihye Lee, Student Researcher Hoyoung Lee). Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)

An experiment is being conducted to enhance hydrogen generation efficiency using solar cells under natural sunlight. Credit: Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM)

To overcome these limitations, the research team developed a high-concentration BiVO 4 precursor solution by optimally mixing acetylacetone, acetic acid, and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). With this new solution, a one-step spin coating is sufficient to produce uniform and high-performance BiVO 4 thin films, improving overall productivity by approximately 5.9 times compared to conventional methods.

Furthermore, the team fabricated a large-area 144 cm2 photoelectrode and connected four of them to create a 576 cm2 ultra-large electrode system.

Notably, by linking this system in parallel with Si solar cells, they succeeded in producing hydrogen using only natural sunlight, without any external power source. This system generated stable and high photocurrents even under natural sunlight, thus significantly improving the economic viability and efficiency of eco-friendly hydrogen production and enhancing the prospects for commercialization.

Dr. Jihye Lee stated, "This research represents a breakthrough in the fabrication efficiency and productivity of large-area photoelectrodes through the development of a high-concentration BiVO 4 precursor solution. We expect it will contribute to accelerating the transition to sustainable energy and the commercialization of green hydrogen production."

The research team has filed for domestic and PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents based on this technology.

More information: Hoyoung Lee et al, Breakthrough in the large area photoanode fabrication process: high concentration precursor solution with solvent mixing and one step spin coating for high PEC performance of BiVO4, Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2024). DOI: 10.1039/D4TA03349C Journal information: Journal of Materials Chemistry A
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Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The messages seemed innocuous, mundane even. Someone posing as a prospective guest emailed a hotel questions about a purported comment left on Booking.com. Another message was supposedly from that third-party booking site to review negative guest feedback.

But they were all fake. The emails were phishing scams designed to get the recipient to download malicious software to their computer that could steal financial information and credentials.

Now, a tech giant and governments around the world are dismantling a constellation of malware called Lumma Stealer that authorities say is behind that cyberattack. Lumma's digital infrastructure is being taken down by an international operation between Microsoft, the U.S. Justice Department, Europol and Japan's Cybercrime Control Center, according to statements from Microsoft and documents unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Atlanta.

Lumma is "one of the most renowned info-stealer malwares in existence," Steven Masada, assistant general counsel and director of the Digital Crimes Unit at Microsoft, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In 2024, Lumma infected 1.8 million hosts or devices, according to a report by cybersecurity company Flashpoint.

It is a type of malicious software sold through the dark web to people who want to steal passwords, credit card numbers, bank account information and cryptocurrency wallets. Lumma has enabled cybercriminals to infiltrate industries like transportation, finance and health care, hold schools for ransom and empty bank accounts, according to Microsoft.

Lumma has been around since 2022 and is part of the rise of cybercrime as a service industry, according to Masada.

It operates a bit like other software businesses, offering clients monthly or annual subscriptions at different pricing tiers depending on how much personalization and control they want of the software. It has been used by hundreds of cybercriminal groups and nation-state-affiliated groups worldwide, Masada said.

But instead of giving someone a word processor or the ability to edit PDFs, Lumma is used for nefarious purposes, like the cyberattack impersonating Booking.com, a major example of the breadth and depth of the malware.

"Cybercriminals are out there marketing and selling their services to other cybercriminals in order to effectively scale operations," Masada said. He called Lumma a link in the cybercrime supply chain.

Between March and May, Microsoft identified more than 394,000 Windows computers across the world that had been infected by Lumma malware. At least 532 computers were infected in Georgia, according to court documents. Atlanta was one of the U.S. cities most affected by Lumma.

Microsoft filed a federal civil lawsuit against Lumma on May 13 in Atlanta because of the high volume of victims in the region, including Booking.com, which has a large presence in the area. Booking.com did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Microsoft worked with other cybersecurity companies and law enforcement to share intelligence and work on dismantling different parts of Lumma's sprawling network.

Last week, Microsoft received under seal a court order allowing it to start taking down, suspending and blocking about 2,300 domains that were part of Lumma's infrastructure.

The Justice Department disrupted Lumma's marketplace and seized its central command structure. Europol's European Cybercrime Center and Japan's Cybercrime Control Center suspended Lumma infrastructure in their jurisdictions.

Microsoft will be redirecting the domains it has taken over into a cloud monitored by the tech giant to build intelligence and potentially identify more infected devices, Masada said.

But despite this coordinated operation, the identities of the people behind Lumma remain a mystery. All Microsoft officials say they have been able to piece together is that the primary developer is someone based in Russia who goes by the alias "Shamel" and that there are other people involved in the malware.

Microsoft received a temporary restraining order against 10 unidentified plaintiffs that include Shamel, other people allegedly supporting Lumma's infrastructure and clients of the malware.

But whoever is behind Lumma, Masada said he knows they will try to adapt and rebuild their infrastructure. The tech giant is hoping to eventually get an appointed court monitor to quickly give Microsoft the authority to seize new domains that may be spun up by malicious actors.

2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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We present Safe-Construct, the first 3D multi-view safety violation recognition model for construction sites. It consists of (a) a multi-camera setup, (b) a Synthetic Indoor Construction Site Generator (SICSG), and (c) a 3D cross-view association and compliance matching module. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2504.10880

Every day, millions of workers step onto construction sitesarguably some of the most hazardous environments in modern industry. Despite years of safety protocols, equipment upgrades, and training programs, construction continues to rank among the top industries for workplace injuries and fatalities worldwide. For years, we've asked: Could artificial intelligence help? So far, the results have been mixed.

Construction sites are dynamic, cluttered, and unpredictablefilled with workers, equipment, and heavy machinery. This chaos presents a major challenge for traditional computer vision systems, which are typically designed for clean, structured, and occlusion-free environments. While AI has transformed industries like autonomous driving and smart manufacturing, its impact on construction safety has lagged far behind.

At Carnegie Mellon University's Mechanical Engineering Department, we set out to advance computer vision solutions that make construction sites safer, smarter, and more efficientone of the most challenging and under-explored applications of AI in the broader computer vision community.

We designed a new model, Safe-Construct, which will be presented at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2025) Affective and Behavior Analysis In-the-Wild Workshop, held in Nashville June 1115. The paper is available on the arXiv preprint server.

The research team started with a simple question: What would it take to teach a machine to care about safety like a supervisor? Not in theory, but in practice. Not by merely counting hard hats in photosbut by seeing risk the way a human would. Or even better. The project, Safe-Construct, redefines how AI can "see" and respond to real-world safety risks in constructionnot hypothetically, but operationally.

Previous models train on crowd-sourced or web-mined data: Pictor-v2, Pictor-v3, and Roboflow framing the problem as a 2D object detection task. These lack 3D spatial understanding and scene-level worker-object context. These datasets are small, with most images having unrealistic resolutions and perspectives (see pictures 1-4 in Pictor-v3, 1-2 in Pictor-v2, and 2-7 in Roboflow). Realistic industrial setups do not feature workers in close camera proximity (<1m). (b) In contrast, Safe-Construct is the first multi-view 3D violation recognition model that leverages 3D spatial understanding and scene-level worker-object context. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2504.10880

Rethinking safety: From pixels to poses

Unlike conventional models that encode workers as mere bounding boxes which often fail in the unpredictable conditions of active construction sites, Safe-Construct takes a fundamentally new approach. It uses 3D multi-person, multi-view human pose estimation to monitor workers in real-timeidentifying safety violations, tracking posture, and analyzing behavior across multiple viewpoints and under varying conditions.

To our knowledge, this is the first time such a system has been designed specifically for dynamic construction environments. It can scale to any number of workers, adapt across industries, and operate live on-site. Most importantly, the model redefines construction safety violation recognition as a 3D Multi-View Engagement Task.

Synthetic images generated by SICSG depict variations in illumination, perspective, and backgrounds, enabling models to exhibit physical commonsense. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2504.10880

Built for the real world, trained in simulation

During training the model, the team leveraged synthetic data generation, Sim2Real transfer, and domain randomizationtechniques that essentially throw the AI model into hundreds of simulated what-if scenarios, preparing it to handle real-world unpredictability. Testing took place at CMU's Advanced Manufacturing Facility at Mill-19, a hub for robotics and industrial innovation.

The result: a generalizable system that doesn't just detect whether a worker is wearing a hard hatit understands how workers move, interact, and perform tasks, offering a deeper, more context-aware understanding of safety. It can even detect advanced violations, such as whether a ladder is being properly stabilized while another worker climbsan interaction that involves multiple workers, tools, and contextual understanding.

Beyond detection: Toward digital twins and egocentric vision

But Safe-Construct doesn't stop at violation detection. The team is now developing a full digital twin ecosystema live, virtual replica of the construction site that enables managers to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like safety, productivity, and quality.

Safety Violation Recognition Qualitative Results. We show the 2D re-projection of the worker and object's pose on the image plane: Rows (a), (b) show two safe scenarios, while (c), (d) illustrate two violations: (a) Worker wearing a hard hat, (b) Second worker holding the Step ladder when the first climb it, (c) Only one worker is carrying a Large window that should be carried by two workers showing a violation scenario (the small window is represented in magenta), (d) Two workers are standing on the Platform simultaneously. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2504.10880

The team is also exploring 360-degree camera systems and egocentric (first-person) vision, which can bring richer context and worker-centric data into the analysisdramatically reshaping how companies understand risk, assess workflows, and design safer operational protocols. The research team collaborated with YKK AP Inc. Japana global industry leader in building solutions, ensuring that Safe-Construct remains grounded in real-world needs and industry constraints, extending its impact far beyond the lab.

Construction may never be risk-free. But the future could be a lot safer, smarter, fasterand more human-awarethan ever before.

This story is part of Science X Dialog, where researchers can report findings from their published research articles. Visit this page for information about Science X Dialog and how to participate.

More information: Aviral Chharia et al, Safe-Construct: Redefining Construction Safety Violation Recognition as 3D Multi-View Engagement Task, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2504.10880 Journal information: arXiv

Aviral Chharia is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been awarded the ATK-Nick G. Vlahakis Graduate Fellowship at CMU, the Students Undergraduate Research Graduate Excellence (SURGE) fellowship at IIT Kanpur, India, and the MITACS Globalink Research Fellowship at the University of British Columbia. Additionally, he was a two-time recipient of the Deans List Scholarship during his undergraduate. His research interests include computer vision, computer graphics, and machine learning.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Texas House of Representatives voted on May 20 to approve a state bitcoin reserve bill, sending the year's highest-profile piece of crypto-related legislation to the governor's desk for a likely signature.

Senate Bill 21 would create the framework for the Lone Star State to stockpile bitcoin and potentially other cryptocurrencies, with control of the reserve, and any potential buying and selling therein, falling under the purview of the state comptroller.

The move amounts to a major policy victory for a resurgent cryptocurrency industry, which has established a major presence in Texas.

It also mirrors efforts underway at the federal level, as well as in other states, even as some argue the GOP-led effort in Texas runs counter to the traditionally conservative market principles the state has long been known for.

Addressing House members ahead of the vote, state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, called the reserve bill "a forward-thinking measure" that was about "recognizing digital assets not as a trend but as a strategic opportunity" and "strengthening the state's fiscal resilience."

He added, "Texas can take a leadership role in the evolving digital economy."

The measure sailed through the state chamber, also picking up a new amendment aimed at further restricting which cryptocurrencies would actually be eligible for inclusion. It passed with 105 votes in favor and 23 against, with the "nays" roughly split between fiscally conservative-minded Republicans and Democrats.

Some express doubts

Under state rules, Gov. Greg Abbott will have 10 days to sign the bill, veto it or let it become law without his signature or return it, although the House's decisive vote also means the body could potentially override a veto.

"The main reason [for voting no] was because it offered little oversight," Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, told The Dallas Morning News from the House floor, adding that he thought the bill favored wealthy private investors and incentivized risky investments.

While the broad movement to use crypto to create strategic government reserves has offered the industry a sentiment boost and, at least ostensibly, much-sought-after legitimacy, digital tokens are notoriously volatile.

The "crypto winter" that began in late 2021 wiped trillions off the sector's market capitalization before bottoming out, with many of the losses borne by small investors.

"So I thought it was maybe probably too volatile for us to really be doing it based at the taxpayers' expense," Reynolds added, "and at the risk of the general public."

SB 21, a follow up to an earlier state legislative effort, was introduced in February by state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, and buoyed by a strong endorsement from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who singled it out as one of his priority bills for the session.

Schwertner did not respond to inquiries this week from The News. But in previous remarks, he has cast the state crypto stockpile as a state-level financial response to what he's characterized as reckless Washington spending, on the basis that such a fund would provide a hedge against a difficult macroeconomic environment.

"It is a specific signal to our federal government," he said in a statement earlier this year. "The federal government can't continue to spend like this and expect our country to be as prosperous as it was in the past."

It's not yet clear how much public funding would actually be allocated into crypto: The bill does not include a specific amount, although language in the Senate budget could allow for funding in the coming weeks or months.

While New Hampshire became the first state to establish a crypto reserve, Texas could still become the first to actually fund one.

"We're recommending prudent standards," Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, a crypto lobbying group, said in an interview last week. "It'll be a negligible amount in the grand scheme of things for Texas."

Along with providing a kind of public funding portfolio diversification, establishing the reserve, the bill's proponents have argued, would also send a powerful signal of encouragement to the crypto industry.

"I think what it represents is Texas leaning forward," added Bratcher. "We are welcoming to capital formation and jobs and entrepreneurs that are coming from all over the country, particularly the West Coast."

Crypto as a whole has mostly rebounded after an extended stretch of dramatic price swings and washouts of the sector's highest-profile players.

The industry's fall from grace culminated with the scandal that brought down entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, which came to light in 2022, while the industry later received a second wind through regulatory approval of new products.

On Tuesday, bitcoin's price topped $107,000, close to an all-time record. Sentiment has also been bolstered by President Donald Trump, a relatively recent crypto cheerleader, who signed an executive order earlier this year aimed at creating a federal stockpile.

Similar reserve efforts are also underway or have been proposed in dozens of states, including Ohio, Arizona and North Dakota.

While the Texas reserve push has received support from members of both parties, plenty of others around the state are criticizing it as an industry-driven effort that would amount to a fiscally irresponsible misuse of public funds.

"If you go back to the roots of what crypto was created for, it was created to be a decentralized currency to have government out of things," said John Griffin, a finance professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "But yet now you're in a situation where you're trying to get the government to prop it up."

2025 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Lei Jun, co-founder and CEO of Xiaomi, speaks in Beijing on May 22, 2025.

Tech giant Xiaomi unveiled a new advanced in-house mobile chip on Thursday, a significant milestone for the company as Chinese firms shift resources toward home-grown technology against a bleak international trade backdrop.

Xiaomi, which sells goods from smartphones to vacuum cleaners and electric vehicles (EVs), is one of China's most prominent consumer electronics firms.

With the XRING O1, it becomes only the second smartphone brand globally after Apple to mass-produce its own 3-nanometer chips, among the most advanced on the market.

This despite being a latecomer to the chip industry, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said at a launch event on Thursday, joking that the feat had been "harder than ascending to heaven".

Xiaomi took early steps into semiconductors for smartphones with the launch of the firm's first in-house chip, the Surge S1, in 2017.

But the group was forced to halt production of the chip due to technical and financial obstacles.

Lei said the journey to developing the XRING O1 had taken over a decade.

"How much hardship, how much sweat, how much untold pain have been involved in these 11 years? How much courage and determination did it take to make this decision?" he said.

The XRING O1 will first be deployed in Xiaomi's new 15S Pro flagship smartphone and the Pad 7 Ultra tablet, which were also launched Thursday along with a preview of the firm's first electric SUV.

'Step to self-sufficiency'

A number of Chinese firms are racing to develop their own chips with the aim of freeing themselves from reliance on foreign suppliers.

Xiaomi is only the fourth smartphone brand globally to have developed its own system-on-chip, with Huawei the only domestic competitor.

"This represents yet one more step toward China reaching self-sufficiency in this crucial industry - as well as in broader ICT and electronics supply chains," Stephen Ezell from US-based think tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) told AFP.

Over the past few years, Washington has sharply tightened export controls on advanced chip technology to China, citing national security concerns.

Chinese chip foundries are restricted from accessing foreign equipment needed for cutting-edge chip productionmeaning that firms have to rely on overseas foundries for 5nm-process and below.

Xiaomi has not confirmed which company is manufacturing the XRING O1, though Lei said it uses the same second generation 3nm-process technology as Apple's latest chips.

Apple contracts Taiwanese chipmaking titan TSMC for its fabrication.

The chip is a "significant" achievement for Xiaomi, and allows it to reduce "its reliance on external designers" such MediaTek and Qualcomm, Washington-based semiconductor and technology analyst Ray Wang told AFP.

"Longer term, owning its SoC (system-on-chip) roadmap will insulate Xiaomi's devices from the USChina geopolitical tensions and help mitigate global supply-chain disruptions," he said.

 2025 AFP
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Zephira Arguello said she was told by her principal she would have a hard time finding a lawyer to take on her case to fight Kelly Walsh High Schools decision to bar her from wearing tribal regalia at graduation.

That might be the case, or not. Would Arguello even have time to fight a lengthy court battle in the months leading up to her graduation? Should she have to? Is the high school breaking any laws in the first place?

The Star-Tribune reported earlier this month on Arguellos fight to wear her regalia  a traditional buckskin dress, moccasins and a beaded cap  to graduation and high school Principal Mike Britts response.

Freedom of religious expression

Attorney and legal fellow for the Native American Rights Fund Malia Gesuale said while Wyoming does not have a specific law protecting the wearing of Native American regalia at graduation ceremonies, as many surrounding states do, the state does have a Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

State Rep Art Washut, R-Casper, who sponsored the legislation which passed this year, said the law creates a higher standard for the court system to use to determine if an individuals right to religious expression has been violated.

It further defines an exercise of religion as the practice or observance of religion, including an act or refusal to act, that is substantially motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not compelled by or central to a system of religious belief.

The law also indicated that a burden can be imposed even in cases of general applicability of a rule.

Washut, who sponsored the Religious Freedom Restoration Act this year, said he spoke about the Kelly Walsh cases with one of the attorneys who helped write the legislation.

In their conversation, Washut said the question of whether this was cultural or religious infringement came up.

And so certainly with Native Americans, cultural and religious are intertwined oftentimes, Washut said during an interview with the Star-Tribune. But that was an interesting question that was posed that made me think.

In a story earlier this month, the Star-Tribune reported on Abigail Miller, who graduated from Kelly Walsh in 2024. She wanted to wear an Eagle Feather attached to her cap. Britt told her no.

Is the KWHS graduation tradition of not allowing cultural representation appropriate? Following a previous story by the Star-Tribune, another student has revealed that Principal Mike Britt also denied her request to adorn her cap with a culturally significant item.

Eagle Feathers have a deep spiritual and religious tie to various tribes, including the Eastern Shoshone, which Miller is enrolled in.

Our culture believes that the eagle and by extension, the feather, are considered a direct connection to the creator, Thomas Miller, Abigails father, wrote in a text message to the Star-Tribune. The eagle feather represents more than just an award, it is a connection to our creator, and it symbolizes honor, integrity, loyalty, respect, happiness, peace and courage.

General applicability

One of Britts excuses to Arguello was if I let one minority do it, then I have to let the rest.

Gesuale said Britts argument is not valid against the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because these types of laws only question whether a specific person has been burdened.

The Native American Rights Fund does not represent Arguello or Miller in any legal capacity.

While the Restoration Act may have been able to aid Arguello, it does not go into effect until July 1, one month and two days after she will graduate.

The Star-Tribune reached out to the Natrona County School Districts legal counsel, but was unable to immediately with speak her Wednesaday.

In response to the Star-Tribunes request, Tanya Southerland, the school districts director of public relations, wrote in a text message, KWHS would like to reiterate that students are encouraged and are welcome to wear clothing of their choice that aligns with the NCSD dress code under their gowns. Students are also able to wear any footwear they choose. Students who have inquired about wearing leis, regalia, or other items that are not KWHS school-related were told and encouraged to wear those items under their gowns. This has always been in practice.

I would hope that we tread cautiously when it comes to government actions that infringe upon peoples religious freedom, and knowing that the strict scrutiny standard is going to be applied in the future, hopefully that means the governments will be a little more cautious about when and how they might infringe upon someones religious liberty, Washut said.

Other school districts

Even without that law, respecting and honoring traditional regalia is not an unusual occurrence at graduation, especially in a state with two federally recognized tribes.

Neighboring school districts even encourage the expression of culture and spirituality.

Jodi Ibach, superintendent of Fremont County School District #25, wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune that their students are allowed to wear regalia and traditional dress as long as the cap and gown are worn over top.

Photos provided to the Star-Tribune by the high schools yearbook teacher from last years ceremony show several students with beaded caps and various types of adornments around their necks.

To further acknowledge the accomplishments of these students and their culture, the Johnson OMalley Indian Education Parent Committee gives each Native American student a star quilt after they walk across the stage.

Superintendent Mike Harris said Fremont County School District #1 also allows their students to decorate their caps and wear additional adornments on top of their gowns, including leis, custom stoles and necklaces.

The Star-Tribune will continue to follow this story as it develops. The Kelly Walsh High School graduation is May 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Bilateral trade between Trinidad and Tobago and India reached a record TT$1.2 billion (US$368.96 million) in the last fiscal year, according to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

She disclosed this as she announced that her Government aims to expand exports to tap into Indias market of 1.4 billion consumers, and will pursue a Partial Scope Trade Agreementthe first from a Caricom countrywhile laying the foundation for a new Bilateral Investment Treaty.
ON Thursday night, when hosted at the Diplomatic Centre, Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared an experience that has been preserved by the nations diaspora for 180 years.

In images that have since gone viral, Modi was seen eating on the leaves of the sohari (Calathea lutea).

In a social media post to Angelo Bissessarsinghs Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago Facebook page, Patricia Bissessar said the serving of food on the leaves of the sohari is a practice rooted in Indo-Trinidadian cultural heritage, particularly among the Hindu community.
This years Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) results have revealed a concerning learning gap among primary school students, Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath has said.

Speaking at a recognition ceremony for the top five performers in the 2025 SEA yesterday at the ministrys head office in Port of Spain, Dowlath said the data will be analysed for better performance moving forward.
China's foreign trade maintains steady growth despite facing tariff barriers: spokesperson

Xinhua) 09:51, May 22, 2025

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade has maintained steady growth despite facing high tariff barriers, demonstrating that China is fully equipped, capable and confident in withstanding various risks and challenges, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Mao Ning made the remarks at a regular news briefing to comment on the impact of external factors such as tariffs on the Chinese economy after a recent U.N. report said global economic growth is expected to slow to 2.4 percent in 2025 due to heightened trade tensions along with policy uncertainty.

International media have described China's economic performance as "exceeding expectations" and "resilient," she said, citing trade figures in the first four months this year.

In the first four months, the total value of imports and exports of goods increased by 2.4 percent year on year while exports rose by 7.5 percent, demonstrating strong international competitiveness, she said.

Meanwhile, China continues to expand opening up, providing greater space and more stable expectations for foreign businesses, she added.

"All these demonstrate that China is fully equipped, capable and confident in withstanding various risks and challenges," Mao said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Last Tuesday, Gwynne Dyer headlined his Express column Stupid old men. You could substitute all sorts of adjectives before the words, old men, to describe the characteristics of the cohort that has had the most influence on the world we inhabit. Greedy, self-righteous, racist, arrogant, selfish, a multitude of negative words readily suit the clique.

At first, angrily thinking about the subject of todays column, I was focusing on Caribbean men in leadership positions who have been sleazy lechers, foisting themselves on hapless females and males with impunity.
Wildfires persistently pose a growing threat to Arizonas diverse terrain and communities. With increasingly severe fire seasons driven by rising temperatures, prolonged droughts and expanding wildland-urban interfaces, state and local fire agencies are using advanced technologies to mitigate risk.

Among the most transformative tools now integrated into Arizonas firefighting arsenal are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones. These aircraft provide real-time aerial surveillance, thermal imaging capabilities, and improved situational awareness, helping to advance fire prevention, response and recovery.

Enhancing Wildfire Response With Drones

Drones may be revolutionizing how Arizona fire departments approach wildfires. They enable emergency personnel to conduct rapid assessments over large and often inaccessible areas, potentially improving real-time decision-making and resource allocation. UAVs equipped with infrared and thermal cameras can be particularly effective in identifying hotspots not visible to ground crews or even piloted aircraft, potentially reducing the risk of flare-ups and secondary ignitions.

Arizonas Department of Forestry and Fire Management (DFFM) has actively incorporated drone units into its wildfire response protocols. In recent seasons, drones have been used to monitor the perimeter of active wildfires, direct suppression efforts, and document burn scars for environmental impact assessments. According to the agency, drone use has improved the speed and safety of suppression tactics, particularly during night operations when piloted aircraft are grounded.

Post-Fire Monitoring and Fire Safety Inspections

Drone applications can extend beyond active fire suppression. In Arizonas arid climate, post-fire monitoring is critical due to the high risk of smoldering hotspots that can reignite in dry, windy conditions  sometimes days after a wildfire appears extinguished.

Drones equipped with cutting-edge thermal imaging technology may offer a significant advantage in this context. By detecting residual heat sources below the surface or obscured by ash, UAVs can often help fire departments confirm complete extinguishment and prevent flare-ups, especially in remote or rugged terrain.

Drone Legal and Regulatory Framework in Arizona

Drone deployment for firefighting must comply with both state and federal law. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governs all U.S. airspace and imposes regulations under Part 107 of the Small UAS Rule. This requires certification for drone operators, flight restrictions near airports, and waivers for nighttime or beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations.

In Arizona, state law (A.R.S. 13-3729) prohibits operating drones in ways that interfere with emergency services. Violations may lead to criminal prosecution significantly if unauthorized drones obstruct aerial suppression. Arizona also restricts drone use near critical infrastructure such as utilities and prisons.

Public agencies, including fire departments, can apply for Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (otherwise known as COAs) from the FAA to conduct drone operations in specific airspace under defined conditions.

As of April 2025, no publicly available data specifying the exact number of Arizona municipalities and counties that have obtained or are seeking such authorizations exists. While several Arizona cities, such as Phoenix and Glendale, have established Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) programs within their public safety departments, the precise number of municipalities with FAA COAs in Arizona remains unspecified in available sources.

Addressing Privacy and Public Trust

Privacy remains a critical legal and public concern. While Arizona does not have drone-specific privacy laws beyond general nuisance and trespass statutes, government agencies must still adhere to constitutional privacy protections and ethical standards.

The United States Department of Justices sub-department, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, emphasizes developing comprehensive policies that include privacy considerations when implementing drone programs. 

In Arizona, agencies have begun adopting these practices. The City of Phoenix, for example, has established a UAS policy that outlines data management and retention procedures, ensuring compliance with public records laws. The Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity also has conducted privacy impact assessments to address data governance and retention schedules. These efforts reflect a commitment to building public trust while potentially expanding drone operations.

Operational Risks and Limitations

While drones could potentially enhance wildfire management operations, they present certain limitations and challenges that must be addressed to ensure safety and effectiveness.

Environmental Limitations: Extreme heat, strong winds and dense smoke can adversely affect drone stability and visibility, potentially hindering operational effectiveness during wildfire incidents.

Extreme heat, strong winds and dense smoke can adversely affect drone stability and visibility, potentially hindering operational effectiveness during wildfire incidents. Line-of-Sight Challenges: Maintaining the required visual line-of-sight with drones can be particularly challenging in mountainous or remote terrains, complicating their deployment and monitoring in such environments.

Maintaining the required visual line-of-sight with drones can be particularly challenging in mountainous or remote terrains, complicating their deployment and monitoring in such environments. Unauthorized Drone Activity: The presence of unauthorized private or hobbyist drones in wildfire zones poses significant risks. For instance, during the Ironwood Fire in Arizona , aerial firefighting efforts were suspended due to unauthorized drone activity in the vicinity. Similarly, the Tonto National Forest has reported instances where unauthorized drones were detected in wildfire areas, leading to the grounding of firefighting aircraft to ensure safety.

The presence of unauthorized private or hobbyist drones in wildfire zones poses significant risks. For instance, during the , aerial firefighting efforts were suspended due to unauthorized drone activity in the vicinity. Similarly, the Tonto National Forest has reported instances where unauthorized drones were detected in wildfire areas, leading to the grounding of firefighting aircraft to ensure safety. Regulatory Measures and Public Education: To mitigate such risks, the FAA often implements Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) around wildfire zones, prohibiting unauthorized aircraft, including drones, from entering these areas. Violating these TFRs can result in civil penalties of up to $20,000. Arizona authorities continue to educate the public on the dangers of flying drones close to wildfires and are considering enhanced airspace enforcement measures to prevent unauthorized incursions that jeopardize firefighting operations.

Emerging Trends: AI and Autonomous Drones

Artificial Intelligence (AI) appears to be the latest emerging trend, increasingly being utilized for early wildfire detection. Arizona Public Service (APS) has collaborated with Arizonas Department of Forestry and Fire Management to implement AI-powered camera systems capable of automatic fire detection and real-time alerting. These systems are generally piloted in high-risk forest areas to enhance wildfire response times. 

Regarding the future of drone technology in firefighting, while current UAVs are primarily used for surveillance and detection, advancements are being made toward enabling drones to carry and deploy fire retardants or water.

Heavy-lift UAVs capable of carrying substantial payloads are under development, aiming to target inaccessible flames effectively. Although not yet operational in Arizona, such fire suppression drones have been trialed in various regions, indicating the potential for next-generation UAV roles in firefighting operations.

Legal Guidance: Public and Private Sector Support

City attorneys or legal teams appointed by the municipality or county typically handle compliance issues involving drone deployment. These include interpreting FAA regulations, drafting local UAV usage policies and managing data privacy risks. Agencies may also consult the Arizona Attorney Generals Office or the Arizona League of Cities and Towns for legal guidance.

Comprehensive Legal Assistance

However, for departments or agencies seeking private-sector legal guidance related to more complex cases involving criminal defense, Lerner and Rowe Law Group in Arizona offers consultations to help those seeking legal clarity and representation.

Ensuring strict legal compliance can be essential to avoid regulatory penalties and to maintain public trust as drone use becomes more integrated into emergency response operations.

Wildfire Preparedness and State-Level Support

Arizona continues to prioritize wildfire readiness through increased attention on preparedness and mitigation strategies. Recent initiatives focus on equipping local fire districts, particularly in rural regions, with the resources and equipment needed to respond effectively to wildfires.

In addition to improved on-the-ground support, there is growing momentum for establishing centralized training facilities that would enhance coordination and response times across the state. These proposed centers aim to serve as hubs for wildfire management, bringing together first responders and experts for advanced training and simulation exercises.

At the utility level, new planning requirements are being discussed to potentially help reduce the risk of fire ignitions from infrastructure. These include vegetation management protocols and long-term mitigation strategies, encouraging a proactive stance in protecting high-risk areas from potential utility-related wildfires.

Together, these efforts generally reflect a broader shift toward collaborative, preventative approaches that could strengthen Arizonas ability to manage wildfires before they escalate.

The Path Forward: Advancing Wildfire Response With Smart Technology

Drones are already helping improve wildfire management in Arizona  enhancing situational awareness, supporting safer fire suppression and enabling faster recovery. With proper training, legal compliance and interagency coordination, drone programs may significantly improve wildfire resilience across the state.

It might be prudent for public agencies, policymakers and local leaders to explore responsible expansion of UAV technology. Arizona could potentially lead the way in more innovative, safer wildfire response by investing in innovation, supporting training and reinforcing operational best practices.

This content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. Please consult a lawyer for legal advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this contributor content belong solely to the contributor and do not represent the views of Lee Enterprises.

Lee Enterprises newsroom and editorial were not involved in the creation of this content.
A wildfire burning near Oracle continued to spread overnight, pushing east along its northern edge, fire officials said Thursday morning.

The Cody Fire started about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday and had grown to more than 1,300 acres by Thursday afternoon, Coronado National Forest officials said.

Wind activity is expected to push the fire quickly over the challenging terrain, the Thursday morning update said. Extreme fire behavior is expected again today due to the dry conditions, light and flashy fuels, and local fuel loading.

Tankers and helicopters were used throughout the day as crews targeted hot spots and worked to establish containment lines, officials said.

An update on the fire had not been posted in time for the Stars print deadline Thursday afternoon.

The blaze prompted an evacuation Wednesday night for areas in the eastern portion of the Oracle area. The evacuation area expanded Thursday to includes parts of San Manuel.

The Cody Fire was the second wildfire in the Oracle area in about a 24 hours period.

An evacuation site was opened at the Mammoth Community Center, 101 W. Fifth St. And the Red Cross set up a shelter in Oro Valley at Canyon Del Oro High School, 25 W. Calle Concordia.

Some road and hiking trails were closed in the area.

In addition to the evacuation zones so far, other residents of the Oracle area and in San Manuel have been told to prepare for possible evacuation. Oracle, with a population of a few thousand, is about 40 miles north of Tucson.

The Cody Fire, which has zero containment Thursday morning, is east of the Cedar Fire and not connected with it, the Forest Service says. The cause is under investigation.

The smaller Cedar Fire started just before 5 p.m. Tuesday near Oracle. It also was located inside the Coronado National Forest.

Crews stopped the Cedar Fires progress Wednesday morning. It was about 10 acres in size and about 50 percent contained Thursday afternoon, officials said.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs visited a Head Start program on Tucsons south side Wednesday to highlight the importance of it and the consequences that cutting the federally-funded program would have across the state.

Hobbs stopped at Liberty Elementary School, home to Liberty Head Start, where she was joined by parents and staff from the nonprofit Child-Parent Centers, which delivers Head Start and related programs throughout Southeast Arizona.

Head Start is a key driver for the future of the state, Hobbs said, and if it were to go away due to federal funding cuts, it would have dire consequences for kids and their families across Arizona, she said.

Head Start is a program that works, and is a central part of Arizonas learning community. I know in some communities, particularly in rural parts of the state, its the only early learning opportunity for a lot of families, Hobbs said. Losing Head Start funding would create a huge hole that we dont have the capacity to backfill. I dont know if a lot of states do.

Head Start provides early education for children aged 3 to 5 years old from lower-income communities and families who are at or below the federal poverty level. It was created in 1965 under President Lyndon B. Johnson. In Arizona, Head Start programs serve more than 17,000 children.

In April, the Trump administration proposed deep cuts to Head Start as part of sweeping budget cuts in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Associated Press and other news outlets have reported. An updated budget released earlier this month walked back on the cuts. And a few days ago, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing that his agency would preserve the program.

Hobbs said she was encouraged by the apparent change of heart.

Every sign that we get from Washington, that they understand how critical programs like Head Start are, is a good sign, Hobbs said. I will continue to advocate, but Im very hopeful that they understand how impactful programs like this are to families who need it the most across Arizona.

Not having Head Start would be devastating, said Araceli Palafox, a single mother of four and member of the state CPS policy council.

My presence in their life would be very limited ... it would be devastating, but most importantly, my child wouldnt receive the education that they receive here. They wouldnt get the social emotion skills, and it might be traumatic for them when I would be dropping them off, Palafox said.

If I could tell Congress anything, I would tell them to fight for our case and support Head Start, because theyre supporting the future of America, because this is where it starts, right here at Head Start.
For the second year in a row, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is blasting Republican legislative leaders for what she said is inaction and stonewalling on rural groundwater legislation.

Speaking Wednesday at a University of Arizona-sponsored water conference in Tucson, Hobbs said Republican legislative leaders would rather bury their heads in the sand than move forward. If anything, the bill theyve pushed this year has taken us backwards compared to the legislation that was under discussion last year, Hobbs said.

But Sen. Tim Dunn of Yuma, a co-sponsor of Republican-backed rural groundwater legislation both years, said many farmers and others in rural communities lost any desire to work with Hobbs this year because of what he termed her aggressive action to establish an Active Management Area in the Willcox Basin last December.

The Governors Office, legislative Democrats and legislative Republicans have been unable to find common ground on a bill that would for the first time usher in a system to regulate groundwater pumping in some rural areas.

In both years, the two parties have failed to agree on how many areas of the state should be governed as rural groundwater management areas, how much those areas should be able to reduce pumping, and how the management of these areas should be structured.

The current Republican-backed bill would establish such areas in the Willcox Basin, the Gila Bend Basin southwest of Phoenix and the Hualapai Basin in northwest Arizona. The Democratic-backed bill, which now appears dead for the year, would have added rural groundwater management areas in the San Simon Basin in far southeast Arizona and the Ranegras Plain Basin in La Paz County in western Arizona.

Last year, the two parties appeared to come close to compromise but ultimately failed. This year, the two sides appear to be at least as far apart if not farther than last year.

Currently, no groundwater pumping regulations exist in most rural areas outside Arizonas major metro areas including Tucson and Phoenix, Pinal County and the Prescott and Nogales areas. Douglas-area residents voted in 2022 to create a state-run Active Management Area for their region, and in late 2024 the state designated the highly over-pumped Willcox Basin as a similar management area.

This year, Democratic legislators have pushed a bill backed by some county supervisors in rural counties that would require rural groundwater management areas to order farmers and other users in the area to reduce pumping by 10% during the first 10 years and allow for additional reductions of 5-10% during each of three additional decades. That bill died after it failed to get a committee hearing in either chamber.

The Republican bill would allow for pumping reductions of 10% in the management areas first 10 years but nothing beyond that. It has cleared the state Senate but not the House.

Republicans have said the Democratic bill would be regulatory overreach and cause economic harm to farmers. Democrats have said the conservation allowed by the Republican bill would be inadequate when more than half of the states 51 groundwater basins are now experiencing groundwater overdrafts in which more water is pumped than recharged.

But the legislative majority has actually taken us backwards from a bill they worked on and amended last year, Hobbs said, speaking Wednesday at an annual conference sponsored by UAs Water Resources Research Center.

Last years bill, which died in the Legislatures closing days, would have allowed for curbs on pumping of up to 15%.

We know that with a 300-400% overdraft in some areas, 10% wont move things, Hobbs said. They continued their tradition of stonewalling.

She implied that more state-created Active Management Areas such as the one declared in the Willcox Basin could follow if legislative solutions arent agreed upon.

Ill take whatever action I can, as in the Willcox AMA. Were willing to work together with people to find solutions. Were still willing to negotiate solutions. There is still a small group of legislators standing in the way, she said.

Dunn, however, said, The governors aggressive, emotional, and hasty maneuver in Willcox killed the willingness of stakeholders to negotiate with her. They believe she is dead set on decimating local economies.

Hobbs is not a dictator, and she should not act as such. We will continue our work to negotiate with all parties involved, despite the governors antics, he said.
PHOENIX  Arizona is taking its first steps to potentially adopting meaningful and measurable standards to ensure employers are keeping their workers safe in the heat.

In a new order Thursday, Gov. Katie Hobbs formed a task force to come up with a proposal by the end of the year detailing what changes are needed in standards that govern worker safety.

Strictly speaking, companies already are supposed to protect employees from being injured or made ill from heat.

But that exists only within the general  and non-specific  duty of employers to provide a safe workplace. While there are guidelines, there is nothing in the rules that tell employers exactly what steps they are expected to take, including providing shade, water, rest periods and even training and acclimatization of new workers.

The lack of specifics can make it harder to go after errant companies, said Dennis Kavanaugh, who chairs the Industrial Commission of Arizona.

The general duty clause is sometimes difficult to define, said Kavanaugh. Or you had to be very good at collecting your evidence to support it.

He should know: Kavanaugh used to head the agencys legal department  the folks who had to make the case that an employer was creating an unsafe environment.

More definitive rules, Kavanaugh said, will help not only the commission but companies who then would know exactly what they are required to do  and what will keep them from getting into trouble with the commission.

I think employers appreciate having specificity and certainty in terms of what they need to do in certain conditions, he said.

In some ways, the state is late to the table in all of this.

Tucson adopted its own requirement last year that companies doing business with the city must have specific heat safety plans, detailing everything from the availability of water and access to shaded areas or air conditioning to the ability to take regular and necessary breaks as needed.

Phoenix has similar rules.

And Tempe is moving ahead with its own very specific safety plan for anyone who works outdoors, with requirements that water and shade be available within a quarter mile of work areas and a mandate for 10-minute breaks every two hours during heat advisories.

That compares to what exists now at the state level are more general guidelines, including the availability of the commissions Division of Occupational Safety and Health to offer free and voluntary consultations for employers.

All this  if it occurs  could be a big change.

Arizonas oversight is based on a state law that now requires that employers must provide a workplace that is free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. But there is nothing that spells out at exactly what point, when it comes to working in the heat, that the actions or inactions of a company cross the line.

One reason the state does not now have anything more specific is that his agency has been collecting data, said Gaetano Testini, the commission director. That process has become more formalized with the formation of the task force which includes not just health and safety experts but a fair number of representatives of both industry and labor, Testini said.

That task force is supposed to report back by the end of the year, with the recommendations going to the full commission.

But it remains unclear what eventually will result. And Testini sidestepped questions about how specific those recommendations will be  like whether there will be actual numeric standards about what a company has to do to protect its workers when the heat reaches a certain point.

Lets see what the task force comes up with, he said.

Then it will get presented to the commissioners, Testini said. The commissioners will vote on it.

But even the governors executive order provides a bit of leeway  and the possibility that, even after all this, there will not be hard-and-fast standards.

Hobbs is calling what the task force is being asked to produce to be heat guidelines for employers. And Kavanaugh said the five-member commission may conclude that, rather than enacting a formal rule with standards, it might be preferable to approve guidance that employers can use to determine what will keep them out of trouble.

In fact, the only mandate in the governors order is for the commission to create a recognition program for employers that go above and beyond basic safety requirements ... with regard to heat safety.

Kavanaugh said that, even with only the current general requirement to keep workers safe, Arizona employers seem to be doing a good job of protecting their workers.

We havent had very many heat-related injuries and fatalities, really, over the last two years, he said.
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A split 4-4 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court leaves intact an earlier ruling by Oklahoma's highest court that a proposed religious charter school is unconstitutional.

Oklahoma Catholic leaders and the state board that initially offered them sanctioning appealed after a proposal to expand Catholic religious teachings to rural areas through a publicly funded St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was halted by the Oklahoma Supreme Court before the scheme ever got off the ground.

Now the disappointed leaders of the Tulsa diocese and Oklahoma City archdiocese say they "are exploring other options for offering a virtual Catholic education to all persons in the state.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who successfully challenged the constitutionality of requiring taxpayers to fund a religious school, celebrated the Supreme Court's ruling on the matter.

"I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty," Drummond posted on social media.

The case hinged on Oklahoma Catholic leaders insistence that charter schools, which are defined in state and federal law as public schools, are actually private schools  and that denying them equal access to government funding to operate one would violate their right to free exercise of religion.

Many of the founders and top advocates of charter schools across the nation opposed the idea, arguing in friend-of-the-court briefs that the idea for St. Isidore posed a threat to all charter school funding and the original concept behind them as a public school alternative to school district-operated traditional public schools.

"The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court" was the result of the appeal by St. Isidore and the Statewide Charter School Board to the U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday morning.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the matter, opening the possibility of the 4-4 tie by the remaining justices.

Thursdays announcement by the Supreme Court gave no indication as to which justices voted for or against the St. Isidore charter school proposal, but Chief Justice John Roberts was widely considered to hold the deciding vote  which was most likely a vote alongside Justices Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor to affirm the Oklahoma Supreme Court's ruling that the state's contract to sanction and fund St. Isidore was unconstitutional.

As reported by the Tulsa World after oral arguments in late April, Roberts only questions of the day centered on the state of Oklahomas role in St. Isidore as a charter school, including the role government plays in charter schools curricula.

St. Isidores proponents had said the application for state sanctioning and funding was developed in concert with a religious liberty clinic at the University of Notre Dame Law School, where Barrett, one of the high court's conservative bloc members, once taught.

She also has past ties to the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, whose lawyers are handling the Statewide Virtual Charter School Boards half of the appeal to the Supreme Court.

From 2011 to 2017, Barrett was paid to teach at a summer program for Christian law students that was facilitated by the ADF.

Reactions to the SCOTUS opinion

Drummond, who pushed back against the position of Gov. Kevin Stitt and Stitt's previous appointed attorney general, John O'Connor, on the St. Isidore proposal from his earliest days in elected office in early 2023, continued to explain himself while celebrating Thursday morning's ruling.

"The Supreme Court's decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding. This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children," said a press statement from Drummond, who has already announced his candidacy for governor in 2026.

I have always maintained that we must faithfully uphold the Constitution, even when it requires us to make difficult decisions. I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values, and defending religious liberty  regardless of how difficult the battle may be.

Tulsa Bishop David Konderla and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley released this joint statement: Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Courts decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.

We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma. And we stand committed to parental choice in education, providing equal opportunity to all who seek options when deciding what is best for their children."

Stitt, meanwhile, slammed the 4-4 tie as "a non-decision" and indicated that a similar, new legal challenge would be in the offing.

"Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie," Stitt said in a press statement. "This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination."

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools was among 76 organizations from within the charter school movement  including charter school authorizers or sponsors, school leaders and parents  that submitted court briefs in favor of the Oklahoma Supreme Courts 2024 decision that a religious charter school would be unconstitutional.

"Todays decision from the Supreme Court leaves the lower Courts ruling in place and sends an important message: public charter schools are just that, public. This case may not be the last time the Court takes up the question of religious charter schools, but todays outcome offers clarity for families and educators," said the group's president and CEO, Starlee Coleman.

"Charter schools were launched to offer more public-school options. Families choose public charter schools because they provide innovative, student-centered learning environments tailored to students unique needs and because they are accountable to families and taxpayers. Thats what makes them special, and thats what were here to protect.

"With this legal clarity, we can move forward with renewed focus on expanding access to high-quality public charter schools for every family nationwide," Coleman continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union also filed a Supreme Court amicus brief, arguing that the Oklahoma Supreme Court correctly ruled that charter schools are public schools and, as such, must abide by state and federal constitutional protections.

Requiring states to allow religious public schools would dismantle religious freedom and public education as we know it, said Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU. Today, a core American constitutional value remains in place: Public schools must remain secular and welcome all students, regardless of faith.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, whose lawyers have been working for a group of Oklahoma taxpayers that filed the first legal challenge to the St. Isidore charter school proposal in district court, hailed Thursday's outcome as a "safeguard" to public education and the separation of church and state.

"Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students," said Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser. "St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which planned to discriminate against students, families, and staff and indoctrinate students into one religion, cannot operate as a public charter school. A religious public school would be an abject violation of religious freedom.

"We will continue our efforts to protect inclusive public education. We call on this nation to recommit to church-state separation before this safeguard of democracy and freedom is further attacked.

The Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee, the lead plaintiff in that original lawsuit, also reacted Thursday. The group is a statewide, grassroots network of parents and educators that advocates for nonpartisan solutions to improve and protect public education.

Today, were celebrating a huge victory for students, taxpayers, religious people and democracy," said OKPLAC Chairwoman Misty Bradley. "The Supreme Courts decision upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Courts ruling that taxpayer funding of a religious public school is unconstitutional. The parents of OKPLAC were proud to be the original plaintiff in this case, and we are thrilled with this long-awaited outcome.

Asked about the future of that district court challenge to St. Isidore, which has been on hold because of the U.S. Supreme Court cases, Doug Mann, a Tulsa lawyer who has worked on behalf of the taxpayer group, responded:

"We will be discussing next steps in our district court case with our clients and co-counsel, but given this wonderful outcome in favor of the AG and the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the law on this issue in Oklahoma now is very clear and leaves in place the Oklahoma Supreme Courts ruling that chartering the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School would violate state law and the U.S. Constitution.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters, who is considering a run for governor in 2026, took to social media to call the SCOTUS decision a win for "the radical Left."

In an official press statement from his state office, Walters also said: Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of 19th century religious bigotry is wrong. As state superintendent, I will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or otherwise."

State Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, assistant Democratic leader in the Oklahoma House, said: Today, our U.S. Constitution held strong. In Oklahoma, we have had a front row seat to the effort to embed religious instruction into our public schools. Today, we are reassured that religious teaching, no matter the denomination or belief, remains in the rightful hands of parents and guardians, and not on the shoulders of Oklahoma taxpayers.

Andrea Eger's reporting on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School
It is yet to be formally renewed but casting has opened for a second season of The Floor for Nine.

Filming for the first season took place in the Netherlands and a casting notice says, You must be Australian  though you can be living in Australia, or Europe, or the UK / Able to travel for up to one week for filming in a European location / Aged 18 years and over.

Season 1 procued by Eureka drew upon many expat Australians living in Europe, and while the show has been a big hit for Nine, it doesnt necessarily mean they will fly all 81 contestants for S2 from Australia. But there may be a good chance of a higher proportion of Aussie residents given the show has performed well.

The application asks, Do you plan to be living or travelling in UK, Ireland or Europe in August  September 2025? / Are you available for filming up to 1 week at some point between August  September 2025? which is a telling indication of the shooting period.

Season 1 concludes next Monday night. Id tip a formal renewal for Tuesday, if not before.

You can apply here.
In April, Harold Bishop (Ian Smith) was farewelled from Ramsay Street, as he headed north to Queensland (of course).

But Neighbours executive producer Jason Herbison then told TV Tonight, We did manage to film an additional moment that has no yet gone to air  viewers will see it in the coming weeks. Its a small moment but its very special indeed.

That scene will screen on 10 next Tuesday.

Its a cameo for Ian Smith, but it also brings to a close the storyline for Agnes, as played by Anne Charleston.

Wait for the final words from Harold

These are the last scenes recorded by both. Of course Neighbours will shoot their next finale in July, so dont rule out another nod or appearance just yet. Who knows?

4pm Tuesday on 10.
The New Zealand Television Awards are rebranding to the New Zealand Screen Awards, celebrating excellence across all screen content, including both television and film.

This will encompass content exhibited theatrically, in addition to programmes made for broadcast, streaming and digital platforms.

The New Zealand Screen Awards will honour outstanding achievements across scripted, factual, documentary, news & current affairs content in production, direction, acting, writing, and technical fields, now with a clear emphasis on both small and big-screen content.

Weve seen an incredible growth in the diversity of content being created in New Zealand, with many exceptional productions blurring the lines between television, digital and feature, said New Zealand Screen Awards Committee Member Kelly Martin. Rebranding to the New Zealand Screen Awards is a natural progression as we aim to celebrate the full scope of our local screen industry.

NZ On Air, NZ Film Commission and Te Mangai Paho are excited by the expansion of the awards to include film. The agencies CEs  Annie Murray, Cameron Harland and Larry Parr  jointly said: This is absolutely the right thing to do, acknowledging that those who work on the excellent films created in Aotearoa deserve recognition and that many people involved in creating screen content work across film and television. We look forward to celebrating the best in Aotearoa screen content and supporting what will be an uplifting event for our sector.

The New Zealand Screen Awards this year also welcomes a new Committee member as long-serving member Producer Bailey Mackey steps down, along with filmmaker Roseanne Liang. Joining the NZSA Committee is actor, writer, director and 2024 Arts Laureate Miriama McDowell.

The inaugural New Zealand Screen Awards will take place in Aucklan later this year. Entries will open on Monday 30 June.
The Piano heads to Sydney Metro this Sunday as Amanda Keller meets more undiscovered talent impressing commuters -and secret judges- with their musical prowess.

As critically acclaimed musicians Harry Connick, Jr. and Andrea Lam watch on in secret, we welcome Chris, a mullet-rocking grave digger from Gympie who declares music is the one thing that will keep you alive as he launches into his rendition of House of The Rising Sun.

And the talent keeps on coming as Darwins Georgie Wilson, son of George Burarrwanga, the legendary lead singer of the Warumpi Band, steps up to play a heartfelt solo piece in memory of his father.

Adding to the atmosphere at Sydney Metro is Fiona, a 63-year-old amateur dramatics fanatic who creates a spontaneous station singalong with her rousing rendition of Irving Berlins Theres No Business Like Show Business, eighteen-year-old John, who struggled with bullying at school but has embraced confidence through music, as well as young mother-of-two Sarah, who has found solace after the loss of her husband through the healing power of her piano.

7:30pm Sunday May 25 on ABC.
Representatives of Central Asian countries have come together to maximise the regions economic opportunities and make an effort to support Afghanistan, which is now signalling a business-oriented international outreach after years of isolation.

The Termez Dialogue on Connectivity Between Central and South Asia, which included leaders from Central Asian countries along with India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was held in the southern Uzbek city of Termez.

The meeting was initiated by Uzbekistan, a strong supporter of the economic integration of its neighbour Afghanistan, which is now in the fifth year of the Taliban government.

The Central Asian countries have for years been pushing for what they call "acceptance of reality" in the region and engagement with Afghanistan.

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In 2022 Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, proposed a platform for Central and South Asian countries to collaborate, which was later reflected in a UN General Assembly resolution.

The meeting in Termez is an effort to turn the ideas presented in the resolution into a reality.

Taliban fighters hold their flag as they celebrate one year since they seized the Afghan capital Kabul, 15 August, 2022 - AP Photo

"The main goal of this dialogue is to create a permanent, functional platform within which the representatives of Central and South Asian countries can discuss a wide range of cooperation issues, from interconnectivity, trade and economic cooperation to humanitarian exchange," Eldor Aripov, Director of the Institute for Strategic and Regional Studies, said.

Most of the region's countries have already started their first infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

There are now high-voltage power lines to Afghanistan running from both from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Through them Afghanistan receives regular aid in the form of electricity.

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Turkmenistan's deputy foreign minister Temirbek Erkinov pointed out a new road and a railway from his country to Afghanistan projects are in the planning for the route to be extended as far as the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Central Asian countries and the Taliban

The participants in the Termez talks repeatedly pointed out the cultural and historic ties between the countries in the region and were all clear about one thing.

Since they became independent from the Soviet Union, the landlocked countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, were cut off both from the nearest deep sea ports in Pakistan and from the vast markets of Pakistan and India due to ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

No pipeline, road or railway line was viable through the vast swathes of Afghanistan that were deemed unsafe.

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That situation has changed and Afghanistan now has a government which seems to be able to provide security for major projects. An opportunity not to be missed, in the opinion of Central Asian leaders.

"We want active engagement on a number of concrete infrastructure projects, first of all Afghan Trans Railway Corridor. You know that all the countries of the region are land-locked, Uzbekistan is double-land locked as we have to cross two borders to reach the nearest sea," explained Aripov.

Shops in the Uzbekistan free trade zone - Euronews

"This is why the question of transport communication is the most important topic for all the central and south Asian countries. We are committed to the Trans Afghan corridor above all because it will connect Pakistani ports to the countries of Central Asia."

"Right now, trade between Central and South Asia is worth five billion dollars. That is nothing. It does not remotely reflect the potential thats there. Europe is much further away and our trade exchange with them is ten times higher," he added.

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Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister Mohammad Naeem Wardak joined the summit to announce Kabul's intentions to get involved in trade, transit and stronger regional economic cooperation, to act what he called "a regional connector and a transit route."

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is making efforts to make Afghanistan the connectivity point in this region. Afghanistan's position is to the benefit of all the countries around us in the region," he said.

He insisted that Afghanistan is already providing security in the region by tackling drug trafficking, eradicating poppy fields and fighting organised crime and terrorism.

But his government is eager to engage more, economically, he said.

"Afghanistan is centrally located and is the bridge between Central and South Asia. As such, it represents a bridge. Unfortunately, we had 40 years of fighting and the opportunity did not exist. Now, thanks to Allah, with the return of the Islamic Emirate, the opportunities for development are in place," he told Euronews.

Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev told Euronews that using Afghanistan's potential and involving the country in the regional economic flows is key to the region's permanent economic growth and peaceful future.

If we present in the right way all the potential Afghanistan has and could have with the Central and South Asia to its de facto government, then it will be a good stimulus for them to reach out to the international community, talk to them and be a civilised partner," Irgashev said.

"It is exactly for this reason that the president of Uzbekistan, Mr Shavkat Mirziyoyev, tries so hard to attract the attention of the international community to Afghanistan and appeals that the country should not be viewed as the source of strife. We would prefer to look at Afghanistan as the country of possibilities, he explained.

Symbolism of the Silk Road

The city of Termez, situated on the border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan on the bank of the Amu Darya river, has been a logistics hub for the caravans travelling between east and west along the ancient Silk Road.

During Soviet times it was reduced to a distant outpost and served as the Red Armys entry point to Afghanistan in 1979.

A project which envisions the city regaining some of its former glory and bringing the prosperity of a trade hub is under way.

The Termez Dialogue on Connectivity Between Central and South Asia - Euronews

On a patch of land on the border, Uzbekistan built a free trade zone in 2024 for Afghan companies and a logistics centre.

Afghan nationals can enter the zone as part of a 15-day visa-free regime.

Almost half a million Afghans have already made use of the opportunity, opening businesses thanks to a simplified registration procedure and enjoying duty free trade.

Around 100 shops are currently active there and a further 500 have been announced. A cargo centre within the zone is used to load more than 70 lorries, and a daily train transports goods to both sides of the border.

A modern hospital, opened last year, with 380 doctors working in 15 different areas has treated around 48,000 Afghan patients, paid for by the Uzbek government.

Related

Around 300 complicated surgeries were performed that patients were unable to have in Afghanistan.

A business school for medium and small enterprises was also opened and teaches some 500 shop owners how to run and develop their business.

"We have seen the surge of trade contracts in the last year. Last year the increase was 160%, and they are now worth $560 million (494 million)," said the governor of the Surkhandarya region, Ulugbek Kosimov.

He also hopes that the development of trade routes from Russia in the north to India in the south and from Iran in the west and China in the east, with all the countries along the road, will see his province prosper in what he called a "new renaissance".
Juno Joule Green Energy Signs MoU with Select Energy GmbH at World Hydrogen Summit 2025

Vijayawada, May 22 (UNI) Juno Joule Green Energy Limited, a fast-growing Indian leader in renewable energy solutions, announced the signing of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Select Energy GmbH, a renowned German clean energy firm, at the prestigious World Hydrogen Summit 2025 on May 21 in Rotterdam, Netherlands.



The agreement, formalised at the World Hydrogen Summit 2025 in Rotterdam, marks a significant milestone in Indo-German collaboration and aims to co-develop a world-class, export-oriented green hydrogen and ammonia facility in Andhra Pradesh. This strategic move is set to unlock substantial industrial and economic opportunities for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, reinforcing the regions emergence as a key player in Indias clean energy future.



Juno Joule is the only private Indian company exhibiting independently at the summit, underscoring its leadership in the green hydrogen sector. At Booth C084, the company unveiled its ambitious green hydrogen and ammonia project being developed at Mulapeta Port in Andhra Pradeshan infrastructure-driven, globally connected initiative with a vision to position India as a key exporter of certified green fuels to markets such as Europe, Japan, and South Korea.



The MoU was signed by Nagasharath Rayapati, CEO of Juno Joule Green Energy, and Felix Danger, Managing Director of Select New Energies GmbH, at the World Hydrogen Summit 2025 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, marking a significant step in the co-development of one of Indias largest green hydrogen and ammonia export facilities.



The ceremony was attended by distinguished dignitaries who underscored the global significance

of this partnership. Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), GoI, led the Indian delegation, reaffirming Indias commitment to advancing Green Hydrogen exports.



Abhay Bakre, Director General of the National Green Hydrogen Mission, also participated, highlighting the projects alignment with Indias clean energy roadmap. Representing Germany,

Ms. Silke Frank, President of the German Hydrogen Association, reiterated the importance of

Indo-German partnership in green technologies.



The event also saw the presence of Satya Pinisetty, First Secretary at the Embassy of India in the Netherlands, and Nishanth Bala Shanmugam, Director of GH2 India, both of whom have played key roles in fostering international hydrogen cooperation. Dr PV Ramesh, senior advisor to governments, international development organisations and corporate enterprises, also participated.



The agreement includes equity participation in the projects Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), development of ammonia export terminals and port-connected pipeline logistics, alignment with European regulatory frameworks like RFNBO and RED II/III, and a long-term offtake agreement

with a blended pricing model that balances market stability and global competitiveness.



The Juno Joule Green Hydrogen project, strategically located near Mulapeta Port on Indias East Coast in Andhra Pradesh, is one of the countrys most ambitious green fuel infrastructure initiatives.



With a total planned investment of USD 1.3 billion (INR 10,000 crore), the project will be developed in three phases, aiming to produce approximately 180 KTPA of green hydrogen by 2029, which will be converted into up to one million tons of green ammonia annually for export.



Construction is expected to commence in 2026. The facility will include an advanced desalination plant to sustainably source high-purity water from seawater, electrolysers powered by a diversified mix of solar, wind, and hydropower, and port-connected pipeline infrastructure for efficient large-scale exports.



The economic impact on Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is expected to be transformative. The project is estimated to generate nearly 5000 to 6,000 jobsdirect and indirectacross operations, construction, logistics, and support sectors. It will also lead to technology transfer, upskilling of local talent, and the emergence of the region as a clean energy hub on the global map.



Speaking about the partnership We are honored to partner with SELECT as a co-developer in our mission to build a globally competitive green energy hub in India, said Nagasharath Rayapati, CEO of Juno Joule Green Energy Private Limited.

UNI DP BM
Thu Ha

HA NOI  The practice and publication of a Sustainable Development Report (SDR) in Viet Nam, especially in the banking industry, is still in its initial stages and holds many challenges, the Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Thanh Ha told a forum yesterday.

But he added that the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies is considered a key solution to help improve sustainability within the industry and should be widely applied.

Addressing the forum on sustainability reporting in banking, with AI-driven solutions, held in Ha Noi, the Deputy Governor said that in the digital age, especially AI, the banking industry, which is considered the lifeblood of the economy, is facing an urgent need to innovate.

Sustainable development has gone beyond the scope of a trend and become a core part of the development strategy of the finance and banking industry. In particular, the development and publication of the SDR is an important tool for financial institutions to demonstrate their commitments, make their operations transparent, and affirm their pioneering role in the process towards a green and inclusive economy, Ha said.

However, Ha noted: The practice and publication of the SDR in the banking industry is still in its early stages. Challenges in the legal framework, resources, data analysis capacity and especially the way to collect and process information effectively and transparently, are still significant barriers to promote SDR.

"Therefore, the application of AI and digital technology is a potential solution to the above problems. AI not only helps automate data collection and synthesis, but also supports in-depth analysis, trend detection and makes recommendations to improve sustainable reporting quality and governance effectiveness.

Speaking at the event, the Director of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)s Policy & Insights, Mike Suffield, said that technology is supporting the evolution of sustainability reporting in many different ways. Much of sustainability reporting is fundamentally data-driven. Data that can come from all sorts of different sources and data that can be new to the organisation and hasn't even been collected before.

Using manual processes to handle a large amount of data is simply not viable, if not impossible. So we encourage organisations to invest in technology, to use automation and data analytics tools where possible, to collect data and analyse them, to produce insights, to decision-making and for reporting.

Leveraging AI in producing sustainability information may enhance efficiency, accuracy and also strategic decision making. The selection of the right technology option for the organisation will depend on its size and complexity and the sustainability information that it needs to produce, Mike said.

According to the director, the ACCA has produced a guide to prepare for sustainability reporting, which has at its heart an eight-stage process, including allocating responsibility for sustainability reporting, establishing the reporting landscape, determining the material sustainability-related information to be reported, determining the data requirements, collecting and then reporting on the data, helping enablers with a plan, technology and people and verification and continual improvement.

Regardless of the size, enterprises can follow the guide as they start to embark on the process of identifying, gathering, analysing and then publishing sustainability information, Mike said.

The Deputy General Director of FPT Digital, Dr Le Hung Cuong, said at the forum that: The world trend is shifting from voluntary to must have for the publication of sustainable development reports, however, Vietnamese businesses still face many difficulties in collecting and analysing data."

According to Cuong, a survey of more than 200 businesses in Viet Nam showed that 67 businesses have not yet or have just identified some indicators related to ESG; 47 per cent of businesses do not clearly understand how to collect and process ESG data; 71 per cent of businesses are not equipped with enough knowledge about the necessary data for reporting; and 70 per cent of businesses do not have or rarely disclose ESG reports.

ESG data is scattered in different key areas in the operation and management of the business, so it needs to be accurately identified and separated. Meanwhile, AI is the key to helping businesses solve ESG data challenges, simplify reporting activities, thereby unlocking green capital from financial institutions and banks, Cuong said.

Cuong also shared international experience on the issue. For example, he said, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) uses AI to score ESG reports of SMEs, which help significantly reduce loan approval time, increase access to green capital for SMEs, and help banks comply with ESG reporting requirements more effectively.

At the event, the director of the SBVs Policy Credit Division, Tran Anh Quy, reported that about 13-15 commercial banks have so far published their independent SDR.

By March 31, 2025, 58 credit institutions had a green debts of more than VN704.2 trillion, an increase of 3.57 per cent compared to the end of 2024; while 57 credit institutions assessed environmental and social risks with outstanding loans of more than VN3.62 quadrillion, Quy said.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  The SelectUSA Investment Summit 2025 witnessed strong participation from the Vietnamese delegation, opening new avenues for Viet NamUS economic and investment cooperation.

As the Viet NamUS comprehensive strategic partnership deepens, Vietnamese businesses are increasingly proactive in seeking investment opportunities in the US  the worlds largest economy.

To gain deeper insights into the outcomes and goals of this mission, Vietnamplus spoke with Pham Tuan Anh, deputy director of the Department of Debt Management and External Finance under the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and a member of the delegation.

What were the key highlights of Viet Nams participation?

This years summit marked a significant step forward in Viet NamUS economic relations. The Vietnamese delegation impressed with both the size of participation and its proactive approach, notably by organising the event Connect with Viet Nam, which served as an effective platform for connection and dialogue.

The event attracted high praise from both Vietnamese and US companies as well as Government agencies.

The Connect with Vietnam: Cooperation  Sharing  Development forum was co-organised by Viet Nams MoF, the US Department of Commerce, the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the US Embassy in Viet Nam.

It demonstrated a strong commitment to strengthening bilateral economic, financial and investment ties.

The event reaffirmed that Vietnamese enterprises not only seek to attract investment but also aspire to establish a presence in the US market.

What specific results have Vietnamese businesses achieved during their market exploration and engagements in the US?

At the summit, Vietnamese enterprises actively connected with US partners and State-level governments to explore collaboration.

Some notable early results include: Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) advanced cooperation with ExxonMobil to supply WTI Midland crude oil to Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Company Limited (BSR).

To date, BSR has imported over 22 million barrels of WTI Midland crude from US suppliers  including ExxonMobil/EXTAP, Shell, Vitol and Trafigura  with a total value nearing US$1.8 billion.

Vietnam Rubber Group explored investment opportunities in US industrial park infrastructure, applying a model similar to Viet Nam  Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) to support Vietnamese investors and other international businesses.

Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC) proposed several collaborative projects, including PORT INTERLINKS to digitally connect seaport systems between Viet Nam and the US and plans to develop a Vietnam House Logistics Centre in the US. VIMC is also partnering with OEC Group on technology, green transition, and new port developments.

Furthermore, VIMC is seeking preferential financing and support from the US Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank).

During a meeting with Exim Bank Vice President James Burrows, VIMC Deputy General Le Quang Trung presented investment strategies for deep-water seaports in Viet Nam (such as Lach Huyen, Lien Chieu and Can Gio International Transshipment Port), as well as plans to invest in US terminals and logistics centres.

Burrows expressed strong interest and tasked the banks international business development team with conducting due diligence on VIMC in Ha Noi this June.

The delegation also met with Steven, Vice President of OEC Group, a major US logistics company with projected 2025 revenue of $471.4 million and a presence in over 50 countries. Steven affirmed his commitment to collaborating with VIMC to realise the Vietnam House Logistics Centre in the US.

What was the core mission of the MoFs delegation at SelectUSA 2025 and how does it differ from previous investment promotion efforts?

Our overarching goal was to strongly endorse investment into the US while fostering more balanced and sustainable economic cooperation between the two countries.

What sets this effort apart is the broad and diverse participation from Vietnamese enterprisesboth State-owned and private, large and mid-sizedincluding PetroVietnam, VIMC, Vinacomin, Vietnam Rubber Group, PVGas, FPT Corporation, among others.

Viet Nam's delegation was one of the largest at SelectUSA 2025, leaving a strong impression on the organisers and global partners.

Dianne Farrell, US Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce, praised Viet Nams enthusiasm and meaningful participation in the Connect with Viet Nam event.

Additionally, the delegation attended two key plenary sessions focused on: "Innovation and industry: US advantages in attracting investment" and "Promoting investment in US strength sectors".

These sessions provided valuable insights into the US investment environment, workforce, technology, innovation and opportunities for Vietnamese businesses aiming to expand globally.

With over 100 Vietnamese companies in attendance, this summit underscored Viet Nam's growing ambition to go global and confirmed that the US remains an attractive investment destination.

It also reflects the maturity of Vietnamese enterprises and strong support from the Vietnamese Government in empowering the private sector.

Ashok Pinto, Executive Director of SelectUSA 2025, reaffirmed the USs welcoming stance toward foreign investment and emphasised how such engagement contributes to building a fairer, more resilient bilateral trade relationship. He acknowledged the pivotal role of investment in strengthening the Viet Nam  US partnership.

What key issues were discussed during the delegation's bilateral meetings at SelectUSA 2025?

We had productive bilateral meetings with several key US agencies and companies.

With the US Department of the Treasury, we discussed economic-financial cooperation, international tax issues (including Pillar 1, Pillar 2 and digital services tax) and the Viet Nam  US Tax Treaty.

With US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), we addressed illegal transshipment prevention and enhanced customs cooperation through electronic data sharing and container security initiatives.

We also held discussions with US Exim Bank, Intel and Meta representatives.

In all engagements, the MoF reaffirmed its commitment to boosting bilateral trade and investment with the US, a leading strategic partner.

Both sides acknowledged their complementary economic structures: the US offers advanced technology and energy products, while Viet Nam supplies cost-effective consumer goods that meet diverse American needs.

Strengthening these ties will open new channels of cooperation and further symbolise the comprehensive strategic partnership for mutual prosperity.

Our US partners praised Viet Nam's proactive engagement at SelectUSA 2025 and its timely responses to trade challenges. The discussions were candid and constructive, emphasising a winwin approach that fosters mutual trust and understanding.

Viet Nams enthusiastic participation in both the summit and bilateral meetings reflects its strong resolveboth at the government and enterprise levelsto advance sustainable and balanced trade and investment relations for the long-term benefit of both nations.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  As global trade tensions subside, stock markets, including Viet Nam's, are seeing a positive response.

Recent developments in tariff negotiations, especially between the US and major trading partners, are playing a crucial role in shaping market dynamics.

Ongoing trade discussions have shown encouraging progress, highlighted by a significant agreement between the US and the United Kingdom, the first since the US administration implemented reciprocal tariffs earlier this year.

These negotiations have alleviated trade tensions and sparked a notable increase in foreign investment.

Data from Bloomberg showed that global funds have purchased a net US$9.64 billion in stocks across emerging Asian markets, excluding China, over the past three weeks, marking the longest streak of inflows since March 2024.

In Viet Nam, the stock market reflects this renewed optimism. The Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) reported trading liquidity exceeding $1 billion on May 14, with the VN-Index surpassing the 1,300-point threshold.

Tyler Nguyen Manh Dung, chief market strategist at Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation, identified three critical factors driving this recovery: valuation adjustments, easing tariff fears and stability in key export sectors.

Following a period of sell-offs, stock valuations have become increasingly attractive, with price per earning ratios now below the five-year average, prompting investors to reconsider market entry.

Meanwhile, as concerns over tariffs diminish, investor anxiety regarding potential price hikes on Vietnamese exports has lessened. Viet Nams proactive negotiation stance with the US positions it favourably in the evolving trade landscape.

He added that industries such as seafood, textiles and timber, vital to Viet Nams export economy, are expected to remain largely unaffected by US tariffs, bolstering investor confidence in related equities.

After a period of panic selling, foreign investors have returned to net buying, driven by the rising prices of major stock groups such as banks.

In the first half of May, the net buying value by foreign investors exceeded VN4.2 trillion (US$161.8 million).

Despite the positive market trends, tariffs continue to be a significant concern.

Bui Nguyen Khoa, deputy director of the BIDV Securities Analysis Centre, noted that while the risk of a US economic downturn appears to have diminished, upcoming negotiations will present challenges.

The US government maintains a firm stance on certain sectors, particularly pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, suggesting that tariffs will remain a strategic tool for domestic manufacturing incentives.

Nguyen Thi My Lien, chief analyst at Phu Hung Securities, emphasised that the baseline tariff of 10 per cent imposed by the US is likely to persist, creating ongoing pressure on global economic growth.

In light of these evolving conditions, investors are urged to reassess their portfolios.

Khoa recommends increasing exposure to sectors less impacted by tariff policies, such as banking and infrastructure, while also considering cash positions as the VN-Index approaches short-term resistance levels between 1,320 and 1,340 points.

Lien anticipates that the market will shift toward a phase of informed assessment rather than fear, highlighting opportunities in domestically focused sectors that are less reliant on international trade.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  Green credit will be promoted through the Viet Nams Banking Sector Action Plan to implement the national strategy on green growth for the 2021-2030 period, experts said at a workshop yesterday.

At the workshop, on promoting the implementation of the plan organised by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the GIZ Vietnam and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Ha Noi, the SBVs Deputy Governor ao Minh Tu said: Green growth is no longer an option, but has become an urgent necessity, especially for developing countries like Viet Nam.

"The transition to a green growth model - one that combines economic development with environmental protection and efficient use of resources - is not only an inevitable trend but also the most direct path for Viet Nam to achieve a sustainable and prosperous future.

At the event, the Country Director of GIZ Vietnam, Dr Michaela Baur, emphasised: Todays event holds special significance, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Viet Nam-Germany diplomatic relations in 2025. This year also marks a pivotal review of Viet Nams five-year national strategy for green growth.

"On behalf of the German government, GIZ remains committed to working closely with the SBV and other partners to build a more prosperous, greener and more inclusive Viet Nam. The robust green financial system we are building together is a critical foundation for realising this shared vision.

Talking about the current green criteria classification system for promoting green credit and green growth in Viet Nam, Baur said: Green taxonomy is essential for guiding financial flows toward green growth and helping Viet Nam access international green finance.

"Since 2017, GIZ has supported the SBV in introducing the first version of a green taxonomy for the banking sector, to help monitor green credit and promote green lending practices.

According to Baur, as Viet Nam moves into the second phase of its green strategy, a national green taxonomy is crucial. The country should apply across the entire financial system - both banks and capital markets, align with Viet Nams industrial classification system, provide a legal basis for green finance incentives, and be in line with international standards

GIZ has worked with the SBV and other partners to develop this national taxonomy, which is expected to be approved by the Prime Minister in 2025. The green taxonomy will be a key tool to scale up green finance and help Viet Nam meet its green growth and net-zero goals, she said.

Drawing on German and international best practices, the event served as a platform to advance green finance and support Viet Nams transition to a low-carbon, inclusive and sustainable economy.

At the event, representatives from SBV, financial institutions and development partners, reaffirmed their commitment to advancing green and sustainable finance in the banking sector, contributing to a greener, more inclusive and resilient Viet Nam.

The event also witnessed the launch of the Environmental and Social Risk Management System (ESMS) Handbook in Credit Granting Activities, developed by SBV in partnership with IFC and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

Based on international standards, it provides credit institutions with practical guidance for building and operating effective risk management systems aligned with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles - an essential step toward sustainable finance in Viet Nam.

Since 2023, Viet Nam has made significant strides in green credit, with outstanding loans totalling VN621 trillion (roughly US$24 billion), accounting for 4.64 per cent of the national loan portfolio.

The green transition is capital-intensive, with an estimated funding requirement of $368 billion from 2022 to 2040. Given the public sector can only meet around one-third of this need, mobilising private investment and international cooperation is essential.  BIZHUB/VNS
HA NOI  China has approved an additional 829 planting area codes and 131 packaging facility codes for Vietnamese durian, according to the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.

This follows the submission of dossiers for 1,604 planting areas and 314 packaging facilities to the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC).

With the new approvals, Viet Nam now has a total of 1,469 planting areas and 188 packaging facilities eligible to export durian to China. Authorities have urged localities and businesses to seize this opportunity while ensuring strict compliance with Chinas plant quarantine and food safety regulations for sustainable market access.

The Plant Protection Department reported that Viet Nam currently has 12 laboratories certified to test for cadmium and eight for auramine O, two substances under close scrutiny by Chinese regulators.

Since the signing of the bilateral durian export protocol, over 90 per cent of Viet Nams durian output has been exported to China. However, the Chinese market poses challenges due to its unpredictability and frequent changes in import regulations.

Chinese traders also play a major role in Viet Nams durian value chain, from purchasing to distribution.

They said that China maintains high and rising technical standards, especially in food safety. Some Vietnamese enterprises and producers focus only on obtaining codes for planting areas and packaging facilities without ensuring continuous compliance with the protocol's requirements. Code trading and falsification remain issues, making it difficult to trace origins and control quality.

Unlike other fruits such as mango, dragon fruit and lychee, China requires all durian planting areas and packaging facilities in Viet Nam to undergo direct or online inspections before approving export codes.

According to To Van Quang, vice chairman of the Viet NamChina Business Association in Guangxi, durian exports to China have seen explosive growth. In 2023, exports surged to approximately US$2.2 billion, up from $188 million in 2022, capturing 31.8 per cent of Chinas durian market. At peak times, Vietnamese durian accounted for 57 per cent of Chinas imports.

He attributed this growth to Viet Nams geographical advantages, such as short transport distances and year-round harvests. However, he emphasised that maintaining this success requires strict adherence to the technical processes agreed upon in the export protocol.

Tightening technical requirements

While Viet Nam now exports fresh and frozen durian to over 20 markets, China remains the dominant destination. However, the Chinese markets volatility, coupled with high technical requirements, presents ongoing difficulties for Vietnamese exporters.

Authorities warn that some producers have harvested under-ripe or immature fruit to chase profits, resulting in subpar durians that have drawn complaints from Chinese buyers. Such practices harm the products reputation and the national brand.

To address these issues, the ministry proposes amendments to Article 64 of the Law on Crop Production to establish a legal basis for regulating planting area and packaging facility codes. Once revised, the law will be followed by a decree to guide the issuance, management, and enforcement of code regulations.

Viet Nam is also working to diversify its durian export markets. Ongoing trade promotion efforts target potential markets such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Taiwan (China), the UAE, the Netherlands, France and Russia.

In response to China tightening controls over cadmium and auramine O content in imported durians, the Plant Protection Department has stepped up monitoring of agricultural inputs. It is working with market authorities to inspect and penalise the sale of substandard inputs.

The ministry promotes a linked supply chain model involving farmers, input suppliers, and exporters to improve transparency and accountability. This model enables full traceability from production to packaging and export.

Samples are tested at each stage, from the farm and packaging facility to the final inspection before loading into containers. At border checkpoints, further sampling is conducted as required by quarantine authorities.

On Saturday, the ministry and the ak Lak Province People's Committee will co-host a national conference on sustainable durian development. The hybrid conference will feature updates on production, market access, consumption and food safety systems related to durian exports.  VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has launched a campaign to tackle smuggling and trade fraud, stop counterfeit goods and prevent intellectual property rights violations.

On Wednesday, the Ministry said it will proactively coordinate with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to carry out inspections and post-inspections on food safety.

Particular emphasis will be placed on strictly penalising the sale of counterfeit or harmful food products of unknown origin. The relevant technical regulations and procedures for pre-inspection, post-inspection and product licensing will be reviewed and refined.

Key inspection areas will include food safety, counterfeit and harmful food, forestry and fishery products, the production and trade of plant and animal varieties, counterfeit fertilisers and pesticides, the use of growth stimulants in fruits and excessive use of chemicals in food preservation and processing.

Under the plan, inspection teams will work in high-risk localities such as Kien Giang and Lao Cai, where smuggling and agricultural law violations are prevalent. Inspections will primarily be conducted through surprise visits to promptly detect and address violations by individuals and organisations.

This campaign is expected to establish long-term discipline in the management of agricultural input markets, protect consumers and safeguard the reputation of Viet Nams agriculture sector.

Four key departments in Viet Nam will intensify inspections.

The Plant Production and Protection Department will monitor counterfeit pesticides, fertilisers, and banned substances like auramine O in fruit.

The Department of Animal Health will check meat imports, livestock smuggling, fake breeds, and fraud in animal feed.

The Forest Protection Department will focus on illegal wildlife and forest product trade, while the Directorate of Fisheries will inspect aquaculture inputs and enforce traceability to fight IUU fishing.

The Ministry has also assigned agencies to review and propose amendments and supplements to current laws and regulations that are outdated, overlapping or no longer aligned with practical requirements.  BIZHUB/VNS
HCM CITY  With over 70 million people with growing purchasing power, Thailand is a promising market for exports, but to succeed, Vietnamese businesses must improve product quality, understand consumer trends and develop long-term strategies, a conference heard in HCM City on Thursday.

Speaking at the conference, Ho Thi Quyen, deputy director of the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City (ITPC), highlighted the robust growth in economic relations between Viet Nam and Thailand, which form a crucial pillar of their strategic partnership.

Thanks to geographic proximity and strong transport links via the EastWest and Southern Economic Corridors, the two countries have bolstered trade, investment and logistics ties.

Thailand remains Viet Nams largest trading partner in ASEAN, while Viet Nam is Thailands second largest, Quyen said.

Trade agreements such as the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership have helped reduce tariffs, while enabling businesses on both sides to build supply and production chains and expand into third countries.

The recent upgrade of Viet NamThailand ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership marks a new phase of collaboration, she said.

In 2024, bilateral trade reached US$20.26 billion after increasing by 6.36 per cent.

Viet Nam exported $7.81 billion worth of mostly mobile phones, machinery, electronics,, and agricultural products.

In the first quarter of 2025, trade value reached $5.17 billion, up 8.36 per cent.

The two countries aim to grow annual trade to $25 billion, with a focus on balance and sustainability.

Quyen said Thailand is a key partner for HCM City, especially in trade, investment, culture, and tourism, and the city would continue to support businesses seeking entry into the Thai and broader ASEAN markets.

To effectively penetrate the Thai market, Vietnamese enterprises must overcome technical barriers, intense competition and changing consumer preferences.

This requires businesses to improve product quality, stay updated with market trends and develop sustainable business strategies.

Nguyen Thi Bich Van, communications director at Central Retail Vietnam, said nearly 500 Vietnamese businesses have showcased their products to Thai consumers since 2016 through the annual Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand organised by her company, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and ITPC.

The event has enhanced export opportunities and facilitated business-matching activities that enabled seasonal fruits such as lychee, longan and dragon fruit to be regularly exported to Thailand through Central, Van said.

Last November, Central Retail Vietnam and ITPC held the first Vietnamese Goods Week in Udon Thani, a Thai province with a large Vietnamese community, featuring agricultural products, processed foods, tea, coffee and handicrafts.

Van pointed to the signing of a cooperation deal for 202628 between the ministrys domestic market development agency and the foreign market development department and Central during Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatras visit to Viet Nam on May 16 to boost production and consumption of Vietnamese goods both domestically and abroad.

It would enable Central to continue assisting Vietnamese businesses with expanding into international markets, she added.

Chailermchai Pornsiripiyakool, head of international corporate affairs and CSR at Central Retail Vietnam, said seafood, sweet potato, dragon fruit, coffee,and cooking sauces are the Vietnamese products that could become popular in Thailand.

He suggested that businesses looking to enter the Thai modern trade market improve packaging to be attractive, modern, and compliant with international standards and labelling regulations, reflect green trends, offer competitive pricing supported by seasonal promotions, and provide clear product information.

He also discussed Thai import regulations, highlighting that for food items, businesses must obtain a food import licence by providing detailed documentation on ingredients and intended use.

Specific requirements vary by product type, he added.  VNS
Ly Ly Cao

HA NOI  Viet Nams aspiration to become a high-income country by 2045 hinges on bold institutional reforms that empower its private sector to take the lead in driving economic growth and job creation, said experts.

Speaking at the launch of two new reports released by the World Bank on Thursday morning, Mariam Sherman, country director for Viet Nam, Cambodia and Lao PDR at the World Bank, said that the countrys ambition to become a high-income country has brought renewed focus on institutions as enablers of sustained growth.

"Recent efforts show commitment, but achieving this goal will require even bolder reforms  an institutional 'big push'  to unlock the private sectors potential to drive growth and create quality jobs for its people."

The first report, 'Viet Nam 2045: Breaking Through  Institutions for a High-Income Future', highlights the need to strengthen the legal and regulatory environment and streamline public investment to sustain the rapid growth required to meet this target.

It notes that countries that have escaped the middle-income trap and reached high-income status have done so by continuously improving the quality of their institutions.

The report calls for major improvements in public investment management, legal and regulatory predictability and sub-national governance.

Several reforms are critical for Viet Nams next phase of development, according to the report.

Public investment management needs to be more effective with improved project selection, implementation and oversight. In addition, strengthening the legal and regulatory framework will create a more predictable and transparent business environment.

Sub-national governance would be enhanced with more autonomy, accountability and better coordination across provinces. A high-income Viet Nam will also need an efficient and accountable civil service  one that is the right size, with better paid staff and backed by stronger institutions for due process, transparency and external oversight.

Economist Tran inh Thien, a member of the Prime Ministers Advisory Council, stressed that the fate of Viet Nams high-income ambition is directly tied to the private sectors trajectory.

"The future of Viet Nams high-income economy is essentially the future of its private sector," he said.

"If this sector doesnt experience significant breakthroughs, particularly in competitiveness, the high-income dream will remain distant."

Thien praised the recent political shift that officially recognised the private sector as the most important growth engine of the economy, calling it a necessary ideological breakthrough.

However, he warned that declarations alone are not enough.

"The key is not just calling it important  the crux lies in creating a truly free and enabling business environment where all players are guaranteed the right to reform and grow," Thien said.

Additionally, Viet Nams transition to a high-income economy will require not only more private sector dynamism but also large-scale job creation in new industries, he added.

However, some Vietnamese experts have voiced concerns over the pace and top-down nature of current institutional reforms.

Nguyen Quoc Truong, vice president of the National Institute for Economic - Financial Strategy and Policy under the Ministry of Finance, warned: "The greatest risk is that were building institutions and legal frameworks too rapidly and from the top down, without sufficient detection of problems. This could create uncertainties, especially as we restructure local governments, potentially stripping them of their economic centrality."

Green growth as a strategic imperative

The second report, 'Viet Nam 2045: Growing Greener  Pathways to a Resilient and Sustainable Future', provides a sobering assessment of Viet Nams climate vulnerability and the economic risks of inaction.

Without adaptive measures, climate impacts could reduce the countrys economic output by as much as 12.5 per cent by 2050. Already, about three-quarters of manufacturers in key export sectors like apparel and electronics operate in zones facing significant heat stress, putting over 1.3 million workers at risk.

"The good news is that there are actions that can be taken today to protect land, communities and infrastructure from climate shocks," Sherman noted.

"What matters now is putting in place the right mechanisms and incentives to encourage more adaptation by firms and households."

Strategic investments in climate adaptation, if well executed, could cut the projected GDP loss nearly in half, from 12.5 per cent to 6.7 per cent by mid-century.

The report advocates for embedding climate risk management into all areas of economic planning and infrastructure development. It also points to vast opportunities in green energy and marine resource management.  BIZHUB/VNS
SINGAPORE  Viet Nam took another step toward deeper integration into the global semiconductor supply chain through its active participation in SEMICON Southeast Asia (SEA) 2025, held from Tuesday to Thursday in Singapore.

This year marked Viet Nams debut, with a national pavilion at the exhibition, aiming to promote the countrys image and foster investment and technology partnerships.

The event drew over 500 enterprises and leading tech groups, featuring more than 1,000 booths and attracted an estimated 20,000 visitors.

As part of the official agenda, Viet Nams National Innovation Centre (NIC), in coordination with the Vietnamese Embassy in Singapore, Meta, and the Southeast Asia Semiconductor Industry Association, hosted the Viet Nam Investment Forum on Tuesday.

The forum served as a strategic platform to strengthen collaboration and attract investment in key sectors such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI), smart manufacturing and high technology. More than 150 delegates from top global tech firms, research institutions and universities attended, alongside representatives from the cities of Ha Noi, HCM City and Bac Giang.

The forum focused on four core priorities: highlighting Viet Nams investment environment and high-tech ecosystem, presenting the governments strategic policy incentives in key technology sectors, enhancing collaboration between domestic and international enterprises, research bodies and localities and building human capital for the semiconductor industry with an eye toward establishing a regional talent hub.

Speaking at the event, Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore Tran Phuoc Anh said the theme 'Stronger together' of this years exhibition reflected Viet Nams co-operative approach to global partnerships and its vision for a prosperous tech-driven economy.

He affirmed the governments commitment to innovation and technology as central pillars of economic transformation, and described the forum as a key opportunity to introduce Viet Nams investment landscape and policy priorities in emerging industries.

A thematic session titled 'Unlocking Viet Nams High-Tech Potential' featured insights from industry leaders such as Dassault Systemes, Siemens, Marvell and Deep C, as well as representatives from local areas. The session explored strategies for strengthening investment linkages and fostering a resilient, future-ready tech ecosystem in Viet Nam.

NIC Director Vu Quoc Huy said the centre is developing comprehensive engagement plans with global tech giants, particularly from the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Singapore, to support innovation, attract investment, and establish R&D centres focused on strategic technologies.

NIC has also built a broad network of strategic partners to drive innovation domestically. Among them is a partnership with Meta, which in 2024 launched a joint initiative to develop ViGen, an open-source Vietnamese language dataset to support AI applications in the local context.

The Director of Public Policy for Southeast Asia at Meta, Rafael Frankel, reaffirmed the companys commitment to Viet Nam, highlighting its ongoing collaboration with NIC. He also revealed that Meta is making a major AI investment in the country and has participated in the Viet Nam Innovation Challenge for three consecutive years.

Viet Nams presence at SEMICON SEA 2025 reflects its growing ambitions in the global semiconductor landscape.  VNS
HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung has greenlit a proposal to expand Phu Quoc International Airport in Kien Giang province, envisioning it as a transformative project that will not only serve the 2027 APEC Economic Leaders Week but also establish a lasting legacy for Vietnam as a premier global tourism destination.

During a meeting with ministries and agencies in Ha Noi on Wednesday, Deputy PM Dung described the expansion as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to elevate Phu Quoc, an island in southern Viet Nam, into a leading hub in Asia and beyond.

This project must position Phu Quoc as a true pearl of the Far East, Dung said.

To expedite the project, he called for the immediate transfer of assets from the Ministry of Construction to local authorities, ensuring that flight operations remain uninterrupted during the valuation and transfer process.

Deputy Minister of Construction Le Anh Tuan agreed with the Governments draft resolution on the project, noting broad consensus among leaders from various ministries on the need to keep the project on pace through a fast-tracked approval process.

The expansion will follow Viet Nams Law on Investment, with the provincial officials poised to take the reins on everything from construction oversight to environmental impact assessments and fire safety regulations.

Chairman of the Kien Giang Peoples Committee Nguyen Thanh Nhan pledged to move forward decisively once the resolution is issued.

Classified level 4E, Phu Quoc International Airport handles millions of passengers annually. The expansion would see its capacity swell to 10 million passengers by 2030 and 18 million by 2050, with the airports footprint growing from 884ha to a sprawling 1,050ha.  VNS
BRUSSELS  Antwerp Port, one of Europes largest, has launched its first electric tugboat, Volta 1, manufactured in Viet Nam, showcasing the countrys green shipbuilding capabilities.

The electrification of tugboats aligns with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport, a sector with significant CO2 output.

Replacing diesel-powered tugboats along the Scheldt River, Volta 1, built by a Dutch company in Viet Nam, is noted as Europes first electric tug of its kind. Its advanced batteries reportedly enable 12-hour operations with a 70-ton pull, emitting no direct CO2.

It is under consideration whether Volta 1 will be a model for the ports fleet.

Jacques Vermeiren, CEO of Antwerp-Bruges Port, said the port is testing hydrogen and methanol-powered tugboats to identify the best technology for carbon neutrality by 2050. Despite higher initial costs, electric tugboats could have lower long-term operating costs, he noted.

According to him, the port has been investing in 350 MW of wind power, solar energy, and battery systems to boost energy self-sufficiency, enhancing its appeal to businesses targeting carbon-neutral transport.

Volta 1 is seen as a symbol of Europes climate goals connecting with Viet Nams advancing manufacturing role in the global green value chain.  VNS
HA NOI  A total of 14 standout film projects have been chosen to compete for the Best Project Award as part of DANAFF Talents, a key programme of the upcoming 3rd a Nang Asian Film Festival (DANAFF III).

The category includes both the Art-house Film Projects and the Genre Film Projects for Vietnamese filmmakers only.

The Asian Art Film Project features promising works from outstanding young filmmakers in the Asia-Pacific region.

In Between Worlds by Vietnamese-Czech director Dianna Cam Van Nguyen combines 2D animation with live-action filmmaking, exploring cultural conflict, identity and the tension between tradition and modernity.

This project is being developed through the Cannes Film Festival Residence programme and has received support from the Czech Film Fund, Slovak Audiovisual Fund and Creative Europe MEDIA.

The Young Theorist Club by am Quang Trung is the only Vietnamese film project in the Art-house Film Projects category. Previously, his film Nhung con voi ben ve uong (The Elephants by the Roadside) won Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 2024 Singapore International Film Festival.

Another Story About Love and Hope by Chinese director Yanqi Chen, a Gen Z filmmaker who previously won the Grand Prix at the Fribourg International Film Festival 2024 for his film Day Tripper, which also screened at major international festivals such as Warsaw, Moscow and Pingyao, is among the selected projects at DANAFF.

Also featured is No Money No Honey by Taiwanese director Etsen Chen, a project that previously won the Taiwan National Scriptwriting Award granted by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture.

Other notable entries include Midnight Inn by Wang Chun Hong, The Balloon by Bangladeshi filmmaker Noor Imran Mithu and Ghost of the Currents by Thai director Patiparn Boontarig, co-directed by Kalil Pitsuwan.

Ghost of the Currents was selected and funded by the newly established Thailand Creative Culture Agency, created to promote Thailand's creative industry. This project is also one of three Thai films presented at the Thai Pitch event during Cannes 2025.

The Vietnamese Genre Film Project category features promising filmmakers with projects including Flying Cows by Nguyen Pham Thanh at, A Little Dream of Me by Chung Chi Cong, The Best Damn Things by Quan Phuong Thanh, Broken Being: Refuse to Awake by Hai Quang ang, The Girl Remains Home Alone by Hoang Quoc Nhat, Trapped in Hell by Hung Tran and The Offering by Trinh Quang Minh.

DANAFF Talents, which evolved from the 'Talents Incubator' training workshops held during the past two editions of the festival, officially launches this year with a new Project Incubator in collaboration with the Autumn Meeting programme.

"The goal of DANAFF Talents is to discover, nurture, and provide opportunities for emerging film talents in Asia and Viet Nam to bring their 'on-paper films' to life, while supporting their journey toward professional filmmaking," said a representative of the organiser.

Producer Tran Thi Bich Ngoc added: "Young filmmakers will participate in training and workshops led by international and Vietnamese film experts."

The Best Project Award in the Art-house Film Projects category includes a cash prize of 8,000 (US$9,000), granted by Cinemas du Monde, a financial support fund managed by Frances National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image under the French Ministry of Culture.

Additionally, the Mentorship Award is offered by mylab, a training and project development initiative launched in Malaysia in collaboration with various Asian film organisations and festivals. This award includes a three-month development programme for one selected project.

The third a Nang Asian Film Festival (DANAFF III), themed 'Bridging Asia', will be held from June 29 to July 5, 2025.

The festival features two main competition categories, The Best Asia Film and The Best Vietnamese Film, along with a special programme spotlighting Viet Nam war-themed films in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of national reunification, and a country-in-focus programme highlighting Korean cinema.  VNS
HA NOI  Known as home to the world largest jasmine cultivation, farmers of Chinese Guangxi Province's Hengzhou City are proud of their high-quality tea and the fragrant jasmine flowers used in the process.

The Chinese tea culture is an important part of the long and rich cultural heritage of Chinese civilisation. It is not simply a drinking habit, but reflects the Chinese people's philosophy of life, aesthetics, rituals and social values.

They brought their famous products to Ha Noi for a cultural and tourism event entitled Tea Harmonises the World 2025 and A Red Journey Following Footsteps of President Ho Chi Minh in Guangxi on Wednesday.

The event was also a way of celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Viet Nam and China, along with strengthening the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership of the two countries.

"Guangxi tea is an important part of Chinese tea culture. The traditional art of tea making of China and related customs was recognised UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022," said Lin Lin, deputy director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

"Guangxi jasmine tea is also famous all over the world. Hengzhou City accounts for 80 per cent of China's jasmine and jasmine tea production and 60 per cent of the world's production and is honoured as the World Jasmine and Jasmine Tea Production Centre.

"Vietnamese green tea and lotus tea are also very famous, especially lotus tea, with its characteristic floral aroma, attracting many tea lovers.

"(Today) the aroma of tea spreads widely, connecting and strengthening the friendship between Viet Nam and China," she said.

Taking part in the event, Chinese ambassador to Viet Nam He Wei said tea culture in the Chinese culture played an important role in people's life. Like Viet Nam, it was not only something to drink, but a key part of honouring a visitor and an important piece of etiquette.

Tea culture also expressed the harmonious relationship between humans and nature and the way China has harmonised with the world.

Ambassador He emphasised that tea would help bridge friendly relations between Viet Nam and China and hoped that the event would cement and strengthen their positive relationship.

"Tea is a common symbol of civilisation and also a 'green' ambassador" in the friendly exchange between our countries, as we share tea culture and a tea drinking habit," said Nguyen Hoang Anh, deputy head of the Central Committee for Policy and Strategy.

"We are here today to enjoy tea and make friends though tea. It is the way to prove how tea harmonises the world, respecting like-minded friends and harmony between people and nature."

In the second part of the event, organisers introduced Guangxi as a tourist destination.

"Guangxi is one of the starting ports of the ancient maritime silk road, with magnificent karst landscapes. World-famous scenic spots such as Guilin, the mysterious ancient world cultural heritage of Huashan Rock Painting, and the land of longevity Bama, attracting many tourists from all over the world," said Lin.

She said the province was naturally stunning, with karst topography and a colourful multi-ethnic identity. It preserved historical memories of the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh who spent 12 years in China before leading the revolutionary movement in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam meanwhile had rich cultural and tourism resources, from ancient historical relics to unique natural landscapes, plus a rich and diverse cultural art scene, giving visitors unique and unforgettable travel experiences.

Viet Nam is Guangxi's second largest foreign tourist market.

Lin suggested cultural and tourism agencies of both sides cooperate closely and actively to promote mutual preferential policies and introduce each other's tourism products, in order to create beneficial conditions for two-way tourism.

"We have exploited the relics and memorial works of President Ho Chi Minh in Guangxi. We sincerely invite Vietnamese tourists to come and explore the majestic scenery, our unique customs and cuisine and start the cross-border red tourism journey." VNS
VIENTIANE  A cultural exchange programme was held on May 21 at the Nguyen Du LaoVietnamese Bilingual School in Vientiane to mark the 135th birth anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh (May 19, 18902025).

The event featured 14 vibrant performances combining traditional circus art with contemporary stage techniques and professional sound design, offering audiences a visually captivating and emotionally resonant experience.

For students, the show was not only an artistic spectacle but also a valuable cultural lesson, enhancing their appreciation for the arts and deepening their connection with the Vietnamese cultural identity.

The programme was a meaningful tribute to President Ho Chi Minh, the eminent leader of the Vietnamese people and a key architect of the Viet Nam  Laos great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation.

The event also contributed to reinforcing mutual understanding and the longstanding ties between the peoples of Viet Nam and Laos. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  Following the successful Vietnamese Film Week in Athens, a series of Vietnamese films had been screened in Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece as part of activities to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the 50th anniversary of Viet Nam's national reunification, and the 135th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Greece Pham Thi Thu Huong said seven feature and documentary films were selected for screening in Thessaloniki and the wider Central Macedonia region, from May 16 to 20. Several of the films had won both domestic and international awards, offering rich insights into Viet Nams history, culture, and people. The opening night featured the ao, Pho, Piano film, which left a deep impression on viewers.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Deputy Governor of Pella, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Edessa, the Vice President of the Pella Chamber of Commerce, as well as representatives of local authorities, diplomatic missions, and members of the Vietnamese community and Greek public.

This marks the first time Viet Nam has held a film week in Thessaloniki. The event aimed to enhance local and international audiences understanding of Vietnamese cinema, a vibrant industry rooted in cultural identity, shaped by contemporary themes, and imbued with profound human values.

Following Thessaloniki, authorities in Pella and the city of Edessa have expressed interest in hosting Vietnamese Film Week in their localities. VNA/VNS
Moroccan youth Aymene engaged with the "Liangzhu Ancestors AI Face Swap Generator" at Liangzhu Museum, using artificial intelligence to create a personal portrait infused with Liangzhu cultural elements.

HANGZHOU, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire  30 April 2025 - From April 23 to 25, the Third UNESCO High-Level Forum for Museums was held in Hangzhou. Gathering over 190 museum directors, experts, and institutional representatives from more than 60 countries and regions around the world, the forum focused on in-depth discussions around key topics, including "The Evolution and Transformative Role of Museums", "The Application of Digital Technology and Artificial Intelligence", and "The Role of Museums as Educational Carriers and Lifelong Learning Platforms". The outcomes of the forum will be presented at the World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development to be held in Spain in September 2025.This forum was not only a professional cultural gathering but also a vibrant cross-cultural dialogue among youth. During the forum's activities, Aymene, a Generation Z student from Morocco studying in Hangzhou, visited sites such as Liangzhu Museum, personally experiencing how digital technology is reshaping museums  a vivid demonstration of international youth's innovative approach to "unlocking museums".At Liangzhu Museum, Aymene engaged with the "Liangzhu Ancestors AI Face Swap Generator", where artificial intelligence created a personal portrait infused with Liangzhu cultural elements. In front of the camera, he exclaimed, "It truly generated an AI image of me in the style of Liangzhu!" With the integration of AI, museums are no longer just places to observe history but have evolved into platforms to converse with history. Technology has rendered traditional culture tangible, approachable, and playful.Another highlight was the AR headset tour. Aymene marveled at how it "broke the limits of perception". With a simple gesture, pottery and jade cong artifacts from 5,000 years ago leapt vividly before his eyes, accompanied by clear explanations of their functions, craftsmanship, and historical backgrounds. Regarding these technological displays of cultural heritage, Aymene remarked, "They have turned 5,000-year-old cultural symbols into a universal language for the world. With cultural continuity enhanced by technological innovation, it's no wonder that this homegrown AR headset from Hangzhou won the admiration of museum directors from around the globe."Through the lens of international youth, this forum raised an inspiring question: "How can Generation Z and museums achieve mutual engagement?" The answers are gradually emerging: telling artifact stories through short videos, and reviving ancient ruins with AIthese approaches not only dissolve the boundaries of space and perception but also reshape how people connect with cultural heritage.To Gen Z, museums aren't dusty relicsthey're a fleeting moment in history's river, a high-five across the expanse of time. With the advance of digital technologies and the growing cultural consciousness among global youth, future museums may evolve from being mere repositories of the past into laboratories for the future.From "understanding" to "participating," from "passive reception" to "active engagement," international youth are redefining the way to unlock museums. This vibrant dialogue across the world is breathing new life into museums, opening up infinite possibilities for the future.Hashtag: #Hangzhou

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The recent discovery of counterfeit and substandard medicines has raised alarm among authorities. Ta Manh Hung, Deputy Director of the Drug Administration of Viet Nam under the Ministry of Health, spoke with the press about the root causes and what urgent solutions could be applied to address this critical issue.

Why do counterfeit and substandard medicines continue to appear in some retail pharmacies despite regulatory oversight?

One of the main reasons is that current penalties for violations are not strong enough to serve as a real deterrent. For example, a fake box of medicine might be worth just a few hundred thousand Vietnamese ong, so under Decree 117, administrative fines may only range from one to a few million Vietnamese ong. This is far too low to discourage offenders.

In addition to tougher penalties, we need stronger coordination with law enforcement to trace and shut down illegal production sites. This is key to cutting the problem at its roots.

A recent large-scale counterfeit medicine case in Thanh Hoa Province, for instance, was successfully cracked down thanks to collaboration between the provincial Department of Health, the market surveillance authority and the police. The case was handed over to the investigation agency, which has launched a formal criminal probe.

What is the Ministry of Health proposing to limit the prevalence of counterfeit and low-quality drugs?

The Government has already issued various directives, such as Directive No 17/CT-TTg in 2018, to strengthen efforts against counterfeit and substandard goods in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, supplements and traditional medicines.

Following the Thanh Hoa case, the Prime Minister also issued Emergency Directives No 41 and No 45 to address counterfeit medicines and health-related goods more decisively.

The Ministry of Health is now fast-tracking a new action plan to enhance the effectiveness of these efforts. Key measures include reviewing legal frameworks to increase penalties and boost deterrence, enhancing inspections and oversight at all levels of the pharmaceutical supply chain, building a national database of licensed medicines and creating digital connections among drug retailers to ensure traceability and expanding public education campaigns to help consumers recognise and avoid counterfeit drugs.

Were also working with ministries like the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to crack down on online drug sales that violate current laws.

What immediate actions is the ministry taking while long-term measures are developed?

In the short term, we are ramping up inspections of drug suppliers and requiring them to present clear documentation proving the origin of their products before selling them.

We are also intensifying oversight of pharmaceutical production and distribution, particularly online sales via e-commerce platforms and social media.

In parallel, were encouraging drugstores to adopt digital traceability tools and anti-counterfeit technology, such as QR codes and security seals.

Moreover, weve asked the national network of drug testing laboratories, including central and provincial centres, to step up targeted sampling and testing efforts, both routinely and on an ad-hoc basis.

Lastly, were calling on local governments to allocate more resources for testing and sampling, as well as to invest in facilities and human resource development for provincial laboratories. Strengthening these local capacities is essential to ensuring medicine quality nationwide.  VNS
HA NOI  The second round of the Viet Nam  United States reciprocal trade agreement was held as scheduled during May 19-22 in Washington DC, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The Vietnamese delegation was led by Minister of Industry and Trade and Vietnamese Government's chief negotiator Nguyen Hong Dien, and included representatives from various ministries and sectors such as Public Security, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Construction, Home Affairs, Agriculture and Environment, Science and Technology, Justice, and the State Bank of Viet Nam.

Over the course of three days, both sides engaged in substantive discussions on all agenda items outlined ahead of the session. The negotiations were characterised by goodwill, frank and respectful dialogue, and a shared commitment to institutional integrity, mutual benefit, and alignment with each country's development level and international commitments.

Both delegations exchanged detailed information on their respective current policies, clarified language in the draft agreement, and discussed a comprehensive approach to resolving fundamental issues of mutual concern in order to accelerate the negotiation process. Constructive and open exchanges also took place regarding core economic and trade interests of the two countries.

By the conclusion of this round, Viet Nam and the US had made significant progress, identifying areas of convergence and shared positions, as well as matters that still require further discussion. Both sides agreed on timelines for providing feedback on the draft agreement, proposing revised language, and holding online meetings in preparation for the next round of negotiations.

At the end of the third day, Minister Dien met with Ambassador and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to review the outcomes of the second round and identify key issues for continued focus in early June 2025.

Ambassador Greer praised Viet Nam's goodwill and efforts to address US concerns and expressed a desire to continue technical-level and ministerial-level exchanges to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

Minister Dien welcomed the Ambassadors remarks and reaffirmed Viet Nam's commitment to fostering a balanced and sustainable economic and trade relationship with the US, for the benefit of both countries peoples and businesses. He also concurred with Ambassador Greer's proposal for both sides to intensify technical-level exchanges to reach an agreement that meets the expectations and conditions of each party.

US goods trade with Viet Nam totalled an estimated US$149.6 billion in 2024. US exports to Viet Nam in 2024 were $13.1 billion, up 32.9 per cent from 2023, while US goods imports from Viet Nam totalled $136.6 billion in 2024, up 19.3 per cent from 2023.

The current trade deficit of the US with Viet Nam was $123.5 billion in 2024, an 18.1 per cent increase over 2023, according to data from the Office of the US Trade Representative.

In the announcement of reciprocal tariffs that the Trump administration announced in April, Viet Nam was among the countries hit with the highest level, at 46 per cent  on top of the baseline 10 per cent for all countries, likely due to the large trade deficit between the two countries.  VNS
HA NOI  Tran uc Luong (May 5, 1937  May 20, 2025) was a former Politburo member and President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Throughout his life of service, in every role and circumstance, he remained politically steadfast and unwavering in his loyalty to the Party, the Fatherland, and the People. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation, fulfilling every responsibility entrusted to him with distinction, and earning the deep trust of the Party, the State, and the People.

This photo essay commemorates the life and legacy of a leader who dedicated himself entirely to the revolutionary path of the nation.  VNS
MEXICO CITY  The Mexico - Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group has been instrumental in advancing parliamentary cooperation between the two countries, as well as broader ties across various potential fields, said Vietnamese Ambassador to Mexico Nguyen Van Hai.

The commendation came during his working session in Mexico City on May 21 (local time) with member of the Political Bureau of the Labour Party (PT) and Chair of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies Welfare Committee Ana Karina Rojo Pimentel, who recently assumed her new role as Chair of the Mexico - Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group as both countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Hai reiterated Viet Nams strong commitment to deepening its friendship and cooperation with Mexico, reflecting on the major milestones achieved over the past five decades, particularly in political, economic, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges.

He highlighted the historical, cultural, and development similiarities that underpin the relationship, underscoring the importance of parliamentary, cultural and people-to-people exchanges in fostering closer ties.

The diplomat welcomed the Mexican Chamber of Deputies recent decision to renew the parliamentary friendship group for a new term and expressed enthusiasm for the Vietnamese Embassys attendance at the groups upcoming launch ceremony, seeing it as an ideal platform to spread Viet Nams rich image, vibrant culture, and warm-hearted people.

Congratulating Ana Karina on her new role, Hai believed that her respected position in the Mexican legislature and her affinity for Viet Nam would drive concrete meaningful actions to advance bilateral ties.

Ana Karina, in reply, reaffirmed the Mexican leaders policies and guidelines to foster bilateral ties, adding that the group is drafting an action plan to step up cooperation across multiple areas.

Stressing the need for both countries to increase high-level parliamentary exchanges, she noted that regular visits and discussions between lawmakers would significantly contribute to ties between the two legislatures.

The host pledged to work closely with the Vietnamese Embassy in Mexico to nurture friendship and mutual understanding between the two nations in the years ahead. VNA/VNS Photo
NEW YORK  The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is a comprehensive legal framework governing all activities at sea, and all policies, regulations, and conduct of countries at sea must comply with international law, particularly the UN Charter and UNCLOS, Ambassador ang Hoang Giang, Permanent Representative of Viet Nam to the UN, has emphasised.

Addressing an open debate of the UN Security Council on strengthening maritime security through international cooperation for global stability, Ambassador Giang urged all countries to fully adhere to their obligations under the convention, respect the sovereignty, interests, and legitimate economic activities of coastal states, and settle disputes by peaceful means in accordance with international law.

He highlighted the importance of respecting diplomatic and legal processes, ensuring freedom, safety, and security of navigation and overflight, and avoiding actions that could further complicate the situation.

The Vietnamese representative reiterated that as a coastal nation, Viet Nam supports all efforts and initiatives that promote maritime safety and security. Given this, it has actively cooperated with countries and partners both within and outside the region in combating crime and ensuring security in the East Sea (internationally known as the South China Sea), he said.

The country has made substantive contributions to regional mechanisms and forums led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and has maintained regular joint patrols and information exchanges with neighbouring countries such as China, the Philippines, and Malaysia. These efforts have strengthened law enforcement cooperation and emergency response at sea, stated the diplomat.

Viet Nam reaffirmed its commitment to fully implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and continuing to work with other countries to accelerate negotiations on an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the waters (COC) that is in line with international law, especially UNCLOS.

Addressing the debate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern over growing instability in many regions. He emphasised that ocean security is under threat from a range of traditional and non-traditional challenges, including piracy, transnational crime, maritime disputes, cyberattacks, sabotage of undersea infrastructure, and escalating geopolitical tensions.

He noted that attacks on vessels, various forms of smuggling, terrorism, and other illegal activities continue to occur in regions such as the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Guinea, and beyond. The UN Secretary-General appealed to the international community to step up collective action based on respect for international law, especially the 1982 UNCLOS, to address the root causes of maritime insecurity and to build partnerships at all levels.

Ambassador Giang expressed strong support for the Secretary-Generals call and proposed several key directions for coping with current maritime security challenges.

He stressed the need for enhancing substantive cooperation among countries, particularly through the promotion of joint patrols in regions experiencing instability. He also emphasised investing in surveillance technology, data sharing, and capacity-building support for developing countries.

Furthermore, the diplomat underscored the importance of strengthening coordination mechanisms and ensuring effective collaboration between UN bodies and regional mechanisms in implementing measures to ensure maritime safety, freedom, and security. He affirmed that the UN Security Council, as the primary body responsible for maintaining international peace and security, also plays a leading role in enhancing maritime security.

Ambassador Giang also called on countries to continue updating and strengthening existing legal frameworks to respond to emerging maritime security challenges more effectively.

The debate reflected a broad consensus among countries on the urgent need to accelerate collective action to safeguard the shared maritime domain, ensure safety, and promote sustainability in maritime activities  all of which are becoming increasingly vital to global economic development, peace, and stability.  VNA/VNS
KIGALI  Rwanda always attaches importance to its fine friendship and cooperation with Viet Nam, President Paul Kagame affirmed while receiving a letter of credentials from Vietnamese Ambassador to Tanzania and Rwanda Vu Thanh Huyen on Wednesday.

Expressing her great honour to assume this position, Huyen affirmed her commitment to making every effort to further promote the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Viet Nam and Rwanda, particularly in the fields of economy, trade, agriculture, and education.

As the two countries are celebrating the 50th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations (September 30, 1975  2025), the diplomat proposed both sides appoint Honorary Consuls in each country at an early date, so as to facilitate bilateral cooperation in the absence of resident diplomatic missions. They will effectively serve as bridges for bilateral exchange, collaboration, and community engagement, she added.

President Kagame expressed his impression with the positive outcomes of bilateral cooperation in recent years, as well as his belief that the new ambassador will make meaningful contributions to further strengthening and deepening the relationship in the coming time.

Earlier, on May 20, Huyen presented a copy of the credentials to Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Olivier J. P. Nduhungirehe.

On the same day, she held a working session with representatives from the ministrys Directorate General for Asia, Pacific, and Middle East Affairs, during which they exchanged information on future directions for bilateral cooperation, particularly in areas where each country has strengths and potential.

Within the framework of her working visit, the ambassador also had a meeting with the Vietnamese community living in Rwanda.  VNA/VNS
HA NOI  As Viet Nam accelerates its digital transformation, the introduction of a smart ticketing system is no longer a mere technical upgrade but part of a national strategy to modernise public transport.

Speaking at a recent workshop titled 'Smart payment solutions for modern transport', o Viet Hai, Deputy Director of the Ha Noi Department of Construction, said the capital had long identified the need for an integrated smart ticketing system to meet real-world demands and support the Governments push for a cashless economy in public transit.

Ha Noi is set to officially launch the inter-connected e-ticketing platform on September 2. The system will be delivered through an outsourced IT service and will be compatible with banking cards, e-wallets and even citizen ID cards, thanks to its application of VCCS, a domestic chip card security standard developed with support from the National Payment Corporation of Viet Nam (NAPAS).

Hai said the new system is expected to streamline fare payments and could potentially be expanded to include services like automatic toll collection, parking, and other future transport options.

Ha Noi aims to become a model for smart city development. However, two major challenges remain, including changing user habits, particularly among the elderly, and finding alternative employment for around 4,000 bus ticket vendors who currently work manually.

In HCM City, Metro Line 1 has already adopted a cashless payment model with cooperation from international financial players such as Visa and Mastercard, alongside NAPAS.

Nguyen Hoang Long, Deputy General Director of NAPAS, said the company had completed the technical groundwork to integrate automatic fare collection into urban rail systems.

He noted it took just 20 days to connect with the metro system once agreements were in place, thanks to strong coordination and ready-made standards.

Passengers can now use domestic and international bank cards to ride without needing separate transport cards, with successful trials already carried out on VinFast bus services and at airports.

Also speaking at the workshop, Satoru Horiuchi, General Director of Tokyo Metro Viet Nam, said that Japan had initially operated its railway lines independently. However, from 2000 onwards, the country began harmonising ticketing systems and, by 2013, had made IC cards like Suica and Pasmo usable across the country, not only for transport but also for daily purchases.

He recommended Viet Nam establish a centralised body to guide standardisation and ensure consistency in data, technology, and policy across all stakeholders.

Fukuda Chihiro, Deputy Chief Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Viet Nam, said JICA had been supporting urban rail projects across Southeast Asia, including in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

In Viet Nam, the AFC system has already been introduced as part of the metro project in HCM City.

He outlined three government priorities for AFC success, including interoperability with other services, data privacy protections and financial support.

He also encouraged Ha Noi to emulate HCM City's efforts in improving bus connectivity with metro stations to enhance convenience for commuters.

Khuat Viet Hung, Chairman of Metro Ha Nois Board of Directors, called for clearer delineation between state and enterprise responsibilities.

Firms should manage their systems, while the Government focuses on coordination, policy and data management, he said.

The platforms are ready, the tools are all there. What matters now is implementation, Hung said.

According to Hai, beyond payment, the smart ticketing system holds immense potential as a data mine.

This is not just a fare collection tool. It is a comprehensive data collection system, he said.

While natural resources are dwindling, digital resources continue to grow. We must decide now how to use this digital wealth not only for public transport but across economic and social sectors. That is the real long-term goal.  VNS
HCM CITY  The incidence of non-communicable diseases affecting seniors has been rising in Viet Nam, making it a pressing health issue, according to health experts.

Many suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, osteoarthritis, and cancer.

Besides, there are the other problems that affect the elderly such as cognitive decline, depression, and memory impairment.

The average life expectancy is more than 73.6 years, but the number of healthy years is only 65.4 years old, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

Although the life expectancy of Vietnamese people has increased, their health condition declines with age, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tan, head of the geriatrics department at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, said.

People with one to two diseases make up 75.5 per cent of the total elderly population, while those with three or more have increased slightly to 1.34 per cent, he said.

The disease model in the elderly has shifted from infectious diseases to non-communicable chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and mental disorders, he said.

The healthcare costs for this demographic are seven to eight times higher than for children, creating a big financial burden, especially on poor households and those in remote areas.

Pham Chanh Trung, director of the population division at the city Department of Health, said each elderly person suffers from more than two non-communicable diseases that require lifelong treatment.

These impact their mental well-being and daily activities, he said.

Their access to counselling and health care services is still limited, and the healthcare system has not kept pace with the rapidly ageing population, he said.

The quality of elderly care remains low and funding for organising healthcare activities for elderly people living by themselves is inadequate, he added.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. o Kim Que, deputy director of Thong Nhat Hospital, said the main reason for the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases among seniors is the longer life expectancy these days.

Unhealthy eating habits, poor nutrition, contaminated food, and fast foods also contribute, he said.

Modern lifestyles play a role as people are becoming less physically active while prolonged stress and anxiety tend to promote these health issues, he said.

Early detection and timely treatment are key to managing non-communicable diseases, he added.

Analysts expect the healthcare sector to strengthen the capacity of its grassroots system to provide primary healthcare services, disease prevention and elderly care based on priority, convenience, availability, and accessibility, before gradually building a model of long-term healthcare for seniors.

It is essential to have comprehensive annual health check-up programmes, maintain electronic health records for all elderly people and develop a health database to analyse disease patterns among ageing people, they added.

A report released by the Pasteur Institute in HCM City said more than three million people in the southern region were found to have hypertension in the first four months of 2025, of whom more than 1.4 million are being managed and treated.

The number diagnosed with diabetes during the period was more than 1.2 million, and 656,000 are being managed or treated.

Non-communicable diseases have four main classifications: cardiovascular diseases (including stroke, myocardial infarction, hypertension), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.

In Viet Nam, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer, and diabetes are the cause of nearly 80 per cent of deaths. VNS
BEN TRE  Farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre are increasingly switching to high-tech shrimp breeding, adopting more innovative techniques to boost productivity, reduce costs and increase incomes.

They use aerators, advanced equipment such as automatic feeders and other modern techniques to improve efficiency.

They have also started using innovative methods such as chlorine gas to treat water, and installing plastic over the ponds to help reduce environmental impacts.

Compared to powdered chlorine, chlorine gas dissolves more evenly, is less toxic, costs three to four times less, and reduces the area of pond needed for water treatment.

As a result, the shrimp are healthier, yields are higher, and costs and land use are reduced, according to local farmers.

Le Van Sam, who owns 45ha for high-tech shrimp farming in Thanh Phu Districts Thanh Hai Commune, uses chlorine gas and has plastic over the ponds.

These methods have enabled him to save VN1.5 billion (US$57,800) annually on chlorine and manage disease outbreaks more effectively by isolating infected ponds, he said.

Previously, without plastic covering, if disease struck a pond and the shrimp died, birds would feed on the infected shrimp and then fly to other ponds, spreading the disease and making it difficult to control, he explained.

The plastic also helps stabilise temperatures, making it easier to breed shrimp during the off-season, he said.

Since applying these two techniques, I have seen significant reduction in costs while productivity has increased, resulting in a 1520 per cent boost in economic efficiency compared to before.

Nguyen Van Ban, chairman of the Ben Tre Farmers Association, said the association has been expanding the use of innovative techniques among its members.

He said it would continue promoting effective shrimp farming models and innovative methods to more farmers, aiming to increase both the quantity and quality of shrimp for domestic consumption and export markets.

The Provincial Peoples Committee is accelerating the implementation of its plan to develop 4,000ha of high-tech brackish water shrimp farming in 202125 to reach the 4,000ha target by the second quarter of this year with an expected output of 144,000 tonnes.

It currently has 3,633ha with average productivity of 60-70 tonnes per hectare, and average profits of VN700800 million ($27,00031,000) per crop, offering substantial incomes for farmers.

Nguyen Van Buoi, deputy director of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Environment, said the province has invested VN250 billion ($9.6 million) in irrigation, electricity and roads to support more than 3,000ha of concentrated brackish water shrimp farming areas in the coastal districts of Binh ai and Ba Tri.

The department has also collaborated with export processing companies to help farmers breed shrimp to ASC and BAP standards.

The province has 575ha of shrimp farming areas certified to ASC or BAP standards, with their output fetching VN2,00010,000 per kilogramme more than the market price.

By 2030 the province aims to establish five high-tech shrimp farming zones covering a total area of nearly 3,400ha and funded by private investors in the districts of Binh ai, Ba Tri, and Thanh Phu.

It will also leverage existing infrastructure to assist the development of farm-scale and household-based high-tech shrimp farming models of 210ha each in various communes across these three districts.

The province is currently attracting investment in shrimp fry production in Binh ai and Ba Tri districts, with the goal of producing 15 billion high-quality fry by 2025 (meeting 60 per cent of the provinces demand) and 20 billion by 2030 (meeting 70 per cent).

The province is home to 52 aquatic species fry production facilities, 44 of which specialize in brackish water shrimp. However, only three operate on a large scale, each with an annual capacity ranging from 2 to 4 billion fry.

In terms of shrimp processing, the province is strengthening the links between farming areas and processing plants.

It is also encouraging investment in three processing plants at the Phu Thuan Industrial Park in Binh ai District, each with a capacity of 36,000 tonnes per year.

The province aims to process over 100,000 tonnes of shrimp annually and achieve shrimp exports of $1.2 billion this year.

By 2030, it targets 150,000 tonnes of processed shrimp and $1.8 billion in exports.

The province has 65km of coastline and over 50,000ha of potential aquaculture area, according to the department.

More than 90 per cent of the provinces farmed aquatic species have high economic value and good quality, serving the export processing sector.  VNS
HAVANA  Deputy Minister of Health o Xuan Tuyen concluded a six-day visit to Cuba on May 22 (local time), aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation in healthcare, particularly in biopharmaceuticals.

During a working session with Cuban Deputy Minister of Health Tania Margarita Cruz Hernandez, Tuyen described the bilateral medical partnership as a vivid symbol of international solidarity, one deeply rooted in the historic friendship fostered by late President Ho Chi Minh and leader Fidel Castro.

He highlighted decades of productive cooperation, including the exchange of medical experts, medical staff training, technology transfer, joint research, and epidemic prevention. In 2021, the two health ministries signed a Memorandum of Understanding and an action plan to advance scientific and technological progress, delivering tangible benefits to both nations.

For her part, Deputy Minister Tania Margarita underscored Cubas strengths in biotechnology, preventive medicine, and vaccine production. She reiterated Cubas commitment to deepening cooperation with the Vietnamese counterpart in pursuit of shared public health goals.

The two sides agreed to expand their practical, sustainable and mutually beneficial cooperation. Key priorities include strengthening pharmaceutical collaboration, such as expanding joint ventures and transferring vaccine and biological production technologies to Viet Nam; training medical staff, especially in fields where Cuba excels like oncology, cardiology, and immunology; enhancing joint research to respond to emerging infectious diseases, leveraging the strong scientific foundations of both countries; and encouraging hospital-to-hospital partnerships to foster practical connections and improve healthcare outcomes.

Meeting with First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, Tuyen reported on the outcomes of his working session with the Cuban Ministry of Health. Key areas of strategic cooperation identified include the launch of the family doctor model, the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and the advancement of biotechnology for pharmaceutical production in Viet Nam.

He also announced the formation of a joint venture to establish a pharmaceutical research and manufacturing facility in Viet Nam, a move Diaz-Canel hailed as a fulfillment of consusten reached during Party General Secretary To Lams visit to Cuba in September 2024. The venture, he said, would bolster production of essential medicines for both nations.

Right after the meeting, Diaz-Canel and Tuyen witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between BioCubaFarma SA, a key company under Cubas BioCubaFarma Group and Vietnamese partners. The agreement paves the way for a joint venture in Viet Nam to build a pharmaceutical plant, facilitate technology transfers for biologics and chemical drugs from Cuba, and step up research and development of hi-tech pharmaceuticals. It will also support the import and distribution of Cuban medicines tailored to the Vietnamese market.

At the signing ceremony, Tuyen noted that the joint venture, backed by both governments, holds special significance as the two countries are celebrating the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

While in Cuba, Tuyen and his entourage visited and held working sessions with Cubas regulatory authority for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, the Centre of Molecular Immunology, the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, and the Vietnamese Embassy in Havana. VNA/VNS
HA NOI  A new two-year nationwide programme has been launched today, aiming for improved road safety for over 18.3 million students across Viet Nam.

Many children still face hazardous journeys every day, often walking without pavements and sharing roads with fast-moving vehicles. Traffic speeds near schools frequently exceed internationally recommended limits for school zones.

US-based nonprofit AIP Foundation, selected by the United Nations Road Safety Fund (UNRSF) as the implementing partner, will be scaling up its Safe School Zone Guides and support the establishment of such zones across the country. It will work in close collaboration with the Ministry of Construction (MoC), Quang Ngai Province authorities, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office (MPTFO).

The United Nations Road Safety Fund is proud to support the scale-up of safe school zones across Viet Nam. The road to education must not be a road to danger. Through this new Safe School Zones programme, the Fund is investing in sustainable, scalable solutions that help create safer road environments where they are most urgently needed, around schools," the Head of the UN Road Safety Fund Secretariat, Nneka Henry, said.

"By supporting the development of a national legal framework and piloting model zones, this project aims to set a precedent not only for Viet Nam, but for the region, showing how targeted funding can unlock systemic change and protect the next generation, he added.

The launch meeting aims to help the participants understand better the programme's objectives, scope and expected outcomes, as well as how their roles contribute to its success.

"This programme aims to reduce injuries and fatalities among students involved in road traffic accidents, aligning with the objectives of the National Strategy on Road Traffic Order and Safety for the 202130 period, with a vision toward 2045, as well as Directive No. 31/CT-TTg dated December 21, 2023, issued by the Prime Minister on strengthening traffic safety for students in the current context," Deputy Director at the MoC's Transportation and Traffic Safety Department, Hoang The Tung said.

The programme aims to contribute to reducing traffic injuries and fatalities by developing recommendations for establishing criteria, models, standards and regulations for traffic-safe school zones in Viet Nam. This will be achieved by gathering evidence on school zone safety, providing capacity training for key government stakeholders, piloting model school zones in selected provinces and promoting awareness of the community.

This inspiring programme launch shows whats possible when Government, communities and partners come together with a shared vision, to save lives and protect children. As an international NGO in Viet Nam, we are proud to support and drive forward practical, evidence-based solutions like this safe school zones programme, because every step toward safer roads is a step toward a stronger, more equitable future for all, CEO of AIP Foundation Mijam Sidik said.  VNS
With its rich cultural heritage, deep historical traditions, and diverse rural ecosystem, Hanoi is steadily advancing its vision of rural tourism development in alignment with the new rural development program. This initiative aims to cultivate sustainable, harmonious tourism that embodies the unique character of the Capital.

Following the Prime Ministers issuance of Decision No 922/Q-TTg in August 2022approving the Programme for the Development of Rural Tourism under the New-Style Rural Development Programme for the 20212025 PeriodHanois suburban districts have actively developed tourism offerings that highlight agriculture, traditional crafts, and local culture. Notable examples include: experiential tourism in Bat Trang Pottery Village (Gia Lam District), community-based tourism in Duong Lam Ancient Village (Son Tay Town), eco-tourism in Vinh Ngoc Commune (Dong Anh District), and agri-tourism combined with resort services in Dan Phuong District.

To date, Hanoi has recognized 42 city-level tourist destinations, 21 of which integrate agricultural and rural assets in alignment with new rural development initiatives. Notable examples include: Duong Xa and Phu Dong (Gia Lam District), Thuy Ung horn comb craft village and Van Diem luxury woodcraft village (Thuong Tin District), Dai Ang and Yen My tourism sites (Thanh Tri District), and Long Ho in Kim Son Commune (Son Tay Town).

The city has also introduced its first two 4-star OCOP (One Commune One Product) tourism offerings in the category of community-based tourism, eco-tourism, and rural attractions: Hong Van Countryside Tourism Site (Hong Van Commune, Thuong Tin District), and Phu Dong Green Park Ecological Area (Phu Dong Commune, Gia Lam District).

Other notable rural tourism destinations include the Huong Son Scenic Complex (My Duc District), Duong Lam Ancient Village (Son Tay Town), and various farm-tourism models such as White Goat Farm and Countryside Farm in Ba Vi District. Additionally, Hanoi's renowned craft villages continue to attract both domestic and international visitors, showcasing traditional artistry and heritage.

According to Mr. Ngo Van Ngon, Deputy Chief of the Standing Office of the Hanoi New-Style Rural Development Programme Coordination Office: "Rural tourism is not just a new direction for economic development; it also provides an opportunity to preserve cultural heritage and natural landscapes in alignment with new rural development goals. In many localities, people have transitioned from traditional farming to tourism services, leading to higher incomes and improved living standards."

He noted that several advanced and model new-style rural communes in Hanoi have successfully capitalised on rural tourism as a means of growth. For instance, Hong Van Commune (Thuong Tin District), once primarily agricultural, has transformed into a craft village specialising in ornamental plants, integrating tourism services. Thanks to this innovative model, Hong Van now attracts tens of thousands of domestic and international visitors annually, providing stable incomes for many local households.

Recognised in 2006 as Vietnams first ancient village designated a National Historical and Cultural Site, Duong Lam Village has embraced tourism as a vital part of community life. Residents actively welcome visitors, offering traditional meals and showcasing local handicrafts.

Mr. Pham Van Xuyen, a local engaged in community tourism, said: "In the past, we had idle time after farm work. Now, tourists come regularly. Weve renovated our home to welcome guests, gaining a steady income while preserving our ancestral traditions."

In Vinh Ngoc Commune (Dong Anh District), a key area in Hanois rural development plan focused on organic agriculture and eco-tourism, Vu Van Luc has pioneered a successful model combining Ha Den black grape cultivation with tourism. "The riverside land is only suitable for vegetables and fruit trees, which arent very profitable on their own," he explained.

Since 2020, he has leased more than four hectares of fertile land along the Red River to grow grapes and create an interactive tourism experience. "Currently, grapes sell for VND50,000 to 180,000/kg. Visitors who come to pick grapes directly at the farm pay up to VND200,000/kg, which includes entrance and photography. The two main harvest seasonsfrom May to July and October to Decemberare also the peak times for tourist visits," he added.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dai, Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment and Chief of the Coordination Office for the New Rural Development Program, emphasised that on March 17, 2021, the Hanoi Party Committee (17th term) issued Programme No 04-CTr/TU. This programme aims to effectively implement the national target programme on New-Style Rural Development in association with Agricultural Restructuring and Rural Economic Development to Improve Farmers Lives for the 20212025 Period. A key objective is to promote and highlight Hanois unique rural and agricultural tourism offerings.

Building on this, on March 4, 2022, the Hanoi Peoples Committee issued Plan No. 73/KH-UBND to guide the development of the agricultural and rural tourism economy in alignment with new rural development for the 20222025 period.

Mr. Dai affirmed: "Rural tourism linked to new rural development is a sustainable strategy that preserves cultural values, improves quality of life, and diversifies the capital citys tourism portfolio. With coordinated efforts from authorities, communities, and businesses, Hanoi is well-positioned to transform its peaceful countryside into attractive, culturally rich destinations that bring lasting community value." VNS

The article is published under the coordination of the Coordination Office of the New-Style Rural Development Programme in Ha Noi.
How would you assess Vietnams public financial governance on transparency, accountability, and fiscal discipline?

Mike Suffield, director of Policy and Insights, ACCA

Vietnam has made commendable strides in strengthening its public financial governance over the past decade, particularly in improving fiscal discipline and enhancing macroeconomic stability. The countrys efforts to institutionalise budget transparency and adopt international best practices, such as publishing budget documents and initiating audits of state-owned enterprises, are positive signals of intent.

However, there remains room to deepen accountability and transparency across all layers of government. Independent oversight, open data standards, and citizen engagement in budgeting are areas where more consistent application would drive further trust in public finance. Fragmentation of reporting systems and limited interoperability between agencies can still obscure the full picture of fiscal performance and risk.

From my perspective, one of Vietnams key strengths lies in its willingness to reform. But as with many emerging economies, sustaining momentum requires investment in institutional capacity and a culture of continuous improvement. Transparency is not only a technical exercise, it must be embedded in values and leadership at every level.

What are the institutional challenges hindering effective implementation of reforms?

Vietnams reform agenda is ambitious and well-targeted. Digitalisation, performance-based budgeting, and fiscal risk management are critical pillars of modern public financial management. But implementation often faces familiar roadblocks; siloed information systems, limited coordination across ministries, and uneven technical capacity at subnational levels.

Digitalisation, for instance, is not just about software or hardware. Its about integration, interoperability, and change management. Building a centralised fiscal data architecture that supports real-time decision-making will require breaking down institutional silos and standardising data practices.

Capacity is another constraint. Medium-term expenditure frameworks and results-based budgeting demand analytical skills, forecasting capabilities, and an understanding of policy trade-offs. These competencies need to be built and retained across the public sector.

To address these bottlenecks, Vietnam could benefit from a whole-of-government approach, where reforms are not implemented in isolation, but as part of a coherent fiscal governance strategy. Drawing on international benchmarks, investing in human capital, and engaging professional bodies like ACCA to support upskilling could help accelerate reform outcomes.

What key reforms should be prioritised to ensure efficient allocation of resources and value for money in public spending?

Public financial management (PFM) is not a back-office function. Its a strategic enabler of national development. For Vietnam to meet its 2045 vision, it must ensure that every bit of public expenditure contributes effectively to inclusive growth, resilience, and productivity.

Efficient PFM underpins everything from infrastructure delivery to education outcomes. It builds investor confidence, mitigates fiscal risks, and enhances the states ability to respond to shocks, be they economic, environmental, or geopolitical.

The key reforms that Vietnam should prioritise to ensure effective public financial management revolve around several critical areas. First and foremost, there must be a concerted effort to strengthen the connection between strategic planning and budgeting processes. This alignment is essential to guarantee that policy priorities are not only clearly defined but also thoroughly costed and adequately funded. By integrating these two functions more closely, the government can ensure that resources are allocated efficiently and in direct support of national development goals, reducing waste and enhancing fiscal discipline.

Secondly, it is imperative to enhance the mechanisms for value-for-money auditing and to refine procurement systems. These improvements would promote greater transparency and accountability in the execution of capital projects, ensuring that public funds are used in the most efficient and effective manner possible. By rigorously evaluating expenditures against outcomes, the government can prevent inefficiencies, curb corruption, and maximise the impact of investments on socioeconomic development.

Thirdly, institutionalising green public finance must become a cornerstone of the reform agenda. This approach involves systematically incorporating environmental and social considerations into all public spending decisions. By embedding sustainability principles into financial management, Vietnam can foster long-term resilience, support the transition to a low-carbon economy, and address pressing challenges such as climate change and social inequality. Green public finance is not merely an ethical imperative but also a strategic necessity for sustainable growth.

Finally, modernising both internal and external audit functions is crucial for strengthening real-time oversight and safeguarding public resources against leakages. Upgrading audit practices and capabilities will provide more timely and accurate information on fiscal performance, enabling corrective actions before problems escalate. Enhanced auditing supports a culture of accountability, builds public trust, and ensures that government agencies adhere to the highest standards of financial integrity.

Together, these reforms form an integrated framework that will enable Vietnam to better manage its public finances, encourage sustainable development, and realise its ambitions for inclusive and resilient growth.

Ultimately, PFM reform is not just a technical agenda. Its a governance imperative. It requires capable institutions, committed leadership, and a professionalised finance workforce. At ACCA, we believe the finance profession has a critical role to play in shaping the future of public sector performance, and we stand ready to support that journey.

ACCA publish guide to sustainability reporting ACCA released its latest report in the sustainability reporting series on February 5. Titled 'Sustainability Reporting: Risk and Materiality', it provides practical guidance for businesses to determine the material information they need to disclose in their sustainability reports.

ACCA and KPMG forge path for business leaders to pioneer ESG excellence The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and KPMG Vietnam signed an MoU in Hanoi on March 6, reaffirming their shared commitment to promoting sustainable development and driving prosperity for the Vietnamese business community.

ESG principles gain added focus for Vietnamese groups The growing emphasis on greener and more modern standards is reshaping the competitive landscape for Vietnamese businesses, determining their ability to integrate into global value chains.

Technological impacts on sustainability practices laid bare for businesses The commitment of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants to supporting Vietnamese firms in their development was evidenced at a conference on technologys role in applying sustainability practices in Ho Chi Minh City on March 12.
The PAN Group and the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences on May 9 signed an MoU to extend their collaboration, which includes human resource development, research and technology transfer, fostering international relations and partner connections, and providing scholarships for students.

More investment into research is leading to enhanced outcomes for the industry, Photo: Le Toan

On the same day, Vinaseed Group, a member of The PAN Group, signed an MoU with the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute to collaborate on research, development, demonstration, and testing of varieties, as well as product development and technical advancement transfer.

These agreements were made during an international scientific conference on crop breeding technologies in Hanoi, which aimed to leverage collective efforts to study and develop new breeding methods that produce high-quality crop varieties resilient to climate change.

Breeding crop varieties is the foundation of agriculture. Pioneering crop breeding is not only the responsibility of the industry but also a national mission related to seeds and food security, said Nguyen Thi Tra My, CEO of The PAN Group. We consistently identify this as a strategic focus. To excel in this area, close collaboration between businesses and scientists is indispensable.

Without technological innovation, genetic resources, and strong research-application linkages, progress remains limited, My added. Thats why we are actively investing in cutting-edge solutions like rapid breeding, gene editing, AI, and biotechnology, translating strategy into concrete action to secure long-term competitiveness, My said.

According to the Vietnam Seed Association (VSA), Vietnams crop production sector has achieved remarkable results in recent years, especially in 2024, when agricultural export turnover reached $62.5 billion, including a record nine million tonnes of rice.

Over 1,000 crop varieties were recognised as being cultivated in Vietnam last year, including 455 rice varieties, over 200 corn varieties, and numerous varieties of fruit, industrial crops, and vegetables. However, to meet the goals of sustainable agricultural development, climate change adaptation, and international competitiveness, innovation in breeding technology remains critical.

The VSA reports that gene transfer technology has been applied to various crops, incorporating genes for brown planthopper resistance, bacterial blight resistance, fungal resistance, vitamin A synthesis, virus resistance, and early ripening.

Leveraging AI, gene convergence, and gene editing in seed selection can drive innovation in Vietnams agricultural sector. By fostering collaboration between research facilities and corporations, these technologies can optimise breeding, production, and processing, enabling high-value, sustainable products and strengthening Vietnams domestic and global agricultural brands, the VSA explained.

Businesses involved in research and development have significantly contributed to increasing the pool of new varieties for production, enhancing the productivity and output of crop seeds nationwide.

Data from the Department of Crop Production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment last year noted that 60 per cent of certified seed varieties in circulation come from businesses and individuals, 31.7 per cent from institutes, centres, and departments, and the rest from foreign-invested enterprises.

According to the development strategy for Vietnams crop seed industry from now to 2035, efforts will focus on enhancing scientific and technological capacity in seeds, including gene conservation and utilisation, breeding research, and seed industry technology. By 2035, Vietnams agriculture will establish key seed production regions while creating good conditions for large enterprises like Vinaseed, Thai Binh Seed, and Nafood to research and produce crop seeds.

Nguyen Dinh Trung, deputy general director of Vinaseed, said businesses have certain advantages in this field.

Some enterprises with substantial financial resources invest in infrastructure and equipment for research. They are fully independent in research, and proactively connect with markets and consumers, as many businesses align closely with market demands, Trung said.

Businesses flexibly collaborate with research institutes, universities, farmers, and especially foreign organisations for breeding cooperation. However, they also face challenges such as inconsistent policies, a lack of valuable gene sources, risks from market and weather fluctuations, competition, inadequate infrastructure, and, in particular, a shortage of high-quality human resources for researching and developing high-quality crop varieties. Thus, collaboration between businesses and institutes and universities is a solution to take advantage of the parties, Trung added.

Agriculture to benefit from digital tech The application of digital tech is seen as the key to developing sustainable agriculture, promoting efficient resource use, and enhancing productivity and quality.

Agriculture sector sees robust growth in Q1 Agricultural businesses have emerged as a bright spot, showing impressive growth despite a market environment still fraught with challenges in Q1.
During a working trip to the US, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and the Vietnamese delegation had a meeting with the leaders of Excelerate Energy on May 20.

Excelerate, a provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) solutions, boasts a full range of flexible regasification services, from floating storage and regasification units and infrastructure development to LNG supply.

The company has offices around the world, including Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Helsinki, London, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Washington, DC.

At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien spoke of his appreciation for the agreement between Excelerate and PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (PV GAS) signed on March 3. The agreement underscores Vietnam's strategic push to diversify US imports and achieve a more equal trade balance between the two nations.

"There is ample room for Excelerate to expand investment and collaboration with Vietnam. Under the revised Power Development Plan VIII, Vietnam is prioritising the development of domestic electricity and scaled LNG imports to drive energy transition," said Dien.

Vietnams extensive coastline offers prime conditions for developing specialised LNG ports, positioning the country as a strategic hub for energy distribution in ASEAN and beyond.

To entice US investment, the Vietnamese government is considering lowering import taxes on LNG alongside many other attractive incentives. However, Vietnam and the US do not currently have a bilateral free trade agreement, so the competitive advantage in the LNG sector is still limited.

Peter Haas, vice president of Excelerate, proclaimed the group ready to expand investment and cooperation in Vietnam in potential LNG projects if supported by the governments of the two countries.

"Excelerate sees the potential in developing LNG power projects, as well as Vietnam's potential to become a hub for storing and distributing LNG in Southeast Asia. Since 2021, Excelerate Energy has had a representative office in Vietnam," said Haas.

"We propose three specific avenues for LNG collaboration, including investing in and developing LNG infrastructure, ensuring a stable supply of LNG, and establishing joint ventures with Vietnamese partners to expand market presence. The goal is to position Vietnam as a key LNG distribution hub in the ASEAN region," he added.

Vietnam and US engage in second round of tariff negotiations The second round of tariff negotiations between Vietnam and the US is taking place from May 19-22 in Washington D.C.

Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia are on US priority list The United States has prioritised negotiations with 20 nations, including Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, according to a report released by Maybank on May 16.
The signing ceremony of the cooperative agreement took place in Hanoi on May 19.

According to the agreement, the collaboration between the two parties aims to create an ecosystem connecting education, research, and innovation, to maximise the potential of future talents and contribute to the overall development of the community and society.

GELEX Group and Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) are expected to cooperate in six main areas; company tours and experiential learning at GELEX and its member companies; internship and training cooperation initiatives; organising job fairs; hosting student-focused talk shows; scholarship sponsorship programmes; and sponsorship of research and development (R&D) activities.

The signing ceremony between GELEX and HUST in Hanoi on May 19

Leveraging the strengths of both parties, the collaboration will contribute to meeting the demand for high-quality workers in Vietnams industrial and high-tech sectors, and promote a shared vision for sustainable development.

Over more than three decades of development, GELEX has undergone a comprehensive transformation from an electrical equipment manufacturing company to one of Vietnams leading investment corporations.

The continuous expansion of its business scale and diversification of its operations has created an urgent need for a strategy to develop a high-quality, rapid, and sustainable pipeline for well-educated staff.

Speaking at the ceremony, Nguyen Trong Trung, deputy general director of GELEX Group, stated that the group aims to become a cradle for top talent and high-quality workers as talent is the driving force of all change.

GELEX has launched cooperation projects with diverse domestic and international educational partners to connect with young and talented students through the 'GELEX Connect' initiative, with HUST a key part of this scheme.

"HUST is a prestigious and influential institution in Vietnam for engineering education. We believe that this partnership will generate a strong pipeline of high-quality candidates in the industrial and tech sectors for GELEX, complementing the groups R&D efforts while supporting the talent and career paths of the countrys youth," said Trung.

Huynh Dang Chinh, vice president of HUST (left) and Nguyen Trong Trung, deputy general director of GELEX Group after signing the cooperative agreement

HUST's development strategy until the end of the decade centres on cultivating a skilled workforce, advancing scientific research, and driving technological innovation. A core pillar of this strategy is fostering deep, comprehensive partnerships with the domestic and international business community to amplify knowledge transfer and societal impact.

Speaking about the collaboration with GELEX, Huynh Dang Chinh, vice president of HUST said, "Our graduates represent a highly skilled workforce, making meaningful contributions to scientific advancement, technological innovation, and intellectual property development. We welcome the opportunity to build a lasting, multifaceted partnership with GELEX to further these shared goals."

'GELEX Connect' will be conducted over a 10-year period (20252035), aiming to connect and build sustainable relationships with educational partners both in Vietnam and abroad.

It will serve as a long-term R&D initiative to enhance the competencies of GELEX Groups employees and those of its member companies.

GELEX sets record revenue target of nearly $1.5 billion for 2025 GELEX Group JSC is aiming to achieve nearly VND38 trillion ($1.5 billion) in revenue for 2025, reflecting double-digit growth compared to 2024.

Explore a green university campus like a five-star resort in northern Vietnam At British University Vietnam (BUV), every aspect is designed to create a green, sustainable learning environment that sparks creativity and inspiration.
Just over a month ago, Vietnam Electric Cable Corporation (CADIVI) introduced an environmentally friendly product line, including electrical cables using lead-free insulation and low smoke halogen-free materials. These two new products are both designed with sustainability, energy and resource saving criteria, and have been certified by the Singapore Green Building Council.

CEO Ho Quang Nhan stated that besides offering high-quality products, the company also placed a high value on social and environmental responsibility. CADIVI has continuously improved technology and production processes to minimise emissions, and enhance energy efficiency.

In 2024, there were 4,100 fire incidents, causing $26.4 million in damage, with 74 per cent of fires attributed to unsafe electrical systems, three times higher than other causes. This serves as a warning sign for the use of unsafe electrical devices, Nhan said. We hope to bring optimal solutions to green buildings, helping our partners and customers build safe, efficient, and environmentally friendly structures.

As a member of the Gelex Group ecosystem, CADIVI benefits from the groups strategic direction in investing in new technologies and enhancing operational efficiency.

For many years, the company has been actively investing in research and development (R&D) to improve production processes, optimise energy efficiency, and reduce emissions. CADIVI has also launched a plastic waste-free programme within the factory with the support of the Gelex Group.

Greener building materials enter the Vietnamese market, Photo: Le Toan

Advanced production

According to Nguyen Trong Hien, chairman of the board of Gelex Group, the green transformation strategy has become a top priority in the groups production and business activities. The group aims to allocate up to 2 per cent of its revenue to R&D activities, digital transformation, and the development of high-quality personnel.

Not only do we apply advanced production technologies to reduce emissions, but our member companies also invest in rooftop solar power systems, while optimising processes to reduce raw material consumption, Hien said.

Green materials are becoming increasingly popular thanks to the development of green buildings. According to the Ministry of Construction, green buildings have appeared in Vietnam for over 15 years, with the first projects in Ho Chi Minh City and later expanding nationwide.

Last June, SCG Group launched its first SCG low-carbon super cement in Vietnam. The new product is environmentally friendly thanks to the application of advanced production technologies, reducing carbon emissions by 20 per cent during the manufacturing process.

Each tonne of SCG low carbon super cement contributes to reducing carbon emissions equivalent to the CO2 absorption of 12 mature trees in one year.

Last September, Fico Tay Ninh Cement also introduced a green label cement to the market with emissions levels of only about 350-600kg of CO2 per tonne, reduced by up to 70 per cent compared to conventional cement.

Supporting companies

Meanwhile, enterprises operating in the paint and coatings industry are also not left behind in the race as they are improving technology to supply green product lines.

Le Dong Lam, CEO of PPG Vietnam, a company specialising in paints, coatings, and speciality materials, stated that the company had recently expanded its factory and improved technology to introduce new solutions to the market that align with customers demand for green products.

PPG sets the goal of developing environmentally advantageous products, expanding water-based paints, powder coatings, and UV coatings. By 2030, approximately half of the companys revenue will come from environmentally advantageous products, Lam said.

According to chairman of the Vietnam Association for Building Materials (VABM) Tong Van Nga, demand for environmentally friendly materials is increasing due to the environmental awareness and the practical benefits such as reduced operating costs and extended lifespan of construction projects.

However, the biggest barrier is that green materials have higher production costs compared to traditional materials, posing challenges for construction contractors or consumers in accessing and using them.

Buildings using green materials can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to half, Nga said. However, the investment cost for green buildings is 5-25 per cent higher than traditional materials, creating budget pressures for both investors and contractors.

The Architecture Law and regulations on energy efficiency, design regulations from the Ministry of Construction, and tax incentives for green buildings have made these types of materials increasingly popular, added Nga.

To support businesses in encouraging the use of green buildings, he said that Vietnam has issued several legal documents such as the Environmental Protection Law, a strategy on development of Vietnams construction materials industry, and rules on management of construction materials covering this decade.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam boasted around 560 green-certified projects by the end of 2024, far exceeding the governments targets of 80 green projects by the end of 2025 and 160 green projects by 2030.

Projects in Vietnam mainly apply three certification systems: EDGE (approximately 42 per cent), LEED (39 per cent), and Green Mark from Singapore (14 per cent). The flexible application of multiple systems helps the market access various international standards and also compels material and equipment suppliers to upgrade accordingly.

Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan, president Vietnam Science and Technology Association for Standards and Quality To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, businesses must focus on applying quality standards linked to environmental protection. Government involvement is also essential through the introduction of supportive policies, followed by businesses playing a crucial role in execution. Businesses need to integrate a quality management system and an environmental management system, rather than just apply in form. Additionally, companies must actively embrace green transformation, linking the perspective on quality standards with environmental protection. This should be applied from the product design process, material selection, production, packaging, preservation, and transportation to consumers. To achieve that, they must adopt new technologies and cleaner, greener materials. Apart from products, businesses also need to use green energy sources and renewable energy to make their production processes more environmentally friendly. Currently, the government has a policy of conducting emissions inventories for businesses to identify the causes of emissions, starting from raw materials to the entire production process. Once businesses become aware of this, I believe we will succeed in achieving the net-zero target. Dr. Phung Anh Tuan, deputy head of Electrical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology Vietnam is striving to reduce the impact of urbanisation and industrialisation on the environment. Therefore, it is important to pay more attention to energy balance targets and introducing environmentally friendly products. Using environmentally friendly materials is a mandatory prerequisite for green buildings. The criteria for environmental friendliness are not only reflected in each product, but also in the technology equipment, vehicles, methods, and energy consumption levels used for the production and manufacturing of products. Furthermore, these materials must meet factors such as low-energy consumption and natural origin. This is also a major challenge when products still must meet the increasingly high technical requirements of the market. Green buildings are buildings that meet four important criteria. It must save energy by using optimal technology and materials to reduce electricity, water, and resource consumption. It should also apply environmentally friendly materials, limiting the use of products harmful to the environment and human health. Efficient waste management is essential, with appropriate solutions for waste and wastewater treatment to minimise pollution. In addition, it is necessary to create a healthy living environment, improve air quality, utilise natural light and green spaces to enhance the quality of life.

Vietnam intent on realising green building aspirations Although the amount of social housing in Vietnam is still very modest, the government and investors are determined to develop green social housing to meet market trends.

Green buildings in Vietnam: Harnessing potential and advantages According to a report by the Ministry of Construction, by the end of the third quarter of 2024, the number of green buildings in Vietnam had reached approximately 500, with a total floor area exceeding 12 million square metres. This achievement is the result of favourable government policies and active involvement from diverse stakeholders.

Green developers seek preferential policies Supplemental preferential policies for those in developing green housing, saving energy, and applying digital technology are required for Vietnams real estate sector to advance in green development.
The move is part of the citys efforts to improve the quality of healthcare, optimise the management and operation process, and build a modern digital health system.

A doctor at Bach Mai Hospital uses EMR for patient examination. Photo: MoH

Hospitals need to meet the criteria for a hospital information system, image storage and transmission RIS-PACS, a laboratory information system, information security and safety, and citywide data interconnection.

They must connect electronic health books, electronic prescriptions, hospital transfer papers, follow-up appointment papers, and others among hospitals across the city.

All hospitals must also conduct a survey and evaluate the current status of their IT infrastructure, including hardware, software, network systems, and security to develop plans that are appropriate to their scale and operating model.

Hospitals are also required to register to digital certificates and digital signatures to ensure compliance with legal regulations on electronic transactions and EMR storage.

The People's Committee assigned the Department of Health to preside over the implementation of EMR, develop solutions and tools to monitor hospitals implementing data connectivity, and guide them on costs for investment in IT.

INFOMED Vietnam wins the worlds first patent for electronic medical records INFOMED Vietnam has won the patent for a blockchain-secured and document-based electronic medical records (EMR) system from the US Patent and Trademark Office, making it the first patent of this kind in the world.

Digital transformation in healthcare is a long journey Digital transformation is enhancing performance across various industries, with advancements such as the commercialisation of 5G expected to bring significant benefits to the healthcare sector and its patients.
Founded in Hong Kong in 2013, Lalamove is a 24/7 on-demand ride-hailing platform with a view to making delivery fast, simple, and affordable.

Since its arrival in Vietnam in 2017, Lalamove has offered a wide range of vehicle options, from vans and utility vehicles to trucks, handling deliveries of all sizes. It launched motorbike and car booking services in Ho Chi Minh City on May 20.

Lalamove said it will offer more travel options at transparent and reasonable prices to customers, including motorbikes and four-seat and seven-seat cars.

Nguyen Hai Dang, CEO of Lalamove Vietnam, said, "The move aims to meet customer demand for more cost-effective travel and improve the income of our driver partners. We hope that our new services will offer additional travel options to customers at reasonable prices, while drivers will have more income to improve their quality of life."

Vietnam's ride-hailing market is highly competitive, with key players such as Grab, Be, and Xanh SM alongside a series of traditional taxi companies. Many other companies are trying to position their brands on the ride-hailing map, such as TADA and HeyU, with Bolt, Uber's rival in Europe, exploring a potential entry into Vietnam early this year.

Meanwhile, Xanh SM has advanced its plan to enter the food delivery segment.

Ride-hailing companies gear up for the green transition Ride-hailing companies are taking on the green transition in order to increase competitive capacity.

From pioneer to key player: Grab's 10-year milestone in Vietnam This October, Grab is celebrating its 10th anniversary in Vietnam. Alejandro Osorio, managing director of Grab Vietnam, speaks to VIR's Linh Le about the key milestones achieved over the last decade and the company's future vision in Vietnam.
Petrovietnam Domestic Exploration Production Operating Company Limited (PVEP POC) reported that an incident had occurred at the Song Doc oil field, located offshore the southwest of Vietnam, in the late afternoon of May 21.

This oil field is depleted and ceased production in February 2024. It is currently undergoing decommissioning in accordance with an approved plan.

Immediately following the incident, emergency response measures were swiftly activated.

Workers on an offshore project. Photo: Petrovietnam

Within approximately 30 minutes, the situation was fully under control, with no environmental impact reported.

The incident has not affected ongoing exploration and production activities at other surrounding petroleum projects, which have continued to operate normally.

PVEP POC has confirmed that the situation is now under control and the body is actively cooperating with relevant parties to determine the root cause of the incident.

The Song Doc oil field is situated approximately 205km south of Ca Mau Cape.

It was discovered and declared commercially viable in 2006. As a relatively small-scale project, its expected production capacity was around 28,000 barrels of oil per day.

The field was initially operated by a consortium of three contractors, encompassing PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), which held a 40 per cent stake, along with Petronas Carigali Overseas Sdn. Bhd from Malaysia and Talisman Vietnam Ltd, each holding 30 per cent stakes.

However, the foreign partners gradually withdrew from the project due to high operational costs and declining production levels.

In November 2013, PVEP was assigned to continue operating and maximising the remaining resources from the field.

At the end of last year, PVEP POC launched a project to plug and abandon the wells and remove the Song Doc platform.

According to documentation from the Vietnam National Industry-Energy Group (Petrovietnam), the Song Doc field is the first decommissioning project of its kind in Vietnam, marking a significant milestone and a pioneering step for the countrys oil and gas industry.

The execution of the decommissioning process and the removal of offshore equipment and infrastructure demonstrates the professionalism and dedication of Petrovietnam and its subsidiaries in managing the entire lifecycle of exploration and production, right through to responsible field closure, while ensuring safety and environmental protection.

PetroVietnam receives first gas flow from White Lion oil field in stage 2A State-owned PetroVietnam has just welcomed the first flow of gas from Su Tu Trang (White Lion) oil field in phase 2A, putting the project into operation 16 days ahead of schedule.

Vested interests doing damage in banking Concerns are being raised by various stakeholders in Vietnams banking sector regarding the risks of cross-ownership, emphasising the need for regulatory reforms to enhance transparency, mitigate the dominance of major shareholders, and propose measures such as reducing ownership ratios and expanding information disclosure.
Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang received Simon Green, president of Asia-Pacific and Japan at Palo Alto Networks

Minister Thang said that the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance (MoF) is currently deploying many large-scale, nationwide applications, including information systems at level four among five security levels (from low to high).

Security solutions have been deployed by information system management units in compliance with legal regulations and instructions from competent authorities. However, many cybersecurity solutions currently in use are nearing the end of their product life cycle and need to be upgraded and replaced. New cybersecurity solutions that apply advanced technical technologies, such as AI and big data, need to be researched and applied to enhance cybersecurity.

The minister said, "From 2025-2030, the MoF plans to implement major digital transformation across the entire financial sector, and build a unified overall design for digital infrastructure, digital applications, and digital data, while ensuring network security.

The minister added that the MoF has a large number of units, so the demand for IT applications is also great. This is an opportunity for the MoF and Palo Alto Networks to expand cooperation on specific projects with the common goal of bringing benefits to both sides. Moreover, products and services that ensure network security and safety for the MoF will serve state management and individuals and businesses nationwide.

"Opportunities are opening up for Palo Alto to participate in providing network security and safety products and services for the MoF in line with the provisions of Vietnamese law," the minister emphasised.

Simon Green thanked Minister Thang and hoped that his working trip to Vietnam, especially to the MoF, would be the foundation for cooperation with ministries, agencies, and the government of Vietnam.

He committed to providing the Vietnamese market with the most modern and latest products in security, especially for the MoF through ETC Technology System JSC, contributing to the trade balance between Vietnam and the US.

"With experience in cooperating with some countries such as Japan and Australia, Palo Alto Networks can completely share with the MoF the best solutions, ensuring the construction of a network security system for tax, customs, treasury, and statistics agencies," Green said.

Thang said that close cooperation between Palo Alto Networks and the MoF would continue to be the foundation to achieve Vietnam's sustainable development goals.

Moody's backs Vietnam's bid to boost credit ratings Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Quoc Phuong met with a high-level delegation from the international credit rating agency Moody's Ratings at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on May 16.

MoF helps Samsung to accelerate administrative procedures and investment expansion Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang received Na Ki Hong, the new CEO of Samsung Electronic Vietnam, on May 20 to discuss issues related to Samsung's investment and business in Vietnam.
In preparation for Vietnams ambitious North-South high-speed railway project, expected to break ground by the end of 2026, calls are growing for the government to rapidly issue technical standards, finalise core technology choices, and demonstrate clear commitment to sourcing from local industries.

Le Net, Partner, LNT & Partners

Stakeholders emphasise that in order for Vietnamese companies such as Vietnam Railways, Hoa Phat, Vingroup, Truong Hai, and others to participate meaningfully in supplying materials and equipment for the venture, the government must urgently provide a clear framework for technical requirements, approved technologies, and priority procurement policies.

Without these critical decisions, domestic enterprises will not be able to plan investments, establish manufacturing lines, or secure necessary certifications in time to contribute to the project. It is an urgent need to have standards and technological direction.

The high-speed rail initiative requires a sophisticated array of high-precision materials and components far beyond those used in conventional railway systems.

Local companies intending to supply rails, track systems, signalling equipment, and rolling stock components need at least 12-18 months to invest in new technologies, expand production capacity, and meet international quality benchmarks.

However, as of mid-2025, national technical standards, regulatory frameworks, and the list of prioritised goods have yet to be finalised. Companies are concerned that unless these standards are issued as soon as possible, they will not have sufficient time to complete necessary investments before the bidding phase commences around September 2026.

Further complicating matters, the railways feasibility study is scheduled for completion only by September 2026, creating a significant timing mismatch between supplier investment cycles and procurement timelines.

In light of these challenges, stakeholders propose several urgent actions. First is accelerating the issuance of technical standards. The government should immediately publish the key technical standards governing all major components of the high-speed railway, including track structures, rail grades, electrical systems, and safety protocols.

These standards must align with international best practices but also allow local adaptation to Vietnams operational and environmental conditions.

Second is early commitment to technology choices. Core technological parameters, such as the maximum operational speed, train control systems, and rolling stock specifications, must be finalised as early as possible. Clear technological direction will enable local companies to align their decisions with the railways requirements.

The third aspect is priority procurement for local industries. The government should establish policies that prioritise or reserve certain categories of supply for qualified domestic manufacturers. Measures could include local content requirements, preferential bidding policies, and targeted public procurement strategies.

Fourth is investment incentives. To encourage timely investment in new production lines and technologies, the government should offer tax incentives, import duty exemptions for specialised equipment, and preferential land leasing terms for strategic suppliers.

The fifth factor is risk-sharing mechanisms. Recognising the risks faced by early investors, stakeholders propose that the government consider partial cost compensation mechanisms or advance purchase commitments if project timelines shift significantly beyond planned schedules.

There is a strategic opportunity for Vietnams industrialisation. Industry representatives stress that the North-South high-speed railway is not merely a transportation undertaking, but a national industrial opportunity. If properly harnessed, it could catalyse the development of a high-value domestic railway supply chain, create skilled jobs, and reduce Vietnams future dependence on foreign suppliers.

Missing this opportunity, they warn, could lock Vietnam into long-term reliance on imported materials and technologies, losing valuable chances for technology transfer, localisation, and industrial upgrading.

To capture potential opportunities, decisive action is needed. With the clock ticking, stakeholders urge the prime minister and relevant ministries to prioritise and expedite all regulatory and technological decisions necessary to enable local companies to invest confidently and participate competitively.

Only with early, strong, and clear government action can Vietnam maximise both the economic and strategic benefits of its high-speed railway ambitions.
These chefs unfold a distinctive culinary journey through time at The Reverie Saigon

This extraordinary series features five meticulously crafted menus, each celebrating the fundamental elements of life  Water, Earth, Air, and Fire  and highlighting the talents of seven esteemed chefs from Vietnam's most celebrated restaurants. Each menu in this series is a step through time, blending diverse culinary techniques with modern innovation to showcase the soul of each ingredient and honour its origins.

Cuisine is where the bounty of nature dances with human artistry, where the legacy of tradition intertwines with the spark of innovation. Standing at this extraordinary intersection is head chef Marcelo Geraldini, a gifted culinary artist and storyteller who weaves narratives through exquisite flavours, guiding diners on emotional journeys with every dish.

For him, each element  the fluidity of water, the invisible strength of air, the transformative power of fire, and the nurturing essence of earth  is a piece of nature's grand puzzle. His dishes are not merely combinations of techniques but harmonious balances of these primal forces.

The Night of Water: The flow of life

Embarking on a journey of sensory discovery organised on May 15, our series commences with the Night of Water, a celebration guided by the visionary chef Hoang Tung of A by TUNG, alongside the artistry of chef Marcelo. Rooted in the Nordic lands where glacial meltwaters embrace the vast ocean, chef Tung channels the very essence of purity, simplicity, and enduring sustainability into his culinary journey. As a groundbreaking architect of Vietnam's tasting menu experience, he continually transcends gastronomic frontiers, delving into the intricate layers of flavour drawn from the world's diverse terroirs.

The year 2022 marked a pivotal aspiration for chef Tung: to cultivate Vietnamese gastronomy towards a future of profound sustainability, honouring the ocean's pristine gifts through the embrace of the freshest seafood. A by Tung is not merely a presentation of dishes; it is the unfolding of a story - an immersive experience where guests can perceive the fluid dynamism of innovation and the resonant confluence of tradition and the avant-garde.

'I recognise no limits in the realm of cuisine. True artistry resides in boundless openness and profound connection' - this guiding principle is the vital, life-giving current that flows deeply within each masterful creation of Chef Tung.

The Night of Earth: Reborn and nourished

From the profound depths of Water, life awakens. From the nurturing embrace of Earth, life flourishes and multiplies. Our second evening on June 12, a tribute to the tender touch of the earth, rustic yet deeply resonant, welcomes the esteemed chef Luke Nguyen and chef Trinh Dinh Vinh from Vietnam House Restaurant, alongside the artistry of chef Marcelo.

Born into a Vietnamese heritage in Australia, Luke Nguyen carries within him an enduring connection to the essential lands of Vietnam. For him, each ingredient transcends mere sustenance; it is a narrative woven from the soil, the people, and the vibrant tapestry of culture. Together, chef Luke Nguyen and chef Trinh Dinh Vinh perceive ingredients as the very stories whispered by the earth. Their culinary journey is a harmonious convergence of tradition and innovation  a vivid portrayal of the unadorned essence and refined purity of Vietnamese cuisine.

The Night of Air: The breath of heaven

For chef Lam Huynh, cuisine is akin to Air, perpetually in motion, constantly adapting, yet steadfast in its pure spirit and essential core. It is this profound understanding that has fuelled his unwavering dedication of over 15 years to learning, innovating, and inspiring within the realm of Japanese gastronomy, guided by the philosophy of Washoku, the harmony inherent in each ingredient, the delicate equilibrium within every flavour.

Like the very air we breathe, invisible yet indispensable, chef Lam Huynh, in collaboration with chef Marcelo, crafts a menu that offers exquisitely refined and subtly graceful culinary experiences. Through a lens of contemporary minimalism, their creations leave an indelible mark on each guest, a profound touch achieved through understated elegance. The event will be organised on July 11.

The Night of Fire: The heart of the hearth

Following the very rhythm of life's breath, existence takes vibrant form in the flickering dance of a rosy flame. On this fourth night on August 8, chef Marcelo unites with the esteemed chefs Siu Hin Chi and Wong Fu Keung to present a menu where the timeless traditions of the East embrace the boundless spirit of the West. With over four decades of mastery, chef Siu Hin Chi stands as one of Hong Kong's most celebrated Cantonese culinary icons, having garnered an astounding 24 Michelin Stars in a decade of dedication.

Driven by an incandescent passion for the diverse world of Cantonese flavours, these two masters join forces with chef Marcelo's inventive Western approach. This menu is not just a culinary experience; it's an exploration of cultural confluence and masterful technique. Every dish tells a story beyond the fusion of heat and elements, a tale of evolution, strength, and groundbreaking innovation.

The Night of Evolution: The convergent night

The final night on September 12 culminates our journey through the essential elements, a momentous occasion where seven visionary chefs converge. On this extraordinary evening, a specially curated menu awaits, where dishes are alchemised through the harmonious interplay of Water, Earth, Air, and Fire. Prepare for a captivating gustatory journey that transcends time, bridging the flavours of yesterday and today.

With the support and collaboration of esteemed partners, including CAO Fine Jewellery, Acqua Panna, San Pellegrino, Penfolds, Da Loc, WeWine, Celliers Dasie Vietnam, and Phu & Em Group, the series promises to be one of The Reverie Saigons most distinctive culinary highlights of 2025, where creativity, culinary artistry, and cultural values are celebrated in every dish.

The Reverie Saigon featured in international travel magazine The Saigon Suite at The Reverie Saigon was listed in the12 Penthouse Perches to Swoon Over by Travel + Leisure. The suite was listed amongst 11 other hotel suites from around the globe.

Michelin stars shine at The Reverie Saigon The Michelin-starred husband and wife duo Rupert and Carrie Blease from San Francisco restaurant Lord Stanley bring their award-winning, European-inspired cuisine to The Reverie Saigon from July 4 to 7, 2018.

The best of Italian cuisine at The Reverie Saigon This November, a unique gathering of top Italian chefs will descend on The Reverie Saigon to delight diners with creations celebrating the best of traditional Italian fare.

Royal Pavilion and Vietnam House Restaurant honoured with Michelin awards While Vietnam House Restaurant continues to be listed in the Michelin Selected 2024, The Royal Pavilion is honoured as the only restaurant from the Michelin Selected 2023 list to be upgraded to 1 Michelin Star.
The second round of tariff negotiations took place from May 19 to 22 in Washington, with the participation of Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

With utmost determination and effort, the Vietnamese and American delegations discussed all the contents in the spirit of goodwill, frankness, and respect for institutions. The discussions also ensured harmony and balance of interests in accordance with international commitments and the development level of each country.

The two sides also provided information on each other's current policies and clarified the contents of the draft bilateral agreement on trade. The two sides discussed a comprehensive approach to addressing issues of mutual concern to accelerate the negotiation process. The delegations had open and constructive exchanges on economic and trade issues of core interest to both countries.

They also identified groups of issues on which they have come to an agreement or positions that have narrowed, as well as the ones needing more discussions. Both parties agreed on timelines for providing feedback on the draft agreement, suggesting specific wording, and hosting virtual meetings in anticipation of the next round of negotiations.

On the last day of talks, Minister Dien had a bilateral meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to examine the results of the second round and identify the main areas of focus for the upcoming negotiations, which are set for early June.

Greer praised Vietnam's efforts and goodwill in addressing US concerns and expressed hope that the two countries will continue fostering technical exchanges, especially at the ministerial level, to produce results as quickly as feasible.

Dien affirmed Vietnam's determination to promote economic and trade relations with the US in a balanced and sustainable manner for the sake of both countries' individuals and businesses.

The minister agreed with Greer to assign technical teams to strengthen exchanges to reach an agreement in accordance with the expectations and conditions of each side.

US calls tariff talks with Vietnam productive US Trade Representative Jamieson L. Greer and Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade (MOIT) Nguyen Hong Dien agreed on the importance of making swift progress towards reciprocal and balanced trade between the US and Vietnam.

Vietnam has tools to achieve even greater economic heights Over the past decades, Vietnam has transformed into one of Asias fastest-growing economies, a testament to its resilience and adaptability.
Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang hosted the meeting in Hanoi with Pauline Tamesis, United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator, along with heads of several UN agencies including UNICEF, ILO, UNDP, UNIDO, WHO, UN Women, and UNFPA.

The meeting followed the P4G Summit held in April in Hanoi, an event where Vietnam played host with a significant contribution from the UN.

Minister Thang expressed his pleasure at meeting Tamesis again, commending her leadership since she assumed her post in Vietnam in June 2022.

An overview of the meeting

I highly appreciate Tamesis' leadership in steering UN activities in Vietnam, said Thang. The UNs support has been instrumental in mobilising and executing non-refundable development aid, amounting to more than $400 million for each five-year cooperation cycle.

Thang noted that both Vietnam and the UN are at a critical juncture amid rapid global changes. He affirmed Vietnams strong determination to pursue a new era of prosperous and sustainable development.

Vietnam values international expertise and policy advice that supports our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), avoid the middle-income trap, and bridge development gaps with regional and global peers, he stated.

Tamesis expressed her appreciation for the recognition of the UNs contributions in facilitating resource mobilisation, supporting Vietnams development efforts, and advancing national development priorities.

We are grateful that our efforts in mobilising development resources and policy advocacy have been recognised. The UN remains committed to supporting Vietnam in achieving its SDGs and national priorities, Tamesis said.

She also presented highlights from the UNs Annual Report and initial results from the first year of implementing the Vietnam-UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

Furthermore, she proposed continued collaboration to align UN support with Vietnams development agenda and encouraged Vietnams participation in the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, scheduled for late June and early July in Spain.

The participants pose for a commemorative photo

Addressing future cooperation priorities, Minister Thang urged UN organisations to provide early forecasts on emerging global and regional trends and potential crises that could impact Vietnam.

He also called for stronger policy advisory support to help the Vietnamese government manage socioeconomic affairs effectively.

Thang suggested that the UN system advocate for Vietnams ownership of data, technology, knowledge, and outcomes generated through donor-funded programmes and projects implemented via UN agencies.

The minister also emphasised the need for a timely review of the ongoing 2022-2026 Vietnam-UN Country Programme and the early development of a new joint strategy for the subsequent phase, aligned with Vietnams evolving development needs.

The Ministry of Finance will continue to foster cooperation with the United Nations, facilitating effective implementation of development programmes and coordinating efforts in UN development system reform, Minister Thang concluded.

Vietnam seizes opportunities amid global trade shifts Vietnam is navigating the shifting currents of global trade and seeking to sustain its economic growth. Barry Weisblatt, head of research at VNDirect Securities, spoke with VIRs Khanh Linh about the strategic avenues the country must explore to capitalise on its potential.

Investing channels evolve amid global realignment As global trade dynamics shift and financial markets brace for new developments, Trinh Ha, senior analyst at Exness Investment Bank, talked with VIRs Thy Nguyet about Vietnams positioning in global supply chains, the evolving landscape of its capital markets, and the outlook for safe-haven assets like gold.
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A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trumps executive order to dismantle the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. The administration said it would challenge the ruling.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March that sought to work toward Trumps goal to shut down the department. It marks a setback to one of the Republican president's campaign promises.

The ruling came in two consolidated lawsuits that said Trump's plan amounted to an illegal closure of the Education Department.

One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups. The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general, including Nevada.

After the ruling, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford released this statement:

This is more than a legal win; its a line in the sand. Tearing down the Department of Education is a direct attack on our future  and I am relieved that vital resources will not be unlawfully ripped away from our children while this lawsuit proceeds, said Ford. Education is one of the most vital services our government can provide, and to attempt to rip it away without thought and without legal authority is a slap in the face to both our children and our educators. I was a public school math teacher, and Im the father of three sons who attended Nevadas public schools, so I know how important this funding is. I will do everything in my power to stop the Trump administrations illegal attempt to take a hatchet to the Department of Education and to our childrens futures.

The suits argued that layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

In his order, Joun said the plaintiffs painted a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for Americas most vulnerable student populations.

Layoffs of that scale, he added, will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants actions are merely a reorganization is plainly not true."

The department pledged to challenge his order.

Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people, spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement.

Joun ordered the Education Department to reinstate federal workers who were terminated as part of the March 11 layoff announcement.

That announcement led to the firing of about 1,300 people. Some Education Department employees have left through buyout offers and the termination of probationary employees, which combined with the layoffs have reduced the staff to roughly half the 4,100 the department had when Trump took office.

Todays order means that the Trump administrations disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated, said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the Somerville case.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the decision a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity.

The administration has said the layoffs are aimed at efficiency, not a department shutdown. Trump has called for the closure of the agency but recognizes it must be carried out by Congress, the government said.

The administration said restructuring the agency may impact certain services until the reorganization is finished but its committed to fulfilling its statutory requirements.

Joining Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont and the District of Columbia.
MAY 21 UPDATE:

More details have emerged about an incident on the campus of Reno High School. A man was arrested after he was allegedly found with weapons in his car.

According to a probable cause document obtained by 2 News Nevada, Alejandro Barragan was found sleeping in his car on Reno High School property.

Police saw a rifle in the open in the back seat of his car.

Barragan was detained, and police asked him for permission to search the car, which he granted.

Police then went on to find a handgun on the front passenger seat and four knives.

Barragan was arrested and taken to the Washoe County Jail.

He is facing six counts of possession of a dangerous weapon on school property and one count of possession of a weapon with intention to sell or transport without a serial number.

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

The Washoe County School District has shared details of an incident that occurred as school was starting Tuesday morning at Reno High School.

A school district phone call was placed to families of Reno High School students this morning, letting them know about the incident.

According to the call, school police were called after a person was seen on the high school campus who had not checked in at the office.

Officials say that no students were involved, and the school police took the person into custody as students and staff arrived at the start of the school day.

The district reports that everyone is safe and school will continue to operate as normal today.
The Washoe County Sheriffs Office is seeking the publics assistance in locating a stolen trailer and skid steer.

At around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, WCSO deputies were called to a home off Red Rock Road in northern Washoe County regarding a reported stolen trailer.

The owner reported that the trailer, which had a skid steer loaded on it, was noticed missing around 12:00 p.m.

The Sheriff's Office says this is an open investigation, that is assigned to Deputy Magness.

The Washoe County Sheriff's Office Patrol Division is asking anyone with information about the location of the stolen equipment or who may have witnessed suspicious activity in the area to get in touch with them via non-emergency dispatch at (775) 785-9276, mentioning case number 25-2367.

Secret Witness is offering a reward in the amount of $500.00 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the suspect(s) wanted in connection with the theft of a trailer and skid steer in the Red Rock area of Reno.

Secret Witness also accepts anonymous tips via the phone at (775) 322-4900 or online at www.secretwitness.com.
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Auckland, May 22, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited ( NSX:AFT ) ( ASX:AFP ) today reports it has again achieved another year of record revenue with annual sales exceeding $200 million and it is now firmly focused on its revenue target of $300 million by the end of the 2027 financial year.



The diversified pharmaceuticals company reports continued strong growth in its core Australasian business, while the expected robust recovery in its Asia and International businesses during the second half year, have lifted revenue for the year to the end of March 2025 to another record of $208.0 million, a 6% increase over FY 24.



Operating profits have meanwhile reached $17.6 million in line with guidance given at the half year, lifted by the growth in revenue and expansion of product margins.



These gains were diluted by the significant one-off events flagged in 1H 25, including destocking by several of our largest customers and a since resolved doctors' strike in South Korea that impacted both sales and earnings.

A video of Dr Hartley Atkinson discussing a summary of the result can be viewed at the following link: https://bit.ly/AFTPharmaceuticals_FY25.



HIGHLIGHTS



- Full year operating revenue up 6% to $208.0 million, lifted by 11% growth in product sales and royalties across all territories and $0.7 million of licensing income



- Strong Australian sales growth of 17%, offset by the one-off factors of destocking and interruptions to demand for Maxigesic IV in 1H 25



- EBITDA of $20.9 million down 20% and operating profit of $17.6 million down 27%, in line with guidance given at the half year



- Operating profit in Australia rose 65% following growth investments made last year delivering the expected benefits



- Net profit after tax decreases 23% to $12.0 million



- Balance sheet strong with net debt of $14.5 million down from $16.2 million at the end of FY 24 and $29.9 million at the end of FY 23 despite significant investments for growth



- Consistent with confidence in outlook an increased dividend declared of 1.8 cents per share, (1.6 cents declared FY 24)



- $200 million revenue exceeded and now focused on the $300 million target



- Ongoing significant investment with FY 26 guidance for increased operating profit of $20 million to $24 million.



AFT Pharmaceuticals Chair David Flacks said: "AFT has delivered another strong result, especially when considered against the one-off disruptions in the first half of the year.



"We have grown in our core Australasian and Asian markets. We have meanwhile continued to invest for the long-term with the addition of new medicines to our product development portfolio and an expanded offer in the markets in which we operate. We are looking to the new financial year with confidence."



Co-Founder and Managing Director Dr Hartley Atkinson said: "Aside from delivering continued strong growth in our core Australasian businesses we have significantly advanced our strategy to extend our reach across multiple geographies and added to our research and development (R&D) pipeline. These efforts have come at the cost of short-term earnings growth, but we are convinced they will deliver growth in long term shareholder value.



"Highlights for the year include launching Maxigesic tablets in the US, following on from the intravenous form of the medicine, Maxigesic IV; the launch of our proprietary antiseptic cream in mainland China, and the completion of multiple licensing agreements around the world including Maxigesic IV in China, and Brazil. In a credit to our out-licencing activities we were identified as the only company in the world last year to secure two licensing agreements into China, the world's second largest pharma market.



"We are also pleased with the progress we are making with AFT's business operations established in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK. We have a roadmap for growth in each of these markets founded on a portfolio of our own products and medicines we are in-licensing.



"Our own products for these markets now include a significant development programme of injectable drugs with a potential market value of over US$400 million.



Our approach to these new markets avoids an over-exposure to the US and at present we do not see a significant impact of new US tariffs to our business.



"Finally, we have extended our research and development programme to 13 separate projects following the addition of two projects over the last year - a novel topical keloid scar treatment and a new treatment for iron infusions. Together these projects offer entry into markets with a considerable value, for example the iron injection market is forecast to reach US$7.4 Billion by 2033.



"We are seeing interest growing in our R&D portfolio with some twenty agreements under discussion, including signed term sheets. I am confident, based on these foundations AFT has reached an inflexion point and can further extend its decades long record for growth and value creation."



FINANCIAL RESULTS



Revenue from the sale of existing products, new products and product royalties grew by 11% to $207.4 million from $186.9 million in FY 24. The 17% growth in the Australian business and the 10% growth in the New Zealand business made the largest contribution to the increase in group revenue.



The Asia and International businesses recovered in the second half after the one-off events flagged in the first half of the year - the destocking by several of our largest customers and the disruptions to demand for Maxigesic IV.



Asia revenue recovered from the first half decrease and rose by 4% to $11.1 million from $10.7 million in FY 24. The second half sales in Asia were 50% greater than 1H 25 sales and 26% greater than 2H 24, all consistent with the significant expected recovery.



International sales in 2H 25 were 83% greater than 1H 25 but finished 20% below last year's. Sales in 2H 25 were 19% greater than 2H 24, again a rise consistent with the expected recovery.



Total revenue, which includes licensing income of$0.7 million rose 6% to $208.0 million from $195.4 million in FY 24. Licensing income was less than FY 24's $8.5 million, a figure buoyed by a one-off $6 million payment related to the launch of Maxigesic IV in the US. However, with a significant number of licensing agreements under discussion, including signed term sheets, we anticipate higher licensing milestone payments in FY 26.



Gross Margin on product sales and royalties of 44% improved by 1 percentage point (FY 24 43%), driven by the revenue growth in the higher margin products. The overall gross margin which includes license income reduced to 44% (FY 24 45%).



Operating expenses increased by $10 million over FY 24 with the increase reflecting start-up funding for the new business hubs in North America, the United Kingdom, and South Africa; marketing for new products and markets; and an increase in research and development expenditure.



The result was an operating profit of $17.6 million, down from an operating profit of $24.2 million in FY 24, the latter benefitting from the higher licensing fees. Excluding license fees, operating profits increased 7% to $17.0 million from $15.7 million in FY 24 despite the extra expenditure to drive future business growth. EBITDA of $20.9 million was down from $26.2 million in FY 24, while net profit after tax fell from $15.6 million to $12.0 million.



Further detail on the performance of AFT's individual markets is contained in our annual report also released to the NZX and ASX today and available at the following link: https://investors.aftpharm.com/Investors/



RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT



FY 25 R&D expenditure (expensed and capitalised) rose to $15.0 million from $12.4 million in FY 24, all of which has been funded through earnings with the increase reflecting the addition of new projects to the portfolio.



Towards the end of FY 25 we strengthened our research and development partnership with Belgium's Hyloris Pharmaceuticals with an agreement to in-license and complete development of a late-stage novel innovative injectable iron deficiency therapy.



AFT and Hyloris are now collaborating on three different projects, while our R&D program now extends to 13 separate projects, all of which offer potential significant growth opportunities.



Five of these projects (multiple Maxigesic dose forms, Capsaicin creams, Crystaderm, Kiwisoothe and Micolette) are in or entering the commercialisation phase while the others are longer term but offer significant upside, provided the R&D programs are successful. The five projects in the commercialisation phase are driving the significant number of licensing negotiations that AFT presently has underway.



BALANCE SHEET AND DIVIDEND



AFT remains well funded. Net debt at the end of March 2025 was $14.5 million down from $18.9 million at the end of 1H 24 and $16.2 million at the end of FY 24. Net debt is within the company's target range of 1X EBITDA.



Directors have resolved to declare a dividend of 1.8 cents per share, up from 1.6 cents a share in FY 24. The dividend recognises the strong outlook for the company and that earnings in FY 25 were depressed by the one-off events in the first half of the period.



OUTLOOK



AFT is expecting to extend its growth record in FY 26 as it drives towards its aspirational target of $300 million revenue by the end of FY 27.

"AFT is well positioned to achieve this target. While the global trading environment is looking more difficult, we are confident that we can continue to overcome these challenges by focusing on what we do best - identifying unmet clinical needs and then in-licensing or developing medicines and then commercialising them to improve health globally. Importantly, we are protecting ourselves from one-off events in single markets with the increasing geographic and product diversification of our operations.



"We have a strong programme of new products in our core Australasian markets and see continued opportunities for growth across the existing portfolio. This growth will also be supported by product launches especially in international markets, building momentum in our new business hubs which will move into profitability and the commercialisation of products now in development," Dr Atkinson said.



"We are looking forward with confidence and expect operating profit for the FY 26 year to range from $20 million to $24 million."



About AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited





AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX:AFP) (NSX:AFT) is a growing New Zealand based multinational pharmaceutical company that develops, markets, and distributes a broad portfolio of pharmaceutical products across a wide range of therapeutic categories which are distributed across all major pharmaceutical distribution channels: over the counter (OTC), prescription and hospital. Our product portfolio comprises both proprietary and in-licensed products, and includes patented, branded, and generic drugs5. Our business model is to develop and in-license products for in our markets of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, EU ex Ireland and UK, and to outlicense our products to local licensees and distributors to over 125 countries around the world.

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"Jailed for Ideology?" SC Grants Bail to Kerala PFI Leader in RSS Murder Case 2

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Abdul Sathar, former secretary general of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in Kerala, who was arrested in connection with the 2022 murder of RSS leader Srinivasan in Palakkad. A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan observed that there was no direct role attributed to Sathar in the assassination, raising critical concerns over the broader implications of jailing individuals solely based on their ideological leanings.

You cannot put someone in jail for their ideology. This is the trend we findit is because they have adopted a particular ideology that they are put in jail, the bench told the counsel representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case.

Earlier, on June 25, 2024, the Kerala High Court had granted bail to 17 out of 26 PFI members accused of instigating communal violence across the state and other regions. Those granted bail were subjected to strict conditions, including mandatory sharing of their cellphone numbers and live GPS location with investigators.

Following the murder of RSS leader Srinivasan in 2022, the Centre alleged a larger conspiracy by PFI leaders with serious national and international implications. The NIA took over the case, filing a consolidated charge sheet in 2023, followed by two supplementary charge sheets.

With the Supreme Courts decision to grant bail to Abdul Sathar, the case now highlights the growing judicial scrutiny over the thin line between ideology and actionable criminal intent, particularly in politically and communally sensitive investigations.
Vaishnavi Did Not DieShe Was Killed by Greed 2

A straight and bold call for justice in the face of dowry-driven brutality

Vaishnavi Kasapate did not take her own life. She was pushed. Pushed by a system that still allows the ancient evil of dowry to thrive. Pushed by a society that looks away when a woman screams from within the four walls of her marital home. Pushed by a powerful family who saw her not as a daughter-in-law but as a financial deal that didnt quite meet expectations.

She had a love marriage. She chose her partner, Shashank Hagwanethe son of NCP leader Rajendra Hagwane, a man with political clout and influence in Maharashtras Mulshi taluka. But her love was not enough to shield her from the toxic greed that soon engulfed her life. Her marriage was never fully accepted by her in-laws because they had hoped for a richer brideone who could bring in more wealth, more dowry. Still, Vaishnavis family agreed to give in: 51 tolas of gold, silver utensils, and a Fortuner SUV. And still, they wanted more. Two crore rupees moreto buy land, to satisfy their endless appetite for wealth.

The harassment began. The pressure grew. Her husband, her mother-in-law, and her sister-in-law all reportedly played their parts in tormenting her. One day, it ended. Or rather, they ended it. Vaishnavi was found hanging on May 16 at her in-laws house in Pune. The family says it was suicide. But her father has filed an FIR, claiming it was murder, a premeditated act masked as suicide. Her body bore injury marks. No suicide note was found. The pain she carried inside herhidden, silencedwas finally exposed only after her death.

Her husband Shashank, her mother-in-law Lata, and her sister-in-law Karishma were arrested. But her politically connected father-in-law Rajendra Hagwane and brother-in-law Sushil Hagwane are absconding. The police claim they are searching for them, but how long will it take? How long before power shields the guilty and justice fades into silence?

This is not an isolated case. This is not rare. Its happening everywherein cities, in villages, in homes that look respectable on the outside but are soaked in cruelty inside. Lets look at the numbers:

In 2022, nearly 6,400 women were killed in dowry-related deaths across India. Thats almost 18 women every single day. In 2020, over 10,000 cases were filed under the Dowry Prohibition Act. Yet, convictions remain painfully low. The legal process is slow, cumbersome, and often biased toward the powerful.

According to the National Commission for Women (NCW), in 2024, there were 25,743 complaints related to crimes against women. Out of these, 6,237 were related to domestic violence, while 4,383 were specifically about dowry harassment. There were 292 cases reported as dowry deaths. Imagine how many more went unreported, buried under shame, fear, or the influence of power.

Complaints about the right to live with dignity made up nearly 28% of total casesbecause dignity is still a luxury denied to most women in their marital homes. Most of these complaints came from Uttar Pradesh (54%), followed by Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana. The so-called progressive states are not immune either. The monster of dowry is alive, well-fed, and protectedby silence, by complicity, and by power.

And now, a politicians family is under the scanner. The accused are being given VIP treatment at the police station. Why? Because justice bends when it meets influence? Because laws can be manipulated when the surname is big enough?

Let us be very clearVaishnavi did not die because of personal issues or mental health. She died because our society killed her: our culture of glorifying marriage while ignoring the abuse, our failure to enforce laws, and our willingness to stay silent.

This time, we wont be silent. This is not just about one girl. This is about every girl who is forced to barter her freedom for acceptance. About every father who sells his dreams to fulfil dowry demands. About every mother who loses her daughter in the name of family honour.

We demand immediate arrest of all the accused, no bail, and no political protection. We demand a fast-track court, not another endless trial. We demand police accountabilityno VIP treatment for murder accused. And most importantly, we demand that India finally treats dowry deaths as national emergencies, not private tragedies.

Justice for Vaishnavi is not just about punishing her killers. It is about sending a messagethat daughters are not dowry. That marriage is not a licence for cruelty. And that no amount of power will shield murderers from the truth.

Let her death not be just another news report. Let it be a turning point.

Let us raise our voiceslouder than their silence.

Let us demand justicebefore another Vaishnavi is pushed to her death.
Feature: Kenyan children embrace Chinese language, culture to pursue shared future

Xinhua) 10:09, May 22, 2025

NAIROBI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- When her name was called to perform a traditional Chinese dance, eight-year-old Shirleen Chepkemoi lit up the stage with rhythmic precision, an infectious smile, and a natural connection to the audience.

Dressed in a crisp pink dress and black boots, the third-grader captivated a packed auditorium during the fifth edition of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese Show for Foreign Primary School Pupils, held on Tuesday at Brookehouse School on the outskirts of Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

Despite stiff competition, Chepkemoi emerged as the overall winner of the event, held under the theme "Happy Chinese." The contest featured three categories: Chinese language speech, general knowledge, and a talent show that included dance, poetry, and music.

"I feel good after winning this competition. It was a great experience dancing in front of many people," said Chepkemoi, who began learning Chinese in Grade Two at her public primary school in Nakuru County, about 160 km northwest of Nairobi.

Surrounded by her proud mother, Judy Chepng'eno, and several relatives, Chepkemoi said she was inspired by a female teacher to study Chinese. Over time, her interest grew into a passion for Chinese dance.

Clutching her trophy and beaming with joy as the audience cheered, she shared her dream: "I want to become a Chinese language teacher."

The Kenya division finals of the competition brought together 20 pupils from 15 public and private primary schools. Jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy in Kenya and the Confucius Institute at Egerton University, the event was attended by senior government officials, diplomats, education leaders, and parents.

Twelve-year-old Shannel Njoki, a seventh-grader who was named first runner-up alongside another participant after performing a contemporary Chinese dance, said her fascination with Chinese films sparked her interest in the language and culture.

"When I started studying the Chinese language, it actually helped me understand their culture better. I love their dances, their language, and their attire," said Njoki, surrounded by cheering fans.

Victoria Muthoni, an eight-year-old Grade Four pupil, took home the "Most Eloquent" award. She walked confidently to the stage to join fellow finalists for the prize-giving ceremony.

Earlier, she had impressed judges and the audience alike with her pronunciation of Chinese words. She said she hopes to use her language skills to foster international friendship.

The annual Chinese Bridge competition has motivated an increasing number of Kenyan children and youth to learn Mandarin and immerse themselves more deeply in Chinese culture, helping strengthen bonds of friendship with China, said Arnold Opiyo, Kenyan director of the Confucius Institute at Egerton University.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
A 44-year-old man was found dead overnight inside a burning vehicle in southwest Birmingham.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the victim as Calvin Dewayne Ball. He lived in Bessemer.

Balls son, 20-year-old JaCalvin Demond Ball, was one of two young men found slain last year inside a burning vehicle on Birminghams east side.

West Precinct officers were dispatched at 11:45 p.m. Wednesday to a report of a person down in the 4300 block of Eli Avenue.

When they arrived, said Officer Derell Freeman, they were met by Birmingham firefighters who told them they found the man unresponsive inside the vehicle once they extinguished the flames.

Yates said Ball was pronounced dead at 11:53 p.m.

Freeman said details surrounding the case are limited, but said the death is being investigated as a homicide.

Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said an autopsy will be performed today to determine how the victim was killed.

In the younger Balls case, he and Antonio Kasey James, 20, of Pinson, were found shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in the 1600 block of 90th Place North. That is in the Airport Highlands neighborhood of the Airport Hills community.

Birmingham firefighters were called to the wooded area on a report of smoke. They arrived to find the sedan engulfed.

Once they extinguished the blaze, they found two bodies inside. Both were burned beyond recognition.

James was identified through DNA and dental record comparisons.

Ball was identified through DNA.

No arrests have been announced in that case.

The elder Ball is Birminghams 31st homicide this year. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 46 homicides including the 31 in Birmingham.

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide detectives at 205-254-1764 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.
Robert Tyler Wicks, of Decatur, is facing federal charges for allegedly violating U.S. codes dealing with false information and hoaxes.

According to court documents, two American Airlines employees at Bangor International Airport received several text messages on Feb 13, 2025, that indicated the sender had personal details about them.

So, you like those bots thats a virus being sent to your phone [smile emoji] have fun with that next person Im attending to attack is Mary lol, one reads.

Good luck buddy in that office I got my plans for you all in that airport guns and s*** ready.

Another read, Imma definitely do a bomb [bomb emoji] threat this will be something to worry about you ready for some fun gay boy you ready to see what happens being in the office today you wont even notice whats gonna happen to that airport.

Tomorrow morning at 10:50 a.m. youre gonna see what happens dead inside that airport buddy, it continued.

Special Agent Alexander White of the FBI said in the complaint that security personnel at the airport immediately responded to the threat with help from the FBI, Federal Air Marshals Service, Bangor Police Department and the Army National Guard.

White said the threats were given considerable credence because they were sent to personal numbers and contained very specific details about things happening inside the airport.

The sender called the airport switchboard the morning of Feb 14 demanding to speak with the law enforcement officer who was conducting the investigation.

I will surrender I want to talk to the actual bomb person You want to see something happen from up in the sky launched into the airport?" the sender said, according to the complaint.

Or do you want to see this not continue. Because I want to get this situation fixed here and I want to talk to that man personally.

The caller was eventually connected to the FBI negotiation team and gave them an alias.

Law enforcement called the registered owner of the number the IP address traced back to that day, and the registered owner said they had moved to Decatur with their son, identified later as Wicks, according to the complaint.

Wicks claimed he was directed to make these threat calls by a friend in the United Kingdom named Ethan but later admitted that was a lie and admitted to placing the bomb threat calls himself, the complaint adds.

He told an FBI agent in Huntsville he created new emails to use TextMe and VoizyAI, a phone call bot application.

While he was being interviewed by FBI agents in Huntsville, Wicks told them he had an online relationship with an American Airlines employee.

She showed him law enforcement responding to the threats over video chat on Feb. 13. and her phone was taken by investigators who then ended the call, according to the complaint.

Wicks said he got the other employees contact info during a previous video chat with her where she was screensharing.

When Wicks consented to searches of the phones law enforcement believes he used to carry out these threats, they revealed multiple texts and calls to the airport and employees.

Court documents state that the threats initiated a significant law enforcement response over the span of two days in Maine, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama.

And flights from both Allegiant Airlines and American Airlines were impacted.

The complaint adds that the readiness of the Maine Army National Guard was inhibited due to the main gate being closed for the threat.

Wicks was arrested Wednesday, according to court records.

A public defender has been appointed, but a hearing date before a federal judge has not yet been set.
A chihuahua puppy is dead from excessive burns after a man allegedly placed the dog in an oven, according to Atmore Police Department.

James Williamson, 44, was arrested Monday after officers responded to a home on the 100 block of Cuitt Drive regarding an injured animal.

In a press release, the department said that after arriving a dead puppy was found badly burned at the residence. The puppy was allegedly placed in the oven by Williamson because he was tired of the dogs excessive barking.

A witness overheard Williamson say he was going to put the puppy in the oven if it didnt quit barking, the department said.

The witness also heard a dog yelping in pain a short time later but didnt realize what was happening.

Williamson has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals.
A 16-year-old boy charged in a deadly Birmingham shooting messaged a friend on Facebook saying that he shot the victim, stood over him while he was coughing up blood and then searched his body, a detective testified.

The young suspect, whose name is not being released because of his age, is charged with capital murder in the March 21 killing of 20-year-old Dorian Jackson.

The teen is also charged with attempted murder in the wounding of Jacksons girlfriend and a 12-year-old boy, who was seriously injured.

The murder happened during a reported robbery of a pair of Jordan 3 Retro Lucky Shorts shoes, shoes, which cost about $200.

The suspect appeared in court Thursday before Jefferson County Circuit Judge William Bell for a preliminary hearing. When the hearing ended, the judge ruled there was enough probable cause to send the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

Following the judges ruling, the suspects attorneys asked that he be allowed to be released on bond so he could continue with his education and work, which prosecutors strongly opposed.

He set up a robbery, took a Glock switch and sprayed it, shot a guy 10 times in the chest, shot up a car, shot two occupants of that car and shot into a house as well, Deputy District Attorney Aaron Brown said.

He got an article about this crime, showed no remorse. Its almost like he was bragging to his friends about it.

I think the community is not safe if he is out, Brown said.

Bell denied the suspect bond.

Dorian Jackson, 20, was shot to death March 21, 2025, in Birmingham during a reported robbery over Jordan shoes. (Contributed)

The shooting happened just after 9:35 p.m. that Friday.

South Precinct officers were dispatched to the 200 Block of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard on report of a person shot.

Officers arrived on the scene and were alerted to Jackson lying in a back yard in the 300 block of Iota Avenue suffering from a gunshot wound. Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service transported the victim to UAB where he died Saturday morning.

Jacksons girlfriend and the adolescent boy showed up at Princeton Baptist Medical Center.

The girlfriend had been shot in the arm. The 12-year-old boy had been shot multiple times in the back and suffered life-threatening injuries.

Birmingham homicide Det. Jarvelius Tolliver testified in Thursdays hearing that police were notified of multiple shots fired that night.

Shot Spotter alerted them to the gunfire, and Jacksons girlfriend also called 911.

The girlfriend told police that she was on her way to the hospital. She also told them that she had taken Jackson to meet someone at the Titusville location where the shooting happened for him to sell or trade the Jordans.

She said Jackson got out of the car to meet the suspect and was shot moments later. She said the suspect then came to the vehicle wearing a mask and brandishing a gun.

The suspect, she said, took Jacksons phone out of the car before she was able to get away.

The girlfriend only knew the suspects street name. Police were able to identify the suspect and located him at his mothers house.

During the search warrant, detectives seized the suspects cell phone. After obtaining a search warrant for the cell phone, Tolliver said, they analyzed the messages and location data on the suspects phone.

Tolliver said the location data put the suspect at 309 Iota Avenue, the location where Shot Spotter registered gunfire and where Jackson was found wounded.

At 9:22 p.m., the detective said, a phone call was made from the suspects phone via Facebook to Jacksons FB messenger. Within a few minutes, Jacksons car was seen on surveillance footage pulling up to the Iota Avenue location.

You can hear the shooting and eventually you see the victims car drive off and you see the suspect vehicle drive off, Tolliver said.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found a Balenciaga shoe box that had bullet holes in it. There were no shoes in the box.

I could see messages in his phone where he had messaged someone and had started to describe the incident that had taken place, Tolliver said.

He sent somebody a news article that was done about the incident and told them it was at the bottom of the page.

(The suspect) also messages someone and started telling them about the details of the incident, about how he shot the victim, stood over him while he was coughing up blood, Tolliver said.

He searched the victim and asked him where the gun was at and the victim motioned and told him it was in the car.

During a search warrant at the suspects home, Tolliver said, investigators found Jordan 3 Retro Lucky Shorts in the suspects closet.

Tolliver also testified that a photo on the suspects phone taken about two hours before the shooting showed him holding a Glock firearm with a machine gun conversion device.

The suspect was arrested and charged about a week after the shooting.

Prior to the judges ruling, the suspects attorney, Brittany Mercer of the Jefferson County Public Defenders Office, argued that there was no evidence against her client.

The detective has testified my clients cell was present at the scene, but theres been no testimony my client was present at the scene, Mercer said.

No one has been able to identify my client as the shooter, no one has picked him out of a lineup.
The Legacy program was a federally-funded program that encouraged Black girls to enter computer science. (Contributed)

Phanuelle Manuel said having a fellow Black woman as a mentor helped her visualize a future in computer science.

Manuel, and hundreds of other high school students, received training, mentorship and support on Advanced Placement tests as part of a national effort to encourage more Black women to enter computer science.

I could see myself succeeding in the future, said Manuel, who is now a freshman at the University of Alabama. I would say its a lot more encouraging seeing somebody do it first that looks like you.

UA and Tuskegee University were two of seven colleges that offered programming funded by one of the grants terminated by the National Science Foundation in April. Now the $3.5 million program has come to a halt, weeks before students were set to arrive on UAs campus in June.

I already had the dorms reserved and the meal plan set up, and we even were starting applications, said Jeff Gray, the programs primary investigator and a computer science professor at the College of Engineering. Some of us have spent 300 or so hours on the project.

The Legacy program was a federally-funded program that encouraged Black girls to enter the computer science field. That grant was cancelled as a result of President Donald Trump's executive order cancelling race-specific programming. (Contributed)

The Legacy program, a collaboration between seven predominantly white and historically Black colleges, planned to work with 600 students from Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan and Alabama through 2028. The year-long program included mentorship from leaders at companies like Intel and training on computing and coding.

Black women make up only 3% of the tech workforce. And even fewer Black women have leadership roles in Silicon Valley, according to the United Negro College Fund.

Legacy was an expansion of an Alabama program that began in 2019. Initial results showed 72% of 71 of the Black girls who participated received a score of 3 or higher on the AP test. They outpaced the national average score for every other group, including white and Asian males, according to Mohammed Qazi, one of the projects faculty organizers at Tuskegee University.

Once President Donald Trump issued an executive order telling universities to stop race-specific programming, Gray tried to pivot and keep the program open.

The Legacy program was a federally-funded program that encouraged Black girls to enter the computer science field. That grant was cancelled as a result of President Donald Trump's executive order cancelling race-specific programming. (Contributed)

We knew if we wanted to keep it alive at least for the next year, wed have to pivot, Gray said. Gray is an associate professor at UA and has been doing outreach to K-12 students for 20 years. So we expanded it to all genders, all races. And then the week after we did that we got terminated.

Alabama is one of the top five computer science education states in the country, according to Gray, who said the program was a great fit for Gov. Kay Iveys initiative to improve computer science opportunities in the state. As of fall 2024, there are 1,100 students studying computer science at UA, according to the schools Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

He said the program focused on equity of opportunity to help students who have the aptitude but were unaware of careers in computer science.

We were just trying to open doors, Gray said.

Qazi said the programs objectives were expansive. They were not trying to turn every student into a computer scientist but instead help students explore the topic in depth and find role models.

Our role is to also remove the barriers to access, Qazi said. Often in these rural communities theres not the type of mentoring that is available in the more affluent districts.

Most importantly, Qazi said, the project creates a bond between the girls that doesnt end when the program is over.

That aspect of community and sisterhood played a very big role in the success of the project, Qazi said.

The program was more than about academic coursework and training but about making social connections that had a tremendous impact on the programs success, he said.

Manuel made friends that she stays in touch with. Her older sister, Phaedra, also participated in the program and got interested in computer science. Phaedra started a computer science club at Hoover High School and Manuel joined it, too.

I wasnt into computer science, Manuel said. Computers and technology were cool, but it wasnt my thing. A lot of the things my sister did guided me into my career path.

She said many students get frustrated and bogged down with programming, but she reveled in it.

I always tell people around me that Id rather struggle with my code for hours than pretty much do anything else, because its a very rewarding experience, Manuel said. She entered UA as a Randall Research Scholar, an Honors College program for students interested in the computing field.

Manuel learned about the grant cancellation while attending the National Center for Women & Information Technology conference. She was a keynote speaker and said she was disappointed and shocked when Gray told her.

My mind is still kind of reeling about it, because it was such an integral part of my life and my sisters life, Manuel said. And getting to know Dr. Gray through that program is the reason why I attend UA at all.

Qazi said hes devastated and hopes other opportunities emerge to continue the project in compliance with the federal government.

We need funding, because we have to provide compensation to the teacher leaders. We have to provide these resources, he said.

The ones who are going to suffer are the students, Qazi said. Well survive as faculty, but the students are not going to get the support they need, unfortunately. Both financial and also career building, that support is gone. Thats whats very disheartening. Those who are the least privileged continue to suffer.

Manuel said backlash against DEI programming wont deter her from surrounding herself with Black people and women in computer science and work towards achieving her goals.

No matter what the government says, what restrictions say, I know that I belong in this field, and I know that I love this field, Manuel said. Im not going to change my interests because someone out there thinks I cant accomplish this or I dont deserve to accomplish this.
A mother hugs her son who just graduated from high school in the parking lot of the school. Getty Images

Its a big week for high school seniors across the state set to walk across that graduation stage in their caps and gowns to get those hard-earned diplomas.

After all, graduating from high school is a major milestone in life, and with that in mind, we wanted to offer Alabama seniors, regardless of what their next steps in life are, a little advice.

To do so, we asked the followers on This is Alabamas Facebook page what advice theyd give to high school students graduating this month, and as usual, they came through. The responses ranged from practical, like open a savings account, to more general, like dont stress the detours, and even some that were Alabama-specific, like dont let the Iron Bowl choose where you get your education.

You can read some of the advice shared below, and you can read all of the responses on the This is Alabamas Facebook page.

'Don't let the Iron Bowl choose your education' was one piece of advice. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com) Ben Flanagan

Both schools are equally good. Dont let the Iron Bowl decide where you get your education. -- Mark Hosemann

Shake it off. The rest of life is NOT like high school. Youve got this. -- Kendra Ashley Smith

The days are long, but the years are short. Begin and end every day by being grateful. -- Jami Woodard

It takes time to build a good life for yourself. Dont get discouraged when youre just starting out. Work hard to build the life you want. Perseverance and a good work ethic will pay off big time in the long run, no matter where you start out. -- Matt Cooper

Dont live beyond your means. -- Marie Jubinville

Dont be scared to go against the grain. Find your passions in life. Travel, move somewhere away from your roots and learn about WHO you are. What you want will change, what you need will present itself. Embrace the journey and dont cut it short. Let life happen to you. -- Tara Roddy

Related: Alabama senior accepted to Yale: People Ive never met before come up and tell me congratulations

High school graduations occur each May in Alabama. (File photo/Trisha Powell Crain)

Work to live. Dont live to work. Do your job, and be great at it. But its just a job. Life, family, community, and the service of others is where fulfillment lies. -- Dusty Wade

Dont stress the detours. -- Christine OBeirne

Call your Mother every day! -- Patsy Williams

Party after your success, not before it. -- Don Junior

Your path may not go as planned, and thats okay, and normal. Try not to stress too much about having it all figured out right now. -- Lauren Elizabeth Clark

Enjoy your 20s! Travel, change jobs, move, and dont take life so seriously! -- Michael Bolton

'Enjoy your 20s!' was one piece of advice offered to high school graduates. (Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com). Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com

Related: Hoover graduate one of 54 students in US selected for prestigious scholarship

Choose a trade school or college. Make Alabama proud and good luck in whatever you do. -- Delores Hale

Volunteer in the field you are interested in and see if you actually like it. Sometimes it sounds good on paper, but real experience helps you best decide your future. -- Stacy Carlisle Patel

Make a budget. Open a savings account. Put money into it as often as possible. -- Jesse Frank

Do something that you love or want to do. Dont just do a job for the money. Happiness is worth a lot more than money. -- Elizabeth Storie

There are no failures in life, just learning experiences! -- Barbara Robbins Williams

I say get out of Alabama, but mostly to experience the world. You can always come back. -- Tom Baker

Dont turn down advice. Even if it doesnt resonate with you right now, it may one day. -- Jami Woodard
This photo shows the Halsey Grocery at 305 Jefferson St., Huntsville, Ala. Two men were killed in the store in 1909. Chris Pruitt

On a warm spring day in 1909, shots rang out from a business in downtown Huntsville, Ala. Two men would be dead and another headed to a mental hospital.

By the time the facts of the shooting became known, the Huntsville business community was in shock that one of their own, a well-respected businessman, had shot two men for no discernable reason.

W.L. Halsey Grocery, established by William LeRoy Halsey and his brother Charles Henry Halsey, had been in business for 30 years in 1909. William, who ran the store, was 55 years old. The store is still in business at 305 Jefferson Street today.

The murders

It was nearing closing time on Friday, May 7, 1909 when Robert Jones stopped by the grocery store. Jones was a prominent insurance man and longtime friend of Halseys. He stopped on that day to discuss business and collect Halseys regular insurance premium, according to a 1909 article in The Huntsville Weekly Democrat.

The men were talking near the front of the store, apparently in a genial manner. That was about to change.

Mr. Halsey pulled a Smith & Wesson .38-calbre pistol and opened fire on Mr. Jones, firing four times, the newspaper account said. Mr. Jones fell on the floor dead. A customer who was in the store fled.

J. Robert Jones was shot to death in 1909 by storeowner W.L. Halsey. The two were longtime friends and Halsey's motive is unknown to this day. Huntsville Weekly Democrat

Halseys son, William Jr., was also working and witnessed the shooting. He was stupefied. But there was no time to try to figure out why his father would randomly shoot his friend to death. William Jr. called to store clerk Gus McDowell, who was near the office at the back of the store, to come help him disarm his father. McDowell came to the front of the store and stopped to make a phone call to a local drug store to request a doctor and an ambulance for Jones.

Before McDowell could finish the call, he was cut off  McDowell, too, had been shot by Halsey. He fled the store and collapsed in the alley, suffering intensely from his wound, the Weekly Democrat reported.

He has been a shipping clerk in the Halsey store for six years and was a favorite with his employer, the newspaper reported. McDowell had been married for just two years.

Surgeons removed most of McDowells colon but McDowell died two days later.

Gus McDowell, a clerk at Halsey Grocery who was shot by storeowner W.L. Halsey, died two days later at the hospital. Huntsville Weekly Democrat

No one could think of any reason Halsey shot two friends so the local newspaper made its own diagnosis: The fact that Mr. Halsey shot him as he did is taken as conclusive evidence that Mr. Halsey is insane.

Halsey was escorted to the Huntsville Jail and McDowell was rushed to the hospital.

The Weekly Democrat reported that It is reliably stated that Mr. Halsey has been affected mentally for some time past and has recently been under treatment of alienists [an early type of psychiatrist]Those who visited him in jail say that he does not realize what he has done.

Within days of the shooting, Halsey was deemed insane by the courts and he was committed to Bryce Hospital, a mental health facility in Tuscaloosa. Although it is unclear when, Halsey was eventually released from the hospital and went to live in New Orleans. He died there in 1938. He is buried in Huntsvilles Maple Hill Cemetery.

The Halsey family continued to run the store for four generations until it was sold to Legacy Food Group in 2024. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
James Arnold Wilson, 63, of Crossville, was found dead Thursday after an explosion police are saying he caused intentionally.

Around 1:30 a.m. on May 22, Dekalb County 911 received a call regarding an apparent explosion that had taken place at a residence in the 45000 block of Highway 75 near the Painter Community, according to a recent release,

Dekalb County Deputies along with officers from Geraldine, Crossville, Fyffe, and Collinsville Police Departments responded.

Geraldine, Crossville, Kilpatrick, and Grove Oak Fire Departments also responded along with Dekalb Ambulance Service.

Upon arrival, officers found Wilson Wilson dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and the residence aflame, the release says.

Fire service personnel began battling the fire, deputies and officers secured the scene and the Dekalb County Criminal Investigation Unit responded.

After the fire was contained, investigators processed the scene and interviewed witnesses.

The fire was determined to be the result of an intentional explosion and Wilson was determined to have died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Dekalb County investigators.

We pray that the Lord be with this family as they mourn the loss of their loved one, comfort them with your love and the peace only you can give, DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden said in the release Thursday.

We would like to thank all first responders with DeKalb County Sheriffs Office, Geraldine, Crossville, Fyffe and Collinsville Police Departments, Geraldine, Crossville, Kilpatrick and Grove Oak Fire Departments, and DeKalb Ambulance Service. God Bless!

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
A 19-year-old robbery suspect was fatally shot earlier today by a State Bureau of Investigation agent.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency identified the slain man as Raymond Tellis Jr. of Montgomery.

The incident began at 9:20 a.m. Thursday when police responded to an armed robbery on Herron Street.

ALEA Lt. Jeremy Burkett said initial reports indicated a person was shot and the suspect fled the scene in the victims vehicle.

The unidentified victim was taken to a Montgomery area hospital for treatment.

Montgomery police issued a law enforcement bulletin for the stolen vehicle, Burkett said.

Shortly after receiving the bulletin, an SBI agent who was assisting the Metro Area Crime Suppression Unit located the stolen vehicle on Upper Wetumpka Road in Montgomery and initiated a traffic stop.

Tellis was identified as the driver.

The agent tried to arrest Tellis, Burkett said, but Tellis resisted and pulled a gun.

The agent then fired, killing Tellis.

No officers were injured.

SBI agents not assigned to the Montgomery area were called in to investigate the officer-involved shooting, Burkett said.

Once the investigation is complete, the findings will be turned over to the Alabama Attorney Generals Office.
The exterior of the Baldwin County Courthouse in Bay Minette, Ala., as pictured on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. John Sharp

One year after Baldwin County judges and commissioners told lawmakers their top priority for the 2025 legislative session was more courtroom space, Alabama legislators have delivered a fix  though not without last-minute drama.

Armed with that clear message, and a cost-effective solution, lawmakers passed a bill through the Alabama House with ease in February. But tensions over a separate school funding issue and a chaotic, filibuster-heavy final day in the Senate nearly derailed the effort.

I hate that it made it to the last day, said Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, sponsor of HB78, which provided a solution for give judges more flexibility to use satellite courses in Foley and Fairhope. But Im happy its made its way through.

The measure was officially signed into law by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday.

Under H78, circuit and district judges within the 28th Judicial Circuit in Baldwin County, can conduct jury and bench trials in Foley and Fairhope year-round.

The legislation removed the 178-day cap in which either of the two satellite courthouses could be used by the judges, a restriction that has grown problematic in a fast-growing county where a crowded Bay Minette courthouse could have led to scheduling snafus later this summer.

Removing the 175-day restriction on circuit court cases conducted in Foley and Fairhope will go a long way in convenience for the citizens, Baldwin County Commission Chairman Matt McKenzie said.

The legislation, McKenzie also said, adds greater flexibility for court system that recently added two new circuit judges earlier this year  Karol Kemp and Michael Hoyt, who both started their terms in January  and will be added a district judge in January 2027.

Granting the court system flexibility as to the type of proceedings in those locations will assist in dealing with the challenges of adding two new circuit judge positions and a new district judge position with the utilization of facilities, McKenzie said.

Circuit Judge Scott Taylor said he was concerned about the judges running out of days by August to conduct court hearings at the Foley or Fairhope branches. He said under that scenario, it would have forced district judges out of the Bay Minette courthouse while bench trials would have been needed to take place in Bay Minette.

The main courthouse in Bay Minette is also currently a construction site. An atrium is being constructed leading up the main entrance of the courthouse. The overall $2.8 million project, paid for with American Rescue Plan Act money, also includes renovation and upgrades to the lobby security screening area.

The project is expected to be complete early next year.

Its not only a big advantage for scheduling purposes, but it will ultimately make it where the sheriff doesnt have to transport prisoners from Bay Minette to the satellite courthouses, and it will allow circuit judges more flexibility in setting bench trail, Taylor said.

The legislation also gives the presiding judge of the 28th Judicial Circuit authority to issue an order authorizing civil or criminal jury proceedings at any of the branch courthouses within the circuit.

Once the presiding judge issues the order, HB78 states that a civil or criminal jury can take place in a branch courthouse if its OK with the circuit clerk and judge presiding over the case.

State Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, and sponsor of a comprehensive ethics bill, attends the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at the State House in Montgomery, Ala. John Sharp

For criminal jury trials, the sheriff and district attorney must also grant approval, according to the legislation.

Simpson said the legislation removes what he said was a handcuff of the 175-day limit for court proceedings at either the Fairhope or Foley courthouses. The two courthouses are located in two of the fastest growing cities in Alabama.

Simpson said he believes that HB78 was the only local bill to pass through during late portion of the session, surviving a political dispute that locked up other pieces of local legislation like annexations.

The dispute focused on the fate of a sales tax dispute that loomed over the legislative delegation throughout the spring.

The school funding dispute revolved around a 1983 law that dedicated almost 40 percent of a 1 percentage point sales tax rate to the Baldwin County School System. At the time, the county school district was the only public school system within the county. But in recent years, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have split away to form their own city schools, and local officials in each city now want their schools to receive a portion of the tax revenues.

The sales tax dispute was not resolved during the legislative session. But there was enough time to squeeze through the legislation to support the crowded court system.

Taylor said the growth of Baldwin County made the legislation a necessity.

With the growth of Baldwin County, I would expect we are probably within a few years of being at a point where we have to add more judges again or look at retired judges coming in more and more to help, he said. Its simply because of the growth of the population. Using the satellites allows us a place to be close to the general population centers.

He added, With the growth in this county, and the new judges who have come in, we needed the flexibility.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin proposes a record city budget of $591 million, which includes $21.8 million for revitalization and fighting blight, before the city council May 20, 2025. (Photo by Greg Garrison/AL.com) Greg Garrison/AL.com

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin announced today that demolition has been completed on The Vue apartments in the Central Park neighborhood.

The apartments had been the site of multiple fires and had been the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Office of the City Attorney for the City of Birmingham.

The Drug Nuisance Abatement Team in the city attorneys office sued The Vue on Prince, LLC, and Toorak Capital Partners, LLC, in August after the property owner failed to address multiple code violations and repeated fires at the multi-building property.

Crews representing owners of the property at 3128 Prince Avenue completed demolition on Wednesday.

This is another example of our focus on removing blight from our neighborhoods, Woodfin said. If private property owners harbor blight in our communities, we will hold them accountable through code enforcement and in the courts. I commend City Attorney Nicole King and DNAT for their role in ridding our neighborhoods of blight.

King created the Drug Nuisance Abatement Team five years ago.

The team has filed multiple lawsuits and worked with property owners to improve neighborhood safety, King said.

The DNAT team in the Office of the City Attorney is dedicated to addressing problem properties that create a nuisance and public safety concerns for neighborhoods, King said.

Residents were clear about their concerns at this location and we were committed to have this dangerous blight removed. Due to this successful effort, the property was demolished without additional cost to the city. DNAT is committed to breaking down blight one property at a time.
Orson Welles delivers a radio broadcast. His reproduction of "War of the Worlds" in 1938 created a panic among some listeners who didn't realize the show's "news broadcasts" of an alien invasion were fiction. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Nearly 40 years after his death, Orson Welles is back -- as a disembodied AI-generated voice in location-based storytelling app Storyrabbit.

Storyrabbit, from podcast company Treefort Media, inked a partnership with the Orson Welles Estate to launch Orson Welles Presents.

The app now features the unmistakable voice of Welles, digitally re-created using Storyrabbits AI technology, as an option for users to hear stories about specific locations. Using the Welles voice is free in the app until June 1, after which it will cost $4.99/month.

Heres how Storyrabbit works: The app uses your location (or a point of interest on the map you have selected) to generate a personalized audio story that lasts 60-90 seconds, delivered by the host of your choice. The company says its like having your own audio tour guide for the world in your pocket with unlimited stories to tell.

Storyrabbit users who select Welles as their host will hear a dynamically generated narrative about the history of film, TV, history and culture for the rabbit hole youve selected.

Welles, director and star of cinema classic Citizen Kane who made a dozen other films, died in 1985 at the age of 70.

Storyrabbit says it employs ethical AI practices, using licensed audio from his estate, and ensures all narratives are human-curated, authentic and responsibly produced. The company developed Welles AI voice in collaboration with Younite.ai.

Orson was a relentless innovator, who worked effortlessly across multiple platforms during his long and storied career, so bringing his voice into this new medium feels like a continuation of that legacy, said David Reeder of Reeder Brand Management, the agency for the Orson Welles Estate.

Kelly Garner, founder and CEO of Treefort Media and creator of Storyrabbit, said, Integrating Orson Welles voice gives our storytelling unmatched resonance. Having the opportunity to work with a voice of this caliber is extraordinary. His timeless perspective offers users a unique lens -- simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking -- to experience the world as it speaks, revealing incredible true stories.

Other hosts available in the Storyrabbit app include Dominic Monaghan (Lord of the Rings movies, Lost) who hosts the wild guide; and author, podcaster and TV host Candice DeLong, who voices the true crime guide.

Treefort Medias portfolio includes nearly 50 original podcasts spanning nonfiction, investigative journalism and scripted audio drama.

Titles include scripted drama Moriarty and true-crime series Killing Hollywood: The Cotton Club Murder for Audible; Killer Psyche With Candice DeLong for Wondery; talk show Chinwag hosted by Paul Giamatti and Stephen Asma; and docu-series Collapse: Disaster in Surfside, created in partnership with the Miami Herald.
Storm fell trees in Monte Sano in Huntsville on May 20, 2025. Kayode Crown

Monte Sano was struck by storms that ripped through Huntsville Tuesday night, leaving one family with multiple trees toppled onto their house. The family narrowly escaped with their lives.

Jack Jordan, a building repair contractor who lives on Monte Sano, told AL.com he took in the family after the storm devastated their home. At least six tornadoes have been confirmed for Tuesday night by the National Weather Service.

It hitbamlike that, crushed it like a pancake, Jordan said. If it hit one more inch one way or the other in that house, (they would) all be dead. Thats how close that was.

An AL.com reporter visited the house at the intersection of Monte Sano Boulevard and Hutchens Avenue but the family declined to comment, citing their ongoing traumatic experience and loss.

The whole house got hit and they came to stay with us, Jordan said. We got the baby down the street with us, brought their family and their dogs and everything. They couldnt get in the house. It was crushed. The whole house was crushed. Five trees on it.

The city was very responsive, he said. The fire department came to see if anyone was trapped inside the house.

They came looked at it and I said no, theyre OK, Jordan said

Shirley Looser, who lives next door, described the sound during the storm: It sounds like rocks pounding against the house.

Jordan on Wednesday afternoon was in downtown Huntsville to charge his phone.

I had no power, powerless. No power; Some parts of it its pretty rough. I mean theres power lines down and everything, he said.

Jerome Davenport, who was helping his father clear the yard in Monte Sano, said, theres a bunch of big trees, a bunch of big old straight, tall, normal living healthy treesmassive trees just tipped over.
Freshly-made pennies sit in a bin at the U.S. Mint in Denver on Aug. 15, 2007. David Zalubowski | The Associated Press, File

Say goodbye to the penny, which the U.S. Treasury will stop producing by early 2026.

The Wall Street Journal Thursday is reporting that the long-promised end of the 1 cent piece is nigh.

Democrats and Republicans have long been critical of the penny, and President Trump called for its end back in a February social media post.

Production will stop once the treasury runs out of the blank templates used to make them, according to the Journal. The final order of blanks was placed this month.

The move would save about $56 million a year in production costs, as it takes about 4 cents to make a 1 cent piece. That adds up to more than $85 million lost to produce about 3 billion pennies.

And according to the government, about $14 billion in pennies sit unused in jars and piggy banks. An estimated $68 million in pennies are thrown away each year, such as at airport security checkpoints.

But getting rid of the penny will likely have other consequences, such as businesses rounding prices up or down to the nearest nickel, as well as the calculation of sales taxes.

Youll still be able to use pennies once production stops, until they stop circulating.

The U.S. Treasury said it has the power to halt the production of new coins, though the power actually resides with Congress over size and composition.

The penny was one of the first coins made by the U.S. Mint after its establishment in 1792, according to the Treasury. It has shown the familiar sideview of Abraham Lincoln since 1909.
The recent law that regionalized the Birmingham Water Works and ended the citys control was an unconstitutional power grab rooted in lies and cloaked in racism, according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.

Speaking during the Gary Richardson Morning Show on WJLD radio, Birminghams mayor made some of his most detailed statements attacking changes at the water works and explaining the citys lawsuit against the state to challenge them.

Woodfin admitted to complicated feelings about the states largest water utility.

I feel the same way that the average rate payer feels. I dont like the water works, he told Richardson Wednesday. My bills have been wrong as well. But two wrongs dont make a right. What happened in Montgomery, what they did is wrong. It is a taking, and they did it with no remorse, they did it full of lies.

The changes took effect May 7. Woodfin assailed the law ushered in by the states Republican legislative majority that created a new seven-member board with just two from Birmingham and the rest from the suburbs and surrounding counties.

Woodfin said lawmakers during the session gained support by exaggerating issues of corruption and mismanagement and played on racial tropes by comparing the system to Jackson, Miss. and Flint Mich.

I take offense because thats racist on its face because those are two majority-minority cities, he said. Nothing is wrong with our water.

Republican lawmakers have called changes to the board long overdue, saying customers throughout the five-county area served by the water works lacked representation at the utility. They also cited years of poor customer service, annual rate increases and millions in consultant contracts.

The bill was sponsored by State Senator Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook and was carried in the House by Rep. Jim Carns of Vestavia Hills.

Birminghams mayor and city council responded with a federal lawsuit in Montgomerys Middle District. Woodfin, who is also an attorney, said the city will challenge several parts of the bill as unconstitutional.

We believe we have some strong legal ground to stand on that significant parts of it are unconstitutional on its face and violate the Alabama State Constitution, he said.

Woodfin also challenged the new boards configuration as un-American. Birmingham had controlled six of the nine seats on the former board but now only has two of the seven new seats.

My biggest problem is this: I am an American, and democracy works at all levels. When you say a representation form of government it means just that, Woodfin said.

While the water works services a five-county area, 92 percent of the customers live in Jefferson County and 44 percent of them live within the Birmingham city limits.

I expect the board to represent the makeup of the ratepayers, and I call BS on what currently exists with the new law, Woodfin said. It was just a straight taking.

Woodfin called for solidarity as the city fights the law in court.

We need to be working together to fight them because theyre working their plan, Woodfin said. You think those new five people appointed care about the citizens or ratepayers of Birmingham? I dont think so. Thats who Im fighting for.
Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton took office in 2020. (Photo by Greg Garrison/AL.com)

The mayor of an Alabama town took to social media to troll his electric department  and his political opponent  for having a cookout instead of giving customer rebates.

In a Facebook post, Tarrant Mayor Wayman Newton showed a flyer from the Tarrant electric department promoting an upcoming customer appreciation barbecue on June 20.

Newton had two questions: Why was he not invited to the cookout, and where are the customer rebates that were endorsed months ago?

Didnt get one? Youre not alone, Newton wrote. I didnt make the VIP list either. Wonder why?

Newton then urged residents to go to the party and ask for their rebates.

Lets crash the BBQ and demand our credit, Newton wrote. P.S. I like my hotdog a little burnt and I only drink peach Faygo drinks.

Newton late last year proposed a $75 credit to each utility customer at a total cost of about $200,000. Tarrant Electric has about 2,700 business and residential customers.

Newton said the utility should return some of its earnings back to its customers. He cited a higher than usual profit for Tarrant Utilities in 2023 as a justification for the rebates.

A series of legal, political and personal fights has left the city of 6,000 people bitterly divided over a range of issues.

Newton, who is seeking a second term in August, is challenged by Councilwoman and Mayor-pro tem Tracie Threadford.

Threadford was also superintendent of Tarrant Electric, a position traditionally held by the mayor until the council stripped Newton of the role several years ago and gave it to her.

That has made her a target of criticism by Newton over the utilitys operation and the proposed customer rebates.

But Threadford is no longer in the superintendent position since January, when management of the utility was turned over to a five-member citizen-led board of directors.

I am no longer superintendent, Threadford said. Tracie Threadford no longer has her hands on anything.

The one-time rebate was another point of contention in the history of bad relations between Newton and the city council, with each side accusing the other of politicizing the issue.

Still, the council last December agreed to present the rebate plan to the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has final say.

Threadford told AL.com that the rebate remains on hold, and she blamed Newton as a reason why.

We have a lawsuit pending from a young lady who was let go while he was the superintendent and we cant give anything until that is settled, she said.

The mayor and all council seats are all up for election in August.
Tim Petit bought his wife a $640 limited edition Trump watch -- one of only 250 to be manufactured.

It turned out to be a one-of-a-kind timepiece.

For all the wrong reasons.

I liked it because its similar to a Rolex band, Melanie Petit of Middletown, Rhode Island told local television station WJAR.

But the Inauguration First Lady pink watch arrived with an obvious mistake.

I noticed it right away. The T is missing. It just says RUMP. It should say TRUMP. It says RUMP, Petit said.

Tim Petit, who bought the timepiece after watching the president hawk the watches on a commercial, said he and his wife, both fervent Trump supporters, were devastated.

Im very disappointed and I wanted it to be a very special thing for her and we had expected that it would have the integrity of the president of the United States  he said.

Gettrumpwatches.com, the website that offers the watches for sale, says in fine print that it licenses the Trump name and likeness but is not connected to any political campaigns.

The disclaimer adds that the watch is not manufactured, distributed or sold by Trump or the Trump Organization.

I think someone needs to be aware of it in their licensing department that someones dropped the ball big time, Tim Petit said of those who handle Trumps marketing opportunities.

An apology would be nice for making my wife cry, he added.

While the Petits said Gettrumpwatches.com had been unresponsive to their complaint, the company eventually called them back.

The company said it would immediately replace the watch, apologized and gave the couple an $800 coupon to buy something else, too.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling that temporarily stopped in vitro fertilization services in Alabama last year has emerged as an issue in the race for state attorney general.

Former Associate Justice Jay Mitchell, who wrote the opinion, resigned from the court Monday and is expected to announce he will run for AG.

Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey, who announced her candidacy for attorney general in January, has two children by IVF.

Casey said voters will remember the court decision, which caused IVF clinics to pause services because of liability concerns.

Its not a political issue for me, Casey said. Its a personal issue. We were given less than a 5% chance to have a baby. And without IVF, I wouldnt be a mother.

And after his opinion, we saw IVF across the state of Alabama come to a stop. And I cannot imagine the pain that hundreds if not thousands of women in this state went through.

After last years ruling, IVF providers and families flocked to Montgomery to urge the Legislature to address the issue.

Lawmakers quickly passed a bill intended to give clinics immunity, and most services resumed.

Mitchell wrote the main opinion on IVF but was not alone in his decision.

Six of the other eight justices on the Alabama Supreme Court concurred in the result. One concurred in part and dissented in part. One justice dissented.

The court ruled that frozen embryos held in storage by IVF clinics had the legal status of children under Alabamas Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The ruling came in lawsuits filed by three couples whose frozen embryos were accidentally destroyed at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Mobile.

A trial court dismissed the lawsuits, saying the embryos did not meet the definition of children under the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

Blount County D.A. Pamela Casey with her son. Contributed

But the Supreme Court decision overturned that, ruling that under Alabama case law and under the state Constitution, the embryos were considered children.

This Court has long held that unborn children are children for purposes of Alabamas Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, Mitchell wrote in the main opinion.

The central question presented in these consolidated appeals, which involve the death of embryos kept in a cryogenic nursery, is whether the Act contains an unwritten exception to that rule for extrauterine children -- that is, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed.

Under existing black-letter law, the answer to that question is no: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.

Casey said she sympathized with the couples who sued.

I cant imagine what the families went through who had that happen at the fertility clinic, Casey said. I would have been devastated had I gotten a call that embryos had been destroyed.

But I also think that decision was very political versus being logical and I think it was done for political gain.

Casey declined to elaborate on why she thought the ruling was political.

The Legislature, in passing the bill intended to give clinics immunity, did not address the question of whether embryos stored outside the womb are unborn children.

Mitchell, in his court opinion, acknowledged the potential impact of the ruling on IVF providers because of the liability concerns. But he said the court was bound by the law, not the consequences.

While we appreciate the defendants concerns, these types of policy-focused arguments belong before the Legislature, not this Court, Mitchell wrote.

Here, the text of the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act is sweeping and unqualified, he wrote. It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy.

Mitchell also noted that Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 to recognize the rights of the unborn.

In Mitchells letter to Gov. Kay Ivey on Monday resigning from the court, he mentioned several of his judicial rulings.

During my judicial tenure, I have written key judicial opinions that uphold Alabamas criminal laws and keep violent offenders locked up; that protect the sanctity of human life and confirm the truth that life begins at conception; and that keep wokeness and DEI out of our courts and the legal profession, Mitchell wrote.

Mitchell wrote that he wants to help promote President Trumps agenda and plans an announcement in the coming days.

President Trump is moving boldly to restore the United States Constitution - and we must ensure that his agenda takes root not only in Washington, but also in the states, he wrote. I feel called to play a larger role in that effort in Alabama.

Both Casey and Mitchell are Republicans. The primary is May 19, 2026.

Casey was elected Blount County district attorney in 2010 and has been reelected twice. Before her election, she served as assistant attorney general and deputy attorney general under AG Troy King, starting in 2007.

Mitchell was elected to the Supreme Court in 2018 and reelected last year. Before his election to the court, Mitchell was a lawyer with the Maynard, Cooper & Gale firm, which is now the Maynard Nexsen firm.

See also: Alabama pro-life leaders push for IVF bill recognizing embryos as children: Will it happen?

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, 95,860 babies were born in the United States in 2023 through IVF, about 2.6% of all births.

IVF is a huge issue, Casey said. We saw President Trump make it one of his main agendas in the first 100 days.

Trump issued an executive order in February calling for policies that make IVF more affordable, saying that the procedure can cost $12,000 to $25,000 per cycle and that multiple cycles are sometimes needed to get pregnant.

Casey gave birth to her daughter, Claire, 4, and her son, Glen, 6, after she and her husband Robert Austin navigated through what she said was an arduous IVF process. She said she had multiple surgeries to prepare.

It was a year and a half process for us, Casey said. And we were one of the blessed families that were able to have a baby with IVF. I had friends that it didnt work for.

Casey said she people whose families have not been involved with IVF probably do not understand the difficulties and strain.

I dont think people understand IVF, Casey said. I really didnt understand IVF until I needed IVF.

I just dont think people get it, she said. IVF moms and dads get it. I dont think Jay Mitchell gets it.
A Bruce Springsteen tribute band's show was canceled over The Boss' criticisms of Donald Trump. In this file photo, Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) AP

A Bruce Springsteen cover bands upcoming show in the legendary rockstars old stomping grounds has been canceled over The Boss criticisms of Donald Trump.

Guy Fleming, bassist for No Surrender, posted Wednesday to Facebook that the owner of Rivs Toms River Hub on the Jersey Shore canceled his bands May 30 show because Bruce made comments that upset him.

The owner told us he didnt want us playing in his club, Fleming wrote, adding that the band was hired as a Springsteen tribute act.

I cant really believe this happened, but it did. Im slightly reluctant to share, however I feel its in the best interest of my friends and fellow musicians in New Jersey, especially the Toms River area, Flemings post stated.

Springsteen and his E Street Band got their start on the Jersey Shore, specifically at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park.

No Surrender offered to play different music, and told owner Tony Rivoli that he wasnt hurting Bruce, but he was hurting nine New Jersey musicians he booked to play at his club.

Rivolis response, according to Fleming?

He said, his clientele and Toms River is red and wont tolerate his bull---, Fleming wrote.

While kicking off his latest European tour last week in Manchester, England, The Boss criticized the president and his administration as treasonous.

In my home, the America I love, the America Ive written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration, Springsteen told the crowd as he opened his set, according to the tours website.

Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring! the rocker continued.

Springsteen, who is known almost as much for his politics as his discography, railed against what he claimed are the ills of the current administration while introducing My City of Ruins.

Theres some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now, he said. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.

In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the worlds poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now, he went on to say.

The bassist called for the bands supporters to boycott the venue.

Think about spending your money there, he said.










English News Auto Shanghai showcases China's fast-track transformation in auto industry

Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 17 Mai 2025



From April 23 to May 2, the 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (Auto Shanghai 2025) was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). Featuring nearly 1,000 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions, the event showcased over 100 new vehicle models and cutting-edge technologies.

At the exhibition, a new energy SUV capable of crab-walking, tank turns, and running on flat tires was displayed. This model is able to "sail" through water up to 80 centimeters deep for two hours.

There was an advanced assisted driving system that can autonomously navigate multi-floor underground parking garages and charge itself. A power battery with a volumetric energy density exceeding 1,000 Wh/L also caught great attention.

These are just a few of the highlights from the Auto Shanghai 2025, where Chinese electric vehicle makers and suppliers astonished visitors with their latest innovations in electrification and intelligence technologies.

"China's leadership in electrification and intelligent technologies is leading the global auto industry transformation," said Stephen Ma, chairman of Nissan China Management Committee and president of Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor.

"Nissan is leveraging China's advantages in technology and resources to collaboratively develop innovative and competitive products," he added.

A range of forward-looking driver-assist technologies were unveiled by mainstream automakers at the exhibition.

Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer GAC Aion partnered with ride-hailing platform DiDi to debut Robotaxi, a Level-4 autonomous model, which is scheduled for rollout by the end of this year and pilot operation in 2026.

Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its Qiankun ADS 4 system, which reduces end-to-end latency by 50%, improves traffic efficiency by 20%, and cuts hard braking incidents by 30%.

"Huawei has already completed 600 million kilometers of Level-3 expressway self-driving simulations and validations via our cloud-based World Engine. We're now ready for commercial mass production of Level-3 autonomous driving," said Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution.

The "China speed" of innovation is also evident in the chip sector.

Chinese technology company Horizon Robotics unveiled its Journey 6P chip - currently the most powerful domestically produced intelligent driving chip with 560 TOPS of computing power - and launched China's first full-stack Level-2 urban driver-assist system integrating both software and hardware. The system will debut in mass production on EXEED brand of Chinese carmaker Chery this September.

Auto Shanghai 2025 also marked a new chapter in joint ventures, as multinational automakers unveiled collaborative projects developed primarily in China. SAIC Volkswagen took the lead in developing Volkswagen's first full-size extended-range electric vehicle SUV concept. Dongfeng Nissan spearheaded the creation of the pure-electric N7 sedan. Chinese automobile manufacturer Changan Automobile and Mazda co-developed the EZ-60, a new energy model under the Changan Mazda brand.

From "made in China for China" to "made in China for the world," multinational carmakers are shifting their role in China from a manufacturing hub to global contributors of technological innovation.

Two years ago, Ola Kaellenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz, said that China's pace of innovation is astonishing, particularly in electrification and digitalization, which is far ahead of the rest of the world. This remark has now been fully validated by the company's latest progress in China.

At the Auto Shanghai 2025, Mercedes-Benz debuted its long-wheelbase, all-electric model CLA globally. The development of this model's all-scenario driver-assist system was led by the carmaker's Chinese R&D team, which took just 18 months. That speed would not have been possible without the support of the company's two major R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai and a local team of over 2,000 engineers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was ubiquitous at the Auto Shanghai 2025. From smart cabins redefining human-vehicle interaction, to integrated driver-assist systems breaking through application boundaries, and to large models powering end-to-end business innovation, a new vision with AI-driven intelligent vehicles serving as the neural hub is becoming clear in the wave of auto industry's transformation.

BMW, following a strategic partnership with Alibaba on large language models and the launch of an AI agent developed by its China-based R&D team, announced further integration with DeepSeek to strengthen its AI ecosystem in China.

Dongfeng Motor exhibited an enterprise-grade large model. With AI-powered design assistants, coding copilots, and simulation tools, the model cuts new vehicle development cycles by over 35% and reduces collaboration costs by 30%.

Gan Jiayue, CEO of Chinese automobile giant Geely Auto Group, said that the company has integrated AI across its entire smart vehicle ecosystem, from architecture and powertrain to chassis, cabin, and driver assistance.

It has also deeply embedded AI into the entire value chain from product development and manufacturing to after-sales service, to deliver a truly intelligent, all-scenario user experience, he added.

Li Xianjun, director of the automotive development research center at Tsinghua University's School of Vehicle and Mobility, noted that AI-powered electrification and intelligent technologies are accelerating disruptive innovation in the auto sector.

He urged automakers to rapidly formulate AI-driven strategies and build new organizational systems with innovative mechanisms, processes, talent, and culture to speed up their transformation.

By Wang Zheng, People's Daily From April 23 to May 2, the 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition (Auto Shanghai 2025) was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). Featuring nearly 1,000 exhibitors from 26 countries and regions, the event showcased over 100 new vehicle models and cutting-edge technologies.



At the exhibition, a new energy SUV capable of crab-walking, tank turns, and running on flat tires was displayed. This model is able to "sail" through water up to 80 centimeters deep for two hours.



There was an advanced assisted driving system that can autonomously navigate multi-floor underground parking garages and charge itself. A power battery with a volumetric energy density exceeding 1,000 Wh/L also caught great attention.



These are just a few of the highlights from the Auto Shanghai 2025, where Chinese electric vehicle makers and suppliers astonished visitors with their latest innovations in electrification and intelligence technologies.



"China's leadership in electrification and intelligent technologies is leading the global auto industry transformation," said Stephen Ma, chairman of Nissan China Management Committee and president of Chinese carmaker Dongfeng Motor.



"Nissan is leveraging China's advantages in technology and resources to collaboratively develop innovative and competitive products," he added.



A range of forward-looking driver-assist technologies were unveiled by mainstream automakers at the exhibition.



Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer GAC Aion partnered with ride-hailing platform DiDi to debut Robotaxi, a Level-4 autonomous model, which is scheduled for rollout by the end of this year and pilot operation in 2026.

Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its Qiankun ADS 4 system, which reduces end-to-end latency by 50%, improves traffic efficiency by 20%, and cuts hard braking incidents by 30%.



"Huawei has already completed 600 million kilometers of Level-3 expressway self-driving simulations and validations via our cloud-based World Engine. We're now ready for commercial mass production of Level-3 autonomous driving," said Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution.



The "China speed" of innovation is also evident in the chip sector.



Chinese technology company Horizon Robotics unveiled its Journey 6P chip - currently the most powerful domestically produced intelligent driving chip with 560 TOPS of computing power - and launched China's first full-stack Level-2 urban driver-assist system integrating both software and hardware. The system will debut in mass production on EXEED brand of Chinese carmaker Chery this September.



Auto Shanghai 2025 also marked a new chapter in joint ventures, as multinational automakers unveiled collaborative projects developed primarily in China. SAIC Volkswagen took the lead in developing Volkswagen's first full-size extended-range electric vehicle SUV concept. Dongfeng Nissan spearheaded the creation of the pure-electric N7 sedan. Chinese automobile manufacturer Changan Automobile and Mazda co-developed the EZ-60, a new energy model under the Changan Mazda brand.



From "made in China for China" to "made in China for the world," multinational carmakers are shifting their role in China from a manufacturing hub to global contributors of technological innovation.



Two years ago, Ola Kaellenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz, said that China's pace of innovation is astonishing, particularly in electrification and digitalization, which is far ahead of the rest of the world. This remark has now been fully validated by the company's latest progress in China.



At the Auto Shanghai 2025, Mercedes-Benz debuted its long-wheelbase, all-electric model CLA globally. The development of this model's all-scenario driver-assist system was led by the carmaker's Chinese R&D team, which took just 18 months. That speed would not have been possible without the support of the company's two major R&D centers in Beijing and Shanghai and a local team of over 2,000 engineers.



Artificial intelligence (AI) was ubiquitous at the Auto Shanghai 2025. From smart cabins redefining human-vehicle interaction, to integrated driver-assist systems breaking through application boundaries, and to large models powering end-to-end business innovation, a new vision with AI-driven intelligent vehicles serving as the neural hub is becoming clear in the wave of auto industry's transformation.



BMW, following a strategic partnership with Alibaba on large language models and the launch of an AI agent developed by its China-based R&D team, announced further integration with DeepSeek to strengthen its AI ecosystem in China.



Dongfeng Motor exhibited an enterprise-grade large model. With AI-powered design assistants, coding copilots, and simulation tools, the model cuts new vehicle development cycles by over 35% and reduces collaboration costs by 30%.



Gan Jiayue, CEO of Chinese automobile giant Geely Auto Group, said that the company has integrated AI across its entire smart vehicle ecosystem, from architecture and powertrain to chassis, cabin, and driver assistance.



It has also deeply embedded AI into the entire value chain from product development and manufacturing to after-sales service, to deliver a truly intelligent, all-scenario user experience, he added.



Li Xianjun, director of the automotive development research center at Tsinghua University's School of Vehicle and Mobility, noted that AI-powered electrification and intelligent technologies are accelerating disruptive innovation in the auto sector.



He urged automakers to rapidly formulate AI-driven strategies and build new organizational systems with innovative mechanisms, processes, talent, and culture to speed up their transformation.



Dans la meme rubrique : < > Low-altitude economy lifts off as Chinese automakers enter the eVTOL era China expands efforts to boost global e-commerce cooperation Legacy of Tea-Horse Road lives on at China-Laos border Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena)
I was asked this week how I can be a Christian and support Donald Trump throwing out thousands of illegal aliens. But one of the toughest things about being a Christian is trying to be a citizen. No  scratch that. I mean trying to be a good citizen.

Paul was a citizen, too, but I dont think he cared a bit about the Roman Empire. He gave the impression that if the Gauls invaded tomorrow, he would just shrug his shoulders and try to baptize them, too. And although he was the polar opposite of Thomas Paine in almost every respect, he shared that one annoying and almost liberal quality: that he didnt view himself a citizen of any country in particular, but a citizen of the world. Except Paines world was too small for Paul. Paul viewed himself as the child of the king of the universe.

Governments were thus always too narrow and short-sighted for a man of a truly religious mindset. Even ethnicity and race got the boot when it came down to it. But to be a good citizen requires a whole set of priorities and principles at odds with the whole gist of Christianity, and if you take both seriously, it tends to put you in a state of cognitive dissonance.

For instance, the first priority of government is what all Americans would today call racism, but which is the foundational preoccupation with being any organization at all. And that is saying, We are like this, and because you are like that, you stay over there. This is the idea behind all borders, motherlands, and voter ID: the fact that zero identity means zero stability, zero safety, and zero power  the antithesis of all political causes. To have a government totally unconcerned with us and them would be a contradiction in terms, and a scatterbrained majority can be easily upset and conquered by a small, tight-knit, and organized minority.

The second priority of all governments is running things along the lines of what we call common sense  the antithesis of the whole Christian vibe. This means we dont believe in do not judge; we hire judges. It means we dont follow along with do not worry. We fight about a budget. Israel is the first and last country to follow a pillar of fire aimlessly through the desert and eat manna off the floor: a government defines its goals and fights over them, because a government without goals is about to be replaced by another government.

A government cant tell if youre actually saved. A good government cares whether your neighborhood looks like hell, and if you dont listen to what they say and you resist arrest, theyre okay with sending you there personally. A government doesnt just give, as Jesus Christ and John the Baptist told us to do. And if it does, a government takes from somebody else first. None of this he who does not work shall not eat. A government eats even if nothing inside the government works. In fact, the worse a government works, the starker a contrast exists between those who eat and those who dont.

Finally, the third priority of all governments is what we call treachery. This means that when youre not a part of the government, and youre not a part of the citizenry, and youre clearly opposed to the main goals of the government, hoo, boy, youd better watch out. Because a government that loves its enemies does not exist.

If a government has an enemy, it does not go the extra mile  unless its in the form of a Trojan horse. If a government has an enemy, it turns the other cheek only when its forced to. A government doesnt cast its pearls before swine because a smart government doesnt tell anybody, especially in war, the whole truth. Its job is to fool the enemy so that nobody knows what its really up to, and even in most democratic governments, I think we can agree that this is how it has to treat the citizenry. This is because all governments are a giant backroom deal. To spill the beans about all your plans is to invite not only criticism, but opposition. It means to lose your advantage of not just mystery, but surprise  two things fatal to any enterprising government, even when its good.

If an enemy country has a resource, you oftentimes try to take it. If an enemy country has a plan, you try to foil it. If it has secrets, you try to steal them. If it has soldiers, you may eventually have to try to kill them. You can make peace with an enemy nation and maybe even an ally  but only until you dont need it, and only if you hate somebody else worse. Treachery is so hardwired into the spirit of government that we view people on our team with these traits as heroes  and the man who tries to ban them, like the saint with a citizen of the world mentality, is most usually viewed, by even women and children, as a coward, a loser, and a traitor. Because he kinda is.

Put these things up against Christianity, and, quite frankly, youre left with a big question: Can any man be a good citizen and a good Christian? Is it possible to have a Christian government at all  even in theory? Or is Christianity a movement antithetical to all law and order? In other words, in order to love your neighbor, do you have to throw away the neighborhood?

My answer to this is that Christendom isnt a movement; its a moment. Its that second when you realize God really loves you and so you fall in love with God and do something crazy  and beautiful. Kinda like what God does for you.

Christians are the salt of the earth, not the main dish. Christianity is thus the flavor and not the meal itself. When people say they want a Christian government, they dont know what theyre asking. Theyre asking for that moment where youre free in the soul, and feeling wild and gracious, to be put into a regimen and forced on other people  whether those people feel it in that moment or not.

You  yourself  can be truly Christian in moments. You can give your money to the poor and turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. You can take the lowest place and bless those who curse you and even put yourself on a cross. But the second we cross from a Christian moment to a Christian government, we dont get Christ at all. We get the Devil. What we get is you, a person overflowing with spiritual abundance (or maybe the opposite), forcing other people to throw themselves away, too. We have many terms for that. We call it stealing, or tyranny, or slavery, or murder  the very things that government was designed to protect us from.

My belief  and who knows? maybe Im wrong  is that you cant love your neighbor if you ruin his country. And the second you cross from giving yourself away to giving your neighbor away, youre not being Christian at all. Youre being a sanctimonious jerk and a lunatic.

We thus have no way to really synchronize Christianity and government. But I dont believe we were meant to. As Thomas Paine put it, government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence. Its a tool for living in a broken world by broken means. And love has always been controversial, because loving somebody always means ignoring or fighting somebody else.

Thankfully, God knows what were up against. What we need to pray for is wisdom to choose, at moments, which path to take  and also for a lot of forgiveness. I think were all going to need it.

Jeremy Egerer is the author of Prejudices  a collection of questionable essays on Substack.

Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.
On the very day Donald Trump became president again, he signed an executive order prospectively eliminating birthright citizenship for children born to aliens unlawfully present in the United States.

Immediately, lawsuits were filed in a half-dozen jurisdictions across the country challenging this order.

The groups bringing these suits claim the order disrupts long-standing legal norms governing citizenship. Yet, in fact, Trumps contention  that birthright citizenship is not possessed by children of illegal aliens under the correct interpretation of the law  is exactly right.

Birthright citizenship is conventionally understood to apply to any child born in the United States, regardless of the immigration status of that childs parents. This view is based on the common law principle of jus soli (right of soil), which is said to be incorporated in the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This understanding of the Citizenship Clause, however, despite its prevalence in academia and political commentary, is based on a mistaken and incomplete reading of controlling Supreme Court precedent.

In fact, birthright citizenship, as provided for in the Citizenship Clause, as that clause has been authoritatively construed by the Supreme Court, is possessed only by children born in the United States to at least one parent who is lawfully residing in the United States.

Ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War with the aim of remedying the injustices of the Dred Scott decision, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof. This latter phrase has been wrongly equated with subject to the laws thereof, and thus to entail that all persons born in the United States are U.S. citizens, with only a few narrow exceptions, such as children born to diplomats.

Yet the Supreme Court has construed the phrase subject to the jurisdiction more narrowly, most notably in seminal cases that have been taught  well or ill  in law schools ever since.

In the 1884 case Elk v. Wilkins, decided when American Indians were increasingly integrating into mainstream American society, presented the constitutional issue of whether Indians who had been born within the allegiance of a tribe were subject to the jurisdiction of the United States at birth, and thus born American citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court ruled that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, on the ground that jurisdiction in the Citizenship Clause meant complete jurisdiction, which implied direct and immediate allegiance to the United States. The parents of children born in the allegiance of a tribe had only indirect and intermediate allegiance to the United States, through their tribe. (Today, by a subsequent act of Congress, Indians born on reservations are U.S. citizens at birth.)

Twelve years later, in Wong Kim Ark v. United States, the citizenship status of an American-born man of Chinese descent was the issue.

Wong Kim Ark had been born in San Francisco to Chinese nationals, and had been denied entry to the United States after returning from a visit to China as an adult. At the time, Chinese nationals were precluded by treaty from naturalizing as U.S. citizens. Nevertheless, after recounting the history of the common-law jus soli doctrine, and its influence on our Constitution, the Court held that, because the petitioner had been born to parents lawfully residing in the United States, he had been born within the allegiance and protection of the United States, and therefore at birth was subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. He was thus born a citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment.

That the petitioners parents had resided here with the permission of the United States was central to the Courts holding. Chinese nationals who remain subjects of the Emperor of Chinaare entitled to the protection of and owe allegiance to the United States, so long as they are permitted by the United States to reside here, the decision reads, and are subject to the jurisdiction thereof, in the same sense as all other aliens [lawfully] residing in the United States (emphasis added). The Court explained that to reside, in this usage, means to live in a place with the intent to remain there, but not necessarily indefinitely. It is a broader category than domiciled, and could apply to long-term visa holders, as well as to lawful permanent residents.

The Courts interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment thus limits its application to children of aliens residing in the country with permission. This requirement implies that children born to foreign nationals living in the country without permission are not subject to its jurisdiction, and that mere tourists, since they are only visiting and do not reside here, also are not so subject. This crucial qualification of common law birthright citizenship by the requirements of both residence and permission therefore excludes from citizenship at birth children both of tourists and of those residing in this country without permission  that is, illegal aliens.

To disregard these requirements would involve interpreting the Court to mean that illegal aliens are within the allegiance and protection of the United States.

But the Court specifically stated otherwise, holding that Chinese nationals who were not permitted to reside in the United States were not within its allegiance and protection. The Court could hardly have held otherwise. The phrase allegiance and protection describes the reciprocal obligations of citizens and the state that are foundational to a nation. Since illegal aliens are at all times subject to apprehension and deportation, they can hardly be regarded as within the protection of the United States.

In further evidence that Wong Kim Ark held that illegal aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States for citizenship purposes, the Court cited to its own earlier ruling in another immigration case, from 1893, Fong Yue Ting v. United States. There, the Court addressed the legal status of non-resident or unlawfully-present aliens: while they are subject to our laws, they remain outside the governments complete jurisdiction. Had the Court held in Wong Kim Ark that all children born in the United States and subject to its laws  such as illegal alienswere citizens, it would have run afoul of the combined holdings of Elk  that jurisdiction for citizenship purposes means complete jurisdiction  and of Fong Yue Ting  that illegal aliens and non-resident aliens are outside the complete jurisdiction of the United States. The residence and permission requirements of Wong Kim Ark are therefore necessary to harmonize that case with those prior cases.

Wong Kim Arks inclusion of residence and permission requirements marks the Courts departure from the English common law understanding of birthright citizenship in favor of one more compatible with American constitutional principles.

Indeed, leading constitutional scholars at the time noted that the American approach required residence while the British did not.

The doctrine of jus soli as articulated by common law scholars such as Coke and Blackstone is a product of feudalism: a subject owes a duty of perpetual loyalty to the Crown under the protection of which he is born.

In stark contrast, the American Revolution severed the colonies duty to the king in favor of a compact operating by consent of the governed rather than by perpetual, unchosen duty. The purpose of the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment was not to reinstate the common law version of birthright citizenship; rather, it was to extend the principles of the Declaration of Independence to freed slaves and to nonwhite immigrants such as Chinese-Americans.

As it is currently applied, birthright citizenship not only returns us to a feudal past, but also undermines the ability of the people of the United States to set forth standards by which children born to foreign nationals may become citizens. It incentivizes birth tourism and mass illegal immigration, both of which treat the United States as a provider of material benefits rather than a political community towards which one owes allegiance and duties. Unlike illegal aliens and temporary guests, lawful permanent residents are incentivized to invest in their political community, and to adopt the customs and civic responsibilities of that community. Their childrens subsequent inheritance of those responsibilities further facilitates assimilation and social cohesion.

The rule of Wong Kim Ark v. United States reflects the compact approach to self-government inherent in the founding principles of this country while serving the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment. Applying the rule as it was intended to be understood would remedy the above-mentioned policy deficiencies of an over-expansive view of birthright citizenship without the need to amend the Constitution, and efficiently resolve the flurry of lawsuits against President Trumps executive order.

Gabriel Canaan is an attorney at the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) in Washington, DC. A native of Southern California, he is a graduate of William & Mary Law School, and, prior to joining IRLI, served as a law clerk on the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
America isn't a democracy but a constitutional republic designed to limit majority rule and protect individual rights. This distortion enables narratives that label dissent as dangerous, especially in portraying Trump as a "threat to democracy" -- a claim pushed by institutions caught spreading falsehoods about him. What appears as consensus is actually assigned opinion enforced by media and political power, as "conspiracy theories" used to silence dissent are proving to be true.

What follows is not just a list of lies -- its a pattern of systemic deception that reveals where the real threat lies.

The Concealment of President Bidens Cognitive Decline: A Betrayal of Voters

For years, concerns about Joe Bidens mental acuity were dismissed as partisan attacks or conspiracy theories. The White House physician declared him fit for office. Staffers claimed he ran circles around them. Meanwhile, public appearances were tightly controlled, questions were pre-approved, and scripted answers were passed off as spontaneous.

But in 2024, the dam broke. Bidens debate performance made his decline undeniable. Millions had already cast primary ballots for a man clearly unfit to serve -- yet instead of outrage over the scale of the deception, voters watched passively as Kamala Harris stepped in as the de facto candidate.

It was an unconstitutional transfer of candidacy that the media refused to acknowledge. This wasnt spin -- it was a deliberate, coordinated effort to deceive the American public about who was actually running the country.

All while, the same media complex screamed that Trump was the dictator.

If truth and transparency are foundational to democracy, then this widespread concealment -- and the resulting erosion of informed consent -- should outrage every American who values honest governance.

COVID-19: From "Conspiracy" to Consensus

When Trump suggested the virus originated in a lab, the idea was branded "xenophobic" and "debunked." Today, both the CIA and FBI assess a lab leak as probable. This pattern repeated across masks, school closures, natural immunity, and vaccine efficacy.

The CDC quietly redefined "vaccine" to accommodate products that didn't stop transmission, contradicting officials' earlier claims. Education leaders denied coordinating with teachers unions on prolonged school closures despite evidence proving otherwise, devastating children's mental health and education.

Throughout, Trump was vilified as "anti-science" for questioning narratives that later collapsed -- demonstrating how the "threat to democracy" label silences legitimate dissent.

Border Security: Denial Amid Crisis

While Trump was called xenophobic for demanding border security, his policies effectively curbed illegal crossings without new legislation. In contrast, Biden officials dismantled these effective policies while insisting only Congress could solve the problem.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress the administration had "operational control" of the border -- while record-breaking illegal entries, overwhelmed facilities, and surging cartel activity told a very different story.

They claimed to be addressing the root causes of migration, yet crossings exploded to historic levels. They blamed Trumps policies as inhumane while ignoring the actual consequences of their own: trafficking increased, fentanyl poured into American communities, and untold lives were lost in the chaos.

Common sense was discarded. Hatred for Trump outweighed concern for national security and human suffering. While illegal immigrants were given free housing, food, and healthcare, American veterans went neglected, seniors faced rising medical costs, and cities buckled under homelessness and resource strain.

These are not partisan talking points -- they are 90/10 issues that should unify Americans regardless of party. But the public was instead gaslit into believing that caring about your own countrys sovereignty is xenophobic or cruel.

The Russia Investigation and Intelligence Abuses

The Trump-Russia narrative -- foundation for claims that Trump threatened democracy -- collapsed when Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy. Later revelations proved more damning: FBI lawyer Clinesmith falsified evidence for a FISA warrant; the Steele dossier contained deliberately false information paid for by Trump's opponents; exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case was concealed.

The great irony here is staggering: while Trump was accused of being a threat to democratic institutions, those very institutions were being weaponized against him in unprecedented ways. The real undermining of democratic norms came not from Trump, but from those who claimed to be defending democracy against him.

Media Collusion and Information Control

Today's media no longer informs -- it enforces. The New York Post was banned for reporting verified facts about Hunter Biden. Trump's "very fine people" comment was maliciously edited to hide his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis. His reference to a new technique for sterilizing blood was twisted into a narrative that he told people to "inject bleach."

These aren't mistakes but engineered falsehoods meant to dehumanize political opponents. In a genuine democracy, media checks power; instead, American media has become a propaganda arm defending institutional power while demonizing challengers.

Government Institutions as Political Weapons

Government institutions have been weaponized for political ends while accusing Trump of authoritarianism. Under Obama, the IRS targeted conservative groups. The DoJ labeled concerned parents at school board meetings as potential terrorists. Security clearances and FISA warrants were politically manipulated.

Classified document cases reveal a two-tiered justice system: aggressive prosecution for Trump versus leniency for Biden and Clinton. January 6th defendants faced harsh treatment compared to 2020 rioters who caused far more destruction.

Federal agencies have colluded with social media to suppress dissent -- raising serious First Amendment concerns. The January 6th Committee's selective editing of evidence and exclusion of exculpatory information about Trump exemplifies how "defending democracy" shields undemocratic behavior.

The Inversion of Reality: Who Truly Threatens Democracy?

Logic dictates a simple conclusion: if nearly every major anti-Trump narrative -- from Russian collusion to COVID origins to Bidens cognitive health -- has collapsed under scrutiny, what basis remains for believing Trump threatens democracy?

The aftermath is equally clear: if the institutions aligned against him -- intelligence agencies, media conglomerates, and political operatives -- have repeatedly misled the public, their credibility to define danger is null. The louder they sound the alarm, the more they reveal about themselves: suppressing information, weaponizing government agencies, manipulating elections, and discarding due process when politically convenient.

And yet, instead of acknowledging the obvious, many Americans now defend manufactured narratives that make intelligent people sound irrational. Reasonable citizens abandon common sense -- not because the facts changed, but because the media relentlessly promulgates assigned opinions that demand emotional loyalty over objective thought. Issues that should unite 90% of the public -- like stopping child trafficking, securing borders, or caring for veterans -- become polarizing, not on principle, but because theyre associated with the wrong political figure.

Restoring Sanity, Reclaiming Sovereignty

Democracy cannot function without informed citizens. And citizens cannot be informed when they are being systematically lied to -- by government agencies, media platforms, and political leaders who view the truth as a threat to power.

The real crisis in America isnt Donald Trump. Its the normalization of institutional lying, the abandonment of due process, and the transformation of journalism into narrative enforcement.

Until we reject assigned opinions and return to objective truth and transparency, we will remain ruled not by reason, but by illusion. Meanwhile, those who shout loudest about threats to democracy conceal their actions in shadows -- while figures like Trump operate in full view. If this inversion continues, government by the people will be reduced to a hollow phrase -- masking a system of manipulation, not representation.

The time has come for Americans across the political spectrum to acknowledge the pattern of deception and demand better. Our constitutional republic depends on it.

Image: White House
In Oregon, we keep seeing ads on T.V. for energy companies, and the final statement in the ad is, Dont let the politicians stop cheap, clean, renewable energy."

I believe that clean, renewable, energy is not cheap, and it is only viable for a few years before the wind turbines fail or the solar panels need to be replaced.

In Oregon, the eastern part of the state has 2,300 wind turbines on the tops of hills.

Among other things, wind turbines require a lot of lubricating oil to keep their blades and turbines rotating.

What concerns me is how many towers are blackened by oil stains from the turbine bearings.

These are the same turbines that the Salem Green energy proponents wanted to offshore into major fishing and crabbing locations along the Oregon Coast.

When the land-based turbines leak oil onto the area around them, it is easier to clean up the oil. When an offshore turbine leaks oil, it could poison the sea by leaking it into the fishing areas around it.

A large offshore windmill farm could leak enough oil into the ocean to produce an environmental disaster that would reach the level of the Exxon Valdez.

And this is just one of the problems associated with the green energy scam.

Here also in Oregon, many organizations talk a great game about climate change and green energy initiatives; they lobby for money to finance their proposals, yet overall, they do very few things except ask for grant money.



According to the Salem Reporter, citing a report from ProPublica:

For all their progressive claims, Oregon and Washington trail nearly all other states in adding new sources of renewable energy. Iowa, a Republican-led state with roughly the same population and usable volume of wind as Oregon, has built enough wind farms to generate three times as much wind power.

We have also witnessed this shell game on other matters, especially during the Cap and Trade debacle in 2020.

The Green Energy and Climate Change zealots thought they could push through the carbon credit scam. It was met with fierce resistance from farmers, loggers, small business owners, ranchers, commercial fishermen, and most rural Oregonians.

It got so bad Tina Kotek, now governor of Oregon, released this statement while House Speaker. Kotek said the bills were drafted to clarify that other more aggressive options could be taken. Kotek said she remains committed to passing the cap-and-trade bill.

This Oregon climate change argument has been going on for over five years, and it appears just as we suspected: the whole green energy scam was about making money, not protecting the environment.

If it was about protecting the environment, then Oregon would be in the lead for these programs.

Now we learn that Oregon is either dead last or close to last in the green energy field.

It makes you wonder what they have been using the money for, that they got for supposedly cleaning up the environment.



John Woods is a father, husband, conservative, activist, patriot, veteran, Certified Action Range Shooter, and voting delegate to the state Oregon Republican Party.

Image: John Womack, via Wikipedia // CC BY-SA 2.5 Deed
Texas stands at a crossroads, and the 2026 U.S. Senate race is shaping up to be a seismic clash that will shake the Lone Star State to its core. On one side we have Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, a relentless champion of conservative values and a loyal ally of President Donald Trump. On the other, John Cornyn, a fossilized relic of the Republican establishment, squatting in the Senate since 2002, delivering nothing but empty promises and betrayals to the people of Texas. This isnt just a primary  its a battle to reclaim Texas future, and Paxton is the strike force we need to obliterate Cornyns reign of mediocrity.

Cornyns 24-year tenure in the Senate stands as a monument to failure. Hes done nothing for Texaszero, zilch, nada. While Texans demanded bold action on border security, Cornyn turned his back, refusing to champion Trumps border wall and siding with the D.C. swamp. He voted for a $95 billion foreign aid package, funneling our hard-earned money to overseas conflicts while Texass borders remain porous. He supported a bipartisan gun control bill after the Uvalde tragedy, trampling on our Second Amendment-protected rights. Cornyns record screams RINO. Hes a spineless opportunist whos cozy with the Bush-era establishment, not the fierce America-First movement Texans crave. As Paxton declared on Fox News, Its hard to think of the things that hes done good for Texas or the country. Damn right.

Paxton, on the other hand, is a juggernaut. Hes a proven fighter whos taken on the Biden administrations lunacysuing over immigration policies, abortion without limitation, and gender-affirming care for minors. He survived a sham impeachment in 2023, orchestrated by the same Republican old guard that Cornyn represents. Paxtons acquittal by the Texas Senate was a middle finger to the establishment, proving his unshakable support among grassroots conservatives. Polls scream his dominance: a January 2025 University of Houston survey showed 36% of GOP primary voters favoring Paxton over Cornyns 32%. A Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll had Paxton crushing Cornyn 53% to 28%. The latest Senate Leadership Fund poll, reported by Punchbowl News, has Paxton obliterating Cornyn 56% to 40%. The message is clear: Texans are done with Cornyns weak-kneed leadership.

Cornyns campaign is a desperate, flailing mess. Hes resorted to pathetic stunts, like posting a staged photo on X reading Trumps book, trying to cozy up to the MAGA base hes spent years betraying. Social media roasted him for it, with users on X calling out his blatant pandering. Cornyns team has the gall to call Paxton a fraud and a conman, but lets talk facts. Cornyns been in office for over two decades and cant point to a single transformative achievement for Texas. Hes a career politician who has mastered the art of doing nothing while collecting a paycheck. Paxton, meanwhile, has been a relentless force, taking on Big Tech, fighting voter fraud, and defending Texass sovereignty. His legal battles? A badge of honor, proof hes a threat to the corrupt elite.

The X battlefield is ablaze with this fight. Posts from users of all hues trumpet Paxtons lead, with the Senate Leadership Fund poll showing him crushing Cornyn by 16 points. Some called it a landslide, and theyre not wrong. Cornyns whiny response on X, claiming Paxton would lose to a Democrat, is laughable. Hes projecting his own weakness. Paxtons grassroots support is a tidal wave, fueled by Texans who see him as a warrior for their values. Cornyns only defense is to sling mud, like his cowardly Hard to run from prison, Ken jab, referencing Paxtons past legal fightsfights Paxton won, by the way, while Cornyn was busy cozying up to Chuck Schumer.

The stakes couldnt be higher. Republicans hold a slim 53-47 Senate majority, and Cornyns allies are terrified that Paxtons primary victory could cost them the seat. Theyre mistaken. Paxton is the only one who can galvanize the base and maintain Texas's red status. Cornyns baggagehis support for DACA, his vote to certify Bidens election, his gun control betrayalmakes him a liability. A May 2025 poll from the Houston Chronicle indicated that Democrat Colin Allred could beat Paxton in a general election, but only by a razor-thin margin. Cornyn is no safer; the same poll had him narrowly edging out Allred. The difference? Paxton has the fire to rally conservatives, while Cornyns weak leadership would leave voters apathetic.

This race serves as a referendum on the GOPs soul. Paxton embodies the future: unapologetic, Trump-aligned, and ready to challenge the D.C. establishment. Cornyn represents the past, a tired symbol of the Bush-era GOP that Texans have outgrown. As Texas Scorecards YAll Answered poll indicated, 65% of readers support Paxton or other challengers over Cornyn. The Texas Tribune reported that Paxtons approval rating among Republicans stands at 60%, overshadowing Cornyns disappointing 48%. KVUE pointed out that Cornyn is facing his toughest primary yet, and News From The States cautioned that Texass rightward shift spells trouble for the senator. Even Cornyns own allies, like Senate Majority Leader John Thune, cannot rescue him from the grassroots tsunami.

Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.
In an indication of the direction of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV has made his first bishop appointments, and for San Diego, his choice was a huge winner.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

WASHINGTON  Pope Leo XIV has appointed Most Reverend Michael Pham, auxiliary bishop of San Diego and diocesan administrator, as the Bishop of San Diego. The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C. on May 22, 2025, by Monsignor Veceslav Tumir, charge d affaires, a.i. of the Apostolic Nunciature, in the temporary absence of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States. Bishop Phams biography may be found here. The Diocese of San Diego is comprised of 8,852 square miles in the State of California and has a total population of 3,454,921 of which 1,381,968, are Catholic.

He picked the bishop we all wanted among the local Catholics I know, Michael D. Pham, who is well known as a friendly, lively auxiliary bishop and formerly a priest in our parish, very conservative and level-headed, but doesn't put politics out there. No global warming, no Che Guevara politics, no social justice-warrioring, no NGO culture replacing religious culture, no guitar Mass.

He's a former Vietnamese boat person who fled that regime, having seen communism firsthand, so unlike a lot of characters in the Church, has no affection for that hideous idea.

I love his coat of arms, which features a ship at sea, and the archdiocese says is mainly a reference to St. Peter the fisher of men, but also nod to his father who had been a fisherman in Da Nang, Vietnam. I look at that and can see that obviously, it is also a reference to the boat people fleeing communist brutality, too. Next time I see him I'll suggest they could add that if he likes the idea.

He's known for his hard work juggling all kinds of jobs in the diocese -- administrative and pastoral -- and like Pope Leo XIV, still finding time to exercise. Like Pope Leo, who must have picked him as an auxiliary bishop in 2023, he also was a hard science major in college -- Pope Leo a math major, Bishop Pham an engineering major. The point being, they do seem to have a lot in common, which sets a great tone for the Church going forward.

He's very orthodox in his thinking much like the growing Vietnamese community in the Catholic Church, which has to be the liveliest ethnic community of them all here, all the pews filled, everyone singing, loaded with young people full of a very conservative and committed version of the faith.

His bio says he was a descendant of the Vietnamese Martyrs, of whom many became saints, from the years 1630 to 1885, many well before the French showed up as colonializers; they were St. Francis Xavier's, or possibly St. Thomas the Apostle's people, which is kind of exciting.

The elders in my family have known him since ... before he was a priest. And I have worked with him on many Sunday mornings as a lector, which is always a wonderful experience.

He has a preternatual capacity for never forgetting anyone's name. You could have met him six years ago and he would still remember your name. He's also known for pitching in, or, what is probably now called his generous pastoral spirit. He always puts himself last.

A couple years ago, when both priests in my parish were out on sick leave for cancer treatment, he was the one who filled in for them. He still fills in, now that we have just one priest -- and any time he does, the whole parish literally applauds him.

That he was picked for the big bishop job is a tall order, and I dread the thought of him having to deal with the diocese's bankruptcy, the payouts from the bad priest cases, the NGO mess with encouraging illegal immigration (wittingly or not), the supercilious lefties, the crummy city government, but he's pretty much been in training as the acting bishop of the diocese, chosen by the other Church leaders by acclamation, so at least it won't be new.

I'd like to see him named cardinal, but this is good news for now. The Church is in good hands with Bishop Michael at the helm in San Diego.

And we have one more very good reason to be optimistic about the papacy of Pope Leo XIV. He knows how to choose just the right bishops.

Image: Diocese of San Diego // coat of arms, public domain
We all saw the spectacle of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office today, denying that White [Afrikaner] farmers are being murdered in his country. Not only is it true that they are being murdered, but the names of those murdered are well known, and there are at least two monuments memorializing those who have been killed.

In fact, you can read their names here on the Hennenman Farmers Union (HFU) Wall of Remembrance website. Heres the list. The better-known Witkruis (White Cross) memorial can be found here.

Ramaphosa has repeatedly proven himself a bold-faced liar. If you saw todays meeting, President Trump quickly lost patience with this corrupt communist clown. Perhaps I will detail his entire sordid history in another essay, but here are the Cliffs Notes:

YouTube screen grab.

Ramaphosa was the leader of COSATU - the Congress of South African Trade Unions before the ANC came to power. Under the ANC, Ramaphosa, a man with no restaurant experience whatsoever, miraculously secured a 20-year exclusive franchise agreement to run 145 McDonalds restaurants in South Africa. Jackpot! Just like Bernie Sanders, another Communist-Capitalist.

Were now all too familiar with the capacity of commies to bend truth to suit their twisted political agendas, so lets analyze Ramaphosa today.

He feigned no knowledge of any Farm Murders (Plaasmoorde, in Afrikaans). He also claimed not to know where Witkruis is (its 240km north-east of the Presidents Official Residence in Pretoria, on a farm owned by the Harmse family, just off the N1 motorway). The HFU Wall is in Nampo Park, Bothaville, in the Free State Province, 220 km SW of Johannesburg. Ramaphosa knows this but will not say so because he would then have to answer as to why he has done everything to encourage the killing, and nothing to stop it.

He understands that even Americans are gullible, but clearly underestimated President Trump.

Shortly after feigning no knowledge of the white crosses, he introduced his Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen, who happens to be white, who then went on to say that we have a rural safety issue in South Africathe majority of commercial and smaller farmers really do want to stay in South Africaand they have a memorial to those who have died as a result of farm attacks. As Minister of Agriculture it is something that Im particularly exercised with.

During my engagement with President Trump in the Oval Office, I outlined that the DA joined the GNU to protect SA from violent anti-constitutionalists. Along with the security cluster and our US partners, my department is committed to winning the fight against farm murders.  pic.twitter.com/UfrW2oHTRi  John Steenhuisen MP (@jsteenhuisen) May 21, 2025

So, we are to believe that Ramaphosa has no knowledge of the same things that he has assigned to Steenhuisen to address? And if this is so, then why does Steenhuisen know of [at least] one of the memorials, but Ramaphosa has no knowledge of any?

The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.  George Orwell, 1984

Jonathan Gault is a pseudonym.
Very soon, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring the Big, Beautiful reconciliation bill to the floor for a full House vote before it heads to the Senate for more tinkering. As of now, several Republican members of the House of Representatives have said they would vote against the bill as it is currently written.

Generally, the House Republicans who oppose the bill fall into two camps: House Freedom Caucus members and Republicans in deep blue states.

The House Freedom Caucus members think the bill does not go far enough in spending cuts. According to Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), The fact of the matter is this has massive savings in the first five years, and it has massive deficits of the first five years because we're not addressing the structural reforms that we're talking about right here.

Roy is right. Per usual, Congress is playing games and including all types of provisions to undermine the long-term prospect of the spending cuts actually taking effect while using accounting gimmicks to make the spending cuts appear deeper than they actually will be.

To be honest, I agree with Roy on this particular point. Although the spending cuts are not as foolproof as Id like them to be, they are much better than the typical reduction in the future growth of spending that Congress has framed as spending cuts in recent years.

Americans must not be primed into thinking that reducing the rate of future spending growth constitutes a spending cut.

On the other side, there are a few Republican holdouts, notably Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), who are threatening to torpedo the Big, Beautiful Bill on much less noble grounds. Their core problem with the reconciliation bill is that it does not subsidize their high-tax districts enough.

Specifically, they want the legislation to include a massive direct payment to their districts by increasing the federal tax subsidy for state and local tax (SALT) deductions.

A higher SALT cap isnt a luxury. Its a matter of fairness, say Lawler and his New York congressional colleagues.

That is one of the most ludicrous things Ive heard in quite some time. It is patently unfair to expect Americans in low-tax states like Tennessee to subsidize the outlandish state and local taxes that New Yorkers and others choose to pay. Rather than hold the entire nation hostage, perhaps Lawler and his New York colleagues should address the problem at its core: the state capital in Albany.

The reality is all House Republicans have a binary choice on the Big, Beautiful Bill. If they oppose it, they are paving the way for a massive tax increase, particularly upon the middle and working classes.

As The Heartland Institute found in a policy study first released in 2021 and updated earlier this year, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is the backbone of the tax rate cut extension in the Big, Beautiful Bill, overwhelmingly benefited hardworking Americans.

In a nutshell, data from the IRS measuring income tax revenues collected from 2017 to 2022 show the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) reduced the average amount of personal income taxes paid by filers in every income bracket, with the largest benefits going to lower- and middle-income households.

Whats more, the big, beautiful bill includes a bunch of new provisions that will further slash the taxes of blue-collar workers and wage earners.

In terms of the concerns of the fiscal hawks, who think the bill is too loose on the spending cuts, I remind you that economic growth is the only feasible way to address our $36 trillion debt situation.

The reconciliation bill offers an all-encompassing path to massive economic growth because it not only includes massive tax relief, but also includes provisions to slash onerous regulations, unleash American energy, incentivize reshoring of factories and manufacturing jobs, impose work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents on Medicaid, while at least putting a dent in current spending.

Yes, the Big, Beautiful Bill is not perfect. But as the old saying goes, perfect is the enemy of good.

Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.

Image: AT via Magic Studio
What was meant to be the Labour Governments flagship foreign policy has now become a judicial spectacle and a political firestorm. In a stunning overnight ruling, the High Court of Justice, Kings Bench Division, issued an emergency interim order suspending the UKs imminent treaty with Mauritius to surrender sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. This is the first time an English court has blocked the conclusion of an international treaty in advance of signature, in a direct challenge to the longstanding doctrine of executive supremacy in foreign affairs.

The immediate cause was a legal action mounted by Bertrice Pompe, a British national of Chagossian origin, who was expelled from Diego Garcia as a baby. She contends that the Starmer Governments attempt to hand the territory to Mauritius violates fundamental rights and due process, effectively disenfranchising thousands of Chagossians while rewarding a regime with no democratic mandate over the islands. Ms. Pompes claim has now forced a full judicial review of the deal, freezing any further diplomatic action.

The Chagos Archipelago is not just another colonial vestige. Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, is home to one of the most important U.S. military facilities in the worldan enormous joint UK-US base established in the 1970s, hosting long-range bombers, naval assets, and intelligence infrastructure critical to operations across the Middle East, Indo-Pacific, and the Horn of Africa. For decades, the island has served as a launch point for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a surveillance hub in the Indian Ocean, and a keystone of American global reach.

Whats more, Mauritius has steadily deepened its ties with China, attracting significant investment and expanding diplomatic cooperation. This growing relationship raises concerns about Beijings influence over the strategically located archipelago.

Mauritius has claimed the islands since independence, but it has never administered them. The claim is historically meaningless: the Chagos Archipelago was deliberately detached from the British Indian Ocean Colony before Mauritius was granted independence in 1968 and has never formed part of Mauritian sovereign territory. The UK retained control, forcibly removing the native Chagossians to clear the way for the joint military base, a historic injustice the courts have recognized but not reversed.

The UK-Mauritius treaty, which was suspended following political backlash, would, in effect, transfer sovereignty to a Mauritian government with no capacity to protect the strategic use of Diego Garcia, and no intention to guarantee the rights or return of the Chagossian people without conditions. The dramatic judicial intervention followed a last-minute leak by the government this week, revealing plans to sign the treaty on May 22despite widespread belief the deal had been abandoned.

The governments decision to fast-track the handover was not just morally suspect but geopolitically reckless. It also appears constitutionally dubious. The treaty was scheduled for signature amid Parliamentary recess and just before an expected vote on domestic welfare cuts, suggesting a deliberate attempt to avoid scrutiny. That strategy has failed. The High Courts intervention is not only a humiliation for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy but a signal that legal and political institutions are no longer prepared to treat foreign policy as immune from democratic oversight.

The emergency order now forces the government to answer in public for what it tried to deliver in private: the abandonment of strategic territory, the sidelining of British citizens, and the possible weakening of an infrastructure critical to U.S. security.

What began as a rushed and ideological diplomatic offensive now stands as a warning, both to the architects of this misguided deal and to future governments tempted to barter sovereignty behind closed doors.

For the time being, the U.S. also stands to benefit from the judicial ruling, as Washington has narrowly averted the pillaging of its strategic intereststhe question is for how long before the Labour government tries again.

Bepi Pezzulli is a Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales specializing in Governance as well as a Councillor of the Great British PAC. He tweets at @bepipezzulli

Image: Free image via Pexels.
As youve no doubt heard, when South Africas president, Cyril Ramaphosa, appeared in the White House yesterday, President Trump challenged him on the fact that South Africas white farmers are being targeted with a new land confiscation law, and are also the victims of targeted attacks, another layer of hazard in a land rife with violent crime. Its for this reason that Trump gave visas to a paltry 58 white South Africans, sending the Democratsthe same ones whove been complacent as upwards of 32 million illegal aliens breached our bordersinto paroxysms of race-based rage.

When Ramaphosa denied that white South Africans are being officially and unofficially targeted, Trump said au contraire, and brought out the receipts. After Trump showed a video of a huge rally during which South African politician Julius Malema led the tens of thousands of assembled rally-goers in an old apartheid-era chant of Kill the Boer, kill the farmer, reporters instantly tried to change the subject by talking about the jet Qatar is giving to the U.S. government, Trump dragged it back to South Africa, flipping through a stack of articles his aides had handed him.

Ive queued up the video to begin where he brings out those other receipts:

Three of those sources are from American Thinker. One might be this essay by Olivia Murray, although its a little hard to tell. The other is this one, which I wrote: Lets talk about Africa, which is where tribalism takes you.

The point of my post is that the Democrat partys efforts to bring racial tribalism to America can only lead to disaster, and I pointed to Africa as an example of the societal collapse that comes from focusing on tribalism.

Two of those examples came from South Africa. The first is the new law in South Africa that allows the government to confiscate white-owned farms with no or minimal compensation in the name of racial rebalancing. The second is the horrific story of the South African government persecuting miners trying to scrape a living out of a land that has fallen apart thanks to race-obsessed, communist politics.

And then there was the third example, about a full-scale tribal attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which saw hundreds of women...raped and burned alive... I used a screen grab from Reuters news footage of the aftermath of that attack to illustrate the postand was careful to acknowledge the source of that screen grab.

The image caught Trumps eye, and he misunderstood it to refer to South Africa: Look at that. Heres burial sites all over the place. These are all white farmers that are being buried...

Michael Tracey noticed the error and challenged it, telling readers that my essay correctly assigns the image to the Congo:

Simply look up the "American Thinker" article he's waving a printout of, and you'll discover the image is a YouTube screenshot depicting an incident from February in which Congolese women prisoners were reportedly killed. Maybe like 5 minutes of preparation would've been helpful pic.twitter.com/yORXedQ2Wl  Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 22, 2025

Tracey is correct that getting details wrong can weaken ones fundamental positionbut that doesnt mean that the position is wrong. For the left, though, the details are a way to change the conversation, diverting attention from the indisputable big issue. An analogy would be a hypothetical scenario in which the left argues that Trump, by mislabeling the gargoyles on Pariss Notre Dame as goblins, was also wrong to call Notre Dame a cathedral. Its a mistake, but an inconsequential one.

Shortly after Michael Tracey put up that tweet, I received a polite email from a reporter at Reuters asking me to comment on Trumps misinterpreting that image.

Reuters later published a report accurately entitled Trumps image of dead white farmers came from Reuters footage in Congo, not South Africa. The same essay also quoted me accurately, and without misrepresentation, although not in full:

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had misidentified the image. She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosas dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government, had pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.

However, to the extent that the same essay then launched into a peroration about the fact that the claimed genocide is a conspiracy theory that has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, and is based on false claims, I want to quote my email in full because it makes a point I think worth making.

To give context, the alleged false claims are, first, that there is a genocide against whites in rural regions, which the government has long ignored. Per Reuters, [t]he government strongly denies this. The real issue is that everyone in South Africa is getting murdered:

South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with an average of 72 a day, in a country of 60 million people. Most victims are Black.

Second, the government hasnt been appropriating land. Its just been attempting to redress inequalities in land ownership that are a legacy of apartheid and colonialism. However, after having unavailingly tried to encourage white farmers to sell their land willingly, it was forced to sign a law authorizing...you guessed, appropriation without compensation.

Third, the kill the Boer is an old song, without meaning today. So, no biggy.

Fourth, the crosses along the road werent burial sites; they were symbolic markers. So again, Trump got a detail wrong. But gargoyle or goblin, its still a cathedral. Same goes for the Congo photo error.

With that context, heres my letter to Reuters, and the end of this post:

Thank you for your inquiry. While President Trump misidentified the image, he was correct that the essay pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans, whether with a new law that enables the government to use race as a reason to seize private property without compensation or the fact that white farmers are being targeted for violence and murder. We know the latter point is true because South Africa is home to a political movement that can get tens of thousands of people in a stadium to chant enthusiastically, Kill the Boer. Kill the farmer. Nor is it a defense against the violence directed at whites to say that South Africa is an exceptionally dangerous country for all who live there. If a specific demographic is being targeted for death within the context of greater violence, that makes things worse, not better. And of course, the larger point of my post was that it is incredibly foolish for the Democrat party to break America into racial tribes, rather than focusing on the miracle that, out of many, we Americans became one. Nelson Mandela, a great man, recognized that South Africa could survive only by resisting tribalism. His political heirs have thrown away that wisdom and have turned their country into an increasingly dysfunctional place that cannot keep the lights on or the water running, something that harms all residents without regard to the color of their skin. Sincerely,

Image: YouTube screen grab.
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A little while back, the progressive, man-hating feminist movement produced what they surely thought was a gotcha condemnation for menit was a social media trend where women would announce whether theyd rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bearwith a vast majority of women settling on the bear, highlighting the fear of male violence. (Never mind that many of these women were completely untouchable, as if the average man would ever desire to assault them, even given the license in a desolate forest.)

Since progressive feminists are the dimmest of societys bulbs, I can only assume this man or bear dilemma was a calculated campaign to manipulate the useful idiotssimilar to Lawrence Lader and Bernard Nathanson when they convinced Betty Friedan to include abortion in her ideals (which she originally rejected). The progressive feminist movement that began then was not an organic occurrence, but an orchestrated scheme, directed bymen, which is what Id call peak irony.

But I digress.

New statistics out of Germany reveal that foreign-born women, but specifically foreign-born Muslim women, are far more violent than native German men. The Remix News staff, which reported on the story, quipped that the revelation blows up a common myth that has been perpetuated by the left for yearsthat men are so violent, a bear is preferable company. (Again, never mind the fact that men, to their own detriment, have been protecting their women for essentially all of human history.)

Here are the numbers for 2024:

Out of 100,000 people, German men were suspects in violent offenses in 272 cases. For Syrian women, that number was 336. Afghan women? Even worse, with a rate of 359. Worse yet? Iraqi women, with an incredible rate of 394. To look at the data a different way, that means Syrian women were around 24% more likely to be violent criminals than German men; Afghan women around 32%, and Iraqi women a whopping 45%.

Heres another little tidbit: the number of Syrian men suspected of violent crime? 2,608, or 859% more. Afghan men came in at 2,409, or 786% more, while Iraqi men were 2,479, or 811% more. However, the crown goes to Moroccan men, who have a rate of 3,388 suspects in the category of violent crime per 100,000. That means theyre 1,146% more likely than native German men to be accused of a violent crime.

While biological sex certainly plays a role in a persons tendency to resort to criminal violence, there seems to be more here...like ideology...which explains why *certain* demographics of women are more violent than certain demographics of men.

So, if given the chance between a bear or a Muslim woman (or man)? Id choose the bear.

Image from Grok.
If you're a president of a country that's creating refugees of your people as they flee the country, you probably wouldn't want to be meeting President Trump to gaslight him that all's well.

That's what happened when South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa invited himself to the White House for a visit and a press conference followed.

According to Fox News:

President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday with a video allegedly showing grave treatment of White farmers. Trump has claimed that White Afrikaner South African farmers are being slaughtered and forced off their land. The Afrikaners are descendants of mostly Dutch settlers who first arrived in South Africa in 1652. A portion of the footage aired at the White House showed white crosses lined up alongside both sides of a road.

The White House live broadcast is here, and the posted YouTube video from it is below:

It started quite cordially with compliments and niceties around various peace talks in other countries, and the South African president bringing up what Nelson Mandela, supposedly a man of peace, though he never renounced violence, had "taught" them.

Reporters asked irrelevant or jejeune questions here and there, then one brought up farmer killings, at which, the South African president hastily denied it, and then advised President Trump that he would need to listen to the people he had brought with him, which apparently included white South Africans, to let him know that no 'genocide' was going on with South Africa's farmers.

That was when Trump turned on the fire.

He said he had been "listening" to people, lots of people, and he was getting reports like this ... at which the room was darkened and the audience was treated to rantings and ravings by South African politicians about killing the Boers and the need for bloodshed, and all kinds of bloodthirsty rhetoric directed at white farmers as crowds cheered. Then his video moved on to what was likely the Witkruis Monument along the N1 highway between Mokopane and Polokwame, in South Africa, showing miles of white crosses, each representing a murdered South African farmer, nearly all of whom were white.

The South African president, clearly taken aback, asked Trump where in his country that was. President Trump replied "in South Africa."

That laid out for everyone there -- the South Africans, the press, the federal record, that these killings were happening.

The media later disgraced itself by claiming Trump was promoting a distorted picture and that there were no large-scale killings of white farmers done on racial grounds, but a check with every fact-checking device I could find, including Grok, confirmed that the place was real, the killings were real, and the South African president was running a terrible country for those of the wrong race.

Elon Musk, who was president, stared sternly, knowing the truth of the matter, too.

The South African president clearly wasn't ready to answer the facts and data, the video, the receipts that President Trump brought.

Like a lot of billionaires (I once covered billionaires for Forbes magazine) Trump doesn't like to be gaslighted or presented with bee ess. That was obvious enough from this encounter. Now the ball's in South Africa's court to clean up its act, or remain on the record as a hellhole country that produces refugees. Trump's gutsy act, which none of his predecessors ever tried. made that call to responsibility possible.

Image: Screen shot from White House video, via YouTube
The alleged murderer of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim (the two young Israeli Embassy employees gunned down outside D.C.s Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night) has been identified as one Elias Rodriguez.

He was named in the original news reports of the murders. But I think we all know that if his name had been Mohammad, it would have been days before his identity would have been released.

The murders bear an obvious resemblance to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly committed by Luigi Mangione in NYC in December. Will we ever know whether Rodriquez was inspired by that gun-wielding little piece of human detritus?

Image created using AI.

Im by no means ignoring, dismissing, or trivializing the scourge of Jew-hatred and how it has become so very fashionable among the now significant numbers of Americans who are clearly mentally ill. And I certainly dont want to understand these lunatics (as Frankie Laine sang, Dont try to understand em, just rope and throw and brand em!). But could Wednesdays murders be not so much about Free Palestine and more about a desperate, cynical, copycat act of a sociopathic attention whore?

The question now is whether Elias Rodriquez will be celebrated the way Mangione has been, and whether his GoFundMe account will approach or even exceed the $1 million that has so far been donated for Mangiones defense.

There seems to be no shortage of morons with disposable income who are eager to financially reward cowardly, cold-blooded killers, especially if the chicken-hearted murdering festering sores claim to be motivated by a cause, no matter how reprehensible or spurious that cause may be. These morons likely are vicariously identifying with the killers, wishing they, too, could go out and slay the objects of their psychotic hatred.

I mean, what can you expect from the kind of people who grew up thinking that the cowardly killer Che Guevara was some kind of dashing, romantic revolutionary hero?

So it would seem that the latest get rich quick scheme in todays America is to go out and commit heinous, cowardly murder and reap the financial rewards. And I would be remiss to leave Karmelo Anthony out of this shameful Murderers Fundraising Derby.

Stu Tarlowe is a native of NYC who now lives where the Kaw meets the Mighty Mo. He is a septuagenarian who, since 2010 has had over 160 pieces published by American Thinker, most of which can be accessed here. He has also had essays published by World Net Daily and JPFO. He writes a Substack newsletter called Stus Stack o Stuff (the name is an homage to Rush Limbaugh), to which subscriptions are currently free and which is not exclusively political.
When Apple first unveiled the AirPods, many scoffed at it. However, it quickly became one of Apples best-selling accessories. Now, walk around in public and youd find a lot of people with AirPods in their ears. So, its not surprising to learn that Apple has the true wireless earbuds market cornered.

Apples true wireless earbuds dominance

According to the latest data from Canalys, Apples market share in the true wireless earbuds segment grew by 12% year over year. The company shipped 16.2 million earbuds in Q1 2024, but in Q1 2025, that number jumped to 18.2 million. Interestingly enough, Apples competitors are nowhere close to it.

Xiaomi came in second place with 9 million units shipped in Q1 2025. The Chinese company saw the biggest growth of 63%, up from 5.5 million units in Q1 2024. In third place is Samsung, with 5.6 million units shipped in Q1 2025. Then, in fourth place, we have Huawei, with 4.7 million units.

Its easy to see why Apple is dominating the market. The company has built an ecosystem that ensures its products work together seamlessly. For instance, the pairing process of a pair of AirPods and an iPhone is so quick and smooth that its almost like magic. Unlike other Bluetooth earbuds, theres no long-pressing of any buttons to activate Bluetooth pairing mode.

Also, Apple has made its AirPods almost exclusive to its products. Users wont get the full experience if they try to use it with a non-iOS or non-macOS device.

Future of the AirPods

Right now, Apple has released three AirPods productsthe base AirPods, the AirPods Pro, and the AirPods Max over-ear headphones. The AirPods Pro 2 hasnt been updated in a while, and recent reports suggest it might skip 2025.

Weve also heard reports that Apple plans to do more with its wearables. Bloombergs Mark Gurman recently suggested that future AirPods could come with built-in cameras. Weve also heard Apple plans to include a heart rate sensor, similar to its Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds. This would give users another way of tracking their fitness other than a smartwatch. Either way, we wont know until either late 2025 or 2026.
After years of watching Samsung from the sidelines, Apple is getting ready to jump onto the foldable bandwagon. The company is rumored to launch a foldable iPhone in 2026, and were also hearing rumors about a foldable iPad. Now, the latest rumors claim that Apple will kick off production on a large foldable Mac in 2027.

Large, foldable Mac coming in 2027

This tip is courtesy of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has been fairly accurate with his claims in the past. According to Kuo, Apple will begin mass production of a large, foldable Mac in 2027, meaning weve got a couple of years to go. This also means that things are subject to change.

For example, depending on how well its foldable iPhone is received, Apple may or may not proceed with plans for a foldable Mac. If it realizes that customers arent biting, or if the demand for a foldable Mac isnt there, it will shelve the project. This Mac is also expected to be huge, with an 18.8-inch display.

This would make it the largest laptop Apple has ever built. Right now, that honor goes to the MacBook Pro, which is available in a 16-inch option. Apple did come close to 18 inches in the past. Older MacBook Pros had the option of a 17-inch display before Apple discontinued it.

We are curious what the computer could look like, but maybe recent launches by Apples competition could clue us in.

Other foldable laptops

Apple isnt alone in trying to create foldable laptops. Huawei launched its own foldable laptop, the MateBook Fold Ultimate Design, at Computex 2025. Were also hearing rumors that Amazon is looking into the form factor as well. Weve already seen some older examples from Lenovo and ASUS.

However, none of these computers have become mainstream yet. While theyre exciting to look at from a tech perspective, functionally, its not too different from a regular laptop. Sure, it might pack a larger display, but it kind of kills the point of having a laptop if you have to bring around an external keyboard.

Plus, lets not forget about pricing. The cost of these displays alone are extremely expensive. Add on the Apple tax and wed hate to think how much a large, foldable Mac could cost.
Caviar has launched a new range of custom iPhone 16 Pro series, featuring a build inspired by iconic Swiss watches. Caviar has released its new iPhone 16 Pro collection, named Corona. It features four luxury variants of the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max models. They are available starting at a price tag of $8,200.

Meet Caviars luxury iPhone 16 Pro Corona collection

It looks like Caviar wanted to provide a refreshed design that feels distinctive since the iPhone 17 series launch is some time away. Caviars new iPhone 16 Pro models are part of the Corona collection. It offers a redesigned camera module and luxurious materials. The lineup includes four modelsNightwing, Tapisserie, Hexagon, and Sky Filigree.

Caviars Nightwing iPhone 16 Pro (review) and Pro Max take inspiration from the Patek Philippe Calatrava 6007G Swiss watch. It flaunts Guilloche engravings similar to the watchs dial. Caviar has crafted the Tapisserie models using a design inspired by the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. It showcases a modernized grid pattern and sharp lines with a stunning titanium and gold finish.

As for the Hexagon variant, Caviar has modeled it after the Rolex Sea-Dweller, while the Sky Filigree draws its design inspiration from the ornate Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon watch. All aforementioned luxury iPhones flaunt a PVD-coated titanium chassis and a rear panel made from jewelry-grade 24-karat gold. The company says the back of these models includes hand-engraved details.

Caviars new Corona collection of iPhone models is available at a starting price tag of $8,200. To compare, the base iPhone 16 Pro from Apple is available for just $999. Its worth mentioning that Caviar is selling the luxury iPhones in limited quantities. Furthermore, the brand allows you to customize some aspects of your luxury iPhone 16 Pro/Max. You can pre-order the Caviar-designed iPhone 16 Pro from its official website.

More iPhone 16 Pro collections available

Besides the new Corona collection, Caviar already launched a Bitcoin-inspired iPhone collection earlier in January. Also, the company launched the Spiritual Heritage iPhone 16 Pros that double as sacred art pieces in April. In the same month, the luxury brand unveiled one of the most exclusive iPhone 16 Pro Max models ever made, drawing inspiration from the iconic Notre Dame de Paris cathedral.

You can visit Caviars website to find more details, as it is offering a handful of luxurious iPhones.
The US government has been targeting Huawei for years. Basically, any US company isnt allowed to touch Huawei with a ten-foot pole. This also applies to foreign entities whose products may contain US patents. But it seems that recent comments have riled up China, which is now threatening legal action against anyone who helps enforce the chips ban against Huawei.

The Huawei chips ban

This latest escalation is in response to a statement made by the US Commerce Department. The government agency said using Huaweis semiconductors anywhere in the world would violate US export controls. However, that reference was later removed from the comment. In response, China said that any entity that helps the US ban Huawei chips would be breaking Chinas Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law. Basically, this law will punish anyone who interferes with Chinas internal affairs.

This puts companies in a tough spot. For instance, a recent report suggested that TSMC could face a $1 billion fine issued by the US Department of Commerce. This is because it indirectly supplied Huawei with an AI chip. TSMC didnt actually sell the chip to Huawei. However, it did sell it to another company, who then used the chip which was found inside Huaweis Ascend 910B chipset.

Like we said, this makes it incredibly hard for companies to do business. Its hard to predict where a piece of technology ends up. And now with both the US and China threatening fines and legal actions, companies may simply be too scared to make a move.

Huaweis slow but steady comeback

That being said, while a lot of these moves are designed to put roadblocks in Huawei and Chinas way of developing advanced semiconductors, some have had unintended effects. Recently, the US banned NVIDIA from shipping its H20 AI accelerator to China. This meant that Chinese companies looking to further AI development had to turn elsewhere. And guess who they turned to? You guessed it rightHuawei.

Before this, NVIDIA accounted for 95% of AI chips in China. However, following this ban, Huawei ate into its share and reached 50% of the market. While this move might have prevented US tech from entering China, it gave a Chinese company an even stronger foothold in the market.

Huawei has been clawing its way back ever since it was placed on the US Entity List. We admit we were skeptical of the companys chances of survival at the start. However, Huawei has made a lot of headway since. The company not only debuted the worlds first tri-fold smartphone but, more recently, beat Apple to the punch with a foldable laptop.

It is also make progress in the development of its own chipsets. Granted, it isnt on par with Qualcomm yet, but Huawei is slowly, but surely, getting there.
Google is now automating the process of users changing stolen or weak passwords with a new feature it has brought to Chromes password manager. Announced at the 2025 I/O developer conference, Google Chromes new authentication feature warns users if their website login password is at risk and displays a Change it for me button on the screen.

When you click on this button, Chrome will do everything it needs for you. It will automatically change your password in a few seconds.

Google Chrome has introduced an authentication feature that automates password changes

With the new Google Chrome feature, you no longer have to manually change compromised passwords. The browser checks your password when you log in to a website and displays a warning if it finds the password compromised. The warning will appear in the upper-right corner.

Googles latest blog post says the warning window will show the following: Your password was found in a data breach. Chrome can update your account for this site with a strong password. You wont need to remember the password because its saved for you in Google Password Manager for [email protected].

This seems like a handy feature, especially in 2025, when hackers are constantly trying new methods to steal user data, and all passwords are potentially at risk. Automatically changing compromised or leaked passwords will save users a lot of trouble.

All password managers may get this feature in the future

This infrastructure, developed by Google, only covers Chromes password manager for now. However, if many users adopt the feature, other password managers could follow and implement it as well. Google is urging site developers to speed up this process and expects them to integrate the system. Yeah, website developers need to manually add support for this new feature.

Thats not the only new feature for Google Chrome. Starting today, Google is bringing its Gemini AI assistant directly to the desktop Chrome browser for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the US. This way, users can access Gemini more easily and get a smarter browsing experience.
Ever felt like your company rolled out a revolutionary new tool that just wasnt? Youre not alone. A recent report shines a spotlight on a surprising truth: despite rapid advancements in workplace tech, many employees are hitting the brakes, and its holding back innovation. However, there are important generational differences when it comes to employee adoption of new technologieslike AI.

Study reveals generational differences in employee technology adoption

It turns out that resistance to new technology is quite significant. About one in seven employees across all age groups have outright refused to use new tools. Additionally, a whopping 39% have been reluctant. But heres the kicker: its rarely because they dislike innovation itself.

Instead, this resistance often boils down to a poor experience. Think clunky interfaces, minimal training, unexpected glitches, and a steep learning curve. According to Yoozs 2025 Workplace Tech Resistance Report, over half of employees (51%) even say tech rollouts frequently create internal chaos. Its no wonder that over two-thirds report that recent tech introductions yielded only slight (45%) or no improvement (23%) in their daily work.

So, whats really going on? Inadequate training is a huge barrier across all generations. Over half of employees (52%) receive only basic training, and a frustrating 20% get almost no guidance at all. Nearly half (48%) believe better training would significantly boost adoption.

Another major factor is ease of use. Almost 39% of workers believe tools should be intuitive and require minimal training.

Gen Z employees are more open to adopting new technologiessuch as AI

Now, heres where the generations come in. Younger workers, like Gen Z and Millennials, are far more excited about new tools (55% of Millennials, for example, compared to 22% of Boomers). However, Gen Z is also the most likely to refuse bad tech. Nearly one in four Gen Z workers have outright said no to tools that dont meet their standards. For them, intuitive design is the absolute top predictor of a new tools success. They expect technology to just work.

On the flip side, older workers (Gen X and Baby Boomers) tend to be more cautious. While they might see tech rollouts as disruptive, if forced to choose, they often prioritize thorough training over intuitive design.

When it comes to AI, theres a clear generational gap as well. Gen Z is much more enthusiastic (35% love AI tools) compared to Boomers (13%). However, the report also notes that 40% of employees overall find AI helpful but unreliable.

The takeaway? For companies looking to introduce new tech successfully, especially with the rise of AI, its crucial to invest in comprehensive, tailored training. Prioritizing user-friendly design and even empowering employees by involving them in tech decisions are key. Essentially, making technology work for your people, rather than forcing people to work for your technology, is the path to true innovation.
Samsungs fascination with the word Galaxy is about to go beyond its brand of smartphones, as the company reportedly wants to enter the space infrastructure market by developing a space plant project. With this space plant project, Samsung would look into building space infrastructure like launch pads and other spacecraft components, though its still unclear when Samsung will actually begin this work.

The report comes from The Korea Economy Daily, which notes that Samsung is now in talks with the Department of Aerospace and Engineering at Seoul University to build an R&D center. Space experts in South Korea also believe the countrys economy could improve significantly by entering this industry. Samsung appears keen on being a leader in the segment.

A space plant project is likely an easily attainable goal for Samsung

An endeavor like this might seem strange, given what we typically think of when Samsung is mentioned. Phones, TVs, earbuds, watches. All of this technology is categorized as consumer electronics, and its what Samsung is known best for. At least to everyday consumers. That being said, Samsung, much like Huawei, actually has several different company divisions that have nothing to do with consumer electronics.

For example, Samsung manufactures large ships through its Samsung Heavy Industries division. In fact, its one of the largest shipbuilders in the world. Samsung Heavy Industries has also completed several offshore EPC projects, in addition to developing and manufacturing ships for use in polar applications, such as arctic ice-breaking container ships. This could help Samsung immensely in breaking into the space infrastructure market. Even if it seems far-removed.

According to The Korea Economy Daily, Samsung is well-positioned to take its skills in offshore projects and semiconductors and apply them to the space industry in this manner. As noted by Park Hyeong-jun, a professor of aerospace engineering at Seoul National University, South Korea is one of the few countries capable of transferring its manufacturing strengths from semiconductors and nuclear power to offshore plants into the space industry.

Samsung will test its semiconductors in a high-radiation environment

In addition to building launch pads and other spacecraft components, Samsung is reportedly going to be testing its in-house designed semiconductors in the high-radiation environment of spaces high Earth orbit. This could be a huge opportunity for Samsung, given the gap between Samsung Foundry and TSMC.

Samsung has already signed an agreement with the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute to work on this project. The project is said to include work on the secondary payloads for a CubeSat, which is set to be on NASAs Artemis II test flight.
Are you a Samsung Galaxy Ring user? We have good news for you. Reports from two well-known Samsung fan sites suggest a significant upgrade is currently rolling out to users in South Korea. The update brings some clever new features to the smart ring and point to a future where your health tech and smart home work together seamlessly thanks to seamless integration.

Were still waiting for official confirmation from Samsung. Meanwhile, the reported firmware update (version Q50XWWU2AYD1) introduces two key enhancements. First up is a new consistency-based metric, which some are calling Activity Consistency. This feature is designed to make your energy score even more accurate than before. Imagine your smart ring understanding your activity patterns better than ever, helping you get a clearer picture of your daily energy levels.

But the really fascinating addition is the new sleep guidance feature. This isnt just about tracking your sleep; its about actively improving your night-time environment. This feature is even said to interface directly with Samsungs SmartThings network (via: TechRadar). If you have Samsung smart home devices, your Galaxy Ring could soon be communicating with them to create your ideal sleep space.

While the exact mechanics of this interaction are still under wraps, the possibilities are genuinely exciting. Think about your wearable detecting youre entering deep sleep and automatically dimming your smart lights or adjusting your thermostat for optimal comfort. Or perhaps a smart speaker subtly lowering the volume of an audiobook as you drift off. Samsung has hinted at this kind of integration before. Jaeyeon Jung, Head of the SmartThings Team, mentioned at CES 2025 their vision to make devices work together to improve consumers lives.

This apparently minor update is actually a significant step towards a more integrated health and home ecosystem. It moves the Galaxy Ring beyond just a tracking device, transforming it into a central piece of your smart home. As Samsung continues to expand its wide range of portfolio products, this SmartThings integration is just the beginning of truly connected lifestyle experiences. Lets hope things continue on the path they seem to be taking.
Back in 2017, Samsung introduced the world to DeX. This is the technology that can basically turn your smartphone into a miniature desktop. While people were skeptical about it back then, Dex and other forms of desktop modes became a sleeper hit. Now, after nearly a decade, Android 16 is finally getting a desktop mode.

Samsung, Motorola, Lenovo, and other Android manufacturers brought their own desktop modes, so one could argue that the feature existed on Android for years. However, those versions of desktop mode were specific to the phones from the companies that sell them. You cant use DeX mode on your OnePlus 13 because its exclusive to Samsungs devices. Its up to Google to design a feature and make it standard across all Android devices. So, desktop mode isnt a standard feature in Android just yet.

Thanks to Samsung, Android 16 will finally get a true desktop mode

As you know, Samsung and Google are extremely close business partners, and theyve collaborated on several software-based ventures in the past. Android XR is a prime example. Well, during Google I/O 2025, Google announced that it had partnered with Samsung to help bring a true desktop mode to Android. Along with announcing it, the company also showed off a screenshot of what it would look like.

Looking at the image (via 9To5Google), we see that the interface will make the software resemble that of a desktop computer more than an Android tablet. Apps will open in a windowed mode rather than automatically filling up the screen. The windows look pretty much like what youd see on a Windows computer. On the upper-right corner, we see the Exit, minimize, and window mode buttons. On the upper-left side of the window, we see the name of the app and a downward arrow. Were sure that this will bring up additional options for the app if you click it.

As for the rest of the interface, we see that Google switched a few things around. The Wi-Fi and battery icons sit at the top right of the screen while the time sits on the top left. At the bottom of the screen, we see the taskbar with your pinned apps, recent apps, and app drawer.

One thing that makes this very different from the standard mode is the fact that you dont see your apps on the home screen. The screen is completely empty, and the only way to see your apps is through the app drawer or taskbar. If this seems familiar, youre a Chrome OS user. This might create a bit of a learning curve for using the mode.

This could be a game-changer

In any case, its great that Google is thinking of making this feature standard. When Android 16 hits, were sure that people will prefer to use the desktop mode. One complaint that people have with tablets (Android tablets and iPads alike) is that the software doesnt really leverage the raw power behind it. If you have a modern Android tablet, and you want to fully utilize the large screen size, then desktop mode might be the way to go.
Kisunla is the first drug for Alzheimers approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration in 25 years and is significant first step in treatment. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Australias medicines regulator has approved a new drug to treat the early stages of Alzheimers disease, but experts warn that less than one in five people with dementia will be eligible for the treatment that could cost more than $80,000 out of pocket.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has registered donanemab, sold under the brand name Kisunla and developed by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, for the treatment of adults with early symptomatic Alzheimers disease who have a specific genetic profile.

Donanemab is given as an intravenous infusion through the arm every four weeks for a maximum of 18 months, and works by targeting amyloid proteins in the brain  the buildup of which researchers believe contributes to Alzheimers disease.

The registration marks the first new treatment for Alzheimers disease in 25 years, and the first time a treatment affects the outcome of the disease, Prof Christopher Rowe, the director of the Australian Dementia Network said.

Related: Scientists use live human brain tissue to speed up hunt for dementia cure

The medications that were approved 20 years ago temporarily improved symptoms, but this one actually slows down the rate of decline by about one-third, Rowe said.

While this is a significant first step in the hope to eventually use a combination of medications to stop the progression of the disease, Rowe warned expectations may be a bit high because most people with Alzheimers disease wont actually qualify for this.

To be eligible for the medication a person has to be in the early stages of Alzheimers, the mild cognitive impairment phase, and not be susceptible to the drugs risk factors, he said.

The biggest impediment is people being diagnosed too late if they are already beyond the very early stage of Alzheimers disease.

The drug has also been associated with the side effects of brain swelling and bleeding, which occurs at a much higher incidence in people who carry two ApoE 4 genes.

The TGA registration excludes people who carry the genes, which Rowe said is an unfortunate situation as the gene variant itself elevates the risk of developing Alzheimers disease younger, often in their 60s.

Before starting the therapy patients must be tested to determine their genetic status and have MRI scans to detect any initial signs of brain bleeding and swelling that might make it unsafe to have the drug. Patients also need to receive continuous MRI monitoring for any brain bleeding while they are on the treatment.

We actually estimate that only about 10 to 20% of people with dementia will be suitable for the drug, but that is still a huge number given theres 400,000 people in Australia with dementia, and probably 40,000 diagnosed every year, Rowe said.

To qualify for the treatment, patients will also have to have their early Alzheimers diagnosis confirmed via a lumbar puncture or an amyloid PET scan, which can confirm the presence of amyloid proteins  neither of which are covered by Medicare. The drug is not on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

This treatment will cost probably $80,000 and an individual currently will have to pay that out of pocket. The drug itself is probably going to be about $40,000 but then theres specialist fees, infusion fees, MRI scans and amyloid PET scans to pay for as well.

Related: Amid all the warnings about a dementia tsunami, here are the things you should know | Devi Sridhar

Eli Lilly has applied to include Kisunla on the PBS which will be reviewed by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in July.

The health minister, Mark Butler, on Thursday said there is still a fair way to go, though, to determine whether or not this will be reimbursed by the federal government and, if so, for which patients.

There will also need to be consideration of the associated scanning that needs to take place for patients.

A bit of a way to go but very exciting news for the Alzheimers community, Butler said.

There has been controversy among researchers whether slowing down the rate of decline by a third is significant enough to warrant the risks this class of drug carries.

Rowe said the patient and their family have to be fully informed that they have to make that decision. Its probably buying them a couple of years extra before they get to the severe dementia stage, and theyve got to decide whether the money and the risks are worth that.

Dementia Australia CEO Prof Tanya Buchanan said with dementia the second leading cause of death of Australians, and the leading cause of death of Australian women, we welcome any steps taken towards improving the lives of people living with dementia, their families and carers.

The Australian Dementia Network is running a trial of GPs being able to give blood tests to confirm Alzheimers disease, which would help build the capacity of doctors who can diagnose and allow people to get treatment sooner.
Prof Merete Nordentoft told the court most people with schizophrenia will never commit an act of serious violence, but a disproportionate number of homicides are committed by people with psychotic illness. Photograph: Queensland Police Service/AAP Image/Supplied by Queensland Police Service

Joel Cauchis psychiatrist of eight years discharged him into the care of his doctor at a time when he was at significant risk of relapsing into psychosis, an expert has said amid a probe into the mental health and care of Cauchi.

On Thursday, the coronial inquest examining the fatal stabbing of six people by Cauchi at Westfield Bondi Junction in April 2024 heard from a panel of psychiatrists who provided expert opinions on Cauchis treatment.

The inquest, scheduled for five weeks, is Cauchi, then 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at the shopping centre on 13 April last year before he was shot and killed by police officer Amy Scott.

At the time, Cauchi was not medicated for his schizophrenia, the coroners court has heard. He had been weaned off medication by a psychiatrist and was meant to be monitored, but wasnt.

Hearing voices and writing satanic notes

The court heard that clozapine  which can have severe side effects  was generally considered a lifelong medication for people with treatment-resistant schizophrenia due to a high relapse rate of 77% after one year and 90% after two years for those who stopped taking it.

Prof Anthony Harris, a New South Wales psychiatrist said Cauchi was discharged to his doctor when he was still at significant risk of relapse.

Prof Merete Nordentoft, a psychiatrist in Denmark, told the Sydney court that there were red flags after Cauchi ceased taking his medication completely in June 2019.

This included concerns raised by Cauchis mother with his psychiatrist that he was was hearing voices, and writing satanic notes.

The court heard that Cauchi had agreed with a nurse to begin again taking a small dose of medication, but he then changed his mind. Nordentoft described this as a missed opportunity, however it was a difficult situation given his father  who also lives with schizophrenia  contradicted his mothers wishes and was adamant Joel Cauchi shouldnt go back on medication.

Prof Edward Heffernan, a Queensland psychiatrist, told the court Dr A could have taken a more assertive approach.

But Prof Olav Nielssen, a Sydney-based psychiatrist, told the court: The thing we cant know is how much Mr Cauchi pushed back against the advice. My guess is its not just his father, its he himself who is quite determined.

The court heard that three days after Cauchis mother again reported concerns, Dr A met with him on Skype  a monthly arrangement that was made after he moved to Brisbane  and reported he appeared well.

The court heard Cauchi may have been masking some of his symptoms.

The experts agreed the psychiatrist should have taken more note of his mothers concerns, with Heffernan saying this also should have been included in Dr As discharge notes to Cauchis GP.

The court heard Dr A also did not include a recommendation thereafter that Cauchi be monitored monthly.

I dont disagree with going along with his [Cauchis] wishes

The court heard that throughout Cauchis medical history there is evidence that he wanted to be well and was medicated for 16 years.

The inquest was told Cauchis schizophrenia was likely hereditary. He had a similar IQ to the average doctor and had gone to a private school on a scholarship.

However, his performance IQ  which includes functions like tying shoe laces  had deteriorated.

He had a deterioration in some of his cognitive functions, which was very significant, [and] almost certainly due to schizophrenia [and]  possibly something to do with cannabis, Large told the court.

Over the 16 years he continued to have psychotic symptoms, but the court heard that in the four to five years before ceasing his medication Cauchi did not, or at least  one psychiatrist pointed out on Thursday  it was not detected.

The senior counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, asked the psychiatrists if taking Cauchi off his medication was a mistake, in hindsight. Nielssen told the court there was a good and ongoing therapeutic relationship.

I dont disagree with going along with his [Cauchis] wishes, he told the court.

Prof Matthew Large, a psychiatrist in NSW, said that question was open to hindsight bias and the decision to cease Cauchis medication was within guidelines.

Related: Security chief tells Bondi Junction inquest Westfield has very strong security culture due to Frank Lowy

Nielssen told the court that homicide of strangers by people with schizophrenia was rare, with one occurring in New South Wales about every two years.

He said a feature of that small group was having gone off medication, and homelessness. Cauchi was unmedicated and homeless at the time of the Bondi Junction stabbings.

Nordentoft told the Sydney court: Most people with schizophrenia will never commit an act of serious violence, but a disproportionate number of homicides are committed by people with psychotic illness.

Those who do harm others, Nordentoft said, usually had delusions including thinking they were being followed and somebody is trying to harm you, and therefore you need to protect yourself.

She said in Copenhagen there were clinics that supported patients who wanted to come off anti-psychotic medication. The patients had weekly monitoring for 18 months.

But, the psychiatrist told the court, most people found they couldnt completely end their medication.

The patients actually get a higher level of acceptance that this treatment is needed, she said, noting the process had a silver lining.

Nordentoft assessed for the court the January 2023 incident in which he called police to his house claiming his dad had stolen his knives.

During the polices visit his mum told the police she was concerned he would not get treatment unless he did something drastic.

Nordentoft said in Denmark there is a psychiatry emergency outreach where police and families can call for the service.

She said had such a call-out happened in Australia in the wake of concerns about his knives, and she was the responding psychiatrist, she would have had him compulsory admitted to a hospital.

It was clear he was psychotic and that he could be of potential danger to others, she said.
Women protest on behalf of the victims of forced sterilisation in Lima in 2017. Photograph: Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

The case of a forced sterilisation carried out in Peru in the 1990s will be heard by an international court on Thursday, 28 years after the procedure  one of many thousands  resulted in a womans death.

Celia Ramos was 34 when she died in 1997, 19 days after surgery for a tubal ligation caused respiratory failure. The mother of three was harassed into accepting the procedure, which was part of a nationwide family planning programme.

The mass sterilisation of hundreds of thousands of largely poor, rural and Indigenous women in the 1990s is regarded as one of the countrys most flagrant and widespread violations of human rights under the late former president Alberto Fujimori, but neither the leader nor his health ministers have ever been prosecuted for the campaign, which lasted years.

In 2024, the UN committee on the elimination of discrimination against women urged Peru to compensate women who were forcibly sterilised in the 1990s, ruling that the state policy could constitute a crime against humanity.

Marisela Monzon Ramos, 38, was just 10 years old when her mother died. The eldest of Ramoss three daughters, she was in Guatemala City for Thursdays hearing at the inter-American court of human rights.

This is a huge step for us, considering the years of struggle. It has been nearly three decades since my mother died, she told the Guardian before the hearing.

[This hearing] gives us the opportunity that we have not had in our country.

Related: Its the first time Ive woven in 27 years: Peruvian women revive arts lost to trauma of forced sterilisations

We are looking for justice. The Peruvian state should be held responsible for the death of our mother, who was completely healthy, she said.

While this is the first case of a forced sterilisation in Peru to reach the inter-American court, the Celia Ramos case is representative of thousands of others, says Carmen Cecilia Martinez, an associate director at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The courts decision could force the Peruvian state to make reparations to the victims of this case and open the way to justice for others, she said.

Demus, a Peruvian NGO for womens rights, presented the Celia Ramos case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2010. Eleven years later, an IACHR report declared that the Peruvian state was responsible for the violation of Ramos rights and recommended the adoption of measures of reparation and non-repetition. However, as Peru made no progress in complying with the recommendations, the commission sent the case to the inter-American court in June 2023. The legal representation was bolstered by the regional Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil) and the Center for Reproductive Rights, which joined in the same year.

Martinez says successive health ministers under Fujimori turned the forced sterilisations into public policy, offering financial incentives to medical workers for each woman who was subjected to the procedure.

The objective was very clear: to recruit women from poor areas, Indigenous, rural peasant women and eliminate their reproductive capacity, violating, among other rights, their right to reproductive autonomy, Martinez said.

The legal teams hope, she explained, is for the court to declare the policy a crime against humanity, which would eliminate any statute of limitations on opening investigations.

There is a very clear causal link between the violation of [Ramoss] informed consent and her death, Martinez said.

Monzon, a biologist, says the whole family, who lived in Perus northern Piura region, were left devastated by her mothers death. Our life was cut short, she said. She and her younger sister recall how nurses repeatedly put pressure on their mother, who initially refused the procedure.

She was a young woman, a very joyful woman, full of life, she said. She was a complete mother, a devoted wife, a lady who took care to be attentive for the good of all the beings she loved.
A judge has cleared the way for the Government to sign its deal over the Chagos Islands after discharging a High Court injunction which blocked the end of negotiations.

The deal, which would see Britain give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius and lease back a crucial military base there, was due to be signed on Thursday morning but was temporarily blocked by an injunction hours before.

Mr Justice Goose granted an injunction at 2.25am against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for interim relief to Bertrice Pompe, one of two British women born on the Chagos Islands who is set to bring legal action against the Government over the deal.

After an urgent hearing on Thursday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the injunction should be discharged.

Bertice Pompe, left, and Bernadette Dugasse outside the High Court in central London (Yui Mok/PA)

He said: I have concluded that the stay granted by Mr Justice Goose should be discharged and there should be no further interim relief.

He later said: The public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced by the grant or continuance of interim relief, and these matters provide a strong public interest reason against the continuance of interim relief.

The court in London was told by the FCDOs director general for Africa, the Americas and Overseas Territories that the delay had caused harm to the UKs reputation.

In a witness statement, Harriet Mathews said: Reneging on the agreed signature timeline threatens hard-won defence and security conditions that are core to the operational effectiveness of the base.

Philip Rule KC, for Ms Pompe, asked Mr Justice Chamberlain whether he would stay the effect of his ruling to allow for any application to the Court of Appeal.

The judge refused this request, adding: The order is discharged from this point onwards. If you want to seek any further relief you will have to go to the Court of Appeal.

Speaking outside of the Royal Courts of Justice in London after the decision, Ms Pompe said it was a very, very sad day, but we take courage with the people we have behind us.

She continued: We have rights. We are British citizens, yet our right doesnt count. We dont want to give our rights to Mauritius, we are not Mauritians.

She added: I think the British justice, they take care of who they want, when they want. They have not been able to rectify the wrongs they have done to us for 60 years.

They still want to give deaf ears to our cries, and we are not giving up.

The Government welcomed the ruling, saying the agreement is vital to protect the British people and our national security.

The Prime Minister had been due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday morning to sign off on the deal, according to the Telegraph newspaper, which first reported the story.

Under the terms of the deal, Britain is expected to give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius, and lease back a crucial military base on the archipelago for 99 years.

Following the signing ceremony, MPs will be updated on the terms of the deal in the House of Commons, which could include a 40-year extension to the lease of the military base, the Telegraph said.

Critics of proposals to hand over the islands to Mauritius fear the move will benefit China, which has a growing reach in the region.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the Chagos Islands deal was an example of Labour chaos.

Campaigners outside the High Court in central London (Yui Mok/PA)

Asked if she welcomed a Chagos deal being signed today, Ms Badenoch told Sky News: No, no I dont. This is yet another example of Labour chaos. They cannot negotiate. Whenever they negotiate, Britain loses.

We should not be paying to surrender British territory to Mauritius.

The fact that Labours negotiating something that sees the British taxpayer in hoc for potential billions is completely wrong.

Commons Leader Lucy Powell said Defence Secretary John Healey is expected to make a Commons statement on Thursday about the future of the Diego Garcia military base.

Ms Powell said the statement would take place probably at the end of business, which would suggest a 5pm start time.

A deal was initially announced last year, but a change of administration in Mauritius and the return of Donald Trump to the White House had previously put an agreement in doubt.

The Government has previously argued that it has to give up sovereignty over the territory thanks to international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius.

Earlier reports have suggested the deal could cost 90 million a year to secure the use of Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands and the home of the military base, with payments front-loaded to win the support of the Mauritian government.

During the hearing Mr Justice Chamberlain, summarising a document given to the court by the Government, said: The agreement can be concluded today and it does not necessarily have to be at 9am.

He then asked Sir James Eadie KC, for the FCDO, whether the agreement can still be concluded if it is concluded today.

Sir James confirmed that was the case.

He later said: My instructions from Number 10 are that we need a decision by 1pm today if we are to sign today, and everybody is standing by.
Brat star Charli XCX has been named songwriter of the year at the 2025 edition of The Ivors.

Messy singer Lola Young took home the rising star award and Berwyn won best album for Who Am I at the awards ceremony at Londons Grosvenor House on Tuesday.

Best contemporary song was won by Sans Soucis for Circumnavigating Georgia, while best song musically and lyrically was won by Orla Gartland for Mine, beating the likes of Young, Raye and Fontaines DC.

Lola Young took home the rising star award (Ian West/PA)

Speaking about the winners, Tom Gray, chairman of The Ivors Academy, said: Congratulations to every Ivor Novello Award-winning songwriter and composer.

On behalf of The Ivors Academy, it is a privilege to recognise their craft and achievements.

Their lyrics and melodies are the most important foundations of music and there is no greater recognition than an Ivor Novello Award, judged by fellow songwriters and composers.

Robbie Williams picked up the music icon award, The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers won the special international award and Self Esteem, whose real name is Rebecca Lucy Taylor, was given the visionary award.

Myles Smiths Stargazing, co-written with Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink, was named most performed work, while Rafferties soundtrack to The Substance took the gong for best film score.

Best video game score was won by John Konsolakiss work on Farewell North, and best TV soundtrack went to Vince Popes True Detective: Night Country score.

Irish rock band U2 were awarded their academy fellowship while Bloc Partys Kele Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong took home outstanding song collection, with both awards previously announced.

The Ivors celebrated their 70th anniversary this year, with previous winners including Amy Winehouse, Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
Chemical castration of sex offenders to be piloted in 20 prisons, says Mahmood

A total of 20 prisons are to pilot the chemical castration of sex offenders, the Justice Secretary has said.

The Government is exploring whether to enforce the chemical castration on offenders as mandatory, Shabana Mahmood told MPs, after recommendations from the independent sentencing review to explore its use further to reduce the risk of reoffending.

The review led by former justice secretary David Gauke recommended reforms to overhaul the prisons system and make sure there is space to jail the most dangerous offenders after a string of emergency measures to deal with the capacity crisis.

It also looked at ways to cut reoffending, with one proposal to consider further use of chemical suppressants, currently being piloted in south-west England.

In a statement to the Commons, Ms Mahmood said: The review has recommended we continue a pilot of so-called medication to manage problematic sexual arousal.

I will go further with a national rollout, beginning in two regions covering 20 prisons.

And I am exploring whether mandating the approach is possible.

Of course, it is vital that this approach is taken alongside psychological interventions that target other causes of offending, like asserting power and control.

Problematic sexual arousal can be reduced by chemical suppressants and prescribed medication, but the review highlighted the treatment would not be relevant for some sex offenders such as rapists driven by power and control, rather than sexual preoccupation.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced 20 prisons will pilot the chemical castration of sex offenders (PA)

The Government has not yet confirmed which regions or prisons will be part of the pilot scheme.

Downing Street also would not be drawn into saying whether it thought chemical castration of paedophiles was a punishment for offenders.

Asked about proposals to enforce chemical castration on sex offenders as mandatory, the Prime Ministers official spokesman told reporters: The scientific evidence is clear that the use of chemical suppressants may well be effective in tackling dangerous offenders, and that is why we are expanding the use of it.

Reacting to the move, Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha said forcing medical treatment raises clear ethical considerations which could put medical practitioners in an invidious position.

While criminal defence solicitor Marcus Johnstone, of PCD Solicitors, said it wont solve anything in the long run without adequate funding for counselling and psychological support that is critical to helping the rehabilitation of sex offenders into society.

Elsewhere, the Justice Secretary accepted reforms to allow some criminals, including violent and sexual offenders, to be released at an earlier point in their sentence if they show good behaviour.

If they follow prison rules, they will earn earlier release. If they do not, they will be locked up for longer, she said.

Terrorists or the most dangerous offenders serving extended sentences would not be eligible for any early release scheme.

The Government has also agreed to scrap the use of short sentences of less than 12 months, apart from exceptional circumstances such as domestic abuse cases, and extend the length of suspended sentences from two to three years.

The Probation Service will receive a funding boost of up to 700 million by 2028/29 to meet the extra demand of more offenders serving their sentences in the community.

This Government is making a 700 million investment in our probation service so tens of thousands of more offenders will be tagged. pic.twitter.com/F6kg2iPKiq  Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) May 22, 2025

Ms Mahmood: By the final year of the spending review period an annual 1.6 billion will rise by up to 700 million, allowing us to tag and monitor tens of thousands more offenders.

But reacting to the move, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said tags are as useful as smoke alarms putting out bonfires when it comes to stopping reoffending.

Meanwhile, chairman of the parliamentary Justice Committee and Labour MP Andy Slaughter said the policy changes and extra resources the Government has agreed to will be enough to bring the prison numbers under control.

But in the longer term only effective rehabilitation to end the cycle of reoffending will see complementary falls in crime and in prison overcrowding, he said.

The chief executive of charity Nacro, Campbell Robb, said the promise of 700 million to invest in probation is significant, but added: Extra resources must extend beyond probation and into the community support services helping people with housing, employment and to address their mental health and substance misuse issues.

Ms Mahmood also pledged to introduce measures which will help with better identifying domestic abusers at sentencing, so that we can monitor and manage them more effectively.

She said the Government will extend a pilot of free sentencing transcripts for victims of rape and serious sexual offences as the review also seeks to overhaul the justice system to serve victims.

But campaign group Justice for Victims described the review as not appearing to have made a serious effort to understand what victims and families want in sentencing policy.

What we wanted to see was a proper recognition of the enormous impact the most serious crime has on victims and their families and to see that suitable punishment reflects that, they said in a statement.

Instead it recommends some of the most serious offenders, like rapists & child abusers, are going to spend less time in prison.

The shake-up comes as ministers have introduced a series of emergency measures to free up jail space to buy time before the sentencing reforms are believed to take effect next spring.

Ms Mahmood has said despite record prison building expansion, demand for prison places will outstrip supply by 9,500 in early 2028.

Latest figures show the prison population in England and Wales is 88,103, just 418 below the record of 88,521, which was reached on September 6 last year.

Responding to the Government accepting most of the recommendations, but rejecting earned release for those serving extended sentences, Howard League for Penal Reform chief executive Andrea Coomber KC said the prisons crisis will not be solved by half measures.

There are still many difficult questions to be faced and answered. If the Government ducks them, its promises on prison capacity will go unfulfilled, she said.
David Gauke, the former Justice Secretary, has recommended the expansion of voluntary chemical castration for sex offenders - ISABEL INFANTES/AFP

There are moments in the life of a nation when it flirts with a dangerous kind of righteousness  one that masks vengeance as justice. The recent proposal by David Gauke, the former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, to chemically castrate sex offenders is one such moment. It is a step not towards justice, but towards irrevocable cruelty. I speak as someone who has felt the full weight of false accusation and the slow, often brutal machinery of British justice.

In 1987, I resigned as a Member of Parliament amid a scandal that ultimately led to my conviction over matters that would no longer be considered criminal today.

But it was in 2015 when I was falsely accused by Carl Beech of the most grotesque crimes imaginable  including rape and murder of children  that I truly confronted the fragility of the justice system.

Operation Midland, now widely discredited, destroyed reputations and lives. I was never charged, because there was no evidence  only the word of a liar and fraudster who himself was a paedophile. Yet the damage was done.

I am not alone. There is the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit  DNA evidence, ignored for years, eventually proved his innocence.

More recently, there is Peter Sullivan, who was jailed for the 1986 killing of 21-year-old barmaid Diane Sindall. Sullivan, known as the Beast of Birkenhead, spent more than 38 years in jail in what is believed to be the biggest miscarriage of justice in British history. Both cases are recent and tragic reminders of how deeply flawed the system remains.

These are just two cases among many  there are countless others whose stories have not reached the headlines. How many others languish behind bars because of false allegations levelled against them?

Against this backdrop, the Governments consideration of chemical castration is chilling. It presumes infallibility in a demonstrably fallible system. Chemical castration is not metaphorical. It is physical, invasive, and irreversible. Once done, it cannot be undone  no compensation or apology could make a wrongly accused person whole again.

And yet, where is the caution? Where is the humility? As a Member of Parliament, I once advocated for the return of the death penalty. I believed it was a necessary deterrent, a just response to the most heinous crimes. Lifes vicissitudes changed my mind.

Since becoming President of Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust (FACT), I have seen first-hand how our justice system gets it disastrously wrong. This reveals a disturbing reality: miscarriages of justice are not rare anomalies  they happen far too often.

When we allow the state to exercise irreversible power over the body of the accused, we cross a dangerous moral threshold. We begin to measure justice not by what is fair or proportionate, but by what is punitive and popular. That is not civilisation; it is regression.

If we are to entertain such irreversible punishments for sex offenders, should we not consider equivalent consequences for those who knowingly make false accusations? Or for the officers, judges, and ministers who perpetuate injustice through negligence or political expediency? The very idea is, rightly, abhorrent.

But that is the logical mirror we must confront if we are to endorse irreversible punishment as a principle. Justice must be tempered with restraint. It must be aware of its own limitations. And above all, it must never forget the fallibility of those who administer it.

We must not let the abhorrence of a crime blind us to the possibility of error. In our zeal to punish the guilty, we risk punishing the innocent  and that is a sin no civilised society should commit.

Harvey Proctor is the president of Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust (FACT)
Chris Brown says he will go from the cage to the stage after bail release

R&B singer Chris Brown has said he will go from the cage to the stage after he was freed on bail following a charge over an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub two years ago.

The US musician, 36, can continue with his scheduled international tour this year, including in the UK in June and July, as part of his bail conditions, Judge Tony Baumgartner told Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday.

Brown must pay a 5 million security fee to the court, which is a financial guarantee to ensure a defendant returns to court and may be forfeited if they breach bail conditions.

Shortly after being released from prison, Brown posted an Instagram story referencing his upcoming tour.

In the post, he said: From the cage to the stage. Breezybowl.

The tour will see Brown travel to parts of Europe, the United States and Canada, with its UK leg set to see him perform in Manchester, Cardiff, London, Birmingham, and Glasgow.

The Go Crazy singer is accused of causing grievous bodily harm to Abraham Diaw in February 2023.

He did not appear in court for the bail application hearing.

Brown must surrender his passport if he is not travelling, and must live at a specific address known to the court but is not allowed to visit the nightclub and he cannot contact Mr Diaw or apply for international travel documents.

The singer must pay a 4 million security fee to secure his release from prison on Wednesday, and put forward a further 1 million security within a week, the court heard.

He will next appear with his co-defendant, US national Omololu Akinlolu, 38, at the same court on June 20.

Brown and Akinlolu have both been charged relating to the assault which allegedly took place at the Tape venue in Hanover Square in Mayfair on February 19 2023.

A judge at Southwark Crown Court freed the singer on bail (Sean Dempsey/PA)

Manchester Magistrates Court heard last week that Mr Diaw was standing at the bar of the Tape nightclub when he was struck several times with a bottle, and was then pursued to a separate area of the nightclub where he was punched and kicked repeatedly.

Brown was arrested at Manchesters Lowry Hotel at 2am on Thursday by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.

He is said to have flown into Manchester Airport on a private jet last week in preparation for the UK tour dates.

A case management hearing has been set for October 24.

Brown was released from HMP Forest Bank in Salford, Greater Manchester, at 4.45pm.

Shortly before then, the prison shutter gates opened to let a silver Mercedes van on to the site, which minutes later emerged with Brown inside the vehicle.

A row of photographers captured the departure of the van, along with two members of Browns entourage who filmed the moment.

A small number of fans also gathered and cheered as the vehicle left the scene.
Many pay and displays now tell people to pay by app. (PA) (Simon Dack)

The frustration of seemingly having to download a different parking app every time you park somewhere new may be coming to an end.

Earlier this week, the government announced it was launching a "one app fits all" approach to paying for parking.

The National Parking Platform (NPP) has been designed by the government and will now be handed over to the industry to manage.

Under the NPP, drivers can use any of the main parking apps in any car park which is signed up to the scheme.

This means that if you have the PayByPhone app on your phone, you will be able to use it to pay for a parking spot that uses the JustPark app.

The government said this would end the "scramble to download multiple apps and encouraging a more flexible parking experience."

The number of different apps can be confusing to navigate. (PA) (BRIAN ANTHONY)

The app will only work with organisations that have signed up to the NPP, and the process of bringing each app, business, private car park and local authority on board may take some time.

But the government said the trial period with 10 local authorities had been a success with more than half a million transactions handled.

How many parking apps are there?

According to the RAC, there are more than 30 different parking apps available in the UK.

They've seen rapid growth in recent years, with the first apps appearing in Europe in the late 2000s.

The first app in the UK was RingGo, but it has since been joined by other big businesses like JustPark and PayByPhone.

On top of this, there are numerous small businesses that operate locally.

Anthony Eskinazi, the chief executive of JustPark The Times last year that businesses like his were working to make traditional pay and display machines extinct.

He said he did not envisage any cash-strapped local authority buying a parking meter "past 2025."

For years, customers have found it frustrating being required to download an app in a car park, often with poor signal, only to then be told they need to sign up and wait for multiple pages to load, before they can even pay for their ticket.

The government hopes to bring all apps under one system. (PA) (Carmen K. Sisson/Cloudybright)

In a survey carried out by Autocar last year, they found 83% of the 1,387 people who were surveyed said they preferred to use contactless card payments or cash to park, rather than downloading and creating an account for the many different apps used today.

How do parking apps make money?

The business model varies from company to company, but most apps make money by signing contracts with local authorities or private firms to facilitate parking, then earning a commission on each payment.

Most of these apps don't own any assets, their business model is to help landowners make money from their assets by processing payments rather than owning the land themselves.

It's a big business, according to The Times, Brits pay almost 2bn a year to park, and if it is done through one of these apps.

They are also money earners for cash-strapped councils, with analysis by the AA finding in 2023 local authorities raked in almost 1bn from parking.

Some apps also add various fees to the transaction, sometimes called a 'service fee' or a 'convenience fee', but they all mean the same thing.

They also sometimes offer parking insurance or extra costs for confirming your booking via text. Some even put adverts or commercial partnerships on their platforms.

Paying for parking can be confusing. (PA) (Tony Smith)

How expensive are they?

The days of finding cheap parking for less than 1 an hour are fading quickly.

Last year, Direct Line found the average daytime parking hourly rate across the UK had increased by 11% since 2022, while evening parking charges increased by 22% and overnight parking rates rose by an average of 45%.

Direct Line found that the ten most expensive places to park per hour were spread across the country.

The top three were:

Bracknell Forest Council - 6.65 per hour

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea - 4.90 per hour

Wyre Forest District Council - 4.05 per hour

Other places to make the top ten included Blackpool, Glasgow and Brighton.

They also said Sandwell in the West Midlands has seen the biggest increase in parking charges in the last two years, with the average day rate increasing by 145%.

On top of this, some authorities add extra surcharges via parking apps if the customer is driving a high-emission vehicle, sometimes increasing the total cost by as much as 40%.

The apps are able to add the charge far more easily than a cash pay machine because they can instantly identify the vehicle via the required registration input.

This all means if a private car park or council has scrapped cash pay machines in favour of an app you could be charged extra for the service fee, extra for the confirmation by text and extra for the emissions made by your vehicle.

Can you still use cash to park?

Although many councils are turning away from traditional pay and display, cash is still king.

In March this year, the AA found that two-fifths of drivers say that paying for parking with cash is their number one option, with contactless the second most popular at 28%.

Parking by app was the preferred option by just 14% of respondents.

The price of parking is increasing every year. (PA) (Thousand Word Media, Thousand Word Media Ltd)

Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for The AA said: "While it is clear that younger drivers prefer contactless payment options, older and low income drivers want to pay by cash. In fact, some claim they drive on until they can do so. With the High Street already under strain, it seems counterintuitive for car parks to refuse a customer willing to pay.

Allowing parking to be paid by a multitude of options seems the best solution for both car parks and drivers, but those opting to pay by app should take note that doing so could be more expensive as administration costs are added to the rates.

In 2023, the RAC found people strongly opposed the complete scrapping of payment machines in favour of apps.

Some 59% of those surveyed  and 73% of those aged 65 and over  said they feel angry at the idea of physical parking machines being removed as they believe they should be able to pay for parking however they want.

A fifth of respondents - and 30% of those aged of 65 - said they felt discriminated against because they can't use mobile apps.

The RAC said it was "concerned about the fact some councils seem intent on removing all physical parking ticket machines in favour of app-only payment  something research tells us a clear majority drivers are resolutely against."
A United plane at LAX airport. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Two planes traveling between Honolulu and southern California were diverted due to safety concerns, one for a bomb threat, another for a security concern found written on a bathroom mirror.

United flight 1169 left Daniel K Inouye international airport at 9.40pm on Tuesday night, headed for Los Angeles international airport. Data from FlightAware shows the airplane reversing course east of Hawaii, and headed back to Honolulu.

United gave slim details in a written statement, and stated that all 339 passengers and 10 crew members made it back to Honolulu, and were rebooked on later flights.

United flight 1169 from Honolulu to Los Angeles returned safely to Honolulu after a potential security concern was found written on a lavatory mirror, a United spokesperson said. Law enforcement met the aircraft, and a security sweep was conducted.

Hawaiian Airlines flight 15 was scheduled to depart from San Diego at about 8.30am Tuesday morning, but delayed takeoff due to a bomb threat onboard. Harbor police issued a statement saying that they had arrested 35-year-old military member John Stea in relation to the threat.

All 293 people onboard were safely deplaned, and the flight landed in Honolulu after a cumulative five-hour delay, according to FlightAware.
Artists impression of Trump Tower in Damascus. Illustration: Tiger Group

Forty-five storeys tall, a potential $200m (150m) price tag and Trump emblazoned in gold across its crown  this is Trump Tower Damascus, a gleaming monument meant to usher war-torn Syria back on to the international stage.

As the gold lettering suggests, the flashy building was designed to attract attention: the US presidents attention.

This project is our message  that this country, which has suffered and whose people have been exhausted for many years, especially the last 15 years of war, deserves to take a step towards peace, said Walid Mohammad al-Zoubi, chair of the UAE-based Tiger Group, valued at $5bn, which is developing Trump Tower Damascus.

The construction of the tower was proposed in an effort to woo the US president as Syrias new government has sought the removal of US sanctions and a normalisation in relations with Washington. It came alongside an offer to provide the US with access to Syrian oil and investment opportunities, as well as guarantees for Israels security.

Syria had been under US sanctions since 1979, which intensified after 2011s deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters by Syrias then-president, Bashar al-Assad. Despite the ousting of Assad in December by rebels, the US maintained sanctions against the country, wary of the new Islamist-led government.

Syrias proposal, along with prodding by the de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, succeeded. Last week, Trump announced an end to all US sanctions on Syria and met the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, calling him an attractive and tough man.

Now, with the lifting of sanctions and ties with Washington strengthening, Trump Tower can move off the page and into reality. Zoubi is heading to Damascus this week to formally apply for building permits for the high-rise.

Were looking at several locations. Were proposing 45 floors, subject to increase or decrease depending on planning, said Zoubi, adding that the cost of building the commercial tower would be between $100m and $200m.

After he receives the building permit, Zoubi will need to approach the Trump brand for franchising rights. Images shared with the Guardian of the building mock-up do not include the Trump logo, as franchise permission is still being sought.

Construction, he estimated, would take three years once he received the legal approvals from the Syrian government and rights from the Trump business organisation.

Still, obstacles remain, as the process of sanctions removal is still unclear, while Syrias devastated economy and fragile political environment could complicate the project.

The Syrian-Emirati businessman employs one of the project leads of Trump Tower Istanbul, and has built 270 projects across the Middle East. He is now building Tiger Sky Tower in Dubai, a $1bn project that claims to have the worlds highest infinity pool. He also met Sharaa in January, before he was appointed president of Syria.

The idea for Trump Tower Damascus was born in December, after US Republican congressperson Joe Wilson floated the idea in a speech before Congress.

The main idea was to attract President Trumps attention, said Radwan Ziadeh, a Syrian writer who is close to Syrias president. He approached Zoubi with the idea of building Trump Tower, and the two began to work on the project.

The approach was part of a multi-pronged charm offensive meant to put Syria on Trumps agenda. The president made few comments about Syria upon taking office and the road to lifting sanctions, managed by the state department, seemed long.

Syrias president hosted US businesspeople and members of Congress in Damascus, who toured Assad-era prisons and Christian villages around the capital. Meanwhile, the Syrian foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, met spiritual leaders close to the Trump administration while on a visit to the UN in New York.

As diplomacy continued, Trump Tower seemed a way to appeal to Trumps unorthodox tastes, and the blurring of the line between his family business empire and political office, particularly in the Middle East, where he was given a luxury plane by Qatar.

In early April, Ziadeh took an initial mock-up of the tower and presented it to Shibani, who was very enthusiastic about it. He also gave it to the Saudi ambassador in Damascus, with the hope that it would reach Trumps team via Riyadh.

This is how you win his mind and heart, Ziadeh said. He grew more confident about his strategy after a video posted by Trump in February showed a Trump Tower in Gaza as part of his controversial proposal to effectively displace Palestinians and build a luxury riviera in the Palestinian territory.

Beyond winning hearts and minds in the US, Syrians hope that a major real estate project such as the Trump tower will invite further international investment in Syria.

Major investments are needed in infrastructure and basic services beyond glitzy investment projects. The UN estimates that 90% of the Syrian people live in poverty and live most of the day without electricity or access to proper medical care.

Zoubi shared a side-by-side image of the Damascus skyline, an explosion replaced by a sleek steel and glass high-rise.

The project is about how the wartorn country is transitioning to a place of light and beauty  Its symbolic, contributing to security and peace, said Zoubi.
Jony Ive (left) and Sam Altman have also collaborated on a glossy, nine-minute promo video Photograph: Suppplied

Everything over the last 30 years, according to Sir Jony Ive, has led to this moment: a partnership between the iPhone designer and the developer of ChatGPT.

Ive has sold his hardware startup, io, to OpenAI and will take on creative and design leadership across the merged businesses. I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this place, to this moment, he says in a video announcing the $6.4bn (4.8bn) deal.

The main aim will be to move on from Ives signature achievement designing Apples most successful product, as well as the iPod, iPad and Apple Watch.

The British-born designer has already developed a prototype io device, and one of its users is OpenAIs chief executive, Sam Altman.

Speaking to Ive in a glossy, nine-minute promo heavy with patented Silicon Valley optimism, Altman says of the mystery gadget: I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen.

Regardless of the hyperbole, expectations would be vaulting anyway. Ive and Altman are worth backing, given the products they have overseen, but observers say they have set themselves an ambitious goal  one made all the more difficult by the legacy of Ives time at Apple.

It really will have to be amazing to prise people away from todays screen-based devices, says Martha Bennett, an analyst at Forrester Research.

Bennett points to the failure of AI hardware devices such as Humanes defunct AI pin  a small, wearable AI assistant that received poor reviews  as an example of how the duo have a steep hill to climb. Ive described the Humane pin and the equally small-scale Rabbit R1 device as very poor products.

So what was the prototype that Altman was testing? He has told employees that OpenAI plans to build 100m AI companions that will be part of users everyday life, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The product will be unobtrusive and capable of being fully aware of a users surroundings and life, the paper report added, and it will be a third core device that someone will have on their desk after a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. The device is neither a phone nor a pair of glasses; Altman said Ive had been sceptical about building something to be worn on the body, according to the WSJ.

The video indicated that the fruits of the io deal  a complex arrangement whereby Ives LoveFrom design company assumes design and creative oversight of OpenAI and io  will emerge next year.

Benedict Evans, a tech analyst, says Ive has clearly been brought onboard to answer a key question for OpenAI and Altman: How do they somehow bootstrap themselves into becoming a major platform company?

Evans adds: This is an AI research lab that is running around trying to find solutions that will turn it into the next Apple or Google.

AI models are essentially becoming commoditised  Its not clear how you differentiate them from each other, says Evans  and now Altman is trying to find hardware to combine with OpenAIs groundbreaking software.

OpenAI is trying to do a lot of things at once, and this io deal is part of that. Sam is trying to build the plane while flying it, he adds.

The Ive-Altman video is shot in Cafe Zoetrope in San Francisco  founded by Francis Ford Coppola  a pointed reference to one of Americas great visionaries of recent history. Ive and Altman believe that AI will bring them the hardware of the future.

 This article was amended on 23 June 2025. Owing to a change during editing, an earlier version referred to Roman Coppolas Cafe Zoetrope, when his father Francis Ford Coppola was the intended reference.
Credit: Reuters

Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders of siding with Hamas following the murder of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC.

The Israeli prime minister said Sir Keir, along with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, were on the wrong side of humanity.

In a televised statement addressing the shootings at the Capital Jewish Museum, Mr Netanyahu said that by condemning the war in Gaza, the leaders were supporting mass murderers, rapists, baby killers, and kidnappers.

Embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim had just left a reception for diplomats on Wednesday night when a stranger armed with a handgun approached them and opened fire.

The alleged murderer in Washington DC told police I did it for Gaza and shouted free, free Palestine as he handed himself in.

Mr Netanyahus criticism follows a joint statement by the UK, France, and Canada that criticised Israel for expanding its ground operation in Gaza and preventing aid from entering the war-torn strip.

The Israeli leader said Hamas wanted to destroy Israel and that he could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.

He said: I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, youre on the wrong side of justice.

Youre on the wrong side of humanity, and youre on the wrong side of history.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were set to get engaged, were killed in the attack

No10 declined to comment on Mr Netanyahus remarks but instead highlighted the Prime Ministers condemnation of Wednesdays attack.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder late afternoon on Thursday. He has also been charged with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

The attack is being investigated as a hate crime and terrorism, Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney, said on Thursday night, adding that it was a death-penalty-eligible case.

Yaron Lischinsky worked in the embassys political department

Earlier this week, Sir Keir said he was horrified by Israels actions, saying that an utterly inadequate amount of aid had been let into Gaza.

The UK later announced a raft of sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including those who featured in Louis Therouxs recent documentary, and suspended trade talks with Israel.

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said on Thursday that the world must hold to account irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to hatred against Jews and Israelis, whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence.

Mr Chikli added that the leaders of France, Canada, and the UK had emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said irresponsible leaders must be held to account - Omar Marques

Sir Keir has not responded to the Israeli criticism, but said on Thursday morning: I thoroughly condemn the anti-Semitic attack outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

A UK minister on Friday said that he did not recognise Mr Netanyahus criticism of the Prime Minister.

Luke Pollard, the Armed Forces minister, told Sky News: We condemn the killing of diplomats thoroughly. We want to see a proper investigation as we would do in all things to secure justice for those people who have been murdered in the States.

But we also at the same time should not remove ourselves from the need to secure a lasting peace in Gaza.

Footage described by the FBI in a charging document revealed that the suspect passed the couple after they left the museum before shooting them in the back.

Sarah Milgrim, a Jewish American embassy employee, was named as the second victim

Rodriguez leaned over the couple and fired at them repeatedly after they dropped to the ground, the FBI said. Ms Milgrim attempted to crawl away before Rodriguez allegedly followed behind her and fired again. He is then accused of reloading his weapon and firing at Ms Milgrim as she sat up.

Following the shooting, the suspect was allowed into the nearby Capital Jewish Museum by security guards who initially thought he was a distraught bystander.

Yoni Kalin, the events organiser, told Fox News: He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like, Call the cops.

Minutes later, when officers arrived, Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

US Homeland Security cordon off the area after the shooting - REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Ms Kalin said: He grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started a Free Palestine chant, Theres only one solution, Intifada revolution.

Pamela Smith, the chief of the Washington metropolitan police, said: Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offence.

The suspect chanted, free, free Palestine while in custody.

Credit: Instagram/Katie Kalisher

The suspect is believed to have written a letter, which was made public an hour after the attack:

The letter states: Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged.

Free Palestine, the letter concludes, according to Sky News.

People gather to light candles in a makeshift memorial to honour the victims - AP

Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US, described the victims as a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washingtons cultural centre.

The ambassador added: The young man [Yaron] purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli embassy security to be boosted around the world in response to the incident.

He added: The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone  he wanted to kill Jews. And as he was taken away, he chanted, Free Palestine! For these neo-Nazis, Free Palestine is just todays version of Heil Hitler.

A vigil was held for victims Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the White House - Getty Images

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: We are horrified by the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in DC, and the Prime Ministers thoughts are with the victims, their families and all staff at the embassy, for whom this is a very troubling time. Diplomats must always be allowed to do their jobs safely.

Anti-Semitism is an evil that we must stamp out wherever it appears. Now, as always, the Prime Minister stands in solidarity with the Jewish community in the UK and the Government has offered its support to the Israeli embassy in London.

We continue to provide 18 million per year in funding for protective security measures for Jewish community sites in the UK.
Jeremy Corbyn

While Keir Starmers Government is deeply unpopular, a source of consolation has been that things are even worse for the Opposition. Polling by YouGov earlier this week had the Tories in fourth place, the first time that has happened since the final, shambling days of the May government in 2019. One projection from that data gave the Conservatives just 22 Westminster seats.

But the hole in which the Wests most enduringly successful party finds itself cant be detached from wider, systemic issues. In that same poll, Labour recorded just 22 percent of the popular vote. At the next general election, the share for the big two looks likely to hit a post-war low.

Yet while ongoing Conservative failure can be attributed to the rise of Reform, no similar rationalisation exists for Labour. True, the Greens have continued their slow and steady rise, but that doesnt account for the governing party falling to what would be their lowest vote share since 1918.

Fundamentally, the electorate is disenchanted with the political process, and the old loyalties arent just eroding, but close to being vanquished. Reform getting over the line in Runcorn, despite Labours extraordinary advantage with data and postal votes, is a testament to that. The Cheshire constituency was Labours 16th safest.

All of which suggests that, rather than this being the nadir for Keir Starmer, things could deteriorate further. The Green Party is presently in the foothills of a leadership contest, with the populist Zack Polanski facing off against the Countryfile-coded Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns (both represent rural, formerly Conservative constituencies).

Each side has a pitch which is coherent, but it is Polanskis offer which should most concern Labour HQ. His view is that, as the Government moves to the Right, in order to retain a growing cohort of Reform-curious voters, the Greens can pick off seats in more liberal, metropolitan areas.

This isnt entirely speculative. The Greens came second in forty constituencies last July, all but one of which now have Labour MPs. These are all in major urban areas  from Sheffield Central and Liverpool Riverside, to Bristol North West and Manchester Gorton.

Yet it is in London where the prize glitters brightest, with the Greens finishing second behind Labour in over two dozen seats. In theory, they could squeeze those areas much as Reform usurped Labour in places like Doncaster and Durham.

Just as the median Reform voter doesnt like Starmers historic europhilia, or his purported commitment to the liberal zeitgeist on issues like migration, the capitals electors dont support welfare cuts alongside massive increases to defence spending, nor Starmers increasingly belligerent rhetoric on multiculturalism.

While Ramsay and Chowns bid for co-leadership makes some sense, with both offering a continuity of recent success, Polanski would seem best placed to take advantage of that.

Then theres the seemingly perennial issue of a new Left party, referenced by Jeremy Corbyn in a speech he recently gave in Huddersfield. Speaking at a gathering of The Peoples Alliance for Change and Equality, a group of campaigners and independents in the Borough of Kirklees, including Iqbal Mohamed, the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, the former Labour leader was clear: by next years local elections  long before that I hope  were going to have something in place that is very clear and everyone will want to be part of and support.

The fact that Corbyn uttered those words alongside Jamie Driscoll, who came second in last years North-east mayoral race, and Salma Yaqoob, a stalwart of Stop the War, indicates conversations are relatively advanced. Just weeks earlier, Corbyn spoke at Foyles alongside Andrew Feinstein. The latter stood as an independent in Keir Starmers constituency of Holborn and St Pancras last July, finishing second.

Other figures in the orbit of such a party, or even wider coalition, might include Leanne Mohammed, who almost overwhelmed Wes Streeting in Ilford last July, and Faiza Shaheen, who stood as an independent in Chingford. Any new Left formation could potentially draw on hundreds of figures like this: in contention to win locally, and at least substantial enough to cost Labour seats.

If you thought this months local elections were bad for the Conservatives, dont be surprised if something similar happens to Labour in twelve months. Not only will the Welsh Senedd be up for grabs, with Plaid Cymru and Reform set to make major gains at Cardiff, but authorities across urban England  including every council across Greater London  will be contested too. The circumstances could not be more favourable for parties and campaigners to Starmers Left.

The liberal media has subdued the conversation for months, not least because its their man in Number 10. But the simple truth is this: all that stands between Labour faring as badly as the Tories in the polls is whether the Left, and the Greens, can build a coordinated electoral alternative.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will attend the official naming ceremony of the warship HMS Glasgow.

Kate was named the sponsor of the state-of-the-art Type 26 anti-submarine frigate in June 2021, a vessel designed to provide protection to the UKs aircraft carriers.

The following year, Kate met Royal Navy sailors from HMS Glasgow at Windsor Castle to hear about the ships progress and their experiences in the Royal Navy.

During the ceremony she will release a bottle of whisky which is expected to break against the ships hull at the event held at BAE Systems shipyard in Scotstoun, Glasgow.

After the ceremony, the couple will board the ship and meet representatives from BAE Systems, which has led the delivery of the vessel, and others from the Royal Navy who will discuss the ships capabilities.

The Prince and Princess will also visit the BAE Systems shipbuilding academy to meet apprentices and graduates and hear about the shipbuilding and maritime training the students received, including craft trades like fabrication, sheet metal work, welding, and pipe fitting.

All skills which were needed to construct HMS Glasgow.

The event will end with the future King and Queen meeting a cross-section of BAE Systems employees from different backgrounds, trades and skills involved in the building of the ship, and members of HMS Glasgow ships company and their families.
Western Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi. An exhibition at Monash University Museum of Art that was postponed will open to the public next week. Photograph: Bec Lorrimer/The Guardian

An exhibition featuring works by Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi that was called off by Monash University in March will open to the public next week, with the university announcing it had reversed its decision.

Monash University postponed Stolon Press: Flat Earth at Monash University Museum of Art (Muma) in Melbourne in the wake of Sabsabi being dumped as Australias representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale. It was the first time a show had been pulled in Mumas 50-year history.

The exhibition, originally scheduled to open on 8 May, includes large spiritual calligraphic paintings by Sabsabi that he has made with Lebanese coffee and draw on his personal memories of his childhood in Lebanon during the civil war.

At the time of the postponement, a spokesperson for Monash claimed consultation with our communities had revealed that Muma needed to deepen its collaboration and engagement on this exhibition. Postponing the event will allow this important work to be undertaken.

Related: This could have all been avoided: how Creative Australia allowed itself to be blindsided over its Venice Biennale pick

Sources told Guardian Australia they feared the timing indicated the decision had been influenced by federal arts body Creative Australias cancellation of Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostinos contract to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. That decision followed days of pressure from The Australian newspaper and Liberal politicians over Sabsabis use of footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in old works.

Sabsabis participation in a mass boycott of the 2022 Sydney festival over the sponsorship of an event by the Israeli embassy was also singled out by The Australian, amid a wider increased scrutiny of public figures who criticised Israels conduct in Gaza or spoke in support of Palestine after the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

Sabsabi has always fiercely rejected any claim that his work promotes antisemitism or terrorism, calling the suggestion disgusting. Thousands of artists and art experts have called on Creative Australia to reverse its decision.

On Thursday, Monash University confirmed Stolon Press: Flat Earth will open at Muma on 29 May, saying it was postponed  while the University conducted consultations with Monash students and community.

The University concluded its engagement process with relevant staff and students, which has enabled us to consider a range of perspectives prior to the exhibition, Monash said in a statement.

The University recognises the work of Stolon Press as curator of, and featured artist in, the exhibition Flat Earth and its patience while the University conducted its consultations to ensure the exhibition proceeds in the manner and spirit originally curated by Stolon Press.

A spokesperson for Monash University told Guardian Australia that Creative Australias decision was completely unrelated to the postponement, but did not answer questions about why it needed to conduct consultations or who it consulted.

On Thursday, Sabsabi thanked the arts sector for its extraordinary commitment to standing up for artists and ideas.

Related: Khaled Sabsabi says Creative Australia decision was kneejerk reaction that is dismantling his career

Your collective voice has made it clear that our cultural institutions must be places of dialogue, he said in a statement. Your advocacy has not only helped reinstate this exhibition, but we hope that it has laid the groundwork for our reinstatement to the Venice Biennale in 2026.

This is a deeply personal moment for me. Im relieved that common sense has prevailed and we can move forward with the Flat Earth curatorial vision and exhibition at Muma. Its a clear sign that truth still matters.

This is also about more than one artist or one show, its about how we as an industry respond to challenges, stand by each other, and uphold the integrity of artistic expression.

Let me be absolutely clear: I reject all forms of racism and hate. My practice is built on existence/coexistence, respect, and the urgent need to connect across cultural and political divides. This decision affirms that my work is understood in that spirit.

This outcome was not achieved in isolation; it was the result of a shared determination to protect freedom of expression and support artists at a time when it matters most.

I also want to sincerely thank and acknowledge the commitment of Stolon Press, the participating artists in Flat Earth, and the team at Muma who continued to engage with the process. This moment is a reminder that our institutions are stronger when they hold space with artists and curators for complexity and conversations.

This is now an opportunity for Creative Australia to revisit its decision regarding Venice 2026. Michael and I remain committed to representing Australia on the world stage with integrity and purpose.

Asked if she shared Sabsabis sentiment that common sense has prevailed, Muma director Dr Rebecca Coates said, Absolutely.

At Muma we believe in working with artists, and that we contribute significantly to part of society that we see ourselves reflected in, and that really matters. So, yes  if common sense can prevail, and we can have a little part in that, thats why were here and what we do.

The Muma exhibition is curated by Stolon Press, a Sydney-based art and publishing collective run by Simryn Gill and Tom Melick, with Coates and Stephanie Berlangieri. As well as Sabsabis art, it also features works by writer and anthropologist Elisa Taber.
A satellite image shows the warship at the harbour before the launch - Reuters

A new North Korean warship was left lying on its side in the water after a failed launch saw its hull crushed.

Kim Jong-un, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-ton destroyer, declared the incident a criminal act caused by absolute carelessness and warned that it could not be tolerated.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the accident at the eastern port of Chongjin was caused by a loss of balance while the vessel was being launched.

It left some sections of the warships bottom crushed and the bow was unable to exit the shipway, KCNA added.

South Koreas military said the stricken warship was lying sideways in the water after the failed launch.

The report did not mention whether there were any casualties.

Kim said the accident brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse and vowed to hold officials accountable for the irresponsible errors.

The North Korean leader said they would be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month. He ordered for repairs on the warship to be completed before June.

The rare public disclosure of the accident comes after Pyongyang unveiled another 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon last month.

At the time, state media ran images of Kim attending a ceremony with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor.

Kim and his daughter stand in the bow of the destroyer Choe Hyon last month - AFP

North Korea claimed that the vessel was equipped with the most powerful weapons, and that it would enter into operation early next year.

Some analysts said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles.

In a report last week on preparations for the launch of the accident ship, US-based analysis website 38 North said it appeared that the ship would be side-launched from the quay, a method not previously observed in North Korea.

The use of this launch method could be one of necessity, as the quay where the ship is being built does not have an incline, the 38 North report said.

Commercial satellite imagery of the shipyard the day before the launch showed the destroyer positioned on the quay with support vessels by its side.
Rap trio Kneecap have announced a surprise performance in London hours after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, had been charged over the alleged display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year.

The group from Belfast, who rap in the Irish language, said they would perform at the 100 Club on Oxford Street on Thursday evening, ahead of their headline slot at Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday night.

In a post to social media, they said: London. Were back. See you at The 100 Club tonight  tickets on sale in one hour at 4pm.

The post contained a quote from former Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon who told ITVs Good Morning Britain (GMB) maybe they need a bloody good kneecapping in response to the kill your MP footage.

The venue confirmed the gig in a social media post and said doors to the event will open at 7.30pm.

O hAnnaidh, 27, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18, the Metropolitan Police said.

In response to the charge, the group said in a social media statement: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

Officers from the Mets Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on April 22 of an online video from the event, police said.

An investigation led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah.

The rap trio have had gigs cancelled after the footage emerged but are still listed to headline Wide Awake.

Kneecap are due to perform at Wide Awake on Friday (Brian Lawless/PA)

They apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been exploited and weaponised.

They also said they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, which reported Kneecap to counter-terrorism police, posted on X: We are pleased to see the police have acted swiftly. Hamas and Hezbollah are both proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK. The law must be enforced.

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language.

Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag.
Irish rap trio Kneecap have said the charging of one of their members with a terror offence in the UK is political policing and a carnival of distraction.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam OHanna over the alleged displaying of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 last year.

In a statement on X, the group said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

Kneecap member Liam OHanna (Mo Chara) (Ian West/PA)

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

WE STAND PROUDLY WITH THE PEOPLE. YOU STAND COMPLICIT WITH THE WAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. YOU ARE NOT. WE WILL FIGHT YOU IN YOUR COURT. WE WILL WIN. FREE PALESTINE.

O hAnnaidh, 27, of Belfast, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers from the Mets Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on April 22 of an online video from the event, police said.

An investigation led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Kneecap are due to perform at Wide Awake on Friday (Brian Lawless/PA)

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah.

The Belfast rap trio have had gigs cancelled after the footage emerged, but are still listed to headline Fridays Wide Awake day festival in Brixtons Brockwell Park.

The group apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been exploited and weaponised.

They also said they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, which reported Kneecap to counter-terrorism police, posted on X: We are pleased to see the police have acted swiftly. Hamas and Hezbollah are both proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK. The law must be enforced.

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Formed in 2017, the group, made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language, and their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and 3Cag.
Sir Keir Starmer has condemned the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC.

The victims, a man and a woman, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the 30-year-old suspect approached.

The Prime Minister described the shooting as antisemitic.

He said: I thoroughly condemn the antisemitic attack outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

Antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears.

My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Israels foreign minister identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

The attack has sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up security.

Downing Street said the Prime Minister stands in solidarity with the Jewish community here in the UK, adding the Government has offered its full support to the Israeli embassy in London.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman added: As you know, we continue to provide around 18 million a year in funding for protective security measures for Jewish community sites in the UK.

Law enforcement at the scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington (Rod Lamkey Jr/AP)

The Governments approach towards Israels actions in Gaza will not change as a result of the killings, the spokesman indicated, but he added this does not take away at all from the fact that antisemitism is an evil that must be stamped out wherever it appears.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy also condemned the appalling incident.

Horrified by the killing of two Israeli Embassy staff in DC, he said in a post on X.

We condemn this appalling, antisemitic crime.

Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and colleagues at this awful time.

Police officers near the Israeli embassy in Kensington, London (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting, local police chief Pamela Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, he began chanting Free, free Palestine, Ms Smith added.

On social media, US President Donald Trump said: These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

Earlier this month, five Iranian men were arrested on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act targeting the Israeli embassy in London.

In April, a court heard how in a separate incident an alleged knifeman carrying a martyrdom note tried to break into the Kensington-based embassy.
Lord Frost says he is struggling to see what the Conservative Partys unique selling point is - Maja Smiejkowska

Lord Frost has not ruled out running for Reform UK at a future general election.

The former chief Brexit negotiator said he was not emotionally committed to the Conservatives and that he struggled to see what the partys USP (unique selling point) was.

Speaking to The Telegraphs Planet Normal podcast, the Tory peer was asked whether he would rule out standing for Reform UK in the future.

 Im waiting. What I want is a last chance really for a party on the Right that can deliver meaningful Right-wing, principled policies, he said.

Im not emotionally committed to the Conservatives in the way that others are. I want the party that is going to do the job and get the job done, and lets see how that plays out.

Credit: Reuters

The former Cabinet minister said the Tories still havent really clocked what the problem is with the party and its sinking popularity following the general election wipe-out last year.

It comes after the Conservatives sank to their lowest ever poll rating recorded by YouGov, one of Britains most reputable pollsters.

The survey, carried out on May 18 and 19, found the Tories were now in fourth place and polling at just 16 per cent.

The party lost every council it was defending at this months local elections as Nigel Farages Reform continued to surge.

Lord Frost told the podcast: I think up until maybe these local [elections] and the latest round of polling, I think the dominant view was we just have got to wait, itll come right, people will turn back to us, Labour are terrible, Reform will blow up, we dont really have to do anything, itll all be OK.

I think the local elections and then these latest polls that put us fourth are beginning to spook people a bit  and rightly so, in my view.

Boris ally avoided candidacy

Lord Frost, a Boris Johnson ally, decided not to run to become a Conservative MP at last years general election.

He had angered Downing Street at the beginning of last year when he was involved in commissioning an opinion poll that laid bare the likely impact of the Tories unpopularity.

The following month, he was understood to have been labelled as deferred on the Conservative Partys approved candidates list, which meant he could not seek to run as an MP at that cycle and would have to wait for another time.

But Rishi Sunak, the then-prime minister, said he was free to seek a seat  an offer he did not take up.

Lord Frost told the podcast: The idea that Reform is a wasted vote is no longer true, to the same extent, probably wont be true at all soon. I must say, I struggle sometimes to see what you get when you vote Conservative. Whats the USP?

Im not a lifer Conservative. I only came into it because I want to get Brexit done. For me, the political parties on the Right are vehicles for getting the right policies in place, and as soon as they fail to get the right policies in place  well, they become a bit pointless.

Planet Normal, a weekly Telegraph podcast featuring news and views from beyond the bubble. Listen on the audio player in this article or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred podcast app.
Manchester United remain behind head coach Ruben Amorim despite Wednesdays damaging Europa League final defeat to Tottenham, the PA news agency understands.

The Red Devils blew their chance to salvage a soul-destroying season as their first European loss of the campaign meant silverware and Champions League qualification slipped through their fingers in Bilbao.

Uniteds meek 1-0 defeat at San Mames compounded their worst top-flight campaign since relegation 51 years ago, with the side sat 16th in the table  a point above victors Spurs  heading into Sundays season finale at home to Aston Villa.

It hurts now but this club's history speaks for itself. We will be back. pic.twitter.com/pP35zCSXzd  Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 21, 2025

Amorim has overseen just six Premier League wins since succeeding Erik ten Hag in November and admitted after Wednesdays costly defeat he would walk away without compensation if the club or fans wanted him to.

Heading into the final, it was believed the Portuguese had the clubs full support irrespective of the outcome against Tottenham, and PA understands he retains the backing of the hierarchy despite the painful loss in Spain.

Several United players emphatically threw their support behind Amorim after the drab defeat, with skipper Bruno Fernandes saying he was the right man for what the club still see as a longer-term project.

Luke Shaw said the candid coach is 100 per cent the right person to oversee a change in mindset and standards, with fellow full-back Diogo Dalot offering similar support.

Im 100 per cent sure that hes the right man for us because I see it every day, the United defender said.

The standards that he has, what he demands from us, the view that he has for the club, for the players, for the coaching staff.

A lot of changes are happening at the same time, but ultimately its going to be what we do on the pitch. We have to take responsibility from that. Nobody apart from us is going on to the pitch and trying to get results.

Uniteds defeat in the San Mames showpiece has far-reaching implications as the club will now spend a first campaign without European football since 2014-15.

Champions League qualification was estimated to be worth around 100million to the Red Devils, who have been tightening their belts under the direction of minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and are currently completing their second round of redundancies in a year.

Amorim revealed United had two plans for this summers transfer window after the final and PA understand the basis of the clubs financial planning heading into the summer was the possibility of missing out on Europe, albeit with the hope of moving away from Plan A.

The lack of midweek fixtures next term could help provide the Portuguese with time to shape the side in his image, but the ramifications of Wednesdays defeat cannot be ignored.

Kobbie Mainoo is being linked with a move away from Manchester United (Martin Rickett/PA)

The cost of the much-needed rebuild means tough decisions on the current squad will be needed, with academy products Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo linked with exits along with the likes of standout skipper Fernandes.

The financial situation meant United were already booked in for a controversial post-season trip to Asia immediately after Sundays match against Villa at Old Trafford, where the reception for the misfiring side will be fascinating.

The Red Devils head to Malaysia for a friendly in Kuala Lumpur on May 28  a week after the Europa League final  before playing another game in Hong Kong on May 30.

Amorim has confirmed all of Uniteds first-team squad will travel on what is sure to be a gloomy post-season tour.
Memorable moments happen in hospitals every day, from heartbreaking goodbyes to the most beautiful hellos. Hospital staff witness all kinds of medical miracles and emotional moments, but Jeanna never expected to have a front row seat to the birth of a baby moose. Even while working at a hospital in Alaska, she was shocked when a mother moose welcomed her baby just a few feet away from the window.

After the baby moose was born on May 15, it took mere minutes before the little one was taking their first wobbly steps. It was truly a can't-miss occasion!

Congratulations, Mama Moose! Your baby is so beautiful (and so big), and the way they stood up instantly had me blown away. Human babies take months to learn to walk, but in the wild, animal babies don't have the luxury of time.

Smaller newborn animals may need to walk quickly after birth to avoid predators in the area, whereas larger animals like moose will need to walk with their herd to find food. Babies may be wobbly at first, and it can take time before they learn ot run, but this quick movement is essential to their survival.

Related: Grizzly Bear Approaches Moose Calves and Mama Comes to Their Rescue

It may be harsh, but that's nature for you! Luckily, this mama moose found refuge in a safe spot for her and her baby to rest, and they didn't feel rushed out of the area.

Instead, Jeanna got an even closer look at the newborn baby animal! It's refreshing to see the mama moose relaxing while her little one tries out some more steps, but anyone who knows moose knows it's only a matter of time until they're running off together into the sunset.

How lucky Jeanna and her colleagues were to witness this beautiful occasion!

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Newborn Moose Takes Wobbly First Steps Moments After Being Born Outside Alaska Hospital first appeared on PetHelpful on May 22, 2025
Servers in a datacentre in northern France. Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty

Artificial intelligence systems could account for nearly half of datacentre power consumption by the end of this year, analysis has revealed.

The estimates by Alex de Vries-Gao, the founder of the Digiconomist tech sustainability website, came as the International Energy Agency forecast that AI would require almost as much energy by the end of this decade as Japan uses today.

De Vries-Gaos calculations, to be published in the sustainable energy journal Joule, are based on the power consumed by chips made by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices that are used to train and operate AI models. The paper also takes into account the energy consumption of chips used by other companies, such as Broadcom.

The IEA estimates that all data centres  excluding mining for cryptocurrencies  consumed 415 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity last year. De Vries-Gao argues in his research that AI could already account for 20% of that total.

He said a number of variables came into his calculations, such as the energy efficiency of a datacentre and electricity consumption related to cooling systems for servers handling an AI systems busy workloads. Datacentres are the central nervous system of AI technology, with their high energy demands making sustainability a key concern in the development and use of artificial intelligence systems.

By the end of 2025, De Vries-Gao estimates, energy consumption by AI systems could approach up to 49% of total datacentre power consumption, again excluding crypto mining. AI consumption could reach 23 gigawatts (GW), the research estimates, twice the total energy consumption of the Netherlands.

However, De Vries-Gao said a number of factors could lead to a slowdown in hardware demand, such as waning demand for applications such as ChatGPT. Another issue could be geopolitical tensions resulting in constraints on producing AI hardware, such as export controls. De Vries-Gao cites the example of barriers on Chinese access to chips, which contributed to the release of the DeepSeek R1 AI model that reportedly used fewer chips.

These innovations can reduce the computational and energy costs of AI, said de Vries.

But he said any efficiency gains could encourage even more AI use. Multiple countries attempting to build their own AI systems  a trend known as sovereign AI  could also increase hardware demand. De Vries-Gao also pointed to a US datacentre startup, Crusoe Energy, securing 4.5GW of gas-powered energy capacity for its infrastructure, with the ChatGPT developer OpenAI among the potential customers through its Stargate joint venture.

There are early indications that these [Stargate] datacentres could exacerbate dependence on fossil fuels, writes De Vries-Gao.

On Thursday OpenAI announced the launch of a Stargate project in the United Arab Emirates, the first outside the US.

Microsoft and Google admitted last year that their AI drives were endangering their ability to meet internal environmental targets.

De Vries-Gao said information on AIs power demands had become increasingly scarce, with the analyst describing it as an opaque industry. The EU AI Act requires AI companies to disclose the energy consumption behind training a model but not for day-to-day use.

Prof Adam Sobey, the mission director for sustainability at the UKs Alan Turing Institute, an AI research body, said more transparency was needed on how much energy is consumed by artificial intelligence systems, and how much they could save by helping to make carbon-emitting industries such as transport and energy more efficient.

Sobey said: I suspect that we dont need many very good use cases [of AI] to offset the energy being used on the front end.
Sir Nick Clegg has said British police have become too censorious of online speech.

The former deputy prime minister said forces had adopted whack-a-mole approach to policing the internet.

Speaking at the Charleston Literary Festival in Sussex on Thursday, Sir Nick said so-called online speech offences were often just about remarks that people might say to each other in a pub.

The former Meta executives comments came after judges rejected a bid by Lucy Connolly to have her sentence reduced after she was jailed for a tweet following the Southport attacks.

Three Court of Appeal judges threw out the 42-year-olds appeal on Tuesday morning, meaning she will not be released before August.

Sir Nick called for a rethink in the policing of online speech, saying: We will look back on this period, and actually what I think will become more obvious with time is that were being way too censorious.

Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister, spoke out about the policing of online speech offences at the Charleston Literary Festival - David McHugh/Brighton Pictures

The police are arresting 30 people a day for so-called online speech offences. Its often really off-colour, outrageous stuff that people might say to each other in a pub.

I just think were applying legislation that was invented, that was put on the statute book before any of these technologies were invented.

Sir Nick went on to say that prosecutions over online speech appeared motivated by a desire to create an internet where people were polite and nice to each other all the time.

Were in danger of trying to make the internet nice, always nice, he said. It isnt always nice. Its very ugly in many respects.

Were slightly labouring under this illusion that you can just play whack-a-mole online and just keep downgrading or removing or arresting people who say stuff. Its why theyre always never more than a heartbeat away from controversy.

Youre not producing widgets, or even sending rockets up into the sky. Youre dealing with the most liquid, controversial, difficult thing  speech  and its an almost impossible place to have it, because one persons hate speech is another persons right to free expression.

We need to move beyond this idea, because its in the eye of the beholder, it really is, and most of the content that these platforms are being yelled at to act against is almost always legal content.

Sir Nick Cleggs comments were made after judges rejected a bid by Lucy Connolly to have her sentence reduced after she was jailed for a tweet following the Southport attacks - Newsteam / SWNS

Hundreds of people have been charged with online speech crimes in the past two years.

Almost 300 people have been charged with spreading illegal fake news or sending threatening communications since the Online Safety Act came into force in 2023. Dozens have received convictions under the act.

In November, police visited the home of Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson and said she was being investigated on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred over a post that she had published and then deleted on social media 12 months earlier.

The officers refused to tell her any details about which post was being investigated, or who made the complaint against her.

The proceedings against her were later dropped when the Crown Prosecution Service ruled that there was no realistic prospect of conviction.

Pearson has since announced that she is taking legal action against Essex Police over the shocking and utterly wrong investigation, which left her suffering suicidal thoughts.
Al Carns was part of a part of a group of ex-British Special Forces soldiers who climbed the worlds highest mountain - AP/Sandro Gromen

A British minister is being investigated for using a controversial gas to climb Mount Everest in record-breaking time.

Al Carns, the veterans minister, was part of a group of ex-British Special Forces soldiers who flew the Union flag on the summit on Wednesday, after an arduous five-day climb.

An ascent usually takes around two months with traditional acclimatisation methods.

The 45-year-old Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, a Royal Marines Reserves colonel and former regular who was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in Afghanistan, undertook the expedition with three other veterans with the aim of raising 1 million for forces charities.

Their achievement stunned the mountaineering world, but has been strongly criticised by the Nepalese government, which said it was not aware the team had used xenon gas to pre-acclimatise to the thin atmosphere on the mountain.

We are investigating the travel agency and the climbers who used xenon gas for scaling Everest, Narayan Prasad Regmi, Nepals tourism chief, told The Telegraph.

We will summon them, including the British minister, and take action as deemed fit under the law, Mr Regmi added.

He said xenon gas has never been used by climbers in Nepal before, and that there was a need for a clear legislation on whether it should be banned.

All climbers and expedition organisers are required to declare the substances and equipment they use, Mr Regmi said.

Al Carns, the veterans minister, says the ascent was really tough

The expedition team maintains that it did not bring the gas into Nepal.

The British team inhaled xenon at a clinic in Germany two weeks before the expedition to prevent altitude sickness. Some researchers claim it increases the production of a protein that fights hypoxia  a condition that occurs when the body cannot get enough oxygen.

Critics say xenons alleged performance benefits are unproven, and that it could harm the tourist industry if its use becomes widespread because climbers would spend less time on the mountain.

Furtenbach Adventures, the Austria-based company that organised the climb, defended the groups use of the gas.

Xenon improves acclimatisation, protects against altitude sickness and mitigates the effects of hypoxic environments, said Lukas Furtenbach, the companys founder.

It makes the climb safer and shorter while ensuring climbers are properly acclimatised, unlike those who rely solely on oxygen from Base Camp without prior acclimatisation, which is extremely dangerous

There was no breach of any Nepali regulation. What happens outside Nepal should not be under the purview of the Nepal government.

He went on to point out that shorter, xenon-aided expeditions had environmental benefits because they used fewer resources.

To get used to thinner oxygen levels at high altitudes, climbers usually spend weeks going up and down between Base Camp and higher camps before making a push for the summit.

The group took five days to reach the summit of Everest

Rajendra Bajgain, a Nepalese MP, told The Telegraph that the rise of short-duration climbs aided by xenon gas will hurt our mountain economy.

These quick summits reduce the need for local Sherpas, guides and kitchen staff, cutting off vital income for rural communities who have long depended on traditional expeditions, he said. It will collapse the whole support ecosystem.

Urging the Nepalese government to ban the use of xenon, Mr Bajgain said there were no checklists, no oversight, and no concern for how this trend of rapid climbs, including use of helicopters, is displacing local labour.

In January, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation said there was no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains, and inappropriate use can be dangerous.

The well-known and established methods of pre-[acclimatisation] and acclimatisation are safe and recommended, it said.

Speaking from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu after completing the climb, Mr Carns told BirminghamLive he was incredibly proud and feeling amazing after breaking the record for the fastest of Everest without prior acclimatisation in the Himalayas.

It was really tough  we walked pretty much non-stop for 55 hours, all uphill, to get to the top, but we did it, he said.

The minister described how upper reaches of the mountain were littered with bodies of those who have died attempting to conquer the peak, saying: It really brought it home, this was the death zone, where there is no room for error or accident.

Over 340 people have died trying to reach or return from the summit of Everest since it was first climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Around 200 corpses are estimated to remain on the mountains slopes because of the difficulties and costs of recovery missions.

Mr Carns joined the Royal Marines aged 19 in 1999 and went on to serve as regular for 24 years. He completed five operational tours of Afghanistan and was due to be promoted to brigadier before leaving the forces for a career in politics.

Mr Carns joined the Royal Marines aged 19 in 1999, and went on to serve as regular for 24 years

He was elected as Labour MP at last years general election. Last July, he was appointed as parliamentary under-secretary of state for veterans and people, and in November he re-enlisted in the Royal Marines as a reservist.

This weeks expedition, which followed the southern route via South Col and the southeastern ridge, was the fastest ascent of Everest completed without prior Himalayan acclimatisation.

The fastest climb with acclimatisation was achieved by Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who reached the summit in 10 hours and 56 minutes in 2003.

Mr Carns has been contacted for comment.
Farmers across north-western Europe are waiting for fresh rains with a small respite expected this weekend. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP

When drought descended on Hendrik Jan ten Cates farm in 2018, slashing his onion yield to just 10% of a regular year, he slogged through days of heavy labour to draw water from canals and pump it to his crops. One day, overworked and anxious to extract as much as he could, Ten Cate fell into the canal and broke his arm.

This year, with plants already growing but a severe dearth of rain to nourish young crops, the Dutch farmer is once again watching the weather forecast with worry.

Its a critical time, said Ten Cate, who grows potatoes, onions, cereals, carrots and sugar beet on a 100 hectare farm. Since April, the crops are in the ground, starting to grow, and now we need water every week.

Farmers across north-western Europe are waiting with bated breath for fresh rains as typically drizzly countries such as the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany suffer through what may be their driest spring in a century. A small respite is expected at the weekend but is unlikely to provide lasting relief.

We farmers are resilient  but dry spells are always stressful, said Sven Borchert, who runs a 1,700 hectare cereal and vegetable farm in Saxony-Anhalt and is the vice-president of the regional farmers association.

Borchert said his farm, which sits in the dry shadows of Germanys Harz mountains, benefited from good soil that held water well, but had seen half the rain it should have this year. He said he expected to get through the month without problems but worried rainfall in June would arrive too late for many other farms.

There are questions, such as how youll pay back the bank, that does keep you up at night, he said.

Extreme weather costs the EU about 28.3bn in lost crops and livestock per year, according to a analysis by insurance firm Howden, equal to about 6% of its total food production.

More than half the losses stem from drought, according to an analysis of four major weather threats that was commissioned for the European Investment Bank (EIB) as part of the European Commissions push to quell anger among farmers last year. It found just 20-30% of the losses were insured.

Climate-related risks are an increasing source of uncertainty for food production, said Gelsomina Vigliotti, vice-president of the EIB. Mitigating these risks through insurance and de-risking mechanisms is essential to support the investments of European farmers.

Fossil fuel pollution is expected to worsen drought conditions in parts of Europe, with the Mediterranean rapidly drying up while other regions experience mixed changes. Despite some benefits to farms in northern Europe, the combination of heat and drought is projected to result in substantive agricultural production losses for most European areas this century, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded in a landmark review of climate science research in 2022.

Ten Cate, who sits on the board of an agricultural association in the southern Netherlands, said farmers in the region were already witnessing greater weather extremes. The heavy rainfall is heavier and the dry period is longer, drier and more extreme, he said. We also see the temperature getting higher  and the plants getting stressed.

Farmers say they are exploring ways to adapt to drought that range from increasing the organic content of their soil and planting more drought-resistant varieties of crops to investing in large-scale rainwater storage, precision farming and drip irrigation.

Ten Cate said local farmers had responded to the 2018 drought by investing in mechanical tools to extract water from irrigation channels and distribute it over their fields.

In the short term, though, farmers across Europe see little choice but to wait for more rain. Almost a third of the continent was under orange drought warnings by the end of April, according to the European Drought Observatory, with 0.7% in the critical red alert stage.

Peter Boysen, an organic farmer in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said the grass on his farm had not yet dried out but was barely growing. He estimated he had only enough animal feed to last a couple more weeks.

Its hard to gauge what economic consequences this will have, he said. If rain comes soon, perhaps well see losses of 20-30%. If no rain comes, it will of course be much worse.
The Duchess of Rothesay is welcomed to the naming ceremony along with her husband at BAE Systems shipyard in Scotstoun

The Prince of Wales dubbed a new warship a hell of a piece of kit that screams UK power after it was officially named by his wife.

The Princess smashed a bottle of local Scottish whisky into the hull of HMS Glasgow at a naming ceremony on the bank of the River Clyde.

Stepping up onto a podium before a crowd of several hundred BAE employees, their families and the 45-strong ships company, she uttered the time-honoured words: I name this ship HMS Glasgow, may God bless her and all who sail on her.

The Princess then flicked up a small red launch button to release a bottle of exclusive single malt whisky made by the nearby Clydeside Distillery. The ceremonial act is said to bring good luck and fortune to the vessel and its crew.

The couple attended the traditional naming ceremony at the BAE Systems shipyard in Scotstoun, Glasgow.

Later, the couple chatted to employees and members of the ships company, marvelling at its scale and advanced technology.

The Prince, who is known as the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, said: Its massive, I can see thats where the future is going. Its quite impressive, its a hell of a piece of kit  screams UK power.

The Duchess was equally in awe, admitting she had been stunned by the sheer size of the ship, describing the state of the art technology and 3D animations she had seen as very James Bond.

Its a really proud moment for the UK but particularly, Glasgow, because theres such international interest, she said.

The Duchess, who wore a navy dress by Suzannah London and a bespoke ship-inspired brooch, was named sponsor of the 8,000-tonne warship, a state-of-the-art Type 26 anti-submarine frigate, in June 2021. She is said to hold a real interest in the ship and in the lives of those who will serve onboard.

The ship, the first of eight planned Type 26 frigates, is designed to provide protection to the UKs nuclear deterrent and aircraft carriers.

It features advanced systems such as the Sea Ceptor anti-air missile system, a 5-inch naval gun, and the capability to carry both Wildcat and Merlin helicopters.

The Duchess of Rothesay speaks with guests at the HMS Glasgow naming ceremony - Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

The construction of the eight frigates has sustained 4,000 jobs across Scotland and the wider UK supply chain.

On arrival at the shipyard, the Duke of Rothesay and Duchess were met by Jacqueline McLaren, Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow, Sir Simon Lister, managing director of BAE Systems Naval Ships, and Cdr Phil Burgess, senior naval officer on HMS Glasgow.

Its so great to see her, shes fantastic, the Duchess said at first sight of the vessel.

Cdr Burgess escorted the couple past a guard of honour made up of the ships company for a royal salute.

A piper marked the start of the 25-minute ceremony before a P-8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft from 120 Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth performed a fly-past.

Sir Simon and Second Sealord Vice-Adml Sir Martin Connell, gave speeches.

Sir Martin thanked the Duke and Duchess for their support in reaching the milestone.

The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay arrive dockside at BAE Systems shipyard on the River Clyde

From the first ever HMS Glasgow, sailing under the Royal Navy flag at the end of the 17th century to the ship we see here in the 21st century, HMS Glasgow has evolved and adapted to meet the war fighting and operational demands of its day, he said.

Each metamorphosis saw shipbuilders adapting materials and designs so that crews could operate each successive HMS Glasgow on operations and in conflict and war.

The result of this being 11 battle honours  HMS Glasgows pedigree is awe inspiring.

He hailed the ship as a pure-bred anti-submarine warfare platform, setting the standard for naval warfare, which was ready to meet the global and geopolitical challenges of today.

HMS Glasgow is the first of eight planned Type 26 frigates to be produced

He continued: HMS Glasgow and her class represent the next chapter of naval innovation, safeguarding the UKs interests and contributing to national prosperity.

Sir Simon said the naming ceremony marked quite a moment for Glasgow.

There are many sons and daughters of this city here today and you should be proud to say you are helping Glasgow to flourish, he said.

HMS Glasgow is a reminder of the role ship building on the Clyde plays on the global stage, he added.

Your efforts have started a legacy you should be rightly proud of, that will put us on a stronger footing for years to come.

To HMS Glasgow, go well, fair winds and following seas.

The Duchess of Rothesay named HMS Glasgow watched by several hundred BAE employees, their families and the 45-strong ships company - Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace

The royal visit marked the Duke and Duchesss first joint return visit to Scotland since they celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary on Mull last month.

After the naming ceremony, the couple were driven to the BAE Systems Shipbuilding Academy where their long held rivalry was once again put to the test as they were tasked with racing to complete a pipe building challenge.

The Duke, who spent more time chatting than building, later claimed he had not realised it was a race. The Duchess was swiftly declared the winner, only for her pipe construction to collapse, prompting much laughter.

The Prince and Princess also met apprentices - Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace

The couple then met various BAE Systems employees who were involved in the building of HMS Glasgow.

Before leaving, the Duke and Duchess were given a bottle of Clydeside Distillery whisky, prompting the Duke to joke that it was a shame the whisky was wasted by smashing a bottle on the ship. Tim Morrison, the distillery founder, suggested they use a drop of cold tea instead.

The Duchess of Rothesay met with apprentices and graduates during a visit to the BAE Systems Shipbuilding Academy and took part in a pipe building competition - Andy Barr/The Scottish Sun/PA

Each bottle of a special edition whisky sold will include a contribution to HMS Glasgows chosen charity, Place2Be, of which the Duchess is patron, and which supports childrens mental health in the city.

The Duchess also met Simon Porter, the local jeweller who designed the brooch she wore for the occasion.

James Porter & Son, established in 1858, is based in Glasgows historic Argyll Arcade and is one of Scotlands oldest jewellers.

The Duchess was named the sponsor of HMS Glasgow as it was under construction in Govan, Scotland.

The Duke announced that Elizabeth II had approved his wife as sponsor as he toured the shipyard and met the team building the superb warship on the banks of the River Clyde.

He spoke movingly during the visit about his grandfather, Prince Philip, who had died five months earlier, saying he would have been fascinated and excited to see such advanced skills and technology being put into practice.

I know Catherine will be delighted to join you here in Glasgow for the naming ceremony in due course, he said.

She has a real interest in HMS Glasgow and in the lives of those who will serve onboard.

The following September, shortly after the death of Elizabeth II, the Duchess hosted the ships company from HMS Glasgow at Windsor Castle  one of her first official duties in her new role.

Genuine interest

Petty officer Colin Chalmers, one of HMS Glasgows marine engineers, said at the time that her enthusiasm and genuine interest in us really shone through.

The Duchess began her working life in the Royal family by pouring champagne over a new RNLI lifeboat on Anglesey in February 2011.

She also named a new cruise liner the Royal Princess in 2013 and smashed a bottle of champagne against the hull of a new 200m polar research ship, the Sir David Attenborough, in September 2019, but HMS Glasgow was the first naval ship she has named.
New scans could triple the chance of finding some of the most difficult cases of breast cancer.

The new techniques could discover an extra 3,500 breast cancers a year, detecting them much earlier, a study published in The Lancet medical journal found.

The trial found extra scans for some women can pick up early-stage cancers that remain hidden during regular mammograms because breast tissue is too dense.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge are now calling for additional scans to be added to breast screening programmes for women with dense tissue.

About 10 per cent of women fall into this category, meaning they have more fibrous and glandular tissue and less fatty tissue than other women. Those with dense breasts are already known to face a fourfold increased risk of breast cancer, compared with those without.

The trial was carried out on 9,361 women across the UK who have dense breasts and had a negative mammogram result. During the trial, which looked at additional scanning methods, an extra 85 cancers were found.

The two methods examined were contrast enhanced mammography (CEM), where dye is used to make blood vessels more visible, and abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (AB-MRI), which is faster than a regular MRI.

The experts calculated that adding either of these methods to existing breast screening could detect 3,500 more cancers per year in the UK. Because screening reduces death for about 20 per cent of cancers detected, this could mean an extra 700 lives saved each year, they said.

Researchers said the difference amounted to more than trebling cancer detection among women with dense breasts.

Early diagnosis makes huge difference

At the moment, because denser breasts look whiter on mammograms, the usual mammogram scan cannot pick up all these cancers. Early-stage cancers also appear white, meaning they are difficult to distinguish.

Prof Fiona Gilbert, of the University of Cambridge and an honorary consultant radiologist at Addenbrookes Hospital, led the study.

She said: Getting a cancer diagnosis early makes a huge difference for patients in terms of their treatment and outlook.

We need to change our national screening programme so we can make sure more cancers are diagnosed early, giving many more women a much better chance of survival.

In the study, the researchers concluded: Abbreviated MRI and contrast-enhanced mammography detected three times as many invasive cancers compared with ABUS [automated breast ultrasound], with cancers being half the size. This study shows that supplemental imaging could lead to earlier detection of cancer in women with dense breasts.

The trial was funded by Cancer Research UK, with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Prof Stephen Duffy, from Queen Mary University, London, the trial statistician and a screening programme expert, said: The NHS breast screening programme has made a huge difference to many lives.

Thanks to these results, we can see that the technology exists to make screening even better, particularly for the 10 per cent of women with dense breast tissue.

Dr David Crosby, head of prevention and early detection at Cancer Research UK, said: This study shows that making blood vessels more visible during mammograms could make it much easier for doctors to spot signs of cancer in women with dense breasts.

More research is needed to fully understand the effectiveness of these techniques, but these results are encouraging.

At the moment, the UK National Screening Committee does not recommend any additional imaging for women with dense breasts who have a negative result on a mammogram.

Dr Kotryna Temcinaite, the head of research communications and engagement at the charity Breast Cancer Now, said: The UK National Screening Committee now needs to consider this research as part of their current review to determine whether women with very dense breasts should be offered additional imaging during their routine screening.

If the UK National Screening Committee recommends additional imaging for screening women with very dense breasts, well push for those changes to be rolled out as quickly as possible across the UK.

Routine breast screening is the most likely route to finding breast cancer early, when treatment is most likely to be successful. While we know that the current process can be less effective in detecting cancers in dense breasts, we still encourage all women to attend mammogram screening when invited.

Louise Duffield, an Addenbrookes patient, was one of 85 women diagnosed with cancer thanks to the additional scans used in the trial.

Louise Duffield, a 60-yearr-old grandmother of four - Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The 60-year-old grandmother of four from Ely, Cambridgeshire, had an AB-MRI scan, which identified a small lump deep inside one of her breasts.

She said: When they rang to say theyd found something, it was a big shock. You start thinking all sorts of things but, in the end, I just thought At least if theyve found something, theyve found it early. The staff were brilliant, and so supportive.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: Research is being conducted into the use of additional tests for women with dense breasts, as part of the NHS breast screening programme.

The UK National Screening Committee is reviewing this evidence as it becomes available.
Mr Case warned of a dangerous sense of complacency - PA

Sir Simon Case has called for Britain to raise defence spending to 3pc of GDP to protect the country from quasi-imperial China.

The former Cabinet Secretary described Beijing as the pace-setting threat that will dominate the next 20 years, in an interview with The Times.

He also said that the UKs defence and security network has been worn down by under-investment for the last couple of decades and a dangerous sense of complacency.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer announced in February that he would raise the defence budget to 2.5pc of GDP by 2027.

The Prime Minister also said that it was his ambition to hit 3pc spending in the next Parliament, but made no firm commitment to do so.

Asked if 2.5pc spending was enough, Mr Case replied: Probably not.

He added: I think 3pc is the right sort of ambition. If we were spending 3pc right now, wed feel different. Wed feel more positive about the state of our Armed Forces, but only if we were spending it well.

Mr Case, who helped to rewrite Britains nuclear policy for Sir Tony Blair in 2006, said that he believed that China was the biggest threat to the nation.

Its very tempting to get temporal in these moments, as we are currently supporting the Ukrainians in a conflict with the Russians, he said, when asked about the greatest threat against Britain.

The long-term issue for me though, is China. It is a nation with enormous economic power  scientific, technological, industrial. We see it spreading its intentions, influence and tentacles around the world. And theyre making huge leaps forward in military technology and clearly have the intention to use it.

And what you see is the sharing of technology with North Korea, Iran, and Russia  Its all going to be about China, whether directly or indirectly, how its influencing others.

He added: Im pretty sure in 30 or 40 years time, people will be writing PhDs about the rise of the modern Chinese empire.

Mr Case was appointed Cabinet Secretary by Boris Johnson in 2020 to help steer the country through the Covid crisis.

Simon Case at a Cabinet meeting with Boris Johnson in 2022 - AFP

He remained in place under Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir until he stepped down in September 2024.

He had previously worked as principal private secretary to Lord Cameron and Baroness May during their premierships, before a two-year spell as private secretary to the Prince of Wales.

He said he believed the next 10 to 20 years would be filled with interstate conflict.

As ever, when youre trying to describe an enormous system, there are some bits that are in better shape than others, he said.

In general and for what we face, not in the round is probably the right assessment.

Im sorry to say Im a something of a pessimist on these questions. As I look out on my childrens lives, the next 10 and probably 20 years is going to be dominated by this interstate conflict.

It feels to me that we, across the Western alliance, need to get our skates on and be ready, certainly by 2030.
Sir Keir Starmer announcing the details of the long-awaited Chagos Islands deal on Thursday - ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Sir Keir Starmers deal to give away the Chagos Islands will cost the UK up to 30 billion.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister was accused of lying to the public as he announced the agreement to give the Indian Ocean island chain to Mauritius and rent back a key military base.

He claimed that the deal would cost 101 million annually, amounting to 3.4 billion over 99 years.

However, the true cost will probably exceed 30 billion in cash terms because of rising inflation and additional schemes to fund development projects in Mauritius.

The UK will also be obliged to give notice if it plans to launch an attack from the Diego Garcia military base under the deal, which critics opposed because of security concerns over the close ties between Mauritius, China and Russia.

Unveiling the agreement on Thursday afternoon after a failed last-ditch attempt by campaigners to block it at the High Court, Sir Keir insisted the deal was value for money because it operates on slightly less than the running cost of an aircraft carrier minus the aircraft.

Speaking at the Northwood military headquarters in north-west London alongside John Healey, the Defence Secretary, he said: Now, given the significance of this facility  both the geography and the capability  you can see, as measured against an aircraft carriers running cost, that this is very good value for money.

However, the Conservatives and Reform UK accused Sir Keir of misleading the public. Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: Labour are lying to British taxpayers with their made-up numbers and dodgy accounting, and the true reality of these costs is frightening for all to see.

We are now bound by treaty to both pay for the indignity of the surrender, and to line Mauritiuss own coffers  and the true cost of this surrender tax to the British public now seems set to top an eye-watering 30 billion.

Sir Keir provoked further fury when he accused the Conservatives of being in the same column as Russia, China and Iran, whom he said had opposed the deal. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, described the comment as shameful.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs were also aghast at the cost, which was announced amid a major rebellion over Sir Keirs planned 5 billion welfare cuts and refusal to increase the two-child cap on benefits.

One Labour MP said Downing Street had deliberately published the treaty on the last day before a 10-day parliamentary recess to reduce scrutiny and minimise backlash from MPs.

Britain has agreed to pay rent on Diego Garcia for the next 99 years and contribute more than 1 billion in development funding.

Sir Keir said on Thursday that the average annual cost of the deal would be 101 million. This figure over 99 years would equate to 10 billion  however, the Prime Minister claimed that the total net cost over a century would be just 3.4 billion.

He said this was because the Government had performed calculations on the payments that factor in the value society attaches to present as opposed to future consumption and an estimated rate of inflation over time.

However, The Telegraphs analysis shows the cash-terms cost is likely to be about 30 billion. This figure includes a century of lease payments, most of which will be increased in line with inflation, plus two schemes to support native people of the Chagos Islands and pay for infrastructure in Mauritius, which is experiencing a budget crisis.

The cost of the Chagos deal

Sir Keir claimed that, if Britain had not agreed to give the islands away, it would have been weeks before Mauritius began a successful legal challenge that would have endangered Diego Garcia, the joint UK-US military base.

Ownership of the Chagos Islands, known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory, has long been disputed in the international courts, and the US government has been keen to resolve the issue to protect its assets in the Indian Ocean.

The Defence Secretary said the UK had acted to protect the base, which he described as a launchpad to defeat terrorists that was under legal threat.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Healey said: Were we to do nothing, within a matter of weeks our ability to patrol the waters around the base would be compromised.

And if a deal were negotiated with an adversary, they could have exploited the situation by conducting covert operations, setting up outposts on surrounding islands and disrupting crucial communications systems on the base.

Under the terms of the deal the UK must notify Mauritius if it plans to use Diego Garcia, which has previously been employed to conduct bombing runs into the Middle East, to launch an armed attack on any third state. It must also give Mauritian companies priority when awarding contracts related to the maintenance of the base.

Richard Tice, the Reform deputy leader, tore up the governments deal outside the High Court

Mr Healey was later met with an angry reaction from both Labour and Conservative MPs in the Commons.

Peter Lamb, the Labour MP for Crawley, where many Chagossians live, attacked the Government, saying: Can I ask what I should tell my Chagossian constituents when they ask the moral basis upon which the UK is once again ignoring their right to self-determination while we fight for it in Ukraine for the Ukrainians?

Under the agreement, the UK is also obliged to be mindful of the need to complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius, even though the islands have never been part of the East African countrys territory.

Paul Berenger, the deputy prime minister of Mauritius, used a speech welcoming the deal to describe the UK as a colonial power.

We are living a historic moment, he said. We are not only regaining our sovereignty. What we have achieved is that those who had taken our sovereignty are now recognising our sovereignty. The colonial power therefore had to recognise our sovereignty and return it to us in its entirety.

Campaigners Bertrice Pompe, left and Bernadette Dugasse brought legal action against the Chagos deal - Lucy North/PA Wire

The deal was signed on Thursday afternoon, hours later than planned, after a last-minute legal challenge was rushed to the High Court. Bertrice Pompe, who was born on the Chagos Islands, claimed the pact was a breach of her human rights and at 2.25am on Thursday won an injunction pausing the deal.

But her request to pause the signing of the treaty and begin a judicial review was blocked by a judge when she returned to court on Thursday morning.

It comes days after Sir Keirs reset with Brussels, in which he agreed to subject the UK to European rules and signed a 12-year deal for EU fishermen to access British waters.

This deal serves the UKs interests

By John Healey

For more than 50 years, the UKs military base on Diego Garcia has been a launchpad to defeat terrorists, seek out and deter threats to our nation and protect our economic security.

There is one simple, inescapable fact  families across Britain are made safer by the activities of this base.

Our national security rests on securing a deal that serves the UKs interests. A deal that retains operational sovereignty of this base. To surrender it now  amid rising threats to Britains national security  would be unthinkable.

That is why the Government has successfully negotiated a deal that means we can operate the base as we have done for the next 99 years and beyond.

Many of the key activities on Diego Garcia are rightly conducted in secrecy, and will always remain so. But it is widely acknowledged, by our allies and adversaries, that its location gives Britain and our allies a crucial strategic military advantage across the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.

Copy of 0410 Chagos Islands map

The continued operation of this base is also vital to maintaining a strong relationship with America, our closest security ally. Its airfield and deep-water port support a wide range of air and naval operations, including the safe berth of nuclear-powered submarines.

And the base allows for the rapid deployment of UK and US armed forces to the Middle East, east Africa and south Asia.

It is from Diego Garcia where we monitor the use of nuclear weapons across the globe. The base also supports the Global Positioning System, which everyone from astronauts to motorists, to our UK military, relies on to navigate. It also acts as a staging post for humanitarian aid and disaster relief missions in the region.

Diego Garcia strengthens Britains economic security  the economic security for families across our country.

More than a third of the worlds bulk cargo traffic and two thirds of global oil shipments is transported over the Indian Ocean. The base enables us to protect vital shipping routes, keeping the prices of food and energy down here at home.

Despite holding 11 rounds of talks with the Mauritian government, the previous Conservative government failed to secure the future of the base.

Now yesterdays champions have become todays critics. Anyone who would argue to abandon this deal would abandon the base. With the base in jeopardy, no action was no option when we came into Government.

Sitting on our hands was not an option. Were we to do nothing, within a matter of weeks our ability to patrol the waters around the base would be compromised. And if a deal were negotiated with an adversary, they could have exploited the situation by conducting covert operations, setting up outposts on surrounding islands and disrupting crucial communications systems on the base. This would deeply damage the security of the UK and our allies.

Agreeing this deal now  on our terms  means that the UK retains full control over Diego Garcia. It means control over movement of all persons and goods, control over all communication and electronic systems, and freedom to conduct any armed operations from the island  just as we have been able to do for the past 50 years.

And, crucially, it means nothing can be built within a strengthened, 24-nautical-mile buffer zone without Britains say so. A strict ban will be imposed on foreign security forces operating on the outer islands. Thats why our closest allies support this deal and why President Donald Trump described it as very long term and very strong.

As the world becomes more dangerous, Diego Garcia military base becomes more important. This Government will never compromise on our national security. We will always act to protect the British people. A steadfast commitment to our national security is the foundation of this Governments Plan for Change. And with this deal, we have made Britain more secure at home and stronger abroad.

John Healey is the Defence Secretary
Katharine Birbalsingh is known for her strict policies on behaviour and has banned mobile phones in her school

Transgender children are more likely to be white and privileged, Britains so-called strictest headteacher has claimed.

Katharine Birbalsingh, 52, also said that they are searching for victimhood narratives, which she claims are admired in modern society.

The former government social mobility tsar, who is headteacher at the Michaela Community School in north west London, suggested she was unlikely to have any transgender pupils because of the schools heavy ethnic minority intake.

I think if one actually did a survey on this sort of thing nationally, I think you would find that white privileged kids would be more likely to be doing that. No question, she told The Standard.

Our society is such that victimhood is admired. And if you feel that youre white and privileged, then you dont have much of a victimhood narrative to embrace.

So then you need to find something to embrace to be respected by your peers.

Ms Birbalsingh said she did not expect to be welcoming a trans pupil soon because much of the Michaela intake is from the inner city. That plays a huge part, she continued. I think theyd be less inclined.

The Michaela Community School in Brent, north west London - Lucy North/PA Wire

She added that she would want to support any child identifying as trans at the school and make sure they werent just participating in a fad.

The headteacher said her school discourages children from doing anything performative.

Of course there are obstacles  racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, all that exists clearly, she added. But how you react to that obstacle is up to you. We reject victimhood and embrace agency and personal responsibility.

Supreme Courts ruling

New figures show 157 children awaiting gender care in England and Wales are aged 10 or under.

The data, obtained following the Supreme Courts ruling on the definition of a woman last month, also show there were 6,225 children on the national waiting list at the end of March  up from 5,560 at the same point a year earlier.

Although the court ruling does not directly affect pupils, as gender recognition certificates are only available to people aged 18 or over, experts have said it will have consequences for the school admission policies of single-sex schools.

The Telegraph has previously revealed that the NHS is treating nursery school-age children who believe they are transgender after watering down its own guidance.

Ms Birbalsingh, who is known for her strict, uncompromising rule, said her schools values encourage the kids to seek the truth. She has already banned phones entirely at Michaela and encourages parents not to buy them for under-16s at all.

In April last year, the High Court upheld her ban on Muslim prayers taking place during the learning day.

A pupil claimed the policy was discriminatory and infringed her right to religious freedom.

However, the court sided with Ms Birbalsingh who had argued the ban was vital to ensure children of all races and religions can thrive.
US President Donald Trump met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office on Wednesday amid tensions over Washingtons resettlement of white Afrikaners - Getty

Amid green hills near the South African town of Levubu, Louis Cloete and his wife, Ina, raised their children on a farm that had been in the family for three generations.

This lushly fertile region, just north of the Tropic of Capricorn, is a heartland for growing tropical fruit and nuts. After they retired and their son and two daughters left home, Louis and Ina stayed on the farm as tenants.

Their idyll ended one afternoon in April 2022 when intruders burst in and attacked the pair, then aged 74 and 66.

The attackers murdered Louis and Ina, white farmers, before ransacking the homestead for valuables and setting it ablaze.

The corpses of the couple were later found burnt beyond recognition inside the ruins of their home. All around lay the charred remains of the life they had made together, including dozens of damaged hunting trophies in what was once the living room.

Louis and Ina were residing on a remote farm in a country with one of the worlds highest rates of violent crime, but relations said they had always felt safe.

I often raised the issue with her of them being in a vulnerable situation all by themselves on the farm, Inas brother, Jurie Schoeman, later told the Sunday Times of South Africa. She was positive, she got along with local people, he said, adding that the couple were both fluent in the Venda language spoken in the area.

The fate of Louis and Ina  and many others like them  has taken on a new significance since Donald Trumps highly charged encounter with Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

Trump challenged his visitor about the supposed persecution of white South Africans in general and white farmers in particular, producing a sheaf of news stories and a carefully prepared video. Although he did not use the word during this meeting, Trump has previously spoken of an alleged genocide of white farmers in South Africa.

In a stroke of political theatre, Trump held up the news reports of various crimes committed against white South Africans and summarised their contents. Death, death  horrible  death, death, he intoned as he went through each example. Ramaphosa, by contrast, calmly and deliberately rebutted the presidents charges.

So what is the truth? How should the world view Trumps accusations?

One chilling fact is that about 75 people are murdered in South Africa every day, compared with fewer than two in England and Wales, even though their respective populations are similar.

The South African police recorded a total of 27,621 murders in 2023-24  that amounts to some 45 people per 100,000.

Yet black South Africans comprised the great majority of these victims. The number of killings known to have taken place on farms, meanwhile, is relatively low. In the last three months of 2024, police registered nearly 7,000 murders, of which 12 happened on farms.

The race of the victims was not recorded, but one was a farmer; the remainder were either farmworkers or people staying on farms, while one was a security guard. Throughout 2023, there were 49 murders on farms, with some of those victims being black workers.

AfriForum, a South African campaign group representing the white Afrikaner minority, recorded nine farm murders in the first quarter of 2023, compared with 11 and seven in the same periods of 2022 and 2021 respectively.

Presented with these numbers, scarcely anyone in South Africa would apply a word like genocide. Yes, white farmers have been murdered, but so have thousands of others. The farmers are not being systematically targeted for a concerted campaign because of their race; instead, they have fallen prey to the lawlessness that often prevails across the country.

Gareth Newham, who runs a justice and violence prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies in the capital, Pretoria, describes the idea of a white genocide as completely false.

The overwhelming majority of murder victims in South Africa were, he says, young and poor black men.

White people  and white farmers  are the least at risk of violent crime and murder compared to other racial or ethnic groups in South Africa, says Newham.

White people, generally, are far wealthier, own more land and have a far better quality of life than black people. This would not be the case if there was a white genocide taking place.

Newham says that robbery was the main motive for the great majority of farm attacks. Any evidence of a racial or political motive, such as slogans written on walls or statements made by the attackers, was exceedingly rare, he adds.

No political party in South Africa, including those representing Afrikaners, alleges that a genocide is underway. Nor do groups representing farmers themselves.

If a murder is on a farm, we call it a farm murder, says Johann Kotze, the head of Agri SA, a farmers lobby group. But remember, that same night somebody was also murdered in the little township where the farm workers came from.

Trumps presentation in the Oval Office also contained glaring inaccuracies. The first case study that he chose to present to the world concerned an attack on Jan Jurgens, a 73-year-old white farmer.

Jan Jurgens (73) and his wife, Antoinette (72), were attacked on their farm last week

True enough, Jurgens was assaulted and tied up on his farm last week. But, contrary to Trump, he was not murdered: he is still alive.

One white farmer in Mpumalanga province tells The Telegraph: Yes, farmers are murdered, but so is everyone else. Being isolated on farms may increase the risk of attacks, but this is not genocide, but rather straight criminality.

Yet, if Trumps main charge is demonstrably false, people have every right to be alarmed by the incendiary rhetoric of some South African politicians.

Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, has addressed mass rallies with the slogan: Kill the farmer! Kill the Boer! He has led crowds of thousands in chants of shoot to kill.

Malema is an opposition politician who has never held office and his party won just 10.8 per cent of the vote at the last election. And, however distasteful it sounds, the slogan Kill the farmer! Kill the Boer was frequently heard during the struggle against apartheid.

Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, addressing his supporters during the EFF birthday rally, July 29 2023 - Getty

Even so, Malemas rhetoric in a country with a bitter history of racial conflict must inevitably stir a sense of threat.

That is particularly true when, more than 30 years after the end of apartheid, over a third of all South Africans are jobless, rising to about 60 per cent for the young. After years of economic stagnation, millions of people endure absolute poverty in squalid townships.

Meanwhile, the African Nation Congresss (ANC) shameless corruption has indelibly tarnished South Africas Mandela-era image as a rainbow nation and symbol of hope.

The presidency of Jacob Zuma between 2009 and 2018 degenerated into a festival of brazen looting, during which the state was captured and bled dry by a kleptocratic elite. In that era, no less than 20 billion was stolen from government coffers and public enterprises.

But the ANC paid the price when it lost its parliamentary majority in last years election. Today, Ramaphosa leads a coalition government of 10 political parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA), which is supported by most white voters. John Steenhuisen, the DAs (white) leader represents the interests of farmers as agriculture minister. Leon Schreiber, another (white) DA politician, serves as home affairs minister.

The real danger facing South Africa is not Trumps false and inflammatory accusations. Instead, the greatest risk is that Ramaphosas new government will fail to achieve the economic transformation that must happen if jobs are to be created and poverty reduced.

As the unemployed ranks swell, of which a lot of the blame can be laid squarely at the door of the ANC, says the white farmer from Mpumlanga, criminality increases and more and more desperate people resort to desperate measures.

Unless this generation of South African leaders can drag the country out of its malaise, the number of desperate people will grow. And all the time, Malema is waiting in the wings.
Trump held up a number of murder cases, including Antoinette and Jan Jurgens - though the couple are alive - Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

As Donald Trump confronted the South African president in an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office, he clutched a sheaf of news reports he said showed mass killings of white farmers.

In a powerful stroke of political theatre, he reeled off the fate of each of the people in the stories. Death, death, death, horrible death, death, he intoned as he went through each example.

The reports along with a video of incendiary speeches from firebrand opposition politicians threatening to steal white land, or attack white people, showed Cyril Ramaphosa was allowing a genocide to occur, he suggested.

Such claims have been circulating for years and were also raised in 2018 during Mr Trumps first term, but the accusation has now become so ubiquitous it is a significant obstacle in South Africas attempts to reset relations with Washington.

Accusations that white people in South Africa are victims of a genocide have become a rallying cry for Right-wing groups in Europe and the US.

The claims have roots in South Africas appalling levels of violent crime; in unresolved racial tensions over the distribution of land and in the very real fears of exposed rural communities.

Yet researchers say the claims are also false and that while white farmers have been killed, it is as part of a pattern of crime, extreme violence and lawlessness across the country.

They say the attacks are motivated by opportunistic criminality, are not part of a concerted campaign, and that black people, including black farmers, are far more likely to be killed.

None of South Africas political parties, including those representing Afrikaners, allege a white genocide is underway.

A South African judge in February ruled the idea of a genocide was clearly imagined and not real, when deciding an inheritance case involving a wealthy benefactors donation to the Boerelegioen right wing paramilitary group.

The idea of a white genocide taking place in South Africa is completely false, said Gareth Newham, head of a justice and violence prevention program at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa.

As an independent institute tracking violence and violent crime in South Africa, if there was any evidence of either a genocide or targeted violence taking place against any group based on their ethnicity this, we would be amongst the first to raise (the) alarm and provide the evidence to the world.

Murder case with no murders

The fact that the reality was different than Mr Trump suggested was illustrated by the very first murder case study that he held up.

The first cutting reported an attack on 73-year-old Jan Jurgens in his farm outside Mbombela, in the countrys north-east.

Mr Jurgens was not killed as Mr Trump said, however, though he was badly hurt when armed intruders attacked him and tied him up last week.

Antoinette and Jan Jurgens were attacked at their farm outside Mbombela

Mr Jurgens wife, Antoinette, was also attacked when she returned home. She managed to fight them off and lock herself in the house and alert staff on the farm. The attackers fled with a HP laptop, a mobile phone, and a handbag containing bank cards and an ID.

The fear of such crime is widespread in rural South Africa, where the majority of farmland is still owned by white farmers and police are accused of doing too little to protect them or catch the culprits. Attackers can use horrific violence.

Adding to the sense of being under siege are the incendiary speeches by populists like Julius Malema of the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who preaches the redistribution of land.

He also leads supporters in a song with the refrain kill the boer, which critics say is an incitement to violence against white farmers.

Most people killed in South Africa are black

But researchers say that while violent crime is rife in South Africa, the vast majority of victims are black and poor, and white people are not being deliberately targeted.

Quarterly figures show that around 75 people are murdered in the country each day. That compares with fewer than two murders each day in England and Wales, with a similar population size.

Police statistics show that nearly 7,000 people were killed in the last three months of 2024 and of those, 12 murders occurred on farms. The data do not record race, but one of those killed was a farmer and the rest were farm workers, people staying on farms and a security guard.

Of 7,000 killings in the last three months of 2024, 12 murders occurred on farms - GETTY IMAGES

When Mr Trump earlier this year raised the issue, the chief of South Africas largest farm lobby group, AgriSA, denied farmers were being killed for political reasons.

Johann Kotze said: Crime in South Africa is too high. If a murder is on a farm, we call it a farm murder. But remember that same night somebody was also murdered in the little township where the farm workers came from.

At a major agricultural fair last week in the Free State province, farmers told reporters that they were worried about safety and the lack of government help, but said the crime was affecting everyone.

Thobani Ntonga, a black farmer from Eastern Cape province, told Associated Press he had been attacked on his farm by criminals and almost kidnapped before a neighbour intervened.

He said: Crime affects both black and white. ... Its an issue of vulnerability.

Farmers are separated from your general public. Were not near towns, we are in the rural areas. And I think its exactly that. So, perpetrators, they thrive on that, on the fact that farms are isolated.

Ernie Els, the golfer, holds up his passport during the meeting in the Oval Office - GETTY IMAGES

Prof Rudolph Zinn, a criminologist at the University of Limpopo, has interviewed dozens of convicted farm attackers and said in all cases he had found they were driven by financial gain. Attackers sought cash or goods, and often saw farms as soft targets.

Mr Ramaphosa, backed by his delegation and mutual friends of Mr Trump like Ernie Els and the businessman Johann Rupert, will be trying to make these arguments to the US government.

Their fear is that Mr Trump does not really want to listen.
St Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2020. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Some attorneys involved in the bankrupt New Orleans Catholic archdioceses federal financial reorganization say they have reached terms on an agreement to settle decades worth of clergy molestation claims, but lawyers representing a sizeable share out of more than 600 abuse claimants contend the proposed deal falls short by about $100m  and theyre hoping they have the votes to block its approval.

Both developments came on Wednesday amid a struggle to resolve a tortuous chapter 11 case that has cost the church more than $45m in legal and other professional costs. The case theoretically could get dismissed at a hearing toward the end of June if the presiding judge, Meredith Grabill, determines she is unsatisfied with its progress.

Wednesdays announced agreement was between attorneys for the archdiocese and those representing a creditors committee advocating on behalf of people who have filed abuse-related demands for damages in the bankruptcy.

But most of the abuse claimants are not on the panel that helped craft the announced agreement, which requires approval from two-thirds of voting plaintiffs  many of whom are represented by attorneys not involved in the committee.

Related: Lawyers for New Orleans clergy abuse survivors ramp up pressure to depose archbishop

A group of attorneys who collectively represent more than 80 abuse claimants say they are against the terms of the deal negotiated by the committee and churchs lawyers amid protracted mediation talks. And those attorneys  Richard Trahant, John Denenea and Soren Giselson  say they will recommend that their clients vote against accepting the proposed settlement.

Another attorney who represents about 100 abuse claimants, Robert Salim, told Bloomberg Law that Wednesdays proposal was woefully inadequate to address the harms these people have endured.

This proposed settlement is not in the best interest of anyone but the church, Salim reportedly said. We remain committed to finding a just and honorable resolution of these claims. The proposal as [it] stands doesnt accomplish this goal.

If approximately 600 claimants voted on whether to settle, it would take about 200 to oppose the deal for it to be rejected.

According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, the deal put on the table on Wednesday calls for the archdiocese, its affiliates and insurers to pay between $180m and $230m, much more than the $62.5m initially offered by the church in September  but far short of the $323m deal approved in 2024 for a similar case pitting about 600 clergy abuse claimants against the archdiocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York.

The committee delivered on its commitment to provide survivors a settlement that provides fair compensation, transparency and, importantly, unprecedented child-protection measures, said Jim Stang, the lead attorney for survivors committees in both New Orleans and Rockville Centre. We look forward to working with all survivors to bring this five-year bankruptcy case to an acceptable resolution.

In a letter on Wednesday, New Orleanss archbishop Gregory Aymond said the proposed deal would protect the archdioceses institutions while allowing them to collectively look to the future towards a path to healing for survivors and for our local church.

A statement from Trahant and his associates said Wednesdays announcement was a backroom deal that excluded the overwhelming majority of survivors and is spitting in the face of the people [the churchs] employees raped.

The New Orleans proposal calls for the church and its affiliates to provide about $130m in cash already in hand toward a settlement. That figure would grow to at least $150m  and up to $200m  from the eventual sale of about a dozen archdiocesan-owned apartment complexes providing housing for low-income seniors as well as people who are disabled.

However, those Christopher Homes apartment complexes were not even on the market as of Wednesday, and there is no known buyer lined up yet  despite the archdioceses having first received a purchase offer from an interested party days after it filed for bankruptcy in May 2020. So, even if things go smoothly, that key transaction could take a year to complete, Denenea and his associates argue.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Stang said the sale of the archdiocese-owned orphanage known as Hope Haven  which was shuttered after numerous children were abused there by clergymen and others  would also create funds for the settlement. Louisiana state senator Pat Connick has spoken publicly about leading a plan calling for the government of the community where the site is to buy and transform it into a mixed-use space.

The deal at the moment says the churchs insurers would contribute about $30m, an amount that is hundreds of millions of dollars below what the survivors committees attorneys had previously suggested those companies should pony up. Sources said the proposal does not mention any money coming from the churchs largest insurer, Travelers, though abuse claimants would be able to litigate against that company individually upon resolving the church bankruptcy.

Accepting the deal as it is, therefore, would net clergy abuse survivors in New Orleans an average payout of between $300,000 and $383,000, significantly less than the nearly $540,000 per abuse claim for which the Rockville Centre archdioceses bankruptcy on Long Island settled.

How much each claimant gets would be based on a matrix established under the settlement factoring in the nature of the abuse, the amount of supporting evidence and other elements.

James Adams, a clergy abuse survivor who served as the creditors committee chairperson for the first two years of the churchs bankruptcy, said he was displeased with how the plan presented on Wednesday used fictional numbers to come up with a speculative total.

Adams said the settlement plan put forth was a missed opportunity to make a good faith offer.

This is not what it is, so its incredibly disappointing, said Adams, who is represented by Trahant and his associates. To call a vote on this proposal is a waste of time and money. Its a dead deal walking.

A statement from Mark Vath, who is representing himself as he pursues damages for clergy abuse in the New Orleans church bankruptcy, said: My vote is  NOPE.

Various non-monetary concessions from the church were also part of the newly announced settlement proposal. They include the public disclosure, archiving of clergy abuse-related documents as well as requiring independent, and outside investigations over any church molestation claims that may come in the future. A statement from Stang also referred to the pledged installation of a survivors memorial at the Hope Haven site slated for sale and redevelopment.

The action on Wednesday unfolded after Grabill, in late April, ordered the New Orleans archdiocese to appear before her on 26 June and show why its bankruptcy should not be dismissed.

Issued three days before the fifth anniversary of the bankruptcys filing, Grabills order suggested there had been little meaningful headway after the archdiocese and survivors committee filed competing plans in September for settling the case.

Further ramping up pressure on the church was a parallel request from clergy abuse survivors attorneys to terminate the bankruptcy, which the group made even after Grabills threatened dismissal.

Trahant, Denenea and Gisleson made that request alongside six other attorneys  including Salim  with whom they have generally aligned themselves. Those nine attorneys, who often make decisions about their clients in concert, advise a bloc of roughly 250 abuse claimants in the bankruptcy.

Related: New Orleans clergy abuse survivor and his family devise anti-grooming bill

Dismissing the archdioceses bankruptcy would force it to litigate with abuse claimants individually rather than jointly, which could be more expensive for the church.

The churchs opening settlement offer in September aimed to pay the survivors an average of $125,000 per claimant. The committee at first sought an average of about $2m per claimant, with insurers being tapped to cough up the bulk of that amount.

During April 2024 in the recently settled Long Island bankruptcy, survivors voted to reject a church offer to settle for about $333,000 per abuse claim.

They then voted to settle in September after the church and its insurers offered about $538,000 per claim. In that case, the church put up about $235m of the total amount, with insurers providing most of the rest.

New Orleanss archdiocese  the second-oldest in the US, with about a half-million congregants  went to federal bankruptcy court to protect itself from more than 60 years worth of claims of child sexual abuse by priests and deacons.

Nonetheless, the bankruptcy did not prevent the exposure of how the New Orleans church shielded admitted serial child molester and retired priest Lawrence Hecker from law enforcement for decades. Hecker eventually pleaded guilty in criminal court to child rape in December and soon after died in prison at age 93.

The investigation into Hecker then widened into an inquiry over whether the archdiocese ran a child sex-trafficking ring responsible for the widespread  abuse of minors dating back decades that was kept under cover and not reported to authorities, according to statements sworn under oath by police.

As of Wednesday, none of Heckers superiors had been charged with crimes in the case against him.
The aftermath of a shooting at the Israeli embassy in Washington DC - Anadolu

During the notorious parliamentary debate on Israel this week, in which the foreign secretary announced that he was suspending trade talks with the sole democracy in the Middle East, the false claim that 14,000 babies could be dead in the next 48 hours was repeated no fewer than 13 times, according to the record in Hansard.

The following day, a man shot dead two Israeli diplomats outside a Jewish Museum in Washington DC while allegedly crying free Palestine.

In the latest anti-Semitic outrage in 2,000 years of anti-Semitic outrages, a couple in their twenties, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were about to become engaged, were gunned down after an event, apparently by a brainwashed Gaza junkie.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were killed in the attack

Their portrait says it all. There they stand in formal attire, full of optimism and life, smiling at the camera as they look forward to making a home together, flanked by the flags of the United States and Israel, two of the best and freest countries in their respective regions.

Both are also nations that have, to very different extents, suffered the scourge of jihadi terror. The 9/11 attacks in New York were motivated largely by anti-Semitism, a trial of a surviving member of the terror cell in Hamburg later revealed.

To this coupling we can add other countries across the West, including our own. As it happened, the shooting in Washington took place on the eighth anniversary of the bombing of the Manchester Arena. Did Salman Abedi have Palestine in the back of his mind as he butchered 22 children and their relatives at the Ariana Grande concert? My moneys on yes.

The grim truth is that there is a common denominator between the affront to Western values and interests on display in parliament this week and the gruesome murders in Washington and elsewhere.

It is unlikely that anybody would carry out any form of jihadi murder without believing deeply in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Such as the claim that 14,000 Palestinian babies could be dead in the next 48 hours.

These conspiracy theories have been commonplace ever since the Cold War, when Soviet propagandists invented them and spread them around the world, where they were received with some glee by the Muslim world and the Western Left.

Foremost, of course, is the false claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, despite the fact that if it had wished to do so, it could have obliterated the entire Strip from the air in about half-an-hour without risking the life of a single soldier.

There are many others, however: apartheid, settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, white supremacy, Nazism. To these we may add false claims specific to Israels operations in Gaza. The IDF bombs hospitals for fun. Shoots civilians for fun. Kills infants for fun, just like the Jews have done since 1144 in Norwich.

But 14,000 babies? Surely that stretched the bounds of credulity. In the fever dream of Israelophobia, however, even the most Satanic behaviour is credible when were talking about the Middle Easts only democracy.

So it was that after a United Nations humanitarian chief made the claim on Radio 4s Today, it travelled halfway round the world in a matter of minutes.

As the BBC established shortly afterwards, however, the assertion was false. It came from a recent UN report speculating that 14,000 children between the ages of four and six could be in danger of acute malnutrition in Gaza over the next year.

No babies. No 48 hours. No actual starvation, just a fear of it. Yet this was insufficient to prevent the lie from occupying centre stage in Parliament, riling up MPs from both sides of the aisle as they agitated for David Lammy to put the boot into the Jewish state.

It makes for an ugly picture. Every single one of those parliamentarians who defiled the chamber by so self-righteously repeating an obviously false allegation, made by a representative of an organisation  the UN  which has traded in anti-Semitic tropes for decades, should issue an immediate apology.

Lammy should correct the shamefully hostile stance that he has taken on behalf of the country towards the Jewish state. The suggestion in his opening remarks that Israels war of self-defence was an affront to the values of the British people could not have been more ironic, given the way he was trampling those values himself.

Because the true common denominator in all this is that Britain, the United States and Israel all face different heads of the hydra of jihadism. The greatest success of Hamas propagandists is to make us believe that their bloodlust is some form of resistance to Israeli occupation and oppression, something we should support. This is ahistorical garbage.

The Arab world launched two wars of annihilation against the Jewish state, in 1948 and 1967, before there was a single Israeli boot on the West Bank or in Gaza. The apartheid slur was being used before then, too. Hamas went on to derail the Oslo peace accords, which would have delivered a Palestinian state, with a campaign of suicide bombs.

It is disgraceful that the foreign secretary has allowed Hamas to blind him to the interests of Britain. It is disgraceful that he has shown himself to be as susceptible to propaganda as the next idiot in a keffiyeh. The shooting in Washington should serve as a well-needed reminder that we are witnessing a struggle between the West and the forces of jihad, and there can be no question about which side we must take.
Rapper Kid Cudi claimed that Sean Diddy Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in 2011 after finding out he was dating Combss ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and that someone set fire to his car weeks later.

Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, took the witness box in Combss sex trafficking trial in New York and said he and Cassie briefly dated in 2011.

Rapper Kid Cudi told the court that Combs allegedly broke into his house and locked his dog in a bathroom (Richard Drew/AP)

He said he took her to a West Hollywood hotel one day to get her away from the seething Combs.

While there, he said, he got a call from Combss assistant, Capricorn Clark, who told him Combs and an affiliate were in his house and that she had been forced to go with them.

Cudi said he left the hotel to drive home, and that he called Combs en route and  using an expletive  asked him why he was in his house.

He said Combs calmly replied: I want to talk to you.

Sean Diddy Combs is on trial for sex trafficking (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

But Combs wasnt there when he arrived, Cudi said.

Instead, he found that someone had opened Christmas presents hed bought for his family and locked his dog in a bathroom.

Cudi said he wasnt sure what was going on, so he called the police.

A few weeks later, Cudi said his Porsche was destroyed by fire while parked in his driveway.

Music artist Kid Cudi said that, weeks after the break-in, his Porsche was set on fire, and a Molotov cocktail was found on the passenger seat (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

Cudi said he was at a friends house when his dog sitter called and told me my car was on fire.

Photos shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the cars fabric roof and a Molotov cocktail was found in the passenger seat.

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, gave evidence last week and said that Combs had threatened to blow up Cudis car and hurt him, after he learned she was dating the Grammy Award-winning rapper, who is known for his alternative hip-hop style.

Cudi told jurors that Combs denied involvement in the car fire when they met to try to smooth things over the next day at a Los Angeles hotel.

Rapper Kid Cudi leaves Federal Court after testifying at the trial of Sean Diddy Combs (Richard Drew/AP)

He said he sought the SoHo Hotel meeting  brokered by his manager and Combss bodyguard  because after the fire I said, this is getting out of hand, I need to talk to him.

Cudi said he didnt have conflicts at the time with anyone other than Combs.

At the end of the meeting, as they stood and shook hands, Cudi said he asked Combs: What are we going to do about my car?

Cudi said Combs gave him a very cold stare and responded: I dont know what youre talking about.

Cassie Ventura gave evidence earlier in the trial, saying that Combs had threatened to blow up Cudis car (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Cudi said he was miffed by Combss answer but let it go.

The rapper said he told Combs that he was taking him at his word. Eventually, he said, he made peace with the situation, and there were no more incidents at his house.

A few years later, Combs apologised to Cudi for everything when they ran into each other again at the SoHo House hotel, Cudi testified.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges lodged against him after he was arrested in September at a Manhattan hotel.

Sean Diddy Combs has denied the allegations against him (Richard Shotwell/AP)

He denies allegations that he used threats and his powerful position in the hip-hop world to abuse women and others, and force Cassie to take part in drug-fuelled sexual performances, called freak-offs, with other men that she said left her too drained to pursue her singing career.

The federal investigation of Combs began in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse.

The lawsuit was settled by Combs for 20 million dollars the next day.

In four days of evidence last week, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, said Combs subjected her to abuse through most of the nearly 11 years she was with him from 2007 through 2018.

Earlier, the trial heard of Combss relationship with R&B singer Cassie (Chris Pizzello/AP)

She said she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011, which she ended within weeks after Combs learned about it when he looked at her phone during a freak-off  one of hundreds she said she endured over the years.

George Kaplan, Combss personal assistant from 2013 to 2015, gave evidence earlier on Thursday, saying that he saw Combs be violent with Cassie only once, on a 2015 trip to Las Vegas aboard Combss private jet.

He said he heard glass breaking behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.

There was tremendous commotion and a scuffle, and then after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed: Isnt anybody seeing this? Mr Kaplan said, adding that neither he nor any of the security workers or Bad Boy staff on the plane responded to her call for help.

George Kaplan, Sean Diddy Combss former personal assistant, gives evidence during the moguls sex trafficking and racketeering trial (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Mr Kaplan said he did not intervene because he did not want to lose his dream job.

He said that a later incident, in which he saw Cassie sitting in a bedroom with a black eye before Combs sent him to pick up anti-inflammatory medicine to treat the injury, and the attack on the plane, led him to quit.

Mr Kaplan also said he saw Combs become violent with another girlfriend, whom he referred to only as Gina, when the rapper threw green apples at her at his Florida home.
Rising production costs are threatening the viability of UK theatre, a report has said.

The cost of running and creating theatre has soared, rising significantly faster than inflation, according to a report into the state of British theatre in 2025 from the Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre.

The economics of theatre are finely balanced. Without strategic support and investment, rising costs threaten the viability of even the most commercially successful productions, it said.

The report outlines potential threats to the sectors financial sustainability, including the cumulative effect of rising inflation, heightened international trade tensions and the potential impact of new US tariffs.

On Wednesday official figures revealed that UK inflation surged to its highest level for more than a year last month after households were hit by a raft of awful April bill increases.

In spite of growing costs, members of the SOLT and UK Theatre welcomed more than 37 million audience members in 2024, with the West End surpassing 17.1 million attendees, generating more than 1 billion in revenue for the first time in history, according to the organisations.

The report estimates that the average price of a West End ticket is 5.3% lower in real terms than in 2019 and says that most theatre tickets remain affordable.

Another issue is investment, with one in five UK venues requiring at least 5 million over the next decade simply to remain operational, according to a 2024 survey from the organisations.

Out of the 65 venues surveyed, it was found that nearly 40% of them could close or become unusable in the next five years without substantial capital funding.

Rising costs in transport, accommodation, freight and staffing are also affecting domestic touring and the report said these financial pressures are straining the viability of touring models that rely on lean margins and collaborative delivery.

At the same time, audiences are facing their own cost-of-living challenges and this means that simply raising ticket prices is not a viable solution if theatre is to remain accessible to all.

The report said higher-priced tickets help cross-subsidise lower-cost options, enabling more people to attend while preserving financial sustainability.

It also said the Government needs to make a sustained investment in infrastructure, skills, access and innovation.

International productions can also face complex issues, such as trade uncertainty, but the report added that UK theatre continues to punch above its weight globally.

Six The Musical, which has toured across the world, is an example of the power of UK theatre as a world-leading cultural export, according to the report.

Jarneia Richard-Noel, Millie OConnell, Natalie Paris, Alexia McIntosh, Aimie Atkinson and Maiya Quansah-Breed attending the premiere of Six The Musical Live! (Yui Mok/PA)

SOLT and UK Theatre co-chief executives Claire Walker and Hannah Essex said: From the West End to regional stages, our members are working harder than ever to keep theatre accessible and inclusive, even as costs rise and funding declines.

But the reality is stark: theatres are doing more with less  and the strain is showing.

Rising costs, shrinking support and ageing infrastructure are putting the sector under unsustainable pressure.

We are seeing world-class organisations forced to cut programmes, delay maintenance and scale back outreach.

If we want to maintain the UKs position as a global leader in theatre  and continue to inspire the next generation of actors, writers and technicians  then Government must act.

That means restoring public investment, investing in infrastructure and ensuring that every child can experience the life-changing power of live performance.
After doing several hundred cats, you learn what you can get away with and when you need to back off quickly. Photograph: Imago/Alamy

After decades of mystery, new research has shed light on a question that has long stumped scientists and cat lovers alike  what exactly makes orange cats, well  orange?

Two studies published in Current Biology last week by separate teams at Stanford University and Japans Kyushu University at last provided some answers. Scientists have known for more than a century that orange cats inherit coloring differently from other mammals. Now  with help from hundreds of cat owners  researchers have identified the genetic mutation that gives orange cats their signature hue.

From the time we started working on genetics of hair color, we have been fascinated to know what causes orange hair color in cats, and we know based on its inheritance that it must be different from what causes it in humans or dogs or mice or other animals, said Greg Barsh, a professor of genetics at Stanford and the papers senior author. What wasnt known is what the mechanism was.

Related: Is that a cat in the Cheetos? New York comedian spotlights the citys famous bodega felines

To find out, the Stanford team began by collecting hundreds of cat DNA samples, visiting cat shows from California to Maryland and as far as Brazil. Researchers approached cat owners to ask whether they were willing to contribute and people were eager to participate, said Christopher Kaelin, a geneticist at Stanford and the studys lead author.

Cat owners and breeders are really open to genetic studies and contributing to genetic studies, Kaelin said. Theyre very interested in their cats, and theyre very interested in talking about their cats and sending pictures, which is another big part of this study. All of that interest made it really easy to connect and collect samples.

Collecting a sample involved sticking a cotton swab in a cats mouth and rubbing its cheeks to collect a small bit of DNA, Kaelin said. Its much more challenging to collect a cheek swab from a cat than a dog, due to felines being particularly resistant to having things placed in their mouths. But researchers have learned specific techniques to distract the cats, including scratching their heads. Talking them through the process seems to help, he added.

After doing several hundred cats, you learn what you can get away with and when you need to back off quickly, Kaelin said.

As the study progressed, cat owners began reaching out in hopes of contributing, and mailed in brushes to the researchers. Several spay-and-neuter clinics contributed tissue samples from feral cat populations.

Then in the lab, we could extract DNA from those samples and compare. We would then sequence portions of the genome and compare the sequences within those regions between orange and non-orange cats, looking for differences that might be the mutation that causes orange coat color, Kaelin said.

Researchers collected about 200 samples for use in the study, and in total have collected more than 3,000 samples for their research. After sequencing the DNA, they compared the sequence of orange cats to non-orange cats, which helped them locate the precise alteration: a small piece of missing DNA responsible for the orange mutation, Barsh said, near the gene known as ARHGAP36. The mutation activates that gene, which gets specifically turned on in pigment cells where it is not normally active.

It intersects with the same pathway that is responsible for red hair in humans, but it affects that pathway in a completely different way, Barsh said. Thats why the study is important. This is a pathway that is required for hormonal signaling in many different cell types in many different animals, including humans. Weve learned this pathway can be modulated in a new way to, in this case, affect hair color. But we think that that applies broadly to all cells and all tissues.

The fact that the samples were obtained in partnership with cat lovers in the community has allowed them to have greater engagement with the public, Barsh said: Both of those examples with cat shows and working with spay-neuter clinics are examples of how partnering with the community helps science and science education. More broadly, it advances science and no cats are harmed.

Kaelin has attended nearly 100 cat shows, he said, and presented research dozens of times so that cat owners have the opportunity to learn about what the team is doing. Feline color genetics are a useful scientific tool for discovery, and allow researchers to communicate scientific concepts to non-scientists. It really bridges an important gap, Kaelin said.
Anas Sarwar, the Labour leader in Scotland, accused Nigel Farages party of dirty tricks - Ken Jack/Getty Images

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, has accused Reform UK of dog whistle racism over a campaign advert claiming that he wants to prioritise the Pakistani community.

Nigel Farages party paid for a post on its Facebook page that featured a video of Mr Sarwar delivering a speech in 2022 at an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of Pakistans independence.

Mr Sarwar used the address to urge more people from Pakistani and South Asian backgrounds to get involved in politics.

The clip of the speech was preceded in the advert by the caption: Anas Sarwar has said he will prioritise the Pakistani community.

The video ended with the words: Only Reform UK will prioritise the people of Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, urging people to vote for the party in the Scottish Parliament by-election there on June 5.

Although the SNP is expected to comfortably win the contest, Labour faces the threat of being pushed into third place by Reform in what would be a major humiliation.

The Facebook advert has been viewed about 500,000 times

Reform insisted the advert was not racist and said it had no plans to remove it, but Mr Sarwar accused the party of dirty tactics.

He said: I have seen it and its a very deliberate dog whistle, which seeks to question my identity, question my loyalty and question my belonging in Scotland.

Im a proud Scot. I was born here, my kids were born here. Every single day, I fight for a better Scotland, regardless of what anyones politics might be. For them to play this kind of campaign, I think demonstrates the kind of people they are.

His spokesman added: This is a blatantly racist advert from Reform UK that attempts to question the identity, loyalty and belonging of Anas Sarwar.

According to Metas advert library, the post has been running on Facebook and Instagram since May 12 and cost Reform between 8,000 and 9,000. It is estimated to have been viewed up to 500,000 times.

In one of the clips of the speech featured in the advert, Mr Sarwar said: Pakistanis need [to be] represented in every mainstream political party in Scotland and across the UK.

It also featured an excerpt of the Scottish Labour leader stating that the days where South Asian communities get to lead political parties and get to lead countries is upon us.

However, neither clip in the advert shows him stating that the Pakistani community in Scotland would be prioritised.

Mr Sarwar was born in Glasgow to Pakistani Muslim parents. His father, Mohammad Sarwar, became the UKs first Muslim MP when he was elected to represent Glasgow Govan in 1997. He was later the governor of Punjab in Pakistan.

A spokesman for Reform UK said: Reform UK has advertised Anas Sarwars own words. If he doesnt like them, he shouldnt use them.

We know Scottish Labour is ashamed of Keir Starmers rhetoric, but it appears now theyre also trying to hide from Anas Sarwars record  well be happy in helping them by highlighting his record at every turn.

The row erupted as a fourth Tory councillor in Aberdeenshire defected to Reform. Dominic Lonchay, who represents the East Garioch ward, said there were many reasons for his decision. He said those included recently being unable to influence the running of the council for the benefit of my constituents.

It is understood that he applied to be a Tory candidate in next years Holyrood election but was rejected. He is the 13th councillor in Scotland to join Reform, with most of the defections from the Tories.

A spokesman for the Scottish Tories said: Under Russell Findlay, were reconnecting with common sense conservative values of enterprise, self-reliance, fiscal responsibility and the rule of law.

Every poll shows that Reform will only help the SNP. As we saw in last years general election, they handed several seats to the SNP which would have otherwise gone to a pro-UK party.
Ange Postecoglou hailed his Tottenham players after they climbed the mountain and reiterated his desire to stay after the club ended its 17-year trophy drought with a Europa League final victory over Manchester United.

It was far from a classic at San Mames, but Brennan Johnsons scruffy 42nd-minute finish alongside Micky van de Vens miraculous flying goal-line clearance in the second half to deny Rasmus Hojlund proved the difference.

Success in Bilbao means Postecoglou has delivered on his Autumn promise of always winning silverware in his second season, but doubts remain over whether chairman Daniel Levy will allow the Australian to still be in charge next season following a torrid Premier League campaign.

Relaxed is not the word because I would be disappointed if we couldnt continue on this path, but its not a criticism, Postecoglou explained.

I understand why it would be difficult for a club like this to buy into one persons vision. I remember even when I signed, the club and even Daniel said, we went after winners, it didnt work and now weve got Ange, but mate, Im a winner.

I have been a serial winner my whole career. Its what I have done more than anything else.

Obviously the way things have gone in the league, people are right to be concerned about, but I dont think thats a true reflection of where it is at.

Weve got a really young group of players and you can talk to them about success and what it means, but until they feel it, it doesnt become real.

Ive got no doubt that all those boys  having this feeling  will want it again. And to get it again theyre going to have to make similar sacrifices.

Theyve climbed the mountain now. They know what it takes to get to where we are. I think that does, it accelerates the opportunities to build a team who can be successful and play at a high standard for years to come.

As I said yesterday, I still feel theres a lot of work to be done, I think thats quite obvious, but not as much work as people may think.

People can bang on about 20 league defeats and where we are, but theyre missing the point of what were trying to build, or what Im trying to do anyway. I really feel that this can be a great platform for us to kick on.

Spurs will play in the Champions League next season despite being 17th in the Premier League, but Postecoglou revealed he decided in January to prioritise Europa League glory following an injury crisis during the winter months.

Postecoglou added: I think when we got to the end of January, the end of the transfer window, and assessed our situation, I just made a decision there and then that this was the trophy we were going to go for.

Thats come at a cost, for sure, in the league and Ive got to take the responsibility for that. I just felt like the end-game of winning something was more important and it was the only way I was going to do it.

With speculation over his future rife before every Europa League knock-out tie, Postecoglou laid out his own plans for the coming days before he signed off with a nod to Doris Days 1956 hit Whatever Will Be, Will Be in the bowels of San Mames.

No, no planned meetings. I havent had any discussions, Postecoglou explained.

What I do know is, Ill go back to my hotel room, get my family and friends together, open up a nice bottle of scotch, have a couple of quiet ones, get ready for a massive parade on Friday.

Play Brighton on Sunday  really important our last home game and we want to finish strong  and then Monday, Ill go on holiday with my beautiful family because I deserve it. And que sera sera.
Bertice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse, two British women born on the Chagos Islands who fought to stop Britain handing over sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius - Lucy North/PA

On Tuesday, Labour looked as though it might pull itself together. Aware that paying Mauritius while simultaneously cutting the winter fuel allowance was what political strategists call bad optics, it had put the surrender of the British Indian Ocean Territory on hold.

The Mauritian government had given it plenty of excuses, constantly demanding more cash to take on a territory over which it had never exercised sovereignty, and for which it had already been paid a tidy sum in exchange for renouncing its claim. Might Labour come to its senses and scrap the whole deal?

In the event, Sir Keir Starmer could not bring himself to question the supremacy of international lawyers. Rather than cancelling the Chagos surrender, he cancelled the attempt to trim our unaffordable benefits system. Taxpayers are being rinsed twice over.

Commentators struggle to explain Labours determination to hand the Chagos archipelago to a country more than 1,300 miles away. Mauritius will now be free to fish in the archipelagos protected waters, to build resorts on the outer atolls, to lease other islands in the chain to unfriendly powers.

Incredibly, Starmer agreed to hand over tens of billions of pounds into the bargain, surely the most needless and humiliating capitulation since  well, since Monday, when he agreed to pay the EU for the privilege of giving it control over British regulations.

What puzzled commentators miss, I think, is the almost religious power that the movement known as decolonise has over human rights KCs like Starmer  especially when linked to appeals to international law.

Wokesters dislike flags with Union Jacks in the corner. Their decolonise imperative trumps strategic concerns (Mauritius revived its claims in earnest only when China became interested); economic concerns (why pay for the privilege of surrendering territory?); political concerns (every Labour tax rise will now be howled down as money for Mauritius); and legal concerns (Britain only accepted the jurisdiction of the international court on the basis that it had no jurisdiction over disputes with other Commonwealth states).

For the Doughty Street/Matrix Chambers nexus that appears to run Labour, framing is everything. Here, in their minds, was a quarrel between a colonial power and a former colony, between a largely white population and a largely non-white one, between a rich country and a poor, between virtuous human rights lawyers and dyspeptic retired colonels.

But that framing is false. It ignores the truly wronged party, namely the indigenous Chagossians, removed from the archipelago by the then Labour Government in the late 1960s to make room for the air base on Diego Garcia.

The largest concentration of Chagossians is in Crawley, in what used to be my Euro-constituency. They were a diverse bunch, with lots of views about what they ultimately wanted. But one thing united almost all of them: they did not want to be Mauritians. Several had come to Britain via Mauritius, where they complained of racism and discrimination.

The surrender deal spurred them into holding protests around the country. I spoke to more than 500 at a rally in Hackney  by far the largest assembly of Chagossians I have seen in one place. There were protests outside Parliament and the Foreign Office. Indeed, the signing was held up by a last-minute legal challenge from Bertrice Pompe, who was removed from Diego Garcia when she was six, and who argued that being handed over to Mauritius was a breach of her and her communitys rights.

All to no avail, alas. For the student activists who run our country, withdrawing from British territory is all that matters. Shame on them. And shame on us for letting them get away with it.
Prison

As the 9/11 terrorist attack unfolded a Labour aide sent a memo around Government suggesting that it was a good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors expenses?, she suggested.

The Blairites are back in charge and channelling the same approach to Government communications. Yesterday the Government tried to bury their sentencing reforms under the spectre of high net migration figures, growing borrowing costs and the Chagos surrender deal, hoping the busy news day would avert attention.

No 10 even went to the lengths of deploying a dead cat story that they will mandate the chemical castration of paedophiles. Pigs will fly before Starmer faces down his friends in the human rights lobby and forces these sick individuals to confront their actions.

Under the plans the Justice Secretary announced yesterday there will be a presumption against short prison sentences of 12 month or less. To give a snapshot of the numbers that involves: in 2023 there were over 4,000 thieves, 3,000 thugs done for assault, and 1,000 burglars that were handed sentences that fall below the cut off. Those facing longer sentences  for offences like drug dealing, child abuse and arson  will be able to be eligible for release after serving just a third of their sentence if they behave well in prison.

In fact, it gets worse. Criminals who plead guilty  and most do  already get a one third reduction in their sentence. So, under Shabana Mahmooods new sentencing framework, a paedophile who pleads guilty to an eighteen-month headline term would spend just one fifth of that term in jail. Thats a discount so big itd make Aldi and Lidl blush. The public are already hacked off that criminals are serving half of their sentence  this change would see the whole system descend into farce.

Instead the Justice Secretary said  with a straight face, may I add  that offenders will be placed in prisons outside of prisons on tags. Words that lead most people in this country to conclude the Lord Chancellor has lost her marbles. Tags arent iron bars: they cant stop a shop being ransacked again and again. If you just get a tag, why on earth would you think twice about doing it again? This is a recipe for a crime wave and a licence for hardened criminals to terrorise communities with impunity.

Facing down Labour MPs in the House of Commons chamber yesterday, it was as if they thought the criminals were the real victims in need of our support (and taxpayer money)  not punishment.

Starmer insists he has no choice but to give prisoners a get out of jail free card. But he does. The day he elevated James Timpson to the Lords  a man who said two-third of prisoners shouldnt be in jail  and appointed him as a Justice Minister, he revealed his aversion to prison. What Starmer is doing isnt practical  its ideological.

The Ministry of Justice forecast that they need 9,500 extra prisons spaces by 2028. Well, there are 10,800 foreign national offenders clogging up our prisons. Thats one in every eight cells. And there are 17,800 people on remand, in prison, awaiting trial. In three years time that number could rise to as many as 23,600. Meanwhile, when I visited the Central Criminal Court last month, 40 per cent of the courts sat empty.

The practical solution would be to introduce emergency legislation to disapply the Human Rights Act to deport these foreign criminals. Visa sanctions should be imposed on every country that refuses to take back their nationals that have harmed our citizens. Courts should be sitting around the clock to clear the backlog of cases backing up into our prisons.

If Labour were serious they would commit to building more than the meagre 250 rapid deployment cells they are planning to build this year. Or strike a deal with one of the 13 European countries with spare prison capacity, as Denmark is doing with Kosovo. But instead of straining every sinew, they are reaching for the comforting option of freeing criminals.

Ironically, the Justice Secretary claims her reforms are based on the Texan system. Its no such thing. The Texas system has cut crime and reoffending by having an incarceration rate five times higher than ours. Between 1993 and 1996 they built nearly 75,000 prison cells. If they can, why cant we?

I would be the first to admit that the last Government didnt build enough prisons. We were also too quick to decommission the old Victorian prisons when space was invaluable. Labour say we cant build out way out of this problem  I say we have no choice but to.
Israels leader has accused Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders of being on the wrong side of justice, humanity and history after two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead in Washington DC.

The UK prime minister, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney were emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, by giving them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.

A gunman shot young diplomat couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim from close range after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspect then walked into the building chanting Free Palestine before he was stopped by security staff and arrested.

Sarah Milgrim, left, and Yaron Lischinsky were shot dead in Washington DC (X/@IsraelinUSA)

On Monday, the UK, French and Canadian governments said in a joint statement they were committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution to the war.

Mr Netanyahu said Hamas had thanked Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney for demanding that Israel end its war in Gaza immediately, claiming the three had shown they effectively wanted Hamas to remain in power.

He said in a video on social media: I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice. You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history.

The three leaders, he claimed, wanted Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas's mass murderers would repeat the 7 October 2023 massacre.

Hamas wanted to annihilate Jews, he said, adding: I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.

Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney were emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever (AFP/Getty)

Sir Keir condemned the shootings, saying antisemitism was an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. He said: My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Mr Netanyahu also dismissed as a lie claims that Israel was starving Palestinian children.

Other Israeli ministers have also suggested that the condemnation by Western leaders of Israels aid blockade and resumed offensive in Gaza was partly to blame.

We must also hold to account the irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to this hatred  whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence, said Amichai Chikli, Israels minister for the diaspora and combatting antisemitism.

French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood, he added in a post on X.

In a press briefing later on Thursday morning, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar expressed similar views.

There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder, he said. This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.

Their words are the modern blood libels. Blood libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies paved the way exactly for such murders. This is what happens when leaders in the world surrender to the Palestinian terrorist propaganda and serve it.

Gideon Saar said that there is a direct line connecting... anti-Israel incitement and the double homicide (AFP via Getty)

Mr Netanyahu described the shootings as the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel.

My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer, he said. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the states representatives.

The Israeli government has come under strong criticism for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after this week ending an 11-week aid blockade which caused widespread hunger and desperate sanitary conditions in the strip.

In the past week, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed  including dozens of women and children  after intensified airstrikes on Gaza and the launch of a new ground offensive from the north and south of the strip, named Operation Gideons Chariots.

On Sunday night, the UK, Canada and France issued their strongest condemnation yet of Mr Netanyahus government. A joint statement with Canada and France demanded that he halt his egregious actions in Gaza, threatening concrete actions over the intolerable human suffering inflicted on the enclave.

Hunger is widespread in Gaza, a situation described as intolerable by several European leaders (AFP/Getty)

The next day, Sir Keir spoke out against the utterly intolerable situation in Gaza, as foreign minister David Lammy announced the UK would suspend trade negotiations with Israel and introduce sanctions against a number of settler individuals and entities in the West Bank.

Describing Israels actions as monstrous, Mr Lammy announced that Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely had been summoned to the Foreign Office by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer.

Following the joint statement by Sir Keir, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney, Mr Netanyahu hit back, accusing the leaders of offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.

In Washington DC, police cordons remained around the site of the shooting, which took place at around 9.15pm local time on Wednesday (02.15am BST).

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said Elias Rodriguez, who was not previously known to police, was seen pacing outside the venue before the attack.

Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offence, she said.

US President Donald Trump condemned the shooting on Truth Social, writing: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.
The US attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks during a news conference in Washington DC on Thursday. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP

The US justice department on Thursday charged the lone suspect in a brazen attack that killed two young Israeli embassy staff members outside the Jewish museum in downtown Washington DC with murder of foreign officials and other crimes.

Court documents released on Thursday charged Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, with the Wednesday night killings that left the US capital in shock and were condemned by world leaders as horrible and antisemitic. According to the filing, the suspect told police after his arrest: I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Jeanine Pirro, the interim US attorney for Washington, described the slate of charges against the defendant  which also include two counts of first-degree murder, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence  as an initial list of crimes. The killing, she said, was also being investigated as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism.

We will add additional charges as the evidence warrants, she said.

Related: Washington DC shooting of Israeli embassy staff: what we know so far

Rodriguez made his first court appearance on Thursday afternoon, hours after federal agents in tactical gear descended on his Chicago apartment. According to a post on X from the FBIs Washington field office, agents in Chicago were conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity that it said was in relation to yesterdays tragic shooting in Washington, DC.

The FBI director, Kash Patel, described the slaying as an act of terror and targeted anti-Semitic violence. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said: We are doing everything we can to protect our entire community, and especially our Jewish community right now.

At Rodriguezs arraignment in federal court on Thursday, magistrate judge Matthew Sharbaugh told the defendant that he faced the possibility of the death penalty as punishment if found guilty of the crimes he is charged with. Pirro said it was far too early to say whether prosecutors would seek capital punishment but added that it was a death penalty-eligible case.

At the White House, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Donald Trump was saddened and outraged by the deadly act and vowed that the US Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator of this to the full extent of the law. She said Trump spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

The killings occurred shortly after 9pm on Wednesday evening, outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where, according to officials, a gunman approached a group leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee and opened fire at close range.

The victims, identified as Yaron Lischinsky, who grew up in Germany and Israel, and Sarah Milgrim, a US citizen from Kansas, were a young couple about to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US. Leiter told reporters Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

The suspect was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, the Metropolitan police chief, Pamela Smith, said. After opening fire, he walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began to chant, Free, free Palestine, she said.

Officials have said the suspect was not on any security watchlists and there were no heightened security threats before the shooting. The firearm believed to be used in the killings was retrieved, officials said. The New York Times reported that the gun had been purchased lawfully in Illinois and had been transported legally to Washington DC.

Asked at Thursdays press conference whether the suspect targeted the event or the individuals, Steve Jensen, the assistant director in charge of the FBIs Washington field office, replied: Were not saying at this time. He said law enforcement officers were still investigating the circumstances of the suspects travel to DC, which they believe was work-related, as well as how the alleged gunman learned the location of the event at the museum on Wednesday night, which was private and not publicized.

The FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, said the suspect was interviewed by authorities within hours of being taken into custody. Officials were aware of certain writings possibly authored by the suspect that have been circulated online, he wrote in a post on X, adding: We hope to have updates as to the authenticity very soon.

The flags at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world were lowered to half mast, and Netanyahu ordered security to be stepped up following what he called the horrifying antisemitic murder.

The attack comes as Israel expanded its ground offensive in Gaza, and faces growing international pressure, including from the US, to end its nearly three-month long blockade of food, medicine and other supplies that humanitarian groups say has pushed the enclave to the brink of famine.

When antisemitism is normalized, thats where we start to see the real danger that results in the violence we saw last night, Ted Deutch, a former Florida congressman and the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, which had put on the reception for young diplomats on Wednesday night, said in an interview on MSNBC.

In a social media post early on Thursday, Trump wrote: These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Gideon Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, blamed critics of the Israeli government, including the leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe for inciting violence and hatred against his country since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October 2023.

France on Thursday denounced Saars comments as unjustified and outrageous. France has condemned, France condemns and France will continue to condemn, always and unequivocally, any act of antisemitism, the foreign ministry spokesperson, Christophe Lemoine, said.

International criticism of Israel over the Gaza war has risen in recent weeks. On Tuesday, in an unprecedented, joint statement with Canada and the UK, France condemned the appalling language of members of Netanyahus government, and the outrageous actions and the intolerable level of suffering of civilians.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) condemned the deadly attack as completely unacceptable and said that political violence only undermines the pursuit of justice.

Related: Washington DC shooting of Israeli embassy staff: what we know so far

Tributes poured in for the victims of the attack from the US and overseas as those who knew Lischinsky and Milgrim described the couple as bright and talented.

Lischinsky, 30, who worked as a research assistant in the political department of the Israeli embassy in Washington, was born in Nuremberg, according to the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor. He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause, he wrote on X.

Milgrim, 26, an American from Kansas, organized trips to Israel, according to a spokesperson for the Israeli foreign ministry, officials said. She was also a volunteer with Tech2Peace, an advocacy group training young Palestinians and Israelis and promoting dialogue between them, according to the organization.

KU Hillel, a Jewish student organization at her alma mater, the University of Kansas, described Milgrim as a bright spirit whose passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her.

Lischinsky was preparing to propose to Milgrim when they traveled to Jerusalem next week to meet his family, according to officials. Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring, which Miligrams family only learned of only after the shooting.

The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, her father, Robert Milgrim, told the New York Times in an interview. But she was murdered three days before going.
Credit: Instagram/Katie Kalisher

The terror suspect accused of killing two Israeli embassy staff flaunted his support for Hamas online and attended Black Lives Matter protests.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, was arrested after allegedly shooting Israeli embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left a reception for diplomats near Washingtons Jewish museum on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Mr Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first degree murder. He was also charged with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm, and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

According to an FBI affidavit, Mr Rodriguez was captured on security cameras shortly after 9pm on Wednesday walking past the two victims, before turning round and shooting at them while their backs were turned.

When they collapsed to the ground, he is said to have leant over them and continued to fire.

Mr Rodriguez seemingly reloaded his gun as Ms Milgrim attempted to crawl away and sat up, before shooting at her several times and jogging away, the affidavit continues.

Mr Rodriguez then entered the museum and was detained by security staff as witnesses rushed to help the victims, police said.

Footage of his arrest showed him chanting free, free Palestine as he was taken away by an officer.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were killed as they left a reception for diplomats in Washington DC

Social media posts, which appear to have been made by the alleged gunman, have revealed the extent of his obsession with the terrorist group Hamas and his thirst for violence.

On New Years Day, an account believed to belong to Mr Rodriguez posted: Happy New Year, Death To Israel.

In another alarming message published around a week after the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in July last year, Mr Rodriguez shared an image that read: I agree with the public opinion that says to kill him!

Another post suggested he supported the bombing of the New York Times newsroom.

Progressive tweeps, as much as I love delving into the days discourse, can we PLEASE save the idealistic and high-minded debate over the morality of sending a truck bomb into the offices of The New York Times until *AFTER* we send a truck bomb into the office, the post read.

The accounts profile picture features an avatar wearing a medical face mask.

The FBI said it was investigating social media posts made by Rodriguez.

Make no mistake, this attack was targeted anti-Semitic violence, and it wont be tolerated, Steven Jensen, assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office said.

We are also executing search warrants for his electronic devices, reviewing his social media accounts and all of his internet postings. Regarding some internet postings, we are aware of some writings that are purported to have been authored by this subject. Were actively investigating to determine both the authorship and the attribution of these writings, if they belong to this subject or not.

After the shooting, Mr Rodriguez fled into the Capital Jewish Museum and was detained.

Amid the chaos, he is said to have been allowed into the museum by security guards who assumed he was a distraught bystander.

Minutes later, when officers arrived, Mr Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

Authorities work at the scene of the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum - Anadolu

From Chicago, the suspected gunman was once linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a far-Left group that regularly posts anti-Israel rhetoric on social media and spearheaded Black Lives Matter protests.

Mr Rodriguez participated in a 2017 Black Lives Matter protest outside the home of Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago at the time, according to a now-deleted article on the groups Liberation news outlet seen by the New York Post.

Before the killing, he once worked as an oral history researcher at the History Makers, a non-profit that documents the stories of unsung African Americans, an online CV shows.



Amichai Chikli, Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said the world must hold to account the irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to hatred against Jews and Israelis, whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence.



Mr Chikli said: French president Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

Jeanine Pirro, interim US attorney for the District of Washington, pledged to prosecute the alleged gunman with the full force of the law.

This is a horrific crime, and these crimes are not going to be tolerated by me and by this office. A young couple, at the beginning of their lifes journey about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag, she said.

Let me also say that violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero.
Kristi Noem posted the letter on X. Composite: AP, Reuters

The Trump administration has said it is halting Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students and has ordered existing international students at the university to transfer or lose their legal status.

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration notified Harvard about its decision following ongoing correspondence regarding the legality of a sprawling records request, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The records request comes as part of an investigation by the homeland security department in which federal officials are threatening the universitys international student admissions.

The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, posted a copy of the letter on X, formerly known as Twitter. In it Noem said: I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard Universitys Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.

The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status, Noem continued.

Related: Trump administration piles pressure on Harvard with $450m more in cuts

Noem justified the decision by saying: This action should not surprise you and is the unfortunate result of Harvards failure to comply with simple reporting requirements  Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses.

The former governor of South Dakota also accused Harvard of fostering violence, antisemitism and coordinating with the Chinese Communist party on its campus.

In a separate press release, the homeland security department said: Secretary Noem is following through on her promise to protect students and prohibit terrorist sympathizers from receiving benefits from the US government.

A Harvard spokesperson called the governments action unlawful in a statement to the Guardian on Thursday.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university  and this nation  immeasurably, the spokesperson said.

We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

Pippa Norris, an author and Paul F McGuire lecturer in comparative politics at Harvards Kennedy School of Government, told the Guardian on Thursday that Trump is basically cutting off international knowledge to American students, he is reducing soft power, and therefore weakening America  And for me personally, its going to mean tremendous problems in terms of teaching.

Norris said about 90% of her students are international, so if she can no longer recruit international students, then the demand and participants, etc, is going to go down.

She continued: Imagine that youve come, youve spent a lot of money and resources to come to Harvard, and youve got in, and your second or third year of the undergraduate degree, or the second year of your masters degree, and [they] say: Well, Im sorry, you know, youre not going to be able to study here next year. I mean, its devastating.

Leo Gerden, an international student from Sweden, called the announcement devastating in the university newspaper Harvard Crimson.

Every tool available they should use to try and change this. It could be all the legal resources suing the Trump administration, whatever they can use the endowment to, whatever they can use their political network in Congress, Gerden said, adding: This should be, by far, priority number one.

The university currently hosts nearly 6,800 international students, with many being on F-1 or J-1 visas, according to university records. International students make up about 27% of the universitys population.

The latest decision from the homeland security department comes amid growing tensions between federal officials and Harvard over the Trump administrations claims that the university has implemented inadequate responses to antisemitism on its campus.

The Trump administration terminated a further $450m in grants to the university in May, following an earlier cancellation of $2.2bn in federal funding.

A Trump-appointed antisemitism taskforce has pointed to just how radical Harvard has become as nationwide anti-war protesters  including students  demonstrated against Israels deadly onslaught on Gaza, which has killed at least 53,000 Palestinians in the last year and a half.

The Trump administration has also ordered the university to dismantle its diversity, equity and inclusion programming, restrict student protests and disclose admission details to federal officials.

Related: The Trump-Harvard showdown is the latest front in a long conservative war against academia

In response to the federal cuts, the university  with an endowment of more than $53bn  filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.

Harvards president, Alan Garber, said in April that no government  regardless of which party is in power  should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.

Garber also said: The university will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights  The administrations prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvards first amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the governments authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production and dissemination of knowledge.

Of how this will affect Harvards future, Norris said: Why would any further international students apply to America, not just Harvard, if they cant know that theyve got a guaranteed place?

[This halt is] going to benefit Oxford and Cambridge and many other academic institutions, because of course, the best of the brightest could apply wherever they would. America, again, is going to have problems as a result.

Jenna Amatulli contributed reporting
An FBI agent at the scene where two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, on Thursday. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Donald Trump, Republicans and Democrats have condemned antisemitism in the shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Trump wrote on social media in response to the shooting. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

The alleged shooter yelled Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, according to police.

Related: Washington DC shooting of Israeli embassy staff: what we know so far

Named as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, the alleged gunman approached a group of four people departing an event outside the museum and opened fire, killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, then walked inside the building, where he was detained by security.

Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of innocents. I am devastated by the killing of two people outside an @AJCGlobal event here in Washington. Our prayers are with the victims, families, and loved ones of all impacted, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a social media post. As we await more details, we must be clear that hatred has no home here. Antisemitism is a threat to all we hold dear as a society. It must be confronted and rooted out everywhere.

The two embassy staffers killed were a couple. According to the Israeli ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, Lischinsky was planning on proposing to Milgrim.

Heartbroken by the horrific murder of Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in DC, said Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, in a social media post. A young couple, full of promise, targeted and killed outside a Jewish museum. This act of terrorism and vile antisemitism must be condemned without hesitation. We mourn  we demand justice.

Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat representing New Jersey, said in response to the shooting that we must all do more to push back against the scourge of antisemitism. May their memories be a blessing.
Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were both Israeli embassy employees. Photograph: @IsraelinUSA/Twitter

A suspect is in custody after shooting dead two Israeli embassy staff outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night.

The gunman, named by police as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, approached a group of four people leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum and opened fire, killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who officials said were in a relationship.

The Metropolitan police chief, Pamela Smith, said the shooter had been pacing outside the museum, which is steps away from the FBIs field office, before the shooting.

After killing the pair he walked inside, where event security detained him. The suspect yelled: Free, free Palestine, after he was arrested, police said.

He was not on any security watchlists and there were no heightened security threats before the shooting, officials said. The firearm was retrieved as well, officials said.

The event was the annual Young Diplomats reception, organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), an evening described by its organizer to Sky News as bringing together US state department and embassy staff from various countries across the Middle East and North Africa to discuss bridge building.

The Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters the two victims were in a relationship and Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

Lischinsky, 30, was a research assistant, and Milgrim, 26, a Jewish American, organised visits and missions to Israel.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues, the embassy said in a social media post. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.

The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.

The US president, Donald Trump, condemned the killings on Truth Social. These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

Tech2Peace, an advocacy group training young Palestinians and Israelis and promoting dialogue between them, said Milgrim was an active volunteer who brought people together with empathy and purpose.



Her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did, it said. Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed.

Milgrim reportedly grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park and held a masters degree in international studies from American University and another in natural resources and sustainable development from the United Nations University of Peace.

Lischinsky, a German Israeli, worked in the political department of the Israeli embassy in Washington. He moved to Israel when he was 16. According to the bio on his Times of Israel blog, he had a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University and a bachelors in international relations from Hebrew University.

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said Lischinsky had been born in Nuremberg, Germany, and was a Christian [and] a true lover of Israel.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said he condemned the heinous act in the strongest possible terms  We must assume an antisemitic motive. The German-Israeli Society (DIG) paid tribute to Lischinsky as an open, intelligent and deeply engaged person, whose interest in German-Israeli relations and promoting peaceful coexistence in the Middle East radiated to all those around him.

He had written on his LinkedIn page: Im an ardent believer in the vision that was outlined in the Abraham Accords and believe that expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.

On Instagram, Lischinskys bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip. In his final post on social media hours before the attack, Lischinsky had shared a post from the Israeli ambassador, Amir Weissbrod, accusing UN officials of engaging in blood libel over claims that 14,000 children faced starvation in Gaza.

Little is yet known about Rodriguez. He was quoted on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in an old post about a protest the group attended at then Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuels house. However, the PLS denied that Rodriguez was a member: He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.

Yoni Kalin were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin told the Associated Press that people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the AJC, which organized the event, told CNN that really our worst fears came true at the event, which he characterized as an annual gathering of the American Jewish Committees young leaders, with this years focus on humanitarian diplomacy.

It was on finding ways to work together in an interfaith way across the region to help bring peace, he said. And all of the good feeling was shattered immediately after when these two beautiful, young souls were taken by this murderer.

This is a horrific reminder to the Jewish community and the world that antisemitism often most times is not violent until it becomes violent. And when it does, it can become deadly. And thats what we have to stop.

The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was at the scene with the US attorney Jeanine Pirro, said the current thinking was that the gunman had operated alone.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused European governments of emboldening Hamas militants by condemning Israels recent expansion of its offensive in Gaza.

They want Israel to stand down and accept that Hamass army of mass murderers will survive, rebuild and repeat the October 7 massacre, Netanyahu said in a video, adding that they may think that theyre advancing peace. Theyre not. Theyre emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever.

International criticism of Israel over the Gaza war has increased in recent weeks and on Tuesday, in an unprecedented, joint statement with Canada and the UK, France condemned the appalling language of members of the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the outrageous actions and the intolerable level of suffering of civilians.

France on Thursday dismissed claims by Saar that European governments were inciting hatred.

These are completely outrageous and completely unjustified remarks, foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said. France has condemned, France condemns and France will continue to condemn, always and unequivocally, any act of antisemitism.

Netanyahu said his heart ached for the families of the victims, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer.

We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost, he said on X.

We strongly oppose the expansion of military force in Gaza and the restriction of aid in Gaza, reads a statement from UKs prime minister, Keir Starmer. But that doesnt provide any excuse for antisemitism or attacks of these kinds, its an evil that must be stamped out.

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 (373,000) grant programme to increase its security.

Rights advocates have noted rising antisemitism as well as anti-Arab hate in the US since the beginning of the conflict, including an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish centre, an arson attack on the residence of the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and attacks on Florida businesses perceived as pro-Israel.

Incidents linked to anti-Palestinian prejudice have included, among others, the fatal stabbing of a six-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the attempted drowning of a three-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, a New York City assault by a pro-Israeli mob that chanted Death to Arabs and a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California.
The attack was seen by officials in Israel and the US as the latest act in a growing wave of antisemitism. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington  a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged  were fatally shot on Wednesday evening at about 9.15pm while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.

The suspect yelled Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.

The attack was seen by some officials in Israel and the US as the latest act in a growing wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and as food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless Israels blockade ends.

Here is what we know:

The victims

The two victims, identified by the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were both Israeli embassy employees. The Israeli ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

Lischinsky, 30, a German Israeli, worked in the political department of the Israeli embassy in Washington. According to the bio on his Times of Israel blog, he had a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University and a bachelors in international relations from Hebrew University.

The Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said on X that Lischinsky was born in Nuremberg and that he was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause.

He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide, Prosor added.

Lischinsky moved to Israel when he was 16, according to his LinkedIn profile, where he also wrote: Im an ardent believer in the vision that was outlined in the Abraham Accords and believe that expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the state of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.

Related: Washington DC Israeli embassy staffer shooting: what we know about the victims

The German-Israeli Society  a group that promotes relations with Israel  said that Lischinsky was a founding member of its youth forum, the groups counterpart in Israel, and took a job at the Israeli embassy in Washington in 2022. It said that he was also a passionate photographer.

On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

Milgrim, 26, organised visits and missions to Israel. She was also a volunteer at Tech2Peace, an advocacy group training young Palestinians and Israelis and promoting dialogue between them.

Tech2Peace said Milgrim was an active volunteer who brought people together with empathy and purpose.

Her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did, it said. Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed.

In 2017, after swastikas were graffitied at Milgrims high school in Prairie Village, she told the local television station KSHB-TV: I worry about going to my synagogue, and now I have to worry about safety at my school. And that shouldnt be a thing.

She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021.

The former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was American and that the man was Israeli.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues, the embassy said in a social media post. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.

The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.

The attack

The suspect, who was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, the DC Metropolitan police chief, Pamela Smith, said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

The violence occurred after the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realising he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled: Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

The suspect

The suspect has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

He was being interviewed early on Thursday by DCs Metropolitan police department as well as the FBI. The US attorney in Washington will prosecute the case.

Little is yet known about Rodriguez. On Wednesday evening, condemning the war in Gaza and both the Israeli and American governments, he wrote on X:

In the wake of an act people look for a text to fix its meaning, so heres an attempt. The atrocities committed by the Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification.

He was quoted on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in a 2017 post about a protest the group attended at then Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuels house over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

However, in a post on X, PLS denied Rodriguez was a member. We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting, the party said. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.

Reaction so far

The office of Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Thursday that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

The US president, Donald Trump, as well as leading Republican and Democratic representatives, also condemned the violence.

We strongly oppose the expansion of military force in Gaza and the restriction of aid in Gaza, said the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, in a statement. But that doesnt provide any excuse for antisemitism or attacks of these kinds, its an evil that must be stamped out.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

The context of conflict

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East. The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas striking out of Gaza on 7 October 2023 to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 250 hostages back to the coastal territory.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.
The Israel-Hamas war is one of three major conflicts contributing to a high annual global death toll

Violence is more widespread today than it has been in decades, with armed conflict touching every major region, according to data analysed by The Telegraph.

Last year, varying levels of conflict were reported across at least 50 different countries, from the civil war in Myanmar to extreme violence between drug cartels in Mexico, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

Experts predict that the trend will probably continue throughout 2025 and beyond.

Across the 50 countries, there were at least 56 active conflicts  one of the largest quantities since 1946  with fewer conflicts being resolved, either militarily or through peace agreements, the Global Peace Index estimated.

The level of violence happening is certainly at one of its highs since the Second World War, said Clionadh Raleigh, the founder and director of ACLED.

The only year to exceed 56 was 2023, which recorded 59 armed conflicts, according to certain estimates.

More organised violence is happening in more places  leading us to consider that we are now in a more violent time, said Ms Raleigh.

Experts estimate that at least one in every six people is exposed to some level of conflict.

This conflict is not only spread out over a larger area, but has become more deadly and more complex, according to The Telegraphs analysis of data from ACLED and the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme.

Between 2010 and 2019, the global death toll resulting from armed conflict was more than 953,000. In only half the time, between 2020 and the end of 2024, the number of fatalities has exceeded 1 million.

The increase can largely be attributed to the eruption of three major conflicts  the military coup in Myanmar in 2021, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the Israel-Hamas War, which began in 2023.

These conflicts were responsible for more than half the fatalities recorded in 2024.

Since 2021, the annual number of deaths from armed conflict has hovered about 200,000, peaking at more than 310,000 in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The only other instance in recent history when the global death toll exceeded 200,000 was at the peak of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when more than 800,000 people were killed in one year.

The number of deaths dropped slightly in 2023, which can largely be attributed to the end of the conflict in Ethiopias Tigray region, which accounted for 60 per cent of the battle-related deaths in 2021 and 2022.

According to The Telegraphs analysis, the death toll from conflict was most widespread in 2024, meaning every region of the world had a comparable share of deaths resulting from armed conflict  with no single region dominating.

Deaths resulting from conflicts in Europe  largely owing to the war in Ukraine  made up 33 per cent of the total. Fatalities from armed conflict in Africa made up 27 per cent and wars in the Middle East, including the war in Gaza as well as the Sudanese civil war, accounted for 19 per cent.

Europe, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and Africa (excluding 1994) all recorded higher average death tolls over the past five years than at any other point since 1989, when UCDP started recording data.

The only region where this has not been the case is the Middle East, which recorded higher death tolls between 2014 and 2019 during the peak of the Syrian civil war. Although the death toll in the Middle East has been rising because of the war in Gaza, experts dont expect it to exceed the scale it was at 10 years ago.

Complexities of conflict

While death toll is an important metric in understanding the severity of a conflict, it does not tell the whole story.

Ms Raleigh explained that ACLEDs data analysis included other factors, such as dispersion, impact on civilians and fragmentation, which could inform the severity of a crisis.

For example, while Ukraine recorded the most conflict-related deaths at more than 67,000 in 2024, it was ranked 14th on ACLEDs index.

Ms Raleigh said that this largely came down to the different groups involved in the war.

Its not at all a fragmented war  very few classic interstate wars are fragmented, she said, referring to the number of actors involved in the conflict.

However, in other conflicts, such as in Myanmar  which was ranked second on ACLEDs index despite having a lower death toll than Ukraine  there were hundreds of armed groups engaged in dozens of different battles.

In places like Myanmar, there are 50 new groups that appear every week while others fall out and others reassemble, theres a constant churn, said Ms Raleigh, adding that the more groups involved, the harder it could be to reach a resolution.

A conservative estimate puts the number of new armed groups in Myanmar, previously known as Burma, close to 3,000 since 2021, though not all remain operational. This figure doesnt include the groups that existed before the coup and have been fighting the central military as well as each other on and off for decades.

The only place to exceed Myanmar on the index was Gaza, which ACLED reported to be the most dangerous and violent place in the world in 2024.

More than 80 per cent of the Palestinian population was exposed to conflict last year and at least 35,000 fatalities were recorded as Israel continued its campaign in Gaza following the attack by Hamas on Oct 7 the previous year.

ACLED is generally seen as the leading source for conflict data, but other organisations have their own methods of evaluating conflict and ranking countries.

The Global Peace Index (GPI), which categorises nations in reverse order  from most to least peaceful  ranked the Palestinian territories as 145th (19th place) and Myanmar as 148th (16th).

Instead, Yemen topped the list as the the least peaceful country in the world in 2024, which GPI attributed to the internal strife exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas War  specifically attacks from the Yemen-based Houthis against Israeli targets, which prompted retaliatory missile, drone and air strikes from the US and UK.

An upward trend

Another metric used to analyse conflict is the impact on civilians, both in terms of the number of civilians killed as well as the number whose quality of life is affected.

Siri Aas Rustad, the research director at Peace Research Institute Oslo, said: Most people who are affected by conflict are not killed.

They lose health facilities, they lose schooling, they live in fear, they suffer food insecurity, she said, noting that this figure was also trending upward at present.

The share of people living in conflict has increased substantially and is on the rise since the 1990s. It has doubled from 1990 until now.

Ms Rustad explained that to understand the rate of conflict today it was important to look back at the early 2000s, which were a very peaceful period.

She said: In that period ,the UN worked much better, relationships between states were much better, Russia was not as powerful and expansive as it is now, the US had a different administration so it was easier for the global community to work together.

Ms Rustad also noted that reporting abilities had improved in the past 25 years, which meant that more conflict was being recorded than it may have been previously.

Conflict scholars have also recently been watching the exchanges between India and Pakistan, which began in late April with an attack in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir. However, a ceasefire set on May 12 appears to be holding.

While less than halfway through the year, experts expect that the levels of violence will remain high through 2025, potentially even increasing by 20 per cent, according to ACLEDs estimates.

Based on previous trends, Ms Rustad predicted that the world was heading towards more violence, but that eventually the tide would turn.

Well probably see a sustained high level for several years  whether thats two years or five years is hard to say, but it will probably go down, she said.

All conflicts end, it just takes time. Think of it in terms of cycles and right now were in a bad cycle.
Two new locations entered Oxford Economics' global ranking of cities this year, which evaluates the attractiveness of their economies based on a number of different factors.

The economic advisory firm's Global Cities Index scored the 1,000 largest cities across five categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance.

Mark Britton, director of city services at Oxford Economics, said: "The global economic environment is evolving. Over the past year, heightened geopolitical tensions and a rise in economic nationalism have contributed to increased levels of uncertainty and have adversely affected global economic growth."

"The significance of cities in this period of uncertainty cant be overstated," he said. "They serve not only as centres of resilience but also as engines of adaptation and innovation, owing to their dynamic networks of businesses, institutions, and people."

Read more: Elizabeth Line drives rents up 31% in three years

New York held onto the top spot in this year's rankings, with UK capital London coming in second place once again.

Both cities performed best in the economics and human capital categories, highlighting their roles as global hubs for finance, business, and education.

In addition, Oxford Economics pointed out that both have among the best universities and corporate headquarter offices.

The French capital of Paris took over in third place this year from the US city of San Jose, which fell to the fourth spot. Oxford Economics highlighted that Paris was now the fifth-largest city in the world, and the second largest in Europe, in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP), with its economy largely focused on services.

San Jose is renowned for the tech hub of Silicon Valley, which is home to big-name companies, including iPhone-maker Apple (AAPL), Google-parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) and social media giant Meta (META). Oxford Economics said that given technology firms generate significantly higher GDP than most industries, San Joses GDP per person is the highest of all 1,000 cities.

The US city of Seattle, which rounded out the top five, also boasts a major sector  with Microsoft (MSFT) and Amazon (AMZN) both operating in the area.

The US city of Seattle rounded out the top five. (aiisha5 via Getty Images)

"Aerospace is also a significant contributor to the economy, including Boeing (BA) (which was founded in the city)," the authors of the Global Cities Index said in the report.

"Seattle hosts several retail headquarters as well, including Starbucks (SBUX), Costco (COST), and Nordstrom (JWN). This range of large employers gives the city one of the highest levels of GDP per person in our index, and a healthy economic diversity measure."

The Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney came in sixth and seventh place respectively. Sydney was a new entrant into the top 10 this year, which Oxford Economics attributed to an improvement in its quality of life and environment scores.

In eighth place, the US city of Boston was also a new addition to the top 10, as it saw in increase in its economics score. This was followed by Tokyo, Japan in ninth place and San Francisco, US in the tenth spot.

Read more: Elizabeth Line drives rents up 31% in three years

On the broader index, Anthony Bernard-Sasges, senior economist, city services at Oxford Economics, and lead author of the report, said that several cities in "India, Indonesia, and the UK have risen in the rankings this year, whereas Japanese, Canadian, and Brazilian cities mostly fell. Cities in the US, China, Australia, and continental Europe experienced a mix of outcomes."

In addition, Oxford Economics also classified cities into different archetypes based on shared characteristics. These archetypes included: global leaders, regional leaders, cultural capitals, sustainable cities, industrial hubs, legacy cities, developing megacities and emerging standouts.

Bernard-Sasges said that each city archetype faced unique opportunities and challenges. "The report also explores future trends that will shape the development of cities, including the impact of generative AI, climate change, and demographic shifts," he said

"For instance, Global Leaders are best positioned to maximise the benefits of generative AI but must address rising inequality," he explained. "Meanwhile, Developing Megacities have the potential for significant human capital growth but must overcome rapid urbanisation challenges."

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Pakistani president hails China's role in socio-economic development

Xinhua) 10:56, May 22, 2025

ISLAMABAD, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday lauded China's vital role in Pakistan's socio-economic and defense development as the two countries marked the 74th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

In a statement issued by the media wing of the President's Secretariat, Zardari congratulated the governments and people of both nations, calling the Pakistan-China relationship "historic and time-tested," and reaffirmed that it remains a cornerstone of Pakistan's foreign policy.

Extending best wishes to the leadership and people of China on the anniversary, Zardari added that bilateral ties had evolved over the past 74 years into an all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, describing the two countries as "iron brothers."

"Pakistan is a staunch supporter of the one-China policy and will continue to stand firmly with China on its core national interests," the president said.

Zardari deeply appreciated China's consistent support to Pakistan in times of need. He cited the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as a flagship project of bilateral cooperation that has significantly improved Pakistan's economy and connectivity.

The president also emphasized that Pakistan-China relations are grounded in mutual trust, respect, and goodwill, and reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to further deepen cooperation in the fields of economy, technology, defense, education, and trade.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
England eased into their work on day one of the Test summer, with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett leading a wicketless opening session against Zimbabwe.

The tourists backed their bowlers at Trent Bridge, sending England in after winning the toss, but struggled to make an impression as the hosts ran up 130 without loss.

Crawley banked a morale-boosting 53 not out, a welcome improvement after a torrid tour of New Zealand before Christmas saw him averaging 8.66, and Duckett hit a typically ebullient 75no.

We've reached Lunch on Day 1 without loss  pic.twitter.com/VSfznEP9z1  England Cricket (@englandcricket) May 22, 2025

Having lost to an inexperienced county select XI in their only warm-up match, the odds were firmly stacked against Zimbabwe, but they were unable to spring any surprises as Englands top-order pair shared 19 boundaries and a lively run rate of five an over.

There was only one half-chance of note, Crawley chipping a drive back to Blessing Muzarabani, who could only get fingertips to a tough caught-and-bowled.

Crawley had just 10 to his name at the time but settled well after his minor reprieve to spend some valuable time in the middle.

The first innings has been a trial for him at Kent this season, managing just eight runs in four attempts, but his timing returned as he began to lean on his drives and pick holes in the infield.

Zak Crawley was unbeaten on 53 (Mike Egerton/PA).

Duckett was the aggressor in the first hour, at one stage peeling off six boundaries in the space of 13 balls as the seam attack offered too many loose deliveries.

When Richard Ngarava overpitched he was punished and when Tanaka Chivanga drifted down leg it was easy pickings for Duckett on his home pitch.

He passed 50 with a thick edge over the slips but, for the most part, he was well in control.
You dont have to head to a major metropolis to sip something memorable. All across the country, smaller cities are turning into major destinations for people who care about craft beer. These are flavor-packed pints, friendly taprooms, and festivals that feel more like block parties than conventions.

If youre planning your next trip around quality beer, these top small cities are worth raising a glass for.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Credit: soupstock

Grand Rapids AKA Beer City USAThey dont call it that for nothing. There are more than 80 breweries on its official Beer City Ale Trail, and the variety is legit. Founders Brewing is the big name here, but its the smaller spots like Brewery Vivant (serving Belgian ales in a converted funeral chapel, no less) that keep things interesting. You can also pop into Sicilianos Market for bottles you wont find just anywhere.

Asheville, North Carolina

Credit: Getty Images

Asheville may be cozy, but it pours like a heavyweight. South Slopes brewery-lined blocks are perfect for a self-guided crawl, and theres something for every taste. Longstanding favorites like Highland and Wicked Weed are just the start. This citys beer scene is welcoming, a little weird, and always ready for the next round.

Bend, Oregon

Credit: Canva

Bends beer scene started with Deschutes Brewery, but it has long since evolved into a full-blown culture. Its packed with over two dozen spots serving up everything from hazy IPAs to dark lagers. Youve got some pretty amazing options if you want beer with a view.

Burlington, Vermont

Credit: Getty Images

Vermont may be known for its green mountains, but Burlingtons beer is just as outstanding. Breweries like Foam Brewers and Zero Gravity operate in laid-back, community-first spaces. The influence of nearby producers like The Alchemist and Hill Farmstead trickles into the local bar taps.

Fort Collins, Colorado

Credit: Getty Images

This is a beer town with a brain. Not only is Fort Collins home to big hitters like New Belgium and Odell, but its also the home of CSUs fermentation science program. That means youve got brewers here who can nerd out on yeast strains and serve up the goods.

Bozeman, Montana

Credit: Getty Images

In this small city, you get to experience big flavor. MAP Brewing serves pints with a view of the mountains, and Bozeman Brewing Co. rotates through small-batch styles like its no big deal. The beers good, the people are friendly, and theres usually a dog under the table.

Eugene, Oregon

Credit: Getty Images

Eugenes brewing scene feels like a reflection of the city itself: thoughtful, laid-back, and a little unconventional. Sure, youve got Ninkasi anchoring things, but smaller spots like ColdFire and Manifest are just as compelling. Sustainability is big here, and the city has created a relaxed, innovative scene rooted in local character.

Missoula, Montana

Credit: Getty Images

Missoulas beer scene grows steadily without chasing trends. The community-centric feel comes through at Bayern Brewing, a traditional German-style brewery, and newer favorites like Draught Works. The city's intimate beer festivals give locals and visitors alike a reason to explore what's pouring across town.

Athens, Georgia

Credit: Getty Images

Yes, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Athens is music, but the beer hits just as hard. Creature Comforts is pretty popular here (and for good reason), but the citys creative streak runs through its beer scene too. There are experimental styles on college bar menus and plenty of low-key spots perfect for post-show sipping.

Anchorage, Alaska

Credit: Getty Images

As for Anchorage, they dont do beer halfway. Local ingredients, including wild spruce tips and local berries, are steeped into unforgettable brews. Anchorage Brewing and spots like Cynosure bring an equally thoughtful touch. Long winters and long days mean theres time here to tinker and pour with purpose.

Paso Robles, California

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Paso Robles might be a wine town at first glance, but Firestone Walker Brewing Co. changed that long ago. Since then, the local beer scene has grown into its own, with BarrelHouse Brewing and Silva Brewing drawing steady attention. Barrel-aged stouts and hop-forward beers both have loyal audiences.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Credit: Getty Images

As one of New Englands best small beer cities, Portsmouth holds its own with a compact but dense lineup of producers. Portsmouth Brewery is the OG that pours easygoing classics since the '90s. Earth Eagle Brewings takes things weirder (in a good way) by dabbling in historic gruits and modern hybrids. The pubs and beer bars here are low-key legendary.

Flagstaff, Arizona

Credit: Getty Images

At 7,000 feet, Flagstaff has one of the highest beer scenes in the countryliterally. Its craft breweries, including Mother Road and Historic Brewing, combine altitude with attitude. The citys Ale Trail and beer-centric events bring together locals and travelers who want to sip something new.

Duluth, Minnesota

Credit: Getty Images

Duluths chilly climate lends itself well to rich, cold-weather brews. Bent Paddle Brewing and Canal Park Brewing are at the heart of the city's small but mighty beer network. Its access to Lake Superior also gives brewers a crisp, mineral-rich water source prized for crafting clean lagers.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Credit: Getty Images

Lancaster leans into its history while building its beer future. The citys brewing roots go deepLancaster Brewing Company still tips its hat to German brewing traditionsbut the newer wave (like Spring House or Cartel Brewing) has plenty of swagger. Its easy to find a pint that feels just right.
Two people have been arrested and accused of helping some of the 10 inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail, the Louisiana State Police announced Wednesday.

Cortnie Harris, 32, of New Orleans, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, of Slidell, Louisiana, were arrested, state police said in a statement. They were each charged with being accessories after the fact, a felony.

According to police, Harris allegedly transported two of the escaped inmates to multiple locations in New Orleans. The state police didn't identify the inmates but said they're among the five who are still on the run.

Before Friday's escape, Harris was also allegedly in contact over the phone with an inmate who's still at large, state police said. The inmate wasn't identified.

Baptiste allegedly helped escaped inmate Corey Boyd get food while he was hiding in a residence, police said. Boyd, 19, was captured Tuesday in New Orleans.

If convicted, Harris and Baptiste would each face a maximum prison sentence of five years.

A third person accused of helping the inmates escape was arrested on Monday. Sterling Williams, a maintenance worker at the New Orleans jail, allegedly told investigators he was threatened by one of the inmates who took part in the jailbreak, according to court documents filed by the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation.

Williams' attorney, Michael Kennedy, said in a statement to CBS News on Wednesday that his client didn't conspire with the inmates or act out of fear. He said Williams will plead not guilty to the felony charges he's facing over allegedly turning off the water to the cell that the inmates used to escape.

According to Kennedy, a sheriff's deputy told Williams that the toilet in the cell was overflowing, and she asked him to look at it. According to authorities, the inmates removed the toilet from the cell to escape through the wall.

"It would seem clear that the escaped inmates clogged the toilet in an effort to ensure someone would have to turn the water off," Kennedy said.

The attorney said the cell was an accessible one that shouldn't have been in use.

Kennedy said his client "was merely a tool that the escapees used to further their plan- without his knowledge."

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Two Israeli Embassy employees  including an American  were shot and killed Wednesday night as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., officials said. A suspect is in custody.

The victims have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Law enforcement officials described the attack as "targeted" and said the suspect shouted "Free Palestine" as he was being detained. The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime, a law enforcement source said.

Milgrim was from Kansas. Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said. Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., told reporters they were on the verge of getting engaged.

"The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," Leiter said. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center."

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the shooting was reported at 9:08 p.m. local time and occurred outside the museum, which is located near an FBI field office and is in the heart of the U.S. capital. Responding officers found the victims with gunshot wounds, unconscious and not breathing, the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department told CBS News.

The Israeli Embassy posted a photo of the two victims of the shooting outside the Jewish Capital Museum in Washington, D.C. on the night of May 21, 2025. Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were employees at the embassy. / Credit: IsraelinUSA /Twitter/Anadolu via Getty Images

"Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on social media.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was initially "observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun," and shot the two victims, Smith said at a late-night news conference.

The suspect entered the museum immediately following the shooting and was arrested by museum security, the police chief reported. "The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered," Smith said, adding that he "implied that he committed the offense."

A woman who encountered the suspect after the shooting said he reached into his bag, pulled out a keffiyeh and said, "I did it. I did it for Gaza," before he shouted, "Free Palestine."

CBS News identified an account on social platform X that belongs to the suspect and has a history of posts about pro-Palestinian activism and frustration with media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as inflammatory posts about Israel and a discussion of violence for political gain.

Rodriguez didn't pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn't on the radar of law enforcement agencies, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The police and the FBI were combing through his social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, a law enforcement source said. A large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood Thursday as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported.

The suspect was expected to be in court Thursday, according to a Justice Department source, and make his initial appearance in the local court system. The case is expected to eventually head to federal court, the source said.

"We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington  Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. May their memory be a blessing," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a post on social media.

Robert Milgrim said that his daughter started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor's degree at Kansas University and two master's degrees, one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, Robert Milgrim said. She had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza, he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump is "saddened and outraged" over the deaths of Lischinsky and Milgrim, and the Justice Department will be prosecuting their killer "to the fullest extent of the law."

Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., said he spoke to Mr. Trump by phone following the shooting, as did U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who attended the news conference and earlier said that she responded to the scene of the shooting.

"I spoke to the president of the United States multiple times tonight," Bondi said. "On behalf of the president, his prayers are with all of us, all of the Jewish community, all of us in Washington, D.C."

Mr. Trump later wrote on Truth Social: "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he's "shocked" by the "horrific, antisemitic" shooting. He said he instructed Israeli missions around the world to beef up security.

"We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel," Netanyahu continued.

In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the shooting a "despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism," adding, "America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us."

Other world leaders also released statements condemning the attack.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said D.C. Metropolitan Police and the FBI will be investigating.

"We will not tolerate antisemitism," Bowser said. She said "the FBI's role, of course, as always when there is any possibility of a terrorist act, or acts motivated by hate or other bias, the FBI will be conducting those investigations."

In an early statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on social media that "two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC."

FBI Director Kash Patel also wrote on social media that "my team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office." Patel said the FBI was working with D.C. police on the investigation.

"There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on social media.

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PHOENIX  The Arizona Attorney Generals Office announced the indictment of 20 people, including a church pastor, accused of submitting false medical claims to the states Medicaid program for more than $60 million in a little less than one year.

The indictments were the latest in a string of cases alleging rampant fraud against the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, most of which involved alcohol and drug rehabilitation services that were never rendered. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes held a news conference in May 2023, a few months after taking office, to announce the widespread fraud, which she called a "stunning failure of government."

The cost to taxpayers is as much as $2.5 billion.

Since then, more than 100 individuals and companies have faced charges in 14 cases, the office told The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, in April. The scheme largely involved patients enrolled in the American Indian Health Plan, designed to serve Native Americans who may live in remote areas miles from doctors and clinics. It was intentionally crafted to have little oversight and scrutiny that might delay care.

Authorities said fraudsters exploited those loopholes, flooding the system with fraudulent claims for hundreds of hours of rehabilitation services that were never provided. Patients, if they existed at all, were sometimes plied with alcohol and drugs to keep them living in care homes to keep the scheme going, authorities said.

This latest case named 17 individuals and two entities, one of which is a church. The grand jury charged three others, but their identities were not released in the indictment.

Most of the people named in the indictment had arraignments on May 20. Additional arraignments were scheduled for May 21 and May 27.

Indictment: Fraudulent claims submitted were for dead, jailed people

The indictment named two men as the ringleaders of the overarching conspiracy: Desire Rusingizwa and Fabrice Mvuyekure, along with a business the two started called Happy House Behavioral Health. The scheme began in August 2022 and lasted through January 2024, the indictment said.

As part of that scheme, Rusingizwa and Mvuyekure submitted more than $60 million in fraudulent claims to AHCCCS through Happy House from August 2022 to July 2023, according to the indictment. AHCCCS suspended the business in July 2023, the agency's records show.

Some of the fraudulent claims submitted by Happy House were for people who are dead, jailed, or in hospitals, according to the indictment.

An attorney for Rusingizwa, Shaheen P. Torgoley, said in an email that Happy House provided legitimate rehabilitation services. "Mr. Rusingizwa is a pious family man with no criminal history," his attorney wrote. "He looks forward to defending against these allegations in court.

The indictment also listed Theodore Mucuranyana, pastor of Hope of Life International Church. According to court records, Happy House started on land leased from the church. The indictment accused Mucuranyana, along with the church, of money laundering.

According to the indictment, Happy House Behavioral Health transferred more than $5 million to the church after it received a letter from Arizona officials saying it was under investigation for fraud.

Mucuranyana did not return a phone message seeking comment.

His attorney, Joshua Kolsrud, emailed a statement that blamed the Attorney General's Office for failing to detect $60 million in payouts within a year. "Instead of addressing this regulatory failure, the prosecution pursues baseless charges against uninvolved parties to deflect blame," the statement said.

Kolsrud said Macuranyana was a "respected community leader with no criminal history."

Julia Kolsrud, an attorney for the church, said that the church merely served as a landlord and had no insight into the inner workings of its tenant.

The Republic left phone messages and sent emails to attorneys listed for the defendants in the case. They did not immediately respond.

The money fraudulently obtained from AHCCCS was used to pay the operators of so-called sober living homes to house the patients, the indictment said. The other individuals named in the indictment were accused of conspiring with Happy House to get paid for providing the housing.

By law, sober living homes were not designed to get paid from AHCCCS funds. The person living there was supposed to work and pay for the housing with that paycheck.

$5 million check. Luxury jewelry. Handbags.

The indictment listed 11 businesses that prosecutors said took part in the racketeering scheme, along with specific transactions that authorities said constituted money laundering.

One was a July 2023 check for $2.8 million issued to Mvueykure, the indictment said.

Another woman, who was listed in corporate records as one of the principals of Happy House, received a check for the same amount on that same day, the indictment said. That person was not listed in the indictment.

Happy House wrote two checks to Hope of Life Church in summer 2023, one in June for $500,000 and another in July for $5 million, according to the indictment. In August 2023, more than $900,000 was transferred from the church to pay for a property. Hope of Life Church was listed as the buyer, according to documents filed in the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.

Online real estate sites show the address listed in the indictment as matching a 5-acre vacant parcel described by a listing agent as the "perfect place to build your dream home."

In December 2023, Hope of Life International Church wired $2 million to an unnamed entity in Rwanda, according to the indictment.

A filing in a related case seeking to seize assets said investigators searched the homes of Mvuyekure and Rusingizwa, both located in Peoria, in June 2024. Among the items seized, court records show, were luxury jewelry, watches, and handbags.

The grand jury charged the individuals and businesses on April 21, according to the indictment.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona sober living home fraud: Prosecutors charge 20 people in case






Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego held its 11th Annual Puppy Prom (and Kitty Court) on May 18, 2025

The "prom" is an annual free event for alumni of the shelter and their owners, and includes prom-themed food, drink, games and a "best dressed" competition to determine the Puppy Prom court

It is such an adorable way to see how rescue pets are experiencing their happily-ever-after," said Labeth Thompson, the center's pet acquisition manager







It's that time of year again  time for puppy prom!

On Sunday, May 18, Helen Woodward Animal Center alums gathered from far and wide for the organization's 11th Annual Puppy Prom (and Kitty Court) in San Diego. Rescue pets and their owners flocked to McGregor's Bar & Grill for festivities including food and drinks, games like the "wheel of FURtune," and a "best dressed" competition to determine Puppy Prom court.

The California-based animal rescue organization noted that activities like strolling the "best dressed" catwalk were exclusively for four-legged guests, while others, like the "Make-Your-Own-MUTTmosa Bar," were people-only.

"It's just a great opportunity to bring people together," Emily Navala, who attended with her pup Donna, said in a statement. Plus, the free, prom-themed event is the perfect opportunity for Donna to work on her social skills.

"For her, she has some social anxiety, and I wanted her to be able to socialize with other animals," Navala said, adding that it's a "fun time with pup kings and pup queens."



And socialize they did.

Footage and photos from the event show dogs of all ages, breeds, and sizes rocking tuxedos and tiaras while posing for group photos together. It's fun for owner and pet alike, and a bit of a "full circle" moment, according to Robin Missailidis, who brought her 5-month-old pup, Blue.

courtesy of Helen Woodward Animal Center Sir Fritzle von Vicious at Helen Woodward Animal Center's 2025 Puppy Prom

"I think the actual event is amazing, and it kind of brings full circle to Helen Woodward Center because I think they do an absolutely amazing job with the pets they have," said Missailidis, who adopted her dog from the center in February.

"Before Blue," she added, "I never knew how fantastic they are."



As for the outcome of the Best Dressed Prom King and Queen competition  which cost $20 per entry  there were six total winners.

The top prizes of king and queen went to reigning champ Sir Fritzle von Vicious and CinaBella Buns (who took home the princess title last year), respectively.

courtesy of Helen Woodward Animal Center The dogs and owners at Helen Woodward Animal Center's 2025 Puppy Prom

Meanwhile, voters gave Buster and MaryJane the regal titles of prince and princess, while the people's choice awards went to Devin and Bonney. (There was also a "best dressed" competition for cats, with photos submitted ahead of time and a "Kitty Court" crowned along with the canine winners.)

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Most importantly, every pup in attendance  winner, loser, or otherwise got to celebrate their "happy-ever-after," just like those at the previous 10 proms.

"The only thing better than Prom is Puppy Prom," Labeth Thompson, the center's pet acquisition manager, said in an official statement. It is such an adorable way to see how rescue pets are experiencing their happily ever after."



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Pulaski County Detention Center Reagan Gray







A teacher from Arkansas has pleaded no contest to sexual assault after being accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at her church

Reagan Danielle Gray entered her plea on Monday at the Little Rock Court for one count of second-degree sexual assault

Gray has been sentenced to six years of probation, ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, registered on the sex offender list, must provide a DNA sample and must have no communication with the victim







A teacher from Arkansas has pleaded no contest to sexual assault after being accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at her church.

According to KARK, Reagan Danielle Gray entered her plea on Monday at the Little Rock Court for one count of second-degree sexual assault.

ABC7 reported that the teacher entered a no contest, which allowed her not to admit or deny the crime, but the move is treated the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

Gray was charged last year with abusing a 15-year-old boy at Immanuel Baptist Church in 2020 when she was 23 years old.

KARK reported that while she first abused the boy in 2020, the assault continued into summer 2021.

PEOPLE contacted Little Rock Court, Little Rock Police, Immanuel Baptist Church and Sylvan Hills Middle School for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

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Google Maps Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

PEOPLE previously reported in April 2024 that police had accused Gray of sexually abusing a teenager and sending him nudes.

Grays attorney, John Ogles, told PEOPLE at the time that Gray had entered a not guilty plea. We are just going to trust the judicial process, he said.

While the defendant was a teacher at the Little Rock Christian Academy and a volunteer in the Immanuel Baptist Church student ministry, the victim was a member of the student ministry.

KARK and ABC7 reported that Gray had originally been charged with the first and fourth degrees in sexual assault, however, prosecutors later agreed for her to enter a second-degree plea.

She has been sentenced to six years of probation and a $1,000 fine. Gray is also now registered on the sex offender registry, has been ordered to provide a DNA sample and must have no communication with the victim.

PEOPLE previously reported that an affidavit stated that Gray was told to stop contacting the boy after the teen's parents allegedly found text messages in 2020 between the two.

The texts were then reported to the senior pastor. Gray then told the pastor that the relationship was "not physical before being removed from the student ministry and being ordered to undergo counseling.

However, she returned to volunteering in the student ministry shortly after being removed, per investigators.

Gray then allegedly revealed in a counseling session in 2020 that her relationship with the boy was sexual in nature, per the affidavit.

The communication between Gray and [the teen] had not stopped after being confronted by [the teen's] parents and continued on the Snapchat application," the affidavit went on to say, with authorities claiming the abuse took place in Grays car or apartment multiple times.

The affidavit also stated that Gray was on administrative leave from her job at Sylvan Hills Middle School beginning in February 2024.

According to KARK, Pastor Smith resigned as pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in April last year after backlash for how the church dealt with the allegation of sexual abuse.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.



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New York Mets' Brett Baty watches his single in the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON (AP)  Brett Baty drove in three runs on two hits, including a two-run single to break a seventh-inning tie and help the New York Mets avert a three-game sweep by beating the Boston Red Sox 5-1 on Wednesday night.

Baty also singled home Mark Vientos in the first to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. Francisco Lindor had a pair of hits, including a solo homer in the ninth, as New York won for just the second time in seven games.

Huascar Brazoban (3-0) picked up the win after coming on with the bases loaded in the fifth and striking out Alex Bregman to end the inning.

Jarren Duran hit a long fly ball to the warning track in right field with the bases loaded in the fifth inning for a sacrifice fly that gave Boston its only run.

Liam Hendriks (0-1) relieved Garrett Crochet with one out in the sixth and finished the inning but gave up three straight singles to start the seventh, including an infield single by Luisangel Acuna that was initially ruled an out before replays showed he beat the throw to first.

Brennan Bernardino replaced Hendriks and gave up Baty's single that one-hopped off the Green Monster, scoring two to make it 3-1. Juan Soto added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.

Key moment

Boston loaded the bases in the fifth but had to settle for one run on Duran's sacrifice fly on a 108 mph line drive to the warning track in right. After Rafael Devers walked to reload the bases, Brazoban came on and struck out Bregman looking on a 3-2 pitch.

Key stat

Mets starter Tylor Megill matched his career high with 10 strikeouts. The Red Sox struck out a season-high 16 times in all.

Up next

The Mets open a three-game series against the Dodgers in New York on Friday night, with LHP Clayton Kershaw (0-0) facing RHP Griffith Canning (5-1).

Boston welcomes Baltimore for the start of a four-game series. LHP Cade Povich (1-3) will face RHP Lucas Giolito (1-1) in the opener.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
A man whom officials suspect of killing up to 20 cats in a Southern California neighborhood was a no-show during his arraignment hearing this week and is now considered at large.

Alejandro Oliveros Acosta, 46, was arrested April 23 and charged with two felony counts of cruelty to animals, one felony count of grand theft of a companion animal and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance, according to the Orange County District Attorneys Office.

Acosta, a Santa Ana resident, had been free on $40,0000 bond and was set to appear in court on May 21 but did not appear for the hearing, Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, confirmed to USA TODAY.

The charges stem from a string of cases in the nearby cities of Santa Ana and Westminster, including one involving a woman's stolen cat, Edds said. The cases also involve a police investigation into reports of nearly two dozen dead and severely injured cats being found in the vicinity of where Acosta lived.

The cities are about 10 miles apart.

A stolen Bengal Lynx cat named Clubber

Investigators looking into the stolen cats reported a male Bengal Lynx named Clubber was taken on March 21 from outside a home in the Westminster neighborhood.

"There is video of him, with what appears to be cat food, and he is seen luring the cat to him and taking it," Edds said about Acosta.

According to Edds, the cat was returned to the owner about one week later. Additional details about the case were not provided, but KTLA-TV reported that police received a tip that the 10-month-old cat was found safe at a Santa Ana home and returned to its owner.

Alleged serial cat killer on the run

The second case, under investigation by the Santa Ana Police Department, involved reports of dead and injured cats, officials said they believe Acosta is responsible for.

"Between November and April, police investigated seven different reports of dead or severely injured cats in the vicinity of where (Acosta) lived," Edds said.

In late April, investigators identified Acosta as a suspect in both cases, and following an interview with him at the Santa Ana police station, they found probable cause to arrest him, Edds said.

The Santa Ana Police Department arrested accused cat killer Alejandro Oliveros Acosta in late April after investigating seven cases of dead or severely injured cats in the city.

Police arrested Acosta on April 24, and shortly after the arrest, officials said he posted a $40,000 bond.

When Acosta failed to appear for arraignment, Superior Court Judge Stephen J. McGreevy issued a bench warrant for his arrest and raised his bond to $50,000, Santa Ana police Officer Natalie Garcia told USA TODAY.

Officials told USA TODAY that Acosta remains at large as of May 22.

'Jet fuel all over': Small plane crashes into San Diego neighborhood, fatalities reported

Police seek more information about Alejandro Acosta

It was not immediately known whether Acosta had obtained legal counsel as of May 22.

The cases remain under investigation, police and prosecutors said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Santa Ana police at 714-245-8049 or Westminster police at

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Santa Ana alleged serial cat killer at large after court no-show
BrandiGlanville/X;Paul Archuleta/Getty Brani Glanville







Brandi Glanville admitted shes been hiding due to negative comments shes gotten about her appearance after struggling with facial disfigurement from suspected parasites"

She said shes now ready to come back to social media without all the filters and heavy edits

Glanville suspected she first contracted a facial parasite while traveling to Morocco for the Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip







Brandi Glanville admits that shes hiding as she continues to deal with unexplained health issues.

On May 21, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum posted on X and explained that shes going to start getting back on social media and interacting with her followers. The 52-year-old said she took a brief hiatus because of the negative comments shes gotten while struggling with facial disfigurement from suspected parasites.

I havent posted much on any social site lately because Im hiding out and dont want to deal with the cruel comments on my appearance, she wrote. But Ill be posting and sharing authentically without all the filters and heavy edits..

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Glanville has been open about her ongoing struggle with a suspected facial parasite, which she believes she contracted in Morocco while filming the Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.

The Bravo star said shes spent over $113,000 of her own money seeking treatment for the mystery condition outside of her health insurance plan. However, shes seen no improvements since.

BrandiGlanville/X Brandi Glanville showing off her facial disfigurement due to suspected parasites



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Last month, she posted a photo of a tub with a brown liquid substance, which she said was drainage from her face.

The clear plaque sitting on top like oily wax is produced all day by my face, she wrote at the time. It drains down, eroding my teeth. I cant see & have 2 hard lumps under my left cheek bone. 1 on back of neck & jawbone. I need infectious disease Dr. that specializes in fungal infections? HELP.

Earlier this year, the reality star said shell do anything to resolve her facial disfigurement.

I'm sick of hearing myself complain. I'm sick of everything. I'm sick of the way I look. I'm sick of, like, just hiding out in my house, Glanville said on the Jan. 13 episode of her podcast Brandi Glanville Unfiltered. I'm sick of being sick. So if it bothers you and you're my friend and you call me and tell me we have to get over this, like, sick talk, I agree. I would like to get over the sickness altogether.

But, Glanville said, Let's try to be more positive moving forward. I'm saying that to myself right now  I mean, we have nowhere to go but up.

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Beachgoers enjoy the scene near the Santa Monica Pier on Wednesday evening. The beach area around the pier ranked among the dirtiest in California on the annual report card compiled by environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay. (David Butow/For The Times)

As temperatures rise across the Southland, droves of people will hit the beach in search of a reprieve  but you might want to think twice before taking a dip near one of the region's most famous landmarks.

For the second year in a row, the area around the Santa Monica Pier was named one of California's dirtiest beaches by environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay.

The pier-adjacent beach came in at No. 2 this year due to persistent water quality issues, according to the organization's annual Beach Report Card.

Heal the Bay monitors beaches along the California coast  testing water samples for fecal bacteria, including coliform, E. coli and enterococcus. High concentrations of these bacteria indicate the presence of pathogens that could be harmful to beachgoers.

Of the more than 500 beaches that Heal the Bay monitored in 2024, the top 10 dirtiest also included four in San Diego County, three in San Mateo County and one in Marin County. The 10th, and dirtiest, beach on the list was in Baja California, Mexico.

This year's beach grades do not account for wildfire runoff.

In January, rainfall and debris from the catastrophic L.A. County firestorm prompted officials to issue an ocean water closure and ocean water quality advisory from Surfrider Beach in Malibu to Dockweiler State Beach at World Way in Playa del Rey. The advisories have since been lifted. Public health officials say despite fire-related debris washing ashore, there is little evidence of fire-related toxins in ocean water in high enough concentrations to make someone sick.

Heal the Bay continues to conduct separate testing specific to the fires and their effects.

The Santa Monica Pier, specifically north of Pico and south of Wilshire boulevards, is Los Angeles County's only beach to make Heal the Bay's list.

Every day, families who visit Santa Monica for a day of fun in the sun may be unknowingly risking illness by splashing in polluted waters," Tracy Quinn, chief executive of Heal the Bay, said in a statement. "Its time for the City of Santa Monica to prioritize efforts to identify and reduce bacteria levels at the Santa Monica Pier."

Beachgoers walk along the shore near the Santa Monica Pier. (David Butow / For The Times)

The beach area got a low grade despite upgrades to the pier  including stormwater capture systems and bird deterrent netting, according to the report. Pollution for the pier remains a problem, worsened by urban runoff and high levels of water-contaminating activities, such as the disposal of fish guts from recreational fishing, which attracts seabirds.

In a statement Thursday, the city of Santa Monica said it "continues to research and implement new strategies to address the ocean water quality directly underneath the Santa Monica Pier, a very limited area encompassing just the ocean water 100 yards north and south of the Pier."

Those efforts are taking place in partnership with Heal the Bay, the city added.

"We are proud that, thanks to decades of city policies and programs, Santa Monica's three miles of coastline consistently receive an outstanding health grade," the statement said.

Over the years, Santa Monica has taken several steps to address water quality under the pier  including diverting storm water to the city's "Clean Beaches" tank.

City officials said piers can pose a unique water quality challenge due to poorer circulation of ocean water.

Heal the Bay's 10 dirtiest beaches

Playa Blanca (Baja California, Mexico) Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County) Tijuana Slough at Tijuana River mouth (San Diego County) Chicken Ranch Beach at channel (Marin County) Linda Mar Beach at San Pedro Creek (San Mateo County) Erckenbrack Park, Foster City (San Mateo County) Tijuana Slough, north of Tijuana River (San Diego County) Border Field State Park at Monument Road (San Diego County) Imperial Beach at Seacoast Drive (San Diego County) Pillar Point Harbor Beach (San Mateo County)

Out of more than 500 monitored beaches in the state, 62 earned a spot on Heal the Bay's "honor roll," a significant improvement from just 12 beaches in last year's report and only two the year before that.

Seven counties  Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Mateo and San Francisco  earned top quality marks in this year's report, also a notable increase from previous years.

Southern California beaches typically dominate the honor roll because many counties in Northern and Central California do not monitor water quality year-round.

From April through October, state law requires county governments to test water samples. However, counties are not required to monitor water quality during off-season months, so many counties opt not to do so from November to March.

Orange County dominated the top 10 list of Heal the Bay's honor roll for the second straight year. Every beach on that list was in Orange County.

California's top 10 'honor roll' beaches

Balboa Beach at the Wedge (Orange County) Balboa Pier beach (Orange County) Capistrano County Beach, South Capistrano Bay (Orange County) Crystal Cove State Park (Orange County) Dana Point Harbor (Orange County) Huntington City Beach (Orange County) Laguna Beach (Orange County) Newport Bay (Orange County) North Aliso County Beach (Orange County) San Clemente Pier (Orange County)

The 62-beach honor roll includes 34 in Orange County, 12 in San Diego County, and seven in L.A. County. Ventura County has five, San Mateo County has two and Santa Barbara and San Francisco counties each have one.

In L.A. County, the seven honor roll beaches are Dockweiler State Beach at Grand Avenue, Hermosa Beach, Long Point in Rancho Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach at 28th Street, Nicholas Beach at San Nicholas Canyon Creek mouth, Nicholas Beach 100 feet west of lifeguard tower and Portuguese Bend Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes.

During the 2024 to 2025 monitoring period, Heal the Bay says California saw a noticeable improvement in coastal water quality, something the organization attributed to a very dry summer and winter.

With 9% less rainfall this year compared with the historical 10-year average, fewer pollutants, such as bacteria, trash and chemicals, washed into storm drains and onto the ocean, according to the report.

Officials recommend staying at least 100 yards away from storm drains and river outlets when entering the water and to always wait at least 72 hours after it rains before going in the ocean.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic Chanel Iman at the premiere of "A Private Life" at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival







Chanel Iman is back at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, but this time with her athlete husband Davon Godchaux

The model tells PEOPLE how she prepped for this year's circuit of events  from squeezing in a weeks-long worth of look in three suitcases to curating looks that reflect her "maturing" style

"I'm finally owning my sense of style," she says







Chanel Iman is happy to be back in Cannes.

The supermodel has long been a fixture at the city's famous film festival, which kicked off on May 13 and will conclude on May 24. This year though is an extra special occasion, not only because it's her first time back since welcoming her first child, a daughter named Capri Summer, with her husband Davon Godchaux, 30, in August 2023. It's also the married pair's first time attending the event together.

"I just love the French Riviera. It's just an energy that's just very different and unique and special," Iman tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. Plus, "the fashion that the Cannes Film Festival brings makes it such an elegant, luxurious place to be around this time of year."

Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Chanel Iman and Davon Godchaux

Fashion is something that Iman, who is also an ambassador for French cognac brand Remy Martin, takes very seriously when she preps for Cannes.

Over the course of two fittings, Iman collaborated with her stylist, Monica Rose, who she says understands her aesthetic better than anyone. "She knows my body, she knows what I like. She's great with merging fashion and storytelling and pulling the most incredible pieces." Typically from there, they sort out the details on Iman's hair and makeup.

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Andreas Rentz/Getty Chanel Iman at the Chopard Universe Dinner during the Cannes Film Festival

The duo's intuitive collaboration comes from years of Rose watching Iman's style evolve from who she was in her early 20s to who she is now  a working woman in her 30s and a mom of four (Chanel also has two daughters, Cassie, 6, and Cali,5, with her ex-husband Sterling Shepard and is a stepmom to Godchaux's son, Deuce, 9).

"I just feel like I'm maturing as I get older, so the things that I select are a little bit classier than what I would've picked in my early 20s. I'm finally owning my sense of style," she says. Now, she floats towards pieces that "cover up a little bit more" but have a timeless essence to them.

On May 20, Iman looked glam and gorgeous in a romantic sky blue Pamella Rolland gown with Chopard jewelry at the premiere of A Private Life. This week, she's also been making the rounds at various events on the grounds. A nautical two-piece and plunging evening gown with a vintage flair are some of the other looks she's worn.

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As she reflects on her love story with Cannes, Iman adds that she's been going to the star-studded celebration of cinema for what feels like her "whole career." This time is different though because she gets to see everything through her significant other's eyes. She thinks of it as one grand date.

"Fashion is really something that connected us," she says of her bond with Godchaux, who plays for the New Orleans Saints. The pair tied the knot in a civil ceremony in New York on Jan. 10 before eloping on a yacht in the Caribbean on Feb. 24, per Vogue. "On our first date, we pretty much talked all about fashion, our favorite designers, pieces that we love. He just knew my world so much, it was so easy to connect with him on that level."

Pierre Suu/GC Images Chanel Iman and Davon Godchaux in Cannes

"I'm able to show him all of these cool fashion places that have been on his bucket list and I'm able to bring him into my world. He's always wanted to do this," she adds.

Having Godchaux by her side also provides stability when things get overwhelming. "He gives me the security and the protection that I've always prayed for. So it's like, we balance each other out. Things that he prayed for, I am able to bless him with, and things that I pray for, he's able to bless me with."

This time their experiences were all down to Remy Martin, who Iman partnered with through her love for hosting and cognac. "They really give you the ultimate experience, wherever you are. So it's been nothing but love and we just really appreciate just being here with them."



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The murders of two Mexico City officials, in a rush-hour shooting on a busy avenue, were meticulously planned by experienced gunmen, prosecutors said Wednesday, as more details emerged of the worst attack against public officials in the capital in recent years.

At least four people were involved in the killing of the personal secretary and a close adviser of Mexico City's Mayor Clara Brugada, the capital's police chief said Wednesday.

Pablo Vazquez Camacho said investigators had identified and found a motorcycle and two other vehicles used in the escape of the gunman who killed the two officials Tuesday morning as they traveled in a vehicle along a busy thoroughfare.

Brugada's personal secretary, Ximena Guzman, and an adviser, Jose Munoz, were shot dead in Guzman's car, authorities said.

Mexico City chief prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Lujan said the gunman had fled on a motorcycle that was hidden nearby and then changed vehicles twice as he and others fled into neighboring Mexico State.

Clothes were recovered in the vehicles and were being analyzed, but investigators could not yet offer a possible motive, the prosecutor said. She said Guzman was shot eight times and Munoz four times.

A framed image of Ximena Guzman, the personal secretary to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada who was murdered a day earlier, adorns an altar during a wake at a funeral home in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. / Credit: Marco Ugarte / AP

Alcalde said that given the circumstances, investigators believe "it was a direct attack and with an important degree of planning and those who killed them had previous experience."

One suspect was seen carrying out surveillance of the victims in the area of the attack in preceding days, she added.

Still, she said investigators could not yet propose a motive or say who was behind the killings.

"We cannot conclude that this is tied to organized crime, much less speak now of a particular organized crime group," Alcalde said.

Both officials said Wednesday that investigators had detected the presence of an individual at the site of the attacks days before they occurred, which would suggest knowledge of the victims' routines.

The attack, which happened at around 7 a.m., left four bullet holes clustered on the driver's side of the windshield. One body lay on the pavement.

Vazquez Camacho said that neither Guzman nor Munoz had any special security measures, but both had received training about protecting themselves.

"They are people who worked very closely with the people ... and they did their work without fear," he said.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is an ally of Brugada and a former mayor of Mexico City before winning the presidency last year, had declined to speculate on the possible involvement of organized crime during her press briefing earlier Wednesday.

Passersby describe "trauma"

At the scene of the attack Wednesday morning, hundreds of commuters passed with most oblivious to what had occurred a day earlier. Some, however, noticed the handwritten signs with messages of remembrance to the two victims and flowers and candles left on the sidewalk.

University student Loretta Garcia Oriz said she had passed the site Tuesday when Guzman and Munoz's bodies were still at the scene. "Passing here gives me the same trauma," she said Wednesday.

Police officers stand guard near the crime scene of the killing of Jose Munoz and Ximena Guzman in Mexico city on May 20, 2025. / Credit: VALENTINA ALPIDE/AFP via Getty Images

Oscar Sanchez's taco stand isn't far from the crime scene, but said Wednesday he didn't know what had happened until another vendor told him and police began to set up a perimeter. The attack showed that it doesn't matter if you're an official or an average person, he said. "It's all the same."

Pablo Vazquez, the city's police chief, said that in recent weeks authorities had made "very significant arrests of leaders of criminal cells" in the capital.

"These arrests will continue, and the dismantling of criminal cells will continue," he told reporters.

Mexico City's mayor is considered second in political importance only to the president. The mayor's office has long been a stepping stone to the presidency, something true for Sheinbaum and her predecessor.

But for years, the idea has prevailed of Mexico City as a relatively peaceful oasis protected from the brutal drug cartel violence prevalent in other parts of the country. There has always been street crime, but the cartels, while present, maintained a lower profile in the capital.

That illusion was partially dashed in 2020 with the brazen ambush of Mexico City's then police chief on another central boulevard. Omar Garcia Harfuch was wounded, but two bodyguards and a bystander were killed in the attack involving more than 20 people and heavy weaponry.

Garcia Harfuch, who is now Sheinbaum's national security minister, immediately blamed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel for the attack.

There had not been another such attack on public officials in the capital since then.

But politicians and their supporters are frequently targeted elsewhere in Mexico.

Earlier this month, a mayoral candidate and three other people were shot dead at a campaign event in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Like Mexico City's mayor, Yesenia Lara was a member of President Sheinbaum's Morena party.

In April, Jose Luis Pereira, a senior member of the Teocaltiche city government, was shot and killed while dining at a restaurant in Jalisco.

In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was a member of the ruling coalition was shot dead in Veracruz.

Two female politicians were targeted soon after Sheinbaum took office. In June 2024, a local councilwoman was gunned down as she was leaving her home in Guerrero. Her murder came a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard were killed outside of a gym, just hours after Sheinbaum was elected president.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

Trump confronts South African president during White House meeting, repeats genocide claims

Watch: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked what habeas corpus is in Senate hearing

Watch: Rubio and Van Hollen get into testy exchange during Senate hearing
Djibouti in East Africa. (Ludovic Marin / AFP via Getty Images file)

A flight with eight immigrants that left Texas this week, reportedly headed for South Sudan, will now remain in the East African country of Djibouti for two weeks to comply with a court order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday.

During a briefing, Leavitt placed blame on the U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts, following a hearing Wednesday after eight people from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan had been deported to a third country. Lawyers had said the flight was headed for South Sudan, but the Department of Homeland Security says it won't confirm.

Murphy had said in the hearing the Trump administration was in violation of a previous injunction that prevented people from being sent to countries other than their own without opportunities to voice their fears of torture or persecution, or without proper notice ahead of time.

Murphy ordered that the individuals be provided legal counsel and an opportunity to raise their fears. He also ordered the deportees to be given at least 15 days to reopen immigration proceedings and challenge their deportation in the event the government still aims to send them to a third country.

Leavitt said Murphys order was an attempt to bring these monsters back to our country.

Now Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world and putting the agents lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals and rapists, Leavitt said.

Leavitt, who stated the names and criminal records of the eight people who are on the flight, called Murphys order a massive judicial overreach.

He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd, she said.

Murphy had relayed the sequence of events leading to the deportations, saying the immigrants were notified of their destination sometime in the evening Monday, outside business hours. He added that they left the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility en route to a nearby airport the next morning at 9:35 CT.

Without sufficient time to consult an attorney or family members, the judge said, it was impossible for the immigrants to challenge their deportations to a third country.

The departments actions, Murphy said, are unquestionably violative of this courts order.
Florida International University students protest on campus in Miami in April against cuts in federal funding and an agreement by campus police to partner with ICE. (Rebecca Blackwell / AP file)

A federal judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal statuses of international students at universities across the U.S.

In the injunction, District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland also prohibited the administration from arresting or detaining any foreign-born students on the basis of their immigration status while a case challenging previous terminations moves through the courts.

In his decision, White said that the Trump administration has wreaked havoc on the lives of the plaintiffs as well as other international students.

"Todays ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the Presidents constitutionally vested powers under Article II," Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

"The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system, and we expect a higher court to vindicate us in this." We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

Though many international students have been successful in individually challenging the Trump administration, guaranteeing their own right to stay in the U.S., the injunction is the first to provide relief to students nationwide.

In the order, White wrote that the administration is barred from transferring any of the plaintiffs in ongoing cases to jurisdictions outside their residences, or from reversing any reinstatement of their records.

While the Trump administration had said in court documents this month that an injunction wasn't necessary because it had begun to restore statuses while Immigration and Customs Enforcement develops a new framework for terminations, the judge disagreed.

At each turn in this and similar litigation across the nation, Defendants have abruptly changed course to satisfy courts expressed concerns, the judge said. It is unclear how this game of whack-a-mole will end unless Defendants are enjoined from skirting their own mandatory regulations.

The Trump administration began revoking the visas of thousands of international students in addition to their records and legal statuses in March. The terminations appeared to take aim at those who had participated in political activism or had criminal charges against them, like DUIs.

And in late April, DHS revealed at a court hearing that the department used 10 to 20 employees to run the names of 1.3 million foreign-born students through the National Crime Information Center, an FBI-run computerized index that includes criminal history information.

Experts have criticized the process, pointing out that the index relies on cities, counties, states and other sources to voluntarily report their data. And sometimes the database doesnt have the final dispositions of cases. Its why, immigration attorneys and policy experts say, some students whove had cases dismissed, or were not convicted, likely still had their statuses revoked.
Obtained by CNN

The Israeli military fired warning shots at a large delegation of European and Arab diplomats on an official visit near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, drawing swift international condemnation.

Delegations from more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada and others, were on an official mission to see the humanitarian situation around the besieged camp, according to the Palestinian Authoritys Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which called the incident a deliberate and unlawful act.

Video from the incident shows Israeli soldiers firing toward the delegation as it backs away from a gate blocking the road. At least seven shots can be heard in the video. One member of the delegation cautions the group, be close to the wall, be close to the wall, as they walk away from the scene.

The ministry holds the Israeli occupying government fully and directly responsible for this criminal assault and affirms that such acts will not pass without accountability, the Palestinian Authoritys Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

Members of a diplomatic delegation from the European Union during a visit to the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 21, 2025. - Mohammad Mansour/AFP/Getty Images

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the visit to the camp - the site of a major ongoing military operation that has destroyed more than 100 buildings and impacted thousands of families - was coordinated in advance. The military said it launched an initial investigation once it became clear that the group was a diplomatic delegation.

The delegation deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorized to be, the military said in a statement Wednesday.

IDF soldiers operating in the area fired warning shots to distance them away.

The IDF said it will reach out to the delegations about the findings of the initial inquiry and regrets the inconvenience caused.

The Palestinian Authority said the visit was announced 10 days in advance and that the group had been at the gate for more than 15 minutes before Israeli soldiers started shooting.

Roland Friedrich, the director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the West Bank, refuted the Israeli militarys version of events, saying that its explanations do not fully capture the severity of todays event.

This incident is a stark reminder of the lax use of excessive force routinely deployed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank, often with lethal consequences, Friedrich said. This raises serious concerns over the way rules of engagement are applied to unarmed civilians.

Kaja Kallas, the European Unions High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said after the incident that any threats on diplomats lives are unacceptable.

We definitely call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold those accountable who are responsible for this, Kallas said at a press conference Wednesday.

Italys foreign ministry summoned Israels ambassador in Rome for an official clarification.

The threats against diplomats are unacceptable, the countrys Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added in a social media post on X.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that Israels ambassador to France would also be summoned following the incident, calling it unacceptable, while Spains Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said that his government summoned the head of the Israeli embassy in Madrid.

Canadas Foreign Minister Anita Anand confirmed on social media that four Canadian personnel were part of the delegation that was shot at, adding that she has asked officials to summon Israels Ambassador to convey Canadas serious concerns.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told a news conference in Ottawa that Canada expected a full and immediate explanation of what happened.

Its totally unacceptable, he said. Its some of many things that are totally unacceptable thats going on in the region.

On Wednesday evening, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told CNNs Isa Soares that her country will be summoning the Israeli ambassador to Finland in response to the militarys actions.

Any deviation of any route  it is not an excuse, Valtonen said. It is prohibited to open fire against civilians, even under the laws of war. And, of course, these people were also under diplomatic protection.

A host of officials from other European nations condemned the shooting, including representatives from Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Foreign ministries from countries including Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar also strongly condemned the incident.

This attack, which endangered the lives of diplomats, is yet another demonstration of Israels systematic disregard for international law and human rights, Turkeys foreign ministry said.

The targeting of diplomats constitutes a grave threat not only to individual safety but also to the mutual respect and trust that form the foundation of inter-state relations. This attack must be investigated without delay, and those responsible must be held accountable, it added.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the shooting incident occurred near the Jenin refugee camp, not within the camp.

CNNs Niamh Kennedy, Brook Jenner, Abel Alvarado, Sharon Braithwaite and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.

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A former United States Postal Service (USPS) employee was convicted and sentenced after stealing $1.9 million in business checks.

Dontavis Romario Truesdale, 28, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was sentenced to two years and 3 months in prison for financial institution fraud, federal prosecutors said in a statement on May 20. Truesdale will also be subject to two years of supervision following his release.

Truesdale worked as a processing clerk at the Ballantyne Post Office in Charlotte from November 2022 to April 2023, according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of North Carolina and court documents reviewed by USA TODAY. During that time, he took hundreds of business checks from P.O. boxes in the facility, amounting to 200 checks worth $1.9 million in stolen funds.

Truesdale then sold the stolen checks to co-conspirators who used them to commit bank fraud by depositing or creating counterfeit checks from the stolen ones and withdrawing or moving funds before banks could identify the checks as fraudulent.

Truesdale released on bond, will serve sentence once prison is selected

Truesdale, along with his primary co-conspirator, was originally charged with five counts of theft of mail by a postal employee and one count of fraud. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, which carries a potential sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Truesdale was released on bond after his May 20 hearing and will report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons after a federal facility is selected for his sentence.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Former USPS employee who stole nearly $2 million in checks sentenced
Canada's Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, centre right, and Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem, centre left, pose for a family photo with their colleagues at the G7 Finance Ministers meeting in Banff, Alta., Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Jeff McIntosh /The Canadian Press via AP)

BANFF, Alberta (AP)  Top finance officials from the world's seven wealthiest democracies set aside stark differences on U.S. tariffs after two days of talks and agreed to counter global economic imbalances, a swipe at China's trade practices.

In a communique issued Thursday, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, meeting in the Canadian Rockies, left out their traditional defense of free trade and toned down their references to Russia's war in Ukraine, compared with last year. But they did agree that further sanctions on Russia could be imposed if the two countries don't reach a ceasefire.

The communique said the G7 members would continue to monitor nonmarket policies and practices which contribute to imbalances in global trade. The statement did not mention China but nonmarket policies typically refer to that country's export subsidies and currency policies that the Trump administration charges gives it an advantage in international trade.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears to have succeeded in steering the communique largely in the direction the Trump administration sought, particularly regarding China's trade practices.

The high-profile gathering of officials from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy also appeared to be more congenial than an earlier meeting of G7 foreign ministers in March. Yet that meeting, also in Canada, occurred as President Donald Trump was in the midst of threatening stiff tariffs on Canada and suggesting it could become the 51st state.

Canada is president of this year's G7 and the sessions this week are intended to lay the groundwork for a meeting of the heads of state on June 15-17 in Kananaskis, Canada. The White House said Thursday that Trump will attend that gathering.

Throughout our G7 presidency, the tone of the discussions has become progressively more constructive, Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, said at a news conference at the conclusion of the summit.

Yet that unity appears to have been achieved by jettisoning many items that in the past had been agreed to by the G7 countries. In addition to leaving out any mention of trade, the communique dropped sections on combating climate change and cooperating on international tax policy, issues the Trump administration has dismissed.

There will always be tension around tariffs," said Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canadas finance minister. But there are also places where you find common ground. ... This year our focus was to return to the G7 core mission, restoring global growth and stability."

The shift comes as Trump has slapped widespread tariffs on imports, including a 10% global duty on all goods, even those from the other G7 allies. Trump has also imposed 25% tariffs on steel, aluminum, and cars, and on April 2 imposed much steeper tariffs on about 60 nations, which he then paused until early July.

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Union Trade Commissioner, said that trade was obviously a difficult topic during the negotiations. The EU, which participates in the G7 but doesnt serve as one of the rotating presidents, pushed for stronger language that would have highlighted the economic harms from tariffs.

The U.S. administration is having a somewhat different view of the situation, Dombrovskis told reporters. He added that details about U.S. tariffs werent discussed because the G7 members are negotiating individually with the Trump administration about duties.

On Ukraine, the communique condemned Russia's continued brutal war against Ukraine, yet that language was milder than last year's, which referred to Russia's illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked full-scale invasion. Trump officials in the past have pushed to avoid antagonizing Russia while seeking peace talks.

Champagne, however, called the invasion illegal in Thursday's news conference.

Bessent also successfully included an agreement in the statement that no country or entity that supported Russia's war efforts would be able to profit from Ukraine's reconstruction, a restriction that would bar Chinese companies from participating.

Dombrovskis said the EU had proposed to lower the current price cap on Russian oil  previously agreed to as part of early sanctions slapped on Russia in the wake of its 2022 invasion  to $50, from $60, but the communique says little about specific measures.

Still, the EU was largely satisfied with the G7's agreements on Ukraine, Dombrovskis said, including the willingness to impose more sanctions. The group also agreed to continue freezing Russia's financial assets until they can be used to help pay for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Mark Sobel, a former top Treasury Department official and senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, criticized the communique as feeble.

The statement closes its eyes to the elephants in the room -- the word 'tariffs' or a reference to destructive U.S. trade policies are nowhere to be found, Sobel said.

On Ukraine, the G7 will explore options if a ceasefire isnt reached when the time for action is now, he added. This risible communique cannot hide the fissures in the G7 and hardly bodes well for the larger fractures looming for the upcoming G7 leaders summit."

Still, John Kirton, a political scientist at the University of Toronto and director of the G7 Research Group, said it was a positive sign that a communique had even been issued. That was in considerable doubt to the very end, he said.

Yet both Sobel and Kirton noted there was no reference to U.S. budget deficits and their role in the global imbalances the ministers seek to combat. The federal budget deficit, by contributing to higher U.S. demand, worsens the U.S. trade deficit that the Trump administration seeks to reduce.

The communique said that economic policy uncertainty has declined from its peak," a view that Kirton said was puzzling," given that the U.S. Congress is considering a tax and spending package that has unnerved financial markets this week, pushing up the interest rate on U.S. Treasury securities.

Theres great uncertainty out there in financial markets, Kirton said. "The dollar is going down, and we dont know when that will end.

Bessent held several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the G7, including with Champagne and Japans Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato.

Bessent and Kato discussed trade and currencies, the Treasury Department said, with both sides agreeing that exchange rates should be market-determined. The U.S. has often criticized Japan in the past for intervening in currency markets to lower the yens value.

Yet the two sides did not discuss foreign exchange levels, Treasury said, a sign the U.S. isnt pressuring Japan about the yens current value.
Aid workers struggling to distribute a trickle of aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip are describing a logistical nightmare in the midst of a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

With this limited amount of aid, the humanitarian situation continues to get worse and worse, Dr. Amjad Alshawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, an umbrella group of Palestinian organizations, told NBC News on Wednesday. At the same time, the Israelis are imposing restrictions on access to these supplies.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said humanitarian workers were able to pick up at least 90 truckloads of aid Wednesday night  but it was unclear whether that aid had been distributed as of Thursday morning.

A malnourished 6-year-old girl and her mother at a shelter in central Gaza City, on May 11. (Majdi Fathi / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, NBC News crew on the ground described widespread frustration among Palestinians waiting to see whether more aid will flow into the enclave. Many charities have stopped or reduced their food offerings because of the scarcity of supplies and high cost of the rare goods available at markets.

After lifting its almost three-month-long blockade of the entry of food, medicine and other aid into Gaza, Israel has allowed a trickle of supplies into the enclave in recent days amid mounting international pressure. Aid groups say it has also imposed a new set of rules on bringing in supplies, which they blame for logistical snarl-ups and a delay in food and medicine reaching those who need it.

COGAT, the Israeli militarys liaison with the Palestinians, said Thursday that 198 trucks had entered Gaza, but did not specifically comment on the new procedures and referred NBC News to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for further comment, which it did not immediately provide.

COGAT data suggested the majority of that aid has been food, with medicine and medical equipment making up a smaller share.

Humanitarian groups have warned that the limited aid flowing in is a fraction of the amount needed, with an average of around 500 trucks a day entering in Gaza before the war, according to the British Red Cross.

Despite that resumption, little if any aid entering Gaza had reached Palestinian civilians as of late Wednesday, with humanitarian groups saying that new procedures introduced by Israel have complicated an already tangled effort.

Logistical 'nightmare'

In a briefing Wednesday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that in one instance, the rules meant that, Israeli authorities had only allowed our teams to go through one area that was highly congested, that we felt was insecure and where we felt looting was highly likely to take place, given the prolonged deprivation in Gaza.

A malnourished six-month-old weighing about 5.29 pounds (2.4 kilograms) in Khan Younis, Gaza, on Sunday. (The Yomiuri Shimbun / AP)

While Israeli authorities have not specifically laid out what the new rules involve, Dujarric said Tuesday that humanitarian workers were being required to offload supplies on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing and then reload them separately once teams inside Gaza were allowed to collect them.

He noted that one team waited "several hours" for such a green light, but were never able to transport the goods.

Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has found many of its trucks blocked for reasons that are sometimes unknown, its head of mission for the Palestinian Territories, Jean Guy Vataux, told NBC News in Jerusalem late Wednesday.

While he added that some of the new procedures were put in place to avoid smuggling, the new system turns into a logistic nightmare for the agencies.

'Malnutrition is growing'

Meanwhile, "malnutrition is growing" in Gaza, Vataux said.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, report released earlier this month warned of the risk of famine if adequate access to food was not restored.

The IPC snapshot warned that some 470,000 people in Gaza were facing catastrophic hunger, while the entire population was experiencing food insecurity, the World Food Programme said. It further projected that an alarming 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers would need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.

On Wednesday, the U.N. clarified comments from its humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who had said some 14,000 babies were at risk of death within a short time frame. The body said that the same number of babies is facing severe malnutrition absent a significant and swift increase of aid into Gaza, with severe malnutrition posing the risk of death.
Clerks and traders in the Euro Dollar pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange celebrate the New Year at the close of trading on the last business day of the year December 29, 2006. Reuters/John Gress

Hedge funds shifted focus from the Magnificent Seven to other stocks in the first quarter.

Goldman Sachs identified 20 stocks with increased hedge fund interest in that period.

Stocks with rising hedge fund interest often outperform sector peers, the bank said.

As hedge funds trimmed their Magnificent Seven positions in the first quarter, they increasingly turned their attention toward some other stocks.

In Goldman Sachs' Hedge Fund Trend Monitor published May 20, the firm highlighted 20 stocks that an increasing number of hedge funds added to their holdings in that period.

That heightened interest could be a sign that the stocks are primed for strong returns in the months ahead, the bank said.

"Historically, stocks with the largest increase in the number of hedge fund investors ('Rising Stars') have typically gone on to outperform sector peers during the quarters following their rise in popularity," said the note, authored by a team of strategists led by Ben Snider, a managing director.

The utilities, financials, and consumer discretionary sectors each had five stocks on the list. Two have AI exposure: Sempra and Kinder Morgan. The average market cap of the 20 stocks on the list is $17 billion.

We've listed the stocks below, along with their net gain in the number of funds that own them.

Knight-Swift Transportation (20).

Lithia Motors (19).

Yum Brands (17).

Sempra (16).

US Bancorp (16).

NiSource (15).

Essential Utilities (15).

SLM (15).

Kinder Morgan (15).

Tapestry (14).

Alliant Energy (14).

BlackRock (14).

Zions Bancorporation (14).

First American Financial (14).

Floor & Decor Holdings (14).

Darling Ingredients (13).

Edison International (13).

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (13).

Expand Energy (13).

Labcorp (12).

Read the original article on Business Insider
(Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson is launching a probe into former President Joe Bidens health while he was in office, Axios reported.

Johnsons probe arrives on the heels of Bidens announcement that he has aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, as well as reports alleging that the White House attempted to cover up his declining health while he was president. The senator told Axios he plans to send letters requesting information on Bidens health to a couple dozen people whom he believes had direct contact with the former president, as soon as Wednesday evening. (RELATED: The Biden Cover-Up Is Worse Than You Can Possibly Imagine)

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS  APRIL 15: Former U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at a conference hosted by the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) on April 15, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

We have to. I mean, who was running the government, Johnson told the outlet on Wednesday.

Johnsons investigation into Biden is not the first to be launched by lawmakers in Congress. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on May 16 announced an investigation into Biden allegedly using auto pen to sign documents during his presidency.

The Committees Chairman, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said legacy media gaslit the American people into thinking Biden could properly and healthily lead the nation.

The American people deserve to know who was actually calling the shots in the Biden White House, because it wasnt Joe Biden. His mental decline was obvious to anyone paying attention, Comer said. But instead of being honest, the Biden Administration, Democrats in Congress, and the legacy media lied and covered it up. They gaslit the American people while propping up a man who was unfit to lead. This is one of the greatest scandals of our generation and Americans are demanding answers.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporters byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Priscilla Du Preez | Unsplash Priscilla Du Preez | Unsplash

(The Center Square)  New Hampshire Republicans are moving ahead with a proposal to ban cellphones in public schools, but the measure faces pushback from Democrats, arguing it would erode local control of schools.

The GOP proposal, which was approved by the House Education Policy Committee Tuesday on a narrow 9-8 party-line vote, would set a statewide "bell-to-bell" policy prohibiting cellphone use from the beginning of the school day through dismissal.

Backers of the proposal argue that the restrictions are needed to remove distractions during the school day and point to recent surveys of teachers who want more restrictions on cellphone use in the classroom. House Republicans, who must still hold a final vote on the amendment, are urging the state Senate to approve the proposed restrictions.

We send children to school to learn, not browse Instagram and TikTok," state Rep. Melissa Litchfield, R-Brentwood, the proposal's sponsor, said in a statement. "I hope that the Senate concurs with us on this critical matter so that we can send this bill to Gov. Ayotte.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a first-term Republican, has pushed for a cellphone ban as part of a broader effort to address youth mental health issues and curb teens' use of social media.

"Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, drawing students' attention away from their classes, and becoming a barrier for teachers to do their jobs," she posted recently on social media. "No more."

However, Democrats, a minority in the legislature, oppose the statewide proposal and argue it would force local school districts to cede their authority over setting policies to the state government.

I think it is overly prescriptive and violates local control," state Rep. Loren Selig, D-Durham, said in remarks during Tuesday's committee hearing. "Each district should be able to determine what their own needs are."

If approved, New Hampshire would join a growing number of states to ban or restrict cellphones in schools, part of a broader effort to remove classroom distractions for students as concerns about their mental health mount. So far, only nine states  New York, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia  have banned or restricted cellphones in schools.

Another 11 states, including Maryland and Alabama, have introduced bills targeting restrictions as of December, according to the health policy research group KFF. Alabamas proposed legislation suggests fining students for violating the policy, the group said.

Social media companies are increasingly being blamed for the rising rates of depression, suicidality and other mental health issues among youth nationally. In response, states and local governments are increasingly considering legislation and legal action to crack down on social media use.

A 2023 Gallup study found at least 51% of American teenagers were using social media apps at least four hours a day.
Robyn Colosimo, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army, denied claims on Wednesday that the Trump administration made a partisan decision to prioritize infrastructure projects in Republican-led states over blue states. House Appropriations Committee

(The Center Square)  Facing a $500 million cut, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., accused the Trump administration on Thursday of prioritizing funding for Republican-led states over her own.

Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released plans for spending money provided by Congress under a continuing resolution passed in March. According to House Democrats, the temporary measure cut the Corps of Engineers civil works construction budget by $1.4 billion.

Congress typically tells federal agencies exactly how they can spend tax dollars, but the resolution handed authority to the administration. The Senate and House Republicans offered to split the money between red and blue states, but Murray says its now completely lopsided.

Every single member needs to pay close attention to what is happening here, and speak out, Murray said during a Thursday press conference, because it may not be your state today, but what happens when your governor disagrees with this president? What happens when you vote against him and your state loses out on funding? Take my word; you do not want to find out.

The Corps of Engineers plan gives $258 million in additional funding to Republican-led states while shifting $437 million in projects from blue states. Of the $1.4 billion cut from civil works construction, $500 million wouldve gone to Washington state, with $100 million to California.

Rather than splitting the projects 50-50 between red and blue states, Murray said that only a third of the civil works funding would go to Democrat-led states like hers. In Washington, this means cutting a fish passage project originally planned to start at the Howard Hanson Dam next year.

The Corps of Engineers built the dam to protect the Green River Valley, which has flooded more than 30 times in the last 70 years. According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, fish passage projects can reduce flood risks and reconnect rivers to improve water quality and restore flow.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the Howard Hanson Dam guards the Kent industrial park, a large contributor to the aerospace industry. The dam prevented about $4.6 billion in damage in 2009.

If you dont do something to continue to protect and make improvements to the Howard Hanson Dam, you risk that entire economy from the impacts of flooding, Cantwell said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Robyn Colosimo, acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army, denied that her staff was prioritizing Republican-led states. She told a congressional committee that the administration made hard choices to prioritize life, safety, flooding, and American prosperity.

We always put forth the best projects; in this case, its a dicey situation, Colosimo told U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif. The House and Senate [requests] were around three billion, and we were at the continuing resolution of about $1.8 [billion], so they made hard choices.

You think all the projects in California, Washington, [and] other states dont do that? Levin asked.

Thats not my judgment to make; that was what they prioritized within the funds that they had discretion to allocate, Colosimo responded. They had to make trade-offs that I was not privy to  I dont believe they were partisan, but thats their decision to make.

During the press conference, Murray said Colosimo had absolutely no acceptable or even half convincing justification for these decisions. Murray, Cantwell and senators from California called on their colleagues to speak out against the Trump administration and what they see as partisan cuts.
Dallas Jimenez/GoFundMe Courtney Townsend







The Kane County Sheriffs Office said human remains found on a Utah mountain by a hunter earlier this month were later identified as Courtney Townsend, 32, who disappeared in 2023

The new remains were found about a mile from where Townsend's "original remains" were discovered in May 2024

"We dont have closure, were not able to heal, said Dallas Jimenez, Townsend's sister







Authorities confirmed that human remains found by a hunter have been identified as belonging to a Utah woman who went missing almost two years ago.

In a Monday, May 19 news release, the Kane County Sheriffs Office said that a hunter notified them on May 8 after discovering possible human remains on Utahs Cedar Mountain.

The sheriff's office further noted that the location of the newly-found remains was approximately a mile from where the "original remains" of Courtney Townsend were discovered in May 2024.

According to a missing persons bulletin posted by the St. George Police Department at the time of her disappearance, Townsend, 32, had not been seen since Nov. 12, 2023, after she allegedly stole her mothers car. The vehicle was later found in Kane County days later.

The bulletin further described Townsend as having mental health and drug issues.

The Kane County Sheriffs Office further said in its recent news release that a deputy arrived at the scene and retrieved the new remains. The following day, authorities and search-and-rescue volunteers searched the area for any additional remains but none were found.

The remains were transported to the Utah State Medical Examiners office, the sheriffs office added, where they were positively identified as belonging to Courtney Townsend."

Authorities said the new remains did not offer any clues about Townsends death.

Dallas Jimenez, a sister of Townsend, told CBS affiliate KUTV that there are still questions.

How did she pass? Like what happened to her? We still dont have those answers, and it is frustrating. We dont have closure, were not able to heal, Jimenez said.

Jimenez established a GoFundMe to raise funds so that the family can hire a private investigator to look into the case.

PEOPLE contacted the Kane County Sheriffs Office and the Utah State Medical Examiners Office on Thursday, May 22, for more information.

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.



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Federal agents executing President Donald Trump's plans to dramatically scale up deportations have adopted a new tactic of detaining undocumented immigrants while they're leaving mandatory court appearances.

In many cases, immigrant-rights advocates say, the people being detained were expecting only a routine court check-in after being permitted to enter the United States during the Biden administration. Trump has ended many of the programs that Biden used to allow undocumented people to enter and live in the country, and ICE agents are now targeting those people for removal.

"This escalation of tactics breaks down trust," the New York Immigration Coalition said in a statement. "People should be free to attend their important court cases without fear of being arrested, detained and deported outside of the court."

Under Biden, many people who crossed the border without permission turned themselves in, were paroled into the country and later allowed to plead their case before an immigration court. A few were released with orders to wear GPS trackers, but many others were just told to come back to court at an appointed time.

Now, in addition to more aggressively stopping people at the border, the White House has given ICE agents new powers to detain and deport people when they show up for those court hearings, as long as they arrived in the United States within the past two years.

The shift in tactics has prompted confrontations between advocacy groups and ICE agents, and injected further uncertainty into the lives of undocumented people who believed they followed the rules properly. Some advocacy groups are suing to stop the process.

In Phoenix, ICE agents detained more than a dozen people outside court over a two-day period, May 20 and 21. Normally, undocumented people who are going through the immigration court process cannot be deported until a judge issues a final order of removal. But federal lawyers have been dropping those cases, allowing ICE agents to swoop in and detain them under the new Trump "expedited removal" process.

Phoenix immigration attorney Nera Shefer said some of her clients came to court and were prepared to celebrate when federal lawyers dropped the case against them. Instead, they left the courthouse in handcuffs.

"It used to be getting your case dismissed was a celebration," she said. "Not anymore. The government is given the opportunity to reprocess you under the new rules. That's what it means."

Immigration-rights groups report having seen also federal immigration attorneys and ICE agents adopting the new tactics in New York, Seattle and Miami.

Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden's decision to allow millions of people to enter the United States. And Trump has also repeatedly complained that it would take too long to hold court hearings for every one of those people.

The administration has adopted a string of new tactics to speed up deportations, from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to deporting accused criminals before they ever appear in court.

"We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years," Trump said in a April 21 social media post. "We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the country. Such a thing is not possible to do. What a ridiculous situation we are in."

Immigration advocates and attorneys have argued that witholding such trials is a violation of the Constitution, which guarantees due process to anyone in the United States, not just citizens or other legal residents.

Trump has promised to conduct 1 million deportations annually, a dramatic escalation from previous administrations, including his own first term. Congress is considering a proposal to add 10,000 new ICE agents and double the number of detention beds.

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed that his administration would primarily target violent offenders. Immigrant-rights advocates say the administration's get-tough approach is also targeting people without criminal charges or even immigration violations.

What the Trump administration means for your identity: Sign up for USA TODAY's This is America newsletter.

Contributing: Edwardo Cuevas, USA TODAY, Raphael Romero Ruiz, David Ulloa Jr and Richard Ruelas, USA TODAY Network

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE now targeting people attending immigration court hearings
Guided camping trips aim to make the outdoors accessible and comfortable for everyone. Photograph by Image Source Limited, Alamy Stock Photo

Our family loves the outdoors. We just dont like sleeping in it. This is what I heard my 11-year-old daughter telling another girl on our camping trip, who had asked where else wed been camping. The answer: Nowhere.

My family had stayed in cabins before, and some of our vacations revolved around hiking, but we usually returned to beds and showers at night. Its not that we were nervous about sleeping in a tentwe just hadnt been motivated to buy all the gear and figure it out.

But then my daughters, ages 11 and 15, said they wanted to try camping, and we wanted to nurture their sense of adventure. So we looked for camping options and found a guided camping, hiking, and kayaking trip for families in Wisconsins Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

It was appealing for several reasons: All of us are fond of hiking, kayaking, and Lake Superior, but wed never seen that part of it along the red rocks. Our tents would be set up on platforms, and the camp had pit toilets and outdoor showers. So we signed up for a four-day trip with Wilderness Inquiry.

When we arrived at the base camp, we met the two other families (10 kids, including ours) and our four guides. After we got situated, the guides gave us a kayaking lesson, and we headed to a nearby beach.

The guides had everybody put on wetsuits so we could get in the kayaks and practice a wet exit flipping the kayak over and pulling off the spray skirt while underwater to get yourself out. The guides made it optional for the kids, but almost all of them chose to do it, and I noticed their proud smiles afterward.

Showing people that they can try hard things and be successful is really transformative at the individual level, says Cyri Tjaden, senior manager of extended and career programs with Wilderness Inquiry. But I think when you see your parents try something really new and challenging, or you get to watch your kids or your siblings, it really inspires some bravery within each other, too.

(A traveler's guide to America's federal lands)

Adventurous activities

The next day we hiked to a waterfall and then did some calm-water kayaking, navigating through tall grasses. Our families were mixed into different kayaks based on age, size, and experience. The guides made sure everyone was well supported in their kayaks, using bolsters and other padding to make sure the littlest kids, who were about 4 or 5, were safe and comfortable.

The following day, our kayaking was less calm, as we set out on Lake Superior across a bay to a peninsula. The windier conditions made it more of a challenge for our group to stay together, but the guides moved around to make sure no one got too far from a guide. The kids and adults were excited to paddle through a small sea cave in the red rocks, and we spotted bald eagles.

Kayaking on Lake Superior with small kids might be a no-go for many families if they didnt have guides. But our guides made sure everyone felt safe. Lake Superior is such a really cool, amazing place to go paddle. But it can be really dangerous, too, says Trevor Delamater, extended adventures program manager with Wilderness Inquiry. Even when families have strong outdoor experience, it may be specific to an environment thats different from the one theyre visiting, he points out.

And adventurous parents may be less willing to try something challenging if their kids are involved. I think we take risks as individuals in ways that are different than we take risks as caregivers and family members, Tjaden says. I think knowing that this group you're going with will include experts that are trained and have the first aid training and know what they're doing really helps ease that anxiety and stress.

(This Canadian kayak tour lets travelers go whale-watching at eye level)

What to eat

For parents, especially those with young kids, not having to figure out the logistics can make camping more doable. A guided trip is a way to experience the outdoors, but in a way that is supported and takes a lot of that stress and pressure off of, Well, how am I going to feed my kid for five days in the wilderness? Tjaden says.

On our trip, when it was time for meals, the guides would invite us to help prep and cook over a camp stove. I was surprised how many of the kids stepped up to help chop or prep without their parents needing to ask them to first. One dinner was chicken burritosthe kids chopped tomatoes and onions and opened the canned chicken, which the guides cooked in pans. We took water from a spigot for our handwashing and dishwashing stations, using buckets and bins.

In the evenings, the kids played tag and card games together, and they helped find sticks for campfires, where we all gathered to make smores.

Barriers to getting outdoors

Many barriers may prevent families who are interested in camping from doing it: The cost and hassle of buying or renting gear, hauling it, and learning how to use it; apprehension about sleeping outdoors; physical and mental disabilities and challenges; and feeling like you dont belong.

Guided camping trips aim to make the outdoors accessible and comfortable for everyone. Guides have equipment and tools such as paddles if someone has one arm, and guide lines that they put up around camp if someone is blind, to help them get around. If a child has a disability, parents may have a hard time organizing outdoor adventures that everyone in the family can share, so they may need a little help to make it happen, Tjaden says.

According to the Outdoor Industry Associations 2024 Outdoor Participation Trends Report, outdoor recreation participants in 2023 were 69.7 percent white, 10.3 percent Black, 13.4 percent Hispanic, and 5.3 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. For the last three groups, these percentages are lower than their proportion of the U.S. population.

Going camping with a groupespecially if led by an outfitter that purposely fosters an inclusive environmentmay help limit discomfort.

(A look inside the growing Black RV camping movement)

Guided camping options

Arizona State Parks and Trails runs family campout weekends at various parks, where families learn how to set up a tent that they provide.

National Geographic Family Journeys runs family trips in the United States and internationally, partnering with G Adventures. Currently, one of these tripsa safari in Tanzaniaincludes two nights in a tented camp and five nights in a lodge.

Intrepid Travel has family trips that involve camping, including a safari in Botswana.

The Appalachian Mountain Clubs family trips include a somewhat rigorous hut-to-hut hiking trip in New Hampshire for participants over the age of 12.

Wildland Trekking has hiking vacations that welcome kids ages 12 and older. The company also offers private trips for families with younger children.

MountainBased camping tours welcome families with kids 9 or older. They offer five-day tours in several national parks, including Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Yosemite, Zion, and Bryce.

Allison Torres Burtka is a freelance writer and editor based in Michigan. She writes about travel, the outdoors, sports, and health, among other topics. You can see more of her stories here.
Allrecipes / Colombina

If the viral Dubai chocolate bar taught us anything, its that there are delicious treats all over the world that we, in the U.S., are unaware of. Thankfully, we were introduced to the delectable pistachio and chocolate-based confection, and now we can get all sorts of variations on the flavor combo, like Shake Shack's Dubai Chocolate Shake or the Starbucks Dubai Chocolate Drink.



The Dubai sensation isnt the only global candy weve had the pleasure of getting hold of recently. The U.K.s Percy Pig Gummy Candy landed at Target earlier this year. Haribo brought its Starmix candy to our shores this year, too. And now, a Latin American candy that's been loved for generations is finally making its way to the U.S.

Bon Bon Bum Is Launching in the US

Bon Bon Bum has been a sweet staple in many Latin American households since its launch in the 1970s. So, it's about time these iconic lollipops make their U.S. debut.

Like Tootsie Pops, Bon Bon Bums contain a delightful surprise at the center: fruity bubble gum. They come in an array of tropical flavors, like watermelon, mango, and passion fruit. We dont know how many licks it takes to get to the bubble gum center of the lollipops, but were willing to find out.

Bon Bon Bums are currently available for purchase through Amazon and TikTok Shop, plus major retailers in Southeast Florida, like Walmart, Publix, CVS, Sedanos, and Navarro. Theyre also available in New Jersey and New York at CVS, Walmart, Stop & Shop, and Price Rite.

But if you're not in any of these regions, rest assured, Bon Bon Bum is planning to launch in markets like Houston and California this summer in stores like Vallarta, WinCo, JC Sales, Fiesta, Sellers, and La Michoacana.

It's unclear whether Bon Bon Bum will be making a nationwide release, but considering its expansion plans thus far, we have a feeling we'll be seeing Bon Bon Bums everywhere very soon.



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Amy Sussman/Getty Jamie Foxx in Los Angeles in March 2025







Jamie Foxx joked about believing conspiracies about himself while hospitalized for a near-fatal stroke, and said one rumor got under his skin more than others: the theory that he was a clone

"I was on another planet, Foxx told a Hollywood Reporter roundtable of his mental state at the time of his hospitalization

In April 2023, Foxx suffered a brain bleed that led to his stroke while filming the Netflix movie Back in Action in Atlanta







Jamie Foxx is learning to laugh about being hospitalized for a stroke that nearly claimed his life in April 2023.

Speaking with fellow comedians for The Hollywood Reporters Stand-Up Comedy Roundtable, Foxx, 57, joked about spending time in the hospital for a brain bleed that led to a stroke, which he suffered while filming his Netflix movie Back in Action in Atlanta. The stroke left Foxx in a coma for about 20 days.

I was doing so many jokes in the hospital. Thats the only way I could get through it," he told THR. "Im a comic, so even when I was heavily sedated, and they gave me OxyContin, Dilantin and morphine at the same time  it was, This is for your pain, and this is so you dont remember it.'"



The Ray star then joked that he started to believe some of the conspiracy theories that he read about himself during his hospital stay.

I snuck in my phone because I didnt know what the outside world was saying and I couldnt get my mind around the fact that I had a stroke. Im in f-----g perfect shape, Foxx said.

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He told the roundtable he saw rumors like "'Puffy tried to kill me,'" saying, "No, Puffy didnt try to kill me." But when he saw a rumor that he was "a clone," Foxx said, "that made me flip."

"Im sitting in the hospital bed, like, 'These b-----a-- m-----f-----s are trying to clone me,'" he told the roundtable. "And then I saw me walk into my room, but Im white, so I see the white me. The next morning, I said, 'I know whats up, youre trying to clone me and make me white so Ill sell better overseas.'"

When a psychiatrist asked him, "Are you all right?" Foxx said he replied, "'Am I all right or am I all white? I saw you trying to get the white m------f------ Jamie Foxx and it aint going to happen.'"

After that, Foxx said, the doctor suggested lowering his medicine dosage.

Roy Wood Jr., also a roundtable participant, was shocked at Foxx's story. Wait, you read your conspiracy theory and you said, Yes? he asked.

Foxx told him, Bro, I was on another planet."

The comedian opened up about his near-fatal stroke in his 2024 Netflix special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was..., explaining that his symptoms began with a bad headache, but his sister noticed something was wrong with him and drove him to the hospital. There, doctors said they needed to operate on him immediately or he would die.

"Your life doesnt flash before your face. It was kind of oddly peaceful," Foxx said of being unconscious during his medical emergency, adding, I saw the tunnel. I didnt see the light. I was in that tunnel, though."

Read the original article on People
Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Jenna Bush Hager and George W. Bush







Jenna Bush Hager revealed that she once pranked her dad with a fake tattoo

The Jenna & Friends host noted that the tattoo was placed on her lower back and featured a Texas Longhorn, drawn by her twin sister, Barbara Bush

Bush Hager noted that the former president expressed disappointment with her tattoo choice







Jenna Bush Hager inherited the pranking gene from her family and couldn't resist trying a few tricks on her father, George W. Bush.

On the May 21 episode of Jenna & Friends, Bush Hager chatted with Today host Savannah Guthrie and revealed that she enlisted her twin sister, Barbara Bush, to play a joke on their father.

Barbara drew a Texas Longhorn in Sharpie right here, Bush Hager said while gesturing at her lower back, referring to the logo of her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin.

I showed my dad and pretended I got one, she added. Guthrie remarked, He believed you ... of course, to which Bush Hager agreed: He believed me and he was like, OK, when youre 80, you know what thats going to look like.

Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Jenna Bush Hager and George W. Bush

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A real tattoo is still a possibility for Hager, as Guthrie asked her to join her at her next tattoo appointment. "Would you get a tattoo with me?" Guthrie asked.

I think I would, Bush Hager answered hesitantly. I might  I would maybe ... I didnt say no. I think I would, but Im not 100% sure.

Earlier this month, the former president's daughter detailed Bush's unlikely friendship with Michelle Obama in an episode with Jenna & Friends and reveal that they strike a bond because they love humor.

Discussing how jokes and teasing make their way into the Bush family, Bush Hager said, "We love to tease my dad. And he likes it, usually, if hes in a good mood. But also, I just realized why my dad and Mrs. Obama are friends! They have the same love language."

Shealah Craighead/The White House via Getty Barbara Bush, Laura Bush, George W. Bush, and Jenna Bush Hager in 2008

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Bush Hager also shed light on what her mother, Laura Bush, is like with her dad. "My mom laughs hysterically at my dad," she said of former first lady. "My dad mainly makes fun of himself. Hes self-deprecating, but my mom thinks hes the funniest person in the entire world."

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang criticized U.S. export controls blocking the sale of its AI chips to China. Last month, the chipmaker noted a $5.5 billion write-down to its inventory, after the U.S. demanded companies get a license to sell their AI chips to China. Since President Joe Biden took office, Nvidias market share plummeted from 95% to 50%.

As the U.S. government has tried to limit Chinese access to state-of-the-art computer chips, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the export curbs a failure during a tech forum in Taipei on Wednesday.

Dating back to the Biden administration, the U.S. has continuously attempted to subdue Chinas technological advancements by restricting access to semiconductors through export restrictions. Huang said this week the move has had the impact of spurring the Chinese into action on AI and supercomputing.

The local companies are very, very talented and very determined, and the export control gave them the spirit, the energy, and the government support to accelerate their development, Huang told the media during the Computex show in Taipei. I think, all in all, the export control was a failure, he said.

Beginning in 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce implemented new criteria for some AI chips by restricting their exportation to China. The move was in an effort to keep advanced technologies out of the wrong hands, a spokesperson told Reuters three years ago. To get around these restrictions, Nvidia downgraded one of its chips to make it less powerful. Fast-forward to last month, when the chipmaker said the U.S. demanded a license for some of its AI chips, contributing to a $5.5 billion charge on inventory slated for sale, according to an 8-K filing.

Nvidias command of the Chinese AI chip market has declined significantly since the progressive tightening began. According to Huang, when former President Joe Biden took office, the chipmaker held a 95% share of the market. In the years since, it has declined to 50%.

China has a vibrant technology ecosystem, and its very important to realize that China has 50% of the worlds AI researchers, and China is incredibly good at software, Huang said.

AI researchers are still doing AI research in China. If they dont have enough Nvidia, they will use their own, Huang added.

Nvidia declined to comment further on Huangs remarks.

While global demand for Nvidia chips remains strong, Huang was in the Gulf region during President Donald Trumps visit as the administration closed multibillion-dollar deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to sell chips. Trump administration officials think these deals will strengthen AI in the U.S. to catapult it ahead in the AI race.

President Trump said very publicly he would like Nvidia to sell as many GPUs as possible all around the world, Huang said. Additionally, Huang noted how important it was that Chinas AI developers work on systems made by the company or at least on American technology.

The White House and the Department of Commerce did not respond to Fortunes request for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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And just like that, the Sex and the City ladies are back for a third round!

Last night, the stylish women of the SATC spinoff series, And Just Like That... , attended a press photocall at New York Citys swanky Crane Club, celebrating the highly-anticipated third season of the HBO Max show.

And in typical SATC fashion, the spinoffs cast including Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Sarita Choudhury, and Nicole Ari Parkerbrought the New York glitz and glamor to the red carpet.

Kristina Bumphrey - Getty Images

SJP channeled Carrie Bradshaw s deep love for Vivienne Westwood (never forget her glamorous wedding dress to her almost-wedding to Mr. Big) in a floor-sweeping navy taffeta gown with a medieval-inspired corset and long sleeves with puffy, puckered shoulders. Parker accessorized the look with a little bit of sparkle, wearing crystal-clad peep-toe sandals from sustainable French brand Nomasei, and glittering beaded fringe top-handle bag by Fregoli.

James Devaney - Getty Images

Ahead of the photocall, Parker offered fans a glimpse at her look on Instagram, sharing a video of herself twirling in the taffeta gown with her signature blonde locks flowing behind her.

And just like that. Ive been waiting for an occasion to wear this dress. X, SJ, she captioned the post.

Cindy Ord - Getty Images

Like the Hocus Pocus star, her costars are no strangers to dressing for the red carpet. Take it from Cynthina Nixon, who attended the photocall event in a whimsical straight-off-the-runway look from Richard Quinns fall 2025 collection. The show-stopping mint-green gown featured an elegant high neck adorned with an oversized bow and a flowing, feathered-trimmed chiffon train.

Kristin Davis and Sarita Choudhury went the opposite of the flowing ball gown style, both opting for column dresses. Davis glowed in a shimmering white and silver-toned, floral-embellished dress by Rachel Gilbert, while Choudhury looked sleek in a black-and-navy gown by Magda Butrym. The two-toned dress featured a high cowl-neck design with subtle cut outs above the hip and a side slit in the skirt. The actor topped off the look with her hair swept back and wrapped under a transparent headscarf.

Jamie McCarthy - Getty Images

And while most of the ladies chose floor-length gowns, Ari-Parker went the minidress route sporting a sparkling champagne bubble dress from Stella McCartney with a billowing draped front and asymmetrical sleeves. The golden piece played off the stars tousled, blonde bob.

The cast posed for photos together on the carpet before making their way inside the event for a Manhattan night of cocktails and dancing.

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Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Prince William and Kate Middleton at a ship naming ceremony in Scotstoun, Glasgow on May 22, 2025







Kate Middleton wore a maritime outfit for a ship naming ceremony in Scotland

The Princess of Wales, 43, is the sponsor of the HMS Glasgow warship and attended the event with Prince William

The late Princess Diana would sometimes nod to military jobs by wearing outfits with subtle homage







Kate Middleton knew just what to wear for a nautical outing in Scotland with Prince William!

On May 22, the Prince and Princess of Wales stepped out in Scotstoun, Glasgow, to attend the ship naming ceremony of the HMS Glasgow at the BAE Systems shipyard. Princess Kate, 43, is the sponsor of the warship and will have the honor of smashing a bottle of whisky against its hull  dressing the part for the job!

The Princess of Wales made an elegant statement in a long-sleeved navy dress with white piping that appeared to be new to her collection, matching it with what appeared to be her navy and white Philip Treacy hat that she last sported at Trooping the Colour in June 2022. She completed the look with a brooch and beige heels, with the entire ensemble giving maritime vibes.

Her navy outfit followed a cue from her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana, who would sometimes nod to military jobs by wearing outfits with similar homage.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Kate Middleton at a ship naming ceremony in Scotstoun, Glasgow on May 22, 2025.

Princess Kate was appointed Sponsor of HMS Glasgow in June 2021 and the cutting-edge Type 26 anti-submarine frigate is designed to protect the U.K.'s nuclear deterrent and aircraft carriers. She checked in on the ship's progress by hosting Royal Navy sailors from HMS Glasgow at Windsor Castle in 2022 to hear about the work being done and the sailors' experiences in the Royal Navy.

A highlight of William and Kate's shipyard visit will be when she releases a bottle against the ship's hull, officially naming it. The Princess of Wales has had plenty of practice with this in the past, as her first official engagement with Prince William in February 2011 was pouring champagne on a lifeboat in Wales a few months before their royal wedding, marking her first duty in a working royal role.

After the Princess of Wales sprinkles the warship with whisky, she and William will go aboard to meet representatives from BAE Systems and Royal Navy to learn more about what the ship will offer.

The couple will then connect with apprentices and graduates in the BAE Systems Shipbuilding Academy to hear about the shipbuilding and maritime training they have received, including fabrication, electrical, sheet metal work, welding, and pipefitting  all of which helped bring HMS Glasgow to life.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Prince William and Kate Middleton at a ship naming ceremony in Scotstoun, Glasgow on May 22, 2025.

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William and Kate's last meeting will be with BAE Systems employees from various backgrounds who all helped build the ship, and then spend time with members of HMS Glasgow Ships Company and their families to recognize the efforts of the local workforce, commitment of the crew and sacrifices made by the loved ones of serving personnel.



Read the original article on People
Kate Middleton and Prince William made yet another royal appearance today, this time, in Glasgow, Scotland, for the official naming of warship HMS Glasgow. Kate served as the ship's sponsor -- and she even did the honors of breaking a bottle of whiskey, as per tradition when naming a new ship.

Wearing a gorgeous, nautical-themed dress and hat, she was the picture of elegance, and people can't get enough of this particular look. As one fan said, "Obsessed with this outfit from Kate."

In another video posted by The Daily Mail, she addressed the crowd during the ceremony, she said, "I have the pleasure to name this ship HMS Glasgow, may God bless her and all who sail on her."

Her stunning dress is reportedly by Suzannah London, and the hat looks very similar to the one Middleton wore to Trooping the Colour in 2024, though the colors are reversed.

Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte of Wales

Royal fans who watched the video above are all saying similar things about just how stunning Middleton's appearance was.

One person said, "Princess Catherine is always so classy, respectful, and regal. She looks amazing "

Another added, "She gets it right every time," and another said, "Perfect as always."

Related: Kate Middleton Returns to Major Royal Event for the First Time in 2 Years

Yet another fan declared, "Poised and elegant as usual... HRH princess of Wales and HRH Prince William... "

Earlier in the day, Prince William also met with local children while visiting a community center in Leith, Scotland.

As you can see in this video, he went straight into dad mode.

He and Kate might be the future King and Queen of England, but it's obvious that they have every intention of remaining as approachable and relatable as ever.

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Related: Prince William and Kate Middleton Announce Exciting News: 'This Is So Beautiful'

Kate Middleton's Latest Royal Appearance Has Fans Obsessed: 'Perfect As Always' first appeared on Parade on May 22, 2025
Lake Lowell Animal Rescue Facebook Serena Bennett







A recent college graduate, Serena Bennett, died during a driving trip off the coast of Ecuador, Northwest Nazarene University said

Everyone who was scuba diving had been certified, according to the school

The 21-year-old was a longtime volunteer at an animal rescue, which described her as "utterly fearless" as she helped save vulnerable animals











A 21-year-old new college grduate was killed during a diving trip off the coast of Ecuador, her university said.

Serena Bennett, who received her degree from Northwest Nazarene University earlier this month, was one of 11 students, grads and three faculty members participating in a study abroad trip in South America when she died while diving with others on Sunday, May 18, the school said in a statement.

The incident occurred on a dive trip off the coast of Ecuador with multiple students and faculty members taking part in the dive, said the school, a private Christian university in Nampa, Idaho.

Officials confirmed Bennett's death "with deep sadness" and called the incident a heartbreaking event."

The trip attendees had been certified to scuba dive before leaving for Ecuador, the school said.

As the situation unfolded, faculty, dive team members and medical professionals responded, the school said.

A university representative did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for further comment on how Bennett died.

She had recently earned her degree, cum laude, after majoring in wildlife biology and ecology with a minor in photography, according to the school.

She was also a lover of animals: In a Facebook tribute, Lake Lowell Animal Rescue in Nampa said that Bennett was a longtime volunteer who was adored by everyone.



While many college students spend their extra days and moments partying, hanging out with their friends, or getting into mischief, Serena spent what literally seems like every single extra moment giving all her time and energy to LLAR and the animals that we rescue here, the rescue said in its statement.

We are absolutely gutted over this shocking news, the rescue said.

The organization is temporarily closed while employees and fellow volunteers take time to grieve.



Getty A mountain range on the coast of Ecuador.

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The organization called Bennett utterly fearless, recalling how she had crawled under houses to save kittens, helped transport foster animals and even fostered a range of animals herself.

Serena, to say you will be missed doesnt even come close to covering it, the rescue added. You made a real difference in so many livesboth human and animal.

Both the university and rescue asked that the community offer support to Bennetts grieving family.

She lived a life that mattered, the rescue said, and she selflessly gave of her time, love, and compassion.

Read the original article on People
MattGush/Getty







After a night of drinking, Corbie Jean Walpole set her longtime friend Jake Loader on fire after he allegedly made a misogynistic comment to her

Loader suffered third-degree burns to over half his body

The Judge called Walpole's crime "unprovoked and violent" and she was sentenced to 7-and-a-half years in prison







An Australian woman has been sentenced to 7-and-a-half years in prison for setting her friend on fire following a night of heavy partying  after he allegedly said a misogynistic comment to her.

Corbie Jean Walpole poured gasoline on Jake Loader, who was 23 at the time, and set him ablaze as they were drinking in her backyard on Jan. 7, 2024, according to Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

Walpole pleaded guilty to one charge of burning or maiming by using corrosive fluid, the outlet reported.

On the day of the party, Walpole and Loader, who had been friends for nine years, had been drinking for 12 hours, ABC reported. Walpole consumed between 23 and 35 drinks and cocaine during the party.

The 24-year-old attacked Loader after he allegedly told her to get back in the kitchen and not to drink with the boys, the outlet reported. Loader sustained third-degree burns to 55% of his body and was in an induced coma for eight days.

In court, Loaders friends heard him screaming and tried to put out the flames with a dog bed and then he was thrown into a pool, ABC reported. Walpole stood watching and said, What the f have I done? and, He told me to do it.

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The judge overseeing the case described the act as unprovoked and particularly violent, fueled by drugs and heavy drinking, the outlet reported. This is a tragic case, in so many ways, for the victim and his family and the offender and her family: two young lives destroyed, Judge Jennifer English said.

In court, Walpole said she was remorseful and that she has given up drugs and alcohol, ABC reported. She will be eligible for parole in November 2029.

Read the original article on People
A Minnesota man escaped a treatment center for sex offenders after strapping his GPS ankle monitor to a dummy, authorities said.

Steven Loren Edwards, 53, is facing one count of escaping custody while in a Minnesota sex offender program, and another count of escaping from custody under the supervision of a mental health treatment program, according to a criminal complaint obtained by USA TODAY.

Police wrote in court documents that Edwards escaped from the Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program in Saint Peter, Minnesota, about 75 miles southwest of Minneapolis.

An attorney who previously represented Edwards told USA TODAY that he was unable to speak on his behalf.

Heres what else we know so far about the case.

Edwards' roommate: He 'had not moved for quite some time.

The Minnesota Sex Offender Treatment Program is a secure treatment facility that supervises people who have been deemed sexually dangerous or those who have a sexual psychopathic personality, police wrote in court documents.

Someone from the program contacted the Saint Peter Police Department on May 17 and said that Edwards was missing, police said. He had been committed to the Department of Human Services as part of the sex offender program since October 2011, when court records show him as being considered "sexually dangerous."

Police said that program staff went to Edwards room around 7 p.m. on May 17. Edwards' roommate said that they should check on him because hed been lying in his bed and had not moved for quite some time.

That's when staff found a dummy with Edwards GPS ankle monitor attached to it, court documents show. Staff looked at surveillance footage and saw that Edwards had left the facility without permission at 6:53 p.m. the day before, on May 16.

Someone from the Office of Special Investigations, housed in the Minnesota Department of Human Services, contacted police and said Edwards called his son at 10 p.m. the night he left the facility. The office was able to connect Edward to a phone number for someone named James Spiess, per court documents.

Defendant went to casino, bought vehicle after escape

Once police spoke to Spiess, they found out he had been at a laundromat on May 16 when he met Edwards, according to court documents. Edwards told him he was kicked out of his home and needed to get to the city of Albert Lea, about 70 miles southeast of Saint Peter.

Spiess said hed take Edwards there, though the two stopped at a casino in Iowa before arriving to Albert Lea, court documents show. Once there, Speiss got Edwards a hotel room, left him there and drove back to Saint Peter, he told police.

While investigating, Saint Peter police found out Edwards bought a car while in Albert Lea. On May 18, two days after he escaped the facility in Saint Peter, Edwards car was seen in Webb City, Missouri, where his mother lived, court documents show.

Police in Saint Peter alerted the public to Edwards and his car, a 2004 silver Dodge Stratus, asking them to be on the lookout.

Webb City officers went to check on Edwards mother and found the Stratus outside her home, over 500 miles away from the facility he escaped, court documents show.

Webb City officers found Edwards inside the home and arrested him. As of May 22, Edwards was still in Missouri and Minnesota authorities plan to pick him up the week of May 26, Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer confirmed to USA TODAY.

Court records show a number of prior convictions for Edwards, including assault, fleeing police and in 1991, escape from custody.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia  the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man straps GPS tracker on dummy, escapes sex offender program: Police
FILE - Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a presentation of the company's AI assistant, Copilot, and 50th Anniversary celebration at Microsoft headquarters, in Redmond, Wash., April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)

SEATTLE (AP)  Microsoft has fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the company's work supplying the Israeli military with technology used for the war in Gaza.

Software engineer Joe Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella in the opening minutes Monday of the tech giant's annual Build developer conference in Seattle before getting escorted out of the room. Lopez later sent a mass email to colleagues disputing the company's claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza.

Lopez's outburst was the first of several pro-Palestinian disruptions at the event that drew thousands of software developers to the Seattle Convention Center. At least three talks by executives were disrupted, the company even briefly cut the audio of one livestreamed event. Protesters also gathered outside the venue.

Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested company events over its work in Israel, including at its 50th anniversary party in April.

Microsoft acknowledged last week that it provided AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza but said it had found no evidence to date that its Azure platform and AI technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza.

The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, led by employees and ex-employees, says Lopez received a termination letter after his Monday protest but couldn't open it. The group also says the company has blocked internal emails that mention words including Palestine and Gaza.

Microsoft hasn't returned emailed requests for comment about its response to this week's protests. The four-day conference ends Thursday.
StopEACOP activists in the KCB Uganda basement (StopEACOP)

Environmental activists have accused one of Kenyas largest banks of suppressing protest over the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

The EACOP is a proposed 900 mile (1,443 kilometre) heated pipeline that will transport oil from hydrocarbon fields around Hoima, Uganda, to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. KCB Bank, through its subsidiary in Uganda, are providing some financing for the project alongside a number of other institutions.

Protests over the project have been going on for years  with a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) claiming that the pipeline would displace more than 100,000 people, in addition to exacerbating the climate crisis. Compensation to displaced people is too low, and take years to arrive, according to HRW.

EACOP has been under development since 2013 and under construction since 2017, but has long faced delays related to uncertain financing, with 43 banks and 30 insurers making public commitments to not support the project over environmental and human rights concerns, according to the stopEACOP campaign. But at the end of March 2025, EACOP announced it had closed its first tranche of external financing for the project, with financing from banks including South Africas Standard Bank, the African Export Import Bank, Stanbic Bank Uganda, and KCB Bank Uganda.

Then last month, 11 environmental activists travelled to the KCB Bank Ugandas headquarters in Kampala to deliver a petition demanding its withdrawal from EACOP. There they were handed to police officers who arrested them. They are still being detained.

The petition that stopEACOP activists took to KCBs headquarters in April, which has been seen by The Independent, highlights human rights and environmental concerns, and calls on KCB to review and rescind its decision to finance the EACOP project immediately.

The 11 activists allege that after they arrived, they passed through security before they were told to wait for more than an hour. They say they were then told they would meet a bank official to whom they could deliver their petition. They say they were led down to the basement, where they faced police officers and were arrested on charges of illegal trespass.

The activists have since been held in the remand wing of Luzira Maximum Security Prison, where they remain awaiting trial.

It is completely wild what happened: they entered the bank... to peacefully deliver their letter, says StopEACOP campaign coordinator Zaki Mamdoo.

Brighton Aryampa, a Ugandan environmental and human rights lawyer who is representing all eleven of the arrested activists, said: [The activists] were simply highlighting the many negative impacts of EACOP, and they were doing so perfectly legally.

Aryampa added that the activists were denied bail on a technicality over paperwork, which he called unusual.

It is a worrying sign for the case, because bail is based on a presumption of innocence, he said.  The offence of criminal trespass slapped on the activists is bailable by the trial court.

The activists are next due in court on 27 May, where Aryampa and other lawyers on the legal team will request again that they be granted bail.

StopEACOP activists give a press statement moments before they went into the KCB Uganda headquarters on 23 April (StopEACOP)

StopEACOP activists in the KCB Uganda basement (StopEACOP)

Abiud Onyach, a Kenyan activist at NGO 350.org , said he believed KCB Bank was acting in a way that is overzealous, driven by fear of a government backlash, or out of concern that activists might come back again if it was thought that the bank would humour protests.

Case files shared with The Independent show that some 120 arrests have taken place against anti-EACOP activists since August 2024 in cases that Aryampa has worked on. That included nine this Wednesday in a protest over the pipeline outside KCB Banks headquarters in Kampala.

As far back as 2023, HRW released a report including interviews with 31 people, 21 of them human rights activists, alleging that Uganda was using its laws, courts, and security forces to harass, intimidate and pressure human rights defenders, civil society, and other protesters into silence on EACOP.

Other reporting from HRW alleges that the project has pressurised farmers in the path of the EACOP pipeline or left them worse off than they were before.

In the path of the pipeline there are hundreds of communities that have been forcibly removed and moved to land that is inadequate or infertile, alleges Mamdoo.

Demonstrators are detained by police during a protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP) in Kampala, Uganda, on 26 August 2024 (EPA-EFE)

He adds that the pipeline is being built for the export of crude oil, with refining - and therefore economic value related to the project - set to occur overseas.

It really is an example of typical neo-colonial extraction, he says.

The EACOP project says that it is committed to respecting the human rights and dignity of individuals within our operations, supply chain, and communities where we do business

Spokespeople from KCB Bank and the Ugandan Ministry of the Internal Affairs did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment from The Independent.

A spokesperson for French oil giant TotalEnergies, which has a 62 per cent stake in EACOP, said: We reaffirm that TEPU [TotalEnergies Uganda] does not tolerate any threats or violence against those who peacefully defend and promote human rights. We have always reminded our associated parties of the importance of respecting human rights.

TEPU and EACOP Ltd maintain an open dialogue with the authorities, to stress to the Police the need to ensure that due process is followed, the protestors are treated well, and their rights are respected while in detention.

On the issue of compensation for affected families, the spokesperson said that the project required the acquisition of 6,400 hectares of land, impacting 19,262 households. They added that 99.6 per cent of the compensation agreements have been paid, and 100 per cent of the required new houses have been built.
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's Xiaomi plans to invest a further 200 billion yuan ($27.8 billion) in core technology research and development over the next five years, founder and CEO Lei Jun said on Thursday.

Lei announced the decision at an event in Beijing, where the company is due to launch its first electric SUV and advanced mobile chip Xring01 among other products.

($1 = 7.2050 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Pan Che, Qiaoyi Li and Brenda GohEditing by David Goodman)
A federal judge in Boston ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration's deportations of eight men convicted of violent crimes to South Sudan "unquestionably" violated an earlier order by not giving them adequate due process, including a "meaningful opportunity to object" to their removals to a country other than their own.

However, Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, did not order the return the plane with the deportees to the United States, as the plaintiffs had requested.

Instead, the judge appeared willing to take the Trump administration at its word that it would be possible for the government to conduct interviews with the detainees to determine if they have a reasonable or credible fear of being deported to South Sudan.

In a follow-up series of orders issued late Wednesday evening, Murphy laid out requirements the government must meet for doing so, saying the government is mandated to give migrants a minimum of 10 days to raise concerns about safety risks they may endure if they're sent to a third country. If the migrant is found to have a "reasonable fear," Murphy said the government is required to reopen their immigration proceedings. If they don't demonstrate a reasonable fear, the government must still provide a "meaningful opportunity, and a minimum of 15 days" to reopen their case.

In a memo clarifying his order, Murphy blasted the government's apparent understanding of what "meaningful opportunity" meant when he initially issued an injunction last month limiting removals of migrants to third countries.

PHOTO: Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons speak at a presser, May 21, 2025. (Department of Homeland Security)

MORE: Judge orders Trump administration to maintain 'custody and control' of any migrants deported to South Sudan

"Giving every credit to Defendants' account, the non-citizens at issue had fewer than 24 hours' notice, and zero business hours' notice, before being put on a plane and sent to a country as to which the U.S. Department of State issues the following warning: 'Do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict,'" Murphy wrote. "As detailed on the record during today's hearing, further facts regarding the unavailability of information, the hurried and confused notice that the individuals received, language barriers, and attorney access compound and confirm this Court's finding that no reasonable interpretation of the Court's Preliminary Injunction could endorse yesterday's events."

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin called the judge's ruling "deranged" in a statement late Wednesday night.

"These depraved individuals have all had their day in court and been given final deportation orders," she said in the statement. "A reminder of who was on this plane: murderers, child rapists, an individual who raped a mentally & physically disabled person. The message this activist judge is sending to victims and their families is we don't care. President Trump and Secretary Noem are working every day to get vicious criminals out of our country while activist judges are fighting to bring them back onto American soil."

In a court hearing earlier Wednesday, attorneys for the deported men argued the plane should be returned to the U.S. and the men should be afforded the due process that "can only take place on U.S. soil," said Trina Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.

Under the circumstances, it would be a "legal and logistical nightmare" for the detained men to get access to counsel and to obtain the information they need to present a challenge, she said.

"I have some serious confidentiality, privacy concerns about where this reasonable fear interview is going to take place," she said. "Who is going to conduct this reasonable fear interview, but most importantly, how are they going to have access to counsel, which they are entitled to have in order to discuss the reasonable fear process? How are they going to investigate and learn about the conditions in South Sudan? How are they going to present evidence that they have a reasonable fear."

Realmuto also raised concerns about finding interpreters and conducting interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel remotely across multiple time zones.

PHOTO: Deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Madison Sheahan, with Acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Todd Lyons, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, in Washington, May 21, 2025. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

In his order, Murphy laid out the requirements for the interviews, saying they must be done in private, with access to lawyers and an interpreter, and necessary technology access "commensurate with the access they would receive were they in DHS custody within United States borders."

During the court hearing earlier, the judge said he wanted the interviews to take place in an "appropriate place with an appropriate degree of privacy," even if that means "renting a room at a Holiday Inn."

Murphy's order also said the migrants and their lawyers must be given no less than 72 hours notice that a reasonable fear interview has been scheduled.

On Tuesday, Murphy had issued an order directing the government to maintain custody of anyone covered by his preliminary injunction who is in the process of being removed to South Sudan or any other country "to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful."

In a news conference earlier Tuesday, DHS confirmed that eight migrants were placed on a deportation flight from Texas headed to war-torn South Sudan on Monday, though they cautioned this would not be the migrants' final destination.

McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, told reporters at that news conference that "no country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric."

Several of then men were convicted of first-degree and second-degree murder, according to information released by DHS.

Kyaw Mya, a citizen of Burma, was convicted of lascivious acts with a child-victim less than 12 years of age. Nyo Myint, a citizen of Burma, was convicted of first-degree sexual assault involving a victim mentally and physically incapable of resisting.

Another was convicted of robbery, possession of a firearm and driving under the influence.

"A local judge in Massachusetts is trying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters who present a clear and present threat to the safety of the American people and American victims," McLaughlin said during the news conference. "While we are fully compliant with the law and court orders, it is absolutely absurd for a district judge to try and to dictate the foreign policy and national security of the United States of America."

When asked where the eight men were, McLaughlin said she couldn't "disclose where their current whereabouts are right now" but that they were still in DHS custody. Officials declined to identify their final destination, citing security concerns.

"I would caution you to make the assumption that their final destination is South Sudan. As far as that agreement goes, I would definitely refer you to the State Department's more specifics," she added.

Officials said the men's countries of origin refused to accept them, so DHS in partnership with the State Department found a country that would accept them through a "safe third-country agreement."

"I can say that their home countries refuse to take these individuals back," acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons said.

PHOTO: Photos released by DHS of deportees. (DHS)

MORE: Judge orders US officials to appear in court to answer questions about migrants sent to South Sudan

"ICE detention isn't punitive. We detain and remove after six months or 180 days. If we don't have a country that'll take their citizens back, we do have an option to find a safe third country," Lyons said.

However, McLaughlin argued to reporters that the eight migrants were given due process.

"We are following due process under the U.S. Constitution. These individuals have been given and their lawyers have been given plenty of prior notice. As far as those actual agreements, we can get back to you with more information from the State Department," she said.

Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, lawyers for the migrants spoke to reporters saying South Sudan is a country to which the State Department advises Americans not to travel.

"They are categorically not safe," Realmuto told reporters. "They are places where our class members are not safe, and they are not being afforded an opportunity to consult with counsel and to make an informed choice about the fear that they have of being deported to those countries."

Attorneys also said they have concerns for over the conditions the migrants, who continue to be held on a tarmac, are experiencing.

"Nobody is able to consult with them from where they are at the moment, and that includes counsel for the one person who actually had counsel at the time of his removal," Anwen Hughes, director of legal strategy at Human Rights First, told reporters Wednesday after the hearing.

ABC News' Ely Brown contributed to this report.

Judge rules DHS violated court order in deporting 8 migrants to South Sudan originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
A stash of 598 gold coins and other items worth at least $360,000 was found in the northeastern Czech Republic, but its origin is unclear. - Museum of Eastern Bohemia

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(CNN)  Ten gold bracelets, 17 cigar cases, a powder compact, a comb, and a whopping 598 gold coins: The items are all part of a valuable and somewhat mysterious stash, found by chance by two hikers in the northeastern Czech Republic.

The hikers, who wish to remain anonymous, were taking a shortcut through the forest in the Krkonose Mountains  a popular hiking spot  when they saw an aluminum box sticking out of a stony wall.

After they opened it and discovered the loot, they immediately took it to the Museum of Eastern Bohemia, in the nearby town of Hradec Kralove, according to Miroslav Novak, the head of the archaeological department at the museum.

The finders came to our museums numismatist (coin expert) without a prior appointment. Only after that did archaeologists begin to deal with the find and set out to explore the site, Novak told CNN in an email.

Who may have hidden the treasure and why is still up for debate, but one thing is certain: The stash cant be more than about a century old, because one of the coins is dated 1921. As for the rest, there are only hypotheses, for now.

It is most likely related to the turbulent period before the start of World War II, when the Czech and Jewish population was leaving the border area, or to 1945, when the Germans were leaving, Novak said.

A complete historical appraisal of the stash is still ongoing, and two of the cigar cases are tightly shut and remain unopened, but the metal value of the gold coins alone  which weigh 3.7 kilograms, or 8.16 pounds  is 8 million Czech koruna, or about $360,000, according to the museums coin expert, Vojtech Bradle.

Local rumors

The finding has sparked interest in the surrounding community, and Novak says the museum is getting calls with various local rumors, which he hopes could help solve the riddle of the golds origin.

Speculation is fueled by the fact that, oddly, there are no local coins in the mix. Half are of Balkan origin and the other half of French origin, Novak said. Central European coins, such as German ones, are completely missing. But the find is located on the former ethnic border between the Czech and German populations.

Among the theories submitted by the public, Novak said, is one that traces the ownership of the coins back to wealthy families from the surrounding area, such as the the Sweerts-Spork family, the owners of the Kuks estate, a large baroque complex overlooking the Elbe River that includes a summer residence, a spa and a monastery. Another suggests the cache could be war spoils of Czechoslovak legionnaires.

Some of the cigar boxes are still shut, and the exact composition of the metal is yet to be determined. - Museum of Eastern Bohemia

Findings like this are not especially common for the area, Novak noted.

About nine kilometers southeast, a hoard of 2,700 silver denarii (a type of European trade coin) from the 12th century was found ten years ago, he said by email. Many residents left this area during the 20th century, which is why there are many abandoned farms here.

Vojtech Bradle agreed that the makeup of the stash is unusual.

Usually, Czech finds from the 20th century mainly contain German and Czechoslovak coins. There is not a single one here, he said. Most of the pieces from this treasure did not travel directly to Bohemia. They must have been somewhere in the Balkan Peninsula after the First World War. Some of the coins have countermarks from the former Yugoslavia. These were only minted on coins sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. At the moment, I do not know of any other Czech find that would contain coins with these countermarks.

More research is required, he added, to understand the metal composition of the remaining items, and obtain a more accurate overall value.

World War I relic

None of the coins are from the local area, which has puzzled the museum curators. - Museum of Eastern Bohemia

Its significant that the most recent coin in the stash is from 1921, according to Mary Heimann, a professor of modern history and an expert of Czechoslovak history at the University of Cardiff in the United Kingdom. That was the year the Soviet-Polish War ended when the Treaty of Riga was signed, she said, but it was also a year of financial crisis in Czechoslovakia, the former state that separated peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.

It was an unstable period, there was a downturn in the economy and widespread unemployment. For that reason, its not that surprising somebody would think of burying a stash of gold at that time, she added.

Despite Novaks suggestions the stash was likely left around 1945, Heimann thinks that if that were the case, more recent coins would probably be in the mix. The absence of local currency, however, makes things murkier.

(The person who hid the coins) could have been a collector, or someone who worked in museums. Or someone who stole a collection from somewhere. This is borderland territory, it separates whats today the Czech Republic  what was in the past Czechoslovakia  from Poland, Heimann said. The first World War didnt end overnight, the ramifications were still being felt everywhere. There was still instability of borders, there was still economic crisis, there was quite a lot of crime. I suppose you might expect that in those border regions and in places of mixed ethnicity, there would be particularly high tension. So it might be that someone could be more frightened of the future if they lived in those areas than someone who lived elsewhere.

Once the items have undergone further material analysis, they will be preserved and stored in the museums coin collection. A short exhibition is planned for the fall.

And then, who will get to keep the loot? According to Czech law, Novak said, archaeological finds are the property of the local regional administration from the moment of discovery.

In this case, the treasure was correctly handed over to the museum, he said. The finder is entitled to a financial reward, which depends on the value of the metal or historical appraisal.

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Jenin, West Bank  Several nations that have backed Israel during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip voiced outrage Wednesday after Israeli troops fired what they called "warning shots" as foreign diplomats visited the occupied West Bank.



The Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, accused Israeli troops of "deliberately" shooting at the delegation near the flashpoint city of Jenin. The Israeli military, already under pressure over its tactics in the Gaza war, said it regretted the "inconvenience."



AFP video from Jenin  a frequent target of Israeli military raids  showed the delegation and accompanying journalists running for cover as shots were heard on Wednesday.

A frame grab from AFPTV video shows members of a diplomatic delegation from the European Union and elsewhere reacting after shots were fired as they gathered at the eastern entrance of the Jenin camp, during a visit to the city of Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 21, 2025, amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive. / Credit: MOHAMMAD ATEEQ/AFPTV/AFP/Getty

A European diplomat said the envoys went to the area to see the destruction caused in the West Bank by Israeli military raids during the Gaza war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led, Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.



The Israel Defense Forces said the diplomatic convoy had strayed from the approved route and entered a restricted zone, prompting troops to fire "warning shots" to steer the group away. The IDF added that no one was wounded and it expressed regret for the "inconvenience caused."



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesman called the incident "unacceptable."



"Diplomats who are doing their work should never be shot at, attacked in any way, shape or form. Their safety, their viability, must be respected at all times," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "These diplomats, including U.N. personnel, were fired at, warning shots or whatever... which is unacceptable."



Demands for explanation over Israel's "unacceptable" actions

Several countries that had representatives in the group voiced outrage and demanded an investigation.



"We call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold those accountable who are responsible for any threats to diplomats' lives," said European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay summoned Israel's ambassadors or said they would raise the issue directly.



Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the incident "totally unacceptable" and pressed for an "immediate explanation."



Carney added that Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand has summoned Israel's ambassador to Ottawa.

Members of an international diplomatic delegation gather by a gate at the eastern entrance of the Jenin camp during a visit to the city of Jenin, May 21, 2025, amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive in the occupied West Bank. / Credit: MOHAMMAD MANSOUR/AFP/Getty

Egypt denounced the shooting as a breach of "all diplomatic norms," while Turkey demanded an immediate investigation.



Turkey's foreign ministry said: "This attack must be investigated without delay and the perpetrators must be held accountable."



Ahmad al-Deek, political adviser for the Palestinian foreign ministry who accompanied the delegation, condemned what he called a "reckless act by the Israeli army."



"It has given the diplomatic delegation an impression of the life the Palestinian people are living," he said.



Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the delegation included diplomats from more than 20 countries including Britain, China, Egypt, France, Japan, Jordan, Turkey and Russia.

Britain's minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, said Wednesday that he'd spoken directly with U.K. diplomats affected by the incident, and he called for an investigation.



"Today's events in Jenin are unacceptable. I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected," he said in a social media post. "Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation and those responsible should be held accountable."



"The Japanese government has protested to the Israeli side and requested an explanation and the prevention of a recurrence," government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said in Tokyo, confirming that diplomatic staff from the country had taken part in the delegation.



Israel-Europe ties increasingly strained over Gaza, D.C. murders

The incident came as anger mounted over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinians are scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation. A two-month Israeli aid blockade on Gaza was partially eased this week, but not enough to alleviate the hunger crisis facing the enclave's roughly 2 million inhabitants, according to the U.N. and humanitarian agencies.



Israel stepped up its military offensive over the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.



Israel has faced massive pressure, including from its allies, to halt its intensified offensive and allow aid into Gaza. European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday ordered a review of the EU cooperation accord with Israel.



Sweden said it would press the EU to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.



Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as "worrying and painful" and called for "the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid."

Palestinians, struggling with hunger due to an Israeli blockade, wait in line to receive hot meals distributed by charity organizations in Jabalia Refugee Camp, in Gaza City, Gaza, May 17, 2025. / Credit: Mahmoud ssa/Anadolu/Getty

Israel's ties with Europe were tested further on Thursday as Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar blamed what he called antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement "by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe," for the murder of two Israel Embassy staff members in Washington D.C. the previous night.

A suspect identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago was taken into custody, and heard shouting, "Free, free Palestine" as he was led away, after the attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum.



Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.



Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.



Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel ended a ceasefire and resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,655.

Trump confronts South African president during White House meeting, repeats genocide claims

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Following are reactions from Israel, the United States and other parts of the world to the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers by a lone gunman in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night. Officials said a suspect who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans was in custody.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER

"We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost.

"My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer."

GIDEON SAAR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER

"This is a direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the October 7 massacre."

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

KAJA KALLAS, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF

"Shocked by the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC. There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism. I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel."

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT

"Two members of Israel's embassy in Washington lost their lives in an antisemitic attack in front of the Jewish Museum. To President Isaac Herzog, I address our thoughts for the victims' families and their loved ones."

DAVID LAMMY, UK FOREIGN SECRETARY OF STATE

"Horrified by the killing of two Israeli Embassy staff in DC. We condemn this appalling, antisemitic crime. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families and colleagues at this awful time."

JOHANN WADEPHUL, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER

"Nothing can justify antisemitic violence. I am shocked by the dastardly murder of two employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington."

JOSE MANUEL ALBARES, SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER:

"I just landed in Washington DC with the terrible news of the murder of two members of the Israeli embassy in the US. My strong condemnation and my solidarity with the families of the victims and the people of Israel. Nothing justifies anti-Semitism and this barbaric act."

SUBRAHMANYAM JAISHANKAR, INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

"Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice."

MAXIME PREVOT, BELGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

"My thoughts are with the families of the two Israeli diplomats killed yesterday in Washington. I condemn this heinous and inappropriate act. The spiral of violence must stop. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians must not be exported: it must be resolved. Quickly and permanently."

ANTONIO TAJANI, ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

"I stand with the State of Israel for the tragic murder of two young employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Scenes of terror and violence to be strongly condemned. antisemitism born of hatred against Jews must be stopped, the horrors of the past can never return."

CASPAR VELDKAMP, DUTCH FOREIGN MINISTER

"Shocking news that two Israeli Embassy staff were killed in Washington DC. I condemn this antisemitic attack in the strongest possible terms and support U.S. investigative efforts. Violence and hate can never be justified."

LARS LOKKE RASMUSSEN, DANISH FOREIGN MINISTER

"Horrified by the overnight killing of two Israeli embassy employees at the Jewish Museum in Washington, which I strongly condemn. My thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones."

MICHEAL MARTIN, IRISH PRIME MINISTER

"I strongly condemn the horrific gun attack that killed two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC last night. My deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of the couple, and the Israeli people. There can be absolutely no place for violence or hate."

UKRAINE'S MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

"We are shocked by the news of the appalling killing of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. Our thoughts are with the victims' families and we wish a speedy recovery to the wounded."

ELINA VALTONEN, FINNISH FOREIGN MINISTER

"I am deeply saddened by the news that two Israeli embassy staff members were killed in Washington DC last night. My thoughts are with their loved ones and the Jewish community. Antisemitism and hatred have no place in our societies."

EDGARS RINKEVICS, LATVIAN PRESIDENT

"I strongly condemn this heinous antisemitic crime. My deep condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims."

ESPEN BARTH EIDE, NORWEGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

"I am deeply saddened by the killing of two Israeli embassy staff outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. My thoughts are with the victims families, with the Jewish community in the US, and with colleagues at (the Israeli foreign ministry)."

(Reporting by Charlotte Van CampenhoutEditing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry)
By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A split U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involving religious rights in American education.

With conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, the 4-4 ruling left intact a lower court's decision that blocked the establishment of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Oklahoma's top court found that the proposed school would violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment limits on government involvement in religion.

Barrett's decision not to participate in the case left eight justices rather than the full slate of nine to decide the outcome. Barrett did not publicly explain her recusal but she is a former professor at Notre Dame Law School, which represents the school's organizers.

When the Supreme Court is evenly divided, the lower court's decision stands. The justices did not provide a rationale for their action in the unsigned ruling.

Set up as alternatives to traditional public schools, charter schools typically operate under private management and often feature small class sizes, innovative teaching styles or a particular academic focus. Charter schools are considered public schools under Oklahoma law and draw funding from the state government.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Barrett's absence was key to the outcome in the case. The issue of the establishment of a religious charter school could return to the Supreme Court in the future to be heard before all its members.

The Supreme Court has recognized broader religious rights in a series of rulings in recent years.

During April 30 arguments in the St. Isidore case, divisions between the three liberal justices and the conservative justices who participated were laid bare as they explored the tensions between the First Amendment's two religion clauses.

Its "establishment clause" restricts government officials from establishing or endorsing any particular religion or promoting religion over nonreligion. Its "free exercise" clause protects the right to practice one's religion freely, without government interference.

On balance, the five conservative justices who heard the case signaled sympathy during the arguments toward the proposed St. Isidore school, though Chief Justice John Roberts struck a note of ambivalence, posing tough questions to lawyers on both sides of the dispute.

Roberts told James Campbell, a lawyer for the state's charter school board, that the Supreme Court's religious liberty rulings in recent years involved limited state benefits, such as playground improvements, tuition and tax credits.

"This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement," Roberts said.

St. Isidore, planned as a joint effort by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Diocese of Tulsa, sought to offer virtual learning from kindergarten through high school. Its plan to integrate religion into its curriculum stood to make it the first religious charter school in the United States. The proposed school has never been operational amid legal challenges to its establishment.

Patrick Elliott, legal director at Freedom From Religion Foundation, a group that advocates for the separation of church and state, welcomed the outcome on Thursday.

"We are pleased that the Supreme Court has let stand the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that a religious school cannot become a public charter school," Elliott said. "The creation of a Catholic public charter school clearly violated state law and the requirement that public schools must be open to all students."

'THE FOUNDERS OF OUR COUNTRY'

Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued in October 2023 to block St. Isidore in a legal action filed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court, saying he was duty bound to "prevent the type of state-funded religion that Oklahoma's constitutional framers and the founders of our country sought to prevent."

Republican Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt backed the proposed school, as did Republican President Donald Trump's administration.

Opponents have said religious charter schools would force taxpayers to support religious indoctrination. Establishing them also could undermine nondiscrimination principles, they argued, because religious charter schools might seek to bar employees and even students who do not adhere to doctrinal teachings.

The Oklahoma charter school board in June 2023 approved the plan to create St. Isidore in a 3-2 vote.

Oklahoma's top court in a 6-2 ruling last year blocked the school. It classified St. Isidore as a "governmental entity" that would act as "a surrogate of the state in providing free public education as any other state-sponsored charter school."

That court decided that the proposal ran afoul of Oklahoma law and the establishment clause. The First Amendment generally constrains the government but not private entities.

St. Isidore, the court wrote, would "require students to spend time in religious instruction and activities, as well as permit state spending in direct support of the religious curriculum and activities within St. Isidore - all in violation of the establishment clause."

School board officials and St. Isidore told the justices that the Oklahoma court erred by deeming St. Isidore an arm of the government rather than a private organization. They argued that the government had not delegated a state duty to St. Isidore merely by contracting with it, and that the school would function largely independently of the government.

They also argued that Oklahoma's refusal to establish St. Isidore as a charter school solely because it is religious is discrimination under the free exercise clause.

The Supreme Court ruled in a Missouri case in 2017 that churches and other religious entities cannot be flatly denied public money based on their religious status - even in states whose constitutions explicitly ban such funding.

In 2020, it endorsed Montana tax credits that helped pay for students to attend religious schools. In 2022, it backed two Christian families in their challenge to Maine's tuition-assistance program that had excluded private religious schools.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
By Renju Jose, Kirsty Needham and Christine Chen

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Flash flooding on Australia's southeast coast has killed three people and cut off towns, isolating tens of thousands of residents, as officials on Thursday warned more downpours were expected over the next 24 hours.

Major flooding hit several rural towns in the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, with most of the Mid North Coast region facing further heavy rainfall through Thursday.

Police said the body of a 63-year-old man was found in a flooded home near Taree, more than 300 km (186 miles) north of Sydney, while another body believed to be that of a missing man aged in his 30s had been discovered in flood waters on the Mid North Coast.

The body of a 60-year-old woman was also found in her vehicle west of Coffs Harbour, police said. The woman had been cautioned against driving through the floods by an officer late on Wednesday, before becoming trapped and calling for help. Emergency services were unable to locate her in time.

Police said they were still searching for a missing man.

"This natural disaster has been terrible for this community," New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said during a media briefing.

"There's 140 flood warnings, 50,000 people are in the range where they have been asked to prepare to evacuate and could be isolated, and there's been 9,500 properties in the direct vicinity. So, we're far from out of the woods here."

More than 100 schools were closed on Thursday, while thousands of properties remained without power.

Cundletown in the Mid North Coast has been entirely cut off by floods, said Nicole Sammut, a nurse caring for 67 elderly residents at an aged care home, which is also being used as a shelter by emergency teams.

"I came to work on Tuesday and haven't left," Sammut told Reuters.

"We are up on a hill but behind us is all water. We are isolated. I've never seen the water this high."

The Manning River in nearby Taree had exceeded a 100-year-old flood record, emergency authorities said.

Sherinah Peck was evacuated at 2 a.m. on Wednesday from her farmhouse on the river, but her belongings were swept away, with some furniture later washing up on the coast.

As she searched Old Bar beach on Thursday, strewn with debris and dead and lost livestock, for a treasured bicycle that belonged to her late mother, Peck was knocked over by a cow and injured, she said.

"The cow was distressed - a wave came. I had to scramble up the sand," she told Reuters.

MORE HEAVY RAIN

A slow-moving coastal trough has dumped about four months of rain over the past two days, cutting off entire towns and stranding residents on roofs and the second floors of their homes, as rescuers struggle to access the area by boat or air.

Minns apologised to people who had to wait for several hours for rescue crews, but assured efforts had been ramped up with 2,500 emergency services personnel being deployed.

Around 590 flood rescues had been carried out, dozens of them by helicopter, NSW Police said. The helicopters have also been directing more boat rescues.

"Some significant rescues have been made but unfortunately we have lost a number of lives," Assistant Commissioner David Waddell said in a press conference.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology forecast that some areas could receive up to 200 mm (8 inches) of rain through Friday, triggering life-threatening flash flooding, before the weather system is expected to weaken and track south towards Sydney.

(Reporting by Renju Jose, Kirsty Needham and Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates, Sonali Paul and Kate Mayberry)
Getty Images / InStyle

In the Bravo Housewives Hall of Fame for fashion, Bronwyn Newport deserves her own wing. The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season five newcomer has brought color and pizazz to screens, not just through her personality but via her bold sense of style.



Newport is a fashion historian and archivist, advocate, and multi-hyphenate who's also not one to shy away from confrontation or a maximalist pattern. Her singular approach to style has cemented her place as one of the most popular additions to the Bravo universe in years. The front-row fixture isnt just a clotheshorse, either. Shes a bona fide supporter of designers. Just ask Christian Siriano, who famously shouted her out on Watch What Happens Live for being a genuine long-standing VIC (very important client.)



From her favorite blinged-out Judith Lieber handbags to vintage haute couture and luxury ready-to-wear, Newport delved into her closets MVPs with InStyle. See ahead for some of our favorite looks the Bravo star has worn throughout the years.

Met Gala After Party in Alexander McQueen

Getty Images Tailored to perfection.

When planning her look for a Met Gala after-party, Newport looked to classic suiting for a jumping-off point. I wanted to focus on tailoring and dandyism. Naturally, my mind immediately went to McQueen, as the brand and Lee are both known for tailoring. Dandyism includes the use of color, texture, and refined silhouettes, all of which could be found in this outfit. To go with her burgundy ensemble, she chose sleek Melissa Kaye dagger earrings. The look also made for a departure from her usual stepping-out moments. I felt like it was a change from my usual over-the-top aesthetic, she laughs. I realized how comfortable pants and no unwieldy shapes can be for a long night!

Save Venice gala in Oscar de la Renta

Getty Images This look gets a gold medal for style.

As a guest of the house of Oscar de la Renta, Newport served up gilded glamour at this years benefit. The theme of the evening was Banquet of Cleopatra and you can see I ran with that theme, she says. I studied Cleopatra and her most famous portrayal by Elizabeth Taylor, but I also wanted to keep it chic and fashionable. Couturenot costume! The result was a regal Venetian-inspired gown that would make the Queen of the Nile proud. Gianvito Rossi stilettos and freshly chopped bangs added the perfect finishing touch.



RHOSLC debut in Saint Laurent

Bravo via Getty Images We couldn't help but love this heart-themed look.

When the moment came to introduce herself to audiences, Newport wanted to work with what was in her own closet. I did buy a few pieces here and there, but I knew one surefire way to be myself on camera was to utilize what I already had. Enter: the unforgettable red heart-shaped coat from Hedi Slimanes Fall Winter 2016 collection for Saint Laurent. My first challenge [on the show] was the Valentine's Day bisous-themed party. I opted for a Khaite dress with kisses all over it, little heart heels by Alaia, a Dolce & Gabbana purse, and then the big coat. Newport admitted shes never one to miss a moment to be on theme and doesnt regret this talked-about outfit for a second. While there were jokes about this look, I don't regret it one bit! I love this coat from the Saint Laurent show and have worn it often over the almost ten years I have had it. It was a fitting way to enter the show...I think I have a big heart but come for my fashions and you better pack that bread in your purse and run!

NYFW in Brandon Maxwell

Christian Vierig/Getty Images The ombre effect added a sweet touch.

A major Brandon Maxwell fan, Newport recalls that a highlight of 2023 was attending the designers runway show during New York Fashion Week. I have a deep archive of Brandon Maxwell's pieces, so I would never deign to show up in a borrowed piece, an unworn brand new piece, or, gasp, another designer's look, Newport gasps. Instead, she arrived in a memorable ombre pailette skirt and pink sweater from his Resort 2023 show. This skirt is truly a masterpiece and heavy! It also makes the most delish swish as you walk! Full Ms. Frizzle fantasy, she says. I think one of my favorite things about fashion is the unique perspective and construction a piece can have and this skirt is so emblematic of that. I tend to like to be more covered but always wild and out there, but this look feels effortless.

RHOSLC reunion in Carolina Herrera

Bravo via Getty Images Newport deserves all the flowers for this reunion look.

Newports summary of this serve? A rosethat absolutely comes with thorns! For her first RHOSLC cast reunion, she wanted to make a power play in red. How do you top a first season of over the top looks and arguments? By unpacking those arguments in a final over the top look! I was blown away by this dress. It was created for Karlie Kloss at the Met Gala in 2021. It symbolized the red rose, the flower of America. Newport fell in love with the dress and purchased it from the Herrera archive as soon as she saw it. On the night, she teamed it with Valentino shoes and jewelry by Melissa Kaye. In her own words? It was perfect.

NYFW in Christian Siriano

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Pretty in pink Siriano.

Its a pink cotton candy dream, Newport muses of this ballet slipper pink textural number she wore to Christian Sirianos New York Fashion Week show. Christian is one of my favorite people and designers. I wanted to show up and out for his runway show, and this look hit it out of the park. Its the most Bronwyn Ive ever felt during fashion week: a sparkly Judith Lieber hot dog in one hand and wearing a pink, poufy, foam, fun Barbie confection.

LOVELOUD gala in Christopher John Rogers

Fred Hayes/Getty Images With her hubby Todd Bradley

At the LOVELOUD gala in Dallas, Newport wowed in a Christoper John Rogers corset and skirt in the designers signature strawberry-waist silhouette. Christopher is known for pattern, color, and texturemy three favorite things in fashion, she says. You've seen me in this dress at events and in my confessionalstrying to literally connect the dots of my friendships while in dots!

Paris Fashion Week in Valentino

Jacopo M. Raule/Getty Images Yummy accessories completed this Parisian ensemble.

While attending Alessandro Micheles debut Haute Couture show for Valentino, Newport went all in. Or as she puts it: Gold everything for what I knew would be a gold medal of a show! The star picked a dress, headband, and shoes from Micheles inaugural ready-to-wear show for the house. I felt sparkly and so ladylike, she says,  I usually veer towards more quirky pieces rather than polished. I loved presenting as ladylike and, dare I say, even demure?! The croque monsieur purse by Judith Lieber completed the look. It ate!



Watch What Happens Live in The New Arrivals

Bravo via Getty Images Newport was the cat's meow wearing leopard.

For her appearance on WWHL alongside Julia Fox, Newport says she felt the urge to go a little foxy herself. This dress made me feel the sexiest Ive ever felt. It was all so rawr. And if that isn't the point of fashion: trying new things, cloaking yourself in a new facade every once in a while, then what is? Newport styled the slinky leopard print number by Turkish brand The New Arrivals: Ilkyaz Ozel with vintage Tiffany & Co. jewelry.



New York Fashion Week in Brandon Maxwell

Getty Images Cozy chic never looked so good.

For designer Brandon Maxwells show earlier this year, Newport didnt let the weather rain on her parade. I love a runway show, and the exciting moment when you get to see an upcoming season of creations. Despite the rainy weather in NYC in February, I wanted to be as fresh and clean as the slate upon which the designers would be showing their hard work. This dress felt simultaneously a bit cheeky and very serious! Newport complimented her pristine cream dress and wrap with a multi-colored necklace by Lizzie Fortunato and shoes by Paris Texas.

RHOSLC press in AREA

Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Newport has never met a platform shoe she didn't love.

A star is born! For her first-ever press moment, Newport opted for a boxy blazer and matching capris in a look-at-me shade of magenta, paired with sky-high Versace platforms. Its a little bit business, a little bit party, she summarizes with a smile.

SAG Awards in vintage Dior Haute Couture

Frazer Harrison/WireImage Looking like a ray of sunshine.

Newports outfit for the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2025 was one of her favorites of all-time. I have loved red carpet commentary and awards shows since I was a little girl and getting to co-host the SAG Awards red carpet was a lifelong dream come true, she says. For such a momentous career high, it was only fitting that Newport went bigger than ever before. The perfect dress came in the form of a Dior Haute Couture gown from 1968, originally made for Mexican screen icon, Maria Felix. I couldn't be commenting on the looks of the stars if I wasn't in a look from a star myself, she laughs. I love the color, the history and the feather trim. I made it my own with a sparkly pair of platforms for both pop and comfort, and one of my signature Judith Leiber handbags.

Read the original article on InStyle
Boosting levels of the astrocyte protein Hevin improves memory and learning in Alzheimer's models, suggesting new avenues for dementia treatment. (CREDIT: CC BY-SA 4.0)

Dementia affects millions globally, impacting memory, reasoning, and everyday activities. As the population ages, understanding and addressing cognitive decline becomes increasingly critical.

Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, affects around 50 million people worldwide. This number is projected to triple to over 150 million by 2050, especially burdening low-income and middle-income countries. Globally, dementia care costs nearly $1 trillion annually.

Yet, despite extensive research, effective treatments for dementia remain limited. Alzheimer's disease is traditionally linked with amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles of tau proteins, believed to disrupt brain function. But recent findings suggest that the soluble forms of these proteins, rather than solid plaques, might play a greater role in impairing synapsesthe critical connections between neurons.

Astrocytes and Synaptic Health

Astrocytes, star-shaped brain cells, maintain the health of neurons by supporting synaptic connections. They help form, maintain, and prune synapses, directly influencing cognitive functions. Scientists have recently shifted focus from neurons to astrocytes, exploring their potential for protecting the brain from damage and decline.

Rodent hippocampal astrocytes (in red) overexpressing hevin (in green). (CREDIT: Felipe Cabral-Miranda and Ana Paula Bergamo Araujo)

One key astrocyte protein, Hevin, also known as SPARC-like1, has attracted attention due to its role in strengthening synapses. Hevin helps bridge connections between neurons, crucial for learning and memory. Its counterpart, SPARC, typically works against Hevin's actions, reducing synapse formation. In Alzheimer's brains, SPARC appears abundant, while Hevin decreases, suggesting an imbalance might accelerate cognitive decline.

Hevin's Protective Role Explored

Scientists from Brazils Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and the University of Sao Paulo (USP) explored how boosting Hevin levels in astrocytes could influence aging brains and Alzheimer's disease. The study, recently published in Aging Cell, tested the effects of Hevin in mice genetically engineered to mimic Alzheimers and in healthy aging mice.

The researchers used viral vectors to enhance Hevin specifically within astrocytes of the hippocampus, the brain region essential for memory. Flavia Alcantara Gomes, head of Cellular Neurobiology at UFRJ, explained, We found that the overproduction of Hevin reverses cognitive deficits in aged animals by improving synaptic quality.

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Cognitive Improvement Without Plaque Reduction

Remarkably, mice with increased Hevin showed improved cognitive abilities in memory and learning tasks. They navigated mazes and completed memory tests more effectively than untreated animals. These improvements came with clearer, stronger synapses, indicating that Hevin had indeed strengthened neural connections.

Interestingly, increased Hevin did not reduce amyloid plaques, traditionally linked to Alzheimer's severity. Felipe Cabral-Miranda, lead author and biomedical scientist at UFRJ, noted, Although cognitive deficits improved significantly, plaque levels remained unchanged. This highlights Alzheimer's complexity and suggests plaques alone may not be sufficient to cause the disease.

This unexpected finding supports a growing belief among scientists that amyloid plaques may be symptoms rather than primary causes of Alzheimer's. Cognitive decline appears more closely related to how effectively neurons communicate rather than simply plaque presence.

Hevin levels are decreased in astrocytes of AD patients and animal models. (CREDIT: Aging Cell)

Proteomic Insights and Synapse Regulation

Researchers also examined how Hevin influenced brain proteins using advanced proteomics at USP's Redoxoma laboratory. Proteomics identifies proteins expressed in cells, revealing clues about how cellular processes change with disease or treatment. The results showed 89 proteins were altered by increased Hevin, specifically proteins involved in synapse function.

Danilo Bilches Medinas from USP explained, Synapses rely heavily on proteins for neuronal signaling. Proteomics revealed that boosting Hevin regulated several protein groups critical for synaptic strength, enhancing neuron-to-neuron connections and boosting cognitive performance.

These findings suggest that targeting astrocytes, rather than neurons alone, could lead to innovative treatments for dementia and age-related cognitive decline. By focusing on proteins like Hevin, scientists open doors to novel therapeutic approaches beyond traditional drug targets.

Astrocytic Hevin overexpression does not impact A plaque deposition in the hippocampus of APP/PSEN animals. (CREDIT: Aging Cell)

The Path Toward New Therapies

Despite these promising results, researchers emphasize caution. Current findings come from animal models, and translating them into human therapies presents significant hurdles. One critical issue is the blood-brain barrier, a protective layer preventing many molecules from entering the brain. Future drugs must overcome this barrier without losing effectiveness.

Gomes emphasized, In the future, drugs replicating Hevin's effects might be developed. However, todays main achievement is better understanding Alzheimer's molecular mechanisms. By shifting attention to astrocytes, weve identified new potential strategies for addressing cognitive impairment.

Cabral-Miranda agreed, stressing the significance of these results as "proof of concept." He added, Our findings reinforce that Alzheimer's is multifaceted. Addressing synaptic health directly through astrocytes could revolutionize how we treat cognitive decline.

Astrocytic Hevin overexpression impacts the proteome composition of synaptic proteins both in middle-aged WT and APP/PSEN animals. (CREDIT: Aging Cell)

Future Directions in Alzheimer's Research

This groundbreaking work marks a significant step forward in Alzheimer's research, highlighting astrocytes and their proteins as critical players. Future studies will aim to determine if similar effects occur in humans and how effectively potential drugs based on Hevin can cross into the human brain.

As Alzheimer's continues to burden individuals, families, and societies, research like this provides hope for more effective and targeted treatments. By broadening scientific focus beyond traditional amyloid-targeting therapies, new solutions emerge, offering brighter prospects for aging populations worldwide.

Note: The article above provided above by The Brighter Side of News.

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Debris covers the ground after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting homes and cars on fire and forcing evacuations early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/William Liang)

SAN DIEGO (AP)  A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.

With the home engulfed in flames and jet fuel rolling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles ignited while residents in the neighborhood of U.S. Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4 a.m. by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions. Out their windows, they saw a wall of fire.

I cant quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window, police officer Anthony Carrasco said.

Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement. Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Hanson is perhaps best known for its earworm 1990s pop hit, MMMBop. Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.

We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by todays tragedy, the agency said.

Six people were on board the plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities were still combing the scene and recovering the bodies before releasing an official number and identifying the dead, though there were not believed to be any survivors aboard the flight.

Daniel Williams, former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page.

No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever, the band wrote.

A representative for the band referred to their social post when asked about Williams death.

Parts of Shapiros 1985 Cessna 550 Citation littered a large area, including fragments under the power lines and a section of wing on a road behind the homes, said Elliot Simpson of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Neighborhood hit hard

The home that was struck was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed, and about 10 others were damaged in Murphy Canyon, the largest neighborhood of Navy-owned housing in the country, officials said.

Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.

My wife was screaming, and shes like, 'There's a fire,' McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told local ABC affiliate KGTV.

When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit. They grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape.

The plane also hit both of the couple's vehicles, which burned.

It put my truck into our living room, McCarty said.

Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One stubborn car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.

Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a whooshing sound and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.

One of the familys cars was completely disintegrated, and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.

I definitely do feel blessed, because weve been spared, she said.

At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.

We have jet fuel all over the place, Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said.

Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that you could barely see in front of you.

The plane originated from a small Ne w Jersey airport

The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to San Diego, according to Simpson.

Based on the flight path, it was bound for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it struck power lines about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) southeast of the airfield, Simpson said.

Audio recorded by www.liveATC.net includes a brief transmission from the pilot saying he was on final approach to the airport and was about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) out at 3:45 a.m.

NTSB investigators planned to spend Thursday and Friday at the scene gathering evidence, Simpson said. He welcomed video or other details from any witnesses.

The plane was attempting t o land in foggy weather

At that hour and in foggy weather, the plane was likely operating on an instrument flight rules plan, which is typically used during reduced visibility, said Barry Newman, a board-certified aviation attorney.

However, for that airport, once an aircraft reaches 673 feet (205 meters), the pilot also has to rely on sight.

If a pilot descends to that level and he cant see the runway, he has to call for a missed approach or divert to another airport, Newman said.

In October 2021 a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.

And in December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diegos University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.

___

Associated Press journalists Javier Arciga in San Diego; Christopher Weber and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed.
The fixed menu, which typically costs between 10 and 16 euros depending on where you're dining, includes a starter, main course, and dessert. Photograph by Sergi Reboredo/VWPics/Redux

Its easy to spot when lunch has arrived in Spain. Shops, businesses, and schools shut their doors. Crowds begin to gather, spilling onto sidewalks, and packing into bars and restaurants in search of a good meal. While most visitors flock to the nearest plaza patio drawn in by signs for paella and sangria, most locals are settling into their favorite restaurants for one of Spains most beloved food traditionsmenu del dia.

Menu del dia, or menu of the day, is a rotating three-course meal offered at an affordable price and can be found in restaurants all across the country. While some savvy travelers know of this dining secret, it mostly remains a locally loved tradition that visitors overlook.

The history of Spain's menu of the day

Menu del dia was born in the Franco regime. In 1965, General Francisco Franco passed a law requiring all restaurants to offer a fixed-price tourist menu that included three courses and a drink. The goal was to create an affordable lunch option and boost tourism.

The program worked. According to a study conducted by PubMed Central, Spain went from having 5.4 million visitors in 1960 to over 20 million by the end of the decade. It remains a tourist-driven incentive; however, over the years, it became a dining staple for locals as well.

The fixed menu, which typically costs between 10 and 16 euros depending on where you're dining, includes a starter, main course, and dessert. It also comes with one drink either wine, beer, coffee, a soft drink, or water.

Given the low fixed rate, restaurateurs have to get creative. Most build their daily offerings around the cheapest, fresh ingredients they can get from local purveyors. The meals are simple by nature, but theyre always filling and satisfying.

Main courses tend to be heartier, often centered around meat or seafood. Photograph by Alexander Spatari via Getty Images

What to expect

The menu typically has three to four options for each course: primer plato (starter), segundo plato (main course), and postre (dessert). You make your selection for all three courses upon ordering and specify the drink you want.

For the starter, you might find fideua, a short-cut noodle dish similar to paella; huevos revueltos, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, asparagus or morcilla (blood sausage); or a chilled soup like salmorejo or gazpacho.

Main courses tend to be heartier, often centered around meat or seafood. You might see pork loin in a creamy blue cheese sauce, beef cheeks braised in red wine, or a fish fillet finished with a light lemon and garlic sauce.

Fresh fruit is the most common dessert in Spain. But occasionally, youll find options like ice cream, a chocolate or apple tart, rice pudding, or even a wedge of cheese drizzled with honey.

Dont be surprised if you receive a whole bottle of wine when two or more people order the menu del dia. House wine is often served in an individual porron, a uniquely shaped glass pitcher traditionally poured straight into your mouth, if you're brave enough to try.

That said, the dishes dont always stick to traditional Spanish cuisine. International restaurants serving everything from sushi and ramen to pasta often offer a three-course menu del dia built around their usual fare.

Where to find the menu of the day in Spain

Virtually every city and province across the country offers menu del dia, although its no longer required by law. The European Directive 2006/123/CE revised tourism laws in the European Union to encourage free-market practices. This eliminated the legal requirement for Spanish restaurants to offer a fixed-price tourist menu, giving regions and individual establishments the freedom to decide whether to continue the tradition.

Today, menu del dia is becoming less common due to thin profit margins for restaurant owners. Still, many spots, especially in larger cities like Seville, Malaga, Barcelona, and Madrid, continue to serve it.

The catch, though, is that it is only available on weekdays from about 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Its never offered on the weekend. After 4 p.m., most restaurants close to prep for dinner and wont open again until around 8 or 9 p.m.

Unfortunately, theres no foolproof way to know if a restaurant offers menu del dia without stopping by or calling ahead. Your best bet is to keep an eye out for chalkboards or printed signs advertising a fixed-price lunch as you wander the city.

Menu del dia shouldnt be a well-kept secret reserved for locals. With so many restaurants offering it and the incredible value it provides for a high-quality, freshly made mealits something more travelers should know about and seek out.

Liz Brumer-Smith is a Florida-based freelance writer and travel creator behind the channel Eat See TV. In 2017, she and her husband hit the road full-time in their RV with their two cats, exploring North America and documenting their adventures on YouTube and their blog. Today, Liz shares stories of food, culture, and destinations around the globe.
Target struggled with its first-quarter sales, in part due to reactions to its DEI programs. Leah Millis/REUTERS

Target said reactions to its DEI moves adversely affected its first-quarter sales.

Protesters say they're not satisfied with the company's response so far.

Additional protests are planned for Sunday, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

Target is having little success in convincing shoppers of its stance on DEI.

CEO Brian Cornell said Wednesday that the public response to changes to its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs  now known as "belonging"  adversely affected the company's first-quarter sales, though an exact amount was not quantifiable.

"We faced several additional headwinds this quarter, including five consecutive months of declining consumer confidence, uncertainty regarding the impact of potential tariffs, and the reaction to the updates we shared on belonging in January," he said.

The financial results follow weeks of declining foot traffic and sales, punctuated by seasonal holiday bumps during the period. But shifting positions on DEI issues don't appear to be doing Target any favors, the GlobalData Retail analyst Neil Saunders said in a note.

"The extent of this should not be overstated as many other factors are driving down Target's sales numbers, but the move has certainly not been helpful," he said.

A Target spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider that the company was "absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyone  our team members, our guests and our supply partners.

"To do that, we're focusing on what we do best: providing the best retail experience for the more than 2,000 communities we're proud to serve."

While some DEI supporters have claimed partial victory in their pressure campaign, leaders including Jamal-Harrison Bryant, a pastor, say they're not yet satisfied with the company's response.

Bryant said his church would hold a protest in front of an Atlanta-area Target on Sunday, to mark the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in Target's hometown of Minneapolis.

"We're going to do it for nine minutes and 40 seconds as the same amount of time they applied pressure to George Floyd that led to his death," Bryant said in a video inviting other churches to join in.

Target expanded several diversity initiatives in the immediate aftermath of Floyd's death, and Cornell said the killing highlighted that more work was needed.

"It happened only blocks from our headquarters," Cornell told the Economic Club of Chicago a year after Floyd's death. "And my first reaction watching that on TV was that that could have been one of my Target team members."

At the time, Target committed to spending more than $2 billion on Black-owned businesses by 2025 by purchasing goods from more than 500 of them and contracting with Black-owned services, from marketing to construction.

"As CEOs, we have to be the company's head of diversity and inclusion," Cornell told the Economic Club of Chicago. "We've got to make sure that we represent our company principles, our values, our company purpose on the issues that are important to our teams."

Four years later, Target's message on DEI is less clear.

In January, the company said it was rolling back several diversity initiatives, renaming others, and not renewing the spending and sourcing goals it set in 2021.

(Target's spokesperson told BI that the announcement did not affect brand or supplier relationships and that the company still recruited from a variety of schools, including historically black colleges and universities.)

Target also, for the first time, donated $1 million to then-President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, filings showed, even as Trump was gearing up to issue executive orders to strip DEI programs from federal agencies and contractors. The tech giants Google, Meta, and Uber each donated the same amount.

In addition, the company has drastically reduced its annual LGBTQ+ Pride collection in recent years and now offers a small fraction of what it showcased two years ago.

In a note to employees earlier this month, Cornell acknowledged that "silence from us has created uncertainty," and the executive has reportedly met with Bryant and the Rev. Al Sharpton to discuss a path forward.

Beyond the protests, GlobalData's Saunders said Target continued to face myriad other challenges, including still high tariffs on imports, growing competitive pressures from rivals, and a host of operational difficulties.

"This year will be another soft one and Target enters it in a relatively weak position," he said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Purse dogsa.k.a. tiny or miniature dog breedsare favorable companions who go wherever you go. From the snowy white Maltese to the fluffy Pomeranian and more, purse dogs vary in personality and purpose. While there are many toy breeds to choose from, astrology says theres only one purse dog meant just for you. Keep reading to see what your tiny purse dog breed is, according to your zodiac sign.

RELATED: Which Popular Dog Breed Are You, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

Tiny Purse Dog Breeds, According to Astrology

Although miniature, purse dog breeds still have that mighty Martian character all dogs have. A dogs Martian energy speaks to its endurance, strength, and ambition. However, purse dogs also exude another planets energyVenus. The goddess of love, money, and beauty favors miniature breeds. Purse dogs exude Venus charm and elegance, making them fashionable companions. The Venusian and Martian energy gives purse dogs a chic yet assertive vibe. Check both your natal Venus and natal Mars placements to figure out which tiny dog breed resonates with you.

READ: 3 Most Prosperous Zodiac Signs, According to Astrologers

Your Tiny Purse Dog Breeds, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

Keep reading, and look for your Sun, Moon, and Rising signs.

Aries: Youre a Yorkshire Terrier

Although purse dogs are desired for their cuteness, youll still want a tiny dog who exemplifies your sturdiness and bravery. Aries, youll connect with the Yorkshire Terrier, a robust yet compact breed. Yorkies are beloved for their luxurious coats and sweet faces. But dont be fooled by their charm, since Yorkies are known for their big personalities. Like you, Yorkies want to be the boss. Youll resonate with the Yorkies feistiness and courage, as these little dogs capture your assertive attitude. Call upon the Yorkies energy when you need to stand your ground.

Taurus: Youre a Pug

Which pup exemplifies your loyal, steady nature, Taurus? Most little dogs have sweet, calm temperaments, but the Pug outshines them all. Loved for their wrinkled faces and curled tails, youll find that the Pugs demeanor makes these pups so unique. Pugs are highly sought after for their even temperaments, making these tiny companions the perfect purse dog. Youll never have to worry if a Pug is bored or frustrated, since Pugs are happy to go along for the ride. Invoke the Pugs energy when you want to feel level-headed and happy.

Gemini: Youre a Toy Poodle

As a Mercurial sign, you should align with a purse dog that's more than just an accessory. Gemini, you will be drawn to the Toy Poodle, since this tiny dog breed has the looks and the brains. Toy Poodles are cherished for their curly, hypoallergenic coats and outstanding intelligence. Like you, Toy Poodles usually go with the flow unless bored. You and the Toy Poodle can be mischievous, so it's a good thing you are both cute. Invite the spirit of the Toy Poodle into your life if you're in an impish mood.

Cancer: Youre a Bichon Frise

All dogs are loyal companions, but the Bichon Frise captures your family-oriented mindset and loving personality. Cancer, youre aligned with this fluffy white pups affectionate attitude. The Bichon Frise is big lovebug who enjoy spending time with family members. Aside from sharing your sweet nature, the Bichon Frise is just as watchful as you. Your intuitive energy translates to the Bichon Frises carefulness, since this purse pup always listens to its gut feeling if something feels off. Channel the Bichon Frise to tap into your intuition or call in your soul family.

OTHER: 7 Spiritual Symptoms of the Evil Eyeand How to Remove It Fast

Leo: Youre a Pomeranian

Leo, your show-stopper energy and big personality will connect with the Pomeranian. These small dogs carry the energy of a much larger canine. Pomeranians are known for their liveliness, matching your attitude perfectly. Like you, Pomeranians have an extroverted, confident personality that most cannot resist falling for. Sometimes, the Pomeranian can act a bit bratty, but you understand where this pups sassiness is coming from. After all, the Pomeranian is your soul dog. Call upon the Pomeranian when you need a confidence boost, especially if you want to put yourself out there.

Virgo: Youre an Italian Greyhound

Given your Mercurial personality, youre known for being a notably alert, perceptive star sign. Virgo, your intellectual receptivity aligns with the shy, sensitive Italian Greyhound. Both of you notice everything, which may explain why you and the Italian Greyhound are ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. Although youre both nervous Nellies, you and the Italian Greyhound are sweet. Not only does the Italian Greyhound resonate with your attentiveness, but this sleek, elegant dog aligns with your aesthetic. Invite the spirit of the Italian Greyhound when you want to tap into your perceptiveness.

Libra: Youre a Maltese

All purse dogs exude your Venusian energy, but you may feel called to the Maltese more than any other pup. Libra, the Maltese parallels your beauty, charm, and grace. This pure white pup has a stunning, high-end look that mirrors your aesthetic. Aside from appearance, you and the Maltese share a gentle, people-forward nature. The Maltese is known as a friendly, loyal companion, as the Maltese shares your sociability and kindliness. Channel the Malteses spiritual energy when you want to deepen a meaningful connection, manifest a new relationship, or enhance your glamour magic.

Scorpio: Youre a Chihuahua

Its no secret youre an intense star sign, Scorpio. Your Martian and Plutonic energy doesnt readily scream purse dog, but you may feel called to the tiny but mighty Chihuahua. These little dogs are known for their strong demeanor. The Chihuahuas sharp, brash attitude resonates with your drive and perceptiveness. Both you and the Chihuahua turn heads thanks to having a powerful presence. Despite being one of the smallest dogs, the Chihuahua demands respect just like you. Invoke the energy of the Chihuahua when you want to amplify your tenacity and determination.

RELATED: 3 Most Wealthy Birth Months, According to Experts

Sagittarius: Youre a Boston Terrier

Sagittarius, you need a pup who mirrors your excitability, goofiness, and adventures. The Boston Terrier captures your good-natured personality and outgoing attitude. Like you, this tiny tuxedo pup is naturally playful with an amazing sense of humor. Boston Terriers are highly energetic, since this pup loves seeking new challenges and trying new things. On occasion, you and the Boston Terrier can get into tomfoolery if youre in a mischievous mood. But for the most part, you and the Boston Terrier are here for a good time. Beckon the Boston Terriers energy when you want to amplify your good-natured attitude.

Capricorn: Youre an English Toy Spaniel

Most purse pups are cute, but youll want something more upscale to fit your tailored vibe. Capricorn, you will fall for the English Toy Spaniel, as this purse dog resonates with your maturity and classiness. English Toy Spaniels have a dignified appearance that exudes refinement. But behind closed doors, the English Toy Spaniel is just as playful and silly as you can be. This tiny pup has everything you ever dreamed ofsophistication, status, and respectability. Align with the English Toy Spaniel when you need to tap into your cultured wild side.

Aquarius: Youre a Chinese Crested Dog

As a funky star sign, you ought to have a miniature breed who captures your quirks, Aquarius. The Chinese Crested is the perfect purse pup for you. This tiny dog has a mostly hairless appearance, giving the Chinese Crested an unparalleled look. Most may not understand this pups appeal, but you resonate with the Chinese Cresteds individuality. Aside from being individualistic, the Chinese Crested is fairly open-minded to meeting new people and trying new things. Tap into the Chinese Crested when you want to feel secure and confident being uniquely you.

READ: 3 Most Charismatic Zodiac Signs, According to Astrologers

Pisces: Youre a Papillon

Pisces, the only purse dog meant for you is the Papillon. This adorable pups name is French for butterfly, which derives from the Papillons butterfly-shaped ears. The Papillons butterfly-esque look resonates with your whimsy and dreaminess. Your fantastical energy translates to the Papillons gentle, soulful aura. Like you, the Papillon has an affable nature that everyone has a soft spot for. Align your energy with the Papillons when you need to get in touch with your spirituality. The Papillion will raise your vibration, allowing you to tap into your mystical side.
By Kaylee Kang, Jaimi Dowdell

(Reuters) -

The Trump administrations latest blow against Harvard University  cutting off its ability to enroll foreign students  rippled throughout higher education Thursday, because it aims at a major source of revenue for hundreds of schools across the United States.

Because international students are more likely to pay full tuition, they essentially subsidize other students who receive aid, said educational consultant Chuck Ambrose, former president of the University of Central Missouri.

The administrations move to stop foreign enrollment is a huge blow to Harvard and sends a message to other universities: "You could be next, said Robert Kelchen, a professor at the University of Tennessee who researches university finances.

Kristi Noem, Trumps homeland security adviser, said as much Thursday during an appearance on "The Story with Martha MacCallum" on Fox News. Noem was asked if the administration was considering similar moves at other universities, including Columbia University in New York. "Absolutely, we are," she responded. "This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together."

Harvards 6,800 international students make up 27% of its total enrollment. In 2023, foreign students made up an even higher share at 43 other schools with at least 1,000 students, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

At Columbia University, which the Trump administration accuses of antisemitic policies, foreign students made up 39% of total enrollment in 2023, the NCES data shows. At 246 other schools with an enrollment of at least 1,000, at least 10% of students were from outside the U.S.

Thursdays announcement comes as universities are already scrambling to make up for huge federal cuts in research funding. Harvard, which the Trump administration says has failed to address antisemitism and ethnic harassment on campus, has seen nearly $3 billion in federal contracts and research grants frozen or ended in recent weeks. Neither Harvard nor Columbia had comment on the financial impact of Thursdays move.

It's just another financial hit on top of several hits that have already come for big research universities, Kelchen said. At this point the only thing that hasn't been touched is student financial aid.

(Kaylee Kang reported from New York and Jaimi Dowdell from Los Angeles. Editing by Janet Roberts.)
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.

"These are all white farmers that are being buried," said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency's fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.

The post did not caption the image but identified it as a "YouTube screen grab" with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had "misidentified the image."

She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa's "dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government", had "pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans."

The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.

"That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in ... I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film," Al Katanty said. "Only Reuters has video."

Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.

"In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people," Al Katanty said.

Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa's land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.

Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.

Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying "death, death, death, horrible death".

(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Stephanie Burnett, Milan Pavicic, Nellie Peyton and Cooper Inveen; Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by Silvia Aloisi and Daniel Wallis)
The 1970s gave us a dazzling array of cultural icons, and among them, feathered hair was a highlight. And the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of that combo is the list of all the heartthrobs of the '70s.

These men ruled movie screens and magazine covers, and they also captured hearts and influenced generations. But behind the glitz, glam, and poster-worthy faces are stories that many fans never got to hear. Here are 15 surprising tales about '70s heartthrobs that reveal a whole new side to these figures.

Harrison Ford Improvised Indiana Jones Iconic Scene While Sick

Credit: Reddit

That famous moment in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy shoots the swordsman wasnt in the script. Ford was wiped out from dysentery and just couldnt stomach a long, choreographed fight. So, instead of swordplay, he suggested Indy just shoot the guy. Spielberg loved it. Boomcinematic gold, all thanks to food poisoning.

Sylvester Stallone Soldand Bought BackHis Best Friend

Credit: ebay

Before Rocky made him a star, Sylvester Stallone was so broke he sold his beloved dog Butkus for $40 just to afford food. After Rocky sold, Stallone tracked down the new owner and paid $15,000 to bring Butkus home. The reunion was definitely a tearjerker.

Clint Eastwood Ran for Mayor to Legalize Ice Cream

Credit: X

In 1986, Clint Eastwood had had enough of Carmel, Californias no ice cream cones on sidewalks rule. So, naturally, he ran for mayor and he won. The first order of business was to legalize cones. Dirty Harry never backed down from injustice, even dessert-based ones.

Mark Hamill Brought Luke Skywalker to Life for a Dying Fan

Credit: Reddit

Though Mark Hamill became a household name as Luke Skywalker, one of his most heroic acts happened off-screen. When a terminally ill young fan wished to meet Lukenot the actor, but the actual characterHamill didnt hesitate. He stayed in character for hours, answering repeated questions with patience and compassion, giving the boy and his family a memory theyd never forget.

Lee Majors Accidentally Played Matchmaker for His Own Wife

Credit: Reddit

Lee Majors introduced his then-wife, Farrah Fawcett, to old friend Ryan ONeal, even suggesting he take her to dinner while Majors was away filming. One thing led to another, and soon ONeal and Fawcett were inseparable. Though the love triangle ended in heartbreak, ONeal and Fawcett remained partners for decades.

Kurt Russell: The Man No One Can Hate

Credit: Reddit

When producers needed someone tough and universally likeable for Stargate, they did a worldwide survey. No joke. Kurt Russell came back with zero unlikeability. They doubled his salary and gave him the part.

Robby Benson Kept a Big Secret Behind That Dreamy Smile

Credit: IMDb

Robby Benson, teen heartthrob of Ice Castles fame, secretly battled a serious heart defect for years. Despite dizzy spells and exhaustion, he kept acting, directing, and even voiced the Beast in Beauty and the Beastall while undergoing four open-heart surgeries along the way.

Darth Vader Helped Superman Get Ripped

Credit: Reddit

Christopher Reeve needed to bulk up fast to fill out Supermans tights. Thats when David Prowse, the man behind Darth Vaders mask, entered the scene. Prowse put him through a brutal training routine, and Reeve packed on 40 pounds of muscle. With his help, Clark Kent truly became the Man of Steel.

John Travolta Could Have Played Forrest Gump

Credit: Reddit

Its hard to imagine Forrest Gump without Tom Hanks, but John Travolta was originally offered the role and turned it down. Instead, he chose Pulp Fiction, a decision that helped reignite his career. While Hanks won the Oscar, Travolta gained cult status as Vincent Vega.

Roger Moore Walked Away From James Bond Over Morality

Credit: Reddit

By A View to a Kill, Moore was pushing 60, and his Bond girls were barely out of college. Feeling weirded out (rightfully) that the leading ladies were getting far too young, he bowed out of the role. Sometimes, walking away is cooler than the tux and gadgets combined.

Calvin Lockhart Forced Biggie to Change His Name

Credit: X

Calvin Lockharts role as Biggie Smalls in Lets Do It Again inspired rapper Christopher Wallace to take on the same name. But Lockhart wasnt amused by the tribute and filed a lawsuit, prompting the rapper to switch to The Notorious B.I.G., which became a well-known name in hip-hop history.

Robert Redford Was Too Cool to Play a Loser

Credit: Reddit

Redford wanted the lead in The Graduate, but director Mike Nichols had doubts. When asked if hed ever struck out with a woman, Redford was honestly confused. Nichols passed, saying he needed someone who could believably flounder. The role was then given to Dustin Hoffman.

Reynolds DIY Stunt Nearly Killed Him

Credit: Reddit

Burt Reynolds was all in on doing his own stunts until Deliverance. He insisted on doing a river plunge himself. He blacked out, floated away, and woke up in the ER without clothes. The worst part was that the footage looked fake, just like the dummy he refused to use.

Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte Shared Theater Ticketsand Dreams

Credit: Reddit

Before their fame, Poitier and Belafonte had one theater ticket between them. One watched the first half, handed off the stub, and the other watched the second. It's not exactly legal, but hey, dreams dont wait for full admission.

Rick Springfield Wrote a Song About Being Mistaken for Bruce Springsteen

Credit: Reddit

Being confused with someone else isnt always flattering, unless that someone is The Boss. Rick Springfield, tired of being mistaken for Bruce Springsteen, wrote the tongue-in-cheek song "Bruce" about the mix-ups. It struck a chord with fans and highlighted his sense of humor.
Video by Mathew Pimental

At the precise moment that US President Donald Trump was accusing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of denying acts of racial persecution, the University of Michigan Orchestra began a five-concert tour of South Africa with a smashing two and half hour program at the University of Pretoria.

The main work on the program was a neglected American masterpiece influenced by Africa: William Levi Dawsons Negro Folk Symphony of 1932. The terrific performance, ignited by conductor Kenneth Kiesler, nailed the symphonys rocketing syncopations  and drove the sold out audience to a ululating frenzy of acclaim.

But the concerts peak impact occurred near the close, when the 100 musicians abandoned their instruments and stood to sing the beloved Xhosa song Bawo Thixo Somandla. Halfway through, they began to sway and gesture. They ambushed the sold-out audience into a condition of incredulous delight.

Six decades ago, cultural exchange between the US and USSR proved an indispensable foreign policy instrument, beginning with Leonard Bernsteins 1959 tour to Soviet Russia with his New York Philharmonic. As the Cold War waned, however, so did soft diplomacy. Today, it is  at least for the moment  cancelled by a posturing toughness.

The University of Michigan orchestra next proceeds to Soweto and Cape Town  in counterpoint with exacerbated relations between the US and South Africa.

At a joint rehearsal earlier today with Michigan musicians playing alongside the University of Pretoria Orchestra, Kiesler told the group: How moving it is to be all together, when our governments are not.

To read a related article about the waning of soft diplomacy, click here.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Mirziyoyev plans to build a large shopping centre on the site where, in 2005, hundreds of protesterswho had occupied a high-security prison in protest against a wave of arrestswere killed in a military crackdown. For years, the authorities claimed that the demonstrators were slaughtered by Islamic terrorists.

Tashkent (AsiaNews)  Widespread outrage has erupted in Uzbekistan over President Shavkat Mirziyoyevs decision to construct a major shopping centre, complete with an amusement park, on the site of the Andijan tragedynear a high-security prison where, twenty years ago, demonstrators shed their blood after occupying the detention facility.

The project is being justified by the authorities as part of a plan to build a flyover in the area, which will alter the layout of the memorial square and surrounding buildings.

The president further commented that such a gloomy prison, built a hundred years ago, is not suitable for the centre of a modern city.

On 13 May 2005, in the ancient Uzbek city of Andijan, located on the plain near Fergana along the historic Silk Road, events took a dramatic turn.

Demonstrations erupted in protest at the arrest and trial of several local businessmen, and ended in bloodshed when police opened fire on protesters outside the prison where the accused were being heldindividuals the crowd believed to be innocent.

Witnesses to those events have since scattered around the world, and the decision to open a shopping centre on the site is seen by human rights activists as a profound affront to the memory of the victims.

The 23 Andijan businessmen had been arrested in June 2004, accused of links to the Akramiya religious movement, led by one of thementrepreneur Akram Yuldashevwho had already been imprisoned since 1999 for alleged extremism. According to unofficial reports, Yuldashev later died in prison in 2011 from tuberculosis, although this only became known in 2016.

At the time many questioned whether the movement even existed, and the entire episode was widely seen as a power struggle within the regions business community. Following Yuldashevs arrest, his companies were reportedly taken over by the new governor of Andijan.

When the court proceedings began in February 2005, supporters of the accused started to gather in the squareinitially in the hundreds, and later in the thousandsholding peaceful demonstrations.

But in the night between 12 and 13 May, events spiralled. Thirty-five armed men, later labelled Islamic extremists, reportedly crossed into Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan, attacked police officers, seized their weapons, and stormed the central prison, freeing around 2,000 inmates, including the accused businessmen.

They then moved towards the square where the demonstrators had gathered and occupied the Andijan city administration building, demanding the presence of then-President Islam Karimov.

Instead of dialogue, armoured vehicles arrived and opened fire on the crowd, leaving the streets of the city centre awash in blood.

According to official figures, 187 people died in Andijan that day. However, eyewitness accounts suggest the real number was certainly in the thousands. Investigative journalists later reported that in the Bogi-Shamol district on the citys outskirts, a cemetery contained graves in which four people were buried in each plot.

Some witnesses saw rows of bodies in the morgue, each marked with a numbered tag on the footfar exceeding the official toll. Those who witnessed the massacre were themselves targeted, persecuted, and many fled abroad.

For years, the authorities maintained the narrative that the demonstrators were massacred by Islamic terrorists, not by government forces. It was only after Karimovs death, in February 2020, that Deputy Prosecutor General Svetlana Artikova publicly admitted, for the first time, that it was soldiers, acting on orders from the president, who had opened fire on the crowd.

Mirziyoyevs current initiative appears aimed at making the country forget those dark chapters, while projecting an image of a new democratic Uzbekistan.

However, activists have condemned this as utter cynicisman attempt to enforce a sanitised, propagandistic version of history. While relocating prisons from city centres to the outskirts is common in many civilised countries, they argue, it must not come at the cost of erasing the memory of the victims.
Today's headlines: Gaza, at least 93 dead since yesterday; "warning shots" fired near foreign diplomats in Jenin. In North Korea, a technical incident damages a new warship, Kim: "a criminal act". Delhi, professor released on bail: under investigation for comments on the India-Pakistan conflict. Indonesian health minister criticised for unscientific claims.

HONG KONG

Hong Kong authorities have targeted independent media outlets and journalists through tax audits filled with errors. This was stated by the Hong Kong Journalists Association, raising fresh concerns about the state of press freedom. At least eight independent media organisations and around twenty journalists, along with members of their families, are believed to have been subjected to checks. Among the affected organisations are Independent Media, The Witness, Hong Kong Free Press, DB Channel, and ReNews.

GAZA - ISRAEL

At least 93 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours. International condemnation is growing after Israeli forces fired warning shots near foreign diplomats visiting Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, Israel has reportedly allowed the entry of 100 aid trucks. Israel is said to be open to a ceasefire in exchange for the release of hostages, while continuing its military campaign to gain full control of Gaza. Two members of staff at the Israeli Embassy were killed in Washington.

NORTH KOREA

Kim Jong Un has condemned a "serious incident" during the launch of a new warship, calling it a "criminal act" that could not be tolerated. Parts of the bottom of the 5,000-tonne destroyer were crushed, destabilising the ship. Kim has ordered that the ship be restored ahead of a key party meeting in June and that those involved in its design be held accountable for an incident that gravely damaged the dignity and pride of our nation.

INDIA

Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, arrested for comments on the India-Pakistan conflict, has been granted bail by the Supreme Court. An associate at Ashoka University, he was arrested on Sunday at his home in Delhi. However, the investigation against him has not been dismissed: a special investigative team of three members will continue to handle the case. Mahmudabad is prohibited from writing articles or delivering online speeches related to the subject of the investigation.

INDONESIA

Controversial plans and ideas from the Indonesian health minister have sparked calls for his resignation. Budi Gunadi Sadikin has recently faced criticism for comments such as claiming that taller people are healthier and more intelligent. Despite mixed reactions to his policies and his lack of medical experience, President Prabowo Subianto may still retain him in office.

CHINA - RUSSIA

Between January and April of this year, China exported over million worth of potatoes to Russia, compared to just million in the same period last year, according to Chinese customs authorities. This increase is due to a sharp reduction in potato production in Russia in recent years, leading to astronomical price hikes, as well as the block on exports from Kazakhstan, which is also facing a crisis in production.

IRAN - AZERBAIJAN

As a sign of renewed collaboration, Azerbaijan and Iran are conducting a joint military exercise in Nagorno-Karabakh, decided during the recent visit to Baku by Tehrans president, Masud Pezeshkyan, who stated that Iran will do everything possible to ensure that our relations reach a strategic value.
by Arundathie Abeysinghe

The outcome of the recent round of elections for the renewal of several municipal councils remains uncertain in many cases. In over 150 municipalities, no party or alliance holds an outright majority. The first meeting is scheduled for 2nd June. The opposition parties are attempting a difficult path towards unity in an effort to wrest control of the administrations from the ruling majority.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  With the elections for the renewal of municipal and local council leaders concluded, the struggle for leadership in over 150 councils remains open and uncertain, where no party or group holds an absolute majority in a context characterised by ambiguity. Currently, opposition parties are considering how to support each other in forming administrations in local councils, where the combined number of opposition members exceeds that of those elected from the ruling National Peoples Power (NPP). Moreover, the local elections are conducted under a mixed-member proportional representation system (MMPR), with the last local elections taking place in 2018.

All local councils will convene for the first time on 2nd June. In those where no one has achieved a majority of 50% or more, if there is no consensus on the appointment of a president and vice-president, a vote will be held to elect these positions. Analysts and experts believe that in a context of shaky unity, opposition parties are negotiating to thwart the NPPs attempt.

If this scenario comes to pass, opposition parties may seize control of local councils won by the NPP, although they will be unable to secure an absolute majority. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), which is considered "the grand prize of the entire election", could be part of this shift. Although the ruling party achieved a historic victory at the CMC, becoming the largest party in the council with 48 members, they are still short of 11 members to reach the 59 needed for an absolute majority in the 117-member council.

When asked by AsiaNews about the outcome of the local elections, political scientists Kasun Samarasekara and Nilanthi Wickramasinghe described it as "a brutal wake-up call for the NPP and its main constituent party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)". The elections, in fact, show how the popularity of the government has collapsed in just six months since its overwhelming victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections. Nonetheless, members of the executive maintain a defiant tone, insisting that the results of a municipal election cannot be compared to presidential and parliamentary elections, instead of accepting the reality.

The government has also reacted angrily to the manoeuvres by opposition parties to take over the municipal councils where the combined strength of the opposition exceeds that of the NPP, insisting on its political and moral right  the experts conclude  to form these councils. This claim is based on being the largest party within the councils in question.

Meanwhile, the first meeting between opposition parties, aimed at ensuring power in the local councils, took place on 14th May at the political office on Flower Road of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe. A large number of representatives from various factions were present, including key figures from the United National Party (UNP), Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Peoples Democratic Front, and the Ceylon Workers' Congress. Despite the positive assessment of the discussions, during the second round of talks that took place the following day between the party secretaries at a hotel in Colombo, the absence of representatives from the SJB and SLPP was noticeable.

As political parties and independent groups continue their discussions, the Election Commission (EC) is proceeding with the post-election process that will pave the way for the formation of councils. In those where a political party or independent group has secured 50% or more of the total votes, the commission has already requested the secretaries of political parties or independent groups to submit the names of members "whom they will appoint as heads of such councils". Finally, the EC has asked political parties and independent groups to send the names of members to be appointed to the Council from the additional list, including those of female members who will be nominated.
by Stefano Vecchia

The Filipino president has announced a "cabinet reshuffle" to "adjust our actions to the expectations of the people." The failure to elect five out of eleven candidates for Senate seats, crucial in the battle against the "Duterte clan," weighs heavily. The goal is to revitalise the administrations initiatives to overcome poverty, inadequate public services, and limited opportunities for young people.

Manila (AsiaNews)  Following the less favourable-than-expected results of the parliamentary elections, particularly significant as they came at the halfway point of his six-year term, Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has called for a reshuffling of his government. Marcos indicated that this reshuffle, along with other interventions, will respond to the signals from the electorate. In essence, the aim is to give a boost to his administrations initiatives to address poverty, poor public services, and the limited opportunities available to young people.

While the election results confirmed the control of Marcos' Federal Party of the Philippines in the House of Representatives, the most significant factor was the failure to elect five of the eleven candidates supported by Marcos for the Senate. This, despite maintaining a majority favourable to his political camp among the 24 senators (half of whom were renewed), fell short of expectations. This outcome is set to further strengthen the alliance led by the Duterte family, rivals of the Marcos family in the ongoing "dynastic" feud between the current president, his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, and his daughter Sara Duterte, who is currently facing impeachment as vice president.

The decisive role of the senators in determining the institutional fate of Sara Duterte  whose verdict is expected in June  has made the Senate competition the most closely followed and discussed, nearly overshadowing the elections for the House of Representatives and the approximately 18,000 local and municipal positions. It is time to adjust the governments actions to the expectations of the people, Marcos said today. The people have spoken and expect results, not political games or excuses. We must listen to them and we will act.

After what the president himself described as a wake-up call, it will be necessary to evaluate the performance of each ministry and intervene where appropriate. This move is seen as a departure from his conciliatory approach, which had heavily relied on personalities inside and outside the government to approve the presidents programme.

The proposals from his rivals  advanced with a more aggressive and populist style  despite receiving less approval than expected in the election, have shown they are still resonating with the electorate. This is true both for opposition groups formed during the last election (such as the one that led to the election of Leila de Lima to the House of Representatives), and for the Dutertes, who have built their political fortunes and those of their parties on easily digestible proposals, personal relationships, and spectacular, contradictory initiatives (including the "war on drugs" that cost thousands of lives between 2016 and 2022, with substantial immunity granted to those responsible for abuses and killings).
The exiled National Unity Government slammed the summary killing of members of a local defence force by the Assam Rifles in Manipur, a state in north-eastern India affected by ethnic violence for the past two years. Indian authorities claim the dead were armed extremists" and that they seized a trove of weapons. Myanmars resistance movement calls for an investigation into the incident and the suspension of fence construction along the Indo-Myanmar border.

Yangon (AsiaNews)  Myanmar's National Unity Government (NUG), which includes all the forces opposed to the countrys military junta, has called for an investigation into the death of 10 members of a local defence group killed by a battalion of the Assam Rifles, an Indian paramilitary force active in the northeastern state of Manipur.

According to Myanmar's government-in-exile, an operation on 14 May by the Assam Rifles in Chandel District led to the death of 10 members of Local Defence Forces (LDF), also known as Public Protection Teams (PDTs or PaKaPha), not to be confused with the People's Defence Forces (PDFs). The latter are loyal to the NUG, which is mostly made up of exiled Myanmar lawmakers opposed to the countrys military junta.

In particular, the PDT involved in the latest incident was active in Tamu, a township in Myanmars Sagaing Region, and mainly responsible for local policing and supporting the PDFs.

The NUG says that the men did not die in an armed clash, but were captured, tortured and summarily executed by Indian forces. Indian authorities claim instead that Indian forces responded to an armed attack.

According to the NUGs version of events, the 10 PDT members had previously been in contact with Indian authorities to report their location near the border. On 16 May, however, the Assam Rifles returned their bodies to Myanmars resistance forces.

The NUG said that the fighters were forced to sign a document acknowledging that they had crossed Indian territory and launched an attack, as well as pledging not to oppose the construction of future border fences.

I can confirm that there was no fighting. They were not posing any threat to Indias security, said NUG Foreign Minister Daw Zin Mar Aung. It was an ugly incident for the Indian military and we are concerned that bilateral relations will be harmed.

There is a need to uncover the truth and ensure justice in a manner that does not harm bilateral ties. We have discussed the matter with the Indian authorities, demanded justice and urged them to find the best solution. I hope India will cooperate, she added.

The Indian Army's Eastern Command reported instead a military operation (described as one of the "biggest" in recent years) acting on specific information regarding the movement of "armed cadres" near the village of New Samtal, Chandel District.

During the operation, armed extremists allegedly attacked the Assam Rifles who responded in a calibrated and measured manner, killing 10 individuals in camouflaged fatigues.

Subsequently, a significant cache of weapons was recovered, including seven AK-47 rifles, one RGP launcher, one M4 rifle and four single-barrel breech loading (SBBL) rifles, ammunition, and other warlike stores, the Indian Army reported.

This has been disputed because most PDFs face chronic weapons shortages, and have allied themselves with better equipped ethnic militias to fight the military regime.

The Indian press release notes that the neutralized individuals were known for involvement in cross-border insurgent activity. Efforts are underway to confirm their identities.

Local sources report that the area where the operation took place is characterised by difficult terrain and poor connectivity, which has complicated communications and recovery operations.

Several photos circulating online show bodies with obvious signs of torture. However, as The Diplomat reports, it is unclear why the Assam Rifles would have carried out such atrocities.

Located along the border between India and Myanmar, Chandel District is known for the presence of armed groups and ethnic tensions between local communities. It is inhabited mainly by Kuki groups, on both sides of the border.

For a local ethnic Kuki official, the chances of those killed belonging to our community are very low. But it is public knowledge that some Kuki groups have forged ties with Myanmar's ethnic militias to fight against the military junta.

Meanwhile, violence broke out in Manipur in May 2023 pitting minority Kuki and majority Meitei. As a result, New Delhi imposed the presidential rule on the state, and dispatched troops but has failed so far to stop clashes between armed groups.

The NUG has also expressed concern about the increase in tensions in Tamu Township, in Myanmar, blaming border fence construction by Indian authorities. The latter has been going on ignoring border negotiations with Myanmar.

Following the coup in February 2021, many of the members of the previous government, led by democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were forced into exile where they set up the NUG, which has no control over Myanmar territory. Its PDFs have been fighting the countrys military together with several ethnic militias that have controlled for decades certain areas inhabited mostly by ethnic minorities.
Rubio spoke of a real risk of such escalation when he testified before Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and answered questions from two of its pro-Armenian members. One of those lawmakers, Democrat Jim Costa, called for a permanent end to any U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan.

We have not made a determination on that yet because what we are focused on now is getting them to agree to a peace agreement that does not cause them to invade a neighboring country, Armenia, replied Rubio. We would like to prevent that from happening. The President [Trump] is very committed to preventing wars.

And we have tried to outline to both sides, especially the Azerbaijani side, the tremendous benefits that would come from signing a peace deal and not engaging in a war that we would find to be destructive, counterproductive and the last thing we need right now in the region, he said.

Our teams have been very engaged in that regard in trying to make something come about and preventing armed intervention there, Rubio told another lawmaker, Chris Smith. He did not shed light on the U.S. efforts.

Rubio praised the two South Caucasus nations on March 14 the day after they announced that they have bridged their remaining differences on the text of the draft Armenian-Azerbaijani treaty. Baku makes the signing of the treaty conditional on a change of Armenias constitution. It has also set a number of other conditions for peace.

Those include a land corridor to Azerbaijans Nakhichevan exclave that would pass through a key Armenian region. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev renewed in January his threats to open such a corridor by force.

Rubio spoke with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian by phone later in March amid what many in Armenia saw as the increased risk of an Azerbaijani attack. According to the U.S. State Department, the two men agreed that escalation of any form in the South Caucasus is unacceptable.
22 May 2025 16:47 (UTC+04:00)

Akbar Novruz Read more

During the ongoing trial at the Baku Military Court, a video recording was presented featuring a 2016 interview given by Davit Ishkhanyan to the television channel of the former so-called separatist entity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Azernews reports.

In the footage, Ishkhanyan openly discussed the activities of the Armenian nationalist Dashnaktsutyun party in Azerbaijans territories during the early 1990s. He stated: Dashnaktsutyun came to Garabagh in 19901991. The main activity, of course, was in the frontline area. That is why work was being carried out in this direction. Dashnaktsutyun was active in Garabagh not only with weapons, but also in terms of material and human resources. Another main issue was the issue of organisation. Dashnaktsutyun played the role of a shield for us. It is no coincidence that the Dashnaktsutyun party showed its brilliant activity in army building and other areas in 19901991 and until 1994. At that time, Dashnak representatives, fighters and groups were being formed. I was one of them at that time.

When asked about the integration of the former so-called separatist entity with Armenia, Ishkhanyan replied: My personal opinion is that the most correct way is to finally unify Karabakh with Armenia. This should be our main and final result. We are currently in a transitional period. For me, Garabagh and historical Armenia are the same concepts, I see them together.

However, when questioned by the state prosecutor in court regarding his past statements, Ishkhanyan denied that Dashnaktsutyun had provided military support to the separatist forces, effectively refuting parts of his own recorded statements.

It should be noted that the trial involves citizens of the Republic of Armenia accused of committing numerous crimes, including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, the planning and waging of an aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, terrorism, financing of terrorism, and the forcible seizure and retention of power. The proceedings continue as Azerbaijani authorities seek accountability for the actions committed during Armenias decades-long military occupation.
22 May 2025 17:05 (UTC+04:00)

Akbar Novruz Read more

Today, at the Baku Military Court, the prosecution presented a video recording from 1993 featuring Armenias first President, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, meeting with representatives of the former so-called separatist entity illegally established in Azerbaijans territoriesc Azernews reports.

The footage shows Ter-Petrosyan acknowledging that Armenia had provided the highest-level security guarantees to the separatist entity. He referred to the planned agreement on these guarantees as a secret document to be signed between Armenia and the so-called Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

The former Armenian president noted that the agreement would be drafted in two copies and declared: The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic relies on the guarantees of the international community, the Russian Federation, the United States, and especially the President of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He also emphasized Armenias commitment to use all its capabilities, including direct military intervention, and explicitly ruled out any future concession of the Lachin region to Azerbaijan in negotiations.

Testifying in court, the accused Arkady Ghukasyan confirmed his participation in the meeting, calling it a fateful issue. He recalled that the footage was recorded after the occupation of the Kalbajar region and stated that he was, at the time, head of the so-called entitys negotiation group with Azerbaijan and a deputy.

Ghukasyan further noted that following the meeting, Georgi Petrosyan resigned and was replaced by Karen Baburyan as speaker of the separatist parliament. According to him, He, together with Robert Kocharyan, signed the document presented by Levon Ter-Petrosyan. According to that document, the Republic of Armenia was to ensure the security of Karabakh until the conflict was completely resolved.

It should be noted that the ongoing trial includes multiple individuals of Armenian origin charged with grave crimes under Azerbaijani law, including crimes against peace and humanity, genocide, war crimes, terrorism, the financing of terrorism, and the forcible seizure and retention of powercrimes allegedly committed during and after Armenias military occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
22 May 2025 20:15 (UTC+04:00)

Akbar Novruz Read more

By all measures, the South Caucasus is standing at a historic moment. For the first time in decades, the prospects for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia are within real reach. Constructive negotiations are bringing the two sides closer to ending years of hostility and building a framework for sustainable coexistence. Yet, just as diplomacy begins to show tangible results, familiar obstacles are re-emergingthis time in the halls of the US Congress.

During a session on May 21, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed concerns about the region, noting, "There is a real danger of conflict, which we are trying to prevent. Our teams are actively working in that direction." Secretary Rubio's remarks, grounded in a balanced understanding of the region's complexities, reiterated the United States' commitment to peacebuilding efforts in the South Caucasus. Importantly, he acknowledged the challenges of dealing with nations that may not fully align with American governance models, but emphasized the need to pursue diplomacy in the service of national and global interests.

However, it was the question posed by Congressman Christopher Smith, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, that raised eyebrows. Smith accused Azerbaijan of committing genocide against Armenians and holding political prisoners, calling for increased pressure on Baku. While such language may resonate with certain domestic audiences, it reflects a broader strategy long deployed by the Armenian lobby: distorting facts to influence foreign policy in their favor.

This is not a new phenomenon. The Armenian lobby has historically leveraged influential political figures to frame Azerbaijan as the aggressor, particularly at moments when real peace is achievable. The timing is rarely coincidental. At a point when the two countries are engaged in difficult but productive dialogue, and when Azerbaijan has repeatedly reiterated its readiness for a comprehensive peace treaty, such inflammatory statements appear aimed less at protecting human rights and more at derailing diplomatic momentum.

The core irony is striking: while Azerbaijan is actively involved in regional integration and is taking the lead on initiatives related to energy, transport, and humanitarian reconstructionboth globally and within the regionthe narrative put forth by lobby-backed figures completely overlooks this context. By painting Azerbaijan as a threat and invoking the specter of war, lobbying actors risk creating the very instability they claim to fear.

How about Armenia? How safe and stable is the current political climate in the country? Let us look:

A few days ago, signs of a political crisis were also observed in Armenia. The struggle for power in Armenia is gradually entering a new and more intense phase. Thus, the MPs who were recently expelled from the ruling "Civil Contract" partyHakob Aslanyan and Hovik Aghazaryanhave nominated Edmon Marukyan for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia. Marukyan is a former comrade-in-arms of Pashinyan who resigned from his position as special ambassador last year.

It should be noted that Marukyan announced his resignation as special ambassador in protest against the government's "peace strategy" with Azerbaijan, and soon formed a new party. He is known for his relatively tough stance toward Azerbaijan. There are also allegations that Marukyan is pro-Russian. Interestingly, Marukyan, who is partially considered a representative of the "soft opposition," has emerged amid the declining influence of the traditional radical opposition in the country. By the way, among the information received is that he sought support for the prime ministership from forces connected to Russia, particularly the Kocharyan-Sargsyan pair.

Clearly, Armenia's internal politics do not concern Azerbaijan, but the key issue here is a rejection of the official demands from Baku, adjustments to the constitution, and commitment to the peace agenda. Unfortunately, no one can assure that a new political force wont create the possibility of another war between the two countries during a time when the demands remain unmet and a peace treaty has not been signed.

Moreover, the suggestion that war is imminent has been a recurring tactic used by lobbying forces, often without a credible basis. These claims are not only disconnected from the current diplomatic landscape but also serve to confuse international audiences and policymakers. One must ask: whose interests are truly being served by this narrative? Because it increasingly seems that these voices speak more for lobby interests than for the state of Armenia itself.

Indeed, this form of political pressure might have value if used constructivelyto encourage both sides toward reconciliation, to support civil society on both sides of the border, or to strengthen confidence-building measures. But when used selectively and directed overwhelmingly at one party, it loses legitimacy and undermines the larger goals of peace.

Azerbaijan, for its part, has not shied away from scrutiny. For its part, it has consistently expressed its firm commitment to achieving peace and has communicated this position clearly on every international platform. Its calls for peace are not performativethey are substantiated by actions, from rebuilding formerly occupied territories with inclusive development projects to proposing mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

At this pivotal moment, the international communityespecially responsible political actors in Washington and Brusselsmust discern between advocacy rooted in reconciliation and lobbying that thrives on prolonging division. The future of the South Caucasus depends not on outdated narratives and selective indignation, but on pragmatic, forward-looking diplomacy.

Azerbaijan is ready for peace. But peace requires partners, not provocateurs.
22 May 2025 16:59 (UTC+04:00)

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In a region often defined by its geopolitical tensions and complex histories, a modest but significant economic story is unfoldingone that hints at new patterns of regional integration and industrial development in the post-Soviet space. The recent news that Mister Decor, a wallpaper manufacturer based in the Agdam Industrial Park of Azerbaijan, has commenced exports to Uzbekistan marks more than just a commercial transaction; it underscores a quietly growing ambition for economic diversification and cross-border cooperation among former Soviet republics.

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22 May 2025 16:02 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

The goal of the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (SMBDA), under the Ministry of Economy, is to promote and develop women's entrepreneurship.

Azernews reports that this was stated by the Chairman of the Board of the agency, Orkhan Mammadov, at the "SHE Congress" held in Baku.

"Participating in todays forum on womens entrepreneurship means witnessing a major transformation not only in the economy but also in society. A woman entrepreneur is not just someone engaged in businessshe contributes to the development of her family, society, and country. She is someone willing to take risks and embrace innovation. This is essential, as women are active in every area of life. Progress requires risk, and we must harness women's skills, determination, and initiative as a key force in economic growth. Thats why SMBDA prioritizes the development of womens entrepreneurship. A strong woman means a strong family, a strong society, and a strong economy," he noted.

The Chairman added that SMBDA offers a broad range of activities and support tools for women entrepreneurs: "These include both financial aid and institutional support mechanisms. Using these tools, any woman can confidently pursue entrepreneurial activities."
22 May 2025 11:48 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

The International Children's Art Festival entitled "Shusha - the Cultural Pearl of the Turkic Peoples Community" will be held on June 1 in Shusha on the occasion of International Children's Day, Azernews reports.

Schoolchildren from the Turkic states will participate in the festival, organized by Azerbaijan Ministry of Science and Education.

The festival aims to further strengthen the relations of friendship between children of the Turkic-speaking states, as well as brotherhood and cooperation, to create conditions for children to worthily present the history and culture of their countries, as well as to introduce the fascinating beauty of the city of Shusha.

Around 300 members of art groups of the Turkic-speaking states will present the musical and dance culture of their countries to the audience.

The festival will also be attended by famous cultural and art figures, about 150 schoolchildren, as well as children of martyrs as spectators.

As part of the project, guests will also take part in excursions from May 26 to June 2, where they will get acquainted with the rich nature of our country, historical and architectural monuments and construction work.

More detailed information can be found on Facebook and Instagram.
22 May 2025 17:32 (UTC+04:00)

Laman Ismayilova Read more

Azerbaijan and Tajikistan enjoy a time-honored friendship built on shared cultural values, deep historical roots, and mutual respect.

Over the years, this bond has evolved into a dynamic partnership, with cultural cooperation playing a key role in bringing the two nations closer.

This enduring relationship was formalized through the establishment of diplomatic ties on May 29, 1992. Since then, bilateral cooperation has steadily deepened across various fields, particularly culture.

Today, cultural exchanges, including classical music collaborations and joint artistic projects, have become a proud tradition between the two nations.

As part of this close cooperation, the Azerbaijani Culture Days have been held in Tajikistan, organized by the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry, Azernews reports.

A grand gala concert was held at the Sadriddin Ayni Tajik State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre within the event.

The event was attended byAzerbaijan Culture Minister Adil Karimli, Culture Minister of Tajikistan Matlubakhon Sattoriyon, the Azerbaijani Ambassador to Tajikistan Alimirzamin Asgarov, as well as representatives of the diplomatic corps in Dushanbe, cultural figures, and members of the public.

In their remarks, both ministers emphasized that culture serves as a reliable bridge between the two nations and highlighted the importance of regularly holding such events that contribute to the development of cultural ties. They also noted the sincere friendship between the presidents of both countries, which plays a crucial role in enhancing bilateral cooperation in all spheres.

The official part of the event was followed by a fascinating concert program.

The evening, marked by a celebration of Azerbaijani musical heritage, opened with a breathtaking performance of "Dance with Drums" by the Azerbaijani State Dance Ensemble (artistic director: Peoples Artist Rufat Khalilzade).

The ensemble went on to skillfully perform dances inspired by Uzeyir Hajibayli's operetta "Arshin Mal Alan", including "Fantasy," "Qaytagi," "Uzundara," and "Agh Chicheyim."

People's Artist Gulnaz Ismayilova performed Tofig Guliyev's "Baku," Simara Imanova sang Bahram Nasibov's "Garabagh," and Honored Artists Sabuhi Ibayev and Akshin Abdullayev delivered moving renditions of Khan Shushinski's "Mountains of Shusha" and Uzeyir Hajibayli's "Beloved," respectively.

Fagan Alasgarov (balaban) performed Alakbar Taghiyev's "You Never Came," while Mirjavid Jafarov (tar) played Hasan Rzayev's "Chahargah Rhapsody."

The "Dervish" group presented Niyamaddin Musayev's "The World is Yours, The World is Mine" and Alakbar Taghiyev's "I Sacrifice Myself for You."

The grand evening also featured Tajik musical performances.

People's Artist Gulyaz Mammadova performed "Shodu, Shodu, Shodam," Honored Artist Lala Mammadova sang "Shirin Dilbar", Ashiq Samira and Ashiq Ali duet thrilled the audience with the compositions "Bir gozl ashug oldum" and "Yorat manam".

The gala concert concluded with a powerful rendition of Muslim Magomayev's famous song "Azerbaijan," performed by Honored Artist Khayyam Mustafazadeh.

All performances were met with sustained applause from the audience.
22 May 2025 14:17 (UTC+04:00)

Akbar Novruz Read more

Azerbaijan has been selected to host the next Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) in 2026. The announcement was made during the ongoing meeting of the Bank in Algiers, which is being held under the theme Diversifying Economies, Improving the Quality of Life, Azernews reports.

The IsDB Annual Meeting is a significant event that brings together ministers of finance, economy, development, and planning from the Banks 57 member states. The forum serves as a critical platform for shaping collaborative strategies and policies to address socio-economic challenges across the Muslim world and beyond.

Azerbaijans selection as the next host reflects growing recognition of its role in fostering regional economic cooperation and development. The 2026 meeting is expected to further enhance Azerbaijans engagement with Islamic countries and offer new opportunities for investment, trade, and sustainable growth.
22 May 2025 12:03 (UTC+04:00)

Nazrin Abdul Read more

On May 21, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov, held a telephone conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Azernews reports, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministers discussed the progress of the strategic partnership between the two countries, cooperation within bilateral and international frameworks, and the current regional and global security situation.

They also exchanged views on expanding cooperation in other areas.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan and the UAE continue to enhance their relationship, which is grounded in mutual friendship and respect. Shared values and a foundation of trust underpin their strategic partnership, aligning their common objectives.

In recent years, substantial investments have been directed towards the creation and enhancement of energy infrastructure, with a notable surge in interest in alternative energy sectors.
22 May 2025 16:38 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

The process of resettling families to the territories liberated from occupation continues as part of the Great Return initiative, following the directive of President Ilham Aliyev. Families relocated to the city of Khojali and the village of Ballija in the Khojali district were previously living in temporary accommodationsmainly dormitories, sanatoriums, and administrative buildingsacross various regions of the country.

According to Trend, in the latest phase of the resettlement program, one family of five has returned to Khojali city, while eight families, comprising 29 people, have been relocated to Ballija village.

The returning residents expressed heartfelt gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva for the comprehensive state support provided throughout the relocation process.

They also extended their thanks to the valiant Azerbaijani Armed Forces, particularly the heroic soldiers and officers who liberated the land. They prayed for the souls of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the fight for Garabagh.

It is worth noting that over 40,000 people currently live in Garabagh and East Zangazur. This population includes both returnees and professionals involved in reconstruction and development projects, as well as public servants stationed in local branches of government institutions. Many also work in newly restored sectors such as healthcare, education, culture, tourism, industry, and energy.
22 May 2025 12:59 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek has expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani government for its steadfast commitment to the safety of Israeli diplomats and the local Jewish community.

As reported by Azernews, Ambassador Deek shared a statement on his social media account in response to a shocking terror attack that took place in Washington, D.C., where two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot at close range during a Jewish event.

We are shaken by the horrific terrorist attack at a Jewish event in Washington, where two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot at close range, the ambassador wrote. I want to thank the people of Azerbaijan for their solidarity, and the government of Azerbaijan for its unwavering commitment to protecting Israeli diplomats and the Jewish community in this beautiful country.

The attack drew international condemnation and is under active investigation.

According to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the two embassy staff members were killed in the early morning hours near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Two employees of the Israeli Embassy were killed this evening in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington, she wrote on her official X (formerly Twitter) account. We are investigating the incident.
22 May 2025 17:14 (UTC+04:00)

Qabil Ashirov Read more

Between May 12 and 16, members of ADA Universitys Dual Degree Programs Steering Committee embarked on a productive business trip to the United States to assess and deepen the existing partnership between ADA University and George Washington University (GWU). The visit aimed to review student recruitment and promotional activities, discuss faculty development, and explore new academic initiatives.

The delegation included ADA University Vice-Rectors Elkin Nurmammadov and Gunay Ziyadova, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology and Engineering Abzatdin Adamov, Advisor to the Ministry of Science and Education Nicat Mammadli, Chairman of the Education Quality Assurance Agency Tural Ahmadov, and Head of the State Program Management Group Turan Topalov.

During their stay, the representatives held a series of meetings with GWUs academic leadership, including Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science John Luck. The discussions focused on the current status and sustainability of joint dual degree programs, enhancing teaching quality, student admissions, and strengthening academic staff capabilities.

The Steering Committee members also met with Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States Khazar Ibrahim at the Embassy. The meeting centered on expanding university collaborations, joint research projects, and potential mechanisms for innovation and knowledge exchange between the two countries.

In addition, the delegation engaged with ADA students studying at GWU, gaining insights into their academic and social experiences abroad, as well as the skills and knowledge they have acquired.

The visit culminated in the delegations participation in the GWU Graduation Day ceremony. Among the graduates were students from ADAs dual degree program in Electrical and Power Engineering. Dean Abzatdin Adamov joined the GWU faculty on stage to congratulate the graduates.

Since 2020, ADA University has offered dual masters degree programs in Computer Science and Data Analytics, as well as Electrical and Power Engineering, in collaboration with GWU. Funded under the State Program for Increasing the International Competitiveness of Higher Education in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 20192023, over 100 students have been admitted, with 83 having successfully completed their studies.

Building on the success of these programs, ADA University has launched its first doctoral program in partnership with GWU to further develop its academic staff. Student admissions for this doctoral program will begin in 2025.
22 May 2025 19:25 (UTC+04:00)

In a hearing held today at the Baku Military Court, a video material was presented showing Levon Mnatsakanyan, a suspect accused of involvement in the occupation of Shusha by Armenian forces, admitting his participation in the event.

According to Azernews, the video captures Mnatsakanyan stating: When Shusha was taken, I was in Ashot Gulyans unit. Our unit operated to the left side of their unit  towards Shusha Fortress. Our unit worked closely with their unit. The main breach of the front line occurred in the center and on the left flank.

However, when prosecutors defending the states accusations questioned Mnatsakanyan about the video, he denied the statements he made on camera.

The trial concerns numerous charges against Armenian citizens, including crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes, preparation and conduct of an aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, terrorism, financing terrorism, forcible seizure and retention of power, among other serious offenses resulting from Armenias military aggression.

The proceedings are scheduled to continue on May 23.
22 May 2025 18:33 (UTC+04:00)

Director-General of ICESCO, Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik, sent a congratulatory letter to the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, Azernews reports.

The letter reads:

"His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Excellency,

On behalf of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and in my own name, I am honored to extend to Your Excellency, your esteemed government, and the brotherly people of the Republic of Azerbaijan our sincere congratulations on the occasion of your countrys Independence Day.

This important national day represents a symbol of the unwavering determination of the Azerbaijani people and their steadfast commitment to sovereignty, unity, and progress. Under your leadership, the Republic of Azerbaijan has made significant strides in sustainable development, cultural preservation, education, and scientific advancement, all while promoting peace and cooperation both regionally and globally.

We take pride in the close and fruitful cooperation between ICESCO and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and we remain committed to strengthening our partnership to support education, science, and culture throughout the Islamic world. We value Azerbaijans active and constructive role within our Organization and commend your continued support of ICESCOs mission and initiatives.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration and best wishes for your continued good health and success."
22 May 2025 14:36 (UTC+04:00)

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Azerbaijan has significantly increased its crude oil and bituminous rock product exports to Indonesia in the first four months of 2025, according to the State Customs Committee, Azernews reports. From January to April, over ...

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22 May 2025 08:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Alimat Aliyeva

Researchers in the UK have developed a groundbreaking test that can determine the type of brain tumor in just a few hours, dramatically reducing the waiting time compared to the current standard, which can take weeks, Azernews reports.

The method, developed by scientists at the University of Nottingham, has been hailed by surgeons as an innovative leap forward in the field of neurosurgery. This ultra-fast genetic testing method is expected to significantly improve the quality of care and outcomes for thousands of patients. It has already been tested in over 50 surgeries, showing a 100% success rate in accurately identifying tumor types.

Currently, there are more than 100 known types of brain tumors, and correctly diagnosing each one is critical to choosing the most effective treatment strategy. The ability to identify tumor types in a matter of hours allows doctors to make timely and informed decisions, which could be life-saving.

The breakthrough has also sparked interest in other hospitals across the UK. Some have already begun to incorporate this new testing method into their existing diagnostic programs, conducting broader evaluations to assess its effectiveness and potential for widespread implementation.

This rapid genetic testing technique could pave the way for faster, more precise treatments and, ultimately, better patient outcomes, bringing hope to many who are affected by brain tumors.
22 May 2025 19:55 (UTC+04:00)

By News Centre

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar answered questions from reporters in Srnak. Bayraktar, who made extensive statements regarding the point Turkiye has reached in the field of energy, emphasized that oil production, especially in Gabar Mountain, is a "profitable business on a global scale." Minister Bayraktar said, "Turkiye has reached a different point with Gabar. Oil and natural gas production increased from 50 thousand to over 270 thousand barrels. The country's need is very great. No matter how much we produce, it is not enough. There are still points we have not entered."

Bayraktar, who underlined that they were targeting a daily production of 100 thousand barrels around Gabar, drew attention to the serious potential of other fields in the East and Southeast. Bayraktar, who stated that they were giving special importance to oil exploration studies in Diyarbakr, said, We are hopeful about the Diyarbakr field. There is an oil discovery of 42 million, almost 3 billion dollars, until May 2025. We did not declare this as a discovery, but we are constantly adding reserves. A reserve of 6.1 billion barrels is estimated in Diyarbakr. When this amount is taken into consideration, which is Turkiyes annual oil import of 365 million barrels, it has the potential to sustain the country for 15 years. We will extract our oil from rocks. We have put into operation unconventional production techniques such as shale gas and shale oil in the region.

Bayraktar, who provided information about the scope of the exploration and production activities carried out in different regions of Turkiye, said that they were working in a wide area from Thrace to the Black Sea, from Diyarbakr to Van, Hakkari, Srnak, and the border regions. Bayraktar said, We are producing approximately 10 thousand barrels in Adyaman and close to 30 thousand barrels in Batman. Diyarbakr is between 1520 thousand. Gabar alone reached 81 thousand, and conveyed the distribution of production volume in different regions.

Bayraktar, who mentioned that the oil extracted in Gabar is transported economically and safely, said, Our Gabar production is transported via a 3840 kilometer pipeline. The pipeline is much cheaper. We transport it from Dortyol to Ceyhan and from there to everywhere by ships. Bayraktar explained that the current system also works in integration with Turkiyes refinery infrastructure and that shipments to refineries can be made via the pipeline extending from Ceyhan to Krkkale.

Alparslan Bayraktar, who also pointed out that the Istanbul Financial Center is important for Turkiye, said, We need to combine the financial markets with this energy infrastructure right now. There is a natural gas trade there. Electricity trade continues more intensively. We need to develop something similar to the mines where this trade is done in Turkiye, and for this reason, we moved EPIAS to the Istanbul Financial Center. So this has a symbolic meaning. We are also saying that we want to transform this place into an energy and commodity exchange. So when we do all these, we will really be a central country. Turkiye contributes to Europes supply security. There are many more projects that we can develop. But today, Iraq needs natural gas, Iran needs electricity. So Turkiye has very important roles to play.

Bayraktar, who stated that the work in Akkuyu is continuing on the nuclear side, said, There is interest from Russia, South Korea, and China regarding the second and third power plants. But in addition to these, there are also countries and companies that we are negotiating with. One of them is Canada, for examplethe Candu company. Among these, we will make the choice that will be most beneficial to Turkiye and will offer us the most competitive offer.

Bayraktar underlined the need to achieve balance in the energy production portfolio and brought the subject to renewable resources. Bayraktar said, We added 6,800 megawatts of installed power in 2024, 98 percent of which is renewable. But we definitely need to have a balanced production portfolio. We must invest in coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydraulic resources.

Bayraktar also announced that they are working on a new incentive package that aims to increase electricity production from Turkiye's 22 billion tons of coal. Bayraktar, who shared that the package will not conflict with the zero carbon target, said, There may be a package that will somehow offset carbon emissions in coal power plants, perhaps with hybrid solar power plants and wind power plants.

Bayraktar, who stated that Turkiye aims to increase energy exports in order to normalize the energy infrastructure in Syria, reported that electricity exports are ongoing and that natural gas shipments will begin in the next few weeks. Bayraktar also stated that they are open to international cooperation for fields in Syria. Bayraktar, who recalled that Syria's daily oil production was around 630 thousand barrels in the early 2000s, said that this production dropped to 350380 thousand barrels before the civil war and that it has now returned to the 90100 thousand barrel range.

Bayraktar said, Regardless of where Turkiye is locatedin Syria, Iraq, or Europecooperation with Turkiye benefits everyone. Today, there is no country that can say, We entered into a business with Turkiye and suffered losses. This was against us. We are making a very important contribution to the security of natural gas supply with Europe. Turkiye is a very important country for the world oil market: the IraqTurkiye crude oil pipeline, the BakuTbilisiCeyhan pipeline. Our straits are very important transit routes. In other words, Turkiyes presence contributes in every field.

Bayraktar also responded to claims regarding the latest discovery of 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea. Bayraktar said, The Abdulhamit Han Drilling Ship discovered a large reserve in Goktepe-2. I see on social media that This is actually related to increasing and updating the current reserve. However, it is a completely different location. There are 80 kilometers between them. Therefore, a new reserve, a new discovery.

Bayraktar also spoke about the electricity and natural gas needs of Cyprus and noted the following: We absolutely need to bring electricity to Cyprus. Today, both Southern Cyprus and Northern Cyprus produce electricity using fossil fuels. Europe, which is very sensitive about the environment, does not say, What are you doing, Southern Cyprus? However, if we bring electricity from Turkiye, there is an interconnection between the north and the south. Therefore, we can bring that electricity from the north to the south whenever they want. We can also provide this electricity from power plants that only produce renewable energy from Turkiye. Therefore, cooperation with Turkiye benefits everyone. However, as is known, Southern Cyprus, Greece, and the European Union are trying to create a political obstacle on this issue due to political motives. We are currently working very hard on the electricity issue of Cyprus. We have sent 5 of our different mobile power plants there125 megawatts. Now we will send 2 more.
22 May 2025 21:46 (UTC+04:00)

By News Centre

Leaders of the member countries of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) made important decisions in the economic, cultural, and political fields at an informal summit held in Budapest.

Azernews reports that the Informal Summit of the Organisation of Turkic States was held in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on May 21.

The meeting, held under the theme "The Meeting Point of East and West," was attended by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and the Secretary General of the Turkic World Organisation, Kubancbek Omuraliyev. The summit was hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The Budapest Informal Summit went down in history as the first summit of the TPT held on the European continent and in the territory of an observer member country.

The "Budapest Declaration" was signed within the framework of the meeting. The document reflects concrete steps towards expanding cooperation in the fields of trade, energy, transport, digital transformation, cultural relations, and regional security. Omuraliyev called this declaration a "strategic roadmap" and said that it would further strengthen solidarity among Turkic states.

The summit proposed and adopted a joint celebration of Nowruz in the Turkic world. At the initiative of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Nowruz will now be celebrated as a joint day of remembrance under the flag of the Organisation of Turkic States.

Other important decisions taken at the summit include:

Uzbekistan's participation in the Turkic Culture and Heritage Foundation has been confirmed. This step is considered a new stage in the preservation and promotion of the rich heritage of the Turkic world.

It has been decided to appoint an executive director to the TDT office in Hungary. This decision aims to strengthen the organization's institutional presence in Europe.

A joint statement by the UN Security Council on Afghanistan was adopted. The statement expressed the organization's coordinated and common approach to the situation in the country.

It has been decided to admit the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to the Turkish Academy as an observer member. This decision is seen as part of the TRNC's broader integration into the Turkic world.

The extension of the term of office of the Secretary General of the TDT was also approved.

Within the framework of the summit, Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Dr. Aziz Sancar, one of the prominent representatives of the Turkic World, was awarded the Ali Shir Nevai International Award of the Organization of Turkic States. This award is an indication of the importance given to his commitment to Turkish identity and values, in addition to his services in the field of science.

Secretary General Omuraliyev said in his speech that the Turkic World is becoming a power of global importance not only geographically, but also economically, culturally, and strategically. He noted that the Central Corridor, the Turkish Investment Fund, and green-digital transformation initiatives will play an important role in the future integration of the organization.

It was emphasized at the summit that the Organization of Turkic States is not just a cooperation platform, but a strong union that acts with a common voice for common values, a common history, and a common future.

It should be noted that the Turkic World currently covers a population of 175 million and a vast territory of 4.5 million square kilometers. According to statistical indicators for 2024, the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the TUT countries exceeded $2.1 trillion, and the volume of mutual trade exceeded $1.1 trillion. The nextthe 12th official summit of the Organization of Turkic Stateswill be held in Azerbaijan.
22 May 2025 23:30 (UTC+04:00)

By News Centre

At a time when the US is withdrawing from global leadership, Europe needs Turkiye more for security. The analysis in the British newspaper The Telegraph also included Europe's need for Turkiye and the balance of power established by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The analysis emphasized that Turkiye , which has come to the fore with both its military and diplomatic power under President Erdogan's leadership, has once again settled at the center of the world. On the other hand, the analysis also drew attention to the fact that Turkiye has become indispensable for Europe's security.

While the balances in world politics are rapidly changing, Turkiye is once again becoming a rising actor on the global stage under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A comprehensive analysis in the British newspaper The Telegraph emphasized that Turkiye has become a key country establishing the strategic balance between Europe and Russia.

In the column and analysis written by Adrian Blomfield, it was stated that US President Donald Trump's distant attitude towards NATO and his decreasing support for Ukraine pushed Europe to search for new security partners; Erdogan quickly filled this gap.

Blomfield noted that Turkiye has become indispensable to Europes security with its coastline on the Black Sea, its control over the Straits, and the largest army in NATO after the United States.

According to the analysis, not only Turkiye's military capacity but also its defense industry and diplomatic skills are noteworthy.

While Turkish UAVs and warships play an important role in Europe's rearmament process, Erdogan is consolidating his position as a peace broker by being one of the rare leaders who can meet with both Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

With the stability achieved in domestic politics, the decisive steps taken in the fight against terrorism, and the signals of economic recovery, President Erdogan is making Turkiye a decisive power not only regionally but also on a global scale.

In his analysis/column in The Telegraph, Blomfield emphasized that Turkiye has once again become the center of the world, not only geographically but also with its diplomatic and military power, and that President Erdogan's determined leadership is behind this transformation.
22 May 2025 18:50 (UTC+04:00)

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Sergey Brin, co-founder of the American tech giant Google and, according to Forbes magazine, one of the eight richest people in the world (with a fortune estimated at $134 billion), has transferred Alphabet shares worth approximately $700 million to an unknown recipient, Azernews reports.

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President Trump has accused Biden officials of "treason at the highest levels" for their deliberate policy of letting in 8 to 12 million illegal aliens by thwarting our duly adopted immigration laws. He went on to suggest that criminal charges be brought against those officials.

Interestingly, Trump said he did not blame Biden himself since Biden was suffering from dementia and had not personally pushed for open borders. He blamed DHS Secretary Mayorkas and his staff for taking advantage of Biden's https://postgrado.unitepc.edu.bo/ cognitive state. Mayorkas repeatedly refused to give Congress data it requested on the migrants he was letting in.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/05/21/trump-accuses-biden-officials-treason-highest-level-opening-southern-border/

When these prosecutions are brought, they should not be in the Washington, DC area where both judges and juries tend to be very liberal and very political. A Grand Jury should be seated and the matter brought somewhere like rural Texas. Maybe Mayorkas could even be sent to that famous prison in El Salvador.
Regarding the recent Israel /Iran Conflict (the "12 Day War"), culminating in the United States Air Force employing seven B2 Bombers to complete a 33 hour flight, dropping 14 fifteen ton bunker busting bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities buried deep under mountain rock, which destroyed Iran's nuclear ambitions against Israel and the United States: Should President Trump have unilaterally made the decision to make such a bold decision to conduct this operation, without first running this prospective operation before the US Congress for their approval?

14.29% No, The War Powers Act prohibitions, which requires NO presidential military action without congressional approval.85.71% Yes, the President has Article 2 Constitutional authority to take unilateral military action to protect the American People, providing he does not break congressional codes, which he did not.0% Don't care, never have.
Descendants of Lisbon Maru survivors, Chinese fishermen honor heroic WWII rescue

Xinhua) 13:11, May 22, 2025

HANGZHOU, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Eighteen descendants of rescued British prisoners of war (POWs) during the Lisbon Maru incident joined descendants of Chinese fishermen at a commemorative ceremony Tuesday on an east China island, where local fishermen saved 384 British soldiers from drowning under Japanese gunfire in 1942.

The gathering, the first to include foreign representatives since a memorial was erected last year, was held on Qingbang island, a small islet off China's Zhoushan Islands in the eastern Zhejiang Province, where a 1-tonne monument made of naval bronze commemorates the heroic rescue 83 years ago.

"This memorial stands as a bridge -- between past and present, between China and the UK, between sorrow and solidarity," said Anthony Jones, grandson of survivor Thomas Theodore Jones and chairman of the Lisbon Maru Memorial Association. "We honor all, both the dead and the living, who kept their memory alive."

In October 1942, the Lisbon Maru, a cargo vessel requisitioned by the Japanese army to transport more than 1,800 British POWs from Hong Kong to Japan, was torpedoed off the Zhoushan Islands by a U.S. submarine after failing to display mandated POW transport markings. As the vessel sank, fishermen of Dongji braved machine-gun fire to pluck drowning British POWs from the sea and managed to rescue 384 of them.

"Our forefathers used to say 'to ignore those in peril would disgrace the sea' and their actions exemplified selflessness and boundless compassion," noted Wu Buwei, whose grandfather, Wu Qisheng, participated in the heroic rescue. "As their descendants, we take immense pride in their legacy."

The 4.5-meter-long memorial, bearing the inscription "Love knows no boundary; Friendship transcends time" in both Chinese and English alongside a detailed account of the event, depicts interlocked arms emerging from turbulent waves -- a design inspired by rescuers' accounts of them hauling POWs from the water by their wrists.

Qu Xiaoshi of the China Academy of Art, the memorial's designer, revealed that the design underwent over 40 revisions before a village elder's recollection of "life-or-death grips" crystallized the concept.

"Though the Lisbon Maru sank, the bond it forged never will," Wu said before the flower-laden memorial, where photographs stood in silent rows. "As a descendant of the Dongji fishermen, we'll guard this truth like our ancestors guarded lives -- embracing peace and friendship as the ocean embraces all boats."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Performers at Bert's Jazz Bar, shortlisted for the Best Bar in Northern Ireland award

The Merchant Cocktail Bar, shortlisted for the Best Bar in Northern Ireland award

Rattlebag, the cocktail bar in Bullitt Hotel, has been named Best Bar in Northern Ireland at the CLASS Bar Awards

The cocktail bar at a Belfast city centre hotel has been named Best Bar in Northern Ireland at a UK-wide competition.

Rattlebag at the Bullitt Hotel won the title at the CLASS Bar Awards on Wednesday at the Battersea Arts Centre in London.

From left, Chris Wareing, Hannah Marro and Matthew Knight from Rattlebag

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

Judged by the CLASS Collective, a selection of 170 bar experts from across the UK, the CLASS Bar Awards recognise the talent, achievements and diversity of the UK bar scene.

The Best Bar in Northern Ireland is a new addition to the awards line-up, with three of the four finalists coming from the Beannchor Group stable: Rattlebag, The Merchants Cocktail Bar and Berts Jazz Bar.

The Merchant Cocktail Bar, shortlisted for the Best Bar in Northern Ireland award

The Garrick on Belfasts Chichester Street, which was part of the Beannchor Group until 2007, also made the shortlist.

The latest win follows Rattlebag becoming the first cocktail bar in Ireland to feature in the Pinnacle Guide, described as the Michelin guide for bars. Rattlebag, and The Merchants Cocktail Bar, are the only two venues on the island listed in the guide.

Performers at Bert's Jazz Bar, shortlisted for the Best Bar in Northern Ireland award

Rattlebag manager Chris Waring said: "We are proud to win this award, which recognises the exceptional quality of Northern Irelands bar scene on a national stage.

"This is a credit to the passion and innovation of our incredible team, who continue to strive to create exceptional drinks, events and experiences.
Garrett OHare (centre) of Bradley NI with Simon Brien (left) and Des OMalley of Sherry FitzGerald

Northern Ireland estate agency Simon Brien has announced the addition of a franchise in Newry as it expands under new ownership.

Bradley NI in Newry is now the first business to become a franchisee under Simon Briens new franchise model.

Simon Brien, which has five branches around Belfast and Co Down, was acquired by Sherry FitzGerald Group in the Republic of Ireland last year.

The addition of Bradley NI, which is led by chartered surveyor and managing director Garrett OHare, now adds locations in Newry, Warrenpoint and Newcastle to the wider Simon Brien business.

Sherry FitzGerald said the deal marked the next chapter in its ambition to broaden its presence around Northern Ireland.

Mr OHare said: Were incredibly proud to be the first franchisee of the Simon Brien brand.

"This move allows us to retain our local knowledge and client relationships while benefiting from the marketing power, cutting-edge technology, and support of a respected all-island brand.

"Its the perfect partnership to drive our next phase of growth.

Simon Brien, founder and managing director, added: Launching our franchise model is a significant milestone, and were delighted to welcome Garrett and the team at Bradley NI.

"Their integrity, ambition, and deep understanding of their markets make them the ideal first franchise partner.

"This expansion is just the beginning as we look to bring the Simon Brien service to even more clients across Northern Ireland.

Garrett OHare (centre) of Bradley NI with Simon Brien (left) and Des OMalley of Sherry FitzGerald

News Catch Up - Wednesday 21 May

Sherry FitzGerald is the Republic of Irelands largest estate agency, with 110 offices, 73 of which are franchised.

It has been in business for over 40 years and describes its business as the most successful franchise model in the Irish property market.

The rebrand to Simon Brien Bradley will start over the summer, with a full launch expected by early autumn, Sherry FitzGerald said.
From left, Elaine Curran, director of trade and investment, Invest NI, Ian Topping, director of Allsop and Dr Vicky Kell, director of innovation, research and development at Invest NI

Allsop, which has announced a deal with a European food distributor, uses AI in its work (Alamy/PA)

Allsop has announced the deal to integrate a dynamic pricing module in order to ensure competitive pricing.

The tech firm describes its work as using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve efficiencies and productivity, digitally reducing business administration all leading to improved sales revenue.

Director Ian Topping said: Our goal is to empower our clients through intelligent technology that doesnt just streamline operations  it transforms them.

By applying cutting-edge solutions, we give our customers the tools they need to lead their markets with confidence. Invest NI supports our innovative drive leading to new sales in Great Britain and Europe via the commercialisation of our AI platform.

We work closely with each client to understand their unique challenges, then apply intelligent, cutting-edge technology to deliver solutions that offer measurable market advantage.

Its about building smarter, more agile businesses. In this case we are providing a solution to integrate a dynamic pricing module into the distributors operations which will help them ensure its prices are competitive and respond efficiently to customer enquiries.

Founded in 1996 by Trevor Allsop, the company provides software services to clients in the food, manufacturing and IT sectors.

The latest deal was supported by economic development agency Invest NI, which provided a research and development grant and facilitated recruitment through its Graduate To Export Programme.

From left, Elaine Curran, director of trade and investment, Invest NI, Ian Topping, director of Allsop and Dr Vicky Kell, director of innovation, research and development at Invest NI

Dr Vicky Kell, director of innovation, research and development at Invest NI, said: Investing in R&D helps companies to succeed by driving innovation, increasing productivity and developing cutting-edge technologies that open up new markets and customers.

At Invest NI we are supporting businesses right across Northern Ireland to do this. Allsop is an excellent example of this in action.

Through our R&D support Allsop has been able to develop its innovative AI mobile platform that works across sectors; allowing the company to expand its customer base outside of Northern Ireland. Congratulations to the entire team on this success and their global reach.

Elaine Curran, director of trade and investment at Invest NI, added: Allsop has built upon its success to date in the European market with this new contract.

Allsop, which has announced a deal with a European food distributor, uses AI in its work (Alamy/PA)

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

This is a significant achievement for Allsop and demonstrates the quality of its software and commitment to exceptional customer service.

Supporting more companies to sell their products and services outside of Northern Ireland is a strategic priority for Invest NI and we would encourage any business with an interest in expanding to new markets to seek out our help.
Newry is hoping to emulate the success of Belfast's Christmas Market

Newry is set to host its first ever Christmas Market as a game changing boost for its 400 year old city centre trading halls.

The councils sustainability and environment committee approved a report on Wednesday to host a five week seasonal event.

The plan for the border city hopes to promote local trade in a location that has faced a sharp decline in recent years although some councillors were cautious about the plans.

Newry City SDLP councillor Doire Finn said: I have actually met with the organiser and the plans for it are absolutely fabulous.

It has been a long held belief of mine that Newry Market can host events like this and I think it is going to be a game changing for that particular part of the town and for local traders.

I think there is so much potential with it and it will bring so much life to local businesses. It is well over due.

"I think it is a wonderful idea and I did not think I would be talking about Christmas on possibly the hottest day of the year so far in May.

The 17th century Newry Variety Market hall will provide up to 70 stalls for festive punters in a venue that was established in 1613.

A council report states that an external party approached the local authority to pitch the idea for a 2025 Christmas Market.

Newry is hoping to emulate the success of Belfast's Christmas Market

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

It is proposed to open the stalls on the same night as the citys Christmas lights switch-on in mid-November and then on Thursday and Saturdays on the run up to Christmas.

Newry City Sinn Fein councillor Valerie Harte added: Any move to enhance the footfall of the use of Newry Market has to be whole-heartedly welcomed.

It is great to see that the market has so much potential. We need to make sure the current stall holders do not suffer from this.

Any time you go through Newry Market youd be lucky to see 10 stalls in use and thats on a good day. The decline has become so bad in that area.

Surely, it might be an idea to run this as a pilot in its first year and work from there?

A council officer advised the chamber that current weekly stall holders would take part in the festive season at Newry Market.

Slieve Gullion UUP councillor David Taylor had concerns about the time period.

He said: We need to make sure we get this right. People leave from here to go to the Belfast Christmas Market and we want people to be coming here to Newrys.

I certainly hope this proves to be a success and something we can build on in future years.
Family highlight comments by judge rejecting claim of mutual abuse.

The family of Julie Ann McIlwaine  sentenced this week for the murder of her abusive partner  have called on the PSNI to retract comments made outside court claiming the domestic violence background to the relationship was mutually abusive.
A Co Down mum whose bright, funny and popular 12-year-old son went to sleep and never woke up is holding a commemorative event to mark what would have been his 16th birthday.

Nikki Fitzsimons, from Downpatrick, lost her only child Callum to sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) in April 2022.

He had complained about feeling slightly unwell the previous evening after, experiencing a sore head and lights hurting his eyes following a family walk up Sawel Mountain.

I gave him Calpol as he had a temperature and lay with him for a bit before I went to bed, Nikki recalled.

The next morning my sister, who lives nearby, came over to my house and went straight up to Callums room to see him. The next thing I remember is hearing her shouting and wailing. I knew something was seriously wrong.

Realising that Callum was unconscious, the distraught mum immediately began CPR and phoned an ambulance.

Paramedics took over, but within minutes of their arrival, Nikki was told her son could not be resuscitated.

They just said hes gone and that they had tried everything to save his life, she said.

I was in complete shock and devastation, feeling absolutely numb and shaking all over.

Callum loved science and learning all about space. I called him my star child

SADS occurs when someone unexpectedly dies from cardiac arrest, but its not clear what the cause is.

The rhythm of the heart is controlled by electrical impulses which, if interrupted, can cause it to beat abnormally.

The condition, known as an arrhythmia, which can be hard to confirm in post-mortem examinations, can be dangerous and lead to a heart attack.

SADS affects around 500 people in the UK every year.

Three years after Callums death, his mum is still struggling to come to terms with how he died.

Callum was a bright, funny and kind wee boy, very popular with his peers and within the community, she said.

He had high-functioning autism and absolutely loved science and learning all about space and teleportation. I called him my star child.

Nikki has decided to organise a fundraiser for the British Heart Foundation NI (BHFNI) to support continued research on heart conditions to stop other families from having to endure the same pain she has faced.

We miss Callum as much as ever and are still looking for answers, she explained.

The work the BHFNI is doing in raising awareness of sudden cardiac death in the young is so important. This will sadly happen again to other families, but as a family we want to raise money for BHFNI to fund the research that will save lives.

Nikki is now expecting her second.

Im 28 weeks pregnant and I believe that Callum is sending us his little sister, she said.

Were so excited, shes due in August and were going to call her Chance, as it feels like were being given a second chance to be a family again.

It would have been Callums 16th birthday on Thursday and Nikki is planning a family fun day on Saturday.

She will be at Dunleath Playing Fields in Downpatrick from 2pm to raise funds for BHFNI by hosting activities that Callum would have loved.

For Callums 16th birthday, we wanted to do something special as its a milestone birthday, Nikki explained.

We have organised lots of fun activities. The dad of Callums school friend is doing a reptile show. We have a gaming van as Callum was a big fan of VR and gaming. Callum was a Liverpool FC fan, so for one of the prizes weve organised a trip to Liverpool with 500 spending money.

Lots of the shops in Downpatrick have supported the event, which is fantastic.

Its hoped the fun day will keep Callums memory alive and everyone is invited to offer whatever they can for this amazing cause.

Callum Fitzsimons died from sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in April 2022 aged 12

News Catch Up - Wednesday 21 May

Every penny counts towards saving lives, Nikki said.

Donations can also be made online through a JustGiving page which has been set up.
A fundraiser for a Co Tyrone barman who suffered a devastating brain injury while in Poland has reached over 44k to help support him and his family.

Chris Armstrong, affectionately known as Sid, was involved in a tragic incident in Krakow while celebrating his birthday alongside his wife Jill.

The father-of-two is currently in hospital being treated for an intracranial haemorrhage  bleeding in the brain  which is too dangerous for medics to operate on.

An online fundraising appeal describes Mr Armstrong as a gentle soul and loving father and husband.

It is unclear on how he sustained the injury which has left him in a critical but stable condition.

Sid and wife Jill

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

Donations now exceed 44k to support the patient and his family, including his children Ben and Nena  more than 1,200 people have offered financial support on GoFundMe.

It is with great sadness that we are setting up this GoFundMe to ask for support as the family of Chris Armstrong fondly known as Sid to everyone," the blurb states.

Sid a caring and loving father and husband. A gentle soul who would help anyone and not ask for anything in return. But who we know would be eternally grateful for any help received.

Sid has sadly suffered a devastating brain injury due to a tragic incident in Krakow, Poland, whilst celebrating his birthday with wife Jill.

" Sid is currently in Hospital in Poland with an intracranial haemorrhage (bleed to the brain) which unfortunately due to the dangers cannot be operated on.

The organiser of the fundraising campaign says Mr Armstrong is currently critical but stable, however the road ahead is long and uncertain, with it being possibly weeks or months until he recovers or until the severity of his injury is known.

"It is a waiting game and we must take each day at a time, the description continues.

Specialised medical facilities will be needed to transport the patient back to his home which will create a significant financial burden for his family.

It is not known when Mr Armstrong will be allowed to return.

The duration of his stay in hospital in Poland remains uncertain, as he is currently unable to travel due to his medical condition, the fundraiser states.

"When he is eventually stable enough to be moved, he will require specialised medical transport by land or sea back to Ireland.

"This prolonged and complex situation is expected to result in a significant financial burden.

We are asking our community, friends and family and anyone who knows Sid, Jill and their children Ben and Nena to help at this very difficult time.
Marian Beatties brothers Feargal, Isadore and Gerard after the unveiling of a new memorial (Picture by Peter Morrison)

Police have issued a renewed appeal for information into the murder of a Portadown woman more than 50 years ago.

Marian Beattie was just 18 years old when she was murdered.

Marian Beatties brothers Feargal, Isadore and Gerard after the unveiling of a new memorial (Picture by Peter Morrison)

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

Her body was found at the bottom of a quarry near Aughnacloy in 1973, after she attended a charity dance at Haddens Garage on Friday March 30, 1973 to listen to her brother play in a band.

Haddens Quarry

Marian was last seen leaving the dance with a young man just after 1am and walking in the direction of Haddens Quarry.

Her body was discovered at the bottom of the nearby quarry shortly after 6am the following morning, Saturday March 31.

The PSNI have said that detectives from the Legacy Investigation Branch are now reviewing the case.

They have issued a renewed appeal to the public for information about the circumstances surrounding her death.

Detective Inspector Thompson said: We believe Marian left the dance at Haddens Garage with a man, walking in the direction of the nearby car park at the top of Haddens Quarry about 400 yards away from the garage.

"We do not know what happened next but Marians body was found at the bottom of the quarry approximately 80-100ft below the car park.

I appreciate this murder took place over 50 years ago but we would like to talk to anyone who was at the dance at Haddens Garage on the night of Friday, 30th March 1973.

"Marian went there with a girlfriend to listen to her brothers band. Did you see who she was dancing with or speaking with?

"Did you see her leave the dance with a man? Do you know who he was? Did you see her in the car park at the quarry any time after 1.15am on the Saturday morning?

Additionally, do you remember anyone who was at the dance returning home distressed or with dirt on their clothes? Has anyone ever talked about the events of that night?

Earlier this month Marians family pledged never to give up on their fight for justice.

Marian Beattie

Marians unsolved murder is one of Northern Irelands most enduring murder mysteries and was revisited during a new series of true crime stories by Irish broadcaster TG4.

Her brother Gerard told the programme: We have put a memorial stone up near enough at the quarry where Marian was and hopefully it will turn somebodys mind over.

Im not going to let it go  people tell you it does get easier, it definitely doesnt.

DI Thompson added: Marians family deserve to know what happened to her that night.

"I am appealing to anyone who may be able to help us progress the investigation and bring some closure to the Beattie family to come forward and speak to Detectives in Legacy Investigation Branch. Detectives can be contacted by calling 101.

"Alternatively a report can be made online at www.psni.police.uk/makeareport and also via Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.
A community group has hit out at the removal of plaques in Co Down which were taken down by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive with support from the PSNI.

Two murals were taken down from the West Winds estate in Newtownards on Thursday morning.

One was a plaque commemorating the Battle of the Somme.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive said the removal was part of an initiative at improving the image of the estate and said additional plaques were placed without permission.

In a new statement, the 1st Newtownards Somme Society has condemned the removal of the commemorative plaque and other materials, claiming they were the lawful property of the group.

This morning a range of lawful materials including but not limited to a plaque commemorating the battle of the Somme in 1916, which are the property of the 1st Newtownards Somme Society, were removed by masked contractors instructed by NIHE, with PSNI playing a merely supporting rather than active role, the Society said in a statement.

The tearing down of these lawful memorial plaques raises fundamental issues and has caused significant tension and anger in the local community, it added.

There was no community support for these actions.

It is obvious the NIHE has taken an extraordinarily irresponsible step, and in doing so has placed itself in a position whereby this seemingly new policy- whatever it is- will now have to be equally applied in, for example, south Armagh, west Belfast and east Tyrone.

"What begins with removing plaques commemorating the brave men of the Somme leads inevitably to tearing down union flags and/or other memorials."

Somme plaques removed in Newtownards

News Catch Up - Thursday 22 May

A loyalist delegation is due to meet with the Housing Executive at its Newtownards offices on Friday afternoon, with the Society saying the return of the items must happen urgently.

The Belfast Telegraph understands the plaques were removed by masked contractors acting on behalf of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, with support from the PSNI.

Local officers were in attendance to support the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to remove two murals within the West Winds Housing Estate this morning, Thursday 22nd May, confirmed a PSNI spokesperson.

A Housing Executive spokesperson said: A new, community-led initiative improving the image of the West Winds estate in Newtownards is underway, with support from the Housing Executive.

This involves the re-imaging of a number of paramilitary murals which have been replaced by local historical imagery and artwork reflecting the strong heritage and aspirations of those living in the area.

Additional plaques were placed on our properties without permission, which were not part of the display installed by the community.

These have been removed and we will continue to engage locally to provide a positive outlook for our tenants in this area.
Exclusive |

Stormont told a judge that tarmacking 3,000 acres of farmland would be less polluting than the industrial farming it has encouraged
Special congress of the Camogie Association has voted in favour of allowing shorts to become part of the sports official kit (Niall Carson/PA)

A special congress of the Camogie Association has voted in favour of allowing shorts to become part of the sports official kit.

The ballot on Thursday night saw 98% vote in favour of the change which will result in players across Ireland having the option of wearing shorts or skorts.

There had been protests in recent weeks over whether camogie players should have the option of wearing shorts or skorts, leading to some matches being postponed or delayed.

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Previous rules had dictated that camogie players must wear a skort during matches, which has the appearance of a skirt, but has built-in shorts underneath.

Camogie is the female equivalent of hurling, a team-based field game played with a wooden stick called a hurl or hurley and a ball called a sliotar.

The special congress meeting was held at Croke Park in Dublin.

Camogie Association president Brian Molloy said: We are pleased to announce that delegates have voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of giving players greater choice in their playing attire.

From midnight tonight, each individual player will have the option to wear skorts or shorts  adding choice while maintaining the professionalism and uniformity of our team kits in both colour and design.

I want to sincerely thank our incredible volunteers for their ongoing support over the last few weeks, and to our delegates for voting on behalf of over 120,000 members, including 94,000 playing members.

A statement from the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) welcomed the vote.

It said: The GPA would like to put on the record our admiration for camogie players across Ireland and beyond, both at inter-county and club level, who made their voices heard to ensure this outcome.

To our own membership who have led the campaign for choice, we salute your willingness to stand up for both yourselves, and future generations of camogie players.

We thank the delegates who listened to players call for choice.

The last few weeks have once again shown the necessity of putting players at the heart of decision making within Gaelic Games.
Two Israeli embassy staff were killed as they were leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington DC (Rod Lamkey/AP)

The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington as they left an event at a Jewish museum told police after his arrest, I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, federal authorities said Thursday, as they announced criminal charges.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, shouted Free Palestine as he was led away after his arrest and told police that he was the one who did it, according to charging documents that provided chilling new details of a Wednesday night attack that killed an American woman and Israeli man who were set to become engaged.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington (Embassy of Israel in the U.S. via AP)

Authorities described the slayings as a targeted act of terror.

Rodriguez faces charges of murder of foreign officials and other crimes. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said on Thursday, as authorities continue to investigate the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said: Violence against anyone, based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero.

Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nations capital.

Court documents made public on Thursday say the shooting was captured on surveillance video outside the museum, which authorities say showed Rodriguez firing at the victims several more times after they fell to the ground.

Police tape is tied around a gate outside of a building at an address listed in public records as the home of Elias Rodriguez, who police identified as the suspect in the killing of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

After he was arrested, Rodriguez told detectives that he admired the man who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in February 2024 and described the man as courageous and a martyr, court documents say.

Rodriguez also told detectives that he purchased tickets to the event at the museum about three hours before it started, according to the court documents.

The two people killed, identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American, were a young couple about to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US.

He said Mr Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

The stunning attack on Wednesday evening prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff.

It came as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally and as antisemitic acts are on the rise.
Liam Og O hAnnaidh has been charged over allegedly displaying support for a banned terrorist group

Kneecap's Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara

We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win.

Thats just a snippet of the statement issued by Belfast Irish language rap group Kneecap hours following the commencement of their latest battle with the UK government.

Kneecap member Liam Og o hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name of Mo Chara, has been formally charged with a terror offence by the Metropolitan Police, under the anglicised name Liam OHanna.

Kneecap have labelled the charge political policing, arguing that the real story isnt their actions but rather the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The charge has been welcomed by many who have long found the band offensive.

The Irish Independents Dave Hanratty is joined from London by TRT World presenter Enda Brady to examine the specifics of this case, and look at the wider complexities surrounding artists and activism, and their tricky role in politics today.
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BENNINGTON  The former Bennington High School complex on Main Street has changed hands  marking a key step in a planned $54 million redevelopment of the prominent downtown property at 650 Main Street.

According to information on the town clerks property transfer listing, Benn High Cornerstone Inc. purchased the property this week from Bennington High LLC for $500,000.

The purchasing entity is a nonprofit that is working with the developer, Hale Resources LLC, which plans to redevelop the 100,000-square-foot former school complex to create 39 housing units and space for town recreation and senior programming and other uses.

Zak Hale, CEO of the development firm, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has said construction is expected to take about 18 months.

The plan calls for the town to lease on a long-term basis about 27,000 square feet of space for municipal uses. A child care facility also is planned in the structure.

The former high school, which opened in 1913 and is on the National Register of Historic places, was later used as a junior high school after Mount Anthony Union High School opened in 1968, and the oldest building was added onto over the years.

The middle school closed in 2005 and was largely vacant for about a decade and sustained deterioration before private developer Christopher Gilbert of Dorset and Red Hook, New York, purchased the property for $146,000 in 2020. He initially planned to redevelop the building for mixed commercial and residential uses, before entering into a lease-purchase agreement with the town.

Gilbert and his Bennington High LLC also would receive the current town Senior Center building on Pleasant Street  estimated to be worth about $400,000  as part of the overall redevelopment partnership agreement involving the town, Hale and Gilbert.

While the property purchase closed this week, overall closure on the redevelopment financing agreement  involving a number of state and federal grants, historic preservation, new market and other tax credits; low interest financing and private investment  will occur separately, said town Community Development Director Shannon Barsotti.

The project financing list is complex and includes approximately 20 sources of funding.

The town is providing about $2.9 million in federal American Rescue Act pandemic relief funding Bennington received to the project. The town also acted as the grant applicant for some grant sources that would not have been available to a private developer.

This is a very important step, for Benn High Cornerstone to take ownership of the building, Barsotti said Wednesday.

She referred further comment about that redevelopment process to Hale.

Workers were on site yesterday doing interior demolition and similar work.

Benn Hi Cornerstone officials are expected to implement a state-approved corrective action plan to remediate environmental concerns, such as asbestos in building materials and chemical vapors in the soil from past industrial or commercial uses of the land.

The general contractor is MLB Construction Services, LLC.
Among the 49 banners installed on lamp posts in Lenox is one on Crystal Street in Lenox Dale honoring the late Thomas H. Bosworth, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1946-48 aboard a destroyer in the Mediterranean Sea.
PITTSFIELD  The Pittsfield Public Schools and Ciara Batory, in their disagreement over public access to the Pittsfield High School investigation report, both asked the states Public Records Division to review the report in private, to determine how much of it should be released to the public.

Last week, the division took both sides up on their suggestion.

The report arrived in Boston by mail on Wednesday, according to Debra OMalley, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of States Office. It arrived with a cover letter asserting that the district is claiming an exemption from the public records law not only as an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, but because they are personnel records.

"The records at issue are investigative reports that were prepared in order to determine if certain current and former employees had engaged in misconduct, the district said in the cover letter, citing judicial precedent.

The Courts have found that a balancing test is not required for these types of records. Instead the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has found that public employers can withhold personnel information that is useful in making employment decisions regarding an employee,'" the letter said.

Of the persons who were investigated by the law firm Bulkley, Richardson & Gelinas, two remain current Pittsfield High School employees: Vice Principal Alison Shepard and Dean of Students Molly West. Levante Wiggins and Taverick Roberson are no longer employed by the district, and Robert Barsanti has retired.

Batory, a city resident and school parent, in April asked for a copy of the report, completed by the law firm that conducted the review. The district denied her public record request, claiming privacy-related exemptions under the states public records law.

Batory then appealed, and Arthur ordered the district to respond to her within 10 days. That response again asserted the districts belief, on advice of its legal counsel, that the report  even in redacted form, removing the names of subjects and witnesses  would constitute an unwarranted violation of privacy under exemption c.

Batory lodged a second appeal, saying the public's right to know outweighed the district's privacy considerations. In that appeal, and in the districts response, both Batory and the schools suggested an in camera review in private, allowing Arthur to decide for herself what portions of the report can and should be made public.

In the meantime, the district has released executive summaries of investigations of the five current and former educators. According to the summaries, most of the allegations were found to be "unsupported."
RICHMOND  Residents have approved the $9,281,000 town budget, including education costs for the Richmond Consolidated School.

The spending package reflects an overall 4.7 percent increase for fiscal 2026, which begins July 1. For the average single-family property valued at $664,400, the real estate tax will rise by $270 to $6,633, a 4.5 percent increase.

At a fast-paced 45-minute annual town meeting Wednesday evening, Town Moderator William Martin urged voters to relish our time together, this is democracy in its finest and purest form.

The turnout of 83 voters was 8 percent of the towns 1,037 registered voters.

The line-item budgets for general government, protection, health and human services, highways, cultural and recreation. employee benefits, town insurance and unclassified expenses all were approved by unanimous voice vote  a grand total of $2,739,000. All had been endorsed by the Finance Committee.

Among other financial items approved unanimously without comment:

 $4,592,000 to support the Richmond Consolidated School, a 4.2 percent increase. The pre-K through grade eight school has 157 students; just under half are school choice transfers from surrounding communities, including Pittsfield.

 $390,000 in debt service for the Town Hall and Library building, plus $39,699 from the sale of the old Town Hall.

 $100,000 from free cash for ambulance service salaries, plus $100,000 from ambulance receipts for operational ambulance costs.

An article seeking a $400,000 transfer from free cash reserves for partial funding of a new fire truck aroused the most lively discussion.

Town Administrator Danielle Fillio confirmed that the towns new firehouse is being used, responding to a question from resident Dick Stover.

After resident Jay Phelps asked why the town needed a new fire truck, interim Fire Chief Gerry Cahalan pointed out that the departments existing trucks are in poor shape, one of them an electrical nightmare.

Cahalan, a former Dalton fire chief, explained that the total $800,000 cost of a new truck for Richmond may cause sticker shock. But Sheffield recently paid $1.4 million for a new pumper, while Lee and Dalton forked over $950,000 to $1 million for new trucks, he noted. Voters then approved the purchase unanimously.

Also approved: $6,000 for a fuel emergency assistance program that served 37 needy households last year.

Resident Holly Stover acknowledged support from the community and donations of $7,277 raised by the Congregational Church, which no longer holds services, Its building adjacent to the former Town Hall on State Road (Route 41) is for sale with an asking price of $475,000.

The voters green-lit $6,500 for temporary repairs on private ways, including roads serving Richmond Shores and Whitewood Association.

They also voted in favor of a citizens petition clearing the way for the town to cover the costs of permanent road improvements at Richmond Shores without requiring matching funds from that neighborhood's taxpayers.
PITTSFIELD  When Gloria Williams goes to book her next acting gig, shell have a professional headshot in her portfolio.

At just 15 years old, Williams has performed in plays at Pittsfield High School and Berkshire Theatre Groups Matilda The Musical Jr., but last month, she had a different kind of dress rehearsal. Along with other members of the Rites of Passage and Empowerment, or R.O.P.E., program, she visited Dolce Rose Beauty Supply for a makeover and photoshoot.

Organized with help from the photographer Jane Feldman, the students had portraits taken after a day at the salon on North Street. With help from makeup artist Earon Nealey, costume designer Haydee Antunano and hairstylist Candiese Williams, the girls tried out a new look before posing for the camera.

It made me see a different side of me that Id never do on a normal basis  I never really put on makeup, put up or do my hair, said Jessica Sevor, a student at Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School.

Besides hair and makeup, the students conveyed their ambitions for the future through their outfit choices. For Williams, it was a two-piece business casual outfit with a white jacket, accessorized with pearl earrings, a choker and necklaces. Sevor, who aspires to be a physician, wore a business casual outfit with a jacket, necklace and earrings.

Feldman, who has a long history of photographing people from marginalized communities, said the portraits let their subjects know they have been seen  and beyond that, seen in a positive light.

I am a photojournalist, but I also love using the camera in a really powerful way as almost a form of therapy, she said. I believe that showing people a beautiful portrait of themselves can be therapeutic, because it's not like when we all look in the mirror and we see our imperfections. When somebody shows you the beauty that they witness in you, it's very powerful.

Shirley Edgerton, founder and director of the R.O.P.E. program, said it was an amazing process to see unfold  many of the scholars had to overcome an initial hesitation to get their makeup done or their pictures taken.

Then, once Jane took those photos and showed them, it was this smile and sense of accomplishment of, Wow, look at me, Edgerton said.

Edgerton said the portraits can be used for practical reasons, like college and professional development, but it also is just a grand representation of who they are in their lives. It all comes back to the R.O.P.E. programs goal of making the young women more confident and comfortable within themselves.

That involves surrounding the scholars with mentors, and bringing them on trips across the country and world. In the days after the portrait event, Edgerton took a group of students to California for a conference and college visits.

In the coming months, R.O.P.E. scholars will visit Hampton University, Livingstone and Spelman colleges, along with Howard University, from which three alums of the program graduated just this year. They'll also travel to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C.

Another initiative will see the students develop a mural with Andre Trenier, a Bronx, N.Y.-based artist. More summer programming is planned with Westside Legends and the NAACP to delve into the history of the 54th Regiment, the first Black regiment during the Civil War to be officially recruited in the North to fight for the Union. They also fought for, and secured, equal pay for Black soldiers.

Supporting students of color through the arts and education is a mission to which Edgerton has devoted her life. In this current political moment, she said it's important to hold onto hope, to remind students that allies are protesting inequity every day. Amid dispiriting developments, opportunities for community are even more important.

"Given the national climate, when you have an opportunity for joy and learning and engaging with others in a positive way, it just has more impact now," Edgerton said. It's just something you don't take for granted anymore.

For Feldman, her craft has seen her photograph historical figures and everyday people alike. She counts Maya Angelou, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela among her subjects, but finds equal importance in photographing kids from underrepresented backgrounds.

During COVID, for instance, she photographed children at a school on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. It gave the kids, who hailed from different backgrounds and experiences, a chance to unmask for the first time in a long while, she said  both figuratively and literally.

She returned to the school the next day and handed those children prints of themselves.

"It's a way of allowing people to know they have been seen, and they have been seen in a beautiful light," Feldman said.
Williams College President Maud Mandel is navigating the impacts of Trump-era federal policies that threaten the schools endowment, diversity programs, international student access and research funding. In a calm but firm response, Mandel says the college will adapt while remaining true to its educational mission and values of inclusion and autonomy.
OTIS  Voters have rejected a proposal to purchase the recently closed Otis Poultry Farm for reuse as a municipal property.

The bid to buy the property was among two contentious issues that were shot down during Tuesday's annual town meeting. Also defeated was a plan to borrow $3.8 million to for a building project to expand the highway garage by just under 5,000 square feet.

Separately, voters approved a plan for the town to take over operations of the Otis Rescue Squad, which is now run as a nonprofit. The town's fiscal 2026 operating budget, as well as spending for the local school district, also were approved.

The proposal to buy the historic property drew more discussion than any other item up for a vote on Tuesday. There was a line out the door to Town Hall as residents filtered into the meeting, as one voter joked that there must be something controversial on the warrant.

The Otis Poultry Farm has operated on North Main Road in some capacity for over 120 years, and sits on about 24 acres of land and has 20,000 square feet of building space, according to Building Inspector Larry Gould, who spoke in favor of the purchase.

"Wherever you go, if you tell somebody you're from Otis, the next word that comes out of their mouth is, 'Oh, yeah, by the poultry farm,'" Select Board member Larry Southard told a standing-room crowd at Otis Town Hall.

"It's a valuable piece of property that has tons of possibilities," he added.

Before closing up shop earlier this year, third-generation owner Andy Pyenson ran a country store at the Otis Poultry Farm, selling baked goods, local products and more. He stopped raising chickens there nearly 20 years ago.

It has been on the market for more than a decade, and Pyenson said developers haven't jumped on it. At one point, a company proposed a cannabis cultivation and retail establishment there, but that deal collapsed.

Though most voters were unconvinced, members of the Select Board, which endorsed the purchase, argued the $500,000 price tag was a steal for a property that had a range of potential uses.

Southard ticked through a list of potential uses; expanding elder services, creating new senior housing, storing town vehicles and equipment and even a pickleball court.

One town meeting speaker said he feared the property would fall into disrepair and become blighted if the town doesn't step in.

"I think $500,000 in this case is a bargain and if we don't do it wed be foolish," he told voters, garnering some applause.

But others weren't sold. Some who spoke against the proposal said the town would have to invest more money to renovate and maintain the property, and noted the lack of a concrete plan for putting the poultry farm to use for taxpayers.

"It's a money pit, and I don't think that it's a good idea, said resident Joel Meyers.

Juanita O'Rourke, an Otis real estate agent, was unconvinced the town needs to step in. She said she "personally brought a full-price offer to Otis Poultry Farm recently when the price dropped, and they refused it because there was financing involved."

"I believe that if the town does back off, that there will be other buyers that do will come forward, and the town won't have to invest our money," she said.

The last person to speak about the issue was Finance Board member Jim Crandall, who did not support the plan. He said the town will have to spend about half of its stabilization fund reserves to complete the purchase, a bad idea, he said, when there is economic uncertainty on the horizon.

The town shouldn't rush into the purchase, he said, and could make another offer in the future after doing more research.

"We should be thinking about what we're doing long term, and not jumping on things," he said.

So the fate of the farm remains unclear. After the vote failed 62-79 (two-thirds majority was needed for approval), residents began leaving the meeting early.
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Taoiseach Micheal Martin says members of Kneecap have been very clear in recent statements that they do not in any shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas.

Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh has been charged with a terrorism offence in the UK over the display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London, on November 21st, 2024.

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The 27-year-old from Belfast, who uses the stage name Mo Chara, is to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18th.

The charge correlates to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in the UK. The maximum penalty for such an offence is six months in prison and/or a fine of up to 5,000 (5,900).

Mr Martin was asked by reporters in Cork if Mr O hAnnaidh would receive diplomatic assistance arising out of the incident. The Taoiseach said that consular assistance would be given to Mr O hAnnaidh if he requires it.

The Irish Government through its diplomatic channel always provides, if required, consular assistance to its citizens no matter where they reside.

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I would note that members of the band have been very clear in recent statements that they do not in any shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas and they have issued statements to that effect.

But I am not going to interfere in the court process. I think this matter will take its course. I am not going to comment on something that has happened in the UK through its legal processes.

I have noted as I said the very clear statements from Kneecap that they do in any not shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas and that was a very important statement in my view.

Kneecap said the charging of one of their members with a terror offence was political policing and a carnival of distraction.

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In a statement on X, the group said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

Ireland Kneecap: The controversies explained as one of the... Read More

To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

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Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

WE STAND PROUDLY WITH THE PEOPLE. YOU STAND COMPLICIT WITH THE WAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. YOU ARE NOT. WE WILL FIGHT YOU IN YOUR COURT. WE WILL WIN. FREE PALESTINE.
Bank of Ireland Group is increasing its target for the funding of home building, with a new ambition to support the construction of 30,000 homes across Ireland through debt and equity finance.

The bank is currently supporting the construction of more than 24,000 homes, across all housing types, on 220 sites in 22 counties.

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This is already a step up from last year when the construction of 21,000 homes was funded, underlining the banks focus on making a tangible contribution to addressing Irelands housing challenge.

In addition to the new housing target, Bank of Ireland is also convening a group of key housing market stakeholders  drawn from homebuilders, equity investors, representative bodies, and professional services  to consider ways in which the private sector can further increase housing supply responsibly.

Commenting, Group chief executive of Bank of Ireland, Myles OGrady, said: Housing development is a pressing economic and social issue for Ireland, but outputs remain materially behind annual demand. This raises the prospect of significant consequences for individuals and families, as well as for Irelands economic progress and social cohesion.

The constituent components of the housing issue are multifaceted and include a range of well-aired matters such as planning, zoning, the availability of serviced land, and public policy interventions.

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"While these are outside the direct control of the private sector, we hold an extremely important piece of the solution  the financing and construction of homes.

Thats why, in addition to increasing our target for housing support to 30,000, Ive also asked a number of housing market stakeholders to meet in June.

"The purpose of this is to consider ways in which the private sector can optimise housing supply in a responsible way. There may be steps that havent been actioned to date, or perhaps some specific blockages that can be solved. We all have a responsibility to investigate every angle to accelerate housing supply and collaboration is key to this.

At Bank of Ireland, our purposeful role to support Irish society and the Irish economy is clear. We will play our part in helping solve this issue and will challenge ourselves to do more.

Bank of Ireland last year increased funding available for new housing by 40 per cent to 2.5 billion, including 1 billion for social and affordable projects.

Recent projects include:
A toddler was "extremely lucky" he was not strapped into his buggy when a car on the Circuit of Kerry rally went out of control and through a protective barrier and threw the buggy up against a wall, the High Court has heard.

Jamie OBrien was watching the motor rally along with his parents and his sister at a church car park at Ballymacelligott when the accident happened 10 years ago.

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He ended up covered in blood with lacerations to his face and head.

In the High Court on Thursday, four members of the OBrien family, of Tralee, Co Kerry, settled High Court actions over the incident.

Their counsel, Padraig McCartan SC, told the court Jamie, who is now 12 years old, was extremely lucky he was not strapped in the buggy at the time of the accident on April 19th, 2015.

Mr McCartan said the boy had been left with scars on his head and over his eyebrow. The boy settled his legal action for 75,000.

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Jamies sister, Megan (17), who was 7 years old at the time, was also injured and had to be airlifted to hospital. He said the little girl was standing holding her fathers hand when the car struck her and drove her back into the corner of the car park wall.

Mr McCartan said Mr and Mrs OBrien thought their daughter was dead and she had multiple injuries and was airlifted to Cork University Hospital.

Megan was in the intensive care unit of the hospital and had to have four different surgeries. Her injuries included a large degloving injury to her ankle along with leg and rib fractures and knee and shoulder injuries. Mr McCartan said the girl was in hospital for about a month. Megan made a full recovery and settled her action for 250,000.

Jamie and Megan, along with their parents Olivia and Alan OBrien, of Tralee, Co Kerry, sued the driver of the car David Murphy, of Coole West, Athea, Co Limerick; Tralee Autosports Co Ltd, trading as Kerry Motor Club, with registered offices at Knockmoyle, Tralee; Motorsport Ireland, with offices at Dawson Street, Dublin; and Kerry County Council.

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Mr Justice Paul Coffey was told the actions brought by Mr and Mrs OBrien had been settled and could be struck out. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

In the proceedings it was claimed there was a failure to ensure that adequate safety mechanisms were in place on the circuit rally route that would prevent injury to the spectators.

It was further claimed there was a failure to assess the adequacy of the position of the barriers and their distance from the route to ensure that any spectators watching from behind the barriers would be safe from danger.

Ireland Spectator injured during stage of Donegal Rally Read More

The family further alleged there was a failure to ensure the event was adequately marshalled.

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There was also an alleged failure to prepare or implement any or any adequate safety plan.

All of the claims were denied and it was denied that the car was being driven otherwise that in a manner that would have been expected at or as part of the preparation of a stage of a motor rally event on a closed road.

Noting the adult settlements, Mr Justice Coffey also approved the 75,000 and 250,000 settlements for Jamie and Megan and said they were fair and reasonable. He wished the family well for the future.
It is crazy that the deadline for the National Childrens Hospital to open has been missed 15 times, the Dail has been told.

The Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday that in the past seven months, developer BAM had achieved around 60 per cent of its planned progress.

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This has moved the completion deadline from June to September 30th  the 15th time the substantial completion date has been extended, according to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty told the Dail the hospital had become an epic saga which has ballooned from a cost of 650 million to 2.2 billion.

The deadline for opening this hospital has been missed 15 times  15 times. Like thats crazy. Crazy, he told Tanaiste Simon Harris during Leaders Questions.

Youve broken your election promise when you said it would be delivered in June.

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Do you really expect the public to have any greater faith in this date compared to any one of the other 15 dates that you and your Government ministers have announced?

He accused Mr Harris, a former health minister, of signing off on a contract to build the hospital that was skewed in favour of the construction company.

It was build-as-you-go, and that is why BAM has the state over the barrel for the last eight years.

Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Now your Government is blaming the construction company. Its not a surprise to anybody on this side that developers are going to squeeze as much profit out as they can. But competent ministers are supposed to protect the public purse, he said.

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Mr Harris said the hospital was well over 95 per cent complete and technical commissioning was under way.

He accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy and said a childrens hospital to be built in Belfast would cost more per square metre than Dublins, citing the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, whos your partys vice president, said she was delighted that 671 million would be spent on a state-of-an-art childrens hospital at Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital.

Ladies and gentlemen, who was that contract with? Does anyone know? BAM, the same developer whos building the hospital in this jurisdiction.

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He said BAM had since pulled out of the project, which had delayed it.

They (the PBO) have looked at the hospital Sinn Fain are presiding over the north, the hospital were presiding over here with BAM, and they found yours is more expensive than the one were delivering. So get over yourself with the absolute hypocrisy.

He said the hospital has 22 operating theatres, 6,150 rooms with spaces for parents to stay with their child, and a helipad.

We know its a hospital that costs more than originally intended, that is true.

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And yes, you know  because youve been covering finance for a hell of a long time for your party  you know that weve changed significantly the approach we take to the delivery of infrastructure.

Aontu leader Peadar Toibin said no one was questioning the quality of the hospital.

He said the additional 1.5 billion it has cost to build has come from the pockets of hard-working Irish citizens and taxpayers.

Its not a victimless crime as well. The opportunity cost of that 1.5 billion would have actually paid for over 4,500 homes in this country. It would have housed up to 18,000 people, more than the number of people who are currently homeless.

But Tanaiste, you are the blame-shifting expert in this country. Simon it wasnt me Harris.

He raised previous quotes from Mr Harris that he was not responsible for signing the contract that underpinned the construction of the Dublin hospital.

This contract lacks an enormous amount of detail within it, which has allowed it to become a blank cheque for the contractor, it is designed to fail from the start, Mr Toibin said.

Ireland National Children's Hospital bill tops 2.2bn and... Read More

He added that inertia, waste and blame-shifting are the characteristics of this Government.

Mr Harris said he was responsible for bringing the proposal to Cabinet and recommending they proceed, and would be responsible for a world-class facility and transforming childrens healthcare.

Nobody gets everything right in politics and a lot of lessons have been learned, he said.
Gerry Adams defamation case against the BBC is a cynical attempt to launder a reputation that he was in the Provisional IRA and sat on its army council, a barrister has told the High Court.

Paul Gallagher SC, for the BBC, made the remarks in his closing address to the jury in the former Sinn Fein leaders action.

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Mr Adams claims a BBC Spotlight programme and a related article published in 2016 defamed him by falsely accusing him of sanctioning British agent Denis Donaldsons killing at a cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal, in 2006.

Mr Adamss lawyers argue his reputation is that of a peacemaker, and the allegation represents an unjustified attack on his reputation. He insists he had no involvement with the death for which dissident republicans claimed responsibility in 2009.

The BBC denies it defamed Mr Adams.

Mr Gallagher on Thursday told the jury the case was about Mr Adamss reputation, to be considered in deciding if the BBC acted fairly and reasonably in publishing the allegation, and  if the jury finds Mr Adams was defamed  assessing damages to be awarded.

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The BBC argues the publication was fair and reasonable and in the public interest, a defence against a defamation action outlined in the Defamation Act 2009.

This defence falls under a constitutional protection of free speech  the jurys decision may have consequences for freedom of expression, Mr Gallagher said.

The broadcaster also says that the Spotlight programme and related article did not mean the BBC said Mr Adams was responsible for sanctioning the murder of Mr Donaldson, that the claim was presented as an allegation.

Mr Gallagher said the case was a cynical attempt by Mr Adams to "launder" his reputation.

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Counsel said that Mr Adams is attempting to say that his reputation is different to what he effectively acknowledged in evidence, that people have repeatedly said he was a member of the IRA and its army council.

"You don't have to decide if he was in that position, this is about reputation," he said.

Mr Gallagher said that if you have a reputation of being in the IRA and on its army council  as, he said, Mr Adams does  that is the reputation you have. It's not just a label, it is a reality, he said.

He said Mr Adams had put himself forward as a peacemaker with any mention of the reality of which his reputation is borne.

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Somebody cant shed that reputation and come into court and give evidence suggesting that it's not there, and present a picture of events that just ignores that reality, he said.

Mr Gallagher said that the statements in the Spotlight programme were presented as an allegation, and should not be taken to mean  as Mr Adams pleads  that the BBC said he sanctioned the murder of Mr Donaldson.

He said the words cannot be taken in isolation, but rather in the context of the programme.

He said there cannot be a situation where people in the media are afraid to speak, because of the consequence of being sued.

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Ireland Gerry Adams had reputation of being in IRA army co... Read More

Counsel said that if we want the society that I believe all of us want, then we depend on the Jennifer OLearys of the world  referencing the journalist behind the programme -- to have the courage and persistence to stand by what they have unearthed, and put before the public to form their own views.

Mr Gallagher reiterated Ms OLearys evidence that she had multiple sources corroborating the allegation against Mr Adams. He said the defences assertion that it was based on a single source was completely wrong.

Mr Gallagher argued there was a strong public interest in the story. He said it was not a tittle-tattle story of disputable public interest, and asked how the BBC could not have published the allegation.

He said the story was motivated by good faith. This was done not to make an allegation against somebody for the sake of it, he said.
Ireland is examining a report that a flight carrying deportees from the US to Africa, against a judges order, stopped at an Irish airport.

The New York Times reported that a plane carrying eight deportees, in violation of a court order by a federal judge in Boston, stopped at Shannon Airport in Co Clare this week.

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The judge had barred the US administration from deporting people to countries that were not their own without giving them enough time to object.

The article said that the flight landed at Shannon at around 9.39pm US time on Tuesday and departed at about 11.47pm before going on to Djibouti.

Im trying to establish the facts on this now in real time, because Im aware of the US media reports, Tanaiste Simon Harris told RTE Radio.

Weve been very active, from an Irish embassy point of view, in providing consular support to citizens who have been caught up in these stronger, for want of a diplomatic phrase, stronger enforcement policies around migration.

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I have no reason to believe that the procedures in place for the use of Irish airports by foreign aircraft has been breached by the United States, but I am seeking more information from my department this morning on this matter.

Asked if Ireland was complicit in illegal US deportations, he said: I want to get legal clarity in relation to this before speaking with great certainty, because of the seriousness of the matter.

But I think complying with US law is obviously a matter for the US administration. Complying with our own laws is obviously a matter for the Irish state and the Irish government.

So let me try and establish more in relation to this, as my department is.

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There are very clear rules in relation to flights that can and cant stop over in Shannon and what they must do and not do, and we need to see whether this was in compliance with that.

This is a story thats only emerged in US media, so Im trying to get on top of it now.

US flights stopping off at Shannon Airport to refuel have long been an issue of contention in Ireland, as politicians and activists raise concerns that it makes Ireland complicit in US military actions.

Protests have been held at the airport over the Iraq War, Western intervention in Syria, and more recently over US support for Israel during its military operation in Gaza.

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In recent months, there have been reports that flights carrying munitions to weapons manufacturers and contractors in Israel have travelled through Irish airspace.

Permission is needed from the Irish transport minister to carry munitions over Ireland.

Mr Harris has said he does not believe that weapons are being flown through Irish airspace to Israel, but he said more international co-operation was needed to find out what is being flown above Ireland.
A man is being treated in hospital following a serious assault in Clondalkin in Dublin on Thursday morning.

Gardai said the attack happened at a retail centre on the Ninth Lock Road at 11.45am.

The man in his 30s was taken to Tallaght University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Gardai are asking anyone who was in the area this morning between 11.30am and 12pm to come forward.
A man found in possession of over 900 images of child sexual abuse material told gardai it became a challenge to access this material.

Joseph Doyle (68), of Vesey Mews, Monkstown, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography, on May 27th, 2019.

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He was handed a two-year sentence, suspended in full on strict conditions on Thursday.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the Garda Online Child Exploitation Unit were notified by international colleagues about a particular IP address linked to Doyle's address.

Doyle was present when gardai searched his home. He was co-operative, made admissions after caution to gardai and provided usernames and passwords.

Two laptops, two external hard drives and a desktop PC were among the devices seized by gardai.

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An investigating garda told Caroline Latham BL, prosecuting, that 954 images of child sexual abuse material were found on two devices  a laptop and a PC.

The court heard that 220 of the 954 images were in the most serious category of a child sexual nature.

580 images were categorised as child exposure, and 216 were of child anime.

Doyle was arrested by arrangement. During interview, he told gardai that he had an issue with pornography, as well as problems with drugs and drink. He described having an inquisitive nature and said it became a challenge as it was very difficult to access this type of material.

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Doyle said he was shocked when they arrived but felt some relief and apologised. He has no previous convictions and has not come to Garda attention since.

The garda agreed with Justin McQuaid BL, defending, that his client was co-operative, entered an early guilty plea, and expressed remorse during interview.

The garda agreed that it had been almost six years between the date of the offence and the sentence hearing.

It was also accepted that there is no suggestion of distribution or sharing of the material.

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Imposing sentence, Judge Martin Nolan said, unfortunately, this is a well-trodden crime in these courts.

He noted the evidence was that the defendant expanded quite a lot of energy to get these images and that thankfully, it is not easy to acquire with the defendant having to expand time and energy to access the material.

Judge Nolan noted the precedents of the Court of Appeal, which indicate that a non-custodial sentence should be considered in the absence of aggravating factors including distribution.

The court heard Doyle is retired and has a long work history.

Ireland Former scout leader jailed after one of his victim... Read More

Letters from Doyle, One in Four and a testimonial were handed to the court.

Mr McQuaid asked the court to take into account his client's admissions, co-operation and efforts towards rehabilitation.

He suggested that his client had perfect mitigation, and his letter demonstrated his remorse, insight and personal responsibility for his wrongdoing.

Mr McQuaid asked the court to take into account the public odium associated with this offence, the time taken for the case to come to court and that his client will be on the sex offenders' register.
Richard Satchwell was "obsessed" with and "possessive" of his wife Tina, her half-sister told his murder trial on Thursday, with the witness also giving evidence that Tina had confided that she "couldn't get away from" her husband.

Lorraine Howard (50), who is the first and only witness to give evidence on behalf of the accused man, told the 12 jurors on Thursday that Mr Satchwell was: "obsessive, wanting to know where Tina was all the time, who she was speaking to all the time, where she was going all the time".

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Ms Howard said every friend Ms Satchwell would meet, the accused would find "some fault" with, while Tina's "friendship circle was getting smaller and smaller".

Tina's half sister told defence counsel, Brendan Grehan SC, that she thought the way Mr Satchwell acted was "controlling and just odd".

The witness also told defence counsel that she'd told gardai that Tina Satchwell had a "vicious temper".

The trial has heard that on March 24th 2017, Mr Satchwell told gardai that his wife Tina had left their home four days earlier but that he had no concerns over her welfare, feeling she had left due to a deterioration in their relationship.

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The accused formally reported Ms Satchwell missing the following May, but her body was not discovered for over six years, when gardai in October 2023, conducting "an invasive search" of the Satchwell home, found her decomposed remains in a grave that had been dug underneath the stairs.

When re-arrested on suspicion of Tina's murder after her body was removed from their Cork home, Mr Satchwell told gardai that his wife "flew" at him with a chisel, that he fell backwards against the floor and described her death after he said he held her off by the belt of her bathrobe at her neck.

In her evidence, Ms Howard told Mr Grehan that for a long time she thought Tina was her aunt, but she found out at an early age that she was her biological half-sister.

The witness said she and Tina shared the same mother [Mary Collins] but had different fathers.

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Ms Howard told counsel that Tina found out the truth "at her confirmation age", when she went looking for her birth certificate.

Asked how Tina had reacted, Ms Howard said: "Shock I suppose, and [she] felt maybe she had been lied to for a long period of her life"

Ms Howard said her grandmother, Florence Dingivan, who is now deceased, had raised Tina, and she [the witness] saw them as mother and daughter.

Half-sisters

Ms Howard said she and Tina, who was three years older, were not raised in the same house but lived across the road from each other. "We would have been over and back to each other every day..... We were best best friends".

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Asked whether their relationship changed when Tina became aware they were half-sisters, Ms Howard said it had. "I think she felt resented and hurt, and in her eyes she was given away - that's not actually what happened - and I was kept," replied the witness.

Ms Howard said this had caused big distress for Tina, and sometimes she [the witness] "bore the brunt" of that. "We had years of being friends and would then fall out, nearly always about small things, her being given away and she would take her mother's side, who was in fact her grandmother [Florence], and I would take my mother's side," she continued.

"We had a very unique family set up and it caused problems in our family..it always came back to this issue that Tina felt somehow abandoned," she added.

The witness began to weep when Mr Grehan brought up their brother Tom taking his life in 2012. She said his death affected Tina as much as herself.

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The witness cried as she told the jury: "Tina had two families, even now we have her remains back, half her ashes with my grandmother and half are with my brother Tom".

Ms Howard said she first met Mr Satchwell in her grandmother's house when she was 15 years old.

Asked how she would describe the relationship between Richard and Tina, Ms Howard said the accused used to call Tina his "trophy wife and girlfriend". "I didn't like that as a comment, I didn't think it was right to refer to someone as a trophy".

Mr Grehan asked the witness about a statement she made to Detective Garda David Kelleher in August 2020, before Tina's remains were discovered and Mr Satchwell was charged with his wife's murder.

Ms Howard said she believed Tina to be alive at the time and was angry with her, as she believed she was putting the family through "untold stress" and having "taken off with money".

She said she gave the statement in hurt and anger, saying: "I should have aimed this anger at Richard Satchwell".

The witness agreed that her views have been "revisited" since she discovered Tina was dead and buried, and Mr Satchwell was calling to her house "telling me all these lies".

Ms Howard agreed she recalled telling the detective in her statement that Richard was obsessed with Tina and knew she was "above his league", when asked to describe their relationship.

She told gardai that Mr Satchwell had told her that if Tina came back through the door, he would still take her back; "that's how he liked it, just the two of them".

Spending money

Asked whether she had said anything about the balance in the relationship, Ms Howard, who was reading at times from her statement, told counsel: "I said Tina wore the trousers, which would be correct".

The witness agreed gardai had asked her about Mr Satchwell spending money on Tina, and Ms Howard had said he would spend "every penny" on his wife "to dress her up".

"Was that a hard job to keep her?" asked Mr Grehan, to which the witness replied "absolutely". She also agreed she had used the phrase "high maintenance" in her statement to gardai to describe Tina.

Mr Grehan also put it to the witness that she was asked about whether Tina might have depression.

Ms Howard said she had mental health concerns about what had happened with her own brother taking his life, and that Mr Satchwell had tried to portray Tina as depressed, showing her photos with Tina's hair not brushed and her eyes looking sad. "I came to the conclusion that maybe she had some kind of mental health issue".

Ms Howard said she had never seen any "violence" between the couple, despite her and her sister having "many arguments". "She never once went to put a hand towards me," the witness added.

She agreed she had described Tina's "Jekyll and Hyde personality" to gardai - as they had "a dynamic relationship"; sometimes they would be friends and then wouldn't be.

Ms Howard said she told Det Gda Kelleher that Tina had a temper, but so did she.

She agreed with Mr Grehan that she had also told the officer about observing scratches on Mr Satchwell's back, but clarified on Thursday that she had no idea where they came from and had never said Tina had given them to the accused.

Ms Howard agreed she had also told gardai about walking in on a conversation between Tina and her grandmother, when she [the witness] was 15 years old. "Tina was laughing and she said 'I slapped Richard on the face'".

"I didn't know the context and didn't hear the start or end of that conversation," Ms Howard told counsel.

Mr Grehan put it to the witness that she was asked about a comment Mr Satchwell had made - that if Tina ever left him and he came after her, she [Tina] would call the gardai. "She knew she couldn't get away from him. She would confide in me he would follow her to the ends of the earth and she had no way of getting away from him," said the witness.

"You were also asked about having been told that Tina changed her Littlewoods account from her name to his name?" asked counsel. Ms Howard said Mr Satchwell had told her this.

"What was your comment in relation to that?" he asked. "I wouldn't say Richard was controlling but definitely possession. I didn't see him as controlling at the time but have since changed my opinion," she said.

"You were asked at the very end, would Tina take her own life?" asked the lawyer.

Ms Howard said she had concerns based on her family history and the narrative Richard fed her.

She also agreed she said Tina had loved herself.

Counsel told the witness that gardai had asked her about scars the accused had on his head. Ms Howard said she had told gardai that Mr Satchwell had shown her every scar on his body and blamed Tina for it. "If he had a paper cut he would blame Tina".

She said before Tina went missing, Mr Satchwell had never once described his wife as violent or aggressive in any form and then suddenly she was "violent and causing all kinds of damage to his person". "That was why I was so worried for her wellbeing, thinking she'd had some kind of mental breakdown to be subjecting him to this because that wasnt Tina," said the witness.

Ireland 'Very strange': Tina Satchwell's cousin says murde... Read More

"How did you describe her temper?" asked Mr Grehan. "I said she had a vicious temper and so did I," said Ms Howard.

The witness agreed with counsel she hadn't had a conversation with Tina for 15 years before she disappeared.

The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of five men and seven women, when closing speeches from counsel will begin.

Mr Satchwell (58), with an address at Grattan Street, Youghal, Co Cork has pleaded not guilty to murdering his 45-year-old wife Tina Satchwell - nee Dingivan - at that address between March 19 and March 20, 2017, both dates inclusive.
The Tanaiste has accused the Israeli government of genocidal activity in Gaza.

Simon Harris said it was clear that Israel wants to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of what he said was a consistent pattern of war crimes.

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He said the world had not done enough to put pressure on Israel to change course, and said he would look to draft a Bill that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

Asked on Newstalk radio whether what was happening in Gaza was ethnic cleansing, Mr Harris said: In light of the very clear comments that weve seen from the Israeli government in recent days, were very much now in the space of genocidal activity.

I think that is just a statement of fact, we have seen a consistent pattern of war crimes, and we now have an Israeli government that is being very blunt in terms of outlining what it is intending to carry out in Gaza and theyve dropped the pretence, quite frankly, in terms of what they actually want to achieve.

The foreign affairs minister also said that the Israeli governments convoluted scheme to pretend to provide the most basic level of aid to thousands of starving Palestinians was despicable.

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This idea that the Israeli government will come up with some sort of a convoluted scheme to effectively pretend to be providing the most basic level of aid is despicable.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear about this in recent days, when he has effectively said, to paraphrase him, the only reason were doing this is to allow us to continue what he describes as their political objectives, and their political objectives now are very clear.

They want to clear the Gazan Strip, they want to clear Gaza of Palestinian people, and that is a war crime and the forcible displacement of people, as you say, with the offer of food somewhere else, it really is despicable.

He said that a two-state solution seemed further away than ever before and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended as it is being reviewed.

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Mr Harris also condemned shots fired near an EU delegation in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Two Irish officials were among those present when what the Israeli military called warning shots were fired near delegates.

Tanaiste Simon Harris (Brian Lawless/PA)

This is an utterly, utterly inappropriate and indeed illegal action, Mr Harris said.

A number of diplomats, including the Irish head of mission to Palestine and his deputy, were visiting Jenin, a region in the West Bank.

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They were visiting, effectively, an area thats a refugee camp. They were standing at the gates of that refugee camp, and the governor of Jenin, a member of the Palestinian Authority, was speaking and giving them an update.

When his speech ended and the diplomats began to disperse, my understanding from speaking to our people on the ground is that a number of members of the Israeli Defence Forces stepped forward and fired warning shots over their heads, or what is described as warning shots  whether they were warning shots or otherwise, they were shots  and firing shots at diplomats is an absolute, clear breach of international law.

Asked about the Israeli authorities explanation that shots were fired because diplomats had deviated from the agreed route, Mr Harris said: Do they think were thick?

They knew that diplomats were visiting the region, and the diplomats notified the Israeli Defence Forces in advance.

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I dont accept in any manner or means the Israeli Defence Forces explanation in relation to this.

I find it utterly offensive, in fact. There needs to be  as weve said at an EU level  a full investigation in relation to this, and those who fired the shots, or those who gave the commands to fire the shots, need to be held accountable.

Mr Harris also condemned the shooting of two Israeli embassy officials at an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC as a vile antisemitic murder.

Law enforcement at the scene after two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington (Rod Lamkey Jr/AP)

He said a young woman from the Irish embassy was also at the event at the museum.

This is a vile antisemitic murder of two young members of the Israeli embassy  a young couple, I believe, who were due to very shortly be engaged, Mr Harris said.

It is a despicable act. Its a heinous crime. It is antisemitic and its vile.
A wide range of stories feature on the front pages of Irish newspapers on Thursday.

The Irish Times leads with Uisce Eireann warning the Government of a critical need for a wide range of regulatory and legislative reforms if it is to meet the immense task it faces and enable new housing targets.

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The Road Safety Authority has launched a plan to cut its testing backlog, the Irish Examiner reports.

The Echo reports on Cork City COuncil's 350k 'robot trees', which were removed at short notice last weekend, are to be placed in storage while students at UCC and MTU ponder an alternative use for them.

The chief suspect for Kerry farmer Michael Gaine's murder has told gardai he had nothing to do with his death, the Irish Independent reports.

The Irish Daily Mail leads with a piece on the Government being accused of another "betrayal" of women as the expansion of the free IVP scheme has been delayed indefinitely.

The Irish Daily Star reports on the murder suspect in the Michael Gaine case, as well as Manchester United's defeat to Tottenham in the Europa League final on Wednesday night.

A member of Irish-language rap group Kneecap has been charged with a terror offence in the UK, the Irish Daily Mirror reports.

The Herald also reports on Spurs winning the Europa League, as well as two brothers serving jail terms from the Special Criminal Court being sentenced in relation to an altercation outside a Dublin shopping centre in daylight hours.
Aid groups have collected humanitarian aid carried by about 90 trucks, out of a total of nearly 200 that have entered Gaza since Israel began allowing limited goods in earlier this week, the United Nations said.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian agency OCHA, said the trucks that entered carried medicine, wheat flour and nutrition supplies.

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Aid groups faced significant challenges distributing the aid because of insecurity, the risk of looting and coordination issues with Israeli authorities, Mr Laerke added.



Workers unload cargo from a truck carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip at the offload area of the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza (Leo Correa/AP)

Under international pressure, Israel has allowed dozens of aid trucks into Gaza after blocking all food, medicine, fuel and other material for nearly three months.

But the supplies have been sitting on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

Also on Thursday, international leaders were reacting to the shooting of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC the previous day.

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The attack was seen by officials in Israel and the US as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Japans Foreign Ministry says it has made a severe protest to Israel over its militarys firing of warning shots at a diplomatic delegation including Japanese diplomats that was visiting a refugee camp in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.



Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, Gaza (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Vice-minister for Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, to request a full explanation and preventive measures.

Mr Fukakoshi told Mr Gilad the incident was deeply regrettable and should not have happened.

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Mr Funakoshi also reiterated Japans strong concern over Israels attempted reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the expansion of military operations, urging it to allow a full and immediate resumption of aid into Gaza, the foreign ministry said.

Mr Funakoshi also offered his condolences on the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC, stating that terrorism is not tolerated anywhere in the world.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC have been shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, police said.

Officers said the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested following the attack on Wednesday evening.

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The shooting prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff.

It came as Israel launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally and as antisemitic acts are on the rise.

The two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said.



US attorney general Pam Bondi, centre, walks to her car as law enforcement work the scene of the attack (Rod Lamkey/AP)

He added that the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

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They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The man, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, then walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Ms Smith added.

Israeli officials identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American.



A man walks from the scene of the shooting in Washington DC (Rod Lamkey/AP)

Mr Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Miss Milgrim organised visits and missions to Israel.

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These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! US President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday.

Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the AJC, the advocacy organisation whose event the couple had been attending, said: Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us. Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends.

We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

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He described Miss Milgrim, from Kansas, as warm and compassionate, committed to peace building and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations.

He said Mr Lischinsky was a staff member of the embassys political department who focused on Middle East issues and who told others at the event that he was eager to return to Israel to be with his family for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

 Israels reaction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said Thursday that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

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Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

Their identities were not immediately made public.



The attack has sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security (Rod Lamkey/AP)

Former Israeli ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy and the man was Israeli.

Attorney general Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the US attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.

The statement from Mr Netanyahus office said he spoke to Ms Bondi, who told him Mr Trump was involved in managing the incident and the US would bring the perpetrator to justice.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.

 Israels new campaign in Gaza

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East.

The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on October 7, 2023 to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.





These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL! President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Z30bjAQOpZ  The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2025

The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape.

 In cold blood

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Mr Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realising he was the suspect.

When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Mr Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Mr Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel?

How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.



The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip (Rod Lamkey/AP)

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington DC awarded funding from a 500,000 dollar grant programme to increase its security.

The museums leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organisation and due to its new LGBT exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.

We recognise that there are threats associated with this as well, executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station.

And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.

In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington chief executive Gil Preuss said in a statement that he was horrified by the shooting and mourned the loss of the two people killed.

Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, and with all of those who are impacted by this tragic act of antisemitic violence, he said.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.

However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.
Russia and Ukraine have scheduled no further direct talks on ending their more than three-year war, a Kremlin spokesman has said.

The comment comes almost a week after the first face-to-face engagement between the countries delegations since 2022 and days after US President Donald Trump announced they would start ceasefire negotiations immediately.

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There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.



Municipal workers remove the cover that protected a monument of Kyiv legendary founders from Russian missile attacks (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

They are yet to be agreed upon.

During two hours of talks in Istanbul last Friday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, in what would be their biggest such swap.

Apart from that step, the meeting delivered no significant breakthrough.

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Several months of intensified US and European pressure on the two sides to accept a ceasefire and negotiate a settlement have yielded little progress.

Meanwhile, Russia is readying a summer offensive to capture more Ukrainian land, Ukrainian government and military analysts say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that Moscow would propose and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum outlining the framework for a possible future peace treaty.

Mr Putin has effectively rejected a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has accepted.

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He has linked the possibility to a halt in Ukraines mobilisation effort and a freeze on Western arms shipments to Kyiv as part of a comprehensive settlement.



President Donald Trump claimed that Russia was not interested in talks because he thinks Russia is winning (Evan Vucci/AP)

European leaders have accused Mr Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his bigger armys battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

The major prisoner swap is a quite laborious process that requires some time, Mr Peskov said.

But he added: The work is continuing at a quick pace, everybody is interested in doing it quickly.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that preparations are under way for the potential prisoner exchange, which he described as perhaps the only real result of the talks in Turkey.

Mr Peskov disputed a report on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal that Mr Trump told European leaders after his phone call with Mr Putin on Monday that the Russian leader was not interested in talks because he thinks that Russia is winning.

We know what Trump told Putin, we dont know what Trump told the Europeans. We know President Trumps official statement, Mr Peskov said.



Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

What we know contrasts with what was written in the article you mentioned.

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Apart from the continuing war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line, which has killed tens of thousands of troops on both sides, the warring parties have been firing dozens of long-range drones at each others territory almost daily.

Russias Defence Ministry said that it had shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 35 over the Moscow region.

It was the second straight night that Kyivs forces have targeted the Russian capital.

More than 160 flights were delayed across three of Moscows four main airports, the citys transport prosecutor said, as officials grounded planes citing concerns for passenger safety.

The attack prompted some regions to turn off mobile internet signals, including the Oryol region southwest of Moscow, which was targeted heavily on Wednesday.

The Defence Ministry claimed it downed 485 Ukrainian drones over several regions and the Black Sea between Tuesday evening and Thursday morning, including 63 over the Moscow region, in one of the biggest drone attacks.

It was not possible to verify the numbers.



Firefighters put out the fire following Russias drone attack in the Kyiv region (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 128 drones at Ukraine overnight.

Among the targets were Ukraines central Dnipropetrovsk region, damaging an industrial facility, power lines, and several private homes, regional governor Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.

In Kyiv, debris from a Russian drone fell onto the grounds of a school in the capitals Darnytskyi district, according to the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

No injuries were reported.

Ukrainian shelling in Russias Kursk region killed a 50-year-old man and injured two others, acting regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Thursday.

Mr Putin visited the Kursk region on Tuesday for the first time since Moscow claimed that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month.

Kyiv officials denied the claim.



Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting near Sochi, Russia (Vyacheslav Prokofyev/AP)

Despite the liberation of our territory, the border region is still subject to enemy attacks, Mr Khinshtein warned residents on Telegram.

It is still dangerous to be there.

Mr Putin has said Russian forces have orders to create a security buffer zone along the border.

That would help prevent Ukraine from striking areas inside Russia with artillery, Mr Putin told a government meeting, but he gave no details of where the proposed buffer zone would be or how far it would stretch.
A surgeon treating Palestinians in one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza has said the local population is at its last limit amid daily drone strikes.

Dr Tiziana Roggio, an Italian plastic surgeon based at St Georges Hospital in London, first arrived in Gaza on May 12th alongside a team of four other London-based doctors.

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Dr Roggio is volunteering for a month at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, tending to patients with blast injuries and burns with limited medical supplies.

Over recent days, strikes have pounded areas across Gaza and Israel has issued evacuation orders for Khan Younis.

Dr Tiziana Roggio says she hears drones over her head every day. Photo: Dr Tiziana Roggio

Dr Roggio said Nasser hospital is just 1.5km away from the declared red zone and fears what will happen to patients if the hospital has to be evacuated.

If this hospital shuts down, loads of patients will die because they wont have anywhere to go, Dr Roggio told the PA news agency from the operating theatre in Nasser hospital.

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This is the biggest hospital in Khan Younis and has a large volume of patients, and has ICU facilities, oxygen generators, has got scans and operating rooms that can accommodate big surgical procedures like vascular surgery.

If this hospital closes, the only hospitals remaining will be the tent hospitals.

Although these hospitals are functional, they dont have facilities that can support ICU patients or complex surgical procedures.

Dr Roggio, who travelled from London to Gaza with a humanitarian charity called International Disaster & Emergency Aid with Long-term Support (Ideals), said the situation in Gaza is much worse than she had anticipated.

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Its been quite shocking. Ive been told that its much worse now, because the population is really on its last limit, she said.

We have drones over our heads every day and it gets honestly unbearable sometimes, because its really loud.

Its really warm at the moment so you kind of want to keep the windows open and you cant, it gets really stressful.

I cant keep track of time, because I dont even know what day it is.

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Dr Roggio described hearing massive blast noises on Tuesday morning after an Israeli drone strike hit the area.

Yesterday morning I guess that we were bombed early in the morning. We were sleeping at about 5.30am and the whole building shook, she said.

We heard this massive blast noise and we all went out and we had jets flying over our heads and dropping bombs in the area that is very near where we are.

A tent settlement in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Photo: Dr Tiziana Roggio

Dr Roggio, who has been working 12-hour shifts at Nasser hospital treating 10 to 12 people every day, described working with severely malnourished patients and having limited antibiotics.

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All the patients we treat are severely malnourished and this is a problem for us plastic surgeons, because all the wounds are not going to heal, she said.

If the patient is not on adequate nutrition, the infection rate is really high.

She also described the challenges of working with limited antibiotics.

They are essentially antibiotics that we give to our patients in the UK at the induction of surgical procedures, she said.

But here these antibiotics are used to treat severe infection, and these are all wounds that are highly contaminated because they are from blast injuries.

We are treating things that in the UK would be absolutely healed in one week but here its taking forever.

Dr Roggio commended the resilience of local medical staff who have been operating in such severe circumstances for the last 18 months.

Im absolutely shocked to see how the local team is coping with this situation that has been going on for a very long time, she said.

Consider that they come every day from their accommodation, which means tents, where they had to live for the last few months.

They have been forced to leave their houses and take their belongings.

They dont lose energy. They come here every day. Theyre super polite. They even bring us presents and food, which is absolutely shocking, because they have literally nothing. They dont even have water.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7th, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251.

Ireland Tanaiste accuses Israel of genocidal activity in... Read More

Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, a third of whom are believed to still be alive.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gazas health ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

The Ideals JustGiving donations page can be found at: justgiving.com/ideals
However, within the 90-day pause in the wider tit-for-tat tariff war between the US and China, the tariff rate was reduced to 54 per cent with the $US100 flat fee remaining. The US actions caused Shein and Temu to increase their prices to US consumers and to rethink their business models, diversifying their supply chains to source products from countries facing lower tariffs. Temu halted its direct shipping model and scrambled to find US suppliers. Even without Trumps aggressive trade war on everyone, the rest of the world has been starting to consider how to avoid being overwhelmed by cheap products. Credit: Bloomberg The fear elsewhere is that they would seek to compensate for lower US sales by stepping up their marketing and supply to other economies. The European Union has proposed levying a flat fee of 2 ($A3.50) per parcel on small packages. Europe is already a major and fast-growing destination for low-value exports from China, with 4.6 billion parcels attracting de minimis status last year, 90 per cent of them from China.

That was about twice the volume experienced in 2023 and, indeed, a far greater volume than that experienced by the US, where about 1.2 billion packages  some Congressional estimates are far higher  originated from within China and Hong Kong last year. (It is difficult to be precise because there is so little data collected on the volume and nature of those parcels). Loading The EUs draft proposal says the new fee will apply to parcels sent directly to consumers. If they are sent to a warehouse, they would attract a fee of only 0.50. It is easier and less costly to process goods and collect revenue from a warehouse than it is from individual parcels at the border. The de minimis exemptions common to most advanced economies reflect the cost and complexity of imposing and collecting revenue from small parcel imports. Indeed, that was the original rationale for the exemption which dates back to 1938 in the US. With the costs and effort of applying and collecting duties seen as greater than the revenue that might be raised, the parcels were regarded as too insignificant to bother about  until the volumes began soaring in the past few years.

The European approach is essentially designed to recover those costs of administering the regime rather than the revenue-raising, import-deterring tariffs approach favoured by the US. Japan has convened a panel of tax experts to consider removing its exemption from duties for parcels worth less than 10,000 yen ($108). It is contemplating applying its sales tax of around 10 per cent to small parcels. Its not just the use of what has been exploited as a loophole in tariff and duty arrangements by mainly Chinese exporters that is concerning legislators. Small parcel imports, which arent inspected, have become a route for illegal drug imports, counterfeit goods and products that dont meet the receiving countries safety standards. The prospective influx of low-value exports from China was even raised at this weeks G7 meeting of the finance ministers in Canada. Credit: AP Theres also concern about the impact the rapidly growing influx of cheap products from China (and some very sophisticated circumvention of local sales and income tax regimes) is having on domestic manufacturers and retailers.

In the US, even the retail behemoth Amazon was so concerned about the impact of Shein and Temu on its business that it copied them and set up its own direct-to-consumer model, shipping directly from warehouses in China to US consumers. Shein and Temu are the most visible and largest of Chinas small parcel exporters, so the walls that are being erected to slow or halt their tide of cheap products threaten their businesses. They are not, of course, the only Chinese companies exploiting the de minimis loophole, and its not just that exemption that is causing concern in other economies. With Chinas domestic economy stuttering and domestic demand weak, its factories have been deploying their significant excess capacity into export markets. Even as the volume of exports has surged, export prices have been falling. That tide of cheap exports  factory-gate prices have been sliding steadily for more than two years  some of them from industries subsidised, directly or indirectly, by various levels of Chinas governments, is seen as a threat to advanced economies and their domestic manufacturers.

Even without Trumps aggressive trade war on everyone, the rest of the world has been starting to consider how to avoid being overwhelmed by the threatened flood of cheap products. They want to avoid the experience of the 1990s, when the initial impact of Chinas emergence as the worlds manufacturing base wiped out large swathes of Western industry and jobs. Shein and Temu are the most visible, and largest, of Chinas small parcel exporters, so the walls that are being erected to slow or halt their tide of cheap products threaten their businesses. Chinas manufacturing base is now far larger, with a global manufacturing output share above 30 per cent. It now produces and exports goods of higher value and in more strategic sectors than it did in the 1990s. Unrestricted imports from China would do considerable domestic economic damage to the rest of the world. Those exports exploiting the de minimis exemption are elements within a larger picture, but not insignificant given their sheer volume and startling growth rates.
What a time to be alive it has been for Country Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Widely adored by conservatives after leading the successful campaign to defeat the Indigenous Voice to parliament, the Northern Territory senators flirtation with US President Donald Trumps make America great again slogan went down like a 1000-megaton bomb during an election campaign that ended with devastation for Peter Duttons Liberals.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been spruiking the success of right-wing lobby group Advance in the federal election. Credit: James Brickwood

Price claimed that concerns about her MAGA moment amounted to journalistic mudslinging before promptly defecting from the Nationals party room to have a crack at the deputy Liberal leadership, enraging many of her former colleagues in the process. Price then enraged many of her new colleagues after chickening out of the deputy leader contest once the tickets No.1, Angus Taylor, lost to Sussan Ley by just four votes.

Then the Coalition spectacularly fell apart this week, leaving Australian conservatives facing a very long winter.
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Review Eating outCheltenham Matcha outsells coffee at this brunch spot with a secret drinks menu Sana may tap into trends, but the team are still in awe of customers who travel across the city to experience the bayside cafe. Dani Valent May 22, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share

As featured in the June 2025 hitlist. See all stories .

1 / 7 Sana in Cheltenham offers a secret matcha menu. Wayne Taylor 2 / 7 Wagyu katsu sando. Wayne Taylor 3 / 7 Udon carbonara. Wayne Taylor 4 / 7 Charred avocado toast with harissa hummus, feta and wasabi granola. Wayne Taylor 5 / 7 Banana milk matcha, a trending Korean drink. Wayne Taylor 6 / 7 Acai bowl with tropical fruit, granola and a fudgy brownie. Wayne Taylor 7 / 7 There is plenty of sunny seating outside. Wayne Taylor Previous Slide Next Slide Japanese$$$$ Is too much matcha ever enough? Not at Sana, where matcha outsells coffee. Open since February, Sana is drawing customers from an hour away for social-media-famous matcha drinks and Asian-inspired brunches. But you dont need to trawl TikTok: Ive got the lowdown. Sana is a destination cafe, at least in the sense that you would never stumble upon it, here on the light-industrial fringe of a low-rise housing estate with kid-friendly cul-de-sacs. Even though were in Cheltenham, 20 kilometres south of the city, parking is tricky. During the week youll be more likely to find a spot for the car and a seat in the cafe, either in the sheltered front porch or inside, where tables are arranged around a central drinks station as busy with matcha-whisking as milk-steaming. Related Article From udon carbonara to a hot-choc haven: Five new cafes to try (and what to order)

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Everything is light, bright and fresh, chic rather than cosy, with whitewashed bricks, concrete flooring and tiles in shades of pink. (I visited with a friend who uses a wheelchair. The toilets in the cafe arent accessible, but there are disabled facilities in the adjoining foyer.) Banana milk matcha, a trending Korean drink. Wayne Taylor Matcha is a finely ground powder made from shade-grown green tea leaves, hand-picked only in spring, then steamed and slowly ground to an iridescent sprinkle. Whisked, poured and served according to protocols with roots in Zen Buddhism, matcha is the traditional beverage in Japanese tea ceremonies. In a Kyoto temple, matcha is usually sipped in its simplest form, combined with hot water using a bamboo whisk. In fashionable cafes in Melbourne, its served hot, cold, layered, foamed and baked into desserts. The best matcha tastes grassy, rounded and deep, astringent but not too bitter. At Sana, the matcha latte is a good example of the genre. Some cafes use pre-batched matcha cordial, but they hand-whisk to order here. Matcha is also mixed with banana milk, an on-trend Korean beverage that sits as a pleasant, mild backdrop for the tea. Need more? Whisper to the waiter that you want the secret menu, and youll have nine more matcha drinks to choose from: iced matcha with Earl Grey is a good place to start. Sanas owner Steve Chrun moved from Sydney to Melbourne so his wife could be closer to her family. Up north, the former finance guy launched popular cafes Celsius in Kirribilli (now sold) and Cafe Monstera in Mosman Bay (still in the stable). Theyre both waterfront cafes with contemporary eggs n extras menus. Sana is different, with views of townhouses rather than bobbing yachts and more of a Japanese culinary angle.

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Udon carbonara. Wayne Taylor Udon carbonara is an Asian fusion staple; this is a smart rendition, the chewy, cheese-scattered noodles served alongside soy-glazed thick-cut bacon, oozy egg yolk and a little dashi broth, which helps smooth the flavours and lighten the dish. Avocado toast is a cheery pile of lightly charred avo (smoky, but not warm or gross), spicy hummus and wasabi granola (grains stirred with blitzed wasabi peas, which is a clever touch). The same granola base, this time mixed with cocoa rather than peas, is scattered over an acai bowl which amps up the colour and flavours with tropical fruit and a fudgy square of brownie. As winter hits, look for hot waffles instead of chilly acai. Wagyu mince is turned into a spiced pattie, crumbed, fried and splodged with curry pickle mayo for the milk-loaf sandwich. Tapping into trends and hype can feel cynical, but Sana is more about joy, fun and a sincere welcome. Yes, theres a not-so-secret menu, but the real secret to Sanas success is that Chrun and his team are still surprised and grateful that people are seeking out the place: if you whisk it, they will come. Three more matcha specialists to try Matcha Kobo This new city spot stone-mills matcha then whisks it to order for specialty hot and cold drinks. Theres table seating, but you can really channel Kyoto by sitting cross-legged on cushions in the faux temple area. Kobo is above DIY Japanese burger grill Nikuland, also worth a visit. 2/258 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/matchakobo Meet Forest Too much cute is never enough at tiny Meet Forest. Desserts include multi-layered matcha crepe cakes, matcha mochi and matcha Basque cheesecakes. Theres a miniature dressed-up dog called Sesame, and coffee is taken seriously too. 1A/7 Yarra Street, South Yarra, instagram.com/meetforest_mel Naau Theyre both green, earthy and nutty, so why wouldnt pistachio go with matcha? One-year-old Naau is a small city cafe that does matcha every which way, including a hot, frothy pistachio version, which could be my winter winner. 276 Russell Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/naau.coffee Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant cant pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
Former Nationals leader and Riverina MP Michael McCormack was just on ABC News 24, where he was asked about saying he was ambitious for Nationals leader David Littleproud in an interview this morning.

If that sounds familiar, this is why.

Here was McCormacks exchange with host Isobel Roe just now.

Roe: Are you sounding the death knell there for his leadership [in making that statement]?

McCormack: No, no it was tongue in cheek. Im a student of political history. I just, just answered the question, I am ambitious for David, want the Nationals to be the best they can be. He is our leader and I support him.

Roe: Youre the former deputy prime minister, you cant say something like that without setting off alarm bells. It is surely intentional. What did you mean by that?

McCormack: You cant always be playing straight, Id just watched Matt Thistlethwaites interview, just read off the Labors talking points, sometimes youve just got to stray a little bit and say a few things that you actually mean and actually mean to say...

Roe: So what did you mean by saying that particularly poignant phrase?

McCormack: Im not planning to roll David any time soon.

Roe then asked if that meant he might run in the future.

McCormack: Youre not going to put a red line through your name forever.

Former Nationals leaders Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

He also said he hadnt spoken to Barnaby Joyce, after Joyce said he would back McCormack if the latter sought Littleprouds job.

Later McCormack was asked if Littleprouds leadership was tenable after the week hes had in taking the Nationals out of the Coalition (negotiations are continuing to restore that relationship).

McCormacks answer: Well, the party room will decide that.  He said he hadnt heard any murmurings, you know, [about it] being a spill motion.
Mike Fogarty (C8) first saw colour TV in San Diego in 1967, notes Mike Honey of Wentworth Falls. This would have been broadcast in NTSC (National Television Standards Committee), a system developed in America in the 1940s. Fortunately, when colour was introduced to Australia in the 1970s, the PAL (Phase Alternate Lines) system was chosen instead, producing a much higher quality colour image. When American shows had to be broadcast here, however, a PAL copy sadly did nothing to enhance the poor picture quality. Many of us who worked in the television industry at that time would claim, therefore, that NTSC actually stood for Never The Same Colour.

Since the introduction of colour television in Australia, we have, in fact, become more black and white, reckons Rob McPaul of Thirroul. Where are the canary yellow and lime green cars? Likewise, with houses, red brick has given way to shades of grey and painted houses are shades of white. With this loss of colour in our environment, have we benefited from colour television? What do other C8-ers think?

Regarding colour in the world and children as thinkers, I recall taking a group of year 9 students from the city to a dairy farm near Bathurst, writes Lis Alarab of Hornsby. The farmer was explaining the different breeds of cattle and pointing them out to the students when one kid very seriously asked: So, which cows produce the chocolate milk?

I recently passed an old, dark-fronted microwave getting a second chance at life doubling as a mailbox, says Viv Munter of Tumbi Umbi. It got me thinking about other creative mailbox ideas. Perhaps fellow C8-ers can share?

Roderick van Gelder of Hunters Hill flicks the switch: At this point I am happy to pay more for appliances with zero smart features (C8) and just physical knobs, buttons and controls for everything.
A stalker found with hundreds of photos and videos of a young primary school teacher, on whom he had developed a terrifying fixation, will be free from jail in less than three months.

Brenten Paul Harlock digitally altered photographs of the woman in a pornographic manner and to make it look like they were a couple over three years of offending after a chance encounter between the pair in a cafe.

Brenten Paul Harlock is to be sentenced this month. Credit: Jacky Ghossein

The 56-year-old appeared in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Thursday where a magistrate heard that a long and significant decline in Harlocks constellation of mental health issues had led to his offending.

Harlock has been diagnosed with several mental health conditions including borderline personality disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder).
The 707 was Australias VIP jetliner, but it had seen better days. The little fleet of 707s came from the late 1950s/early 60s era when rock n roll and V8 hot rods ruled and noise pollution wasnt a problem. By the time Keating was PM, the RAAF had to beg permission to land the 707 at many international airports because its old engines made such a racket, even after they were fitted with exhaust baffles. In 1992, when Keating made an official visit to Tokyo, the Japanese politely explained its international airport, Narita, wasnt suitable. Paul Keating in 1993. His plan for two new prime ministerial planes was grounded that year. Credit: Getty Images They directed the RAAF to land at Tokyos domestic airport, which presumably had vintage spanner sets for elderly airframes if the plane broke down.

It was humiliating for a prime minister like Keating, whom cartoonists cruelly drew as the modern embodiment of the extravagantly self-absorbed Sun King, Frances Louis XIV. I had by then spent happy years flying around the world in the old 707s as part of the press gallery pack. We called it the Zoo Plane. Wine of fine vintage and high jinks of great silliness flowed freely in the media cabin down the back. Until Keating became PM, Bob Hawke smoked cigars and played poker in his suite at the front. It was a most agreeable way to travel the world. But then, in mid-1993, not long after Keating unexpectedly won the federal election against John Hewson, word floated my way through Canberras rarefied air that the triumphant PM was on the lookout for a new VIP plane. Two, in fact.

Quiet conversations confirmed Keatings desire for more-fitting VIP airborne transport, but that his department was on a collision course with the Defence Department, which was worried about the cost. The two planes being considered were Boeing 757s. They werent flown by any airline in Australia, but they were big and modern and desirable. And expensive. Tony Wrights story on Paul Keatings jet plans in The Sydney Morning Herald, June 16, 1993. Credit: When my story was published in The Sydney Morning Herald, all hell broke loose. The public went into a mild uproar, Keatings Labor colleagues went weak at the knees, and I, as the messenger, got a number of shouty phone calls from offices not too far from the prime ministers own parliamentary suite.

Even Keating suddenly found himself unwilling to test the generosity of voters, many of whom were still recovering from what he had called, only three years previously, the recession we had to have. The story killed the planned purchase of new VIP planes stone dead. Keating was still flying around in the ancient 707s three years later when he lost the prime ministership to John Howard. I was not allowed to forget it. Every time I stepped aboard the 707 for a trip overseas, I was reminded by Keatings staff that if the plane fell out of the sky, I was to blame for writing that bloody story.

Loading Press gallery colleagues, unhappy at being scooped, took up the sledging with glee. And Keating continued to yearn for a plane more suited to a prime minister of style. In 1995, on a trip to Germany, no sooner had we landed in Bonn than the poor unloved 707 was rolled into a darkened hangar and Keating continued on to Berlin in a magnificently appointed Airbus lent to him by chancellor Helmut Kohl. Some among the travelling media declared Keating looked green each time he emerged from the Airbus VIP suite with its gold appointments in the bathroom, its conference room and its super-modern communications.

I felt a bit sympathetic. It wasnt unusual for fittings in the ancient 707s to judder loose. I once copped a thump to the head when an internal ceiling panel fell out. Keating was correct. The VIP fleet desperately needed replacements. John Howard eventually got a Boeing Business Jet that was (conveniently) too small to accommodate travelling journalists. The current fleet consists of two Boeing 737s, ordered by Scott Morrisons government and used these days by Anthony Albanese, the governor-general and others. The point, however, was that a prime minister in Australias political system could not unilaterally choose the style of VIP plane available to him or her. Australia pays for its own perquisites, which are decided by federal departments like Defence and Prime Minister and Cabinet, which have rules and budgets.

Loading It is unimaginable that an Australian prime minister would consider accepting a jumbo jet-sized bribe from a foreign country. All senators and members of the House of Representatives are required to list their pecuniary interests in a register. The allowable limit for gifts from another government is $750, and from individuals it is $300. A $600 million jet would appear mighty peculiar in any list of pecuniary interests. Anywhere, really, outside Trumps morally warped Washington.
This family I swear to f---ing god, the post read. A post sent soon after, at 10.27am on December 6, 2022, read: I said to him about 50 times yesterday that I didnt want them to adjudicate. Nobody bloody listens to me, at least I know theyre a lost cause. As the conversation continued, the court heard more posts were made via the account, including some discussing difficulties in obtaining child support, and suggestions from his family that she withdraw her claim. In one message, the author wondered if Simon Patterson had any capacity for self-reflection, and said his refusal to talk about personal issues appeared to be a learned behaviour from his parents to not talk about this shit.

A post from the account later stated that Simon Patterson needs to be accountable for his decision-making that was hurting their children. Thats when Don said  theyre staying out of it. Im sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them, the post read. F--- them. On December 7, 2022, a message posted from the account said Simon Patterson and his parents had sent the account holder messages, but that she had refused to read them. Simons will just be horrible and gaslighting and abusive and ruin my day. And his parents will be more weasle [sic] words.

I dont need anything from these people. Messages posted from the account went on to say that Don and Gail Patterson were refusing to hold Simon Patterson responsible, having him over for dinner every night for three months, while failing to pick up the phone to ask her if she was OK following the separation. Simon wants to walk away from his responsibilities. If he wants them to go to a private Christian school, he can help pay for it. Maybe it just means I have even more freedom in my choices.

Blessing in disguise. When another user named Bronwyn asked if Erin Erin Erin would continue to go to the same church, the account replied that they hadnt been in months. His mum was horrified that I had claimed child support. Why isnt she horrified that her son is such a deadbeat that I had no choice but to claim? The court heard the messages were downloaded by digital forensics officers from a Samsung mobile phone seized from the accused womans house on August 5, 2023. The jury was also shown data records from a second mobile phone, also a Samsung.

Warren said the court would hear evidence that this phone was given to police by the accused on August 5, 2023. In reading out the data log, Warren said it appeared the device had undergone a factory reset a number of times. This included manually  by hand by the user  at 1.20pm on August 5, 2023. The following day the data indicated a factory reset had been performed at 5.16am, again by the user, but this time wiped remotely. Council officer tells court he scoured grocers for mushrooms after people fell ill A council health officer has told a court he searched more than a dozen Asian grocery stores across south-east Melbourne to try to identify the source of a suspected outbreak of mushroom-related illness.

Troy Schonknecht, an environmental health officer with the City of Monash, told the court that he had been contacted by a Department of Health employee on August 1, 2023, asking for help after a group of people had become unwell after eating what was thought to be mushrooms. City of Monash environmental health officer Troy Schonknecht. Credit: Jason South The only thing that they told us was that it was either possibly Oakleigh, Clayton or Mount Waverley, and theyd confirm in an email tomorrow, Schonknecht said. They alleged that the person may have purchased the mushrooms from an Asian grocer in those suburbs. But they did not say when, yet. Using the councils business database, he said he had established which premises potentially had mushrooms for sale before attending them all and taking photographs inside the stores of dried and fresh mushrooms on display.

Schonknecht said he visited a range of stores in Oakleigh, Clayton and Mount Waverley where he spoke to the owners and documented anything that might fit the scope of his search. He said he had been able to find only one mushroom source that appeared to have been repackaged. The owner of the store, he said, told him a larger item had been repackaged into smaller bags as shoppers largely wanted to purchase the mushrooms only in smaller amounts. He said none of the mushroom sellers believed they had changed suppliers or been approached by anyone to sell non-commercially grown mushrooms between April and August 2023. While under cross-examination from defence barrister Sophie Stafford, Schonknecht agreed those were the only three suburbs he visited  Oakleigh, Clayton and Mount Waverley.

Mairim Cespon, who worked as a nurse at Leongatha Hospital, outside the court on Thursday. Credit: Jason South Shes got this pain, nurse who treated Erin Patterson tells court A nurse has described the moments after Erin Patterson first arrived at a Gippsland hospital, explaining that she complained about feeling ill several days after a lunch she served containing mushrooms. The nurse, Mairim Cespon, told jurors she was working at Leongatha Hospital on July 31, 2023, when two other people who had eaten lunch two days prior at Erin Pattersons home  Heather and Ian Wilkinson  showed up, followed by Patterson herself. Heather and Ian Wilkinson.
Victorias Department of Health retreated from the 260 promise last year, labelling the reform recommendation fully delivered after the opening of the 179th bed at Royal Melbourne Hospital. Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitt. Credit: Jason South But patients, carers, families and mental health physicians struggling to access services say not all these beds are actually available. The latest Chief Officer for Mental Health and Wellbeing data reveals there were 1353 acute mental health beds in Victoria in July 2024  just 142 more than there were before the royal commissions report. When The Age asked Mental Health Minister Ingrid Stitts office where the new acute beds were, it provided a list detailing 155 beds across various hospitals, as well as an unspecified number of hospital-in-the-home beds delivered by Barwon Health and Orygen.

A Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission spokesperson said the watchdog was also struggling to gain transparency about how the reforms were being implemented. Loading Since being established [in 2021], the commission has been working with the Department of Health to encourage transparent reporting. We are still waiting for responses from the department to our requests for data, the spokesperson said. The commission said that without specific data, it was unable to gain a clear picture about key objectives of the mental health reforms or innovations across the system. The spokesperson said there were also no clear timeframes on when the government would meet planned future reforms.

A worker from a regional support service, who asked not be identified to protect their employment, said even carers involved in co-designing the departments response to the royal commission were now struggling to get feedback on where the promised new measures and services were. In regional Victoria, theyve reduced their beds but the need has increased, the mental health worker said. They need to roll them out like they promised. We needed all those services yesterday. They didnt recommend them for something to be put on hold for an unknown amount of years. Regardless of how many beds actually exist across Victorias mental health system, overdemand and the fact many are still being built mean they are not being used to capacity, according to this weeks state budget. Although the health system was funded to treat 32,600 inpatients last year, fewer than 27,000 were actually treated, with the department citing planned capital works and other operational factors for the shortfall.

It blamed high demand for services for a failure to reach the 80 per cent occupancy rate target for patients in residential beds, which were only 71 per cent full. Almost three out of five mental health patients waited more than four hours in emergency departments  well outside the target of fewer than one in five. Fifty-five per cent of mental health patients arriving at emergency departments waited more than eight hours before a suitable bed was found. The budget documents say these delays were driven by challenges identifying patients with mental health needs and the fact that many may need medical care before they could be transferred. According to the Victorian Agency for Health Information, more than 2300 Victorians are seeking support through hospitals  the highest rate of weekly mental health emergency department presentations since before the royal commission. When they do make it to a bed, many patients have far more complex issues than expected, with budget figures showing the rate of children and adolescents being secluded is three times more than recommended, and twice as many adults.

Loading Eliminating the use of seclusion was a major finding of the royal commission, but the department blamed an increase in the complexity and acuity of patients for the continued high rates. Mental Health Victoria chief executive officer Phillipa Thomas said patients were effectively being punished because the government could not manage its capital works program. She warned thousands of vulnerable Victorians could fall through the cracks. The accountability that is supposed to be in place is not there, Thomas said.

There has been investment in new patient beds and some have been built, but there has also been the closure of some beds. While it talks a lot about reform, the government has really dropped the ball on system stewardship. This is not reform. A state government spokesperson said some disruption was unavoidable due to upgrading mental health facilities but we wont apologise for making mental health care safer and better for Victorians. We know demand for mental health services remains high  thats why were continuing to invest in the mental health workforce, infrastructure and programs that put care into communities and ease pressure on emergency departments, the spokesperson said.

Thomas said this weeks state budget had no measures to address shortages in critical services, and only managed to maintain the status quo of ongoing funding. Positives included workforce growth funding, continuing funding for some community programs and making sure previously announced beds were funded to operate. Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and Premier Jacinta Allan. Credit: Penny Stephens Speaking on Thursday, Premier Jacinta Allan said her government understood the importance of reforms and had invested billions, but acknowledged workforce availability had been a challenge in implementing them. Which is why there has been significant investment targeted at training up and scaling up and bringing in the thousands of more mental health workers that we need to support the growing system, she said.

The wider sector also remains concerned about funding certainty after a welcome $6 billion boost in the four years following the royal commission. Loading The introduction of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Payroll Surcharge levy, a tax charged on businesses with a national payroll above $10 million, is supposed to ensure every cent raised is spent in the sector. This financial year, the tax generated $1.1 billion, while the governments total expenditure on mental health clinical care was calculated at $2.9 billion. The Department of Healths annual report shows that over the two prior financial years, the tax has raised more revenue than expected, creating surpluses the department was not able to spend. The extra money was instead used to request less additional funding from the treasurer.

The levy was intended to provide a large increase in investment in Victorias mental health system, and an Allan government spokesperson said all revenue raised was used for these purposes. Loading Since the royal commission, weve invested more than $6 billion into mental health, opened 15 free walk-in mental health clinics, doubled the capacity of our youth mental health centres supporting 900 extra young Victorians, and grown the mental health workforce by 25 per cent, the government spokesperson said. All levy revenue is invested into mental health, allowing sustained and growing investment in mental health services, workforce, infrastructure and innovation. Opposition mental health spokesperson Emma Kealy said the government had botched its promised reforms.
West Coast are wrapping their arms around Jeremy McGovern, telling the star defender to keep things business as usual while he awaits to see whether his AFL career is over.

McGoverns playing future hangs in the balance, with a panel of concussion experts to determine his fate.

The 33-year-old has been sidelined since suffering a head knock in West Coasts loss to Melbourne in round eight.

Jeremy McGovern looks on after a collision with the Demons Harrison Petty during the Eagles round eight clash at Optus Stadium. Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

McGovern was initially optimistic he would be given the green light to return after missing just one game, but his failure to progress smoothly through the AFLs return-to-play protocols raised red flags.

He will now have to meet with an AFL concussion panel to find out the next step.

McGovern may be put on a personalised treatment or rehabilitation plan, handed an extension of the return-to-play time frame, be recommended to undergo further tests or be told to retire on medical grounds.

The five-time All-Australian walked laps and did some light jogging at training on Thursday, and coach Andrew McQualter praised the way McGovern is handling the situation.

The unknown is a bit of a challenge, but hes doing OK, McQualter said.

Were going to continue to support him. Hell have a couple of days off work as we go to Adelaide this weekend.

And then its just so uncertain at the moment as to what happens next.

We know its going to the panel. When that will happen, were not sure yet. Well just wait and see and keep supporting Gov through the process.

Its just business as usual at the moment.

McGovern is one of West Coasts best and most experienced players, and he is continuing to help his younger teammates despite his own personal circumstances.

Govs one of our leaders, and hes still one of our terrific leaders, McQualter said.

Hes been involved all week in our leadership meetings and our meetings in general.

We understand its a challenging time. But Govs been doing this for a long time.

Hes a very mature guy. Hes got a great family and network around him as well.

With McGoverns future in doubt, more responsibility will be placed on inexperienced defenders Harry Edwards and Sandy Brock.

It may also mean co-captain Oscar Allen plays more games in defence, potentially even this week when the Eagles face the Crows tall trio of forwards Darcy Fogarty, Taylor Walker and Riley Thilthorpe.

West Coast will feature a new-look forward line in Adelaide on Sunday after Jamie Cripps (knee) and Matt Owies (calf) were struck down in last weeks breakthrough win over St Kilda.

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If stylist, author and Substack creator Dee Kawai Tang had to move back to Western Australia from Sydney, she wanted it to be near Fremantle.

Although they had developed a strong connection to Sydney during their time there, her husband, renowned mural artist Desmond Sweeney, was eager to make the move home.

Fortunately for him, he found the perfect place to entice her back  a 1940s bungalow in Palmyra, on the edge of Fremantle.

It was more important than ever to create an established family home and feel nurtured. This house did just that. Credit: Jody DArcy
Manabu Ohtake has the look of a sushi master. Its all in the calm poise, the way he carries himself behind the bar, the precise movements, the absolute concentration.

Ohtake isnt shaping rice or slicing fish though. Right now he is crouched over a bottle of whisky and a jigger, held between two fingers, pouring just the right amount of liquid before twisting his hand and upending the small cup into a cocktail shaker.

Manabu Ohtake, Palace Hotel Tokyos master cocktail maker.

Eventually, this will become a perfect whisky sour. The most beautifully balanced, expertly mixed, skilfully presented whisky sour you have seen. Art in a glass.

To anyone who knows Japan, this will come as no surprise. This is a country in which every art form and indeed every practice in life is taken seriously, with patience and skill applied to their perfection.
David Whitley suggests Manchester Airport as one possible UK alternative arrival airport to Heathrow (Traveller, April 30). It may be OK for arrivals, but not necessarily for departures. Departing Manchester last November the airport required all liquids and creams to be placed in separate plastic bags. Having a medication cold bag, including insulin, no care was taken to maintain a medication-safe environment, with freezer packs left out on open trays, every item in both backpack and handbag strewn about on multiple trays, and one officer removing the cap of my insulin pen, perusing it as if hed never before seen one. Had I realised how dreadful security was going to be at Manchester Airport, I would have requested special consideration in advance to ensure smooth progress through to departure.

Margaret Barry, Melbourne, Vic Perfection overrated Recently I stayed at a three-star unit in Adelaide. A sign on the fridge said any rating under 4.7 would be considered bad. I gave the unit a rating of 7 out of 10 as the lounge had no back cushions, one bed was very uncomfortable, and the shower design caused the bathroom to flood each time. I noticed booking.com only published the scores and not the comments. I then received a message asking why I hadnt given it 10 out of 10. I explained they could not expect a five-star rating for three-star accommodation and repeated the reasons. Why does everyone expect perfect ratings these days?

Lorraine Phillips, Wollongong, NSW Consider Cuba Vintage Cuba. Credit: iStock

I agree with Ben Groundwater that Cuba is a terrific destination (Traveller, May 4). Fortunately, we went there before 2020 and, as per his information regarding getting an ESTA to go to the US, youre still eligible for the visa waiver program if travel was before that time. You may still get a visa to travel to the US if youve been to Cuba post 2020, but it could take months and an interview.

Susan Griffiths, Gerroa, NSW On points Broome: worth a longer stay. Credit: Tourism Western Australia Often touted as an overpriced two-night-maximum stopover for cruise ships or those travelling further into the Kimberley, Broome was well worth the five nights we spent there. Broome is a tropical paradise with great food, beaches and an interesting history. While it only takes a couple of days to see everything, lounge by the pool with a book for the rest of the holiday and get some R&R. Use those long-saved Qantas points and travel in May or September for a cheap escape.

Georgie Foster, Thornbury, Vic Travel privileges

Yes, its frustrating when we cant choose the seats we want on a plane, or when airports charge exorbitant prices for bottled drinks (Hard to swallow and System failure, Traveller Letters, May 10). But perhaps a little perspective is in order? About 80 per cent of the worlds population has never been on a flight. Travel is a privilege. The fact that so many Australians have the opportunity to explore our planets beautiful places is something wed do well not to take for granted.

Amy Hiller, Kew, Vic Made the switch Your letter about scams (Traveller Letters, May 10) reminded me of what made me switch from taxis to Uber. Years ago I was living in Melbourne and had just returned from a trip to Brisbane. I queued up, got a taxi, and we went on our way. We were about as far as Essendon Airport and I noticed the fare was higher than it shouldve been by that point and was ticking over quicker than expected. The driver asked me where I was visiting from, and I said I was a local. Suddenly, the meter started ticking over at a regular pace. When I got home he told me the fare and I asked what it wouldve been had he not been ripping me off at the start of the trip. He asked me what I wanted to pay. Ive stuck to Uber ever since.

Simon Goodman, Potts Point, NSW Maxed out I used to be frequently the subject of taxi fare ripoffs at its epicentre, the Gold Coast. One reason is the high percentage of maxi-taxis where the driver has the capacity to inappropriately charge a multi-hire rate for just one or two passengers. Ive since tracked down an honest cabbie who I use for all my travels around the area. She has assured me that all taxi complaints are taken very seriously. The important thing is always to get a copy of your receipt. That little piece of paper doesnt just contain a receipt for payment but all the details of your fare, such as time, flag fall and all charges. It cant be altered. Taxi cowboys give all hard-working cabbies a bad name and deserve to be reported.

Ross MacPherson, Seaforth, NSW

Tip of the week: Happy teardrop island Put Sri Lanka on your bucket list. Credit: iStock We have just returned from a 15-day trip to the beautiful country of Sri Lanka. It was reasonably priced, had verdant varied terrain, lovely food, incredible hotels, great safari opportunities and people unable to do enough for you. Put it on your bucket list and you wont be disappointed. We chose to have our own chauffeured car, and travelled with Olanka Travels, an online company who thought of everything  and it didnt break the bank.

Elizabeth Kroon, Randwick, NSW Mamas favourite In 1975, I worked at the CSR sugar mills in Ingham, north Queensland, where the population was mainly Italian, many of whom were from Sicily. One of the desserts that the women made was savoiardi cake, a dessert that I had not tasted before. I got the impression then that it was a popular peasant dish for festive occasions. My wife, who was teaching at a convent school just outside Ingham, was frequently indulged by mothers, with gifts of savoiardi cake. Many years later on our return to Sydney, we found the cake on some restaurant menus as tiramisu.

Peter Wotton Pyrmont, NSW

I bought it myself Your tiramisu article (Traveller, May 4), reminded me of when my Italian husband would make this delicious dessert, soaking the savoiardi biscuits in freshly made espresso from his Bialetti moka pot, whisking the egg whites, the yolks, adding in the mascarpone, layering everything in a perfect construction before refrigeration. The end result was divine. But then he discovered Aldis desserts which include a tiramisu made in Italy. It costs $7.99 for 500g and sadly for me, he no longer thinks its worth the effort to make it at home.

Veronica Lauria, McMahons Point, NSW Careful when you click I recently went online to book accommodation in England for a holiday. Where possible I like to book directly with the hotel, so when I saw the name of the hotel followed by guest reservations I assumed this was their site. I booked two rooms for about $800 and received a receipt for $1300. The extra was for taxes and services. If I cancel or change the booking, I lose the whole amount. I contacted the hotel and it confirmed that I do have a booking but that they cant do anything about the booking company. Very disappointing, but an expensive lesson learnt.

Jim Noonan, Malabar, NSW Food of the Incan gods

Ben Groundwaters article (Traveller, May 4) brought back fond memories of our gastronomic experience on the Inca Trail. For lunch on day 1, our porters served delicious avocado topped with prawns and fresh tomato salsa. Satisfied and rested, our group was ready for more hiking, when out came a main course, followed by a sweet treat to finish. Two days later for my husbands 50th birthday, our amazing porters baked a birthday cake using the gas bottles theyd carried on the 42 kilometres of trail, to heat a simple oven.

Roxanne Le Blanc, Croydon, Vic Ask the locals I have many vivid and enjoyable memories of meals Ive had while travelling. As we usually stay in hotels, I always ask the person in reception for recommendations, and I have never been disappointed. When in Toledo we were told of a restaurant down a back lane. We checked it out beforehand and it was a dingy shopfront. However we went back later and had a magnificent meal. The shop had been opened up with many small rooms and a huge side area was also in use. It was crowded with locals and the place was rocking. Another rule (Traveller, May 2)  dont go where the waiters are wearing white jackets.

Patricia Harrington, Kerang, Vic The Letter of the Week writer wins three Hardie Grant travel books. See hardiegrant.com
I visited Paros for the first time in the late 1980s. Stepping off the rusted ferry into bright sunshine in Paroikias (then) tiny port felt like arriving in paradise  albeit a backpackers paradise  and my days there were filled with long lazy meals outside bougainvillea-shaded, family-run fish tavernas in the tiny village of Naoussa, and afternoons at Piso Livadis traditional kafenions (cafes) and golden beaches, where Id often have the sands almost entirely to myself.

Paros is no longer the chilled alternative to Mykonos it once was. Credit: Alamy

Forty years later, around half a million people flock to Paros every summer, which  on a small island with just 12,000 residents  means todays visitors are unlikely to have more than a scrap of sand to themselves, let alone a whole beach.

It was, until recently, still the the chilled alternative to Mykonos  as it was dubbed in a Vogue article  and the preserve of a handful of celebrities (amongst them Tom Hanks and his Greek wife, Rita Wilson, who have a house on the satellite island of Antiparos), drawn by hyper-exclusive hideaways like The Moonhouse, and a lack of prying eyes. But as is so often the way, the masses soon followed. Once renowned for its fine white marble, the island is now increasingly associated with glitzy beach clubs, gourmet restaurants and hip hotels, and resources are under strain.

Rising costs for locals are a huge concern, ceramic artist and long-time island resident Christiane Smit told me, while a recent LinkedIn post from former MEP and environmentalist Kriton Arsenis reported that, in the past five years alone, Paros has topped the demand for new building permits in the Cyclades, surpassing even Mykonos and Santorini, and been overbuilt at a dramatic pace.
Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen who spent some of his childhood in Germany, moved to Israel at 16 and earned a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy there. He served in the Jewish states military and chose to dedicate his life to the state of Israel, said Ron Prosor, a veteran Israeli diplomat who taught Lischinsky at Israels Reichman University. He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide, Prosor wrote on X of Lischinsky, who started working at the embassy in Washington in 2022. Loading Police have charged a man from Chicago, named as Elias Rodriguez, who was allegedly filmed shouting free, free Palestine while being taken into custody at the museum. He briefly appeared in a District of Columbia court on Thursday afternoon. A court filing showed Rodriguez faces initial charges of murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through use of a firearm, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of first degree murder. He could face the death penalty.

An FBI affidavit alleges Rodriguez told police at the scene: I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed. It also says he travelled from Chicago to Washington the day before the shooting with a declared firearm in his checked luggage. As the political fallout grew, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Milgrim and Lischinsky were not victims of random violence but a targeted attack on Jews, and noted the alleged assailants use of the free Palestine chant. Crime scene tape is stretched across the front of a building where shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez lived. Credit: Getty Images In a video about the attack, he criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron, who this week threatened Israel with sanctions over its latest offensives in Gaza and stressed the importance of establishing a Palestinian state. Australia and other Western allies did not join that tripartite statement, which was welcomed by Hamas as a significant step in the right direction.

Netanyahu accused Starmer, Carney and Macron of buying into Hamas propaganda and emboldening the terrorist group to continue fighting forever. When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, youre on the wrong side of justice, youre on the wrong side of humanity, and youre on the wrong side of history, he said. Congressman Jamie Raskin lays flowers outside the Capital Jewish Museum after the shootings. Credit: AP A Palestinian state would not be free of Hamas, Netanyahu warned. When you establish a Palestinian state  weve seen it  the radicals take over. Iran sends them in and they take over. So dont give us this talk, Itll be a peaceful Palestinian state. It wont be. Returning to the scene of the shooting in central Washington on Thursday morning, Leiter struck a similar tone and singled out Macron for criticism.

We had our people slaughtered [on October 7]  its not going to happen again. Hamas has to be destroyed, will be destroyed, the very same way the Nazis were destroyed, he said. These are new Nazis, were going to defeat them. Antisemitism is on the rise not because of Israels responding, but because of countries like France who under this circumstance, now, tomorrow, plan to propose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Loading Meanwhile, the FBI raided a property in Chicago associated with Rodriguez. A sign saying justice for Wadea was in the window, referring to the stabbing murder of six-year-old Palestinian-American Wadea al-Fayoume in Illinois a week after the October 7 attack. A manifesto surfaced online signed by an individual identifying themselves as Elias Rodriguez. The document was posted to X after the shooting but before Rodriguez was publicly identified by police.

Authorities have not commented on the veracity of the manifesto, which implored readers to escalate for Gaza and bring the war home. Politicians and members of the public laid flowers at the scene of the deadly shooting on Thursday, just blocks from DC police and FBI headquarters. A sign calling for justice for Wadea hangs in the window of an apartment reported to be Rodriguezs Credit: Getty Images May your memory be a blessing, one note said. Praying that this crime is a cry that leads to peace, another read. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said US President Donald Trump was saddened and outraged by the shooting, and had conveyed his support for Israel and the Jewish people directly to Netanyahu.

This evil of antisemitism must be eradicated from our society, Leavitt said. Deborah Lipstadt, who served as the US special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism under Joe Biden, said whatever the origins of the chant free Palestine, it had now become a slogan of hate. I think theres no question  whatever its initial intent, and whatever people were saying initially or meant, it has become a call for violence, she told CNN. And not violence against Israelis, which is wrong, but violence against Jews. In Gaza, flour and other aid started reaching some of the areas most vulnerable areas on Thursday after Israel let some trucks through  but Palestinian officials said it was nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week blockade.

Israel said it allowed 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment into the enclave on Wednesday, two days after announcing its first relaxation of the restrictions under mounting international pressure. Netanyahu said the construction of a distribution zone would be completed in the coming days with US companies distributing food in areas controlled by the Israeli military. Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference, he said in a video statement released by his office. Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he condemned the murder of the two diplomats in the strongest possible terms. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice, he said. US Attorney-General Pam Bondi, who went to the scene, said she was praying for the victims, while President Donald Trump expressed his condolences. These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA, Trump wrote on Truth Social. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting. We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said. Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, which was holding its annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum, said: We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. Leiter, the ambassador, said Lischinsky had purchased a wedding ring this week and had intended to propose to Milgrim next week in Jerusalem. I will say this. We are resilient people. The people of Israel are resilient people, and the people of the United States of America are resilient people, he said.

Together, we wont be afraid. Together, well stand, and were going to overcome the moral depravity of people who think that theyre going to achieve political gain through murder. Israels ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, called the shooting a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism. Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line, he said on X. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer posted on social media: This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism, which, as we know, is all too rampant in our society. Im praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families. There was still a large police and FBI presence at the scene in the early hours of Thursday morning, Washington time. Washington rabbi Levi Shemtov came to the scene after hearing about the shooting, and said he knew the couple. Rabbi Levi Shemtov at the scene where two Israeli staff members were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum. Credit: Michael Koziol They were very popular people, he said. I dont think the killer knew that, I think he just wanted to murder. He wasnt defending himself, he just came to a place that was identifiably Jewish and took life. Wednesdays shooting is certain to further convulse the US debate over the war in Gaza.

Conservative Israel supporters led by Trump have branded pro-Palestinian demonstrators as antisemitic. Trump has cut off funding to elite US universities that he says have permitted antisemitic demonstrations, and his administration has detained foreign student demonstrators without charges. Shemtov said the shooting, which has already prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security, would have international implications in the fight against antisemitism. Im sure it already has. Jews shot dead on the street in Washington, DC. Thats never happened before, he said. Shemtov said he had lived in Sydney for a couple of years and was familiar with the antisemitic chants during a pro-Palestine rally outside the Sydney Opera House just 48 hours after Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

He was critical of the Australian government, saying it was sort of against antisemitism, but not enough. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said it was horrified by the Washington attack, which looked to be an incident of antisemitic terrorism. Police respond to the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. Credit: CBS We hope justice is swift and decisive, said president Daniel Aghion and co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin. This senseless, brutal and targeted attack again shows us the danger posed to us all by the incitement and violence of the pro-Palestinian movement. Zionist Federation of Australia chief executive Alon Cassuto said the brutal murders did not occur in a vacuum.
How the scheme will work

Under the South Australian model, eligible tenants can rent homes for up to three years at 75% of market rent. At the end of the lease, they will have the first right to buy the home at the price set when they moved in.
Loan and credit card repayment deferrals

Loan restructuring with no penalties

Emergency overdrafts and credit limit increases

Fee waivers and refunds

Additional finance for cash flow shortfalls

I urge anyone who is facing financial stress as a result of this extreme weather event to reach out to their bank and discuss support options, Bligh said. This doesnt have to be today  it could be in the next few weeks or months as recovery efforts get underway.
Commercial land charges will go from 66.4 cents for every $1,000 of property value to 133 cents  an increase of nearly 100%. Industrial land will see rates jump from 81.1 cents to 133 cents, marking a rise of approximately 64%. For primary production land, or land used by farmers, the levy will increase from 28.7 cents to 71.8 cents per $1,000. That's an uplift of around 150%.
Weather Alert

Take action to protect yourself and others  extreme heat can affect everyones health. Determine if you or others around you are at greater risk of heat illness. Check on older adults, those living alone and other at-risk people in-person or on the phone multiple times a day. Watch for the early signs of heat exhaustion in yourself and others. Signs may include headache, nausea, dizziness, thirst, dark urine and intense fatigue. Stop your activity and drink water. Heat stroke is a medical emergency! Call 9-1-1 or your emergency health provider if you, or someone around you, is showing signs of heat stroke which can include red and hot skin, dizziness, nausea, confusion and change in consciousness. While you wait for medical attention, try to cool the person by moving them to a cool place, removing extra clothing, applying cold water or ice packs around the body. Drink water often and before you feel thirsty to replace fluids. Close blinds, or shades and open windows if outside is cooler than inside. Turn on air conditioning, use a fan, or move to a cooler area of your living space. If your living space is hot, move to a cool public space such as a cooling centre, community centre, library or shaded park. Follow the advice of your regions public health authority. Plan and schedule outdoor activities during the coolest parts of the day. Limit direct exposure to the sun and heat. Wear lightweight, light-coloured, loose-fitting clothing and a wide-brimmed hat. Never leave people, especially children, or pets inside a parked vehicle. Check the vehicle before locking to make sure no one is left behind. Humidex values reaching 40 are expected. A heat event is expected this weekend. What: Daytime highs of 31 to 33 degrees Celsius and a humidex of 40. Overnight lows of 21 to 25 degrees Celsius, providing little relief from the heat. When: Today to Sunday, coming to an end Sunday night. Additional information: Hot and humid air can also bring deteriorating air quality and result in the Air Quality Health Index approaching the high risk category. ### For more information: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/climate-change-health/extreme-heat/how-protect-yourself.html https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/climate-change-health/extreme-heat/who-is-at-risk.html Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to ONstorm@ec.gc.ca or post reports on X using #ONStorm.
Spanish auto lab drives China-Europe collaboration in EV innovation

Xinhua) 13:35, May 22, 2025

BILBAO, Spain, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The BYD electric car is stripped down and taken apart on the floor of the laboratory, with its components laid around it as if an autopsy had been carried out on the state-of-the-art vehicle.

"This is reverse engineering taken to its limits," said Daniel, who is a technician at the Automotive Intelligence Center (AIC) in the town of Zamudio on the outskirts of the city of Bilbao in the province of Bizcay in northern Spain.

AIC is another example of how research, investigation and market knowledge are bringing together different companies and also nations to collaborate for their collective benefit.

As a public-private partnership aims to help its partners develop next-generation technology for the automobile industry, AIC offers services that integrate research, industrial development and new businesses. It has the support of the Bizcay Provincial Council as well as the local city halls and several other organizations, both local and international.

In recent years, AIC has interacted a lot with Chinese companies such as car manufacturers BYD, SAIC Motor, BAIC Group and Chery Motors, suppliers, Hasco Group, Donghua and Shac as well as the organizations SIAM and EV100, along with energy companies such as Gotion and battery maker Hithium.

"We help to combine agendas helping Chinese companies, while companies from here (Spain and Europe) also work with Chinese customers. They have all come here looking to find a common interest," explained Raquel Pinan, the Internationalization Manager at AIC to Xinhua.

"China is very big in the electrification of vehicles and we look to sectors where we can help to fine-tune their capabilities."

Pinan explained that the concept of mutual benefits was very important in a "commercial and holistic approach that is very interesting as we look for specific links with different places," she said, adding that the model was well accepted in China.

"All car manufacturers in China have made efforts and invested in innovation, but they need to be able to compete in different markets, and to do that, they need to adapt to local contexts and values. We can help them identify value chains and adapt to European requirements in each case," Pinan said.

She believes the maritime and industrial heritage of the Basque Region in general and in particular Bizcay has been a huge help to AIC fitting so well into the area.

Bizcay was at the heart of the mining, iron, automobile and shipbuilding industries, and also has a tradition of looking out across the oceans.

"People here have always been explorers, such as (Juan Sebastian) Elcano, (who completed the first circumnavigation of the world). We have always been willing to study and to travel to work," she said.

There is a "common agenda" in the automobile industry to work together. "There are powerful companies, but nobody in the sector has all of the capabilities and we can act as an external agent to help and that is good for the industry and also good for Biscay," she explained.

Looking at the BYD vehicle spread on the workshop floor, Daniel told Xinhua that it used a "very intelligent strategy to produce a good performance at low cost," highlighting the use of two motors and also explaining that the battery is "much safer" than some used in other makes of electric vehicle.

By taking the car apart, Daniel said that at AIC, they had seen that BYD has a "slightly different focus" to other electric car makers in that "It's not as easy to repair, but it is easy to assemble and as a product, it is very good," he said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Une enquete explosive de L'Independant revele les dessous troublants de la Societe de Recouvrement des Creances. Gestion opaque, detournements et silence complice : le naufrage d'une institution etatique.

Derriere les murs aseptises de la Societe de Recouvrement des Creances (SRC), se cacherait l'un des plus retentissants scandales de mal-gouvernance de la decennie. C'est ce que revele une enquete choc du journal L'Independant, depeignant une institution financiere publique en plein naufrage, minee par des pratiques opaques et une gestion pour le moins douteuse des deniers publics.

Une societe fantome aux mains de l'Etat

Officiellement, la SRC est chargee de recouvrer les creances publiques pour le compte de l'Etat camerounais, son unique actionnaire. Dans les faits, selon l'enquete, elle fonctionnerait comme une coquille vide, ou transiteraient des milliards de FCFA sans aucune tracabilite. "C'est le trou noir des finances publiques", s'insurge un expert financier cite par le journal.

Les revelations accablantes de L'Independant :

Gestion opaque : Aucun audit independant rendu public depuis des annees

Aucun audit independant rendu public depuis des annees Fonds publics en peril : Des creances recouvrees disparaitraient dans la nature

Des creances recouvrees disparaitraient dans la nature Silence complice : Les autorites de tutelle fermeraient les yeux sur ces derives

Un systeme bien rode ?

Les journalistes ont retrace le parcours de plusieurs dossiers de creances recouvrees qui n'ont jamais atteint les caisses de l'Etat. "Quand on suit la paperasse, tout semble en regle. Mais quand on creuse, on decouvre que l'argent a ete detourne via un systeme sophistique de societes ecrans", explique un enqueteur ayant participe aux investigations.

La colere monte

Dans les milieux economiques, l'affaire commence a faire des vagues. "Comment peut-on confier la gestion de creances publiques a une structure qui semble elle-meme incapable de rendre des comptes ?", s'interroge un activiste de la societe civile camerounaise. Les observateurs pointent du doigt un possible reseau protege au plus haut niveau de l'Etat.

Vers un nouveau scandale financier ?

Alors que le Cameroun peine a se relever des affaires precedentes (Sante, Sonara...), cette nouvelle revelation risque d'enflammer le debat public. L'opposition reclame deja la creation d'une commission d'enquete parlementaire, tandis que la societe civile exige des comptes clairs sur les activites reelles de la SRC.



Une chose est sure : entre les milliards qui s'evaporent et le silence des autorites, le scandale SRC pourrait bien devenir le symbole d'une gouvernance financiere a bout de souffle.

SRC Cameroun scandale Mal gouvernance finances publiques Detournement fonds publics Cameroun Enquete L'Independant SRC Societe Recouvrement Creances Corruption Cameroun Gestion opaque SRC Finances etat Cameroun



Cameroon's SRC: The Public Finance Scandal Shaking the Nation

An explosive investigation by L'Independant exposes shocking mismanagement at Cameroon's Debt Recovery Corporation. Opaque operations, missing funds, and institutional silence paint a picture of state failure.



Behind the discreet facade of Cameroon's Debt Recovery Corporation (SRC) lies what may become the most damaging public governance scandal in recent memory. A groundbreaking investigation by L'Independant reveals a state-owned financial institution sinking under the weight of opaque practices and questionable management of public funds.

A Ghost Company with State Backing

Officially tasked with recovering public debts for the Cameroonian government (its sole shareholder), the SRC allegedly operates as a black hole for public funds. "It's where billions vanish without trace," claims an anonymous financial expert.



L'Independant's Damning Findings:



Zero transparency: No independent audits published for years

Public funds at risk: Recovered debts mysteriously disappear

Institutional complicity: Regulatory bodies turn a blind eye



A Well-Oiled System?

Investigators traced several recovered debt cases that never reached state coffers. "Paperwork appears clean, but follow the money and you find sophisticated diversion schemes through shell companies," reveals an investigative source.

Growing Outrage

The economic community is sounding alarms. "How can we entrust public debt recovery to an entity that can't account for itself?" questions activist leader. Observers suspect high-level protection of the alleged embezzlement network.

Another Financial Scandal Brewing?

As Cameroon struggles to recover from previous scandals (Health, Sonara...), this revelation could ignite fresh turmoil. Opposition leaders demand a parliamentary inquiry, while civil society groups call for full transparency regarding SRC's operations.



One thing is clear: between vanishing billions and official silence, the SRC scandal may become emblematic of Cameroon's failing financial governance.



Cameroon SRC scandal Public finance mismanagement Cameroon debt recovery corruption L'Independant investigation Cameroon governance failure State-owned company scandal Missing public funds Cameroon financial corruption



Didier Cebas K.
MORE THAN 1,000 people got out of bed early and walked from darkness into a breaking dawn on a recent Saturday morning in Carlow town for the annual Darkness Into Light walk.

Carlow Town Hall was lit up to support Darkness Into Light

The worldwide event raises money for the charity Pieta House, which raises awareness of suicide and suicide prevention. The event this year in Carlow attracted 1,026 participants, who set off from St Marys Academy CBS, walked through Carlow town and through the town park in Graiguecullen before returning to the starting point.

Along the way, landmarks such as Deighton Hall and the town hall were lit up, while at St Dympnas Hospital and the fire station, ambulances and fire brigades brightened up the early morning. Its a poignant event for those taking part, as many of them have lost loved ones to suicide, and its particularly emotional when they reach Carlow Town Park. There, the paths are lined with candles, theres a bright-yellow sign that spells out the word hope and theres also a memory tree with the names of those who have died.

Carlow Fire and Rescue Service added its support

We had over 1,000 people taking part so it was fantastic to see so many people out at that time of the morning. CBS was the starting point this year and they were brilliant to us. We also had around 60 stewards, who helped along the route, thanks to Carlow Volunteer Centre, so we are very grateful to them all, said Ian Hannon, chairperson of the Carlow Darkness Into Light Committee.

It was such a gorgeous morning and we had a beautiful sunrise. I found it incredibly emotional, especially in the park because it was still dark. The candles lit up the paths, and with the hope sign, people stopped to reflect there, so its very emotional for them, said Ian.

The funds raised will go to Pieta House, with the nearest facility for the people of Co Carlow in Waterford city.

Ian and the committee would like to thank everyone who took part in the walk, all the volunteers and all the agencies that lit up the way, providing a beacon of hope to those who might need it.
NOT ONLY a first for Carlow but a first for Leinster  and now they have the silverware to prove it!

Last week, pupils from Gaelscoil Eoghain Ui Thuairisc travelled to the Clasac in Dublin, the regional resource centre of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, to receive their award as national winners of the Irish-language school drama at Feile Scoildramaiochta.

The school not only won the all-Ireland drama competition in Mullingar last month, claiming first place in its category, but also the prestigious overall prize of Scothleriti na Feile (best overall performance).

Gaelscoil Eoghain Ui Thuairic pupils Molly, Cliodhna and Doireann receive Feile Scoildramaiochta's overall award from Uachtaran an Oireachtais Eamon O Cuiv

The students delivered a vibrant Irish-language reimagining of Aladdin featuring Irish versions of beloved classics such as A whole new world and A friend like me, complete with choreographed dance routines.

Thirteen category awards and the overall award were presented at the prizegiving in the Clasac. The Gaelscoil was the only school asked to perform an extract from its show at the event, dazzling all with their energetic performance of Prince Ali and receiving a rousing response from the large gathering of representatives nationwide, from west Kerry to the Donegal Gaeltacht.

This is the first time a Carlow school has won the overall award and the first time in decades that a school from Leinster has taken the title.

The standard from schools around the country, often where Irish is their first language, is always exceptional, making the Gaelscoils win a testament not only to their talent but also their dedication, teamwork and gra don teanga.

The childrens passion and enthusiasm were inspired by the direction of Muinteoir Jill and Muinteoir Clar, whose commitment and drive motivated and encouraged the children every step of the way.

Guest of honour at the prizegiving was former TD and minister Eamon O Cuiv, whose late grandmother, author Sinead de Valera, wife of former president Eamon de Valera, is remembered through the Corn Sinead de Valera, the cup awarded to the Gaelscoil as category winners.

They were amazing and were all delighted  so proud of them, enthused Muinteoir Clar.

Its a great achievement  the first time the Gaelscoil has won the overall and the first time in years that a Leinster school has won. After their performance last week there was great praise from everyone for their strong acting, singing, choreography and costumes  and the great energy they had, added Clar.
THE NIGHTMARE of listening to her child screaming in pain mammy, help me is now haunting a local mother, who received the devasting news this week that her son may have undergone painful hip surgery unnecessarily.

Aine Gladney Knox received a shocking letter from Childrens Health Ireland (CHI) telling her that her six-year-old son Archie is part of an audit of paediatric hip dysplasia surgeries at CHI hospitals, which found that hundreds of children operated on did not meet the threshold for the procedure.

To realise this is a scandal and my child is involved in it hit me like a ton of bricks  I was stunned, admitted Aine, who ran as a Sinn Fein candidate in the Carlow/Kilkenny constituency at the last general election.

We trusted the doctors, we trusted what we were told and went on their advice. To think that what Archie went through might not have been necessary  I cried when I realised, she added.

When Archie was six months old, his health nurse discovered a crease on the back of his leg, which subsequently led to the discovery that his left hip was dislocated and he therefore had hip dysplasia. At just three years old, Archie received surgery on both hips in CHI Crumlin on 19 April 2022.

Initially, there was some talk about doing the right hip or not, but then he ended up having surgery on both hips in Crumlin, explained Aine.

The day after his surgery, Archie was released home, but the following day, 21 April, his pain and condition worsened, resulting in little Archie being admitted to St Lukes Hospital, Kilkenny.

I have to say they were fantastic in St Lukes and he received a blood transfusion there, but he had lost a significant amount of blood and he was showing signs of infection so we were brought by ambulance back to Dublin, where he stayed until 4 May, said Aine.

Those agonising almost two weeks in Crumlin are etched in Aine and her husband Jonathans minds  a nightmare theyve been forced to relive since the CHI letter arrived.

It took so long to get his pain under control, he went through so much. He was absolutely screaming in pain and pleading with me Mammy, help me  it was awful what he went through, said a tearful Aine.

Archie developed post-surgery clots, a soaring temperature, underwent various scans and days of agonising pain, to the heartbreak of his parents, who were at his bedside throughout.

When we got home on 4 May 2022, we were just so relieved Archie was out of pain and we could put it behind us. Then when the letter arrived  to be honest, at first I didnt really think much of it; I thought it was just a regular audit of children who received the surgery. It was only when I heard Pearse Doherty brought it up in the Dail that I realised hold on, thats us I just cried at the kitchen table, she said.

Aine described the letter as extremely vague, leaving the Knox family from Goresbridge in limbo as to whether their precious son received unnecessary surgery or not.

Im waiting at the letterbox every single day for information, said Aine.

We have since learned that 2,260 letters were sent to parents, and this stems back 15 years. We have absolutely no idea at this stage. As a parent, your job is to protect your child at all costs, so there is huge guilt there.

I understand the audit will take time, but what we are asking for as parents is to be kept informed and updated. We cant be left without information. This has turned into a scandal. We need that audit done, and we need it done correctly, she concluded.
By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA

It is crazy that the deadline for the National Childrens Hospital to open has been missed 15 times, the Dail has been told.

The Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday that in the past seven months, developer BAM had achieved around 60 per cent of its planned progress.

This has moved the completion deadline from June to September 30th  the 15th time the substantial completion date has been extended, according to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty told the Dail the hospital had become an epic saga which has ballooned from a cost of 650 million to 2.2 billion.

The deadline for opening this hospital has been missed 15 times  15 times. Like thats crazy. Crazy, he told Tanaiste Simon Harris during Leaders Questions.

Youve broken your election promise when you said it would be delivered in June.

Do you really expect the public to have any greater faith in this date compared to any one of the other 15 dates that you and your Government ministers have announced?

He accused Mr Harris, a former health minister, of signing off on a contract to build the hospital that was skewed in favour of the construction company.

It was build-as-you-go, and that is why BAM has the state over the barrel for the last eight years.

Sinn Fein's Pearse Doherty. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Now your Government is blaming the construction company. Its not a surprise to anybody on this side that developers are going to squeeze as much profit out as they can. But competent ministers are supposed to protect the public purse, he said.

Mr Harris said the hospital was well over 95 per cent complete and technical commissioning was under way.

He accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy and said a childrens hospital to be built in Belfast would cost more per square metre than Dublins, citing the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, whos your partys vice president, said she was delighted that 671 million would be spent on a state-of-an-art childrens hospital at Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital.

Ladies and gentlemen, who was that contract with? Does anyone know? BAM, the same developer whos building the hospital in this jurisdiction.

He said BAM had since pulled out of the project, which had delayed it.

They (the PBO) have looked at the hospital Sinn Fain are presiding over the north, the hospital were presiding over here with BAM, and they found yours is more expensive than the one were delivering. So get over yourself with the absolute hypocrisy.

He said the hospital has 22 operating theatres, 6,150 rooms with spaces for parents to stay with their child, and a helipad.

We know its a hospital that costs more than originally intended, that is true.

And yes, you know  because youve been covering finance for a hell of a long time for your party  you know that weve changed significantly the approach we take to the delivery of infrastructure.

Aontu leader Peadar Toibin said no one was questioning the quality of the hospital.

He said the additional 1.5 billion it has cost to build has come from the pockets of hard-working Irish citizens and taxpayers.

Its not a victimless crime as well. The opportunity cost of that 1.5 billion would have actually paid for over 4,500 homes in this country. It would have housed up to 18,000 people, more than the number of people who are currently homeless.

But Tanaiste, you are the blame-shifting expert in this country. Simon it wasnt me Harris.

He raised previous quotes from Mr Harris that he was not responsible for signing the contract that underpinned the construction of the Dublin hospital.

This contract lacks an enormous amount of detail within it, which has allowed it to become a blank cheque for the contractor, it is designed to fail from the start, Mr Toibin said.

He added that inertia, waste and blame-shifting are the characteristics of this Government.

Mr Harris said he was responsible for bringing the proposal to Cabinet and recommending they proceed, and would be responsible for a world-class facility and transforming childrens healthcare.

Nobody gets everything right in politics and a lot of lessons have been learned, he said.
ATLANTA  The Carter Center condemns the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, D.C. We extend our deepest condolences to the victims' families and loved ones. Political violence is unacceptable, and it fuels cycles of violence that undermine constructive dialogue and the ability to find common ground.

###

Contact: In Atlanta, media@cartercenter.org

The Carter Center

Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
A 38-year-old resident of Chattanooga, has been ordered to federal prison after unlawfully transporting illegal aliens, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei in Corpus Christi, Tx.

Josef Alquan Rutley pleaded guilty Feb. 18.

U.S. District Judge David Morales has now ordered Rutley to serve 18 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard additional evidence that described the dangerous way the 22 illegal aliens were locked into the trailer with no way to escape. In handing down the sentence, the court noted the large number of illegal aliens and their inability to escape in an emergency.

On Dec. 19, 2024, Rutley approached the Falfurrias Border Patrol (BP) checkpoint driving a tractor trailer. He claimed he was traveling to Laredo. He denied having any passengers and said he was looking for a load.

Authorities noted he appeared nervous and avoided eye contact which prompted a referral to secondary inspection. An x-ray scan revealed 22 illegal aliens locked inside the trailer with no means of escape.

All were from the countries of Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Human smuggling can often turn deadly, particularly in crowded conditions like a tractor trailer, said prosecutor Ganjei. The Southern District of Texas is doing everything it can to deter people from being smuggled and to punish those who make their money by trafficking other human beings.

Rutley will remain in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement - Homeland Security Investigations and BP conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley A. Pruitt prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative "that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."
Dr. Justin Walker, associate professor of Old Testament and Christian Ministries, has been selected as the winner of Lee Universitys 2025 Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Paul Conn, president of Lee, formally acknowledged Dr. Walkers achievement during the schools spring commencement.

Im truly humbled to receive this years Excellence in Teaching Award and am grateful to serve alongside so many who work tirelessly to serve students and to uphold Lee Universitys longstanding legacy of excellence in the classroom, said Dr. Walker.

The Excellence Awards are the highest honors presented to Lee faculty members and recognize advising, scholarship, and teaching. The Excellence in Teaching is the oldest award, and it is considered to be superior among the three.

Dr. Walker is one of those rare professors we all enjoy hearing  whether hes teaching in the classroom or preaching in chapel, said Dr. Conn. He reminds us that a professor can be popular without being superficial, and that a lecture can be intellectually deep without being dull. He truly makes Lee a better place.

Dr. Walker joined the School of Theology & Ministry faculty in 2019. His research focuses on biblical poetry, ancient Near Eastern iconography, and Old Testament Theology. He is the author of The Power of Images: The Poetics of Violence in Lamentations 2 and Ancient Near Eastern Art and is currently composing the Book of Lamentations volume for the Old Testament Theology series. Prior to Lee, Dr. Walker served for 10 years in a variety of ministerial roles at Mount Paran North Church of God in Georgia.

He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from Emory University, his Master of Theology and his Master of Divinity from Candler School of Theology, and his Bachelor of Arts from Lee.

The winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award is chosen by an anonymous committee of three faculty and three students, each representing a different department at Lee.




In response to potential impacts from recent flooding caused by Hurricane Helene and in partnership with Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) stocked approximately 10,000 walleye at two locations along the Pigeon River this week to support fish populations and bolster natural reproduction.





The Pigeon River is healthier and more vibrant today than anyone alive can remember, said Rep. Faison. Im deeply grateful for the continued dedication of the TWRA in supporting the decisions that keep the Pigeon sustainable and thriving.The sight of 10,000 walleye growing and repopulating our river is truly exciting - and a powerful sign of progress.





TWRA Chief of Fisheries Jason Henegar said, We understand concerns that recent flooding from Hurricane Helene may have impacted river ecosystems and fish habitats. Our most recent survey of the Pigeon River indicates minimal changes in fish populations. However, consistent with the agencys ongoing fisheries management efforts, we are conducting walleye stocking to support and enhance natural reproduction.





Mr. Henegar added that TWRA will continue monitoring affected river systems to better assess the long-term ecological impacts of the storm.





Each year, TWRA stocks over 10 million warm and cold-water fish into Tennessees lakes, rivers, and streams to enhance natural reproduction, sustain healthy fish populations, and provide quality angling opportunities for the public.








The God Loves You Tour, hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), will be held on 21 June at ExCeL London. | Photo Credit: God Loves You Tour London

A major Christian outreach event led by Rev. Franklin Graham is scheduled to return to London next month. The God Loves You Tour, hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), will take place on 21 June at ExCeL London.

This marks the eighth stop of the tour across the UK since its launch in 2022, following previous visits to Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Sheffield. The free event is supported by more than 1,400 churches nationwide and aims to provide hope and spiritual encouragement during a period of global uncertainty.

Organizers have promised an evening filled with uplifting messages and live music performances by Grammy-winning Christian artists Michael W Smith, The Afters, and CeCe Winans.

In preparation for the event, churches have organized faith-based seminars and training programs aimed at helping Christians, particularly youth, to share their beliefs. One such program, Pursuit, a youth-oriented series, has drawn nearly 2,000 participants within a few weeks.

Reuben Morley, the youth festival director for the tour, noted a growing enthusiasm among young people in the UK.

In the last few years, there has been a noticeable shift. We are seeing more members of Gen Z attend church and follow Jesus Christ. Young people are coming together with a shared hunger for God and a boldness to reach their friends, and we believe that many more will come to Christ this June at ExCeL London, he said.

Carrying forward his fathers legacy, Graham has led over 345 evangelistic events in more than 55 countries, including several in the UK in recent years.

Graham, who serves as president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), shared his hope for the UK: The church in the UK isnt dead. The churches that are continuing to preach Gods Word are alive and well, and I believe this is just the beginning. He emphasized that in this time filled with so much tension and uncertainty in the world, people want to know what God has to say.

We are grateful for each and every church that is continuing to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in this great city, and he looked forward to coming alongside them and sharing the hope-filled message of the Gospel that has the power to transform lives and change this city forever.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a "young couple about to be engaged," who were tragically shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night. | Photo Credit: X/ IsraelinUSA

Two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement swiftly arrested a suspect shortly after the attack, which took place during an event organized by the American Jewish Committee.

Police identified the shooter as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, who opened fire on a group of four people outside the museum, fatally striking two at close range.

Authorities revealed that Rodriguez told museum security where he discarded his weapon and reportedly chanted Free, Free Palestine while in custody. After the shooting, Rodriguez entered the museum, where he was quickly detained.

The Israeli Embassy identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, described by The Times of Israel as a young couple about to be engaged. Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene.

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith detailed at a midnight press briefing that the suspect had been seen pacing outside the building before drawing a handgun and firing at 9:08 p.m. The embassy confirmed that the shooting occurred as the victims were attending a gathering organized by the American Jewish Committee.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, along with the Metropolitan Police, is leading the investigation. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem stated that authorities are actively investigating and working to get more information.

President Trump reacted to the attack on social media, labeling the killings as obviously based on antisemitism and stressing that Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the attack as a heinous antisemitic murderer, asserting that the event reflects the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. He emphasized, The blood libels against Israel are rising in blood and must be fought to the bitter end, according to Reuters.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog characterized the act as driven by antisemitism, calling it despicable. He added that the United States and Israel would stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Herzog further urged the public and political leaders to refrain from politicizing the fatal shooting.

The American Jewish Committee expressed its profound grief, with CEO Ted Deutch saying the organization was devastated and affirming that its attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.

The Capital Jewish Museum, which reopened earlier this year, has been serving as a venue for cultural and educational events focused on Jewish American history.
Home News 2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in targeted shooting, suspect shouted 'free, free Palestine'

Two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Law enforcement arrested a suspect shortly after the attack, which occurred during an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

Police say 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago opened fire on a group of four people outside the museum, striking two of them fatally at close range.

The Israeli Embassy identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple about to be engaged, according to The Times of Israel.

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Both victims died at the scene.

Speaking at a news conference, Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said one of the victims had purchased a ring earlier in the week and planned to propose in Jerusalem.

The Israeli ambassador was not at the museum at the time of the shooting, according to embassy officials.

After the shooting, the suspect entered the museum, where he was quickly detained.

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said at a press briefing around midnight that the suspect had been seen pacing outside the building before he drew a handgun and fired at 9:08 p.m.

According to police, Rodriguez indicated to museum security where he had discarded the weapon and reportedly chanted Free, Free Palestine while in custody. Authorities recovered the firearm soon after.

The embassy said the shooting occurred while they were participating in a gathering organized by the American Jewish Committee.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is leading the investigation alongside the Metropolitan Police. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said authorities were actively investigating and working to get more information.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro arrived at the scene shortly after the attack. Bondi said she had multiple conversations with President Donald Trump throughout the evening.

President Trump responded to the attack on social media, calling the killings obviously based on antisemitism adding, Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israeli officials condemned the shooting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the shooting a heinous antisemitic murderer.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against Israel are rising in blood and must be fought to the bitter end, he said in a statement, according to Reuters.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the act was driven by antisemitism and called it despicable. He added that the United States and Israel would stand united in defense of our people and our shared values.

Herzog also urged the public and political leaders to avoid politicizing the fatal shooting.

In a post on social media, Herzog said the suspect had committed a criminal act of terror out of antisemitism and deep hatred, and stressed that Israeli domestic politics held no relevance in this context. Calling the morning sad and difficult, Herzog appealed for restraint, urging citizens and politicians to do only what contributes to and strengthens the State of Israel and supports Jewish communities around the world.

Ambassador Danny Danon, Israels Permanent Representative to the United Nations, denounced the shooting as a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism. He said the attack crossed a red line and expressed confidence in U.S. authorities to pursue the case fully.

The American Jewish Committee expressed its grief. CEO Ted Deutch said the organization was devastated and that its attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.

The Capital Jewish Museum reopened earlier this year and has been a venue for cultural and educational events on Jewish American history.
Home News Arson ruled cause of fire at historic black church known for Civil Rights activism

A fire set at a historic African American church in Tennessee that had ties to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement was intentionally set, according to local authorities.

The Memphis Fire Department (MFD) issued a statement on Wednesday regarding its investigation into a fire that occurred last month at the Clayborn Temple Church, a closed church that was undergoing an extensive renovation project.

Investigators have determined the fire was intentionally set on the interior of the historic church. A person of interest is being sought by Investigators for their possible involvement in this fire, stated MFD.

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The Memphis Fire Department will continue conducting this investigation to apprehend who is responsible for setting the fire at this historic church.

The MFD added that it was relinquishing control of the site back to the group Historic Clayborn, and expressed gratitude for the work of local and federal investigators on the case.

Established in 1892 as Second Presbyterian Church, Clayborn Temple was involved in Civil Rights activism during the 1960s. This included being a gathering place for striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968.

The strikers' famous "I AM A MAN" signs were printed in the basement and the property features a display of that phrase in large letters. The church itself closed in 1999.

Last month, a fire struck the church, which was in the process of undergoing a $6 million renovation project, heavily damaging the shuttered sanctuary.

Soon after the fire, it was announced that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had joined the investigation, with a spokesperson telling The Christian Post at the time that it was the only federal agency responsible for enforcing federal arson statutes and maintains a cadre of experts in the fire investigation field.

ATF routinely investigates place of worship fires to determine if there has been a violation of the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, the spokesperson told CP.

The statute prohibits intentionally defacing, damaging or destroying religious property (or attempting to do so) because of the race, color, or ethnic characteristics of any individual associated with such property.

Anasa Troutman, founder and executive director of the group Historic Clayborn, said in a statement emailed to CP last month that the fire was a devastating loss for the community.

For decades, Clayborn and the iconic 'I AM A MAN' signs born in its basement have stood as an international beacon of resilience, faith and the work to build beloved communities. It is a living testament of our past sacrifices and our future hope, Troutman said.

Clayborns true spirit was never in the walls alone. It lives in us. Even as we mourn, we must remember: resilience is our birthright, but so is the space to grieve. Our ancestors endured, grieved, rebuilt and transcended unimaginable losses. We will do the same.

Troutman said that she and her organization are still committed to her restoration and that the spirit of Clayborn is stronger than any fire."
Home News Britain considers mandatory chemical castration for pedophiles, but not rapists

In a bid to lower overcrowding in prisons, the British government is considering whether to make chemical castration mandatory for certain sex offenders serving time in their correctional system.

Drawing on recommendations from an Independent Sentencing Review conducted by former Conservative Party Justice Secretary David Gauke, Britains Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (Labour Party) told Parliament on Thursday that expanding a chemical castration pilot program in that countrys prison system is among a number of reforms she is looking at to manage the prison population.

I asked the review to consider how we manage sex offenders. The review has recommended we continue a pilot of so-called medication to manage problematic sexual arousal. I will go further with a national roll out beginning in two regions covering 20 prisons and I am exploring whether mandating the approach is possible, Mahmood told the British Parliament.

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Of course, it is vital that this approach is taken alongside psychological interventions that target other causes of offending like asserting power and control.

While pedophiles will be chemically castrated before their release, rapists won't be, according to the U.K. Times.

Gauke notes in his Independent Sentencing Review that of the approximately 88,000 convicts in Britains prison system, some 21% were adults serving time for sexual offenses as of March.

The Review has considered whether pharmaceutical options which suppress libido  commonly referred to as chemical suppression  or those which reduce sexual thoughts, could be used to provide targeted treatment for specific sex offenders, the report said.

Gauke explained that chemical castration is currently only used as part of a psychologically informed service called the Offender Personality Disorder Pathway for offenders with complex needs and who are likely to satisfy the diagnosis of a personality disorder.

While highlighting the use of chemical castration internationally, Gauke recommended that the expansion of chemical castration for certain classes of sex offenders should be evidence-based because it is not an effective response for all offenders, such as rapists.

The Review acknowledges that sexual offences including rape are driven by motives such as power, control, and aggression, rather than sexual preoccupation. In many such cases, chemical suppressants will not be a relevant or viable course of treatment. Only medical specialists can prescribe these medications, and they should only be used in conjunction with other psycho-social treatment and support, for example, to aid individuals to engage fully with these interventions, Gauke noted in the report.

He highlighted the use of chemical castration in other European countries such as Germany, Denmark and Poland. In Germany and Denmark, chemical castration is administered on a voluntary basis among sex offenders, while in Poland it's mandatory for some offenders.

In the U.S., several states have laws that allow chemical or surgical castration of sex offenders. They include: California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. In June 2024, Louisianas Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill into law making the state the first where judges can order surgical castration for prisoners convicted of committing certain aggravated sex crimes  including rape, incest and molestation  against a child younger than 13, The Associated Press reported. The law became effective on Aug. 1, 2024.

The former Justice Secretary explained that, for policies in England and Wales, Understanding how other jurisdictions manage the ethical and practical implications of using chemical suppression in offender treatment will be particularly important to consider, as gaining valid, informed consent to a course of treatment is a key tenet of medical law and ethics.

Before any decision is made to establish further services for chemical suppression across England and Wales, services must be piloted on a small scale with evaluations produced. Various considerations, such as side-effects and potential ramifications for victims, will need to be examined, Gauke added.

In her address to Parliament, Mahmood says she has no plans to be squeamish on the issue and is intent on achieving results.

For many years there's a pilot that has been sort of trundling along and nobody has shown much interest in it, including any of my predecessors. Tory justice secretaries have just sort of let it carry on. I'm not willing to do that. I'm not squeamish about taking these further measures, she said.

It's why we're going to have a national roll out of this program. I will make sure that that is what happens. It's why I'm starting with expanding it to further regions, including prisoners in 20 further prisons, so that we can build the evidence base and make sure that we are using every tool at our disposal that can cut reoffending.
Home News Judge tells ex-megachurch volunteer to repent for sexually abusing teenager

Sixth Judicial Circuit Court Judge LaTonya Honorable urged former middle school teacher and Immanuel Baptist Church praise team member Reagan Danielle Gray to "repent" Monday after she pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual assault of a minor member of the Southern Baptist megachurch.

"Ms. Gray, let me say this. Keep in mind that actions that you do impact other people. Take this time to reflect on whatever decisions you made that landed you here and look for a way to repent, if you will, and change whatever course got you here," Honorable said, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Gray, 27, was initially charged with first-degree sexual assault for engaging in sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy who was a member of Immanuel Baptist Church's student ministry while she served as a volunteer. She accepted a plea deal that reduced the charge and dismissed a separate fourth-degree sexual assault charge.

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Prosecutors said Gray's abuse of the boy began around Sept. 1, 2020, and continued until May 31, 2021. After the abuse started, she sent the minor naked pictures of herself "on a daily basis," according to Daily Mail. When the boy's parents discovered the text messages and reported them, the church sent her to counseling, but she resumed her illegal contact with the boy only weeks later.

The boy told investigators that he met Gray in her car and apartment in Monticello until May 2021 but could not remember if he ever responded to her demands for nude images in response to the many she sent him.

"I don't have explicit memory of doing that, but with how often she requested it, it probably did happen," he stated.

Court records show that the boy denied having sexual intercourse with Gray but said she performed oral sex on him "in order for [him] to stay pure."

Judge Honorable sentenced Gray to six years' probation after concluding that she "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily" entered the no contest plea. Gray was also charged $1,000 in fines along with court costs, and she was ordered to stay away from the victim.

Immanuel Baptist Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Wednesday. But Prosecuting Attorney Will Jones said Gray's conviction ensures she "will be supervised by Arkansas Community Corrections, undergo a sex offender assessment and register as a sex offender, providing accountability and protection for the community."

Immanuel Baptist Church, which is one of Arkansas' largest congregations, is also facing a civil lawsuit filed by the victim alleging negligence, negligent hiring, negligent supervision and negligent retention.

The victim's parents said in a written statement they wanted to deliver in open court but were not allowed on Monday that the abuse has traumatized him.

"The criminal process has concluded and we're grateful that our son has one less painful load to carry. We believed we would have the opportunity to give victim impact statements. While that didn't happen, it's important to note that Judge Honorable acknowledged the trauma inflicted on our son  something that stands in stark contrast to the silence of so many others," they said.

"What's difficult to reconcile is how many adults repeatedly failed him  people with power, responsibility, or influence who looked the other way. Institutions that protected themselves. Systems that made justice harder than it should have been."
Home News Pakistan parliament passes bill to curb child marriages

LAHORE, Pakistan  Pakistans parliament on Monday passed a significant bill aiming to curb, discourage and eventually eradicate child marriages in the federal capital by raising the legal age of marriage for both sexes to 18.

Sharmila Faruqui of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) introduced the bill in the National Assembly on May 16 and House members unanimously approved it. PPP Sen. Sherry Rehman on Monday then introduced the bill in the Senate, which passed it despite strong protest and a walkout by members of the Islamist party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

The JUI-F senators termed the bill un-Islamic and in conflict with cultural and religious values and demanded it be sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for review.

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The majority members, however, argued it was already approved by the CII, and that similar legislation was enforced in Sindh Province for over a decade without any issue.

The bill has been sent to President Asif Ali Zardari for his assent. Once signed into law, it would apply only to the federal capital Islamabad, and only district and sessions courts would handle related cases. The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 would no longer apply in the federal capital following the enforcement of the law, but all past orders, decisions, and judgments made under that act would still be considered valid.

In this modern day and age, we have the resources and the research which invariably proves that child marriage is harmful to both genders and especially girls who have hit puberty and are able to bear children, states the bill. Furthermore, child marriages are in complete violation of the rights of children, and international obligations and goal 5 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals focuses on gender equality and includes a target to end child marriage by 2030. Therefore, in order to restrain child marriages and protect the basic rights of children, it is expedient to enact a law for the ICT.

The bill defines a child as anyone under 18 years of age, whether boy or girl, and also states that no Nikah (Islamic marriage) registrar (officiant) is allowed to solemnize a marriage if either of the individuals is under 18.

Registrars are also required to check and confirm the age of both parties using their Computerized National Identity Cards (CNIC), issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

As per the legislation, if a registrar violates this law, they can face up to one year in jail and a fine of 100,000 Pakistani Rupees ($354 USD).

The bill says that any man over 18 who marries an underage girl could face up to three years of rigorous imprisonment.

Living with a child under 18 in a marital relationship will be considered statutory rape, the bill states.

Moreover, the legislation also stresses that anyone who forces a child into marriage could be jailed for up to seven years and fined up to 1 million Pakistani Rupees ($3,540).

The same punishment applies to anyone involved in trafficking a child for the purpose of marriage, it specifies.

The bill also criminalizes abettors and accomplices, stating: Those who assist in arranging a child marriage may be sentenced to up to three years in prison and fined.

It further states that parents or guardians who fail to stop or are involved in a childs marriage can also face up to three years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine.

According to the legislation, courts will have the authority to stop a child marriage if informed in time, while the law also ensures protection for whistleblowers who wish to remain anonymous.

The new law also denies bail to the perpetrators of the crime of underage marriage, and binds the courts of law to complete the trial within 90 days.

Major Step

After the Senate approved the bill, Sen. Rehman took to X to celebrate what she called a major step towards protecting childrens rights.

Landmark day for the Senate of Pakistan today! Proud of the @PPP_Org and all the parties including allies and the opposition for supporting the Child Marriage Restraint bill, she wrote. This is third time this House has passed this bill in one shape or form. I credit @SeharKamran for moving this bill before I did again in the Senate, where it was passed in 2019, but neither of our bills was moved or passed by NA. Today when the Lower House sent the bill to us, moved by @sharmilafaruqi, we jointly passed it yet again. Now it will be law inshallah for ICT.

Lauding the proposed legislation, Punjab Assembly member Ejaz Alam Augustine, a Christian, said it was a revolutionary step for the protection of children, especially girls, in terms of health, education and life.

We welcome the passage of the bill and hope that the anti-child marriage bill pending in the Punjab Assembly for over a year will also be tabled soon for voting, Augustine told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News. The legislation is also critical to protect minor Christian girls from the scourge of forced faith conversions as the perpetrators misuse religion to abduct and marry underage girls.

The bill pending in the Punjab Assembly since April 25, 2024, seeks to increase the legal age for marriage for both boys and girls to 18 years in Punjab. Pending approval of the bill, the minimum age for girls to marry is still 16. Nationally, the Christian Marriage (Amendment) Act 2024 set the marriageable age at 18 only for Christians; if they convert to Islam, girls considered Muslims come under sharia (Islamic law), which allows them to marry younger.

Typically, kidnapped girls in Pakistan, some as young as 10, are abducted, forced to convert to Islam and raped under cover of Islamic marriages and are then pressured to record false statements in favor of the kidnappers, rights advocates say. Judges routinely ignore documentary evidence related to the childrens ages, handing them back to kidnappers as their legal wives.

Noting that Pakistan often suffers from poor implementation of laws after theyre passed, Augustine, who has previously served as the minister for human rights and minorities affairs in Punjab, stressed the need for community-based watch committees comprising local representatives, human rights activists, and citizens to ensure effective enforcement.

Pakistan, whose population is 96% Muslim, ranked eighth on Open Doors 2025 World Watch List of the most difficult places to be a Christian.

This article was originally published at Christian Daily InternationalMorning Star News.
Home News Divided Supreme Court affirms ruling against Okla. Catholic charter school

An equally divided United States Supreme Court has affirmed an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against the creation of what would have been the first taxpayer-funded religious charter school.

In a brief per curiam opinion released Thursday morning, the high court ruled 4-4 to affirm the state Supreme Court ruling against the establishment of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in the case, as she had recused herself, reportedly due to having close personal ties to Nicole Stelle Garnett, a professor who was an early adviser for St. Isidore.

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Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who filed a complaint against the initial approval of the religious charter school, celebrated the decision.

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma, he tweeted shortly after the decision was released.

I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty.

In June 2023, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve the creation of St. Isidore, which would be jointly overseen by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Catholic Diocese of Tulsa.

However, progressive groups and Drummond both objected to the taxpayer-funded religious charter school, with Drummond filing a complaint against the board in October 2023 and the liberal groups also filing a lawsuit in July 2023.

In June of last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-1 against the religious charter school, with the majority concluding that the approval of the Catholic entity violated the state constitution.

Although the charter school board unanimously voted to rescind the contract for St. Isidore per an order from the state Supreme Court, they also filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the combined cases of Oklahoma Charter School Board, et al. v. Drummond, Attorney General of Oklahoma and St. Isidore of Seville School v. Drummond, Attorney General of Oklahoma. Oral arguments were held last month.

Alliance Defending Freedom Chief Legal Counsel Jim Campbell argued on behalf of the charter school, telling the Supreme Court that when a state creates a public program and invites private actors, it cant exclude people or groups because theyre religious.

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board is committed to this principle of religious neutrality, said Campbell. Thats why it approved St. Isidores application based on the strength of its proposal, refusing to reject the group because of its faith.

Gregory Garre represented Drummond, and argued before the high court last month that charter schools are public schools and thus have to be considered state actors that can be held to the same curricular standards as government schools.

Teaching religion as truth in public schools is not allowed, he said. St. Isidore has made clear that thats exactly what it wants to do in infusing its school day with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Oklahoma respects and promotes through vouchers and other means the abilities of families to secure such an education in a private school.
Home News 'Act of evil': Christians react to murder of Israeli Embassy staff

Christian leaders and advocacy groups in the United States have offered their condolences after two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night.

The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were identified by The Times of Israel as a couple about to be engaged.

The shooting happened at an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. The attack appeared to be religiously motivated, as the 30-year-old suspect, Elias Rodriguez, reportedly shouted free, free Palestine! while in custody.

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The shooting comes at a time of concern over antisemitism in the U.S. following the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel perpetrated by the Hamas terror organization and the ensuing Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

Religious leaders expressed solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people as they mourned the loss of the Israeli Embassy staffers. Here are six reactions to Wednesdays shooting.
Home News A tangible expression of Gods love: Baptist church opens 60 affordable housing units

A church in Washington state has opened 60 affordable housing units across the street from their sanctuary.

Shiloh Baptist Church of Tacoma finished construction on its Shiloh New Life Apartments back in January, with the property being composed of two building complexes.

Shiloh Baptist Pastor Chavis Young told The Christian Post earlier this week that his church built the housing because they have always believed in being a tangible expression of Gods love in our community.

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As we witnessed the growing housing crisis and the impact it was having on families  particularly those with low or fixed incomes  we felt a deep spiritual and moral call to respond, Young said.

Creating affordable housing was a way to put our faith into action and meet a critical need in our city, while also creating space for dignity, stability and hope.

Construction on the housing commenced in August 2023, following what Young described as a period of prayer, planning and fundraising.

The first of the two buildings, known as the Lily V. Brazill building, officially opened last September. The second structure, known as the James and Marilyn Walton building, opened in January. Since their completion, both buildings have filled up with new residents.

Like any major development project, there were initial hurdles  zoning approvals, building permits and navigating city regulations, Young recounted to CP.

However, we found that by being transparent, collaborative and committed to the communitys well-being, many local authorities became partners in the process.

Young also told CP that he believed the housing project fulfilled the Gospel call to love our neighbors, care for the marginalized, and serve the least of these.

These housing units are more than buildings  they are a living testimony of what it looks like when the Church becomes the hands and feet of Jesus, he continued.

By meeting physical needs, we open doors for spiritual impact. We believe this project reflects the heart of the Gospel: love in action, hope made visible, and community restored.

Shiloh Baptists new housing units comes at a time when a growing number of Americans are concerned about housing affordability.

According to a Pew Research Center survey from last September, 69% of Americans are concerned about housing costs, up from the 61% reported by Pew in April 2023.
Home News 'Duck Dynasty' star opens up about her battle with infertility: 'Not an easy decision'

Bella Robertson and her husband, Jacob Mayo, opened up about their challenges with infertility and the toll of public scrutiny ahead of the premiere of A&Es "Duck Dynasty: The Revival."

In a recent interview, Robertson, 22, opened up about the couples decision to share their journey to parenthood on the upcoming reality series, marking the first time they have publicly discussed their fertility struggles.

I think people just dont know what theyre talking about or who theyre talking to, she told Us Weekly. We share a story of infertility in the show and thats something that we havent really shared publicly that much, but thats something that others just dont know. When you just look at someone on social media, you cant know what anyones going through.

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Robertson and Mayo, 26, were married in June 2021 on a farm in Louisiana. Since their wedding, the duo said theyve faced ongoing questions from fans about when they plan to have children. The couple says those comments, while often well-intentioned, have been difficult to process.

I think what weve learned in marriage  and youll see in our story in the show  is that I wish getting pregnant and having kids was as easy as people act like it is, Jacob, who is the owner of the General Vintage Clothing store, said. Just, Oh, I can just pop out a kid or If we want to wait, we get to choose to wait. Its not that transactional of a thing.

I think thats kind of the reason when people say stuff, its just like, if it was easy or if it was easy not to, we would, he added. But its not that simple, I would say.

Robertson echoed that sentiment, saying, When people comment about us having kids, were like, Trust me, you dont have to ask us.

Robertson, the youngest daughter of Duck Dynasty stars Willie and Korie Robertson, rose to fame when the original series premiered on A&E in 2012. The show followed the lives of the Robertson family, known for their overt Christian faith and duck call business, Duck Commander. It ran for 11 seasons before ending in 2017.

Now, the family is returning to television in Duck Dynasty: The Revival, a new series that brings viewers back into the lives of Willie and Kories children and grandchildren.

Bella and Jacob said they initially hesitated to discuss their fertility journey on camera but ultimately decided to share their experience to help others who might be facing similar challenges.

It was not an easy decision, Robertson said. I dont think we necessarily intended on sharing it even, but it felt right.  This is just one of the ways that we are showing up and being our authentic selves on this new show.

She added, I think that we both felt like if we could help anybody  especially, what are the odds that were on this stage where we can share something that is so real for so many?

According to statistics from the World Health Organization, around 17.5% of the adult population  roughly 1 in 6 worldwide  experience infertility. In the U.S., about 11% of women and about 9% of men of childbearing age have infertility.

In a recent interview with The Christian Post, author and speaker DawnChere Wilkerson, who leads VOUS Church with her husband, Rich Wilkerson Jr., opened up about the couples eight-year battle with infertility.

It was a very personal journey, she said. And I discovered in the wait that it's the temptation for all of us to isolate and think we can just handle it on our own.

Wilkerson, who now shares four children with her husband, offered encouragement to those whove walked through miscarriage, stillbirth or the heartbreak of an unfulfilled longing.

I would encourage anyone going through loss to not isolate, she said. Its not about the words that are said but about having people who love you stand with you.

She recalled her time in Israel, where she learned that Jesus Words  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted  were not just about divine consolation but about communal support.

Youre blessed when youre part of the community of God, she says. Because even in your deepest, darkest pain, you will receive comfort from those around you.
Home News Kennedy Center's upcoming theater season includes shows featuring men in drag

While President Donald Trump promised an end to drag performances aimed at children at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, the theater's upcoming season includes multiple shows featuring men dressing as women.

The Kennedy Center announced its 2025-26 season on Monday, including "Chicago," "Moulin Rouge! The Musical," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and Monty Python's "Spamalot."

"Chicago," which happens to be the longest-running American musical in Broadway history, is scheduled to begin performances at the center next spring.

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One of the characters in the musical, Mary Sunshine, is traditionally played by a man in drag; however, the Broadway production allows performers of "any age, any gender identity, any ethnicity" to audition.

Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon made his Broadway debut when he assumed the role of Matron "Mama" Morton, as Playbill reported in January 2023.

Based on the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film, "Moulin Rouge! The Musical" also features a drag performer character named "Baby Doll." Jeigh Madjus, a drag queen, made his Broadway debut when he was cast as the character.

Male characters dress as women in "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Spamalot." But in the latter case, this is often used for comedic effect. While "Mrs. Doubtfire" revolves around a divorced father pretending to be a woman, the man only dresses as a female nanny so he could spend more time with his children, not for any ideological or sexual reason.

Jeffrey Finn, vice president of artistic programming and executive producer of theatre, promised in the Monday press release that "a great theater season of excitement and joy" is coming to the Kennedy Center.

"I couldn't be more proud to feature a season filled with Best Musicals from Broadway, including three Tonywinning original Best Musicals: The Outsiders, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and Spamalot," he stated.

The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.

After Trump was elected as the new chair of the center, he announced in a February post on Truth Social that he had terminated multiple members of the Board of Trustees, including the chairman. The president said these members did not "share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture."

"The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation," the president declared. "For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!"

Trump also vowed that the Kennedy Center would no longer expose children to drag performers, appearing to allude to a Dragtastic Dress-up event last year that featured a story hour with drag queen Tara Hoot. The invitation for the gathering also advertised drag performances from Pretty Rik E and Bombshell Monroe.

"LGBTQ+ youth under 18 and their parents/caregivers are invited to come learn the history of drag and watch these incredible performers strut their stuff," the invite for the event reads.

Events advertised as family-friendly that feature drag performers have received criticism from parents and lawmakers who say they expose children to sexualized content, such as men dressed in revealing outfits dancing for money.

The content of one "A Drag Queen Christmas," advertised as family-friendly, prompted Florida authorities to threaten to revoke the licenses of the James L. Knight Center in Miami and the Plaza Live in 2022 if the venues allowed minors to attend the show.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) sent letters to the venue operators at the time following an announcement from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, saying that DBPR had launched an investigation after receiving "multiple complaints about a sexually explicit performance marketed to children held in Fort Lauderdale."

During the drag-themed Christmas show's tour throughout the United States, the DBPR became aware of lewd activity conducted at these performances in front of minors.

One part of the show involved a man wearing prosthetic breasts accepting tips from the audience, and, at one point, he asked a child in the audience, "Are you reaching for my [breasts]? Are you hungry?"

In a separate sketch, "Screwdolph the Red-Nippled Reindeer" told children's stories about Santa while male actors danced suggestively as sexual videos played in the background.

The Texas Family Project shared footage in December 2022 of another drag show that was advertised as an event for all ages. The video shows a young girl in the audience as a man on stage dances suggestively and sings, "Under the mistletoe/ Yes, everybody knows/ We will take off our clothes."

At one point in the video, one of the drag performers can be seen stroking a young girl's hair. The sequence of events caught on video led to the venue canceling its remaining drag show performances through the rest of the year.
Home News Pete Hegseth prompts criticism for prayer to 'King Jesus' during Pentagon event

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth led a prayer during a voluntary event at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday that addressed Jesus as king and invoked His wisdom for guidance, prompting critics to accuse him of violating the U.S. Constitution.

"King Jesus, we come humbly before you, seeking your face, seeking your grace, in humble obedience to your law and to your word," Hegseth prayed. "We come as sinners saved only by that grace, seeking your providence in our lives and in our nation."

"Lord God, we ask for the wisdom to see what is right and in each and every day, in each and every circumstance, the courage to do what is right in obedience to your will. It is in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. And all Gods people say amen," Hegseth added, to which some in the audience replied, "Amen."

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Pete Hegseth leading a prayer to 'King Jesus' in the Pentagon is ???????????? pic.twitter.com/CmoFm2Won3  Protestia (@Protestia) May 22, 2025

Hegseth noted that the voluntary 30-minute prayer event, which was called the Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service, might become a monthly occurrence, according to The New York Times.

Hegseth appeared to mock The New York Times for its story on the service, noting how the left-leaning outlet was effectively forced to print a prayer to Jesus in its entirety. The New York Times has been critical of Hegseth, publishing stories implying he wants to start a new Crusade while highlighting his Latin "Deus Vult" tattoo, which drew scrutiny as the rallying cry of the First Crusade in 1095.

In January, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., sent a 33-page letter to Hegseth complaining about his tattoo, which she claimed indicated he is an "insider threat."

Hegseth's prayer this week has prompted pushback from some critics who claim it was a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, a former Pentagon lawyer and now a law professor at Southwestern Law School, called the service "incredibly problematic," according to CNN.

VanLandingham said the core of the Establishment Clause is the state not endorsing a particular religion, but having a broadcast event is obviously an endorsement even if they dont officially say, this is a Pentagon event.

I think its sponsorship in the true sense of the word, outside of funding  hes advocating for this, he is putting his weight of the official Office of the Secretary of Defense behind a particular religious event and inviting someone to the Pentagon to conduct it, she added. Thats wrong.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein, whose nonprofit has endeavored to remove overtly religious symbols from the military for 20 years, invoked the Holocaust to criticize the prayer service, according to a Wednesday video he posted to his website.

"I've been asked by the media what I think this means and what the impact is, and my response is simple: it's a holocaust, and I speak to you as somebody who suffered the fact that members of my family were actually slaughtered in the Nazi Holocaust," he said. "It's beyond description. It rips asunder our Constitution, and it's something we can't let happen."

Erin Smith, who serves as associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, expressed support for Hegseth in a statement provided to The Christian Post.

Smith likened Hegseth's religious exercise to that of the 26 U.S. Navy SEALs who sued the U.S. Department of Defense after being relieved of duty for refusing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds after being denied a religious exemption.

"Secretary Hegseths exercise of his religious faith is protected just like it was for the Navy SEALs we represented against the prior administration when it tried to kick them out for their faith objection to Covid requirements," Smith said. "We commend Secretary Hegseth for standing up for the Constitution and against censorship."

Phil Mendes, one of the SEALs in the lawsuit, featured as a witness during Attorney General Pam Bondi's first meeting of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Federal Government last month.

Also speaking at the Pentagon event with Hegseth was Brooks Potteiger, pastor of Hegseth's home church Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, which was established 2021 in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, near Nashville.

Potteiger delivered a prayer that claimed President Donald Trump and other leaders were appointed to their offices according to God's sovereignty, and asked God to provide the president with wisdom and protection.

"We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointed  for President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land. And we pray that you would continue to protect him, bless him, give him great wisdom," he said. "We pray that you would surround him with faithful counselors who fear your name and love your precepts."

Potteiger's church is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), which was cofounded by Douglas Wilson in 1998 and formerly called the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches until its name was changed in 2011 to avoid association with the Confederacy.
Home News Summit Churchs religious discrimination lawsuit assigned to magistrate court

Pre-trial proceedings for a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear's The Summit Church in North Carolina against the Chatham County Board of Commissioners have been moved to magistrate court.

According to the North Carolina Judicial Branch, while a case can be sent to magistrate court for a variety of reasons, these cases are mainly about civil matters with limited monetary value.

In a letter to the attorneys for both parties in the case on Tuesday, Chief United States District Judge Catherine Eagles of the Middle District of North Carolina said the case was randomly selected.

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This case has been randomly selected from the combined dockets of all district judges and administratively assigned to Magistrate Judge Webster to conduct all pretrial proceedings, including recommendation on dispositive motions, Eagles wrote while noting they could also choose to conduct all proceedings in magistrate court if they wish.

Parties have the option to agree for magistrate judges to conduct all proceedings in civil cases, both jury and nonjury, as encouraged by the Judicial Conference of the United States, she said.

The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Justice has filed a statement of interest in support of The Summit Church after lawyers for the Chatham County Board of Commissioners asked the court to dismiss it.

The Summit Church alleges in its lawsuit that members of the county board unlawfully rejected its application to rezone nearly 100 acres of land to house its Chapel Hill campus. The church contends the board's decision violated its "civil rights as enshrined in the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and codified in the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act."

The congregation has asked the court for a preliminary injunction and is seeking an order requiring the county to approve the church's rezoning request and associated site plan.

In response, the county asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina to dismiss the complaint with prejudice, citing multiple defenses, including governmental immunity.

Chatham officials also maintain that their zoning decision is a "legislative act" under state law and is not subject to RLUIPA.

The DOJ declared in its statement of interest in support of the church's claim that RLUIPA protects against the county's discriminatory zoning decision.

"RLUIPA protects the rights of religious groups to exercise their faith free from the precise type of undue government interference exhibited here," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in the statement. "The Civil Rights Division is committed to defending religious liberties as our founders intended and as federal law requires."

The DOJ noted that since RLUIPA is a federal law, it "guards individuals and religious institutions from unduly burdensome, unequal, or discriminatory land use regulations."

Trial before a magistrate judge can result in greater efficiency and lower costs, as well as an earlier trial date if desired and a special setting. Appeal from a judgment entered by a magistrate judge will be to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Eagles advised in her letter on Tuesday.

The parties were given 30 days to respond to the offer from the court. It was also noted that even if the parties did not agree to have their case handled by a magistrate judge, it will still be reviewed in magistrate court first anyway.

Cases in which consent is not given will nevertheless be first considered by the magistrate judge, who will make rulings or recommendations on all motions, including dispositive ones, Eagles said. Accordingly, the Clerk may contact you if you have not responded within 30 days.
Home Opinion Popular wisdom on early marriages is mostly wrong

In the song "Lets Get Married," by the Gray Havens, a husband-and-wife duo recount:

Some would scoff and stare at us,

And some would laugh and cry

And others asked our age and wage,

And raised their eyebrows in surprise.

Disbelief is typical of what young couples experience when they decide to get serious about marriage. In fact, its a major reason why the average age of first marriage for both men and women is now around 30.

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Also, skepticism about young marriage is propped up by a whole host of false assumptions: that it leads to higher rates of divorce, that young adults should establish a career first, or that they should be financially independent before seeking a spouse. And so, well-meaning people drop nuggets of popular wisdom like, Theres no rush, youve got your whole life ahead of you, or You should find yourself before settling down. Or, You need to experiment sexually before you commit to just one person.

This advice is not only misguided, its flat wrong. Writing at The Institute for Family Studies, Kasen Stephenson recently pointed out that while teenage marriages carry a higher risk of ending in divorce, marriages from age 20 onward do not. In fact, research from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia showed that there is no significant difference in reported marital satisfaction or divorce rates between earlier marriages (those between the ages of 20 and 24), and later marriages (those after age 25). And, by several important measures, earlier marriages have an advantage over those begun in the late 20s or beyond.

Stephenson pointed to a study that found spouses who married earlier reported higher rates of sexual satisfaction than any other marital age group. He suggested this could have something to do with the fact that such couples were single for less time, and so less likely to engage in hookups, which we know reduce marital satisfaction.

Early marriage appears to have long-term financial benefits, too. For example, married men earn more. Even when controlling for household size, education, and other factors, married men have 40% more household income than their unmarried peers and are half as likely to live in poverty. Sociologist Brad Wilcox has suggested that this is partly because the responsibility norms associated with marriage mean that [married] men work harder, smarter, and more responsibly. Speaking from personal experience, Stephenson added that spouses who share resources and responsibilities tend to have more flexibility when it comes to furthering their education and career.

Another subtler, more personal reason why early marriage, contrary to popular wisdom, is a good idea is that it allows couples to grow and build their lives, finances, and dreams together. Rather than becoming set in their ways separately, said Stephenson, earlier marriage gives couples the opportunity to mature together, sharing formative experiences, struggles, and triumphs, placing their love at the foundation of their lives, rather than making it an afterthought. Borrowing terms popular in sociology, he called these the cornerstone and capstone models of marriage.

Stephenson told how, as a junior at Stanford, he was the only student who mentioned marriage and children as part of his five-year plan.

They all described getting married as an objective for later and were surprised I would consider marrying so young. Shouldnt I establish myself financially or professionally first, then seek a spouse?

The view of his fellow students is the capstone model in a nutshell. Its also the current conventional wisdom about marriage. However, the research suggests its anything but wise, especially in an age when few ever reach the magical moment where they feel ready for marriage. Instead, many are finding theyve waited too long.

Stephenson instead commends a cornerstone model of marriage:

In this model, marriage is less an achievement and more a foundation for life. Instead of merging two settled individuals, it emphasizes the intertwining of two budding people  generally between the ages of 20 and 25  who can traverse their formative years together.

This model, countercultural as it is, better harmonizes with who we are as humans and what marriage is as an institution. It is built on the biblical truth that God brought Eve to Adam so that they could fulfill the creation mandate together. Also, children were an explicit part of that mandate and are still a part of Gods design for marriage today (and another area in which young marriages excel).

Simply put, the popular wisdom on early marriages is mostly wrong. Perhaps instead of interrogating 20-somethings about their age and wage, Christians can ask young couples, upon news of an engagement, How can I help? and Whens the wedding?

Originally published at BreakPoint.
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The Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 will have an impact on many charity employers who may need to reassess some of their policies and procedures. It has had a significant impact on the wellbeing of transgender people, as it suggests an individuals sex assigned at birth may take precedence over a gender recognition certificate (GRC) in the eyes of the law. In addition, the ruling does not consider the consequences for intersex and non-binary people.

Despite significant press coverage about the ruling, it is uncertain what the full legal implications will be. Alongside this, the interim guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) appears to have caused more confusion than clarity and has not provided a clear path or framework for organisations to follow.

Its important for charities to remember that their transgender employees remain protected from discrimination, harassment and victimisation under the gender reassignment provision in the Equality Act.

As with any change in legislation, this will require charities to seek appropriate legal advice. However, they should not act in haste as the EHRC will be issuing its full guidance over the summer, which should clarify the legislative environment.

Single sex spaces

Although the ruling has determined that it is lawful in some instances to restrict access to single sex spaces based on biological sex, the practicalities of this are not straightforward, and one of the biggest concerns for employers right now is what to do about their toilets.

Taking a step back, employers must recognise that everyone has the right to access appropriate toilet facilities. It would be ideal for charities to put in place individual, self-contained, accessible, gender-neutral toilets for everyone, but for many this will not be practicable.

In this case, charities should seek to offer accessible disabled toilets for all genders, in addition to facilities for biological men, biological women and gender-neutral facilities. If neither of these options are possible, charities may need to seek legal advice, as there is a requirement to provide appropriate toilet facilities for everyone.

Psychological safety

From a diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) perspective, charities will need to consider how legal requirements sit alongside efforts to ensure their workplace is an inclusive one, where people of all gender identities feel safe, included, valued, respected and free from fear of discrimination. It is also essential for employers to strike a careful balance between sex-based rights and gender identity rights.

Although the next few months will invariably prove challenging, this does not mean that charities cannot act. In fact, there is plenty that employers can do to ensure that they are supporting employees wellbeing and that they feel psychologically safe at work.

At times like these, strong leadership is vital. It needs to be authentic, in line with your charity's values and supported by everyday behaviours. A clear message from senior leadership, whether this be in the form of an all-hands meeting, video message, an email or a blog, will help set the tone for this and encourage open communication.

Reaffirming your commitment to DEI

Although leadership certainly comes from the top, messaging should be cascaded at all levels throughout your charity, reasserting your commitment to creating an inclusive workplace culture for everyone. Depending on your charitys size and complexity, this may come in the guise of a one-to-one conversation with a line manager, in a team meeting, via digital channels or using a combination of these.

For those directly affected by this ruling, employers should seek to provide support in one-to-one conversations, group settings or by providing other safe spaces for them to voice concerns or simply to share how the ruling is affecting them. However, not everyone is going to want to take advantage of this type of support, so its equally vital to signpost to well-being and mental health initiatives.

When communicating about the implications of the ruling to your employees, its important to remind them of your charitys commitment to DEI and follow through by stating the actions that you will take as an organisation to support colleagues, particularly through this period of uncertainty. This may include providing general DEI training, training on gender identity, or training on how to handle rights in conflict in the workplace. Its also essential to encourage open communication, ensuring that everyone feels safe to speak up and raise concerns.

The impact of the Supreme Court ruling is, and will continue to be, an emotive one. In addition to ensuring charities are legally compliant with any changes, once they are fully understood, employers play a vital role in making sure that their cultures are inclusive and their environments psychologically safe, and that transgender, non-binary and intersex employees have everything they need to thrive and flourish.

Right now, charities must remember the inherent dignity of all human beings, and ensure that everyone they employ is treated and treats others with kindness, compassion and respect.

Civil Society Voices is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say. Find out more about contributing and how to get in touch. is the place for informed opinion, and debate about the big issues affecting charities today. Were always keen to hear from anyone, working or volunteering at a charity, who has something to say.
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Print magazines werent expected to survive the digital age, yet theyre still holding on, if not always thriving. In 2024, several news stories highlighted a small but notable resurgence. Publications like Vice, Nylon, and Playboy, which had previously abandoned their print editions, began reviving them, albeit in limited runs. Print shifted from the default medium to a luxury itema premium add-on for those willing to pay extra. And now, as Axios reported recently, even corporate storytelling is going analog, including among companies driving the digital revolution. Last week, Microsoft launched Signal, a hundred-and-twenty-page magazine targeting business leaders. The first issue includes an essay by Bill Gates; a Q&A with Satya Nadella, the CEO; and a lifestyle section at the back.

Steve Clayton, the vice president of Microsofts communications strategy, told me that he was inspired to launch Signal after reading an October 2024 New York Times story about the success of Costco Connection, a magazine that the retail chain launched in 1987 and is now the third-largest magazine in the country, with a circulation of over fifteen million copies each month. Signal doesnt have quite the same ambitions in terms of reach, Clayton said, but it encouraged him to experiment with the print format. Were in this world where everything seems so ephemeral, he said this week, while showing me the magazine on a Zoom call. It was time to do something that was almost the opposite of that. The magazines name is a nod to cutting through the noise.

The comeback of printboth in traditional media and corporate storytellingseems driven partly by nostalgia and a craving for the tangible. In the words of Belle Cushing, who wrote about the resurgence of high school newspapers for CJR last year, print is cool again; one student said that newspapers have a throwback appeal, kind of like Polaroid cameras. Others said that they offer a break from the constant online news cycle and all-consuming apps like TikTok. (In an interview for yesterdays edition of this newsletter, Kelsey Russell, an influencer who talks about the news on TikTok, described getting a print subscription to the Times as a revelation. Our algorithms are aggregated to show us things that will make us pay attention, and many times those things are negative, Russell told Yona TR Golding. I realized when I read print, I would actually process what I was reading.) Older people are feeling the pull toward print as well. Clayton said he deliberately chose not to publish Signals content online, as people tend to skim long PDF files. We want this to be something people sit with, read, and cherish, he said. If the first issue of Signal proves popular, the magazine will be published quarterly going forward.

Signals articles are written by a mix of in-house staff, which includes former journalists, and contributors from Delayed Gratification, a UK-based magazine that operates under the slogan last to breaking news. Indeed, faced with newsroom layoffs, journalists are increasingly pivoting to careers in corporate storytelling. The Times article about Costco Connection described how a cartoonist from the Oakland Tribune joined the magazine after relocating to Washington State (home to Costco HQ). Other migration destinations have included the Red Bulletin, a lifestyle magazine published by Red Bull Media House, which has a monthly print run of 1.4 million copies. Even Hinge, the dating app, paired with literary writers to produce No Ordinary Love, an anthology of dating stories meant to connect with a Gen Z audience.

Of course, the number of print magazines making a comeback remains limited. Airline magazines, for example, have mostly gone digitala shift exacerbated by the growing availability of onboard Wi-Fi. The final edition of Hemispheres, United Airlines in-flight magazine, was published in September of last year. As Lucy Schiller wrote for CJR at the time, it marked the end of an era. But, while the evolution of print may have branched off in a slimmer, less traditional, and at times more corporate direction, it continues to move forward nonetheless.

Courtesy Microsoft.



Other notable stories:

CJRs Betsy Morais reports on allegations of sexual harassment and assault that four journalists have made against the star reporter Wesley Lowery. At the time of these encounterswhich spanned from 2018 to 2024, when he had reached the height of his media stardomeach of these women viewed Lowery as a professional contact, someone they knew socially and looked up to, not as a romantic partner with whom they were engaging in consensual sex, Morais writes. Until now, some had feared making noise about Lowery. One of the women, Olivia Messer, said that his inability to see the damage hes causedmuch less change his behaviormakes me gravely concerned for all young women around him. Lowery said that CJRs account is incomplete and includes false insinuations, but that he takes the womens perspectives seriously.

Yesterday, Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, visited the Oval Office, where President Trump confronted him with a video and news clippings that supposedly supported Trumps false claims that there is a genocide against the countrys white Afrikaner population. In an op-ed for the Times, the South African journalist Richard Poplak writes that the Afrikaner right lobby has vaulted their cause to the top of the geopolitical discussion by developing an intimate understanding of US culture wars and appearing on Tucker Carlsons show. This is an effort to flip the narrative of apartheid, and cast former oppressors as victims, Poplak writes. By claiming the mantle of exceptional victimhood, right-wing Afrikaners have become bit players in MAGAs noisy but empty scam.

The Wall Street Journals Michelle Hackman and Tarini Parti report that Kristi Noems Department of Homeland Security is routinely turning to polygraph tests in a bid to root out leaks to the media, even when the information shared wasnt classified. Current and former DHS employees, who have worked under administrations for both parties, say they havent seen polygraphing used at nearly the scale Noem has directed, Hackman and Parti report. The practice is the centerpiece of Noems efforts to root out disloyalty among the 250,000-person agency she oversees, and which she has grown to distrust.

Earlier this week, a guide to summer activities produced for a division of Hearst and syndicated in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Sun-Times went viral after readers noticed that it attributed books to authors who hadnt written them, among other mistakestelltale signs that it was composed using AI. This turned out to be true, The Atlantics Damon Beres and Charlie Warzel write. Slop has come for the regional newspapers. The Inquirer said that it is investigating; the Sun-Times has said that the controversy should be considered a learning moment for all of journalism.

And Philip B. Corbettwho is retiring from the Times this month after thirty-five years at the paper, including fourteen as its Standards editor, with oversight of ethical quandaries and journalistic best practicesreflects on how the roles demands have, and havent, evolved in the digital era. Readers and even Times journalists sometimes think theres a hard-and-fast rule for everything, Corbett writes, but Standards editors spend a lot of time helping colleagues navigate the gray areas, the competing goals, the close calls.

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Alphabets Google and artificial-intelligence startup Character.AI must face a lawsuit from a Florida woman who said Character.AIs chatbots caused her 14-year-old sons suicide, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Anne Conway said the companies failed to show at an early stage of the case that the free-speech protections of the U.S. Constitution barred Megan Garcias lawsuit.

The lawsuit is one of the first in the U.S. against an AI company for allegedly failing to protect children from psychological harms. It alleges that the teenager killed himself after becoming obsessed with an AI-powered chatbot.

A Character.AI spokesperson said the company will continue to fight the case and employs safety features on its platform to protect minors, including measures to prevent conversations about self-harm.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said the company strongly disagrees with the decision. Castaneda also said that Google and Character.AI are entirely separate and that Google did not create, design, or manage Character.AIs app or any component part of it.

Garcias attorney, Meetali Jain, said the historic decision sets a new precedent for legal accountability across the AI and tech ecosystem.

Character.AI was founded by two former Google engineers whom Google later rehired as part of a deal granting it a license to the startups technology. Garcia argued that Google was a co-creator of the technology.

Garcia sued both companies in October after the death of her son, Sewell Setzer, in February 2024.

The lawsuit said Character.AI programmed its chatbots to represent themselves as a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewells desire to no longer live outside of its world.

According to the complaint, Setzer took his life moments after telling a Character.AI chatbot imitating Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen that he would come home right now.

Character.AI and Google asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit on multiple grounds, including that the chatbots output was constitutionally protected free speech.

Conway said on Wednesday that Character.AI and Google fail to articulate why words strung together by an LLM (large language model) are speech.

The judge also rejected Googles request to find that it could not be liable for aiding Character.AIs alleged misconduct.

(Reporting by Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis)
Aircraft lessor SMBC Aviation Capital has booked a further $654 million in proceeds from insurance settlements over the past year related to jets stranded in Russia following Western sanctions, the Irish-headquartered company said on Thursday.

That brought SMBCs total recoveries from claims following the sanctions over Moscows war in Ukraine to $1.41 billion. It was one of six lessors that ended an Irish lawsuit against their insurers last month following a series of settlements.

SMBC recorded an impairment of $1.6 billion in 2022 to cover the full financial impact of having 34 jets stuck in Russia after the sanctions forced the termination of all Russian leases.

The worlds third-largest aircraft lessor gave the update in its full year results to the end of March, which showed pretax profits rose 22% year-on-year to a company record $563 million, excluding the benefit of the insurance settlements.

SMBC, owned by a consortium including Japans Sumitomo Corp 8053.T and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 8316.T, said its core lease rental revenue grew by 3% to $2 billion and its asset sales hit $1.9 billion following the sale of 48 older aircraft.

(Reporting by Halpin; Editing by Jamie Freed)
BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Center Road was buzzing May 20 with talk of butter burgers and concrete mixers. It was the official grand opening of Culvers in Brunswick. The chain now has 1,019 locations.

Owner, Michael Green, along with partners Josh Clark, Pat Connors and Steve Bulheimer and other Culver owners from around the area took part in the ceremony, with several coming from Wisconsin, where the Culvers franchise was born in 1984.

Green has worked for Culvers for 10 years, always with the goal of becoming an owner. It means a lot to me to celebrate this moment with you, he told the crowd. Im so excited to work with this hard-working team.

That team includes co-managers, Dylan Rausch and Sandra Richards. Rausch moved here from Wisconsin to begin his quest to become an owner, a practice encouraged by Culvers.

Richards is a local resident who originally lived in Iowa where there was a Culvers in her town, and she said she was very excited to have one in her current hometown.

Bulheimer said Brunswick had been on the Culvers radar for several years as they expanded into northeast Ohio. Its a great community and aligns with our mission  but it took a long time to find the right location.

Green emphasized that Culver is not only known for its delicious food but for its hospitality and participation in the community. As he invited the group inside on a very cool spring day, he stood near a display of colorful balls, geared toward children who can receive a ball for every 10 kids meals purchased for them.

The Northern Medina County Chamber Alliance handled the official ribbon cutting complete with proclamations welcoming them from city, county, state and national officials.

Chamber Alliance Executive Director, Debbie Boehmke noted it was a beloved national brand, especially known for its butter burgers with Wisconsin cheese and its frozen custard with flavors of the day.

Everyone was invited inside to enjoy coffee and donuts (on a cold and windy day) and checked out the spacious interior while Michaels toddler brought smiles as she checked out the chairs.

Culvers is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at 3725 Center Road. Check out the menu and flavors of the day at https://www.culvers.com/restaurants/brunswick-oh-center-rd
LYNDHURST, Ohio -- You dont have to go to Europe to find old world quality when it comes to shoes. Just head over to Mar-Lou Shoes in Lyndhurst.

Daniel Ungar, second-generation owner of Mar-Lou, started importing many of his shoes from Europe and other countries eight years ago.

But he said that with all the competition in the shoe industry these days, putting more effort into European imports is vital.

Dan Ungar is the second-generation owner of Mar-Lou Shoes. Gregory Burnett, special to cleveland.com

Ungar and his wife travel to Europe a couple of times a year in search of products that are difficult to find in Northeast Ohio.

Direct-to-consumer has become fiercer in the last five years, he said.

So, in essence, its an essential element, and its affecting many independents like us, which is just the fact that were now competing more than ever before with the very hand that feeds us.

So, the more we can differentiate ourselves, the better.

This shoe at Mar-Lou Shoes in Lyndhurst was handmade in Italy. Gregory Burnett, special to cleveland.com

There are challenges -- like the expense of traveling overseas. But as an independent shoe retailer who wants to stay in business, its a must, Ungar said.

Some smaller stores show that retailers lack foresight and forget that the world is smaller than it (seems).

Most of us judge a shoe by its manufacturer. Clarks and New Balance are popular brands. So when you introduce an unfamiliar foreign brand, it takes time for customers to warm up to it.

Employees of Mar-Lou Shoes in Lyndhurst pack donated shoes for delivery to Ukraine. From left are Yelena Agalidi, Iryna Rabocha and Jane Shifris. Photo Courtesy of Dan Ungar

There are two brands my wife and I fell in love with, Ungar said. One is from Austria and called Hartj; the other, Sabatini, is made in Italy.

Both are tiny manufacturers that we were fortunate enough to find on our first trip to the shoe fair in Milan, Italy.

Mar-Lou is among only about three retailers in America who sell those brands, he said.

After bringing them in, we started to see interest from our customers after they warmed up to the brand.

Mar-Lou Shoes employee Iryna Rabocha unpacking boxes of shoes imported from Europe. Photo Courtesy of Dan Ungar

Ungar said many customers think Italian shoes are some of the best made. After visiting the Sabatini factory in Italy, he saw firsthand the meticulous detail put into making their shoes the highest quality available.

Workers hand-craft the shoes stitch by stitch. Thats what drew Ungar to want to do business with Sabatini.

Shoes must feel good to the touch and have genuine cork, not fake stuff, he said.

The story behind the founding of Mar-Lou Shoes is unique.

After leaving a shoe manufacturer in St. Louis, Mo., Henry Bud Ungar, Dans late father, founded Mar-Lou Shoes in 1958 after moving to Cleveland.

The idea for the store came after his wife, Marcia Lou, (for whom the store was named) could not find size 10 narrow shoes once they moved to Cleveland.

Instead of continuing an exhausting search, Bud opened his first store in the Old Arcade in downtown Cleveland and designed the perfect fit for his wife.

That revolutionized footwear in Cleveland for women with larger feet, narrow feet or hard-to-fit sizes.

Over the last 60-plus years, the store expanded to various locations. The family finally decided to consolidate and now has just the one store, at 5471 Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst.

The stores customer demographic is mostly 50 and older. Although Mar-Lou has a selection for men, 80 percent of its customers are women.

Today, more than 60 percentof the stores footwear for men and women is vast and extra wide -- even triple and four wide.

My dad designed many of our shoes initially, Ungar said. But that went away only because domestic manufacturing went away.

If my dad were alive today, he would be loving this.

For the first time in years, we realized we couldnt do it in America anymore. Weve got to get on an airplane and go to Italy.

The manufacturing is similar to what we did 50 to 60 years ago. Except were just doing it in Europe rather than in California.

Ungar supports Mar-Lous intention to continue offering brands from Europe and other overseas locales.

Theres a world of shoes to explore.

I think we must continue to get a feel for what the consumer is looking for in shoe styles, he said.

Sometimes we get caught up in Nike, New Balance, and forget theres a whole continent called Europe -- not to mention Asia.

We must search for unique, unusual and high-quality products.

Read more from the Sun Messenger.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors successfully argued that state law requires prison time for both firearm sentencing enhancements and the underlying felony. Getty Images/500px

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A mandatory prison sentence is required for offenders convicted of a felony involving a gun, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The 6-1 ruling reverses an 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals decision that permitted a Cleveland woman to serve community control for a gun-related, third-degree felony.

(State law) requires a trial court to impose a prison sentence on an offender convicted of a felony offense that has a corresponding firearm specification, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy wrote in the high courts decision.

In 2023, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Deborah Turner sentenced Jadyn Logan, 27, to two years of probation for attempting to possess weapons illegally. Because the offense included a firearm sentencing enhancement, Logan was first required to spend a year in prison.

County prosecutors promptly appealed the sentence to the 8th District, arguing state law mandates offenders must also spend time in prison for the underlying felony, not just the enhancement.

The 8th District jurists disagreed but noted their decision conflicted with prior rulings from six other district appellate courts. Prosecutors then brought the matter to the high court.

Kennedy, in the decision, said the matter was a straightforward question of interpreting state law. The court made a distinction between sentencing enhancements and offenses, noting that a firearm enhancement is not an offense in and of itself.

Consequently, when the trial court sentences a defendant for a firearm specification, it is not sentencing for a separate offense but instead is imposing additional punishment for the underlying offense, Kennedy wrote.

The high court ordered the case back to Turner for resentencing.

Justice Jennifer Brunner said in her dissenting opinion that she would have affirmed the 8th Districts ruling based on the language of state law at the time of offense.

We should not constrain trial-court discretion imbued by the Ohio Constitution, or trial-court jurisdiction set by the legislature, to craft sentences that are within the full breadth of options available under the felony sentencing scheme, she wrote.

Cuyahoga County Public Defender Cullen Sweeney shared some of Brunners sentiment in a Thursday statement to cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

(The ruling) removes discretion from trial courts to tailor sentences to individual circumstances, he said.

Moreover, going forward, defendants may be less likely to enter plea bargains when an attendant firearm specification causes the underlying offense to carry mandatory time.

The ruling didnt surprise county Prosecutor Michael OMalley.

This decision is not unexpected as it appeared to us that the law was very clear, he said in a statement Thursday.

This case is unusual in that both the trial court and all 12 8th District Court of Appeals judges got it wrong.

Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Eileen A. Gallagher for comment. She is administrative judge for the 8th District and the author of its decision in Logans case.

Tasha Forchione, the assistant county prosecutor who handled the appeal, said felony gun offenses shouldnt be eligible for probation.

If somebody is committing a felony offense with a firearm, that is really serious conduct, she said.

The law is clear now statewide. There wont be situations going forward where somebody gets kind of a split sentence.

The ruling ultimately means felons will spend more time in prison, regardless of their steps toward rehabilitation, according to Sweeney.

He said mandatory prison sentences prevent convicts from earning good time or applying for judicial release, and many will miss out on recently expanded educational and vocational opportunities for prisoners.

Hopefully, the General Assembly will address these negative consequences and amend the statute, he said.
PERKINS TOWNSHIP, Ohio A Sandusky-area man is facing a felony charge after he was accused of severely injuring his young dog because it had an accident inside his home, authorities say.

Terry Thomas, 41, is being held in the Erie County Jail on one count of cruelty to animals, according to a news release from the Perkins Township Police Department.

The Friendship Animal Protective League of Lorain County says the 8-month-old dog, a pit bull breed, was brought to Animal Clinic Northview early Saturday morning with a large, gaping wound to its face. Police say Thomas struck the puppy several times with an unknown object.

The APL says Thomas signed the dog over to humane officers, allowing clinic workers to perform surgery. The APL notified police of the incident and Thomas was arrested Monday morning.

The dog is expected to recover but the APL says it will take a long time.

Thanks to the heroic care of the team at Animal Clinic Northview, the diligence of our humane team, and the decisive action of the Perkins Police Department, this sweet girl will have a second chance and the owner will face justice for this truly awful case of brutal abuse, the APL says in a statement.
President Donald Trump on Truth Social suggested Joe Biden wasn't really running the country as president. Biden's surprise cancer announcement shows the public was kept in the dark by those really running the government behind the scenes, he suggested. AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump on Tuesday argued on Truth Social that people in President Joe Bidens administration using an autopen to put in place open border policies to destroy our country without Bidens consent or knowledge.

The criticism represents a new attack on Bidens health, pressing the argument that he was cognitively impaired. And Trump suggested further investigation is needed.

Joe Biden was not for Open Borders, he never talked about Open Borders, where criminals of all kinds, shapes, and sizes, can flow into our Country at will, Trump posted Tuesday on Truth Social. It wasnt his idea to Open the Border, and almost destroy our Country, and cost us Hundreds of Billions of Dollars to get criminals out of our Country, and go through the process we are going through now.

Rather, Trump argued, it was done by people in his administration who acted without his knowledge.

It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger, Trump wrote. This is TREASON at the Highest Level! They did it to destroy our Country.

The Joe Biden that everybody knew would never allow drug dealers, gang members, and the mentally insane to come into our Country totally unchecked and unvetted, Trump said. All anyone has to do is look up his record. Something very severe should happen to these Treasonous Thugs that wanted to destroy our Country, but couldnt, because I came along. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Bidens recently announced diagnosis of prostate cancer is a separate issue from the narrative around his mental acuity, but Democrats acknowledge that it hits them at their biggest weak spot right now: credibility, The Hill said.

Indeed, this week Trump used the diagnosis to argue that the administration was concealing Bidens health from the public.

I think its very sad, Trump told reporters Monday when asked about Bidens health, The Hill said. Actually, Im surprised that, you know, the public wasnt notified a long time ago. Because to get to stage 9, thats a long time.

Bidens cancer has been diagnosed as Stage 4.

I think the doctor said hes just fine, and its turned out thats not so  its very dangerous for our country, Trump continued. Somebody is not telling the facts. Thats a big problem.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked Bidens mental acuity, even after Biden had dropped out of the race  calling his two-time rival Sleepy Joe. For years, The Hill noted, he maintained that Biden, as he put it, wasnt playing with a full deck of cards.

By Tuesday, he was calling for further investigation.

Were going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation, Trump told reporters while appearing on Capitol Hill for a private meeting with House Republicans, The Hill said.

Who was operating the autopen? Trump said. You know who signed it? Radical-left lunatics who were running our country. And the autopen signed it.
Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren released a 15-minute video message on Wednesday, May 21, addressing week-old claims of antisemitism against his wife, Natalie McDaniel. Facebook

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren called accusations that his wife used antisemitic language in conversations and text messages entirely false and said the city will fight them.

In a 15-minute video message posted late Wednesday night to his official mayoral Facebook page, Seren said that screenshots of text messages from his wife, Natalie McDaniel, had been altered and that some of the comments attributed to McDaniel were actually made by him.
Westlake Democratic Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney speaks at a press conference on May 21, 2025. She and her colleagues introduced three bills they say will combat dark money and prevent another House Bill 6 scandal. Ohio House of Representatives

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householders arrest for racketeering made national headlines. The fallout reshaped Republican leadership. But nearly five years later, the laws that enabled a $60 million bribery scheme remain largely intact.

Forget what you learned in Schoolhouse Rock... , said state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Westlake Democrat. All you need is a big enough checkbook, state laws that shield you and a legislature that is ready and willing, and your options are almost endless.

With enough dark money, she warned, its possible to buy yourself a speakership, change the entire makeup of the Legislature, and pass a law giving FirstEnergy a taxpayer funded, $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants.

To prevent another scandal like House Bill 6, Sweeney and three other Democratic lawmakers introduced a three-part reform package.

House Bill 250 would mandate the disclosure of dark money donors. These are funds raised to influence elections by nonprofit organizations called 501(c)(4) organizations that, under current law, are not required to disclose their contributors.

A second, forthcoming bill would target petition-blocking tactics used to stifle citizen-led ballot campaigns.

The third proposal would stop individuals and companies who donate to political candidates from receiving state contracts.

The House bill 6 scandal was not a one off, was not a fluke, Sweeney said. It was not one man or a group of bad actors. It was business as usual. You can hear the conspirators taped on FBI wiretaps saying this is how its done. This is how it works.

But when it comes to dark money, these bills land in a legal gray zone shaped by U.S. Supreme Court rulings that limit how far states can go in regulating campaign donations and spending.

There are limits to what we can do based upon Supreme Court decisions... , Gov. Mike DeWine said. But transparency is something, an area that we probably can move toward and not have a problem with the Supreme Court decision.

House Speaker Matt Huffman, a Lima Republican, also told reporters the states hands are tied.

Thats an issue thats outside of the Statehouse, he said.

Huffman added that, in his view, dark money groups arent especially effective at winning elections.

We dont have anything like that in our political campaign, he said. So if theres some specific suggestion that if something someone is doing is illegal, Id like to know about it.

Records obtained by Cleveland.com in May 2024 showed a dark-money nonprofit called Liberty Ohio received $300,000 from FirstEnergy while it was pushing for House Bill 6.

A FirstEnergy lobbyist referred to the group in a 2019 email as Huffmans C4, though records do not suggest Huffman controlled the group or did anything illegal.

Political nonprofits like Liberty Ohio are legal and common, but federal prosecutors say such groups were used to facilitate FirstEnergys $60 million bribery scheme.

Read more: Matt Huffman downplayed ties to dark money group. New records show it paid thousands to his political team

The House Speaker also told reporters that hes working on his own ethics reform bill, though it likely wont be introduced until fall.

A lot of times, legislators simply dont know the rules, Huffman said, adding that hed like to consolidate ethics oversight into a single agency.

Its not the first time hes made that promise.

In 2023, Huffman said he wanted to take a more proactive approach to ethics education before leaving the Senate in 2024 due to term limits.

As lawmakers talk reform, the House-passed budget would eliminate the Ohio Elections Commission, a bipartisan panel that enforces campaign finance laws. Instead, its duties would be handed over to the Secretary of State or local boards of elections.

Their reasons for eliminating the commission include what they see as a rise in nuisance complaints. Those cases, they argue, drag candidates and campaigns into costly, time-consuming legal battles.

Both Republicans and Democrats have pushed ethics reform since Householders arrest, but the efforts keep stalling.

Former state Rep. Derek Merrin, a Toledo-area Republican and former Householder ally, introduced a sweeping bill in 2023 to tighten disclosure rules for lobbyists, utility regulators, and public officials.

His measure--House Bill 16--had two hearings over two years.

Some people are just more worried about getting their picture taken as a state rep or holding their next fundraiser, Merrin told reporters in 2023. We need more people that are interested in solving problems and trying to make government more honest and respected.

Democrats say the onus falls on the Republican majority. With limited power in the Statehouse, they can propose reforms--but they cant pass them without GOP support.

State Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, a Cincinnati Democrat, was elected in the wake of the Householder scandal. He expected to enter a chastened legislature--one eager to restore public trust and prevent future corruption.

I was shocked when I got here to find that nothing had been done, Isaacsohn said. That the culture hadnt changed at all. That no bills had been passed to address the deficiencies that led to the House Bill 6 scandal.

Anna Staver covers state government and politics for Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer.
Flowers and cards sit at a makeshift memorial down the street from the site of the mass shooting that killed 11 people and wounded 6 at the Tree of Life Synagogue on October 28, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A traveling exhibition currently at the Maltz Museum explores the mass shooting fueled by antisemitism. "Tree of Life" features artifacts contextualizing the attack. (Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) Getty Images

BEACHWOOD, Ohio  The traveling installation Lessons from the Tree of Life: Lighting the Path Forward debuted at the Maltz Museum in Beachwood on May 21.

The exhibition offers a haunting, intimate look at the October 27, 2018, Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh  the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

The display, on view through Sunday, Aug. 3 at the Jewish heritage-focused museum, located at 2929 Richmond Rd., Beachwood, features artifacts that contextualize the attack within the broader history of American antisemitism.

It includes a selection of over 10,000 memorial items left at or sent to the synagogue in its aftermath, including several from Cleveland.

This is an essential story to share, especially as antisemitism and intolerance rise in America, said Aaron Petersal, executive director of the Maltz Museum, in a statement about the exhibit.

It highlights not only the impact of the attack but the extraordinary compassion shown by communities worldwide, he added.

Tree of Life opened with a powerful discussion called The Tree of Life: Remembrance and Resilience, anchored by Scott Miller, academic advisor and curator of the exhibition, during a presentation that coincided with its Cleveland debut.

Miller was a founding staff member at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., where he worked for 30 years, serving as director of the Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Holocaust Survivors, as well as director of curatorial affairs.

He has curated exhibitions on the Holocaust and Jewish history at the Hilton Family Center for Holocaust Education in Phoenix, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the National Library of Israel.

Millers talk explored how the memorial project reimagined the site of tragedy as a symbol of resilience and shared humanity  while actively working to fight antisemitism and hate.

On that fateful October day, a gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle and multiple handguns entered the Tree of Life synagogue during Shabbat services and opened fire, killing 11 worshipers and wounding six others, including four police officers.

The victims were members of three different congregations  Tree of Life, Dor Hadash and New Light  which shared the building.

The shooter, Richard Bowers, expressed antisemitic and anti-immigrant views during and after the attack. He was subsequently found guilty on 63 federal charges brought against him in June 2023 and was sentenced to death.

The massacre sent shockwaves through the Jewish community and the nation, underscoring deadly consequences of hate speech and extremism.

The community has since turned grief into advocacy, remembrance and education.

Created in partnership with the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center, the exhibition challenges viewers to reflect on antisemitism in America.

Lessons from the Tree of Life: Lighting the Path Forward will be on view at the Maltz Museum 2929 Richmond Rd., Beachwood through Sunday, Aug. 3. Details and tickets are available at maltzmuseum.org.
A reader asks a question to a panel of reporters at a town hall at the Cuyahoga Public Library, Parma Snow branch, we're readers could ask questions about President Trump's first months in office. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

PARMA, Ohio - From current and former public-school teachers to a former sociology professor, educators were among the frequent participants at a recent townhall hosted by Cleveland.com.

Its no wonder, then, that recent developments in both federal and state-level education policy became one of the major themes of the forum that centered on the impacts of President Donald Trumps federal cuts.

Lisa Ciocia, a former teacher in the South Euclid-Lyndhurst City School District, asked the panel of reporters about the potential impacts to mental health programming for children.

As a former teacher, what will the impact of the cuts today have on mental health support for the public schools? Ciocia asked. Which to me, is just  I cant even believe it. What effect do you think this will have on our communities, specifically?

Laura Hancock, who covers education policy for Cleveland.com, explained that at least $50 million in grants from the federal government have been cut from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Those funds were meant to be used for mental health and substance abuse counseling  critical needs in a state that has been considered an epicenter of the opioid epidemic.

The federal government funds 24% of Ohios state budget.  I mean theres no way when you cut, you know portion of 24% of the state budget that local programs arent going to be shrunk, Hancock said.

Hancock said Gov. Mike DeWine hasnt been outspoken against the federal budget cuts. The governor, who has been a proponent of expanding mental health services in the state, was at the White House when Trump signed his executive order giving Education Secretary Linda McMahon the green light to start dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. (A federal judge on Thursday blocked the order and ordered fired employees to be reinstated.)

Governor DeWine is a fellow Republican  And so hes not coming out against this. His administration, his advisers, his department heads, theyre also not coming out, you know, saying, Oh, this is horrible, all these cuts. Theyre very careful, Hancock explained.

Another teacher who did not provide her name asked about the Vouchers Hurt Ohio Lawsuit. She explained that her school recently signed the suit, becoming one of over 300 school districts to do so.

The lawsuit aims to block state efforts to use tax dollars for private school vouchers, saying the funds have been diverted from public schools that need the funding. Roughly 88,000 K-12 are currently using the vouchers to attend private schools this year, which costs the state over $475 million in public funding. A trial date has not yet been set for the lawsuit.

Attendees also wanted to talk about the future of higher education.

Eliza Gorek, an 18-year from Cleveland who plans to study public health next year, asked about the future of academic freedom following the passage of Senate Bill 1 in the Ohio General Assembly.

Im going to a public college in Ohio, and I know that SB-1 was recently passed. I was wondering if you could explain everything it would do, and how it could affect public universities?

Hancock explained that the controversial bill is expected to usher in sweeping changes to higher education, and has been billed by conservatives as way to end liberal indoctrination in colleges and universities. Among other things, the bill would ban DEI efforts, prevent faculty from striking, and set rules around what can be discussed in classrooms. DeWine has signed the law and it is slated to take effect on June 27.

Its based on the premise that universities are liberal and that conservatives are discriminated against  theyre discriminated against for their grades if theyre students, theyre discriminated against for tenure if theyre professors, Hancock said.
The Ohio House has passed legislation to create longer prison sentences for violent criminals using guns, as well as help other Ohioans seal and expunge lower-level felonies and misdemeanors. (Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press, file)

Rotunda Rumblings

Shooting ahead: The Ohio House on Wednesday approved a bill that would toughen penalties for violent gun crimes and create a more automated process to seal or expunge most lower-level felonies and misdemeanors. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, Republican backers of House Bill 5 say it would reduce violent crime and help ex-inmates find jobs and housing. House Democrats were split on the bill, with critics saying  among other things  that if lawmakers really wanted to reduce gun violence, they should pass new gun-control regulations. The bill now heads to the Senate.

School readiness: The Ohio House unanimously passed a bill that would standardize the cutoff date for kindergarteners statewide. Under House Bill 114, which now heads to the Senate, children would generally have to be 5 by the first day of school to start kindergarten. Under the current law, kindergarten cutoff dates vary between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30, depending on district, Laura Hancock reports.

Legal eagle: Ohio Solicitor General T. Elliot Gaiser on Wednesday brought his case to head the U.S. Department of Justices Office of Legal Counsel before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducted a confirmation hearing on Gaiser and three other nominees, Sabrina Eaton writes. The office the Cleveland native would head as an Assistant Attorney General provides legal advice to the president and all executive branch agencies, drafts the Attorney Generals legal opinions and provides its own written opinions and advice in response to executive branch requests. Democrats on the committee grilled Gaiser over his past criticism of Trump and issues for which he might be called upon for legal advice, including Trumps acceptance of a plane from Qatar.

Investigation sought: U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno wants a full federal investigation into the case of a 24-year-old man from Venezuela who posed as a 16-year-old and spent more than a year as a student at Perrysburg High School. Moreno on Wednesday wrote a letter asking Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel to fully examine the horrifying situation and to take any and all lawful measures to enforce our federal immigration and criminal laws against an alleged Venezuelan illegal alien, adult male that may have defrauded federal and state government agencies while allegedly preying on minor(s) in Ohio.

Taking sides: Team NEO, Northeast Ohios jobs development partner with the state, is staying neutral on whether the Cleveland Browns should remain downtown or move to Brook Park. Rich Exner writes that just hours after the Greater Cleveland Partnership  the regions chamber of commerce  endorsed the move to Brook Park, Team NEO issued a statement declining to take a side. The bottom line is this - whether the Browns remain in Cleveland or play in Brook Park with a redevelopment of the Cleveland lakefront property, it will be economic development, Team NEO CEO Matt Dolan said in a statement released late Tuesday night. State lawmakers are debating how (and whether) to provide $600 million for the stadium.

Reader reaction: Should Ohio stop taxing tips? House Bill 209 got its first hearing this week, but most cleveland.com Subtext subscribers arent on board. Many raised concerns that it could lead to lower wages, less tipping, or new tax loopholes for the wealthy. Still, national polling shows strong bipartisan support. Anna Staver breaks it down.

Specialty plate: Ohio is offering a new specialty license plate that promotes the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Haley BeMiller writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer that every plate sold will generate $25 for the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation to help pay for programs to help those struggling with mental health or suicidal ideation.

Launch canceled: A NASA project that researchers at Ohio State University have worked on now finds itself on the federal chopping block. Sheridan Hendrix writes in The Columbus Dispatch that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASAs next flagship astrophysics mission, is 90% finished, but President Donald Trumps administration is threatening to axe the project as it looks to slash the federal budget. Ohio State has devoted three faculty members in leadership positions on the mission, while two others worked in collaboration on it. Those faculty members also have student researchers working on the project.

All talk, no vote: Vice President JD Vance endorsed his half-brother, Cory Bowman, in Cincinnatis May 6 mayoral primarybut didnt vote in the race himself. Vance is registered to vote absentee, but public records from Hamilton County showed he didnt do so. When asked why the VP skipped the election, Bowman told The Cincinnati Enquirer, I dont have any information or comment on that. Bowman will face Mayor Aftab Pureval in November.

Full Disclosure

Here are five things we learned from the May 15, 2025, ethics disclosure form filed by Senate President Rob McColley, a Henry County Republican, about his 2024 finances:

1. Besides his 2024 legislative salary of $102,000.60, McColley made somewhere between $10,000 and $24,999 last year working for the law firm of Clemens, Korhn, Liming & Warncke. He also made somewhere between $1,000 and $9,999 as an independent contractor for the Attorneys Title Agency of Northwest Ohio.

2. McColleys travel reimbursements last year included $1,851.86 from the Honest Elections Project, a conservative group that advocated for legislation Ohio lawmakers passed in special session last year to ban non-U.S. citizens from contributing to statewide ballot-issue campaigns.

3. He owned stock in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Wendys, and Wingstop, among other companies, in 2024.

4. He was a member of Screaming Eagles Investments, LLC, and BIDERO LLC, two entities over which he has a fiduciary or financial responsibility.

5. He attended three dinners last year held by the Ohio Business Roundtable, a statewide business group with members from Ohios largest companies. The dinners had a total value of $235.56.

On the Move

On Friday, May 23rd, Vice President JD Vance will address the Naval Academys Class of 2025 at the United States Naval Academy graduation and commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Maryland.

Straight from the Source

Ohio, the heart of it all -- or Ohio, the heart of all corruption.

- State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, a Westlake Democrat, speaking at an Ohio Statehouse news conference Wednesday about anti-corruption legislation she and other House Democrats are introducing.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. Subscribe to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free.
Event promoting Chinese tea culture kicks off in Mongolia

Xinhua) 15:23, May 22, 2025

ULAN BATOR, May 22 (Xinhua) -- An event celebrating the International Tea Day and promoting China's tea culture opened here on Wednesday at the Chinese Cultural Center.

Titled "Tea and the World  Elegant Gathering: Fragrance of Purple Jade Tea Workshop -- Taste the Elegant Life of the East," the three-day event features tea culture demonstrations and purple clay pottery making skills, and an exhibition of a variety of teas, tea sets, and photos showcasing China's tea culture.

"For thousands of years, tea has carried the wisdom and philosophy of Eastern civilization. From the ancient Silk Road to the Tea Horse Road, tea has crossed the mountains and the seas and become a bond for dialogue between different civilizations," said Li Zhi, a counselor of the Chinese embassy in Mongolia and director of the Chinese Cultural Center in Ulan Bator, during the opening ceremony.

Ge Tao, director of Yixing Purple Clay Cultural Experience Hall and a famous purple clay craftsman, held a lecture on the fragrance of purple jade tea at the event on Wednesday, introducing the historical heritage and craft characteristics of purple clay culture.

The United Nations General Assembly designated May 21 as International Tea Day in December 2019.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Zhong Wenxing)
BEIJING  Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi is taking on Apple's iPhone with an advanced chip and a cheaper phone.

Xiaomi is winning the battle on the pricing of its latest phone. The new Xiaomi 15S Pro starts at 5,499 yuan ($764)  making it eligible for a state-subsidized discount  and is significantly cheaper than Apple models containing the company's most advanced phone chip. The iPhone 16 Pro starts at 7,999 yuan, while the iPhone Pro Max model begins at 9,999 yuan  above the 6,000 yuan cut-off for a Chinese government discount for consumers.

And Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun claims his company also has a competitive chip, saying at a launch event on Thursday that Xiaomi's new Xring O1 beat Apple's A18 Pro on several technical metrics, including the ability to operate a game with less heat.

CNBC has not independently verified these claims. CNBC has reached out to Apple for comment.

"Apple is still number one," Lei said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation. He said the Xring O1's performance should not be seen as an attempt to pressure Apple, but rather as an indicator of the great effort Xiaomi made to develop a comparable processor.

The U.S. has increasingly restricted China's ability to access high-end equipment for developing advanced semiconductors used in training artificial intelligence models.

Lei did not discuss any significant AI features for the 15S Pro, but showed how it could be used to lock and unlock a compatible car.

He announced that Xiaomi will spend 200 billion yuan on research and development in the next five years, starting from 2026, and predicted 30% revenue growth this year.

Lei had teased the 3 nanometer chip last week on Chinese social media app Weibo. He later noted the chip is in mass production and said the company would invest at least 50 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) over the next 10 years in its own chip development.

Apple's iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max use A18 Pro chips built on the same 3 nanometer process.

Around 40% of Xiaomi's phones currently use chips by Qualcomm and MediaTek, according to Counterpoint Research Partner Niel Shah.

Xiaomi spent 13.5 billion ($1.87 billion) over four years to develop the Xring O1, Lei said in a social media post. He revealed that the company started developing chips in 2014 and unveiled one in 2017, before temporarily suspending such research.

Last spring, Xiaomi launched its first electric car, the SU7 sedan, with a price $4,000 below that of Tesla's Model 3 at the time. Ford CEO Jim Farley said he spent months driving a Xiaomi electric car, as he tried to assess competition from Chinese automakers.

Xiaomi's first SUV, called the YU7, will be officially released in July, Lei said in a social media post, noting the car's price wouldn't be revealed Thursday. Lei did share some promotional images and car features at the event.

Lei said the YU7 car would use Qualcomm Snapdragon and Nvidia Thor chips. The standard version of the vehicle will come with advanced driver assist and a driving range of 835 km.

The company delivered more than 28,000 vehicles in April, down from its record of more than 29,000 during the previous month. That comes after the crash of an SU7 vehicle in China, which left three people dead. China has since required automakers to use more conservative language when advertising driver-assist systems.

Xiaomi is set to release its first-quarter results on May 27, after the company in March reported record revenue and net profit for 2024. Sales generated from overseas markets last year accounted for nearly 42% of total revenue.

The company's shares remain more than 50% higher year-to-date.

 CNBC's Arjun Kharpal and Bernice Ooi contributed to this report.
With Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) by his side U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press following a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC, U.S.

It's one bad headline after another coming from the White House these days. Just as the tariff-related turmoil rocking markets subsided  and only temporarily, since the clock is still ticking on the pause on "reciprocal tariffs"  fears of ballooning U.S. debt are sparking another broad sell-off in markets. This time, investors are wary because President Donald Trump's tax bill is projected to add $3 trillion to $5 trillion to the U.S. debt, reported Reuters, citing nonpartisan analysts.

A fiscally challenged U.S. means investors will demand higher returns to hold the country's debt. Indeed, Treasury yields jumped Wednesday. The 30-year Treasury bond yield crossed the 5% level for the second time this week and the 10-year traded at 4.61%, the highest since February. While rising yields mean bond prices drop, they also promise higher returns at potentially lower risks, dulling the allure of stocks.

Under pressure from spiking Treasury yields  which mean elevated borrowing costs for companies and consumers  U.S. markets sold off Wednesday, a sharp reversal from the rally beginning May 12 which gave the S&P 500 a six-day win streak. Unlike tariffs, which Trump seems to be able to conjure or dismiss unilaterally at a wave of his hand, a tax bill needs to pass through the different layers of the government and be agreed on by fractious politicians. It's hard to imagine a "Trump put" happening here.
Workers assemble electronic devices in China in 2016. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

This report is from this week's CNBC's "Inside India" newsletter which brings you timely, insightful news and market commentary on the emerging powerhouse and the big businesses behind its meteoric rise. Like what you see? You can subscribe here. Each weekday, CNBC's "Inside India" news show gives you news and market commentary on the emerging powerhouse businesses, and the people behind its rise. Livestream the show on YouTube and catch highlights here. SHOWTIMES: U.S.: Sunday-Thursday, 23:00-0000 ET

Asia: Monday-Friday, 11:00-12:00 SIN/HK, 08:30-09:30 India

Europe: Monday-Friday, 0500-06:00 CET

The big story

U.S. President Donald Trump has never been the one to hold back an opinion. "I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday," Trump said on a trip to Qatar last week, referring to a conversation he had with Apple's chief executive about the company's decision to move iPhone manufacturing from China to India, rather than the United States. "I don't want you building in India," Trump said he told Cook, after news emerged of Apple's decision to ramp up production in India with the aim of making around 25% of global iPhones in the country in the next few years, and reduce reliance on China, where around 90% of its flagship smartphone is currently assembled. While India has certainly emerged as a significant, albeit nascent, hub for electronics assembly, the path to it becoming a clear-cut alternative to China isn't a guaranteed outcome, despite U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Geopolitical upheavals appear to be one of the many such hurdles for India, as well as businesses eyeing the country. For Apple, moving manufacturing to the United States, instead of India, from China still remains within the realm of possibilities, even if improbable for the company. If Apple were to move final assembly to the United States, iPhone costs could increase by 25% due to higher U.S. labor costs, according to analysts from Bank of America. However, that assumes subcomponents, like cameras, are still partly assembled outside the U.S. To put that into context, the base model for iPhone 16 Pro Max costs $1,199 to buy outright, with $125.90 added in local taxes in Louisiana, for instance. Final assembly and testing in the U.S. would simply add $160 to the consumer's bill. Meanwhile, the jobs at stake are performed by 1.4 million people employed by Apple's suppliers overseas.

Could Trump and his backers believe that the additional costs might be worth paying if many thousands of jobs are created in the U.S.? "If Apple does move final assembly to the U.S., it would need tariff waivers on components/sub-assemblies manufactured globally to make the manufacturing shifts viable," BofA's Wamsi Mohan said in a note to clients. While technically possible, Mohan views moving the entire iPhone supply chain to the U.S. as a "much bigger undertaking" that would "likely take many years, if even possible," and does not expect near-term manufacturing shifts to the U.S. unless tariff policies become permanent. The core challenge for India extends beyond just attracting companies. "Supply chain and manufacturing, these things take a long time to establish," said Nick McConway, head of Asia ex-Japan equity at Amundi Asset Management. "We saw that with Vietnam, who had to put huge investment into infrastructure. The lights have to stay on, the roads have to be there, the trucks have to get there in time." "I think India is only at the very early stage of developing these types of globally facing manufacturing capacities," McConway added. The fund manager also highlighted that while labor costs can be low in India, it doesn't mean savings for companies moving their manufacturing base to India. "While your labour costs can be low, your unit labour cost is not because the productivity is no good," McConway said.

Meanwhile, for the U.S., this productivity gap can offset the advantages of cheaper labor, making it difficult for India to compete effectively on a global scale for high-value manufacturing. Apple has also made significant progress in automating several roles in its final assembly line, reducing the number of people required by more than 50% since the process began. And even if India wins a larger share of Apple's iPhone assembly business, the benefits for the country are likely to be minimal, according to one analyst. "Today, India earns just $30 per iPhone, much of which is given back to Apple as subsidy under the [Production Linked Incentive] scheme," said Ajay Srivastava, founder of think tank Global Trade Research Initiative. Srivastava, a former trade negotiator for India, took a protectionist approach and suggested that New Delhi's reduction of tariffs on smartphone components at the behest of Apple could hurt domestic efforts to build a local component ecosystem. "If Apple's assembly moves out, India will be forced to stop propping up shallow assembly lines and instead invest in deeper manufacturingchips, displays, batteries, and beyond." In the end, it might not even be Trump's push to reshore manufacturing back to the U.S. that devoid India of foreign investment. The country might just have work harder to attract investors.  CNBC's Michael Bloom and Arjun Kharpal contributed reporting.

Need to know

India's market is one of the best long-term plays, analysts say. As the "sell U.S." narrative picks up steam amid U.S. tariff turbulence and concerns over the country's mounting fiscal deficit, emerging markets have gained traction as an attractive alternative for investors. Among emerging markets, Malcolm Dorson, head of the active investment team at Global X ETFs, believes India offers the best long-term growth play, a sentiment echoed by Mohit Mirpuri, equity fund manager at SGMC Capital, who said that theme is anchored in India's domestic demand. India is hoping for a full exemption from the U.S.' "reciprocal" tariffs. The duties on the South Asian country come in at 26%, and officials are seeking to strike a deal with the U.S. to do away with the tariffs completely, according to CNBC TV18. However, India is reluctant to let goods like agriculture and dairy be imported, which is likely proving to be a roadblock in the negotiations, said former Indian Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation Jayant Dasgupta. That said, India's large domestic economy and low dependence on imports could shield it from the impact of tariffs, according to a Moody's Ratings report released May 21. Britain and the U.S. are working together to preserve the India-Pakistan ceasefire. "Confidence-building measures" and dialogues are on the table, U.K. Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Saturday. India on May 6 said its armed forces had conducted strikes against Pakistan and what it calls Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, targeting "terrorist infrastructure." The operation follows a militant attack last month in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed.  Yeo Boon Ping

What happened in the markets?

Indian stocks have declined over the past week by more than 1.5% so far. The Nifty 50 index has risen by 3.65% this year. The benchmark 10-year Indian government bond yield has ticked slightly lower to 6.22%, down by 2 basis points over the past week.

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon

On CNBC TV this week, Lavina Quadros, managing director of equities research at Jefferies India, said India's defense sector has "come a long way" in the last ten years, since the government pushed to reduce such imports to 30% from 70%. Investor confidence in Indian defense firms has also been boosted because domestic air defense systems, for instance, have successfully intercepted foreign drones. But execution of orders remains a key concern for investors. Meanwhile, Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, noted that the global supply chain will likely look different by 2030  and India intends to play a key role in it. The country is already "a very important part of the global services supply chain," a fact neglected by many, and will now focus on efforts in manufacturing, especially in the electronics and metals, Sanyal added. Even if the U.S. wants to reindustrialize itself, the country will still have to rely on others for materials, and that presents an opportunity for India, Sanyal said.  Yeo Boon Ping

What's happening next week?
Sarah Jo Marcotte, an educator from Vermont, holds a sign that reads "Here for my students!! Cuts Hurt." outside of the U.S. Department of Education on March 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to reinstate more than 1,300 U.S. Department of Education employees.

"The Department must be able to carry out its functions and its obligations," as well as "other relevant statutes as mandated by Congress," U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston wrote in the preliminary injunction.

The Department of Education announced a reduction in force on March 11 that would have gutted the agency's staff by a half.

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Two days later, 21 states  including Michigan, Nevada and New York  filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for its staff cuts at the Education Department.

After President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 aimed at dismantling the Education Department, more parties sued to save the agency, including the American Federation of Teachers.
Traffic outside the Central Bank of Brazil headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, on Monday, June 17, 2024. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Emerging markets stocks are in the spotlight again as the "sell U.S." narrative gained fresh momentum, following Moody's recent downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. The Bank of America heralded emerging markets as "the next bull market" recently. "Weaker U.S. dollar, U.S. bond yield top, China economic recoverynothing will work better than emerging market stocks," Bank of America's team, led by investment strategist Michael Hartnett, said in a note. Similarly, JPMorgan upgraded emerging market equities from neutral to overweight on Monday, citing thawing U.S.-China trade tensions and attractive valuations. A dented confidence in U.S. assets, which kicked into high gear last month marked by a selloff in U.S. Treasurys, equities and greenback, has fueled the bullishness for emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which tracks large and mid-cap representation across 24 EM countries, is up 8.55% year-to-date. This compares against a 1% climb by the U.S. benchmark S&P 500 across the same period.

Stock Chart Icon Stock chart icon A dented confidence in U.S. assets, which kicked into high gear last month marked by a selloff in U.S. Treasurys, equities and greenback, has fueled the bullishness for emerging markets.

The difference was more stark in the weeks after April 2, when U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled "reciprocal" tariffs on friends and foes alike. While most benchmarks fell across the board in the immediate days after April 2, the week that followed showed a divergence between emerging market equities and U.S. stocks. Between April 9 to 21, the S&P 500 declined over 5%, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose 7%. Even though U.S. equities and Treasurys rebounded slightly since, the recent Moody's downgrade has reignited traders' concerns. On Monday, the U.S. 30-year Treasury yield briefly grazed above 5% to hit levels not seen since November 2023, while U.S. equities also snapped a six-day winning streak on Tuesday.

Start of a new rotation?
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Behind highly secured doors in a giant lab in the Netherlands, there's a machine that's transforming how microchips are made. ASML spent nearly a decade developing High NA, which stands for high numerical aperture. With a price tag of more than $400 million, it's the world's most advanced and expensive chipmaking machine. CNBC went to the Netherlands for a tour of the lab in April. Before that, High NA had never been filmed, even by ASML's own team. Inside the lab, High NA qualification team lead Assia Haddou gave CNBC an exclusive, up-close look at the High NA machines, which she said are "bigger than a double-decker bus." The machine is made up of four modules, manufactured in Connecticut, California, Germany and the Netherlands, then assembled in the Veldhoven, Netherlands, lab for testing and approval, before being disassembled again to ship out. Haddou said it takes seven partially loaded Boeing 747s, or at least 25 trucks, to get one system to a customer. The world's first commercial installation of High NA happened at Intel 's Oregon chip fabrication plant, or fab, in 2024. Only five of the colossal machines have ever been shipped. They're now being ramped up to make millions of chips on the factory floors of the few companies that can afford them: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. , Samsung and Intel. High NA is the latest generation of ASML's Extreme Ultraviolet, or EUV, machines. ASML is the exclusive maker of EUV, the only lithography devices in the world capable of projecting the smallest blueprints that make up the most advanced microchips. Chip designs from giants like Nvidia , Apple and AMD can't be manufactured without EUV. ASML told CNBC that High NA will eventually be used by all its EUV customers. That includes other advanced chipmakers like Micron , SK Hynix and Rapidus. "This company has that market completely cornered," said Daniel Newman of The Futurum Group.

High NA chipmaking machine in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on April 24, 2025. Magdalena Petrova

CNBC asked CEO Christophe Fouquet what's stopping ASML from setting the price of its machines even higher. He explained that as machines advance, they make it cheaper to produce the chips themselves. "Moore's law says that we need to continue to drive costs down," Fouquet said. "There is a belief that if you drive costs down, you create more opportunity, so we need to be part of this game." Two major customers have confirmed that High NA has shown big improvements over ASML's previous EUV machines. At a conference in February, Intel said it had used High NA to make about 30,000 wafers so far, and that the machine was about twice as reliable as its predecessors. At that same conference, Samsung said High NA could reduce its cycle time by 60%, meaning its chips can complete more operations per second. 'A very risky investment' High NA can drive chip prices down because of these improvements in speed and performance. High NA also improves yield, meaning more of the chips on each wafer are usable. That's because it can project chip designs at a higher resolution. High NA uses the same process as EUV machines but with a larger lens opening that allows for projection of smaller chip design in fewer steps. "High NA means two things. First and foremost, shrink. So there's more devices on a single wafer," said Jos Benschop, ASML's executive vice president of technology. "Secondly, by avoiding multiple patterning, you can make them faster and you can make them with higher yield." Benschop joined ASML in 1997, two years after it became a publicly traded company. Benschop then helped drive the decision to go all in on EUV. The technology took more than 20 years to develop.

ASML executive VP of technology Jos Benschop gave CNBC's Katie Tarasov a look at High NA chipmaking in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on April 24, 2025. Magdalena Petrova

"We barely made it. I think sometimes people forget that," Fouquet said. "It's been a very risky investment because when we started, there was no guarantee the technology would work." By 2018, ASML proved the viability of EUV and major chipmakers started placing big orders for the machines. The idea, which seemed impossible to many two decades ago, was to create large amounts of tiny rays of extreme ultraviolet light, projecting it through masks with increasingly small chip designs, onto wafers of silicon treated with photoresist chemicals. To create the EUV light, ASML shoots molten tin out of a nozzle at 50,000 droplets per second, shooting each drop with a powerful laser that creates a plasma that's hotter than the sun. Those tiny explosions are what emit photons of the EUV light, with a wavelength of just 13.5 nanometers. About the width of five DNA strands, EUV is so small that it's absorbed by all known substances, so the whole process has to happen in a vacuum. The EUV light bounces off mirrors that aim it through a lens, much like how a camera works. To solve for EUV getting absorbed by mirrors, German optics company Zeiss made specific mirrors just for ASML that are the flattest surfaces in the world. ASML's older generation DUV machines use less precise rays of deep ultraviolet light with a wavelength of 193 nanometers. ASML still makes the machines  competing against Nikon and Canon in Japan on DUV  but it is the only company in the world that's succeeded at EUV lithography. The Dutch company began developing the $400 million High NA machines around 2016. High NA machines work the same as DUV, with the same EUV light source. But there's one key difference. The higher numerical aperture of High NA means it has a larger lens opening, increasing the angle at which the light is captured by the mirrors. More light coming in from steeper angles allows High NA machines to transfer increasingly small designs onto the wafer in one step. By comparison, lower NA machines require multiple projections of EUV light, through multiple masks. "When the number increases, it gets very complex process-wise and the yield goes down," Fouquet said. Resolution improves as NA increases, bringing down the need for multiple masks and exposures, saving time and money. The cost of the High NA machine, however, goes up. "The bigger the mirror you have to use and therefore the bigger the system," Fouquet said. These machines also take up a huge amount of power. "If we don't improve the power efficiency of our AI chips over time, the training of the models could consume the entire worldwide energy and that could happen around 2035," Fouquet said. That's why ASML has reduced the power needed per wafer exposure by more than 60% since 2018, he said.

ASML's Assia Haddou shows CNBC's Katie Tarasov a High NA chipmaking machine in Veldhoven, Netherlands, on April 24, 2025. Magdalena Petrova
No stock is off the table for Simon Adler, a value investor at Schroders. "We are happy to buy the worst business you have ever conceived, provided it is cheap enough," Adler told the Value Investor conference of fund managers in London on Wednesday. Adler co-manages the Global Recovery, Global Income and Global Sustainable Value strategies at the British asset manager. He said he can back up his claim. "We can prove that because we have bought the worst business anyone can conceive," Adler added, before describing Italian oilfield services company Saipem as a "truly rubbish" stock in 2022. Yet, Adler's fund bought shares in Saipem around September of that year and doubled returns in about three months, the fund manager said. Earlier in 2022, Saipem had failed to raise capital through an auction to public market investors, and the stock tumbled from around 2.70 euros by about 70% in the weeks after. SPM-IT 5Y line That meant Saipem's investment banks, which included BNP Paribas , Citi , Deutsche Bank , HSBC , Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit , who had underwritten the new equity, were forced to buy them. Adler's team approached the investment banks and offered them 50 cents per share. However, the banks refused to sell at that price. Adler persisted. "Eventually, I think, on the fourth or fifth time of asking them, they sold us a big wedge," he said, by which time the stock had tumbled to 60 cents a share, a bottom. Saipem shares then rallied by more than 100% by the start of the following year. "We got it at such an incredibly low price that we were able to double our clients' money [in] the next three months," the Schroders fund manager added. At the time, Saipem, alongside other companies in the oilfield services sector, was recovering from the ultra-low oil prices during the pandemic that had pushed many in the sector deep into the red. The company's stock, since the start of 2023 and around the time Adler sold the shares, had rallied by a further 80% due to improving confidence among investors over the company's financial performance. For instance, late last month, the company reported revenues of 3.52 billion euros for the first quarter, which beat expectations of 3.47 billion euros. Similarly, the company's adjusted profits of 351 million euros came ahead of the market's expectations of 339.1 million euros. This week, it is also set to make a dividend payment of 333 million euros for the first time in a decade. Wall Street's bullish view of Saipem Even after the turnaround, Wall Street analysts believe there is further upside for the stock. The consensus price target of analysts polled by FactSet points to 39% upside for Saipem over the next 12 months. "We remain Outperform with 3.40 price target underpinned by the company's strong backlog and unchanged guidance," RBC Capital Markets analyst Victoria McCulloch said in an April 24 note to clients. McCulloch also suggested the stock had given up some of the strong gains seen in 2024, and the 10% decline this year could be attributed to the current macroeconomic factors rather than a company-specific issue. Others share that view, including Berenberg's analysts led by Richard Dawson. "The stock has taken a leg lower in recent weeks due to weaker sentiment from lower commodity prices," Dawson said in a note to clients on April 30. "However, management has not yet started to see changes to clients' investment decisions, with major tenders still occurring and a stable (and large) pipeline of future opportunities available to Saipem." More broadly, earlier this year, the company announced that it's pursuing a merger with its peer Subsea 7, and will emerge as Saipem7 once the transaction completes. JPMorgan analysts also remain bullish in their investment case for the stock. "Saipem's investment case has been blighted by execution issues historically," the Wall Street bank's analyst Kate Somervill said in a note to clients in March. "That said, under the new management team, the company has gone through a thorough backlog review and has returned to a period of high earnings growth (consistently beating guidance). We see significant backlog growth from its exposure to offshore where there are only three key global players, and it should benefit from strong pricing power given market consolidation," Somervill added. As for Schroder's Adler, the funder manager continues to look for value stocks  and isn't deterred by the quality of the business behind them. "So, whilst we would rather buy good quality businesses  and we do like buying good quality businesses  if you're looking at the cheapest bit of the market, you have to look at everything," Adler added. Saipem declined to comment.
A bystander prays while wearing an Israel flag with a cross in the middle, near the Capital Jewish Museum near the U.S. Capitol on May 21, 2025 in Washington. Tom Brenner | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Two staff members of Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot dead outside the district's Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night, officials said. The suspect shouted "Free, free Palestine" while in police custody and "implied" that he committed the shooting, Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith said. He was identified as Elias Rodriguez, in his early 30s, of Chicago. In custody, he told authorities where he discarded the weapon, Smith added. Mayor Muriel Bowser said there was no active threat to the community following the arrest. There have so far been no charges. The victims were named by the embassy as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Earlier, Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said they were a couple on a night out and were about to get engaged. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has directed security increases for Israeli missions and representatives around the world.

He offered his condolences to the victims, saying, "My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer." The victims were leaving the museum, where an event was being held, when they were gunned down around 9 p.m., Leiter said. Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, confirmed in a statement that the group was hosting the gathering. The man had been pacing back and forth outside the museum when he approached a group of four and opened fire using a handgun, Smith said. He then entered the building, where he was detained by security, she said.

FBI agents work at the crime scene where two Israeli Embassy Staff Members were killed as they were outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, United States on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Kyle Mazza | Anadolu | Getty Images

A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Tal Naim Cohen, described the victims as two staff members, adding that they "were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event." Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, called the incident a "depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism." "Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line," he said on X. The organizer of the event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last night said she spoke to the man suspected of killing two people moments after the shooting  without realizing he would be accused of carrying out the attack. Speaking to NBC News' international partner, Sky News, Jojo Drake Kalin said she mistook the suspected shooter for a bystander when he entered the building, offering him water because he seemed "distraught." "I actually offered and gave him water, unbeknownst to me that I was actually looking evil in the eye," Kalin said. "There was commotion and a frenzy, but no one was aware of lives lost."

FBI agents leave the Albany Park apartment building where Elias Rodriguez, a suspect in the Wednesday fatal shootings of two members of the Israeli Embassy near the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., believed to have lived. Audrey Richardson | Chicago Tribune | Getty Images

Moments later, police arrived on scene to arrest the suspect, named as Elias Rodriguez. Kalin said the Young Diplomats reception was focused on the theme, "turning pain into purpose," with the aim of bringing together young professionals, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to talk about bridge-building in the Middle East and North Africa region. "We were wanting to counter the us-versus-them narrative," she said. "It's painfully ironic that at a time we were speaking about bridge building, somebody came in with such hate and destruction." The shooting comes more than 18 months after Israel launched a bombing campaign and ground invasion in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas militants, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and hundreds more were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Security officers block entrance doors after pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to enter the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center Arch building in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.

Microsoft employees are concerned that the company has been blocking Outlook emails containing the words "Palestine," "Gaza," "genocide," "apartheid" and "IOF off Azure," even if they're including those terms in an HR complaint, according to screenshots, recordings and documents viewed by CNBC.

Employees said they started noticing the change Wednesday just before noon PST, batch-testing emails with the terms in question and emails without them. Only the ones without such terms appeared in their outboxes, suggesting those containing the terms weren't received, according to materials viewed by CNBC and three sources familiar with the matter.

The people asked not to be named in order to speak freely.

One employee with the word "apartheid" in their email signature, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said they sent a typical work-related email around 11:30 a.m. PST on Wednesday successfully. The person said that just before noon on the same day, their emails wouldn't go through  ostensibly due to their email signature.

On internal message boards, messages seen by CNBC showed employees asking why their emails with the word "Israel" may go through but not the word "Palestine," as well as "Gaza" and other terms. Modifications like "P4lestine" did go through, according to their tests.

One employee asked on an internal message board, "Is the company abandoning the inclusivity initiative or is this only targeting Palestinians and their allies?"

The Verge was first to report on the potential email block.

In a message seen by CNBC, Frank Shaw, Microsoft's chief communications officer, responded to an employee post, writing: "To clarify, emails are not being blocked or censored, unless they are being sent to large numbers of random distribution groups. There can be a small delay and the team is working to make that as short as possible."

"Over the past couple of days, a number of emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

But employees told CNBC that even when they attempted to send relatively mundane, solely work-related emails to small groups of colleagues, the emails still didn't go through if they contained those terms.

Another employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said that when they attempted to send a report to HR containing one of the terms in question, they did not receive the auto-response typically confirming receipt until more than 24 hours later. The message also didn't show up in the online HR portal until more than 24 hours later.

Some emails were delivered after being delayed by seven hours or more, according to the group No Azure for Apartheid. The group suggested manual reviews of such emails were taking place before they were delivered.
John Cangialosi, Senior Hurricane Specialist at the National Hurricane Center, inspects a satellite image of Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, at the National Hurricane Center on July 1, 2024 in Miami, Florida.

Government scientists on Thursday released a forecast for the 2025 hurricane season, predicting a 60% chance it will be an above-average season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, predicts this season will bring 13 to 19 named storms with winds 39 miles per hour or higher. It predicts six to 10 of the forecasted storms will grow to hurricane status, and three to five will become major hurricanes.

Laura Grimm, the acting administrator of the NOAA and a marine scientist, sidestepped specific questions about how budget cuts aimed at climate science would affect the organization's work and highlighted the vital work of the agency to help communities prepare and save lives.

"Weather prediction, modeling and protecting human lives and property is our top priority. So we are fully staffed at the hurricane center, and we definitely are ready to go," Grimm said in a news conference held in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, to commemorate 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.

Grimm also pointed out, thanks to improvements in the science and technology over the last 20 years, that NOAA's hurricane prediction was spot-on last year.

Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused more than $37 billion in insured losses in 2024, according to a report from Aon .
Jensen Huang, co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks during a news conference in Taipei on May 21, 2025. I-hwa Cheng | Afp | Getty Images

Replacing Nvidia is a tall order. While Chinese competitors are years behind the company's cutting-edge technology, many analysts and insiders warn they are catching up, thanks to U.S. export restrictions. U.S. chip restrictions on the sale of advanced semiconductor technology, especially those used in artificial intelligence, have been rolled out over several years, with the initial aim of curbing China's military advancement and protecting US dominance in the AI industry. However, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, U.S. semiconductor export controls on China have been "a failure," causing more harm to American businesses than to China. While the goals of cutting back the Chinese military's access to advanced U.S. technology and maintaining U.S. leadership in AI appear to have had some success on paper, loopholes and existing semiconductor stockpiles in China have complicated these aims, said Ray Wang, an independent tech and chip analyst with a focus on U.S.-China competition. "That's partly why we are seeing a closing of the gap between Chinese and U.S. AI capabilities," added Wang.

A self-inflicted wound?

Leaders of Nvidia and other American chip designers have long lobbied against chip controls as they worry about losing lucrative business deals. Huang said at the annual Computex technology trade show in Taipei that Nvidia's GPU market share in China fell to 50% from 95% over the past four years. Indeed, chip experts say that the curbs create more harm than good for the U.S. "The effects of the controls are twofold. They have the impact of reducing the ability of U.S. companies to access the China market and, in turn, have accelerated the efforts of the domestic industry to pursue greater innovation," said Paul Triolo, Partner and Senior VP for China at DGA Group. "You create competitors to your leading companies at the same time you're cutting them off from a massive market in China," he added. While Washington's most comprehensive export controls were passed during former U.S. President Joe Biden's term in the White House, curbs on Huawei and SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, go back to Donald Trump's first term in office. On April 15, Nvidia disclosed that new controls, which restricted sales of its H20 graphics processing units to China, had led to a $5.5 billion charge against its revenue.

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Counter-intuitive curbs

The restrictions are expected to be a boon for the demand and development of local Nvidia alternatives like Huawei, which is working on its own AI chips. They also come against the background of Beijing mobilizing billions as part of its chip self-sufficiency campaign. "The bottom line is, the controls have incentivized China to become self-sufficient across these supply chains in a way they never would have contemplated before," Triolo said. Chinese AI-related achievements, such as DeepSeek's R1 model and news of Huawei chip progress, have led observers to question the effectiveness of chip controls. According Wang, the independent analyst, China's semiconductor and AI space has seen an acceleration of startups, market opportunities, and AI talent alongside the restrictions, which has clearly resulted in domestic innovations. "I think the arguments that export controls accelerate innovation is quite valid," Wang said. Nivida's Haung also noted these trends in April, telling lawmakers in Washington that the country has made enormous progress in the last several years and is right behind the U.S.

Moving goal posts?

Nvidia's H20 chip was designed specifically to comply with existing chip controls prior to the clampdown on exports. "We are not just talking about one export control, we are talking about a series of export controls that originate from all the way back in 2019," said Wang, noting that the evolving policies have had a couple of different objectives. Meanwhile, in what DGA's Triolo calls a "moving of the goalposts," it seems that the aims of the restrictions have shifted to an intention to slow down and contain Chinese AI and semiconductor developments. "The continued expansion of the controls, and the lack of an articulation of what the clear end game here is, has really created a lot of issues, and created a lot of collateral damage," Trilio said, adding that it has led more people to question the policy. In a statement earlier this month, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a U.S. think tank which has received funding from various technology companies, said in a post that "the Biden administration's export control policy for AI chips has largely been a failure since day one. Yet, year after year, it has doubled down, attempting to plug various loopholes." "While [the U.S. government] is certainly right to prevent U.S. companies from selling advanced AI technology to the Chinese military, cutting U.S. companies off from the entire commercial Chinese market is a cure worse than the disease," Stephen Ezell of ITIF told CNBC in an email. "U.S. export controls have cost NVIDIA at least $15 billion in sales, and those are revenues the company needs to be able to earn to invest in future generations of innovation."

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Motorists drive cars and other vehicles during the late afternoon commute on December 16, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal over whether fuel producers have legal footing to challenge California's nation-leading vehicle emissions standards.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to bar California's landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 that has been adopted by 11 other states representing a third of the U.S. auto market.

The vote sends President Donald Trump the measure to repeal a waiver granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Joe Biden in December, allowing California to mandate at least 80% electric vehicles by 2035.

The vote is a win for General Motors , Toyota and other automakers that heavily lobbied against the rules and a blow to California and environmental groups that say the requirements are essential to ensuring cleaner vehicles and cutting pollution.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing GM, Toyota, Volkswagen , Hyundai, Stellantis and others, praised the vote.

"The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable," the group's CEO John Bozzella said. "In reality, meeting the mandates would require diverting finite capital from the EV transition to purchase compliance credits from Tesla."

Tesla did not immediately comment.

This is the latest in a series of actions underway in recent months taking aim at electric vehicles.

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday would end a $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles, impose a new $250 annual fee on EVs for road repair costs and repeal vehicle emissions rules designed to prod automakers into building more EVs.

If upheld by the courts, the rule will make it easier for automakers to delay or cancel some EV production.

California's rules require 35% of light-duty vehicles in the 2026 model year to be zero-emission models. Automakers say it is impossible for them to meet that figure given current EV sales, which are 10% or lower in some states adopting the rules.
Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Advance Auto Parts  Shares skyrocketed 57% following a better-than-expected report from the car part retailer. The company lost an adjusted 22 cents per share in the third quarter, narrower than the loss of 82 cents per share anticipated by analysts polled by LSEG. Revenue came in at $2.58 billion, ahead of Wall Street's $2.50 billion forecast. Health insurance stocks  Shares fell after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced an aggressive expansion of Medicare Advantage audits. Humana dropped more than 7%, while CVS Health lost 3%. UnitedHealth ticked just over 2% lower. Urban Outfitters  The retailer surged 23% on a stronger-than-expected earnings report for the first quarter. Urban earned $1.16 per share on revenue at $1.33 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG penciled in earnings per share of 84 cents and $1.29 billion in revenue. Snowflake  The data storage stock rallied 13.4% after first-quarter earnings surpassed Wall Street's predictions. Snowflake earned 24 cents, excluding items, on $1.04 billion in revenue. Analysts anticipated 21 cents in earnings per share and $1.01 billion in revenue. Sunrun  The solar stock sank more than 37%, one of many in the sector to sell off after the House Republican tax bill appeared to be worse for green energy work than initially feared. SolarEdge and Enphase plunged more than 24% and 19%, respectively. Array Technologies and Nextracker each slid more than 3%, while First Solar both fell more than 4%. Analog Devices  The semiconductor manufacturer lost 4.6% despite beating expectations for the second fiscal quarter and offering upbeat guidance. Analog Devices earned $1.85 per share, excluding items, on $2.64 billion in revenue, while analysts polled by FactSet anticipated earnings of $1.70 per share and $2.51 billion in revenue. Pitney Bowes  Shares jumped 9.5% after the shipping firm announced that sitting director Kurt Wolf was appointed CEO. Wolf is succeeding Lance Rosenzweig, who is retiring from the chief executive role but will be a consultant to the company. Seagate Technology  The data storage company gained 4.2% after the firm announced a $5 billion share repurchase plan at its investor day. The buyback program will carry through the fiscal year ending in 2028, the company said. Williams-Sonoma  Shares of the high-end home furnishings retailer dropped 4.5% due to disappointing corporate guidance, which overshadowed quarterly figures that beat expectations. Dana  The vehicle product supplier popped 2.8% on the back of an upgrade by RBC to outperform from sector perform. RBC called the company's fundamentals "misunderstood."  CNBC's Yun Li contributed reporting
A member of the Capitol Police K-9 unit walks a dog in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is on April 07, 2025 in Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON  Oklahoma will not be able to launch the nation's first religious public charter school after the Supreme Court on Thursday deadlocked 4-4 in a major case on the separation of church and state.

The decision by the evenly divided court means that a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the federal Constitution and state law remains in place.

As there was no majority, the court did not issue a written decision, and the case sets no nationwide precedent on the contentious legal question of whether religious schools must be able to participate in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs.

A key factor in the outcome was that conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who would have been the deciding vote, did not participate in the case. She did not explain why, but it is likely because of her ties with Notre Dame Law School. The law school's religious liberty clinic represents the school.

The one-page decision did not say how each justice voted. During oral arguments last month, most of the court's conservatives indicated support for the school while liberals expressed concern. At least one conservative is likely to have sided with the liberals, most likely Chief Justice John Roberts.

The court will likely be asked to weigh in on the issue in future cases.

St. Isidore would have operated online statewide with a remit to promote the Catholic faith.

The case highlights tensions within the Constitution's First Amendment; one provision, the Establishment Clause, prohibits state endorsement of religion or preference for one religion over another, while another, the Free Exercise Clause, bars religious discrimination.

The case highlights tensions within the Constitution's First Amendment; one provision, the Establishment Clause, prohibits state endorsement of religion or preference for one religion over another, while another, the Free Exercise Clause, bars religious discrimination.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court had cited the state's interest in steering clear of Establishment Clause violations as a reason not to allow the proposal submitted by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to move forward.

A state board approved the proposal for St. Isidore in June 2023 despite concerns about its religious nature, prompting Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond to file suit.

The case saw Drummond on the opposite side of fellow Republicans in the state who backed the idea, but he prevailed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court the following year.

The Supreme Court, when Barrett is participating, has a 6-3 conservative majority that often backs religious rights. In recent years it has repeatedly strengthened the Free Exercise Clause in cases brought by conservative religious liberty activists, sometimes at the expense of the Establishment Clause. Some conservatives have long complained that the common understanding that the Establishment Clause requires strict separation of church and state is incorrect.

Lawyers representing the school and the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board sought to portray the dispute as similar to a series of recent rulings in which the court said that under the Free Exercise Clause, states cannot bar religious groups from government programs that are open to everyone else.

During the oral argument, Roberts pushed back, indicating that he saw the schools case as different from the previous decisions.

Those cases, he said, "involved fairly discrete state involvement" compared with Oklahoma's charter school program.

"This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement," he added.

The push for religious public charter schools dovetails with the school choice movement, which supports parents using taxpayer funds to send their children to private school. Public school advocates see both efforts as broad assaults on traditional public schools.
A pedestrian wearing a Harvard University sweatshirt on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

The Trump administration blocked Harvard University on Thursday from enrolling future international students and retaining currently enrolled foreign students.

The Department of Homeland Security said it revoked Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification because the private school's leadership "has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment."

"Many of these agitators are foreign students," DHS said.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in April threatened to revoke Harvard's SEVP certification if the university did not comply with her demand for information about purported "criminality and misconduct of foreign students on campus," the department said.

"Harvard University brazenly refused to provide the required information requested and ignored a follow up request from the Department's Office of General Council," DHS said.

Noem, in a statement Thursday after ordering the SEVP revocation, said, "Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country."

Harvard called Noem's action "unlawful."

"We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably," the university said in a statement.

"We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community," the statement said.

"This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission."

DHS said that in addition to barring enrollment of future international students, "existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status."

The revocation was first reported by The New York Times.

As of the fall 2023 semester, international students comprised more than 27% of Harvard's total enrollment, according to university data.

As Noem's order became public, a federal judge in Oakland, California, issued an injunction against President Donald Trump and Noem barring them from terminating the legal status of international students pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the termination of the legal status of several such students.

The injunction could block the Trump administration from acting on its threat against international students currently enrolled at Harvard.

In a statement Thursday, Noem said, "This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus."

"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing," Noem said.

"It refused."

"They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law."

The Trump administration in April froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard, hours after the university roundly rejected demands that it eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and evaluate international students for ideological concerns.

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We are buying 10 shares of Eli Lilly at roughly $715. Following the trade, Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust will own 125 shares of LLY, increasing its weighting to 2.65% from about 2.45%. Since the start of May, Eli Lilly shares have fallen roughly 20% on concerns about possible tariffs on overseas manufacturing, an executive order targeting lower drug prices, and worries that Novo Nordisk was starting a GLP-1 pricing war after it announced an agreement with CVS Health's Caremark to make Wegovy the preferred GLP-1 weight loss medication on its formulary. Eli Lilly, and other health-care stocks, have also fallen behind the rest of the market due to a rotation back into more economically sensitive names after the United States and China mutually agreed to reduce tariffs for 90 days. We are mindful of these risks to pharmaceutical companies. Still, we would not be surprised to see the industry work with the Trump administration to find a compromise that is suitable for all parties. And with Eli Lilly shares trading at a 52-week low and only 24 times its estimated 2026 earnings per share, a lot of these headwinds have already been priced in. As for competition, patients should continue to prefer Zepbound because of its superiority over Wegovy. At Eli Lilly's current price of about $715 per share, the stock has entirely erased a 14% move in mid-April when the company announced its daily obesity pill was successful in a late stage trial for Type 2 diabetes with no safety and tolerability concerns. The positive data had significant implications for the GLP-1 market, setting up Lilly to release a medication that offers Wegovy-like efficacy to patients who suffer from needle fear. Oral GLP-1 medications are easier to scale in manufacturing and offer greater convenience for shipping and storage compared to injectable versions. Come next year, the company will have the best injectable and oral GLP-1 medications on the market. Combined with its leading manufacturing footprint, we expect Eli Lilly will continue to gain share in the fast-growing GLP-1 market. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long LLY. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
In a secret operation carried out by Delhi Police and central agencies, a network of ISI sleeper cells was busted with the arrest of two agents of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI. The operation was undertaken from January to March 2025.The arrested ISI agents included a Nepali-origin Ansarul Mian Ansari. The agencies recovered several classified documents related to the forces from his possession, news agency ANI reported.The Delhi Police filed a chargesheet in May, and both the arrested ISI agents are currently lodged in Tihar jail.The investigation also raised suspicion about some staff members of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. ISI officers Muzammil and Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, who had been trying to influence Indian YouTubers and social media influencers, were also believed to be involved in the plan, Times of India reported.The TOI report said the intelligence agencies had received inputs in January that ISI had sent its spy to gather sensitive information. He was tipped off to arrive in Delhi via Nepal. The inputs revealed a Pakistani plot to attack Delhi, for which classified information about the armed forces had to be fetched.Not much progress was made in the case until mid-February. By this time, Ansari had collected sensitive military documents, the report added.The spy was arrested in central Delhi on February 15 when he was trying to visit Pakistan via the Nepal route. Sensitive documents were recovered from him.Ansari revealed that he used to drive a cab in Qatar, where he met an ISI handler. Later, he was taken to Pakistan, where he was trained by top ISI officials for several days, and then sent to Delhi via Nepal. ANI quoted Delhi Police officials saying it was a secret operation in which the central agencies were involved.The ISI had asked Ansarul to make a CD of the confidential documents and send it to Pakistan. After his interrogation, another person was also arrested in Ranchi.
Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd, on Thursday, May 22, said the Malaysia government has extended its current insulin supply contract by six months.

This allows the companys Malaysian subsidiary, Biocon Sdn Bhd, to continue supplying recombinant human insulin products till October 2025.

The extension comes under the existing three-year agreement signed in 2022 between Malaysias Ministry of Health (MoH), Biocon Sdn Bhd and distribution partner Duopharma Marketing. The agreement was initially set to conclude in April 2025.In an exchange filing, the company said the current contract period of 36 months has been extended for an additional six (6) months effective from April 29 to October 28, 2025.Biocon Biologics has been supplying insulin products to Malaysia for nearly a decade and operates a large-scale manufacturing facility in Johor.These insulin products are distributed in Malaysia through its commercial partner DMktg. The company was awarded the insulin supply contract for a three-year period in 2022 through April 2025, the filing said.The contract extension will be officially confirmed through a supplementary agreement to be signed later by the Ministry of Health, DMktg and Biocon.Biocon Biologics is committed to enable affordable access to life-saving insulins to people with diabetes in Malaysia and other parts of the world, the company added.Biocon Ltd shares were trading 2.1% lower at 333.5 apiece at 11.40 am on Thursday, May 22. The stock has declined 9.5% this year, so far.
'What innovator would risk entering the market if they had to guess at whether they might go to prison for 76 years for failing to disclose something, even if their lawyer advised them they didnt need to?' argued attorney Lynn Hartfield
Why is regulating AI important, and what are the potential dangers it poses without oversight? AI is a tool that can be used for significant good, but it can and already has been used for fraud and abuse, as well as in ways that can cause real harm, both intentional and unintentional  as was thoroughly discussed in the Houses own bipartisan AI Task Force Report.

These harms can range from impacting employment opportunities and workers rights to threatening accuracy in medical diagnoses or criminal sentencing, and many current laws have gaps and loopholes that leave AI uses in gray areas. Refusing to enact reasonable regulations places AI developers and deployers into a lawless and unaccountable zone, which will ultimately undermine the trust of the public in their continued development and use.

How do you regulate something as potentially ubiquitous as AI? There are multiple levels at which AI can be regulated. The first is through the application of sectoral laws and regulations, providing specific rules or guidance for particular use cases such as health, education, or public sector use. Regulations in these spaces are often already well established but need to be refined to adapt to the introduction of AI.
When you choose what to call a town, you can name it after whoever founded the place. Or you can name it by pulling letters out of a bag at random.

There is another option, however: You can assign the town a name in order to set up a long-term elaborate gag. This is difficult, because the events that actually form the gag will happen in the future, outside of your control and without your foreknowledge. But the universe will sometimes step in to make the joke work.

5 Neversink When New Yorkers named a new town Neversink in 1798, they werent trying to tempt fate. They named it after the nearby Neversink River. That river was named for the Algonquian words for mad river. So, the river got a name that meant Mad River River, which is already a little silly. Then the city was named Neversink. Don't Miss In 1941, New York noticed people had been feeling a bit thirsty, and they decided they needed to build a new reservoir. They flooded two towns, which meant they sank Neversink beneath 30 billion gallons of water. Daniel Case Never say never.

You just said it! Now you must die, by drowning. Neversink was one of the two towns condemned for that reservoir. The other was named Bittersweet. It met a sad fate.

4 Youngtown Retirement communities generally dont have any youngsters as residents. Theres a good reason for this: Youngsters dont want to live there. Theyd rather spend less money to live in a better location without any of the dedicated old-person amenities that you only start to need when you can no longer reach your arms behind your back. But in 1954, developers in Arizona had an idea for not just one little residential complex but an entire town that would be exclusively populated by people getting on in years. The minimum age would be 55. This wasnt an elderly care facility, but a town of people in their silver years or older who didnt want to be bothered by phonographs blaring music by that Elvis guy. They named their new city Youngtown. Advertisement Rob Cooley Cue ominous lightning strike. Our uneducated opinion would be that its illegal to ban people from a town based on their age. Apparently, we would be wrong in this case, because Youngtown received a specially exemption from Title VII of the Fair Housing Act. However, in 1996, a 16-year-old challenged the towns rules. He wanted to live with his grandparents in Youngtown, due to circumstances that havent been made public. When a judge looked over the records, it turned out the ordinance had never been valid, due to some procedural matters that have been made public but are too boring to detail here. So, the founders thought they cracked a fine joke by naming their town Youngtown, but the jokes on them because the place had to repeal its age requirement, killing the dream. Advertisement

3 Frostproof The town of Fort Clinch, Florida, formed in 1850, named for Duncan Clinch, a military man and a Georgia state rep. Clinch was known for his actions during the Florida Wars between the United States and the Seminoles. For example, there was the time Andrew Jackson had him kill the Seminoles who were assembled at Negro Fort so Clinch could capture escaped slaves, and now that we start writing his biography out, wed really rather move on from Duncan Clinch and never talk about him again. via Wiki Commons The good news is he died from flesh-eating bacteria tearing up his face. Fort Clinch fell apart. A new town formed on the site, named Keystone City. Then in 1892, when it was time to make things official with a post office, town leaders came up with the idea of adopting the name Frostproof. Citrus farming was all the rage, and if interested farmers heard of a city that was certified frostproof, theyd know thats a great spot to lay down their orange crop. Advertisement In 1894 and 1895, Frostproof suffered a freeze so harsh that tens of thousands of acres of trees died. Advertisement The town took a decade to recover from the hit. And the post office now refused to deliver letters to the town addressed to Frostproof, calling it false advertising. The town was really named Lakemont, they said, after one alternate name the elders had considered. But their correction didnt stick. Today, the place is once again Frostproof.

2 Siren Siren, Wisconsin, has a population of around 1,000. It formed in the 1890s when a lot of Swedish settlers found themselves in the area, and the postmaster named it Syren, after the Swedish word for lilacs. The postal service changed the name to Siren, figuring the guy had just misspelled the word, being an uneducated Swede. On June 18, 2001, a tornado rolled through town. It was categorized as an F3, and it demolished a bunch of houses and killed two people, while injuring a dozen more. The weather service forecast the tornado, and it sent out a warning. But this warning didnt reach as many people as it should have. A month or two earlier, lightning had hit the towns tornado siren, putting it out of service. Advertisement KSTP Damn you, ominous lightning strike. They had been planning to fix the siren by the end of June, but they just didnt quite get around to it. If only something about the town highlighted the importance of that particular icon.
Frank says Sweet Dee is the funniest member of The Gang, despite what theyve all been telling her for 20 years

Danny DeVito says that Kaitlin Olson is the true star of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but of course he thinks that  every father would say the same about his fiance.

Theres an argument to be made that, on Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, no relationship is more messed-up and morally perverse than the one between Frank Reynolds and his bastard not-daughter Dee. Despite (poorly) raising Dee and her twin brother Dennis as his own for decades, Frank has prostituted Dee, set her on fire, waterboarded her and even married her in front of her real father. And, through it all, Frank has never once said that he loves Deandre, as only he calls her  though that would probably only make things even worse between the two degenerates.

In real life, however, DeVito isnt so donkey-brained that he hasnt noticed that Olson is talented, beautiful and hilarious, despite how his Always Sunny character has spent the last 15 seasons trying to convince Dee that the exact opposite is true. In Varietys cover story about Olson and her husband/co-star Rob McElhenney, DeVito admitted that he thinks Olson is the best performer in the Gang.

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Just dont let her do impressions of other races.

When asked about the greatest TV power couple of the current era, DeVito first gave props to the man who brought him into the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia family. Hes an impressive guy, DeVito said of McElhenney, whom DeVito tricked into thinking that his father had a box full of human teeth during their first meeting.

However, DeVito continued, just because McElhenney created It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and thus brought the entire Gang together, doesnt mean that hes the talented one in the relationship. Ive always thought that Kaitlin was the funniest one on the show, DeVito said of Olsons place in the Always Sunny cast. Shes not only gorgeous, but has the timing and is a natural comedian.

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While he hasnt yet released his official power rankings for the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia cast, FX Chairman John Landgraf levied similar praise for Olson in the article, saying that her Always Sunny audition "was like watching Lucille Ball walk through the door.

Naturally, McElhenney has long insisted that Olson is the most talented member of the Always Sunny cast, once telling The Guardian that his wife is hands down the funniest woman on television.

Seemingly everyone involved in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia agrees that Olson is an other-worldly talent  although were still waiting to hear a couple other key players weigh in on the matter. Charlie, Dennis, its your turn to start calling Dee the GOAT instead of the Bird.
Acclaimed filmmaker and former Golden Girls star Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of comedy. Although you might not know it from watching the disastrous episode of Saturday Night Live that he hosted back in 1995.

In fact, Tarantino has previously expressed an interest in making his own Western comedy, and famously cast five members of the Groundlings in Pulp Fiction. So perhaps its not all that shocking that some of his favorite movies of the past 25 years are comedies.

Far Out Magazine recently compiled a list of Tarantinos apparent preferred 21st century films, which includes titles such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Battle Royale, There Will Be Blood and Top Gun: Maverick. On the comedy front, Tarantino singled out Trey Parker and Matt Stones Team America: World Police, which one would imagine didnt make Matt Damon or Michael Moores list of favorite movies.

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Tarantino once claimed that he saw Team America five or six times, and he specifically loved that it featured an homage to Kill Bill, because that meant that he was the only Hollywood celebrity who had been referenced respectfully.

He also has a deep appreciation for Edgar Wrights Shaun of the Dead. The Reservoir Dogs director once said that the zombie-filled romantic comedy is my hands down favorite British movie that has come out since Ive been making movies.

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More surprisingly, the list includes Jason Reitmans Young Adult from 2011, which is arguably the Juno directors best movie. Although there are definitely dramatic elements, its mostly a dark comedy, starring Charlize Theron as a willfully delusional alcoholic writer returning to her hometown. It also features a terrific supporting performance by Patton Oswalt.

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Then theres Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbachs Frances Ha. Tarantino called the pseudo-autobiographical black-and-white character study one of his favorite movies of 2013.

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Anyone whos been following Tarantinos career in recent years wont be surprised to learn that Toy Story 3 made the list. While it's a little weird to call any movie in which a group of characters are forced to join hands in solemn acceptance of the reality that theyre all about to burn to death a comedy, it is a Pixar movie full of wacky characters and kid-friendly humor.

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Tarantino loved Toy Story 3 so much that he refused to watch Toy Story 4, calling its predecessor devastating and one of the best movies Ive ever seen.

Sadly, the list failed to find a spot for that other computer animated movie that Tarantino has publicly praised: Jerry Seinfelds Bee Movie.
The rest of the cast on Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia had no idea that Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson were having a secret workplace relationship for months during the making of Season Two, but Danny DeVito knows plenty about hidden romance  just ask the dumpster behind the Wendys.

If you watched Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia without knowing anything about the casts personal lives, you might get the impression that the guy who plays Mac must hate the woman unfortunate enough to be stuck with the role of Sweet Dee. After all, Mac has a long history of choking Dee, elbowing her in the face, pushing her in the face, crashing her car into a wall, lifting her up by the crotch and generally disgracing, demeaning and disparaging her at every opportunity. But behind the scenes of Always Sunny, a romance began to brew between McElhenney and Olson during the show's second season that will go down as one of the greatest love stories in sitcom history  not that their castmates noticed that anything was afoot when Olson started sleeping over in McElhenneys room.

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That is, except for DeVito, who, in the recent Variety cover story about the sitcom power couple, said that he sniffed out the secret relationship like Dolph Lundgren smells crime.

As the cast of Always Sunny revealed in the article, none of them besides DeVito had any clue that McElhenney and Olson were dating before the couple announced their relationship to the rest of the Gang  especially not Glenn Howerton, who definitely should have figured that one out considering how he and McElhenney were real-life roommates during the first two seasons of the show. How did I not see this was happening? Howerton asked himself incredulously.

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She would always come over and then would get too drunk and sleep there," Howerton said of Olsons paper-thin cover for spending the night through which he somehow could not see. In retrospect, she wasnt really that drunk; she was just using that as an excuse to stay at our apartment. And then Rob would disappear for a couple of nights, and Id be like, Whats going on? Hed tell me he went out with some girl, just making shit up!

Charlie Day didnt know about the relationship either, but, to be fair, he wasnt literally in the room where it happened like his co-star. I had zero suspicion, Day said. I didnt see it coming at all. And conversely, didnt care one way or the other. Maybe because Mary Elizabeth (Ellis) and I had been together for so long at that point, I thought, Well, whats the big deal?

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Well, DeVito did know and did care about the sparks flying between the two lovebirds. When we were going on a trip or something like that, you got the feeling that they were kind of gravitating toward each other in a cool way, DeVito said of McElhenney and Olsons chemistry. Every once in a while, people who are supposed to be together wind up together.

McElhenney clearly concurs  not only has he been married to Olson for 17 years, but, in his Instagram post about the article, he quoted DeVitos beautiful sentiment about how he and his wife were destined to fall in love. She probably even has him getting feelings again  you know, feelings, from when you were a kid?
The cold open of FXs new sitcom Adults shows its cast of adorable twentysomethings in a subway cuddle puddle, relying on each other to keep track of their keys and bag and bragging about getting discounts via suggestive Instagram DMs with the Papa Johns account. Later in the episode, one of the housemates tries to get her way by putting on a flirtatious persona called Titty Baby; another doesnt have a checking account or know his Social Security number. Yet, despite a cast of characters I should find extremely grating, Adults is a hangout show I really enjoyed hanging out with.

Like all the best shows in this sitcom sub-category, Adults  which premieres next Wednesday on FX before dropping its whole eight-episode season on Hulu the following day  barely has a premise. Samir (Malik Elassal) lives in his childhood home in the shit taint of Queens. His retired parents are touring the national parks, so its unclear whether they know three of his best friends are living there rent-free. Over the six episodes (of eight) provided to critics, we gain a loose understanding of everyones deal. Issa (Amita Rao) may be living off an allowance from the parents she doesnt want to admit are rich. Anton (Owen Thiele, who also had a recurring role in Overcompensating) has an office job of some kind, but one he seems able to do from the kitchen table with his camera off; whatever it is, it gives him plenty of time to become best friends with every person he meets. Billie (Lucy Freyer) is a lifelong overachiever who, when her life hits a rough patch, bucks herself up with frequent visits to her former high school. Paul Baker (Jack Innanen) is a late addition to the group; I dont know exactly how he and Issa would define their relationship, so lets just say if this were set 10 years ago shed be his girlfriend, which is why shes aggressively petitioning Samir  including as Titty Baby  to let Paul Baker move in with them. Samir is the one who really should learn how banking works.

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The show was co-created by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, whose first professional credit was as writing partners on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (the shows youngest ever, according to their official bio), but who really got their start with a viral speech they delivered together at Yales commencement ceremony in 2018.

Theres probably no way to do a jokey graduation speech that isnt cringe, but had I known about this one, I probably wouldnt have volunteered to take on a show from the people who elicited these laughs  guffaws, even  from Hillary Clinton. Similarly, when FX announced last summer that Kronengold and Shaws first sitcom would be called Snowflakes, I was comfortable writing it off: Im good with pitch-black comedies that regard all their characters with contempt (like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Veep), but snowflake has been so thoroughly co-opted that I assumed the title was warning me against a reactionary take on Zoomers.

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Fortunately, someone had a better idea, and as a title, Adults strikes the perfect note for the show it belongs to: It feels a little ironic, a little sheepish and only defensive until the slightest pushback makes it cave. Its first episode revolves around an extremely 2020s premise: Kyle (Will Ropp), the groups most annoying peripheral friend, has gone viral for a personal essay about getting groped at work by a Boomer higher up the reporting chain. What responsibility does everyone have to support Kyle when hes kind of irritating most of the time? (Safe from Nepal earthquake, look. Hes in Bushwick!) If, as Billie casually shrugs, most guys dont even know when theyve crossed the line of consent, could that be true of Samir? And can Billie ride a few veiled references to the climate around sexual harassment to a promotion at work? Kyle is rallying through his supposed trauma  literally, by headlining a rally  so what might read like crass opportunism is just this weeks activity for a group of people with basically good intentions and nothing more important to occupy them. Later episodes bring an emergency for Billie that her medical proxy, Samir, is poorly equipped to handle; Anton finding out one of his hundreds of treasured friends is wanted for multiple stabbings; and Issa and Anton spinning out when their shared therapist suddenly dies.

For a show from untested sitcom writers, Adults has impressive confidence in the big swings it takes. The cold open dares you to turn it off when Issa spots a guy jerking off on their subway train and responds by putting her own hand down her pants and yelling at him in an effort to shame him; it seems to have exactly the opposite effect, but she can convince herself shes on the side of justice. When the third episode reveals the stabber terrorizing the neighborhood, Samirs father texts him to look in a particular closet, which is when he finds out theres been a shotgun in the house this whole time, and sends him and Paul Baker on a mission to try to sell it back to a gun store and apply the proceeds to an altruistic cause; Paul Bakers attempts to charm a clerk who may or may not want to hook up with him are hilariously awkward. Only in the 2020s could a whole storyline revolve around Anton, Issa and Paul Baker constructing a whole backstory for the hot guy they think theyve AirTagged on Antons behalf, while the audience knows this exceptionally chic-seeming prospect is actually a rat whos been carrying the AirTag all over town.

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The shows self-assurance is also evident in the absurdist elements it occasionally introduces. At Kyles rally, for instance, he tries to pull rank with Issa by showing her his victim card in a lanyard around his neck; she tops it by showing hers: woman, sex worker and child of immigrants. When Samir goes to the bank to try to acquire a check to pay a plumber and admits to the teller that he doesnt know his SSN, she hands him a form that asks, Are you a fucking idiot? (The answer is obviously yes, but I appreciate the show making it clear that they know that.)

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Squeamish viewers may need to know that one way Adults portrays its characters codependent closeness is with across-the-board physical intimacy. In the series premiere cold open, everyone harangues Samir about fixing the water heater, but he protests that he likes the group smell. When Billie is taking too long on the toilet  trying to poop, by the way, as Issa stands about a foot away, shaving Samirs armpit  Anton storms in and announces that hes going to pee in the space between her crotch and the seat. When it sounds like Anton is bringing a guy home, all his housemates spring into action, arranging his bed and collecting the sex toys from the dishwasher (We said separate loads!).

This is a commune that functions on total honesty, from the formal process by which new rules are established  like dont leave your used condoms on the lid of the garbage can and also in the toilet  to the convention of the mind wipe, by which a humiliating disclosure is made only on the condition that its recipient will immediately wipe their mind of the knowledge. The people who live like this are certainly not snowflakes; for this kind of thing, youd have to be stronger than the troops.

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I have to knock this show for being the latest to try to skate on using the r slur by having another character in the scene scold that its not acceptable  see also Overcompensating. The show is also positioning Billie and Samir to be endgame, and while its definitely slow-playing it, Im still not as interested in them pairing up as the shows producers would probably want me to be. But otherwise, Adults is a very good, very silly time. Already, Im almost as obsessed with these characters as they are with each other.
Combined, San Francisco (4,520 cybersecurity jobs) and Seattle (3,910) accounted for nearly 47% of all cybersecurity roles across the top 10 cities. Yet, despite its size, Seattle was the only city in the top 10 to post a negative YoY change in employment at -8.6%. This downturn may signal that Seattle is one of the primary markets losing jobs to emerging, lower-cost tech hubs. Cybersecurity professionals based there may face greater competition in a contracting market. Still, the long-term advantage of having Microsoft, Amazon, or other tech giants on your resume is a powerful incentive to weather the short-term headwinds.

Bonus: Boston

For some cybersecurity professionals, a well-paying job is just a stepping stone. Their goal may instead be to launch their own cybersecurity startup  especially as emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and IoT create new attack surfaces and corresponding business opportunities. Many of todays industry giants  CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Darktrace, Wiz, Abnormal Security, and Snyk  were once ambitious upstarts founded by domain experts who saw gaps in the market.

Others aim to join a rising tech company early, securing a cybersecurity role at a high-growth startup with the potential for a significant financial upside. For example, one survey found that 76% of Nvidia employees were millionaires thanks mainly to their stock options  a powerful example of what early-stage equity can deliver.

Boston offers a compelling blend of opportunity and access for professionals with this mindset. Ranked first in venture capital, Massachusetts is a national hotspot for startup activity and scaleup momentum. Boston ranks 12th on the Cybersecurity Job Index with a score of 6.3 and saw a 14.6% YoY increase in employment to 3,920 jobs and a 6.9% YoY wage rise to a $132,810 average. As not just a college town but arguably the best one, Boston offers founder-inclined cyber pros access to a deep talent pool from Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and many more.

The tradeoff is the cost of living. Massachusetts ranks 47th, making it one of the most expensive states to live in. But for those betting on the next big thing, the potential returns  professionally and financially  could far outweigh the cost of eggs. Cyber pros who arent drawn to living in Boston but are seeking a similar opportunity profile may want to consider New York City as an alternative.

Once nicknamed the Magic City for its explosive growth in the late 1800s, Alabama may be earning that title again  this time for its rising profile in cybersecurity. Ranked 17th on the Cybersecurity Job Index with a score of 5.9, Birmingham has experienced modest YoY growth in employment of 9.1% to 600 jobs and in wages of 6.5% to $106,010.

What makes Birmingham compelling is its exceptionally low cost of living. Alabama ranks third nationally, behind only Arkansas and Mississippi  two states with no cities featured on Upwinds list. For professionals pursuing a high-salary, low-cost-of-living strategy  such as those interested in financial independence, retire early (FIRE)  Birmingham presents a rare opportunity to stretch income without sacrificing career prospects.

The city is also home to several notable tech companies, including Shipt, McLeod Software, Atlas RFID Solutions, EBSCO Industries, and Fleetio, which recently secured a $450 million Series D. This significant influx of capital into a Birmingham-headquartered company suggests growing venture capital confidence in the local tech ecosystem  even as Alabama currently ranks only 25th in venture capital. High-profile deals like this may help draw more investor attention to the city and, in turn, spur the creation of new cybersecurity job opportunities.
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The Student HOMES Coalition announced its support of four bills in the California legislature at a press conference Tuesday. One of those bills, Assembly Bill 893, would require a certain percentage of commercial properties in districts near UC campuses, community colleges and California State Universities be affordable housing development.
Laoshan Tea from China's Malipo showcased at UN to mark Int'l Tea Day

Xinhua) 16:32, May 22, 2025

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Third Laoshan International Tea Festival was held Wednesday at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to mark 2025 International Tea Day.

"A tiny tea leaf can drive economic growth and uplift people's livelihoods," said Geng Shuang, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the UN, adding that tea can offer a smart solution for the harmonious co-existence between humanity and nature and is "a perfect interpretation of the ecological civilization concept."

"A tiny tea leaf can also serve as a messenger of peace between civilizations," said Geng.

"The promotion and development of tea cultivation, tea economy, and tea culture represent a best practice in implementing the Global Development Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. It is also a proven path toward mutual learning and shared prosperity among countries," he said.

Osama Mahmoud Abdel Khalek Mahmoud, Egypt's UN ambassador, and Bjorg Sandkjaer, UN assistant secretary-general for policy coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, shared similar perspectives that the tea industry promotes economic growth, creates jobs and income, helps implement multiple sustainable development goals, and serves as an important channel for connecting people of all countries and promoting cultural exchanges.

Nearly 200 participants, including diplomats and officials from the UN Secretariat, attended the festival, which featured tea art performances, traditional dances and music, and an exhibition themed "China's Poverty Alleviation Model: A Case Study of Malipo County."

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
What a wonderful thing it is to have such an honest Government and a Prime Minister whose priority is always to tell the absolute truth!

For many months, until a couple of weeks ago, Sir Keir Starmer and senior ministers have been reassuring us time and again that they had no plans to introduce a youth mobility scheme, which would allow young Europeans to work, study or just lounge about in the UK for up to three years.

No plans, declared Sir Keir last September. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Sky News on February 2 that youth mobility was not the right starting point for us at all because what we need to do is to bring net migration down.

In case we were still in any doubt, Yvette informed the Commons on February 24 that a youth mobility scheme is not part of the Governments plans.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Minister for the Constitution and European Relations, used almost exactly the same words in the Commons two weeks later.

No plans, no plans, no plans. Good God, no! I could fill this article by enumerating the many times the PM and senior ministers have sought to put anxious minds at rest by reiterating that they didnt intend to approve a youth mobility scheme.

Except they did have plans. Or, to be precise, the European Union had plans, which it has been discussing with British negotiators for months. The EU has set its heart on youth mobility  and is going to have it.

Keir Starmer with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen at the UK-EU summit at Lancaster House in London on Monday, where they unveiled the new youth experience scheme

The deal between the two sides unveiled on Monday envisages a new youth mobility scheme, which will enable young EU citizens to live, work or study in the UK, and young Britons to do the same on the Continent.

However, it has now been rebranded a youth experience scheme, doubtless to give the (false) impression that these young people will be hanging around in a harmless way and experiencing life rather than, as may well be the case, taking jobs that could and should be filled by young Britons.

Let me say that, if all things were equal, I should be perfectly happy for more young Europeans to come here to work or study, and for their counterparts to do the same south of Calais. Im sure many would agree.

But things are not remotely equal. Since Brexit, net migration figures  the difference between those leaving the country and arriving  have soared to unprecedented levels, almost reaching a million in the year ending June 2023. Most of those working, studying and living here are from the Third World and China.

So, with numbers as high as they are and public disquiet about immigration as great as it is, were in no position to open our arms to our friends from across the Channel. Yvette Cooper used to understand this until she was leant on by Starmer, who has willingly given in to pressure from the EU.

Its not fanciful to suppose that Yvette has been sharing her misgivings over the breakfast table with her husband, former Labour Cabinet minister and ITV presenter Ed Balls. Last week he said it would be a big mistake to cave in to EU demands on youth mobility. Which is exactly what the Government has done.

No details about the youth experience scheme have so far been published but there are plenty of leaks. They confirm that for the EU this is an issue of enormous importance.

Brussels reportedly wants the scheme to include 18 to 35-year-olds (rather than 18 to 30-year-olds, as was previously suggested) plus relatives. They are presumably thinking of spouses and children rather than aunts, grandparents, and second cousins twice removed.

Nevertheless, the numbers are potentially huge. There are said to be 60 million people between 18 and 35 in the EU.

If only 1 per cent of them fancied coming here, that would be 600,000, plus assorted relatives.

You may say that Sir Keir Starmer would never be so stupid as to agree to a number of this magnitude, and it has been reported that the Government would like to set an annual limit of 100,000, which is hardly low.

But EU negotiators have the bit between their teeth. They want their young to be able to come here in large numbers. They would like them to study at our universities while enjoying the same subsidised tuition fees as Britons do, and reportedly also to be eligible for benefits.

Remember that the population of the EU is more than six times that of the UK,

so there will be many more young people turning up on our shores than going in the opposite direction.

Will Sir Keir stand firm? His political survival depends on his controlling immigration. That said, the terms of the deal announced on Monday strongly favour the EU. Our PM is far from being an ace negotiator, and only an optimist would predict that hell be able to resist EU demands on youth mobility.

Even more to the point, the agreement heralded as historic by an overexcited Starmer was extraordinarily vague in several ways. There were, as Ive said, no details about what might constitute a youth experience scheme. Nor was there any chapter and verse about how UK manufacturers will gain access to the EUs rearmament fund of 150 billion euros.

In fact, the deal was really only clear and set in stone when it comes to British concessions to the EU, most notably the Governments daft agreement to throw open our waters to EU fishing boats for 12 years from 2026.

The youth mobility scheme will enable young EU citizens to live, work or study in the UK, and young Britons to do the same on the Continent

In short, the deal is remarkably fluid. EU negotiators are therefore free to play hardball over the rearmament fund, or even over the lifting of barriers to British food exports, in order to get what they want in respect of youth mobility.

Why are they so fixated on this issue? One probable reason is that EU leaders

like the idea of their own children  little Hans or young Amelie  being packed off to Britain for a while to learn English and enjoy themselves.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen studied at the London School of Economics in the 1970s, where she seems to have had the time of her life. She has seven children, some of whom may be hankering after a couple of years in London.

But the EUs obsession with youth mobility goes far deeper than that. Forcing the British Government to welcome large numbers of young Europeans is a first step in getting this country to accept free movement again. It is a way of bringing the UK further under the sway of the EU.

In view of the rise of Reform UK and widespread public disquiet about mass immigration, youd think Starmer would have to be almost certifiable to succumb to the European Unions demands.

But nonetheless I think hell agree to most of them. His infatuation with the EU  and his eagerness to be drawn back into its orbit  outweigh pragmatic considerations about immigration.

Sir Keir has bought a one-way ticket to Brussels, and nothing is going to stand in his way.
Joseph Vacher wreaked havoc across France in the late 1800s, killing as many as 50 people during a horrific three-year murder spree that haunted the nation.

His sadistic nature and gruesome crimes earned him the nickname the French Jack the Ripper and, over a century later, he is still one of the most notorious serial killers of all time.

During his trial, his defense claimed that being bitten by a 'mad dog' as a child was to blame for his twisted killings.

It has also been said that a gunshot wound to the head during a failed suicide attempted left him disfigured, and that the brutal backlash that he faced over his looks was what pushed him to kill.

Either way, Joseph's chilling story is one that is still talked about today, more than 100 years on.

Joseph grew up in a small town in the south-east of France called Beaufort. his father was an illiterate farmer, and he was the second youngest of 16 children.

According to the New York Times, after he was bitten by a wild dog as a child, he was taken to the 'village herbalist' who gave his medicine.

It was said by his lawyers during his trial that he was previously 'quiet' child, but he started having nasty outbursts after that.

Joseph Vacher wreaked havoc across France in the late 1800s, killing as many as 50 people during a horrific three-year murder spree that haunted the nation

He once shot at a group of boys who had been heckling him with his dad's rifle, and attempted to strangle his own brother when he noticed he was slacking off.

At age 15, his family sent him to a strict boarding school but he was expelled after only two years because he was allegedly caught torturing animals.

Joseph went on to join the Army in 1890, but his service was cut short after he attempted to murder a woman named Louise Barrand because she had continuously rejected his advances.

He broke into her home and shot her three times, before he turned the gun on himself, putting two bullets in his head.

The injury resulted in one side of his face becoming paralyzed and deformed him severely.

He later said during his trial that the way people mocked him because of his looks following the incident made him hate 'society' as a whole.

After the ordeal, he was discharged from the Army and sent to a mental institution, where it was said he often attacked staff and destroyed furniture.

However, following his trial for Louise's attempted murder - he was found not guilty by reason of insanity - he was transferred to a state-run hospital, where he stayed for three months before he was released and pronounced 'completely cured.'

His sadistic nature and gruesome crimes earned him the nickname the French Jack the Ripper, and over a century later, he is still one of the most notorious serial killers of all time

It was then that he went on a sadistic murder spree that lasted from 1894 until 1897.

The exact number of his victims is unknown, but it's believed that he killed up to 50 people - at least 11 have been confirmed.

Many of his victims were young boys or farmers and he usually killed them by stabbing them repeatedly. Some of them were also raped.

In 1897, Joseph was finally caught after her tried to attack a woman - when her husband and neighbors heard her screams, they rushed to help her and knocked Joseph out.

They locked him in a shed and got the police, who arrested him for attempted rape.

Soon, his years of crimes began to unravel, and he ultimately confessed to committing 11 murders.

During his trial, his defense tried to claim insanity, but he was ultimately pronounced sane after a lengthy investigation by a team of doctors appointed by the court.

He was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1898, and was ultimately executed by guillotine later that year.
A beloved Aussie biscuit has been discontinued  but many shoppers have only just realised it was gone.

Biscuit lovers recently noted that they were no longer able to purchase Arnott's Full O' Fruit packets in supermarkets.

FEMAIL reached out to the Arnott's team, who confirmed that the sultana-loaded biscuit had been pulled from shelves.

Arnott's Treating Business Director, Ranita Cowled confirmed that Full O' Fruit was officially discontinued in 2021.

'For 160 years, Arnott's has proudly baked some of Australia's most iconic biscuits and crackers. While Arnott's Full O' Fruit was retired from production in 2021 we continue to offer a range of delicious fruity options,' said Ranita.

The wholesome treat, which contained more than 50 per cent real fruit, was described as 'a lightly baked biscuit bursting with succulent sultanas and a delicate hint of citrus peel'.

Ranita suggested that Full O' Fruit fans instead try some of the brand's other 'fruity' offerings.

'These include our iconic Arnott's Raspberry Shortcake, made with a jammy raspberry-flavoured filling, and the Arnott's Spicy Fruit Roll, made with sultanas, currants, raisins and zesty lemon peel  both perfect for those who love a touch of fruit in their biscuit tin.'

Arnott's spokesperson Ranita Cowled confirmed that beloved biscuit Full O' Fruit was officially discontinued in 2021

Similar to a Garibaldi biscuit, the now discontinued Arnott's Full O' Fruit was described as 'a lightly baked biscuit bursting with succulent sultanas and a delicate hint of citrus peel'

A recent Australian Reddit thread saw a poster complaining of suddenly not being able to 'find them anywhere'.

'Full O Fruit! Sadly discontinued now,' confirmed one responder.

Another comment referred to the defunct treat by its humorous nickname: 'squashed fly bikkies'.

Others noted in the comments that Full O' Fruit was essentially a 'Garibaldi biscuit', which consists of currants squashed and sandwiched between two thin baked biscuit oblongs.

Garibaldi biscuits are hugely popular in Britain and manufactured by several UK brands, including Crawfords, Morrisons and Tesco.

Besides 'squashed fly biscuits', Garibaldi biscuits are also colloquially referred to by other nicknames, including 'fly sandwiches', 'flies' graveyards', 'dead fly biscuits' and 'fly traps'.

The confirmation of the discontinuation of Arnott's Full O' Fruit comes following recent mystery surrounding the fate of Arnott's Chocolate Wheatens.

Debate recently erupted online amongst Aussie biscuit lovers after some claimed the currently on-shelf Arnott's Milk Chocolate Digestives were a 're-brand' of the discontinued Chocolate Wheatens.

A nostalgic Facebook post about Arnott's Chocolate Wheatens (pictured) sparked debate from biscuit-lovers convinced that Arnott's Milk Chocolate Digestives were the same product re-branded

Arnott's spokeswoman Rebecca Chan confirmed that Chocolate Wheatens (left) had been discontinued in 2017, but suggested that Milk Chocolate Digestives (right) were 'similar'

But investigations by our lifestyle team proved this theory incorrect.

The biscuit mystery was sparked by a recent post shared on the 'Memory Lane - Growing up in Australia' Facebook page, after one member shared a nostalgic tribute post expressing their fondness for the now defunct Arnott's Chocolate Wheaten.

The innocent post lit up with comments from biscuit lovers  many of whom responded with surprise about the popular item no longer being available on shelves.

But among the responses were also many comments insisting that Arnott's Chocolate Wheaten Biscuits were indeed still available in shops.

'Now they're called Digestives,' asserted one response.

This claim that Milk Chocolate Digestives are a re-branded version of Arnott's Chocolate Wheaten makes logical sense given their visual similarities.

Both products feature a plain wheat biscuit with hole details, while the back of the biscuit is dipped into milk chocolate featuring a distinctive ripple line pattern.

FEMAIL approached an Arnott's spokesperson to seek clarity around whether Arnott's Milk Chocolate Digestives were indeed a re-branded replica of the original Arnott's Chocolate Wheaten Biscuits.

Arnott's Chocolate Portfolio Senior Marketing Manager Rebecca Chan set the record straight  confirming that although the biscuits are 'similar', they are not in fact the same.

'While Arnott's Chocolate Wheaten biscuits were discontinued in 2017, we know they still hold a special place in the hearts of many Aussies,' Rebecca said.

'For those craving a similar satisfying crunch with a hint of chocolate, our Arnott's Digestive range available at Independent retailers is a great alternative.'
A grandmother who spent 15 years using meth now looks unrecognisable after finally getting clean.

Shannon Hughes, 46, from Springfield, Missouri, started using methamphetamine when her daughter, Mistena Renteria-Elliot, now 26, was just 12 years old.

Shannon, who is now a grandmother-of-two, became instantly hooked and Mistena spent years trying to get her mother clean

She took Shannon to rehab and paid for her to get a place to stay - but said nothing worked.

In March 2024, Mistena said her mother was in a 'terrible state' - she weighed 105 pounds, was malnourished and terrified to leave the house.

During a visit to the doctor, they told Mistena that her mother was in the 'final stages' of addiction and if she carried on, she would die.

From that moment, Shannon made it her mission to turn her life around.

Now nine months sober, she is working a full-time job as a waitress, attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and passes frequent drug tests.

Shannon said that people will walk up to her in the supermarket 'with tears in their eyes' and hug her to congratulate her on getting clean.

Shannon Hughes, 46 (pictured), started using meth when her daughter was 12 years old

In March 2023, Shannon's daughter said her mother (pictured) was in a 'terrible state' - she weighed 105 pounds, was malnourished and terrified to leave the house

'I hear them in the background at the store, hitting each other like "that's her," she said.

'Then they come up to me all shy and embarrassed, asking if they can give me a hug.

'I am always overwhelmed with it. They make me feel better, as it can be embarrassing, they have seen me at my very worst.'

After getting into a new relationship when Mistena was 12, Shannon started using meth.

Two years later, she was thrown out of the family home and started living with her boyfriend and his family.

'She was getting heavy into the drugs at this point,' said Mistena, a stay-at-home mother from Springfield, Ohio.

'She would still come to see me, and I would spend the day with her.'

Mistena said she tried for years to help her mom.

'But nothing ever worked,' she said, 'so I completely gave up on it.'

Between 2017 and 2018, Mistena had no contact with her mother.

Now nine months sober, Shannon is working a full-time job as a waitress, attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and passes frequent drug tests

Shannon said that people will walk up to her in the supermarket with tears in their eyes and hug her to congratulate her on getting sober (Shannon pictured with Mistena)

Mistena said that when her mother and stepfather broke up, Shannon got more deeply involved in drugs and earned the nickname of 'drug lord of Springfield' because she would supply drugs to people around town.

'I started to go back around more, but it was one of those things where I would tell myself that she was not going to bother getting better,' Mistena said.

'I thought she was selfish, and she was going to hurt me.

'I didn't want to be taken advantage of. When I had my first daughter, I said I would let [Shannon] hurt me, but not my kids.'

In March 2023, Mistena went to visit her mother and found her in a 'terrible state.'

Shannon's head was shaved, she would hurt herself to 'stop the voices in her head' and she was scared to leave the house.

'The moment that I saw how bad I hurt people that I loved made me realise I need to change,' Shannon said.

'When you are high, you don't feel those feelings, you totally become numb, and you cannot associate.

'It is very important that people who are being hurt by people who are doing drugs understand that the drug user does not know how much they are hurting you.

Between 2017 and 2018, Mistena had no contact with her mother (pictured)

Mistena said that when her mother and stepfather broke up, Shannon got more deeply involved in drugs and earned the nickname of 'drug lord of Springfield'

In July 2024, with the help of her daughter, Shannon went 'cold turkey' and completely stopped taking drugs

Now, her life is transformed. She is able to spend time with her grandchildren, has a job and regularly attends Narcotics Anonymous meetings

'They cannot feel it, they don't get it, and they are not going to get it.'

In July 2024, with the help of her daughter, Shannon went 'cold turkey' and completely stopped taking drugs.

Now her life is transformed. She is able to spend time with her grandchildren, has a job and is attending regular Narcotics Anonymous meeting to keep her life on track.

'I don't think I would have ever got to this point if I hadn't hit a spot where I was deathly afraid of dying,' Shannon said.

'I feel great now, I am working a job that I am holding down.

'I would never have dreamed in 1,000 years that I would be able to get a job because my anxiety was so bad.'

Mistena added how 'proud' she is of her mom.

'Having a job has helped her tremendously, she feels like she has a purpose,' she said.

'It is so nice to have a conversation with her, and our relationship is getting better as the weeks go on.'
Sophie, 31, made the revelation in an Instagram story on Wednesday night

Sophie Radford, the eldest daughter of Sue and Noel Radford, has updated fans on the state of her marriage - and it's not good news.

Sophie, 31, who starred in Channel 5's '22 Kids & Counting' alongside her parents and 21 siblings, made the revelation in an Instagram story published last night.

Having tied the knot with Joseph Broadley in 2015, Sophie yesterday revealed that she was 'single'.

The mother-of-three, who shares Daisy Mae, 12, Ayprill Louise, 10, and Leo, nine, with Joe, created an Instagram story in which she responded to a series of questions from fans.

And, having divulged her shoe size (four-five), favourite food (pizza) and age (31), Sophie gave a very frank response to the most personal question of all: 'Are you single?'

The TV star, who has more than 60,000 followers on Instagram, wrote 'yes' in capital letters beneath the question, adding, 'That's all that will be said on it', also in block capitals.

Earlier in the story, Sophie responded to another question on the subject of her relationship.

When she was asked, 'How are you and Joe?', Sophie answered: 'How are we... TBC. Privacy'.

Yesterday, Sophie Radford, who married husband Joseph Broadley in 2025, published an Instagram story in which she revealed that she was now single

Sophie and Joseph pictured in happier times with their three children, Daisy Mae (centre), 12, Ayprill Louise (right), 10, and Leo, nine

Sophie's Instagram name remains 'Sophie Broadley' - for now.

While Sophie chose not to elaborate on these responses in the story, some fans may have seen her and Joe's separation coming.

In an episode of '22 Kids & Counting' which aired last August as part of the third series, Sophie broke down in tears and bravely admitted that she had hit rock bottom.

In the run-up to her 30th birthday, she reflected on how her life had changed since becoming a mother.

She said: 'Usually people in their twenties are out partying, but my twenties were very different, I had three kids, all within a year between them.

'It's hard going, it's definitely hard going. It's the same routine everyday, it's so full on, all the time.'

Sophie equally acknowledged that since the arrival of their three children, her relationship with Joe had suffered.

She revealed: 'With me and Joe, we used to go out to cinemas, out for meals, go out shopping, do all sorts of things. Had things and it all stopped.

Sophie's marriage update may not come as a complete surprise to her fans. Last year, she revealed that her relationship with Joe was suffering

'Because I've seen my mum and dad so happy, I do feel like I should be like that as well. However, it's not for everyone.'

At the time, Sophie also opened up about how she felt about her body, explaining: 'I used to be fit as a fiddle and I've let myself go a bit. Confidence completely shattered.

'I've realised I'm not as fit as I used to be and I don't look as good as I used to.

'I don't like my legs, I don't like my belly, I don't like my arms, I just don't like anything, at all.'

Even Sophie's mother, Sue, recognised the strain her daughter was feeling, admitting: 'Sophie is a very busy mum, she does long hours at work, she's up early in the morning.

'And I sometimes feel, is she stuck in a rut.

'I'm not wanting to interfere, but she seems to be in a really bad place, and I'm not sure I can leave it any longer.

'She seems quiet and distant recently.'

While the family rallied around Sophie back in August 2024, even organising a birthday trip to Amsterdam in a bid to get her back on track, it is now obvious that any relief she experienced was short-lived.

Sophie also responded to another question about the state of her marriage in her Instagram story

The news about Sophie's marriage breaking up will likely devastate sister Chloe, 29, with whom she shares a close relationship - and the timing couldn't be worse.

It was only a few weeks ago that Chloe - the second oldest daughter of Sue and Noel - gave birth to her second child, Bodhi Reign.

Bodhi, whom Chloe shares with her security guard boyfriend Jacob Wallace, became Sue and Noel Radford's 14th grandchild.

Having shared the news of her son's birth on TikTok, where she has 105,800 followers, Chloe returned to the platform to give fans a relatable update on her new 'reality' as a mother-of-two.

While Chloe, who was dressed in blue pyjamas, thought she looked 'knackered', she appeared cheerful in the clip as she proudly told viewers: 'We're on day six as a family of four.'

Drawing attention to the family's 'newest addition', she said: 'I feel like were still just trying to find our rhythm a bit with everything, get a little routine going.'

Chloe admitted that 'everything just seems to be a bit all over the place' - a feeling the vast majority of new mothers would be able to relate to - before giving viewers a snapshot of her new 'reality'.

Pointing to the sink, where a few plates have piled up, she added: 'Here's a bit of reality...'

Chloe Radford (pictured) shared a relatable update with fans just over a week after giving birth to her second child

Chloe gave birth to son Bodhi Reign (pictured) on April 28

In another update with which many new mothers would be able to empathise, Chloe opened up about her breastfeeding journey.

Explaining that breastfeeding on the whole is 'going really, really well,' Chloe did point out that she had been feeling sore on one side of her chest.

'It was just so painful,' she said, before revealing that she had discovered a product that made it feel 'so much better'.

The fix in question was Lansinoh's Soothies Cooling Gel Pads, which were designed to 'soothe and protect cracked nipples between feeds,' according to the brand's website.

Having used the product, she 'did manage to feed him again on that side,' Chloe said.

Elsewhere in the video, which has been viewed 151,000 times, the mother-of-two referred to her and Jacob's daughter Mia, who will be three in July, praising her for having been 'amazing' with her little brother.

Adoring fans of Chloe were quick to comment on the clip, with other new mothers supportively sharing details of their own families.

One person wrote: 'I'm six weeks in with two kids and still trying to get it together'.

In a TikTok clip that's been viewed 151,000 times Chloe revealed her new 'reality' just over a week after giving birth to her second child

Pictured with her daughter Mia, who will be three in July, Chloe shared that she experienced pain on one side as a result of breastfeeding but has since found a helpful product

Adoring fans of Chloe were quick to comment on the clip, with other new mothers supportively sharing details of their own families

While another added: 'We're day seven! Totally feel you with trying to find the rhythm with sleep and other kids'.

A third person took the opportunity to encourage Chloe as she continues with her breastfeeding journey, writing: 'Breastfeeding is so hard to start with but it's so worth it once it's established! You're amazing! It'll all fall into place darling'.

A fourth was full of praise, adding: 'You look great to great [having] only had a baby six days ago - lost baby bump already'.
Nearly two months after it first launched Meghan Markle's lifestyle brand is facing questions over why its sold-out products have still not been restocked.

The Duchess of Sussex released her 'As Ever' line, first teased more than a year ago under a different name, on April 2 with the limited pieces hitting her online site at eye-watering prices.

The eight products on sale included a wildflower honey with honeycomb, priced at $28 (21.60), and some flower sprinkles at $15 (11.60).

Meanwhile, a jar of raspberry jam set punters back $14 (10.80), while the abundance of other goods on sale included shortbread and crepe mixes, both being sold for $14, alongside various herbal tea mixes for $12 (9.30 each).

Fans snapped up the products within minutes  the range sold out in just half an hour.

Reveling in the success, in a gushing post to her followers after the launch, Meghan wrote: 'Our shelves may be empty, but my heart is full!

'We sold out in less than one hour and I can't thank you enough... for celebrating, purchasing, sharing, and believing. It's just the start @aseverofficial. Here we go!'

Nearly two months after the Duchess of Sussex's brand As Ever launched, its sold-out products still have not been restocked

Pictured: some of the sold-out products within the As Ever collection. Exclusive products on sale included a wildflower honey with honeycomb, priced at an eye-watering $28 (21.60), and some flower sprinkles at $15 (11.60)

Hitting the market at the start of April, fans snapped up the products within minutes  the range sold out in just half an hour.

But now, nearly two months later, keen shoppers who had initially hoped to get their hands on the exclusive product range have been left bitterly disappointed.

All of the sold-out stock is still unavailable to purchase online.

At the time of the opening day, critics had begun to question the success of the 43-year-old's latest business venture.

It was claimed the items had been made available in small quantities and then quickly marked as sold out in order to generate interest.

One industry insider told MailOnline: 'Showing that there is a sell out is very common for new brands to fake demand. There is no warehouse full of jams.'

Now, Mark Borkowski, one of the UK's leading publicity gurus and crisis managers, has described Meghan's management of the sold-out launch as 'chaos', questioning 'what the true story is' behind the long-standing unavailable products.

At the time of the sell-out opening day, some had began to cast an element of doubt on the success of the 43-year-old's latest business venture. Richard Eden, the Daily Mail's Diary Editor, described the launch as 'one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book' (Pictured: A Herbal Lemon Ginger Tea on sale as part of the launch)

Nearly two months later, keen shoppers who had initially hoped to get their hands on the exclusive product range have been left bitterly disappointed, with the sold-out stock still unavailable to purchase online

One industry insider told MailOnline today: 'Showing that there is a sell out is very common for new brands to fake demand. There is no warehouse full of jams'

During the hit YouTube show, Richard Eden (pictured), the Daily Mail's Diary Editor, was quick to brand the As Ever range as 'pathetic' due to the limited range of products available

Despite the ongoing stock issues, Mr Borkowski was quick to stress that Meghan's public image of 'create noise, create chaos', has continued 'business as normal'

Reflecting on how offering no explanation for the lack of stock could be harming her brand's image, Mr Borkowski told Newsweek: 'As soon as nothing's happening, people ask questions but therefore her PR has always been chaos.

'Maybe the fact it's not restocking gives them the opportunity to refresh the story, but there's just no logic and now of course questions are going to be asked. Do they have the answers?'

The expert even theorised that perhaps Meghan could be being 'let down by the very people who were surprised by her success'.

Nevertheless, despite the ongoing stock issues, Mr Borkowski was quick to stress that Meghan's public image of 'create noise, create chaos', has continued 'business as normal'.

As Ever was contacted for comment.
A groom almost died when he fell down a 100ft cliff in Greece two days before his destination wedding - and was forced to cancel the 45,000 nuptials.

Jake Elliot, 41, was walking back to his hotel in Santorini, Greece, after a meal with his friends when he jumped onto the coastal wall to avoid some passers-by.

The father-of-two lost his footing and tumbled down the 30 metre drop.

He was quickly rushed to Santorini Hospital with a broken back and legs and seven broken ribs, leaving his bride, Robyn Stanley, 39, from Folkestone, Kent terrified she was going to lose Jake.

The senior construction manager's injuries were so severe that he had to be airlifted to the bigger Athens hospital the following day.

Jake had a surgery to drain fluid from his lungs before being flown to the UK in an air ambulance two weeks later.

He then spent a further nine days at William Harvey Hospital, in Kent, before he was allowed to return home.

The couple, who have been together for 18 years, were unable to wed as intended in May 2023, in Santorini - surrounded by the 52 guests who had flown out to attend.

Jake Elliot and Robyn Stanley found themselves in Santorini Hospital on what should have been their wedding day in May 2023

The couple, who have been together for 18 years, finally managed to tie the knot in Greece a year later

Fortunately, they managed to tie the knot a year - and 60,000 - later in Greece and say it was an 'incredible' and 'emotional' day.

Robyn, a full time content creator, said: 'He was a few feet from getting home [to the hotel].

'There was a small wall and over the wall was a sheer drop. We'd all made jokes about how dangerous we thought it was.

'It's a single path. They were walking back and people were walking towards them.

'He jumped on the wall and slipped off. I didn't think he'd be alive.'

Jake added: 'I remember falling and trying to grab the cliff on the way down.

'I could hear one of my groomsmen shouting Jake. I remember trying to shout back but I couldn't. When I fell it collapsed my lung.

'Once I realised the wedding wasn't going to happen the guilt kicked in.

After the accident, Jake had too much fluid on his lungs so doctors in Athens had to operate and put lung drains on him. The father-of-two was also treated for a broken left leg, back and broken ribs

The senior construction manager lost his footing and tumbled down the 30 metre drop (pictured)

'I was blessed I hadn't died but I had ruined the wedding.'

Jake and Robyn were in Santorini for their destination wedding with all their family and friends in May 2023.

The couple, whose children Cannon, 11, and Cass, eight, were also in Greece, had spent 45,000 on their big day.

Jake was on his way back to the hotel on May 25, 2023 when he slipped. His friends rushed back to the hotel and told Robyn the news.

She said: 'It was an out of body experience - I just started screaming.'

Jake was taken to Santorini Hospital and Robyn had to wait outside for several hours before she could see him.

She said: 'The police had turned up - I thought he was dead.

'When I saw him he was talking. He'd broken his back and didn't know if he could walk.

Fortunately, Jake and Robyn, a full-time content creator, were able to marry in Greece as planned the following year

The couple described their wedding as an 'incredible' and 'emotional' day

Jake is pictured in hospital with his two sons, Cannon, 11, and Cass eight

'I remember being gutted [that we couldn't get married].'

But when Jake's spleen ruptured he had to be rushed to a hospital in Athens to be treated. He was airlifted on May 26, 2025.

Robyn said: 'When that happened I thought "I don't care about that stupid wedding now - I don't want him to die."'

Robyn was desperate to get Jake home to the UK for treatment but they were waiting for their insurance and he wasn't fit to fly.

Jake had too much fluid on his lungs so doctors in Athens had to operate and put lung drains on him.

He was also treated for a broken left leg, back and broken ribs.

He was in hospital for two weeks before flying home when he was stable on June 11, 2023.

Jake was in William Harvey Hospital in the UK for nine days - where doctors discovered he had also shattered his right ankle.

After being flown in an air ambulance to the UK, Jake (pictured with his family) had to spend a further nine days at William Harvey Hospital in Kent

Robyn was by Jake's side, supporting her partner of 18 years as he recovered in hospital

In addition to his broken back and legs and seven broken ribs, Jake had shattered his right ankle

Despite the severity of his injuries, Jake was back in work three months after his accident

He had bolts put in and came home to his family on June 20, 2023.

He spent the next year regaining strength - and still has physiotherapy now - but was back to work after three months.

Luckily the couple were able to move their wedding to another date - but had to fork out a further 15,000 for suppliers.

They finally tied the knot just over a year later on June, 5 2024.

Robyn said: 'Me and Jake went back on our own for four days in October.

'We didn't want the first time we went back to be the wedding.

'We put the demons to rest. Our wedding was incredible. It was a journey to get there for sure.'

Jake added: 'Pretty much everyone who came the year before was there. It was very emotional. The day was magical.

'The whole thing gives you a new perspective on life.'
As soon as I turned 18, the excitement of finally being allowed in a nightclub, ordering shots of vodka and dancing until the early hours of the morning was palpable.

But times seem to be changing, and nightclubs are becoming less and less popular- and so is drinking.

Stepping in as a replacement are coffee shop raves, where no dress code is required, no extortionate amount of money for entry is needed and instead of shots of vodka, shots of espresso and bites of banana bread are on offer.

The new Gen-Z trend is coming at a time when nightlife culture is on decline with more than 3,000 nightclubs, bars and pubs closing in London in the last three years.

Recent figures from the NTIA showed people in the UK aged between 18 and 30 are going out past 10pm less and less.

A huge factor for this was shown to be financial pressures, with many finding themselves priced out of live events.

The new Gen-Z coffee shop rave trend is coming at a time when nightlife culture is on decline with more than 3,000 nightclubs, bars and pubs closing in London in the last three years. DJ Louis Bekk pictured at Farmer J

Night are becoming less and less popular, and so is drinking. Stepping in as a replacement are coffee shop raves, where no dress code is required, no extortionate amount of money for entry is needed and instead of shots of vodka, shots of espresso and bites of banana bread are on offer

'There are these big Mayfair clubs where you have to dress a certain way and pay a certain amount to get in,' Louis Bekk said. 'The nights are centred around alcohol and looking good rather than the music and the art itself.'

Other factors that play a factor included safety concerns  with over a third sharing that they are prone to feel fear, anxiety, uneasiness or unsafe when going out at night.

On the other hand, a recent report by GWI found that people aged between 16 and 34, are looking to connect with people when they go out and most importantly, remember it the next day.

On top of all of this, more and more people are choosing not to drink with 43 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds and 32 per cent of 35 to 54-year-olds giving up drinking entirely because of health concerns.

One of the first viral coffee shop raves was hosted at How Matcha in Marylebone, London.

Opening their first shop, they approached DJ Louis Bekk about hosting an opening event.

Eager to change the narrative around live music, Bekk, 26, was already on his way in trying to make the change nightclubs and live music sets being seen as exclusive and hard to get into.

'There are these big Mayfair clubs where you have to dress a certain way and pay a certain amount to get in,' he told me.

'The nights are centred around alcohol and looking good rather than the music and the art itself.'

A recent report by GWI found that people aged between 16 and 34, are looking to connect with people when they go out and most importantly, remember it the next day. On top of all of this, more and more people are choosing not to drink with 43 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds and 32 per cent of 35 to 54-year-olds giving up drinking entirely because of health concerns

'There are these music gigs where they've become just somewhere to be seen and to post on Instagram,' Bekk said. 'I wanted to create somewhere anyone, who looked a certain way, dressed a certain way and didn't have a load of money, could come. You just need to be interested in the music.'

Louis Bekk is a French DJ and music producer living in London who began his career in classical music and composing for other international artists.

Making the switch into DJing, he found himself faced with the problem of building a fan base, having always been behind other people's success.

It worked.

How Matcha's rave garnered hundreds of thousands and views and likes on TikTok, setting the trend that many more coffee shops are now following.

London based salad shop Farmer J followed suit and opened their Marylebone location with a Louis Bekk set.

With their healthy food and message of 'farm to fork', the idea suited their brand perfectly promoting clean eating and sustainability, all whilst enjoying what you eat.

Starting at 11am with iced coffee, cookies and marmite sandwiches, around 300 people gathered on a sunny Saturday morning to try and get a spot.

I managed to get in with a couple of friends and found my perspective on 'going out' completely changed.

Rather than feeling tired and full of brain fog the morning after, I felt rejuvenated and bright.

Bekk said: 'If you bring the music somewhere new, you can redefine the standards. I never smoke, never taken drugs in my life and I barely drink. So just not having the pressure to be on a certain level as everybody and also removing that exclusivity by the price. I just wanted to change the music culture a little bit.'

We ended up socialising with a lot more people, didn't have a hangover and didn't swing by a fast-food takeaway on the way home.

There was a complete mix of age groups, some people brought their children, some wore workout gear and others came dressed to the nines.

But the main point was that the space felt safe, everyone felt accepted and most of all, we had the best time.

'There are these music gigs where they've become just somewhere to be seen and to post on Instagram,' Bekk said.

'I wanted to create somewhere anyone, who looked a certain way, dressed a certain way and didn't have a load of money, could come.

London based salad shop Farmer J followed suit and opened their Marylebone location with a Louis Bekk set. With their healthy food and message of 'farm to fork', the idea suited their brand perfectly promoting clean eating and sustainability, all whilst enjoying what you eat

Free of hangovers and late-night regrets, the new phenomenon supports the generation's penchant for health-conscious choices and making it home in time for their skincare routines. And with celebrities and influencers pushing the message that eight hours sleep, eating five a day and oat milk lattes are the key to a healthy and happy life, it looks like we will all be swapping Ibiza for Pret in the near future

'You just need to be interested in the music.

'If you bring the music somewhere new, you can redefine the standards.

'I never smoke, never taken drugs in my life and I barely drink.

'So just not having the pressure to be on a certain level as everybody and also removing that exclusivity by the price.

'I just wanted to change the music culture a little bit.'

Gen-z trading late-night clubs for midday coffee shop raves is a trend no one is expecting to fade.

Free of hangovers and late-night regrets, the new phenomenon supports the generation's penchant for health-conscious choices and making it home in time for their skincare routines.

And with celebrities and influencers pushing the message that eight hours sleep, eating five a day and oat milk lattes are the key to a healthy and happy life, it looks like we will all be swapping Ibiza for Pret in the near future.
Actress Cressida Bonas, 36, is expecting her second child with her husband

Cressida Bonas showed off her growing baby bump this morning as she joined her half-sister Isabella Branson at an event in London.

Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend, 36, who recently launched the podcast Lessons From Our Mothers, was glowing in a silk jumpsuit and cropped jumper.

The daughter of Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon and Jeffrey Bonas, Cressida looked typically stylish at Thursday morning's event championing 'poetry, presence and purposeful conversation' to mark mental health awareness week, which was hosted by Scottish poet Donna Ashworth.

She arrived at South Kensington's private members' club NEXUS - regularly frequented by stars like Liz Hurley and Ronnie Wood - in a green and white silk jumpsuit, featuring a polka dot design, and a bright yellow cropped jumper.

With her blonde hair styled in loose waves and wearing only natural make-up, Cressida's natural beauty shone through. She accessorised her striking outfit with a raffia tote bag and chunky trainers.

The actress, who dated Prince Harry for two years until 2014, married property investor Harry Wentworth-Stanley in 2020 and is currently pregnant with their second child.

The actress, who shares two-year-old Wilbur with husband Harry, also 36, has previously spoken candidly about her struggle to conceive the first time around and her experience of IVF.

At the beginning of 2025, she revealed that she had been 'fortunate to have another embryo stored away in a freezer' - which the couple used to conceive baby number two.

Cressida Bonas (pictured) looked typically stylish on Thursday morning when she attended an event in South Kensington, London

The actress, 36, was there with her half-sister Isabelle Branson (left), 45

Model and actress Isabella, 45, who is married to Richard Branson's son Sam, chose an equally summery ensemble, which included blue and white striped trousers and an oversized white shirt worn open at the neck.

The half-sisters were joined by several other women, including fellow actress Tamzin Outhwaite and TV presenter Julia Bradbury, at this morning's event.

Former EastEnders actress Tamzin looked elegant in wide-leg jeans and a striped blazer while Julia, who has fronted programmes on BBC, ITV and Channel 5, paired her jeans with colourful trainers and a white smock top.

Many of the other guests, all of whom enjoyed breakfast and took part in a number of workshops, appeared to have been inspired by the recent summery weather when choosing their outfits.

The women who attended Donna Ashworth's event posed for photographs with the poet while Cressida and Isabella, 45, were pictured sharing a sisterly embrace.

Earlier this year, Cressida told of her heartbreaking struggles to conceive in a candid personal essay.

She equally opened up about her fears of losing her 78-year-old mother, Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, and gave readers an insight into how she coped with her sister Pandora Cooper-Key's death from cancer.

In an article written for The Telegraph, Cressida admitted that being a mother 'is unpredictable and frightening' and said she has 'elements of her childhood she would like to leave in the past'.

Cressida wore a dark green and white silk jumpsuit featuring a polka dot design and a bright yellow cropped jumper

The blonde beauty completed her look with a raffia tote bag and chunky trainers

Former EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite (left) was also at the event hosted by Scottish poet Donna Ashworth (right)

They were joined by TV presenter Julia Bradbury (righjt), who looked chic in bootcut jeans and a white smock top

Cressida Bonas (pictured) shares her son WIlbur, now two, with property investor husband Harry Wentworth-Stanley

The actress added that her late sister Pandora, who died in July aged 51, always 'played a maternal role' and was 'protecting her even in her final days'.

In a further candid confession, she revealed that she and her siblings feared they were going to 'lose their mother' when she was rushed into intensive care last year.

'My husband and I struggled to conceive, and our son is a product of IVF. Fortunately, after the successful transfer of another of our embryos, I am pregnant with our second child.

'Even though I remind myself how fortunate we are to have been able to have children, being a mum is the most challenging thing Ive ever done. It is unpredictable, frightening and it tests me every day,' she wrote.

The socialite, who dated Prince Harry from 2012 to 2014 and still remains close to the royal family, revealed that she was pregnant with her second child in January of this year.

I am now well into my second pregnancy, she wrote in The Spectator magazine. Having conceived through IVF the first time, we were fortunate to have another embryo stored away in a freezer.

Cressida added that it has been difficult pregnancy. Ive been battling morning sickness, she said. Ive never had it before, and now feel like Ive been swaying on a boat for months.

Last August, Cressida's sister Pandora Cooper-Key tragically passed away aged 51. Pictured together in 2016

Pandora (left) said her sister Georgiana (right) was left worrying about whether she was dead or alive after having a seizure. Above: The pair pictured with Cressida Bonas (middle)

Cressida dated Prince Harry from 2012 to 2014 after being set up by Princess Eugenie. Pictured in March 2014

Princess Eugenie (centre) featured in a promotional clip for the new podcast

She later attended Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle in 2018 (pictured attending the wedding)

Cressida's close friend Princess Eugenie, who was the brains behind her match with Harry, will speak as a guest on her new podcast, Lessons From Our Mothers.

A sneak preview posted on the podcast's new Instagram account saw Eugenie, 34, speak touchingly about her own mother, Sarah Ferguson.

'What is the most valuable thing you have learned from your mum?' Cressida asks in an episode.

Eugenie said: 'I think for me, it's the fire inside, you know, the strength inside of you, and how to bring that out, and to pull it in when you most need it.'

Cressida announced the podcast on her Instagram account, writing: 'We are excited to share something that weve been working on for a whileour new podcast, Lessons From Our Mothers, launching on Mothering Sunday 2025!

'Have you ever stopped to think about the maternal figures in your life and how they have shaped who you are today? Have you ever asked them about their own experiences, or thought about the lessons that you have learned from them?'

She continued: 'Lessons From Our Mothers is a series of conversations that celebrate motherhood and mothering in all its forms.

'When our own mum fell ill last year, we set out to ask her all the questions that we had never thought to ask - and now, were on a sisterly mission to find out the stories of some special guests (and their mothers) through this podcast.
Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-fiance Kimberly Guilfoyle appears to be enjoying her single life as she flaunted her assets in a very risque, fiery red dress while attending the 31st amFAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday.

Guilfoyle, 56, walked the carpet wearing a long-sleeve gown which featured a very revealing top with much of her chest exposed behind a thin veil of mesh fabric.

Floral and silk detailing was the only thing that prevented her baring all at the star-studded Gala.

The waist of the gown was cinched, showing off her physique, while the envelope-style skirt showed off her trim pins with mesh, floral embroidered detailing.

She paired the look with a pair of seriously high, silver bedazzled pumps that were dripping in gems.

The former model completed the bold outfit with a metallic silver clutch by designer Valentino Garavani, whose bags typically retail for thousands of dollars, along with $510 large embellished earrings that appeared to be from Amina Muaddi.

However, it's an ensemble that Guilfoyle already appeared to have worn once before.

She wore the bright red gown in an editorial spread last month, as she appeared on the April 2025 cover of Metropolitan Palm Beach, a luxury magazine.

Don Jr .'s ex-fiance, Kimberly Guilfoyle, appears to be enjoying her newly-found single life, as she bared it all in a very risque, fiery red dress while attending the 31st amFAR Gala in Cannes on Thursday

Guilfoyle walked the carpet wearing a bright red, long-sleeve gown which featured a very revealing top, as her entire breasts were nearly exposed in a thin sea of mesh fabric

She paired the look with a pair of seriously high, silver bedazzled pumps that were dripping in gems

In the picture, Guilfoyle donned the dress, posing with one hand on her hip and giving a sultry look into the camera.

The former Fox News host seems to be bouncing back from heartbreak, as DailyMail.com broke the news that she had split from Don Jr. last winter.

Around the time of their split, an insider told People that 'Don Jr. has been telling people for months that Kim is so uptight and always dresses so professionally in these kinds of dresses and high heels, and never looks relaxed or casual.'

Guilfoyle and Don Jr. had been dating since around 2018, shortly after he had split from his first wife, Vanessa Trump.

One source familiar with the family told DailyMail.com at the time, 'There is no more Kimberly and Don  at least not romantically.'

However, they insisted that there was no bad blood between them, and that it was an amicable breakup.

The breakup came three months after she was 'blindsided' by photos of her fiance enjoying an intimate brunch with another woman, Bettina Anderson, 38 - who he now calls his girlfriend.

Bettina is well known in Palm Beach for her philanthropic works. She too is the child of a president, albeit one with the radically smaller purview of a bank.

Guilfoyle and Don Jr. had been dating since around 2018, shortly after he had split from his first wife, Vanessa Trump

She wore th e bright red gown in an editorial spread last month , as she appeared on the April 2025 cover of Metropolitan Palm Beach, a luxury magazine

One source familiar with the family told DailyMail.com at the time, 'There is no more Kimberly and Don  at least not romantically'

She accompanied Don Jr. to President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, as well as subsequent events that weekend

Her father, Harry Loy Bettina Jr, was the youngest president of Worth Avenue National Bank at the age of 26. He died in 2013 aged 70.

Her mother Inger, still a beauty at 74, has an $11.5million home in an exclusive section of the Florida beach town while Bettina lives in a comparatively townhouse in West Palm Beach, less than a mile from Mar-a-Lago.

She accompanied Don Jr. to President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, as well as subsequent events that weekend.

However, it looks like Guilfoyle is thriving, as she teased a potential new romance herself on Valentine's Day, showing off a bouquet of roses on her Instagram story.

Guilfoyle's bouquet of bright pink roses were delivered from Miami luxury florist Le Boutique Royal, and retail for about $250.

Hinting that there is a new suitor in her life, Guilfoyle simply captioned the post 'thank you' with two pink heart emojis.

Guilfoyle was previously married to Governor of California, Gavin Newsom.

The marriage collapsed in 2005 after he cheated on her with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of his then-campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, Alex Tourk.

Three months after her divorce from Newsom was finalized in February 2006, Guilfoyle married again  this time to furniture heir Eric Villency.

Their son Ronan was born in October that same year but the marriage was to prove short-lived with the couple divorcing in November 2009.
A Georgia teenager has claimed she was forced to withdraw from her private high school after bringing a transgender date to her prom.

School officials at North Cobb Christian School reportedly called student Emily Wright to the principals office 10 days after the prom - which was held off-campus - and questioned her about her date.

'I was asked, "Is there anything we should know about the guest you brought to prom?"

'And I knew exactly what they were talking about, so I said, "Yes, he's transgender,"' said Emily, as reported by Fox5.

Emily's mom, Tricia Wright, claimed the school's principal told her they planned to expel her daughter, who only had weeks before she was due to gradate.

'I got a call from the principal who said, "Ms. Wright, I've been informed that Emily brought a transgender guest to prom. Were you aware of that?" I said yes,' she recalled.

'She said, "Well, I'm sorry, Ms. Wright, we're going to have to expel Emily,"' the mom said.

'It was off property. I did sign a form allowing her to bring a guest,' Tricia added.

A Georgia teenager has claimed she was forced to withdraw from her private high school after bringing a transgender date to her prom

School officials at North Cobb Christian School reportedly called student Emily Wright (left) to the principals office 10 days after the prom - which was held off-campus - and questioned her about her date

Emily is now enrolled in a local public school to graduate, after being forced to withdraw from North Cobb Christian School, according to WRDW and WANF

Emily said she was devastated but the prospect of being forced to leave her high school with only weeks to go.

'I cried very hard. I was just thinking that my entire future was in jeopardy.

'"Where am I going to go to school? Where am I going to graduate?"' the teen reflected.

Emily is now enrolled in a local public school to graduate after being forced to withdraw from North Cobb Christian School, according to CBS affiliates WRDW and WANF.

In a letter to the school's principal, Emily's parents slammed the school for their decision to force their daughter to withdraw.

They said the 'decision is not reflective of the Christian values you claim to uphold,' adding they believe the school made a 'discriminatory decision.'

'The school chose to kick out a senior student just four weeks before graduation simply because Emily was being inclusive and kind,' the letter said, as reported by Atlanta First News and Fox5.

DailyMail.com has reached out to North Cobb Christian School for comment.
Long-term users of antidepressants are 10-times more likely to suffer severe withdrawal symptoms when coming off the drugs, a study suggests.

Antidepressants are one of the most commonly prescribed medications in the UK, with about one in seven people now using the powerful mood-altering drugs.

But University College London (UCL) researchers found the longer a patient uses them the more likely they are to suffer from little-known withdrawal symptoms as they come off.

Experts also found long-term users had a higher risk of these withdrawal symptoms being severe and of experiencing them for longer.

While some of these symptoms could be attributed to the depression the drugs are designed to treat returning, many were physical problems like dizziness, headaches and nausea.

The researchers said their findings were concerning given how approximately half of Britons who take antidepressants do so for at least a year, with the figure being even higher in the US.

Some patients are known to have been taking the drugs for at least half a decade.

It also adds to a growing level of concern regarding extended use of antidepressants, with previous studies linking them to heart problems in young people alongside long-term and even permanent sexual dysfunction.

However, independent experts warned that the study's findings should be treated with caution.

All experts have advised patients using antidepressants to not stop taking their medication before discussing options with their medical team.

Health service figures show a record 8.7million people in England, about 15 per cent of the total population, are on the mood-boosting drugs

Publishing their findings in the journal Psychiatry Research, the team found 64 per cent of patients who had taken antidepressants for at least two years suffered moderate to severe withdrawal symptoms once they tried to stop.

In contrast, 73 per cent of people who had been using the drugs for six months or less experienced either no or only mild withdrawal symptoms when coming off the medication.

The researchers said this meant a patient taking antidepressants for at least two years or more was 10-times more likely to experience withdrawal problems compared to patients only taking the drugs for six months.

Across the study group, one in six patients reported suffering a severe withdrawal symptom.

Almost a third of long-term users also reported withdrawal symptoms lasting longer than three months, with about one in 10 having these last for over a year.

For short term users, only a tenth reported withdrawal problems lasting longer than three months.

While many of the reported symptoms could be due to problems linked to depression and anxiety 76 per cent of patients experienced physical problems like dizziness, headache, vertigo, or nausea.

Almost half of patients who reported symptoms experienced four or more of these physical side effects.

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There are also fears withdrawal symptoms are so severe they stopped patients from coming off the drugs.

Across the study group, 38 per cent of patients said they were unable to stop taking antidepressants when they tried to do so.

This rose to 79 per cent among people taking them for over two years.

Dr Mark Horowitz, an expert in psychiatry and lead author of the new study, has previously warned about a lack of research on how to safely get patients off antidepressants.

Speaking today, he said the findings supported the idea that patients should only be given the drugs for the shortest possible time.

'This is one reason to use antidepressants for no longer than necessary  because doing so may make it harder to stop using them later on,' he said.

World-renowned UCL psychiatrist Professor Joanna Moncrieff, senior author of the paper and another expert concerned about extended antidepressant use, said patients should consult their medical team before coming off the drugs.

'Withdrawal symptoms are commonly experienced by people coming off antidepressants, so we would advise that people who want to stop taking the medication should do so in consultation with an informed health professional,' she said.

This NHS data shows the number of Britons taking each type of antidepressant over the past eight years. The line with the green triangles indicates the the total number of patients

The study was based off a small group of 310 patients who responded to a survey.

Most62 per centsaid antidepressants had been helpful to them.

The authors noted a limitation of their study was, because it was survey, patients who had experienced withdrawal symptoms may have been more motivated to respond to these questions, which could have influenced the results.

Independent experts have urged caution over interpreting the new findings.

Dr Gemma Lewis, an expert in psychiatric epidemiology at UCL, said: 'This type of study is highly susceptible to bias and the findings should not be used to inform practice.'

'The number of people included in the study was very small, compared to the number of people who use this NHS service.

'These types of studies are at a much higher risk of bias than studies which use larger samples, follow people over time, and have a control group.'

Professor Anthony Kendrick, and expert in primary care at University of Southampton, was another who urged caution.

What are antidepressants? Antidepressants are medicines that treat depression symptoms. There are around 30 different types that can be prescribed. The NHS says that most people who have moderate or severe depression notice improvement when they take antidepressants. But it notes that this isn't the case for everyone. Side effects vary between different people and antidepressants but can include nausea, headaches, a dry mouth and problems having sex. Antidepressants aren't addictive but patients may have withdrawal symptoms if they stop taking them suddenly or miss a dose. These can include an upset stomach, flu-like symptoms, anxiety, dizziness and vivid dreams. Advertisement

'The percentage of people reporting severe withdrawal symptoms of 15 per cent is likely to be an overestimate,' he said.

He added the nature of survey could also have influenced the results: 'Giving people a list of symptoms to choose from elicits a greater number than asking them to report symptoms themselves, spontaneously.'

Reacting to the study a spokesperson for the Royal College of Psychiatrists said antidepressants are an effective option for many patients.

However, they added that long-term use of the drugs should only be considered for serious cases involving recurrent depression and this should be reviewed regularly.

'Most people will be able to stop taking antidepressants without significant difficulty by reducing the dose, known as "tapering", over a few weeks or months.

'Some people can experience withdrawal symptoms that last longer and may be more severe, particularly when the medication is stopped suddenly.

'Ultimately, the use of antidepressants, should always be a shared decision between a patient and their doctor based on clinical need and the preferences of the patient.

Until 2019, NHS guidance on antidepressant withdrawal symptoms stated this was mostly a mild and short-lived problemlasting no more than about a week.

Now NHS guidance acknowledges that it can be severe for some patients and can last many months.

The authors of new paper said their survey didn't have enough data to show if tapering could help patients coming off antidepressants experience fewer and milder symptoms.

As such they said this was an area in need of further research.

Antidepressants are typically taken for mood disorders as the drug is thought to interfere with the chemical serotoninthe brain's 'happiness hormone'.

Figures show an estimated 8.7million people in England take antidepressants, about one in seven people, with numbers increasing annually.

In the US an estimated one in eight people are currently taking an antidepressant, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Psychiatrists advise patients concerned about the side effects of antidepressants to talk to their medical professional about their options.

Clinicians can sometimes offer an alternative dose, a different drug, or prescribe another medication to combat the side effects.

They urge patients who are taking them not to quit without talking to the medical professional responsible for their care first to ensure they are adequately supported.
Elderly people who have a positive attitude towards ageing will recover better if they have a fall, a new study suggests.

Falls in older adults are a major public health concern as they can lead to disability and hospitalisation, impacting on peoples ability to live independently, researchers said.

The consequences of falls cost the NHS an estimated 5million a day but the experts noted not every victim experiences physical decline as they set out to investigate whether the impact of a fall could be mitigated by mindsets around ageing.

The teams from Imperial College London and Coventry University examined information on 694 people aged 60 to 90 in England who had not had a fall in the two years before the study.

As well as studying data on falls, experts also examined survey responses that measured mindsets and beliefs about ageing.

Researchers assessed their walking pace, whether or not they were active and whether they needed help with daily activities, such as dressing, bathing or getting out of bed, after they had a fall.

Those who had initially shown more positive ageing mindsets  such as believing that ageing was not stopping them doing what they wanted to do  appeared to have a better recovery after a fall, the academics found.

We found that older individuals who had more positive self-perceptions of ageing at baseline were better protected against negative physical consequences following a fall, they wrote in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Elderly people who have a positive attitude towards ageing will recover better if they have a fall, a new study suggests

People who had the highest possible score on the self-perceptions of ageing' measurements  or having the most positive mindset about ageing  had 162 per cent lower odds of showing slow walking speed, 200 per cent lower odds of being dependent on others to perform daily living activities and were 123 per cent less likely to be inactive following a fall, compared to those who were not positive about ageing.

About one in three people aged 65 years and over have a fall at least once each year, increasing to one in two people aged 80 years and over, according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).

There are over 210,000 falls-related emergency hospital admissions among people aged 65 years and over each year, with two in three of these among people aged 80 and over.

Previous studies show falls are the main cause of injury, injury-related disability, and death in older people, with around half of falls result in major cuts, traumatic brain injuries, or fractures.

Dr Toby Ellmers, who co-lead the latest research at Imperial College London, said: Those who expressed more positive feelings about their own ageing seemed to be protected against worse physical consequences after a fall.

There was substantial difference in the rate of physical recovery in the people we studied, and this seemed to be linked to their initial beliefs about growing older.

Our results suggest that changing the way that some older people view their ageing process could play a key role in improving recovery and wellbeing.

'Its even possible that simple tweaks to help people develop a more positive mindset around ageing, such as having discussions with a friend or relative about the positives associated with ageing, could help.

The consequences of falls cost the NHS an estimated 5million a day

This is something we are very keen to explore in future research.

Fellow co-lead Dr Mathew Hill, from Coventry University, added: Although we knew from previous research that negative mindsets and beliefs about ageing are associated with increased risk of negative health outcomes, such as stroke and mortality, this is the first research linking these specifically to physical recovery after a fall.
Parents were today warned to be on their guard for 'highly contagious' and potentially lethal scarlet fever.

The infectious disease, which was most prominent in the Victorian era, largely affects children aged between two and eight.

Historically dangerous, today it is far less serious as the disease can be treated with antibiotics.

But latest data shows cases in England are above the five year average.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses urged parents to be vigilant, adding 'it can become serious if left untreated'.

Scarlet fever symptoms are often flu-like, including a high temperature, a sore throat and swollen neck glands.

A rash appears 12 to 48 hours later, starting on the chest and stomach and then spreading.

A white coating also appears on the tongue which peels, leaving the tongue red, swollen and covered in little bumpsoften called 'strawberry tongue'.

Scarlet fever symptoms are often flu-like, including a high temperature, a sore throat and swollen neck glands

A white coating also appears on the tongue which peels, leaving the tongue red, swollen and covered in little bumpsoften called 'strawberry tongue' (pictured)

Early treatment is important as it helps to reduce the risk of complications such as pneumonia and the transmission of infection.

Those diagnosed with scarlet fever should stay at home until at least 24 hours after the start of antibiotic treatment, and practice good hygiene including hand washing and not sharing utensils.

In the alert, posted on X, the UKHSA said: 'Scarlet fever mostly affects young children.

'While it's usually a mild illness, it can become serious if left untreated.

'If you or your child have symptoms, contact your GP practice online or over the phone first, as it is highly contagious.'

Latest UKHSA data shows there were 12,176 scarlet fever cases confirmed in England between January to March 2024, including 1,011 cases in just the first two weeks.

This was higher than the average for the previous five years, but below the high levels seen for the same period in 2023.

Dr Theresa Lamagni at UKHSA said: 'To avoid the infection spreading, its important to wash your hands regularly and thoroughly and keep your home well-ventilated.

Latest UKHSA data shows there were 12,176 scarlet fever cases confirmed in England between January to March 2024, including 1,011 cases in just the first two weeks

Early treatment is important as it helps to reduce the risk of complications such as pneumonia and the transmission of infection. Pictured, Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria which can cause scarlet fever

'If you or your child has been diagnosed with scarlet fever, you should stay away from nursery, school or work for 24 hours after you start taking antibiotics.

'This will help stop the infection spreading to other people.

'As with other infections, you should also avoid visiting vulnerable people whilst youre feeling unwell.'

Scarlet fever is caused by Strep A, which usually causes a mild bacterial infection.

While the vast majority of infections are treatable with antibiotics, in exceptionally rare cases the bacteria can cause invasive Group A Streptococcal (iGAS).

This occurs when the bacteria it gets into parts of the body where it is not normally found, such as the lungs or bloodstream.

Two of the most severe forms of this invasive disease are necrotising fasciitis and streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Both can kill.

Strep A bacteria can cause a range of other infections, including impetigo and strep throat.
A super-fit mother-of-one has revealed her anguish after doctors dismissed her dizzy spells as a common ear infectionwhen in fact they were caused by a brain tumour.

Retired pro-swimmer Cate Jackson, 60, initially sought help for headaches, balance problems and fatigue, and was diagnosed with labyrinthitis.

The conditionwhich affects the inner ear, and impacts both hearing and balancetypically gets better without treatment, after a matter of days or weeks.

A former Commonwealth athlete Mrs Jackson, who competed for Great Britain from 1981 to 1985, was initially prescribed antibiotics.

Yet Mrs Jackson, who currently races for Barnet Copthall Masters, failed to respond to the medicationand her problems worsened.

The true cause of her symptoms was finally revealed in March 2023 when scans revealed a meningiomaa tumour that grows in the membrane around the brain.

Her daughter, Isobel, 26, a mental health support-worker from Welwyn, Hertfordshire, said: 'Mum became drained of energy and said how it felt like she needed someone to drill into the side of her head to alleviate the pressure.

'I studied the brain during my psychology degree at university and thought something more sinister could be to blame.

Cate Jackson who was diagnosed with a brain tumour after her dizzy spells were dismissed as an ear infection

Cate Jackson and her daughter Isobel (left) and the MRI scan which revealed the tumour (right)

'Despite mum not wanting to make a fuss, I encouraged her to go back to the GP and my fears were realised.'

After undergoing an MRI scan, Mrs Jackson was handed her diagnosis.

She had an operation to remove the lump before undergoing radiotherapy and continues to be monitored with regular scans.

What is a meningioma and how is it treated?

A meningioma is a type of tumor which starts in the layer of tissue (membranes) surrounding the brain and spinal cord, called meninges.

The symptoms can not be obvious as meningiomas usually grow slowly, but as it grows it can press on areas near the brain.

This can cause symptoms such as headaches, problems with balance, weakness in an arm or leg, changes in your eyesight.

It can also cause changes in speech or swallowing, changes in personality, being confused, seizures (fits) and sickness (vomiting).

If a meningioma is growing or causing symptoms the main treatment options are surgery and radiotherapy.

Isobel said: 'Mum has some trouble with her cognitive processing but is living life as normal.

'Mum's brain tumour could be treated but I know for some people this isn't the case.

'Brain Tumour Research is a cause I want to support so that more potential life-saving research can be carried out to keep families together.'

Isobel completed a run across the Jurassic coast on May 17, 2025 raising over 1,000 for the charity, which is determined to find a cure for all types of brain tumours.

She said: 'It was fantastic but very different to running in the streets.

'I had planned to do the 100km distance but had to withdraw before as I lost body heat and couldn't warm up and would've been too dangerous to continue.

'I'm so proud of myself for how far I ran especially with the steep hills and drop.'

Charlie Allsebrook, community development manager for Brain Tumour Research, said: 'We're incredibly grateful to Isobel for sharing her mum's story and for taking on such a strenuous trekking challenge.

'Cate's story is a stark reminder that brain tumours are indiscriminate; they can affect anyone at any age and around 12,000 people are diagnosed with a primary brain tumour each year.

'We're grateful to Isobel for helping us shine a light on this devastating disease and supporting the brain tumour community.'

About a quarter of the almost 13,000 brain tumours diagnosed in the UK each year are meningiomas, according to data from Cancer Research UK.
Many of us are wary of using public loos  indeed, last year a survey of 2,000 people for a bathroom cleaning brand found that almost eight in ten of us would only venture into a public toilet if there was no alternative.

The fact is, bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella (which cause severe gastric symptoms), as well as the bug Staphylococcus aureus (which can lead to skin infections), can survive for hours  even days  on hard surfaces, while viruses linked to colds or flu may linger for up to 24 hours.

Public loos often involve a lot of people in a confined space performing bodily functions, so theres plenty of potential for the spreading of germs from one place to another, explains Dr Lisa Ackerley, an environmental health expert and scientific advisor to the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene, an organisation that promotes good home-hygiene practices.

But appearances can be deceptive  sometimes public loos can be cleaner than you might assume. Through the course of my work I have swabbed public toilets and often they can be clean, but just appear not to be so because people leave rubbish such as paper or empty bottles behind, says Dr Ackerley

That said, the sheer number of people using a facility can increase the risk of picking up a bug regardless of how pristine it may seem: If lots of people are using the toilet and excreting or discharging pathogens  organisms which cause disease  then there is a risk of picking up bugs.

So what are the healthiest ways to use a public loo, from those at work to service station facilities? Here, Dr Ackerley offers her tips

If lots of people are using the toilet and excreting or discharging pathogens  organisms which cause disease  then there is a risk of picking up bugs,' says Dr Lisa Ackerley

1. DON'T PUT BAGS ON THE FLOOR

Dont put items such as bags on the floor where they may come into contact with germs which can then be transferred when you touch the item.

If there is a hook, hang everything up  and put your phone inside your bag or pocket, says Dr Ackerley.

You should also avoid using your phone while youre in the loo in case you put it down on a surface and it comes into contact with bacteria.

2. CARRY SANITISER

Carry sanitiser, preferably with alcohol, so that you can rub some into your hands if you have to touch door handles on the way out of the washroom.

3. USE THE SOAP...

Dont worry about using the soap in public toilets  even if the dispenser looks a bit grimy or the bar soap looks a bit grey. Its the rubbing, washing and rinsing that gets bacteria off your hands, not the soap itself.

If youre washing hands properly it shouldnt matter what form the soap is in, says Dr Ackerley.

After youve wet your hands, added soap and created a lather, make sure you soap everywhere including between your fingers and the backs of your hands, she advises.

Dont forget your nails, either  to do this, pool some lather in the palms of your hands and then scrub your fingertips against it, she says.

The entire process should take at least 20 seconds  and afterwards you should feel that your hands are fit for purpose  i.e. sufficiently clean to use them to eat food, for instance.

4. ... OR WATER AND SANITISER IF THERE'S NONE

If the soaps missing, rub your hands in water for as long as possible, as if you were using soap  it is the rubbing action that removes the microorganisms off the hands.

Rather than just use sanitiser its best to wash your hands in water in a dirty-looking sink, as this will get rid of any superficial dirt  and then use sanitiser, she says.

5. PICK A FAR CUBICLE

Opt for a far cubicle when you enter public loos as this is likely to be the cleanest.

According to psychologists at the University of California San Diego, humans have a natural preference for the middle option, when given a choice.

This may mean that making a beeline for the less-frequented loos at the far end of the row gives you a better chance of avoiding bugs or unpleasant surprises.

6. YOU DON'T NEED TO SQUAT

You neednt worry about sitting on the seat unless you have open wounds from injuries or conditions such as eczema.

Intact skin is a good protector and stops bacteria coming into the body, says Dr Ackerley. Whats more, squatting may mean you dont fully empty your bladder, potentially leading to leaks, irritation and an increased risk of urinary tract infections, as bacteria can grow in the urine left behind.

Dr Lisa Ackerley is an environmental health expert and scientific advisor to the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene

7. CLOSE THE LID BEFORE FLUSHING

This reduces exposure to aerosol spray (the toilet plume) that may carry particles of faecal matter in a fine, invisible mist.

These droplets then settle on nearby surfaces or remain airborne, where they can be inhaled.

Researchers from the University of Colorado found that after flushing the spray could shoot up 1.5 metres high within eight seconds.

And earlier this year a study found the most common potentially harmful airborne bacteria propelled from the loo bowls are E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

Although Dr Ackerley says research is divided on the extent to which toilet plume can spread germs, it doesnt hurt to close the lid.

8. AVOID TOUCHING YOUR FACE

Don't touch your face  in particular your eyes  when using a public loo until after youve washed your hands, as this is a major way to pick up infections such as Covid.

Its often overlooked how fingers to eye is a route of transmission for, say, Covid-19 and other respiratory infections, says Dr Ackerley.

9. DRY YOUR HANDS

If there are no paper towels or a hand dryer, shake the drops off your hands, then rub your hands together to help them dry.

It`s not ideal to wipe your hands on your clothes but, if you do, make sure it is on the front and not the back of your legs, as you wont have been sitting on that part of the fabric, so its less likely to have any germs or bugs on it.

10. DON'T TOUCH MUCH

In general, make a concerted effort not to touch any surfaces unnecessarily  including walls, flush handles or bins.

The more you can keep your hands clean the better. Use a paper towel to turn off taps that arent sensor-activated. Once your hands are clean, you should avoid touching the door handle on the way out. If theres no paper towel, use your elbow.
A top dermatologist has flagged a little-known sign of cancer that patients often mistake for a hormonal spot.

If the 'pimple' scabs over and bleeds, it's likely skin cancer, according to Harvard-trained dermatologist Dr Daniel Sugai.

In an Instagram video that's so far attracted more than 134,000 views, Dr Sugai warned that the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC), 'does not have to be an obvious growth on the face'.

Instead, it can be a small, non-healing sore, bump or even a patch of flat, scaly skin.

In the video, he listed common symptoms of cancer he sees in his patients who have missed the warning sign.

He said: 'A complaint I hear patients say is that "I just washed my face and there's this one spot that keeps bleeding", and it does this bleed-scab cycle.

'So if you have a spot that's not fully healing or is very fragile with gentle trauma like washing your face, definitely see your dermatologist.'

This is likely because BCCs are typically fragile tumors and can develop blood vessels to help them grow, making them more prone to bleeding.

In a viral video shared to Instagram with more than 134,000 views, Dr Daniel Sugai warned that basal cell carcinoma (BCC) 'does not have to be an obvious growth on the face', and even your average spot could be a warning sign

For people of colour, a bump will grow and become darker than the surrounding skin, the top dermatologist said

Dr Sugai also advised if that pesky pimple doesn't go away after four weeks it could be cancer, and you should consult your doctor.

While the average spot will go away in about a week, a skin cancer bump will not heal on its own.

For those with darker skin, a bump will grow and become darker than the surrounding skin, the top dermatologist said.

'For my patients who have skin of colour, I will find a pigmented basal cell most commonly and it's usually hyperpigmented with some red mixed in. And with time it will start to bleed easily.'

Upon closer inspection with a dermatoscope, even the tiniest of spots can be skin cancer.

Pointing to an example, he said: 'This tiny spot on the lip was skin cancer and most people would have ignored it because it's flat and wasn't bleeding.

'I looked up close and I was able to see these concerning features. There's tree-like blood vessles and I can see some small scarring.

'I took a biopsy of it and it turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma. I diagnose these everyday and I actually treat them surgically everyday.'

Pointing to an example, he said the tree-like blood vessles small scarring were an indication of BCC

Dr Sugai's biggest for avoiding the deadly cancer is wearing sunscreen.

He said: 'People don't realise that the first 20 years of life is so important in terms of sun protection, because getting those sunburns early on in life will definitely affect how healthy your DNA is later on in life.

'If you're starting late in the sunscreen game, it's never too late. Keep wearing your sunscreen because we don't want to overwhelm our skin with DNA mutations that are induced from the sun.'

It takes a scarily low number of sunburns  only five  to make you vulnerable to the condition that kills more than 2,000 people in the UK every year.

About 75,000 people are diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) each year and the condition accounts for approximately 70 per cent of all skin cancers.

Unlike the deadliest type, melanoma, these cancers are slow growing and doctors can almost always cure them.

However, patients often have to undergo invasive operations to remove large chunks of their skin in order to destroy the cancer  which can be disfiguring.

The most harmful type of sunrays are UVB which hit the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis) and cause the most sunburn, as well as UVA rays which penetrate much deeper and contribute to ageing.

Both are ultraviolet, which means they cause skin cancer.

A worrying 90 per cent of skin cancer cases in the UK are a direct result of sunburn and using sunbeds, according to Cancer Research.
For months, Savannah Stuthers was told the intense pain and bleeding she was experiencing was just due to hormones.

But the truth was far more disturbing: for the 20-year-old student had unknowingly spent her entire life growing a teratoma, a rare type of tumour, inside her body.

By the time it was removed, eight months after the pain started, it was large - 10cm by 10cm - and had developed hair, fat, three fully formed teeth and what appeared to be an eyeball.

When I found out what had been inside me, I was horrified, says Savannah.

I felt sick. I couldnt believe it had been growing in me for 18 years - doctors told me it had been growing there since birth.

Anyone - men, women, even children - can develop a teratoma, also called a dermoid cyst.

It is a sac filled with fluid and body tissues often including hair, skin, fat and even teeth or bone.

They form from germ cells, the cells that eventually become egg or sperm cells but due to an abnormality develop into teratomas.

These can be present from birth and grow slowly over time, or they can grow more quickly - it differs - and have the potential to grow very large, even as big as 15cm, explains Dr Samantha Joseph, a GP who specialises in gynaecology, based in North London.

Typically they appear as lumps on the head or neck, but they may also develop on the spine or ovaries.

Savannahs was an ovarian teratoma - which is the most common form of cyst found on the ovary and most often occurs in the under 40s.

Teratomas in the ovaries are found typically in younger women, says Shree Datta, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist based at The Portland Hospital for Women and Children in London.

Savannahs cyst an ovarian teratoma - which is the most common form found on the ovary and most often occurs in the under 40s

Savannah posted a story time - a video of her explaining what had happened

They can grow over time and despite being normally harmless, they may be surgically removed as very rarely, they can become cancerous and spread to other parts of the body, she adds.

Yet most grow undetected unless they start to cause symptoms.

Dermoid cysts in the ovaries can present with discomfort or an aching, heavy sensation in the abdomen that can worsen during sexual intercourse, or abdominal bloating and fullness, says Dr Joseph.

They can also cause changes to menstruation with irregular or heavy bleeding.

Not only is there a very small risk  around 1 per cent - of them becoming cancerous, ovarian teratomas can also rupture, spilling the fluid they contain into the pelvis, which can cause infection or they can cause the ovary to twist, adds Dr Joseph.

This twisting  called ovarian torsion happens if the cyst grows large enough to twist the ligaments that hold the ovary in place - causing sharp pain and blocking blood flow to the organ - this can sometimes lead to severe infection so emergency surgery is required.

Savannah was 18 and in her first year at university when her symptoms began.

Having gained weight on the Pill, she opted to switch to a different form of contraception, a non-hormonal copper IUD (i.e. the coil).

Having it put in was agony - I was gripping my mums hand and it honestly felt like I was dying, recalls Savannah, who is from Arkansas in the US.

After the procedure, she was still in pain  and now bleeding most days. Yet doctors repeatedly reassured her that it was to be expected while her body adjusted to the coil.

But the bleeding was awful and I was walking hunched over because of the pain, says Savannah.

My mouth dropped open when Mum told me what they removed, she even took a photo of my face because I looked so shocked'

The video in which Savannah showed the cyst (pictured) went viral overnight

It was light bleeding but consistent - it felt like my body was trying to tell me something was very wrong.

She went back to her doctor multiple times: My mum and I asked if I could have a scan to make sure the IUD was placed correctly, but we were told it wasnt necessary.

The bleeding worsened until one day in October 2023 - eight months after the IUD was put in - she went to the loo and was shocked by the amount of blood she was passing.

Id never seen so much blood before, it was like something from a horror film, says Savannah.

It was really scary. I guessed my IUD must have moved.

She went to A&E, where an ultrasound scan revealed a large 8cm ovarian cyst.

More than anything, the doctor was concerned about its size and told me Id need surgery immediately before it twisted and killed my ovary.

Just three days later, Savannah was wheeled into surgery to remove the cyst.

Doctors initially planned to drain the cyst via routine keyhole procedure but when they inserted a tube through her belly button the cyst didnt drain and was even larger than expected, at 10cm x 10cm.

Surgeons had no choice but to perform open surgery to remove both the cyst and the ovary.

But even they were stunned to discover the cyst was a teratoma.

It had hair, fat, molars and what looked like an eyeball, says Savannah.

My mouth dropped open when Mum told me what they removed, she even took a photo of my face because I looked so shocked.

This mass of cells had been feeding off me my whole life - as doctors think it first developed when I was in my mums womb. I was horrified, yet relieved it was no longer in my body.

Savannahs recovery was gruelling and painful.

She was left with three scars: one by her belly button, one on her hip, and a large red scar low on her abdomen from the open surgery.

When I returned to uni, I couldnt get in or out of bed without my friends helping me, she says.

I was so moody from the pain meds I had to stop taking them, but that made everything worse.

Savannah discovered that the teratoma had absorbed so much calcium from her body that she believes it may have contributed to her dental issues.

I was about eight when one of my teeth broke and I had to get a silver cap, she recalls.

I was diagnosed with hypocalcemia, a condition where your calcium levels in your blood are too low. The teratoma made us realise where all my calcium had been going - into the cyst.

Savannah, pictured on her 20th birthday, is frustrated her cyst went undetected for so long

A year after her teratoma surgery, Savannah developed a 4cm cyst on her remaining ovary.

I was experiencing irregular bleeding again as well as sharp pains in my lower abdomen, says Savannah.

I took myself to A&E because I was so terrified to lose my other ovary and wanted to make sure everything was OK.

I was informed that regular fluid-filled cysts can form during your cycle, which just shows your ovaries are doing what they need to.

Recently, Savannah decided to post a picture of her teratoma on TikTok because a few people were saying Id made it up, she says.

After a day or two it was taken down by TikTok for being an explicit image.

Then I posted a story time - a video with me explaining what had happened - and I added the photo to it.

The video went viral overnight. In about eight hours it got two million views - now over 34 million people have seen it.

But with the attention came some unwelcome reactions.

Savannah explains: One guy said, Watch out down there, it might bite you. Another accused me of killing a baby.

But as I keep explaining to people, it was not a baby, I was not pregnant. It wasnt alive.

Savannah is frustrated her cyst went undetected for so long.

I just wish they [the doctors] had listened to me after I had the IUD fitted. she says.

They might have spotted the cyst earlier and I might still have both ovaries.

They also reassured me the teratoma wouldnt reform, it was gone for good.

Savannah says shes relieved the tumour is gone and tries to keep a sense of humour about what shes been through.

I went in for surgery and joke that I came out having given birth to my evil twin, says Savannah.

Its gross and weird, but also kind of fascinating. Im just glad its out of me. Good riddance.

 Dr Shree Datta can be found on the platform Doctify
Nicole Kowalski-Kleinsasser was just 25 when she started experiencing a nagging pain in her upper right jaw that interrupted her sleep.

This minor problem, which medics originally dismissed as a simple sinus infection, would eventually be revealed to a cancer which first claim her face and then her life.

Nicole, from Nevada in the US, first sought help from a dentists for the persistent pain back in 2017 thinking it was a simple toothache.

However, an examination revealed that the teeth in the area were perfectly healthy.

Doctors were also unable to determine the cause, and told Nicole the pain could from muscle strain, or a sinus infection a common winter ailment, but prescribed antibiotics did nothing to help.

It was only after she returned to the dentist for an X-ray that the true cause was eventually revealed to be a cancer silently growing in her face.

Tests eventually revealed she had salivary gland cancer, a rare form of disease that start in tissues that produces saliva in the mouth.

Only 720 patients are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year.

Nicole Kowalski-Kleinsasser was just 25 when she started experiencing a nagging pain in her upper right jaw that interrupted her sleep

She said the procedure to remove the mass, before tests confirmed it was cancer, had been akin to a 'horror movie' after drugs designed to numb the area failed.

'Ive never felt pain like that in my life. I could feel every single thing that he was doing,' she recalled.

'At this point Im yelling with my mouth open, Im bawling and crying and hes not stopping.

'I love horror movies and this is what I imagine being in a horror movie would be like.'

In total, the procedure would see surgeons remove a total of four of her teeth as well as part of the roof of her mouth.

While initial tests from a sample found the tumour was a benign growth, analysis once it had been removed confirmed it was cancer.

Nicole then faced 30 days of agonising radiotherapy, where her head was blasted with radiation, in a bid to kill any remaining traces of the cancer.

She described the sensation as like her skin was 'burning'.

Nicole, from Nevada in the US, first sought help from a dentists for the persistent pain back in 2017 thinking it was a simple toothache

'My burns were inside my mouth and I usually equate it to swallowing acid or glass,' she said.

Eventually, Nicole required a prosthesis called an obturator to close the hole in her mouth left behind from the surgery to let her to speak, eat and drink.

However, this device, fitted together with wires and special fittings, was painful for Nicole to wear and needed constant maintenance.

As she recovered from the surgery she also noticed the teeth in her mouth had started to shift in place due to the restructure of her jaw, something she found incredibly distressing.

'I lost my smile,' she said.

'Ive had this smile all my life. And its just gone. It was a really devastating experience to have that happen, to have them shift like that.'

Medics originally believed this could be due to necrosis, the death of tissue in her mouth, as consequence of the surgery.

But tests revealed an even worse cause, it was the cancer returning.

After battling cancer twice Nicole was declared free of the disease and earned a master's degree and then doctorate in psychology and met and married her husband Eric Kleinsasser

A second round of brutal cancer treatments saw Nicole another seven teeth and the entire roof of her mouth and relying on multiple obturators to perform basic tasks like eating, drinking and communicating.

However, she was declared cancer free and resumed a normal life.

Nicole earned a master's degree and then doctorate in psychology and met and married her husband Eric Kleinsasser.

He said: 'Nicole had this joy for everyday life that was contagious. Its one of the first things I fell in love with.

'She was fascinated by people and wanted to understand others, not judge them.'

In April 2022, two years after her last cancer scare, the disease returned for the third and final time.

Medics were forced remove part of the outside of her face, using skin grafts harvested from her leg to cover the damaged tissue.

Nicole said she found this incredibly difficult having only come to accept the way she had looked after losing so many of her teeth and the changes it had brought to her face.

In April 2022, two years after her last cancer scare, the disease returned for the third and final time. Medics were forced remove part of the outside of her face, using skin grafts harvested from her leg to cover the damaged tissue

Eric recalled: 'It wasnt just stressful, it was dehumanising.'

But he paid tribute to the courage and strength she had shown throughout, with Nicole sharing her story on TikTok as @nicolescrookedsmile.

'She didn't always feel strong,' he said.

'Shed say, "This doesnt feel like courage. It just is." But to meto everyoneshe was the embodiment of it.

'Even when she was in unbearable pain, she was thinking about how to make others feel less alone.'

Nicole died in hospital on January 23 this year aged just 33.

Her mother, writing on Nicole's Instagram, paid tribute to her daughter's tenacity and capacity to hope.

'Nicole did whatever she could to rid herself of such a hideous disease. She did not lose. She did not fail,' she wrote.

Eric paid tribute to the courage and strength his wife had shown throughout her ordeal, describing her as 'the embodiment' of courage

'She walked through every battle with grace and determination and through it all, she smiled, never asked for pity or blamed anyone for her illness.

'Life will never be as bright as it was without that crooked smile.'

Eric added: 'Nicole gave everything she had to this fight. Now its our turn to carry her voice.'

Symptoms of salivary gland cancer include a painless lump in your jaw, cheek, mouth neck, numbness in part of the face, drooping in the face and problems swallowing.

Many of these symptoms can also be caused by other non-cancerous conditions.

Salivary gland cancer is considered a rare form of the disease and most commonly strikes people in their 50s and 60s.
A family vacation to Costa Rica turned into a trip from hell after 12 of 13 relatives were diagnosed with a potentially fatal fungal infection.

The family, who traveled from Texas, Washington and Georgia, had been exploring the Venado Caves in the north of the country, which involved crawling through tight spaces to see scores of live bats.

After returning to the US the following week, 12 family members had started to fall sick with a fever, headache, muscle pain, night sweats, breathing problems and indigestion.

Five sought help from doctors, while one was hospitalized after scans showed changes in the lungs that looked like lung cancer.

The family was eventually diagnosed with histoplasmosis  a bat-linked infection caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum.

People become infected after inhaling spores of the fungus that thrive in bat feces.

Doctors say up to 40 percent of people with serious cases die from the disease, which infects the lungs and in serious cases spreads to other organs including the brain and spinal cord.

No family members died from the infection, and within 28 days of the cave visit  and following treatment  all were making a recovery.

The family had visited the Venado cave in Costa Rica, where they crawled through bat feces for two hours and saw scores of living bats (stock image)

But the CDC, which investigated the cases, said it underscored the dangers of visiting bat-infested caves and crawling through feces.

The news comes on the eve of the finale of The Last of Us season two, a hit HBO series where the modern world is turned on its head after whole cities are infected with a fungus that turns them into rabid zombies.

Histoplasmosis is often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late because it symptoms, which are similar to pneumonia, can be mistaken for a bacteria or fungus.

The fungus behind the infection is spread in bird and bat droppings, and also lives in the soil  including in the central and eastern US.

It does not spread between people, and also does not spread between animals if they become infected with the fungus.

Revealing the cases in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, the CDC said only one family member did not get sick  the individual who did not go on the cave tour.

The family visited the caves on Christmas Eve 2024. They were in Costa Rica for a week, from December 21 to 28.

Of the sick patients, six family members were adults aged between 42 and 49 years old and six were children, aged between eight and 16 years old.

Only two family members tested positive for the fungus out of the four tested using a swab for fungus-fighting antibodies in the blood.

Researchers said more family members were likely infected, however, adding that in more mild cases it can be difficult to detect the antibodies in tests.

The caves were also linked to 51 cases of histoplasmosis diagnosed in 1998 and 1999

The other 11 patients were suspected to have the disease, given the trip and their links to the patient who tested positive.

The caves were also linked to a histoplasmosis outbreak between 1998 and 1999 that sickened 51 people, including tourists and Costa Rican residents.

Tests carried out on bat feces samples from the cave revealed they contained the fungus that causes the disease.

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Symptoms appeared within eight to 19 days of visiting the caves, with no family members reporting other sources of infection since the trip.

Doctors are recommended to prescribe the antifungal itraconazole to treat the infection, but only in more serious cases. In mild cases of the fungal infection, the disease normally goes away on its own.

Some family members were initially prescribed antibiotics, which is not recommended because these could worsen the infection. The prescriptions suggest that the fungal infection was not initially suspected.

The CDC says the fungus that causes histoplasmosis lives along the Ohio and Mississippi river deltas. It has been detected in states in eastern, southern and midwestern areas of the country.

The American Thoracic Society estimates that up to 250,000 people suffer from histoplasmosis in the US every year.

Few of these cases are formally diagnosed and reported, however, with only about 4,600 cases recorded annually according to CDC data.

About 120 people die from the disease every year.
Hawaii health officials are asking visitors to ensure they are vaccinated against whooping cough as cases reach an all-time high in the state.

Earlier this week, the state's Department of Health reported 108 cases of the Victorian-era disease  dubbed the 100-day cough  a stark increase from last year's 84 total cases.

According to data from the CDC, about 10,000 cases of the coughing malady and nearly a dozen deaths have already been reported across the country this year.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by the bacteria Bordetella pertussis and mainly affects infants.

The illness leads to violent coughing fits, fever, sore eyes and blue lips. In severe cases, it can also lead to vomiting, exhaustion and breathing issues and is fatal in about one percent of babies who catch the infection.

Given the sudden increase in cases, Dr Sarah Kemble, Hawaii State Health Department epidemiologist released a statement asking all adults - particularly those with infants - to be vaccinated.

She said: 'Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory disease that spreads through the air via the coughs or sneezes of an infected person

'It's particularly important for families that are expecting a baby, so pregnant women, but also grandparents who are going to be holding the baby, dads who are going to be holding the baby.

Hawaii health officials are asking visitors to ensure they are vaccinated against whooping cough as cases reach an all-time high in the state

'So everyone in the household who may be spending a lot of time around a newborn infant, we recommend that they also get their booster for pertussis.'

The illness is initially difficult to tell apart from a cold, with the first signs typically being a runny nose and sore throat.

But within a week, sufferers may develop coughing bouts which last minutes, struggle to breathe after coughing and make a 'whoop' sound between coughs.

Officials said health complications can also lead to pneumonia, seizures, brain damage and even death.

The CDC recommends the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccination for children, teenagers as well as adults.

The agency recommends babies get the DTaP (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine at two, four, six, and between 15 and 18 months old.

Children ages four to six are also recommended to receive a booster shot of the vaccine.

The CDC also states that preteens between the ages 11 to 12 should also receive a shot of Tdap to boost their immunity against pertussis.

The shot is recommended every 10 years after that to adults including pregnant women.

As of 2023, about 87 percent of toddlers in Hawaii had received their DTaP vaccine shot as compared to a national average of 92.7 percent.

The TDAP vaccine is 98 percent effective in children within a year of their last dose. In teenagers, the vaccine is 73 percent effective in the first year and 34 percent effective four years after vaccination.

But fewer are getting it.

Dr Sarah Kemble, Hawaii State Health Department epidemiologist released a statement asking all adults - particularly those with infants - to be vaccinated. (Stock image)

Polly Deehy (pictured left) from the UK had to be placed in a 10-day coma after coming down with whooping cough, and at just one month old, Rosie Robin, also from the UK (pictured right) was hospitalized for two weeks with the disease

Health officials warned whooping cough is initially difficult to tell apart from a cold, as the first signs are a runny nose and sore throat, but they eventually worsen

For the 2019-2020 school year, 95 percent of kindergarteners received the Tdap vaccine across the US. This dropped to 93 percent for the 2023-2024 school year.

As of 2024, over 35,000 cases across all age groups were reported in the US out of which about 10 people died, according to the CDC.

In 2023, officials in Hawaii reported only three cases of whooping cough and no deaths.

Experts believe that the sudden jump in cases in the tourist hotspot is due to increased vaccine hesitancy and decreased immunity in adults as well as older children.

Researchers also warn even tiny dips in vaccine uptake allow the ultra-infectious virus to spread.

Officials are also concerned that the confirmation of Health Secretary nominee Robert F Kennedy Jr may worsen whooping cough vaccination rates as the 71-year-old has expressed doubts about the efficacy of vaccines.

Prior to the introduction of the pertussis vaccine in 1948, the US saw as many as 250,000 cases per year, but they have steadily dropped by more than 90 percent each year compared to the pre-vaccine era, the CDC states.

The CDC has also noted that the bacteria that causes whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, is prone to mutations, which could make it able to evade vaccines.

The illness is initially difficult to tell apart from a cold, with the first signs typically being a runny nose and sore throat

Officials have been warning for months that the US is on track to see a staggering rise in pertussis cases.

Dr Marcos Mestre, chief clinical operations officer at Nicklaus Children's Health System in Miami told CBS: 'We have been seeing some increase in pertussis cases that are coming through our emergency departments.

'Not necessarily requiring admission, but coming in for evaluation and treatment.

'They're coughing to the point that they can't catch their breath. And those are the children we really worry about, when infants are getting infected and that could cause more severe illness.'
Game-changing weight loss jabs could help ward off up to 14 types of cancer, world-leading experts suggest.

Mounjaro, Ozempic and other fat-melting injections have ushered in a new era in the war on obesity, but have also been linked to other health benefits, such as slashing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease.

Now scientists have discovered the drugs could reduce the risk of a range weight-related cancers including hard to diagnose types such as of pancreatic, kidney and ovarian.

The breakthrough research found the jabs were most effective at slashing the risk of colon and rectal cancers specifically.

Both have seen a disturbing rises in cases in the under 50s in recent years baffling doctors around the globe.

American scientists, who carried out the trial, said the findings show the drugs have a 'preventative effect' in people at higher risk of these 14 diseases.

However, they cautioned further research was necessary to confirm their findings.

Researchers also didn't speculate why the drugs, which belong to class of medications called GLP-1 agonists, might lower a patient's chances of cancer.

Mounjaro, Ozempic and other fat-melting injections have ushered in a new era in the war on obesity, but have also been linked to other health benefits, such as slashing the risk of heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease

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Lucas Mavromatis, an expert in obesity at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York and study lead author, said: 'Although obesity is now recognized as an increasingly important cause of cancer in the United States and worldwide, no medications have been proven to lower the cancer risk associated with obesity.

'Our study begins to fill that gap by evaluating GLP-1 receptor agonists, a relatively new but widely prescribed medication that treats diabetes, obesity, and related conditions.

'Our results suggest they may modestly cut the chance of developing certain cancersespecially cancers of the colon and rectumand reduce rates of death due to all causes.

'These data are reassuring, but more studies are required to prove causation.'

In the study, researchers studied data from more than 170,000 obese patients with diabetes, aged 57 on average.

Over a follow-up of a decade, they compared the cancer risk among patients on GLP-1 agonists against those on DDP-4 inhibitors, another diabetes medication.

The 14 cancers assessed included oesophageal, colon, rectum, stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidney and post-menopausal breast.

Ovarian, endometrium and thyroid, as well as multiple myeloma and meningiomas, were the others.

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They found those on GLP-1s had a 7 per cent lower risk of developing an obesity-related cancer than patients on DDP-4 inhibitors.

When other health benefits were factored in, these patients were also 8 per cent less likely to die over the 10-year period.

Overall the biggest reduction was seen for colon (16 per cent) and rectal (28 per cent) cancers.

These benefits were greater among women compared to men, with obese females on GLP-1s recording an 8 per cent lower risk of obesity-related cancer and 20 per cent lower risk of all causes of death compared to women treated with DDP-4 inhibitors.

The findings will be presented in full next week at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in Chicago.

Dr Robin Zon, ASCO president, said: 'This trial raises an intriguing hypothesis: that the increasingly popular GLP-1 medications used to treat diabetes and obesity might offer some benefit in reducing the risk of developing cancer.

'I see many patients with obesity, and given the clear link between cancer and obesity, defining the clinical role of GLP-1 medications in cancer prevention is important.

'Though this trial does not establish causation, it hints that these drugs might have a preventative effect.

Bowel cancer can cause you to have blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, a lump inside your bowel which can cause an obstructions. Some people also suffer with weight loss a s a result of these symptoms

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'Future research is needed to validate these findings, including in patients who do not have diabetes.'

The jabs were originally developed as a diabetes treatment, but in recent years has become one of the world's most in-demand weight-loss drugs, with a host of celebritiesincluding Elon Musk and Boris Johnsonrevealing they take it in a bid to slim down.

At least half a million NHS patients and some 15million in the US are now thought to be using weight loss jabs, which can help patients lose up to 20 per cent of their bodyweight in just a few months.

Obesity itself increases the chances of person suffering serious health conditions that can damage the heart, such as high blood pressure, as well as cancers.

Around two in three adults in the UK are obese or overweight, giving the country one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. In the US, the figure stands at almost 75 per cent.
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You know the feeling: your suitcase is packed, your out-of-office is on and youre ready for a week of baking sun. Then comes the all-important question: which book should you take?

Ideally, you want something short enough to finish before you land by the pool, but gripping enough to cast aside any haziness from last nights cocktails. Enter the under-200-page wonder: books that are slim in size but pack a punch.

Whether you're after sharp satire, lyrical love stories, or gothic gore, these small-but-mighty reads will slip right into your beach bag. Even better? Theyll mean no excess baggage charges, even if youre flying budget.

The best short books to take on holiday

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata This quirky, wry story follows Keiko, a Japanese convenience store worker whos never fit in anywhere before. But despite her contentment in the role, Keikos social circle cant understand why an unmarried woman is spending her time stacking shelves. As pressure mounts for her to find a new job, or worse, a husband, shes forced to take drastic action 178 pages Shop

McGlue by Ottessa Moshfegh She may be most famous for her shocking and hilarious book My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but Moshfeghs first release, the novella McGlue, is every bit as strange and gripping. Set in 1851 Salem, McGlue is in custody after allegedly killing his best friend in a drunken rage. Hes remorseless, however, despite the foggy recollections of the incident in question. 128 pages Shop

West by Carys Davies When Cy Bellman, American settler and widowed father of Bess, reads in the newspaper that huge ancient bones have been discovered in a Kentucky swamp, he leaves his small Pennsylvania farm and young daughter to find out if the rumours are true: that the giant monsters are still alive, and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River. This novella is crisp, poignant and atmospheric, perfect for those who loved Where the Crawdads Sing. 160 pages Shop

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson Henri has a passion for Napoleon  but Napoleon has a passion for chicken. As the soldier and emperor butcher their way across Europe, glory falls to ruin and love to hate. But, when Henri encounters the red-haired, web-footed Villanelle, he discovers in her an equal. Together, they abandon their pasts and flee to the Venetian canals to meet their singular destiny... 176 pages Shop

Breakfast at Tiffanys by Truman Capote Immortalised by Audrey Hepburns iconic performance in the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffanys is a dazzling portrait of 1940s New York. It follows socialite Holly Golightly, a social climber and stunning heartbreaker, her questionable relationships and her search for a place she belongs. 160 pages Shop

Absolutely and Forever by Rose Tremain This stunning novella tells the piercing love story between 15-year-old Marianne Clifford and 18-year-old Simon Hurst, destined to go far as a clever, beautiful and privileged teen. But fate intervenes. Simon's plans are blown off course, and Marianne is forced to bury her dreams of a future together. 192 pages Shop

Foster by Claire Keegan Booker-shortlisted author Claire Keegans novella tells the story of a girl sent to live with a foster family on a sweltering Irish farm. There, she finds affection shes not known before and begins to blossom  until a secret threatens her fragile new happiness. 96 pages Shop

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell This evocative masterpiece by one of Americas greatest novelists tells the story of two Illinois farmers who share too much until finally, jealousy leads to murder and suicide. A tenuous friendship between lonely teenagers - the narrator, whose mother has died young, and Cletus Smith, the troubled witness to his parents misery - is shattered. The boys never speak again, and only fifty years on can the narrator attempt a reconstruction of those devastating events. 176 pages Shop

This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill This nuanced take on #MeToo, power and consent is told from two perspectives. The first is Quin, a male publisher undone by allegations of sexual impropriety; the second his loyal friend Margot, trying to understand and explain his actions. Its an unflinching look at the moral complexities of the 21st-century world, and perfect for anyone after a thought-provoking read. 96 pages Shop
Top brass at ABC News and its parent company Disney have asked the ladies of The View to dial back their constant complaining about President Donald Trump.

ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic and Disney CEO Bob Iger made the requests separately, The Daily Beast reported.

The daily talk show has been filled with criticisms of the commander-in-chief and his policies, with mostly kind words for Democrats.

The hosts welcomed former President Joe Biden and his wife Jill to the show two weeks ago, during which Biden revealed that he still believed he could have beaten Trump in the 2024 election.

The first request to tone down the opinion show's political rhetoric reportedly came from Karamehmedovic during a meeting with The View's executive producer and its hosts.

Karamehmedovic, who was named ABC News president in August, had suggested the women needed to broaden their conversations, highlighting episodes with celebrity guests that he said earned high ratings.

Hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, and even lone conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin all declined.

The women found the requests 'silly,' the Daily Beast reported, and they ultimately decided 'they were just going to keep doing their thing.'

ABC News' President and Disney's CEO have reportedly asked the ladies of The View to dial back their political talk

Disney CEO Bob Iger (left) and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic (right) made the requests separately. They come as media companiescontinue to look for ways to avoid Donald Trumps wrath

The panel also defended their approach by saying that talking politics 'is what our audience wants,' the Daily Beast reported, adding the hosts believe it would 'look kinda of bad' if they dropped the discussions.

Navarro in particular argued viewers typically tune in to hear the panel's perspective on politics.

The former Republican-turned-'centrist' heard from Iger about the show's programming at a glitzy Disney media event in New York last week.

There, she thanked him for allowing the hosts to 'continue doing their jobs in a politically turbulent environment,' the Daily Beast reported.

Iger reportedly expressed his support for the show but made clear it needed to pull back on politics.

ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A source familiar with the situation countered that the hosts' meeting with Karamehmedovic was merely business as usual.

'We constantly have conversations with talent based on viewer feedback and this instance was no different,' the source told DailyMail.com.

The hosts found the requests from top brass 'silly' and they ultimately decided 'they were just going to keep doing their thing'

Co-host Ana Navarro pushed back against the requests, saying viewers typically tune in to hear the panel's perspective on politics



The request comes as media companies continue to look for ways to avoid Trump's wrath.

The president filed a $20billion lawsuit against CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris last year that he claims was deceptively edited.

Shari Redstone, the heiress of CBS parent company Paramount Global, has sought to settle the suit while pursuing a media merger with Skydance.

The Trump administration must approve the deal, which won't happen until a settlement between CBS News and Trump is reached.

ABC settled a defamation suit filed by Trump in December of last year, agreeing to a $16 million settlement over George Stephanopoulos saying on-air that the president was found 'liable for rape.'

Ratings for The View remain relatively impressive.

The show was the No. 1 among daytime network talk shows and news programs during the first quarter of 2025, beating rival broadcasts on Fox, NBC, and CBS.
CNN's Jake Tapper gave a pass to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough for talking up Joe Biden's mental fitness last year - telling the Morning Joe host that Biden focused specifically on convincing Scarborough he was fine.

Tapper, who has been making the talk-show rounds to promote his new book Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, joined Morning Joe on Wednesday and announced that Biden targeted Scarborough to persuade the host he was mentally sound.

Tapper said that Biden was 'a frequent viewer of [Scarborough's] show' and that the president wanted to wipe any notion of his fading faculties from Scarborough's mind in 2023.

'Joe Biden said to staffers that he wanted to convince you that you were wrong, and he focused on you like you were a constituency,' Tapper said.

'Like you were farmers in Iowa, like you were the Kiwanis Clubs in New Hampshire. And he made sure that you thought differently.'

During March 2024 episode of Morning Joe, Scarborough said Biden was 'better than he has ever been, intellectually, analytically.'

'F*** you if you cant handle the truth,' he continued. 'This version of Biden is the best Biden ever.'

Scroll down for full video:

CNN's Jake Tapper gave a pass to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough for talking up Joe Biden's mental fitness last year - telling the Morning Joe host that Biden focused on convincing Scarborough he was fine

Biden making his first major speech since leaving office, at the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago, Illinois, last month. Scarborough insisted that Biden had both 'good and bad days,' but that he only witnessed the good ones

Viewers of Wednesday's exchange were incensed, with many saying both Tapper and Scarborough have known the truth all along.

'Club chatting like they didnt know they all knew!' wrote one X user.

'"Journalism" right now is a bunch of ppl consoling each other that nothing is their fault,' another added. 'Jake Tapper's job isn't to relay information to the public, it's to help Joe Scarborough feel better about himself.'

'The left KNEW the lights were flickering in Joes ballroom,' a third chimed in. 'They didn't care. They werent about to let Donald Trump win. So the lying was cranked high.'

During a separate interview with former ABC exec Mark Halperin Tuesday, Scarborough engaged in a fierce, three-minute defense of his March 2024 statement that Biden was 'far beyond cogent.'

He insisted Biden had both 'good and bad days' and that Scarborough was only made privy to the former.

The 'Morning Joe' host stuck with that story Wednesday.

'I said that this was Biden that is at his best - that's what I saw,' Scaborough said.

Viewers were quick to accuse the hosts of being complicit in the alleged cover-up

Tapper's book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, came out on Tuesday, and he's given several interviews this week

Biden's mental state was 'not covered sufficiently' by stations like CNN, he admitted, adding, 'conservative media was right'

The exchange occurred after Biden's office on Sunday issued a statement revealing he has an 'advanced' form of prostate cancer that has already spread to his bones.

Tapper's book came out on Tuesday, spurred a torrent of criticism.

During a conversation with Megyn Kelly that same day, Tapper admitted legacy media failed on covering Biden - while conservative outlets, for more than a year, had it right.

'Knowing what I know now, obviously I feel tremendous humility about my coverage,' Tapper told Kelly, while also admitting that 'conservative media was correct' in how it handled the story.

Biden's mental state was 'not covered sufficiently' by stations like CNN, he admitted, adding, 'conservative media was right.'

'There should be a lot of soul-searching not just among me but among the legacy media to begin with - all of us - for how this was covered or not covered sufficiently,' he said. 'I wish I could do differently.'

'Conservative media absolutely has every right to say, "We were hip to this and the legacy media was not."'
Jon Stewart said that any future leader of the Democrat Party could be tainted by the way the left stood behind Joe Biden during his obvious decline.

The comic has been out in full force this week regarding Biden, having shamed CNN on Monday for endlessly promoting a top anchor's new book about the ex-president's cognitive decline while covering his cancer diagnosis.

Speaking on his The Weekly Show podcast with Pod Save America's Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett, Stewart turned his ire to Democrats who backed Biden despite his failing health.

Stewart suggested it could be similar to how the Iraq War damaged the credibility of many Republicans in the lead-up to Barack Obama and many Democrats who 'paved the way' for Donald Trump.

In that same manner, it could also allow the party to bring in new blood, untainted by what Lovett referred to as 'the stink' of Biden.

'It has sown the seeds for a realand it's an opportunity for an interesting reinvention of what this Democratic Party can be,' Stewart said.

'I actually think there should be excitement, not trepidation around what this is, but it's going to come from someone outside of it. I think anybody that has any of that stink on them is not going to be particularly successful.'

Lovett argued that there were larger problems, with no prominent Democrat running to stop Biden in 2024 'an indictment' and 'a lack of assuredness in their own worldview.'

Jon Stewart said that any future leader of the Democrat Party could be tainted by the way the left stood behind Joe Biden during his obvious decline

The comic has been out in full force this week regarding Biden (pictured), having shamed CNN on Monday for endlessly promoting a top anchor's new book about the ex-president's cognitive decline while covering his cancer diagnosis

'It's not just that we need to overcome, I think, the stink,' he said, before Stewart interrupted to make a joke.

'By the way, if that is not a Democrat's slogan in 2028, something has gone terribly wrong,' Stewart quipped.

'Overcome the Stink.' If I don't have that on a bumper sticker...'

Stewart, 62, earlier this week blasted CNN as 'f***ing weird' for touting the tome alongside news that Biden is battling an 'aggressive' form of prostate cancer.

He framed the effort as not only self-serving, but poor journalism - saying CNN had its chance to report on news of Biden's mental state before the election.

The book, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, claims to detail a distinct Democratic 'cover-up' designed to allow Biden to run again.

Ahead of the book's Tuesday release, it was plugged by co-author and CNN host Jake Tapper, Brian Stelter, and Jessica Dean - leading Stewart to call out specific sound bites.

'You will not believe what we found out,' Tapper says in one clip, while holding up a copy of his book.

Daily Show host Jon Stewart shamed CNN for endlessly promoting network anchor Jake Tapper's new book about Joe Biden's cognitive decline while covering the former president's cancer diagnosis

'Don't news people have to tell you what they know when they find it out?' Stewart sarcastically responded, suggesting CNN had the chance to air such reporting a year ago.

'Isn't that the difference between news and a secret?'

Stewart ran through plethora of other CNN clips featuring talking heads flogging the book.

'Biden's health was very much in the news even before the cancer diagnosis was announced on Sunday,' Early Start host Rahel Solomon said in a segment.

'That's because of a new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios journalist Alex Thompson,' she added.

The tagline was later repeated word-for-word by CNN International anchor Ben Hunte on CNN Newsroom.

'CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, looks at a controversy the book is already generating ahead of its release on Tuesday,' Hunte added, giving the floor to CNN's media reporter.

Mere hours before, Stelter had appeared to question the timing of Biden's diagnosis, calling it 'extraordinary' and pointing out how it arrived on 'the same day audio clips of [Biden's] Robert Hur interview were all over the news.'

'The timing of former President Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis is certainly dramatic,' he said, speaking to Hunte and viewers in a clip also played by Stewart.

'Coming on the eve of a blockbuster new book about his health and his time in the White House.

CNN Business correspondent Rahel Solomon was one of several CNN hosts to promote their coworker's new book

An incredulous Stewart found humor in the situation. He branded the 'pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor's book to somberly and respectfully promoting your anchor's book' a failure

'That book is 'Original Sin' by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson.

'The book has been getting a lot of pre-publication publicity and buzz, as well as a lot of preorders,' Stelter continued.

'[It's] because of the damning new details it contains about Biden's time in office and his decision to seek reelection in 2024.'

Another segment singled out by Stewart showed CNN Newsroom anchor Dean saying, 'This very tough news, this very challenging news,' while speaking on Biden's diagnosis.

'And at the same time, the backdrop of our colleague Jake Tapper's book with Alex Thompson coming out this week,' she quickly added.

After showing a clip of anchor Dana Bash saying it's going to be a 'tough week' while touting the book, Stewart couldn't resist.

'It's so hard, it's such a difficult time, so unfathomable in terms of the pain his family must be feeling and yet, if you act now, you use the code 'backslash tap that book,'' he sniped.

'Forgetting about the fact how f***ing weird it is that the news is selling you a book about news they should have told you about a year ago for free.'

'Nothing could slow down this coming, feeding news frenzy about Biden's cognitive health, other than maybe a report on his actual physical health,' he added separately.

'Doing the story seems almost disrespectful.'

Stewart satirically branded it a 'pivot from excitedly promoting your anchor's book to somberly and respectfully promoting your anchor's book.'
I frequently travel and am an avid collector of British Airways' Avios points, having amassed close to 1million over many years.

In late January I was in a taxi travelling to the airport in Bangkok when I started receiving hundreds of emails to the Gmail address connected with my Avios account. This continued for several days.

I changed the email password and checked my bank accounts. No money had been taken so I assumed whatever scam this was had been unsuccessful.

But on 1 March, l was browsing flights on the BA app and noticed I only had around 5,000 Avios in my account. On the same day I received all the emails, approximately 950,000 Avios had been transferred out to an account with the Spanish airline Iberia.

I reported it to BA and my account was frozen. I still don't have access to it.

However, that was more than two months ago. Despite chasing up BA several times, I still don't know if I will get my points back, and when I will be able to get into the account again. N.R

Shock: This reader was in a taxi in Bangkok when he started receiving a flood of emails

Helen Crane, This is Money's consumer champion, replies: You are a committed Avios collector, and given the value of your points I can see why you are irked by BA's lackadaisical response.

You told me: 'It's taken many, many years to build up that amount of Avios, and whilst there's much worse that can happen in life, it's still stressful to find that it's all been stolen and BA seems uninterested in resolving the matter.'

Based on the standard calculation of 1p per point, your total Avios are worth 9,550. If you spent them strategically, though, they could be worth more than 14,300.

You pay 300 a year for the Amex Premium Plus credit card, which lets you earn Avios on your spending, and also 899 a year for an Avios subscription which tops up your account with a certain number of points each month.

But despite almost being an Avios millionaire, it never occurred to you to check your account on the day your email account was spammed. You assumed the faceless fraudsters had tried, and failed, to access your bank accounts and moved on.

Until now, you say, you weren't even aware stealing air miles was possible.

But sadly it is, and it has proved a lucrative line of business for criminals lately - as I have previously covered in this column.

So how does this happen? As with most scams of this nature, one option is that the fraudster hacked into your emails, giving them the ability to find your Avios details, reset the account password and gain entry.

The other is that your Avios login - or the login for another account you hold with the same username and password - was compromised through a data leak, and then acquired on the dark web.

The email-bombing that you received on the day of the theft was a bid to stop you noticing any emails about your Avios account password being changed, which would have alerted you to the fraud.

It's a good idea to change change the password regularly, and make sure it is not the same as the password you use for any other websites.

Many phones will now generate secure, hard-to-guess passwords automatically and store them for future use.

You reported the theft to British Airways the day after you noticed the points were gone. It said it would pass your case on to the fraud team to investigate and that someone would get back to you.

Nicked: The fraudster removed 950,000 Avios points from N.R's online account

You say the person you spoke to couldn't give you a time frame, and wouldn't let you speak to the fraud team directly.

When you hadn't heard back more than three weeks later, you called again and were met with the same response, and then again two weeks after that.

At one point, you were told the 'normal turnaround' for such matters was between 24 and 72 hours - which was laughable given how long you had already waited.

It could be that the fraud team is overrun with cases like yours. But if it is, that suggests that BA needs to find a way to beef up its security and stop this from happening.

I went into my own Avios account to check what happened if I tried to transfer some of my (comparably tiny) points balance to someone else.

Before allowing me to do so, it made me set up two-factor authentication, meaning I had to generate a text message code which was sent to my mobile phone and type it into the BA website.

But that is little use to protect against theft, as the fraudster can simply enter their own phone number when prompted.

I did notice that, when transferring Avios, the gifter must supply the full name, executive club number and email address of the recipient.

Names on Avios (or other points programme) accounts should be real, because if they are not the same as the name on the traveller's passport this can cause issues with bookings.

That suggests BA knows the identities of those stealing Avios points, and I would hope that they are being passed to the authorities.

I contacted BA to ask why it had taken so long to re-credit your balance.

It quickly got in touch with you to confirm your identity and then, once you changed your password again, your Avios were restored.

A spokesman for BA said: 'Were very sorry for our customers experience and we thank them for their patience while we resolved the matter.'

I asked whether the firm was considering any extra security measures to combat Avios fraud but it did not respond directly.

It said customers should use strong passwords, and not repeat the same password across multiple accounts.

BA does have a page on its website giving security advice and listing common scams relating to the company, but it does not mention the Avios thefts.

I am glad your Avios riches have been restored - and after all this, I think you deserve a holiday.
EasyJet reported a headline pre-tax loss of 394million for the six months to the end of March - but raked in a cool 978million from charging customers for extras such as baggage and food.

By the same point a year ago, the airline's losses were 350million - but Easyjet said today's figure represented a 'slight improvement' of around 50million when the later timing of Easter was factored in.

Seasonal demand for air travel means airlines often record losses in the winter followed by profits in the summer.

The airline's ancillary revenue, from extras like cabin baggage, priority boarding or food, came in at 978million by the end of the period, against 911million a year ago.

'The airline continued its program of continuous improvement to optimise ticket and ancillary revenue', Easyjet said in its latest half-year results.

Total revenue rose by 8 per cent to 3.53billion, comprising increases of 5 per cent from passenger sales, 7 per cent from ancillary and 29 per cent from its holidays arm.

Extras: Easyjet raked in 978m from ancillary revenue in just six months

On Thursday, EasyJet said the number of passengers it carried in the first three months of the year was 18.2million, up 8 per cent compared to a year ago.

Its package holiday arm recorded pre-tax profits of 44million for the six months to 31 March, representing a 42 per cent increase year-on-year.

Easyjet shares fell 1.95 per cent or 11.00p to 553.60p on Thursday, having risen around 18 per cent in the last year.

The group had a net cash stash of 327million by the end of the period, up from 146million previously.

Easyjet doubled down on its full-year guidance as forward bookings showed promise ahead of summer.

The company said bookings had been such that it expects to meet a prior target of 703million for its annual pre-tax profit.

Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of Easyjet, said: 'We continue to see strong demand for Easyjet's flights and holidays, as we attract more customers through our great fares, friendly service and unrivalled network of destinations.

'We are executing well against our strategy, to drive efficiency and enhance our customer experience both in the sky and on the ground.

'In addition, our commitment to giving customers an even greater choice of flights and holidays will also see us continuing to grow both in Europe and the UK, where we will be launching a new base in Newcastle from next spring.

'We remain focused on delivering another record summer this year, expecting to drive strong earnings growth as we continue to progress towards our target of sustainably generating over 1billion of annual profit before tax.'

Elizabeth Williams, aviation partner at law firm Gowling WLG, said: 'Shareholders will be pleased with operations so far under new chief executive Kenton Jarvis which has been aided by falling jet fuel prices.'

She added: 'The new routes established by the airline over the past year are now yielding positive results, contributing to increased revenue following initial discounted pricing.'

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: 'Inevitably the sector is one which is notoriously difficult on any number of fronts and the cool share price reaction to the update reflects some disappointment on the headline loss figure, where the pre-summer holding pattern is evident.

'There have also been a host of external factors outside of the industrys control traditionally, which have made the airline industry a difficult investment destination.'

This week, it was revealed that Ryanair's fares for the three months ending in June are expected to rise by a 'mid-to-high teen percent' year-on-year.
One of the countrys biggest commercial landlords has hailed a bounce back in demand for offices as workers return to their desks.

British Land said it has been boosted by the return-to-work mandates imposed by some of the UKs largest employers.

Rents have been driven up by a lack of supply after office investment dwindled during the pandemic, the London-listed developer said.

Firms are scaling back how much home-working they allow. It comes amid fears the shift has stifled productivity and career progression.

HSBC this week warned staff that bonuses will be cut if they fail to come to the office. City auditor PwC has threatened to sack those who stay home too often.

Corporate giants Amazon, BT and Asda have also ordered staff to spend more time at their desks.

Back to the office: Employers are dramatically scaling back the amount of homeworking they allow amid fears that the shift has stifled productivity and career progression

British Land chief executive Simon Carter said: Return to the office is in full swing with mid-week occupancy back to pre-pandemic levels.

Monday is increasingly catching up with the occupancy levels seen on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, he said.

And an acute lack of supply has led to strong rental tension, pushing up prices and future profits, Carter said.

Companies seeking central London workspace are considering older buildings and less desirable locations.

Meanwhile, premium office blocks remain popular. Demand hit a record high in the year to the end of March.

British Land revised up the valuation of offices in the City by 1.8 per cent and in the West End by 0.4 per cent in the second half of the year.

This defied the outdated narrative that the office market is struggling, said Oli Creasey, head of property research at Quilter Cheviot.

A British Land spokesman said: Many were convinced that work from home would be the norm [after Covid lockdowns]. We were not so sure.

We became increasingly convinced that we could generate good returns by making a contrarian position.

The amount of office space rented in central London in the first three months of the year jumped to 2.1m sq ft  29 per cent more than a year earlier.

British Land said it expects rents to grow by between 3 per cent and 5 per cent this year. Profits rose 4 per cent to 279million in the year to the end of March and revenue jumped 13 per cent to 454million.
At 51, there are mornings when I feel closer to 70. I therefore couldnt help feeling slight amusement to read that 70 is apparently the new 53.

Research cited in the IMFs World Economic Outlook, based on samples in 41 countries, suggested the average 70-year-old in 2022 had the same cognitive ability as a 53-year-old in 2000.

It is a remarkable improvement for such a short period. The report, published last month, suggested such improvements mean those employed at 70 see a 30 per cent uplift in earnings.

John Shipton is an extreme and inspiring example of embracing later life work. At 93, he loves his job at Waitrose in Exeter. He joined at 80 and was immediately put on the tills, a decision he thought a bit remarkable. Today, customers queue for a chance to be served by him.

Its an inspiring example of finding purpose beyond our usual working lives. Not everyone can do it. Our careers can end due to ill health, or we may struggle to find the right work - the best fit - to work on.

But the figures suggest that despite the dramatic increase in later life acuity, there is no mass inclination to work longer.

If 70 is the new 53, we need to have a longevity plan and an optionality fund, says Andrew Oxlade

Men exit the workforce at 65.3, only a smidgen higher than 63.3 in 2000, according to the Office for National Statistics. For women it has risen from 61.2 years to 64.5.

But work can give purpose and it can offer a social network. The evidence shows these are health and life-giving factors - maintaining them can help us live longer and live well.

I wrote about this on This is Money last summer. I shared my 37-year plan for surviving the 100-year life, and then CHILL - my movement to encourage people to relax about retiring early and find a career that gives them longevity.

The acronym - Career Happiness Inspires Longer Lives - prompted some angry responses from the FIRE movement (who advocate obsessive saving to get out of the rat race).

The FIRE group on Reddit even invented a spicy new acronym for me, which cant be repeated here.

But these trends are not going away. With 70 the new 53, it may be time for a rethink, at any age.

Age 25? Start your optionality fund (and thinking)

In Antifragile, financial author Nassim Taleb argues that a focus on giving yourself options allows you to outperform the average in an unpredictable world.

Such optionality, I argue, can also extend your working live.

Your life will, after all, likely be a long life. One in five girls born today can expect to live to 100. For 25-year-olds, average life expectancy is now 85 for men or 88 for women. They may well work to 70 or later.

Even for me at 51, the expectation is 84, according to the ONS calculator.

Live long and prosper: People may need to accept that longer lives mean more working years

Five decades of work warrants a different approach - a longevity plan. This might include a career break, perhaps to travel. That may help you maintain your appetite and stamina to work longer.

Or you could plan in a break to hone your work skills or to retrain - to enable a rotation to a career youve always wanted.

It could be set up as a freelancer or to become a business founder. It could even merely to spend an extended period to focus on your family - children, parents or even grandparents.

Employers are more inclined to support sabbaticals than a generation ago, but not all can do this. And sabbaticals are rarely paid.

An optionality fund can help make these dreams a possibility. Such a fund can sit aside from retirement savings.

Consider a 25-year-old who puts aside 200 a month, into an Isa (the maximum allowance is a much bigger 20,000 a year).

By age 45, it would have grown to 72,216, based on 5 per cent annual returns, with a 1.2 per cent charge incorporated, our sums show.

The outcomes can be quite different - at a low growth rate of 3 per cent it would grow to 52,589 and at high return of 8 per cent it would be 100,922.

These are powerful amounts. A fund of 72,000 opens up choice - it buys optionality.

But the optionality mindset is as important the money. And it can start at any age, but the earlier the better - a conscious focus on developing the right skills can take you to a more fulfilling career.

Taleb talks about a barbell strategy, keeping a core of safe work alongside more speculative punts. He cites the example of a lecturer earning a stable income in the day job but dedicating time to speculative ventures like writing books, consulting, or small-scale investing in start-ups. One of these might take off.

For longevity, all the better if these areas match your passions.

Taleb urges a focus on versatile, generalist skills, such as learning coding basics rather than narrow specialisations, such as becoming expert in a single software type.

He also recommends networking without immediate return. Attend community events, informal dinners, or industry meetups without specific objectives. They may lead to unexpected opportunities at a later stage.

This is about money - and thinking - that can buy you a different sort of freedom to the conventional aim of full stop retirement.

I follow a Facebook group called The Epic Retirement Club. Its members celebrate the merits of retirement, often early. But many tell the other side - a need to return to the fulfilment of some work. Which will you be?

Sticking with the job will get easier

Mastering optionality can unlock a new career. But perhaps youve already found one you love. Fortunately, it is becoming easier to remain in work.

The Default Retirement Age was removed in 2012, banning compulsory retirement. More recently, flexible working is becoming more common. Working fewer days can help delay full retirement.

Incidentally, this can also move the dial on your pension sums. If you thought you needed 500,000 to retire at 65, then working one day a week would mean youd need a fifth less - 400,000. Its a crude assumption but it makes a point.

Further policies may follow to encourage later life work - the government needs to undo an alarming trend.

In the 1970s, 42 per cent of our lives was spent in economic activity, according to the International Longevity Centre, where I serve as a trustee. The most recent figures show it had dwindled to 38.5 per cent, despite decades of women increasing paid employment.

If people aged 50 to 64 worked in the same proportions as those aged 35 to 49, GDP would grow by more than 5 per cent. ILC research also suggests the UK could face a shortfall of 2.6 million workers by 2030.

More carrots could be waved at the legions of 60 and 70-somethings to carry on working and apply that retained cognitive ability.

But governments tend to combine sticks with carrots

Will the pension age have to rise by more?

Raising state pension ages is unpopular but it is a lever with a win-win effect for public finances and the economy. Costs are reduced and older people are more likely to continue working.

The state pension age is 66 for both men and women and will steadily rise to 68 by 2044-46, affecting those born after April 1977. However, the plans may change.

The timing of the rise to 68 is due to be looked at by an independent review within the next year. It will come back with recommendations that the government accepts or rejects. The last review in 2022 recommended an increase to 68 in 2041-43 and mooted a rise to 69 in 2046-48. An earlier review suggested 68 by 2037-39.

The age you can access your own work and private pensions is also rising. It will increase from 55 to 57 in 2028, affecting anyone born on or after 6 April 1973. This coincides with the state pension increase to 67 and, in theory, the private pension age will then track 10 years below the state pension. This is another stick available to policymakers.

Optionality can help future-proof you from the stick of rising pension ages. And it is always good to have options, as you dont know how you will feel about life and work in the future.

Our Waitrose worker John Shipton lost his wife four years ago and his job has been a help and a comfort.

He sums up the CHILL approach better than I can: 'It's the pleasure of being with other people, the pleasure of working. Interactions with other people are so important in your life. It stops you going completely bananas.'
The Government has U-turned on its scrapping of Winter Fuel Payments for most pensioners, but left everyone hanging on how or when it intends to implement this plan.

More pensioners will be made eligible for the payments, with the threshold being lowered 'as the economy improves', according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking in parliament on Wednesday.

Details will be revealed at 'a future fiscal event', which is being taken to mean when the Spending Review is announced on 11 June or in the Autumn Budget.

The latter might be cutting it fine to get an overhaul in place before cold weather sets in this winter, unless the Government has a very simple fix in mind to get the payments out to more needy older people.

Last summer Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced plans to start means-testing the annual household payment, worth up to 300, which is intended to help with energy bills.

To qualify you now need to claim pension credit, which tops up weekly income to a minimum of 227.10 for single people and 346.60 for couples, or another eligible benefit.

Winter Fuel Payment: The annual household payment worth up to 300 is intended to help older people with energy bills

Take-up of a brand new system would be low - so what are the options?

When it comes to how Winter Fuel Payments could be extended to more people again, former Pensions Minister Steve Webb says: 'The Government might need to invent a whole new system to work out who would be entitled.

'This could potentially take a long time to pass the necessary legislation and set up computer systems. Getting this done for winter 2025 would be a huge challenge.'

He says any new system would work on an opt-in basis where a claim would have to be made, leading to a major risk of poor take-up.

'Even with the well established pension credit system backed by massive publicity in the last year, around one in three of those entitled does not claim. Take-up of a brand new system could be even lower than this. '

Webb, who is This is Money's retirement columnist and a partner at LCP, floats several other ideas for expanding eligibility again. He says the Government could:

- Reinstate Winter Fuel Payments but make them taxable like state pensions, meaning the wealthiest pensioners would pay back up to 45 per cent of the cash;

- Pay WFPs in full only to people in lower value properties such as council tax bands A-D;

- Make payments only to older pensioners who are more likely to feel the cold and be spending a larger part of their day at home.

Ros Altmann: Many pensioners were already struggling to keep their homes warm or cook a hot meal in past winters

An 'urgent decision' is needed in time for next winter

The Prime Minister's 'u-turn of sorts' offers scant comfort for most pensioners as it 'gives no detail, no timescale and is just an aspiration that will depend on it being affordable', says former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann.

'This still leaves millions of pensioners, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet and wondering whether they will get any help,' according to the campaigner for the elderly who now sits in the House of Lords.

'The costs of administering the pension credit and ongoing low take-up has probably caught ministers by surprise.

'But they also did not factor in the extra NHS costs of more pensioners, who were unable to keep warm enough, becoming ill, calling on their GPs, visiting A&E and being stuck in hospitals awaiting discharge which is often delayed by ongoing social care strains.'

Lady Altmann adds: 'Pensioners have greater needs for winter heating and often have more energy inefficient homes. So many were already struggling to keep their homes warm or cook a hot meal in past winters.'

She called for an urgent decision on how the WFP u-turn will be implemented, saying: 'There are options that could still cost less than completely tax free universal payments.

'Restricting payments to basic rate or non-taxpayers only, along the lines of child benefit, or increasing the qualification threshold and aligning it with other means tested benefits, or increasing state pensions to encompass extra money for winter fuel are all options that would be fairer and less damaging. I hope the Government will act quickly.'

> What are the options for expanding Winter Fuel Payments? Read a rundown of ideas below

Get rid of Winter Fuel Payments - and boost pension credit or state pension instead?

Influential think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies says the broad difficulty with possible reforms to WFPs is the Government does not generally have information on the total income of a household, unless it receives a claim for a means-tested benefit such as pension credit.

It explains this is why the existing policy tied WFP eligibility to pension credit - because the households involved are known to be low income, and must report all their income. Meanwhile, it is not easy to identify households with incomes slightly too high to be eligible.

'A simple option would be to just undo last summers policy and return to giving WFP to all pensioners. This would cost around 1.5billion per year, increasing eligibility by about 11 million households,' says Tom Waters, an associate director at IFS.

He suggests other options could include a new means-tested system, making pension credit more generous, paying WFPs to individuals not households, widening eligibility to other benefits, and linking it to low council tax bands.

But he also floats getting rid of WFPs altogether and increasing pensioner income via pension credit or the state pension.

Waters concludes: 'There are two natural options for assessing winter fuel payment eligibility  giving it to all pensioners, or restricting it to those on a means-tested benefit.

'Middle options that significantly increase eligibility are tricky. They come with a significant price tag, or are not well targeted at low income households, or are administratively costly.

'There is a clear risk to adopting a clunky bureaucratic mechanism for what is, ultimately, a relatively small payment.'

Some 2.5m older people were vulnerable to loss of fuel payments

'The Government should think hard about how to put similar amounts of money back into the pockets of all the pensioners on low and modest incomes who struggled after they lost their Winter Fuel Payment,' says Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK.

She says the Government also needs to restore the confidence of the older population more generally in their ability to afford fuel bills.

'We said last autumn that we were especially worried about the welfare of older people entitled to pension credit but not claiming it; those whose incomes were meagre but that took them just above the line; and others who are seriously unwell and whose heating bills are exceptionally high because they cannot allow themselves to get cold - some 2.5 million older people we estimate in all.'

Abrahams says Age UK will judge the success of any new policy proposals from the Government on the extent to which they help vulnerable older people and those on low and modest incomes to heat their homes adequately next winter.

'A social tariff for energy may be a big part of the longer term answer but in the short term, the Government must act quickly to support pensioners next winter  which may feel a long way off but is really only six months away.'
Every Thursday, Mail reporter Isabelle Stanley will bring you all the revelations from her groundbreaking investigation into the Caribbean diving disaster - on brand new podcast series, Pipeline.

In February 2022, Kazim Ali Jr, Yusuf Henry, Fyzal Kurban, Rishi Nagassar, and Christopher Boodram were sent to fix an underwater oil pipeline just off the coast of Trinidad.

Just as they were about to finish, they were violently sucked into the 30-inch pipe they were repairing and dragged hundreds of feet beneath the sea.

The men were professional divers, working for a contractor commissioned by Paria Fuel Trading Company, one arm of Trinidads state-owned oil company.

One man, Christopher Boodram, managed to drag himself out over the course of three agonizing hours, but attempts to rescue the other four were repeatedly blocked. They were left to die.

Trapped deep underwater, with tiny pockets of air, their autopsies revealed they didn't die quickly  one of the men may have been alive in those unimaginable conditions for up to 39 hours.

LISTEN: Pipeline - the harrowing story of the Paria pipeline disaster that shook Trinidad and Tobago to its core

Travelling to Trinidad for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive real-time podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed.

The six-part series explores allegations that rescue efforts were actively obstructed, examines how safety failures were ignored, and unearths close connections between Trinidad's political elite and oil executives.

It will also feature an exclusive interview with the disaster's only survivor, Christopher Boodram, along with GoPro audio from inside the pipe, capturing the mens final, harrowing hours.

Pipeline, a Daily Mail podcast, is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms now.
For three long years, the world has focused on one man for the horrific crimes committed in a close-knit Idaho college town on a dark winter's night.

Bryan Kohberger became the face of the vicious quadruple murder that cut short the lives of Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen.

Most have already written him off as guilty, having picked apart the known evidence against him, as well as his personality quirks that make him a compelling suspect.

But his defense team - which is asking the judge to postpone the start of the trial - is now poised to drop a huge bombshell that they claim should see him walk free and another take his place in the dock.

In an explosive 11th-hour move - just three months before his trial - his lawyers claim to have identified an alternate suspect they say is the real killer.

The Daily Mail has spoken to multiple top legal experts to assess the Hail Mary attempt, and get their verdict on whether it will see Kohberger dramatically acquitted.

Criminal defense attorney David Seltzer admitted the theory could have a 'significant impact' on him being convicted.

He said: 'Ultimately, the jury has to be unanimous if you convince just one juror that there is a reasonable alternative suspect, he walks.'

Bryan Kohberger snapped this selfie six hours after the brutal Moscow murders

He believes the idea could provide a powerful story to counter the more technical prosecution case.

Seltzer continued: 'The state's problem is it's a DNA trial, and DNA trials are boring. They're not engaging because people don't understand the science of DNA.'

Kohberger was connected to the murders after his DNA was found on a Ka-Bar leather knife sheath at the scene.

Prosecutors also found cellphone records placing him outside the student home multiple times prior to the murders, as well as surveillance footage showing a vehicle matching his car speeding away.

Seltzer said: 'I think what the defense is trying to do is get it away from the technicalities because you're going to lose a jury on the technical issues some of the time.'

For a jury, the idea of an alternate suspect 'is something you can hold on to, that here's somebody else who did the crime'.

The four students were murdered inside 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho, on November 13 2022

The name of the alternate suspect was submitted to the court but the filings are sealed - keeping the details a closely guarded secret.

Investigators ruled out many individuals connected to the victims in the early days of the case, and no one other than Kohberger has ever been named as a suspect.

Based on comments made by his attorneys, the alternate suspect appears to be someone who did crop up during the initial police inquiries.

In a hearing on April 9, Kohberger's lead attorney Anne Taylor told the court she had found a lead on another suspect buried among a trove of tips collected by police.

She also revealed the defense's plans to argue Kohberger's DNA was planted at the crime scene by the real killer - and that two people must have committed the crime using two weapons.

Criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett told the Daily Mail this alternate suspect could even be called to testify at the upcoming trial.

Young couple Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle (left) were found dead on the second floor of the home. Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen (right) were killed on the third floor

He said: 'If it's truly a viable alternative suspect - either working together with this defendant or working independently - that suspect has rights, too.

'So that suspect could be subpoenaed [to testify] but they could assert their Fifth Amendment privilege and refuse to testify.'

Given the high-profile nature of this case, Bassett explains that being named as a suspect could leave that person vulnerable to harassment or threats.

To prevent this, the judge could give the individual a pseudonym to obscure their identity, he adds.

More typically, the alternate suspect could be introduced when the defense is cross-examining law enforcement officials who worked on the case, to criticize their work and sow doubts about the investigation.

Bassett continued: 'You're kind of planting a seed in the jurors' heads that [police] abandoned other possible suspects... cut off the investigation when they arrested so-and-so and should have followed up more on other people.'

But there's some way to go before any of this becomes a reality. Judge Steven Hippler is yet to decide if they can present this alternate suspect at the trial.

After Taylor made the bombshell claim of a second suspect, the judge gave the defense a deadline of May 23 to hand over evidence to support the claims.

Bryan Kohberger's defense team claims to have found an alternate suspect in the murders

DNA was found on a Ka-Bar knife sheath (seen in stock image) left behind at the scene

The prosecution will then have until June 6 to respond to the claims before a court hearing is held later that month.

Then, the judge will decide if jurors can hear about it. Based on what information the defense shared previously, Judge Hippler appeared dubious.

'Provide me with whatever actual evidence you have that supports those allegations, other than just allegations,' he said in a May 15 hearing.

'And two, provide for me how it is you believe that what you're offering is admissible. It seemed to me much of what you had put in there was fairly potentially fairly objectionable in terms of admissibility. So, I would like to see that.'

Bassett explains that presenting an alternate suspect is 'not uncommon' as a defense tactic.

But the lawyers will need to show the judge that there is enough evidence to support their claims if they want to be able to use them.

'It can't just be a suspicion like that somebody was mad at one of the members of that household. It can't be anything that general,' Bassett said.

Seltzer added: it 'has to pass the test' before it can be shown to a jury.

'It can't be just putting evidence out there and seeing what sticks. The defense has to be able to substantiate their evidence to prove that it's reliable, verifiable and accurate information,' he says.

'You can't just say Santa Claus did it. We have to be able to prove the end result of who did it.'

As it stands, it is currently unclear what evidence the defense has that points to the alternate suspect.

But both legal experts tell the Daily Mail they would expect to see 'solid evidence' such as alternative DNA or forensic evidence, social media posts or phone records.

Bassett said: 'Maybe some forensic digital evidence or some forensic technology evidence or some DNA-type evidence.'

'It could be social media type communications with one or more of the victims by a person who might be a suspect it could be a person bragging about killing them and getting away with it, or something to that effect.

'That would certainly be a bombshell if that was the case it has to be more than just a suspicion.'

The off-campus student home at 1122 King Road seen in October 2024 before it was demolished

With the capital murder trial looming, the defense has already taken several other steps to try to toss or introduce evidence as they fight to save Kohberger's life.

There have been efforts to get the death penalty off the table, citing his autism diagnosis as well as discovery issues.

There's been the request to ban the phrase 'bushy eyebrows' from the trial - the description given by surviving roommate Dylan Mortensen about the masked man she saw inside their home the night of the murders.

And there's been a push to introduce a vague alibi that Kohberger was driving round looking at the moon and stars that night, an alibi that no one else can corroborate.

When asked his thoughts as to whether the alternate suspect theory is the defense's latest effort to throw things at the wall and see what sticks, Bassett said: 'If there's a lot of evidence to support the theory, then it's not just throwing something against the wall.'

He added: 'It is what I would call a sprayed-on defense [that] it wasn't him, it was somebody else.'

Defense attorneys 'have to do the best you can with what you have' which can mean trying many different tactics, he continued.

The risk with this strategy can be that, by throwing too many arguments out there, 'your strongest defense gets lost in the shuffle'.

With this last-ditch bid coming so close to the trial, Seltzer said it is more likely than not that the judge will allow the defense to present its alternate suspect theory.

If the judge does block the defense from presenting the argument, it could also open up an opportunity for Kohberger to appeal his conviction were the jury to return a guilty verdict, Seltzer explains.

'So I have a feeling we're going to hear who that person is,' he says. If not, it's possible that the name will forever remain a mystery.
A young Australian woman says having too much luggage got her into serious trouble after she was detained, stripped, and held overnight in a US federal prison while trying to visit her American husband.

Former NSW police officer Nikki Saroukos, 25, was detained by US border officials upon entering the country via Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday.

The 25-year-old thought it would be a routine visit to see her husband who has been stationed as a US Army lieutenant on the Pacific island and US state since August, 2023.

At no point was she given a reason for her detention, beyond the fact that border officials did not believe her story that she was visiting her husband after claiming she had packed more clothing than was necessary for a three-week stay.

She was joined on the trip by her mother for a planned three weeks together, being joined by her working husband on weekends.

After clearing customs, however, it became clear things would not be as simple as they had been on her many previous visits.

'We went through customs and border security, as per usual, and we got stopped to check our passports,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'I'm an ex-police officer and he was taking a little bit, checking stuff on the computer. My mum started asking, like, ''Oh, is there a problem?'' and asked if he needed any more information.

Nikki Saroukos, 25, is pictured alongside her husband whom she had planned to visit before she was detained and deported back to Australia over the weekend

Ms Saroukos (right) was travelling with her mother (left) at the time. The two were taken aside for questioning before her mother was allowed access to the country

'He went from being super calm, very nice, even giving my mum a compliment, to just instantly turning.

'He yelled at the top of his lungs and told my mum to go stand at the back of the line because she was being nosy and asking too many questions.

'Everyone in the airport kind of just froze because his voice literally echoed three rooms over... that's how loud he was.'

The mother and daughter were then taken downstairs where officers searched their luggage.

'They questioned me, stating that because of the amount of clothes that I had in my suitcase that I was intending on overstaying my ESTA visa which, I said, "I'm really not. I have a return flight home".'

They were then taken to a private room where the 25-year-old was forced to hand over her phone and passcode.

'They would come back and forth, ask me questions about my experience in the police force. They tried to get an understanding of what I was exposed to in the job.

'They tried to insinuate that I was part of like gang-related syndicates, or that I was giving intel to criminal organizations'.

Ms Saroukos spent Sunday night at Federal Detention Centre, Honolulu (pictured) where she was subjected to a cavity search before being sent home the next morning

Her mother, who was questioned in the same room, was soon allowed to leave but Nikki had to stay, and it would be nearly 24 hours before the two would see each other again.

Ms Saroukos felt she had been singled-out from the beginning.

'They locked-in on me and then they ran with it. It wasn't a fair process, [is] what I believe.'

The officers demanded a written statement on her reasons for travel, income and personal information regarding her relationship with her husband.

Some time later, she was required to sign a declaration stating she had no cartel affiliations before being subjected to an oral DNA swab and fingerprinting.

She was then told that her entry to the US had been rejected and she would spend the night in a federal detention facility before being deported back to Australia.

Ms Saroukos then requested a phone call to her husband but officers assured her they would inform him on her behalf - a promise she would learn the following day they had not made good on.

She was then handcuffed and marched through the airport in full view of the public before being subjected to a full body cavity search at Honolulu Federal Detention Facility.

The 25-year-old former NSW police officer had planned to spend three weeks in Honolulu with her mother and husband

'It was obviously very invasive, like they were feeling everything,' she said.

Officers then removed her handcuffs and, after another round of fingerprinting, Ms Saroukos was forced to strip naked and put on prison clothes before being returned to the processing room where, she claimed, an officer expressed his disapproval of her detention.

'He said to me that I should not be there. He goes: 'I do not know why they brought you here, but... we are seeing this more than anything, and it's really alarming,' she said.

Ms Saroukos was then processed and given a blanket. She was told she had missed the cut-off for dinner and would have to go hungry and was denied a shower on the basis there were no available towels.

She was then ushered into the facility where she briefly mingled with other inmates.

'Conversing with the inmates, I was aware of their charges. And one of the women in there that was speaking to me, she was convicted of murder... the facility was intense.'

At 8.40pm, she was locked in a cell with a Fijian woman who had also been detained upon attempting to enter the country for a wedding.

'Apparently, she was forced to take a pregnancy test, and also she was forced to take an injection, to which she didn't know what that injection was.

Pictured is Daniel K Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, where Ms Saroukos was detained

'And she was leaving two days after my departure from that facility, because they couldn't find her a flight.'

'I was in a foreign country. I had no idea what my rights were. I was terrified.

'I thought I was never going to get out of that facility.

'Because of all the horror stories I've heard from other travelers traveling through the United States, I kept asking the officers if I was safe in that facility, because I felt like they put my life at risk because I was being housed with criminals.

'I didn't feel safe, and even staying in there overnight, I didn't get any sleep, because I was constantly worried about what was going to happen to me and my family didn't know where I was.'

Meanwhile, her mother and husband were desperately searching for answers, before a Hawaiian Airlines staff member said she had likely been taken to the federal detention facility.

After a sleepless night, Ms Saroukos returned to the airport under police custody and received a call from the Australian embassy. She requested they inform her mother she had been booked on a 12.15pm flight so that she might also book a ticket.

Several hours later, she was once again escorted by officers in view of the public to her gate and made to board the flight ahead of all other passengers.

The Australian citizen said she felt unsafe in the prison which, she was told, housed inmates convicted of serious federal offences

'I was the first person. Everybody was looking at me, because I had two officers escorting me.'

Some time later, passengers began to board the flight. Among them, her mother.

'It was probably the best feeling in the world to see my mother after not knowing whether I was even going to come out of that prison, and hadn't spoken to anyone.

'I had no contact. I had no idea if they were okay, and my mum obviously made me aware when I got to speak to her for the first time, that she had no idea where I was.

'It just felt really good to be back with my mum again.'

Reflecting on the ordeal, Ms Saroukos said she felt 'disgusted' and vowed never to return to the US.

'I felt like I was targeted, and they treated me like I was a criminal, and they kept telling me that I had done nothing wrong, but yet their actions don't reflect what they were telling me,' she said.

'I never want to return back to the United States.

Ms Saroukos said she planned to never return to the US, adding her husband plans to retire from the US military to join her in Australia

'They've pretty much traumatized me [from] ever returning back there, which automatically strains my marriage as well, because my husband lives over there.'

Ms Saroukos said her husband is now attempting to resign from the US military to move home and be with her.

'So the holiday was [planned with] pure, pure intentions, and it quickly turned into the holiday from hell.'

Ms Saroukos' sour experience came a month after University of Sydney academic Gemma Smart warned others that she felt it was now unsafe to travel to the US.

She cancelled plans to travel there for a work conference based on fears she would be discriminated against for her academic background and disability status.

'I do know I'm not the only academic who has made a similar decision about this conference or others, and I think the impacts of this are hard to quantify, but potentially devastating,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'Given many of us are in a cohort that was also affected by Covid-19 restrictions, it's difficult to assess how this will affect the state of academic research moving forward.'

Ms Smart wants all Australians to consider how their backgrounds could potentially affect their chances of facing a similar treatment to Ms Saroukos.

University of Sydney academic Gemma Smart (pictured) cancelled plans to travel to the US out of fear her academic background might affect her chances of being admitted to the country

'It's important for Australians, particularly those in minority groups, to be aware of the concerns raised by many entering the USA.

'For academics, especially those of us working in areas broadly related to DEI, those of us involved in activism or advocacy, or those who have sensitive data privacy concerns due to the type of research we're doing we have to seriously consider whether travel to the USA is appropriate at this time.

'If it can't be avoided, care should be taken to secure data and personal security.'

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said: 'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provided consular assistance to an Australian who was detained in Honolulu. Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.'
A manor house with intimate links to Britain's nuclear history and a Devon pavilion that was frequented by Agatha Christie are among the most at risk Victorian buildings in Britain, campaigners revealed today.

The historic Aldermaston Court in Berkshire was once home to Britain's first commercial nuclear reactor, which was opened by Prince Philip in 1959.

But the property, which is just a stone's throw from the Ministry of Defence's secretive Atomic Weapons Establishment, has been derelict for more than a decade and is increasingly under threat, the Victorian Society said.

Aldermaston features along with the art nouveau Torquay Pavilion on the preservation group's annual top ten list of endangered buildings.

Torquay Pavilion was a favourite of Agatha Christie, Britain's most celebrated crime novelist.

It was after a performance there in 1914 that her future husband, Archie, proposed to her.

But the structure's fortunes have nosedived since its orchestra disbanded in the 1950s and it has been closed for more than a decade.

Also on the top ten list is the last remaining Victorian bath house in South Yorkshire, and Birmingham's former Methodist Central Hall.

The historic Aldermaston Court in Berkshire was once home to Britain's first commercial nuclear reactor, which was opened by Prince Philip in 1959

The historic Aldermaston Court in Berkshire was once home to Britain's first commercial nuclear reactor, which was opened by Prince Philip in 1959

The estate on which Aldermaston Court was built dates back to 1299.

The current Victorian house, which replaced a Jacobean mansion from 1636, was constructed in a Tudor revival style in the mid 19th Century.

Top 10 endangered buildings of 2025 (in no particular order) Bosworth Park Water Tower Where: Market Bosworth, Leicestershire Listing: Grade II Architect: Thomas Garner Built: 1885 Torquay Pavilion Where: Torquay, Devon Listing: Grade II Architect: Edward Richards & H.A. Garrett Built: 1911 Birley Spa Where: Hackenthorpe, Sheffield Listing: Grade II Architect: Unknown Built: 1842 -1843 33  39 St James Street Where: King's Lynn, Norfolk Listing: Grade II Architect: Augustus Frederic Scott Built: 1908 Former Marine Hotel Where: Penarth, Glamorgan Listing: Grade II Architect: Perhaps Samuel Dobson Built: 1865 Former Methodist Central Hall Where: Corporation St, Birmingham. Listing: Grade II* Architect: Ewen & J. Alfred Harper Built: 1900-1903 Gibson Street Baths Where: Newcastle-upon-Tyne Listing: Grade II Architect: F H Holford Built: 1906 1907 Aldermaston Court Where: Aldermaston, Berkshire Listing: Grade II* Architects: P C Hardwick, Brightwen & Binyon Built: Originally 17th century, rebuilt 1848-51; 1894 Edgerton Cemetery Chapel Where: Huddersfield Listing: Grade II Architect: James Pritchett Built: 1853 -1855 Gwalia Where: West Derby, Liverpool. Listing: Grade II Architect: Unknown Built: 1854 Advertisement

The rambling property was designed by Philip Charles Hardwick, the architect behind the celebrated but now-demolished Great Hall of Euston Station.

It features an ornate staircase, stained glass and chimney stacks.

The estate was broken up in the 1930s and never re-assembled.

Industrial behemoth Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) acquired the house and surrounding parkland, on which they built an airfield that served key wartime roles.

During the Second World War, Aldermaston Court was a barracks for the Women's Land Army, as well as the US Air Force's XIX Tactical Air Command and accompanying anti-aircraft batteries.

It was after the war the site was adapted for scientific research and hosted the MERLIN research reactor. Prince Philip unveiled it on November 6, 1959.

Meanwhile, the adjacent airfield evolved into the Atomic Weapons Establishment, a facility that is central to Britain's nuclear programme.

Aldermaston has been the focus of anti-nuclear marches that first took place in 1958.

There were further demonstrations in 1972, 2004 and 2008.

Aldermaston Court was turned into a school in the 1960s and was later a hotel and conference centre.

Large office buildings, including the award-winning Portland House, were added to the site later.

However, the main house was abandoned after its then owner, Holaw Ltd, became insolvent in 2012.

Public access to the parkland was also limited, meaning that local people were cut off from the landscape they once enjoyed.

Aldermaston Court has been for sale for several years and remains empty.

The Victorian Society is urging the local council and Government to work to secure its future.

Torquay Pavilion was a favourite of Christie thanks to the fact that the novelist was born in the picturesque town in 1890.

The building was the centre of Torquay's cultural life for decades. The venue hosted famous names including from Anna Pavlova, Rachmaninoff, Dame Nellie Melba, George Formby, Laurence Olivier, Dame Shirley Bassey and Harold Pinter.

Speakers included Lady Randolph Churchill, politician David Lloyd George, aviator Alan Cobham and polar explorer Roald Amundsen.

However, after the disbanding of its orchestra, the pavilion's final stage performance came in 1976.

Its fate in recent years has mirrored the fate of myriad seaside towns around Britain, which have suffered amid the rise of cheap foreign holidays.

It was briefly an ice rink, from 1979 until 1983, and then the home for a shopping mall.

Its closure was announced in 2013 and it was proposed to turn it into a hotel-spa complex.

But the plans, which included the construction of an 11-storey apartment block, were deemed inappropriate and blocked after a successful legal challenge mounted by local campaigners.

The steel girders which are at the heart of the pavilion's structure have become heavily corroded due to salt exposure.

The building also shows evidence of water ingress, saturation, cracks, open joints and significant corrosion.

The current Victorian house, which replaced a Jacobean mansion from 1636, was constructed in a Tudor revival style in the mid 19th Century

Aldermaston has previously been the focus of anti-nuclear protests: Above: Peace campaigners standing side by side near the atomic research station at Aldermaston, 1983

Internally, there is damage to plaster work and there are signs of corrosion.

Birley Spa, the last remaining Victorian bath house in South Yorkshire, is still set within its original grounds, at Hackenthorpe in Sheffield.

Surrounded by lush woodland and a lake, the bath house contains a natural spring that for centuries has attracted people seeking to be healed.

Locals believe its history stretches back to Roman Britain, although the earliest documentary reference appears in 1734, when it was mentioned by Dr Thomas Short in his book Mineral Waters of England.

The spa once welcomed both the wealthy and the poor. But usage had declined by the late 19th century.

By 1895, only the large plunge pool remained operational.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the grounds were transformed into a popular children's pleasure park, complete with boating lake fed by the spring.

But the outbreak of the Second World War triggered decades of decline.

Torquay Pavilion was a favourite of Agatha Christie, Britain's most celebrated crime novelist. It was after a performance there in 1914 that her future husband, Archie, proposed to her

It was after a performance at Torquay Pavilion in 1914 that Agatha Christie's her future husband, Archie, proposed to her

Birley Spa, the last remaining Victorian bath house in South Yorkshire, is still set within its original grounds, at Hackenthorpe in Sheffield

Surrounded by lush woodland and a lake, the bath house contains a natural spring that for centuries has attracted people seeking to be healed

Restoration efforts have been hampered by previous alterations. Local group the Birley Spa Preservation Trust is seeking funding for a new survey and repair estimates

The bath house in its heyday. The building is now in dire need of restoration

In 1997, architect Peter Pace designed a community-focused restoration that was carried out with National Lottery funding and completed in 2002.

However, lack of continued support has led to renewed decline.

An attempt by Sheffield City Council to declare the bath house a dangerous structure failed in 2021.

Restoration efforts have been hampered by previous alterations.

Local group the Birley Spa Preservation Trust is seeking funding for a new survey and repair estimates.

Comedian Griff Rhys Jones, the Victorian Society's president, said: 'These are all toppermost buildings that demonstrate the range of imagination and commitment that Victorian and Edwardian architects, builders and designers brought to their work.

'Some are the fantasies of rich men, some the pious hopes of spiritual people, some monuments to the demotic gaiety of newly prosperous times for ordinary working people.

'All are monuments to their makers. All have glorious qualities, character and important past stories to tell and all are in a sad state of neglect.

Gibson Street Baths in Newcastle are Grade-II listed. Opened in 1907, the baths were once hugely popular. The baths' reservoir was used by the fire brigade during the Second World War

Bosworth Park water tower in Leicestershire is Grade II listed. It was built in around 1885. The site is now neglected

Methodist Central Hall in Birmingham opened in 1903. Once a vibrant cultural centre, it has been closed since 2017

Edgerton Cemetery Chapel, in Huddersfield, dates back to the middle of the 19th Century

The former Marine Hotel in Penarth, Glamorgan, dates back to 1865 and has a prestigious history. But it is now derelict

Gwalia, also known as Sandfield Tower, stands in Liverpool. Although Grade II listed, it is now a derelict shell. It is in need of saving

33-39 St James Street, in King's Lynn, Norfolk, was designed by Augustus Frederic Scott

'We know that there are dedicated supporters of these buildings.

'They nominated them for this list, and are often working hard to try to bring them back into the community. But some tell the same story.

'They are victims of owners who would prefer to see them fall down, or shackled with decay thanks to bad legislation and silly tax laws.

'I am always staggered by how exciting these projects are, and how beautiful the work that created them was. The proper option is to preserve.'

James Hughes, the director of the Victorian Society, added: 'This year's list again highlights the extraordinary quality and diversity of Victorian and Edwardian buildings in England and Wales as well, more troublingly, the variously chronic and acute threats that this particular group of buildings now faces.

In shining a light on them we hope to foster debate, to galvanise support and ultimately to help find a sustainable future for each and every one of them.

'This is not just about preserving the past: it is about protecting a shared heritage for this and future generations.'
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The Mail have launched a new six-part investigative podcast series into the 2022 Caribbean diving disaster.

This real-time investigation sees reporter Isabelle Stanley travel to Trinidad and Tobago to interview the victims' families and the tragedy's sole survivor.

LISTEN: Pipeline - the harrowing story of the Paria pipeline disaster that shook Trinidad and Tobago to its core

Travelling to the nation for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed. Listen here

The first two episodes, featuring exclusive interviews with the families of the deceased and the sole survivor of the disaster, Christopher Boodram (pictured), are available now. Listen here

The Tragedy

In February 2022, five men were sent to repair a leaking section of underwater pipe just off the coast of Trinidad.

What should have been a routine job for the experienced divers turned deadly when something went terribly wrong and, in less than a second, they were sucked inside the 30-inch pipe they were repairing.

Despite being dragged hundreds of feet through the pipe beneath the sea, the men survived the initial impact.

They were scattered throughout the pipe, but managed to group together, breathing in tiny pockets of air that had been sucked in with them.

One of the men, Christopher Boodram, managed to drag himself out over the course of three agonising hours, but attempts to rescue the other four were repeatedly blocked. They were left to die.

And they didnt die quickly. Autopsies later revealed that one of the divers, Kazim Ali Jr, may have been alive for as long as 39 hours inside the pipe

The tragedy sparked a national scandal in Trinidad, and billboards demanding justice still line street corners to this day.

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The tragedy sparked a national scandal in Trinidad, and billboards demanding justice still line street corners to this day. Listen here

A Fathers Pain

In the first episode of Pipeline, Stanley spoke to the father of one of the divers, Kazim Ali Sr, who has spent the three years since the tragedy hunting for answers.

Kazim Ali Sr is in a uniquely terrible position. He not only lost his son in the tragedy -but he also owned the business that all the divers worked for, LMCS.

LMCS had been hired by Paria, the state-owned oil company, to repair the pipe.

I think about it 25 hours a day, the grieving father told podcast host Stanley.

Its never out of my mind. Learning hed been alive for 39 hours, that was the killer.'

The first two episodes of Pipeline, explaining the tragedy, featuring exclusive interviews with the families of the victims and the sole survivor of the disaster, Christopher Boodram, are available now.

PIPELINE

The six-part podcast series will explore allegations that efforts to rescue the other four men were actively obstructed, and will unearth close connections between Trinidad's political elite and oil executives.

Travelling to the nation for a first-of-its-kind investigation into the disaster, this explosive podcast will uncover a story of corporate negligence, betrayal, and greed.

Pipeline, a DMG Media podcast, is available now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
An unassuming building in the bustling southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has become the largest hub for the stolen iPhone trade.

Located in the city's Huaqiangbei electronic commercial street, the Feiyang Times building is known for selling second hand mobile devices from Western countries for cheap.

Many are traded in by western consumers to network operators or to phone repair shops.

But the tower's fourth floor has become synonymous with the illicit phone trade, where thousands of iPhones snatched by balaclava-clad thieves in Europe and the US end up, according to the Financial Times.

China's 'stolen iPhone building', is considered to be one of the most important hubs in a supply chain of second hand technology that starts in Europe and ends up in the global south.

Hong Kong serves as a critical middleman in this supply chain where hundreds of second-hand device wholesalers are based, with many of them in a single industrial building in the Kwun Tong district.

Phone traders from Shenzhen will make the short trip to the building on 1 Hung To Road to view wholesales quantities of phones, before purchasing them in online auctions and bringing them back to Huaqiangbei.

This trade partly thrives thanks to Hong Kong's status as a free trade port, where traders can avoid heavy import taxes.

The Feiyang Times building is known for selling second hand mobile devices from Western countries

It has become synonymous with the illicit phone trade, where thousands of iPhones snatched off the hands of people by balaclava-clad thieves in Europe and the US end up

Hong Kong serves as a critical middleman in this supply chain

Once back in Shenzhen, companies will advertise selling and buying phone with labels such as 'iCloud locked' on apps, as well as on WeChat, Facebook and Whatsapp.

Buyers in Shenzhen will often dismantle these phones to resell their screens, chips and circuit boards.

One Shenzhen-based phone seller told the FT: 'The passcode-locked ones were probably stolen in the US, then sold in Hong Kong, and sent to places like the Middle East.'

Several victims of phone theft in the West have seen their mobile devices eventually end up in the Chinese city.

Some have even received threatening messages from anonymous individuals in Shenzhen demanding they remove their phones from Apple's Find My iPhone system to make the phone more profitable in the resale market.

Shenzhen is located in the south of China next to the border with Hong Kong.

Known as the country's 'Silicon Valley' due to its expertise in electronics, Huaqiangbei is also home to large retail outlets selling used consumer goods.

Videos on social media platform TikTok show the massive electronics market in Huaqiangbei, with clips showing varieties of mobile phones and electronic devices.

The UK's Metropolitan Police estimated that phone theft in London is a 50 million-a -year industry.

Buyers in Shenzhen will often dismantle these phones to resell their screens, chips and circuit boards

Victims of phone theft in the West have seen their mobile devices eventually end up in the Chinese city

Shenzhen is located in the south of China next to the border with Hong Kong

The UK's Metropolitan Police estimated that phone theft in London is a 50 million-a -year industry

Cops said they seized 1,000 stolen devices and made 230 arrests related to phone theft in one week

Figures have shown that a mobile phone is reported as stolen in London every six minutes

Criminals often target pedestrians in busy locations such as outside stations, shopping centres or concert venues

Cops said they seized 1,000 stolen devices and made 230 arrests related to phone theft in one week.

Figures have shown that a mobile phone is reported as stolen in London every six minutes.

There were almost 91,000 phones snatched from Londoners in 2022, at an average of 248 a day, with only two per cent of the stolen devices recovered.

Criminals often target pedestrians in busy locations such as outside stations, shopping centres or concert venues, and usually approach from behind, meaning victims aren't aware of how vulnerable their phone is until it's too late.

The worst-hit borough was the City of Westminster, where tourists flock for theatre shows and high-end shopping, with 18,863 reported incidents in the year to December - up 47 per cent from 12,836 in the previous 12 months.

Camden was the second worst affected, with 4,806 incidents, followed by Southwark (4,376), Hackney (2,761), Newham (2,585), Lambeth (2,394) and Islington (2,117).

In London as a whole more than 52,000 phones were stolen last year.
A British woman was filmed being dragged off a Ryanair flight and thrown to the floor by security staff after she allegedly assaulted passengers and forced the plane to divert to Portugal.

Footage showed a woman being led off the grounded plane by several members of staff, after the flight from Tenerife to Prestwick was diverted on May 18.

A second video showed the woman being led outside the plane on the tarmac of the Portuguese airport.

The clip then cuts to the woman, handcuffed in an airport shuttle bus, backing away from two security guards as one of them appears to swing his fist at her stomach.

The same officer then throws the woman to the ground.

A member of staff could be seen walking by the bus as the woman was roughly handled by the two officers.

Blair Morgan, a passenger on the plane, told MailOnline that passengers were left terrified after the 'angry, hostile passenger was being aggressive towards staff and other passengers.'

'The passenger made a [false] bomb threat towards everyone on the plane, along with saying she would "bottle" people with a glass wine bottle.

Police were seen bringing the woman to the ground

Video footage shared to TikTok showed a woman being led off the grounded plane by several members of staff as countless others filmed the incident

'She was assaulting passengers whilst being drunk and vaping up and down the aisle. She was also standing up on seats, and taking people's headphones off and talking to them, threatening to hurt and bottle them.

'She kept getting up and acting like a big hard person, like she ran the plane.'

Blair said: 'A lot of passengers didn't know what to do. Everyone was distressed and scared. It was really scary - it's not something you really expect.'

He told MailOnline that the woman, who told others she was from Prestwick in Scotland, had been disruptive even before the flight, having loudly asked where everyone present at the gate was from.

He said that she didn't appear to be drunk at the gate, and was only inebriated on the plane.

'The flight attendants and pilots decided to divert it to the closest airport in Faro, Portugal.

'When we landed, the authorities came onboard and arrested her. She was then transferred to a bus outside the aircraft, where she got even more hostile.

'She was kicking, hitting and spitting at the guards, and the glass on the bus doors. The guards had no option other than pulling her to the ground.

'The lady was with her boyfriend during the flight, and he was also escorted off the flight... [which] then left and headed to Prestwick.'

A spokesperson for Ryanair told MailOnline: 'This flight from Tenerife South to Glasgow Prestwick diverted to Faro after a passenger became disruptive onboard.

'Crew called ahead for police assistance, who met the aircraft upon landing at Faro Airport and offloaded this passenger before this flight continued to Glasgow Prestwick.

'Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption.'

It comes after Spanish police stormed a Ryanair flight from Newcastle to Alicante after five passengers began causing chaos in mid-air.

Air traffic controllers request police board the plane, a Boeing 737 flying from Newcastle International Airport to Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernandez Airport, after the five passengers began being disruptive.

The pilot was given special permission to land the plane as soon as possible, which it did without incident.

'The passenger made a [false] bomb threat towards everyone on the plane', said one passenger

The woman was described as an 'angry, hostile passenger'

The woman was led off the plane by authorities

Local media reported that after the plane landed and cops got on to identify the offending passengers, each of them fully 'cooperated with the police at all times.'

A Ryanair spokesperson told MailOnline: 'The crew of this flight from Newcastle to Alicante (18 May) called ahead for police assistance after a group of passengers became disruptive onboard.

'The aircraft was met by local police upon arrival at Alicante Airport and these passengers were removed.

'Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour, ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption.'
As Prime Minister, David Cameron was used to having a team of staff looking after his every need.

Now, he struggles even to make a household purchase.

The Daily Mail can disclose that the former prime minister was refused permission to buy a new mobile phone at a Vodafone store.

He went to his local shop to get a phone for one of his children, one of Lord Cameron of Chipping Nortons friends told this newspaper. Because he is classed as a politically exposed person (PEP), it was not possible.

The failed shopping trip, believed to have been in London, is understood to be not the first time the former Conservative leader has encountered such problems.

The PEP issue comes up again and again, the friend said.

The problems stem from financial regulations which consider a politically exposed person to present a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and the influence they may hold.

While Sir Jeremy Hunt was Chancellor of the Exchequer, he revealed in 2023 that he had been refused permission to open an account with Monzo bank due to his political profile.

David Cameron as Britain's Foreign Secretary. His failed trip to Vodafone is understood to be not the first time the former Conservative leader has encountered such problems

If the price of going into public life is that you find it really hard to set up a bank account, then we need to make sure that we remove barriers where we can, Sir Jeremy said at the time.

Last year, Britains biggest banks were told by the City watchdog to do more to ensure parliamentarians, senior public servants and their families were treated fairly.

In a warning to financial firms - including banks, payment companies and lenders - the Financial Conduct Authority said they should not disadvantage people running for office or taking senior public roles.

It followed the political row in 2023 triggered by Nigel Farage after the private bank Coutts closed the Reform UK leaders account, leading to a media storm and the issue being taken up by the then Conservative government.

Farage argued that the closure was likely to have been linked to his status as a politically exposed person and claims in the House of Commons that he had received payments from the state-funded broadcaster Russia Today.

Details leaked to the BBC suggested Farage had fallen below Coutts commercial criteria, which requires customers to hold at least 3million in savings, or borrow or invest at least 1million with the bank.

However, Farage later obtained evidence which he claimed showed that Coutts had acted because of his political values, leading to questions over whether banks were treating PEPs fairly. The scandal led to the resignation of Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest Group, owners of Coutts.

A Vodafone spokesman declined to comment.
The investigation into the death of Jay Slater was left facing awkward questions after it was claimed a key witness who police could not find is actually on holiday in Tenerife and is unaware they even want to speak to her.

Lucy Law, 20, was one of the last people to see Jay alive when he disappeared after a night out on the Spanish island last summer before being found dead a month later.

But at the opening of an inquest into Jay's death the coroner told the court - including Jay's distraught parents and other family members - that police had been unable to find Ms Law and other potentially important witnesses.

Dr James Adeley told the hearing: 'We can't find them, they have stopped responding to phone calls.'

Among those he said police had tried and failed to find was Ms Law.

However last night Ms Law's family insisted that she was simply on holiday - on the very island where Jay had died - and was unaware that they wanted her to give evidence.

Speaking at the family home in Burnley, Lucy's stepfather Andy Davis said: 'We had no idea Jay's inquest was even being held today.

'The police have only just been round today to say that she was due to give evidence. But it's the first time we knew of it.

Apprentice bricklayer Jay Slater, 19, pictured with his mother Debbie Duncan

Speaking at the family home in Burnley, Lucy's stepfather Andy Davis (right) said he did not know the inquest was being held today

Lucy Law (above) is among those who could not be traced to give evidence, a coroner revealed

'They asked if Lucy was home and I said she was abroad and they asked me if I was aware that she should have been in court, and I said I wasn't.

'The police said they had sent Lucy paperwork with the dates on it, but the first I knew about it was when the police turned up earlier today.'

Sources within the Slater family later said they were aware where other supposedly missing witnesses were and had been able to find out easily.

The family source said: 'Lucy is in Tenerife. Another supposedly untraceable witness is on holiday in Greece. If we can find this out so quickly why can't the police?'

The inquest at Preston Coroner's Court also heard a suggestion that witnesses may have been reluctant to appear because drugs may have been involved - as Jay was found to have traces of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine in his body when found dead.

Dr Adeley said: 'When drugs are involved in a death, the witnesses are less than forthcoming and do not wish to speak to the authorities.'

Ms Law received a call last June from the 19-year-old British tourist saying he was lost, had one per cent charge on his phone and needed water.

A friend also said that Mr Slater seemed to be 'off his head on drugs' the night before.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, had attended the NRG Festival at Papagayo, in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife on June 16 last year.

But after becoming separated from his friends following the all-night rave he went back to an AirBnB holiday cottage in the remote village of Masca with the two Britons, convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and another man.

Pictured: Lucy Law's mother Rebecca Law and her stepfather Andy Davis

Jay Slater called his friend Lucy Law (pictured together) in June last year saying he was lost

Members of Jay Slater's family including his mother Debbie Duncan (front right) arrive at Preston Coroner's Court in Lancashire for the inquest into the death of the 19-year-old

The apprentice bricklayer was last seen alive leaving the white-washed house at around 7.30am on June 17.

He was apparently trying to walk the 10-hour journey back to the apartment where he was staying after missing a bus back.

An immediate focus of the investigation was a post Mr Slater uploaded on Snapchat of him having a cigarette, with the location tagged at the door of the apartment at 7.30am UK time.

Then two phone calls emerged.

Ms Law - who later attended Mr Slater's funeral in August - received a call at 8.30am where he said he was lost, had 1 per cent charge on his phone and needed water.

In a video call to their other friend, Brad Hargreaves, Mr Slater was walking on rough, stony ground, saying he was making the long walk back.

His mother and father joined family and friends to comb the island for sightings.

As the mystery surrounding the teen's disappearance grew, 'vile' and 'distressing' conspiracy theories began to emerge that dogged efforts to find Mr Slater.

Among the rumours circulating included claims Mr Slater had been targeted by a criminal cartel on the island for allegedly stealing a watch from a gang member - something his family vehemently denied happened.

Tragically Mr Slater's body was found a month later in a mountainous area of the island.

He is believed to have lost his footing and fallen while desperately trying to climb through the ravine to try and return to his hotel.

Mr Slater went to an AirBnB cottage with drug dealer Ayub Qassim (pictured) and another man

Jay Slater's mother Debbie Duncan arrives at Preston Coroner's Court in Lancashire on Wednesday

Jay Slater pictured with friend Brad Hargreaves (left), with whom he was on holiday in Tenerife

A post-mortem found that he died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height. His death would have been instantaneous.

A forensic pathologist who examined Mr Slater's body after its repatriation to the UK said at today's inquest that injuries including severe skull and pelvis fractures were consistent from a fall from a height.

He found no sign of injuries associated with Mr Slater being assaulted prior to his death.

Dr Richard Shepherd said the injuries seen in assault victims were 'very different from the type of injuries I saw with Jay'.

The pathologist said decomposition of Mr Slater's body during the 28 days it lay at the bottom of the ravine in the hot Tenerife climate meant he could not 'exclude' the possibility of a push 'because a push would not leave a mark'.

'But with that proviso there was nothing to indicate an assault or gripping of any sort,' he added.

Dr Shepherd said the injuries caused by the fall would have caused 'instantaneous' loss of consciousness and Mr Slater would have died soon afterwards.

'Jay would undoubtedly have been unconscious and unaware,' he added.

Even with immediate specialist treatment in a neurosurgical unit, Dr Shepherd said he would be 'extremely surprised' if Mr Slater could have survived his 'severe' injuries.

The inquest also heard traces of cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine were found in Mr Slater's body.

Toxicologist Dr Stephanie Martin said the length of time before Mr Slater's body was discovered meant it was impossible to carry out tests on blood or urine.

Jay Slater attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance

But examination of a liver sample found metabolites of MDMA and of another recreational drug MDA, as well as of cocaine.

Spanish scientists additionally tested hair and muscle samples, finding a metabolite of ketamine, Dr Martin added.

However due to the length of time between Mr Slater's death and the samples being taken, she was unable to say if he had been under the influence of drugs when he fell to his death, she said.

But he would have taken the ketamine within the previous 12 hours, Dr Martin added.

She said her analysis suggested Mr Slater had taken MDMA within one or two days before his death.

But the Spanish tests indicated that Mr Slater had used ketamine 'over a much longer period'.

The hearing was also told by one friend of Mr Slater who did give evidence about a message in which the teenager mentioned being 'thrown out' of the rave and trying to sell an expensive watch for 10,000.

Joshua Forshaw  who gave evidence by videolink - said he met Mr Slater and his friends for the first time when they flew out for the NRG festival and swapped Snapchat details.

He told the Spanish authorities that when he saw Mr Slater on June 16  the night before his death  he seemed to be 'off his head on drugs'.

Asked how he seemed by Dr Adeley, Mr Forshaw said: 'He was quite excitable. He seemed to be in a happy mood, joyful, excited to be there.'

He assumed Mr Slater had taken ecstasy because his friend Mr Hargreaves had asked Mr Forshaw to split a tablet with him, he said.

Later that night Mr Forshaw received a Snapchat message from Mr Slater saying he had 'ended up getting thrown out' with two other people and planned to sell a watch for 'ten quid'.

Mr Forshaw said that meant 10,000 but said he never saw the watch and had no involvement in attempts to sell it.

The Airbnb house in Masca, Tenerife, where Jay Slater was staying before his disappearance

Jay Slater's father Warren Slater (right) and brother Zak (left) at Preston Coroner's Court on Wednesday

Snapchat messages normally delete automatically, but Mr Forshaw said he saved that one and later handed it to police.

However the court was told police later accidentally deleted the image, the court heard.

The Snapchat message read: 'Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 Maili kids just took an AP off some **** on way to sell it for 10 quid'.

Mr Forshaw said an AP was an expensive watch brand. The message was sent at 5.58am.

He said that later in the early morning of June 17, Mr Slater sent him another image with mountains in the background showing his top pulled up and two knives in his waistband.

At the same time through Snapchat he said Mr Slater texted him: 'I'm carrying these in case it kicks off.'

Mr Forshaw said he didn't save the image and did not mention it to the Spanish Guardia Civil before leaving Tenerife.

However he told Lancashire Police about it when he returned to the UK because it was 'the right thing to do'.

Mr Forshaw said he did not ask Mr Slater if he was OK in response to the message.

Later that morning he overheard a Facetime call between Mr Slater and his friend Mr Hargreaves after going to their apartment.

'He was slurring his words but he wasn't begging for help or anything,' he told the court. 'He didn't sound like he was in danger.'

Mr Forshaw said Mr Hargreaves urged Mr Slater to get a taxi back to where they were staying, but the teenager said he had no money.

Mr Hargreaves told Mr Slater he should either get a taxi and run off when it reached its destination, or alternatively they would pay for it, the hearing was told.

Mr Slater didn't sound 'distressed or angry', he added.

The coroner pressed Mr Forshaw on whether it was true that Mr Slater sent him an image showing knives in his waistband, reminding him that he was under oath.

'I wouldn't lie,' he said. 'I went to police off my own back.'

At the close of his evidence, Dr Adeley instructed him to provide 'proof' that 'ten quid' was 'common parlance' meaning 10,000, warning that there would be 'serious consequences' if he did not comply.

Before closing the videolink, the coroner gave him until 2pm to supply the information.

A police officer overlooks Masca in Tenerife during the search for Jay Slater on June 21, 2024

Attempts to contact the Britons with whom Jay spent his final hours via mobile phone numbers and email addresses which they gave the Spanish authorities were unsuccessful, the court heard.

Police served summonses on Ayub Qassim, who was renting the AirBnB he went back to, and fellow Briton Steven Roccas, known as Rocky, the coroner heard.

But both were unknown at the addresses in London held by police.

Witness summons were also issued for Jays friends Josh Forshaw, Lucy Law, Brad Hargreaves and Brandon Hodgson.

Mr Forshaw responded to a summons and gave evidence, but Mr Hargreaves replied to say he would be away on holiday when the inquest was heard today, having booked the trip last October.

Ms Law is currently in Tenerife, the coroner was told, while Mr Hodgson is also understood to be abroad.

'We've been looking for them for months and we cannot find them,' Dr Adeley said. 'We really tried, we just can't find them.'

Asking about Mr Qassim and the fellow Briton whose AirBnb the teenager went back to, Mr Slater's father Warren told the coroner: 'The two people who can put some light on whatever happened to Jay aren't in court today.'

Dr Adeley said he understood his concerns.

But he said evidence from Spanish witnesses given to the Tenerife authorities due to be spelt out to the hearing would corroborate the account Mr Qassim gave at the time.

Also today, the inquest heard from two members of a Dutch search team which flew out to the island at the request of Mr Slater's family.

They said it would have taken Mr Slater about three-and-a-half hours to hike from the Airbnb in Masca to the ravine where his body was found.

Poignantly they said that from having retraced his last steps, they could appreciate why he thought he could reach the sea.

'I can imagine he thought he was going to make it,' said Signi Zoekhonden. 'He's a young guy.'

She said it was only the last hour of the route where it became 'difficult to walk', although there was a stream he could have drunk from.

But in the last 50 metres before the ravine it became necessary to use ropes and climbing equipment to proceed safely.

In addition, by 10.30am the temperature would have been rising sharply.

Statements from three locals describing Mr Slater's last known movements in the remote village were also read to the hearing.

One, Luisa Hernandez, recalled Mr Slater asking her at about 7.55am when the next bus would be, to which she responded that it was due around 10am.

Later that morning she was driving to an appointment and briefly caught sight of him walking 'at a brisk pace' along the main road.

This was the last time he was seen alive.

Detective Chief Insp Rachel Higson, head of Lancashire Police's digital media investigation unit, analysed Mr Slater's iPhone after it was returned to his family.

Jay Slater's brother Zak Slater arrives at Preston Coroner's Court in Lancashire on Wednesday morning

On June 16 it was unsuccessfully used to make payments to unknown recipients in the sums of 320 (270) and 120 (110).

At 9.26pm there was a message from 'Hodgey' to Mr Slater reading: 'Get that 2 ton out for me aswell bro.'

Later in the night there were 'repeated efforts' by Ms Law  referred to on his phone as Lucy Mae  to contact Mr Slater, telling him he is 'off your head' and to go back to their apartment.

At around 2.40am on June 17 a message was sent by Hodgey reading: 'You need to get home.'

Mr Slater replied: 'You think I'm going home you must be disabled.'

Then shortly before 6am Mr Slater sent an image to a different Snapchat group captioned: 'Just took a 12k rolly off some **** with this Maili kid off to get 10 quid for it now haha off my undies.'

He also sent a two-second video of himself in the back of a moving car, consistent with driving to Masca.

At 6.09am Mr Slater sent his friend Bradley his location as being in the village, followed by a seven second video an hour later showing a mountainous scene which police geolocated to Masca.

At 8.13am Mr Slater sent a WhatsApp message which could not be recovered which gave his location 1.5km from the Airbnb, approximately a 26 minute walk.

This was his last confirmed location, DCI Higson said.

At 8.35am Ms Law sent him a message telling him to 'get back to wherever the f*** you just came from' which was delivered and read.

The last contact was a Snapchat call with a contact called 'Luce' at 8.55am.

Police analysed the phone's battery health and established that at 8.27am that morning it was on 3 per cent, declining to 2 per cent by 8.33am and 1 per cent at 8.52am.

The phone also showed strenuous activity including ascending 'inclines' between 7.49am and 8.49am but nothing after that  consistent with the phone running out of charge.

DCI Higson said the messages over the night fitted with Jay's friends being 'concerned about his state' due to his being 'incapacitated'.

Analysis of the phone battery, location and activity data were 'consistent' with what witnesses had said and where he was last seen, she added.

'Having read all the messages there's nothing at all to suggest Jay was frightened, that he was under any threat, that he was scared of anybody, that he was forced to do anything against his will.'

The detective said there was no other reference from analysis of his phone to a stolen watch or Jay trying to sell it, or evidence that it ever existed.

She confirmed that 'AP' could refer to the high-end Audemars Piguet watch brand while 'Rolly' was likely to mean a Rolex.

DCI Higson told the coroner that 'ten quid' was widely used in East Lancashire where Mr Slater lived to mean 10,000.

Earlier witness Mr Forshaw told the coroner this was his understanding of the phrase 'ten quid' but he had no way of knowing that this was what Mr Slater meant in his message.

In August, hundreds gathered in Accrington to bid a final farewell at his funeral, as his coffin was laid to rest amid an encore of drum-and-bass music.

During their eulogies, friends recalled Mr Slaters 'buzzing and smiling' demeanour and told their late schoolmate to 'keep partying hard up there'.

The coffin of Jay Slater ahead of his funeral in Accrington, Lancashire, on August 10, 2024, where mourners wore the colour blue in his memory

His parents led the procession of mourners through the drizzle on August 10 to the service at the packed Accrington Crematorium Chapel, while many more watched on an outdoor screen.

On November 21, a GoFundMe page titled Get Jay Slater Home was closed after it had received 72,821 worth of donations.

In a final post on the page, Mr Slater's family said they had been able to give a 'truly deserved send-off' at his funeral.

They also explained how the donations were spent, which included hiring a search team from the Dutch non-profit organisation Signi Zoekhonden and paying for their stay in Tenerife while they searched for the teenager's body.

The same coroner also presided over the inquest into the death of mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, who went missing while walking her dog after dropping her children off at school in in St Michael's-on-Wyre, Lancashire, in January 2023.

Her disappearance also provoked a storm of attention on social media with TikTok sleuths sharing outlandish theories.

The 45-year-old's body was found in the River Wyre three weeks later after a huge search effort which sparked global headlines.

Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire, later ruled that Ms Bulley's death was accidental and that she did not have 'any desire' to take her own life.

That hearing took place amid tight security at County Hall in Preston, with members of the public who attended subjected to searches and warned against disrupting proceedings.

By contrast, Mr Slater's inquest is being held at Preston Coroner's Court.
Sherri Papinis therapist says he absolutely believes the Gone Girl faker was genuinely abducted during her infamous hoax kidnapping and hopes shell soon be vindicated, an exclusive video obtained by DailyMail.com shows.

Papini claimed she was abducted by two Hispanic women while jogging near her home in Redding, California, in November 2016, and held captive over 22 harrowing days where she was beaten, abused, and even branded by her attackers before managing to escape.

Investigators were suspicious from the very beginning, and a six-year investigation would reveal the married mom of twos remarkable tale of survival was nothing more than an elaborately constructed ruse, concocted to conceal an affair she was having with an ex-boyfriend.

Papini admitted to staging the hoax in a plea deal with the FBI in 2022, but she has now rescinded her confession in a new documentary, Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie.

She now alleges she was abducted all along - she just lied about the identity of her kjdnapper.

The 42-year-old now alleges the real culprit was her ex, James Reyes, with whom shed been involved in an emotional affair in the months leading up to her disappearance.

The latest twist in the Papini saga is a tough sell, but one person buying her newest claim of victimhood is her therapist, Steve Diggs.

I absolutely believe she was abducted, said Diggs in an exclusive first-look video shared with DailyMail.com.

To think of this as a conscious hoax concocted by Sherri just doesn't fit the facts that we have here.

Sherri Papinis therapist, Steve Diggs, says he believes Papini is now telling the truth

Panini, now 42, vanished for 22 days in November 2016. Her husband Keith (right) believed she'd been abducted - but really she was with her ex-boyfriend hundreds of miles away

Papini now claims that most of what she told investigators in 2016 was true: she was abducted and held captive for 22 days, and she was tied up, abused, and beaten by Reyes - not two Hispanic women - who tortured her with masochistic acts.

She claims she was previously too afraid to identify Reyes as the culprit, fearful he'd come after her and her family and enact violent vengeance.

Papini also said she couldnt tell the truth to her husband, Keith Papini, because she was worried shed never see her children again if he learned of the affair.

Diggs, a licensed psychologist in California, believes Papini suffers from Self-Defeating Personality Disorder (SDPD), which is characterized by a pervasive pattern of self-sabotaging behavior, particularly in relationships and life choices.

SDPD, otherwise known as masochistic personality disorder, is not currently a recognized diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but Diggs said the condition can manifest in those who are passive and eager to please others.

They get into relationships in which theyre not fulfilled, and then they create a second secret life to get their needs met, explains Diggs.

Diggs said its his belief Papini turned to Reyes to have her needs fulfilled in a 'fleeting' exchange, but things didnt go to plan.

The shrink believes Papini was tortured as she claimed, and believes she exhibits the clinical signs of someone who has experienced genuine trauma.

I believe what Sherri is telling us now is the truth, stated Diggs. I believe that she has broken through a very difficult defense mechanism of lying, and she is now, most of the time, quite honest.

Between our therapy - which she has worked very hard at, and the prison - she has stopped telling the big lies.

Shes never going to tell a big lie to the public, he added. The consequences have been big and she's worked really hard not to do that.

Papini claims the only thing she lied about to the FBI was who abducted her in 2016. Everything else, she claims, was the truth

Papini showcases the branding scar she claims to have suffered at the hands of James Reyes. The assortment of letters and numbers was believed to relate to a bible verse

James Reyes (above) denied all of Papini's claims in a statement issued via his attorney. He has never been charged with any wrongdoing in the case

The fake abductors: Sketches composed by investigators from Papini's sham recollections are seen above. She claims made the image of one the captors (right) to resemble Reyes' mom - who is later revealed to be Irish, not Hispanic as Papini claims

Hoping to add weight to her claims, Papini agrees to submit to a polygraph test as part of the documentary, but the results do little in the way of proving her version of events.

Also left unconvinced are Papinis parents.

Her mother, Loretta Graeff, told the documentary crew that her daughter definitely wasnt abducted; she just went to desperate lengths to escape a marriage shed been unhappy in for some time.

Reyes declined to speak on camera, but in a statement issued through his attorney, he denied all of Papinis claims.

It was DNA found on Papinis underwear after her rescue that eventually led investigators to Reyes' door in 2020.

Reyes told the FBI that Papini contacted him out of the blue in 2015 and told him she wanted to run away with him. The pair had previously dated in the early 2000s, but he hadnt heard from her in years.

He said she claimed Keith was being physically and emotionally abusive, and she needed to run away or she wouldnt escape her marriage alive.

On the day Papini disappeared, Reyes hired a rental car and drove 10 hours from his home in Costa Mesa to Redding to pick her up.

I didnt kidnap her, he told FBI investigators in a recorded interview.

She was just a friend in need asking for help. She was trying to get away from her husband.

Diggs, a licensed psychologist in California, believes Papini suffers from Self-Defeating Personality Disorder (SDPD)

Sherri and Keith are currently locked in a custody battle over their two children, who are now in their early teens

When they arrived back in Costa Mesa, Reyes told investigators Papini asked him to place boards over the window of the room she was staying in to keep it dark.

He also said shed lock herself in for hours at a time and also appeared to be intentionally starving herself, often declining to eat more than half a banana.

It was when Papini decided she wanted to return home that things took a turn, Reyes said.

He claimed Papini began inflicting injuries on herself, burning her arms, striking herself in the face, and even instructed him to brand her with a biblical passage on her right shoulder using a wood-burning tool from Hobby Lobby.

Papini was then found by a passing motorist at the side of a road in Woodside, 150 miles from Redding, on November 24, 2016.

Her nose was broken, her long blond hair hacked off, and she had restraints around her wrists and ankles.

Reyes underwent a polygraph test in 2020 and passed on every question he was asked.

He has never been accused or charged with any crimes relating to Papinis disappearance.

When asked in the documentary how he was able to pass his lie detector, if what shes saying is true, Papini responds: Oh, hes a sociopath.

Reyes (above) underwent a polygraph test in 2020 and passed on every question he was asked

Papini signed a plea deal in 2022 for lying to investigators. She was released from prison in August 2023, having served 18 months

Papini claims Reyes abducted her while she was out running after she tried to put a stop to their digital affair

Papini's parents say they don't believe their daughter was kidnapped - she just wanted to get out of an unhappy marriage

Papini claims she eventually persuaded Reyes to let her go on the basis that shed never name him to the police.

She was arrested in April 2022 and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent, receiving a sentence of 18 months in prison.

Keith Papini, who had publicly stood by Sherri for years, divorced her within two days of her plea, and the couple has been locked in a custody dispute over their two children ever since.

In a statement at the time, Papini said she was sorry for the lies she told and pledged to spend the rest of her life making amends for what shed done.

But now, Papini says she was strong-armed into signing the plea deal by federal investigators and felt compelled to share her 'truth' to address what she calls misconceptions about her character.

The story that the world thinks they know is that I am a master manipulator who has fooled everyone, Papini says at the top of the series.

The Sherri Papini thats out there, its not me. Shes not real. Ive gone from teenage sex worker to criminal mastermind to master manipulator. I poisoned my children. [Im a] liar, cheater, whore... Im so f**king tired of keeping the secret and living the lie.

'Now I get to tell the truth.

Sherri Papini: Caught in the Lie will premiere across two nights on May 26 and May 27 from 9-11PM ET/PT on ID and Max.
An unhinged mother terrorized a teenage boy and his girlfriend because she was desperate for him to date her daughter instead.

Marcie Smith, 41, began harassing Preston Sorensen in July 2023 while he was dating her teenage daughter but went off the rails after that romance ended, it is claimed.

Smith, of rural Wyoming, allegedly sent Sorensen a slew of text messages that were sexual in nature and encouraged him to be romantically involved with her daughter after they broke up.

She began to target Sorensen's now-girlfriend Gillian Holman in November 2023, when the pair's friendship started to evolve into romance, the families claim.

Smith is accused of using a burner phone app to impersonate Holman, who was 15 at the time, and send disparaging texts to Sorensen and a fellow classmate in an attempt to make the teenage girl look like a bully.

Holman received sexualized messages from Smith, causing her to fear that she could be attacked at any time.

Smith also sent messages to Holman's parents, pretending to be a concerned teacher, in which she detailed fictionalized accounts of sex acts that she claimed Holman was engaging in.

She did so in a bit to end Sorensen's romance with Holman so her daughter could have her old boyfriend back.

The 41-year-old was sentenced to two years probation in March this year after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor counts of stalking, Cowboy State Daily reports.

But the Sorensen and Holman families say their fight is not over yet as they are now pushing Wyoming lawmakers to create stricter penalties for adults who stalk minors.

Preston Sorensen (right) and his girlfriend Gillian Holman (left) were stalked, harassed and bullied by a 41-year-old woman in a shameful yearlong campaign of abuse

Marcie Smith, 41, (pictured) began harassing Preston Sorensen in July 2023 while he was dating her teenage daughter, the victims' parents have alleged

Sorensen, now 17, endured months of 'grooming' by Smith as she tried to coerce him into reigniting a romantic relationship with her daughter, his family alleges.

He and Smith's daughter broke up after their freshman year of high school, but the meddling mother insisted on intervening.

Screenshots of Smith's text messages to Sorensen, which have been shared publicly shared on Cathy Holman's blog Prairie Wife in Heels, show how the mother urged him not to 'be afraid to randomly send a text' to her daughter.

Smith, in other messages, accused Sorensen of making her daughter 'bit upset' because of his interactions with Holman. She claimed if he changed his actions, her daughter would 'probably date you again'.

A year after their break up, Smith continued to text Sorensen and begged him to 'just marry her daughter', according to the messages. Screenshots show she even urged the teen to send her daughter a photo of himself in his underwear.

But Smith's sexualization of Sorensen went well beyond text messages, with the teen's mother Brandi Sorensen alleging that Smith sent her son 'multiple sexually inappropriate things'.

Smith sent Sorensen direct messages from an 'anonymous' account on Instagram calling him a 'hottie' and asking if it would 'want to hit it tonight', screenshots reveal.

The account, which saw Smith pretend to be someone from another town, questioned the teen about his relationship with Smith and her daughter.

In one message Smith - as the anonymous user - asked if Sorensen found them attractive and if she was a 'MILF', his mother Brandi Sorensen said in her victim impact statement.

'She asked my son if he had a boner while dancing with Gillian,' Mrs Sorensen added.

Smith, of rural Wyoming, allegedly sent Preston Sorensen (pictured) a slew of text messages that were sexual in nature and encouraged him to be romantically involved with her daughter

Smith began to target Gillian Holman (pictured) in November 2023, when the teen's friendship with Preston Sorensen started to evolve into romance

Holman and Sorensen (pictured together) began officially dating in May 2024, amid Smith's ongoing stalking, bullying and harassment

Mrs Sorensen further accused Smith of 'grooming' her son and claims she 'worked to isolate him from his family, friends, and girlfriend'.

Smith joked that she 'left her daughter lingerie as an apology' for Sorensen, the horrified mother recalled.

And in a move reminiscent of the popular 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls, Smith seemed to encourage intimacy between minors.

In the film, the mother of popular high schooler Regina George tells the teen's friends that 'I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom'.

The mother, portrayed by Amy Poehler, offers the teenagers alcohol and in a steamy scene between Regina (Rachel McAdams) and her boyfriend, even asked if they need a condom.

Smith, in a similar move, purchased matching underwear for Sorensen and her daughter, the victim's family claimed. She also invited the teen to move into their home.

Sorensen, in his own statement, shared that the 'harassment I've experienced has completely changed the way I've had to go about my days'.

He was left feeling 'anxious, afraid, and just on edge', and claims that the stress from Smith's stalking 'impacted my schoolwork, my friendships, my ability to compete at sporting activities'.

In addition to the abuse he suffered, Sorensen also felt the weight of the terror that Holman was facing at the same time.

Preston's mother Brandi Sorensen, (pictured together) in her victim impact statement, accused Smith of 'grooming' her son and claims she 'worked to isolate him from his family, friends, and girlfriend'

Smith sent Sorensen direct messages from an 'anonymous' account on Instagram calling him a 'hottie' and asking if it would 'want to hit it tonight', screenshots reveal. The account, which saw Smith pretend to be someone from another town, questioned the teen about his relationship with Smith and her daughter

In a move reminiscent of the popular 2004 teen comedy Mean Girls, Smith (pictured) seemed to encourage intimacy between minors. She joked that she 'left her daughter lingerie as an apology' for Sorensen and allegedly purchased matching underwear for the two teens

The Mean Girls 'cool mom' (portrayed by Amy Poehler) offers the teenagers alcohol and in a steamy scene between her daughter and her boyfriend, even asked if they need a condom

Holman, now 16, was first victimized by Smith in November 2023 when Smith impersonated her in text messages to Sorensen and another student.

The messages contained 'disparaging remarks about multiple students at school, including Preston', the Holman family alleged.

The family reported the incident to police, but were advised that nothing could be done unless they were sent messages directly.

In February 2024, Smith allegedly sent an anonymous text to Cathy Holman and her husband Dan Holman impersonating a 'concerned parent'.

The message claimed that Holman had engaged in oral sex with other male students and that Sorensen said he was only interested in a relationship with the teen because he wanted to 'take her V card', screenshots show.

Mr and Mrs Holman reported the messages to police. Meanwhile, Smith anonymously sent another student a text alleging that Holman was 'going to beat her up'.

Mrs Sorensen, around the same time, received messages from an anonymous number claiming that her son and Holman were being 'inappropriate', and that the young girl was a 'bully' and 'bad influence'.

Gillian Holman (pictured) was first victimized by Smith in November 2023 when the stalker impersonated her in text messages sent to Sorensen and another high school student

Cathy Holman (pictured with her daughter Gillian Holman) and her husband Dan Holman reported the incident to police, but were advised that nothing could be done unless they were sent messages directly

In February 2024, Smith allegedly sent an anonymous text to Cathy Holman and her husband Dan Holman impersonating a 'concerned parent'. The message claimed that Holman had engaged in oral sex with other male students and that Sorensen said he was only interested in a relationship with the teen because he wanted to 'take her V card'

The abuse continued for months, with Holman receiving messages from an anonymous social media account that called her 'ugly'.

Other accounts, allegedly created by Smith, sent Holman messages claiming that Preston was talking to other girls.

In one series of messages, Smith sexualized Holman's appearance while she was at a youth leadership convention.

'Your a** is super hot in that skirt,' Smith wrote.

Holman, in her victim impact statement, said she tried to 'blow it off' but Smith sent another message: 'S***, you must be blind. I'd tap that a**.'

'That was the moment I realized whoever had been watching me and harassing me was probably in the same room as me,' Holman said in her statement.

'This person was no longer a vague threat. They were someone who was watching me and my friends and who could hurt me at any given time. I was afraid to go anywhere alone because I didnt know who was watching my every move.'

Throughout the school year, Smith continued to send anonymous texts, social media DMs and emails to the families.

Smith even impersonated at teacher at the teens' high school and sent Mrs Holman an email calling Holman a 's****h'.

The abuse continued for months, with Holman (pictured with her family) receiving messages from an anonymous social media account that called her 'ugly'. Other accounts, allegedly created by Smith, sent Holman messages claiming that Preston was talking to other girls

In one series of messages, Smith sexualized Holman's appearance while she was at a youth leadership convention. Holman, in her victim impact statement, said she tried to 'blow it off' but Smith sent another message: 'S***, you must be blind. I'd tap that a**'

Throughout the school year, Smith continued to send anonymous texts, social media DMs and emails to the families. Smith even impersonated at teacher at the teens' high school and sent Mrs Holman an email calling Holman a 's****h'

Holman and Sorensen began officially dating in May 2024, amid Smith's ongoing stalking, bullying and harassment.

Investigators finally identified Smith as the source of the anonymous messages in September that year.

Smith admitted to police that she had been sending the messages because 'Gillian was bullying her daughter', the Holman and Sorensen families claimed.

A protection ordered was put in place in order to keep both families safe and Smith was charged with two counts of stalking.

She pleaded no contest to the charges in March this year and was sentenced to probation.

But the Holman family is now campaigning for legislation that would impose stricter punishments for stalkers.

The Joint Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to consider a change to Wyoming's law so that adults who stalk children more than three years younger than them could be charged with a felony and jailed for up to 10 years, Cowboy State Daily reported.

A protection order has been put in place to keep both the Holman and Sorensen families safe from Smith. Pictured are Preston Sorensen (left) and Gillian Holman (right) together

The Holman family is now campaigning for legislation that would impose stricter punishments for stalkers. Pictured is Cathy Holman

The committee also agreed to study an anti-grooming law that was passed in Montana earlier this year.

The legislation criminalized grooming a child for sexual offenses, strengthened charges for crimes against children and enabled prosecution of sexual predators who use AI to digitally alter images.

The Holmans have also requested that new definitions for 'cyberstalking and bullying actions' - which were not included in the draft - be added to the Wyoming bill.

Holman, who spoke at the committee hearing, said that it is 'not easy to continuously share what happened'.

'But I have to at least try to make it better for future stalking victims in Wyoming,' the teen added, through her tears.
New photos have shown drugs mule Charlotte May Lee just moments after she was arrested on suspicion of smuggling 46kg of cannabis into Sri Lanka from Thailand.

Pictures exclusively revealed by MailOnline show the glamorous former TUI cabin crew member, 21, in an all white ensemble with gem-studded sandals as she stood cautiously at Colombos Police Narcotic Unit.

Other newly released images show the huge quantities of Kush - a synthetic form of the drug - that was found in two large suitcases when she arrived to the countrys capital on May 12.

Dozens and dozens of clear vacuum packed bags stuffed with the drugs can be see stacked on a table within the police unit.

The youngster, who had been working on a booze cruise in Thailand before her visa in the country ran out, this week strongly denied any knowledge of the 1.2million stash in her bag.

She told MailOnline from behind bars in Negombo Prison, where she is currently being held on reprimand: I had never seen them before. I didnt expect it at all when they pulled me over in the airport. I thought it was going to be filled with all my stuff.

Miss Lee had flown in on a Sri Lankan airlines flight, arriving in the country from Bangkok at around 3.45pm last Monday.

Earlier that day she had posted a TikTok wearing the same outfit, with a face mask on, as she appeared to fly out of the Thai capital.

Pictures exclusively revealed by MailOnline show the glamorous former TUI cabin crew member, 21, in an all white ensemble with gem-studded sandals as she stood cautiously at Colombos Police Narcotic Unit

Other newly released images show the huge quantities of Kush - a synthetic form of the drug - that was found in two large suitcases when she arrived to the countrys capital on May 12

A photograph on Miss Lee's social media shows her in her former job as a TUI stewardess

After being arrested, she was taken to custody at Police Narcotics unit where for seven days she was forced to sleep on a sofa filled with bed bugs as a security guard watched her 24/7.

Seven days later, on Sunday, a tearful Miss Lee appeared alone at Negombo Magistrates Court for her first hearing.

A legal source told MailOnline: 'When Charlotte arrived in court she seemed completely lost.

'She was crying a lot and was all on her own. It looked like she didn't have any idea about what was going on.

Following the hearing she was moved to Negombo Prison - one of the largest in the country.

Miss Lee could now face up to a year - or even two years if the Attorney General requests it - in the prison where she has not eaten for days and has been forced to sleep on concrete floors.

She will then have to make an appearance in court at least every 14 days until she is found guilty or not guilty of the charges.

Miss Lee has been told that she could face up to 25 years in Welikada Prison, a tough maximum security jail, if convicted.

Welikada Prison in Colombo is the biggest, maximum security jail in Sri Lanka, accommodating both men and women.

The Foreign Office in the UK has confirmed that it is supporting a British woman who has been arrested in Sri Lanka and is in contact with her family, as well as local authorities

Her social media accounts show Miss Lee appearing to enjoy working for the travel company

Pictures from the scene show six officers in the airport standing over dozens of large vacuum packed bags of the drug

Dozens and dozens of clear vacuum packed bags stuffed with the drugs can be see stacked on a table within the police unit

Following a recent holiday, Miss Lee is said to have returned to Coulsdon, telling mates that she 'loved Thailand and wanted to work out there'

The prison has been hit with a number of scandals including riots in 2012 which that left 27 dead.

It has been described as 'Hell' for women - with maggots being reportedly found food and rats scuttling around extremely overcrowded cells.

She said: 'I am trying my best to stay positive because what else can you do?

It has been described as 'Hell' for women - with maggots being reportedly found food and rats scuttling around extremely overcrowded cells.

She said: 'I am trying my best to stay positive because what else can you do?

'But it is hard. I feel as though I have no human rights here. There are no beds, no blankets. And where you sleep is like a long corridor with lots of other women.

'I am sleeping on a concrete floor - literally. All I have is my jumper as a pillow.

'There is a ceiling fan but it doesn't really work and there's a TV but that also barely works. I only have this one pair of clothes, nothing else to change into and I'm not being allowed my medication for ADHD.

As she spoke of the awful conditions Miss Lee said she had not eaten in days because the prison food was too spicy for her.

Miss Lee told us she had been working temporarily on a 'booze cruise' in Thailand but her 30-day visa was about to run out so she decided to take a trip to nearby Sri Lanka while she waited for her Thai visa to be renewed.

She decided to go to the country because it was relatively nearby - only a three-hour flight away - and she had never visited there before.

'I thought while I was waiting for the visa that I'd come to Sri Lanka.

A photograph on Miss Lee's social media shows her in her former job as a TUI stewardess

Miss Lee has been remanded to custody while the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) investigates the case and potential legal action, according to local media

'They [the people she believed planted the drugs] were supposed to meet me here. But now I'm here - stuck in this jail.'

'I had been in Bangkok the night before and had already packed my clothes because my flight was really early, she added.

'So I left my bags in the hotel room and headed for the night out. As they were already packed I didn't check them again in the morning. They must have planted it then.'

And she added: 'I know who did it.'

Miss Lee will appear back in Negombo Magistrates Court next week for her bi-weekly appearance.
When Eamonn Holmes fell off his chair live on air at 6.15am yesterday, shocking his loyal viewers, there was an outpouring of concern.

But for his GB News colleagues it was a familiar scene  for he had toppled off the chair some weeks ago too, only then the cameras werent rolling.

There have been other incidents, some too personal for me to reveal. And earlier this month Eamonn was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after falling at home.

What I can divulge is that his bosses at the channel are becoming increasingly worried for Eamonns health, and how long he is going to be able to host his breakfast show which begins at 6am and runs until 9.30am three days a week.

Indeed, Ive heard that executives have been having a look at Richard Madeley  an anchor on ITVs Good Morning Britain  as a replacement at some point.

Eamonn, 65, struggles so much with his mobility that he is wheeled on and off the set. He has endured a double hip replacement as well as surgery for three slipped discs and has very little feeling in his lower back. He has been battling health issues since an operation in 2022, and in 2023 declared he could no longer walk or look after himself.

Hes in pain all of the time, said a friend of the former This Morning presenter. Its so very sad to watch. Even though he has no feeling at all in his back at times, he is up at the crack of dawn and does three hours of live television which he is, of course, very good at. The viewers love him but you do have to wonder how long this is going to go on.

Eamonn Holmes was hosting his GB News Breakfast show with Ellie Costello when he fell causing the programme to go to a long six-minute advert break

So often there is an incident, something for the production staff to deal with, and its hard.

Last Tuesday, for instance, viewers were left deeply worried when he disappeared from his show 40 minutes before the end and failed to return, leaving his co-host Ellie Costello to anchor alone.

And on yesterdays programme, guest political commentator Charlie Rowley could only look on in horror as Eamonn fell from his chair while interviewing him.

Viewers couldnt see the fall but a crash could be heard off screen and co-host Ellie gasped: Oh, my gosh!

Eamonn, ever the consummate professional, was then heard saying: Im fine, fine, fine, carry on, carry on. Charlie tried to continue but the programme cut to adverts seonds later.

One witness said that it took almost five minutes to get Eammon off the ground and back into his chair. But, after a good six-minute break, he was back on the screen, joking: Im still alive, as he blamed the wonky wheels on his chair (which, to be fair, other GB News presenters have also complained about).

Theyre very wonky wheels on chairs weve got here, as a matter of fact we dont really like the chairs here, he said to Ellie.

He went on to tell her that a recent accident hed suffered at home made the chair fall even more agonising. It was a shock for me because I had a fall two weeks ago in my bathroom that hospitalised me and that hit me right in the back. And this hit me again  right in the back. Really, really sore, really sore.

Charlie Rowley's shocked reaction to Eamonns fall yesterday

While fans were quick to wish him well online, just five hours later he was winning attention on social media for very different reasons.

His younger girlfriend Katie Alexander, 43, the therapist he met online at the end of his relationship with his wife of 14 years, Ruth Langsford, had posted a video of her and Eamonn enjoying a day out in the sunshine.

Not only did it show the star beaming with happiness but it was the first time the couple had posted personal pictures on Instagram  or gone Instagram official, to coin the term used by those on social media to endorse a romance.

With The Levellers song What A Beautiful Day playing in the background, Katie captioned the cosy snaps: Lovely weather... Lovely company.

Then there was a clip of her, dressed in a polka dot dress, as she posed with Eamonn alongside his wheelchair and her dog Dottie.

While the couple were first photographed together on a luxury Mediterranean cruise last summer as well as at several showbusiness events, there has been much debate as to whether they are actually a couple.

Yesterday, a friend of Eamonn refused to reveal how romantic their relationship is but told me: They are very happy. Eamonn is a bright and interesting guy and I can see why Katie finds him good company. She is very intellectually stimulated by him but, yes, its an odd relationship. He is aware of that.

Is it a full-on one? Probably not. Is it a friendship? Yes.

Is there genuine, close affection? Yes there is, and its lovely.

Holmes with his younger girlfriend Katie Alexander. While the couple were first photographed together on a luxury Mediterranean cruise last summer, there has been much debate as to whether they are actually a couple

However, it is unlikely that they will live together because Katie has refused to move into his penthouse flat in Kingston, South-West London. Instead, she prefers to stay in her native Yorkshire where she co-parents her two teenage children with her ex-husband. My source added: Eamonn loves female company and he loves spending time with Katie. She looks after him and she keeps him going, she keeps him happy and sometimes that is hard.

Indeed, Eamonns recent troubles have marked a far cry from his days as the king of breakfast TV.

He began presenting ITVs GMTV in 1993 alongside stalwarts Anthea Turner and Fiona Phillips  breaking the news of Princess Dianas death in August 1997. After leaving the show in 2005, he spent another 11 years on the early morning airwaves, this time for Sky where he hosted their Sunrise programme between 5am and 9.30am. He went on to host ITVs This Morning alongside his now estranged wife Ruth Langsford, whom he married in 2010.

He was so popular that magazines such as Hello! and newspapers reported huge spikes in sales when they put him on their front cover. So why, then, does Eamonn continue to work if it is causing him so much discomfort? After all it is not exactly the fairy-tale ending to the glittering career that he once dreamed of. He loves working, his viewers love him, and he has a big tax bill to pay, a friend of Eamonns told me yesterday.

He will struggle to retire, he has too many bills to pay.

Eamonn has been embroiled in a battle with HMRC over whether he was freelance or on staff while working on This Morning. Eamonn has claimed he worked on a freelance basis and received payments via his company Red White and Green Limited, meaning he paid less tax.

However tax officials ruled he was staff and ordered him to pay years of backdated national insurance and tax bills  which could have come to some 250,000.

Last year he revealed he was forced to sell a property he owned in his native Belfast to pay some of the bill. His friend told me Eamonn feels he has lost everything, adding: As a result, he needs to keep earning. There is no let-up for him and it makes for a very tough life. He cant see an end point to that at the moment.

Also on Eamonns mind is his increasingly tricky divorce from Ruth  the mother of his youngest son Jack, 23. Ruth was his second marriage, his first was to Gabrielle Holmes whom he married in 1985 and divorced in 2005. They have three children together: Declan, Rebecca, and Niall.

Eamonn and Ruth were once ITVs golden couple, almost on a par with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan, and were said by many to be more popular than Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield when they covered for them on This Morning.

They also cashed in on the grey pound with lucrative advertising deals to sell products and services aimed at the over-55s.

One was with Revitive, a US firm selling a 300 device to improve circulation, reduce puffy feet and ankles, and strengthen legs. Eamonn also signed a five-figure deal with Age Partnership in 2020, which organises equity release plans for homeowners over the age of 55.

But last May I revealed that they had decided to split after 27 years together and divorce proceedings are ongoing.

Friends of the pair tell me that things have become very, very tricky for them as they face selling their beloved 3.2 million house in Weybridge, Surrey.

Those who know Eamonn say he has been left very upset as he believes that associates of Ruths are attacking him from all different directions and putting the blame on him for the split. He is also furious with Ruth for publishing their separation on social media to confirm my revelation.

It seems so unnecessary, said one. It was a two-way breakdown and it came to the end of its journey yet there are all of these anti-Eamonn stories being printed everywhere. You have to wonder whether thats her friends on some kind of campaign.

Ruth is now able to get on with her life and Eamonn his. But sadly things are looking like they are going to be a lot more difficult for him.
Billionaire Elon Musk cannot quit Washington, D.C.

Despite signaling to the world he was ready to step back from politics, Musk stepped into the Oval Office quietly on Wednesday with the president to observe a dramatic showdown on an issue he cares about.

Musk watched with amusement as Trump asked his aides to dim the lights and play a video montage for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa featuring evidence of a 'white genocide' in his country - despite his insistence it is not happening.

It is an issue that Musk, who was born in South Africa, is extremely passionate about.

Trump could not resist giving Musk as shoutout, event though he knows that negative attention follows when they appear together.

'Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do, get him into another thing,' he chuckled lightly. 'But Elon is from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted.'

Trump said that Elon was more focused on sending rockets to Mars.

'I don't want to talk to him about that, I don't think it's fair to him,' he added.

US Vice President JD Vance, US White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and Elon Musk look on as US President Donald Trump meets with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa

US President Donald Trump hands papers to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting

Musk did not speak, but images of him staring intently at the South African president went viral as people speculated what he was really thinking.

Despite his efforts to distance himself, Musk cannot help using his visiting privileges with President Trump when he wants to.

Predictions that the friendship between the tempestuous billionaires would eventually blow up never materialized, as both have retained a genuine respect for each other people familiar with their relationship tell the Daily Mail.

When Trump first took office, the world watched as one of the richest men on the planet was ambling around the White House wearing a 'tech support' T-shirt with a MAGA hat.

At Trump's cabinet meeting at the end of April, Musk put on a Gulf of America hat on top of his other hat, joking that he wore so many hats that 'even my hat has a hat.'

'Elon, I love the double hat, but he's the only one can do that, and get away with it,' Trump said, shaking his head.

Musk tried to achieve what every successful business CEO dreams of - enacting significant reforms in a wasteful and ineffective government.

But Musk was distracted, the business community fretted, as the left tried to punish him for cutting out funding for some of their favorite causes.

Leader of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk wears a shirt that says "Tech Support" as he speaks during a cabinet meeting with US President Donald Trump

Elon Musk, wearing two hats, speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House

In recent weeks, however, Musk has been on a bit of a reboot, starting with a new profile on his X account reading 'Kekius Maximus,' suggesting that the 'emperor' of the tech industry had returned.

'He's definitely going to be more heavy there,' one source told the Daily Mail, referring to Musk's businesses, adding that Tesla's robotaxi would probably be his biggest focus in the future.

President Trump has noticeably turned his attention away from Musk, sending him fewer messages of support on his social media account in recent weeks.

Trump did not mention Musk in any of his Truth Social posts in April or May, according to a Politico analysis of his posts. That's a steep decline from when he first took office and was constantly posting about DOGE and Musk's accomplishments.

Musk's posts on X also appear to be veering away from politics and more toward his projects.

Although Musk traveled with Trump to the Middle East, he was not pulling the same scene-stealing fascination from dignitaries or the press in the room.

When he returned, Musk spent the week in an unprecedented show of force in the business community, previewing his big plans for Tesla, Starlink, and Space X.

A bullish Musk spoke to CNBC's David Faber at Tesla's megafactory on Tuesday to speak about the future of the company and its new focus on autonomous robotaxis.

Musk detailed his plan to debut the robotaxi on the streets of Austin at the end of June beginning small and scaling up rapidly.

But he's already thinking bigger than that, channeling a Jawa from Star Wars eagerly trying to sell the Skywalkers some droids.

'I think humanoid robots will be the biggest product ever. The demand will be insatiable,' he said about the company's proposed 'Optimus' robot. 'Everyone's gonna want one, basically, who wouldn't want their own personal C3PO or R2D2. Everyone's going to want one.'

Musk also appeared via video link for an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum, wearing a sheepskin lined leather jacket to outline his plans for the future.

His supporters chattered on social media that he was channeling the forceful Batman villain Bane, ready to seize control of his companies again and propel them to new heights.

Elon Musk participates in an interview with the Qatar Economic Forum

Senior Advisor to the US President Elon Musk laughs with US President Donald Trump (2nd-L), as Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (2nd-R) and his spouse Sheikha Jawaher (R) greet a guest ahead of a state dinner

He shrugged off leftist Tesla owners who put stickers on their vehicles excusing their ownership of the one-time iconic electric car because they purchased it 'before Elon was crazy.'

'They're also people buying it because Elon is crazy or however they view it,' he said in reaction to the change.

Tesla, he insisted, was already bouncing back as the company's stock has already risen by 60 percent since it hit historic lows in April.

Musk also broke news during the event that he was moving away from politics and political spending.

'In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future,' he said at the Qatar Economic Forum.

'I think I've done enough,' he added, sparking laughter in the audience.

A person familiar with Musk's activities did not rule out the billionaire getting financially engaged in the congressional midterms, but suggested he was dialing it back.

'Hard to say if he will do the same sort of thing like putting everything on pause to do rallies,' the source said.

U.S President Donald Trump, left, chats with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, center, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to the media next to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, with a Tesla car in the background, at the White House

Musk also outlined his plans for the year ahead: Getting his massive Starship rocket to be reusable, developing Neuralink, and getting it to help restore sight to the blind, and reaching digital super intelligence in AI.

'It's a big year for sure,' he added.

His world-famous DOGE effort was not mentioned, as Musk has made it clear he plans to step back from his endeavor to slash government spending, waste, fraud, and abuse to make government more efficient.

Musk has an enormous chip on his shoulder, as he blames the left and the legacy media for trying to destroy his companies because of his work at DOGE.

'I mean, unfortunately, what I've learned is that legacy media propaganda is very effective at making people believe things that aren't true,' he said.

He has no regrets either, he assured the press, claiming he 'did what needed to be done,' and that the left's response was a 'violent antibody reaction.'

Musk believes they will pay for vandalizing his companies, customers of his vehicles, and issuing violent and personal threats against him.

'What's wrong with these people? Something needs to be done about them. A number of them will go to prison,' he said confidently.

'Those people will go to prison and the people that funded and organized them will also go to prison, don't worry, we're coming for you,' he said, staring at the camera and pointing his finger.

The message was clear: Musk is back, and ready for revenge.
A Scottish prison officer has walked free from court despite being caught possessing extreme donkey porn and child abuse images.

Peter Sugden, 46, from Falkirk, delivered 'intensive' rehab courses to sex offenders but has now been placed on the register himself following the grim discovery.

Sugden's home was raided by police in June last year after he was caught in a 'sting' set up by a London-based group of paedophile hunters.

The former HMP Edinburgh officer appeared for sentence at Falkirk Sheriff on Tuesday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to communicating indecently with someone he was under the impression was a child named Abbie.

But this was actually an adult female decoy named Sonia.

Sugden, now a driver living in Rumford, also admitted to possessing and downloading child pornography, and possessing extreme porn including images depicting a woman engaged in sexual activity with a donkey and men engaged in sexual activity with dogs.

The court chillingly heard that 12 child sexual abuse and exploitation images were found during the raid, along with one child sexual abuse and exploitation video.

Two of the photographs were considered Category A, the most serious kind.

Peter Sugden, 46, from Falkirk, delivered 'intensive' rehab courses to sex offenders but has now been placed on the register himself following the grim discovery

Following the hearing, Sugden has already paid to undertake rehab work the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and has been engaging with child abuse prevention charity Stop It Now!

Sheriff Craig Harris placed Sugden under supervision for three years and on the sex offenders register for the same period of time.

He also ordered Sugden to complete 210 hours of unpaid work in the next two years and imposed a string of strict conduct requirements affecting Sugden's internet use.

Sheriff Harris said: 'These offences involve a high degree of culpability.

'In terms of harm, viewing, downloading and distributing indecent images of children is part of the process of child abuse.

'Those who access material bear responsibility for the abuse for creating a demand for such material.

'You worked yourself with sex offenders. You delivered a high intensity programme.'

Sugden's solicitor, Sarah McIlwham, said he had no previous convictions.

She said: 'Until the events which bring us to court today, he was a happily married man - married for over 20 years. There are two children of that union.

'Up until this offence, he'd been working in SPS as a prison officer for in excess of 22 years.

The former HMP Edinburgh officer appeared for sentence at Falkirk Sheriff on Tuesday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to communicating indecently with someone he was under the impression was a child named Abbie. Pictured: Aerial view of HMP Edinburgh

'He had a very positive upbringing. His parents are here today.

'These offences have caused great distress, not only to his ex-wife and daughters but also to his parents and immediate family.

'Mr Sugden is a man who never thought he would be in front of the courts but finds himself here after a significant lapse in judgement.

'It's something for which he's deeply remorseful and regretful of. However he takes full responsibility.

'He's had his life turned upside down by these offences.

'He was put out the family home. He has not returned, he has no chances of reconciliation with his wife and quite frankly he is too ashamed to try.

'Similarly, the relationship he has with his two daughters is strained.

'There was a lapse in judgement. His mental health prior to this offending had been significantly down. He's currently medicated for that. He doesn't see himself coming off this medication for some time.

'He is a man somewhat broken by his actions.'
The bitter Coalition split erupted live on national television, with tensions boiling over as Liberal leader Sussan Ley's team dramatically texted into the ABC studio to publicly contradict Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie during her appearance on 7.30.

In a fiery interview with journalist Sarah Ferguson, McKenzie claimed the sole reason for the rupture was Ley's refusal to guarantee four key policy ultimatums - a move she said left the Nationals no choice but to walk.

The party had requested the Coalition maintain policies on supermarket divestiture powers, regional phone coverage, nuclear energy, and the Regional Australia Future Fund.

'Sussan Ley could not give our party room the guarantee we sought,' McKenzie said.

'She couldn't give that guarantee to us. She refused to. She put it in writing.

'We put that to our party room, and our party room decided we were to leave the coalition.'

McKenzie strongly denied that the fallout was over the National's desire for their shadow cabinet members to be free from obeying the rules of sticking to overall Coalition cabinet decisions.

'I can tell you, because I was in the National party room that made this decision, the decision that was then conveyed to the Liberal leader. And that was not part of our consideration  it was solely on those four policies,' she said.

But while McKenzie was on air, Liberal leader Sussan Ley's team was texting into the studio, refuting the claims.

Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie (pictured) maintained the Coalition partnership had ended when Liberal leader Sussan Ley refused to confirm four key policies

'It is not correct to suggest shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point,' the text said.

'We have it in writing that it was a requirement from their leader's office to ours.'

Ley's office texted again to add: '(McKenzie's) language was deliberate to make it sound like it was just about the policies. That is just not correct.'

When the texts were put to McKenzie, she told the ABC in a statement that she stood by her comments.

'The claims made above were not the basis of the Nationals party room decision not to form a Coalition at this time,' she said.

Viewers who witnessed the tense interview and Ferguson reading out the text declared it was 'all out war now' on social media.

'Factional bloodsport dressed up as leadership,' one user said.

Another commented: 'They ain't getting back together anytime soon and I don't think therapy with Howard or Abbott will bring a union either.'

Ley (pictured) then texted into ABC during the interview disagreeing with McKenzie's claims

Tension had been growing between the two former Coalition partners since the Labor's federal election landslide on May 3.

Division was only made worse when Senator Jacinta Price defected from the Nationals to sit with the Liberal party to run in a joint-ticket for leadership with Angus Taylor.

After the former shadow treasurer was defeated, Price withdrew her hat from the ring.

The Coalition has only split three times in the last 100 years.

The last time was in 1987 over the 'Joh for Canberra' campaign, which pushed for Queensland National Party premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become Prime Minister.

Then, the two parties split for a matter of months before the rift healed after the 1987 federal election.
Not a single city in a sought-after deep-blue West Coast state ranked among the top best 100 places to live in the United States.

Earlier this week, US News & World Report released its 2025-2026 Best Places to Live rankings, showcasing the top 250 major cities in America based on factors such as value, desirability, job market and quality of life.

In a surprising twist, California was absent from the results, despite its reputation for being one of the most desirable and expensive places to settle down.

While the top three most expensive living cities in the nation - Newport Beach, Westminster and Daly City - are all located in the Golden State, the latest rankings suggest the high cost doesn't necessarily equate to being considered the best places to live.

Folsom, located in Sacramento City, was the highest-ranked California city, but still came in at a modest 119 on the list.

With more than 400 cities in California, only three broke into the top 200: Palo Alto at 148, Cupertino at 151 and San Ramon at 180.

In the nationally renowned publication's 2025-2026 Best Big Cities to Live list, the trend held true for California, which only continued to be overlooked - San Diego was the highest-ranked, coming in at No. 15.

San Francisco, the first Bay Area city to make the list, came in at No. 20, followed closely behind by San Jose at No. 24.

US News & World Report released its 2025-2026 Best Places to Live rankings showcasing the top 250 major cities, and not a single city in California ranked among the top best 100 places to live in the United States (pictured: Downtown Los Angeles)

Folsom, located in Sacramento City, was the highest-ranked California city (pictured: historic street in Folsom)

Although Folsom was the highest-ranked California city on the list, it still came in at a modest 119 (pictured: aerial of a neighborhood in Folsom)

If the so-called land of dreams and influence isn't even considered among the best places to live, then where exactly is the ideal place to call home?

According to US News, the answer lies in Georgia, in a charming town called Johns Creek.

With a population of nearly 79,000, Johns Creek is the 10th largest city in Georgia, boasting nationally-ranked schools, consistently high safety ratings and strong cultural diversity, according to the website.

Johns Creek top ranking was determined by analyzing 859 of the most populated cities in the country, considering factors such as job market, value, quality of life and desirability.

The four main criteria were selected through a February 2025 public survey, in which people from across the country identified what they believed was the most important factor in making a decision on where to reside.

The Quality of Life category is weighed at 26 percent and includes factors that contribute to overall well-being, though they don't always affect a resident's day-to-day life.

Some of the factors analyzed included quality of education, quality and availability of health care, air quality index, environmental risk, state economy and state infrastructure.

The Value Index category is weighed at 25 percent and measures how comfortably each resident can afford to live within their means - ultimately measured by the median annual household income with the housing cost in each city, along with a regional Cost of Living index.

With more than 400 cities in California, only three broke into the top 200 - Palo Alto being the first, ranking at No. 148 (pictured: view of Stanford University in Palo Alto)

Cupertino, California, ranked at No. 151 on this year's list (pictured: aerial view of single family residential neighborhood in Cupertino)

San Ramon, California, ranked at No. 180 on the list, suggesting that the high cost doesn't necessarily equate to being considered the best places to live (pictured: homes on cul-de-sac streets in the hills of San Ramon)

In Johns Creek, the median home value is $528,234 compared to the national average of $370,489. The national median household income, however, is $163,653 - much higher compared to the national median household income of $79,466.

The city's job market also significantly outperforms the national average, with an unemployment rate of 2.84 percent compared to the country's 4.5 percent.

The Desirability category is weighed at 24 percent and measures factors that contribute to residents' happiness, focusing on elements that directly impact their day-to-day living.

Some of these factors include crime rates, weather conditions, the city's access to cultural, leisure, retail and dining, as well as average commute times.

In Johns Creek, the average commute time is 25.99 minutes - more than the national average.

However, in a place with plentiful job opportunities, the Southern city offers a wealth of shopping, dining and recreational options, all while maintaining a sparse, suburban feel.

The Job Market category is weighed at 23 percent, while the remaining two percent is allocated to the Net Migration category, which measures whether people are moving to or away from each city.

Although the Georgia city was crowned the winner for the 2025-2026 season, three Texas cities made it to the top 10 - Pearland at No. 3, League City at No. 2 and Leander at No. 8.

Earlier this year, it was predicted that the deeply conservative state was on track to become America's most populous, particularly as disgruntled liberals continue to flee the Golden State.

Texas is expected to claim the top spot by 2045 - according to data published by Realtor.com in February - as its population soars from 31 million to a projected 42 million.

California residents have cited its high cost of living and poor quality of life as factors in driving them away, and from 2019 to 2022 the population continually plummeted.

The best place to live in America for the 2025-2026 season lies in Georgia, in a charming town called Johns Creek, which was ranked as the number one city (pictured: Johns Creek)

Johns Creek top ranking was determined by analyzing 859 of the most populated cities in the country, considering factors such as job market, value, quality of life and desirability (pictured: park in Johns Creek)

In a place with plentiful job opportunities, the Southern city offers a wealth of shopping, dining and recreational options, all while maintaining a sparse, suburban feel (pictured: community event in Johns Creek)

The Golden State's population rose slightly - 0.17 percent - in 2023. If it remains on the same growth trajectory, the state won't reach pre-pandemic levels until 2032.

While California has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic, Texas has seen a boom in residents flocking to cities such as Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.

In March, it was revealed that Fremont, California, was crowned the 'happiest place' to live in America based on its financial stability, high life satisfaction and healthy living conditions, according to WalletHub.

Despite being known for its nationally recognized public schools and gorgeous parks, some residents have a major gripe about Fremont - boredom.

Analysts expressed that an 'ideal city' has living conditions that 'foster good mental and physical health', including reasonable work hours, short commutes, good weather and caring neighbors.

Yet not everyone was thrilled with Fremont's title, suggesting that despite the recognition, it may still not be the ideal place to live - and it didn't even make it onto the US News & World Reports list this year.

Also featured in the top 10 best places to live is Carmel, Indiana; Fisgers, Indiana; Cary, North Carolina; Apex, North Carolina; Rochester Hills, Michigan; and Troy, Michigan.

For the full US News & World Report ranking, you can visit their website.
A young mother died in mysterious circumstances while on holiday in Turkey - with a UK autopsy revealing that doctors had removed her heart without her family's knowledge.

Beth Martin, 28, from Portsmouth, was rushed to hospital after she became 'delirious' just one day into a dream trip away with her husband Luke and two children, aged eight and five.

She was quickly placed into critical care but tragically passed away around a day after she was first admitted on April 28.

Beth's family claim they were kept in the dark about the seriousness of her condition and subsequent death - with Luke even being accused of 'poisoning' his wife by the Turkish authorities.

And in a further sickening development, a UK autopsy later revealed Beth's heart had been removed after she passed away in Turkey, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for her family.

It is also understood the hospital where Beth was treated is now being investigated for potential negligence amid the raft of claims levelled against them.

It's understood she was allergic to penicillin, with her loved ones alleging that doctors gave her the drug before her death.

Beth's family have now been left desperately searching for answers about how and why she died - with Luke saying he has suffered the 'deepest level of trauma'.

He said having to tell his young children they will never see their mother again 'broke him' and he described the ordeal as the 'worst week of his life'.

Beth Martin, pictured with husband Luke, was rushed to hospital after she became 'delirious'

Beth, 28, from Portsmouth, with her husband Luke and two children, aged eight and five

Beth's family were reportedly kept in the dark about the seriousness of her condition and death

'Two weeks ago me, my wife and two kids set out for a family holiday to Turkey. Only three of us made it back,' Luke wrote on social media on May 11.

'I lost my wife, my children lost their mum, we lost the biggest piece of the puzzle that was our family.

'It has been the worst and most traumatic week of my entire life, and to top it off. I had to break the news to my babies that their mum isn't coming home, it broke me.'

The Martin family flew out to Turkey on Sunday, April 27, but it is understood Beth started to feel unwell soon after they touched down in the airport.

Luke called an ambulance the following day and she was taken to a 'destitute' hospital where she was quickly moved into intensive care.

According to the GoFundMe page, Luke was 'banned' from seeing his wife and was not regularly updated on her condition while she was being cared for.

It is understood that doctors did raise some concerns about Beth's heart but she died the day after she was admitted to the hospital.

To compound the nightmare, Luke was reportedly accused of poisoning his wife and interrogated by police. He was subsequently cleared and no further action was taken.

In further claims levelled against Turkish authorities, the family also say they were made to carry Beth's body in a bag through the hospital.

They then said they were told they would have to wait more than two weeks to repatriate her body so Luke 'paid thousands' for Beth to be flown home on the same flight as him.

Beth was just a day into a trip with her husband Luke when she was rushed to husband

A UK autopsy later revealed Beth's heart had been removed after she passed away

Luke was even accused of 'poisoning' his wife by the Turkish authorities

Luke added in his social media post: 'I stayed in Turkey another two days to ensure she was brought back, and booked myself on the same flight home.

'Knowing my wife was still on my flight but I couldn't be next to her broke me even more.

'The harsh reality of coming home and the world's still spinning as if nothing has happened is horrible. Realisation of becoming mum and dad, packing her clothes away for the last time, and the deafening silence when the kids are asleep.

'If anyone can take anything away from thishold your loved ones a little longer, don't sleep on an argument, take photos, take videos, tell them you love them more. You will never know when any of these may be your last.

'I love you babe, forever by my side. This life and the next.'

The GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the Martin family has already hit a total of more than 100,000.

Writing on the page, organiser Robert Hammond said: 'In the weeks since bringing Beth home the family is battered and bruised.

'Everyone is a shell of themselves and no one knows how to even begin to recover from something so horrific.. yet still  it gets worse.

'The UK autopsy began. And then the final blow: Beths heart was missing.

'The Turkish hospital has removed it. No explanation. No consent. They have invaded her body and they have TAKEN her heart.'

He continued: 'And this is why we are fighting back. Luke has spent thousands. Hes self-employed, meaning that if hes not back to work in a matter of days, he wont be able to support his family.

'They are grieving, traumatised  and now trying to put the pieces of their family back together.

'After everything the family have been through - Luke believes passionately that this is something that cannot be taken lying down.'

Beth's family have been left desperately searching for answers about how and why she died

Luke said having to tell his young children they will never see their mother again 'broke him'

The hospital where Beth was treated is now being investigated for potential negligence

There is no suggestion at this time that Beth Martin's heart has been illegally harvested.

Official advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) notes that under Turkish law, coroners can take small tissue samples and organs for testing 'without the family's permission'.

'You will not automatically be told if this happens,' the advice notes.

While organs will normally be returned before a person's body is released, the FCDO adds, 'in exceptional circumstances, body parts might be kept without permission.'

However, the practice of illegal organ trading is alive well in Turkey, where hospitals have previously faced accusations of stealing organs and facilitating illegal transplants for wealthy people looking to jump the queue.

According to the World Health Organisation-affiliated Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, the country has one of the highest transplant rates in the world: 61.5 for every million inhabitants as of 2023, compared to a global average of 25.84.

WHO has previously suggested one in 10 organ transplants across the globe are conducted illegally - with donors either coerced or having organs removed unwillingly.

Investigators and researchers have determined the trade thrives on the exploitation of poor and vulnerable people, such as victims of human trafficking and asylum seekers who have resorted to selling their organs to make money.

The underground nature of the trade makes it hard to predict exactly how many illegal transplants are carried out, or how much organs fetch on the black market.

An popular - but unsourced - figure suggests a human heart can fetch $1million on the black market.

A more solid estimate, from a 2017 report by think tank Global Financial Integrity, suggested hearts could fetch $130-290k (96-216k), with lungs worth a similar amount.

In Turkey, the market remains rife despite the threat of years-long prison sentences to those convicted of harvesting or selling human tissue.

An organ-trading network operated by Jordanian and Palestinian nationals was busted in Istanbul by Turkish authorities in 2021.

Riyadh broadsheet Arab News reported that the transplant ring was operating from a hospital in the capital's Beylikduzu area, using forged documents, with donors promised $15,000 and the hospital given a $15,000 cut.

The donors were usually not given their promised share.

And earlier this year, an investigation by German outlet DW heard from a Kenyan man, Amon Kipruto Mely, who sold his kidney for $6,000 (4,500), of which he only ever received two thirds.

He donated his organ at the Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret, western Kenya, which has been accused of exploiting a Kenyan law allowing relatives to donate organs.

It was accused of gathering rich clients from Israel and Germany and bringing them to Kenya as long-lost relatives so they could get fast-tracked black-market transplants.

The firm accused of facilitating the transplants, MedLead, was founded by Robert Shpolanski, an Israeli citizen accused by Tel Aviv magistrates of carrying out a 'large number' of illegal transplants in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Sri Lanka  and Turkey.

MedLead maintains that it has no involvement in locating donors and that it adheres transparently and to the letter of the law. However, Kenyan authorities have shut down transplants at the Mediheal hospital pending further investigation.
Rep. Nancy Mace sought to use naked images taken from her ex-fiance's phone to try to secure a full interest in two valuable homes from him, her former advisor alleges in a bombshell new deposition.

The advisor says under oath Mace, R-S.C., asked him to meet with her ex and use the images as leverage  long before she delivered a stunning House floor speech claiming to have 'receipts' that would bring down a ring of predators and sex traffickers.

The former advisor, Wesley Donehue, says in the deposition first obtained by the Daily Mail that the South Carolina congresswoman asked him to relay information to her ex-fiance Patrick Bryant about photos and videos she said she found on his phone of multiple women.

One was of a 'girl on a couch' who according to Mace was 'passed out.' Another was a picture of Mace  Mace says it was of her getting up to use the bathroom, according to the deposition.

Her intention was to use the information 'as leverage to gain 100 percent ownership' of two homes she shared with Bryant, one in Washington, D.C., and another in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, Donehue said in the deposition. The properties have a combined value of more than $5 million.

'Did she specifically say to you 'Please meet with Patrick and show him these images and tell him I'll make them public if he doesn't give me both houses?' a lawyer for Bryant asked the former Mace advisor.

'Yes,' he responded.

Asked if it was 'effectively an effort to extort or blackmail Patrick,' Donehue responded, 'Yeah.'

Donehue knew both parties, but said the role made him uncomfortable and put him in the middle of a fraught situation.

A former advisor to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) says in a bombshell deposition that she asked him to use images she obtained from her ex-fiance's phone to secure ownership in two valuable properties

A source familiar with the matter said Donehue was making 'a wild, outlandish allegation.'

'He thought he was helping his friend, but all he did was confirm her story,' said the source, who called Donehue a 'disgruntled former vendor' who is close friends with Bryant.

The deposition comes after Donehue met with SLED, the South Carolina law enforcement department, and after he was subpoenaed by a lawyer for her ex, he told FITS news, a South Carolina political site that obtained the document. It is connected to a civil case.

SLED has confirmed it opened an investigation into Byant following Mace's allegations against him. None of the people Mace has accused have been charged with a crime.

Donehue recalled the conversation he had on Mace's behalf as taking place at a lunch meeting in November 2023.

Mace and Bryant had been battling over their jointly owned $3.9 million beach home and their $1.3 million Washington, D.C., property, the Daily Mail reported in December 2023.

Daily Mail has reached out to Mace and the lawyer who conducted the deposition.

A Mace source noted that it was the lawyer questioning Donehue who first brought up the alleged 'effort to extort or blackmail Patrick,' using 'blackmail' again in a subsequent question.

The deposition came to light a day after Mace in an extraordinary public hearing on voyeurism followed up on her earlier accusations of Bryant and other men of being sexual 'predators' and running a rape and sex trafficking ring.

The men have vigorously denied the allegations, which Mace first leveled in a shocking speech on the House floor.

Mace went through an angry split with ex Patrick Bryant. The deposition comes after Mace raised accusations against Bryant and other men in a stunning floor speech

Mace and Bryant had joint ownership of properties in South Carolina and D.C. that proved contentious after they split

Donehue said the request made him uncomfortable. He also claims Mace's emotional stability was 'crumbling' and she had inappropriate conversations about her sex life

Donehue says in his deposition that Mace asked him to meet with Bryant shortly before the then-couple traveled to the Caribbean

Donehue says he observed weight loss and said in his depo that Mace was emotionally 'distraught' during her tumultuous relationship with Bryant

During the hearing Mace shared what she said was a 'naked silhouette' of herself that she said was taken without her consent.

Donehue also spoke in the deposition about what he said was Mace's state of mind before he says he 'fired' her  in just one instance of the staff turmoil she has experienced.

'She was losing a lot of weight, she was getting what she called stress tattoos ... she was emotionally distraught at this point in the year. And in my view, her emotional stability was crumbling.'

'So I don't wanna make it seem like she was just this machine that didn't care about anything. She very much cared. But it was coming across as erratic and unstable.'

Mace was at the White House this week as first lady Melania Trump attended the bill signing for a bill to stop revenge porn, and continues to advocate for women she says are victims of abuse after promoting a new hotline for complaints on the House floor.

She shared multiple images at a House subcommittee she chaired Tuesday, although portions of the images were blocked out, and some appeared to be taken from a home security camera in a living room area.

Donehue also spoke in the deposition about Mace saying 'inappropriate' things in their former interactions.

'Nancy talks about her sex life in a way that I've never heard a client or a woman talk about,' said Donehue, a consultant who operates Push Digital Group and other companies.

He said 'it's like every conversation would devolve into whats going on in her sex lifesomething that she talked about all the time and I always felt uncomfortable with.'

He also said in the deposition that even after she said she felt for her safety she said she was 'going to the Caribbean with Patrick and some of his friends, which I questioned, because I said "Nancy, you can't say that you fear for your safety and you're going to the Caribbean with him and some of his friends.'

'Then she said - and I remember as clear as day - "I'm taking my free vacation in the Caribbean.'

He says he told her 'Nancy, as your campaign consultant, if it ever comes out that you knew of women being harmed and you didn't do anything about it, your career is over,' he said.

He ultimately 'cut ties' with her for a variety of reasons, saying he felt 'uncomfortable' with the things Mace was asking him to do, according to his deposition testimony.

Bryant has denied Mace's allegations against him, calling them false and malicious.

Another man Mace identified, South Carolina businessman Brian Musgrave, has sued Mace for defamation, and she has countersued, claiming he defamed her through 'malicious and objectively false attacks on her fitness to hold public office.'

Donehue was asked during his deposition about Mace's scorched earth floor speech earlier this year and how it compared to what she told him back in 2023.

'The only ... accusation ... was that Patrick was in possession of pictures of naked women taken without their consent and without them knowing he still had them. There was never any discussion of rape or sex trafficking or anything beyond the fact that he had pictures of naked women taken without their consent,' he responded.

He also says in the deposition Mace spoke to him of being physically assaulted by Bryant, and she at one point 'she had a number of bruises on her arm' that he said were 'fingertip-size' above her elbow and that she said he grabbed her. At another point, he said Mace told him Bryant was doing some 'shady things' that 'she was upset and felt for her safety and was planning on breaking up with him.'
Australians are calling for a Queensland detective to be stood down during an investigation into whether he made a sexist comment on a Facebook post.

A photo of two young women holding signs at a rally was posted by Gold Coast Bulletin on May 11 in a story about the push for a national day of action in support of domestic violence victims.

Among the dozens of comments, one said: 'All I see is a lot of women sitting around...and a lot of sandwiches NOT getting made.'

One user slammed the commenter, saying: 'You think this is a joke flogga? I'm embarrassed that you identify as a man.'

The initial account said: 'Poor sensitive little snowflake. Do you need a tissue or someone to ring your mommy for you?

'Give her a minute to answer, she's still making my sandwich.'

The comment has since been deleted, but multiple police sources told the Bulletin the Facebook account is connected to a serving, male, Gold Coast police officer.

A spokesperson for Queensland Police Service (QPS) has said it was 'aware of this matter, which is subject to internal investigation'.

A protest held in Brisbane as part of the national day of action supporting victims of domestic violence. Not the photo that's at the centre of the QPS investigation

The detective's colleagues said he remains on duty.

A QPS spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they are looking into the incident.

'The matter is currently under investigation by the Ethical Standards Command. As the matter is a current investigation we are unable to provide further comment.'

Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy said the comments were 'extremely disappointing'.

'That's not the professional standards I expect. It's not the attitudes I expect.'

'We work hard every single day of the week keeping our victims, victim survivors, safe in domestic and family violence incidents. We expect professional behavior.'

Domestic violence survivor and founder of What Were You Wearing founder, Sarah Williams said QPS should have taken action.

'The detective should have immediately been stood down pending the investigation,' she said.

'I was pretty appalled by how misogynistic and how dehumanising the comment was.'

The comment, which has since been deleted, has been slammed as sexist by survivors of domestic abuse

'It literally reinforces outdated sexist ideas that women belong in the kitchen and quite often that language is used to silence and belittle women who speak out,' she said.

'It goes to show that there's still a desperate need for change in the culture of the Queensland Police Service.'

A 2022 inquiry into Queensland police responses to Domestic Violence heard that 1,676 complaints of sexist, racist, misogynistic and homophobic behaviour were made against officers from 2020 to 2022.

The conclusions of the inquiry suggested the establishment of an independent Police Integrity Unit (PIU) be established by early 2024 to prevent police investigating police.

However, it has yet to be implemented by the state government.

Queensland Minister for Police and Emergency Services Dan Purdie slammed the officer's comments.

'This is unacceptable behaviour, especially by a serving Queensland police officer.

'This matter is before the Ethical Standards Command, overseen by the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC).'
A couple who were living with missing Queensland teenager Pheobe Bishop and drove her to the airport before she disappeared without a trace have been identified.

It comes as the 17-year-old's last posts to social media have also been revealed where she spoke of personal struggles.

The missing teen was scheduled to fly from Bundaberg to Western Australia, via Brisbane, on Thursday May 15, to visit a friend.

However, Pheobe did not check in or board her 8.30am flight, and there has been no sign of her, or her luggage, since.

Detectives have not been able to find her in airport CCTV footage.

Police declared a property in Gin Gin, west of Bundaberg - where Pheobe was living prior to her disappearance - as a crime scene on Wednesday.

A 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback with registration 414-EW3 - believed to be the car she travelled to Airport Drive in - was also declared a crime scene. Police have since seized the car and forensic experts are examining it at a facility in Bundaberg.

Pheobe was living at the address with a couple, James Wood and Tanika Bromley, Daily Mail Australia can reveal. Tanika is the owner of the silver Hyundai.

The couple who were living with Pheobe at the Gin Gin address are James Wood (pictured) and Tanika Bromley

Tanika Bromley (pictured) lived at the Gin Gin address with her partner James Wood, and Pheobe Bishop

The address had become more and more cluttered with rubbish after the couple moved in about six months ago, a neighbour told Daily Mail Australia

Police said on Wednesday that they believe the two people Pheobe was living with were also the ones who drove her to the airport.

The couple's neighbour, Shari Loughland, told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday that Pheobe had only been living there 'for a few weeks, up to a month or two'.

She said living living next door to the couple had become 'horrible' as she had to deal with noise from parties.

Last week she had made a complaint to council and RSPCA about their 'howling dog'.

'They moved in late October or November, and then it's just gotten more and more cluttered with rubbish.

'It was for sale... We did hear last night that someone owns it and they rent from them, so I don't think they actually own it.'

Ms Loughland had said Pheobe came in and out of the home a couple of times, but didn't realise she was actually living at the address until news broke of her disappearance. She did not know why Pheobe was living there.

Pheobe's final posts to social media before her disappearance also came to light on Wednesday, including an eerie March post to TikTok where she described having a conversation with her younger self.

Pheobe shared a repost on May 13 captioned: 'When I die get my dad to lower my coffin so he can let me down one last time'

Pheobe's final posts to social media before her disappearance also came to light on Wednesday (pictured)

She described how she did not 'see nor talk' to her mother any more 'but it's better like this'.

Pheobe also wrote that she had been 'in and out' of home for years, but 'this time we're not going back'.

Other posts suggested the teen had been struggling in recent months, with one saying she was 'losing sleep and losing peace of mind'.

'I'm not built for this town, these aren't my people,' said another March post.

Pheobe also shared a repost on May 13 captioned: 'When I die get my dad to lower my coffin so he can let me down one last time.'

A stomach-churning stench surrounded the home on Thursday morning and Ms Loughland said the remains of up to 11 dead dogs had reportedly been found at the property during police inquiries.

The couple were not at the address on Thursday, while detectives in forensics gear scoured the home.

No charges have been laid over Pheobe's disappearance and Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Mr Wood and Ms Bromley were involved in Pheobe's disappearance.

Pheobe Bishop disappeared without a trace after she failed to board a flight from Bundaberg to Western Australia, via Brisbane, on May 15

Mr Wood owns the dilapidated single-decker coach that has been seen sat outside the property and was recently trying to sell it on Facebook marketplace.

He is divorced and only moved to Gin Gin from Emerald, 500km west in Queensland's Central Highlands, around six months ago after the end of his marriage.

Ms Bromley is understood to be a Gin Gin local and a mother of two. The couple are believed to have moved in together earlier this year.

The pair were questioned by police but later released.

A Queensland police spokesman added on Thursday: 'Currently, no one is in custody in relation to this investigation.

'However police continue to speak to people who know Pheobe.'

The missing teen's shattered family are still holding onto the hope she will turn up safe and sound.

'Phee is still missing our heartache and pain is raw and real,' mum Kylie Johnson posted on social media on Thursday morning.

A 2011 silver Hyundai ix35 hatchback with registration 414-EW3 (pictured) was believed to be the car Pheobe travelled to Airport Drive in

'We as a family are trying to hang onto the light of life that is our Free Spirited Gypsy Soul Phee Phee.

'Phee we need you home, we need to hear your sassy voice and feel your hugs.'

Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson revealed the new details of the police investigation in an update on Wednesday afternoon.

The seized car 'belonged to persons who were residing with Pheobe', he said.

Quizzed over claims Pheobe had been arguing with the driver and was then 'kicked out' of the car, Det Insp Thompson admitted: 'That's forming part of our investigation.'

'Police are still investigating inquiries in relation to the timeline of this vehicle, and in relation to the circumstances of Pheobe travelling to the airport,' he added.

Mr Thompson said Pheobe was living with two people at the Gin Gin address who were not direct family members, and 'she had been with [them] for a while'.

It was those two people who police believe were driving her to the airport, he said.

Pheobe was last seen at 8.30am at Airport Drive in Brundaberg. The teen was travelling with luggage and was wearing a green tank top and grey tracksuit pants

Detectives have spoken to them and 'they are being cooperative with police'.

'We're currently appealing for information as to whereabouts Pheobe was last seen'.

Police are still looking for Pheobe's luggage, but on Wednesday afternoon it had not been located.

It comes after reports that several dead dogs were found at the Gin Gin property where Pheobe was living and removed by police, but Mr Thompson said he could not confirm those reports and 'it's not something I'm aware of'.

A large single-decker bus, daubed with 'Let it ride' above the windscreen, is parked outside the front of the property, and the grounds of the home are littered with trash.

A family member revealed that Pheobe had saved up money and purchased her airfare to visit her boyfriend in WA and was on her way when she vanished.

'He was her high school sweetheart that moved away,' they said.

Another relative said that Pheobe had spoken to her boyfriend on the phone just before she disappeared.

Ms Johnson urged the public to continue sharing her missing persons flyer and contact police with any information

'She didn't check in for her flight to visit her boyfriend who she spoke to on the phone at 8.30am,' they said.

'Her phone has been switched off from this point. She hasn't contacted anyone at all, no one has seen her.'

The teenager's social media accounts have been inactive since she went missing, while her bank account has had no activity since May 14.

A land search was conducted around Airport Drive and the surrounding areas on Monday but police failed to locate any of her personal belongings.

Pheobe's mum, Kylie Johnson, has put up more than 400 missing person posters across Bundaberg and surrounding areas.

Ms Johnson has shared a series of updates on social media.

'As we enter another day with Pheobe still missing our heart's are breaking more and more,' Ms Johnson wrote on Facebook on Wednesday.

'Phee we just need to know that you're ok? We just need to hear your voice!

Pheobe's mum, Kylie Johnson, has put up more than 400 missing person posters across the area and has shared emotional messages to social media every day since she disappeared

'I'm begging anyone that has anything to contact Police Link (on) 131 444.

'We as a family are thankful for the message of support and offers of assistance. Right now we are grasping onto hope and just trying to breath.

'Again all anyone can do to help is: Keep sharing Pheobe's flyer, follow the QLD police for updates and requests for information, keep having conversations with your loved ones, community and colleagues and hold your babies close!

'We would currently do anything to be able to hold our baby tight right now.'

In another message shared on Facebook, the distraught mother said her daughter's disappearance was out of character.

'If you knew Pheobe you would know that she is free spirited and loves hard! She is loyal to the core and cut throat,' Ms Johnson wrote.

She said her daughter last week marked the anniversaries of the deaths of her best friend and family members.

Ms Johnson also shared an emotional plea addressed directly to her daughter, begging her to let them know that she was okay.

It's understood the 17-year-old had saved her own money and was flying to meet her boyfriend who had moved interstate

'Honestly have no words to describe our heartbreak, heartache or fear that we won't see or hear from her again,' Ms Johnson wrote.

'Flea, Flea, my heart tells me that you won't see this, but I love you more than anything in the world.

'Would be homeless just to hear you say "Hey Mummzie what's doing"... I would honestly sell my soul to hear those words.'

Pheobe is described as approximately 180cm (six foot) tall with a pale complexion, long dyed red hair and hazel eyes.

Police are urgently appealing for anyone with dashcam footage of Airport Drive, Commercial Street and Samuels Road area between 8.30am and 9.30am on May 15 to come forward.

Anyone with information regarding Pheobe's whereabouts is urged to contact police link on 131 444.
An Australian father who visited Cambodia has spoken of the horrific conditions inside one of the country's prisons after he was arrested for vandalising an ATM.

Queensland man Ian Muldoon said he was repeatedly gang-raped, beaten, stabbed, and extorted during the nine months he was detained at Prey Sar Prison after he was arrested at the tail-end of his holiday in July 2023.

The prison, located in the capital Phnom Penh, is the country's largest and is notorious for overcrowding, with Amnesty International calling the conditions 'squalid' and 'inhumane'.

Mr Muldoon was stopped by customs officers at Siem Reap International Airport on July 23, right before he was about to board a flight out of the country.

He was detained and accused of damaging an ATM at Smile Mini Mart in Phnom Penh on July 10.

Mr Muldoon said he had planned a holiday to Thailand as he needed to reassess his life after his mother passed away and his relationship fell apart.

He explained going to Cambodia was not part of his original plan as he was supposed to fly to Vietnam but made a last minute decision to travel to Angkor.

On the second day of his 18-day trip, Mr Muldoon went to a bar down the road from his hotel in Phnom Penh and ordered a beer.

He explained the biggest mistake of his life was ringing a cow bell inside the bar, which he did not realise signalled that he would buy the whole bar a round of drinks.

Queensland man Ian Muldoon explained he was gang raped four times while serving a seven-month sentence in Prey Sar Prison for vandalising an ATM in Cambodia

Prey Sar prison in Cambodia is notorious for overcrowding (a newly built area is pictured)

He said ringing the cow bell had unwittingly earmarked him as a Westerner who had money.

'I rang the cow bell and that means you pay for all the drinks for the people in the bar. A couple of the people in the bar must have thought that this Australian guy's got money,' he told documentary maker Ali Tabrizi.

Mr Muldoon said his second error was ordering a Jack Daniels and coke and leaving the drink unattended on the bar while he went to the toilet.

He said when he returned he had a few sips before experiencing an intense migraine, blurred vision, slurred speech and difficulty walking. He suspects the drink was spiked.

When he went to pay the tab, the bartender informed him that he did not have enough local currency and directed him to a nearby convenience store which had an ATM.

Two men followed him out of the bar and to the ATM, but when he arrived he could hardly stand and struggled to use the machine.

'I was unstable on my feet and then got in and tried to put my card into the ATM a fair few times,' Mr Muldoon said.

'I was that unsteady that I fell forward. I protected my face with one hand and then fell forward and my other hand hit the glass.'

Mr Muldoon stumbled back to his hotel and was followed by the two men - who he assumed drugged him with the intention to rob him - but they did not enter his room.

Mr Muldoon said his drink was spiked and by the time he arrived at the convenience store he could hardly stand and struggled to use the ATM (pictured)

He said the ATM's glass screen cracked after he fell forward and used his hands to brace himself

He woke up with an intense headache and patchy recollection of the day before but remembered he had to pay his tab. He went back to the bar and settled it before he continued on his holiday, unaware the CCTV from the ATM made local papers.

About two weeks later, when he tried to board his flight to Bangkok he was stopped by a customs agent who told him there was a black flag against his name.

They took him into a holding room where they spoke to him and showed him papers that were in the local language Khmer.

From there Mr Muldoon was taken from police cells, then court rooms where he was denied access to English translators before he was imprisoned in Prey Sar for months. He said he was only actually charged a month before he was released.

Mr Muldoon explained there were about 400 inmates in his cell and the conditions were disgusting with stifling heat, horrid smells, toilet buckets overflowing and disease rife.

On his second night he saw two big inmates raping a Cambodian man and has been haunted by his screams ever since.

'No one cares and pays attention to any of that. There's a room captain who just turned a blind eye. The police did not care. It continued until they were finished with him,' Mr Muldoon said.

'It was a horrific experience and something you're not prepared to see. Very traumatic. It's something you can't forget.'

Mr Muldoon said he also saw another inmate handcuffed to the back of the cell because he was sick and would not stop using the toilet bucket.

Mr Muldoon claimed the prison (pictured) was corrupt with guards charging money for the smallest privileges

About two weeks later, when he tried to board his flight to Bangkok he was detained by a customs agent and transferred to a police holding cell for damaging the ATM

A group of men took it in turns to beat the man and the next morning, the sick inmate was dead.

He also tried to revive a man who stopped breathing during the night but he was beaten until he was unconscious for trying to help.

He said he witnessed 11 inmates who died in the prison, most after being beaten.

However, his most horrifying moments in prison were when he was gang raped on four separate occasions.

On one occasion, five inmates rushed into the shower and beat Mr Muldoon before they grabbed his arms and legs and forced him faced down onto the fifthly wet floor of the toilet.

'You just feel worthless, powerless, a used up piece of meat. Just wishing I could have done more to fight but I couldn't,' Mr Muldoon said.

On another occasion, drunk prison guards 'plucked' him out of his cell - which he said the guards commonly did to other prisoners - before taking him back to their quarters and assaulting him.

He was beaten with sticks and a set of keys while three of the guards raped him before he was 'thrown back into his cell like it was nothing'.

'I have to speak to people every week including sexual trauma counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, you name it to try and process this,' Mr Muldoon said.

Mr Muldoon (pictured, the day of his arrest) was eventually released in March 2024 and has since been trying to rebuild his life

'Talking about it I can clearly see what happened. I can smell the smells still, I can feel the wetness on my face, the numbness, It's just something that I'll never be able to fully forget. Never.

'They have taken something away from me that can never be returned. I just feel like damaged goods ever since I got back.'

Mr Muldoon said his saving grace was his ex-partner in Australia, who maintained contact with local lawyers and the Australian Embassy.

She was able to transfer him money, via the embassy, which he used for phone calls, clean water and food and to sit up against a wall in a cell.

He claimed the prison was corrupt and the guards charged money for even the smallest of privileges.

The penalty for intentionally damaging an ATM also kept changing from $12,500 to $23,000 to $39,000.

He was eventually sentenced to seven months in prison and he estimates that he spent about $155,000 on phone calls, legal fees, penalties, bribes, food and water.

He claimed some inmates would give the 'generals' who ran the prisons tens of thousands of dollars to be 'released' but it was understood amongst the prisoners they would not get far.

He claimed they were taken somewhere outside the prison and shot or that they were beaten, taken to hospitals and their organs were harvested.

Mr Muldoon was released in March 2024 and has been trying to raise awareness of corruption and the human rights violations in Cambodia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it gave regular consular assistance to Mr Muldoon while he was detained in Cambodia.
Workers at one of Britains biggest banks have been told their bonuses could be cut if they fail to turn up at the office.

HSBC said if they fail to come in for the required three days a week, they could end up being paid less.

It is the latest example of the battle by bosses to reverse the working-from-home trend that started during the pandemic.

HSBC emailed staff at its Birmingham-based business, which employs 23,000 people across offices and branches, on how its hybrid policy would be enforced.

The bank has had the rule, which requires staff to be in the office or with customers for at least 60 per cent of the time, in force for around 18 months.

Its email informed employees that internal attendance data would be used when making decisions on their pay, according to Bloomberg News, which first reported the move.

HSBC declined to comment. In January, it emerged that rival Lloyds would review office attendance as part of performance-related bonus targets for senior bankers.

But, in the case of Lloyds  which previously faced a backlash when it told staff they must come in for at least two days a week  the rule applies only to a small number of senior staff. At HSBC, the latest memo applied to a broader sweep of office-based staff.

HSBC emailed staff at its Birmingham-based business, which employs 23,000 people across offices and branches, on how its hybrid policy would be enforced

HSBC said if they fail to come in for the required three days a week, they could end up being paid less

It came as a separate study yesterday showed workers are increasingly likely to resist orders to return to the office.

Researchers at Kings College London found only 42 per cent would comply with a mandate to be at their desks five days a week, down from 54 per cent three years ago. And it revealed that 50 per cent would look for a new job which allowed some home working if their employer tried to make them come in full-time, up from 40 per cent in 2022.

Many formerly office-based staff who were forced to decamp to the kitchen table during Covid lockdowns grew used to avoiding the daily commute and in some cases moved into bigger homes away from their city centre offices.

But five years on from the pandemic, bosses, as well as some politicians, have become frustrated that a return to the normality of a nine-to-five five-day working week has yet to return.

Many fear working from home can be less productive and limit career opportunities, especially for younger members of staff.
A doctor has hit out at Qantas after she splurged $15,000 on business class flights only to miss out on the dinner service.

Dr Katie Waldman was flying 10 hours from Melbourne to Tokyo with her daughter last week when she waited 30 minutes for her food - before a flight attendant finally admitted they had 'run out'.

'I'm with my four-year-old Amelia and $15,000 or thereabouts is what I've paid for our flights return and I just would've expected the service to be a little bit better,' she said in a TikTok chronicling the incident.

The mother-of-three had rested her daughter's meal, which came out first, on her own tray after she complained about the smell of the chicken dish.

'I'm waiting for my meal to arrive and I notice that everyone around me was being served and mine hadn't come yet,' Dr Waldman said.

After about 30 minutes had gone by, she looked around and saw her fellow business class passengers were now tucking into their dessert.

She asked flight staff how much longer it would take for her meal to arrive.

'The flight attendant said that he saw me eating and he just assumed that I did not want my meal,' she said.

Dr Waldman was not happy Qantas staff just assumed she didn't want her main meal

'He didn't ask me or check with me and I'm like "sorry, what". He had given my meal away so there was none left.

'It's not the end of the world and I will get over it but it's quite annoying. Maybe I'm just being unreasonable.'

Viewers of her video were divided over the blunder, with some saying Dr Waldman had every right to be annoyed after she spent $15,000 on the flights.

'As former cabin crew that's not acceptable, 100 per cent you should have been asked if you still wanted the meal,' one person wrote.

'That is pretty bloody poor. The fact the flight attendant did not even come to you and ask if you were ok. You pay that amount, you expect better service. No, you are not being unreasonable at all,' another said.

'Why would they assume??? It's pretty bad when they don't deliver a meal in business class..' a third commented.

'Complain! This is terrible. Especially business class. We flew Vietnam to Syd and they told me "they forgot to pack the meal for our son" who is intolerant to milk. I said it's a 10hour flight what is he supposed to eat? They said don;t know,' a fourth said.

However, others were less than supportive.

Qantas staff did not serve a passenger their main meal in business class last week

'My heart bleeds for you Dr Katie,' one person sarcastically commented.

'I can't tell if this is a wind up or not,' a second wrote.

'Oh well accidents happen. Maybe they just saw you eating what was Amelia's meal and assumed that was your meal. Or a crew member had the spare meal later,' a third said.

Dr Waldman replied to this comment: 'Accidents shouldn't happen at $15,000'.

Last week, a Qantas passenger hit out at the airline's food options after upgrading to business class for a domestic flight.

The passenger was served a bread roll with Pepe Saya cultured butter, a chicken and mushroom pie, chutney and mushy peas.

The passenger said the bread roll was 'inedible', the peas were 'pretty dry' and branded the decision to serve the pie with chutney as 'weird'.

'This is what $800 gets you,' they said.

A Qantas spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: 'Our crew apologised to Dr Waldman for the confusion with her inflight meal and offered several alternatives.

'Our customer teams have also followed up with Dr Waldman about her experience and offered a $500 travel voucher as a gesture of goodwill.'
Australia has approved a new drug for the treatment of early Alzheimer's disease for the first time in 25 years.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved Donanemab for those suffering mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia due to the condition.

While the drug is not a cure for the disease, it slows the progression of Alzheimer's by clearing a build-up of abnormal proteins in the brain which can cause memory loss and impaired thinking.

Donanemab is given to patients as a 30-minute infusion through the arm every four weeks for a maximum of 18 months.

However, the drug has not been listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

That means Donanemab is not subsidised by the government and can cost patients anywhere from $40,000 to $80,000 a year.

Melbourne grandparents Joel Fulton, 67, and his wife and carer Diane Fulton, 64, said having access to the drug could change their lives.

Mr Fulton spent his life working in the book industry before he was forced into early retirement in 2023 after being diagnosed with early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease the year prior.

Melbourne grandparents Joel Fulton (right) and his wife and carer Diane Fulton (left) are hoping newly-approved drug Donanemab will be added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

Nearly 1.6million Australians are involved in the care of someone living with dementia (stock image)

'Memory was a huge part of my working life in the book trade. After being in the industry for over 40 years, I became the go-to person in my field,' he said.

'I also needed to memorise and confidently sell new lists from publishers every month. Then, slowly but surely, it was as if my memory was being wiped.

'I was aware of this happening but there was nothing I could do to stop it.'

Ms Fulton, who now cares for her husband full-time, recalled his diagnosis as 'the rug being pulled from underneath him'.

'Joel gradually lost all confidence in himself. He's a very different man now, compared to the man he was prior to his diagnosis,' she said.

'Joel has lost the ability to complete many daily tasks independently. He has had to stop driving, which has had a huge impact on him.

'As his wife and full-time carer, I try to keep things as normal as possible with prompts and boards everywhere to help him, but he relies on me being with him and keeping him on track.'

While Mr Fulton's quality of life has already deteriorated, he and his wife believe access to affordable Donanemab treatment could help them enjoy their golden years.

Mr Fulton (pictured) spent his life working in the book industry but was forced into retirement in 2023 after struggling with memory issues

'If I could access this new medicine, I would in a heartbeat,' he said.

Ms Fulton added: 'We need it now, before Joel's symptoms get much worse, and so that he can get the most benefit from the drug to give us more quality time together.'

Nearly 1.6million Australians are involved in the care of someone living with dementia.

Ms Fulton said it's the 'little things' that make caring for her husband so heartbreaking.

'Joel goes to the shed to get a screwdriver, then comes back empty handed. This will happen four or five times until he throws his hands up in frustration,' she said.

'We'll go somewhere like the shops or the doctor's, and he will think he hasn't been there for years even though it may have been a week or so since we were there.

'It was Mother's Day recently and he thought it was Christmas.

'When we got engaged, we thought we'd be together for 99 years with an option for 99 more. We joked about wheelchair races along the Yarra. We never could have imagined this.'

Ms Fulton (right) said she and her husband (left) 'joked about wheelchair races along the Yarra' before his diagnosis

Around 600,000 Australians are currently living with Alzheimer's disease, with approximately 450,000 of those in its early stages.

General Manager of Lilly, a pharmaceuticals company, Tori Brown believes the registration of Donanemab 'must act as a catalyst for change, ensuring Australia's healthcare system is equipped to support the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease'.

'This must include practical guidelines and new pathways for the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, alongside timely government reimbursement of therapies to support patient access and affordability,' she said.

A reimbursement application to include Kisunla, a brand of Donanemab by Lilly, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will be reviewed by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee in July.
Two schoolgirls and a woman are fighting for life following a house fire in Melbourne that police are treating as suspicious.

Flames erupted from the modern townhouse in Chadstone in the city's southeast on Wednesday night.

About 30 firefighters arrived at the scene to find flames burning through the roof of the two-storey house.

Neighbours informed rescuers there were four residents unaccounted for inside the home, Fire Rescue Victoria Commander Paul Eckholdt said.

'It was a difficult rescue for firefighters, given that they had to force entry into the property initially and then wearing breathing apparatus, and the conditions being quite hot and with virtually zero visibility,' he told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Firefighters searched through the smoke-filled home until they found two children and a woman in an upstairs bedroom.

'They were unconscious, so they were carried out and taken out to the front where Ambulance Victoria paramedics and firefighters were waiting,' Cmdr Eckholdt said.

'They did have some burns, and they also had some airway burns as well.'

Fire crews responded to the blaze at the Chadstone townhouse on Wednesday night which had burned through the roof

The fire is being treated as suspicious with investigators combing through the townhouse on Thursday morning

A woman and two children are being treated in hospital following the blaze. Fire Rescue Victoria Commander Paul Eckholdt said it was a 'difficult rescue' because of the intensity of the smoke and flames

Authorities are treating the fire as suspicious.

Fire investigators and an arson chemist attended the crime scene on Thursday morning.

The fire razed the home's upper floor bedrooms and ensuite.

It also burned through the roof, causing a partial structural collapse, while the rest of property has smoke and water damage.
Disney World has placed dozens of Venezuelan employees on unpaid leave after a court ruling allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 migrants.

An estimated 45 employees at the Florida park were notified on Tuesday that they had been placed on unpaid leave as a direct result of a Supreme Court order allowing Trump to revoke Temporary Protected Status for a huge cohort of Venezuelans.

These employees were warned that their jobs would be terminated next month if they could not secure a new work authorization, Bloomberg reported.

'As we sort out the complexities of this situation, we have placed affected employees on leave with benefits to ensure they are not in violation of the law,' a Disney spokesperson said.

'We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families.'

Each of the employees have been placed on a 30-day period of unpaid leave, beginning May 20.

Disney World is one of the largest employers in Florida, with around 82,000 members of staff, who are described as 'cast members.'

According to the publication, at least one Venezuelan employee turned up to work on Tuesday and was turned away.

Disney World has placed dozens of Venezuelan employees on unpaid leave after a court ruling allowing the Trump administration to strip legal protections from 350,000 migrants

Trump had a win in court this week as he seeks to embark on the biggest mass deportation scheme in American history

The Supreme Court this week effectively ended a ruling from a federal judge which kept in place Temporary Protected Status for the Venezuelans that would have otherwise expired last month.

The status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife.

It is not a pathway to citizenship, but the 18 month protection can be renewed repeatedly, and authorities have voiced concerns the renewal process had become basically 'automatic' in recent years.

There are an estimated 225,000 Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status in Florida who are now facing deportation.

Florida representative and Democrat mayoral candidate Anna Eskamani noted 'Disney sets the standard' in a warning that other companies could soon follow their lead.

'Other companies in our economy look toward them.'

She added that many of the Venezuelans living in Florida supported Trump during the 2024 presidential election.

The high court's order appears to be the 'single largest action in modern American history stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, one of the attorneys for Venezuelan migrants.

There are an estimated 225,000 Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status in Florida who are now facing deportation

In a statement, Homeland Security called the court's decision a 'win for the American people and the safety of our communities' and said the Biden administration 'exploited programs to let poorly vetted migrants into this country.'

'The Trump administration is reinstituting integrity into our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe,' said spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.

The case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals the Trump administration has made to the Supreme Court, many of them related to immigration and involving Venezuela.

Earlier this month, the government asked the court to allow it to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, setting them up for potential deportation as well.
Donald Trump claimed Australia is being inundated with white Afrikaner farmers who are fleeing genocide in South Africa as he held a tense Oval Office meeting with the country's president.

The US President effectively accused South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa of overseeing state-sanctioned mass murder of the country's white ethnic minority.

He claimed many Afrikaners were being killed and their land forcibly taken, prompting others to flee to the United States and Australia.

'You take a look at Australia, theyre being inundated and were being inundated with people that want to get out,' Trump said on Wednesday.

'Their farm is valueless and they just want to get out with their life. This is a very serious situation, but if we had a real press it would be exposed.'

Trump made Ramaphosa watch a video which purportedly backed up his claim and also held up printouts of various newspaper articles as evidence.

One of the clippings included a piece written by the Daily Mail's Sue Reid in February, which reported that 20,000 Afrikaners had inquired at the US Embassy in South Africa about seeking refugee status.

Trump's administration has so far admitted 59 white Afrikaner refugees from South Africa.

Donald Trump has claimed Australia is inundated with white Afrikaner famers who are fleeing an alleged genocide in South Africa in a tense meeting with the country's President

The US President effectively accused South African leader Cyril Ramaphosa (the pair are pictured together) of overseeing state-sanctioned mass murder of the country's white ethnic minority in a bizarre and heated Oval Office exchange

Another of the clippings included two reports from Australias news.com.au dating from 2017 and 2018, and a television editorial by Sky News Australias Rita Panahi, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

'Youre taking peoples land away from them,' Trump told Ramaphosa.

'We have not,' Ramaphosa responded, adding that the number of white farmers being killed in the country was far outnumbered by black murder victims.

Trump added: 'And those people in many cases are being executed. And they happen to be white, and most of them happen to be farmers.

'Thats a tough situation, I dont know how you explain that. How do you explain that?

'We have thousands of people that want to come into our country. Theyre also going to Australia, in a smaller number.'

'Theyre white farmers and they feel like theyre going to die.'

While the encounter was tense and awkward at points, it did not descend into a full-scale shouting match like the infamous exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.

South African farmers and residents support Donald Trump outside the US embassy in Pretoria

Trump also branded an NBC reporter a 'jerk' after he asked why Trump was accepting refugees from South Africa and not Afghanistan and Venezuela.

'Well, this is a group, NBC, that is truly fake news,' Trump replied.

Trump then vented his fury on journalist Peter Alexander for using the South Africa briefing to instead ask about Trump accepting a gift of a new plane from the government of Qatar that he could use as Air Force One.

'No. 1, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter, you're not smart enough,' Trump told the reporter.

'For you to go onto a subject that - a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which was a very nice thing,' the president continued. 'You ought to go back to your studio at NBC.'

He added: 'You are a disgrace, no more questions from you!'

In 2018, Australias then Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton said that persecuted white farmers in South Africa 'deserve special attention' as he proposed offering them special refugee visas.

However, a surge of South Africans seeking refugee status were rejected in 2020 because government officials claimed the violence in the country is widespread, random and opportunistic, rather than targeted.

'The risk of murder and serious physical/sexual assaults is one faced by the population of the country generally and not by the applicants personally,' said one of the rejection letters, quoted in The Australian newspaper.

Reliable figures on how many farmers had been killed in South Africa were hard to come by, as the government crime figures do not break out their numbers from the national total.

Most estimates range from the high double-figures per year into the low hundreds.

South Africa has one of the world's highest murder rates, with an average of 72 a day, according to Reuters.

There were 26,232 murders nationwide in 2024.
The head of a Pennsylvania police department was caught on camera pulling a gun on an unsuspecting motorcyclist in a jarring instance of road rage.

Manheim Township Police Chief Duane Fisher was off-duty on April 30 when he hopped out of an unmarked vehicle in plainclothes and violently confronted biker Benny Pena-Rivera, 24.

Pena-Rivera stopped his bike behind a Wingstop when the enraged police chief pulled up behind him in an unmarked department SUV.

The police chief, wearing grey shorts, a dark blue t-shirt and sneakers, then stepped out of his car and immediately wielded the deadly weapon.

'All I heard was, "On the ground. On the ground, or I will shoot you." If you're a cop or something, you're supposed to identify yourself and not come up the way you came up to me,' Pena-Rivera told Local12.

Fisher rushed over to the helmet-wearing biker and shoved him into an electric panel. The officer allegedly kept his gun pointed at Pena-Rivera the whole time.

'I'm telling him, "Don't shoot me. What's the reason you're going to shoot me for?" Pena-Rivera recalled the horrifying moment he saw his life flash before his eyes.

The pair started wrestling and the baffled motorcyclist finally found a moment to sprint off to his house.

An off-duty Pennsylvania cop allegedly pulled a gun on an unsuspecting motorcyclist in a jarring instance of road rage, shocking video unveils (pictured)

Manheim Township Police Chief Duane Fisher (pictured) has been placed on paid leave since the video has been released

Only then, according to the surveillance footage, did Fisher turn on his SUV's police lights.

Pena-Rivera is particularly confused about why Fisher's sirens were off, saying 'he should have had his lights on instead of just withdrawing his gun the way he was doing it.'

The next day - before the troubling video was brought to light - Pena-Rivera was arrested while picking up cigarettes from a gas station.

Fisher claimed he noticed Pena-Rivera on an unregistered motorcycle, driving erratically.

According to his May 1 arrest record, he was hit with a slew of accusations related to the incident.

He was charged with one count each of aggravated assault, evading arrest or detention on foot, resisting arrest and DUS - DUI.

Pena-Rivera was also charged with five counts of summary vehicle code violations.

Fisher documented that he 'was in an unmarked police vehicle and identified himself as Manheim Township Police,' which contradicts Pena-Rivera's statement.

Benny Pena-Rivera (pictured) is particularly confused about why Fisher's sirens were off if he was trying to pull him over

Fisher pulled his gun on the blind-sided biker, who claims the cop's sirens were off during the incident (pictured)

The police report alleges the biker refused orders to shut of his motorcycle's engine and shoved Fisher before running off. He was taken into custody with bail set a $5,000.

Pena-Rivera pleaded guilty to traffic violation charges, but all the criminal offenses were dropped.

'The Manheim Township Police Department and the parties agreed with the resolution of the charges in this manner based on the facts and circumstances of the case,' Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams said in a May 14 statement.

The next day, Fisher was placed on paid leave and the department launched an internal investigation into the incident.

However, Adams announced her office will not be probing the altercation between Fisher and Pena-Rivera, claiming Fisher's 'actions did not rise to the level of a potential criminal act,' in a Friday press release.

'The Lancaster County District Attorneys Office does not investigate use of force or internal policy violations of police departments that do not rise to the level of a potential criminal act,' she explained.

'After a review of all reports in this matter, including relevant surveillance video, official police reports and the affidavit of probable cause, it is clear that Chief Fisher was acting in his capacity as a police officer trying to gain compliance of the driver to further investigate and not with any intent necessary to establish criminal conduct.'

Adams deferred to the police department to determine if Fisher's actions where inappropriate or against policy.

Fisher (pictured) became Manheim Township's chief in 2023 after moving from the Allegheny Township Police Department, where he also served as chief

The pair started wrestling (pictured) and the baffled motorcyclist finally found a moment to sprint off to his house

Pena-Rivera told Fox 43 he wants Fisher to own up to his actions.

'If it wasn't for that video, nobody would actually believe what I was saying because it was my word against his,' he told the outlet.

Fisher became Manheim Township's chief in 2023 after moving from the Allegheny Township Police Department, where he also served as chief.
Experts are warning of a triple virus surge this winter, with COVID-19, influenza, and RSV already spreading rapidly - and say the best protection is to get vaccinated before the end of May.

'We're dealing with an early wave of a significantly infectious virus diseases,' Professor Paul Griffin said on Wednesday.

'When one person brings something home, it can sweep through the whole household in days.

'The more we empower families to detect illness early, the better we can manage outbreaks and protect those most at risk.'

There have been more than 80,000 confirmed influenza cases in Australia so far this year up to May 22, a more than 50 per cent jump from the same period last year.

Seasonal flu is a common and highly contagious respiratory infection usually caused by influenza A or B viruses, but there are multiple subtypes and strains.

Meanwhile Covid cases are expected to skyrocket this winter with a contagious strain of the Omicron variant to infect a large percentage of Australians.

Variant LP.8.1. was identified as the main culprit of large outbreaks overseas in late 2024 and early 2025 and was responsible for three in five Covid cases in the UK in March.

While the strain does not appear to cause worse symptoms than its predecessors, recent testing found it could be more contagious.

Infectious Disease Physician, Professor Paul Griffin said households need to test for viruses including influenza, RSV and Covid-19 (stock image)

Doctors urge Aussies to stay up to date on COVID and flu vaccines as winter illnesses rise (stock image of Aussies wearing masks during the Covid pandemic)

Professor of epidemiology at Deakin University Catherine Bennett urged Aussies to remain up to date on their Covid vaccines, particularly the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.

'Any variant can be a real problem for them, that's why it's advised for people with underlying health conditions or aged over 65 to have a pre-winter dose,' she said.

'It takes a couple of weeks to get the benefit of a vaccine and while it might only protect you for a couple of months, that's as long as the waves usually last.

'Getting it in May will keep you covered. Don't don't wait until the cases are already rising. You know, give yourself a couple of weeks' notice.'

She warned a combination of factors created the conditions for an explosion in the number of cases.

'Our immunity is waning - it's been a while since most people have had a Covid infection and fewer people are getting boosters now,' she previously told Daily Mail Australia.

'As we go into winter, more people will be gathering indoors together which helps the virus spread. That's why all that respiratory virus transmission goes up in winter.

'This [Covid] variant has been in Australia since July last year, but we were coming out of winter, we'd gone through the worst of the wave and most people had a recent infection or booster dose.'

Last year, the number of Australian's getting vaccinated decreased by 5.8 per cent in all States and Territories.

Professor Griffin said the most effective way Australians can protect themselves from the virus explosion is by keeping their vaccinations up to date and using rapid antigen tests to help stop the spread of influenza and other viruses within households.

'Infants, elderly adults, pregnant women, and people with chronic conditions face the highest risk of serious complications, including pneumonia, dehydration, or hospitalisation,' Professor Paul Griffin said.

'Recognising symptoms like high fever, fatigue, wheezing, or difficulty breathing early ensures families can take swift action - whether that means starting antivirals, isolating, or seeking urgent medical care.

'Early testing is not just a personal benefit, but a broader public health strategy.'

Last year, the number of Australian's getting vaccinated decreased by 5.8 per cent in all states and territories.

Covid and flu vaccinations are free for everyone in Australia, including those without a Medicare card.

You can get Covid vaccines from a range of vaccination providers. To find a vaccination provider near you, use the service finder on the Healthdirect website.

More than a third (31,955) of flu cases have been registered in New South Wales (stock image)

So far this year, more than a third (31,995) of flu cases have occurred in NSW, according to the Australian government's dashboard.

The second highest number of in cases is in Queensland (18,818), followed by Victoria with 17,618 flu cases.

Western Australia has registered 6510, while laboratories have found 4719 in South Australia, 1557 in Northern Territory, 1126 in Tasmania and 1099 in ACT.
A British teenage 'drugs mule' locked up in a Georgia jail is said to have finally been reunited with her father.

Bella Culley, 18, was arrested after she allegedly tried to smuggle 14kg of cannabis into the country earlier this month.

As soon as the news broke on May 13, Bella's father, Niel Culley, 49, flew to the ex-Soviet state to be by his daughter's side.

But Niel was not allowed to see Bella - until now.

The terrified father was yesterday said to have finally visited his girl at Women's Prison No.5 in Rustavi.

The 49-year old was spotted entering the prison with a bag before leaving without it 45 minutes later, presumably having dropped off some supplies to his daughter.

He has vowed to stay in Georgia for 'as long as it takes' to bring Bella back home.

The teenager, from Billingham on Teesside, had to write to prison authorities requesting permission before her family could visit her.

The reunion came just days after Bella revealed she has been left freezing in her jail cell and is receiving no medical attention despite telling officials she is pregnant.

A British teenage 'drugs mule' locked up in a Georgia jail has finally been reunited with her father. Bella Culley (pictured), 18, was arrested after she allegedly tried to smuggle 14kg of cannabis into the country earlier this month

As soon as the news broke on May 13 Bella's father, Niel Culley, 49, flew out to the ex-Soviet state to be by his daughter's side. But, Niel had not been allowed to see Bella until he visited her at Women's Prison No.5 in Rustavi yesterday

The 49-year old was spotted going into the prison with a bag before leaving without it 45 minutes later - presumably having dropped off some supplies to his daughter

She is sharing a cell with two other women inmates, but it was unclear what crimes they have been accused of or committed, Culley's lawyer said

She asked for a jumper and warmer clothes and requested fresh fruit after being visited by local celebrity lawyer Mariam Kublashvili.

Bella, who is sharing a cell with two inmates called Anastasya and Ani, also requested tuna which Ms Kublashvili believes may be 'pregnancy cravings'.

'She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasnt getting,' the glamorous Georgian lawyer told the Mail after a 30-minute meeting with her on May 19.

'She asked me for tuna fish which I thought was odd and might have been something to do with pregnancy cravings - but fish cannot be sent in.

'She told me no tests, checks or medical examinations have been done.

'She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasnt speaking English and they couldnt understand each other.'

Ms Kublashvili, who previously represented speedboat killer Jack Shepherd when he was caught in Georgia, has been closely following the case and said she has great sympathy for Bella's predicament.

Bella was arrested at Tbilisi Airport on May 11 and found with 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish after getting a 550 Air Arabia flight from Bangkok via Sharjah

The 18-year-old asked for a jumper and warmer clothes and requested fresh fruit after being visited by local celebrity lawyer Mariam Kublashvili (pictured)

The meeting was the first time the teenage Brit has been heard from since she appeared in Tbilisi city court on May 13 appearing shell shocked dressed only in a skimpy white top and shorts

While she is not representing the teenager, the former model used a routine visit to her prison to meet her and offered to use her legal clout to get her supplies.

Ms Kublashivili, 39, who has specialised in helping female prisoners, said Bella was 'visibly cold' in the drafty meeting room and requested a jumper as she only had on a thin dark green top and blue leggings.

She said: 'My Initial impression was very positive - she is very open, very pleasant, and charming. She doesnt fit the profile of a drug trafficker at all.

'For anyone, like me, with experience in dealing with such cases, it would be quite obvious that she is a victim here - shes been used and manipulated.

'I have a 20-year-old child myself and can only imagine what her parents must be feeling.'

Bella was arrested at Tbilisi Airport on May 11 and found with 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish after getting a 550 Air Arabia flight from Bangkok via Sharjah.

She is sharing a cell with two other women inmates, but it was unclear what crimes they have been accused of or committed, Ms Kublashvili said.

Bella, who is sharing a cell with two inmates called Anastasya and Ani, also requested tuna which Ms Kublashvili believes may be 'pregnancy cravings'

She had been travelling around South East Asia and only appears to have clothes for the beach despite the cold conditions of her jail cell

The lawyer added: 'She is getting along well with her inmates  two of them, Anastasya and Ani.

'She asked me to get in touch with her dad  she said she knew he was getting lawyers and that carried significant financial costs.

'But I have a great deal of experience helping women in situations like this and want to do all I can for her - and Im offering my service free of charge.'

Ms Kublashivili said Bella was 'very polite' and 'shy', saying thank you 'every five minutes'.

The meeting was the first time the teenage Brit has been heard from since she appeared in Tbilisi city court on May 13 appearing shell shocked dressed only in a skimpy white top and shorts.

She had been travelling around South East Asia and only appears to have clothes for the beach despite the cold conditions of her jail cell.
Patterson showed little emotion and stared blankly at the screen containing the messages with her online friends.

Crown prosecutor Jane Warren read the content of the texts to the court.

1. I said to him about 50 times yesterday, but I didn't want them to adjudicate (emoji) nobody bloody listens to me, at least I know they're a lost cause.

2. I wonder if they've got any capacity for self-reflection at all. I mean clearly the fact that Simon refuses to talk about personal issues in part stems from the behaviour of his parents and how they operate. According to them, they've never asked him what's going on with us, why I keep kicking him out, why his son hates him, etc. It's too awkward or uncomfortable or something. So that's his learned behaviour. Just don't talk about this s***.

3. Know nothing, but also more happened. Don rang me last night to say that he thought there was a solution to all this. If Simon and I get together and try to talk and pray together. (Emoji, emoji) And then he also said, Simon had indicated there was a solution to the financial issues if I withdraw this child support claim?!

4. My head nearly exploded and I was like, what, what? I'm sorry, what?? And Don goes, oh sorry, just ignore what I've said. I don't want to get involved. So anyway, I sent a group message to them all last night saying how Simon is behaving is unconscionable and asking me to withdraw the child support plan is wrong and disadvantages me and his children, and how dare you, etc. Don messaged to say that he and Gail don't want to get involved in the financial things. But just hope we will pray for the kids (Emoji) So I replied this morning saying, I understand it's uncomfortable and awkward for them, but I want to copy them into this stuff because Simon needs to be accountable for the decisions he is making that are hurting his children, and I would hope they care about their grandchildren enough to care about what Simon is doing. Don said they tried to talk to him, but he refused to talk about it, so they're staying out of it, but want us to pray together. I'm sick of this s***. I want nothing to do with them. I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing, but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable, and not wanting to get involved in their son's personal matters, are overriding that. So f*** them.

5. His parents sent me a message yesterday afternoon and Simon sent me one last night, but I've read neither and I don't think I will. I don't want to hear it. Simon's will just be horrible and be gaslighting and abusive and it will ruin my day and his parents will be more weasel words about not getting involved. So I think I'm going to just move on. I don't need anything from these people. Simon's parents say they don't want to take sides, but by the very actions they have. Daughter came to them, laying all the same complaints about her husband that I did about Simon. They would never say to her, Oh well, we can't believe you until we hear (his) side right now it's your word against his. No, they would just believe that if their daughter's husband just walked away and refused to support her kids, they would have things to say to him. But by refusing to hold Simon to account, they've made it clear his word means more than mine. So that speaks volumes, even if they claim they haven't taken sides. They've had Simon fatigue every night for three months and never once picked up the phone to me since the separation and asked if I'm okay and need help. So that tells me their choices. Simon wants to walk away from his responsibilities too, well that's his choice. Maybe it's easier if he's not involved in even paying their school fees. Means I can choose their school all by myself and don't have to refer to him. If he wants them to go to a private Christian school, then he can help pay for it. If he doesn't want me to help, sorry, if he doesn't want to help pay for it, then I don't have to send them there, do I? So maybe it just means I have even more freedom about my choices, blessing in disguise.

7. A message sent to erinerinerin from another participant: Will you still go to that church?

8. I haven't been to their church in months, kids go with Simon every second Sunday and came to one with me at Leongatha the other Sunday.
Paedophiles and rapists could be castrated under new Government plans.

Drugs can be used to dull urges and slash offences by nearly two thirds, studied have shown.

Now Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is said to be looking at plans to roll the treatment out across 20 prisons in England and Wales, ahead of a nationwide programme.

And she is reported to want to go further still - and is exploring whether the UK could adopt chemical castration for sex criminals.

'For too long, we have turned a blind eye to the threat sex offenders pose, considering the solutions too difficult or unpalatable,' a Government source told The Sun.

'Shabana isn't squeamish about doing what it takes to protect the public.

'As always, she will grab this problem by the proverbials.'

The newspaper reports that plans for a small voluntary pilot have been rejected for not being tough enough.

Castration has already been used in some US states, including California, for offenders who have been released on parole.

Drugs can be used to dull urges and slash offences by nearly two thirds, studied have shown. Pictured: File photo

Now Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) is said to be looking at plans to roll the treatment out across 20 prisons in England and Wales, ahead of a nationwide programme

A poll in February found that more than two-thirds of voters under 30 believed sex offenders should be castrated.

The survey, by Find Out Now, recorded 67 per cent of them as being in favour of chemically castrating sex offenders and just 24 per cent opposed, reflecting the generation's tough law-and-order attitude.

Chemical castration is voluntary in German, France, Sweden and Denmark, and some sex offenders actively seek it out.

The process includes taking two drugs, one to limit sexual thoughts and the other to reduce testosterone and limit libido.

It has also been proposed by countries including Cyprus, as an alternative to serving life sentences.

The proposal comes months after Kazakhstan announced the mass chemical castration of 11 paedophiles amid a campaign for the worst offenders to have their genitals surgically removed.

All the men reportedly 'committed crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors' in the Kostanay region in the north of the country.

Details were not given of the cases, but the child sex offenders were starting to forcibly receive libido-sapping injections.

Approval was given for the paedophiles to be jabbed 24 times a year at an annual cost of 278 each.

Kazakhstan has some of the toughest laws in the world on paedophiles.

Official information is published on their addresses after release from prison so parents can understand where potential danger is lurking.

The MoJ has been contacted for comment.
Keir Starmer could throw open Britain's borders to the European Union with a youth mobility scheme that is effectively 'unlimited'.

Sources close to talks on the scheme said British negotiators will try to cap EU arrivals allowed to work in Britain at between 70,000 and 80,000, and no higher than 100,000.

But a sliding-scale could be introduced that would effectively allow unlimited arrivals if enough Britons head for the Continent.

One source explained: 'If you suddenly find 500,000 Britons go to Europe, then Britain could open it up to a much larger number of Europeans, so you keep it neutral on immigration figures.'

Another said it could 'essentially be unlimited' if there was enough demand from UK travellers.

British negotiators will seek a cap based on the number of Britons ministers think will use the scheme, while the sliding scale would satisfy EU negotiators, who are expected to push for hundreds of thousands of Europeans to be able to enter Britain.

But this would be politically toxic for a Labour government that has pledged to cut immigration if at least as many Britons do not go in the opposite direction.

Brussels is also pushing for Europeans to be allowed to bring their families and claim benefits in the UK as part of the scheme.

Keir Starmer and President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen attend a press conference at the UK-EU summit at Lancaster House on May 19

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks at a reception for UK and EU businesses in Downing Street, London

It is one of the most contentious areas yet to be fully negotiated for the Prime Minister's controversial 'reset' deal with the bloc, which was unveiled on Monday.

Sir Keir has said that the numbers involved would be capped and insisted that their stay in the UK would be 'time limited' and reliant on obtaining a visa.

But he has refused to say how many could come or how long they could stay for. No10 insists letting arrivals bring dependants and claim benefits is a 'red line', but Brussels is expected to drive a hard bargain because most EU nations want this concession.

Fears of a cave-in will only be heightened by the fact that ministers spent months insisting they had 'no plans' for a youth mobility scheme, which was a key EU demand from the outset.
The 'torrent of abuse' council workers copped from an irate business owner when they interrupted dinner service at her restaurant has been slammed by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

Two officers for the City of Sydney visited busy Potts Point eatery Lady Chu on Friday evening to tell owner Nahji Chu to move her potted palm trees immediately.

An explosive argument ensued, caught on video by a staff member, in which Ms Chu said she would rather 'go to jail' than follow with their orders.

Ms Moore took to social media on Wednesday to unleash on Ms Chu for her treatment of the staff.

'We have repeatedly asked Lady Chu to remove some of the unapproved planters or the umbrellas to ensure there is enough space for pedestrians,' she said.

'It's not a private courtyard, it's a public footpath  people should not be forced onto the road, especially people in a wheelchair or with a pram.'

Ms Moore said council received a complaint on Friday and visited Lady Chu to advise which items were an 'issue' and 'respectfully ask' for them to be removed as soon as possible.

'Unfortunately they then received a torrent of abuse that was then published on social media.'

Lady Chu's owner, Nahji Chu, lashed out at council officers who showed up during a busy Friday dinner service and ordered her to move her palm trees

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore took to social media on Wednesday to unleash on Ms Chu for her treatment of the staff.

During the showdown, Ms Chu told one officer: 'This is 'f***ed up, this whole city is f***ed up.'

'I'm not a f***ing naughty school kid, so don't speak to me like that.

'I'm paying f***ing taxes and I'm paying your wages, so f*** off. I'm trying to activate this f***ing dead city, so don't shut it down.'

Ms Chu told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday: 'They wouldn't leave, that's why I went nuts.

'Drop a bomb at 7pm then expect me to remain calm?

'There is no fun in this city, you can't do anything or you face a fine.

'No one even leaves their house any more - they just work to make money and go and spend it overseas where they can get culture and have a good time.'

The argument was over the footpath area which has been used as an outdoor option for Ms Chu's customers from Wednesday to Sunday until 9.30pm.

Ms Moore said the council had approved some outdoor expansions but claimed Ms Chu had also put out additional furniture and large planters

Ms Chu (pictured) complained to Daily Mail Australia that 'You can't do anything or you face a fine' in Sydney

Ms Moore said the council had approved two applications from Ms Chu to expand the outdoor space since March.

This provided seating for roughly 70 patrons but also suitable room for pedestrians to walk through, Ms Moore said.

'But we have received ongoing complaints about additional furniture, umbrellas and large planters obstructing the footpath.

'Our planning staff have met with Lady Chu multiple times. Roslyn St is narrow, and it's not possible to maintain Federal Discrimination Act accessibility standards as well as all its dining tables, planters and umbrellas.

'I commend our officers for remaining calm and professional.

'We all want to see our city buzzing. That's why we offer this space and work with businesses to enjoy it. But we must also maintain sufficient space for others.'

In the video, Ms Chu pans to the walkway between her restaurant and tables asking:

'What's the f***ing problem here, you can get through, what seems to be the problem officer?

'Beautiful trees? Beautiful umbrellas? Three people can get through?

'Right now give me the f***ing fine and I will see you in court with my lawyer.'
A launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer went horribly wrong in front of 'supreme' leader Kim Jong Un, according to state media.

Kim watched on in horror as the 5,000-ton ship was severely damaged after failing to launch properly.

He declared the mishap a 'criminal act caused by absolute carelessness' that 'could not be tolerated'.

Kim has ordered the destroyer to be restored before a June party meeting, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The outlet confirmed that during the ceremony on Wednesday 'a serious accident occurred'.

In a statement KCNA said: 'Due to immature command and operational negligence, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize.

'The ship's balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.'

Kim was less than impressed by the blunder, saying: 'This is a serious accident and criminal act that could not have happened and could not be tolerated due to pure carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism,' the agency reported.

A launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer went horribly wrong in front of 'supreme' leader Kim Jong Un, according to state media. Pictured: A different naval destroyer unveiled in Nampo, North Korea, last month

Kim (pictured last month) watched on in horror as the 5,000-ton ship was severely damaged after failing to launch properly

He continued: 'The urgent restoration of the destroyer is not a simple practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the country.'

'It must be completed unconditionally before the June plenary session of the Central Committee of the Party', he added.

The ship that held the launching ceremony this time appears to be of the same class as the 5,000-ton destroyer Choi Hyun-ho that North Korea launched last month.

In April Kim unveiled a nuclear-capable naval destroyer that he says will bolster North Korea 's ability to defend itself in the face of perceived aggression from the US and its regional allies.

The North Korean leader attended the warship's launch ceremony at the western port of Nampo with his teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae, according to state-run media.

Ju Ae has been widely regarded by analysts as the likely successor to Kim since she was referred to as a 'great person of guidance' in an official report last year.

Kim said the 5,000-ton vessel would bolster efforts to expand the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military.

The 'multi-purpose' destroyer, designed to handle a variety of arms including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, was touted as the first in a new class of heavily armed warships.

Kim, who has framed the arms buildup as a response to the supposed danger posed by the US and its allies in Asia, said the destroyer would be handed over to the navy early next year before beginning active duty.

Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the ruling Workers' party, claimed the ship was equipped with the 'most powerful weapons' and was built 'within 400-odd days'.

Kim also took aim at efforts by the US and South Korea to expand joint military exercises and update their nuclear deterrence strategies, which he portrayed as preparations for war.

He vowed to 'respond decisively to this geopolitical crisis and ongoing developments,' the Korean Central News Agency reported.

There was no immediate comment from South Korea's military on the revelation of the new warship.
A leaked letter has revealed the Nationals first threatened to ditch the Coalition after Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price defected to the Liberal Party room, a revelation that undermines David Littleproud's claims that the split was solely over policy disputes.

The letter, which was sent from the Nationals Bridget McKenzie to Liberal Senate leader Michaelia Cash on May 12, complained that the Nationals would lose party status after being reduced to just four Senators by the loss of Price.

Party status, which requires five members, confers more resources for things like travel, office space, staff and salaries.

Senator Price sensationally defected from the Nationals party room to sit with the Liberal Party room on May 8.

As a member of the unified Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory, she has the right to choose between the two, but the defection was widely seen as a betrayal.

Two days after her defection, Senator McKenzie penned the strongly-worded letter, first obtained by news.com.au, which was entitled 'Resignation of Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from The Nationals Senate Party Room'.

'As a result of her defection, together with the severe drop in Liberal Party vote in New South Wales, from 1 July 2025 The Nationals will hold only four seats in the Senate,' Senator McKenzie wrote.

'This is below what is required to maintain party status in the Senate as a party that is "part of the Government or the Opposition" under the Parliamentary Business Resources Regulations 2017.

The letter, which was sent from the Nationals Bridget McKenzie (pictured, right with Nationals Leader David Littleproud and Nationals Deputy Leader Kevin Hogan) to Liberal Senate leader Michaelia Cash on May 12, complained that the Nationals would lose party status after being reduced to just just four Senators with the loss of Price

Senator Price sensationally defected from the Nationals party room to sit with the Liberal Party room on May 8. As a member of the Country Liberal Party, she can choose between the two. But it was widely seen as a betrayal

'Losing party status in the Senate would have significant implications for The Nationals Senate team as well as the wider Coalition.'

'Depending on the outcome of negotiations between our parties over coming weeks, the Nationals Senate party room will need to consider our position with respect to sitting with the Liberal Party as a Coalition in the Senate chamber.'

The proof that splitting the Coalition was considered at least eight days before the Nationals announced their decision to back out undermines Littleproud's subsequent claims that it was due to disagreements over policy, rather than personnel.

On Tuesday, when he announced the Coalition was breaking up for only the third time in its 80-year history, he claimed discussion had broken down over the Nationals' desire for a commitment on nuclear power, supermarket divestiture powers, regional infrastructure and telecommunications funding.

The varying recollections spilled over into live TV on Wednesday night when Senator McKenzie was asked whether a sticking point had been the Nationals' refusal to agree that they would not speak out against the positions of the shadow cabinet.

'I can tell you, because I was in the National party room that made this decision, the decision that was then conveyed to the Liberal leader. And that was not part of our consideration  it was solely on those four policies,' she told the ABC's 7.30.

But her comments were soon disputed by Liberal Leader Sussan Ley's staff who texted into the program while the interview was still live.

'It is not correct to suggest shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point,' the text said.

'We have it in writing that it was a requirement from their leader's office to ours.'

Ley's office texted again to add: '(McKenzie's) language was deliberate to make it sound like it was just about the policies. That is just not correct.'

When the texts were put to McKenzie, she told the ABC in a statement that she stood by her comments.

'The claims made above were not the basis of the Nationals party room decision not to form a Coalition at this time,' she said.
Up to 50,000 people could be cut off on Thursday

Thousands of homes have been cut off and streets have turned into rivers on NSW's Mid North Coast as catastrophic flooding in the region turns deadly.

A 63-year-old man yet to be identified by police was found in his flood-ravaged home on North Moto Road near Coopernook about 3pm on Wednesday.

His grieving daughter told Daily Mail Australia her dad had sent rescuers to save his family before he was found dead at his rural property just hours later.

As his family boarded the limited supply of boats, he opted to stay with his blind dog and 30-head herd of cattle - before tragedy struck.

His daughter paid tribute to the local heroes who were leading search efforts, saying they deserved a 'medal of recognition for all the families they've saved'.

'(They have) saved sh**loads of families compared to the SES... the SES don't know the river systems like the locals do,' she said. 'They are all fathers; they have the drive to save people, because they've needed saving before.'

NSW Police confirmed on Thursday three more people are missing.

The torrential rain and subsequent flash flooding has triggered over 1,000 SES incidents and cut off thousands of homes.

A photo of a flooded street near Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie (pictured) comes as up to 50,000 people are warned they could be isolated on Thursday

A flooded truck is seen in a photo from the NSW SES as hundreds of rescues are performed

A photo of a flooded street near Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie has revealed the true extent of the rising floodwaters - as some 50,000 people are warned they could be isolated on Thursday.

Prolonged heavy rainfall is set to continue throughout the day, with Kempsey and Coffs Harbour among the communities on high alert for flash flooding.

Falls between 200-300mm over the next 24 hours are likely and may lead to flash flooding around the North Coast communities of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo.

The deluge has spread to the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands as a slow-moving trough dumped rain along Australia's east coast.

The NSW SES said it had responded to 1,023 incidents, including 339 flood rescues, in the 24 hours to 5am.

More than 100 rescues in Taree, Glenthorne, Oxley Island and Motowere were outstanding on Thursday morning.

SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said conditions had been challenging.

'We've seen continual rainfall and very fast flowing rivers which, when combined with flooded roads, have made it very difficult to access some isolated people,' he said.

A slow-moving trough is bringing heavy falls of 200-300mm to regions in New South Wales

A woman is seen being winched to safety from a rooftop in Taree, in NSW's northeast

Sand bags are seen outside a shop in Port Macquarie as floods ravage the Mid North Coast

NSW Premier Chris Minns told the Today Show he was saddened by the death of the 63-year-old on the NSW Mid North Coast.

'It's very sad, and when there's these terrible natural disasters, they hit ordinary families in terrible ways and our heart goes out to obviously that man and his family,' he told the program on Thursday.

'I'm very grateful we've got thousands of volunteers and the local community has really rallied in the last 48 hours, but they've needed to.'

More than 130 warnings are currently in place, with local residents in the path of flooding urged to head to higher ground and evacuate if they can.
A Democratic New Jersey mayor was caught making a vulgar comment about a Trump official as the criminal charges against him were dropped.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appeared in court on Wednesday, when US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa scolded federal prosecutors who had charged him for trespassing at an ICE facility earlier this month.

President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Alina Habba, who now serves as the interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, claimed at the time that Baraka 'ignored multiple warnings' by Homeland Security Investigations to leave.

But the mayor - who is also running for New Jersey governor - has maintained that he was invited to the property to conduct oversight, and last week Habba stunningly announced her office was dropping the charges against him without offering any explanation.

For five full minutes on Wednesday, Espinosa reamed out the US Attorney's Office for what he said was a 'hasty' decision to charge a public official, the New Jersey Globe reports.

Once he was done with his rant, Baraka could be heard on a hot mic, saying: 'Jesus, he tore these people a new a**hole. Good grief.'

The judge directed his comments at Assistant US Attorney Stephen Demanovich - who he said acted appropriately throughout the case, but was responsible for hearing his message as a representative of the US Attorney's Office.

'An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool,' he said at the virtual court hearing. 'It should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate investigation of credible evidence.'

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was heard making a vulgar comment about a Trump official when he was caught on a hot mic Wednesday

Interim US Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba, who previously served as President Donald Trump's personal lawyer and is now an advisor to the president, charged Baraka with trespassing earlier this month - but then announced her office was dropping the charges against him less than two weeks later

'Federal prosecutors serve a single paramount client: justice itself,' Espinosa continued.

'Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas. Your allegiance is to the impartial application of the law, to the pursuit of truth and to the upholding of due process for all.'

But, Espinosa said, that did not happen in Baraka's case.

'The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate,' he claimed, telling Demanovich: 'Your office must operate with a higher standard than that.'

The Assistant US Attorney, though, insisted that his office had conducted a thorough investigation and said prosecutors simply decided to dismiss the case in an effort to 'move forward.

'I do hear your message, and again, it's the endeavor and the goal of the office at all times, to uphold justice and to reach the right result in this case,' he told the judge.

Demanovich then added that dismissing the case 'was the most appropriate resolution in the interest of justice,' without addressing Espinosa's repeated demands to explain how prosecutors could have been fully prepared to take Baraka to trial last week, only to later drop the charges, the Washington Post reports.

US Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa reamed out the US Attorney's Office at a virtual hearing on Wednesday - directing his comments to its representative, Stephen Demanovich

Meanwhile, in a separate courtroom, Rep. LaMonica McIver appeared via web cam to face two assault charges relating to the May 9 protest at which Baraka was apprehended by ICE and Homeland Security officers.

The two politicians were at Delaney Hall on the outskirts of Newark amid protests of its reopening as a migrant detention center.

It is located close to the airport, making it easy to ship migrants back to their native countries, and has previously been used as a jail and a halfway house.

But the building had not been used in over a year, and the City of Newark claimed its owners, GEO Group, did not receive permits or a valid certificate of occupancy to house 1,000 migrants a day.

Dramatic footage from the protest on May 9 showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility, before Baraka was arrested and escorted away by police.

Officers were also seen shoving protesters out of the way amid the chaos, and McIver claimed she and her colleagues were assaulted by ICE officers.

Baraka was apprehended by ICE and Homeland Security officers at a protest on May 9

Congresswoman LaMonica McIver (circled in red) got into a heated clash with law enforcement officers outside Newark ICE center Delaney Hall as he was apprehended

Yet video from the scene showed the congresswoman pushing and aggressively shoving at least one law enforcement officer guarding the gates to the detention facility.

She was also seen chasing after the agents who had arrested Baraka and encouraging the crowd to 'Surround the mayor.'

At one point it appeared that McIver's elbow made contact with an officer.

The criminal complaint against her now says she 'slammed her forearm into the body of... a uniformed [Homeland Security Investigations] agent' and later 'reached out and tried to restrain [the agent] by forcibly grabbing him,' according to the New York Post.

McIver has denied the claims as she described the charges against her as being 'purely political.'

'They mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight,' she said in a statement.

'Our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation.'

McIver has denied the claims as she described the charges against her as being 'purely political'

The congresswoman went on to refuse to accept a plea deal that prosecutors offered her to resolve the case before it ended up in court.

'The Justice Department and Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that,' she told CNN on Tuesday.

'I came here to do my job and conduct an oversight visit and they wanted me to say something differently and I'm not doing that.'

Habba has thus far defended her decision to bring charges against the Democrat congresswoman

But Habba has thus far defended her decision to bring charges against the Democrat congresswoman.

'This has nothing to do with congressional oversight and it has nothing to do with politics. It's about respecting those who risk their lives to keep us safe,' she told the New York Post.

At the hearing on Wednesday, McIver declined to enter a plea and was released on her own recognizance.

If convicted on the two assault charges, she could face up to eight years in prison.
Movie World has been cleared of any wrongdoing over an accident that saw a 12-year-old boy suffer severe head injuries while riding the carousel.

Work Health Safety Queensland (WHSQ) accused Movie World's operator, Village Roadshow Theme Parks, of failing in its duty of care over the April 2022 incident.

Southport Magistrates Court heard the boy was on the Looney Tunes Carousel ride and was standing on the back of the Wile E. Coyote character, instead of sitting on it.

The boy's head then went into an open hole in the ride's ceiling - where the poles move up and down as the carousel turns.

His head was then pinned between the edge of the opening and the machinery which operates the movement of the poles.

WHSQ told the court the boy suffered an 'ear-to-ear de-scalping injury' and several fractures.

Witnesses told Daily Mail Australia at the time that they heard a loud bang before the boy fell off the ride with his hair pulled to one side, his scalp showing and blood pouring down his face.

However, WHSQ has withdrawn its case after just three days of evidence at the judge-only trial.

The 12-year-old boy was standing on the back of the Wile E. Coyote character, instead of sitting on it, when his head became trapped in an opening on the ceiling of the ride (stock image of the ride - boy pictured was not involved)

The court heard the boy suffered an 'ear-to-ear de-scalping injury' and several fractures after his head became stuck while riding the Looney Tunes Carousel (pictured)

WHSQ barrister Clare O'Connor had earlier told the court an independent safety report given to the theme park eight months prior to the incident identified risks in the carousel ride.

The report explained there was a risk of crush injury due to the ceiling openings and recommended the theme park install rigid plastic brushes on the apertures.

Ms O'Connor told the court the theme park was considering installing the plastic brushes but the failure to do so had exposed riders to risk of injury and death.

However, Village Roadshow barrister Saul Holt argued the boy's behaviour and subsequent injuries were 'not reasonably foreseeable'.

'This 12-year-old boy was described by one witness as surfing the character when his head, either deliberately or inadvertently, entered the hole in the ceiling of the ride,' Mr Holt said.

'The steps the prosecution say were absent  would not have prevented this from happening.'

Mr Holt said the ride was immediately shut down after the accident and was examined by engineers before it re-opened several months later.

The court also heard from theme park ride safety consultant David Randall, the author of the independent review.

Work Health Safety Queensland's prosecutor withdrew the case on the third day of the judge-only trial, thus clearing Movie World of any wrongdoing

Mr Randall explained the recommendation for plastic brushes was not a requirement for the carousel to operate.

Rather, the brushes, if installed, were meant to serve as a tactile deterrent rather than a physical barrier.

He added the boy's head could still have gone through the plastic bushes and into the machinery.

Even with his decades of experience, Mr Randall told the court he did not identify a person standing on a carousel character as a foreseeable risk.

Movie World attraction attendant Ruby Piakura, who had operated the carousel for six months, also told the court she had never seen a rider stand on one of the character rides before the incident.

On the third day of trial, Ms O'Connor asked to withdraw the case, explaining the prosecution did not have further evidence to offer the court.

An application will now be made for WHSQ to pay Village Roadshow Theme Park's legal fees.
Supermarket shelves are empty as record floodwaters and heavy rains claimed three lives and cut off a large section of a major highway.

About 50,000 residents face being cut off for days as the floods on the NSW mid-north coast claimed two more victims on Thursday, including a woman, 60, whose body was recovered from floodwaters at Brooklana.

She had been travelling between Sydney and Coffs Harbour on Wednesday night when she stopped west of Dorrigo on Wednesday night and spoke to a Traffic and Highway Patrol officer, who offered a convoy.

The pair drove towards Coffs Harbour before stopping at Wild Cattle Creek Bridge, where the water level was ankle deep.

The officer advised the woman to turn around but she ignored his advice and continued towards Coffs Harbour.

The officer gave the woman his phone number and about 30 minutes later, received a call that she was in trouble near Morora Road, Brooklana, about 30km west of Coffs Harbour.

Officers searched the area, but were unable to find the woman or her 4WD.

The search was suspended overnight before it resumed on Thursday, where her car was eventually located in floodwaters at. Her body was found inside her 4WD.

Supermarket shelves are empty as record floodwaters and heavy rains cut off sections of the Pacific and left three dead. Pictured is an aerial shot of the town of Taree underwater

Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 48 hours ending at 10pm on Friday - showing Sydney is about to cop it

Supermarkets shelves have been stripped bare, including the bread aisle at Coles Laurieton

'Obviously, the police officer who spoke to her is very traumatised,' Assistant Commissioner David Waddell said.

'Unfortunately, we didn't get there in time.

'Detectives will be speaking to the family further tonight, because of the circumstances we will assign a family liaison officer with that family.'

In a separate incident on Thursday, a man aged in his 30s was found dead at Rosewood, near the Port Macquarie-Hastings town of Wauchope.

The two tragedies followed the death David Knowles, 63, whose body was found at his property on North Moto Road near Coopernook, north of Taree, on Wednesday afternoon.

He was the first victim of an escalating floods crisis north of Newcastle, as four days of heavy downpours approaching 300mm left several people missing.

A third man, aged 49, remains missing at Nymboida, about 40km south of Grafton.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was sad to hear of another life lost in the latest flood crisis.

'All Australians are thinking of those on the NSW Mid [North] Coast experiencing very difficult and dangerous conditions,' he said.

'My thoughts are with the loved ones of those that have lost their lives in this terrible ongoing incident.'

The bad weather is expected to continue with up to 300mm of rain forecast for Taree, Port Macquarie (pictured) and Coffs Harbour

At Laurieton, where minor flooding is occurring along the Camden Haven River, the bread shelves were empty at Coles on Thursday

Record high floodwaters in Taree have surpassed a 1929 record of six metres, but at nearby Wingham, the Manning River reached 11.7 metres on Thursday afternoon.

Further north at Kempsey, the Macleay River is now above seven metres, with Coles and Woolworths both closing in the town centre, with supermarkets also shut in Macksville and Wingham.

About 50,000 residents face being cut off by floodwaters as intense rain sparks new evacuation warnings. Duty commander Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said crews were battling to rescue people in Taree, Glenthorne, Oxley Island and Moto.

'We've seen continual rainfall and very fast flowing rivers, which when combined with flooded roads have made it very difficult to access some isolated people,' he said.

'Our crews have been working through the night to complete flood rescues, but our message to people still awaiting rescue, is to remain in safe locations, away from flood waters in dry locations if possible.'

A 36km stretch of the Pacific Highway north of Taree remains closed between Coopernook and Purfleet, stopping semi-trailers from transporting much needed produce to supermarkets.

Port Macquarie is also flooded with the Hastings River set to peak at seven metres upstream at the inland town of Wauchope, which remains cut off from the Oxley Highway.

In Kempsey's town centre, the Macleay River has also broken a levee bank and is expected to reach 7.3 metres on Thursday night, leading to the closure of its Coles and Woolworths supermarkets.

Waterfall Way is also closed between Raleigh and Bellingen, south of Coffs Harbour, while at nearby Macksville, the Nambucca River has risen above three metres.

Up to 300mm of rain was forecast for Taree, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour on Thursday night.

Port Macquarie is also flooded with the Hastings River set to peak at seven metres upstream at the inland town of Wauchope (pictured), which remains cut off from the Oxley Highway

Multiple Coles and Woolworths stores across the region have been forced to close.

Supermarkets that remain open have had shelves stripped bare by shoppers fearing they're next to be cut off.

At Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie, where minor flooding is occurring along the Camden Haven River, the bread shelves were empty at Coles.

'We are keeping a close eye on the evolving situation in NSW, and most of our stores remain open with plenty of food and supplies,' a Coles spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

'Our Wingham and Kempsey stores have had to unfortunately close at this stage, and we will reopen these as soon as it is safe to do so.'

'Our teams are working hard to ensure we have extra food deliveries on their way to our stores, so our communities can be rest assured that we will continue to serve them as long as it's safe to do so.'

Woolworths has closed its Kempsey supermarket and Big W stores, along with the Woolworths at Macksville following evacuations.

'These will remain closed until further notice,' a spokesman said.

David Lazarus, who runs Port AdVenture Cruises with his partner Elsa Barbosa, said he had been forced to cancel nine cruises this week, including an 18th birthday party and a fundraiser for Marine Rescue

But the Woolworths at Taree remains open, as Australia's biggest supermarket chain keeps all of its supermarkets open between Newcastle and Port Macquarie.

'Deliveries of essential grocery items continue to travel to most of the impacted communities along the coast,' the spokesman added.

'However, customers will find reduced product availability in our Taree and Gloucester stores due to a number of road closures.

'With a number of communities along the mid north coast remaining on flood watch, we're continuing to closely monitor conditions and the advice of authorities to ensure the safety of our team and customers.'

Port Macquarie local David Lazarus said getting a loaf of bread at his local Bakers Delight was a challenge as the floodwaters stopped staff from coming into work.

'I've noticed today that when we buy some bread at the Bakers Delight - they've closed because they can't get staff,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'Their staff are isolated where they live. Not only can't you get a loaf of bread, there's no one to serve you the loaf of bread because there's so many businesses that actually shut their doors.

'It's really affecting a lot of people  all businesses in Port Macquarie.'

Rescue officers assist a resident stranded in flooded waters at her home in Port Macquarie

Mr Lazarus, who runs Port AdVenture Cruises with his partner Elsa Barbosa, said he had been forced to cancel nine cruises this week, including an 18th birthday party and a fundraiser for Marine Rescue.

'We're pretty stressful, with that,' he said.

'We can't even get to our boat at the moment because it's isolated with water between the road and the dock  we're spending most of our time at the moment just on watching the boat going down at high tides just to make sure that the ropes are secure.'

Since they started in 2018, the couple have coped with Covid and previous floods in 2021, stopping customers from being able to have a dolphin watching or sunset cruise.

'Even if it fines up tomorrow, and the water subsides, there's normally a two-day cleanup because of the mud,' he said.

'It's a wonderful community - we've already had people reaching out for us  'We're coming down'.'
Surprise, surprise the conventional wisdom on whats happened with the Liberal and Nationals coalition breaking up is that its all doom and gloom.

The bust up is without upsides, apparently.

But to have a closed mind to its chances of success is just silly.

There are tangible reasons for the Liberals and Nationals to go their own way - even amid reports of a possible peace deal between the parties.

Consider the relationship between Labor and the Greens. The Greens point blank refuse to even entertain the idea of supporting a Liberal government.

They preference the Labor Party. They enjoy being in a position to influence its policies in the Senate, where the minor party now controls the balance of power.

Greens challenge Labor on policies all the time, while working to deny the conservative parties power.

So why does the Nationals doing the same in reverse need to be viewed solely through the prism of division and failure?

Better apart? Liberal leader Sussan Ley and the Nationals' David Littleproud

The idea of Liberals and Nationals acting independently of each other is actually even more practically feasible because their constituencies rarely overlap.

Nationals represent rural and regional areas.

Meanwhile, Liberals need to be more focused on the cities and outer suburban areas made-up of very different voters, and the contest is sharply against Labor.

The Liberals and Nationals can use their separation in opposition to better appeal to the constituencies they seek to represent in a future government.

It's not like they don't have a common enemy.

The Nationals are more incensed by Labor and Green policy settings than anything the Liberals might do that doesnt precisely fit with its thinking.

Their target for criticism is - and should be - Labor.

And of the Liberals do well enough at a future election to vie for government, Nationals have a choice, assuming Liberals are in agreement.

They can reunite in Coalition and share power, or do as the Greens always do with Labor, and support a Liberal administration from the crossbench.

There are tangible reasons for the Liberals and Nationals to go their own way - as David Littleproud has done this week

This is what happens in Western Australia. When Colin Barnett won the 2008 election the Nationals didnt enter into a formal coalition.

But they still shared power and assumed ministerial roles relevant to their constituencies.

Few could disagree that WA Nationals won more for the regions than Nationals federally ever have.

Its a realistic model for influencing public policy and government that the Canberra press gallery seem unable (or unwilling) to comprehend, with a few exceptions.

To be sure, of course the process of a Coalition separation is messy. And it will take time for the parties to get used to it.

Issues yet to be resolved include how a fused party in Queensland (the LNP) will cope with the new normal federally.

But just because Labor - dripping in self interest - slams the break-up of the Coalition as dysfunctional, doesn't mean that the separated parties won't pose a threat to the ALP.

The PM has already belled the cat on his insiders game of stoking divisions. He has flagged plans to cut staffing entitlements and opportunities for the new opposition in parliament following the bust up.

His motives arent pure which is why they should be seen in exactly that context.

Some of Sussan Ley's MPs would welcome the opportunity to have a bit of distance from the Nats - at least until they manage to get into government

While past and current conservative MPs have also condemned the Coalition break up as a disaster, they arent objective observers either.

All of them operated in an environment dominated by formal coalition between the parties.

Thinking outside the square isnt exactly a strong suit for conservatives who dont like change.

Nobody is denying that the termination of the formal Coalition doesnt present enormous challenges.

But the lack of capacity to also see opportunities that come with it is a failure of political analysis.

Just maybe the coalition break up is the next iteration of a changing two party system, reflective of voters becoming less partisan and more open to politics being done differently to better reflect the diversity of the Australian population.
Cruise ship passengers were stunned to learn their captain had tragically died in the middle of their 19-day vacation.

Devastation ensued upon Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess ship when guests received a letter breaking the news of Captain Michele Bartolomei's sudden death.

The 52-year-old, who lived in Canada, died from a medical emergency and was discovered Monday morning while the ship was docked in Keelung, Taiwan.

Before passengers where officially notified, an announcement blared over the boat's loud speaker, urging the medical to respond to an emergency at around 2am, according to Crew Center.

Vacationers were unnerved by the message, but the real shock came when they learned it was about the man leading the voyage.

'We are deeply saddened by the passing of Captain Michele Bartolomei, a beloved member of the Princess Cruises family whose career at sea spanned more than 30 years,' Princess Cruises shared in a heartfelt message.

In an attempt to ease concerns, the cruise company said in its letter to passengers 'that our commitment to your safety and the smooth operation of this voyage remains our utmost priority.'

Captain Salvatore Macera has taken over for Bartolomei, according to the popular cruise line.

Devastation ensued upon Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess ship when guests received a letter breaking the news of Captain Michele Bartolomei's (pictured) sudden death

Vacationers were unnerved by the message, but the real shock came when they learned it was about the man leading the voyage (pictured: Diamond Princess)

The 52-year-old (pictured) died from a medical emergency and was discovered Monday morning while the ship was docked in Keelung, Taiwan

The Asian cruise departed from Tokyo on May 6 to visit different locations across Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China.

It is set to return back to Tokyo on May 25, according to Cruise Mapper.

Princess Cruises, an American cruise line, said the captain joined their team in 1995 and has led a career characterized by 'leadership, professionalism, and deep love for the ocean.'

'Our hearts are with his family during this incredibly difficult time, and we extend our deepest condolences to them,' the company wrote.

'We also stand in support of the Diamond Princess crew and all team members across our fleet mourning this loss.'

Online tributes to the beloved captain - who completed his maritime training in Italy - have been pouring in, with friends and guests who met him sharing glowing remarks.

One woman aboard the Diamond Princess said Bartolomei's leadership 'left a lasting impression.'

'His dedication will always be remembered,' she added.

Princess Cruises, an American cruise line, said the Italian captain (pictured) joined their team in 1995 and has led a career characterized by 'leadership, professionalism, and deep love for the ocean'

A close friend to the deceased captain, Dave Wallensky, described Bartolomei (pictured) as 'a legend on the sea' who adored his family and loved fishing in his spare time

A close friend to the deceased captain, Dave Wallensky, described him as 'a legend on the sea' who adored his family and loved fishing in his spare time.

'Im absolutely shattered. He was one of the best things that happened to me and Lesleigh [another captain] and we spent the night last night sobbing. And laughing about what we did together. And sobbing again,' he wrote.

Cruise ships have onboard morgues for dead bodied to be stored if someone dies at sea, The New York Times reported.

The area is typically a stainless steel chilled room on a cruise ship's lowest deck. They generally are designed to fit two to 10 corpses.
The federal government has confirmed that Disaster Recovery Allowance payments will be available to people affected by heavy rains in NSW.

The financial support is available for workers who will lose income, such as those who are unable to go to work or whose employer has had to cease operating.

Federal emergency management minister Kristy McBain said the allowance has been made available for four impacted LGAs impacted by flooding.

These are the Kempsey, Port Macquarie, Dungog and the Mid Coast Council areas.

The federal and NSW governments had already activated disaster recovery funding arrangements for 16 other LGAs.

'That is to assist people who have been impacted with up to 13 weeks' allowance in lieu of them being able to undertake their usual course of employment,' McBain said.

'If youre eligible, youll get the maximum equivalent rate of JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance, depending on your personal circumstances,' Services Australia said.

It is not known when the payments are going to be made available, but when they are impacted residents will be able to apply via the MyGov website.

Federal emergency management minister Kristy McBain has said much-needed disaster recovery allowance payments will be available for four councils after flooding in NSW

A flooded truck is seen in a photo from the NSW SES as hundreds of rescues are performed

How much can I get?

For the 13-week allowance, the amount of the payment usually is assessed on a case-by-case basis, with the maximum not exceeding Jobseeker and Youth Allowance payments.

How to claim?

To claim the payment, a MyGov login linked to a Centrelink account would then be needed.

Users can then click on 'Make a claim' and follow the instructions.

Alternatively, support can be accessed via phone with the numbers available on the Centrelink website.

Those who have Centrelink debts can also apply for a pause on repayments for up to three months.

More rain expected

Torrential rain and subsequent flash flooding on NSW's Mid North Coast has triggered over 1,000 SES incidents and cut off thousands of homes.

The flooding turned deadly when a 63-year-old man, yet to be identified by police, was found in his water-ravaged home near Cooperneck about 3pm on Wednesday.

His grieving daughter told Daily Mail Australia her dad had sent rescuers to save his family before he was found dead at his rural property just hours later.

A photo of a flooded street near Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie (pictured) comes as up to 50,000 people are warned they could be isolated on Thursday

Torrential rain has caused flash flooding on NSW's Mid North Coast with some 50,000 people told they could be isolated on Thursday

A slow-moving trough is bringing heavy falls of 200-300mm to regions in New South Wales

A photo of a flooded street near Settlement Point Road in Port Macquarie has revealed the true extent of the rising floodwaters - with some 50,000 people warned they could be isolated on Thursday.

Prolonged heavy rainfall is set to continue throughout Thursday, with Kempsey and Coffs Harbour among the communities on high alert for flash flooding.

Falls between 200-300mm over the next 24 hours are likely and may lead to flash flooding around the North Coast communities of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo.

The deluge has spread to the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands as a slow-moving trough dumped rain along Australia's east coast.
The Georgia college student who was mistakenly arrested and subsequently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been granted bond.

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, of Dalton, was taken into ICE custody after she was mistakenly stopped by police for a traffic violation she didn't commit earlier this month, despite having lived in the US since the age of four.

On Wednesday, the Mexican-born student was granted a $1,500 bond during an immigration hearing - the lowest amount permitted by law, ABC News reported.

'The government did not wish to appeal,' Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal's attorney, said in a statement, as reported by the outlet.

'The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest,' he added.

However, the Department of Homeland Security has stated that it remains committed to ordering the teenager to 'self-deport' back to Mexico, citing the absence of any pending applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

'Both father and daughter were in this country illegally and they have to face the consequences,' DHS said in a statement to X last week.

In a new update, Ximena Arias-Cristobal (pictured), 19, of Dalton, Georgia, who was mistakenly arrested and subsequently detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has been granted a $1,500 bond during an immigration hearing - the lowest amount permitted by law

Two weeks before the teen's arrest, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was detained by ICE agents after being stopped by police for speeding and driving without a license. He was released from custody on bond last week (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her father)

However, the Department of Homeland Security has stated that it remains committed to ordering the teenager to 'self-deport' back to Mexico , citing the absence of any pending applications with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

Last week, Attorney Terry Olsen warned that the teen's mother may be next, stating that 'it's likely Arias-Cristobal's mother will be "arrested or detained within a month or so"' (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her parents)

Two weeks before the teen's arrest, her father, Jose Francisco Arias-Tovar, was detained by ICE agents after being stopped by police for speeding and driving without a license. He was released from custody on bond last week.

'The United States is offering aliens like this father and daughter $1,000 apiece and a free flight to self-deport now,' the statement added.

'We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the US the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.'

The next hearing has not yet been scheduled and, according to one of Arias-Cristobal's attorneys, 'would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026', ABC reported.

Meanwhile, the teenage girl's parents are overjoyed that their daughter will be home soon, even as they face an uncertain future staring them in the face.

'I'm just really happy that my daughter is coming home,' her mother told News 9. 'I just want to hug her. 15 days without feeling her warmth, her skin and hear her voice, now I just need her home.'

Agreeing, her father added: 'We'll continue to finish the transition so we can be in the country and continue working hard. She's studying at her college and working hard to come out ahead'.

Arias-Cristobal was living the life of a typical teenager just a month ago - studying at Dalton State College, taking on babysitting jobs and running cross country.

The next hearing has not yet been scheduled and, according to one of Arias-Cristobal's attorneys, 'would be remarkable if it is before mid-2026'

Her father, Arias-Tovas (pictured), was also being detained at the same facility after his own arrest by ICE during a separate traffic stop in Tunnel Hill last month, though he has since returned home after being bonded out

On May 5, the college student's life took a dramatic turn when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that had turned right on a red light located in front of a sign reading 'no turn on red'

On May 5, however, her life took a dramatic turn when her dark gray truck was mistaken for a black pickup that had turned right on a red light located in front of a sign reading 'no turn on red'.

After being pulled over, Arias-Cristobal told the officer she had an international driver's license, but did not have it with her at the time.

Online jail records showed that she was initially arrested and booked into the Whitfield County Jail for driving without a valid license and for failing to obey traffic control devices.

During her booking at the jail, Arias-Cristobal was asked about her immigration status - a routine part of intake at Whitfield County that often leads to ICE referrals.

However, the charges were ultimately dropped after dashcam footage revealed that the officer had pulled over the wrong vehicle.

The Dalton Police Department and city prosecutor said that the car that made the illegal turn resembled the truck Arias-Cristobal was driving.

Despite the mistake, the incident triggered her transfer to ICE custody, where she was shackled at the wrists and ankles and taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. She has remained there ever since her detainment.

Her father, Arias-Tovas, was also being detained at the same facility after his own arrest by ICE during a separate traffic stop in Tunnel Hill last month, though he has since returned home after being bonded out.

Last week, Attorney Terry Olsen warned that the teen's mother may be next, stating that 'it's likely Arias-Cristobal's mother will be "arrested or detained within a month or so"'.

The college student came to the US from Mexico City as a four-year-old toddler in 2010, where her family settled in the Dalton area.

Arias-Cristobal had previously attempted to apply for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) after arriving in the country, but the program had ended a year before they crossed the border.

Arias-Cristobal told the officer she had an international driver's license, but did not have it with her at the time, resulting in her arrest and transfer to the Whitfield County Jail for driving without a valid license and for failing to obey traffic control devices

The charges were ultimately dropped after dashcam footage revealed that the officer had pulled over the wrong vehicle, but she was still shackled at the wrists and ankles by ICE and taken to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia

Dustin Baxter, Arias-Cristobal's attorney, said that 'the family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest' (pictured: Arias-Cristobal and her father)

DACA allowed undocumented children brought to the US to apply for deportation deferral every two years. The program has been closed to new applicants for several years.

The 19-year-old girl had been working for years as a babysitter for a woman named Hannah Jones and her family, who described her as the 'most precious human', while also adding that they believed her international license allowed her to drive legally, KATV News reported.

Arias-Cristobal's younger sister spoke emotionally about the family's journey, and said: 'They came in with big dreams because they wanted a big future for my older sister. And, you know, my sister goes to college, and she was an honor student since middle school.'

'And she runs. She loves to run. It's her passion, and the only reason they came is to follow my sister's dreams,' she added.

Their mother, speaking through the younger daughter, said: 'My dad has his own company, and they called a lawyer to see if they could get a job permit or a visa, and they said that they hadn't hit that status to get one yet.'

Georgia State Representative Kacey Carpenter also weighed in, writing a letter on the teen's behalf: 'The reality is, the conversation has always been that we need to get hard criminals out of the country.

'Unfortunately, the people that aren't hard criminal are getting caught up in the wash. It seems like we are much better at catching people that [are] committing misdemeanors than people that are actually a danger to society.'
A crazed gunman shouted 'Free Palestine' after he shot and killed two Israeli embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was pacing back and forth before allegedly opening fire on a group of four people who were standing outside the museum.

Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were publicly named early on Thursday morning as the victims of the vile attack, which was condemned by President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were partners and had been due to be engaged next week, Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said.

'The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.'

The shooter had entered the building and was offered water and comfort by attendees, who assumed he was a victim of the shooting.

According to a witness, after spending about 15 minutes inside the museum in an apparent state of shock, he asked someone to call police and confessed. He was then taken into custody.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'wild incitement against the State of Israel' was to blame for the horror attack and that it was the 'terrible price of anti-Semitism.'

He also announced increased security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide in order to protect state representatives.

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed

Victim Yaron Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring earlier this week 'with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem'

It is understood the shooter shouted 'Free Palestine ' during the vicious attack, which is now being investigated by the FBI 's Joint Terrorism Task Force

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrive at the scene of the tragedy on Wednesday night

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described the shooting as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

He said: 'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night when the terror unfolded, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed.

Emotional photos show an onlooker draped in an Israeli flag as police cordoned off the area surrounding the shooting.

President Trump issued a statement late Wednesday night condemning 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Trump has been trying to stamp out anti-Semitism within the United States since returning to the White House, cracking down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the nation and vowing to deport non-Americans inciting violence against Jewish people.

UN ambassador Danon said he was 'confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

'Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.'

Wednesday's sold-out event was touted as a night 'bringing together Jewish young professionals (22-45) and the D.C. diplomatic community.'

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum (pictured by Ajay Suresh) on Wednesday night

The victims, a man and a woman, have ties to the Israeli embassy and were in the area taking part in an event at the museum

The evening was 'dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage', featuring 'appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker.'

It was scheduled to take place 6.30pm and 9pm, and the shooting occurred about 9.15pm.

'We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue,' Deutch said.

'At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.'

Witness Yoni Kalin told Fox that a security guard let the shooter into the building in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, fearing he was a victim.

'He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like ''call the cops''.'

Ten minutes later when authorities arrived, the man allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

'He grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started 'Free Palestine' chant, 'there's only one solution, Intifada revolution,' Kalin said. 'Thank God he left the gun in the bushes outside.'

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon confirmed the incident on Wednesday night, branding it 'anti-Semitic terrorism'

At least two people are dead after a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC in what is being described as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism

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Tal Naim Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy, said the duo was shot 'at close range' as they celebrated the evening.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived on the scene alongside DC attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

'I am on the scene of the horrible shooting outside the Washington, DC Capital Jewish Museum,' she wrote on X. 'Praying for the victims of this violence as we work to learn more.'

Police are urging locals to avoid the area as they investigate the incident.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the deaths as 'senseless' in a statement Wednesday night.

'Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,' she wrote.

'We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.'

Senator Chuck Schumer also weighed in, writing: 'I'm closely monitoring the shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum tonight in DC.

'This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society. I'm praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families.'

Arizona Congressman Abe Hamadeh said: 'An assassin screamed 'Free Palestine!' outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and murdered an Israeli diplomat and her companion.

'This was an act of terror and antisemitism, and the perpetrator(s) must be brought to justice.'

The FBI 's Joint Terrorism Task Force swiftly responded to the scene and is reportedly investigating

Police are urging locals to avoid the area as they investigate the incident.

Initial reports suggested one of the victims died at the scene while another was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Later updates confirmed both victims had tragically died

Less than 24 hours ago, the Capital Jewish Museum was awarded a security grant amid ongoing concerns about the safety of guests and staff.

'Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,' Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz said.

'So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.'

The museum recently launched a new exhibit which they feared would amplify the risks of an attack - LGBT Jews in the Federal City - to coincide with World Pride.

'We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,' Gurwitz said. 'And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.'
The Coalition may be back on, just days after the Nationals announced their shock decision to split from the Liberal Party.

The Nationals revealed on Tuesday they were breaking away from the Liberals, marking just the third time the Coalition parties have gone their separate ways in the last 80 years.

But Liberal Party Leader Sussan Ley said on Thursday afternoon that she was heartened by Nationals Leader David Littleproud's public admission that his party was willing to accept Shadow Cabinet solidarity as part of a Coalition Agreement.

'This is the first time this commitment has been made and I welcome it as a foundation to resolve other matters,' Ley said.

'Earlier today I wrote to, and met with, David inviting him to re-enter good-faith negotiations. I am pleased he has accepted.

'In relation to the policy positions proposed by the National Party Room, consistent with my consultation commitment, the Liberal Party will consider these, utilising our party room processes.'

'It has always been the Liberal Party's objective to form a Coalition and we welcome The Nationals' decision to re-enter negotiations.'

The announcement of shadow cabinet ministers has now been paused.

Liberal Party Leader Sussan Ley (pictured) said on Thursday afternoon that she was heartened by Nationals Leader David Littleproud saying that his party was willing to accept Shadow Cabinet solidarity as part of a Coalition Agreement

Littleproud (pictured) said he will give the Liberals more time to discuss his party's policy requests after he blew up the coalition's decades-long partnership

It's understood that Ley invited Littleproud to meet in her office this morning after he said publicly the Nationals would be willing to accept Shadow Cabinet solidarity.

This means that the Nationals would not be able to break ranks on the Coalition's agreed policy positions.

Littleproud said he will give the Liberals more time to discuss his party's policy requests after he blew up the coalition's decades-long partnership.

He has paused his attempt to announce portfolios for his party and in return Liberals leader Sussan Ley will not unveil her shadow ministry, which was set to be announced by the end of the week.

'This is a positive step forward - one in which we've always said we'd be productive and constructive,' Mr Littleproud told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

'We didn't do what we did on Tuesday lightly - it was a tough decision, a huge decision, and we in a sign of good faith, have made it clear that I'm prepared to pause my announcement today.'

The Nationals allege the break up occurred because they could not secure commitments on key policies.

However, Liberals claimed the conservative relationship collapsed due to a disagreement over shadow cabinet solidarity, which binds members to publicly support collective decisions, even if they disagree internally.

Littleproud said his previous negotiations with Ley centred on four non-negotiable policies.

These included support for nuclear energy, break-up powers for supermarkets, a regional Australia future fund and reliable telco coverage in rural areas.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said the political divorce was understandable, but regrettable.

'Let's get over the electoral PTSD and let's get back together again as quickly as possible,' he told Sydney radio 2GB.

'If the Libs and the Nats go their separate ways, we won't have one strong opposition - we'll have two opposition parties that are fighting each other as much as they're fighting a bad government.'
A California senator has been accused of driving on drugs after crashing into another car just blocks away from the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Sabrina Cervantes, 37, left her car behind and was driven to the hospital with minor injuries after the accident on Monday around 1:30pm.

Sacramento police arrived to speak with the Democrat about what happened and quickly noticed she was showing signs of intoxication.

After further evaluation, authorities cited the lawmaker with a misdemeanor for suspicion of DUI before she was released from the facility, police told KTLA.

But the mother-of-three sitting on the Senate Committee on Elections fiercely denied she consumed any mind-altering substances before getting behind the wheel.

'On Monday afternoon, while seeking care in the emergency room after my sedan was t-boned by a large SUV,' she explained in a statement.

'I was accosted by Sacramento Police Department officers, falsely accused of driving under the influence, and involuntarily detained for several hours at the hospital.'

She added these allegations have left her stressed and frustrated as someone who holds herself 'to the highest standard.'

Sabrina Cervantes (pictured), 37, has been accused of driving on drugs after crashing into another car just blocks away from the State Capitol in Sacramento

Cervantes (pictured) is the first openly gay Latina to represent Western Riverside County in the Legislature, her bio states

'I want to be clear: I did nothing wrong,' she asserted.

'The lab results I sought in the hospital show conclusively I had no alcohol in my system. I expect this to be quickly and justly resolved.'

However, police reiterated the fact they are not claiming she was drunk, but on drugs. It is unclear what they believe she consumed.

A spokesperson for the department also told KTLA Cervantes' argument that officers treated her unfairly or harshly was not supported by body camera video.

'After reviewing officers body camera footage, I didnt see any indication Senator Cervantes was accosted by officers,' the representative said.

'Officers conducted a thorough investigation and remained professional and respectful throughout it.'

The cause of the accident that sparked this DUI dilemma is still under investigation, although the spokesperson said it seemed that Cervantes' SUV was t-boned, as the politician claimed.

Cervantes represents Senate District 31, which embodies portions of parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. She assumed the role in December 2024.

Cervantes (pictured) represents Senate District 31, which embodies portions of parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. She assumed the role in December 2024

She previously served on the state's Assembly. She was first elected to the State Legislature in 2016, according to her Senate biography.

From 2022 to 2024, she was the Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus.

Cervantes is also the first openly gay Latina to represent Western Riverside County in the Legislature, her bio states.

She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Riverside before completing an executive education program at Harvard University.

Cervantes' scandal comes months after a Democratic Rhode Island senator was arrested for allegedly drunk driving.

Progressive state Rep. Enrique Sanchez, 28, was pulled over in the early morning hours of February 3, after allegedly parking his car in an intersection in Cranston, Rhode Island.

Police officers noticed he remained stopped at a traffic light even after the light turned green, as reported by the Rhode Island Current.

Officer Chavelle Lopez wrote in the arrest report that Sanchez 'seemed confused' when stopped, initially handing over a red debit card instead of his driver's license before insisting he hadn't been drinking.

But the mother-of-three (middle) sitting on the Senate Committee on Elections fiercely denied she consumed any mind-altering substances before getting behind the wheel.

Cervantes' scandal comes months after a Democratic Rhode Island Senator Enrique Sanchez (pictured) was arrested for allegedly drunk driving

She noted she could smell 'a heavy odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath' while Sanchez was speaking and observed he had 'bloodshot watery eyes.'

Despite the evidence, Sanchez pleaded not guilty to driving while intoxicated in his initial court appearance.

He since pleaded not guilty to lesser civil charges of refusing a chemical test and failure to obey traffic control devices.

Court documents obtained by Fox News reveal that on February 19, Cranston Magistrate William Noonan suspended Sanchez's license but granted him a limited 'hardship license.'

The 'hardship license' allowed him to drive to his day job and the State House between 8am and 8pm - but only after installing an ignition interlock breathalyzer in his vehicle.
Unprecedented rain has ravaged the east coast of NSW and is expected to stretch further across the state in coming days, with Sydney in the firing line.

Flash flooding warnings were issued for the Mid North Coast and Hunter regions by the Bureau of Meteorology, after the storm turned deadly.

The body of David Knowles, 63, was found in his flood-ravaged home on North Moto Road near Coopernook about 3pm on Wednesday.

In a separate incident, the body of man in his 30s, who has yet to be identified by police, was recovered near Rosewood on Thursday at 8am by police.

BoM has warned there is more heavy rain on the way, with forecast maps suggesting the system will spread north and south.

SES commissioner Michael Wassing said emergency crews had prepared for the weather to hit Sydney as well.

'We've also got some preparation even around Sydney and there is some active rainfall events there.'

'We have predeployed some capabilities and some management teams up into the northeast as well,' he said.

Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the 48 hours ending at 10pm on Friday - showing Sydney is about to cop it

SES commissioner Michael Wassing said emergency crews have been preparing for the rain storm to reach further across the state

Mr Wassing said the storm has already reached lower parts of the northeast and there will be some focus over the weekend and into next week on winds impacting NSW's south and southeast.

It was also confirmed on Thursday that staff from the Australian Defence Force would be deployed for search and rescue at night.

The NSW SES said it had responded to 1,023 incidents, including 339 flood rescues, in the 24 hours to 5am.

More than 100 rescues in Taree, Glenthorne, Oxley Island and Motowere were outstanding on Thursday morning.

During an average May, the middle north coast and Hunter regions would see about 50 to 150mm of rain, Weatherzone said.

But this week, some places have registered more than 500mm over the course of three days, and over 300mm within 24 hours.

It revealed the three-day rain bomb beat the previous May monthly record of 558.2mm from 1980. Data has been available back to 1949.

The main cause of the heavy rainfall over eastern NSW has been an almost-stationary low pressure trough.

Police have recorded two deaths over the course of 24 hours after catastrophic flooding in New South Wales after unprecedented rain

Weatherzone reported that the wet weather has been projected to contract towards southern parts of the state on Friday and clear from Saturday.

'The Mid North Coast and adjacent Northern Tablelands and Hunter regions could see another 50 to 100 mm of rain on Thursday, with isolated falls of 100 to 200mm. This rain should ease into Friday morning, although flooding is likely to linger beyond the end of this week.

'Further south, accumulated rainfall totals of 30 to 80 mm are likely over a broad area of eastern and southern NSW between Thursday and Friday. Some areas of the state's central ranges could see about 60 to 130 mm over Thursday and Friday combined.'

Sydney hasn't been spared from the massive amount of rain with falls of up to 50mm predicted across the city on Thursday and Friday.

In the 24 hours to midday on Thursday the city's south and northwest recorded the heaviest rain with 31mm at Holsworthy, 26mm at Richmond, 24mm at Hornsby and 29mm at Lucas Heights.

NSW SES advised those in low-lying areas near the Menangle Bridge and surrounds of a minor rise of the Upper Nepean River, which could result in minor flooding.

The bureau also issued a minor flooding warning for the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond.

Fortunately the rain is set to ease for the city from Saturday with partially cloudy skies forecast followed by a mostly sunny Sunday.

Emergency Minister Kirsty McBain has warned there will be more wild weather events occurring across Australia 'month after month' due to climate change

Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino described the volume of rain as 'unprecedented'.

'The main drivers behind this week's heavy rainfall over eastern NSW were a near-stationary low pressure trough interacting with a stagnant pool of cold upper-level air and a relentless stream of moisture-laden winds,' he said.

Emergency Minister Kirsty McBain told reporters Australians are likely to experience more natural disasters, like ex-Cyclone Alfred and NSW's flooding.

'I don't think that there is a question out there that climate change is having a significant impact on weather events right across the world,' she said.

'In Australia here, we're not immune to that. We're seeing more devastating events like this happen more frequently.'

She said that some communities are facing these extreme weather incidents 'month after month' rather than every year.
A selfless dad insisted his family board the lifeboats and leave him behind before he died in the floodwaters swamping the NSW mid-north coast this week

NSW Police discovered the body of David Knowles, 63, at his property on North Moto Road near Coopernook, south of Port Macquarie, about 3pm on Wednesday.

He is the first victim of an escalating floods crisis on the NSW mid-north coast, with a second man confirmed dead and several missing amid heavy downpours of 200-300mm of rain.

Mr Knowles' daughter Stacey Hurrell told Daily Mail Australia that her father's best friend, Wayne Drury, had led a team of rescuers to the family property that afternoon.

But instead of taking a spot in the limited number of lifeboats, Mr Knowles asked rescuers to find and rescue his family instead.

Mr Knowles opted to stay behind with his blind dog and 30 head of cattle, before the rising Landsdowne River engulfed his home.

Heartbroken Ms Hurrell told Daily Mail Australia she was 'p***ed off' and 'sad' and was trying to focus on looking after her community.

She said the local heroes, led by Mr Drury - known locally by his nickname 'Hipshot' - deserved a 'medal of recognition for all the families they've saved'.

David Knowles, 63, was found dead at his home at Coopernook, south of Port Macquarie, about 3pm on Wednesday. He is pictured with his daughter Stacey Hurrell

Mr Knowles, 63 (centre) was described as a 'man with the biggest heart' by his daughter Ms Hurrell

Mr Drury and friends, including men from the local Stones Oyster Co Op, have been rescuing locals 'day and night' since Wednesday morning, she said.

'(They have) saved s***loads of families compared to the SES the SES don't know the river systems like the locals do,' she said.

'They are all fathers; they have the drive to save people, because they've needed saving before.'

When Ms Hurrell left her father's home at 12.30pm the floodwaters were rising, but only a puddle separated the driveway from the road.

But by 3pm - when her father was tragically found dead - the waters had risen considerably.

Ms Hurrell said Mr Knowles was a generous man.

'He was a man with the biggest heart,' she said.

'He'd give you his last dollars.'

Mr Knowles home was flooded on Wednesday afternoon, but he sent away lifeboats. Rescuers found his body about 3pm

A slow-moving trough is bringing heavy falls of 200-300mm to the mid north coast of New South Wales

The tight-knit local community has rallied around each other as properties plunged under the waterline.

NSW Premier Chris Minns earlier expressed 'grave fears' for three missing people and encouraged communities to brace for more tragic news in coming days.

Police have since located a body they believe belongs to a 25-year-old male who went missing with his vehicle around Wauchope. He is understood to have driven into floodwaters.

Another 49-year-old man in Nymboida is believed to have walked into floodwaters and remains missing, while a 60-year-old woman in Dorrigo also cannot be found.

'The grim reality is the communities on the mid-north coast will have the brace for potentially more bad news in the days ahead,' Mr Minns said.

The missing people have forced officials to yet again beg people not to drive into flood waters, follow authorities' warnings and evacuate if it is safe to do.

'I will not compromise the safety of my people or any other emergency services people, highly-trained people  what the community can do is to help us,' NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing said.

Some 50,000 people have been warned they could be isolated on Thursday amid dozens of emergency warnings.

A woman is seen being winched to safety from a rooftop in Taree, in NSW's northeast

Sand bags are seen outside a shop in Port Macquarie as floods ravage the mid north coast

The NSW SES had responded to 3068 incidents in three days, with 339 flood rescues in the 24 hours to Thursday 5am alone.

Almost all flood rescue requests from the past 24 hours have been worked through, but another 33 were lodged by 11am on Thursday.

Scores of the rescues have been due to people entering flood waters, the premier said.

Prolonged heavy rainfall is set to continue throughout the afternoon, with Kempsey and Coffs Harbour among the communities on high alert for flash flooding.

Falls between 200-300mm over the next 24 hours are likely and may lead to flash flooding around the North Coast communities of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo.

The deluge has spread to the Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands as a slow-moving trough dumped rain along Australia's east coast.

The NSW SES said it had responded to 1,023 incidents, including 339 flood rescues, in the 24 hours to 5am.

More than 100 rescues in Taree, Glenthorne, Oxley Island and Motowere were outstanding on Thursday morning.

SES Assistant Commissioner Colin Malone said conditions had been challenging.

'We've seen continual rainfall and very fast flowing rivers which, when combined with flooded roads, have made it very difficult to access some isolated people,' he said.
A pro-Palestinian gunman casually walked into the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC just moments after he allegedly shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, opened fire on a group of four people who were standing outside the museum Wednesday evening as it hosted a Young Diplomats event.

The duo who were fatally shot were an Israeli couple who were due to be engaged next week.

After opening fire, Rodriguez was let in to the Capital Jewish Museum by security guards who mistook him as a victim, witness Yoni Kalin told Fox 5 News.

'You know I did see somebody run in,' he recounted. 'The security guard happened to let this guy in, I guess they were thinking he was a victim.'

Kalin described how the suspect was 'covered in rain and he was clearly in trauma, he was in shock.'

Another witness, Sara Marinuzzi claimed the suspect 'was kind of having erratic behavior. They figured he witnessed the shooting.'

Seeing how distressed Rodriguez appeared, Kalin said some people at the event brought him water and asked him if he was OK - and were left horrified when they discovered who he truly was.

Witness Yoni Kalin told how a pro-Palestinian gunman was able to gain entrance to the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC just moments after he allegedly shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers

The Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the time

Kalin said that the suspect sat down inside the museum and asked others to call the police.

But when police arrived about 10 minutes later, Rodriguez allegedly told the officers, 'I did this.'

'He said, "Sir I'm unarmed," put his arms up and grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started the "Free Palestine" chants,' saying 'There's only one solution - intifada revolution,' Kalin claimed.

At that point, he said Rodriguez was dragged out of the building as he continued his chants.

Still, Kalin said he did not completely understand what had happened - and tried to hand him his keffiyeh back.

'I didn't realize that he had murdered two people,' he said.

In fact, it wasn't until about five to 10 minutes later when he and the others started to get more information that they realized the shooter 'was in the building with us for like 15 minutes.'

'My friend was actually watching the surveillance footage and he murdered somebody, executed them from the back - five to 10 shots,' Kalin claimed, calling the shooting 'disgusting.'

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon echoed that statement, calling the double homicide a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

Kalin claimed that when police arrived at the scene, the suspect told the officers, 'I did this'

'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism,' Danon said.

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

Israel 's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called the double homicide a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism'

He added that he was 'confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

'Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.'

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump condemned 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Trump has been trying to stamp out anti-Semitism within the United States since returning to the White House, cracking down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the nation and vowing to deport non-Americans inciting violence against Jewish people.

Wednesday's sold-out event at the Capital Jewish Museum was touted as a night 'bringing together Jewish young professionals (22-45) and the D.C. diplomatic community' (pictured by Ajay Suresh)

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Wednesday's sold-out event was hosted by the American Jewish Committee and touted as a night 'bringing together Jewish young professionals (22-45) and the D.C. diplomatic community.'

The evening was 'dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage', featuring 'appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker.'

It was scheduled to take place 6.30pm and 9pm, and the shooting occured about 9.15pm.

'We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue,' AJC CEO Ted Deutch said.

'At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.'

FBI director Kash Patel confirmed on Wednesday night his department had been briefed on the situation and would investigate, as department heads within the Trump administration came out in force to condemn the violence.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived in DC alongside attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, and was later pictured alongside Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter examining the crime scene.

Meanwhile Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the deaths as 'senseless' in a statement Wednesday night confirming an investigation was underway.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter visited the museum following the tragedy

'Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,' she wrote.

'We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.'

Later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a chilling warning, writing: 'This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.'

The museum had been awarded a security grant amid ongoing concerns about the safety of its guests and staff just one day before the shooting.

'Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,' Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz said.

'So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.'

The museum recently launched a new exhibit which they feared would amplify the risks of an attack - LGBT Jews in the Federal City - to coincide with World Pride.

'We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,' Gurwitz said. 'And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.'
A pro-Palestinian terrorist gunned down a couple who were set to be engaged during a devastating attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C.

Israeli embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were named as the tragic victims of the vile attack early on Thursday morning, which was condemned by President Donald Trump.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, repeatedly shouted 'Free Palestine' as he was hauled into custody, shortly after opening fire.

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The couple had attended a Young Diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

The Israel Heritage Foundation confirmed Lischinsky's death overnight, writing on X: 'The IHF sadly announces the tragic murder by a cold blooded terrorist of Yaron Lischinsky in DC. Our hearts ache for his loved ones. May his memory be a blessing.'

Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter revealed Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring earlier this week 'with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.'

The other victim in Wednesday night's senseless attack was his soon-to-be fiancee.

Milgrim worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She earned a masters degree in international studies from American University.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'wild incitement against the State of Israel' was to blame for the horror attack and that it was the 'terrible price of anti-Semitism.'

Israeli embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were named as the tragic victims of the vile attack early on Thursday morning, which was condemned by President Donald Trump

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, repeatedly shouted 'Free Palestine ' as he was hauled into custody, shortly after opening fire on a group who had attended a Young Diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department. Pictured with Israeli President Isaac Herzog

Netanyahu has also announced increased security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide in order to protect state representatives.

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described the shooting as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

He said: 'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night when the terror unfolded, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed.

Lischinsky, in his work, sought to 'expand the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors and pursue regional cooperation.

He described this work as 'in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East as a whole.'

His social media presence highlighted his loyalty to Israel and the Jewish cause, often posting messages in support of actions taken by the IDF.

He had been pictured alongside Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who issued his own statement in the early hours of Thursday.

'I am devastated by the scenes in Washington DC,' he said. 'This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy.

A man, standing behind police tape, talks on his cell phone outside the Capital Jewish Museum following the shooting

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed

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'Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff.

'We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the US. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.'

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli also confirmed Lischinsky's death on Thursday with a series of posts about the tragedy.

He thanked Trump and Noem for their swift and firm response to the shooting, instantly identifiing 'this was an antisemitic hate crime that has no place in the United States.'

'Their leadership is a vital part of the broader and ongoing effort to combat antisemitism  including the incitement and intimidation spreading across American college campuses.'

Responding directly to Rodriguez' chants of 'Free Palestine', Chikli warned the phrase 'is not a cry for liberty.

'It is a cry for murder. That was proven in blood today. This slogan, parroted by activists, academics, and influencers, has become a banner not for peace but for hatred, violence, and the demonization of the Jewish state.

'Anyone who uses it now, in the wake of this attack, is not just echoing antisemitism  they are legitimizing the murder of Jews and Israelis.'

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrive at the scene of the tragedy on Wednesday night

In stark contrast to his praise of American leaders, Chikli slammed French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, claiming they 'have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines.

'This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.'

Emotional photos show an onlooker draped in an Israeli flag as police cordoned off the area surrounding the shooting.

President Trump had issued a statement late Wednesday night condemning 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Trump has been trying to stamp out anti-Semitism within the United States since returning to the White House, cracking down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the nation and vowing to deport non-Americans inciting violence against Jewish people.

Just two weeks ago, Lischinsky posed in front of both American and Israeli flags, and expressed his excitement over the collaboration of both nations.

'We are deeply grateful for the historic alliance with our steadfast partner, the United States and the great American people, who have stood by our side,' he wrote.

'I look forward to working with this administration to bring about more security, freedom and peace.'

UN ambassador Danon said he was 'confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

'Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.'

Wednesday's sold-out event was touted as a night 'bringing together Jewish young professionals (22-45) and the D.C. diplomatic community.'

The evening was 'dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage', featuring 'appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker.'

It was scheduled to take place 6.30pm and 9pm, and the shooting occurred about 9.15pm.

'We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue,' Deutch said.

'At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.'

Yoni Kalin told Fox that a security guard let the shooter into the building in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, fearing he was a victim.

'He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like ''call the cops''.'

Ten minutes later when authorities arrived, the man allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

'He grabbed a red kaffiyeh out of his pocket and started 'Free Palestine' chant, 'there's only one solution, Intifada revolution,' Kalin said. 'Thank God he left the gun in the bushes outside.'

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum (pictured by Ajay Suresh) on Wednesday night

At least two people are dead after a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC in what is being described as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy, said the duo was shot 'at close range' as they celebrated the evening.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived on the scene alongside DC attorney Jeanine Pirro.

'I am on the scene of the horrible shooting outside the Washington, DC Capital Jewish Museum,' she wrote on X. 'Praying for the victims of this violence as we work to learn more.'

Police are urging locals to avoid the area as they investigate the incident.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the deaths as 'senseless' in a statement Wednesday night.

'Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,' she wrote.

'We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.'

The FBI 's Joint Terrorism Task Force swiftly responded to the scene and is reportedly investigating

Less than 24 hours ago, the Capital Jewish Museum was awarded a security grant amid ongoing concerns about the safety of guests and staff.

'Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,' Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz said.

'So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.'

The museum recently launched a new exhibit which they feared would amplify the risks of an attack - LGBT Jews in the Federal City - to coincide with World Pride.

'We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,' Gurwitz said. 'And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.'
Marks and Spencer's website has gone down overnight, leaving customers unable to browse online.

The retailer, which has been forced to suspend online orders for weeks in the aftermath of a devastating cyber-attack, saw its regular homepage replaced with a holding screen late on Wednesday night.

People visiting the website this morning have been greeted with the message: 'Sorry you can't browse the site currently. We're making some updates and will be back soon.'

The website is now back online after the retailer undertook 'some overnight updates'.

A spokesperson for M&S said: 'Our website is open for browsing. As we work to get things back to normal for our customers we are doing some overnight updates.'

It comes less than a day after the retailer warned it faced a 300million hit from the cyber-attack, which took place a month ago over the Easter weekend.

The British high street giant halted orders on its website and saw empty shelves in the aftermath.

Customer personal data, which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, was also taken by hackers in the attack.

Stuart Machin, chief executive of M&S, told reporters that hackers gained access to the company's IT systems through a third party after 'human error'.

Visitors to the Marks and Spencer website are being greeted with a holding page which says 'Sorry you can't browse the site currently. We're making some updates and will be back soon.'

M&S was hit by a devastating cyber-attack over the Easter weekend a month ago. Pictured: An M&S store in Oxford Street, London

The boss said he has been in touch with other industry bosses to discuss hacks, with rivals the Co-op and Harrods also targeted with cyber attacks in recent weeks.

He added: 'We didn't leave the door open, this wasn't anything to do with under-investment.

'Everyone is vulnerable. For us, we were unlucky on this particular day through some human error.'

The retailer revealed on Wednesday morning that online sales and profits in its fashion, home and beauty business have been 'heavily impacted'.

Disruption to online operations is set 'to continue throughout June and into July as we restart, then ramp up operations', it said.

However, it indicated that shoppers will see improvements over the coming weeks.

Mr Machin suggested around 85 per cent of its online operations are likely to be restored soon, as the company focuses on certain parts of its operations first.

He added that clothing and home sales have been 'resilient' in stores in recent weeks.

Empty shelves inside an Marks & Spencer store in Paddington, London, on April 29

M&S chief executive Stuart Machin has revealed hackers accessed personal customer data

Meanwhile, food sales were affected by reduced availability but the business stressed this is 'already improving'.

The group has also reported 'additional waste and logistics costs' after switching to manual processes following the attack.

M&S said the incident is likely to drag its group operating profits down by around 300 million this year, but it expects this to be reduced through cost management, insurance and other reactions.

The company suggested it could reduce the impact of the attack by as much as 'half'.

Mr Machin said: 'It has been challenging, but it is a moment in time, and we are now focused on recovery, with the aim of exiting this period a much stronger business.

'There is no change to our strategy and our longer-term plans to reshape M&S for growth and, if anything, the incident allows us to accelerate the pace of change as we draw a line and move on.

'This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape, and continue our plan to reshape M&S for customers, colleagues and shareholders.'

It came as the company reported a higher-than-expected adjusted pre-tax profit of 875.5 million for the year to March, up 22.2 per cent on the previous year.

Empty food shelves at a Marks & Spencer in Cambridge on April 29 after the cyber attack

M&S has faced stock issues following the cyber attack which has left many shelves empty

The group was buoyed stronger profits in its food arm, which saw sales increase by 8.7 per cent to 9 billion over the year.

M&S revenues grew by 6 per cent to 13.8 billion as a whole for the year, as fashion, home and beauty sales grew by 3.5 per cent.

The company is currently undergoing a major transformation programme, which is including changes to its shop estate.

The retailer, which currently has 565 stores, said it plans to have 600 stores by 2028, comprising 420 bigger food stores and 180 full clothing, home and food stores.

It added that the plan is still on track despite the recent disruption.

M&S also said it has accelerated plans to invest in improvements to its technology to now take place over the next six months, after previously indicating it would take two years.

It comes after detectives investigating cyber attacks on UK retailers including M&S, Co-Op and Harrods revealed they were focused on the Scattered Spider crew of English-speaking teenage hackers.

Paul Foster, head of the National Crime Agency's national cyber crime unit, told the BBC: 'We are looking at the group that is publicly known as Scattered Spider, but we've got a range of different hypotheses and we'll follow the evidence to get to the offenders.

'In light of all the damage that we're seeing, catching whoever is behind these attacks is our top priority.

And Google said last week that those responsible were also targeting US companies, with retailers worldwide now racing to boost their cyber defences.
Three of the suspects charged over arson attacks linked to Sir Keir Starmer are 'part of a conspiracy' involving other 'unknown' individuals, police have indicated.

Petro Pochynok, 34, of Holloway Road, north London, has been charged with conspiring with his two co-defendants, alongside with 'others unknown', to commit arson with intent to endanger life.

Suggestions that there were 'others unknown' in plans behind the fires of early May indicates a wider involvement in the arson attacks related to the prime minister, with some individuals possibly still at large.

Ukrainian national Pochynok appeared at Westminster magistrates court on May 21, where it was alleged that he conspired with fellow Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc 26, both aspiring models.

Two of the fires the charges relate to occurred in Kentish Town, north London - one in the early hours of May 12 at the home where Sir Keir lived before he became Prime Minister and moved into Downing Street, while the second occurred when a car was set alight in the same street on May 8.

The other, third fire, took place on May 11 at the front door of a house converted into flats in Islington.

Lavrynovych, 21, of Sydenham, south-east London, has already been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the fires.

Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, 34, (pictured as a court artist drawing) of Holloway Road, north London , has been charged with conspiring with his two co-defendants, alongside with 'others unknown', to commit arson with intent to endanger life

Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, (pictured) who had aspirations to be the 'top model in the world', appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody to appear alongside Lavrynovych on the same date

21-year-old Roman Lavrynovych (pictured), of Sydenham in south-east London, has already been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the fires

Carpiuc, who had aspirations to be the 'top model in the world', appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday and was remanded in custody to appear alongside Lavrynovych on the same date.

All three accused men, who deny the charges against them, were remanded in custody by Judge Daniel Sternberg to appear at the Old Bailey on June 6.

A LinkedIn profile under Pochynok's name describes him as a 'private entrepreneur' who seeks to build his 'own fashion retail business'.

Wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit, Pochynok spoke only to confirm his identity at a short court hearing where he was assisted by an interpreter. There was no application for bail and District Judge Daniel Sternberg remanded him in custody.

Pochynok was arrested on Monday morning in Chelsea, west London, by Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism officers.

Six officers were spotted carrying bags of evidence out of the front door of his Holloway property, with a police warrant, seen by The Times, allegedly confirming that they searched the inside of the flat.

Meanwhile, Carpiuc, from Romford, east London, was arrested on Saturday at Luton Airport by counter-terrorism officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit as he prepared to catch a Wizz Air flight to Romania.

He appeared to have previously lived at the Holloway address with Pochynok.

Suggestions that there were 'others unknown' in plans behind the fires of early May indicates a wider involvement in the arson attacks related to the prime minister, with some possibly still at large

Sir Keir Starmer's home, as well as a flat and a car (pictured) he previously owned, were targeted in suspected arson attacks in London between May 8 and 12

Pictured: The remains of the burnt-out car that was set alight in Kentish Town

Sir Keir's 2million private home in the Kentish Town area of north London, which he had let to his sister-in-law after relocating to 10 Downing Street following his general election win, was set alight in the early hours of May 12.

The London Fire Brigade alerted police to reports of a fire at 1.35am and were able to bring it under control within 20 minutes, with the blaze damaging the porch of the property.

It came just 24 hours after a flat the Prime Minister previously lived at, in the nearby Islington area, caught fire, in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Firefighters attended the blaze, helping one person to safety, with the door of the property suffering fire damage.

On May 8, on the same street as Sir Keir's Kentish Town property, a car he sold to a neighbour last year also burst into flames.

Court artist drawing of Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, appearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court. Carpiuc, from Romford, east London, was arrested on Saturday at Luton Airport by counter-terrorism officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit

Sir Keir's 2million private home (pictured, manned by a police officer after the fire) in the Kentish Town area of north London, where he lived before becoming PM last year, was one of the properties targeted. The London Fire Brigade alerted police to reports of a fire at 1.35am and were able to bring it under control within 20 minutes

Forensics officers outside the property following the fire. All three targets of the arson attacks have 'previous connections with a high-profile public figure' meaning that officers from the force's Counter Terrorism Command are leading the investigation into the incidents

The new owner of the Toyota Rav 4 is understood to have thought the fire started because of a faulty battery.

The hybrid car was completely destroyed in the blaze, which occurred on VE Day.

All three targets of the arson attacks have 'previous connections with a high-profile public figure', Metropolitan Police confirmed. As a result, officers from the force's Counter Terrorism Command are leading the investigation into the incidents.

Anyone with information that could assist the investigation is being asked to call police on 101 quoting CAD 441/12 May.
Residents are bracing for a possible tsunami in Crete this morning after a powerful 6.1 magnitude earthquake was detected off the coast.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) issued a tsunami warning and advised people in Greece, Turkey, Italy and as far away as France and Portugal to refer to their local authorities for updates.

The tremor was reported to have been felt across the Aegean Sea, including parts of Turkey and Israel.

Residents in Crete reported via EMSC being woken up by the quake. One witness in Schisma Elounta, some 30 miles from the epicentre, said the 'whole room was shaking'. Several said the tremor lasted for around half a minute.

One British holidaymaker said on TikTok in the immediate aftermath: 'That was very scary. I was scared last time but this time I'm terrified ... That's been two earthquakes in the past week and I just want to get home safely. I just want to leave.'

She said she was trying to reassure her children 'but now we're worried about a tsunami'. 'This is just my worst nightmare.'

Another holidaymaker told TikTok followers: 'Excuse the state of me. I've just been woken up by a f***ing earthquake.'

Fearing the tsunami warning, she added: 'I'm just looking at the sea now thinking, "does that look any different?"'

Others described objects falling from shelves on the lower floors of their homes, and the fear of seeing 'the building sway and creak'. One was woken up by the 'rumbling' to discover 'the bed was shaking profusely'.

Local media showed supermarket items strewn on floors, and reported minor rockslides on rural roads, though no major damage was initially reported.

One British holidaymaker told TikTok followers: 'Excuse the state of me. I've just been woken up by a f***ing earthquake.'

Household items thrown from shelves in the wake of the earthquake on Thursday

The Greek fire brigade said that all its forces were on high alert across the island, though it was yet to receive any calls for help.

State news agency ANA said firefighters had been placed on general alert, with vehicles patrolling to assess the situation.

The tremor, which hit 49 miles off the city of Heraklion at 6:19 a.m. (0319 GMT) on Thursday, jolting locals and tourists holidaying on the island at the start of the summer season, according to reports on X.

State television ERT said many residents in the Cretan regions of Rethymno and Lasithi were woken by the quake early in the morning and quickly exited their homes as a precaution.

'Everything shook like mad , never felt one that strong,' said one witness in Malia.

Victoria, holidaying in Hersonissos, told MailOnline she and her boyfriend were woken up this morning 'to our bed shaking lots'.

She said part of the balcony door's metal frame came off when it happened, and that it was 'very scary'.

Melissa Ford, staying in Rethymno with family, told MailOnline: 'We were woken soon after 6am to the shaking of the walls in our hotel room and the government alarm going off on our phones warning us of an earthquake.

'It was quite the shock. I imagine it lasted about 30 seconds if not longer. Fortunately, it didn't wake our children and although there were after shocks, we didn't feel them.'

Witnesses described homes shaking and items being knocked off of shelves

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Local media shared residential CCTV footage showed overhead power lines shaking as the camera wobbled.

Photos showed household items thrown from shelves in a Cretan supermarket.

The mayor of Heraklion, Alexis Kalokerinos, told ERT that there were no particular problems in the city and that closing schools would not be necessary.

The tremor 'occurred at a great depth and there is no particular reason for residents to worry,' Athanassios Ganas, general director of Research at the Geodynamics Institute of the National Observatory of Athens, told ERT.

The quake hit at a depth of 68 kilometres (42 miles), the American USGS said.

It struck just over a week after a 6.1-magnitude tremor hit near the island of Kasos east of Crete, and was felt in the outlying area.

The region, popular with tourists, has been hit with multiple tremors in recent months, prompting schools in Santorini and neighbouring islands to temporarily close.

Photos shared to social media show damage in the aftermath of today's earthquake in Crete

Mochlos village, Sitia, Lasithi, Crete, Greece (file)

Thousands of earthquakes, mainly of low magnitude, have been recorded since January between the islands of Santorini, Amorgos, Ios and Anafi in the Cyclades group southeast of the Greek mainland.

They have not caused casualties or significant damage.

Located where the African and Anatolian tectonic plates converge, the Aegean Sea is often hit by quakes.

But the region had not experienced a phenomenon of such magnitude since records began in 1964, experts say.

Greece is one of Europe's most earthquake-prone countries.
A pro-Palestinian gunman suspected of shooting a young Jewish diplomatic couple dead was filmed manically screaming 'Free Palestine' as he was hauled into custody.

Footage emerged overnight of 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez as he was taken into custody after two Israeli embassy staffers were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC.

Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were identified as the victims in the vile attack that was condemned by President Donald Trump.

The couple, who were set to get engaged next week, had attended a Young Diplomats event before they were shot.

In one image, Rodriguez is seen sitting calmly at a bench with one leg crossed over the other, while separate footage captures the moment he is hysterically hauled away while shouting.

'Free, free Palestine,' he shouts repeatedly as he squirms against the officers' grip.

The haunting pictures and images surfaced as witnesses described seeing Rodriguez 'pacing back and forth' outside the museum cocktail reception.

He then approached a group of people that included Lischinsky and Milgrim and then shot them at 'close range' with a handgun, the Israeli Embassy said.

Elias Rodriguez is the 30 year-old gunman suspected of murdering a young Israeli couple at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night. He is pictured being arrested shortly after the killings

Rodriguez is pictured surrounded by police and security in the moments after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down. Onlookers say they had no idea he was the suspect until he was arrested and allegedly confessed

Israeli embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were named as the tragic victims of the vile attack early on Thursday morning, which was condemned by President Donald Trump

Moments later, he casually walked into the museum. Yoni Kalin told Fox 5 News Rodriguez was allowed inside by well-meaning security guards who assumed he was a victim.

'He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like ''call the cops''.'

Ten minutes later when authorities arrived, Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

'He grabbed a red kaffiyeh out of his pocket and started a "Free Palestine" chant: "There's only one solution, Intifada revolution," Kalin said. 'Thank God he left the gun in the bushes outside.'

Kalin, still in shock himself and unsure of what had happened, noticed that the red kaffiyeh had fallen on to the ground and tried to offer it to Rodriguez as he was hauled away, the video revealed.

In the footage of Rodriguez being taken into custody, a plastic cup of water is visible on the bench.

Details emerged of the suspect's background and political affiliations overnight on Thursday, including his reported membership of a far-left group.

He's believed to have been involved in activism with the Part for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and Black Lives Matter.

In 2017, he participated in a protest outside the residence of then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel against the city's bid to host an Amazon headquarters.

The demonstration was on the anniversary of Laquan McDonald's slaying by cops in the city.

Rodriguez argued that Chicago's effort to bring in the retail giant and the shooting represented systematic and racial inequality.

But PSL denied he is a current member with a statement in the aftermath of the savage ambush.

'We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL,' it wrote on X.

'We know of no contact with him in over seven years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.'

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He had purchased an engagement ring earlier this week 'with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem,' Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter revealed.

The other victim in Wednesday night's senseless attack was his soon-to-be fiancee.

Milgrim worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She earned a masters degree in international studies from American University.

One of her main duties was organizing missions and visits to Israel.

The vile shooting late Wednesday night has been widely condemned around the world.

President Trump issued a statement late Wednesday night condemning 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Trump has been trying to stamp out anti-Semitism within the United States since returning to the White House, cracking down on pro-Palestine protests at university campuses across the nation and vowing to deport non-Americans inciting violence against Jewish people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'wild incitement against the State of Israel' was to blame for the horror attack and that it was the 'terrible price of anti-Semitism.'

Netanyahu has also announced increased security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide in order to protect state representatives.

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The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed

Milgrim worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She earned a masters degree in international studies from American University

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described the shooting as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

He said: 'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described it as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

He said: 'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a statement in the early hours of Thursday, writing: 'I am devastated by the scenes in Washington DC.

'This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy.

It is understood the shooter shouted 'Free Palestine ' during the vicious attack, which is now being investigated by the FBI 's Joint Terrorism Task Force

'Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff.

'We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the US. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.'

The duo who were fatally shot were an Israeli couple who were due to be engaged next week, Leiter added.

Emotional photos show an onlooker draped in an Israeli flag as police cordoned off the area surrounding the shooting.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrive at the scene of the tragedy on Wednesday night

Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the shooting 'a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence'.

'Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice,' he wrote on X.

Gideon Saar, the Israeli foreign minister, blamed the bloodshed on growing 'anti-Israel incitement across the world'.

'The words are the modern blood libels. These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders,' Saar said, referencing the growing international outcry over the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has prompted accusations of genocide and war crimes.

'The global atmosphere has endangered Israeli and Jewish blood. This is what happens when leaders in the world surrender to the Palestinian terrorist propaganda  and serve it.'

UN ambassador Danon said he was 'confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

'Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.'

Wednesday's sold-out event was touted as a night 'bringing together Jewish young professionals (22-45) and the D.C. diplomatic community.'

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department. Pictured with Israeli President Isaac Herzog

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum (pictured by Ajay Suresh) on Wednesday night

The victims, a man and a woman, have ties to the Israeli embassy and were in the area taking part in an event at the museum

The evening was 'dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage', featuring 'appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker.'

It was scheduled to take place 6.30pm and 9pm, and the shooting occurred about 9.15pm.

'We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue,' Deutch said.

'At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.'

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy, said the duo was shot 'at close range' as they celebrated the evening.

FBI director Kash Patel confirmed on Wednesday night his department had been briefed on the situation and would investigate, as department heads within the Trump administration came out in force to condemn the violence.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived in DC alongside attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, and was later pictured alongside Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter examining the crime scene.

At least two people are dead after a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC in what is being described as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived on the scene alongside DC attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem described the deaths as 'senseless' in a statement Wednesday night.

'Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,' she wrote.

'We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.'

Senator Chuck Schumer also weighed in, writing: 'I'm closely monitoring the shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum tonight in DC.

'This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society. I'm praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families.'

Arizona Congressman Abe Hamadeh said: 'An assassin screamed 'Free Palestine!' outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, and murdered an Israeli diplomat and her companion.

'This was an act of terror and antisemitism, and the perpetrator(s) must be brought to justice.'

The FBI 's Joint Terrorism Task Force swiftly responded to the scene and is investigating

Items are left scattered on the sidewalk outside the museum after the horrific slaying

Initial reports suggested one of the victims died at the scene while another was rushed to hospital in a critical condition. Both tragically died

Less than 24 hours ago, the Capital Jewish Museum was awarded a security grant amid ongoing concerns about the safety of guests and staff.

'Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,' Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz said.

'So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.'

The museum recently launched a new exhibit which they feared would amplify the risks of an attack - LGBT Jews in the Federal City - to coincide with World Pride.

'We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,' Gurwitz said. 'And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.'
A tradie has died after he was electrocuted while operating a cherry picker in Sydney.

The man, 47, went into cardiac arrest after he came into contact with power lines on Darley Road in Randwick just before 2pm on Wednesday.

It's understood the man was an employee of Ausgrid and was fatally injured in a workplace incident.

Co-workers brought the tradie down to the ground and commenced CPR.

Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that paramedics arrived on the scene and took over CPR.

He was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital where he died.

Some Randwick residents were without power following the incident.

Ausgrid workers remain on site and are attempting to restore power as quickly as possible.

A tradie has died after coming into contact with power lines while operating a cherry picker on Darley Road in Randwick on Wednesday afternoon

The 47-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest and was taken to St Vincent's Hospital where he died

Ausgrid workers performed CPR on the tradie at the scene before paramedics took over upon arrival

The investigation into the circumstances of the workplace incident has been launched.

Police established a crime scene and are investigating into how the tradie came into contact with the power lines.

A report will be prepared for the coroner and the incident has been referred to Safework NSW.

Ausgrid and Safework NSW has been contacted for comment.
The grieving family of a young mum allegedly murdered by her husband and brother-in-law has launched a desperate campaign to be reunited with her young sons.

Muzhada Habibi, 23, was found dead at her Springfield Lakes home south-west of Brisbane last week in what Queensland Police are treating as a domestic violence murder.

Emergency services were called to the Ash Avenue home last Friday night following reports of a woman who had collapsed.

The mother-of-two was found unresponsive inside the home and couldn't be revived.

Her husband Khalilullah Habibi, 26, and brother-in-law Masihullah Habibi, 28, were both charged with murder.

They remain in custody after they faced court for the first time this week.

In the wake of Muzhada's tragic death, a campaign has been launched to reconnect her two young sons aged three and four with her family.

Scattered around the world, they face complex international legal hurdles to get custody of the boys, who currently have no legal guardian and speak little English.

Muzhada Habibi (pictured with her sons) was found dead at her Springfield Lakes home

Khalilullah Habibi (right) is one of two men charged over the death of his wife Muzhada (left)

They have contacted women's advocate Rita Anwari to lobby on their behalf and she is now serving as their spokesperson.

She lives in Springfield Lakes, where Muzhada and her family had recently moved to.

Ms Anwari has called on the federal and state governments to intervene and support efforts to bring Muzhada's relatives to Brisbane to care for the boys.

Muzhada's sister lives in the United Kingdom, her brother is based in Spain, and her mother remains in Afghanistan.

Her mother collapsed and suffered a stroke after learning of her daughter's death.

'This is really, really upsetting the community ... now the blue tape is down there at her house and a beautiful voice now gone from our community,' Ms Anwari told the Courier Mail.

'We want, and Muzhda's family want, the children to be looked after by their blood relatives, which is her grandmother or siblings,' she said.

'These little children don't speak English and they are with a family they don't know and we don't know either.'

Muzhada Habibi's (right) relatives are trying to connect to her children

Ms Anwari stressed the importance of keeping the children connected to their roots and to ensure their wellbeing and stability during this time.

Muzhda was raised in Afghanistan before getting married and moving to Australia to complete her education and establish a career.

She had dreamed seeing her boys grow up and graduate from uni.

A funeral for Muzhada is being organised.

The two men accused of her murder will return to court on June 25.
A 120-year-old letter in a bottle offering a snapshot into the hardships of life under the rule of Russia's last Tsar has been found in Poland.

Penned in May 1905 by a local blacksmith named Karol Szulc, the 'time capsule' letter was discovered during conservation work at the 16th century Benardine monastery in the village of Kazimierz Biskupi.

Builders stumbled across the letter detailing the hardships under Tsar Nicholas II while dismantling a cross on the monastery's gate tower overlooking the village.

Beginning 'Dear Sirs' the short letter written on a single sheet piece of paper in flowing cursive text says: 'I intended to describe to you the present times that are now.

'And so it is during the reign of the Russian Emperor Nicholas the Second, life is terrible for us Poles who groan with the sweat of the Russian rule, the sweat of the Russian whip.'

The letter dated May 9 was written just months after the 1905 Russian Revolution broke out at the start of that year.

At that time Poland officially ceased to exist, having been partitioned between Russia, Prussia and Austria.

But responding to the Tsar's political, social and economic repressions, Poles had risen up in mass protests, strikes, and demonstrations demanding political freedom, workers' rights, and national autonomy.

A 120-year-old letter in a bottle offering a snapshot into the hardships of life under the rule of Russia 's last Tsar has been found hidden in Poland

Penned in May 1905 by a local blacksmith named Karol Szulc, the 'time capsule' letter was discovered during conservation work at the 16th century Benardine monastery in the village of Kazimierz Biskupi

The Tsarist regime responded with brutal repression with Russian troops and police opening on crowds which resulted in hundreds of deaths.

Martial law was imposed and thousands were arrested or deported to Siberia.

Following the collapse of the revolution the regime intensified Russification, censoring the press, closing Polish schools, and cracking down on Polish cultural and political organisations.

In his letter, Szulc also made reference to the-then ongoing war between the Russian empire and Japan, which lasted from February 1904 to September 1905.

He wrote: 'These are indeed times of war, which Russia is waging with Japan (?), and the war is so terrible that since the beginning of the world there has never been one like it, for in this war already nearly one million people have died, and it is not over yet.'

The conflict - over rival imperial ambitions - ended with a humiliating defeat for Russia, despite its superior strength on paper.

Szulc ended his letter by praising the village's local priest for building a new church.

He wrote: 'Yet even in such difficult times, the Lord God inspired with the Holy Spirit our esteemed priest, Father I. Maachowski, who took it upon himself to build a church, and thanks to voluntary contributions, it was completed, rebuilt by the carpenter Micha Nowakowski.'

Tsar Nicholas II survived the 1905 Russian Revolution but had to abdicate in 1917 and was murdered with his wife and children the following year

Builders stumbled across the letter detailing the hardships under Tsar Nicholas II while dismantling a cross on the monastery's gate tower overlooking the village

The 16th century Benardine monastery in the village of Kazimierz Biskupi, where the bottle was found

Posting the discovery on social media, the mayor of Kazimierz Biskupi, Grzegorz Maciejewski, wrote: 'A great surprise for all of us.

'The letter written 120 years ago by our resident Mr. Karol Szulc contains information about the lives of the residents of our town under the Russian partition.

'This is a truly remarkable historical document.'

The Tsar survived the 1905 uprisings by ceding some of his power and democratising his government.

A constitution issued in 1906 established a parliament - the State Duma - and gave citizens more rights.

But the settlement was short-lived. The Tsar could not withstand the Russian Revolution of 1917, which took place amidst the country's involvement in the First World War.

He was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Ekaterinburg the with his wife and children.

The entire family were savagely murdered by Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks in July 1918.
Keir Starmer was dramatically blocked from signing a deal to give away the Chagos Islands today.

The Prime Minister had hoped to announce the highly controversial handover of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius - a move branded a 'surrender' by critics.

Sir Keir was due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government this morning to sign off on the deal.

It is expected to see Mauritius handed billions of pounds in rent for Diego Garcia, an island in the territory that is home to a major UK/US airbase.

But in the early hours of this morning it emerged a High Court has granted an injunction stopping the negotiations being concluded.

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, one of two Chagossian women who had previously launched legal action over the deal, at 2.25am.

She and Bernadette Dugasse were born on Diego Garcia and are fighting for the islands to remain under British control and the right to return there to live. The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base.

A new hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning as ministers seek to go ahead with the deal.

Mr Justice Chamberlain was told that the deal is 'time-critical' but can still be completed on Thursday.

Sir James Eadie KC, for the Foreign Office, told the High Court that 'damage has already flowed' from the delays caused to the signing of the deal over the Chagos Islands  also known as the British Indian Overseas Territory  by the injunction being issued.

Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse were born on Diego Garcia and are fighting for the islands to remain under British control and the right to return there to live. A new hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning as ministers seek to go ahead with the deal.

The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base (pictured)

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The PM was due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government this morning to sign off on the deal

He said: 'The national security angle is obvious. The British Indian Overseas Territory includes Diego Garcia, and Diego Garcia is an essential and utterly important base from which the United States and the United Kingdom, very often jointly, operate, and therefore the preservation of that facility is of the utmost importance to UK national security.'

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said: 'Today's legal intervention is a humiliation for Keir Starmer and David Lammy.'

Under the terms of the agreement, Britain is expected to give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius, and lease back a crucial military base on the archipelago for 99 years. That was expected to cost 90million a year.

The Government has argued that it has to give up sovereignty over the islands due to international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius.

Following the signing ceremony, MPs were due to be updated on the terms of the deal in the House of Commons, which could include a 40-year extension to the lease of the military base.

A High Court hearing is now expected to take place at 10.30am.

The judge said in his order: 'The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer.'

Mr Justice Goose's order continued: 'The defendant shall in particular not dispose of the territory in whole or in part.

'The defendant is to maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order.'

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, one of two Chagossian women who had previously launched legal action over the deal, at 2.25am.

According to the order, the judge granted the injunction 'upon consideration of the claimant's application for interim relief made out of court hours' and 'upon reading the defendants' response'.

A Government spokeswoman said: 'We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.'

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, is home to a joint UK-US military base, used to project Western influence in the Indian Ocean.

Critics of proposals to hand over the islands to Mauritius fear the move will benefit China, which has a growing reach in the region.

News reports recently suggested the deal had been delayed, with the Times newspaper claiming it had become 'toxic' amid criticism from Labour's political opponents.

The Conservatives are among those which have criticised Labour's handling of the negotiations, though they began discussing the handover with Mauritius when they were in power.

Speaking in the the House of Commons just this week, Defence Secretary John Healey insisted the base on Diego Garcia was 'essential to our security', and the UK's security relationship with the US.

'We've had to act, as the previous government started to do, to deal with that jeopardy, we're completing those arrangements and we'll report to the House when we can,' he added.
Dramatic footage shows terrified passengers screaming on a flight from hell as their plane was buffeted by severe turbulence, a hail storm and a bird strike.

The flight bound for Srinagar, India, departing from the capital, New Delhi, was subjected to extreme weather conditions on Wednesday.

Videos taken from inside the cabin show the moment panic spread.

Several terrified passengers can be heard screaming, as flashes of lightning illuminate the inside of the plane.

Despite damage to the nose of the aircraft, no injuries were reported among the 227 passengers after the plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

Passengers aboard the flight described being in 'shock' as turbulence violently rocked the aircraft, with the hailstorm impact reportedly causing minor internal damage.

One passenger, Owais Hakeem, said: 'I was on this flight, heading now home. It was terrible and I am still in shock.'

Fellow passenger Aaqib said: 'I had a narrow escape while flying from Delhi to Srinagar.

Dramatic footage shows terrified passengers screaming as a plane suffers damage to its nose following severe turbulence, a hail storm and a bird strike

Despite damage to the nose of the aircraft, no injuries were reported amongst the 227 passengers

The flight bound for Srinagar, India , departing from the capital, New Delhi, was subjected to extreme weather conditions on Wednesday

Passengers aboard the flight described being in 'shock' as turbulence violently rocked the aircraft

The aircraft departed from Delhi at 5:13 PM IST and safely touched down in Srinagar at 6:30 PM IST

'Hats off to the captain for the safe landing.

'Special mention to REMITA cabin crew for staying calm and professional.'

Officials confirmed that the Delhi-Srinagar flight encountered extreme weather conditions, prompting the pilot to alert Air Traffic Control (ATC) Srinagar of an emergency.

The aircraft departed from Delhi at 5:13 PM IST and safely touched down in Srinagar at 6:30 PM IST.

ATC Srinagar confirmed that all passengers and crew were safe, and the aircraft has since been designated AOG (Aircraft on Ground) for further inspection by the airline.
Private Eye cartoonist Barry Fantoni who wrote scripts for That Was The Week That Was and voiced the magazine's mock poet E J Thribb has died at the age of 85.

The artist, also a jazz musician, designer, author and broadcaster, passed away yesterday at his home in Turin, Italy, following a heart attack.

Private Eye's editor Ian Hislop has paid tribute, describing Mr Fantoni as a 'multi-talented writer' and an 'integral part' of the magazine's comic writing team.

Mr Hislop said: 'Barry was a brilliant multi-talented writer, artist and musician.

'He was an integral part of Private Eye's comic writing team from the early days in the sixties and I hugely enjoyed collaborating with him when I joined the magazine later on.

'He created formats and characters and jokes that are still running and he was for a long time the voice of the great poet and obituarist E J Thribb. So Farewell then Barry.'

Mr Fantoni was a long-term stalwart of the Private Eye editorial team from 1963 and created some of its most famous characters, most notably fictitious obituary poet-in-residence, E J Thribb.

The character is well-known for its poems about people who have recently died, almost always beginning 'So. Farewell then...'.

Private Eye cartoonist Barry Fantoni (pictured) who wrote scripts for That Was The Week That Was and voiced the magazine's mock poet E J Thribb has died at the age of 85

Ian Hislop and Barry Fantoni The launch of the 2009 Private Eye Annual, London. Mr Hislop has now paid tribute

Mr Fantoni studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from the age of 14 after accepting the Wedgewood Scholarship for the Arts. He is pictured here in 1992

While he was best known for his work with the satirical magazine, Mr Fantoni was also a diary cartoonist for news publication the Times and produced caricatures for listings magazine Radio Times from the mid 1960s.

Entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth, former prime minister Harold Wilson, DJ Tony Blackburn and comedian Sir Ken Dodd were among the stars he turned into caricatures.

Born on February 28 1940, Mr Fantoni studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from the age of 14 after accepting the Wedgewood Scholarship for the Arts.

Following expulsion he moved to the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art and became a figure in the 1960s pop art movement.

In the early half of the decade he wrote scripts for the BBC's satirical show, That Was the Week That Was, before presenting the corporation's fashion and music programme, A Whole Scene Going, which reflected on the tastes and times of Britain's under 21s and included big names like The Who, Sandie Shaw and Twiggy.

Mr Fantoni's fronting of That Was the Week That Was won him the title Male TV Personality of the Year.

He also had stints as the Times' art critic and was a record reviewer for Punch magazine in the 1970s.

Dudley Moore, Suzy Kendall, David Hemmings, Edina Ronay, Sir Peter Blake, Barry Fantoni on the set of 30 Is A Dangerous Age, Cynthia in 1966

While he was best known for his work with the satirical magazine, Mr Fantoni was also a diary cartoonist for news publication the Times

Nick Newman, Ian Hislop and Barry Fantoni at the Private Eye Annual signing in Selfridges, London in December 2008

In 2010 Mr Fantoni announced his retirement from Private Eye after 47 years.

Speaking to the Independent about his departure, he said: 'It was just time to leave. I'd done it. The establishment isn't even worth puncturing any more.'

In 2011 the cartoonist, who was also the author of several detective books, had his archive of 3,500 original Times cartoons auctioned at Bonhams for 4,200.

He leaves behind his partner Katie.
The discovery of human remains in a Norfolk field has raised hopes among three families that police will be closer to providing some closure in no-body murder cases of one of their missing loved ones.

Officers have been searching an arable field near the tiny village of Walpole Highway after partial remains were found by a passer-by.

The spot is little over a mile away from the Locomotive pub, in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, where father-of-two Terry McSpadden, 24, spent the evening before going missing in 2007.

But there are two other murder cases where the bodies have never been found within a ten-mile radius of the search site.

Maris Ile, 54, a Latvian national from Kings Lynn has not been seen since November. Searches of an allotment failed to produce clues.

And Julie Buckley, also 54, from Christchurch, near March, in Cambridgeshire, was last seen on January 28 when CCTV caught her in a supermarket.

Helen Thrower, Mr McSpaddens mother, confirmed police had been in contact with her about the find and admitted: Its too early to tell whether its Terry or not.

But she spoke for all the families when she added: Me and other people whose family members are missing, were hoping for some peace.

Police have been searching a field near the village of Walpole Highway in Norfolk after human remains were found there - sparking hopes it could be related to one of three no-body murder cases within a few miles of the spot

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Until we get some identification, we cant know.

Cold case detectives launched a fresh appeal for information about Mr McSpadden in February this year.

He visited the pub in Wisbech on March 2, 2007, where he played darts, and CCTV captured him withdrawing money from a Tesco cashpoint at around 1am.

He then headed towards the home of a friend, Jonathan Porter, who he had been staying with after falling out with his partner.

The alarm was raised the next day when his boss at a window firm rang to say he hadnt turned up for work.

An inquest, which recorded an open verdict in 2016, heard he had allegedly been drugged and bound in a bizarre incident at Mr Porters home two weeks before he went missing.

Mr Porter declined to give evidence at the hearing and was later officially declared as a suspect before being arrested in 2012. But the case against him was dismissed by a judge who cited insufficient evidence.

Speaking in 2021, heartbroken Mrs Thrower said: Ive got photos of Terry on my fridge  I talk to him every day.

Terry McSpadden, 24, went missing in March 2007 after spending the evening playing darts at the Locomotive pub in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire

Father-of-two Mr McSpadden's mother, Helen Thrower, said: 'Me and other people whose family members are missing, were hoping for some peace.'

Mr McFadden's stepfather, Gerald Thrower, and mother Helen Thrower, outside the Locomotive pub

Hes just never going to answer my questions. Hes never going to say I love you mum again. Its like a mental torture.

Maris Ile was reported missing on November 23 last year and police enquiries established he had last been seen three days earlier when he left his home to go to work in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

The Norfolk and Suffolk Major Investigation Team declared the case a no-body murder after concluding he must have come to harm.

Mr Ile was a seasonal worker in the UK but was in regular contact with his family back in Latvia.

Five people were arrested on suspicion of murder  a man and a woman in their 50s at an address in Kings Lynn, a man in his 20s in Peterborough, and two men  one in his 30s, the other in his 40s  at a property in Norwich.

Latvian national Maris Ile was a seasonal worker in the UK. He was reported missing on November 23, three days after he left his home to go to work in Ely, Cambridgeshire

Police searched King's Lynn allotments following Mr Ile's disappearance and said while there had not been an 'immediately significant' find, it had produced leads

All were questioned in police custody but were later released on police bail.

A search of Kings Lynn allotment in March did not result in a significant find but did establish several leads, Norfolk Police said.

Detective Superintendent Phill Gray said at the time: Whilst we have not found anything thats immediately significant, we have established a number of lines of enquiry that we will be pursuing over the coming weeks.

The most recent no-body case involved Ms Buckley, who was seen in CCTV released by police which showed her visiting a supermarket on January 28.

She was wearing a light-coloured top and beanie hat as she bought a small bag of shopping including kitchen roll at her local Budgens.

Julie Buckley, 54, from the village of Christchurch in Cambridgeshire, was last seen on January 28, when she was captured on the supermarket CCTV

She can be seen buying a small bag of shopping including what appears to be kitchen roll at her local Budgens

Karl Hutchings, 47, of Christchurch, was charged with her murder in February, while a 49-year-old man and 42-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. They were later released on bail

Checks only began two weeks later when concerns were raised about her whereabouts.

Dive teams searched a nearby river after a fisherman reported finding what he thought was human hair and enquiries were made following reports of suspicious activity at Bedlam Bridge in the town of March.

Officers also sealed off Ms Buckleys bungalow and another in March.

But her body has never been found, despite Crimestoppers offering a 20,000 reward for information that establishes its whereabouts.

The charity said in a statement: Her family is in desperate need of answers, yearning for the closure that comes with being able to lay their beloved daughter, sister and friend to rest.

Karl Hutchings, 47, also of Christchurch, has been charged with Ms Buckleys murder.

He denies the offence and was remanded into custody while awaiting his trial in September.

Norfolk Police were alerted to the human remains near Walpole Highway on Sunday and a strip of land several hundred feet long was cordoned off.

Officers have been photographing and bagging items of interest at the field near Walpole Highway after a passer-by reported seeing human remains there on Sunday

Areas of the arable field have been cordoned off while officers continue their investigations

Yellow markers have been placed among crops in numerous locations, most running parallel to the road 100ft away.

Officers were also seen carrying evidence bags from the site yesterday after their contents were photographed and logged.

The field is a short near a farm shop and Alpine Retail Park, which has around 20 businesses.

Jason Foster, manager at H20 Hot Tub Leisure, said: Ive heard its human remains, thats all I know. Theres been a van up there since Sunday.

A Norfolk Police spokeswoman said: Officers are exploring a number of lines of enquiry. The cordon is still in place on Lynn Road and will remain for some time.
BT has parted company with its human resources chief in the wake of dropping the diversity targets in its manager bonus scheme.

Athalie Williams, BT's chief people and culture officer, will leave the company after two and a half years in the role for personal reasons.

The HR boss is understood to be going back to retire in her native Australia and spend more time with her family.

She is set to be placed by Alison Wilcox, who previously served as BT's group HR director before taking up non-executive positions in the NHS.

Last month the company dropped the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measure in its manager bonus scheme - but BT insists the move was not connected to Ms William's departure.

The DEI measure accounted for 10 per cent of the bonus incentive before it was replaced with a new measure of employee engagement, the Telegraph reports.

Despite BT saying the change was made with 'strong support' from shareholders, it came in direct contrast to comments from BT's chief executive Allison Kirkby.

Following Donald Trump's re-election, she criticised other companies for watering down their DEI targets.

Athalie Williams, BT's chief people and culture officer, will leave the company after two and a half years in the role for personal reasons

Allison Kirkby, BT's chief executive, is understood to have been attempting to shake up the telecoms giant following her appointment last year and has made a number of senior leadership changes

Reports suggest that Ms Kirkby is going forward with plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs by the end of 2029

In a memo to staff earlier this year, she wrote: 'I believe we need to be as diverse as the customers we service, to be the customer-centric company we aspire to be and to be able to live up to our purpose.

'When we determine to be inclusive, we create an environment where everyone, no matter their background or characteristics, feels respected, valued and like they belong.'

The chief executive is understood to have been attempting to shake up the telecoms giant following her appointment last year and has made a number of senior leadership changes.

It is believed Ms Kirby is focusing on core mobile and broadband offerings including halting plans to dump BT as the company's flagship brand and develop the group's international operations ahead of a potential sale.

The company is reportedly near to finalising a deal to sell its 50pc stake in TNT Sports, formerly known as BT Sport, to joint venture partner Warner Bros Discovery.

Reports also suggest that Ms Kirkby is going forward with plans to cut tens of thousands of jobs by the end of 2029.

The firm has previously announced plans to cut up to 55,000 jobs worldwide by 2030 as it looks to shave billions of pounds off its cost base.

It said it was on track to deliver on the plans, with more than 900 million of annual cost savings delivered so far.

A BT spokesman said: 'Athalie Williams, chief people and culture officer, has decided to return to her family in Australia and retire from executive life to pursue a portfolio career.

'She will continue to support on her handover to Alison Wilcox, who will return to BT to take on this role from June 1.

'We remain committed to our inclusion and representation aspirations to better reflect the customers and communities we serve, and we are making good progress towards them.

'We have received strong support from our shareholders on the proposals to amend our group scorecard.

'BT Group works with external advisors to support strategic programmes, and following a competitive procurement process engaged JMW Consultants to deliver projects focused on enhancing leadership performance.

'These projects took place over the course of 2024, and concluded at the end of year.'

Ms Kirkby is leading a revamp of the company after taking on the top job last year and is considering selling off or breaking up its international arm

The group has said it expects earnings to remain largely flat over the year ahead as it presses ahead with a major cost-cutting overhaul and plans to refocus on its UK business.

The group reported underlying earnings up 1% to 8.21 billion in the year to March 31, as cost savings helped offset a 2% fall in revenues.

BT said it ended its financial year with 3% fewer staff, at 116,000 in total including contractors, while its directly employed workforce was slashed by 8%.

As revenues remain under pressure, the group is forecasting little change to underlying earnings over the new financial year, with guidance for between 8.2 billion and 8.3 billion.

Underlying revenues will remain at around 20 billion, having delivered 20.4 billion in 2024-25.

But the group said UK service revenues returned to growth in the second half of its last financial year, up 1% in the final quarter, limiting the overall annual decline to 0.4%.

Its networks division, called Openreach, was the only part of the business that saw both revenue and earnings growth over the year as it continued to roll out fibre across Britain.

The firm said it saw growth in its consumer broadband customer base during the final quarter for the first time since December 2021.

Ms Kirkby said: 'The momentum in, and impact of, our full fibre programme is such that we are now raising our build target by 20% to up to five million UK premises in 2025-26, keeping us comfortably on track to reach 25 million by the end of 2026.'

Ms Kirkby is leading a revamp of the company after taking on the top job last year and is considering selling off or breaking up its international arm, which the group has carved out from the rest of the business as it looks to refocus on its UK operations.

BT has been gradually reducing its overseas business as part of wider cost-cutting plans, recently selling off its troubled Italian business and previously agreeing the sale of its Irish wholesale and enterprise business unit.

Ms Kirkby said the group had 'accelerated the pace of simplification and transformation' over the past year.
As mother-of-two Beth Martin was wheeled into a hospital in Turkey a day after arriving for a getaway, the last thing her family could have imagined was that she would never leave it alive.

On Sunday April 27, the Portsmouth 28-year-old set off on a trip with husband Luke and their two young children Elouise, eight and Tommy, five.

But she began to feel ill on the flight, complaining of an upset stomach, and her symptoms only worsened when they touched down in the holiday hotspot.

By Monday morning, she was 'delirious' and, following a scramble for an ambulance, she was handed over to doctors, 'pinned down, poked, prodded invasively', according to Robert Hammond, a family friend. By Tuesday night, she was dead.

Ms Martin's family has been plunged into hell by the sudden tragedy. They have weathered huge medical bills, baseless police accusations, the indignity of her body being returned without her heart - and no answers as to why she died so suddenly.

Her family are still wondering whether doctors missed a problem with her heart, or failed to acknowledge her allergy to penicillin. Further post-mortem results are expected today, a family friend told MailOnline.

The as-yet-unidentified hospital where she was treated is understood to be facing a negligence investigation - but the Martins face a distressing six-month wait for a coroner's inquest that could give them all of the answers they desperately need.

'It has been the worst and most traumatic week of my entire life,' husband Luke wrote on social media earlier this month.

'If anyone can take anything away from this... hold your loved ones a little longer, don't sleep on an argument, take photos, take videos, tell them you love them more.'

Beth and Luke Martin on their wedding day. The 28-year-old died suddenly after falling ill on the plane to Turkey on the way to a family holiday

Beth, 28, from Portsmouth, with her husband Luke and two children, aged eight and five

A GoFundMe page launched by family friend Mr Hammond to support the Martins has laid out the hellish and traumatic ordeal in unflinching detail.

His account of the nightmare has been expanded upon by Ellie Grey, a wellness influencer who described Ms Martin as her 'very good friend' and appeared to have gone to Turkey herself to help.

Mr Hammond, writing on the page, said Ms Martin was taken to hospital on Monday April 28, where she was examined by medics and admitted.

Mr Martin then left for a few hours to take his children back to the hotel, before he was summoned back to pay for a scan upfront. He then went to be with his children as his wife was admitted into intensive care.

Her husband was, Mr Hammond says, 'banned from seeing her'.

Mr Hammond adds: 'From there, no calls and no updates despite him trying to contact the hospital to see if his wife was OK. Just silence.'

Overnight, Ms Martin was transferred to another hospital for an angiography - a type of X-ray used to show up blood vessels - due to what her family would be told were 'concerns with her heart'.

This scan reportedly showed no cause for concern, according to Ms Grey.

Ms Martin was then transferred back to the first hospital - which allegedly refused to provide paperwork to a private hospital contracted by her travel insurer.

But Mr Martin and his wife's mother, who had flown out urgently to see her, were stonewalled when they asked to see her on Tuesday - unaware of her rapidly deteriorating condition.

The crisis was complicated by the arrival of Turkish police officers at the Martins' hotel, where they handed Luke a document stating his wife had died at 9am, even as she remained on life support - still alive, barely.

Police then informed him he was suspected of poisoning her - before her death was even formally confirmed. But there was more to come.

As he watched his wife being loaded into a Turkish ambulance on Monday, Luke had told medics that she was allergic to penicillin - a common medicinal allergy affecting around one in 10 people around the world.

But doctors at the hospital did not seem aware.

The as-yet-unidentified hospital where Beth was treated is now being investigated for potential negligence

A UK autopsy later revealed Beth's heart had been removed after she passed away

Mr Hammond said: 'The doctor asked if Beth had allergies. Luke had already told the paramedics when Beth got in the ambulance that she was allergic to penicillin.

'And yet when told again, they were shocked to hear this information  they had no idea and had been treating her for hours at this point.'

On Tuesday, Mr Martin received a call from the hospital, delivering the news he had hoped not to hear: that his wife was dead, two days after complaining of an upset stomach, with no clear cause.

'How did she die? We don't know,' Ms Grey said. 'Beth was ill before she got to Turkey.

'She started being sick on the plane, we started thinking it was a dodgy Chinese.

'The insurance company wanted to move her to a private hospital but the public hospital in Istanbul were not cooperating, they were being slow and delaying reports and not sending information over. They stopped her.

'They transferred her to another hospital to have an angiography done but they said the heart was fine and transferred her back and still didn't transfer her to a private hospital. then she died.'

Ms Grey has suggested the hospital, which she did not name, may have been negligent in its duty of care.

She added: 'They said they did 45 minutes of CPR but anyone who has ever had CPR or has seen CPR knows how brutal it is.

'When I saw Beth in the morgue after she had her hair in two French plaits and they were perfect. There is no way they did CPR for 45 minutes, I know that.'

While Luke was being interrogated by police, the hospital tried to pressure the family into telling them whether they planned to sue over the death and handed them a piece of paper that they refused to sign.

'All they went on about is are you going to sue the hospital, sign this bit of paper,' Ellie added.

'I said: "Is there something we should be suing for? Do you know something we don't? Because that's really suspicious".'

Family friend Ellie Grey has laid bare some of the more horrifying aspects of the Martins' hellish experience

Beth was just a day into a trip with her husband Luke when she was rushed to hospital

Beth's family have been left desperately searching for answers about how and why she died

Medical reports, while unable to confirm how Ms Martin died, have ruled out food poisoning as the cause of her death, Ms Grey claimed.

Luke was then dragged before police, with no time to grieve, to hear accusations of poisoning his late wife. But as it dawned on officers that he played no role in her death, they dropped the charge and let him go.

The horrors, as alleged by Mr Hammond, continued: that Luke, alongside Beth's mother, was made to carry his wife's body in a zipped body bag, and threw thousands at repatriating her there and then, rather than waiting weeks for insurers.

'We got to see Beth for 30 seconds in the morgue then the guy (clicked his fingers) at us and handed us a corner of the bodybag that was zipped open and me, Beth's mum, Luke and a translator had to lift her body into a coffin,' Ellie Grey said in her video, appearing to corroborate the account.

'Losing her was traumatic enough but going over to Istanbul and seeing first hand the lack of respect and having to go the next day to the forensic examiner officer and saying 'do not take any organs'.

'They wanted to bury her or cremate her within 24 hours, we had to fight to repatriate her and pay ourselves.'

He then had to deliver the agonising message to his young children that their mother was gone.

But the final shock was to come as Beth arrived into the care of British coroners - who found that she had been returned to the UK minus her heart.

'The Turkish hospital has removed it. No explanation. No consent. They have invaded her body and they have taken her heart,' Mr Hammond wrote on the GoFundMe.

Beth's family were reportedly kept in the dark about the seriousness of her condition and death

Beth Martin, pictured with husband Luke, was rushed to hospital after she became 'delirious'

A GoFundMe has raised more than 150,000 for the Martin family as of lunchtime on May 22

Official advice from the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) notes that Turkish coroners can take small tissue samples as well as complete organs for testing 'without the family's permission'.

'You will not automatically be told if this happens,' the advice notes.

And while they will often seek to return organs before a person's body is released, the FCDO adds, 'in exceptional circumstances, body parts might be kept without permission.'

This may well what has happened: an exercise in brutal, opaque Turkish bureaucracy, rather than anything more untowards, even as Turkey still harbours a reputation as a global hotspot of illegal organ harvesting.

There is, it should be said, no suggestion that Beth Martin's heart has been illegally harvested.

The GoFundMe has raised over 150,000 in donations from well-wishers to help with medical bills, travel and repatriation costs, and helping Luke to build a future for his family without his wife by his side.

With financial worries now set aside, Ms Martin's friends and family are determined to fight until they get straight answers from the Turkish authorities.

'Luke has gone through something that no person should ever have to go through and he has done it with dignity and strength and pride for Beth,' Ellie said.

'I swear to you, between her family and Luke and myself we are not letting this go.

'No way am I going to let them get away with taking her heart, lying about what happened and treating her as if she was somebody with no dignity.

'We will get answers.'

An FCDO spokesperson said: 'We are providing support to the family of a British woman who died in Turkey and are in touch with the local authorities.'
Keir Starmer is struggling to quell chaos in his Cabinet today amid claims Angela Rayner is jockeying to replace him.

The PM signalled an extraordinary U-turn on cuts to winter fuel allowance yesterday as he bowed to a growing revolt on his benches.

And the humiliating move could only be the start with signs Sir Keir is also considering giving ground on the two-child benefit cap, amid alarm at Labour's poll plunge.

The pressure intensified as it emerged Ms Rayner's office wrote to embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Spring urging her to hike taxes again instead of cutting welfare.

The Deputy PM's aides have denied leaking the memo, and argued that such discussions are routine within government.

However, some Labour MPs believe that Ms Rayner is 'on manoeuvres' to ensure she does not have 'blood on her hands' from failed policies.

Keir Starmer is struggling to quell chaos in his Cabinet today amid claims Angela Rayner is jockeying to replace him

The pressure intensified as it emerged Angela Rayner's office wrote to embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Spring urging her to hike taxes again instead of cutting welfare

'Angela has been loyal in public but she knows she needs to distance herself from some of the unpopular policies,' one backbencher told The Times.

'Starmer is not under any kind of threat now but if things have not improved closer to the next election that could change. Angela is ambitious and she needs to be credible if she is to present herself as the candidate of the left.'

Labour MP Cat Eccles admitted the government's communications had been 'really poor', suggesting she blamed the PM's advisers and Ms Reeves for not 'listening'.

'It's annoying that we did raise these exact concerns at the time. And it's only now or down the line after we've had those local election results, as you say, that all of a sudden, they're all ears to their MPs,' she told Times Radio.

'Oh, what do you think the issues are? It's like, well, actually, we told you months ago. So I think there's a lot of us that are feeling slightly less buoyant than we did back in July last year.'

The winter fuel allowance move was seen as an humiliation for Ms Reeves - who is at a G7 meeting in Canada.

Stripping around nine million pensioners of the payments was one of the first announcements the Chancellor made after Labour's landslide election victory last year.

But it has been widely blamed for the party's disastrous collapse in support.

Labour campaigners reported it was toxic on doorsteps during May's local elections, which saw the party lose councillors and the Runcorn and Helsby Parliamentary by-election.

Left-wing Labour MPs rallied behind Ms Rayner's push on targeting taxes instead of welfare, prompting the Tories to claim that the Cabinet was in 'open warfare'.

Kemi Badenoch taunted Sir Keir that his deputy was 'on manoeuvres' and 'calling the shots' on the economy.

Labour MPs have been insisting the government must fully reverse the winter fuel allowance cuts, rather than merely extend eligibility.

The winter fuel allowance move was seen as an humiliation for Ms Reeves - who is at a G7 meeting in Canada (pictured)

Many also believe that ministers will be unable to bring in changes in time for this winter, as the PM said plans would not be revealed until the Budget in the Autumn.

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown underlined demands for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted overnight - something Sir Keir has resisted up to now.

Making his winter fuel announcement at PMQs yesterday, Sir Keir said he understood 'that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, including pensioners'.

He added: 'As the economy improves, we want to make sure people feel those improvements in their days as their lives go forward. That is why we want to ensure that, as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments.'

The move could open the door for ministers to back down on an overhaul of disability benefits, which has seen a large number of Labour MPs threaten to rebel.
A grandmother's shop window display has been recorded by police as a 'non-crime hate incident' - because it features a picture of Enoch Powell.

The portrait was placed next to an extract of the late Conservative MP's 1968 "rivers of blood" speech in which he warned mass migration would lead to violence on Britain's streets.

West Mercia Police launched an investigation into the image, saying it was reported to them as 'offensive content'.

Shopkeeper Elizabeth Griffiths had also given photos of Winston Churchill, Jesus, St Francis of Assisi and Donald Trump pride of place in her street-facing window.

The rivers of blood speech got its name from its allusion to the Roman poet Virgil where Mr Powell famously stated 'as I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood'.

It was condemned by the mainstream media at the time and effectively ended the then-55-year-old's political career.

But some say Prime Minister Keir Starmer's 'Island of Strangers' speech earlier this month vindicated the late MP, who said more than 50 years ago that British people would find themselves 'strangers in their own country'.

The portrait was placed next to an extract of the late Conservative MP's famous 1968 "rivers of blood" speech and Ms Griffiths has since displayed it next to a photo of Keir Starmer to suggest Mr Powell had been vindicated

The trader, who runs Mumfords, an ironmonger in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire had displayed the image and accompanying text in February

The rivers of blood speech got its name from its allusion to the Roman poet Virgil where Mr Powell famously stated 'as I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see the River foaming with much blood'

What was Enoch Powell's "rivers of blood" speech?

Enoch Powell became a Conservative MP in 1950 and had risen to become Shadow Defence Secretary at the time of his speech. It was first delivered to local Conservative party members in Birmingham, ahead of a second reading of the Race Relations Act 1968. Feeling distressed at what he felt was his party's weak opposition to the Labour government's immigration policy, he resolved to speak out, in the strongest possible terms, about what he felt had to be done. Powell's 25-minute speech contained high rhetoric and vivid language. It warned, in the starkest possible terms, that unless immigration was stopped  and immigrants already in the UK were given financial incentives to return home  there would be racial strife of a seriousness never before seen in Britain. He quoted the poet Virgil when he said: 'Like the Roman, I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood,' from where the speech takes its 'rivers of blood' name. In his speech, Powell also quoted extensively from two of his own constituents. One was 'a middle-aged working man' who, he claimed, had told him: 'I have three children; all of them been through grammar school and two of them are married now, with family. I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. 'In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.' The other constituent was an elderly woman who claimed to be the last remaining white British person on her Wolverhampton street. 'She is becoming afraid to go out,' said Powell. 'Windows are broken. She finds excreta pushed through her letterbox. When she goes to the shops she is followed by children  charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies.' Advertisement

Ms Griffiths, a Reform UK activist and grandmother of 12 said she had showcased the images to 'promote powerful leaders'.

The trader, who runs Mumfords, an ironmonger in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire placed the image of Mr Powell in her window in February.

Following the police investigation, which began last week after a member of public claimed the portrait was offensive, Ms Griffiths has since placed a photo of Mr Starmer in her window to suggest his recent speech proves Mr Powell was correct.

A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: 'On 16 May, we received a report of offensive content displayed in a shop window on Church Street in Cleobury Mortimer.

'This is being treated as a hate incident, and inquiries are ongoing.'

The spokesman later clarified it was being treated as a non-crime hate incident (NCHI).

Ms Griffiths claimed the report to police was a 'vendetta' because she had campaigned for Reform UK in the local elections earlier this month.

She added she had received 'absolutely no police contact whatsoever' about the alleged 'hate incident' and had not been spoken to by officers about it.

The Brexiteer told The Telegraph: 'I am gobsmacked and baffled beyond belief. I did it to promote powerful leaders.

'For some reason, three and a half months later, there is a decision to try and focus on just one picture.

'I am not racist in any shape or form. Oh, good gracious no. I deal with Muslims every week. The Muslims I deal with are generally entrepreneurial. They are successful in business. They havent come across on boats.'

She concluded: 'Im used to being bullied for standing up for what I believe in.'

Mr Powell spoke German, French, Italian, Modern Greek, and Urdu.

A poll taken after his controversial speech reported 74 per cent of Britons agreed with his opinions on mass immigration.

But some public figures denounced it as 'evil', claiming the speech would stoke division and encourage generalisations.

Conservative politician Michael Heseltine stated in its aftermath that if Enoch Powell had stood for leadership of the Conservative party he would have won 'by a landslide' and if he had stood to be Prime Minister he would have won by a 'national landslide'.
China strongly condemns school bus attack in Pakistan: FM spokesperson

Xinhua) 16:45, May 22, 2025

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China firmly condemns a school bus attack in Pakistan and strongly opposes terrorism in all its forms, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said in Beijing on Thursday.

It is reported that five people, including three children, were killed and over 30 others injured when terrorists attacked a school bus in Khuzdar district of the southwestern Balochistan province in Pakistan on Wednesday. In response, spokesperson Mao Ning told a daily news briefing that China expressed deep condolences to the victims and extended sincere sympathies to the families of the victims and the injured.

She said China steadfastly opposes terrorism in all its forms and will continue to firmly support Pakistan in combating terrorism, maintaining social stability and protecting people's lives and safety.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
As anyone who has had the misfortune of dealing with civil service bureaucracy will know, it can be a complicated endeavour. There is the jargon, the minutes that bleed into hours spent on hold on the phone and, of course, the endless form-filling. But mastering this red tape - particularly in relation to Britain's bloated benefits system - can apparently also present extraordinarily lucrative business opportunities. Just ask Charlie Anderson, a YouTube blogger who says her chronic arthritis and fatigue has rendered her unable to work. Thanks to her lengthy experience with the welfare system, she is extremely proficient at filling out forms used to claim the Personal Independence Payment [PIP] allowance disability benefit. So adept has she become in applying for this taxpayer-funded help that she has taken to explaining the 'tricks of the trade' to any prospective benefits claimant - for a hefty fee, of course.
Immigration was already tumbling from record highs before Labour took power, it was revealed today.

Official figures showed net long-term inflows were 431,000 in the year to December, compared with 860,000 across 2023.

Numbers had dropped to 739,000 in the year to last June - just before the election - with the peak remaining 906,000 in the 12 months to June 2023.

The Tories said the ONS data demonstrated their curbs were already having an impact - although the level in 2024 was still roughly equivalent to the population of Leeds.

Separate figures from the Home Office showed 32,245 asylum seekers were housed in hotels as of the end of March this year - despite Keir Starmer's vow to shut them down.

The PM unveiled a crackdown on legal immigration last week, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an 'island of strangers'.

Downing Street was forced to deny angry comparisons from MPs that it was an echo of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech.

Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: 'Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants. This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.

'There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.'

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Keir Starmer unveiled a crackdown on legal immigration last week, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an 'island of strangers'

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A Home Office summary of the immigration system numbers for the year ending in March

It was the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.

The numerical drop was the largest for any 12-month period, with the ONS pointing to falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK.

Long-term immigration fell below one million for the first time in around three years.

That was estimated to be 948,000 in the year ending December 2024, down by almost a third from 1,326,000 in the previous 12 months and below a million for the first time since the 12 months to March 2022.

Emigration rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year.

People leaving the UK has returned to a similar level to the year ending June 2017.

There was a 49 per cent decrease in 2024 in the number of non-EU+ nationals arriving in the UK as the main applicant on a work visa, along with a 35 per cent fall in those coming as work dependants.

The number of non-EU+ nationals arriving as main applicants on a study visa dropped by 17 per cent, while there was a much larger fall of 86% in study dependants.

The drop is likely to reflect changes in migration rules introduced in early 2024 by the previous Conservative government, which included restricting the ability of most international students to bring family members.

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Non-EU+ nationals refers to people who are not from the European Union or from Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The separate Home Office figures suggest visa numbers have continued to ease in the first part of this year.

Some 192,000 visas were granted to main applicants in all work categories in the year ending March 2025, 39 per cent down on the previous 12 months. However, that was still 40 per cent more than in 2019.

There were 23,000 visas under the 'Health and Care Worker' route, a huge 85 per cent drop from the peak in 2023.

The category including 'Skilled Workers' was down 23 per cent year on year .

'Temporary Worker' visas - including seasonal staff - saw a smaller 6 per cent reduction to 75,000, which is 83 per cent higher than in 2019.

There were 434,000 grants of a visa extension for work to main applicants in the year ending March 2025, nearly seven times the number in 2019. That was primarily down to use of the 'Graduate', 'Health and Care Worker' and 'Skilled Worker' routes.

The asylum backlog has also eased slightly from peaks last year.

The 32,345 in asylum hotels as of the end of March was down from 38,079 in December. But it remains higher than the 29,585 just before the election.

Separate figures from the Home Office showed 32,245 asylum seekers were housed in hotels as of the end of March this year - despite Keir Starmer's vow to shut them down

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'This big drop in net migration has only happened because of tough action from the last Conservative government.

'But the figures are still far too high and need to go down a lot further. That's why we've proposed a binding annual immigration cap, set by Parliament at much lower levels. Labour voted against it last week and voted against it again yesterday.

'Labour scrapped our deterrents, binned the salary threshold rise, gutted deportation powers, and still parade around pretending their inaction is success. Only the Conservatives have a serious plan to slash migration a lot further.'

Former home secretary James Cleverly posted on X: 'This drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place. Labour will try to claim credit for these figures but they criticised me at the time, and have failed to fully implement the changes.'

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 'The 300,000 drop in net migration since the election is important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million in the last Parliament.

'Our Immigration White Paper sets out radical reforms to further reduce net migration.

'These figures show a big increase in returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, record levels of illegal working penalties, and the asylum backlog and hotel use coming down.

'We are going even further by introducing new counter terrorism style powers to boost our border security and smash the people smuggling gangs responsible for their vile trade.'

The White Paper published last week pledged to toughen skills thresholds for visas, close the care work route, demand more fluent English, and make people wait a decade for full citizenship.

However, Sir Keir has flatly refused to set any hard cap or targets, instead merely stating there will be a 'significant' in numbers fall by the next election.

The chair of the Migration Advisory Committee has estimated that the package means net long-term immigration will reduce from over 700,000 annually to 'under 300,000 and probably closer to 250,000'.

It was already projected to drop to around 340,000 in the coming years.

The PM's commitment to bring down numbers could also be affected by the youth 'free movement' scheme he agreed in principle with the EU this week.

Although the shape of the arrangement is yet to be thrashed out, Brussels officials are said to be pushing for hundreds of thousands of young people to be given the right to live and work in the UK for years.

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said the 'record-breaking decline' in net migration was possible 'primarily because numbers had previously been so high'.

Its director, Dr Madeleine Sumption, said the economic impact of the fall 'is actually likely to be relatively small' because 'the groups that have driven the decline, such as study and work dependants, are neither the highest skilled, highest-paid migrants who make substantial contributions to tax revenues, nor the most disadvantaged groups that require substantial support'.

Her colleague Dr Ben Brindle, a researcher at the organisation, said net migration is likely to fall further still as the Conservative government's restrictions 'are not yet fully visible in the data' and Labour's recent policy proposals 'should reduce migration further'.

But he added: 'These declines will not necessarily take us to particularly low levels, by historical standards.'
Israel is preparing to get 'the go-ahead' and strike Iran if ongoing nuclear deal talks with the United States break down, sources have revealed.

The revelation comes just days after US President Donald Trump embarked on a tour of the Gulf and told reporters Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear programme or 'something bad's going to happen'.

It is understood that Iran received a proposal last Friday, though the terms have not been elaborated upon.

However, Trump was emphatic during his tour that Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear bomb.

US intelligence agencies have assessed Tehran is not actively pursuing this, though analysts say the nation's programme is on the cusp of being able to weaponise nuclear material.

Within Israeli intelligence circles however, there is a concern the nuclear talks could collapse at any moment, which would prompt a renewed call for action.

'Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead,' said sources referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reported.

The sources added Israel is preparing to act fast in the event of negotiations failing.

Israel is preparing to get 'the go-ahead' and strike Iran if ongoing nuclear deal talks with the United States break down, sources have revealed

The revelation comes just days after US President Donald Trump said Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear programme or 'something bad's going to happen'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be prepared to strike Iranian nuclear facilities if a deal with the United States collapses

They also confirmed a CNN report that Israel would undertake a week-long campaign, rather than a one-off assault, with potential targets including Iranian nuclear facilities.

One of the sources added: 'There was a lot of training and the US military sees everything and understands Israel is preparing.'

Washington is said to be worried that Israel could strike without Trump's green light, a US source told Axios.

There are also wider concerns that a strike could ignite a wider war in the region that would involve the release of nuclear materials.

Since April 12, Iran and the United States have held four rounds of nuclear talks, with more scheduled for this week in Rome with Oman acting as a mediator.

A source told CNN the likelihood of an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear capabilities 'has gone up significantly in recent months'.

The US is intent on brokering a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, though it is understood Israel would want to see the removal of all of the country's uranium stock.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei views a model of a nuclear facility, in Tehran, in 2023. The nation has repeatedly said that it does not want to give up its right to a uranium enrichment programme

It is also believed that Iran would be offered a lessening of sanctions if it agrees to curb its activities - however Iran has repeatedly said that it does not want to give up its right to a uranium enrichment programme.

Iran has also argued that it is only interested in developing an atomic program to benefit its population - however it has actively pursued enrichment of uranium up to 60 per cent purity, which is used only in weapons.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's program if a deal is not reached, while Israel has regularly warned it would strike Iran's nuclear facilities if it feels threatened.

Such a move could further complicate tensions in the region which have already arisen from the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
More than 100 Parliamentarians have signed a letter calling for the PM to take urgent action to secure the release of a British man who has been a political prisoner in Egypt for a decade.

Alaa Abd el Fattah, 43, who has dual citizenship, has been imprisoned in Wadi El Natrun prison in Cairo after being arrested for his activist work in support of democracy and human rights in the country.

His supporters this week hit out at Sir Keir Starmer for a 'lack of concrete progress' as his plight was brought up in the Commons again on Wednesday, after the PM previously promised to do everything possible to secure his release.

Mr Abd el Fattah was jailed on terrorism charges in 2019 following a social media post about torture which saw him repost a claim that a fellow prisoner had died. He has been in prison for the best part of the last decade after his arrest in the aftermath of a military coup in 2013.

His family had hoped he would be released at the end of his five-year sentence in September 2024, but unusually, the Egyptian government has kept him incarcerated, refusing to count his time on remand as part of his sentence.

During his detention he has regularly been on hunger strike, often joined by his mother Laila Soueif, 68, who lives in the UK.

The family's supporters are now piling the pressure on Starmer to intervene and secure Mr Abd el Fattah's release, citing serious concerns over the health of Ms Soueif, who has been on hunger strike since September, and Mr Abd el Fattah, who has been on hunger strike for more than 80 days.

The letter states: 'We write with mounting concern about the lack of concrete progress on Alaa's case, more than two months after your call with President Sisi.

Alaa Abd el Fattah, 43, is in Wadi El Natrun prison in Cairo, where he has been incarcerated for most of the past decade

During his detention he has regularly been on hunger strike, often joined by his mother Laila Soueif (centre) , 68, who lives in the UK

'Time is in desperately short supply in this case. Alaa has been acutely unwell in prison, experiencing vomiting, stomach pains, dizziness and blurred vision.

'Meanwhile, Laila's health continues to deteriorate. She has not eaten proper food for more than seven months.

'Prime Minister, we remain gravely concerned about the implications for Alaa's family if the path to resolve his case and secure his release cannot be found very soon.

'There is also no doubt in our minds that if the health of Laila or Alaa is further damaged by this ordeal, this would have serious long-term implications for the British-Egyptian bilateral relationship.

'We urge you to deploy every tool at your Government's disposal at this vital stage. We offer our support to your efforts on behalf of Alaa and his family in any way needed.'

It was organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Arbitrary Detention and Hostage Affairs, which is currently chaired by the SNP's Brendan O'Hara.

MPs who signed the letter included Diane Abbott, Iain Duncan Smith, Layla Moran, Jeremy Corbyn and Nadia Whittome.

Ms Soueif's loved ones said in April that they were concerned she was 'dying in slow motion' after being on hunger strike for more than 200 days.

Ms Soueif carries out a daily 'sit-in' where she sits outside Downing Street holding signs and photos of her son

MPs who signed the letter included Diane Abbott, Iain Duncan Smith, Layla Moran, Jeremy Corbyn and Nadia Whittome (Pictured: Signs calling for Mr Abd el Fattah's release)

She was admitted to St Thomas' hospital in London in February and received a glucose drip which is thought to have saved her life, and she was discharged after agreeing to consume 300 calories per day.

Her nephew Omar Robert Hamilton said at the time: 'Three hundred calories a day is not enough to sustain life, her muscles are being eaten away. It's like she is dying in slow motion.'

She is said to be so weak that she can no longer stand upright.

The mother carries out a daily 'sit-in' where she sits outside Downing Street holding signs and photos of her son.

Starmer spoke with the Egyptian President on February 28 and 'pressed for his release', Downing Street said.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy then also spoke to his counterpart on April 9.

Independent MP John McDonnell raised Mr Abd el Fattah's case during PMQs on Wednesday: 'I want to thank the Prime Minister for fulfilling his promise to contact President Sisi of Egypt to secure Alaa's release.

'But unfortunately, months on now, and Alaa remains in prison, and Laila, this week, has started her hunger strike again. Can I appeal to him to speak directly again to President Sisi to secure Alaa's release?'

Sir Keir replied: 'Can I thank him for raising this, not just today, but on the many occasions that he has, it is incredibly important that we do everything we can.

'In this case, I have met Laila and given her my commitment to do everything I possibly can. I have had a number of contacts myself, but I am not going to stop doing everything within my power to secure release.'
Sir Keir Starmer has made a partial U-turn on limiting the winter fuel payment  but is facing questions over whether it can be made in time for next winter.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that 'as the economy improves' he wanted to look at widening eligibility for the payments worth up to 300.

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Labour backbenchers have raised questions over how quickly the Government can implement the turnaround.

Officials have so far been unable to say how many more pensioners would be eligible or if the policy will be altered in time for winter later this year.

MailOnline has now looked at some of the key questions surrounding the change, and several options for how the Government could go about implementing it:

What is the winter fuel payment?

The winter fuel payment was originally introduced in 1997 by Labour as a universal payment for all pensioners to help pay their heating bills in the colder months.

But last year after being elected, the Government controversially restricted the payment to those who qualify for pension credit and other income-related benefits.

For the most recent winter, the means-tested payment was for those born before September 23, 1958. Those aged under 80 got 200, while over-80s received 300.

People who qualified through receiving certain benefits would have got a letter last autumn saying how much they would have received in winter 2024/25.

Sir Keir Starmer makes the announcement about the Government's partial U-turn on the winter fuel allowance during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday

What has happened now?

Sir Keir Starmer has now signalled a partial U-turn over the Government's decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that 'as the economy improves' he wanted to look at widening eligibility for the payments worth up to 300.

Who will be eligible and when?

The Prime Minister is facing questions about whether the change can be made in time to help pensioners through winter later this year.

The Government has not yet set out how the change to who is entitled to the payments worth up to 300 will look.

Officials have been unable to say how many more pensioners would be eligible or if the policy would be altered in time for this winter.

Sir Keir suggested further details will come at a 'fiscal event', likely to be the next budget in the autumn.

The Times suggested pensioners could have to wait for more than a year to have the payment reinstated, citing Government sources worried about ageing computer systems.

Unite protest on Westminster Bridge in January over the decision to means-test the allowance

Why are Labour making the change?

The decision to means-test the previously universal payment was one of the first announcements by Chancellor Rachel Reeves after Labour's landslide election victory last year and has been widely blamed for the party's collapse in support.

It was an issue which Labour campaigners were challenged about on the doorsteps during May's elections which saw the party lose councillors and the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election.

The Government insisted the policy was necessary to help stabilise the public finances, allowing the improvements in the economic picture which Sir Keir said could result in the partial reversal of the measure.

But Sir Keir said he understood 'that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, including pensioners' as he made the announcement at Prime Minister's Questions.

Meanwhile a memo leaked to The Daily Telegraph suggested Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner pushed for a radical combination of tax hikes to avoid the need for further cuts in spending.

What's the political reaction been?

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Labour backbenchers are among those to ask how quickly the Government can implement the turnaround.

Mrs Badenoch has written to the Prime Minister demanding to know whether the reversal would 'come into effect in time for payments to be made for this winter', given a budget could be 'six months away'.

Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central MP who has been outspoken about the decision, welcomed the movement from the Government.

But she said pensioners will still lose out as the deadline to apply for pension credit - which could govern eligibility for the payment - is likely to fall around the same time as the budget.

More than 11million pensioners were receiving the winter fuel allowance before it was changed

Could this affect any other benefits?

The move could open the door for ministers to back down on an overhaul of disability benefits, which has seen a large number of Labour MPs threaten to rebel.

So far, senior ministers have been resolute that they will go ahead with the plans.

Ministers are also said to be considering scrapping the two-child benefit cap to win over Labour MPs, though Downing Street has insisted such a move would not be a 'silver bullet' for ending child poverty.

What would a full reversal look like?

One option for implementing the new plan would be a full reversal of the decision to strip the benefit from millions of pensioners.

The decision to make it available only to those who claim pension credit last year meant those claiming winter fuel payment fell by almost 90 per cent and saved around 1.5billion a year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates.

Undoing last year's policy change would make some 11million more households eligible and of course wipe out the 1.5billion in savings.

Could there be a specific threshold?

Creating a new threshold and means test would allow households not on pension credit to apply directly for winter fuel payments.

Raising it 20 per cent above the pension credit threshold would cost around 100million and see winter fuel payments go to around 400,000 more families, according to the Resolution Foundation.

One option would be to model this on child benefit by allowing all pensioner households to claim but then require those above a certain income level to pay some back via a self assessment tax return, the IFS notes.

But there is a risk to adopting 'a clunky bureaucratic mechanism for what is, ultimately, a relatively small payment', IFS associate director Tom Waters warned.

Expand it to those on disability or housing benefits?

Some 1.8million more households could get winter fuel payment at a cost of around 500million per year if entitlement is extended to those on disability benefits, the IFS estimates.

This would be more complicated to put in place in Scotland, where disability benefit is devolved.

Extending eligibility to include those on housing and disability benefits would give support to 1.3million more pensioner families at a cost of 300million a year, the Resolution Foundation estimates.

This would be an 'affordable' and 'sensible way forward', chief executive Ruth Curtice said.

Will the money be paid to individuals instead?

One difficulty in allocating the winter fuel payment is that it currently goes to households rather than individuals.

Changing this would mean the Government could do a means test on an individual basis and use information that it already records for income tax purposes.

It would see pensioners with a low income but with a high-income spouse get the winter fuel payment.

However, it could also see couples get twice as much winter fuel payment as single people, where at the moment a single person would get the same amount as a couple sharing a household.

How about not giving it to the rich?

One option is that the payment could go to all pensioners except those who pay the 40p tax rate, restoring it to around nine million people.

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown - who as chancellor introduced the universal winter fuel payment - suggested the richest pensioners could still not receive it.

'I think there is a case, for example, for people on the top rate of tax not receiving it, but that's something the Government has got to decide,' he told Sky News.

What are campaigners saying?

Age UK's charity director Caroline Abrahams welcomed the Prime Minister's commitment to change the winter fuel policy but said 'the devil is always in the detail and we postpone judgment until we hear more'.

Last winter saw 'very significant numbers of older people too frightened to turn on their heating when it was cold', she said, adding 'if nothing changes, next winter threatens to be just as bad'.

Unite union boss Sharon Graham called for the winter fuel allowance to be restored in full, adding: 'Pensioners' minds need to be put at rest now, rather than dangling a promise to make a move in the autumn.'
A female firefighter who responded to the Grenfell fire disaster is suing over claims a male colleague filmed her and other women in the work showers.

Nakita Ross is seeking damages over a string of incidents and alleged sexual harassment during her 17-year career with the London Fire Brigade.

These include allegations of female staff being secretly recorded in the bathrooms, male firefighters boasting of having 'rape kits' in their cars and her having to fend off an unwanted sexual advance by a colleague.

Ms Ross - who was part of the all women Antarctic Fire Angels team - said she was told by male colleagues they didn't want to work with a woman and that her promotion came as a result of 'sexual favours'.

She is now seeking compensation for alleged discrimination and harassment, which she says she experienced all through her career.

Ms Ross was one of the 982 firefighters scrambled in June 2017 to rescue families trapped in the Grenfell tower block inferno, which claimed the lives of 72 people.

She told a preliminary hearing in central London that she had joined the brigade ten years earlier, in 2007.

During training she alleged she had been provided with an 'unsuitable uniform' and that her requests to 'alter' it had been denied.

Nakita Ross (pictured) is seeking damages over a string of incidents and alleged sexual harassment during her 17-year career with the London Fire Brigade.

She was one of the hundreds of firefighters scrambled to tackle the Grenfell fire tragedy in June 2017. Pictured is the tower block fully ablaze at the time

The firefighter went on to say that 'inappropriate and harassing' comments were made by one of the instructors about the 'ill fit' of the uniform.

It was heard that in June of that year, she was posted to work in Croydon, south London.

Ms Ross told the hearing she suffered 'verbal harassment', which included her being told she was 'lucky you are here, we didn't want a woman'.

The firefighter told an employment judge she was also urged not to join the organisation's Women in the Fire Service and the Fire Brigade Union Women's Action Committee because they were known as 'man-haters'.

Employment Judge Derek Reed said the most 'serious' allegations made by Ms Ross related to incidents in 2009 and 2010.

It is alleged she experienced harassment from a colleague, who made 'suggestive comments' towards her.

It was said when she did not return his interest, there was further harassment which culminated in an alleged incident in which Ms Ross alleges he 'attempted to kiss and touch her inappropriately', which she had to 'physically rebuff'.

The firefighter said the following year, the same colleague was caught filming another female firefighter in the shower using his mobile phone, the tribunal heard.

Ms Ross is seeking compensation for alleged discrimination and harassment she says she experienced from the start of career. Pictured: the charred remains of Grenfell Tower

She said that she and other women in the service also believed they were filmed and that the incident was reported.

Ms Ross sand the male firefighter was suspended and subject to an investigation, which resulted in her being seen as a 'troublemaker', it was alleged.

The employee claimed she was 'ostracised' over the incident.

The hearing was told a few weeks later, a 'CCTV in operation' poster was allegedly displayed in the women's wash facilities.

She raised further allegations at the preliminary hearing.

Ms Ross is also claiming another colleague made 'unwelcome sexual advances' towards her, including pressuring her to kiss him on the cheek.

She said from 2010 until June 2017, when she worked at Battersea Fire Station, male co-workers would make 'regular reference to rape and to having rape kits in their cars'.

The firefighter said colleagues made 'crude and derogatory comments' regarding the sexual relationship between her and her boyfriend.

Ms Ross said when she worked as an instructor in 2011 to 2012, it was suggested she had been given the role in exchange for 'sexual favours'.

It was heard 'similar comments' were allegedly made when Ms Ross worked as a trainer in 2014 to 2015.

Hundreds of firefighters from across London and further a field were called in to try and rescue families trapped in Grenfell Tower. Pictured are some of the responders

Ms Ross also alleged she was 'regularly questioned' about a female colleague's sexual orientation and it was 'repeatedly suggested' they were in a relationship.

The tower has since been covered up and has remained a memorial to dozens of people who lost their lives. It is expected to be demolished, with work set to start later this year

The firefighter also said her 'authority and expertise' was 'frequently undermined' and she was 'not supported in managing members of her watch, it was alleged.

In late 2020 to early 2021, Ms Ross said she was moved into Fire Investigation but encountered an issue with female accommodation at Dowgate Fire Station where the unit was based.

Ms Ross alleges the accommodation was used to store equipment and mattresses, which made it 'unsuitable'.

She said male colleagues frequently used the female bathroom and on one occasion in August 2021, Ms Ross found a male firefighter sleeping in the female's quarters.

When she raised these issues, Ms Ross claimed she was 'belittled and rebuffed'.

The firefighter said she continued to suffer incidents of harassment, which culminated in her resigning in June of last year.

She is bringing claims of sexual harassment, sexual orientation harassment, direct sex discrimination, victimisation, protected disclosure detriment and unfair dismissal.

London Fire Brigade had attempted to have Ms Ross's case thrown out. However, Judge Reed ordered that a full employment tribunal will take place at a later date.

He said: 'At this stage I do not find that any part of the claim has no reasonable prospects of success.

'There remain substantial and important disputes of fact.

'Consideration of whether there has been a conduct extending over a period will require substantial fact finding.'
The heroics of an SAS commando who achieved the 'impossible' escape from the Gestapo after blowing up a German train can be revealed 81 years on.

Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant John Alcock appeared doomed when nearly 40 enemy troops surrounded the French farmhouse he was hiding in.

But he orchestrated a daring escape during a close quarters shoot-out, killing six of the enemy and leaping over a wall with his adversaries in close pursuit.

He then lay in wait in dense woodland and picked off the enemy one by one before carrying on towards the Allied lines on the French-German border.

The final dash for freedom saw him weave his way through German frontline positions in the Vosges Mountains, the most heavily defended lines in all of Western Europe, undetected.

Then he made the unorthodox decision of capturing an American machine gun post facing the German lines to prevent being shot in a 'friendly fire' incident.

The Dunkirk veteran's story has been told for the first time after 30-year-old manuscripts his son Graham wrote from conversations with his father about the mission came to light.

Graham Alcock also kept hold of his father's wartime archive and showed it to the historian and author Damien Lewis.

The heroics of an SAS commando who achieved the 'impossible' escape from the Gestapo after blowing up a German train can be revealed 81 years on. Above: Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant John Alcock

He carried out further research by trawling through the National Archives at Kew and has now published his latest book, SAS Great Escapes Four.

Mr Lewis said: 'It is one of the most epic SAS escapes of World War Two - an impossible getaway.

'There are so few veterans still alive today so it gets more and more difficult to tell these stories and it is a privilege to do so.'

Sergeant Alcock, a former 'butcher's boy' from Goole, East Yorkshire, was dropped behind enemy lines near Audviller in Alsace-Lorraine on September 15, 1944 as part of Operation Pistol.

The mission was to hit nearby railway lines and communications, then make their way to the American lines.

Sergeant Alcock led a four-man team, also consisting of Corporal Holden, Corporal Hannah and Private Lyczak, behind enemy lines with no transport and minimal supplies.

They did not have functioning radios and a storm which blew them off course meant they parachuted onto farmland with no cover to hide from the enemy.

Friendly farmers sheltered them before they planted explosives on a vital railway line which blew up a train near Insming, severing a German supply line and killing two officers.

The graveyard of 2 SAS commandos killed during Operation Loyton, the sister mission of Operation Pistol

German mountain troops with their skiis. Sergeant Alcock had to evade

The daring act meant they were firmly on the Gestapo's radar and relentlessly hunted from that moment forward.

They were hiding out in another farm when a couple of Polish workmen betrayed them and revealed their whereabouts to the enemy.

An hour later, two trucks full of German troops turned up at the farm and surrounded the farmhouse, leaving them outnumbered almost 10 to one.

Sergeant Alcock, knowing they would have to shoot their way to freedom, swiftly organised his men in the rear hallway.

Two Polish girls, who were loyal to the Allies and were staying at the farm, went out the front door to provide a distraction.

This crucially drew the Germans who had been hiding at the rear of the farmhouse away from their positions.

Seconds later, the Germans stormed into the farmhouse through the front door.

Sergeant Alcock and his men, with their pistols loaded, burst through the rear hallway door into the kitchen and shot at least six of them dead.

The Dunkirk veteran's story has been told for the first time after 30-year-old manuscripts his son Graham wrote from conversations with his father about the mission came to light. Above: The soldier (right) and his brother

German armoured vehicles in Nazi-occupied France

They then dashed out of the back exit and hurdled a wall before running into the forest.

When they got a certain distance inside, Sergeant Alcock ordered them to take their positions and shoot anyone approaching.

Three more Germans were killed in the ambush, which put other pursuers off from following them into the trap.

But they then heard two gunshots which were the Polish girls who had helped them being executed.

Sergeant Alcock knew that under Adolf Hitler's Commando Order, were they to be captured they would suffer the same fate.

On October 1, after two weeks behind enemy lines, and by now wearing civilian clothes given to them by a French farmer, they reached the German frontline positions.

Sergeant Alcock led them down a stone track and they crept across a canal before weaving a route around enemy trenches towards No Man's Land.

At this point, they spotted a hill in the distance which Sergeant Alcock was convinced was held by the Americans.

A view of the graves of two SAS commandos killed during Operation Loyton

But fearful that the American machine gunner on the hill would open fire on them, Sergeantt Alcock decided the best option was to capture the post.

Two of his men drew his fire while the others approached from the sides and captured the gunner, whose partner was sleeping alongside him.

They woke the sleeping soldier up and explained to their new prisoners that they were on the same side.

At Sergeant Alcock's request, he was taken to the US high command where he divulged valuable information about the German positions they had just passed.

The team had carried on doing sabotage operations, including cutting communication wires, right up until they reached the Allied lines.

Mr Lewis, whose book The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was made into Guy Ritchie's film of the same name, said: 'Somehow, against all odds, Sergeant Alcock had done it.

'He had let his men to safety through the lines, evading the enemy at every turn.

'It had been a little short of miraculous that they had managed to navigate their way through.

Author Damien Lewis with his new book, SAS Great Escapes Four

'Since they had been dropped neae Audviller on the night of September 15, their mission had been plagued by bad weather, lack of supplies and terrain that was crawling with the enemy.

'Even so, they had successfully blown up a train, causing an important German supply line to be severed, and had emerged carrying priceless intelligence on key enemy positions.

'And while they accounted for at least 11 enemy dead or wounded, not a single man on Alcock's patrol had suffered so much as a scratch.

'Operation Pistol had, in the main, been a success, scoring victories and gathering vital intelligence.

'Its sister mission, Operation Loyton, would become infamous, as 32 SAS soldiers were taken prisoner, and duly murdered under Hitler's Commando Order, many of them personal friends of Alcock.

'The courage, tenacity and strength of will displayed by Alcock and his comrades typified the esprit de corps of the SAS during the Second World War.

'There was no other unit quite like it.

'For the freedoms we enjoy today, we owe such individuals an immense debt of gratitude.'

Sergeant Alcock, who was Mentioned in Despatches for Operation Pistol, remained in the Army until 1966.

He then worked for the East Riding Education Service before his retirement in 1983, spending his final years in his beloved Yorkshire.

Sergeant Alcock died aged 78 in 1997.

SAS Great Escapes Four, by Damien Lewis, is published by Quercus today (May 22) and costs 22.
A skydiver feared to have taken her life in a tragic plunge from the skies had no signs of equipment malfunction, an inquest was told.

Jade Damarell, 32, an experienced parachutist with more than 400 jumps to her name, died during a skydive in Shotton Colliery, Co Durham, on Sunday, April 27.

Initial reports had assumed Jade's death was a tragic accident.

But SkyHigh Skydiving later issued a statement saying that her death was suspected to have been 'a deliberate act'.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or negligence on behalf of the skydiving centre in relation to Ms Damarell's death.

An inquest into the circumstances of her death was today opened and adjourned at Crook Coroners Court, Co. Durham.

During a short two-minute hearing, area coroner Jeremy Chipperfield heard how there was 'no reason to suspect equipment failure'.

Coroner's officer Alexis Blighe said the provisional cause of Ms Damarell's death was listed as 'blunt trauma'.

Ms Blighe said: 'This 32-year-old female was born on October 6, 1992, at Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Jade Damarell (pictured), 32, a highly-experienced parachutist with more than 400 jumps to her name, died instantly during a skydive in Shotton Colliery, Co Durham

Initial reports had assumed Jade's death was a tragic accident. But SkyHigh Skydiving later issued a statement saying that her death was suspected to have been 'a deliberate act'. Pictured: Jade skydiving on a previous occasion

An Inquest today heard Jane's equipment had not suffered a malfunction during the tragedy. She is pictured, left, with her mother Liz (right) and father Andrew (centre)

'Her last employment status and occupation was a marketing manager.

'She died on April 27, 2025, on farmland near Fleming Field, Shotton Colliery, Co Durham.

'I understand the circumstances to be that Ms Damarell was involved in a parachute incident on April 27, 2025.

'On May 2, 2025, Dr James Henry conducted a post-mortem examination at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary mortuary and gave cause of death as follows: 1a) blunt trauma.'

The inquest was told that Ms Damarell's body was identified by Bryn Chaffe, the chief instructor at Ms Damarell's skydiving club.

Mr Chipperfield adjourned the inquest to August 21.

Ms Damarell, who worked as a marketing manager for Silver Spoon after graduating from Leeds university, had been living in lodgings near to the airfield and had undertaken more than 80 jumps this year.

Friends said her parachute did not open as she plunged at speeds of more than 120mph.

Friends said Jade failed to open her parachute as she plunged at speeds of more than 120mph. Pictured: Jade skydiving on a previous occasion

In a statement, Ms Damarell's mother Liz and father Andrew paid tribute to their 'beloved daughter'.

They said: 'It is with immense sadness that we share the loss of our beloved daughter, Jade.

'A brilliant, beautiful, brave and truly extraordinary person. A bright, adventurous, free spirit, she lived with immense energy, passion, and love, and touched countless lives with her warmth and kindness.'

The tribute continued: 'Professionally, Jade was exceptionally talented and admired for her creativity and dedication in marketing.

'Personally, Jade had recently begun training for her pilot's licence and as a keen skydiver, Jade found freedom and purpose.

'Skydiving and its fantastic community meant so much to Jade, and we're incredibly comforted by how admired, respected, and deeply loved she was.

'We miss her beyond words, but Jade's love, brilliance, courage, and light will live on in our family and among all those who knew and loved her. Some stars are so bright, they burn through their time too quickly - but their light never truly fades.

'We want to extent our heartfelt thanks to everyone in the emergency services and the local first responders, as well as the skydiving community. Your care and compassion mean more to us than we can express.

Police and emergency services were called to Wreford's Farm in Shotton Colliery, where she landed, but Jade was pronounced dead at the scene. Pictured: Jade and her mother Liz

'Lastly, if you are struggling, please reach out. Talk to someone - a friend, loved one, or professional. You are never alone.'

Police and emergency services were called to Wreford's Farm in Shotton Colliery, where she landed, but Jade was pronounced dead at the scene.

One person - a fellow skydiver - was believed to have witnessed the horror.

Friend Danni Willis, who worked at SkyHigh Skydiving described Ms Damarell' as 'a beautiful girl inside and out'.

It is understood she had rented a double room at the skydiving centre's lodgings and had been renting a double room with her boyfriend.

She had previously been married but was said to have divorced.

SkyHigh Skydiving confirmed the death in a statement, claiming 'all indications' from police were that 'this was a deliberate act'.

A spokesman said: 'It is with great sadness that we confirm a tragic incident took place on 28 April, 2025, involving a valued member of our community.

'All indications from the police and British Skydiving are that this was a deliberate act.

'This heartbreaking news has deeply affected all who knew her, and our thoughts are with her family and friends as they face this unimaginable loss.

SkyHigh Skydiving confirmed the death in a statement, claiming 'all indications' from police were that 'this was a deliberate act'. Pictured: Jade and her mother

'At this incredibly difficult time, we ask for privacy and compassion for those grieving.'

The centre added: 'If you are struggling or in emotional distress, please know that you are not alone. Support is available. We urge anyone in crisis to speak to someone or reach out to a mental health professional. Even in the darkest moments, there is help and hope.'

A Durham Constabulary spokesperson confirmed: 'A woman sadly died following a skydiving incident near Peterlee.

'Police officers and colleagues from the ambulance service were called to the incident in Shotton Colliery at around 10.30am on Sunday (April 27).

'Sadly, a woman in her thirties was pronounced dead at the scene. Her death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will now be prepared for the coroner.'

A North East Ambulance Service spokesperson added: 'We were called to an incident at Shotton Colliery in County Durham on Sunday 27 April at 10:17.

'We dispatched one ambulance crew and one specialist paramedic to the incident.'

Wreford Farm released a statement via Facebook in the wake of the tragedy, which read: 'Tragically, last Sunday 27/4/25 a woman lost her life after a parachute incident/accident, please join us in saying a prayer for her and her family, we ask the Lord to accept her into the kingdom of heaven and strength to her family.

'We ask for our own and farms privacy for this deeply upsetting matter to be respected. God bless.'
An influencer has been hospitalised after her boyfriend allegedly stabbed her nine times during a livestream having told him she wanted to break up with him.

Luna Ambrozevicius Abrahao, 22, was broadcasting live on Instagram from the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 19 when her boyfriend launched the knife assault.

Video footage of the aftermath, which Luna captured on her phone, showed her howling in pain as blood poured from her body.

As she moved the camera, a giant blade that apparently broke off from the knife can be seen lying next to her slashed foot, with a gaping wound visible between her big toe and her second toe.

She was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds and underwent emergency surgery and survived despite being stabbed in the head, in the back, in the hand and in the foot.

She remains in a serious condition.

Police are currently searching for her boyfriend, named as Alex Olievira, who fled the scene after the attack.

He is facing charges of domestic violence and attempted murder.

Luna Ambrozevicius Abrahao (pictured) was broadcasting live on Instagram from the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 19

Video footage of the aftermath, which Luna captured on her phone, showed her howling in pain as blood poured from her body

She was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds and underwent emergency surgery

She was stabbed in the head, in the back, in the hand and in the foot

Luna has over 255,000 followers on Instagram and is known for her posts about beauty, fashion, and dancing

Investigators confirmed the woman, who has a four-year-old daughter, had been arguing with Olievira before the stabbing.

Neighbours told officers they often heard fights from the flat where the pair lived.

Social media users who witnessed the livestream called emergency services as the violence erupted.

Others shared clips of the livestream, which has since been taken down by the platform.

Luna has over 255,000 followers on Instagram and is known for her posts about beauty, fashion, and dancing.

In March, a Japanese woman who was brutally stabbed to death while livestreaming to over 6,000 people was identified as an influencer who was targeted by one of her followers.

Japanese streamer Airi Sato, 22, was confirmed dead after a crazed man attacked her with a knife, stabbing her in the neck, head and chest while thousands watched.

Little is known about Sato's private life, however sources claim the influencer has been creating content since she was in high school.

Japanese IRL streamer, Airi Sato, 22, was confirmed dead after a crazed man attacked her with a knife, stabbing her in the neck, head and chest while thousands watched

The young 'in real life' streamer was allegedly killed by 42-year-old Kenichi Takano, who was arrested at the ghastly crime scene which took place in Tokyo's Shinjuku district

Her content centered around her day to day 'real life'. She had filmed herself in a video titled '3.11 Walking Around the Yamanote Line' as she circled the well-known railway service loop.

The young streamer was allegedly killed by 42-year-old Kenichi Takano, who was arrested at the ghastly crime scene in Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

Police sources told local media that Takano tracked Sato down after he recognized the buildings in the back of her video.

He later told police that he had lent Sato a 'substantial sum of money' - approximately $17,000 USD - and was never repaid, TokyoHive reported.

The 42-year-old reportedly became acquainted with Sato in 2021 through her livestreams.

Over time, their relationship took on a financial dimension, with Sato frequently asking for loans under various circumstances, claiming she had forgotten her wallet, lost access to her funds, or needed urgent financial help.

Messages exchanged between the two suggest that these requests escalated, with Sato borrowing small amounts at first before requesting larger sums, according to the outlet.

Despite Takano providing financial support, repayment never materialized. He eventually took legal action, winning a court case for the outstanding debt.

Even with the ruling in his favor, no payments were made.

The unresolved financial dispute appears to have deepened Takano's frustration, leading to the alleged violent escalation.
Social media can be a real boon, with individuals connecting in useful or entertaining ways that would have been unimaginable twenty years ago.

Sadly, some of these connections have been far from useful. Social media has evolved in some areas as a means to share evil ideas, from terrorist content to extreme right and left views.

But the evil content is far outweighed by the entertaining or useful.

While it is correct that the police are made aware of and tackle content that seeks to cause actual harm, the bar for what falls into this category has been dropping year on year.

Opinion and disagreement are not the place of the police.

We have allowed the service to become involved in areas that some may find offensive but are far from criminal - and harm no one.

This has been gradual, but with no sensible barriers put in place by the police, more and more ridiculous complaints have been received.

These complainants, had they attended at a police station, would simply have been told that straightforward disagreement is not a police matter.

Being offended is not a crime.

Officers are needed on the beat, not at desks tied to their laptops to monitor 'hurt feelings'

By taking on an increasing number of such complaints, the danger is that the police become complacent and allow the bar for what is a police matter to continue to slip.

Dealing with online arguments removes resource from where it is really needed.

Actual crime solvency is down, while violent crime, particularly amongst the young, is rising.

Policing a Twitter spat might be far easier than catching a housebreaker - but the impact of one is far greater than the other.

The police need to be far stronger around what they will, and will not, become involved in within the virtual world and refocus on actual crime, not hurt feelings.

There are finite resources available. These officers need to be directed to work of worth - not virtue-signalling.

We do need police back on the streets to but the thin blue line has become considerably thinner since Police Scotland was formed - with 1,000 fewer police officers than at formation in 2013.

Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, talks of avoiding the service being cannibalised by looming decisions over potentially cutting police pay versus officer numbers.

Sadly, it has already happened.

Policing fills the holes other parts of the public sector have allowed to develop, while pet projects and niche topics have been prioritised rather than real impacts on lives.

The police who are left are working from fewer and fewer police stations, in fewer communities.

The Chief Constable, Jo Farrell, spoke of officers working from new premises that will improve officer and staff wellbeing.

This is all very good, but what of operational realities and the needs of the public?

It is crystal clear, too, that crime is expanding online, and it is right that resources are directed, where appropriate, to the virtual realm.

Fraud has been allowed to metastasise while policing has been absent.

However, walk down any high street in the country and it is obvious real policing is still required - and cannot be delivered at closing time by an officer sitting in front of a lap top.

Technology, such as body-worn video cameras, is freeing up officer time.

There needs to be careful consideration of where this capacity is applied.

Former Police Scotland superintendent Martin Gallagher fears too much emphasis is being put on social media and not enough on actual policing

Rushing headlong into the virtual world while the real world suffers a dearth of policing presence would be folly.

The police have made sacrifices, as numbers have dwindled and demands, many of which are not core business, have risen.

The ill-advised policy of proportionate response - where minor crime is effectively disregarded - is one such trade-off, while the lack of a policing presence outside nightclubs as they close is another.

And officers are still spending too much time dealing with those with mental health problems, which prevents them from undertaking their core duties of preventing and fighting crime.

The answer lies in grasping a nettle the Chief Constable and Cabinet Secretary acknowledged but did not take hold off.

The days of politely asking Government bodies to shoulder their burden are over. They must now be told.

You have to be on the streets to police them. If the police are not freed from responsibilities that arent theirs, this will not happen.

 Martin Gallagher is a former superintendent with Police Scotland, who served as area commander of Paisley
It was a day that should have provided closure for a family still consumed by grief. But instead, yesterday's inquest into the death of British teenager Jay Slater in Tenerife last year quickly descended into farce.

For no sooner had Jay's family filed into Preston Coroner's Court, than it emerged not a single one of the key witnesses to their son's final days was to be present.

'We can't find them, they have stopped responding to phone calls,' revealed senior coroner Dr James Adeley of the five key witnesses: Jay's holiday companions Lucy Law, Brandon Hodgson and Bradley Geoghegan (also known as Bradley Hargreaves); and the two men he stayed with the night before his disappearance, Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas.

On two separate occasions, Jay's mother, 55-year-old Debbie Duncan, pleaded desperately with the coroner to bring the witnesses before the inquest. 'We want these people in front of us,' she begged, breaking down in tears: 'My son went on holiday and didn't come back so there are questions we need to ask. Please.'

The coroner duly announced shortly after 3.30pm that the inquest would be delayed so that further attempts could be made to bring forward the absent five - stressing that multiple attempts to locate the witnesses had been made, albeit unsuccessfully, including via the police.

Whereupon farce became cruel pantomime as the family of Lucy Law announced that, so far from disappearing as had been claimed, she was once again on holiday on the very island where Jay had died - and was unaware that they wanted her to give evidence.

'We had no idea Jay's inquest was even being held today,' said her stepfather Andy Davis, speaking at the family home in Burnley. 'The police have only just been round today to say that she was due to give evidence. But it's the first time we knew of it.'

This inquest had taken months of preparation. Yet for now at least - it is already over. And the questions millions of people have waited so long for remain unanswered.

Lucy Law, Jay's friend with whom he went to Tenerife for the festival last year

Having spent just shy of a month reporting on the case from Tenerife last year - and feeling first-hand the pressure to find answers - I am shocked and appalled that the British inquest into Jay's death could have been quite so poorly planned.

In June last year, 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, travelled to Tenerife where he stayed in a resort hotel near the popular Playa de Las Americas party strip with friends Lucy Law and Bradley Hargreaves.

The trio had been attending the New Rave Generation music festival on the Spanish island when Slater - on the final night of festivities - met Qassim and Roccas. For reasons that remain unclear, Slater got into the back of the pair's Seat Leon at 5am and travelled 25 miles from the Papagayo nightclub to the Casa Abuela Tina Airbnb in the northern village of Masca, a sleepy spot nestled in the remote mountains.

The following morning, Slater unfathomably attempted to make the 10-mile walk back to his hotel while in a state of extreme dehydration and with drugs in his system.

Having walked across that same unforgiving terrain on numerous occasions myself while trying to reimagine Jay's journey, I can assure you it is hard enough to navigate when sober.

Bradley Hargreaves, one of Jay Slater's best friends, was also on the trip

Ayub Qassim, one of the men Jay stayed with the night before his disappearance

At 8.30am, Slater made a call to Lucy Law in which he revealed his phone was on one per cent, he was dehydrated and was lost.

Sadly, Slater was never heard from again. He was declared missing at 9.04am the same morning. It would take Spanish police a month to find his body in the Juan Lopez ravine - by that time it was barely recognisable as the young bricklayer from Lancashire. The cause of death was ruled to be head trauma consistent with a fall from a height.

Despite the premature closure of yesterday's inquest, there were a number of revelations made which help to piece together a somewhat better picture of Slater's final hours.

Firstly, it was confirmed that Slater's body contained traces of the drugs cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy.

Secondly, Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd confirmed that there appeared to be no signs of a struggle: 'Nothing to suggest an assault, gripping, holding, nothing of that sort,' he told the inquest, likely ruling out previous conspiracies of possible foul play.

Debbie Duncan, who asked witnesses to come forward, with her son Jay

Jay with his close friend Lucy, who is currently thought to be in Tenerife

'The injuries were so severe I have no doubt he would have been instantly unconscious from the moment of that blow to the head,' Dr Shepherd's assessment continued. 'Death could well have been instant, the injury was so severe.'

Evidence was also provided by Joshua Forshaw, who had met Jay at the NRG music festival. Forshaw told the inquest that Slater had been 'thrown out' of the rave at the Papagayo nightclub and had been trying to sell a luxury watch for 10,000. It is unclear, however, if these two things relate in any way to Jay's death or his decision to travel up into the mountains.

The truth is that for all these piecemeal revelations and rumours, no true closure will be possible until the five people who were with Jay in the hours and days before his death answer the questions that so desperately need asking.

It is thought that Lucy Law is currently in Tenerife, while Brad Hargreaves revealed he is on a holiday he booked last October. The whereabouts of the other three witnesses remains a mystery.

'When drugs are involved in a death,' revealed coroner Dr Adeley talking from professional experience, 'the witnesses are less than forthcoming and do not wish to speak to the authorities.'

That may well be the case. But these five absent witnesses would do well to remember that until they are brave enough to face the music, the Slater family will be left in cruel and agonising suspension.
An Aussie man accused of assaulting a security guard while holidaying in Bali says he's sorry for his actions as new details about what allegedly sparked the brawl emerged.

Mohamed Rifai, 27, from Sydney's south-west, appeared in Denpasar District Court on Thursday, where he was grilled over the alleged attack outside Finns Beach Club in north Kuta on February 11.

Rifai was detained by Indonesian authorities following the alleged brawl between five Aussies and up to 15 security stuff.

He is accused of assaulting security guard Made Bagus Yohanandita while he was detaining his friend John Ebid.

Footage of the alleged brawl was shared on social media with the shirtless tourists appearing to strike security guards.

Rifai, who denied the charges and claimed he acted in self defence, gave his testimony in court on Thursday.

He recalled how he had been with a group of six, including three siblings, at the world famous beach club, where they were 'ordering food, enjoying the pool and music'.

Rifai then followed Mr Ebid after his friend was escorted from the club by security.

Mohamed Rifai, 27, appeared in Denpasar District Court on Thursday to give his testimony

The Sydney man (pictured) told the court on Thursday he acted in self defence after '10 people hit me and kicked me'

Footage of the incident (pictured) showed a violent clash between tourists and security guards in the car park of Finns Beach club

'I said that he is my friend. Let me take him. But then they handcuffed me,' he told prosecutor Lovi Purnawan.

'I begged the security to not assault me as I was suffering pain in my hand.'

'Security pushed me until I fell down on the floor.

He said he saw security guards handcuff his friend and hit him before becoming 'more aggressive'.

'Around 10 people hit me. I was hit in the head, body and other areas. They hit me and kicked me,' he told the court.

When asked by Presiding judge Anak Agung Made Aripathi if he had punched someone, Rifai answered 'yes' but he couldn't confirm who he had hit.

'I don't remember. Many people attacked me, I just tried to defend myself,' he told the court.

'I feel sorry for what I have done because the situation was chaos at that time.'

'I feel sorry for what I have done because the situation was chaos at that time,' Mohamed Rifai told the court.

The judge asked if Rifais siblings also joined in on the incident outside the club, to which he said they had.

'Because at that time I was on the floor and hit by the security. And John Ebid was also being punched and hit,' he replied

Rifai was also whether a peace agreement had been made.

He confirmed one had taken place on February 24 at the police station adding: 'At that time I realised we had made a mistake.'

The trial continues on June 3.

Rifai remains in custody.

He faces up to five years behind bars in Indonesia if he's found guilty.

Rifai answered questions from the prosecution, his lawyer and the presiding judge

In earlier trials, six witnesses, including Mr Yohanandita, accused Rifai of assaulting the security guard.

Finns' head of security alleged the tourists attacked staff after they were asked to leave the bar.

Bali police also charged eight security guards with 'group assault' over the alleged melee, who also remain in custody.

Four other Aussies involved in the incident were not charged with Bali police deeming them to be 'witnesses' to the alleged brawl.
A jilted husband deliberately crashed into his estranged wife's car when it emerged she was seeing a new man just three weeks after their 24-year marriage ended.

Shocking footage shows Kevin Roberts, 40, unable to contain his anger as he hurtles down a road in Anglesey, North Wales, clipping the vehicle before driving off.

Caernarforn Crown Court heard the raging husband felt 'betrayed' by his school sweetheart Emma Roberts who he had five children with before their separation last year.

He later returned to the scene with one of his adult children to check on Ms Roberts' well-being.

The court heard her car was damaged with Ms Roberts uninjured - though badly shaken.

In a statement she said the event had left her feeling 'on edge' and scared to drive.

Roberts, now of Enfield, London, admitted dangerous driving.

Defending, Dafydd Roberts said the breakdown of the couple's long-term relationship was the 'root cause' of his behaviour.

Shocking footage shows Kevin Roberts, 40, unable to contain his anger as he hurtles down a road in Anglesey, North Wales, clipping the vehicle before driving off

The jilted husband crashed furiously into his estranged wife's car when it emerged she was seeing a new man just three weeks after their 24-year-marriage ended

'He accepts his driving was very much out of order', he said.

The court heard Roberts had since left the area and was caring for his terminally ill father.

Judge Nicola Jones handed Roberts a 10-month suspended jail sentence and restraining order banning him from contacting his wife for one year.

He was also handed a 12-month driving ban and ordered him to take an extended re-test.

Judge Jones told him: 'This was a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road.'

But she said she would suspend Roberts' sentence due to him showing 'genuine remorse'.
Two pensioners were duped into smuggling crystal meth into the UK inside bags of chocolate truffles by an international drug trafficker from Nigeria.

Tonny Ezeh, 51, convinced Heinz Magel, 80, and a 67-year-old man they were entitled to legitimate cash windfalls and they had to travel abroad to get paid.

Ezeh, who holds Nigerian, Canadian, and Jamaican passports, fooled the pair into carrying the drugs hidden in sweets into Britain for onward flights to Hong Kong.

The 67-year-old was stopped at Heathrow on October 18 and three days later Magel was stopped at the airport on a flight from Mexico City.

The German pensioners were unwittingly each carrying around three kilos of methamphetamine worth up to 300,000.

Both were charged with smuggling class A drugs but the charges were dropped once investigators established that Ezeh had scammed the pair.

Ezeh admitted smuggling class A drugs when he appeared at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday, and was sentenced to nine years and three months in prison.

He was based in Mexico where he organised drug shipments with other Nigerian contacts across the world.

Tonny Ezeh, 51, convinced Heinz Magel, 80, and a 67-year-old man they were entitled to legitimate cash windfalls and they had to travel abroad to get paid

The German pensioners were unwittingly each carrying around three kilos of methamphetamine worth up to 300,000

Victims were told they were the beneficiaries of large sums of money but to obtain their cash they travelled to Mexico to sign fake paperwork, where they were given the 'gift' of the truffles to take to Hong Kong

His mobile phones revealed that he was part of a West African crime group responsible for transporting Class A drugs internationally via air passenger courier and fast parcels.

Elderly and vulnerable couriers were singled out and recruited via email finance scams.

Victims were told they were the beneficiaries of large sums of money but to obtain their cash they travelled to Mexico to sign fake paperwork.

They were then given gifts of 'Elvan Chocolate Truffles' which were to be given to hosts in Hong Kong who would pay the pensioners.

But before the men could catch connecting flights to Hong Kong, they were arrested by Border Force officers at Heathrow.

NCA officers arrested Ezeh when he flew into the UK on 23 December last year.

Magel, of Bautzen, Eastern Saxony, had been remanded in custody when he appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates Court last October charged with illegal importation of class A drugs.

The charge was dropped by prosecutors soon after.

NCA operations manager Peter Jones said: 'Tonny Ezeh is an extremely callous criminal. He and his crime group singled out and took advantage of elderly, vulnerable victims.

'He didn't care at all about the trauma the men would experience when stopped, arrested and remanded in a foreign land.

'If an offer is too good to be true, it very likely is and we urge anyone who is approached and asked to transport goods to think very carefully.

'The NCA and partners at home and abroad continue to fight the threat of class A drugs entering the UK.'
It's one of the last surviving buildings from an extensive monastery and has served the Derbyshire community for hundreds of years in various guises.

But The Abbey pub in Darley Abbey, which dates back to the 15th century, appears to have been abruptly closed for good - because of social media posts.

A handwritten note on the door of the building, once part of the Augustinian Abbey of St Mary, said the owner was unhappy about photos of it being shared online.

Samuel Smith's Brewery, which owns the pub, allegedly told the current landlords that they had broken company policies and were immediately dismissed.

The chain, which operates about 200 pubs in the UK, is known for its colourful owner Humphrey Smith's strict rules such as no-swearing, televisions or mobile phones.

Mr Smith has built his brewery empire on the rules perceived by many as extreme, such as no dogs, jukeboxes, laptops, fruit machines, muddy boots or children.

Locals in Tadcaster near York, where his firm is based, have previously described him as a 'Dickensian figure'  and it is thought that he was about to retire last year.

Dubbed 'Britain's most reclusive beer baron', the 80-year-old is viewed by many as a skilled businessman - but it is also renowned for turning up at his pubs unannounced to check managers are maintaining his standards, and closing them if they are not.

The Abbey pub had a sign inside saying: 'We are a digital detox pub. Use of mobiles, laptops and other devices is not allowed. Beer and conversation encouraged.'

The pub had only reopened in September last year following a campaign led by a group including Derby City Council councillor Martin Repton after closing in 2019

But a 22-word written notice was stuck onto the pub's front door with tape on Wednesday, saying: 'Closed!! Due to someone posting pictures of The Abbey on social media. Sam Smith has taken the alcohol and closed these premises.'

A 22-word notice was stuck to the door of the The Abbey pub in Darley Abbey, Derbyshire

Campaigners outside The Abbey during a previous effort to reopen it, which it did last year

On Saturday, just days before it closed, popular Facebook account The Great British Pub Crawl, which has more than 125,000 followers, posted 18 pictures of the pub, saying: 'Not every day you are asked to grab photos or a video in a Sam Smith's pub.'

The page follows a couple's attempt to visit every pub in the UK, but they denied being responsible for the closure  saying in later Facebook posts that they were in fact asked to take the photos because the operators already knew it was about to be shut.

They added that they do not take photos in other Samuel Smith venues and would not have taken pictures in The Abbey if they had been not been asked to.

They also pointed to previous Facebook posts from other accounts in recent months as being the more likely culprits.

This included one from a visitor called Dennis Hayes in March which said: 'In The Abbey - got a red card for taking a picture of the 'digital detox pub' poster. (no swearing, no music and no dogs as well).'

Mr Hayes, who is emeritus professor of education at the University of Derby, told MailOnline today: 'The closure of The Abbey at short notice is a disgrace. It is a tragedy for the managers who imposed the 'detoxing' from social media rules firmly. I posted pictures from outside of the pub in support of the managers and the brewery's policy.

'This was my local when I lived nearby and it was beginning to thrive after a long period of post-lockdown closure. Samuel Smith should reinstate them immediately and apologise.'

The pub, built in the 1400s, is one of the last remaining parts of the Darley Abbey monastery complex and is thought to have been the lodgings for the Abbot.

The wider abbey complex originally dates back to 1160 before it was developed over the following centuries, but ceased to exist in 1538 after the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII.

After the dissolution, the village was developed by mill owners called the Evans, who put covenants on all their land preventing the sale of alcohol.

This post was made by popular Facebook account The Great British Pub Crawl on Saturday, just days before The Abbey pub closed. Those who run the account say they were in fact asked to take the photos because the operators already knew it was about to be shut

Another post in March from a punter who 'got a red card' for taking photos of The Abbey pub

However, they did not buy the small piece of land containing what is now the pub, which was initially owned by a local archaeological society before being bought and converted into its present-day use.

But Councillor Mr Repton wrote on Facebook yesterday: 'As from today The Abbey pub that thousands fought a five-year battle to get reopened will no longer be open for business.

'The brewery struggled for five years to find anyone to manage the pub on their behalf. I and a local businessman wrote to the brewery offering to go to Tadcaster to meet up to discuss them possibly selling the pub or leasing it.

'They declined our offers and instead the pub reopened after a five-year-gap on September 26 last year, and hopes were high that this historic 900-year-old building would continue to serve the local community as it had done for many centuries.

'I was only in there last night having a pint so to wake up this morning to hear such bad news is devastating. All the brewery have said so far is that the managers did not follow company policies which the couple deny emphatically.

'Rumour has it that the brewery may have closed many pubs in recent months. The campaign to get The Abbey pub reopened now starts again.'

Other Samuel Smith pubs have also suddenly closed in recent months  including the Shoulder of Mutton in Bradford last September; The Harewood Arms in Leeds last November and Ye Olde Swiss Cottage in North West London in February.

Humphrey Smith, pictured in September 2024, owns the Samuel Smith's Brewery chain

The Abbey pub was once part of the Augustinian Abbey of St Mary in the Derbyshire village

Writing about his memories of The Abbey, Derby Telegraph content editor George Allen said: 'It was always an odd atmosphere.

'You had to remember not to swear and, if your phone pinged in your pocket, you had to ignore your instincts and perhaps only check it subtly when you went to the loo.

'I wasn't so worried about being kicked out of the pub. We could always nip across the road. What really did concern me was the livelihood of the tenants.

'Because my mild embarrassment would be nothing compared to the chances of notorious Samuel Smith brewery owner Humphrey Smith catching sight of the indiscretion, berating the tenants and closing down their pub in a second.

'And, to nobody's surprise, that is pretty much what happened this week.'

It comes after MailOnline revealed last September that Samuel Smith boss Humphrey Smith planned to retire when he turned 80 in December 2024.

Letters were posted to pub managers outlining the businessman's intention to call last orders on his 40-year chairmanship of the multi-million pound brewing dynasty.

It is not currently clear who is now running the chain - with Mr Smith still listed as on Companies House as a director of the business, which was founded in 1758.

MailOnline has contacted Samuel Smith for comment.
A notorious female pimp who lured vulnerable girls as young as 13 to work for her as prostitutes has been quietly released from prison, MailOnline can reveal.

Amanda Spencer, 34, was jailed for 12 years in 2014, for one of the worst cases of female pimping in UK criminal history which caused public outrage and horror when it emerged.

Despite the horrific nature of her crimes - which had parallels with the large-scale grooming gangs across the north of England - Spencer is now walking the streets again.

Spencer would befriend schoolgirls, ply them with drink and drugs then persuade them to have sex with strangers in parks, flats and even public toilets.

She became a pimp at 15 and for five years ran a ring of teenage prostitutes to raise cash to feed her addiction to drugs.

One victim said: When I was 13 she made me feel it was normal to have sex. I wish I had never met her. She took my childhood. I hate her and she ruined my life.

The judge told her at the time: They didnt have much of a childhood but what they had, you effectively spoiled. They looked up to you as their friend and as their protector. Unfortunately, what they found was not a protector but an exploiter.

Spencer would offer the vulnerable girls, many of whom were in care, a shoulder to cry on - before plying them with drink and drugs and forcing them to have sex with various men.

Amanda Spencer, 23, arrives at Sheffield Crown Court in 2014 where she was found guilty of child prostitution offences against five girls - some as young as 13

Spencer would pocket the cash earned by the girls, seeing it as far more productive and profitable to co-ordinate a pool of prostitutes, than to work for drug money all by herself

Spencer would tell the girls to lie about their age and dress provocatively.

She would then become aggressive if they refused to have intercourse with men in flats around Sheffield, in the citys Castle Markets and the toilets of nearby McDonalds and KFC restaurants.

She would then pocket the cash earned by the girls, seeing it as far more productive and profitable to co-ordinate a pool of prostitutes, than to work for drug money all by herself.

Spencer, from Sheffield, was initially convicted of 14 counts of arranging child prostitution, relating to five girls between 2006 and 2011.

She then had her sentence extended by a further three years in 2017, following a second trial also at Sheffield Crown Court, after being found guilty of another three child prostitution charges.

The Parole Board has confirmed today that Spencer was recommended for release in August - and the Ministry of Justice confirmed that she was freed later the same month.

Shockingly, this is the second time she has been released from prison on licence: having been previously let out in November 2021 after serving just seven years only to be recalled to prison three months later for breaching her licence conditions.

The heartbreaking consequences of Spencers evil actions were laid out by victim Leona Whitworth, who waived her right to anonymity to raise concerns about a South Yorkshire police officer she claims was one of her abusers.

From the age of 13, Leona Whitworth (pictured) was groomed by Spencer, as part of a group responsible for, and who financially benefited from, arranging for Leona to be sexually abused

From the age of 13, Leona was groomed by Spencer, as part of a group responsible for, and who financially benefited from, arranging for Leona to be sexually abused in 2008 and 2009.

Following a six-week trial, Spencer was found guilty of 14 counts of arranging or facilitating child prostitution and two counts of causing or inciting child prostitution against five girls between 2006 and 2011.

Spencer was cleared of a further three counts of arranging or facilitating child prostitution and was also cleared of three counts of causing or inciting child prostitution.

Spencer was cleared of trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation along with co-accused Kareem Ahmed, 30.

Judge Michael Murphy said she had been responsible for the heartless exploitation of young and vulnerable girls, many of whom were in care.

She met the victims she called her sisters hanging about in a market and park in Sheffield and took them under her wing to become their best friend.

Once they were in her control, Spencer forced them to dress provocatively, lie about their age and have sex with men.

The judge told her: They didnt have much of a childhood but what they had, you effectively spoiled. They looked up to you as their friend and as their protector. Unfortunately, what they found was not a protector but an exploiter.

The judge said he had watched the torment and shame of the victims as they gave evidence during the nine-week trial.

They were the most vulnerable witnesses he had seen in 40 years at the court, he added.
The first pictures have emerged of a North Korean warship seemingly covered in tarpaulin after it capsized and sank in front of dictator Kim Jong Un.

Satellite images appear to show the naval destroyer languishing on its side alongside the dock where a launch ceremony had been held.

But the launch failed, and analysis of pictures taken on Thursday suggest the ship is now partially submerged and covered with bright blue tarpaulins in an apparent attempt to conceal the wreckage.

State media said the the 5,000-ton ship, which had been due to enter service next year, is designed to carry weapons systems including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea.

The failed launch sparked fury from Kim Jong Un, who wants bigger warships to deal with what he calls escalating US-led threats against his country.

He declared the mishap a 'criminal act caused by absolute carelessness' that 'could not be tolerated'.

He has ordered the destroyer to be restored before a June party meeting, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Analysis of pictures taken on Thursday suggest the ship is now partially submerged and covered with bright blue tarpaulins

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows a blue tarp covering a North Korean destroyer after it suffered a failed launch while it was being put to sea in Chongjin on May 22

BEFORE: This handout satellite image courtesy of Maxar Technologies taken on May 18, 2025 shows a general view of the North Korean warship at the harbour ahead of its launch

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC, taken on May 20, shows a North Korean destroyer before it is said to have capsized

The outlet confirmed that during the ceremony on Wednesday 'a serious accident occurred', but didn't provide details on what caused the problem, the severity of the damage or whether anyone was injured.

KCNA said: 'Due to immature command and operational negligence, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize.

'The ship's balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.'

It's not common for North Korea to acknowledge military-related setbacks, but observers say the disclosure of the failed ship launch suggests that Kim is serious about meeting his objectives in his naval advancement programme.

'It's a shameful thing. But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it's speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build" a greater navy, said Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul's Hanyang University.

Moon suspected the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and were rushed to put it in the water.

Kim reportedly said of the blunder: 'This is a serious accident and criminal act that could not have happened and could not be tolerated due to pure carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism,' the agency reported.

A launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer went horribly wrong in front of 'supreme' leader Kim Jong Un, according to state media. Pictured: A different naval destroyer unveiled in Nampo, North Korea, last month

Kim (pictured last month) watched on in horror as the 5,000-ton ship was severely damaged after failing to launch properly

He continued: 'The urgent restoration of the destroyer is not a simple practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the country.'

'It must be completed unconditionally before the June plenary session of the Central Committee of the Party', he added.

The ship that held the launching ceremony this time appears to be of the same class as the 5,000-ton destroyer Choi Hyun-ho that North Korea launched last month.

In April Kim unveiled a nuclear-capable naval destroyer that he says will bolster North Korea 's ability to defend itself in the face of perceived aggression from the US and its regional allies.

The North Korean leader attended the warship's launch ceremony at the western port of Nampo with his teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae, according to state-run media.

Ju Ae has been widely regarded by analysts as the likely successor to Kim since she was referred to as a 'great person of guidance' in an official report last year.

Kim said the 5,000-ton vessel would bolster efforts to expand the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military.

The 'multi-purpose' destroyer, designed to handle a variety of arms including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, was touted as the first in a new class of heavily armed warships.

Kim, who has framed the arms buildup as a response to the supposed danger posed by the US and its allies in Asia, said the destroyer would be handed over to the navy early next year before beginning active duty.

Jo Chun Ryong, a secretary in the ruling Workers' party, claimed the ship was equipped with the 'most powerful weapons' and was built 'within 400-odd days'.

Kim also took aim at efforts by the US and South Korea to expand joint military exercises and update their nuclear deterrence strategies, which he portrayed as preparations for war.

He vowed to 'respond decisively to this geopolitical crisis and ongoing developments,' the Korean Central News Agency reported.

There was no immediate comment from South Korea's military on the revelation of the new warship.
An African asylum seeker has been allowed to stay in Britain to escape the clutches of his wicked stepmother.

A judge ruled the man did not have to leave the UK as he would likely be severely punished by his relative for 'escaping' his home country of Guinea.

An immigration tribunal heard the unnamed migrant was 'physically abused' and forced to work long hours by his father's first wife after his biological parents both died in a car crash.

The Guinean, now in his early 20s, managed to secretly save money to send his younger brother away and was eventually able to flee to the UK with the help of a family friend.

The tribunal heard that if he were to return to the West African country, he would be punished by his stepmother for 'disobeying' her and violating social norms.

Now, the asylum seeker - who was granted anonymity - has won a human rights claim to remain in the UK.

The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber heard the young man's father was 'relatively wealthy', owned a large estate, and had two wives.

In 2016, when the asylum seeker was just 14, both of his parents were killed in a car accident.

An African asylum seeker has been allowed to stay in the UK to avoid being punished by his stepmother for fleeing (picture is posed by a model)

A tribunal heard the unnamed migrant was 'physically abused' and forced to work long hours for his step mother. Pictured: The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber

His younger sister was sent away to live with their grandmother while the man and his younger brother were 'required' to remain in the family compound with his father's first wife.

The tribunal said: 'She, and those around her, physically abused the boys, forcing them to work long hours and punishing them if they refused to do so.'

It was heard that this type of situation is 'not unusual' in Guinea, and that children of other wives are often 'vulnerable' to 'exploitation and abuse' when they are without the protection of blood relatives.

The man - who made his asylum claim in 2019 - managed to 'secretly' save enough money to 'send his little brother away', it was heard.

Then, some time later, a friend of his late father - who was then living in Germany - arranged for a passport and visa for the young man and paid for his travel to the UK.

Expert evidence provided to the tribunal said that if the man were to be returned to Guinea, he would be 'subject to stigmatisation by society due to him violating the social norms of his tribe'.

This related to him 'disobeying and escaping' his father's first wife.

The tribunal heard there would be an 'expectation' that his stepmother should 'severely physically punish him to reinstate the social balance'.

The man - who made his asylum claim in 2019 - managed to 'secretly' save cash to 'send his little brother away'. Pictured: The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber

And, if he sought to avoid the family, he would likely find himself 'destitute' and 'extremely vulnerable' to traffickers, his stepmother, and her family.

The First-tier Tribunal accepted this account and he was allowed to remain in the UK, on both protection and human rights grounds.

The asylum seeker was found to be 'a vulnerable witness' who 'cannot be held responsible for the actions of the family friend who fraudulently obtained a passport and visa on his behalf'.

The Home Office attempted to appeal the decision by the First-tier Tribunal, arguing they had failed to find the man would be 'treated differently'.

And, they said they failed to provide adequate reasons as to why the man's fear of his stepmother amounted to an 'innate characteristic that singles him out for different treatment by the rest of society'.

But, the appeal was dismissed in its entirety by the Upper Tribunal, which upheld the earlier decision.
A Reform-run council is facing fury today after its leader ordered the Ukrainian flag be removed from its headquarters.

Nigel Farage's party took over control of Kent County Council on May 1 and its leader this morning ordered a ban on banners from 'special interest groups'.

Linden Kemkaran also banned the authority from flying the Pride flag later this year, telling the AGM in Maidstone: 'The Union Jack, the flag of St George and the flag of Kent, they are the identity that we all share and it is that identity that we need to focus on.'

To applause form her supporters she told the chamber her new administration had little time for 'special interest groups' or the flags that represent them.

Her words were met with raucous applause and table thumping from the Reform benches, likened to a 'political rally' by the council's opposition leader, Liberal Democrat Antony Hook.

Reform's chairman Zia Yusuf revealed plans after its election wins in 10 council areas that the party's leadership would not allow the Ukrainian flag to be flown, despite it being a fixture across the UK since the 2022 invasion by Vladimir Putin's Russia.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: 'We know the only flag most Reform politicians want to fly is the Russian flag and these plastic patriots are proving to be everything that we thought they were.

'A bunch of Putin apologists who would rather tear down the symbols of brave Ukrainians fighting for freedom than stand with them.'

Nigel Farage's party took over control of Kent County Council on May 1 and its leader Linden Kemkaran this morning ordered a ban on banners from 'special interest groups'.

Reform's chairman Zia Yusuf revealed plans after its election wins in 10 council areas that the party's leadership would not allow the Ukrainian flag to be flown, despite it being a fixture across the UK since the 2022 invasion by Vladimir Putin's Russia.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said: 'We know the only flag most Reform politicians want to fly is the Russian flag and these plastic patriots are proving to be everything that we thought they were.

At the beginning of May, Reform swept to a local elections victory in Kent taking 57 of 81 council seats, wiping out a Conservative majority which had stood for almost 30 years.

Ms Kemkaran also told the chamber she was looking to create a department of government efficiency (Doge) to root out problems in the council.

Opposition leader Mr Hook voiced fears that the Reform administration would be taking instructions from the national leaders of Reform UK.

Outside the chamber, he said: 'It was really shocking to me that in a recent podcast the leader of Reform said that she had to sort of take instructions from Reform's national chairman.

'That's the sort of thing we've never heard at Kent County Council before. Under different administrations it's always been clear that policy is made in Kent by county councillors not taking instructions from national parties.'
The suspected pro-Palestinian gunman who shot dead a young Jewish diplomatic couple in Washington DC has been unmasked as left wing radical Elias Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago, is a far-left activist who worked as an 'oral history researcher' on African American communities at educational non-profit TheHistoryMakers, participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations, and has been a member of the party for 'socialism and liberation.'

In the alleged shooter's work profile, which has been deleted from his former employer's website, it says his role was to 'prepare detailed research outlines and biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community.'

He previously worked as a content writer in the 'technology space', the profile reads, and he holds a B.A in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Images circulating on social media appear to show Rodriguez at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2017 on the three year anniversary of the police shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, and he is believed to have been affiliated with the Part for Socialism group.

An alleged manifesto said to have been written by Rodriguez was published online before the killings, which claimed: 'Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged, they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright.'

The emergence of his manifesto comes as footage from the shooting on Wednesday night in Washington DC allegedly shows Rodriguez screaming 'Free Palestine' after the shocking terrorist attack.

Israeli diplomat Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim have been identified as the victims of that attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum just 1.3 miles from the White House.

President Donald Trump has condemned the shooting: ''These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!'

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.'

The couple, who were set to get engaged next week, had attended a Young Diplomats event before they were shot.

The suspected pro-Palestinian gunman who shot dead a young Jewish diplomatic couple in Washington DC has been unmasked as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, pictured calmly sat outside the museum when he was arrested

Rodriguez, from Chicago , is understood to be a far-left activist who worked as an 'oral history researcher' on African American communities at educational non-profit TheHistoryMakers

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter revealed Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring earlier this week 'with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.'

The other victim in Wednesday night's senseless attack was his soon-to-be fiancee.

Milgrim worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She earned a master's degree in international studies from American University.

One of her main duties was organizing missions and visits to Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'wild incitement against the State of Israel' was to blame for the horror attack and that it was the 'terrible price of antisemitism.'

Shocking images from immediately after the shooting show Rodriguez sitting calmly at a bench with one leg crossed over the other, while separate footage captures the moment he is hysterically hauled away by cops.

'Free, free Palestine,' he shouts repeatedly as he squirms against the officers' grip.

Rodriguez is suspected of murdering a young Israeli couple at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night. He is pictured being arrested shortly after the killings

Rodriguez is pictured surrounded by police and security in the moments after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down. Onlookers say they had no idea he was the suspect until he was arrested and allegedly confessed

Items are left scattered on the sidewalk outside the museum after the horrific slaying

The haunting pictures and images surfaced as witnesses described seeing Rodriguez 'pacing back and forth' outside the museum cocktail reception.

He then approached a group of people that included Lischinsky and Milgrim and then shot them at 'close range' with a handgun, the Israeli Embassy said.

Moments later, he casually walked into the museum. Yoni Kalin told Fox 5 News Rodriguez was allowed inside by well-meaning security guards who assumed he was a victim.

'He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like ''call the cops''.'

Ten minutes later when authorities arrived, Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

'He grabbed a red kaffiyeh out of his pocket and started a 'Free Palestine' chant: 'There's only one solution, Intifada revolution,' Kalin said. 'Thank God he left the gun in the bushes outside.'

Kalin, still in shock himself and unsure of what had happened, noticed that the red kaffiyeh had fallen on to the ground and tried to offer it to Rodriguez as he was hauled away, the video revealed.

In the footage of Rodriguez being taken into custody, a plastic cup of water is visible on the bench.

Emotional photos show an onlooker draped in a Jewish flag as police cordoned off the area surrounding the shooting.

Milgrim worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She earned a master's degree in international studies from American University

Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual national employed as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Embassy's Political Department. Pictured with Israeli President Isaac Herzog

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night, CEO Ted Deutch confirmed

After Rodriguez's affiliation with the Part for Socialism movement became known, the group issued a statement condemning the attack and denying any involvement with the alleged shooter.

'We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL,' it wrote on X.

'We know of no contact with him in over seven years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.'

The vile shooting late Wednesday night has been widely condemned around the world.

President Trump issued a statement late Wednesday night condemning 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described the shooting as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

He said: 'The shooting outside the event at the Jewish Museum in Washington  in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a criminal act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'

'Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.'

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter arrive at the scene of the tragedy on Wednesday night

The evening was 'dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage', featuring 'appetizers, cocktails, conversations, and a special guest speaker.'

It was scheduled to take place 6.30pm and 9pm, and the shooting occurred about 9.15pm.

'We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue,' the organization said.

'At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.'

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy, said the duo was shot 'at close range' as they celebrated the evening.

Less than 24 hours ago, the Capital Jewish Museum was awarded a security grant amid ongoing concerns about the safety of guests and staff.

'Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,' Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz said.

At least two people are dead after a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC in what is being described as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism

'So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.'

The museum recently launched a new exhibit which they feared would amplify the risks of an attack - LGBT Jews in the Federal City - to coincide with World Pride.

'We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well,' Gurwitz said. 'And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.'

FBI director Kash Patel confirmed on Wednesday night his department had been briefed on the situation and would investigate, as department heads within the Trump administration came out in force to condemn the violence.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she had arrived in DC alongside attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, and was later pictured alongside Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter examining the crime scene.
Keir Starmer was today cleared to announce the UK's 'surrender' of the Chagos Islands after a judge threw out an 11th-hour attempt to block it.

The Prime Minister's plan to announce this morning that he was handing the archipelago to Mauritius was thrown into chaos after a High Court injunction was made in the dead of night.

Two Chagossian women born on Diego Garcia - now home to a major UK/US airbase - are fighting the handover as part of their bid to be allowed to return home.

But after an emergency hearing this morning Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled that the handover of the islands, formally the British Indian Ocean Territory, can go ahead.

Sir James Eadie KC, for the Foreign Office, had argued that 'damage has already flowed' from the delays caused by the injunction being issued, and a decision was needed by 1pm to get the deal done today.

The handover agreement, which has been approved by US president Donald Trump, is highly controversial.

Mauritius, which is friendly towards China, will be handed billions of pounds of taxpayers' money over decades for the lease to Diego Garcia.

Critics say the country's friendly relations with Beijing mean the agreement will hinder the security of the base.

Speaking outside the High Court after the decision, claimant Bertrice Pompe told reporters: 'We have rights. We are British citizens, yet our right doesn't count. We don't want to give our rights to Mauritius, we are not Mauritians.'

Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse were born on Diego Garcia and are fighting for the islands to remain under British control and the right to return there to live. A new hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning as ministers seek to go ahead with the deal.

The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base (pictured)

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The PM was due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government this morning to sign off on the deal

Sir Keir was due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government this morning to sign off on the deal.

But in the early hours of this morning it emerged a High Court has granted an injunction stopping the negotiations being concluded.

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Ms Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse at 2.25am.

The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base.

But Mr Justice Chamberlain this afternoon said the 'principles of law seem to me to provide a strong answer' to the Chagossians' case'.

Dismissing the injunction, he told the court: 'The government had made clear that once the agreement is signed, it will be the subject of a Bill in Parliament. That will give Parliament time to consider the agreement and, if the view is taken in Parliament that the deal is an undesirable one, then it will not succeed.'

He added: 'Even though it has been necessary to consider this case at very quick speed, I am not satisfied that the claimants have established a serious issue to be tried.

'Even if I had considered that that threshold had been met, I would not have continued the interim relief, and that is because of the delay in bringing these proceedings.

'They waited two months. It is obvious that negotiations have been ongoing for some time. I can infer that those negotiations have been taking place between March and now. If a party wishes to challenge a complex process of negotiation with a third country state, with all the legal difficulties involved, it must do so [in good time].'

Under the terms of the agreement, Britain is expected to give up sovereignty of the island territory to Mauritius, and lease back a crucial military base on the archipelago for 99 years. That was expected to cost 90million a year.

The Government has argued that it has to give up sovereignty over the islands due to international legal rulings in favour of Mauritius.

Following the signing ceremony, MPs were due to be updated on the terms of the deal in the House of Commons, which could include a 40-year extension to the lease of the military base.

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, one of two Chagossian women who had previously launched legal action over the deal, at 2.25am.

Mr Justice Goose issued the 2.25am injunction, ordering: 'The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer.'

The order continued: 'The defendant shall in particular not dispose of the territory in whole or in part.

'The defendant is to maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order.'

According to the order, the judge granted the injunction 'upon consideration of the claimant's application for interim relief made out of court hours' and 'upon reading the defendants' response'.

A Government spokeswoman said: 'We do not comment on ongoing legal cases. This deal is the right thing to protect the British people and our national security.'

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, is home to a joint UK-US military base, used to project Western influence in the Indian Ocean.

Critics of proposals to hand over the islands to Mauritius fear the move will benefit China, which has a growing reach in the region.

News reports recently suggested the deal had been delayed, with the Times newspaper claiming it had become 'toxic' amid criticism from Labour's political opponents.

The Conservatives are among those which have criticised Labour's handling of the negotiations, though they began discussing the handover with Mauritius when they were in power.

Speaking in the the House of Commons just this week, Defence Secretary John Healey insisted the base on Diego Garcia was 'essential to our security', and the UK's security relationship with the US.

'We've had to act, as the previous government started to do, to deal with that jeopardy, we're completing those arrangements and we'll report to the House when we can,' he added.
A shattered widow has described the distressing moment of helplessly watching her husband be swept off rocks into rough seas, never to be seen again.

Monitake 'Moni' Karakaua, 29, was fishing with friends at Salmon Holes near Albany in West Australia's Great Southern region on Anzac Day when tragedy struck.

His wife Tongauea and two children had been watching the group from the shore when he lost his balance and fell from the rocks at the notorious spot into the treacherous surf.

It's understood his lifejacket failed to inflate and he was unable to located by friends who had jumped into the water with buoys to rescue him.

An extensive multi-day search was launched but the Fijian national has never been found.

Mr Karakaua had just been reunited with his young family in Australia, having moved ahead of them to start a new life in 2020.

The rest of the family joined the meat processing worker in Katanning, 171km north of Albany just seven months ago.

Mr Karakaua and his wife had also recently celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary.

Monitake 'Moni' Karakaua (pictured with his family) went missing after being swept off rocks in WA's Salmon Holes

Monitake's (left) wife Tongauea (left) had arrived in WA with their children just seven months ago

'I had tried to tell him to come back (off the rocks) to the shore,' his wife told 7news.com.au.

'I witnessed everything. It's just devastating.

'I was helpless. My heart breaks.'

She described her husband as a workaholic, a man of faith and the ultimate family figure.

'No one can replace him, he's an incredible person,' she added.

Mr Karakaua was now the sole breadwinner for his family, who will now return home to Fiji.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched by family friend Sharon Muir to help ease the financial burden and provide stability as his young family rebuild their lives.

'Tonga is left to navigate the devastating grief of her missing partner and soulmate.' the page states

Monitake Karakaua is survived by his wife Tongauea and their children Sarah and Arima

'She faces an uncertain future and the overwhelming responsibility of raising their children alone.

'They are now facing the difficult task of leaving Australia and returning to Fiji where they hope to find emotional support, extended family, and a chance to rebuild their lives.

'This is a time of immense sorrow and transition for the family.'

More than $5,200 has been raised.

Salmon Holes is renowned as a scenic but dangerous fishing spot, where more than a dozen people have died or gone missing since the 1980s.

In 2021, the state government made it mandatory for fishermen in the region to wear life jackets, following a two year trial.

Free lifejackets are available for hire across Albany.

Salmon Holes (pictured) is known as a scenic but dangerous fishing spot

Parks and Wildlife Service WA warned about the dangers of the Salmon Holes just three weeks before Mr Karakaua went missing, .

'Don't risk it', the Facebook post read.

'Rock fishing is extremely dangerous and people have lost their lives from slipping or being washed into the ocean by large waves, gusty winds and slippery surfaces.

'Even calm days can quickly turn.

'Use the anchor points installed at Salmon Holes and wear a lifejacket, or better still, fish from the beach and keep the sand between your toes.'

It's not known if the lifejacket worn by Mr Karakaua had been on loan from the WA government.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted West Australian Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis for comment.
A man suspected of shooting dead a young Israeli diplomat couple is expected to be hauled in front of a judge Thursday afternoon to face the music after allegedly opening fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, yelled 'free, free Palestine' after he allegedly shot Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum.

Rodriguez allegedly posted a manifesto online calling for 'armed demonstration' as a response to the 'genocide' in Gaza, hours before approaching a group of four people and opening fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

In the alleged manifesto posted online before the slayings, Rodriguez said: Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged, they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright.'

It was also revealed Thursday that Rodriguez was once quoted in an uber-woke want about racism in Chicago at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2017.

Following his arrest on Wednesday night, the FBI said he was interrogated at 1am, and Rodriguez is set to make his first court appearance later on Thursday - where he is not expected to be seen by the public as federal prosecutors hide him from the cameras.
President Donald Trump is fed up with the wave of anti-Semitism being displayed in the U.S. and called for its end in the wake of the murder of two Israeli Embassy workers.

A couple was murdered at an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. on Thursday by a gunman shouting 'free Palestine.'

'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!' Trump posted to Truth Social overnight. 'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.'

'Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!' he wrote just after midnight on Thursday morning.

Trump and his administration have been cracking down over the first months of his administration on the universities across the U.S. that allow pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses.

The Department of Education has threatened to pull federal funding and grants from those institutions that they feel allow the anti-Semitic demonstrations to take place.

President Donald Trump called for an immediate end to anti-Semitism in the U.S. after the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers

'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!' Trump posted to Truth Social overnight. 'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA'

Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy, were gunned down and killed in the devastating attack on Wednesday night.

The suspect identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez was taken into custody and questioned overnight, the FBI said.

The late couple was attending a Young Diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum when they were killed in the 'act of terror.'

Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter revealed Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring earlier this week 'with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that 'wild incitement against the State of Israel' was to blame for the horror attack and that it was the 'terrible price of anti-Semitism.'

Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy, were gunned down and killed in the devastating attack on Wednesday night.

Trump has cracked down on the rise in pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the U.S. and threatened to pull federal funding from colleges that allowed these protests to take place. Pictured: Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on April 7

The war between Israel and terrorists operating out of Gaza started on October 7, 2023 when members of Hamas carried out the largest single-day slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

While the two sides were in a ceasefire, that was broken in March.

President Trump just secured this month the release of Edan Alexander, 21  the first Israeli hostage to be let go since the ceasefire was broken.

The Middle East conflict has staunchly divided the U.S. between those who support Israel and the Jewish State and those who support Palestinians and the Hamas terrorists who serve as the de facto government in Gaza.
An Uber driver trying to escape a burning New York City building on a fireman's ladder fell to his death after it buckled underneath him.

Ashiq Hussain, 53, and another person were seen on bystander video climbing down an FDNY ladder from the top floor of a Brooklyn apartment on Monday when the ladder's upper portion gave way and sent Hussain plummeting to the ground.

Firefighters were shown quickly gathering around him as the father-of-four lied limp on the sidewalk.

Emergency crews immediately put Hussain on a stretcher and brought in a second ladder.

A medical examiner determined Hussain died from blunt-force trauma, the New York Daily News reported.

Relatives of Hussain, an Uber driver who is originally from Pakistan, blamed the fire department for his tragic death.

'They did really wrong. They took the head of the family,' Hussain's cousin, Mazhar Iqbal, told the Daily News.

'They ruined the familys life.'

Ashiq Hussain, 53, died on Monday after an electrical fire broke out in his Brooklyn apartment

Hussain and his roommate were seen climbing down an FDNY ladder from the upper floor of a Brooklyn apartment when the top portion gave out and sent Hussain plummeting to the ground

A medical examiner determined Hussain died from blunt-force trauma

Hussain's wife and four children were set to move to the US to finally be with the 53-year-old, who had moved to the country three decades prior, the Daily News reported.

'Hes worked hard for his family,' the owner of M9 Deli and Grill, located below Hussain's apartment, told the outlet.

'He actually came in recently and told us he was so happy his family was finally coming.

'He was a very nice, respectful person. He comes in here, he checks on us, [saying] "Hi, how are you guys?" He knows my father. We're basically family. It's tragic. Tragic.'

The FDNY said it was aware of the incident and was investigating the 'facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic death of a civilian immediately,' the Daily News reported.

The ladder is no longer being used as the fire department investigates.

Hussain lived in the apartment with two roommates. The other two made it out safely, and one called Hussain's family to let them know that the father was being rushed to the hospital.

The rideshare driver had called Iqbal only moments before to tell him: 'I'm standing by the window' as the fire caused smoke to fill the unit.

'He was trying to breathe from the outside because inside there was a lot of smoke,' his cousin told the Daily News.

Hussain's wife and four children were set to move to the US to finally be with the Uber diver, who had moved to the country three decades prior

Hussain is pictured on the sidewalk under the ladder. Emergency crews immediately put him on a stretcher and rushed him to the hospital

'I told him: "Be careful, soon the firemen are going to come and you can hang up the phone." I told him: "Be careful when you're going out to the ladder," because he is older and he was overweight.'

Hussain had been the one to alert his roommates to the fire. He worked overnight shifts and had just returned home when the blaze erupted started around 7am Monday, the outlet reported.

'This is a guy who literally saved two lives just minutes before he lost his own,' an unidentified family friend told the Daily News. 'A true hero.'

His family and friends remembered him as kind and hardworking person.

'I don't think you'd find a single person who had anything bad to say about him. He was always up there, right up at the front of the line to help people,' another friend told the outlet.

Hussain worked hard to fund his four children's education, and was even looking for a new place to live that would fit his entire family once they arrived in New York.

The family is now working to get his body back to Pakistan to be buried, the outlet reported.
Multiple people are dead after a private plane crashed in a quiet military housing neighborhood in southern California early this morning, police have confirmed.

The Cessna 550 plane crashed in San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood at around 3.47am during a period of dense fog, leaving no survivors.

San Diego police and fire officials said the plane could hold eight to 10 people but they do not yet know how many were on board.

Assistant San Diego Fire Chief Dan Eddy said no one was injured on the ground.

A huge fireball erupted after the crash, setting multiple homes and cars ablaze. Officials say at least 15 properties have been affected.

Neighbors told NBC 7 they heard a 'loud boom', their walls 'shook' and then they saw the blaze. Another local described the eruption as 'not like an explosion' but more similar to 'fireworks'.

All residents have been evacuated from the neighborhood due to the 'HAZMAT situation'. The evacuations have spanned multiple streets.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation. DailyMail.com has approached San Diego police for more information.

Multiple people on board a private plane that crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday are dead, authorities said

A Cessna 550 plane crashed in San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood at around 3.47am on Thursday during a period of dense fog

A huge fireball erupted after the crash, setting multiple homes and cars ablaze

Debris, including parts of the small civilian aircraft, are scattered around the neighborhood

San Diego Fire-Rescue has declared the incident a HAZMAT situation because of the flow of the plane fuel reportedly going down the residential street

The private plane crashed in the 3100 block of Salmon Street just before 4am on Thursday.

'When it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down it took out every single car that was on both sides of the street,' Eddy said. 'You can see that every single car was burning down both sides of the street.'

Debris - including large parts of the plane - are scattered around the neighborhood.

A power pole was brought down during the incident, creating outages in the area.

Eddy said during a news conference that they will be investigating whether the plane hit a power line.

San Diego Fire-Rescue has declared the incident a HAZMAT situation because of the flow of the plane fuel going down the residential street, CBS 8 reports.

Multiple agencies, including firefighters, military police, California Highway Patrol, San Diego police and ambulance services, have responded to the scene.

The private plane crashed in the 3100 block of Salmon Street just before 4am on Thursday. Officials say at least 15 properties have been affected

Officials do not know how many people were on board, but say the search for the pilot and any possible passengers is underway

Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said 'there is a direct hit to multiple homes' in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood and described 'a gigantic debris field'

All residents have been evacuated from the neighborhood. The cause of the crash remains under investigation

On the street, one home's roof was blackened and collapsed, with a piece of white metal sitting on the street in front.

Half a dozen fully charred cars sat on the street and tree limbs, glass and pieces of white and blue metal were scattered on the road. At the end of the street black smoke billowed as the site continued to burn.

'There are multiple cars engulfed, we have jet fuel all over the place. We have hazmat on scene, and we asked for more resources. We are also working with the military,' Eddy said during a press conference Thursday morning.

'The main goal moving forward is to ensure all those houses are cleared and no one is inside. Then we will move in the middle where the plane crashed near the cars and search them, then search the plane.'

Eddy said 'there is a direct hit to multiple homes' in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood and described 'a gigantic debris field' in an area of densely populated homes and sweeping canyon views.

He also described the scene as something reminiscent of a Hollywood disaster film.

All residents have been evacuated from the neighborhood due to the 'HAZMAT situation'. The evacuations have spanned multiple streets

The crash left a 'gigantic debris field' and damaged some 15 homes and parked cars. Firefighters are pictured at the scene on Thursday morning

Investigators look through the site where a small plane crashed into San Diego. The Federal Aviation Authority said a Cessna 550 crashed at around 3:45am local time

Police help rescue dogs from a home after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks

San Diego officials haven't released details about the plane that crashed but said it was a flight coming in from the Midwest. Pictured are investigators at the crash site on Thursday morning

Christopher Moore, who lives one street over from the crash site, said he and his wife were awakened by a loud bang and saw smoke when they looked out the window.

They grabbed their two young children and ran out of the house. On their way out of the neighborhood they saw a car engulfed in flames.

'It was definitely horrifying for sure, but sometimes you've just got to drop your head and get to safety,' he said.

Police rescued three husky puppies from one of the homes and rolled them away from the crash scene in a wagon.

A few blocks away, families including Moore's stood in their pajamas in a parking lot waiting for word of when they can return to their homes.

Many military service members live in the neighborhood, which is made up of single family homes and townhomes.

It also is heavily populated by small civilian and military aircraft. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport and Gillespie Field are nearby.

Emergency personnel work at the crash scene on a street, after a small civilian aircraft went down in a neighborhood in San Diego, California

Police rescued three husky puppies from one of the homes and rolled them away from the crash scene in a wagon

Officials say a power pole was brought down during the incident, creating outages in the area

Multiple agencies, including firefighters, military police, California Highway Patrol, San Diego police and ambulance services, have responded to the scene

Officials have described the scene as something reminiscent of a Hollywood disaster film

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into the crash

The aircraft was headed to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, less than three miles away from the crash site, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed.

San Diego officials haven't released details about the plane that crashed but said it was a flight coming in from the Midwest.

A traffic alert has been issued for nearby Interstate 15, with the off-ramp blocked at Aero Drive. Drivers are being diverted and encouraged to avoid the area.

Eddy said it was very foggy at the time the private plane crashed. 'You could barely see in front of you,' he said.

One witness, a Marine Corps sergeant who works in aviation, told NBC 7 the pilot carried out an 'emergency landing' in the middle of the street, allegedly avoiding crashing into any homes.

'The number of people on board is unknown at this time,' the FAA said. The plane can carry six to eight people.

The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into the crash.

Half a dozen charred cars sat on the street and tree limbs, glass and pieces of white and blue metal were scattered across the road

Authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks

At the end of the street black smoke billowed as the site continued to burn

Investigators look through the site where a small plane crashed into a street in San Diego, California on May 22, 2025

A home is damaged after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood

In October 2021, a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at at the airport.

In December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diego's University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside.

The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
The man accused of shooting dead an Israeli couple in Washington DC wrote about wanting to 'vote for Hamas' and carrying out terror attacks in warped social media posts.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, was arrested in connection with the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Capital Jewish museum.

Rodgriguez shouted, 'free, free Palestine' as he was apprehended on Wednesday night.

Social media posts which appear to have been made by him have since revealed the extent of his militant support for the besieged nation, with his post recent writings urging followers to, 'escalate for Gaza, bring the war home'.

On the day of the US election, an account linked to Rodriguez re-shared a post which read: 'Don't blame me, I voted for Hamas'.

Another chilling post on X detailed a desire to attack the New York Times' headquarters.

'Progressive tweeps, as much as I love delving into the day's Discourse, can we PLEASE save the idealistic and high-minded debate over the morality of sending a truck bomb into the offices of The New York Times until *AFTER* we send a truck bomb into the office,' the post read.

The X account's profile picture features a grainy avatar wearing a medical face mask, with many progressives donning the face-coverings to make a political statement long after the COVID crisis ended.

Elias Rodriguez, the man accused of shooting dead an Israeli couple in Washington DC, joked about wanting to 'vote for Hamas ' in warped social media posts

Rodriguez was taken into custody on Wednesday night in connection with the double murder

An account associated with Rodriguez retweeted this statement from the day of the US election

The X account featured an avatar wearing a medical face mask

Other concerning entries included a post which read, 'De@th to Amerikkka' and sharing posts with the Israeli flag emoji followed by a pig and a knife.

Officials said that Rodriguez hails from Chicago. A witness said he was seen waving a red Keffiyeh, a sign of the Marxist-Leninist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The posts on his suspected Twitter account echo sentiments found in a 980-page manifesto given to journalist Ken Klippenstein and believed to belong to the shooter.

The document calls for an 'armed demonstration as a response to the 'genocide' in Gaza.

'Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged, they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright,' the manifesto reads.

Rodriguez was also previously associated with the Party for Socialism and was photographed protesting outside then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel's home.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were identified as the victims in the shooting

However, the group has since strongly distanced themselves and insist Rodriguez is not a member.

His Linkedin indicates that he works for the non-profit AOIA which operates in the osteopathy field.

Rodriguez's job title is listed as a profiles administrative specialist. Prior to that he worked as a researcher for The HistoryMakers, a non-profit dedicated to chronicling black history.

His company profile indicates he obtained an English degree from the University of Illinois.

Rodriguez was taken into custody over the deaths of Lichisnky, 28, and Milgrim, 26 who both worked for the Israeli embassy.

Heartbreaking reports have since emerged that the couple were about to become engaged, with Lichinsky planning to pop the question during a visit to Jerusalem.

Milgrim organized visits to Israel, while Lichisnky worked as a research assistant.

The couple had attended an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that 'early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.'

It comes amid Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people and resulted in 250 hostages begin abducted.

Since then, Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians.

An Israeli blockade has also caused widespread hunger and prompted fears of famine.

The shooting followed the American Jewish Committee's annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.

'This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight,' Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committees chief executive, said in a statement early Thursday.

'At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.'
A South African political party has responded to Donald Trump's claims that 'white genocide' is happening in the country, issuing a statement which includes the phrase 'Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer, Victory is Certain.'

The words come from a South African chant referring to white farmers, which is rooted in the anti-apartheid struggle and has been defended by rights campaigners as a metaphor rather than a call for ethnic violence.

During his meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump played a controversial video which he said evidenced claims of violence against Afrikaans farmers.

The montage featured clips of speeches from Julius Malema, the founder and leader of the communist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, who regularly uses the 'Shoot the Boer, Shoot the farmer' at rallies.

'Our government policy is completely against what [Malema] was saying, even in the parliament, and they're a small minority party, which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution,' Ramaphosa said afterwards.

'But you do allow them to take land?' Trump then asked, to which Ramaphosa repeatedly insisted 'no'. He explained that Malema was not a member of government and instead part of a minority opposition party.

The EFF, which advocates for militarism and radical land ownership reforms in South Africa, condemned both Ramaphosa and Trump in a statement shared after the meeting.

The party stated in a press briefing that the 'Kill the Boer' chant used by Malema is 'a song that expresses the desire to destroy the system of white minority control over the resources of South Africa.'

EFF founder Julius Malema responded angrily to the meeting, writing on X: 'A group of older men meet in Washington to gossip about me'

During his meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump played a controversial video which he said evidenced claims of violence against Afrikaans farmers

It went on to point out that the song was considered as part of African heritage by the Equality Court, which also said the song should not be interpreted literally. The decision was then ratified by the country's top courts.

The EFF said it was 'proud that its legislative and political agenda,' led by Malema, 'has shaken the corridors of imperialism in Washington.'

It added that Malema 'can be considered in the lines of great revolutionaries', and attacked Trump and what it called his 'illiterate rants'.

It also condemned Trump's calls for Malema to be arrested and added that it was 'concerned by this call that something must be done to stop the EFF President from chanting a liberation heritage song.'

The three-page briefing was then signed off with the phrase 'Dhubula iBhulu!' meaning 'Shoot the Boer!' as well as 'Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer! Victory is Certain!'

'No amount of international interference will derail the struggle for black liberation,' the EFF wrote on X.

Malema responded angrily to the meeting, writing on X: 'A group of older men meet in Washington to gossip about me.

'No significant amount of intelligence evidence has been produced about white genocide.

'We will not agree to compromise our political principles on land expropriation without compensation for political expediency.'

EFF MP Carl Niehaus also condemned claims that the EFF is a racist and anti-white party by pointing to his presence in it as a white man as evidence to the contrary.

He told parliament that the EFF pro-black and Pan-Africanist organisation, and that it is actively anti-racist.

Trump made Ramaphosa watch a video which purportedly backed up his claims and also held up printouts of various newspaper articles which he said were evidence

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was bombarded by video segments and news clips purporting to show a 'white genocide' happening in his country

Trump ambushed Ramaphosa at talks on Wednesday with a video, a large part of which included EFF rallies, designed to support claims of the 'persecution' of white farmers.

He had intended the 4.30-minute video, which has been widely shared on social media in recent weeks, to be evidence of a campaign to kill white farmers in what he says amounts to a 'genocide'.

The video was meant to play into Trump's claims that the government is expropriating white farms and shows Malema saying: 'South Africans occupy land, that's who we are.'

'These are people that are officials,' Trump claimed.

Malema is not in government and his party came fourth in last year's elections with only 9.5 percent of the vote and has never been in government.

Trump suggested that Malema's use of the chant was a real call to kill 'boers', farmers from the Afrikaans minority that led the previous apartheid government.

The videos Trump showed to the South African delegation included speeches from EFF leader Julius Malema, whose trademark song at rallies is 'Shoot the Boer, Shoot the farmer'

The highly controversial chant is decades old and was a rallying cry during the struggle against white-minority rule, which ended in 1994.

There have been several calls for it to be banned but the courts have ruled that it should be considered in its historical context.

As well as failing to provide evidence of genocide, the video also contained a number of other falsehoods.

One clip shows white crosses erected along a winding road where dozens of cars and trucks are lined up.

'These are burial sites,' Trump said. 'Those cars are... stopped to pay respect to their family members who were killed.'

The footage is from a 2020 protest where crosses were placed along a rural road following the murder of a couple on their farm in Normandien, according to videos and press articles from the time.

They do not mark the sites of graves. The murderers were convicted to life imprisonment in 2022.

Separately, Trump shared clippings which he said showed white farmers in South Africa 'are being killed in large numbers.'

While farmers have been killed, their numbers are small in the larger context of crime in South Africa, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, which has long pushed a campaign to shed light on farm murders, counted 49 such killings in 2023.

In comparison, police recorded a total of 27,621 murders between April 2023 and March 2024 - about 75 people killed every day. Most of the victims are young black men in urban areas.

The EFF, which advocates for militarism and radical land ownership reforms in South Africa, condemned both Ramaphosa and Trump in a statement shared after the meeting

Earlier this year, Ramaphosa signed The Expropriation Act into law, allowing the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it is redistributed.

It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa's racist apartheid era, when Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in areas designated for non-white citizens.

South Africa's white population - which includes Afrikaners, the descendants of mainly Dutch-colonial settlers - amounts to roughly seven per cent of the country's total population.

More than 30 years after the end of apartheid, this demographic still owns some 72 per cent of the country's private farmland, according to government data.
US president Donald Trump has seemingly given his clearest sign that he is willing to wash his hands of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after reportedly telling Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders they would have to find a solution themselves.

Trump reportedly gave the signal following his two-hour call with Russian despot Vladimir Putin, during which he heralded 'impressive' prospects for ties with Russia.

This came just days after he told reporters that only he and Putin had the power to end the conflict.

And according to the New York Times, Trump told Zelensky and other European leaders that he was also planning to backtrack on his own threats to join the EU in placing additional sanctions on Russia.

This came after months of Trump frequently threatening to place sanctions and tariffs on Russia if it refused to join Ukraine in announcing an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

He wrote on Truth Social earlier this month: 'If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions.'

But this ferocity has seemingly vanished, and European partners have begun to notice.

Several EU officials told the newspaper that they understood not to expect any additional financial pressure to be applied to Putin by the US under Trump.

US president Donald Trump has seemingly given his clearest sign that he is willing to wash his hands of the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a maeeting with the Crown Prince of Norway in Kyiv

A view of the destruction after a Russian shelling on the private sector in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on May 20, 2025

Firefighters extinguish a van fire following a Lancet drone strike at a roadside cafe in Raihorodka, Lyman District, Ukraine

Just one day after the call, the EU announced its 17th package of sanctions against Russia.

While the UK joined the efforts to apply monetary pressure on Putin's nation, Trump was nowhere to be found.

It comes after Russia and Ukraine have scheduled no further direct talks on ending their more than three-year war, the Kremlin said today, almost a week after the first face-to-face engagement between their delegations since 2022, and days after Trump announced they would start ceasefire negotiations 'immediately.'

'There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 'They are yet to be agreed upon.'

During two hours of talks in Istanbul last Friday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, in what would be their biggest such swap. Apart from that step, the meeting delivered no significant breakthrough.

Several months of intensified US and European pressure on the two sides to accept a ceasefire and negotiate a settlement have yielded little progress. Meanwhile, Russia is readying a summer offensive to capture more Ukrainian land, Ukrainian government and military analysts say.

Putin said earlier this week that Moscow would 'propose and is ready to work with' Ukraine on a 'memorandum' outlining the framework for 'a possible future peace treaty.' Putin has effectively rejected a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has accepted.

He has linked the possibility to a halt in Ukraine's mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms shipments to Kyiv as part of a comprehensive settlement.

View of a damaged residential area following a Russian missile attack in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 19, 2025

The Russian attack caused significant damage to the building and houses in the area

The major prisoner swap is 'quite [a] laborious process' that 'requires some time,' Peskov said.

But he added: 'The work is continuing at a quick pace, everybody is interested in doing it quickly.'

Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax that Moscow had provided Kyiv with a list of prisoners it wants released in the swap. 'We have not yet received a counter list from Kyiv. We are waiting,' he told Interfax.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that preparations are underway for the potential prisoner exchange, which he described as 'perhaps the only real result' of the talks in Turkey.

Peskov disputed a report on Thursday in the Wall Street Journal that Trump told European leaders after his phone call with Putin on Monday that the Russian leader wasn't interested in talks because he thinks that Russia is winning.

'We know what Trump told Putin, we don't know what Trump told the Europeans. We know President Trump's official statement,' Peskov said. 'What we know contrasts with what was written in the article you mentioned.'
Keir Starmer's 'rushed' reset deal with the European Union represents a first step in Labour's plan to push the UK back into trading bloc 'by stealth', former Brexit party MEP Alex Phillips has told the Mail's 'Apocalypse Now?' podcast.

The broadcaster said our 'globalist' Prime Minister had 'fallen at the first hurdle' in negotiations with Brussels, awarding too many concessions for 'not much in return'.

Starmer's wide ranging UK-EU reset deal was announced on Monday and included new agreements with Europe over trade, defence and travel.

The UK had to concede ground on fishing and youth mobility, in exchange for access to European food and defence markets. Starmer described his deal as a 'win-win' and insists it sticks within Labour's manifesto promises not to renege on Brexit.

Speaking to special correspondent David Patrikarkos, Ms Phillips said: 'I am not one of those Brexit zealots who believe we should have absolutely no relationship with the EU.

Keir Starmer's 'rushed' reset deal with the European Union represents a first step in Labour 's plan to push the UK back into trading bloc 'by stealth', Alex Philips has told the Mail's 'Apocalypse Now?' podcast. Listen here

The UK had to concede ground on fishing and youth mobility, to gain access to European food and defence markets

Listen to 'Apocalypse Now?' wherever you get your podcasts. Listen now

'There are areas in which we should certainly cooperate. I think the information sharing over people smuggling gangs is positive.

'But, and there's a big but  there doesn't seem to have been much negotiation at all. It doesn't even seem to be a deal. A deal implies that we get positive things in return, which reflect British interests.

'There are so many areas where it seems like a first step of many, which opens the door for more and more deals. I worry it will begin to look like rejoining the EU by stealth.'

Two of the areas which have sparked the most controversy are a commitment to dynamic alignment on trade and an agreement over continued access to Britain's fishing waters.

Labour ministers approved a 12-year extension to an existing arrangement which allows British waters to be fished by EU boats.

On these parts of the deal, Ms Phillips said: 'The 12-year extension poses a genuine risk of decimating the UK's fishing industry.

'In 12 years time, a lot of fishermen will retire, and you question how many will be joining the industry when they're very limited over what they can catch.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch labelled Starmer's deal a 'betrayal'

Nigel Farage, head of a surging Reform UK, called it an 'abject surrender to Brussels'

Alex Phillips: 'It's so important that Britain remains a sovereign and Atlanticist nation.' Listen here

'In some respects, the erosion of barriers to trade is a good thing  but dynamic alignment where we have to follow EU rules and be under the jurisdictions of European courts is a very perilous path to go down.

'We know that Ursula von der Leyen will release a paper soon which will try to tie the UK into what amounts to joint foreign policy.

'I just feel the deal has been rushed. I do not feel like enough concessions and exceptions were asked for. I worry about the future, because Starmer has only been in power for a year  and this is going to be the first step of many.'

The television presenter represented the Brexit Party in the European parliament for 8 months, from July 2019 to the UK's exit from the EU in January 2020.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch labelled the new deal as a 'betrayal', while Nigel Farage, head of a surging Reform UK, called it an 'abject surrender to Brussels'.

Ms Phillips raised the EU's initial reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example of why further alignment with the bloc is no good thing.

'On the outbreak of the invasion, the UK was quick to move forward', Philips remarked.

'We armed Ukraine, we applied sanctions, we were straight out of the blocks. Whereas the EU dithered.

'When it comes to crises, we have seen time and time again that the EU are slow to act. It either responds too slowly or uses a crisis to push forward its own imperial agenda.

'It's so important that Britain remains a sovereign and Atlanticist nation.'

To find the full interview with Alex Phillips, search for 'Apocalypse Now?' wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Thursday.
A young Nicaraguan family who came to the US legally have decided to self-deport amid President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown.

Andrea and Nahomy Chavarria, two sisters who moved to Vermont in 2024 under Joe Biden's administration with their mother and father, had to graduate early from Champlain Valley Union High School in April and pack their bags to head back to their home country.

Now, with Trump back in office, he has not only tried to get criminals and gang members out of the US, but has also made it a point to get those without citizenship and people who entered under Biden's humanitarian programs to leave as well.

In late March Trump's administration announced they would be sending out notices to 532,000 immigrants across the US who came in under the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program, informing them that they would be deported or had to leave the US willingly.

Initially, when Trump was re-elected, the family was nervous but remained confident and determined to go on with their lives in America, but when the girls' father, Bernardino Chavarria, came across an article on the president's new initiative on March 21, he soon realized his family's reality.

He quickly informed his wife and daughters of the news that their legal status would be revoked in about a month, leaving them with a hard decision - to stay and wait to be deported or leave at their own will.

After a couple days, the family mulled over the idea as both Andrea, 19, and Nahomy, 18, reflected on their time in the States and dreams they hoped to accomplish after graduating.

'We are always trying to understand, trying to not make mistakes. We wanted [the US] to know that we are glad that we are here,' Andrea told The Boston Globe.

Andrea and Nahomy Chavarria, two sisters who moved to Vermont in 2024 under Joe Biden 's administration with their mother and father (pictured together), chose to self-deport amid Trump's immigration crackdown

After a couple days, the family mulled over the idea as both Andrea (pictured), 19, and Nahomy, 18, reflected on their time in the States and dreams they hoped to accomplish after graduating

She dreamed of attending veterinary school in the US while her younger sister wanted to go to college to study civil engineering to one day build affordable housing for low income communities, they told the outlet.

'We had plans. I was dreaming of what I could do,' Andrea added.

The family-of-four soon realized that if they chose to stay it would be unclear if they could graduate high school, go to college, start a professional career, or even a family in the US.

According to Andrea, the current administration was 'basically pushing you to be illegal.'

The girls' uncle, Wilmer Chavarria, was heartbroken to learn his nieces, brother and sister-in-law were leaving the country, but he also knew it was in their best interest to do so.

Wilmer, who works as a school superintendent in Winooski - about 40 minutes outside of Montpelier - bought a three-bedroom home in 2024 with his husband Cyrus Dudgeon and took in his family.

Bernardino and his wife Auxiliadora Amado soon got jobs as custodians at a local school district before he went on to become a multilingual liaison for another district, he told the outlet.

Soon enough, they applied for legal permission for them to permanently stay in the US while their daughters enrolled in school and got jobs at a nearby supermarket.

Initially, when Trump was re-elected, the family was nervous but remained confident and determined to go on with their lives in America, but when the girls' father Bernardino Chavarria came across an article on the president's new initiative on March 21, he soon realized his family's reality. (Pictured: The family)

Despite all of their best efforts to establish roots in America, Wilmer knew what was best for his loved ones.

'It wasnt only about the parole program being terminated for everybody on a specific date,' he said.

'It was also that the conditions were being created so that it would be impossible to stay.'

After hearing of the hard decision they had to make, Wilmer said his family felt the Trump's administration was telling them: 'We don't want you.'

On April 23 - just one day before the administration's deadline for those in the country under CHNV - his brother's family packed up and headed to Burlington Airport.

Wilmer and his husband took them there as he decided to travel with them back to Nicaragua and get them settled in.

Dudgeon, who said goodbye before they got to security, said he was emotional, but it wasn't just sadness that he felt.

'Of course Im sad, but mostly angry. Its going to be weird being in that big house,' he said.

The girls' uncle, Wilmer Chavarria, was heartbroken to learn his nieces, brother and sister-in-law were leaving the country, but also know it was in their best interest to do so

About a month after he had to part ways with his family, Wilmer said they were 'lucky' they were about to choose what happened to them, unlike other families.

'They were lucky that they are one of the few families that get to make that choice,' he told NBC5.

'There are a lot of families that can not make that choice to simply leave for different reasons.'

He also expressed his gratitude toward his niece's former school for allowing them to still graduate and get the recognition they deserved.

'They made an exception; they created a ceremony just for them. They accelerated their requirements so that they could get their diploma before they got on that plane, and I am very grateful for that,' Wilmer said.

Katherine Riley, the girls' former principal, said the school was more than happy to honor Andrea and Nahomy before they left.

'It felt really important to make it celebratory and to make it reflect kind of who they are as young adults. It felt nice to be able to do something for them and their family,' Riley told the outlet.
A woman was shot outside of the CIA headquarters after driving up to a gate at the facility and failing to stop, according to sources.

The incident unfolded around 4am on Thursday outside of the headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Sources told CBS News that the woman had failed to stop and was shot in the upper body. She was taken to a medical facility, the outlet reported.

The shooting occurred hours after Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down in DC, just eight miles away.

There is no evidence that the two incidents are linked at this time, the CIA has not responded to DailyMail.com's request for more information.

View of the main entrance of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, U.S., July 8, 2022

Sources told CBS News that the woman had failed to stop and was shot in the upper body. An aerial view of the campus is seen here

Fairfax County Officers had responded to the campus, and have described the shooting as 'non fatal'. A CIA investigation is now underway, according to NBC.

Cops said that they had been called to the area at around 4am to help the agency with traffic control following the shooting.

A spokesperson for the agency said: 'There was a security incident that law enforcement responded to outside CIA Headquarters.

'The main gate is currently closed, employees should seek alternative routes. Additional details will be made available as appropriate.'

Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot and killed on Wednesday night after leaving an event at a Jewish museum.

The suspect in their killing, Elias Rodriguez, is said to have yelled 'Free,free, Palestine' after he was arrested, police said.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said that the two were about to be engaged, with Lischinsky buying an engagement ring just this week.

The suspect in their killing, Elias Rodriguez, seen here, is said to have yelled 'Free,free, Palestine' after he was arrested

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were identified as the victims in the shooting

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

President Trump issued a statement late Wednesday night condemning 'hatred and radicalism' which led to the vicious attack.

He said: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon described the shooting as a 'depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.'
Olga and Nikolai Petrov did all they could to keep their daughter Alisa safe from dangers lurking in the shadows.

They monitored her phone, checked all her messages, and taught the inquisitive and social teenager to be careful around strangers.

But Alisa, who had never spent a night without her parents, has been missing for a month after suddenly running away from her home in Utah on April 21.

What her protective parents didn't know, is the 15-year-old had dug an ancient long-forgotten iPad out of a dusty box and hidden it in her dresser.

Under their noses, two men allegedly slid into her Instagram messages and spent months grooming the child, their conversations growing more disturbing by the day.

Olga told DailyMail.com the iPad was so well hidden that she and her husband missed it when they searched their house for clues after she didn't come home.

The secret device was only found when police rummaged through the suburban home in American Fork, about 32 miles south of Salt Lake City.

'We regularly check her phone and there was nothing suspicious. Everything seemed to be normal, just classmates, neighbors,' Olga said.

'We never thought she could be talking to strangers in this way.'

Alisa Petrov, 15, disappeared after she was dropped off at her school in American Fork, Utah, on April 21 and hasn't been seen since that day

Alisa as a young girl with her parents Olga and Nikolai Petrov, who did all they could to keep their daughter safe from dangers lurking in the shadows

Alisa skipped school and got on a train to Provo, Utah, then tried to go to Las Vegas to meet one of the alleged pedophiles. He planned to fly her to his home in Miami via Los Angeles

Olga said the device was about eight years old, a first-generation iPad Pro they only kept because it had old family photos, and soon forgot they still owned.

'I didn't even know where that would be, probably in some boxes with old stuff... nobody used it for many years now and then for some reason she started to use it,' she said.

Sickening police files detailed how the alleged pedophiles slowly gained Alisa's trust and convinced her to send them nude photos and engage in perverted sexual fantasies.

Eventually, one of them, identified by police as Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, arranged to meet her in Las Vegas and then fly to his home in Miami, where he allegedly planned to do unspeakable acts.

Alisa was dropped off at her school, Canyon Grove Academy, but instead of going to class she bought supplies at a nearby gas station and convinced a man there to drive her to the local train station.

She got off the train in Provo, the end of the line about 14 miles south of American Fork, and asked multiple people to help her get a bus ticket to Las Vegas.

The teenager hasn't been seen since, and no one knows where she went, who she is with, or how much danger she is in.

'They (police) say they cannot guarantee [that Alisa is still alive] but there was no indication that she's not,' Olga said.

'They say they still have some leads... but we have no idea what kind of leads, they're not saying anything.'

Olga (pictured with a young Alisa) said the iPad was so well hidden that she and her husband missed it when they searched their house for clues after she didn't come home

Instead of going to class, Alisa went to a nearby convenience store and bought supplies, which was caught on CCTV, then got on a UTA train to Provo

She was spotted on surveillance footage making a purchase at a local gas station before boarding a UTA train.

The second man Alisa was talking to, identified by police as William Taylor Glines, 37, from Texas City, Texas, was arrested on May 8 and remains in custody. He does not have a lawyer listed.

Menard has not been arrested. Dailymail.com has attempted to contact him for comment.

Olga said police believe she never ended up meeting either of them, which is a great relief considering the 'graphic detail' Menard allegedly shared in chats with Alisa of his 'his intent to sexually abuse the child'.

The worried mother hoped Alisa was only staying away because 'I would assume she's really embarrassed', and wasn't being held hostage.

She said Alisa didn't have much money for a whole month and it was below 40F some nights since she was gone and she didn't have a coat.

'So somebody else is either helping her and we don't know who or where... I'm not suspecting the worst,' she said.

'That means she's with somebody else and we don't know if it's a good person or a bad person.'

Olga hasn't seen a photo of Menard, or, thankfully, read any of the disturbing conversations Alisa had with him, but saw Gliner's mugshot on the news.

'He looks quite bad... he looked like, maybe not criminal, but similar. He didn't look like he's a superstar,' she said.

William Taylor Glines, 37, from Texas City, Texas, allegedly had graphic sexual conversations with Alisa before she ran away

Matthew Nicholas Menard, 35, from Miami was charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation.

Olga believes the pair likely lied about their age and sent her fake or younger photos of themselves to lure her in.

'I don't believe that was her idea talking to those guys, I think they convinced her to keep talking to them,' she said.

'She told them she is minor and they still proceeded with the nasty stuff, which is really gross.'

But Alisa was also very trusting of people and liked to strike up conversations with people in the park, while hiking, or on family holidays.

'She was always trying to meet people to talk to people, like I mean she was just trusting, and we cautioned her about it all the time to at least to be careful,' she said.

'That's just how she is... and they took advantage of her.'

Olga said Alisa wanted to study forensics and was already doing some AP classes this semester before she went missing.

'Everything was really good but those guys messed everything up,' she said.

Glines was charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, attempted aggravated exploitation of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation.

He was also charged by police in Texas with possessing more than 50 child sexual abuse images or videos.

Alisa wanted to study forensics and was already doing some AP classes this semester before she went missing

Alisa was very trusting of people and liked to strike up conversations with people in the park, while hiking, or on family holidays

Menard was charged with aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, enticement of a minor, and criminal solicitation.

Both have lengthy histories of petty crimes, but no past child sex convictions.

Police detailed in affidavits the disturbing messages between Alisa and Menard going back to January 17, most of which were sexual in nature.

'At one point (Menard) asked (the girl), "Are u secretly 15 lol" to which (she) responded... "of course (y)eppers I'm actually in middle school",' police wrote in charging affidavits.

Despite knowing how young she was, they continued to talk and 'the conversations are largely sexual in nature'.

'[Menard] over the course of several months, corresponded with [the teen] for the purpose of soliciting sex, sodomy, and child sex abuse material from the minor,' it continued.

'[He] discussed in graphic detail his intent to sexually abuse the child. [He] encouraged and engaged with [the teen] all from the state of Florida, where all his substantial ties to the community and resources are.'

Eventually, the pair made plans to meet in Las Vegas - where Alisa told witnesses she was heading - and then go to his home in Miami.

'Matt tells the victim he will fly to Las Vegas for a business trip later in May, and she can lay low until he gets there,' the warrant alleged.

'They then planned to fly to Los Angeles, CA, together for several days, before ultimately going back to Miami, FL, where Matt lives.'

Alisa asked multiple people to help her get to Las Vegas

Whether Alisa made it to Las Vegas and met either of the men is unclear, as is what happened to her after she was seen in Provo, Utah

Local police contacted Menard, who they said admitted talking to Alisa on Instagram, and seized his phone. However, he was not arrested.

Glines was identified through a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and arrested.

He allegedly started talking to Alisa on February 3 and at one point said he was 'double checking' that she was 14 or 15.

Many other conversations detailed in charging documents included disturbing explicit sexual language, and allegedly nude photos.

Whether Alisa made it to Las Vegas and met either of the men is unclear, as is what happened to her after she was seen in Provo, Utah.

Petrov's desperate family are offering a $20,000 reward for anyone with information on her whereabouts.

They set up a website where they desperately appealed to the teen.

'Alisa, if you can see this, please know that we love you, we will always love you. We miss you. All of your friends and our friends are very worried too,' her parents Olga and Nikolai said.

Petrov's desperate family are offering a $20,000 reward for anyone with information on her whereabouts

'We all want you to return. You will not get in trouble for running away. We are not mad at you. We absolutely love you regardless of what happened.

'We just want you to return back so that we are together as a happy family who care about each other, and we will try our hardest to make you happy. Please come back.'

Police said the teen is classed as an endangered runaway.

She is described as being about 5ft, 3in tall and weighing about 122lbs.

Surveillance footage showed her wearing a white shirt with darker lettering on the front.
Sick liberals have hailed the suspected shooter of an Israeli diplomat couple who were gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington D.C.

Leftists have heaped praise on Elias Rodridguez, 31, who shouted 'free, free Palestine' as he was taken into custody shortly after the shooting on Wednesday.

Rodriguez is believed to be responsible for the murder of Sarah Milgrim, 26, and her boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky, 28.

The couple had just attended a reception for young diplomats which featured discussions on aid for Gaza when they were fatally shot.

Lischinsky had bought a ring and planned to propose to Milgrim before their brutal deaths and the couple have been mourned by those who knew them.

But despite this, online ghouls have been lauding their murders and the man believed to be responsible.

'Thank you for your service,' one person wrote on X underneath on of what is believed to be Rodriguez's posts which urges his followers to 'escalate for Gaza, bring the war home'.

'What a hero,' another person added, with a heart emoji.

Sick liberals have hailed Elias Rodriguez, the suspected shooter of an Israeli couple who were gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington D.C

Rodriguez is believed to be responsible for the murder of Sarah Milgrim, 26, and her boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky, 28

'Thank you comrade,' wrote a third. Rodriguez has been linked to several communist and socialist groups.

The shooting has also given rise to anti-semitic conspiracy theories that Rodriguez is a 'false flag', who acted as a Mossad agent to garner sympathy for Israel.

Many of those spreading the misinformation have seized on the everything from Rodriguez's name to the fact he was arrested so quickly.

'If Luigi Mangione's name gets to go down in history as the good guy, so does Elias Rodriguez's name,' one person wrote, referencing the suspected UnitedHealthcare shooter who has become folkloric vigilante to some twisted supporters.

'Even if it is the most obvious false flag in the world.'

'Elias Rodriguez  because nothing screams 'radical Islamic terrorist' like the most generic Latin name in the phonebook,' another added.

'No record, no motive, perfect timing, perfect slogan. If this isn't a false flag, it deserves an Oscar.'

'He was shouting 'Free Palestine.' I highly suspect a False Flag staged by Mossad,' another added.

Online ghouls have been lauding the murders and the man believed to be responsible.

Milgrim and Lischinsky were on their way out of the Capitol Jewish Museum when they were shot.

'Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us,' said Deutch, the AJC's chief executive.

'Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.'

He described Milgrim, from Overland Park, Kansas, as 'warm and compassionate, committed to peace building and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations.'

He said Lischinsky was a staff member of the embassy's political department who at the event told others that he was eager to return to Israel to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot with his family.

The killings have been condemned by the president and Jewish groups.

'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!' Donald Trump said on social media.

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!'

Some even posited sick conspiracy theories that the shooter was a 'false flag' planted by Israel to garner sympathy

'The Zionist Organization of America condemns the brutal antisemitic murder of two innocent staffers of the Israel embassy outside the Capitol Jewish Museum,' National President Morton Klein said.

'This heinous act by a subhuman killer must be publicly condemned by everyone.'

It comes amid Israel's ongoing bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 which killed 1,200 people and resulted in 250 hostages begin abducted.

Since then, Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians.

An Israeli blockade has also caused widespread hunger and prompted fears of famine.
The Trump Administration is employing a new way to 'fast-track deportations'-- of migrants at courthouses across the US.

In a legal bait and switch, migrants who are showing up to court hearings that allow them to stay in the country legally are having their asylum cases thrown out, only to be arrested by waiting ICE agents as they leave.

At federal courthouses from Miami to Seattle, chaotic scenes played out as confused migrants were handcuffed by federal agents from Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday and Wednesday.

Moms with kids in tow were led away by ICE officers in several instances in Phoenix, Arizona over the last few days.

While asylum requests by migrants do have to get a court hearing under US law, the vast majority are ultimately turned down- ranging from 60-80% denial rate depending on the migrant's country of origin.

Arrests at federal courthouses are rare, according to immigration attorneys, and only happen if a migrant has a criminal record or their asylum claim has been denied.

'All this is to accelerate detentions and expedite removals,' Florida immigration attorney Wilfredo Allen stated.

These migrants are a far cry from the 'worst first' that Trump Administration claims to be targeting under the Republican's promise to carry out the largest deportations in US history.

It's unclear how many migrants have been taken into custody this way, as ICE did not immediately respond to Daily Mail's request, but these types of arrests have been reported in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Phoenix and Texas.

Mothers with kids in tow were led away by ICE officers in several instances in Phoenix, Arizona over the last few days as the migrant women were following the law and checking in with immigration court on their pending asylum cases

In conjunction with federal prosecutors, the Trump administration has begun targeting legal asylum-seekers at federal courthouses across the US, instead of going after the criminal migrants they promised to kick out

Most of these migrants were previously been given permission to legally be in the US while their asylum claims were heard - a process that can take years.

Most have work permits and pay taxes.

Regular court check-ins with immigration judges, most of which usually take five minutes, are part of their requirement to stay in the country.

Juan Serrano, 28, a Colombian living in South Florida showed up for his court date with an asylum judge Wednesday.

He expected another check-in would be scheduled and he would go home.

Instead, the South American learned Trump prosecutors were dropping their case against him.

'Youre free to go,' the federal judge told him.

As he left the courtroom, ICE agents were ready for him.

Federal agents detain migrants after their immigration hearings are dismissed at the U.S. Immigration Court on May 21, 2025, in Phoenix

Showing up to regular court hearings is part of the requirement for many asylum seekers who have work permits and pay taxes

Federal agents take a suspect into custody at immigration court in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday

A man in Seattle is handcuffed after his immigration hearing in a dizzying scene as activists try to intervene on his behalf

He was detained and put on a van with others with similar cases in Miami's immigration court.

This week's arrest prompted push-back from immigrant activists who flooded courthouses to oppose the detentions.

Armed with bullhorns, activists could be heard shouting: 'You have the right to remain silent' to migrants who were handcuffed.

In Phoenix, some were involved in pushing and shoving matches with federal agents.

Targeting asylum-seekers is a new policy in coordination between Trump prosecutors and ICE in what the government is calling 'fast-track deportation authority.'

Department of Justice attorneys were ordered to dismiss refugee cases knowing the migrants would be outside of the protection of the federal court and could be detained by ICE the second they left the court.

'People are going to freak out like never before,' Miami immigration lawyer Antonio Ramos told the Associated Press.

He believes the new enforcement could stop otherwise law abiding migrants from showing up for their court appearances for fear of arrest.

However, skipping immigration court would also make them eligible for removal from the country.

ICE has the addresses and work locations of these migrants, who must prove they can financially provide for themselves in order to qualify for asylum.
Two 'window cleaners' who made over a million pounds in two years while running a sophisticated operation churning out fake driving UK licences which were sold to illegal immigrants and criminals were jailed today.

Bilal Iqbal, 25, and Ummad Ahmed, 32, ran 'a very large scale commercial and very profitable enterprise' which used social media to advertise the fake licences for as little as 60, with a fast-track service available for an extra 40.

The pair are known to have produced the high-quality bogus documents for at least 5,000 people but National Crime Agency investigators believe it could have been as many as 40,000.

Alongside incriminating footage on Iqbals phone of licences being posted to customers were 'many videos' revealing the luxury lifestyle the men enjoyed, with high-end watches, designer clothes, restaurant bills, expensive cars and lavish holidays on display.

The vast sums of cash the men made was paid to money mules who allowed their bank accounts to be used before the money was laundered through a window cleaning business called Sparkle Up Ltd, where Ahmed was listed as director.

The scam was discovered when the NCA investigated Liverpool drug dealer Eddie Burton, 23, who used one of their fake documents to extend his operations across Europe.

Jailing the pair for six years each today, Judge Alex Gordon, sitting at Snaresbrook Crown Court, said: 'You were the leading lights in a long-running and sophisticated operation.

'You created a minimum of 5,000 false driving licences and recruited others to use their personal accounts to receive the payments from customers.

Equipment used in the 'sophisticated' fake driving licence operation included an ID card printer, laminator, blank plastic cards, holographic foil, a hard drive and a printer

'It may have been that the target market was those underage who wanted to buy alcohol, which put them at risk of the serious offence of possession of a false identity document, but your customers included Eddie Burton who was using it to evade law enforcement.'

John Turner, a senior investigating officer at the NCA, said afterwards: 'These men ran an extremely lucrative illegal enterprise and operated as professional enablers at the heart of serious and organised crime.

'These IDs helped high-profile criminals evade law enforcement and operate anonymously.

They could also be used by offenders involved in organised immigration crime to provide people smuggled into the country with false UK identities.

The court heard how Burton fled the UK in 2021 following his arrest for supplying drugs and was living between Spain and the Netherlands under an alias to avoid detection.

In the summer of 2022, his fingerprints and DNA were found on two lorries intercepted at Dover with heroin, cocaine and ketamine with a street value of 20 million concealed in adapted fuel tanks.

Burton was subsequently arrested in Ibiza and was found to have sent WhatsApp messages that included details of his purchase of one of the fake documents, with payment sent to an account linked to Iqbal.

The NCA then put Iqbal and Ahmed, both of east London, under surveillance, and found the former managed the financial side of the operation, while the latter created the fake licences.

Ummad Ahmed, 32, of Hornchurch, east London, was the forgery expert who created professional-looking driving licences with holographic stickers

The documents were professional enough to pass basic checks and included genuine-looking holographic stickers that were purchased on eBay.

At least 5,000 licences were sent out between 2022 and the start of this year but investigators believe the operation could have been running for up to eight years.

Money mules received payments from customers in return for a five per cent cut, with just over 1 million going through Iqbals bank accounts from January 2022 to September last year. The profit during this period was 661,455.

The forgers were arrested on January 21 this year, shortly before they were due to jet away for a break in Dubai.

Iqbal was on his way to a Post Office and was found clutching envelopes with 19 licences  one due to go to the US. Another 21 licences were found at his Ilford home.

Ahmed was seized at his home in Hornchurch, where the equipment for making the false licences was found.

It included an ID card printer, laminator, blank plastic cards, holographic foil, a hard drive and printer and more than 30,000 in cash.

A storage facility near City of London Airport was also searched and a machine used to heatseal plastic was found.

Bilal Iqbal, 25, of Ilford, east London, managed the financial side of the operation which pulled in over a million pounds in just over two years

Prosecutor Deepak Kapur told the court: These two defendants, with the assistance of others, ran a very large scale commercial and very profitable enterprise whereby they advertised [and] received orders for fraudulent UK driving licences.

'Once paid for, and when printed, they were dispatched by post. They were offered for sale with prices starting at 60 for a standard licence. Additional amounts, 40, were charged for a three to four day priority service.

Third parties were utilised to receive the proceeds of the placed orders. Once the proceeds were received, the third parties were paid commission.

Checks of the mens phones revealed WhatsApp messages which showed there were 300 customers waiting for fake licences at one point, he added.

Iqbal and Ahmed pleaded guilty in February to one count each of possession of a false identity document with intent, possession of apparatus for making false identity documents, concealment of criminal property, possessing criminal property and entering into or becoming concerned with the arrangement of concealment of criminal property.

Oliver Renton, defending Iqbal, said the offending followed a period of strained relationships with his family but he deeply regretted his actions and wanted to resume caring for relatives who have medical problems.

Ahmed claimed he had made a 'great error of judgement' after getting into financial difficulties and his children had been left distraught as they didnt know where he was because the family couldnt bear to tell them he was in jail.

NCA investigator Mr Turner added: Tackling enablers for wider criminality, such as Iqbal and Ahmed, is a key pillar in our mission to protect the public from serious and organised crime.
An entrepreneur who spent 13.5 million on 'the world's most expensive bungalow' is still stuck in limbo amid a two-year fight to turn it into an eco-home after councillors deferred a decision today.

Tom Glanfield, 46, bought a rundown property on Dorset's exclusive Sandbanks resort - dubbed 'Millionaire's Row' - back in March 2023.

He wanted to knock down the Edwardian cottage and replace it with a modern family home - but has instead been embroiled in a two-year fight with planners who recommended his application be refused.

They argued that Mr Glanfield's proposal would 'result in the total loss of the non-designated heritage asset' - and therefore cause 'significant harm' to the Sandbanks Conservation Area.

Meanwhile, the self-made millionaire, who lives in Poole, Dorset, said the current property was 'falling apart' - and insisted he had designed a new eco-friendly family home that 'will be exemplar to the whole area in terms of sustainability and design'.

During a planning committee meeting today, Mr Glanfield asserted that he was 'not a property developer' - and was not 'flipping [the bungalow] for profit'.

But Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCPC) rejected a move to grant the application, with another hearing to be held.

Four councillors in favour of his application moved to grant it despite opposition from planning officers - but four voted against this move.

Tom Glanfield, 46, bought the rundown house in an exclusive area of Dorset known as 'Millionaire's Row' in March 2023

The four-bedroom home had been in the same family for 117 years after Victorian botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker bought a piece of land

Mr Glanfield has been involved in a two-year fight to demolish the cottage and replace it with an eco-home

This meant the decision fell on the committee chair - who sided with the opposition.

Councillors then moved to defer the application for re-consideration - at a date when a legal representative could be present to outline the legality of overturning the planning officer's recommendations.

A date for this hearing is yet to be decided.

Mr Glanfield previously said he wanted to transform the rundown bungalow - which he says has a leaking roof, mould, and mildew - into a sustainable two-storey family eco home.

The new-build, he said, would be complete with renewable power - and a desalination facility. He also had plans to enhance the sea wall - which is currently 'unsafe', 'unsightly', and crumbling.

The entrepreneur previously said: 'My dream is to build a family home that will not only retain the modest beauty of the plot but will also stand the test of time.'

Mr Glanfield received significant backing for his proposal from the local community - with 38 letters of support submitted to the council.

Among those was one from neighbour Ros Smart, who labelled the plans as an 'outstandingly innovative design for an iconic site'.

She continued: 'The modern sleek appearance is entirely in keeping with houses in the surrounding area and is totally suitable for the conservation area.'

Others agreed that the design was 'sympathetic' to the location - describing the 'modern sleek appearance' as 'entirely in keeping with houses in the surrounding area'.

It will also be fronted by a huge 360 foot living sea wall covered in planting of specialist marine fauna

Sandbanks - Britain's answer to Miami Beach - has been one of the most desirable places to live in the UK for over 20 years due to its position at Poole Harbour

This is something Mr Glanfield tried to convey to BCPC during the meeting.

He told the planning committee: 'The current house is falling apart with a registered F energy rating. It still uses oil heating and the harbour wall is literally collapsing into the sea.

'Despite modest improvements, it remains damp, cold, and no matter what I do to the existing bungalow, it won't offer the opportunities like a new construction would do to future sustainability or flood resistance for the next 100 years.

'So, I set out to create something better. An eco-friendly near off-grid woodland home using local and natural materials that will allow the landscape, and not the house, to take centre stage.

'And that will be exemplar to the whole area in terms of sustainability and design.

'We've received over 30 letters of support and no objections - something I'm really touched by, having only lived in the area for three years.

'As part of the project, we will also be rebuilding the harbour wall using a pioneering system that encourages marine life to thrive transforming a rusting barrier into a biodiversity feature.

'We believe this is a project the community can be proud of, something not only beautiful, sustainable and fitting for such a special place but also exemplar for the area in terms of sustainability, biodiversity, and design.'

BCPC's decision on the plans, which were dreamt up alongside local architect firms Marlow and Arc and award-winning landscape designer Andy Sturgeon, was ultimately made on 'conservation grounds'.

Despite locals writing in 38 letters of support for the plans, councillors are now being recommended to turn it down on 'conservation grounds'

The existing bungalow was described as 'crumbling' and has an F-rating on its energy certificate

Prior to their conclusion, local planning officer Babatunde Aregbesola told the meeting that the existing building was considered very important to the Sandbanks Conservation Area (CA) given its age, which he described as 'very early Edwardian, one of the oldest in the area'.

He said: 'The proposal by reason of the demolition of the existing cottage would result in the total loss of the non-designated heritage asset causing significant harm and failing to preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Sandbanks Conservation Area.'

He also pointed out that no alternative plan in which the building would be retained had been presented, which, he argued, meant the requirements to 'avoid, minimise, or justify the harm have not been met'.

During discussion, one councillor asked the meeting: 'We have an old crumbling building here. What are we trying to preserve exactly - if not preserving for preservation's sake?'

He was told: 'This building is one of the very first buildings on the peninsula. It therefore has a strong historic value.'

Other councillors said they liked the fact that the new shoreline would support diverse marine life - and supported the improved energy rating that the new-build would have.

One stated: 'That is saving the planet - and that benefits everyone.'

But other councillors were uncomfortable with overturning the planning officers recommendations - and pushed for another meeting in which legal advice could be sought.
The family of the pro-Palestinian suspect in the slaying of two young Israeli diplomats were lost for words over the horrific attack in Washington D.C.

Daily Mail contacted the parents of Elias Rodriguez, 30, by phone Thursday morning, just hours after their son allegedly shot and killed the two victims at point-blank range outside the Jewish Museum Wednesday night.

When asked for her reaction to the shocking attack, a nervous-sounding woman at the Franklin Park home of the suspects mom Elvira Rodriguez abruptly said I have no comment' before quickly hanging up the phone.

Meanwhile, the accused killers father, Eric Rodriguez, appeared to be too distraught to speak.

At his address in Chicago, a woman came to the phone and explained that he is not speaking to anyone at this time.

The stunned silence from the family comes as a chilling manifesto believed to be left by the suspected shooter pays tribute to his loved ones, amid a rambling diatribe about the conflict in Gaza and the American government.

I love you Mom, Dad, baby sis, the rest of my familia, including you, O*****, the manifesto, obtained and shared online by journalist Ken Klippenstein, reads.

In the manifesto, signed off with the suspects name, Rodriguez appears to defend the 'morality of armed demonstration' as he railed against the death toll in Gaza.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, allegedly shot and killed two victims at point-blank range outside the Jewish Museum Wednesday night

Pictured: Rodriguez's home in Chicago. The family of the pro-Palestinian suspect were lost for words when reached by DailyMail.com

In a seeming hint at what he was about to do, the 900-word statement said he was 'glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do.'

It was posted online around the time of the shooting, which claimed the lives of young couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

The two victims were soon to be engaged.

They had been attending a Young Diplomats event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night.

At the end of the event, Lischinsky and Milgrim were stood outside with a group of people when a gunman approached and opened fire.

In the chaotic aftermath, the suspect was pulled inside the building by security staff believing him to be an innocent bystander and handed water as he appeared to be in shock.

The shooting claimed the lives of young couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim

The American Jewish Committee was hosting a Young Diplomats event at the museum on Wednesday night

When police arrived on the scene, Rodriguez allegedly confessed to police that he was the assailant, telling officers he 'did it for Gaza.'

A witness told Fox5 that he pulled out a red keffiyeh - a Palestinian scarf - from his pocket and waved it, shouting 'Free, free Palestine' as he was hauled into custody.

The suspect also led police to the murder weapon, police said.

Prior to the deadly shooting, Rodriguez was not known to police, according to Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith.

FBI agents in full tactical gear descended on his apartment set in a leafy courtyard in Chicago as the investigation into the attack continues.

Before Wednesday's shooting, Rodriguez has previously taken part in liberal, pro-Palestinian protests.

Photos show him at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2017.

That same year, he was quoted in an article by Liberation condemning the police shooting of black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald and railing against then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's plans to allow Amazon to build a headquarters in the city.

'The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its black residents,' Rodriguez said in the paper, which is ran by the activist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PSL).

'Amazon's whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city.

A nervous-sounding woman at the Franklin Park home (pictured) of the shooting suspects mom Elvira Rodriguez abruptly said I have no comment' before quickly hanging up the phone

At the suspect's father's address in Chicago, a woman explained he is not speaking to anyone at the moment

'So, do we in Chicago and all across the country want a nation of cities dominated and occupied by massive corporations where only the rich and white can live and the vast majority of us must live on edges of the city and society living in deeper and deeper poverty?'

Despite his past connections to the PSL, the group issued a statement on X saying that Rodriguez is not a member and has no affiliation to the group.

According to his LinkedIn, Rodriguez works as a profiles administrative specialist at the American Osteopathic Information Association - a non-profit that focuses on promoting osteopathic medicine.

The shooting suspect pictured calmly sitting outside the museum following his arrest

Rodriguez shouted pro-Palestinian statements as he was taken into custody for the shooting

Prior to this, he worked at The History Makers - a non-profit research and educational institution focused on telling 'the untold personal stories of both well-known and unsung African Americans' - between 2023 and 2024.

DailyMail.com has reached out to both organizations.

A woman at The History Makers hung up the phone when asked for comment about their former employee.
More than 100,000 asylum seekers in Britain are still awaiting an initial decision - despite Labour's promise to 'clear the backlog' of cases.

Newly-published Home Office figures showed, at the end of March this year, there were 78,745 cases (relating to 109,536 people) awaiting an initial decision.

The data also revealed that 58 per cent of cases that were awaiting an initial decision had been doing so for more than six months.

And nearly one-third (31 per cent) of total cases had been awaiting an initial decision for more than a year.

Ahead of last July's general election, Labour promised to 'turn the page' and 'restore order' to the asylum system so that it 'operates swiftly, firmly and fairly'.

Party leader Sir Keir Starmer also vowed to 'end asylum hotels' to save UK taxpayers' billions of pounds.

The latest figures showed, at the end of March, nearly one-third (30 per cent) of those in receipt of asylum support - some 32,345 people - were in hotels.

The Home Office said this was 15 per cent lower than at the end of 2024, and 42 per cent lower than a peak of 56,042 people in hotel accommodation in September 2023.

More than 100,000 asylum seekers in Britain are still awaiting an initial decision - despite Labour's promise to 'clear the backlog' of cases

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The data also revealed the geographic dispersal of asylum seekers across Britain.

The majority of asylum seekers supported by the Home Office were located in England (89 per cent).

The North West had 19 per cent of the total supported population (20,416 people), which was slightly more than London (19,960 people).

The North East and North West supported the largest number of asylum seekers as a proportion of their overall population (2,758 and 2,686 people per million residents, respectively).

Of individual local authorities, Glasgow City was supporting the highest number of asylum seekers (4,152 people).

This was followed by Hillingdon (2,946), Birmingham (2,504), Liverpool (2,385) and Hounslow (2,097).

The Home Office said the number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision at the end of March this year was 13 per cent fewer than at the end of December 2024.

This was also down 41 per cent from the peak of 134,046 cases in June 2023.

But it remains higher than in the period from 2010 to 2018, when the number of cases awaiting a decision grew from around 6,000 to 27,000.
A night out turned into a brutal brawl at a Mississippi club after a man stormed in and unleashed a barrage of racial slurs, sparking a violent group attack that left him bloodied, naked and hospitalized.

The explosive incident unfolded late Saturday night at C.J. Lounge in Holly Springs. Police say the man, identified only as being from Tippah County, barged into the newly opened nightclub and immediately began using the N-word while referring to black patrons.

'The guy walked in, and he was very aggressive,' Miles Stone, who was at the club on Memphis Street when the incident happened, told Fox13.

'Other guys in the area were listening, trying to remain calm. They asked him to leave quietly.'

Cell phone footage obtained by Holly Springs Police shows the unhinged man, who had been stripped naked, being doused in beer by a crowd of people around him.

Seconds earlier, police say the man was seen being stomped, kicked and beaten with sticks and poles.

Despite being pummeled, the man continued shouting racist slurs outside the nightclub.

Police say the man (pictured), identified only as being from Tippah County, barged into the newly opened nightclub and immediately began using the N-word while referring to black patrons

Cell phone footage obtained by Holly Springs Police shows the unhinged man, who had been stripped naked, being doused in beer by a crowd of people around him

A second video provided to Fox13 shows the Tippah County man speaking incoherently and appearing to throw gang signs.

'When they were scuffling outside, he was still using the N-word: 'F you N's, f you N's.'' Stone said.

Police later confirmed the man was taken to the hospital on Wednesday with injuries he claimed may include a broken jaw.

Investigators are now reviewing whether the incident could be considered a hate crime - but also stressed that the use of force went far beyond self-defense.

Holly Springs Police said they have a person of interest they would like to speak with regarding the incident, but they believe several people are responsible, Fox13 reported.

Adding fuel to the fire, the club was already under a watchful eye.

Holly Springs Police say they have responded to C.J. Lounge nearly 30 times - in the just three months it's been open - citing various disturbances which include gun-related incidents and even a shooting that left one man with a foot injury.

Holly Springs Police say they have responded to C.J. Lounge (pictured) nearly 30 times - in the just three months it's been open - citing various disturbances

Miles Stone (pictured), who was at the club on Memphis Street when the incident happened, insisted that the club wasn't to blame

The Holly Springs Police Chief now says he's pushing the district attorney to declare the embattled nightclub as a public nuisance.

Stone however, insisted that the club wasn't to blame.

'I do not think this is a problem spot. I think it is a positive spot,' he said, adding that he doesn't condone the unruly behavior.

'I'm not standing for anything like that. However, we have to live with our choices, and he made the choice to go in there aggressively, and he has to live with the choice he's made.'

As of Wednesday the club was closed. Authorities later revealed that the club was operating without a beer or business license.

Holly Springs Police are asking any one with any additional information into the attack to come forwards as the investigation is ongoing.
Keir Starmer is facing major pressure to reveal the true cost of his deal to surrender the UK's last territory in the Indian Ocean, amid growing anger at the cost to the UK taxpayer.

The Prime Minister confirmed today that the UK plans to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius under a deal that will cost taxpayers an average of 101million a year for almost a century.

But he said that the total cost of the agreement, which will see the UK lease back the Diego Garcia air base for 99 years, would be just 3.4billion.

Documents released today show that the UK will actually pay Mauritius 165million a year for the first three years to lease Diego Garcia, which is used by the United States.

It falls to 120million a year for the following decade and then 120million adjusted for inflation for the rest of the 99-year lease.

However the documents also show Britain will also pay 45million a year for 25 years - more than 1.1 billion in total - into a fund for 'projects that promote the ongoing economic development and welfare of Mauritius and its people'.

There is also a one-off fund of 40million to help Chagossians displaced by the creation of the base in the 1970s.

Some reports suggest the true cost of the handover will be closer to 30billion in cash terms, assuming an average of 2 per cent inflation, at a time when the government has cut winter fuel payments for pensioners and is maintaining a cap on child benefits.

That figure is also three times the annual GDP of Mauritius.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'At least 30 billion of taxpayers' money thrown away in a Surrender Tax - and likely much more, British territory handed over to a country aligned with China (and) our national security needlessly weakened, all to appease the lawyers and activist elite Keir Starmer surrounds himself with.

'Other countries may nod along, but behind closed doors, they must think we've lost our minds.'

The Prime Minister made the announcement this afternoon after an 11th hour legal bid to halt it failed.

Bertrice Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse were born on Diego Garcia and are fighting for the islands to remain under British control and the right to return there to live. A new hearing is taking place at the High Court this morning as ministers seek to go ahead with the deal.

The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base (pictured)

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Sir Keir sparked uproar this afternoon as he insisted the UK had no choice but to cede its last territory east of Suez or face legal action that threatened Diego Garcia's security.

The Prime Minister said the 3.4billion cost of the Chagos Islands deal was how the Government counted the 'net cost' of the 99-year lease.

Sir Keir was challenged as to why he used that figure when payments of 101 million a year added up to near 10 billion over the course of the agreement.

He told reporters: 'That is the net cost, and the reason it's put in those terms is because that is how the Government counts for it, it's how the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) counts the cost, and it's the way public sector projects are measured.

'In other words, what's the net cost today? And that is 3.4 billion. Obviously, over time with inflation, then that is the net cost.'

The deal, which will cost Britain almost 500million in the next three years alone, was announced after an 11th hour legal bid to halt it failed.

Speaking in Hertfordshire this afternoon, the PM insisted the UK had 'no alternative but to act in Britain's national interest'.

Speaking at Northwood Headquarters, Sir Keir said: 'President Trump has welcomed the deal along with other allies, because they see the strategic importance of this base and that we cannot cede the ground to others who would seek to do us harm.'

And US secretary of state Marco Rubio tweeted that the deal 'secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation' of Diego Garcia, which the US pays the running costs of.

Sir Keir said the Government had to 'act now' as the Mauritians would likely win legal disputes against Britain.

He said: 'If Mauritius took us to court again, which they certainly would have, the UK's longstanding legal view is that we would not have a realistic prospect of success and would likely face provisional measures orders within a matter of weeks.'

But shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: 'What a disgrace. This weak fool Starmer is handing over British sovereign territory to Mauritius  which has never owned these islands - and no court order requires us to do so.

'Our security is undermined by this  a lease is not the same as sovereignty and Mauritius is an ally of China, who could now install military equipment in the archipelago.

'And British taxpayers are left paying the huge bill for Starmer's stupidity.'

Sir Keir said Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Mrs Badenoch are in the column with Russia, China and Iran on the Chagos Islands deal.

'In favour are all of our allies, the US, Nato, Five Eyes, India,' he said.

'Against it, Russia, China, Iran and, surprisingly, the leader of the opposition and Nigel Farage are in that column alongside Russia, China and Iran, rather than the column that has the UK and its allies in it.'

The Prime Minister's plan to announce the deal this morning that he was handing the archipelago to Mauritius was thrown into chaos after a High Court injunction was made in the dead of night.

Two Chagossian women born on Diego Garcia - now home to a major UK/US airbase - are fighting the handover as part of their bid to be allowed to return home.

But after an emergency hearing this morning Mr Justice Chamberlain ruled that the handover of the islands, formally the British Indian Ocean Territory, can go ahead.

Sir James Eadie KC, for the Foreign Office, had argued that 'damage has already flowed' from the delays caused by the injunction being issued, and a decision was needed by 1pm to get the deal done today.

The handover agreement, which has been approved by Mr Trump, is highly controversial.

Mauritius, which is friendly towards China, will be handed billions of pounds of taxpayers' money over decades for the lease to Diego Garcia.

Critics say the country's friendly relations with Beijing mean the agreement will hinder the security of the base.

Speaking outside the High Court after the decision, claimant Bertrice Pompe told reporters: 'We have rights. We are British citizens, yet our right doesn't count. We don't want to give our rights to Mauritius, we are not Mauritians.'

Downing Street said it did not accept that the Chagos deal opened the UK up to challenges over its sovereignty in Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.

Pressed whether Argentina may feel emboldened to make an international legal challenge over the Falklands following the deal, a No10 spokesman added: 'I'm not going to deal with hypothetical situations such as the one you just outlined.

'But, as I say, this is an essential deal for British national security, for British lives on British soil.'

After outlining the terms of the Chagos deal to MPs this afternoon, Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons that not having an agreement 'would mean we could not guarantee the safe berth of our subs' on Diego Garcia, nor patrol waters or control the airspace above.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge accused the Government of 'surrendering' the Chagos Islands.

He told the Commons it was 'beneath contempt' for Sir Keir 'to state that those who oppose this deal are on the side of Russia and China'.

'The Government are not surrendering British sovereign territory because of military defeat, nor because of a binding legal verdict, but wilfully, due to a total failure to take a stand and fight for Britain's interests on the world stage, a complete and utter negotiating failure,' Mr Cartlidge added.

Fellow Tory MP Sir James Cleverly, the former foreign secretary, asked Mr Healey which courts the Government feared would make a judgment effectively closing down the Diego Garcia base.

The Defence Secretary failed to provide a direct answer, but said in reply to a later question: 'There's a range of international legal challenges and rulings against us.

'The most proximate, the most potentially serious, is the tribunal of the International Convention of the Sea.'

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Bertrice Pompe, one of two Chagossian women who had previously launched legal action over the deal, at 2.25am.

Speaking at Northwood Headquarters he said: 'President Trump has welcomed the deal along with other allies, because they see the strategic importance of this base and that we cannot cede the ground to others who would seek to do us harm.'

Sir Keir was due to attend a virtual ceremony alongside representatives from the Mauritian government this morning to sign off on the deal.

But in the early hours of this morning it emerged a High Court has granted an injunction stopping the negotiations being concluded.

Mr Justice Goose granted 'interim relief' to Ms Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse at 2.25am.

The Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the base.

But Mr Justice Chamberlain this afternoon said the 'principles of law seem to me to provide a strong answer' to the Chagossians' case'.

Dismissing the injunction, he told the court: 'The government had made clear that once the agreement is signed, it will be the subject of a Bill in Parliament. That will give Parliament time to consider the agreement and, if the view is taken in Parliament that the deal is an undesirable one, then it will not succeed.'

He added: 'Even though it has been necessary to consider this case at very quick speed, I am not satisfied that the claimants have established a serious issue to be tried.

'Even if I had considered that that threshold had been met, I would not have continued the interim relief, and that is because of the delay in bringing these proceedings.

'They waited two months. It is obvious that negotiations have been ongoing for some time. I can infer that those negotiations have been taking place between March and now. If a party wishes to challenge a complex process of negotiation with a third country state, with all the legal difficulties involved, it must do so [in good time].'

Mr Justice Goose issued the 2.25am injunction, ordering: 'The defendant shall take no conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government or bind itself as to the particular terms of any such transfer.'

The order continued: 'The defendant shall in particular not dispose of the territory in whole or in part.

'The defendant is to maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order.'

According to the order, the judge granted the injunction 'upon consideration of the claimant's application for interim relief made out of court hours' and 'upon reading the defendants' response'.

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, is home to a joint UK-US military base, used to project Western influence in the Indian Ocean.

Critics of proposals to hand over the islands to Mauritius fear the move will benefit China, which has a growing reach in the region.
Rep. Ilhan Omar shockingly refused to acknowledge the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum overnight that left two Israeli Embassy staffers dead.

The pro-Palestinian congresswoman when asked about the tragedy brushed-off the query despite widespread fury over the anti-Semitic murders  even from other pro-Palestinian members of Congress.

'Congresswoman Omar, can I get your reaction to the shooting that happened in DC last night?' a reporter asked outside the Capitol on Thursday morning.

The progressive Minnesota representative responded nonchalantly as she was walking: 'I'm going to go for now.'

She then briskly walked away from the cameras and reporters.

A few hours later, and after mounting outrage over her lack of condemnation, Omar was forced to release a statement on X on the horrific murders.

'I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night,' she wrote.

'Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers. Violence should have no place in our country,' Omar added.

Overnight, a gunman targeted a Young Diplomat event in Washington, D.C. He shot and killed Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, who worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy.

While it took Omar hours address the devastating attack, fellow progressive squad members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley were swift to call out the act of terrorism.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) fled the scene and gave a nonchalant shrug-off when asked about the murder or two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. overnight on May 22

Israeli embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were named as the tragic victims of the vile attack early on Thursday morning

Omar's fellow 'squad' member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned the attack writing to X: 'I am devastated by the killing of two people... We must be clear that hatred has no home here. Antisemitism is a threat to all we hold dear as a society'

'Absolutely nothing justifies the murder of innocents,' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X.

'I am devastated by the killing of two people outside an AJC Global event here in Washington. Our prayers are with the victims, families, and loved ones of all impacted.'

'As we await more details, we must be clear that hatred has no home here. Antisemitism is a threat to all we hold dear as a society. It must be confronted and rooted out everywhere,' the New York Democrat concluded.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) wrote on X early Thursday morning: 'The murder of two Israeli embassy staff outside an AJC Global event in DC is unconscionable and unacceptable.'

'Our freedoms and our destinies are truly tied. I'm praying for the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted,' she added.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only lawmaker of Palestinian descent, did not weigh-in on the shooting as of early Thursday afternoon.

The shooting suspect identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez was taken into custody and questioned overnight, the FBI said.

He was caught on camera repeatedly shouting 'Free Palestine' as he was arrested.

Omar, a Somali refugee, is one of the most outspoken on Capitol Hill in support of Palestinians amid the ingoing war with Israel.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed Rep. Omar for avoiding the question before finally coming out to condemn the attack.

'It's despicable' Leavitt said during a briefing on Thursday afternoon.

'Frankly we have seen a rise in anti-Semitic protests, of pro-Hamas protests, of terrorist sympathizers,' he continued. 'We saw them on our college campuses.'

'And we've seen the Democrat party turn a blind eye and, in some cases, actually embrace such anti-Semitic, illegal behavior.'

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mich.) also condemned the terrorist attack, calling it 'unconscionable and unacceptable'

Since getting into office, Omar has faced widespread criticism for sharing anti-Israel sentiments and pushing tropes insulting to Jewish people.

Back in 2019, Omar was forced to apologize for her a string of comments seen as insulting, insensitive and downright anti-Semitic.

In a tweet at the time, the then-freshman congresswoman linked support for Israel to financial contributions by writing: 'It's all about the Benjamins.'

She was accused of using the Puff Daddy song line to call up a harmful stereotype of Jewish Americans.

Rep. Omar, a Somali refugee, is one of the most outspoken on Capitol Hill in support of Palestinians amid the ingoing war with Israel

After a phone call with Democratic leadership, Omar apologized for using old anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money.

'Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,' Omar said in a statement at the time.

'My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole,' she added. 'We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me for my identity. This is why I unequivocally apologize.'
Jeremy Clarkson has said countryside villages are 'losing their soul' as he criticised the loss of local schools, police officers and shops in some of the most rural areas of the UK.

Speaking on the new fourth series of Clarkson's Farm, Clarkson - who was previously fired by the BBC after punching a producer - bemoaned loneliness in small villages as he discussed the frequent closure of local pubs.

The latest series sees Clarkson travel around various closed pubs as he seeks to purchase one alongside his farm, with the aim of revitalising it for the local community and selling stock from his Diddly Squat farm shop.

While having a drink in his own local pub, the former Top Gear presenter tells viewers: 'Loneliness is a big issue in rural areas and part of the problem is villages losing their soul.

'You don't have a village doctor anymore. He's in a health centre 30 miles away and you can't get an appointment.

'There's no village bobby on the beat. There's no village vicar, there's no village shop, there's no village school.

'If we end up at a point where there's no village pub then what is a village? It's just some houses. Pubs are the hub and it should always be that way.'

Clarkson is said to have paid less than 1 million to purchase the pub he eventually opened as The Farmer's Dog last year.

Speaking on the new fourth series of Clarkson's Farm , Clarkson - who was previously fired by the BBC after punching a producer - bemoaned loneliness in small villages as he discussed the frequent closure of local pubs

Clarkson purchased The Farmer's Dog pub in Oxfordshire for less than 1 million

The latest series sees Clarkson travel around various closed pubs as he seeks to purchase one alongside his farm

According to recent figures, six pubs closed every week in 2024, leading to around 4,500 job losses.

The pub in Asthall, near Burford in Oxfordshire, was previously known as The Windmill.

The new series of Clarkson's Farm features new farmhand Harriet Cowan, 24, taking over from popular sidekick Kaleb Cooper who is taking a break from the show.

The new farmhand has been described as 'brilliant' by her co-stars and seems to have kept things running smoothly while Cooper, who has been a staple on the show since it began in 2021, was temporarily away on a tour.

In the new eight-part series of Clarkson's Farm, Jeremy and his team will battle with mother nature as it makes one of the toughest years ever for British farmers.

The show is set to return to the streaming platform on May 23, with two additional episodes released a week later on May 30, followed by the final two on June 6.

Clarkson previously announced that a fifth series of Clarkson's Farm had confirmed, before the fourth was even announced, back in November.

Diddly Squat fans will be introduced to Clarkson's Farm newbie Harriet Cowan (pictured) when season four hits screens on Friday (May 23)

Harriet initially shocked fans when she first appeared in the trailer for the upcoming season and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty

In the new eight-part series of Clarkson's Farm, Jeremy and his team will battle with mother nature as it makes one of the toughest years ever for British farmers

In a clip posted online, a huge number five firework lit up the sky as he told his followers: 'Over the years bright lights in the sky have been used to make many important announcements.

'The birth of baby Jesus for example, but tonight they're being used to make an announcement that's even bigger than that.

'Season 5 of Clarkson's Farm is coming,' the TV presenter finished, before pointing towards the gold number five.

He captioned the post: 'It's the 5th November this just felt right, Clarkson's Farm S5 is officially in production.'
A sex-crazed English teacher who became pregnant by one of the students she sexually abused is facing a new lawsuit from another alleged victim.

Laura Whitehurst is accused of sexually abusing the unnamed victim, who was 16 at the time, in 2007 while teaching inside Redlands High School in California.

The suit, filed last month and seen by Mercury News, alleges sexual battery, negligent hiring and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Whitehurst made headlines in 2013 when she was arrested and charged with 41 counts of sex and oral copulation with a minor.

The former educator had given birth that June to a daughter fathered by her one of her students at nearby Citrus Valley High School.

Police reports indicate that complaints about her molesting minors went back to 2006 and continued to 2013 but nothing was done about it, according to the filing.

Morgan Stewart, a partner with Manly, Stewart & Finaldi who filed the suit, said: 'There is a good reason why Redlands Unified School District is the national poster child for sexual abuse of students.'

Whitehurst is accused of sexually abusing the victim, who was 16 at the time, in 2007 while teaching inside Redlands High School

Alongside Whitehurst, former Redlands Principal Christina Rivera and the school district are named as defendants in the civil action which is seeking damages

'More than 20 teachers and administrators in RUSD have been accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with their students over the last ten years.

'The district has spent millions on civil lawsuit settlements, and two students have committed suicide.'

Alongside Whitehurst, former Redlands Principal Christina Rivera and the school district are named as defendants in the civil action, which is seeking damages.

Whitehurst pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with three former students and served six months in jail for it. She is a registered sex offender.

She is said to have invited male students between the ages of 14 to 18 into her classroom where they would engage in sexual discussions.

Lawsuits filed against her have said that she would engage in sexual intercourse with students inside the classroom and at her home.

The former student who fathered a child with her sued Whitehurst and Redlands District in 2014, receiving a $6 million settlement.

The student claimed he was stalked by Whitehurst prior to their relationship and that she told him she could not get pregnant. There is a no contact order between them.

Whitehurst awaits a hearing on Wednesday, July 31, 2013, in Superior Court in San Bernardino

The former educator had given birth that June to a daughter fathered by her one of her students at nearby Citrus Valley High School, seen here

Whitehurst pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with three former students and served six months in jail for it

He alleged that Redlands Unified officials knew of his relationship with the teacher and failed to warn his family.

In 2023, the school district also agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle another suit with another student she allegedly preyed upon and abused at Redlands High.

Whitehurst admitted to police in 2013 she had sex with the youth 10 to 15 times in her classroom and at her apartment, a police report stated.

When she was first arrested he told reporters she was just a 'clean-cut American girl' and was having a hard time being in jail.

She told investigators she and the father of her child began having sex at her apartment after a Disneyland trip in 2012.

According to Mercury News an investigation by the Southern California News Group led to the implementation of new policies at the school district.

The district said in a statement: 'The safety and well-being of every student in Redlands Unified School District is our highest priority.

'We are aware of the recently filed lawsuit regarding a case from 2013 and take these allegations very seriously.

'While we cannot comment on pending litigation or the specific claims being made, we remain committed to fostering a safe, supportive, and respectful environment for all students.'
A flotilla of Little Ships crossing the Channel to commemorate the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 was forced to divert so Border Force could provide safe passage for illegal immigrants heading for Kent.

Eighty-five years after 1,000 assorted fishing boats and pleasure craft set off from England to rescue troops trapped on the beaches of northern France, the British government agency charged with protecting our borders was ferrying yet another boatload of military-age migrants in the opposite direction.

The fleet of 66 Little Ships left Ramsgate at 6am yesterday to mark the bravery and sacrifice of those who took part in Operation Dynamo, which brought 300,000 soldiers home safely.

But shortly after they put to sea the organisers received a radio message over a marine frequency telling them to change course in order to give the migrant boat a wide berth.

UK Border Force and the French navy demanded that they set up a one-nautical-mile exclusion zone around the boat.

I was planning on half-joking that I didnt know whether to file this story under You Couldnt Make It Up or Makes You Proud To Be British.

But, frankly, Im torn between laughing and weeping bitter tears of impotent rage at the symbolism of a tribute to those who helped defend the independence of our nation  and subsequently enable the liberation of occupied Europe  being relegated in favour of the latest wave of illegal migrants invading our shores.

Shortly after the ships put to sea the organisers received a radio message over a marine frequency telling them to change course in order to give the migrant boat a wide berth

Yes, I know the far-Left, ferociously pro-migrant lobby and their useful idiots in government, the courts and the media object to the expression invasion.

But how else should we accurately describe the fact that more than 150,000 mostly young men, and about whom we know nothing, have crossed the Channel since 2018?

A record 800-plus arrived in a single day this week and the headline number is predicted to hit 50,000 this year. By the time Labour is kicked out of office in 2029, the total is likely to exceed the 300,000 British troops rescued from northern France in 1940.

And, yes, they are mainly young men, even though the cynical people smugglers occasionally put the odd woman and child in the dinghies to tug at the heartstrings of the Refugees Welcome Here hand-wringers.

Most of them are rescued by Border Force after being escorted halfway across by the French, to whom we have bunged more than 500 million to stop the boats to little effect.

Once they land, theyre here for good, not so much no questions asked as any answer accepted. They are immediately granted access to free accommodation, legal advice, medical treatment and the full panoply of benefits Britain has to offer these irregular entrants, as we must apparently now call them. Our immigration judges wont kick them out, even if they commit the most heinous crimes.

(Yesterday we learned that a Pakistani paedophile, twice convicted of abusing underage girls, has avoided deportation on the grounds that he might face persecution back home, poor lamb. His case is being heard again, but I wouldnt hold your breath.)

For what its worth, I dont blame the hard-pressed men and women of Border Force for this farce. They are only obeying orders from their political masters. Im sure many, if not the majority, of them are deeply unhappy at being required to provide a free cross-Channel ferry service for illegals. Thats not what they signed up to do.

Whats most scandalous about this latest Little Ships incident is that the Dunkirk spirit is deeply embedded in our national psyche.

Christopher Nolans 2017 movie Dunkirk was recently voted our favourite Second World War film  although I prefer Leslie Normans more understated 1958 original, starring John Mills and Dickie Attenborough, which would have had more resonance with the generation which lived through and served in the war.

Theres a reason for this. Both films celebrated a saner, braver, Britain, determined to fight for our national independence  a spirit utterly lost on our current Unhappy Breed of politicians.

Only recently, we were marking the anniversary of VE Day and Surkeir was wrapping himself in the flag and talking about bringing back the Home Guard, while preparing to sell us out again to Europe.

(Never mind the Chagos islands, our Prime Minister is hellbent on handing over control of our own islands to a foreign power.)

Those who survived Dunkirk, and the brave civilians who rescued them, wouldnt believe what Britain has become, in thrall to the pernicious cult of yuman rites, run by a political class which appears to despise the freedoms our country once stood for and which we were prepared to defend with our lives.

Most of us who grew up with parents and grandparents who had first-hand experience of that war cant believe it, either.

Who could have imagined, even a few short years ago, that a patriotic flotilla of small ships commemorating one of our finest hours would be ordered to make way for a boatload of illegal immigrants?

You couldnt make it up? If I had, some of you would have complained that Id gone too far this time, even by my standards. As Captain Mainwaring might have observed: I think were entering the realms of fantasy here.

But Makes You Proud To Be British? Not so much any more, sadly.
This is the moment a migrant dinghy forced a flotilla of 'Little Ships' commemorating the legendary Dunkirk evacuation to make way - flanked by a French navy boat.

Commemorations of the 85th anniversary of the heroic effort to save British, French and other Allied soldiers from incoming German troops kicked off yesterday - but the pleasure cruisers and speedboats had to make way for an unlikely guest.

Their 45-mile trip across the English Channel, recreating the noble effort of May 1940, was disrupted by a demand from Border Force and the French navy to create a one-mile exclusion zone through which a migrant boat could ass.

Images show the dinghy, packed with people who appeared to be wearing lifejackets, as they were closely followed by a smaller craft and what appeared to be a hulking Loire-class French navy vessel.

Chris Cox, coordinator of the flotilla event commemorating Operation Dynamo, said of the unexpected interruption: 'There was a migrant boat in the water that was being covered by a French naval vessel. As is good proportion, we steered clear and let the authorities look after it.

'For the people in the small boat, they have never done this before and they don't know what to expect. The last thing you want them to do is to try and make for a pleasure boat or Dunkirk Little Ship, which would not be good.'

A total of 13 boats carrying 825 migrants made the treacherous journey across the Channel on May 21 - with at least two people dying on one of the crossings.

The Operation Dynamo recreation, however, was unhindered on its journey from Ramsgate to Dunkirk, save for the slight interruption from border officials and the French.

A dinghy carrying migrants (left) is closely followed by another vessel in the Channel, clashing with the Dunkirk commemorative flotilla

A French navy ship, believed to be a Loire-class vessel, was seen monitoring the dinghy's progress

Association of Dunkirk Little Ships organised the flotilla to ensure 'the legacy of the Dunkirk little ships continues to inspire future generations'

Mr Cox added that it had been a 'perfect day' for a journey that 'couldn't have been smoother'.

He added: 'Churchill asked the people to pray for calm conditions, and I think somebody must have been praying this week for us.'

The fleet of 66 vessels set sail from Ramsgate, Kent, at 6am on Wednesday before happening on the new arrivals.

The Telegraph reported that sailors were told in a maritime frequency message: 'There is a (French) warship on our head with a migrant (boat) close by. And we've been requested to give one nautical mile distance from that vessel, over.'

A French-accented voice, believed to be from the French naval vessel Oyapock, then replied: 'Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.'

One observer later said: 'It is one of the most important days in history and they are shoving them out of the way.'

The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships organised the flotilla - depicted in Christopher Nolan's epic 2017 film, to ensure 'the legacy of the Dunkirk little ships continues to inspire future generations'.

It came as two migrants, believed to be a woman and a child, tragically died in the Channel, as the total to have reached Britain since Labour came to power passed 36,000.

The dead were pulled from waters off the Calais coast by the French navy after an overloaded dinghy got into difficulties.

French officials said most of the rest of the migrants aboard the inflatable refused rescue and carried on to UK.

Refugee charity Utopia 56 said it alerted emergency services to the tragedy, writing on X: '"The boat is broken, two people are dead." This is the information we received during a distress call in the English Channel this morning.'

The Home Office confirmed there were 825 arrivals on Wednesday, bringing the total since the general election to 36,811, and a year-on-year increase of 37 per cent.

The total includes 13,569 since the start of this year. The latest tragedy unfolded in the early hours, a spokesman for France's Maritime prefecture said.

Event coordinator Chris Cox, from the Royal Temple Yacht Club, said the day had been otherwise unhindered, with perfect sailing conditions

More than 60 boats took part in the commemorative flotilla event on Tuesday

Association of Dunkirk Little Ships organised the flotilla, pictured sailing out of Ramsgate

The dinghy which had 80 people aboard was designed to carry no more than 20, it is understood.

The unidentified migrants were 'pulled out by a Navy vessel' and sailors 'performed first aid on the two victims, but they were soon declared dead'.

Ten other passengers requested rescue, while about 70 others asked to remain aboard the inflatable which continued its journey towards the English coast.

A French Navy boat and a helicopter with a medical team on board provided emergency cover.

Prosecutors in France have started an enquiry into the fatalities, while judicial police are searching for people smugglers who arranged the crossing.

In total, some 17 people have perished on small boats so far this year.

A woman died on Sunday night after a dinghy broke up off the French coast.

Last year saw a record 78 deaths.
A senior doctor said he 'doubted my own judgment' after a teenage girl died from sepsis - but told a medical tribunal he did not believe he made any wrong decisions.

Professor Richard Thompson is accused of numerous failings in his treatment of Martha Mills, 13, at London's King's College Hospital two days before she died in August 2021.

More than a month earlier Martha had suffered an injury to her pancreas after she fell off a bike while on holiday in Wales.

She was later transferred to King's College Hospital, one of three locations in the UK that specialise in the treatment of children with pancreatic injuries.

The consultant hepatologist saw Martha on a morning ward round on Sunday, August 29, after she experienced fevers and an increased heart rate in the days prior.

She was given intravenous fluids that day as her blood pressure was low, a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel heard.

Professor Thompson said: 'She was very much awake and interacting, she was having the fluid. She was clearly not well but she was warm, well perfused, talking and making complete sense.'

The fluids were increased from late afternoon when the blood pressure reading was still low.

Professor Richard Thompson is accused of numerous failings in his treatment of Martha Mills, 13, (pictured) at London 's King's College Hospital two days before she died in August 2021

The duty registrar called Professor Thompson at home when Martha developed a rash.

Professor Thompson said: 'He gave a description of a rash in many places... it was very suggestive of an allergic rash and not a septic rash. I had no reason to disbelieve his description.'

He said the registrar was 'at the most experienced end of a junior doctor that you could have' as he was completing his final months of training.

Professor Thompson said he could not recall the figures from blood pressure and blood test readings that were relayed to him before he phoned a consultant colleague to consider whether Martha should be moved to intensive care.

The General Medical Council (GMC) says Professor Thompson gave 'outdated' information about those readings which gave the false impression that Martha was stable, and that he also failed to mention her rash.

The GMC also says he should have returned to the hospital to review Martha himself after he was informed about the rash and should have acted sooner in recommending a critical care review.

Martha collapsed the next morning and was moved to intensive care before she was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she died in the early hours of August 31.

After her death, Professor Thompson decided he would no longer provide inpatient care as he became 'extremely cautious', the tribunal heard.

He said: 'I was doubting my own judgment. I don't believe I made any wrong decisions but I thought it better to remove myself from that environment and contribute to other work in the department.'

Martha's mother, Merope Mills, an editor at The Guardian, said she and her husband, Paul Laity, raised concerns about Martha's deteriorating health a number of times but these were not acted on

His barrister Ben Rich asked: 'Did you ever doubt your judgment in Martha's case?'

He replied: 'Absolutely. I think I was on record saying that I felt I made a mistake and other times I said I didn't.'

Professor Thompson denies all the allegations against him.

The hearing in Manchester continues.

At a 2022 inquest into her death, a coroner ruled Martha would most likely have survived if doctors had identified the warning signs and transferred her to intensive care earlier.

Martha's mother, Merope Mills, an editor at The Guardian, said she and her husband, Paul Laity, raised concerns about Martha's deteriorating health a number of times but these were not acted on.

The couple later successfully campaigned for Martha's Rule to give patients, families and carers the chance to easily request a second opinion from a senior doctor in the same hospital in the event of a suspected deterioration or serious concern.

Earlier this year the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee was told that more than 100 patients had been taken to intensive care 'or equivalent' as a result of Martha's Rule, and that patients, their loved ones or staff had raised concerns about care using the rule on more than 2,000 occasions.
The parents of DC shooting victim Sarah Milgrim were getting ready for bed on Wednesday night when they saw reports of the shooting at an event for the American Jewish Committee.

Her mother Nancy said she knew her daughter was a fellow at the organization, and immediately called authorities to find out if her daughter was a victim.

After both couldn't offer any information, she said she opened a family locator app and saw her daughter's location at the Capital Jewish Museum, where the shooting had unfolded.

'I pretty much already knew,' she told the New York Times. 'I was hoping to be wrong.'

Nancy Milgrim said her phone then rang, and when she picked up it was Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, on the other line.

Sarah's father Robert added that Leiter pointed to rising anti-Semitism in the US following the October 7 attacks on Israel.

'What went through my mind is, I feel the antisemitism that has surfaced since Oct. 7 and also since the election of President Trump,' Robert said. 'It's just an extension of my worst fears.'

The two victims were soon to be engaged. They had been attending a Young Diplomats event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night.

The parents of DC shooting victim Sarah Milgrim (left) were getting ready for bed on Wednesday night when they saw news reports of the shooting

Her mother Nancy (left) said she knew her daughter (right) was a fellow at the organization, and immediately called authorities to find out if she was a victim

At the end of the event, Lischinsky and Milgrim were stood outside with a group of people when a gunman approached and opened fire.

'Two beautiful young people were gunned down last night needlessly. No parents should have to be called and told that their children were violently murdered leaving a religious event at the Jewish Museum,' said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

'That should never happen in this world and not in our country. And this person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'

Lischinsky, 30, had bought an engagement ring and was just days away from proposing to Milgrim, 26, on a planned trip to Jerusalem, according to Leiter.

'The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughter's safety in Israel,' Robert said. 'But she was murdered three days before going.'

In 2017, Milgrim's Kansas high school had been graffitied with swastikas and she felt endangered as a Jewish teen.

'I worry about going to my synagogue, and now I have to worry about safety at my school. And that shouldn't be a thing,' she told KSHB at the time.

Milgrim worked at the Israeli Embassys department of public diplomacy and organized visits and missions to Israel.

Milgrim (left) worked at the Israeli Embassys department of public diplomacy and organized visits and missions to Israel

On her LinkedIn profiled, she said that her passion 'lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work.'

She said that as a Jewish educator, she facilitated 'insightful discussions on geopolitics in Israel and Palestine.'

Milgrim previously worked in Tel Aviv for Tech2Peace, an organization that provides 'high-tech and entrepreneurial training alongside conflict dialogue to young Palestinians and Israelis.'

She had a certificate in religious engagement and peacebuilding from the United States Institute of Peace, an organization funded by the U.S. Congress that promotes conflict resolution.

She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in environmental studies with a minor in anthropology and also had a master's in international affairs from American University.

Her Instagram bio also had a yellow ribbon, as well as a passage from Deuteronomy, 'Justice, justice you shall pursue,' written in Hebrew.

Staff who worked alongside Lischinsky and Milgrim said the couple were known for their love for each other around the embassy.

'It was the cutest love story,' an official said, adding that they met each other around a year and a half ago when they started working together.

Suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez, 30, yelled 'free, free Palestine' after he was arrested near the Jewish museum (pictured)

They said their relationship was 'like a poster for a Netflix rom-com', and the couple often enjoyed sharing their lunch together.

Suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez, 30, yelled 'free, free Palestine' after he was arrested near the Jewish museum.

In an alleged manifesto posted online before the slayings, Rodriguez said: 'Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged, they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright.'
The weak and reckless soft touch justice regime in Scotland has led to out of control youth violence that is now costing lives, John Swinney has been told.

After a spate of recent knife incidents, Russell Findlay accused the First Minister of creating a system where young people do not feel safe and parents are terrified.

The Scottish Tory leader cited the death of 16-year-old Kayden Moy at Irvine beach on Saturday and the alleged stabbing of a 17-year-old at Portobello just 24 hours earlier.

The general sickening rise in youth violence was linked directly to SNP policies and actions, he said.

The party had systematically weakened the justice system, especially youth justice, made excuses for those causing harm, and failed to ensure discipline in schools.

More than 200 weapons were recovered from under-17s in stop-and-searches last year.

Police Scotland says the number of serious assaults committed by teenagers has risen by 600 per cent in the past five years, Mr Findlay told First Ministers Questions.

He added: Two teenagers died and 11 were injured during a spate of knife incidents involving youths in the past two months.

John Swinney claims knife crime in Scotland is down thanks to the SNP Government

Scots Tory leader Russell Findlay is frustrated at Holyrood government's 'weak and reckless' justice system

Young people do not feel safe. The system does not protect them.

What does John Swinney have to say to parents who tell me that they are terrified every time their son or daughter leaves the house?

Mr Swinney expressed his sympathy to Kaydens family for the tragedy.

He told MSPs: One incident is one incident too many. The disorder and the violence at Irvine beach and in Portobello were totally unacceptable.

The First Minister said the Government was taking a three-pronged approach to knife crime - educating young people against carrying weapons, effective punishment for any offences and sustained school and community engagement to create responsible citizens.

As a result, there had been a sustained fall in knife crime in the past 15 years.

But Mr Findlay said a lack of meaningful deterrents meant young people saw no consequences for offending, adding: That inevitably fuels youth violence.

Thanks to the misguided thinking at the heart of SNP policy-making, disruptive and dangerous pupils were allowed to stay in schools and teachers prevented from instilling basic classroom discipline, he said.

Criminals under 18 were also sent to childrens panels instead of courts and perverse sentencing guidelines meant especially lenient sentences for those under 25.

That approach is weak, it is reckless and it is costing lives, Mr Findlay thundered.

Parents want a return to discipline in schools and deterrence in the justice system, so why will John Swinney not listen to them?

The FM said prosecution remained an option for serious offences and highlighted a two-thirds drop in hospital admissions for knife assaults in the last 15 years.

He said: That is the result of us tackling knife crime in our society. That prevention work is having an effect. Scotland is a safer country today than it has been in the past.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, the father of three boys, said he had been personally devastated by Kaydens death.

He said: The statistics are damning. The number of young people being caught with knives is rising, with a 15 per cent increase among 11- to-15-year-olds in only five years.

Many parents are rightly worried. They fear that their children are not safe and are asking how this Government has allowed the situation to get so out of control.

Blaming bad decisions for a crisis years in the making, Mr Sarwar said the SNP had decimated youth work services and cut 730 police officers from local divisions and shut countless local police stations.

A teen has been charged and another arrested in connection with the death of Kayden Moy on Saturday

He said: Now we're hearing horrifying reports of children - primary school children - being caught carrying knives. That is not a coincidence.

He quoted campaigner Vicky Donald, whose 13-year-old daughter was assaulted on the way to school, and who wrote to Mr Swinney this week after the recent incidents.

She wrote: Stop waiting for more funerals. Do something now.

Mr Swinney said he had replied to her noting a 79 per cent fall in the number of teenage homicide victims, which he said was a sign of successful prevention work.

David Kennedy, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, this week demanded more stop and search powers for officers to save lives.

He said: It has become increasingly difficult for police to deal with under-16s due to laws that were introduced to protect children and young people but, in fact, do the opposite because police are left with their hands tied.

We have to be able to conduct stop and searches and do that no matter what age they are.

We urgently require new, robust legislation that empowers officers to act decisively and prevent violence before it happens.
A Primrose Hill restaurant popular with celebrities is being besieged by e-bikes after a parking bay was installed on its doorstep.

Greek restaurant Lemonia, which has been a staple of the trendy suburb for 50 years, regularly has up to 60 Lime and Forest bikes dumped outside.

Owner Anthony Evangelou said the addition has caused havoc for his business - popular with celebs such as Madonna and Harry Styles - and is considering taking legal action.

The 80-year-old claimed the bikes leave the restaurant's deliveries entrance blocked and disrupts the day-to-day running of the business.

When the parking space is full, Lime and Forest users leave their bikes on the pavement or down the street, Mr Evangelou said, which he claimed is 'dangerous' for his customers and stops neighbours leaving their garages.

As a result of the chaos, Mr Evangelou has even had drivers threaten to stop delivering to him, because of how difficult it is to reach the restaurant.

Mr Evangelou, who lives with his wife in nearby Highgate, said: 'The parking spot was put there a few months ago and it has been getting worse and worse ever since.

'Bikes are piling up outside our restaurant and they're not being left in the designated area. Our entrance we use for deliveries is blocked - and drivers can't get our food to us.

Greek restaurant Lemonia regularly has up to 60 Lime and Forest bikes dumped outside (pictured)

Lime and Forest users frequently leave their bikes on the pavement or down the street

Bikes are seen lining the street, much to the annoyance of the restaurant's owner

Owner Anthony Evangelou (pictured) says the bikes have caused havoc for his business - popular with celebs like Madonna and Harry Styles

'Some have even threatened to not deliver because they can't carry the stuff into the restaurant as the bikes are in the way.

'That can't happen. We have lots of customers. We need our deliveries.

'Some of the bikes get dumped on the pavement which is dangerous for customers. And some are put outside our neighbour's garage.

'He's a doctor. He needs to get out for emergencies and at times hasn't been able to.

'It's frustrating because Camden Council gave us an outdoor space for our restaurant. Why are they ruining it with the bikes?

'Whoever decided this was the place for a parking spot made a bad decision.

'And that's alright. Everyone makes mistakes. But mistakes should be rectified.'

The parking space outside Lemonia was brought in back in February after companies like Lime and Forest were criticised for allowing users to leave their bikes anywhere.

Now, users have to end their ride in a designated bay, such as the one outside Lemonia.

But Mr Evangelou said that other businesses shouldn't be punished as a result.

He said: 'This designated parking area is in the wrong place. It should not be outside a restaurant. But it also shouldn't be moved and just impact a different business.

'Highways teams need to figure out spaces where the bikes can go without disrupting people - such as near traffic light crossings.

As a result of the chaos, Mr Evangelou has even had drivers threaten to stop delivering to him - because of how difficult it has become to reach the restaurant

The inside of the restaurant boasts a stunning design with leaves and wooden tables

Lemonia is popular with locals and celebs alike - with A listers such as Madonna, Harry Styles, Kate Winslet and Matt Smith all reported to have dined there

The parking space outside Lemonia was brought in back in February after companies like Lime and Forest were criticised for allowing users to leave their bikes anywhere

'It shouldn't be that the bike companies benefit and the rest of us get punished.

'The system shouldn't work like that.

'We're considering taking legal action if something isn't done about this.'

To make matters worse, a huge bin for nearby flats was also recently placed outside the restaurantwhich has resulted in 'mountains of rubbish' piling up on the street.

This, combined with the e-bikes, has left Mr Evangelou concerned about the impact this may have on the reputation of leafy Primrose Hill.

Lemonia is popular with locals and celebs alike - with A listers such as Madonna, Harry Styles, Kate Winslet and Matt Smith all reported to have dined there.

Mr Evangelou said: 'Name a celebrity - they've been here. I just think the bikes will bring down the atmosphere of the restaurant.

'And is this the image we want to give of Primrose Hill - a popular destination to visit?'

Responding to Mr Evangelou's concerns, a Lime spokesperson said: 'We never want our e-bikes to obstruct access for residents or local businesses.

'The recent good weather has seen record demand and trip numbers in Camden, particularly around the borough's popular green spaces and hospitality venues, including in Primrose Hill.

'While it's encouraging to see more people choosing sustainable transport, we understand the frustration when bays become overcrowded.

Bikes are seen lined up near the restaurant, which is popular with A-list celebrities

Mr Evangelou, who lives with his wife in nearby Highgate, said: 'The parking spot was put there a few months ago and it has been getting worse and worse ever since'

Mr Evangelou said: 'Name a celebrity - they've been here. I just think the bikes will bring down the atmosphere of the restaurant'

'We've increased our on-street team working in Camden and are monitoring this location closely to help keep the area accessible for everyone.'

Meanwhile, Alex Berwin, head of policy at Forest, added: 'At Forest, we take all reports of any of our e-bikes causing an obstruction extremely seriously, particularly when it inhibits access or obstructs the public highway.

'We are committed to operating a safe and responsible service for our users and the communities we operate in.

'Our Operations team are operative 24/7, and we have a dedicated team of on-foot Guardians in Camden who proactively relocate abandoned e-bikes and tidy parking bays.

'This is in addition to in-app AI technology we have implemented into our app which grades users' end-of-ride photos and can detect when an e-bike is left irresponsibly, and after which we will warn, fine or suspend their account.'

A spokesperson for Camden Council said: 'A dockless bike and e-scooter hire bay was installed at this location following a full consultation with residents and local businesses, with the aim to encourage active travel and improve local air quality and reduce carbon emissions.

'We will monitor the use of the bay and work with bike providers to ensure that any excess bikes are removed promptly.'

They added that they are available to discuss any concerns with residents and see what they can do to help ease issues going forward.
As Britain looks to introduce chemical castration for paedophiles and other sex offenders, Khazakhstan is set to move away from the policy.

Dozens of brutal child sex offenders have been forcibly injected in the ex-Soviet state in recent years.

Among them is Saidolim Gayibnazarov, 48, who raped and killed five-year-old Erkezhan Nurmakhan, and was sentenced to chemical castration during his lengthy prison term.

Another, Berik Zholdasov, was castrated after raping his eight-year-old stepdaughter. Tragically, he inflicted such serious injuries that doctors had to remove her womb.

Zholdasov had threatened to kill her if she told her mother.

A judge sentenced him to 25 years in a maximum security jail and ordered him to undergo 'forcible chemical castration'.

Last year 11 paedophiles in a single region of Kazakhstan were sentenced to compulsory chemical castration.

All the men 'committed crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors' in Kostanay region.

Dozens of brutal child sex offenders have been forcibly injected in Kazakhstan in recent years

Last year 11 paedophiles in a single region of Kazakhstan were sentenced to compulsory chemical castration

But the country is now moving in a different direction to curb sex attacks on children - by enforcing whole life sentences rather than chemical castration

Nurse Zoya Manaenko - in her 70s - was pictured conducting the procedure by injecting a paedophile convict in a Kazakhstan prison medical unit.

But the country is now moving in a different direction to curb sex attacks on children in a way that the government believes will be more effective.

Until now, critics say that many of those condemned to chemical castration were incarcerated and as such posed no immediate threat to children.

New laws will instead enforce life-means-life sentences for men who rape or violently sexually attack children, as well as for killers of minors.

Such moves will take paedophiles off the streets permanently, say proponents, which means there is no need to chemically castrate them.

Currently, Kazakhstan publishes maps to highlight where paedophiles who were previously freed from jail now reside.

In future, child sex attackers will not be freed.

Kazakhstan MP Sekikhan Zhakupov, 40, convicted of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy, might have faced chemical castration but is now jailed for life and will not be allowed out, according to reports.

Five-year-old Erkezhan Nurmakhan was brutally raped and killed by Erkezhan Nurmakhan

Critics say that many of those condemned to chemical castration were incarcerated and as such posed no immediate threat to children

The government is now looking to implement life-means-life sentences for men who rape or violently sexually attack children, as well as for killers of minors. Pictured: Ust Kamenogorsk prison in Kazakhstan

Saidolim Gayibnazarov, 48, raped and killed five-year-old Erkezhan Nurmakhan, and was sentenced to chemical castration during his lengthy prison term

Erkezhan Nurmakhan pictured while incarcerated. Offenders like him now face life-means-life sentences instead of chemical castration

Critics of the castration regime said that it depended on a medical diagnosis of paedophelia which was often not forthcoming in cases where family members were the predators. Others pointed to the need for constant top-up injections and unintended side-effects

Kazakhstan MP Sekikhan Zhakupov, 40, convicted of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old boy, might have faced chemical castration but is now jailed for life and will not be allowed out, according to reports

Critics of the castration regime said that it depended on a medical diagnosis of paedophelia which was often not forthcoming in specific cases, including where family members were the predators.

Others said the need for constant top-up injections meant it was an ineffective solution, while some complained it resulted in unintended side-effects.

Elnur Beisenbaev, an MP and executive secretary of the ruling Amanat Party, accused the government of being 'spineless' and pandering to paedophiles by failing to insist on 'surgical castration'.

'Unfortunately, [sex crimes against children] are happening more and more often,' he said, suggesting chemical castration - which lowers the male libido through injected anti-androgen drugs - was not as effective as initially thought.

'By letting a rapist go free, we allow them to reoffend,' he said.

''We don't suggest applying it to all paedophiles, but we'd like to give courts an option of having surgical castration.

'If a paedophile attack is especially cruel, I believe surgical castration must be applied'

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had demanded action against rising domestic violence and child abuse cases.

The new laws are seen as a more effective means of combating paedophiles, with tougher sentences acting as a disincentive to would-be offenders.
The mother jailed for a racist tweet after the Southport massacre has been praised as the kindest British person I know by a Nigerian GP.

Childminder Lucy Connolly lost her appeal this week to be freed from a 31-month sentence for her online rant about migrants.

Her Conservative councillor husband Ray Connolly said that his wife was a good personnot a far-right thug but judges ruled the young mother must remain behind bars.

And now Nigerian GP Dr Hene Enyi has added her voice of support for the childminder, who looked after her young daughter.

Dr Enyi revealed Mrs Connolly had gone out of her way to help with her familys application for British citizenship, even providing character references.

Dr Enyi said: Lucy is simply the loveliest, kindest British person I know. My mum and dad in Nigeria know all about her because I speak about her all the time.

She was so good to us when we arrived here from Nigeria. She loved my daughter like her own child.

Lucy Connolly was jailed over a social media post where she said: 'Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f***ing hotels full of the b******s for all I care...'

Mrs Connolly, pictured with her husband Raymond Connolly, who said his wife was 'not a far right thug'

Mrs Connolly deleted her post and blamed it on 'a moment of extreme outrage and emotion' when she was acting on 'false and malicious' information

She told the Telegraph: We used to joke how do you make any money as a childminder?, because she was always buying gifts for the children.

As well as my daughter she looked after children from Bangladesh and Pakistan. This is not a racist person who has anything against people from different races.

Mrs Connolly, 42, had appealed against her sentence at the Royal Courts of Justice, describing how news of the Southport murders of three children at a dance class had triggered her anxiety caused when her baby son, Harry, died as the result of a hospital blunder 13 years earlier.

Her tweet, viewed 310,000 times before she deleted it three-and-a-half hours later, read: Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care...if that makes me racist so be it. There was serious violent unrest across Britain following the Southport murders.

After three senior judges dismissed her appeal on Tuesday, saying the tweet represented an incitement to serious violence, her husband said: Lucy posted one nasty tweet when she was upset and angry about three little girls who were brutally murdered in Southport.

'She realised the tweet was wrong and deleted it within four hours. That did not mean Lucy was a far right thug. Mr Connolly said his wifes incarceration at HMP Drake Hall, Staffordshire  nine months so far - had been very hard, particularly on our 12-year-old girl.

A police mugshot of Lucy Connolly when she was arrested in August last year following the nationwide unrest

Serious violence and rioting by demonstrators broke out on the streets in Rotherham following the Southport attacks

HMP Drake Hall where Mrs Connolly is behind bars until at least August this year when she could be due for parole

Boris Johnson, pictured, spoke up for Lucy Connolly after she failed in a bid to reduce her lengthy jail term

Axel Rudakubana whose murder of three little girls at a dance class in Southport led Mrs Connolly to write her online rant

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Britain was losing its reputation for free speech over people being arrested by police simply for something we say.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick asked: How on earth can you spend longer in prison for a tweet than violent crime? saying that shoplifters with hundreds of prior convictions have avoided prison, a domestic abuser with 52 prior offences got off with just a suspended sentence, as did a paedophile with 110,000 indecent images of children.

And Toby Young, the general secretary of the Free Speech Union, asked how can it be right for Lucy to have been condemned to spend more than two-and-a-half years in jail for a single tweet when members of grooming gangs who plead guilty to the sexual exploitation of children get lower sentences? He said: Lucy should be at home with her 12-year-old daughter and husband, not rotting in jail.

It is expected that she will not be released before she has completed two fifths of her sentence, which will be in August.
A Halloween reveller was allegedly raped by a security guard at a nightclub after he took her away from the queue to 'sober up', a court has heard.

Morenikeji Adewole, 47, from Dartford, Kent, is on trial accused of raping the 19-year-old woman in his car near Heaven nightclub in central London in the early hours of November 1, 2024, which he denies.

Southwark Crown Court heard on Thursday that the partygoer was rejected from the nightclub after queuing for more than two hours and was reportedly upset after being separated from her friends.

The complainant, who cannot be identified, and another friend were escorted around the corner from the club by the security guard to sober up.

During the 30-minute period where they were outside the girl alleges she left her friend and had sex in the security guard's car after he promised to let her in to the club.

When she returned she was distraught and as her friends comforted her they suggested she may have been raped due to her level of intoxication.

Prior to making their way to the club the woman and five friends had been drinking vodka mixers before arriving at popular club Heaven where they queued for more than two hours.

She and one of the group were denied entry to the central London venue's Halloween event because they were too intoxicated, the court was told.

A Halloween reveller was left in tears after allegedly being raped by a security guard at Heaven nightclub in central London, a court has heard

The friend who was also rejected described himself being 'eight out of 10' on a scale of intoxication, meaning 'very, very drunk'.

A security guard walked them to nearby Buckingham Street to sober up and the two friends sat on some steps while the guard stood by, he told jurors.

The complainant only stayed there for around '30 seconds' because she needed the bathroom and the security guard pointed her towards one, the university student said.

She left her phone, bag and coat with the friend and he waited at the steps with the guard for around 30 minutes before she returned, he claimed.

The university student told the court he the security guard 'might have gone off for a bit' but 'most of the time he was with me', when asked

When the complainant came back the two friends had a 'jokey' conversation and the young man said he asked 'did you probably sleep with someone?'

He added: 'I guess the way I worded it was quite rhetorical, not really expecting much of an answer.'

He said he does not remember his friend's immediate reaction and that they then walked back to Heaven.

Morenikeji Adewole, 47, from Dartford, Kent, is on trial accused of raping the 19-year-old woman in the early hours of November 1, 2024, which he denies

However he told the court that he remembered her being upset but determined to enter the club.

'She was very distressed from what I remember,' he told jurors.

He added: 'She just seemed very adamant to want to get in, she wanted to just see everybody because we had all been separated.'

The pair were again rejected from entering the club, he said.

The rest of the group then came outside and the young man recalled the complainant telling them she had had sexual intercourse with the security guard.

Stephan Alfred, defending Adewole, put to the young man that a 'realistic summary of how she said it' was 'I f***** the security guard, he said he would let me in'.

The young man agreed, adding: 'I know that she wasn't fully able to express herself properly that night, she was still quite intoxicated at that point.'

He later said: 'She was very distressed, she was very upset, so I knew that something had happened.

'This supposed sex, it was very uncomfortable, it seemed that it was something she did not want to do. And she had been drinking a lot.'

Prosecutor Marion Smullen had told jurors on Wednesday: 'The issues in the case, I anticipate, will be first of all consent.

'In order for a person to consent to sexual intercourse, they have to have capacity - a drunken consent can still be consent.

'However, if a complainant was so intoxicated that she was in no position to give a proper consent, that is not consent.'

CCTV from the night shows hundreds of people in fancy dress crowded in the Heaven smoking area.

The word 'rape' was first used by one of the group who had been in the club, and who gave evidence on Thursday.

Asked what the complainant first told her, she told jurors: 'This isn't exact, it was something along the lines of she had gone inside a car with a security guard and they had sex and he said he would let her into the club.

'And then she started to get upset. We're getting a bit worried. She starts to cry and stuff, because she was really, really drunk.'

The group decided to report it to Heaven security.

The witness added: 'When we were discussing it, prior, we said this seems like rape, so that's what we were going to report.'

She described the Heaven staff as 'quite dismissive' and 'they said we could come back in the morning to report it'.

The alleged victim was 'bawling, crying' and vomited in the Uber they took back to the witness's home, she said.

Several of the group stayed there that night, she said.

The complainant slept until around 2pm before they 'talked it all out' and decided to call the police, she added.

The trial continues.
Israel has accused Sir Keir Starmer of 'emboldening the forces of terror', which led to the failure to draw 'moral red lines' after a fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy workers in the United States.

The gunman shot young diplomat couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, police said on Wednesday night.

The attacker allegedly entered the building afterwards, shouting 'Free Palestine,' before being arrested.

In the aftermath, Israeli ministers pointed fingers at Western leaders, including Starmer, arguing that recent criticism of Israel's military campaign and humanitarian blockade in Gaza has helped fuel violent sentiment.

It comes as Foreign Secretary David Lammy this week condemned the intensifying military campaign in Gaza as 'morally indefensible' and announced the UK would be halting trade negotiations with Israel.

Britain also introduced new sanctions targeting settlers in the West Bank and summoned the Israeli ambassador.

Israel's foreign spokesman said that external pressure would 'divert' itself from 'its path in defending its existence'.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, said in a post on social media: 'I am shocked and heartbroken by the brutal murder of two members of the Israeli delegation in an antisemitic shooting attack in the heart of Washington, D.C.'

Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, pictured, said in a post on social media: 'I am shocked and heartbroken by the brutal murder of two members of the Israeli delegation in an antisemitic shooting attack in the heart of Washington, D.C'

The Israeli minister added: 'French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines'

He went on to thank President Trump after he condemned the attack before pointing fingers at the Canadian, French and British leaders.

The Israeli minister said: 'French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines.

'This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

'We will continue to fight antisemitism everywhere  with clarity, courage, and zero tolerance.'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his British counterpart is on the 'wrong side of humanity' in a video shares on social media, in which he attacked the leaders of the UK, France and Canada for criticising his country's approach was on the war in Gaza.

He linked the killings of Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim in Washington, D.C., to anti-semitic motives, asserting that the attacker targeted them specifically because they were Jewish.

Netanyahu went on to say: 'This is exactly the same chant we heard on October 7th.

'On that day, thousands of terrorists stormed into Israel from Gaza.

Elias Rodriguez is the 30 year-old gunman suspected of murdering a young Israeli couple at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night. He is pictured being arrested shortly after the killings

Rodriguez is pictured surrounded by police and security in the moments after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were gunned down. Onlookers say they had no idea he was the suspect until he was arrested and allegedly confessed

Israeli embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky and his girlfriend Sarah Milgrim were named as the tragic victims of the vile attack early on Thursday morning, which was condemned by President Donald Trump

It comes as Foreign Secretary David Lammy this week condemned the intensifying military campaign in Gaza as 'morally indefensible' and announced the UK would be halting trade negotiations with Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pictured, has said his British counterpart is on the 'wrong side of humanity' in a video shares on social media

'They beheaded men. They raped women. They burned babies alive.

'They butchered 1,200 innocent people and took 251 innocent people hostage to the dungeons of Gaza.'

The Israeli PM added: 'For these neo-Nazis, "Free Palestine" is just today's version of "Heil Hitler".'

He mentioned how Hamas had thanked the leaders for calling for an end to the war and then pointed the finger at West saying: 'I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.

'They are now proposing to establish a Palestinian state and reward these murderers with the ultimate prize.'

In the video, Netanyahu further states: 'I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney, and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers, and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice.

'You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history.'

During a press conference this morning, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said: 'There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder.'

He added: 'This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.

Trucks load with humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip are seen at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel, Tuesday May 20, 2025

Smoke billows above buildings in the northern Gaza Strip on May 19, 2025

Mr Lammy told the Commons: 'Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end.'

'Their words are the modern blood libels. Blood libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies paved the way exactly for such murders.

'This is what happens when leaders in the world surrender to the Palestinian terrorist propaganda and serve it.'

On Monday, Britain, France and Canada threatened Israel with sanctions unless it relents on plans to expand military operations in the beleaguered Gaza Strip.

A joint statement from the leaders of the three countries cited the 'intolerable' level of human suffering and 'denial of essential humanitarian assistance' in a stark warning.

An 11-week blockade on food, fuel, water and medicine has pushed the decimated civilian population of Gaza to the brink of famine, experts continue to warn.

The leaders issued their most direct warning so far after Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to take control of the entire Gaza Strip.

'We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions,' the statement read.

'If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.'

'We have always supported Israel's right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate,' the statement continued, while reiterating calls for Hamas to release the remaining hostages held in Gaza since October 2023.

Hamas welcomed the joint statement describing the stance as 'an important step' in the right direction toward restoring the principles of international law.

But Netanyahu, who allowed 'basic' food into Gaza for 'diplomatic reasons' on Monday, gave a furious response in a statement released by his office.

The move to stop negotiations between the UL and Israel was criticised by Tory shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel, who argued it could be seen as a victory for Hamas, while others in the chamber voiced frustration that the measures did not go far enough.

Although Mr Lammy said the country suffered a 'heinous attack' on October 7 2023, and that Britain had supported its right to defend itself, but called the Israeli government's path 'morally unjustifiable' and 'utterly counterproductive', which would not bring hostages home.

Shouts of 'shame' were heard in the Commons as Mr Lammy outlined remarks from an Israeli minister describing their latest military campaign as an effort which would be 'cleansing Gaza,' 'destroying what's left,' and pushing for the relocation of Palestinians to 'third countries.'

Dame Priti said: 'Strong words will do little to resolve the real challenges that are taking place and the suffering we are seeing taking place day in, day out.'

She added that it 'should be the cause of concern' that the UK government's actions had been 'supported by Hamas, a terrorist organisation'.
A drunken human rights lawyer who was involved in the Grenfell Tower inquiry has been cleared of all charges after she was arrested for a late-night confrontation with a neighbour.

Scarlett Milligan, 32, was accused of assaulting Kemi Adebiyi, 48, after she enjoyed all-day birthday drinks with her fellow-barrister boyfriend Benjamin Waistell in May 2022.

The pair had been drinking locally in Wandsworth, London, but they had a row and Milligan found herself locked out of Mr Waistell's home in Cromford Road.

In footage shown at the hearing, Milligan could be heard shouting 'f***** c***' in the doorway of Ms Adebiyi's home as her boyfriend held her back.

The trial at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court collapsed when office manger Ms Adebiyi did not appear to give evidence, saying she was hospitalised with an insect bite.

Prosecutor Benn Maguire offered no evidence and BBP London Law School graduate Milligan was found not guilty of assaulting Ms Adebiyi.

Earlier this year a Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court jury cleared Milligan of the racially-aggravated assault of Ms Adebiyi.

The latest verdict concludes a three-year investigation and prosecution that also saw Mr Waistell, a Lincoln's Inn lawyer with XXIV Old Buildings, in the dock for alleged assault and criminal damage. He was cleared of the charges last year.

BBP London Law School graduate Scarlett Milligan (pictured), 32, was accused of assaulting Kemi Adebiyi, 48, after she enjoyed all-day birthday drinks with her fellow-barrister boyfriend

Kemi Adebiyi (pictured) is said to have been disturbed by Milligan lying in the road outside her ground-floor flat, making loud groaning noises

Milligan's boyfriend Benjamin Waistell (pictured on Ms Adebiyi's phone), 33, also found himself in the dock but was cleared

'The defendant [Milligan] is described as of 'impeccable character' in her application,' Mr Maguire told the court yesterday.

'May I show a recording of what happened that night? This is a recording of the defendant.'

Deputy District Judge David Bolton watched mobile phone footage recorded by Ms Adebiyi, first showing Waistell screaming at the complainant, followed by Milligan.

'The recording does show unattractive behaviour by Ms Milligan and it is accepted that no party behaved themselves well that night,' said Gudrun Young KC, defending.

'However, it does not seem fair or appropriate to play a small section of the footage to blacken Ms Milligan.

'It is inappropriate that it be played completely out of context.'

Milligan broke down in tears in the dock when the possibility of a trial in September was discussed, wailing: 'I can't do it.'

'She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, has memory loss and migraines and is signed-off work,' added the KC.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service yesterday pushed back at 32-year-old Scarlett Milligan's claim she is of 'impeccable character'.

Mr Maguire said: 'The purpose of showing this footage to the court is in response to the assertion that Ms Milligan is of 'impeccable character.'

'She is the person in the video with her hand going towards the complainant.'

Milligan was filmed being pushed away from the neighbour's door by her lawyer boyfriend

The court previously heard that all three individuals used 'bad language' in the incident in 2022

Milligan was accused of grabbing Ms Adebiyi's neck, leaving no injury and Waistell was acquitted after arguing that he was rescuing his girlfriend from their neighbour's assault.

Trouble began when Ms Adebiyi's meditation was disturbed by Milligan lying in the road outside her ground-floor flat, making loud groaning noises.

She went outside and asked: 'Is she okay? She is making a lot of noise,' prompting Waistell to respond: 'You f*** off,' triggering an exchange of insults between the parties.

Milligan was recorded on a next-door neighbour's Ring doorbell shouting: 'Shut your door you ugly c***,' and: 'You f****** ugly twat,'

Throughout the recording Ms Adebiyi can be heard mockingly referring to the couple as 'Tarquin' and 'Karen,' suggesting Ms Milligan was feigning a mental health episode.

She is heard shouting: 'You think you can enter my home and attack me?

'This is typical white privilege. She's seeking attention, she's a typical Karen, an attention seeker.

'I came out to try and help and Karen began railing on me and then Tarquin decides to come over here and enter my home and rescue Karen.

'I am going to stream this. You're going to lose your jobs you f***ing racists.'

Ms Adebiyi dialled 999 and told the operator: 'I heard howling in the middle of the street. A man who looks like he plays rugby told me to f*** off.'

Five minutes later Waistell also called the police, saying: 'My girlfriend has been attacked. She (Adebiyi) came out because we were loud in the street and dragged her in the house and attacked her.

'I had to break the door down to get her out. She thinks my girlfriend is suicidal and that it's funny. My girlfriend is a little bit drunk.'

Ms Young submitted: 'We have reached the point where enough is enough and given the history of this case we urge caution accepting at face value the assertion the complainant can't attend due to ill health.

Milligan, who was heard shouting at Ms Adebiyi, who has a 15-year-old daughter

'She has a history of manufacturing injuries that do not exist and accuses people who are victims of her assaults. She is a manipulative individual.

'She told the police she had scratches from the assault, but they were very, very old. That is the sort of character we are dealing with, someone who lies to the police.

'She is more than capable of lying about injuries, lying to the police and fabricating injuries and manipulating the process.

'Ms Milligan is immediately heard screaming: "My head", and Mr Waistell enters and carries her out in his arms and she is covered in multiple bruises as a result of this incident.'

In her statement to police Milligan said: 'I was drinking throughout the day and by the evening I was drunk. I had an argument with Ben and he left the pub.

'I couldn't access Ben's address because of the bottom lock and I became very upset and was lying in the middle of the road crying.'

She said an 'abusive woman' confronted her saying: 'If you're going to kill yourself, get on with it.

'The lady continued to hurl abuse at me and she became more and more heated with her abuse.

'I ended up in her doorway and the next thing I remember is being pulled by the hair over the threshold of her address. The woman struck me and I was savagely kicked to the head, I think I lost consciousness.'

Deputy District Judge Bolton said: 'I am aware of the impact this has had on your client. It has been hanging over her for three years now and is a low-level assault, an allegation of grabbing at the neck without injury.

'This is extending the impact on the defendant and the application to adjourn the trial until September is refused.'

The verdict finally concluded a prosecution that saw three years of multiple court hearings; a failed application to dismiss the case; a two-day magistrates' court trial and a two-week Crown Court trial including sixteen hours of jury deliberations.
Melania Trump turned to AI to record the audio version of her memoir, using the technology to replicate her voice.

The first lady said she used 'strict supervision' when using the technology, which can have errors in pronunciation and word choice.

While she embraced the new technology for her audiobook, Melania Trump has previously criticized, particularly when it comes to issues like deep fake pornography.

But, in this instance, Melania Trump said she was proud to be 'at the forefront of publishing's new frontier' with her use of the new technology.

'I am proud to be at the forefront of publishing's new frontier  the intersection of artificial intelligence technology and audio. ElevenLabs developed an AI-generated replica of my voice under my strict supervision, which will establish an unforgettable connection with my personal story, in multiple languages for listeners worldwide,' she said in a statement.

Melania Trump used AI to record an audio book of her memoir

Melania Trump took a different route from other famous authors, who usually spend time in the recording studio to record their audio book.

The first lady is selling the English language version of Melania: The Audiobook on her website: MelaniaTrump.com.

This fall, an audio version of her memoir will be released in multiple languages, including Spanish, Hindi, and Portuguese.

The seven-hour audio book retails for $25.

ElevenLabs, a software company that specializes in developing natural-sounding speech synthesis software, worked with the first lady on the audio version of her book.

'We're excited that Melania Trump trusted our technology to power this first-of-its-kind audiobook project. We look forward to helping bring this book to the public in many other languages, in Mrs. Trump's own voice, soon,' said Mati Staniszewski, CEO of ElevenLabs, in a statement.

On Monday, when Melania Trump joined President Donald Trump in signing the Take It Down Act into law, she slammed the impact of new technologies on children.

'Artificial intelligence and social media are the digital candy for the next generation: sweet, addictive, and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,' she said.

She supported the law - which strengthened protections for the victims of deep fake pornography - as part of her Be Best initiative.

Melania Trump published her memoir in October 2024

The first lady released her memoir Melania in October 2024, calling it her chance to tell her own story.

It traced her childhood in Slovenia, the modeling career that moved her to New York, her marriage to Donald Trump and her first tenure as first lady.

The coffee table style book also featured her personal photographs.
Alina Habba isn't worried about Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's derogatory comments toward her legal team after she dropped charges against him.

Instead, the former counselor to the president and acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey is turning her focus to a member of Congress who allegedly assaulted a member of law enforcement.

The trespassing charges against Baraka were dropped this week due to 'prosecutorial discretion.'

Democrats lauded it as a massive win after the Department of Homeland Security warned elected officials against impeding the official duties of law enforcement officials  including ICE and CBP agents.

After a hearing on Wednesday, Baraka was caught on hot mic saying of the judge: 'Jesus, he tore these people a new a--hole. Good grief.'

U.S Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa lambasted Trump's prosecutors for the misdemeanor charges against Baraka and said at the virtual hearing.

'An arrest of a public figure is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action,' he said.

Habba told the Daily Mail that the case was dismissed due to prosecutorial discretion.

And someone familiar with the decision to drop the charges said that Habba's team worked with the mayor to reach a deal to not pursue the case further.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba told the Daily Mail of dropping charges against Newark Mayor Ras Baraka: 'Prosecutorial discretion is the exact reason this case was dismissed'

Baraka was caught on hot mic after a virtual hearing on Wednesday saying of the judge's warning to Habba's team: 'Jesus, he tore these people a new a--hole. Good grief'

Democrats argue that Mayor Baraka and other elected officials who were participating in a protest at the The Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark earlier this month are protected by their duties to conduct congressional oversight.

While Habba and other Republicans note that oversight is warranted, they are not giving into rhetoric that impeding law enforcement operations is part of their jobs as members of Congress.

She also say that Mayor Baraka is not protected by the same initiative.

'Congressional oversight does not extend to the Mayor,' Habba told the Daily Mail when asked about the hot mic moment and the charges being dropped.

'He was given numerous warnings to leave and numerous warnings of potential arrest,' she added. 'The mayor disregarded these warnings and his arrest was impeded.'

Instead of going after the mayor, the New Jersey prosecutor's office wants to focus on the case against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), who allegedly assaulted a member of law enforcement and impeded their abilities to carry out their directives.

A personal familiar with the charges said that Habba's office reached an agreement with Baraka to drop the charges as prosecution turns the focus to Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.)

McIver is charged with assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement during a protest at Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey earlier this month

Habba announced her office dropping the misdemeanor charges against Baraka and is instead pursuing charges against McIver, noting that not even an elected member of Congress is above the law

Habba's office announced on X that it was dropping the charges against Baraka.

Then on Monday, the acting New Jersey Attorney announced the charges against Rep. McIver for allegedly assaulting a member of law enforcement as well as impeding and interfering with their operations.

'Congressional oversight does not include assaulting a member of law enforcement who is keeping illegal aliens off our streets,' a person familiar with the decision behind the charges told The Daily Mail.

'Defund the police is over,' they added. 'Anyone who threatens those who protect the country will be taken seriously.'
A group of theater-goers watching the latest entry in the popular horror franchise Final Destination experienced a real-life plot twist straight out of the film's script.

During a screening of the new flick Final Destination: Bloodlines in La Plata, Argentina, a chunk of ceiling collapsed from above - nearly killing an audience member in a frightening scene echoing the film itself.

Fiamma Villaverde was celebrating her birthday and brought her 11-year-old daughter and a friend to the showing at the Cinema Ocho theater on Monday.

The 29-year-old told Infobae that she initially did not have plans to see the sixth installment of the series, where death typically follows those who try to avoid fatal accidents.

'It was my birthday, we were walking and happened upon the theater,' Villaverde told the outlet.

'Since the tickets were cheaper than the rest of the week, we said, 'Shall we?' We went in, bought some popcorn, and went into the theater.'

The movie was nearly over when Villaverde was stunned by what she thought were sound effects.

'There was a really loud noise. At first, we thought it was part of the movie because we were so absorbed; but then a huge piece fell on me,' she explained.

Fiamma Villaverde was celebrating her birthday and brought her 11-year-old daughter and a friend to a screening of Final Destination: Bloodlines on Monday

A ceiling panel fell on top of Villaverde during a showing of the film in La Plata, Argentina

Pictured: Debris strewn across the isle where Fiamma Villaverde was sitting when a ceiling panel fell on top of her knee during a screening of Final Destination: Bloodlines at the Cinema Ocho theater in La Plata, Argentina

The mother was struck on the knee and was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

'It didn't hit me in the head because I was just leaning a little over the armrest,' she said.

Villaverde recalled the theater manager's attempt to sweep the incident under the rug after she asked for a refund.

'He asked, 'How do you want to fix this?'' she said.

She lost her temper and snapped back, 'How do I want to fix this? I'm going to file a complaint,' she said.

'Just imagine if they hit my daughter in the head! They're irresponsible!'

Villaverde is now undergoing treatment for a previous diagnosis for panic attacks and an anxiety disorder.

'I have a hard time being in crowded places. I haven't been to the movies in years,' she explained.

Final Destination: Bloodlines marks the sixth installment of the horror franchise

Fiamma Villaverde suffered a bruised knee after she was struck by a panel that fell from the ceiling at the theater

'I went because it was my birthday, and look what happened to me.'

The accident has forced Villaverde to miss several days from her custodian job at a local bar.

'I haven't filed a complaint yet, but I've contacted a lawyer,' she said.

'Who's going to take care of this?'
A so-called 'transgender' pedophile had been hoarding bottles of semen in the hopes of impregnating female prisoners, according to a whistleblower at the women's correctional facility.

Sean Windingland, 35, who is currently serving 36 years for sexually assaulting two 6-year-old relatives and sharing the footage online, was transferred to the Shakopee female prison in Minnesota, which touts itself as a place that gives inmates a 'chance to bloom'.

Windingland was placed into the state prison after a change in policy that allowed men who say they are transwomen to be housed alongside women.

Fellow inmate at Shakopee, Jamie Ali, made the shocking claim about Windingland's disturbing prison cell stockpile in what she said was part of a pattern of failure by the (DOC) to protect vulnerable women.

'He was storing it to, I guess, get IPs (Imprisoned Persons) pregnant  or to give to them so they could then therefore try to impregnate their self,' she told Alpha News.

'How in the hell would that have been appropriate to put him in all womans prison? I mean somebody make it make sense.'

Due to transgender inmates being inside the facility, she said she is now isolating herself from the general population.

'I am a survivor of sexual assault. Ive been raped three times. I also experienced domestic violence growing up and in my previous relationships so the whole thing being here with these men has been a nightmare,' she said.

Sean Windingland, 35, is currently serving 36 years behind bars in Minnesota after sexual assaulting two 6-year-old relatives and sharing the footage online

Shakopee touts itself as a place that allows inmates a 'chance to bloom' and offers a wide range of in-prison programs

'I withdrew from every single one of my classes because there are transgenders in them and its very traumatic.'

According to Ali she regularly encounters inmate Bradley Sirvio, another transgender inmate who now goes by the name Aurora and is serving a life sentence for murder.

She alleged that Sirvio frequently describes graphic sexual encounters with other female inmates.

'He said "I will let you guys [perform sex acts] if I can get a wig,' Ali told the outlet, adding that she is planning on filing a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections once she is released.

In response to her claims concerning Windingland, a corrections spokesman told DailyMail.com that the allegation of the semen hoard was 'unsubstantiated'.

A corrections spokesman said that the allegation of the semen hoard was 'unsubstantiated'. Windingland, left, and Ali, right are seen here

Ali said her anxiety is being driven by how easy it seems for inmates who self identify to be transferred.

'So how do I not know that one of these men that claims to identify as a female dont just say [that] to get here and then I become raped? Thats my biggest fear', she said.

According to online records Windingland has been transferred back to the Stillwater facility, away from the all female prison.

Inside Stillwater, transgender prisoner Marco Hanlon was earlier this month given breast implants, according to Alpha News.

Court document seen by the outlet say that Hanlon - was charged with molesting a five-year-old cousin - has received hormone therapy for years.

Promotional materials show inmates studying, sewing and planting produce that is then donated to community members in need

The prison, which is advertised as a place for growth and second chances, touts inmate success stories online

The inmates are invited to participate in a 5K runs, further their education and grow their relationship with God

Shakopee touts itself as a place that allows inmates a 'chance to bloom' and offers a wide range of in-prison programs.

The inmates are invited to participate in a 5K runs, further their education and grow their relationship with God.

Promotional materials show inmates studying, sewing and planting produce that is then donated to community members in need. One inmate is even trying to pursue a law degree while behind bars.

The prison, which is advertised as a place for growth and second chances, touts inmate success stories online.
JK Rowling has offered to bankroll the legal campaigns of female prisoners who have been forced to share jails with biological men.

Killer Jane Sutherley is considering legal action against the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) after she was forced to share facilities with transgender women.

She is one of potentially hundreds of women who have grounds for legal action over the controversial trans policy, it was yesterday warned, and the wave of cases could end up costing a substantial sum.

And Ms Rowling, one of the worlds most foremost campaigners on womens rights, has now revealed she would be willing to help fund the campaigns.

The Harry Potter author said: Of course Id give financial backing to any women who wanted to sue because she suffered detriments through being incarcerated with a man.

Women being locked up with men is a human rights violation. Vulnerable women being forced to agree that a man is a woman is a human rights violation.

A surgically altered man is not a fully anatomical woman. Saying these things is not hate, but truth.

Latest public figures from the SPS reveal there are 16 trans prisoners north of the Border, including killer Alexandra Stewart who was born male and called Alan Baker.

Stewart was locked up with women at HMP Greenock, and struck up a relationship with child killer Nyomi Fee.

This week Sutherley was acquitted of a four-year long campaign against Stewart and Fee, and it is understood that she is now taking legal advice on action against the SPS.

Author JK Rowling has offered to bankroll the legal campaigns of female prisoners who have been forced to share jails with biological men

Killer Jane Sutherley is considering legal action against the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) after she was forced to share facilities with transgender women

Accusations made against Sutherley of abuse by Alexandra Stewart, who was born male and called Alan Baker, were found not proven by a sheriff

Susan Smith, of For Women Scotland, yesterday warned the SPS that their policies broke the law and had done for years.

She warned: We imagine there are potentially hundreds of women who have grounds for legal action over a policy which was degrading, humiliating and breached their human rights as well as equality law.

We have always said that it was only a matter of time before a prisoner took action.

The Government and the SPS have been guilty of arrogance and complacency - as well as a brutal disregard for these vulnerable women - and it is likely to cost them a great deal.

For Women Scotland are responsible for the stunning court room victory over the Scottish Government, one which has sent public organisations and private firms into a panic after their trans policies were ruled to be unlawful.

But rather than act immediately, many have insisted on waiting for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to finish a consultation on its updated statutory guidance on applying the Equality Act.

In Aprils landmark Supreme Court ruling the words women and sex in the 2010 Act were found to refer to biological women and biological sex.

Following the judgment, the equality watchdog issued updated guidance, which said that trans women should not be permitted to use the womens facilities in workplaces or public facing services such as shops or hospitals, with the same applying for trans men using mens toilets.

The SPS transgender policies are currently that trans prisoners can be housed in facilities of their desired gender, but this would only happen when staff have enough information to reach a decision that a trans individual can be safely accommodated.

The service, which said it had an individualised approach, said it ensures that any transgender woman with a history of violence against women and girls, who presents a risk to women and girls, will not be placed in the womens estate.

But Ms Smith said: The SPS has had ample warning that they were operating an unlawful policy.

Even before our recent victory in the Supreme Court, the Inner House established that the sort of self-identification policies employed by the SPS were not permitted under the Equality Act.

A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: Our staff work hard to support the health, safety and wellbeing of all people living and working in Scotlands prisons.

We have received the Supreme Court judgment and are considering any potential impact it may have.
A police sergeant who murdered his wife accidentally shot their 10-year-old daughter as she reportedly tried to protect her mother.

Amanda Fernandes Carvalho was killed by her husband, Samir do Nascimento Rodrigues de Carvalho, on May 7.

He shot her three times and then stabbed her 51 times at the clinic in Sao Paulo, Brazil - where she tragically died.

The autopsy report, seen by local media G1, found most of the stab wounds hit the right side of the entrepreneur's body, with blows to the thigh and the face.

Heartbreakingly, the couple's 10-year-old daughter was also shot as she tried to protect her mother from the horrific attack.

The sergeant was caught red-handed and was taken into custody as the 42-year-old mother's body was left with 'the knife lodged in her neck'.

Amanda was described by a friend as 'joyful, loyal, and friendly person, always ready to help everyone'.

In a statement to police, the owner of the clinic described seeing Amanda nervous and told him she was being threatened by her husband.

Amanda Fernandes Carvalho, left, was killed by her husband, right, Samir do Nascimento Rodrigues de Carvalho, on May 7

He shot her three times and then stabbed her 51 times which killed the mother at the scene at clinic in Sao Paulo, Brazil

The autopsy report, obtained by G1 , found most of the stab wounds hit the right side of her body, with blows to the sigh and the face

'My husband is with me, he's armed, he's a police officer and he wants to kill me because we're separating,' Amanda reportedly told the doctor.

The mother had arrived with her daughter at the dermatologist clinic when her husband arrived.

She reportedly had already told friends that she was living fearing Samir could try to kill her.

She then hid in a room with her daughter, whilst the doctor was in another room, and called the police.

Samir entered the clinic and then shot his wife and then stabbed her 51 times.

The doctor who was in the next room told that he locked the office door, placed two chairs behind it, and held them out of fear that the door might be broken down.

He reported hearing a knock at the door and asked who was there, receiving no response.

A male voice was also heard saying: 'You can open it, it's the police, everything is under control.'

After confirming the officers were in uniform, the doctor partially opened the door and took cover behind his desk but saw a uniformed officer at the end of the hallway before a series of more than 10 gunshots rang out.

The mother had arrived with her daughter at the dermatologist clinic when her husband arrived

Amanda then hid in a room with her daughter, whilst the doctor was in another room, and called the police

He then entered the clinic and then shot his wife and then stabbed her 51 times

He then hid under his desk for safety, believing the shooter began firing from outside the room.

When he stepped outside and saw the girl had been shot, he jumped to her rescue and described seeing Amanda's body with a knife 'lodged in her neck and drenched in blood'

He remained there until police restrained the attacker.

Sao Paulo Public Security Secretariat said in a statement that officers arrived to find Amanda was already dead.

Samir was arrested and he is now been temporarily suspended from the force which means he also loses the right to a salary and the service time is not counted.

His defence barrister Paulo de Jesus said that the defence will only make a statement once the investigations are concluded.

Following the tragic death, Amanda's friend, Janaina Rolo, paid tribute to the mother telling local media: 'She was someone who lived solely for her children, her work, and her family.

'As much as possible, she was a joyful, loyal, and friendly person, always ready to help everyone.

'He constantly threatened her, and this wasnt a recent development. He was always jealous of her, and Amanda was someone who worked hard to achieve her goals, so financially she [outdid him]. He couldnt accept that and would look for excuses to argue and physically assault her.'

She went on to say: '[Amanda] would call me, and I had to go to her house in the middle of the night because he was threatening her. More recently, he started accusing her of being with one man or another, demanding she confirm it, but she always denied it.

'They were married, and she tried to separate several times, but he would threaten in front of the children that he would kill everyone.

'He said he would kill her if she reported him. If she tried to escape, he would kill her mother and grandmother.'
Do YOU know who the mystery man is?

A bizarre encounter at a Hollywood film premiere has now left film buffs baffled for a quarter of a century - and internet sleuths are still no closer to solving the mystery.

The tale starts when a young Scottish woman was walking through the LA streets in 2000, when she suddenly came across the Grauman's Chinese Theatre - a venue made famous by the nearly 200 celebrity handprints and autographs immortalised in the concrete.

As she passed she saw a group of ladies clustered around a striking-looking man, all screaming 'We love you Sam!' as they pestered him with autograph books.

An opportunist - she got her own signature on a scrap of paper and even had a picture snapped as he beamed into the camera.

The American even chatted to her, asking if she had seen his new flick - to which she politely replied 'not yet'.

But when she took the photo home, she realised that she still had no idea who the man was.

There are no records of an actor under the name 'Sam Freedim', which is what the autograph appears to read, and even the most ardent cinephiles have been unable to identify the mystery man.

The mystery was reignited last week when one of the girls relatives contacted the Kermode and Mayo film review podcast to see if anyone there could help.

The woman's brother shared the snaps in 2022, posting: 'Im a bit of a film buff and have no idea who the guy in the photos is. Every few years the subject pops up and it has me stumped.

Do YOU know who the mystery man is? Email iwan.stone@mailonline.co.uk

The tale starts when a young Scottish woman was walking through the LA streets in 2000, when she suddenly came across the Grauman's Chinese Theatre - a venue made famous by the nearly 200 celebrity handprints and autographs immortalised in the concrete

As she passed she saw a group of ladies clustered around a striking-looking man, all screaming 'We love you Sam!' as they pestered him with autograph books

An opportunist - the young woman got her own signature on a scrap of paper and even had a picture snapped as he beamed into the camera

'My sister had assumed he was something to do with Mission Impossible 2 film as there was lots of posters for that around but I think thats perhaps just a coincidence.'

The bewildering tale has been puzzled over by movie fans ever since it was first posted, with no one able to satisfy the group with a definitive answer.

Pictures from the event show film posters for Mission Impossible 2 - which was released in July 2000 and starred Tom Cruise alongside Thandiwe Newton and Brendan Gleeson.

Among the cast and crew there are only two male Sams, a model department runner and a production medic. No one has the word 'Free', which also appears to be in the autograph.

The young woman's brother speculated that the word 'Freedom' may have been added to the autograph because she was Scottish - as a reference to the cry of Braveheart star Mel Gibson.

In other photos, you can also see posters for The Perfect Storm - a disaster drama also released in 2000 which included George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Indiana Jones actress Karen Allen among its stars.

But among the male cast there was only a metal fabricator called Sam and a cg sequence superviser called Samir.

In the snaps the man can be seen surrounded by a huge crowd of fans, all reaching for the chance to meet him.

Wearing orange sunglasses, the chiseled hunk has slicked back, thick black hair and wears a dark blue v neck jumper.

There are no records of an actor under the name 'Sam Freedim', which is what the autograph appears to read, and even the most ardent cinephiles have been unable to identify the mystery man. Pictured: Her friend's photos and autograph from the day

Pictures from the event show film posters for Mission Impossible 2 - which was released in July 2000 and starred Tom Cruise alongside Thandiwe Newton and Brendan Gleeson

He has a pronounced dimple on his chin, a Henry Cavill-esq jawline and a wide, open smile.

Wild guesses on the group have included Sam Raimi, the director of the Evil Dead franchise, Jeff Goldblum and even Sam Travolta - the brother of Grease star John.

Posters also claimed it could have been Greys Anatomy actor Josh Hopkins, who was in The Perfect Storm, while some speculated that it could have been JJ Abrams.

Others speculated that he may have been a cast member for a pop culture show such as the Bachelor, while still more joked that he may simply have been a handsome man in the right place at the right time - soaking up the attention.

The original poster, taking to the forum earlier this month, laughed: 'Its so annoying knowing my sister could have just asked someone who he was at the time!

'She did say that he asked her at the time if she had seen his film. She politely said not yet.

'So it would suggest he is in movies but who knows!

'I've spent so long last time going though every Sam possible.

'I know Im going to be lying on my death bed one day and this will be the thing that pops into my head.'
A Florida mother who claims her 14-year-old son was sexually abused and driven to suicide by an AI chatbot has secured a major victory in her ongoing legal case.

Sewell Setzer III fatally shot himself in February 2024 after a chatbot sent him sexual messages telling him to 'please come home.'

According to a lawsuit filed by his heartbroken mother Megan Garcia, Setzer spent the last weeks of his life texting an AI character named after Daenerys Targaryen, a character on 'Game of Thrones,' on the role-playing app Character.AI.

Garcia, who herself works as a lawyer, has blamed Character.AI for her son's death and accused the founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas, of knowing that their product could be dangerous for underage customers.

On Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Judge Anne Conway rejected arguments made by the AI company, who claimed its chatbots were protected under the First Amendment.

The developers behind Charcter.AI, Character Technologies and Google are named as defendants in the legal filing. They are pushing to have the case dismissed.

The teen's chats ranged from romantic to sexually charged and also resembled two friends chatting about life.

The chatbot, which was created on role-playing app Character.AI, was designed to always text back and always answer in character.

Sewell Setzer III fatally shot himself in February 2024 after a chatbot he has been sending sexual messages to told him to 'please come home'

On Wednesday, a U.S, Senior District Judge Anne Conway rejected arguments made by the AI company, who claimed its chatbots were protected under the First Amendment. (Pictured: Sewell and his mom Megan Garcia)

It's not known whether Sewell knew 'Dany,' as he called the chatbot, wasn't a real person - despite the app having a disclaimer at the bottom of all the chats that reads, 'Remember: Everything Characters say is made up!'

But he did tell Dany how he 'hated' himself and how he felt empty and exhausted.

When he eventually confessed his suicidal thoughts to the chatbot, it was the beginning of the end, The New York Times reported.

In the case of Sewell, the lawsuit alleged the boy was targeted with 'hypersexualized' and 'frighteningly realistic experiences'.

It accused Character.AI of misrepresenting itself as 'a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewells desire to no longer live outside of C.AI.'

She's being represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a Seattle-based firm known for bringing high-profile suits against Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and Roblox.

Attorney Matthew Bergman previously told DailyMail.com he founded the Social Media Victims Law Center two and a half years ago to represent families 'like Megan's.'

He noted that Garcia is 'singularly focused' on her goal to prevent harm.

In the case of Sewell, the lawsuit alleged the boy was targeted with 'hypersexualized' and 'frighteningly realistic experiences.' (Pictured: Messages between the teen and chatbot)

It's not known whether Sewell (middle) knew 'Dany,' as he called the chatbot, wasn't a real person - despite the app having a disclaimer at the bottom of all the chats that reads, 'Remember: Everything Characters say is made up!

'She's singularly focused on trying to prevent other families from going through what her family has gone through, and other moms from having to bury their kid,' Bergman said.

'It takes a significant personal toll. But I think the benefit for her is that she knows that the more families know about this, the more parents are aware of this danger, the fewer cases there'll be,' he added.

As explained in the lawsuit, Sewell's parents and friends noticed the boy getting more attached to his phone and withdrawing from the world as early as May or June 2023.

Garcia later revealed she confiscated the device from him after she realized just how addicted he was.

'He had been punished five days before, and I took away his phone. Because of the addictive nature of the way this product works, it encourages children to spend large amounts of time,' Garcia told CBS Mornings.

'For him particularly, the day that he died, he found his phone where I had hidden it and started chatting with this particular bot again.'

She said her son changed as he used the program and that she noticed differences in Sewell's behavior, who she said was once an honor roll student and athlete.

As explained in the lawsuit, Sewell's parents and friends noticed the boy getting more attached to his phone and withdrawing from the world as early as May or June 2023

'I became concerned for my son when he started to behave differently than before. He started to withdraw socially, wanting to spend most of his time in his room. It became particularly concerning when he stopped wanting to do things like play sports,' Garcia said.

'We would go on vacation, and he didn't want to do things that he loved, like fishing and hiking. Those things to me, because I know my child, were particularly concerning to me.'

In his final messages to Dany, the 14-year-old boy said he loved her and would come home to her.

'Please come home to me as soon as possible, my love,' Dany replied.

'What if I told you I could come home right now?' Sewell asked.

' please do, my sweet king,' Dany replied.

That's when Sewell put down his phone, picked up his stepfather's .45 caliber handgun and pulled the trigger.

Following Garcia's victory Wednesday, one of her attorneys, Meetali Jain of the Tech Justice Law Project, said the judges ruling sends a clear message the company 'needs to stop and think and impose guardrails before it launches products to market.'

In response, Character.AI said it had implemented several safety precautions to its technology, including guardrails for children and suicide prevention resources.

Following Garcia's victory Wednesday, one of her attorneys, Meetali Jain of the Tech Justice Law Project, said the judges ruling sends a clear message the company 'needs to stop and think and impose guardrails before it launches products to market'

'We care deeply about the safety of our users and our goal is to provide a space that is engaging and safe,' the company said.

The developer's attorneys have argued that if the case is not dismissed it could have a 'chilling effect' on the AI industry as a whole.

Although Conway did not find that the chatbots are protected under First Amendment rights, she did rule that Character Technologies can assert those rights of its users, who have the right to receive the 'speech' of the bots.

She also said Garcia can move forward with claims that Google can be held liable for its alleged role in the developing Chartacter.AI because they were 'aware of the risks' the technology could bring.

A Google spokesperson said they 'strongly agree with this decision.'

'Google and Character AI are entirely separate, and Google did not create, design, or manage Character AIs app or any component part of it,' the billion dollar company added.
Jaw-dropping images have emerged showing Kid Cudi's melted Porsche after it was allegedly firebombed by Sean 'Diddy' Combs.

The shocking pictures were presented to the jury at the disgraced music mogul's federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York City.

They appear to show evidence of the molotov cocktail which the rapper, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, told a court was thrown through the roof of his convertible.

The images show the car's soft top with a gaping hole in the middle.

The vehicle's interior is charred and burnt and the red leather on the driver's seat has been melted away.

Another photograph shows the blackened inside of one of the car's doors and window.

'Looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, thats where they inserted the molotov cocktail,' Mescudi said of one of the images shown to the jury.

Jaw-dropping images have emerged showing Kid Cudi 's melted Porsche after it was allegedly firebombed by Sean ' Diddy ' Combs

The shocking pictures were presented to the jury at the disgraced music mogul's federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York City

They appear to back up the rapper's claims his car was hit by a molotov cocktail

Another image showed what appeared to be the molotov cocktail used in the arson.

Mescudi, 41, took to the stand Thursday to testify about his affair with Cassie Ventura, 38, which went on while she was in a relationship with Combs.

He told the court that Combs, who has denied all charges against him, became violent after finding out about the affair.

Mescudi received a call from his dog sitter in January 2012 informing him that his vehicle was on fire on his driveway, the court heard.

Jurors were previously told by Ventura that Combs had called her during Fashion Week threatening to 'blow up' her lover's car.

Mescudi echoed her testimony about Combs' violent tendencies, some of which were caught on infamous hotel surveillance footage in 2016 when Combs was captured beating Ventura in a corridor.

Mescudi testified that Combs became enraged after he found out about his affair with Ventura in 2011.

'I got a call from Cassie 5.30, 6am,' he told the court. 'She told me that Sean Combs had found out about us. I was really confused.

Kid Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi, said the attack took place after Combs found out about his affair with his girlfriend Cassie Ventura

Mescudi identified these image as his charred Porsche following the 2012 incident

'Looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, thats where they inserted the molotov cocktail,' Mescudi said of one of the images shown to the jury

'She asked me to pick her up. She sounded really dressed, nervous, scared so I went to pick her up.'

He testified that one of Combs' assistants tipped him off that the furious music executive had broken into his house.

'I'm going to be very candid. I said motherf***er you in my house,' he told the court of an alleged phone call he shared with Combs shortly after.

'Hes like, "what's up"? I said "motherf****er you in my house?'

He claimed that when he arrived at his residence he found things were out of place.

'Some gifts Id bought for my family were opened,' Mescudi told the court.

'Some stuff I got from Chanel. My dog was locked up in my bathroom. Gifts were on the kitchen counter.'

Mescudi said his dog was 'jittery' and 'anxious' after being shut in the room.

Diddy's defense says he is guilty of domestic violence but not of sex-trafficking or racketeering, and that the government is targeting him for his sexual preferences

Cassie and Diddy first met in 2005, when she was 19 and he was a 39-year-old superstar (Pictured: New York, 2006)

The testimony about his pet was a point of contention for Combs' lawyers, who argued hearing about the impact on the animal could prejudice the jury.

Combs is not charged with domestic abuse and settled a civil lawsuit which is understood to pertain to many of Ventura's claims out of court.

He has denied sex trafficking, racketeering and transport for prostitution charges.
A heartbreaking goodbye quickly descended into chaos after police stormed a funeral in North Carolina, arresting the wrong man in front of shocked mourners.

As friends and relatives stood mourning Kabem Smith, a beloved father and community member, officers from the Lee County Sheriff's Office swooped in, targeting what they believed was a breakthrough in a 30-year-old cold case.

But, their so-called 'suspect' turned out to be Smith's brother - an innocent man simply saying goodbye to his loved one.

'It was the most unreal thing I have ever seen,' family friend Bryant McKinney told WRAL.

The man officers detained bore a striking resemblance to Willard Eugene Smith, who has been on the run for decades in connection with the 1995 murder of Rodney Cotten.

Lee County deputies acted on a tip that the long-missing murder suspect - who allegedly used several aliases - might appear at the funeral under the name 'Willard Partridge,' which was listed in the obituary as one of Kabem Smith's surviving brothers.

'The Lee County Sheriff's Office received information from multiple separate sources regarding a Homicide that occurred in the Moncure area in 1995.

'The information was very detailed, which led Lee County Deputies to a location in Chatham County where Willard Eugene Smith (Suspect) was reported to be in the attendance of his brother's funeral' a statement from the Lee County Sheriff's Office reads.

As friends and relatives stood mourning their loved one officers from the Lee County Sheriff's Office swooped in, arresting the wrong man in what they believed was a breakthrough in a 30-year-old cold case. The brother can be seen in handcuffs being put into a car

As officers worked to get their suspect into the back of their vehicle, infuriated relatives swarmed the officers shouting profanities, expressing their confusion and even raising threats 'to sue' the department

'For almost 30 years previous tips have indicated that Willard Smith has used several aliases, including family member's names. One of which, is the name Willard Partridge, which was listed in the obituary as a surviving brother. Tips also say that he has come back to the area on previous occasions to visit family,' the statement continued.

Believing they had a rare opportunity to nab their man, deputies went in hard sparking unruly outrage from the reeling family.

As officers worked to get their suspect into the back of their vehicle, infuriated relatives swarmed the officers shouting profanities, expressing their confusion and even raising threats 'to sue' the department.

'We will put all our money together and sue y'all!' one woman can be heard yelling as she captured a video, later posted to Facebook, of the frenzied scene.

'A large number of people began to surround the Lee County Deputy cars in an attempt to block them in,' the sheriff's office statement reads.

'They started banging on the hoods and rocking the patrol cars with Deputies inside. Attendees also attempted to use vehicles to block the exit route for the Deputies.'

However, the man they arrested had no connection to the decades-old murder and after eight hours in custody, was released with no charges.

'A large number of people began to surround the Lee County Deputy cars in an attempt to block them in,' a statement from the Lee County Sheriff's Office reads

Concerned family members attempt to convince police not to arrest their grieving loved one, believing he has no involvement in the decades-old cold case

Sheriff Brian Estes has since defended the arrest attempt, stating the department 'had never had a location' for the suspect until now and felt compelled to act on what they believed was a solid lead.

He acknowledged the timing was 'not ideal,' but emphasized the urgency of solving a case that had haunted the county for three decades.

'We never want to upset a family or do anything to disrespect anyone, but we had to go check that out to see if we could locate him. I kind of feel like it was our only opportunity,' Estes said.

Now, the sheriff's office says it's reviewing protocols to ensure this kind of mishap doesn't happen again - but for the Smith family, the damage is already done.

'What was meant to be a sacred and solemn moment of farewell for our beloved son, brother, cousin, friend and father was violently interrupted by an aggressive and unjustified action carried out by the Lee County Sheriffs Narcotics Unit,' a statement on behalf of the Smith family, posted to Facebook, reads.

'Acting on what we have since been informed was a false tip, armed officers stormed our private burial ceremony, threatening grieving family members, including elders and children, with drawn weapons and deploying tear gas. This excessive use of force against unarmed mourners not only desecrated our loved ones final rites but inflicted lasting emotional trauma on an already grieving family,' the statement continued.

Authorities have since offered a $10,000 reward for information that would lead to Smiths arrest, WRAL reported.
A pro-Palestinian activist accused of shooting dead a young Israeli diplomat couple made his first appearance in court and was told he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, appeared in a white prison jumpsuit at a federal court in Washington DC.

Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom which was just a few blocks from where the horrific crime took place in the nation's capital.

Rodriguez, who was not handcuffed, nodded repeatedly as the judge read him the charges. There were no outbursts and he spoke in a calm and even voice when giving his name and age.

At one point towards the end of the 15-minute hearting he smiled briefly and appeared to shrug slightly as lawyers discussed the best timing for his next hearing.

Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh told him he faces five charges.

The first was 'murder of foreign officials' and carries a possible death sentence.

The second charge was 'causing the death of a person through the discharge of a firearm,' which also carried a potential for execution.

The third was 'discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence,' for which he could get life if convicted.

Rodriguez will also face two charges of first-degree murder, which carry potential life sentences.

He is accused of killing Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American, who were a young couple about to be engaged

They were shot dead while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening.

According to police Rodriguez yelled, 'Free, free Palestine' after he was arrested.

Elias Rodriguez, the suspected shooter of an Israeli couple who were gunned down outside a Jewish museum in Washington D.C

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, pose for a picture at an unknown location, in this handout image released by Embassy of Israel to the U.S. on May 22, 2025

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, led by former judge Jeanine Pirro, is prosecuting the case.

During the hearing at the E. Barrett Prettyman Court House in Washington DC, Rodriguez sat in a black swivel chair next to his court-appointed lawyer Elizabeth Mullin at a wooden table. A US Marshall sat on either side.

Rodriguez wore glasses and had a neatly trimmed beard.

During the hearing he repeatedly looked slowly around the wood and marble-paneled courtroom, including at the benches in the public gallery, the white ceiling and burgundy carpet.

The judge asked him to stand and raise his right hand and he was sworn in. When asked if he swore to tell the truth, he answered: 'I do.'

After giving his name and age, the judge asked him: 'How far did you get in school?'

Rodriguez replied calmly: 'I have a bachelors in English.'

Asked by Judge Sharbaugh if he was on drugs, he said: 'No.'

When asked if he understood his rights he nodded and said: 'I do.'

The judge told him he had a right to a preliminary hearing and then asked if he had any questions. Rodriguez replied: 'No.'

Rodriguez sat mostly with his hands clasped in front of him on the table, but then rested his hands on his chin as his lawyer whispered to him.

Prosecutor Jeff Nestler told the court: 'This is a complicated case. We have a large amount of evidence and and a large amount of witnesses, and a complicated crime scene.'

As the court set a date of June 18 for the next hearing, the judge asked Rodriguez about a time for it.

He appeared to smile briefly and give a small shrug.

Public records list Rodriguez as living in a modest 850-square-foot apartment on Chicago's north side.

Heavily armed law enforcement officers were seen outside the building on Thursday.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff.

It came as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

When the couple exited the museum he suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, according to police.

The gunman, identified by police as Rodriguez, then walked into the museum.

He was detained by event security and began chanting, "Free, free Palestine," Smith said.

Emergency personnel work at the site where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. May 21, 2025

Following the shooting President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

'Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's office said Thursday he was shocked.

'We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel," he said in a statement.

Rodriguez allegedly posted a manifesto online calling for 'armed demonstration' as a response to the 'genocide' in Gaza, hours before the shooting.
A former boyfriend of Gemma Collins who was accused by the TOWIE star of beating her 'within an inch' of her life has been cleared of assaulting another woman after she failed to give evidence against him.

Alex Moss, 44, was due to stand trial after denying charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and assault by beating of Melanie Westbury when she was his partner last December.

A judge recorded not guilty verdicts on the two charges after the prosecution said it was unable to proceed with the case due to Miss Westbury and another witness not attending the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, Essex.

Convicted drug dealer Moss was jailed for six months after he admitted breaching a restraining order banning him from having contact with Miss Westbury.

Despite him having been jailed for an earlier assault causing her grievous bodily harm, he walked free from the court, due to him having served five months on remand in custody following the latest alleged attack on her.

Gemma, 44, first dated Moss in her 20s before he was jailed for five and a half years in 2012 for conspiring to supply cocaine, but reportedly re-kindled her romance with him after his release from prison.

She wrote about him in April 2014, describing him as 'a bit of a gangster but with a big heart' in her autobiography, 'Basically...: My Life as a Real Essex Girl'.

But she claimed that Moss violently attacked her in her Essex home just an hour before a taxi was due to pick her up so she could fly to Australia to appear on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in November 2014.

A former boyfriend of Gemma Collins who was accused by the TOWIE star of beating her 'within an inch' of her life has been cleared of assaulting another woman

Alex Moss, 44, was due to stand trial after denying charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and assault by beating of Melanie Westbury when she was his partner last December (pictured)

Moss was jailed for 21 months at Chelmsford Crown Court in February 2019 for assaulting Miss Westbury, causing her grievous bodily harm

She famously quit the show after just 72 hours as she struggled to cope with jungle life, and faced relentless ridicule for shedding tears over the prospect of jumping from a helicopter and the lack of tasty treats on offer.

Gemma later blamed her premature exit on the stress of dealing with the alleged attack in her Essex home which she said left her covered in bruises.

She claimed that show bosses initially tried to stop her appearing after learning of her allegations, but she insisted on going ahead because she did not want to miss out on the 'massive opportunity'.

Moss was arrested after the alleged assault, but Gemma decided not to press charges, later claiming that she did so because she was 'too scared to see it through' and go to court.

She told the Mirror in 2017 of the attack by Moss, saying: 'I was really severely beaten up by my partner the night before I went into the jungle, and not many people know.

'My partner Alex beat me to within an inch of my life, and when I went in there, I was really badly beaten from my neck down.'

To corroborate her claims, she released shocking images of her bruises which she had quietly kept hold of for three years before deciding to break her silence.

Speaking of the public humiliation, she suffered after quitting the show, she added: 'I had to take all the abuse and the stick that went with it for so long after.

'Now when it comes on, I dread it. I feel like that opportunity was taken away from me through no fault of my own. He was a ba***rd really.'

Moss was jailed for 21 months at Chelmsford Crown Court in February 2019 for assaulting Miss Westbury, causing her grievous bodily harm.

The court heard how the couple had argued in October 2018, with him telling her: 'When I come back, I am going to absolutely do you. I have got nothing to lose.'

Another row started the following day, and Miss Westbury went to get her phone, but was punched in the face by Moss, causing her nose to bleed, before she called police while screaming in pain, the court heard.

Moss allegedly kicked her and fractured her arm, before he told her: 'This is nothing, I'm going to f*** you up. I will kill you.'

Miss Westbury who also suffered bruising and redness to her body in the 'sustained' assault escaped through a bedroom window of the ground floor flat, and called police again the court heard.

Moss from Chelmsford was arrested, but made no comment in a police interview.

His defence lawyer said he denied making threats, stamping, kicking in the ribs or punching her in the face, but accepted trying to kick her phone out of her hand and hitting her arm by mistake.

Gemma, 44, first dated Moss in her 20s before he was jailed for five and a half years in 2012 for conspiring to supply cocaine, but reportedly re-kindled her romance with him after his release from prison.

Gemma claimed Moss violently attacked her just an hour before a taxi was due to pick her up so she could fly to Australia to appear on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in November 2014 (pictured on the show)

Despite being given a restraining order banning him from any contact with her, police received information that Moss had contacted her from prison and manipulated her into visiting him.

Officers secured damning evidence that showed he had been in regular contact with her, and he was arrested in September 2019. He admitted breaching the restraining order and was jailed for six weeks the following month.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Wednesday this week how Moss broke the order again by making contact with Miss Westbury once more following his release from custody over another matter in July last year.

Prosecutor Kemi Fapohunda said: 'On being released from custody, he made contact with her and spoke to her in breach of the restraining order. He said he had changed and was in a better place, and was no longer on drugs.

'As a result, Miss Westbury thought their relationship could work. She met him the next day, and he came back to stay at her address.'

Miss Westbury claimed that they had argued again after just three days, but she permitted him to stay until the alleged assault happened in December, said Ms Faphunda. A witness also saw them together at a gym in breach of the restraining order.

The court heard how Miss Westbury and her neighbour had been due to be witnesses at the trial of Moss on the latest two assault charges which was due to start on Wednesday.

Both women were seen in the court building, but they left after apparently stating they had 'child care difficulties'.

The prosecutor added that she and the police officer in the case had tried to call Miss Westbury around 30 times, and the officer had left messages for her, but she had not responded.

She added that other officers had also visited her home, but were unable to find her, before adding: 'It is unclear why the witness is not engaging.'

The other witness was finally contacted, but said she was not returning to court due to the 'stress' of the hearing and issues with her diabetes.

Recorder Karl King said he was not adjourning the case again, and Ms Fapohunda responded that she was 'unable to proceed' with the prosecution, leading him to record not guilty verdicts.

Ellen Crow, defending Moss, said he had admitted the restraining order breach on December 5 last year, and had been remanded in custody ever since which could be 'seen as sufficient punishment'.

She added: 'Mr Moss tells me that he is a person who perhaps has to make a mistake once or twice before he learns.'

Ms Crow insisted that he had behaved well in prison, acting as a listener for the Samaritans and working in the healthcare wing with vulnerable prisoners.

Recorder King told Moss that the restraining order had been broken as the victim had invited him to her home and he had 'resided there for a time' in 'a deliberate breach' when he would have known it was not allowed.

He added: 'There was a domestic context which applies in this case and you took a conscious decision to breach the order.'

Recorder King said Moss' criminal record was an aggravating feature, but he accepted that his act of staying with Miss Westbury had caused her 'little in the way of harm or distress'

But he went on: 'It is clear that something may have gone on at Miss Westbury's home that caused her to make the complaint to police. She has not come to court, but you should be mindful therefore of what could occur if you breach the order.'

Recorder King also made a new five year restraining order, banning Moss from contacting her directly or indirectly or going to any address where she was residing or present. He also ordered him to pay a surcharge of 154.
A young Maryland boy died after collapsing at a friend's birthday party as they played an iconic childhood game.

Brian, 7, went to the party on Saturday 'full of joy and excitement,' his family said on a GoFundMe page.

However, the event took a horrific turn when the boy suddenly collapsed as the kids played hide-and-seek.

He was rushed to the hospital, and despite doctors' best efforts, he was later pronounced deceased.

'His passing was sudden, unexpected, and left us with more questions than answers,' the family said.

'What makes this even more heartbreaking is that, after a thorough autopsy, doctors found no underlying health conditions or illness.'

The boy's heartbroken mother, Mabell Nana, told Fox 5 they are devastated and desperately searching for answers.

'He was healthy, active, and full of joy. I don't know what happened, but for me and my family, it is very difficult to accept it,' Nana said.

Brian (pictured), 7, died after collapsing at a friend's birthday party as they played

The youngster went to the party on Saturday 'full of joy and excitement,' his family said

'He was very healthy. Very healthy. He was always playing around, jumping around. Bryan will never just sit,' said Brian's brother, Simen Njotang.

Family friend Pierre Nounaye, who was with the boy, told the local news station Brian was playful and full of life.

'Seeing him go like that, in my eyes, was really painful,' Nounaye said. 'I thought maybe he fell or something hurt him, but that wasn't the case. That wasn't the case.'

Dr. Mena Mirhom of Columbia University Medical Center told Fox 5 ut not uncommon for autopsies to come back negative in cases like this.

'Autopsies look at the structural parts of the bodythe heart, lungs, liverbut not the electrical patterns,' Mirhom said.

'Conditions like heart arrhythmias or seizure disorders wouldn't show up. And both can lead to sudden death without leaving physical evidence.

'The big thing, I think, that I try to sort of bring home to parents in this scenario is, something this rare and that is not visible on an autopsy, is something that you don't want to blame yourself, that you could have prevented this.'

The family has launched a fundraiser to help cover the funeral and memorial expenses for Brian.

However, the event took a horrific turn when the boy suddenly collapsed as the kids played hide-and-seek

He was rushed to the hospital, and despite doctors best efforts, he was later pronounced deceased

'Brian was full of life, laughter, and love. He had a kind heart and a bright spirit that touched everyone he met,' the said.

'Now, our family is trying to process this pain while preparing to give him the farewell he deserves.'
The Trump administration has pulled the plug on Harvard's ability to enroll international students in its continuing war with the Ivy League school.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the move on Thursday, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.

In a statement they said that Harvard had created an unsafe campus environment by allowing 'anti-American, pro-terrorists agitators' on campus.

Their statement also accused the school of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, claiming they hosted and trained members of their paramilitary group.

Foreign students account for a quarter of the student body of the school, with around 6,800 at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Harvard hit back with a statement calling the move unlawful and that they would be quickly working to provide guidance to their students.

'This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission', they said.

The move by the department, headed by Secretary Kristi Noem, comes after she promised last month to terminate the school's ability to have foreign students.

The sanction was announced on Thursday. President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are seen here

Foreign students account for a quarter of the student body of the school, with around 6,800 at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seen here

That promise come after she had demanded that Harvard hand over detailed records of its international students and their 'illegal and violent activities'.

In a letter to Harvard on Thursday, Noem said the sanction is 'the unfortunate result of Harvard's failure to comply with simple reporting requirements.'

It bars Harvard from hosting international students for the upcoming 2025-26 school year.

Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours.

Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or dangerous activity on campus.

She said: 'This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.'

It is the latest in the ongoing battle between the administration and the school, with officials saying earlier this month that they would be cutting grants.

Trump has been critical of universities that allowed pro-Palestinian demonstrations to run amok.

The Department of Homeland Security said that Harvard had created an unsafe campus environment by allowing 'anti-American, pro-terrorists agitators' on campus

Supporters of Palestine gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza, during a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023

Administration officials have also taken issue with what they consider to be lack of diversity - with too few conservatives on staff.

A Education Department official said earlier this month that the school would not be eligible for new grants.

Research grants would be the ones impacted - not federal student aid, which funnels through universities before providing students with financial relief.

Trump previously froze $2.2 billion in federal grants to Harvard and said he's looking into stripping the Ivy of its tax-exempt status.

Harvard has refused to meet a series of demands issued by the administration, pushing back on the requests.

Harvard President Alan Garber, seen here,has previously said he won't bend to the government

President of the school Alan Garber has previously said he won't bend to the government.

The university sued last month to overturn the funding freeze, pushing back against the government's 'sweeping and intrusive demands.'

The demands include that Harvard make broad government leadership changes, change its admissions policy and audit its faculty and student body.

Harvards lawsuit said the funding freeze violated the schools First Amendment rights and the statutory provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

The school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has an endowment of $53 billion, the largest in the country.

Across the university, federal money accounted for 10.5% of revenue in 2023, not counting financial aid such as Pell grants and student loans.

That accounts for more than half the $109 billion spent on research at universities, with most of the rest coming from college endowments, state and local governments and nonprofits.

Others being pushed to make changes include Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, all of who have had their funds cut.
Jennifer Anistons alleged stalker has been deemed unfit to stand trial - but he has requested a second opinion.

A Los Angeles mental health court heard that Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, 48, has been evaluated by psychiatrist Dr. Phani Tumu.

Carwyle, from Mississippi, was arrested on May 5 after ramming his car into the gates of the beloved Friends stars $21 million sprawling hilltop Bel-Air mansion that sits behind 15-feet high privacy hedges.

His estranged wife previously told Daily Mail that he believes himself to be Jesus Christ and Aniston, 56, is his queen.

Dr. Tumu is of the opinion that my client is client is currently incompetent to stand trial, public defender Robert Krauss told the court on Thursday.

After speaking with my client he is requesting a second opinion as is his right.

The defendant stood silent facing out into the court from inside a glassed-walled security booth, wearing what appeared to be a vest designed to prevent self harming.

Prosecutors say Carwyle 'repeatedly' harassed Aniston between March 1, 2023 to May 5, 2025, sending her 'unwanted social media, voicemail, and email messages.'

A Los Angeles mental health court heard that Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, 48, has been evaluated by psychiatrist Dr. Phani Tumu (pictured: Carwyle in court on May 8)

Jennifer Anistons alleged stalker has been deemed unfit to stand trial - but he has requested a second opinion (pictured: Aniston at the 2024 Emmy Awards)

Carwyle, from Mississippi , was arrested on May 5 after ramming his car into the gates of the beloved Friends stars $21 million sprawling hilltop Bel-Air mansion (pictured) that sits behind 15-feet high privacy hedges

Blair Berk, Anistons highly respected and high-profile attorney, was also in court. She exchanged words with the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney William Donovan, but did not speak during the proceedings.

Dr. Kory Knack, another independent psychiatric evaluator, will be meeting with Carwyle this coming weekend to prepared a second opinion report to determine his competency to stand trial.

A follow-up hearing with Carwyle is scheduled for May 29. He is currently detained at the notorious Twin Towers Correctional Facility in LA.

The latest developments come after Carwyles estranged wife, Julia Carwyle, 48, spoke out about her spouse's frightening dark side.

She told Daily Mail exclusively: 'He's put me through literal hell. It took a toll on me for the past four years in every aspect - it's not been good.

'I've got a restraining order on him since we split up. He's been stalking me the same way [as Aniston] and he's not a very good person.'

She said she was unaware of her husband's apparent obsession with the beloved TV and movie star.

The couple did not watch a lot of television while living together, and Aniston didn't come up in conversation, she said.

Prosecutors say Carwyle (pictured) 'repeatedly' harassed Aniston between March 1, 2023 to May 5, 2025, sending her 'unwanted social media, voicemail, and email messages.'

On Thursday, the defendant stood silent facing out into the court from inside a glassed-walled security booth, wearing what appeared to be a vest designed to prevent self harming (pictured: Carwyle on May 8)

The judge ordered Carwyle to stay away from Aniston (pictured) at the first hearing, despite already being locked behind bars

'Jimmy had a secret life I knew nothing about,' said Julia. 'We never even watched her. The whole time we've been together he never went on about her.

She previously told Daily Mail she last saw her husband in September on the day he headed off on his latest California odyssey in an attempt to meet with Aniston, who was inside her home at the time he crashed into the property, although the two did not come face to face.

He went to California six months ago, said Julia.

He left in September and went and I haven't seen him since he left. He was leaving that day to go.

He was going there because he was going to meet up with Jennifer. He was going to go see her.

He actually thought he was going to meet Jennifer. I guess he was speaking with her. He had the impression that Jennifer Aniston and he were going to talk and meet.

So naturally he's doing what anybody would do - he went across the country.

Julia said Carwyle had made three separate trips to California to meet up with the actress.

He thought Maybe she's just going to meet a guy to take a chance, she added. That's the way he was thinking.

Carwyle's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Toral Malik (left) argued against a no-contact order at the first hearing (pictured: Malik and Carwyle in court on May 8)

If Carwyle is convicted, he faces up to three years in prison (pictured: Carwhile in court on May 8)

A follow-up hearing with Carwyle (pictured) is scheduled for May 29. He is currently detained at the notorious Twin Towers Correctional Facility in LA

Berk declined to comment about Aniston or the case.

During his first bizarre court appearance, just days after he crashed into the A-lister's gate, Carwyle showed up shirtless and disoriented.

He pleaded not guilty to felony stalking and vandalism charges at the May 8 hearing, when the judge paused proceedings until the accused stalker was evaluated.

Even though he remains in jail, the judge had issued a no-contact order between Carwyle and Aniston.

Carwyle's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Toral Malik, said: 'I dont believe him staying away from Ms. Aniston will be an issue at this time.

But at a prosecutors' insistence, Judge Keith L. Schwartz issued the order anyway.

'You are not to have any contact with Jennifer Aniston under any conditions' the judge said.

If Carwyle is convicted, he faces up to three years in prison. But if he is found incompetent again, he could be ordered to a state mental hospital for treatment.
A hiker who was found after falling off a cliff and surviving for three weeks in the California wilderness has been called out by skeptics who are questioning if she's telling the truth about her journey.

Tiffany Slaton, 28, was reported missing by her family on April 29 after not hearing from her for nine days, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said.

The department then sent out several alerts about her disappearance and called on the public to look out for her, as one tip confirmed she was last seen at Huntington Lake on April 20.

Slaton, of Jeffersonville, Georgia was on a solo trip through the Sierra Nevada when she said she suddenly became lost after falling off a cliff.

After her fall, Slaton said she endured a treacherous three weeks before she was finally found on May 14.

She was located inside a cabin at the Vermilion Valley Resort near Lake Edison, the sheriff's office said.

Despite making it out of the situation alive, many are now wondering if Slaton's shocking survival journey is truthful and if her family's fundraising motives were created with the right intentions.

'Im glad to see that other people dont believe this story. So many things dont add up, I hope this office investigates fully since resources were used,' one commenter said.

Tiffany Slaton, 28, was reported missing by her family on April 29 after not hearing from her for nine days. She was miraculously found on May 14

Slaton, of Jeffersonville, Georgia was on a solo trip through the Sierra Nevada when she said she suddenly became lost after falling off a cliff. (Pictured: Her missing poster)

'Somethings very off about the story. I dont believe her at all. I think shes just looking for fame or money,' wrote another.

'Its embarrassing to think people believe someone fell off a cliff, survived 2 hours unconscious (guess she was timing it), popped her knee back into place, and traveled 20 miles after splinting her leg,' another wrote.

While many are unsure if the story is factual or fictional, a lot of people stood up for Slaton after she returned home.

'The kid went on an adventure with no reception. Its not her fault search and rescue crews didnt listen to the family and found her weeks later,' someone said.

Another stated: 'Tiffany is a true survivor and fighter to the end. Sounds like a movie in the making.'

After falling from a cliff, Slaton said she was unable to return to the main road because she was then hit by an avalanche, causing her to fall unconscious for two hours.

When she finally woke up, she realized she injured herself and went on to splint one of her legs and pop her knee back into place, she recalled.

She then proceeded on her journey, where she made it through 13 snowstorms, two landslides, had to eat wild leeks, boil snow melt for drinking water, and also got her tent, electric bike, phone and two sleeping bags stolen, according to the hiker.

During her journey, Slaton said her tent (pictured) and other items she had were stolen

She also recalled being unable to contact 911 but was somehow able to get GPS information from a Starbucks location, leaving skeptics even more confused.

'I eventually got mad at my GPS and decided to ask, "Well, where is the nearest Starbucks?",' she said at the news conference.

'It was like, "Oh, well, we can answer that question. Its 18 miles from here".'

A GoFundMe page set up by her parents was officially shut down on Monday after an influx of speculation crowded the family.

'The donations feature is closed but kind words are welcomed,' the page read.

Her parents still noted that the family is 'in need of financial help for any and all expenses while we are in California.'

Slaton's father, Bobby Slaton, previously called out the skeptics on the donation page, writing: 'Believe it or not, we even thank those who have questioned the merit of the events  That is what makes miracles so unbelievable.'

Online users aren't the only ones who don't quite understand Slaton's story, as Howie Schwartz, an experienced Sierra mountain guide, shared the same concerns.

Schwartz told the Los Angeles Times he understands her getting lost in the wilderness, but the rest isn't quite adding up.

'It doesnt seem like a story you can really wrap your head around,' he said.

'Falling off a cliff, having to splint her leg. You dont splint your leg unless your leg is broken and if your leg is broken, youre not walking miles on it.'

Schwartz was actually in the area guiding a five-day ski trip in the Mono Recesses in the Sierra while Slaton was missing.

Slaton is seen with her parents after she was found three weeks later

While many are unsure if the story is factual or fictional, a lot of people stood up for Slaton after she returned home

He told the outlet he recalled seeing helicopters searching for her at the time.

The expert said the area still experienced late-season snow storms around this time of year, but the elevation near Huntington and Edison lakes is low enough that only rain would come down.

Tony Botti, a spokesperson for the sheriff's department, told the outlet they still don't have a full understanding of what exactly happened to Slaton out in the wilderness.

'We can only work with the information she told us because there are no other independent witnesses,' Botti said.

'If there are inaccuracies or embellishments, we really cant do anything about it.'

Meanwhile, Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni praised Slaton for her 'incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival,' adding that it resembles 'something that you may see on TV that they would make movies about.'

Christopher Gutierrez, the resort owner who found her taking refuge in the cabin, echoes Zanoni's response.

'She has stories, she could write a book. Its just unbelievable,' he said.

DailyMail.com contacted the Fresno County Sheriff's Office and Slaton's family for comment.
Harvard University has been slammed for refusing to discipline pro-Palestinian demonstrators who surrounded a student and shouted 'shame' at him during their 'die-in' protest.

The Trump administration pulled the plug on Harvard's ability to enroll international students Thursday, citing an unsafe campus environment by allowing 'anti-American, pro-terrorists agitators' on campus.

Pro-Palestine protestors Elom Tettey-Tamaklo and Ibrahim Bharmal, both 28, were seen in a viral video accosting Israeli student Yoav Segev in October 2023, days after the deadly Hamas attack.

The two men were seen screaming: 'Shame! Shame! Shame!' at Segev, who was forced to duck and swivel as he attempted to free himself from the swarm of bodies who were preventing him from moving.

The mob encircled him and blocking his way with keffiyehs as he continued trying to record the scene on his phone.

Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal had been charged with misdemeanor counts of assault and battery for the incident.

However, Boston Municipal Court judge Stephen W. McClenon ordered them 80 hours of community service and to complete an anger management program on April 29.

Since the court ruling, Segev and his lawyers called on Harvard to take disciplinary action against them, and they said the school has refused to do so.

Elom Tettey-Tamaklo (center blue shirt) and Ibrahim Bharmal (left in vest), both 28, were seen in a viral video accosting Israeli student Yoav Segev (with his hands up) in October 2023

Tettey-Tamaklo (left) and Bharmal (right) had been charged with misdemeanor counts of assault and battery for the incident

'Harvard's silence and inaction are grounded in nothing other than blatant antisemitism,' Segev's lawyers said in a letter obtained by The Free Press.

'Segev has not only been subjected to an extremely hostile, anti-Semitic environment at Harvard, but he was also assaulted, battered, and harassed by a rabid mob of Harvard students and employees.

'After a year of obfuscating, delaying, and refusing to punish the offenders, Harvard has no ignored his last two letters, which merely requested an update into a disciplinary process.'

Segev's attorneys wrote that rather than punish the students, Harvard has rewarded them.

'The assailants have perversely benefited from their anti-Semitic violence and vitriol - getting praise from Harvard social media and Bharmal receiving a paid fellowship from the Harvard Law Review... Tettey-Tamaklo is also being given the honor of serving as marshal at graduation,' the lawyers said.

Three weeks after the incident, ex-president Claudine Gay said university police were investigating and that 'consistent with our standard practice, once law enforcement's inquiry is complete, the University will address the incident through its student disciplinary procedures to determine if University policies or codes of conduct have been violated.'

Now that the criminal investigation is over, Segev's team has insisted the school has not taken any disciplinary measures.

The judge issued Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal's punishment after hearing a victim impact statement from Segev.

The mob encircled him and blocking his way with keffiyehs as he continued trying to record the scene on his phone

Tettey-Tamaklo and Bharmal's lawyers argued at court their clients should not have to apologize

'After they assaulted and traumatized me, they refused to take any responsibility for their actions. They could have reached out to me to apologize. They did just the opposite,' he said.

'They took their case to the media, slandering me in the process. They publicly declared that they were 'proud of their actions,' failed to cooperate with law enforcement by identifying their fellow assailants, and have failed to show an ounce of remorse or take any accountability whatsoever.

'Their assault was not a rash incident at a bar. Their actions and public commentary afterwards demonstrate that the defendants believe they were acting in a private security capacity and are above the law, using force to determine who can and cannot be in public spacesdeciding to exclude the visibly Jewish student.'

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said Segev was an innocent victim and his office was prepared to take the matter to trial.

'Mr. Segev is an entirely innocent victim. He did nothing wrong leading up to this incident and nothing wrong during this incident,' he said.

'He had a Constitutional right to walk across the campus of his school without being accosted or assaulted. As such, we were prepared to go to trial to seek accountability from the two defendants and justice for Mr. Segev.'

Defense attorneys Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz argued at court their clients should not have to apologize, according to The Harvard Crimson.

'We are pleased that the court agreed with us that a diversion was the appropriate resolution of this case,' Shatz said. 'Our clients look forward to moving on with their lives.'
The family of Beth Martin who died in mysterious circumstances on a family holiday in Turkey have paid a heartfelt tribute to her - as a fundraiser in her name nears 200,000.

The 28-year-old from Portsmouth set off on the dream trip with her husband Luke and their two young children Elouise, eight and Tommy, five, on Sunday April 27.

But after falling ill during the flight - something she initially blamed on food poisoning - her symptoms only worsened when they touched down in the holiday hotspot.

By Monday morning, she was 'delirious' and, following a scramble for an ambulance, she was handed over to doctors where she was 'pinned down, poked, prodded invasively'. By Tuesday night, she was dead.

Beth's family claim they were kept in the dark about the seriousness of her condition - with Luke even being accused of 'poisoning' his wife by the Turkish authorities.

And in a further sickening development, a UK autopsy later revealed Beth's heart had been removed after she passed away in Turkey.

Now Robert Hammond, Luke's stepfather, has paid a moving tribute to Beth saying her loss has 'left a hole that cannot be filled'.

He told MailOnline: 'It's destroyed us, it's destroyed everybody. Everyone around us, their lives are changing because this has decimated a perfect family unit.

Beth, 28, from Portsmouth, with her husband Luke and two children, aged eight and five

Luke was even accused of 'poisoning' his wife by the Turkish authorities. Pictured on their wedding day

Beth's family were reportedly kept in the dark about the seriousness of her condition and death

'We're a family so we all pull together to help each other but unfortunately everybody's lives are affected by this.

'The priority for the moment is the kids and getting the funeral out of the way then we can pursue the next steps.

'Her death has left a hole that cannot be filled as well as a lot of unanswered questions.

'If these questions were answered it wouldn't change the fact she's dead but it would allow you to grieve rather than just feel angry about what did or might have happened.

'She will be remembered as brilliant in every way, perfect family members. They were as perfect a couple as you could ever meet. They didn't go out or drink or smoke, they just loved spending time with each other.

'Beth felt sick on the plane but they were still willing to go and they were enjoying their time until they weren't.'

Beth's family has now been left desperately searching for answers about how and why she died - with Luke saying he has suffered the 'deepest level of trauma'.

He said having to tell his young children they will never see their mother again 'broke him' and he described the ordeal as the 'worst week of his life'.

'Two weeks ago me, my wife and two kids set out for a family holiday to Turkey. Only three of us made it back,' Luke wrote on social media on May 11.

Beth was just a day into a trip with her husband Luke when she was rushed to hospital

A UK autopsy later revealed Beth's heart had been removed after she passed away

Beth Martin, pictured with husband Luke, was rushed to hospital after she became 'delirious'

'I lost my wife, my children lost their mum, we lost the biggest piece of the puzzle that was our family.

'It has been the worst and most traumatic week of my entire life, and to top it off. I had to break the news to my babies that their mum isn't coming home, it broke me.'

Luke has also weathered huge medical bills, baseless police accusations and the indignity of her body being returned without her heart.

Beth's family are still wondering whether doctors missed a problem with her heart, or failed to acknowledge her allergy to penicillin. It has been alleged that doctors may have given her the drug before her death.

The as-yet-unidentified hospital where she was treated is now thought to be under investigation for potential negligence amid the raft of claims levelled against them.

But the Martins face a distressing six-month wait for a coroner's inquest that could give them all of the answers they desperately need.

'If anyone can take anything away from this... hold your loved ones a little longer, don't sleep on an argument, take photos, take videos, tell them you love them more,' Luke added in his social media post.

'You will never know when any of these may be your last.

'I love you babe, forever by my side. This life and the next.'

Luke said having to tell his young children they will never see their mother again 'broke him'

The hospital where Beth was treated is now being investigated for potential negligence

A GoFundMe page launched by Mr Hammond to 'help fight for answers from the Turkish government' has raised more than 180,000.

In a post on the site today, Mr Hammond said: 'I can't believe the generosities we've seen from all the posting, sharing and donating to this amazing family so far ..

'I am absolutely gob smacked at the amount of help and support you guys as a community have poured into this and still I ask you for more.

'Please please please keep sharing, posting and if possible, donating.

'I cannot thank you all enough for all your help with this!!'

He previously wrote: 'In the weeks since bringing Beth home the family is battered and bruised.

'Everyone is a shell of themselves and no one knows how to even begin to recover from something so horrific.. yet still  it gets worse.

'The UK autopsy began. And then the final blow: Beths heart was missing.

'The Turkish hospital has removed it. No explanation. No consent. They have invaded her body and they have TAKEN her heart.'

He continued: 'And this is why we are fighting back. Luke has spent thousands. Hes self-employed, meaning that if hes not back to work in a matter of days, he wont be able to support his family.

'They are grieving, traumatised  and now trying to put the pieces of their family back together.

'After everything the family have been through - Luke believes passionately that this is something that cannot be taken lying down.'
A New York Republican is getting heat from his allies and enemies alike after missing a vote on the House budget package - due to falling asleep.

After a drawn out session of Congress lasted through Wednesday night into Thursday morning, GOP Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) who represents part of Long Island missed the vote on the House reconciliation package.

The legislation - referred to colloquially as President Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill' - is a key trillion-dollar funding package through which the administration's agenda can be enacted.

The bill narrowly passed the House on 215-214 vote.

After the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) noted that he should have had at least two more colleagues in favor of the package, including one from Garbarino who 'fell asleep in the back, no kidding.'

'I'm going to just strangle him,' Johnson jokingly told reporters about Garbarino.

Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., makes his way to a House Republican Conference meeting with President Donald Trump on the budget reconciliation bill in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, May 20, 2025

U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 14, 2025 in Washington, DC

'I'm going to just strangle him,' Johnson jokingly told reporters after the vote, 'but he's my dear friend.'

As a Republican representing part of a high-tax blue state, Garbarino played a key part in the bill's negotiations as a member of the SALT Caucus.

In a statement issued by his office after missing the key vote, Garbarino said he would have voted for the bill.

'I am proud to have been the leading voice on Long Island during negotiations on this key reconciliation bill'

'I fought to lift the cap on SALT and ensure hardworking Long Island families see the benefits of this important legislation.'

'I was moments away from the House floor, to vote 'yes,' when the vote was closed. While I am frustrated that the vote was closed before I was able to cast my vote, I am proud of the work we accomplished to deliver huge results for Long Island,' he concluded.

Still, those words were not enough to fend off the flurry of memes and jokes generated by the incident, shared on social media by both Democrats and Garbarino's GOP colleagues, as well as some internet rabblerousers.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) was one to call out his colleague, writing 'One Big Beautiful SnoozeAfter all that posturing on SALT, Garbarino couldn't even manage to wake himself up to vote for the bill,' on a post on X.

Kevin Smith, a New York conservative activist from Long Island and founder of the Loud Majority, wrote 'Long Island Rep Andrew Garbarino. FELL ASLEEP and missed the vote. On behalf of all of Long Island I apologize for this idiot.'

One Big Beautiful Snooze

After all that posturing on SALT, Garbarino couldnt even manage to wake himself up to vote for the bill! https://t.co/RvaHGKjfI4  Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) May 22, 2025

Long Island Rep Andrew Garbarino



FELL ASLEEP and missed the vote



On behalf of all of Long Island I apologize for this idiot https://t.co/ytBOBc6kp5  kevin smith (@kevin_smith45) May 22, 2025

X user Amuse, who boasts over 600k followers, shared a photoshopped image of Garbarino in pajamas with a disheveled bed behind him.

SLEEPY? Wonder why there were so anti-MAGA changes to the budget last night? Turns out New York Republican Rep Andrew Garbarino fell asleep during the overnight session and missed the vote which necessitated a lot of last minute negotiations. Oh and the budget wouldn't have pic.twitter.com/5Iem02i82c  @amuse (@amuse) May 22, 2025

Long Island Rep Andrew Garbarino missed the Budget vote because he...



FELL ASLEEP!!!! pic.twitter.com/8XAHiDn5ET  juju_marie1 (@juju_marie1) May 22, 2025

Juju_marie1, another X user, posted an illustration of Garbarino in a bed with a night cap and a steaming warm drink in his hands.
Labour is set to free killers and rapists from jail earlier under a new soft-justice masterplan.

The Governments sentencing review was last night savaged by victims and senior police officers, while the Tories dubbed it a recipe for a crimewave.

The plan contains a raft of measures to slash sentences served by prisoners  from shoplifters to killers  by up to a third.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who commissioned the review to free up space in overcrowded prisons, is poised to become the weakest law and order minister in history by allowing thousands more criminals a year to dodge jail completely.

Most of the plan has already been adopted in principle by Labour. Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick blasted the measures as a get-out-of-jail-free card for dangerous criminals.

Its a recipe for a crime wave, the Shadow Justice Secretary told MPs in the Commons. The Labour Party are clearly ideologically opposed to prison.

The radical, terrible changes today may be cloaked in necessity, but the root of them is their ideology. And its the public who will pay the price for their weakness.

The review said criminals convicted of serious violence or sex offences could win their freedom after serving half their jail term, rather than at the current three-quarters point  a one-third reduction.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who commissioned the review to free up space in overcrowded prisons, is poised to become the weakest law and order minister in history by allowing thousands more criminals a year to dodge jail completely

The Governments sentencing review was last night savaged by victims and senior police officers, while the Tories dubbed it a recipe for a crimewave. Pictured: File photo

Most of the plan has already been adopted in principle by Labour. Tory frontbencher Robert Jenrick blasted the measures as a get-out-of-jail-free card for dangerous criminals

This lower automatic release date would apply to offenders convicted of rape, manslaughter, soliciting murder, attempted murder and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, the document said, providing they behaved well in jail.

Most other offenders would be released after serving just a third of their sentence if they demonstrated good behaviour.

Short jail sentences of less than 12 months  typically imposed on shoplifters, burglars and other thieves  will be largely scrapped and imposed only in exceptional circumstances. Even jail terms for murder should be reviewed, said the review, drawn up for Labour by former Tory Cabinet minister David Gauke.

It made a series of recommendations to improve community sentences, such as wider electronic tagging, to create what Ms Mahmood described as a prison outside prison. Mr Gauke estimated his plan would free up 9,800 jail spaces by 2028.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned it would unleash a tsunami of crime, as criminals will know they can steal with no effective punishment.

Many criminals will take the opportunity to commit more crime when they are let out so early, he said. Releasing rapists and violent offenders from prison after just half their sentence will put women at risk by allowing these vile criminals onto the streets. This document is a criminals charter. It rewards criminals, disregards victims and will lead to higher crime.

Victims groups and bereaved relatives expressed their dismay, with several saying they asked Mr Gauke for the chance to contribute their views  but were spurned.

A spokesman for the Justice for Victims campaign group, co-founded by the parents of Sarah Everard who was raped and murdered by a serving Met Police officer in 2021, said: We were deeply disappointed that Mr Gauke decided he didnt have time to meet with our group and failed to answer basic questions about how the views of victims and their families were being taken into account.

Even jail terms for murder should be reviewed, said the review, drawn up for Labour by former Tory Cabinet minister David Gauke (pictured)

There isnt any excuse for letting the worst offenders get out of prison even earlier. We hope MPs of all parties will ensure that nothing is done to weaken punishment of the worst offenders. Glenn Youens, whose four-year-old daughter Violet-Grace was killed by a stolen car in a hit-and-run, blasted the insulting proposals.

Mr Youens, 38, said he and wife Becky, 37, asked to speak to Mr Gauke but were rebuffed, adding: It doesnt feel like theyve consulted a single victim.

If the prisons are full, they should put four in a cell.

Prisons should not be comfortable. Nobody wants to go to prison in Thailand because they know how horrendous the conditions are. Thats how it should be.

Even the normally cautious National Police Chiefs Council sounded concerns. A spokesman said: Trust and confidence in the criminal justice system must not be lost through these reforms.

It is crucial for public safety that high-risk offenders, including those convicted of violent or sexual offences, are exempt from early prison release.

It is understood that top officers have written to Ms Mahmood, expressing grave doubts about the plans.

In the Commons, Ms Mahmood told Mr Jenrick he had been part of a government that did not build the prison places that this country needs. The reviews recommendations are expected to be included in a forthcoming sentencing Bill.
Two Israeli diplomats were shot in the back by a pro-Palestinian gunman who fired at least 21 times, according to the FBI.

Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American, were a young couple about to be engaged when their lives were callously taken.

They were killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday evening.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, the suspected gunman, appeared in a white prison jumpsuit at a federal court in Washington DC on Thursday.

Horrific new details of the shooting later emerged in an FBI affidavit which gave descriptions of surveillance footage collected from the scene.

It showed Rodriguez walking towards the museum as the couple prepared to enter a crosswalk.

'Once Rodriguez walked past the decedents and two witnesses he turned to face their backs and brandished a firearm from the area of his waistband,' the affidavit said.

'Rodriguez is captured on the video extending both his arms in the direction of the decedents and firing several times, as indicated by the muzzle flashes.

Rodriguez is suspected of murdering a young Israeli couple at the Jewish Museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night. He is pictured being arrested shortly after the killings

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, pose for a picture at an unknown location, in this handout image released by Embassy of Israel to the U.S. on May 22, 2025

An onlooker watches draped in an Israeli flag as police investigate the scene in the immediate aftermath of the shooting

'Once the decedents fell to the ground Rodriguez is captured on the video advancing closer to the decedents, leaning over them with his arm extended, and firing several more times.'

The affidavit referred to Milgrim as 'decedent 1'.

It went on: 'As decedent 1 attempted to crawl away he (Rodriguez) followed behind her and fired again. After a brief moment Rodriguez appeared to reload his firearm. At the same time decedent 1 sat up. Once he reloaded Rodriguez fired several times at decedent 1.'

Rodriguez was then captured on video 'jogging' back toward the museum entrance.

One witness reported seeing him throw his gun away after it stopped firing. Another witness earlier recalled how well-meaning security guards allowed him inside the building, wrongly assuming he was a victim of the shooting.

At the museum, according to the affidavit, he told police: 'I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza. I am unarmed.'

According to the affidavit Rodriguez, who is from Chicago, had flown from his home city to Washington on May 20.

He declared and flew with a gun in his checked baggage.

Rodriguez appeared in court where he was charged with two counts of murder

Investigators remained on the scene on Thursday, cleaning blood off the sidewalk

Elias Rodriguez told police: 'I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza'

Rodriguez bought a ticket to the Young Diplomats event held at the museum just three hours before it kicked off. It had been advertised online as a 'special event' in Washington DC to 'bring together young Jewish professionals' aged between 22 and 45.

But the precise address of the event was not made publicly available amid mounting security concerns about the safety of patrons at the venue.

To get access to the location, interested parties had to buy tickets to attend.

When he appeared in court on Thursday Rodriguez was told he could face the death penalty if convicted.

Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom which was just a few blocks from where the horrific crime took place in the nation's capital.

Rodriguez, who was not handcuffed, nodded repeatedly as the judge read him the charges.

There were no outbursts and he spoke in a calm and even voice when giving his name and age.

At one point towards the end of the 15-minute hearting he smiled briefly and appeared to shrug slightly as lawyers discussed the best timing for his next hearing.

At the museum, according to the affidavit, he told police: 'I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza. I am unarmed.'

The suspected pro-Palestinian gunman who shot dead a young Jewish diplomatic couple in Washington DC has been unmasked as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, pictured calmly sat outside the museum when he was arrested

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Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh told him he faces five charges.

The first was 'murder of foreign officials' and carries a possible death sentence.

The second charge was 'causing the death of a person through the discharge of a firearm,' which also carried a potential for execution.

The third was 'discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence,' for which he could get life if convicted.

Rodriguez will also face two charges of first-degree murder, which carry potential life sentences.

After his arrest, Rodriguez waived his Miranda rights and openly told officers he admired a 25-year-old Air Force engineer who self-immolated in front of the Israeli embassy last year.

He described Aaron Bushnell as 'courageous' and labeled him a 'martyr.'

He is a far-left activist who worked as an 'oral history researcher' on African American communities at educational non-profit TheHistoryMakers, participated in anti-capitalist demonstrations, and has been a member of the party for 'socialism and liberation.'

Protestors held signs outside the Capital Jewish Museum as shock reverberated through the community after the senseless tragedy

Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American, were a young couple about to be engaged

Police taped off the front of a building where Rodriguez was living at the time of the shooting

In the alleged shooter's work profile, which has been deleted from his former employer's website, it says his role was to 'prepare detailed research outlines and biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community.'

An alleged manifesto said to have been written by Rodriguez was published online before the killings, which claimed: 'Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged, they'll do without public opinion then, criminalize it where they can, suffocate it with bland reassurances that they're doing all they can to restrain Israel where it cannot criminalize protest outright.'

The emergence of his manifesto came after footage from the shooting on Wednesday night appeared to show Rodriguez screaming 'Free Palestine' after the shocking attack.

After Rodriguez's affiliation with the Part for Socialism movement became known, the group issued a statement condemning the attack and denying any involvement with the alleged shooter.

'We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL,' it wrote on X.

'We know of no contact with him in over seven years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.'

But warped liberal pro-Palestine demonstrators have hailed Rodrigeuz a hero.

'Thank you for your service,' one person wrote on X underneath on of what is believed to be Rodriguez's posts which urges his followers to 'escalate for Gaza, bring the war home'.

'What a hero,' another person added, with a heart emoji.
Today marks the 21st wedding anniversary of Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI of Spain.

The royal couple tied the knot on May 22, 2004, in a glittering ceremony at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral, where then-Crown Prince Felipe married news anchor Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano.

Letizia captivated the crowd as she walked down the aisle in an extraordinary gown designed by the late Spanish couturier Manuel Pertegaz.

The structured ivory dress, reportedly worth an astonishing 6million, is regarded as one of the most expensive royal wedding gowns in history.

Its elegant silhouette featured a high-standing collar and a dramatic 15-foot train, beautifully embroidered with fleur-de-lis and ears of wheat - a tribute to the Prince of Asturias' crest.

Letizia accessorised with diamond drop earrings gifted by her future in-laws, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia, along with elegant Pura Lopez court shoes.

She crowned her ensemble with the historic Prussian tiara, previously worn by Queen Sofia at her own wedding in 1962.

Letizia's cascading bouquet carried personal meaning, blending apple blossom to honour her home city of Oviedo with orange blossom, a tribute to Felipe's late grandmother, the Countess of Barcelona.

Queen Letizia and King Felipe VI of Spain are celebrating their 21st wedding anniversary today

Blue-tinted Hildegarde iris and ivory Elizabethan roses paid homage to the House of Bourbon, her husband's royal lineage.

The grand wedding welcomed more than 1,000 guests. Bridesmaids Victoria Codorniu and Claudia Gonzalez wore traditional gowns by Spanish designer Lorenzo Caprile.

The couple's romance began quietly, following their first meeting during Felipe's visit to the site of an oil spill that Letizia was reporting on.

Their surprise engagement was announced in November 2003, and the wedding took place just two months after the devastating Madrid train bombings.

In a heartfelt gesture, the couple dedicated their nuptials to the victims of the tragedy.

Letizia's gown surpassed even the most iconic British royal wedding dresses in cost.

By comparison, Princess Kate's dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, cost an estimated 250,000.

Crafted from ivory satin and adorned with handmade lace by the Royal School of Needlework, Kate's gown featured a nearly nine-foot train and was reportedly paid for by her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton.

Then heir to the throne, Felipe married news anchor Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano in a glittering ceremony at Madrid's Almudena Cathedral on May 22, 2004

Letizia captivated guests in an exquisite Manuel Pertegaz gown, complemented by a veil gifted by her fiance

Created by Spanish designer Manuel Pertegaz, Letizia's gown features a structured silhouette elevated by a stand up collar and dramatic 15-foot train

The gown was completed with intricate embroidery depicting the fleur de lys and ears of wheat, mirroring the Prince of Asturias crest

Queen Letizia's wedding dress cost more than any British royal's - even Princess Kate's

Princess Eugenie's 2018 dress, designed by Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos, cost around 200,000.

It incorporated several meaningful motifs, including a Thistle for Scotland, a Shamrock for Ireland, and the York Rose.

Notably, the low-back design showcased a surgical scar from a procedure that Eugenie had to correct scoliosis - curvature of the spine - when she was aged 12.

Princess Diana's unforgettable 1981 wedding dress, created by David and Elizabeth Emanuel, was valued at 151,000.

Made of ivory silk taffeta and embellished with 10,000 pearls, the gown featured a record-breaking 25-foot train.

To ensure a perfect fit down the aisle of St Paul's Cathedral, the designers even measured it in secret.

Meghan's elegant Givenchy gown, estimated at 110,000, was designed by Clare Waight Keller.

Crafted from double-bonded silk cady with a triple organza underskirt, the look was completed by a 16-foot veil embroidered with the national flowers of all 53 Commonwealth countries - an effort that took 3,900 hours to complete.

Kate's 250,000 gown was designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

The ivory dress featured handmade lace created by the Royal School of Needlework, and a train stretching almost nine-feet in length

Princess Eugenie's 2018 wedding gown by Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos was thought to have cost 200,000

Princess Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, in a striking dress valued at 151,000

Meghan's 110,000 dress, which she paid for herself, was created using double-bonded silk cady cushioned by an underskirt of triple silk organza

Queen Elizabeth's 30,000 gown was made by British couturier Norman Hartnell. Because of rationing measures in place after the war, the dress was paid for with clothing ration coupons

Even Queen Elizabeth II's wedding dress carried immense historical value.

Costing 30,000, it was designed by Norman Hartnell and paid for with clothing ration coupons.

The duchesse satin gown, inspired by Botticelli's Primavera, included a sweeping 13-foot train and ornate embroidery of golden floral and wheat motifs, studded with 10,000 seed pearls symbolising renewal.

Hartnell secretly sewed a clover into the skirt for good luck, positioned so the Queen could rest her hand on it during the ceremony.
On the latest episode of the Mail's 'Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things' podcast, Royal biographer Robert Hardman and historian Kate Williams look back at the 7 assassination attempts survived by Queen Victoria, the most of any monarch in history.

Prince Albert, Victoria's husband, once asked of his often-targeted wife: 'What's all this mania with Queen shooting?'

Across her 63-year reign, Queen Victoria had a record 7 brushes with death, the first when she was just 21 years old and the last as a 64-year-old Empress of a globe-spanning state.

Her first would-be assassin, Edward Oxford, was a teenager when he attempted to murder the Queen. On the podcast, Hardman and Williams tell the bizarre story of his life and the lives of the many men who botched the killing of Britain's most famous monarch.

Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, the unmissable podcast series covering the biggest royal scandals in history is available now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts

Prince Albert, Victoria's husband, once asked of his often-targeted wife: 'What's all this mania with Queen shooting?'

Across her 63-year reign, Queen Victoria had a record 7 brushes with death, the first when she was just 21 years old

Edward Oxford and The First Assassination Attempt Against Queen Victoria

The year was 1840 and Queen Victoria, pregnant with her first child Vicky, took a relaxed carriage ride through Hyde Park.

A waiter, Edward Oxford, just 18 years old, emerged from the crowds of people who came to the park to witness their new Queen, brandishing two pistols.

His first shot missed, but as historian Williams explained, this is all part of his plan to alter the course of British history.

'Oxford's plan was for the carriage to stop and for those onboard to investigate the noise from the first shot. That would present a moment for him to fire at the Queen directly', Williams said.

'The carriage stopped, and Oxford takes the other gun out  but he's not the best shot in history. We see a lot of these early Victorian shooters can't really use a gun.

'He's only a few feet away but somehow, Victoria is unhurt. The crowd then grabs Oxford, and he's arrested.'

It later transpired that Oxford was a part of a 'secret society', as Williams calls it, known as Young England.

A waiter, Edward Oxford, just 18 years old, emerged from the crowds of people who came to the park to witness their new Queen, brandishing two pistols

Kate Williams: 'He's only a few feet away but somehow, Victoria is unhurt.' Listen here

It is assumed he was seeking notoriety within the group by murdering the young Queen. Young England espoused an extreme form of Conservatism, desiring a stronger monarch with greater influence over politics.

Oxford was then tried for treason, with the penalty for the crime in the 19th century being execution by hanging.

He managed to escape his fate however, as Williams said: 'During the trial, when they looked at the scene of the crime, they can't find any bullets.

'So, the court thinks he just shot gunpowder at the Queen  and it finds him not guilty on grounds of insanity.

'Victoria doesn't like this: she describes it in her journal as very stupid and doesn't believe Oxford was mad.'

After three years in Broadmoor Hospital, Oxford is released and sent to Australia, where he manages to rebuild his life.

'Oxford flourished in later life', Williams told the podcast.

'He married a widow with two children. He becomes a church warden, and he gets a job as a journalist.'

To hear more strange stories from Royal history, search for 'Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things' now, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Duchess of Sussex this week posted a moodboard of pictures on her Instagram to celebrate her seventh wedding anniversary with Prince Harry. It showed snapshots of the couples love story  holding hands, kissing and cuddling their two children.

So far, so American. But in among the frocks and the poses is a photograph of a bare-bellied Meghan heavily pregnant with Archie. She even posted an ultrasound image of her unborn son: the ultimate behind-the-scenes selfie.

This has prompted suggestions that her decision to post that particular picture was not rooted in whimsy but to quash the unfounded rumours that have swirled from the moment she announced she was pregnant with her elder child in 2018 that she is not a real mom.

Yes, you read that correctly. Over the past seven years, conspiracy theorists have claimed that she has never been pregnant and that she wore a moonbump  a prosthetic belly  to pretend that she was.

Some have even gone so far as to claim she hired a surrogate to carry both Archie and Lilibet  or even that she has hired two tots to help her sell jam and flower sprinkles.

These ludicrous theories are, of course, utterly baseless. But, instead of putting out the firestorm, Meghans latest pregnancy shot has lit the blue touchpaper.

Self-proclaimed social media sleuths have claimed her bare bump is too shiny, far too high, transparent and even suggested you can see the straps of a prosthetic belly.

They claim that even the ultrasound picture doesnt wash, as there is no hospital name, reference number, date, ID.

Meghan's image of her pregnancy bump has come under fire, with trolls claiming the bare bump is too shiny, far too high, transparent and even suggesting you can see the straps of a prosthetic belly

Meghan posted a moodboard image on Instagram to mark her seventh anniversary with Prince Harry

But why is Meghans womb and the veracity of her being a mum so important to these online trolls? To their mind, perhaps, being untruthful about a child in the line of succession could bring down the Royal Family, or at least make it seem very silly indeed.

Since the moment Meghan announced she was first pregnant on an official tour of Australia, online haters have cited various bizarre reasons for doubt. These have included her extreme age (she was 37 at the time) and unearthed photos of her as a pregnant teenager (I expect all she was carrying was a bit of puppy fat).

But the conspiracy theories really took hold when Archie was born in 2019. Why was she home so soon after the birth? Why did she and Harry shun royal tradition by having their baby at the Portland Hospital in west London rather than St Marys, and  horror of horrors  refuse to pose with their newborn on the hospital steps?

Many women applauded Meghans refusal to be paraded. After all, she was putting her own needs first, which it seems mothers should never do.

Despite Harrys royal status, she had decided that the public did not have the right to know about her womb nor force her to stand and be photographed like a brood mare when she was doubtless exhausted.

Meghan later revealed they had shunned the traditional photocall because she was worried about her babys safety.

But the scepticism and trolling continued regardless. On hundreds of platforms, videos circulated of a pregnant Meghan cradling her bump in case (conspiracy theorists howled) it slipped to the floor.

We were asked to listen to it popping as she stooped to pet a dog. We were shown slo-mo footage of the bump swinging, with mums commenting: Mine never did that! We were asked how on earth Meghan was able to squat, knees firmly closed, when heavily pregnant.

Even when Meghan and Harry submitted to having a photocall at Windsor two days after Archies birth, conspiracy theorists pored over the evidence that Harry was holding a doll and making it move with his thumb.

All of which is why, on Monday, boom! the trolls were at it again. Snuffling for clues. Analysing photos of Archie and Lilibet  now six and three  and taking a particular interest in hair colour, skin tone, even their hands.

These amateur sleuths also claim that even the ultrasound picture doesnt wash, as there is no hospital name, reference number, date or ID

My goodness, the swirling of conspiracy theories about Meghans mood board makes the fuss over the Princess of Waless edited Mothers Day photo last year seem inconsequential.

Personally, I think a montage of photos collated by a grown woman is mawkish. But to think that Meghan  and, by extension, Harry  has embarked on an elaborate heist is ludicrous. There is no way such a deceitful act  which ridicules our Royal Family as well as the British people  could be pulled off.

We helped pay for their wedding in 2018. We waved at them on royal visits. We (well, I) had sympathy for Meghan when she revealed she had experienced suicidal thoughts in that Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.

Meghan is a smart cookie. She knows that what sells these days is authenticity: stories of personal misery. If she had been unable to conceive naturally and used a surrogate, we would have all been on her side.

She has been so open about her mental health and her miscarriage in 2020 that if she'd had a problem with infertility she would have put the issue front and centre. Only the most mean-spirited would have judged her.

So, yes, I agree the bump is enormous. Meghans ankles didnt puff up in pregnancy. But clearly shes just lucky. Maybe her Pilates sessions helped her to crouch effortlessly?

She is in a tricky situation. She wants to protect her childrens privacy (and has doubtless seen the endless footage of a young Harry) but she has a business to run and a brand to sell that is inextricably tied to the public interest in her family.

Meghan and Harry pictured at a Beyonce concert earlier this month

Meghan with her two children in a snap posted to mark Mother's Day this year

When she does post photos of her children, it is often in silhouette or from the back. She does not parade them in the media. They made no appearances on her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, or on last months podcast with cosmetics entrepreneur Jamie Kern Lima, in which she revealed she is storing emails to give to them when they are older.

To many mothers, these are understandable decisions. But not to the trolls.

What on earth will Archie and Lilibet think when they are old enough to appreciate not only how their mother was treated but how their very provenance was doubted?

As someone who has been trolled horrendously myself, I have no idea how Meghan can even get out of bed given the scale of the persecution she has suffered. Last month, she told a magazine summit that she had made a very conscious effort to tune out the negative noise, but some must seep through.

As readers of my columns will know, I have not always been Meghans most gushing advocate. But we must remember that she is a human being. These pregnancy whispers are going too far.

That is why I fear Harry and Meghan must be compelled to release a statement. Thats all it would take to put out the wildfires.

Harry has stood up for his wife against the mainstream Press. But the relentless hounding from these amateur sleuths is far worse. Snuff it out. Now.
The discovery of 'kill switches' in Chinese-made devices used in the West has provoked a flurry of concerned reactions from experts, who now warn potential vulnerabilities could have been imported into crucial sectors.

Sources last week told Reuters that unexplained communications equipment had been found in devices that play a key role in providing energy to the United States.

This equipment, experts said, could allow operators in China to tap into key energy infrastructure in the West and bypass firewalls, change settings or even switch off devices remotely, with 'potentially catastrophic consequences'.

At the flick of a switch, operators half the world away could hold the power to destabilise power grids, damage energy infrastructure and trigger widespread blackouts, experts said.

Adam Pilton, cybersecurity advisor at Heimdal Security and former cybercrime Detective Sergeant with Dorset Police, issued the stark warning that 'Western governments and businesses have built critical infrastructure on tech that we don't control and barely audit'.

'If a kill switch exists in solar hardware, what else have we imported vulnerabilities into? Healthcare? Defence?'

Dean Gefen, CEO of cybersecurity workforce development firm NukuDo, told MailOnline the threat was 'not only tangible' but 'probable in today's climate'.

'This isn't a question of coincidence. It's about long-term strategic positioning. Inserting potential vulnerabilities into exported infrastructure allows for quiet control,' he said.

'Whether the intent was offensive from the outset or simply opportunistic, the outcome is the same: a foreign government now has a potential foothold in our critical systems.'

File photo shows the solar farm at the University of California, Merced, August 17, 2022

Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, May 13, 2025

File photo. PLA soldiers shout during a demonstration in Hong Kong on July 1, 2016

In light of the discoveries, U.S. energy officials are now reassessing the risk posed by such devices in renewable energy infrastructure, sources told Reuters last week.

People familiar with the matter told the news agency they had found undisclosed communication links inside batteries and power inverters used in American solar farms.

Power inverters, which are predominantly produced in China, are used to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids. They are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers.

While inverters are built to allow remote access for updates and maintenance, the utility companies that use them typically install firewalls to prevent direct communication back to China.

Over the past nine months, undocumented communication devices, including cellular radios, have also been found in some batteries from multiple Chinese suppliers, a source told Reuters.

They warned that the se provided channels that could allow devices to be interfered with remotely.

This could potentially give China huge leverage over the United States, with experts warning there is effectively 'a built in way to physically destroy the grid'.

The Trump administration has not yet commented on, or confirmed, the claims. Reuters notes that it was unclear how many devices had been found and in what context.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said: 'We oppose the generalisation of the concept of national security, distorting and smearing China's infrastructure achievements.'

But analysts continue to urge Western leaders to reconsider use of such foreign-made devices that could be compromised by malicious actors.

Irina Tsukerman, a national security attorney and analyst, told MailOnline that 'Beijing could remotely interfere with solar inverters across entire grids'.

'The public hears "solar" and thinks sunshine, subsidies, and sustainability. But under the hood, this is a digital landmine embedded into the backbone of Western energy gridsand its not a question of if it can go off, but when and how loudly,' she added.

'Remote sabotage wouldnt have to be flashy. Thats the beauty of it. It could start as routine maintenance issuesminor, localized outages. Maybe a neighborhood flickers. Maybe a solar farm goes mysteriously dark.

'Nothing too dramatic at first. But scale that up, coordinate failures, add in a little plausible deniability, and suddenly you've got grid instability rippling across states or countries.

'Worse, the initial diagnostics would blame system overload or user error. The adversary could sit back, arms crossed, while the West scrambles to fix its own "malfunctioning" infrastructure.

'And while everyones busy rebooting circuit breakers & blaming weather patterns, the real damage is already done: public confidence shaken, military readiness compromised, and infrastructure resilience exposed as theatre.'

Xi Jinping (left) attends Russia's Victory Day Parade in Moscow with Vladimir Putin (right) on May 9, 2025

A general view of solar panels on a field, in the aftermath of a power outage, in Barcelona, Spain April 29, 2025

Illustrative image shows major disruption on roads in Madrid after a sudden blackout in Spain last month knocked public transport and traffic lights offline

During a confrontation, she said, Beijing 'wouldn't need to launch missiles'.

'It would only need to issue a quiet, remote command. Maybe through a firmware update, maybe via a cloud management portal, or maybe baked in years ago and waiting for activation.

'Suddenly, thousands of solar inverters across the West either shut down, go haywire, or start sending erratic voltage into the grid.'

Dean Gefen agreed that compromised inverters could be used to destabilise power grids during a confrontation between China and the West.

'Cyberattacks today are not just about stealing data. Theyre about weaponizing infrastructure. A hostile shutdown during a geopolitical standoff wouldnt just affect energy, it would compromise defense readiness, disrupt water and transport systems, and inflame social unrest.

'If adversaries can achieve that without firing a shot, were looking at a whole new era of warfare. This is why governments must audit, isolate, and secure any foreign hardware embedded in national infrastructure now, not later.'

Others advised that, in the event of such a conflict, renewable technologies would not be ideal for targeting.

'Electricity systems using renewables are designed to cope with sudden changes in output from renewable plants. However, on a sunny day solar can account for more than 30% of generation,' noted Dan Marks, Research Fellow in Energy Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London.

'If a high enough proportion of this capacity operated using affected Chinese inverters and they were turned off instantaneously on a very sunny day, this would create serious challenges for grid stability.

'But there is not enough information in the [Reuters] report to suggest that this is technically possible or whether enough inverters might be impacted. The latter seems unlikely.'

He said more information would be needed from the U.S. on what has been found in order for the UK to respond.

'It may be appropriate to carry out similar checks, if these have not already happened.

'Solar panels at secure sites or which serve as emergency back up may need increased scrutiny. More security sensitive panels and other Chinese sourced connected systems could be purchased from alternative suppliers.'

Employees stand inside a supermarket without lights in Burgos, Spain on April 28, 2025, amid a blackout across the Iberian peninsular. Spain said it wasn't ruling out anything as it explored possible causes, as yet undetermined

A traveller raise her phone up to catch network inside Barcelona-Sants rail station during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Barcelona on April 28, 2025

Rail and metro services across Spain and Portugal stopped during the blackout in late April

While the likelihood of such a direct confrontation remained 'quite remote, he said, the issue of overreliance on China 'must be addressed now to ensure that alternative suppliers are not outcompeted and that the UK and its allies do not become completely dependent on China'.

A NATO official told Reuters that member states would also need to identify 'strategic dependencies' and 'take steps to reduce them'.

The alliance said China's efforts to control member states' critical infrastructure - including inverters - were intensifying.

German solar developer 1Komma5 told Reuters that it avoids Huawei inverters, from China, altogether because of the brand's associations with security risks.

'Ten years ago, if you switched off the Chinese inverters, it would not have caused a dramatic thing to happen to European grids, but now the critical mass is much larger,' 1Komma5 Chief Executive Philipp Schroeder said.

'China's dominance is becoming a bigger issue because of the growing renewables capacity on Western grids and the increased likelihood of a prolonged and serious confrontation between China and the West,' he said.

Christiaan Beek, Senior Director, Threat Analytics at Rapid7, told MailOnline that, regardless of intent, the claimed discovery of undeclared remote access capabilities 'introduce potential vectors for disruption, manipulation, or even physical damage to critical infrastructure'.

This, he said, underscores the 'urgent' need for 'rigorous' validation of software and hardware, and stronger procurement standards 'to ensure the integrity of energy systems increasingly reliant on globally sourced components'.

Stranded passengers wait with their luggage at Sants Station in Barcelona amid a power outage in April that caused mass disruption to travel

An aerial view shows rows of solar panels at a solar farm in Anson, Texas, U.S., April 23, 2025

President Xi Jinping reviews the troops during his inspection in Macao, December 20, 2024

Over the first three months of 2025, solar generation was 34% more than was generated during the same months of 2024, thanks to widespread increases in generating capacity in several key regions.

Such growth multiplies the potential impact of device failure or interference. Should something go wrong, or a malicious actor suddenly switch off key components, large swathes of the grid could quickly become compromised.

Users will be tasked with looking at where their energy comes from, down to the individual part, in order to assess potential vulnerabilities and exposure to foreign influence.

But, if the claims are verifiable, the issue goes far beyond inverters on China-made solar panels. Power inverters are also found in batteries, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers, raising the question - just how much of modern life hinges upon the flick of a switch?
A mysterious radio station known as 'Judgment Day Radio' was beamed from Russia just as US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone.

The suspicious timing of the broadcast has raised eyebrows among intelligence officials, as it occurred during high-stakes discussions between the two leaders aimed at negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine.

On May 19, during the call, the station about 18 miles from Moscow transmitted two coded messages: 'NZhTI 89905 BLEFOPUF 4097 5573', followed a few hours later by 'NZhTI 01263 BOLTANKA 4430 9529.

The code was translated and released in an audio clip.

Stations like UVB-76, Cold War-era relics, are infamous for their monotonous buzzing, occasionally broken by bursts of seemingly meaningless code phrases.

But many experts believe these interruptions are anything but random.

Nicknamed 'Dead Hand Radio' or 'Judgment Day Radio,' the station is suspected to be part of a secret military communications networkpossibly even a failsafe tied to Russia's nuclear command system.

While the White House described the call between Trump and Putin as 'productive,' highlighting mutual interest in energy, infrastructure, and maritime ceasefire negotiations in the Black Sea, the strange radio activity has stirred public curiosity and concern.

The true significance of the transmissions remains unclear, but their timing, content, and origin continue to fuel speculation.

A mysterious radio station known as 'Judgment Day Radio' transmitted a terrifying coded just as US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone

Some believe it might be a 'Dead Hand' doomsday trigger, designed to automatically launch nuclear weapons if Russia's leadership is incapacitated.

Professor David Stupples, an expert in electronic and radio engineering at City, University of London, suggested the enigmatic broadcasts are likely a fail-safe kept active in case of nuclear war.

Amateur ham radio operators and independent researchers first took serious interest in The Buzzer, officially known by its original call sign UVB-76, in 1982.

At that time, the station broadcast only a series of cryptic beeps.

But by 1992, the pattern evolved: buzzing noises began repeating 25 times per minute, each lasting less than a second, occasionally accompanied by an ominous foghorn-like sound.

Throughout the 1990s, the buzzes were sporadically interrupted by anonymous male and female voices reading what appeared to be lists of random names, words, or numbers.

The pitch and tone of the buzzing also varied, possibly encoding secret information through subtle audio shifts.

This odd variety of transmissions is what drew Professor Stupples and other researchers to UVB-76 in the first place. According to him, the diversity of sounds is highly unusual for a basic 'emergency placeholder' signal.

The radio station is still operational, still emitting its trademark buzzing noises, but it occasionally sends out bizarre messages that no one seems to understand

During the conversation on May 19, the station near Povarov broadcasted two distinct messages: 'NZhTI 89905 BLEFOPUF 4097 5573' and following up in few hours with 'NZhTI 01263 BOLTANKA 4430 9529'

A government or military agency simply trying to hold a frequency would typically broadcast a repetitive, simple tone or test pattern.

Instead, UVB-76 transmits complex, unpredictable signals, and does so with enormous power, reportedly using thousands of watts and broadcasting in all directions, based on Professor Stupples's measurements.

The Trump-Putin call lasted over 90 minutes, focusing on negotiating an initial ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

While both leaders agreed in principle to begin de-escalation, the Kremlin ultimately dismissed the idea of full ceasefire.

After the call, Putin praised President Trump for 'US support in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,' according to a statement released through Kremlin-controlled media.

However, Russia then attacked, striking a civilian minibus in Ukraine's Kherson region, wounding a 65-year-old woman.

Following the call, Trump issued a strongly worded remark on his Truth Social platform, escalating the tension.

'It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through 'Banking' or 'Secondary Sanctions?' Too many people are dying!!!' he said.

He blasted recent Russian strikes on Kyiv and warned Putin that he would face 'very bad punishment,' implying economic ramifications if hostilities continued.

In February, UVB-76 sent similar cryptic messages during another Trump-Putin call, raising concerns the station may be used to send military alerts or contingency plans.

Moreover, Russia has not provided an official explanation for its broadcasts, but experts warns to jump on any conclusions as it can ignite the geopolitical tensions.
Next time you gulp down your favourite beer, you could be consuming dangerous 'forever chemicals', scientists have warned.

A new study has detected a toxic group of cancer-causing chemicals known as PFAS in 'popular' beers brewed in North America and Europe.

The experts didn't reveal the name of the beers, although MailOnline has contacted them for a full list.

Worryingly, beer fans could be drinking down PFAS whether the beverage is fresh from the tap, a glass bottle or a can.

PFAS  or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances  have been dubbed 'forever chemicals' because they are designed not to break down in the environment.

Studies have linked PFAS to infertility, behavioural problems, birth defects, high cholesterol levels and even various cancers, including kidney, testicular and ovarian.

'Nearly every American has PFAS in their blood,' say the researchers from RTI International research institute in North Carolina.

'We set out to understand whether popular craft beers as well as national and international beers may also be a contributor to total PFAS exposure for beer drinkers.'

Next time you gulp down your favourite beer, you could be consuming dangerous 'forever chemicals' linked with cancer (file photo)

Researchers tested 23 lagers and ales - mostly from from the US, but also two from Mexico and one from the Netherlands

The team believe PFAS chemicals are entering the beer from local contaminated water supplies used during the brewing process.

Water is the most abundant and important ingredient of the four main ingredients in beer (the others being hops, yeast and grain).

Although breweries typically have water filtration and treatment systems, they are not designed to remove PFAS, the team warn.

But extra PFAS sources could include brewing ingredients (such as grains, hops and spices), packaging or storing materials (storage tanks and cans), and cleaning supplies.

For example, packaging vessels such as bottles, cans, and kegs may also be washed with water or contain liners that could also introduce PFAS.

For the study, the researchers tested 23 lagers and ales  mostly from from the US, but also two from Mexico and one from the Netherlands.

The US beer came from eight states  North Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Missouri.

Their selection comprised 'primarily plain lagers and ales' produced by US brewers in areas with documented water system contamination, plus popular domestic and international beers from larger companies with unknown water sources.

This illustration from the study shows potential PFAS contamination at various stages of the brewing process

What are PFAS? PFAS are human-made chemicals produced for their anti-grease, water-resistant, and stain-repelling properties. PFAS have been widely used in consumer products (such as carpets, furniture, clothes, cookware, and food packaging), industrial manufacturing (e.g., as a processing aid in plastic production), and in firefighting foam for decades. Often referred to as forever chemicals, they are ubiquitous in the environment due to their extensive use and resistance to degradation. Recent studies show that PFAS exposure can lead to adverse reproductive, developmental, cardiovascular, liver, kidney, immunological, and carcinogenic health effects. Additionally, PFAS can remain in the body for years. Source: Redmon et al 2025 Advertisement

Overall, the researchers found PFAS in 95 per cent of the beers they tested, including perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

Shockingly, these two types of PFAS were found in quantities above recently established limits in drinking water set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Beers from smaller breweries had a higher likelihood of PFAS presence compared to larger-scale US or international beers.

The largest number of PFAS compounds were detected in beer from Chatham County and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina (both areas with PFAS in municipal drinking water), and a beer from St. Louis County, Missouri.

Beers from North Carolina exhibited higher PFAS 'species variety'  meaning a wider variety of different types of PFAS  compared to Michigan and California.

Unsurprisingly, parts of the country with known PFAS-contaminated water sources showed the highest levels of the 'forever chemicals'.

The results, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, suggest there's an urgent need for water treatment upgrades at brewing facilities.

Researchers also call for greater awareness among brewers, consumers and regulators to limit overall PFAS exposure, as well as more research into PFAS in beers brewed further around the world, including brewing giants such as China, Japan, Brazil, Germany and the UK.

Maps showing county-averaged PFAS concentrations from state-reported drinking water systems in (A) California, (B) Michigan, and (C) North Carolina, along with averaged PFAS concentrations in beers at brewing locations. Map D shows locations of states in A-C within the United States

A physical sample of PFOA, appearing as a white solid as seen here in a relatively pure form. It is commonly referred to as the main harmful PFAS chemical and PFOA is responsible for many of the negative health effects commonly associated with PFAS

Beer fans, meanwhile, should choose beers from breweries without PFAS in municipal drinking water, or that conduct testing and use water filtration that removes PFAS.

'Water utilities can enhance water treatment processes to remove PFAS contaminants before distribution, and breweries can test or filter their brewing water,' the team add.

PFAS were first developed in the 1940s and are widely used in industry as well as in consumer products such as non-stick cookware, water and stain-repellent coatings, food packaging, carpeting, firefighting foam and cosmetics.

Their molecular structure is based on a linked chain of carbon atoms with one or more fluorine atoms attached, and the extreme stability of those carbon-fluorine bonds make PFAS highly resistant to being broken down.

This durability causes PFAS to persist and accumulate in the environment as well as in the bodies of humans and animals for years.

Many PFAS have molecular structures that resemble those of naturally occurring fatty acids, resulting in them having similar chemical properties and effects on the human body.
The UK government has revealed plans to chemically castrate paedophiles and sex criminals in Britain.

The process aims to drastically reduce an offender's sex drive and interest in sexual behaviour.

And previous studies have shown that it significantly reduces the risk of sex criminals re-offending.

The exact chemicals used during the process vary around the world, but trials in UK prisons currently use three types of medication to produce this effect.

The first two chemicals are anti-androgens that target the body's supply of testosterone - the male sex hormone which has a strong impact on the sex drive.

'They lower testosterone levels and result in reduced physiological signs of sexual arousal - fewer erections, less frequent ejaculation,' explained Belinda Winder, Professor of Forensic Psychology at Nottingham Trent University.

'Plus we see a reduction in people's levels of sexual fantasies.'

The UK also treats offenders with antidepressant medication called SSRIs which can permanently disrupt the libido and reduce sexual desire.

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The UK is considering expanding a pilot scheme to chemically castrate sex criminals and paedophiles to reduce their risk of re-offending (file photo)

How does chemical castration work?

Chemical castration aims to reduce the risk of sex criminals re-offending by limiting or totally removing their sex drive and sexual desire.

This is mainly achieved by interfering with the body's natural production of sex hormones, or androgens.

In men, the two main androgens are testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which are mainly produced in the testicles.

Several studies have shown that violent sexual offenders have higher levels of androgens and that high androgen levels correlate with both violence and sexual aggression.

So, by limiting the body's production and uptake of androgens, chemical castration can also reduce the offender's tendency towards violence and sexual activities.

In the UK, prisoners who have voluntarily chosen chemical castration are given two different chemicals collectively called 'anti-androgens'.

Professor Winder explained: 'Anti-androgens reduce the production of testosterone and have a more direct effect.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) is said to be looking at plans to roll the treatment out across 20 prisons in England and Wales, ahead of a nationwide programme

The first of these chemicals are 'androgen inhibitors' which bind to the testosterone receptors in the body, mainly in the testicles, and prevent testosterone binding and having its normal effect.

The second type of drug, called 'Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Agonists' (GnRH Agonists), works alongside the androgen inhibitors to bring down the level of testosterone in the body.

In a healthy person, the pituitary gland in the brain produces hormones which tell the testes to make more testosterone when levels drop below a certain level.

The GnRH agonists prevent the normal feedback loop, so the pituitary gland doesn't tell the testes to make any more androgens.

After treatment with these chemicals, testosterone levels typically drop to pre-pubescent levels after about five days.

In addition to these two drugs, the UK also uses antidepressant drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

These drugs are typically used to treat depression, and the chemical castration they cause is essentially a side-effect of this.

Professor Winder says: 'SSRIs increase levels of serotonin, thereby inhibiting physiological and psychological arousal, erection and orgasm.

In addition to chemicals that reduce testosterone, British prisons also give offenders antidepressant medication called SSRIs which reduce libido among other side effects

How does chemical castration work? Offender is given drugs called anti-androgens and hormone agonists They are also treated with antidepressants called SSRIs Hormone agonists stop the brain telling the body to make testosterone SSRIs limit libido and sex drive Anti-androgens block testosterone receptors, preventing the hormone from working Testosterone drops to pre-pubescent levels in around 5 days and the testes shrink Deprived of testosterone, the offender has a reduced sex drive Advertisement

'SSRIs also affect people psychologically - they provide people with more control over their sexual urges, compulsive behaviours and compulsive thinking.

'They help people break the cycle of sexual addiction.'

Is chemical castration permanent?

Chemical castration is not strictly permanent but some of the side-effects can be long lasting.

The treatment must be given at regular intervals via an injection or implants under the skin to keep testosterone levels low and serotonin levels high.

In similar programmes in South Korea, this costs around 2,700 annually for medication and monitoring, but costs are likely to vary nationally.

The effects of anti-androgen treatment will normally reverse if the offender stops taking the medication.

However, the side effects of long-term use include infertility, shrinking testicles, hot flushes, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and osteoporosis.

Since chemical castration patients typically receive treatment for a minimum of three to five years, the risk of these effects is increased with time.

SSRI treatment is also generally reversible, with normal sexual function returning after stopping treatment.

However, SSRIs can cause persistent sexual dysfunction lasting for several years after stopping treatment.

Is chemical castration effective?

Chemical castration is supposed to be a treatment, not a punishment.

The goal is to help offenders overcome psychological conditions such as problematic sexual arousal rather than harm them by taking away their sex drive.

And, when delivered alongside psychological treatments, there is good evidence that these chemicals can be an effective form of treatment.

'They help people regain control over their thinking and sexual behaviour and what may have become an addiction to sexual "highs",' says Professor Winder.

This graph shows levels of sexual compulsivity in groups of offenders treated with either anti-androgens (blue) or SSRIs (orange) over three months of voluntary treatment

Together, the medication in chemical castration helps offenders to 'change the channel away from unhealthy and illegal sexual interests'.

There is already a growing body of evidence that treatment with anti-androgens or SSRIs can significantly reduce re-offending rates.

Some studies suggest that the rate of re-offending in people treated with anti-androgens is as low as two to five per cent, compared with expected rates of 50 per cent.

Professor Winder's own research has shown that both anti-androgens and SSRIs can be clinically effective in treating problematic sexual arousal in over 30 per cent of cases.

The evidence for the effectiveness of SSRIs as a form of chemical castration is still a little less certain.

In the UK, there still isn't enough robust evidence that SSRIs work for chemical castration so physicians in the prison system have to prescribe them 'off label'.

Professor Winder adds: 'The evidence base for SSRIs is something myself and others have been evaluating for some years now, there is a growing evidence base that SSRIs are effective at doing so but we are in the process of collecting more evidence currently.'

Professor Winder adds that she would 'definitely' support Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood's plan to expand the voluntary pilot scheme.

These graphs show how many offenders were above two 'cut-off' scores for sexual compulsivity at the baseline before treatment and three months afterwards. As you can see both anti-androgens (blue) and SSRIs (orange) led to many more people getting below the cut-off scores

The UK government is reportedly considering joining Kazakhstan as one of the few countries where chemical castration could be mandatory. Pictured: Convicted paedophiles in Kazakhstan facing mandatory chemical castration

However, it is also worth noting that the current evidence supporting chemical castration is based on offenders who voluntarily opted for the treatment.

These patients usually received psychological therapy, which they actively and willingly took part in.

Research suggests that maximum effectiveness from chemical castration may only be achieved in sex offenders who are willing to work toward changing their perceptions and behaviours.

Ms Mahmood is also considering whether to make the measure mandatory, rather than voluntary.

This would make the UK an outlier among the countries where chemical castration is practised, and there is much less evidence to support the benefits of mandatory castration.
The US Air Force launched a hypersonic missile early Wednesday in what officials described as a 'doomsday test.'

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched at 12:01am PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The test coincided with President Donald Trump unveiling plans for a proposed $175 billion 'Golden Dome' defense system.

According to Trump, the system is intended to protect the US from the world's most powerful weapons, drawing sharp criticism from China and Russia, who warn it could ignite a global arms race.

The Air Force described Wednesday's launch as 'part of routine and periodic activities designed to demonstrate that the US nuclear deterrent remains safe, secure, reliable, and effective in deterring 21st-century threats and reassuring our allies.'

The unarmed missile traveled 15,000 miles per hour, completing a 4,200-mile journey in approximately 22 minutes before reaching its target near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

Data collected during the flight will be used to assess the missile system's performance and reliability.

Col. Dustin Harmon, commander of the test, said, 'Minuteman III remains the bedrock of our nation's strategic deterrent, and the unwavering dedication of the Airmen who ensure its readiness is a testament to its inherent lethality.

'Their expertise and commitment are vital to maintaining this credible force for peace. As we look to the future, these same Airmen are paving the way for the Sentinel ICBM, ensuring a seamless transition to this next-generation capability and the continued security of our nation.'

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched at 12:01am PT from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California

The unarmed missile traveled 15,000 miles per hour, completing a 4,200-mile journey in approximately 22 minutes before reaching its target near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean

The hypersonic weapon was designed to hit any target worldwide in just 30 minutes after launch.

Moscow sits about 6,000 miles from California, while Beijing is about 6,3000 miles away - two nations deemed as threats to the US.

America's ICBM is capable of carrying three Mk 12A nuclear warheads, each packing up to 350,000 tons of TNT, but today's test launched an unarmed missile.

The Air Force randomly chose a missile from F.E. Warren Air Force base in Wyoming and transported more it than 1,300 miles to California where it was reassembled.

'With more than 300 similar tests conducted in the past, this test is part of the Nations ongoing commitment to maintaining a credible deterrent and is not a response to current world events,' officials said.

The ICBM is one of two missiles currently used by America. The other is submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) that are deployed from underwater submarines.

The weapon is a vital component of the US military's nuclear forces, capable of delivering a nuclear payload to targets around the world, but is scheduled to be phased out by 2029 and replaced with the LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM.

The US Air Force said that 'the Sentinel weapon system is the most cost-effective option for maintaining a safe, secure, and effective land-based leg of the nuclear triad and would extend its capabilities through 2075.'

The Minuteman III is a vital part of the U.S. military's strategic arsenal. The nuclear-capable missile has a range of more than 6,000 and can travel at speeds of up to 15,000 miles per hour

The LG-35A Sentinel will replace the Minuteman III ICBM with an initial capability of 2029.

Until full capability is achieved in the mid-2030s, the Air Force is committed to ensuring Minuteman III remains a viable deterrent.

While Trump's 'Golden Dome' is set to be operational by the end of his term in 2029.

Such a defence programme is 'long overdue' and 'absolutely necessary' amid growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia, experts have said in response to Tuesday's announcement.

America's ICBM is capable of carrying three Mk 12A nuclear warheads, each packing up to 350,000 tons of TNT, but today's test launched an unarmed missile

The weapon traveled more than 4,000 miles at speeds over 15,000 miles per hour to a test range on the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean

President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office during the unveiling of the Golden Dome plan

Moscow and Beijing have both put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical US satellites, which can make America vulnerable to attack.

Beijing has warned that the plan to put US weapons into the earth's orbit for the first time 'heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security.'

Meanwhile Moscow has called for Washington to make contact regarding the programme.

Trump said on Tuesday that he had not yet spoken to Vladimir Putin regarding the programme, but would do so 'at the right time'.

Following talks between the allies earlier this month, Beijing and Moscow released a joint statement condemning Washington's plans as being 'deeply destabilising' and turning space into 'an arena for armed confrontation.'

Trump promised that the completed system will protect the US from 'cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear.'
For centuries, the Rub' al-Khali desert near Saudi Arabia and Dubai  known as the Empty Quarter  was dismissed as a lifeless sea of sand.

But now, it's revealing an astonishing secret.

In 2002, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai, spotted unusual dune formations and a large black deposit while flying over the desert.

That led to the discovery of Saruq Al-Hadid, an archaeological site rich in remnants of copper and iron smelting, which is now believed to be part of a 5,000-year-old civilization buried beneath the sands.

Researchers have now found traces of this ancient society approximately 10 feet beneath the desert surface, hidden in plain sight and long overlooked due to the harsh environment and shifting dunes of the Empty Quarter.

The Rub' al-Khali spans more than 250,000 square miles, making it the world's largest expanse of continuous sand.

This discovery brings fresh life to the legend of a mythical city known as 'Atlantis of the Sands.'

According to legend, the city of Ubar was buried beneath the sand after being destroyed  either by a natural disaster or, as some stories say, as a punishment by the gods.

For centuries, the Rub' al-Khali desert (pictured) in Arabian Peninsula  known as the Empty Quarter  was dismissed as a lifeless sea of sand. But now, it's revealing an astonishing secret

T.E. Lawrence  the British officer and writer best known for his role in the Arab Revolt during World War I  famously dubbed Ubar the 'Atlantis of the Sands.'

He described it as a city 'of immeasurable wealth, destroyed by God for arrogance, swallowed forever by the sands of the Rub' al-Khali desert.'

Now, cutting-edge science may be catching up to ancient myth.

Researchers from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi employed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology to penetrate the desert's surface, a tool that allows scientists to peer beneath the dunes without disturbing them.

SAR works by sending out pulses of energy and measuring how much bounces back.

In this case, archaeologists combined SAR data with high-resolution satellite images to scan beneath the desert sands at Saruq Al-Hadid.

The radar detected buried structures and revealed clear signs of metal structures, artifacts, and layers of animal bones in what archaeologists call midden deposits.

By analyzing the radar data with advanced machine learning algorithms, researchers could identify patterns and shapes that pointed to ancient human activity.

Khalifa University's head of Environmental and Geophysical Sciences (ENGEOS) Lab Dr Diana Francis outlined the difficulty of finding ancient sites in the UAE desert environment.

'With the climate, plus the fact that a lot of the country is desert, it was too logistically challenging to survey the desert on the ground,' Dr Francis said. 'That's why satellite imagery was crucial. We needed equipment that could look under the sand.

Traces of a 5,000-year-old civilization have been found buried approximately 10 feet beneath the Arabian desert, hidden in plain sight of 'Saruq Al-Hadid', an archaeological site

Researchers from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi employed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology to penetrate the desert's surface. Pictured is Dr Diana Francis who was involved with the discovery

The findings suggest a complex, interconnected society that thrived in the region thousands of years ago.

Researchers identified previously unknown settlements and roadways, which are strong indicators of long-term habitation and organized civilization.

Layers at the site show bedrock, sand dunes, and patches of gypsum, with plenty of artifacts, ancient metal waste, and animal bones found throughout.

SAR technology  when combined with AI  is increasingly becoming a game-changer for archaeological surveys, especially in environments where traditional excavation is nearly impossible.

'The case study of the Saruq Al-Hadid site illustrates the potential of these technologies to enhance archaeological surveys and contribute to heritage conservation efforts,' according to the research published in the journal.

Layers at the site show bedrock, sand dunes, and patches of gypsum, with plenty of artifacts, ancient metal waste, and animal bones found throughout

Dr Haifa Ben-Romdhane was also involved in the discovery that combined SAR data with high-resolution satellite images to scan beneath the desert sands at Saruq Al-Hadid

To validate the remote sensing data, researchers compared it with existing archaeological records and conducted field checks.

The findings were accurate enough to prompt action from Dubai Culture, the government body overseeing the site. Excavations have now been approved in the newly identified areas.

'These regions remain largely unexplored, yet we know they hold cultural history,' Francis said.

While little is currently known about the people who lived there 5,000 years ago, the discovery is already transforming our understanding of early civilizations in the Arabian Peninsula.

The Arabian Desert has been inhabited since the early Pleistocene, with Neolithic and Paleolithic tools found in the southwest Rub' al-Khali. Bedouin nomads adapted to desert life, focusing on camel herding, date farming, and oral storytelling  cultural practices that echo the resilience of ancient desert societies.

Despite its current hyper-arid conditions, the region experienced periods of increased humidity between 6,000 and 5,000 years ago, forming shallow lakes due to significant rainfall events. These lakes supported diverse ecosystems, including flora, fauna, plants and algae  all crucial clues in painting a fuller picture of life in what was once thought uninhabitable.

With each pass of the radar and layer of sand peeled back by science, the Empty Quarter is proving it was never truly empty.
Elon Musk has encountered a series of setbacks in recent months, and the latest came as X has crashed in a widespread outage.

X has become Musk's primary platform for sharing his often controversial and unconventional views.

The outage largely affected users along the East Coast, with reports also coming in from Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Downdetector, a website that tracks online service disruptions, confirmed connection issues.

The crash comes amid a string of blows for Musk, including a political defeat in Wisconsin, a sharp decline in Tesla's stock value and growing criticism over his government role and the so-called 'DOGE' initiative.

Users have shared their frustrations on Downdetector, saying X's 'servers are as slow as a snail.'

Other users cannot even open the website or access the app.

'This is Why Discord and Youtube is Way better Platform than Twitter. There Hardly any Random outages on those Sites. #ElonMuskResign,' one person shared on Downdetector.

Elon Musk's X has crashed for thousands of users across the US. The platform, which Musk purchased for $44 billion, went down around 2:30pm ET as users noticed the app and website were not working

Downdetector began logging reports of issues with X around 11am ET, but the number of complaints spiked about two hours later.

Roughly 56 percent of users cited problems with the website, 35 percent with the mobile app, and 9 percent reported server connection issues.

A failed server connection means a device or application cannot communicate with its server, potentially leading to service disruptions, data loss, or even security vulnerabilities.

The outage is yet another setback for Elon Musk, who recently claimed victory over a new voter ID law in Wisconsin, despite Republican candidate Brad Schimel losing to Democrat Susan Crawford in Aprils Supreme Court election.

Reports show Musk and his allies spent more than $20 million supporting Schimel, the former Wisconsin attorney general, in an effort to shift the courts ideological balance.

Crawford received significant backing from billionaires George Soros and J.B. Pritzker.

To make matters worse, Tesla sales plummeted 13 percent that same month.

Some experts linked the drop to Musks polarizing posts on X and intensifying competition in China from domestic electric vehicle manufacturers.

Downdetector began logging reports of issues with X around 11am ET, but the number of complaints spiked about two hours later

Musk has also faced international criticism over his social media behavior, including unproven allegations of making a Nazi salute at Donald Trumps inauguration -an accusation he denies.

The backlash has fueled anti-Tesla protests and vandalism, with several incidents targeting the company's vehicles such as the Model 3, Model X, and the polarizing Cybertruck.

And about three weeks ago, President Donald Trump's chief of staff has revealed Musk was no longer working at the White House after spending the first 100 Days by the president's side.

After months of dominating the West Wing, attending Cabinet meetings, riding shotgun on Air Force One, and even bringing his toddler son 'X' into high-level budget briefings, Musk has been notably absent from the White House campus.
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Imagine a world where ice cream was at the tips of your fingers 24/7... Well, you don't have to because thanks to Ninja the dream has become reality.

The viral Ninja Creami ice cream maker has been a hot ticket item since its launch in July of 2021, with millions of shoppers flocking to try it. But, if you thought the delectable Creami machine was good, wait till you try its new partner in crime the Ninja Swirl.

Ninja CREAMi Swirl 13-in-1 Soft Serve Ice Cream Machine Serve up a good time with the kitchen appliance that is changing dessert forever. Back in July 2021 the original Ninja Creami was launched but fans have a whole new way to enjoy this summer with the Ninja Creami Swirl! This innovative device makes delectable pints of scoopable ice cream, sorbet, Fro-Yo, and more instantly  and even soft serve. Shop

Launched in February 2025, the new Ninja Creami Swirl is an ice cream innovation like no other. Taking after its big sis, the Ninja Creami, this device makes perfectly smooth ice cream at the touch of a button but with a twist (literally!).

I decided to take the wildly hyped kitchen appliance for a test drive myself to see if it lived up to not only its proceeding fame but the proven track record of its original iteration.

No matter what you are looking to create the Ninja Swirl can do it! Explore soft serve, gelato, protein ice cream, and more!

As a self-proclaimed ice cream connoisseur, I of course tested the Ninja Creami in 2021. Although it certainly did make delicious ice cream, I can't say I was blown away. However, I went in with high hopes for the new and noticeably larger Swirl.

HOW I TESTED

I started my Ninja Creami Swirl test the same way I would normally use the Creami, by creating a vanilla ice cream base in one of the Ninja Pints to freeze overnight. Both version of the machine come with an included recipe book for ease which I truly appreciated.

The only major difference I noticed during this stage was unlike the other machine's pints, these had a notable protruding nozzle for connecting to the soft serve port later on (but it caused no change in prep time!).

There is a reason the Ninja Creami Swirl is blowing up on social media, and it's due to its 13 different modes. You can make ice cream, gelato, milkshakes, and now even soft serve. The original iteration of the machine in its deluxe form only has 11 modes leaving out soft serve, custard, etc.

I prepped by vanilla ice cream on the 'soft serve' mode which roughly takes four minutes of mix time (nearly identical to the timing of the original Creami). To get the full effect I decided to also do a mix-in of Lucky Charms!

You can design your own flavor with the mix-in feature! Add anything from pretzels to chocolate chips and beyond.

What I found exciting was this feature still functioned the same way for soft serve dispensing as it had in the pint version from the original Creami. My mix came out seriously seamless in just one minute too!

Of course, the real test came at the dispensing time. The Ninja Swirl is known for one major thing and it's the handle dispenser. Surprisingly, despite my worries, setting up the soft serve function was easy as pie. All I had to do was take my blended pint, snap it into the port on the front of the machine, pull the lever to dispense  and enjoy! (No, seriously, it was that simple!).

At first bite I definitely noticed there was a more 'melty' consistency, unlike the typical thicker blend of the Ninja Creami modes. I enjoyed the fact that the soft serve feature truly MADE soft serve right down to the texture  it made the legitimacy of the overall machine more solid for me.

PROS

Growing up in Vermont, my summer traditions consisted of visiting 'Cremee' stands (aka soft-serve but better!), and thanks to the Ninja Creami Swirl, I now have a way to bring home to me even in New York City. Users online said it was, 'a dessert game changer,' and now I seriously see why.

The pros were clear to me from the first use: experience, flavor, and clean-up.

As someone who deeply enjoys a sweet treat after dinner I found the Ninja Swirl exciting, fun, and downright delicious! The process is an activity in itself and the clean-up is near to none (at least for a single adult whom lives alone).

Using the Ninja Swirl dispensing function was super simple and took less than five minutes!

CONS

All in all I do not have any major complaints against the Ninja Swirl other than cost. There is no denying that at $350, this device is not cheap.

The cons? Price and size. The Ninja Swirl is significantly larger than the Ninja Creami and heavier, making it a device that is much less moveable. If you struggle with counter space this device is NOT for you (let's just say I had to say goodbye to some beloved mugs to make this work!).

Furthermore, the price as it stands now for some may not be that worth it. The only thing the original lacks is a soft serve dispenser and the modes that come with it otherwise the two are identical.

Bring your dessert dreams to life with this interactive ice cream maker that goes beyond the basic!

IS IT WORTH IT?

At first, I was intimidated by just how many modes there were on the Ninja Swirl, but after a few uses, it became second nature. By far, the stand-out feature of the Ninja Swirl is its interactive soft-serve dispenser. Powered by a handle on the right side of the machine, I was able to serve myself my ice cream directly onto a waffle cone!After trying out both the

After testing the machine against its original iteration, I can confess the Swirl is worth the hype for one reason  nostalgia! I can picture my younger brothers having a blast with it all summer long and have a feeling even my partner and I will have fun using the playful dessert creator.

The finished product! The Ninja Swirl was fun, nostalgic, and undeniably delicious  especially with the soft serve texture.

However, if soft serve is not your jam the original Ninja Creami more than suffices. The key difference between the two models is the interactive soft serve dispenser which for me made the extra money worth it. But for those looking to just whip up delicious ice cream in any form efficiently the much cheaper Ninja Creami is our recommendation.

This viral countertop 'dessert game-changer' is easily the best kitchen product we have tried in 2025 thus far. We can guarantee that you wont have mixed feelings about ordering the Ninja Swirl by Creami because well  we didn't! Shop it now ahead of summer on Ninja's website, Amazon, or Best Buy.
Terrifying dashboard camera footage captured the moment a dump truck crashed into a New Jersey home after the driver suffered a 'medical emergency'.

The 73,000lb truck, which was loaded with concrete sand, smashed into the Woodbury Heights home on Tuesday.

Woodbury Police were called to the scene at the intersection of Woodbury-Glassboro Road and Fairview Avenue at 1.34pm.

The commercial truck, owned by Zeisloft Trucking, was traveling northbound when it struck a telephone pole and continued down the street until it collided with the home.

Dashcam footage obtained by WPVI showed the truck driving past several cars before picking up speed and veering off the road and into the home at nearly 50mph.

First responders rescued the resident and the truck driver from the rubble, but the home had to be totaled.

Aftermath: The home had to be totaled following the major collision

Neighbor, Derek Keating, told Fox 29 that he ran over to help, and a natural gas line started to leak before first responders arrived.

He said: 'He was screaming for help, and he wasn't sure how bad he was hurt. I could see that he was bleeding, and he was telling me he had some medical issues.'

'The house is totaled. I've never seen that much devastation on a house. I mean, I've seen cars hit houses, but not like this.'

Charles Zeisloft, the owner of Zeisloft Trucking, told the local news station the driver had experienced a 'Grand Mal' seizure behind the wheel.

He identified the driver as a man named Timmy, who has 25 years of experience and was on his way home when he crashed.

Zeisloft said: 'Timmy, the driver, has been with us probably for 25 years. Loyal, dependable driver and he just lost his wife about a year ago.'

Harrowing: The driver suffered from a medical emergency and had no recollection of crashing into the home

He added that his employee called him once he came to after the crash and had no idea what happened.

Zeisloft said: 'He wanted to tell me that he was in an accident. And that's what he called me about. I said, "Timmy, I'm already here". I said, "You are down in the basement of a home and I'm happy to hear you are OK".'

Another neighbor told NBC Philadelphia the man inside the home was recovering from surgery when the crash happened.

'I feel really horrible for the driver, and I feel very sorry for that man cause he is elderly and apparently just had surgery and was using a walker. Hes older,' one witness, Lori Denham, said.

Destroyed: A neighbor said he ran over to help, and a natural gas line started to leak before first responders arrived

The homeowner's brother told CBS News Philadelphia that the man is recovering at the hospital, and he was sitting in his favorite chair when the truck crashed and sent him flying through the walls.

Horrified neighbors told the local news outlets about the chaos that ensued after the crash.

One neighbor, Samantha Burke, said: 'My son and I were walking out of our door when I heard a loud crash as we were coming out. The next thing I know there was a truck in our neighbor's yard, in his house."

'I heard my neighbor yelling, but the house was starting to crumble, so we couldn't do anything.'
We should take a family holiday to Peru! says Mrs Brown in the third Paddington film. And of course they do, easy as that - and riotous and ridiculous bear-related adventures follow.

That may be all very well in Hollywood but is it really an option in the real world?

Well, we gave it a go with our 10-year-old-son, Alfie, and our 8-year-old daughter, Poppy.

And yes, the verdict is, not only is it achievable, it is indeed a fantastic, fun-filled, beautiful country that, with a little grit and determination, is well worth the effort. Here are the top five things to do with kids in Paddington Land.

1. Jungle Fever

Head to Puerto Maldonado (accessible by a short flight from the capital Lima or Cusco in the Andes), to experience stunning wildlife in the heat of the Amazon basin.

The childrens senses will be in overdrive as they take in the amazing abundance of animals of all shapes and sizes, making all sorts of sounds as they experience being immersed in the jungle.

We booked with Jungle Pro who met us at Puerto Maldonado airport in the south east of Peru and within 10 minutes we were boarding a long boat to begin our three-hour journey to our lodge in the heart of jungle.

Poppy with her catch of the day at a lake near the Tambopata River in south-east Peru

Alfie holds up his freshly-caught piranha - before quickly throwing it back!

The hard-to-spot river otter comes up to say hello in the lake near the Tambopata River

Along the banks of the incredibly wide and brown Tambopata River, which feeds the Amazon, capybara and caiman dozed, while sloths slept in trees and squirrel monkeys played in the branches.

Shortly after our arrival we set off on night walk where we saw, much to the kids delight, pink-toed tarantulas, chicken tarantulas (apparently they have been known to eat our feathered friends, hence the name!) and the Amazonian Horned Frog. All great finds for the kids to jot down in their travel journals.

Other activities during our three-day stay included searching for anacondas (alas no luck although just seeing where they had been lying in the flattened reeds was fairly nerve-wracking), spotting giant river otters and catching piranhas with rudimentary fishing rods in a lake - the children could not have been more entertained.

Youll need to pack the mosquito repellent but this is an experience the little ones will never forget.

2. Magical Machu Picchu

Even children who find old buildings dull cant help but be blown away by the world famous Inca site nestled high in the Andes.

We took the beautiful, glass ceilinged train from Ollantaytambo which snakes alongside the river Vilcanota to Aguas Calientes where a short, but hairy (or exciting if youre a 10-year-old) bus ride hairpinned us up to the Machu Picchu gates.

Our guide Marco, provided by Peru travel experts Stubborn Mule, was incredibly knowledgeable, friendly and a dab hand at taking family snaps!

Alfie and Poppy enjoy the sights of Machu Picchu

Poppy enjoys a game of Uno on the train towards Machu Picchu

Magical Machu Picchu, the incredible Incan ruins high up in the Andes

Its a long day for the kids - so pack plenty of snacks and water - but one they loved, especially when the odd llama wandered past amid the remains of this wonder of the world.

3. Lake Titicaca

From Cusco we jumped on board with Peru Hop bus travel, who provide a superb hop-on and hop-off way of getting around the sites of this vast and varied land.

First stop was Puno, the gateway to the enormous Lake Titicaca which straddles Peru and Bolivia in the Andes. We stayed in a lodge on one of the Uros floating islands which the kids loved as our room swayed and creaked with the movement of the water.

The islands are small and man-made, created by layers upon layers of cut Totora reeds that grow in the shallows of the lake.

The indigenous Uros people have inhabited the islands for hundreds of years, and their everyday life includes travelling to floating schools and churches by boat.

This truly is a unique experience for the whole family to witness a fascinating culture and a different way of life.

Dont worry, although the buildings move with the water they are anchored down so you wont wake up in Bolivia (but dont tell the kids that!)

The amazing floating houses of Lake Titicaca where visitors can stay

Alfie stands proudly by his dune buggy which zipped around Paracas

The incredible oasis town of Huacachina deep in the desert in southern Peru

4. The deserts of Huacachina

Back on the Peru Hop bus and the next stop was the desert.

The kids will love the adrenaline buzz of dune buggy riding (the adults do the driving, the kids are the co-pilots in these noisy roaring caged go-karts) in Paracas on the coast or sandboarding in Huacachina an hour inland where you can fly down the dunes.

Your little ones dont need to be experts. They can just lay on their tummies on the board, and zip down these incredible gigantic dunes that surround the oasis town. Its a thrill ride they wont forget.

5. The Ballestas Islands

Dubbed Perus Galapagos Islands, these are a group of small islands near the quaint coastal town of Paracas on the south coast. While not quite having the wildlife the Galapagos can boast, a two-hour boat trip is well worth it and is another animal-filled thrill for the kids.

We saw Humboldt penguins, albeit from a distance, and witnessed hundreds of South American Sea Lions up close from our boat, congregating on the beach, the males roaring to establish and defend their territory.

Though not as colourful as their Galapagos friends, grey-footed Boobies can be seen nesting on the rocks too. Its an amazing trip, almost too quick, but well worth the visit.

The South American Sea Lions gather on the beaches of the Ballestas Islands
A Polish city known as the 'Venice of Eastern Europe' is one of the cheapest holiday destinations for a break this summer.

Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland, earned the Venetian title as its built across 12 islands which are separated by canals.

But while the city has some similar characteristics to Venice, it's a much cheaper choice for a summer break.

Brits can fly to the Polish gem for under 30 with the journey taking just two hours in total.

And it's not just canals that tourists will find there.

Wroclaw, pronounced vrot-swaaf, has a pretty Old Town that's centered around its lively central square.

While it hosts a Christmas market in winter, the square is used for markets and social events during summer.

And children will love Wroclaw's dwarfs. Statues of dwarves have been popping up all over the city since 2005.

A Polish city known as the 'Venice of Eastern Europe' is one of the cheapest holiday destinations for a break this summer

And children will love Wroclaw's dwarfs. Statues of dwarves have been popping up all over the city since 2005

The small figurines, some just 20cm high, are located all over the city and tourists can keep their eyes peeled to spot them or use a map to find the tiny figures.

Ostrow Tumski is the city's Cathedral Island and one of the prettiest areas of Wroclaw to get lost in.

Lonely Planet reveals: 'The beautifully preserved Cathedral Island is a treat for lovers of Gothic architecture.'

The Gothic cathedral is the fourth church to have been built upon its site and one of the city's major landmarks.

Each evening a lamplighter wearing a cape and hat, lights the island's gas lamps in a tradition that can't be missed.

And Wroclaw is a bargain choice for holidaymakers looking for value this summer.

A meal at an inexpensive restaurant costs just 40 zloty (7.96) according to Numbeo while a cappucino comes to 14 zloty (2.79). Domestic beer is also fantastic value at just 14 zloty (2.79) for a pint.

At the other end of the scale, a new study by Post Office Travel Money recently revealed that Oslo is the most expensive destination for a city break in 2025.

Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland , earned the Venetian title as its built across 12 islands which are separated by canals

Wroclaw, pronounced vrot-swaaf, has a pretty Old Town that's centered around its lively central square

Tourists will need to fork out a whopping 636.29 to afford a two-night break in the Scandinavian city.

The research has found that two nights of three star accommodation in Oslo adds up to 304 on average.

And costs quickly add up in Oslo even after you've paid for accommodation.

Tourists will need to pay 173.08 for a three-course evening meal for two on average while a glass of wine comes to an eyewatering 9.86. A beer comes to over 8 while a Coca-Cola costs as much as 4.17.

Flight prices correct at time of writing.
A new interactive map shows the resorts and cities that the Spanish say have been 'colonised' by almost 400,000 holiday lets - with around 85% of flats in Malaga's historic centre now associated with tourist rentals.

On Monday, Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs ordered Airbnb to remove more than 65,000 holiday homes from its platform as part of a crackdown on illegal listings, saying that they violated 'various regulations on tourist-use housing'.

The country is currently facing a housing crisis as construction has failed to keep up with demand - and less tourists is being seen as one way to solve it.

The news is likely to be a bitter pill for British tourists to swallow; the nation's love affair with Spain spans back decades and, according to YouGov data published earlier this year, it's the place we're most likely to go to for a summer holiday in 2025.

Data collected in the last three months of 2024 showed that Spain remains Britain's favourite destination, with 15.9% of Brits saying it's the country they're most likely to visit next, with the UK (14.3%) and Italy (9.3%), in second and third place.

The interactive map published in Spanish newspaper El Diario this week showed exactly which resorts and cities in the country have the highest numbers of tourist lets.

The map, which used data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), reveals where the 397,000 holiday rentals that were listed in August last year on Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo are.

An interactive map published by Spanish newspaper El Diario shows exactly which towns and cities in Britain's favourite holiday destination has the highest proportion of holiday lets, based on data published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) (Pictured: Malaga on the map)

Thousands of anti-tourism protesters took to the streets of the Canary Islands this week as part of an ongoing backlash against holidaymakers in Spain - the country has ordered Airbnb to remove more than 65,000 holiday homes from its platform as part of a crackdown on illegal listings

Surprisingly, Spanish cities have the highest proportion of tourist lets compared with beach resorts, with 85% of apartments in Malaga's historic central district linked to holiday rentals.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, one in ten flats in the popular tourist districts of Placa Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia are rented out to tourists according to the data, while in Madrid's Puerta del Sol more than 20 per cent of flats host tourists in the Spanish capital.

This week, holidaymakers were reportedly cowering in hotels as anti-tourism protesters stormed the streets of the Canary Islands, as fed up locals disrupted sunshine bliss for tourists.

Thousands of fed-up residents kicked off demonstrations across the archipelago, including in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Ela Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, and Lanzarote.

Dozens of armed officers from the National Police were seen on patrol, as protesters were heard blowing through enormous shells to make a loud horn-like noise, while banging on drums.

They marched with the slogan 'Canarias tiene un limite' (The Canaries has a limit, while slogan were chanted such as: 'El dinero del turismo, donde esta?', meaning 'The money from tourism, where is it?'

Demonstrators have also taken to the streets in Barcelona, Valencia as well as Madrid, as tensions towards tourists have continued to rise over the last year.

And the news that 65,000 Airbnb listings are set to be banned - because officials say they don't include a licence number and some do not specify whether they're run by an individual or corporation, is likely to further inflame tensions.

Your browser does not support iframes.

The country's Consumer Rights Ministry said 65,000 Airbnb listings violated existing rules

The news follows huge protests against tourism in the Canary Islands over the weekend. Activists are calling for a cap on the number of holidaymakers, to prevent overcrowding and resource depletion

Pablo Bustinduy, Spain's Consumer Rights Minister, said this month: 'No more excuses. Enough with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing in our country.'

The minister said his goal was to end the 'lack of control' and 'illegality' in the holiday rental industry.

In April, locals fired water pistols at a tour bus outside Barcelona's Sagrada Familia, as they warned of bigger protests this summer.

In Lanzarote this week, an Irish holidaymaker revealed he was too scared to leave his AirBnB, as one furious tourist was spotted waste and sewage on Canary Island politicians.

Alberto Babo, 32, told MailOnline: 'I didn't go out today due to the protests, I'm stuck in my Airbnb to avoid the crowds. I hope they are not violent or anything but just to be safe I'm here. All I can hear is the noise.'

One placard read: 'Stop excessive tourism this is our home,' while another said: 'My misery is your paradise'.

A banner declared the Canary Islands 'is no longer a paradise' thanks to tourism.

Another sign was inscribed with the words: 'tourists swim in s**t', referencing the large amount of sewage water that is dumped into the sea - the majority of it, activists say, coming from hotels and tourist accommodations.

Protesters want much stricter controls on vacation rentals to alleviate the housing crisis

Protestors pictured beating drums during the protests against British holidaymakers: Spain remains the most popular destination for Brits to holiday in, according to YouGov research

Thousands of anti-tourism protesters have taken to the streets of the Canary Islands in recent months to protest against over-tourism

Other placards in Spanish said: 'Don't sell your homes to guiris!' Guiri is a Spanish slang word for British and other tourists.

Demonstrators could also be heard shouting 'Canarias No Se Vende', meaning 'The Canary Islands Are Not For Sale,' while the blew whistles and proudly held Canary Island flags in the sky.

Marchers also echoed the chant 'No hay cams pa' tanto guiri', translating to 'There's not enough beds for so many foreigners.' While another placard read: 'Enjoying a day at your pool? That water could be going on food.'

According to Metro, there were initially 2,000 marchers expected to participate in the march this Sunday - a significantly lower number than an April protest against anti-tourism in Tenerife capital, Santa Cruz.

Holidaymakers looked on from rooftops as protesters marched by, as locals reportedly took the opportunity to pull the middle finger towards tourist, who allegedly did kissing gestures back.

Among the protesters is Paula McKnight Morales, 39, whose father is from the US but who grew up on the islands.

The swimming instructor told MailOnline: 'Spain has become the after party for Europe, and Tenerife has more tourists per year than Brazil, we don't have room.

'We are not against individual tourists, just those who don't respect the rules, who throw trash and pollute and commit crimes.

'We have toilets that are closed on our beaches because they are contaminated by sewage.

'Since our historic protest last year the government has done nothing, they have actually increased the number of tourists coming and we don't have enough room. The traffic is so bad when they are here; a 15-minute journey takes one hour.

'The number of Airbnbs is too high and there is nowhere to rent, it is catastrophic for the island.'
It was reported yesterday that standing seats could be introduced on budget airlines in the very near future.

The seats, which are being introduced by manufacturer Aviointeriors, will increase passenger capacity by 20 per cent.

And, while Ryanair has denied plans to use them, CEO Michael OLeary has been vocal about his desire to implement the standing berths.

In 2012, he said he wanted his Boeing's 737 and 800 fitted with 10 rows of them and 15 rows of traditional seats.

At the time, Michael suggested the standing tickets may potentially cost as little as 1 to 5.

But its not the most outrageous cost-cutting idea Michael has had in the past 40 years of operating  even claiming in 2007 that Ryanair would be running flights across the Atlantic for just 6.

Toilet troubles

In 2009, he told the BBC that he was considering fitting the airline's toilet doors with coin-slots so that passengers would have to pay 1 to use them.

It was reported yesterday that standing seats could be introduced on budget airlines in the very near future. While Ryanair has denied plans to use them, CEO Michael OLeary has been vocal about his desire to implement the standing berths

In 2009, Michael (pictured) told the BBC that he was considering fitting the airline's toilet doors with coin-slots so that passengers would have to pay 1 to use them

At the time, Ryanair's PR chief Steven McNamara added: I don't think it's going to happen in the foreseeable future.

It's one of those things that when Michael starts looking at something, you know, it's always up for discussion.

Michael later admitted the idea was unfeasible and would go against EU regulations.

He later considered getting rid of two of the three toilets found on his aircraft in order to make room for more seats, suggesting it would save passengers a 'jaw-dropping' 2 on tickets.

Cockpit cuts

Michael even once suggested cutting the cockpit crew in half.

In 2010, he said to Bloomberg BusinessWeek: 'Why does every plane have two pilots?'

'Lets take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it.'

Michael even once suggested cutting the cockpit crew in half - and training a member of the cabin crew to take over in the event that the sole pilot had a medical emergency

He suggested training a member of the cabin crew to take over in the event that the sole pilot had a medical emergency.

Fat tax

In 2009, Ryanair announced it would introduce a fat tax for overweight flyers  with Michael suggesting it was after listening to customer feedback.

At the time, a spokesman for the airline said: A fat tax will only apply to those really large passengers who invade the space of the passengers sitting beside them.

These charges, if introduced, might also act as an incentive to some of our very large passengers to lose a little weight and hopefully feel a little lighter and healthier.

On-board porn

In November 2011, Michael said Ryanair was working on an in-flight app which would offer paid-for content, including pornography and online gambling.

He told The Sun: It would be on handheld devices. Hotels around the world have it, so why wouldnt we?

In 2009, Ryanair announced it would introduce a fat tax for overweight flyers  with Michael suggesting it was after listening to customer feedback

This, thankfully, never happened.

No armrests

One of the few comfortable parts of Ryanairs seats that still exists are the armrests.

But in 2012, the airline said it was planning to scrap them, in order to reduce aircraft weight.

Other mooted fuel-saving tricks at the time included reducing the amount of ice taken on board, slimming down the size of the Ryanair magazine, and using lighter trolleys for the bar service.

Business baloney

Ryanair now has an add-on option for passengers of a bigger bag allowance, fast-track boarding and premium seating  which is just seats located near the front or back of the aircraft, or on an exit row with more legroom.

But it was originally called Business Plus  despite not offering lounge access, complimentary food and drink, or a separate cabin.

Ryanair's add-on option was originally called Business Plus  despite not offering lounge access, complimentary food and drink, or a separate cabin

Due to this, the word 'Business' was dropped from the name.

It comes after we revealed Ryanair had been told to refund a passenger 124 over hand luggage charges.

A landmark court ruling in Salamanca, Spain, earlier this month decided that hand luggage is an essential part of air travel and should not be subject to extra fees.

The passenger involved in the case will be reimbursed 124 (147) for hand luggage costs charged on five flights between 2019 and 2024 following the judgment.
Getaways next week are still possible, says travel expert Michael Ryan

The school bell rings on the latest term tomorrow for much of the UK - and if you're still hankering after a last-gasp deal to the sun, it's not too late says one holiday expert.

Michael Ryan, owner and CRO of marketing brand Ink Digital, says there's still opportunities for low-cost flights despite the late hour, and has a handful of hacks that he says can help tourists save up to 800 on flights.

Typically, heading abroad in the school holidays is the most expensive time to travel, with families seeing a price surge of around 50 per cent if they want to get away at the height of peak season.

For example, a flight from Heathrow to popular Spanish holiday isle Menorca costs 599 for a family of four for a week - but prices soar to 1,112 next week.

Says Ryan: 'Airlines simply charge what parents will pay out of desperation but families can still use clever tricks to find any remaining deals for half-term... or plan ahead for summer.'

Department for Education (DfE) data revealed 487,344 fines were issued in 2023-24 - up 22 per cent on 398,796 penalty notices in the year before.

The vast majority (91%) of fines issued in 2023-24 were for unauthorised holidays.

In September last year, school absence fines in England rose from 60 to 80. A parent who is fined a second time for the same child within a three-year period will now receive a 160 fine.

Let's go! Travel tricks such as going after the weekend, and being flexible on airports can mean families dodge the half-term price hikes, even at short notice

While making for the sun is most families' top choice for a getaway, heading to cooler climes could keep prices low

The former Conservative government announced these hikes in February last year as part of a drive to boost post-pandemic school attendances.

It's controversial but Ryan claims some people actually factor in fines into their holiday budget, saying: 'With penalties starting at 80 per child, many families calculate they still save money by travelling during term time.'

So, how do you stay within designated school holidays without paying a fortune, particularly at the eleventh hour?

Grab a mid-week discount

The travel expert says look to Tuesday to escape: 'The savings when flying Tuesday to Thursday rather than at weekends can be substantial.

'Our data shows midweek flights can cost half as much as weekend departures even during school holidays,'

Ryan adds. 'A family of four might save 600-800 just by shifting travel days.'

He adds that booking Monday to Friday holidays instead of popular Saturday departures can often halve the cost, while still giving children a full school holiday experience.

Don't follow the sun

Another tip? Avoid classic Med destinations and head east because 'Eastern European destinations offer great value compared to traditional hotspots.'

Says our expert: 'Cities like Prague, Budapest and Krakow provide cultural experiences at lower prices than western Europe. Flight costs to these destinations rise much less during school holidays.'

Despite the risk of a fine - currently up to 160 per parent per child - Ryan says many families still choose to holiday during term time

Don't fly from your usual airport

'Flying from a less convenient airport can slash costs. A family willing to drive an extra hour might save hundreds of pounds,' Ryan says.

'Check all airports within reasonable distance of your home.'

And take early or late flights, he adds: 'The first flights of the day or last departures often have the lowest fares, even during peak periods.

'A 6am departure might mean an early start but can save a family 300-400 on the total fare.'

Book separate legs

Don't assume you have to leave and fly back to the same airport, particularly if you're not taking the car and have good bus and train links.

Says Ryan: 'Sometimes booking outbound and return flights separately with different airlines works out cheaper. This takes more time but can bring about big savings.'
Nothing screams summer quite like sipping a citrusy Aperol Spritz under the sun - and new research reveals exactly where in Europe you can enjoy as many as you want without burning a hole in your wallet.

Dubbed the 'sunset cocktail' for its vibrant orange hue, the drink has seen global sales quintuple since 2015.

In the UK, it's now officially the nation's favourite cocktail, with over 183,000 monthly Google searches and over 1.4 billion views on TikTok's #aperolspritz hashtag.

Meanwhile in Veneto, Italy - the home country of the beloved cocktail - nearly 300,000 Spritzes are consumed in a single day alone.

Luckily, for superfans keen to sip without the splurge this summer, the best and cheapest Aperol Spritz across 39 of Europe's most popular holiday hotspots have been revealed.

And it's Naples that has been named the best-value European city for an Aperol, with the average price coming in at just 1.54 (2.00).

It's a fitting honour for the southern Italian city, considering Italy is the birthplace of the popular drink.

At Cammarota Spritz, a no-frills Aperol haven, fans can order one for as little as 1 - the equivalent of 84p - while Spritzero, another Naples hotspot, keeps it at a modest 2.00.

Nothing screams summer quite like sipping a citrusy Aperol Spritz under the sun - and new research reveals exactly where in Europe you can enjoy as many as you want without burning a hole in your wallet

In the UK, Aperol now officially the nation's favourite cocktail, with over 183,000 monthly Google searches and over 1.4 billion views on TikTok 's #aperolspritz hashtag

Naples has been named the best-value European city for an Aperol, with the average price coming in at just 1.54 (2.00), followed by Italy's Palermo and Bugaria's Varna

Close behind is Palermo, where you can grab a Spritz for just 3.86 (2.81) on average.

According to the experts at eurochange, visitors should head to the bustling Ballaro Market, where they'll find takeaway versions for even less, at just 3.

And it's not just southern Italy offering value, as Bulgaria, one of Europe's rising holiday hotspots, also made the top ten list.

With the pound holding strong against the Bulgarian lev, cities like Varna and Burgas offer Spritzes for around 3.39 and 3.50, respectively.

Meanwhile, in Greece, often associated with high-end tourism, hidden gems like Kefalonia deliver surprising value, with a Spritz costing just 7.16 (5.49) on average.

On the flip side, the most expensive Spritz in Europe isn't in Paris or Zurich - but in Milan, where it averages a staggering 16.66 (12.81).

At the famous Aperol Terrazza, which overlooks the city's iconic Duomo, one cocktail will set you back 20.00 (15.65), while the price for a Spritz in Rome hovers around 13.83 (9.99).

Montenegro, despite its growing popularity among British holidaymakers, also ranked higher in price. In Budva, a Spritz costs around 8.16 (6.27) - placing it 19th out of the 39 destinations surveyed.

In Greece, a holiday hotspot often associated with high-end tourism, hidden gems like Kefalonia deliver surprising value, with a Spritz costing just 7.16 (5.49) on average

On the flip side, the price for a Spritz in Rome (pictured) hovers around 13.83 (9.99)

Laura Evans-Fisk, head of digital & engagement at eurochange said: 'The Aperol Spritz has become one of the most popular holiday cocktails in recent years, but all too often holiday-goers can be stung by sky-high drinks prices when theyre away.

'That's why we wanted to help travellers by researching where you can find some of the best and cheapest Aperol Spritz. You might be surprised that many of them are in the home country of the drink itself!'

Colin McKenzie, drinks expert at Gradient Experience explained why the Aperol Spritz has become so popular in recent years.

He said: 'It's the perfect storm of timing, taste, and Instagram. People arent just buying a drink; theyre buying a feeling, a moment in the sun. Its holiday mode in liquid form.'
Tourists heading to Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca could see their holidays disrupted by waves of strikes this summer.

Hotel workers across the Balearic islands are set to down tools in protests over pay and conditions during June and July - saying they're keen to cause as much upheaval as possible for tourists to cause maximum impact.

The decision to strike - which is likely to affect thousands of holidaymakers - comes after the workers' union, Union General de Trabajadores (UGT), said they were dissatisfied with progress during ongoing talks.

A summer of discontent looks likely across Spain with more anti-tourism protests - which have already occurred in cities across the mainland, as well as in the Canary Islands - in the pipeline.

The Balearics have already experienced a similar strike, which took place on May 1, and travellers with holidays already booked will be hoping that an eleventh-hour deal will be struck to avert the mass walk-out.

Currently, a strike is planned for June 6 - with a rally outside the Mallorcan Hotel Federation planned - with further action likely to follow over several days on alternate weeks in July.

A UGT official said: 'If we don't see the possibility of an agreement in principle, we will call a strike lasting several days.'

Properties affected include hotels in some of Mallorca's most popular resorts, Platja de Palma, Palma Nova and Magaluf - with hotel workers, including bar and restaurant staff, set to stay at home.

British tourists heading to Mallorca this summer could see their holidays disrupted by strikes by hotel workers - with hopes of an eleventh-hour resolution looking unlikely, says the workers' union, Union General de Trabajadores

Summer of discontent? Tourists heading to Balearic Islands in June and July could be hit by protests by hotel workers, who are fighting for better pay and conditions. Pictured, Canarian residents in Madrid protest against mass tourism in the Canary Islands

Those at the table for the UGT, the largest union for the hospitality sector, are campaigning for better pay and conditions, via a renegotiation of the Collective Agreement of the Balearic hotel industry.

General secretary of UGT-Services on the islands, Jose Garcia Relucio, said while he was hopeful of a last-minute resolution, nothing had been agreed so far - with plans made to formalise the strikes yesterday.

The UGT is looking for a 19 per cent rise in wages over the next three years - but employers are refusing to budge beyond 8.5 per cent.

On Monday, Spain's Ministry of Consumer Affairs ordered Airbnb to remove more than 65,000 holiday homes from its platform as part of a crackdown on illegal listings, saying that they violated 'various regulations on tourist-use housing'.

The country is currently facing a housing crisis as construction has failed to keep up with demand - and having fewer tourists is being seen as one way to solve it.

News of the latest strikes are likely to be a bitter pill for British tourists to swallow; the nation's love affair with Spain spans back decades and, according to YouGov data published earlier this year, it's the place we're most likely to go to for a summer holiday in 2025.

Data collected in the last three months of 2024 showed that Spain remains Britain's favourite destination, with 15.9 per cent of Brits saying it's the country they're most likely to visit next, with the UK (14.3 per cent) and Italy (9.3 per cent), in second and third place.

Spain has seen dozens of anti-tourism protests in recent months, with strikes by hotel workers, including bar and restaurant staff, on Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca now in the pipeline. Pictured: Anti-tourism protesters in Tenerife earlier this month

The news follows huge protests against tourism in the Canary Islands over the weekend. Activists are calling for a cap on the number of holidaymakers, to prevent overcrowding and resource depletion

Thousands of anti-tourism protesters took to the streets of the Canary Islands this week as part of an ongoing backlash against holidaymakers in Spain - the country has ordered Airbnb to remove more than 65,000 holiday homes from its platform as part of a crackdown on illegal listings

An interactive map published by Spanish newspaper El Diario this week shows exactly which towns and cities in Britain's favourite holiday destination have the highest proportion of holiday lets, based on data published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE) (Pictured: Malaga on the map)

An interactive map published in Spanish newspaper El Diario this week showed exactly which resorts and cities in the country have the highest numbers of tourist lets.

The map, which used data from the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), reveals where the 397,000 holiday rentals that were listed in August last year on Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo are.

Surprisingly, Spanish cities have the highest proportion of tourist lets compared with beach resorts, with 85 per cent of apartments in Malaga's historic central district linked to holiday rentals.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, one in ten flats in the popular tourist districts of Placa Catalunya and Passeig de Gracia is rented out to tourists according to the data, while in Madrid's Puerta del Sol more than 20 per cent of flats host tourists in the Spanish capital.

This week, holidaymakers were reportedly cowering in hotels as anti-tourism protesters stormed the streets of the Canary Islands, as fed up locals disrupted sunshine bliss for tourists.

Thousands of fed-up residents kicked off demonstrations across the archipelago, including in Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Ela Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, and Lanzarote.

Dozens of armed officers from the National Police were seen on patrol, as protesters were heard blowing through enormous shells to make a loud horn-like noise, while banging on drums.

They marched with the slogan 'Canarias tiene un limite' (The Canaries has a limit), while other slogans were chanted such as: 'El dinero del turismo, donde esta?', meaning 'The money from tourism, where is it?'

Demonstrators have also taken to the streets in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid, as tensions towards tourists have continued to rise over the last year.

And the news that 65,000 Airbnb listings are set to be banned - because officials say they don't include a licence number and some do not specify whether they're run by an individual or corporation - is likely to further inflame tensions.
The Chrisleys are returning to reality TV even though Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley are currently locked up behind bars.

Lifetime has ordered a docuseries on the famous family amid their imprisonment, and the newly greenlit show will at least hear from the couple in phone calls from prison.

The project, tentatively called The Untitled Chrisleys Project, will follow the rest of the family including Savannah Chrisley and Chase Chrisley, who are executive producers of the show.

It comes two years after Chrisley Knows Best wrapped on the USA Network in 2023 after 10 seasons.

The new show is set to premiere later this year and will see the brood navigating 'a critical point in their lives,' per People.

This comes after Savannah, 27, detailed the 'struggles' of parenting her siblings after their mom and dad were convicted and locked up for tax evasion and bank fraud.

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The Chrisleys are returning to reality TV even though Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley are currently locked up behind bars

The docuseries will center on the Chrisley kids as they face the challenges of carrying on the family name and legacy after their parents were sentenced to many years in prison.

Savannah currently maintains custody of her younger siblings, Grayson, 18, and Chloe, 12, and has been fighting for a Presidential pardon to free her parents.

The show will also include Todd's mother Nanny Faye Chrisley  who went into remission in late 2023 after battling bladder cancer for two years  and Julie's parents Harvey and Pam.

Recently, Nanny Faye praised her 'precious' grandkids for caring for her while her son and his wife Julie were sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison for their financial crimes.

'The Chrisleys don't know best anymore,' an official logline from the network reads about the upcoming show. 'But they're doing their best to be there for each other.'

Chrisley Knows Best previously aired from 2014 to 2023.

'The family faces the challenge of carrying on the Chrisley name and legacy on their own with only phone calls and brief visits with their incarcerated parents,' the summary continues.

'While Savannah maintains custody of her younger siblings, Chloe and Grayson, she has been fighting tirelessly for a Presidential pardon to free her parents.'

Savannah even spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention.

Lifetime has ordered a docuseries on the famous family amid their imprisonment, and the newly greenlit show will at least hear from them in phone calls from prison; Todd and Julie seen in 2017

This comes after Savannah, 27, detailed the 'struggles' of parenting her siblings after their mom and dad were convicted and locked up for tax evasion and bank fraud; Julie and Todd seen in 2018

The project, tentatively called The Untitled Chrisleys Project, will follow the rest of the family including Savannah Chrisley and Chase Chrisley, who are executive producers of the show; pictured from left to right: Chase, Grayson, Julie, Todd, Chloe, Savannah and Nanny Faye Chrisley

Savannah currently maintains custody of her younger siblings, Grayson, 18, and Chloe, 12, and has been fighting for a Presidential pardon to free her parents; pictured from left to right: Julie, Savannah and Todd

'The Chrisleys don't know best anymore,' an official logline from the network reads about the upcoming show. 'But they're doing their best to be there for each other.' Chrisley Knows Best previously aired from 2014 to 2023; Todd and daughter Savannah pictured June 2019

Julie is expected to be released from prison in 2028 while Todd's release date won't be until 2032. Their daughter Savannah has been vying for a Presidential pardon for them. She spoke at the 2024 Republican Convention; Savannah pictured July 2024

'Meanwhile, Chase is addressing some life struggles while building his new business and navigating his relationship with girlfriend Jodi.'

The multigenerational brood will also be 'exposing the raw truth of their lives  past and present  and the reality is far different from what audiences have seen before.'

'This series delivers an unfiltered, deeply personal look at their journey and introduces the real Chrisleys as they navigate this new chapter,' the announcement continued.

Todd and Julie Chrisley will be included as part of the show via phone calls from prison, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Julie is expected to be released from prison in 2028 while Todd's release date won't be until 2032.

The newly greenlit docuseries will be created by the team behind Surviving R. Kelly, Bunim/Murray.

The same group also brought to life Confessions of Octomom and The Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.
Travels With Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet (More4)

Rating:

Sir David Suchet on a surfboard is quite the mental image. In a striped 1920s bathing costume, the great thespian would be a picture of Hercule Poirot on his holidays.

But as the first episode of his Travels With Agatha Christie (More4) took him to Cape Town, the producers fluffed this glorious opportunity.

Instead, they obliged him to embark on a dreary circuit of apologies for Britains heinous imperial past.

Sir David, who played the pompous little Belgian detective for 25 years on ITV, was eager to trace Dame Agathas footsteps around southern Africa.

In 1922, she accompanied her husband Archie on a world tour, to champion the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition in London.

Her first crime novel, The Mysterious Affair At Styles, had just been published, and Mrs Christie was eagerly soaking up atmosphere for her story The Man In The Brown Suit.

On the voyage to the Cape, she took her notebooks and typewriter, and was inspired to send her heroine Anne Beddingfeld on the same sea journey  beset by spies, murderers and jewel thieves, of course.

The first episode of his Travels With Agatha Christie (More4) took Sir David Suchet to Cape Town

Sir David, who played the pompous little Belgian detective Poirot for 25 years on ITV, was eager to trace Dame Agathas footsteps around southern Africa

Like Agatha, in Cape Town the actor marvelled at Table Mountain: Its as though someones come along with a big knife and just taken the top right off.

But he ignored the coastline, and with it the chance to inject some real fun into this travelogue.

Agatha was fascinated, she wrote, by the perfectly entrancing bathing . . . people had short curved boards and came floating in on the waves.

Surfing looks perfectly easy. It isnt. I got very angry and fairly hurled my plank from me. Nevertheless, I would not be beaten. Quite by mistake I got a good run on my board, and came out delirious with happiness. Surfing is like that. You are either vigorously cursing or else you are idiotically pleased with yourself.

We learned none of this from Sir David, who trundled off instead for a series of lectures on how ghastly the 19th-century diamond tycoon Cecil Rhodes was.

Instead the audience was 'treated' to a series of lectures on how ghastly the 19th-century diamond tycoon Cecil Rhodes was

Three activists introduced themselves as the founders of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, which succeeded in getting a statue of the former prime minister of the Cape Colony torn down  sparking a brief fad for statue toppling in Britain, too.

Later, he visited Rhodess home (where he admired a granite bathtub), a diamond workshop (where he admired a hefty sparkler) and Rhodess grave in Zimbabwes Matobo National Park (where he admired the view).

This trivial tone rather undermined the lectures on injustices inflicted by the British Empire.

Anne Beddingfeld, in The Man In The Brown Suit, does actually visit the grave, which means Agatha must also have seen it.

Bizarrely, the documentary didnt mention this. By now, the authors travels had been relegated to a footnote in a biography of Rhodes  a man she never met.

Sir David did take a moment, though, to buy a wooden giraffe from a stall. Agatha Christie had one just like it, apparently.
Coronation Street fans fumed that Colson Smith was 'done dirty' as they sobbed at his alter-ego Craig Tinker's final scenes on Wednesday night.

Viewers of the ITV soap fought back the tears as they watched the police officer draw his final breath in hospital.

Craig, who had been a character on the Cobbles since 2011, died after he was murdered by Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) just moments after the police officer tried to arrest him for driving under the influence.

However the crook didn't want to be caught and took matters into his own hands by hitting him over the head with a bat, and left him for dead.

PC Craig was rushed to hospital and although it looked like he was going to get better, things took a turn in hospital after PC Jess arrived to get a statement off him.

Pal Asha Alahan (Tanisha Gorey) asked: 'Are you up for that?'

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Coronation Street fans fume 'they did him dirty' as they're left sobbing by Craig Tinker's harrowing final scenes and complain 'he deserved a happy ending!'

Craig, who had been a character on the Cobbles since 2011, died after he was murdered by Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) just moments after the police officer tried to arrest him for driving under the influence

Clearly still feeling fragile after what happened, but wanting to get on with things, Craig replied: 'Yeah.'

'Craig, are you alright?', she replied.

Kirk Sutherland (Andy Whyment) and Maria O'Connor (Samia Longchambon) burst into the hospital room and he told him: 'I've got your lucky tie.'

The officer looked at two of them and closed his eyes as the hospital machines started bleeping.

Kirk shouted: 'What's going on?!'

Doctors and nurses rushed to his side and one put a torch in his eye and noticed that his brain was swelling, and later confessed 'I can't feel a pulse'.

One shouted: 'I'm going to start CPR now Craig.'

At the end of the instalment, while performing CPR, the doctor said: 'The rhythm is still asystole.

PC Craig was rushed to hospital and although it looked like he was going to get better, things took a turn in hospital after PC Jess arrived to get a statement off him

'I don't think we can reverse anything here. I suggest we stop. Anyone disagree?'

Kirk shouted: 'Why are they stopping?'

The doctor added: 'I'm calling the time of death. 19:25.'

Viewers flocked to social media to share their heartbreak over his death, with many complaining that 'he deserved a happy ending!'

One wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Nah Coronation Street did Craigy dirty there, we do not want more deaths he deserved a happy ending.'

'NOT OUR CRAIGY!!! Justice for Craig.'

'Not our Craigy. I was hoping they'd let Craig leave happy on transfer to a different district to go further up his career ladder but man #corrie that was brutal.'

'Sad to see the end of Craig Tinker on @itvcorrie. I wish they could have left the door open for the always sunny character. I found a few drawing I did of him from years back.'

Many rushed to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share their heartbreak over the devastating scenes that aired on Wednesday evening

'RIP CRAIG . Also known as PC Tinker. The best police officer that the street has ever known.'

'Not Craig #Corrie.'

'Absolutely hate that we lost Craig that way - if anyone deserved a happy ending, it was Tinker.'

Speaking about what viewers ahead of the scenes, Colson said: 'I cant wait for people to see Craigs final scenes.

'It is exactly the exit I wanted for him and we are all really proud of what we filmed in those final weeks. It was actually great fun.

'I was walking around covered in fake blood for days and I was chuffed that I got to work with so many brilliant people in this final storyline.'

Since November last year, it was revealed a number of stars were leaving, including Colson.

And back in January the star revealed to MailOnline that he was told in Autumn 2024 that he would be written out of the soap.

At the time an inside source also explained that Colson is excited for the next chapter of his career and said viewers should look forward to a 'brilliant exit storyline'.

Reflecting on his on the show, Colson confessed that he has loved 'every single second' of his time on the show and feels 'incredibly lucky' to have been a part of the show for so long.

Colson told MailOnline: 'Autumn last year I was told that Craig Tinker's time on the Cobbles is to come to end in 2025.

'I've loved every single second of my 14 year stay as a resident on the greatest street in the world.

'I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in, on and around Coronation Street.

'I've learned pretty much everything about life from the people who call it home. I'm excited to play out the exit story for our Craigy.

'For me, this is the end of the beginning.

'I genuinely can't wait to see what chapter two has in store for me.'

Coronation Street airs on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.
This Morning is set to be the next victim of ITV's budget cuts sparking a dramatic change in the show's format.

Sources have revealed to MailOnline that while This Morning has so far been unaffected by this week's announcement, the long running series will be forced to significantly reduce production value as a result of cost saving.

Presented by Cat Deeley, 48, and Ben Shephard, 50, as well as Alison Hammond, 50, and Dermot O'Leary, 51, the programme has become known for its big musical theatre performances and outside broadcasts, including at the This Morning forest, which was purchased by the channel in 2021.

But insiders have claimed sending the likes of host Alison to Los Angeles for interviews with Hollywood stars and large-scale production items will be scrapped.

MailOnline understands that ITV daytime staff have been warned the channel's shows including Lorraine and Loose Women, which will only air 30 weeks of the year from January, are set to look 'different' because of slashed budgets.

A TV source revealed that bosses will no longer be able to 'justify' big, splashy, Showbiz-filled segments when they are making huge cuts so dramatically behind the scenes and staff, including those employed at This Morning, are at risk of losing their jobs.

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This Morning is set to be the next victim of ITV's budget cuts sparking a dramatic change in the show's format (Alison Hammond pictured February 2025)

Sources have revealed that while This Morning has so far been unaffected by this week's announcement, the long running series will be forced to significantly reduce production value

Insiders have claimed sending the likes of Alison (pictured with co-star Dermot O'Leary) to Los Angeles for interviews with Hollywood stars and large-scale production items will be scrapped

The insider revealed: 'This Morning may have not been hit by the cuts on the surface, but the show is going to look completely different when this all comes into effect next year.

'The cost of production is on the rise and budgets are going to be significantly reduced when the shows launch in their new schedule slots.

'As well as cuts behind the scenes, there will be big changes on camera, especially on This Morning, big production items like musical theatre performances or outside broadcasts, which is what the show is famous for, will be cut.

'Gone are the days of flying talent like Alison Hammond to Los Angeles to interview Hollywood stars.

'The general consensus among staff is that the shows are being put on life support and within time, Lorraine and Loose Women will be the first to be cancelled.'

Cat and Ben became This Morning hosts last March following the controversial departure of ex-presenter Phillip Schofield.

Phil left the programme in May 2023 following widespread claims he had engaged in an extra-marital affair with a young male colleague who first joined the show as an intern.

Holly Willoughby, who had co-presented the show for over 14 years, quit five months later and has since gone onto host Netflix series Celebrity Bear Hunt.

Cat and Ben took over the This Morning helm last March following the controversial departure of former host Phillip Schofield, closely followed by Holly Willoughby

Phil left the programme in May 2023 following widespread claims he had engaged in an extra-marital affair with a young male colleague who first joined the show as an intern (pictured in 2019)

The cuts to Lorraine and Loose Women, which were announced on Tuesday, will see the shows only air for 30 weeks of the year and be off screen during children's school holidays

The cuts to Lorraine and Loose Women, which were announced on Tuesday, will see the shows only air for 30 weeks of the year and be off screen during children's school holidays.

Lorraine has also been reduced from an hour-long slot to 30 minutes, with Good Morning Britain, fronted by Susanna Reid extended to fill the gap.

MailOnline revealed on Wednesday that the Loose Women were 'up in arms' over the cuts and 'panicked' as their livelihoods were put at risk.

Sources told how veteran stars of the panel like Ruth Langsford, 65, fear job losses as the channel looks to monetise on younger talent like former Love Island star Olivia Attwood, 34, and influencer GK Barry, 25.

Anchor Ruth, who previously co-hosted This Morning with ex-husband Eamonn Holmes until 2021, has been on the programme since the beginning, making her the longest serving panelist.

MailOnline has approached ITV for comment.
Georgia Toffolo looked worse for wear as she climbed into a taxi with her boyfriend George Cottrell after a fun-filled night out at Loulou's in London on Thursday.

The Made in Chelsea star, 28, put on a very leggy display and appeared tired after hitting the town ahead of Halloween weekend.

She showed off her incredible figure in a black vest top with a sheer skirt and added a few inches to her frame with a pair of black platform heels.

Boozy? Georgia Toffolo looked worse for wear as she climbs into taxi with her boyfriend George Cottrell after fun-filled night out at Loulou's in London n Thursday

Night out: Georgia put on a very leggy display in a short LBD with platform heels

Georgia, also known as Toff, accessorised with a dainty silver pendant and slung a black handbag with a silver strap across one shoulder for the boozy night out.

She accentuated her features with a touch of bronzer and a slick of pink lipstick and appeared bleary-eyed as she got into a taxi.

The star was joined by her aristocratic boyfriend George, who cut a smart figure in a navy suit with a dusty blue tie and a white shirt.

George, who has previously spent time in jail for wire fraud, put his hand on his forehead as looked tired after the fun-filled night out.

Stylish: She showed off her incredible figure in a black vest top with a sheer skirt and added a few inches to her frame with a pair of black platform heels

Their joint outing comes after Georgia revealed she had started 'seeing' her aristocratic ex boyfriend George again.

The pair initially sparked romance rumours back in 2019, but were said to have cooled things off.

But in May, the TV personality said she is 'really, really happy' after rekindling the spark.

In a chat with The Sun, the TV personality explained that she is keeping her romantic life private, to avoid having to 'justify' things if they go wrong.

Worse for wear: She accentuated her features with a touch of bronzer and a slick of pink lipstick and appeared bleary-eyed as she got into a taxi

But adding a small insight, Georgia told the publication: 'All I can say is that we have just been hanging out, and I'm really, really happy and everything's going really well and I don't want to jinx everything'

George, who was a former aide for Nigel Farage when the pair were involved in the UKIP party, is also a convicted felon - being jailed in the US in 2016 for wire fraud in connection with a drugs and money laundering investigation.

The financier, who is reportedly worth 300million, spent eight months in a US jail.

Bleary-eyed: George, who has previously spent time in jail for wire fraud, put his hand on his forehead as looked tired after the fun-filled night out

Figure-hugging look: Georgia, also known as Toff, accessorised with a dainty silver pendant and slung a black handbag with a silver strap across one shoulder for the boozy night out

But standing up for her relationship, Georgia also told the publication: 'I don't want to have to justify why I'm with someone or why I'm not.'

Admitting that while she'd like to share more detail on her personal life, the star said that the speculation is 'too much for me'.

'I'd like to sort of shout from the rooftops about everything, but when you've got people speculating whether I am with someone, that is too much for me. I've got to keep one bit for me,' she explained.

Romance: Their joint outing comes after Georgia revealed she had started 'seeing' her aristocratic ex boyfriend George again

The confirmation came after Georgia had been spotted spending time with George in recent months.

The pair were spotted at a London heliport back in March, appearing alongside the banker's former boss Nigel.

Later that month, they also enjoyed an al-fresco lunch in west London - amping up the speculation of their reunion.
Plateau roses from NW China blossom onto global stage

Xinhua) 16:54, May 22, 2025

LANZHOU, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Nestled in the barren Loess Plateau, the small town of Kushui in northwest China's Gansu Province bursts into a sea of vibrant roses every mid-May.

Kushui Town in Yongdeng County is one of China's leading rose-producing regions, with a cultivation history dating back more than two centuries.

"The Kushui rose requires low-intense labor, being highly resistant to drought and cold, which makes it perfectly adapted to thrive here," said Xu Dahong, deputy director of the county's rose research institute, adding that the flourishing rose industry has played a vital role in boosting the local economy.

As a selenium-rich variety, Kushui roses boast a higher oil-extraction rate than many other types. The precious essential oil has become a coveted ingredient in global cosmetics, perfumes and food products. It has not only been incorporated into numerous domestic cosmetic brands but also exported to countries including Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Australia, France and the United States.

"Our distillation techniques, enhanced by digital controls, guarantee world-class quality standards," said Ba Cunli, head of a local rose essential oil manufacturer. Ba's company sells rose-infused skincare products primarily through e-commerce channels, with online sales accounting for 70 percent of total revenue.

Where ancient traditions meet modern innovation, Kushui roses -- once preserved in salt -- now flourish through cold storage technology, enabling year-round production, according to Ba.

Beyond essential oil extraction, the roses find a wide application as food flavoring and form the foundation of an increasingly diversified product line.

"The sweet, nutrient-rich petals are rich in anthocyanins and vitamin C," said Shi Xiaochang, founder of a local rose-processing company. With annual revenue exceeding 20 million yuan (about 2.77 million U.S. dollars), Shi's firm has developed more than 100 rose-based products, including beverages, flower cakes, wine and tea -- helping boost the incomes of nearly 2,000 local households.

Today, Kushui Town cultivates roses across 21,000 mu (about 1,400 hectares) of land, with average yields reaching 400 kg per mu, and has 27 rose processing enterprises, according to Ye Chenglong, Party secretary of Kushui Town.

Expanding to the entire county, rose plantations now cover 101,600 mu. Annual production of fresh roses reaches 28 million kg, yielding 1,200 kg of essential oil, 2.6 million kg of dried flower buds, and 1,500 tonnes of rose jam -- with the output value of the entire rose industrial chain reaching 2.8 billion yuan.

Yet this ambitious town continues pursuing higher-yield, longer-blooming rose varieties in a bid to strengthen the rose industry and further increase farmers' incomes.

"We are striving to create a flagship product that will enhance the popularity of Kushui rose and reinforce the entire industrial chain," Ye added.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Cariba Heine has and her husband Matthew Pongrass have welcomed their first child together.

The H2O: Just Add Water star, 36, announced the exciting news on Wednesday on Instagram.

'Besotted with this baby boy,' she captioned an intimate black-and-white image of herself cradling the newborn.

Fans, friends, and her fellow Mako mermaids rushed to congratulate Cariba on the new addition to the family.

'Awwwww congrats!' Claire Holt, who starred as Emma Gilbert on H2O alongside Cariba, commented with a string of cute emojis.

'Our Rikki got a mini Rikki,' one excited fan commented, referencing Cariba's character in the Australian hit series, while another posted a humorous GIF of the character telling Phoebe Tonkin's Cleo "Sorry I don't do kids" in an early episode.

Australian actress Cariba Heine has and her husband Matthew Pongrass have welcomed their first child together

Cariba announced her pregnancy in December last year, a mere six months after she and her husband tied the knot in Tuscany, Italy

Cariba announced her pregnancy in December last year, a mere six months after she and her husband tied the knot in Tuscany, Italy.

The pair had been dating for some time before Matthew popped the question in 2022.

'Spoilt doesn't even cut it but pregnancy is HARD WORK. So I'll take it,' she wrote alongside a photo taken on holiday in her native Cape Town, South Africa.

Cariba is best known for her role as Rikki Chadwick in the kids mermaid TV series H2O: Just Add Water.

The beloved Channel Ten television series followed three teenagers  Emma, Cleo and Rikki  who transform into mermaids whenever they come into contact with water.

Her character on the show, which ran from 2006-2010, was a mermaid with special powers who was initially 'aloof and rebellious.'

Airing back in 2006 and running for three seasons, H20: Just Add Water was a huge success in Australia and paved the way to Hollywood stardom for several of its stars, including Phoebe Tonkin, Claire Holt and Luke Mitchell.

A third series aired due to worldwide popular demand before the show ended in 2010 and the cast have since bid farewell to Mako Island and moved onto bigger productions.

Cariba appeared in all three seasons of the show, in addition to its spin-off series Mako: Island Of Secrets.

Cariba is best known for her role as Rikki Chadwick in the kids mermaid TV series H2O: Just Add Water. The beloved Channel Ten television series followed three teenagers  Emma, Cleo and Rikki  who transform into mermaids whenever they come into contact with water

After H20, Cariba also starred in surfing television series Blue Water High as Bridget Sanchez and in Home and Away as villain Ebony

The South African-born actress also starred in surfing television series Blue Water High as Bridget Sanchez for its third and final season which began filming in 2007.

The show followed the lives of a young group of students at Solar Blue, a high-performance surf academy, and aired on ABC1 and Nickelodeon.

She later took on minor roles in several Australian television shows and films, including nine episodes of the children's drama Dance Academy and as bruntte villain Ebony in Home and Away.

Cariba also got her big break in the US starring in Everyone Is Doing Great in 2021, alongside fellow Australian actor Alexandra Park.

Despite all three H20 stars continuing successful on-screen careers, with Tonkin and Holt also co-starring in Vampire Diaries prequel The Originals together, the Gold Coast drama series has continued to be a connection point for fans.

The series also experienced a resurgence in popularity during the Covid-pandemic as it was introduced to a whole new generation and went viral on TikTok.

Cariba, who was 18 when the show began, told Yahoo Lifestyle that she began to properly appreciate the series' impact.

'As I got older, I really started to appreciate how impactful the series was, especially for younger girls,' she said.

The actress said many fans have reached out to tell her Rikki taught them it is okay not to be 'the agreeable, nice, obedient girl'.

'That sort of stuff is really beautiful, I love hearing that, she adds.

'Thats really special to hear that a character you played when you were so young, to not even understand it, has helped people grow up and feel like they can be themselves more.'

That said, she told the publication she did not think a reboot starring herself and her co-stars would work because the show hinged on the leads being teenagers.
Welcome to The Group Chat with Lucy Manly, where Australia's most-trusted society insider shares the hottest gossip BEFORE it makes the news.

Like the cat that got the cream

They called off their engagement amid reports of conflicting lifestyles.

But after a few months licking his wounds, young-at-heart financier Tom Fennell has bounced back from his break-up with glamorous single mother Annabelle Price.

He announced his return to Sydney's social scene recently by posing front and centre among a bevvy of very beautiful women.

The 52-year-old tomcat stepped out with a fresh rinse and sun-kissed tan at Bondi hotspot Icebergs alongside the group of lovely ladies to celebrate the birthday of Brisbane recruitment specialist Jacqui Paul.

Young-at-heart financier Tom Fennell (second from right) stepped out at Bondi Icebergs with a group of lovely ladies to celebrate the birthday of Brisbane recruitment specialist Jacqui Paul

Fennell looked in his element surrounded by a mix of perfectly proportioned companions as they marked the joyous occasion with a photo on the oceanfront balcony

Fennell is seen with a friend at Bondi Icebergs

Fennell looked in his element surrounded by a mix of perfectly proportioned companions as they marked the joyous occasion with a photo on the oceanfront balcony.

We also hear the divorced man-about-town has a new 'special lady' in his life whom he has already introduced to trusted friends and confidants.

As soon as I find out the identity of the lucky lady, I'll let you know.

Fennell, of course, makes no secret of his lust for life. In 2023, he hosted a themed soiree for his 50th birthday at the Ivy Penthouse, where 100 his closest friends dusted off their tuxedos, silk pyjamas and bunny ears for 'A Night at the Playboy Mansion'.

Whispers of Fennell's new love come after his split from society beauty Annabelle.

The May-December lovebirds' 'quickie' engagement had set tongues wagging in June 2023 when Fennell presented Price, 33, with a five-carat diamond sparkler and an offer no eastern suburbs socialite could possibly refuse.

Their love story had emerged phoenix-like from the ashes of Price's headline-making separation from wealth advisor Freddie Blencke, with whom she shares two children.

But just over a year after the blonde said yes, the pair quietly ended their engagement last August, and managed to keep it under wraps until I caught wind of it in March.

Whispers of Fennell's new love come after his split from society beauty Annabelle Price (right)

Fennell was previously married to South African charity maven Vanessa Jacobs Fennell, who was once a shortlist candidate to appear on The Real Housewives of Sydney.

Ms Fennell made headlines in March for allegedly crashing her Range Rover Sport into a number of parked cars, including a Tesla, in Bellevue Hill.

The tyres on her luxury SUV were reportedly shredded as a result of her 'doing laps' of the ritzy suburb.

Footage of the incident appeared to show the socialite taking a swipe at a police officer as she was arrested. She spent the night in the clink before making bail the next morning.

She was charged with refusing to submit to breath analysis, assault police officer in the execution of duty and not give particulars to owner of damaged property.

At Waverley Court on April 1, her lawyer Helen Christinson pleaded not guilty on Ms Fennell's behalf and applied for a Section 14 which, if accepted by the magistrate, will see the charges dismissed on mental health grounds.

Murky past of Justin Hemmes' new neighbour

Porsche-driving Sotheby's realtor Maclay Longhurst and his wife Jessie have snapped up a Vaucluse mansion for about $27million, just a stone's throw away from Justin Hemmes' famous 'Hermitage' compound.

The Longhursts, who recently welcomed their first child, certainly look the part of an upwardly mobile eastern suburbs power couple - but there's a rather murky detail from Maclay's past that he perhaps won't want his well-heeled neighbours to know.

Prior to making it big in the prestige real estate industry, a young Mr Longhurst was pictured in an infamous image from the 2005 Cronulla riots.

Porsche-driving Sotheby's realtor Maclay Longhurst and his wife Jessie have snapped up a Vaucluse mansion a stone's throw away from Justin Hemmes' famous 'Hermitage' compound

I was first to unmask Maclay as the 19-year-old in the background of a group of largely shirtless 'patriots' being led by an irate man brandishing a beer bottle while shouting at police.

The Associated Press image was published around the world and became one of the iconic pictures of the riots that brought shame on Australia and highlighted the ugly racial tensions between Cronulla 'locals' and those perceived to be immigrants.

We do not suggest Maclay was part of the racially motivated contingent. Given his age and otherwise good character, he was most likely just following the crowd, which is foolish but forgivable.

Maclay, who was raised in the Shire and attended Waverley College, had long feared the photo would one day surface.

When I put him out of his misery in 2021 by identifying him as the teen in the photo, he declined to comment but was keen to know who had shared the image with me. (That article, by the way, has since been inexplicably pushed down Google rankings when you search for his name. Go figure!)

Prior to making it big in the prestige real estate industry, Maclay (circled in the background) was photographed in a group with police in an infamous image from the 2005 Cronulla riots

At the time of his exposure, he was selling homes for agency BresicWhitney but later jumped ship to start Woollahra's first Sotheby's International office

Now aged 39 and a new father, Maclay enjoys the finer things in life, including driving luxury cars, sailing on superyachts and long European summers. (He is pictured with his wife Jessie during her pregnancy)

At the time of his exposure, he was selling homes for agency BresicWhitney but later jumped ship to start Woollahra's first Sotheby's International office.

Now aged 39 and a new father, Maclay enjoys the finer things in life, including driving luxury cars, sailing on superyachts and long European summers.

The Longhursts' new four-bedroom home sits above the harbourside Hermitage Walk, and boasts views across Sydney Harbour to the city skyline, a level lawn and a pool.

They bought it from another notable couple, high-powered solicitor Maxine Brenner and her husband Jodee Rich, the businessman best known for the One.Tel disaster.

We hope his new neighbours will forgive Maclay for his adolescent lapse of judgement.

After all, the youthful indiscretion certainly hasn't hurt his career, with Real Estate Business ranking him Australia's third best-performing agent of 2024, clocking 176 sales totalling about $504million.

Then there's his own savvy property investments, including the recent sale of a three-bedder in Woollahra for $12million, four years after buying it for $8.3million.

And finally... guess who, don't sue

Its fast becoming the drug cocktail du jour for fiends in the Harbour City.

You may not have heard of pink cocaine, but it's all the rage in the eastern suburbs. It has become more in-demand than the white stuff at certain parties, I am told.

So, what is pink cocaine, I hear you ask? Known variously as pig nose, pink panther and cocaine rosada, the colourful powder rarely contains cocaine but is instead a mix of dangerous illicit drugs like ketamine, MDMA and methamphetamine.

All drugs carry risk, but this stuff is another level, and even veterans of the party scene fear it's only a matter of time before something 'really bad' happens.

'I wouldn't risk it,' one told me.

Liam Payne reportedly had pink cocaine in his system when he plunged to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina last October. A complainant against Sean 'Diddy' Combs claims it was the accused sex-trafficking rap mogul's go-to party drug.

In November a record-breaking 252kg of pink cocaine destined for Sydneys streets was seized by police, with a 21-year-old man arrested in Coogee for allegedly trying to import the dangerous new substance.
Jennifer Aniston is set to flee Hollywood for her renovated $15million Montecito mansion after her horrific stalking ordeal.

The Daily Mail has learned the revamp is almost complete after the Friends star fixed the windows, balconies and added a swimming pool to the backyard.

The sprawling estate is a perfect place for the 56-year-old to find comfort with her neighborhood friends such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Rob Lowe.

Other celebrities in the area also include Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Katy Perry and Zoe Saldana - who recently splurged $20million on an estate.

It comes as her stalker's estranged wife has spoken out about the frightening darkness she said lurked inside him.

Julia Carwyle said she was forced to request a restraining order against Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, who is being held in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in LA.

The 48-year-old from Mississippi was arrested at Aniston's $21million Bel-Air home on May 5 after he rammed into the gate with his car while she was inside.

Jennifer Aniston is hoping to spend time at her $15M Montecito, California mansion in the next few months. Seen in a Pvolve ad

The renovations are almost complete after the Friends actress redid the windows, balconies and added a swimming pool to the backyard

Carwyle did not enter a plea during his May 8 arraignment. He did not speak but intently stared at the courtroom

Aniston's move to Montecito is a welcome escape from Los Angeles following the terrifying invasion while she was in the house.

A source told the Daily Mail: 'Jen is happy to have a safe place to run to where she can let her hair down.

'Though she loves Los Angeles because it is where she grew up, she is craving more of a country setting these days away from the noise.'

Other friends have also said they would be happy to travel out to help make the renovation feel more homely, including Jimmy Kimmel and Jason Bateman.

A friend close to Aniston said the attack on her Bel Air home 'did a number' on her and left her 'flipping out'.

The source said: 'It's a bad feeling knowing someone wants to break into your sanctuary. It's such a shame that happened.'

Aniston bought the Montecito mansion from Oprah Winfrey in September 2022 in an off-market deal for $14.8million.

The 4,320-square-foot home, built in 1999, has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. There's also a pool house, cabana, and even a guesthouse.

The property's exterior has been altered as well, notably with the replacement of blue windows by modern, white-framed designs.

The upper-level balconies have also been renovated, now featuring dark metal railings.

While renovations are still ongoing, outdoor furniture has been arranged on both the balconies and the raised patio overlooking the pool.

Days before she could be seen in her home gym in Bel Air

Jimmy Wayne Carwyle, 48, is said to have driven his Chrysler PT Cruiser into the front gate of the star's Bel Air property

The home has lots of privacy on its heavily wooded premises, grassy lawns and a enough parking to easily accommodate fifteen cars.

It's not the only home Aniston owns - she also has the $20.97million mansion in Bel Air which came under attack earlier this month.

Carwyle is charged with one count each of felony stalking and felony vandalism and also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he is accused of repeatedly harassing Aniston between March 1, 2023, and May 5, 2025 - sending her 'unwanted social media, voicemail and email messages.'

The alleged harassment 'culminated when he allegedly crashed his vehicle through her front gate, causing substantial damage, and stopped in her driveway.'

Carwyle's estranged wife opened up about her marriage to the father-of-one, who has an adult daughter from a previous relationship.

Julia said she walked out on him, adding: 'He's put me through literal hell. It took a toll on me for the past four years in every aspect - it's not been good.

'I've got a restraining order on him since we split up. He's been stalking me the same way [as Aniston] and he's not a very good person.'

According to Julia, she was unaware of her husband's apparent obsession with the beloved TV and movie star.

The couple did not watch a lot of television while together, and Aniston didn't come up in conversation, she said.

'Jimmy had a secret life I knew nothing about,' said Julia. 'We never even watched her. The whole time we've been together he never went on about her.'

Julia Carwyle pictured with her estranged husband, Jimmy Carwyle

Police are investigating social media posts and messages that potentially indicate stalking

In early a man who allegedly crashed his car through the gate of Aniston's home has been accused of harassment

Carwyle, she added, is an enthusiastic outdoorsman. 'This guy likes to hunt and fish,' she said. 'We're country folks.' Julia believes he is suffering from a mental illness.

She revealed an 'awful' history with drugs, including marijuana and alcohol, but says she doesn't know 'if he's doing anything right now.'

Addiction, she added, 'can happen so quick and it doesn't discriminate.' She has 'no idea' why Carwyle 'flipped.'

'All l I know is it had to be the drugs, but I've never known any drug to do any person that way.

'Because if you're sick in the head, you don't have to have a drug to bring it up. A drug is going to bring it out of you, but you're going to be sick in the head.'

She describes having 'problems' in her relationship with Carwyle and that he was acting 'crazy.'

Regarding the restraining order, she said he was annoyed by the couple's separation.

'It probably triggered him when he and I split up,' she said. 'He was getting aggravated - mad at me... It really messed him up mentally.'

Carwyle visited LA a total of three times to try to meet Aniston, Julia claims. On the two previous trips, she adds, 'he said he couldn't find her.'

She last saw him in September on the day he headed to California. She previously told the Daily Mail, 'He was going there because he was going to meet up with Jennifer. He was going to go see her.

'He actually thought he was going to meet Jennifer,' Julia said. 'I guess he was speaking with her. He had the impression that Jennifer Aniston and he were going to talk and meet.

Carwyle, 48, was charged with felony stalking and vandalism

Unearthed social media posts described a disturbing desire to marry Aniston from an account with the suspect's name

'So naturally he's doing what anybody would do - he went across the country.

'He thought 'Maybe she's just going to meet a guy to take a chance,' she added. 'That's the way he was thinking.'

In her latest comments to the Daily Mail, Julia revealed Carwyle had been communicating on Facebook with someone he believed was Aniston.

'He's been misled because if that's what's going on, this person has messed with his head.'

Carwyle allegedly made alarming posts online which mentioned Aniston but they have since been deleted.

Several reportedly referred to Aniston as his 'bride,' including one posted in October, allegedly referring to the actress as 'Jennifer Aniston Carwyle.'

Another post allegedly said that he and Aniston would be 'mended together' and referenced Adam and Eve.

Julia said he would often refer to individuals as characters from the Bible and he would call her 'Jezebel.'

Julia said her family is 'really having a hard time' following the stalking charges against her errant husband.

She calls the shocking drama surrounding Carwyle as 'embarrassing' but still expresses compassion for him.

He has been accused of repeatedly sending Jennifer unwanted email, social media messages and voicemail since 2023

'Jimmy got saved and he has not been the same since he asked Jesus into his life,' said Julia.

'He's not Jimmy right now. He's not the same person. This isn't the Jimmy I know. It's not the man I met. He did not do all of this before we married.

'I don't know what's happened to him - but he's a completely different person than I thought he was.

'I always tell Jimmy, everything's going to work out. It may not be the way we want it to be, but the right thing, if you're doing the right thing with your whole heart, then everything's going to be in your favor. God will work in your favor.'

The Aniston case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Sam Hulefeld of the DA's Stalking and Threat Assessment Team.

During Carwyle's May 8 arraignment, Judge Keith Schwartz expressed doubt that Carwyle could actually comprehend what was being discussed in court when a prosecutor requested that the defendant be ordered not to get near Aniston.

A stay away order was granted and his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Toral Malik, said, 'I don't believe him staying away from Ms. Aniston will be an issue at this time.'

Carwyle was also ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Aniston's home.

His next court appearance is scheduled for May 22 at the Hollywood mental health division of Los Angeles Superior Court. If convicted, he faces three years in prison.
Emma Stone has officially listed her Austin mansion on the market for $26.5 million - despite the home still undergoing finishing renovations.

The Oscar winner, 36 - who recently garnered a standing ovation for her new film Eddington at the Cannes Film Festival - initially purchased the Tarrytown property in 2021, although it is not known for what price.

But for three years, the actress and her husband Dave McCary renovated the estate with the intention to move their family there but have since opted abruptly not to follow through with those plans.

Eric Moreland - one of the listing agents from Moreland Properties/Forbes Global Properties - told Realtor.com that the couple's business in New York is keeping them there, but they still hope to settle in Austin later in the future.

The 10,000-square-foot abode sits on around 1.25-acres of land - while the main home consists of a total of four bedrooms.

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Emma Stone, 36, has officially listed her Austin mansion on the market for $26.5 million - despite the home still undergoing finishing renovations; seen earlier this month in Cannes

The Oscar winner initially purchased the Tarrytown property in 2021, although it is not known for what price

Also on the property is a two-bedroom guest house as well as a spacious three-car garage that has a screening room above.

The mansion - which was first constructed sometime in the 1940s - also offers a swimming pool for residents to cool down in the hot summer temperatures and a hot tub.

The backyard also has a dirt walkway surrounded by plants and trees which leads to the pool area and other parts of the home.

A covered outdoor space offers plenty of room for entertaining and also has a kitchen space.

The front embodies Georgia-style details with tall white pillars at the entrance and dark shutters around the windows.

Both the kitchen and living room are part of an open floor plan - and wooden flooring covers most of the house.

The kitchen has a large island in the middle while the cabinetry is painted a dark bluish tint.

Other portions of the house have wood-paneled walls while one area allows natural sunlight to stream inside through the roof.

Renovations are yet to be completed, such as the landscape at the front of the property - which is also not far from a boat ramp that leads to Lady Bird Lake.

But for three years, the actress and her husband Dave McCary renovated the estate with the intention to move their family there but have since opted to not follow through with those plans

Eric Moreland - one of the listing agents from Moreland Properties/Forbes Global Properties - told Realtor.com that the couple's business in New York is keeping them there, but they still hope to settle in Austin later in the future

The 10,000-square-foot abode sits on around 1.25-acres of land - while the main home consists of a total of four bedrooms

Also on the property is a two-bedroom guest house as well as a spacious three-car garage that has a screening room above

The mansion - which was first constructed sometime in the 1940s - also offers a swimming pool for residents to cool down in the hot summer temperatures and also a hot tub

The backyard also has a dirt walkway surrounded by plants and trees which leads to the pool area and other parts of the home

A covered outdoor space offers plenty of room for entertaining and also has a kitchen space

Both the kitchen and living room are part of an open floor plan - and wooden flooring covers most of the house

Other portions of the house have wood-paneled walls while one area allows natural sunlight to stream inside through the roof

One of the bathrooms has partial brickwork on the walls, as well as tiled flooring and a bathtub that is separate from the shower

One of the bathrooms has partial brickwork on the walls, as well as tiled flooring and a bathtub that is separate from the shower.

A second kitchen area is located inside the mansion and also includes a long island in the middle and windows that offer a glimpse at the outdoor space.

Stone is no stranger to entering the real estate market and listed her Malibu home in 2022 and just one month later, it sold for $4.4 million.

Last year, Emma also put her Los Angeles home on the market - which sold only two weeks later for $4.3 million.

According to Realtor.com, the Easy A actress and her husband also own an apartment in Manhattan which is estimated to be worth around $12 million.

The pair - who tied the knot back in 2020 - are also parents to a daughter named Louise, four.

Stone has been keeping busy and recently made an appearance at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival to promote her upcoming project titled Eddington.

The Western comedy also stars Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, Joaquin Phoenix, Luke Grimes and Deirdre O'Connell.

A second kitchen area is located inside the mansion and also includes a long island in the middle and windows that offer a glimpse at the outdoor space

A room contains light wooden flooring as well as blue paneled walls and a large window that allows plenty of natural light inside

The backyard also offers views of the pool and surrounding trees on the property

Stone is no stranger to entering the real estate market and listed her Malibu home in 2022 and just one month later, it sold for $4.4 million

Last year, Emma also put her Los Angeles home on the market - which sold only two weeks later for $4.3 million

According to Realtor.com, the Easy A actress and her husband also own an apartment in Manhattan which is estimated to be worth around $12 million

The pair - who tied the knot back in 2020 - are also parents to a daughter named Louise, four; Stone and McCary seen in March in Beverly Hills

The premise is: 'In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico,' per IMDB.

Ari Aster wrote and directed the film - and is known for others movies such as Hereditary and Midsommar.

During a press conference at Cannes over the past weekend, the filmmaker opened up about what led him to penning the script to Eddington.

'I wrote this film in a state of fear and anxiety about the world, and I wanted to try to pull back and show what it feels like to live in a world where nobody can agree on what is real anymore,' he said, per The Hollywood Reporter.

'The last 20 years, we've fallen into this age of hyper individualism I wanted to make a film about what America feels like at that time, and it felt bad.

'I'm very worried. We need to re-engage with each other. That's the only hope,' Aster added.

Last week on Friday, a screening of Eddington was shown during the film festival and garnered a seven-minute standing ovation.

Stone has been keeping busy and recently made an appearance at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival to promote her upcoming project titled Eddington; seen last week in Cannes

Shortly before on the red carpet, a humorous moment took place when Emma was posing with some of her co-stars Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal and a bee flew in their direction (seen above)

Phoenix was visibly brought to tears over the positive reception and in a Vanity Fair clip, Aster addressed the audience.

'Thank you for being here. I feel very privileged to be here. It's a dream come true. Thank you so much for having me. And, I don't know - sorry? I don't know.'

Shortly before on the red carpet, a humorous moment took place when Emma was posing with some of her co-stars Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal.

At one point, a bee flew directly towards Stone's face - causing the actress to give a shocked reaction and bend backwards. Pascal and Butler soon intervened to brush the bee away as they continued to take pictures.
Kim Kardashian has finally completed her law school program after a six year journey - but she was immediately trolled by fans who all had the same response.

The reality TV star, 44, celebrated the achievement with a backyard ceremony  where she was the only student  and proudly shared the video to her Instagram, but many comments teased her for taking so long to complete a three-year-program.

The mom-of-four was pictured sitting next to a podium in a grey top, a black mini skirt, and a beige graduation cap, while her mentors gave speeches praising her, and her family and kids watched.

One of her mentors even called it 'one of the most inspiring legal journeys we've ever seen.'

Kardashian didn't attend traditional law school. In California, individuals can become lawyers by completing a four-year Law Office Study Program (LOSP), also known as 'reading the law,' instead of going to law school. She still needs to pass the Bar Exam to practice law in the state.

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Kim Kardashian, 44, has finally completed her law school program after a six year journey - but she was immediately trolled by fans who all had the same response

The proud reality TV star celebrated the major achievement with a backyard ceremony  where she was the only student  but many comments teased her for taking so long to complete a three-year-program

Her mentor went on to speak about Kim's 'fierce desire to fight for justice' and noted the star did not take any shortcuts and was full of 'determination.'

She added Kim finished the program while 'raising four children, running businesses, filming television shows, and showing up in courtrooms to advocate for others.'

Another mentor spoke about how Kim has 'advocated for clemency, helped reunite families, and brought national attention to the most broken parts of our legal system.'

CNN's Van Jones also appeared at the ceremony, praising her for her criminal justice efforts.

Kim later approached the podium to get her diploma, as her younger three kids  Chicago, seven, Saint, nine, and Psalm, five  watched.

However, not all fans were impressed, with some joking about how long it took Kim to finish.

'Lmao 6 years to finish her "bar prep" program,' one wrote.

'And it only took her double the amount of time!'

'Gurl 6 years for a law school.'

'Girl it takes THREE. You didnt graduate, you just caught up.'

'Mind you law school is supposed to take 3 years.'

'Took her long enough.'

'Is it supposed to take this long?' someone else asked, while another joked that Kim must have only taken one class per semester.

'To do what exactly?' another questioned.

However others were more understanding, with one writing, 'she was building skims, raising four kids, running an empire and studying lawthis is her legally brunette era and i support it.'

Kim received her diploma from her mentors, who raved about her achievements

Kardashian didn't attend traditional law school. In California, individuals can become lawyers by completing a four-year Law Office Study Program (LOSP), also known as 'reading the law,' instead of going to law school. She still needs to pass the Bar Exam to practice law in the state

CNN's Van Jones also appeared at the ceremony, praising her for her criminal justice efforts

However, not all fans were impressed, with some joking about how long it took Kim to finish. 'Lmao 6 years to finish her "bar prep" program,' one wrote

The star marked the occasion with a celebration at the Beverly Hills hotel

Her sister Khloe Kardashian was pictured arriving at the Beverly Hills Hotel for a celebration

Khloe wowed in a pink mini dress and heels

Khloe also shared a video praising Kim

Olde sister Kourtney Kardashian also celebrated, posing in a graduation cap in an Instagram snap

President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, congratulated the star, writing, 'Congratulations Kim! You did it! My favorite law school graduate!'

Kim's youngest three kids  Chicago, seven, Saint, nine, and Psalm, five  were pictured supporting her

Daughter Chicago was also clad in a suit to watch her mom graduate

Her kids were in the front row for the occasion

It's unclear if her eldest daughter North West, 11, was present

Her sister Khloe Kardashian shared a clip about the ceremony, expressing how proud she is of Kim for completing the journey.

Olde sister Kourtney Kardashian also celebrated, posing in a graduation cap in an Instagram snap.

President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump  who's good friends with Kim  congratulated the star, sharing a photo from the graduation and writing, 'Congratulations Kim! You did it! My favorite law school graduate!'

For the past six years, Kim has dedicated roughly 18 hours a week to studying law, totaling more than 5,000 hours. Her efforts paid off when she passed the 'baby bar' back in 2021.

Kim's process took longer than four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her busy schedule.

Kim had already passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination back in March  a big exam for her program  sources told TMZ.

The star marked her graduation with a celebration at Beverly Hills hotel.

Kim's chic look for the day was completed with white heels and black stockings.

It's unclear if her eldest daughter North West, 11, was present.

Kim shares all four of her kids with ex-husband Kanye West, 47.

The star's late father, legendary attorney Robert Kardashian, was clearly on her mind during the special day, as she shared a photo of him

Kim's process took longer than four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her busy schedule

Kim also showed a photo of the placemats at the celebration, which were versions of her study flash cards

For the past six years, Kim has dedicated roughly 18 hours a week to studying law, totaling more than 5,000 hours. Her efforts paid off when she passed the 'baby bar' back in 2021

The star's late father, legendary attorney Robert Kardashian, was clearly on her mind during the special day, as she shared a photo of him.

He gained national recognition in the mid-1990s for his involvement in O.J. Simpson's murder trial, where he served as a friend and defense attorney on Simpson's legal 'Dream Team.'

He passed away in 2003 from esophageal cancer. He was 59 years old.

Kim also shared an adorable snap of her son Psalm in a suit enjoying some ice cream, and proudly wrote, 'my babies were there to see my graduate.'

Daughter Chicago was also clad in a suit to watch her mom graduate.

Kim also showed a photo of the placemats at the celebration, which were versions of her study flash cards.

The reality TV star reportedly plans to take the bar exam in 2026.

In 2018 Kim started her dream of wanting to become a lawyer like her father.

She started her law apprenticeship in the state of California in mid 2019.
The Block judge Marty Fox and his wife Charlotte have listed their Toorak home on the market for between $12 - $13million, four years after purchasing it.

The couple bought the lavish 1890-built - located in Melbourne's wealthiest suburb - for $7.2 million in 2021, and did extensive renovations before moving in.

The pair made sure to keep the home's historic charm while adding contemporary luxury and amenities.

'It's the largest landholding between Hawksburn and Toorak Villages,' Marty told Realestate.com.au.

'We bought it on a six-month settlement and actually renovated it before moving into it.'

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The Block judge Marty Fox and his wife Charlotte have listed their Toorak home on the market for between $12 - $13million, four years after purchasing it

The renovation was completed in a rapid four months while Charlotte was pregnant with their third child.

The decision to sell came as a surprise to many as they previously described the property as their 'forever home'.

The renovation was done in collaboration with Castley McCrimmon Architects and Dome Building.

The couple enhanced the home's period details with additions like bi-folds, period French windows and custom skylights.

Stylish features also include chevron floors, ornate fireplaces and a pristine kitchen adorned with marble accents and brass hardware.

The property also boasts an outdoor oasis complete with a pool, gym, sauna and a unique addition - a pickleball court - made possible through strategic negotiations with neighbouring property owners.

'Our business is growing, and we're travelling a lot,' Marty explained of their decision to sell.

'We feel that our dream is to be able to have a home in Queenstown, New Zealand, a home on the Gold Coast  which we now have  and a smaller home in Melbourne.'

Expressions of interest remain open until June 24.

The couple bought the lavish 1890-built - located in Melbourne 's wealthiest suburb - for $7.2million in 2021, and did extensive renovations before moving in

The property also boasts an outdoor oasis complete with a pool, gym, sauna and a unique addition - a pickleball court - made possible through strategic negotiations with neighbouring property owners

Marty is the chief executive of WHITE FOX Real Estate, which he co-founded with his wife.

He first appeared on the 2023 season of The Block as a semi-regular judge and returned for the following season.

He featured on Nine's hit series as a judge alongside Shaynna Blaze and Darren Palmer.

The reality TV star started carving out his career as a real estate agent at the age of 21 before going on to start his own agency.

Marty previously revealed he tried to get permission to bid in the 2024 Block auction after being left impressed by one team in particular.

The pair made sure to keep the home's historic charm while adding contemporary luxury and amenities

The decision to sell came as a surprise to many as they previously described the property as their 'forever home'

The entrepreneur explained he tried to get Channel Nine's permission to submit a bid in the auction but was knocked back.

The judges do not put forward any of their offers of their own.
Hollywood mogul Barry Diller, who came out as a gay in his new memoir after decades of marriage to fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, is now insisting that he was never in fact 'closeted.'

Diller, 83, who has a net worth of $4.6billion, spilled his juicy showbiz secrets in his autobiography Who Knew, which was published Tuesday.

The former Paramount Boss says in the book he knew he was gay from the age of 11, but his older brother was a drug addict and he did not want to inflict the shame of two 'broken' children on his parents.

His sexuality was an open secret in Hollywood for decades, but the wealthy entrepreneur is just now confirming it for the general masses.

Now in a new interview, he has claimed that the 'door was always open,' saying: 'If I was in a closet, it was made of glass and full of light.'

He maintained that he 'wasnt ever lying' and 'never pretended anything' but merely 'never declared,' according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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Hollywood mogul Barry Diller, who came out as a gay in his new memoir after decades of marriage to Diane von Furstenberg, is now insisting that he was never in fact 'closeted'

The tycoon discussed the 'casual cruelty' of hearing a Paramount executive making gay jokes in front of him while he, Diller, was head of the company.

'I wasnt closeted - I just never declared,' he stated, adding that he felt the 'reaction' to a viral excerpt of the book in which he came out as gay was 'wild.'

The 83-year-old billionaire marveled: 'Suddenly Im "coming out." At my age! Diane, my wife, and I laughed about it. It was absurd. The door was always open. If I was in a closet, it was made of glass and full of light.'

Of the responses to the book, he said: 'People can say what they want. I didnt want to live a hypocritical life. That was the main thing. So I just lived as I lived. But yes, of course it left a mark. Any minority experience does. Thats universal.'

However he also doubled down on the misgivings he expressed in his memoirs about not having been more candid about his sexuality to the general public.

'I do wish that I had made a declaration,' he acknowledged. 'I wasnt ever lying. Ive never pretended anything. I never hid. People in my circle knew about my life with both men and with Diane. The only thing I didnt do was make a declaration. I chose not to for a lot of complicated reasons.'

Diller said again: 'I was never hiding. But I didnt issue a press release either. And yes, there were moments, especially early in my career, when I was aware of how people might react. But in practical terms, it didnt hold me back.'

Although he never let his sexuality impede him professionally, he observed that the 'internal part - the shame, the concealment - that leaves a mark,' which he explained is 'why I wrote about it' in the autobiography.

And now he's giving a glimpse into who exactly he was messing around with decades ago while separated from his wife Diane von Furstenberg in the 1970s

Diller reflected that in this day and age 'the idea of "coming out" in the old sense - its mostly obsolete now. Young people may still struggle, but weve come so far. And that momentum cant be stopped, no matter whos in office.'

In the book, he gave a a glimpse into who exactly he was messing around with, having revealed his wife was the only woman he could ever love.

Diller allegedly had liaisons with Michael Bennett, famous Broadway director and choreographer behind A Chorus Line, as well as Johnny Carson's stepson, according to The New York Times.

Columnist Maureen Dowd didn't name the stepson and the book isn't out for another 10 days. But Carson only had one stepson - Joe Holland - who died of AIDS in 1994.

Diller's other lover Michael Bennett was also killed by the disease in 1987 aged just 44.

And, at the time, the lifestyle choice could have ended his career, telling the outlet that it was 'better to be called a failure than a fairy.'

However, that didn't stop Hollywood from nearly outing him over the years.

In 1974, he caught wind that People was planning on writing a 'mean and homophobic' piece on him. But when it came out, it mainly criticizing his business acumen, leaving the New Yorker relieved at the time.

Diller allegedly had liaisons with A Chorus Line's Michael Bennett (pictured) and one of Johnny Carson's stepson

Twenty years later, while he was working at QVC and was trying to acquire Paramount, a rumor about him having AIDS began circulating.

When a Times reporter contacted him to ask him about it, he said he was shocked and told the reporter he was fine.

His friend, Michael Eisner, outed him to Disney executives in 1995, writing in an internal board memo that 'the fact that he is homosexual should have no weight' when considering him for the role of CEO of the company, The Times reported.

It doomed his chances of getting the job, the publication said.

And throughout his marriage to von Furstenberg, they lived separately - him in the Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, her above her business in the Meatpacking District.

Although he doesn't reveal which stepson of Carson, The Times revealed both his lovers died of AIDS. Carson had one stepson, Joe Holland (pictured), who died from complications with the disease in 1994. It is unclear if Holland and Diller had sexual relations

The first time he met the 'deliriously glamorous' fashion queen von Furstenberg at a super-smart Manhattan dinner party in 1974, she'd rudely brushed the reserved movie man aside to talk to someone else.

As Diller describes it, he was an outsider in her snooty world: 'I was standing alone next to the fireplace feeling I did not belong in this group when "Prince" Egon von Furstenberg [Diane's first husband] walked up to me and said, "Your pants are too short."'

But when he and Diane met again a year later at another fabulous soiree, she was suddenly all over him.

'I was instantly bathed in such attention and cozy warmth I couldn't believe it was the same woman I'd been dismissed by a year earlier,' he recalled. Later 'We stood at the door, and I said, "I want to call you," and she said, "I want you to."'

But overall, Diller is ready to tell the truth after all these years in his upcoming book.

'I wanted to tell the story, and I knew if I told the story, I had to tell the truth,' he told The Times.

Diller says he knows most people had guesses his sexuality long before he came out and joked that he was in a brightly-lit, glass closet prior to coming out.

He said not doing so helped him achieve incredible career success - partly because he believes all his anxiety was centered around being outed, which meant he was a decisive and fearless leader.

But Diller says he's also ashamed he didn't come out sooner and wishes he could have served as a role model for gays of his generation who felt ashamed of their sexuality.
Patti Newton has revealed she is recovering in hospital after undergoing major surgery.

The 80-year-old shared a photo to Instagram of herself lying in a hospital bed while embracing her grandson Alby.

She revealed she had a full hip replacement and is 'feeling fine' as she recovers in a Melbourne hospital.

'Had a full hip replacement and feeling fine. Thank you to all at Epworth hospital and my wonderful surgeon,' Patti wrote.

'I'll be chasing Alby around again in no time.'

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Patti Newton (pictured with grandson Alby) has revealed she is recovering in hospital after undergoing a full hip replacement

It comes after Patti temporarily pulled out of Grease: The Musical back in January after being struck down with Covid

It comes after Patti temporarily pulled out of Grease: The Musical back in January after being struck down with Covid.

She posted to Instagram to announce to her fans that she would be missing a run of the show in Sydney.

'So sorry to be missing the previews for Grease,' the showbiz legend wrote in her caption.

'Unfortunately Covid has hit me again. Looking forward to being back next week,' she added.

The image showed Patti all dressed up for her role as Miss Lynch in the popular musical production.

Patti was previously struck down with Covid right as she was about to start her run in the Melbourne production of Grease: The Musical in December 2023.

The showbiz icon shared the sad news with her fans at the time, posting to Instagram to show her legs covered in a blanket.

'Happy New Year hope it's a wonderful 2024. Covid has hit me but wishing the cast of Grease an amazing first show. See you back there soon,' she wrote.

Patti renewed her showbiz career as a way to cope with the loss of her beloved husband Bert Newton, who died in October 2021 at the age of 83. Both pictured

Married to Bert for a staggering 47 years, Patti told the Herald Sun that doing the hit musical was one of 'best things' she could do for herself because it helped her heal

Patti renewed her showbiz career as a way to cope with the loss of her beloved husband Bert Newton, who died in 2021 at the age of 83.

She threw herself into a featured role in the touring stage production of Mary Poppins before joining Grease.

Married to Bert for a staggering 47 years, Patti told the Herald Sun that doing the hit musical was one of 'best things' she could do for herself, because it helped her heal.

She said her late husband Bert will always be her one true love and she is still haunted by his death in 2021.

'Bert will always be the love of my life. I'll never stop thinking about him,' the performer said.

She then revealed some of the ways she keeps Bert's memory alive since he passed away on October 30, 2021, following a long illness.

'When Bert was in Epworth Hospital, he had this little wooden cross. A friend of mine had given it to him. Bert used to pick it up from the tray and kiss it,' she said.

'He'd hold it for a minute and then put it down. I take it to the theatre with me and before a show I pick it up and kiss it.

'I hold it to my heart as he did and say, "Come on Bert, we're on." He comes on stage with me.'
Mindy Kaling showed off her slim and trim frame while attending her The Office co-star/co-writer Michael Schur's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Wednesday.

The 45-year-old actress displayed her diminutive figure in a sleeveless navy blue dress as she hit the red carpet in Los Angeles.

She rounded out her form-fitting outfit with a pair of pointy-toe, sparkly silver heels and she carried a small gold handbag.

Her shoulder-grazing dark locks were styled in a side part and subtle, sultry waves.

Since famously losing 40lbs back in 2023, Kaling has continued her incredible weight-loss journey.

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Mindy Kaling showed off her slim and trim frame while attending her The Office co-star/co-writer Michael Schur's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Wednesday

Due to her shrinking appearance, Kaling has faced rampant fan speculation that she might be taking a weight-loss drug like Ozempic to achieve her figure goals.

However, the Sex Lives of College Girls creator has stayed mum on rumors that she's using medication to assist in shedding pounds.

In April 2022 Kaling explained in a social media post that she has not denied herself cravings, but focused instead on portion control.

She shared with People in May 2023 that she loves to hike and run, and covers 20 miles per week doing one or the other.

'I'm feeling really confident in my body these days, which is not something that I've been able to say for my whole life, unfortunately. I feel great,' she stated at the time.

The star added, 'I know people are really interested in my body and the changes in my body, and I think it's flattering and sometimes it's just a little much, so I don't try to tune it in too much. The truth is that I spend so much time and energy trying to be healthy.'

Later that year Mindy declared that she was 'done' talking about her weight loss.

The 45-year-old actress displayed her diminutive figure in a sleeveless navy blue dress as she hit the red carpet in Los Angeles

Her shoulder-grazing dark locks were styled in a side part and subtle, sultry waves

L-R Amy Poehler, Michael Schur, D'Arcy Carden, Mindy, Lilah Richcreek Estrada

Since famously losing 40lbs back in 2023, Kaling has continued her weight-loss journey; pictured left in 2019 and right in May 2025

In an interview with Allure, she was asked if she had a comment for fans who felt they lost 'an ally' in the body inclusivity movement amid her body transformation.

The mother-of-three answered, 'Its not super exciting for me to talk about my body and how its analyzed.

'So I think Im just not going to get into it because it takes over the conversation unfortunately, and people take it so personally.'

She looked stunning at Wednesday's event, displaying a face of flawlessly applied makeup that included fluttery lashes, blushed cheeks, and a warm mauve tone on her pout.

Kaling and 49-year-old honoree Schur are longtime friends whose careers overlapped while they worked together on The Office.
Pregnant Georgia Harrison looked incredible as she headed to Mayfairs Sketch restaurant in London on Wednesday.

The former Love Island star, 30, who announced her pregnancy on April 10, is expecting her first child with boyfriend Jack Stacey.

For her latest outing, the glowing mum-to-be proudly cradled her blossoming baby bump in a summery pink maxi dress.

The gorgeous ensemble featured button detailing down the centre and delicate floral lace layers throughout.

She completed her look with a stylish gold Kurt Geiger bag and matching sandals, while accessorising with beaded jewellery.

Georgia pulled her golden locks into a chic updo, leaving two strands loose to frame her face.

Pregnant Georgia Harrison looked incredible as she stepped out for dinner at Mayfairs Sketch in London on Wednesday

The glowing mum-to-be, 30, proudly cradled her blossoming baby bump in a summery pink maxi dress

The beauty appeared in high spirits as she posed for snaps before making her way inside the trendy venue.

It comes after Georgia took to her Instagram earlier in the month to share a cute bikini-clad first-trimester video taken before her first scan.

The clip began with Georgia looking sensational in a stylish baby blue bikini and white lace beach trousers as she enjoyed a day at the beach.

She then unbuttoned her trousers and cradled her tummy while lip-syncing to the popular TikTok audio: 'Are you real? I dunno, you seem a little sus.'

She cheekily captioned the video: 'Me before I had my first ultrasound.'

The star recently revealed she has a 'whole new drive' to change the world for the better - just weeks after announcing she is expecting her first child.

The reality TV star explained in a new interview that she wants to make the world a better environment for her unborn baby to grow up in by continuing her campaigning on the issue of revenge porn.

Georgia told OK! Magazine: 'I initially thought of my little sisters and brother when I was campaigning  hoping to make things different for them.

The gorgeous ensemble featured button detailing down the centre and delicate floral lace layers throughout

She completed her look with a stylish gold Kurt Geiger bag and matching sandals, while accessorising with beaded jewellery

Georgia pulled her golden locks into a chic updo, leaving two strands loose to frame her face

The beauty appeared in high spirits as she posed for snaps before making her way inside the trendy venue

'Now, I have this whole new drive  I want the world to be a better place because I'm bringing my own child into it.'

Georgia met Jack, 33, on a dating app last summer and described her pregnancy as a 'beautiful surprise'.

Georgia said: 'We both definitely wanted children, but we didn't quite plan on it this soon, we might've tried to have a fun summer beforehand! But once we'd taken it in, we realised this was the right time.

The star added that it's 'amazing to have the gift of being pregnant', as so many people struggle for a long time and for some, the dream never comes true.

Georgia also explained to the publication that she was hesitant before starting her relationship with City worker Jack after her former partner, Stephen Bear, 35, shared a private video of them on the internet without her consent.

The Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins star explained that she was quite 'pessimistic' about love in general after the ordeal. However, she wanted to make an effort to meet someone.

Georgia, who announced her pregnancy on April 10, is expecting her first child with boyfriend Jack Stacey (pictured)

Now, she has her partner Jack, who treats her well, and the pair are expecting their first child together.

Elsewhere in the interview, Georgia was particularly emotional about telling her mother, Nicola, that she was expecting.

The star said that her mum has watched her 'go through everything' and has always reassured her that everything will be okay and that she would finally meet someone and get her 'happy ending'.

So, Georgia added that her mother seeing her at this happy stage in life is 'such a relief for her'.

The stunner announced her happy news via Instagram in April after a whirlwind ten-month romance with Jack.

She told followers: 'We've been keeping a secret! Me and Jack are having a baby! Due November 2025, we can't wait to welcome this little one into the world and embrace all the joy and love he or she will bring.

'I still can't believe I've finally got everything I ever wanted and I couldn't be more gratefulAnd just like that 2 are about to become 3.'
Controversial influencer Christie Swadling has shared a candid look at her postpartum figure, two days after giving birth to a healthy baby boy.

The 28-year-old influencer shared a gallery of maternity content to social media on Tuesday night, confirming she had given birth to her first child, a son named Rocco, with her fiance Joel Price.

On Thursday, Christie filmed herself wearing a pair of nude underwear and a slip dress, which she held up over her belly as she examined it in her bathroom mirror.

'Woman [sic] are so incredible! Entering motherhood with nothing but love for my body and what it can do, no rush to bounce back or change,' she captioned the post.

'Also humbling when I get home and Rocco's older brother asks why I still look pregnant.'

In a second photo of baby Rocco wrapped in his designer swaddle blanket, Christie shared the quote a second time.

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Controversial influencer Christie Swadling has shared a candid look at her post-partum figure, two days after giving birth to a healthy baby boy

'Kaden this afternoon: 'How come you still look kinda pregnant?' Love kids x,' she captioned the photo of her newborn.

Christie previously revealed that she met her fiance Joel because his now 13-year-old son Kaden began following her on TikTok, where she posted bikini photos and workout videos, when he was just eight-years-old.

In further baby updates, posted to her 122,000 Instagram followers, Christie wrote: 'My world is now complete and I'm so in love'.

'Being a new mum can be so challenging and I'm really entering this with open arms and zero judgement towards myself, as him and I are both learning each other.

'But I'm so in love and truly this is the best achievement in the entire world.'

The fitness influencer said her first afternoon at home with Rocco was full of 'bonding time' with his brother and visiting family members, as well as, 'a well deserved glass of wine and takeaway food'.

Last year, Christie opened up about her fertility journey with her followers.

'My world is now complete and I'm so in love,' Christie shared in further updates posted to Instagram, where she has 122,000 followers

In a second photo of baby Rocco wrapped in his designer swaddle blanket, Christie shared the quote a second time: 'Kaden this afternoon: 'How come you still look kinda pregnant?' Love kids,' she captioned it

Christie has previously revealed that she met her fiance Joel because his now 13-year-old son Kaden (pictured bottom left) began following her on TikTok, where she posted bikini photos and workout videos, when he was just eight-years-old

What is anorexia nervosa? Anorexia nervosa is a psychological illness that has devastating physical consequences. It is characterised by low body weight and body image distortion with an obsessive fear of gaining weight, which manifests itself through depriving the body of food. It often coincides with increased levels of exercise. There are two main sub-types of anorexia: Restricting type  this is the most commonly known type of anorexia nervosa, whereby a person severely restricts their food intake. Binge-eating or purging type  less recognised, this type of anorexia nervosa forms when a person restricts their intake as above, but also has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behaviour. Anorexia nervosa can affect the mind and body in a multitude of ways: Brain  preoccupation with food/calories, fear of gaining weight, headaches, fainting, dizziness, mood swings, anxiety, depression. Hair and skin  dry skin, brittle nails, thin hair, bruises easily, yellow complexion, growth of thin white hair all over body (called lanugo), intolerance to cold. Heart and blood  poor circulation, irregular or slow heartbeat, very low blood pressure, cardiac arrest, heart failure, low iron levels (anaemia). Intestines  constipated, diarrhoea, bloating, abdominal pain. Hormones  irregular or absent periods, loss of libido, infertility. Kidneys  dehydration, kidney failure. Bones and muscles  loss of bone calcium (osteopenia), osteoporosis, muscle loss, weakness, fatigue. Source: Eating Disorders Org Advertisement

'I have had some hormonal issues and I have only started to get a regular period again. Joel and I are trying to have a baby, we haven't had much luck,' she said.

Christie first made headlines back in 2015 when she spoke to Daily Mail Australia about her battle with body image issues and anorexia nervosa.

The social media star, then 18-years-old, discussed how comparing herself to supermodels sparked her downward spiral into a near-fatal eating disorder.

'Photoshopped adverts of models like Miranda Kerr definitely started off my body image issues because you think that's how you're meant to be,' she said.

At one point, her weight dwindled down to nearly 30 kilograms.

'I became skinnier than those models and because of my disease, stopped thinking about the models altogether and became obsessed with just losing more and more weight,' she said.

Women who have an eating disorder, such as anorexia or bulimia, often stop having periods because of abnormal hormonal changes.

The body shuts down the reproductive system to help conserve energy to prevent nurturing another body - when the mother isn't eating enough to feed herself.

Some women struggle to get pregnant long after they've entered eating disorder treatment and recovery.

Christie got steadily worse after her diagnosis and was admitted to hospital three times from collapses before she accepted her diagnosis.

'I looked in the mirror and felt disgusted at what I saw and became aware that I was slowly killing myself,' she said.

Christie's birth announcement came just months after her fiance was served with a restraining order and charged with domestic violence-related common assault.

Joel, 38, was served an interim Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) by NSW Police on behalf of Christie in April. He pleaded not guilty to the assault charge.

Daily Mail Australia understands the matter was heard in court on August 6.

In 2022, Swadling filed for bankruptcy after racking up a pile of debt that she cannot pay back.

It was revealed that she was bankrupt after an anonymous user on the Tattle Life forums paid $15 to obtain the paperwork on her bankruptcy filing.

The status of her bankruptcy is 'undischarged', which means she will still need to pay back particular debts.

If you, or someone you know needs support relating to eating disorders, please call The Butterfly Foundation on 1800 33 4673. In an emergency, call 000.
Bo Derek, a Hollywood bombshell of over 40 years, returned to the red carpet for a rare public appearance beside her husband John Corbett this week.

The pair were attending a New York City photo-call for season three of the Sex And The City spin-off And Just Like That....

Corbett has returned to the show as Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) ex Aidan, a recurring part he played on the original series, winning the hearts of fans.

Aidan featured on season two of And Just Like That... as he and Carrie attempted to reignite their old relationship, only to end up going their separate ways again.

In spite of their latest breakup, however, Aidan reappears in the trailer for the new show, leaving a few embers of hope still glowing for their romance.

Now Corbett, 64, is celebrating the premiere of the new season - and Derek, 68, who was with him for 18 years before they married in 2020, was by his side.

Bo Derek, a Hollywood bombshell of over 40 years, returned to the red carpet for a rare public appearance beside her husband John Corbett this week

For her latest public appearance, Derek exuded a youthful glow as she posed in a snappy monochrome trouser suit that accentuated her still willowy frame.

Her snappy ensemble featured metallic studs around the edges of the jacket and down the sleeves and trouser legs, adding an extra splash of personality.

Meanwhile Corbett was the image of the silver fox with a salt-and-pepper beard, debonair black outfit and sleek orange sunglasses.

Derek, who rose to fame as a blonde bombshell in the 1979 sex comedy 10, married John in December 2020 after a romantic relationship of 18 years.

Before she met her current beau she thought she would never find love again, having lost her husband John Derek to heart failure in 1998.

However she explained that when she met Corbett she felt 'just an attraction, a comfort. He makes me laugh all the time. Hes full of life, full of joy,' via Fox News.

Although John Derek directed several of her films - including Tarzan, The Ape Man and Bolero - it was Blake Edwards who directed 10, which made her a star.

Amid a cast that included Edwards' wife Julie Andrews as well as Dudley Moore, Bo made a splash while strutting her stuff across the beach in a swimsuit.

The pair were attending a New York City photo-call for season three of the Sex And The City spin-off And Just Like That....

For her latest public appearance, Derek exuded a youthful glow

Derek, who rose to fame as a blonde bombshell in the 1979 sex comedy 10 (pictured), married John in December 2020 after a romantic relationship of 18 years

She explained that when she met John Corbett she felt 'just an attraction, a comfort'; they are pictured together in 2015

'It was one of those moments where a fairy godmother comes in, taps you on the forehead with her magic wand and changes everything,' Bo reflected in 2020.

'People say Im an icon, whatever that means. I wouldnt call myself that. I dont take it personally. But I played a part that certainly became iconic for sure.'

John Derek was 30 years Bo's senior and became smitten with her when she was 16 years old acting in his film Fantasies in Greece.

Although their movies together were not taken seriously, the couple lived in luxury at a ranch until his death at the age of 71.

'Ive always been a fairly optimistic person, but it was a huge change, an enormous loss. The air just gets sucked out of the room when you lose your partner. So I wallowed in that for a while,' Bo told Fox News.

Corbett has returned to the show as Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) ex Aidan, a part he played on the original series; pictured on season three of And Just Like That...

'I didnt expect to end up with anyone again. Some women want to pair up again right away. I didnt. I remember consciously fashioning myself after some girlfriends that I have [who] are single and led very full, fantastic lives with friends and family and projects that they do. And that gave them happiness.'

Corbett told Today a few years ago that he met Derek after his agent friend Norby Walters fixed them up as Oscar party dates.

'Im grateful for the life I was given. I feel very good about the decisions Ive made,' said Derek to Fox News in 2020 looking back at her career.

'They werent always the most successful business decisions as far as money in the bank, but I had a blast making films and having my career on my own terms. And that business has been very good to me. And it has opened so many doors for me.'
Pamela Anderson looked classically stylish on Wednesday as she stepped out in New York City.

The 57-year-old Last Showgirl star  who days ago revisited the 90s sexpot look that made her famous  looked fantastic in a tweed, black, sleeveless mini dress with sheer black pantyhose.

She punctuated the look with a pair of pointy-toe black heels and she accessorized with glamorous onyx sunglasses and a small leather handbag.

Anderson, whose ex-husband Tommy Lee is going through marital woes, appeared to wear little to no makeup underneath her shades.

Her newly chopped blonde bob was arranged in fluffy curls that fell near her jawline.

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Pamela Anderson looked classically stylish on Wednesday as she stepped out in New York City

Just days earlier, Anderson made an epic return to her signature 90s makeup look after years of embracing her natural beauty on magazine covers and at public appearances.

While she entered her fresh-faced era back in 2023 to feel more comfortable in her own skin and reject societal beauty standards, the movie star, 57, made the rare move of wearing full glam.

In a post, uploaded by Los Angeles-based makeup artist David Velasquez, the actress wore a red Versace robe, charcoal black liner, overlined beige lipstick and a dramatic pair of fake eyelashes.

'Rock N Roll like the 90s,' Velasquez, who previously did Anderson's makeup for a 2022 Paper Magazine shoot, captioned the image.

Although it is unknown when the stunning snap was taken, fans of the Baywatch legend were quick to praise her blonde bombshell comeback.

'I love her no makeup look but this feels like home,' one fan commented.

Another gushed: 'Wow! She looks even better than she did in the 90s! Sheesh!!'

'pammy out here reminding us she can eat us all up with or without makeup,' a third wrote underneath the post.

The 57-year-old Last Showgirl star looked fantastic in a tweed, black, sleeveless mini dress with sheer black pantyhose

She punctuated the look with a pair of pointy-toe black heels and she accessorized with glamorous onyx sunglasses and a small leather handbag

One day earlier Pamela contrasted Wednesday's look while stepping out in an all-white ensemble

Others thanked Velasquez for giving Anderson 'a full face just to remind the girls who THE OG is!!!'

Anderson is best known for starring on Baywatch for five seasons, from 1992 to 1997, as the iconic role of C.J. Parker, a stunning lifeguard.

Last year, she received critical acclaim for her 2024 drama The Last Showgirl and earned a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.

Earlier this year, a source told DailyMail.com that Pamela is delighted that she is 'being applauded for her toned-down looks and recognized for her true talent.'

They said: 'Pamela has gotten so much positive feedback from women all over the world for her natural glow up.

'She has become an icon who is now known for baring her all-natural self.

'While Pam recognizes that a little more make up would have gone fabulous with her gown, she also realizes that this is not true to who she is anymore.

'To do herself up  whether at the awards or anywhere else for that matter  would make her not true to herself.'

Just days earlier, Anderson made an epic return to her signature 90s makeup look after years of embracing her natural beauty on magazine covers and at public appearances

The insider added that 'part of her motivation' to cut back on her glam was because she wanted to 'strip away her Barbwire image and Baywatch personification' - and be viewed 'as a serious actor.'

'When she went into this, part of her motivation was to strip away her Barbwire image and Baywatch personification. Shew wanted to be taken as a serious actor,' they continued.

'Pamela realized her true talent when she played Roxy Hart on Broadway. This was life changing for her.

'Never in a million years did she think that she would have been nominated for an award like this.'

Another source close to the star confirmed that she 'still wears light makeup from time to time' and that she has not sworn off make-up forever, instead just changing her relationship with it.

Anderson's outing Wednesday in NYC comes amid news that she has no desire to rekindle things with her ex-husband Tommy, 62, amid his marriage issues with Brittany Furlan, 38.

Days after the Motley Crue drummer's wife admitted they were navigating a 'tough time' in their relationship, a source insisted that the Chicago star has 'zero interest in revisiting the past.'

The insider told TMZ that the 62-year-old musician  with whom Pamela shares sons Brandon, 27, and Dylan Jagger, 26  has 'no shot' with her.

A source told DailyMail.com earlier this year that Pamela is delighted that she is 'being applauded for her toned-down looks'; the star seen in 2024

Anderson is best known for starring on Baywatch for five seasons, from 1992 to 1997, as the iconic role of C.J. Parker, a stunning lifeguard; seen in 1992

The Baywatch icon is said to be 'focusing on herself, enjoying being single' and not interested in the divorce rumors surrounding Lee and Furlan, who have allegedly split after six years of marriage due to the rocker's drinking problem.

While sources told the outlet it's 'unclear' if a divorce filing is imminent, Lee unfollowed Furlan on Instagram and the content creator has been living in a hotel.

Pamela and Tommy met in 1995 and had a tumultuous romance that resulted in a marriage, two kids, and a divorce.

Speaking with Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show Andy Cohen Live in January, the Golden Globe-nominated actress said about her relationship with her ex: 'I mean, we used to talk a lot more. Not recently, unfortunately, but you know, I wish we did have a better rapport right now.'

She noted, 'It'll be okay, eventually. It's just kind of a moment right now.'

Looking to the future, the blonde beauty said, 'My [younger] son is engaged and we're gonna have grandkids together.'

Tommy has been married to his fourth wife Brittany since 2019.

Pamela told Wall Street Journal about unpacking details of her relationship with Tommy in her 2023 memoir Love, Pamela: 'I'm sure it's going to be annoying to his wife. I'd be annoyed.'

Anderson's outing in NYC on Wednesday comes amid her ex-husband Tommy Lee's marital woes with fourth wife Brittany Furlan; Tommy and Brittany pictured in 2021

Pamela and Tommy met in 1995 and had a tumultuous romance that resulted in a marriage, two kids, and a divorce

She divulged in the book that her 'relationship with Tommy may have been the only time I was ever truly in love.'

She also declared that she ultimately left him because she 'had to protect my babies.'

Pamela accused Tommy of physically attacking her while she was holding their son Dylan when he was an infant.

Tommy served four months of a six-month sentence after pleading no contest to felony spousal battery.
Kourtney Kardashian opened up about Caitlyn Jenner's parenting style - which she labeled as both 'controlling' and 'bossy.'

The Poosh founder, 46 - who recently was slammed by fans for being 'out of touch' - opened up about the topic as she appeared on her sister Khloe's podcast titled Khloe In Wonder Land.

The TV personality is the eldest daughter of Kris Jenner and Robert Kardashian - who divorced in 1991. That same year, the socialite married Caitlyn (then Bruce Jenner) until their official split in 2015.

While discussing parenthood, Khloe commended her older sibling for not 'being the disciplinary' when it comes to raising her husband Travis Barker's children.

'[Caitlyn] never tried to be dad,' the podcast host said, referencing to their late father Robert. 'And I always appreciated and respected that.'

However, Kourtney disagreed with the statement as she recalled having 'yelling wars' with Caitlyn, who she described as 'controlling.'

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Kourtney Kardashian, 46, opened up about Caitlyn Jenner's parenting style - which she labeled as both 'controlling' and 'bossy'

The reality star then recalled Caitlyn had 'tried to be controlling and bossy' and further remembered Jenner told her 'certain friends can't come over' while growing up

'Okay, so, that wasn't my experience,' she recalled. 'But maybe that's why it became your experience. So [I'm] grateful for that for you.'

The reality star then recalled Caitlyn had 'tried to be controlling and bossy' and further remembered Jenner told her 'certain friends can't come over' while growing up.

Upon hearing Kourtney's side, Khloe revealed that she initially believed her sister didn't get along with their stepfather because 'he was replacing dad. Not that he did, no one could replace dad.'

Kourtney then talked about how both she and Caitlyn would have arguments in the past which would turn into 'yelling wars.'

She explained, 'I would be like, "I wanna call my Dad," and [Caitlyn] would hang up the phone. We would have yelling wars.'

The star later decided to move in with her father Robert - who passed away in 2003 after a short battle with esophageal cancer.

Caitlyn and Kris Jenner married in 1991 and welcomed two children: Kendall, 29, and Kylie, 27.

Upon tying the knot, the Olympic gold medalist also became stepfather at the time to Kris' kids from her past marriage to Robert: Kourtney, Khloe, 40, Kim, 44, and Rob, 38.

Upon hearing Kourtney's side, Khloe revealed that she initially believed her sister didn't get along with their stepfather because 'he was replacing dad, Not that he did, no one could replace dad; seen with Caitlyn, Kris, Khloe, Rob and Kim in 1995

She explained, 'I would be like, "I wanna call my Dad," and [Caitlyn] would hang up the phone. We would have yelling wars'; Robert Kardashian seen in 1995 as O.J. Simpson's attorney

Upon tying the knot, the Olympic gold medalist also became stepfather at the time to Kris' kids from her past marriage to Robert: Kourtney, Khloe, 40, Kim, 44, and Rob, 38; seen above along with Brody Jenner, Cassandra Marino, Brandon Jenner and Burt Jenner

Caitlyn also has four other children from previous relationships: Brody Jenner, Burt Jenner, Brandon Jenner and Cassandra Marino.

In 2015, Jenner came out a trans woman and a few years later, she opened up about her relationship with her children - including the Kardashians during a 20/20 interview with Diane Sawyer.

'Some [of my children] I have remained very close to. A couple of them I'm a little more distant.

'I have to admit, I'll sit here and wonder, "Is it because of my transitioning? Or is it because their life is so busy that they don't call, like, all the time?"'

Caitlyn added, 'Nobody calls that much. I mostly reach out to them. Obviously, the Jenner side calls more, but they all have their own lives.'

Earlier this year, Brody Jenner shared that he had felt 'abandoned' by Caitlyn during his childhood while appearing on Special Forces: World's Toughest Test.

'I had an incredible mother. Father, Bruce, at the time, wasn't around that much,' Brody said at the time, per E! News.

But he shared that Caitlyn had reached out to him and offered an apology. 'Just recently, I got a real, sincere apology.

'Some [of my children] I have remained very close to. A couple of them I'm a little more distant,' Caitlyn previously said

'It was the first time in my life that I've ever gotten an apology. You know, I'm sorry for not being there, and honestly, it meant a lot.'

While joining her sister Khloe on the podcast episode this week, Kourtney also talked about living authentically, and not conforming to what's expected of a family - bringing up the school system.

She discussed her kids and how they wanted to do homeschooled - versus going to a school - which fans slammed on social media, calling her 'out of touch.'

'Why do kids f*****g go to school?' Kourtney said, adding that it is 'dated.'

Kourtney also revealed that she only works once a week - something she decided on after giving birth to son Rocky, one: 'I had a strong desire to not work and stay home and be with the kids, which is... I would say probably like once a week I'll work.'

Kourtney shares three kids with ex-partner Scott Disick: sons Mason, 15, and Reign, 10, and daughter Penelope, 12. She welcomed son Rocky on November 1, 2023 with husband Travis Barker.

Travis has two children from his past marriage to Shanna Moakler: Landon, 21, and Alabama, 19 - as well as his former stepdaughter Atiana De La Hoya, 26, whom he helped raise.

Atiana is the daughter of Shanna and Oscar De La Hoya.

'Living authentically is not conforming to whatever it is and whether for me- there's so many ways. There's ways we function as a family. Like if someone does the same thing every day.

While joining her sister Khloe on the podcast episode this week, Kourtney also talked about living authentically, and not conforming to what's expected of a family - bringing up the school system

'Why do kids f*****g go to school?' Kourtney said, adding that it is 'dated'

I do it with everything. It's not about our family. Let's say the school system. I'll think, why do kids f*****g go to school? Truly. It's so dated,' Kourtney said in the podcast.

'I'm such a home school person so don't even get me going,' Khloe then added.

Kourtney explained: 'So then I'll start thinking... and then like my kids will start sending me videos why do kids to school.

'It will be like really successful people and they'll be like my kids never go to school and they're never going to. And I'm like, what's the goal here. You want to do homeschool? Okay let's do it.'

Kourtney was slammed on social media for her comments about school, specifically when she called going to school as 'dated.'

'Because normal kids need an education to eventually work. Not everybody can leech off their parents,' once wrote on X - formerly Twitter - while another said that 'some people can't afford nanny's.

'She needs to home school her kids. The question is will she do it or go hire a teacher. These out of touch ppl,' one person wrote.

'Kids should go to school so they don't end up like her and the rest of the Kardashians,' a fan tweeted.

'Out of touch celebrity says something that's out of touch,' a fan wrote, and one said, 'Clearly her brain is outdated.'

Kourtney was slammed on social media for her comments about school, specifically when she called going to school as 'dated'

Kourtney continued: 'I had a strong desire to not work and stay home and be with the kids, which is... I would say probably like once a week I'll work'

Khloe and Kourtney also covered a number of topics, including how often Kourtney works.

When talking about being a mom again to Rocky, she said: 'Becoming a mom again really ignited, like intensely ignited my motherly role, my motherly instinct, sometimes I feel like my feminine energy. I feel like it intensely ignited that feeling inside me of just I am a mom.'

Kourtney continued: 'I had a strong desire to not work and stay home and be with the kids, which is... I would say probably like once a week I'll work.'

'It's not like the whole day, its a couple hours of my day. the rest of the time I'm truly at home and I'm being a mom.'
Hollywood heavyweight Angelina Jolie slid into an unsuspecting Aussie's DMs thanks to a surprise comment on an Australian icon's Instagram page.

Speaking on Nova's Ben, Liam & Belle, a listener from Melbourne named PJ dialled in to share his connection to the Tomb Raider star, 49, and how it was sparked by some words left on one of Olivia Newton John's Instagram posts.

'I had done some work with Port Stevens koalas up in New South Wales and Olivia Newton John had helped us out on an occasion,' he told the hosts.

'She always sort of, you know, promoted it and everything,' he added of the Grease superstar, who passed away in 2022.

'I made a comment on her post and Angelina Jolie replied directly to me.'

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Hollywood heavyweight Angelina Jolie (pictured) slid into an unsuspecting Aussie's DMs thanks to a comment about koalas on an Australian icon's Instagram page

'Oh snap!' co-host Liam Stapleton replied, before digging for more details about the A-lister moment.

Speaking of the correspondence, PJ revealed that it was a casual conversation between him and the Maleficent star.

'She just said, "Good on you PJ and keep up the good work". So that was really, really nice of her.'

PJ added: 'She'd obviously seen Olivia's post and must obviously have followed Olivia Newton John, and I got the message which was really cool.'

Ben Harvey commended the Aussie for his crazy celebrity run-in.

'PJ, we love that,' he said.

'I don't think we're going to beat Angelina Jolie sliding into somebody's DMS.'

Angelina recently made an appearance at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera.

Speaking on Nova's Ben, Liam & Belle, a listener from Melbourne named PJ dialled in to share his connection to the Tomb Raider star, 49, and how it was sparked by some words left on one of Olivia Newton John's Instagram posts

Angelina recently made an appearance at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera

The Hollywood star was a vision in a white floor length gown as she attended the annual event at Carlton Beach.

The stunning dress featured a cape style sleeve on one side and perfectly hugged her slender figure as she walked along the carpet.

Smiling and waving to fans and photographers, she flaunted her toned arms, while flashing her inked skin.

The star flashed a hint of leg as she walked - with the dress boasting a thigh high side split.

Angelina oozed class as she accessorised the look with a set of diamond jewellery, including drop pendant earrings and a silver bracelet.

Cannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme dOr, to give out at the end.

Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.

Some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known.

Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) and Harris Dickinson (Urchin) will all be unveiling their feature directorial debuts in Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar section.
Ellen DeGeneres recently suffered a heartbreaking loss after fleeing Hollywood for a quieter life in the English countryside following her toxic workplace scandal.

Last week, the former talk show host, 67, revealed on Instagram that her and her wife Portia de Rossi's beloved rescue dog Augie recently died.

DeGeneres rescued the pooch more than a decade ago and he was one of three dogs owned by the celebrity couple, who have been married since 2008.

'We had to say goodbye to Augie yesterday,' DeGeneres  who recently debuted a new look  announced on Friday, May 16.

'We rescued him 12 years ago and he was so grateful. He gave us so much love. He will be missed. There will never be another like him.'

Along with her heartfelt words, DeGeneres shared a slideshow of photos of Augie, a Beagle-Chihuahua mix, taken through the years.

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Ellen DeGeneres recently suffered a heartbreaking loss after fleeing Hollywood for a quieter life in the English countryside following her toxic workplace scandal; seen with wife Portia de Rossi in April 2025

Several of the snaps showed the tiny dog cuddling with Portia or sunning outside at the sprawling $32 million Montecito mansion that DeGeneres offloaded in 2024.

Days later, DeGeneres returned to Instagram to thank her 136million followers for their 'kind messages.'

She also uploaded a never before seen video of herself and Portia with Augie that was recorded just weeks before his death.

The video showed the senior dog sleeping peacefully in Portia's lap as DeGeneres spoke about her skincare line, Kind Science By Ellen.

'Thank you for all of your kind messages about Augie,' the star wrote. 'We filmed this last month and planned to post it today.

'I don't care what Portia says, please don't call me the Deal Queen. We love you, Augie.'

Portia has yet to publicly comment on Augie's death but the Arrested Development star, 52, is not active on social media like DeGeneres.

The couple, who do not have children together, have been proud dog parents for many years.

Last week, the former talk show host, 67, revealed on Instagram that her and her wife Portia de Rossi's beloved rescue dog Augie recently died

'We had to say goodbye to Augie yesterday,' DeGeneres announced on Friday, May 16

DeGeneres rescued the pooch more than a decade ago and he was one of three dogs owned by the celebrity couple

'We rescued him 12 years ago and he was so grateful. He gave us so much love. He will be missed. There will never be another like him,' DeGeneres concluded

Along with Augie, they own a Poodle-Maltese mix named Kid and a purebred Poodle named Mrs. Wallis Browning.

Back in 2023, DeGeneres shared photos of Augie, Kid and Mrs. Wallis Browning in honor of National Pet Day.

She captioned the post: 'Happy #NationalPetDay to this crew,' and added a heart emoji.

Along with their dogs, DeGeneres and her actress wife also have two tuxedo cats named George and Chairman.

Back in 2020, their pet brood became smaller following the loss of both Charlie the cat and Wolf the dog.

DeGeneres is a well-known animal lover and even has a line of pet toys, beds, dresses, tees, tank tops, and sweatshirts called ED by Ellen DeGeneres.

However it appears the line, which was sold at PetSmart, is no longer in production.

DeGeneres' recent family tragedy comes two weeks after she shocked fans by debuting a brand new hairstyle  after decades of rocking a blonde pixie cut.

Along with her heartfelt words, DeGeneres shared a slideshow of photos of Augie taken through the years

Several of the snaps showed the tiny dog cuddling with Portia or sunning outside at the sprawling $32 million Montecito mansion that DeGeneres offloaded in 2024

Another photo showed Augie being held by Portia as they hung out in the couple's kitchen at night

She did so by sharing footage of herself mowing the grass at her and Portia's new home in the English country side.

In the clip, DeGeneres sat on top of a yellow mower and revealed that she has ditched her signature blonde locks for a brunette shade.

The star could be seen steering the mower through a large field as a layer of gray clouds filled the sky.

Text was added towards the bottom of the reel which read, 'How it started.' The video then cut to Ellen being assisted by an individual after the machine seemingly broke down on a steep hill.

The clip concluded as more text popped up onto the screen which said, 'How it ended.'

The comedian also penned in the caption: 'Portia thought it would be fun to film my first time on the mower. She was right.'

The couple moved to the U.K. following Donald Trump's presidential win late last year in November.

They were recently forced to relocate to a different property near Oxfordshire after their Cotswolds home suffered severe flooding shortly after moving in.

Days later, DeGeneres returned to Instagram to thank her 136million followers for their 'kind messages'

She also uploaded a never before seen video of herself and Portia with Augie that was recorded just weeks before his death

Along with Augie, they own a Poodle-Maltese mix named Kid and a purebred Poodle named Mrs. Wallis Browning

DeGeneres previously gave fans a rare look at her new life in England to her 136 million followers.

Last month in April, she snapped a photo while standing behind Portia as they looked out at the scenic view of the countryside and a double rainbow following a rainfall.

'3 things that make me happy: My Wife A Rainbow And my wife taking a photograph of a Rainbow,' she wrote.

Back in 2020, DeGeneres was embroiled in controversy after being accused of creating a toxic work environment - and later issued an apology.

After nearly two decades of being on the air, The Ellen Degeneres Show also came to an end just two years later in 2022.

She previously told The Hollywood Reporter, 'I have to just trust that whatever happened during that time, which was obviously very, very difficult, happened for a reason.

'I think that I learned a lot, and there were some things that came up that I was shocked and surprised by. It was eye-opening, but I just trust that that had to happen.'

She stepped in front of the camera once again for her 2024 Netflix special titled Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval.

However upon its release, the project garnered mainly mixed to negative reviews and garnered a score of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.

DeGeneres and wife Portia moved to the U.K. following Donald Trump's presidential win late last year in November; the couple seen in 2022

They were recently forced to relocate to a different property near Oxfordshire after their Cotswolds home suffered severe flooding shortly after moving in

A few months earlier in March of this year, Ellen took the big step of listing her Montecito property for $4,995,000.

Less than two weeks later, the star's home sold for over the asking price at $5.2 million.

People reported at the time that the two-bedroom, two-bathroom abode quickly went into escrow after receiving 'multiple offers within two days of hitting the market.'

And back in January, Ellen and Portia had put an additional Montecito property on the market for $29.9 million.

The couple opted to move into an $18 million house in the Cotswolds area in the U.K. late last year.

The reason the pair chose to relocate to the British countryside rather than Portia's home country of Australia was soon revealed.

A source explained to New Idea, 'Ellen wants to continue with her comedy work, and there is a huge scene in Britain.

'Sitting back and chilling on a beach in Australia is for when she's ready to retire and Ellen's not there yet.'

But after the move, their six-bedroom Cotswolds home was met with severe flooding due to Storm Bert.

An insider informed MailOnline, 'Ellen and Portia have had several issues with the place they initially moved into.

DeGeneres' recent family tragedy comes two weeks after she shocked fans by debuting a brand new hairstyle  after decades of rocking a blonde pixie cut

Earlier this month, DeGeneres was seen sporting darker locks as she mowed the grass on her and Portia's property

'First there was the flooding, of course, then there was an issue with some locals complaining about some building work carried out at the property.'

DeGeneres and Portia have since moved to a different property which is only a 30 minute drive from the original home that they had bought.

A source recently told DailyMail.com: 'The house is a real Grand Designs number - and it's plain that Ellen and Portia are loving it.'

They added, 'Everything has been done very discreetly so it's not clear what the terms of the deal was but it seems that it has recently changed hands for not much less than they paid for their previous place.

'To buy two properties for eight figure sums in the space of a few months really is unusual, even given the many multi-millionaires around here.'

The source continued, 'And at even a conservative estimate it must have cost Ellen hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees and costs to change her mind so dramatically - perhaps millions.'
Former child star Sophie Nyweide reportedly attempted suicide four weeks before her unexpected death at age 24.

Police had responded to 911 calls regarding a suicide attempt and a welfare check for the former actress  who was pregnant when she died on April 14  according to Us Weekly.

In the two years leading up to her tragic death, Nyweide had at least 19 documented run-ins with Bennington, Vermont police, most of which were drug-related, involving substances such as heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl.

The Mammoth actress  who was found lifeless on a riverbank in Vermont  was treated at a medical clinic after police responded to a 911 call on March 11, reporting she had 'cut her arm on purpose.'

Three weeks before her death, officers conducted a welfare check on Nyweide after spotting her walking and noting she appeared 'injured.' The report states Nyweide confirmed she was 'in pain' and was taken to a local hospital.

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Former child star Sophie Nyweide reportedly attempted suicide four weeks before her unexpected death at age 24

Nyweide made her big-screen debut at age 6. She later played Michelle Williams' onscreen daughter in 2009's Mammoth; seen in a still from Mammoth

Nyweide's autopsy results are still pending.

Nyweide made her big-screen debut at age 6. She later played Michelle Williams' onscreen daughter in 2009's Mammoth and also appeared in Nicole Kidman's acclaimed 2007 comedy Margot at the Wedding and Russell Crowe's 2014 biblical epic Noah as a child star.

Nyweide 'struggled with using opiates for five years' her father Jeffrey told police during an incident report in August 2023.

At the time, the Bennington Police responded to an emergency call about a potential heroin overdose in a counseling center parking lot.

While out for breakfast with her father, Nyweide stepped outside for fresh air. Soon after, he found her in an 'unconscious state' lying against a vehicle.

Police found 'tinfoil with [a] black mark next to a glassine bag.'

In another incident that took place April 2024 police responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle.

Nyweide, who was in the vehicle, allegedly told police she 'just left the hospital, was tired, and was looking for a spot to sleep' and had parked outside a residence where she 'used to buy drugs' and was 'hoping to use.'

Police reported finding 'approximately five burnt Chore Boy pieces,' a cleaning product often used as a screen in drug paraphernalia.

In the two years leading up to her tragic death, Nyweide had at least 19 documented run-ins with Bennington, Vermont police, most of which were drug-related, involving substances such as heroin, crack cocaine, and fentanyl

Police had responded to 911 calls regarding a suicide attempt and a welfare check for the former actress  who was pregnant when she died on April 14  according to Us Weekly

The Mammoth actress  who was found lifeless on a riverbank in Vermont  was treated at a medical clinic after police responded to a 911 call on March 11, reporting she had 'cut her arm on purpose'; Nyweide seen with a friend

In another incident Nyweide was placed in hand restraints after police discovered a 'glassine stamped baggie' that was 'contingent with heroin/fentanyl.'

Nyweide was repeatedly taken into custody for active warrants. During a June 2024 incident, law enforcement officers reported finding heroin and five baggies stamped '357' that tested positive for fentanyl.

In August 2024, police responded to a 911 call alleging Nyweide took a TV from a local Walmart without paying, though she wasn't charged.

Just two weeks later, officers received a call about a potential overdose, finding a 'female slumped over the steering wheel.' Nyweide told them she had run out of gas about two hours prior and didn't need assistance.

On October 13, Nyweide called for help, claiming she 'thought she heard voices outside her residence,' but assured police she was safe. Later that month, during an overdose investigation, Nyweide confessed to officers that she had administered Narcan  an opioid overdose reversal drug  to a friend, who survived.

Last month it was reported that the star struggled with drug addiction but 'had hope' prior to her passing.

She was remembered by her longtime friend and ex-girlfriend Eden Herlihy in a new interview with TMZ.

Herlihy said Nyweide 'never gave up' and even tried to help other fellow addicts.

'She had hope I've lost a lot of people to addiction sadly,' Herlihy said, adding, 'Me and Sophie lost a lot of friends to this disease over the past couple of years. We knew the severity of it.'

'She was the last person I was expecting to die from this disease because she was so strong,' Herlihy added.

While her cause of death is still unconfirmed, Sophie's mom, Shelly Gibson, 63, previously told DailyMail.com that she suspected an accidental drug overdose.

Nyweide was repeatedly taken into custody for active warrants. During a June 2024 incident, law enforcement officers reported finding heroin and five baggies stamped '357' that tested positive for fentanyl

While an autopsy is still pending, Sophie's mom, Shelly Gibson, 63, previously told DailyMail.com that she suspected an accidental drug overdose; seen with her mom

'No one is ever the right person to go. No one is meant to go from this disease, at least in my opinion. But I never thought it would be her because we fought so hard to survive the stuff weve gone through in our lives,' she said.

Herlihy recounted meeting Nyweide at Elevations, a Utah residential treatment center for adolescents aged 13-18 dealing with anxiety, depression, bullying, and other challenges.

Having known each other for a while, Herlihy shared that she and Nyweide supported each other through their own addiction struggles.

Herlihy said she witnessed Nyweide 'using' drugs and admitted to using with her.

Herlihy also remembered Nyweide's warm and welcoming nature towards others.

'She didn't judge anybody, she wasn't like the regular girls of our age group that [were] judging each other,' she recalled.

'She was kind off the bat. [She] wasnt talking bad about anybody. She just wanted everybody to feel safe and cared for.'

Herlihy also got emotional while talking about the fact that Nyweide was pregnant at the time of her death, saying it was like a 'knife in my heart.'

'She always wanted to be a mother,' she told TMZ, adding, 'She loved my daughter. She was amazing around my daughter.'

'She never really got the chance to like get her life together to be given the opportunity to like have the life that she wanted.'

The actress, who appeared in seven movies before turning 10, passed away on April 14 as confirmed by her family in an online obituary; seen in 2007

Herlihy added that while she didn't know if Nyweide would have 'kept the child', it was 'her goal at one point in her life' to become a mom.

It is yet to be confirmed how long she'd been carrying the baby.

Nyweide's mom previously told DailyMail.com, 'I am aware she was using drugs. She had been for quite a while.'

'We had put her in many treatment centers. We don't have the toxicology reports back yet.'

The actress, who appeared in seven movies before turning 10, passed away on April 14 as confirmed by her family in an online obituary.

Police have also revealed that a man was with the former actress when she died. He has been 'cooperating with the investigation' but has not been declared a person of interest in the case.

Sophie is best known for portraying Williams' on-screen daughter in the 2009 film Mammoth.

'Sophie was a kind and trusting girl. Often this left her open to being taken advantage of by others. She wrote and drew voraciously, and much of this art depicts the depth she had, and it also represents the pain she suffered,' her loved ones wrote.

They continued: 'Many of her writings and artwork are roadmaps of her struggles and traumas. Even with those roadmaps, diagnoses and her own revelations, those closest to her, plus therapists, law enforcement officers and others who tried to help her, are heartbroken their efforts couldnt save her from her fate.'

Her loved ones went on to reveal that Nyweide 'self-medicated to deal with all the trauma and shame she held inside' and that 'resulted in her death.'

'She repeatedly said she would "handle it" on her own and was compelled to reject the treatment that might possibly have saved her life,' they detailed.

In lieu of gifts or flowers, her family requested fans make a donation to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) in Nyweide's name.

Sophie is best known for portraying Williams' on-screen daughter in the 2009 film Mammoth

In the 2010 film An Invisible Sign, which also starred Jessica Alba, Nyweide played a girl whose mother was dying of cancer

RAINN is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization.

The young star's obituary highlighted her lifelong passion for acting, which her family said she 'dreamed (more like demanded) to do from a young age, 'without ever knowing her mother was an actor.'

'She seemed happiest on a movie set, becoming someone else. It was a safe place for her and she relish from the casts and crews who nourished her talent and her well being,' her loved ones explained.

Nyweide booked her first acting gig in the 2006 movie, Bella, and proceeded to get a parts in episodes of Law & Order, And Then Came Love, Margot at the Wedding and New York City Serenade.

Her other credits include Shadows & Lies, Mistakes Were Made, Born Again and What Would You Do.

Following her performance in an An Invisible Sign (2010), alongside Jessica Alba, film critic, Jeannette Catsoulis, predicted Nyweide 'should have a glowing future.'

Nyweide was born in Burlington, Vermont on July 8, 2000.

Her mom Shelly is known for her roles in Dust to Malibu, St. Elsewhere (1982) and All My Children (1970).

In a 2010 interview, Gibson recalled her daughter's love for film coming from watching movies at the Village Picture Shows Cinema in Manchester and watching Nancy Meyers Somethings Gotta Give, at age four.

'She grew up in this movie theater and slept in the movie theater and had a little bed in the projection booth and watched many movies,' Gibson said.

Gibson recently shared a beautiful photo of her daughter, alongside a heartfelt tribute.

Nyweide competed in snowboarding competitions after she quit acting in junior high school

'RIP, my Sophie. She graced us for far too short a time. My daughter was a light for all who met her. For those us of who were truly close with Sophie, we are gutted and will need a long time to get over her passing. I know I never will. God I love my daughter. I want her back. Fly high sweetheart - you always could,' she wrote.

Underneath Gibson's post, fans left condolence messages and offered their support.

'Shelly. No words. I am devastatingly sorry for your loss. Much much much love,' one wrote.

Another commented: 'Holding you in my thoughts, youve been on my mind all week. I cant imagine. Sending you as much peace now as I can and even more moving forward.'
A former Married At First Sight star made a return to the small screen this week, this time looking for cash instead of forever love.

Tracey Jewel, appeared on the 2018 iteration of the Nine reality experiment, where she was paired with controversial groom Dean Wells.

The reality star, 42, was back on Nine on Tuesday night, this time on the afternoon game show Tipping Point, hosted by Todd Woodbridge.

'Hi I'm Tracey, I'm a marketing manager from Perth,' Tracey said in her introduction before alluding to her reality show past.

'You might recognise me from MAFS, but these days I teach young women business skills,' she said.'

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Former Married At First Sight star Tracey Jewel made a return to the small screen this week, this time looking for cash instead of forever love

Tracey appeared on the 2018 iteration of the Nine reality experiment, where she was paired with controversial groom Dean Wells

When Todd asked the reality bride about her MAFS experience, she admitted it was enjoyable, despite not sticking with Dean.

'It feels like a lifetime ago,' she said.

'It was really fun. I didn't end up with the guy on the show but I definitely found my happily ever after now.'

When Todd pressed her on her 'happily ever after' Tracy revealed her entrepreneur mentorship business Self Made Girls was her consuming passion.

'These days I love teaching young girls entrepreneur skills and building their own businesses,' she said.

Unfortunately, Tracey was unsuccessful in her game show tilt, losing out to retired customer service officer Kathy.

Prior to her small screen return, Tracy shared a photo that showed her happily posing with host Todd Woodbridge.

'EXCITING NEWS! Tomorrows the night I attempt to win a small fortune by pushing oversized coins off a shelf on national TV. Yep, Im on TIPPING POINT,' she captioned the image.

The reality star was back on Nine on Tuesday, but this time on the afternoon game show Tipping Point, hosted by Todd Woodbridge

'Hi I'm Tracey, I'm a marketing manager from Perth ,' Tracey said in her introduction before alluding to her reality show past. 'You might recognise me from MAFS, but these days I teach young women business skills,' she said.

Tune in to see if I make it rain coins or just awkward small talk with @woodbridge.todd. Either way, its quality telly.'

The post was met with a flurry of well wishers from Tracey's 192,000 followers with one offering: 'Good luck. Im actually obsessed with this show, no one can talk to me thru it.'

Another chimed in with: 'So awesome will definitely be watching,' while a third offered a similar: 'I'm just watching the Show now and I was thinking I know you from somewhere.'

Tracey left groom Dean Wells in tears and heartbroken when she dumped him at the vow renewal ceremony on season five of MAFS in 2018.

It came after he said he loved her and that he thought that in her he had found 'the one.'

Tracey broke Dean's heart when she told him: 'You don't deserve me!'

'This experiment has reminded me that when I love a person, I must not forget to take care of myself, too - that I trust too easily,' Tracey said.

'This experiment has shaken me awake and helped me see what I'm worth. And unfortunately, Dean, you don't deserve me,' Tracey said, as Dean looked shocked and got teary.

Prior to her small screen return, Tracy shared a photo that showed her happily posing with host Todd Woodbridge

Tracey left groom Dean Wells in tears and heartbroken when she dumped him at the vow renewal ceremony on season five of MAFS in 2018

Tracey has since moved on with husband Nathan Constable, with the pair tying the knot in 2021. Tracey and Nathan are pictured with sin Frankie, 4.

Tracey said she simply couldn't overcome his 'affair' with bikini model Davina Rankin.

The mother of one added: 'I'm so sorry, Dean. But I have too many doubts to trust you.'

'I want to believe you have truly changed and we have so much murky water under the bridge between us...I just can't continue this relationship with you.'

Dean was shocked and told her: 'I don't know what to say, I thought everything was okay,' as he started to walk off.

'I have to be true to myself, too,' Tracey said.

Tracey has since moved on with husband Nathan Constable, with the pair tying the knot in 2021.

Tracey welcomed her son Frankie in March 2021 with her high school sweetheart Constable - she also shares her daughter Grace with her ex-husband Jacob Anthonisz.
Former reality star Evelyn Ellis has weighed in on the controversial red carpet dress code changes that rocked the A-list at this year's 78th Cannes Film Festival.

The 29-year-old former Married at First Star, who was at the star-studded event which wraps this weekend, said she was not informed of the new rules which included 'no nudity' and no 'voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train'.

Unfortunately for Evelyn, she had picked out a dazzling Cappellazzo Couture for her grand entrance at the world's biggest film festival which held annually on the French Riviera.

'I had this massive train on my gown,' Evelyn told 9Honey on Thursday, '[then] the organisers of the event come to me and tell me that "no trains are allowed" this year.

'They're like, "Didn't you get in your email?" and I'm like, "this dress was made a month ago, what email?"'

Evelyn said things were so drastic for her during the opening ceremony that she was 'hyperventilating'.

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Former reality star Evelyn Ellis has weighed in on the controversial red carpet dress code changes that rocked the A-list at this year's 78th Cannes Film Festival. The 29-year-old former MAFS Star said she was not informed of the new rules which included 'no nudity' and no 'voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train'. Pictured: Evelyn at Cannes

Unfortunately for Evelyn, she had picked out a dazzling Cappellazzo Couture for her grand entrance at the world's biggest film festival which held annually on the French Riviera

Just as she was preparing to cut off her train to make it onto the red carpet, famed German actress Heidi Klum appeared in an astonishing pink outfit.

'Right at the last minute, [one of the organisers] goes, "They're gonna let you have the train"' Evelyn continued.

'I realised it's probably because Heidi Klum had just arrived with a massive train. I think they thought... "We can't just tell one person to cut the train and let Heidi have it." So in I went.

Cannes Film Festivals organisers had shared their new dress code to their website.

'Voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theatre are not permitted,' explained one rule.

However, the 'no train' prohibition made no impact on Halle Berry, Chinese actress Wan QianHui and Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio, and others, who joined Heidi Klum in flaunting the rule.

Elsewhere in the chat. Evelyn slammed another new dress code rule that made its debut at the film in 2025, a no 'nudity' clause.

For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the Festival,' the festival website cautioned.

Just as she was preparing to cut off her train to make it onto the red carpet, famed German actress Heidi Klum appeared - in a gown with a train. Pictured: Heidi wears a different outfit- with a train - for the Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning - a day after the opening

'I don't get it. Are female nipples offensive to everyone? I love a nipple moment,' Evelyn complained.

Despite all the behind-the-scenes drama Evelyn managed a sizzling appearance on the red carpet Evelyn in a dramatic, two-toned gown.

Evelyn ensured she was the centre of attention as she graced the red carpet at the opening ceremony and premiere of Partir Un Jour (Leave One Day) in France.

The Aussie reality star joined a bevy of A-list luminaries, including Eva Longoria, Heidi Klum and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Although she was all smiles as she strutted through the event, Evelyn revealed on Instagram on Sunday she would miss boyfriend Duncan James while in Cannes.

Posting photos of herself outside the airport, she wrote: 'This little lady is off on a big adventure, but can now declare she will be a little unhinged without Duncan.'

The couple, who announced they were dating in May 2023 despite having been matched with different partners on MAFS, just celebrated their second anniversary.

Evelyn and Duncan, 39, stepped out for a romantic evening last month and shared a heartfelt tribute to social media.

Taking to Instagram, Duncan posted a sweet message alongside a series of glam snaps with Evelyn.

'2 years of loving you. Which is 730 days, and approximately 1,051,200 minutes of putting up with each other. Thank you, for being you x,' he wrote.

Evelyn cheekily responded in the comments with, 'We still got it,' proving the spark is very much alive between the fan-favourite couple.
Keira Knightley and Daniel Craig, left, who appeared in 2005 film The Jacket together, have been reunited on the school run.

I hear former James Bond star Daniel, 57, and Keira, 40, are sending their children to the same private school in north London.

Keiras husband, musician James Righton is very involved in school activities, appearing in the Christmas show, and his enthusiasm is matched by Daniel and his Oscar-winning wife, Rachel Weisz.

Keira and James are very into their childrens school, a source tells me.

They always want to get involved and now its rubbing off on Daniel and Rachel. Their kids are in the same year, which is handy.

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Keira Knightley and Daniel Craig, left, who appeared in 2005 film The Jacket together, have been reunited on the school run

Keira is seen in Hampstead with her husband James Righton and their daughters Edie & Delilah

Daniel has additional time on his hands after walking away from the James Bond franchise in 2021.

The actor's fifth and final outing as 007 in No Time To Die effectively killed off the secret agent, but Amazon Prime are looking to breathe new life into the franchise following its surprise acquisition earlier this year.

Speculation has therefore been rife about who could be the next actor to don the iconic tux of James Bond after Daniel Craig relinquished the role with the latest 007 film No Time To Die.

A host of names have been touted for the part since Craig's announcement, from household names such as Luther star Idris Elba to lesser known actors like Scotsman Stuart Martin.

But there's a new frontrunner in line to become the next Bond as the blockbuster movie looms ever closer.

That favourite is none other than The Divergent Series star Theo James, 40, according to both Ladbrokes and Coral.

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The British actor has previously impressed while playing rogue, morally ambiguous characters somewhat similar to Bond in both The White Lotus and and Guy Ritchie's the Gentlemen.

I hear former James Bond star Daniel and Keira (pictured in 2024) are sending their children to the same private school in north London

Daniel has additional time on his hands after walking away from the James Bond franchise in 2021 (pictured in No Time To Die)

The Gentlemen actor Theo James (pictured) is the bookmakers' new favourite for the role

Coral's favourites to play the next James Bond Theo James - 6/4

Henry Cavill - 3/1

Aaron Taylor-Johnson - 6/1

James Norton - 8/1

Jack Lowden - 8/1

Harris Dickinson - 12/1

Callum Turner - 12/1

Josh O'Connor - 16/1

Stuart Martin - 20/1 Advertisement

Theo had been one of the frontrunners for the role a couple of years ago but was bumped down odds lists after an interview in The Guardian in 2024.

He told the publication: 'Everyone's interested in playing Bond because it's a big part of British cultural identity, but that probably wouldn't be me.

'I do think there are better people for that job. And honestly it would be terrifiyng... you're opening Pandora's Box.'

However speculation linking the 40-year-old to the famous tux seems to have reignited in recent weeks after a number of other actors had stints as favourites, including Henry Cavill and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Ladbrokes currently have Theo leading the race with odds of 6/4, putting him above Cavill (3/1), Taylor-Johnson (7/2) and Jack Lowden (8/1) in the running.

While Coral's list of candidates comes in as Theo James at 6/4, Henry Cavill (3/1), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (7/2), James Norton (6/1) then Jack Lowden (12/1).

Odds placing Theo as the favourite come just a week after Superman actor Henry, 42, soared to the top of the the bookies' lists.

Ladbrokes representative Cal Gildart said: 'Henry Cavill's return to the head of the Bond betting didn't last long, with Theo James as short as anyone has been to pick up the world's most famous license to kill'.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (pictured) is third favourite and fits the bill as a potentially younger 007

Superman star Henry Cavill (pictured) had soared to the top of the odds last week but has now been pipped by Theo

Barbara Broccoli's choice for Bond was thought to be Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who was once favourite for the role, but Heyman and Pascal are likely to want to choose their own 007.

Amazon bosses are currently said to be considering locations in which to set the much-anticipated new film, which experts predicted is likely to be released at the end of next year or in 2027.

Due to a filming ban being imposed in Central London next year, new locations are reportedly being considered - with Liverpool a frontrunner, according to The Sun.

An insider told the publication: 'This will no doubt irk Bond purists who already fear Amazon taking over the 007 franchise may lead to them making big changes.

'But Liverpool is a well-known alternative to London for film-makers.

'It has appeared in everything from The Batman to Captain America and Harry Potter movies, doubling up as international cities.'

The source added that it doesn't necessarily mean the story will be set in Liverpool - though eagle-eyed Merseysiders will no doubt spot their city centre in the background.

MailOnline contacted Amazon for comment about the possibility of Liverpool being the setting for the next Bond.
It's been a week to remember for Peppa Pig and her family following the birth of baby Evie on Tuesday.

And in a continuation of the marketing phenomenon that has surrounded the cartoon swines during Mummy Pig's pregnancy, there is a newly released song to mark the family milestone.

My New Sibling Evie! has been released on Spotify and YouTube, reaching 161,833 views on the latter in less than two days.

Spotify have been busy promoting the track on their social media channels with a 'behind the scenes' video on Instagram showing Peppa recording the song at the London HQ.

Excitable fans have commented on the post, declaring: 'I need a Peppa Pig Eras Tour so badly' whilst others admitted: '100% chance this will be on our Wrapped this year.'

As any four-year-old fan could tell you, Peppa in fact has a music back catalogue, with four studio albums to her name and the the 2024 hit track Lets Jump In!

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It's been a week to remember for Peppa Pig and her family following the birth of baby Evie and in a continuation of the marketing phenomenon that has surrounded the cartoon swine there is a newly released song to mark the family milestone

Fans have demanded Peppa embarks on a Taylor Swift-style Eras tour to bring her four albums to the masses

The song is just the latest marketing ploy for the cartoon, which has pulled off a jaw-dropping PR campaign in recent months.

Mummy Pig's pregnancy was first announced in a Good Morning Britain exclusive in February, with Showbiz Correspondent Richard Arnold conducting a live interview with the family matriarch who zoomed in from Peppatown.

An exclusive in Grazia Magazine followed, with Mummy Pig flaunting her baby bump in a glossy spread and delighting fans with her pregnancy tell-all, with highlights including her peanut butter and pickle sandwich craving.

The cartoon tapped into the influencer trend for a gender reveal party by hosting an event at Battersea Power Station, with the London landmark's iconic towers lit up pink to reveal the big news.

The party also heralded the launch of the world's first-ever permanent Peppa Pig store, with fans able to snap up a selection of the 12,000 separate branded items the cartoon has merchandised over 20 years.

In what the team behind the pigs have dubbed 'a whole new era' fans can also enjoy the family on the big screen from next week, expertly timed for schools' half term break, with Peppa Meets the Baby - a brand-new cinema experience which is being rolled out in over 2,600 cinemas across 19 countries.

All the fanfare has led up to this week's birth, which played on another cultural phenomenon as Mummy and Daddy Pig welcomed baby Evie in Kate Middleton's favoured maternity hospital - London's Lindo Wing.

The birth was announced with a royal-inspired twist on the classic birth announcement, complete with a town crier, a scroll-style proclamation, and the unveiling of an official Peppa Pig birth certificate.

Spotify have been busy promoting the track on their social media channels with a 'behind the scenes' video on Instagram showing Peppa recording the song at the London HQ

Excitable fans have commented on the post, declaring: 'I need a Peppa Pig Eras Tour so badly' whilst others admitted: '100% chance this will be on our Wrapped this year'

And to celebrate, the new family of five have even taken part in an 'at home' interview with Hello! Magazine.

Peppa Pig first aired in 2004 and has since been broadcast in 180 territories and translated into 40 languages. It's spawned books, toys and even two theme parks, with the global Peppa empire now worth over 1billion.

Creators Neville Astley and Mark Baker admitted they were worried the idea would never get off the ground, and that people were initially bored of the idea.

People in the pub would ask us, What are you drawing? Wed say, A pig, called Peppa, its going to be big. Theyd lose interest and wander off, explained Astley.

The pair created Peppa and her family working in each others houses or at the local pub.

They told the Radio Times they were inspired by 1970s cartoon classics including Roobarb and Pingu, after realising that children like stories about animals.

The song is just the latest marketing ploy for the cartoon, which has pulled off jaw-dropping PR campaign in recent months

Wed made this little trailer for Peppa but hadnt got anywhere, recalled Baker.

Its very difficult to sell your own creative work. The good thing about Phil is hes quite thick-skinned.

They soon found an energetic little girl, Lily Snowden-Fine, to voice Peppa - despite her being only four years-old and unable to read, instead repeating lines spoken by her mother.

When her family moved to Canada, the job went to Cecily Bloom, followed by current incumbent Harley Bird.

The creators explained that the secret to Peppas long-lasting appeal is the shows simplicity, as well as ensuring the piglet is never the butt of the jokes.

We put a lot of work into making everything look as effortless as possible, said Baker.

We can laugh at the adults, but children dont like it if we laugh at the children in the show.

All new episodes of Peppa Pig will be launching on Milkshake from September.
Pamela Anderson made sure to turn heads in a white and red rose co-ord as she departed her hotel in New York City on Wednesday evening.

The movie star, 57, looked incredible in the figure hugging flared pencil skirt which she tucked a matching bold long sleeved blouse into.

Pamela made the rare move of wearing a glamorous palette of makeup complete with black liner, glossy pink lipstick and blushed cheeks, after embracing her natural beauty on magazine covers and at public appearances.

The Baywatch legend wrapped her newly short blonde tresses in a chic white head scarf and elevated her frame in a pair of red stilettos.

Pamela flashed her gorgeous smile as she waved to waiting fans as she exited her hotel and headed to the Meatpacking District.

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Pamela Anderson made sure to turn heads in a white and red rose co-ord as she departed her hotel in New York City on Wednesday evening

The movie star, 57, made the rare move of wearing a glamorous palette of makeup complete with black liner, glossy lipstick and blushed cheeks, after embracing her natural beauty

She added a pair of stylish pink framed sunglasses as she stepped out of her car and was greeted by a small crowd.

Just days earlier, Pamela made an epic return to her signature 90s makeup look after years of embracing her natural beauty.

While she entered her fresh-faced era back in 2023 to feel more comfortable in her own skin and reject societal beauty standards, the star made the rare move of wearing full glam.

In a post, uploaded by Los Angeles-based makeup artist David Velasquez, the actress wore a red Versace robe, charcoal black liner, overlined beige lipstick and a dramatic pair of fake eyelashes.

'Rock N Roll like the 90s,' Velasquez, who previously did Anderson's makeup for a 2022 Paper Magazine shoot, captioned the image.

Although it is unknown when the stunning snap was taken, fans of the Baywatch legend were quick to praise her blonde bombshell comeback.

'I love her no makeup look but this feels like home,' one fan commented.

Another gushed: 'Wow! She looks even better than she did in the 90s! Sheesh!!'

Pamela has been embracing her natural beauty on magazine covers and at public appearances since 2023; pictured in February 2025

Pamela looked incredible in the figure hugging flared pencil skirt which she tucked a matching bold long sleeved blouse into

Pamela flashed her gorgeous smile as she waved to waiting fans as she exited her hotel and headed to the Meatpacking District

'Pammy out here reminding us she can eat us all up with or without makeup,' a third wrote underneath the post.

Others thanked Velasquez for giving Anderson 'a full face just to remind the girls who THE OG is!!!'

Anderson is best known for starring on Baywatch for five seasons, from 1992 to 1997, as the iconic role of C.J. Parker, a stunning lifeguard.

Last year, she received critical acclaim for her 2024 drama The Last Showgirl and earned a Best Actress nomination at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards.

Earlier this year, a source told DailyMail.com that Pamela is delighted that she is 'being applauded for her toned-down looks and recognized for her true talent.'

They said: 'Pamela has gotten so much positive feedback from women all over the world for her natural glow up.

'She has become an icon who is now known for baring her all-natural self.

'While Pam recognizes that a little more make up would have gone fabulous with her gown, she also realizes that this is not true to who she is anymore.

Just days earlier, Pamela made an epic return to her signature 90s makeup look after years of embracing her natural beauty on magazine covers and at public appearances

Pamela pictured in 1990 wearing her signature full glam

Although it is unknown when the stunning snap was taken, fans of the Baywatch legend were quick to praise her blonde bombshell comeback

'To do herself up  whether at the awards or anywhere else for that matter  would make her not true to herself.'

The insider added that 'part of her motivation' to cut back on her glam was because she wanted to 'strip away her Barbwire image and Baywatch personification' - and be viewed 'as a serious actor.'

'When she went into this, part of her motivation was to strip away her Barbwire image and Baywatch personification. Shew wanted to be taken as a serious actor,' they continued.

'Pamela realized her true talent when she played Roxy Hart on Broadway. This was life changing for her.

'Never in a million years did she think that she would have been nominated for an award like this.'

Another source close to the star confirmed that she 'still wears light makeup from time to time' and that she has not sworn off make-up forever, instead just changing her relationship with it.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson may have just hinted that he could be the next superstar to don the iconic tux of James Bond after signing a deal with the film's watch provider, Omega.

Since Daniel Craig announced he would be bowing out as Bond with its latest installment No Time To Die, speculation has been rife about who could replace him.

The Godzilla star, 34, has been one of those actors touted for the role, with Aaron even becoming the bookies' frontrunner at points.

Prior to Amazon's purchase of the Bond franchise, it was even rumoured that Aaron was Barbara Broccoli's ideal candidate to take over the reigns from Craig.

But the 34-year-old slightly dropped down odds lists after playing it cool when asked about the possibility of him starring in the next movie.

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Daniel Craig, 57, announced he would be stepping away from his role as James Bond after the 2021 film No Time To Die

Omega has been providing wristwear for James Bond since it first struck up a deal for the 1995 film GoldenEye

Godzilla actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 34, this week joined Omega's family of global ambassadors - which could be a hint that he might be the next 007

'It's not really for me to say anything,' he told Esquire when quizzed about speculation.

But Aaron, who has kept his cards close to his chest until now, may have just dropped a hint that he could be the next Bond.

The superstar this week joined Omega's family of global ambassadors - the makers of the watches which have been on the wrists of 007 actors for 30 years.

Pierce Brosnan, 72, was the first special agent to don Omega during the 1995 film GoldenEye and the partnership has flourished ever since, with Craig wearing the brand's Seamaster watch during No Time To Die.

After signing the deal, Aaron said: 'I have always had an appreciation for timepieces but especially for Omega.

'Now, after visiting the factory, I am in awe of the skill required to manufacture such a luxurious product.'

Omega's CEO described Aaron as a 'versatile actor with a range that covers action, thriller, romance and much more'.

It's precisely those qualities - and his striking good looks - that have led to the actor's strong links to the role.

The Godzilla star said: 'I have always had an appreciation for timepieces but especially Omega'

Daniel Craig wore Omega wristwear during each of his five films playing James Bond

In Craig's first 007 film, Casino Royale, he sported the company's Seamaster Diver 300M watch

But in new odds lists released by bookies this week, the actor has been pipped at the top by two British stars.

The current bookies' favourite to become the next Bond is none other than The Divergent series star Theo James, 40, who is currently 6/4.

The Brit has previously impressed while playing rogue, morally ambiguous characters somewhat similar to Bond in both The White Lotus and and Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen.

Theo has too played down speculation linking him to the part however, telling The Guardian in 2024 that it 'probably wouldn't be me'.

Second favourite to become the latest actor 'with a license to kill', according to Ladbrokes, is Superman star Henry Cavill (3/1), ahead of Aaron in third (7/2).

While Coral's list of candidates comes in as Theo James at 6/4, Henry Cavill (3/1), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (7/2), James Norton (6/1) then Jack Lowden (12/1).

Betting habits in recent weeks suggest that eager fans are growing in confidence that Theo James could star in the next movie, with 70% of all bets on the next 007 placed on The White Lotus actor.

Ladbrokes representative Cal Gildart said: 'Henry Cavill's return to the head of the Bond betting didn't last long, with Theo James as short as anyone has been to pick up the world's most famous license to kill'.

The Gentlemen actor Theo James, 40, is the bookmakers' new favourite for the role [Pictured in May 2024]

Superman star Henry Cavill, 42, had soared to the top of the odds list last week but has now been pipped by Theo [Pictured in April 2024]

It was announced earlier this year that Amazon Prime had taken over 'creative control' of the James Bond franchise leaving fans fearing the beloved films could be ruined by endless spin-offs.

The deal comes after Amazon bought MGM Studios in 2022 as a part of its media push. The acquisition gave Amazon distribution rights to the 007 franchise but not creative control.

The company is said to be fast-tracking the new movie after spending a reported $1 billion to regain control from Barbara Broccoli.

Producers David Heyman and Amy Pascal have been hired and they are understood to be close to a deal with director Alfonso Cuaron. Then they will go about casting the next Bond.

As The Daily Mail reported, the plan is for a 'straight up' reboot after Daniel Craig's 007 died in No Time To Die.

There is reportedly set to be no explanation of how the special agent is still alive, no multiverse of Bonds and no attempt to go back to the 1960s for a vintage Bond.

Amazon bosses are currently said to be considering locations in which to set the much-anticipated new film, which experts predicted is likely to be released at the end of next year or in 2027.

Due to a filming ban being imposed in Central London next year, new locations are reportedly being considered - with Liverpool a frontrunner, according to The Sun.

The new Bond film is expected to be a straight-up 'reboot', with no explanation expected as to how Bond is still alive after Craig's character died in the last film

An insider told the publication: 'This will no doubt irk Bond purists who already fear Amazon taking over the 007 franchise may lead to them making big changes.

'But Liverpool is a well-known alternative to London for film-makers.

'It has appeared in everything from The Batman to Captain America and Harry Potter movies, doubling up as international cities.'

The source added that it doesn't necessarily mean the story will be set in Liverpool - though eagle-eyed Merseysiders will no doubt spot their city centre in the background.

MailOnline contacted Amazon for comment about the possibility of Liverpool being the setting for the next Bond.
Annie Knight has been admitted to hospital after a challenge during which she slept with 583 men in a single day.

The 27-year-old OnlyFans star, dubbed 'Australia's most sexually active woman', shared a video from her hospital bed on Wednesday after rushing in to be treated for cramps and excessive bleeding - just days after taking part in the filmed orgy on Sunday.

Knight says that the issue stems from her pre-existing endometriosis, which she says has been triggered by stress.

'On Sunday everything was all good, but the next day I had a lot of bleeding that I shouldn't really have because I'm on contraception and I was a little bit worried about it but decided I would wait it out and see how it goes' she tells Perth Now.

'Then it turned in to really bad cramps and pains, then I started to get a bit worried and decided to take myself to hospital.'

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Annie Knight (pictured) has been admitted to hospital after a challenge during which she slept with 583 men in a single day

Knight added that her doctors were at first concerned the bleeding and pain was a result of her intense challenge, but later ruled it out.

'We ran a bunch of tests all day, then eventually it was my endometriosis had been exasperated by mostly stress and not so much the physical challenge that I did on Sunday,' she said.

Endometriosis occurs when cells in the lining of the uterus are found elsewhere in the body.

Each month, these cells react in the same way as those in the uterus; building up, breaking down and bleeding. Yet, the blood has no way to escape the body.

Symptoms include pain, heavy periods and fatigue, as well as a higher risk of infertility, and bowel and bladder problems.

Its cause is unknown but may be genetic, related to problems with the immune system or exposure to chemicals.

Treatment focuses on pain relief and improving quality of life, which may include surgery or hormone treatment.

Knight was also in hospital with a mystery ailment just a month ago.

The 27-year-old OnlyFans star, dubbed 'Australia's most sexually active woman', shared a video from her hospital bed on Wednesday after rushing in to be treated for cramps and excessive bleeding - just days after taking part in the filmed orgy on Sunday (pictured)

Knight says that the issue stems from her pre-existing endometriosis, which she says has been triggered by stress

At the time, she looked unwell as she lay in a bed in a photo shared by her fiance Henry Brayshaw.

In the Instagram Stories post, Annie wore a blue hospital gown and slept while surrounded by monitors.

'Wonder where the life support switch is?' Henry joked in the caption alongside the image.

It was not explained by either Annie or Henry why the performer required the visit to hospital.

The couple only recently announced that they are set to marry, after only one week of dating.

Annie recently revealed the 'truth' behind her shock engagement to her fiance Henry.

The famous sex worker and her beau are set to walk down the aisle after Henry popped the question during a romantic dinner at the end of March.

Appearing on The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Annie admitted the pair's romance had only just got serious when Henry asked for her hand in marriage.

'The crazy bit about it is we've only been officially dating for a week,' she told a shocked Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson.

Knight was also in hospital with a mystery ailment just a month ago

Not only did Annie have sex with 600 men last year, she's now got her sights set on doing 1,000 guys before the end of 2025

'However, we've been best friends for ten years and we have dated in the past.

'And we've been sort of seeing each other recently. It's not a shotgun engagement or anything like that. It's been ten years in the making.'

Annie says that her engagement won't stop her from bedding hundreds of men before her wedding night.

Speaking to DailyMail.com about the happy news, Annie said that her fiance is completely monogamous and faithful to her and is forbidden from sleeping with other women - but the same rules don't apply to her.

Not only did Annie have sex with 600 men last year, she's now got her sights set on doing 1,000 guys before the end of 2025 and says that wedded bliss with her husband-to-be isn't going to change a thing.

'He is super supportive, he's just the best and he understands that I'm very work oriented and that I enjoy my job,' Annie explained.

'We have ten years of history. He knows me better than anyone, better than I even know myself, we've been through so much together and the support and the love that we have for each other is unmatched - he accepts me for who I am.'
Famed US comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) has sent fans into an uproar after they staged a skit mocking Aussie 'Twinnies' Bridgette and Paula Powers.

The 47-year-old Sunshine Coast identical twin sisters known for speaking in unison, became international sensations after they gave a word-for-word account of a fatal carjacking last month.

SNL cast members Heidi Gardner and Chloe Fineman performed in the scathing skit as the twins, complete with broad Aussie accents, costumes and makeup that parodied the sisters well known look.

In the sketch, which landed online this week, the Bridgette and Paula characters were asked 'why should Americans move to Australia?'

'Australia is a gorgeous island nation and we have more Hemsworths than people - that's a joke, don't write that down,' the 'Twins' replied in perfect synchronicity.

SNL cast member Colin Jost, who appeared in the skit as the news 'interviewer' asked, 'I see, so you guys are basically the same person?'

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Famed US comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) has sent fans into an uproar after they staged a skit mocking Aussie 'Twinnies' Bridgette and Paula Powers (both pictured)

SNL cast members Heidi Gardner and Chloe Fineman performed in the scathing skit as the twins, complete with broad Aussie accents and costumes and makeup that parodied the identical sisters well-known look (pictured)

'No, we're totally different, because her favourite food is Vegemite and I only date black guys, the 'Twins' replied.

The skit met with a grouchy response online from fans Down Under and in the US.

'Yeah no, the accent is not even close,' complained one Aussie viewer.

Added another viewer, 'Australian-American here. I don't get why this is funny.'

Said another bewildered fan, 'American here neither do I!! I remember seeing them on Jimmy Kimmel and he was so respectful in their conversation. This is just mean.'

'That sounded more like a Jersey accent not Australian,' messaged one SNL viewer on the SNL Instagram share.

'It's not. Kind of offensive. Making fun of them is not cool,' replied another disgruntled viewer.

It comes after the mother of a pair of the twins has revealed the pair's struggle with ongoing health issues.

The skit met with a grouchy response online from fans Down Under and in the US

Their mother Helen explained earlier this month that the twins have faced difficulties since birth.

'I bought them home from the hospital and I thought there was something wrong, and in my heart, I knew they were different,' Helen told Australian Story on Monday.

'They never really sucked properly on a bottle, they used to scream a lot, they were floppy babies - they didn't sit up until they were about probably 15 months old.'

Their dad, John, said he and his wife could not figure out what was wrong, and neither did the doctors, despite countless visits to the hospital.

Bridgette and Paula were sent to a school that specialised in speech therapy before moving to a mainstream school.

However, the pair faced intense bullying from other students for their unique bond.

'High school was very, very hard for them. As they got older their heart problems started kicking in,' Helen said.

'A lot of girls used to give them a hard time about not having boyfriends, asking if they were having it off with one another.'

Fans slammed the SNL bit, calling it 'tasteless' and 'wrong'. Pictured: The twins with their mentor, the late Steve Irwin

The beloved set of twins, who wear matching clothes every day and sleep in the same room, found their purpose once they left school in year 10 and moved to the Sunshine Coast.

Their love for wildlife flourished and they were even hired by the late Steve Irwin to work at his Australia Zoo after he saw them in action during their first wildlife rescue.

They have since been running the Twinnies Pelican and Seabird Rescue for 25 years and are renowned across Queensland for their wildlife volunteer work.

The pair suffer from osteoporosis, heart and stomach issues and have acknowledged their health problems will eventually force them to give up their wildlife rescue.

Bridgette and Paula sparked worldwide interest on April 23 after they gave an interview about an attempted carjacking of their mother.

Dressed in matching Easter outfits, the sisters recounted the terrifying moment their mother came face-to-face with an alleged gunman.

Their appearance subsequently made headlines around the world, with US media and politics news website Mediaite describing their recount as 'surreal'.
Nadia Bartel was flaunting her passion for fashion on Thursday night.

The former WAG stepped out for the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney.

She was dressed to the nines in a chocolate brown full length gown with a plunging, bare back.

The dress sat close to her figure before flaring off into draped skirting, and also included sheer long sleeves.

Nadia chose a warm toned makeup look with lots of highlighter and a dark pink nude lip.

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Nadia Bartel was flaunting her passion for fashion on Thursday night. The former WAG stepped out for the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney

She was dressed to the nines in a chocolate brown full length gown with a plunging, bare back

The dress sat close to her figure before flaring off into draped skirting, and also included sheer long sleeves. Nadia chose a warm toned makeup look with lots of highlighter

She completed her look by wearing her brunette locks in soft curls and skipping the accessories but for some chunky rings.

Also turning heads was Simone Holtznagel who stunned in a black one shoulder gown that sat close to her figure.

Simone swept her blonde locks off her face and added a pair of gold statement earrings.

The model finished the look with a glowing makeup palette and strappy metallic heels.

Anna Heinrich looked incredible in a maxi dress in a maroon tone with a cut out at the midriff.

She added bold metallic accessories including a chunky arm band and clutch purse, while adding black strappy heels.

Model Montana Cox stood out from the crowd in a bold pink tutu dress in a satin fabric.

She dared to bare with a racy neckline that showed off lots of bust and a pair of pointed white heels.

Also turning heads was Simone Holtznagel who stunned in a black one shoulder gown that sat close to her figure

Simone swept her blonde locks off her face and added a pair of gold statement earrings

Anna Heinrich looked incredible in a maxi dress in a maroon tone with a cut out at the midriff

She added bold metallic accessories including a chunky arm band and clutch purse, while adding black strappy heels

Montana Cox stood out from the crowd in a bold pink tutu dress in a satin fabric

The model dared to bare with a racy neckline that showed off lots of bust and a pair of pointed white heels

Elle Ferguson was chic in a mini dress with draped fabric across the bodice and a pair of black heels with gold tops

The Block star chose a peachy makeup look with a coral lipstick and wore her blonde locks down in waves

Elle Ferguson was chic in a mini dress with draped fabric across the bodice and a pair of black heels with gold tops.

The Block star chose a peachy makeup look with a coral lipstick and wore her blonde locks down in waves.

Havana Brown commanded attention in a deep brown gown with a halter neck design matched with leather opera gloves.

She went for a sunkissed makeup look with deep blush and a pink lip gloss and wore her blonde hair in soft curls.

Indy Clinton chose a fitted black dress with a cutout at the belly along with strappy black heels.

The influencer added a series of rings and statement earrings while opting for a warm toned makeup look.

Kate Waterhouse got the maroon memo, choosing a maxi dress with a halter neck and a draped scarf design.

The socialite added a number of platinum and diamond accessories and wore her hair piled in a high bun.

Havana Brown commanded attention in a deep brown gown with a halter neck design matched with leather opera gloves

She went for a sunkissed makeup look with deep blush and a pink lip gloss and wore her blonde hair in soft curls

Indy Clinton chose a fitted black dress with a cutout at the belly along with strappy black heels

The influencer added a series of rings and statement earrings while opting for a warm toned makeup look

Kate Waterhouse got the maroon memo, choosing a maxi dress with a halter neck and a draped scarf design

The socialite added a number of platinum and diamond accessories and wore her hair piled in a high bun

Sarah Ellen brought out her inner goth with a pale makeup look and daring black velvet dress with a large cut out at the side and a short train

The actress slicked her dark hair off her face and added bold silver accessories including a cuff

Sarah Ellen brought out her inner goth with a pale makeup look and daring black velvet dress with a large cut out at the side and a short train.

The actress slicked her dark hair off her face and added bold silver accessories including a cuff.

Sarah Abo went the chic and edgy route with an oversized black blazer and matching trousers.

The television star added a white dress shirt and black boots while carrying a matching bag.

Lindy Klim also turned heads in a black halter neck dress.

She completed her simple look with a slick back bun and a gold watch.

Lindy Klim also turned heads in a black halter neck dress
Alice Evans has admitted she is 'so embarrassed' after turning to her fans to help her support her children amid financial troubles.

The actress, 56, claimed in court documents earlier this month that she would be homeless in three weeks because her financial situation is so 'dire' following her divorce from Ioan Gruffudd.

Taking to Go Fund Me, the star created her own Divorce fundraisers and has already raised an incredible $16,927 from generous fans after admitting 'I cannot explain how low things got'.

Confessing she felt shame in turning to the public for help she penned: 'I'm so embarrassed about this. If you're here you know my story.

'You know how much I struggle to keep my two girls healthy and happy and a roof over their heads.

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Alice Evans has revealed she is 'so embarrassed' as she raises over $16k on her GoFundMe after reaching her 'lowest point' and enlisting followers help amid financial troubles

Taking to Go Fund Me, the star created her own Divorce fundraisers and has already raised an incredible $16,927 from generous fans after admitting 'I cannot explain how low things got'

'You know what I've been through. It never ends. I'm just getting squeezed in every which way and smeared in the media so that nobody even wants to employ me.'

And now the star has provided an update after raising almost $17,000, out of a $25,000 goal, as she revealed the family are now able to move her furniture into storage next week.

She wrote: 'Quick update. The donations have allowed us to afford a moving truck and a persons to help us move all our furniture into storage next Saturday.

'This is amazing because my main worry was having to abandon it here. Looking for temp accommodation after that and will keep you posted.

'I am so incredibly grateful and humbled by your generosity. I cannot explain how low things got last Wednesday when I reached out. I am unbelievably appreciative and forever indebted to you all. Thank you.'

Alice had previously explained she was struggling to cover the moving costs.

She told fans: 'I need help getting the girls and I to our next place. Moving costs and deposit. We have found such lovely little places - tiny, but they felt like home. We don't need much.

'I am selling most of my stuff and have jobs lined up to keep us on our feet. We just need that extra bit to get us over the finish line. To be able to present a cash payment upfront that will get us in the door.'

She told fans: ' I am unbelievably appreciative and forever indebted to you all. Thank you'

The actress, 56, claimed in court documents earlier this month that she would be homeless in three weeks because her financial situation is so 'dire' following her divorce from Ioan Gruffudd [pictured in 2016]

She previously explained to fans: 'I need help getting the girls and I to our next place. Moving costs and deposit. We have found such lovely little places - tiny, but they felt like home'

Expressing her gratitude she added: 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those of you who have shown me compassion and love and understanding.

'I will never, ever forget your kindness - every single one of you.'

Alice previously claimed that her ex was living in comfort in a $5,500 a month apartment with a home gym while she and their two children cannot afford 'basic necessities'.

She claimed she would be on the streets by June 1st because she cannot pay her rent and all the shelters in Los Angeles are full.

She accused Ioan, 51, who married his second wife Bianca Wallace last month, of 'intentionally' turning down acting gigs to keep his income low during their split and avoid having to pay her more.

Meanwhile, in February this year, Alice revealed she's being evicted from her LA home after being 'unable to pay her rent'.

The actress wrote on Instagram that she and her daughters have 'no way of renting even the cheapest room in the city' after being beset by financial woes amid her bitter court battle with ex-husband Ioan.

Sharing a sweet throwback snap with her two daughters, Alice shared that she is like many others in Los Angeles trying to find a new place to live after the city was devastated by fires in January.

The bombshell legal filing at a court in Los Angeles comes after Ioan accused Alice of using cocaine in front of their two daughters - and even offering the girls the drug.

Meanwhile Ioan and his wife Bianca put on a very smitten display while attending the 32nd Annual Race To Erase MS Gala in Los Angeles last week.

The Fantastic Four actor, 51, and Aussie actress Bianca, 32, packed on the PDA on the star-studded red-carpet - just a month after happily tying the knot.

Meanwhile Ioan and his wife Bianca put on a very smitten display while attending the 32nd Annual Race To Erase MS Gala in Los Angeles last week

The couple took to their respective Instagrams on Friday to share a grainy video of the them tying the knot in a romantic ceremony, captioning their posts: 'Mr & Mrs Gruffudd'

However, they are still battling fiercely over spousal support and custody and financial support for their two daughters Ella, 15, and Elsie, 11 [pictured in 2018 with daughters Ella and Elsie]

Last month, the couple took to their respective Instagrams to share a video of them tying the knot in a romantic ceremony, captioning their posts: 'Mr & Mrs Gruffudd. Marriage now, wedding later.'

The marriage comes two years after the Welsh actor's bitter divorce from ex Alice with whom he shares two daughters.

Ioan and Alice Evans divorced in July 2023. However, they are still battling fiercely over spousal support and custody and financial support for their two daughters Ella, 15, and Elsie, 11.

At the September 9 court hearing, Judge Josh Freeman Stinn signed off on a stipulated agreement in which Ioan pays $3,000 a month temporary child support and $1,500 a month temporary spousal support until another February 13 hearing where a more permanent support arrangement will be forged.

Ioan planned to call his then fiancee Bianca as a witness at the February hearing to testify that his ex wife 'stalked, harassed and abused' her, repeatedly violating a three-year domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) which she and Ioan took out in August 2022, after enduring a 'smear campaign' of hateful text messages, emails and social media posts from her.

Ioan claims that Alice 'engaged in a pattern of damaging and defamatory conduct against me, aimed at intimidating and harassing me and my fiance, Bianca Wallace, while alienating our two young children from me.'

Ioan  whose latest movie, Bad Boys: Ride or Die has grossed more than $403 million worldwide  has fought Evans' demands for more money, claiming he's paid some $400,000 more in spousal support that he needed to under their pre-marital agreement.

In earlier court papers, he called her claims of poverty 'exaggerated' and said it's a 'false narrative' that she and the children have been left destitute.

The former couple met on the set of the movie 102 Dalmatians more than 20 years ago. They fell in love in real life and were married in Mexico in 2007.

Ioan filed for divorce in March 2021, shortly after Alice announced on social media that her husband of 14 years was walking out on her and their two daughters.
Elle Fanning looked 70s chic in flared jeans and a floral headscarf at the Sentimental Value photocall in Cannes on Thursday.

The actress, 27, sported a white T-shirt which read 'Joachim Trier Summer' in a sweet nod to the movie's film director, tucked into stylish 860 blue Gucci jeans.

Elle was kitted out in Gucci as she teamed her look with a 320 belt and elevated her frame in 1,010 platform heels.

The Maleficent star styled her long blonde tresses loose under a 430 silk floral headscarf.

When asked about Elle's T-shirt at the press conference, Joachim said: 'I was stoked that you made that. Charli xcx gave a little hello to us and we are super grateful.

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Elle Fanning, 27, looked 70s chic in flared jeans and a floral headscarf at the Sentimental Value photocall in Cannes on Thursday

The actress cut a chic figure in a graphic white T-shirt, tucked into stylish 860 blue Gucci jeans

'I love her music, shes awesome. I know Elles a fan too. The problem is, Ive been working so much for the last three years I dont even know what a Joachim Trier summer is anymore. But Id like to have one.'

Elle, who takes on a leading role in the movie, was in good spirits as she waved to the crowds and posed for cameras at Palais des Festivals.

She was joined by director Joachim Trier and co-stars Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Anders Danielsen Lie.

Elle pulled out all the stops to celebrate the release of the Norwegian-language film, titled Affeksjonsverdi in its original dialect.

Affeksjonsverdi/Sentimental Value follows sisters Nora (Renate) and Agnes (Inga) as they reunite with their estranged and charismatic father Gustav (Stellan).

A film director, he offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film, but she turns it down and he instead offers it to a Hollywood star, played by Elle.

The American actress is dropped in the middle of their complicated family dynamics as they try to navigate their newly rekindled relationship with their father.

Elsewhere Barbara Palvin cut a cool figure in a navy and grey midi dress which boasted a stylish pleated skirt as she departed the Hotel Martinez.

The model, 31, looked incredible in the number which boasted two large cut out showcasing her slim waist.

Elle was kitted out in Gucci as she teamed her look with a 320 belt and elevated her frame in 1,010 platform heels

The Maleficent star styled her long blonde tresses loose under a 430 silk floral headscarf

She carried her belongings in a white handbag as she exited the five-star hotel and headed to the photocall

Elle headed to her Sentimental Value photocall

Elle was all smiles as she waved to cameras and fans

Elle, who takes on a leading role in the movie, was in good spirits as she waved to the crowds and posed for cameras at Palais des Festivals

She was joined by director Joachim Trier and co-stars Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Anders Danielsen Lie (L-R)

Elle pulled out all the stops to celebrate the release of the Norwegian-language film, titled Affeksjonsverdi in its original dialect

Affeksjonsverdi/Sentimental Value follows sisters Nora (Renate) and Agnes (Inga) as they reunite with their estranged and charismatic father Gustav (Stellan)

Barbara added a cool coordinated cropped bomber jacket over the number and carried a black 2,450 Miu Miu handbag.

She elevated her frame in a pair of black slingback heels and opted for a pair of long semi-sheer black stockings.

Styling her long brunette tresses loose, the Victoria's Secret Angel completed her ensemble with a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Meanwhile Cara Delevingne cut a summery figure in a blue short sleeved shirt and stylish matching shorts.

The model, 32, layered a white top beneath the cool co-ord and kept comfortable in a pair of black trainers.

Cara carried her belongings in a white Prada 2,500 handbag and shield from the sun behind a pair of trendy sunglasses.

Styling her long blonde tresses up in a sleek do, the actress beamed as she stopped to pose for a selfie with waiting fans.

Teri Hatcher was all smiles as she picked up a hot beverage as she departed the five-star hotel after attending The History of Sound premiere the night prior.

Elsewhere Barbara Palvin cut a cool figure in a navy and grey midi dress which boasted a stylish pleated skirt as she departed the Hotel Martinez

The model, 31, looked incredible in the number which boasted two large cut out showcasing her slim waist

Barbara added a cool coordinated cropped bomber jacket over the number and toted her belongings in a black 2,450 Miu Miu handbag

She elevated her frame in a pair of black slingback heels and opted for a pair of long semi-sheer black stockings

Meanwhile Cara Delevingne cut a summery figure in a blue short sleeved shirt and stylish matching shorts

The model, 32, layered a white top beneath the cool co-ord and kept comfortable in a pair of black trainers

Cara carried her belongings in a white Prada 2,500 handbag

She shield from the sun behind a pair of trendy sunglasses

Cara styled her long blonde tresses up in a sleek do

The stunner beamed as she stopped to pose for a selfie with waiting fans

The Desperate Housewives star, 60, looked smart as she layered a black blazer over a matching sheer blouse and wide legged trousers.

Styling her dark tresses in a neat up do, she added inches to her frame in a pair of black heels and carried a large coordinated handbag.

Teri donned a pair of aviator sunglasses and accessorised with a pair of small silver earrings.

This year's Cannes Film Festival is taking place in the wake of Trumps vow to enact tariffs on international films.

Cannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme dOr, to give out at the end.

Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.

'You release a film into that Colosseum-like situation,' says Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho, whos returning to Cannes with 'The Secret Agent, a thriller set during Brazils dictatorship.

'Youve got to really prepare for the whole experience because its quite intense - not very far from the feeling of approaching a roller coaster as you go up the steps at the Palais.'

Teri Hatcher was all smiles as she picked up a hot beverage as she departed the five-star hotel after attending The History of Sound premiere the night prior

The Desperate Housewives star, 60, looked smart as she layered a black blazer over a matching sheer blouse and wide legged trousers

Cara looked in good spirits as she headed out and about along the sea front

Cara beamed as she stepped out from the Hotel Martinez

The star headed towards the crowd of waiting fans as she posed for photos

The actress kept cool in her blue co-ord

Trump sent shock waves through Hollywood and the international film community when he announced on May 4 that all movies 'produced in Foreign Lands' will face 100 percent tariffs.

The White House has said no final decisions have been made. Options being explored include federal incentives for U.S.-based productions, rather than tariffs. But the announcement was a reminder of how international tensions can destabilize even the oldest cultural institutions.

The Cannes Film Festival originally emerged in the World War II years, when the rise of fascism in Italy led to the founding of an alternative to the then-government controlled Venice Film Festival.

In the time since, Cannes resolute commitment to cinema has made it a beacon to filmmakers. Countless directors have come to make their name.

This year is no different, though some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known.

Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) and Harris Dickinson (Urchin) have all unveiled their feature directorial debuts in Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar section.

Many Cannes veterans have returned, including Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning), Robert De Niro - who received an honorary Palme dOr 49 years after Taxi Driver premiered in Cannes - and Quentin Tarantino, who paid tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman.

Over recent years the star-studded extravaganza has arguably won more attention for the outfits worn by its celebrity guests than the roster of feature films being screened on the Croisette.
Michelle Keegan showed her support for high street brands as she hit her local town on Wednesday to stock up on some family essentials.

The new mum, who welcomed baby daughter Palma in March, teamed a pinstripe blue shirt with a pair of cream drawstring trousers and sandals.

Michelle, 37, was joined by her mum Jacqueline as they stocked up at the Essex branch of Marks & Spencer before stopping by Boots.

The actress juggled two huge bags as she had a low-key stroll around town, going unnoticed by fellow shoppers.

It's no wonder Michelle is a fan of M&S, seeing as her husband Mark Wright is a brand ambassador for the British institution, which is still dealing with the aftermath of a massive cyber-attack.

There was no sign of baby Palma during the outing but Michelle has been enjoying her maternity leave with her baby girl, including countryside breaks and local outings near the family's Essex mansion.

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Michelle Keegan showed her support for high street brands as she hit her local town on Wednesday to stock up on the essentials

Michelle, 37, was joined by her mum Jacqueline as they stocked up at the Essex branch of Marks & Spencer, which is still dealing with the aftermatch of a massive cyber-attack

Mark and Michelle will also no doubt be jetting off to their favourite holiday spot of Mallorca this summer with their baby girl.

It's believed the couple chose the name Palma because of their strong links to Mallorca, which has been their go-to holiday destination for years and the setting for their pregnancy reveal photoshoot.

Michelle married Mark in May 2015 and the couple live together in a 3.5 million Essex mansion they built from scratch.

Chatting with his best friend and fellow dad Olly Murs on his Heart Breakfast show, TOWIE star Mark recalled the moment he first held his newborn daughter in his arms.

Mark fought back emotions as he said: ' Mate, it's actually hard to put into words.

'It's the biggest achievement of my life its all I think about but obviously, hats go off to my wife she is an absolute superhuman, a superhero for bringing this baby into the world.'

Sharing his appreciation for Michelle, he added: ' It makes you realise what our mums did for us and makes me have so much more respect than I already had and what women had to go through.

'It's the best feeling in the world. I wake up every morning just so excited to see her face.'

The new mum, who welcomed baby daughter Palma in March, teamed a pinstripe blue shirt and a pair of cream draw-string trousers and sandals

The Brassic star also stocked up on baby and mum must-haves at her local Boots store

It's no wonder Michelle is a fan of M&S , seeing as her husband Mark Wright is a brand ambassador for the British institution

The actress juggled two huge bags as she had a low-key stroll around town, going unnoticed by fellow shoppers

There was no sign of baby Palma during the outing but Michelle has been enjoying her maternity leave with her baby girl, including countryside breaks and local outings

Michelle married Mark in May 2015 and the couple live together in a 3.5 million Essex mansion they built from scratch

Recalling the first moment he held Palma, he continued: 'That moment when I held her in my arms, it gets me emotional now thinking about it.

'I suppose everything else goes out the window and its made me realise what life is all about and my little baby Palma I love you so much and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

'It's a very special feeling. I can't really put it into words. We've waited a little bit of time, we've chased our dreams and our careers and now we're here. We've got a baby.'
Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman has come out in support of the Australian film and TV industry as it faces a threat from Donald Trump's White House.

The US President alarmed the international film and TV sector when he announced earlier this month that Hollywood movies made outside of the US could face a 100 per cent tariff.

Such a move could make a significant impact on the health of the local screen sector.

While Trump's scheme is yet to unfold, The Last Anniversary star says that it is important for Australians to keep creating their own home grown content.

'I was just glad that The Last Anniversary, which we made in Australia with Australians, has been a huge success,' Nicole told Confidential on Thursday.

Nicole was one of the producers of the Binge mystery series which has been wowing critics and fans since it dropped on Binge in March.

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Hollywood superstar Nicole Kidman (pictured) has come out in support of the Australian film and TV industry as it faces a threat from Donald Trump's White House

While Nicole did not mention Trump's tariff threat directly in her interview with the publication, she did say a major disruption would be unfavourable to the local content sector, which typically relies upon foreign interests to bolster production of home grown content.

'I think a lot of [us are] just right now hoping that things stay [the same] because we're not sure with streamers what's happening... there's a lot of change happening,' she said.

Foreign investment in the local screen sector, including both film and TV, was worth a whopping $768 million in 2023-2024 reported the ABC earlier this month.

Recent high-profile OS productions made in Australia include The Fall Guy, Anyone But You, the streaming series Apples Never Fall and more recently The Mongoose.

It comes after Nicole Kidman shocked host Waleed Aly into stunned silence on Monday's episode of The Project when she suddenly 'moprhed' into her sinister character from the streaming hit Nine Perfect Strangers.

The 57-year-old Oscar winner appeared on the panel show alongside her co-star, fellow Aussie Murray Bartlett, to tease details about season two of the thriller in which she plays the creepy 'wellness' guru Masha.

Fans were first introduced to the sinister 'psychedelic therapist' in 2021 in season one of NPS which saw Masha drugging guests on her retreat without their knowledge.

The US President (pictured) alarmed the international film and TV sector when he announced that Hollywood movies made outside of the US could face a 100 per cent tariff

Pictured: A scene from the Binge streaming hit The Last Anniversary. The show featured an Australian cast and was made Down Under with the Oscar winner serving as producer

After Waleed asked Nicole why her character did not end up in 'jail' Nicole appeared to get into her character of Masha.

'Because I'm on the run,' she said in a tone fans familiar with the show would recognise in an instant.

Nicole continued in character as she answered, 'I'm very clever, very smart and I am able to shape shift.'

Uncharacteristically, Waleed appeared lost for words before continuing the interview.

However, Nicole's screen companion, Murray appeared to love his co-stars spontaneous 'performance' and laughed hysterically.

Season two of the streaming hit, which is set to drop on May 22 on Amazon Prime Video, shifts the action from Down Under to the Austrian Alps.

This season Masha is the director and proprietor of Tranquillum House, a resort that offers wellness treatments and is a relaxing vacation destination.

The enigmatic Russian-American figure appears eager to take any measures necessary to enhance her guests' path toward better health.

Nine distinct characters arrived at the resort and began their journey toward healing but some of the guests started to question the unconventional methods of the retreat.

In 2023, Hulu renewed Nine Perfect Strangers for another season following a successful debut.

The show's first season was based on the book written by Liane Moriarty, who also authored Big Little Lies.
We shall find out soon enough if the enormously-hyped return of Oasis actually lives up to its billing - and if those expensive tickets deliver anything more than just a blast of nostalgia.
Suri Cruise has been seen for the first time since completing her freshman year of Carnegie Mellon University.

The daughter of Katie Holmes - who is worth $15M - and Tom Cruise - who is worth $600M - was pictured outside her mother's New York City apartment building doing a menial task.

The 19-year-old was taking out clear plastic bags filled with what appeared to be trash. Or it could have been some of the items she was bringing back from school.

The budding star was makeup free with her dark hair worn back as she had on a tank top and baggy blue denim jeans with a pretty gold necklace.

It's nice to see the daughter of wealthy and famous parents - who have a combined wealth of over $615M - doing her own chores.

Her school commencement was on May 11, a school official told DailyMail.com.

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Suri Cruise has been seen for the first time since completing her freshman year of Carnegie Mellon University

The daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise was pictured outside her mother's New York City apartment building doing a menial task even though both her parents are multi-millionaires

The star's sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon University will begin on August 26 so she has three months of down time with her movie star mother in Manhattan.

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, known for its strong programs in technology, particularly computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

It also has a renowned College of Fine Arts and is known for its interdisciplinary approach.

Pittsburgh is 371 miles away from Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Suri's mother Katie, 46, looked fantastic when she hit Tod's cocktail party held at Tod's Boutique in New York City on Tuesday evening.

And her estranged father Tom Cruise, 62, has been traveling the world to promote his new movie Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. Tom was last seen in Mexico City on May 20.

Cruise has also made headlines for his reported romance with Ballerina actress Ana de Armas, 37.

Ana was seen with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show on Wednesday talking up her new action film.

The 19-year-old was taking out plastic bags filled with what appeared to be trash

Holmes has landed a sizzling new role on season two of Poker Face. The actress plays Greta in episode two.

She is married to Giancarlo Espositos Fred, owner of a funeral home where he gets creative with his cremation techniques, putting remains in anything from a pressed vinyl to a lamp to oil paints.

Holmes is known for playing Rachel Wagner in Disturbing Behavior (1998), Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, Joey Potter in Dawsons Creek and Erin in Jack and Jill (2011).

Tom has not been photographed with Suri in over a decade. Their last snapshot together in public was in April 2013.

Suri hinted that she is not on good terms with her father as she changed her last name from Cruise to Noelle. Noelle is Katie's middle name.

It has been hinted by Katie that Suri may be studying acting and dance at Carnegie Mellon. Holmes told Town & Country magazine that after college, her daughter wants to enter showbiz.

If she chose to stay for summer school, that would have begun on May 12 and is set to end on August 1, added the school's office. Her sophomore year at Carnegie Mellon University will begin on August 26

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , known for its strong programs in technology, particularly computer science, robotics, and artificial intelligence

Both Katie and Suri's father Tom have been in the industry since their early 20s.

The magazine claimed that Suri 'is said to be interested in pursuing a career in fashion or acting.' That does not sound off base; Suri starred in a high school production of The Addams Family.

And Katie has already put Suri to work on two of her films.

Suri contributed vocals to songs in two of Holmes' films - the 2023 drama Rare Objects and 2022 romantic drama Alone Together.

'I'm proud of my daughter,' Holmes told Town & Country of her daughter.

'Of course, I will miss the close proximity, but I'm really proud of her and I'm happy.'

Holmes, speaking with Glamour in April 2023, said that she has sought to encourage Suri's performing on her projects.

'I hope she always does something on my films,' Holmes said. 'I always ask her.' Holmes said that 'both of those experiences came out of the same sense of what I love about our industry, which is, you have these projects and you become a family with people.'

Cruise and Holmes with Suri a the Piazza De Spagne in Rome, Italy, two days before their fairytale wedding in November 2006

Cruise has been traveling the world to promote his new movie Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. Seen in Mexico City on May 20

Cruise has also made headlines for his reported romance with Ballerina actress Ana de Armas, 37. Seen on The Tonight Show on May 21

Earlier this week Tom was seemingly caught off-guard when he was asked about his plans for Father's Day.

The star awkwardly said he would be 'just having fun, man' when asked about his ideal Father's Day plans at the Mission: Impossible premiere in New York City on Monday.

When a E! News journalist stopped him on the red carpet, he seemed taken aback by being asked: 'Father's Day is just around the corner. What would an ideal Father's Day look like for you?'

He paused and said, 'You know...' before trailing off and shaking his head as his gaze moved to something in the distance. 'Just having fun, man.'

Without referencing any of his kids, the father-of-three  who also broke his silence about his romance with Ana de Armas at the premiere  then redirected the conversation to his action films.

'Making movies, big adventures, having a great time,' he added.

He has long been estranged from Suri. Cruise is reportedly close to his daughter Isabella, now 32, and son Connor, now 30, both of whom he and his second wife Nicole Kidman adopted when they were married in the '90s.
Warwick Davis put on a brave face at the opening of Universal Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday - as lawyers continue to investigate his wife's death.

The actor, 55, who played Professor Flitwick, Griphook and a Goblin Bank Teller in the Harry Potter franchise, appeared in positive spirits when pictured despite all that he is going through.

It's been a difficult time for Warwick as a firm acting for the Hollywood star continues to probe the death of Samantha Davis, who died aged 53 in March last year following surgery to treat compression on her spine at University College Hospital in London.

To mark the opening of the fourth theme park at the Universal Orlando Resort, Warwick was joined by his former co-stars Oliver and James Phelps.

Oliver and James, who played Fred and George Weasley in the films, supported Warwick on the blue carpet.

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Warwick Davis put on a brave face at the opening of Universal Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida on Wednesday - as lawyers continue to investigate his wife's death

The actor, 55, who played Professor Flitwick, Griphook and a Goblin Bank Teller in the Harry Potter franchise, appeared in positive spirits when pictured despite all that he is going through

During the opening day the most popular ride quickly became Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter  Ministry of Magic.

The new Harry Potter themed section will transport guests from 1920s Paris to the 1990s British Ministry of Magic, and also features more shops and restaurants.

Meanwhile, lawyers acting for Warwick are continuing to investigate whether his wife may have died as a result of alleged medical negligence at an NHS hospital in London following the conclusion of an inquest into her death.

In April, a coroner ruled the actress had died of arrhythmic cardiac arrest following complications of essential surgical treatment and from the effects of achondroplasia - a bone growth disorder which results in dwarfism.

Samantha had been admitted to UCH weeks before following loss of mobility in her lower limbs after a disc prolapse, and had undergone two thoracotomies - where the chest wall is opened - on February 20 and March 14.

Her prognosis had been positive and there were plans to discharge her - but she went into cardiac arrest at 11.25pm on March 23, and was pronounced dead at 12.28am on March 24 following attempts to resuscitate her.

An autopsy concluded she had died of complications from a left hemothorax - where blood collects in the area between the lungs and the chest wall - following surgery.

To mark the opening of the fourth theme park at the Universal Orlando Resort, Warwick was joined by his former co-stars Oliver and James Phelps

Pathologists told Mrs Davis' inquest that he saw no evidence of the bleeding being caused by the removal of a surgical drain after surgery.

Her family said she had suffered a 'similar episode' after having a drain removed following a previous operation, and had raised concerns about an 'intense' physiotherapy session hours before she died.

Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that Davis had instructed lawyers at top firm Irwin Mitchell to represent his family and is working with them to investigate the circumstances of her death.

Warwick left BBC viewers 'absolutely sobbing' when he gave a heartfelt tribute to his late wife during his acceptance speech at the 2025 BAFTAs in February.

The actor was honoured with a BAFTA Fellowship, which recognises those who have made an 'outstanding and exceptional' contribution to the screen.

He fought back tears as he accepted the gong and dedicated it to his wife Samantha, who tragically died last year, visibly moving both the star-studded audience and viewers watching at home.

Warwick was presented the award by his former Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton, while the audience were shown a montage of scenes from his famous projects, interspersed with clips from his fellow stars and family, praising his talents.

Taking to the stage to a standing ovation, he began his speech: 'This is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me... and I've been in Star Wars!

'I'm going to keep this short, it's been a long night... short, yes you can laugh.'

It's been a difficult time for Warwick as a firm acting for the Hollywood star continues to probe the death of Samantha Davis, who died aged 53 in March last year following surgery

Earlier this year, Warwick left BBC viewers 'absolutely sobbing' when he gave a heartfelt tribute to his late wife during his acceptance speech at the 2025 BAFTAs

Warwick went on: 'I'm going to say thank you to my mum, my first agent, she's the reason I am here tonight.'

He then thanked all his team who supported him throughout his career and shared the award with them, before amending: 'Sod that. I've done all the work, it's for me! This is all mine.'

While he then became emotional as he dedicated the award to his beloved wife, who passed almost one year ago at the age of 53.

Warwick said: 'Above all I would like to dedicate and thank my wonderful wife Sammy who died almost a year ago.

'She was always so supportive of my career and encouraged me to grab every opportunity with both hands.'

Samantha - who was herself an actor - had been married to Warwick for 33 years, welcoming three children together, before her devastating death on March 24.

Their daughter Annabelle, 27, and son Harrison, 21, were both seen crying in the audience as their dad thanked them helping him get through the tough year.
Ana de Armas was seen warmly embracing a handsome male celebrity on Wednesday evening.

This comes after the Cuban-born cutie was spotted in the company of Tom Cruise in London as they have been 'dating' since February.

That lucky guy was Jimmy Fallon, who is close pals with Cruise.

De Armas was a guest on his The Tonight Show in New York City as she chatted up her next film Ballerina.

While on the late night show, Ana shared that it was hard working learning to do all the fight scenes with co-star Keanu Reeves. 'There was so much fighting in this movie!' she said. She also said that Ben & Jerry's ice cream is her 'cheat meal' because it makes her 'happy.'

The ex-girlfriend of Ben Affleck also was dressed to the nines in a long, sleeved shimmering black gown with strappy high heels.

Meanwhile, Tom was in Mexico City on Tuesday for the premiere of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.

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Ana de Armas was seen warmly embracing a handsome male celebrity on Wednesday evening

This comes after the Cuban-born cutie was spotted in the company of Tom Cruise in London as they have been 'dating' since February

The actor, 62, joined his co-stars in his latest stop on a global press trail to promote the eighth and final Mission Impossible film.

Joining director Christopher McQuarrie on the red carpet, Tom cut a dapper figure in a sharp black suit as he mingled with fans.

Reprising his role as hero Ethan Hunt, Tom takes on his biggest mission yet, after a tense cliffhanger in the last film saw the spy determined to track down cyber weapon The Entity and learning that his team was betrayed and his 'secrets compromised.'

The film, which has faced multiple delays, is finally due to hit cinemas on Friday, May 23 2025

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Hours earlier, a clip emerged that showed Tom being seemingly caught off-guard when he was asked about his plans for Father's Day.

The star awkwardly said he would be 'just having fun, man' when asked about his ideal Father's Day plans at the Mission: Impossible premiere in New York City on Monday.

That lucky guy was Jimmy Fallon, right, who interviewed Cruise, left, recently

De Armas was a guest on his The Tonight Show in New York City as she chatted up her next film Ballerina

. While on the late night show, Ana shared that it was hard working learning to do all the fight scenes with co-star Keanu Reeves

The ex-girlfriend of Ben Affleck also was dressed to the nines in a long, sleeved shimmering black gown with strappy high heels

Armas was also wearing several pieces of diamond jewelry

When a E! News journalist stopped him on the red carpet, he seemed taken aback by being asked: 'Father's Day is just around the corner. What would an ideal Father's Day look like for you?'

He paused and said, 'You know...' before trailing off and shaking his head as his gaze moved to something in the distance. 'Just having fun, man.'

Without referencing any of his kids, the father-of-three  who also broke his silence about his romance with Ana de Armas at the premiere  then redirected the conversation to his action films.

'Making movies, big adventures, having a great time,' he added.

He has long been estranged from his daughter, now 19, whom he shares with actress Katie Holmes.

Cruise is reportedly close to his daughter Isabella, now 32, and son Connor, now 30, both of whom he and his second wife Nicole Kidman adopted when they were married in the '90s.

Meanwhile, Tom was in Mexico City on Tuesday for the premiere of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

The film, which has faced multiple delays, is finally due to hit cinemas on Friday, May 23, 2025

He was first married to Mimi Rogers from 1987 to 1990 before getting married to Kidman that same year.

Cruise and Kidman were together for 11 years before their 2001 split.

Five years later, Katie Holmes gave birth to their daughter Suri in April 2006, and the proud parents got married that same year.

They eventually called it quits in 2012, and since then, Cruise has long been estranged from their now-teenage daughter Suri.

In the comments section of the YouTube video, a slew of fans seemed appalled by the 'naughty question.'

'Making movies? That's definitely not a Dad activity. His loss,' one YouTube user commented.

Another added: 'Seeing the daughter he has abandoned for a decade perhaps?'

One person pointed out that he was 'not interested in answering the father question' and called his estrangement as 'his biggest failure.'

Some people were shocked by the 'wild question' as others slammed Cruise for his lack of a relationship with his youngest child.

'A simple question about Father's Day and he can't answer it. He has gotten to a point where all he can talk about is movies and his love of movies. What about being a parent, Tom? There was a time when that was important to you. Sad for this man.'

He shares Suri with his ex-wife, whom he married in 2006 and divorced in 2012; pictured November 2006 in Rome

Katie at Tod's Cocktail Party held at Tod's Boutique in NYC on May 20. She is now on season two of Poker face

Suri was raised by her mother in New York City and graduated from La Guardia High School last year.

During her graduation ceremony, she debuted her name change, revealing she dropped Cruise's surname and was now going by just her first and middle name now: Suri Noelle.

She is currently studying at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and frequently travels back to New York City to spend time with her mom, with whom she has a very close relationship.
A BBC investigation last month revealed 13 individuals had made allegations of inappropriate sexual comments by him during his time at the channel.

And now, Gregg Wallace has turned to TikTok to help revive his career as he uses the Gen Z platform to share recipes, health tips and cash in on his wellness website.

The former MasterChef host, 60, has begun pushing the Free Resource Hub on his website, GreggWallace Health, which is one of his remaining sources of income after he was axed from the BBC in November.

In several videos over the past week, Wallace has said: I wanted to tell you something that Im pleased about and its free, its got loads of good recipes you can look at, its got blogs and even a little quiz.

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On his website, Wallace is still described as a popular television presenter while his caterer wife, Anne-Marie, 37, is the recipe curator.

Customers can pay 11.99 per month, 49.99 for six months or 89.99 for a year to get full access to the GreggWallace Health tools which include recipes, health specialist advice and a vibrant community.

A BBC investigation last month revealed 13 individuals had made allegations of inappropriate sexual comments by Wallace during his time at the channel

Wallace, 60, has taken to TikTok to promote his website Greg Wallace Health after the BBC investigation

Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, 70, accused Gregg of telling sexualised jokes during the filming of Celebrity MasterChef in 2011. He maintains he was never aware that he had offended her until her complaint became public

The couple, who run the website together, have recently added a feature in which customers can buy ready meals for 8 or a bundle of eight for 80.

The 60-year-old stepped away from hosting BBC cooking competition MasterChef after a host of historical complaints came to light last year, which led to an external investigation by the shows production company, Banijay UK.

The former greengrocer said he felt last year he Had to speak out because people were saying what they liked about me and it wasnt true after he was criticised for saying on social media that the complaints were made by a handful of middle-class women of a certain age.

But the father of three has since returned to social media and is now on TikTok promoting his healthy lifestyle.

He is particularly attentive to fans in the comment section and posts a TikTok video each morning showing inside the kitchen of his countryside pile in Kent.

The former BBC star talks about 'contemplating the day ahead' before going to the gym at 6am and having breakfast with his wife and their four-year-old son, Sid.

Newsnight host Kirsty Wark, 70, accused Gregg of telling sexualised jokes during the filming of Celebrity MasterChef in 2011. He maintains he was never aware that he had offended her until her complaint became public

Gregg Wallace has revealed that he stopped socialising with young people after being disciplined by the BBC in 2018, because he was 'scared they would complain about him'

Under a video in which he asks viewers, 'What are you excited about today', one fan wrote, 'Hope you're doing ok mate', in reference to his recent axing from the BBC after multiple complaints of harassment were made, to which Wallace replied, 'Recovering slowly'.

It's now almost three months since the greengrocer-turned-television star's career spectacularly derailed amid a flurry of claims of inappropriate behaviour during his 19-year stint as co-host of MasterChef.

It was announced the father-of-three would be stepping back from the BBC show amid an investigation into his conduct.

It later emerged that 13 individuals, including Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, had reportedly accused him of 'wrong' and 'sexualised' behaviour during filming across a range of shows over a 17-year period.

The London-born presenter called the accusations he had groped crew members 'absolutely not true'.

Wallace also said he was 'very slow to wake up to the changing nature of the work environment' and added he had a 'massive wake-up call' seven years ago that his 'energetic greengrocer persona' was 'becoming redundant'.

His lawyers previously told the BBC 'It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature'.

The BBC previously said the corporation will not 'tolerate behaviour that falls below the standards we expect' and will continue to champion 'a culture that is kind, inclusive and respectful'.

Two MasterChef celebrity Christmas specials were pulled from the BBCs schedule in December 2024.

Banijay UK previously said it continues to regularly update and strengthen its 'MasterChef welfare processes'.

Gregg says that many of those who work with him are appalled by what is happening. His MasterChef co-host John Torode has phoned twice

At least 13 people have made formal complaints against Wallace, with others alleging inappropriate behaviour on social media

The MasterChef producer declined to comment on Wallaces interview when contacted by the PA news agency.

Food critic Grace Dent will judge the forthcoming 20th series of Celebrity MasterChef alongside Wallaces long-standing presenting partner John Torode.

Samaritans can be contacted free on 116 123 or by emailing jo@samaritans.org.

Other sources of support are listed on the NHS 'help for suicidal thoughts' webpage. Support is available around the clock, every day of the year.
It's the question on every film-lover's lips at the moment  who's going to be the next actor to don the iconic tux of James Bond?

Rumours have been circling about who could be the new 007 ever since Daniel Craig announced the 2021 film No Time To Die would be his last.

A number of names have been touted for the role from Luther star Idris Elba being an initial frontrunner to The Gentleman's Theo James becoming fans' actor of choice.

With speculation now as rife as ever, Pierce Brosnan, who played the special agent in five movies between 1995 and 2002, has chimed into the debate.

The GoldenEye actor, 72, has revealed he has his eyes set on one Hollywood star who he believes would 'make a fine' 007.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan, now 72, has revealed who he wants to be the next 007

Speculation has been rife about who could succeed Daniel Craig after the Brit relinquished his role as 007 after No Time To Die

Speaking on The Jonathan Ross show, the Irishman was asked about the possibility of Aaron Taylor-Johnson donning the tux.

'I think he would make a very fine Bond,' Brosnan replied.

'He was actually in one of the movies I made called The Greatest. This young man we cast as The Greatest.

'He was so impressive then. He just had this charisma, he had this presence... he would be so good. But there's many men on the list, I'm sure.'

Taylor-Johnson, 34, had long been a frontrunner to play the iconic spy and sat at the top of bookies' odds lists in 2022 and 2023.

It was thought the Godzilla star was former Bond producer Barbara Broccoli's top candidate for the part before Amazon bought the franchise and handed over production to David Heyman and Emily Pascal.

Aaron has since slightly dropped down the odds lists after repeatedly playing down talk of becoming 007 when quizzed by journalists.

'It's not really for me to say anything,' he told Esquire.

Brosnan is backing Godzilla star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 34, for the part

'I think he would make a very fine Bond,' said the Irishman who starred in five Bond films with the first in 1995

But speculation surrounding the Brit reignited this week after he dropped what fans thought could be a major hint that he's to be the next Bond.

Aaron has become the latest superstar to become an ambassador of luxury watch brand Omega  who have been producing the wristwear of 007 actors for 30 years.

Brosnan was the first special agent to don an Omega watch during the 1995 film GoldenEye and the partnership has flourished ever since, with Craig wearing the brand's SeaMaster watch during No Time To Die.

After signing the deal, Taylor-Johnson said: 'I have always had an appreciation for timepieces but especially for Omega.

'Now after visiting the factory, I am in awe of the skill required to manufacture such a luxurious product.'

Omega's CEO described Taylor-Johnson as a 'versatile actor with a range that covers action, thriller, romance and much more'.

But in new odds released by bookies this week, the actor has been pipped at the top by two British stars.

The current bookies' favourite to become the next Bond is none other than the Divergent series star Theo James, 40, who is currently 6/4.

Aaron dropped a major hint that he could be Craig's successor this week as it was announced that he's the latest stat to become a global ambassador for Omega - who have been producing the wrist wear of 007 actors for 30 years

After signing the deal, Aaron said: 'I have always had an appreciation for timepieces but especially for Omega'

Craig sported Omega's luxury watches throughout his 15-year tenure as the special agent

The Brit has previously impressed while playing rogue, morally ambiguous characters somewhat similar to Bond in both The White Lotus and and Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen.

But James has played down speculation linking him to the part, telling The Guardian last year that it 'probably wouldn't be me'.

Second favourite to become the latest actor 'with a license to kill', according to Ladbrokes, is Superman star Henry Cavill (3/1), ahead of Aaron in third (7/2).

While Coral's list of candidates comes in as Theo James at 6/4, Henry Cavill (3/1), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (7/2), James Norton (6/1) and Jack Lowden (12/1).

Betting habits suggest eager fans are growing in confidence that James could star in the next movie, with 70% of all bets on the next 007 placed on The White Lotus actor.

Ladbrokes representative Cal Gildart said: 'Henry Cavill's return to the head of the Bond betting didn't last long, with Theo James as short as anyone has been to pick up the world's most famous license to kill.

It was announced earlier this year that Amazon Prime had taken over 'creative control' of the James Bond franchise leaving fans fearing the beloved films could be ruined by endless spin-offs.

The deal comes after Amazon bought MGM Studios in 2022 as a part of its media push. The acquisition gave Amazon distribution rights to the 007 franchise but not creative control.

The Gentlemen actor Theo James, 40, is the bookmakers' new favourite for the role [Pictured in May 2024]

Superman star Henry Cavill, 42, had soared to the top of the odds list last week but has now been pipped by Theo [Pictured in April 2024]

The company is said to be fast-tracking the new movie after spending a reported $1billion to regain control from Barbara.

Producers David Heyman and Amy Pascal have been hired and they are understood to be close to a deal with director Alfonso Cuaron. Then they will go about casting the next Bond.

As The Daily Mail reported, the plan is for a 'straight up' reboot after Daniel Craig's iteration of 007 died in No Time To Die.

There is reportedly set to be no explanation of how the special agent is still alive, no multiverse of Bonds and no attempt to go back to the 1960s for a vintage Bond.

Amazon bosses are said to be considering locations in which to set the much-anticipated new film, which experts predicted is likely to be released at the end of next year or in 2027.

Due to a filming ban being imposed in Central London next year, new locations are reportedly being considered  with Liverpool a frontrunner, according to The Sun.
Indy Clinton has taken her new nose to the red carpet.

The TikTok star, 27, headed out on on Thursday night for the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney.

The influencer chose a fitted black, sleeveless dress with a cutout at the belly along with strappy black heels.

She added a series of rings and statement earrings while opting for a warm toned makeup look with a rosewood lip gloss and lots of rosy blush.

But it was the social media sensation's updated face that was making waves after recently undergoing a nose job.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Indy Clinton (pictured) has taken her new nose to the red carpet. The TikTok star, 27, headed out on on Thursday night for the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney

The influencer chose a fitted black, sleeveless dress with a cutout at the belly along with strappy black heels. But it was the social media sensation's updated face that was making waves after recently undergoing a nose job

Indy was all healed up, flaunting her new look as she posed in her sleek gown

Indy was all healed up, flaunting her new look as she posed in her sleek gown on the red carpet.

It comes after Indy revealed her uneven nostrils following the procedure.

She recently addressed her rhinoplasty in a social media video while she got ready for her young daughter's preschool disco.

'Yes my nostril is uneven,' she said as she put her makeup on.

Indy admitted she wasn't sure why her nostrils aren't the same size as they weren't operated on.

'I put it down to swelling these last few months but it probably shouldn't be uneven because it wasn't touched,' she explained.

Indy recently made a defiant return to social media after she was relentlessly bullied by followers over the results of her recent rhinoplasty.

Last month, Indy shared a clip to TikTok in which she revealed she was happy to be back, while offering some choice words to her haters.

Indy has hit back at trolls that likened her to Michael Jackson following a cosmetic procedure on her nose. Pictured before the surgery

Indy recently revealed her uneven nostrils following the procedure

'I'm coming back online for good! I'm 27-years-old and I've had a few tweaks, like my nose for example. I was so open about why I was doing it,' she began.

'But I still got so much hate. Online love to see you struggling, they love it so much. As soon as you are doing half good they hate you because you are not relatable anymore.'

The mother-of-three added the trolls seemed to like her more when she was struggling and didn't like seeing her succeed.

'People loved it so much when I had three [kids] under three. I had milk leaking from my t**s, I was so sleep-deprived, exhausted, burnt out and depressed. People ate that s**t up,' Indy said.

She finished by saying her followers could either support her or leave because she had no time for haters.

Prior to that, Indy hit back at trolls that likened her to Michael Jackson following a cosmetic procedure on her nose.

She had been criticised for covering her face, like the late pop star, and not showing the aftermath of the surgery.

'I have a lot of swelling obviously on the outside, but also internally which is making my nostrils look uneven,' she explained.

'It's going down everyday,' she said of the swelling, adding that it was 'so much worse' and she's been sleeping with little splints in her nostrils to help the healing.

Speaking of her time in the cast, she said it was the 'longest twelve days of her life' but she was happy with her 'supernatural' results.
Kanye 'Ye' West has done a full 180 following substantial backlash to his new song Heil Hitler (Hooligan Version), which dropped two weeks ago.

'I am done with antisemitism,' the disgraced 47-year-old - who boasts 69.4M social media followers - announced on X Thursday.

'I love all people.'

Ye - who was raised Christian - continued: 'God forgive me for the pain I've caused. I forgive those who have caused me pain. Thank you God.'

The 24-time Grammy winner explained the reason behind his rejection of his Nazi persona was because 'I simply got a FaceTime from my kids and I wanna save the world again.'

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop

Kanye 'Ye' West has done a full 180 following substantial backlash to his new song Heil Hitler (Hooligan Version), which dropped two weeks ago (pictured May 13)

The disgraced 47-year-old - who boasts 69.4M social media followers - announced on X Thursday: 'I am done with antisemitism'

Ye had been complaining about not seeing his six children - daughter North, 11; son Saint, 9; daughter Chicago, 7; and son Psalm, 5 - from his six-year marriage to Kim Kardashian, which ended in 2021.

'With all of my money and fame I still don't get to see my children,' the Atlanta-born Chicago native rapped in Heil Hitler.

'N*****s see my Twitter but they don't see how I be feeling / So I became a Nazi, yeah b****, I'm the villain.'

Ye pays the 44-year-old 'law school graduate' $200K/month in child support as part of their 20/80 custody arrangement - according to TMZ.

On June 8, the Black Skinhead rapper will celebrate his 48th birthday followed by his eldest child North's 12th birthday on June 15.

It all began in 2022 when Ye tweeted he was going 'death con 3 on Jewish people' - which got him promptly dropped by his agency CAA, production company MRC, Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga.

The Yeezy designer - who's worn swastika and 'White Lives Matter' T-shirts - has repeatedly spoken about his disdain for Jewish people and his adoration of Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler.

But in 2023, Ye claimed watching Jonah Hill in his 2012 action comedy 21 Jump Street made him 'like Jewish people again' in a bizarre Instagram post.

'No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people,' the hip-hop star wrote at the time.

He tweeted: 'I love all people'

Ye - who was raised Christian - continued: 'God forgive me for the pain I've caused. I forgive those who have caused me pain. Thank you God'

The 24-time Grammy winner explained the reason behind his rejection of his Nazi persona was because 'I simply got a FaceTime from my kids and I wanna save the world again'

Ye had been complaining about not seeing his six children - daughter North, 11; son Saint, 9; daughter Chicago, 7; and son Psalm, 5 - from his six-year marriage to Kim Kardashian, which ended in 2021 (pictured in 2020)

The Atlanta-born Chicago native rapped in Heil Hitler: 'With all of my money and fame I still don't get to see my children'

He continued: 'N*****s see my Twitter but they don't see how I be feeling / So I became a Nazi, yeah b****, I'm the villain'

On June 8, Ye (R, pictured in January) will celebrate his 48th birthday followed by his eldest child North's (L) 12th birthday on June 15

It all began in 2022 when the Black Skinhead rapper tweeted he was going 'death con 3 on Jewish people' - which got him promptly dropped by his agency CAA, production company MRC, Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga

Ye - who's worn swastika and 'White Lives Matter' T-shirts - has repeatedly spoken about his disdain for Jewish people and his adoration of Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler (pictured February 22)

But in 2023 (pictured), Ye claimed watching Jonah Hill in his 2012 action comedy 21 Jump Street made him 'like Jewish people again' in a bizarre Instagram post

The hip-hop star wrote at the time: 'No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people. No Christian can be labeled anti-Semite knowing Jesus is Jew. Thank you Jonah Hill I love you'

It's unclear if Ye's 11th studio album Bully - reportedly dropping June 15 - will still have 'that anti-Semitic sound' he promised on March 6

'No Christian can be labeled anti-Semite knowing Jesus is Jew. Thank you Jonah Hill I love you.'

It's unclear if Ye's 11th studio album Bully - reportedly dropping June 15 - will still have 'that anti-Semitic sound' he promised on March 6.

On Wednesday, the Chicago State University drop-out - who still averages 62.3M monthly listeners on Spotify - shared a new song on Instagram called Alive featuring YoungBoy NBA.
Advertisement

It's the hottest ticket in town during the Cannes Film Festival.

And Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc provided the five-star backdrop as the best film and fashion stars converged for the annual amfAR Cannes Gala on Thursday.

Leading the way at the star-studded event was Heidi Klum, Lauren Sanchez, Paris Jackson and Leomie Anderson, who all looked very glamorous as they posed for a sea of cameras.

Model Heidi, 51, flaunted her incredible figure in a racy black strapless mesh gown, with a large feather coat around her arms and trailing behind her.

Lauren, 55, put on a very busty display in a shimmering figure-hugging blue and silver gown, while Paris, 27, put on a leggy display in a revealing mesh gown.

Meanwhile, Barbara Palvin, 31, wowed in a white wedding dress like frock, which featured a plunging neckline and a daring thigh-high split.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Heidi Klum stuns in a racy black mesh gown as she joins glamorous Lauren Sanchez, Paris Jackson and Leomie Anderson at the star-studded amfAR Gala during the 78th Cannes Film Festiva

The model, 51, put on a busty display in a racy black strapless mesh gown, with a large feather coat around her arms and trailing behind her

Teri Hatcher, 60, opted for a classic black figure-hugging gown, with a daring thigh-high split and pointed toe heels as well as the Boite de Nuit clutch by Roger Vivier.

Model Leomie Anderson showed off her jaw-dropping figure in a plunging yellow cut-out gown, and completed the look with black heels and gold jewellery.

Elsewhere, Coco Rocha turned heads as she arrived in a red oriental-inspired gown, with a matching cape around her shoulders.

The Canadian model, 36, oozed confidence as she posed for a sea of cameras at the lavish event.

Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson opted for matching black ensembles and looked more loved-up than ever after welcoming their first child together.

Elena Perminova appeared to flout Cannes Film Festival's new 'decency' rules as she went braless in a daring look for the amfAR Gala.

The star-studded festival has seen its A-list guests wear nude fashion looks on its red carpets in recent years, but stringent new rules have been enforced this year banning nudity.

However, Russian model Elena, 38, appeared to ignore the regulations as she opted to go braless while joining the annual fundraising event, which is a staple at Cannes.

She elevated her height in strappy black heels and kept jewellery to a minimum with a bare chest and diamond earrings

Heidi's blonde locks were styled in a glamorous blowdry

She later posed with her husband Tom Kaulitz, 35, at the lavish event

Lauren, 55, was on the verge of a naughty wardrobe malfunction as she nearly spilled out of strapless gown

The former TV star had on a racy silver gown with a sweetheart neckline that appeared a size too small

Her chest was nearly squeezed out of the little frock that had a magical mermaid finish. Sanchez seemed to notice that one side of the gown was dipping too low for comfort as she placed her long hair over that portion when on the carpet

That was a savvy move as it would help exposure in case the top fell down any more

She later posed with soon-to-be husband Jeff Bezos

The pair looked more loved-up than ever

Paris appeared to flout Cannes Film Festival's new 'decency' rules in a very revealing mesh dress

The star-studded festival has seen its A-list guests wear nude fashion looks on its red carpets in recent years, but stringent new rules have been enforced this year banning nudity

She elevated her outfit with a pair of nude heels and accessorised with silver jewellery

Paris pulled her blonde locks into a stylish updo and a finished off her look with a swipe of satin red lipstick

Model Leomie Anderson showed off her jaw-dropping figure in a plunging yellow cut-out gown

Barbara Palvin, 31, wowed in a white wedding dress like frock, which featured a plunging neckline and a daring thigh-high split

She sported a flawless makeup look, with a smokey-eye and swipe of nude lipstick

Barbara showcased her bold gown from all angles at he picturesque venue

The gala is the hottest ticket in town during the Cannes Film Festival

Teri Hatcher, 60, opted for a classic black figure-hugging gown, with a daring thigh-high split and pointed toe heels

Desperate Housewives star Teri accessorised with a dazzling diamond necklace and a black clutch bag

Her short brunette tresses were styled in waves and she sported a soft blush makeup look

Coco Rocha turned heads in a red oriental-inspired gown as she leads the stars at the amfAR Gala

Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc provided the five-star backdrop as the best film and fashion stars converged for the annual amfAR Cannes Gala

The Canadian model, 36, oozed confidence as she posed for a sea of cameras at the lavish event

Elena Perminova appeared to flout Cannes Film Festival 's new 'decency' rules as she went braless in a daring look for the amfAR Gala

However, Russian model Elena, 38, appeared to ignore the regulations banning nudity as she opted to go braless while joining the annual fundraising event, which is a staple at Cannes

She showed off her incredible figure in a white strapped dress with a completely sheer bodice with cherub stitching over her chest

Elena swept a feathered shawl over her arms and added to her frame with a pair of peep-toe heels

Elena slicked her blonde tresses back into a tight up-do and added to her striking features with a bronzed make-up palette

Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson opted for matching black ensembles

The Gossip Girl star, 37, packed on the PDA with his model wife, 33, as they proved they are going as strong as ever

For the fundraising event, Ed cut a suave figure in a black suit, and white shirt, which he styled with a pair of smart black loafers with gold clasps

Amy showed off her figure in a simple but classy black gown, and accessorised with a diamond necklace, bracelet and earrings

Her brunette tresses were styled in a neat bun and she sported a flawless bronzed makeup look

Ed and Amy, who got married in August of last year, couldn't keep their hands of each other as they sweetly shared a kiss

Michelle Rodriguez put on a glamorous display in a plunging shimmering purple Elie Saab gown

The actress waved to onlookers at the event

She showed off her incredible figure in a white strapped dress with a completely sheer bodice with cherub stitching over her chest, and swept a feathered shawl over her arms.

The day before the event began, the Cannes Film Festival released a shocking dress code for its participants.

The new rules, devised for 'the sake of decency,' were implemented as French director Amelie Bonnin's Leave One Day opened the ceremony.

'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival,' read its official rule book.

'Voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater are not permitted.

'The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.'

The annual AmfAR Gala in Cannes helps support the Foundation for AIDS Research by raising money and awareness for the important organisation.

This year's Cannes Film Festival is taking place in the wake of Trumps vow to enact tariffs on international films.

Cannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme d'Or, to give out at the end.

Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.

Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman dressed to impress as they hit the black carpet arm-in-arm

The couple packed on the PDA for the cameras

Emma Thynn flaunted her toned physique in a shimmering bandeau thigh-split dress

Izabel Goulart's eye-catching red Zuhair Murad SS25 Couture gown blew in the wind as she made a bold arrival at the event

Georgia Fowler looked elegant in a satin white gown, with strappy black heels

Hayley Hasselhoff opted for a dramatic black satin gown, with long matching gloves

Leonie Hanne showcased her impeccable sense of style in a butter yellow satin gown, with a fur shawl around her arms

Lady Kitty Spencer put on a chic display in a white lace maxi dress, with black underwear underneatht

But Trump sent shock waves through Hollywood and the international film community when he announced on May 4 that all movies 'produced in Foreign Lands' will face 100 per cent tariffs.

The White House has said no final decisions have been made. Options being explored include federal incentives for US-based productions, rather than tariffs.

This year, some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known.

Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) and Harris Dickinson (Urchin) have all unveiled their feature directorial debuts in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar section.

Many Cannes veterans have returned, including Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning), Robert De Niro - who received an honorary Palme dOr 49 years after Taxi Driver premiered in Cannes - and Quentin Tarantino, who paid tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman.

Over recent years, the star-studded extravaganza has arguably won more attention for the outfits worn by its celebrity guests than the roster of feature films being screened on the Croisette.

But new nudity rules, devised for 'the sake of decency', have been implemented at this year's festival.

According to organisers, the austere move is an attempt to stifle the celebrity trend for 'naked dresses' - namely provocative outfits that reveal considerably more than they conceal - on the red carpet.

James Franco and Izabel Pakzad appeared in high spirits as they posed for snaps together

Izabel put on a very busty display in a plunging black lace corset with a maxi skirt

Natasha Poly went braless under a chic white satin gown

The Russian model struck a sultry pose for the cameras

Hofit Golan stood out in an eye-catching blue shimmering gown

She later posed with pal Kimberly Guilfoyle, who looked red hot in a fiery lace dress

Hofit, Jessica Vargas, Jason Oppenheim and Emma Hernan posed for a group shot

Jessica and Jason looked happier than ever as they struck up a series of loved-up poses on the red carpet

Jessica turned heads in a busty white gown adorned with delicate silver embellishments that highlighted her incredible figure

She styled her auburn locks in an elegant updo, leaving two strands to frame her face, and completed her look with a swipe of dark pink lipstick

Selling Sunset star Emma put on a busty display under a sheer nude maxi dress

Tonya Lewis Lee and Spike Lee put on an animated display for the cameras

Victoria Silvstedt barely contained her modesty in a tight fitting black sheer gown

Victoria appeared to make a quick outfit change before dinner

showcased her unique blue mesh dress, with jewels covering her modesty

Colman Domingo stood out in a black tie-up Valentino jacket and matching trousers, which were both embellished with red gems

Adam Lambert arrived in a snakeskin black shirt, teamed with a blazer and wide-leg trousers

Celebrity hairstylist Chris Appleton cut a dapper figure in a black tuxedo

Duran Duran looked stylish for the A-list event

The group were joined by their glamorous partners

Simon Le Bon and wife Yasmin wore matching white blazers

Kevin Spacey was also in attendance

April Love Geary and Robin Thicke made an appearance at the Cannes event

Nada Kamani and Umar Kamani looked loved-up at the event

Josh Flagg and Laura Z. Wasserman flashed their dazzling white smiles for the paparazzi

Charlotte Jones Anderson, Michelle Rodriguez and Mariska Hargitay had a catch up inside

The annual AmfAR Gala in Cannes helps support the Foundation for AIDS Research by raising money and awareness for the important organisation

Inside the luxurious gala dinner

James and Izabel were seen departing the party in a crowd

Will.I.am wore an all-blue look with LV sunglasses

Elena Perminova blew kisses to photographers waiting outside as she left

Emma Thynn wrapped up warm in a pale blue shawl while leaving the party

Devin Booker looked as stylish as ever keeping his sunglasses on into the night

'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as any other area of the festival,' states a Cannes festival document.

'The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.'

It's understood that the iconic venue now adopts a more conservative dress code, with suits, dinner jackets and floor-length evening gowns generally favoured over headline grabbing ensembles.

Classic little black dresses, cocktail dresses, pant-suits, dressy tops and elegant sandals, 'with or without a heel', will also be permitted.

While the decision to implement a more stringent policy will be a first, it is not known if French TV broadcasters, wary of airing nudity, played a role in its enforcement.

Major red carpet events, including the Cannes Film Festival, are aired in France by France Televisions.
Megan Fox has revealed her baby with now-ex Machine Gun Kelly was unplanned as she returned to social media this week for the first time since giving birth.

The Transformers actress, 39, welcomed her fourth child, a baby girl, with former fiance MGK, 35, in March, four months after they split.

Now the star has taken to Instagram to share a candid never-before-seen video of herself at six weeks pregnant as she opened up about her new child.

The clip - which showed Fox posing and pouting in a crop-top - was captioned: '38 years old. six weeks pregnant (unplanned but a happy surprise)

'Please stop listening to the patriarchy. Women are eternal light beings.'

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Megan Fox has revealed her baby with now-ex Machine Gun Kelly was unplanned as she returned to social media this week for the first time since giving birth - pictured 2023

The Transformers actress, 39, welcomed her fourth child, a baby girl, with former fiance MGK, 35, in March, four months after they split

'We do not have an expiration date. Don't let them rob you of your power.'

The former couple announced the birth of their first child together in a sweet post, captioned: 'Shes finally here!! our little celestial seed.'

The proud dad went on to reveal that he 'composed the score' of his little girl's birth with Travis Barker, Big Slim, Truck Norris, No Love for the Middle Child and Shaan Singh.

Although he did not reveal the baby's name, Kelly detailed that she was 'born into 432 HZ' and that her arrival was 'an epic journey.'

'Praise God,' he declared on his Instagram Story.

The actress already shares three sons Noah, 12, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, 8, with ex-husband Brian Austin Green.

Meanwhile, Kelly, welcomed his only other child, Casie, with Emma Cannon in July 2009.

The announcement came just hours after Kelly blasted Green in a shock direct message on Instagram.

Now the star has taken to Instagram to share a candid never-before-seen video of herself at six weeks pregnant as she opened up about her new child

The couple are seen in 2022 one year into their romance

Brian, 51, posted the message from Machine to his Instagram stories Thursday morning - along with his thoughts on it.

Fox and Kelly, 34, split in November after she reportedly discovered he was speaking to other women behind her back.

Machine's direct Instagram message to Brian said: 'Stop asking when our child is gonna be born. you the FEDS,' adding a rat emoji and a police officer emoji.

'Quit calling TMZ and focus on that apology you owe me for speaking on my name in public, Machine continued. 'You chose the wrong one to f*** with mr child actor. Go back to cereal commercials.'

Brian publicly shared the message on his Instagram stories - along with his thoughts, writing: 'I didn't know "child actor" was something bad. Leo, careful. He may be coming for you next.'

Brian is referring to Leo as in Leonardo DiCaprio, who is also a former child star.

DailyMail.com has to to Brian and Machine Gun Kelly's reps for comment.

Megan and Brian share three children together: Noah, 12, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, eight.

They were married from 2010 until 2021.

He has since moved on with Sharna Burgess; they share a son together named Zane, born in June 2022.

Machine is referring to Brian slamming him in February.

The announcement comes just hours after Kelly blasted Green in a shock direct message on Instagram

Last month, Brian took to his Instagram stories to call out Machine, writing: 'Bro. Just be honest for once in your life. 'Stop caring so much about how you're perceived that you will try and drag other people.'

Brian attached Kelly's track, Don't Let Me Go, to his social media post.

The reason why former Beverly Hills 90210 star wrote the message on his Instagram stories was because Machine questioned the narrative that surrounded his relationship with Megan.

Machine shared pictures of himself on January 28th looking outside a window and off the camera - while shirtless.

He wrote as the caption: 'How can "sources say" when the sources haven't said anything.'

In December, Brian expressed regret that Megan is navigating her latest pregnancy while dealing with the fallout from her break-up.

Megan and Brian share three children together: Noah, 12, Bodhi, ten, and Journey, eight. They were married from 2010 until 2021; seen together January 13, 2013

He was asked about his thoughts on her split from Machine, telling TMZ: 'I didn't even know.'

The cameraperson then proceeded to tell him about the text messages Megan reportedly found in November that led to her calling it quits with Machine.

Adding: 'How old is he? ... He's in his 30s, isn't he? ... But in your 30s, like, f**k. Grow up. Like, she's pregnant.'

'I just want the best for her. I want the best for the baby. I want the best for our kids. That's a shame,' he said to TMZ. 'I'm heartbroken about it because I know she's been so excited. And the kids are so excited for life and the change and all of that.'

Brian called the situation 'tragic' and noted that he does not know 'the facts.'

Megan pulled the plug on her relationship with Machine over Thanksgiving - after reportedly discovering he was speaking to other women behind her back.

Their five-year romance came to an end over Thanksgiving weekend while they were on holiday in Vail, Colorado, according to TMZ.

They split after Megan 'found material on MGK's phone that was upsetting, and it made her want him to leave the trip early,' the source said.

Kelly, born Colson Baker, left the trip earlier and they have not seen each other since.

An insider recently claimed that Megan wanted to just 'focus' on her pregnancy.

Fox, who shares three children, Noah, 11, Bodhi, nine, and Journey, seven, with ex-husband Brian Austin Green, revealed her pregnancy on November 11

Fox and Kelly previously suffered a miscarriage

The insider told People: 'They tried to make things work for many years. It was exhausting for Megan.

'She's done with him now. She just wants to focus on the baby and her boys now.'

She posted a picture of her with her pregnant belly and a snap of her positive pregnancy test - to one of Machine Gun Kelly's songs in the pregnancy reveal, which she shared on November 11.

Fox and Kelly previously suffered a miscarriage.

Megan captioned the post: 'Nothing is ever really lost. Welcome back,' adding a heart emoji.

They split after Megan 'found material on MGK's phone that was upsetting, and it made her want him to leave the trip early,' the source said; seen in 2023

Megan and MGK started dating in 2020 after she split from Brian following 10 years of marriage.

They got engaged in January 2022 with the couple briefly splitting in February 2023 but working things through and getting back together - but not getting engaged again.

Megan previously revealed she believes she manifested the rapper turned rocker into the person he is, adding that she manifested him when she was four years old.

'He's literally my exact type that I've been manifesting since I was four. I'm also four years older than him. So, I think I made him.'

Adding: 'My thoughts and intentions grew him into the person that he is, who knows what he would've looked like or been like if it wasn't for me.'

The couple met on the film project Midnight In The Switchgrass in March 2020.
Jade Thirlwall put on a loved-up display with her boyfriend Jordan Stephens as they lead the stars at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards.

The awards ceremony took place in London on Thursday as it celebrated its milestone 70th year.

Jade was in attendance after landing her first nomination as a solo artist for her debut single Angel of My Dreams in the Best Contemporary Song category, but the gong was eventually won by Sans Soucis for her track Circumnavigating Georgia.

The former Little Mix star looked typically stylish as she arrived in a grey and red oversized pinstripe suit, with her Rizzle Kicks beau planting a kiss on her forehead as they took to the red carpet.

Meanwhile Messy hitmaker Lola Young was one of the night's big winners as she took home the Rising Star award for the viral track.

Lola effortlessly pulled off casual chic as she arrived in a grey marl zip-up jumpsuit which cinched her in at the waist thanks to a corset design, and sported a pair of silver stiletto flats.

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Jade Thirlwall put on a loved-up display with her boyfriend Jordan Stephens as they lead the stars at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards in London on Thursday

Meanwhile Messy hitmaker Lola Young was one of the night's big winners as she took home the Rising Star award for the viral track

After winning the BRIT Award in the Best Album category last month for the incredibly successful BRAT, Charli XCX lost out on the gong in the same category at The Ivors to Trinidadian rapper BERWYN's album WHO AM I.

However Charli did come out with an award as she received the Songwriter of the Year gong.

Meanwhile Robbie Williams was also honoured at Thursday's ceremony as he was presented with the coveted Icon Award.

Among the stars who made an appearance at the ceremony were Nia Smith, Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, and radio legend Edith Bowman.

In her first year of recognition by The Ivors Academy, breakout star Lola lead the pack with a whopping three nominations.

Alongside her nod for the Rising Star prize, Lola was also nominated in the Best Album and Best Song Musically and Lyrically categories for her viral No. 1 track, Messy.

Meanwhile, RAYE was also seeking to continue her incredible winning streak after scoring two nominations this year.

She was previously nominated for two Ivors in 2022, won the Contemporary Song award in 2023 for her viral hit Escapism and was honoured with the highly-regarded Songwriter of the Year at last year's ceremony.

This year saw her competing against Lola for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for her 2024 single Genesis, alongside Child of Mine by Laura Marling, Fontaines D.C.s In the Modern World and Orla Gartland with Mine.

The awards ceremony took place in London on Thursday as it celebrated its milestone 70th year

Jade was in attendance after landing her first nomination as a solo artist for her debut single Angel of My Dreams in the Best Contemporary Song category, but the gong was eventually won by Sans Soucis for her track Circumnavigating Georgia

The former Little Mix star looked typically stylish as she arrived in a grey and red oversized pinstripe suit, with her Rizzle Kicks beau planting a kiss on her forehead as they took to the red carpet

Lola effortlessly pulled off casual chic as she arrived in a grey marl zip-up jumpsuit which cinched her in at the waist thanks to a corset design, and sported a pair of silver stiletto flats

In her first year of recognition by The Ivors Academy, breakout star Lola lead the pack with a whopping three nominations

Meanwhile Robbie Williams was also honoured at Thursday's ceremony as he was presented with the coveted Icon Award

The music legend beamed as he was presented with the gong at the ceremony on Thursday

While RAYE's 2023 hit Prada is among the very strong contenders for the Most Performed Work prize, which recognises the most-played song in the UK.

She was up against fierce competition from Dua's Houdini, Stargazing by Myles Smith, and Harry Styles' hit As It Was, which has been in contention for the gong three years in a row, previously winning in 2023.

But it was BRIT Awards Rising Star Myles Smith who took home the award on Thursday for his tracks Stargazing with Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink.

The late George Michael was also posthumously nominated in the category, with Wham!'s beloved and staple festive hit, Last Christmas - four decades after it was released.

Along with RAYE, Ghetts and Conor Dickinson, who each received two nominations, with Ghetts also competing for Best Contemporary Song with hit track Double Standards (feat. Sampha).

While she and Ghetts will also face off against Sans Soucis's Circumnavigating Georgia and How Black Men Lose Their Smile by Bashy and Pa Salieu with Allergy.

Rising Star nominee Nia Smith arrived for the event in a chic fitted black sweater and white wide-leg trousers

Another star who made an appearance was Rebecca Lucy Taylor, aka Self Esteem, as she donned a cream linen oversized suit

Radio legend Edith Bowman looked as stylish as ever in a navy oversized suit with a shirt and tie and platform suede heels

It was BRIT Awards Rising Star Myles Smith who took home the award for Most Performed Work on Thursday for his tracks Stargazing with Peter Fenn and Jesse Fink

After winning the BRIT Award in the Best Album category last month for the incredibly successful BRAT, Charli XCX lost out on the gong in the same category at The Ivors to Trinidadian rapper BERWYN's album WHO AM I

The Ivors also celebrate composers for film and TV, and up for Best Original Film are Daniel Pemberton with Fly Me to the Moon, Gary Yershons music to Hard Truths, Michael Mickey J Asantes original score to Kneecap, Rafferties music to The Substance and Mica Levis score to The Zone of Interest.

In contention for Best Television Soundtrack were Martin Phipps for Black Doves, Oliver Coates music to Mary & George, Jack Halama and Natalie Holts soundtrack to Rivals, and Carly Paradis Until I Kill You - with Vince Popes score to True Detective: Night Country the winner on the night.

The final category for Best Original Video Game Score saw nods for Mathieu Alvado and Mark Chois Empire of the Ants, John Konsolakis for Farewell North, Eli Rainsberrys music to Flock, David Garcia Diazs soundtrack to Senuas Saga: Hellblade II and Boxed Apes The Casting Of Frank Stone.

The ceremony also saw U2 become the latest songwriters bestowed with the most prestigious accolade of Academy Fellows, making Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. the first Irish songwriters that the Academy has inducted into Fellowship in its 81-year history.
The stars were out in force for the Colours of Time premiere at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Cara Delevingne led the arrivals to the red carpet and looked the epitome of glamour in a strapless black satin gown and sheer gloves.

The model, 32, wowed in the floor-legnth number which she wore with simple heels and a silver and green statement necklace.

She joined stylish Helen Mirren on the red carpet who wore a classic black dress with a statement green belt and hat.

Colours of Time is a 2025 period coming-of-age drama film co-written and directed by Cedric Klapisch.

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The stars were out in force for the Colours of Time premiere at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday evening, including Cara Delevingne

She joined stylish Helen Mirren on the red carpet who wore a classic black dress with a statement green belt and hat

This year's Cannes Film Festival is taking place in the wake of Trump's vow to enact tariffs on international films.

Cannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme dOr, to give out at the end.

Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.

'You release a film into that Colosseum-like situation,' says Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho, who's returning to Cannes with The Secret Agent, a thriller set during Brazil's dictatorship.

'You've got to really prepare for the whole experience because it's quite intense - not very far from the feeling of approaching a roller coaster as you go up the steps at the Palais.'

Trump sent shock waves through Hollywood and the international film community when he announced on May 4 that all movies 'produced in Foreign Lands' will face 100 percent tariffs.

The White House has said no final decisions have been made. Options being explored include federal incentives for U.S.-based productions, rather than tariffs. But the announcement was a reminder of how international tensions can destabilize even the oldest cultural institutions.

The model, 32, wowed in the floor-legnth number which she wore with simple heels and a silver and green statement necklace

She put on a glamorous display, wearing her honey tresses in loose waves and opting for glowing makeup

She added sheer gloves to the look and a green ring

She blew a kiss to the cameras

Colours of Time is a 2025 period coming-of-age drama film co-written and directed by Cedric Klapisch

Helen finished off her look with a huge hat and mini velvet handbag

She looked great at the premiere as she took to the red carpet

Cara Delevingne, Helen Mirren and Aishwarya Rai

Lady Kitty Spencer wore a purple sequin gown

And boosted her height with black heels

She wore statement silver jewellery

The Cannes Film Festival originally emerged in the World War II years, when the rise of fascism in Italy led to the founding of an alternative to the then-government controlled Venice Film Festival.

In the time since, Cannes' resolute commitment to cinema has made it a beacon to filmmakers. Countless directors have come to make their name.

This year is no different, though some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known.

Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water), Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great) and Harris Dickinson (Urchin) have all unveiled their feature directorial debuts in Cannes Un Certain Regard sidebar section.

Many Cannes veterans have returned, including Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning), Robert De Niro - who received an honorary Palme dOr 49 years after Taxi Driver premiered in Cannes - and Quentin Tarantino, who paid tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman.

Over recent years the star-studded extravaganza has arguably won more attention for the outfits worn by its celebrity guests than the roster of feature films being screened on the Croisette.

But new nudity rules, devised for 'the sake of decency,' have been implemented at this year's festival.

According to organisers, the austere move is an attempt to stifle the celebrity trend for 'naked dresses' - namely provocative outfits that reveal considerably more than they conceal - on the red carpet.

'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as any other area of the festival,' states a Cannes festival document.

'The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.'

The surprise new policy features in a recent festival-goers charter - released with a series of outlines regarding expected public behaviour.

Guests are expected to converge on the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumiere for some of the highest profile film screenings across a packed two-week schedule in Cannes.

It's understood that the iconic venue now adopts a more conservative dress code, with suits, dinner jackets and floor-length evening gowns generally favoured over headline grabbing ensembles.

Classic little black dresses, cocktail dresses, pant-suits, dressy tops and elegant sandals, 'with or without a heel', will also be permitted.

While the decision to implement a more stringent policy will be a first, it is not known if French TV broadcasters, wary of airing nudity, played a role in its enforcement.

Lady Victoria Hervey was also in attendance wearing a blue and silver gown

She accessorised with a glitzy handbag

Helen gave a wave to the cameras

Magda Swider attends the La Venue De L'avenir (Colours Of Time) red carpet

She wore a studded suit and statement hat

Helen posed up a storm for the cameras

Cara Delevingne, Helen Mirren and Aishwarya Rai made sure their dresses were looking their best

Aishwarya Rai is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil films

She added a pop of red lip

Cara brought her cheeky personality to the red carpet

Her honey tresses were styled into loose waves

Helen looked great in her block colour dress

She wore a huge pearl and silver necklace

The stylish women posed together

Major red carpet events, including the Cannes Film Festival, are aired in France by France Televisions.

Recently attracting more models and influencers than actors and filmmakers, the annual ceremony has seen an increase in risque red carpet fashion statements.

In 2021, American supermodel Bella Hadid bared her cleavage in a plunging black gown while attending a screening of Tre Piani (Three Floors).

She pulled a similar stunt three years later, with guests at the 2024 gala left speechless after she attended the premiere of Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice completely braless beneath a sheer brown evening dress.
Heidi Klum and her husband Tom Kaulitz were all over each other on a hotel balcony in Cannes, France this week.

The 51-year-old supermodel was seen putting her hand on the 35-year-old musician's private parts as she sipped chilled white wine.

Kaulitz was bare-chested as he wore leopard-print swim trunks, a cap and sunglasses.

Klum had her dirty blonde hair down with an orange cap on during the afternoon PDA session.

He got handsy too: In a video she shared to Instagram, the German wonder was laying chest down on a lounge chair while in a skimpy rust-colored thong bikini that exposed her butt when he used his heavily tattooed hand to rub oil on her derriere.

Heidi spoke German to her better half as she flashed a naughty grin in the saucy clip.

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the

DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.

Heidi Klum let her husband Tom Kaulitz get handsy with her on a hotel balcony in Cannes, France this week

The model was also seen putting her hands on her partner's briefs

Here is a closer look at the naughty move

They were also seen getting frisky while in Paris on Monday.

The pair were also seen enjoying some Aperol Spritz al fresco in the French capital, even sharing a smooch at their table.

Heidi wore a pair of oversized blue denims, white vest and oversized blue shirt for the stroll. She cut a casual figure in her trainers, accessorizing the outfit with oversized silver glasses.

Tom meanwhile opted for an equally casual look, wearing black trousers and a vest with a slightly open black shirt.

The couple, who have been married since 2019, have consistently been unfazed by their 16-year age gap since they met in February 2018 at a birthday party.

However, they have had to contend with online trolls, who Heidi said must be motivated by 'spitefulness'.

The former Victoria's Secret model told Glamour Germany: 'Perhaps many people also think Ive had too much luck in life.

'I have a great job, I get to travel the world, I can buy expensive things.

Klum sipped on a chilled glass of white wine as she looked at the ocean

The reality TV star also had one of her legs over his

After her man got up and slathered his lady love with lotion

The Tokio Hotel band member then sat down after his hard work

The German wonder filmed the lusty experience. She was laying chest down on a lounge chair while sunbathing in a skimpy rust-colored thong bikini that exposes her butt

Her spouse took his time using his heavily tattooed hands to rub oil on her derriere as she smiled for the camera

Kaulitz was bare-chested as he wore leopard-print swim trunks, a cap and sunglasses before patting her butt in a playful slap

Klum had her dirty blonde hair down and messy with an orange cap on during the afternoon PDA session. Heidi spoke German to her better half as she flashed a naughty grin after enjoying glasses of white wine and bottled water

And the 51-year-old supermodel was so proud of the 35-year-old musician's move, she posted a video of it to Instagram

'And now Ive also got myself such a great man.'

The couple's appearance in Paris comes after they enjoyed the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning screening on day two of the Cannes Film Festival.

The model put on a busty display in a chic blue sequined gown from Elie Saab's 1001 Seasons Haute Couture Collection.

The striking number featured a plunging neckline, off-the-shoulder detailing, sheer panels and a dramatic floor-length train that oozed old Hollywood glamour.

The couple's appearance in Paris comes after they enjoyed the Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning screening on day two of the Cannes Film Festival

They were also keen to show their affection for each other at Cannes too and shared a kiss for the cameras on the red carpet

Kissing again at amfAR Gala Cannes 2025 during the 78th Cannes Film Festival at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc on May 22

The German beauty styled her signature blonde locks in a voluminous blowout and amped up the drama with a bold smoky eye and flawless complexion.

Meanwhile, her musician husband Tom looked incredibly dapper in a classic black tuxedo as he posed for sweet snaps alongside his stunning wife.

The couple looked every inch the A-list power duo as they made their stylish entrance.

They were also keen to show their affection for each other at Cannes too and shared a kiss for the cameras on the red carpet.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the eighth and final instalment in the long-running franchise, wrapping up the two-part storyline that began with Dead Reckoning Part One.
Chris Hughes made a racy confession amid his romance with JoJo Siwa on Thursday as a new clip emerged where they looked cosy.

The American dancer, 22, and the former Love Island star, 32, raised eyebrows with their close bond during their time in the Celebrity Big Brother house, but repeatedly insisted their relationship was strictly platonic.

But after jetting to Florida with JoJo's family to celebrate her 22nd birthday, she and Chris showed that they are well and truly together, with pictures obtained by The Sun this week featuring the pair kissing in the swimming pool.

And now after their romance was confirmed the pair spoke to Access Hollywood and shared an insight into their relationship during a Most Likely To Q&A filmed at Orlando Resort.

One of their answers received a racy answer from Chris as the clip began with him kissing her on the cheek and embracing her.

They were asked 'who has the better taste in music?' to which Chris said: 'I think me cos I am introducing her to some indie bangers from the UK.

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Chris Hughes made a racy confession amid his romance with JoJo Siwa on Thursday as a new clip emerged where they looked cosy

The American dancer, 22, and the former Love Island star, 32, raised eyebrows with their close bond during their time in the Celebrity Big Brother house, but repeatedly insisted their relationship was strictly platonic

'I introduced her to one of my favourite songs by the band The 1975 called 'Sex' and she started playing it on the drums'.

Elsewhere in the Q&A, the first question was 'who is most likely to be late?', to which they answered Chris.

The next question was 'who is more likely to sleep in?' to which they also said Chris.

He added: 'I was last out of bed everytime on Big Brother wasn't I!'

They were then asked: 'Who texts back faster', as JoJo immediately said it was her.

Chris then said: 'She texts a lot and I love it...', to which she added: 'We text an equal amount', as Chris continued: 'Yeah but I have to match the energy which is never a hard task as it feels natural.'

'Who is most likely to make plans' was the next question as Chris said: 'We both are! I was texting about plans yesterday when we were on the way to Orlando - we were both doing it simultaneously.'

JoJo added: 'We are both leaders and both followers!'

The new clip comes after they finally confirmed their romance, with the pair seen sharing a kiss while staying in an adults-only resort in Florida.

A source told The Sun 'JoJo and Chris looked very loved-up and as they snogged in full view of other holidaymakers.

And now after their romance was confirmed the pair spoke to Access Hollywood and shared an insight into their relationship during a Most Likely To Q&A filmed at Orlando Resort

They were asked 'who has the better taste in music?' to which Chris said: 'I think me cos I am introducing her to some indie bangers from the UK...'

He racily added: 'I introduced her to one of my favourite songs by the band The 1975 called 'Sex' and she started playing it on the drums'

JoJo looked in great spirits as she attended an event at Orlando Resort this week

She wore a green jersey and baggy shorts

She posed up a storm for the cameras

'They spent their time at the hotel holding hands and looked like a giddy couple in the early throes of love. It was nice to see.

'They were very hands on - not entirely different to how they were on TV, just a bit more intimate. JoJo seemed totally relaxed, really in love and not in any way the JoJo we see when she's on stage. They're just totally comfortable around each other.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Chris Hughes for comment.

JoJo's mother Jesslaynn showed she's given their relationship her seal of approval, as she took to Instagram to share a slew of snaps and videos from the past week.

The post included JoJo and Chris dancing together at Disneyworld, before posing for a candid picture together.

Another image showed the touching moment JoJo and Chris were reunited last week after he jetted 12 hours to Mexico ahead of her birthday.

On Wednesday, JoJo shared that she broke down in tears as she bid farewell to Chris when he flew home to the UK.

In a clip posted on Instagram, JoJo looked devastated as she accompanied the Love Island star to the airport.

She said: 'Tears coming from under the sunglasses.'

But it seems JoJo won't have long to wait until she and Chris are reunited, as she revealed on Snapchat on Thursday that she is jetting back to LA for just 48 hours, before flying to London ahead of her two shows in the capital next week.

It came after JoJo shared a gushing tribute to Chris in a sweet TikTok post, alongside a series of clips from her birthday trip to Florida.

The Dance Moms star shared a montage of cute clips and snaps from her week with Chris and her family, including the pile of neatly-wrapped gifts Chris had given her for her birthday.

Another clip also showed one of the presents JoJo received - a personalised mug with a snap of herself and Chris together - and moments including the pair dancing together in Disney World, holding hands and embracing as they posed for a snap.

JoJo captioned her heart-warming post: 'I was gonna make a slide post of my favourite photos and videos from this last week, but TikTok made an auto edit and used the LIVE version of the photos... my heart is smiling so big with tears in my eyes.

'This birthday week is one that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I can't quite put it into words... the best I can say is it's been the most magical week of my life, truly the way it feels.

'I got to spend chill time with my favourite people, and also be on stage doing my favourite thing for a beautiful crowd of Siwanatorz in Mexico.

'Wouldn't trade one second of this birthday week for anything. I feel so happy and grateful for the universe and the way it works.'

Chris was quick to show his appreciation, posting the telling comment: 'Good morning to the universe.'

The post sparked a sea of comments from her followers, who were quick to gush about JoJo and Chris's close bond.

Comments included: 'Thought this was a FAN EDIT AND THEN ITS ACTUALLY JOJO??? Can't believe Big Brother has me this invested;

'It's 7:41am here in the UK and I feel like I'm going to start crying this is beautiful!;

'Still can't believe CHRIS HUGHES from Love Island and JoJo Siwa! My heart can't cope;

'So so happy for two!! Whatever this is, relationship or friendship, it is the most beautiful and sweetest thing, never let go of this, it's far too special.'

In another of her TikTok videos, JoJo's eagle-eyed fans spotted her birthday card from Chris in the background, featuring various snaps from their time together.

After jetting to Florida with JoJo's family to celebrate her 22nd birthday, she and Chris showed that they are well and truly together, with pictures obtained by The Sun this week featuring the pair kissing in the swimming pool

Since they met in the Celebrity Big Brother house, Chris and JoJo have set tongues wagging with their close bond, but had previously insisted their relationship was strictly platonic

JoJo had previously taken to Instagram to share a gallery of close snaps with Chris from her birthday celebrations.

He treated her to a mountain of birthday presents, they enjoyed breakfast together on the morning of her big day and one snap even showed Chris with his hand tenderly place on JoJo's thigh.

She penned the caption: 'This years birthday week was more magical than anything! Full of surprises, family time, performing, chilling, laughing, loving, smiling, and good meaningful cries.

'Absolutely beautiful, wouldn't change a single thing a week I'll remember for the rest of my life.'

Chris then shared his own sweet reaction to JoJo's tribute, simply writing: 'Oh Joelle' followed by a star emoji.
Lauren Sanchez was on the verge of a wardrobe malfunction as she nearly spilled out of shimmering strapless gown at Cannes on Thursday.

The splashy coastal event was the amfAR gala Cannes 2025 presented by Chopard at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France.

The 55-year-old former TV star had on a racy silver gown with a sweetheart neckline that appeared a size too small.

Her chest was nearly squeezed out of the little frock that had a magical mermaid finish as she flashed her megawatt smile.

Sanchez seemed to notice that one side of the gown was dipping too low for comfort as she placed her long hair over that portion when on the carpet. That was a savvy move as it would help prevent exposure in case the top fell down any more.

It looked as if Lauren was just millimeters away from a sartorial slip up.

The brunette beauty went lighter than usual on the makeup as she showed off a fresh St Tropez tan with sparkly diamond jewelry that included her massive engagement ring from fiance Jeff Bezos.

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Lauren Sanchez, 55, was on the verge of a naughty wardrobe malfunction as she nearly spilled out of strapless gown at Cannes in France on Thursday. It appeared as if she was just millimeters away from a sartorial slip up

Also at the event were German supermodel Heidi Klum and singer Paris Jackson.

The two will be walking down the aisle next month.

The unusual venue for the ceremony is raising some eyebrows. The couple could say their 'I dos' on a Venetian island in an open-air theater.

'The word is that they have booked the theater which has been restored,' a source told The US Sun.

'It's not your usual venue for a wedding, it would be iconic,' the alleged insider asserted adding, 'Everyone is talking about the wedding and it's going to be a huge celebration.'

The outlet said it chose not to identify the venue, but had checked and could confirm dates had been blocked out for two weeks around the time the wedding was set to take place, which is supposed to be between June 24 and 26.

The billionaire, his bride and some 200 guests have reportedly already booked rooms at the best hotels.

Bezos' mega yacht is also expected to be a part of the festivities, although neither the future bride or groom would confirm.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office told CNN that he believed the ceremony may take place on Bezos's yacht, which will be anchored in the lagoon.

The splashy coastal event was the amfAR gala Cannes 2025 presented by Chopard at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes, France

The former TV star had on a racy silver gown with a sweetheart neckline that appeared a size too small

Her chest was nearly squeezed out of the little frock that had a magical mermaid finish. Sanchez seemed to notice that one side of the gown was dipping too low for comfort as she placed her long hair over that portion when on the carpet

That was a savvy move as it would help exposure in case the top fell down any more

The brunette beauty went lighter than usual on the makeup as she showed off a fresh St Tropez tan with sparkly diamond jewelry that included her massive engagement ring from fiance Jeff Bezos

The 127m-long vessel was where the couple celebrated their engagement off the coast of Positano in 2023.

Meanwhile, the theater is not far from open water, making it easily accessible for those attending.

Guests are expected to include: several members of the Kardashian/Jenner family, Orlando Bloom and fiancee Katy Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and along with model Karlee Kloss and her husband Joshua Kushner.

Officials from the city of Venice have said they lobbied Bezos and Sanchez to hold the wedding there.

Morris Ceron, the director general of the Venice council told the London Times he personally approached the Amazon founder about choosing the ancient city for the wedding.

The couple will say their 'I dos' at an open-air theater in Venice, according to a source who spoke to The US Sun. 'It's not your usual venue for a wedding, it would be iconic,' the alleged insider said

Several members of the Kardashian/Jenner family are expected to be among the 200 guests attending the star-studded event; pictured in Santa Monica, CA in 2021

Katy Perry and fiance Orlando Bloom are expected to be on the guest list; Pictured in Beverly Hills in March

'I got to work to bring this marriage of the century to Venicethat's how it started,' he told the publication.

The event should be good news for the city's coffers.

Top hotels, including The Aman Venice, the Belmond Hotel Cipriani, the St. Regis Venice, and the Gritti Palace are all nearly fully booked for the end of June, according to The US Sun.

Bezos and Sanchez have reportedly booked a suite that goes for $11,500 a night at The Aman Venice.
The Phoenician Scheme (15, 101 mins)

Verdict: Far too whimsical

Rating:

Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning (12A, 169 mins)

Verdict: Impossibly long **

Rating:

Fountain Of Youth (12A, 125 mins)

Verdict: Overflows with fun

Rating:

The Cannes Film Festival closes this weekend and, unusually, two of the films that had the glitziest premieres there have already reached UK cinema screens. Thats the good news. Unfortunately, ones a bit of a dud while the other is rather a drag.

The Phoenician Scheme is the latest from acclaimed writer-director Wes Anderson, and has a typically top-notch cast boasting several of his unofficial repertory company. Benicio del Toro leads, with Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Bryan Cranston among the eye-catching names in supporting roles.

The Phoenician Scheme is the latest from acclaimed writer-director Wes Anderson, and has a typically top-notch cast boasting several of his unofficial repertory company

Benicio del Toro leads, with Tom Hanks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Bryan Cranston among the eye-catching names in supporting roles

Anderson, it is said, is cinematic Marmite: folk either love his films or hate them. But thats not quite so, or to put it another way, maybe its possible to fall out of love with Marmite.

I admired Rushmore (1998) and adored The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). But The French Dispatch (2021) and 2023s Asteroid City seemed to me insufferably self-indulgent exercises in whimsy for whimsys sake, often bafflingly incoherent.

They amounted to journeys through Andersons undeniably fertile mind, and while there are always plenty delighted to go along for the ride, rhapsodising about the great auteurs genius, I just wanted to get off.

The Phoenician Scheme, alas, offers more of the same. In mitigation its consistently lovely on the eye. And it has a terrific, genuinely funny opening, but it careers downhill thereafter.

Set like Asteroid City in the 1950s, it boasts all Andersons usual flourishes  above all that mannered artificiality of dialogue, set and costume that has become his trademark.

The title refers to the latest dodge by a rich, conniving businessman called Zsa-Zsa Korda (del Toro), who keeps surviving assassination attempts. Korda has nine boys, but only one girl, Liesl.

Shes a novitiate nun nicely played by (Kate Winslets daughter) Mia Threapleton, and even though they are estranged, shes the one anointed as his successor, should his enemies ever succeed in killing him.

That remarkable cast also includes Michael Cera, Rupert Friend, Riz Ahmed, Willem Dafoe and F Murray Abraham and they all plainly have an absolute whale of a time as Korda whizzes round the world trying to bond with his daughter, finding backers for his dubious project, and confounding assassins.

Anderson, it is said, is cinematic Marmite: folk either love his films or hate them. But thats not quite so, or to put it another way, maybe its possible to fall out of love with Marmite

The Phoenician Scheme, alas, offers more of the same. In mitigation its consistently lovely on the eye

Set like Asteroid City in the 1950s, it boasts all Andersons usual flourishes  above all that mannered artificiality of dialogue, set and costume that has become his trademark

The title refers to the latest dodge by a rich, conniving businessman called Zsa-Zsa Korda (del Toro), who keeps surviving assassination attempts. Korda has nine boys, but only one girl, Liesl

That remarkable cast also includes Michael Cera, Rupert Friend, Riz Ahmed, Willem Dafoe and F Murray Abraham and they all plainly have an absolute whale of a time

I can imagine how much fun it is to be in a Wes Anderson film. But I for one no longer derive nearly enough fun from watching them.

Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning would be a lot more fun if it werent so ludicrously long-winded, lasting almost three hours. A floppy-haired Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Missions Force, criss-crossing the globe while attempting for the umpteenth time to save it, this time (as last time) from a rogue slab of artificial intelligence known as The Entity.

There is one truly spectacular extended stunt, which sees Hunt clinging to the wings of a bi-plane in the clouds above South Africa, but far too much of Christopher McQuarries picture gets bogged down in ponderous self-importance, when it should just be tongue-in-cheek escapism.

Maybe McQuarrie also felt that a colossal $400 million budget required a commensurately whopping running-time? Whatever, he could have cut half an hour by removing 90 per cent of the references to the world being on the edge of a precipice. As it is, by the end, you might find yourself wishing it would just fall off.

Guy Ritchie does a much better job with Fountain of Youth, another action thriller with a potty plot, but which, crucially, never takes itself too seriously. It benefits greatly from John Krasinskis gently, engagingly facetious lead performance as Luke, an art thief, squabbling endlessly with his sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman), a museum curator.

Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning would be a lot more fun if it werent so ludicrously long-winded, lasting almost three hours

A floppy-haired Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Missions Force, criss-crossing the globe while attempting for the umpteenth time to save it

Guy Ritchie does a much better job with Fountain of Youth, another action thriller with a potty plot, but which, crucially, never takes itself too seriously

It benefits greatly from John Krasinskis gently, engagingly facetious lead performance as Luke, an art thief

Luke, it turns out, is pinching masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt and Rubens because together they will lead him to the elusive elixir of life, required by his dying billionaire patron (Domhnall Gleeson).

The story is unashamedly derivative, borrowing from The Da Vinci Code and the Indiana Jones movies, but Ritchie keeps it bowling along very entertainingly. The writer is James Vanderbilt, of the famously wealthy family of industrialists, whose great-great grandfather went down with the Lusitania in 1915.

Thats an episode which looms large in the narrative, in a compellingly unlikely collision of fact and fiction.

Fountain of Youth is on Apple TV +. A longer review of Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning ran last week.
She welcomed her first child just two months ago.

And new mum Michelle Keegan looked sensational as she arrived in Cannes amid the city's film festival on Thursday.

The actress, 37, wowed in a leggy white co-ord which consisted of a boxy white and black blazer which had gold detailing.

She boosted her height with simple black heels and wore a chic across the body Chanel bag.

The Brassic star wore her brunette tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a bronzed makeup look.

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New mum Michelle Keegan looked sensational as she arrived in Cannes amid the city's film festival on Thursday

The actress, 37, wowed in a leggy white co-ord which consisted of a boxy white and black blazer which had gold detailing

There was no sign of baby Palma during the outing but Michelle has been enjoying her maternity leave with her baby girl, including countryside breaks and local outings near the family's Essex mansion.

Mark and Michelle will also no doubt be jetting off to their favourite holiday spot of Mallorca this summer with their baby girl.

It's believed the couple chose the name Palma because of their strong links to Mallorca, which has been their go-to holiday destination for years and the setting for their pregnancy reveal photoshoot.

Michelle married Mark in May 2015 and the couple live together in a 3.5 million Essex mansion they built from scratch.

Chatting with his best friend and fellow dad Olly Murs on his Heart Breakfast show, TOWIE star Mark recalled the moment he first held his newborn daughter in his arms.

Mark fought back emotions as he said: 'Mate, it's actually hard to put into words.

'It's the biggest achievement of my life it's all I think about but obviously, hats go off to my wife she is an absolute superhuman, a superhero for bringing this baby into the world.'

Sharing his appreciation for Michelle, he added: 'It makes you realise what our mums did for us and makes me have so much more respect than I already had and what women had to go through.

The Brassic star wore her brunette tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for a bronzed makeup look

She boosted her height with simple black heels and wore a chic across the body Chanel bag

There was no sign of baby Palma during the outing but Michelle has been enjoying her maternity leave with her baby girl, including countryside breaks and local outings near the family's Essex mansion

Seen with husband Mark Wright

'It's the best feeling in the world. I wake up every morning just so excited to see her face.'

Recalling the first moment he held Palma, he continued: 'That moment when I held her in my arms, it gets me emotional now thinking about it.

'I suppose everything else goes out the window and its made me realise what life is all about and my little baby Palma I love you so much and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

'It's a very special feeling. I can't really put it into words. We've waited a little bit of time, we've chased our dreams and our careers and now we're here. We've got a baby.'

Before Cannes, Michelle showed her support for high street brands as she hit her local town on Wednesday to stock up on some family essentials.

The new mum, who welcomed baby daughter Palma in March, teamed a pinstripe blue shirt with a pair of cream drawstring trousers and sandals.

Michelle was joined by her mum Jacqueline as they stocked up at the Essex branch of Marks & Spencer before stopping by Boots.

The actress juggled two huge bags as she had a low-key stroll around town, going unnoticed by fellow shoppers.

It's no wonder Michelle is a fan of M&S, seeing as her husband Mark Wright is a brand ambassador for the British institution, which is still dealing with the aftermath of a massive cyber-attack.
French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld seriously missed the mark as she attended the glamorous amfAR gala in Cannes on Thursday night in just a casual T-shirt.

The former model, 70, shunned a glamorous gown like the other attendees and wore the simple red top and black skirt.

She completed her outfit with heels to boost her height and wore her brunette tresses in loose waves while opting for a dark-eyed makeup look.

Carine is a French fashion editor, former fashion model, and writer. She is the former editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris, a position she held from 2001 to 2011.

In 2012, she became founder and editor-in-chief of CR Fashion Book, a bi-annual print magazine headquartered in New York City.

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French fashion editor Carine Roitfeld seriously missed the mark as she attended the glamorous amfAR gala in Cannes on Thursday night in just a casual T-shirt

The former model, 70, shunned a glamorous gown like the other attendees and wore the simple red top and black skirt

It's the hottest ticket in town during the Cannes Film Festival. And Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc provided the five-star backdrop as the best film and fashion stars converged for the annual amfAR Cannes Gala on Thursday.

Leading the way at the star-studded event was Heidi Klum, Lauren Sanchez, Paris Jackson and Leomie Anderson, who all looked very glamorous as they posed for a sea of cameras.

Model Heidi, 51, flaunted her incredible figure in a racy black strapless mesh gown, with a large feather coat around her arms and trailing behind her.

Lauren, 55, put on a very busty display in a shimmering figure-hugging blue and silver gown, while Paris, 27, put on a leggy display in a revealing mesh gown.

Meanwhile, Barbara Palvin, 31, wowed in a white wedding dress like frock, which featured a plunging neckline and a daring thigh-high split.

Teri Hatcher, 60, opted for a classic black figure-hugging gown, with a daring thigh-high split and pointed toe heels.

Model Leomie Anderson showed off her jaw-dropping figure in a plunging yellow cut-out gown, and completed the look with black heels and gold jewellery.

Elsewhere, Coco Rocha turned heads as she arrived in a red oriental-inspired gown, with a matching cape around her shoulders.

Yilan Hua, Faretta Radic, Carine Roitfeld and Dalton Dubois onstage during the amfAR gala Cannes 2025 presented by Chopard

She completed her outfit with heels to boost her height and wore her brunette tresses in loose waves while opting for a dark-eyed makeup look (seen with Colman Domingo)

The Canadian model, 36, oozed confidence as she posed for a sea of cameras at the lavish event.

Ed Westwick and Amy Jackson opted for matching black ensembles and looked more loved-up than ever after welcoming their first child together.

Elena Perminova appeared to flout Cannes Film Festival's new 'decency' rules as she went braless in a daring look for the amfAR Gala.

The star-studded festival has seen its A-list guests wear nude fashion looks on its red carpets in recent years, but stringent new rules have been enforced this year banning nudity.

However, Russian model Elena, 38, appeared to ignore the regulations as she opted to go braless while joining the annual fundraising event, which is a staple at Cannes.

She showed off her incredible figure in a white strapped dress with a completely sheer bodice with cherub stitching over her chest, and swept a feathered shawl over her arms.

The day before the event began, the Cannes Film Festival released a shocking dress code for its participants.

Leading the way at the star-studded event was Heidi Klum (seen), Lauren Sanchez, Paris Jackson and Leomie Anderson, who all looked glamorous as they posed for a sea of cameras

Lauren, 55, was on the verge of a wardrobe malfunction as she nearly spilled out of strapless gown

The new rules, devised for 'the sake of decency,' were implemented as French director Amelie Bonnin's Leave One Day opened the ceremony.

'For decency reasons, nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival,' read its official rule book.

'Voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater are not permitted.

'The festival welcoming teams will be obligated to prohibit red carpet access to anyone not respecting these rules.'

The annual AmfAR Gala in Cannes helps support the Foundation for AIDS Research by raising money and awareness for the important organisation.
Montana Cox had all eyes on her at a fashion event on Thursday night thanks to a risky frock in a bright red hue.

The Melbourne model, 31, arrived at the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney in a ballet-inspired dress by the brand.

The model's breasts spilled out of the ensemble, which had a low-plunging neckline and corset bodice that snatched in her tiny waist.

The skirt billowed out into a ballerina skirt and cut at the thigh, showing off Montana's endless, trim pins and slim model physique.

She paired the busty number with a pair of white, pointed heels as she stepped out for the star-studded Effie Kats fashion launch.

The Australia's Next Top Model winner slicked back her locks in a bun, leaving some strands of her fringe across her forehead in a sleek modern do.

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Montana Cox had all eyes on her at a fashion event on Thursday night thanks to a risky frock in a bright red hue

The Melbourne model, 31, arrived at the Effie Kats fashion dinner at Buon Ricordo restaurant in Sydney in a ballet-inspired dress by the brand

The model's breasts spilled out of the ensemble, which had a low-plunging neckline and corset bodice that snatched in her tiny waist

Montana opted for a sculpted beauty look that spotlighted her high cheekbones and striking facial features while adding a spot of pink to her cushion lips.

Also at the glitzy event was Nadia Bartel, who flaunted her passion for fashion at the dinner in a chocolate brown full-length gown with a plunging, bare back.

The dress sat close to the former WAG's figure before flaring off into draped skirting and also included sheer long sleeves.

Nadia chose a warm-toned makeup look with lots of highlighter and a dark pink nude lip.

She completed her look by wearing her brunette locks in soft curls and skipping the accessories except for some chunky rings.

Also turning heads was Simone Holtznagel who stunned in a black one-shoulder gown that sat close to her figure.

Simone swept her blonde locks off her face and added a pair of gold statement earrings.

The model finished the look with a glowing makeup palette and strappy metallic heels.

Also at the glitzy event was Nadia Bartel, who flaunted her passion for fashion at the dinner in a chocolate brown full length gown with a plunging, bare back

The dress sat close to the former WAG's figure before flaring off into draped skirting, and also included sheer long sleeves

Also turning heads was Simone Holtznagel who stunned in a black one shoulder gown that sat close to her figure

Anna Heinrich looked incredible in a maxi dress in a maroon tone with a cut out at the midriff

Elle Ferguson was chic in a mini dress with draped fabric across the bodice and a pair of black heels with gold tops

Anna Heinrich looked incredible in a maxi dress in a maroon tone with a cut-out at the midriff.

She added bold metallic accessories including a chunky armband and clutch purse, while adding black strappy heels.

Elle Ferguson was chic in a mini dress with draped fabric across the bodice and a pair of black heels with gold tops.

The Block star chose a peachy makeup look with coral lipstick and wore her blonde locks down in waves.
Kim Kardashian is thrilled that she has finally graduated law school.

On Thursday the 44-year-old reality TV star took to Instagram to post a long, heartfelt note with behind-the-scenes photos of the ceremony.

Some fans said in the comments section they think that graduation from law school is a step toward becoming the President of the United States and entering the White House.

'You are unstoppable, next road the WHITE House!' said one as another added, 'Air Force One Kardashian model is being made as we speak.'

Kardashian was dressed in a conservative manner with her children in suits to convey the gravitas of the milestone.

'Six years ago, I embarked on an unconventional path to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer. It wasnt easy, and it took longer than planned, but I never gave up. Each course brought moments of doubt, tears, and triumph - especially when I conquered subjects I initially feared,' the SKIMS founder began her message.

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Kim Kardashian is thrilled that she has finally graduated law school. On Thursday the 44-year-old reality TV star took to Instagram to post a long, heartfelt note with behind-the-scenes photos of the ceremony

Some fans said in the comments section they think that graduation from law school is a step toward becoming the President of the United States and entering the White House; seen with Olivia Pierson and Natalie Halcro

She then said 'thats the beauty of life: you step into the unknown, push through, and emerge with knowledge and strength no one can take away.'

Kim chose a rigorous program registered with the California State Bar, building on 75 college credits to complete a four-year curriculum that stretched to six, she added.

'The journey was real, and so is the accomplishment,' noted the older sister of Khloe Kardashian,

She then gave a shoutout to Chris Young, Michelle West, and Dawn Jackson, the people she helped get out of prison, saying having them speak at her graduation 'meant the world to me.'

Kim said: 'Their deeply personal stories of perseverance through adversity and injustice profoundly inspires me and form the heart of my why.

'Im deeply grateful to Van Jones, who introduced me to this path, and to my mentors, Jessica Jackson and Erin Haney, whose guidance was invaluable.

'Special thanks to Sam Farkas and Chuck Shonholtz, who dedicated countless hours to help me succeed.

'This experience has shaped me profoundly, and Ill carry its lessons with me forever. Heres to celebrating resilience and new beginnings!'

Khloe said in her comments box: 'We are so proud of you!'

'You are unstoppable, next road the WHITE House!' said one fan; seen with sister Kourtney

Another added, 'Air Force One Kardashian model is being made as we speak.' Seen with Allison Statter, Simone Harouche and Zoe Winkler, among others

Also at the graduation ceremony were Allison Statter, Tracy Romulus, Zoe Winkler, Step Shep, and Simone Harouche.

The reality TV star, 44, celebrated the achievement with a backyard ceremony  where she was the only student  and proudly shared the video to her Instagram.

The mom-of-four was pictured sitting next to a podium in a grey top, a black mini skirt, and a beige graduation cap, while her mentors gave speeches praising her, and her family and kids watched, though North could not be spied.

One of her mentors even called it 'one of the most inspiring legal journeys we've ever seen.'

Kardashian didn't attend traditional law school. In California, individuals can become lawyers by completing a four-year Law Office Study Program (LOSP), also known as 'reading the law,' instead of going to law school. She still needs to pass the Bar Exam to practice law in the state.

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Kardashian was dressed in a conservative manner with her children in suits to convey the gravitas of the milestone

'Six years ago, I embarked on an unconventional path to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer. It wasnt easy, and it took longer than planned, but I never gave up. Each course brought moments of doubt, tears, and triumph - especially when I conquered subjects I initially feared,' the SKIMS founder began her message

Her mentor went on to speak about Kim's 'fierce desire to fight for justice' and noted the star did not take any shortcuts and was full of 'determination.'

She added Kim finished the program while 'raising four children, running businesses, filming television shows, and showing up in courtrooms to advocate for others.'

Another mentor spoke about how Kim has 'advocated for clemency, helped reunite families, and brought national attention to the most broken parts of our legal system.'

CNN's Van Jones also appeared at the ceremony, praising her for her criminal justice efforts.

Kim later approached the podium to get her diploma, as her younger three kids  Chicago, seven, Saint, nine, and Psalm, five  watched.

The star marked the occasion with a celebration at the Beverly Hills Hotel

Khloe also shared a video praising Kim

Kourtney also celebrated, posing in a graduation cap in an Instagram snap

President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, congratulated the star, writing, 'Congratulations Kim! You did it! My favorite law school graduate!'

Kim's youngest three kids  Chicago, seven, Saint, nine, and Psalm, five  were pictured supporting her

Daughter Chicago was also clad in a suit to watch her mom graduate

Her kids were in the front row for the occasion

It's unclear if her eldest daughter North West, 11, was present

Her sister Khloe Kardashian shared a clip about the ceremony, expressing how proud she is of Kim for completing the journey.

Olde sister Kourtney Kardashian also celebrated, posing in a graduation cap in an Instagram snap.

President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump  who's good friends with Kim  congratulated the star, sharing a photo from the graduation and writing, 'Congratulations Kim! You did it! My favorite law school graduate!'

For the past six years, Kim has dedicated roughly 18 hours a week to studying law, totaling more than 5,000 hours. Her efforts paid off when she passed the 'baby bar' back in 2021.

Kim's process took longer than four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her busy schedule.

Kim had already passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination back in March  a big exam for her program  sources told TMZ.

The star marked her graduation with a celebration at Beverly Hills hotel.

Kim's chic look for the day was completed with white heels and black stockings.

It's unclear if her eldest daughter North West, 11, was present.

Kim shares all four of her kids with ex-husband Kanye West, 47.

The star's late father, legendary attorney Robert Kardashian, was clearly on her mind during the special day, as she shared a photo of him

Kim's process took longer than four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and her busy schedule

Kim also showed a photo of the placemats at the celebration, which were versions of her study flash cards

For the past six years, Kim has dedicated roughly 18 hours a week to studying law, totaling more than 5,000 hours. Her efforts paid off when she passed the 'baby bar' back in 2021

The star's late father, legendary attorney Robert Kardashian, was clearly on her mind during the special day, as she shared a photo of him.

He gained national recognition in the mid-1990s for his involvement in O.J. Simpson's murder trial, where he served as a friend and defense attorney on Simpson's legal 'Dream Team.'

He passed away in 2003 from esophageal cancer. He was 59 years old.

Kim also shared an adorable snap of her son Psalm in a suit enjoying some ice cream, and proudly wrote, 'my babies were there to see my graduate.'

Daughter Chicago was also clad in a suit to watch her mom graduate.

Kim also showed a photo of the placemats at the celebration, which were versions of her study flash cards.

The reality TV star reportedly plans to take the bar exam in 2026.

In 2018 Kim started her dream of wanting to become a lawyer like her father.

She started her law apprenticeship in the state of California in mid 2019.
One cent coins will stop entering circulation next year.

After more than two centuries the US government has finally decided to kill the penny.

The Treasury Department will stop minting new pennies and putting them in to circulation by early next year.

Soon there will not be enough pennies in circulation to fulfil cash transactions.

As a result, businesses will have to round up or round down their prices to the nearest five cents, the Treasury said in a statement.

The penny currently costs more than four times its value to make and the Treasury lost $85 million minting the coins last year alone.

The phasing out of the penny may save the Treasury some immediate cash, but it raises the next currency problem, that of the nickel.

'If you get rid of the penny, it will increase the amount of nickels,' Rhett Jeppson, a former chief executive of the US Mint said.

Businesses will soon have to round up or round down their prices to the nearest five cents

The mint will stop circulating new pennies next year, according to reports

'You lose more on a nickel than you do on a penny,' Jeppson told the New York Times.

Nickels, worth five cents, are also a loss-maker for the treasury, leaving an $18 million hole from their production last year.

The problem could be exacerbated by the end of the penny because demand for nickels is likely to shoot up in their place.

Since the Treasury loses more per coin on nickels - they cost around 14 cents to make - an increase in their production to meet demand could soon outweigh any savings made by axing the penny.

The decision to stop making pennies comes after years of bipartisan efforts to eradicate the coins.

President Obama was critical of the penny during his time in the White House.

Most recently, President Trump asked the Treasury to halt penny production in a social media post in February.

'For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,' he wrote on Truth Social.

The production of nickels is also a loss-maker for the Treasury

'This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies,' he continued.

'Let's rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if it's a penny at a time.'

The final order of blank templates needed to make pennies was ordered this month, the Treasury told the Journal.

After that, minting will stop and the final pennies will be moved in to circulation.

Although cash transactions will have to round up or down, non-cash transactions can continue to be priced at exact change, the Journal reported.

Since many states have a sales tax that specifies taxes must be rounded to the nearest cent, the Treasury has asked state and local governors to provide guidance to businesses to ensure taxes are collected properly.
READ MORE: Dad reveals cost of day at Disney World for family of four

Disney World fans are preparing to say their final goodbyes to Muppet Vision 3D, one of the longest-running shows at Hollywood Studios.

The beloved 3D theater experience will take its final bow on June 7, clearing the way for a brand-new Monsters, Inc.-themed land.

The Jim Henson-created show has been a nostalgic staple for parkgoers since 1991, offering a quirky mix of 3D visuals and classic Muppet humor. Its closure marks the end of an era  and fans are already feeling the loss.

Disney enthusiasts were heartbroken last year after the Florida park first announced the 34-year-old attraction would be gone.

Now that its upcoming closure is just weeks away, fans are still disappointed and getting their last visits in before the curtains close.

'Yesterday was my final time seeing Muppet Vision 3D before it closes on June 7th,' an X user wrote last week.

'I have lost a lot of attractions I like, but you have always been my favorite, and you will be terribly missed.'

'Was at Hollywood Studios all day as I tried to soak up all the Muppety goodness that I could before Muppet Vision 3D gets torn down,' a heartbroken fan admitted.

Disney fans have been left devastated over the news that Muppet*Vision 3D at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, is closing

The Muppet*Vision 3D show will be discontinued to make way for Hollywood Studio's upcoming Monsters Inc. Land

Henson and Disney began working on Muppet Vision 3D in 1989 after announcing a plan for Disney to acquire Henson Associates and the Muppet characters.

However, the acquisition plans were abruptly halted after Henson died in 1990.

The 3D project's creation continued on and opened on the one year anniversary of Henson's death.

The movie is the last to be directed by Henson and features his voice as Kermit the Frog.

In the years since the debut, each viewing has attracted hundreds of Disney visitors, and the company went on to acquire the Muppets from The Jim Henson Company in 2004.

While the 3D show may be ending, Disney will be bringing the Muppets to Hollywood Studio's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

The company teased that characters would 'team up with some of music's biggest stars' during the ride to deliver 'a rockin' music festival.'

Disney has not confirmed when the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster will be revamped, but it will include 'laughter, screams and new tunes.'

me after watching muppet*vision 3D for a final time tomorrow pic.twitter.com/PUoGf6Z0gb  Zach (@TripleZ_87) May 17, 2025

Social media users have continued to share sadness over the show's discontinuation after visiting for 'one last time'

The Muppets will soon take over the fan favorite Rock 'n' Roller Coaster ride in Hollywood Studios

Disney parks have been hit with a boatload of controversies surrounding its decision to raise ticket prices.

They also received backlash after announcing it would remove River of America and Tom Sawyer Island to make way for an attraction inspired by the film Cars.

However, fans were excited to learn that it would be building a park section dedicated to antagonists called Villains Land.

Construction for the Cars and Villains-themed areas began in Magic Kingdom earlier this year.

The Monsters Inc.-themed are is a highly talked-about upcoming attraction that will include Disney's first-ever suspended roller coaster.

It's also rumored to include a restaurant named Harryhausen's and a Monstro Theater featuring a new Monsters, Inc. show.

Other attractions arriving at Disney Parks include an Encanto river ride, an Indiana Jones attraction, and a Zootopia show.

Outside of rides, Disney is busy developing a new park on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
There has been widespread anger following vandalism to Irish language signs and graffiti being painted on walls in the rural County Derry village of Glenullin.

The vandalism in the area is said to have taken place on Wednesday, May 21. The welcome sign entering Glenullin on the Legavallon Road displays Gleann an Iolair (Glen of the Eagle), and has been visibly damaged along with red, white and blue spray paint.

Outside St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Primary School, on the Churchtown Road outside Garvagh, both the bridge and signage has been sprayed with sectarian graffiti, including support for the UDA and FTP.

ABOVE: Graffiti and sectarian spray paint seen in the village of Glenullin

Local representatives from the area have spoken out against this vandalism which is said to have happened on Wednesday, May 21.

Councillor Ciaran Archibald described this attack as disgraceful.

There is no excuse for this type of vandalism and it cannot be tolerated, he said

Unfortunately, this is indicative of the attitude of some in society who show a complete disregard and lack of respect for the Irish Language.

Signage is often subject to a rigorous community process prior to erection, therefore, these attacks fly in the face of people's consent.

I have reported this attack to the PSNI and I am appealing to anyone with information to bring it forward so those responsible can be held to account for these disgraceful crimes.

ABOVE: Red, white and blue paint and damage in the County Derry village

Aontu Deputy Leader and representative for East Derry Gemma Brolly has also spoken out calling the vandalism sickening.

Mo naire sibh! Sickening acts of vandalism throughout Glenullin today which thankfully reflect no part of a proud and respected community in my parish, she said.

This will be investigated and will not be tolerated, while we in this community will continue to build relations and build our community up together.

Ni neart go cur le cheile!

WATCH ABOVE: Gemma Brolly (Aontu Deputy Leader and representative for East Derry) calling out recent attack in Glenullin.

Ulster University Irish Language Lecturer Dr Niall Comer has branded the attack as disgusting and an act of provocation.

He said: This is an unacceptable and disgraceful attack and the local community has been left beyond disgusted by this act of vandalism and provocation. All elected representatives should be calling this out for what it is. No ifs or buts, no whataboutery. The broader community, the businesses which depend on good relations, and anyone with influence needs to realise that the days of blatant intimidation are long gone. Nothing should be vandalised, especially not a place-name Gleann an Iolair (Glenullin), The Glen of the Eagle. A foundation story of how Christianity came to the area over 1400 years ago. If representing it in the language it was born in is a problem, then we have a new definition of idiocy.

ABOVE: Damage to road sign in Glenullin Road area

Police received a report of criminal damage in the Garvagh area. Inspector Brogan said: "It was reported that traffic signage, a bridge and a welcome sign had been spray-painted in the Glenullin Road area. "We are treating this as a sectarian hate crime. "Enquiries are continuing and we would ask anyone who might be able to assist, to contact us on 101."A report can be submitted online using the non-emergency reporting form via psni.police.uk/makeareport/ or you can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org/.
Friels Bar & Restaurant invites the community to step into a living story of resilience and tradition at a special event, Nettles, Nourishment & Survival, on Thursday 5th June. The evening will feature acclaimed local author Marian Conway, whose book The Mettle of Nettles explores the restorative and strengthening power of the humble stinging nettle.



From 7.30pm, guests will hear Marian Conway share tales of hardship, hope, and the vitalrole of nettles in Irish survival through the ages. Attendees will also enjoy a complimentary sample of Friels chefs signature nettle soup, highlighting the plants nourishing legacy.



Nettles are far more than a symbol of resilience. They are a true superfood, packed with vitamins A, C, and K, as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, and powerful antioxidants that support immune function, bone health, and overall vitality. Long valued in Irish tradition for their ability to relieve joint pain, purify the blood, and boost well-being, nettles also contain anti-inflammatory and antihistamine properties that can help with allergies and arthritis. By featuring nourishing nettle soup at this event, Friels Bar & Restaurant not only honours local heritage but also offers guests a taste of the remarkable nutritional and health benefits that have sustained Irish communities for generations.



Earlier in the day, the Gorta Swatragh visitor centre will open its doors from 3pm to 7pm, offering free entry to its Famine Story exhibition. Visitors can explore famine-era artefacts and learn about Dr. Mooneys historic soup kitchen, located on the very site where these stories unfolded.



The evening will conclude with live traditional Irish music from 9pm to 11pm, creating a spirited atmosphere to celebrate the enduring strength of the local community.



This event is free to attend, but booking is essential. Reserve your place via Eventbrite.

Event Details:

 Date: Thursday 5th June 2025

 Venue: Friels Bar & Restaurant, Swatragh

 Author Talk: 7.30pm

 Gorta Swatragh Famine Story Exhibition: 3pm7pm (Free Entry)

 Traditional Irish Music: 9pm11pm

 Free Admission | Booking Essential
Gardai nabbed a drug-driver in Buncrana after smelling cannabis through the vent of their vehicle while another car was driving in the opposite direction.

The accused, Sarah Louise Gallagher, appeared at Letterkenny District Court where she was charged with drug driving at Railway Road, Buncrana on December 26, 2022.

The court heard how just after 4pm, Ms Gallagher, a community care worker, was traveling on the Ludden Road towards Buncrana.

Garda Colm Mooney and a colleague were traveling in an unmarked patrol car in the opposite direction.

Now retired Garda Mooney said the driver's window was down and he got the strong smell of cannabis and noticed a woman in a grey Hyundai SUV vehicle smoking.

He told how Gardai then followed the vehicle and eventually pulled the woman in at Railway Road in Fahan.

An oral fluid test was carried out and the woman tested positive for cannabis and was then arrested and brought to Buncrana Garda Station to be processed.

A blood test was later carried out by a designated nurse and this test later proved positive for cannabis.

Solicitor for Ms Gallagher, of Sheriff Road, Derry, Mr Frank Murphy, cross examined Mr Mooney.

He asked what speed Gardai were traveling and was told between 70 and 80kph while Ms Gallagher estimated she was doing slightly less than that.

He asked Mr Mooney what the weather conditions were like at the time and he replied they were actually dry and good.

However, Mr Murphy said he had looked up a weather app for the night in question and it showed that at the time there was light rain known as 'mizzle.'

Mr Murphy asked the retired Garda if it was not an 'unfathomable story' to put it kindly that in all the circumstances that cannabis could be smelt from a car traveling in the opposite direction.

Mr Mooney replied that he was the observer in the patrol car, that he was an experienced officer and that this was a factual story.

He told the court that although his window was not open he smelt the cannabis through the vent of the car as the other car was pasing.

Mr Murphy sought a direction (to find his client not guilty) on a point of law surrounding the apprehension of his client.

However, Garda Inspector Paul McGee said that when Gardai had a suspicion (over drugs) they were entitled to stop people and in relation to the weather conditions on the night he suggested that court evidence could not rely on apps or the internet.

Having considered the application, Judge Eiteain Cunningham said she was satisfied that the then Garda acted in a bona fide manner, was not holding with Mr Murphy and found the facts proven.

Mr Murphy said his client was a 29-year-old community care worker who occasionally smoked cannabis to cope with the stress from her job.

He said a conviction and disqualification will have a detrimental effect on her job as she could no longer drive to see clients in her care.

Before passing sentence, Judge Cunningham asked Mr Mooney how Ms Gallagher had reacted when stopped and he replied that she had been a pleasure to deal with.

Judge Cunningham fined the accused 200 and disqualified her from driving for one year.
There would be further delays in the case of a local man charged with murder, Derry Magistrates' Court was told today.

Ciaran Murray (29) of Gortfoyle Place in Derry is charged with the murder of Montserrat Elias on August 24 last.

He is also charged with rape and arson on the same date.

At today's hearing a prosecutor told the court that a request had been received from the new Deputy Investigating Officer for 'ammendments' to the file before it could be submitted.

She said there was also an identification procedure to be carried out which would lead to further delay.

Defence solicitor Seamus Quigley said he had no objection to another adjournment.

The case was adjourned until June 12 and Murray remains in custody.

The body of Montserrat Elias was found after a fire was discovered in a house in Harvey Street last August.
The Irish government remains committed to the 1 million ring-fenced for Derrys Northlands Addiction Treatment Centre in the January 2020 New Decade, New Approach (NDNA) agreement.

NDNA is an international agreement between Irish and British governments and the political parties in the North.

Answering a written Dail parliamentary question from Aontu leader Peadar Toibin, Tanaiste Simon Harris said the Irish government remained fully committed to the full implementation of the agreement.

Mr Harris added that the Norths Department of Health now needed to develop a business case in order to draw down the 1 million. Following the Department of Healths withdrawal of core administration and housekeeping funding totalling almost 64,000 from Northlands in April.

Mr Toibin asked the Fine Gael leader if the Irish government remains committed to the New Decade, New Approach commitment for 1 million for an addiction centre in Derry.

The Tanaistes response was: The New Decade, New Approach agreement reached in January 2020 was a significant achievement by the political parties in Northern Ireland and the two Governments to restore the power-sharing institutions first established by the Good Friday Agreement.

We remain fully committed to the full implementation of the agreement.

I am aware of the matter raised by the Deputy in respect of a funding commitment made by the UK Government for an addiction centre in Derry.

The implementation of this commitment is a matter for the UK Government and the devolved authorities. I understand that there is ongoing and regular contact between UK Government officials and their counterparts in the Department of Health, and that is now for the latter to develop a business case arising from this commitment.

The controversy surrounding the Department of Healths failure to develop a business case to enable it to draw down the 1 million NDNA funding for Northlands re-ignited following the launch of the "Mammoth Northlands Fundraising Initiative on Tuesday.

A steering group has been established to manage six months worth of fundraising events with all proceeds going directly to Northlands.

Local comedian and mental health advocate Max Roddy, well-known actor Andy Doherty, and addiction campaigner Thomas Campbell have come together to help what they describe as plug the gap that has been left following funding cuts to Northlands in recent months.

Mr Roddy said: I was angry when I saw that not only around 70,000 had been cut from Northlands but that 1 million that had been promised still hadnt been delivered.

Everyone in Derry knows someone who has benefitted from Northlands, and we cant let such an important service lose out, so we decided to take matters into our own hands, with Northlands support, to raise money which will go directly to the service.

We will also be reaching out to those who have gone through Northlands and are continuing their recovery so they can tell their stories and show our city and beyond how much this service means to them.

Every few weeks, we will be releasing these heartfelt testimonials about the journeys of local people into a service that saved their lives and how much of an impact it has made to their lives now.

On foot of the Mammoth Northlands Fundraising Initiative announcement, the Derry News asked all of the main political parties in the Derry and Strabane District if it was morally acceptable that the Northlands Addiction Treatment Centre, dealing with the epidemic levels of addiction in the North West should have to resort to crowdfunding to sustain its life-saving services because its core funding has been withdrawn by the Department of Health?

In response, Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said: People in Derry are incredibly generous and they know how valuable the Northlands service is.

But we shouldnt be in this position, there is 1m from the British Government available to fund addiction services in the city.

The Department of Health needs to live up to its obligations and Ministers need to issue firm direction to get this across the line.

Five years of waiting for money that is available right now is an absolute scandal.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Eastwood raised the impact of funding cuts to the Northlands Centre.

The former SDLP leader was seeking clarity from the British government on the promised 1million for Northlands and addiction treatment provision in Derry under the terms of the New Decade New Approach Agreement.

The Northern Ireland Office confirmed that they are still waiting on a business case from the Department of Health for the release of the committed resources.

He said: The Northern Ireland Office Minister has confirmed to me again this morning (Wednesday) that they are waiting on a business case from the Department of Health for the funding to be released to support addiction services in Derry.

We are five years on - there is simply no excuse for the stance the Department have taken. Thats why I have written to Michelle ONeill and Emma Pengelly as joint heads of government to explain why Executive Departments are abdicating their responsibilities to the people of Derry.

This is too important for the people we represent. The money needs to be delivered so that Northlands can continue their lifesaving work.

UUP Alderman Darren Guy, the party which holds the Health Ministry, said: Northlands Addiction Treatment Centre does amazing and genuinely invaluable work in support of those in need.

We welcome any initiatives and fundraising efforts to help sustain the delivery of that work. However, like the Foyle Hospice, we feel neither should have to rely on public donations to support operational costs.

Regrettably, after bids from 259 organisations to the recent Core Grant Scheme totalling over 13m, despite a budget of only 1.8m, demand far, far outstripped supply. Immediately after the outcome of the scores was known I raised the issue of Northlands directly with the Minister and he gave me a commitment that his officials would contact Northlands to offer feedback on their recent application, which we both hoped would assist them in applying successfully in future funding rounds.

Its important to remember however that the Core Grant was not the only source of HSC funding for Northlands. The centre is contracted to a much higher financial level for the provision of really important services by both the Western and Northern HSC Trusts. Ive been assured by the Department of Health that that funding remains the same, the Deputy Mayor said.

Sinn Fein Foyle MLA Ciara Ferguson said: The loss of core funding from the Department of Health has caused significant shock and concern in the city, given the vital role the centre plays in supporting those with addiction issues.

"Sinn Fein has raised our concerns directly with the Health Minister, emphasising that at a time when addiction remains a major issue affecting so many families, we should be investing in services like these  not cutting them.

"Sinn Fein has met with Northlands and is committed to working with the organisation to support its future sustainability.

"We have also arranged a meeting with the Western Drug and Alcohol Coordination Team to explore how we can best support individuals in the city facing addiction in the time ahead.

The Department of Health reiterated a previous comment it had given The Derry News regarding the withdrawal of funding from Northlands.
Human rights barrister Franck Magennis, highlighted the historical parallels between the North of Ireland and Palestine at a sold-out event in Derrys Playhouse.

In the city on Saturday evening at the invitation of the Derry branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Mr Magennis, told The Derry News the North was crucial to understanding the Terrorism Act 2000.

His remarks were informed by the fact he is a member of the legal team currently representing the political wing of Hamas, which has applied to British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper for de-proscription in Britain.

There was a national liberation movement. The Irish republican movement sought the unification of Ireland and expected it to be a de-colonial process, said Mr Magennis. As part of that movement, various organisations emerged to advance that political agenda, and the British Empire lighted upon this technique of making certain organisations illegal or proscribed, such that membership of those organisations became a crime and you would get a 10 year sentence.

A lot of the most famous Irish Republican prisoners serving sentences in Long Kesh and other places, would have been serving sentences primarily for membership of a proscribed organisation - Bobby Sands was the most high profile example.

You have this technique the British Empire developed for attempting to combat the Irish liberation struggle - make an organisation illegal and if you are a member you get 10 years.

And then it removed juries from the North of Ireland because it was worried if you got three Catholics on a jury, they were not going to convict someone accused of membership of the IRA or other republican groups.

Think about the history of this. Tony Blair wins the election in 1997. The Good Friday Agreement is 1998. The Terrorism Act is 2000. Hamas military wing was added in 2001. The Terrorism Act represents the consolidation of what was a domestic regime and it makes it international.

Bronagh McMonagle, Karen McCole and Catherine Huttton.

As a result, Mr Magennis said, Hamas which does not operate in Britain, does not claim to operate there, does not want to operate there, never has operated there finds itself on this list of proscribed organisations.

If you find yourself on the list, or are affected by a decision to prescribe an organisation, you can make an application for that decision to be overturned and that is what Hamas has done, added Mr Magennis.

Having been heavily criticised for his involvement in the Hamas case, Mr Magennis observed: It is perhaps unsurprising the British establishment does not like it whenever you observe the rules of their own game.

They claim to care about the rule of law, they claim to believe people who are affected by these sweeping decisions should have a right to legal representation and yet predictably, the right wing press in particular in Britain, has been extremely hostile to the fact that Hamas has seen fit to make this application.

And it has been extremely hostile towards me for agreeing to accept the brief on behalf of a proscribed organisation.

What is clear is that if you look to history, you look at the South African example, you look at the Northern Irish example, if you want peace in a protracted conflict, you have to speak to organisations that win elections.

There is every reason to believe, if an election was held in Palestine tomorrow, Hamas would do very, very well. Certainly it was the case that in 2006, Hamas won an election, and so anyone serious about peace can and should support this application.

It is clear the Terrorism Act 2000 makes it a crime to express support for my client but that does not mean people cannot and should not express support for this application because you can support an application for de-proscription without supporting an organisation that makes it.

Turning to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Mr Magennis described Zionism as being in crisis.

It seems like it is not going to survive this crisis, thats my view, he said. The sitting prime minister of Israel [Benjamin Netanyahu] has an arrest warrant out; if he comes to visit the territory of his closest ally he will be arrested. If he comes to the UK, if he comes to France he must be arrested, that is a matter of law.

His government stands accused of committing genocide, not just by South Africa but by a number of European Union countries and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has already said that is plausible but perhaps more importantly, in July last year, the ICJ confirmed that Israel is committing a crime, committing apartheid.

It is an apartheid state, which means it has created a system of racial domination by one racial group over another. It is also the case that soldiers who go to serve in the Israeli military are increasingly facing prosecution.

I am involved in a case in Britain where we did research on 10 British people who went to serve in the Israeli military. If they come back to Britain, there is every reason to believe they will be arrested. Thats Britain, thats one of Israels closest allies, to say nothing of South Africa.

It is about evidence of people committing a crime. We have never really seen a genocide so well documented and that is important because the people who are committing it feel such a sense of impunity, that they can get away with doing whatever they want, that they feel emboldened to just post tiktoks of themselves doing the most obviously immoral and illegal things.

The Dublin born barrister, who grew up in the North, said he could not predict the future.

My main message is for people not to be complacent. Israel is in crisis and it is for us to make sure that it is a terminal crisis. And we do that by continuing to apply principled, critical pressure to the people who are apologising for this genocide while it continues to happen.
Stormont Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has been accused of a dismissive and flippant tone towards GPs who say they are facing a funding crisis.

A British Medical Association (BMA) representative told a Stormont committee that general practice seems not to be a priority for Mr Nesbitt after he implemented a disputed funding contract.

But the minister has insisted he was honest and accurate when delivering a statement to the Assembly earlier this week.

On Monday, Mr Nesbitt said he would impose the 2025/26 General Medical Services (GMS) contract on GPs, even after it had been rejected in a ballot of BMA GPs.

The minister said there would be a package of 9.5 million in additional core funding for services for GPs.

Dr Frances OHagan, chairwoman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Northern Ireland GP committee, said she had intended to use her appearance before the Stormont Health Committee to update MLAs on the contract negotiations.

She added: It is safe to say Monday changed all that.

My colleagues are deeply saddened by the ministers statement on Monday, his dismissive comments and at times flippant tone showed just how out of touch he is with his officials about the crisis that is going on in general practice at the minute.

It is difficult to think of another profession anywhere in the health service that has been spoken about the way GPs have been spoken about in both the Assembly and in the media over the last few days.

This is the first time that a sitting minister in Northern Ireland has chosen to impose the GMS contract on GPs and to say that GPs across the country are frustrated and angry is a complete understatement.

Dr OHagan said there was obviously a huge gulf between our members and the minister.

She said the BMA had asked for an increase in core funding for surgeries.

She added: Our ask for 80 million is to stabilise general practice, keep the lights on, retain and recruit additional staff.

This represents 1% of the health budget, which is 8 billion.

It was suggested numerous times, both in the media and the Assembly, that this was a blank cheque, which could not be further from the truth.

It is to stabilise our service.

She added: Practices have been collapsing around the minister and he has chosen to ignore that.

We can only reach the conclusion that general practice is not a priority for our minister.

When announcing his decision to implement the contract, Mr Nesbitt had raised concerns over general practice surgeries where patients are having to phone hundreds of times to get an appointment.

Dr OHagan said: I fully understand the frustration of patients, phoning a surgery repeatedly only to be told there are no appointments.

Something we as GPs are desperate to change, it is so frustrating to us that this happens.

She added: The phone-in experience is a symptom of demand in general practice and the lack of investment in core funding to cope with this demand.

We have been stressing this crisis for over 15 years.

Dr OHagan told the committee: It is premature for the minister to conclude negotiations as he did.

As GPs we give you our heartfelt assurance that we will keep fighting for our service.

We will keep fighting for a safe service for our patients, we will keep fighting to provide more for patients.

But to do that, we then have to have more to be able to provide more.

Committee chair Philip McGuigan urged the minister to re-engage with the BMA.

He said: We are all a bit shocked and disappointed with what we heard (from) the minister and the tone of his commentary on Monday.

Speaking to the media later on Thursday, Mr Nesbitt said there was no point denying that there was a problem with access to GP services.

He said: I was setting out to be honest and to be accurate in my statement and that is what I was, I was honest and I was accurate.

We dont have 80 million. We have a shortfall that is now north of 600 million because pay awards add about 200 million of pressures to the budget.

There is a problem with access and we cannot deny that, we have to face up to it and we have to try and deal with it.

He added: They (GPs) know that my intention is to shift left, which means we get the focus off the acute hospitals into primary care, into community care, into social care, into prevention and early intervention and that is the thing that GPs do best.

I think we have got a solid foundation in terms of our joint aims and ambitions going forward.
Gerry Adams is seeking very substantial damages of at least 200,000 euro (168,000) from the BBC, the jury in his libel action against the broadcaster has heard.

However, the British public service broadcaster has argued it would be a cruel joke to award the former Sinn Fein president with any damages.

Mr Adams is suing the BBC over what he claims was a grievous smear against him, while the organisation described the action as a cynical attempt to launder his reputation.

The former Sinn Finn leader says a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, for which he denies any involvement.

Mr Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent for 20 years.

In the programme broadcast in September 2016, an anonymous source given the pseudonym Martin claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Mr Adams gives the final say.

In 2009, the dissident republican group the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing and a garda investigation into the matter is ongoing.

Both sides in the defamation case have concluded their closing arguments and the jury is in the process of hearing Judge Alexander Owens charge.

Declan Doyle, SC, for Mr Adams, said the damages that should be awarded to his client had to be very substantial indeed.

Mr Doyle said the widespread circulation of a national broadcaster of an allegation of a cold-blooded cynical murder could not be a defamation of anything other than very serious or exceptional.

It had been explained to the jury by the BBC that the awards for damages fall into four general categories, with top of the scale defamation covering awards of more than 200,000 euro  but rarely over 300,000 euro (250,000).

Paul Gallagher, SC, for the BBC, had argued that the jury should find in favour of the broadcaster  and would therefore not have to consider the amount of damages.

He said the reputation of the plaintiff was important for the case, adding that it was universally held that Mr Adams had a reputation of being in the IRA and on its Army Council.

Mr Adams denies ever being in the IRA.

On the subject of awarding damages, Mr Gallagher said: What sort of cruel joke would that be? That he can continue to deny any association and come into court and say, I am a peacemaker.

He said if they were to decide to give damages, the BBC would be asking for a nominal amount because anything else would be unjustified, adding that it was open to the jury to award one euro.

Mr Gallagher said the broadcaster stood by the programme and was entitled to put forward matters raised in the documentary, which he said were of public importance and done in good faith.

He said the journalist in the broadcast, Jennifer OLeary, had done her work in a forensic, fair and reasonable way.

Mr Gallagher said the meaning of the programme and article was not that Mr Adams had sanctioned and approved the killing, and that the claim had to be taken in context of the whole report.

The former attorney general said the claim made by Martin was presented as an allegation and was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial, the claim of responsibility by the Real IRA and the state of the Garda investigation.

In his closing statement, Mr Gallagher told the jury that Mr Adams could not say his reputation had been harmed by the programme if his reputation was of being a member of an organisation that held this country and the North as a hostage for three decades.

The SC said the atrocities committed by the IRA had to be borne in mind, adding that it is difficult to imagine the level of fear, tension and horror created.

The death, the harm and the fear were palpable.

He added: Are we to say nothing about that? Mr Adams would like us to say nothing.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Adams put himself forward as a peacemaker with no hint of other aspects of his reputation, adding that the bad part cannot be ignored.

He said that the former Sinn Fein leader had accepted in court that it had been repeatedly reported in newspapers and elsewhere that he was a member of the IRA.

Facing the jury, Mr Gallagher said the case is important because it goes to the right to free speech, the right to ask questions, and the right to give information to the public.

He said the case was brought by Mr Adams based on a number of fundamental errors, adding: The most glaring was the error that there was only one source.

Mr Gallagher said this was contradicted by the documents in the case, noting that Ms OLeary had given evidence that the claim was corroborated by five other sources.

For Mr Adams, Mr Doyle told the jury in his closing argument that in addition to the right of free speech, there is also a right to a good name.

He said the BBC had distorted the balance and tension between these two fundamental constitutional rights.

He said they had been told it was a cruel joke for Mr Adams to seek damages, but he added that this was the remedy for any citizen who is defamed in Ireland.

He said the function of damages in such a case is both for the injury to the reputation but also to restore and vindicate that reputation.

Mr Doyle said the meaning of the words of the allegation in the broadcast and article were that Mr Adams had effectively cold-bloodedly ordered the murder of Mr Donaldson.

He said this was clear as day and there was no interpretation of those words.

He said the jury had to proceed on the basis that this was a false allegation as the BBC had not asserted that it was true.

He said the revelation was presented as a big reveal.

Mr Doyle said the jury was being asked to consider the so-called responsible journalism' of the Spotlight documentary.

He said he was not arguing that Ms OLeary set out deliberately to shaft and bury Mr Adams, but that the BBC had not acted in good faith as there was no attempt to verify the allegation.

Mr Doyle said the seriousness of the allegation carried a higher burden to ensure it was right, but that the BBCs attempts were beyond woefully inadequate.

He said the BBC should have asked An Garda Siochana about the allegations and that the assertions about corroboration did not fulfil the requirement of verification, which he said would have told the journalist that Mr Adams was not in the frame at all.

He said the reporting was reckless journalism with a reckless indifference to the truth.

Mr Doyle said it was cheek beyond belief to say that Mr Adams was ignoring a significant part of his reputation and accused the BBC of deliberately and cynically ignoring his reputation for peace and reconciliation.

He said the broadcaster had put to the jury a deluge of hearsay and damaging material about Mr Adams, arguing that this was a reductive, narrow prejudiced view.

Mr Doyle said reputations change over a period of time.

He added that great heroes of many places have their origin in armed conflict, noting that South African president Nelson Mandela as well as Irish revolutionary figures Eamon DeValera and Michael Collins had all been involved in violence.

Just because the BBC does not equate what happened in Northern Ireland to any of these things, doesnt mean that they might not be true.

Mr Doyle said Mr Adams was a person who, with others, brought peace to this island.

He added that he had been repeatedly elected to the British parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and Dail Eireann.

Thats his reputation.

He added: Its not this narrow, biased limited and reductive reputation as contended for by the BBC  it just isnt.

He told the jury that the BBC had made no apology, correction or offer of amends.

The jury will continue to hear the judges charge on Friday.
Stormont Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said he has signed a pay increase for workers, despite not having the budget to cover it.

He said the salary increase recommended totalled around 200 million in Northern Ireland, including 3.6% for nurses and staff under Agenda for Change, 4% for doctors, and 4% plus 750 for resident doctors  formerly known as junior doctors.

It comes after recommendations were announced earlier by pay review bodies, including 3.6% for health workers and 4% for doctors.

Mr Nesbitt said he expects to have to issue a ministerial directive, which will go to the Finance Minister, John ODowd, and potentially be passed to the Executive for approval.

Speaking to media at the Department of Health headquarters in Belfast on Thursday afternoon, Mr Nesbitt said he was very unhappy last year when health workers had to wait until the end of the financial year for confirmation that they were going to get their pay parity recommendation implemented.

I said I wanted it to be the last time and Im determined it is the last time, he said.

Ive also said on numerous occasions, all things being equal, as soon as this years awards are made public, I would want to action them in full and thats what Ive been done, Ive just signed this, and will be taking it to the permanent secretary upstairs as soon as we are finished, and that will start a process, and where that goes I cannot be sure.

I think inevitably the permanent secretary will have to say to me, you cannot afford to do this, so you will have to give me a ministerial direction.

That, to be clear, is not an event, its part of a process. That ministerial direction is likely to go to a finance minister who may choose to implement it, or pass it on to the Executive for final decision.

Chair of NI Council Dr @AlanStout19 commenting on todays recommendation from the Doctors and Dentists Pay Review body (DDRB). pic.twitter.com/9OCDly0mbn  BMA Northern Ireland (@BMA_NI) May 22, 2025

He added: I want to pay the workers because the workforce keeps the health service running  you need buildings, you need beds, you need equipment, you need medicine. All that is as nothing if you dont have the workforce.

I am doing what I think is right, which is to honour the pay parity agreements.

Dr Alan Stout, chair of the BMAs Northern Ireland council, said the 4% does not sufficiently address the years of pay erosion, adding that it will be deeply disappointing for doctors right across Northern Ireland.

While we welcome the news that the minister intends to pay this in full, his comments are some cause for concern in terms of the time it may take to get a final decision on making the award, delaying again the actual uplift for members, he said.

For too long, doctors have faced significant pay erosion, combined with working in a failing health system where their jobs have become more complex and pressured.

This has had a hugely demoralising effect on doctors and has led to doctors choosing to leave the health service or to reduce their contracted hours.

It is imperative that pay keeps pace with the rates offered elsewhere, particularly in the Republic of Ireland, so that we can retain doctors in our health system and recruit doctors from elsewhere.

Our health service is hanging by a thread and is running on the goodwill of individuals.

Each branch of practice will now consult with their committee and members to decide on their next steps.
Column: Distorted WWII narrative impedes unity, progress

17:00, May 22, 2025 By Xin Ping ( Xinhua

This month marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. Many European countries are holding events to commemorate this both dark and glorious episode of history.

Britain held military parades and a Royal Air Force flypast. Germany educated the younger generation about the dangers of hate speech through the testimonies of concentration camp survivors, and Russia held nationwide celebrations on the Victory Day of the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War.

Yet regrettably, on the occasion meant to commemorate this collective human memory, divisions persist.

The EU warned European leaders not to attend Victory Day events in Moscow; Latvia and Lithuania barred Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic from flying through their airspace en route to Russia; Ukraine claimed that it cannot guarantee the safety of foreign leaders attending events in Moscow on May 9; and the United States asserted that it contributed far more to WWII victory than any other nation.

These actions stem from four fundamental misinterpretations of the WWII history in the Western capitals.

First, denying the anti-fascist nature of WWII. The United States has long equated the Soviet Union with the Nazis since the height of the Cold War, propagating the falsehood of a joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland. Japan, meanwhile, spreads its victimhood narrative, whitewashing its wartime atrocities and aggression across Asia and portraying itself as being "unjustly punished" by atomic bombs, in order to rebrand itself as a "normal nation" and garner international sympathy.

Second, exaggerating Western contributions while downplaying non-Western roles. The United States persistently overstates the significance of its Lend-Lease Act and glorifies Anglo-American efforts. However, historical data tell a different story: While the United States provided 31.4 billion U.S. dollars to Britain and 11.3 billion dollars to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, China received mere 1.6 billion dollars. The Soviet Union's cumulative GDP from 1941-1945 reached 996.7 billion dollars, demonstrating that its war effort relied overwhelmingly on domestic resources. The Lend-Lease's impact on both the Eastern Front and China was far less decisive than claimed.

Third, a Eurocentric framing of the war. Western narratives fixate on the 1939 German invasion of Poland as WWII's start, ignoring earlier conflicts. In reality, Asia's anti-fascist struggle began with China's resistance following Japanese provocations on Sept. 18, 1931, while the United States only entered the war after Pearl Harbor 10 years later. WWII comprised diverse global theaters, each shaped by unique geography, resources and industrial levels. Judging them through a Western lens distorts true historical events.

Fourth, erasing China's sacrifices. Contrary to ignorant portrayals of China as a passive participant:

-- China resisted Japanese aggression over the decade from 1931 to 1941 with minimal Western support.

-- Chinese forces killed and injured 1.33 million Japanese invaders, at a cost of 35 million killed and injured, critically delaying Japan's southward and westward aggression, making China the linchpin of the Asian theater.

-- China twice deployed expeditionary forces to northern Myanmar from 1942 to 1945, directly supporting British and U.S. operations in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Yet flawed Western narratives have fractured the world's moral unity and undermined the postwar international order.

Today the world stands at a crossroads: Upholding multilateralism or letting unilateralism prevail? Following international law or reverting to the law of the jungle?

China's answer remains clear: Learn from history and forge a shared future.

As an architect and defender of the postwar order, China champions progress. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative, it offers pathways beyond zero-sum rivalry, safeguarding peace with wisdom and action.

Eighty years on, WWII's lessons still echo: The might-makes-right logic cannot govern humanity. Obsessions with supremacy, zero-sum games, and "my nation first" policies lead only to ruin.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
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Taiwan-US SMEs look to deepen AI collaboration as industry leaders call for strategic alliances

Industry leaders at the Taiwan-US SMEs AI Industry Forum during InnoVEX 2025 urged transforming one-off partnerships into strategic alliances to leverage artificial intelligence in addressing global challenges, with healthcare emerging as a critical focus.

This demographic crisis is creating an urgent demand for AI healthcare solutions to address the challenges of the aging population in both nations. Taiwan faces becoming "the country with the lowest birth rate in the world by 2035," according to Kai Hua, CTO at Microsoft Taiwan.

Microsoft's Azure AI Foundry, with over 1,800 models, offers Taiwanese companies access to cutting-edge cloud solutions. "Interoperable data allows us to co-develop healthcare solutions with the US, addressing the needs of aging populations in both nations," Hua explained.

"AI can empower small nations like Taiwan to deliver outsized impact, much like the internet did for small companies 25 years ago," said Chris Cottorone, president of TriOrient Investments, citing potential in healthcare and biotech to improve lives globally. "Taiwan, with 24 million people, might be able to do the work and service of 200 million."

For Taiwanese SMEs entering the US market, several significant challenges exist. Cottorone highlighted the challenges faced by Taiwan's family-run SMEs, including talent shortages and navigating a fragmented market of 50 states with varying regulations. "Don't go it alone," he urged, recommending partnerships with US chambers of commerce and state offices to mitigate risks.

"Many SMEs are family-run and struggle with leadership development, capital access, and regulatory complexity," said Cottorone, advising companies to "focus on talent and leadership development" to overcome skill shortages in the US market.

Yvie Tai, drector of Business Development at Qualcomm, stressed the importance of market research and intellectual property strategies. "Taiwanese companies must ensure their solutions address US customer needs and protect their IP globally," Tai said. She recommended three key strategies: addressing real customer needs, leveraging Taiwan's strong R&D talent and supply chain, and partnering with established US companies.

"They can help you when you try to enter the market... people might not know you, especially when you are a startup or SME, but they know the partner you are working with," Tai explained, suggesting this creates trust with US entities.

Both Chen and Cottorone endorsed the creation of permanent cross-border innovation hubs to replace fragmented bilateral efforts.

Tai highlighted Qualcomm's seven-year incubation program in Taiwan, which connects startups to US customers and fosters mutual growth. "Collaboration is not a one-company game," she said, urging more US corporations to launch similar initiatives.

"We're not just helping startupswe're helping ourselves by discovering new applications," Tai noted. The program connects startups to potential customers rather than providing financial investment, building relationships that benefit both ecosystems.

Article edited by Jingyue Hsiao
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has issued a warning notice on their website as a safety issue has been identified with the Bugaboo Giraffe Highchair.

The risk associated with the product is that of injuries. If the highchair legs are not properly tightened, they may detach when an infant is seated in the baby set. This can happen due to pressure from the childs legs and feet on the seat and footrest, which may lead to injury.

The brand is Bugaboo. The batch numbers are 200001001, 200001002, 200001005, 200001007, 200001013

There are approximately 122 affected products in the Republic of Ireland.

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What to do:

Bugaboo has launched a modification programme and is offering a free repair kit, which includes updated screws, a revised Allen key, and instructions for correct installation. You can check if your Bugaboo Giraffe needs a repair kit here.

If you want to continue using your Bugaboo Giraffe highchair until you have replaced the screws using the Repair Set, you can only do so safely if you put the footrest in its lowest position. You can put the footrest in its lowest position by pressing the two buttons located on either side of the footrest while sliding the footrest down. For further details see here.

Customers seeking a refund should contact Bugaboo directly.

For more information please contact Bugaboo at service.uk@bugaboo.com
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A 70 year old man who was caught travelling at 175kph on the M1 motorway has avoided a driving ban after completing a driver's awareness course as directed.

Dundalk district court had previously been told eight of his employees could lose their jobs if Sean Cooney of Fairview, Warrenpoint, Co. Down was disqualified from driving.

He was originally charged with dangerous driving arising out of the incident at Braganstown shortly before 10.30pm on March 12th last and Judge Nicola Andrews initially refused a Defence request to convict him of the lesser charge of careless driving.

The case was put back for a 5,000 donation to the court fund and to enable the defendant to complete a drivers awareness course, with the judge saying I'll consider reducing that down but warned him that if he stands back before her again a disqualification is going to be the least of your worries.

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When the case was called last Wednesday the Defence confirmed Mr Cooney had done the course and the payment had been made.

Judge Andrews reduced the charge to careless driving and imposed a 500 fine.
Gerry Adams is engaging in a cynical attempt to launder his reputation by suing the BBC, a jury has been told.

The former Louth TD is suing the BBC over what he claims was a grievous smear against him.

He says a BBC Spotlight programme, and an accompanying online story, defamed him by alleging he sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson, in which he denies any involvement.

Mr Donaldson was shot dead in 2006, months after admitting his role as a police and MI5 agent for 20 years.

In 2009, the Real IRA claimed the killing, and the Spotlight programme was broadcast in September 2016 while a Garda investigation was ongoing.

In the programme, an anonymous source given the pseudonym Martin claimed the shooting was sanctioned by the political and military leadership of the IRA and that Mr Adams gives the final say.

Paul Gallagher SC, for the BBC, said the broadcaster was entitled to put forward the matters raised in the programme, which he said were of public importance and done in good faith.

He said if the corporation was not able to rely on that as a defence in this case, it would be difficult to think of a situation where it would apply.

Mr Gallagher said the broadcaster stood by the programme and determined the allegation was something people needed to know.

He added that it does not do us good to bury the past.

We need the media and the media is essential to keeping this country in a state where we face up to the past, where we adjust to it, and make sure these things dont happen again.

We cannot gild over what has happened, we cannot ignore the suffering of the victims.

Mr Gallagher said the journalist in the broadcast, Jennifer OLeary, had devoted almost a year of her life to the programme and had the courage and perseverance to stand by what she had unearthed and put forward to viewers to form their own view.

He said this was done in a fair and reasonable way, adding that Ms OLeary had been forensic in her work.

The SC said the claim made by Martin was presented as an allegation and was immediately followed by Mr Adams denial, the claim of responsibility by the Real IRA and the state of the Garda investigation.

Mr Gallagher said the meaning of the programme and article was not that Mr Adams had sanctioned and approved the killing, and that the claim had to be taken in context of the whole report.

He said the reputation of the plaintiff was important for the case, adding that it was universally held that Mr Adams had a reputation of being in the IRA and on its Army Council.

Mr Adams denies ever being in the IRA.

In his closing statement, Mr Gallagher told the jury that Mr Adams could not say his reputation had been harmed by the programme if his reputation was of being a member of an organisation that held this country and the North as a hostage for three decades.

The SC said the atrocities committed by the IRA had to be borne in mind, adding that it is difficult to imagine the level of fear, tension and horror created.

The death, the harm and the fear were palpable.

He added: Are we to say nothing about that? Mr Adams would like us to say nothing.

Mr Gallagher, a former attorney general, said Mr Adams put himself forward as a peacemaker with no hint of other aspects of his reputation, adding that the bad part cannot be ignored.

He said the jury heard how the IRA tortured and murdered informers and this was a reality that could not be ignored.

Mr Gallagher said Mr Adams had accepted that it was repeatedly said in newspaper reports and elsewhere that he was a member of the IRA.

The barrister told the hearing that Mr Adams had said the Brighton bombing at a Conservative Party conference in 1984 was legitimate, and asked how the former Sinn Fein president could say his reputation had been harmed by a programme where somebody said he had sanctioned the murder of an informer.

He said Mr Adams had expressed regret for incidents of violence but not condemnation.

What does regret mean? Usually it means you dont do the thing again.

You cant regret, regret, regret  and keep on regretting for 30 years.

Facing the jury, Mr Gallagher said the case is important because it goes to the right to free speech, the right to ask questions, and the right to give information to the public.

He said the case was brought by Mr Adams based on a number of fundamental errors, adding: The most glaring was the error that there was only one source.

Mr Gallagher said this was contradicted by the documents in the case, noting that Ms OLeary had given evidence that the claim was corroborated by five other sources.

He said Mr Adams was claiming his reputation is as a peacemaker and that the jury was being asked to leave aside the reality of his reputation.

He said: Lets pretend that this is something other than it is and theres some easy way out.

Lets carry on the pretence and ignore the reality.

Mr Gallagher said a reluctance to answer questions is a hallmark of Mr Adams public reputation.

On the subject of the potential award of damages, he said: What sort of cruel joke would that be? That he can continue to deny any association and come into court and say, I am a peacemaker.

The barrister said the world is seeing a chipping away of democracy through people telling others what they can say.

He said this was at stake in this case and there could not be a situation where people in the media are afraid to speak due to the consequence of being sued.

This is not a tittle tattle story. This is not a matter of disputable public benefit.

This was a matter which goes to the heart of what we are and what the society we live in is.

He questioned if the plaintiff was suggesting the perspective of victims of the Troubles should not be heard, adding it would be extraordinary if they were silenced once more.

Mr Gallagher told the jury there were 729 views of the online article located to the Republic of Ireland between September 21 2016 and December 31 2017.

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The programme was viewed on terrestrial television by 15,800 people from 11,700 households in the Republic.

A further 40 views on the BBC iPlayer were located to the Republic over the 29-day period it was available starting from September 21 2016.

Mr Gallagher said if the jury were to award damages, the circulation would certainly come into the moderate range.

He said the BBC would be asking for nominal damages because anything else would be unjustified, adding that it was open to the jury to award one euro.

The case continues.
Above L-R: Louth County Councils Olivia McCormack, Mark Kimmins, Paula Gribben, David Conway (Chief Executive), Cllr Paddy McQuillan (Mayor of Drogheda), Finbar Gethins, Cllr Andrea McKevitt, Grainne Fogarty and Gareth Fitzpatrick at the Blue Flag raising ceremony at Clogherhead Beach. Photo: Ciaran Culligan

Three of Louth County Councils beaches - Clogherhead, Port, and Templetown - have retained their Blue Flag status for 2025, while Seapoint beach in Termonfeckin has been awarded a Green Coast Award.

The awards were presented by Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage James Browne TD, at a ceremony held at Ravenport Resort, Kilmacoe, Co. Wexford, overlooking Curracloes Blue Flag beach, on Friday last.

This year marks the 38th year of the International Blue Flag programme. A world-renowned award trusted by millions around the globe, the Blue Flag programme is operated in Ireland by An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE).

Beaches and marinas that achieve this accolade must comply with a specific set of criteria relating to water quality, information provision, environmental education, safety and beach management.

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This year also marks the 22nd anniversary of the National Green Coast Programme. The Green Coast Award recognises beaches that boast excellent water quality and are valued for their natural, untouched beauty.

Cllr Paddy McQuillan, Mayor of Drogheda Borough District, added: These awards are testament to the tireless efforts of Louth County Council, coastal groups, and the community to protect and enhance our coastline.

As we celebrate Volunteering Week, it's important to highlight the key role played by voluntary Clean Coasts groups. These dedicated volunteers take part in community clean-ups and work alongside Louth County Council to help manage the nominated beaches. At its core, the Green Coast Award programme aims to build strong community partnerships to protect and improve local coastal environments, while also honouring the hard work and commitment of those communities.

At the 2025 Blue Flag raising ceremony at Clogherhead Beach, David Conway, Chief Executive of Louth County Council, expressed his strong support for the Blue Flag Programme, stating: We take great pride in the collaborative efforts that made this achievement possible.

In particular, during Volunteering Week, we want to acknowledge the incredible dedication of the volunteers who work tirelessly to keep our coastlines clean and beautiful. Louth County Council remains firmly committed to protecting our environment for future generations.

A record-breaking 99 awards were announced by the Minister for the 2025 season, with 89 beaches and 10 marinas in Ireland receiving the Blue Flag Award, while 70 beaches were awarded the Green Coast Award.

Further information on the Blue Flag and Green Coast awards may be found at www.beachawards.ie
Two projects in Louth have secured a total of 19,196 in funding under the Heritage Councils 2025 Community Heritage Grant Scheme.

The Heritage Council is distributing more than 1.9 million through the Scheme this year to support 132 heritage initiatives across Ireland. These grants will enable local communities to conserve and celebrate Irelands built, cultural, and natural heritage. The funding recipients in Louth are as follows:

Comhaltas - Oriel Centre Dundalk Gaol - 15,560

Blackrock Tourism and Development Group - 3,636

The 3,636 in funding awarded to the VisitBlackrock Tourism Group will support the Dudley Lifeboat Restoration  Feasibility Study, a detailed assessment of the potential to preserve and restore the historic General R. Dudley Blake lifeboat as a heritage and tourism attraction.

The lifeboat holds deep significance for Blackrocks maritime heritage, having served as a symbol of safety and resilience following the Mary Stoddart Disaster in Dundalk Bay in 1858. This grant represents an important first step in exploring how the vessel can be conserved, celebrated, and potentially made accessible to the public.

Comhaltas at the Oriel Centre at Dundalk Gaol is to receive 15,560 for the renewal of user interface technology

at Dundalk Gaol.

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All funded projects can begin work immediately and are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Previous recipients in Louth have used this funding to restore architectural features, digitise local archives, and carry out conservation training  strengthening both the preservation of heritage and the local economy.

In 2024, the scheme funded the Highlanes Gallery to install a collections management system, supported Drogheda Tidy Towns to refurbish 24 historic wards in Drogheda and related street signage and funded the Friends of Ardee Bog to undertake an ecological assessment at Ardee Bog by investing in equipment for monitoring and data recording.
A senior Conservative MP appeared to make offensive and insensitive comments about the Irish potato famine, the Commons has heard.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, responding to a question, said he was not sure if a person could subsist entirely on a seed potato before adding it may have been tried historically and not with enormous success.

Labour MP Adam Jogee said the words appeared to reference the mid-19th century tragedy, which resulted in around one million deaths after the potato crop failed in successive years.

Speaking during a Commons debate on the economy on Wednesday, Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) intervened to raise the seed potato industry.

He said: We have been crying out to get the best of Scottish seed potatoes into European markets, and therefore I do say thank you to the Government for this, it means a lot to farmers, and I have had very positive comments about it. I am being absolutely fair-minded about that.

Mr Griffith, in his reply, said: I am not sure if one can subsist entirely on a seed potato, I think that may have been tried historically and not with enormous success, but I congratulate the honourable member on the success of his seed potato industry.

On Thursday, Mr Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) raised a point of order in connection with the remarks made by Mr Griffith.

After Mr Jogee read out the words spoken by Mr Griffith in the debate, one MP could be heard saying: Shocking.

Mr Jogee, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Ireland and the Irish in Britain, added: These words appear to be referencing the tragedy of the Irish potato famine which, if true, is of course offensive and insensitive and, of course, would have taken place at the time in the United Kingdom.

So can you please advise on how best we can remedy any offence caused by outlining the process for an honourable member to withdraw such a statement?

Deputy Speaker Judith Cummins replied: The chair is not responsible for the shadow secretary of states remarks but the honourable member has put his point on the record.

Mr Griffith and the Conservative Party have been approached for comment.
The median house price for houses sold with the Dundalk Eircode A91 in March 2025 was 330,000, according to figures released by the CSO (Central Statistics Office) in their Residential Property Price Index report.

The county wide median house price for Louth now stands at 330,000, the same as February 2025.

Of the 62 houses sold in Dundalk in March, 23 were to first time buyer owner-occupiers; 32 to former owner-occupiers and 7 were to non occupiers.

Forty-four of these houses were existing builds while eighteen were new homes.

The median price of the new houses sold was 388,750 and the median price of existing houses sold in March was 273,000.

In Drogheda, the median price of residential properties sold in A92: Drogheda in March 2025, was 358,999.

Of the 88 houses sold in Drogheda in March, 44 were to first time buyer owner-occupiers; 39 to former owner-occupiers and 5 were to non occupiers.

Thirty-five of the houses sold were new houses and fifty-three were existing. The median price for the new houses sold was 385,099 while for existing houses it was 300,000.

Commenting on the national results, Niall Corkery, Statistician in the Prices Division, said: Residential property prices rose by 7.5% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 8.0% in the year to February 2025. In Dublin, residential property prices saw an increase of 6.0%, while property prices outside Dublin were 8.7% higher in March 2025 when compared with a year earlier.

In the 12 months to March 2025, house prices in Dublin rose by 5.9% while apartment prices increased by 6.2%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in Fingal at 7.8% while South Dublin saw a rise of 4.7%.

Outside Dublin, house prices were up by 9.1% and apartment prices rose by 4.3%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest growth in house prices was the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) at 12.8%, while at the other end of the scale, the Mid-East (Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow) saw a 6.7% rise.

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Households paid a median or mid-point price of 362,500 for a residential property in the 12 months to March 2025. The highest median price paid for a dwelling was 665,000 in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, while the lowest was 180,000 in Leitrim.

The most expensive Eircode area over the 12 months to March 2025 was A94 (Blackrock, Dublin) with a median price of 750,000, while F45 (Castlerea, Roscommon) had the least expensive price of 150,000.

In March 2025, 3,617 dwelling purchases by households at market prices were filed with the Revenue Commissioners, an increase of 9.1% when compared with the 3,314 purchases in March 2024. The total value of transactions filed in March 2025 was 1.5 billion. This was made up of 2,866 existing dwellings with a value of 1.2 billion, and 751 new dwellings with a value of 360.6 million.
The good weather has brought the Galeon Andalucia to Cork a day early, and its captain told The Echo the crew cant wait to meet the people of Cork.

The reproduction Spanish galleon had been due to arrive on Thursday, but fair winds made for smooth sailing on its trip from the United Kingdom, and it docked instead at midday on Wednesday.

The 160-foot-long ship is a full-sized, six-deck, seven sailed replica of the armed merchant vessels manufactured by Spain and Portugal between the 16th and 18th centuries.

The magnificent Galeon Andalucia, photographed through trees on the Marina after passing Blackrock Castle on a visit to Cork where it is berthed at Custom House Quay. Picture: Denis Minihane.

The galleons captain, Miguel Cuesta, said he and his 30-strong crew were delighted to dock in Cork.

Its our first time in Ireland, and we are really hoping to meet a lot of people from Cork, Mr Cuesta said.

We have heard a lot about this beautiful city, and we cannot wait to see the sights.

Described as a floating museum, the galleon is financed in part by the Spanish government, and partly by providing public tours.

The Galeon Andalucia will be at Custom House Quay in Cork until Sunday, May 25, and open to visitors from 10am to 8pm.

Tickets for adults are 14, 7 for children aged five to 10 years, and 30 for a family of two adults and up to three children between five and10 years). Free for children under five years old, who must be accompanied by an adult.

To book tickets, visit: tickets.velacuadra.es.
The closure of Crosshaven Post Office, which is planned for the end of next week, has been described as devastating for the village.

A statement from An Post, issued yesterday, said Crosshaven Post Office will close on Friday, May 30.

From that date, post office services will be provided at Carrigaline post office which is situated in the Supervalu Shopping Centre there, read the statement.

An Post said the closure had been prompted by the resignation of the outgoing postmaster, and that despite advertising the vacant contract, it had not received any expressions of interest.

Disappointing

Seamus McGrath, Fianna Fail TD for Cork South Central, said it was very disappointing news and would be a huge loss to the Crosshaven community.

I know the current proprietor worked hard to keep the post office open in recent years, and I thank her for her service, Mr McGrath said.

Even at this stage, I would encourage An Post to keep all avenues open for the possibility of keeping a post office in Crosshaven for the future.

Fine Gael councillor Una McCarthy said that in rural and coastal communities such as Crosshaven, the post office was more than just a place to post letters, offering a vital hub for services and social connection, particularly for older residents and those without access to transport or digital services.

Unfair

Its simply unfair that people are now expected to travel to Carrigaline to access these basic services, she said.

While efforts were made last year to keep the post office open, sadly they were not successful.

The Government must do more to ensure that post offices in towns and villages like Crosshaven remain viable and continue to serve the needs of local communities.

Devastating

Eoghan Fahy, local Sinn Fein councillor, said the loss of the post office would be devastating to the people who use the post office on a regular basis.

Its going to be a huge loss to people in Crosshaven, and its going to be a fair distance for people who might have been able to walk to the post office and who now will have to get the bus in to Carrigaline, he said.

Fianna Fail councillor Audrey Buckley said the Government needed to do more to support local post offices.

Its a very sad day for Crosshaven, especially for the older people who would use the post office and for whom it would always be a great place to call in for a chat, thats really going to be a loss thats most keenly felt, it can be like a day out when people call in for their pensions and social protection, she said.
Gardai from the Cork City Division have conducted a search under warrant at a domestic residence in Passage West as part of ongoing operations targeting the sale and supply of drugs in Cork city on Sunday, 18 May.

During the search Gardai seized approximately 80,000 worth of suspected cocaine, two improvised firearms, ammunition and a number of other items. The drugs seized will be forwarded to Forensic Science Ireland (FSI) for analysis.

A man in his 50s was arrested and conveyed to a garda station in Cork city. He has since been charged and is due to appear in front of the Cork District Court this morning, Thursday 22 May at 10:30 am.
A masseur who sexually assaulted a woman at the end of a massage she was having for her 40th birthday was jailed yesterday for two-and-a-half years.

Judge Helen Boyle noted the evidence in the case that the woman was having a massage at a reputable hotel spa when she was asked by the masseur if she would like a surprise at the end of the session, and was then sexually assaulted in a manner that caused her to jump from the table in absolute shock.

Judge Helen Boyle sentenced 35-year-old Lenon De Souza Seara of Granary Court, North Ring Road, Cork, to three years in jail with the last six months suspended at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

This was an egregious breach of trust in what should have been a safe environment for this lady. It was violation of her body and her privacy which caused her shock and upset. She was vulnerable, alone in the room with you.

She was flustered, she was shocked, she almost did not go back to the changing room.

"She had to tell her husband and attend to her children as if nothing happened. She knows she did nothing wrong and she feels violated. She is right  she did nothing wrong, the judge said as she sentenced the accused.

Sergeant Brendan McBride testified that the 40-year-old woman went for a massage in a hotel spa in Cork, at the end of which the masseur asked her if she wanted a surprise and her thought was that it was something to do with the massage like extra oils or something of that nature. Sgt. McBride said that what occurred was that the 35-year-old man licked her vagina.

He later pleaded guilty to carrying out this sexual assault on July 4 2024.

The woman said in a victim impact statement which was read by Sgt. McBride on her behalf, I was flustered and vulnerable. For context I was wearing disposable underpants, had a towel over my face and my body was draped with a towel. So effectively I was otherwise completely naked. When the incident occurred I immediately sprang up and took the face towel off. Basically leaving me even more exposed. Shocked and repeating, "no no no", I was naked and frazzled.

I flip-flopped between speaking out on what occurred and just never mentioning it again. After all I was physically unharmed.

To speak up catapulted me into a process I didn't intentionally sign up for. I had to arrive home and tell my husband that I had been taken advantage of. I had to witness his horror and concern.

He (the defendant) said it was a misunderstanding. Ok so it was a misunderstanding. What does that mean to me? Is it somehow my fault?

" Did I not pick up on something earlier? Was he testing me all along? What was the motivation? How far was he going to go? How many times has he done this before? How did I not gauge it and stop it earlier? These questions I will never really know the answer to but they are the ones that keep looping in my head.

I feel so naive and stupid. How did I not know how to speak until it was too late? How far would it have gone? I feel like I can't trust my own observations and missed the danger signs. That makes me question myself as a person.

I feel bad for what he is going through and wonder how he is supporting himself after his loss of earnings - It also makes me mad that I feel responsible for that. I did nothing wrong. I was violated. I spoke up. I have to live with the unanswered questions.

Defence barrister Elaine Audley said the defendant had shown insight and remorse since this and offered his abject apologies. She said he grew up in poverty in Brazil where his brother was murdered and that as a child he was surrounded by sexualised behaviour and grew up to have difficulties with social interaction
The community in Kanturk will rally around to support the family of the man from the North Cork town who lost his life in a drowning accident in the River Blackwater near Mallow on Wednesday evening, Cork North West TD John Paul OShea has said.

The man, believed to be 39, got into difficulty in the water at Dysert, Dromagh, near Mallow at around 7pm on Wednesday evening. The alarm was raised shortly afterwards.

The Garda Press Office has indicated that the body of the man was recovered from the water downstream by members of the Cork County Fire service.

It was removed afterwards to Cork University Hospital for a post mortem to take place. A file is to be prepared for the North Cork Coroners Court for an inquest to take place at a later date.

The victims name has not been confirmed publicly yet pending the notification of relations.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Fine Gael TD for Cork North West, John Paul OShea described the incident as a terrible tragedy.

My thoughts are with this mans family, neighbours and friends, he said. The community here is in shock and very traumatised by the events yesterday evening.

We will all rally around as a community over the coming days.
I wonder where the two wreaths are now?

The sun shone down brilliantly last week when we gathered by the quayside in Cobh. A piper played as the flags of many nations fluttered in the balmy breeze. There was a fine gathering present from home and away.

Two hundred years ago to the day, in May, 1825, there was a massive throng on that same quay. It probably was a day of hugely mixed emotions as hundreds of reduced farmers and their families boarded ships bound for Canada.

Yes they were heading for a new life in a new country - with the promise of 70 acres of land for every family - but their hearts must have been breaking.

Weve often heard of American Wakes held before Irish emigrants left to go to America. A wake was normally held on the death of a family member, but going to America or Canada was akin to a bereavement.

In truth, the chance of the departing person or persons ever again seeing Ireland and their family was really non-existent.

The event in Cobh was to officially commemorate what are known as The Robinson Settlements. In 1823 and again in 1825, a total of 11 ships departed from Cobh with over 2,500 immigrants on board.

It was an initiative of the English Government to help people from Ireland settle in Canada. I suppose one could say it was a great and benevolent gesture - paying for the journey to Canada, then providing land, seed, tools, blankets, and household goods, and charging just the equivalent of fourpence an acre in annual rent.

Canada was hugely underpopulated, whereas the opposite was the case here in Ireland.

After the Napoleonic Wars ended, Irelands population was rising. The lumper potato was indeed a super-food as half an acre could feed a large family for the year.

The population continued to grow as we became more and more dependent on the humble spud -with awful consequences in the 1840s.

Under the old Brehon method of inheritance, a landowner with 20 acres left his farm equally between his sons. If there were four sons, each got five acres - in a few generations there were thousands of farms in this country of less than four acres.

In the 1820s, land agitation against landlords began to grow. Were the Robinson Settlements a handy way of getting rid of trouble-makers? We can only surmise all these things.

One thing we know is that Canadian Peter Robinson held the position of Commissioner of Crown Lands. In late 1822, the scheme was devised - those going to Canada would be given every help to establish themselves as farmers in their new country.

Those travelling had to be under 45, many went in family groups, and tens of thousands applied to go. It was probably the local landlords, in conjunction with Robinson, who had the final say in the selection process.

The first two ships, the Hebe and the Stakesby, left the quayside in Cobh in 1823. In total, 568 immigrants were on board.

While Robinson was in charge of the the nuts and bolts of the assisted immigration, it was the English Under Secretary for the Colonies Robert John Wilmot-Horton who was in control of the entire venture.

Horton selected the greater Blackwater Valley as the place to get the potential settlers, to set out from Cobh bound for Upper Canada. Those that went were mainly from the hinterlands of Charleville, Mitchelstown and Fermoy - basically, north Cork and south Limerick.

Many years ago, a Richard OMeara from Canada called to visit me here at home. He was trying to trace his family tree going back to a John Mara from around here. A few years later, a Michael Hoare was here  he had Mara ancestry also.

In the 1830s, a Mara family lived here in my townland of Garryantaggart, and, with Richard and Michael, I tried to unravel the story of their family. Neither of them spoke of the Robinson Settlements.

Then, some years later, Glenn OMeara - nephew of Richard - began to correspond with me and a new family vista opened up.

Glenn is a direct descendant of John Mara, who was on board the Stakesby. Along with his family, John Mara left Ireland for the last time on July 8, 1823, and arrived in Quebec, nearly two months later, on September 3.

Now, over two centuries later, Glenn is one of the main organisers of the Robinson Settlement reunion here in Ireland next September. He was in Cobh last week with other Settler descendants to mark the 1825 immigration and launch the September event.

It was an emotional event for Glenn and Paul Hickey, who placed two floral wreaths on the water of the quayside. In silence then, we watched as the gently lapping waves took the beautiful wreaths away, away on the surf until we could see them no more - where are they now?

The thoughts and indeed wishes of all present were surely: May the vast waters of the North Atlantic never separate us from the warm fires we forever will share at the hearth of our Irish and Canadian families.

Later, in the Heritage Centre, Francis Dwyer, who described himself as a Canadian, a son of Ireland too, spoke proudly of his family history, intertwining the shamrock and the maple leaf. He told us how he had met his wife and now, on this historic trip home, he poignantly brought her ashes to be scattered in the Emerald Isle.

I think I might never have heard of the Robinson Settlements but for a series of articles written by a historian friend of mine, Christy Roche.

Research is painstaking, and sometimes can yield very little, but now and then one can hit the jackpot. Myself, Pat English and Robert Barry were in Cobh that day - we had met Glenn on a visit to the Fermoy area last year. We bade farewell to him last week with plans to meet in September.

The Ballyhoura Development organisation has a packed programme running from September 15-21 - a must for anyone with even the remotest interest in this fascinating chapter in Irish history.

Another colleague of mine, Eamonn Cotter, is a dab hand at checking and double-checking everything  public records, old documents and a myriad of other sources. Telling Eamonn of our Cobh trip, he went away and in a few hours he unearthed an amazing item. The John Mara who travelled on the Stakesby (Glenn OMearas ancestor) had written letters home to his brother James, one in 1823 and another the following year - and Eamonn had found them!

The 1823 letter went...

My dear James, I take this opportunity of writing you these few lines hoping to find you & family being in as good health as I am at present thanks be to God... from Quebec we came in a Steam Boat to Montreal which is 180 miles up the river St Lawrence and from there we all came up the country in waggons about 300 miles to a place called Ramsay where we are encamped I got my land on the 12th of November and as to my Judgement is as good land as any in this country... our Superintendent Mr Robinson is behaving as humane and as gentlemanly as any man in the world I am very much in dread as you missed the opportunity when we were coming hold yourself in readiness very early next spring and come here along with the two Callaghans and two sisters, come forward along with you and Richard Cotter and Edmond Carey bring some potatoes and a crock of fresh butter with you on board at your coming

I remain your dutiful brother until death, John Mara.

In the 1824 letter, John urges James to leave behind the poverty and dirty misery in Ireland.

Gradually, the Maras became Mearas and by the 1880s had added an O.

Glenn had never seen the letters and was absolutely amazed.

Heres to the great gathering in September, and heres to you Mr Robinson.
On May 22, 2015, Ireland made history by becoming the first country in the world to hold a referendum on marriage equality and pass it by the popular vote of the people.

That we became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage by popular vote is still incredible.

It showed Ireland in a positive light across the world, and the inclusivity and acceptance of others of the Irish people was celebrated.

The referendum and the result was a powerful affirmation of how far we had come, and also a recognition that nothing can be taken for granted. The joyous scenes across Ireland, captured best by the unbridled emotion and joy in Dublin Castle, and on the streets in the immediate vicinity is something I still savour and marvel at to this day.

The referendum didnt just happen, but as with many other examples of social change, was the culmination of a journey and a process that included actions being taken at a social, community and personal level as well as at a political level.

Supporters for same-sex marriage at Dublin Castle in 2015 after the referendum on marriage equality

Since the 1970s and the 1980s, there was a continuous growth in community LGBTQ+ advocacy, including Gay Project and LINQ Ireland here in Cork, which prompted and demanded political change.

The LGBTQ community began as a social movement, an action-based community established in response to persecution by church, state and other entities.

The Irish Gay Rights Movement was founded in 1974, The National LGBT Federation organised Irelands first pride parade five years later.

For decades, activists fought tirelessly for visibility, dignity, and equal rights. People like David Norris, and Cork champions like Arthur Leahy and Kieran Rose commenced that long arduous journey.

At a political level, some of those steps included decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1992, the passing of civil partnership legislation in 2010 and in 2014 the Constitutional Convention recommended the government hold a referendum to recognise same-sex marriage.

Across the political system there was ongoing debate and discussion within all parties on how the rights of LGBTQ+ people could be advanced and progressed.

I was fortunate to have played my part in that process as Chair of the Fine Gael LGBT group.

As a member of the Oireachtas I was able to engage with then Taoiseach Enda Kenny and I am grateful for the support and encouragement he gave me and our community.

At its simplest level, the vote was about changing the constitution and affording a constitutional right to a minority community, the LGBT community who had been excluded for so long.

However, at its core, the vote was about recognition of people, their personal identities and stories. The campaign was fought on this basis and on love. It empowered people to tell their personal stories as we walked the streets of Cork telling our story, winning minds and hearts as our nation said yes to marriage equality.

As we emerge from Cork LGBTQ+ Awareness week, I would like to acknowledge Siobhan ODowd, a passionate, life-long advocate and campaigner who passed away last week.

Siobhan and others would argue LGBTQ awareness is not just about celebrating the past, but about defending the present and shaping a more inclusive future. Its about standing up, speaking out, and ensuring no-one is left behind.

ILGA-Europes Annual Review of the Human Rights Situation of LGBTI People across Europe and Central Asia highlights a significant rise in anti-LGBTI hate speech from leaders across the region, and a subsequent rise in violent attacks on the streets.

Conchobhar O Laoghaire and Jerry Buttimer after their marriage ceremony at the Triskel Christchurch, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

While more LGBTQ people across Ireland and Europe are now open about who they are, in many cases they face more violence, harassment, and bullying than before. Harassment and violence against the LGBTQ community is on the rise across Europe. Also on the rise are forces intent on dividing us, on rolling back protections, and marginalising communities.

Far-right populist and anti-democratic forces are using anti-LGBTQ rhetoric to distract not only from corruption, but wider assaults on free speech, civil society and fair elections. LGBTQ people are being scapegoated, and it is fuelling hate crime and normalising hate speech against this community.

What we are facing is not a cultural disagreement, its a coordinated and growing attempt to undermine the values of equality, tolerance, and inclusion. It is precisely in the face of this that our visibility, our solidarity, and our continued activism become even more vital.

Think for a moment about what it means to truly belong. It means feeling secure in your identity. It means having your voice heard and respected. It means knowing you are not just tolerated, but celebrated for the unique and wonderful individual you are. This is the Cork we strive to build - a place where every thread in the tapestry of our society is valued for its strength and its beauty. In part, that is what marriage equality achieved.

Progress cannot be taken for granted and events like Pride, role models and highly visible campaigns are necessary to encourage people, including beyond Ireland, to make more noise, be braver, and use all the tools at our disposal to ensure we dont go backwards.

The journey towards full equality and acceptance is not always easy. We live in a world that is evolving, countries that were once a beacon of freedom and liberty are now a place of intolerance and fear.

Our work is not yet done, the fight for equal rights, for true equality, continues, but a decade on, the refererendum remains a poignant memory of a stand-out day that came, to quote Charlie Birds book title. Some Day in May.
I had the pleasure of opening a superb art exhibition in the West End Art Studio in Mallow a few days ago.

It was such a compliment to be asked, especially when it was all about making art inclusive.

The artists in the Connecting Artists Collective Exhibition, run by Connections Art Centre, hail from all over the country.

Through the Connecting Artists programme, they hone their skills and also have a vibrant network of mentors and fellow artists to work with and progress their art.

Another element to this exhibition made it very close to my heart. All 17 artists who were exhibiting their work are neurodivergent or have an intellectual disability and they often dont get the recognition or credit for their work that they should.

Actually, as a whole, artists in general do not get enough funding or support for us to value the arts as a way to make a living. Yet, we all want and need art in our lives to bring expression, colour, curiosity, and joy to our experiences.

We must support the arts more and particularly the talent of very under-represented and under-estimated groups. For me, art is really about using your voice in your own way, being creative, being heard, and being understood.

Article 30 of the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities focuses on rights around participating in cultural life, but it importantly also sets out the conditions of enabling people with disabilities to develop and utilise their creative, artistic, and intellectual potential. This can involve providing access to education, training, and peer support in areas like arts, crafts, and sports.

This is bigger and wider than just providing people with access to art. It deals with intellectual property and sees a creative life as a really valid one.

As I spoke to the group on the evening, I shared with them how sometimes I forget to call myself a writer, despite the fact that I have spent my whole adult life engaging in writing and making it an integral part of my career.

I am often dismissive of a core piece of my endeavours because, as well as being part of my work, it is also my favourite hobby. Its totally fine for it to be both, I just forget that sometimes and truly, being able to call writing both work and pleasure makes me extra lucky.

One of my favourite things about the evening was meeting my good friend and colleague Amy Begley, who was one of the exhibiting artists. Amy is an incredible artist and illustrator and Ive been lucky to work with her on advocacy projects for years. I have always wanted to own one of her pieces so when I got the chance, I finally got a beautiful print of a sketch she did of the Coliseum in Rome. She draws what she sees in an exceptional way and I will be so proud to have it on my wall at home.

Amy joked that she would have given me a piece without having to buy it. However, I wanted to support her work and the notion art can be work, so good work should be paid for.

The Connecting Artists exhibition has an array of digital prints from the artists for sale and it will run again this weekend on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11am to 5pm each day. It is very easy to click a QR code and snap up a lovely piece and support these great artists in their endeavours.

Its well worth seeing if you get the chance.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

A Wounaan tribe woman rows a canoe in Puerta Lara, Darien Province, Panama on April 11, 2015. Eric Lafforgue / Art in All of Us / Corbis via Getty Images

In Panama, forest cover on Indigenous lands has remained stable at almost double the rate of protected areas  including government parks  due in great part to deeply-ingrained cultural values, a new study led by researchers from McGill University has found.

The findings challenge a longstanding assumption about conservation: that in order to protect biodiversity, people must be kept out.

Local land use emerges from peoples worldviews and values regarding nature, the authors of the findings wrote. [D]eforestation and disturbance in Indigenous lands exhibit a low density, spatial concentration on forest edges, and temporal stability, explaining forest cover stability. According to participatory mapping, obtaining food from agriculture mainly occurs where deforestation and disturbance are more concentrated. In contrast, other instrumental (i.e., gathering food and household materials) and relational values (e.g., sacred sites) are more dispersed in forests.

In their exploration of cultural drivers and ecological patterns, the research team combined an analysis of 20 years of satellite data with collaborative mapping sessions with eight members of Embera communities from eastern Panama.

Wed print satellite images and ask men and women to point out the areas they use and value, said lead author of the study Camilo Alejo, who earned a Ph.D. in Biology from McGill, in a press release from the university. That included places where they farm, hunt or gather, and also where they hold ceremonies or avoid for spiritual reasons.

The participatory mapping showed that when forest areas were considered culturally and spiritually significant, they tended to remain intact.

Many Indigenous communities integrate farming, spirituality and conservation in how they use the land, Alejo explained. Our findings show that this diverse set of values aligns with areas where forests have remained stable, suggesting a strong connection between cultural practices and long-term forest stewardship.

Sacred sites, areas with medicinal plants and traditional gathering and hunting grounds were spread throughout the forest, supporting sustainable use.

Our maps suggest that forests remain intact not just because theyre remote, but because of how people value them, Alejo emphasized. These arent just undisturbed forests; theyre consistently cared for.

The study called attention to a crucial policy issue: Some Indigenous communities  particularly those in remote areas such as the Darien Gap  do not have formal titles to their land, though their stewardship has clearly preserved forests.

Paradoxically, in many legal frameworks, you have to exploit land to claim title, Alejo said. That incentivizes deforestation, which undermines exactly the kinds of practices that are keeping these ecosystems intact.

The authors are calling for land title policy reforms across Latin America so that Indigenous stewardship will be recognized as a legitimate, proven form of land use.

They hope the findings will lead to new frameworks that combine conservation, cultural heritage and food security.

This study shows how much we can learn from Indigenous cosmovisions: holistic worldviews that connect nature, culture and wellbeing, Alejo said. Theres real potential to rethink how we manage land, not just in Panama, but globally.

The study, Diverse values regarding nature are related to stable forests: the case of Indigenous lands in Panama, was published in the journal Ecology and Society.

By weaving scales and perspectives, our results illustrate that diverse values regarding nature framed by Indigenous worldviews can beget stability to forest cover, contributing to Indigenous peoples quality of life, climate change mitigation, and biodiversity conservation, the authors of the findings wrote. To align these contributions with global climate and biodiversity targets, it is crucial to disarticulate land ownership from deforestation, grant formal titles to Indigenous lands, and foster equitable incentives to Indigenous peoples.
Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, EcoWatch is a digital platform dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions.

By reversing a takeover by non-native species, native species have a chance at recovery in their natural habitats, according to a new study led by scientists from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis).

The study, published in the journal Biological Conservation, explored how removing invasive bullfrogs could affect the native western pond turtles, which have experienced a major decline in their range. As UC Davis reported, the turtles have disappeared from about half of their original range.

Some threats to the western pond turtles come from habitat destruction, development, pollution and disease, but invasive species are also a major threat, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Reed canary grass and other invasive plants make it more difficult for turtles to find their nesting sites. Non-native animals such as bullfrogs, red-eared slider turtle and largemouth bass also pose threats by increasing competition for food, while bullfrogs prey on the pond turtles, furthering their decline.

An American bullfrog tadpole, left, is bigger than the young native northwestern pond turtle in this photo. Bullfrogs often prey on native turtles in the western U.S., contributing to their decline. Sidney Woodruff / UC Davis

One reason American bullfrogs are among the top worst globally introduced pests is because they eat everything  anything that fits into their mouth, Brian Todd, senior author of the study and a professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology at UC Davis, said in a statement. Theyve been causing declines to native species everywhere theyre introduced, which is around the world.

From 2016 to 2022, researchers studied four sites in Yosemite National Park, two that maintained the bullfrog population and two that had the bullfrogs removed. To remove the bullfrogs, scientists captured bullfrog eggs and left them out to dry. For adult bullfrogs, they captured the frogs and euthanized them based on American Veterinary Medical Association guidelines.

In the ponds without bullfrogs, the researchers found that pond turtles were between two and 100 times more abundant compared to the ponds where bullfrogs remained.

The team also found that only larger, older pond turtles survived in the ponds with bullfrogs, with the turtles at these sites being up to 36% bigger and up to 97% heavier. The only juvenile pond turtles the researchers found at bullfrog-present sites were in the bullfrogs stomachs.

The field crew, including UC Davis scientists, hikes in the study area near Yosemite National Park. Sidney Woodruff / UC Davis

The eradication of the bullfrogs made the presence of other native animals, in addition to the pond turtles, more noticeable to researchers.

As bullfrog presence declined, we started to hear other native frogs call and see native salamanders walking around, said Sidney Woodruff, lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at UC Davis. Its nice to be able to go back to these sites and hear a chorus of native frogs calling again that previously would not have been heard.

Although the authors noted that bullfrog eradication may not work at all ponds due to cost and time constraints, they explained that the study showed promise for using this approach in the most vulnerable conservation areas.

While the challenges associated with invasive species removal are significant, our study shows the potential benefit of reversing species declines and restoring freshwater ecosystems, they concluded.

Sidney Woodruff of UC Davis holds a northwestern pond turtle at their field site in Yosemite. Sidney Woodruff
The Federal Trade Commission has finally given up the ghost on challenging Microsoft's $68.7 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard. "The Commission has determined that the public interest is best served by dismissing the administrative litigation in this case," the agency said in an order issued today.

The federal regulator had attempted to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard both before and after the deal closed back in October 2023. The FTC just lost out on its latest appeal against the merger earlier this month . The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FTC had not successfully argued several points of its case for a preliminary injunction against the merger, which is one of the biggest acquisitions in the video game industry.
Its been a while since a company has thrown out a truly silly number of megapixels for a new phone. After all, the double-digit pixels found on most flagship handsets are just used to pixel bin the size down without harming the quality. Rejoice, then, when I tell you Honors new midrange 400 series is shipping with a 200 megapixel sensor working hand-in glove with an AI to make use of all that data. 200 megapixels, in this economy? Apparently so.

The 400 series is the latest in Honors not-at-all-confusingly-named N series of midrange handsets which bear numbers. Naturally, while theres also a low end version of the 400 to buy, the companys focus here (as always) was on the 400 Pro 5G and the regular 400 5G. Both models get that 200 megapixel primary camera tied to a Samsung-made 1/1.4-inch sensor with both optical and electronic image stabilization. Both are also equipped with a 12-megapixel macro/wide camera, plus a 50-megapixel front-facer.The Pro, however, also gets an additional 50-megapixel telephoto that the company claims will produce some impressive digital zoom.

Of course, these handsets are less about the raw numbers and more about what they can do when the images are run through the AI. Honor says the phones will capture and enhance portraits, erase passers-by, create videos from still images and can even remove reflective glare when taking pictures through panes of glass. Plus, on-device generative expand will expand the edge of an image if you feel the original was too closely cropped when you shot it. And Honor says the phone will use AI to create film simulation models to annoy all your Fuji-owning frenemies. Honor hasnt yet been clear about how much of these AI innovations will be part of the phone and how much will require an extra subscription.

As for the rest of the phone, the 400 Pros spec list is no slouch: Its got a Snapdragon 8, Gen 3 processor, 16GB RAM and a 5,300mAh silicon carbon battery. Up front, youll be staring into a 6.7-inch 2,800 x 1,280, 120Hz AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. If you opt for the regular 400, then youll get a Snapdragon 7, Gen 3, 8GB RAM and a 6.55-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a similarly beefy peak brightness. Both handsets will get Honors often-ballyhooed AI thread optimization for better sustained performance under load, such as if youre gaming on the go. And the company has tweaked the graphics engine to better handle peoples massive photo libraries without stuttering.

The Honor 400 series is available to buy in Europe and the UK from today, with the Pro 5G setting you back 800 / 700. The regular 400 5G can be snapped up for 500 / 400 if you want 256GB storage and 550 / 450 if you want 512GB instead. Naturally, if youre looking for a cheaper alternative, the Lite version can be picked up for 300, but the company didnt share any specs for that particular handset. As usual, there's no word on if this handset will come to the US unless you import it yourself.

What Honor has been eager to point out, is the company has committed to providing six years of Android support for these handsets. That means buyers should expect to get at least that many OS and security updates, and Android 16 will be coming to the handsets by the end of the year.
X is still experiencing performance issues a few days after a data center outage brought the site down, with feeds struggling to load on Saturday morning. The site went down for many users around 8AM ET, when downdetector shows a major spike in problem reports. It's since come back up, but performance remains spotty.

In an update about the incident posted on Friday night, X's engineering team said, "We're still experiencing issues from yesterday's data center outage. Login and signup services are unavailable for some users, and there may be delays in notifications and Premium features. Our team is working 24/7 to resolve this."

According to posts on the company's developer platform page, a "site-wide outage" began at 11AM PT on Thursday, May 22, had "been resolved" as of 10:35 AM PT Friday morning. But the developer site notes that X is still experiencing "degraded performance" of some of its login features. The company has yet to officially comment on the ongoing technical problems since an update Thursday afternoon, when the company said that a data center outage was causing "performance issues" for some users.

X is aware some of our users are experiencing performance issues on the platform today. We are experiencing a data center outage and the team is actively working to remediate the issue.  Engineering (@XEng) May 22, 2025

At the time, reports on downdetector.com, which tracks online service outages, spiked as users reported issues accessing direct messages and other features. While the company hasn't elaborated on the cause of the prolonged outage, the timing lines up with a reported fire at an X data center in Oregon on Thursday. According to Wired, firefighters responded to a fire at a data center leased by X near Portland, Oregon at 10:21AM PT on Thursday. The extent of the damage is unclear, but the fire crews were reportedly on-scene for several hours. Batteries were apparently a contributing factor to the blaze.

X hasn't responded to questions about the fire or the data center outage it disclosed. However, this wouldn't be the first data center-related headache X has faced. Shortly after Elon Musk took over the company in 2022, he insisted on moving the company's servers out of a facility in California to a space in Oregon in a bid to save money. And while Twitter engineers had insisted the process would take months, Musk insisted on moving them in a matter of weeks, in an incident detailed by Musk's biographer.

While Musk was able to accomplish his goal of quickly relocating the servers, his haphazard approach to the move resulted in months of technical issues for the company and an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Update, May 24, 2025, 11:07AM ET: This post has been updated to reflect the ongoing issues with the site's performance and to include the latest update from X about the outage. It was previously updated multiple times, and that information is now included in the story above.
The European Parliament and EU governments have reached a landmark agreement on new rules allowing emergency access to patent-protected products during cross-border crises. The regulation introduces a compulsory licensing framework aimed at ensuring the swift availability of critical technologiessuch as vaccines or microchipsacross the EU during emergencies.



Under the new regime, the European Commission will be empowered to issue compulsory licenses without the patent holders consent, but only in clearly defined emergencies and as a last resort. This will allow alternative manufacturers to produce essential goods, helping to avoid supply shortages in times of crisis. Defence-related products are excluded from the scope.





Patent holders will still receive fair compensation, with payment terms set by the Commission. To prevent misuse, strict conditions will apply to licensees, including limits on production volume and restrictions on exports. Violations could result in fines of up to 300,000, or 50,000 for SMEs.





An advisory body will assist the Commission in evaluating the need for such licenses, and both rights-holders and licensees will be consulted throughout the process.





Rapporteur Adrian Vazquez Lazara (EPP, Spain) hailed the deal, saying it strikes a crucial balance between protecting intellectual property rights and ensuring essential technologies are available swiftly in times of crisis.





The regulation is expected to be formally adopted in the coming weeks and will enter into force one day after its publication in the EUs Official Journal.
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Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.
On May 21, 2025, X is alive with global storiesfrom a deadly bombing in Pakistan to Israels potential strike on Iran and a thrilling Europa League final. These 10 trending topics reflect the worlds current pulse. Join the conversation on X and share your thoughts!



1. Suicide Bombing in Pakistan Kills 4 Children, Injures 38

A suicide bombing targeting a school bus in Pakistan killed 4 children and injured 38, with Baloch separatists suspected, according to posts on X. Users are expressing outrage and fear, while some question the governments security measures in the region. What can be done to prevent such attacks?



2. Israel Prepares Strike on Irans Nuclear Sites, Oil Prices Surge

Israel is reportedly planning an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, per U.S. intelligence shared on X, causing oil prices to spike. Some users see it as a necessary move, while others warn of catastrophic escalation in the Middle East. Is this a step toward stability or chaos?



3. Son Heung-min Leads Tottenham in Europa League Final Tonight

Tottenhams captain, Son Heung-min, is confirmed to play against Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League final on May 21, 2025, after recovering from a muscle strain. X users are hyped, with fans of both teams sharing predictions and memes. Who will win the Europa League title?



4. Pentagon Reopens Probe into 2021 Afghan Withdrawal

The Pentagon has reopened its investigation into the 2021 Afghan withdrawal, sparking debates on X about accountability. Some users demand transparency, while others call it a political distraction amid ongoing global conflicts. Should the U.S. revisit this chapter?





5. Mali Protests Erupt Against Military Junta

Mass protests in Mali against the military junta are trending on X, with users sharing footage of clashes and calls for democracy. Sentiment is splitsome support the juntas stability measures, while others demand civilian rule. Whats the path forward for Mali?





6. Fire at Chevron Oil Platform in Angola Injures 17

A fire at a Chevron oil platform off Angola injured 17 workers, trending on X as users discuss corporate accountability and environmental risks. Some call for stricter regulations, while others highlight the economic importance of oil production. How should Chevron respond?





7. Pope Offers to Host Ukraine Peace Talks

Italian PM Meloni announced that Pope Leo XIV is ready to host Ukraine peace talks, a move trending on X. Users are hopeful but skeptical, citing the complexity of the conflict as Putin visits Kursk after Ukrainian advances. Can the Pope broker a breakthrough?





8. Xbox Game Pass Wave 2 Lineup Excites Gamers

Microsofts Xbox Game Pass Wave 2 lineup, featuring Metaphor ReFantazio, The Division 2, and Monster Train 2 (launched today), is trending on X. Gamers are thrilled, but some worry about the departure of older titles mid-month. Which game are you playing first?





9. U.S. Stock Markets Dip Amid Fiscal Concerns

U.S. stock markets closed lower on May 20 due to worries over Trumps tax-cut bill and a sovereign credit rating downgrade. X users are debating the long-term economic impact, with some blaming policy missteps. Are you worried about the U.S. economy?





10. Elon Musk Commits to Tesla for Five More Years

Elon Musk announced hell lead Tesla for at least five more years, a topic trending on X. While some users praise his vision, others point to Teslas recent 20% revenue drop and question his focus amid legal challenges with X. Is Musk the right leader for Teslas future?





Credit Note: Content generated by Grok, created by xAI.
US President Donald Trump said in a Fox News interview broadcast that he had found a buyer for the TikTok short-video app, whom he described...
Thursday, May 22, 2025

The administration has alienated allies while not clearly impressing competitors and foes. In the short term our old friends will step warily, in the long term theyll wish us ill. That sentence is taken from Peggy Noonans excellent summary of how we arrived at the present moment as a country. As a naturalized American citizen who has always been exceedingly proud of what this nation stands for, and how we are viewed in the world, those thirty words in Noonans column are among the saddest I have read in a long time.

It is no secret that the leaders and some segments of the populations of countries like Iran, Russia, North Korea, and many others, hate us with a passion. They abhor our way of life, and dont miss any opportunity to discredit anything we do. If they could, some of those leaders would wipe us off the world map in an instant. As powerful and as wealthy as we are, our lives as Americans would be quite miserable on this planet if we didnt have the friends who have long shared our values and stood by us in our times of need.

I vividly remember where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001. I watched on live television the utterly horrific scenes after the hijacked planes were used by the terrorists to bring down the Twin Towers. Apart from those who were killed instantly, over a thousand others were trapped in the topmost floors. Many were incinerated. To escape the inferno, some jumped to their deaths from floors as high as 95 and above. I was aghast when, in the middle of all that, some television channels showed pictures of people dancing and celebrating in the streets of some of those countries that despise us. They were rejoicing in the murdering of so many of our compatriots in such gruesome fashion.

The day after that national tragedy, our NATO allies sprang into action. They invoked Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which says that an attack on one member constitutes an attack on all. Canadian and European soldiers joined our armed forces in Afghanistan when we embarked on the hunt for the masterminds of the terrorist attack. It was the first and also the only time that Article 5 has been invoked. President Trump can claim to be unaware of history, even one as recent as this, but the rest of us shouldnt display such amnesia.

It is quite unfathomable that we would recklessly antagonize these allies to the point where, as Noonan predicts, they will, at some juncture, start praying for harm to befall us. Can anyone imagine Canadians dancing in the streets of Ottawa and Toronto and rejoicing because something bad happened to us? What about such scenes in London, Berlin, Warsaw and other European capitals?

Anyone who dismisses Noonans fear should read this Wall Street Journal article about the increasing resentment that Canadians harbor for us. Many of them have reportedly canceled their planned vacations to the U.S. In their zeal to boycott U.S.-made products, more and more of them are using apps to identify and ditch our products in their grocery stores. Canadian retailers are said to be taking advantage of the hostility to attract shoppers to their domestic brands, in a practice that people are calling maplewashing. U.S. companies selling into the Canadian market have been forced to come up with a variety of measures to counter some of the backlash.

President Trump has a point when he expresses frustration with some of the domestic policies of our allies. Defense spending is one of them. I had to do a bit of digging to find out that several member countries of NATO were contributing far less than they should to the collective defense budget, even after decades of being prodded to do so. In our trading relationships, there are probably some imbalances that we could legitimately complain about, although that picture is a lot murkier and it is difficult for someone like me to know the extent of the problem. But does the president honestly believe that when it comes to unfair trade practices, the EU is nastier than China? Why doesnt he realize the enormity of the damage his loose language causes?

This problem, the careless destruction of centuries-old friendships, is compounded by the fact that the president is not even impressing any of our competitors and foes, as Noonan correctly says. He bungled his tariff spat with China, prompting senior Chinese officials to high-five each other in Beijing. On Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has ignored pretty much everything he has asked him to do because he has concluded that our president issues mostly empty threats.

It is extremely unwise, and indeed irresponsible, for our political leaders in Washington to sit idly by while the president prioritizes his personal friendship with Vladimir Putin over our national interest. As he is doing that, the Russian dictator continues to plot actively with his fellow autocrats to take down America. For proof of that, check out the list of world leaders who traveled to Moscow on May 9 to hang out with him during the parade to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

The Republicans in Congress who enable the presidents reckless behavior should know better. They should remember that they represent the American people. No one sent them to Washington to help President Trump solidify his relationship with a tyrant that he inexplicably seems to have strong affection for. Vladimir Putin is certainly not a friend of the American people.

Some of the damage that President Trump has done to our relationships with our European and other NATO allies may be irreversible. But there is still quite a bit left to salvage. We must act quickly. The best person to lead that effort is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

In his recent article in The Economist, Maurice Obstfeld, former chief economist of the IMF, referred to an interview Mr. Bessent gave a few months before joining the current administration. According to Obstfeld, Mr. Bessent proposed that tariffs should favor like-minded members of a security zone with shared values, shared economy, shared defense, [and] shared currency goals. Quite clearly, Secretary Bessent was referring to our European allies, Canada, Japan, Australia and other countries with open societies, not the likes of Russia, China, and Iran. He has exactly the right instinct when it comes to identifying who our friends are.

Based on some of the reporting in recent weeks, Secretary Bessent is considered to be one of the adults in the room in the current White House. The good news is that as treasury secretary, he gets ample opportunities to meet with people at the highest levels within the governments of our allied countries that we have needlessly alienated. He should use every chance he gets to begin the repair process.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said on Thursday that the Netherlands's agenda was to have "as free as possible" international trade, following the recent trade talks between China and the United States.

The US and China drastically rolled back sweeping tariffs on each other's goods for 90 days in May after talks in Geneva, marking a temporary de-escalation in a brutal trade war that roiled global markets.

Veldkamp, who was on his first official visit to China since taking office, said he discussed the tariffs with Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"The topics of the day were discussed...(including) international trade and tariffs and the agreement to which the US and China have come to in Geneva recently and the 90 days pause, and the developments in that regard," Veldkamp told reporters at the Dutch embassy in Beijing.

"For the Netherlands, of course, it will always remain on our agenda to have an international trade that is as free as possible," he said, adding that the country will "stand" with the EU on matters such as tariffs.

Earlier on in the day, Veldkamp told Wang that the Netherlands and the EU want to work with China "on the global challenges that we're facing together".

"For the Netherlands, the relationship with China is one of the most consequential ones that we have," he said.

Wang told Veldkamp that Beijing "highly values" its relations with the Netherlands and that the country remains China's second-largest trading partner in the EU.

On trade, Wang said that "current manifestations of unilateralism, protectionism and hegemonic bullying are seriously impacting the international trade system", in a veiled reference to the United States.

The Netherlands in January announced a tightening of export controls on advanced semiconductor production equipment -- a move that Beijing expressed "high concern" about, calling on the Dutch to "respect market principles".

Veldkamp on Thursday said that while China "always" asks for an easing on semiconductor export controls, it was in the Dutch's interest "to look specifically at national security concerns".

He added that the topic of semiconductors will likely be on the agenda when Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Reinette Klever visits Beijing next month.

isk/tc
The U.S. Senate wants to get rid of taxes on tips and its doing it with total bipartisan support, as Republicans and Democrats voted to approve a bill Tuesday evening co-sponsored by Montana Sen. Steve Daines.

While the bill still has a way to go before reaching President Trumps sharpie in the Oval Office, for Montana the move is notable because Big Sky Country did the exact opposite just last year when it began taxing tips.

Anytime we can provide tax relief for the middle class is something we ought to take a look at, Daines told the Chronicle on Wednesday morning. To see it pass with unanimous support in the United States Senate is a rare feat.

On Tuesday, the bipartisan bill received a push from Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, who sent it through a unanimous consent agreement, which  so long as no other senator opposes  allows the bill to be approved.

The process is rare in todays political climate. Its even rarer to gather support from all 100 members of the Senate, especially when altering tax code.

No taxes on tips was one of Trumps key promises to the American people, Rosen said, Politico reported. And I am not afraid to embrace a good idea wherever it comes from.

The No Tax on Tips Act, or S.129, was introduced by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

On Wednesday, Daines celebrated the win.

It recognizes the importance of providing some tax relief for hardworking middle-class Americans, Daines said, noting that its a tax break for some while incentivizing people to work in the service industry.

Its not on the presidents desk yet, but it was an important step forward, he said. Well see what the House does with it.

In Montana, tips were only first taxed last year after the Legislature tied its tax structure to the federal system in 2021. At the time, Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, argued in favor of taxing tips as a fairer method.

Hertz continues to stand by that perspective. In an interview with the Chronicle, he referred to removing taxes on tips as poor tax policy.

Even at the federal level, why should you exclude one form of income from taxation when you might have another person doing something similar but all their wages are W2 wages and theyre getting taxed 100%? Hertz asked. Its just a matter of fairness.

While Montana didnt specifically target tax tips in 2021, it did so by default in following the federal tax structure  like other states. If Trump signs the No Tax on Tips Act into law, it would impact Montana state taxes.

Tips in Montana would once again go untaxed as they were before 2021.

While some taxpayers would benefit, the state would lose some $6 million in extra funding based on the roughly $105 million Montanans reported as exempt tipped income in 2021, the Montana Free Press reported.
Fire crews work on the Horse Gulch fire near Helena on July 15, 2024 (Photo courtesy of Northern Rockies Incident Command).

Gov. Greg Gianforte made decisions on four firefighting laws this week, signing two bills and vetoing two others.

The two bills Gianforte signed  House Bills 84 and 421  dealt with wildland firefighting. The two he vetoed, House Bill 511 and House Bill 547, would have added $5 million in funding for local fire departments and another seeking to change a law preventing coordinated fire response in consolidated governments.

HB 84, called the Prescribed Fire Manager Certification and Liability Act, creates a certification program and outlines who is liable if a prescribed fire gets out of control. In 2022, a prescribed fire in New Mexico did, becoming the states largest in history.

The program will including training for fire managers and that their certification standards must match other states and organizations. A certified prescribed fire manager will only be able to be held liable for a wildfire getting out of control if, their actions constituted negligence or a higher degree of fault.

Fire scientists and proponents of HB 84  brought by Rep. Steve Gist, R-Cascade  have pointed to prescribed fires as an important forestry management tool.

I know it seems counterintuitive to fight fire with more fire, but the science is clear, said Mike Schaedel, representing The Nature Conservancy and member of the states prescribed fire council. Its the best tool we have. We know what wildfires can do without prescribed fire. They damage our forests and all those values we hold dear. This bill protects our forests. It enables private landowners to manage their lands in a safe and effective way that keeps people working in the woods.

Land management practices in the United States have led to some forests being overgrown and at risk for more intense wildfires, said proponents of the bill.

To address the current forest health and wildland fire crisis, we need to get on this, Gist said during a Senate hearing on his bill. We need to do prescribed fire. We need to do fuel mitigation followed up with prescribed fire. Prescribed fire is one tool of doing fuels reduction. Its essential.

HB 421, also sponsored by Gist, increased fire protection fees for land classified as forest from $50 to $58.70 for each landowner in a wildland fire protection district. For landowners with more than 20 acres of land, theres an additional fee per acre which increased from $0.30 to $0.49.

Two vetoes

The two vetoed bills were brought by Anaconda Democrat Rep. Scott DeMarois, who is a career firefighter.

HB 511 would have taken $5 million from the general fund and directed it to a special revenue account for dispersion to local governments via grants. The money would have gone to training facilities.

Training with the right equipment gives us critical knowledge of fire behavior and response techniques, along with that 3 a.m. muscle memory that saves lives, DeMarois said in a press release. With this veto, Governor Gianforte has shown us that he doesnt really stand with first responders, and doesnt really care about protecting firefighters or the communities that we put their lives on the line to defend.

Gianfortes veto letter pointed to the state needing a balanced budget and said instead of grants, should look at creating a low-interest loan program.

The budget and other bills with hefty price tags that the Legislature passed, however, are not fiscally responsible, the veto letter reads. Therefore, I will keenly review the budget and spending bills the Legislature passed, making some difficult decisions to protect taxpayers and their hard-earned resources.

The Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department also saw a setback in the form of a veto on HB 547. Due to a decision made in the 1970s to create a consolidated city-county government  only used by Butte and Anaconda  the Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department hasnt been able to coordinate as well with its outlying volunteer fire departments.

The bill would have struck a clause and replaced it with language that said, The fire department of the municipality must have a director of fire service or a fire chief, who shall manage and control the department in the manner prescribed by the ordinances of the municipality.

Proponents said that would fix the problem. Butte-Silver Bow officials and firefighters lined up in support of the bill.

We have great volunteers that work in Butte-Silver Bow, and this is not to take anything away from them, J.P. Gallagher, Butte-Silver Bow chief executive said during a Senate hearing on the bill. The director of Fire Services works directly for me and within the powers that are directed to the director of fire services, he has the ability to coordinate those services, but the unintended consequences of 1979 kind of stripped him of that ability to coordinate services.

Members of rural fire associations across the state spoke against the bill during House and Senate hearings. Opponents included Jerry Brothers, who is the vice president of both the Montana State Volunteer Fire Association and of the National Volunteer Firefighters Association.

We did not have a voice in the system at all, Brothers said during the bills Senate hearing.

DeMarois said during his Senate testimony the change would only impact the states two consolidated city-county governments, but Gianforte, a Republican, disagreed in his veto letter.

House Bill 547 raises more questions than it answers, and it introduces instability into the operations of rural fire districts, the backbone of Montanas emergency network, the veto letter reads. Ultimately, House Bill 547 erodes the reliability and strength of rural fire protection throughout our state, while appearing to provide a one-sided resolution to a dispute within one consolidated government.
Twenty-five years ago, I published a short book titled Ripples of Change that described the changes in the lives of my grandparents. I grew up helping them milk cows by hand, straining the milk into a five-gallon can and placing the can of milk in a milk cooler of cold water. I harvested ear corn by hand for grinding and feeding to the cattle and hauled bales of hay to the barn with my grandmother driving the truck at two speeds (stopped or fast). The hay was thrown into the hay loft and pulled to the point of stacking with handheld hay hooks (which I still have).

I wanted to know more, so, I listened to my grandmother recount their journey. They moved to Little Cake, Kentucky, from the area of Livingston, Tennessee. They farmed, helped run a family store and my grandfather helped with floating logs on the Cumberland River to get them to the sawmill. But their land was taken over by the construction of Dale Hollow Reservoir, so I never got to visit their homestead because it was at the bottom of the lake.

Not long after they settled into Kentucky, the government decided to construct Green River Reservoir, which took a portion of their new land, including where their large barn stood. I vividly remember jacking up the barn, getting some wheels under it and slowly moving it along to higher ground, ever so carefully placing it in the new location.

Artificial intelligence

Changes are ever present in our lives, sometimes as ripples and other times like tidal waves. COVID brought many changes and now references to pre- versus post-COVID. Many changes have occurred since January, and we now have to define AI as artificial insemination or artificial intelligence.

Regarding the latter AI, I have been reluctant. However, I thought I would use it for this article. I asked Microsoft Copilot to graphically display the most valuable characteristics of a dairy cow (Figure 1). Although the value assigned to each characteristic is somewhat relative, each trait identified has relevance. Lets examine why each of these traits is important.

Traits

First up is milk production. Copilot indicated that this is the most critical trait, reflecting the cows primary economic value, which we certainly cannot deny. We used to focus on Holstein herds achieving 70 pounds/day of milk, then 80 and now 90. In addition, the focus has shifted more to pounds of fat and protein produced per day because these two components are the primary drivers of milk revenue. A benchmark of 7 pound/day of fat and protein is now being discussed, e.g. 90 pound/day milk with 4.4% at and 3.4% protein or 100 pound/day milk with 3.8% fat and 3.2% protein.

Next is udder health: Copilot shows this is essential for milk quality and longevity. We know mastitis is one of the leading causes of involuntary culling of animals from the dairy herd. The legal limit for somatic cell count of 750,000 cells/milliliter for Grade A milk has limited relevance today; most herds focus on 200,000 cells/milliliter based on the processors demands for quality of milk and to achieve high levels of milk production.

Copilot focused on the fertility trait based on its importance for maintaining herd productivity. Infertility also is one of the major causes of involuntary culling in dairy herds because we must get them to conceive again and give birth to sustain high levels of milk yield. We used to focus on a pregnancy rate of 21% as a benchmark, but now our aim is a 25 to 30% pregnancy rate.

For feed efficiency, Copilot explained this value as it indicates how well a cow converts feed into milk. Feed is the highest cost of milk production, thus its cost is key to farm profitability. We typically focus on feed efficiencies of 1. 4 to 1.6 pounds of milk per pound of feed. We also focus on management of income over feed costs and base some voluntary culling decisions on when cows are not producing enough milk revenue to pay for the direct cost of production. The Dairy Margin Coverage program is a risk management program to pay producers when the difference (margin) between the national price of milk and the average cost of feed based on the prices for alfalfa hay, corn, and soybean meal falls below a certain level. Feed efficiency is now included in the genetic evaluations for sires.

Copilot justifies temperament as it affects the ease of handling and overall farm safety. We cant deny its importance, but the top five? During a research trial on a commercial farm a few years ago, my graduate student was assisting in the moving of some dry cows out of a free-stall pen. With no warning, she was charged by one of the cows; fortunately, she escaped into a free stall to avoid major injuries. The farmer decided the animal no longer belonged on their farm. In recent work at the University of Guelph, researchers have identified the importance of understanding cow personality traits relative to feeding systems and the use of precision technology, including automatic milking systems.

Change is one constant in our lives. Within the dairy industry, we must continue to find ways to improve animal production systems and food processing, including how artificial intelligence can be of assistance.
When you hear the word classic, very different things may come to mind. To the world of academia, ancient Greek and Latin literature would surface. Rembrandt and Monet would come to the mind of an artist. A fashion designer looks for simple, elegant styles unaffected by trends. Novelists could claim anything from Great Expectations to The Great Gatsby. For gearheads, a 68 Mustang Fastback, Porshe 911 or 53 Harley Hydra Glide might be the ticket.

I suppose it comes down to our interests and perceptions of how the definition of classic fits into our lives. In the end, what were describing is something of an almost timeless quality and style that somehow transcends from the monetary to an emotional value. Those interests are spurred by our own experiences, discovered as we move along in life. This is what steered me to the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains in Townsend, Tennessee.

As I arrived, a city park had dozens of cars swarming in. I joined the line and waited my turn. Id found one of the largest Ford Bronco rallies east of the Mississippi. From 1966s Jeepish-looking first year to the Bronco II and beyond, they were all there, including thousands of their fans. I was in the wrong place.

Dont get me wrong, I like the old Broncos and admire those folks keeping that part of American culture running, but I hadnt come to town to look at four-wheeled classics. Id driven to Townsend to learn more about an item that was born around 200 A.D., according to the Roman author Aelius in his book On the Nature of Animals. In it, he describes how Macedonians had begun tying red wool and feathers to a hook to imitate a local bug. It was attached to a 6-foot-long line and a 6-foot pole, creating the first documented idea of fly fishing. This style is again in vogue, using the new Tenkara rods. Actually, theres little new about Tenkara, which dates back 400 years to Japan.

Fly rods

But I wasnt in Townsend for anything to do with Tenkara or Roman literature. I was there to attend the Bamboo Bash. After a short tour of town, I finally found my destination. It was located at the unassuming Docks on the River Motel, a series of small cabins that cater to visitors whose main purpose is to explore the Little River, which flows just behind. I parked and walked up to the 40 or so folks scattered around the area. I was greeted with friendly handshakes and smiles as warmly as if theyd just run into a long-lost friend who owed them money. This was a gathering of bamboo fly rod experts, builders, historians and folks like me  someone who just loves the classic feel of casting a cane.

As we understand fly rods today, that early evolution began somewhere between 1790 and 1845. The majority were built by individuals in small shops and were made of solid ash and lacewood. Most credit American gunsmith Samuel Phillippe for creating the first six-stripped bamboo rod in 1846, with Charles F. Orvis following suit in about 1850. Phillippes son, Solon, built the first hexagon version in 1859. Those early American split-cane rods grew to be the purists pursuit for traditional fly casters  and a new world standard.

Unfortunately, these werent readily available since they relied upon craftsmen working out of small shops to create these angling works of delicacy and art. It wasnt until Hiram Lewis Leonard started making machinery for precisely splitting and tapering cane that these rods became more commercially available, though hand fitting and finishing was still required. The H.L. Leonard Company made bamboo rods from 1874, until Hirams death in 1907. Today, a pristine Leonard of that era is far too valuable to fish, with collectors willing to cast out an embarrassing amount to reel one into their collection.

Other options

That really isnt what this group was all about, either. Yes, they all have veneration for the originating builders of classic rods, but theyre far from just admirers of history. While some are definitely rod collectors and all were quite knowledgeable, many were also builders of split-cane rods.

Before stepping on anybodys waders, let me acknowledge that bamboo isnt for everybody, and its probably no longer the best for some types of fly casting. Those tossing saltwater flies to big fish or stalking carp hogging along the bottom of a stream usually reach for rods made from durable synthetic materials like graphite or carbon fiber. Theyre light, strong and can muscle the big ones to the net. These slimmer and trimmer synthetics dominate fly fishing of all types, from farm ponds to the worlds finest trout and salmon fisheries. I doubt that most of todays fly anglers have even cast bamboo.

Of course, that hasnt always been true. Split-bamboo was the dominant material for all types of fly fishing until after World War II. Then, Shakespeare and Heddon companies introduced fiberglass, a material that was cheaper, lighter, more durable and quicker to manufacture. During the 1970s, fiberglass fell to graphite rods first offered by Fenwick and Hardy. In the very middle of these reinventions, Orvis kept pace while selling people on the latest materials, but Orvis never gave up on bamboo.

Along with Vermonts Orvis, there remained those who cherished the feel of bamboo. Michigan rod builders Paul H. Young, Lyle Dickerson, New Yorker Everett Garrison and many other small-capacity builders continued turning out cane to the diehards. Its this mindset that prompted the creation of Facebooks Classic Fly Rod Forum, a site allowing bamboo collectors, builders and aficionados to explore their interests. This led to members Paul Hinchcliff and Ralph Shuey to float an invitation for an annual gathering, and they got plenty of hits. Thus, the Bamboo Bash was born over 20 years ago.

The biggest draw of the event was the casting lawn. People brought bamboo rods and fine reels from their collections, those recently purchased or built or just a few favorites. Lines and leaders were attached, casting targets put out and the fun began. A box of preloaded spools holding many tapers, sizes and manufacturers of lines was ready to be mated to one of the Pflueger Medalist reels (an angling company founded in 1883 in Akron, Ohio). Called The Line Lab, anyone could grab a combination to try on their rod, in hopes of finding the sweet spot. You didnt have to ask to try someones combination, they were almost forcing a rod into your hands. The entire event was something between show and tell and hold my beer and watch this.

Marc Bourgeo (www.dickersonrods.com) and Jon Golder (www.phydatabase.com) were on hand to display their fine collections of rare artifacts and rods from two classic Michigan builders. Golder, who spoke on the history of Young rods, apologized for being long-winded. That brought a bit of a laugh. Everyone there understood that when knowledge, respect and love converge, its hard not to talk about it.

All about the people. But, my favorite part of the bash were the informal gatherings between casting and perusing the collections and especially at the end of each day. Munsey Wheby, who built an exceptionally fine rod Id tried, broke out a bottle of decent bourbon to help warm the conversation. I listened as the gathering shared how they began exploring classic bamboo, how they build to duplicate tapers of particular classic rods, trips that theyve taken or planned and of the history of the rods and of their own families  and what led each of them to this little Tennessee town. I even learned of a nearby trout stream named Abrams Creek.

I met Dan DisStefano, a Massachusetts trooper until an unprovoked attack left him medically retired. He fell back on his love for the outdoors and fly fishing as a safe haven, allowing him to forge ahead in life. It led him to become a bamboo builder and into a friendship with Robert Summers, a legendary rod-maker from Traverse City (www.rwsummers.com).

There was Erin Phelan who married Jeffrey, a man of many interests  especially trout season, salmon season, pheasant season, deer season, turkey season and grouse season. Erin explained that Id discovered that those were the other woman, and I could either join him or watch as he had all the fun. She discovered that she genuinely enjoyed these activities, especially fly fishing and bamboo rods. That would lead her to become the assistant executive director of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor, New York (www.cffcm.com).

Mike Canonico, a retired cop from Middletown, New York, was on hand for the bash. We talked stories about being a cop, a game warden, fly rods and pizza while taking a few friendly jabs at each other, and I left with his number tucked away along with an invite to fish the Catskills. Who knows?

I now understand the Bamboo Bash. Sure, its about a fly fishing classic and their recreation and collecting, but thats secondary to the individuals. They truly are the keepers of the flame, protectors of history  the guardians of the galaxy. In the end, as usual, its about people  their shared values and understanding of the important. After all, isnt that the definition of history and how classics are born?

Classics arent made; theyre forged through time.

 Anonymous
CARROLL TOWNSHIP, Ohio  The action started before we touched the boardwalk, as the early morning crowd walking across the gravel parking lot of Magee Marsh Wildlife Area on May 13 had their binoculars and cameras pointed up, murmuring amongst themselves as they quietly discussed their first sightings of the day.

Located on the southern Lake Erie shore of northwestern Ohio, Magee Marsh welcomes flocks of all kinds every spring, transforming into a renowned birding hotspot as more than 300 species make a stop there along their great migrations, offering spectators a rare front-row seat to some of natures most impressive journeys.

From late April to late May, bald eagles soar over the forested beach along Lake Erie while warblers  their flashes of yellow,

blue and orange  dart through the tree canopy nearby like brushstrokes from a painters palette come to life.

So, what are we looking for? I asked John Kolar, Geauga County Parks District chief naturalist, as he led a group of 20 birders on a van trip, scanning the trees with practiced focus. They had traveled two hours, sack lunches in tow, for a full day of birding organized by the parks district; by the end of their trip, they had identified 85 species.

This bird, he said, holding a picture from a book he was carrying. The chestnut-sided warbler.

Kolar explained that many of the birds passing through Magee Marsh are neotropical migrants  species that travel thousands of miles between breeding and wintering grounds. These birds, many of them insectivores, rely on areas like Magee Marsh to rest and refuel during their long journeys. Most of them nest in the boreal forests of Canada, where theyll breed in the summer. And then in the fall, theyll turn around and head south again.

Magees boardwalk winds through a tangle of brush and trees that serves as the last rest stop for hundreds of miles for a wide variety of songbirds on their way home this time of year, and Kolar was quick to express just how important a place it is.

Bird populations worldwide are declining, so places like this are critical stopover habitat for the birds, he said. People come from all over the country and the world to come here to see them.

A faint mist hung in the air. Kolars voice rose slightly in excitement as he spotted movement near the treetops. Among the group, some shuffled quietly to get a better look as he reminded them of the markings on the Cape May Warbler, its reddish cheeks, yellow belly, dark streaks and a distinctive white patch on its wing. Moments later came the thrill of discovery.

Oh, I see him. I see him. Look at that. Oh my goodness, he said.

Thats the Cape May? asked Tobe Schulman, a tour attendee.

Hes right there. Hes a great looking one, Kolar confirmed, watching as the bird fluttered from one branch to the next before vanishing again into the dense canopy. Cloudy, rainy days, theyre going to be down lower. A lot of times these birds are way up.

The group pressed slowly forward, pausing at regular intervals. Then came a burst of activity. Kolar identified a great crested flycatcher, pointing at a dead branch. They usually nest high up in the canopy. Tree swallows darted nearby, their iridescent feathers catching what little light made it through the clouds. Kolar looked around, smiling as the group paused once again.

You can see one has some bluish on the back. The other ones more drab, but its still a tree swallow. Its hard to see the colors. Theyre white with blue and green.

And while the birds moved on quickly, the crowd lingered  heads tilted upward, eyes scanning the trees for what might come next.

For Schulman and her husband Stewart, their birding hobby began as something of a whim, sparked by their attendance on a Geauga Park District van trip they joined last year.

He took to it, she said of her husband. The next thing you know, he went out and bought binoculars and a scope.

Thousands of dollars of optics later, Stewart added.

Some on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh consider themselves lifelong birders; others, such as Schulman, are simply in love with nature.

I just like being outside  walking and hiking. Its a good way to be outdoors, she said.

Bird flu risk?

While crowds and bird numbers at Magee Marsh appeared vigorous, recent headlines about avian influenza, or bird flu, have left some birders wondering whether the virus might quell the songbirds.

Laura Kearns, a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, offered some reassurance in a recent interview, saying the risk of avian flu to songbirds is relatively low. The virus is primarily carried by waterfowl. While avian flu does occasionally show up in songbirds, its prevalence is much, much lower than in waterfowl, she said.

Still, Kearns emphasized that the best thing the public can do is be observant.

If you notice any sick or dead birds in large numbers, especially if theyre waterfowl, please report it to your state wildlife officials, she said. Detection by the public of any kind of unusual mortality events is really helpful.

Conservation

When I asked which birds excite visitors the most, Kelly Schott, an education specialist at the Magee Marsh Visitors Center, listed off some far-away favorites. Among the most visually striking are the Blackburnian, Magnolia and Cape May warblers. Other frequently seen species include the black-throated green, black-throated blue and yellow warblers.

But for at least one species  the prothonotary warbler  Magee Marsh is home.

Theyre usually building their nest this time of year, and they actually build nests in some of the posts to the boardwalk that have rotted in the span And so oftentimes the visitors can come up close and personal and see those prothonotaries, sometimes perched right on the railing. So its pretty neat, Schott said.

More elusive species, such as the Connecticut, mourning and cerulean warblers, are rare treats. But this spring, Magee played host to an A-list celebrity.

We did have a Kirtlands warbler. It was here, and a lot of people got to see it. It was quite the spectacle, Schott said.

With its bluish-grey upper body, dark streaks and bright yellow belly  an ensemble not unlike something Harry Styles might wear  the Kirtlands warbler also boasts a remarkable conservation story worthy of a Hollywood screenplay. Schott recalled that when she was studying wildlife at Ohio State in the late 1980s, her professor warned that the bird would likely go extinct in her lifetime. The species nests exclusively in young jack pine forests, like those found in Michigan, which by then had all but vanished. Researchers eventually discovered that these trees need fire to regenerate (much like the immortal phoenix, from Greek mythology, rising again from the ashes). Controlled burns were introduced to restore the habitat, and over time, the warbler rebounded. Within the last five years, it was removed from the endangered species list.

And so its still a relatively rare thing to get a Kirtlands to migrate through and stop here at Magee, Schott said. But, you know, we probably do, oh, every few years.

Threats to songbirds. One of the biggest threats to songbirds, Schott said, is light pollution. City lights from tall buildings can confuse migrating birds, leading to fatal collisions. Organizations in cities like Toledo and Cleveland are working to promote lights out programs during migration periods.

But even worse than lights, Schott said, are cats.

Fragmented breeding and wintering habitats are also a serious concern. Some species, such as purple martins, rely on very specific overwintering grounds. A loss of those habitats in places like Brazil can have ripple effects on bird populations across North America.

Despite our growing understanding of the challenges migratory birds face, certain aspects of their behavior  like why they migrate at night  remain something of a mystery.

Theyve always done it that way. There are some things in science we dont have answers for, Schott said. We dont know whether they use, you know, a star pattern Youll get people that speculate, but we dont really know why they migrate at night.

When asked what she finds most inspiring about bird migration, Schott reflected on the astonishing scale of it all.

If you start researching and learning about just a particular species, its fascinating when you think about how far they are flying and how little they weigh, right? Some of these birds are weighing an ounce, and theyre going these long distances, she said, a journey she finds both massive and awe-inspiring. Every year, I learn something new that I didnt know before, she added.

She added that the people drawn to Magee are part of what makes it all special.

Full of surprises

Suzan George, president of the nonprofit Friends of Magee Marsh, knows the boardwalk well  and the people who walk it.

Its always fun to come out and see whats going on, she said. I think youll find the public is very pleasant and accommodating. If you dont know what something is, you can say, Now what are you spotting? Theyre happy to share.

George said she is always delighted by a bit of bird drama.

There was one season I was out here and there was a cavity in a tree down the way. A prothonotary warbler was carrying nesting material in, and a house wren was flying in and carrying it out. They were competing on who was going to get this cavity for their nest. You see stuff like that here. That is just fun to stand and watch.

George said even if birds arent your main interest, Magee Marsh still has plenty to offer.

If you enjoy wildlife and nature, there are some very cool happenings here, she said. I enjoy even just walking by myself here and stopping when I want. I find myself taking pictures of the wildflowers and even some of the plants I think are beautiful, too. I saw mushrooms that were really cool. And even just some of the shots of the water.

And in the summer, the marsh transforms again.

In July, Magee Marsh will be full of wildflowers, she said. This whole landscape here will be milkweed. And we will have hundreds of monarch butterflies. And so theres always something going on.
PORT CLINTON, Ohio  Dick Lano and Todd Winke are extremely pleased with the new tile installed in their farm fields in Ottawa County as part of the Little Portage Project. Yet they seem just as pleased  and proud  that they are playing a part in what could result in the Little Portage Wildlife Area becoming more popular with migratory birds, as well as other winged wildlife that use marshes and wetlands for nesting and rearing their young.

We expect Little Portage to become a birding hotspot, said Russ Terry, senior regional biologist for Ducks Unlimited, who directed the project. But it will also benefit other kinds of wildlife. And people, with more recreational opportunities.

The area will once again be a destination for waterfowl hunters, he said. New levees resulted in a hiking trail that surrounds the 357-acre wildlife area. The levees also provide fishing access to the Little Portage and Portage rivers.

The Little Portage Project was funded by a $2.9 million grant from H2Ohio, $1.2 million in federal funds from the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act, plus grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Ducks Unlimited. Part of the money was used to install new drain tile on both Lanos and Winkes farms. The tiling was engineered so that surface and subsurface water from more than 400 acres would flow to a pumping system, which sends it into Seamans Ditch. The ditch takes the water under the road and into a collection basin in the wildlife area.

That means nutrients from ag runoff  either floating in the water or attached to sediment  will now go to the wetlands, where they will nourish plants and trees that take them up through their roots. Thats why the wetlands are known as natures kidneys; the plants filter bad stuff out of the water and use it for good.

Winke said some programs pay farmers to convert farmland to wetlands, but it seems a shame to use land where their ancestors worked so hard to make a living and to produce food for the world.

Whats unique about this program is that we benefit by the improvement of our land, while it also improves the existing wetlands, he said. Its a win-win.

Runoff

The original owner of Lanos farm was awarded it for serving in the War of 1812. It was purchased in 1860 by his mothers family, the Hopfingers, so in 200 years, the farm has had only two owners, he said. It being in the family so long means a lot to me.

He grew up on the farm, working 70 acres of cropland to pay his way through college. After graduation, he married Jami Schwind and began to work for her familys business, the JVS Garage Door Company in Port Clinton. He now owns that company.

Not surprisingly, tending crops became too much for him in the mid-1980s. Thats when he became friends with Todd Winke, who had purchased the farm next door. Winke now takes care of 60 acres of Lanos farm, planting it in corn, wheat and soybeans. He is hoping to add alfalfa hay to the rotation as the new drainage system improves the soil health.

Hes a great steward of the land and uses a lot of the new, conservation-type farming methods, Lano said.

Our farm is unique because it has a mile-long river frontage, he said, referring to the Little Portage River on the west side of his property. It runs north into the Portage River, which flows east into Lake Erie. To supplement his income, his grandfather made duck marshes along the Little Portage, and hunters paid to use them.

Like all the others in the former Black Swamp, Lanos and Winkes farms are flat and full of clay. There used to be tile  also clay  but who knows when it was installed? It deteriorated from age, Lano said.

His farm and others had dikes and pump stations so that when the fields flooded, they could pump the excess water into the Little Portage River. But severe flooding in 1969 and 1970 wiped out all the dikes, including the one in our hunting marsh, he said.

Winke grows wheat, corn, soybeans and alfalfa on the 350-acre farm that adjoins Lanos. He was one of the first in the area to do no-till and become involved with the Conservation Reserve Program, applying fertilizer at variable rates depending on soil samples.

But even with conservation measures, agricultural runoff was going into the Little Portage River, then into Lake Erie, with no filtering in between. There, nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen cause algal blooms that are toxic to humans, fish and animals. One of these blooms caused the city of Toledo to issue a Do not drink order in 2014.

In an effort to reduce these toxic blooms, Gov. Mike DeWine launched the H2Ohio program in 2019, partnering with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and other agencies.

Restoration benefits

Little Portage is classified as a wetland restoration project. As levees and pumps aged and ceased to function, the wetlands suffered. The project removed a mile of unnecessary levees and replaced 16 pumping stations with four water-control stations engineered by Ducks Unlimited, Terry said.

That means water collected from Seamans Ditch can now be pumped into four different wetland areas, which can be managed independently. Water can also be pumped out in case of a big rainstorm or melting snow, or to do a drawdown to make the marsh plants grow. Patrick Baranowski, wildlife area supervisor for the Division of Wildlife, worked closely with Terry on the Little Portage Project. He will make sure the water is at the correct depths for different times of the year.

This will help revive the wetland plants and aquatic wildlife that are so needed by waterfowl, shorebirds and migrating birds, like the neotropical ones that draw 90,000 visitors a year to northwest Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding, held May 9 to May 18.

While some of those birds come from the southern United States, others may journey from Central or South America. Even though it is the shortest route across the water, crossing the western basin of Lake Erie is intimidating. They need a place to rest and refuel, both going north in the spring and flying back south in the fall.

Ducks, for instance, take cover in plants that emerge from the water in order to rest in safety. They also use these plants for food, eating the seeds or tubers, and in some cases the plants themselves. Other types of birds, plus mammals such as beavers, muskrats and river otters, also use these plants for food.

We want to promote a diversity of native wetland plants like smartweed, millet, bulrush, arrowhead and cattails, which provide those seeds and tubers, attract aquatic insects and provide cover, Terry said.

Surprisingly, this will not involve planting new vegetation. The seeds are already in the soil and some can remain viable for 100 years or longer, he said. What they need to grow are the right environmental conditions, which he and others hope the machinery of the Little Portage Project will provide.

They also hope the restored wetlands will attract more birds that can use them for nesting and raising their young through the summer. Pied-billed grebes like to build floating nests in marsh vegetation away from shore, while blue-winged teal often choose the dense vegetation on dikes or fields bordering the water. Both begin nesting in April.

Sandhill cranes, an endangered species in Ohio, require large tracts of wetlands or shallow marshes for nesting. The great egret, symbol of the Audubon Society for its recovery after being plundered for its white plumes, wades belly-deep in wetlands searching for fish, crayfish, amphibians and water bugs. They like to nest in trees or bushes at the waters edge.

Bald eagles share the egrets desire for fish, and they love to nest in the marshes of the Western Basin. According to the ODNR, Ottawa County has the highest number of nesting pairs in the state, with about 100 at the last count. More are expected to move into the Little Portage Wildlife Area as the wetlands improve.
Dieci Telehandlers is proud to announce an exciting new partnership with Gordons Agricultural Equipment, a respected name in Scottish agriculture since 1865.

This collaboration strengthens Diecis presence in Scotland, enhancing access to high-performance telehandler solutions backed by exceptional local service and support.

With seven strategically located depots stretching from Castle Douglas to Ayrshire, Gordons Agricultural Equipment offers an extensive range of agricultural and construction machinery.

This new partnership ensures Scottish farmers and contractors can now benefit from Diecis industry-leading innovation in material handling equipment, supported by a dealer network renowned for reliability and customer care.

Expanding access to cutting-edge telehandlers

Dieci Telehandlers are trusted worldwide for their reliability, safety, and productivity. Through Gordons Agricultural Equipment, customers will now benefit from:

 Full access to the Dieci telehandler range  from compact models ideal for tight farmyards to powerful, heavy-duty machines designed for demanding agricultural and construction tasks.

 Expert guidance and tailored solutions  the experienced Gordons team is well equipped to match customers with the right machine for their specific needs.

 Comprehensive aftersales support  including servicing, repairs, and a robust stock of genuine Dieci parts.

This partnership reflects Diecis ongoing commitment to supporting UK agriculture with innovative, dependable equipment delivered through a trusted dealer network.

Henry Nash, managing director of Dieci Telehandlers said: "Were delighted to welcome Gordons Agricultural Equipment to the Dieci dealer network in Scotland.

"With their wide customer base and strong reputation for aftersales support, Gordons are a perfect partner. This appointment demonstrates our continued commitment to the Scottish agricultural market."

Roger Doherty, Dieci sales manager at Gordons Agricultural Equipment, added: "We are excited to now offer the full Dieci range of agricultural telehandlers, alongside the construction models already available from Gordons Construction Equipment.

"This strengthens our machinery portfolio and reflects our ongoing commitment to providing reliable, high-performance solutions to Scottish farmers.

"Diecis reputation for durability, performance, and operator comfort makes their telehandlers an ideal addition to our line-up.

"Whether you're handling silage, grain, or working in tight spaces, well now have the perfect Dieci machine to suit the job."

More information

To learn more about Dieci Telehandlers and the full range of services offered by Gordons agricultural Equipment (James Gordon Ltd), contact David Hodson on 01823 772613.

Dieci Telehandlers was founded in 1962, and is a global leader in the manufacture of high-performance telehandlers for the construction and agricultural sectors.

Known for their durability, operator comfort, and cutting-edge technology, Dieci machines are trusted across the world.

Gordons Agricultural Equipment was established in 1865 and is headquartered in Castle Douglas.

It is one of Scotlands most respected dealerships, offering top-quality machinery, expert advice, and dedicated aftersales support.
Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) is calling on Welsh farmers to share their views as it develops a new long-term strategy for the industry.

The red meat levy board's survey is the next step to gather views on the industrys challenges and priorities, and what HCC can do to support it.

It forms a key part of the boards engagement process in shaping Vision 2030  HCCs next strategic plan.

This will guide its priorities for supporting the Welsh red meat sector over the next four years.

HCC chief executive Jose Peralta said: "As we look towards the culmination of the current vision, we must also plan for the next.

"I have met with a number of key stakeholder groups in recent weeks to start this important discussion."

The survey forms part of a wider engagement plan delivered throughout 2025, which will include meetings and HCC attendance at livestock markets and events.

The first was held at NSA Welsh Sheep on Wednesday (21 May) at Tregoyd Farm, Brecon.

"We would ask levy payers to come and talk to us at forthcoming events, or fill the online survey to make your views heard," Mr Peralta added.

"It is vital that stakeholders from across Wales contribute to the process so that HCC is fully informed of the complex challenges within our industry.

The levy board's online survey went live this week and will remain open until 25 July.
More than three-quarters of UK farmers are sunburned at least once a year, according to alarming new research by a skin cancer charity.

The survey of agricultural workers shows that 77% report experiencing sunburn annually, while 76% recall being sunburned as a child or teenager.

Melanoma Focus explains that both are key risk factors for developing melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer.

Despite working long hours outdoors, over half (52%) of farmers said they rarely or never wear sunscreen in the summer.

A third admitted that forgetting was the main reason, while 25% said they didnt expect to burn.

In addition, 38% reported rarely or never wearing protective clothing or a sunhat while working in the sun, despite most spending the majority of their working day outdoors.

Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with around 17,500 new cases diagnosed each year.

One in 35 men and one in 41 women will develop the disease in their lifetime.

The cancer is highly preventable, yet deaths from melanoma are expected to rise, and even one blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence can more than double a persons risk.

Susanna Daniels, CEO of Melanoma Focus, said: Agricultural workers are frequently exposed to harmful UV rays because of the nature of their work.

"Its alarming to see that many of these individuals are experiencing sunburn, which significantly increases their risk of developing melanoma  a deadly form of skin cancer.

Taking preventive measures such as wearing a high factor sunscreen, wearing a hat and covering up when working in the sun is crucial for reducing the risk of melanoma and safeguarding the health of farmers."

Melanoma Focus is encouraging all farm workers to take precautions this summer, including wearing sunscreen, protective clothing, and regularly checking their skin for any changes.

Approximately 86% of melanomas are preventable with proper sun protection, the charity says.

Richard Harvey, an 80-year-old farmer from Rutland, was diagnosed with the cancer in 2018.

Ive never been one to spend hours on a beach sunbathing so it was a surprise to be diagnosed with melanoma," he explained.

"We didnt used to be so aware of the dangers of the sun when I was younger so I didnt wear sunscreen very often despite having light skin and blue eyes.

I was diagnosed with melanoma after finding a lesion on my chest. Unfortunately, it spread and I was diagnosed as stage 4 in 2019.

"Farmers often feel fit and well and it can be easy to forget to protect your skin when youre working outdoors.

Stephanie Berkeley, manager at the Farm Safety Foundation (Yellow Wellies), urged farmers to be "sun safe and know their skin".

Farm safety goes beyond working safely with livestock, transport or machinery," she explained.

Working in agriculture means you spend a lot of time outside, and means you have far more sun exposure than people who work indoors."
As the government tweaks winter fuel payments for pensioners, the NFU has demanded urgent changes to inheritance tax rules to protect elderly farmers facing financial hardship.

The union has called on Labour to reconsider its controversial inheritance tax (IHT) policy, following the announcement by Sir Keir Starmer to adjust the winter fuel allowance.

It warned that elderly farmers across the nation were "stuck in an abhorrent position" as many "feel like a burden on their families".

Research reveals that the so-called 'family farm tax' is among the most unpopular budget measures with the public, intensifying pressure on ministers to address the industry's concerns.

The proposed reforms to IHT, announced in last year's October budget, could impact as many as 75% of farming families, farming groups have repeatedly warned.

And despite Freedom of Information requests from the industry, the government has yet to release the financial analysis underpinning its decision.

It comes as the NFU, together with tax and farming experts, recently proposed an alternative clawback approach, but the government declined to consider it.

However, NFU President Tom Bradshaw said the change to winter fuel allowance showed that the government was willing to listen to concerns.

"Were now urging them to extend that same support to elderly farmers who have spent their lives feeding the nation, and who now find themselves in an incredibly difficult position.

"Many are deeply worried not just about their own future but about becoming a financial burden on their families."

The union, along with other industry bodies, proposed the 'clawback' alternative which they say would safeguard farmers while remaining cost-neutral for the government.

With time still available to reconsider, the NFU has urged the government to follow the example set with winter fuel payment changes and once again listen to the elderly.

Mr Bradshaw added: Whatever our other disagreements about the family farm tax, we cannot imagine ministers ever meant to put older farmers in this awful position. This is an opportunity to do the right thing.

Weve put forward a credible alternative that would protect British farmers without being costly to the government. Its a fair and balanced solution that should be reviewed."
Chinas textile exports to Cambodia rose by 18.95 per cent to $1,249.996 million during JanuaryMarch 2025. As a major garment-exporting country, Cambodia requires textiles to support its domestic industry. China supplied over 88 per cent of the fabric in its total textile shipments to the partner nation, amounting to $1,107.020 million.

In the first quarter of the current year, fabric accounted for 88.56 per cent of Chinas total textile exports to Cambodia. Yarn exports stood at $140.272 million (11.22 per cent), while fibre exports were $2.703 million (0.22 per cent), according to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro.

China's textile exports to Cambodia rose 18.95 per cent year-on-year to $1.25 billion in Q1 2025, with fabric accounting for over 88 per cent of the total. Yarn and fibre made up 11.22 per cent and 0.22 per cent, respectively. In 2024, China's textile exports to Cambodia surged 33.22 per cent to $4.8 billion, driven mainly by fabric, though its share slightly declined compared to 2023.

China had supplied textile products worth $1,050.473 million to Cambodia in the first quarter of the previous year. Of this, fabric shipments were valued at $929.869 million (88.52 per cent), yarn at $118.593 million (11.29 per cent), and fibre at $2.010 million (0.19 per cent).

China recorded a steep rise in textile exports to Cambodia last year. Outbound shipments jumped 33.22 per cent to $4,800.568 million in 2024, up from $3,603.142 million in 2023. Fabric exports increased from $3,300.889 million in 2023 to $4,382.479 million in 2024. However, the fabric share in total textile exports declined slightly from 91.61 per cent in 2023 to 91.27 per cent in 2024, as per TexPro.

Chinas yarn exports to Cambodia rose from $294.744 million in 2023 to $411.850 million in 2024. Fibre shipments were noted at $7.239 million in 2024, up from $5.509 million in 2023.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)
Vietnam recently issued an order to foster private sector development.

Under the plan, ministries, sectors, localities and business associations have been tasked with devising and implementing widespread and regular public communication campaigns to disseminate the key content of the official order.

Vietnam has issued a directive to boost private sector development through coordinated communication, simplified procedures, and better support policies. Ministries and localities must set measurable goals and ensure fair treatment of businesses. Key reforms include revising land laws, reducing land lease processing times by 30 per cent, and reserving land for SMEs.

Implementation plans must include quantifiable targets and clear allocation of responsibility to ensure equitable and fair treatment of the private sector and develop open, friendly, incorruptible and development-enabling relations between the administrationlocal and centraland enterprises.

Enterprise support policies and programmes will be reviewed, and the focus will be on simplifying procedures and documentation, increasing support to better reflect market conditions, ensuring adequate resource allocation and encouraging the engagement of associations, research institutes and universities in delivering these support measures, a news agency reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has been tasked with fine-tuning land laws and introducing mechanisms to manage land price volatility, particularly for non-agricultural land used for business purposes.

The Finance Ministry has been asked to amend the government order on the management of industrial and economic zones. This includes a proposal requiring local authorities to allocate either a minimum of 20 hectares per industrial zone or 5 per cent of land at those zones to high-tech firms, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and innovative start-ups.

The goal is cut the time needed for processing land lease applications and land use right certificates by at least 30 per cent.

The Finance Ministry has also been directed to revise laws on bidding to incorporate preferential policies to encourage the private sector's participation alongside the state in strategic sectors, including high-speed railway, urban railway systems, key industries, energy and digital infrastructure and green transport.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is assigned with developing and implementing the Go Global programme, aimed at expanding Vietnamese enterprises presence in international markets.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
52% of British businesses admit to experiencing data-related issues since the inception of GDPR

Over a fifth (23%) of UK businesses cite budget as a barrier to improving security practices

Looking ahead, 40% say AI will create the most significant privacy and security challenges

As GDPR marks its seventh anniversary, new data from SurveyMonkey, the world's most popular platform for surveys and forms, highlights how UK businesses continue to grapple with data protection challenges. In a survey of UK business decision makers, 95% of UK respondents say they understand and meet all requirements of GDPR, but over half (52%) admit to experiencing data-related issues since the regulation was introduced. Of these British businesses, one in six (16%) have faced the consequences of a GDPR-related fine or penalty, and 18% have experienced an official warning or investigation by a Data Protection Authority.

With data protection top of mind for UK businesses, SurveyMonkey today launches its new Trust Centre, a one-stop hub offering guidance, resources, and security assurances for businesses navigating today's privacy landscape.

Set against a backdrop of industry data mishandling and cyber incidents, UK businesses face increasing challenges in improving their data privacy compliance and protecting sensitive data. It's never been more important to understand how data is stored and used by suppliers. With the research finding 40% of UK businesses choose to now only partner with vendors who clearly outline their data protection measures, SurveyMonkey's new Trust Centre offers businesses a transparent view of the company's security and privacy practices, certifications, compliance measures, and third-party audit standards, enabling teams to make informed decisions about data handling and vendor risk.

Privacy at a price: The cost barrier holding UK businesses back

As cyber attacks and data breaches reach record highs, budget pressures remain a major stumbling block, with nearly a quarter (23%) of companies citing lack of funds as their greatest barrier to improving security, a challenge that looms even larger for smaller businesses (33%), organisations with 50 or fewer employees. This is despite 46% of businesses noting that they plan to invest more in security over the next year.

However, the importance of the investment may outweigh the budget concerns as the rapid rise of AI exposes the vulnerabilities of legacy systems, forcing businesses to reassess their strategies and prioritise robust, future-proof protections. A fifth (21%) of those surveyed noted that legacy technology was a key hurdle, with a third (33%) of UK businesses having recently invested in or planning to invest in new technology solutions such as encryption, data loss prevention, and privacy management software.

The AI privacy problem: 4 in 10 UK businesses sound the alarm

The rapid advancement of AI is making the safeguarding and management of sensitive information in the digital landscape more complex. When asked which emerging technologies will create the most significant privacy and security challenges over the next year, 40% noted AI and machine learning alongside concerns over generative AI (40%), followed by cloud computing platforms (28%), the internet of things (25%) and big data analytics (25%).

With AI adoption now at 89% among UK businesses, organisations are moving quickly to address the associated compliance obligations. Over two-thirds (70%) have already established, or are developing, dedicated policies and guidelines to manage AI-related privacy concerns. Additional measures include updating privacy policies (31%), partnering exclusively with vendors who provide transparent AI and data handling practices (31%), restricting the use of certain AI applications (27%), and delivering targeted AI and data privacy training to staff (27%). These steps will help companies comply with their traditional GDPR obligations and the enhanced obligations relating to AI under the new EU AI Act, which applies to any UK businesses selling AI products and services in the European Union.

From compliance to confidence: How privacy is winning over customers

Amid mounting compliance and security challenges, UK business leaders are doubling down on data protection and reaping the rewards. An overwhelming 92% say that adhering to GDPR and data privacy laws has given their company a competitive edge by strengthening customer trust, with 85% confident that their clients fully trust their data privacy practices. But this trust is hard-won, built on robust internal policies and unwavering compliance.

When it comes to compliance, an overwhelming 82% of UK businesses have updated their data protection policies in the past two years, with 36% doing so in the past six months alone. The same proportion (82%) has a dedicated Data Protection Officer in place or plans to appoint one.

Internal policies also help businesses to vet third-party vendors, with 91% of businesses feeling confident in their service providers' handling of data. However, this trust is conditional as 89% insist on clear proof of compliance and security before partnering, and a publicly accessible hub detailing a vendor's data protection and compliance measures is increasingly influencing partnership decisions. Notably, 78% have cut ties with vendors over concerns about GDPR or data security, a clear signal that trust must be earned and demonstrated. SurveyMonkey has long had a strong security and privacy program, but, in listening to our customers, we heard that they wanted more visibility into those programs. We built the Trust Centre to offer this transparency with an easy-to-access hub that helps procurement and IT teams evaluate us with confidence.

"Seven years after GDPR transformed how we think about data, many organisations still feel like they're playing catch-up," said Eric Johnson, CEO of SurveyMonkey. "As AI and big data introduce new layers of complexity, businesses need trusted tools and clear frameworks to meet rising expectations around compliance, security, and transparency. SurveyMonkey has long been a market leader in secure, compliant feedback collection-grounded in insights from real people, not algorithms. We built the Trust Centre to help organisations evaluate us as a partner, strengthen internal accountability, and build lasting customer trust. Good privacy practices shouldn't be a guessing game, and with SurveyMonkey, they don't have to be."

SurveyMonkey also released a study of Irish business decision makers. The results can be shared upon request.

About the SurveyMonkey Trust Centre

SurveyMonkey's Trust Centre is a central resource that helps businesses clearly understand how their data is protected. It brings together detailed information on security protocols, privacy practices, and compliance certifications, including GDPR readiness, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA. The Trust Center is designed to support procurement and compliance teams by providing clear, accessible documentation for audits, due diligence, and vendor assessments. It reflects SurveyMonkey's belief that transparency is not a nice-to-have, but a vital foundation for building trust with customers and partners.

About SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is the world's most popular platform for surveys and forms, built for business and loved by users. We combine powerful capabilities with intuitive design, effectively serving every use case, from customer experience to employee engagement, market research to payment and registration forms. With built-in research expertise and AI-powered technology, it's like having a team of expert researchers right at your fingertips.

Trusted by millions-from startups to Fortune 500 companies-SurveyMonkey helps teams gather insights and information that inspire better decisions, create experiences people love, and drive business growth. Discover how at surveymonkey.com.

Methodology

This SurveyMonkey study was conducted April 16-24, 2025, among a sample of 571 full-time employed primary decision-makers in the UK. Primary decision-makers are self-identified, based on respondents who selected "I am the primary decision-maker" for the following question.

Which best describes your role in your organisation or team's decision-making process for purchases?

I am the primary decision-maker

I have influence, but I am not the primary decision-maker

I am not involved in the decision-making process

Respondents for this survey were selected from a non-probability online panel. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521583392/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Clarity Global for SurveyMonkey

surveymonkeyuk@clarity.global
58% of Irish businesses admit to experiencing data-related issues since the inception of GDPR

A fifth (20%) of Irish businesses have received a GDPR fine

Looking ahead, 41% say AI will create the most significant privacy and security challenges

As GDPR marks its seventh anniversary, new data from SurveyMonkey, the world's most popular platform for surveys and forms, highlights how Irish businesses continue to grapple with data protection challenges. In a survey of Irish business decision makers, 94% of respondents say they understand and meet all requirements of GDPR, but over half (58%) admit to experiencing data-related issues since the regulation was introduced. Of these Irish businesses, one in five (20%) have faced the consequences of a GDPR-related fine or penalty, and 19% have experienced an official warning or investigation by a Data Protection Authority.

With data protection top of mind for Irish businesses, SurveyMonkey today launches its new Trust Centre, a one-stop hub offering guidance, resources, and security assurances for businesses navigating today's privacy landscape.

Set against a backdrop of industry data mishandling and cyber incidents, Irish businesses face increasing challenges in improving their data privacy compliance and protecting sensitive data. It's never been more important to understand how data is stored and used by suppliers. With the research finding 37% of Irish businesses choose to now only partner with vendors who clearly outline their data protection measures, SurveyMonkey's new Trust Centre offers businesses a transparent view of the company's security and privacy practices, certifications, compliance measures, and third-party audit standards, enabling teams to make informed decisions about data handling and vendor risk.

Privacy at a price: The cost barrier holding Irish businesses back

As cyber attacks and data breaches reach record highs, budget pressures remain a major stumbling block, with a quarter (26%) of companies citing lack of funds as their greatest barrier to improving security. This is despite 47% of businesses noting that they planned to invest more in security over the next year.

However, the importance of the investment may outweigh the budget concerns as the rapid rise of AI exposes the vulnerabilities of legacy systems, forcing businesses to reassess their strategies and prioritise robust, future-proof protections. A quarter (25%) of those surveyed noted that legacy technology was a key hurdle, with just under a third (29%) of Irish businesses having recently invested in or planning to invest in new technology solutions such as encryption, data loss prevention, and privacy management software.

The AI privacy problem: 4 in 10 Irish businesses sound the alarm

The rapid advancement of AI is making the safeguarding and management of sensitive information in the digital landscape more complex. When asked which emerging technologies will create the most significant privacy and security challenges over the next year, 41% noted AI and machine learning alongside concerns over generative AI (43%), followed by cloud computing platforms (29%), big data analytics (29%) and blockchain technologies (23%).

With AI adoption now at 95% among Irish businesses, organisations are moving quickly to address the associated risks. Over two-thirds (72%) have already established, or are developing, dedicated policies and guidelines to manage AI-related privacy concerns. Additional measures include delivering targeted AI and data privacy training to staff (36%), restricting the use of certain AI applications (36%), and partnering exclusively with vendors who provide transparent AI and data handling practices (32%). These steps will help companies comply with their traditional GDPR obligations and the enhanced obligations relating to AI under the new EU AI Act.

From compliance to confidence: How privacy is winning over customers

Amid mounting compliance and security challenges, Irish business leaders are doubling down on data protection and reaping the rewards. An overwhelming 90% say that adhering to GDPR and data privacy laws has given their company a competitive edge by strengthening customer trust, with 90% confident that their clients fully trust their data privacy practices. But this trust is hard-won, built on robust internal policies and unwavering compliance.

When it comes to compliance, an overwhelming 85% of Irish businesses have updated their data protection policies in the past two years, with 70% doing so within the past year. A similar percentage, 89%, have a dedicated Data Protection Officer in place or plans to appoint one.

Internal policies also help businesses to vet third-party vendors, with 91% of businesses feeling confident in their service providers' handling of data. However, this trust is conditional as 90% insist on clear proof of compliance and security before partnering, and a publicly accessible hub detailing a vendor's data protection and compliance measures is increasingly influencing partnership decisions. Notably, 76% have cut ties with vendors over concerns about GDPR or data security, a clear signal that trust must be earned and demonstrated. SurveyMonkey has long had a strong security and privacy program, but, in listening to our customers, we heard that they wanted more visibility into those programs. We built the Trust Centre to offer this transparency with an easy-to-access hub that helps procurement and IT teams evaluate us with confidence.

"Seven years after GDPR transformed how we think about data, many organisations still feel like they're playing catch-up," said Eric Johnson, CEO of SurveyMonkey. "As AI and big data introduce new layers of complexity, businesses need trusted tools and clear frameworks to meet rising expectations around compliance, security, and transparency. SurveyMonkey has long been a market leader in secure, compliant feedback collection-grounded in insights from real people, not algorithms. We built the Trust Centre to help organisations evaluate us as a partner, strengthen internal accountability, and build lasting customer trust. Good privacy practices shouldn't be a guessing game, and with SurveyMonkey, they don't have to be."

SurveyMonkey also released a study of British business decision makers. The results can be shared upon request.

About the SurveyMonkey Trust Centre

SurveyMonkey's Trust Centre is a central resource that helps businesses clearly understand how their data is protected. It brings together detailed information on security protocols, privacy practices, and compliance certifications, including GDPR readiness, ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HIPAA. The Trust Center is designed to support procurement and compliance teams by providing clear, accessible documentation for audits, due diligence, and vendor assessments. It reflects SurveyMonkey's belief that transparency is not a nice-to-have, but a vital foundation for building trust with customers and partners.

About SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is the world's most popular platform for surveys and forms, built for business and loved by users. We combine powerful capabilities with intuitive design, effectively serving every use case, from customer experience to employee engagement, market research to payment and registration forms. With built-in research expertise and AI-powered technology, it's like having a team of expert researchers right at your fingertips.

Trusted by millions-from startups to Fortune 500 companies-SurveyMonkey helps teams gather insights and information that inspire better decisions, create experiences people love, and drive business growth. Discover how at surveymonkey.com.

Methodology

This SurveyMonkey study was conducted April 16-24, 2025 among a sample of 417 full-time employed primary decision-makers in Ireland. Primary decision-makers are self-identified, based on respondents who selected "I am the primary decision-maker" for the following question.

Which best describes your role in your organisation or team's decision-making process for purchases?

I am the primary decision-maker

I have influence, but I am not the primary decision-maker

I am not involved in the decision-making process

Respondents for this survey were selected from a non-probability online panel. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521915504/en/

Contacts:

Clarity Global for SurveyMonkey

surveymonkeyuk@clarity.global
ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD) (Barton or the Company) advises that the attached announcement has been released to the market.

A copy of this announcement can be accessed on the ASX website, the investor section of Barton's website, or directly by clicking here.

Authorised by the Managing Director of Barton Gold Holdings Limited.

For further information, please contact:

Alexander Scanlon

Managing Director

a.scanlon@bartongold.com.au

+61 425 226 649 Jade Cook

Company Secretary

cosec@bartongold.com.au

+61 8 9322 1587

About Barton Gold

Barton Gold is an ASX, OTCQB and Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed Australian gold developer targeting future gold production of 150,000ozpa with 1.7Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral Resources (64.0Mt @ 0.83 g/t Au), brownfield mines, and 100% ownership of the region's only gold mill in the renowned Gawler Craton of South Australia.*

Competent Persons Statement & Previously Reported Information

The information in this announcement that relates to the historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources as listed in the table below is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by the Competent Person whose name appears in the same row, who is an employee of or independent consultant to the Company and is a Member or Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy ( AusIMM ), Australian Institute of Geoscientists ( AIG ) or a Recognised Professional Organisation (RPO). Each person named in the table below has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity which he has undertaken to quality as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 (JORC).

Activity Competent Person Membership Status Tarcoola Mineral Resource (Stockpiles) Dr Andrew Fowler (Consultant) AusIMM Member Tarcoola Mineral Resource (Perseverance Mine) Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant) AusIMM Fellow Tarcoola Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021) Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant) AIG Member Tarcoola Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021) Mr Marc Twining (Employee) AusIMM Member Tunkillia Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021) Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant) AIG Member Tunkillia Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021) Mr Marc Twining (Employee) AusIMM Member Tunkillia Mineral Resource Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant) AusIMM Fellow Challenger Mineral Resource Mr Dale Sims (Consultant) AusIMM / AIG Fellow / Member

The information relating to historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources in this announcement is extracted from the Company's Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 or as otherwise noted in this announcement, available from the Company's website at www.bartongold.com.au or on the ASX website www.asx.com.au. The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the Exploration Results and Mineral Resource information included in previous announcements and, in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates, and any production targets and forecast financial information derived from the production targets, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the applicable Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially modified from the previous announcements.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This document may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "target" and "intend" and statements than an event or result "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information is subject to business, legal and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, risks relating to property interests, the global economic climate, commodity prices, sovereign and legal risks, and environmental risks. Forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and opinions at the date the statements are made. Barton undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements for events or circumstances that occur subsequent to such dates or to update or keep current any of the information contained herein. Any estimates or projections as to events that may occur in the future (including projections of revenue, expense, net income and performance) are based upon the best judgment of Barton from information available as of the date of this document. There is no guarantee that any of these estimates or projections will be achieved. Actual results will vary from the projections and such variations may be material. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the past or future. Any reliance placed by the reader on this document, or on any forward-looking statement contained in or referred to in this document will be solely at the readers own risk, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.

* Refer to Barton Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 and ASX announcement dated 4 March 2025. Total Barton JORC (2012) Mineral Resources include 909koz Au (30.8Mt @ 0.92 g/t Au) in Indicated category and 799koz Au (33.2Mt @ 0.75 g/t Au) in Inferred category, and 3,070koz Ag (34.5Mt @ 2.80 g/t Ag) in Inferred category as a subset of Tunkillia gold JORC (2012) Mineral Resources.

SOURCE: Barton Gold Holdings Limited

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/drilling-begins-on-high-grade-gold-and-silver-targets-1030728
Ende Mai leitete US-Prasident Donald Trump mit der Unterzeichnung mehrerer Dekrete eine weitreichende Wende in der amerikanischen Energiepolitik ein. Im Fokus: der beschleunigte Ausbau der Kernenergie.



Mit einem umfassenden Manahmenpaket sollen Genehmigungsprozesse reformiert, kleinere Reaktoren gefordert und der Anteil von Atomstrom in den USA massiv gesteigert werden. Ausloser ist der explodierende Energiebedarf durch KI-Rechenzentren, der eine stabile, CO-arme Grundlastversorgung zwingend notwendig macht.



In unserem kostenlosen Spezialreport erfahren Sie, welche 3 Unternehmen jetzt im Zentrum dieser energiepolitischen Neuausrichtung stehen, und wer vom kommenden Boom der Nuklearindustrie besonders profitieren konnte.



Holen Sie sich den neuesten Report! Verpassen Sie nicht, welche Aktien besonders von der Energiewende in den USA profitieren durften, und laden Sie sich das Gratis-PDF jetzt kostenlos herunter.



Dieses exklusive Angebot gilt aber nur fur kurze Zeit! Daher jetzt downloaden!
EQS-Ad-hoc: Dexus Finance Pty Limited / Key word(s): Real Estate

Dexus Finance Pty Limited: Update on the Dexus Bloc interest in APAC



22-May-2025 / 04:34 CET/CEST

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, transmitted by EQS News - a service of EQS Group.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.





Dexus (ASX: DXS)

ASX release

22 May 2025

Update on the Dexus Bloc interest in Australia Pacific Airports Corporation (APAC)

Dexus provides an update in reference to its ASX release of 16 May 2025 and the notice received from the APAC Board to which it refers (Notice).

In order to protect the interests of the Dexus Bloc Shareholders, Dexus filed proceedings in the New South Wales Supreme Court contesting the validity of the Notice.

Dexus has obtained an injunction against APAC. The Injunction temporarily lifts the suspension of the governance, voting and information rights of the Dexus Bloc Shareholders that arose on the issue of the Notice, and prevents any valuation of the Dexus Bloc Shareholder interests from being finalised while the dispute is being determined (consequently preventing any forced sale occurring).

The Injunction is to remain in place until the Court makes its final ruling in the proceeding, which is scheduled to be heard on 11 and 12 August 2025.

In exchange for the Injunction, Dexus has committed to pay any damages that may arise to impacted parties in the event that its claim does not succeed (as is usual in exchange for orders of this kind).

Dexus will continue to assess potential impacts of this matter and will provide further updates in accordance with its disclosure obligations.

Authorised by the Board of Dexus Funds Management Limited.

For further information please contact:

Investors

Rowena Causley

Head of Listed Investor Relations

+61 416 122 383

rowena.causley@dexus.com Media

Luke O'Donnell

Senior Manager, Media and Communications

+61 412 023 111

luke.odonnell@dexus.com

About Dexus

Dexus (ASX: DXS) is a leading Australasian fully integrated real asset group, managing a high-quality Australasian real estate and infrastructure portfolio valued at $53.4 billion. The Dexus platform includes the Dexus investment portfolio and the funds management business. We directly and indirectly own $14.5 billion of office, industrial, retail, healthcare, infrastructure and alternatives. We manage a further $38.9 billion of investments in our funds management business which provides third party capital with exposure to quality sector specific and diversified real asset products. The funds within this business have a strong track record of delivering performance and benefit from Dexus's capabilities. The platform's $15.6 billion real estate development pipeline provides the opportunity to grow both portfolios and enhance future returns. We believe that the strength and quality of our relationships will always be central to our success and are deeply connected to our purpose Unlock potential, create tomorrow. Our sustainability approach is focused on the priority areas where we believe we can make significant impact: Customer Prosperity, Climate Action and Enhancing Communities. Dexus is supported by more than 38,000 investors from 24 countries. With four decades of expertise in real estate and infrastructure investment, funds management, asset management and development, we have a proven track record in capital and risk management and delivering returns for investors. www.dexus.com

Dexus Funds Management Ltd ABN 24 060 920 783, AFSL 238163, as Responsible Entity for Dexus (ASX: DXS)

(Dexus Property Trust ARSN 648 526 470 and Dexus Operations Trust ARSN 110 521 223)

Level 30, 50 Bridge Street, Sydney NSW 2000

22-May-2025 CET/CEST The EQS Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.eqs-news.com


Die Finanzwelt ist im Umbruch! Nach Jahren der Dominanz erschuttert Donald Trumps erratische Wirtschaftspolitik das Fundament des amerikanischen Kapitalismus. Handelskriege, Rekordzolle und politische Isolation haben eine Kapitalflucht historischen Ausmaes ausgelost.



Milliarden stromen aus den USA  und suchen neue, lukrative Ziele. Und genau hier kommt China ins Spiel. Trotz aller Spannungen wachst die chinesische Wirtschaft dynamisch weiter, Innovation und Digitalisierung treiben die Markte an.



Im kostenlosen Spezialreport stellen wir Ihnen 5 Aktien aus China vor, die vom US-Niedergang profitieren und das Potenzial haben, den Markt regelrecht zu uberflugeln. Wer jetzt klug investiert, sichert sich den Zugang zu den neuen Wachstums-Champions von morgen.



Holen Sie sich den neuesten Report! Verpassen Sie nicht, welche 5 Aktien die Konkurrenz aus den USA outperformen durften, und laden Sie sich das Gratis-PDF jetzt kostenlos herunter.



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DUBAI, UAE, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GTN, a global fintech redefining trading and investing for all, today announced a partnership with Galt & Taggart, a leading investment bank in Georgia, to significantly enhance the online investment experience for their clients.

Leveraging GTN's co-branded global trading platform, GTN Trade, Galt & Taggart has upgraded its users' online trading experience, offering expanded access to international markets and a wider range of asset classes. This collaboration underscores Galt & Taggart's commitment to adopting cutting-edge technologies to serve its growing client base better.

"We're excited to join forces with GTN, a global leader in financial technology. Their innovation and deep expertise in investment tech make them the perfect partner as we take our platform to the next level. Together, we're empowering our clients to diversify smarter, make data-driven decisions with confidence, and manage their investments more effectively than ever before. Huge thanks to the GTN team for their collaboration - we're just getting started. With this partnership, we're gearing up to deliver even more powerful innovations for the next generation of investors," said Giorgi Kuprashvili, CEO of Galt & Taggart.

As a result of this partnership, Galt & Taggart now offers expanded access to stock exchanges across the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, alongside a wider selection of tradable assets, including stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, CFDs, options and more.

Beyond broad market access, GTN also empowers Galt & Taggart's clients with advanced trading capabilities. These include 24-hour trading for U.S. stocks and ETFs, a diverse range of algorithmic order types for sophisticated strategies, fractional trading for shares, ETFs, and bonds, a personalised user experience with a customisable interface, and seamless TradingView integration for advanced charting and analysis.

Damian Bunce, CEO of GTN Middle East, stated: "GTN is delighted to partner with Galt & Taggart, a leading investment bank in Georgia. Our co-branded trading and investment solution is built for the most prestigious organisations that serve a large client base. With our combined strengths we look forward to bringing many innovations to the Georgian market in the years ahead".

This partnership aligns with GTN's mission to democratise access to global investment opportunities by providing financial institutions with the technology to enhance their offerings and reach a broader audience. Following successful collaborations in other regions, this alliance with Galt & Taggart further strengthens GTN's global presence and its ability to deliver tailored solutions that meet the specific needs of local markets.

About GTN



GTN is a global fintech holding broker-dealer and capital markets services licences in multiple jurisdictions through its subsidiaries. We are committed to empowering brokers, banks, asset managers, and fintechs with scalable and innovative investment and trading solutions that enable access to a comprehensive network of global markets and multiple asset classes, making investment and trading accessible to all.

Spread across 14 countries, GTN brings together a talented team of over 500 professionals united by a shared passion and purpose: empowering clients and transforming the accessibility to investment and trading opportunities for all.

GTN is backed by strategic investors IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and SBI Group, one of the largest financial services firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. To learn more, visit www.gtngroup.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Galt & Taggart



Galt & Taggart JSC is a 100% owned subsidiary of the Bank of Georgia Holding Company. The company offers a wide range of investment management services through investment banking, asset management, brokerage and research. For more information, please visit: www.galtandtaggart.com

Contact: Jorge Sanchez-Galiani, j.galiani@gtngroup.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2665488/5332307/GTN_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/gtn-and-galt--taggart-join-forces-unlocking-global-investment-for-georgia-302462476.html
Local manufacturer will take care of packing company's key brands to make a difference in the community: Packed with Care, Packed right Here

SFI HealthEMEA, the regional entity of SFI Health, a global leader in natural healthcare, is proud to announce that the packing of its branded products in South Africa will be now fully managed locally leveraging local talent and facilities. The company is known for its clinically researched products in microbiome, cognition, and well-being.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521282786/en/

This initiative enhances SFI Health South Africa's ability to offer greater flexibility in pack sizes, ensuring a product portfolio that aligns more closely with the needs of South African consumers. By taking this step, the company aims to make its scientifically supported health solutions more accessible, without compromising on quality or efficacy.

Simultaneously, this initiative will have a positive ripple effect on the local economy: all packaging materials will be sourced from South African suppliers, and the products themselves will be assembled locally, thus supporting the domestic manufacturing sector.

Susan Lewis, Head of Sales Direct Markets EMEA and co-leader of the project at SFI Health South Africa together with Linda Wessels, Regional Commercial Finance Manager, commented: "This project is more than just a business decision-it's a commitment to the people of our community. By sourcing locally and supporting local jobs, we're not only making our products more accessible, but also investing in the long-term well-being and economic resilience of the region."

In addition, this project aligns with SFI Health's broader sustainability efforts, reducing the environmental impact of transportation while fostering a more circular and locally anchored supply chain.

SFI Health EMEA has established its presence in South Africa since 2004 operating through a dedicated local subsidiary that manages the marketing, sales, and distribution of its key food supplement brands. The company's portfolio in South Africa includes a range of science-based products designed to support cognitive and physical well-being:

Equazen is a globally recognized brand formulated with a unique blend of essential fatty acids, developed to support cognitive functions.

is a globally recognized brand formulated with a unique blend of essential fatty acids, developed to support cognitive functions. KeenMind is clinically studied to enhance memory, concentration, and learning retention.

is clinically studied to enhance memory, concentration, and learning retention. Gincosan combines standardized extracts of Ginkgo biloba and Panax ginseng, clinically researched to reduce mental fatigue and improve cognitive performance.

combines standardized extracts of Ginkgo biloba and Panax ginseng, clinically researched to reduce mental fatigue and improve cognitive performance. Ginsana is powered by a proprietary natural active ingredient shown to support immune system function and boost physical stamina, helping individuals maintain energy and endurance.

About SFI Health

SFI Health is a global leader in natural healthcare, specialized in the design, development and commercialization of clinically researched products in the areas of microbiome, cognition and wellbeing.

Guided by the belief in the healing potential of natural products, SFI Healthcombines a rigorous pharma-based approach with the benefits of naturally sourced solutions.

An extensive network of trusted business partners enables the company, headquartered in Australia, to market its own brands, reaching consumers in over 50 countries. The EMEA SFI Health regional office in Lugano, Switzerland, manages commercial operations across Europe, Middle East and Africa.

SFI Health is committed to fostering confidence in natural healthcare by sharing state-of-the-art research, technical expertise and comprehensive sales marketing resources with consumers, healthcare professionals and partners worldwide.

For more information go to sfihealth.com or follow us SFI Health on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521282786/en/

Contacts:

SFI Health EMEA Contact

Elisabetta Bianchi

elisabetta.bianchi@sfihealth.com
Rio Tinto today announced that Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm will step down from the Group later this year, at the conclusion of a succession process.

Jakob joined Rio Tinto in 2018 as Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, and became Chief Executive in January 2021. As Chief Executive, Jakob has reset Rio Tinto's strategy to align the group to the opportunities of the energy transition and shaped a pathway to a decade of profitable growth.

Jakob will continue to lead Rio Tinto as Chief Executive and a member of the Board of Directors while a successor is appointed. A rigorous selection process is already underway, led by the Nominations Committee.

Rio Tinto Chair Dominic Barton said: "Under Jakob's leadership, Rio Tinto has restored trust with key stakeholders, aligned our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, built a diverse and talented management team, and set a compelling growth trajectory. Our focus on these things is undiminished and our strategic priorities are unchanged. This is a natural moment to appoint Jakob's successor, as we look ahead to our next phase in which we will double down to deliver greater operational performance to realise the full potential of our assets. I would like to thank Jakob for his significant contribution to Rio Tinto at a critical time in its evolution."

Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said: "It has been an absolute privilege to lead Rio Tinto, one of the great mining and materials companies in the world. I would like to thank the deeply dedicated and talented people across the organisation that together have raised both operational performance and project execution. We have built on Rio Tinto's historic strengths to deliver profitable, stable growth and significant shareholder value. I know the company will continue to thrive long into the future."

LEI: 213800YOEO5OQ72G2R82

This announcement contains inside information.

This announcement is authorised for release to the market by Andy Hodges, Rio Tinto's Group Company Secretary.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521376149/en/

Contacts:

Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com

Media Relations,

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Tom Gallop

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Rio Tinto plc

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Registered in England

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riotinto.com

Category: General
Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) today announced new economic and clinical evidence on severe aortic stenosis (AS) presented as a late-breaking clinical trial at EuroPCR 2025, further contributing to the extensive body of research on this disease.

The results of a new real-world study of more than 24,000 patients demonstrated that intervening on the disease before symptoms develop reduces the economic and resource burden on the healthcare system and improves patient outcomes.

Prompt intervention for severe AS patients before symptoms developed resulted in:

Significantly lower costs for the healthcare system at 1 year ($36,000 less per patient);

Shorter length of stay during their treatment (2.2 fewer days); and

Fewer follow-up heart failure hospitalizations 1 year after treatment (80 percent less).

Additionally, compared with asymptomatic severe AS, delaying treatment until the disease progressed resulted in a more than seven times higher rate of death within one year after aortic valve replacement (AVR).

"We are dedicated to advancing robust evidence to help improve outcomes for patients with severe aortic stenosis," said Larry Wood, Edwards' corporate vice president and group president, Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement and Surgical. "These latest findings underscore the importance of early referral to a Heart Valve Team and timely care of patients with severe AS, reducing the economic and resource burden for hospitals."

Along with prior data from the EARLY TAVR trial, these results reinforce the value of early referral and evaluation by a Heart Valve Team for all patients with severe AS.

"We continue to believe that watchful waiting is not an effective strategy for the management of severe AS," said Philippe Genereux, M.D., director of the structural heart program at Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute, Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, New Jersey. "The latest findings highlight the significant clinical and economic advantages of timely referral and treatment for severe AS patients."

About Edwards Lifesciences

Edwards Lifesciences is the leading global structural heart innovation company, driven by a passion to improve patient lives. Through breakthrough technologies, world-class evidence and partnerships with clinicians and healthcare stakeholders, our employees are inspired by our patient-focused culture to deliver life-changing innovations to those who need them most. Discover more at www.edwards.com and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

This news release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. We intend the forward-looking statements contained in this release to be covered by the safe harbor provisions of such Acts. These forward-looking statements can sometimes be identified by the use of forward-looking words, such as "may," "might," "believe," "will," "expect," "project," "estimate," "should," "anticipate," "plan," "goal," "continue," "seek," "intend," "optimistic," "aspire," "confident" and other forms of these words and include, but are not limited to, statements made by Mr. Wood and statements regarding expected benefits of prompt intervention before symptoms develop, patient benefits and outcomes, reduction in economic and resource burdens for the healthcare system and expectations and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management of the company and are believed to be reasonable, though they are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of the statement. Investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on such forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements based on a number of factors as detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings, along with important safety information about our products, may be found at Edwards.com.

Edwards, Edwards Lifesciences, the stylized E logo, and EARLY TAVR are trademarks of Edwards Lifesciences Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521625465/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact: Heather Bukant, 949-250-2753

Investor Contact: Mark Wilterding, 949-250-6826
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Halal Economy Leadership Forum (HELF) 2025 successfully convened today at the Centre International de Conferences Algiers - Abdelatif Rahal, drawing together global leaders, policymakers, and industry pioneers to advance inclusive growth through the Halal economy. The forum was jointly hosted by Halal Development Corporation Berhad (HDC) under Malaysia's Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) via its Kuala Lumpur Centre of Excellence (IsDB KLCoE), and Halal Products Development Company (HPDC), a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Held in conjunction with the IsDB Group Annual Meeting and Private Sector Forum, HELF 2025 focused on strengthening cross-border trade, investment, and innovation across the global Halal ecosystem. With the global Halal economy valued at over USD 3 trillion, the forum highlighted Africa's growing strategic importance - home to more than 540 million Muslims - as both a high-potential market and production hub for Halal goods and services.

Representing Malaysia's Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, The Hon. Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, H.E. Rizany Irwan Muhamad Mazlan, Ambassador of Malaysia to Algeria, delivered the keynote address. Also in attendance were H.E. Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican, Secretary General of Treasury, Malaysia; Dr. Issa Faye, Director General of Global Practices and Partnership at IsDB; and Hairol Ariffein Sahari, CEO of HDC.

Quoting the Minister's speech, H.E. Rizany noted that the previous HELF had yielded significant results, including enhanced global partnerships, fresh investments, and expanded market access across OIC member countries. Malaysia's Halal exports to Algeria rose by 24% in 2024, reaching RM156.3 million. Key exports included food and beverages, cosmetics, Halal-certified ingredients, and palm oil derivatives.

Tengku Zafrul reiterated Malaysia's commitment in supporting initiatives that facilitate trade, develop industries, and expand market access for halal enterprises. This include deepening collaboration with Algeria and OIC member states to harness the full potential of the halal economy and create a future that is more inclusive, equitable and prosperous for all.

In line with this, IsDB officials including Dr. Issa Faye and Mr. Samer Elesawi (IsDB KLCoE) called on member countries to take more active roles in Halal value chains, addressing shortages in Halal-certified raw materials and finished goods. To close these gaps, the development of dedicated halal industrial zones integrated by infrastructures and infostructures will be introduced in the participating IsDB member countries aimed at boosting production, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

Attended by more than 300 participants, the forum addressed mutual Halal certification and trade facilitation between Malaysia and North Africa, investment in Halal industrial zones and logistics infrastructure across Africa, and capacity-building for SMEs and Halal certification agencies-leveraging Malaysia's expertise in Halal development and training.

Following the success of its 2024 debut in Riyadh, HELF continues to serve as a strategic platform to unlock commercial opportunities across the global Halal value chain and drive economic integration among OIC member states.

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SINGAPORE, NEW YORK and BERLIN, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In the era of AI Commerce, Parcel Perform champions the need for businesses to 'Think Bigger on AI.' As Artificial Intelligence (AI) fundamentally reshapes how consumers discover, evaluate, and choose online shops, e-commerce sales are increasingly won through superior experience and demonstrable reliability.

Parcel Perform, the leading AI-powered Delivery Experience Platform, today announces a pivotal advancement: the deep integration of AI Decision Intelligence across its platform. This core capability empowers e-commerce businesses to achieve the foundational delivery experience excellence needed to become and remain the consumer's preferred choice.

"The dawn of AI Commerce fundamentally changed the rules for attracting and retaining customers," said Dr. Arne Jeroschewski, CEO and Co-Founder of Parcel Perform. "Our focus has always been on providing the bedrock for exceptional delivery experiences. Now, we're amplifying this core strength with AI Decision Intelligence to ensure our clients win by becoming the top choice for shoppers-with or without AI assistants."

In the world of AI Commerce, Businesses must deliver unambiguous excellence. This is crucial because AI-driven tools will guide consumers using proven performance. Our AI Decision Intelligence helps our clients achieve operational superiority. It offers several key features.

For example, proactive AI Data Monitoring provide constant oversight of e-commerce data to flag disruptions and ensure operational integrity. Daily AI Summaries support continuous insights for operational learning. Furthermore, targeted AI Recommendations enable swift and effective action. This operational superiority directly builds consumer preference. It is also clearly understood by AI evaluators.

"We are moving beyond simple data provision to fostering predictive insights and intelligent automation. This prepares businesses for a world where AI doesn't just assist consumers; it actively shapes their purchasing paths," Dr. Jeroschewski continued.

"The urgency for businesses is to adapt to these new consumer demands, which AI will efficiently identify and promote. Our platform's core AI Decision Intelligence relies on powerful support tools. A key example is the AI Navigator. This tool is a chat interface that allows users to interact with our language models and vast platform data. With AI Decision Intelligence, our clients build operations that are truly efficient. These operations also deliver high-quality experiences, which are essential for earning consumer trust and loyalty in this disruptive era of AI Commerce."

How Parcel Perform's AI Decision Intelligence Enhances Key E-commerce Experiences

Parcel Perform's AI Decision Intelligence is a comprehensive platform capability that enhances every stage of the e-commerce journey. Its suite of integrated AI tools delivers tailored benefits across Parcel Perform's core experiences:

Optimizing the Checkout Experience: AI Decision Intelligence transforms the checkout by ensuring delivery promises are both compelling and reliable. It leverages vast e-commerce logistics data and predictive analytics to provide hyper-accurate Estimated Delivery Dates and optimizes carrier selection in real-time, increasing conversion and customer confidence from the first interaction.

Elevating the Post-Purchase & Delivery Experience: After the purchase, AI Decision Intelligence provides proactive control and transparent communication. Proactive AI Data Monitoring and AI Performance Alerts identify and flag potential disruptions during transit, enabling swift intervention. Daily AI Summaries power personalized, timely updates to customers, reducing "Where Is My Order?" (WISMO) inquiries and building trust through a consistently superior delivery experience.

Streamlining the Returns Management Experience: AI Decision Intelligence makes returns management seamless and intelligent. Targeted AI Recommendations optimize return routing for cost-effectiveness and customer convenience. Deeper analytics help businesses identify root causes of returns, contributing to overall operational improvements.

Empowering the E-Commerce Logistics Experience: For e-commerce logistics teams, AI Decision Intelligence offers comprehensive command and strategic insight. Out-of-the-box Business Intelligence provides a 360-degree view of performance across all experiences, identifying trends and optimization opportunities. The AI Navigator accelerates team productivity by simplifying complex tasks and guiding users to leverage the platform's full capabilities for data-driven decision-making.



This commitment to AI-driven excellence is built upon Parcel Perform's non-negotiable foundation of data quality. Processing millions of data points, the platform ensures the accuracy and completeness essential for reliable AI Decision Intelligence. This ensures our AI helps businesses achieve genuine operational excellence, and that their strengths are clear to their customers.

"AI Commerce isn't a distant future; it's actively shaping consumer behavior today. Success hinges on delivering an experience so consistently excellent that it becomes the clear choice for consumers, often highlighted through AI-driven channels," stated Dr. Arne Jeroschewski.

"Businesses embedding practical, data-driven AI to elevate their service quality are those whose offerings will resonate most strongly with consumers in the AI Commerce landscape. Our platform makes sophisticated AI accessible. Our AI Decision Intelligence framework ensures e-commerce logistics teams build reliable, high-performing operations that win consumer trust and ensure their merits are properly factored by the AI systems increasingly guiding commerce."

About Parcel Perform

Built on the industry's most comprehensive e-commerce logistics data, Parcel Perform is the leading AI-powered Delivery Experience Platform, centered around AI Decision Intelligence. The company provides businesses with essential AI tools-including proactive AI Data Monitoring, Daily AI Summaries, targeted AI Recommendations, AI Performance Alerts, Out-of-the-box Business Intelligence, and the AI Navigator-to optimize operations, personalize the customer journey, and transform e-commerce logistics into a key driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty. With its AI-first approach, Parcel Perform enables businesses worldwide to ensure their delivery experience meets the highest standards, master proactive control, and lead by becoming the preferred choice for consumers in an AI-driven world. Get started at www.parcelperform.com .

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Press release 22 May 2025

A ceremonial sauna experience and a characterful use of colour make Honka Kommeli the highlight of the Oulu Housing Fair

Honka Kommeli is a modern interpretation of traditional architecture painted in the classic tone of Falun red. The elegant red is visible on the facade as well as indoors, and it serves as the main tone of the interior. Another main colour of the interior is smoky blue, adding a fascinating depth to the space.

The unique sauna is inspired by the age-old Finnish sauna, where the benches are high in the room, creating an atmospheric washing area below.

The interior design in Honka Kommeli has been created by the highest quality players in Finnish design.





Built for the Oulu Housing Fair, Honka Kommeli is a log home with Falun red colour on the facade and in the interior, as part of a wider stylish and bold colour scheme. The sauna is inspired by the age-old Finnish sauna, where the benches are high in the room, and Japanese onsen spas, offering the most unforgettable sauna experience at the Housing Fair.

Traditional Falun red as an inspiration for a characteristic use of colour





Honka Kommeli is a home with countless enchanting details and a distinctive use of colour. The interior is decorated in particular with smoky blue tones, brick red, and light, natural wood surfaces.

The light sand-coloured concrete floor and light log walls form an elegant backdrop, which is complemented by surprising colour and tile choices. The smoky blue is used in several areas of the home: the impressive fireplace charms in tinted petrol, and the same colour scheme continues in one of the bedrooms and a toilet, including a stylish Woodio toilet seat made of waterproof wood composite. The red on the facade of Honka Kommeli is another accent colour used in the interior.

"We went for a traditional brick red and a strong blue, but with modern tones. Strong colours create interesting accents to a home where the natural tones of wood are the main focus", says Titi Reijonen, the Aare Visuals interior architect who co-designed Honka Kommeli.

Honka Kommeli's interior design features genuine materials that also age beautifully. All the partners involved are high-quality Finnish companies with a long history and an appreciation of craftsmanship. There are spectacular details in every room of the house: custom-made lighting and furniture by Fasetti, timeless furniture by Niemi Design, luxurious rugs by MattoMatti, and stunning textiles by Annala and Jokipiin Pellava.

Every room, transition and view has been carefully designed, making Honka Kommeli an experience for visitors. The thoughtful framing and placement of the views create an intimate and earthy atmosphere.





The subtle CLT log design creates a harmonious look

The numerous natural wood details, from fixed and loose furniture and slats to towel hooks, represent skilful design in Finnish wood. The same careful attention to detail and decades of experience also show in the design of the Honka CLT logs.

Honka only uses the highest quality certified Finnish wood with as few knots as possible to create a calm and elegant result. The company was the first log house manufacturer to develop a non-settling log, which allowed modern and ambitious architecture to be built with logs. Now, Honka is taking log construction to another level with the Honka Fusion+ CLT log, launched in May 2025.

"The new logs use a minimalist CLT log seam groove developed and refined over the years, which allows for a sophisticated and timelessly elegant wall surface", says Eino Hekali, product director at Honka.

In addition to the elegant log design, Honka has developed houses with health-promoting features. Honka log houses have clean indoor air, relaxing acoustics, and natural and low-emission materials that enhance the well-being of the residents on a daily basis. The Ruukki Classic LowCarbon roof complements the healthy, ecological and low-carbon Honka log house.





A ceremonial experience inspired by the age-old Finnish sauna

Inspired by the age-old Finnish sauna, where the benches are high in the room, the sauna in Honka Kommeli stops time by offering a memorable sauna experience. Juho Lonkila, the architect behind Honka Kommeli, wanted to bring a ceremonial element to relaxation and bathing moments.

"In Kommeli, the sauna goes back to times when people washed themselves without running water, with the difference that you don't have to carry the water inside yourself", says Lonkila.

In the sauna, red tiles are harmoniously combined with heat-treated pine walls, ceilings and slats with a hint of red, completing the atmospheric sauna experience.

Further information and interview requests:

Riikka Vahtervuo, Marketing Manager

riikka.vahtervuo@honka.com, +358 50 413 2925

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Honkarakenne Oyj manufactures high-quality, healthy and ecological log homes, holiday homes and public buildings under its Honka brand from Finnish solid wood. The company has delivered 90,000 buildings to over 50 countries. House kits are manufactured in Finland, the company's own factory is located in Karstula. In 2024, Honkarakenne Group's net sales were EUR 36.7 million, of which exports accounted for 29%. www.honka.com




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. ("West Red Lake Gold" or "WRLG" or the "Company") (TSXV: WRLG) (OTCQB: WRLGF) is pleased to report that, at a meeting on May 21, 2025, the WRLG Board of Directors approved management's recommendation to restart the Madsen Mine immediately.

"West Red Lake Gold acquired the Madsen Mine in June 2023 with the goal to use our team's deep technical experience to unlock the abundant but at the time discounted potential of this mine," said Shane Williams, President and CEO. "We have pushed hard for two years to accomplish that feat and now, with major infrastructure projects complete and our bulk sample having delivered mined tonnes and gold grade aligned with modeled expectations, our approach has been validated and we are ready to mine on a continual basis.

"This restart decision is a major milestone that has been achieved by systematically derisking the technical, operating, and funding requirements of a sustainable high-grade gold operation at Madsen and I am very pleased to deliver this restart to all key stakeholders, including our shareholders and neighbours."

For the last year, West Red Lake Gold has communicated a plan to restart the Madsen Mine by the middle of 2025. Restarting now delivers this milestone slightly ahead of schedule, positioning the mine for an exciting second half of the year. Specifically, the Company plans to mine and process an average of 500 tonnes per day for the first two months before ramping up operations through the second half of the year.

ABOUT WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES

West Red Lake Gold Mines Ltd. is a mineral exploration company that is publicly traded and focused on advancing and developing its flagship Madsen Gold Mine and the associated 47 km2 highly prospective land package in the Red Lake district of Ontario. The highly productive Red Lake Gold District of Northwest Ontario, Canada has yielded over 30 million ounces of gold from high-grade zones and hosts some of the world's richest gold deposits. WRLG also holds the wholly owned Rowan Property in Red Lake, with an expansive property position covering 31 km2 including three past producing gold mines - Rowan, Mount Jamie, and Red Summit.





ON BEHALF OF WEST RED LAKE GOLD MINES LTD.

"Shane Williams"

Shane Williams

President & Chief Executive Officer

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Gwen Preston

Vice President Communications

Tel: (604) 609-6132

Email: investors@wrlgold.com or visit the Company's website at https://www.westredlakegold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT AND FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information generally can be identified by words such as "anticipate", "expect", "estimate", "forecast", "planned", and similar expressions suggesting future outcomes or events. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations of management; however, it is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking information in this news release and include without limitation, statements relating to the potential production of mining operations at the Madsen Mine; any untapped growth potential in the Madsen deposit or Rowan deposit; and the Company's future objectives and plans. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Forward-looking information involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, market volatility; the state of the financial markets for the Company's securities; fluctuations in commodity prices; and changes in the Company's business plans. Forward-looking information is based on a number of key expectations and assumptions, including without limitation, that the Company will continue with its stated business objectives and its ability to raise additional capital to proceed. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Additional information about risks and uncertainties is contained in the Company's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2024, copies of which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

The forward-looking information contained herein is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company. The forward-looking information is made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.

For more information on the Company, investors should review the Company's continuous disclosure filings that are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

An infographic accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c40c9a65-d74f-4271-8f48-e5c1b8f3f26b
LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart, public 'parent pods' located in central community spaces such as markets or parks could soon become a reality around the world as a result of the Good Start Challenge: a 2.6 million global challenge launching today with a call for innovations that improve the wellbeing of parents of young children in underserved communities in Latin America.

The Good Start Challenge, which is also launching in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, was initiated by Van Leer Foundation and is supported by FEMSA Foundation, Fundacao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, and LEGO Foundation. It is designed and delivered by global challenge prize expert, Challenge Works.

While becoming a parent is a time of joy, it is also a period of significant change and vulnerability, where many need support for their mental, social and physical wellbeing.

Despite this, communities across Latin America lack access to effective interventions that champion their wellbeing. Global research shows that Brazil ranks second lowest in terms of ease of parenting.

Sindy Gonzalez, Early Childhood Manager, FEMSA Foundation: "Across Latin America and the Caribbean, 172 million people don't have enough income to meet their basic needs, which makes it harder for parents to access support. Parenthood is an exciting yet challenging time, so it is essential that we create accessible solutions that bolster wellbeing."

Mariana Luz, Chief Executive Officer, Fundacao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal: "Poverty and inequality are high and enduring across Brazil. These difficult economic and social circumstances render new parents' responsibility for a new life even more challenging. Programmes that strengthen links between new parents, and public services that support their health, have a hugely positive effect on wellbeing."

While initiatives for supporting parental wellbeing have started to emerge across the globe, more are needed. According to WHO, just a quarter (26%) of governments rate their funding of parent support programmes as sufficient to reach all those in need, despite there being an estimated 500 million parents of children under the age of five worldwide.

Growing evidence also indicates that new parents experience vast biological and neurological changes, which, combined with increasing pressures such as work and childcare commitments, present challenges - especially for those already living in vulnerable circumstances.

The Good Start Challenge is therefore a call for simple yet radical ideas that support the wellbeing of parents and caregivers faced with pre-existing obstacles that make it even harder to access resources. Investing in these ideas will not only bolster parent wellbeing, but society as a whole.

Rushda Majeed, Chief Programme Officer at Van Leer Foundation: "When a child is born, a parent is also born. We know that a good start for children shapes the rest of their lives. This challenge is asking society to think about a good start for parents. At Van Leer we believe it's critical to listen to their voices, and work together to shape a powerful and purposeful evolution in the way in which parents and other caregivers are supported. Advancing a global conversation about the importance of parental wellbeing will have a clear, transformative knock-on effect, as healthy and happy parents lay the foundations for their children to lead fulfilling lives and make positive contributions to society."

Innovations such as 'parent pods' would offer welcoming spaces for new parents to take a moment while accessing amenities and forming connections with other local parents, as well as tapping into an AI-powered network of local support services such as counselling and other benefits.

This is one example of a creative solution that could act as a lifeline for parents, enabling them to feel welcomed by society rather than just having to fit in.

Kathy Nothstine, Director of Cities, Challenge Works: "This challenge will accelerate innovation to reimagine care for parents - something that has been overlooked in the past. This need is particularly acute in underserved communities. Given that parents come into contact with so many services and individuals on a daily basis, this challenge invites creative and impactful solutions from any sector.

"Society is on the brink of a vital and meaningful shift in how we understand, support and prioritise parents, and this challenge will identify innovations that can put this into practice."

With focus on nine countries in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the challenge is designed to address common difficulties experienced by parents in those communities.

In November 2025, up to 22 finalists will be chosen and awarded 50,000 each, alongside support for scaling. In July 2026, up to six winners will each be awarded 200,000.

To find out more about the Good Start Challenge, please visit the website. Applications close on 17 September 2025.

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LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart, public 'parent pods' located in central community spaces such as markets or parks could soon become a reality around the world as a result of the Good Start Challenge: a 2.6 million global challenge launching today with a call for innovations that improve the wellbeing of parents of young children in underserved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Good Start Challenge, which is also launching in Southeast Asia and Latin America, was initiated by Van Leer Foundation and is supported by FEMSA Foundation, Fundacao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, and LEGO Foundation. It is designed and delivered by global challenge prize expert, Challenge Works.

While becoming a parent is a time of joy, it is also a period of significant change and vulnerability, where many need support for their mental, social and physical wellbeing.

Despite this, communities across Sub-Saharan Africa lack access to effective interventions that champion their wellbeing. Research has found that in Uganda 28% of parents experience depression due to limited social support - among other factors.

Tarek Alami, VP - Head of International Programmes, the LEGO Foundation, said: "Parental wellbeing in Sub-Saharan Africa is deeply affected by economic hardship, conflict and displacement. Investing in playful, creative and socially engaging support systems is essential-not only to support parents in coping with stress and trauma, but also to provide children with the opportunity to thrive and develop towards realising their full potential and contributing to the transformation of society."

While initiatives for supporting parental wellbeing have started to emerge across the globe, more are needed. According to WHO, just a quarter (26%) of governments rate their funding of parent support programmes as sufficient to reach all those in need, despite there being an estimated 500 million parents of children under the age of five worldwide.

Growing evidence also indicates that new parents experience vast biological and neurological changes, which, combined with increasing pressures such as work and childcare commitments, present challenges - especially for those already living in vulnerable circumstances.

The Good Start Challenge is therefore a call for simple yet radical ideas that support the wellbeing of parents and caregivers faced with pre-existing obstacles that make it even harder to access resources. Investing in these ideas will not only bolster parent wellbeing, but society as a whole.

Rushda Majeed, Chief Programme Officer at Van Leer Foundation, said:"When a child is born, a parent is also born. We know that a good start for children shapes the rest of their lives. This challenge is asking society to think about a good start for parents. At Van Leer we believe it's critical to listen to their voices, and work together to shape a powerful and purposeful evolution in the way in which parents and other caregivers are supported. Advancing a global conversation about the importance of parental wellbeing will have a clear, transformative knock-on effect, as healthy and happy parents lay the foundations for their children to lead fulfilling lives and make positive contributions to society."

Innovations such as 'parent pods' would offer welcoming spaces for new parents to take a moment while accessing amenities and forming connections with other local parents, as well as tapping into an AI-powered network of local support services such as counselling and other benefits.

This is one example of a creative solution that could act as a lifeline for parents, enabling them to feel welcomed by society rather than just having to fit in.

Kathy Nothstine, Director of Cities and Societies, Challenge Works, said: "This challenge is about accelerating innovation to reimagine how we can care for parents - something that has been overlooked in the past. This need is particularly acute in underserved communities. Given that parents come into contact with so many services and individuals on a daily basis, this challenge invites creative and impactful solutions from any sector.

"Society is on the brink of a vital and meaningful shift in how we understand, support and prioritise parents, and this challenge will identify innovations that can put this into practice."

With specific focus on nine countries in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the challenge is designed to address common difficulties experienced by parents in those communities.

In November 2025, up to 22 finalists will be chosen and awarded 50,000 each, alongside support for scaling. In July 2026, up to six winners will each be awarded 200,000.

To find out more about the Good Start Challenge, please visit the website. Applications close on 17 September 2025.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/2-6-million-innovation-challenge-launches-in-sub-saharan-africa-to-reimagine-support-for-new-parents-302462949.html
LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart, public 'parent pods' located in central community spaces such as markets or parks could soon become a reality around the world as a result of the Good Start Challenge: a 2.6 million global challenge launching today with a call for innovations that improve the wellbeing of parents of young children in underserved communities in Southeast Asia.

The Good Start Challenge, which is also launching in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, was initiated by Van Leer Foundation and is supported by FEMSA Foundation, Fundacao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, and LEGO Foundation. It is designed and delivered by global challenge prize expert, Challenge Works.

While becoming a parent is a time of joy, it is also a period of significant change and vulnerability, where many need support for their mental, social and physical wellbeing.

Despite this, communities across Southeast Asia lack access to effective interventions that champion their wellbeing. Research by Milieu has found that 60% of working mothers across the region struggle to balance their professional and personal commitments, and 31% report difficulties in prioritising their own wellbeing.

Similarly, a small study conducted by the Foundation for Mother and Child Health Indonesia found that approximately 35% of pregnant and nursing mothers surveyed in Indonesia exhibited symptoms of depression or anxiety. Just 6% of breastfeeding mothers were found to have stable mental health, and many stated that they had little to no time to rest or care for their emotional wellbeing.

Rushda Majeed, Chief Programme Officer at Van Leer Foundation, said: "When a child is born, a parent is also born. We know that a good start for children shapes the rest of their lives. This challenge is asking society to think about a good start for parents. At Van Leer we believe it's critical to listen to their voices, and work together to shape a powerful and purposeful evolution in the way in which parents and other caregivers are supported. Advancing a global conversation about the importance of parental wellbeing will have a clear, transformative knock-on effect, as healthy and happy parents lay the foundations for their children to lead fulfilling lives and make positive contributions to society."

While initiatives for supporting parental wellbeing have started to emerge across the globe, more are needed. According to WHO, just a quarter (26%) of governments rate their funding of parent support programmes as sufficient to reach all those in need, despite there being an estimated 500 million parents of children under the age of five worldwide.

Growing evidence also indicates that new parents experience vast biological and neurological changes, which, combined with increasing pressures such as work and childcare commitments, present challenges - especially for those already living in vulnerable circumstances.

The Good Start Challenge is therefore a call for simple yet radical ideas that support the wellbeing of parents and caregivers faced with pre-existing obstacles that make it even harder to access resources. Investing in these ideas will not only bolster parent wellbeing, but society as a whole.

Innovations such as 'parent pods' would offer welcoming spaces for new parents to take a moment while accessing amenities and forming connections with other local parents, as well as tapping into an AI-powered network of local support services such as counselling and other benefits.

This is one example of a creative solution that could act as a lifeline for parents, enabling them to feel welcomed by society rather than just having to fit in.

Kathy Nothstine, Director of Cities and Societies, Challenge Works, said:"This challenge is about accelerating innovation to reimagine how we can care for parents - something that has been overlooked in the past. This need is particularly acute in underserved communities. Given that parents come into contact with so many services and individuals on a daily basis, this challenge invites creative and impactful solutions from any sector.

"Society is on the brink of a vital and meaningful shift in how we understand, support and prioritise parents, and this challenge will identify innovations that can put this into practice."

With specific focus on nine countries in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the challenge is designed to address common difficulties experienced by parents in those communities.

In November 2025, up to 22 finalists will be chosen and awarded 50,000 each, alongside support for scaling. In July 2026, up to six winners will each be awarded 200,000.

To find out more about the Good Start Challenge, please visit the website. Applications close on 17 September 2025.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/2-6-million-innovation-challenge-launches-in-southeast-asia-to-reimagine-support-for-new-parents-302462937.html
All the company's business lines increased revenue compared to the previous year, especially the B2C segment, which represents 76% of total revenue

The acquisition of Cityscoot in France and felyx in the Netherlands has strengthened Cooltra's leadership in the shared mobility sector, with a 50% market share in the cities where it operates

In 2025, the company will roll out two new electric bike models, targeting both private users and businesses

BARCELONA, Spain, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cooltra Group, the European leader in sustainable two-wheeled mobility, continues to pursue its national and international growth and consolidation strategy, closing the 2024 financial year with a turnover of 60 million - a 32% increase compared to the previous year - and maintaining a positive EBITDA since 2019. Its expansion strategy and entry into new markets were further reinforced through the acquisitions of Cityscoot in France and felyx in the Netherlands.

This positive revenue trend stems from solid growth across all business areas, particularly within the B2C segment, which generated 45 million in turnover. This includes shared mobility services across Europe (operated by Cooltra and felyx in the Netherlands and Belgium), as well as short- and long-term rentals for private individuals.

The B2B segment - renting for companies and public institutions - also showed stable growth, with turnover reaching 14.5 million, up 4% from 2023.

"2024 has been a pivotal year for Cooltra, consolidating our leadership in sustainable two-wheeled mobility across Europe. The integration of Cityscoot and felyx has strengthened our presence in key markets and enables us to continue delivering accessible and efficient solutions to our users. Despite market challenges, we continue to grow steadily - a testament to the strength of our business model and a clear incentive to stay the course," said Timo Buetefisch, Co-founder and CEO of Cooltra.

Shared mobility: reinforcing leadership in Europe

The B2C division remained Cooltra's main growth driver, closing the year with 45 million in turnover (+42%), largely thanks to the success of its sharing services (e-mopeds and e-bikes rented by the minute), which accounted for 40.2 million. Growth was fuelled by expansion into new cities and increasing user demand. In 2024, Cooltra added 15 new cities in the Netherlands and Belgium through the integration of felyx, reaching a total of 23 cities across six countries.

The shared fleet also saw a significant boost, now comprising more than 16,000 fully electric vehicles. Barcelona was a key growth area, with Cooltra tripling its fleet to 1,950 e-mopeds and adding seven new municipalities, thanks to the metropolitan sharing project promoted by the AMB (Barcelona Metropolitan Area) in October.

In addition to sharing, short- and medium-term private rentals also improved on 2023 figures, generating 4.6 million in turnover. As part of its commitment to innovation and customer convenience, Cooltra successfully rolled out its Click&Ride system last year, allowing customers to book, collect and return vehicles without visiting a physical shop.

Cooltra's renting services reach new B2B markets

The B2B division now accounts for a quarter of the company's total revenue, with 14.5 million in turnover - a 4% increase on the previous year. The fleet has also grown, now exceeding 8,000 vehicles (+11%). Entry into new markets - the Netherlands and Belgium - and contracts with key clients such as Flink have been key contributors.

Germany also showed positive momentum thanks to contracts with Flink and the addition of Domino's Pizza. Once again, the food delivery sector is driving the highest demand for rented fleets.

As for public sector contracts, Cooltra delivered 156 two-wheeled vehicles in 2024. Over the past five years, the company has supplied more than 1,000 motorbikes - both rented and sold - to various national police forces.

2025: the year of the e-bike for Cooltra

In 2025, Cooltra is strengthening its focus on e-bikes. Throughout the year, the company will roll out a new shared electric bike model within its B2C division, currently being deployed in the Netherlands and soon launching in Barcelona with 600 new units.

In the B2B segment, Cooltra is preparing to unveil a proprietary e-bike - designed and manufactured entirely in Europe - developed specifically to meet the needs of delivery and logistics companies.

Note: All financial figures in this press release are currently under audit and may be subject to change.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693364/Cooltra_Sharing.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693367/Cooltra.jpg

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~The move is set to make real-time trendy Indian fashion wear available, targeting expatriates in the Lion City

~100 sought-after made-in-India brands bring ~35k styles

BENGALURU, India, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Myntra, one of India's leading fashion, beauty and lifestyle e-commerce destinations, has announced the launch of Myntra Global, and is set to bring Indian fashion to Singapore. The move, targeted at the ~650K Indian diaspora, will offer handpicked trendy Indian fashion styles, while also providing a seamless and hassle-free shopping experience to its customers in the country.

As part of Myntra's broader growth strategy, Myntra Global is poised to enable the organisation to tap into new customer segments and build stronger international brand affinity, over the next few years. With a strong legacy of 18 years of catering to fashion aspirations, Myntra has already been witnessing notable organic traffic to the tune of ~30k users from Singapore to its existing platform.

Driven by the growing demand from the Indian diaspora, who seek culturally resonant products that reflect their roots, Myntra is bringing ~35k styles from ~100 brands, across categories like apparel, footwear, home and accessories to the Lion City. Selections from sought-after brands including, Aurelia, Global Desi, AND, Libas, Rustorange, Mochi, W, The Label Life, House of Pataudi, Chumbak, Anouk, Bombay Dyeing, Rare Rabbit and Nasher Miles among many others have been made available to begin with. This move will propel the growth of Indian fashion brands and help scale beyond India, in line with the government's vision to take made-in-India products to the global stage.

Speaking on the development, Nandita Sinha, CEO, Myntra, said, "Our journey of nearly two decades has been paved by the love of millions of customers and thousands of brands who trust us to make their fashion dreams possible. The launch of Myntra Global marks a milestone moment for Myntra. With our expertise in serving customers at scale and the exceptional offerings from some of the most loved brands, we are confident that Myntra Global will delight Indians living abroad and keep them connected to their roots, in style. We will also continue to build and scale the platform to cater to Singapore seamlessly, propelling the growth of our brand partners."

Myntra's proven strong tech capabilities in building a platform of scale will serve as the backbone for providing a seamless online shopping experience on Myntra Global. Available for mobile web and desktops, Myntra Global will tap into third-party cross-border logistics services to bring customers their orders in 4-7 days on average.

About Myntra

Myntra is one of India's leading platforms for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Started in 2007, Myntra is part of the Flipkart Group, owned by Walmart. Myntra brings together technology and fashion to create the best-in-class experience for millions of its customers in India. With over 70 million monthly active users, Myntra offers more than 3.9 million styles from a wide range of over 9700 international and domestic brands such as MANGO, H&M, Levi's, U.S. Polo Assn., Tommy Hilfiger, Louis Philippe, JACK & JONES, Forever 21, Marks & Spencer, MAC, Huda Beauty, Estee Lauder, Global Desi, W, Biba, Libas, among others. With a wide reach, Myntra services over 95% of the pin codes covering the length and breadth of India. Singapore is the first country where Myntra is directly serving customers outside of India with Myntra Global.

Myntra Global website: www.myntraglobal.com

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/indian-fashion-e-commerce-major-myntra-to-set-foot-in-singapore-with-the-launch-of-myntra-global-302462983.html
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Independence Gold Corp. (TSXV: IGO) ("Independence" or "the Company") is pleased to report the results of its first-ever diamond drill program at the Ootsa copper-silver target within the Company's 100%-owned 3Ts Project, located in central British Columbia. A total of five holes were completed, reaching a maximum depth of 427 metres ("m"), and spanning approximately 800 m of strike length. The 3Ts Project is located approximately 185 kilometres ("km") southwest of Prince George, British Columbia and is comprised of thirty-one mineral claims covering approximately 35,486 ha in the Nechako Plateau region of central British Columbia. The project is situated 16 km southwest of Artemis Gold Inc.'s Blackwater Mine and covers a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz- carbonate vein district within which nineteen individual mineralized veins, ranging from 50 m to more than 1,100 m in strike length and with true widths up to 32 m have been identified.

All five holes at Ootsa intersected hydrothermal breccias and altered Jurassic rhyolites, with widespread disseminated and vein-hosted copper and silver mineralization-a style unique to the Ootsa Ridge area. The mineralization appears structurally controlled, occurring within arcuate-shaped fault systems, and includes bornite and chalcopyrite, with associated lead and zinc in select intervals.

Highlights from the program include:

Hole 3TS-25-15: 5.49 metres averaging 55.74 g/t silver, 0.95% copper, 0.26% lead and 0.56% zinc

5.49 metres averaging 55.74 g/t silver, 0.95% copper, 0.26% lead and 0.56% zinc Hole 3TS-25-14: 17.20 metres averaging 3.20 g/t silver, 0.20% lead and 0.22% zinc





Figure 1: Bornite and chalcopyrite hosted in crackle-brecciated rhyolite at a depth of 326.2m (3TS-25-15)

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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"These results represent a new style of mineralization for the 3Ts project," commented Randy Turner, President and CEO of Independence Gold. "The Ootsa target has returned strong copper and silver grades over meaningful widths, with associated pathfinder elements including lead, and zinc. We firmly believe Ootsa represents a significant critical minerals opportunity that remains open along strike for several kilometres. The mineralogy and structural setting suggest a robust hydrothermal system, and we are excited to continue advancing this target during the summer exploration program."

Advanced mineralogical studies are currently underway with BaseMet Labs (Kamloops, BC) to characterize the host phases of copper, silver, lead and zinc mineralization, and to refine the exploration model for future drill targeting. Drilling to date has been limited to the Ootsa Ridge, a localized expression within a much larger structural corridor; the mineralized system remains open in all directions.





Figure 2: Ootsa 2025 drill hole locations

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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Hole Number From

(m) To

(m) Interval (m) Silver

(g/t) Copper (%) Lead

(%) Zinc

(%)

3TS-25-14

and

and

and

including

and

including

and including 30.43 31.20 0.77 3.90 0.14 - 0.17 38.20 39.67 1.47 1.36 - 0.28 0.31 135.00 136.00 1.00 5.00 - - - 242.00 259.20 17.20 3.20 - 0.20 0.22 248.09 248.70 0.61 13.11 - 1.06 1.89 261.00 266.50 5.50 7.45 - 0.31 0.75 262.55 263.00 0.45 20.00 - 0.92 2.20 263.30 263.60 0.30 76.67 - 3.11 7.77

3TS-25-15

and

and

and

and

and

and

and

including

and

and 95.00 96.00 1.00 6.00 - - - 140.56 142.55 1.99 7.54 0.19 - - 174.30 176.40 2.10 - - 0.13 0.12 224.00 225.00 1.00 11.00 0.21 - - 228.00 230.00 2.00 11.00 0.15 - - 232.00 233.95 1.95 9.74 0.22 - - 320.56 321.60 1.04 20.19 0.11 - - 322.26 327.75 5.49 55.74 0.95 0.26 0.56 322.26 323.18 1.86 144.09 2.13 0.63 1.49 337.70 338.25 0.55 14.55 1.14 - - 3TS-25-16

and 19.00 27.00 8.00 6.00 - - 0.22 36.71 39.00 2.29 12.23 - - 0.10 3TS-25-17 368.00 369.00 1.00 16.00 0.23 - - 3TS-25-18

and

including 163.05 163.50 0.45 13.33 - - - 243.00 245.93 2.93 6.14 - 0.20 0.11 245.16 245.93 0.77 11.69 - 0.43 0.28

Table 1: Ootsa target drill hole results

About Independence

Independence Gold Corp. is a well-financed mineral exploration company with holdings ranging from early-stage grassroots exploration to advanced-stage resource expansion in British Columbia and Yukon. The Company is positioned to add shareholder value through systematic project advancement, while management continues to evaluate additional gold and silver projects for possible acquisition. For additional information, visit the Company's website www.ingold.ca.

Andy Randell, P.Geo., the Company's Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and who is independent of the Company, has reviewed the technical information in this news release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF INDEPENDENCE GOLD CORP.

"Randy Turner"

Randy Turner, President and CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Drill Hole Location Data

Drill Hole Target Zone Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Total Meterage 3TS-25-14 Ootsa 365804 5877551 1160 220 50 402 3TS-25-15 Ootsa 365804 5877551 1160 40 50 351 3TS-25-16 Ootsa 365880 5877427 1144 220 50 327 3TS-25-17 Ootsa 366170 5877125 1094 210 45 427 3TS-25-18 Ootsa 365555 5877310 1135 40 50 350

*All drill hole locations are in NAD83, Zone 10 Datum

All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to Independence within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements with respect to the Company's planned drilling and exploration activities. The Company provides forward-looking statements for the purpose of conveying information about current expectations and plans relating to the future and readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. By its nature, this information is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to those identified and reported in Independence's public filings under Independence Gold Corp.'s SEDAR profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Although Independence has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Independence disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252785

SOURCE: Independence Gold Corp
Xiamen, China--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Fujian Province, China, officially launched the 2025 Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition on May 10, organized by the Fujian Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Organizing Committee. The high-level initiative aims to attract cutting-edge innovation and entrepreneurial projects from around the world. By offering a favorable policy environment, an expansive development platform, and comprehensive support services, the competition seeks to empower global talent to launch ventures in Fujian and accelerate the deep integration of scientific, technological, and industrial innovation.

China's Fujian Province Launches Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition to Attract Overseas Talent for New Development Opportunities

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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This year's competition centers on three key sectors: the digital economy, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. It is designed to attract professionals with international vision and strong academic or professional backgrounds, particularly those who have earned a master's degree or higher abroad or who have more than two years of innovation and entrepreneurial experience overseas. Projects submitted must demonstrate technological advancement, independent intellectual property rights, and strong commercialization prospects. In general, applicants must be under 55 years of age.

The registration period runs from May 10 to July 10, with online applications accepted through the official competition website: www.fujiantalent.com. Preliminary written reviews will be conducted online in July, and the final roadshow and defense will be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in early September, in conjunction with the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT). Therefore, in addition to participating in the competition, candidates will also have the opportunity to engage in industrial site visits and investment matchmaking sessions.

The competition offers a total prize pool of nearly RMB 3 million. First prize winners will receive RMB 150,000, second prize winners RMB 100,000, third prize winners RMB 50,000, and merit award recipients RMB 20,000. In addition to financial incentives, the organizing committee will provide tailored policy support for award-winning talents. Qualified recipients of the first, second, and third prizes may be directly recognized as provincial high-level talents through a fast-track process and may receive up to RMB 1 million in settlement subsidies and be eligible for inclusion in the Fujian "Hundred Talents Plan" for entrepreneurship, with support of up to RMB 2 million. Moreover, cities across Fujian Province will offer landing and implementation support for top-ranking projects.

Beyond prize awards and policy support, the organizing committee is committed to ensuring that talent projects are successfully implemented in Fujian. To this end, it will collaborate with leading institutions and enterprises to provide full-spectrum assistance for project financing, implementation, and commercialization.

Fujian has long been recognized as a key region for overseas Chinese and a pioneer in China's reform and opening-up. Xiamen, in particular, is celebrated as one of "China's Top 10 Cities for Returnee Entrepreneurs" and one of the "Most Attractive Chinese Cities in the Eyes of Foreign Talent." With strong infrastructure and robust support systems, Xiamen and Fujian are well-positioned to provide comprehensive services and assistance to returning professionals.

The organizing committee warmly welcomes overseas Chinese students, scholars, and technology entrepreneurs to apply and take part in this competition, and to seize the opportunity to contribute to - and benefit from - China's next stage of high-quality development.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253035

SOURCE: Global News








HONG KONG, May 22, 2025 - (ACN Newswire) - CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ('CITIC Telecom CPC'), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883) announced the winning of multiple prestigious awards in Hong Kong and international competitions. CITIC Telecom CPC is honored one of the top three most trusted Security Operations Centers (SOCs) in Hong Kong according to the 'IT PRO Corporate SOC Survey[1]' conducted by the well-known IT mediaIT PROin April 2025, recognizing its outstanding performance, technical expertise, and market leadership in security operations. In addition, CITIC Telecom CPC won 'Cybersecurity Excellence Awards' three years in a row and clinched three awards in '2025 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards'. CITIC Telecom CPC's innovative AI Pentest security solution clinched two awards, namely the Gold Award for 'Innovation in Digital Transformation - Telecommunications Industries' in '2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie' Awards' and 'Innovation Awards APAC 2025' fromComputer Weeklyfor two consecutive years.Multiple international awards won by CITIC Telecom CPC, includes:- Top three Security Operations Centers (SOCs) in Hong Kong- Three accolades in '2025 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards' for three consecutive years' AI Security Solutions' SOC Team of the Year' Best Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)- Gold Award for 'Innovation in Digital Transformation - Telecommunications Industries' in '2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie' Awards'- Computer Weekly'Innovation Awards APAC 2025' for two years in a rowMr. Brook Wong, Chief Executive Officer of CITIC Telecom CPC, said, 'We are honored to have won multiple awards from different leading institutions, which act as a driving force for motivating us to accelerate innovation, push the boundaries of possibility, and pursue more outstanding achievements. Our AI-SOC has been selected as Hong Kong's top three in a survey, demonstrating the integrated capabilities of our SOC and affirming both our top-notch service expertise and technological innovation abilities. Over the past few years, our team has actively pursued innovation and leveraged AI to improve enterprise defense capabilities and ensure secure operations. Our innovative AI applications have won numerous international awards to demonstrate our digital intelligence. CITIC Telecom CPC will continue to drive intelligent SOC services as our core, adopt more AI functions and value-added services, building a more comprehensive data security framework and striving to become customers' preferred choice of SOC.'Ranked Among the Top 3 SOCs in Hong Kong byIT PRO| Self-developed Cross-regional SOCs Empowering Enterprises Going Global and Entering ChinaCITIC Telecom CPC's outstanding SOC service capabilities have been recognized as one of the top three Hong Kong SOC service providers in the 'IT PRO Corporate SOC Survey'. According to the survey results, 'security incident investigation, analysis, and regular consultation' is the most important service backed by SOC for enterprise customers. The two major criteria for selecting SOC suppliers are 'user recommendations and incident follow-up experience' and 'security service levels meeting expectations.' CITIC Telecom CPC stands out with its cross-regional SOC services and 7x24 AI-driven threat protection solutions.Cross-regional Connectivity, Hassle-free Security: CITIC Telecom CPC's Professional Advantages1.Cross-regional Self-owned SOCs: With nearly 20 years of experience in security services, CITIC Telecom CPC is one of the few providers with 'self-developed, self-operated, self-managed' cross-regional dual SIEM SOC service platforms in Hong Kong and China. Backed by SOCs in Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai, it offers 7x24 security incident management services.2.One-stop 'Cloud, Network, Security' Services: With 20 cloud service centers and other global network resources, CITIC Telecom CPC is one of the few security service providers which provides one-stop seamless and secure 'cloud-network' connectivity.3.Professional Technical and Customer Service Teams: One of the few security service providers which offers one-stop 'Cloud, Network, Security' management services, from network infrastructure, business-critical applications (such as CRM, ERP) to device management of different technology vendors, simplifying enterprise IT operations and maintenance.4.AI Innovation Capabilities: 'AI-Red/Blue Cybersecurity Practices' combine the latest AI intelligent analysis for proactive defense and precise threat identification. This provides real-time threat responses and managed security services to enterprises.5.Cross-border Data Compliance Management: CITIC Telecom CPC understands security threat vectors, threat intelligence and compliance requirements in different regions, offering tailor-made comprehensive cybersecurity strategies for enterprises going global and entering China.Professional Team and Local Services Provide Round-the-clock Security for EnterprisesOrganized by a prestigious cybersecurity community - Cybersecurity Insiders, Cybersecurity Excellence Awards is an annual global mega event, which aims to recognize the excellent achievements, creativity and information security leadership of organizations, products and professionals. CITIC Telecom CPC is honored to receive three awards namely AI Security Solutions, SOC Team of the Year, and Best Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) at the 2025 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in recognition of its AI innovation capabilities, professional security experts, and managed security services.SOC Team of the Year award is a testament of CITIC Telecom CPC's cybersecurity leadership. Combining 7x24 professional team and international certifications such as CISA, CISSP, CCIE-RS and PMP with deep expertise in serving different regions and industries, CITIC Telecom CPC demonstrates their profound knowledge and rapid responses to various security incidents. Its team adheres to the 'customer-oriented' vision and customizes cybersecurity solutions for every customer to meet their unique scenarios and regulatory requirements. The team also integrates the innovative 'AI-Red/Blue Cybersecurity Practices' to achieve proactive defense, identify potential vulnerabilities and take immediate measures to safeguard organizations from cyber threats.AI Innovation Capabilities Create a More Efficient Digital FutureCITIC Telecom CPC's AI Pentest has been lauded for its outstanding innovative applications and has won the Gold Award for 'Innovation in Digital Transformation - Telecommunications Industries' in '2025 Asia-Pacific Stevie' Awards' and once again 'Innovation Awards APAC 2025' fromComputer Weekly. As the core solution of TrustCSI 3.0 security suite, AI Pentest uses unique AI-driven bypass techniques to expose WAF vulnerabilities, enabling automated routine task scheduling to achieve 7x24 assessment of internal network asset. This lightweight solution functions as an 'AI security robot vacuum' which automatically operates 7x24, greatly enhancing network vulnerabilities detection efficiency and helping enterprises establish a robust defense against potential threats in the ever-changing digital world.Mr. Brook Wong added, 'We will continue to foster the deep integration of AI technology and network security, helping customers achieve the automation and intelligence of secure operations, and jointly move towards a safer and more efficient digital future. CITIC Telecom CPC's professional team will fully leverage its expertise and integrate it with AI to further strengthen customers' cybersecurity defense. We will also upgrade our Security Operations Centers (SOCs) to ride with the AI-driven new era. We plan to introduce the third self-developed AI-powered SIEM technology platform in the second half of this year, empowering enterprises to respond to cyber threats in a more cost-effective and efficient manner, and accelerating the dual-track development of cybersecurity and digital transformation.'[1] The survey was conducted online by IT PRO via email questionnaire to more than 12,000 mid to senior-level executives in local enterprises in April 2025.Source (Chinese only): https://itpromag.com/2025/05/16/it-pro-soc-resultAbout CITIC Telecom CPCWe are CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited ('CITIC Telecom CPC'), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CITIC Telecom International Holdings Limited (SEHK: 1883), serving multinational enterprises the world over by addressing their specific ICT requirements with highly scalable tailored solutions built upon our flagship technology suites, comprising TrueCONNECT private network solutions, TrustCSI information security solutions, DataHOUSE cloud data center solutions, and SmartCLOUD cloud computing solutions.With the motto 'Innovation Never Stops,' we leverage innovative technologies to boost technology empowerment (+AI). Embracing AI, AR, Big Data, IoT, and other cutting-edge emerging technologies we aim to unlock technical potential. By integrating deep learning and intelligent data analysis technologies, we transform these technologies into data empowerment (AI+) generative applications, reshaping the Intelligence Operation Journey of enterprises.With our Global-Local capabilities, we are committed to providing our customers with one-stop-shop ICT solutions with superior quality. Having a worldwide footprint across nearly 160 countries and regions, including Asia, Europe and America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, our global network resources connect nearly 170 points of presence (POPs), 60+ SDWAN gateways, 20 Cloud service centers, 30+ data centers, and three dedicated 24x7 Security Operations Centers (SOCs). We are certified with a series of international certifications, including SD-WAN Ready, ISO 9001, 14001, 20000, 27001, and 27017, to ensure our services compliance with international standards and resources for enterprises. We offer local professional services, superior delivery capabilities as well as exceptional customer experience and best practices through our global presence and extensive industry know-how, becoming a leading integrated intelligent ICT service provider to enterprise customers. For more information, please visit www.citictel-cpc.com.Media Contacts:Catherine YuenCITIC Telecom CPC(852) 2170 7536Email: catherine.yuen@citictel-cpc.comSource: CITIC Telecom CPCCopyright 2025 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Battery manufacturers enabled to drive innovation with smart, sustainable, and efficient solutions for gigafactories of the future

DUSSELDORF, Germany, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, will showcase its latest innovations for smart battery manufacturing at The Battery Show, 3 - 5 June, in Stuttgart, Germany.

As battery manufacturers strive to meet the escalating global demand, Rockwell Automation offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions designed to optimize factory floor connectivity, enhance predictive maintenance and streamline operations with advanced logistics systems. These technological innovations include advanced manufacturing execution systems (MES) software, AI-driven solutions, and digital threads for electric vehicle battery production.

At this year's show, visitors to Booth 9-G47 will experience live demonstrations of Rockwell Automation's Emulate3D Factory Test capabilities, recently launched at Hannover Messe 2025. Integrating NVIDIA Omniverse APIs and OpenUSD, this innovative solution redefines digital twin technology by enabling factory-scale virtual controls testing. This allows manufacturers to test and optimize their automation systems before any equipment is installed, optimizing efficiency and reducing deployment risks.

A key highlight of the exhibition will be the Digital Battery Passport, developed in collaboration with Circulor. This digital solution ensures traceability across the entire battery supply chain, from raw material extraction to final product delivery, supporting compliance and sustainability initiatives worldwide.

Rockwell Automation also continues to strengthen its ecosystem through partnerships with leading battery manufacturers, recently highlighted by its collaboration with British company IONETIC, a UK startup dedicated to making custom battery packs for electric vehicles affordable and reliable.

In addition, Peter Mair, principal director EMEA automotive & tire, EV at Rockwell Automation will be presenting a session "Driving Decarbonization with the Digital Thread: Examples and Case Studies on Design for Sustainability, Energy Management with AI, Digital Product Passport, and Supply-Chain Traceability," which will offer attendee valuable insights into the role of digital technologies in achieving sustainability goals.

"Our mission is to support battery manufacturers in navigating the complex challenges of rapid technological advancements, fast scaling production while reducing scrap, and the critical need for sustainable practices," said Mair. "Our presence at The Battery Show Europe underscores our commitment to empowering the industry with innovative solutions for smart, efficient, resilient and sustainable battery production."

Rockwell Automation will also unveil its new State of Smart Manufacturing Report - Automotive Edition, available from June 3, including regional-specific data for the UK and Germany. The report will provide valuable insights into current trends and challenges within the automotive sector.

Visit Rockwell Automation at Booth 9-G47 to experience first-hand how its solutions can help manufacturers build the next generation of smart battery factories. Industry experts and technology specialists will be available throughout the event to discuss how these innovations can help manufacturers achieve cost-effective, flexible, and sustainable operations.

For more information, please visit Rockwell Automation's website .

About Rockwell Automation

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), is a global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation. We connect the imaginations of people with the potential of technology to expand what is humanly possible, making the world more productive and more sustainable. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Rockwell Automation employs approximately 27,000 problem solvers dedicated to our customers in more than 100 countries as of fiscal year end 2024. To learn more about how we are bringing the Connected Enterprise to life across industrial enterprises, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.

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Ensuring Fair Access to Medicines for All

PRAGUE and BRUSSELS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zentiva supported Euractiv's Health Policy Conference in Brussels, where its CEO, Steffen Saltofte, joined senior EU policymakers in the opening panel titled "The EU Pharmaceutical Legislation - Ensuring Fair Access to Medicines for All."

Representing Europe's off-patent medicine sector, Steffen Saltofte called for a unified approach to reshape pharmaceutical policy with patients at the centre. He emphasised the need to bring together all healthcare stakeholders - from innovators to the off-patent industry, from regulators to policymakers - to fulfil the promise of health as a fundamental right for all.

"We need sustainable healthcare that is resilient and that people can trust," said Steffen Saltofte. "Our EU-based plants delivered throughout COVID and recent shortages - but continued resilience is only possible with a systemic framework that ensures fair and simple rules, predictable pricing, and an aligned policy approach that truly puts patients first. If we want equal access to medicines, we must invest in the system. That means working together to secure medicines for all - across availability, affordability, and accessibility. This demands fair, forward-looking rules and a shared commitment to Europe's healthcare sovereignty. This is not about one part of the system - it's about delivering one healthcare, for all."

Key topics that Zentiva underlined during the discussion:

Equal Access and Timely Competition Are Vital

We advocate for pharmaceutical reform that guarantees early patient access through fair competition. Extending exclusivity periods could delay the entry of generics and biosimilars, impacting both affordability and availability.

We advocate for pharmaceutical reform that guarantees early patient access through fair competition. Extending exclusivity periods could delay the entry of generics and biosimilars, impacting both affordability and availability. Resilience Starts with Economically Viable EU-Based Manufacturing

Our manufacturing sites in Prague and Bucharest maintained continuous supply during recent crises. We call for predictable pricing, investment incentives, and smart procurement rules to secure local production of essential medicines - not just for a few substances, but across the portfolio, ensuring fair access for all who depend on medicines every day.

Our manufacturing sites in Prague and Bucharest maintained continuous supply during recent crises. We call for predictable pricing, investment incentives, and smart procurement rules to secure local production of essential medicines - not just for a few substances, but across the portfolio, ensuring fair access for all who depend on medicines every day. Policy Alignment and Cross-Sector Cooperation Are Essential

Industrial, pharmaceutical, and environmental policies must be aligned. Without coordination, new directives - such as the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive - risk undermining medicine supply and innovation in greener technologies.

Industrial, pharmaceutical, and environmental policies must be aligned. Without coordination, new directives - such as the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive - risk undermining medicine supply and innovation in greener technologies. A Modern Framework for Sustainable Healthcare Is Needed

We support reforms that accelerate the adoption of digital tools, such as digital leaflets, incentivize value-added medicines, and ensure pricing systems reflect real-world costs and sustainability goals.

Moderated by EURACTIV's Anna Gumbau, the discussion featured Rainer Becker, Director for Medical Products and Innovation at DG SANTE in the European Commission; Stine Bosse, Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chair of the SANT Committee; and Ondrej Knotek, Member of the European Parliament and of the SANT Committee.

Platforms like the one provided by Euractiv are vital - they bring us together to listen, collaborate, and drive progress. For the benefit of all people who rely on medicines every day. Because health is a right, not a privilege.

About Zentiva

Zentiva provides health and wellbeing for all generations. We are a European company developing, producing, and delivering high-quality, affordable medicines to more than 100 million people in over 30 countries across Europe and beyond. Zentiva has four wholly owned manufacturing sites and a broad network of external manufacturing partners to ensure supply security. The company is private equity-owned, delivering sustainable growth, with an ambitious plan for the years to come.

We are a team of more than 5,000 unique talents bonded together by our commitment to ensuring the supply of high-quality, affordable medicines to people who depend on them every day. We want Zentiva to be a great place to work, where everyone feels welcomed and appreciated, and can be their true selves, contributing to the best of their ability.

Our roots reach back more than 500 years to a small pharmacy in Prague that still exists today. We act today for a sustainable tomorrow, so that Zentiva will continue to provide health and wellbeing for all generations for at least another 500 years.

www.zentiva.com

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HIGHLIGHTS1

After-tax base case NPV7% of C$171 M, IRR of 36%, and payback of 2 years using US$4.25/lb copper, US$1.30/lb zinc, US$27/oz silver, and US$1.10/lb lead price assumptions (pre-tax NPV7% of C$264 M and IRR of 49%).

Study economics supported by local vendor quotes for key areas including mine contracting, haul road construction, haulage from mine to process plant, concentrate trucking rates to Port of Belledune deepwater port , ocean freight rates, and historical operating costs from former Caribou process plant operation.

Project combines the Murray Brook open pit mine project and the permitted Caribou copper, lead, zinc process plant and tailings complex located 13 km to the east.

Initial capital expenditure ("CAPEX") of C$64 M, resulting in an NPV/CAPEX ratio of 2.7x.

Average annual payable production during a plus 13 year mine life ("LOM") of: 8 million pounds ("M lbs") copper 47 M lbs zinc 783k thousand ounces of silver 10 M lbs lead Or 30 M lbs copper equivalent ("CuEq") or 98 M lbs zinc equivalent ("ZnEq").

All-in sustaining cash cost ("AISC") of US$3.14 per lb CuEq or AISC of US$0.96 per lb ZnEq.

Total after-tax LOM free cash flow of C$353M and revenue of C$2.3B.

Use of existing process plant complex, initial tailings storage facility, power, water, and necessary infrastructure to process the adjacent Murray Brook deposit will reduce execution risk.

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Canadian Copper Inc. (CSE: CCI) ("Canadian Copper" or the "Company") announces the results of a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") by Ausenco for its Combined Strategy of processing the 100%-owned Murray Brook Deposit ("Murray Brook") at the existing, permitted, and recently operated Caribou Process Plant ("Caribou") located near Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada.

The asset combination as envisioned in the PEA considers mining the 100%-owned Murray Brook via open pit mining methods and transporting 3,300 tonnes per day ("tpd") for processing at Caribou. The plan includes the construction of a new dedicated 13 km haul road connecting Murray Brook with Caribou. Essential infrastructure including water, power, administration facilities, and initial tailings deposition capacity will be available at Caribou at the commencement of mining operations.

Simon Quick, CEO of Canadian Copper, stated, "This is an important milestone for Canadian Copper. Today's PEA provides the first independent evaluation of our vision to combine two separate and complementary assets into a possible near-term, Canadian-based, critical metals producer. In the last 18 months, we have closed the purchase of Murray Brook, which is the largest VMS open pit amenable deposit in New Brunswick, updated its NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate, secured exclusive rights to acquire the adjacent Caribou Processing Complex. At 2024 year-end, our total capital raised is less than $5 million dollars, demonstrating disciplined capital allocation and our daily effort to respect Canadian Copper shareholders."

PEA Summary

The 2025 PEA was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI43-101") by Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC ("Ausenco") in conjunction with an updated mine plan prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. ("P&E") and incorporates the previously announced Mineral Resource Estimate for the Murray Brook Deposit prepared by P&E (the "2023 Mineral Resource Estimate")2. Stantec Consulting Ltd. ("Stantec") supplied Ausenco with the cost inputs used to develop the tailings storage capital and reclamation cost estimates for the Caribou Site. The Company plans to file the complete 2025 PEA report on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca within 45 days of this press release.

Table 1: PEA Summary Project Metrics3

PRODUCTION Mine Life yr 13.2 years Total Material Mined kt 93,210 Process Feed Average Grade CuEq% 1.91 Process Feed Average Grade ZnEq% 6.26 Average Annual Plant Production M lbs CuEq 30 Average Annual Plant Production M lbs ZnEq 98



Total Revenue LOM CAD$M $2,258 Average Annual Revenue CAD$M $171 EBITDA LOM CAD$M $690 Average Annual EBITDA CAD$M $52 OPERATING COSTS PER POUND4 LOM C1 Cost Co-Product Basis US$/lb CuEq 2.95 LOM AISC Co-Product Basis US$/lb CuEq 3.14 LOM C1 Cost Co-Product Basis US$/lb ZnEq 0.90 LOM AISC Co-Product Basis US$/lb ZnEq 0.96 CAPITAL COST Initial Capex CAD$M 64 Sustaining Capex CAD$M 48.9 Closure Cost CAD$M 52.6 PRE-TAX ECONOMICS NPV (7%) CAD$M 264 IRR % 49 Payback yr 1.6 Pre-Tax NPV (7%) / Initial Capex - 4.1 POST-TAX ECONOMICS NPV (7%) CAD$M 171 IRR % 36 Payback yr 2.0 Post-Tax NPV (7%) / Initial Capex - 2.7

Table 2: Life of Mine Capital Cost Summary

INITIAL CAPEX ($M)

Caribou Process Plant Purchase 6 Mining 29 Water Treatment 0.2 Process Plant 7 On Site Infrastructure 1 Off Site Infrastructure -- Indirects 6 Project Delivery 4 Owners Costs 2 Contingency 8 Total 64 SUSTAINING CAPEX Mining and Process Plant Equipment 4 Tailings Storage Facility5 24 Water Treatment Plant 17 Haul Road Repayment 4 Total 49

Table 3: Operating Costs

COST CENTRE M$ CAD/A, LOM

AVG $ CAD/T PROCESSED, LOM

AVG Mining 48.9 41.7 Processing 36.6 31.2 G&A 7.61 6.49 Total Site Operating Costs 93.05 79.32

Table 4: PEA Post Tax Sensitivity Summary6

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Stakeholder Engagement

The Company continues to work and openly share its plan regarding the Combined Strategy with all local stakeholders, such as nearby indigenous communities, the local Community of Bathurst and its surrounding businesses, as well as all relevant regulatory authorities and departments of the New Brunswick and Canadian governments. The Combined Strategy will create more than 100 full-time jobs during its 13+ year mine life and significantly contribute to the local community during its construction, operation, and closure phases.

Mining

The PEA mine plan consists of conventional drill/blast/load/haul open pit mining methods for the Murray Brook Deposit and includes a 13 km haul road for the mineralized material to be processed at the Caribou Processing Plant. The life of mine ("LOM") plan proposes one open pit with four development phases at an average production rate of 3,300 tpd of mineralized material at a strip ratio of 5.0:1 for more than 13 years. A total of 15.4 million tonnes ("Mt") of mineralized material is planned to be mined at average grades of 41.1 g/t Ag, 0.55 g/t Au, 0.47% Cu, 0.96% Pb, 2.67% Zn and estimated C$103.47/t NSR. Under a contract mining scenario, the proposed mining fleet will consist of CAT775 64 tonne haul trucks, CAT395 excavators, CAT998 wheel loader, drills and auxiliary equipment. The site layout will consist of one open pit, one lined waste storage facility, one unlined waste storage facility, an overburden storage area, a water treatment plant, and temporary facilities to support the mining and geology teams. The Company will provide overall mine management and technical services.

Figure A: Murray Brook Site Layout

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Mineral Processing

The Caribou Process Complex is currently designed to treat 3,000 tpd. During the previous operation, the plant had exceeded this capacity on several occasions. As a result, the PEA includes capital for de-bottlenecking modifications targeting the ball milling section of the comminution circuit to increase its daily throughput to 3,300 tpd. Further, the PEA envisions the following changes to the current process plant flowsheet.

Conversion of a ball mill formerly used for Zn regrind duty as a second primary ball mill, operated in parallel to the existing ball mill. Modification of the regrinding circuits including three existing Isamills, with two formerly operated in series for Pb rougher concentrate processing into two parallel units covering the bulk Cu/Pb rougher concentrate regrinding duty; the third unit will be repurposed for Zn rougher concentrate regrinding duty. Completion of the partially installed Cu circuit envisioned by Caribou as the bulk concentrate separation circuit. Modifications to some of the existing reagent preparation and distribution facilities, to align with the indications obtained from the 2025 testwork program.

The PEA assumes overall process recoveries of 68% for copper, 82% zinc, 55% silver, and 44% for lead. Assumed final concentrate grades for copper, zinc, and lead are 22%, 48%, and 45%, respectively. The projected process recoveries are based on work previously completed by Research and Productivity Council ("RPC"). The Company completed additional flotation and mineralogical metallurgical testwork this year at SGS Canada Inc. ("SGS"); however, oxidation and degradation of the 10+ year old drill core samples impacted flotation conclusions. Mineralogical assessments indicate that copper is primarily present in chalcopyrite, lead as galena and zinc as sphalerite. QEMSCAN electron microscope analysis demonstrated that the issue encountered was pyrite activation and not liberation since the pyrite was found to be mostly free or liberated in both the reground bulk Cu/Pb and Zn concentrates produced.

Figure B: PEA Process Plant Flowsheet

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Permitting and Environment

It is the Company's opinion that the Combined Strategy initial project likely does not meet the criteria for a designated project and would not require a federal impact assessment process governed by the Impact Assessment Act ("IAA"). The two primary triggers for a federal impact assessment are: 1) a new metal mine with an ore production capacity of 5,000 tpd or more, or 2) a new metal mill, with an ore input capacity of 5,000 tpd or more.

From a provincial regulation perspective in New Brunswick, the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation - Clean Environment Act sets out the requirements for an environmental impact assessment ("EIA") in New Brunswick. First, an EIA Registration is required, which involves environmental field studies based on the project impacted areas and design criteria. The Combined Strategy field studies will commence this year. Following the EIA Registration, which is anticipated for Q1, 2026, the Department of environment and Local Government ("DELG") will coordinate an iterative review process of the registration document by a Technical Review Committee ("TRC") comprised of provincial and federal departments. Once completed, the TRC review will culminate in a "Determination Review" with three possible outcomes: 1) Certificate of Determination approval is issued subject to conditions, 2) Comprehensive review is required and more information is needed, or 3) the project is denied. The Company is already engaged with DELG and will be having its first TRC meeting in Q2, 2025 to determine next steps.

Concentrate Treatment

Concentrates will be trucked 83 km to the deepwater port at Belledune, New Brunswick for ocean transport to European and Asian located copper, zinc and lead smelters. The Company has contacted and received quotes from previous vendors who supplied concentrate logistics to the former Caribou operation.

Opportunities

The PEA process to date has identified potential areas for optimization for the Combined Scenario of processing Murray Brook mineralized material at Caribou. Further study work may improve the overall project performance by evaluating:

Further design review of tailings capacity of the existing permitted facility. Engineering studies related to the Caribou water management strategy that will include processing influences of the Murray Brook Deposit. This would involve evaluating the current water treatment plant performance at Caribou, the sustaining capital assumed in the PEA for the new water treatment plant planned during commercial production, as well as additional water management studies for the site during construction, operations, and closure. Reclamation plan design and cost estimates for long-term water treatment and closure. The PEA currently assumes a 100-year post-closure water treatment period. Further review of existing nearby Mineral Resources that could increase the mine life well beyond the current 13+ years.

Combined Strategy Next Steps

Canadian Copper is already engaged with several financing parties, aiming to close the Caribou Process Complex acquisition, announced October 28 2024. From a project specific perspective, the Company sees the following activities necessary to continue to move the Combined Strategy forward:

Complete required environmental baseline surveys during 2025. Engage TRC in Q2, 2025 with the objective of completing our Environmental Registration by Q1, 2026. Complete step-out drilling of open areas within the Murray Brook Deposit to define final open pit limit. Complete additional metallurgical drilling and testwork to refine process plant operating cost and recovery performance. Complete Murray Brook site related engineering activities, including but not limited to, Murray Brook site infrastructure condemnation drilling, additional geotechnical investigations for open pit design criteria, review of hydrogeologic dataset and assumptions of the Murray Brook site, and advance haul road design layout and final right of way.

Mineral Resource Estimate

The Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE)7 was updated in 2023 for The Murray Brook Deposit, with an effective date of October 3, 2023.

Mineral Resource Estimate

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(1)Mineral Resources which are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues.

(2)The Inferred Mineral Resource in this estimate has a lower level of confidence than that applied to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that the majority of the Inferred Mineral Resource could be upgraded to an Indicated Mineral Resource with continued exploration.

(3)The Mineral Resources in this report were estimated using the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), CIM Standards on Mineral Resources and Reserves, Definitions (2014) and Best Practices Guidelines (2019) prepared by the CIM Standing Committee on Reserve Definitions and adopted by the CIM Council.

(4)The Mineral Resource Estimate was based on July 2023 approx. consensus economics forecast US$ metal prices of $4.00/lb Cu, $1.25/lb Zn, $0.95/lb Pb and $23/oz Ag at a $0.76 USD/CAD exchange rate.

(5)Process recoveries used were 80% Cu, 87% Zn, 75% Pb and 90% Ag. Au was not recoverable.

(6)Overburden, waste, and mineralized material mining costs per tonne mined were respectively $2.00, $2.25, and $2.50.

(7)Processing and G&A costs per tonne processed were respectively $20 and $3.

(8)Constraining pit shell slopes were 50 degrees.

For readers to fully understand the information in this news release they should read the PEA in its entirety when it is available, including all qualifications, assumptions, exclusions and risks. The PEA is intended to be read as a whole and sections should not be read or relied upon out of context.

Qualified Person

The qualified persons listed below have prepared the content that forms the basis for the press release.

Mr. Tommaso Roberto Raponi, P.Eng., of Ausenco is an independent Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101. Mr. Raponi has prepared the recovery methods, and associated capital and operating costs included in the press release.

Mr. Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET, President of P&E Mining Consultants Inc. is an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. Puritch has prepared the geological and mining contents of this Press Release.

Mr. Jeff Gilchrist, P.Eng., of Stantec Consulting Ltd. is an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. Gilchrist has prepared the content in this press release pertaining to the cost inputs provided to Ausenco for the development of the tailings storage capital and reclamation cost estimates for the Caribou Mine Site.

Mr. Pierre Lacombe, P. Eng., is an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. Mr. Lacombe has prepared the metallurgical test work references of this Press Release.

About Ausenco

Ausenco is a global company redefining what's possible. The team is based out of 21 offices working across five continents to deliver services worldwide. Combining deep technical expertise with a 30-year track record, Ausenco delivers innovative, value-add consulting, studies, project delivery, asset operations and maintenance solutions to the minerals and metals and industrial sectors (www.ausenco.com).

About Canadian Copper Inc.

Canadian Copper is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company with a copper and base metals portfolio of historical resources and grassroots projects. The Company is focused on the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC) of New Brunswick, Canada. There are currently 104,981,836 shares issued and outstanding in the Company.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the PEA, opportunities, combined strategy, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company's option to acquire properties under the Puma Option Agreement, the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the CSE), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual management discussion and analysis for the year ended October 31, 2024 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this presentation or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

Cautionary Note Regarding PEAs and Mineral Resource Estimates

This preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary economic assessment will be realized. Until mineral deposits are actually mined and processed, Mineral Resources must be considered as estimates only. Mineral Resource Estimates that are not Mineral Reserves have not demonstrated economic viability. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain, involves subjective judgement about many relevant factors and may be materially affected by, among other things, environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other factors described in the Company's public disclosure available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. The quantity and grade of reported "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates as an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in upgrading "Inferred" Mineral Resource Estimates to an "Indicated" or "Measured" Mineral Resource category. The accuracy of any Mineral Resource Estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation, which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource Estimates may have to be re-estimated based on, among other things: (i) fluctuations in mineral prices; (ii) results of drilling, and development; (iii) results of future test mining and other testing; (iv) metallurgical testing and other studies; (v) results of geological and structural modeling including block model design; (vi) proposed mining operations, including dilution; (vii) the evaluation of future mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (viii) the possible failure to receive required permits, licenses and other approvals. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of a "inferred" or "indicated" Mineral Resource Estimate will ever be upgraded to a higher category. The Mineral Resource Estimates disclosed in this news release were reported using CIM Standards in accordance with NI 43-101.

1 Currency is CAD$ unless specifically stated implies a $0.746 USD/CAD exchange rate.

2 Canadian Copper Inc. "Technical Report and Updated Mineral Resource Estimate of the Murray Brook ZN-PB-CU-AG Project New Brunswick Canada" (effective October 3, 2023) prepared by P&E Mining Consultants Inc, and filed on www.sedarplus.ca

3 CuEq and ZnEq based on metal prices of US$ metal prices of $4.25/lb Cu, $1.30/lb Zn, $1.10/lb Pb and $27/oz Ag at a $0.746 USD/CAD exchange rate and overall process recoveries of 68% for copper, 82% zinc, 55% silver, and 44% for lead, with a total milled resource of 15,486 kt.

4 C1 costs consist of mining costs, processing costs, G&A, offsite charges and royalties.

AISC includes C1 costs plus sustaining capital, and closure costs.

Commercial costs: trucking and ocean freight $US 70/tonne, treatment charges (US$) Zn $175, Cu $65, Pb $60 and refining charges (US$) Cu $0.065/lb, Ag (in Cu) $0.0376/oz and Ag (in Pb) $1/oz.

5Capital costs are discounted and reflect cost sharing agreements as part of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act ("CCAA") negotiation process. These costs include capital provided during operations ahead of closure portion of dam costs.

6 Metal prices assumed in PEA were Scotiabank Global Base Metals current long-term forecast on May 14, 2025.

7 See Canadian Copper Inc.'s 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate filed on www.sedarplus.ca.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252984

SOURCE: Canadian Copper Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Questcorp Mining Inc. (CSE: QQQ) (OTCQB: QQCMF) (FSE: D910) (the "Company" or "Questcorp") is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated May 6, 2025, the Company has issued 6,285,722 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Common Shares"), representing 9.9% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of May 20, 2025, to Riverside Resources Inc. ("Riverside") and completed the required payment of $25,000 CAD to Riverside, all pursuant to the terms and conditions of the option agreement among the Company, Riverside and its wholly-owned subsidiary, RRM Exploracion, S.A.P.I. De C.V, dated May 5, 2025, in respect of the 2,520.2 hectare La Union carbonate replacement project located in Sonora, Mexico (the "La Union Project").

The La Union Project

The La Union Project is a carbonate replacement deposit ("CRD") project hosted by Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks (limestones, dolomites, and siliciclastic sediments) overlying crystalline Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Caborca Terrane. The structural setting features high-angle normal faults and low-to-medium-angle thrust faults that sometimes served as mineralization conduits. Mineralization occurs as polymetallic veins, replacement zones (mantos, chimneys), and shear zones with high-grade metal content, as shown in highlight grades of 59.4 grams per metric tonne (g/t) gold, 833 g/t silver, 11% zinc, 5.5% lead, 2.2% copper, along with significant hematite and manganese oxides, consistent with a CRD model (see the technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Union Project, State of Sonora, Mexico" dated effective May 6, 2025 available under Questcorp's SEDAR+ profile). These targets also demonstrate intriguing potential for large gold discoveries potentially above an even larger porphyry Cu district potential as the Company's target concept at this time.

Questcorp cautions investors grab samples are selective by nature and not necessarily indicative of similar mineralization on the property.

Riverside, the operator of the La Union Project, is currently lining up the various geophysical contractors to immediately undertake orientation surveys and follow up detailed survey to confirm and enhance the drill targets.

The technical and scientific information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry, P. Geo (BC), a director of the Company and a "qualified person" under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Questcorp Mining Inc.

Questcorp Mining Inc. is engaged in the business of the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in North America, with the objective of locating and developing economic precious and base metals properties of merit. The Company holds an option to acquire an undivided 100% interest in and to mineral claims totaling 1,168.09 hectares comprising the North Island Copper Property, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, subject to a royalty obligation. The Company also holds an option to acquire an undivided 100% interest in and to mineral claims totaling 2,520.2 hectares comprising the La Union Project located in Sonora, Mexico, subject to a royalty obligation.

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to Riverside's arrangements with geophysical contractors to undertake orientation surveys and follow up detailed survey to confirm and enhance the drill targets. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: the ability of Riverside to secure geophysical contractors to undertake orientation surveys and follow up detailed survey to confirm and enhance the drill targets as contemplated or at all, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties, uncertain capital markets; and delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that the geophysical surveys will be completed as contemplated or at all and that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253018

SOURCE: Questcorp Mining Inc.


BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German business confidence strengthened in May as companies became less concerned about uncertainties regarding trade tariffs, a closely watched survey showed Thursday.



The Purchasing Managers' survey compiled by S&P Global today showed that the German private sector activity contracted the most in five months in May due to a deepening downturn in the service sector.



The business climate index rose to 87.5 in May from 86.9 in the previous month. The score was forecast to rise to 87.4.



Companies were less sceptical about expectations. However, current situation was assessed to be somewhat less favorable.



The current situation index dropped to 86.1 from 86.4 in April, while it was forecast to rise to 86.8. By contrast, the expectations index advanced more-than-expected to 88.9 in May from 87.4 in the prior month. The reading was seen at 88.0.



The recent sharp rise in uncertainty among companies eased somewhat, ifo President Clemens Fuest said. The German economy is slowly regaining its footing.



Rather than fearing the downsides from ongoing uncertainty and trade tensions, businesses focused on the bright side of what could happen under the new government, ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.



That said, the economist expects another year of stagnation, which would mark the first time ever for Germany to go through three straight years without growth.



In manufacturing, the ifo business climate index rose significantly in May, the survey showed. Companies revised up their expectations noticeably. They also assessed their current situation as somewhat better.



The business climate continued to improve in the service sector. This was due to improved expectations as the current situation was assessed somewhat less positively.



In trade, business sentiment rose noticeably in May. Expectations in particular rose sharply in both wholesale and retail trade. Moreover, traders were more satisfied with their current situation.



In construction, the business climate improved for the fourth time in a row. Companies assessed their current situation more positively and expectations gradually became less pessimistic.



The PMI survey showed that the private sector shrank in May for the first time so far this year. The faltering performance was driven by a deepening down in service sector. On the other hand, manufacturing production grew for the third consecutive month.



The HCOB composite output index fell to a five-month low of 48.6 in May from 50.1 in April.



The services Purchasing Managers' Index hit a 30-month low of 47.2 in May, down from 49.0 in the previous month. At 48.8, the manufacturing PMI reached a 33-month high and up from 48.4 a month ago.



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 2025 AFX News
Strategic acquisition marks significant step to establish pan-European footprint and deepens expertise in oncology and early-phase biotech clinical trials.

LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Comac Medical Group ("Group"), based in the UK and backed by EdgeCap Partners, announced today the acquisition of ILIFE Consulting ("ILIFE"), a specialized Contract Research Organization (CRO) headquartered in Paris, France, renowned for its expertise in oncology, rare diseases, and complex biotech clinical trials.

The transaction represents a significant milestone for the Group on its journey to becoming the leading pan-European full-service CRO partner for small and medium-sized biopharma companies, and complements recent expansions into the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Founded in 2013 by Marina Iche, ILIFE has built a distinguished reputation for delivering high-value strategic consulting alongside clinical trial execution for biotech sponsors. ILIFE's addition to the Group will leverage complementary expertise and reach, thus creating new opportunities for clients, who will benefit from a complete service offering, including enhanced capabilities in biostatistics, data management, pharmacovigilance, bioanalytical services, and Comac Medical's state-of-the-art Early Phase Clinical Research Unit.

ILIFE's founder and CEO, Marina Iche, will continue in her leadership role and become a significant shareholder in the Group to support strategic growth initiatives and to maintain continuity of ILIFE's values and services that have driven its success positioning it as a trusted partner in the biotech ecosystem.

Marina Iche, Founder and CEO of ILIFE Consulting, stated:

"Partnering with EdgeCap and Comac Medical Group marks an exciting new chapter for ILIFE. We share a deep commitment to quality, innovation, client-centric and agile service delivery. We mobilize our resources and energy to ensure successful partnerships with our clients. We listen and capitalize on our expertise to identify and bring the best solutions to support our clients in achieving their goals productively and efficiently. Joining forces allows us to leverage additional resources, broaden our service portfolio, and better serve our clients across Europe and beyond. We rely on the competence and integrity of our team whose dedication and energy drive us to work swiftly towards obtaining actionable results. I remain fully committed to ensuring continuity in ILIFE's services while pursuing our mission to bring meaningful innovation to patients."

Chris Smyth, Incoming CEO of Comac Medical Group, said:

"ILIFE Consulting's expertise and established presence in the French biotech ecosystem significantly strengthen our capabilities as part of the Group. I look forward to working closely with Marina and the ILIFE team as we collaborate to create meaningful value for our stakeholders and deliver excellence across our expanded geographic and therapeutic landscape."

Today's announcement closely follows the Group's recent leadership appointments and international expansion initiatives, including new executive appointments - Dr. Chris Smyth as incoming CEO (effective 1stSeptember 2025), Christian Buhlmann as Chief Commercial Officer, and Peter Windisch as Chief Operations Officer - and Neil Ferguson as Chairman of the Board.

About ILIFE Consulting

ILIFE Consulting is a Paris-based CRO specialized in early-phase oncology and biotech development. Since 2013, ILIFE has partnered with emerging biotech companies to deliver tailored strategic and operational support - from protocol design to full clinical trial execution, including first-in-human and multi-country studies. With deep expertise in oncology, rare diseases, novel therapeutic modalities, and complex regulatory environments, ILIFE accelerates timelines, optimizes data quality, and helps its clients make confident, value-driven decisions. Trusted by over 20 biotech sponsors across Europe, ILIFE's senior team of scientific and clinical leaders is committed to delivering high-impact studies that bring innovation closer to patients.

www.Ilifeconsulting.com

About Comac Medical Group

Based in London, United Kingdom, Comac Medical Group is one of the leading pan-European, full-service CRO platforms striving to be the partner of choice for small and medium-sized biopharma clients globally. The Group is present in more than 30 countries across Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe, providing a comprehensive range of early to late-phase drug development services across a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, rare diseases, dermatology, gastroenterology, and respiratory diseases.

Comac Medical's FDA and EMA-inspected Clinical Research Unit (CRU) for Phase I, bioavailability and bioequivalence studies has 20 years of experience in early-phase clinical research. Based in Sofia, the facility is the largest in the region and comprises 42 beds, an on-site pharmacy as well as a clinical and bioanalytical laboratory.

www.comac-medical.com

About EdgeCap Partners

EdgeCap is a London- and Tallinn-based mid-market private equity and growth capital firm targeting investments into high-quality companies in Europe. We partner with ambitious founders and management teams to develop strong local businesses into pan-European and global champions. EdgeCap was founded in 2021 by Kristjan Piilmann and Chris Backes, who have 20+ years of combined private equity and investment banking experience at bulge bracket firms including PSG Equity LLP, Morgan Stanley, Citi and Goldman Sachs.

www.edgecap.eu

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Tinka Resources Limited (TSXV: TK) (OTCQB: TKRFF) ("Tinka" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the ongoing exploration at the Company's 100% owned Silvia gold-copper project, and to provide a summary of the exploration results to date. The Silvia project was acquired from BHP in 2021, located 100 km south of the world-class Antamina copper mine in the central Andes of Peru. Silvia is believed to be prospective for gold-copper mineralization of a similar skarn - porphyry style to Antamina. Silvia NW, the most advanced of the exploration targets identified on the 10,900 hectare Silvia mining claim package, has strong indications for gold - copper potential based on systematic surface sampling and preliminary geophysical prospecting. The Silvia NW target has not been drill tested previously.

Dr. Graham Carman, Tinka's President and CEO, stated: "The Silvia project offers Tinka a significant opportunity for the discovery of a gold - copper deposit, located 30 km from our flagship Ayawilca project and just 120 km from the Peruvian coast. 'Area A' target at Silvia NW, which spans several hectares of outcropping mineralization (approximately 500 m by 150 m including areas of cover), has returned multiple high-grade samples with an average grade of 0.5 g/t gold and 0.5% copper from 261 channel samples. Individual channel samples have returned up to 22 g/t gold and 12% copper. The strong positive relationship between gold and copper is highly encouraging, as this increases the overall grade of the mineralization and further enhances Silvia's potential."

Dr. Carman continued: "We have made significant progress toward securing our drill permits for Silvia NW, thanks in large part to the great work by our local team. Surface ownership rights covering the key Silvia NW target were formally issued to the local community in Q3 2024. Tinka concluded successful negotiations for access with the community in Q4 2024. A DIA drilling permit allowing up to 40 drill platforms was approved by the Peruvian authorities also in Q4 2024, and a request to initiate activities was filed with the authorities in Q1 2025. The Company is now awaiting the final step of the drilling permit approval, which is expected to be granted within weeks."

"Current and ongoing exploration at Silvia will involve detailed targeting focused on the significant gold - copper mineralization at Areas A and further interpretation of the geophysical targets at Area, in anticipation of a maiden drill program later in 2025, subject to final drill approval and funding. The exploration activities at the Ayawilca project remain on hold as we continue with the previously announced strategic review."

Highlights of exploration results from the Silvia NW gold-copper project

Three areas of copper-gold mineralization have been identified and sampled at Silvia NW (known as Areas A, B and C) along a 3.5 km northeast-southwest trend.

Surface sampling: Channel samples (680 in total) were assayed for gold, copper and pathfinder elements with individual samples grading up to 22 g/t gold and 12% copper. Highlight of channel sampling: 46 metres grading 1.9 g/t gold and 0.8% copper (including 6 metres grading 12.8 g/t gold and 2.7% copper) at "Area A" - see previous news release. Area A: Channel samples from an area of 500 metres by 150 metres returned an average grade of 0.55 g/t gold and 0.45% copper (average of 261 non-selective samples). Mineralization is associated with skarn / stockwork hosted by monzonite and limestone. A strong positive correlation exists between gold and copper (associated with chalcopyrite content).

Geophysical prospecting: Drone-based magnetics was flown at 100-metre line spacing over Silvia NW with several anomalies outlined, including a large circular feature 1.5 km in diameter at Area B interpreted as a potential mineralized intrusion at depth;

Community: A two-year period of coordinated engagement with the local community was established and will commence upon receipt of 'initiation of activities' (IOA) authorization from the Peruvian government.

Drill permitting: Approval of DIA drill permit for up to 40 drill platforms was approved in Q4 2024.

Authority to initiate activities: A request to "Initiate Activities" was filed with the Peruvian authorities in Q1 2025. The Company anticipates final approval will be granted early Q3 2025.

The highest priority copper-gold drill targets are currently interpreted as (1) high-grade skarn/stockwork at Area A and (2) geophysical targets at Area B.

Geology of Silvia NW

Mineralization at Silvia NW is hosted by the Jumasha Formation, a >2 km thick sequence of Upper Cretaceous limestone that is widespread throughout the central Peruvian Andes. Jumasha limestone is a highly favourable host rock for large copper and other deposits, and is the host to the world-class Antamina copper mine 100 km to the north. Beneath the Jumasha limestone lies the Goyllar sandstone which outcrops near the western boundary of the Silvia property.

The Jumasha limestone is typically strongly altered to 'skarn' in the mineralized rocks at Areas A, B and C at Silvia NW. Skarn alteration occurs both within limestone and the intrusions themselves, typified by widespread green garnet and pale pyroxene alteration within a few tens of metres of the limestone - intrusion contacts. Further from the intrusions the limestone is altered to marble or is weakly recrystallised, and even further away the limestone appears unaltered. At Area B, limestone is altered to hornfels (a pyroxene rock) indicating proximity to an intrusion, and cut by heterolithic breccia.

Diorite and quartz diorite intrusions outcrop at Area C and are largely unaltered, while skarn borders the edge of the intrusions in contact with limestone. An intrusive breccia which contains clasts of diorite and strongly altered monzonite outcrops at Area B. Dikes form a radial pattern associated with a prominent circular feature at Area B. At Area A, dikes and intrusions of quartz monzonite are altered to 'endoskarn' (including garnet, pyroxene with later amphibole, chlorite) and are commonly mineralized with copper sulphides (chalcopyrite) and pyrite. Quartz stockwork veining is also noted at Area A within the mineralized skarn.

Channel samples from Silvia NW

Table 1. Summary of average grade of surface samples from mineralized areas at Silvia NW

Samples (non-selective channels or trenches) No. of samples Gold g/t

(av.) Copper %

(av.) Silver g/t

(av.) Zinc %

(av.) Average sample length (m) Area A 261 0.55 0.45 4 0.38 1.7 Area B 348 0.08 0.18 2 0.03 1.4 Area C 74 0.03 0.19 4 0.52 1.6

Range of metal content in each sample Au g/t Cu % Ag g/t Zn % All Areas 0.0025 to 22.5 0.002 - 12.3 0.1 - 192 0.001 - 5.8

Area A

The skarn mineralization at Area A covers an area of discontinuous outcrop within a valley floor covering an area approximately 500 metres by 150 metres with significant colluvium and alluvium cover between outcrops. The maximum grade in the channel samples was 22.5 g/t gold and 12.3% copper. There is a strong positive correlation between gold and copper in all of the samples. Copper is associated with visible chalcopyrite, and minor copper oxides. Free gold has been observed under microscope, and submicroscopic gold is likely associated with the chalcopyrite.

Area B

A prominent circular feature with a diameter of approximately 1.5 km can be observed in the topography and in the magnetics - see Figures 2 and 3. This circular feature is interpreted as caused by a buried mineralized intrusion. Skarn and breccia is exposed over an area of approximately 600 metres by 300 metres, although gold - copper mineralization is not as well developed as at Area A in the surface outcrops. The maximum grade of any channel sample from Area B was 6.3 g/t gold and 11.4% copper. A syncline fold passes through the centre of Area B, which is associated with a wide zone of hornfels and local breccia.

Area C

Mineralized skarn occurs around the southern flank of a diorite stock at Area C, but generally is more restricted in area and not as well developed as at Areas A and B. The maximum grade in any channel sample was 1.0 g/t gold, 2.5 % copper and 3.6% zinc. An area of marble surrounds the diorite and may indicate potential for mineralized skarn and porphyry at depth.

Drill Permit

A DIA drill permit including up to 40 drill platforms was approved during Q4 2024. Prior to the Company being allowed to drill, an authority to initiate drilling activities must be provided by the Peruvian government. It is expected that such approval could be granted within weeks.

Figures below show the location of the Silvia and Ayawilca projects in central Peru (Figure 1); Geology of Silvia NW with a summary of the gold-copper geochemistry (Figure 2); and a Magnetic anomaly map over the same Silvia NW area (Figure 3).

Figure 1. Location of the Silvia project in central Peru

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2197/253030_e389f4c274d8f8af_007full.jpg





Figure 2. Geological Map of Silvia NW

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2197/253030_e389f4c274d8f8af_008full.jpg





Figure 2. Magnetic Anomaly Map of Silvia NW

Note to Figure 2. The hot colours in the analytical signal map highlight magnetic sources, while the size the of the anomaly is a reflection of the size and depth of the magnetic bodies.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2197/253030_e389f4c274d8f8af_009full.jpg

Notes on sampling and assaying

Channel samples were continuous samples collected with hammer and chisel over 1 to 2m intervals and dug to a depth of up to 1m. In areas of sporadic outcrop, samples were taken as semi-continuous rock chips. Tinka believes the samples are representative of outcrop and are non-selective in nature. Samples were bagged and labelled in the field. Samples were sent to Certimin and ALS laboratories in Lima for drying, crushing P85 < 2mm, and 250 g pulverized P85 < 75 microns. Gold was analysed by fire assay using 30 g aliquots and multi-element analysis by ICP using multi-acid digestion. Au assays > 10 g/t were re-assayed by fire assay and gravimetric finish. Cu, Pb and Zn assays above 1% were re-assayed by AAS. Standards and blanks were not inserted by Tinka for the channel sampling but were inserted at the laboratory.

About Tinka Resources Limited

Tinka is an exploration and development company with its flagship property being the 100%-owned Ayawilca zinc-silver-tin project in central Peru at PEA stage. The Zinc Zone has an estimated Indicated Mineral Resource of 28.3 Mt grading 5.82% zinc, 16.4 g/t silver, 0.2% lead and 91 g/t indium, and Inferred Mineral Resource of 31.2 Mt grading 4.21% zinc, 14.5 g/t silver, 0.2% lead and 45 g/t indium. The Tin Zone has an estimated Indicated Mineral Resource of 1.4 million tonnes grading 0.72% tin and Inferred Mineral Resource of 12.7 Mt grading 0.76% tin. The Company filed a NI 43-101 technical report on an updated PEA for Ayawilca on April 15, 2024 (link to NI 43-101 report here). Dr. Graham Carman, Tinka's President and CEO, has reviewed, verified and approved the technical contents of this release. Dr. Carman is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Forward-Looking Statements: Certain information in this news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively "forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Nexa and Buenaventura becoming Control Persons of the Company and future financings of the Company. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and expectations of Tinka as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Tinka's management. Such statements reflect the current risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to certain factors including, without limitations: regulatory approvals; volatility and sensitivity to market prices; timing of planned work programs and results varying from expectations; delay in obtaining results; changes in equity markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions; imprecision in resource estimates or metal recoveries; success of future development initiatives; competition and operating performance; environmental and safety risks; timing of geological reports; the preliminary nature of the Ayawilca Project PEA and the Company's ability to realize the results of the Ayawilca Project PEA; the political environment in which the Company operates continuing to support the development and operation of mining projects; risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; delays in obtaining or failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from local authorities; community agreements and relations; and, other development and operating risks. Should any one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein. Although Tinka believes that assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Tinka disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253030

SOURCE: Tinka Resources Limited
PORT VILA, Vanuatu, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Vantage Markets, a leading multi-asset broker, has been awarded "Best Online Trading Platform APAC" at the prestigious Global Business Magazine Awards 2025. This recognition highlights Vantage's commitment to delivering cutting-edge trading solutions, innovative financial tools and exceptional customer service to traders.

The Global Business Magazine Awards celebrate business innovators, market disruptors, and industry leaders worldwide. Organised by Global Business Magazine LLC, the awards honour top-performing B2B and B2C companies that excel in customer service and market innovation. The selection process is entirely merit-based, ensuring that winners are recognised purely for their excellence and impact in their respective industries.

Marc Despallieres, CEO of Vantage Markets, commented on the achievement: "We are honoured to receive this prestigious award, which reflects our relentless focus on empowering traders with a seamless, secure, and technologically advanced trading experience. At Vantage, we continuously strive to push the boundaries of innovation while maintaining our client-first approach. This recognition is a testament to the hard work of our team and the trust our clients place in us."

As the brokerage industry evolves rapidly, Vantage has distinguished itself through user-friendly platforms, competitive pricing, robust security measures, and educational resources that cater to both beginner and advanced traders. Winning this award reinforces Vantage's position as a trusted leader in the financial markets.

Visit Vantage Markets website, for more information about Vantage's award-winning services and upcoming initiatives.

About Global Business Magazine Awards

The Global Business Magazine Awards recognise excellence across various industries, from fintech and blockchain to brokerage and beyond. The awards highlight organisations that drive market disruption while delivering outstanding value to customers. The selection process is free of cost, ensuring an unbiased celebration of true industry leaders.

About Vantage

Vantage Markets (or Vantage) is a multi-asset CFD broker offering clients access to a nimble and powerful service for trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs) products, including Forex, Commodities, Indices, Shares, ETFs, and Bonds.

With over 15 years of market experience, Vantage transcends the role of broker, providing a reliable trading platform, an award-winning mobile trading app, and a user-friendly trading platform that provide clients access to trading opportunities.

trade smarter @vantage

RISK WARNING: CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Ensure you understand the risks before trading.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, an offer, or solicitation of any financial products or services. The content is not intended for residents of any jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. Readers are advised to seek independent professional advice before making any investment or financial decisions. Any reliance you place on the information presented is strictly at your own risk.

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Issued by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau

PARIS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, a Supreme Council Member and the Ruler of Sharjah, was awarded a distinguished UNESCO honour upon the completion of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language. At the official ceremony held at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, themed "Arabic Language: A Bridge Between Heritage and Knowledge", Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), was present, along with Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA).

Upon his arrival at UNESCO headquarters, His Highness was received and warmly welcomed by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO; Fahd Saeed Al Raqbani, UAE Ambassador to France; Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of Sharjah's Department of Culture; Jamal Al-Turaifi, President of Al Qasimia University; Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority; Ali Al-Haj Al Ali, UAE Permanent Delegate to UNESCO; and Mohamed Hassan Khalaf, Director General of the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority.

His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah delivered a speech during the ceremony, stating, "It is my honour to stand among you today in this esteemed cultural forum at UNESCO, whose noble mission we revere and whose fruitful partnership we cherish. Together, we commemorate a groundbreaking scholarly and cultural milestone, the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language. This occasion is further enriched by its coincidence with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, a day designated by UNESCO to promote mutual understanding and respect among cultures, reinforcing our collective humanity.

"Language, in all its forms, undeniably serves as the main repository of culture and the most authentic reflection of a community's identity. In celebrating the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language today, we honour a vital aspect of our rich human diversity, represented by the Arabic language, which carries a deep civilisational heritage and has had a significant scientific and humanistic impact."

His Highness subsequently emphasised the contributions of the partner institutions that played a role in the creation of the dictionary.

His Highness emphasised that all languages possess an equal right to exist and evolve, stating, "When we restore to Arabic its rightful history and highlight the aspects of its development, we simultaneously affirm to the world that every language is entitled to existence, progress and celebration, and that cultural justice demands that humanity not be reduced to a single tongue, nor the civilisations of peoples confined to one model. Just as biodiversity ensures the continuity of life, cultural and linguistic diversity secures the ongoing evolution and revitalisation of human creativity."

He then conveyed his sincere appreciation to UNESCO for recognising the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language and for the collaborative cultural initiatives between Sharjah and the organisation:

He wrapped up with a call for unity: "Let us move forward together, dear friends, hand in hand, to enhance our cultural dialogue, to protect our common human heritage, and to guarantee that every culture's voice is acknowledged, every language valued, and every people stay true to their genuine identity."

At the ceremony, Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, presented a speech to welcome His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah. She expressed her pleasure regarding the visit of the Sharjah delegation to Paris, acknowledging the emirate as a worldwide centre of knowledge and culture. Azoulay emphasised Sharjah's significant investments in diverse areas that align with UNESCO's mission, pointing out its achievement of multiple international cultural awards.

Azoulay praised the foresight of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, which has placed culture and knowledge at the heart of Sharjah's policies. She recognised the emirate's arrangements for various cultural events, festivals, and exhibitions that span multiple areas of culture, arts, and history.

She acknowledged Sharjah's initiative in signing an agreement to digitise UNESCO's archives, marking a significant step towards preserving the organisation's vast collection of books and documents, some of which date back over 80 years. This initiative guarantees the protection of precious historical documents that detail various events, agreements, and initiatives.

Azoulay conveyed her appreciation for the successful completion of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, a significant accomplishment achieved under the guidance of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah. Created by a multitude of researchers and editors from 20 linguistic institutions throughout the Arab world, this dictionary has earned recognition from the Guinness World Records as the largest historical dictionary.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah graciously signed a copy of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language and presented it as a gift to UNESCO.

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First-of-its-kind head-to-head TAVI trial reinforces the performance and safety of the Next Gen Myval THV series

VAPI, India, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Meril Life Sciences announced one-year results from its pivotal LANDMARK trial, presented during the prestigious Late-Breaking Trial session at EuroPCR 2025, one of the world's premier cardiology conferences held annually in Paris, France. The LANDMARK trial is the first randomized non-inferiority trial comparing the balloon-expandable Myval THV series with other contemporary balloon-expandable Sapien THV series and self-expandable Evolut THV series in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis.

The Myval THV series demonstrated non-inferiority to contemporary THVs in terms of 1-year clinical efficacy composite endpoint (Myval THV Series: 13% vs. Contemporary THV: 13.1%, difference: -0.1%, one-sided 95% CI: 3.9%, Pnoninferiority < 0.0001).

Additionally, in the composite endpoint of clinical efficacy combined with QoL, outcomes were comparable (Myval THV Series: 19.5% vs. Contemporary THVs: 22.7%, difference: -3.2%, 95% CI: -9.2 to 2.9, P=0.33). Hemodynamic parameters including effective orifice area (EOA), mean pressure gradient (PG), and incidence of moderate or greater aortic regurgitation remained stable and similar across all treatment arms.

Survival rates were nearly identical (Myval THV Series: 92.8% vs. Contemporary THVs: 92.9%), and QoL improvements were comparable, reinforcing the overall safety and durability of the Myval THV series in everyday clinical use.

Professor Patrick Serruys, Chairman and Study Director of the LANDMARK trial, said: "This trial reflects a new era in comparative valve research. The meticulous design and adherence to VARC-3 standards, including QoL endpoints, mark it as a pivotal study. The results of the LANDMARK trial represent a meaningful advancement for the global structural heart community-and most importantly, for patients receiving TAVI. The data not only validate the safety and efficacy of the Myval THV series, but also spotlight its adaptability to complex anatomies. This versatility is exactly what clinicians need to deliver precision care across a broad spectrum of patients."

Professor Andreas Baumbach, Global Principal Investigator, said: "The LANDMARK trial represents a significant step forward in TAVI research. For the first time, we've benchmarked Myval against both balloon-expandable and self-expanding platforms in a rigorous randomized setting. The one-year results demonstrates that the new generation Myval THV series can match global standards in safety and efficacy."

Mr. Sanjeev Bhatt, Senior Vice President - Corporate Strategy at Meril, said: "The LANDMARK trial represents a significant milestone not just for Meril, but for the global TAVI community. The strong one-year results affirm the Myval THV series as a next-generation solution that delivers consistent safety, clinical efficacy, and improved quality of life across geographies. As the only head-to-head trial of its kind to include both balloon-expandable and self-expanding valves, it reinforces Myval THV series's versatility and real-world relevance for diverse patient anatomies and healthcare systems. At Meril, we are proud to contribute innovative, evidence-based technologies that are reshaping patient care and expanding access to advanced structural heart therapies worldwide."

The trial is designed to follow patients for a period of 10 years, aiming to generate long-term insights into clinical and echocardiographic outcomes, with a focus on valve durability and sustained performance.

About THE LANDMARK TRIAL:

The LANDMARK trial is the first randomized non-inferiority trial comparing the balloon-expandable Myval THV series with other contemporary balloon-expandable Sapien THV series and self-expandable Evolut THV series in patients with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis. The LANDMARK trial was a prospective, randomized, multicenter, open-label, non-inferiority trial involving 768 patients who underwent Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) for the treatment of aortic stenosis. The first patient was enrolled in the LANDMARK trial on 6 January 2021 and the last patient was enrolled on 5 December 2023. The trial included a total of 768 patients at 31 sites across 16 countries (Brazil, New Zealand, and some countries of Europe). The 30-day primary composite endpoints highlighting the safety and efficacy outcomes of the LANDMARK trial have been successfully published in The Lancet and EuroIntervention, two of the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals.

About Meril Life Sciences:

Meril is a global medical device company based in India, committed to advancing healthcare through innovation. With a strong focus on research and development, Meril delivers cutting-edge medtech solutions across more than 135 countries and has a robust presence through subsidiaries in the USA, Brazil, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Through partnerships, precision technology, and adherence to international quality standards, Meril is helping reshape the future of healthcare.

Media Contact: media@merillife.com

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Delivra Health Brands Inc. (TSXV: DHB) (OTCQB: DHBUF) ("Delivra Health" or the "Company"), a consumer packaged goods company uniquely positioned in the health and wellness sector, is pleased to announce that it has engaged Global One Media Group Pte. Ltd. ("Global One Media") and Bergskogar Limited ("Bergskogar"), each of which is arm's length to the Company. Global One Media will assist the Company with its digital and social media influencer marketing efforts. Bergskogar will provide the Company with global business development and marketing services.

Global One Media is an investor-focused digital marketing agency that delivers creative and effective solutions for digital market awareness and brand positioning. The term of the agreement with Global One Media (the "Global One Agreement") commences on May 16, 2025 and ends on May 15, 2026. The Global One Agreement may be renewed for an additional two-month term upon the mutual agreement of the Company and Global One Media. Under the terms of the Global One Agreement, the Company has agreed to pay Global One a monthly cash fee of CAD$10,000. There are no performance factors impacting the compensation of Global One Media, and Global One Media will not receive any securities of the Company as compensation. Global One Media does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company.

Bergskogar is a business consulting firm that provides marketing and investor relations services. Its primary focus is on enhancing corporate visibility and support business development initiatives. In exchange for providing these services, Bergskogar will receive an initial cash fee of CAN$50,000 and a second cash fee of CAN$90,000 on October 1, 2025. The term of the agreement with Bergskogar (the "Bergskogar Agreement") commences on May 16, 2025 and ends on May 15, 2026. There are no performance factors impacting the compensation of Bergskogar, and Bergskogar will not receive any securities of the Company as compensation. Bergskogar does not have any interest, directly or indirectly, in the Company.

The Global One Agreement and the Bergskogar Agreement are subject to regulatory approval by TSX Venture Exchange.

About Delivra Health Brands Inc.

Helping people take control of their health with alternative wellness solutions is what energizes the Delivra Health team! The Delivra Health portfolio features innovative brands like Dream Water and LivRelief, which deliver relief from common everyday issues like chronic pain, anxiety, and sleeplessness. Delivra Health products have allowed millions of customers to reclaim their mobility, energy, and in turn, quality of life. The websites of the Company's two subsidiaries are Dream Water and LivReliefTM. For more information, please visit www.delivrahealthbrands.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates, and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements with respect to the specific services to ultimately be provided under the Global One Agreement and the Bergskogar Agreement, and regulatory approvals to be obtained for the Global One Agreement and the Bergskogar Agreement.

These forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time such statements were made. Actual future results may differ materially as forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors, among other things, include: fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; expectations regarding the size of the cannabis markets where the Company operates; changing consumer habits; the ability of the Company to successfully achieve its business objectives; plans for expansion; political and social uncertainties; inability to obtain adequate insurance to cover risks and hazards; employee relations and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on cultivation, production, distribution; and sale of cannabis and cannabis-related products in the markets where the Company operates. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. The Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

Additional information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's business are contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's annual information form dated March 2, 2021, and under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's management's discuss and analysis for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2025 filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252915

SOURCE: Delivra Health Brands Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Lion Rock Resources Inc. (TSXV: ROAR) (FSE: KGB) (OTC Pink: LRRIF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce the successful completion of a high-resolution magnetic survey at its multi-commodity Volney Project (Figure 1). Located 20 km southwest of Spearfish in the Black Hills Mining District, Volney is a past-producing, multi-commodity project that hosts high-grade gold, high-grade lithium, and high-grade tin.

The survey, conducted by EarthEx Geophysical Solutions ("EarthEx"), employed their ultra-high-resolution low-flying UAV magnetic surveying system ("exMAG") at the Volney Project. Ultra-high resolution magnetic data is an effective way of rapidly mapping the bedrock across entire project areas and is one of the best tools for identifying structural features and areas of low magnetic susceptibility that may correlate with lithium-bearing pegmatite units.

Survey Highlights

Ultra-High Resolution Magnetic Survey Completed Across Entire Project Area: The UAV-based magnetic survey was flown at 35 m line spacing and provides a high-resolution magnetic dataset to support geological interpretation and drill targeting.

Data to Enhance Targeting of Lithium-Bearing Pegmatites and Shear-Hosted Gold: The exMAG system allows for rapid mapping of bedrock geology and the identification of subtle structural features and zones of low magnetic susceptibility which may correlate with lithium-cesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite systems.

Supports Drill Targeting and Expands Structural Understanding: The magnetic data set will be integrated with surface sampling results and geological mapping to refine drill targets across the 1,000 m by 500 m lithium corridor.

About the Volney Project

The Volney property is a multi-commodity project strategically located in South Dakota's Black Hills, a historically rich and active mining region. The Black Hills have produced over 62 million ounces of gold, including from the prolific Homestake Mine, one of the most significant gold producers in North American history. The district continues to attract modern exploration efforts, with companies such as Dakota Gold Corp. actively advancing projects within the Black Hills. The project encompasses high-grade gold, high-grade lithium, and high-grade tin mineralization, with notable historic grades up to 18.2 g/t gold over 18.3 m, 5.3% Li2O, and 2.5% Sn. The Volney Project is home to the Giant Volney pegmatite, a 635 m long LCT (Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum) pegmatite with strong expansion potential, and an extensive high-grade gold system. The project is accessible year-round and consists of private claims with surface and mineral rights, which facilitates rapid permitting and project advancement.1





Figure 1. Volney Project regional map in the Black Hills, South Dakota.



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The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Carl Ginn, P.Geo., consultant to the Company and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101. The Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to verify the historical information on the Volney Project disclosed herein, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in the written disclosure.

About Lion Rock Resources Inc.

Lion Rock Resources Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company committed to advancing high-grade gold and lithium projects across North America. The Company's flagship asset, the Volney Project, is located in South Dakota's Black Hills, a mining-friendly jurisdiction surrounded by active gold operations. The Volney Project hosts high-grade gold, lithium and tin mineralization, with historic drill results showing gold grades of up to 18.2 g/t Au over 18.3 m, lithium concentrations as high as 5.3% Li2O. The Company is led by an award-winning team with a proven track record of mineral discoveries, project development, and financing.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", "potential", "indicative" and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information is based on the current expectations of management of the Company. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation risks and uncertainties inherent in the exploration and development of mineral properties, fluctuations in commodity prices, counterparty risk, market conditions, regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

1 NI 43-101 Technical Report: Volney Property (February 27,2025)

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SOURCE: Lion Rock Resources Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Xplore Resources Corp. (TSXV: XPLR) ("Xplore" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the completion of a new high-resolution airborne magnetic survey at its Surge Lithium Project in northwestern Ontario (Figure 1).

The survey results show linear magnetic highs extending from the Green Technology Metals Root Bay lithium deposit and through the Xplore property. The trend extends for over 17 km on the Surge Project and is interpreted as iron formation and greenstone dismembered with abrupt magnetic breaks. These breaks match spatially with known pegmatites drilled by Green Technology Metals and may represent pegmatite intrusions, defining new high-priority targets for follow-up exploration.

This new magnetic data provides greater definition of regional structures and highlights geological characteristics similar to those observed near pegmatites intersected at Green Technology Metals' Root Bay East drilling, adjacent to the Surge Project. Field crews are scheduled to mobilize this month to begin mapping and prospecting these new targets.

Survey Highlights

A total of 476 line-kilometers were flown at 50 meter spacing over 214 hectares at the Surge Project.

The new data was leveled and merged with existing high-quality magnetics, providing enhanced geological context across a broader 5,400 hectare area.

Several structural features and magnetic discontinuities have been identified as priority targets for the 2025 field program.

Devin Pickell, President and CEO of Xplore, commented, "This magnetic survey will be instrumental in advancing exploration in the Root Lake area. Our field crews will use this high-resolution data to prioritize and ground truth newly identified structural targets as we work toward a potential new discovery."

Figure 1. High-resolution magnetic survey results at the Surge Project highlighting interpreted structural features and priority target areas for ground follow-up.

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About the Surge Lithium Project

The Surge Lithium Project is Xplore's flagship property located in the rapidly emerging Root lithium district of northwestern Ontario. The project covers approximately 10 km of strike length along the eastern extension of the Root Bay-Root Bay East lithium trend and is strategically positioned adjacent to Green Technology Metals' Root Bay Project, which currently hosts a JORC-compliant resource of 10.1 Mt at 1.29% Li2O.

Recent high-resolution Lidar combined with airborne magnetics, have significantly improved the geological understanding of the Surge Project. Field mapping and prospecting have confirmed the presence of key structures and greenstone host rocks, with several priority targets identified less than 50 m from lithium mineralization reported at Root Bay East.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Devin Pickell, P.Geo., the President and CEO of the Company and a Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101.

About Xplore Resources

Xplore Resources is a North American lithium exploration company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under symbol XPLR. The Company has a prospective land package in the emerging Root Bay lithium district located in northwest Ontario. Xplore's flagship property is the Surge lithium project, on trend and near two lithium deposits and just 25 m from a new lithium discovery. The Company is led by a highly experienced management team with a strong track record of growing shareholder value.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,

Devin Pickell, CEO

Xplore Resources Corp.

For further information on Xplore, contact:

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", "potential", "indicative" and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information is based on the current expectations of management of the Company. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation risks and uncertainties inherent in the exploration and development of mineral properties, fluctuations in commodity prices, counterparty risk, market conditions, regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. In making the forward-looking statements in this press release, the Company has applied several material assumptions. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252994

SOURCE: Xplore Resources Corp.
Vecima Networks Inc. (TSX: VCM) today announced that Net-Com is deploying Vecima's Entra SC-1D Access Node and Entra Access Controller ("EAC") solutions for Hanstholm Net, an internet service provider in Denmark.

Vecima's Entra SC-1D Remote MACPHY node, a key component of the Entra Distributed Access Architecture ("DAA") product portfolio, equips cable operators to transition their networks toward greater efficiency and scalability. By moving MAC and PHY layer functions to the access edge, the SC-1D reduces core network load, lowers latency, and increases bandwidth availability, supporting efficient delivery of high-throughput services.

With enhanced DOCSIS 3.1 support for Remote MACPHY nodes, the Entra SC-1D Access Node delivers fiber-comparable performance over existing HFC networks. It offers a cost-effective, easily deployable, and future-ready path to 10 Gigabit Internet access while preserving existing infrastructure investments.

Complementing the SC-1D, Vecima's EAC serves as a centralized management platform that orchestrates the complex interactions between the core network and distributed access devices. The EAC ensures seamless integration and optimal performance of the DAA ecosystem, facilitating advanced features such as dynamic bandwidth allocation and network virtualization.

"Our transition to Distributed Access Architecture with Vecima's Remote MACPHY solutions represents a strategic leap forward in both performance and scalability," said Lars Rge Hamer, Chairman at Hanstholm Net. "Achieving a reduction in headend power consumption by around 60 percent, while unlocking the scalability needed for multigigabit services allows us to operate more efficiently and deliver next-generation connectivity without compromise."

"Hanstholm Net's adoption of Vecima's technology through Net-Com, marks a strategic advancement in its network infrastructure to support high-performance broadband delivery", said Gert K. Hansen, CTO at Net-Com. "This partnership represents an important step forward as Vecima's reliable products and solid support align well with our plans to expand DOCSIS services and support other operators as we continue to grow in Denmark."

Equipped for multigigabit downstream capacity and fully licensed to support additional bandwidth without incremental costs, the Entra SC-1D Access Node offers operators a future-ready platform with simplified deployment and minimal operational overhead.

"As part of Vecima's Remote MACPHY suite, the Entra SC-1D Access Node and Entra Access Controller together deliver significant performance gains and centralized orchestration, bridging the core network with distributed access devices through simplified, scalable control," said Ryan Nicometo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Vecima Video Broadband Solutions. "We are excited that our partnership with Net-Com is bringing Vecima's industry-leading access solutions to more operators in Europe. This reinforces our global market leadership in Remote MACPHY technologies."

The Vecima DAA portfolio, recognized by the Dell'Oro Group for the fourth consecutive year as the global market share leader in R-MACPHY and Remote Optical Line Terminal solutions ("R-OLT"), is deployed by operators around the world. Vecima will showcase its industry-leading cable and fiber access solutions, including the SC-1D, at ANGA COM 2025.

Vecima Networks at ANGA COM 2025

June 3-5 in Cologne, Germany

Stand A20, Hall 8

About Hanstholm Net

Hanstholm Net is a local provider in Denmark, serving over 600+ cable TV customers, offering both television channels and high-speed internet. Their services are delivered via a hybrid network utilizing both coaxial cable and fiber optic infrastructure. Learn more at hanstholmnet.dk.

About Net-Com

Net-Com is a Danish distributor specializing in a broad range of network equipment to support both small-scale and enterprise-level network infrastructures. With expertise in telecommunications and networking solutions, Net-Com facilitates superior connectivity across Denmark. Learn more at net-com.dk.

About Vecima Networks

Vecima Networks Inc. (TSX: VCM) is leading the global evolution to the multi-gigabit, content-rich networks of the future. Our talented people deliver future-ready software, services, and integrated platforms that power broadband and video streaming networks, monitor and manage transportation, and transform experiences in homes, businesses, and everywhere people connect. We help our customers evolve their networks with cloud-based solutions that deliver ground-breaking speed, superior video quality, and exciting new services to their subscribers. There is power in connectivity it enables people, businesses, and communities to grow and thrive. Learn more at vecima.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Vecima's business strategies and objectives, and the anticipated benefits, performance, capabilities, availability or adoption of its products and services. Such statements reflect current expectations and assumptions about future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Vecima undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements unless required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522302302/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations: 250-881-1982, invest@vecima.com

Media Relations: bernadette.dunn@vecima.com
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Standard Uranium Ltd. (TSXV: STND) (OTCQB: STTDF) (FSE: 9SU) ("Standard Uranium" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the commencement of the first ExoSphere Multiphysics survey in the southwest Athabasca Basin region at its flagship Davidson River Project ("Davidson River", or the "Project"). Davidson River covers 30,737 hectares of prime exploration real estate in the SW Athabasca Uranium District, highly prospective for basement-hosted uranium deposits along trend from high-grade* uranium deposits under development (Figure 1). The surveys will be completed in partnership with Fleet Space Technologies Canada Corp. ("Fleet Space") across three exploration corridors in May-June 2025.

Highlights:

First Multiphysics in SW Athabasca: Standard Uranium and Fleet Space will complete the first three ExoSphere Multiphysics surveys in the prolific SW Athabasca Uranium District on Davidson River.

Poised for Discovery: High-priority target areas across three conductor corridors will be significantly derisked with high-resolution 3D imaging of basement structures and alteration zones, providing key targeting information for a follow up drill program.

Integrative Exploration Strategy: Combined real-time 3D Ambient Noise Tomography (" ANT "), Horizontal-to-Vertical Spectral Ratio (" HVSR "), and ground gravity surveys will provide new data layers to characterize lithological variations and identify potential alteration signatures related to uranium mineralization, in addition to further refining the structural architecture of known basement conductors.

Target Development & Drilling: The results of the Multiphysics surveys will be subject to geophysical interpretation and modelling, and integrated with the Project's existing drilling and geophysical datasets, to prioritize target areas for summer 2025 drilling.

"We are extremely excited to get back on the ground at our crown jewel project, Davidson River," said Sean Hillacre, President & VP Exploration of Standard Uranium, "Integrating the 3D density and velocity models to image alteration systems in the basement rock could provide the key data we've been looking for to vector into a new discovery at Davidson. We have been hard at work developing targets across the Project since 2022 and armed with the new datasets from the Multiphysics system, we aim to expedite discovery of a new basement-hosted uranium system with drilling this year."

Figure 1. Overview of Standard Uranium's Flagship Davidson River Project in the southwest Athabasca Basin uranium district along trend from significant uranium discoveries and resources1,2.

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Davidson River Multiphysics Surveys

In partnership with Fleet Space, the Company will undertake three ExoSphere Multiphysics survey grids across the Warrior, Bronco, and Thunderbird conductors on the Project (Figure 2). The Company and Axiom Exploration Group Ltd. will mobilize to deploy the survey grids in late May, and the survey is anticipated to take approximately 35 days to complete.

The Multiphysics surveys will collect and integrate ANT, HVSR, and ground gravity datasets covering highly prospective areas along three of the four main structural corridors on the Project. The surveys will provide critical targeting layers in the form of 3D ANT-HVSR shear velocity models and custom inversion models for subsurface density, leveraging both passive seismic and ground gravity datasets as inputs.

Using Fleet Space's proprietary Cover Depth analysis from the ANT data in combination with the ground gravity data, Fleet Space will compute and provide a cover-corrected gravity dataset which will significantly upgrade target areas at Davidson River through imaging of density anomalies in the basement rock. These surveys will be the first of their kind in the SW Athabasca Basin uranium district and marks a significant step towards discovery on the Project.

Density anomalies in the basement rock coinciding with known graphitic conductors are often indicative of potential zones of hydrothermal alteration of host rocks associated with uranium mineralization events. Drill targeting with this strategy has been proven through the discovery of world-class uranium deposits in the SW Athabasca Basin and will upgrade targets across the Project.

Following post-survey data analysis and integration, the Company plans to execute a diamond drill program to begin testing the highest priority targets across all three surveyed conductor corridors. Drilling is planned to be completed this summer, marking the first drill program on the Project since 2022. Positive results from previous drill campaigns will be integrated into drill targeting with the newly acquired Multiphysics data.

About Davidson River

Davidson River is Standard Uranium's flagship property, located in the southwest Athabasca Uranium District of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, and encapsulates the inferred extension of the structural trend that hosts the Triple R and Arrow uranium deposits (Figure 1). The Project consists of 10 contiguous mineral dispositions totaling 30,737 hectares and lies approximately 25 to 30 km west of Arrow and Triple R and 75 km south of the past-producing Cluff Lake uranium mines. The Company has completed 16,561 metres of diamond drilling in 39 drill holes on the Davidson River property since 2020, which has further refined the exploration strategy for high-grade basement hosted uranium mineralization on the property3.

Davidson River hosts four main conductive corridors - the Warrior, Bronco, Thunderbird, and Saint trends (Figure 2). These conductive trends are associated with graphitic-sulphidic structures in basement rocks, which are commonly associated with high-grade* uranium systems, providing the conduits for mineralizing fluids. This concept has been proven for all four corridors, with several instances of graphitic-sulphidic fault rocks and reactivated structures intersected along the tested strike length.

Favorable basement rock types and alteration phases have been observed across the strike length of the main trends, resembling those which host other uranium deposits in the southwestern Athabasca Basin region. Key indicators include clay-dravite alteration and stacked lenses of variably strained graphite and sulphide-bearing garnetiferous gneisses and altered feldspar-rich rocks. Structural zones in the basement are locally associated with elevated uranium and/or boron values (over 1,000 ppm B), such as in DR-20-009 and -0113.

The results from diamond drilling programs to date highlight the potential for the Davidson River Project to host significant basement hosted unconformity-related uranium mineralization, and the property contains several priority targets along all four trends that warrant further exploration.

Figure 2. Summary map showing major EM conductor trends on Davidson River and highlighting drill holes with anomalous uranium and dravite alteration, with first vertical derivative magnetics in the background.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10633/253007_54b087bbb458a8c4_002full.jpg

*The Company considers uranium mineralization with concentrations greater than 1.0 wt% U3O8 to be "high-grade".

**The Company considers radioactivity readings greater than 300 counts per second (cps) to be "anomalous".

Davidson River Project Agreement

The Company also announces that it has reached an agreement with the underlying owners (the "Optionors") of the Davidson River Project to amend (the "Amendment") the timeline for completion of the remaining payments owing for the Company to complete the acquisition of a ninety percent interest in the Project. To exercise the existing option to acquire the interest in the Project, the Company is now required to complete the following payments to the Optionors:

$100,000 on or before July 15, 2025;

$150,000 on or before July 15, 2026;

$150,000 on or before July 15, 2027; and

$150,000 on or before July 15, 2028.

Provided that the Company will be required to accelerate certain payments in the event it successfully completes certain levels of equity financing.

In consideration for the Amendment, the Company has agreed to issue 1,000,000 common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") to the Optionors. Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire a common share of the Company at a price of $0.15 per share until July 19, 2029. In the event the closing price of the common shares of the Company on the TSX Venture Exchange is $0.75 or greater for ten consecutive trading dates, the Company will have the right to accelerate the expiry of the Warrants.

The Company is at arms-length from the Optionors. Completion of the issuance of the Warrants remains subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Upon issuance, the Warrants will be subject to restrictions on resale for a period of four-months-and-one-day in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Qualified Person Statement

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Sean Hillacre, P.Geo., President and VP Exploration of the Company and a "qualified person" as defined in NI 43-101.

Historical data disclosed in this news release relating to sampling results from previous operators are historical in nature. Neither the Company nor a qualified person has yet verified this data and therefore investors should not place undue reliance on such data. The Company's future exploration work may include verification of the data. The Company considers historical results to be relevant as an exploration guide and to assess the mineralization as well as economic potential of exploration projects. Any historical grab samples disclosed are selected samples and may not represent true underlying mineralization.

References

1 Arrow deposit, Rook I Project, Saskatchewan, NI 43-101 Technical Report on Feasibility Study, Prepared for NexGen Energy Ltd., Effective date: February 22, 2021

2 Feasibility Study, NI 43-101 Technical Report, for PLS Property, Prepared for Fission Uranium Corp., Effective date: January 17, 2023

3 Davidson River Project Overview, https://standarduranium.ca/projects/davidson-river-project

About Standard Uranium (TSXV: STND)

We find the fuel to power a clean energy future

Standard Uranium is a uranium exploration company and emerging project generator poised for discovery in the world's richest uranium district. The Company holds interest in over 233,455 acres (94,476 hectares) in the world-class Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada. Since its establishment, Standard Uranium has focused on the identification, acquisition, and exploration of Athabasca-style uranium targets with a view to discovery and future development.

Standard Uranium's Davidson River Project, in the southwest part of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, comprises ten mineral claims over 30,737 hectares. Davidson River is highly prospective for basement-hosted uranium deposits due to its location along trend from recent high-grade uranium discoveries. However, owing to the large project size with multiple targets, it remains broadly under-tested by drilling. Recent intersections of wide, structurally deformed and strongly altered shear zones provide significant confidence in the exploration model and future success is expected.

Standard Uranium's eastern Athabasca projects comprise over 42,384 hectares of prospective land holdings. The eastern basin projects are highly prospective for unconformity related and/or basement hosted uranium deposits based on historical uranium occurrences, recently identified geophysical anomalies, and location along trend from several high-grade uranium discoveries.

Standard Uranium's Sun Dog project, in the northwest part of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, is comprised of nine mineral claims over 19,603 hectares. The Sun Dog project is highly prospective for basement and unconformity hosted uranium deposits yet remains largely untested by sufficient drilling despite its location proximal to uranium discoveries in the area.

About Fleet Space Technologies

Fleet Space Technologies, Australia's leading space exploration company, is revolutionizing critical mineral discovery with its end-to-end mineral exploration platform, ExoSphere, which combines satellite connectivity, 3D multiphysics, and AI to image mineral systems in real-time. Over 40 leading mining and exploration companies like Rio Tinto, Barrick, and Gold Fields use ExoSphere's real-time 3D subsurface imaging and multiphysics surveys on projects across five continents. With Maaden, Fleet Space will deploy ExoSphere's AI-enabled drill targeting and multiphysics surveys across 12,000km2 of the Arabian Shield (learn more here). In 2024, Fleet Space was recognised as the winner of the Innovation category at the Mining Technology Excellence Awards and received the Climate Impact Technology Award by the Banksia Foundation. To learn more about ExoSphere, please reach out to the Fleet Space team here.

For further information contact:

Jon Bey, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman

Suite 3123, 595 Burrard Street

Vancouver, British Columbia, V7X 1J1

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this news release. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the timing and content of upcoming work programs; geological interpretations; timing of the Company's exploration programs; and estimates of market conditions.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are highlighted in the "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's management discussion and analysis for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2024.

Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies that may cause the Company's actual financial results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied herein. Some of the material factors or assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements include, without limitation: that the transaction with the Optionee will proceed as planned; the future price of uranium; anticipated costs and the Company's ability to raise additional capital if and when necessary; volatility in the market price of the Company's securities; future sales of the Company's securities; the Company's ability to carry on exploration and development activities; the success of exploration, development and operations activities; the timing and results of drilling programs; the discovery of mineral resources on the Company's mineral properties; the costs of operating and exploration expenditures; the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability of increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); uncertainties related to title to mineral properties; assessments by taxation authorities; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. Any forward-looking statements and the assumptions made with respect thereto are made as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253007

SOURCE: Standard Uranium Ltd.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Riverside Resources Inc. (TSXV: RRI) (OTCQB: RVSDF) (FSE: 5YY) ("Riverside") and Blue Jay Gold Corp. ("Blue Jay") are pleased to announce that they have completed the plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") which was previously discussed in Riverside's press release dated January 28, 2025, with the arrangement to spin out the shares of Blue Jay to the shareholders of Riverside, effective Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Pursuant to the Arrangement, holders of common shares of Riverside on the date hereof have received one new common share of Riverside (each, a "Riverside Share") and 1/5th of one common share of Blue Jay (each, a "Blue Jay Share") for each common share of Riverside held. The new Riverside Shares will commence trading on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") at the market opening on Monday, May 26, 2025. The CUSIP numbers for the new Riverside Shares and the Blue Jay Shares are 76927E109 and 095925103 , respectively.

"The completion of the Blue Jay spinout marks a significant milestone in Riverside's ongoing strategy to unlock value through disciplined corporate development and capital deployment," said John-Mark Staude, President & CEO of Riverside. "We believe that Blue Jay, with its strong portfolio of Canadian gold assets, dedicated management team, and clean capital structure, is well-positioned for exploration and growth. This spinout not only provides Riverside shareholders with direct exposure to a focused new exploration company, but it also reinforces Riverside's track record of creating value through strategic actions that serve the company and shareholders. This approach was notably demonstrated with the successful spinout of Capitan Silver, which has delivered additional value to our shareholders since its launch. We are proud to have launched Blue Jay and look forward to its success as a stand-alone public company."

Immediately prior to the Arrangement, on May 22, 2025, Riverside and Blue Jay entered into an amendment (the "Amendment") to the arrangement agreement dated January 27, 2025 (the "Arrangement Agreement"). Pursuant to the Amendment, Riverside and Blue Jay may waive certain conditions set forth in the Arrangement Agreement. All other terms and conditions of the Arrangement Agreement remain unchanged.

Blue Jay is expected to make an application to list its shares on TSXV. This share reorganization follows a structure similar to Riverside's previous transaction with Capitan Silver Corp. ("Capitan"). In that prior case, the shares saw positive appreciation, and both Riverside and Capitan advanced their respective business strategies.

Following the Arrangement, Blue Jay will be a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario and will meet and comply with all of its timely and continuous disclosure requirements, as required under applicable Canadian securities laws. Blue Jay's public disclosure documents will be made available and filed on Blue Jay's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

"Blue Jay is launching with a clear and compelling mandate to build long-term shareholder value through focused gold exploration in Canada, one of the world's most stable and well-endowed mining jurisdictions," commented Geordie Mark, CEO of Blue Jay. "Our initial asset base includes high-quality projects with significant discovery potential and our team brings deep technical expertise, capital markets experience, and a commitment to disciplined exploration. With the strong support of Riverside and our broader shareholder base, we are hitting the ground running, well capitalized and ready to execute. I am excited about the opportunities ahead and confident in our ability to deliver results."

About Riverside Resources Inc.

Riverside is a well-funded exploration company driven by value generation and discovery. The Company has over $4M in cash, no debt and less than 75M shares outstanding with a strong portfolio of gold-silver and copper assets and royalties in North America. Riverside has extensive experience and knowledge operating in Mexico and Canada and leverages its large database to generate a portfolio of prospective mineral properties. In addition to Riverside's own exploration spending, the Company also strives to diversify risk by securing joint-venture and spin-out partnerships to advance multiple assets simultaneously and create more chances for discovery. Riverside has properties available for option, with information available on the Company's website at www.rivres.com.

About Blue Jay Gold Corp

Blue Jay Gold Corp. is a Canadian gold exploration company focused on high-grade discovery in Ontario's prolific Beardmore-Geraldton and Wawa Greenstone Belts, regions known for hosting numerous past-producing and active gold mines. The Company's flagship asset, the Pichette Project, features extensive banded iron formation (BIF) trends and high-grade historical gold intercepts, offering near-surface discovery potential. With three strategically located projects and a leadership team experienced in geology and capital markets, Blue Jay Gold is advancing a disciplined, modern exploration strategy in one of Canada's most prospective and mining-friendly jurisdictions.

ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC.

"John-Mark Staude"

Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO

ON BEHALF OF BLUE JAY GOLD CORP.

"Geordie Mark"

Geordie Mark, President & CEO

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., "expect"," estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "plans"). Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the completion of the Arrangement and regulatory approval to the listing of the Blue Jay Shares.

Such information involves known and unknown risks -- including the availability of funds, that the listing of the Blue Jay Shares on the TSXV is subject to the approval of the TSXV which may not be obtained on terms acceptable to Blue Jay or at all, the ability of Blue Jay to raise sufficient capital to pursue its growth strategy and meet the listing requirements of the TSXV and, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside and Blue Jay in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253009

SOURCE: Riverside Resources Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA & LONDON, UK, May 22, 2025.

Organizations and companies unable to access comprehensive databases face a barrier to high-quality data, leaving sustainability programs reliant on regionally skewed and outdated data that can impede climate progress. Of the companies reporting to CDP in the 2023 cycle, 75% appeared to be using datasets that were disproportionately skewed to one country, misrepresenting the true geographic distribution of their operations. This is a challenge for organizations with global supply chains where the difference in emissions across countries can be up to 70% higher in some industries. Without an emissions database that comprises the full range of global energy scenarios across a supply chain, companies are wrestling with how to best measure emissions values and make progress on scope 3.

"Simply put, better data leads to better decisions," said Christian Anderson, Watershed co-founder. "By opening up CEDA to the public, we hope to give organizations of all sizes a more accurate foundation from which to make critical choices about their sustainability action. We believe harmonizing measurement methodologies across more parts of the global economy will help accelerate the transition to a new climate-informed economy."

CEDA has been used by hundreds of global enterprises including Johnson & Johnson, Stripe, and BBVA, and its impact is evident across multiple types of businesses. Using CEDA's country-specific emissions data, one Watershed customer identified opportunities to reduce its supply chain emissions by 30% through procurement shifts to more sustainable suppliers in Mexico, Canada, and Italy. Watershed will continue to offer a paid version of CEDA that includes additional features.





Joining Watershed in the launch and use of Open CEDA is a collection of partners across industries including standard-setters, open data advocates, and organizations already putting Open CEDA to use.

Statements from Open CEDA partners

The Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative (ASDI) provides open access to sustainability data to organizations, researchers, and practitioners worldwide. ASDI is part of Amazon's Sustainability Exchange-a resource hub for companies of all sizes to access tools, playbooks, and program information-and helps to accelerate environmental innovation by reducing the traditional time and cost barriers associated with acquiring and analyzing high-value sustainability information. This initiative helps to equip the global community with the data, technical resources, and tools needed to develop innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges, enabling more effective collaboration and impact.

"Access to high-quality environmental data is important for companies to take meaningful climate action across all sectors," said Michelle Jolly, director of Sustainability Solutions at Amazon. "The Exchange is working to democratize access to tools and learnings to address our shared climate challenges. By incorporating Open CEDA into the Exchange and ASDI, we're helping to reduce barriers to accessing emissions data that organizations of all sizes need to make informed sustainability decisions."

Open CEDA is available on the Amazon Sustainability Exchange here .

"Access to (secondary) emission factor databases is essential for financial institutions to begin accounting for emissions from their financial activities and to address gaps where reported emissions are unavailable," said Arjun Ganguly of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). "The decision to make the CEDA database freely accessible is a welcome step towards supporting these efforts, as it reduces the barrier to start carbon accounting for financial institutions across the globe regardless of size and budget."

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is one of the first organizations to use Open CEDA, deploying it in a research paper on the distribution and concentration of greenhouse gas emissions sources through global supply chains.

"We use Open CEDA to analyze and inform strategy on different industry sectors. The inclusion of land sector emissions and geographic resolution is critical to developing comprehensive approaches across global emissions sources. Making this tool public will inform better decisions across companies and nongovernmental organizations and enable more action," said Martha Stevenson, senior director of strategy and research for forests at WWF-US.

+++

ABOUT WATERSHED: Watershed is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting, and drive real decarbonization. Watershed is the platform of choice for companies seeking to reduce emissions, meet customer, investor and regulatory requirements, and modernize their sustainability programs. Watershed customers also have exclusive access to a marketplace of pre-vetted, high-quality carbon projects and groundbreaking virtual power purchase agreements.

Amelia Penniman Watershed amelia@watershed.com
Philadelphia Insurance Companies Takes Home the Standard of Excellence Customer Award for the Business Owners Policy, the global intelligent solutions provider defining the future of property and casualty, its flagship customer conference held this week in Orlando, Florida.

The Duck Creek Standard of Excellence Customer Awards recognize customers who have achieved the highest level of excellence through their implementation of Duck Creek solutions and who have a vision to advance their business, while reimagining the future of insurance. The award recognizes PHLY for its outstanding achievement in digital transformation and innovation in insurance operations.

Together with Ernst & Young, LLP (EY US), PHLY leveraged Duck Creek's cloud-native, SaaS-based solutions, including Duck Creek Policy, Duck Creek Insights, and Duck Creek Producer Portal, to reimagine how Philadelphia Insurance Companies BOP (PHLYBOP) policies are delivered, driving major advancements across operational efficiency, customer experience, and market responsiveness.

"This recognition highlights the power of teamwork and the strength of our technology partnerships," said Brent Skiles, SVP of Insurance Operations at Philadelphia Insurance Companies. "Together, we've helped PHLY launch a future-ready platform that meets the needs of our broker and agency partners, while scaling for tomorrow's opportunities."

Facing the need to modernize legacy systems, PHLY set out to implement a digital-first strategy, reduce manual processes, and use data to drive better decisions and customer insights. With Duck Creek's solutions, they achieved:

Automated policy lifecycle management, improving speed and accuracy;

Real-time data access and analytics to support decision-making and compliance;

A modern, agent-facing experience via the Duck Creek Producer Portal; and

Rapid deployment of BOP products across multiple states using pre-configured templates and scalable APIs.

The foundational release of the reimagined BOP offering launched in three states in late 2024, with rollout to 20 additional states planned throughout 2025. PHLY's transformation has already led to increased market share, improved customer satisfaction, and stronger agent engagement, setting a new benchmark for excellence in digital insurance delivery.

"Philadelphia Insurance Companies demonstrated what's possible when a forward-thinking insurer embraces modern technology to meet complex market demands," said William Magowan, SVP North American Sales at Duck Creek Technologies. "Their strategic use of Duck Creek OnDemand, Policy, Insights, and Producer is a prime example of how carriers can deliver meaningful transformation with speed and scale."

Duck Creek celebrates PHLY's incredible success in the P&C Insurance Industry.

About Duck Creek Technologies??

Duck Creek Technologies is the global intelligent solutions provider defining the future of the property and casualty, and all are available via Duck Creek OnDemand . Visit www.duckcreek.com to learn more. Follow Duck Creek on our social channels for the latest information - LinkedIn and X .

About Philadelphia Insurance Companies

For over 60 years, Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY) has delivered stability and peace of mind through enduring partnerships with our customers, brokers, and independent agents nationwide. We provide commercial property/casualty and professional liability coverages, comprehensive risk management, and expert claims handling across 120+ specialized industries.?

As a proud member of Tokio Marine Group, one of the largest insurance groups in the world, PHLY's exceptional financial strength has been independently validated through the highest ratings from the AM Best Company ["A++" (Superior)] and Standard & Poor's ["A+"] since 2011. PHLY is nationally recognized as a member of Ward's Top 50 since 2001, Business Insurance's Best Places to Work in Insurance since 2010, and ranked as one of America's Best Midsize Employers by Forbes.?

For more information, please visit PHLY.comand connect with us on LinkedIn.??
New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - MiMedia Holdings Inc. (TSXV: MIM) ("MiMedia", or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a global Distribution Agreement (the "Agreement") with leading device manufacturer coolpad.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Shenzhen, China, coolpad has been making smartphones for the global market for decades. Focused on innovation and family-centered technology, coolpad seeks to create mobile devices at affordable price points. coolpad's devices are distributed through strategic partnerships with major wireless carriers and retailers.

Under the terms of the Agreement, it is anticipated that MiMedia will integrate its platform in up-to 5 million coolpad mobile devices, including smartphones, over the next two years.

"coolpad is excited to offer its consumers MiMedia's unique and engaging consumer cloud experience. MiMedia is a great fit into our strategy of providing world class smartphones with leading software technologies, while doing so at affordable price levels for the family," said Michael Wang, General Manager of coolpad's Overseas Business Unit.

"We are excited to partner with coolpad, who has been making high-quality mobile devices for over 30 years. We look forward to entering a number of different markets with a strong partner. We believe this partnership will deliver great strategic benefits for both companies," said Chris Giordano, CEO of MiMedia.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About coolpad: coolpad is a leading consumer electronics company committed to innovation and family-centered technology, building strategic partnerships with major wireless carriers and retailers. We create world-class devices that enhance everyday life, blending style, performance, and accessibility. Targeting today's youth, coolpad delivers cutting-edge, trend-forward products that bring the latest tech to users worldwide at prices they love. Founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1993, coolpad continues to shape the future of smart living with purpose and passion. To learn more about coolpad, please visit www.coolpad.com.

About MiMedia: MiMedia Holdings Inc. provides a next-generation consumer cloud platform that enables all types of personal media to be secured in the cloud, accessed seamlessly at any time, across all devices and on all operating systems. The Company's platform differentiates with its rich media experience, robust organization tools, private sharing capabilities and features that drive content re-engagement. MiMedia partners with smartphone makers and telecom carriers globally and provides its partners with recurring revenue streams, improved customer retention and market differentiation. The platform services engaged users all around the world.

Notice regarding forward-looking statements:

Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements in this press release include statements regarding the number of devices manufactured by coolpad upon which MiMedia's platform will be integrated. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of management of MiMedia. Actual events and conditions could differ materially from those expressed or implied in this press release as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting MiMedia, including risks regarding the ability of coolpad to manufacture, ship and sell the anticipated number of devices with MiMedia's platform integrated as the embedded media gallery and the risk that any such manufacture, shipment and sale may be suspended or delayed due to supply chain disruptions, manufacturing and shipping delays or general economic, business and political conditions impacting coolpad's business, such as changes in tariffs or financial markets. The Company is highly dependent on the ability of its distribution partners, including coolpad, to deploy devices and any delay or failure of a distribution partner to deploy devices in the numbers agreed to and within a reasonable time period could have a material adverse impact on the Company. industry in which MiMedia operates, economic factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition. Additional risk factors are also set forth in the Company's management's discussion and analysis and other filings available via the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval+ (SEDAR+) under the MiMedia's profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Although MiMedia has attempted to identify certain factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement can be taken as guaranteed. The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof and the Company is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, readers should not place any undue reliance on forward-looking information.

NEITHER THE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253034

SOURCE: MiMedia Holdings Inc.
New certified customs facility enhances European logistics, strengthens global serviceability, and advances sustainability goals

ZincFive, the world leader in nickel-zinc (NiZn) battery-based solutions for immediate power applications, today announced a major milestone in its global growth strategy with the establishment of a new warehouse and service depot in Europe. The facility, operated in collaboration with Akkuteam Energietechnik GmbH, will support fast, efficient delivery of ZincFive batteries and spare parts across the EMEA region and beyond.

This certified customs warehouse enables seamless transit of batteries and components through Europe, streamlining exports to non-EU countries such as those in the Middle East. It also advances ZincFive's sustainability goals by reducing shipping-related emissions and improving logistics efficiency.

The move comes in response to accelerating international demand for ZincFive's nickel-zinc technology. With many European installations still relying on legacy lead-acid systems, there is a growing appetite for safer, more sustainable, and high-performance alternatives making ZincFive's technology uniquely suited to meet modern backup power needs.

"This is more than a logistical move it's a signal of our long-term commitment to the EMEA market," said ZincFive CEO Tim Hysell. "Our values of innovation, sustainability, and reliability are mirrored in this new partnership. With a facility designed for efficient, environmentally responsible battery logistics, we're not just expanding our footprint we're doing it the right way. We're investing where demand is real and growing this isn't speculative; it's a response to the strong pull we're seeing from European and Middle Eastern markets."

Akkuteam brings deep expertise in battery storage and handling and operates with a strong focus on quality and environmental stewardship. As a family-run company with a 25-year history of innovation in backup power solutions, Akkuteam's commitment to service and future-ready infrastructure closely aligns with ZincFive's mission to power a greener future through The Power of Good Chemistry

ZincFive is uniquely positioned for global growth as power demands rise across sectors especially in data centers, including the fast-emerging AI segment. Its patented nickel-zinc chemistry proven in the field for over a decade delivers safe, sustainable, and high-performance energy storage that challenges the dominance of lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. The ZincFive BC Series UPS Battery Cabinets including the latest BC 2-500 and BC 2-300X models offer an industry-leading footprint while delivering greater power to meet the escalating demands of modern infrastructure. Powered by the new Z5 13-90 ultra-high-rate battery, these solutions continue to raise the bar for compact design, reliability, and sustainability in mission-critical environments.

ZincFive has earned global recognition, including TIME's 2025 World's and America's Top GreenTech Companies lists, the 2024 Edison Award, CleanTech Breakthrough's 2024 Overall Innovation of the Year, a finalist spot in the 2023 S&P Platts Global Energy Awards, and several other notable industry honors.

About ZincFive, Inc.

ZincFive is the world leader in innovation and delivery of nickel-zinc batteries and immediate power solutions. Supported by an impressive portfolio of international patents, ZincFive technology harnesses The Power of Good Chemistry to propel the world forward. ZincFive technology leverages the safety and sustainability of nickel-zinc chemistry to provide unparalleled high power density and performance for mission critical applications. ZincFive is a privately held company based in Tualatin, Oregon. For more information, visit www.zincfive.com.

ZincFive and The Power of Good Chemistry are registered trademarks of ZincFive, Inc. and the ZincFive logo is a trademark of ZincFive, Inc.

Follow ZincFive: LinkedIn YouTube

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522279972/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Ilissa Miller

iMiller Public Relations for ZincFive

Tel: +1.914.315.6424

Email: zincfive@imillerpr.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / NV Gold Corporation (TSXV:NVX)(OTCQB:NVGLF)(FSE:8NV) ("NV Gold" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to C$500,000 and the deleveraging of its balance sheet with the conversion of loans in the aggregate amount of US$400,000 into equity.

Private Placement

The Company announces a non-brokered private placement offering of up to 5,000,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of C$0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to C$500,000 (the "Offering").

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Common Share at a price of C$0.20 for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance, provided that if the closing price of the Common Shares on any Canadian stock exchange on which the Common Shares are then listed is at a price equal to or greater than C$0.40 for a period of five consecutive trading days, the Company will have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by issuing a press release or other form of notice permitted by the certificate representing the Warrants, announcing that the Warrants will expire at 4:30 p.m. (Vancouver time) on a date that is not less than 30 days from the date notice is given.

The Company will use the proceeds of the Offering for exploration activities at the Company's Slumber Gold Project and for general working capital purposes.

The securities issued in the Offering will be subject to applicable hold periods imposed under applicable securities legislation, including a hold period of 4 months and one day from the date of issuance. The Company may pay a finder's fee on a portion of the gross proceeds of the Offering. The Offering remains subject to regulatory approval and the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Debt Settlement

The Company also announces that further to the Company's press release on April 21, 2025, it has completed its previously announced shares for debt transaction (the "Debt Settlement") and issued an aggregate of 5,161,578 common shares of the Company (the "Settlement Shares") at a price of C$0.1125 per share in settlement of payment owed pursuant to loan agreements dated June 26, 2023, July 10, 2023, September 18, 2023, January 22, 2024, March 14, 2024 and January 27, 2025 with John Watson, President, Chairman, CEO and a director of the Company, totaling US$419,050 (C$580,677.58). Payment of the interest accrued on the total amount of the debt remains outstanding. In connection with the Debt Settlement, the share pledge agreement dated April 19, 2024 between the Company and Mr. Watson has been terminated (see news release dated April 19, 2024).

The Settlement Shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

Early Warning Disclosure

In connection with the Debt Settlement, Mr. Watson has been issued 5,161,578 common shares. Prior to the issuance, Mr. Watson held 2,040,543 common shares, 97,500 stock options and 1,025,000 common share purchase warrants, each warrant entitling Mr. Watson to purchase one additional common share upon payment of additional consideration to the Company. These common shares, stock options and warrants represented approximately 20.25% of the Company's then-issued and outstanding common shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 28.25% of the Company's then-issued and outstanding common shares on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of Mr. Watson's stock options and warrants into common shares. Following the completion of the Debt Settlement, Mr. Watson beneficially owns and controls an aggregate of 7,202,121 common shares, 97,500 stock options and 1,025,000 common share purchase warrants, representing approximately 47.0%% of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 50.89% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of Mr. Watson's stock options and warrants into common shares.

The Settlement Shares were acquired by Mr. Watson for investment purposes. Mr. Watson may acquire additional securities of the Company, including on the open market or through private acquisitions, or sell securities of the Company, including on the open market or through private dispositions, in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors.

Both the Company and Mr. Watson can be contacted at the Company's head office at #250 - 750 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 2T7.

A copy of Mr. Watson's early warning report will appear on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

MI 61-101

The Debt Settlement is considered to be a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is exempt from the formal valuation requirement in Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 as the Company is not listed on a specified market within the meaning of MI 61-101. Additionally, the Debt Settlement is exempt from the minority approval requirement in Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.7(1)(e) of MI 61-101 as (i) the Company is in a situation of serious financial difficulty, (ii) the Debt Settlement is designed to improve the financial position of the Company, (iii) the circumstances described in Section 5.5(f) of MI 61-101 are not applicable, (iv) the Company's board of directors and independent directors (as such term is defined in MI 61-101) had, acting in good faith, determined that the Company is in serious financial difficulty and the Debt Settlement would improve its financial position, and the terms of the Debt Settlement are reasonable in the circumstances of the Company, and (v) there was no other requirement, corporate or otherwise, to hold a meeting to obtain any approval of the Company's shareholders.

Mr. Watson has committed to subscribe for 1,500,000 Units in the Offering for an aggregate purchase price of $150,000. The participation by Mr. Watson will be considered a related party transaction within the meaning of MI 61-101. Mr. Watson's participation in the Offering will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the securities issued to Mr. Watson nor the consideration for such securities will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

September 2024 Private Placement

Further to the press releases dated September 4, 2024 and September 18, 2024, no further tranches were closed in the Company's prior private placement financing.

No U.S. Registration

The foregoing securities being offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons or persons in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About NV Gold Corporation

NV Gold Corporation is a well-organized exploration company with 15.2 million shares issued and Outstanding. NV Gold has 21 exploration projects in Nevada comprising 639 100%-Company-owned lode mining claims totaling 53.4 square kilometers (20.6 square miles) The Company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Reno, Nevada and is focused on delivering value through mineral discoveries in Nevada, USA. Leveraging its expansive property portfolio, its highly experienced in-house technical team, and its extensive geological data library, 2025 promises to be highly productive for NV Gold.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

John Watson, President, Chairman, CEO and Director

For further information, visit the Company's website at www.nvgoldcorp.com or contact

Freeform Communications at 604.245.0054

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include, without limitation, statements related to management's expectations and intentions with respect to, among other things: the completion of the Offering, the anticipated proceeds to be raised under the Offering; the intended use of proceeds raised under the Offering; Mr. Watson's participation in the Offering; and the potential payment of finder's fees in connection with the Offering. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain material assumptions, including without limitation, the Company will obtain the required regulatory approvals for the Offering; the Company will be able to complete the Offering on the terms disclosed; that Mr. Watson will participate in the Offering in the amount currently expected; the Company will be able to raise the anticipated proceeds under the Offering; and the Company will use the proceeds of the Offering as currently anticipated.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain the required regulatory approvals for the Offering; market uncertainty; the inability of the Company to complete the Offering on the terms disclosed, or at all; the inability of the Company to raise the anticipated proceeds under the Offering; that Mr. Watson's intended participation in the Offering will change; and changes in the Company's business plans impacting the intended use of proceeds raised under the Offering.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

SOURCE: NV Gold Corporation

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/nv-gold-announces-500-000-financing-and-debt-settlement-1030724
RENO, NV / ACCESS Newswire / May 23, 2025 / Brookmount Explorations, Inc. (OTC PINK:BMXI), a gold exploration and production company, is pleased to announce that Brookmount has today executed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") for the potential acquisition of a controlling interest in Principal Solar, Inc. (OTC:PSWW).

Under the terms of the MoU, Brookmount will initially acquire, for cash and shares, a controlling interest in Principal Solar. Following this acquisition, Brookmount's North American asset portfolio, comprising three gold development properties in the Tintina Gold Belt, will be acquired by Principal Solar. Thereafter, the parties plan to distribute Brookmounts' shares in Principal Solar to Brookmount shareholders in the form of a special dividend to be calculated on a pro-rated basis for the Brookmount shares owned. At the conclusion of the transaction, it is anticipated that Brookmount shareholders will retain an 80% interest and Principal Solar shareholders a 20% interest in the consolidated group.

The transaction will be structured such that Brookmount will retain control of the North American properties and ownership going forward will be evenly distributed between Brookmount shareholders.

The management of Brookmount and Principal Solar have been involved in discussions concerning the proposed transaction since last year and respective managements believe that the transaction proposed is in the best interests of the shareholders of both companies. By providing an independent investment platform for Brookmount's North American assets, Brookmount intends to will create additional financial opportunities for further development of the assets leading up to and beyond basic production. Following completion of the potential transaction, Principal Solar, (to be renamed "North American Gold") intends to pursue an underwritten public offering of its shares and simultaneous listing.

In announcing the transaction CEO of Brookmount, Nils Ollquist commented: "We are incredibly pleased that the efforts of our team and that of Rick Toussaint, CEO of Principal Solar, are progressing towards the conclusion of a seminal transaction for our collective shareholders. We believe that restructuring our North American assets as a separate business in this manner will enhance their collective value from a balance sheet perspective. We believe that it will also significantly improve access to development, production and larger stakeholders. Our Indonesian assets, having recently been brought under direct management control, will continue to provide Brookmount with valuable, increasing cash flow to facilitate continued growth and development of its Asian gold production assets. By utilizing two different publicly traded companies, one for the operating mines in Indonesia and one for the pre-production assets in the lucrative Tintina Gold Belt, the Company believes it will maximize shareholder value. We are working diligently toward a definitive agreement with Principal Solar and will make further announcements as progress is achieved."

About Brookmount Gold

Founded in 2018, Brookmount Gold is a high-growth gold-producing company quoted on OTC Markets in the United States (OTC PINK:BMXI). With operating gold mines in Southeast Asia and exploration and production assets in North America, the company is focused on building production of existing assets to scale, in addition to acquiring and developing additional high quality gold assets with JORC/NI 43-101 verified resources.

Safe Harbor Statements:

Except for the historical information contained herein, certain of the matters discussed in this communication constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "could," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "predict," "project," "future," "potential," "intend," "seek to," "plan," "assume," "believe," "target," "forecast," "goal," "objective," "continue" or the negative of such terms or other variations thereof and words and terms of similar substance used in connection with any discussion of future plans, actions, or events identify forward-looking statements. These forwardlooking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding benefits of the proposed license, expected synergies, anticipated future financial and operating performance and results, including estimates of growth. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements included in this communication. For example, the expected timing and likelihood of completion of the pending transaction, including the timing, receipt and terms and conditions of any required governmental and regulatory approvals of the pending transaction that could reduce anticipated benefits or cause the parties to abandon the transaction, the ability to successfully integrate the businesses, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the negotiations, the risk that the parties may not be able to satisfy the conditions to the proposed transaction in a timely manner or at all, risks related to disruption of management time from ongoing business operations due to the proposed transaction, the risk that any announcements relating to the proposed transaction could have adverse effects on the market price of Brookmount's common stock. All such factors are difficult to predict and are beyond our control. We disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this report, except as required by applicable law or regulations.

Investor Relations Contact: info@chesapeakegp.com or 410-825-3930

Website: https://www.brookmountgold.com

Corporate Contact: corporate@brookmountgold.com

Social Links: Brookmount Gold X (Former Twitter): https://x.com/brookmountgold

SOURCE: Brookmount Explorations, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/correction-brookmount-exploration-announces-potential-acquisition-of-principal-so-1031147
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Minaurum Gold Inc. (TSXV: MGG) (OTCQX: MMRGF) ("Minaurum" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that through drilling and modelling, it has identified four separate substantial vein structures that occur roughly parallel to one another at the Promontorio vein zone. These stacked mineralized veins returned high-grade results in recent drilling including: (Table 1; Figure 1).

10.20 m of 453 g/t silver equivalent ("AgEq") (Hole AL24-120)

(Hole AL24-120) 8.60 m of 321 g/t AgEq (Hole AL24-120)

(Hole AL24-120) 11.60 m of 218 g/t AgEq (Hole AL24-122)

(Hole AL24-122) 4.50 m of 300 g/t AgEq (Hole AL24-123)

(Hole AL24-123) 0.65 m of 958 g/t AgEq (Hole AL24-125)

"We are excited both by the identification of a series of stacked veins composing the Promontorio target, but also the potential for similar stacked mineralization at a number of our other primary targets" stated Darrell Rader, President and CEO of Minaurum Gold. "There are a number of prolific stacked vein systems that have recently been developed in Mexico such as those at the Las Chispas and Cerro Los Gatos silver mines. In addition, while the veins at Alamos pinch and swell along strike, our drilling is returning higher grades in the vein pinches and wider widths in the swells than anticipated. These robust results announced today will be included in our maiden resource at Alamos."

Promontorio Vein Zone

Promontorio, along with the Europa vein zone, will form the basis of the maiden resource at the Alamos silver project. The 1 km-long Promontorio vein zone consists of four veins including the Veta Grande and Veta Las Guijas.

Minaurum announced high-grade intercepts in several holes of the drilling campaign on September 19, 2024, and February 13 and 27, 2025. Minaurum drilled its widest high-grade intercept of 36.65 m of 328 g/t AgEq including 3.85 m of 1,022 g/t AgEq (AL24-117), followed by several headline high-grade intercepts including 3.00 m of 4,173 g/t AgEq (AL24-111); 0.70 m of 2,976 g/t AgEq (AL24-105); 5.60 m of 368 g/t AgEq and 2.55 m of 621 g/t AgEq (AL24-107); 8.45 m of 336 g/t AgEq (AL24-108); and 6.35 m of 380 g/t AgEq (AL24-110).

Holes AL24-120 and AL24-122 cut the Las Guijas vein in the Tirito area, in the immediate footwall of the northwest-trending fault that cuts the Las Guijas vein. Hole AL24-120 intersected several additional wide and high-grade mineralized intervals including 8.60 m of 321 g/t AgEq and a 28.05 m-wide mineralized interval including 10.20 m of 453 g/t AgEq (Figures 2 and 3). Hole AL24-122 was drilled below hole AL24-120 and intersected 11.60 m of 218 g/t AgEq. These holes further demonstrate continuity, width, and down-plunge potential of the Las Guijas vein.

Holes AL24-121 and AL24-123 tested the southern part of the Veta Grande at shallow angles (-30 degrees) in order to test the upper levels of the vein. Strong mineralization was intersected in hole AL24-123 over an 18 m-wide mineralized zone with a high-grade interval of 4.50 m of 300 g/t AgEq, demonstrating that important volumes of mineralized rock at relatively shallow levels (Figures 4 and 5).

Holes AL24-125 and AL24-126 intersected the Las Guijas vein to the north of the high-grade El Tirito shoot and continued to demonstrate robust mineralization. AL24-125 intersected a 4.80-m of 225 g/t AgEq including 0.65-m of 958 g/t AgEq including a significant copper grade of 7.69%. Additional copper grades were intersected in hole AL24-126 which returned a 5.20 m interval of 214 g/t AgEq, including 1.05 m of 390 g/t AgEq including a copper grade of 1.99%.

Holes AL24-118 and AL24-119 were drilled on a fence roughly 100 m north of holes AL24-115 and -116, in the northern part of the Veta Grande vein. AL24-118 cut narrow but high-grade intervals of vein mineralization including 0.20 m of 856 g/t AgEq including 727 g/t Ag and 1.33% Cu and 0.80 m of 370 g/t AgEq including 228 g/t Ag and 1.40% Cu.





Figure 1. Promontorio Vein Zone showing locations of drill intercepts. Click image to enlarge.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_3427dabb84c2baf6_003full.jpg

Table 1. Assay highlights of holes AL24-118, -119, -120, -121, -122, -123, -125, and -126. Hole locations are shown in Figure 1. Weight-averaged silver-equivalent grades are based on January 1, 2025 Kitco.com metal prices: US $29.48/oz silver, US $2,657.1/oz gold, US $4.31/lb copper, US $0.89/lb lead, and US $1.31/lb zinc.

Hole From (m) To

(m) Interval (m) Ag

g/t Au

g/t Cu

% Pb

% Zn

% AgEq

g/t Vein AL24-118 55.10 55.90 0.80 43 0.245 0.65 0.10 0.28 132 V Grande - Dios Padre 64.80 65.00 0.20 727 0.058 1.33 0.16 0.16 856 84.60 85.40 0.80 228 0.192 1.40 0.05 0.08 370 AL24-119 95.00 96.00 1.00 51 0.257 0.34 0.19 0.56 125 V Grande - Dios Padre AL24-120 100.40 109.00 8.60 72 0.097 0.09 1.83 6.07 321 Las Guijas - Tirito 132.30 136.40 4.10 23 0.032 0.06 0.31 2.58 120 136.40 139.05 2.65 mine working 139.05 143.00 3.95 163 0.600 0.51 1.81 4.35 438 145.40 145.90 0.50 197 0.169 0.66 1.52 8.17 563 145.90 148.40 2.50 mine working 148.40 158.60 10.20 105 0.099 0.33 0.77 9.20 453 AL24-121 145.50 151.00 5.50 72 0.135 0.13 0.03 0.18 102 V Grande - Dios Padre 152.00 156.20 4.20 74 0.456 0.18 0.05 0.11 135 including 153.95 154.85 0.90 160 0.290 0.19 0.12 0.10 208 AL24-122 117.10 121.70 4.60 28 0.262 0.10 0.59 1.76 129 Las Guijas - Tirito 126.70 138.30 11.60 93 0.113 0.28 1.06 2.14 218 including 126.70 129.75 3.05 174 0.057 0.76 2.44 3.93 421 which includes 129.00 129.75 0.75 502 0.098 2.04 2.85 5.66 928 and 135.80 136.50 0.70 260 0.816 0.28 1.14 3.19 484 AL24-123 57.00 61.50 4.50 177 0.113 0.97 0.15 0.83 300 Veta Grande - Balvanera 61.50 63.00 1.50 mine working 63.00 66.00 3.00 78 0.030 0.17 0.20 0.80 126 including 64.40 65.00 0.60 153 0.073 0.20 0.21 1.13 217 68.20 69.00 0.80 85 0.090 0.21 0.20 0.48 131 73.55 76.80 3.25 101 0.136 0.33 0.33 0.80 175 including 75.40 76.55 1.15 166 0.325 0.59 0.70 1.48 308 76.55 78.00 1.45 mine working 78.00 81.00 3.00 124 0.038 0.32 0.11 0.26 166 AL24-125 184.20 189.00 4.80 63 0.156 1.21 0.82 1.77 255 V Las Guijas including 187.10 187.75 0.65 87 0.709 7.69 3.85 1.93 958 210.00 211.15 1.15 39 0.038 0.10 1.01 0.53 89 AL24-126 131.20 132.30 1.10 90 0.145 0.19 0.09 0.17 126 V Las Guijas 137.10 142.30 5.20 97 0.154 0.66 0.61 1.03 214 including 138.55 139.60 1.05 136 0.190 1.99 1.51 1.04 390 and 141.00 142.30 1.30 173 0.182 0.38 0.54 0.78 258 147.00 150.00 3.00 134 0.151 0.21 0.21 0.52 187 153.00 154.20 1.20 75 0.114 0.29 0.48 0.95 151 181.75 182.85 1.10 73 0.130 0.29 0.49 0.27 129 184.30 185.50 1.20 92 0.113 0.49 0.60 0.30 167 210.75 210.95 0.20 64 0.017 0.03 0.51 1.40 123







To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure2.jpg





Figure 2. Cross section showing hole AL24-120 and Promontorio Vein Zone cross section showing stacked vein system highlighting Las Guijas. Click image to enlarge.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure2.1.jpg





Figure 3. Core from hole AL24-120: interval 141.70m - 154.44m. Click image to enlarge.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure3.jpg



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure4.jpg









Figure 4. Cross section showing hole AL24-123 and Promontorio Vein Zone cross section showing stacked vein system highlighting Veta Grande and Las Guijas. Click image to enlarge.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure4.1.jpg





Figure 5. Core from hole AL24-123, showing interval 73.55m - 76.80m. Click image to enlarge.

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/3455/252914_figure5.jpg

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Minaurum Gold Inc. (TSXV: MGG) (OTCQX: MMRGF) (FSE: 78M) is an Americas-focused explorer concentrating on the high-grade 100% owned, production-permitted Alamos silver project in southern Sonora, Mexico and the Lone Mountain CRD Project in Nevada, USA. Minaurum is managed by one of the strongest technical and finance teams and will continue its founders' legacy of creating shareholder value by acquiring and developing a pipeline of Tier-One precious-and base metal projects.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Darrell A. Rader"

Darrell A. Rader

President and CEO

The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

___________________________________________________________________________

1570- 200 Burrard Street

Telephone: 1 778 330-0994

Vancouver, BC V6C 3L6

www.minaurum.com

info@minaurum.com

Data review and verification: Stephen R. Maynard, Vice President of Exploration of Minaurum and a Qualified Person (QP) as defined by National Instrument 43-101, reviewed and verified the assay data, and has approved the disclosure in this News Release. Verification was done by visual inspection of core samples and comparison to assay results. Assay results have not been checked by re-analysis. No factors were identified that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data presented in this news release.

Analytical Procedures and Quality Assurance/Quality Control: Preparation and assaying of drilling samples from Minaurum's Alamos project are done with strict adherence to a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) protocol. Core samples from the 2024 program are sawed in half and then bagged in a secure facility near the site, and then shipped by a licensed courier to ActLabs preparation facility in Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico. ActLabs prepares the samples, crushing them to 70% less than 2mm, splitting off 250g, and pulverizing the split to more than 85% passing 75 microns. The resulting sample pulps are prepared in Zacatecas, and then shipped to Vancouver for chemical analysis by ActLabs. The pulps are analyzed for gold by fire assay and ICP/AES on a 50-gram charge. In addition, analyses are done for a 48-element suite using 4-acid digestion and ICP analysis. Samples with silver values greater than 100 g/t; and copper, lead, or zinc values greater than 10,000 ppm (1%) are re-analyzed using 4-acid digestion and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS).

Quality-control (QC) samples are inserted in the sample stream every 20 samples, and thus represent 5% of the total samples. QC samples include standards, blanks, and duplicate samples. Standards are pulps that have been prepared by a third-party laboratory; they have gold, silver, and base-metal values that are established by an extensive analytical process in which several commercial labs (including ActLabs) participate. Standards test the calibration of the analytical equipment. Blanks are rock material known from prior sampling to contain less than 0.005 ppm gold; they test the sample preparation procedure for cross-sample contamination. In the case of duplicates, the sample interval is cut in half, and then quartered. The first quarter is the original sample, the second becomes the duplicate. Duplicate samples provide a test of the reproducibility of assays in the same drilled interval.

When final assays are received, QC sample results are inspected for deviation from accepted values by the QP. To date, QC sample analytical results have fallen in acceptable ranges on the Alamos project.

ActLabs is independent of Minaurum Gold and is independent of the Qualified Person.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Information: This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

In making the forward-looking information in this release, Minaurum has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on Minaurum's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Minaurum. Although Minaurum considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking information in this release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking information.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Minaurum does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252914

SOURCE: Minaurum Gold Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Kingsmen Resources Ltd. (TSXV: KNG) (OTCQB: KNGRF) (FSE: TUY) ("Kingsmen" or the "Company") is pleased to report the signing of a diamond drill contract. A drill rig is being mobilized to site and the diamond drill program will commence immediately on its 100% owned Las Coloradas silver project. All permits and land access agreements are in place across the project area. The Las Coloradas project is in the Parral mining district of the Central Mexican Silver Belt, Chihuahua Mexico.

A total of 14 holes have been proposed for drilling in this drill program.The program will be focused on the Soledad and Soledad II structures/vein systems where surface sampling of residual mineralization in historic workings and the historic past producing underground Las Coloradas mine has yielded significant silver grades and, locally, anomalous gold values. The current phase of drilling will commence with one core rig and, subject to results, is expected to continue in multiple sequential phases of drilling during 2025. Assay results from the drill program will be announced as soon as they are received and compiled.

President, Scott Emerson commented, "We're thrilled to be able to launch our initial drill program at our Las Coloradas project. It's rare to control a project in the prolific Parral Mining District that hosts documented high-grade silver, but which is essentially untested due to its previously fragmented ownership. After months of rigorous technical work, culminating in our recent IP geophysical survey, we interpret a deeper, coherent mineralizing system at Las Coloradas than has been documented or tested to date. This campaign marks a pivotal moment for Kingsmen shareholders as we embark on a well-designed drill program that we believe gives us an excellent chance of discovery."

About Las Coloradas

The Las Coloradas Project (8.5 km2 -3.3 sq miles) represents a consolidation of a historic mining district which covers numerous silver-gold-lead-zinc-copper mines previously exploited by ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company), the U.S. based subsidiary of Grupo Mexico.

Las Coloradas is in the Parral mining district of the Central Mexican Silver Belt, and is located approximately 30 kilometers southeast of the city of Hidalgo de Parral and 40 kilometers east of the San Francisco de Oro and Santa Barbara mining districts where several old major mines are located, such as La Prieta, Veta Colorada, Palmilla, Esmeralda, San Francisco del Oro and Santa Barbara. As well, new major mining projects are currently being explored in the district; Cordero (Discovery Silver Corp.), 35 kms north of Parral, and La Cigarra (Kootenay Silver Inc.), 35 kms northwest of Parral. Click here to see locator map: https://www.kingsmenresources.com/area-history.

Qualified Person

Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., a director of Kingsmen and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure set out in this news release.

About Kingsmen Resources

Kingsmen Resources is a mineral exploration company focused on advancing its 100% held Las Coloradas Project located in the prolific mining district of Parral Mexico. The project hosts the historic past producing high-grade silver mine, Las Coloradas. It is considered to be prospective for hosting further precious metal deposits, being on the same structural and stratigraphic belts that host numerous other, on-trend, high-grade deposits. In addition, the company has a 1% NSR on the La Trini claims which forms part of the Los Ricos North project operated by GoGold Resources Inc. in Mexico. Kingsmen is a publicly-traded company (TSXV: KNG) (OTCQB: KNGRF) (FSE: TUY) and is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia.

On behalf of the Board,

Signed: "Scott Emerson"

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statement:

Certain disclosure contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. These statements may relate to this news release and other matters identified in the Company's public filings. In making the forward-looking statements the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to: the political environment in which the Company operates continuing to support the development and operation of mining projects; the threat associated with outbreaks of viruses and infectious diseases; risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; planned work programs; permitting; and community relations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253000

SOURCE: Kingsmen Resources Ltd
Widespread engine failure among 2021-2024 GM brands have resulted in a nationwide recall and stop-sale order, resulting in consumers stranded with vehicles in repair shops for extended periods of time.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / General Motors customers who have been waiting an extended period for their vehicles to be repaired due to lack of parts availability may be entitled to significant compensation under the State Lemon Laws and Federal Magnuson Moss Warranty Act.

Vehicles with the 6.2 liter V8 gas engine, including the 2021-2024 Cadillac Escalade and Cadillac Escalade ESV model; Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Suburban, and Tahoe; and the GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon, and Yukon XL may be susceptible to a defect in the connecting rod and crankshaft engine components that could lead to engine damage and/or failure.

This issue has caused the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration to launch a "preliminary evaluation" targeting 2019-2024 General Motors trucks and SUVs equipped with this engine after more than 300 consumers lodged complaints with the agency. In addition, GM has issued a voluntary recall for all vehicles potentially impacted.

Nationally-recognized Lemon Law attorney Robert M. Silverman, co-founding partner of the law firm of Kimmel & Silverman (www.lemonlaw.com), has successfully represented a large number of clients with General Motors engine failure, and he encourages consumers to be aware of their rights to compensation under State and Federal statutes. "We are seeing many consumers who are left without use of their vehicles for weeks and months on end," says Silverman. "While there is no doubt GM is doing all they can to address and fix the issue, including issuing a proactive recall, consumers who are without their vehicles for extensive periods of time, or back in the shop repetitively to address the same issue, are not receiving the quality vehicle they paid for."

State Lemon Laws provide consumers the right to receive a refund or replacement if their new car suffers serious defects or mechanical problems that cannot be fixed after repeated repair attempts. Most State Lemon Laws also apply when a substantial defect cannot be fixed within 20-30 days within a prescribed period. Every Lemon Law is slightly different. To view a summary of each State's Lemon Law, visit www.lemonlaw.com/state-lemon-laws.

If the defects occur outside the prescribed Lemon Law parameters but still within the manufacturer's warranty period, consumers could still be entitled to compensation under the Federal Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. In these situations, the consumer also retains full resale or trade in value of the vehicle, and all warranties remain firmly and fully in effect.

Both State Lemon Laws and the Federal Magnuson Moss Warranty Act provide fee-shifting provisions meaning if the consumer prevails, the manufacturer must pay all reasonable attorney fees on top of recourse. "This levels the playing field between the consumer and the billion-dollar automobile company," says Silverman. "It allows consumers to take action if they are left stranded by a defective vehicle."

Consumers who are dealing engine issues with their General Motors vehicles may contact Kimmel & Silverman to learn about their rights by calling 1-800-536-6652 or visiting www.lemonlaw.com.

Since 1991, Kimmel & Silverman has provided cost-free legal representation to more than 200,000 drivers throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington DC, Texas, Michigan, and California. The firm has also worked with several states to strengthen consumer legislation and earned numerous accolades from State and National organizations for their efforts on behalf of consumers. For more information regarding Kimmel & Silverman and the work they provide, visit www.lemonlaw.com.

###

SOURCE: Kimmel & Silverman

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/automotive/general-motors-truck-and-suv-owners-waiting-for-parts-on-back-order-have-potential-lemon-1030525
The Data Intelligence for All themed event will feature keynotes from co-founders Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia, Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji and Reynold Xin

Attendees will hear from Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase; Dario Amodei, Co-founder and CEO, Anthropic; and Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Databricks , the Data and AI company, today announced the full agenda and lineup of featured speakers for this year's Data + AI Summit , a global event for the data and AI community. From June 9-12, more than 20,000 data and AI practitioners, leaders, and visionaries from over 160 countries are expected to convene, both at San Francisco's Moscone Center, and tens of thousands more virtually, to discover the latest developments in generative AI, machine learning, analytics and data governance, alongside Databricks' latest product innovations. This year's Summit underscores Databricks' deep and ongoing commitment to San Francisco, building on the company's recent announcement to invest $1 billion into the city over the next three years. Tickets are still available; register here to join data leaders, open source enthusiasts as well as Databricks customers and partners.

Data + AI Summit will feature keynotes from Databricks co-founders - and the original creators of Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, and Unity Catalog - Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia and Reynold Xin. Attendees will also hear from a broad lineup of data and AI luminaries, open source pioneers and global thought leaders, including:

Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase

Dario Amodei, Co-founder and CEO, Anthropic

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft, in a pre-recorded, virtual fireside chat

This year's theme, Data Intelligence for All, will showcase how every organization can harness the power of data to develop its own AI apps and agent systems. Attendees can expect to hear from top experts, researchers and open source contributors as they share actionable best practices and compelling insights about their data journeys. Highlights include thought-provoking sessions from data leaders from pioneering companies like Adobe, Apple, AT&T, Block, Doordash, Doctors Without Borders, GM, Joby, Mastercard, Meta, NVIDIA, SAP, Unilever, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Virgin Atlantic and Walmart.

The annual event will feature a compelling program including technical training sessions, open source community meetups, networking opportunities and industry-specific breakout events, including the following highlights:

700+ breakout sessions highlighting data intelligence, generative AI, data sharing, data governance and industry trends. Speakers will cover the latest innovations in Databricks AI/BI , Databricks SQL , Delta Sharing , Lakeflow , Mosaic AI , Unity Catalog and more in keynotes, lightning talks and hands-on training. Attendees will also receive technical deep dives on leading open source projects and technologies like Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow and more.

highlighting data intelligence, generative AI, data sharing, data governance and industry trends. Speakers will cover the latest innovations in , , , , , and more in keynotes, lightning talks and hands-on training. Attendees will also receive technical deep dives on leading open source projects and technologies like Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow and more. Sessions covering everything from data management and governance to building AI agent systems in practice . Hear from Databricks experts and industry leaders on how they're using data intelligence to drive real business transformation.

. Hear from Databricks experts and industry leaders on how they're using data intelligence to drive real business transformation. Industry-specific content tracks that dive into the power of data intelligence within the Financial Services, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Public Sector, Retail and Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & Transportation, Energy & Utilities, Communications, Media and Advertising, Gaming and Tech industries. These forums and breakouts will highlight industry-specific data and AI use cases, customer panels, interactive demos and opportunities to connect with peers and partners in the Industry Lounge.

that dive into the power of data intelligence within the Financial Services, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Public Sector, Retail and Consumer Goods, Manufacturing & Transportation, Energy & Utilities, Communications, Media and Advertising, Gaming and Tech industries. These forums and breakouts will highlight industry-specific data and AI use cases, customer panels, interactive demos and opportunities to connect with peers and partners in the Industry Lounge. Training and certifications with 30+ paid trainings, instructor-led courses and certification options. Courses will cover everything in the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, from advanced data engineering to Gen AI model deployment - all hosted by industry-leading technical experts.

with 30+ paid trainings, instructor-led courses and certification options. Courses will cover everything in the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, from advanced data engineering to Gen AI model deployment - all hosted by industry-leading technical experts. Networking events for attendees to interact and collaborate with other industry experts. A Welcome Reception will be held on Tuesday, June 10, at 6:00 pm PT, along with additional partner networking events, executive networking events and dozens of evening receptions. Additionally, Databricks' annual party, Data After Hours, will be held at 7 pm PT on Wednesday, June 11.

for attendees to interact and collaborate with other industry experts. A Welcome Reception will be held on Tuesday, June 10, at 6:00 pm PT, along with additional partner networking events, executive networking events and dozens of evening receptions. Additionally, Databricks' annual party, Data After Hours, will be held at 7 pm PT on Wednesday, June 11. Databricks' annual Women in Data + AI meetup to honor women's remarkable contributions and achievements in artificial intelligence, open source and software development. Learn more about data and AI as panelists share their career journeys, demonstrating how they blazed their own trail in the data and AI field.

to honor women's remarkable contributions and achievements in artificial intelligence, open source and software development. Learn more about data and AI as panelists share their career journeys, demonstrating how they blazed their own trail in the data and AI field. The new Marketing Forum gathers industry experts and innovators to explore how data and AI are transforming marketing. Discover real-world use cases, customer panels and best practices for data-driven marketing.

gathers industry experts and innovators to explore how data and AI are transforming marketing. Discover real-world use cases, customer panels and best practices for data-driven marketing. All-day AI Agents Hackathon to kick off the first day of Summit, welcoming data scientists, engineers and analysts to join forces to create a novel proof of concept or unique technique on the development of innovative AI Agents using the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform!

Data + AI Summit will also showcase nearly 200 sponsors and partners, including AWS, Accenture, Deloitte, Google Cloud and Microsoft.

Check out the event's full agenda to learn more. Register here .

About Databricks

Databricks is the Data and AI company. More than 10,000 organizations worldwide - including Block, Comcast, Conde Nast, Rivian, Shell and over 60% of the Fortune 500 - rely on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform to take control of their data and put it to work with AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe and was founded by the original creators of Lakehouse, Apache Spark, Delta Lake, MLflow, and Unity Catalog. To learn more, follow Databricks on X, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Contact: Press@databricks.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693849/Databricks_Logo.jpg

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/databricks-announces-2025-data--ai-summit-keynote-lineup-and-data-intelligence-programming-302462997.html
GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 22, 2025communications testing tools at Airspace World 2025, held May 13-15 in Lisbon, Portugal. The company highlighted its comprehensive suite of VoIP-based emulation and monitoring solutions, including ED-137 and ED-138 compliance tools, as well as end-to-end voice quality analysis. GL's focus remained on enhancing the safety and reliability of ground-to-ground and air-to-ground communications, aligned with EUROCAE standards.

[Refer to airspace-team.jpg]

At Airspace World 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal, GL Communications showcased its comprehensive Air Traffic Testing solutions to a global audience of Air Navigation Service Providers, equipment manufacturers, and system integrators. Robert Bichefsky, Director of Engineering at GL Communications, says, "GL's test platforms deliver end-to-end validation for next-generation air traffic communications, with a strong focus on safety, reliability, and performance. Trusted by aviation leaders worldwide, GL's automated and user-friendly tools support seamless testing across air-to-ground and ground-to-ground links."

At Stand H1110, GL experts demonstrated the latest advancements in:

ED-137 Radio, Telephone, and Recorder Emulators - For verifying compliance across critical ATM communication interfaces

ED-138 Network Performance Monitoring Tools - For assessing voice quality, latency, and packet integrity in VoIP-based air traffic networks

Attendees engaged with live demonstrations and in-depth discussions on air traffic testing strategies with GL's technical team.

[For more information, refer to ed137-solutions-for-air-traffic-communication-testing.jpg]

GL delivers advanced test solutions for next-gen Air Traffic networks, enabling precise emulation and load testing of CWPs, GRSs, gateways, and analog-to-IP converters. Fully compliant with EUROCAE ED-137, these tools evaluate performance, functionality, and timing for air-to-ground and ground-to-ground links. For ED-138 service quality monitoring, GL provides detailed voice metrics-MOS, jitter, latency, packet loss-and PESQ/POLQA scoring. Trusted by ANSPs and equipment manufacturers, the solutions ensure interoperability and adapt swiftly to ED-137 updates.

GL's ED-137 and ED-138 VoIP Test Toolssupport development, verification, load testing, and deployment, and includes timing measurement tools for signal and voice delay analysis. GL also engages actively in industry groups and provides full IPv6 support for modern IP-based infrastructures.

GL's Message Automation and Protocol Simulationframework enables protocol emulation across Analog, TDM, and VoIP interfaces to test VoIP-based ATM systems as per EUROCAE ED-137 standards. It supports emulation of Radio, Telephone, and Recorderinterfaces for validating air-to-ground and ground-to-ground communications.

Radio Emulation Software - Emulates CWPs or Radios (ED-137 Volume 1)

MAPS Telephone Emulation Software - Emulates CWPs for ground calls (ED-137 Volume 2)

MAPS Recorder Emulation Software - Emulates interfaces at CWP, GRS, and Recorder (ED-137 Volume 4), handling bulk calls in a single instance



All tools support ED-137 B/C, IPv6, and are validated with the EUROCAE VOTER tool. Users can perform load, functional and negative testing with IP impairments like loss and delay.

GL's PacketScanand NetSurveyorWebprovide real-time voice quality monitoring per ED-138, with metrics like MOS, jitter, and packet loss, plus centralized reporting and alerts.

For accurate delay measurement, GL offers a Timing Measurement in Air Traffic Managementsolution with hardware and software to timestamp, analyze, and correlate events across ATM networks. It supports both lab and field-testing environments.

About GL Communications Inc.,

GL Communications is a global provider of telecom test and measurement solutions. GL's solutions verify the quality and reliability of Wireless, Fiber Optic, TDM and Analog networks.

Warm Regards,

Vikram Kulkarni, PhD

Phone: 301-670-4784 x114

Email: info@gl.com
Significantly Expands Abriaqui Project Land Package

TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / FenixOro Gold Corp (CSE:FENX)(OTC PINK:FDVXF)(Frankfurt:8FD) ("FenixOro" of "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has executed a definitive agreement to obtain the El Porvenir Mine and processing facility along with a significant contiguous land package and consolidate these assets (the "Assets") with its flagship Abriaqui gold project in Antioquia, Colombia (the "Transaction").

FenixOro CEO John Carlesso stated: "This transaction is transformational as it unifies adjacent properties to create a single project of scale and significance, combining exploration upside with existing production capabilities. This introduces both immediate and long term strategic value to the Company as the existing scalable, fully permitted production facility will allow FenixOro to take advantage of historic all-time-high gold prices within a relatively short period of time. Longer term, permitting for a new larger 300 tonnes per day processing facility is in final stages of approval. Once completed, this provides a turnkey, scalable processing solution for gold production on the combined Abriaqui project as a whole, circumventing what is typically a multi-year environmental application approval process. With this transaction we will be better positioned to execute on our corporate objective of proving out a "Buritica-style" deposit in both size and scale. The resulting project from this combination contains the entire package of mineralization of significance from north to south, and positions the Company with certainty for its development and long term, expanded production strategy. We strongly believe that this combination of unique, high grade, and highly prospective assets will deliver tremendous value for shareholders as we transition to executing on a production strategy that contributes cash flow towards our continuing development and growth objectives."

The El Porvenir Mine lies 3 kmto the northwest of the extension of the Abriaqui property boundary and is the largest historic producer in the district (see Figure 1). 1500 meters of lateral development have been completed along the vein which has been worked on four levels. High grade gold mineralization is open at depth and in both strike directions.Seven additional gold-bearing veins have been identified, some of which are the northwestward extensions of the prominent vein set which has been previously tested by FenixOro in prior drill programs. Geologically, the Porvenir veins are similar to those on which FenixOro has encountered potentially economic gold mineralization at drilled depths of more than 700 meters below surface. The Porvenir Mine has never been drilled, and to date mining levels have extended only to a depth of 280m below surface. The new package adds significantly to the resource potential of the combined properties both at depth at the northern and southern ends, and in the gap between the northernmost drill holes and the Porvenir mine (see Figure 2).

The El Porvenir Mine is fully permitted for exploitation and has a processing facility on site with the capability to expand to 60 tonnes per day. Current production is reported to average 13 g/t Gold. The land package also includes a 525 hectare mining title to the northwest that includes a 35 hectare parcel which is in the final stages of permitting for a new 300 tonne per day processing facility. Permits are expected in calendar 2025. A current resource calculation commissioned for main vein at El Porvenir, based on channel sampling on multiple mine levels (non-43-101 compliant), totals 80,000 oz of gold in all categories. Drilling on strike and at depth is expected to increase this number and a drill program has been designed to be implemented in the short term. Detailed mining sequences have been mapped and budgeted for the exploitation of the known ore body.

This strategic combination adds valuable near-term production capabilities and cash flow, and expands the size of the project area to almost 2000 hectares. Upon completion of the Transaction, the Company's Abriaqui project will now encompass all relevant mineralized areas from the historic Prospera Mine in the southeast (100 continuous meters along strike of 39.2 g/t Gold, 254 g/t Silver, 2.1% Zinc and 1.8% Copper, see the Company's press release of June 9, 2022) through the "northern block" that hosts the bulk of the historical FenixOro drilling and significant discoveries, to the new northwest extension where the Porvenir Mine lies (see Figure 1). After completing 12,000 meters of drilling, FenixOro has developed a potential resource model on the northern block at Abriaqui (see Figure 2). The 3 km gap between the northern block and the Porvenir Mine is largely unexplored and has never been drilled. This area represents potential to extend the known, discovered mineralization trend through to the El Porvenir Mine and adds significant potential to the project as a whole.

The Company is seeking financing and will provide further updates while it works to complete the necessary filings to resume the trading of its common shares on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) and the OTC in the United States.

The Assets are currently held through certain private Colombian holding companies by a group of individuals who are arm's length to the Company (the "Colombian Parties"). The transaction is expected to close in two phases. Closing of the first phase will result in the Company issuing to the Colombian Parties approximately 39 million common shares, in exchange for receiving a 70% interest in the Assets. Closing of the second phase will result in the Company issuing 16 million common shares to the Colombian Parties in exchange for receiving the remaining 30% interest in the Assets. The Colombian Parties are arm's length to each other, and upon completion, no Colombian Party shall be the holder of more than 9.9% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares.

Closing of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to:

confirmatory due diligence satisfactory to each party;

confirmation of certain permitting with respect to the Assets;

completion of a technical report in compliance with NI 43-101 on the El Porvernir Mine;

lifting of the cease trade order issued in respect of the Company's common shares;

government approvals in Colombia; and

the approval of the CSE.

Closing of the second phase is conditional on the closing of the first phase, and the entering into of an operating agreement between the parties concerning the development of the Assets and associated budgeting.

About FenixOro

FenixOro Gold Corp is a Canadian company focused on acquiring and exploring gold projects with world class exploration potential in the most prolific gold producing regions of Colombia. FenixOro's flagship property, the Abriaqui project, is the closest project to Zijin-Continental Gold's Buritica project. It is located 15 km to the west in Antioquia State at the northern end of the Mid-Cauca gold belt, a geological trend which has seen multiple large gold discoveries in the past 10 years including Buritica and Anglo Gold's Nuevo Chaquiro and La Colosa.

FenixOro's VP of Exploration, Stuart Moller, led the discovery team at Buritica for Continental Gold from 2007-2011. A Phase 2 drilling program has been completed at Abriaqui resulting in a significant discovery of a high grade, "Buritica style" gold deposit.

Technical Information

Stuart Moller, Vice President Exploration and Director of the Company and a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101 (P.Geo, British Colombia), has prepared or supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this press release. Mr. Moller has more than 40 years of experience in exploration for precious and other metals including fifteen years in Colombia and is a Fellow of the Society of Exploration Geologists.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of FenixOro's control. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, information concerning any potential financing, the Assets, the closing of the Transaction, and the anticipated benefits to the Company of consolidating the Assets. Although FenixOro believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. In particular, there can be no guarantee that the Transaction will be completed, that anticipated permitting will be received,that any financing will be completed, and there is no guarantee that Abriaqui or the Porvenir Mine will produce viable quantities of minerals, or that the Company will pursue Abriaqui or that any mineral deposits will be found. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this press release, and FenixOro does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact:

FenixOro Gold Corp

John Carlesso, CEO

Email: jcarlesso@FenixOro.com

Telephone: 1-833-FENXORO

FIGURE 1 NEW PROPERTY BOUNDARIES

FIGURE 2 CONSOLIDATED PROJECT POTENTIAL

SOURCE: FenixOro Gold Corp.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/fenixoro-signs-definitive-agreement-for-porvenir-mine-and-permitted-facility-1030756
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / 1933 Industries Inc. (the "Company" or "1933 Industries") (CSE:TGIF)(OTC PINK:TGIFF), a Nevada-focused cannabis cultivator and producer, is pleased to announce that the Membership Interest Purchase Agreement (the "MIPA") entered into by its wholly owned subsidiary, FN Pharmaceuticals, and Mr. Caleb Zobrist (the "Seller") to acquire his nine percent (9%) of the issued and outstanding membership interests of Alternative Medicine Association LC ("AMA") has been amended (refer to news release dated April 8, 2024).

Under the amended terms of the MIPA, the purchase price (the "Purchase Price") for the Membership is a total of USD$50,00, payable to the Seller USD$25,000 in cash and USD$25,000 through the issuance of shares of common stock of 1933 Industries (the "Shares"). The final number of Shares to be issued to the Seller is 5,503,450 as determined via the 10 day VWAP price of the Shares on November 27, 2024, being the date the transactions contemplated by the MIPA (the "Transaction") were approved by the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board.

The Shares are subject to a hold period in Canada expiring on October 1, 2025. Additional restrictions will apply pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

The parties have set the closing date for the Transaction as May 30, 2025. With the completion of the MIPA, FN Pharmaceuticals owns 100% of the membership interest in AMA, the Company's cultivation and production subsidiary.

As Mr. Zobrist was a senior officer of the Company at the time the MIPA was entered into, he is a "related party" to the Company within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101- Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). As such, the transaction constitutes a "related party transaction" within the meaning of MI 61-101.

The Company intends to rely on exemptions from formal valuation and the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 found in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the transaction does not constitute more than the 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

About 1933 Industries Inc.

1933 Industries is a Nevada-based licensed wholesale producer, focused on the cultivation and extraction of a large portfolio of cannabis consumer products in a variety of formats under its flagship brands, Alternative Medicine Association (AMA) and Level X. Its product offerings are cultivated at the Company's 68,000 sq. ft. indoor facility and marketed directly to retail dispensaries. AMA branded flower, infused pre-rolls, and in-house boutique concentrates consistently rank as the top products sold in Nevada. For more information, please visit www.1933industries.com

For further information please contact:

Alexia Helgason, VP, Investor Relations

604-728-4407

alexia@1933industries.com

Brian Farrell, Chairman and CEO

brian@1933industries.com

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. 1933 Industries undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE: 1933 Industries Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/1933-industries-to-complete-purchase-of-9-interest-of-cultivation-and-1030785
MELBOURNE, Australia, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE:FSL) (BSE:532809), a leading global provider of transformational solutions and services and an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, has partnered with Sanas, provider of the world's first real-time speech understanding platform, to enable next-level customer conversations powered by AI.

Aligned with Firstsource's UnBPO philosophy, the integration of Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology marks a strategic leap in AI-first customer experience. This seamless, speech-to-speech solution eliminates accent and language barriers-enhancing clarity, reducing cognitive strain, and empowering agents to connect with global customers more confidently and effectively. As AI moves from pilot to performance, early adopters are already seeing the impact-128% more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX. By embedding intelligent, unobtrusive tech into day-to-day operations, Firstsource is unlocking scalable, measurable value-boosting agent productivity, strengthening conversations, and delivering next-gen CX outcomes at speed and scale.

"At Firstsource, we seek partnerships that reflect our commitment to smart, scalable transformation-solutions that deliver maximum impact with minimal friction, improving both experience and outcomes. Our collaboration with Sanas is a powerful expression of the UnBPO philosophy: leveraging intelligent, human-centric technology to elevate performance and ROI.

"The Customer Experience (CX) landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift-from cost efficiency to outcome-driven impact. With Sanas' AI-powered Real-Time Accent Translation, we are enabling more inclusive, fluid customer conversations - irrespective of who the customer is - a consumer, a student, or a patient - without the need for hardware changes or system overhauls. It is an innovation that works in the background but transforms everything.

"This is the Future of Work in action-a seamless human-AI partnership where technology enhances connection, boosts responsiveness, and empowers agents to perform at their best," said Ashish Chawla, President - CX and Consulting at Firstsource.

The technology is industry-agnostic, enabling a host of benefits for enhanced communication across diverse industries. Early implementations of this technology in other enterprises have demonstrated significant performance results:

17% average increase in sales efficiency

21% improvement in Net Promoter Score (NPS) at a Fortune 20 global tech company

at a Fortune 20 global tech company 18% average reduction in AHT

Zero instances of customers asking to speak with another agent

of customers asking to speak with another agent 22% average boost in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

95% agent adoption rate

"We're thrilled to partner with Firstsource to bring Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology to their global operations. This collaboration marks a major milestone in our mission to make communication more inclusive and effortless. Our groundbreaking AI technology, combined with Firstsource's customer-first approach, enables contact center agents to have clearer, more effective conversations-regardless of accent or geography. Together, we are setting a new standard for exceptional agent and customer experiences alike," said Sharath Keshava Narayana, CEO and co-founder, Sanas.ai.

About Firstsource

Firstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809) (Reuters: FISO.BO) (Bloomberg: FSOL:IN), is a global leader providing transformational solutions and services spanning the customer lifecycle across Healthcare, Banking and Financial Services, Communications, Media and Technology, Retail, and other diverse industries. With a global footprint across US, UK, India, Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Australia, we 'make it happen' for our clients, solving their biggest challenges with hyper-focused, domain-centered teams and cutting-edge tech, data, and analytics. Our inch-wide, mile-deep practitioners work collaboratively, leveraging UnBPO - our differentiated approach to reimagining traditional outsourcing - to deliver real-world, future-focused solutions that drive speed, scale, and smarter decision, turning transformation into tangible results for our clients.

(www.firstsource.com)

About Sanas

Sanas provides the world's first Real-Time Speech Understanding Platform powered by its patented AI technologies. Born from a mission to power a kinder, more compassionate world, Sanas is pioneering a revolution in human connection by making global, real-time communication more inclusive. Today, Sanas offers Real-Time Accent Translation and Two-Way Noise Cancellation. Founded in 2020, Sanas is led by a team of exceptional co-founders, including CEO Sharath Keshava Narayana and CTO Shawn Zhang.

(Sanas.ai)

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/firstsource-and-sanas-partner-to-redefine-customer-conversations-with-ai-302463226.html
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / by Patricia Toothman

The Social Impact Partner Spotlight series highlights various nonprofit organization partners that are helping transform the lives of individuals and communities. This blog features Splunk's partnership with Per Scholas, showcasing their transformative work to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity and IT professionals through Splunk's Core User and Power User technology training.

In a world where cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and high-profile data breaches make headlines, the need for cybersecurity professionals is greater than ever. Yet today, too many people lack access to the training that can launch cybersecurity careers.

Per Scholas is on a mission to change that. It provides rigorous, tuition-free technology job training and connections to opportunities for adult learners from low- to moderate-income households across the U.S. The organization's focus on expanding access makes it a natural partner for Splunk, which seeks to open doors to tech opportunities by providing in-demand data skills and tools.

Our partnership has a proud history. In 2018, Splunk began to provide free technology training and support for Per Scholas' programs for untapped talent pools in New York City. In 2021, Splunk began offering unrestricted grant funding to aid Per Scholas in its swift expansion, with enrollment figures growing from 3,500 learners and alumni across 16 campus locations to an expected 7,500 learners and alumni across 24 campuses by 2025. Today, those investments have come full circle, as Splunk has hired four Per Scholas graduates to full-time Cybersecurity roles. Splunk's reputation and visibility has played a key role in the due diligence of major investments from other funders, including a $20 million grant from MacKenzie Scott received in 2023.

Cybersecurity training that transforms careers and lives

Per Scholas' programs are more than just training classes. Students receive hands-on learning, career development resources, and interview opportunities with Fortune 500 companies to help take their careers to the next level. In addition to technical instruction, Per Scholas provides business skills training, covering communication, collaboration, feedback exchange, and career navigation, which makes up about 20% of a learner's experience. Over ten weeks, learners engage in workshops that help them develop a career plan, conduct a strategic job search, create a personal brand, prepare for interviews, negotiate offers, and navigate the onboarding process with a new company.

Their technical offerings include the 15-week Cybersecurity Analyst course, which provides training in Splunk tools and leads to a Splunk Core User certification. Alumni help meet market demand for roles such as cybersecurity associates and support specialists. The learning opportunities don't stop there: alums can upskill through the Career Accelerator program, which offers both the Splunk Core User and Power User certifications.

The demand is only growing, and Per Scholas is expanding to meet it. In the past three years, their annual participation has surged, and the number of campuses has grown across 18 states. Within one year of graduation, 80% of graduates attain a job earning $21+/hour, generating an anticipated $148M in annual earnings for learners and their families.

Per Scholas' growth makes a powerful difference in both individual lives and society as a whole. Research from Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a nonpartisan organization, found that for every dollar spent on Per Scholas training, eight dollars returns to the local economy through increased taxes and spending by Per Scholas graduates and reduced use of public benefit programs.

"Our partnership with Splunk has been transformative, equipping our learners with cutting-edge skills in data analytics and cybersecurity that prepare them for the future of work. This collaboration not only drives meaningful career opportunities for our alumni but also creates a stronger, more inclusive tech workforce. As we look ahead, we are excited to expand these impactful programs, and with the support of partners like Splunk, we can continue unlocking potential and transforming lives."

- Per Scholas President and CEO Plinio Ayala

A bridge to corporate cybersecurity careers

Per Scholas' Tech Talent Solutions team works with hundreds of employer partners to source open positions and refer graduates for promising opportunities. Splunk is proud to employ four Per Scholas alumni, including customer trust analyst Farquleet Fajar. Originally from Pakistan, she discovered her interest in technology in high school and later decided to pursue a career in cybersecurity.

"In the course, we got great hands-on experience and learned a lot about different fields in cybersecurity," she says. "The teachers were so helpful and supportive, and they went above and beyond to make sure everyone in the class was learning and having a good experience."

After graduating from Per Scholas, Farquleet completed an internship at Splunk and was selected to join as a full-time employee. Her learning journey continues as she pursues more cybersecurity certifications and eventually hopes to earn a master's degree in cybersecurity.

Farquleet's story is one of thousands of successes through Per Scholas, and the organization is poised to create thousands more. To learn how you can support their vital work, visit perscholas.org.

View original content here.



View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Cisco Systems Inc. on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Cisco Systems Inc.

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/cisco-systems-inc

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Cisco Systems Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/cisco-opening-doors-to-cybersecurity-careers-with-splunk-and-per-schol-1030849
Issued by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau

PARIS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, witnessed the signing of an agreement to digitise UNESCO's global archive with a $6 million grant from the Sharjah Book Authority. The signing took place Wednesday morning at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, in the presence of his wife, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, and Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

Agreement Signed Officially

The agreement was signed by Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), and Jennifer Linkins, Assistant Director-General for Administration and Management at UNESCO. The project, based on directives from the Ruler of Sharjah, aims to preserve global heritage, protect important documents, and ensure digital accessibility. It will span five years and include the digitisation of books, manuscripts, audio recordings, documentaries, and various archival materials.

Archive Tour Conducted

His Highness conducted a tour of the UNESCO Library and Archive, examining significant collections including global documents, books, and manuscripts. He was also informed about the essential functions of the library in supporting the organisation's objectives and utilising its cultural.

Preservation Importance Highlighted

During the visit, His Highness viewed a number of aging historical documents, some of which had been impacted by deteriorating conditions. This emphasised the importance of the digitisation agreement.

A Comprehensive Historical Archive

The UNESCO archive stands as one of the largest and most important institutional archives globally, which includes nearly 80 years of historical records. The collection features more than 2.5 million pages of documents, 165,000 rare photographs, and thousands of hours of audio and video recordings, These materials capture pivotal moments in global cultural and educational history.

Digitisation Urgently Needed

Only 5% of the archive has been digitised, highlighting the significant value it holds, yet constrained by limited resources and various logistical and technical challenges. This underscores the critical necessity for assistance to expedite comprehensive digital transformation and protect the archive.

Sharjah's Strategic Initiative

Approximately 95% of the archive remains undigitised, making Sharjah's initiative a significant move towards converting this global legacy into accessible digital content for researchers, academic institutions, and cultural communities around the world.

Sharjah's Vision Confirmed

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi remarked, "This grant exemplifies Sharjah's commitment to preserving human heritage and protecting the world's memory, highlighting knowledge as a fundamental element of sustainable human development. UNESCO's global archive stands as a vital centre for the preservation of heritage, intellect, education, and culture, emphasising that its preserving is a shared moral responsibility."

Knowledge Access Promoted

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi stated, "Sharjah has always held the belief that access to knowledge should be fair and inclusive, and that protecting human memory is vital for fostering creativity and progress. With this initiative, we are creating a new avenue for international collaboration aimed at building a future that respects the past while providing future generations the chance to learn from history and draw inspiration from its lessons."

Ongoing Cultural Leadership

This agreement demonstrates Sharjah's ongoing leadership, under the direction of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, in fostering knowledge and humanitarian initiatives. It reinforces the emirate's position as a global hub for cultural preservation, heritage protection, and the promotion of Arab representation in international intellectual and scientific organisations.

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/sharjah-ruler-signs-6m-agreement-to-digitise-unesco-global-archive-302463236.html
LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE:FSL) (BSE:532809), a leading global provider of transformational solutions and services and an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, has partnered with Sanas, provider of the world's first real-time speech understanding platform, to enable next-level customer conversations powered by AI.

Aligned with Firstsource's UnBPO philosophy, the integration of Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology marks a strategic leap in AI-first customer experience. This seamless, speech-to-speech solution eliminates accent and language barriers-enhancing clarity, reducing cognitive strain, and empowering agents to connect with global customers more confidently and effectively. As AI moves from pilot to performance, early adopters are already seeing the impact-128% more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX. By embedding intelligent, unobtrusive tech into day-to-day operations, Firstsource is unlocking scalable, measurable value-boosting agent productivity, strengthening conversations, and delivering next-gen CX outcomes at speed and scale.

"At Firstsource, we seek partnerships that reflect our commitment to smart, scalable transformation-solutions that deliver maximum impact with minimal friction, improving both experience and outcomes. Our collaboration with Sanas is a powerful expression of the UnBPO philosophy: leveraging intelligent, human-centric technology to elevate performance and ROI.

"The Customer Experience (CX) landscape is undergoing a fundamental shift-from cost efficiency to outcome-driven impact. With Sanas' AI-powered Real-Time Accent Translation, we are enabling more inclusive, fluid customer conversations - irrespective of who the customer is - a consumer, a student, or a patient - without the need for hardware changes or system overhauls. It is an innovation that works in the background but transforms everything.

"This is the Future of Work in action-a seamless human-AI partnership where technology enhances connection, boosts responsiveness, and empowers agents to perform at their best," said Ashish Chawla, President - CX and Consulting at Firstsource.

The technology is industry-agnostic, enabling a host of benefits for enhanced communication across diverse industries. Early implementations of this technology in other enterprises have demonstrated significant performance results:

17% average increase in sales efficiency

21% improvement in Net Promoter Score (NPS) at a Fortune 20 global tech company

at a Fortune 20 global tech company 18% average reduction in AHT

Zero instances of customers asking to speak with another agent

of customers asking to speak with another agent 22% average boost in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

95% agent adoption rate

"We're thrilled to partner with Firstsource to bring Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology to their global operations. This collaboration marks a major milestone in our mission to make communication more inclusive and effortless. Our groundbreaking AI technology, combined with Firstsource's customer-first approach, enables contact center agents to have clearer, more effective conversations-regardless of accent or geography. Together, we are setting a new standard for exceptional agent and customer experiences alike," said Sharath Keshava Narayana, CEO and co-founder, Sanas.ai.

About Firstsource

Firstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809) (Reuters: FISO.BO) (Bloomberg: FSOL:IN), is a global leader providing transformational solutions and services spanning the customer lifecycle across Healthcare, Banking and Financial Services, Communications, Media and Technology, Retail, and other diverse industries. With a global footprint across US, UK, India, Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Australia, we 'make it happen' for our clients, solving their biggest challenges with hyper-focused, domain-centered teams and cutting-edge tech, data, and analytics. Our inch-wide, mile-deep practitioners work collaboratively, leveraging UnBPO - our differentiated approach to reimagining traditional outsourcing - to deliver real-world, future-focused solutions that drive speed, scale, and smarter decision, turning transformation into tangible results for our clients.

(www.firstsource.com)

About Sanas

Sanas provides the world's first Real-Time Speech Understanding Platform powered by its patented AI technologies. Born from a mission to power a kinder, more compassionate world, Sanas is pioneering a revolution in human connection by making global, real-time communication more inclusive. Today, Sanas offers Real-Time Accent Translation and Two-Way Noise Cancellation. Founded in 2020, Sanas is led by a team of exceptional co-founders, including CEO Sharath Keshava Narayana and CTO Shawn Zhang.

(Sanas.ai)

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/firstsource-and-sanas-partner-to-redefine-customer-conversations-with-ai-302463237.html
TenCate Protective Fabrics proudly marked a major milestone this month, celebrating 100 years of continuous textile production in Georgia. In a time when much of the textile industry has moved offshore, this centennial achievement stands as a testament to the resilience, innovation, and enduring craftsmanship rooted in Georgia.

The celebration took place at the Coweta County Fairgrounds, bringing together employees, company retirees, community leaders, and other distinguished guests to honor a legacy that stretches back over 325 years in The Netherlands.

Built on this rich Dutch heritage, TenCate Protective Fabrics has become a global leader in advanced textile solutions for protective clothing. While its history began in The Netherlands, its steadfast commitment to U.S.-based manufacturing-particularly in Georgia-has fueled the company's success over the last century. From producing cutting-edge flame-resistant (FR) fabrics for firefighters and industrial workers to supplying the military with mission-critical FR fabric for PPE, TenCate Protective Fabrics plays a vital role in protecting the people that communities rely on around the globe.

"This celebration is more than a look back-it's a powerful reminder that American textile innovation is still alive and thriving," said Maria Gallahue-Worl, CEO, TenCate Protective Fabrics. "Our rich heritage is deeply tied to the ingenuity and dedication of our workforce around the world, including right here in Georgia."

Guests at the event enjoyed live music, games, food, a fashion show, and an exhibition highlighting the evolution of TenCate's Georgia operations. The display traced the company's journey from its origins as Southern Mills Inc., founded by the Ellis family, to its modern-day Georgia-based presence: a skilled production workforce operating across four state-of-the-art facilities and a Corporate Office in Union City, Georgia.

The celebration is a testament to TenCate Protective Fabrics' 100-year roots in Georgia and the company's essential and unique place in US textile manufacturing.

About TenCate Protective Fabrics

As the leading global producer of flame-resistant fabrics, TenCate Protective Fabrics enables millions of people worldwide with textiles that bring out the best in them. Generations of professionals throughout industrial, fire, and military applications rely on TenCate's fabrics for safety, comfort, and confidence.

To learn more, visit tencatefabrics.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521275621/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

John Stoehr

TenCate Protective Fabrics

j.stoehr@tencatefabrics.com
BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust Plc - Result of AGM

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, May 22

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc

(LEI: UK9OG5Q0CYUDFGRX4151)

Results of AGM

BlackRock Latin American Investment Trust plc announces that, at the Annual General Meeting held today, all 12 resolutions were duly passed on a poll.



The full text of the resolutions can be found in the Notice of Annual General Meeting set out in the Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2024, which has previously been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and is available for inspection at:



https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism



The results of the poll were as follows:



Votes

For & Discretionary





%



Votes

Against





%



Votes Total % of Available voting rights*



Votes

Withheld Resolution 1 12,356,670 99.75 30,885 0.25 12,387,555 42.06 8,316 Resolution 2 12,238,331 98.98 126,474 1.02 12,364,805 41.99 31,066 Resolution 3 12,304,860 99.42 72,348 0.58 12,377,208 42.03 18,663 Resolution 4 12,060,301 97.38 324,369 2.62 12,384,670 42.06 11,201 Resolution 5 12,100,230 97.70 284,440 2.30 12,384,670 42.06 11,201 Resolution 6 12,082,657 97.64 291,859 2.36 12,374,516 42.02 21,355 Resolution 7 12,081,808 97.68 287,515 2.32 12,369,323 42.00 26,548 Resolution 8 12,302,682 99.54 56,420 0.46 12,359,102 41.97 36,769 Resolution 9 12,316,383 99.63 45,555 0.37 12,361,938 41.98 33,933 Resolution 10 12,318,069 99.55 55,064 0.45 12,373,133 42.02 22,738 Resolution 11 12,263,261 99.20 99,456 0.80 12,362,717 41.98 33,154 Resolution 12 12,315,651 99.38 76,620 0.62 12,392,271 42.08 3,600

*Available Voting Rights (excl. Treasury) equals 29,448,641

Date: 22 May 2025
POTOMAC, MD / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / IGC Pharma, Inc. ("IGC", or the "Company") (NYSE American:IGC) today announced a clinical trial site at Santa Cruz Behavioral in Puerto Rico for its CALMA Phase 2 clinical trial, investigating IGC-AD1 for agitation in Alzheimer's disease. This strategic site directly addresses the significant impact of Alzheimer's in the region.

Approximately 12.5% of Puerto Ricans over the age of 65 have Alzheimer's, a figure notably higher than the roughly 10% prevalence observed in older non-Hispanic white populations in the U.S. This disparity is influenced by factors such as Puerto Rico's rapidly aging demographic and unique genetic predispositions. The heightened prevalence translates into a substantial economic burden, with medical care for dementia in Puerto Rico accounting for over a quarter of total societal healthcare costs, a proportion higher than in the continental U.S.

"We're pleased to work with Santa Cruz Behavioral ("SCB") as a trial site for our CALMA study, expanding our reach in Puerto Rico alongside a previously announced site at the University of Puerto Rico," said Ram Mukunda, CEO of IGC Pharma. "Puerto Rico represents a high-need and underserved population in Alzheimer's care, and SCB strengthens our ability to evaluate IGC-AD1 across diverse patient populations. Diversity in clinical trials not only improves scientific validity but also supports broader regulatory and commercial success."

For IGC Pharma's investors, this initiative represents a strategic imperative. By engaging a vast, underserved market with a high disease prevalence, diverse clinical trials are not only ethically sound but also enhance the commercial viability of therapies by ensuring universal effectiveness.

Santa Cruz Behavioral in Puerto Rico, known for its outstanding mental healthcare services from a biopsychosocial perspective, serves as a key partner in this endeavor.

Patients and caregivers interested in participating in the CALMA trial should please contact Santa Cruz Behavioral in Bayamon Puerto Rico.

About IGC-AD1 and the CALMA Trial

IGC-AD1 is IGC Pharma's investigational cannabinoid-based therapy currently in a Phase 2 multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study (CALMA) evaluating its safety and efficacy for treating agitation in Alzheimer's dementia. Agitation affects up to 76% of Alzheimer's patients, often leading to increased hospitalization and caregiver burden. IGC-AD1 acts as a partial CB1 receptor agonist with anti-neuroinflammatory properties, targeting key pathways involved in neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and neurotransmitter imbalances.

For more information on the CALMA trial, visit: ClinicalTrials.gov.

About IGC Pharma (dba IGC):

IGC Pharma (NYSE American:IGC) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging AI to develop innovative treatments for Alzheimer's and metabolic disorders. Our lead asset, IGC-AD1, is a cannabinoid-based therapy currently in a Phase 2 trial (CALMA) for agitation in Alzheimer's dementia. Our pipeline includes TGR-63, targeting amyloid plaques, and early-stage programs focused on neurodegeneration, tau proteins, and metabolic dysfunctions. We integrate AI to accelerate drug discovery, optimize clinical trials, and enhance patient targeting. With 30 patent filings and a commitment to innovation, IGC Pharma is advancing breakthrough therapies.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based largely on IGC Pharma's expectations and are subject to several risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond IGC Pharma's control. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, the Company's failure or inability to commercialize one or more of the Company's products or technologies, including the products or formulations described in this release, or failure to obtain regulatory approval for the products or formulations, where required, or government regulations affecting AI or the AI algorithms not working as intended or producing accurate predictions; general economic conditions that are less favorable than expected; the FDA's general position regarding cannabis- and hemp-based products; and other factors, many of which are discussed in IGC Pharma's U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings. IGC incorporates by reference its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on June 24, 2024, and on Form 10-Qs filed with the SEC on August 7, 2024, November 12, 2024, and February 14, 2025, as if fully incorporated and restated herein. Considering these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained in this release will occur.

Contact Information

Rosalyn Christian

IMS Investor Relations

igc@imsinvestorrelations.com

(203) 972-9200

SOURCE: IGC Pharma, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/biotechnology/igc-pharmas-puerto-rico-calma-trial-site-offers-strategic-opportunity-in-high-prevale-1030732
Authored by Kevin Brandt

CHICAGO, IL / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Government contracting has always been characterized by complex processes, documentation and rigorous compliance requirements. The processes traditionally demand human resources and expertise to navigate. Additionally, these legacy processes often lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for innovation. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are deployed to address these longstanding challenges. The intersection of AI and government contracting showcases a shift in how government contractors operate and maintain compliance. The impact of AI in the contracting industry is beyond automation of routine tasks, it is now enabling a more strategic approach that can adapt to changing needs and leverage data in unprecedented ways.

Proposal development and optimization

Government contractors are now using AI-powered tools to improve their proposal development process and win rates. These systems analyze past successful proposals, client-specific requirements and evaluation criteria to help contractors create more compelling and compliant bids. AI tools in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can parse complex government solicitations in minutes rather than the hours it would take proposal teams to do manually, extracting key requirements, deadlines and evaluation criteria into organized formats. Practical applications include:

Extraction of requirements from complex requests for proposals (RFPs)

Analysis of past successful proposals to identify winning patterns

Compliance checking to ensure all requirements are addressed

Automated generation of proposal outlines based on RFP structure

For contractors of all sizes, these AI capabilities mean more proposals can be developed with fewer resources, while simultaneously improving quality and compliance. This can be a genuine competitive advantage in the federal marketplace.

Contract management

Once a contract is won, AI can ensure successful performance, identify potential issues before they become problems and gather data to strengthen future bids. AI capabilities automatically extract and track key contract terms, deliverable schedules and compliance requirements, alerting when deadlines approach or potential performance issues emerge. More sophisticated systems can analyze performance data across multiple contracts to identify trends and patterns. For example, these tools might recognize that certain types of deliverables consistently fall behind schedule, allowing contractors to address systemic issues before they impact customer satisfaction. Practical applications include:

Extraction and tracking of contract requirements and deliverables

Early warning systems for potential performance issues

Resource allocation optimization across multiple contracts

These capabilities not only improve performance on current contracts but also build a stronger foundation for winning future work by ensuring customer satisfaction and documenting past performance.

Risk mitigation

Government contractors operate in a highly regulated environment where compliance failures can lead to serious consequences. AI-powered ERP solutions can continuously monitor transactions, communications and activities for potential compliance issues. For example, these tools can analyze expense reports to flag potential violations of contract billing rules. Beyond these applications, predictive analytics models embedded in AI enable contractors to take preemptive measures to reduce potential issues by forecasting future risks based on historical data. Practical applications include:

Analysis of financial transactions for potential billing issues

Real-time verification of cybersecurity compliance requirements

Monitoring of relationships for FAR/DFAR compliance

By identifying and addressing compliance issues before they escalate, AI can help contractors avoid costly problems while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden of manual compliance reviews.

Decision-making

AI-integrated solutions integrate data from across the organization to provide executives with actionable insights that drive better business decisions.Specialized government contracting platforms such as Deltek have incorporated AI capabilities that go beyond traditional reporting. These tools use machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and relationships in complex data sets that would be impossible for humans to discover through conventional analysis.For example,the solutions can identify correlations between specific proposal strategies and win rates or between contract types and profitability metrics, helping leadership allocate resources more effectively.Practical applications include:

Bid/no-bid decision support using historical performance data

Identification of the most profitable contract types for your company

Strategic planning support through predictive market trend analysis

By replacing intuition and gut feelings with data-driven insights, these AI systems are helping contractors make more objective, evidence-based decisions about where to invest their limited resources for maximum return.

How we can help

Deltek solutions for government contractors leverage AI capabilities to enhance efficiency and provide data-driven insights. These capabilities help reduce manual effort, mitigate risks and optimize performance, ultimately driving greater efficiency and compliance. As a trusted Deltek alliance partner, Baker Tilly provides seamless implementation, integration and optimization of Deltek's enterprise solutions.

Contact a Baker Tilly specialist to learn more.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Baker Tilly on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Baker Tilly

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/baker-tilly

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Baker Tilly

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/baker-tilly-insights-into-transformative-ways-ai-is-helping-gove-1030853
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) ("Sankamap" or the "Company") is pleased to provide historical exploration results from the Oceania Project's 4,500-hectare ("Ha") Kuma property ("Kuma"), located in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The Kuma property is situated 37 kilometers ("km") southeast of Honiara, the capital city of Guadalcanal. Historical exploration at Kuma has identified large-scale copper-gold ("Cu-Au") mineralization and promising indicators of a potential porphyry deposit, which remains untested by drilling (see regional location in our May 7, 2025 press release).

CEO John Florek commented "We are enthusiastic about the discovery potential at the Kuma property, where historical exploration has outlined a kilometer-scale Cu-Au anomaly, including surface samples grading up to 13.5 g/t gold and 11.7% copper3; remarkably, this area remains untested by drilling. The Kuma property presents an exceptional exploration opportunity, located along a highly prospective copper-gold trend that hosts several major deposits, including Lihir1 and Panguna6. By building on previous work, we aim to further refine our porphyry target, strengthening the foundation for our upcoming drill program and creating long-term value for our shareholders."

Exploration Highlights

Rock chip sampling on the Kuma property returned assays of up to 13.5 g/t gold and 11.7% copper.

Kilometer-scale Cu-Au anomalies were delineated through rock and soil geochemical assays.

Hydrothermal alteration mapping delineated a lithocap extending over 2 kilometers, characterized by distinct zones of phyllic, advanced argillic, and argillic alteration

Initial exploration at the Kuma property began in the 1990s, with the identification of massive oxidized boulders, which were subsequently traced upstream to Alemba Creek in 2007 (Figure 1), leading to the delineation of the Kuma prospect. Between 2007 and 2019, exploration efforts included soil and rock geochemical sampling, geological and alteration mapping, and airborne geophysical surveys. Hyperspectral analysis defined a >2 km lithocap with well-developed phyllic, argillic, and advanced argillic alteration assemblages, indicative of a high-sulphidation epithermal to porphyry-style system. Geochemical data revealed kilometer-scale anomalies in both gold and copper within the lithocap, highlighting significant, untested mineral potential.

Historical Samples collected on the Kuma property summarized in a table below:

Rock Samples ~698 rock samples collected 13 samples >0.5 g/t Au, including sample of 11.7% Cu and 13.5 g/t Au 26 samples > 500 ppm Cu,including 7 samples > 1000 ppm Cu Soil Samples ~168 soil samples collected 13 samples >200ppm Cu,including 1 sample >500 ppm Cu 112 samples >40 ppb Auincluding 4 samples >100 ppb Au Steam Sediment Samples ~88 stream sediment samples collected Up to 15 ppb Au

Table reference: Historical grab, soil and BLEG samples from SolGold Kuma Review June 2015, and SolGold plc Annual Report 2013/ 2012





Figure 1: Large, altered boulders present on the Kuma Property

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From 2007 to 2009, Australian Resource Management conducted reconnaissance-scale rock float and stream sediment sampling along the Tabala Ridge, an area characterized by northwest-trending, structurally controlled lineaments interpreted as parallel fault zones. Initial evidence of a porphyry-style system was identified through the occurrence of hypogene copper sulphides, chalcopyrite and bornite, locally overprinted by weak supergene enrichment, indicative of a zoned hydrothermal system (Figure 1).





Figure 2: Kuma Lithocap footprint in comparison to select porphyry deposits

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Panguna: 1.5 Mt containing 16.1 Moz Au at 0.33 g/t and 4.6 Mt Cu at 0.3 % Indicated, 300 Mt containing 3.2 Moz Au 0.4 g/t and 0.7 Mt Cu Inferred

Between 2010 and 2013, Newmont Exploration (NVL-SI) conducted a comprehensive program at the Kuma property, including rock sampling, Bulk Leach Extractable Gold (BLEG) sampling, geological mapping, airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey, and hyperspectral analysis of rock samples. This work delineated a ~2 km lithocap characterized by discrete zones of advanced argillic, argillic, and silicic alteration.

Lithocaps represent the upper, hydrothermally altered portions of porphyry systems and are typically defined by extensive, near-surface alteration footprints. The lithocap identified at Kuma exhibits alteration assemblages consistent with high-sulphidation epithermal environments, suggesting proximity to a potential porphyry center at depth. The spatial scale and mineralogical zonation of the alteration system (Figures 2 & 3) support the presence of a large, concealed porphyry Cu-Au system beneath the current surface exposure.

From 2014 to 2019, SolGold carried out comprehensive geological mapping, a systematic soil sampling program, and hyperspectral analysis of the soil samples. The hyperspectral data provided a more refined alteration map, highlighting distinct zones of phyllic, argillic, and advanced argillic alteration. Notably, alteration minerals such as dickite and pyrophyllite were identified, which are common surficial indicators of underlying porphyry systems at depth (Figure 3).

Summary

Integrated data define a vertically zoned hydrothermal system consistent with a telescoped porphyry model: a phyllic core (quartz-sericite-pyrite) surrounded by argillic and advanced argillic assemblages (kaolinite, alunite, dickite). The alteration footprint lies within a lithocap interpreted as the upper expression of a concealed porphyry system.

Regionally, Kuma lies within a fertile Cu-Au corridor hosting major deposits like Lihir and Panguna.

These results highlight the potential for a concealed porphyry center beneath the lithocap, warranting follow-up geophysical surveys and targeted drilling.





Figure 3: Kuma property Cu-Au anomalies with mapped alteration and structures

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Next Steps

Historical exploration at the Kuma property has outlined a compelling porphyry target based on surface geochemical sampling, geological mapping, and geophysical data; yet remains untested by drilling. A follow-up exploration program is scheduled to commence in mid-May 2025, as announced in our May 7, 2025, press release. The planned work includes a MobileMT geophysical survey, high-resolution airborne photogrammetry and LiDAR acquisition, and a targeted rock sampling campaign to refine drill targets and enhance geological understanding of the system.

The key goals of the upcoming exploration program are to:

Advance the project's subsurface geological model through a MobileMT survey, aimed at detecting conductive and resistive trends indicative of porphyry and high-sulphidation epithermal mineralization systems.

Improve surficial geological understanding of the property, including outcrop distribution, geomorphology, and structural features, through the generation of a high-resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM) and a high-accuracy Digital Terrain Model (DTM).

Validate historical surface geochemical results and identify new target areas through a systematic rock sampling program led by the Sankamap exploration team.

Enhance target definition by building a robust and geologically meaningful dataset to support the design and execution of the upcoming drill program.

This disciplined and data-driven approach leverages existing historical information to generate a comprehensive exploration dataset, improving target confidence and guiding drill planning with greater precision.

*Disclaimer: References to the Lihir and Panguna deposits are provided solely to illustrate the potential scale of mineralization that could exist in similar geological settings. These references are not intended to imply that mineralization of similar type, size, or grade is present on Sankamap's property. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on Sankamap's property, and it is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the delineation of a mineral resource. Not all historical information including, but not limited to magnetic survey data, QAQC procedures, lab assay certificates for historical exploration and sampling is available to Sankamap metals, historical exploration was in quarterly, annual and press releases.

About Sankamap Metals Inc.

Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) is a Canadian mineral exploration company dedicated to the discovery and development of high-grade copper and gold deposits through its flagship Oceania Project, located in the South Pacific. The Company's fully permitted assets are strategically positioned in the Solomon Islands, along a prolific geological trend that hosts world-class copper-gold deposits; including Newcrest's Lihir Mine, with a resource of 71.9 million ounces of gold (310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred).

Exploration is actively advancing at both the Kuma and Fauro properties, part of Sankamap's Oceania Project in the Solomon Islands. Historical work has already highlighted the mineral potential of both sites, which lie along a highly prospective copper and gold-bearing trend, suggesting the possibility of further, yet-to-be-discovered deposits.

At Kuma, the property is believed to host an underexplored and largely untested porphyry copper-gold (Cu-Au) system. Historical rock chip sampling has returned consistently elevated gold values above 0.5 g/t Au, including a standout sample assaying 11.7% Cu and 13.5 g/t Au3; underscoring the area's significant potential.

At the Fauro property, particularly at the Meriguna target, historical trenching has revealed highly encouraging results, including 8.0 meters at 27.95 g/t Au and 14.0 meters at 8.94 g/t Au3, along with grab samples reaching up to 173 g/t Au3. Additionally, limited historical shallow drilling encountered 35.0 meters at 2.08 g/t Au3, further supporting the property's prospectivity.

With a commitment to systematic exploration and a team of experienced professionals, Sankamap aims to unlock the untapped potential of underexplored regions and create substantial value for its shareholders. For more information, please refer to SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca), under Sankamap's profile.

1.Newcrest Technical Report, 2020 (Lihir: 310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred)

2. Bougainville Copper Ltd. Annual Report, 2016 (1.5 Mt containing 16.1 Moz Au at 0.33 g/t and 4.6 Mt Cu at 0.3 % Indicated, 300 Mt containing 3.2 Moz Au 0.4 g/t and 0.7 Mt Cu Inferred)

3. Historical grab, soil and BLEG samples from SolGold Kuma Review June 2015, and SolGold plc Annual Report 2013/2012

4. PT Amman Mineral Internasional Tbk Annual Report, 2023 - Batu Hijau (Reserves of 759 Mt containing 6.2 Blbs Cu at 0.37 % and 7.5 Moz Au at 0.31 g/t, resources of 1,675 Mt containing 9.1 Blbs Cu at 0.25 % and 5.9 Moz Au at 0.11 g/t Au. Produced 9.7 Blbs Cu and 10 Moz Au, as or December 31, 2023) Elang (Reserves of 1,415 Mt containing 10.4 Blbs Cu at 0.33 % Cu, and 15.0 Moz Au at 0.33 g/t Au, resources of 2,282 Mt containing at 14.15 Blbs Cu at 0.28 % and 19.4 Moz Au at 0.26 g/t Au)

5. Maryono, A., Harrison, R.L., Cooke, D.R., Rompo, I.R., Hoschke, T.G., 2018, Tectonics and geology of porphyry Cu-Au deposits along the eastern Sunda magmatic arc, Indonesia, Economic Geology, v. 113, pp. 7-38.

6. Eastoe, C.J., 1979, The formation of the Panguna porphyry copper deposit, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, unpub. PhD. thesis, University of Tasmania, Hobart (Panguna: 1.5 Mt containing 16.1 Moz Au at 0.33 g/t and 4.6 Mt Cu at 0.3 % Indicated, 300 Mt containing 3.2 Moz Au 0.4 g/t and 0.7 Mt Cu Inferred)

QP Disclosure

The technical content for the Oceania Project in this news release has been reviewed and approved by John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol., a Qualified Person in accordance with CIM guidelines. Mr. John Florek is in good standing with the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (Member ID:1228) and an officer of the Company.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

s/ "John Florek"

John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol

Chief Executive Officer

Sankamap Metals Inc.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved this press release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements, including with respect to the timing from which the common shares will trade on the CSE under the new name of the Company and management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. Forward looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend" and similar words referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management. All forward-looking information is inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, as described in more detail in the Company's securities filings available at www.sedarplus.ca. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements and we caution against placing undue reliance thereon. We assume no obligation to revise or update these forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253050

SOURCE: Sankamap Metals Inc.
USA News GroupNews Commentary

Issued on behalf of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.

VANCOUVER, BC, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- USA News GroupNews Commentary - While institutional headlines have focused on record-setting quarters from the world's biggest gold producers, a quieter opportunity may be forming in their wake. Capital is beginning to rotate down the value chain, with seasoned investors eyeing select juniors and mid-tiers that haven't yet priced in $3,300 gold-or the possibility of $3,500, as Goldman Sachs now forecasts. With the TSXnearing all-time highs and central banks continuing to build gold reserves, the stage may be set for a catch-up trade in developers and emerging producers. Among the gold stocks seeing renewed interest are Lake Victoria Gold (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF), GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF), McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), Majestic Gold Corp. (TSXV: MJS) (OTCPK: MJGCF), and Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE) (OTCQX: ORZCF).

Jefferies recently noted that many gold equities are still trading at valuations more in line with $2,500 gold, even as fundamentals improve and development timelines shorten. For investors willing to look beyond the majors, this disconnect could represent one of the more asymmetric setups in the sector today.

Lake Victoria Gold (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF) is building momentum in Tanzania by exploring a low-capex pathway to near-term development. The company recently engaged Nesch Mintech Tanzania-an independent, highly regarded metallurgical and process engineering firm-to evaluate a local processing plant that could accelerate gold recovery while minimizing upfront spend. This follows a non-binding LOI with Nyati Resources, signaling early alignment on a phased development model. Nesch's review will determine the plant's readiness, potential gold recovery rates, and what targeted improvements could optimize output.

"Engaging Nesch Mintech at this stage ensures we bring third-party rigour and transparency to the commissioning process, which is fundamental to assessing the Nyati opportunity," said Marc Cernovitch, President and CEO of Lake Victoria Gold. "We are excited by the potential to leverage existing processing infrastructure and local ore sources to create a scalable gold production platform in Tanzania."

Should the partnership proceed, Lake Victoria Gold would start trucking mineralized material from its 100%-owned Mining Licences to Nyati's existing 120-ton-per-day plant, with potential to expand into a new 500-ton-per-day facility nearing completion. Combined, the two sites offer the foundation for a centralized processing hub-creating a streamlined, low-CAPEX development model with room to scale. For LVG, it represents a faster potential path to revenue with limited capital exposure.

"This audit is an important milestone as we advance this most compelling near-term gold development opportunity," said Simon Benstead, Executive Director of Lake Victoria Gold. "By combining strategic processing infrastructure with high-potential development targets, the proposed joint venture has the potential to unlock meaningful value for all stakeholders. We look forward to working closely with Nesch Mintech to validate the plant's performance and move confidently toward execution."

While still early in its development cycle and not yet supported by a formal resource estimate or Feasibility Study, the proposed initiative offers LVG a rare chance to validate its geology through live processing of mineralized materials. As with any small-scale operation, risks around grade variability, metallurgy, permitting, and financing remain. But if the plan works, it could fast-track initial cash flow and create a self-funded path for continued exploration. The Nyati agreement also builds on LVG'searlier move to evaluate small-scale development scenarios at its Tembo Project-located immediately adjacent to Barrick's high-grade Bulyanhulu mine.

Tembo has already seen more than US$28 million in historical exploration, with over 50,000 metres of drilling defining multiple high-potential zones. Key targets like Ngula 1, Nyakagwe Village, and Nyakagwe East remain open along strike and at depth-pointing to meaningful long-term upside as the district continues to attract attention.

"Tembo has always stood out as a project with the potential to deliver both near-term value and long-term discovery upside," said Benstead. "Evaluating this small-scale development opportunity allows us to test the system, generate operational insights, and potentially self-fund ongoing exploration."

Lake Victoria Gold is steadily aligning capital, partnerships, and permitting to bring its Tanzanian portfolio into focus. While the high-potential Tembo Project remains the company's long-term exploration driver, its fully permitted Imwelo Project is currently in the lead as the most construction-ready asset. Backed by a 2021 Pre-Feasibility Study and located near AngloGold Ashanti's Geita Mine, Imwelo offers a clear path toward near-term development.

To help move things forward, LVG signed a non-binding gold prepay term sheet with Monetary Metals in late 2024. The agreement provides upfront, non-dilutive capital in exchange for a portion of future production-tying repayment directly to output and reducing balance sheet risk. The structure supports access to value equivalent to up to 7,000 ounces of gold, with funds designated for early development and construction activity.

Additional backing came in early 2025 through a C$3.52 million investment from Taifa Group, part of a larger C$11.52 million multi-stage financing. Alongside the capital, LVG welcomed former Taifa CEO Richard Reynolds to its board-bringing seasoned regional insight and operational depth.

Looking ahead, the company also maintains a milestone-based earn-in agreement with Barrick worth up to US$45 million, contingent on future exploration success at Tembo. With plant evaluations underway, a potential joint venture on the table, and multiple funding mechanisms in play, Lake Victoria Gold is shaping up as a serious contender among East Africa's next wave of junior gold developers.

CONTINUED Read this and more news for Lake Victoria Gold at: https://usanewsgroup.com/2025/04/02/with-funding-commitments-in-place-a-gold-mine-is-being-built-and-this-stock-is-still-under-0-20/

In other industry developments and happenings in the market include:

GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) generated $17.6 million in revenue in Q2 2025 from 555,511 silver equivalent ounces sold at Parral, producing $5.1 million in operating cash flow and increasing its cash position to $78.3 million. The average realized silver price was $31.70 per ounce, with a cash cost of $17.85 and AISC of $22.98 per ounce-supporting healthy project-level margins.

"Parral continued to generate significant cash flow for the Company during the quarter, providing operating cash flow of $5 million which is exceeding our spending at Los Ricos and corporate costs, and increased our cash balance by $2 million at quarter end," said Brad Langille, President and CEO of GoGold Resources Inc. "With our bought deal financing completed in April, this gives us an approximately $135 million cash balance today putting us in a very strong financial position to execute on Los Ricos South."

McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) produced 24,131 GEOs in Q1 2025 and reaffirmed full-year guidance of 120,000 to 140,000 GEOs, with stronger output expected in the second half. Production at Gold Bar and San Jose was in line with seasonal expectations, while operations at Fox were impacted by labor and weather-related challenges. With $68.5 million in cash and $61.1 million in working capital at quarter-end, the company remains well-capitalized following a recent $110 million convertible note issuance.

A major turning point will come in July with the release of the Los Azules feasibility study, which will shift McEwen Copper's impact from expense to capital asset on the balance sheet.

Back in March, Majestic Gold Corp. (TSXV: MJS) (OTCPK: MJGCF) reported strong full-year 2024 results, generating $71 million in revenue and $20.5 million in net income-up 68% from 2023. The company produced nearly 32,000 ounces of gold and ended the year with $100.7 million in cash, while paying out a dividend yielding over 10%.

"As we move into 2025, we expect an increase in gold production at the SJG Mine beginning in Q3 2025 and continuing into FY2026, driven by the completion of the SJG open-pit expansion project," said Stephen Kenwood, CEO of Majestic Gold. "With the recent acquisition of a 52% interest in the Mujin Gold Project, we will also begin consolidating Mujin's operations into the Company as of March 1, 2025."

With the SJG expansion expected to complete in Q2 2025 and a new 52% stake in the Mujin Gold Project, Majestic is positioning for meaningful growth.

Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE) (OTCQX: ORZCF) produced 28,688 ounces of gold in Q1 2025, generating $82.7 million in revenue and $44.2 million in adjusted EBITDA.

"The first quarter of 2025 marked another consecutive quarter of positive net earnings and free cash flow, driven by our unhedged exposure to rising gold prices," said Patrick Downey, President and CEO of Orezone Gold. "Production and costs were in line with expectations with annual guidance being maintained."

With $102 million in cash and construction of its hard rock expansion now 45% complete, the company remains on track for a production boost later this year. Backed by strong cash flow and a well-received financing, Orezone is also evaluating a potential fast-track of Phase II's Stage 2.

Article Source: https://usanewsgroup.com/2025/04/02/with-funding-commitments-in-place-a-gold-mine-is-being-built-and-this-stock-is-still-under-0-20/

CONTACT:

USA NEWS GROUP

info@usanewsgroup.com

(604) 265-2873

DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. USA News Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. ("MIQ"). This article is being distributed for Baystreet.ca media corp, who has been paid a fee for an advertising from a shareholder of the Company (333,333 unrestricted shares). MIQ has not been paid a fee for Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. advertising or digital media, but the owner/operators of MIQ also co-owns Baystreet.ca Media Corp. ("BAY") There may also be 3rd parties who may have shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this publication as the basis for any investment decision. The owner/operator of MIQ/BAY own shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd and reserve the right to buy and sell, and will buy and sell shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. at any time without any further notice commencing immediately and ongoing. We also expect further compensation as an ongoing digital media effort to increase visibility for the company, no further notice will be given, but let this disclaimer serve as notice that all material, including this article, which is disseminated by MIQ on behalf of BAY has been approved by Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. Technical information relating to Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. has been reviewed and approved by David Scott, Pr. Sci. Nat., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Scott is a registered member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is a Director of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd., and therefore is not independent of the Company; this is a paid advertisement, we currently own shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and will buy and sell shares of the company in the open market, or through private placements, and/or other investment vehicles. While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between the any predictions and actual results. Always consult a licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment.

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The 4th Annual MPS World Summit, hosted by the International MPS Society (IMPSS) and supported by EUROoCS, will take place in Brussels, Belgium this summer. This premier event will bring together over 1,500 global leaders in Microphysiological Systems (MPS) research, focusing on innovative applications in drug safety, disease modeling, and regulatory testing. It will showcase the latest breakthroughs and foster collaboration across multiple sectors of the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries.

Microphysiological systems (MPS) are revolutionizing medical and pharmaceutical research. These systems replicate human biology in controlled environments, offering more accurate models for drug testing, disease understanding, and treatment development-saving lives and reducing animal testing. The Summit will provide a key platform to discuss these groundbreaking technologies and their role in advancing biomedical research and drug development.

The MPS World Summit will feature scientific sessions, interactive roundtables, and panel discussions, offering attendees opportunities to engage with cutting-edge MPS technologies. Experts from top universities and institutions will share insights on MPS development, disease modeling, and regulatory testing, fostering collaboration and innovation across the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors. This Summit is a must-attend event for professionals advancing personalized medicine and improving medical research.

Lena Smirnova, President of iMPSS, emphasized the importance of the Summit: "The 4th Annual MPS World Summit is our largest gathering to date, reflecting the growing global interest in MPS research. This growth aligns with the FDA's recent initiative to phase out animal testing requirements for monoclonal antibodies and other drugs, and NIH's announcement on prioritization of human-based research. This news emphasizes the prime time for MPS with the shift towards human-relevant testing methods. As we convene our global experts, this Summit highlights our collective commitment to advancing drug safety, disease modeling, and regulatory testing through cutting-edge technologies."

For additional information, visit www.mpsworldsummit.org.

About IMPSS

The International MPS Society (IMPSS) is a non-profit organization committed to advancing Microphysiological Systems (MPS) through collaboration, research, and education. The MPS World Summit serves as the premier global platform for IMPSS to provide opportunities for MPS researchers and industry professionals to exchange knowledge and drive innovations in drug safety, disease modeling, and regulatory testing. Membership is open to researchers and others with an interest in MPS worldwide.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250521732502/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Lena Smirnova, iMPSS President

info@impss.org
The Royal Thai Embassy in Riyadh hosted a key event to promote bilateral collaboration in health, wellness, and sustainable tourism sectors.

BANGKOK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tanupol Virunhagarun, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of BDMS Wellness Clinic and BDMS Wellness Resort, Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Public Company Limited (BDMS), led Thailand's delegation at a seminar titled "Wellness Hub Thailand: The Future of Global Wellness" at the Royal Thai Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The event aimed to foster collaboration between Thailand and Saudi Arabia in preventive healthcare, aligning with Saudi Vision 2030's focus on enhancing quality of life and healthcare systems.

In a significant diplomatic and health initiative, Dr. Tanupol Virunhagarun, known as "Dr. Amp," represented Thailand at a seminar held at the Royal Thai Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The seminar, titled "Wellness Hub Thailand: The Future of Global Wellness," was organized to promote Thailand's vision of becoming a global leader in preventive healthcare and wellness tourism.

Dr. Tanupol shared insights into the concept of Scientific Wellness, emphasizing a proactive approach to health that integrates lifestyle medicine and holistic practices. He highlighted Thailand's unique position, combining advanced medical expertise with traditional wellness practices, to offer holistic health solutions.

The event underscored the alignment between Thailand's wellness initiatives and Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, which aims to develop the country's healthcare system and improve the quality of life for its citizens. The seminar also featured the participation of H.E. Mr. Darm Boontham, Ambassador of Thailand to Saudi Arabia, and distinguished guests from various sectors in Saudi Arabia, reflecting a shared commitment to advancing bilateral cooperation in health and wellness.

This collaboration marks a significant step forward in building an international health network. Through initiatives like this, Thailand aims to enhance its global profile in the health and wellness sectors, offering innovative solutions that align with global health trends and needs.

For more details:

Website: https://www.bdmswellness.com/en

Facebook: Facebook.com/BDMSWellnessClinic

Instagram: @BDMSWellness

Media Inquiries: Please contact Marketing and Communication Department, BDMS Wellness Clinic Co. Ltd.

Chanokphat Pawangkanan 084-703-5963 Email: chanokphat.pa@bdmswellness.com

Sasiwimol Techawanto 092-807-5893 Email: Sasiwimol.te@bdmswellness.com

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Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Auric Minerals Corp. (CSE: AUMC) ("Auric" or the "Company"), a critical minerals exploration company based in Oakville, Ontario, entered into an option assignment agreement on May 21, 2025 with an arm's-length party to acquire a 100-per-cent interest in the Portage uranium property, located in Labrador's prolific Central Mineral Belt (CMB).

The Portage claim block is contiguous with Atha Energy's (TSXV: SASK) CMB properties to the north and east, and Viridian Metals (CSE: VRDN) Sedna project to the west.

"The Portage uranium property in Labrador's CMB enhances our strategic land position, providing additional exploration targets for 2025 and beyond," commented Chris Huggins, CEO. "As Auric advances its land position and exploration potential, we are positioning the Company for a strong exploration start in 2025 with increased opportunities for project advancement."

The Company is also pleased to announce the appointment of Michel Boivin to its board of directors.

Michel Boivin brings over 25 years of direct mining industry experience to his role as a new board member. A proven leader, Mr. Boivin has held key management positions with industry leaders such as Greenstone Gold Mines, Epiroc, and Atlas Copco, where he drove strategic procurement, contract management, and business development initiatives. His expertise spans health and safety leadership, large-scale project management, and fostering impactful First Nation and Indigenous partnerships, notably at the Hardrock project and Cote Gold project.

Mr. Boivin secured multimillion-dollar portfolios with major mining companies like Agnico Eagle, Vale, and Diavik Diamond Mines, consistently exceeding performance targets. His innovative contributions, such as pioneering procurement processes and implementing advanced technologies like battery electric vehicles and RFID tagging, have strengthened operational efficiency and sustainability.

With a robust professional network and deep market insight, Mr. Boivin is poised to enhance Auric's strategic growth, operational excellence, and investor confidence. His commitment to safety, sustainability, and community engagement aligns with the Company's vision, ensuring long-term value creation for all stakeholders.

Chris Huggins further commented, "I am excited to announce the appointment of Michel Boivin. He brings a tremendous depth of experience and success in collaborative and successful partnerships with local and indigenous communities which is integral to our corporate direction and vision. We thank Mr. Zafra for his years of service, commitment and efforts for the Company, and wish him all the best."

Concurrently with Mr. Boivin's appointment, Jaime Zafra has stepped down as a director of Auric.

Portage Property Option Details

Pursuant to the option assignment agreement (no finders fees were paid), the Company may earn 100-per-cent interest in the Portage property by:

Making a cash payment of $30,000 to Optionor (the "Option Payment") on the date of the agreement; Incurring an aggregate of $150,000 in Expenditures on the Property as follows: $20,000 on or before the first anniversary of the Effective Date; an additional $20,000 on or before the second anniversary of the Effective Date; an additional $50,000 on or before the third anniversary of the Effective Date; an additional $60,000 on or before the fourth anniversary of the Effective Date; and Issuing to the Assignor of the option agreement an aggregate of 2 million common shares in the capital of the Company within 10 days of the agreement date, subject to the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange.





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10953/253057_1.jpg

About the Company

Auric is a mineral exploration company based in Oakville, Ontario and holds options over the Route 500 and Bub uranium properties in Labrador, the Caboose, Manic, Kawip uranium properties in Quebec, and the Goodeye Property in British Columbia, Canada.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including, without limitation, future geological work or exploration programs, the potential positive exploration results, the timing of the exploration results, the ability of the Company to finance exploration programs and the potential mineralization or potential mineral resources are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "to earn", "to have', "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned exploration expenditures, failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, general business and economic conditions, changes in world uranium markets, sufficient labour and equipment being available, changes in laws and permitting requirements, unanticipated weather changes, title disputes and claims, environmental risks as well as those risks identified in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described and accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be others that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253057

SOURCE: Auric Minerals Corp.
Shenzhen, China--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Tolaccea announces the launch of the Travel Laptop Backpack to meet the practical demands of today's mobile professionals and travelers. Designed with a focus on function, durability, and adaptability, the backpack supports a wide range of uses, from daily commuting to international travel. Its layout, materials, and features are tailored to improve organization, comfort, and efficiency. It is not only a piece of Backpack, but a tool that enhances mobility and supports a more flexible, responsive lifestyle.

Built for Real-World Use

For travelers who move between airports, workspaces, and unfamiliar cities, organization and accessibility aren't just preferences-they're essential. The Tolaccea Travel Laptop Backpack is designed to support that reality. Its 40L-50L expandable capacity offers enough space to replace a traditional suitcase for short trips, while staying compact enough for carry-on compliance. Whether heading out for a three-day conference or a weekend away, it eliminates the need to juggle multiple bags.

Inside, the layout reflects common user needs. A dedicated laptop compartment safely holds devices up to 15.6 inches, keeping them protected and easy to access during airport security checks or quick work setups. Multiple internal sections help separate clothes, documents, electronics, and small essentials-making it easier to stay organized without constant unpacking and repacking.

The addition of a water- and odor-resistant wet/dry compartment provides a simple, effective solution for carrying used clothes, shoes, or gear-ideal for those who alternate between professional settings and physical activity. Every feature serves a purpose: to reduce friction during travel, improve efficiency, and help users focus on what they're doing-not what they're carrying.

Adaptable to Every Situation: One Bag, Multiple Roles

The Tolaccea Travel Laptop Backpack is designed to keep up without requiring a switch in gear. For users who value flexibility, it functions as both a backpack and a suitcase. The dual-handle system allows it to be carried vertically like a suitcase in formal or crowded settings, while padded shoulder straps provide comfort for longer walks or daily commutes.

The expandable design adapts to changing needs. Users can compress it for short trips or everyday use, or fully expand the main compartment when packing for longer stays. This versatility removes the need for multiple bags and supports a more streamlined, efficient way of moving through different environments.

The built-in wet/dry compartment, lined with aluminum film, is another feature designed with practical use in mind. Whether storing gym clothes, a damp towel, or shoes after a hike, it isolates moisture and odor from the rest of your gear-helping you stay clean, organized, and ready to transition from one activity to the next. For travelers balancing work, lifestyle, and movement, this kind of adaptability makes the backpack a dependable, daily solution rather than a single-purpose item.

Made to Last, Built for Comfort: A Smarter, Sustainable Choice

The Tolaccea Travel Laptop Backpack is constructed from durable, abrasion-resistant materials designed to withstand daily wear, travel conditions, and environmental exposure. For users, this means fewer repairs, longer product life, and peace of mind no matter the destination.

Comfort is also prioritized. The backpack features padded, ergonomically shaped shoulder straps that reduce strain and evenly distribute weight, even when fully packed. Whether navigating airport terminals, walking between meetings, or exploring a new city, users benefit from reduced fatigue and greater mobility throughout the day.

Importantly, the backpack is GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certified, reflecting Tolaccea's commitment to sustainability. This certification ensures that the materials used are genuinely recycled and that the production process meets strict environmental and social responsibility standards.

Designed for Evolving Travel Needs

As travel patterns shift toward greater flexibility and integration of work and personal life, the demand for adaptable, high-functioning gear has grown. The Tolaccea Travel Laptop Backpack is developed in response to these changing expectations, offering a practical solution for individuals who require efficiency, reliability, and comfort in one product.

Priced at $79.99, the backpack is designed for users seeking a durable, well-designed travel companion that aligns with both professional and personal needs.

The Tolaccea Travel Laptop Backpack is available now at Tolaccea.com and on Amazon. For users looking to streamline their travel experience with a single, versatile solution, this backpack is positioned to meet the demands of today's more dynamic lifestyles.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253056

SOURCE: 41Caijing
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Onyx Gold Corp. (TSXV: ONYX) (OTCQX: ONXGF) ("Onyx" or the "Company") announces closing of its previously announced $8,038,000 "bought deal" private placement (the "Offering") of (a) 5,000,000 common shares of the Company that qualify as "flow-through shares" (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Tax Act (as defined below)) (the "Tranche 1 FT Shares") at a price of $1.00 per Tranche 1 FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $5,000,000, and (b) 3,100,000 common shares of the Company that qualify as "flow-through shares" (the "Tranche 2 FT Shares") at a price of $0.98 per Tranche 2 FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of $3,038,000.

The Offering was led by Cormark Securities Inc., together with Agentis Capital Markets Limited Partnership on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters (collectively, the "Underwriters"). The Underwriters received a cash commission equal to 6% of the gross proceeds of the Offering, which is $482,280.

The Company will use an amount equal to the aggregate gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the Tranche 1 FT Shares and the Tranche 2 FT Shares (collectively, the "FT Shares"), pursuant to the provisions in the Income Tax Act (Canada) (the "Tax Act"), to incur (or be deemed to incur) eligible "Canadian exploration expenses" that qualify as "flow-through mining expenditures" (as both terms are defined in the Tax Act) (the "Qualifying Expenditures") related to the Company's projects in Ontario and the Yukon, on or before December 31, 2026, and to renounce all the Qualifying Expenditures in favour of the subscribers of the FT Shares effective December 31, 2025. In the case of the Tranche 1 FT Shares, the Canadian exploration expenses will also qualify for the "Ontario focused flow-through share tax credit" (for the purposes of the Taxation Act, 2007 (Ontario)). If the Qualifying Expenditures are reduced by the Canada Revenue Agency, the Company will indemnify each FT Share subscriber for any additional taxes payable by such subscriber as a result of the Company's failure to renounce the Qualifying Expenditures as agreed.

The Tranche 1 FT Shares were offered for sale to purchasers resident in Canada, except for Quebec, and/or other qualifying jurisdictions pursuant to the listed issuer financing exemption under Part 5A (the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption") of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106"). The Tranche 1 FT Shares issued under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption are not subject to a hold period pursuant to applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Tranche 2 FT Shares were offered for sale to purchasers resident in Canada, except for Quebec, and other qualifying jurisdictions pursuant to one or more exemptions from the prospectus requirements under NI 45-106 (but not pursuant to the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption), including in the United States pursuant to available exemptions from the registration requirements of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and in certain other jurisdictions outside of Canada and the United States provided that no prospectus filing or comparable obligation, ongoing reporting requirement or requisite regulatory or governmental approval arises in such other jurisdictions. The Tranche 2 FT Shares are subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the closing date in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Offering is subject to final acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Non-Brokered Private Placement

The Company is also pleased to announce that in connection with its previously announced $3 million non-brokered private placement with strategic investors, the Company will add a second tranche of "flow-through shares," for combined aggregate gross proceeds of up to $5.39 million (collectively, the "Non-Brokered Private Placement").

The Non-Brokered Private Placement will consist of (a) the issuance of 3,490,343 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Non-FT Shares") at a price of $0.85 per Non-FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds for approximately $3 million; and (b) the issuance of up to 2,009,657 common shares in the capital of the Company that qualify as "flow-through shares" (within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Tax Act) (the "NB FT Shares") at a price of $1.19 per NB FT Share for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $2.39 million.

The net proceeds of the first tranche of the Non-Brokered Private Placement will be used by the Company for general corporate purposes. The Company will use an amount equal to the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the NB FT Shares, pursuant to the provisions in the Tax Act, to incur (or be deemed to incur) Qualifying Expenditures related to the Company's projects in Ontario and the Yukon, on or before December 31, 2026, and to renounce all the Qualifying Expenditures in favour of the subscribers of the NB FT Shares effective December 31, 2025. If the Qualifying Expenditures are reduced by the Canada Revenue Agency, the Company will indemnify each NB FT Share subscriber for any additional taxes payable by such subscriber as a result of the Company's failure to renounce the Qualifying Expenditures as agreed.

The first tranche of the Non-Brokered Private Placement is expected to close on or about May 29, 2025, or such other date as the Company and the strategic investors may agree, and is subject to certain conditions to closing. The TSX Venture Exchange has conditionally approved the first tranche of the Non-Brokered Private Placement.

The second tranche of the Non-Brokered Private Placement is expected to close on or about June 6, 2025, or such other date as the Company and the subscribers may agree, and is subject to certain conditions to closing, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The Non-FT Shares and NB FT Shares will be offered pursuant to applicable exemptions from the prospectus requirements under applicable securities laws and will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the respective closing dates in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of any of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including any of the securities in the United States of America. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. persons unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. "United States" and "U.S. person" have the meaning ascribed to them in Regulation S under the 1933 Act.

About Onyx Gold

Onyx Gold is an exploration company focused on well-established Canadian mining jurisdictions, with assets in Timmins, Ontario, and Yukon Territory. The Company's extensive portfolio of quality gold projects in the greater Timmins gold camp includes the Munro-Croesus Gold property, renowned for its high-grade mineralization, plus two additional earlier-stage large exploration properties, Golden Mile and Timmins South. Onyx Gold also controls four properties in the Selwyn Basin area of Yukon Territory, which is currently gaining significance due to recent discoveries in the area. Onyx Gold's experienced board and senior management team are committed to creating shareholder value through the discovery process, careful allocation of capital, and environmentally/socially responsible mineral exploration.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary and Forward-Looking Statements

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, statements about the Offering (including the tax treatment of the FT Shares, the timing to renounce all Qualifying Expenditures in favour of the subscribers and use of proceeds of the Offering), statements about the Non-Brokered Private Placement (including the completion of the Non-Brokered Private Placement on the terms and timeline as announced or at all, the tax treatment of the NB FT Shares, the timing to renounce all Qualifying Expenditures in favour of the subscribers, the use of proceeds), statements regarding discussions of future plans, estimates and forecasts and statements as to management's expectations and intentions and the Company's anticipated work programs.

These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that the Non-Brokered Private Placement will not close on the anticipated timeline or at all on the anticipated terms; that the Company will not use the net proceeds of the Offering and the Non-Brokered Private Placement as anticipated; that the Company will not receive all necessary approvals in respect of the Offering and Non-Brokered Private Placement; market volatility; the state of the financial markets for the Company's securities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; fluctuating commodity prices; the future tax treatment of the FT Shares and the NB FT Shares; competitive risks; and the availability of financing, as described in more detail in our recent securities filings available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this news release, including, among other things, that the Non-Brokered Private Placement will close on the anticipated timeline or at all and on the anticipated terms; that the Company will use the net proceeds of the Offering and the Non-Brokered Private Placement as anticipated; and that the Company will receive all necessary approvals in respect of the Offering and the Non-Brokered Private Placement, if applicable.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253058

SOURCE: Onyx Gold Corp.
On May 12th, 2025, in Lutsk, Nabil Sioufi, president of Earlybird Global and head of investments at SRDB law firm, signed two separate memorandums of cooperation, one with Oleksandr Smolych, President of the Volyn Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and one with Orest Sorokopud, Director of Volyn Regional Development Agency.

SRDB Law Firm and Earlybird Global are actively engaged in the modernization of Ukraine and bringing investments to the country. The firms cooperate with local governments and provide financial and legal advisory services to private Ukrainian companies.

The Volyn Region, with a growing population exceeding 1 million people, offers a wealth of opportunities for foreign investors in various areas such as Food Industrial processing and exports to the EU, Industrial Parks, Logistics Hubs, Energy and Environment, and recreational tourism

Denys Denyshchenko, deputy Head of the Volyn Regional State Administration, emphasized the importance of international cooperation with institutions and businesses, and inter-regional cooperation as well.

Nabil Sioufi met in Novovolynsk with the mayor, Borys Karpus, and his team, discussing investment opportunities in local infrastructure, such as the industrial park and water and wastewater infrastructure. Novovolynsk is strategically situated 20 minutes from the border on a major trade road connecting Poland to Kyiv and offers substantial incentives for businesses, including several 0% tax rates.

A very productive meeting was held in Lutsk at the Volyn Chamber of Commerce and Industry with representatives of the Volyn Regional State Administration, the Volyn Regional Development Agency,Lutsk City Council, Shatska Hromada, and local enterprises, identifying the most promising perspectives.

Nabil Sioufi stated that, "This is the best time for foreign investors to invest in processing industries and scale up their production and exports to Europe. The region of Volyn is optimal for such strategy.

Environmental aspects were also addressed such as the potential for the region's production of renewable energy, and the modernization of wastewater treatment and waste processing

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522717835/en/

Contacts:

Nabil Sioufi

President of Earlybird Global

+1 (702) 683-3206

nsioufi@earlybird.global
Elevating comprehensive photography experience on smartphones with the 200MP Ultra-clear AI Camera and AI Features

LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global technology brand HONOR today announced the launch of the new HONOR 400 series in European markets, delivering unparalleled AI photography experience and outstanding durability. Equipped with an extraordinary 200MP Ultra-clear AI Camera, versatile AI Editing, a robust 5300mAh Silicon-carbon Battery and a cutting-edge 5000nit Ultra Bright Display, the HONOR 400 series empower the always-on generation to spark their daily wonder.

"The HONOR 400 series was created to make AI imaging capabilities more accessible to everyone and spark their daily wonder." said James Li, CEO of HONOR. "Not only can users now access flagship-level AI features at a more affordable price, but they also enjoy brand-new AI imaging experiences - from ultra-clear AI photography to advanced AI-powered editing tools, delivering diverse and entertaining creative possibilities."

Powerful and Versatile AI Camara

To provide users with exceptional photography experience, the HONOR 400 equipped with a groundbreaking 200MP Ultra-clear AI Camera System. Featuring the 200MP Ultra-clear AI Main Camera[1], equipped with a 1/1.4-inch large sensor, f/1.9 aperture, and OIS + EIS dual stabilization, the device ensures exceptional clarity, even in low-light conditions. Complementing this, the 12MP 112 Ultra-Wide and Macro Camera[2] captures expansive scenes, while the 50MP[3] Portrait Selfie Camera with an f/2.0 aperture, powered by HONOR's advanced portrait algorithm, ensures professional-grade selfies with stunning detail and lifelike colors.

The photography experience of the HONOR 400 series is powered by the advanced AI HONOR IMAGE ENGINE, introducing cutting-edge AI innovations that elevate mobile photography. HONOR 400 is the industry-first smartphone to achieve 30x telephoto shooting capability with main camera, introducing AI Super Zoom, designed for framing breathtaking sceneries like natural landscapes or urban city landscapes with a remarkable focal length range of 15x to 30x.

The AI Portrait Snap, enhanced by the Capture Enhancement Large Model, guarantees every portrait remains crisp and detailed, even when capturing motion in the portrait mode under daily daytime street scene. With the pursuit of differentiated aesthetic appeal in imaging, HONOR 400 series introduce the AI-driven Film Simulation Mode[4], which intelligently analyzes lighting and subject details to create stunning cinematic effects tailored to the scene's mood. The Harcourt Portrait Modes offers users creative options for capturing striking portraits with refined lighting. The HONOR 400 series empower users to preserve life's most memorable moments with unmatched brilliance.

The HONOR 400 series also introduces the unmatched AI Editing to enhance the creativity in the daily life. Using Google's state of the art video generation model, Veo 2 on Google Cloud's Vertex AI, users can explore different possibilities through image to video[5] generations, which will debut on HONOR 400 series. The HD Moving Photo feature preserves the golden three seconds of vibrant live moments, allowing users to effortlessly share or edit cinematic snippets on social platforms[6]. HONOR takes this further with Moving Photo Collage, a first-of-its-kind feature that allows users to combine 2-9 moving photos and lets users seamlessly stitch live photos into dynamic storytelling moments. Additionally, supporting cross-ecosystem sharing of live photos ensures a smooth and integrated user experience[7].

In addition, HONOR 400 series also offer a host of intelligent features to empower users to improve engagement of photo including HONOR AI Eraser, AI Outpainting, AI Erase passers-by and AI Remove Reflection[8]. AI Editing enables users to reimagine the photo in daily life.

Powerful Battery and Enhanced Hardware Performance

The HONOR 400 series is equipped with a robust 5300mAh[9] Silicon-carbon Battery, providing a longer-lasting user experience especially when you are on the go. The battery is designed for a low temperature environment around -20C with low battery level, maintaining its durability and task performance such as making phone calls and video recording in any circumstances. It is built for longevity, maintaining over 80% of its health even after 4 years[10]. Paired with an 66W HONOR Wired SuperCharge[11], the device can charge up to 44% in just 15 minutes[12].

This makes it an ideal companion for outdoor adventures and challenging environments. Powered by the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform[13] and CPU Turbo X Game Engine, the HONOR 400 gives users a new level of gaming experience and higher graphical performance. The HONOR 400 also comes with up to 512GB of ultra-large storage, ensuring exceptional durability. The HONOR 400 also boasts an IP65 water and dust resistance that offers comprehensive protection against water and dust ingress.

Advanced Display Technology for Optimal Viewing Experience

The HONOR 400 series features a state-of-the-art 5000nit[14] Ultra Bright Display that guarantees excellent visibility in all lighting conditions. With Full-scene Sunlight Display Enhancement Technology and Dynamic Dimming Display, users can enjoy vibrant colors and sharp contrasts even under direct sunlight. The Motion Sickness Relief[15] feature provides the most comprehensive solution in the industry, offering significant relief from nausea and discomfort during vehicle motion, reducing dizziness and ensuring a smoother, more enjoyable ride for users. These innovations provide users with an immersive visual experience.

Empowering Smart Lifestyle with AI-powered MagicOS 9.0

The HONOR 400 series powered by MagicOS 9.0, delivers a highly intelligent user experience enhanced by a variety of AI-driven smart features. MagicOS 9.0 also includes premium functionalities, AI Translation, AI Recorder, Magic Portal, AI Minutes, AI Summary, AI Format, Magic Capsule, AI Writing Tools and AI Subtitles. These advanced capabilities ensure seamless multitasking, enhanced productivity, and personalized interactions, making the HONOR 400 series a standout choice for users. With its innovative features and user-centric design, the HONOR 400 series redefines what a smart device can achieve in the modern era.

To safeguard users against potential deepfake scams and ensure online security, the HONOR 400 series integrate the groundbreaking on-device AI Deepfake Detection technology. This feature employs advanced algorithms to identify manipulated content through analyzing pixel-level synthetic imperfections, border compositing artifacts, inter-frame continuity, and more, protecting users from potential deepfake scams during video calls.

The HONOR 400 series also comes with Gemini[16], an AI assistant from Google. Users can chat with Gemini to get help with learning, planning, writing, and more! They can even go Live with Gemini to brainstorm ideas, simplify complex topics, and rehearse for important moments with real-time responses. Just press and hold the power button to get started.

Introducing HONOR 400 Pro

Addition to the exceptional AI photography experience and outstanding durability of the standard version, the HONOR 400 Pro includes a 50MP Telephoto Camera[17] with a Sony IMX856 sensor, 3x optical zoom, and OIS, ensuring detailed zoom shots. It is equipped the AI Enhanced Portrait feature delivers ultra-high-definition Portraits that ensure the true colors of every subject shine through. With its enhanced AI Super Zoom feature, the HONOR 400 Pro boasts an AIGC-powered telephoto capability of up to 50x, making it perfect for capturing distant subjects. Durability is another highlight, with the Pro version featuring an IP68 and IP69 Rated Water and Dust Resistance, ensuring better device protection. Charging capabilities are also superior, supporting 100W wired and 50W wireless charging. Powered by the advanced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform[18], the Pro version delivers smoother and more powerful performance, and it is a great helper in the AI era. HONOR on-device call translation large model enables seamless phone communication, offering instant translation for up to 6 languages[19]. With its outstanding imaging, durability, and charging efficiency, the HONOR 400 Pro is an excellent choice for users seeking a superior performance experience.

Pricing and Availability

Showcasing an elegant design inspired by nature, the HONOR 400 is available in Midnight Black, Meteor Silver, Desert Gold, while the HONOR 400 Pro is available in 2 colorways[20]: Midnight Black, Lunar Grey.

The HONOR 400 series will be available for purchase starting from 22nd May in UK through honor.com/uk from 399.99, and it will also be available in France, Italy, Germany, Spain and more EU countries starting at 449.9 from 22nd May.

For more information, please visit HONOR online store at www.honor.com.

About HONOR

HONOR is a global leading AI device ecosystem company. It is committed to revolutionizing human-to-device interactions to bridge the AI ecosystem with all consumers in the agentic AI era and beyond. The company endeavors to open industrial boundaries through open, seamless collaboration to co-create a value-sharing ecosystem with industry partners. With an innovative product portfolio spanning AI phones, PCs, tablets, wearables and more, HONOR aims to empower every human, enabling everyone to embrace the new intelligent world.

For more information, please visit HONOR online at www.honor.com or email newsroom@honor.com?

https://community.honor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/honorglobal/ -

https://x.com/honorglobal

https://www.instagram.com/honorglobal/ -

https://www.youtube.com/c/HonorOfficial ?

[1] 200MP are camera pixel parameters. The actual photo pixels may vary depending on different camera modes. Please refer to the actual situation. Activating 200MP requires entering the HIGH-RES Mode for the experience.

[2] 12MP are camera pixel parameters. The actual photo pixels may vary depending on different camera modes. Please refer to the actual situation.

[3] 50MP are camera pixel parameters. The actual photo pixels may vary depending on different camera modes. Please refer to the actual situation.

[4] The specific implementation effect may vary depending on the usage scenario, please refer to the actual experience.

[5] The AI Image to Video feature will be upgraded via OTA. The specific implementation effect may vary depending on the usage scenario, please refer to the actual experience. Global Initial Sale Period (excluding Latin America and Eurasia): Duration: May 15 - August 31, 2025. Users can claim 2 months of free access via the photo gallery. Extension eligibility will be assessed based on actual usage frequency. Offer Details: After claiming the free access, users can enjoy up to 10 free uses per day within the 2-month period.

Note: Offer availability and details vary by region. Please refer to the actual user experience.

Avoid using photos of celebrities, political figures, national flags and other sensitive information to prevent risk control.

[6] Moving photo is available by default. Sharing to social media platforms will be supported via future OTA upgrade.

[7] Transfer between HONOR devices and iPhone/iPad requires the "HONOR Share" app, with software compatibility for MagicOS 9.0 or later and IOS/iPadOS version 15.0 or later. Product images are provided for reference only, please refer to the actual experience.

[8] Some AI edits functions will be upgraded via OTA. The specific implementation effect may vary depending on the usage scenario, please refer to the actual experience.

[9] The typical battery capacity is 5300mAh, and the rated battery capacity is 5170mAh. It varies by region. Please refer to the actual user experience.

[10] Data comes from HONOR labs. Please refer to actual situations.

[11] EU - Only HONOR 400 supports 66W wired HONOR SuperCharge. 66W wired HONOR SuperCharge means the maximum output power of the charger is 66W. It needs to be used with the original wired SuperCharger and charging cable. The actual charging speed will intelligently change with different scenarios. Please refer to the actual usage.

[12] Data comes from HONOR labs.

[13] Snapdragon is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.

[14] The 5,000nits peak brightness data comes from HONOR labs and only takes effect in certain scenarios.

[15] The phone is not medical equipment and is not available for treatment. Actual experience may vary depending on factors such as environment and personal conditions. Please refer to the actual experience.

[16] Google, Android, Google Cloud and Gemini are trademarks of Google LLC.

[17] 50MP are camera pixel parameters. The actual photo pixels may vary depending on different camera modes. Please refer to the actual situation. Activating 50MP requires entering the HIGH-RES Mode for the experience.

[18] Snapdragon is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries.

[19] This feature currently supports 6 languages including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Chinese (Mandarin) .

[20] Availability color vary by region, please consult your local dealer for details.

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Seven Seas Water Group delivers water and wastewater solutions through its Water-as-a-Service model to communities across the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, addressing vital segments of the water value chain that are central to resilient supply and require significant long-term investment

Transaction underscores EQT's commitment to investing behind essential infrastructure, partnering with established platforms that deliver sustainable, mission-critical services aligned with global needs for resource efficiency

EQT aims to accelerate Seven Seas Water Group's continued growth and support the Company's mission to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective water and wastewater treatment solutions to the people and regions it operates in

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT is pleased to announce that the EQT Infrastructure VI fund ("EQT") has agreed to acquire Seven Seas Water Group ("Seven Seas" or "the Company") from Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners ("MSIP").

Headquartered in Tampa and Houston, Seven Seas builds, owns, and operates water and wastewater treatment plants across the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America, with over 220 plants currently under management. For more than two decades, the Company has successfully implemented its Water-as-a-Service (or "WaaS") integrated model, which applies trusted capabilities in design, development, finance, risk management, and operations to greenfield and brownfield development, as well as the revitalization of existing water treatment plants.

Water access and wastewater treatment are critical services, particularly in communities facing water scarcity and aging infrastructure driven by population growth, suburban expansion, and extreme weather-pressures that are accelerating the shift toward decentralized utility systems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that up to $75 billion of investment will be required for decentralized wastewater treatment in the U.S. to meet water quality goals through 2042[1].

As a well-established owner and operator of decentralized water and wastewater treatment plants, Seven Seas is purpose-built to meet this evolving need and support the communities most affected by these challenges. The Company delivers flexible, scalable solutions where legacy water and wastewater infrastructure falls short, covering all aspects of the water cycle through customized desalination, advanced water purification, wastewater treatment and reuse and recycle services.

EQT will support the Seven Seas management team in accelerating the deployment of water and wastewater treatment plants. It will leverage its in-house digital expertise to support the Company in further optimizing the platform's operations and efficiency, while drawing on its global network and deep industry expertise to expand into new geographies.

Alex Darden, Partner and Head of EQT's Infrastructure Advisory Team Americas, said: "EQT has followed Seven Seas and the water sector closely for many years, recognizing the strong thematic tailwinds supporting the industry. Seven Seas provides critical access to potable water in areas where a large portion of the population would otherwise not have access to clean water and wastewater infrastructure. We're excited to join forces with the Seven Seas team to help drive more efficient water and wastewater management and fulfill their mission to expand access to clean, affordable water in the communities where it is needed the most."

Henry Charrabe, CEO of Seven Seas Water Group, said "We are excited to build upon the success we've achieved over the years and look forward to further accelerating Seven Seas' growth trajectory alongside EQT. EQT's long-term vision and focus on sustainability align closely with our strategy, and as an investor with deep infrastructure expertise, will further support and strengthen our platform expansion through our valued Water-as-a-Service solutions. EQT's financial strength and familiarity with the water and wastewater treatment business will allow us to execute on our ambitious growth plans while continuing to help deliver great value to our customers and partners."

The transaction is subject to customary conditions and approvals.

EQT was advised by Royal Bank of Canada (financial) and A&O Shearman (legal).

With this transaction, EQT Infrastructure VI is expected to be 50-55 percent invested (including closed and/or signed investments, announced public offers, if applicable, and less any expected syndication).

Contact

EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com

[1] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2022 Clean Watersheds Needs Survey

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Access to education is transformative - presenting countless opportunities for individual empowerment and long-term societal advancement. Mary Kay China, in collaboration with the Zhejiang Xin Hua Compassion Education Foundation (XHEF), is removing barriers to quality education through the "Pearl Class" project, a program dedicated to supporting high school girls from rural communities lacking the financial means to provide their daughters with adequate schooling.

In late 2024, Mary Kay China joined teachers, students, and representatives from XHEF to celebrate the launch of its third Pearl Class at Shaya County High School No. 2. This milestone reflects Mary Kay China's continued commitment to advancing educational opportunities for girls and young women in under-resourced areas.

Bridging Gaps, Opening Doors

The Pearl Class project - launched in partnership with XHEF's "Hope for Pearl" public welfare project - provides multi-year scholarships to high school girls with strong academic potential. These scholarships cover tuition and accommodations and include a living stipend of 7,500 RMB over three years (2,500 RMB per academic year).

Since joining forces in 2022, Mary Kay China and XHEF have supported 93 students through the Pearl Class project, including 42 new students in 2024. Beyond financial support, the program also offers mentorship: Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants volunteer as mentors, offering encouragement and life skills guidance throughout the students' academic journey.

At the 2024 Pearl Class opening ceremony in Shaya, Mary Kay volunteers welcomed incoming students with class cards and class flags.

"This is where our dreams begin," said Wang Lin, a Pearl Class student. "With gratitude and determination, we will pursue our goals and give back to our school and community through action and hard work."

Mary Kay China sees this work as part of a broader mission to empower women and girls-not just financially, but holistically, by nurturing confidence, leadership, and ambition.

"My dream has always been to build a Hope Primary School in honor of my mother," said Aziguli Aishan, Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant and Pearl Class mentor. "I've had the chance to give back-helping students through their high school journey is deeply fulfilling."

Since launching its first women-focused philanthropic project in China in 2001, Mary Kay China has championed dozens of initiatives focused on women's health, education, and empowerment-benefiting over 250,000 women to date.

The Pearl Class project reflects Mary Kay China's steadfast mission to create pathways to opportunity, one student at a time by creating a more equitable future-one where every girl can pursue her education, realize her potential, and contribute meaningfully to her community.

***

About Mary Kay

One of the original glass ceiling breakers, Mary Kay Ash founded her dream beauty brand in Texas in 1963 with one goal: to enrich women's lives. That dream has blossomed into a global company with millions of independent sales force members in more than 40 markets. For over 60 years, the Mary Kay opportunity has empowered women to define their own futures through education, mentorship, advocacy, and innovation. Mary Kay is dedicated to investing in the science behind beauty and manufacturing cutting-edge skincare, color cosmetics, nutritional supplements, and fragrances. Mary Kay believes in preserving our planet for future generations, protecting women impacted by cancer and domestic abuse, and encouraging youth to follow their dreams. Learn more at marykayglobal.com, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, or follow us on X.

About Zhejiang Xin Hua Compassion Education Foundation

Zhejiang Xin Hua Compassion Education Foundation ("Xin Hua Education Foundation" or XHEF) was officially registered on July 2, 2007, approved by Civil Affairs Bureau, Zhejiang Province. XHEF is a 5A-rated public foundation focusing on education philanthropy. Our mission is Transforming Lives through Love & Education! We believe "education is the greatest charity" because it empowers people.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Mary Kay on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:

Spokesperson: Mary Kay

Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/mary-kay

Email: info@3blmedia.com

SOURCE: Mary Kay

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/empowering-female-futures-mary-kay-china-pearl-class-project-rem-1030903
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust Plc - Portfolio Update

PR Newswire

LONDON, United Kingdom, May 22

The information contained in this release was correct as at 30 April 2025 . Information on the Company's up to date net asset values can be found on the London Stock Exchange Website at

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-home.html .

BLACKROCK SMALLER COMPANIES TRUST PLC (LEI:549300MS535KC2WH4082)



All information is at 30 April 2025 and unaudited.

Performance at month end is calculated on a Total Return basis based on NAV per share with debt at fair value



One month

% Three months

% One

year

% Three

years

% Five

years

% Net asset value 2.0 -7.1 -7.5 -14.6 22.8 Share price 1.8 -8.5 -8.9 -12.3 8.3 Benchmark* 2.6 -4.4 0.3 -7.3 35.0

Sources: BlackRock and Deutsche Numis

*With effect from 15 January 2024 the Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index to Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies).

At month end

Net asset value Capital only (debt at par value): 1,325.64p Net asset value Capital only (debt at fair value): 1,386.85p Net asset value incl. Income (debt at par value)1: 1,363.49p Net asset value incl. Income (debt at fair value)1: 1,424.70p Share price: 1,248.00p Discount to Cum Income NAV (debt at par value): 8.5% Discount to Cum Income NAV (debt at fair value): 12.4% Net yield2: 3.5% Gross assets3: 657.3m Gearing range as a % of net assets: 0-15% Net gearing including income (debt at par): 8.9% Ongoing charges ratio (actual)4: 0.8% Ordinary shares in issue5: 43,104,792

Includes net revenue of 37.85p Yield calculations are based on dividends announced in the last 12 months as at the date of release of this announcement and comprise the Interim dividend of 15.50 pence per share (announced on 25 October 2024, ex-date on 31 October 2024, and paid on 04 December 2024) and final dividend of 28.50 pence per share (announced on 07 May 2025, ex-date on 15 May 2025, and payment date 26 June 2025). Includes current year revenue. The Company's ongoing charges are calculated as a percentage of average daily net assets and using the management fee and all other operating expenses excluding finance costs, direct transaction costs, custody transaction charges, VAT recovered, taxation and certain non-recurring items for year ended 28 February 2025. Excludes 6,888,731 ordinary shares held in treasury.

Sector Weightings % of portfolio Industrials 27.4 Financials 23.8 Consumer Discretionary 14.7 Basic Materials 12.1 Consumer Staples 5.6 Real Estate 4.9 Technology 4.2 Health Care 3.9 Telecommunications 1.4 Energy 1.2 Communication Services 0.8 ----- Total 100.0 ===== Country Weightings % of portfolio United Kingdom 97.9 United States 2.1 ----- Total 100.0 =====

Ten Largest Equity Investments

Company % of portfolio XPS Pensions 2.9 IntegraFin 2.6 Breedon 2.5 Alpha Group International Plc 2.4 Bloomsbury Publishing 2.3 Tatton Asset Management 2.3 Boku 2.1 Great Portland Estates 2.1 Chemring Group 1.9 Hill & Smith 1.9

Commenting on the markets, Roland Arnold, representing the Investment Manager noted:



During April the Company's NAV per share rose 2.0% to 1,424.70p on a total return basis, while our benchmark index, the Deutsche Numis Smaller Companies plus AIM (excluding Investment Companies) Index, returned 2.6%. For comparison the large cap FTSE 100 Index fell by -0.7%.1

Market turmoil continued through April, which began with significant volatility following U.S. President Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' announcement of a reciprocal tariff strategy on April 2nd. The S&P 500 experienced its worst day since March 2020 and its best day since 2008, while the 10-year Treasury yield saw its largest weekly jump since 2001. Equity markets globally sold off on the day, although the UK stood out as a relative outperformer. A week later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for non-retaliating countries, leading to a relief rally in global markets. However, renewed focus on US-China tensions caused further pressure on markets. The US dollar and Treasuries also subsequently sold off as banks and investors warned that Donald Trump's tariffs could tip the US into recession even as the President stepped back from the initial tariff implementation.

The UK economy grew by a faster-than-expected 0.5% in February. Positively, the UK mortgage market also saw a notable expansion in low-deposit products, with the increased availability reflecting lender confidence and improving market liquidity, though borrowing costs remain elevated. UK small and mid-caps fared better than large caps in April, with the FTSE 250 Index rising +2.7% given its lower exposure to US tariffs than the FTSE 100 Index. UK domestics, in particular housebuilding, performed particularly well alongside property given their defensiveness to tariffs, as well as expectations of a further rate cut by the Bank of England (BoE) in May.

Performance during the month was impacted by a number of factors, some stock specific and some were factors impacting stocks that we do not own. The largest detractor was ingredients manufacturer, Treatt, which fell after the company issued a profit warning as a result of softening US consumer demand, rising citrus prices and geopolitical uncertainty further weighing on market conditions. Shares in identity verification software provider, GB Group, fell after the company warned on their near-term outlook. While full-year trading had been reasonably strong, tariff related uncertainty raised questions over future demand for their services as a result of potential delays to its global customers making investment decisions. Other detractors included companies we do not own which performed well and make up a reasonable weight in the benchmark. For example, Alphawave rose on the news of a potential takeover from Qualcomm and Mitie rallied on results that were ahead of expectations.

The largest positive contributor was Youngs Brewery, recovering some of its recent losses through the month ahead of its full-year results announcement. A strong trading statement from JD Wetherspoon, also a holding in the portfolio, early in the month helped provide some momentum to the shares, with recent trading for the company helped by 'favourable weather' and a robust consumer backdrop. Alpha Group recovered strongly following the initial 'Liberation Day' selloff, likely buoyed by its relative defensiveness to US tariffs. The company also increased its dividend to be paid in May, which provided further momentum to the shares. The trend of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) in UK small & mid-caps showed no signs of slowing with shares in our holding of data analytics business, GlobalData, rising sharply on the news that the company received two takeover proposals from major private equity firms ICG Europe Fund and KKR.

Whilst the UK Budget did have a negative impact on the UK market, and in particular, domestic stocks, this has rapidly been reflected in share prices to the point where we now see value in lots of these names. If anything, our current view is becoming more positive on the outlook for the UK equity market. Post Trump's tariff announcement the 5-year swap rate has contracted materially, leading to a fall in mortgage rates and increasing competition between lending banks. Unemployment, whilst rising is still at low levels, real wage growth remains positive, and the savings ratio in the UK is high. The Asda Income Tracker published on 22nd April shows 10% annual growth in household disposable income. Activity in the UK housing market appears to be recovering, with the recent round of trading statements from the builders and the suppliers highlighting a recovery in activity. UK property stocks remain in deep value territory, but again recent updates have shown strength in lettings, and with yields falling, NAVs appear to have found a floor.

We also draw more comfort in the recent actions of the Government. The recognition that over-regulation is stifling industry and the planning process has become a problem has been met by a change at the head of the CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) and the approval of the Lower Thames Crossing. Instead of talk there has been some real action. Kier Starmer has in recent times appeared statesman-like; managing Trump well, being forthright on Ukraine, and making encouraging overtures to Europe. Rachel Reeves is in a challenging fiscal spot. There can be no doubt of this, but with the potential changes from a revised Mansion House agreement she may produce buyers of UK assets.

The pace of M&A shows little signs of slowing, with 15 deals in the first quarter of the year, and this has accelerated since the start of the second quarter. Finally, there is the valuation argument. This is the deepest and longest period of underperformance of UK SMID vs large cap we have seen in over 40 years. After the underperformance since the budget, the mid-cap is now 45% down relative to the FTSE 100 Index. With the weakening of the US dollar those domestic companies that make up a significant amount of the UK SMID market will see cost of goods falling, potentially at the same time consumers start to loosen the purse strings and access the savings they are currently holding.

With all the uncertainty in the US equity market and investors looking for other places to allocate money, a stabilising and cheap UK market could be a valid and attractive alternative.

We thank shareholders for your ongoing support.

1Source: BlackRock as at 30 April 2025

22 May 2025



ENDS



Latest information is available by typing www.blackrock.com/uk/brsc on the internet, "BLRKINDEX" on Reuters, "BLRK" on Bloomberg or "8800" on Topic 3 (ICV terminal). Neither the contents of the Manager's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Manager's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation (the "Foundation") has donated 500 apartments to the Akimat (City Hall) of Astana to support residents in need of housing. The contribution, valued at 10.5 billion tenge, was made as part of the Foundation's ongoing charitable Balamaken project, which provides homes to vulnerable groups across Kazakhstan.

The new comfort-class apartments are located in modern residential developments in Astana. The buildings are equipped with elevators, facial recognition systems, underground parking, and spacious courtyard areas, ensuring a safe and comfortable living environment for residents.

Recipients of the new apartments include teachers, doctors, emergency service workers, and other public sector employees.

Commenting on the initiative, Ainur Karbozova, CEO of the Bulat Utemuratov Foundation, said: "We are committed to providing long-term, tangible support to those who need it most. Housing is a fundamental need, and through Balamaken, we aim to help families improve their lives and look forward to a more stable future."

Among the recipients of the new apartments is firefighter Yerlan Shaikhymov, who shared his thoughts: "This apartment is hugely important for us. I'm a father of five, and this is a tremendous support for our family. Now we can live with peace of mind and confidence in the future. We are deeply grateful for this opportunity."

Launched in 2019, the Balamaken project has so far enabled around 1,000 families - including those with disabilities, large families, and victims of natural disasters - to receive permanent housing in the Aktobe, Akmola, Kyzylorda, and Turkistan regions.

The Bulat Utemuratov Foundation, established in 2014, is dedicated to charitable programs in inclusion, education, healthcare, sport, and environmental protection. Over the past decade, the Foundation has invested more than 98.4 billion tenge in charitable projects across Kazakhstan.

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Susvimo can help people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) maintain their vision and prevent progression to blindness with only one treatment every nine months

Susvimo's innovative technology via the Port Delivery Platform may offer an alternative to regular eye injections in the US

Diabetic retinopathy affects almost 10 million people in the US and is the third FDA-approved indication for Susvimo, which is also approved for treating neovascular or 'wet' age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema

Basel, 22 May 2025 - Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Susvimo (ranibizumab injection) 100 mg/mL for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy (DR), a potentially blinding condition that affects almost 10 million people in the US and more than 100 million people globally.1,2 It is the first and only FDA-approved continuous delivery treatment shown to maintain vision in people with DR with just one refill every nine months.3,4 Susvimo is now available to US retina specialists and their patients with DR who have previously responded to at least two anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections.

"The approval of Susvimo for diabetic retinopathy expands treatment options for patients, offering predictable and immediate durability after implantation with only one treatment every nine months," said Levi Garraway, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Product Development. "Many patients with common retinal conditions seek alternative treatment options like Susvimo that can help preserve vision with longer intervals between treatments than regular eye injections."

"Susvimo is a compelling new treatment for patients at risk of vision loss from progression of diabetic retinopathy," said vitreoretinal surgeon, Carl Awh, M.D., Tennessee Retina, Tennessee. "I am delighted to have this far more durable treatment available for my patients."

The FDA decision was based on positive one-year results from the phase III Pavilion study. People with DR who received Susvimo refilled every nine months achieved superior improvements on the Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale (DRSS).4 This means there was a reduction in the severity of eye damage caused by diabetes, compared with those under monthly clinical observation who were treated with anti-VEGF injections as needed based on disease progression.4 Additionally, none of the participants receiving Susvimo required supplemental treatment at one year.4 Safety was consistent with the known safety profile for Susvimo.4

Susvimo provides continuous delivery of a customised formulation of ranibizumab via the Port Delivery Platform, while other currently approved treatments may require eye injections as often as once per month.5,6 The Port Delivery Platform is a refillable eye implant surgically inserted into the eye during a one-time, outpatient procedure, which introduces medicine directly into the eye, addressing certain retinal conditions that can cause vision loss.5,6

Roche is focused on saving people's eyesight from the leading causes of vision loss through pioneering therapies and has the broadest retina pipeline in ophthalmology, which is led by science and informed by insights from people with eye conditions.

About diabetic retinopathy

Accounting for approximately 5% of all cases of visual impairment, diabetic retinopathy (DR) occurs when damage to the blood vessels and the formation of new blood vessels causes blood and/or fluid to leak into the retina - a part of the eye that sends information to the brain, enabling sight.7,8 This leads to swelling, as well as blockage of the blood supply to some areas of the retina.9 As the condition progresses, vision becomes impaired.8 DR affects approximately 103 million people globally, resulting in blindness in almost five million people.2,10

About the Pavilion study11

Pavilion04503551) is a multicentre, randomised, US-based phase III study evaluating the efficacy, safety and pharmacokinetics of Susvimo (Port Delivery Platform with ranibizumab) 100 mg/mL refilled every nine months compared with people under monthly clinical observation, in 174 people with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (DR) without centre-involved diabetic macular edema. Participants were randomised 5:3 to receive either Susvimo with refills every nine months or monthly clinical observation, respectively. In the Susvimo arm, participants received two loading doses of intravitreal ranibizumab, before Susvimo implantation at week 4. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants with at least a two-step improvement from baseline on the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study-Diabetic Retinopathy Severity Scale at week 52. Following the primary analysis, participants initially in the clinical observation arm received two ranibizumab loading doses before Susvimo implantation at week 64.

About Susvimo (Port Delivery Platform with ranibizumab) in the US

Susvimo is a refillable eye implant surgically inserted into the eye during a one-time, outpatient procedure. Susvimo continuously delivers a customised formulation of ranibizumab over time.6 Ranibizumab is a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor designed to bind to and inhibit VEGF-A, a protein that has been shown to play a critical role in the formation of new blood vessels and the leakiness of the vessels.12

The customised formulation of ranibizumab delivered by Susvimo is different from the ranibizumab intravitreal injection, a medicine marketed as Lucentis (ranibizumab injection)*, which is approved to treat neovascular or 'wet' age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) and other retinal diseases. Lucentis was first approved for nAMD by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006.13 Roche is also developing DutaFabs - the next generation of bispecific antibodies designed for increased efficacy and durability - tailored for continuous delivery via the Port Delivery implant.

About Roche in ophthalmology

Roche is focused on saving people's eyesight from the leading causes of vision loss through pioneering therapies. Through our innovation in the scientific discovery of new potential drug targets, personalised healthcare, molecular engineering, biomarkers and continuous drug delivery, we strive to design the right therapies for the right patients.

We have the broadest retina pipeline in ophthalmology, which is led by science and informed by insights from people with eye conditions. Our pipeline includes innovative treatments across different modalities, such as antibodies, and gene and cell therapies targeting multiple vision-threatening conditions, including retinal vascular and diabetic eye diseases, geographic atrophy, and autoimmune conditions, such as thyroid eye disease and uveitic macular edema.

Applying our extensive experience, we have brought breakthrough ophthalmic treatments to people living with vision loss. Susvimo (previously called Port Delivery System with ranibizumab) 100 mg/mL for intravitreal use via ocular implant is the first US Food and Drug Administration-approved refillable eye implant for neovascular or 'wet' age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), diabetic macular edema (DME) and diabetic retinopathy (DR) that continuously delivers a customised formulation of ranibizumab over a period of months.3,6 Vabysmo (faricimab) is the first bispecific antibody approved for the eye, which targets and inhibits two signalling pathways linked to a number of vision-threatening retinal conditions by neutralising angiopoietin-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor-A.14-16 Vabysmo is approved around the world for people living with nAMD, DME and macular edema following retinal vein occlusion.16-21 Lucentis (ranibizumab injection)* was the first treatment approved to improve vision in people with certain retinal conditions.13

About Roche

Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world's largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.

For over 125 years, sustainability has been an integral part of Roche's business. As a science-driven company, our greatest contribution to society is developing innovative medicines and diagnostics that help people live healthier lives. Roche is committed to the Science Based Targets initiative and the Sustainable Markets Initiative to achieve net zero by 2045.

Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

For more information, please visit www.roche.com.

*Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) was developed by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Genentech retains commercial rights in the United States and Novartis has exclusive commercial rights for the rest of the world.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

References

[1] Lundeen EA, et al. Prevalence of diabetic retinopathy.

[4] Pieramici D. Port Delivery System.

[6] Holekamp N, et al. Archway randomised phase III trial of the PDS with ranibizumab for neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

[9] American Academy of Ophthalmology. Macular edema. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-is-macular-edema.

[10] Harvard Medical School. Department of Ophthalmology. Diabetic eye disease. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://eye.hms.harvard.edu/diabetes.

[11] Clinical Trials.gov. A multicentre, randomised study in participants with DR without centre-involved diabetic macular edema.

[12] Heier JS, et al. The angiopoietin/tie pathway in retinal vascular diseases: A review. The Journal of Retinal and Vitreous Diseases. 2021;41:1-19.

[13] US FDA. Highlights of prescribing information, Lucentis. 2012. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2012/125156s0069s0076lbl.pdf.

[14] Wykoff C, et al. Efficacy, durability and safety of intravitreal faricimab with extended dosing up to every 16 weeks in patients with DME.

[17] Roche data on file.

[18] Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approves faricimab through international work-sharing initiative. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-approves-faricimab-through-international-work-sharing-initiative.

[19] Chugai obtains regulatory approval for Vabysmo, the first bispecific antibody in ophthalmology, for nAMD and DME. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/news/detail/20220328160002_909.html.

[20] European Medicines Agency. Summary of product characteristics, Vabysmo. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/vabysmo-epar-product-information_en.pdf.

[21] Chugai obtains regulatory approval for Vabysmo, the only bispecific antibody in the ophthalmology field, for additional indication of macular edema associated with retinal vein occlusion. [Internet; cited April 2025]. Available from: https://www.chugai-pharm.co.jp/english/news/detail/20240326160000_1054.html.

Roche Global Media Relations

Phone: +41 61 688 8888 / e-mail: media.relations@roche.com

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Nathalie Altermatt

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Simon Goldsborough

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Phone: +49 172 6367262



Yvette Petillon

Phone: +41 79 961 92 50 Dr Rebekka Schnell

Phone: +41 79 205 27 03

Roche Investor Relations

Dr Bruno Eschli

Phone: +41 61 68-75284

e-mail: bruno.eschli@roche.com Dr Sabine Borngraber

Phone: +41 61 68-88027

e-mail: sabine.borngraeber@roche.com



Dr Birgit Masjost

Phone: +41 61 68-84814

e-mail: birgit.masjost@roche.com

Investor Relations North America

Loren Kalm

Phone: +1 650 225 3217

e-mail: kalm.loren@gene.com







Attachment
AM Best affirms ratings of Coface's main operating subsidiaries

Paris, 22 May 2025 - 18.00

The rating agency AM Best affirmed today the Financial Strength Rating (IFS rating) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICRs) of 'a+' (Excellent) of Compagnie francaise d'assurance pour le commerce exterieur (la Compagnie), Coface North America Insurance Company (CNAIC) and Coface Re. The outlook for these ratings is "stable".

In its press release, AM Best highlights that this rating reflects, "Coface group's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, favourable business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management".

This strength is underpinned by a consolidated risk-adjusted capitalization at the strongest level as measured by the Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) score.

AM Best also believes that "the group's prospective performance may be subject to volatility, driven by the uncertain global operating environment. However, the group is able to take prompt risk-mitigating actions on non-performing business when required" and AM Best expects "cross-cycle performance metrics to remain supportive of the strong assessment".

Last, in its release, the rating agency underscores that this note reflects Coface's "leading position in the global credit insurance market, which is characterised by high barriers to entry".

CONTACTS

ANALYSTS / INVESTORS

Thomas JACQUET: +33 1 49 02 12 58 - thomas.jacquet@coface.com

Rina ANDRIAMIADANTSOA: +33 1 49 02 15 85 - rina.andriamiadantsoa@coface.com

MEDIA RELATIONS

Saphia GAOUAOUI: +33 1 49 02 14 91 - saphia.gaouaoui@coface.com

Adrien BILLET: +33 1 49 02 23 63 - adrien.billet@coface.com

FINANCIAL CALENDAR 2025

(subject to change)

H1-2025 results: 31 July 2025 (after market close)

9M-2025 results: 3 November 2025 (after market close)

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

This press release, as well as COFACE SA's integral regulatory information, can be found on the Group's website: http://www.coface.com/Investors

For regulated information on Alternative Performance Measures (APM), please refer to our Interim Financial Report for H1-2024 and our 2024 Universal Registration Document (see part 3.7 "Key financial performance indicators").

Regulated documents posted by COFACE SA have been secured and authenticated with the blockchain technology by Wiztrust.

You can check the authenticity on the website www.wiztrust.com.





COFACE: FOR TRADE

As a global leading player in trade credit risk management for more than 75 years, Coface helps companies grow and navigate in an uncertain and volatile environment.

Whatever their size, location or sector, Coface provides 100,000 clients across some 200 markets with a full range of solutions: Trade Credit Insurance, Business Information, Debt Collection, Single Risk insurance, Surety Bonds, Factoring.

Every day, Coface leverages its unique expertise and cutting-edge technology to make trade happen, in both domestic and export markets.

In 2024, Coface employed ~5,236 people and registered a turnover of 1.84 billion.







www.coface.com







COFACE SA is quoted in Compartment A of Euronext Paris

Code ISIN: FR0010667147 / Ticker: COFA





DISCLAIMER - Certain declarations featured in this press release may contain forecasts that notably relate to future events, trends, projects or targets. By nature, these forecasts include identified or unidentified risks and uncertainties, and may be affected by many factors likely to give rise to a significant discrepancy between the real results and those stated in these declarations. Please refer to chapter 5 "Main risk factors and their management within the Group" of the Coface Group's 2024 Universal Registration Document filed with AMF on 5 April 2024 under the number D.25-0227 in order to obtain a description of certain major factors, risks and uncertainties likely to influence the Coface Group's businesses. The Coface Group disclaims any intention or obligation to publish an update of these forecasts, or provide new information on future events or any other circumstance.
Las Vegas, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Momcozy, a leading global brand in maternity and baby care, is proud to present its newest innovations at ABC Kids Expo 2025, taking place May 21-23 at Las Vegas. At Booth #110, Momcozy is showcasing a broad range of new products alongside fan favorites at this influential trade event.





Momcozy Showcases Latest Innovations at ABC Kids Expo 2025

First Offline Debut: Momcozy's Thinnest Wearable Breast Pump

Making its first in-person appearance since launching in March, the Momcozy Air 1 Ultra-Slim Breast Pump is the thinnest wearable breast pump on the market[1], measuring just 2.4 inches thick-nearly 22% thinner than Momcozy's Mobile Flow. Its ultra-slim design and whisper-quiet motor combine to deliver an unprecedented level of discreet pumping experience.

Air 1 also features the industry's 1st transparent top-view design, allowing for easier alignment and milk volume monitoring. Its storage case doubles as a wireless charging station and, together with the pump, provides power for up to 15 sessions per charge.

"From Air 1, to Mobile Flow and Mobile Style , we continue to empower mothers to pump confidently anywhere through human-centered innovation," said Alan Cawley, senior sales director at Momcozy.

Introducing: The All-New Abdomen Solution

Momcozy also highlights its newly launched Ergowrap Postpartum Belly Band, complementing the brand's Ergonest Maternity Belly Band to offer a comprehensive abdomen solution for mothers. Engineered with the patented Ergonest Support Structure, these bands help alleviate lower back pain, and provide comfortable support for daily activities, standing, and exercise.

Also on display is the CoolFit Nursing Bra Collection, released just last week. Designed for moms prone to overheating and sweating, the bras feature advanced Jelly Strip and seamless composite technology that adapt comfortably to changing breast shapes during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

A New Lineup of Smart Babycare Essentials

Momcozy introduces a variety of new babycare products, including:

Upgraded 2-in-1 Electric Nasal Aspirator: Equipped with powerful 65KPa hospital-grade suction and smart protection for effective nasal relief.

5-Inch Dual-Mode Smart Baby Monitor (BM04): Offers both Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi connectivity for flexible monitoring, safety alerts, and live sharing with up to 20 family members.

The brand is also showcasing popular products such as the ChangeGo Baby Stroller, a versatile stroller system that easily converts from a single to a double stroller, and even into a wagon. It supports 23 configurations with a variety of accessories, designed to grow with children from birth to age six.

Momcozy is rapidly expanding across retail, e-commerce, and medical channels worldwide. In the U.S., partnerships with Durable Medical Equipment (DME) providers allows eligible customers to access essentials like breast pumps through insurance, reinforcing the brand's commitment to innovation and accessibility.

Following the expo, all showcased products will be donated to Delivering Good, a nonprofit supporting at-risk children, families, and individuals. It's one more way Momcozy puts its values into action: making trusted maternity and baby care more accessible to families everywhere.

###

About Momcozy

Momcozy is a global mother and baby brand, serving over 3.6 million mothers in more than 60 countries and regions. Since 2018, we've evolved to meet the unique needs of moms and their families, offering a range of products from pregnancy through early motherhood, including wearable breast pumps, feeding gear, nursing bras, baby carriers, and more. As the Cozy Reformer, we always put moms first, delivering innovative solutions, comfort, and support to bring joy and ease to their journeys. Visit https://momcozy.com/ to learn more.

[1] Based on internal comparison of product thickness to the top 5 best-selling electric breast pumps on Amazon in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France from Q1-Q3 2024.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253072

SOURCE: 41Caijing
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Highland Critical Minerals Corp. ("Highland" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it received a receipt on May 14, 2025 (the "Receipt") for its final long form prospectus dated May 9, 2025 (the "Final Prospectus"), filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Ontario and British Columbia. The Final Prospectus qualifies the distribution of 370,832 class A common shares of the Company (each, a "Common Share") issuable for no additional consideration upon the deemed exercise of an aggregate of 370,832 special warrants (the "Special Warrants"). The Special Warrants were issued on February 28, 2025, on a private placement basis pursuant to prospectus exemptions available under applicable securities legislation (the "Special Warrant Financing").

Pursuant to the Special Warrant Financing, the Company issued 370,832 Special Warrants at a price of $0.15 per Special Warrant for gross proceeds of $55,624.80. Each Special Warrant entitled the holder to acquire, without further payment, one Common Share. The terms of the Special Warrants provided that they were to be automatically converted at 4:00 p.m. (Vancouver time) on the earlier of: (i) the date that is four months and a day following the closing date of the Special Warrant Financing; and (ii) the first business day following the date on which a final receipt was issued to the Company by the securities regulatory authorities in a Province of Canada.

As the Receipt was issued by the Ontario Securities Commission on May 14, 2025, an aggregate of 370,832 Special Warrants were automatically converted into 370,832 Common Shares on May 15, 2025.

ABOUT HIGHLAND CRITICAL MINERALS CORP.

Highland is a mineral exploration and development company. Its activities consist of acquiring and exploring, mining properties. It is anticipated that the Company will be mainly active in the field of mining exploration in Ontario, Canada and that a material part of the funds from subscriptions of the Special Warrants previously sold by the Company will be used in exploration work on the Church Property. For more information, please visit https://highlandcritical.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding closing of the offering, use of proceeds, filing of a preliminary and final prospectus, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events which are made in good faith and reflect the Company's current judgment regarding the direction of the business. These statements and assumptions are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.

Disclaimer

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States unless registered under the 1933 Act and any applicable securities laws of any state of the United States or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements is available.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253080

SOURCE: Highland Critical Minerals Corp.
Colorado Springs, Colorado--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Compassion International, a leading child development organization, is partnering with YouVersion to encourage Gospel-minded believers to live as "Unto Jesus."

As part of its ongoing "Unto Jesus," initiative, Compassion CEO and President Jimmy Mellado along with several Compassion alumni - formerly sponsored children who overcame poverty through participation in Compassion's child development program - will be featured in the Guided Scripture experience, inside YouVersion's Bible App, starting today and running through Sunday.

YouVersion is known for creating biblically centered, culturally relevant experiences that encourage and challenge people to seek God throughout each day. Inspired by the powerful words of Jesus, each daily devotional will focus on a passage of scripture found in Matthew 25 encouraging believers to better serve the least among us.

"We're incredibly honored to partner with Compassion International on the Unto Jesus initiative," said Justin Tarsiuk, Director of Partnerships at YouVersion. "At YouVersion, our heart is to help people connect with God every day through His Word-and this partnership is a beautiful expression of that mission in action. Together, we're inviting people not only to know Jesus more deeply, but to follow Him more fully in their daily lives."

According to Andrew Kooman, Compassion Brand Partnership Lead, the ministry's research indicates believers are seeking a deeper understanding of scripture and believes this is a perfect opportunity to provide richer, meaningful insights. Compassion participants will focus on the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, with each day focusing on specific verses.

As part of the "Unto Jesus," initiative, Compassion is also making several resources available to help people delve deeper to include:

Devotional Plan A thoughtfully curated plan to guide participants in daily reflections and spiritual growth, available on YouVersion.

Activity Planner: Practical tools and ideas to help families live out their faith in everyday moments.

Social Media Challenge: Engaging challenges that encourage believers to share their journey and inspire others.

Livestream Conversations: Influencers and alumni will explore what it means to "Live Unto Jesus" in interactive livestreams.

Video Series: Prominent Christian voices will discuss bold and surprising topics related to living out Matthew 25.

"YouVersion is an extraordinary partner for Compassion," said Kooman. "Not only is YouVersion the most widely downloaded Bible app in the world, but they also share our desire to help each person become who God made them to be, and to encourage them to make a difference in the lives of those who need it most."



To engage with Guided Scripture, install the app at www.bible.com/app. To access "Unto Jesus," resources, participate in activities, and connect with a community dedicated to serving with compassion, visit: https://Compassion.com/UntoJesus.





As part of its "Unto Jesus," initiative, Compassion International is featured in the Guided Scripture experience inside YouVersion's Bible App, encouraging believers to better serve the least among us. (Photo by Compassion International)



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10878/253074_5a1375656484fba3_002full.jpg

About Compassion International

Compassion International is a Christian child development organization dedicated to releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. Founded in 1952, Compassion partners with more than 8,900 local churches in 29 program countries to deliver spiritual, economic, social, and physical care to over two million babies, children, and young adults in poverty. Ranked No. 12 in Forbes' America's Top Charities List in 2024, Compassion is a founding member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability and an accredited charity with the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. For more information, visit compassion.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.

About YouVersion

###

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253074

SOURCE: Compassion International
KBRA Europe (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to six classes of notes to be issued by Miravet 2025-1 DAC, a static RMBS transaction backed by mortgage participations and mortgage transfer certificates issued by CaixaBank, S.A. (CaixaBank), representing the economic rights under mortgage loan agreements in Spain. The underlying collateral has been securitised via FT Encina, a Spanish securitisation fund managed by Intermoney Titulizacion S.G.F.T., S.A., with the Issuer holding the corresponding FT Encina unitranche Spanish bonds.

The 316.4 million underlying portfolio primarily comprises seasoned first-lien residential mortgage loans originated by CaixaBank and its legacy entities, including former savings banks and other institutions absorbed during sector consolidation in Spain. The loans are primarily secured by owner occupied (79.7%) and second or holiday homes (18.4%) located in Spain.

CaixaBank will act as the lender of record and primary servicer of the mortgage loans, with Anticipa Real Estate, S.L.U. (Anticipa) appointed as special servicer. Caixabank has relevant experience in primary servicing of mortgage loans while Anticipa has a meaningful number of years of experience servicing re-performing loans and loans deep in arrears needing restructure.

The notes' payment priority is strictly sequential. The notes also benefit from a fully funded reserve account that provides liquidity support.

To access ratings and relevant documents, click here.

Click here to view the report.

Methodologies

RMBS: European RMBS Rating Methodology

RMBS: European RMBS Rating Methodology Country Addendum: Spain

Structured Finance: Global Structured Finance Counterparty Methodology

ESG Global Rating Methodology

Disclosures

Further information on key credit considerations, sensitivity analyses that consider what factors can affect these credit ratings and how they could lead to an upgrade or a downgrade, and ESG factors (where they are a key driver behind the change to the credit rating or rating outlook) can be found in the full rating report referenced above.

A description of all substantially material sources that were used to prepare the credit rating and information on the methodology(ies) (inclusive of any material models and sensitivity analyses of the relevant key rating assumptions, as applicable) used in determining the credit rating is available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) located here.

Information on the meaning of each rating category can be located here.

This credit rating is endorsed by Kroll Bond Rating Agency UK Limited for use in the UK. Information on a credit rating's endorsement status is available on its rating page at KBRA.com.

Further disclosures relating to this rating action are available in the Information Disclosure Form(s) referenced above. Additional information regarding KBRA policies, methodologies, rating scales and disclosures are available at www.kbra.com.

There are certain issuers, entities or transactions rated by KBRA Europe or KBRA UK that may be or have relationships with Shareholders and/or Shareholder-Related Companies, as that term is defined in KBRA's Shareholder and Shareholder Related Companies for KBRA Europe and KBRA UK Policy and Procedure. Relevant disclosure information may be found here.

About KBRA Europe

Kroll Bond Rating Agency, LLC (KBRA), one of the major credit rating agencies (CRA), is a full-service CRA registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as an NRSRO. Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is registered as a CRA with the European Securities and Markets Authority. Kroll Bond Rating Agency UK Limited is registered as a CRA with the UK Financial Conduct Authority. In addition, KBRA is designated as a Designated Rating Organization (DRO) by the Ontario Securities Commission for issuers of asset-backed securities to file a short form prospectus or shelf prospectus. KBRA is also recognized as a Qualified Rating Agency by Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission and is recognized by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as a Credit Rating Provider (CRP) in the U.S. Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited is located at 2nd Floor, One George's Quay Plaza, George's Quay, Dublin 2, D02 E440, Ireland.

Doc ID: 1009416

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522936642/en/

Contacts:

Analytical Contacts

Karl Cummins, Senior Director (Lead Analyst)

+353 1 588 1240

karl.cummins@kbra.com

Hrishikesh Oturkar, Director

+44 20 8148 1070

hrishikesh.oturkar@kbra.com

Kali Sirugudi, Managing Director

+44 20 8148 1050

kali.sirugudi@kbra.com

Jack Kahan, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of ABS RMBS (Rating Committee Chair)

+1 646-731-2486

jack.kahan@kbra.com

Business Development Contacts

Miten Amin, Managing Director

+44 20 8148 1002

miten.amin@kbra.com

Mauricio Noe, Co-Head of Europe

+44 20 8148 1010

mauricio.noe@kbra.com
LONG BEACH, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Space Tech Expo USA, the West Coast's premier exhibition and conference for space technology and innovation, returns June 3-4, 2025, to Long Beach, California, marking its 13th edition in the heart of California's thriving space industry.

The event brings together thousands of professionals from across the space supply chain to explore trends, discover groundbreaking technologies and drive innovation for the $466.1B industry . The exhibition showcases cutting-edge solutions from technical designers, sub-systems suppliers, manufacturers and components to systems integrators for civil, military and commercial space sectors. 300 exhibiting companies will be represented, from startups to stalwarts, including Nikon SLM Solutions, Deposition Sciences, Lockheed Martin, Benchmark Connector Corp, MarkForged, Space-ng Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp, Element Materials Technology, Fry Steel, AIP Precision Machining and Intlvac Space Simulation.

"The caliber of speakers at the 2025 Space Tech Expo USA reflects the momentum and maturity of the space industry itself," says Gordon McHattie, Event Director, Space Tech Expo USA. "From governmental leaders and top technologists to pioneers in sustainability and defense, these voices are actively building the frameworks that will support the industry's continued growth, especially resilience of the domestic supply chain. California as the epicenter of the sector provides a unique backdrop to further conversations surrounding the industry."

This year's keynote program features diverse thought leaders tackling the industry's most critical topics. Trelynd Bradley, Deputy Director, Innovation & Emerging Technologies, California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development will present "California, Where the Future Takes Lift Off," highlighting the state's leadership in emerging technologies. In "From the Earth to the Moon and Mars: Managing Space Debris in NASA's Operating Environments," NASA's Benjamin Alvin Drew and CisLunar Industries' Lee Steinke will address sustainability in orbit. Finally, "Exploring Our Universe Through Space Technology" brings together Charles D. Norton, Deputy Chief Technologist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Raquel Buscaino, Novel & Exponential Technologies (NExT) Leader, Deloitte to examine the impact of advanced technologies on space exploration.

The wider conference agenda explores urgent topics across defense, policy and commercial space. Panels will tackle national security threats, commercial military collaboration, supply chain resilience and the implication of the new administration through sessions like "Countering Threats to National Security" and "Trump 2.0: Key Priorities and Urgent Policies for a Thriving Space Ecosystem." Speakers from the National Reconnaissance Office, Aerospace Industries Association, The Planetary Society, SpaceWERX and others will weigh in on critical developments shaping the future of the industry and America's position in the new global space race. Star Trek actor Garrett Wang along with television producer Rod Roddenberry and executives from Cislunar Industries, The Aerospace Corporation, Territory Studio and NASA's JPL StoryLab will explore how the synergistic relationship between artistic imagination, technological innovation and reality can be leveraged to accelerate space exploration, inspiring future generations to dream bigger and reach further.

To be part of the conversation, register to attend at spacetechexpo.com

About Space Tech Expo USA?

Space Tech Expo USA is the West Coast's premier space event, which consists of two days of knowledge sharing and networking alongside a supply chain exhibition. The free-to-attend exhibition will showcase the very latest technology from technical designers, sub-systems suppliers, manufacturers, and components through to systems integrators for civil, military, and commercial space.?The event was established in 2012 and is a B2B trade event for aerospace and related industry professionals/government/academia only.??

About Smarter Shows?

Smarter Shows Limited. specialize in producing highly focused B2B supply chain exhibitions and technical conferences for the manufacturing and engineering sectors, with a focus on aerospace, automotive and materials industries.?

About Informa Markets Engineering?

Informa Markets Engineering is the leading B2B event producer, publisher, and digital media business for the world's $3-trillion advanced, technology-based manufacturing industry. Our print and electronic products deliver trusted information to the engineering market and leverage our proprietary 1.3-million-name database to connect suppliers with buyers and purchase influencers. We produce more than 50 events and conferences in a dozen countries, connecting manufacturing professionals from around the globe. The Engineering portfolio is organized by Informa Markets, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LON:INF), the world's leading exhibitions organizer that brings a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. For more information, please visit www.informamarkets.com .?

Media Contact

Informa Markets Engineering PR

EngineeringPR@informa.com

SOURCE: INFORMA MARKETS - ENGINEERING

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/publishing-and-media/annual-tentpole-event-for-space-technology-to-feature-speakers-from-nasa-ucla-1030877
Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Believe By Battle, a purpose-driven fashion brand founded by entrepreneur Juan Battle, has officially launched with a mission to integrate motivational values into luxury apparel. The launch follows a series of early milestones, including media coverage and successful community engagement.

Believe By Battle Growth- Long Luxe Bonnet (Light Green)

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8798/252840_590a9058246d1b0a_001full.jpg

Although the brand's official release occurs on June 3, Believe By Battle began gaining traction months prior through organic press in outlets such as The NY Telegraph and The Insider Weekly. During the pre-launch phase, the brand attracted a growing subscriber base and built a social media presence centered around personal empowerment, faith, and resilience.

Focused on Values Over Trends

The Believe By Battle product line emphasizes core values such as Strength, Faith, Loyalty, and Patience, using apparel as a medium to deliver positive messaging. Each item is designed to reflect what the founder calls "wearable motivation," aiming to serve as daily reminders of self-belief. In contrast to brands that follow seasonal trends, Believe By Battle focuses on storytelling and long-term message consistency.

"We set out to create something meaningful, not just marketable," said founder Juan Battle.

The company has also implemented customer-first strategies such as free lifetime shipping for subscribers and limited-release collections based on direct community feedback.

Development Process and Community Response

One of the primary challenges during the development phase was resisting the typical fast-paced launch model in favor of a more intentional approach. Rather than emphasizing rapid sales growth, the team prioritized message clarity, design quality, and emotional alignment with its intended audience.

Early engagement has yielded positive responses from the brand's growing community. Supporters have expressed appreciation for the brand's authenticity and messaging, with several noting how the apparel and brand story personally resonated with their own life experiences.

Future Expansion Plans

Now that the company is operational, Believe By Battle plans to expand its offerings to include luxury accessories and fragrances. In addition to e-commerce, the company will explore physical brand activations through pop-up events and potential collaborative campaigns with other purpose-aligned creators.

To learn more or view the collection, visit www.believebybattle.com. Updates and product announcements are also shared via the company's Instagram account, @believebybattle.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/252840

SOURCE: APG
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - 2680083 Alberta Ltd. ("268") announces that it has entered into an amalgamation agreement dated May 17, 2025 (the "Amalgamation Agreement") with Bitcoin Treasury Corporation ("BTCT"), a private company incorporated in Alberta, pursuant to which 268 and BTCT will amalgamate under Section 181 of the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) (such amalgamated entity to be referred to as the "Resulting Issuer"), which will result in a reverse takeover of 268 by the shareholders of BTCT (the "Transaction").

The Transaction is conditional upon (i) BTCT completing the Concurrent Financing (as defined below), (ii) the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") approving the listing of the subordinate voting shares of the Resulting Issuer ("Resulting Issuer Shares") and the convertible debentures of the Resulting Issuer ("Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures") and (iii) other customary conditions, including the closing of the Transaction occurring by July 31, 2025.

Following completion of the Transaction, subject to all requisite approvals, it is anticipated that the Resulting Issuer will be a Tier 1 Investment issuer and a Tier 2 Technology issuer and carry on the business of BTCT.

Share Consolidation

Immediately prior to the completion of the Transaction, 268 intends to consolidate the common shares of 268 ("268 Shares") based on a ratio that will result in the post-consolidated 268 Shares outstanding immediately prior to the completion of the Transaction having an aggregate value of $750,000 (the "Consolidation") calculated based on the subscription price attributable to the Concurrent Financing.

Amalgamation Agreement

The Amalgamation Agreement between 268 and BTCT provides, among other things, that (i) 268 and BTCT will amalgamate pursuant to the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Alberta), (ii) all of the outstanding subordinate voting shares of BTCT (each, a "BTCT Share") will be cancelled and, in consideration therefor, the holders thereof will receive Resulting Issuer Shares on the basis of one Resulting Issuer Share for each BTCT Share held, (iii) all of the outstanding post-Consolidation 268 Shares will be cancelled and, in consideration thereof, the holders thereof will receive Resulting Issuers Shares on the basis of one Resulting Issuer Share for each 268 Share held, and (iv) the convertible debentures of BTCT ("BTCT Convertible Debentures") and the warrants of BTCT will cease to represent a right to acquire BTCT Shares and will be exchanged for Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures and warrants of the Resulting Issuer, which will provide for the right to acquire the same number of Resulting Issuer Shares at the same exercise price per share.

Completion of the Transaction will be subject to certain conditions, including among others: (i) the requirement for shareholders of BTCT to pass a special resolution in writing with respect to the Amalgamation Agreement; (ii) the requirement for 268 to obtain approval of all of the shareholders of 268 with respect to the Amalgamation Agreement; (iii) the requirement for 268 to have completed the Consolidation; (iv) completion of the Concurrent Financing; (v) the execution and delivery of the filing statement of 268 and receipt of conditional acceptance of such filing statement and of the Transaction by the TSXV; (vi) 268 shall not be in default of the requirements of the TSXV and any securities commission and no order shall have been issued that would prevent the Transaction or the trading of any securities of 268 or the Resulting Issuer; (vii) receipt of all consents, orders and approvals necessary or desirable for the completion of the Transaction; and (viii) the TSXV shall have granted an exemption or waiver from the sponsorship requirement under the TSXV rules or a sponsor shall have filed an acceptable report with the TSXV.

In connection with and as a condition to the Transaction, BTCT intends to complete a financing by way of private placement, to be completed prior to the closing of the Transaction (the "Concurrent Financing").

Upon completion of the Transaction, the Resulting Issuer will adopt the BTCT articles and share rights, which provide for two classes of shares: BTCT Shares, which are subordinate voting shares, and BTCT foundation shares. All of the issued and outstanding BTCT foundation shares will, directly or indirectly, be held or controlled by the proposed members of management and directors for the Resulting Issuer, being Rajesh Lala, Elliot Johnson, Patrick McBride, Kaitlin Thompson, Michael Simonetta and Keith Crone. The terms and conditions of the BTCT Shares and the BTCT foundation shares are substantially identical with the exception of the voting and conversion rights attached to the BTCT foundation shares, which can convert into BTCT Shares on a one-for-one basis at any time at the option of the holders thereof and automatically in certain other circumstances. Each BTCT Share is entitled to one vote and each BTCT foundation share is entitled to one vote on all matters upon which the holders of BTCT Shares are entitled to vote. When voting on matters that constitute a Foundational Change (as defined below), the BTCT foundation shares and BTCT Shares shall each vote as a separate class. A Foundational Change shall require the approval of a majority (50% +1) of the votes cast by the holders of BTCT foundation shares as a separate class, in addition to any approval required from BTCT Shareholders.

A Foundational Change means any of the following: (a) the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the Resulting Issuer; (b) the acquisition of the direct or indirect beneficial ownership or control of voting securities of the Resulting Issuer, or rights to acquire such securities, which, together with such person's or persons' then beneficially owned and controlled voting securities of the Resulting Issuer, or rights to acquire such securities, represents, assuming the full exercise of any and all such rights, more than fifty percent (50%) of the then issued and outstanding voting securities of the Resulting Issuer; (c) the amalgamation or merger or other business combination of the Resulting Issuer with or into any one or more other corporations, subject to certain exemptions; (d) a liquidation, dissolution or winding-up of the Resulting Issuer; (e) a change in a majority of the Resulting Issuer Board; or (f) the completion of any transaction, including, without limitation, a plan of arrangement, or the first of a series of transactions which the board of the directors of the Resulting Issuer reasonably determines would have the same or similar effect as any transaction or series of transactions referred to in subsections (a), (b), (c), (d) or (e) referred to above.

Mr. Patrick McBride is an Insider of each of BTCT and 268, and as such, the Transaction, if completed, is being considered a non-arm's length transaction and 'related party transaction' pursuant to the provisions of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"), and accordingly requisite disclosures will be made and procedures followed. 268 and BTCT will be required to obtain certain approvals, including but not limited to approvals from disinterested shareholders of 268 for the Transaction and the approval of the TSXV. 268 intends to rely on an exemption from the formal valuation requirement in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101.

Certain of the proposed directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer are involved in managerial or director positions with Evolve Funds Group Inc. ("Evolve"), whose operations may, from time to time, be in direct competition with those of the Resulting Issuer or with entities which may, from time to time, provide financing to, or make equity investments in, competitors of the Resulting Issuer. It is expected that the Resulting Issuer will enter into an administrative services agreement with Evolve pursuant to which Evolve will provide certain administrative services to the Resulting Issuer. Evolve has experience in bringing digital assets to investors through listed products. Evolve's extensive industry relationships are expected to be instrumental in supporting the Resulting Issuer, by, among other things, leveraging its established network to drive awareness. Pursuant to the administrative services agreement, the Resulting Issuer will be responsible for all aspects of its business operations, with certain duties delegated to Evolve where needed. The Resulting Issuer will maintain control over high-level management, including business planning, regulatory compliance, financial administration, Bitcoin lending operations, shareholder meeting coordination, and public relations. The Resulting Issuer executive team will lead all strategic decisions and oversight. Evolve will assist the Resulting Issuer by executing specific operational functions as directed. Under the administrative services agreement, Evolve will charge the Resulting Issuer up to a maximum of 1% of the value of the Resulting Issuer's Bitcoin treasury holdings, converted to CAD, accrued daily.

It is also expected that Evolve Bitcoin ETF and BTCT will enter into a liquidity agreement which will become effective upon BTCT receiving a Money Services Business registration. The agreement will outline the terms under which the parties may engage in the purchase and sale of Bitcoin but will not require the parties to transact with each other.

Evolve and Evolve Bitcoin ETF are non-arm's length parties of BTCT.

Stock Exchange Matters

As at the date hereof, neither the 268 Shares nor the BTCT Shares are listed on any stock exchange. A condition to completion of the Transaction is the fulfillment by the Resulting Issuer of all of the minimum listing requirements of the TSXV and obtaining conditional approval for the listing of the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures on the TSXV. A filing statement in respect of the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures, which will include further details of the Transaction, will be filed on 268's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca provided TSXV's conditional approval of the listing of the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures has been obtained. There can be no assurance that the TSXV will grant such conditional approval or that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

BTCT and 268 intend to apply to the TSXV for an exemption from the sponsorship requirement in connection with its application to list the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures on the TSXV. No deposit, advance or loan has been made or is to be made in connection with the Transaction.

About Bitcoin Treasury Corporation

BTCT was incorporated on December 20, 2024, under the ABCA under the name "Bitcoin Treasury Corporation." Upon completion of the Concurrent Financing and the Transaction, BTCT, as Resulting Issuer, will offer institutional Bitcoin lending services designed to provide liquidity solutions to clients while ensuring BTCT maintains financial security and minimizes risk exposure as set out below, which description assumes closing of the Transaction (including the Concurrent Financing). BTCT's lending services are expected to include Bitcoin-denominated loans and additional Bitcoin-backed collateral services.

BTCT intends to provide institutional-grade Bitcoin services, including lending, liquidity, and collateral solutions. The company is focused on building shareholder value in Bitcoin by strategically accumulating a significant Bitcoin inventory and actively deploying it across its service offerings. Recognizing Bitcoin's finite supply and long-term potential, BTCT will follow a treasury strategy that seeks to enhance the value of its holdings while supporting the development of its core business lines. Bitcoin transaction services will be offered to Canadian clients who acquire their Bitcoin on an "immediate delivery" basis. These clients may include large corporations, institutional asset managers, regulated crypto asset trading platforms and investment funds that invest in Bitcoin.

Phase 1: Institutional Bitcoin Lending Services

BTCT will offer institutional Bitcoin lending services designed to provide liquidity solutions to clients while ensuring BTCT maintains financial security and minimizes risk exposure. BTCT's lending services will include Bitcoin denominated loans and will not involve virtual currency exchange or virtual currency transfer services, therefore not require registration as a Money Services Business. BTCT plans to engage in Bitcoin lending as a strategic component of its business model, aiming to generate yield on its Bitcoin holdings while supporting the broader digital asset ecosystem.

Phase 2: Institutional Bitcoin Liquidity Services

BTCT has applied to be a Money Services Business registered with the FINTRAC. If such registration is obtained, BTCT intends to offer institutional-grade Bitcoin liquidity services. These services include immediate-delivery spot Bitcoin transactions to manage operational cash flow while preserving core Bitcoin holdings. Bitcoin liquidity services will be offered to Canadian clients including but not limited to large corporations, institutional asset managers, regulated crypto asset trading platforms and investment funds that invest in Bitcoin. As part of this phase, BTCT will also expand its lending business to include the ability to accept fiat as interest payments or as collateral for Bitcoin-denominated loans.

Phase 3: Layer 2 Liquidity and Collateral

BTCT is also committed to capitalizing on the accelerating adoption of Bitcoin by delivering innovative virtual currency services to institutions, as well as advancing infrastructure and operational capabilities for Bitcoin Layer 2 networks. As part of this commitment, BTCT is exploring how it may deploy its Bitcoin inventory to Layer 2 Bitcoin networks by providing liquidity or collateral as the market for Bitcoin lending and collateral products is nascent and developing rapidly. Opportunities to monetize BTCT's Bitcoin over time will be evaluated as market conditions change.

Corporate Finance Strategy for Strategic Bitcoin Accumulation

BTCT's corporate treasury strategy is designed to maximize long-term Bitcoin accumulation and enhance shareholder value by focusing on the growth of both total Bitcoin holdings and Bitcoin per share. BTCT aims to raise low-cost capital through equity, convertible debt, and potentially other instruments such as preferred shares, deploying these proceeds to acquire and hold Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. In addition to raising additional capital, BTCT plans to grow its Bitcoin treasury through the innovative revenue-generating services, described above, including institutional lending, liquidity, and Layer 2 Bitcoin collateral services. The success of this strategy will be measured by key metrics such as Bitcoin per share, Bitcoin per share growth, and total Bitcoin holdings.

As Bitcoin increasingly fulfills its role as a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account, BTCT anticipates significant opportunities at the intersection of traditional and decentralized finance. With deep industry relationships and plans to hold a significant inventory of Bitcoin, BTCT would be well positioned to lead and drive value creation in this evolving financial landscape.

In the future, BTCT intends to harness the potential of Bitcoin to redefine how transaction capital is accessed, collateralized, and exchanged. The intent is to usher in an era of financial inclusion by providing efficiency and resilience to Bitcoin as a digital currency for anyone, anywhere, at any time.

There is currently 1 BTCT Share issued and outstanding and 200 foundation shares of BTCT issued and outstanding. Pursuant to the Concurrent Financing, BTCT will issue BTCT Shares and BTCT Convertible Debentures.

Summary of Financial Information

A summary of certain financial information for BTCT is included in the table below:

For the period from incorporation on December 20, 2024 to April 30, 2025

($) Total revenue $Nil Office and administration $608 Listing and filing fees $575 Professional fees $499,536 Consulting fees $Nil Travel and promotion $Nil Other income $Nil Loss for the period $(500,719) Basic and diluted loss per share $0.00 Weighted average number of subordinate

voting shares outstanding Nil Cash dividends declared $Nil Statement of Financial Position Total assets $10,500 Total liabilities $511,219 Working capital (deficit) $(500,719) Share capital $Nil

Further financial information will be included in the filing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction.

Proposed Directors and Senior Management Team

Upon the completion of the Transaction, it is anticipated that Rajesh Lala, Elliot Johnson, Patrick McBride, and Michael Simonetta will constitute the Board of Directors of the Resulting Issuer. It is also anticipated that the new senior management team of the Resulting Issuer will be comprised of Elliot Johnson (Chief Executive Officer), Heather Sim (Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary), Kaitlin Thompson (Chief Operating Officer) and Keith Crone (Chief Marketing Officer).

The following are brief bios of the currently proposed directors and senior officers of the Resulting Issuer following the Transaction:

Elliot Johnson, Proposed CEO, CCO and Director

Mr. Johnson will serve as the CEO, Chief Compliance Officer and a Director of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Johnson will be an independent contractor of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Johnson brings extensive experience in digital asset management, product development, and operational leadership. As CIO and COO of Evolve, he was instrumental in launching some of Canada's first crypto investment vehicles, including the spot Bitcoin ETF (EBIT) and Ether ETF (ETHR). Evolve now manages nearly $300 million across six crypto ETFs, all offering daily liquidity and institutional-grade custody. Mr. Johnson's deep expertise in building and overseeing the infrastructure behind physically settled crypto products is directly aligned with BTCT's Bitcoin treasury and lending strategy.

Prior to joining Evolve and BTCT, Mr. Johnson was Senior Vice President, Retail Markets at Fiera Capital Corporation, a prominent Canadian investment management firm. Prior to this role, Mr. Johnson served as COO of Fiera Quantum Limited Partnership, an alternative investment manager. From 2010 to 2012, Mr. Johnson led technology management for a number of business lines at National Bank of Canada. Prior to 2012, he spent 13 years providing investment banking, institutional sales and trading and research services to corporate clients and institutional investors through its capital markets division, GMP Capital Corp., a diversified financial services firm primarily focused on wealth management and operations clearing. Mr. Johnson engaged in a variety of management roles across institutional brokerage, wealth management and asset management businesses. Mr. Johnson holds the Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation, the Derivatives Markets Specialist (DMS) designation and is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI). From 2016 to 2020, Mr. Johnson served on the board of Trinity College at the University of Toronto as the Chair of the Committee on Investments. Mr. Johnson currently serves as Chair, President and a trustee of the Upper Canada College Foundation and is also a trustee of the US based Upper Canada Educational Foundation.

Rajesh Lala, Proposed Chairman and Director

Mr. Lala will serve as the Chairman and a Director of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Lala will not be an employee or independent contractor of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Lala is also CEO of Evolve and, under his leadership, Evolve has grown to over $7 billion in AUM across 35 ETFs, including six crypto-focused mandates, generating significant recurring revenue.

Prior to joining Evolve and BTCT, Mr. Lala was Executive Vice President and Head of Retail Markets for Fiera Capital Corporation, a prominent Canadian investment management firm with over $100 billion in assets under management. Mr. Lala co-founded and served as President and CEO of Propel Capital Corporation (which was acquired by Fiera Capital Corporation in September 2014). Propel Capital Corporation provided structured investment products for Canadian retail investors. Propel Capital Corporation raised approximately $1 billion in structured products in its five years of operation. Prior to Propel Capital Corporation, Mr. Lala worked with Jovian Capital Corporation, a financial holding company that provided a range of financial services, primarily in the private wealth management market. Mr. Lala held several roles at Jovian Capital Corporation including President of JovFunds Inc., an asset management division of Jovian Capital Corporation. Jovian Capital Corporation is a Canadian asset management firm that offered mutual funds and alternative investment products for retail and institutional investors. Mr. Lala holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Toronto (1994).

Heather Sim, Proposed Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary

Ms. Sim will serve as the CFO and Corporate Secretary of the Resulting Issuer. Ms. Sim will be an employee of the Resulting Issuer. Ms. Sim is a Chartered Professional Accountant with experience working in public audit and assists public companies navigate regulatory markets in Canada and the United States. Her expertise spans financial controls, reporting, and compliance in the crypto and capital markets sectors. Ms. Sim has been President of Treewalk (formerly ACM Management Inc.), a business which assists public companies and private companies seeking to go public, since September 2019. As part of her work with Treewalk, Ms. Sim was CFO of VSBLTY Groupe Technologies Corp., a software company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange and providing digital retail solutions, including QR codes and mobile apps, from March 2020 to August 2021. Since August 2021, Ms. Sim has also been leading the public reporting for DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (a TSX-V listed company that manages, operates, and develops end-to-end digital solutions to monetize the blockchain ecosystem). Ms. Sim was appointed as CFO of DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. in August 2021, Corporate Secretary in November 2022 and to the board of directors in April 2023.

Kaitlin Thompson, Proposed Chief Operating Officer

Ms. Thompson will serve as the COO of the Resulting Issuer. Ms. Thompson will be an independent contractor of the Resulting Issuer. Ms. Thompson currently works as the Vice President, Product Strategy at Evolve. Prior to this position, Ms. Thompson worked as Business Development Manager and participated in the Business Management Rotational Program at Mackenzie Investments, a leading investment management firm providing investment advisory and related services to retail and institutional clients. Her experience spans the design and execution of traditional and digital asset investment products. Ms. Thompson holds a bachelor's degree in business from Queen's University (2018). Ms. Thompson is a CFA Charterholder (2022) and, in 2018, completed the Canadian Securities Course with the Canadian Securities Institute. Ms. Thompson serves as Co-Chair of Women in ETFs Canada, the Canadian chapter of a global organization with over 10,000 members and 32 chapters worldwide.

Keith Crone, Proposed Chief Marketing Officer

Mr. Crone will serve as the CMO of the Resulting Issuer and will be an independent contractor of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. Crone has over 25 years of experience in sales and marketing of investment products. Mr. Crone currently serves as CMO of Evolve. Prior to his role at Evolve, Mr. Crone served as Vice President, Retail Markets at Fiera Capital Corporation, a prominent Canadian investment management firm with over $100 billion in assets under management. Mr. Crone served as Vice President and Partner of Propel Capital Corporation (which was acquired by Fiera Capital Corporation in September 2014). Propel Capital Corporation developed, managed and distributed investment solutions for Canadians through TSXV-listed and managed funds. Propel Capital Corporation raised approximately $1 billion in structured products within its five years of operation. Prior to Propel Capital Corporation. Mr. Crone served as Senior Vice President, Sales within JovFunds Inc., the speciality investment arm of Jovian Capital Corporation, a financial holding company that provided a range of financial services, primarily in the private wealth management market.

Patrick McBride, Proposed Director

Mr. McBride will serve as a Director of the Resulting Issuer. Mr. McBride brings experience in structured product syndication and capital markets, contributing to the Resulting Issuer's distribution strategy and investor access, particularly within the institutional channel.

Mr. McBride works as a consultant for Hickson Capital, a capital markets advisory business. From 2016 to 2021, Mr. McBride worked as Managing Director, Head of Origination Investment Banking at Eight Capital, a wholly-owned Canadian, full-service investment dealer. From 2012 to 2016, Mr. McBride worked as Managing Director, Head of Institutional Sales at Dundee Securities, a full-service investment holding company that focuses on wealth management, resources, agriculture and real estate. Prior to these roles, Mr. McBride worked as the Managing Director, Institutional Sales at Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., the leading independent full-service financial services team. Mr. McBride holds a bachelor's degree in science from the University of Toronto (1998).

Michael Simonetta, Proposed Director

Mr. Simonetta has a broad background in management, investment and capital markets. Mr. Simonetta will not be an employee or independent contractor of the Resulting Issuer. Currently, Michael acts as Chairman of Evolve. Mr. Simonetta was one of the founding partners of First Asset Management Inc., a Canadian investment firm, and served as its President and CEO from 1997 to 2006. At the time First Asset Management Inc. was sold in 2005, First Asset Management Inc. managed in excess of $30 billion in assets and was one of Canada's top ten largest companies in the pension and high net worth asset management business. First Asset Management Inc.'s affiliates have included: Beutel, Goodman & Company Ltd.; Foyston Gordon & Payne, Inc.; Deans Knight Capital Management Ltd., Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.; Covington Capital Corporation; First Asset Funds Inc. (formerly Triax Capital Corporation); and Northwest Mutual Funds Inc. First Asset Management Inc. was sold in 2005 to Affiliated Managers Group, Inc., a publicly listed investment management company based in Boston. Mr. Simonetta is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, obtaining his C.A. designation in 1984 while achieving Top 20 Honour Roll standing, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo (1983 - Gold Medal).

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to: the terms and conditions of the Transaction; the Concurrent Financing; expectations related to Bitcoin and its use in the future; and future development plans of the Resulting Issuer. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: satisfaction or waiver of all applicable conditions to the completion of the Transaction (including receipt of all necessary shareholder, stock exchange and regulatory approvals or consents, and the absence of material changes with respect to the parties and their respective businesses); ability to close the Concurrent Financing on the proposed terms or at all, the synergies expected from the Transaction not being realized; business integration risks; the Resulting Issuer's operating results will experience significant fluctuations due to the highly volatile nature of Bitcoin; BTCT operates in a heavily regulated environment and any material changes or actions could lead to negative adverse effects to the business model, operational results, and financial condition of BTCT; evolving cryptocurrency regulatory requirements and the impact on BTCT's business plan; Bitcoin value risk; reliance on key personnel; implementation of the Resulting Issuer's business plan; lack of operating history; competitive conditions; de banking and financial services risk; anti money laundering and corrupt business practices; additional capital; financing risks; global financial conditions; insurance and uninsured risks; cybersecurity risks; changes to bank fees or practices, or payment card networks; audit of tax filings; market for the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures; market price of the Resulting Issuer Shares and the Resulting Issuer Convertible Debentures; conflicts of interest; internal controls; tariffs and the imposition of other restrictions on trade could adversely affect the Resulting Issuer's business; risk of litigation; pandemics or other health crisis; acquisitions and integration; risk of dilution of Resulting Issuer securities; dividend policy; Bitcoin price volatility; custodial risks; technological vulnerabilities; Bitcoin transactions are irreversible and may result in significant losses; short history risk; limited history of the Bitcoin market; potential decrease in the global demand for Bitcoin; economic and political factors; top Bitcoin holders control a significant percentage of the outstanding Bitcoin; availability of exchange traded products liquidity; security breaches; the amalgamation agreement may be terminated by 268 or BTCT in certain circumstances; there can be no certainty that all conditions precedent to the Transaction will be satisfied; BTCT and 268 may incur costs even if the Transaction is not completed; the requirements that accompany being a publicly traded company may put a strain on the Resulting Issuer's resources, divert attention from management, and adversely affect its ability to maintain and attract management and qualified board members; uncertainty of use of proceeds; liquidity risk; leverage risk; and share price fluctuations.

Although management of BTCT believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and BTCT does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward -looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, change in management's estimates or opinions, future circumstances or events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities law.

Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSXV acceptance. Where applicable, the Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the filing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Not for distribution to United States news wire services or for dissemination in the United States.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253082

SOURCE: 2680083 Alberta Ltd.
Summary: To deliver convenience and flexibility for vehicle maintenance, Street Shine Hawaii has launched a new membership program that offers unlimited car washes.

Kapolei, Hawaii--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Street Shine Hawaii announces the launch of its new Unlimited Car Wash Membership Program, a monthly subscription plan designed to offer customers the ability to wash their vehicles as often as needed without incurring additional charges. The program is intended to meet the growing demand for flexible vehicle maintenance options and aligns with the company's ongoing efforts to simplify car care for Hawaii's drivers.

The new membership provides a fixed monthly rate that covers unlimited exterior car washes throughout the billing period. Customers can access wash and Kapolei car detailing services at their convenience, with no requirement to schedule appointments in advance. By eliminating individual service fees and timing restrictions, the membership supports a streamlined maintenance routine that adapts to each member's availability.

This initiative responds to a broader shift in consumer expectations, where convenience and predictable costs have become essential to service delivery. With this program, Street Shine Hawaii addresses those expectations directly by introducing a solution that reduces logistical concerns often associated with routine vehicle upkeep.



The membership program is structured to serve a wide range of vehicle owners, including those who drive daily in urban conditions, travel frequently across the islands, or maintain larger vehicles that require regular attention. The consistent access to wash services helps customers maintain the exterior appearance of their vehicles while supporting long-term upkeep, particularly in Hawaii's climate, where salt air and road debris can accelerate wear.



By moving away from the traditional pay-per-wash model, Street Shine Hawaii is offering an alternative that reflects current service trends focused on accessibility and simplicity. The flat-rate structure gives customers clarity in pricing and the confidence to use the service as often as needed without concern for accumulating charges. This predictable cost model is especially useful for families and businesses that manage multiple vehicles and value routine cleanliness as part of their image or operations.



The implementation of this membership model reinforces Street Shine Hawaii's commitment to evolving with customer needs and industry standards. As more consumers seek convenience-driven services, the company is positioning itself to remain competitive by offering practical, user-friendly solutions that improve both access and value.

The Unlimited Car Wash Membership Program supports Street Shine Hawaii's broader mission to deliver consistent, high-quality service while removing barriers traditionally associated with vehicle maintenance. The membership is priced at $99 per month and is now available to new and existing customers.

About Street Shine Hawaii:

Street Shine Hawaii is a locally owned and operated car care company that has served customers across the Hawaiian Islands since 2010. The business offers a range of professional car wash and detailing services, combining modern techniques with high-quality products to deliver consistent results. With locations in Kapolei and Honolulu, Street Shine Hawaii provides reliable and accessible vehicle maintenance options tailored to the needs of local drivers.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253084

SOURCE: GetFeatured
Press release

THE VALLOUREC GENERAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING OF 22 MAY 2025 VOTED IN FAVOR OF ALL THE RESOLUTIONS

AND APPROVED THE FIRST DIVIDEND IN A DECADE

Meudon (France), May 22, 2025 - Vallourec, a world leader in premium seamless tubular solutions, announces that the Combined General Meeting of Shareholders, held today, chaired by Mr Philippe Guillemot with a quorum of 74.75 %, adopted all the resolutions put to the vote.

The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the parent company and consolidated financial statements for the 2024 fiscal year and the payment of a dividend of 1.50 per share in respect of 2024. The ex-dividend date will be May 26, 2025 and the dividend will be paid on May 28, 2025. In accordance with the by-laws and the applicable free shares plan, the thresholds for the assessment of the performance condition for the vesting of the Tranche 3 and Tranche 4 preferred shares will automatically adjusted of the amount of the dividend, on a euro for euro basis1. Moreover, pursuant to the provisions of section 4.2.8.4. of the note d'operation (AMF visa n21-093 of March 31, 2021), the exercise ratio (Parite d'Exercice) of the warrants (ISIN Code: FR00140030K7) will also be adjusted. The modalities of such adjustment will be communicated in the coming days.

The General Meeting of Shareholders ratified the co-optation of Mr Keith James Howell as Director and renewed his term for four (4) years, i.e. until the end of the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting called to approve the financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2028.

The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the compensation and benefits paid during or awarded for the year ended 31 December 2024 to the Company's directors and officers and the compensation policy applicable to the directors and officers for 2025.

Also, the General Meeting of Shareholders approved the amendment of the Articles of Association to reflect the provisions of the Law n 2024-537 of June 13, 2024 aimed at increasing the financing of businesses and the attractiveness of France and to specify the powers of the Lead Independent Director.

A webcast of the General Shareholders' Meeting of 22 May 2025 and the voting results for each resolution are available on Vallourec's website: www.vallourec.com

About Vallourec

Vallourec is a world leader in premium seamless tubular solutions for the energy markets and for demanding industrial applications such as oil & gas wells in harsh environments, new generation power plants, challenging architectural projects, and high-performance mechanical equipment. Vallourec's pioneering spirit and cutting edge R&D open new technological frontiers. With close to 13,000 dedicated and passionate employees in more than 20 countries, Vallourec works hand-in-hand with its customers to offer more than just tubes: Vallourec delivers innovative, safe, competitive and smart tubular solutions, to make every project possible.

Listed on Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013506730, Ticker VK), Vallourec is part of the CAC Mid 60, SBF 120 and Next 150 indices and is eligible for Deferred Settlement Service.

In the United States, Vallourec has established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R4074, Ticker: VLOWY). Parity between ADR and a Vallourec ordinary share has been set at 5:1.

For further information, please contact:

Investor relations:

Connor Lynagh

Tel: +1

Individual shareholders:

Toll Free number

Press relations: Taddeo

Romain Griere

Tel: +33

Nicolas Escoulan

Tel: +33

1 It is reminded that the performance condition of the Tranche 2 preferred shares was already met. For the purposes of the assessment of the performance conditions of the Tranche 3 and Tranche 4 preferred shares, the thresholds will be set respectively at 18.72 and 26.82 respectively (corresponding to the 20.22 and 28.32 thresholds before dividend distribution).

Attachment
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) (the "Company" or "PreveCeutical"), is pleased to announce that, following its news releases dated April 2, 2025, April 14, 2025, and April 28, 2025, it has successfully closed the final tranche ("Final Tranche") of its previously announced $700,000 non-brokered private placement ("Offering"). The Final Tranche comprised 5,279,400 units (each, a "Unit") of the Company at a price of $0.03 per Unit, resulting in gross aggregate proceeds of $158,382. In total, PreveCeutical has raised $748,383 through the issuance of an aggregate of 24,946,100 Units at a price of $0.03 per Unit.

Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share (each, a "Share") in the capital of the Company and one-half (1/2) of one Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase an additional Share (each, a "Warrant Share") at an exercise price of $0.05 per Warrant Share for a period of 24 months from the closing of the Final Tranche (the "Final Tranche Closing"), subject to an acceleration right, whereby the expiry date of the Warrants may be accelerated if the daily closing price of the Shares equals or exceeds $0.08 or greater on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") (or such other recognized securities exchange on which the Shares may then trade) for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days, in which event the Company may accelerate the expiry of the Warrants by giving notice via news release and, in such case, all of the then unexercised Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which the news release is disseminated (the "Acceleration Right").

In connection with the Final Tranche Closing, the Company paid finders fees to an eligible finder comprised of $12,670.56 in cash and issued 422,352 Finder's Warrant (each, a "Finder's Warrant"). The Finder's Warrant are exercisable into one additional Share at an exercise price of $0.05 per Share for 24 months from the Final Tranche Closing, subject to the Acceleration Right.

The Company intends to use the aggregate gross proceeds of the Final Tranche to pay outstanding payables, for operating expenses and for general working capital purposes.

All securities issued in relation to the Final Tranche are subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day after the Final Tranche Closing, in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The securities issued under the Offering, including those in the Final Tranche, have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the Securities Act. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About PreveCeutical

PreveCeutical is a health sciences company that develops innovative options for preventive and curative therapies utilizing organic and nature identical products. PreveCeutical aims to be a leader in preventive health sciences and currently has five research and development programs, including: dual gene therapy for curative and prevention therapies for diabetes and obesity; the Sol-gel Program; Nature Identical peptides for treatment of various ailments; nonaddictive analgesic peptides as a replacement to the highly addictive analgesics such as morphine, fentanyl and oxycodone; and a therapeutic product for treating athletes who suffer from concussions (mild traumatic brain injury). For more information about PreveCeutical, please visit our website www.PreveCeutical.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of PreveCeutical

Stephen Van Deventer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Neither the CSE nor any Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the expectations of management regarding the use of proceeds of the Final Tranche. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements including that the proceeds of the Final Tranche may not be used as stated in this news release and those additional risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. Except where required by law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.



NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253106

SOURCE: PreveCeutical Medical Inc.
Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc.'s Promotional Products Division is The Nation's Leading Supplier of Custom Challenge Coins for Military, Police, EMS, Security Forces and More

MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / LogoTags (www.logotags.com), a division of fourth-generation Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc., is excited to participate in the 39th Annual Police Security Expo held at the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey from June 24-25, 2025. Hosted by the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, this industry-leading event will feature the latest products, services and technological advances for law enforcement and security professionals. Over 6,000 industry professionals are expected to attend from all over the world, including police chiefs, police department directors, federal agencies, tactical teams, transit police, and many more.

Custom Challenge Coin by Logotags



LogoTags will display its extensive range of custom promotional products, such as:

Custom challenge coins and military challenge coins

Embroidered patches for uniforms

Bottle openers, race medals and award medals, and metal tags

Lapel pins, keychains, and silicone bracelets

Badges, Commendation Bars, Insignias and More!

Custom challenge coins and military challenge coins, which traditionally bear an organization's insignia or logo, have a rich history as symbols of membership and pride. Today, they remain an integral part of police and security department cultures across the nation. Their origins trace back to World War I, when they were used by military units to foster camaraderie and recognize service. Over time, these coins evolved into cherished tokens of achievement across all branches of the armed forces. Today, challenge coins remain an integral part of police and security department cultures nationwide and are used to commemorate milestones, build morale, and strengthen unit identity.

LogoTags distinguishes itself with custom challenge coins made of the highest quality brass, with no setup charges, unlimited art changes, and free digital proofs. These unique benefits underscore our commitment to providing exceptional value and service to our customers. "We're delighted to exhibit at the Annual Police Security Expo. LogoTags has a proud history of supporting first responders, and we offer superior custom products that honor their courage and dedication," explains LogoTags Manager Dawn Milanese.

Attendees are invited to visit LogoTags at Booth #2036 to review samples and discuss unique customization options with our team. Free design consultations will be available on-site. For more information about this event, visit www.police-security.com.

More about Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc. and LogoTags, a division of Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc.:

The current owners honor their great-grandfather and grandfather who started Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc. (Ball Chain) in a small garage behind their home in the Bronx, New York. The company has been family owned and operated since 1938. Ball Chain is now the world's largest manufacturer of ball chains, seen on military dog tags, ceiling fans, handbags, and light pulls, among many other goods. The company manufactures more than 4 million feet of product per week at its Mount Vernon, New York, factory. Ball Chain is the exclusive supplier of chain to the U.S. Armed Forces for the iconic dog tag ID necklace work by U.S. servicemen and servicewomen (all ball chains are made in the USA). LogoTags, Ball Chain's custom promotional products division, provides custom dog tags, challenge coins, bottle openers, lapel pins, pure silver challenge coins, and metal tags, to name just a few items. LogoTags fabricates custom promotional products at its Mount Vernon, New York, manufacturing facility and works with long-term production partners overseas to bring customers the finest items from across the globe. We put our heart into everything we do.

Contact Information

Bill Taubner

President

bill@logotags.com

914-720-3164





SOURCE: LogoTags

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/consumer-and-retail-products/logotags-part-of-a-fourth-generation-company-to-feature-custom-challen-1030992


CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - The U.S. dollar was higher against its most major counterparts in the New York session on Thursday, as treasury yields soared amid concerns about the fiscal impact of President Donald Trump's tax bill.



The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond reached as high as 5.1%, its highest level since 2023.



Analysts warn that Trump's tax bill could add trillions to the federal government's already massive $36.2 trillion debt pile. The plan has sparked fears of an even wider deficit, especially as interest payments continue to soar.



In a post on Truth Social, Trump called the bill 'arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country' and urged the Senate to send the bill to his desk as soon as possible.



On the economic front, a report released by the Labor Department unexpectedly showed a slight decline by first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the week ended May 17th.



The Labor Department said initial jobless claims edged down to 227,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 229,000. The dip surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to inch up to 230,000.



The greenback climbed to 2-day highs of 1.1257 against the euro and 0.8306 against the franc. The currency is seen finding resistance around 1.10 against the euro and 0.89 against the franc.



The greenback rebounded to 144.30 against the yen, from an early fresh 2-week low of 142.79. If the currency rises further, it is likely to test resistance around the 149.00 level.



The greenback advanced to a 2-day high of 0.6407 against the aussie. The currency may find resistance around the 0.63 level.



The greenback remained higher against the kiwi and was trading at 0.5899. In the previous session, the greenback strengthened to a 2-day high of 0.5894 against the kiwi. The currency is poised to find resistance around the 0.57 level.



In contrast, the greenback retreated against the loonie and was trading at 1.3869. If the currency falls further, it is likely to test support around the 1.36 region.



The greenback eased against the pound and was trading at 1.3408. The next possible support for the currency is seen around the 1.36 level.



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Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

 2025 AFX News
West Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Magnum Goldcorp Inc. (TSXV: MGI) (the "Company" or "Magnum") announces that, subject to regulatory approval, the Company intends to proceed with a non-brokered private placement to raise up to $150,000 by the issuance of 3,000,000 units (the "Units") at $0.05 per Unit (the "Private Placement"). Each Unit will consist of one common share (a "Share") and one share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder to purchase an additional common share for a period of 2 years at an exercise price of $0.20.

Insiders may participate in the Private Placement. In addition, the Company may pay finders' fees in cash equal to 7% of the gross proceeds raised under the Private Placement and issue finder's warrants (each, a "Finder's Warrant") equal to 7% of the total number of Units issued to subscribers introduced to the Company by each such finder. Each Finder's Warrant is exercisable for one Share (each, a "Finder's Warrant Share") at $0.20 per Finder's Warrant Share for 2 years from the date of issuance.

All securities issued in connection with the Private Placement will have a four-month and one day hold period in Canada from the closing of the Private Placement.

The Company intends to use the proceeds from this Private Placement for general working capital purposes.

This press release does not constitute an offer of sale of any of the foregoing securities in the United States. None of the foregoing securities have been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor will there be any sale of the foregoing securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address such matters, including the finder's fees that may be paid by the Company and the intended use of the proceeds of the private placement, are forward-looking statements and, as such, are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which are beyond the reasonable control of the Company. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, this forward-looking information. Any forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and subject to change after that date and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such Act.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253124

SOURCE: Magnum Goldcorp Inc.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - LQWD Technologies Corp. (TSXV: LQWD) (OTCQX: LQWDF) ("LQWD" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has retained the services of Renmark Financial Communications Inc. ("Renmark") to provide investor relations services to the Company (the "Services").

In consideration for the Services, and subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange, Renmark will be paid C$7,000 per month, starting June 1, 2025. The Services have an initial term of seven months ending December 31, 2025, and may be extended on a monthly basis thereafter. Renmark does not have any direct or indirect interest in LQWD, or its securities, nor any right or intent to acquire such an interest.

Founded in 1999, Renmark is a privately held full-service investor relations firm, located in Atlanta, New York, Toronto and Montreal. For over 25 years, Renmark has provided services in investor relations, media relations, and web development representing small, medium, and large cap public companies listed on all major North American exchanges. With the largest roadshow footprint in North America, Renmark hosts a multitude of live streaming Virtual Non-Deal Roadshows across North America and Europe.

About LQWD Technologies Corp.

Canada's Bitcoin treasury strategy, LQWD Technologies is purpose built for the Bitcoin Lightning era. We are at the forefront of enabling fee-based transactions at scale on Lightning Network. For more information, please visit LQWD's corporate presentation or connect with the Company's Lightning Network nodes in real time.

For more information, please visit LQWD's corporate presentation and connect with the Company's Lightning Network nodes in real time.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Company's business plans and the outlook of the Company's industry. Although the Company believes, considering the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances other than as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253135

SOURCE: LQWD Technologies Corp.
Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Arizona's premier fence company announces expanded capacity to meet growing demand for commercial and residential fencing projects in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale, and other cities in the state of Arizona.





AZ Fence Company



To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10373/253127_1ea9957a34cc0b4c_001full.jpg

Leading Arizona Fence Experts Expand Operations to Address Rising Commercial and Residential Fencing Needs

The AZ Fence Company, a trusted name in Arizona's fencing industry, today announced a significant expansion of their service capabilities to address the surging demand for both Commercial and residential fencing solutions across the Phoenix metropolitan area. This expansion comes in response to the Valley's robust construction growth and increasing security requirements for businesses and homeowners alike.

"We've seen a dramatic increase in requests for commercial chain link fencing in Phoenix and industrial fencing solutions across the entire Valley," said Jason Adams, Owner at The AZ Fence Company. "Our expansion ensures we can continue to deliver the quick response times and quality work our clients expect, even as demand continues to rise."

Commercial Fencing Solutions Meeting Critical Business Needs

As Arizona's commercial development accelerates, the need for specialized fencing solutions has grown exponentially. The AZ Fence Company has positioned itself as the premier commercial fence contractor in Phoenix, offering comprehensive solutions for:

Construction sites needing secure barriers

Childcare facilities requiring safety fencing

Utility providers seeking security installations

Industrial complexes demanding durable chain link options

Businesses with multiple projects needing consistent quality

The company's expansion specifically addresses the needs of businesses required by Arizona law to maintain proper fencing, including construction companies needing OSHA-compliant temporary barriers, pool management facilities requiring code-compliant enclosures, and childcare centers mandated to have secure perimeter fencing.

"Security and peace of mind aren't optional for our commercial clients," Jason explained. "Our team's expertise in understanding regulatory requirements makes us the go-to industrial fence contractor in Phoenix for businesses across the market."

Recent commercial projects include:

Specialized security fencing for several high-profile construction developments in downtown Phoenix

Custom ranch gates for agricultural operations throughout Maricopa County

Ornamental iron installations for upscale commercial properties

Permanent security barriers for multiple utility companies

Residential Solutions for Arizona's Growing Communities

The expansion also benefits residential customers, particularly new homeowners with specific fencing needs. The company has seen significant growth in requests from families who have recently relocated to the Phoenix area and require fencing for properties with pools, children, or pets.

"We understand that when you move into a new home in Arizona, getting proper fencing isn't just about property boundaries-it's about safety for your family," said Jason. "That's why we take pride in our extremely prompt service and have streamlined our estimation process to make it incredibly easy for new homeowners to get a fence quote within 24 hours."

The company offers a wide selection of residential fencing options including:

Pool fence installations meeting all safety regulations

Wood fencing for traditional aesthetics

Vinyl fencing for low-maintenance solutions

Ornamental iron for elegant security

Chain link for affordable, durable boundaries

Homeowners concerned about the cost to fence a yard in Phoenix can now benefit from the company's enhanced capacity and competitive pricing structure, allowing projects to be completed on budget and on schedule.

Innovative Estimation Process Reduces Wait Times

As part of their expansion, The AZ Fence Company has refined their digital estimation system, allowing customers to receive personalized quotes within 24 hours. The streamlined free fence estimate process takes just 30 seconds to complete and guides users through three simple steps:

Selecting a fence type

Wooden Fence

Vinyl Fence

Ornamental Iron/Wrought Iron Fence

Privacy Fence

Chain Link Fence

Block Fence

And more custom options

Providing basic project details

Fence height

Approximate linear feet

Optional photo upload of the space

Submitting contact information

Our knowledgeable team will call within 24 hours with a personalized quote

"Today everything is fast-paced, nobody wants to worry about waiting days for a simple estimate," Jason noted. "Our system respects our clients' time while still delivering the outstanding customer service they deserve. Customer satisfaction has always been our top priority."

Expanded Service Areas

The expansion includes increased capacity to serve customers across the entire Greater Phoenix metropolitan area. While maintaining their strong presence as the headquarters, the company has strengthened their teams in all major cities across the Valley including:

Phoenix (Headquarters)

Mesa

Scottsdale

Glendale

Peoria

Chandler

Gilbert

Tempe

Goodyear

Surprise

Buckeye

For commercial clients requiring fence repair services or businesses exploring gate options for commercial buildings, The AZ Fence Company now offers expedited response times across their entire service area.

"Whether you need to fix your existing fence, install farmland fencing in Phoenix or construct a privacy fence for your new home in Gilbert or Chandler, our expanded team means we can respond to your fencing needs faster than ever-and we love giving a free estimate," added Jason. "We're proud to serve businesses and families throughout the Valley with the excellent work our reputation is built on."

The company maintains a healthy amount of fence education resources, featuring professional advice on fencing solutions and maintenance tips specific to Arizona's unique climate conditions.

About The AZ Fence Company

The AZ Fence Company is a premier provider of commercial and residential fencing solutions across Arizona. With a reputation for quality craftsmanship, regulatory compliance, and great service, the company has established itself as the region's trusted fence experts. From standard chain link installations to custom security solutions and decorative fencing, The AZ Fence Company delivers quality, durability, and value.

Working with AZ Fence Company means:

Professional installation by experienced contractors

A pleasant experience from estimate to completion

Responsive communication throughout your project

Materials selected for Arizona's unique climate

The security of working with a respected local business

"It's been a pleasure to watch our business grow by focusing on one simple principle: every job, regardless of size, deserves our complete attention and expertise," said Jason. "We're looking forward to bringing that same great experience to even more customers across Arizona."

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253127

SOURCE: Pressmaster DMCC
The Organizing Committee of Sanmenxia Yellow River Cultural Tourism Festival

SANMENXIA, China, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 20th, the ceremony of Laozi Digital Human Launch and Online Promotion, named "Dialogue Across Time and Space", took place at the Hangu Pass Historical and Cultural Tourism Zone, renowned as the "Millennia-Old Strategic Pass and Birthplace of Taoism". This marks China's first digital human of Laozi, integrating cutting-edge technologies such as AI, 3D modeling and natural semantic interaction. Relying on the study of over 100,000 philosophical annotations, the project has constructed a "Tao Te Ching Semantic Knowledge Graph", enabling real-time human-machine interaction and dialogue centered on philosophical works such as the "Tao Te Ching".

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available in this link.

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available in this link.

A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available in this link.

Within the same day, the "Hangu Pass Base of the Global Laozi Thought Dissemination Research Center of East China Normal University" was simultaneously inaugurated, according to the Organizing Committee of Sanmenxia Yellow River Cultural Tourism Festival.

Historical records note that over 2,500 years ago, Laozi -- an 80-year-old archivist of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty -- journeyed westward from Luoyang, the ancient capital, riding a dark ox, and arrived at Hangu Pass. He stayed there for over seven months, composing the well-known philosophical masterpiece "Tao Te Ching" of more than five thousand characters. This book not only holds a pivotal position in traditional Chinese culture but has also been globally disseminated and studied, becoming the most translated and widely distributed Chinese classic. It has so far been translated into nearly 100 languages with over 2,000 editions.

This event is one of the components of the 30th Sanmenxia Yellow River Cultural Tourism Festival. With the theme of "Pillar of Stability -- A Thriving Yellow River", this festival will last from May 17th to 25th, featuring a total of 9 main activities.

Located in western Henan along the middle reaches of the Yellow River, Sanmenxia is regarded as one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. The Yangshao Culture and Laozi's philosophical legacy, which originated here, have profoundly shaped the development of Chinese heritage.

Source: The Organizing Committee of Sanmenxia Yellow River Cultural Tourism Festival

Contact person: Mr. Huang, Tel: 86-10-63074558
The Blockchain Group confirms the acquisition of 227 BTC for ~21.2 million, the holding of a total of 847 BTC,

and a 'BTC Yield' of 861.0% YTD

Definitive completion of the capital increase announced on May 9, 2025, for a total adjusted amount of ~9.6 million, enabling the acquisition of 90 BTC for ~8.40 million

Definitive completion of the convertible bond issuance announced on May 12, 2025, for a total amount of ~12.1 million, enabling the acquisition of 123 BTC for ~11.46 million

Definitive completion, via its wholly-owned Luxembourg subsidiary "The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA", of a new reserved convertible bonds issuance, without preferential subscription rights, into shares of The Blockchain Group, corresponding to the exercise of the subscription right of all OCA Tranche 2 reserved for strategic investor TOBAM, as part of its subscription to OCA Tranche 1, for a total amount of 1.5 million, enabling the acquisition of 14 BTC for ~1.37 million

'BTC Yield' of 861.0% YTD and 18.7% QTD

'BTC Gain' of 344.4 BTC YTD and 115.8 BTC QTD

'BTC  Gain' of ~32.2 million YTD and ~10.8 million QTD

Total group holdings of 847 BTC for ~71.7 million at ~84,706 per bitcoin

Puteaux, May 22, 2025: The Blockchain Group (ISIN code: FR0011053636, ticker: ALTBG) (the  Company ), listed on Euronext Growth Paris, Europe's first Bitcoin Treasury Company, holding subsidiaries specialized in Data Intelligence, AI, and decentralized technology consulting and development, confirms the definitive completion of the capital increase announced on May 9, 2025, for a total adjusted amount of ~9.6 million, enabling the acquisition of 90 BTC for ~8.40 million. The Company also confirms the definitive completion of the convertible bond issuance announced on May 12, 2025, for a total amount of ~12.1 million, allowing the acquisition of 123 BTC for ~11.46 million. In addition, the Company has definitively completed, through its wholly-owned Luxembourg-based subsidiary "The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA", a reserved convertible bonds issuance, without preferential subscription rights, into shares of The Blockchain Group, corresponding to the exercise of the full subscription rights of the OCA Tranche 2 reserved for strategic investor TOBAM, as part of its subscription to OCA Tranche 1, for a total amount of 1.5 million, enabling the acquisition of 14 BTC for ~1.37 million. Since the beginning of the year, the Group has achieved a BTC Yield of ~861.0%, a BTC Gain of ~344.4 BTC, and a BTC  Gain of ~32.2 million. As of today, The Blockchain Group and its subsidiary The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA hold a total of 847 BTC, with a total acquisition value of ~71.7 million, based on an average price of ~84,706 per bitcoin. The Company thus reinforces its Bitcoin accumulation strategy, while continuing to develop the operational activities of its subsidiaries. As communicated on April 30, 2025, a presentation containing an explanation of the Company's Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy, focused on increasing the number of bitcoin per fully diluted share over time, is available on its website: https://www.theblockchain-group.com/investor/news-financial-information/

Definitive completion of the capital increase by private placement announced on May 9, 2025

It is recalled that the Company's Board of Directors ("Conseil d'Administration") decided on May 7, 2025, using the delegated authority granted by the shareholders' meeting held on February 21, 2025, under the terms of its 3rd resolution, and in accordance with the provisions of Article L. 411-2 1 of the French Monetary and Financial Code, on an issuance, without pre-emptive rights for shareholders, of 9,045,039 new ordinary shares of the Company at a price of 1.0932 per share, including an issuance premium, corresponding to a total subscription amount of 9,888,036.63.

At its meeting held on May 19, 2025, the Board of Directors acknowledged the release of a total amount of 9,609,270.63 corresponding to the fully paid-up subscription of 8,790,039 new ordinary shares, and consequently confirmed the definitive completion of the capital increase decided on May 7, 2025, based on the subscriptions effectively received, as follows:

Investors Number of Shares Amount () Tobam 3 658 980 3 999 996,94  Generali Ambition Solidaire 1 000 000 1 093 200,00  Jean-Marie Formige 2 000 000 2 186 400,00  Quadrille Capital - Disruption Fund Master 686 059 749 999,70  EFG Bank 1 000 000 1 093 200,00  VP Bank 245 000 267 834,00  Patrick Zbinden 200 000 218 640,00  TOTAL 8 790 039 9 609 270,23 

Following the Capital Increase, the Company's share capital is now 4,086,979.52, divided into 102,174,488 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 0.04 each, fully subscribed and released.

Definitive completion of the ~12.1 million convertible bond issuance subscribed by strategic investor Adam Back and of a new 1.5 million convertible bond issuance subscribed by strategic investor TOBAM

On May 12, 2025, the Company announced its decision to carry out, through its wholly-owned Luxembourg-based subsidiary "The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA", a convertible bond issuance for a total amount of ~12.1 million, corresponding to the full exercise of the subscription rights for OCA Tranche 2 reserved for strategic investor Adam Back.

The OCA Tranche 2 thereby issued in favor of Adam Back will entitle its holder, upon conversion, to subscribe to a maximum of 17,176,106 new ordinary shares of the Company at a subscription price of 0.707 per share, representing a 30% premium over the conversion price of the OCA Tranche 1.

On May 22, 2025, the Company also announced its decision to carry out, through its wholly-owned Luxembourg-based subsidiary "The Blockchain Group Luxembourg SA", a convertible bond issuance for an amount of 1.5 million, corresponding to the full exercise of the subscription rights for OCA Tranche 2 reserved for strategic investor TOBAM.

The OCA Tranche 2 thereby issued in favor of TOBAM will entitle its holder, upon conversion, to subscribe to a maximum of 2,121,041 new ordinary shares of the Company at a subscription price of 0.707 per share, representing a 30% premium over the conversion price of the OCA Tranche 1.

The OCA will be convertible into new ordinary shares of the Company at any time during the conversion period, provided that the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of the Company's shares over 20 consecutive trading days reaches at least 130% of the conversion price.

The transaction does not require the preparation of a prospectus subject to approval by the AMF, in accordance with Article 1(4) and Article 3(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No. 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 14, 2017, as amended.

The Company confirms this day that OCA Tranche 2 were definitively subscribed as follows:

Subscriber OCA Tranche 2 Adam Back 12,146,942 TOBAM 1,500,000 TOTAL 13,646,942

The main characteristics of the OCA Tranche 2 issuance were detailed in the May 12, 2025 press release.

Impact of the operations on the Company's share capital structure

The impact of the definitive completion of the capital increase announced on May 9, 2025, the convertible bond issuance announced on May 12, 2025, and the convertible issuance announced on May 22, 2025, on the Company's share capital distribution is as follows:

Situation as of May 22, 2025 Fully diluted basis (*) Shareholders Number of shares % capital Number of shares % capital Executives 11,899,918 11.65% 14,866,131 6.93% Fulgur Ventures - 0.00% 67,744,397 31.58% Adam Back 3,666,666 3.59% 35,728,729 16.66% TOBAM 3,658,980 3.58% 7,618,256 3.55% UTXO Management - 0.00% 3,713,919 1.73% Generali Ambition Solidaire 1,000,000 0.98% 1,000,000 0.47% Jean-Marie Formige 2,000,000 1.96% 2,000,000 0.93% Quadrille Capital - Disruption Fund Master 686,059 0.67% 686,059 0.32% EFG Bank 1,000,000 0.98% 1,000,000 0.47% VP Bank 245,000 0.24% 245,000 0.11% Patrick Zbinden 200,000 0.20% 200,000 0.09% Free shares - 0.00% 1,880,000 0.88% Public & Institutional 77,817,865 76.16% 77,817,865 36.28% TOTAL 102,174,488 100% 214,500,356 100%

(*) Calculations based on the number of shares comprising the Company's share capital as of May 22, 2025, to which has been added the shares resulting from (i) the full conversion of all issued OCA Tranche 1 and OCA Tranche 2, and (ii) the issuance of Free Shares already granted.

The Company also reminds of the potential addition of shares to its share capital resulting from (i) the conversion of the BSA 2025-01 issued as announced on April 7, 2025, and (ii) legal adjustment measures for OCA holders. The breakdown of these is as follows:

Shareholders Shares that could be issued as part of the exercising of the BSA 2025-01 Shares that could be issued as part of legal adjustment measures for OCA holders Total Executives 1,699,988 423,744 2,123,732 Fulgur Ventures 0 9,677,771 9,677,771 Adam Back 523,809 2,126,565 2,650,374 TOBAM 0 262,605 262,605 UTXO Management 0 530,559 530,559 Public & Institutional 11,116,837 0 11,116,837 TOTAL 13,340,634 13,021,244 26,361,878

Expansion of the Company's bitcoin holdings

The Blockchain Group announces the definitive completion of the acquisition of an additional 90 BTC using the proceeds from the capital increase completed on May 9, 2025, an additional 123 BTC using the proceeds from the convertible bond issuance subscribed by strategic investor Adam Back and announced on May 12, 2025, as well as an additional 14 BTC using the proceeds from the convertible bond issuance subscribed by strategic investor TOBAM and announced on May 22, 2025, representing a total acquisition of 227 BTC as part of the acceleration of its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy.

Banque Delubac & Cie (DASP registered with the AMF), executed the acquisition of the BTC using the proceeds from the capital increase, and was entrusted with their secure custody via the technological solution of Swiss company Taurus, a world leader in infrastructures for digital assets.

Swissquote Bank Europe SA, a virtual asset service provider (VASP) registered with the Luxembourg regulator (CSSF), executed the acquisition of the BTC using the proceeds from the convertible bond issuance and was entrusted with their secure custody via the technological solution of Swiss company Taurus.

Detail of the group's BTC acquisitions:

Reported Date BTC Acquisition BTC Acquisition  Cost Basis Total BTC Holdings Total BTC  Cost Basis Total BTC  Cost Total BTC  Net Asset Value May 22, 2025 227 93,518 847 84,706 71,746,119 79,209,857 March 26, 2025 580 81,550 620 81,480 50,517,503 50,560,770 December 4, 2024 25 90,511 40 80,468 3,218,718 3,261,985 November 5, 2024 15 63,729 15 63,729 955,941 1,223,244

Note: Total BTC  Net Asset Value as of May 22, 2025, is based on the acquisition cost by BTC of the latest acquisition as of the date of this press release.

Achievement of a 'BTC Yield' of 861.0% YTD and 18.7% QTD

The Group has achieved a 'BTC Yield' of 861.0% YTD and 18.7%. Details are as follows:

Year To Date (YTD):

Reported Date Total BTC Holdings Issued Common Shares Fully Diluted Shares1 BTC (sats) per Fully Diluted Share2 'BTC Yield' YTD3 'BTC Gain' YTD 'BTC  Gain' YTD May 22, 2025 847 102,174,488 214,500,356 394 861.0% 344.4 32,206,732 March 26, 2025 620 93,384,449 186,413,170 332 709.8% 283.9 23,152,139 December 4, 2024 40 93,384,449 95,264,449 41 141.2% 21.2 1,916,705 November 5, 2024 15 85,051,121 85,051,121 17

Quarter To Date (QTD):

Reported Date Total BTC Holdings Issued Common Shares Fully Diluted Shares1 BTC (sats) per Fully Diluted Share2 'BTC Yield' QTD3 'BTC Gain' QTD 'BTC  Gain' QTD May 22, 2025 847 102,174,488 214,500,356 394 18.7% 115.8 10,827,822 March 26, 2025 620 93,384,449 186,413,170 332 709.8% 283.9 23,152,139 December 4, 2024 40 93,384,449 95,264,449 41 141.2% 21.2 1,916,705 November 5, 2024 15 85,051,121 85,051,121 17

The number of shares on a fully diluted basis includes (i) the total number of ordinary shares outstanding, including the shares issued upon the definitive completion of the capital increase announced on May 9, 2025, (ii) the shares that would be issued upon the full conversion of all currently issued convertible bonds of the Company, and (iii) the free shares granted. BTC per Fully Diluted Share is calculated by dividing Total BTC Holdings by the Fully Diluted Shares outstanding at the end of each period. The result is then expressed as satoshis (sats) per Fully Diluted Shares outstanding, rounded down. There are 100,000,000 sats in 1 BTC. Each sat represents 0.00000001 BTC, the smallest unit of bitcoin. As the BTC Yield is intended to illustrate how the Company finances the acquisition of BTC over a given period, the calculation of the number of shares on a fully diluted basis does not include unexercised BSA warrants, as they do not provide financing to the Company and have no impact on the Company's equity until they are exercised. The Company will provide further communication regarding the exercise of warrants and the resulting BTC acquisitions at a later stage.

Important information about 'BTC Yield', 'BTC Gain', and 'BTC  Gain' KPIs

The Company uses 'BTC Yield', 'BTC Gain' and 'BTC  Gain' as indicators to monitor its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy. These indicators illustrate the manner in which the Company finances the acquisition of bitcoin in a given period by:

'BTC Yield' : indicator reflecting the percentage change in the ratio of Total BTC Holdings to Fully Diluted Shares outstanding over a given period;

: indicator reflecting the percentage change in the ratio of Total BTC Holdings to Fully Diluted Shares outstanding over a given period; 'BTC Gain' : indicator that represents the number of BTC held by the Company at the beginning of a period multiplied by the 'BTC Yield' for such period; and

: indicator that represents the number of BTC held by the Company at the beginning of a period multiplied by the 'BTC Yield' for such period; and 'BTC  Gain': indicator representing the euro value of the 'BTC Gain' calculated by multiplying the 'BTC Gain' by the acquisition cost per BTC of the last acquisition of the applicable period. The Company has selected the last acquisition of the applicable period to determine the market price of bitcoin solely for the purpose of facilitating this illustrative calculation.

These indicators will be communicated periodically by the Company as part of its Bitcoin Treasury Company strategy, notably on a half-yearly and annual basis.

When the Company uses these KPIs, it also takes into account the various limitations of these metrics, including that they do not take into account debt and other liabilities and claims on company assets that would be senior to common equity, and that these indicators assume that all indebtedness will be refinanced or, in the case of the Company's (or its subsidiaries') convertible debt instruments, converted into shares of common stock in accordance with their respective terms.

Additionally, 'BTC Yield' is not, and should not be understood as, an operating performance measure or a financial or liquidity measure. In particular, 'BTC Yield' is not equivalent to "yield" in the traditional financial context. It is not a measure of the return on investment the Company's shareholders may have achieved historically or can achieve in the future by purchasing stock of the Company, or a measure of income generated by the Company's operations or its bitcoin holdings, return on investment on its bitcoin holdings, or any other similar financial measure of the performance of its business or assets. 'BTC Gain' and 'BTC  Gain' are not, and should not be understood as, operating performance measures or financial or liquidity measures. In particular, 'BTC Gain' and 'BTC  Gain' are not equivalent to "gain" in the traditional financial context. They also are not measures of the return on investment the Company's shareholders may have achieved historically or can achieve in the future by purchasing stock of the Company, or measures of income generated by the Company's operations or its bitcoin holdings, return on investment on its bitcoin holdings, or any other similar financial measure of the performance of its business or assets. It should also be understood that 'BTC  Gain' does not represent a fair value gain of the Company's bitcoin holdings, and 'BTC  Gain' may be positive during periods when the Company has incurred fair value losses on its bitcoin holdings.

The trading price of the Company's common stock depends on numerous factors in addition to the quantity of bitcoins the Company holds and number of actual or potential shares of its stock outstanding, and as a result, the market value of the Company's shares may trade at a discount or a premium relative to the market value of the bitcoin the Company holds, and neither 'BTC Yield', 'BTC Gain' nor 'BTC  Gain' are indicative or predictive of the trading price of the Company's securities.

As noted above, these KPIs are narrow in their purpose and are used by the Company to assist it in assessing the use of the equity capital, as it pertains to its bitcoin holdings only.

The Company's ability to achieve positive 'BTC Yield', 'BTC Gain', or 'BTC  Gain' may depend on a variety of factors, including its ability to generate profits in excess of its fixed charges and other expenses, as well as factors outside of its control, such as the price of bitcoin, and the availability of financing on favorable terms. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

The presentation of these KPIs does not imply any intention to pay dividends on its common shares in the future. Holding the Company's common shares does not equate to direct ownership of the Bitcoin held by the Company. Investors should rely on the financial statements and other disclosures by the Company. These KPIs are only intended as supplemental metrics for those who understand their purpose and limitations, not as replacements for traditional financial analysis.

Risk factors

The Company reminds that the risk factors related to the Company and to its business are detailed in its 2024 annual financial report, available for free on the Company's website (www.theblockchain-group.com/investor/news-financial-information/). The realization of all or part of these risks could negatively impact the Company's operations, financial position, results, development, or outlook.

* * *

About The Blockchain Group (ALTBG)

The Blockchain Group is a Bitcoin Treasury Company listed

on Euronext Growth Paris, specialized in Data Intelligence,

AI, and Decentralized Tech consulting and development. EURONEXT Growth Paris

Ticker: ALTBG

ISIN: FR0011053636

Reuters: ALTBG.PA

Bloomberg: ALTBG.FP



Contact:

communication@theblockchain-group.com

Contacts - Actus Finance & Communication Investors

Mathieu Calleux

tbg@actus.fr Media

Anne-Charlotte Dudicourt

acdudicourt@actus.fr - +33 6 24 03 26 52

Celine Bruggeman

cbruggeman@actus.fr - +33 6 87 52 71 99 The Blockchain Group press releases are available on:

Financial information - The Blockchain Group

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Disclaimer

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to purchase securities in any jurisdiction. It may not be regarded as an offer, solicitation, or sale in any jurisdiction where such an offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful before registration or certification under the local regulations.

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Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-91880-20250522-tbg-cp-22-mai-2025-en-final.pdf
TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Cerrado Gold Inc. (TSX.V:CERT)(OTCQX:CRDOF)(FRA:BAI0) ("Cerrado" or the "Company") announces that it will file its first quarter 2025 financial results on May 29, 2025, before the market opens. Financial results will be posted on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.com) under Cerrado's issuer profile and on the Company website at www.cerradogold.com.

Conference Call Details

Cerrado Management will also host a conference call on May 29, 2025, at 11:00 AM ET to discuss the Q1 Financial and Operational results as well as the outlook for the Company. The accompanying presentation for the call can be found on the investor page on Cerrado Gold's website at cerradogold.com. Call details are as follows:

Pre-Registration for Conference Call

Participants can preregister for the conference by navigating to:

https://dpregister.com/sreg/10200183/ff3862e66f

Participants will receive dial-in numbers to connect directly upon registration completion.

Those without internet access or unable to pre-register may dial in by calling:

PARTICIPANT DIAL IN (TOLL FREE): 1-833-752-3576

PARTICIPANT INTERNATIONAL DIAL IN: 1-647-846-8340

About Cerrado

Cerrado Gold is a Toronto-based gold production, development, and exploration company. The Company is the 100% owner of the producing Minera Don Nicolas and Las Calandrias mine in Santa Cruz province, Argentina. In Portugal, the Company holds an 80% interest in the highly prospective Lagoa Salgada VMS project through its position in Redcorp - Empreendimentos Mineiros, Lda. In Canada, Cerrado Gold is developing its 100% owned Mont Sorcier Iron project located outside of Chibougamou, Quebec.

In Argentina, Cerrado is maximizing asset value at its Minera Don Nicolas operation through continued operational optimization and is growing production through its operations at the Las Calandrias heap leach project. An extensive campaign of exploration is ongoing to further unlock potential resources in our highly prospective land package in the heart of the Deseado Masiff.

In Portugal, Cerrado focused on the exploration and development of the highly prospective Lagoa Salgada VMS project located on the prolific Iberian Pyrite Belt in Portugal. The Lagoa Salgada project is a high-grade polymetallic project, demonstrating a typical mineralization endowment of zinc, copper, lead, tin, silver, and gold. Extensive exploration upside potential lies both near deposit and at prospective step-out targets across the large 7,209-hectare property concession. Located just 80km from Lisbon and surrounded by exceptional infrastructure, Lagoa Salgada offers a low-cost entry to a significant exploration and development opportunity, already showing its mineable scale and cashflow generation potential.

In Canada, Cerrado holds a 100% interest in the Mont Sorcier Iron project, which has the potential to produce a premium iron ore concentrate over a long mine life at low operating costs and low capital intensity. Furthermore, its high grade and high purity product facilitates the migration of steel producers from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces, contributing to the decarbonization of the industry and the achievement of sustainable development goals.

For more information about Cerrado please visit our website at: www.cerradogold.com.

Mark Brennan

CEO and Chairman

Mike McAllister

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: +1-647-805-5662

mmcallister@cerradogold.com

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

SOURCE: Cerrado Gold Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/cerrado-gold-announces-first-quarter-financial-results-release-date-and-conferenc-1030957
Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Everyday People Financial Corp. (TSXV: EPF) (OTCQB: EPFCF) ("Everyday People" or the "Company"), a financial services provider, is pleased to announce it will be presenting at the Centurion One Capital ("Centurion One") 6th Annual LA Summit held at the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel from Monday, June 2nd to Thursday, June 5th , 2025, in Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Gordon Reykdal, Executive Chairman of Everyday People, will be presenting at the Summit. Mr. Reykdal will also be participating on a panel discussion and will be available for one-on-one investor meetings throughout the event.

"We are excited to participate in the Centurion One Summit," said Mr. Reykdal, Executive Chairman of the Company. "This event provides a unique platform to showcase how Everyday People is innovating financial services to better serve underserved markets in Canada and the UK."

Centurion One Summit Details

Format: Presentations, Panel Discussions and 1 X 1 Investor Meetings

Presentation Dates: Wednesday, June 4th and Thursday, June 5th, 2025

Time: 9:00 AM PDT - 5:00 PM PDT

Venue: The Beverly Hills Hotel

For more information and registration details, please visit: www.centuriononecapital.com/la-summit.

About Centurion One Capital

Centurion One Capital ("Centurion One") is the premier independent Investment Banking firm dedicated to fueling the growth and success of growth companies in North America. With an unwavering commitment to delivering comprehensive financial solutions and strategic guidance, Centurion One is a trusted strategic partner and catalyst to propel issuers to unlock their full potential.

Centurion One's team comprises seasoned professionals who combine extensive financial expertise with deep knowledge of various sectors. Centurion One takes a proactive and results-driven approach, working closely with its clients to develop tailored strategies and execute transactions that maximize value and drive long-term success.

Centurion One - Empowering Growth. Driving Innovation. Partnering for Success.

For more information about Centurion One, visit www.centuriononecapital.com.

About Everyday People Financial Corp.

Everyday People Financial Corp. is a technology-driven financial services company with a mission to help individuals and businesses manage money better. First established in 1988, we have a workforce of 550 people operating in the United Kingdom and Canada providing fully fee-for-service solutions across two business pillars operating in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), which helps organizations recover receivables and streamline billing processes without purchasing consumer debt, and Financial Services, which provides digital tools and credit access programs that support Canadians on their financial journey, all without lending money.

Founded on the belief that everyone deserves a second chance to rebuild financial health and wealth, the Company is committed to providing affordable, innovative, and responsible financial solutions that create lasting value for our clients, customers, and shareholders.

We are changing the way people manage money by enhancing our client and consumer services with our own affordability assessment programs with specialized financial products and literacy programs. We're helping everyday people rebuild their financial health for generational wealth. We stand for creativity and entrepreneurship. Our combination of companies, products and services has been established to ensure we can fulfill consumers' financial needs and service them in a low-cost and effective manner.

For more information visit: www.everydaypeoplefinancial.com.

Contact

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" (collectively referred to hereafter as "forward-looking statements") under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to financial performance, results of operations, integration of the acquired businesses, and the business, plans, strategy, and operations of the Company. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, expectations and assumptions concerning the Company and the acquired businesses as well as other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the documents filed by the Company on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253141

SOURCE: Everyday People Financial Corp.
Novel TROP2-targeting AVC-Booster demonstrated prolonged and significantly improved tumor control in animal models, and activation of the full immune system in non-small cell lung cancer patient samples

AMSTERDAM, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avidicure, a biotechnology company pioneering an entirely new dual agonistic, multifunctional antibody modality with broad applicability in oncology, today announced its upcoming presentation at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting being held May 30 - June 3, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. The presentation will highlight preclinical data supporting Avidicure's lead oncology program, AVC-S-101, a TROP2-targeting booster for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and several other cancer indications.

Avidicure's first-in-class dual agonistic multifunctional AVC-Boosters are designed to harness the full power of the immune system, and are avidity engineered to specifically and safely target only cancer cells. AVC-S-101 has shown prolonged and significantly improved tumor control in mice models by activating expansion and enhanced cytotoxicity of immune cells. In human non-small cell lung cancer samples freshly isolated from surgically resected tumors, AVC-S-101 demonstrated strong activation of the patient's own adaptive and innate immune cells, underscoring its potential as a monotherapy for cancer.

"After announcing our $50M seed funding last month, this presentation at ASCO 2025 marks another important milestone for Avidicure," said Arthur Lahr, Chief Executive Officer of Avidicure. "The data presented further demonstrate the unique mechanism of action of our AVC-Booster platform and programs. We are on track with IND enabling development of our lead multifunctional antibody targeting TROP2 for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and several other cancer indications."

Poster presentation details:

Title: Avidity engineered multifunctional antibodies for stimulation and orchestration of innate and adaptive immune cells in tumor tissues.

Poster Board: 38

Abstract number: 8558

Session Type and Title: Poster Session - Lung Cancer/Non-Small Cell Metastatic

Session Date and Time: May 31st, 2025, 1:30 - 4:30 PM CDT

Presenters: Robert Friesen, PhD & Sophie Poznanski, PhD

Avidicure will also be attending the BIO International Convention being held June 16 - 19, 2025, in Boston, Massachusetts. The company has been invited to give a corporate presentation titled "First-in-class dual agonistic multifunctional antibodies that modulate the full immune system" on June 17th at 1:30 PM ET in Room 153A.

About Avidicure

Avidicure is a biotechnology company pioneering an entirely new dual agonistic, multifunctional and avidity engineered antibody modality, "AVC-Boosters," designed to safely deliver targeted and potent immune-modulating monotherapy for cancer patients. The AVC-Booster design surpasses the best qualities of first-generation antibodies, checkpoint inhibitors, T-cell engagers, and antibody-drug conjugatesor follow the company on LinkedIn.

Contact:

Investor Relations

Christina Tartaglia

christina.tartaglia@precisionaq.com

Media Relations

Colleen Ketchum

colleen.ketchum@precisionaq.com
Toronto, Canada--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Generic Gold Corp. (CSE: GGC) (FSE: 1WD) (OTC Pink: GGCPF) ("Generic Gold" or the "Company") announces the resignation of Mr. Bernard Dionne as a director of the Company, effective immediately. The Company would like to thank Mr. Dionne for his contributions to the Company and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.

About Generic Gold

Generic Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold projects in the Tintina Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory of Canada and the Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec, Canada. The Company's Quebec exploration portfolio consists of four properties covering 12,563 hectares proximal to the town of Normetal, and east of Amex Exploration's Perron project and the past-producing Normetal mine. The Company's Yukon exploration portfolio consists of several projects with a total land position of greater than 35,000 hectares, all of which are 100% owned by Generic Gold. Several of these projects are in close proximity to significant gold deposits, including Goldcorp's Coffee project, Victoria Gold's Eagle Gold project, White Gold's Golden Saddle project, and Western Copper & Gold's Casino project. Generic Gold's board of directors and management team is led by experienced mining industry professionals, with expertise in exploration, finance, capital markets, and mine development. For information on the Company's property portfolio, visit the Company's website at www.genericgold.ca.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDERS ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon the current belief, opinions and expectations of management that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and other contingencies. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/253143

SOURCE: Generic Gold Corp.
Data from Phase 3 MANEUVER study demonstrating significant improvements in physical function and symptoms in patients with tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT) treated with pimicotinib, to be featured in oral presentation

Latest results for potential first-in-class anti-CEACAM5 ADC precemtabart tocentecan (M9140) highlight strong rationale for further development in colorectal cancer (CRC)

Not intended for Canada-, UK- or US-based media

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the presentation of new oncology data across more than 12 tumor types at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, May 31 to June 4 in Chicago. The presentations include the Phase 3 MANEUVER data for potentially best-in-class pimicotinib in the treatment of the rare tumor TGCT, as well as data from both company- and investigator-sponsored studies highlighting the company's focus on advancing differentiated molecules to tackle some of the most challenging cancers.

"The new clinical data we are presenting at ASCO showcase our dedication to advancing innovative therapies for a wide range of diseases-spanning from common cancers to rare non-malignant neoplasms," said Victoria Zazulina, M.D., Head of Development Unit, Oncology, for the Healthcare business of Merck. "From encouraging early data for our lead antibody-drug conjugate, precemtabart tocentecan, in patients with advanced CRC, to new Phase 2 findings and real-world evidence that reinforce the value of BAVENCIO first-line maintenance as a treatment option for advanced bladder cancer, to detailed Phase 3 results for pimicotinib in tenosynovial giant cell tumor, we are working to advance treatments that provide hope to patients and their families."

Highlights of the company's data include:

First presentation of Phase 3 MANEUVER data for pimicotinib in the treatment of TGCT (Abstract 11500)

Detailed results from Part 1 of the Phase 3 MANEUVER study of pimicotinib in the treatment of patients with TGCT, conducted by Abbisko Therapeutics Co., Ltd., will be presented for the first time during the Sarcoma Oral Abstract Session on June 1, at 9:57 a.m. CDT. In the trial, pimicotinib significantly improved objective response rate versus placebo, the primary endpoint, as well as all key secondary endpoints, and was well-tolerated. Pimicotinib is being developed by Abbisko Therapeutics; Merck holds the rights to commercialize pimicotinib worldwide.

Latest data for potentially first-in-class precemtabart tocentecan (Abstracts 3038 TPS3165)

The company continues to progress the clinical investigation of its lead antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), precemtabart tocentecan. New findings from the Phase 1 PROCEADE-CRC 01 study include data from the dose-optimization part in 60 irinotecan-refractory metastatic CRC patients (3L+) demonstrating encouraging efficacy at doses of 2.4mg/kg and 2.8mg/kg every 3 weeks (Q3W) and a predictable and manageable safety profile. These data, which showed a higher ORR and similar safety at the 2.8 mg/kg dose, support the rationale for selecting this as the recommended dose for further development in CRC and other solid tumors, including those cancer types being investigated in the ongoing Phase 1b/2 PROCEADE-PanTumor study (NCT06710132). More mature data for PROCEADE-CRC-01 and details on the design for the PROCEADE-PanTumor study investigating precemtabart tocentecan in patients with locally advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung, gastric, gastroesophageal junction or pancreatic cancer will be presented at the congress.

New findings further building on the benefit from BAVENCIO (avelumab) in the first-line maintenance setting in advanced bladder cancer (Abstracts 4501, e16561, e23275, 9543)

Interim results from the Phase 2 JAVELIN Bladder Medley trial will be presented, focusing on the efficacy of BAVENCIO in combination with the anti-Trop-2 ADC sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy, Gilead Sciences) for patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma (UC) who are progression-free after first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. When used in the maintenance setting, the combination therapy significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) versus BAVENCIO alone (HR 0.49 [95% CI, 0.31-0.76]); median PFS was 11.17 months versus 3.75 months, respectively. Overall survival (OS) data were immature at the time of analysis. Treatment-related adverse events were more frequent in the combination group (97.3%) compared with BAVENCIO monotherapy (63.9%).

The company also will present real-world evidence that reinforces the clinical trial findings from the Phase 3 JAVELIN Bladder 100 study of BAVENCIO as a first-line maintenance therapy in patients with locally advanced/metastatic UC. The data highlight the effectiveness and safety of BAVENCIO in routine clinical practice and heterogenous populations as well as the importance of personalized treatment decision-making.

New research reinforcing the role of ERBITUX (cetuximab) in colorectal cancer (Abstracts 3513, LBA3500)

Investigator-sponsored research continues to reinforce ERBITUX as the backbone of treatment in CRC, including a rapid oral presentation on the final analysis of the FIRE-4 study evaluating the efficacy of cetuximab re-challenge in patients with RASwt mCRC. The study demonstrated greater overall response rate (ORR) in the ERBITUX-containing experimental arm versus physicians' choice of treatment (11.9% vs 28.9%) and numerically higher OS and PFS. Additional data from Pfizer's Phase 3 BREAKWATER trial, evaluating the clinical efficacy of the combination of mFOLFOX6, encorafenib and ERBITUX in metastatic BRAF V600E-mutant CRC, will be featured in the Cancers of the Colon, Rectum, and Anus session. Merck holds the marketing rights to Erbitux globally, outside of the US and Canada.

Select Merck-related abstracts accepted for the ASCO 2025 Annual Meeting include (all times in CDT):

Title Lead Author Abstract Session Information Pimicotinib Pimicotinib in tenosynovial giant cell tumor (TGCT): Efficacy, safety and patient-reported outcomes of Phase 3 MANEUVER study Niu X 11500 Session Title: Sarcoma Date: Sunday, June 1, 2025 Session Time: 9:45 AM 12:45 PM Presentation Time: 9:45 AM 9:57 AM Location: S100a Precemtabart tocentecan (M9140) Precemtabart tocentecan (M9140), an anti-CEACAM5 ADC with exatecan payload, in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC): Results from the dose optimization of the phase 1 PROCEADE CRC-01 study Kopetz S 3038 Session Title: Developmental Therapeutics-Molecularly Targeted Agents and Tumor Biology Date: Monday, June 2, 2025 Session Time: 1:30 PM 4:30 PM Location: Hall A BAVENCIO (avelumab) Avelumab sacituzumab govitecan (SG) vs avelumab monotherapy as first-line (1L) maintenance treatment in patients (pts) with advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC): Interim analysis from the JAVELIN Bladder Medley phase 2 trial Hoffman-Censit J 4501 Session Title: Genitourinary Cancer-Kidney and Bladder Date: Sunday, June 1, 2025 Session Time: 9:45 AM 12:45 PM Presentation Time: 9:57 AM 10:09 AM Location: Hall D2 Differences in patient (pt) characteristics and therapy choice across treatment (tx) groups in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer (la/mUC) in the US: A survey on unmet patient needs Milloy N e16561 Session Title: Publication Only: Genitourinary Cancer-Kidney and Bladder Management and outcomes of rash, peripheral neuropathy (PN), and hyperglycemia (HG) during first-line (1L) treatment (tx) of locally advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer (la/mUC) in a real-world setting Nizam A e23275 Session Title: Publication Only: Quality Care/Health Services Research Real-world safety and effectiveness of avelumab in immune-compromised (IC) and non-IC patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC): Results from a prospective German registry (MCC-TRIM) Becker J 9543 Session Title: Publication Only: Genitourinary Cancer-Kidney and Bladder ERBITUX (cetuximab) FIRE-4 (AIO KRK-0114): Randomized study evaluating the efficacy of cetuximab re-challenge in patients with metastatic RAS wild-type colorectal cancer responding to first-line treatment with FOLFIRI plus cetuximab Weiss L 3513 Session Title: Gastrointestinal Cancer-Colorectal and Anal Date: Sunday, June 1, 2025 Session Time: 11:30 AM 1:00 PM Presentation Time: 11:36 AM 11:42 AM Location: Hall D1 First-line encorafenib cetuximab mFOLFOX6 in BRAF V600E-mutant metastatic colorectal cancer (BREAKWATER): Progression-free survival and updated overall survival analyses Elez E LBA3500 Session Title: Oral Abstract Session C: Cancers of the Colon, Rectum, and Anus Date: Friday, May 30, 2025 Session Time: 2:45 PM 5:45 PM Presentation Time: 2:45 PM 2:57 PM Location: Arie Crown Theater

Advancing the Future of Cancer Care

At Merck, we strive every day to improve the futures of people living with cancer. Building on our 350-year global heritage as pharma pioneers, we are focusing our most promising science to target cancer's deepest vulnerabilities, pursuing differentiated molecules to strike cancer at its core. By developing new therapies that can help advance cancer care, we are determined to create a world where more cancer patients will become cancer survivors. Learn more at www.merckgroup.com.

About Pimicotinib (ABSK021)

Pimicotinib (ABSK021), which is being developed by Abbisko Therapeutics, is a novel, orally administered, highly selective and potent small-molecule inhibitor of CSF-1R. Pimicotinib has been granted breakthrough therapy designation (BTD) for the treatment of inoperable TGCT by China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and priority medicine (PRIME) designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Merck holds worldwide commercialization rights for pimicotinib.

About precemtabart tocentecan (M9140)

Precemtabart tocentecan (previously known as M9140) is an investigational anti-CEACAM5 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Leveraging the company's novel linker-payload technology, precemtabart tocentecan is the first CEACAM5 ADC with an exatecan payload, a potent topoisomerase inhibitor (TOP1i), which has been rationally designed for stability in circulation and superior cancer cell killing activity. Beyond the direct effect on the target cell, precemtabart tocentecan has been shown in preclinical research to induce tumor cell death through a bystander effect permeating the cell membrane to neighboring cells, inducing apoptosis (cell death). This bystander effect within the tumor microenvironment may enhance efficacy, particularly in tumors with heterogenous CEACAM5 expression. Precemtabart tocentecan is currently being evaluated across tumor types with CEACAM5 expression and a high unmet need, including metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), gastric cancer (GC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

About BAVENCIO(avelumab)

BAVENCIO is a human anti-programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) antibody. BAVENCIO has been shown in preclinical models to engage both the adaptive and innate immune functions. By blocking the interaction of PD-L1 with PD-1 receptors, BAVENCIO has been shown to release the suppression of the T cell-mediated antitumor immune response in preclinical models.

BAVENCIO Approved Indications

BAVENCIO (avelumab) is indicated in the US for the maintenance treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) that has not progressed with first-line platinum-containing chemotherapy. BAVENCIO is also indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic UC who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy.

BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib is indicated in the US for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In the US, BAVENCIO is indicated for the treatment of adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC).

BAVENCIO is currently approved for at least one indication for patients in more than 50 countries.

BAVENCIO Safety Profile from the EU Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC)

The special warnings and precautions for use for BAVENCIO monotherapy include infusion-related reactions, as well as immune-related adverse reactions that include pneumonitis and hepatitis (including fatal cases), colitis, pancreatitis (including fatal cases), myocarditis (including fatal cases), endocrinopathies, nephritis and renal dysfunction, and other immune-related adverse reactions. The special warnings and precautions for use for BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib include hepatotoxicity.

The SmPC list of the most common adverse reactions with BAVENCIO monotherapy in patients with solid tumors includes fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, decreased appetite, constipation, infusion-related reactions, weight decreased and vomiting. The list of most common adverse reactions with BAVENCIO in combination with axitinib includes diarrhea, hypertension, fatigue, nausea, dysphonia, decreased appetite, hypothyroidism, cough, headache, dyspnea, and arthralgia.

About ERBITUX (cetuximab)

ERBITUX is an IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). As a monoclonal antibody, the mode of action of ERBITUX is distinct from standard non-selective chemotherapy treatments in that it specifically targets and binds to the EGFR. This binding inhibits the activation of the receptor and the subsequent signal-transduction pathway, which results in reducing both the invasion of normal tissues by tumor cells and the spread of tumors to new sites. It is also believed to inhibit the ability of tumor cells to repair the damage caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy and to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels inside tumors, which appears to lead to an overall suppression of tumor growth. Based on in vitro evidence, ERBITUX also targets cytotoxic immune effector cells towards EGFR-expressing tumor cells (antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity [ADCC]).

ERBITUX has already obtained market authorization in over 100 countries worldwide for the treatment of RAS wild-type metastatic colorectal cancer and for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Merck licensed the right to market ERBITUX, a registered trademark of ImClone LLC, outside the U.S. and Canada from ImClone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, in 1998.

About Merck

Merck, a leading science and technology company, operates across life science, healthcare and electronics. More than 62,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people's lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices the company is everywhere. In 2024, Merck, generated sales of 21.2 billion in 65 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark "Merck" internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare and EMD Electronics in electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company's technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company.

All Merck, press releases are distributed by e-mail at the same time they become available on the EMD Group website. In case you are a resident of the USA or Canada, please go to www.Merckgroup.com/subscribe to register for your online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250522932899/en/

Contacts:

Media Relations

noelle.piscitelli@emdserono.com

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The FDA has approved Johnson & Johnson's anti-FcRn antibody, nipocalimab, for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis. The drug will be sold under the brand name IMAAVY. This approval positions J&J to challenge leading competitors in the myasthenia gravis market, such as AstraZeneca, which markets the monoclonal antibodies SOLIRIS and ULTOMIRIS. J&J will also be competing with Argenx's VYVGART and UCB's RYSTIGGO and ZILBRYSQ.

LAS VEGAS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder in which antibodies disrupt the communication between nerves and muscles, resulting in skeletal muscle weakness. This weakness primarily affects voluntary muscles that control eye movement, facial expression, swallowing, and limb function. The condition is predominantly driven by autoantibodies targeting either the acetylcholine receptor (AChR-Ab) or a receptor-associated protein known as muscle-specific tyrosine kinase (MuSK-Ab).

According to DelveInsight's analysis, there were approximately 300,000 diagnosed prevalent cases of myasthenia gravis across the 7MM in 2024. This number is expected to grow steadily over the forecast period (2025-2034), with a projected CAGR.

The current myasthenia gravis therapeutics market mainly consists of symptomatic treatments such as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors like Mestinon. However, achieving full clinical remission with symptomatic therapy alone is challenging. As a result, immunosuppressive drugs are frequently introduced. First-line immunotherapy typically involves high-dose oral corticosteroids such as prednisone or prednisolone, which can induce a rapid response within 2 to 4 weeks.

To reduce reliance on steroids and improve long-term disease control, nonsteroidal immunosuppressants (NSISTs) are often used. These include antimetabolites (e.g., azathioprine, mycophenolate mofetil, methotrexate, and cyclophosphamide) and calcineurin inhibitors (e.g., tacrolimus and cyclosporine). While NSISTs may be used as standalone treatments, they usually take 6 to 9 months to produce noticeable effects.

Immunomodulatory therapies, including intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) and plasmapheresis (PLEX), are typically reserved for acute exacerbations or myasthenic crises. They are also employed as chronic treatments in patients who cannot tolerate or do not respond to standard immunosuppressants.

Although traditional immunosuppressive strategies can help manage symptoms, achieving long-term, stable remission remains difficult. Additionally, about 15% of patients are considered treatment-refractory, meaning they either fail to respond to or cannot tolerate multiple immunosuppressive options. These patients often face the dual challenge of persistent symptoms and the adverse effects of long-term immunosuppression.

Learn more about the myasthenia gravis disease market @ Myasthenia Gravis Treatment Medications

The myasthenia gravis treatment market is well-established, with multiple approved drugs for myasthenia gravis, including SOLIRIS, ULTOMIRIS, RYSTIGGO, ZILBRYSQ, and VYVGART, among others. Alexion Pharmaceuticals' SOLIRIS is a monoclonal antibody that targets and inhibits complement protein C5, thereby blocking the formation of the terminal complement complex. This action helps reduce complement-driven hemolysis in PNH and thrombotic microangiopathy in aHUS. Although its exact mechanism in gMG and NMOSD is not fully known, it is believed to decrease complement complex accumulation. Between 2017 and 2023, SOLIRIS gained regulatory approvals in Japan, the US, and the EU for treating gMG, including pediatric indications in Japan.

ULTOMIRIS (ravulizumab), also from Alexion Pharmaceuticals, is the first long-acting C5 inhibitor, offering rapid, complete, and sustained suppression of complement activity. It binds to C5, preventing its cleavage and subsequent formation of the membrane attack complex (C5b-9). ULTOMIRIS is effective in managing terminal complement-mediated hemolysis in PNH and thrombotic microangiopathy in aHUS. Although the precise mechanism in gMG and NMOSD remains unclear, it is thought to reduce complement deposition at the neuromuscular junction and block aquaporin-4 antibody-mediated complement activation. It received approvals from the US FDA, EMA, and Japan's PMDA in 2022.

Get an in-depth assessment on generalized myasthenia gravis medication for adults @ ULTOMIRIS vs SOLIRIS for Myasthenia Gravis

UCB Biopharma's RYSTIGGO is a subcutaneously administered, humanized monoclonal antibody that binds with high affinity to the human neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn). It received regulatory approval from the US FDA and Japan's PMDA in 2023, followed by the EC in January 2024.

ZILBRYSQ, also developed by UCB Biopharma, is the first once-daily subcutaneous peptide-based inhibitor specifically targeting complement protein C5. It works by blocking C5 cleavage and the formation of the terminal complement complex C5b-9. Although its precise action in gMG remains uncertain, it is thought to limit C5b-9 accumulation at the neuromuscular junction. ZILBRYSQ gained approval from the US FDA, EMA, and PMDA in 2023.

VYVGART, from Argenx, is a human IgG1 antibody fragment that targets FcRn, leading to a decrease in circulating IgG autoantibodies. It is the first FcRn blocker to receive regulatory approval. Argenx'sVYVGART HYTRULO (also marketed as VYVDURA) combines efgartigimod alfa, an FcRn inhibitor, with hyaluronidase, an endoglycosidase, for treating adults with generalized myasthenia gravis. This formulation was approved by the US FDA and EMA in 2023 and by the PMDA in January 2024.

Uncover the mechanism of FcRn inhibitor myasthenia gravis medication @ Myasthenia Gravis MoA

On April 30, 2025, the FDA approved Johnson & Johnson's nipocalimab, branded as IMAAVY, as a new therapy for gMG. This approval puts IMAAVY among the list of approved drugs for myasthenia gravis treatment. The approval, which J&J says encompasses the widest eligible patient population with gMG, includes individuals aged 12 and above who test positive for AChR or anti-muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) antibodies.

IMAAVY functions by inhibiting the FcRn protein, which plays a role in maintaining circulating IgG antibodies, key drivers in many autoimmune disorders. By blocking FcRn, IMAAVY significantly reduces harmful IgG autoantibodies while preserving the body's overall immune response, according to clinical data.

J&J sees broader potential for IMAAVY beyond gMG, believing its mechanism of action could apply across multiple autoimmune conditions due to IgG's involvement in various diseases. The FDA's decision followed results from the ongoing Phase III Vivacity-MG3 trial, which evaluates IMAAVY in combination with standard care versus placebo and standard care in 199 adult gMG patients, including 153 antibody-positive individuals.

Additionally, J&J is conducting a Phase II/III pediatric trial called Vibrance, where IMAAVY, combined with standard care, achieved its primary goal by reducing total serum IgG levels by 69% over 24 weeks. J&J acquired IMAAVY through its USD 6.5 billion acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals in 2020, with the FcRn inhibitor myasthenia gravis serving as the centerpiece of that deal. The company is aiming for blockbuster status, forecasting peak annual sales of over USD 5 billion for the myasthenia gravis medication.

Dive deep into the myasthenia gravis treatment cost @ Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Drug with Copay

Myasthenia gravis pipeline possesses some drugs in mid- and late-stage development to be approved in the near future. The expected launch of myasthenia gravis treatment medications, such as Batoclimab (Immunovant Sciences GmbH), Descartes-08 (Cartesian Therapeutics), and others, are expected to further create a positive impact on the myasthenia gravis disease market.

Discover which therapies are expected to grab major myasthenia gravis therapeutics market share @ Market Analysis on Myasthenia Gravis

Batoclimab is a fully humanized monoclonal antibody designed to inhibit neonatal Fc receptors by blocking the interaction between FcRn and IgG, thereby promoting the breakdown of autoantibodies. It has received Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) from both the US FDA and the EMA. In March 2025, Immunovant announced topline results from its Phase III trial evaluating batoclimab in patients with myasthenia gravis.

Descartes-08 represents the first RNA-engineered CAR T-cell (rCAR-T) therapy developed for autoimmune conditions. This therapy uses cytotoxic T-cells programmed to target and eliminate pathogenic plasma cells that produce autoantibodies. Created from a patient's own blood, Descartes-08 has also received ODD from the US FDA for treating myasthenia gravis. In December 2024, Cartesian Therapeutics shared encouraging updated findings from its Phase IIb study of Descartes-08 in myasthenia gravis. Furthermore, in January 2025, the FDA agreed to the company's Phase III AURORA trial design under a Special Protocol Assessment, with trial initiation planned for the first half of 2025.

Curious about what the new myasthenia gravis treatments are in development? Visit Myasthenia Gravis Clinical Trials

The anticipated launch of these emerging myasthenia gravis treatments are poised to transform the market landscape in the coming years. As these cutting-edge therapies continue to mature and gain regulatory approval, they are expected to reshape the myasthenia gravis market landscape, offering new standards of care and unlocking opportunities for medical innovation and economic growth.

DelveInsight estimates that the myasthenia gravis market size in the 7MM is expected to grow from USD 5.2 billion in 2024 at a significant CAGR by 2034. According to DelveInsight's analysis, the myasthenia gravis market growth is anticipated with the introduction of emerging therapies, leading to an expansion in the myasthenia gravis market size throughout the forecast period (2025-2034). This anticipated myasthenia gravis market growth is driven by advancements in treatment options, greater healthcare access, and a rising myasthenia gravis prevalence, which together foster higher demand for innovative and effective therapies.

DelveInsight's latest published market report titled Myasthenia Gravis Market Insight, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast - 2034 will help you to discover which myasthenia gravis treatment market leader is going to capture the largest market share. The report provides comprehensive insights into the country-specific myasthenia gravis treatment guidelines, patient pool analysis, and epidemiology forecast to help understand the key opportunities and assess the market's underlying potential. The myasthenia gravis market report proffers epidemiological analysis for the study period 2020-2034 in the 7MM, segmented into:

Total Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Myasthenia Gravis

Gender-specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Myasthenia Gravis

Age-specific Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Myasthenia Gravis

Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Myasthenia Gravis by MGFA Classification

Diagnosed Prevalent Cases of Generalized Myasthenia Gravis by Antibody Serology

The report provides an edge while developing business strategies by understanding trends shaping and driving the 7MM myasthenia gravis market. Highlights include:

10-year Forecast

7MM Analysis

Epidemiology-based Market Forecasting

Historical and Forecasted Market Analysis upto 2034

Emerging Drug Market Uptake

Peak Sales Analysis

Key Cross Competition Analysis

Industry Expert's Opinion

Access and Reimbursement

Download this myasthenia gravis market report to assess the epidemiology forecasts, understand the patient journeys, know KOLs' opinions about the upcoming treatment paradigms, and determine the factors contributing to the shift in the myasthenia gravis market. Also, stay abreast of the mitigating factors to improve your market position in the myasthenia gravis therapeutic space.

Related Reports

Myasthenia Gravis Epidemiology Forecast

Myasthenia Gravis Epidemiology Forecast - 2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted myasthenia gravis epidemiology in the 7MM, i.e., the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom), and Japan.

Myasthenia Gravis Pipeline

Myasthenia Gravis Pipeline Insight - 2025 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key myasthenia gravis companies, including Harbour BioMed (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Kyverna Therapeutics, Cabaletta Bio, Takeda, Hoffmann-La Roche, Immunovant Sciences GmbH, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Amgen, Dianthus Therapeutics, Cartesian Therapeutics, COUR Pharmaceutical Development Company, Inc., Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,among others.

Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Market

Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast - 2034 report deliver an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key gMG companies including Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Argenx, UCB Biopharma, Argenx-Halozyme Therapeutics, Horizon Therapeutics, Hoffmann-La Roche, Janssen Research & Development, LLC, Immunovant Sciences GmbH, Bristol Myers Squibb, Biogen Inc., Pfizer Inc., Novartis AG, Sanofi S.A., Roche Holding AG, Johnson & Johnson, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, AbbVie Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, AstraZeneca plc, Amgen Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Genentech, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Celgene Corporation, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, among others.

Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Pipeline

Generalized Myasthenia Gravis Pipeline Insight - 2025 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key gMG companies, including Biocon, Cartesian Therapeutics, UCB, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, HanAll Biopharma, Roche, Alexion, Novartis, Takeda, BioMarin, among others.

About DelveInsight

DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. It supports pharma companies by providing comprehensive end-to-end solutions to improve their performance. Get hassle-free access to all the healthcare and pharma market research reports through our subscription-based platform PharmDelve.

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NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / New to The Street, one of the nation's most widely viewed business media platforms, has announced a high-profile partnership with Skip Barber Racing School, America's premier motorsports education brand, and Stables Motor Condos, Georgia's elite luxury garage community.

Together, these three brands will deliver a bold, multi-channel initiative that merges premium driving experiences, private garage ownership, and national media exposure. The collaboration will connect motorsports enthusiasts, car collectors, and investors through a shared passion for performance, lifestyle, and visibility.

"This partnership goes beyond brand synergy-it's about unlocking unforgettable experiences for our owners," said Jeff Beal, Managing Partner at Stables Motor Condos. "With Skip Barber Racing School and New to The Street, we're offering more than garages-we're offering gateways to adrenaline, learning, and community."

Key Elements of the Strategic Partnership:

National Television Exposure through New to The Street's sponsored programming on Bloomberg and FOX Business

Exclusive Member Access to Skip Barber Racing School discounts for Stables garage owners

Signature Events , including "Racer's Chat" sessions with professional drivers and "Ladies, Ditch Your Heels & Grab Your Wheels" performance driving clinics

Branded Showcase Garage with Skip Barber Racing features inside the Stables model experience

Monthly Lifestyle Features published across New to The Street and Stables media channels

Complimentary Driving Experiences for new garage buyers, providing access to the track from day one

"We're excited to bring the thrill of the track to the heart of the Stables community," said Michael Berg, Chief Financial Officer at Skip Barber Racing School. "This partnership strengthens the bridge between performance driving and premium garage ownership-two passions that naturally belong together."

The initiative launches this quarter, with the first wave of VIP and women-led track events rolling out this summer. Additional co-branded experiences and integrated media activations will extend throughout 2025.

About New to The Street

New to The Street is a nationally syndicated media platform spotlighting public and private companies through CEO interviews, investor segments, and brand storytelling. With over 2.51 million YouTube subscribers and a growing social community of 714,000+ followers across X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, the platform delivers unmatched visibility across digital and broadcast media.

As sponsored programming on FOX Business and Bloomberg Television, New to The Street showcases the companies shaping tomorrow's economy. Clients also benefit from weekly placements on iconic Times Square billboards and the highest volume of TV commercials across CNBC, FOX Business, and Bloomberg of any financial media company-making it the definitive media engine for exposure, trust, and market reach.

Media Contacts

Jeff Beal

Managing Partner

Stables Motor Condos

jeff@stablesmotorcondos.com | 678.793.8402

Michael Berg

Chief Financial Officer

Skip Barber Racing School

michael.berg@skipbarber.com | 516.428.2555

Monica Brennan

Director, Media Relations

New to The Street

monica@newtothestreet.com

SOURCE: New To The Street

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/publishing-and-media/new-to-the-street-skip-barber-racing-school-and-stables-motor-condos-announce-1031100
New Mexico Certified Chile tells a story of heritage, hard work, and homegrown flavor

DEMING, NEW MEXICO / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / In the sun-drenched heart of southern New Mexico, where the Rio Grande weaves through fields of mineral-rich soil, a single New Mexico Certified Chile begins its journey in native soil enriched in flavor and tradition.

New Mexico's chile legacy is built on carefully bred varietals, with the NuMex line representing decades of research at New Mexico State University. The seeds are carefully selected for flavor, consistent heat and robust yields, then planted 24 inches apart in well-draining, mineral-rich soil. Farmers often use traditional furrow irrigation, although many use drip systems to conserve water.

This chile's story goes deeper than careful cultivation. The unique terrain of Deming gives New Mexico chile a distinct flavor, but water scarcity poses ongoing challenges for farmers. Although drip irrigation improves water efficiency, it can alter soil mineral profiles and potentially affect the chile's renowned taste.

By late summer, under the hot New Mexico sun, glossy green pods are carefully hand-picked. While some are bound straight for dinner tables, others ripen into a deep red, for drying and grinding into a rich, earthy powder. Across the state, chile lovers line up at grocery stores, farmers markets and festivals to witness metal roasters tumbling fresh-picked New Mexico chile over open flames, releasing an unmistakable, smoky aroma that signals chile season has arrived.

Chile is the heart of New Mexico's culture. From smothered green chile burritos to red chile enchiladas, it represents more than just a flavor; it is a memory, a tradition and a feeling of home. Every year, the Salsa Festival Extravaganza draws in visitors nationwide, eager to savor the flavors and traditions that make New Mexico the chile capital of the world.

The journey of New Mexico Certified Chile is a tribute to the resilience of New Mexico's farmers. Despite water challenges and changing climates, the journey of the chile from seed to soil, harvest to roasting and to breakfast and dinner tables, remains a vibrant symbol of the state's culture and culinary pride.

To learn more about New Mexico Certified Chile or how to join the cause visit, https://newmexicochile.org/. When you join New Mexico Certified Chile, you are joining a host of dedicated growers, producers and restaurants that know that authenticity is what sets us apart. Participation in this effort ensures that New Mexico Chile remains protected and certified thereby ensuring and perpetuating its high culinary esteem and value.

###

About New Mexico Certified Chile

New Mexico Certified Chile (NMCC) is dedicated to supporting the NM chile industry by increasing demand for NM chile. We strive to create an atmosphere of chile being for of the NM culture, heritage and pride. Our mission is to cultivate the world-renowned varieties grown only here in New Mexican soil and to protect, promote and advocate for the entire industry dedicated to growing this very special crop. NMCC is a program of the New Mexico Chile Association.

CONTACT

Tom Garrity

505.898.8689

NMChile@garritypr.com

SOURCE: New Mexico Chile Association

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/from-seed-to-salsa-a-chiles-journey-1031110
Epique Realty Recognized in Premier Global Business Awards Program for Exceptional Performance

HOUSTON, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / The 2025 Globee Awards for Artificial Intelligence is an esteemed program dedicated to honoring groundbreaking achievements and celebrating excellence and innovation across the international AI industry.

Epique Realty and CEO Joshua Miller are happy to announce that together they have been named winners of seven awards at the 2025 Globee Awards for Artificial Intelligence, one of the world's premier data-driven business awards programs. This recognition underscores Epique's dedication to pushing the boundaries of what's possible with artificial intelligence.

Empowering agents. Epique Realty's integrated AI solutions are transforming real estate. Epique is committed to delivering innovative, agent-centric solutions that drive business value and set new industry standards.

Epique received these 2025 Globee Awards for Artificial intelligence specifically for empowering agents as Epique's integrated AI solutions are transforming real estate. The following seven winners were awarded:

2025 Silver Globee Winners

Epique AIPRO and integrated AI solutions, Real Estate AI Solutions

Epique AIPRO, Most Innovative AI Product for Real Estate

2025 Bronze Globee Winners

Epique Realty, Best Achievement in AI Operations

Joshua Miller, Epique Realty AI Thought Leadership of the Year AI Expertise Achievement AI Technology Leadership Achievement AI Leadership Achievement



"Winning the 2025 Globee Awards for AI means we're delivering on the promise," declared Joshua Miller, CEO and Co-Founder of Epique Realty. "We've always believed that technology, especially AI, should be a powerful force for good, something that truly changes the equation. This incredible recognition for Epique is a bright, shining signal that our commitment to real-world impact for our agents and their clients to building AI that genuinely creates extraordinary and lasting value, is not just a vision - it's a reality. We're not only building tools; we're building the future."

Janice Delcid, CFO and Co-Founder of Epique, was enthusiastic, "We are so proud of Josh and our Epique AI team for these outstanding awards. This recognition acknowledges Josh's innovative and visionary leadership. It includes Epique's focus on agent well-being and success. Epique Realty offers a range of benefits at no cost to agents, including healthcare, vision and dental coverage, and essential business tools like CRM access and personalized marketing materials. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, Epique Realty has created a support system that agents have reported saving $30,000 annually while improving business performance."

Epique AIPRO, Epique.ai and Epique's integrated AI solutions exemplify the company's dedication to democratizing success for agents, offering them powerful AI tools to streamline everyday tasks, from generating property descriptions to executing strategic marketing campaigns. Recognized as the #1 AI tool for real estate agents by publications like Ascendix and Real Trends, Epique.ai brings natural language processing capabilities to agents' fingertips, helping them focus more on client relationships and closing deals.

"Epique Realty's rapid expansion and dedication to agent success highlight the effectiveness of Epique's visionary strategy," states Christopher Miller, COO and Co-Founder of Epique. "By integrating innovative technology with an agent-focused model, Epique has not only disrupted the conventional brokerage landscape but has also set a precedent for the future of real estate, showcasing that a brokerage can be both transformative and empowering."

"Moreover, Epique Realty is raising the bar and setting the pace for transformation. The company's amazing growth is a direct result of its steadfast commitment to its agents. As Epique Realty invites ambitious agents ready to redefine their careers and embrace the future of real estate to join the revolution," concludes COO and Co-Founder Christopher Miller.

The Globee Awards for Artificial Intelligence honor organizations, products, teams, and individuals leading the way in AI innovation. From breakthrough AI models and intelligent automation to transformative use cases in healthcare, finance, security, and more, these awards spotlight those making the most significant impact through artificial intelligence.

Over 2,995 judges from around the world, representing a diverse array of industry experts, applied for the judging process. The final judges are listed here: https://globeeawards.com/artificial-intelligence/judges, Judges evaluate nominations based on four key criteria: Achievement, Main Content, Summary, and Supporting Materials. This systematic approach guarantees consistent, transparent, and high-quality evaluations, making it a trusted benchmark for recognizing excellence worldwide.

"The 2025 winners reflect the innovation and forward-thinking mindset needed to lead in AI today," said San Madan, President of the Globee Awards. "With over 2,995 professionals globally participating in data-driven evaluations, this recognition truly represents industry-wide respect and validation."

The Globee Awards present recognition in ten programs and competitions. To learn more about the Globee Awards, please visit the website: https://globeeawards.com. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

About Epique Realty

Epique Realty is redefining the real estate brokerage with its groundbreaking agent-first model. By providing agents with exceptional tools, state-of-the-art AI technology, unheard of benefits and comprehensive support at no cost, Epique empowers agents to thrive and succeed in today's competitive market. With a solid foundation of inclusion, innovation, mentorship, and integrity, Epique Realty is one of the fastest-growing real estate brokerages in the country. BeEpique

Barbara Simpson | PR and Communications

281-773-7842 | Barbara@EpiqueRealty.com





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SOURCE: Epique Realty

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/real-estate/epique-realty-wins-7-international-awards-for-ai-1031088
Tresind Studio becomes the first Indian restaurant in the world to receive Three MICHELIN Stars

FZN by Bjorn Frantzen enters the Guide with Three MICHELIN Stars in its first year

The MICHELIN Guide Dubai 2025 selection also includes 2 new One MICHELIN Stars and 5 new Bib Gourmand restaurants



DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 23, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Michelin celebrated the city's culinary excellence like never before at Dubai's fourth MICHELIN Guide Ceremony, held at Address Sky View. The event revealed 119 establishments, covering over 35 cuisine types, which made it into this year's selection, showcasing the city's booming gastronomic scene.

For this fourth edition, The MICHELIN Guide Dubai recognizes two new One MICHELIN Star restaurants, and two new Three MICHELIN Star restaurants, as well as five new Bib Gourmand establishments.

"Dubai's rapid transformation into a global culinary hub is testament to its diversity and excellence," says Gwendal Poullennec,International Director of the MICHELIN Guide. "As demonstrated by Tresind Studio's historic achievement of earning Three MICHELIN Stars in its fourth appearance-making it the first Indian restaurant worldwide to earn the Guide's highest accolade-Dubai embraces a rich tapestry of flavors that reflect the world's gastronomic passions. With the city now home to 119 MICHELIN-recommended establishments, it stands as a beacon for food lovers, drawing them to experience the very best of the world's culinary traditions, all within one dynamic destination."

Whatever a restaurant's cuisine style, concept or location, whether they are luxury fine dining restaurants or street food eateries, the MICHELIN Guide Inspectors use the same five criteria all around the world: the quality of the ingredients; mastery of cooking techniques; the harmony of the flavors; expression of the chef's personality in the cuisine; and consistency, both over time and across the entire menu.

His Excellency Issam Kazim, CEO of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DCTCM), part of the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), said: "The launch of the fourth edition of the MICHELIN Guide Dubai, including the naming of the city's first Three MICHELIN Starred restaurants, marks another pivotal moment in Dubai's journey as a world-class gastronomic destination, and is a testament to bold innovation, extraordinary talent and culinary distinction.

"Just as Three MICHELIN Stars signify a restaurant that is 'worth a special journey', so the same applies to Dubai as a destination; from celebrated homegrown eateries to globallyrenowned names, this vibrant gastronomic landscape truly reflects the diversity and dynamism of a city that always aims to inspire the world.

"We extend our heartfelt gratitude to MICHELIN, whose dedication to excellence continues to elevate Dubai's reputation, highlighting the crucial role of restaurants in driving Dubai's destination appeal, economic growth, and global competitiveness. The people from almost 200 nationalities that live in Dubai are at the heart of the unique fabric of the city, and we congratulate all the restaurateurs, chefs and talents behind the establishments included in this year's Guide."

Two restaurants are awarded Three MICHELIN Stars

Two restaurants received Three MICHELIN Stars for the first time since the destination launched in 2022, marking a historical moment in Dubai's culinary scene. This distinction highlights exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.

A new addition to the Guide, FZN by Bjorn Frantzen has been awarded Three MICHELIN Stars. This true destination restaurant with a stellar team is acclaimed Swedish chef Bjorn Frantzen's debut in the Middle East. It offers a highly sophisticated experience with an array of dishes blending Scandinavian and Asian influences that make great use of the finest luxury ingredients.

Tresind Studio is promoted to Three MICHELIN Stars in its fourth appearance in the MICHELIN Guide Dubai, making history as the first Indian restaurant in the world to earn the Guide's highest accolade. This immersive Indian concept highlights Chef Himanshu Saini's limitless levels of imagination and creativity. The tasting menu showcases traditional Indian dishes from various regions, re-imagined and superbly crafted into vibrant, eye-catching, and flavorsome creations.

Two new restaurants are awarded One MICHELIN Star

Jamavar's Dubai outpost joined the 2025 Dubai selection with One MICHELIN Star. Located in Dubai's Opera district, this acclaimed Indian restaurant offers perfectly balanced and harmonious dishes crafted with prime ingredients.

Helmed by Dubai-born chef Abhiraj Khatwani, Thai restaurant Manao is an ode to the cuisine closest to his heart. The new One MICHELIN Star establishment serves an 11-course tasting menu comprised of re-imagined Thai classics with a twist, with flavors staying true to the cuisines vibrant and authentic roots.

There are now fourteen restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide Dubai with One MICHELIN Star, a distinction that highlights high-quality cooking, worth a stop.

Five new restaurants receivea Bib Gourmand

In addition to the MICHELIN Stars, 5 new restaurants are added to the Bib Gourmand category. Named after Bibendum, the official name of the Michelin Man, the Bib Gourmand recognition goes to restaurants that offer great quality, great value cooking.

The five restaurants are:

DUO Gastrobar-Creek Harbour: This second branch offers an appealing, well-priced menu with an array of unfussy, refined comfort food.

Harummanis: This Malay grill eatery takes influences from numerous neighboring countries and boasts perfectly spiced and balanced flavors.

Hawkerboi: A relaxed restaurant highlighting the subtleties of the street foods of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar, perfect for sharing.

Khadak: Get a taste of India's street food at this contemporary and vibrant Indian brasserie offering sharing plates that are full of flavor.

Sufret Maryam: Chef Salam Dakkak's second venture offers a selection of refined Levantine dishes, which are generous in flavor and size.



MICHELIN Special Awards

With its Special Awards, the MICHELIN Guide aims to highlight and celebrate the amazing diversity of the roles within the hospitality industry, as well as its most talented and inspiring professionals.

The Opening of the Year Award for 2025 is awarded to the restaurant Ronin. Located in the FIVE LUXE JBR Hotel, this beautifully conceptualized spot evokes fantastical pan-Asian decor, complemented by a superb selection of produce and bold flavors, creating an immensely enjoyable contemporary Japanese dining experience.

The Sommelier Award is presented to Shiv Menon of Boca restaurant. His passion for wine and drinks is evident in every conversation, without condescension. His list supports the restaurant's sustainable ethos, featuring symbols that highlight environmental and community benefits. He organizes tastings to share his knowledge and love for the subject.

The Service Award presented by RAK Porcelain goes to the team at Al Khayma Heritage Restaurant. Despite its large operation and busy atmosphere, this restaurant is far from a tourist trap. The team runs it with pride and passion, aiming to please every guest. Early arrivals enjoy Arabic coffee outside, while inside, servers guide diners through the menu. The heartfelt goodbye is as meaningful as the welcome.

The Young Chef Award goes to 30-year-old Chef Abhiraj Khatwani, who helms the kitchen at Thai restaurant Manao, a recipient of a MICHELIN Star in this year's Guide (newly awarded One MICHELIN Star). He earns this award thanks to his experience in Thailand, for the enthusiasm he shows to his home city, and through his authentic, skillfully balanced dishes.

Finally, the MICHELIN Guide Ceremony celebrated the remarkable selection of restaurants for the year 2025. This year's distinctions and awards have highlighted the exceptional talent, dedication, and innovation within the culinary world in Dubai. From sustainable gastronomy to authentic and skillfully crafted dishes, the honorees have set new standards and inspired others. Their passion and commitment to excellence have truly made this year's selection outstanding. We look forward to witnessing continued success and contributions to the culinary arts in next year's selection.

The MICHELIN Guide Dubai selection 2025 at a glance:

2 restaurants with Three MICHELIN Stars (1 Promotion, 1 New)

3 restaurants with Two MICHELIN Stars

14 restaurants with One MICHELIN Star (2 new)

3 restaurants with a MICHELIN Green Star

22 Bib Gourmand restaurants (5 new)

78 MICHELIN selected restaurants (15 new)

A replay of The MICHELIN Guide Ceremony and other highlights are available on the official MICHELIN Guide Middle East Facebook page and the MICHELIN Guide Global YouTube channel.

The full selection of The MICHELIN Guide Dubai 2025 is available on the MICHELIN Guide website https://guide.michelin.com/ae-du/enand on the MICHELIN Guide app, available free of charge on iOS and Android.

The MICHELIN Guide is a benchmark in gastronomy. Now, it's setting a new standard for hotels. Visit the MICHELIN Guide's official website, or download the MICHELIN Guide mobile appand Android), to discover every restaurant in the selection and book an unforgettable hotel.

The MICHELIN Guide Worldwide app for iOS (https://apps.apple.com/th/app/michelin-guide-usa-worldwide/id1541129177) and Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.viamichelin.android.gm21) devices.





Website: guide.michelin.com (https://guide.michelin.com/en)

Facebook: facebook.com/MICHELINGuideME (https://www.facebook.com/MICHELINGuideME)

YouTube: youtube.com/MICHELINGuideInternational (https://www.youtube.com/MICHELINGuideinternational)

Instagram: @MichelinGuide (https://www.instagram.com/michelinguide/)

About Michelin

Michelin is building a world-leading manufacturer of life-changing composites and experiences. Pioneering engineered materials for more than 130 years, Michelin is uniquely positioned to make decisive contributions to human progress and to a more sustainable world. Drawing on its deep know-how in polymer composites, Michelin is constantly innovating to manufacture high-quality tires and components for critical applications in demanding fields as varied as mobility, construction, aeronautics, low-carbon energies, and healthcare. The care placed in its products and deep customer knowledge inspire Michelin to offer the finest experiences. This spans from providing data- and AI based connected solutions for professional fleets to recommending outstanding restaurants and hotels curated by the MICHELIN Guide. Headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Michelin is present in 175 countries and employs 129,800 people.)

Press Contact

BPG Group

michelinguide@bpggroup.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

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Singapore, Singapore, May 22nd, 2025, Chainwire

mETH becomes the first liquid staking token to be held on the balance sheet of a publicly listed company.

Mantle, the largest sustainable hub for on-chain finance with over $3 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), today announced a strategic partnership with Republic Technologies, the Ethereum (ETH) treasury of publicly listed Canadian company Beyond Medical Technologies Inc. (CSE: DOCT) (IBKR: DOCT) (FSE: 7FM). This partnership marks a major milestone in institutional cryptocurrency adoption, positioning Mantles mETH as the first liquid staking token to be held on the balance sheet of a publicly listed company.

Through the partnership, Republic Technologies plans to delegate a significant portion of its ETH holdings to Mantles mETH Protocol and will hold mETH as a yield-bearing, liquid staking token on its balance sheet. The collaboration underscores a structural shift in institutional digital asset strategy and growing investor conviction in Ethereum-native yield infrastructure, reflecting Republic Technologies deepening alignment with the Mantle ecosystem.

Republic Technologies: The First Publicly Listed Ethereum Treasury

Republic Technologies is establishing a new institutional paradigm by building a treasury strategy around Ethereum, seen as the foundational layer for smart contracts, tokenization, and decentralized financial settlement. In contrast to Bitcoin-focused strategies employed by firms like Strategy and Metaplanet, whose reserves are largely Bitcoin-based, Republic Technologies approach is anchored in Ethereums role as the infrastructure layer powering both blockchain innovation and real-world enterprise integration.

By accumulating ETH as a core balance sheet asset, Republic Technologies advances the growth of its underlying healthcare technology businesses while offering institutional-grade exposure to digital assets for all shareholders. This strategy attracts growing interest from traditional markets and accelerates institutional participation in the emerging technology sector.

We hold strong conviction that Ethereum is the institutional chain, with ETH serving as the digital fuel powering global financial systems, said Daniel Liu, CEO of Republic Technologies. Our initial entry through Mantles Scout Program helped us gain early exposure to the broader Mantle ecosystem, where our alignment with mETH Protocol came as a natural next step. More than 50 established incumbentsincluding BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, PayPal, and Visahave already built services on Ethereum. Wall Street has made its decision. Our role now is to extend the benefits of this macro tailwind to a broader base of institutional and retail participants worldwide.

Its leadership team brings decades of experience from top-tier financial institutions, including Apollo Global Management, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Canaccord Genuity. Republic Technologies operates under the publicly listed company Beyond Medical Technologies Inc., a technology firm integrating blockchain infrastructure to drive operational efficiency and improve patient outcomes across the medical ecosystem. In March 2025, Republic Technologies entered into a licensing agreement and launched its medical attestation platform, leveraging Ethereum-based distributed systems to power healthcare data integrity and regulatory compliance. The Ethereum treasury was established to support and scale this vision, marking a first-of-its-kind integration.

Institutional Alignment with Mantles Yield Infrastructure

Mantles mETH Protocol has quickly emerged as one of the leading platforms in Ethereum liquid staking and restaking. Within just 66 days of launch, it surpassed $1 billion in TVL the fastest growth in its categoryand has since peaked at over $2.19 billion. Designed with institutional-grade capital efficiency and composability in mind, mETH enables institutions to access Ethereum-native yield through a fully composable and capital-efficient framework.

To date, over 170,000 mETH (approximately $455 million) has been restaked into EigenDA, securing Mantles modular data availability layer. Validator operations are distributed across leading infrastructure providers, including Stakefish, P2P.org, Blockdaemon, A41, and Veda, ensuring high availability and robust institutional reliability.

Republic Technologies participation highlights mETH Protocols ability to support institutional strategies built natively on Ethereum, said Jonathan Low, Growth Lead at mETH Protocol. As demand accelerates for ETH-native yield and utility, we remain focused on building resilient infrastructure that long-term allocators can trust.

Looking Ahead: MI4 and Mantle Banking

The partnership precedes mETHs inclusion in MI4, a tokenized, yield-focused index fund developed in collaboration with Securitizethe tokenization firm behind BlackRocks BUIDL and Apollos ACRED. Backed by up to $400 million anchor investment from the Mantle Treasury, MI4 targets $1 billion in AUM and will offer regulated exposure to BTC, ETH, SOL, stablecoins, and select staking assets, with mETH playing a central role in its ETH allocation strategy.

In parallel, Mantle is preparing to extend mETHs utility across traditional finance through Mantle Banking, an initiative that will integrate mETH into fiat rails, credit products, and conventional payment systems. This integration will allow users to spend, borrow, and invest with mETH across traditional payment rails, unlocking real-world utility for digital assets.

About Mantle Ecosystem

A pioneering on-chain ecosystem dedicated to revolutionizing the future of finance and blockchain scalability, seamlessly bridging traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi). Through innovative products like Mantle Network, mETH Protocol, Function (FBTC), and Mantle Index Four (MI4), Mantles ecosystem empowers users and institutions with a unified financial services platform, redefining how the world spends, saves, and invests in the Web 3.0 era.

For more information, users can visit: https://group.mantle.xyz/

Contact

Consultant

Faizah Faizuwan

Wachsman

[email protected]

Disclaimer: This is a paid press release and is distributed for general information only and is not intended to constitute investment advice, financial advice, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended you practice due diligence, including consultation with a professional financial advisor, before investing in or trading cryptocurrency and securities.


Videos circulating on social media showed the 51-year-old actor smiling warmly and waving as she greeted fans on the red carpet. read more

Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan opted for a traditional look for her 2025 Cannes Film Festival debut, gracing the red carpet in an elegant ivory handloom Banarasi saree. She has been a veteran at the festival who made her debut at the festival back in 2002 along with Shah Rukh Khan for her film Devdas.

The actor, who has been a regular at Cannes for the past 20 years, made an appearance at the film gala ahead of the premiere of filmmaker Oliver Hermanus historical drama The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh OConnor.

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What did the actress wear?

Aishwarya looked resplendent in the embroidered ivory saree with a long pallu and a flowing lace train, which was designed by ace couturier Manish Malhotra.

She completed her look with a layered ruby necklace, also by Malhotras label, and vermillion in her hair parting.

The OG Indian Queen of Cannes @aishwaryaraibachchan_arb embraces Classic White Handloom in a handwoven kadwa ivory Handloom Banarasi saree with a handwoven tissue drape and imperial heirloom of rubies from @manishmalhotrajewellery, the designer wrote on his Instagram page.

Videos circulating on social media showed the 51-year-old actor smiling warmly and waving as she greeted fans on the red carpet.

After a long time Aishwarya Rai in saree and I am so happy #AishwaryaRaiBachchan pic.twitter.com/5QmJf0qILu  God Bless Mohabbatein (@sidharth0800) May 21, 2025

The significance of her Sindoor

She flaunted her vermillion at the festival and people on social media felt it was her tribute to Indias recent Operation Sindoor. As the actress shared her pictures on social media, they could not help but praise her.

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The 78th Cannes Film Festival is witnessing a significant Indian presence this year with filmmaker Payal Kapadia being part of the main competition jury.

Bollywood icons Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal attended the world premiere of the newly restored version of Satyajit Rays 1970 classic Aranyer Din Ratri On Wednesday, director Neeraj Ghaywan presented his film Homebound at the film gala under the Un Certain Regard segment. He was accompanied by actors Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa as well as producer Karan Johar.

With added inputs from agencies

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Rai, who has been a regular at Cannes for the past 20 years, made an appearance at the film gala ahead of the premiere of filmmaker Oliver Hermanus historical drama The History of Sound read more

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan opted for a traditional look for her 2025 Cannes Film Festival debut, gracing the red carpet in an elegant ivory handloom Banarasi saree. She has been a veteran at the festival who made her debut at the festival back in 2002 along with Shah Rukh Khan for her film Devdas.

The actor, who has been a regular at Cannes for the past 20 years, made an appearance at the film gala ahead of the premiere of filmmaker Oliver Hermanus historical drama The History of Sound, starring Paul Mescal and Josh OConnor.

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What did the actress wear?

Aishwarya looked resplendent in the embroidered ivory saree with a long pallu and a flowing lace train, which was designed by ace couturier Manish Malhotra. It was her Sindoor that stole the show that people felt was her way to pay tribute to Indias Operation Sindoor

Aditi Rao Hydari

The Heeramandi actress stunned in a red Raw Mango saree. The silk saree was finished with a striking cobalt blue border, adding a contrast to the overall look.

Her husband was all heart as the actress shared pictures on her Instagram account.

Ruchi Gujjar and her PM Modi necklace

Ruchi Gujjar is an emerging actor and model who is making headlines after she flaunted her PM Modi necklace that has gone viral on social media.

Talking about the same, Gujjar was quoted saying, The necklace is more than jewelleryits a symbol of strength, vision, and Indias rise on the world stage. By wearing it at Cannes, I wanted to honour our Prime Minister, whose leadership has taken India to new heights.
Jio Studios and Mumbai Film Company have confirmed their magnum opus, Raja Shivaji, will release worldwide on Maharashtra Day  May 1, 2026. Helmed by Riteish Deshmukh, who also essays the titular role, the historical action drama will be released in six languages  Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam  ensuring that the legend of Maharashtra and one of Indias greatest warriors Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj reaches audiences across India and beyond.

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Mounted on an unprecedented scale, Raja Shivaji is poised to be a landmark cinematic event  a blend of cultural pride, mainstream storytelling, and cinematic excellence. With an eclectic ensemble cast drawn from across the Hindi and Marathi film industries, including Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sachin Khedekar, Bhagyashree, Fardeen Khan Jitendra Joshi, Amole Gupte, Genelia Deshmukh and Riteish Vilasrao Deshmukh, Raja Shivaji, a pan-India film is expected to spark a conversation around the power and potential of regional cinema made for the global stage.

Set in a time when empires clashed and rebellions ignited, Raja Shivaji chronicles the extraordinary journey of a young Shivaji who defied the odds, rebelled against formidable powers to become the revered Raja Shivaji and laid the foundation for Swarajya. The film brings together an illustrious creative team including music maestros AjayAtul and legendary cinematographer Santosh Sivan, who makes his Marathi cinema debut. Currently in production across Mumbai and Wai in Maharashtra, the film promises to be a visually immersive and emotionally stirring experience.

Jyoti Deshpande, President  Jio Studios (Media & Content Business  RIL) said, Raja Shivaji is more than just a film  its a celebration of Swarajya and what that means to every Indian. This vision could only be brought to life by someone who holds the story close to his heart, and Riteish, along with Genelia, has done just that with passion and purpose. Our goal is to bring the awe-inspiring life of Shivaji Maharaj, one of the greatest heroes to be born on the Indian soil, from India to the world. Backed by an ensemble of some of the finest talents from across industries, this film is one of the most ambitious ventures weve undertaken.

Riteish Deshmukh, Director and Lead Actor, shared, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is not just a historical figure  he is an emotion that lives in the hearts of millions. To be able to tell a part of his extraordinary story is both an honour and a great responsibility. Im deeply grateful to Jyoti Deshpande and Jio Studios for placing their faith in this vision. Releasing the film on Maharashtra Day feels especially meaningful, and with a cast we could only dream of, we feel truly fortunate. We hope audiences across languages connect with the spirit of Raja Shivaji as deeply as we have.

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Genelia Deshmukh, Producer, Mumbai Film Company, added, This film has been a labour of love  a journey shaped by years of thought, research, and reverence. Raja Shivaji is a heartfelt tribute to the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who continues to inspire generations. Were thankful to Jio Studios for sharing our belief in this story and enabling us to bring it to life. Its our humble attempt to honour history and share it with audiences across the country and beyond.

Presented by Jio Studios and produced by Jyoti Deshpande and Genelia Deshmukh under the Mumbai Film Company banner, Raja Shivaji is directed by Riteish Deshmukh and is slated for a global release on May 1, 2026.
Four former British special forces soldiers, who scaled Everest in record time, have found themselves in the middle of controversy due to their use of xenon gas. The men used the chemical to speed up the acclimatisation process  allowing them to climb the mountain in under five days. But not everyone is impressed read more

Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal, January 15, 2020. File Image/Reuters

Though thousands of people have scaled Mount Everest over the years, it remains an impressive feat.

However, four British soldiers who did so recently found themselves in the middle of controversy.

This is because they used xenon gas during their ascent.

But what is xenon gas? What happened exactly? Why is the incident under the scanner of authorities?

Lets take a closer look:

What is it?

First, lets take a brief look at xenon.

As per Britannica, xenon is a chemical element.

It belongs to the so-called noble gases of the periodic table.

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Noble gases are renowned for their lack of chemical reactivity.

It was discovered in 1898 by British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris W Travers.

They did this by distilling the gas krypton  which they had discovered just weeks earlier.

Xenon gas discharge tube. Image courtesy: Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de). Wikimedia Commons

Over 4.5 times heavier than air, xenon is colourless, odourless and tasteless.

It is found on the Earth only in trace amounts.

The world itself derives from the Greek xenos  meaning strange or foreign.

The gas is used in a wide variety of fields.

As per CK Supply.com, this includes lamps in projectors and cinemas, flashlights, car headlights, CT scans, anesthesia, satellites, deep space missions, nuclear energy and metallurgy.

Whats the controversy?

The trip was organised by Furtenbach Adventures  a company based in Austria.

As pe_r BBC,_ the four British soldiers  Garth Miller, Alistair Carns, Anthony Stazicker, and Kev Godlington  used xenon gas to aid in their climb Mount Everest.

The team, which also comprised a UK government minister, did this in five days  a record time.

Climbers usually remain on Everest for a few weeks or even months before they try to ascend to the summit.

This process, called acclimatisation, gives the climbers bodies time to adjust to the thinner atmosphere and the lack of oxygen.

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Those who do not acclimatise properly can face altitude sickness or hypoxia which can result in serious injuries or even death.

However, the British soldiers employed xenon to speed up the acclimatisation process.

They did this in Germany two weeks before the climb.

As per the Times UK, xenon is thought to aid in the production of red blood cells  though some dispute the science around this.

It helps to protect the body from altitude sickness, expedition organiser Lukas Furtenbach explained to the BBC.

Climbers usually remain on Everest for a few weeks or even months before they try to ascend to the summit.

As per India Today, Furtenbach has climbed Mount Everest four times.

The team also slept in special oxygen tents before making the trip.

Weve all accumulated probably in excess of 500 hours in the hypoxic tent now, and thats usually sleeping in the evening and then doing exercise with a mask on as well, Carns told Washington Post.

The team, alongside by five Sherpas and a cameraman, reached the 29,032-foot summit early on Wednesday.

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They started on the afternoon of 16th May and summited on the morning of the 21st, taking four days and approximately 18 hours, Furtenbach added.

As per India Today, the men also relied on supplemental oxygen  as other climbers do.

They then quickly began their descent.

The outlet quoted Furtenbach as saying this was good for the environment.

Shorter expedition also means less garbage, less resources, less human waste in this sensitive environment, Furtenbach said.

Why is the incident under the scanner of authorities?

But while the team may be happy to tout their accomplishment, not everyone is impressed.

American climber and guide Adrian Ballinger of the Alpenglow Expeditions company called the use of xenon a stunt  its never seemed like the type of experience we want to provide.

Everyone should climb the mountain in a form they are proud of. If these climbers are proud of this style, then thats their choice, Ballinger said.

It is a banned substance by all professional sporting organisations, and even though [mountain climbing] is not managed by a sporting organisation, its always been a goal of climbers to follow best practices of not doping. All that combined makes it feel, I guess, pretty icky. People should be able to climb how they want to, but it isnt mountain climbing; its mountain tourism, he told Washington Post.

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Experts also cast doubt on whether xenon actually does anything for mountain climbers.

Peter Hackett, a mountaineering expert and physician, wondered, Does xenon increase red blood cells? Well, thats never really been shown conclusively.

It does increase EPO transiently, but in one study that was done in athletes, it did not increase red blood cells and it did not increase their exercise performance. But thats one study done under certain circumstances, and it needs to be studied again under varying circumstances.

Andrew Peacock, an honorary professor specialising in altitude medicine at the University of Glasgow, told the BBC an increase in erythropoietin does nothing on its own. The question in this case is, does it really stimulate production of red blood cells in such a short period?

The outlet quoted the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation as saying, According to current literature, there is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains, and inappropriate use can be dangerous. Although a single inhalation of xenon can measurably increase the release of erythropoietin, this increase is not sustained over four weeks use, nor is it associated with any changes in red blood cells. According to the literature, the effects on performance are unclear and probably non-existent.

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Authorities are also worried about the impact this could have on revenue if trips are shortened.

If that happens then it will certainly have a direct, negative impact on the tourism industry as the length of time mountaineers stay will come down significantly, Damber Parajuli, president of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told BBC.

Also, acclimatising on the mountains is the basic rule of mountaineering. If that is not done then authorities should not be giving them certificates certifying that they climbed the mountain.

Nepal has issued permits to 468 people to Everest during the current March-May climbing season and more than 200 have already topped the summit so far.

It remains to be seen what steps the authorities will take, if any.

With inputs from agencies
Beijing, Islamabad and Kabuls Taliban regime held an informal meeting on Wednesday, deciding to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan. The development is a headache for New Delhi, which has opposed the connectivity project as it violates Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity. Heres why CPECs extension to another neighbouring country is a big red flag for India read more

Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi in Beijing on May 21. X/@MIshaqDar50

Pakistan and Afghanistan have decided to enhance their diplomatic ties, China announced on Wednesday (May 21). The development came after Beijing hosted an informal meeting between Islamabad and the Afghan government led by the Taliban.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Afghanistans Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, with the three leaders deciding to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan. This comes as a big worry for New Delhi, which has objected to the connectivity project as it violates Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity.

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As China meddles to bring Pakistan and Afghanistan closer amid tensions, heres why India wont be happy.

Pakistan, Afghanistan to step up ties, says China

China said that Pakistan and Afghanistan clearly expressed their willingness to upgrade their diplomatic ties.

The two countries agreed in principle to send ambassadors to each others countries soon, Reuters reported, citing Chinese Foreign Minister Wang.

China welcomes this and is willing to continue providing assistance for the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, he said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

Sharing a picture with Wang and Muttaqi, Pakistans Dar, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, wrote on X, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan stand together for regional peace, stability, and development.

The meeting came during Dars three-day visit to China, the first such high-level interaction since Indian strikes hit nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor.

A statement said that Afghanistans acting foreign minister emphasised the importance of political and economic relations with both countries and expressed hope for further progress in these areas in the future.

China, Pakistan and Afghanistan have also decided to hold a trilateral foreign ministers dialogue in Kabul as soon as possible.

According to Wang, Beijing and Islamabad also backed the reconstruction and development of Afghanistan, along with ramping up trade exchanges with the Taliban-ruled country.

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The meeting also agreed on security cooperation, combating terrorist forces and safeguarding regional peace and stability, the Chinese foreign minister reportedly said.

As per PTI, Pakistans Foreign Office said that three countries reiterated trilateral cooperation to boost regional security and economic connectivity. They discussed enhancing diplomatic engagement, strengthening communications, and taking practical steps to boost trade, infrastructure, and development as key drivers of shared prosperity, it said.

They agreed to deepen Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation and extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan, the statement added.

The thaw matters as the ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan frayed after the Talibans Kabul takeover. Islamabad accuses the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of using Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan, a charge rejected by Kabul.

Wang also separately met with Muttaqi in Beijing on Wednesday.

As per a Deccan Herald (DH) report, the Afghanistan acting foreign minister told the Chinese FM that the Taliban government gave weight to Beijings security concerns and would never allow any force to use Afghan soil to partake in activities that endanger China.

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What is CPEC?

CPEC is an ambitious project that aims to connect Chinas Xinjiang province to Gwadar Port in Pakistans Balochistan province through roads, railways, and energy projects.

The $46 billion infrastructure project, launched in 2015, has increased to over $62 billion in investments.

The much-hyped CPEC, a 3000-km-long connectivity project, is touted as a means to accelerate Pakistans fragile economy and give China direct access to the Arabian Sea.

Why CPECs extension is a worry for India

India is opposed to CPEC, a flagship project under Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

As India considers PoK a part of its territory, it argues the project violates its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

There are also concerns in New Delhi about China gaining ground in South Asia through infrastructure and military cooperation with Indias neighbouring countries, as per a Moneycontrol report.

Beijing investing in infrastructure in PoK and Balochistan under CPEC is a red flag for India, as it could pave the way for greater military mobility for Pakistan and China in the region.

Vehicles pass through Abbottabad Tunnel No 1, which is part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) along Hazara Motorway in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, October 15, 2023. File Photo/Reuters

New Delhi also fears that CPEC could hurt its own regional connectivity projects, such as the Chabahar port in Iran, by creating alternative trade routes that bypass India, as per the business news outlets report.

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With CPECs likely expansion to Afghanistan, India would be keenly watching as the development raises its security and economic concerns.

One of the biggest worries for New Delhi would be Pakistan using Afghan territory to carry out anti-India activities. Afghanistan once housed Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. With China backing Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, this trilateral bonding could fund, train, and export terrorism into Indian territory, reported Moneycontrol.

The extension of CPEC to Afghanistan could be a symbolic snub to Indias rising regional assertiveness, China signalling its support for ironclad friend Pakistan, and forestalling Indias growing ties with Central Asian nations, the report added.

New Delhi has previously condemned China and Pakistan for trying to lure third countries into the CPEC projects. We have seen reports on encouraging proposed participation of third countries in so-called CPEC projects. Any such actions by any party directly infringe on Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity. India firmly and consistently opposes projects in the so-called CPEC, which are in Indian territory that has been illegally occupied by Pakistan, Indias Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in 2022.

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The informal trilateral meeting also came against the backdrop of New Delhi elevating its engagement with Kabul to the ministerial level.

India has the edge over Pakistan as it has increased its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. However, with China entering the field to improve Islamabads relationship with Kabul, New Delhi may need to re-examine its regional strategies.

With inputs from agencies
An all-party delegation will be in Japan to talk about Indias strong stand against terrorism by speaking about the recent Operation Sindoor as part of a global outreach. US President Donald Trump will host an exclusive dinner for his top meme coin investors. In India, PM Modi will be in Rajasthan to unveil several development projects including railways, roadways, power, water and renewable energy sectors read more

The Operation Sindoor outreach will reach Japan to spread the the country's stand on terrorism. File image/PTI

It is set to be a busy Thursday with several events lined up for the day.

Firstly, Indias Operation Sindoor global outreach delegation led by Sanjay Jha will be in Japan today. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump will host a lavish dinner for his meme coin investors.

In India, PM Modi will be in Rajasthan to unveil development projects while Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu will embark on a three-day visit to New Delhi. Meanwhile, workers at the Canada Post are likely to go on strike as their current contract ends.

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Here is all that is set to take place throughout the day.

Operation Sindoor delegation in Japan

A delegation all-party members from India is set to take Operation Sindoor to a global platform. The delegation headed by JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha will be in Japan today to convey Indias strong stand against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

JD(U) leader Sanjay Jha, leading a delegation to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia , informed reporters after a briefing that their message to global leaders would be, India has decided enough is enough. He stated that Pakistan has repeatedly acted like a thief asked to probe his own crime whenever India trusted its assurances on counter-terrorism.

Trump to host dinner for top meme coin investors

US President Donald Trump is set to host a special dinner only for people who bought a lot of his memecoin. Memecoins like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Coin, $TRUMP , etc are a type of joke cryptocurrency. People buy and sell them like other cryptocurrencies, but they dont have any real use.

President Donald Trump speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in July 27, 2024 in Nashville. File image/AP

Only 220 individuals who acquired the highest volume of coins are extended an invitation to this VIP dinner, as reported by The New York Times. Trumps website conveyed the stringent exclusivity, advising, The competition is fierce. Own $TRUMP or watch from the sidelines. Furthermore, the top 25 purchasers are afforded access to an ultra-exclusive private VIP reception in addition to the dinner. The identities of some of these individuals have been ascertained by cryptocurrency experts or voluntarily disclosed by the individuals themselves online, reported news website Economic Times.

PM Modi in Rajasthan to unveil development projects

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a number of development projects during his visit to Rajasthan today. The projects include railways, roadways, power, water and renewable energy sectors.

An official statement said PM Modi will also inaugurate 103 redeveloped Amrit Stations in 86 districts across 18 states and Union Territories, which have been built at a cost of 1,100 crore, besides launching other development projects costing over Rs 26,000 crore, reported news agency PTI.

The prime minister will inaugurate the redeveloped Deshnoke Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme and flag off Bikaner-Mumbai express train. He will then lay the foundation stone, inaugurate and dedicate to the nation multiple development projects worth over 26,000 crore and also address a public function in Palana, the statement said.

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Andhra Pradesh CM to embark on official visit to New Delhi

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will embark on a three-day visit to the national capital from today. He is set to meet several Union Ministers on his visit. He is also scheduled to meet with several industrialists regarding investments in the State, said an official release.

Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu will be on a three-day visit to the national capital. File image/PTI

The Chief Ministers schedule for May 24 includes participation in the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting, commencing at 9:30 am at Bharat Mandapam. Following these engagements, the TDP supremo is slated to return to the State on May 24, as per the released statement.

Canada Post likely to go on strike

Canada Post is likely to go on a potential strike beginning at 12 am local time on May 22, following official strike notices issued by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). The notices cover both urban and rural and suburban mail carrier units, signalling a possible nationwide disruption unless a last-minute agreement is reached.

The labor dispute centers on unresolved contract negotiations. CUPWs demands include a 24 per cent wage increase over four years, enhanced benefits and stronger job security measures. Canada Post, citing financial constraints, has countered with an 11.5 per cent wage increase and limited benefit improvements.
Fifteen years ago, on May 22, Mangalore witnessed one of Indias worst air crashes. Air India Express Flight IX-812 from Dubai crashed while landing at the Mangalore airport at 6.05 am. Heres how the tragedy unfolded read more

Rescue personnel are seen near the smouldering wreckage of an Air India Boeing 737-800 aircraft which crashed upon landing in Mangalore on May 22, 2010. File image/AFP

For the 166 passengers and crew on board Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore on May 22, 2010, this was a routine journey. But this routine flight turned into one of aviations worst tragedies, one that shall never be forgotten.

It was also on this day in 2017 that an Ariana Grande concert at UKs Manchester Arena became a tragedy.

As part of our ongoing History Today series, we take a look back at the Air India Express crash as well as the Manchester Arena bombing which have left an indelible mark on history as well as other events that shaped the day.

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Crash Of Air India Express Flight 812

On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 took off from Dubai and was on its way to Mangalore in India. The flight departed Dubai without issue and the flight had been uneventful before initiating the descent and approach to landing at Mangalore.

In fact, the captain was asleep for over an hour, leaving the first officer to monitor the aircrafts systems, navigation and communication with air traffic control during cruise. Later, the aircraft was cleared approach into Mangalore.

Herein lies the problem. The Mangalore airport, situated on a hilly area, was deemed to be a critical airfield and required the captain to land it. However, the first officer continued to fly, resulting in the plane overrunning and crashing down the hill at its far end.

Locals and police crowd at the crash site of Mangaluru Air India Express on May 22, 2010. File image/PTI

Of the 166 people on board, only eight people managed to walk away from the burning wreck. It was Indias second-worst domestic airline tragedy.

As per the investigation, the captain of the flight took an unstabilised approach towards landing despite the calls of go around by the first officer on the runway. It resulted in overshooting the runway, falling down the hillside and bursting into flames.

Manchester Arena bombing

Around 10.30 pm on May 22, 2017, just moments after Ariana Grande finished the final song of her Dangerous Woman concert at Manchester Arena, a suicide bomber detonated an explosion on the premises, killing 22 concertgoers and injuring 116 more. Later, the Islamic State claimed responsibility for what was the deadliest act of terrorism in Britain since the 2005 London metro bombings.

Witnesses, who were present at the venue, said that the pop star had just finished her final song in the performance and walked off the stage when an explosion rung out at the arena, turning a scene of youthful fun to panic and violence as shrapnel and fire tore through the crowd pouring out of the Arenas busiest exit.

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They added that they heard an explosion and saw a flash of light. Some were knocked down by the blast, while others scrambled for safety in the chaos.

Frantic parents, family members and friends began what would be an hours-long search for their children, and those from whom they had been separated when the rush to safety began. Others took to social media with photos of their loved ones, using #manchesterarena to ask if any of them had been seen alive after the explosion. More than 240 emergency calls were made; 60 ambulances and 400 police officers helped in the search. The youngest victim was eight-year-old Lancashire native Saffie Roussos.

Members of the public take part in a vigil on St Anns Square in Manchester, northwest England exactly one week after a bomb attack at Manchester Arena killed 22 and injured dozens more. File image/AFP

Investigations later revealed that 22-year-old Salman Abedi, a Manchester native of Libyan descent, had carried out the deadly attack. Evidence revealed that others, including Abedis brother, were aware of his plans, and may have helped to carry them out.

A public inquiry released in 2021 found that more should have been done by British police to stop the attack, while MI5 admitted it acted too slowly in dealing with Abedi.

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Meanwhile, Grande, who had briefly suspended her tour, returned to the concert area 11 days later and held a benefit concert titled One Love Manchester, raising a total of 17 million towards victims of the bombing.

The Axis Powers are created

It was on this day back in 1939 that Italy and Germany agreed to a military and political alliance, giving birth formally to the Axis powers, which ultimately included Japan.

Italys Benito Mussolini coined the name Pact of Steel (he also came up with the metaphor of an axis linking Rome and Berlin) after reconsidering his first choice, Pact of Blood, to describe this historic agreement with Germany.

Officially, the Pact of Steel obliged Germany and Italy to aid the other country militarily, economically or otherwise in the event of war, and to collaborate in wartime production. Notably, historians state that the Italian dictator had been less than keen to commit to the Pact. This was because he did not believe that Italy was ready for a major war.

It was only in September 1940, the Pact of Steel became the Tripartite Pact, with Japan making up the third constituent of the triad.

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This Day, That Year

1960: The most violent earthquake in recorded history hits Chile; measuring 9.5 on the Richter Scale, it reportedly killed between 2,230 and 6,000 people.

1972: Richard Nixon arrived in Moscow, the first visit by a US president to the Soviet Union.

1980: The arcade game Pac-Man is released.
The Trump administration has been accused of sending migrants to South Sudan, a country on the verge of collapsing into a civil war. Heres more about the nation which has been struggling since 2011 read more

A Sudanese supporter of General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, holds a national flag during a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan. File image/AP

The United States is being asked to explain why it appears to be deporting migrants from as far away as Vietnam and Cuba to South Sudan, a chaotic country thats once again in danger of collapsing into civil war.

A US judge ordered Trump administration officials to appear at an emergency hearing Wednesday to answer questions. The administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes in the US but refused to say where they would end up.

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If South Sudan is the confirmed destination, that means people from Vietnam, Mexico and elsewhere are being sent to a nation they have no link to, thousands of miles from where they want to be. Vietnams list of its embassies in Africa shows the closest one to South Sudan is in Tanzania, over 800 miles away.

South Sudans police spokesperson, Major General James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press that no migrants had arrived and if they did, they would be investigated and redeported to their correct country if not South Sudanese.

Some in the capital, Juba, worried their country would become a kind of dumping ground. Those people who are deported, some of them are criminals, they have been involved in crimes. So once they are brought to South Sudan, that means that criminal activities will also increase, said Martin Mawut Ochalla, 28.

This would not be the first time the Trump administration has pressured South Sudan over deportees. Recently, the administration abruptly revoked the visas of all South Sudanese, saying their government failed to accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner. South Sudan pushed back, saying the person in question was Congolese, but later said it would allow him to enter in the spirit of maintaining friendly relations with the US.

South Sudans government has struggled since independence from Sudan in 2011 to deliver many of the basic services of a state. Years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on aid that has been hit hard by another Trump administration decision, sweeping cuts in foreign assistance.

Heres a look at South Sudan, whose own people had been granted US temporary protected status because of insecurity at home.

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A deadly divide

The euphoria of independence turned to civil war two years later, when rival factions backing President Salva Kiir and Deputy Riek Machar opened fire on each other in South Sudans capital, Juba , in 2013.

The two mens tensions have been so much at the heart of the countrys insecurity that the late Pope Francis once took the extraordinary step of kneeling to kiss their feet in a plea for lasting peace.

Five years of civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. A peace deal reached in 2018 has been fragile and not fully implemented, to the frustration of the U.S. and other international backers. South Sudan still hasnt held a long-delayed presidential election, and Kiir remains in power.

Smoke is seen in Khartoum, Sudan. File image/AP

His rivalry with Machar is compounded by ethnic divisions. Machar has long regarded himself as destined for the presidency, citing a prophecy years ago by a seer from his ethnic group.

Earlier this year, the threat of war returned. Machar was arrested and allies in the government and military were detained following a major escalation that included airstrikes and an attack on a United Nations helicopter. Machars opposition party announced South Sudans peace deal was effectively over.

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Lets not mince words: What we are seeing is darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 civil wars, which killed 400,000 people, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.

Some Western countries have closed their embassies there while others, including the US, have reduced embassy staff. The US Embassys travel warning said that violent crime , such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba.

A country in disarray

The Trump administrations pressure on South Sudan to take in deportees, including foreign ones, is in sharp contrast to Washingtons past warm embrace as its rebel leaders, including Kiir and Machar, fought for independence.

Now there is less support than ever for most of South Sudans over 11 million people because of the cuts in US aid.

Climate shocks including flooding have long caused mass displacement and closed schools. South Sudans health and education systems were already among the weakest in the world. Aid organisations had offered essential help.

South Sudans government has long relied on oil production, but little money from that is seen, in part because of official corruption. Conflict in neighbouring Sudan has affected landlocked South Sudans oil exports. Civil servants at times go months without being paid.

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How South Sudan is equipped to handle migrants arriving abruptly from the US is yet to be seen.
The Indian Navy on Wednesday inducted INSV Kaundinya, a stitched sail ship based on a fifth-century ship showcased in a painting in the Ajanta Caves. Built using traditional stitching techniques, the vessel is named after an ancient Indian mariner whose love story led to the birth of a kingdom read more

The Indian Navy has inducted a stitched sail ship, named Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Kaundinya, at a ceremony held at the Naval Base in Karnatakas Karwar. The vessel is modelled on a 5th-century ship showcased in a painting in the Ajanta Caves.

The ship is set for a historic transoceanic voyage, traversing the ancient trade route from Gujarat to Oman, according to the Indian Navy. The vessel, with a 15-member crew of the Indian Navy on board, will embark on the journey later this year.

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Heres everything to know about the stitched ship.

Features of INSV Kaundinya

INSV Kaundinya, the stitched ship, boasts square sails and steering oars, which are entirely alien to modern-day ships, as per the Indian Navy. These oars control the steering of the ship, which is reportedly equipped with a main mast, mizzen mast and bowsprit mast.

INSV Kaundinya is adorned with culturally significant features. Her [the ships] sails display motifs of the Gandabherunda and the Sun, her bow bears a sculpted Simha Yali, and a symbolic Harappan style stone anchor adorns her deck, each element evoking the rich maritime traditions of ancient India, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The vessel was built using traditional stitching techniques by a team of skilled artisans from Kerala, led by master shipwright Babu Sankaran. Over several months, the team painstakingly stitched wooden planks on the ships hull using coir rope, coconut fibre and natural resin, the ministrys statement read.

Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the Prime Ministers Economic Advisory Council, told Indian Express that the ship has trailing oars, square sails and a flexible hull. It does not have rudders. In modern sailing, usually, triangular sails are used. There are some advantages, but many disadvantages, because you have to basically sail with the wind. So, it is important to recognise that when we attempt to sail it, we will have to relearn the art of sailing with square sails.

The project, which is aimed at exhibiting Indias maritime heritage, is being implemented through a tripartite agreement between the Indian Navy, the Ministry of Culture and Goa-based shipbuilding company Hodi Innovations (OPC) Private Ltd.

The Indian Navy monitored the ships design, technical validation, and construction process. With no surviving blueprints of such vessels, the design had to be inferred from iconographic sources. The Navy collaborated with the shipbuilder to recreate the hull form and traditional rigging, and ensured that the design was validated through hydrodynamic model testing at the Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, and internal technical assessment, the defence ministry said in the statement.

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INSV Kaundinyas keel laying happened in September 2023, and it was launched in February in Goa.

The formal induction of INSV Kaundinya into the Indian Navy is historical and significant for Indias maritime heritage.

This is not just the launch of a vesselit is the launch of heritage. A symbolic act that echoes across centuries, marking the resurgence of Indias maritime legacy and reaffirming our deep and enduring ties with the Indian Ocean world, Union Minister of Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, who was the chief guest at the induction ceremony on Wednesday (May 21), wrote on X.

A historic moment for Bharat and our civilisational pride.



Presided over the induction ceremony of the Ancient Stitched Ship INSV Kaundinya at Karwar Naval Base todayan extraordinary recreation of a 5th-century vessel, inspired by Ajanta murals and handcrafted by Keralas pic.twitter.com/YonXLLKl81  Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (@gssjodhpur) May 21, 2025

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How INSV Kaundinya got its name

INSV Kaundinya is named after a legendary Indian mariner who sailed across the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia.

More than 2000 years ago, the Indian merchant Kaundinya reached the Mekong Delta (southern Vietnam ), along with a crew of Indians, during his sailing venture.

The Indian merchant vessel on which they were aboard was attacked by pirates, who were defeated by Kaundinya. However, the vessel was damaged and had to be beached for repairs, as per an Indian Express report.

A local clan, led by warrior queen Soma, encircled the Indian crew, who were outnumbered.

Legend has it that a confrontation ensued between them. However, the conflict did not last long as Soma, belonging to the Naga clan, fell in love with Kaundinya and proposed marriage. The couple later went on to establish the royal dynasty of Funan.

Kaundinya and Soma established the Funan dynasty. Wikimedia Commons

Speaking to Indian Express, Sanyal said, Kaundinya and Soma set up a dynasty that went on to form the first Indianised Kingdom in what is now Cambodia/South Vietnam. This is corroborated by Chinese sources. All the future dynasties of the Khmer and Chams of Vietnam to this day trace their lineage to this marriage.

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With inputs from agencies
Bangladeshs powerful army chief Waqar Zaman is said to be unhappy with Muhammad Yunus, who is leading the interim government, over a number of issues, including the need for elections to be held, law and order in the country and the creation of a corridor for Rohingya refugees read more

Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the Government of Bangladesh. Reuters

Is the Bangladesh army running out of patience with Muhammad Yunus?

There are rumours that the powerful army chief Waqar Zaman is at odds with Yunus, who is leading the interim government.

The two men, who had come together after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, are seemingly split on a number of issues including the need for elections to be held at the earliest, law and order and the creation of a corridor for Rohingya refugees.

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But what happened? What do we know?

Lets take a closer look

What happened?

There are reports that the interim Bangladesh government has sacked its foreign secretary less than eight months after he was appointed.

Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin  who was appointed as 27th Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh in September 2024  had opposed the initiative of a humanitarian corridor and safe zone for Rohingya refugees that Yunus and his National Security Advisor (NSA) Khalilur Rahman have been pushing.

Jashim Uddins views are in sync with top military brass who fear the creation of Rakhine corridor to Myanmar could compromise the countrys sovereignty without giving Dhaka any strategic benefits.

Indeed, Bangladesh army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman at a meeting of army officers on Wednesday rejected just such a notion, according to Economic Times.

Zaman, speaking at the Army Head Quarters (AHQ) in Dhaka, termed such a corridor completely unacceptable.

Bangladeshs Chief of Army Staff General Waqar-uz-Zaman, speaking at the Army Head Quarters (AHQ) in Dhaka, termed such a corridor completely unacceptable. Reuters

Zaman also slammed the interim government for making key decisions without consulting the military.

Bangladesh needs political stability. This is only possible through an elected government, not by unelected decision-makers, Zaman was quoted as saying at a meet of officers on Wednesday, as per Dhaka newspaper Prothom Alo.

There will be no corridor. The sovereignty of Bangladesh is not negotiable, Zaman added, calling the idea risky and sensitive.

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Only a political government elected by the people can make such decisions.

Zaman also insisted that parliamentary elections be held by December.

He said only an elected government could determine the future of Bangladesh and not an unelected regime.

Zaman also said an elected government should be in power by January 1, 2026.

The army is meant for defending the nation. Not for policing. We must return to barracks after elections, General Zaman was quoted as saying by Telegraph India.

The differences between Zaman and Yunus were also on full display earlier this week at a high level meet in Dhaka.

As per NDTV, the meeting at the State Guest House Jamuna was chaired by Yunus.

Zaman, Navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan and Air Force chief Air Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan were among the top military officials in attendance.

Home adviser Lieutenant General (retired) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain and national security adviser Khalilur Rahman were some of the top government officials present.

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Sources confirmed that Yunus and Zaman were at odds over the corridor and giving aid to Myanmars Rakhine State.

The interim government even tried to enlist foreign diplomats to persuade Zaman, but with no success.

According to the outlet, things are also tense between Zaman and Yunus over Lieutenant General Mohammad Faizur Rahman.

Rahman, the Quartermaster General (QMG), is seen as pro-Islamist and pro-Pakistani.

Rahman, who is said to be close to Pakistans powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), is said to be Yunus man.

How Zaman vs Yunus battle evolved

As per Business Today, while Zaman initially supported the interim government after Haseenas ouster  chalking it up to the doctrine of necessity  things devolved after Yunus made no move to conduct elections.

This government is only supposed to be there to organise a free, fair and inclusive election, senior journalist Subir Bhaumik told the outlet. In the last nine months, General Waqar has noticed that Yunus is in no hurry to organise any election.

Lieutenant General Kamrul Hassan, who is Yunus military adviser, has become another thorn in Zamans side.

Hassan, who met with US Charge dAffaires Tracey Ann Jacobson, reportedly wanted to become the next Bangladesh army chief  outraging top army brass.

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While Zaman tried to dismiss Hassan on May 11, Yunus is said to have vetoed the order.

Tensions escalate between interim government chief Muhammad Yunus and Army Chief General Waqar-Uz-Zaman

As per the outlet, Yunus release of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutineers  300 of whom were convicted for murdering 57 army officers and 16 others in February 2009  also stirred up the armed forces.

While Islamist groups have backed the release of these men, many within the army including Zaman have been left distressed.

The release of around 400 convicted Islamist radicals including Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jashimuddin Rahmani has further upset the applecart.

Yunus has also banned Sheikh Hasinas Awami League from contesting polls  a move assailed by critics.

How can you throw out the most important political party and then say youre holding inclusive elections? Bhaumik wondered.

Zaman, incidentally, was appointed by Hasina and is in fact a distant relative of hers, as per Business Today.

He also served as a principal staff officer in the armed forces division under Hasina.

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What happens next?

Sources told India Today that Yunus might attempt to replace Zaman with Hassan.

Yunus is said to be working on a constitutional proclamation to nullify Bangladeshs Constitution.

The proclamation could result in the post of president, who commands the armed forces, being done away with.

Waqar has reportedly sought to prepare for this by seeking the support of the heads of the navy, air force, and intelligence

In fact, the chiefs of the air force and the navy were also present at Zamans officer meeting on Wednesday.

Zaman during the meeting even praised the pointed the 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh and said that large-scale changes were undesirable.

The general said that he is not able to understand the proposed July Declaration and further touched upon the meaningless and hollow thought on the removal of the president  clearly a warning shot at Yunus.

According to Economic Times, those that follow Bangladesh think that Zaman may very well take stringent steps.

Yunus press secretary has refused to comment on the remarks.

We were not among the audience when General Zaman made his comments. It is better to ask the army, Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Yunus, told The Telegraph Online.

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India has urged Bangladesh to hold free and fair elections at the earliest.

What about Jashim Uddin?

While Bangladesh has denied that Jashim Uddin is being sacked, there is a report that Asad Alam Siam, the ambassador to the United States, as the new foreign secretary, has been appointed the new foreign secretary.

As per Business Standard, Jashim Uddin in April had demanded a formal apology from Pakistan for its conduct during the 1971 war.

Pakistani Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch and Md Jashimuddin on April 17, 2025. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pakistan)

Jashim Uddin had also called on Islamabad to pay Dhaka $4.52 billion as its share of undivided assets and foreign aid funds.

He also demanded $200 million  foreign aid from countries & agencies  to then East Pakistan during the extremely deadly Bhola cyclone.

His insistence on bringing up the issue is said to have created frustration amongst Bangladeshi and Pakistani officials.

It is also leading some to wonder whether this had anything to do with his sacking.

The development comes in the backdrop of India on Saturday imposing port restrictions on the import of certain goods, such as readymade garments and processed food items, from Bangladesh.

This came after Yunus made a controversial statement in China that Indias seven northeastern states, which share a nearly 1,600 km border with Bangladesh, are landlocked and have no way to reach the ocean except through his country.

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In his address at a business event in which he had also said that Bangladesh was the only guardian of the Indian Ocean in the region, Yunus had also invited China to send goods through Bangladesh across the world.

The comments did not go down well in New Delhi. They also drew sharp reactions from political leaders in India across party lines.

With inputs from agencies
Following the horrifying shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, that killed two Israeli embassy staffers, authorities have identified them as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. The young couple was just days away from getting engaged in Jerusalem, Israels Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter revealed read more

Two people who wee shot at US Capitol Jewish Museum have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. The couple days away from an planned engagement. Image courtesy: X/IsraelinUS

A quiet evening in Washington, DC turned deadly on Wednesday, when two staffers from the Israeli Embassy were shot outside the US Capital Jewish Museum in what authorities have described as an anti-Semitic attack.

The victimsYaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrimwere not just colleagues. They were partners, soulmates, and as it turns out, just days away from a planned engagement that had been months in the making, revealed Israels Ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter.

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The couple had been attending a private event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the museum, a cocktail evening for young Jewish professionals, also open to members of the diplomatic community. Organisers said the gathering was meant to help people in Gaza.

But just as the two were leaving the event, they were shot at close range by the gunman, reports The Times of Israel. While officials have said there is no ongoing threat to the broader Jewish community, those who knew Yaron and Sarah say the loss is already immeasurable.

Heres what we know about the couple.

Yaron purchased a ring to propose to Sarah

In a heartbreaking statement, Israels Ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, revealed that Yaron was planning on proposing to Sarah next week during their trip back home.

The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple, Leiter said.

Yaron and Sarah had reportedly met during their training for diplomatic service and had been inseparable ever since. Colleagues at the Israeli Embassy described them as devoted not only to their work but to each other". As reported by News18, the two were often seen sharing quiet lunches and working late into the night during high-pressure moments.

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The Embassy of Israel in the US issued a sombre statement mourning the loss of their colleagues.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives.



This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.



The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words pic.twitter.com/2HytKDp8Fr  Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) May 22, 2025

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time, the post read.

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Who is Elias Rodriguez, the suspect arrested for the attack?

The man arrested in connection with the shooting has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, DC Police Chief Smith confirmed.

According to a CNN report, shortly after the gunshots were heard outside the museum, Rodriguez entered the building, appearing distressed. At the time, many attendees believed he was just a frightened bystander or eyewitness.He looked shaken, and security even offered him water, said attendee Yoni Kalin.Another attendee, Paige Siegel, shared with the outlet, I went up to him and asked if he was okay as he muttered call the police again and again. He said he was okay. Then I asked if he was shot, he said he wasnt.Sarah Marinuzzi, who also attended the event, described Rodriguezs behaviour as erratic. She said he approached security asking them to call the police.It wasnt until officers arrived about ten minutes later that the man stunned the room by confessing to the crime. I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine! Free Palestine Marinuzzi recalled him shouting.

Footage showing 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez yelling Free Palestine while being taken into custody by D.C. Metro Police, after shooting and killing two staffers of the Israeli Embassy outside of the Capital Jewish Museum tonight in Washington, D.C. pic.twitter.com/pOyIawAMVn  OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 22, 2025

Authorities are now digging deeper into Rodriguezs background, including his movements and online activity in the days leading up to the shooting. Investigators say he had been seen loitering near the museum earlier that day, raising suspicions about whether the attack was premeditated.

US President Donald Trump weighed in on the incident early Wednesday through his social media platform.

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These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL! he wrote.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also condemned the killings, calling them a despicable act of hatred. Our prayers are with the loved ones of those who were murdered, Herzog added.

With input from agencies
Two Israeli embassy staffers, a couple about to be engaged, were shot dead as they were leaving an event taking place at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. Authorities have identified the shooter as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, with eyewitnesses revealing that he chanted slogans such as Did it for Gaza and Free Palestine as the police took him into custody read more

A man, standing behind police tape, talks on his cell phone outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, DC, in the early hours of May 22. AFP

An event in Washington to celebrate Jewish heritage turned into a tragedy on Wednesday night when two staff members of the Israeli embassy were killed.

The shooting has shocked one and all. US President Donald Trump quickly condemned the attack, saying, These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said authorities would track down those responsible for the fatal shooting.

But what actually happened? Whos behind the shooting? We try to piece together the events and how the killings unfolded in the American capital.

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The shooting in Washington

On Wednesday night, a man and a woman, identified as Israeli embassy staff, were killed in a shooting outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. The victims, who were a couple and were about to be engaged, were shot and killed in the area of 3rd and F streets in Northwest which is near the museum, said the FBI field office and the US attorneys office.

Notably, the museum is in downtown Washington, close to the US Capitol and just over a kilometre away from the White House.

The shooting occurred outside the museum, which was hosting an event largely focused on how to build a coalition to help Gazans, reports the BBC. JoJo Kalin, the organiser of the event, told BBC, Im not going to lose my humanity over this or be deterred. And that Israelis and Palestinians both still deserve self determination and [it is] just deeply ironic that thats what we were discussing.

It was bridge building and then we were all hit over the hide with such hatred.

Emergency personnel work at the site where, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. Reuters

Victims of the shooting

Officials have stated that a man and woman died in the shooting and that the two were connected to the Israeli embassy in Washington. However, officials havent released the name of the victims.

But, Israeli ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, said that the pair who were shot were a couple about to be engaged. He said the man had bought a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem.

They were a beautiful couple, said Leiter.

The Israeli embassy spokeswoman, Tal Naim Cohen, added that the couple were shot at close range.

FBI agents cordon off the scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, DC. AFP

Suspect in custody

Moments after the shooting, Pamela Smith, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, announced that the suspect behind the incident had been taken into custody. Smith identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, adding that he had approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire striking both of our decedents.

Smith added that the suspect was not previously known to police. Once in custody, he identified where he discarded the weapon, adding that it had been recovered.

According to one eyewitness, the accused man pretended to be a witness and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming he did it for Gaza. Sara Marinuzzi was quoted as telling CNN, There were some more shots and then a guy came running into the centre, and the security guards offered him water, trying to comfort him. He was kind of having erratic behaviour. They figured he witnessed the shooting, Marinuzzi said.

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She added that the man asked security to call the police. Once police arrived about 10 minutes later, Marinuzzi said the man took accountability for the crime, saying, I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine!

Other eyewitnesses corroborated this statement. Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher, who were inside the museum when they heard gunshots, told the Associated Press that a man came inside looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realising he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine.

A man, standing behind police tape, talks on his cell phone outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, DC, in the early hours of May 22. AFP

Another one present at the event, identified as Paige Siegel, said that she spoke to the shooter before she learnt that he was the gunman. I went up to him and asked if he was okay as he muttered call the police again and again. He said he was okay. Then I asked if he was shot, he said he wasnt, Siegel told CNN. He was so shaken when I spoke to him that he seemed harmless. Obviously I didnt know at the time, she added.

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Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who is part of the investigations, noted on X, Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.

Reactions to the shooting

The shooting of the Israeli embassy staffers has prompted strong reactions from US as well as Israeli officials. US President Donald Trump, calling the killings as horrible, said that antisemitism must end now. He also wrote on social media, Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also slammed the killings, saying, I am devastated by the scenes in Washington. This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy.

America and Israel will stand united in defence of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter visit the site where the shooting took place, which claimed the lives of two Israeli embassy staffers. Reuters

Danny Danon, Israels ambassador to the United Nations, also issued a statement saying that harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.

Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also reacted to the fatal shooting. His office put out a statement on X, which read: We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against Israel are rising in blood and must be fought to the bitter end.

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Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X: We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser also added, Were going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send the clear message that we will not tolerate antisemitism.

The horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate, she added.

Many watchers have said that the timing of the shooting is of particular significance  it comes as comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

With inputs from agencies
Honey traps, a long-standing espionage practice, are real. Ask the now-infamous YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who has been arrested for spying on India for Pakistan. She allegedly leaked sensitive information to Islamabad after she was honey-trapped by a Pakistani operative. But she isnt alone read more

Famous Indian YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra has been arrested for 'spying' for Pakistan. Investigations show that she was honey-trapped by a Pakistani operative. Image Courtesy: X

The Jyoti Malhotra spying case continues to unravel day by day  each day new details emerge on how the YouTuber, who ran the channel Travel with JO, shared sensitive information, including details about blackouts imposed by India during Operation Sindoor after reportedly being honey-trapped by a Pakistani official.

This case has served as a chilling reminder of the past instances when Indians, including diplomats, army officials, and scientists have fallen victim to honey traps by spy agencies across the world. For instance, theres the infamous cases of Madhuri Gupta and Satendra Siwal.

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We take a closer look at some of these instances of honey traps and how they leaked sensitive information.

Honey trapping, explained

Before we deep dive into examples of Indians being honey-trapped, lets understand what this concept means.

Honey trapping is a form of espionage in which an individual uses romantic or sexual relationships to manipulate, coerce, or blackmail information from a target. The term honey refers to the allure being used to entice the target.

When an individual is being honey-trapped, the person carrying out the operation is often referred to as honeypot. They establish a relationship with the target and once trust is established, he/she gathers the information through manipulation, coercion, or force.

Many note that famous writer John Le Carre, known for his bestseller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is said to have coined the term honeytrap to describe this form of espionage. And through the years, men and women have perfected honey trapping but experts note none have done it as well as the Russians.

In a Slate report, one former KGB agent said that the Soviet intelligence agency didnt ask Russian women to stand up for their country but asked them to lay down. And one of the biggest Cold War spy cases was that of Clayton Lonetree, a Marine Corps security guard entrapped by a female Soviet officer, then blackmailed into sharing documents. In 1987, he became the first Marine convicted of espionage.

When Madhuri Gupta was honey-trapped

Before , there was the notorious case of Madhuri Gupta , a mid-level diplomat stationed in Islamabad, accused of secretly serving the interests of Pakistans notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

In 2010, she was arrested for passing on information. Investigations revealed that the Grade B Indian Foreign Service officer and Second Secretary (Press & Information) in Islamabad had been a victim of a honey trap. Investigating officer Pankaj Sood, speaking to The Caravan later, said, They threw a young man at her and she got trapped.

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Madhuri Gupta was arrested on April 22, 2010. File image/PTI

That young man was Jamshed, alias Jim, a Pakistani operative in his 30s, half her age, who had been tasked with seducing Gupta and extracting sensitive information. The probe revealed that Jamshed and his handler, Mudassar Raza Rana, first contacted Malhotra through a woman journalist and won her trust by helping her locate a rare book by Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed.

The investigation showed that Malhotra was so infatuated with Jim that she allegedly wanted to convert to Islam, and go on a trip to Istanbul with him. Eventually, she was arrested and in 2018, a court found her guilty and finally convicted her of spying for Pakistan. She lived in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, awaiting her trial, and died in October 2021 at the age of 64.

How honey-trapped Satendra Siwal spied for Pakistan

In February last year, an Indian embassy employee in Moscow, identified as Satendra Siwal , was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for allegedly spying for Pakistans intelligence agency.

According to the ATS, Siwal, who was working as a security assistant in the embassy, had shared secret documents related to weapons systems of the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy, including warplanes and submarines.

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But what led him to do this? Investigators revealed that he had been approached by a woman disguised as Pooja Mehra on social media. She honey-trapped Siwal and persuaded him to leak confidential documents in return for financial gain. Following his confession, Siwal was charged under several provisions, including the Government Secrets Act of 1923.

When UP man was lured by Neha

Earlier this year, Uttar Pradeshs ATS arrested a man employed at the ordnance factory in Firozabad on suspicion of spying for Pakistan. Identified as Ravindra Kumar, he allegedly shared confidential data, including information on the Gangayaan space project and the trial of a military logistics-delivery drone.

Leaking this information was the result of a honey trap, say officials. Investigations revealed that a woman, posing as Neha Sharma, contacted him through Facebook last year. And despite revealing that she worked for Pakistans intelligence agency, she managed to lure him into a honey trap.

When Pakistan honey-trapped DRDOs Pradeep Kurulkar

In May 2023, the Maharashtra Police arrested Pradeep Kurulkar , a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist, for leaking confidential information to a Pakistani woman operative.

The police chargesheet stated that Kurulkar shared information about sensitive defence projects in exchange of nude pictures and sexting.

DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad for allegedly sharing classified information with a Pakistani Intelligence Operative. File image/DRDO

Kurulkar, who was a member of several strategically-significant defence projects including the Agni missiles, was in touch with the Pakistani operative between June 2022 and December 2022 through email, Instagram and video calls using two applications suggested by the woman, The Indian Express reported.

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He is now in judicial custody and lodged at Punes Yerwada Central Prison.

Ex-BrahMos engineer Nishant Agarwals case

Last June, former BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd engineer Nishant Agarwal was handed a life imprisonment term for spying for Pakistans intelligence agency ISI. The punishment comes after he was arrested in 2018 for spying.

Formerly working at the BrahMos facility, Agarwal leaked sensitive information to the ISI. Investigations then revealed that he had been honey-trapped. The anti-terrorism squad came across Facebook accounts with names Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan  suspected to be operated by Pakistani intelligence agents  that were in touch with Aggarwal.

The case of R&AWs KV Unnikrishnan

But its not just scientists and diplomats who have been honey-trapped. Serving military personnel and spies have also fallen for the allure of a honeypot.

And no case is as famous as that of KV Unnikrishnan, a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer. The 47-year-old deputy inspector general in charge of the R&AW mission in Madras (now Chennai) was allegedly honey-trapped in the 1980s, by a woman suspected of being a CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, the foreign intelligence agency of the United States. She had presented herself to the Indian spy as a stewardess for American airlines, Pan Am Airlines.

The CIA threatened to reveal Unnikrishnans compromising photographs with the airhostess to glean information on R&AW training and arming Tamil groups, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Indian governments negotiating positions on the peace accord with Sri Lanka.

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Later, Unnikrishnan confessed to high treason. He was kept under preventive detention at Tihar Jail for a year and then dismissed from service. We didnt have any evidence that would stand in a court of law, a former R&AW chief told India Today. In 2013, it was reported that Unnikrishnan settled in Chennai and lives a peaceful and non-dramatic life.

With inputs from agencies
A new study by geoscientists at Virginia Tech, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimates a 15 per cent chance of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hitting the United States within the next 50 years. Such a quake could trigger a 1,000-feet-high mega-tsunami and threaten millions of lives. Regions at risk include Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of the US West Coast if the quake occurs along the Cascadia Subduction Zone read more

Waves from a mega-tsunami could rise as high as 1,000 feet, putting millions of lives at risk. AI-Generated/Representational Image

A mega tsunami, nearly 1,000 feet high, could destroy a large part of the United States, scientists have warned.

They say this could happen if a powerful earthquake hits the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

This warning comes from a new study by researchers at Virginia Tech, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

ALSO READ | Japan warns of megaquake that could kill 300,000 along Nankai Trough: What is it?

The study says the quake could make parts of the coastline sink by up to 6.5 feet, which would make the tsunami even more damaging.

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In this explainer, we look at what a mega tsunami is, what the study has found, and which areas are most at risk.

Heres a look:

What is a mega-tsunami?

Mega-tsunamis are not like regular tsunamis, which usually produce waves only a few feet high. These waves can reach hundreds of feet in height.

They are caused by major underwater events, such as powerful earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, or even meteor strikes.

Unlike ordinary tsunamis, mega-tsunamis can push several miles inland with huge force. They can destroy coastal barriers and leave little time for people to escape.

The study says the quake could make parts of the coastline sink by up to 6.5 feet. Reuters/File Photo

Though rare, such events have happened in the past and could be very dangerous if they hit areas where many people live.

What does the recent study say?

The new study by geoscientists at Virginia Tech, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says there is a 15 per cent chance of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake striking the region in the next 50 years.

Such a powerful quake could sink coastal areas by as much as 6.5 feet and could wash away major cities like Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

The areas at risk include Alaska, Hawaii and parts of Americas West Coast, if the earthquake happens along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault line that runs from northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in California.

In that case, waves from a mega-tsunami could rise as high as 1,000 feet, putting millions of lives at risk.

Scientists said this kind of earthquake would strike suddenly, within minutes, offering no time for people to adapt or prepare, unlike changes caused by climate.

Tina Dura, lead author of the study and assistant professor at Virginia Techs Department of Geosciences, said in a statement, The expansion of the coastal floodplain following a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake has not been previously quantified, and the impacts to land use could significantly increase the timeline to recovery.

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The study found the worst damage would likely occur in southern Washington, northern Oregon and northern California.

Alaska and Hawaii are also at risk, despite being further from the fault, due to their own history of earthquakes and volcanic activity.

Mega-tsunamis are caused by major underwater events, such as powerful earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. AI-Generated/Representational Image

ALSO READ | 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami: The disaster that killed more than 2 lakh people and its aftermath

Cascadia subduction zone: What is it?

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is one of the most active earthquake zones in North America, with experts warning of a strong chance of another major quake in the coming decades.

This fault stretches around 700 miles, from northern California to British Columbia, and lies roughly 70 to 100 miles off the Pacific coast.

Over the past 10,000 years, there have been 43 recorded earthquakes along this fault.

The last known quake here struck on January 26, 1700. It was believed to be around magnitude 9.0, causing the coastline to sink and a tsunami to form and crash onto land, according to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management.

The department says Oregon could face another earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or more, along with a tsunami up to 100 feet high hitting the coast.

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If such a quake occurs, people near the shore could feel five to seven minutes of shaking, with the force reducing the further inland it reaches.

Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast: Why these regions are vulnerable

In 1958, a powerful earthquake in Alaskas Lituya Bay triggered a massive landslide, sending millions of tons of rock into Gilbert Inlet.

The rock, about 2,400 feet by 3,000 feet in size and weighing up to 90 million tons, created the tallest wave ever recorded, a 1,719-foot mega-tsunami that swept across the bay.

Alaska remains highly prone to landslides due to its rugged landscape and frequent earthquakes, Daily Mail reported. Climate change is making this risk worse by melting glaciers, which weakens slopes and loosens rocks.

Meanwhile, Hawaii also faces a history of mega-tsunamis, caused by the collapse of volcanic slopes. Around 105,000 years ago, a 1,000-foot wave hit the island of Lanai, leaving marine fossils high up on its mountains.

The islands volcanoes grow by layers of lava, but these can become unstable and break apart, especially during eruptions or earthquakes. When large sections of rock fall into the ocean, they can trigger huge waves that threaten nearby islands.

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Kilauea volcano erupts in Hawaii. Reuters/File Photo

Hawaiis steep terrain makes these events especially dangerous.

Along the West Coast, a magnitude 9 earthquake on January 26, 1700, struck the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

It caused a mega-tsunami that wiped out the village of Pachena Bay within 30 minutes, with no survivors.

Scientists are working to improve early warning systems and evacuation plans, the report said. But earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes continue to make these regions highly vulnerable.

As history shows, melting glaciers in Alaska , unstable volcanoes in Hawaii, and major quakes along the West Coast could all lead to deadly waves once again.
Priyanka Senapati, a 21-year-old Odisha-based YouTuber, has come under the radar for her close ties to arrested content creator Jyoti Malhotra. The two reportedly travelled to various destinations together, including Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, months before the horrifying terror attacks rocked the region read more

Priyanka Senapati, a resident of Puri and currently a student, is believed to have shared a close bond with Malhotra. She had reportedly accompanied her on multiple trips, including a visit to Pahalgam, just days before the horrifying terror attacks rocked the region. Image courtesy: X

A fresh twist has emerged in the ongoing investigation into spy YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, as police have now turned their attention to another content creatorOdisha-based travel vlogger Priyanka Senapati.

The 21-year-old, a resident of Puri and currently a student, is believed to have shared a close bond with Malhotra. She had reportedly accompanied her on multiple trips, including a visit to Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir, just months before the horrifying terror attacks rocked the region.

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In the last three days, Senapati has undergone multiple rounds of intense questioning. Officials from the Intelligence Bureau, Odisha Police, and the states forensic teams are trying to uncover the depth of her involvement with , who was arrested last week from Haryana on serious charges of spying for Pakistan.

So, who exactly is Priyanka Senapati? What is her connection with Jyoti Malhotras case? Heres what we know so far

Big admirer of Jyoti, wanted to be popular like her: Senpati

According to a report by The New Indian Express, Senapati has reportedly told investigators that she was a huge admirer of Malhotra and aspired to become a successful social media influencer like her.

Senapati, who runs a YouTube channel called Prii_vlogs with just over 14,000 subscribers, was keen on growing her audience by associating with Malhotra, whose channel Travel with Jo had amassed over 3.87 lakh followers.

The two reportedly came in contact through YouTube last year and first connected in person during Malhotras visit to Puri in September. Their bond quickly grew, leading them to travel together across various destinations.

YouTuber Priyanka Senpati reportedly came in contact through YouTube last year and first connected in person during Malhotras visit to Puri in September. Image courtesy: Instagram

After news of Malhotras arrest broke, Senapati issued a clarification, stressing that she had no knowledge of the alleged activities of her friend.

I was completely unaware of the serious charges against her. Had I known she was spying for an enemy country, I would have never maintained any contact with her, she wrote.

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If any investigative agency wishes to cross-question, I would provide full cooperation. Nation is above all. Jai Hind, she added in the same post.

As of now, Senapati is being jointly questioned by officers from the Intelligence Bureau, Odishas intelligence unit, and the Puri police to understand the extent of her association with Malhotra.

Priyankas trips with Jyoti Malhotra under scanner

The two YouTubers who had developed a closer bond travelled together to various parts of the country.

Malhotras social media pages feature numerous images of the two exploring places like Puri, Kashmir, and Kerala. Their travel history has now come under scrutiny, especially in light of Malhotras recent arrest.

Back in September last year, during Malhotra visited Odisha, during which Senapati had escorted her to major landmarks like the Jagannath Temple and the Sun Temple at Konark. She also featured in her YouTube videos. The trip, however, didnt go unnoticed.

Malhotra was briefly detained for flying a drone over the Jagannath Temple, a restricted zone. She was later released, reportedly due to Senapatis intervention, who is said to have helped her gain access to sensitive locations, as per a Deccan Chronicle report.

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Authorities are also examining the Jagannath Bhakt Niwas guest house, where Malhotra had stayed during that visit. The propertys manager confirmed she arrived at the accommodation with another woman and stayed for a day, NDTV reports.

Jyoti Malhotras social media pages featured numerous images with Odisha-based YouTuber Priyanka Senapati exploring places like Puri, Kashmir, and Kerala. Image courtesy: X

Police are currently attempting to retrace Malhotras activities during her time in Puri and determine whether she came into contact with any suspicious individuals.

Senapatis Kartarpur visit in Pakistan faces scrutiny

Separately, another trip that has raised serious concerns is Senapatis visit to Pakistan via the Kartarpur Corridor . On March 25, she uploaded a vlog titled Odia Girl in Pakistan | Kartarpur Corridor Guide | Odia Vlog on her YouTube channel.

Senapatis visit to Pakistan via the Kartarpur Corridor roughly four months ago has also come under scrutiny amid her links with YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra. Image courtesy: X

While her father insists that the trip was routine and undertaken with proper documentation, authorities are closely analysing whether the visit, especially to such a strategically sensitive location, was simply for content creation or linked to something more organised.

We are looking into the womans visits to different locations and the financial transactions connected to those trips, Puri Superintendent of Police Vinit Agrawal told The Hindu. As per our current information, she had undertaken a one-day trip to Pakistan. We are examining the purpose of that visit. Coordination is underway with both state and central agencies, as well as with the Haryana police, he added.

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Though Senapati has not been arrested and no direct evidence has surfaced against her so far, she remains under surveillance at her family home in Puri. Her family has extended full cooperation, handing over her digital devices and financial records to the authorities.

Meanwhile, Senapatis online presence appears to be shrinkingcomments on her videos have been disabled, several uploads have been removed, and her activity on social media has notably declined as she made her account private.

With input from agencies
Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about his plans for a Golden Dome defence system to protect America. However, the project faces several challenges, including the cost, the technical know-how needed to get such a programme off the ground, the size of the United States and the 2029 deadline Trump has set read more

US President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding the Golden Dome missile defence shield next to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. Reuters

Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about his plans for a Golden Dome defence system to protect America.

The plan is at least in part inspired by the Iron Dome  Israels multi-layered defence which have played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied militant groups in the conflict unleashed by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

However, the project faces myriad challenges.

This includes the cost, the technical know-how needed to get such a programme off the ground, the size of the United States.

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Trump also wants the Golden Dome ready by the end of his second term  which many consider an unfeasible deadline.

Lets take a closer look at all the reasons why the system may never take off

Cost

The Golden Dome could be prohibitively expensive.

According to SAN.com, Trump has said the project would cost around $175 billion.

Republicans have already provisioned for 25 billion in funds in their spending bill.

However, experts say that the Golden Dome could cost considerably more than Trump estimates.

In fact, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office this month estimated that merely the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

A system such as that envisaged by Trump could require a more expansive SBI (space-based interceptor) capability than the systems examined in the previous studies. Quantifying those recent changes will require further analysis, the CBO said.

US President Donald Trump has said that the Golden Dome will cost $175 billion.

If you want to seriously pursue this, it would be a multi-trillion dollar project, Fabian Hoffmann, a missile technology researcher and non-resident fellow of the Centre for European Policy Analysis, told The Telegraph UK.

Thomas Roberts, assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the price estimate was not realistic.

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The challenge with the statements from yesterday is that they lack the details needed to develop a model of what this constellation would really look like, he said.

Technical knowledge

Trump on Tuesday said he expects the system will be fully operational before the end of my term, which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from space.

Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.

But experts warn it isnt going to be easy.

The physics of boost-phase interception are wicked hard, a Lockheed executive told online newsletter Defense One, as pe_r Times UK._

In short, the technical know-how to put together such a vast system may simply not exist yet.

The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organisations, General Chance Saltzman, head of the US Space Force, told lawmakers recently.

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The US Space Force was set up in 2019 by the Trump Administration to counter threats to US assets in space. Image credit: Reuters

The main challenges will be cost, the defence industrial base, and political will. They can all be overcome, but it will take focus and prioritisation, said Melanie Marlowe, a non-resident senior associate in the Missile Defense Project at Washingtons Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The White House and Congress are going to have to agree on how much to spend and where the money will come from, Marlowe said.

Experts also say the United States missile threats differ significantly from the short-range weapons that Iron Dome is designed to counter.

Beijing is closing the gap with Washington when it comes to ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, while Moscow is modernizing its intercontinental-range missile systems and developing advanced precision strike missiles, according to the Pentagons 2022 Missile Defense Review.

The document also said the threat of drones  which have played a key role in the Ukraine war  is likely to grow, and warned of the danger of ballistic missiles from North Korea and Iran, as well as rocket and missile threats from non-state actors.

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Size matters

Theres also the issue of size to consider.

Israels sophisticated Iron Dome, developed over decades with considerable US support, is capable of detecting incoming fire and deploying only if the projectile is headed toward a population center or sensitive military or civilian infrastructure.

Israeli leaders say the system isnt 100 per cent guaranteed, but credit it with preventing serious damage and countless casualties.

Israels Iron Dome anti-missile system operates for interceptions as rockets are launched from Lebanon towards Israel. Reuters

However, the US is a vast nation.

Israel, by comparison, is tiny  around the size of New Jersey, the fifth smallest state in the US**.**

To build a system over the entire country would be incredibly hard, and were not sure its going to work, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona said at _Politico_s Security Summit.

The difference between Israels Iron Dome and Trumps proposal is like that between a kayak and a battleship, Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury Institute, told The Telegraph UK.

Geopolitical tensions

The Golden Dome may only further inflame geopolitical tensions.

Russia and China have already slammed the idea.

The United States, in pursuing a US-first policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quoted as saying by SAN.com.

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She urged Washington to give up the project and rather take steps to restore trust between the US and China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands during a welcoming ceremony before their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on May 8, 2025. AFP

In a joint statement earlier this month, China and Russia called the Golden Dome idea deeply destabilising in nature, warning it would turn outer space into an environment for placing weapons and an arena for armed confrontation.

Trump has said he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Golden Dome program, but at the right time, we will.

Experts, in short, remain sceptical.

There are a number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones that will need to be achieved if Golden Dome is ever going to enter service in any meaningful capacity, said Thomas Withington, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

It is an incredibly expensive undertaking, even for the US defence budget. This is serious, serious money, Withington added.

Withington wondered if Trump was trying to bankrupt the US adversaries  much like Reagan did the Soviet Union with his Star Wars project.

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Maybe the Trump administration is embarking on a similar strategy, knowing full well that this will suddenly affect the military industrial complex of both China and Russia, Whittington told the newspaper.

All this makes Trumps 2029 deadline  the end of his 2nd term  largely unfeasible at best and a pipe dream at worst.

With inputs from agencies
Around 37,000 Indians who had come for study reasons have now left the UK. Another 18,000 who were in the country for work reasons have also departed. Additionally, 3,000 people who were in UK for other unspecified reasons have also emigrated read more

Indian nationals have been the largest group of foreigners to leave the UK, latest data shows. File image

The UKs tightening visa and immigration policies have led to significant changes in migration patterns of Indian nationals, latest statistics show.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis for 2024, Indian nationals form the largest group of foreigners who have left the country (emigrated) over the past year.

Around 37,000 Indians who had come for study reasons have now left the UK. Another 18,000 who were in the country for work reasons have also departed. Additionally, 3,000 people who were in UK for other unspecified reasons have also emigrated.

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Following Indian nationals, Chinese students and workers accounted for 45,000 departures. Other notable nationalities in emigration statistics included Nigerians (16,000), Pakistanis (12,000) , and Americans (8,000).

This substantial number of people leaving the UK has contributed to the overall net migration in the country dropping to 431,000 last year almost half of the total from the year before that.

Study-related emigration was the primary reason for the departure of the five most frequent non-EU nationalities, with the increase in long-term emigration driven mainly by the high numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in 2024.

Mary Gregory, Director of Population Statistics at the ONS, indicated that the fall in migration numbers is largely due to fewer people coming to the UK for work and study, particularly student dependents.

There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased, she said.

Political and government response

The UK government welcomed the drop in net migration, a topic that has been at the forefront of the political agenda amid soaring figures and gains by the far-right anti-immigration Reform party in recent elections.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasised the significance of the decline, pointing out that net migration had nearly reached 1 million under the previous administration. He assured the public that the government is taking control, as evidenced by the latest statistics showing a nearly 50 per cent reduction in net migration over the past year.

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The dramatic fall in net migration is the largest ever recorded for a 12-month period and marks the most significant calendar-year decrease since the early stages of the COVID pandemic.

Long-term immigration and emigration

Long-term immigration to the UK fell below 1 million for the first time in around three years, with an estimated 948,000 immigrants in the year ending December 2024.

This represents a significant decrease from the previous year, which saw 1,326,000 immigrants, marking the first time the figure has been below a million since March 2022.

Concurrently, emigration rose by around 11 per cent, with an estimated 517,000 people leaving the country in the year to December, up from 466,000 the previous year.

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly, under the Opposition Conservative Party government led by Rishi Sunak, attributed the fall in net migration to policies he had enacted. He asserted that the drop was due to the visa rule changes implemented during his tenure, challenging the Labour administrations claims.

With inputs from PTI
You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral, said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to President Trumps claim of playing a role in halting hostilities between India and Pakistan read more

Responding to US President Donald Trumps claim of playing a role in halting hostilities between India and Pakistan, India on Wednesday reiterated that any engagement between the two countries must be strictly bilateral.

Addressing a press briefing on Thursday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, In my last briefing, I had addressed this issue. I have nothing further to add. You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral.

#WATCH | Delhi: On President Donald Trump claiming credit for the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "In my last briefing, I had addressed this issue. I have nothing further to add. You are well aware of our position that pic.twitter.com/37W690IFaK  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

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Underscoring Indias longstanding position, Jaiswal said talks and terror dont go together.

On terrorism itself, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago, he added.

On the matter of Jammu and Kashmir, Jaiswal categorically said that any bilateral discussion will only be on the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan.

On the Indus Waters Treaty, Jaiswal said it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.

Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, Water and blood cannot flow together.

On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), in retaliation for a Pakistan-backed terror attack in Pahalgam that claimed 26 civilian lives.

India targeted and destroyed nine terror launch pads, including known terror hubs in Bahawalpur and Muridke. This was followed by a military escalation, with intense artillery exchanges taking place on May 8 and 9.

India inflicted significant damage on 11 Pakistani airbases and other strategic military installations.

Following this, President Trump was quick to take credit for brokering peace between India-Pakistan and also claimed that he prevented a nuclear war.

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On Truth Social, Trump posted, After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire. Congratulations to both countries on using common sense and great intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

However, these claims were refuted by India and as recently as Wednesday by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar who said that the recent cessation of hostilities was achieved through direct communication between the two nations.

In an interview with Netherlands-based NOS, Jaishankar detailed how the de-escalation actually took place.

Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other as a hotline. So, on the 10th of May, it was the Pakistani army which sent a message that they were ready to stop firing, and we responded accordingly, said the minister.

While acknowledging that various countries, including the US, reached out during the crisis, Jaishankar affirmed that the actual resolution was bilateral.

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Well, the US was in the United States. Obviously, US Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President Vance had called up, Rubio had spoken to me, Vance had spoken to our Prime Minister, they had their view and they were talking to us and they were talking to Pakistani side as indeed were some other countries. There were some countries in the Gulf, there were some others as well, Jaishankar said.

That happens naturally, when we know when two countries are engaged in a conflict, it is natural that the countries in the world call up, sort of indicate their concern and what they can do in such a situation but the cessation of firing and military action was something which was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan.We made one thing very clear to everybody who spoke to us, not just the United States, but to everyone, saying look if the Pakistani want to stop the firing, they need to tell us, we need to hear it from them, their general has to call our general and say this and that is what happened, he added.

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With inputs from agencies
Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly presser that Pakistan was informed through the Director General Military Operation channel after India hit the terror sites read more

Indian foreign ministry on Thursday (May 22) addressed a major controversy over minister S Jaishankars earlier remarks on Operation Sindoor and clarified that India informed Pakistan after the strikes on terror hideouts were launched.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a weekly presser that Pakistan was informed through the Director General Military Operation channel after India hit the terror sites. He clarified that the information was conveyed only after confirmation of the strikes.

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Earlier, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had criticised Jaishankar and alleged that the government of India informed Islamabad in advance about the impending strikes on terrorist infrastructure, citing a statement from the foreign minister.

Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result? Gandhi said in a post on X.

Gandhi cited a clip of Jaishankar in which the foreign minister said, At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying, We are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military. So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice.

However, soon after Gandhis remarks, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) last week stressed that Jaishankars remarks were misrepresented.

EAM Jaishankar had stated that we had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Op Sindoors commencement. This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out, the External Publicity division of the MEA said in a statement.

The Press Information Bureaus Fact Check Unit also issued a clarification, saying Jaishankar has not made any such statement and is being misquoted.

Operation Sindoor , launched by the Indian Armed Forces on May 7, 2025, targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The operation was a response to the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 25 Indian civilians and one Nepali citizen.
Addressing a rally in Bikaner of Rajasthan state, the Indian PM said that the Indian forces avenged the death of April 22 terror attack victims in 22 minutes read more

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday (May 22) spoke highly of the Operation Sindoor launched by the Indian Armed Forces against Pakistan-based terrorists and army earlier this month in response to the April 22 massacre of Hindu tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing a rally in Bikaner of Rajasthan state, the Indian PM said that the Indian forces avenged the death of victims of the April 22 terror attack in 22 minutes.

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VIDEO | Bikaner, Rajasthan: PM Modi (@narendramodi) says, "In retaliation for the April 22 attack, India destroyed nine of Pakistan's major sites within 22 minutes. The entire world watched, and even the enemies witnessed the outcome when 'Sindoor barood ban jata hai'."



(Full pic.twitter.com/6uNLzUbsnO  Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 22, 2025

 On April 22, terrorists removed the Sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters after asking about their religion. The bullets were fired in Pahalgam, but 140 crore Indians felt the pain, said PM Modi. By the valour of our forces, we fulfilled that resolution. Our government gave a free hand to all three forces. All three forces created such a chakravyuh that Pakistan was brought to its knees, he added.

PM Modi added that Pakistans Rahim Yar Khan airbase was in ICU due to Indian air strikes; however, Pakistan couldnt touch Indian bases due to a robust air defence system. He also reiterated that India was not going to be blackmailed by Islamabads nuclear threats.

He added that Pakistan will have to pay a very heavy price for any terror attack on Indian soil.

India has made it clear, Pakistan Army and its economy will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack, he said.

On keeping the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance, PM Modi said Pakistan will not get water that rightfully belongs to India.

Pak will not get water that rightfully belongs to India, it will have to pay heavy price for playing with blood of Indians, he said.

Further hailing the Operation Sindoor, Modi made clear that it was not just an agitation but a fierce version of New India

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Indias three formulas to fight terrorism

PM Modi added that Indian forces had devised a three-formula strategy to fight terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

 Operation Sindoor has decided three formulas to fight terrorism. First, if there is a terror attack in India, then they will get a befitting reply. Our forces will decide the time, method and conditions. Second, India is not going to be afraid of nuclear bomb threats. Third, we will not differentiate between terrorists and the governments dependent on them

#WATCH | Rajasthan | Addressing a public rally in Deshnoke, Bikaner, PM Modi says, "... Operation Sindoor has decided three formulas to fight terrorism. First, if there is a terror attack in India, then they will get a befitting reply. Our forces will decide the time, method and pic.twitter.com/vAzsxBHGF3  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 103 railway stations across 18 states on May 22 from Bikaner, Rajasthan. This inauguration marks a major step in the long-term modernisation plan designed to upgrade railway stations in phased approaches read more

Indias railway stations, often considered bustling symbols of its towns and cities, are getting a significant makeover through the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, a nationwide initiative aimed at transforming passenger travel experience.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated 103 railway stations across 18 states on May 22 from Bikaner, Rajasthan. This inauguration marks a major step in the long-term modernisation plan designed to upgrade railway stations in phased approaches tailored specifically to each locations unique needs.

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How will stations change?

The ambitious scheme, named Amrit Bharat, focuses on enhancing basic facilities and comfort levels at stations, including improved entry and exit points, waiting halls, toilets, and platforms. Stations are being upgraded with escalators, elevators, free Wi-Fi, clearer signage, and sophisticated information systems to streamline passenger movement, according to PIB.

To further enrich passenger experience, select stations will include executive lounges and designated business meeting spaces. Embracing the governments One Station One Product initiative, local products unique to each region will be displayed and sold, promoting regional craftsmanship and culture. These items range from indigenous handicrafts, textiles like chikankari and zari-zardozi, spices, teas, and other locally produced specialties.

Central to the Amrit Bharat Scheme is the intent to integrate railway stations more effectively with the urban landscape, transforming them into vibrant hubs beyond mere transit points. Improved road access, pedestrian-friendly pathways, dedicated parking, and eco-friendly solutions like noise-free tracks are integral to this vision.

Culture and architecture to be reflected

Each station redevelopment reflects regional culture and architecture. Ahmedabads redesigned station, for example, draws inspiration from Gujarats iconic Modhera Sun Temple. In Odisha, Baleshwar station will echo the architectural grandeur of the Jagannath Temple, while Gurugrams station will embrace a modern IT theme.

Accessibility remains a priority. Aligning with Indias Sugamya Bharat Mission (Accessible India Campaign), the Amrit Bharat Scheme ensures comprehensive accessibility features for passengers with disabilities. Facilities include entrance ramps, tactile paths for visually impaired passengers, accessible parking, low-height ticket counters, Braille signage, and lifts or ramps connecting foot over bridges.

The origin of this extensive modernisation drive dates back to 2021, when Gandhinagar became Indias first railway station to undergo substantial renovation, incorporating a five-star hotel and advanced facilities. Shortly afterward, Rani Kamalapati Railway Station, formerly known as Habibganj, also received significant enhancements.

Officials assert that the overarching goal of the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is to redefine stations as places reflecting local pride, heritage, and progress. The railway ministry views this initiative as essential to accommodate Indias growing population and evolving travel expectations.

Ultimately, the scheme underscores the Indian governments commitment to creating sustainable, inclusive, and future-ready public infrastructure, reflecting an ambitious vision for Indias railways as more than just a means of transportation.

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Indian agencies have uncovered a major spy ring linked to Pakistans ISI and arrested two individuals who were planning a terror attack in Delhi in coordination with Pakistani officials at the High Commission in New Delhi. read more

Police personnel stand guard at the Red Fort, amid tight security in the wake of tension between India and Pakistan, in New Delhi, Friday, May 9, 2025. PTI

Indian intelligence agencies have busted a major spy ring after a secret three-month operation and arrested two individuals who were in coordination with Pakistani officials at the High Commission in New Delhi. The operation also exposed ISIs plans to carry out a terror attack in Delhi, The Times of India reported.

The arrested individuals were reportedly well-trained. One of them, identified as Ansarul Miya Ansari, is an alleged Pakistani spy who had been collecting sensitive information about the Indian armed forces, sources said.

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The operation began in January with a vague tip that the ISI had dispatched a spy to Delhi via Nepal to gather sensitive documents, photographs, and Google coordinates. As investigators dug deeper, they uncovered a plot to launch a terror attack in Delhi using classified military information.

The investigation has also raised concerns about staff members at the Pakistani High Commission in Delhi. ISI officers posing as High Commission officialsMuzammil and Ehsan-ur-Rahim, also known as Danishare believed to be involved in the plot. These ISI operatives were reportedly in contact with Indian YouTubers and other arrested spies as part of a wider crackdown under Operation Sindoor, which followed the ceasefire agreement.

Pak officials expelled by India

Danish, who was working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, has already been declared persona non grata for spying on behalf of the ISI. He allegedly acquired sensitive information from Haryana-based YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra.

Just a day earlier, on Wednesday (May 21), India expelled another Pakistani official for engaging in activities inconsistent with his diplomatic status.

The Government of India has declared a Pakistani official, working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, persona non grata for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in India. The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Connecting the dots

The arrests and the expulsion of Pakistani officials appear closely linked and dots can be connected on them, pointing to a wider ISI-backed covert operation involving local contacts and terror outfits to plan attacks in India.
In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister told another Indian delegation that terrorism cannot be justified in any form. The UAE too reaffirmed its unwavering support for India, with a senior Emirati lawmaker calling terrorism a global threat and an evil for all humanity read more

The United Arab Emirates and Japan on Thursday (May 22) extended strong support to Indias global outreach campaign against terrorism, voicing solidarity with New Delhi in the wake of the deadly April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people.

UAEs unwavering support

The UAE reaffirmed its unwavering support for India, with senior Emirati lawmaker Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi calling terrorism a global threat and an evil for all humanity. Al Nuaimi made the remarks after meeting an Indian all-party parliamentary delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde in Abu Dhabi.

Terrorism is a threat not just to a single nation or region, but it is a global threat, said Al Nuaimi, who chairs the UAE Federal National Councils Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee. We are already cooperating with India on efforts to fight terrorism. The security of Indian nationals is non-negotiable. India is a strategic partner, not just with the government but also its people.

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The Indian delegation is one of seven teams dispatched to 33 world capitals as part of New Delhis diplomatic effort to highlight Pakistans role in supporting terrorism and to rally international support for its counterterrorism response.

Shinde described the UAEs stance as very fruitful, saying Emirati leaders stood shoulder to shoulder with full commitment against terrorism. He added that the UAE was the first to condemn the Pahalgam attack and said the message from Abu Dhabi was clear: Terrorism cannot proliferate in the name of any religion.

Other members of the delegation included BJP MPs Manan Kumar Mishra, S S Ahluwalia, Atul Garg and Bansuri Swaraj; BJD MP Sasmit Patra; IUML MP E T Mohammed Basheer; former diplomat Sujan R Chinoy; and Indias ambassador to the UAE, Sunjay Sudhir.

Japan shows solidarity

Separately in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya told another Indian delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha that terrorism cannot be justified in any form and conveyed Japans solidarity with India and the global community in fighting terrorism.

According to a statement from the Indian Embassy in Tokyo, Iwaya expressed condolences for the Pahalgam victims and praised Indias precise, targeted, proportionate and non-escalatory response through Operation Sindoor.

Jha briefed Japanese leaders about the attack and Indias position on terrorism. He said the Pahalgam assault was a deliberate attempt to disrupt peace and development in Jammu and Kashmir and urged Tokyo to support implementation of the UN Security Councils April 25 press statement, which called for holding those responsible accountable.

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The Japanese foreign minister welcomed Indias restraint and reiterated Tokyos support for New Delhis efforts to counter terrorism. The Indian MPs also met Yoshihide Suga, former prime minister and current Vice President of Japans ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and Takashi Endo, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security.

Both leaders expressed support for Indias anti-terrorism policies, according to the embassy. The delegation also held meetings with Japanese think tanks and paid floral tributes at a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Edogawa, Tokyo.

India-Pakistan tensions

Tensions between India and Pakistan surged following the Pahalgam attack. India launched airstrikes on terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7. Pakistan responded with attempted attacks on Indian military installations over the following three days, which were met with strong countermeasures from the Indian side.

Hostilities ceased after military talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of both countries on May 10.

With inputs from agencies
The fragile hopes of normalisation of India-China ties have clearly been flushed down the drain and the suspicion of China is here to stay in India read more

(File) Officials wave flags as a Chinese naval ship arrives at PNS Dockyard in Karachi in this handout picture released by the Pakistan Navy on March 5, 2007. Reuters

The India-China relation, an already contentious one, wavering more often towards competition and conflict with small bouts of cooperation, became more complicated as India launched Operation Sindoor to retaliate against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Pahalgam.

To begin with, China refrained from calling Pahalgam a terrorist attack. Furthermore, following the attack, Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated, China fully understands Pakistans reasonable security concerns and supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and security interests.

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It is pertinent to note that China did not issue any such statement for India, the victim of the terror attack, but instead issued one in support of Pakistan. Mao Keji, a Chinese commentator with significant social media presence, lamented that Beijings remarks were aimed at dissuading India from undertaking any military action.

As India launched Operation Sindoor on the intervening night of May 6 and May 7, China labelled the operation regrettable, while urging restraint. The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that India and Pakistan are and always will be each others neighbours. They are Chinas neighbours as well. In this, Beijing attempted to signal a neutral stance while reaffirming support for Pakistans sovereignty and so-called counter terrorism efforts.

While this was the official stance, state-controlled media from China did the needful in clarifying Beijings position. China Daily, Global Times and CGTN all pushed out disinformation, projecting a strong Pakistan backed by China, taking on India. The spread of false narratives from state-controlled Chinese media was so massive that the Indian Embassy in Beijing had to take to X (formerly Twitter) to counter the false narratives being spread by Chinas state-controlled media.

Even as Beijing official statements struck a neutral tone in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, there are reasons to believe that China extended military support to Pakistan to mount a response to Indias retaliatory attacks. As stated by Ashok Kumar, the Director of CENJOWS, in an interview, that China helped them [Pakistan] redeploy their air defence radar so that any actions we do from the aerial route is known to them.

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Furthermore, a Chinese analyst on X, using the handle tphuang, with significant social media following, pointed out that given the sophistication of Rafale, it is highly unlikely for the PAF to shoot it down unless it received intelligence from Chinese radars stationed in Tibet. Thus, there is a greater likelihood of a China-Pakistan collusion during the conflict.

Chinas hypocrisy was also apparent in the UN Security Councils statement on the Pahalgam terror attacks. While the statement condemned terrorism in all its form and expressed condolences to India and Nepal, it refrained from naming The Resistance Front, a proxy of the UN-designated terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba that claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack.

Chinas coordination with Pakistan at the UNSC, blocking mention of TRF, has been seen in India as a diplomatic support to Pakistan, which undermines the disengagement and the attempts to normalise relations between India and China, from 2024.

Operation Sindoor has also cast a spotlight on Chinas role as Pakistans key arms supplier, with observations comparing and contrasting the performance of Chinese weapons against Indian and Western systems like the Rafale. China has supplied more than $20 billion worth of arms to Pakistan, and this includes 20J-10CE, Wing Loong, missiles such as Hongqi HQ-9P surface to air missiles, among a long list of others. All of this only escalates the India-China rivalry.

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Thus, the short war-like conflict between India and Pakistan yet again reflected Chinas duplicity in it approach to conflicts. On one hand, it attempted to project an image of neutral party, on the other hand, it amplified the false narratives of Pakistan against India. On one hand, while Beijing called for restraint and peace, on the other hand, it extended support to Pakistan.

Chinas duplicity is not new. Theres always been a huge difference in what China preaches to the world, and what it actually practices. In addition to the conflict between India and Pakistan, China also attempted renaming places in Indias Arunachal Pradesh, and the timing of the naming exercise cannot be missed. Additionally, some Chinese officials have also recently inspected the British era Lalmonirhat airfield, which Bangladesh is eyeing to revive with Chinese assistance. Before Chinese officials visited Lalmonirhat, a Pakistani military intelligence delegation inspected some border areas of Bangladesh as well. Again, the timing cannot be missed here.

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Keeping Chinas duplicity and attempts to keep India restricted to managing conflicts in its periphery, the Indian delegation visiting friendly countries, to share updates on Pakistani terrorism and Indias Operation Sindoor, is giving China a skip. The fragile hopes of normalisation of India-China ties have clearly been flushed down the drain and the suspicion of China is here to stay in India.

The brief episode of conflict between India and Pakistan has revealed what China wants from India a weakened, subordinate position to China, which can be leveraged by China only in its tirade against the West  a position and a future, that is unacceptable to India.

Sriparna Pathak is Associate Professor, Chinese Studies and International Relations, Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Haryana. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
The IAF will probably face Chinas second fifth-generation jet, J-35A, in a war with Pakistan as Beijing has fast-tracked delivery to Islamabad read more

Russia's Su-57 and USA's F-35  two fifth-generation fighter aircrafts  sharing an airstrip for the first time. Moneycontrol.

In February 2004, US Air Force (USAF) pilots realised the formidability, ingenuity and tactical brilliance of their Indian Air Force (IAF) counterparts and admitted to having been decisively beaten.

It was the first Cope India, an annual exercise between the USAF and the IAF, at the Gwalior Air Force Station.

The F-15, a fourth-generation air superiority fighter with no combat losses and maximum recorded kills by the Israeli Air Force, was pitted against the IAFs fourth-generation Mirage 2000, Su-30MK and the MiG-29.

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The IAF achieved a 9:1 kill ratio in mock engagements.

The outcome of the exercise boils down to (the fact that) they ran tactics that were more advanced than we expectedThey could come up with a game plan, but if it wasnt working, they would call an audible and change (tactics in flight), Colonel Mike Snodgrass, commander of the 3rd Wing (Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska), told the Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine.

According to USAF Colonel Greg Newbech, I pity the pilot who has to face the IAF and chances the day to underestimate him because he wont be going home.

The IAFs winning star, however, wasnt a fourth-generation jetit was the third-generation MiG-21 Bison, an upgraded version of the Russian-made baseline third-generation MiG-21. The two most formidable IAF aircraft proved to be the MiG-21 Bisonand the Su-30MK Flanker, Snodgrass said. The Bisons low radar visibility, instantaneous turn rate, acceleration and helmet-mounted sight, coupled with high-off-boresight R-73 air-to-air missiles, beat the F-15Cs.

Fifteen years later, the Bison proved its prowess again. The old warhorse shot down a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) F-16 during Pakistans Operation Swift Retort in February 2019.

In the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars too, the IAF Gnats beat the PAFs superior F-86 Sabres, earning the moniker Sabre Slayer.

Aerial combat beyond dogfight

However, Operation Sindoor saw a paradigm shift in aerial combata different kind of dogfight. The IAF and PAF hadnt breached each others airspace yet were engaged.

Pakistan claimed to have shot down three Rafales, one MiG-29 and one Su-30MKI. According to the PAF, its Chinese-made J-10C jets PL-15E beyond visual range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAM) took down the Rafales. Pakistan hasnt provided any visual evidence of its claim.

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Dogfight is increasingly becoming obsolete.

A jet with a big radar envelope and loaded with a 400-km PL-17 or 300-km PL-15 BVRAAM doesnt need to engage with an enemy aircraft at close range.

The PL-15s export version, PL-15E, has a range of around 145 km, comparable to the Rafales longest-range AAM, Meteor (150-200 km). However, considering the close China-Pakistan alliance, Beijing secretly supplying the PL-15 to Islamabad cant be ruled out.

After the India-Pakistan ceasefire, the Internet was rife with rumours of a Chinese Xian Y-20 military transport aircraft landing in Pakistan with a stockpile of weapons. If China supplied the weapons, it could have included the PL-15. In that case, the J-10C could have fired the PL-15, not the PL-15E.

Aerial warfare has dramatically changed with the advent of fifth-generation jets and the development of sixth-generation aircraft.

A fifth- or a sixth-generation jets stealth features, super-cruise performance, low-probability-of-intercept-radar, advanced avionics, situational awareness and command, control and communications capabilities make it superior to third- and fourth-generation warplanes.

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The US and China have taken the traditional dogfight to another level by introducing artificial intelligence (AI).

In September 2023, a USAF X-62A VISTA (Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft) jet, a modified F-16 that can fly autonomously, was involved in several dogfights with a manned F-16.

The VISTA, which had two pilots for monitoring but who never took over flying, performed both defensive and offensive manoeuvres. Both jets flew 1,200 miles per hour with the VISTA coming within 2,000 feet of the F-16 and doing vertical manoeuvring.

The winner wasnt revealed.

On the other hand, China has developed Red Eye, an AI system built by the Northwest Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Xianyang, that can decisively beat a human pilot.

Pitted against an F-15 in a simulated environment, Red Eyes cutting-edge optical sensors sensed before the pilot could manoeuvre by detecting the minutest deformation in the jets rudder and elevator and reading the intent signalled by the metals minor movements.

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The AI system shattered the unpredictability advantage a pilot had over algorithms by using its predictive modelling and sophisticated infrared vision, according to a study published in the December 2024 issue of the Journal of Gun Launch & Control.

Human pilots rely on instinct and unpredictability, but every physical manoeuvre has mechanical precursors, senior engineer Lin Zhiwei wrote in the study.

Fifth- and sixth-generation warplanes

The US has F-22 and F-35, Russia Su-57, China J-20 and J-35 while Turkey is developing the TAI TF KAAN and South Korea KAI KF-21 Boramae.

The next leap is the development of sixth-generation fighter jets. The US is developing the F-47 to replace the F-22. The US Navy wants the F/A-XX to replace its F/A-18 Super Hornet.

China is leading in sixth-generation jet development. Beijing is developing two such jets whose prototypes have already been flown.

The J-36 is being developed to counter the US B-21 Raider, which will replace the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit.

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The J-36 can also block the airspace to the US base of Guam for around two hours from 1,000 km away.

The J-50 is meant to counter the US F-47.

Russia is also developing a sixth-generation aircraft unofficially known as MiG-41 under the PAK DP programme to replace the MiG-31.

The UK was developing the Tempest to replace the Eurofighter Typhoon under the Future Combat Air System. Later, the Tempest programme was merged with Japans Mitsubishi F-X programme under the Global Combat Air Programme to develop a sixth-generation jet with Italy joining the project.

Pakistan on way to acquiring a fifth-generation jet

Neither India nor Pakistan have a fifth-generation fighter. However, theres a difference. The Pakistani military controls the government and continues to arm itself to the teeth despite economic collapse and begging for IMF assistance.

Pakistan always tries to match Indias military capabilities, especially air power. Like India, which modified the Jaguar to deliver nuclear gravity bombs, Pakistan also modified its Mirage III and Mirage V to be nuclear-capable. Similarly, Pakistan bought the J-10C to counter the Rafale.

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Now, Pakistan wants to acquire the J-35A, which can tilt the airpower equilibrium in its favour with India still relying on fourth-generation jets.

In January, the PAF okayed the purchase of 40 J-35As, the land-based variant of Chinas second fifth-generation aircraft. Pakistan is expected to get the jets by the first quarter of 2026, which will increase the PAFs deterrence. The delivery was fast-tracked after General Zhang Youxia, vice-chairman of Chinas highest military leadership body, the Central Military Commission, met Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir in Islamabad.

The J-35, with a max take-off weight of 28,000 kg, has a formidable payload: six internal and six external hardpoints.

The internal weapons bay, with a payload of 2,000 kg, carries six AAMs, like PL-10, PL-15 and PL-21, precision-strike munitions (PGMs), 12 small diameter bombs, four large deep-penetration bombs of 500 kg, four supersonic land-attack missiles or anti-radiation/anti-ship missiles.

The external hardpoints, with a payload of 6,000 kg, can also carry six AAMs, like the PL-17, PGMs, 18 small bombs and four large bombs of 500 kg or four land-attack missiles.

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In another technological leap, the J-35s internal weapons bay has been modified to carry four PL-17s with foldable fins or two with fixed fins.

India urgently needs a fifth-generation jet

When Pakistan acquires the J-35, the IAF will be at a massive disadvantage. Moreover, the IAF operates only 30 squadrons, much below the sanctioned strength of 42, and 8 more squadrons are set to retire over the next decade.

It will give them [Pakistan] an advantage, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said in March.

Its not that India doesnt realise the importance of a fifth-generation jet.

However, it took 15 years before a fifth-generation jet project was approved. In 2009, the UPA government commissioned a feasibility study for a medium combat aircraft (MCA).

In 2024, the NDA government approved the project, which was called the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), a 5.5-generation aircraft with an initial budget of Rs 15,000 crore to develop five prototypes.

The Mark 1 variant will have fifth-generation tech and the Mark 2 will have incremental sixth-generation technology upgrades. The IAF wants seven AMCA squadrons (126 aircraft) in two phases. The first two squadrons will have General Electrics F414 engines and the rest indigenous 110-kilonewton engines.

However, the first prototype will not be ready before 2026-27 and the first test flight not before 2028. The 10-year project means that production will not begin before 2035.

Moreover, theres the issue of who will produce the AMCAHAL or a private firm. HALs LCA Tejas Mk-1A project is already late and it has to develop four prototypes of Mk-2. In February, IAF chief Singh said that he was not just confident of HAL citing the delay in delivery and upgrade.

On the other hand, no private aviation company is experienced enough to assemble and deliver a small or midsize aircraft. Moreover, a massive investment is needed to set up a manufacturing facility and a skilled workforce that can be trained properly.

Indias only option to match Pakistanthough it is too lateis to purchase a fifth-generation jet that will augment the IAFs fighting capability in the next 10 years.

Even IAF chief Singh said, We may have to go in for off-the-shelf purchases with indigenous content until AMCA is developedor develop AMCA at a faster pace.

Indias only option is Su-57

India has two options for purchasing a fifth-generation aircraft: the F-35 or the Su-57E (export variant). Both the US and Russia have offered their fifth-generation jets to India.

During the Aero India 2025 show in February, Russias state-owned defence exports company Rosoboronexport offered the Su-57E and its local production to India.

Rosoboronexport, together with United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), proposes to localise FGFA aircraft in India. This production of the FGFA at the HAL plant might take place as early as 2025. It can be provided this year itself, a Rosoboronexport representative said during the airshow.

On day one of Aero India, UAC CEO Vadim Badekha told the Russian media that the Su-57 is needed by the Indian Air Force as the next step in the evolution and development of our aviation industries.

During the airshow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the US, where President Donald Trump said, We are also paving the way to provide India with F-35 stealth fighters. It was a clear counteroffer to dissuade India from buying the Su-57. Vice-president JD Vance echoed Trumps offer during his India visit in April.

Which of the two jets is better suited for the IAF?

The Su-57E has a clear advantage over the F-35.

First, the F-35A, the conventional landing-and-take-off variant, costs around $80-$110 million per unit. The Su-57 costs around $35-$40 million. Besides, the F-35s maintenance cost is much higher than the Su-57Es.

Second, the US doesnt allow allies, like Israel, Australia, Italy, Japan and others, which use the F-35 to manufacture it under licence. They only produce components and offer maintenance services.

Third, user countries cant modify the F-35 without US permission with the US controlling its hardware and software.

On the other hand, India has been manufacturing the Su-30MKI under licence. Before the air show, Rosoboronexport director general Alexander Mikheev offered supply of ready-made aircraft, the organisation of their joint production in India as well as assistance in the development of an Indian fifth-generation fighter.

Russia made the offer more lucrative in March by allowing India to use its Su-30MKI production infrastructure to produce the Su-57E. In case of a positive decision by the Indian side, the production of the Russian fifth-generation Su-57E fighter jet can be started at the factories currently producing the Su-30MKI fighter within a short time, Rosoboronexport said.

Fourth, India will have to buy the AIM-120 advanced medium-range AAM to use the F-35 because it will need US permission to modify the jet to carry non-NATO and indigenous missiles.

Fifth, the IAF already operates seven different types of combat jetsMiG-21, SEPECAT Jaguar, MiG-29M, Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Mirage 2000-5, Rafale and Tejas. Sustaining and maintaining seven different types of jets involves a huge expense. Purchasing a costly fifth-generation American jet will be a logistical nightmare, increasing the IAFs maintenance, repair and overhaul issues.

Sixth, the F-35 has been plagued by technical problems. In January 2023, Business Insider reported several problems in the F-35: stealth coating, sustained supersonic flight, helmet-mounted display, excessive vibration from its cannon and even vulnerability to being hit by lightning.

Seventh, German magazine Der Spiegel reported in January 2015 that NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowdens leaked documents revealed that Chinese hackers had stolen 50 terabytes of data about the design of Australias F-35. Australia is one of the major US allies that operates the F-35.

The hackers gained access to the F-35s radar systems, engine schematics, designs to cool exhaust gases and the method used to track targets.

The J-35A has an uncanny resemblance to the F-35, like the tailplane wing design instead of the canard wing in Chinas first stealth aircraft, the J-20.

In November 2024, USAF Chief of Staff General David W Allvin told the Air and Space Forces Magazine in an interview that you could put it [J-35A] side-by-side and see, at least, where we believe they got their blueprints from.

If China is aware of the J-35 technology, it would be foolish for India to purchase itespecially considering Beijings closeness to Islamabad.

The most important consideration is how the Su-57 will perform against the J-35A. India will face the J-35A in a war with Pakistan or China.

The J-35A is stealthier than the Su-57 due to its superior materials and design. The J-35As radar cross-section is smaller (0.2-0.3 sq m) compared to that of the Su-57 (0.1-0.5 sq m), making it harder for an enemy radar to detect it.

The Su-57 scores over the J-35A in several other important areas. Its max take-off weight is 35,000 kg, payload 10,000 kg, fuel capacity 10,300 kg, maximum speed Mach 2 (high altitude) and combat range 1,250 km,

The J-35s max take-off weight is 28,000 kg, payload 8,000 kg, fuel capacity 7,200 kg, maximum speed Mach 1.8 (high altitude) and combat range 1,250 km.

The Su-57s 360-degree thrust vectoring makes it more manoeuvrable in dogfighting than the J-35.

The Su-57s Byelka radar system comprises the N036-1-01 nose-mounted X-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, two smaller N036B-1-01 X-band AESA radars mounted on the sides of the forward fuselage and two N036L-1-01 L-band arrays on the wings leading edge extensions that are also used for electronic warfare. The radar system has 360 coverage, a maximum detection range of 400 km and can track 60 targets simultaneously and engage with 16.

China hasnt revealed the name of the J-35s radar system. The FC-31 Gyrfalcon stealth prototype, from which the J-35 was developed, used the KLJ-7A AESA radar system. The J-35 has an electro-optical/infrared sensor mounted under the chin, optical apertures around the body to provide full spherical coverage and a conventional heads-up display. The KLJ-7A can simultaneously track 15 targets and guide missiles on 4 of them.

The Su-57, a bomber, ship hunter and air defence suppressor, has six hardpoints internally and externally.

The four internal bays can carry two short-range K-74M2 AAMs (50 km), which can engage targets at a high off-boresight angle of 75 degrees. The four long-range K-77M AAM (200 km) use an AESA radar for guidance.

The two long-range R-37M AAMs (400 km) have Mach 6 speed and can also destroy airborne early warning jets, heavy bombers and tankers.

The Su-57 can carry, at least, two KAB-250 precision-guided bombs, its standard gravity weapon. The jet can also carry an unspecified number of KAB-500 penetrator bombs.

The two satellite-guided PBK-500U Drel gliding cluster bombs can destroy mass armoured formations, like a tank column or an entire missile battery.

The two Kh-59MK2s (290 km) are the Su-57s primary air-to-ground (AGM) missiles. The four Kh-38 AGMs (70 km) take out less well-defended and fortified targets. The jet can carry more Kh-38s if not carrying the Kh-59MK2.

The four Kh-58UShKe anti-radiation cruise missiles (250 km) have Mach 3.6 speed. The two anti-ship Kh-35U cruise missiles (>250 km) can approach their targets just four metres above water.

The external hardpoints can also carry a wide array of missiles and bombs.

According to a report in February, Russia is testing a new version of the air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile Kh-47M2 Kinzhal (2,000 km, Mach 10) for the Su-57though it will compromise its stealth features if carried externally.

This month, Russia unveiled the Su-57M1, an advanced version of its upgraded Su-57M, quipped with AI-assisted systems integrated with the avionics suite. The AI systems assist the pilot in navigation, target acquisition and system diagnostics, reducing his workload.

The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. He tweets as @FightTheBigots. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
New Delhi: 'Operation Sindoor' displayed on the screen during a press briefing by the Indian armed forces, in New Delhi, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (PTI Photo/ Shahbaz Khan)

After Indias spectacular Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, some have argued that though India won the ground war, Pakistan secured the upper hand in the narrative offensive. I am not sure that this is true. Despite repeated attempts to equalise India and Pakistan, unfortunately even by peacemaker US President Donald J. Trump, the decoupling of India as the new regional power from rogue nation Pakistan is now a foregone conclusion.

The best evidence of this is Prime Minister Narendra Modis announcement of the new normal in his post-Operation Sindoor 8:00 pm speech on May 12. Widely viewed as a victory speech, major media outlets including The Washington Post, The Guardian, BBC, and Japan Times, took notice of Indias tough stance and grim warning to Pakistan.

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First of all, going by what PM Modi said, it might be premature to call his speech post-Op. Yes, there has been a pause in hostilities, but no formal cease fire has been signed. Modi said that if Pakistan violated the US-brokered cessation in the ongoing conflict, India would hit back hard. Going by the tone, tenor, and body language of Indias PM, it was, in several senses, nothing short of a stern reprimand to Indias rogue neighbour.

PM Modi declared that this is not the age of war, but it is also not the age of terrorism either: Terror and talks do not go together; terror and trade also do not go together. Similarly, water and blood do not mix well. He added, Let the whole world know, if India is to talk with Pakistan, it will only be to discuss terror. It will be on POK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).

Invoking the Buddha, whose birth anniversary was celebrated on Buddha Purnima, May 12, Modi said: Buddha gave the world the message of peace. But peace only comes from strength. That is why India has been cultivating strength, both economic and military. Earlier, he congratulated Indias armed forces for their spirited and befitting response to the terrorist attack of April 22 on innocent tourists in Pahalgam. He said that, personally, the attack had hurt him deeply.

Alluding to the name of Indias Operation Sindoor, Modi said that India would not tolerate terrorists wiping the vermillion mark, a symbol of the blessed state of wedlock. Every terrorist now knows the price of removing sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters and daughters, he said, framing the operation as vengeance for this affront to the countrys honour. Terrorists would not be spared; they would be chased to the very ends of the world to ensure that justice was delivered, Modi had said in his speech after the April 22 Pahalgam attack.

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Now, he added that Pakistan, if it is to survive, would have to stop supporting terror factories and terror infrastructure. No wonder, Modi dedicated Operation Sindoor to Indias Nari Shakti (womens power), particularly mothers, sisters, and daughters, referencing the Pahalgam attacks brutality. The name Operation Sindoor was chosen for its emotional resonance. Modi used this symbolism effectively to rally national sentiment.

Modi emphasised the success of Indias indigenous defence systems and capabilities. He said they showcased his Make in India mission to make the country self-reliant and strong. Another terror strike itself would be considered an act of war, he thundered, thus resetting the playbook between India and Pakistan. He also said India would no longer succumb to nuclear blackmail by its belligerent neighbour. We struck not just the enemys borders, but his chest too, Modi quipped, playing on the similar sounding words, seema and seena in Hindi.

Operation Sindoor as a doctrinal shift in anti-terrorism policy

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PM Modi signalled that Operation Sindoor was a doctrinal change, inaugurating a new policy against terrorism, emphasising proactive, decisive strikes against terror sites and structures. He stated, This is a new normal. India will strike at the heart of terror decisively if our citizens are attacked, signaling a shift from reactive to preemptive measures. The operation targeted key terror hubs like Bahawalpur (Jaish-e-Mohammed) and Muridke (Lashkar-e-Taiba), which Modi linked to global terrorism, including 9/11 and attacks in India.

Modi firmly rejected Pakistans nuclear threats, declaring, Nuclear blackmail will not work against India. He warned that terror networks operating under such threats would face direct action, reinforcing Indias resolve to counter terrorism regardless of Pakistans nuclear posturing. Modi clarified that the ceasefire, initiated after Pakistans request due to heavy losses, was a temporary measure and not an end to Indias operations. He stressed that India would monitor Pakistans actions closely, with the militaryArmy, Navy, Air Force, and border forcesremaining on high alert. India had postponed retaliatory action but was prepared to act if needed.

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The Prime Minister praised the armed forces for their valour and precision, noting that Indias missile and drone strikes, supported by advanced defence systems, repelled Pakistani drones and damaged their air bases. He called for national unity, stating, When the nation stands united with nation first as its guiding principle, firm decisions are taken.

Modi criticised Pakistan for attacking India instead of cooperating against terrorism, stating, Instead of helping India against terror, Pakistan attacked us. He urged the global community to isolate state-sponsored terrorism, positioning Indias actions as part of a broader fight.

The Prime Ministers strategic clarity, the temporary nature of the ceasefire, and counterstrikes on Pakistani military bases, not only provided a clear perspective but took Indias messaging to a new level of effectiveness. Modis speech signals a significant shift in the Modi Doctrine as well as a regional reset in power relations.

Operation Sindoor is a transformative moment in Indias quest for an enhanced role in global affairs. It has reinforced Indias tough stance against Pakistan, rejected nuclear threats, and rallied national and global support, while setting strict conditions for future engagement. Even if they do not admit it openly, the global community has taken notice.

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The writer is an author and columnist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views.
A Florida mother whose 14-year-old son died by suicide last year filed a lawsuit claiming Setzer became psychologically dependent on a Character.AI chatbot. A US District Judge has denied Google and Character.AIs requests to dismiss the suit read more

A potentially precedent-setting lawsuit for AI and its accountability for mental health harm has been allowed to proceed. Representational image: Reuters

A federal judge on Wednesday (May 22) allowed a lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.s Google and AI startup Character.AI to move forward, marking a potentially precedent-setting case that seeks to hold artificial intelligence developers accountable for alleged psychological harm to minors.

US District Judge Anne Conway denied requests by the two companies to dismiss the suit filed by Megan Garcia, a Florida mother whose 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer, died by suicide in February 2024. The lawsuit, filed in October, claims Setzer became psychologically dependent on a Character.AI chatbot that presented itself as a real person, a licensed therapist, and an adult lover.

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Garcia alleges the chatbots interactions with her son contributed to his decision to take his own life.

According to the complaint, Setzer ended his life shortly after telling a chatbot impersonating Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen that he would come home right now.

A landmark case

The case is among the first in the US targeting an AI company for alleged mental health harm to a child. It could set legal benchmarks for how courts treat the responsibility of AI firms toward minors and the scope of First Amendment protections for large language models.

Character.AI, which was founded by two former Google engineers, is facing claims of negligent design and failure to implement safeguards to protect young users. A spokesperson for the company said it would continue to contest the lawsuit and that the platform includes features intended to prevent discussions of self-harm.

Google claims no role

Google, which licensed technology from Character.AI and rehired the companys founders, has argued it played no role in developing or operating the chatbot. We strongly disagree with the decision, said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda, who emphasized that the two companies are entirely separate and that Google did not create, design, or manage Character.AIs app or any component part of it.

Garcias legal team argued that Google should be considered a co-creator of the AI technology due to its licensing and rehiring relationship with Character.AI. The court declined to dismiss Google from the case at this stage.

In their motions, Google and Character.AI sought to invoke First Amendment protections, claiming the chatbot responses qualified as constitutionally protected speech. Judge Conway rejected that argument, stating that the companies fail to articulate why words strung together by an LLM (large language model) are speech.

Meetali Jain, Garcias attorney, called the ruling historic and said it sets a new precedent for legal accountability across the AI and tech ecosystem.

A hearing date for the next phase of the case has not yet been scheduled.
Two officials from the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC were shot dead on Wednesday night as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. read more

Two staff members from the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC were shot dead on Wednesday night as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, The Associate Press reported.

Washington, D.C. - developing story, active shooter involvement outside The Capital Jewish Museum. 10:36 PM --- details to come. @alanhenney pic.twitter.com/wdAPzQLRPQ  Anthony Peltier (@_anthonypeltier) May 22, 2025

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The shooting happened while the museum was hosting an event organised by the American Jewish Committee, Times of Israel reported citing sources.

The suspect is in police custody, and officials said the investigation is still underway.

The suspect was caught by event security after entering the museum, Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a late-night press conference. Officials added that he was not on any watchlists, and there were no prior security alerts before the shooting.

Posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, Donald Trump said: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God bless you all!

Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC, US Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem posted on X. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.

The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against pic.twitter.com/mVyXHjGyxU  Danny Danon    (@dannydanon) May 22, 2025

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Israels ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called the incident a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.

Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line, Ambassador Danon wrote in a post on X. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel said he and his team had received a briefing on the shooting. While were working with [Metropolitan Police Department] to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families, Patel wrote on X.
Activists say the protests began on Monday with young people and soon drew in others who were heading to community kitchenssome still carrying their cooking pots read more

Palestinians make their way with belongings as they flee their homes after the Israeli military issued orders for evacuation from eastern Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 19, 2025. Reuters

Palestinians in southern Gaza have once again erupted in protest against Hamas and the war, with demonstrations entering the third day.

Hundreds of protestors were heard saying, Out! Out! Out! All of Hamas, out! as they demanded an end to the war and the dismissal of the Palestinian terror group.

During the massive anti-Hamas protests in Khan Yunis, Gaza, protesters declared: We have two words to deliverHamas out, out.



For the third day in a rowno media coverage, no headlines. Just thousands risking everything to speak out against Hamas.



We will be their voice. pic.twitter.com/K20X7rUb3H  Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 21, 2025

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According to a report by the BBC, any defiance against Hamas by the people of Gaza is dangerous. Earlier this week, Hamas reportedly circulated threats on journalists WhatsApp groups, forbidding them from publishing any negative news that could affect the morale of the people.

Activists say the protests began on Monday with young people and soon drew in others who were heading to community kitchenssome still carrying their cooking pots. The demonstrators expressed outrage toward Hamass leadership, sparked by a widely shared social media clip of senior official Sami Abu Zuhris interview.

In the podcast, Zuhri said Israel is eternal, adding, We will rebuild the houses and produce dozens more babies for each martyr.

In recent months, anti-Hamas protests have gained momentum in northern Gaza. However, activists say the group has maintained a firm grip in the south, where it has, until now, effectively stifled public dissent.

The people do not care any more about Hamas attempts to suppress their voice because they are literally dying from hunger, evacuation, and the bombings. Resistance was not born with Hamas, and even if Hamas is gone, there will be other faces of resistance [to the Israeli occupation]. But this current policy will cost us all of Palestine and the nation, one of the protestors told the BBC.

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Meanwhile, the UN said Wednesday it had dispatched around 90 trucks carrying aid into Gaza, as international pressure intensified over Israels renewed offensive and blockade of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The first aid distribution in Gaza since early March came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a temporary ceasefire, but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring the entire territory under its control.

With inputs from agencies
Bangladesh is reportedly replacing its Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin, eight months after his appointment, because he was not in sync with the countrys Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus read more

Cracks in Bangladeshs interim government are becoming more evident after reports are emerging that the government is set to replace its Foreign Secretary, Md Jashim Uddin. According to The Times of India, Uddin is reportedly being sacked from the post because he is not in sync with the countrys Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus and Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain.

As per the report, Uddin had opposed the initiative of a humanitarian corridor and safe zone for Rohingya refugees , which was being pushed by Yunus and his NSA, Khalilur Rahman and endorsed by the UN.

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According to the information obtained by TOI, Uddins views aligned with the military brass, who fear the corridor could compromise the sovereignty of Bangladesh. Sources close to the matter claimed that Yunus and Rahman moved ruthlessly to orchestrate Uddins removal.

It is pertinent to note that Uddin led the Bangladeshi side at FOC-level talks with Pakistan on April 17. During the talks, he had raised the issue of financial claim worth $4.32 billion from Pakistan as a fair share from assets of undivided Pakistan before 1971.

Bangladesh govt goes into defence mode

Commenting on the foreign secretarys sacking, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said that there is no issue of removal, adding Uddins responsibility will be changed. According to United News Bangladesh, Hossain told reporters that Uddin himself wanted to leave the role.

There is no issue of removal. He (FS) wants to leave this responsibility for various reasons. He is in the service. The responsibility will change. He will leave his current responsibility within the next couple of days, Adviser Hossain told reporters while responding to a question at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When asked who would be replacing Uddin, the Bangladeshi foreign advisor said: You will know this within the next couple of days.

However, local reports are suggesting that Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States Asad Alam Siam is likely to be the next Foreign Secretary of the country. Siam will reportedly be picked as an acting Foreign Secretary until appointment of the new FS.

There was a proposed list of three candidates, a senior official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told UNB on Tuesday, noting that Ambassador Siam was chosen as the senior-most of the three candidates. Ambassador and Permanent Representative to Switzerland, Tareq Md Ariful Islam, was also seen as one of the candidates for the role.

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said his government is in talks with the US about joining Trumps upcoming $175 billion Golden Dome missile defence programme. read more

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that his government is in talks with the US about joining President Donald Trumps upcoming state of the art Golden Dome missile defence program.

The $175 billion system would be the first to place US weapons in space. Trump said he expects it to be fully ready by the end of his term in 2029.

Is it a good idea for Canada? Yes, it is a good to have protections in place for Canadians, Carney said.

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Carney confirmed hes had talks with Trump about it and said there are discussions with senior officials. Trump said the Canadian government had contacted his administration indicating it wants to join the program and that he will work with Ottawa to ensure it contributes its fair share.

Its something that we are looking at and something that has been discussed at a high level." Carney said. But not Im not sure one negotiates on this. These are military decisions that have been taken in that context, and we will evaluate it accordingly. Carney warned that Canada faces potential missiles threats in the not-too-distant future that could come from space.

Is Canada going to be doing this alone or with the United States? Because with a Golden Dome, there will be discussions that could have an impact on Canada, but Canada wouldnt be a part of them, Carney said.

The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. Golden Domes added satellites and interceptors  where the bulk of the programs cost is, would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.

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Canada and the US are partners in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations.

The newly elected Carney spent much spent much of the last few months saying the old relationship with the US based on steadily increasing integration is over. Trump has infuriated Canadians by saying Canada should be the 51st state.

We cooperate if necessary but not necessarily cooperate, Carney said.
Right-wing politicians in South Korea are increasingly targeting China for what they call bullying diplomacy and alleged interference in elections read more

In April, a Chinese neighbourhood in South Korean capital Seoul was rocked by Go back to China slogans and racial slurs. This was not an isolated incident, but a culmination of anti-China rhetoric and social media hate speech in run up to presidential slated for June 3.

Some Mandarin-speaking people in South Korea have reported being harassed just because of their language, while others said they felt anxious while travelling to work.

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Who to blame?

As per a report by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), South Koreas ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP) and other far-right factions are increasingly trying to exploit anti-China views among the masses for electoral gains.

Right-wing politicians are targeting China for what they call bullying diplomacy and alleged interference in elections. Some also complain about trade and diplomatic ties.

Some conservative elements also fuelled rumours that as former president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in the country earlier this year, some 99 Chinese agents were detained by authorities for tampering with South Koreas election servers. This claim was later debunked by the authorities, but some still remain unconvinced.

Recently, a PPP spokesman accused liberal presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of being trapped in Little Sinocentrism. Meanwhile, Minor conservative party candidate Lee Jun-seok claimed that South Korea was in danger under leaders captivated by the Chinese Dream.

Hate speech on Social media

The Hong Kong-based paper in its report claimed that anti-China narrative was widely visible on social media as well, with locals mocking dirty Chinese tourists and decrying China threat.

Notably, anti-China rhetoric is not new in South Korean politics. According to a 2022 survey, more than 80 per cent of South Koreans harbour negative views about China, primarily owing to security and cultural reasons.

However, the latest campaign was fuelled after the recent martial law crisis, experts claim.

Since Yoons martial law crisis, the hatred has become more rooted in conspiracy theories and fake news, claimed Ha Nam-suk, associate professor at the University of Seouls Department of Chinese Language and Culture.

Response by Liberal party

While the conservative government has maintained a silence over the issue, the liberal party has pointed to an apparent change in strategy by the right-wing factions.

The fear-based targeting that used to be aimed at North Korea is now being redirected towards China, said Lee Ye-chan, a 24-year-old district representative from the Democratic Party of Korea, South Koreas liberal party. Its bad politics, and its fear-based politics  scapegoating an entire group to distract from real issues.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday paused the money laundering probe against Tamil Nadus state-run liquor retailer TASMAC in a suspected 1,000 crore scam, sharply criticising the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for overstepping its limits. read more

The Supreme Court on Thursday put a hold on the money laundering probe against Tamil Nadus state-run liquor retailer TASMAC in a suspected 1,000 crore scam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih was hearing petitions filed by the Tamil Nadu government and TASMAC, challenging the Madras High Courts decision to allow Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches at the TASMAC headquarters.

Your ED is crossing all limits. How can there be an offence against the corporation? Chief Justice BR Gavai asked Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, as quoted by the website Live Law.

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The court, as reported by The Indian Express, said, You may register cases against individuals but corporations? Your ED is passing all limits! Issue notice, returnable after vacation.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the state, told the court that Tamil Nadu had filed 41 FIRs against liquor outlet operators for corruption between 2014 and 2021. However, he added, the ED only got involved in 2025, raided the headquarters, and seized officers phones and devices.

This is a corporation that manages liquor outlets. We found some of the people to whom outlets were given were actually taking cash. So, the state itself filed 41 FIRs from 2014 to 2021 against individuals, not against the corporation. The ED came into the picture in 2025 and raided the corporation (TASMAC) and the head office. All phones taken, everything taken. Everything cloned, Sibal said. At this point, Chief Justice Gavai asked the Additional Solicitor General how an offence was made out against the corporation. You may register cases against individuals, but a criminal matter against the corporation? Your ED is crossing all limits, Mr Raju, the Chief Justice said.

In a petition to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, TASMAC had requested the court to stop the ED from harassing its officials. However, the court rejected the request and allowed the ED to continue its investigation.

The petitions argued that the EDs power to search and investigate crimes within a state without that states permission violates the basic principle of federalism.
There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder. This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe, said Israels Foreign Minister Gideon Saar read more

A police car is parked behind a yellow tape where, according to the US Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday. Reuters

Israels Foreign Minister Gideon Saar attributed the killing of two staff members at the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, to what he described as an environment of antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement.

Specifically accusing unnamed European officials at a news conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, CNN quoted him as saying, There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder. This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.

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Saar further expressed concern about security threats facing Israeli missions abroad and Jewish communities in European countries.

What is (lacking) I feel is the connection between the atmosphere created  the specific words  and this kind of wave of antisemitism we are facing, he added.

Israel has recently come under intense criticism from European countries as it escalates its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian organisations warn that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid has pushed the Palestinian enclave to the edge of famine.

While Saar did not mention any specific countries or officials, he asserted that a broader climate of hostility toward Israel contributed to the shooting of embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.

Saar refrained from naming any specific leaders or officials. However, his comments followed increasingly harsh criticism from Israels Western allies, including France and Britain, which, along with Canada, issued warnings this week about potential concrete action against Israel over its military operations in Gaza..

US officials said a suspect who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans was in custody. President Donald Trump and a wide range of European and other foreign leaders condemned the attack.

Saar said that the global atmosphere against Israel has deteriorated significantly since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and the capture of 251 hostages taken into Gaza.

Since then, Israels air and ground campaign has led to the deaths of over 53,000 Palestinians and devastated the densely populated region, sparking widespread protests worldwide, from US university campuses to the streets of European cities.

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Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take measures to prevent alleged acts of genocide in Gaza, following a case filed by South Africa that sparked intense outrage in Israel.

These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders, Reuters quoted Saar as saying.

With inputs from agencies
US President Donald Trump staged yet another ambush at the Oval Office. This time, it was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who was on the receiving end as Trump hurled false claims of genocide in the country read more

US President Donald Trump staged yet another Oval Office ambush, this time with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the receiving end. What started as a friendly first meeting between the leaders of the two nations turned into a public spat after Trump played a video and falsely claimed that genocide was being committed against white people in South Africa.

It is pertinent to note that the stunt, which took place on Wednesday, was the most tense Oval Office encounter since Trump bullied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February this year. Trumps attacks against Ramaphosa started after a reporter asked the American leader about the US decision to admit White South Africans into the country as refugees, NBC News reported.

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While responding to the questions, Trump baselessly claimed that there was a genocide against white people in South Africa, a claim denied by even the white groups in the country. The meeting came after both Trump and Tesla CEO questioned the countrys equity laws, which eventually prompted the US to admit white South African refugees while barring refugees from other countries.

#FirstpostAfrica: The South African government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as it turns out, has landed on the wrong side of the US President Donald Trump. Trump has accused Ramaphosa's government of land confiscations and even more horrible crimes. | @Alysonle pic.twitter.com/1fYuTEfH3Z  Firstpost (@firstpost) February 7, 2025

Ramaphosa takes it calmly

When asked about the genocide claims, which Musk first started, Trump played a montage of clips that he argued backed up his claims on a television in the room. The South African president responded calmly to the montage and said that the claims made in the video are not government policy.

Soon after the two leaders meeting, South Africas minister of agriculture said that multiple people included in the montage were members of minority parties that are not in the countrys ruling coalition. We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, he said.

When asked if he denounced the language in the video, Ramaphosa said, Oh, yes. It is pertinent to note that while the murder rates in South Africa are extremely high, the majority of victims are black. During the meeting, Ramaphosa told Trump there was no genocide against Afrikaners , a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid.

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While watching the video, the South African leader repeatedly said he had not seen the footage before and would like to find out what the location was. The meeting was also attended by Trumps South Africa-born billionaire ally, Elon Musk, JD Vance, the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and diplomats and journalists from both countries.

Trump did not stop here, the American leaders produced a batch of newspaper articles that he said were from the last few days reporting on killings in South Africa. He read some of the headlines and commented: Death, death, death, horrible death. Ramaphosa acknowledged there is a crime in South Africa and said the majority of victims were Black. Trump cut him off and said, The farmers are not Black.

Now I will say, apartheid: terrible. That was the biggest threat. That was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid," the American leader averred. Whats happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is were being inundated with people, with white farmers from South Africa, and its a big problem."

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Theyre white farmers, and theyre fleeing South Africa, and its a very sad thing to see. But I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you dont want that," he added. Ramaphone pushed back on Trumps assertion.

We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about," the South African leader explained. It is pertinent to note that the meeting between the two leaders came days after 50 Afrikaners arrived in the US to take up Trumps offer of refuge.

Was the Israel lawsuit the main factor?

Relations between South Africa and the United States are at the lowest point since the end of apartheid in the country in 1994. Interestingly, the US has called out in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. After Trump came to power, he slashed aid to the country and announced 31 per cent tariffs.

Not only this, the Trump administration also expelled the South African ambassador for criticising Trumps Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. The White House has been critical of the South African land-expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress the historical inequalities of white-minority rule. However, Ramaphosa denied that the law would lead to arbitrary confiscation of white-owned land, insisting that all South Africans are protected by the constitution.

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With inputs from agencies.
While Trump positioned himself as a fighter against jihadism, he unintentionally played into the hands of the jihadist groups by fuelling global instability and deepening divisions within US read more

The post-9/11 response announced by former US President George W Bush later on built an impression that jihadist groups hate American presidents. But with Donald Trump, things are more complicated. Even though he used strong language, made strict immigration rules and ordered attacks on jihadist leaders, many jihadistsespecially Salafi-jihadisseemed to strangely prefer him. This doesnt mean they liked or admired him. Instead, they found his actions useful for their own goals.

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Many jihadist groups and thinkers believed that Trumps presidency, without meaning to, helped their cause. His leadership made their messages stronger and made divisions in society worse, which is exactly what these groups want to use to their advantage.

Exploiting chaos

From the point of view of jihadist groups, President Trump is seen as someone who creates disorder, both inside US and around the world. A BBC Monitoring report says even though jihadists usually ignore Western elections and changes in leadership, they often see Trump as someone who brings chaos that they can use to their advantage. They believe that during Trump presidency, the American society will be even more divided, increase tensions within the country and distract the US government from focussing on fighting terrorism overseas.

This kind of chaos fits well with what jihadist groups like the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda. These groups aim to make divisions in Western countries worse so they can spread their ideas and build support for their causes. Trump observers say the latest flip-flop is not a new thing for the Republican leader. A Foreign Affairs article from 2016 say that Trumps unpredictable behaviour, strong anti-Muslim language and tendency to pull US away from international involvement support the jihadist story that the West is weak and falling apart.

Aversion to foreign wars

Trump has often shown that he doesnt want US to get involved in long and costly wars in other countries. Because of this, some jihadist groups have given him reluctant approval. They understand that when the US pulls its troops out of certain regions, it gives them more space to regroup and grow. During Trumps time in office in the first term, the US started pulling out of Afghanistan. This move was completed under President Biden and led to the quick return of the Taliban to power.

Many jihadists now expect that during Trumps second presidency, he will follow a similar path in places like Syria and Iraq. These are areas where American forces are still important in fighting whats left of the IS and keeping Iran-backed militias in check. Jihadist groups are also hopeful that Trump will not focus much on Africa. The US already pulled out troops from Chad and Niger in 2024, which has led to more jihadist activity in those areas.

Even though Trump made some strong moves in the pastlike ordering the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadijihadists think his lack of interest in rebuilding other nations will help them in the long run. They believe that any short-term losses during his time in office are worth it if it means gaining more power and space in the future.

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Hostility toward Iran

One of the few areas where President Trump and Sunni jihadist groups share similar views is their strong dislike for Iran. Jihadist groups have noticed that Trump pulled US out of the Iran nuclear deal, supported Israeli military actions and backed fights against terrorists that are supported by Iran. They see these moves as helpful in pushing back against what they call Shia aggression.

Groups like IS, which follow Salafi-jihadi beliefs, see Iran and Shia groups as serious threats to Sunni Islam. During the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza, IS even said that fighting Iran was more important than fighting Israel.

Reports suggest that the IS sees Iran as a bigger danger to Sunni Muslims than Israel. Because President Trump said strong words against Iran, many jihadist groups felt that his actions matched their own goals. They see Shia fighters as a more immediate threat than Zionism, so Trumps anti-Iran stance fits well with their strategy.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric

One of the strongest reasons why jihadist groups favour Trump is because of the way he speaks about Muslims. His words are often used by these groups to support their claim that the West hates Islam. Trumps comments about bombing jihadists, banning Muslims and bringing back torture have even been used in IS propaganda videos and helped them recruit new members.

During Trumps first term, he put in place the 2017 travel ban that affected several Muslim-majority countries and also moved US embassy to Jerusalem. Jihadist media groups like those linked to Al Qaeda pointed to these actions as proof that US is at war with Islam. These events gave jihadist groups a lot of material to spread the idea that America and the West are trying to harm Muslim countries, disrespect their religion and take away their dignity.

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In addition, Trumps harsh words about Muslims help jihadist groups promote a black-and-white view of the world. This view says Muslims and non-Muslims are natural enemies and can never live peacefully together. This idea fits perfectly with ISs way of thinking, which divides the world into dar al-Islam (land of Islam) and dar al-harb (land of war), leaving no room for peace or neutrality, say experts.

Internal division in US

Jihadist groups often praise Trump because they believe his way of leading will cause more problems inside US. They think that his controversial policies and fiery public statements will lead to civil unrest, more racial tension and stronger political fights. This, they believe, will keep the US government and people too distracted to focus on stopping terrorist groups in other parts of the world.

The BBC report says that jihadists hope Trumps divisive politics will not only split American society but also make it harder for US to show strength in other countries. If America turns its attention inward, jihadist groups in places like the West Asia, Africa and South Asia could have more freedom to grow and act. Jihadists even see the chance of the US falling apartwhether through political chaos or economic problemsas a sign of divine help for their cause. These fears are further fuelled by recent domestic moves, including controversial appointments to key religious advisory roles.

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Controversial appointments to White House Religious Liberty Board

According to a report in The Economic Times, President Trump appointed Ismail Royer and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf to a new advisory board under the White House Religious Liberty Commission, sparking debate due to their controversial pasts. Royer, once convicted in a terrorism case linked to terrorist training in Pakistan, now works in religious advocacy, promoting interfaith dialogue. Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, an Islamic scholar and founder of Zaytuna College, is known for his contributions to Islamic education and interfaith cooperation.

Critics, led by commentator Lara Loomer, allege both men have past associations with extremist ideologies. Royer served prison time for helping others join a jihadist group, though he has since renounced extremism. Yusuf is accused of having made sympathetic remarks about figures linked to terrorism and attending events tied to controversial causes. While these claims remain unproven or unaddressed by Yusuf, their appointments have raised concerns over the vetting process and the message it sends on religious freedom and national security.

Shared social values

Surprisingly, another reason some jihadists support Trump is because they see him as having similar conservative social values. Many of Trumps supporters are evangelical Christians and far-right groups who strongly believe in religion. Even though their beliefs are very different from those of jihadists, both sides are against things like liberal ideas, secularism and LGBTQ+ rights. This creates a strange kind of connection between them as both want a society based on strict moral rules.

Jihadist groups have noticed this shared outlook and have used it in their messaging. Reports say that some Islamists even admire how Trump talks about protecting religious freedom (even though its focussed on Christianity) and how he supports traditional family values. While jihadists dont accept his version of Christianity, they do see a chance to join forcesindirectlyin fighting against modern liberal and secular values.

Dangerous statements on Gaza

Trumps strong and controversial comments about Gaza have given jihadist recruiters new material to use. In February 2025, NBC News reported that Trump suggested US should take over and develop the Gaza Strip and he also talked about forcing Palestinians to move elsewhere. These comments caused outrage around the world. Counterterrorism expert Marc Polymeropoulos explained that this kind of language acts as a triggering mechanism for jihadist groups. It helps them tell a story that US is an imperialist power trying to control and remove Muslims from their land.

Lucas Webber from Tech Against Terrorism also pointed out that the suffering of Palestinians has always played a big role in jihadist propaganda. According to the NBC News report, Trumps words make that message even stronger by suggesting that Western countries, especially US, are not just ignoring Muslim sufferingthey are helping to cause it. In this way, Trumps statements become powerful tools for jihadist groups to encourage violence against American targets.

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Trump as the perfect enemy

One of the clearest examples of why jihadists respect Trump comes from Tarek, a former IS fighter interviewed by Foreign Affairs. He called Trump the perfect enemy because his aggressive and unpredictable behaviour supports the jihadist way of thinking. Trumps election did not scare them. Instead, it made their belief stronger that Muslims cannot live peacefully with the West and that jihad is the only option for Muslims.

Jihadists also see Trumps personalityoften seen as irrational and dangerousas fitting their religious prophecies. Former IS members have said that they view Trump not just as an enemy, but as someone chosen by God to speed up this important event in history. The way jihadists see Trump also helps explain why India is worried about his recent foreign policy decisions.

Trumps shifting alliances raise red flags in New Delhi

According to a Firstpost article , despite claiming to avoid interfering in other nations affairs, President Trump repeatedly hinted at a willingness to get involved in a highly sensitive area for India  Jammu and Kashmir.

His comments, combined with overtures to Islamist forces across West and South Asia, have alarmed New Delhi. India had initially expected Trump to align more closely with its stance on Pakistan and terrorism, but his open praise for Pakistan and negotiations with terror groups have presented new diplomatic hurdles.

Previous US administrations engaged with both India and Pakistan during regional tensions without overtly favouring one side. In contrast, Trump disregarded that careful balance, openly complimenting both countries and minimising the distinction between their political systems  one a robust democracy, the other under military influence.

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Trump also maintained close ties with Turkey, whose leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been a vocal supporter of Pakistan. Turkish military equipment played a role in recent attacks on India, and while Turkey openly backed Pakistan, Trump refrained from criticising Pakistans harbouring of terrorists  deepening Indias concerns about shifting US priorities.

A useful adversary, not a friend

Jihadist support for Trump is not because they agree with or admire him, but because they see his actions and personality as useful to their cause. Trumps harsh words about Muslims, his focus on keeping US out of foreign conflicts, his strong stance against Iran and his angry comments about Palestine all create a situation where jihadist groups can grow stronger in their messaging, actions and beliefs.

For groups like IS and Al Qaeda, Trump is a lucky opponent. His politics divide people and help push more people toward radical ideas. His unpredictable behaviour causes instability around the world. His foreign policies give these groups things to use in their propaganda and chances to act more freely. Whether he realises it or not, Trump fits perfectly as an enemy who helps prove their ideas and make their movement bigger.

In this surprising and ironic way, Trumps efforts to fight jihadism may actually be speeding up the big conflict jihadists want with the Westa battle they believe will not end with their defeat, but with their victory. Trump presidency is exactly what they want.

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Ukrainian ex-MP Viktor Yanukovych was a lawmaker in the 2000s and became deputy head of the presidential administration under Yanukovych, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, before fleeing to Russia in 2014 after cracking down on pro-EU protests in Ukraine read more

A US-sanctioned Ukrainian ex-MP and senior aide to the countrys former pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot dead near Madrid on Wednesday, a Spanish police source told AFP.Officers rushed to the upmarket town of Pozuelo de Alarcon where several people shot a man in the back and head as he prepared to climb into a vehicle, the source said, identifying the victim as Andriy Portnov.

The shooters then fled from the scene towards a wooded area, the source added, saying the attack struck outside an American private school at around 9:15 am (0715 GMT).

Madrid emergency services found a dead man sprawled on the pavement near the school with at least three gunshot wounds, spokeswoman Encarna Fernandez told reporters at the scene.

Spanish media reported the victim had just dropped off his children at the school before he was killed.

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AFP journalists saw forensics officers take away a disfigured corpse wearing a white T-shirt soaked with blood.

Armed police had cordoned off the area and a forensics team was collecting fingerprints from a black Mercedes.

Alvaro Fernandez Garcia, a 22-year-old student who lives nearby, told AFP the shooting was shocking.

We usually see this on the news, or in other countries, he added.

Sanctioned for corruption

Portnov was a lawmaker in the 2000s and became deputy head of the presidential administration under Yanukovych, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, before fleeing to Russia in 2014 after cracking down on pro-EU protests in Ukraine.

Portnov lived in Russia and Austria before returning to his home country following the election of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The United States imposed sanctions on him in 2021 for alleged corruption, saying he had used his influence in the judiciary and law enforcement to buy access in Ukrainian courts and undermine reform efforts.

He was also known in Ukraine for insulting and threatening journalists, as well as filing numerous lawsuits against media professionals.

Its hard to overstate Portnovs role in intimidating Ukrainian journalists and undermining freedom of speech in Ukraine, Anna Babinets, founder of investigative news outlet Slidstvo.info, wrote on Facebook.

According to media reports, he used his connections within the spheres of power to escape Ukraine again in 2022, despite a ban on men liable for military service leaving the country during the Russian invasion.

Ukrainian authorities had not commented on the incident, but a military intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity that Portnov had been shot dead.

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Ukraine has claimed or been linked with several assassinations in Russia and Moscow-occupied parts of Ukraine since the start of the invasion in 2022, targeting political or military officials or ideological supporters of the war.

Killings have also been attributed to Russia. In February 2024, the corpse of a helicopter pilot who had deserted the Russian military was found riddled with bullets near the Spanish coastal resort of Benidorm.

El Pais daily reported that Spanish intelligence sources had no doubt that the long arm of the Kremlin was behind this unprecedented crime.

Spain hosts more than 300,000 Ukrainians, most of them beneficiaries of temporary protection granted after they fled the Russian invasion, according to government data.
Mohammed Sinwar, thought to have held significant command over Hamass military wing, was long rumoured to have been killed in an airstrike on a Gaza hospital earlier this month. However, until now, neither Hamas nor Israel had officially confirmed his death read more

Israel has probably killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Mohammed Sinwar, thought to have held significant command over Hamass military wing, was long rumoured to have been killed in an airstrike on a Gaza hospital earlier this month. However, until now, neither Hamas nor Israel had officially confirmed his death.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his countrys military campaign, saying that Israeli forces had eliminated dozens of terrorists, and named Mohammed Sinwar among those believed to be dead.

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His brother, Yahya Sinwar  widely regarded as the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel  was killed in Gaza last year following a prolonged manhunt by Israeli forces.

At a press conference following two days of mounting criticism over the Gaza conflict, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel was open to a temporary ceasefire to facilitate the return of hostages.

He said that 20 Israeli hostages were confirmed to be certainly alive.

If there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, well be ready, The National quoted Netanyahu as saying.

A previous truce ran from January to March, before Israel began seizing large parts of territory in a resumed assault on Gaza.

Netanyahu said Israeli forces would maintain full control over Gaza by the end of their latest offensive, dubbed Operation Gideons Chariots. The extended conflict, coupled with an 11-week blockade on aid, has strained Israels relationships with even its closest allies.

According to the UN, no humanitarian aid has been distributed in Gaza despite limited deliveries resuming this week following the Israeli blockade.

None of the supplies have been able to leave the Karam Abu Salem loading area, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, citing security concerns and the high risk of looting due to extreme deprivation. He noted that Israeli authorities had only permitted access to areas considered unsafe for aid distribution.

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Israel reported that 98 trucks carrying items like baby food, flour, and medicine entered Gaza via the crossing on Monday and Tuesday.

With inputs from agencies
India is seeking tariff concessions on its labour-intensive sectors like leather and textiles. Meanwhile, the Trump administration would need Congresss approval to reduce tariffs below the MFN (most favoured nation) rates read more

India and the US will sign an interim trade deal by July 8, just in time before the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs ends. The development comes after Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington last week to hold discussions with his counterparts on the trade deal.

An official told the Indian Express that signing the interim deal with the US can ensure that New Delhi averts the 26 per cent reciprocal duties imposed on Indian goods.

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Talks are progressing positively. We are looking to conclude an interim deal before the first tranche (of tariffs) takes effect on July 8. It will cover goods, non-tariff barriers, and select areas of services, including digital trade. We are working to ensure that the 26 per cent additional duty and possibly the 10 per cent baseline tariff do not apply to India, the official said.

The official added that India is seeking tariff concessions on its labour-intensive sectors like leather and textiles. Meanwhile, the Trump administration would need Congresss approval to reduce tariffs below the MFN (most favoured nation) rates.

What are India-US chalking out?

The interim trade agreement is likely to include provisions on market access for industrial products, select agricultural goods, and the relaxation of non-tariff barriers such as Indias quality control regulations, according to reports.

As part of efforts to enhance bilateral trade, India is pushing for tariff reductions on a range of exports, including textiles, gems and jewellery, leather products, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oilseeds, grapes, and bananas.

Meanwhile, the US has urged for lower tariffs on goods produced by sectors like automobiles (particularly electric vehicles), wines, petrochemicals, dairy, and agricultural goods like apples, tree nuts, and genetically modified (GM) crops.

A 3-stage trade pact

According to a report by Bloomberg, India is working on a trade deal with Washington, which will be planned in three stages. The deal could provide easier market access for industrial goods and certain agricultural products. It may also aim to ease trade barriers, including stringent quality control regulations.

Officials from India told the news outlet that the second stage of the deal could entail a larger and more detailed agreement, likely to come into effect between September and November this year.

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The final phase of the deala comprehensive agreementwill require approval from the U.S. Congress and, according to officials, may not be completed until next year.
Israeli troops fired warning shots near diplomats from 31 countries visiting Jenin during a humanitarian mission organised by the Palestinian Authority, causing panic. A video of the incident has surfaced on social media. read more

Israeli troops fired warning shots near a group of 25 diplomats visiting Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday. The visit was part of an official mission organised by the Palestinian Authority to assess the humanitarian situation.

The Israeli military said the visit was approved but the delegation deviated from the approved route and Israeli soldiers fired warning shots to distance them from the area.

The occupation forces opened heavy fire from inside the Jenin refugee camp to intimidate the diplomatic delegation that is conducting a field tour around the camp to witness the extent of the suffering endured by the residents of the area.



       pic.twitter.com/qafjqQP0Sg  State of Palestine - MFA  (@pmofa) May 21, 2025

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Video footage of the incident, captured while several diplomats were giving media interviews, shows sudden gunfire breaking out nearby, forcing them to take cover. The delegation included ambassadors and diplomats from 31 countries, including Italy, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, and the UK.

The Israeli military (IDF) said it regretted the inconvenience caused and added that senior officials would brief the diplomats once their internal investigation is complete.

Jenin had also made headlines earlier this year when a major Israeli assault in January forced tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee, marking one of the largest displacements in the West Bank in recent years.

No Indian diplomat part of delegation

However, no Indian diplomats were part of the delegation caught in the warning shots, an Indian official told news agency PTI.

Outrage across the world

A European diplomat said the diplomats went to the area to see the destruction caused by Israeli military raids since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023.

The Israeli military said the diplomatic convoy strayed from the approved route and entered a restricted zone.

Troops fired warning shots to steer the group away, it said, adding that no one was injured and expressing regret for the inconvenience caused.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterress spokesman called the incident unacceptable.

Diplomats who are doing their work should never be shot at, attacked in any way, shape or form. Their safety, their viability, must be respected at all times, the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.

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These diplomats, including UN personnel, were fired at, warning shots or whatever which is unacceptable.

Countries condemn shooting

Several countries that had representatives in the group voiced outrage and demanded an investigation.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged Israel to hold those responsible accountable.

Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay summoned Israels ambassadors or said they would raise the issue directly.

Egypt denounced the shooting as a breach of all diplomatic norms, while Turkey demanded an immediate investigation.
The attack has drawn condemnation from across the world, with Israeli leaders blaming incitement by European countries. Many other nations have condemned the killing of the diplomats as anti-Semitic read more

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday condemned the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC, after they were shot dead outside a Jewish museum.

Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice, he said on X.

Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC.



Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues.



The perpetrators must be brought to justice. @gidonsaar  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 22, 2025

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A gunman opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the centre of Washington late on Wednesday, killing two people who were coming out of the venue after attending an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.

The attack has drawn condemnation from across the world, with Israeli leaders blaming incitement by European countries. Many other nations have condemned the killing of the diplomats as anti-Semitic.

Hours after the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered enhanced security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions across the world. France followed suit and ordered better surveillance at Jewish-linked sites in the country.

A video clip circulating on social media showed a young bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting free, free Palestine as he was led away by police.

The victims killed in the attack were a young couple who planned to get married, according to the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter.

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The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple, he said.

Police confirmed the suspected shooter walked into the museum after the shooting and had been detained.

We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody, Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters.
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar reiterated his assertion that Pakistan is the epicentre of terrorism, calling out the countrys establishment for supporting and fostering terror groups read more

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar called out the Pakistani establishment for being involved in the rise of terrorist groups in the country. The remarks from the Indian diplomat came during his visit to the Netherlands. While New Delhi has often accused Pakistan of supporting terrorist groups on its soil and provided evidence for the same, Islamabad has cried wolf over the matter.

During an interview with Netherlands-based NOS, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar defended his assertion that Pakistan is the  epicentre of terrorism . The animosities between the two nations reached an all-time high following the Pahalgam terror attack, in which terrorists linked to a Pakistani terror group killed 26 people at a tourist destination in Kashmir.

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I am not suggesting that, I am stating that. Suppose that there were large military centres in the middle of a city like Amsterdam, where tens of thousands of people gathered for military training, would you say that your government knows nothing about that? Of course not, Jaishankar told the Dutch news outlet when asked if he believed terror groups active in Pakistan receive support from Islamabad.

We should not go along with the narrative that Pakistan does not know what is going on. The most notorious terrorists on the United Nations (UN) sanctions list are all in Pakistan. They operate in the big cities, in broad daylight. Their addresses are known. Their activities are known. Their mutual contacts are known. So lets not pretend that Pakistan is not involved. The state is involved. The army is up to its neck in it," he added.

Jaishankar blames Munir for the Pahalgam terror attack

During his visit to Denmark, Jaishankar blamed Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munirs  extreme religious outlook  for the Pahalgam terror attack. It started because it was triggered by a very barbaric terror attack where 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith. It was intended to harm tourism and to create religious discord, he said during his visit to Denmark.

You have a Pakistani army chief driven by an extreme religious outlook, so some connect with the views expressed and conduct," Jaishankar furthered. After he met with his Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, in Copenhagen, Jaishankar will visit to the Netherlands.

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was supposed to visit the country. However, due to the simmering India-Pakistan tensions, Jaishankar represented India in both European nations.
In a conversation with Firstposts Bhagyasree Sengupta, former US National Security Adviser John Bolton lauded ties between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian NSA Ajit Doval and explained why Trump cannot create the same magic read more

Former US NSA John Bolton hails understanding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and explains why US President Donald Trump can't create the same magic. PTI / AP

Lauding the strong partnership between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, former National Security Advisor John Bolton explained why US President Donald Trump is unable to replicate the same in Washington, DC. From Michael Flynn to Marco Rubio, Trump has frequently switched his NSAs in his two terms in the White House.

The changes have been so frequent that Bolton, who served from April 2018 to September 2019, remains the longest-serving NSA in the Trump administration. Contrary to this, Doval was appointed as Indias National Security Advisor in May 2014 and have been serving the role since then.

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Donald Trump and John Bolton. Source: AFP | File.

During a conversation with Firstposts Bhagyasree Sengupta, Ambassador Bolton hailed Dovals positive influence in the PM Modi government. Ajit Doval has been a very positive influence, and I think Prime Minister Modis reliance on him shows that he trusts his judgement, Bolton told Firstpost.

The problem with Trump

When asked why Trump cannot replicate the same kind of consistency, Bolton said that the American leader only wants people to agree with him.

Its not a question of trying to stop the president from doing what he wants to do, but from saying, well, Mr. President, if you thought of this fact or this fact or this fact, have you considered these options? Have you weighed the pros and cons? Ultimately, the presidents going to make the decision, Bolton told Firstpost.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh and others during a high level meeting, amid the ongoing military conflict between India and Pakistan, in New Delhi. PTI

Nobodys under any illusions about that. The question is, will he make a well-informed, well-considered decision or just one that is spur of the moment? I think thats the problem. Thats kind of fundamental to Trumps way of acting, and I dont see that changing for the remainder of the second term," he furthered.

Just months after coming back to the White House, Trump removed Mike Waltz from the role and appointed US Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio as the acting NSA. Waltzs brief term as NSA was marred by the Signal Chat Leak Scandal, in which he accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, into a Signal group chat in which Trump officials were discussing strikes on Houthis in Yemen. The saga raised concerns about the security of the US military plans, prompting Trump officials to go into damage control mode.

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Trump wanted to fire Mike Waltz for the Signal Gate saga, but not because of the security lapse. File image/AFP

Bolton on Trumps nature of taking credit for all good

When India and Pakistan came to a ceasefire understanding after three days of military standoff, Trump was the first one to announce it on social media. However, India maintained that the decision to reach a ceasefire was a bilateral one and only involved officials from India and Pakistan.

During an interview with Netherlands-based NOS, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar rejected Trumps claim of brokering a peace deal. Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other as a hotline. So, on the 10th of May, it was the Pakistani army which sent a message that they were ready to stop firing, and we responded accordingly, he said in the interview.

Well, the US was in the United States. Obviously, US Secretary of State Rubio and Vice President Vance had called up, Rubio had spoken to me, Vance had spoken to our Prime Minister, they had their view, they were talking to us, and they were talking to the Pakistani side, as indeed were some other countries. There were some countries in the Gulf, there were some others as well.

Students of an art school and their teacher carry a hand-drawn portrait of the US President Donald Trump as they celebrate the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, in Mumbai, May 10, 2025. AP

That happens naturally, when we know when two countries are engaged in a conflict, it is natural that the countries in the world call up, sort of indicate their concern and what they can do in such a situation but the cessation of firing and military action was something which was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan, he clarified.

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When asked by Firstpost if Trump took the credit prematurely, the former NSA said he was not surprised by Trumps post. Well, thats something Trump does all the time, so nobody should have been surprised by it necessarily. Normally, you would have a joint statement by the parties involved to show what I think really happened behind the scenes, where military-to-military communications between the Indian military and the Pakistani military. And some of the specifics of what the ceasefire would look like, when it would begin, and how it would be implemented were done at that level, Bolton explained.

But as I say, thats just Trump. When he gets involved, hes going to make sure he gets the credit for it, whether he deserves it or not, he remarked.
Undoing last nights injunction, a judge has now allowed British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to go ahead with the Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius. The deal is now expected to be signed virtually today. read more

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmers Chagos Islands deal with Mauritius can now go ahead, a judge has ruled.

The development comes after a judge had granted an emergency injunction blocking the deal in the early hours of Thursday.

However, a high court judge has now done away with the injunction and said the deal could go ahead. The deal is expected to be signed virtually later in the day.

Under the deal, the United Kingdom will cede sovereignty over Chagos Islands , an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius. The deal will also grant the UK the island of Diego Garcia on a 99-year-lease. The Diego Garcia is the largest island in the archipelago and houses a highly strategic UK-US military base.

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The deal has been controversial in the UK with the Conservative Party and Reform UK in the Opposition slamming the deal. Dame Priti Patel, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has dubbed the deal an epic failure of diplomacy and economically illiterate.

What is in the UK-Mauritius Chagos Islands deal?

While the terms of the deal have not been disclosed, it has been reported that the deal would cost the UK up to 90 million a year and around 9 billion overall for the 99-year period. There were also reports that Starmer had agreed to adjust the annual lease payment for inflation which would increase the annual payment and hence the overall cost of the deal by up to hundreds of millions.

Moreover, Mauritius has also secured a package of development funding and a new scheme to help the return of the natives to the Chagos Islands, who were displaced from the islands in the 1960s, according to The Daily Telegraph.

ALSO READ: Can Starmers Chagos deal lead to China shooting down UK, US planes?

The negotiations with Mauritius were started by the previous Conservative Partys government and were triggered by a 2019 judgement of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) granting the islands sovereignty to Mauritius.

A necessity or a strategic blunder?

While the ICJ has no enforcement powers, Starmer has maintained that the only way to continue operating the Diego Garcia base was to cede the sovereignty to Mauritius and secure the islands legal lease.

To operate the Diego Garcia military base securely, the British and US militaries require access to military communication satellites and the British Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has said that access to those satellites could not be ensured without a deal with Mauritius.

The PMO in February said that the electromagnetic spectrum at the Diego Garcia base would not be able to continue to operate without a deal.

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The PMO further said, This system enables secure communications in the region. Its something that the UK and the US have currently got unique access to, and it is the case that without legal certainty over the base (it) is something we would lose access to.

While the US and British governments have complete, unrestricted control to electromagnetic spectrum at the Diego Garcia military base on the islands, that would not be certain if an international court were to declare such control illegal as per international law, according to Bloomberg.

As the global satellite communication is governed by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency, and the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and ICJ have already ruled against the UK, there is a possibility that the ITU could also act against the UK in the matter. An adverse ruling at the ITU regarding satellite communication would have consequences for defence and technology companies involved in the operation of the satellites and also erode the exclusive control over the spectrum that US and British militaries currently have there, according to Starmers governments rationale.

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While US President Donald Trump is onboard with the rationale and the terms of the deal, the Conservative Party and Reform UK are not  Trumps approval was a must for the deal to go ahead as the UK operates the Diego Garcia base jointly with the United States.

With the Chagos Islands deal, Starmer is still putting his Leftie shame of our countrys history over our national security, and our longstanding relationship with our closest ally, said Dame Priti, the Shadow Foreign Secretary.

Patel further said, At a time when public spending is under serious pressure, they are also signing up to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers money leasing back a site that is currently under our sovereignty. And to add insult to injury, they are doing all this in secret, with Labour ministers keep refusing to explain the details to Parliament and the British public. They must urgently come clean on what exactly this surrender is going to cost us.

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A gunman opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the centre of Washington late on Wednesday, killing two people who were coming out of the venue after attending an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff read more

A man draped in the Israeli flag, bearing a cross and the name "Jesus" at its center, gestures as Metropolitan Police officers secure the area outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead in Washington, DC. AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered enhanced security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions across the world after a gunman shot dead two embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

I have instructed to enhance security arrangements at Israeli missions around the world and to increase protection for state representatives, he said.

A gunman opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the centre of Washington late on Wednesday, killing two people who were coming out of the venue after attending an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.

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A video clip circulating on social media showed a young bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting free, free Palestine as he was led away by police.

A young, beautiful couple

The victims killed in the attack were a young couple who planned to get married, according to the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter.

The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple, he said.

The victims, whose names have not been made public yet, were shot at close range.

Shooter in custody

Police confirmed the suspected shooter walked into the museum after the shooting and had been detained.

We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody, Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters.

Prior to the shooting the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire.

After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security.

She said the handcuffed suspect identified where he had discarded the weapon and chanted Free, free Palestine.

With inputs from agencies
A new North Korean warship was damaged during a serious accident at a launch ceremony on Wednesday, leaving the countrys Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un furious read more

This undated picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 30, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (centre R) with his daughter Ju Ae (centre L) attending the test-firing of a weapons system from North Korea's latest destroyer, the Choe Hyon (behind), during two days of tests on April 28-29 off the coast of an undisclosed location in North Korea. AFP

A new North Korean warship was damaged in a serious accident, leaving the countrys Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un furious. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the accident occurred on Wednesday at the northeastern port of Chongjin during a launch ceremony of the warship. The report came as a surprise because it was seen as a rare admission of failure by the hermit nation.

According to KCNA, the 5,000-ton destroyer slid off a flatcar due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness in the course of the launch." The accident crushed the bottom parts of the ship. During the event, Kim reportedly stressed the importance of such destroyers for advancing North Koreas military capabilities.

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Kim later described the accident as a criminal act caused by absolute carelessness that could not be tolerated, KCNA reported. He slammed the officials involved in the accident and said that the incident brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse". He ordered the ship to be restored before next months plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party.

Warship laid sideways

Meanwhile, on Thursday, South Koreas military said the warship was lying sideways in the water. According to KCNA, Kim said the irresponsible errors of officials responsible would be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month.

The incident took place a month after Pyongyang unveiled another 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon . The launch ceremony was attended by Kim with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor. North Korea claimed that the vessel was equipped with the most powerful weapons and that it would enter into operation early next year.

Following the launch event, some analysts argued that the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles, although North Korea has not proven it can miniaturise its nukes. Amid speculations, the South Korean military argued that Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian help , possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Interestingly, the Wednesday ceremony was held in the North Korean city, which is conveniently close to Russias Vladivostok port. Hence, Russian involvement cannot be disregarded.

With inputs from agencies.
Over a dozen governments condemned Israel after the countrys military fired towards diplomats in West Banks Jenin read more

Over a dozen governments around the world condemned Israel after its forces fired towards a diplomatic delegation near the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Following the incident, the Israeli army said that its soldiers fired warning shots after the foreign diplomats, who included representatives of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia and China, deviated from a previously agreed-on route.

[Israeli] soldiers operating in the area fired warning shots to distance them away, Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday. While no one was injured, the firing garnered condemnation from all around the world.

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How the world reacted

Canada

Shortly after the incident, the Israeli ambassador was summoned by the Canadian foreign ministry, which also demanded an explanation. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the situation totally unacceptable and said Canada expects an explanation of what happened. Its some of many things that are totally unacceptable thats going on in the region, Carney said at a press conference on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

UK

UK Under-Secretary of State Hamish Falconer said that he has spoken to diplomats affected by the incident. " Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable."

France

Meanwhile, an opposition lawmaker in France called on the government to expel Israels ambassador and close the Israeli embassy in Paris, asserting that summoning him is not enough. Thomas Porte, a member of the left-wing La France Insoumise party, issued a statement condemning the incident.

Israeli war criminals shoot diplomats, including a Frenchman and France summons the Israeli ambassador, Porte wrote on X, criticising the decision to limit the response to a diplomatic summons.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also stated the matter. A visit to Jenin, in which one of our diplomats was participating, was fired upon by Israeli soldiers. This is unacceptable. The Israeli ambassador will be summoned to explain. Full support to our agents on site and their remarkable work in trying conditions, he said in the statement.

Italy

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said: We ask the government of Israel to immediately clarify what happened. The threats against diplomats are unacceptable.

Germany

The Federal Foreign Office strongly condemned the unprovoked fire towards the diplomats. The group was travelling in the West Bank in the course of its diplomatic work and coordination with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army. The role of diplomats as independent observers on the ground is indispensable and in no way represents a threat to Israeli security interests, the office said in the statement following the attack.

Qatar

The Qatari foreign minister also demanded answers from Israel. The state of Qatar strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces for opening fire on an international diplomatic delegation during its visit to the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and considers as a violation of international laws, conventions, and diplomatic norms, the ministry said in a statement.

Mexico

The Mexican Foreign Ministry rejected the Israeli militarys claim that the diplomatic delegation had invaded an unauthorised area. What happened violates the provisions of Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which establishes the inviolability of diplomatic agents. All States Parties to the aforementioned Convention, including Israel, are obliged to respect it, the ministry said in a statement. The Mexican ministry also demanded clarification on the matter from the Israeli embassy in the country.

With inputs from agencies.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has assured that Islamabad wont let terrorists use their land to wage attacks on any other country read more

Pakistans Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday (May 22) blamed the previous government for the increase in terrorism in the country, in an attempt to absolve the current administration of charges about harbouring terrorists.

Dar was briefing the media after his three-day visit to China that came in the aftermath of Pakistans military clash with India.

Pakistan, which finds itself isolated on the world stage, was quick to rush to its all-weather ally China to gather international support. Islamabad is under pressure to act against terrorists operating on its soil after Indias recent military campaign targeting terror hideouts in the country.

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Following Indias Operation Sindoor , the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed 11 new conditions on Pakistan for the release of the next tranche of its bailout package, taking the total to 50. The IMF warned Islamabad against stoking tensions with India as it could hurt Pakistans fiscal, external, and reform goals.

Previous govt responsible for terrorism

Dar in his briefing said the policies adopted by previous government were responsible for the increase in terrorism, in a veiled criticism of the government of ex-PM Imran Khan. Dar asserted that the current government of PM Shehbaz Sharif was standing strong against terror.

He added that the issue of terrorism was discussed between Pakistan, China and Afghanistan in Beijing.

Dar also assured that Pakistan wont let terrorists use their land to wage attacks on any country.

Beijing has long expressed concerns over terrorism in Pakistan, which has cast clouds of uncertainly over its multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The two sides recently decided to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan and cooperate further for Chinas global infrastructure program, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Pakistan now seeks to assure China of its stance against terrorism to secure more investments in its beleaguered economy.

Terrorism on rise in Pakistan

The 2025 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report ranks Pakistan as the second-most terrorism-affected country, up from fourth, according to Geo News. Terrorism-related deaths surged 45 per cent from 748 in 2023 to 1,081 in 2024, one of the highest global increases.

Terrorist attacks more than doubled, rising from 517 in 2023 to 1,099 in 2024, exceeding 1,000 incidents for the first time in GTI history, per Geo News.

The GTI report highlighted that Pakistans terror problem originated in Afghanistan, as attacks by militants have increased since Taliban gained control of Kabul.

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The report said that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was responsible for 52 per cent of all terrorism-related deaths in Pakistan last year.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suggested Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue for talks with India, expressing hope for dialogue with PM Modi. read more

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that Saudi Arabia could serve as a neutral venue for talks between Pakistan and India on key issues, as he expressed hope for possible talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dawn reported.

The Pakistani Prime Minister expressed hope that Saudi Arabia could be a neutral country acceptable to both sides for hosting talks.

Speaking to reporters, he said that while China could be considered a possible venue for India-Pakistan talks, he ruled it out as a neutral option, stating that India would never agree to it.

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His remarks came after Donald Trump offered to mediate between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, following his announcement that the United States had brokered a ceasefire to ease tensions.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri informed a parliamentary committee that the decision to halt military operations was made bilaterally between India and Pakistan.

This was in response to opposition MPs who raised concerns over President Trumps repeated claims that Washington played a role in de-escalating the conflict.

Pahalgam terror attack and Indias response

India has blamed Pakistan for the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, claiming the attackers were Pakistan-based militants.

The attack has once again drawn global attention to Pakistans alleged support for terrorism.

In response, India launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May, targeting terror camps and infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Indian forces carried out precise strikes on nine terror camps, including major bases of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Bahawalpur and Muridke. The operation used Rafale jets, BrahMos missiles, and other advanced weapons.

At a press briefing, Indian officials said they dont want escalation but are prepared for any provocation. They confirmed that India has responded to all Pakistani military actions and remains on high alert.

After Pakistans failed drone and missile attacks, India struck back, damaging several Pakistani air and military bases.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a luxury Boeing 747 plane from Qatar for President Donald Trumps use, despite concerns about the ethics and legality of accepting such a costly gift from a foreign country. read more

U.S. President Donald Trump talks with Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani as he departs Al Udeid Air Base, en-route to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in Doha, Qatar, May 15, 2025. REUTERS

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a luxury Boeing 747 plane from Qatar for President Donald Trump to use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. This comes despite ongoing concerns about whether it is ethical or legal to accept such an expensive gift from a foreign country.

The Defense Department will work to ensure proper security measures on the aircraft to make it safe for use by the president, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

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He emphasised that the plane was accepted in accordance with all federal rules and regulations.

Trump said the gift, which was discussed during his recent Middle East trip, would help save tax money.

Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE, Trump posted on his social media site during the trip.

Legal experts have questioned the scope of laws relating to gifts from foreign governments that aim to thwart corruption and improper influence. Democrats have also sought to block the handover.

Today marks a dark day in history: the president of the United States of America officially accepted the largest bribe from a foreign government in American history, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said.

The unprecedented action is a stain on the office of the presidency and cannot go unanswered, he added.

Trump was asked about the move Wednesday while he was meeting in the Oval Office with South Africas president. They are giving the United States Air Force a jet, Trump said.
Elon Musk, the worlds richest man with a net worth over $420 billion, has unexpectedly announced hell be doing a lot less political spending, a sharp reversal from his earlier pledge to heavily influence US elections read more

Elon Musks decision to step back from political spending  if he follows through  is sending shockwaves through the US political scene.

While some Republicans worry theyre losing a major financial backer, some Democrats fear theyre losing a high-profile adversary.

The stakes are high because Musk injected an unprecedented amount of money into last years presidential race and was poised to do the same in Virginias upcoming gubernatorial contest and in the midterm elections nationwide.

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But that outlook changed abruptly on Tuesday, when the Tesla CEO said in an interview that hes stepping back from political donations after spending hundreds of millions to support Donald Trumps presidential victory.

Taking his toys and going home, Politico quoted Steve Bannon, a Trump ally who has verbally sparred with Musk, as saying.

Elon Musk, the worlds richest man with a net worth over $420 billion, has unexpectedly announced hell be doing a lot less political spending, a sharp reversal from his earlier pledge to heavily influence US elections.

Just after Trumps November win, Musk vowed to keep grinding on election funding and play a key role in the primaries. His group, America PAC, spent nearly $20 million to boost Republicans in swing House districts.

Musk also joined Trump on the campaign trail and handed out $1 million prizes to select voters. Altogether, he poured over $260 million into the 2024 cycle, including contributions to two Florida special elections.

But his political momentum has cooled.

According to a Politico report, Musk and his allied groups sank more than $19 million into Wisconsins Supreme Court race, backing Republican Brad Schimel  who lost by 10 points.

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Meanwhile, Musks image took a hit as the face of a sweeping federal workforce overhaul, and Tesla struggled financially. He now says hell shift focus back to his businesses, added the report.

In Virginia, Republicans had expected Musk to get involved, given the state hosts the most competitive statewide races this year. Some still hope hell jump in: GOP gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears faces a steep fundraising gap against Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

Whether Musk truly steps back from political spending remains uncertain.

Asked about his supposed pullback, one Virginia Republican, speaking anonymously to Politico, said simply, Eh, well see.

In Pennsylvania, both parties are bracing for high-stakes Supreme Court retention races this November. The contest could mirror Wisconsins, where Musk-backed efforts fell flat. Rumors are already swirling about Musks involvement, with the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting that Democratic Justice Kevin Dougherty claimed Musk has already invested $1 million  though campaign filings havent confirmed that.

Democrats, in particular, doubt Musk will disappear from politics entirely. They expect he may simply shift his support behind the scenes, using legal but opaque dark money channels.

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I believe he will start moving his money in the background, through nonprofits, Politico quoted Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a major Democratic super PAC, as saying.

Dennis also argued that Musk stepping away publicly may help Democrats narrow their focus back on congressional Republicans for cutting federal programs and that Musk had initially served as a shield for them when he was the de facto head of DOGE.

Even some Republicans are unsure exactly what Musks announcement will mean for the future.

I believe he means it right now. But every election is unique, Republican consultant Josh Novotney told _Politic_o. So he may be motivated to be active again in the future, he added.

Even if Musk scales back his campaign spending, several lawmakers on Wednesday expressed gratitude for his past support.

Sen. Ted Cruz said Musk had made an extraordinary difference in the 2024 race, while Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) shared that he texted Musk on Tuesday to thank him personally for his contributions.

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Hes worked hard. He wasnt involved in politics and he jumped all in because he saw an opportunity to make a change, Politico quoted Mullin as saying.

Now hes going back to his life. I dont blame him. In fact, I commend him, he added.

With inputs from agencies
President Trump on Thursday expressed his deep sorrow over the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers during a phone call with PM Netanyahu and also discussed Iran deal ahead of a fresh round of talks between US and Iran in Rome on Friday read more

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet at the White House in Washington, US, February 4, 2025. Reuters File

US President Donald Trump on Thursday expressed his deep sorrow over the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead at a Jewish museum in the US capital by a gunman who shouted free Palestine as he was arrested, sparking new international tensions over anti-Semitism.

According to a CNN report, citing a statement from Netanyahus office, Netanyahu thanked Trump for the efforts he and his administration are making against manifestations of anti-Semitism in the United States.

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The president reaffirmed his commitment to uproot the violent antisemitism that has swept across university campuses in this country, CNN quoted Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter as saying to reporters earlier outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

Confirming the call, the White House said that Trump had a productive discussion with Netanyahu about Iran and Washington shooting.

Trump and Netanyahu have increasingly diverged on how to handle Irans nuclear programme, with Washington pushing for a diplomatic deal through talks with Tehran, while Israel seems to be prioritising a military approach.

They discussed many things, including the, of course, the tragic shooting that took place here in Washington, DC last night, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a briefing.

She said the two leaders also talked about a potential deal with Iran, which the president believes is moving along in the right direction.

Iran and the United States are due to hold a fresh round of talks in Rome on Friday.

Leavitt said Trump believed that this deal with Iran could end in two ways. It could end in a very positive diplomatic solution, or it could end in a very negative situation for Iran.

With inputs from agencies
After his call with Vladimir Putin earlier this week, US President Donald Trump privately told European leaders that the Russian leader does not want to end the war on Ukraine, according to a report. read more

US President Donald Trump has privately told European leaders that Vladimir Putin does not want to end the Russian war on Ukraine, according to a report.

The development has come at a time when Trump has rebuffed Ukraine and Europe by endorsing Putins position on the war. Weeks after ending the shuttle diplomacy , he has now indicated that he could end the US mediation completely.

Following a call with Putin on Monday, Trump told European leaders on that Putin does not want to end the war as he thinks he is winning, according to Wall Street Journal.

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Ahead of the call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders had urged Trump to press Putin to agree to his longstanding demand for a 30-day ceasefire . However, Trump gave up his own demand and instead endorsed position of direct talks with Ukraine.

ALSO READ: In high-stakes call, Trump gives in to Putin & endorses Russias position in Ukraine war

Trumps endorsement of direct talks amounted to a blow to Ukraine and Europe as it is an open secret that Putin has used direct talks to extend the conflict in a bid to tire out Ukraines partners  the United States is already tired.

Trump accepts Putin doesnt want peace  yet continues to appease him

Even though Trump has privately admitted that Putin does not want peace, he has not done anything to punish Putin or push him towards a compromise.

Instead, Trump has continued to appease him by endorsing his position on the war. Soon after Trump called for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in an endorsement of Putins position, the emboldened Russian leader reiterated his maximalist demands that would mean the end of Ukraines sovereignty if accepted.

Putin said that he remained willing to draft a memorandum with Ukraine for the peace process but maintained that root causes would have to be addressed for the war to end. Root causes is a euphemism for Putins maximalist demands, such as the recognition of all Ukrainian provinces that Russia has annexed and other territories that it controls; the ouster of Zelenskyy and his administration; amendment of the Ukrainian constitution to put limits on its military, include Russian in the nations cultural affairs, and rule out its membership of Nato; put limits on foreign military partnerships of Ukraine; etc.

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ALSO READ: Russia rejects Trumps ceasefire proposal, lists maximalist demands

Putin has also rejected European leaders call to impose harsher sanctions on Russia.

The Journal reported that Trump indicated in a call with European leaders on Sunday that he could impose sanctions on Putin if he refused a ceasefire.

The next day, however, Trump dashed hopes of sanctions and showed the world that he continues to be on the same page with Putin by endorsing his position.

Trump had indicated on Sunday that he would dispatch Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Keith Kellogg for talks, but said on Monday that he could withdraw from talks altogether, according to the newspaper.

In the call on Sunday, Trump also rejected the call for an unconditional ceasefire that European leaders had made, as per the newspaper.

The report said that Trump stressed that he had never used the world unconditional even though he did.

Trump has so far floated three ceasefire proposals. While Russia has rejected all of them, Ukraine has accepted all of them. Yet it is Ukraine that often finds itself at the receiving end of Trumps flak.

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Trump has been saying that he helped India and Pakistan reach a ceasefire along the border earlier this month, a claim that New Delhi has not confirmed. However, Pakistan has thanked the US president for his role in stopping the fight more than once read more

US President Donald Trump once again brought up the India-Pakistan ceasefire during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming that he settled it after both sides exchanged cross-border fire following New Delhis Operation Sindoor.

If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade, Trump told Ramaphosa. He noted that the US has been pursuing major trade deals with both countries, adding, And I said, What are you guys doing?

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Trump has been saying that he helped India and Pakistan reach a ceasefire along the border earlier this month, a claim that New Delhi has not confirmed. However, Pakistan has thanked the US president for his role in stopping the fight more than once.

Talking about the escalation, Trump said, Somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the country. And we spoke to them, and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled, and then two days later, something happens, and they say its Trumps fault.

Essentially, hours after Trump announced on Truth Social that the US had facilitated a ceasefire between the two countries, Pakistan broke the truce and continued firing drones, which India eventually thwarted.

#WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India, we settled that whole thing, and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan...Somebody had to be the last one pic.twitter.com/oaM6nCJCLi  ANI (@ANI) May 21, 2025

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Praising the leadership of both countries, the US president said, But Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good, great leader. And India is my friend, Modi, to which Ramaphosa responded, Modi, mutual friend.
The High Court injunction halted a virtual signing ceremony for the deal, under which Britain would have ceded control of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius and then leased back the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years read more

An undated file photo shows Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from UK in 1966. File Image/Reuters

A British court blocked the UK from transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius on Thursday (May 22), just hours before the agreement was set to be signed.

The High Court injunction halted a virtual signing ceremony for the deal, under which Britain would have ceded control of the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius and then leased back the Diego Garcia military base for at least 99 years.

US officials under President Donald Trump, who were consulted during the negotiations, had approved the arrangement . But the agreement was delayed by last-minute talks over financial terms, according to officials familiar with the matter.

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The deal also included a proposed resettlement fund for the original inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, many of whom were forcibly removed in the 1960s and 1970s to make way for the US base on Diego Garcia. However, details of the fund remain unclear and would not apply to Diego Garcia itself.

The injunction was granted early Thursday after a legal challenge by two women representing displaced islanders. In his ruling, Judge Julian Goose ordered that the UK maintain jurisdiction over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order. A court hearing was scheduled for later Thursday.

Chagos Islands dispute

The Chagos Islands have been at the center of a long-running dispute. Britain separated the archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, three years before granting the island nation independence. Up to 2,000 residents were evicted from the Chagos Islands to accommodate US military operations, and many later resettled in the UK

The United Nations and the International Court of Justice have called on Britain to return the territory to Mauritius, saying the separation was unlawful. Britain agreed in principle to the handover in October, but progress stalled due to a change of government in Mauritius and disputes over the lease payment.

With inputs from agencies
The first aid distribution in Gaza since early March came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a temporary ceasefire, but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring the entire territory under its control read more

Trucks line up at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip after Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza. File Image / AP

The UN said Wednesday it had dispatched around 90 trucks carrying aid into Gaza, as international pressure intensified over Israels renewed offensive and blockade of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The first aid distribution in Gaza since early March came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a temporary ceasefire, but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring the entire territory under its control.

Three days after Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, the United Nations collected around 90 truckloads of goods from the Kerem Shalom crossing and dispatched them into Gaza, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres.

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The development came hours after Israeli troops fired what the military called warning shots near a delegation of foreign diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank, triggering global condemnation.

In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid trucks, which it said were allocated to international and local organisations to meet urgent humanitarian needs.

Netanyahu said it was necessary to avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action in Gaza.

Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation, with Israels blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.

Israel has meanwhile kept up its bombardment, with Gazas health ministry reporting Wednesday that the bodies of 82 people were taken to hospitals across the territory over the previous 24 hours.

Barely one daily meal

Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, described the situation as unbearable.

No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we havent received anything, she said.

We barely manage to prepare one meal a day.

Humanitarian groups have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.

A US-backed private group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that will use contractors, said that it will start moving aid into the territory in coming days. The United Nations and traditional agencies have said they will not cooperate with the foundation which some have accused of working with Israel.

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The GHF has said it will distribute some 300 million meals in its first 90 days of operation.

Pressure on Israel

The army stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gazas Hamas rulers, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.

Israel has faced mounting pressure, including from traditional allies, to halt its expanded offensive and allow aid into Gaza.

European Union foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to review the blocs cooperation accord, which includes trade, with Israel.

Israels foreign ministry has said the EU action reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing.

Sweden said it would press the 27-nation bloc to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.

Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as worrying and painful and called for the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid.

Germany defended a key EU-Israel cooperation deal as an important forum that we must use in order to discuss critical questions over the situation in Gaza.

In Gaza, Israel resumed its operations across the territory on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

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Hamass October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.

Netanyahu said Israel would be ready if there is an option for a temporary ceasefire to free hostages, noting that at least 20 held by Hamas and its allies were still believed to be alive.

Gazas health ministry said at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the wars overall death toll to 53,655, mostly civilians.

In neighbouring Lebanon, authorities said Israeli strikes killed three people on Wednesday as Israel said it targeted Hamass allies Hezbollah in the south  the latest in a series of attacks despite a ceasefire with the Iran-backed militant group there.
Multiple people were killed when a business jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood home to military families amid dense fog early Thursday, according to a report, citing authorities read more

Authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday. AP

Multiple people were killed when a business jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood home to military families amid dense fog early Thursday, according to a CNN report, citing authorities.

While the exact number of people on board remains unclear, all known fatalities appear to be from the aircraft, CNN quoted San Diego Fire Assistant Chief Dan Eddy as saying at a press conference.

Several homes and cars were also set on fire, forcing families to evacuate along several blocks, added the report.

According to the report, citing a spokesman for San Diego Fire, a Cessna 550 airplane, often called a Citation, crashed near Montgomery Executive Airport around 3:45 am Thursday.

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We have jet fuel all over the place, CNN quoted Eddy as saying during a news conference.

Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now, he added.

He said there is a direct hit to multiple homes in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood.

I cant quite put words to describe what this scene looked like but with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see, CNN quoted Scott Wahl, San Diego Police Chief, as saying during the press conference.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating the crash.

The number of people on board is unknown at this time, CNN quoted the FAA as saying in a statement.

Eddy, a witness, described heavy fog when the private jet went down. You could barely see in front of you, he told CNN.

Flight tracking site FlightAware reported that the Citation jet departed Teterboro Airport near New York City late Wednesday night. It made a brief stop in Wichita, Kansas, for about an hour before continuing on to San Diego.

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According to a recording from LiveATC.net, the pilot radioed that the aircraft was three miles out from a planned landing on runway 28 at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.

There were no indications of any issues, and no emergency was declared.

Although the airport has a control tower, it is unstaffed during overnight hours. Pilots instead use a common traffic advisory frequency to communicate their intentions with other nearby aircraft.

FAA records show the Citation jet is owned by a company based in Alaska and was manufactured in 1985.

With inputs from agencies
At a time when Vladimir Putin has ramped up the war on Ukraine, a US intelligence assessment has stated the condition in which Russia may use nuclear weapons. read more

A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is launched during a test from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the Northern Arkhangelsk region, Russia. (Photo: Reuters)

At a time when Vladimir Putin has ramped up the war on Ukraine, the United States has published an intelligence assessment about Russias nuclear weapons.

In the ongoing war with Ukraine, Russian leaders, including Putin, have often threatened Ukraine and its partners with nuclear attacks. Last year, Putin revised Russias nuclear weapons doctrine and significantly lowered the threshold to use nuclear weapons.

The assessment prepared by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has concluded that Russia is not just expanding the nuclear arsenal but it is also adding new platforms to deliver those nuclear weapons.

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One condition in which Russia may use nuclear weapons

While Russia is unlikely to use a nuclear weapon, there is one condition in which it may use it, according to the DIA assessment prepared this month.

The DIA has concluded that Russia would use a nuclear weapon if its leadership concludes that the nation is under an existential threat.

Russia is very unlikely to use nuclear weapons in the conflict [the war in Ukraine] unless Russian leadership judged it faced an existential threat to the regime, the DIA stated.

ALSO READ: Russia expanding nukes arsenal, deploying air-to-air nuclear missiles: US intelligence

The nuclear rhetoric throughout the war and military exercises have been a tool to signal its resolve and deter Russia-perceived Western involvement in the conflict, according to the DIA.

What is Russias new nuclear weapons doctrine?

In a major escalation, Putin revised Russias nuclear doctrine last month that reduced the threshold for the usage of nuclear weapons.

Under the new doctrine, Russia can launch nuclear response in response to conventional attack as well.

Outlining the doctrine, Putin said at the time that Russia would consider a conventional attack aided by a nuclear-armed state as a joint attack, which would make such an attack eligible for retaliation with nuclear weapons.

Putin also said that Russia could attack a nation with nuclear weapons even in case of a conventional attack if the attack posed a critical threat to our sovereignty.

Putin further said that Russia could use nuclear weapons if it were convinced that a mass cross-border attack by air from strategic and tactical aviation, cruise missiles, drones, and hypersonic weapons is being launched at Russia.

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A US judge ruled that the Trump administration violated a court order by deporting migrants on a flight connected to South Sudan, a country facing a crisis. read more

A US federal judge said the Trump administration violated a court order by deporting migrants on a flight linked to South Sudan, a country in crisis.

The ruling came just hours after the administration said it had expelled eight migrants convicted of violent crimes but refused to say where they were sent.

During an emergency hearing in Boston, Judge Brian E Murphy said the migrants were not given a real chance to object to the deportation, which could put them in danger.

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Just before the hearing, administration officials criticised activist judges for allegedly trying to release dangerous criminals.

The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers who could object in court.

Government attorneys argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. They also said that immigration authorities may have misunderstood the order because the judge did not specify the time needed between notice and deportation.

The migrants home countries  Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan  would not take them back, according to Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who spoke to reporters in Washington just before the court hearing. He later said the migrants either came from countries that often do not take back all their deported citizens or had other situations that meant they could not be sent home.

These represent the true national security threats, Lyons said at a news conference. Behind him was a display of photos of men he said had been convicted of rape, homicide, armed robbery and other crimes.

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are working every single day to get these vicious criminals off of American streets  and while activist judges are on the other side, fighting to get them back onto the United States soil, said Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokesperson.

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Homeland Security officials released few specific details about the deportation flight. They said the flight left Tuesday with eight people on board and that they remained in the departments custody Wednesday. Officials said they could not disclose the migrants final destination because of safety and operational security. The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight is the latest flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the presidents policies.

Lawsuits on immigration issues are everywhere With Congress largely silent or supportive, opponents of Trumps agenda have filed hundreds of lawsuits and judges have issued dozens of orders against the administration. Immigration has been the most contentious issue. There is the mistaken deportation of an immigration who was living in Maryland to a prison in El Salvador, as well as Trumps push to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court review.

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We see activist judges stepping in in a way that we have never seen before, to put criminals first and not the American people, Madison Sheahan, the ICE deputy director, said at the news conference.

The administration officials insisted that the men had received due process, but did not provide any details. Immigration rights lawyers have said that the deportations violated a court order against sending people to countries other than their homelands without first allowing them to argue the removal could put them in danger.

Murphy had ruled Tuesday that the administration must retain custody and control of those currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if he founds such removals were unlawful. Lawyers for immigrants said the administration appeared to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order restricting removals to other countries.

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The judge left the details to the governments discretion, but said he expected the migrants will be treated humanely. The countries of origin vary Attorneys for the migrants told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent as many as a dozen people from several countries to Africa. The lawyers say that violates a court order that people have a meaningful opportunity to argue that sending them to a country outside their homeland would threaten their safety.

The apparent removal of one man from the troubled Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his lawyers learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.

A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa on Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.

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Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would clearly violate his ruling, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.

South Sudan says its unaware of any arrivals South Sudans police spokesperson, Maj Gen James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived in the country and that if they do, they would be investigated and redeported to their correct country if found not to be South Sudanese.

Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States. That has led the administration to strike agreements with other countries, including Panama, to house them. The US has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law, an action being contested in the courts.

With inputs from AP
The warning came after a CNN report on Tuesday, citing unnamed US officials, claimed that Israel is preparing to target Iranian nuclear sites despite the ongoing diplomatic talks read more

This combo of pictures show President Donald Trump, left, addressing a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025, and a handout of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attending a ceremony in Tehran, Iran. AP File

Iran has warned that it will hold the United States accountable for any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, issuing the threat on the eve of a new round of nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

The warning came after a CNN report on Tuesday, citing unnamed US officials, claimed that Israel is preparing to target Iranian nuclear sites despite the ongoing diplomatic talks.

We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility, AFP quoted Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday.

Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime, Araghchi added.

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The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, mark the highest-level engagement between the US and Iran since Washington exited the 2015 nuclear deal under President Trump in 2018.

Oman, the mediator, announced that a fifth round will be held in Rome on Friday.

The US delegation is set to include Trump ally Steve Witkoff and State Department policy chief Michael Anton, who has handled technical aspects, AFP reported, citing a source.

A major sticking point remains uranium enrichment. While the 2015 deal allowed low-level enrichment for civilian use, Iran is now enriching uranium to 60%  well above the 3.67% cap, but still short of weapons-grade 90%.

Trump, who has pledged to secure a stronger deal than the one brokered under Obama, said during a visit to Qatar last week that he believed Iran had accepted key terms and that his diplomatic approach would prevent military conflict.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, testifying before Congress on Wednesday, reaffirmed that the Trump administration remains firm on its demand for zero uranium enrichment by Iran.

Iran cannot have an enrichment capability, because that ultimately makes them a threshold nuclear power, Rubio was quoted as saying.

Iran is looking for relief from sweeping sanctions imposed in 2018 by Trump, which include penalties on all countries to prevent them from purchasing Irans key export of petrol.

Rubio, questioned by a lawmaker, suggested that the United States would maintain sanctions over Irans development of ballistic missiles, a topic that was not addressed explicitly under the 2015 agreement.

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There are sanctions related to terrorism, sanctions related to their ballistic missiles programme, and the like. Those sanctions, if theyre not part of the deal, theyll remain in place, he said.

Rubio did not comment on the CNN report, but said it was no secret that Israel has been studying military options.

Israel, Irans sworn enemy, has been threatening to use force against Iranian nuclear sites but has faced resistance from Trump.

On Thursday, Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesman for Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned of a devastating response in case of an Israeli attack.

If the delusional Zionist regime commits a foolish act and launches an attack, it will definitely receive a devastating and decisive response in its small and vulnerable geography, ISNA news agency quoted Naini as saying.

Also on Thursday, the Iranian armys ground forces unveiled three new drones, adding two reconnaissance and one kamikaze drone to to its arsenal, the official IRNA news agency reported.

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With inputs from agencies
Himanta Biswa Sarma highlighted two strategically and economically significant yet vulnerable land corridors in Bangladesh read more

Himanta Biswa Sarma highlighted two strategically and economically significant yet vulnerable land corridors in Bangladesh

Himanta Biswa Sarma, a fiery leader from Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the chief minister of Assam state, recently reminded Bangladesh of its geographic vulnerabilities amid rising strategic tensions between Dhaka and New Delhi.

Sarma warned Dhaka that if it attempted to capitalise upon Indias Siliguri Corridor, also known as the Chickens Neck, New Delhi could also retaliate by targeting Bangladeshs own two chickens necks.

Notably, Siliguri Corridor is a narrow 22-km-wide land bridge that connects mainland India to the northeastern states. Over the past months, Bangladeshs unelected interim government of Muhammad Yunus has fuelled rhetoric aimed at exploiting Indias geographic vulnerability.

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For instance, during a visit to China, Indias main rival, Yunus falsely claimed that Indias Northeast was landlocked and its access was completely controlled by Dhaka. This statement caused outrage in New Delhi, which saw it as a grave provocation and a threat.

Sarmas warning

Now, BJPs Sarma has warned Bangladesh that if India has one chickens neck, Bangladesh has two.

We have one Chickens Neck. But Bangladesh has two Chicken Necks. If Bangladesh attacks our Chickens Neck, we will attack both the Chicken Necks of Bangladesh. The one in Meghalaya connecting Chittagong port in Bangladesh is even thinner than Indias Chickens Neck and is located just a stones throw away, Sarma said during a press briefing.

His statement came after reports emerged that China is aiding Bangladesh in reviving a World War II-era airbase in Lalmonirhat  just 100 km from the Siliguri Corridor.

Several experts in India have raised alarm over the development, with noted geostrategist and author Brahma Chellaney saying that it could help enhance Beijings ability to monitor Indian military installations in the sensitive region.

An active Lalmonirhat airbase would greatly enhance Chinas ability to conduct aerial surveillance and reconnaissance on Indian military installations, troop movements and critical infrastructure, including in Indias strategically vital Siliguri Corridor (Chickens Neck), he said.

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Bangladeshs two chicken necks

Himanta Biswa Sarma highlighted two strategically and economically significant yet vulnerable land corridors in Bangladesh:

The Chittagong Corridor

This corridor links Bangladeshs mainland to Chittagong, its primary port city handling over 90 per cent of the countrys external trade.

Spanning approximately 30 km from Sabroom in south Tripura to Mirsharai Upazila in Bangladesh, blocking this corridor could isolate Chittagong from the rest of Bangladesh.

Yusuf Unjhawala, an adjunct scholar, noted, The shortest distance between the landlocked Indian state of Tripura and the sea is 30km. Of course cuts across Bangladesh. Its also narrowest distance from the larger mass of Bangladesh and its eastern division of Chittagong.

The shortest distance between the landlockedIndian state of Tripura and the sea is 30km. Of course cuts across Bangladesh. Its also narrowest distance from the larger mass of Bangladesh and its eastern division of Chittagong.



Nobody wants mess. But then, you dont issue https://t.co/oqZVgwdzMv pic.twitter.com/uGcmMuGs3T  Yusuf Unjhawala  (@YusufDFI) April 1, 2025

The Rangpur Corridor

Located between Meghalayas South West Garo Hills and South Dinajpur in West Bengal, with Bangladeshs Rangpur division in between, this corridor stretches about 90 km. It forms another critical yet narrow connection between Bangladeshs administrative regions. Their Chickens Neck near Meghalaya to Chittagong Port is much smaller than ours and can be choked by throwing even a ring, Sarma said.
Some South Africans have dismissed the information referred to by Trump as AfriForum propaganda, a White Afrikaner lobby group that has faced criticism for promoting White nationalist views read more

President Cyril Ramaphosas calm demeanour during US President Donald Trumps ambush at the Oval Office has earned the appreciation of South Africans.

It was a Zelenskyy-showdown all over again at the White House on Wednesday after Trump, instead of having a civil bilateral talk with the first African leader to have visited the US, cornered him and pushed his baseless argument of genocide against white South Africans.

What else could Cyril have done? Youre damned if you do, damned if you dont. I think they were caught completely unawares. How on earth could you have planned for that? asked veteran journalist Milton Nkosi.

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People from his country were quick to back Ramaphosa, with many citizens taking to X to show their support. He remained calm, collected and humble in the face of bigotry and lies. You were a leader today. Went to build not to fight, one user wrote.

Turn the lights down, President Trump said. It was showtime in the Oval Office . He directed everyones attention to a television that had been wheeled into the room, and a video began to play. Trump stared at the screen while Ramaphosa looked away. For roughly four minutes, the video showed Black politicians  none part of Ramaphosas government or political party  using anti-apartheid chants about attacking white South Africans.

Its a terrible sight. Ive never seen anything like it, the US president said, to which Ramaphosa replied, Id like to know where that is. Because this Ive never seen.

Some South Africans have dismissed the information referred to by Trump as AfriForum propaganda, a White Afrikaner lobby group that has faced criticism for promoting White nationalist views.

Meanwhile, Ramaphosa rejected allegations of genocide in South Africa, which has a painful history with race. Once an apartheid country, it was ruled by a white minority known as Afrikaners. The system of racist oppression ended three decades ago, and some tension remains despite largely successful efforts at reconciliation.

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Jaishankar met his Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, in Copenhagen and expressed appreciation for Denmarks strong solidarity and support in combating terrorism read more

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday blamed extreme religious outlook propagated by Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir behind the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people.

It started because it was triggered by a very barbaric terror attack where 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith. It was intended to harm tourism and to create religious discord, he said during his visit to Denmark.

Jaishankar added, You have a Pakistani army chief driven by an extreme religious outlook, so some connect with views expressed and conduct.

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On Wednesday, Jaishankar met his Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, in Copenhagen and expressed appreciation for Denmarks strong solidarity and support in combating terrorism.

In a significant move following a major military embarrassment during Indias recent Operation Sindoor, Pakistan has promoted General Asim Munir , the current Chief of Army Staff, to the rank of field marshal.

According to a Reuters report, citing a statement from the Prime Ministers Office, General Munirs promotion was approved by Pakistans Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Just a week before the April 22 attack on Pahalgam, Munir floated the two-nation theory and stressed that India and Pakistan are two different countries, as he delivered a provocative speech.

You have to narrate Pakistans story to your children so that they dont forget it when our forefathers thought we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different, thats where the foundation of the two-nation theory was laid. We are two nations, we are not one nation," the army general said.

Directly negotiated

Meanwhile, Jaishankar said that India and Pakistan directly negotiated the ceasefire amid US President Donald Trumps claim that he helped both countries reach a truce.

Talking about the turn of events on May 10, Jaishankar said, Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other as a hotline. On 10th May, the Pakistan army sent a message that they are ready to stop firing.

When asked where the US was in the entire process, Jaishankar said, US was in the United States.

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After the launch of razr 60 Ultra earlier this month, motorola has now confirmed the launch of razr 60 smartphone in India on May 28th. It will be available in single 8GB + 256GB model in PANTONE Gibraltar Sea, PANTONE Spring Bud and PANTONE Lightest Sky colours.

The company highlights worlds first video gestures with 100% true color camera, Indias first pearl acetate finish | fabric finish and says the titanium reinforced hinge has been tested for up to 500K flips.

motorola razr 60 specifications

Internal  6.96-inch (10802640 pixels) FlexView FHD+ pOLED LTPO display, 1-120Hz refresh rate, 120% DCI-P3 colour gamut, up to 3000 nits peak brightness

External  3.63 (10561066, pixels) QuickView pOLED 90Hz LTPS display up to 1700 nits peak brightness, Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection

Octa Core (2 x 2.6GHz Cortex-A78 + 6 x 2GHz Cortex-A55 CPUs) MediaTek Dimensity 7400X 4nm processor with Mali-G615 MC2 GPU

8GB LPDDR4X RAM, 256GB UFS 2.2 storage

Android 15 (3 OS + 4 Years SMR)

Dual SIM (eSIM + nano)

50MP main camera with f/1.7 aperture, OIS, 13MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, macro mode, up to 4K 30fps video recording

32MP front camera with f/2.4 aperture

USB Type-C Audio, Stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos

Dimensions: 171.3 (open) / 88.08 (closed) 73.997.25mm (open) / 15.85mm (closed); Weight:188g

Side-mounted fingerprint scanner

Dust and Water resistant (IP48)

5G SA/NSA, Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax (2.4GHz/5GHz) MIMO, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, USB Type-C, NFC

4500mAh battery, 30W TurboPower fast charging, 15W wireless charging

The phone will be sold on Flipkart, in addition to motorola.in and offline stores. We should know the price of the phone when it is launched next week.
Xiaomi marked its 15th anniversary in China by launching the Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra, its first Ultra-grade tablet, alongside the Xiaomi 15S Pro.

The tablet has a 5.1mm slim, 609g all-metal unibody design with high-strength aluminum alloy, increasing durability by 18%. Its 14-inch 3.2K OLED display provides a 120Hz refresh rate, 1600 nits peak brightness, and a 93.6% screen-to-body ratio with a 3:2 aspect ratio for improved reading.

A nano soft light screen variant reduces reflectivity by 70% and glare by 99%, offering a paper-like writing surface. The display supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR Vivid, ZREAL, and TUV Rheinland certifications for low blue light and flicker-free operation.

Powered by Xiaomis XRING 01 3nm processor, the tablet includes a 10-core CPU with dual Cortex-X925 cores at 3.7GHz, a 16-core Immortalis-G925 GPU, and a 6-core NPU delivering 44 TOPS of AI computing power. It achieves 27.5% faster video exports, 51.3% quicker image exports, and 119.3fps in MOBA games, with 49% smoother multitasking.

The tablet has a 12,000mAh battery with 120W fast charging for up to 16.9 hours of video playback, a VC heat plate for cooling, Wi-Fi 7, dual-band (5GHz + 2.4GHz), NFC with an 85% performance boost in weak networks, and an infrared feature to control appliances. It includes a 32MP front camera, a 50MP rear camera, and an eight-speaker audio system with a 16.5cc cavity, supporting Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

Running HyperOS 2, the tablet offers:

AI tools for generating text, summarizing content, editing images, and transcribing voice.

Support for apps like ZWCAD, WPS Office, and CAJViewer, handling 145 file formats, including PS and 3D models.

Cross-device features for sharing files with Apple devices, controlling a PC remotely, and functioning as a wireless secondary screen.

Accessories

The following accessories are available separately:

Floating Keyboard: Includes a 0124 adjustable hinge, magnesium alloy body, and a pressure-sensitive touchpad with consistent vibration feedback and right-click support. Its magnetic back cover has a PU+ coating for impact resistance and a silicone oil coating for stain resistance.

Focus Touch Pen: Provides 8192 pressure levels, low latency, a 99.9% antibacterial body, and a focus key for virtual laser and annotation functions.

Quick specifications: Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra

Pricing and Availability

Available for purchase now in Misty Purple and Classic Black, the Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra is priced as follows:
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024.
Nathan graduated with his journalism degree from Auburn University in 2017. After growing up in the flatlands of rural Alabama with his parents and older sister, Nathan enjoys Western Colorado's natural resources and recreational opportunities. He currently covers education and business for The Daily Sentinel.
DPP expels 5 members over alleged Chinese espionage

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 10:17 PM

Taipei, May 21 (CNA) The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has expelled five members accused of spying for China, a move that aims to "uphold party discipline and safeguard national security," the party's Central Evaluation Committee chairman said Wednesday.

Among those expelled is Sheng Chu-ying (), a former assistant to You Si-kun () during his tenure as legislative speaker. Sheng is accused of leaking legislative information to Chinese intelligence and allegedly received payments in both cash and cryptocurrency. He has been released on bail.

The other expelled members include Ho Jen-chieh (), a former assistant serving under National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu () during the latter's tenure as foreign minister.

There is also Wu Shang-yu (), who worked as an adviser in President Lai Ching-te's () office; Chiu Shih-yuan (), former deputy head of the DPP's Taiwan Institute of Democracy; and Huang Chu-jung () and assistant to DPP New Taipei Councilor Lee Yu-tien (), all of whom remain detained.

Prosecutors allege Ho, Wu, Chiu and Huang collaborated in spying for Chinese intelligence, who reportedly used their access to collect sensitive political information.

DPP Central Evaluation Committee Chairman Lai Jui-lung () said that the expulsion decision was unanimous and made in accordance with party regulations, emphasizing that the members' actions violated both the law and the DPP's core values.

"In the face of coercion and enticement from the Chinese Communist Party, all party members must strictly observe the law and party discipline," Lai said. "National interests must come first."

(By Kao Hua-chien, Yeh Su-ping and Lee Hsin-Yin)

Enditem

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NBI has closed a criminal investigation into suspected unauthorised intelligence activities

Police of Finland

Publication date 21.5.2025 13.00

Type:News item

The National Bureau of Investigation has closed a criminal investigation into suspected unauthorised intelligence activities in Southeastern Finland in 2022. On the basis of the interviews and other investigative measures carried out, the investigation was closed and there is no reason to suspect an offence in the matter.

The National Bureau of Investigation has investigated a suspected offence committed at the end of September 2022. During the investigation, the police apprehended a Russian citizen at the border crossing point of Vaalimaa on suspicion of unauthorised intelligence activities. It was suspected that this person had exchanged sensitive information with an EU citizen.

- The police conducted interviews and other criminal investigative measures during the investigation and, on the basis of these measures, there is no reason to suspect that an offence was committed in the matter. Therefore, the criminal investigation was closed, says Detective Superintendent Risto Lohi of the National Bureau of Investigation.

The police opened the criminal investigation in September 2022 after receiving a report of the matter.



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Texas Guard Pairs with United Arab Emirates in State Partnership Program

By National Guard Bureau May 19, 2025

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The Texas National Guard and the United Arab Emirates will be paired in the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program (SPP), the Defense Department announced in a Monday news release.

The SPP, which formally welcomed the UAE as a member, "will bolster military modernization efforts and enhance cooperation in integrated air and missile defense, cybersecurity, disaster response and operational planning," the news release said.

The Pentagon also announced plans to create a Major Defense Partnership between the U.S. and UAE. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and UAE Minister of State for Defense Affairs Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouei signed a letter of intent to establish the comprehensive U.S.-United Arab Emirates Major Defense Partnership.

The letter of intent, signed May 16 in a ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Abu Dhabi, "represents a shared commitment to develop a structured roadmap that will guide enhanced military-to-military cooperation, joint capability development and long-term defense alignment between the two nations," the news release said. "The two sides will explore a phased framework for advancing bilateral force readiness, interoperability and innovation-driven collaboration."

As part of this partnership, Hegseth announced a new strategic initiative between the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and the UAE's Tawazun Council.

"This collaboration will deepen ties in defense innovation, facilitate joint research and development and expand industrial and investment partnerships across both defense ecosystems," the news release said.

"The designation of the UAE as a Major Defense Partner reflects a decades-long relationship anchored in mutual trust, shared objectives and a common commitment to regional and global security," the news release said. "It builds on the longstanding record of both countries working side-by-side to counter threats, stabilize conflict zones and promote security and prosperity in the Middle East and beyond."

Joint Press Statement on U.S.-UAE Major Defense Partnership: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4189772/joint-press-statement-on-us-uae-major-defense-partnership/

State Partnership Program: https://www.nationalguard.mil/Leadership/Joint-Staff/J-5/International-Affairs-Division/State-Partnership-Program/

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Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates Mr. Nasser Bourita affirmed on Tuesday in Rabat that the Kingdom of Morocco, in light of its historical responsibility and its chairmanship of the Al-Quds Committee, considers the two-state solution as the cornerstone for ensuring the security and stability of the region.

Morocco Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Tuesday 20 May 2025

Speaking at the opening of the fifth meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solutionorganized by the Kingdom of Morocco in partnership with the Kingdom of the Netherlands under the theme "Sustaining Momentum for the Peace Process: Lessons Learned, Success Stories and Steps Forward", MFA Bourita noted that the Two-State solution "is the only option where there are no losers, as everyone gains: Palestinians gain their freedom and dignity, Israelis their security and stability, and the entire region gains opportunities for development and progress."

The Minister stressed that the Two-State solution is neither an empty slogan nor a pretext for diplomatic posturing, but a moral commitment and a realistic political option that can no longer be postponed or subject to hesitation.

"In this context, wars have been waged and violence has afflicted all parties, never bringing about peace or lasting security. Today, it is imperative to translate this choice into a roadmap with a clear timeline and responsible steps," he added.

According to MFA Bourita, it is evident that "some do lose from the implementation of this solution: extremists on all sides, who thrive on the conflict and live in its shadow. Also among the losers are those who trade in slogans and claim to support the Palestinian people without offering even a bag of rice, simply because they prefer the comfort of opposition over the responsibility of action."

He emphasized that the Two-State solution is not a fleeting idea but a historic choice endorsed by the international community for decades. Despite successive crises, this option remains the only viable path toward a just and lasting settlement, enabling the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Al-Quds as its capital.

Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Bourita recalled, this horizon has sometimes seemed within reach, and at other times more distant, but it remains the guiding compass toward a peaceful resolution for the benefit of both peoples and the wider regionone that ensures the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within internationally recognized borders.

In this regard, the Minister affirmed that Morocco, under the leadership of its Sovereigns, has always remained faithful to this vision. From the reign of the late His Majesty King Hassan II, may God rest his soul, to the reign of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist Him, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, Moroccan diplomacy has consistently worked with determination and calmsometimes in silence but always with wisdom and effectivenessto bring viewpoints closer and increase the chances for a just peace.

MFA Bourita emphasized that His Majesty the King clearly outlined the parameters for overcoming the current deadlock in His address at the recent Arab Summit in Baghdad. These include the immediate cessation of military operations, viewed as both a humanitarian and political priority, and the need to confront attacks in the West Bank, including demolitions and forced displacements.

He added that it is also essential to ensure the unhindered and unconditional delivery of humanitarian aid, to support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) so it can continue its humanitarian mission, and to launch an integrated reconstruction plan in accordance with the conclusions of the recent Cairo Summit, under the supervision of the Palestinian Authority and with Arab and international oversight.

Furthermore, MFA Bourita highlighted that the approach of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution rests on three main pillars. The first involves drawing on past successes to move toward a promising future. "We do not recall previous peace agreements to justify failures but to prove that peace is not a mirage, but a realistic prospect when the will to achieve it exists," he stated.

The second pillar aims to strengthen institutional support for the Palestinian National Authority, he added, noting that, the Authority under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas, remains the only viable partner, and reinforcing its capacities and legitimacy is essential to the success of the Two-State solutionnot as a precondition for recognizing the Palestinian state, but because the sovereignty of peoples should never be conditional.

Regarding the third pillar, MFA Bourita stated that it involves embedding the economic dimension in the peace process, emphasizing that there can be no peace without a solid economic foundation. "The economy of peace" must serve as a vehicle for integration, a lever for coexistence, and a platform for launching joint projects, he said.

In this regard, he added, the Bayt Mal Al-Quds Agency is well-positioned to play a central role in supporting the Palestinian national economy, as it has done for years in line with the directives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee.

"But let's be clear," he stressed, "no amount of economic support can substitute for a political solution. We do not want temporary painkillers, but rather a fundamental treatment of the conflict."

On this occasion, MFA Bourita called for enriching the "Compendium," which Morocco intends to present jointly with the Netherlands.

He also praised the leading role played by Saudi Arabia, Norway, and the European Union in driving this Alliance forward, while expressing Morocco's support for the Franco-Saudi co-presidency of the High-Level Conference on the peaceful resolution of the Palestinian issue and the implementation of the Two-State solution, scheduled for next month in New York.

The Minister stressed that holding this meeting in a dramatic context marked by the ongoing Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip is not just another diplomatic gathering, but a message of hope addressed to the peoples of the Middle East and a concrete step toward reviving the Two-State option to make it a tangible reality through effective measures.

At this crucial historical juncture, Bourita affirmed, "we believe that our Alliance can be part of the promising initiatives capable of injecting new momentum into peace efforts by proposing concrete measures and tangible actions to bring the political process to a more advanced level and thereby create the diplomatic dynamic needed to establish the Two-State solution as the only path to a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace for the Palestinian cause."

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The Fifth Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution kicked off in Rabat on Tuesday, under the theme "Sustaining Momentum for the Peace Process: Lessons Learned, Success Stories and Steps Forward".

Morocco Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Tuesday 20 May 2025

Co-host by the Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, this meeting brings together government officials and representatives from around 50 countries and international organizations committed to the Two-State Solution.

It will assess the accumulated results of past peace efforts in favor of peace in the Middle-East, strengthen the narrative of the success stories, explore how these achievements can be leveraged and used to develop concrete, time-bound measures to reinforce progress toward a Two-State Solution. The gathering will then focus on the means to build Palestinian economy.

Organized into three thematic discussions, the meeting will also focus on evaluating the impact of past peace initiatives in the Middle-East, strengthening Palestinian institutions and governance, as well as economic foundations for peace.

This Alliance serves as a key diplomatic platform for advancing meaningful progress toward a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It works to translate existing diplomatic efforts and success stories into tangible, irreversible steps toward a Two-State Solution.

The outcomes of this meeting will feed into the work of the High-Level Conference on the Two-State Solution, scheduled to take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York in June 2025.

Launched during the High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly in September 2024, the Global Alliance is a diplomatic platform dedicated to the effective revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This fifth meeting follows four previous ones held in Riyadh, Brussels, Oslo, and Cairo.

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Investments in security guarantee deterrence

Poland - Ministry of National Defence

20.05.2025

The more we invest in our security, the more we spend on equipping our Armed Forces, the more we will deter those that wish us harm. We spend more not to participate in wars, but so that there are no wars in the first place. I would like to state very clearly that we are arming ourselves to deter, to make it so no one can ever afford to attack any European Union or NATO state - said deputy prime minister W. Kosiniak-Kamysz while he was in Belgium.

On 20 May this year in Brussels, Wadysaw Kosiniak - Kamysz, deputy prime minister - minister of national defence took part in the session of the Foreign Affairs Council - Defence.

- We are talking about spending. This is a very important topic for Poland. Poland is arguing for increased security spending, for European Union and NATO defence. For us, this is fundamental. Poland is the leader in defence spending. This year we will reach 4.7% of GDP for that. This is how we have planned our budget. Last year, as the Alliance's reports showed, we broke absolute records in this respect. Other countries are following our lead. (...). Europe has woken up. We can plainly see a change of behaviour on this topic. The new security programmes that the European Union is adopting are evidence of this.

- said the minister of national defence.

The ministers of defence have also talked about supporting Ukraine, which is defending itself against Russian aggression. Secretary General of NATO also participated in this discussion.

- The other thing is supporting Ukraine. As the European Union, we are united. (...) We call for an unconditional ceasefire. This is repeated by the Ukrainian side. Ukraine's minister of defence Umerov was in contact with us today. The call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire on sea, in air and on land is still a call that needs to be repeated.

- said the deputy prime minister.

The minister of national defence also addressed the transformation of the Polish Armed Forces, using experiences from the war in Ukraine and priorities in acquiring modern equipment.

- We are talking about drones and anti-drone systems. This is that specific element that we will implement from the experiences of the war in Ukraine. This is why we have opened the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Center in Bydgoszcz. This is the only institution connecting Ukraine to NATO and NATO to Ukraine. It is placed in Poland. This has only become possible when we have began to govern in our country. We have opened this institution in January. We are implementing experiences from the war in Ukraine into our security strategies. I can see three main things that we will be implementing, and are implementing already. These are drones and anti-drone systems, electronic warfare and satellite imagining

- said the deputy prime minister.

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Federal Council allocates CHF 20 million to occupied Palestinian territory and to UNRWA in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria

Swiss Government

Press release

Published on 21 May 2025

Bern, 21.05.2025 -- At its meeting on 21 May 2025, the Federal Council decided to grant CHF 9 million to four humanitarian organisations to support Palestinians affected by the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory. A further CHF 10 million will be allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for its programme in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. CHF 1 million will also be earmarked to implement the Colonna report's recommendations for reinforcing UNRWA's impartiality.

The Federal Council has decided to make a contribution of CHF 9 million to four humanitarian organisations working on behalf of those affected by the conflict in the occupied Palestinian territory. This funding will be divided between the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Swiss Red Cross/Palestine Red Crescent Society for activities in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Switzerland's total humanitarian budget for the occupied Palestinian territory in 2025 is currently CHF 21 million. The CHF 9 million granted today is in addition to the CHF 12 million already allocated this year to Switzerland's partner humanitarian organisations, including the WFP, the ICRC and Swiss NGOs.

Support for UNRWA projects outside occupied Palestinian territory and for strengthening UNRWA's impartiality

UNRWA projects play a key role in the health, education and protection of civilians of the 3.5 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The CHF 10 million allocated by the Federal Council for 2025 is specifically intended to support UNRWA's activities in these three countries.

The Federal Council also believes that UNRWA's governance needs to be improved  particularly its impartiality. It has therefore allocated CHF 1 million to help implement the recommendations of the Colonna report, joining a number of other donors. The report by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna was mandated by the UN Secretary General and published on 22 April 2024. It made 50 recommendations, which UNRWA has undertaken to implement in full.

As decided by Parliament in December 2024, contributions to UNRWA requires consultation with the Federal Assembly's foreign affairs committees. The total allocation of CHF 11 million to UNRWA will shortly be submitted to the above-mentioned committees.

Call for reinstatement of ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access

The Federal Council expresses its deep concern at the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the Gaza Strip, exacerbated by the continuing lack of humanitarian access. Israel must respect its obligations under international humanitarian law as an occupying power. It must also apply the Geneva Conventions, which require the delivery of relief supplies as well as the rapid and unimpeded provision of humanitarian assistance to all those who need it, impartially and without discrimination.

The Federal Council calls for immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and the re-establishment of a ceasefire. It reaffirms the need for strict compliance with international law, including international humanitarian law, by all parties to the conflict.

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May 21, 2025

By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News

Predictable Budgets, Readiness, Recapitalization Top Priorities for Reserve Components

Modernizing equipment, improving readiness and securing predictable funding for the next fight remain top priorities for the reserve components of the U.S. military, senior leaders told lawmakers yesterday.



Appearing before the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, along with the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Reserve, discussed service successes over the last year and budgeting challenges they face.

Air Force Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, thanked Congress for the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution, which included funding for the guard's State Partnership Program, full-time manning and the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account. He said continued support is essential for mission readiness.

"Every dollar you put in that [allows us to] put a mechanic out on the flight line to be able to get helicopters or the machines that we operate [ready] is critical," he said. "Weapon system sustainment as well, on parts. Those dollars matter. So, whatever [you] can do to increase that capability along those lines [will help.]"

The NGREA helps bridge equipment capability gaps between the active and reserve components. It supports operational growth, unfunded requirements and shortfalls in equipment.

Nordhaus also emphasized the importance of modernization to maintain interoperability across the joint force.

"We must recapitalize concurrently with our services into advanced platforms of helicopters, infantry squad, vehicles, fighters, tankers and cyber," he said. "These modernization efforts will help advance our warfighting capabilities, deter adversaries and maximize the return on investment for our joint force and our taxpayers."

Lt. Gen. Robert D. Harter, chief of the Army Reserve, said NGREA is vital to equipment procurement.

"We only receive about 1% of the Army's procurement budget, so NGREA has an outsized impact on our ability to procure modernized equipment," Harter said. "Over the past three years, we've purchased 2,300 mission command systems, significantly improving our formations' ability to communicate effectively on the battlefield."

Harter also called for stable funding.

"Army Reserve soldiers balance civilian careers with military commitments and continuing resolutions force us to delay, curtail or cancel training events," he said. "Predictability is essential for our soldiers, their family members and their civilian employers."

Vice Adm. Nancy S. Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve, told lawmakers about the need to recapitalize its KC-130 Hercules fleet of refuellers to the KC-130J Super Hercules model.

"Our C-130 fleet is aging and lacks the survivability necessary to operate in a contested environment," Lacore said. "Recapitalizing with the KC-130J is critical to ensuring that we can effectively and safely carry out the critical intra-theater logistics missions for the fleet."

Lacore also stressed the importance of timely personnel funding. "I think the biggest issue for us, related to people, is the predictability and being able to get reservists on orders," she said. "It impacts not just morale, but it impacts readiness ... when they can't commit to their civilian employer, and they take time off from their civilian employer and then we can't come through with the orders. So, that is a big one."

Lt. Gen. Leonard F. Anderson IV, commander of the Marine Corps Reserve, said NGREA funding allows reserve Marines to maintain equipment and maintain interoperability with the joint force.

"I thank the subcommittee for its continued support, especially through the National Guard and Reserve Equipment Account," he said "For the Marine Corps Reserve, NGREA is not just a funding line, it's a warfighting requirement. These funds allow us to field and sustain the platforms, communication systems and equipment that Marines need to train as they fight. NGREA enables reserve forces to integrate with active forces by equipping them with modern capabilities at pace, and with a 99% execution rate across recent fiscal years, the Marine Corps Reserve has proven its ability to execute with discipline and speed while maintaining our service's clean audit."

Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, chief of the Air Force Reserve, cited budget predictability as a challenge.

"The predictability and stability of being able to pay our participants is one of the biggest factors," he said. "With the [operations and maintenance] accounts, we're going to be $26 million short of flying out our flying hours this year. So, we're working trying to figure that out. In addition, quarterly authority during a CR doesn't work well with weapon systems sustainment [such as] when you've got large ticket items like $62 million to put a B-52 [Stratofortress] into periodic depot maintenance. Those continue to be challenges as we go forward."

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Moldova: Council extends the mandate of the EU civilian mission for two years

European Council / Council of the European Union

Council of the EU

Press release

21 May 2025 09:00

The Council adopted a decision extending the European Union Partnership Mission in Moldova (EUPM) for a further two years, until 31 May 2027, with a budget allocation of over 19.8million for the period.

The Council also decided to adjust EUPM Moldova's mandate to increase the provision of strategic advice to the Moldovan authorities in the security sector. The decision was taken in the wake of the Strategic Review of the mission.

I'm pleased to announce that we will be extending our Partnership Mission in Moldova for another two years, with nearly 20 million in support. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moldova has experienced more attempts to undermine its democratic institutions than ever before. Through our Mission, we've helped Moldova strengthen its cybersecurity and improve its defences against hybrid threats. EU support for a stronger and more resilient Moldova is an investment in our own security, as well as in Moldova's journey to becoming a member of the European Union itself. Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and chair of the Foreign Affairs Council

EUPM Moldova was established in April 2023 for an initial period of two years, with the objective of enhancing the resilience of the security sector of the country in the areas of crisis management and hybrid threats, including cybersecurity and countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI).

To this end, the mission provides advice at strategic level on the development of strategies and policies, and identifies the needs for organisation, training and equipment. The mission also features a project cell responsible for identifying and implementing projects in the aforementioned areas, in close coordination with other like-minded actors.

The Head of Mission is Cosmin Dinescu, and the Civilian Operations Commander is Stefano Tomat, EEAS Managing Director of the Civilian Operational Headquarters (CivOpsHQ).

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European Economic Area: Press release on strengthening the EEA Foreign and Security Policy Cooperation

European External Action Service (EEAS)

21.05.2025

EEAS Press Team

Today, 21 May, together with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the EU signed a Joint Statement on strengthening European Economic Area (EEA) Foreign and Security Policy Cooperation. It is an expression of the strong ties and shared interests and values in an ever-changing geopolitical context. The EU and the EEA EFTA States are strengthening their relationship, notably on foreign and security cooperation.

The signature occurred in the margins of the Political Dialogue with the EU High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Environment and Culture of Liechtenstein Sabine Monauni, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland orgerur Katrin Gunnarsdottir and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Espen Barth Eide.

EU High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas said: "The statement we sign today with Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland sends a clear signal that we will do more together at a pivotal moment for European security. From more cooperation between our defence experts to joint work to protect our information space from foreign interference, we can be safer in tackling our shared challenges together. I look forward to continue working side-by-side with these important partners for the European Union."

Delivering on the declaration on political dialogue adopted in 1994, the EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway developed the cooperation on foreign and security matters to a stable and trust-based partnership.

The Joint Statement consolidates the instruments of cooperation developed so far and creates opportunities for future action. It becomes a point of departure for renewed engagement.

Built on shared values and principles, the European Economic Area remains a factor of political and economic stability, as well as prosperity and security on the European continent.

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European Union - African Union: press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas at the Ministerial meeting

European External Action Service (EEAS)

21.05.2025

Brussels, 21/05/2025

EEAS Press Team

Check against delivery!

Good afternoon.

Today we had a broad and very engaging meeting, and I want to thank the Minister for his support to co-chair. Also on our side: it was a true Team Europe spirit, as there were several Ministers co-chairing this meeting.

The partnership of the African Union and the European Union over the past 25 years has delivered concrete results. The presence here in Brussels of over 70 delegations, including more than 50 ministers, demonstrates how lively our shared commitment to deepen this partnership is. This paves the way for a successful summit later this year.

As underlined to the Ministers, the European Union is the partner Africa can rely on. We are actively supporting peace and security on the African continent. EU support to African partners through the European Peace Facility is over 1 billion.

More than half of all the EU Common Security and Defence Policy missions operate in Africa. These missions contribute directly to the stability of the continent. We have delivered drones, surveillance aircraft [and] maritime equipment to African partners. And we have been consistent in advocating for predictable UN funding for African Union-led peace operations.

The European Union and Member States also remain Africa's first and closest cooperation partner. Nearly 150 billion in investment has been committed under the EU's Global Gateway strategy to enhance infrastructure, digital connectivity and green transitions all across Africa.

The European Union is a champion for Africa's presence at the multilateral fora. We were the strongest advocate for the African Union's membership in [the] G20, for example. Together, the European Union and African Union represent around 40% of the votes in the United Nations. This gives us also shared global responsibility to make our voices heard and to push for the kind of reforms that we want to see in the United Nations. Our joint commitment to the UN Charter is clearly reaffirmed in the communique we adopted today.

As we heard today, the will to do more is strong. Key priorities emerging from our discussions include commitment to greater collaboration in critical raw materials, artificial intelligence, regional integration and also mobility. These areas will shape the engagement in the lead up to the European Union-African Union summit later this year.

Dear Minister,

thank you again for co-chairing and also having these very good and fruitful discussions.

Thank you, over to you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-272118

Q&A.

Q. Madame Kallas, est-ce-que vous avez une reaction aux tirs qui ont eu lieu aujourd'hui a Jenin contre des diplomates europeens en visite dans le territoire palestinien ? Sur la reunion que vous venez de co-presider aujourd'hui : le ministre francais des Affaires etrangeres ce matin a dit que la Russie est tout en train de pilonner l'Afrique avec une campagne de desinformation. Je voulais savoir si c'etait quelque chose qui a ete discutee aujourd'hui. Est-ce-que l'Union europeenne a fait assez pour lutter contre cette desinformation ?

Yes, I heard about the incident in Jenin today where Israel's Defence Forces shot warning shots, but still shots, at a group of diplomats approaching the refugee camp, within the visit organised by the Palestinian Authority. We definitely call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold accountable [those] who are responsible for this. Any threats on diplomats' lives are unacceptable. So, as Israel is also a signatory to the Vienna Convention, [it] has the obligation to guarantee the security of all foreign diplomats. So, I think this is important.

When it comes to your other question regarding the misinformation. It is true that we have the fight of narratives everywhere and this misinformation is one of the tools that Russia is using, especially in Africa. We have to fight the misinformation and foreign malign influence all the time, but it is, of course, increasingly hard. We have developed tools, but it is hard because we are living in this information age. I always like to use the quote from Winston Churchill, which was made after the Second World War, where he said that [a] "lie is halfway across the world before the truth gets its pants on". And now we are in living in an information age where it is very hard to fight the lies because they are traveling so fast and expanding so fast. But saying that does not mean that we have to give up. We still have to counter the narratives and fight the misinformation. It was addressed today also. It was raised by several actors that [stated] this is a real problem. Thank you.

Q. Vous avez parle du partenariat, et vous avez dit que le partenariat c'est renforce et a evolue. Mais il reste une question pendante, c'est la question migratoire. On a l'impression qu'avec ce phenomene migratoire on a traite beaucoup plus les consequences que les causes. Si on prend un secteur comme la peche, qui est un secteur vital pour nos economies, il n'y a plus de peche artisanale. C'est un moyen de subsistance pour les pecheurs mais il n'y a plus de pecheurs parce que simplement la mer ne produit plus de poisson. Tout le poisson a ete devore par les navires europeens et chinoises. Est-ce-que vous ne pensez pas que la reflexion aussi doit etre au niveau de traiter les consequences et non de s'adresser simplement plutot aux causes du phenomene migratoire que des consequences ? Est-ce-que vous avez reflechi a cette problematique ? Parce que d'une reunion a une autre, la question migratoire est au cur de l'agenda, mais le probleme reste entier, et c'est devenu un phenomene record. Migration, mais il n'y a pas de solutions concretes.

On my side as well. Yes, we were talking about what the root cause of migration is. People do not want to leave their homes, unless they really have to. And when they have to, when they do not have jobs and they cannot provide living for their families. So, it is also in our interest that there is prosperity in Africa, there are jobs in Africa, and we do not have the migration pressure. Therefore, we discussed critical raw materials, for example. How is the technology transfer, so that you know the prosperity would stay in Africa - although we need the critical raw materials for our industry, but the jobs would be there. Then, we also discussed investments in Africa, and that is also related to access of capital. For example, the reform of international financial architecture, so that the access to capital wherever you make investments is similar. And of course, also prevention of conflict, because, again, why are people fleeing their homes? Because they cannot live there. So, all these topics were also on our agenda. We did not particularly discuss fish - although fish has been very on top of the agenda of the European Union recently, because we had the deal with the UK. But, in more general terms: what could be the cooperation points so that you know there would be jobs and prosperity in Africa, and therefore no migration pressure, so we would not also have those problems.

Q. I have two questions. The one question is just with the increased military, with European countries spending more money on their own militaries, can we foresee any cuts to military spending in Africa, to military aid? You did mention the amount, but in future years as well, will that get less? And another question to follow on from the Palestine question earlier. The AU has historically been an ally of Palestine, a supporter of Palestine. Was there any pressure in this meeting, perhaps from the AU, for the EU to come out more strongly against the Israel's incursion into Gaza? In France, the UK and Canada have made such statements in recent times. And it has been strongly condemned by AU countries. I just want to know from the AU perhaps as well, is there any such pressure?

First, on the defence investment. Yes, it is true that Member States are investing more in their defence. We [are] also thinking and discussing, what more can we do on the European level together. Because we are facing this threat that comes from Russia, we have to increase our defence expenditure. Now, we have the EPF [European Peace Facility], and as I mentioned, it is [over] 1 billion. Can I predict the future right now? I cannot. We have the discussions when it comes to the MFF [Multiannual Financial Framework], but that starts from 2028. Currently, we have issues with the EPF [with] funds being blocked. These are our internal issues that we need to deal with before we can move on.

When it comes to condemning the action, then we have been also stating, from the European Union side, even yesterday, very strong statements regarding the humanitarian aid blockage that has to stop. It is humanitarian aid trucks that are mostly funded by European money, that are standing there and not getting in. Really, to help the people so in need in Gaza, specifically. We have been also on the same line.

Q. J'ai une question, en langue francaise, sur la situation dans la region du Sahel, et la guerre qui continue en Soudan. Je voudrai bien que le ministre et la haute representante reagissent a la situation de l'insecurite grandissante dans la region du Sahel, et cette guerre qui ne se termine pas au Soudan. L'impact que vous voyez sur l'ensemble de la region, mais egalement l'impact sur l'Union europeenne et au-dela.

I have a question on Palestine. The Israeli officials said yesterday, reacted yesterday to your statement, that the European Union does not comprehend what is going on the ground. Could you react to that? Mainly, or more substantially, Madame, could you tell us when could you expect that you will be able to come back with your conclusions to the Member States? Having in mind that you have dozens of reports of United Nations investigations, the European Union's own reports - so the data and the reports you have. When could you expect to come back to the Member States with your conclusions?

First on Sudan. Our first priority is the cessation of hostilities, because the people are really suffering there. We continue to support also the African Union in this, when it comes to the mediation efforts, regionally. All these processes also in Africa have to be African-led and African-owned, even if there is mediation needed. And of course, also the situation in Sahel is greatly worrying [to] us. We have a new Special Representative for the Sahel region, and we are also going to discuss the new Sahel strategy. That is why I also had many bilateral meetings today, also asking the African countries for their input. To really hear from the ground, how they see this, what could help, what could be the developments there, and what we could do.

On your other question, then. We just want the human suffering to stop. Of course, we recognize these horrific terrorist attacks of the seventh of October. We have condemned the actions of Hamas, and we call on the ceasefire and all the hostages to be released. That is our common position. But at the same time international humanitarian law has to be followed, which means that you have to spare civilian lives. We see untenable loss of life. We see the humanitarian aid being blocked and not reaching the people in need. And that is what we want to stress also to Israel: to unblock the humanitarian aid, help the people in Gaza, and spare the civilians.

Thank you.

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-272570

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Foreign Minister Tsahkna at the first reading of the bill for withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention: flexibility in planning military defence contributes to Estonia's security

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

21.05.2025 | 18:43



The bill on the withdrawal from the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction or the Ottawa Convention passed the first reading in the Riigikogu today. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, who submitted the bill to the Riigikogu, said that leaving the Ottawa Convention would give the Estonian Defence Forces greater flexibility and freedom to choose weapon systems and solutions that could be used for reinforcing Estonia's defence capabilities if necessary.

"Estonia joined the Ottawa Convention more than 20 years ago. Since that time, the security environment in Europe and the Baltic Sea region has deteriorated significantly and the military threat to NATO member states has increased," Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said at the first reading of the bill. "Russia continues its brutal and unjustified war of aggression against its neighbour Ukraine in pursuit of its imperialist goals, violates its international obligations, including the norms of international humanitarian law, and poses the most serious and long-lasting threat to security in the Euro-Atlantic space."

The foreign minister said that Russia was not a party to the Ottawa Convention and was using anti-personnel mines extensively in its war against Ukraine, having mined more than 170,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory.

"At the same time, Ukraine does not have a legitimate way to use anti-personnel mines against the Russian armed forces itself in order to prevent occupiers from looting their lands and littering them with mines, as Ukraine is a party to the Ottawa Convention," Tsahkna noted. "Lessons from Russia's war against Ukraine clearly show that if a country unilaterally imposes restrictions on itself in the field of armaments that the opposing party does not follow and does not intend to follow, it puts itself at a disadvantage compared to the opponent."

According to the foreign minister, leaving the Ottawa Convention would give the Estonian Defence Forces more flexibility and freedom to choose weapon systems and solutions that can be used to strengthen Estonia's defence capabilities if necessary.

"Withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention does not affect Estonia's commitment to the objectives and norms of international humanitarian law," Tsahkna said. "We remain committed to limiting the effects of hostilities on civilians and to protecting the victims of armed conflicts, including through supporting humanitarian demining projects."

In addition to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Finland have also started the process of withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention. In Latvia and Lithuania, the relevant law has already been adopted by the parliament, and discussions are imminent in the Finnish and Polish parliaments.

The Ottawa Convention entered into force in 1999 and Estonia acceded to it in 2004. Withdrawal from the Convention shall take effect six months after the date of notification, provided that the state party is not engaged in an armed conflict at the time.

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EU announces 80 million humanitarian aid package for Yemen

European Commission

Press release

May 21, 2025

Brussels

The Commission has announced 80 million in EU humanitarian funding for 2025 to support people in need in Yemen.

This humanitarian aid will target food and health services - including those focusing on malnutrition and epidemics - as well as water provision, sanitation and hygiene and education, among others.

The EU funding will be channelled through EU humanitarian partners, such as UN agencies and NGOs, actively providing relief to vulnerable communities affected by conflict, displacement, and climate emergencies among other challenges.

Humanitarian programmes will also ensure the provision of protection services, including mine clearance and mine risk education.

The announcement coincides with the seventh Senior Officials Meeting on Yemen, attended by Commissioner Hadja Lahbib in Brussels.

Background

Yemen continues to go through one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. One decade of conflict, economic deterioration and recurrent climate-induced events have left 19.5 million people, more than half of the population, in need of humanitarian assistance. Half of Yemen's children - a staggering 2,4 million - are also malnourished.

Sudden unprecedented cuts to humanitarian funding also deeply impacted Yemen, forcing aid agencies to drastically reduce life-saving programming. Since the beginning of the war in 2015, the EU has contributed almost 1.6 billion to respond to the crisis in Yemen. This includes over 1 billion in humanitarian aid and nearly half a billion in development assistance and peacebuilding efforts. The European Commission is the largest donor to the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, European Member States are also large contributors.

Quote(s)

For more than a decade, as a donor, the EU continued to stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen. These contributions helped saving lives, avert famine and provide relief and hope to those who are suffering. We cannot fail them now. Only by pursuing a stable pathway to peace, people in Yemen can have a dignified life and a better future. Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management

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Germany Federal Foreign Office

21.05.2025 - Press release

A Federal Foreign Office Spokesperson issued the following statement today (21 May 2025):

Today, near Jenin in the West Bank, the Israeli army fired shots in the direction of a registered diplomatic delegation including a German diplomat as well as a driver from the Representative Office in Ramallah. The Federal Foreign Office strongly condemns this unprovoked fire. We can count ourselves lucky that nothing more serious occurred.

The group was travelling in the West Bank in the course of its diplomatic work and in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army. The role of diplomats as independent observers on the ground is indispensable and in no way represents a threat to Israeli security interests.

The Israeli Government must immediately investigate the circumstances and respect the inviolability of diplomats. Foreign Minister Wadephul will convey the same message to his Israeli counterpart. Following the incident, he held a telephone call with the colleagues affected.
Norway condemns the attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)

Government of Norway

News story | Date: 21/05/2025

Norway condemns the attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) against a group of diplomats in Jenin today.

Diplomatic and consular personnel have a special status under international law and must be protected.

These actions by the IDF constitute a clear violation of international law and are deeply unacceptable.

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Sweden signs Memorandum of Understanding on the protection of critical undersea infrastructure

Government Offices of Sweden

Press release from Ministry of Defence, Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Published 21 May 2025

On May 16, Sweden signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) concerning the protection of critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. The MoU was concluded with the Baltic Sea countries within the EU, along with Norway, Iceland and the EU.

"This MoU marks an important step in increased regional cooperation on the protection of critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Recent events highlight the importance of coordinated action on issues concerning the protection of critical infrastructure," says Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard.

"The Government is working on a broad front to strengthen security in the Baltic Sea together with our neighbours and Allies. This MoU is an important step in further strengthening the protection of undersea infrastructure and our collective ability to manage incidents," Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin continues.

The purpose of the Agreement is to strengthen regional cooperation through increased information sharing, improved situational awareness and the exchange of best practices and measures. It also encompasses cooperation within the frameworks of the EU, NATO and other organisations.

Fact box

The participating states at the Baltic Sea NATO Allies Summit in Helsinki originally agreed to draw up this Memorandum of Understanding on the protection of undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea on 14 January 2025.

Enhanced protection of undersea infrastructure

The Government is implementing several measures with the purpose of strengthening security in the Baltic Sea. Several government agencies have been tasked with enhancing the overall capacity for maritime surveillance, strengthening maritime surveillance through international cooperation and improving the ability to detect and report disruptions that may affect essential public services

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Prime Minister hails the efforts of forces to eliminate the menace of Maoism

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

Posted On: 21 MAY 2025 5:07PM by PIB Delhi

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the efforts of forces, reaffirming Government's commitment to eliminate the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people.

Responding to a post by Union Minister, Shri Amit Shah on X, Shri Modi said:

"Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people."

***

MJPS/SR

(Release ID: 2130275)

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Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah says, in a landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism, security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh

India - Press Information Bureau

Ministry of Defence

The neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists includes Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement

This is the first time in three decades of Bharat's battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralized by our forces

Home Minister applauds brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough

After completion of Operation Black Forest, 54 Naxalites have been arrested and 84 Naxalites have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra

The Modi government is resolved to eliminate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026

Posted On: 21 MAY 2025 5:36PM by PIB Delhi

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, said today that in a landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism, the security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh. The Home Minister applauded the brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough.

In a post on X, Union Home Minister said, "A landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism. Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement. This is the first time in three decades of Bharat's battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralized by our forces. I applaud our brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough. Also glad to share that after completion of Operation Black Forest, 54 Naxalites have been arrested and 84 Naxalites have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra. The Modi government is resolved to eliminate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026."

*****

RK/VV/PR/PS

(Release ID: 2130295)

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Israeli forces open fire at European and Arab diplomats in West Bank

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

Tehran, IRNA -- Israeli forces on Wednesday opened fire at a delegation of European and Arab diplomats during a visit to Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

According to local media, the delegation, which was composed of representatives from 30 different European and Arab countries, came under attack as it was entering the refugee camp.

The diplomats had travelled to the flashpoint city of Jenin to observe the escalating humanitarian situation there and meet with the local governor.

The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian Authority condemned the attack as a clear example of intimidation.

"The occupation forces opened heavy fire from inside the Jenin refugee camp to intimidate the diplomatic delegation that is conducting a field tour around the camp to witness the extent of the suffering endured by the residents of the area," it said in a statement.

The statement called on the international community, especially the countries that had representatives in the diplomatic delegation, to denounce this hostile move by Israeli forces.

Armed attacks on diplomatic delegations constitute blatant violations of the Vienna Conventions.

The European Union foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned the attack on the diplomats as "unacceptable" and called on the Israeli regime to investigate the incident

"We definitely call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold [to] account those who are responsible for this, and any threats on diplomats' lives are unacceptable," she said.

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Iran dismisses allegations that it violated U.N. arms embargo on Yemen

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

New York, IRNA -- Amir-Saeid Iravani, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, says that the claim regarding the Islamic Republic's violation of the U.N. arms embargo on Yemen is entirely baseless.

Iravani made these remarks during a U.N. Security Council meeting titled "Strengthening Maritime Security through International Cooperation for Global Stability" in New York on Tuesday.

He further said that Tehran has consistently denied any involvement in activities that would breach Security Council resolutions.

The full text of his speech comes as follows:

We congratulate Greece on assuming the Presidency of the Security Council and thank it for convening this timely open debate.

Freedom of navigation is a cornerstone of international law, and maritime security is essential to its protection. Together, they support global peace, stability, and the uninterrupted flow of trade.

Today, however, these principles face serious and growing threats, from piracy, transnational organized crime, and trafficking, to cyberattacks on maritime infrastructure.

These challenges are further exacerbated by unilateral coercive measures, the continued military presence of certain powers, acts of aggression, and the politicization of maritime security under the guise of safeguarding freedom of navigation.

As a major coastal nation bordering the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, Iran has long contributed to the safety and stability of the Strait of Hormuz.

Our naval forces also play a key role in securing strategic corridors, including the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the northern Indian Ocean, ensuring safe passage for commercial and oil vessels and contributing to regional and international maritime security.

Iran has consistently emphasized that enduring maritime stability requires inclusive regional cooperation. Unfortunately, unilateral coercive measures (UCMs), particularly the extraterritorial sanctions imposed by the United States, undermine collective efforts.

These illegal actions have severed legitimate trade ties, led to the unlawful seizure of Iranian oil cargo, and violated international law and the UN Charter, threatening the safety of global navigation.

Maritime security must not be selective or subject to unilateral interpretations. It must be upheld universally, based on international law, non-discrimination, and full respect for state sovereignty.

Iran remains fully committed to international maritime law and cooperates with all responsible stakeholders to ensure sea lanes remain open, secure, and governed by the rule of law, not by the rule of force.

Before concluding, Mr. President, we categorically reject the baseless, politically motivated accusations made by the representatives of the United States and the Israeli regime.

These accusations are not only misleading but also deliberately attempt to distort the realities in the region in order to deflect attention from the root causes of instability and insecurity in the Red Sea and beyond.

The allegation that Iran is violating the UN arms embargo on Yemen is entirely unfounded. Iran has consistently rejected any involvement in activities that would contravene relevant Security Council resolutions. Resolution 2216 (2015) has been repeatedly misused by the United States to justify its unlawful unilateral measures beyond the Council's mandate.

Let me be clear: the root causes of instability in the Red Sea and the wider region stem from Israel's ongoing atrocities in Gaza and its continued aggression and occupation across the region, carried out with full U.S. support and complete impunity.

This reality cannot be ignored or deflected by disinformation. The Security Council must address these underlying causes and uphold the international legal order upon which global maritime peace and security depend.

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Data on interceptions of aircraft completed near the Baltic States' borders on May 12-18, 2025

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2025-05-21

International cooperation

On May 12-18 NATO Air Policing Detachment in the Baltic states was alerted to intercept aircraft of the Russian Federation violating international aviation regulations in international airspace over the Baltic Sea four times.

On May 12 NATO fighter aircraft conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic states were scrambled to intercept one IL-20 flying through international airspace from the mainland of the Russian Federation to Kaliningrad. Its onboard transponder was switched off, the crew had no pre-filed flight plan, though maintained radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On May 12 NATO fighter jets were alerted to identify and escort one SU-30SM flying in international airspace from Kaliningrad to the mainland of the Russian Federation. Its onboard transponder was switched off, the crew had no flight plan and was not maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

On May 13 NATO fighter aircraft intercepted one SU-30SM flying through international airspace between two locations in the mainland of the Russian Federation. Its onboard transponder was switched off, the crew had no flight plan and was not maintaining radio communication.

On May 13 NATO fighter jets identify and escorted one SU-30SM flying from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia via international airspace. Its onboard transponder was switched on but the crew had no pre-filed flight plan and was not maintaining radio communication with the regional air traffic control centre.

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NATO Secretary General meets with Dutch Prime Minister

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

21 May. 2025

On Wednesday (21 May 2025), NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof to NATO Headquarters. The leaders held productive discussions on boosting defence spending, support for Ukraine and the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague.

Mr Rutte thanked the Netherlands for its steadfast contributions to the Alliance's collective defence, playing "a pivotal role in strengthening the Alliance" on the ground, in the sky and at sea. He also thanked the Prime Minister for the excellent cooperation in organising the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague.

The Secretary General welcomed efforts to invest in modernised land forces and cutting-edge capabilities, including allocating over 1 billion to expand the Dutch defence industry. At the same time, he urged all Allies to invest even more, including in the defence industry and in defence-related areas such as infrastructure and resilience. "2% will not be nearly enough to meet the capability targets that Allies will soon agree," Mr Rutte stated.

On Ukraine, Mr Rutte thanked the Netherlands for its impressive offer of 3.5 billion euros in support for Ukraine in 2026, including 100 million for NATO's Comprehensive Assistance Package. "Your contributions clearly underscore your long-term commitment to Kyiv's sovereignty and security. This is a priority we all share" he emphasised.

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NATO Secretary General commends Czechia's commitment to a stronger, fairer and more lethal Alliance

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

21 May. 2025

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed Czech President Petr Pavel to NATO Headquarters on Wednesday (21 May 2025) to discuss preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague.

The Secretary General praised Czechia as a strong and reliable Ally, highlighting its defence investment and support to Ukraine. "You spend more than 2% of GDP on defence, and I welcome the commitment you've already made to increase defence spending to 3% in the coming years," said Mr Rutte.

Czechia plays an important role in NATO's deterrence and defence, contributing to Forward Land Forces in Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania. This year, Czechia will also deploy combat aircraft to Iceland in support of NATO's air policing mission.

The Secretary General commended Czechia's substantial support to Ukraine, including over 1.3 billion euros in military assistance. He welcomed the success of the Czech-led ammunition initiative, which has helped deliver over 3 million rounds of large-calibre ammunition to Ukraine, including 1.5 million in 2024 alone. Mr Rutte also underlined Czechia's growing role in NATO's long-term support to Ukraine, including contributions to NATO's Security Assistance and Training command (NSATU) in Wiesbaden and the deployment of 20 personnel to NSATU's Logistics Enabling Nodes this July.

Looking ahead to the NATO Summit in The Hague, Secretary General Rutte stressed the importance of strengthening NATO's deterrence and defence even further, increasing defence spending, and building a stronger and more innovative transatlantic defence industry. "We will need to do much more, and this will remain our focus as we prepare for The Hague Summit," he said. "We have a lot of work to do. And I know I can count on Czechia's continued commitment and leadership."

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A look at the Defence news 12 - 18 May

Netherlands Ministry of Defence

News item | 21-05-2025 | 15:48

Dutch and Colombian marines trained together intensively for the first time. They practiced amphibious operations together, and riverine operations in the jungle. In the north of the South American country, the military personnel shared their knowledge and experience of these types of operations. Cooperation is necessary as both countries have interests in the Caribbean. The exercise lasted for 3 weeks.

Dutch and American helicopters over the northern Netherlands

Some 1,500 Dutch army and air force personnel have been conducting operations over the northern Netherlands since last week. They are using 20 transport and combat helicopters for these operations, which also involve an American helicopter unit. Leeuwarden Air Base is the nerve centre of this exercise, Falcon Spring.

Marines provide military assistance in Sint Maarten

Following a request by the Sint Maarten Police Force, the Sint Maarten marine detachment was deployed at the prison on the island. The request came after a fire had broken out in the prison.

Netherlands Prime Minister Schoof visits service members on Curacao

Prime Minister Dick Schoof's working trip to the Dutch Caribbean last week included a visit to Parera Naval Base on Curacao.

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Israel Targets Hospitals and Begins Displacement of Northern Gaza -----Attacks target Al-Aqsa and Al-Ibrahimi Mosques, and 82 Settler Attacks in the West Bank

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

21-05-2025

The Gaza Strip has entered a new chapter of brutal Israeli aggression, marked by the occupation forces beginning to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip by targeting hospitals and destroying its remaining buildings. They also focused their promises to distribute aid on the southern Gaza Strip while stripping the northern Gaza Strip of its basic necessities. This occurred at a time when the number of martyrs had returned to what it was in the first days after October 7, 2023.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation's Media Observatory on Israeli Crimes Against Palestinians recorded record numbers of martyrs during the past week, with 621 martyrs and 1,763 wounded between May 13 and 19, 2025. The number of martyrs from October 7, 2023, to May 19, 2025, reached 54,941 martyrs and 129,497 wounded. The Observatory also documented the deaths of five journalists in the Gaza Strip.

Israel, the occupying power, announced its intention to bring aid into the southern Gaza Strip, confirming that it is pushing the masses of people in the northern and central Gaza Strip southward, with the aim of creating an atmosphere of what is known as "voluntary displacement" through intensified bombing, striking hospitals, or controlling the distribution of aid.

The OIC Observatory documented, between May 13 and 19, 2025, the targeting of hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip by the occupation forces, including the bombing and siege of the Indonesian Hospital, the targeting of the Hamad Hospital for Prosthetic Limbs in the northern Gaza Strip, the bombing and evacuation of the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, the bombing of Nasser Hospital and the evacuation of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex.

The occupation forces imposed a new evacuation plan adjacent to the Al-Rimal neighborhood and the Islamic University, where thousands of displaced people reside, in addition to areas in the south and west of Gaza, as part of their campaign aimed at exhausting Palestinians and pushing them to leave the Strip. This comes after they had already displaced 300,000 Palestinians for the second time from the northern Gaza Strip, following the destruction of more than 1,000 housing units, as part of a plan to remove the remaining buildings in Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Jabalia.

In the West Bank and occupied Al-Quds, occupation forces killed two children in Al-Quds and Nablus, wounded four others, and arrested nine children. Settlers also assaulted a girl in the Old City of Al-Khalil, wounding her. The Israeli aggression also targeted seven schools. Occupation forces raided the Bruqin Elementary School for Girls in Salfit and detained approximately 100 teachers at the Hamra checkpoint, preventing them from reaching their schools in the northern Jordan Valley in Tubas. They also raided the Al-Munjid Private School in the town of Bruqin in Salfit, the Kafr al-Dik Elementary and Secondary Girls Schools in the town of Kafr al-Dik, the Martyr Mazen Abu al-Wafa School, and Rawdat al-Salam, transforming the school into a military checkpoint during their raid on the same town. Occupation forces raided Al-Quds Open University in Tubas and confiscated surveillance camera footage. Settlers were stationed near the Nahalin Girls School in Bethlehem to harass students and staff.

Regarding attacks on mosques, the occupation forces forced worshippers at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque to leave the mosque after closing all the gates leading to it. The extremist Israeli Finance Minister, Smotrich, burned a model of the Palestinian flag along with settlers in the outer courtyard of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil. Meanwhile, the occupation forces closed the mosque to worshippers and prevented them from performing the dawn prayer. They also raided and searched the Nafukh Mosque in Salfit and the Grand Mosque in the town of Al-Khudair in Bethlehem, detaining worshippers. The cities and towns of the West Bank witnessed 383 raids by the occupation forces, during which they arrested 175 Palestinians, demolished 9 homes, and blew up a cafe in Tubas, in addition to destroying 6 barns in Al-Quds and Bethlehem. They also bulldozed farmers' lands in the town of Bruqin, and bulldozed and uprooted olive trees on a side road near the Al-Abara area in Salfit. They issued a military order to bulldoze and uproot trees in an area of 232,503 dunums in the Al-Fakhakhir and Al-Balata areas of the town of Bruqin in Salfit. They also bulldozed agricultural lands and uprooted dozens of olive trees in the village of Madama in Nablus.

The occupation forces and settlers carried out 8 settlement activities, during which the occupation forces confiscated 13,117 dunams of land in the town of Bruqin in Salfit. Settlers dug and bulldozed an archaeological site in the town of Sebastia in preparation for its confiscation and the establishment of a park in the area. Others erected a number of tents near the "Vered Yeriho" settlement junction, south of the city of Jericho, and seized an area between the villages of Deir Nizam and Deir Abu Mash'al in Ramallah. Meanwhile, the occupation forces bulldozed agricultural lands north of the town of Qusra in Nablus with the aim of paving a road and building a fence around it, to annex it to the "Majdoulin" settlement. Settlers erected mobile homes to establish a new settlement outpost between the towns of Taffuh and Dura in Al-Khalil. They placed a barbed wire fence around a piece of land in the Al-Faw area of Tubas. Others seized a sheep pen from the Arab Al-Malihat tribe in Ramallah, set up a tent there, and placed a fence around it, in an attempt to establish a settlement outpost.

The number of occupation crimes in one week reached 3,775 crimes across the Palestinian territories, including 74 settler attacks in seven days. During these days, settlers destroyed the contents of a Palestinian home near Tubas and burned an agricultural farm in the village of Al-Mughayyir in Ramallah. Others grazed their sheep on agricultural lands between the areas of Khirbet Aqweis, Shaab Al-Batm, and Masafer in the town of Yatta in Al-Khalil, and the waterfall of the town of Al-Auja in Jericho. Others cut off olive tree branches in the town of Yatta in Al-Khalil. Settlers burned agricultural lands near the villages of Duma and Barqa in Nablus, and stole a water tanker from the village of Al-Sakout in Tubas, and a number of sheep in the village of Majdal Bani Fadel in Nablus. Others damaged the tires of two water tankers and cut 300 meters of water lines in the Al-Mayta area. Another group damaged water lines in the northern Jordan Valley in Tubas.

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The Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Gaza, welcomes the joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank

Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

21-05-2025

The Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit on Gaza, welcomes the joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank, and the demands to end the war on Gaza and immediately allow the access of humanitarian aid to the Strip.

The Ministerial Committee shares the opposition expressed by the three leaders to the military operations and the continued full-fledged assault against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza and expresses its grave concern over Israel's continued blockade on humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, and calls for the immediate and sustainable surge of lifesaving humanitarian aid at scale for Palestinians in need throughout Gaza. The deliberate denial of essential life-saving supplies and the weaponization of humanitarian aid has pushed the population to the brink of famine.

The Ministerial Committee emphasizes that Israel's blockade constitutes a violation of the UN Charter and resolutions, treaties, and international humanitarian law. It exacerbates the man-made catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and poses a serious threat to the security and stability of the region.

Israel should allow and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance without impediment from all land routes and crossings along with utilizing air and sea aid delivery to address the catastrophic situation in Gaza. No justification can be accepted for starving the Palestinian people in Gaza and depriving them of basic humanitarian aid and needs.

Furthermore, the Committee expresses its concern over the Israeli intention to allow "limited aid flow" to the Gaza Strip and its endorsement of a new aid delivery model which runs counter to humanitarian principles and international law and is designed to reinforce control over lifesaving and sustaining items as part of a military strategy, as underlined by UN agencies and humanitarian partners. Humanitarian aid must never be politicized or militarized. And we reject and condemn Israel's plans to forcibly displace the Palestinian people and annex Palestinian land.

The Ministerial Committee notes that the UN and its humanitarian partners pursued the delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles across the Strip since 2023, often at the peril of their lives, and supported the system-wide scale-up after the 2025 ceasefire. Despite extreme duress and constant Israeli obstruction, they upheld humanitarian principles and continued their work. The Ministerial Committee stresses that the United Nations and its humanitarian partners have the capacity and operational systems in place and are ready to act today without delay and in a way that ensures aid is delivered directly to the Palestinian people throughout Gaza and that the most vulnerable are not left behind.

The Ministerial Committee reiterates its demands to the international community to assume its moral and legal responsibilities and to immediately intervene to put pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to immediately lift the blockade, cease its aggression and violations, comply with UN resolutions, international law and international humanitarian law. In light of this, the Ministerial Committee demands ensuring swift, sustained, and unimpeded access and provision of humanitarian assistance at scale into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip through the lifting of all restrictions, as well as the immediate restoration of all basic services in the Strip, including the supply of electricity and water desalination plants as well as medical services.

The Ministerial Committee calls for ending the Israeli war on Gaza and for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in line with UN resolutions and the full implementation of the ceasefire - hostage/detainees release agreement that went into effect on January 19th and as brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, thus paving the way for the early recovery and reconstruction of Gaza and the implementation of the Arab- Islamic Plan and convening the Cairo Ministerial Conference on Reconstruction as soon as conditions permit

The Ministerial Committee also expresses deep concern over the Israeli military incursions in the occupied West Bank, as well as illegal practices such as settlement activities, home demolitions, and settler violence, which undermine the rights of the Palestinian people, threaten the prospects for a just and lasting peace and further entrench the conflict. The Committee recalls that Israel, as an occupying power, must protect civilians and comply with international humanitarian law. The Committee firmly rejects any attempts at annexation and unilateral illegal measures that seek to alter the legal and historical status quo of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.

The Ministerial Committee further reaffirms full commitment to a political resolution to the conflict that ensures the fulfilment of the rights of the Palestinian people, including the independence of the State of Palestine, and the implementation of the two-state solution with Palestine and Israel, living side by side in peace and security, on the basis of the relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, including the principle of land for peace, and the Arab Peace Initiative, paving the way for lasting peace and coexistence between all the peoples of the region. The Committee reaffirms its commitment in this regard to the convening of a UN High Level International Conference in June in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France to advance these goals.

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Over 30 armed rebels killed in central India

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 15:34, May 21, 2025

NEW DELHI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Indian security personnel killed more than 30 armed Naxals rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, the state's Home Minister Vijay Sharma said.

Among those killed was Naxals' leader Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basav Raj, who carried a bounty of 10 million Indian rupees (around 116,877 U.S. dollars) on his head.

One security personnel was killed and another was injured during the operation, added the official.

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Navy: BRP Miguel Malvar 'good investment' for PH security, future

Philippine News Agency

By Priam Nepomuceno

May 21, 2025, 1:21 pm

MANILA -- The commissioning and inclusion of the brand new guided-missile frigate, the BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-06), to the Philippine Navy's (PN) fleet will enhance the country's capability to protect its maritime territories, a ranking naval official said Wednesday.

"BRP Miguel Malvar is a welcome addition to the Philippine Navy. Her modern capabilities will allow us greater and longer operational reach as we continue to perform our mandate of securing our seas," PN spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, said in a message to the Philippine News Agency.

Trinidad also said the BRP Miguel Malvar is a "good investment in the security and future of our country."

The BRP Miguel Malvar is the most advanced and heavily armed ship in PN service. Its sister ship, the BRP Diego Silang (FFG-07), is expected to arrive by June or July.

The ship weighs 3,200 gross tons, measures 118.4 meters, and has a beam of 14.9 meters.

The BRP Miguel Malvar has a range of 4,500 nautical miles and a cruising speed of 15 knots.

With a maximum speed of 25 knots, the ship is equipped with sensors, surveillance systems, and weapons platforms for multi-combat operations, enabling it to track and engage surface, sub-surface, and air threats.

The BRP Miguel Malvar features an Oto Melara main gun, a 35mm Aselsan close-in weapons system, four .50 caliber heavy machine guns, eight C-Star surface-to-surface missile tubes, two triple Blue Shark torpedo tubes for anti-submarine warfare, and 16 vertical launchers for air defense.

Before the arrival of the BRP Miguel Malvar, the most modern ships in the PN inventory were the two Jose Rizal-class frigates -- the BRP Jose Rizal and the BRP Antonio Luna. (PNA)

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Israel's claim of allowing aid into Gaza a cover for 'starvation and genocide'

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 7:04 PM

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the Israeli regime continues using starvation as a weapon in its genocidal war against the defenseless civilians across the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Hamas said Israel was flagrantly disregarding the growing international calls to halt starvation, forced displacement, and massacres over the past months.

"While the fascist occupying regime attempts to mislead the world public opinion by falsely claiming to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, it continues to use this deceptive propaganda as a cover to manage one of the most horrific crimes of starvation and genocide known in modern times," the statement read.

Hamas also called on the international community to "intensify its pressure campaigns to stop these flagrant violations of international law" by Israeli forces in the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Elsewhere in the statement, the resistance movement urged world organizations to "take urgent action to end the genocidal war and ongoing massacres against innocent civilians in Gaza, enforce the breaking of the siege, and ensure the entry of aid without restrictions or conditions."

Israel said over the weekend that it would allow aid to enter Gaza after an 11-week blockade on the besieged Palestinian region.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said no humanitarian supplies have been able to leave the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing to enter the Gaza Strip.

"None of the supplies have been able to leave the Kerem Shalom loading area," Dujarric told reporters during a briefing at the UN headquarters in New York.

The Gaza Media Office earlier said that Israeli forces had fully closed all border crossings and "have not permitted a single grain of wheat to enter for nearly three months."

"No genuine aid has entered the Gaza Strip for more than 80 days under a complete siege and worsening famine."

The office described the situation as "a deliberate policy of starvation targeting 2.4 million unarmed civilians."

Despite Israel's pledge to ease the near-total blockade in place for nearly three months, only five trucks entered the territory on Monday.

The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on Tuesday that 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid doesn't reach them.

The UK's Development Minister Jenny Chapman on Wednesday accused Israel of using hunger as a "weapon of war," during a visit to the occupied West Bank.

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Israel kills two civilians in south Lebanon in violation of ceasefire

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 6:26 PM

Lebanon's Health Ministry says despite the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hezbollah resistance group, Israel has attacked the southern part of the Arab country and killed two people.

The Israeli regime attacked southern Lebanon with drones on Wednesday and killed two civilians.

An "Israeli enemy drone" struck a car in the town of Ain Baal in the coastal district of Tyre, the ministry said.

Israeli forces claimed that the man they killed in Ain Baal was a "Hezbollah operative." Avichay Adraee, the head of the Arab media division in the Israeli regime's forces, later wrote on his X account that the "Hezbollah operative" has been a senior member of Hezbollah named Hussein Nazih Barji.

The ministry also reported that the Israeli regime's strike on the town of Yater "killed one person and wounded another."

An official from Yater said the strike killed a man who was using a bulldozer to remove debris from his home, which had been damaged during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Wednesday was the third consecutive day that the Israeli regime attacked Lebanon. The regime has claimed that it has killed two "Hezbollah operatives" in the previous days.

The Israeli regime has continued its attacks on Lebanon despite a November ceasefire agreement that sought to end more than one year of hostilities between the occupying entity and Hezbollah, including two months of total war.

According to the agreement, the regime has to withdraw from southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah has to pull back its forces behind the Litani River.

The regime, however, has not fulfilled its part of the agreement and, in addition to near-daily attacks on Lebanon, has kept its forces in the Arab country in "five strategic positions."

Lebanon's government has repeatedly called on the UN and the international community to force Israel to end its attacks and withdraw its remaining forces.

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Israel kills one woman every hour in Gaza: UN agency

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 6:02 PM

Israeli forces have killed over 28,000 women and girls in Gaza since October 2023, according to UN Women.

The staggering toll amounts to one woman or girl killed every hour over the course of the devastating war, which has now entered its 20th month.

In its report, the UN agency said the figure includes thousands of mothers, leaving behind children, families, and communities shattered by grief.

The death toll accounts for both confirmed fatalities and "excess deaths"those likely uncounted due to the collapse of Gaza's health and reporting systems.

UN Women said its estimates were based on a February 2025 analysis published in The Lancet, which indicated that fatalities in Gaza may have been underreported by about 41 percent.

The agency reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire, the restoration of unhindered humanitarian access, and the unconditional release of all captives and those arbitrarily detained by Israel.

"Countless lives hang in the balance," UN Women warned.

Since Israel broke a two-month ceasefire in March 18, conditions in Gaza have further deteriorated, compounded by nearly nine weeks of a continued blockade on humanitarian aid. The entire population is rapidly running out of food and basic necessities, with famine increasingly likely.

This means every woman and girlover one million peopleis now facing catastrophic levels of hunger, UN women said.

According to the report, the women are trapped in a worsening crisis marked by displacement, rising maternal mortality, and a severe lack of safety and protection.

UN Women also raised alarm over its limited ability to support women-led civil society groups in Gaza, saying that ongoing restrictions on access, chronic underfunding, and lack of essential resources have severely hindered their operations.

These organizations, often critical in delivering aid, providing protection, and advocating for women's rights, are now struggling to function amid Israel's continued bombardment, blockade, and restrictions on humanitarian access, which have left them cut off from resources and international support.

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Israeli forces open fire on diplomatic delegation visiting Jenin refugee camp

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 3:23 PM

Israeli forces stationed at Jenin refugee camp have fired live ammunition at a diplomatic delegation as it was entering the camp to view the living conditions of the refugees.

The diplomats that visited the camp on Wednesday were from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Spain, Turkey, the EU, and the UK, along with representatives from several other countries and journalists accompanying them.

The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates had organized the visit for the international community to witness the Israeli regime's ongoing aggression against the Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.

The Ministry had arranged a similar visit to Tulkarem city and the refugee camp in the northern West Bank last week.

WAFA news agency reported that the delegation wanted to enter the camp from the eastern gate, where the regime has installed an iron gate, when the soldiers fired live ammunition directly and heavily at the diplomats and their entourage.

In a statement, the Ministry said, "This aggressive act constitutes a flagrant and serious violation of the provisions of international law and the most basic rules of diplomatic relations stipulated in the 1961 Vienna Convention, which guarantees protection and immunity for diplomatic missions and delegations."

After the incident, the delegation visited the Jenin Governorate headquarters and reviewed the situation in the camp and the city.

The camp governor, Mohammed Jarrar, explained in detail the city's disastrous economic condition, the war's impact on its facilities, and the destruction of infrastructure.

More importantly, he described the extremely inhumane circumstances under which 22,000 Palestinians have been forced to abandon their homes and live in the tyrannical conditions the Israeli regime has forced upon them.

Later, the Ministry condemned the assault by the occupation forces on the diplomatic delegation invited by the Palestinian Authority.

Since October 7, 2023, when the Israeli regime began its genocidal war against Gaza, the number of attacks by settlers and occupation forces on the Palestinians of the Occupied West Bank has increased dramatically.

The Israeli regime has also killed at least 1,000 Palestinians and abducted 7,000 in the occupied West Bank.

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Scores killed in new Israeli strikes as starving Gazans wait for aid

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 11:02 AM

Gaza health officials say Israeli airstrikes overnight through Wednesday killed at least 52 people, among them multiple women and a newborn baby.

In Khan Younis, where Israel recently issued fresh evacuation orders ahead of an anticipated ground onslaught, 24 Palestinians were killed, including 14 members of a single family.

In central Gaza, a newborn infant was among those killed in the bombardment.

The fresh bout of massacres came as Gazans waited desperately for vital supplies after Israel falsely said it let in dozens of UN trucks.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) aid group said the amount of aid Israel has started to allow into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip is not nearly enough and is "a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over".

"The Israeli authorities' decision to allow a ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza after months of an air-tight siege signals their intention to avoid the accusation of starving people in Gaza, while in fact keeping them barely surviving," said Pascale Coissard, the MSF's emergency coordinator in Khan Yunis.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric noted that while aid had crossed into Gaza, logistical delaysincluding Israeli-mandated truck transfers and time constraintsprevented workers from delivering it to distribution centers.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that "a strong majority" of foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc backed the move to review its trade cooperation with Israel.

Sweden said it would press the EU to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers.

Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador and said it was imposing sanctions on settlers in the occupied West Bank in its toughest actions so far against Israel's conduct of the war.

The Israeli military stepped up its onslaught at the weekend, vowing to defeat the Hamas resistance movement.

Footage of southern Gaza from the Israeli side showed multiple strikes throughout Wednesday morning.

In Khan Yunis, distraught relatives cried as their family members were brought to the city's Nasser Hospital following a strike.

The latest bombardment continues Israel's unrelenting military campaign in Gaza, even as global criticism mounts over its expanding offensive.

Israel launched the campaign of genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023. It has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians there so far, according to the health ministry of Gaza.

In January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas given the regime's failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the "elimination" of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.

The 42-day stage of the truce, which was marred by repeated Israeli violations, expired on March 1, but Israel is refraining from stepping into talks for the second stage of the agreement.

On March 18, the regime resumed the strikes on Gaza, breaking the nearly two-month-long ceasefire.

At least 53,573 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and another 121,688 individuals injured in the brutal Israeli military onslaught on Gaza since October 7, 2023.

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Iran rejects 'unfounded' claim of violating UN arms ban on Yemen

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 8:29 AM

Iran's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations has rejected allegations of violating the UN arms embargo on Yemen as "entirely unfounded," reaffirming Tehran's noninvolvement in any action breaching Security Council resolutions.

Amir Saeed Iravani made the remarks while addressing the UN Security Council during an open debate meeting titled "Strengthening Maritime Security through International Cooperation for Global Stability" on Tuesday.

His remarks came shortly after the acting US representative to the UN, Dorothy Shea, accused Tehran of violating a UN's arms embargo on Yemen through supporting the Arab country's Ansarullah resistance movement.

She further alleged that Ansarullah fighters "were able to threaten Red Sea maritime traffic" largely due to what she described as "Iran's defiance of the UN arms embargo" on the movement.

"This Council must not tolerate this defiance and should impose consequences for sanctions violations," she further said.

In response, Iran's UN envoy said that Tehran "categorically" denied "the baseless, politically motivated accusations made by the representatives of the United States and the Israeli regime."

Washington's accusations are both "misleading" and a deliberate attempt "to distort the realities in the region in order to deflect attention from the root causes of instability and insecurity in the Red Sea and beyond," Iravani stressed.

"The allegation that Iran is violating the UN arms embargo on Yemen is entirely unfounded. Iran has consistently rejected any involvement in activities that would contravene relevant Security Council resolutions. Resolution 2216 (2015) has been repeatedly misused by the United States to justify its unlawful unilateral measures beyond the Council's mandate," Iran's UN envoy added.

He also noted that "Iran has consistently emphasized that enduring maritime stability requires inclusive regional cooperation."

"Unfortunately, unilateral coercive measures (UCMs), particularly the extraterritorial sanctions imposed by the United States, undermine collective efforts," he further warned.

Iran asserts that lasting maritime stability depends on inclusive regional cooperation, but unilateral US sanctions undermine such a goal by disrupting legal trade, seizing Iranian oil, and violating international law, he said.

The envoy reaffirmed Iran's position that maritime security must be universal, not selective, and grounded in international law and respect for sovereignty.

"Maritime security must not be selective or subject to unilateral interpretations. It must be upheld universally, based on international law, non-discrimination, and full respect for state sovereignty," Iravani stressed.

In conclusion, Iran's UN envoy stressed that "Iran remains fully committed to international maritime law and cooperates with all responsible stakeholders to ensure sea lanes remain open, secure, and governed by the rule of law, not by the rule of force."

As the genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip escalated, the Yemenis enacted a strategic blockade on essential maritime routes to obstruct the delivery of military supplies to Israel and urge the international community to take action regarding the ongoing humanitarian emergency in Gaza.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have declared they will continue their assaults until Israel ceases its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza.

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Gaza bleeds: 94 lives lost in a single day of Israeli genocidal bloodletting

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 2:37 AM

The Gaza Strip has witnessed the deaths of 94 people on the back of interminable Israeli airstrikes throughout the space of no more than a single day.

The fatalities occurred on Tuesday alone, a sharp increase from a previous death toll of around 60 that had been announced by Palestinian media outlets.

The victims perished during targeted attacks on homes, schools, and shelters among other places.

The death trail began in the early hours of the morning, with 54 people losing their lives between midnight and 4:00 AM.

Among them were 13 people killed in an attack on the Musa bin Nusair School in Gaza City, a place previously sought as a safe haven.

At the Nuseirat Refugee Camp in central Gaza, 15 people were killed in an assault on the Radi Station, while 13 lives were lost in an airstrike targeting the Abu Samra home in Deir al-Balah, another city perched in the central part of the coastal sliver.

Airstrikes mowed down nine more people at the Muqayyid family home in the city of Jabalia, north of the Gaza City.

Civilian areas were also heavily targeted to severe deadly effect in the city of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

Residents and civil defense workers are, meanwhile, trying to salvage survivors from sprawling areas of rubble.

Observers note that what has been left of the territory's medical infrastructure is far overwhelmed by an incessant flow of caseloads created as a result of unexceptionally indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.

In all, at least 53,573 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, across Gaza since October 2023, when the Israeli regime began bringing the already severely impoverished territory under a war of genocide.

Amid the insufferable circumstances, Gaza's Hamas resistance movement reminded the regime's refusal to partake in serious negotiation towards clinching a ceasefire.

In a statement on Monday, the movement said an Israeli delegation that had been sent to the Qatari capital had no authority to engage in real negotiations or seal a ceasefire agreement.

The delegation's continued presence in Doha, it added, amounted to a blatant attempt by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deceive the global public opinion and falsely appear engaged in a meaningful negotiation process.

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Saudi Arabia Condemns Israeli Gunfire on Diplomatic Delegation Visiting Jenin

Saudi Press Agency

Riyadh, May 21, 2025, SPA -- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's strongest condemnation and denunciation of the gunfire incident carried out by Israeli occupation forces targeting a diplomatic delegation that included ambassadors and representatives of Arab and foreign countries during their visit to Jenin Camp in the occupied West Bank.

The Kingdom called on the international community  particularly the permanent members of the UN Security Council  to immediately put an end to Israeli violations against civilians, diplomatic missions, and humanitarian organizations operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. It also reiterated its call for the activation of international accountability mechanisms for the ongoing crimes of the Israeli occupation and its repeated violations of international law and international humanitarian law.

-- SPA

23:44 Local Time 20:44 GMT

0102

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Kingdom Participates in 5th Meeting of Global Alliance for Implementation of Two-State Solution in Rabat

Saudi Press Agency

Rabat, May 21, 2025, SPA -- The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia participated yesterday in the fifth meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, jointly chaired by the Kingdom of Morocco and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The alliance was originally launched by Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Norway, and the European Union during a high-level meeting chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah in New York in September 2024.

The meeting is part of a series of previous alliance gatherings held in Riyadh, Brussels, Oslo, and Cairo, aimed at coordinating international efforts to support the two-state solution and establish peace in the Middle East.

The Rabat meeting was convened in preparation for the upcoming high-level conference scheduled to take place in New York, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and the Republic of France, from June 17 to 20.

-- SPA

23:11 Local Time 20:11 GMT

0098

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Spanish Government condemns Israeli army's actions in the West Bank during a visit by European and Spanish diplomats and journalists

Spain - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

PRESS STATEMENT 051

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

We strongly condemn the actions of the Israeli Armed Forces who opened fire today during the visit to the Jenin refugee camp of a delegation of diplomatic representatives from several countries, including Spain.

We demand an immediate and transparent investigation of this very serious incident, and the respect by Israel, as an occupying power, of international law, as well as its obligation to protect diplomatic agents.

-NON OFFICIAL TRANSLATION-

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the FY26 Department of State Budget Request

US Department of State

Remarks

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State

Washington, DC

May 21, 2025

SECRETARY RUBIO: Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today. I'll try to stay under the five minutes and - so we can get time for questions here.

So when I took this job - and I said this during my confirmation hearing - the most important thing we need to do is return American foreign policy to be centered on our national interests. For far too long, that had been lost as a concept of foreign policy. In essence, in many cases, oftentimes the U.S. engaged in the world on the basis of what was good for the global order or the international community and what like. And look, for about 30 years, that made a lot of sense - until the end of the post-Cold War era.

(Protest utterances.)

So that made a lot of sense for a long period of time during the Cold War. But then we entered the post-Cold War era, and the war - and the world order has rapidly changed. We entered a new era about 12 or 14 years ago when we entered an era of near-peer competition, where, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the United States had a near-peer competitor and adversary in the state of China. And we need to confront that, and our foreign policy needs to be geared around that and all the realities of this new world.

And so what that means is we have to have a State Department that can deliver on a foreign policy that is rooted in the national interests of the United States. To defend the national interests of the United States requires us, number one, to make sure that every dollar we spend and every action we take has to have measurable outcomes that deliver for the American people. They have to either make our country safer or they have to make our country stronger or they have to help make our country more prosperous. It has to do at least one of those three things, and ideally, whether it's a program or a measure that we take, it should do all three of them.

Now, that - what that means is that there are some great causes in the world. There really are. There are some great causes. There are some horrifying things that are happening on the planet. America cannot solve every single one of them. What we need to focus on is prioritizing our foreign policy to those areas that are in our national interests.

Now, we will still remain the largest contributor of foreign aid and humanitarian assistance on this planet, by far. The United States, even under the budget that's before you today and the changes we have made, will still contribute more in foreign aid than the next 10 countries combined, than the entire OECD or the next closest country. It's not China. It's Germany, and it's way behind us even now. But that foreign aid has to be geared towards our foreign - to our national interests. We need to design a State Department that delivers on that.

Yes, we canceled a bunch of contracts in USAID. Some were stupid and outrageous. Others didn't serve the national interest. And others we kept. And we are folding it under the Department of State. And you know why? Because we want it to be part of the toolbox of foreign policy, not a standalone. It is not charity. Foreign aid is not charity. It is designed to further the national interests of the United States.

So we will do humanitarian assistance. We will do food assistance. We will do developmental assistance. And we will do security assistance. But we will do it driven by our embassies and our regional bureaus. Because what those issues mean look very different in Guatemala than they may in Chad or in Kenya or in some other part of the world in the Indo-Pacific.

And so one of the things that we have tried to do in our reorganization is drive power and influence on policy making and decision making to the regional bureaus and ultimately to our embassies. Our embassies, our ambassadors, are the front line of American foreign policy. The most important thing I do every single day is not read memos, it's read cables. Every night I get 10, 15 select cables from stations around the world, different embassies. The best ideas in that building come from the ground up from our embassies.

Now, I want to tell you something else. Look, I did serve in the Senate for a long time, so this is a new job to me. When I got there, I'd get a memo. I still get these memos. I should have brought one today. In order for an idea to reach me, a decision to reach the Secretary of State, some of these things have to be checked off by 40 people, 40 boxes. And if any one of these people has a question, they can hold it up before the idea even ever gets to me. Now, that sounds like a crazy thing to begin with. We can't afford it in the 21st century. We have to be able to move very quickly. And a case in point is what happened last week.

Syria, under a new authority - granted, people with some checkered background - is on the verge of collapse, potentially. And if it collapses, it will devolve into civil war. And civil war will mean that it will become a playground for ISIS and other jihadists, not to mention Iranian influence coming back in. So there's no guarantee that by outreach and working with the transitional authority in Syria, things are going to work out. It may work out; it may not work out. But if we don't reach out and try, it's guaranteed to not work out.

And so we had to move very quickly to action that. If we had not done sanctions relief last week - and now the EU has followed suit - then our partners in the region could not have provided donor dollars so that that transitional authority could try to stabilize its governance of the country. That place could have collapsed within weeks and become an ISIS playground once again. There is no way that a traditional system could have delivered on that. It would have gone to the interagency. It would have gone to six to nine months of debate. Any individual could have held it up with an information hold, and we never would have acted. We can't afford it. The world moves too quickly. And so we need to drive policy from the ground up, from our embassies and our regional bureaus, and that's what we're doing. And that's what we're doing.

On the last point I would make about foreign aid, foreign aid has to be part of our portfolio, part of what we do, and it has to be consistent with our agenda in any region of the world or any country. And oftentimes you will find - and maybe some of you have found when you travel; you go talk to an ambassador and they will tell you - what USAID was pushing and what they are pushing in the country are not just different, they're in contradiction. And in many cases, USAID programs were undermining the mission of the embassy.

That's a fact, and I heard that over and over again. I've heard it in the Caribbean Basin and I've heard it in other parts of the world. I am not the first Secretary of State that wanted USAID and foreign aid to be under the Department of State; I'm just the first that's been able to do it. And I'm glad we've done it, and it will deliver better foreign policy and, frankly, more accountability and more oversight opportunities for your committee down the road. Thank you.

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UK stands ready to send more aid to Gaza as Minister pledges further support

Minister for Development announces new UK support for Gaza on first visit in her role to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and The Rt Hon Baroness Chapman of Darlington

Published 21 May 2025

extra UK aid announced today will support organisations on the ground seeking to get food, water and medicine to those who need it

Minister Chapman will call Israel's decision to allow just a basic amount of food into Gaza 'abominable' after an 'indefensible' 11-week blockade.

on her first visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in her role, the Minister also emphasises the need to release all Israeli hostages held by Hamas and works towards a two-state solution

Vulnerable Gazans must urgently be given full access to aid, UK Minister for Development, Jenny Chapman said today [Wednesday 21 May] on her first visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in her role.

Following the Government's calls, together with partners, for restrictions on aid access to be lifted, the UK has announced 4m of new UK humanitarian support for Gazans as the Minister reaffirms the UK's commitment to driving peace in the region.

The visit comes the day after Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced new sanctions hitting violent West Bank settlers, paused free trade agreement negotiations with Israel and called the Government of Israel's actions 'egregious' and 'intolerable'.

On her visit the Development Minister will say the limited restart of aid deliveries into Gaza is 'simply not enough' and she will urge the Israeli government to allow the unhindered provision of aid. She will say the blockade has been appalling and indefensible, particularly following an IPC report noting the entire population of Gaza is experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

The Minister will announce new UK support during a visit to a Red Crescent centre, highlighting that the UK stands ready to provide the urgent aid to those who desperately need it, while expressing frustration much of it cannot yet reach them.

Backing up words with action, the new UK support would cover essential medicines and medical supplies for up to 32,000 people, safe drinking water for up to 60,000 people, and food parcels for up to 14,000 people.

Minister for Development, Jenny Chapman said:

The lack of aid reaching ordinary Gazans is appalling. The Israeli government's failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza. The UN has warned nearly half a million Palestinians, including children, are facing starvation. The UK is clear - Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people. I have heard first hand from aid workers today of the abominable impact of this behaviour on real families. The UK has today pledged new support for Gazans but the brutal reality is most of it is stuck in limbo. We need to see an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, a surge of aid, and a path towards long-term peace.

During the first day of her visit (Wednesday, May 21), Minister Chapman has met with Palestinian Justice Minister Sharhabeel al-Zaeem, and talked to UNRWA representatives on resolving the challenges in getting aid to Palestinian communities.

Tomorrow, she is due to meet the families of hostages cruelly held by Hamas, where she will highlight the importance of an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated end to the conflict which secures their urgent release. This is the only way to deliver long-term stability in the region, and at home, as part of the Government's Plan for Change.

Background

The 4 million contribution announced today will be made to the British Red Cross to deliver humanitarian relief in Gaza through their partner the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. This support has been allocated from the 101 million set aside for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) in financial year 2025-26, announced during the official visit of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa to the UK.

UK support to the OPTs since October 7, 2023, has so far provided 405,000 patient consultations across Gaza, food aid to at least 647,000 people, and improved water, sanitation and hygiene services to almost 300,000 people.

Photos from the visit will be available on FCDO Flickr

See here for the Foreign Secretary's statement announcing sanctions on West Bank violence network and the pause on negotiations for a free trade agreement.

See here for joint statement from the leaders of the UK, France and Canada on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank delivered on 19/05/2025.

See here for joint statement from UK and 26 other humanitarian partners delivered on 19/05/2025.

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Urgent action needed to 'pull Yemen back from the brink of catastrophe'

21 May 2025 - Noor, a 16-month-old toddler, is from the Lahj governorate in the southwest corner of Yemen. A UN-partner volunteer diagnosed her with severe malnutrition - and her story became headline news when the UN relief chief recounted it to the Security Council during an impassioned briefing last week.

Tom Fletcher said that with "time and treatment" Noor was able to recover fully.

But what happens to a child such as Noor when treatments are limited and time runs out?

A group of 116 aid organizations, including 10 UN agencies, called on Tuesday for "urgent, collective action" to prevent Yemen from descending into a humanitarian catastrophe.

They warned that without such action, specifically increased funding, their ability to provide life-saving assistance will be severely curtailed.

"Without immediate action, the vital gains achieved through years of dedicated assistance could be lost," they said.

Non-stop crises

For more than a decade, Yemen has endured a series of crises - armed conflicts, climate disasters and economic decay. As a result, close to 20 million depend on humanitarian aid to survive and five million are internally displaced.

Half of all Yemeni children - some 2.3 million - are malnourished. Over 600,000 are severely malnourished, like Noor. Malnutrition also impacts over 1.4 million pregnant women, creating an intergenerational cycle.

The healthcare system is also in disrepair, with Yemen accounting for more than one-third of cholera cases worldwide and 18 per cent of related deaths. 20 per cent of children under the age of one are fully unvaccinated.

Providing humanitarian aid in Yemen has also come with extreme difficulties for aid workers, with some being arbitrarily detained, including UN staffers.

Strikes against the Hodeida port and Sana'a Airport have also damaged vital humanitarian pathways for food and medicine.

Time and treatment running out

The aid community's call for urgent action comes amidst extensive funding shortages. The Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan is less than 10 per cent funded.

"We urgently appeal to donors to scale up flexible, timely, and predictable funding for the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan," the aid organizations said.

Already, the UN and aid partners are working to minimize operational costs while maximizing aid provision and there is no doubt suffering will increase due to the reduction in aid.

In the first quarter of 2025, over five million people in Yemen received emergency food assistance, 1.2 million received clean water and sanitation services and 154,000 children were able to resume their education.

But without immediate funding, Emergency Relief Coordinator Fletcher estimates that there will be gaps in this aid as early as June or July.

Nearly 400 health facilities will be forced to stop operating, including 64 hospitals, which will impact over 7 million individuals. Funding for more than 700 midwives is also quickly drying up.

Call to the international community

While the humanitarian crisis in Yemen has been overshadowed by other vast humanitarian crises in Gaza and Sudan among other places, the 116 aid organizations emphasized that "donor support saves lives."

The 7th Humanitarian Senior Officials Meeting will be held Wednesday and should be a moment to work to avoid catastrophe in Yemen, the aid organizations urged.

"Now more than ever, swift and resolute support is crucial to prevent Yemen from sliding deeper into crisis and move towards a lasting peace," they said.

Time and treatment are running out for children like Noor.

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U.S. 6th Fleet Staff embarks USS Mount Whitney in Atlantic Ocean

US Navy

21 May 2025

From U.S. 6th Fleet Public Affairs

ROTA, Spain -- U.S. 6th Fleet conducted a staff embark on the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) from May 15-22, 2025.

During the embark, the staff and Mount Whitney's military-civilian combined crew exercised underway conditions while commanding and controlling fleet-wide distributed maritime operations.

"This embarked underway was an ideal environment to test the unique capabilities of our staff and flagship," said Vice Adm. J.T. Anderson, commander of U.S. 6th Fleet. "We've again demonstrated that we are able to command thousands of Sailors, as well as numerous ships, submarines and aircraft across a vast expanse of battlespace from USS Mount Whitney."

Unique to Blue-Ridge class ships, Mount Whitney's command and control systems allow designated staff to plan, coordinate, and direct the employment of forces to maintain mission readiness; build working relationships with Allies and partners; protect U.S. citizens and U.S. interests; and re-establish deterrence in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations.

"Mount Whitney is the most capable command and control ship to ever sail the seas because of the hard work and professionalism from Team 20," said Capt. Colin Price, the ship's commanding officer. "Our ability to support the 6th Fleet Commander and his staff to run fleet operations on day one is a testament to the outstanding teamwork from everyone on the ship and the staff."

This eight-day embark followed Mount Whitney's recent operations in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility where it supported exercise Obangame Express 2025 in Cabo Verde and conducted several port visits in Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, hosting key leader engagements with national government and military leaders to build stronger relationships.

USS Mount Whitney will also participate in exercise Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2025, an annual joint, multinational maritime-focused exercise this summer, designed to demonstrate European leadership in defending the Baltic Sea region while enhancing interoperability among Allied and partner forces.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts a full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with Allies, in order to advance security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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Russo-Ukraine War - 21 May 2025 - Day 1183

Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.

On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that since the beginning of the day, there have been 104 combat clashes, the Russian enemy launched 62 air strikes, dropping 96 KABs, also used 1218 kamikaze drones for strikes, and carried out more than 3,800 shells on settlements and positions of Ukrainian troops.

In the Kharkiv direction Ukrainian units held back six Russian attacks in the areas of Vovchansk, Kamyanka and towards Mala Shapkivka.

In the Kupians komu direction, Ukrainian warriors repelled three Russian attacks in the area of Kindrashivka, Zagrizovoye and Nova Kruglyakivka, another battle is ongoing.

Fourteen assault actions of the colonizers were stopped by Ukrainian soldiers near the settlements of Ridkodub, Grekivka, Green Valley in the direction of Novosergiyivka, Olgivka, New Peace and in the Serebryansk forest in the Lyman direction. Two more clashes are ongoing so far.

In the sivers komu direction, the Russian opponent committed two offensive actions in the area of bilogorivka, unsuccessful.

In the Kramators komu direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled three Russian attempts to advance in the area of the Time Yar and towards the Predteciny.

In the Toretsky direction, Russian forces today 12 times stormed the positions of Ukrainian defenders near Diliyivka, Friendship and Toretsk. Defense Forces steadily suppress the pressure and repelled nine Russian attacks, sharpening three confrontations.

Intensely attacks Russian forces of Ukrainian defenders in the Pokrovsky direction. Throughout the day, Russian forces committed 43 offensive actions. The activity of Russian occupiers was recorded in the areas of settlements Yablunivka, Zorya, Shevchenko the First, Nova Poltavka, Mirolyubivka, Elizabeth, Lisivka, Dachenske, Kotline, Novosergiyivka, Udaachne, Trinity, Kotlyarivka, Andriyivka and in the directions of Popovoye Yar and Novomykolaivka.

According to preliminary calculations, today in this direction Ukrainian warriors eliminated 67 Russian invaders and wounded 68. Destroyed a combat armored car, two cars, two motorcycles, 19 BPLA, one cannon and one antenna connection.

Ukrainian units repelled 15 attacks in the area of settlements Bagatir, Odradne, Shevchenko, Rivnopil, Novopil, Green Field, Free Field. Still one battle going on. Russian forces caused an air strike in the area of novodarivki.

Three times the Russian occupiers tried to advance to the positions of Ukrainian units in the area of Chervony in the Gulyaipil direction. Air strikes by unkempled aviation missiles were affected by gulyaipole and high.

In the Orihiv direction, Russian forces three times stepped on the position of Ukrainian defenders in the areas of Scherbakiv and Stepovoye. Russian aviation caused an air strike by narama on novoandriivka.

In the direction of Pridniprov, Russian units once tried to advance - did not succeed.

In the Kursk direction Ukrainian defenders repelled two attacks of the Russian zagarbnikiv, one fight is still ongoing. The Russian enemy launched 10 air strikes, using 20 KABs, also carried out 157 artillery shells on settlements and positions of the Defense Forces, including six from reactive systems of arson fire.





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Arizona National Guard's Task Force SAFE strengthens border security

By Staff Sgt. Amber Peck, National Guard Bureau May 19, 2025

NOGALES, Ariz. -- In an effort to disrupt the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, Arizona National Guard members with Task Force SAFE  Stopping Arizona's Fentanyl Epidemic  support U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Arizona-Mexico border.

"Arizona National Guard Soldiers are serving with one goal: to prevent dangerous drugs from coming into our state," said Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs during a visit to the Mariposa Port of Entry on Nov. 18, 2024. "Task Force SAFE is more than a state initiative  it's an urgent response to a real-time crisis affecting communities across Arizona."

Since its stand up in June 2024 under the National Guard counterdrug mission, Task Force SAFE has supported the seizure of more than 10 million fentanyl pills, 3,791 pounds of other illicit drugs and 16 weapons, with an estimated street value of $27.5 million, Arizona Guard officials said.

Although Arizona Guard members do not conduct law enforcement or interdiction operations, they serve as force multipliers by enhancing CBP operations with three mission sets: secondary search and scan teams, rail inspection teams and vehicle breakdown teams.

Search and scan teams help manage vehicle flow through X-ray systems, also known as Z-portals, and assist CBP with secondary inspections. Rail inspection teams support the search of commercial railcars entering the U.S. Vehicle breakdown teams assist with documenting, cataloging and dismantling vehicles when smuggling is suspected.

These support roles enable CBP agents to focus on frontline law enforcement duties.

"We allow more agents that are from CBP to be on that primary inspection lane, that initial contact, because we're manning the traffic going through the Z-Portals," said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Benjamin Mason, the noncommissioned officer in charge of ports-of-entry operations. "We've made a good relationship with CBP. We haven't had issues and have supported our CBP partners with the utmost professionalism."

Supervisor CBP Officer Sam Johnson, a spokesperson with CBP's Nogales Ports of Entry, said the Arizona Guard presence has eased staffing constraints.

"With them, we're able to have more lanes open and traffic is able to move more freely," she said. "We're not having as long of a wait time because they're here to take up those spots that the officers aren't having to do."

One Arizona Army National Guard member, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, described the daily impact his team has on CBP.

"We help in areas where they may take two extra officers out of the line to do something in particular. So, we take over those roles in order for them to be more productive out there because they're already short staffed."

For many Arizona Guard members, the mission is meaningful and gives them a strong sense of purpose.

"It's pretty fun and rewarding work because we get to catch illegal stuff coming through or things that aren't supposed to be in the country," said an Airman on the mission whose name is also withheld for security reasons. "My main motivator is knowing that I'm helping to make the community a little safer by keeping those drugs out of the streets."

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New Hampshire Army National Guard Hosts 2025 Cyber Yankee Training Exercise

By Sgt. Kelly Boyer, 114th Public Affairs Detachment May 20, 2025

PEMBROKE, N.H. -- The New Hampshire National Guard hosted more than 300 participants from the military, government, private industry, and state partnership countries for a two-week cyber defense exercise May 5-16 at the Edward Cross Training Complex in Pembroke.

Now in its 11th year, Cyber Yankee 2025 simulated a large-scale cyberattack on critical infrastructure across New England.

"As global cyber threats continue to escalate, exercises like Cyber Yankee remain essential to U.S. national defense," said Lt. Col. Dupuis, chief information officer for the New Hampshire Army National Guard and exercise director. "With our expanding scope of threats, growing list of partners, and emphasis on real-world applicability, Cyber Yankee stands as a model for whole-of-government cyber response."

The scenario, conducted within a Department of Defense standardized training platform, revolved around unattributed cyberattacks on fictional utilities. In the first week, participants received role-specific technical training. In the second week, five joint and multinational blue teams defended simulated infrastructure networks while interacting with role-players acting as corporate CIOs and IT staff.

Red team adversaries provided realistic opposition, while white team observers ensured training remained focused and adaptive.

"This exercise has been a really valuable experience," said Spc. Jonathan George, a cyber operations specialist with the NHARNG's 136th Cyber Security Detachment, who recently transferred from the infantry. "I'm learning a ton. It's great to be part of a large-scale event that feels realistic and put my knowledge into practice."

For the first time, U.S. Space Force participated.

"It's been very validating to see that our technical capabilities are up to par," said 1st Lt. Kayla Santos, deputy mission planning cell chief with the 65th Cyberspace Squadron. "This exercise has given us the opportunity to operationalize what we've learned."

"Even more valuable has been learning how to report up, manage information, and communicate effectively across larger, joint teams," she added. "That's been huge for a small, newly structured unit like ours."

Other participants included the U.S. Marines and National Guard cyber units from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts also played key roles.

Private sector and National Guard state partners Albania, the Bahamas, El Salvador, Israel, Kenya, Paraguay, and Uruguay enhanced realism and strengthened multinational collaboration, Dupuis said.

"This exercise is really about building two critical things: communication and trust," said Maj. Gen. Terin Williams, special assistant to the director of the Army National Guard for cyber matters and keynote guest. "When the bad day comes, it's the relationships forged here, across military, civilian, and international partners, that will make us ready and able to respond together."

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Justice Department Seizes Domains Behind Major Information-Stealing Malware Operation

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

For Immediate Release

Office of Public Affairs

Coordinated Microsoft Actions and Court-Authorized Domain Seizures Disrupt LummaC2 Malware Infrastructure Used to Target Millions Worldwide

The Justice Department announced today the unsealing of two warrants authorizing the seizure of five internet domains used by malicious cyber actors to operate the LummaC2 information-stealing malware service.

"The Department will continue to use its unique tools, authorities, and partnerships to disrupt malicious cyber operations and criminal networks," said Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division. "Today's disruption is another instance where our prosecutors, agents, and private sector partners came together to protect us from the persistent cybersecurity threats targeting our country. We are grateful for their work and dedication."

"Malware like LummaC2 is deployed to steal sensitive information such as user login credentials from millions of victims in order to facilitate a host of crimes, including fraudulent bank transfers and cryptocurrency theft," said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "Today's announcement demonstrates that the Justice Department is resolved to use court-ordered disruptions like this one to protect the public from the theft of their personal information and their assets. The Department is also committed to working with and appreciates the efforts of the private sector to safeguard the public from cybercrime."

"The FBI is committed to disrupting the key services that cyber criminals rely on," said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of FBI's Cyber Division. "That's why, with our partners, we took action against the most popular infostealer service available in online criminal markets, which is responsible for millions of attacks against victims. Thanks to partnerships with the private sector, we were able to disrupt the LummaC2 infrastructure and seize user panels. Together, we are making it harder, and more painful, for cyber criminals to operate."

As alleged in the affidavits filed in support of the government's seizure warrants, the administrators of LummaC2 used the seized websites to distribute LummaC2, an information-stealing malware, to their affiliates and other cyber criminals. According to court documents, common targets for cybercriminals using malware like LummaC2 include browser data, autofill information, login credentials for accessing email and banking services, as well as cryptocurrency seed phrases, which permit access to virtual currency wallets. As alleged in the affidavits, the FBI has identified at least 1.7 million instances where LummaC2 was used to steal this type of information.

The government's affidavit further alleges that the seized domains, also referred to as user panels, served as login pages for the LummaC2 malware, allowing credentialed users and administrators to access and deploy LummaC2. On May 19, 2025, the government seized two domains. On May 20, 2025, as detailed in court documents, the LummaC2 administrators informed their users of three new domains that they had set up to host the user panel. The next day, the government then seized those three domains.

The seizure of these domains by the government will prevent the owners and cybercriminals from using the websites to access LummaC2 to compromise computers and steal victim information. Individuals who now visit the websites will see a message indicating that the site has been seized by the Justice Department, including the FBI.

Concurrent with today's actions and consistent with the Department's approach to public-private operational coordination, Microsoft announced an independent civil action to take down 2,300 internet domains also claimed to be used by the LummaC2 actors or their proxies.

FBI's Dallas Field Office is investigating the case.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, the National Security Division's National Security Cyber Section, and the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are handling the case.

The U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program, which is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service, offers a reward of up to $10 million for information on foreign government-linked individuals participating in certain malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Anyone with information on any other foreign government-linked malicious cyber actors or activity targeting U.S. critical infrastructure should contact Rewards for Justice via the RFJ Tor-based tip line at: he5dybnt7sr6cm32xt77pazmtm65flqy6irivtflruqfc5ep7eiodiad.onion (Tor browser required). Learn more about Rewards for Justice and their reward offers at RewardsforJustice.net.

If you believe you have a compromised computer or device, please visit the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). You may also contact your local FBI field office directly.

Topics: Cybercrime

National Security

Components: Criminal Division

Criminal - Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

National Security Division (NSD)

USAO - Texas, Northern

Press Release Number: 25-535

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U.S. administration reportedly starts deporting migrants to South Sudan

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 13:32, May 21, 2025

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration has reportedly started deporting Myanmar and Vietnamese migrants to South Sudan, despite a court order prohibiting such removals to third countries, media reported, citing court documents filed by the migrants' attorneys.

Deportees from several countries told the judge that U.S. immigration authorities "may have sent" them to Africa, said the U.S. media report.

As some countries refuse to accept deportees from the United States, the Donald Trump administration has made deals with other nations, such as Panama, to take them in.

According to court documents, an email from an immigration official in Texas confirmed the deportation of a Myanmar migrant. The man, who has limited English proficiency, was notified in that language only. His attorneys said they were informed of the deportation just hours before the flight.

A woman also reported that her husband, a Vietnamese national, was among up to 10 people flown to Africa on Tuesday morning, said the report, citing attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.

Such deportations would violate a court order requiring that individuals be given a "meaningful opportunity" to argue that being sent to a country other than their homeland would endanger their safety, the attorneys said.

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Reward of Up to $2 Million for Information Leading to Arrest and/or Conviction of Uruguayan Narcotics Trafficker and Money Launderer

US Department of State

Press Statement

Tammy Bruce, Department Spokesperson

May 21, 2025

Today, the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is announcing a reward offer under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program (TOCRP) of up to $2 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction, in any country, of Uruguayan narcotics trafficker and money launderer Sebastian Marset.

Concurrently, the Department of Justice announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging Marset with money laundering charges, stemming from the movement of drug proceeds through U.S. financial institutions. Marset is also a wanted fugitive throughout the Southern Cone of South America, charged with organized crime violations in Paraguay and Bolivia. In August 2023, Bolivian authorities announced a separate $100,000 reward offer for Marset's arrest.

The TOCRP reward offer follows the largest and most consequential organized crime investigation (Operation A Ultranza Py) against cocaine trafficking in Paraguayan history. This investigation linked a criminal network led by Marset to more than 16 tons of cocaine seized in Europe, including an 11-ton seizure at the port of Antwerp in April 2021 and another 4.7-ton seizure of cocaine in Paraguay. The investigation was conducted in coordination with Paraguay's Special Investigative Unit and Anti-Drug Secretariat (SIU-SENAD), the Uruguayan Interior Ministry, Europol, and the DEA Asuncion Country Office.

If you have information, please contact the DEA by email at MarsetTips@dea.gov. If you are in the United States, you may also contact the local DEA office in your city. The United States is also soliciting anyone with direct knowledge of Marset's drug trafficking, money laundering, and acts of violence (actual or threatened) to contact the tipline.

Today's reward offer is authorized by the Secretary under the TOCRP, which supports law enforcement efforts to disrupt transnational crime globally and bring fugitives to justice.

ALL IDENTITIES ARE KEPT STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. Government officials and employees are not eligible for rewards.

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Treasury Sanctions High-Ranking Members of Foreign Terrorist Organization Cartel del Noreste

U.S. Department of the Treasury

May 21, 2025

Cartel Engaged in Drug and Arms Trafficking, as well as Deadly 2022 Attack on U.S. Consulate

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned two high-ranking members of the Mexico-based Cartel del Noreste (CDN), formerly known as Los Zetas. CDN, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), exerts significant influence over the border region, especially near the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo point of entry. These sanctions underscore our commitment to target CDN and other violent cartels involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, and other heinous crimes that are endangering the American people.

"In working toward the total elimination of cartels to Make America Safe Again, the Trump Administration will hold these terrorists accountable for their criminal activities and abhorrent acts of violence," saidSecretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. "CDN and its leaders have carried out a violent campaign of intimidation, kidnapping, and terrorism, threatening communities on both sides of our southern border. We will continue to cut off the cartels' ability to obtain the drugs, money, and guns that enable their violent activities."

Today's action was coordinated with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). This action was also closely coordinated with Mexico's Financial Intelligence Unit, Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera.

The action was taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059, which targets the proliferation of illicit drugs and their means of production, and pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, which targets terrorists and their supporters.

CARTEL DEL NORESTE

CDN medallion possessed by members of the arms trafficking conspiracy.

CDN is a terrorist organization primarily based in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon. CDN has been involved in narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, money laundering, vehicle theft, and oil theft. They have also been involved in terrorist activity to intimidate American citizens and local communities in Mexico, including engaging in acts of extortion, kidnapping, and murder.

In March 2022, CDN hit the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo Laredo with gunfire and grenades after the arrest of a CDN member who was wanted in Mexico for terrorism, homicide, and extortion. The U.S. Consulate closed for almost a month due to this incident. This was a retaliatory act intended to intimidate the American diplomats serving their country internationally.

On February 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of State identified CDN as an FTO and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). Prior to its designation as an FTO, CDN, then known as Los Zetas, was identified by the United States as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker on April 15, 2009 pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking. On July 24, 2011, Los Zetas was named as a transnational criminal organization (TCO) in the annex to E.O. 13581. On December 15, 2021, OFAC designated CDN pursuant to E.O. 14059.

SANCTIONING KEY MEMBERS OF CARTEL DEL NORESTE

Firearms acquired by affiliates of CDN smuggled into Mexico.

Miguel Angel de Anda Ledezma (De Anda) is a high-ranking member of CDN residing in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. De Anda oversees the procurement of guns and ammunition for CDN. In this position, De Anda has overseen payments to facilitators and straw purchasers in the United States and organized the delivery of firearms to Nuevo Laredo. These straw purchasers made false representations to secure firearms from American businesses, who fell victim to the cartel's lies. Some of the weapons have been used in terrorist activity. One of the weapons purchased in this arms-trafficking conspiracy was recovered after CDN attacked Mexico's army, Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA), during one of SEDENA's patrols in March 2024.

Ricardo Gonzalez Sauceda (Gonzalez), residing in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was the second-in-command of CDN prior to his February 2025 arrest by Mexican authorities. In this capacity, Gonzalez led an armed enforcement wing of CDN. Gonzalez has benefitted from these trafficked firearms in his various criminal activities, including attacks on Mexican police and military, and drug trafficking. On February 3, 2025, Mexican law enforcement arrested Gonzalez in connection with the August 17, 2024 CDN attack on the Mexican military, which killed two Mexican soldiers and injured five. Mexican authorities indicated that, at the time of arrest, Gonzalez was in possession of a rifle, a handgun, 300 grams of methamphetamine, and a package of 1,500 fentanyl pills.

OFAC's designation of De Anda and Gonzalez was the result of strong partnership and coordination with HSI San Antonio, ATF San Antonio (Operation Southbound Firearms Trafficking Task Force), and the DEA.

Gonzalez (a.k.a. El Ricky) after his February 3, 2025 arrest in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

De Anda and Gonzalez are being sanctioned pursuant to E.O. 14059 and pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, for being owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, CDN.

Concurrent with this action, OFAC is also updating CDN's entry on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) to reflect the FTO's most current name, consistent with the February 20, 2025 U.S. Department of State designations. Administrative updates to the SDN List are important to preserving its accuracy and integrity.

SANCTIONS IMPLICATIONS

As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC or exempt, OFAC's regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.

Violations of U.S. sanctions may result in the imposition of civil or criminal penalties on U.S. and foreign persons. OFAC may impose civil penalties for sanctions violations on a strict liability basis. OFAC's Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC's enforcement of U.S. economic sanctions. In addition, financial institutions and other persons may risk exposure to sanctions for engaging in certain transactions or activities with designated or otherwise blocked persons.

Furthermore, engaging in certain transactions with the persons designated today entails risk of secondary sanctions pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended. Pursuant to this authority, OFAC can prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account of a foreign financial institution that knowingly conducted or facilitated any significant transaction on behalf of an SDGT.

Exports, reexports, or transfers of items subject to U.S. export controls involving persons included on the SDN List pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, may be subject to additional restrictions administered by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security. See 15 C.F.R. section 744.8 for additional information.

The power and integrity of OFAC sanctions derive not only from OFAC's ability to designate and add persons to the SDN List, but also from its willingness to remove persons from the SDN List consistent with the law. The ultimate goal of sanctions is not to punish, but to bring about a positive change in behavior. For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC's Frequently Asked Question 897 here, and to submit a request for removal, click here.

For more information on the persons designated today, click here.

###

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China slams U.S. missile shield plan, warns of space arms race

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for endangering the "global strategic balance and stability" through his administration's advancement of the "Golden Dome" missile defense shield program, calling on the United States to abandon the initiative.

Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled the plan on Tuesday while confirming ongoing efforts to develop a comprehensive missile defense system, which Trump claimed would be capable of "intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space."

Trump said the project would cost approximately $175 billion and become fully operational within three years.

Reacting to the announcement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday that the initiative would "heighten the risk of turning the space into a war zone and creating a space arms race and shake the international security and arms control system."

"We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying the global anti-missile system, and take concrete actions to enhance strategic trust between major countries and uphold global strategic stability," Mao added.

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Doorstop interview - Rome

Transcript

Monday 19 May 2025

Rome

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

The Hon Anthony Albanese MP

Prime Minister of Australia

KEITH PITT, AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE TO THE HOLY SEE: Well, firstly, what an incredible privilege it was to attend the Inaugural Mass for Pope Leo this morning and of course for it to also be attended by the Prime Minister of Australia the Honourable, Anthony Albanese. It was a very moving service, very well attended and it was just an incredible privilege to be able to be here in Rome as Australia's Ambassador-Designate. The Prime Minister has obviously had other work to do and there's a lot more going on around the world and without further ado, Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of Australia.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, thanks very much and thank you for the work that you've done as Ambassador-Designate during what is incredibly important time with the passing of Pope Francis, the Holy Father and the Inaugural Mass today of Pope Leo. That was such a privilege to be in attendance. It was a very moving ceremony, where he outlined his vision once again for his papacy and for the time in which he would hold this incredibly important position not just for Australia's five million Catholics, but for Catholics throughout the world, but also the holding of the position of Pope is one that provides leadership throughout the world as well, which is why it was attended by so many world leaders today, here, as a similar number that attended of course the funeral of Pope Francis. I was very honoured personally to be there, I found it an incredible privilege and it was good that Australia was represented at the highest level. And I was also very honoured to be able to have a brief discussion with Pope Leo in Saint Peter's Basilica after the mass was held. I look forward to further discussions in the near future with Pope Leo. In addition to that it was a gathering of world leaders, so I was able to have pull asides with Prime Minister Mark Carney before the mass began. We were there for some time in advance, and also to have discussions with Chancellor Merz of Germany, we hadn't met before, and also the Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Angela Rayner and David Lammy as well. I'll be catching up informally with Angela Rayner later on today. In addition to that was an opportunity to introduce myself to a range of world leaders who I hadn't met before and to have brief discussions on behalf of Australia. Since then, we've had two bilateral meetings with Ursula von der Leyen of the European Union. We spoke about the importance of free and fair trade, spoke about our respective trade representatives in our case, of course, Senator Farrell, seeing if we can advance the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement. We know that there were issues in the past over agriculture and we're hoping that they can be overcome. We also spoke about the common values that we have in defence and security, standing up for Ukraine and its national sovereignty, which led to the next bilateral meeting, of course with President Zelenksyy, who I've now met in a range of venues around the world. President Zelenksyy and the struggle of the Ukrainian people is an inspiration. The Ukrainian people are standing up not just for their national sovereignty. They're standing up for the international rule of law, and Australia stands with Ukraine. We have said we're prepared to consider any proposal, if peace can be achieved there, for a coalition of the willing, to be part of a peacekeeping force. And we discussed as well, the fact that we continue to provide military support to Ukraine, the latest example of which is the delivery of tanks to Ukraine, and we discussed the detail of that going forward. The next day as well, I expect to have further potential meetings over this evening and tomorrow before we travel back to Australia tomorrow evening.

JOURNALIST: In his remarks, President Zelenksyy talked about wanting sanctions on Russia, now Australia already applies quite a few sanctions on Russia. In that conversation with President Zelenksyy, are you looking at any other things Australia can do against Russia to try to heighten the pressure on it right now?

PRIME MINISTER: We have 1400 sanctions currently against individuals or against Russian companies. We continue to look at whatever we can do to place pressure on Russia. It's important as well that we continue to send the message to the globe that we stand with Ukraine. We, of course, have seen recently President Putin proposed a meeting in Turkiye, and then to not turn up to that meeting. That says something about whether they are genuine in seeking peace. But certainly, President Zelenksyy reaffirmed his view that he wants to see peace, of course, in Ukraine, but he also wants to be directly involved clearly in those negotiations. The United States has an important role to play as well.

JOURNALIST: The EU Commission President asked for a defence and strategic partnership to take the relationship just beyond trade. Is that something Australia's interested in and would we be looking to sign a defence partnership agreement along the lines of the ones signed by Japan and Korea with the EU? And did President Zelenksyy ask you for any further military aid and is that something we're considering putting together?

PRIME MINISTER: There were no specific requests from President Zelenksyy. He again signalled his appreciation of the support that Australia has provided up to this point. With regard to the European Union and future defence arrangements. We have, of course already a range of defence relationships including trade, including with countries such as Germany, with European countries, and we have participated previously in the IP4 together with Japan, with South Korea, with New Zealand and Australia on the sidelines of NATO. We said that we were certainly interested in any further engagement of support. But it's very early stages at this point. So we should imagine that future discussions may take place either at NATO or on a bilateral basis between Australia and the European Union.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did you speak to JD Vance while you were there?

PRIME MINISTER: No.

JOURNALIST: Did you get a chance? I mean, did you try to?

PRIME MINISTER: He arrived quite late in terms of just prior to the mass taking place, as you will have seen.

JOURNALIST: And have you reached out for a bilateral meeting?

PRIME MINISTER: No.

JOURNALIST: On Ursula von der Leyen's comments about defence, would what she's requesting, or suggesting, tighten Australia's coordination of its efforts, defence efforts with NATO?

PRIME MINISTER: Look this was just a suggestion that Ursula von der Leyen raised, we there was no detail further, just it was really an assertion of Europe's values being consistent with Australia's values, and in what ways could be explored further defence cooperation.

JOURNALIST: Can I just say, did you interpret it at least in the context of defending or helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia?

PRIME MINISTER: No, I wouldn't over-read what Ursula von der Leyen's statements were, and so I think that would be not accurate. It was a suggestion by the President that the relationship was based upon not just economic relations, but based upon our values and part of that values, is for support for international rule of law. And it's no accident that Europe has defended the Ukrainian people and so has Australia. We will stand up for their international rule of law.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on Oscar Jenkins, can you tell us what you discussed with President Zelenksyy on the case of Oscar Jenkins? Did you make any specific requests to Mr Zelenksyy to see him part of a potential prisoner swap in the future?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we did was to raise in a diplomatic way, seek Ukraine's further support for Oscar Jenkins. And certainly, we had a discussion about not just Oscar Jenkins, but other cases as well.

JOURNALIST: What did you say to the Pope when you met him?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it was a very warm discussion. I was introduced to him as the Australian Prime Minister. He expressed a warmth about Australia, and I told him that it was a great honour for me to be there. I spoke to him about my mother, is I'm sure looking down from heaven with the biggest smile she's ever had. The fact that her son was at the Inaugural Mass of a Pope in the Vatican, was quite extraordinary. So, for me it was a very personal moment as well, and it was a personal discussion. It was very warm. He expressed his affection for Australia and I told him that Australia's five million Catholics would be watching and wishing him well in his pontificate.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you think Australia will be able to secure a free trade agreement with Europe during this term of government?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, our objective is to support an expansion of free and fair trade. And during the last term of government, the deal with the UAE is perhaps the template for free trade agreements, that is in Australia's interests. I spoke in the meeting with Von der Leyen, I spoke with her about the UK agreement, which has been in both of our interests, and we will wait and see. We have indicated in the past, though, that we won't sign up to agreements that aren't in Australia's national interest.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, this is very personal experience for you, who will you be catching up with, any family while you are here on this very brief trip and also the unique opportunity to catch up with all the world leaders while you're here. You mentioned meeting some that you hadn't met before. Do you get the sense from other countries, perhaps you haven't engaged with as much, that they want to work with Australia on trade and defence, especially with the Trump Administration in the White House.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the first, I did meet up with some of my family yesterday and that was great, a great privilege. They came up to Rome and it was very nice to spend a short period of time, relative, with them. And I certainly appreciate it.

JOURNALIST: Who came exactly?

PRIME MINISTER: My brother and his wife and one of his daughters came and it was wonderful to be able to catch up with them. They're very proud that someone who shares their name, it was a really nice moment for them. I hadn't seen them since my election as Prime Minister. Others sent messages as well. I have a brother and a sister who are at Barletta, which is down in Puglia, and they have, they both have children as well, so that that was a nice moment. And?

JOURNALIST: The leaders that you -

PRIME MINISTER: Australia is, one of the things about being an Australian Prime Minister is that when you walk in a room, you start off here. Australia is really highly regarded. I think that for, the Australian people need to be proud of the way that we are seen in the world. We're straight talkers, we get things done, we're a multicultural nation. There is no nation that you meet with who doesn't say I've got a nephew, I've got someone who I went to school with, I have someone, a connection directly with Australia, that's a big plus for us. We have a stable political system. We've just witnessed an election, which, remarkably it doesn't occur everywhere in the world, where there are, there is no controversies over electoral issues or anything else. We can be really proud of what we do. We're successful in terms of our business community and what we do, our trade, when we do an agreement, whether it's business or government to government, we honour those agreements. And we punch above our weight, we're a middle power, and we sometimes I think, in Australia, sometimes we don't, we talk ourselves down a bit. And part of my job as Australia's Prime Minister, and as an optimist, is to talk Australia up. We can have an impact on the world. And the discussions that I had with people, whether they were longer ones, such as with Prime Minister Carney, or shorter ones, were all very warm. That is what we have very much in common.

JOURNALIST: PM, speaking of being a middle power, did you raise the prospect of Europe coming into the CPTPP? Australia is chairing that at the moment, if you got Europe and Indonesia, it would be a big coup in terms of building a global trade network.

PRIME MINISTER: No, what we did discuss, though, was engagement between the CPTPP that Australia's currently chairing and the European Union, just having engagement, but not, we didn't discuss membership issues, but further engagement.

JOURNALIST: Are you happy to follow that with Mark Carney tomorrow, and if not, did the Jindalee Operational Radar matter come up today?

PRIME MINISTER: Look we discussed very briefly those issues. We had a pretty warm discussion today and we talked about a further gatherings that we will have between us. Australia and Canada have a lot in common and I think we can do a lot of work together and certainly trade is one those.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, why didn't you request a meeting with the United States?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm the Prime Minister. I meet the President of the United States and that will occur at an appropriate time.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister on the Abrams tanks, President Zelenksyy, made a brief reference to them in his opening remarks. So can I say, did he seek any assurances about the timeline for when those tanks may be able to reach Ukraine and is the Government still expecting they will arrive in Ukraine at some point this year?

PRIME MINISTER: He has all of those and all that information. Obviously there's war going on, and therefore, President Zelenksyy is fully aware of the time frames and is certainly more than satisfied with them. Thank you.







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Iran and Belarus stress expanding military ties

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

Tehran, IRNA -- Army Commander Brigadier General Abdolrahim Mousavi and Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus Vladimir Nikolaevich Kupriyanyuk underline developing military cooperation.

During the meeting, the details of which were published on Wednesday, the two sides stressed the importance of reinforcing bilateral cooperation in training, experiences exchange, and the development of defense and military relations.

Defense Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh had visited Belarus on March 12, 2025, during which he emphasized the enhancement of military ties, describing it a significant step towatd strengthening bilateral relations.

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Wang Yi Meets with Chair of the National Economic Council of Indonesia Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

Updated: May 20, 2025 18:13

On May 20, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Chair of the National Economic Council of Indonesia Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan in Beijing.

Wang Yi said that President Xi Jinping and President Prabowo Subianto met twice last year and reached important common understandings on deepening the all-round strategic cooperation between the two countries, building a cooperation framework of "five pillars", including security cooperation. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Indonesia. The friendship between the two countries has withstood the test of changing international dynamics, becoming a valuable asset shared by both sides. China is ready to work with Indonesia to deepen political mutual trust, advance flagship projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor with high quality, strengthen cooperation in various fields such as ocean and minerals, and explore the potential for cooperation in emerging sectors to support high-quality development in both countries.

Wang Yi stressed that the world is currently facing the impact of the countercurrent of unilateralism, and that trade bullying actions undermine the interests of all countries. In the face of various risks and challenges, China and Indonesia should remain true to the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic relations, uphold independence, expand win-win cooperation, and safeguard fairness and justice. China congratulates Indonesia on becoming a full member of BRICS. China is ready to work with Indonesia to jointly carry forward the Bandung Spirit of solidarity and cooperation, safeguard the hard-won peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific, advance regional economic integration, and resist the impacts of unilateralism and de-globalization. The two countries will join hands to build a shared home in the Asia-Pacific, leverage the China-Indonesia community with a shared future to advance the building of a neighborhood community with a shared future, and further promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said, Indonesia and China enjoy a strong friendship. As a Chinese poem goes, "A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near", a fitting description of the close relations between the two countries. Under the joint leadership of the two heads of state, the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two sides has continuously achieved new progress. Indonesia's economic development cannot be separated from mutually beneficial cooperation with China. Bilateral cooperation has yielded fruitful results in various fields, including economy and trade, finance, technology transfer, and talent development. Landmark projects such as the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway have brought tangible benefits to the people of both countries and bilateral cooperation has also extended its benefits to neighboring countries. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference. Amity between the people holds the key to state-to-state relations, and close bonds are the foundation of amity between the people. Indonesia looks forward to strengthening exchanges at all levels with China, expanding cooperation areas, enhancing people-to-people and cultural exchanges, pushing for greater development in the Indonesia-China community with a shared future, and jointly promoting solidarity and cooperation among countries in the Global South.

The two sides also had an exchange of views on international and regional issues of common interest and concern.

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China-Pakistan cooperation across various fields very close, not directed at any third party: Chinese FM

Global Times

By Global Times Published: May 21, 2025 04:23 PM

In response to a media inquiry on Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Ishaq Dar's remarks on the future direction of the close Pakistan-China relationship and reports that China and Pakistan discussed security cooperation in the context of the recent India-Pakistan tensions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said "China has released information on the meeting. You may refer to that. I don't have more specific information to offer, but what I can tell you is that China and Pakistan are traditionally friendly neighbors, and bilateral cooperation across various fields is very close. As for the current situation you're concerned about, I can assure you that China-Pakistan cooperation is not directed at any third party."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, held talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Pakistan Mohammad Ishaq Dar in Beijing on Tuesday, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Mao said that regarding the India-Pakistan situation, during the talks with the Pakistani foreign minister, Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized that China welcomes and supports India and Pakistan in resolving their differences through dialogue, achieving a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire, and seeking fundamental solutions. This serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both sides, contributes to regional peace and stability, and reflects the common expectation of the international community.

China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in this regard, said Mao.

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China's J-10 fighter jet reshaping landscape of global defense industry: expert

Global Times

By Liu Xuanzun, Ma Jun and Liang Rui Published: May 21, 2025 11:40 PM

At the ongoing Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA 2025) in Malaysia, global aviation powers are showcasing their top-tier equipment. The J-10CE fighter jet, the export variant of the J-10C, took the center stage at the Chinese booth, shortly following its remarkable debut in real combat, captivating international visitors and military analysts who were eager to observe the aircraft.

A Chinese military affairs expert told the Global Times that China's cutting-edge equipment, represented by the J-10 series fighter jet, is profoundly reshaping the global perception of the Chinese military and China's defense industrial capabilities, even the landscape of global defense industry.

When Western media mentions the J-10 fighter jet, they often simplistically describe it as "independently developed by China." However, Chinese military affairs expert Zhang Xuefeng explains that the significance of the J-10 fighter to the Chinese Air Force and China's aviation industry far surpasses that of just a "domestically produced fighter."

Through the development of the J-10, China has mastered advanced aerodynamic configuration technologies for fighter jets, achieved breakthroughs in full-authority, triaxial, quadruple-redundant, digital fly-by-wire flight control systems and propelled the development of advanced turbofan engines. For the first time, China developed a highly integrated and digital avionics system, enhancing overall combat effectiveness. Additionally, China has established a new-generation aircraft manufacturing system characterized by digital machining, composite material construction and titanium alloy manufacturing. This has laid a solid foundation for the subsequent development of China's fighter aircraft, Zhang told the Global Times.

At the same time, the J-10 fighter jet was independently developed by China's aviation industry and possesses independent intellectual property rights, Zhang noted. After its successful development, the Chinese military was able to extensively equip itself with domestically produced advanced fighter jets. This has significantly alleviated China's security pressures and, to some extent, altered the balance of air power between China and neighboring countries and regions, advancing preparations for military struggles. Today, the J-10 series of fighter jets continues to evolve and remains actively deployed on the front lines of training and exercises, he said.

Since the official commissioning of the J-10 fighter jet in 2006, it has rapidly become a mainstay combat aircraft of the Chinese Air Force. It has frequently represented both the Chinese Air Force and China's aviation industry in various domestic and international public events and military exercises.

In 2009, the Bayi Aerobatic Team of the Chinese Air Force transitioned to the J-10A and J-10S as their demonstration aircraft. In 2023, the team upgraded to the more advanced J-10C fighter jets. Leveraging the aircraft's cutting-edge performance and the pilots' exceptional skills and supported by the YU-20 aerial tanker, the Bayi Aerobatic Team has repeatedly conducted non-stop long-distance flights to perform at international airshows. These missions serve as an emotional bridge, fostering global understanding of the Chinese Air Force and promoting peaceful friendship between China and other nations, while also showcasing China's growing aviation capabilities.

In recent years, the J-10 series fighter jets have become a star product of China's aviation industry on the international stage, frequently showcased at global defense exhibitions. The LIMA 2025 kicked off on Tuesday, and the Global Times learned that the J-10CE attracted particular attention among the exhibited items. Many visitors took photos with the model of the J-10CE.

Previously, Western experts habitually evaluated the J-10 through a biased lens, claiming that while its specifications look good on paper, it lacks actual combat experience. However, this stereotype was quickly shattered when major media outlets, home and abroad, made continuous coverages on that China's made-for-export J-10CE warplane had recently achieved its first real combat success. .

Zhang said that China's advanced fighter jets, represented by the J-10, are participating in international market competition and reshaping the global defense industry landscape with multiple advantages. Chinese fighter jets offer high cost-effectiveness. For example, India bought France's Rafale fighters at a cost of nearly $200 million per unit, including spare parts, training and support services. In contrast, Chinese fighters deliver comparable performance at a more affordable price. Moreover, China can provide a range of models at different prices tailored to the buyer's needs, better meeting the practical demands of various countries.

In the past, when people talked about Chinese fighter jets, the impression was mostly about their cost-effectiveness. But now, the J-10C has proven its true combat prowess through real-world operational experience, Zhang said.

China is capable of exporting a complete system of weapons and equipment, including advanced fighter jets and various types of airborne munitions, Zhang said, adding that China can also offer early warning aircraft and integrated data links, enabling systematic and informatized upgrades.

The development of China's advanced fighter jets, represented by the J-10 series, serves as a vivid microcosm of the country's continuous self-reliant progress in national defense and technological capabilities. It once again demonstrates China's determination, resilience, and confidence in achieving technological self-sufficiency and strength, Zhang said.

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China slams US' chip ban attempt, warns legal liability

Global Times

Seeking to exclude China from supply chain impractical, to backfire: expert

By Ma Tong and Chen Qingrui Published: May 21, 2025 11:33 PM

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Wednesday called the US attempt to globally ban advanced Chinese computing chips a typical move of "unilateral bullying and protectionism" that seriously undermines the global semiconductor industrial and supply chains, warning that any organization or individual implementing or assisting with these US measures will face legal consequences.

The US Department of Commerce recently released a guidance that, under the pretext of so-called presumed violations of US export control rules, attempts to impose a global ban on advanced Chinese computing chips, including specific Huawei Ascend chips.

The US move deprives other countries of their right to develop advanced computing chips and high-tech industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), said a MOFCOM spokesperson.

The spokesperson said the US is abusing export controls to restrain and suppress China, which violates international law and the basic norms of international relations, severely harms the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and undermines China's development interests.

The Chinese side stressed that the US measures are suspected of imposing discriminatory restrictions targeting Chinese companies, the spokesperson said, warning that any organization or individual that implements or assists in implementing these measures could be in violation of China's laws and regulations and may be held legally accountable.

The spokesperson urged the US to immediately correct its wrongdoing, abide by international economic and trade rules, and respect other countries' legitimate rights to scientific and technological development. The Chinese side will closely monitor the development of the US measures and take resolute actions to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, the spokesperson added.

The US is once again escalating sanctions against Chinese tech companies with baseless charges, reflecting its "deep anxiety" in the technological competition with China, Chinese experts said, noting that these sanctions, like previous policies, will backfire, as US chip companies will ultimately pay the price for losing Chinese market.

Futile attempts

On May 13, the US Commerce Department announced actions to strengthen export controls on semiconductors worldwide, alerts industry to the so-called risks of using China's advanced-computing ICs, integrated circuits (ICs), including specific Huawei Ascend chips, risks violating US export controls and may subject companies to BIS enforcement action, per a statement by the department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

The guidelines specifically designate Huawei's Ascend AI chips - including models 910B, 910C and 910D - as restricted items.

In recent years, the US has steadily ramped up its chip-related sanctions against China, targeting the country's advances in areas like AI and high-performance computing.

The latest US sanctions represent a further escalation in Washington's crackdown on China's tech sector, and serve as yet another typical example of its long-arm jurisdiction, Ma Jihua, a senior industry analyst, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"However, judging from BIS' guidelines, the export control measures against Chinese firms are based on speculation and lack solid evidence," Ma said. "This underscores the unjustified nature of the sanctions and also reflects the deep anxiety in the US over China's rapid progress in advanced chip technologies."

Ma pointed out that previous US attempts to suppress Chinese tech firms have largely fallen short. "Instead of being stifled, China's semiconductor industry has continued to gain momentum," he said, adding that the latest global ban is unlikely to deliver the intended results either.

Huawei's Ascend 910B AI chip has managed to surpass NVIDIA's A100 AI GPU by up to 20 percent in training performance, according to Wang Tao, chief operating officer of Huawei Ascend and Kunpeng department. Wang said that Huawei has managed to close the gap with NVIDIA's A100, per Wccftech.com, a US-based outlet on technology and gaming publication.

Japan's Mizuho Financial Group analyst Vijay Rakesh revealed that "In China, we estimate Ascend 910a/b/c potentially at 700000 units in 2025," another Wccftech report said. The report also highlighted Huawei's 910C GPU as China's DeepSeek moment for its still-fledgling semiconductor sphere.

Meanwhile, Huawei is also redefining next-generation AI infrastructure through system architecture innovation. Huang Jin, Vice President of Huawei Cloud, announced last week that Huawei Cloud has innovatively launched the CloudMatrix 384 super node, China Media Group (CMG) reported on May 17.

The system links up to 384 accelerator cards into a unified super cloud server, delivering peak performance of up to 300 petaflops, which is 67 percent higher than comparable industry offerings, per the CMG report.

"The US genuinely fears Huawei's achievement of technological self-reliance," He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Wednesday, adding that Huawei's tech breakthrough not only enables the company to reduce dependence on US technology but may also surpass US' dominance in certain fields.

He further cautioned that attempting to exclude China from the global chip supply chain is impractical and could significantly harm the interests of the US semiconductor industry and its companies. The US chip giant Nvidia also voiced opposition about the US new curb measures.

The US' export control on AI chips to China were "a failure," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, CNBC reported. Huang added that "the fundamental assumptions that led to the AI diffusion rule in the beginning, in the first place, has been proven to be fundamentally flawed."

Despite the US export controls on AI chips, the US chipmaker is seeking to build a research and development center in Shanghai that would help it to stay competitive in China, where its sales have slumped due to tightening US export controls, Financial Times reported on May 16.

Earlier in May, Huang stressed that China's AI market will likely reach about $50 billion in the next two to three years, and that missing out on it would be a "tremendous loss," per a CNBC report on May 6.

Resolve to hit back

In face of the US' abuse of exports control measures and long-arm jurisdictions, Chinese experts highlighted that China possesses both the resolve and sufficient, decisive countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate interests, if the US measures are implemented.

China unveiled regulations on implementing the anti-foreign sanctions law, comprising 22 articles, which took effect in late March 2025. According to the regulations, the country will enhance its countermeasures and the enforcement of such countermeasures.

"If the US moves forward with its hegemonic measures, China will have no choice but to respond," Shi Xiaoli, professor from the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that China has plenty of options in its toolkit that are both effective in safeguarding its own legitimate rights and interests and are in line with international common practices.

Earlier this week, a MOFCOM spokesperson said the US' move has seriously undermined the consensus reached during the high-level China-US talks in Geneva, and urged the US to rectify its wrongdoing.

The spokesperson urged the US side to work with China to jointly safeguard the consensus reached in the high-level talks in Geneva, and promote the building of sustainable, long-term and mutually beneficial bilateral economic and trade relations.

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Wang Yi on the Outcomes of the Trilateral Meeting of Foreign Ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

Updated: May 21, 2025 19:36

On May 21, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired an informal trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan in Beijing. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar of Pakistan and Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi of Afghanistan attended the informal meeting. The three foreign ministers spoke positively of the outcomes of the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue and had a friendly and in-depth exchange of views on further tapping the potential of the trilateral mechanism and advancing mutually beneficial cooperation.

Wang Yi reviewed and summarized the outcomes of the meeting. There are mainly seven points:

First, to enhance political mutual trust and uphold good-neighborliness and friendship. China supports Afghanistan and Pakistan in pursuing development paths suited to their national conditions and in safeguarding their sovereignty, security and national dignity.

Second, to give play to the role of the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue mechanism and strive to convene the sixth China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue in Kabul at an early date.

Third, to strengthen exchanges and diplomatic contacts. Afghanistan and Pakistan expressed clear willingness to

elevate diplomatic relations and agreed in principle to exchange ambassadors as soon as possible. China welcomed this and will continue to provide assistance for the improvement of Afghanistan-Pakistan relations.

Fourth, to deepen Belt and Road cooperation, promote the extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, and strengthen the building of regional connectivity networks.

Fifth, to advance practical cooperation, expand areas of cooperation, and take cooperation to a higher level. China and Pakistan support Afghanistan's reconstruction and development, and stand ready to expand trade exchanges with Afghanistan and help it enhance its own capacity for development.

Sixth, to oppose all forms of terrorism, carry out law enforcement and security cooperation, jointly combat terrorist forces of concern to each side, and stay vigilant against external interference in the internal affairs of regional countries.

Seventh, to safeguard regional peace and stability, and strive to create a sound external environment for the development and revitalization of each side.

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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning's Regular Press Conference on May 21, 2025

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

Updated: May 21, 2025 20:15

At the invitation of President of the Republic of Ecuador Daniel Noboa, President Xi Jinping's special envoy, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng, will attend President Noboa's inauguration in Quito, capital of Ecuador, on May 24.

Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will chair the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Xiamen, Fujian Province from May 28 to 29. Foreign ministers or representatives from 11 island countries having diplomatic relations with China, namely President and Foreign Minister Taneti Maamau of Kiribati, Premier and Foreign Minister Dalton Tagelagi of Niue, Crown Prince and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala of Tonga, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Lionel Rouwen Aingimea of Nauru, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Lorin S. Robert of Federated States of Micronesia, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Peter Shanel Agovaka of Solomon Islands, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade Marc Ati of Vanuatu, Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Tkatchenko of Papua New Guinea, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration Tingika Elikana of the Cook Islands, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Lenora Qereqeretabua of Fiji, and representative of the government of Samoa and Ambassador of Samoa to China Luamanuvae A. Mariner, and Deputy Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Esala Nayasi will attend the meeting upon invitation.

CCTV: To follow up on your announcement that Foreign Minister Wang Yi will chair the Third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting, can you give us more information on that?

Mao Ning: China and Pacific island countries (PICs) are comprehensive strategic partners committed to mutual respect and common development. The two sides have deepened and advanced friendly ties and cooperation in recent years. It will be the third China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the first time the meeting will be held in person in China. There will be an in-depth exchange of views on interactions and cooperation between China and Pacific island countries in all aspects and international and regional issues of mutual interest. China highly values its ties with PICs and hopes that this meeting will help drive the implementation of the important common understandings reached between leaders of the two sides, enhance solidarity and coordination, unite efforts for development and prosperity, and galvanize an even closer community with a shared future between China and PICs.

TASS: On May 20, the EU and the UK respectively announced a new round of sanctions against Russia, mainly targeting Russia's energy, military and financial sectors. This time, Chinese and UAE companies have also been included in the sanctions list. What's your comment on this? Do you think such move will help promote peace talks between Russia and Ukraine?

Mao Ning: China opposes unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law or authorization of the UN Security Council. We deplore and firmly oppose those unjustified European sanctions against Chinese companies. On the Ukraine crisis, China is committed to promoting talks for peace. China has never provided lethal weapons to parties to the conflict and strictly controls the export of dual-use articles. The normal exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and Russian companies should not be disrupted or affected. Most countries, including those in Europe and the United States, continue to trade with Russia. Those in Europe need to stop using double standard on trade and economic cooperation with Russia and hurting the lawful interests of Chinese companies. China will do what is necessary to firmly defend its lawful rights and interests.

Financial Times: Recently China's Ambassador to Israel explicitly condemned by name the Hamas' attack on Israel in October 2023. Is this China's first explicit condemnation of the attack? If so, why is China's position changed now?

Mao Ning: On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China has all along stood on the side of fairness and justice. The Gaza conflict has been dragging on for over a year and half and created a severe humanitarian crisis. It is in no one's interest to let it continue. Neither the Israelis nor Palestinians should become targets of armed attacks or collective punishment. Violence for violence will only lead to an endless cycle of revenge, and it is the civilians on both sides who will continue to suffer and bear the toll. China will continue working relentlessly with the international community for a ceasefire and the deescalation of the humanitarian situation.

AFP: President Donald Trump has announced new details of his plan to build the Golden Dome missile shield over the United States. He disclosed US$25 billion in additional funding for the plan, and said it should be operational in about three years. He also said it would deploy cutting-edge technologies across the land, sea and space. What's China's comment on this development with the Golden Dome missile shield?

Mao Ning: "Golden Dome" intends to create an unconstrained, global, multi-layer and multi-domain missile defense system. It plans to expand the U.S. arsenal of means for combat operations in outer space, including R&D and deployment of orbital interception systems. That gives the project a strong offensive nature and violates the principle of peaceful use in the Outer Space Treaty. The project will heighten the risk of turning the space into a war zone and creating a space arms race, and shake the international security and arms control system. This is yet another "America First" initiative that puts the U.S.'s absolute security above all else. It violates the principle of "undiminished security for all" and will hurt global strategic balance and stability. China is gravely concerned.

We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system, and take concrete actions to enhance strategic trust between major countries and uphold global strategic stability.

Dragon TV: In its recent report, the UN projected global growth to slow to 2.4 percent in 2025, pointing to the impact of tariff war, among others. The figure is lower by 0.4 percentage points than its previous estimate issued in January. China also released the data of its economic performance for April recently. How do you view the impact of tariffs and other external factors on the Chinese economy? Are you worried about any possible shocks to China's economy?

Mao Ning: On May 19, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on China's economic performance in April. International media characterized China's economy as exceeding expectations and resilient. It's worth mentioning that China's foreign trade has maintained steady growth despite the tariff hikes imposed on China. In the first four months, the total value of imports and exports of goods grew by 2.4 percent year on year, and exports rose by 7.5 percent, demonstrating strong international competitiveness. Meanwhile, China continues to expand opening up, providing greater space and more stable expectations for foreign businesses.

China is fully equipped, capable and confident in withstanding various risks and challenges.

PTI: My question relates to yesterday's talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Pakistani counterpart and Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Dar. Besides what has been stated in the press releases, I just would like to draw to your attention what Mr. Dar has said that the two countries have discussed the future trajectory of the close relationship between Pakistan and China. Can you just provide any details or what exactly the kind of nature of this new relationship is going to be? And also, the report spoke of the security cooperation between the two countries in light of recent India-Pakistan conflict. Can you provide some details?

Mao Ning: Regarding the talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the Chinese side has put out a readout and you may refer to that.

China and Pakistan are traditional friends and neighbors, and the two countries have very close cooperation in various fields, but the cooperation between China and Pakistan is not targeted at any third party.

As to the situation between India and Pakistan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out during his talks with the Pakistani Foreign Minister that China welcomes and supports efforts by India and Pakistan to properly handle their differences through dialogue, achieve a full and lasting ceasefire, and seek fundamental solutions. This is in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of both sides and conducive to regional peace and stability, as well as the shared expectation of the international community. As we stressed more than once, China stands ready to continue to play a constructive role to this end.

PTI: There is also report about China, Afghanistan and Pakistan meeting today. Is it a trilateral meeting? Or is there a kind of an official text to that? Can you provide some details of that?

Mao Ning: The foreign ministers of China, Afghanistan and Pakistan held an informal meeting in Beijing this morning. There will be a readout on the meeting. Please stay tuned.

Bloomberg: Just going back to the Ambassador's comments about Hamas. Does the Foreign Ministry stand by those comments?

Mao Ning: On the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, China stands on the side of fairness and justice and is committed to working for an early ceasefire and the easing of humanitarian situation.

EFE: The European Commission said yesterday they planned to impose a two-euro tax on small packages into the European Union. Most of those packages come from China via digital platforms such as Temu or Shein. They argue that those packages "represent a new challenge for control and security" for the European Union. So what is China's comment about this?

Mao Ning: I'd refer you to competent authorities for anything specific. China believes that an open and inclusive environment for international trade serves the interest of all. We hope the EU will honor its commitment to openness, provide an open, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese businesses, and create favorable conditions for China-EU economic and trade cooperation.

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Hong Kong journalists face tax audits in latest pressure on independent media

Journalists' association says 8 news outlets and 20 individuals have been targeted, casting a shadow over what's left of Hong Kong's free press.

By RFA Cantonese 2025.05.21 -- Hong Kong authorities have targeted independent news outlets and journalists with error-filled tax audits casting a shadow over press freedom in the city state, a journalists' association said Wednesday.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association said that at least eight independent media outlets and about 20 journalists and their family members have been subjected to tax audits by the Inland Revenue Department for tax claims dating back seven years.

The association expressed concern that this could further reduce the operating space for small-scale and independent news outlets in a city once known for its freewheeling media. It called for the revenue department to stop audits without clear justification and to publicly explain the rationale for what it sees as a potentially coordinated crackdown on independent journalism.

"For small outlets like ours, this is a serious reputational attack. Being accused of tax evasion is defamation. The authorities' frequent scrutiny of journalists and media organizations creates anxiety and casts a shadow over press freedom in Hong Kong," Selina Cheng, the association's chair, told a news conference.

The affected organizations include the association itself, Independent Media, The Witness, Hong Kong Free Press, DB Channel and ReNews. The targeted individuals are primarily current or former directors of news outlets, shareholders, journalists and their relatives.

Cheng said audits are riddled with errors and irregularities. Examples include demands to pay profit tax for years before a company was established; assigning business registration numbers to individuals without any registered business; and incorrectly treating all bank deposits as taxable income. In some cases, people were audited as spouses although they were not married at the time, or as dependents despite not claiming any allowances.

Cheng said the revenue department was imposing "preemptive penalties without due process." She said many journalists have limited incomes and resources to defend themselves.

In response, the Inland Revenue Department told The Associated Press in an email that it has established procedures to review the information provided by taxpayers and that it will follow up on cases in which information shows a possible breach of rules.

"The industry or background of a taxpayer has no bearing on such reviews," it said, declining to comment on any particular case.

Hong Kong has seen a shrinking in the space for independent media, particularly in the wake of mass protests for democratic freedoms in 2019 as Beijing tightened its grip on the territory. Hong Kong had been permitted more liberties than mainland China, including media freedoms, after the U.K. ceded control of the city in 1997.

Several major independent outlets in Hong Kong have been shuttered and had staff arrested since Beijing-backed security legislation was passed in 2020 and then beefed up in 2024. Radio Free Asia closed its bureau in Hong Kong in March 2024.

In the global press freedom ranking issued annually by Reporters Without Borders, Hong Kong stood at 18th out of 180 countries and territories in 2002, but fell to 148th in 2022. The city's ranking now stands at 140, between Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan.

Edited by Mat Pennington.

Copyright 1998-2025, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036. For any commercial use of RFA content please send an email to: mahajanr@rfa.org. RFA content May not be used in a manner which would give the appearance of any endorsement of any product or support of any issue or political position. Please read the full text of our Terms of Use.

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Unpaid Chinese workers protest over unpaid wages as economic woes persist

Tightening government finances impact workers around China, across multiple sectors.

By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin 2025.05.21 -- Protests by Chinese construction workers, teachers, and factory employees demanding unpaid wages have erupted across China in recent days amid rising public anger over the impacts of tightening local government finances, according to affected workers and videos posted on social media.

From China's northern province of Hebei to the southern autonomous region of Guanxi, bordering Vietnam, and its neighboring coastal province of Guangdong to the east - Chinese workers are facing the full impact of cash-strapped institutions grasping for ways to survive the economic downturn.

In an example of measures by local governments to raise funds, the village committee of Pingtang in Gushan Town, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, issued a notice stating that "sanitation management fees" and "parking fees" would be collected from all residents from May 10.

Those failing to pay on time would be subjected to additional fees and vehicles being clamped, starting from June 1. Speaking to Radio Free Asia, some locals and rights activists called the move a "blatant extortion" and "illegal." The local government said it was investigating the matter.

Last November, China's Ministry of Finance announced 10 trillion yuan (US$1.38 trillion) of new measures to help cash-strapped local governments struggling with mounting debt levels spurred by a property market slump that has crushed land transaction sales, one of their main sources of fiscal revenue.

"High local debt and tightening central policies have seriously affected grassroots fiscal operations. The most direct victims are front-line workers and contract workers," Zhang, a retired teacher from Guizhou University in Guizhou province's Guiyang city, told RFA. He wanted to be identified by a single name for security reasons.

On May 19, workers of the No. 10 section of the Yangxin expressway civil engineering project under China Railway Seventh Group Co. Ltd. gathered in front of the Branch of the Management Department and demanded they be paid their back wages, according to a video posted by a prominent citizen journalist who manages the X account @whyyoutouzhele, also known as "Mr Li is not your teacher."

"We live in a boarding house and wait every day. They have said several times that they will pay our wages, but they didn't even give a date," said one worker in the video posted on X.

In Nanning city in Guangxi, 32 construction workers have been camped outside Guangxi Power Transmission and Transformation Construction Co., Ltd. since May 16, demanding their wages.

A video posted by X user '@YesterdayBigCat,' a prominent source of information about protests in China, showed the protestors making a fire and cooking meals in large woks at the entrance of the company, suggesting they were in it for the long haul.

"Our work is hard and tiring ... but our money has been delayed. Some workers have sick family members and are urgently waiting for money to save their lives," one worker, who was among the protesters at a project site of China Communications Construction Group in Hebei province's capital Shijiazhuang, told RFA.

On May 18, the protesters held up banners to demand the long-term wage arrears due to them. The same worker told RFA that the company had repeatedly promised to pay them their wages but has failed to do so.

Workers at the Qianlima Embroidery Factory in Haimen city in the coastal province of Jiangsu resorted to protesting outside their boss's home for two consecutive days this week, but still haven't been paid, according to a video posted by @YesterdayBigCat.

Stability unraveling?

While worker protests and labor disputes are not uncommon in China, social media posts point to an uptick in protests among sectors such as education, healthcare and sanitation.

This adds to broader dissatisfaction with the economic situation. Retail sales growth and industrial production slowed in April. U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods took effect in March and increased to 145% in April, weighing on shipments and export activity. Respite came in May, after the two governments agreed to a sharp tariff reduction for 90 days to allow time for talks.

Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics said this week that the reduction in tariffs between China and the U.S. will be beneficial for bilateral trade and the global economy. He said despite external uncertainties, the "fundamental aspects of China's improving economy remain unchanged."

But the foundation for a sustained economic recovery needs to be "further consolidated" in China with the implementation of various macro policies, Fu said.

"They (the protesters) are the most vulnerable group," said Zhang, the retired teacher. "Once they speak out, they will be suppressed as 'troublemakers', but in fact they just want to survive."

"In the past, it was migrant workers and laborers who demanded wages, but now it is teachers, doctors, and sanitation workers. This shows that China's 'stable structure' is beginning to unravel," he said.

Several teachers who were employed on a contractual basis in Zaozhuang prefecture-level city in the southern Chinese province of Shandong said their salaries were six months in arrears.

"Our monthly salary is only around 3,000 yuan (or US$416), and we have been living on borrowed money for the past six months," one primary school teacher said.

Another teacher in Shanxi province in northern China said her school was demanding the return of year-end bonuses previously paid out to staff since 2021, along with a part of the pay they received for after-school activities.

These moves have caused widespread dissatisfaction, the teacher said in a post on social networking platform Xiaohongshu, known as RedNote.

Healthcare and sanitation workers face similar issues.

A nurse at a public hospital in northwestern Gansu province said her monthly salary is only 1,300 yuan (or US$180) and that her performance bonus had not been paid for four months.

Edited by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington.

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Remarks of Foreign Minister Wadephul at the 3rd European Union - African Union Ministerial Meeting in Brussels

Germany Federal Foreign Office

21.05.2025 - Speech

This is my second week as Foreign Minister. It is fair to say, I had the opportunity to hit the ground running.

And the EU AU Ministerial is a special highlight on my agenda for so many reasons.

Because I am a fervent multilateralist.

Because here I can strengthen so many long-standing partnerships and build new ones, too.

Because in a more multipolar and unstable world, characterized by geopolitical rivalries and competition, Africa and Europe are what I would call "important and neighbouring centers of gravity".

Together, we can make a difference.

And when it comes to peace and security, we need to make a difference together. Peace and security is under threat - globally, in Europe and in Africa.

I see three important points how we should not only react but act:

First, joining forces. We are affected by each other's challenges and we can only tackle them together.

EU and AU together make 40% of UN votes. I want to strengthen our peace and security partnership to defend the international rules-based order.

The principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity are attacked in Europe, in Africa and elsewhere.

We are not only neighbors. But we are also natural allies in our joint commitment to multilateralism, to democracy and to peace and security.

Second, reforming our peace and security instruments to make them fit for the future.

Germany supports the "Ezulwini consensus", the AU position on UN Security Council reform. Soon, every 5th person on the planet will be African. 70 % of UNSC files concern Africa. It is clear: Africa needs permanent representation at the horseshoe table.

The "Pact for the Future", co-facilitated with our Namibian friends, shows that we can deliver if we work together.

Germany showcased its commitment towards an effective, just and inclusive peace and security architecture by hosting the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial in Berlin last week, where I saw many of you.

And we are ready to take on more responsibility. This is why we are a candidate for the UN Security Council in 2027/28. And for me this candidature is a top priority! Once elected, we want to continue forging "African-led solutions to African problems".

Third, investing more. I know this is going against the current trend of disengagement and "doing less with less".

But let me say: "The more you spend on peace, the less you spend on war".

Germany is thus the second largest contributor to the UN system and the largest to the AU. The EU, through the European Peace Facility (EPF), has earmarked more than one billion euros for Africa since 2021.

One thing is clear: we also need to invest more in our security here in Europe. And I also encourage AU member states to do the same when it comes to the African Peace and Security Infrastructure.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Security, freedom and prosperity are at the core of German Foreign Policy.

They go hand in hand. And they are also the guiding principles for the partnerships we want to build with our African neighbors and friends. I am looking forward to our discussions today!

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Iran considering whether to attend next round of talks with U.S.: Araqchi

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

Tehran, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi says Iran is considering whether to participate in the next round of indirect talks with the United States, warning that excessive demands by Washington will jeopardize the diplomatic process.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Araqchi said Iran has already responded to the "unreasonable demands" raised by U.S. officials, stressing that such unrealistic positions will hinder progress in the negotiations.

"Enrichment will continue with or without an agreement. However, if the parties wish for transparency regarding Iran's peaceful nuclear program, we are ready. However, in return, discussions must take place about the removal of the cruel sanctions imposed because of allegations about our nuclear program, and these sanctions must be lifted," he said.

When asked about the fifth round of talks, Araqchi said, "We are assessing whether or not to participate in the next round of negotiations."

He asserted that Iran rejects excessive demands at the negotiating table, although it has never abandoned diplomacy.

U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been leading the US delegation in the negotiations, said over the weekend that no agreement would be possible unless Iran entirely abandoned its enrichment program.

On Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei rejected such demands as "excessive," and warned that the negotiations were unlikely to yield results.

3266**4353

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Iran is walling up eastern borders to improve security: Top general

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

Zahedan, IRNA -- Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri says that Iran is actively walling up its eastern borders to enhance security.

Major General Baqeri made these remarks late on Tuesday while visiting Sistan-and-Baluchestan Province to inspect armed forces stationed in the border region and monitor the progress of the border fortification.

He said that numerous military units affiliated with the Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Police Command are stationed in this province, as it remains a priority for the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

Earlier on Saturday, General Sadegh Nouri, deputy commander of the Northeast Regional Headquarters of the Army's Ground Forces, said that the construction of the border wall between Iran and Afghanistan had reached 81 kilometers in Razavi Khorasan Province.

In an interview with IRNA on Saturday, Nouri explained that the project involves the installation of prefabricated concrete walls. Over the past two years, the first phase has been completed with the construction of 120 kilometers.

According to the deputy commander, more than 22 kilometers of the concrete walls have been built, and contracts have been signed by with 16 companies to expedite the construction process.

The wall project is planned to be 953 kilometers long, with more than 300 kilometers currently under construction in the first phase in Razavi Khorasan Province, Nouri said.

He said that the unauthorized entry of Afghan migrants into Iran has significantly decreased during the implementation of the border wall project.

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Europe must bear consequences of forcing return of UN sanctions against Iran: FM

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 10:46 PM

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has cautioned the US's European allies in a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran against invoking the so-called "snapback mechanism" to re-impose the United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Speaking to Saudi Arabia's Asharq News network on Wednesday, the top diplomat emphasized that such a move would end participation by the European parties -- the UK, France, and Germany -- in the deal that is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He added that the trio's potential recourse to the mechanism would lead to significant consequences and potential irreversible escalation of tensions, referring to the likelihood of strong retaliatory steps that the Islamic Republic could take in response.

Araghchi reiterated Iran's readiness to engage in diplomacy, expressing hope that the European parties too would demonstrate determination to resolve the current impasse.

The deadlock occurred when the United States ditched the JCPOA in 2018, and returned the illegal and unilateral sanctions that the agreement had lifted.

This was followed by the European trio's failure to return the US to the accord, as they had said would do, as well as their walking in Washington's footsteps by returning their own sanctions.

In response to the betrayal, Iran began a number of legitimate and gradually escalating nuclear countermeasures.

"The situation we're in is by no means Iran's fault. It is the fault of the United States, which withdrew from the JCPOA, and the fault of the European countries that failed to compensate for the US's withdrawal," Araghchi added.

'Uranium enrichment absolutely non-negotiable'

Addressing the topic of Iran's peaceful uranium enrichment activities, the foreign minister said the activities were a principled and fundamental issue for Iran.

He emphasized that the enrichment program was a major scientific achievement developed by domestic scientists and held immense value for the Iranian people.

The official, meanwhile, paid tribute to the seven-strong Iranian nuclear scientists, who were assassinated amid their invaluable contribution to the Islamic Republic's peaceful nuclear energy program.

According to Araghchi, the victims' sacrifices towards advancement of the program had made the nuclear issue "absolutely non-negotiable."

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Iran Parliament approves strategic partnership agreement with Russia

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 4:43 PM

Iran's Parliament has approved a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty with Russia by consensus, signaling a significant step towards deepening bilateral ties between the two countries.

The 20-year strategic partnership treaty was approved on Wednesday, by a vote of 191 in favor to eight against, with two abstentions.

The agreement was signed by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow last January.

In April, Russia's lower house of parliament ratified the pact.

When the treaty was signed in January, the Russian leader said it was a "breakthrough document," and the Iranian president said it would "open a new chapter in relations between Iran and Russia in all fields."

It provides the legal framework for the long-term development of cooperation in areas ranging from defense, energy, finance, and transportation to industries, agriculture, culture, science, and technology.

Based on the treaty, Russia and Iran are committed to helping each other counter common "security threats" and exchange intelligence in that direction.

The agreement also stipulates that if either side is subjected to aggression, the other will not provide "assistance to the aggressor."

Iran and Russia, as two close and strategic allies, have deepened relations in various fields, despite heavy Western sanctions.

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Iran will never relinquish its nuclear rights, Parliament declares

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 2:56 PM

Iranian lawmakers have reiterated that the Islamic Republic will not relinquish its nuclear rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), particularly its right to uranium enrichment, rejecting US demands made during indirect talks.

In a Wednesday statement, the lawmakers referred to recent remarks by lead US negotiator Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said Iran must not have the right to uranium enrichment under any potential replacement for the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We, the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, in response to these delusional and absurd claims, declare that the United States regime is on the path of decline and is in a weak and fragile condition," the statement said.

"This regime is a supporter of both state and non-state terrorism. Domestically, it is facing popular protests in dozens of states, and internationally, it is entangled with more than 100 countries due to its imposition of tariffs and unilateral policies."

The statement said weakness on the part of the United States government has led it to retreat disgracefully in its imposed war against the resilient and valiant nation of Yemen, referring to the halt in US bombings of that Arab country.

The statement said that despite issuing severe threats against Hamas and setting deadlines over several months for the release of Israeli captives, the US ultimately had no choice but to enter into negotiations with Hamas and, in exchange for the release of a dual-national prisoner, permitted the passage of humanitarian aid trucks.

The lawmakers said US President Donald Trump needs an achievement to help secure a victory for his fellow Republicans in the upcoming Congressional elections after his failures to end the Ukraine war and other conflicts, and that's why he's negotiating with Iran.

"A regime so deeply gripped by internal crises and repeated external failures is in no position to dictate terms to any nation, especially not to the great and independent nation of Iran. The officials of the US regime are far too insignificant to issue imperatives to the ever-triumphant and dignified Iranian nation."

The statement further noted that Iran's nuclear activities and enrichment efforts are entirely legal, legitimate, and in full compliance with the provisions of the NPT and the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"According to Article IV of the NPT, each member state possesses the inalienable right to research, develop, produce, and use nuclear energy. Accordingly, the Islamic Republic of Iran is legally entitled to benefit from the entire nuclear fuel cycle, especially in the field of enrichment," the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers said Iran's confidence-building measures and repeated inspections by the IAEA have proven the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

"The Iranian nation has never sought nuclear weapons, nor does it seek them. The only regime in the world that has used nuclear weapons to massacre people in other countries is the United States, a regime that was established through land occupation and the killing and displacement of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people," it said.

The statement vowed that "the empty rhetoric of these criminals" cannot impact Iran's policies and that the lawmakers will "by no means tolerate any form of overreach or arrogant behavior from our nation's adversaries."

"By employing all available capacities, we will steadfastly defend the interests of our great nation, and our government will act in line with these laws and policies."

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FM Araghchi: Iran weighing whether to attend next talks with US

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 11:17 AM

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran is considering whether to participate in the next round of indirect nuclear negotiations with the US.

Araghchi said on Wednesday that the Iranian delegation is reviewing the proposed time and venue of the 5th round of talks even as he emphasized the country's resolve to confront excessive US demands.

His remarks came after US reports said the next round of talks was expected to take place "at the weekend" in Rome.

"We are considering whether to partake in the next round of negotiations," Araghchi said.

"We are still investigating whether useful and beneficial negotiations can be held on that date and in that location," he added.

Contradictory statements by US officials, including their demand for "zero enrichment" by Iran, has left the fate of negotiations in limbo.

Araghchi underlined that Tehran has previously responded to "unreasonable requests", saying Iran would by no means halt its uranium enrichment program.

"We have already responded to unreasonable requests, and these unusual statements do not help advance the talks," Araghchi said.

"Our position is completely clear; enrichment, whether with or without an agreement, will continue," he added.

Araghchi said, "I the parties are willing to have transparency regarding Iran's peaceful program, we are ready."

"However there must be a discussion about lifting the cruel sanctions that have been imposed due to claims about our nuclear program, and these sanctions must be removed."

On Sunday, Araghchi warned the United States against making "unrealistic demands" in talks, saying they were "completely detached from the reality of negotiations."

Iran has held four rounds of indirect talks with the US on a replacement for the 2015 deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which have been generally described as positive by the two sides.

In 2018, US President Donald Trump walked out of the landmark agreement between Iran and several other countries that gave it sanctions relief in return for confidence-building restrictions on its nuclear activities.

Iran now wants guarantees that the US will remove all the sanctions and won't again unilaterally derail the new deal.

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U.S. Findings on Iran Pursuant to the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) of 2012

US Department of State

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesperson

May 21, 2025

Pursuant to Section 1245 of the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) of 2012, the Department of State has made two findings with sanctions implications:

identifying 10 strategic materials as being used in connection with the nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs of Iran

identifying Iran's construction sector as being controlled directly or indirectly by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

Specifically, the Department of State in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, has determined that the following certain types of additional materials are used in connection with the nuclear, military, or ballistic missile programs of Iran:

Austenitic nickel-chromium alloy

Magnesium ingots

Sodium perchlorate

EDM-11

EDM-14A

EDM-15

Tungsten copper

AA2024-T351 aluminum sheets and/or tubes

ISO-68

ISO-69

Any person that knowingly sells, supplies, or transfers, directly or indirectly, these materials to or from Iran (regardless of end-use or end-user) will now be subject to mandatory sanctions.

In addition, the Department of State, in consultation with the Department of the Treasury, has determined that the construction sector of Iran is controlled directly or indirectly by the IRGC.

Any person that knowingly sells, supplies, or transfers, directly or indirectly, to or from Iran, raw and semi-finished metals, graphite, coal, and software for integrating industrial purposes will be subject to mandatory sanctions if those materials are to be used in connection with the Iranian construction sector.

The United States will continue to impose maximize economic pressure on the Iranian regime to end Iran's nuclear threat, curtail its ballistic missile program, and stop its support for terrorist groups.

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Prime Minister speaks with President of Egypt

Prime Miinister's Office - Islamic Republic of Pakistan

May 20, 2025

Islamabad: 20 May 2025.

Prime Minister speaks with President of Egypt

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif held a telephone conversation with H.E. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, this evening.

During their warm and cordial conversation, the Prime Minister conveyed his profound gratitude to President Al-Sisi for Egypt's constructive role, its balanced statements and proactive diplomacy throughout the recent crisis in South Asia that helped defuse tensions between Pakistan and India.

The Prime Minister paid rich tribute to the valiant Armed Forces of Pakistan for courageously defending the nation's sovereignty and territorial integrity and stressed that Pakistan remained committed to upholding the ceasefire understanding with India in the interest of regional peace. He also drew the Egyptian President's attention to the significance of the Indus Waters Treaty which India was threatening to hold in abeyance - a step that would constitute a red line for Pakistan.

The two leaders also discussed developments in the Middle East, particularly the alarming situation in Gaza. The Prime Minister urged the international community to ensure consistent and timely delivery of badly needed humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza. He also hoped that the upcoming UN Conference on Two-State Solution next month would yield meaningful outcomes.

While expressing satisfaction on Pakistan-Egypt relations, the Prime Minister highlighted the need to enhance bilateral trade and investment.

President Al-Sisi welcomed the ceasefire understanding between Pakistan and India, while appreciating Pakistan's efforts for durable peace and stability in South Asia. He reaffirmed that Egypt was desirous of stronger ties with Pakistan across all spheres. He also appreciated Pakistan for sending humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

The Prime Minister extended a most cordial invitation to the Egyptian President to undertake an official visit to Pakistan which was graciously accepted.

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Wang Yi Holds Talks with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China

Updated: May 20, 2025 23:00

On May 20, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar in Beijing.

Wang Yi said that China and Pakistan have maintained close strategic communication on consolidating traditional friendship, strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation, and jointly addressing challenges, which reflects the high level of bilateral relations. As ironclad friends, China will, as always, firmly support Pakistan in safeguarding its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, exploring a development path suited to its national conditions, resolutely combating terrorism, and playing a greater role in international and regional affairs. China will continue to deepen the all-weather strategic cooperative partnership with Pakistan, making the building of a China-Pakistan community with a shared future at the forefront of the building of a neighborhood community with a shared future. Both sides should work together to create an upgraded version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and promote cooperation in industry, agriculture, energy and minerals, human resource development, counter-terrorism and security, and other fields.

Mohammad Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan cherishes the brotherly friendship with China, firmly abides by the one-China principle, and supports China in safeguarding its national interests and dignity. Pakistan admires China's new development achievements, especially in innovation and scientific and technological progress, and looks forward to strengthening all-round cooperation with China. He expressed the hope for continuous and strong support from China in overcoming current difficulties and promoting national development, security and stability. Pakistan will make every effort to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.

Mohammad Ishaq Dar briefed on the latest situation following the ceasefire understanding between Pakistan and India, as well as Pakistan's considerations. He thanked China for upholding justice and making unremitting efforts and significant contributions to promoting ceasefire for peace, saying that Pakistan will resolutely safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and is willing to maintain dialogue with India to ease the situation.

Wang Yi stated that China welcomes and supports Pakistan and India in properly handling their differences through dialogue, achieving a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire, and seeking fundamental solutions. This serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both sides, contributes to regional peace and stability, and also meets the common expectations of the international community.

The two sides also exchanged views on strengthening regional cooperation and deepening coordination in multilateral mechanisms.

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Following a tragic incident on 19 May 2025 in the general area of Mir Ali, North Waziristan District, which regrettably resulted in civilian casualties, unfounded and misleading allegations have been circulated by certain quarters, falsely implicating Pakistan's security forces.

Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan

Rawalpindi - May 21, 2025

No PR-168/2025-ISPR

Following a tragic incident on 19 May 2025 in the general area of Mir Ali, North Waziristan District, which regrettably resulted in civilian casualties, unfounded and misleading allegations have been circulated by certain quarters, falsely implicating Pakistan's security forces.

These claims are entirely baseless and are part of a coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the security forces' steadfast efforts in the ongoing counterterrorism operations.

In response to these accusations, a comprehensive investigation was promptly initiated. Initial findings have established that this heinous act has been orchestrated and executed by Indian sponsored Fitna Al Khwarij.

It is evident that these elementsacting at the behest of their Indian Masters - continue to exploit civilian areas and vulnerable populations as shields to conduct their reprehensible acts of terrorism. Such tactics aims to unsuccessfully sow discord between the local population and the security forces, who together remain resolute to uproot the menace of terrorism.

The security forces reaffirm their commitment to ensuring that the perpetrators of this inhuman act are brought to justice.

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In yet another cowardly and ghastly attack planned and orchestrated by terrorist state of India and executed by its proxies in Balochistan, innocent school going children bus was targeted today in Khuzdar.

Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan

Rawalpindi - May 21, 2025

No PR-166/2025-ISPR

In yet another cowardly and ghastly attack planned and orchestrated by terrorist state of India and executed by its proxies in Balochistan, innocent school going children bus was targeted today in Khuzdar.

After having miserably failed in the battlefield, through these most heinous and cowardly such like acts, Indian proxies have been unleashed to spread terror and unrest in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhawa.

As per the initial reports, three innocent children and two adults have embraced Shahadat and multiple children have sustained injuries.

Having failed in the Operation Bunnianum Marsoos and being hunted by military and law enforcement agencies, these Indian terror proxies are being employed as a state tool by India to foment terrorism in Pakistan against soft targets such as innocent children and civilians.

Use of terrorism as a state policy by Indian political government is abhorent and reflective of their low morality and disregard of basic human norms.

Planners, abettors and executors of this cowardly Indian sponsored attack will be hunted down and brought to justice and heinous face of India will be exposed infront of the entire world.

Pakistan Armed Forces with support of brave Pakistani nation, stand united to uproot Indian sponsored terrorism from Pakistan in its all manifestations.

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Explosion Near School Bus in Balochistan Kills 5, Including 3 Children

By RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal May 21, 2025

At least five people, including three children, were killed and 35 others injured when an explosion occurred near a school bus in Balochistan Province, a vast mineral-rich province in southwestern Pakistan that has been the scene of a simmering separatist insurgency for nearly a quarter-century.

The Pakistan Army's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the blast on May 20 occurred near the Rakhshan Hotel in the Zero Point area of the Khuzdar district.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but there have been a number of armed attacks and bombings recently in Balochistan that have been claimed by Baluch separatist militant groups.

The rise in violent attacks in the strategic region bordering Afghanistan and Iran and home to the marginalized Baluch minority has highlighted the region's fragility.

On March 16, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group pursuing Balochistan's secession from Pakistan, claimed an attack on security forces in the remote district of Noshki.

Pakistani officials said the attack, a suicide truck bomb, killed three soldiers and two civilians. But the BLA claimed the attack killed 90 soldiers.

A week before that, the group declared a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and others hijacked a passenger train in Balochistan's historic Bolan Pass.

The unprecedented attack, even by the standards of Pakistan's violent recent past, went on for more than 36 hours.

The rising violence marked a significant escalation at a critical time for Pakistan as the Muslim nation of 250 million people reels from unrest spurred by an escalating insurgency that also involves the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State-Khorasan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Analysts say the BLA has turned from a nationalist insurgent group into a highly sophisticated, disciplined militant group.

Adding to the problem, the government has failed to eliminate political and economic instability in the impoverished region where literacy and development levels are low.

Pakistan has blamed Afghanistan's Taliban government and its regional archrival India for the rising violence.

Officials have frequently blamed the easy availability of sophisticated US arms left behind in Afghanistan. Groups such as the BLA and TTP now use sophisticated night-vision goggles, sniper rifles, and other military gear possibly acquired from Afghanistan.

Kabul and New Delhi have rejected Islamabad's claims they are responsible for the attacks.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/several-killed-children- balochistan-explosion-pakistan/33420190.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Four children dead in 'horrific' attack on school bus in Baluchistan: UNICEF

21 May 2025 - An "horrific" attack on a school bus in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province on Wednesday which left six dead - including four children - has been condemned by the UN children's agency.

The attack which left others wounded, took place in the district of Khuzdar, about 250 kilometres south of Quetta, Balochistan's provincial capital. The area has long been troubled by separatist insurgency and militant activity.

Deadly journey

The school bus, which was reportedly transporting students to a Pakistani military-run school, was completely destroyed in the explosion that occurred around 10 kilometers from the centre of Khuzdar. News reports said more than 40 students were on board when it was targeted by a vehicle-borne explosive device.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) strongly condemned the horrific attack, calling for an end to the devastating violence.

"Earlier today, children in Balochistan set out on what should have been a routine journey - eager to begin another day of learning alongside friends," the agency said.

Instead, they were caught in a brutal act of violence. Young lives, dreams, and futures shattered. Families devastated. The physical and emotional scars left for child survivors to bear."

Never target children

According to news reports, no militant group has claimed responsibility so far for the bus bombing.

"Children are not, and must never be, the targets of violence," UNICEF said. The agency extended deepest condolences to the families impacted, reiterating that simply going to school should never be a "dangerous act" for any child.

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MFA statement on devastation of Polish monument at War Cemetery in Miednoje

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Republic of Poland

21.05.2025

It has been with concern that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received information from the Polish Embassy in Moscow about the devastation of a Polish monument at the War Cemetery in Miednoje. We strongly demand that the Russian side restore the cemetery to its original condition immediately.

Low-relief representations of the War Order of Virtuti Militari and the Cross of the 1939 September Campaign have been hacked off a cemetery monument. The Polish embassy received information about the current condition of the site from members of the local Catholic clergy and the Polish diaspora.

It must be stressed that the monument was not vandalised. It was altered by the decision of the Putin-controlled Office of Public Prosecutor for Tver Oblast. According to that authority, the said symbols are against Russia's federal law on commemorating the victory of the Soviet nation in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The prosecutor's office purports that the war began in 1941.

It must be remembered that the Miednoje cemetery is a burial site for victims of the 1940 Katyn Massacre, a mass execution of 6300 Polish officers, members of the State Police, and officials from the Ostashkov camp shot in the back of the head by the NKVD. For years, the Soviet Union authorities wanted to hide this crime and falsify the truth.

We regard this outrageous provocation not only as an attempt to interfere in Poland's presidential election, but as a typical Russian ploy to change history: to distort the historical fact that it was Stalin's Russia, together with Hitler, that invaded Poland on 17 September 1939.

It is all the more outrageous that at the same time Putin's Russia is restoring the cult of a man who authorised the murderJoseph Stalin. A cult whose victims were not only Polish prisoners of war, but above all the Russians and other nations of the USSR.

We demand that the Russians immediately restore the cemetery to its original condition. We demand that the Institute of National Remembrance respond and act on this matter.

We would like to recall that numerous Russian cemeteries throughout Poland feature Russian symbols and decorations of the Great Patriotic War.

The current Russian authorities once again prove that they have no respect not only for history, but also for the dead.

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In Italian Court, Another Verdict Looms In Saga Of Artyom Uss's Great Escape

By Mike Eckel May 21, 2025

After Artyom Uss, a Russian businessman and son of a powerful Kremlin-connected governor, escaped from Italian house arrest two years ago, investigators spent months honing in on a motley Balkan crime gang that smuggled him home to Russia.

The trail of evidence led from the suburbs of Milan to Zagreb, to Belgrade, and to the sprawling Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, where Uss hailed from. US prosecutors, who had indicted Uss on charges of smuggling Western military technology and issued an arrest warrant, were involved.

Uss has since dropped out of public view. So has the group that allegedly abetted his escape. A Bosnian man was released from Croatian custody after cooperating with Italian prosecutors. A Serbian man who mysteriously joined a Russian expedition to the North Pole also gave testimony.

Now comes the latest development in the saga: A Geneva-based Russian lawyer named Dmitry Chirakadze is set to be sentenced by a Milan court for his alleged role in organizing Uss's March 2023 escape. A verdict could come as early as May 22.

In closing arguments earlier this month, Milan prosecutors requested a 5  year prison sentence for Chirakadze, who has been in custody since being arrested in Rome in June 2024 as he arrived from Sardinia. He is reportedly an owner of a luxury hotel on the Italian island.

The lead prosecutor, Giovanni Tarzia, did not respond immediately to an e-mail from RFE/RL seeking comment.

The son of Aleksandr Uss, then the governor of the massive Russian region of Krasnoyarsk, Artyom Uss, was arrested at the Milan airport in October 2022, a month after a US grand jury secretly indicted him on smuggling charges.

Along with a Russian business partner and four others, Uss was accused of using a German company to smuggle military and dual-use technologies to Russia in violation of Western sanctions -- including the kinds of electronics that later showed up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Uss was held, pending an Italian court ruling on the US extradition request. He was held not in police custody but under house arrest, living in a townhouse in a housing development south of Milan.

In March 2023, days before he was set to be extradited, Uss escaped from house arrest, breaking an electronic monitoring bracelet. He was driven across Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and into Belgrade, where he later flew to Moscow and later to Krasnoyarsk.

The escape embarrassed Italian authorities. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the circumstances behind his flight deserved further scrutiny. It also infuriated US prosecutors, who had warned Italian counterparts that Uss was a flight risk.

In the months that followed, Italian investigators and US authorities identified a group of seven men and women from Bosnia, Serbia, and Slovenia who were alleged to have organized Uss's escape.

A Bosnian man was indicted by US prosecutors in December 2023 in connection with the escape and arrested in Zagreb. He later cooperated with the Italian investigation and was released. A Slovenian man was arrested by Slovenian police on an Italian warrant in January 2024 and was later released.

Also implicated was a Serbian businessman named Srdjan Lolic who joined a Russian expedition to the North Pole in April 2023, less than a month after he allegedly helped Uss escape. He traveled via Krasnoyarsk.

While at the North Pole, Lolic was seen dancing along with the region's vice governor, and he also bragged about dining with Aleksandr Uss, the governor, and attending an Orthodox mass with him.

Lolic could not be reached for comment.

After resigning as Krasnoyarsk's governor, Aleksandr Uss became a lawmaker in Russia's upper house of parliament.



In June 2024, meanwhile, Chirakadze was flying from Sardinia to Switzerland, when he was detained at Rome's airport by Italian police.

In addition to owning a luxury resort in Sardinia, Chirakadze owned a hunting estate in Krasnoyarsk. In Russia, he is also known for his part in establishing Pravo.ru, an online legal publication and resource popular with the Russian legal community.

In closing arguments earlier this month, Tarzia, the lead Milan prosecutor, told the court that Lolic had testified via video conference from Serbia and implicated a now-deceased Russian lawmaker from Krasnoyarsk.

According to the Milan newspaper Correiere Della Serra, Lolic testified that the dead lawmaker contacted Lolic and asked him to meet with Chirakadze, who prosecutors said was the lead mastermind behind Uss's escape.

Chirakadze's defense lawyer, Tatiana Della Marra, did not respond to e-mail inquiries.

Uss could not be located for comment. However, his Russian lawyer told the business newspaper Vedomosti that Chirakadze was not involved in the escape, and he accused Italian authorities of "hostage taking."

"Chirakadze was organizing Artyom's legal defense, and obviously could not have had anything to do with his escape from house arrest," Aleksei Tikhomirov was quoted as saying.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-uss-escape- italy-chirakadze/33420399.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Rubio on US, Russia: Absence of Dialogue Between Biggest Nuclear Powers 'Irresponsible'

Sputnik News

20250521

The absence of dialogue between the two largest nuclear powers, the United States and Russia, would be "irresponsible," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.

"[I]rrespective of Ukraine, there has to be some level of communication between the United States and Moscow. It's frankly irresponsible to not have the two biggest nuclear powers on the planet communicating, which was the case for three years. That doesn't mean we're going to be allies," Rubio told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

Putin Is an Undeniable Leader of Russia

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that President Vladimir Putin is an "undeniable" leader of Russia.

"Correct," Rubio told a House Foreign Affairs Committee when asked if Putin is an "undeniable" leader of Russia.

When asked if Russia could potentially bomb the US into oblivion, Rubio affirmed that Russia possesses the largest arsenal of strategic and tactical nuclear weapons in the world.

Currently, the United States has 1,419 strategic warheads deployed, while Russia has 1,549, both positioned on various bombers and missiles, and both countries are in the process of modernizing their nuclear delivery systems.

At the same time, Russia has a total of 5,580 nuclear warheads, while the United States has 5,225 warheads, according to the Arms Control Association.

No Military Guarantees for Minerals Deal

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that there are no military guarantees to Ukraine under the minerals deal with the United States.

"There are no military guarantees," Rubio stated during the congressional hearing.

Status of the Taliban Under Review

The United States' classification of the Taliban movement as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) is "once again" under review, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday.

"I believe that classification is now once again under review. As you know, we have had some success over the last few weeks in getting some Americans that were detained [by the movement] released," Rubio told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing when asked whether the State Department is planning to classify the Taliban as an FTO.

 Sputnik

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Russia, US Need to Resume Contacts on Strategic Stability - Kremlin

Sputnik News

20250521

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the foreign policy issues, including the stategic dialogue with the US and the Ukrainian crisis, including the ongoing prisoner exchange talks.

Ceasefire conditions coming - each side will draft its own terms. No delayswork on the Russia-Ukraine memo is moving fast and quiet.

"We welcome help, but no leaks" - Russia appreciates third-party mediation but insists: real diplomacy happens behind closed doors.

"9 for 9" prisoner exchange talks ongoing - Contacts with the US are progressing, but timing remains unclear.

Strategic stability in shambles - Kremlin urges rebuilding the shattered legal framework between Russia and the US.

No Vatican deal yet - Moscow hasn't received concrete proposals on Ukraine talks, and no location set for negotiations.

Russia, Ukraine negotiating massive "1,000 for 1,000" prisoner swap.

Russia will protect its interests in the Baltic shipping sector by all available means, including harsh measures

"As recent events related to the attempted pirate attack on one of the tankers have shown, Russia has actually shown that it is capable of responding quite harshly," Peskov told reporters, adding that Moscow will protect its interests in the Baltic shipping sector by all available means.

 Sputnik

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Russia Invites US to International Security Forum in Moscow - Security Council

Sputnik News

20250521

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has sent invitations to the US and a number of unfriendly states to the 13th international forum on security issues, which will be held in Moscow at the end of May, Deputy Secretary of Russia's Security Council Alexander Venediktov told Sputnik.

"I would like to point out that invitations to the conference were sent, among others, to the US and a number of unfriendly states, whose representatives are also expressing interest in participating, despite the overtly anti-Russian policy," Venediktov said.

The Russian Security Council said on Monday that over 125 delegations from more than 100 countries had confirmed their participation in the 2025 edition of its annual security forum, scheduled to take place in Moscow from May 27-29.

The 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues will be chaired by Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei Shoigu.

of Russian-Serbian relations." "In fact, the current visit of President Vucic marks the start of a new phase of work with Serbia regarding the possible placement of nuclear power plants in Serbia," he noted.

 Sputnik

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Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan on the lifting of all economic sanctions against Syria

Germany Federal Foreign Office

20.05.2025 - Press release

At today's Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, the EU member states agreed to lift all economic sanctions against Syria.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul commented as follows today (20 May 2025)

The European Union wants to embark on a fresh start with Syria. That is why we are lifting further sanctions, in particular in the economic sphere - including those against Syria's central bank. We are thus giving the Syrian Government a chance, but we also expect it to pursue inclusive policies within the country which extend to all sections of the population and religious groups. Syria has always been a diverse country. It is important to us that this will enable a united Syria to take charge of its own destiny.

Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan stated today (20 May 2025)

This is a moment of hope and a new beginning for the people of Syria. To ensure a fresh start in Syria that is peaceful and successful, it is crucial that the economy recovers and that people can meet their basic needs. Lifting the sanctions will increase Syrian society's ability to help itself. A successful new start in Syria also requires strong international support. Many countries are ready to provide this. And Germany will also do its part: alongside the German Government, there are many people with Syrian roots, from doctors to business-owners, who are willing to invest or contribute their skills. In my previous role as Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery, I built contacts with the Syrian diaspora in Germany, and I will draw on these as Development Minister. The engagement of Syrian people living in Germany is a huge opportunity for the new beginning in Syria. And this engagement will be much easier in future without sanctions.

Further information on the lifting of sanctions:

As part of its eight-point plan for Syria following the toppling of the Assad regime, the German Government proposed early on to the EU the gradual suspension of certain sectoral sanctions, in particular the first de-listings in the spheres of transport and energy as well as the indefinite extension of humanitarian exemptions. This was adopted by the EU's Foreign Affairs Council on 24 February 2025. The German Government has welcomed the US announcement that sanctions against Syria are being lifted and has always worked in this direction in bilateral talks.

The current second round of EU sanctions waivers is partly due to a German initiative and resulted in today's decision by the EU Foreign Ministers to lift the economic sanctions against Syria. The de-listing of key economic enterprises in the critical fields of energy and finance was also agreed.

Security-related sanctions will remain in place, as will those specifically targeted against the chemical weapons programme and those connected to the Assad regime.

Information for the Syrian diaspora on how to get involved

There are almost a million Syrians living in Germany. Many of them can and want to get involved in Syria's reconstruction following the fall of the Assad regime. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has set up the platform https://www.bmz.de/en/new-beginning-syria. It contains information on how to get involved in Syria's reconstruction, what support the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is providing and a networking portal. Those who sign up to the portal receive regular updates and can get into contact with other engaged stakeholders. Exchange formats on individual issues and series of events have already been launched. This week, for example, an information event on the lifting of the sanctions is being organised via the platform. Almost 500 stakeholders are now registered on the platform.

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Iran: Continued Israeli attacks on Syria must be condemned

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

May 21, 2025

New York, IRNA -- Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amir-Sa'eed Iravani has stressed that the continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by the Israeli regime is a clear violation of international law and Security Council Resolution 497 (1981).

He said that the repeated attacks of the Israeli regime, including the May 2 airstrike near the presidential palace, must be strongly condemned, adding that these actions threaten regional peace and have been made possible with the support of the United States.

The full text of Iravani's speech is as follows:

Statement by

H.E. Mr. Amir Saeid Iravani

Ambassador and Permanent Representative

of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations

Before the United Nations Security Council

On "The situation in the Middle East: (Syria)"

New York, 21 May 2025

Thank you, Mr. Minister.

We welcome your presence and thank you for chairing this meeting.

We appreciate Mr. Pedersen, the Special Envoy, and Mr. Rajasingham, Director of the Coordination Division, for their insightful briefings.

Mr. President,

On the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, I wish to make the following points:

First, Iran welcomes the growing international acknowledgment that humanitarian and reconstruction aid in Syria must not be politicized.

We note the recent announcements to lift and suspend unilateral sanctions by the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. These steps, though long overdue, are positive.

The suffering of the Syrian people should not be used for political purposes. We call for the full and unconditional lifting of all unilateral sanctions.

These illegal measures violate the UN Charter and international law. Today, more than 16 million Syrians need urgent help. Any easing of sanctions must lead to real and immediate improvements in their lives.

It must also support the return of refugees and help rebuild Syria's economy and infrastructure, paving the way for lasting peace and stability.

Second, Syria has the right and responsibility to maintain peace and security throughout its territory. However, its security remains fragile due to the ongoing foreign military presence and illegal occupation, especially in the northeast and south.

The continued occupation of the Syrian Golan by Israel clearly violates international law and Security Council resolution 497 (1981). Israel's repeated attacks, including the 2 May airstrike near the presidential palace, must be firmly condemned.

These acts threaten the region's peace and are made possible by U.S. support. We strongly reaffirm that Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected.

All foreign forces that are illegally in Syria must withdraw immediately and unconditionally. It is evident that only the Israeli occupying regime stands to benefit from the fragmentation and instability in Syria.

Its persistent acts of aggression, repeated violations of international law, and continued expansion of occupation are clearly aimed at perpetuating a state of permanent instability in the country.

Third, as a close neighbor, Iran emphasizes the need to fight all forms of terrorism in Syria, especially the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs). We are deeply concerned about reports that FTFs are being relocated from Syria to other conflict areas. This could increase instability in the region and pose serious risks to neighboring countries.

The Security Council must remain alert and respond through strong and effective measures. We welcome the PKK's announcement to disarm and regard it as a significant step toward rejecting violence and enhancing regional stability.

We express hope that other affiliated armed and terrorist groups, including PJAK, will follow this path, contributing to lasting peace and security in the region.

Forth, the people of Syria have suffered from foreign occupation, terrorism, and economic pressure. We emphasize that Syria's future must be decided by Syrians alone, without outside interference or imposed solutions.

Any political process must be led and owned by Syria, in line with Security Council resolution 2254. Iran fully supports the UN Special Envoy, Mr. Geir Pedersen, and his efforts to promote an inclusive process.

This process must respect Syria's sovereignty and proceed without foreign pressure. In this context, Iran supports the dialogue between the Syrian interim authorities and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as an important step toward national integration.

We encourage inclusive engagement and dialogue that ensures equal rights for all Syrians.

I thank you, Mr. President.

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US warns of Syria's collapse without embracing rebranded al-Qaeda

Iran Press TV

Wednesday, 21 May 2025 9:09 AM

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has appealed for further American and regional support for the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-led administration in Syria to ward off its "potential collapse " amid the ruling regime's suppression of minorities.

Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio issued the warning about the possible collapse of the HTS regime of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani while defending the removal of US sanctions on Damascus and urging deeper American involvement to prevent another war in Syria.

"Given the challenges they're facing, are maybe weeks  not many months  away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up," the US secretary of state said.

Rubio stressed that sanctions relief "will not suffice," urging "congressional action or a broader strategy" to stabilize the country after 14 years of war.

The US official said sanctions relief could enable "neighboring countries to begin to assist the transitional authority to build governance mechanisms that allow them to actually establish a government, unify the armed forces under one banner and the like."

Underlining the necessity of US engagement with the HTS-led administration in Syria, Rubio said, "If we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it is guaranteed to not work out."

Acknowledging concerns about Jolani, a US-designated terrorist, and members of Syria's transitional authority, he said, "The bad news is that the transitional authority figuresthey didn't pass their background check with the FBI."

Rubio also said a more stable Syria that did not serve as a "launchpad for attacks" against Israel would be an "extraordinary achievement" for the Tel Aviv regime's "security."

The US diplomat made the comments after a series of bloody attacks by the HTS administration on the Alawite and Druze minorities in Syria following the ouster of Syria's democratically-elected president Bashar al-Assad led by the militant group in December last year.

Since the start of March, hundreds of Alawite families have been massacred by HTS forces under Jolani's command and dozens of young Alawite women have been kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by the former Daesh and al-Qaeda militants.

The HTS violence also extended to Druze villages south of Damascus, where heavy clashes have been reported.

On a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, US President Donald Trump announced a lifting of Assad-era sanctions and met with Jolani, the HTS leader who is now Syria's transitional president.

Clad in a suit and complimented by Trump as a "young, attractive guy," Jolani was until recently on a US wanted list over terrorist affiliations.

The 42-year-old Jolani was in prison in Iraq for years on charges of belonging to the al-Qaeda terrorist outfit after the 2003 US-led invasion of the Arab country. He is still under US and UN sanctions for his ties to the terrorist group, which the American officials confirmed to have been established by the then administration in Washington.

Trump's removal of anti-Damascus sanctions came after Jolani expressed readiness to normalize ties with Israel.

Last week, Israeli media reported that a delegation from the HTS-led administration in Syria made a secret visit to the occupied territories to hold direct talks with Israeli officials.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently described how the Israeli military helped the HTS takeover of Syria in December.

Since Assad's ouster, Israel has conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syria and occupied large swathes of territory in the country, in addition to the Golan Heights, which it occupied during the Six-Day War in 1967.

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Humanitarian Needs Remain Immense, Growing in Complexity across Syria, Senior Official Tells Security Council, Noting Shortfalls in Funding

Meetings Coverage

Security Council

9920th Meeting (AM)

SC/16066

21 May 2025

Several Delegate Calls on Israel to Cease Actions That Violate Syria's Sovereignty, Threaten Regional Peace

The security and humanitarian situations in Syria remain precarious, top UN officials told the Security Council today, urging an end to sectarian violence  particularly involving Alawite and Druze communities  and warning of a deepening economic crisis and financing shortfall that is preventing vital humanitarian aid from reaching those in need.

Geir O. Pedersen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, welcomed recent announcements by the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions on Damascus and commended support from regional countries, notably Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Qatar. But, despite these "historic developments", "Syria faces significant structural challenges, with an economy ravaged by over a decade of war and conflict, and a host of other destabilizing factors".

He welcomed the announcement by interim authorities to establish the National Commission for Transitional Justice and the National Commission for Missing Persons. "The creation of a dedicated commission for missing persons attests to the centrality of this issue in the Syrian national experience, which has impacted almost every Syrian household," he said. Moreover, the creation of a transitional justice commission is another "essential stepping-stone" in Syria's recovery from conflict and restoration of Syrians' right to truth and justice.

He welcomed the Syrian Women's Advisory Board's first meeting in Damascus since its inception in 2016, expressing support to the organization's promotion of women's political participation. Urgent legislative reform is critical to rebuilding Syria's political consensus, State institutions and creating the necessary frameworks on the economy, justice, political parties and elections.

Mr. Pedersen recalled that in late April, tensions dramatically escalated in Druze-majority residential areas in Damascus' suburbs and then on the outskirts of Sweida Governorate. "The violence caused dozens of casualties amongst civilians, armed Druze factions and State security personnel, with reports of mortar and heavy-weapons fire into Sweida," he said. Clashes eventually subsided, but tensions remain, with fresh reports of rocket attacks into Sweida last night.

While welcoming Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa's statement on 2 May which prioritized "dialogue and cooperation within the framework of national unity", he said many concerns remain. Alawite students in the coastal regions are reportedly "dropping out of school due to ongoing security threats". Turning to Israeli air strikes in Syria, he stressed that Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity must be respected. He also expressed concern at reports of recent attacks on Hmeimim Airbase and ISIL's escalating attacks in various areas in recent weeks, with signs of more coordinated operations.

"Humanitarian needs remain immense across the country, and they are growing in complexity," reported Ramesh Rajasingham, Head and Representative of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Director of the Coordination Division. Currently, 16.5 million Syrians need protection and humanitarian assistance, over half of the population is food insecure and more than 670,000 people have been displaced since November 2024  including some 15,000 displaced between 30 April and 6 May from rural Damascus due to violence in Druze-majority areas.

However, despite these and other challenges, he said that "humanitarian operations continue and progress is being made". More than 1,000 aid trucks have entered Syria from Turkiye since the start of 2025  "a seven-fold increase compared to last year, as cross-border access remains a cost-effective modality", he noted. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) successfully vaccinated 3.4 million children in April, and the World Food Programme (WFP) reaches over 1.5 million people each month with critical food assistance.

While stating that "the Syrian interim authorities continue to facilitate our vital humanitarian work", he reported that only 10 per cent of the $2 billion appeal to reach 8 million of the most vulnerable people in the first half of 2025 has been funded. "The consequences are already visible and will become more so as time passes and as funding cuts take hold," he said, underscoring: "Funding shortfalls do not mean that humanitarian needs disappear." Welcoming the plan by the United States to lift sanctions  as well as the European Union's recent decision to do so  he stressed: "The Syrian people have shown resilience, but they cannot endure this crisis alone."

In the ensuing discussion, Council members recognized Syria's historic opportunity to achieve progress and prosperity and to be a factor of stability for the wider region. Georgios Gerapetritis, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece, whose country holds the Council presidency for May, spoke in his national capacity, calling on Syria's transitional Government to ensure full political representation for all Syrians. He further called on the Council to strongly condemn sectarian violence, culminating in the death of thousands of innocent civilians, mostly Alawites and Christians.

Speakers also welcomed the lifting of sanctions on Syria, with the representative of the United Kingdom noting that Washington, D.C.'s, move follows London's decision in April to lift economic sanctions on areas including trade, energy production and finance. "This positive step will create significant opportunity for economic recovery and development across Syria," he added. "Yesterday, the European Union also agreed to lift all economic sanctions," added Denmark's delegate. Unlocking access to private sector materials, technologies and investments will play a decisive role in Syria's reconstruction, she said. The representative of France added that, without economic recovery, "there will be no sustainable peace in Syria". "We interpret the announcement of [United States] President [Donald J.] Trump in Riyadh on 13 May as part of the same movement of support for Syria and for its economy," he said of the European Union's decision.

Unfortunately, the "plain truth" for the need to lift economic sanctions on Syria "is only now being acknowledged out loud", while Moscow has been saying it for 14 years, said the representative of the Russian Federation. Lifting sanctions is essential to restoring life-saving health and education services. He further expressed concern about the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters, emphasizing that this danger extends beyond Syria to the wider region and the world. He reaffirmed the Russian Federation's position that Syria's territorial integrity must be respected and strongly condemned Israel's air strikes across the country, which he said have paralysed the operations of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). "We must ensure that Israel returns to compliance with the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, halts its shelling of Syrian territory and withdraws its forces," he stated.

Iran's delegate emphasized that Damascus has a "right and responsibility" to maintain peace throughout its territory, but remains fragile due to illegal occupation. "Israel's repeated attacks, including the 2 May air strike near the presidential palace, must be firmly condemned," he said, adding that these acts are made possible by United States support. "Israel's continued military actions are blatant violation of international law, the UN Charter and the 1974 Disengagement [of Forces] Agreement, threatening regional peace and security," added Pakistan's delegate.

"We call on Syria to make peace with its neighbour Israel and join the Abraham Accords," said the representative of the United States. He also called on the Government to ensure that foreign terrorist fighters can no longer operate in Syria, prevent a resurgence of Da'esh and assume responsibility for detention centres and displacement camps in the country's north-east. Noting the recent pledge of sanctions relief to give Syrians "a chance at greatness", he expressed hope that the new Government will "take this opportunity to rebuild and take the country from being a source of instability to a source of stability".

Other speakers, including Somalia, who spoke on behalf of Algeria, Guyana and Sierra Leone, commended the decision by Damascus to establish a committee on missing persons. "Addressing the plight of the missing is fundamental to reconciliation and accountability," he said, also adding that "peace in Syria cannot be imposed from the outside, but must emerge from within, through a process that is truly Syrian-led and Syrian-owned". Also stressing the importance of uncovering the fate of missing persons, Slovenia's delegate emphasized that "this is one of the deepest wounds of any war, and it needs to be resolved in order to build a resilient society at peace with itself".

Panama's representative emphasized that recent episodes in the suburbs of Damascus and Homs demonstrate the "urgency for the new authorities to promote an environment of security and confidence where all communities  particularly minorities  feel that they are protected, represented and heard within the political process". The representative of the Republic of Korea added: "It is deeply concerning that additional sectarian violence has occurred merely two months after the coastal massacre". This latest episode is "particularly troubling", he said, "as it reportedly stemmed from a fabricated voice recording designed to incite intercommunal strife".

The representative of China, noting the Syrian interim authorities' efforts to gain international recognition and support, expressed hope that "they will translate commitments into real action to restore stability". However, he expressed concern over recent violence in southern Syria, calling on the authorities to ease communal tensions and guarantee the safety, security and rights of all Syrians.

Syria's delegate welcomed the decision by the United States and European Union to lift sanctions on his State. "As countries in the region and around the world extend their hands to Syria, Syrians themselves are uniting across all components and factions," he said. They are rejecting terrorism and calls for division. "They are moving forward on the path of building a future based on dignity and integrity," he added.

The new Syria is on the sincere pursuit of becoming a State of peace "not a battlefield or a platform for other countries' ambitions". He welcomed the initiative of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to provide funding for the salaries of the public sector and to back the energy sector. The decision to lift sanctions on Syria marks a long-awaited turning point. "Syrians have welcomed this decision with great hope," he went on to emphasize. The magnitude of needs in Syria requires an "exceptional international response", including coordinated and effective assistance in the removal of mines and other war remnants. He emphasized the importance of finding answers on missing persons, which a new commission set up in Syria is aiming to do. This is a part of a long process to achieve national reconciliation, uncover the truth about the crimes perpetrated by the last regime and hold perpetrators to account, he said. The Security Council should shoulder its responsibilities and take firm measures to compel Israel to withdraw from all Syrian territories. Israel's aggression towards Syria halts progress that Syria and the region aspire to, he said.

The representative of Qatar welcomed Syria's positive steps to achieve national reconciliation and "lock in" the rule of law. Spotlighting her country's continued support to Syria, she noted Qatar's help in clearing Syria's debt to the World Bank  roughly $15 million. She also welcomed the decision by the United States to lift sanctions on Syria and condemned Israel's repeated attacks on the country "in flagrant violation of its sovereignty". Saudi Arabia's delegate also detailed his country's support to Syria, welcomed announcements on the lifting of sanctions and called for an end to "Israeli atrocities in Syria and the region".

So too did the representative of the United Arab Emirates, speaking for the Arab Group, who urged the Council to "compel the Israeli occupation forces to stop these violations". And stressing that the impact of sanctions "extends far beyond the economic sphere", he welcomed announcements by the United States and the European Union regarding the lifting of such measures. The representative of Turkiye, as well, both welcomed announcements regarding the lifting of sanctions and called on Israel to "cease its actions that violate Syria's sovereignty and threaten regional peace and security".

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INTERVIEW/U.S., Taiwan drone cooperation boosts security, industry: AIT director

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 09:50 PM

Houston, May 20 (CNA) The United States and Taiwan cooperate in three key areas to develop drone technology, not only to enhance deterrence across the Taiwan Strait but also to grow the industry, American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) Director Raymond Greene, said Tuesday.

Citing the success of the Ukrainian military in the Black Sea to neutralize Russia's modern naval fleet using a combination of drones and unmanned munitions, Greene said "the defense applications of drones are critically important to preserving peace and security in the Taiwan Strait."

The de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan sat down with CNA on Tuesday for an interview in Houston, where he toured XPONENTIAL, a trade show focused on the uncrewed industry, as part of his trip to attend the 2025 SELECTUSA Summit last week with a delegation of Taiwan investors.

Greene identified military and commercial drone applications as key areas for enhanced U.S.-Taiwan cooperation when he took office as AIT director last July, expressing hope that bringing together the U.S.' R&D skills and Taiwan's manufacturing strength could help boost drone industry growth.

Asked about the latest developments on that front, Greene said the cooperation focuses on three areas: applying artificial intelligence to drone operations, supply chain integration, and investment.

Greene contrasted past military advancements -- centered on GPS and precision-guided munitions -- with the future, which he said will be shaped by the application of AI technologies to improve survivability and effectiveness.

On supply chain integration, Greene said it would allow companies on both sides to have "a trusted network" where they can quickly verify and understand that their partners are free of components or other influence from potential adversaries, like the People's Republic of China.

Meanwhile, Greene said many Taiwan companies are already looking to invest in the U.S., partly to meet requirements that a certain percentage of components for Pentagon projects be made locally, and partly because they see a growing number of potential clients as more state and local governments stop buying drones from China due to security concerns.

Furthermore, Greene noted that the use of drones goes far beyond defense, covering everything from environmental tasks to emergency response, agriculture, and scientific research.

The Taiwan delegation was composed of over 180 businesspeople from more than 130 companies, with a focus on artificial intelligence, semiconductors, in addition to drones during the trip, according to the AIT director.

Traveling with the delegation, Greene said he had the chance to visit some U.S. and Taiwanese companies, which made him appreciate how closely the U.S. and Taiwan work together across the entire artificial intelligence supply chain.

Another takeaway from speaking with both American and Taiwanese companies is "how much these three sectors are actually working together to advance the frontiers of US Taiwan competitiveness," Greene said.

All of this work leads to not only economic resilience and economic benefits for the United States and Taiwan, but also helps achieve President Trump's goal of re-industrializing the U.S, he added.

Looking ahead, Greene said that besides continuing cooperation in these three areas, there will be more focus on "advanced manufacturing."

"Taiwan has such a dynamic robotics industry," Greene said. "We think there's great opportunities to bring that sector to the United States to help further develop the U.S. industrial base."

(By Elaine Hou and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

Enditem/AW

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FM reaffirms ties with allies, enhanced dealings with non-allies

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 09:29 PM

Taipei, May 21 (CNA) Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung () said Wednesday that Taiwan's relations with all of its 12 diplomatic allies remain stable despite the fact that two of them sent representative to a forum in Beijing last week.

At a press event marking his first year in office, Lin also said that Taiwan is strengthening ties with non-diplomatic partners, including the Philippines, and doing its utmost to counter China's misinterpretation of a 1971 United Nations resolution, which it has used over the past year to claim Taiwan as part of its territory.

Reuters reported last Wednesday that two of Taiwan's diplomatic allies, Haiti and Saint Lucia, attended the Forum of China and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held on May 13 in Beijing, potentially suggesting worsening ties with Taipei.

Haiti was represented by Foreign Minister Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste and Saint Lucia by diplomat Peter Lansiquot. However, a statement from Lin's ministry clarified that Jean-Baptiste attended in his capacity as Haiti's CELAC representative, while Lansiquot was representing his political party.

In response, Lin said at Wednesday's anniversary press event that the two allies had their own reasons for attending the Beijing forum and informed Taiwan before and after it was held.

Neither representative signed the joint declaration following the Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the China-CELAC Forum, according to Lin.

Haiti sent its representative to the forum in hopes of gaining support from Beijing -- a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council -- for its call to deploy a U.N. peacekeeping mission to the Caribbean nation amid rising gang violence.

Overall, Taiwan's diplomatic ties with all 12 allies worldwide are stable, Lin said.

Commenting on Taiwan's efforts to strengthen ties with non-diplomatic partners, including the Philippines, which recently eased a decades-long restriction on official exchanges with Taiwan, Lin said that many countries maintaining official relations with China "also want to be friends with Taiwan."

According to Lin, they are questioning why both sides of the Taiwan Strait can maintain strong economic and trade relations despite political differences, while they themselves are unable to do business with both.

"So we are hoping to normalize relations with these countries," he said.

On April 15, the Philippines amended Executive Order No. 313, originally issued in 1987 by then-President Corazon Aquino to prohibit all government officials from visiting Taiwan due to the absence of diplomatic relations.

Under the revised policy, the travel restriction now applies only to the Philippine president, vice president, and the secretaries of foreign affairs and national defense, while other officials are permitted to visit Taiwan for economic, trade, and investment purposes.

At the press event, Lin also reiterated Taiwan's position on two recent incidents in Africa: South Africa's unilateral demand for Taiwan to relocate its representative office out of the administrative capital, Pretoria, and Somalia's refusal to allow Taiwan passport holders to enter or transit through the country, with both citing U.N. Resolution 2758.

Lin said that China is apparently behind both countries' decisions by pressuring the two countries to belittle Taiwan.

Taiwan will hold its ground, Lin said, because Beijing has launched a worldwide campaign to misinterpret the U.N. resolution, which could one day be used as an excuse to invade Taiwan.

"Once the PRC establishes the pretense that Taiwan is part of China, it would make invading Taiwan a Chinese internal affair," the minister said.

Resolution 2758 was adopted by the 26th U.N. General Assembly in 1971 to address the issue of China's representation at the international body, resulting in the Republic of China (Taiwan) losing its seat at the U.N. to the People's Republic of China (PRC).

The PRC has used the resolution as a basis to claim it has sovereignty over Taiwan.

Taipei has repeatedly emphasized that the 1971 resolution makes no mention of Taiwan. It neither determines that Taiwan is part of the PRC, nor does it authorize China to represent Taiwan within the U.N. system.

Lin, a former transportation minister, legislator, and mayor of Taichung, was appointed as Taiwan's top diplomat by President Lai Ching-te () and assumed office alongside Lai and his Cabinet on May 20, 2024.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/AW

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INTERVIEW/AIT director optimistic about Taiwan-U.S. tariff talks

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 05:26 PM

Houston, May 20 (CNA) Raymond Greene, the de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, has expressed optimism about trade negotiations between Taipei and Washington that were prompted by Trump's announcement of sweeping import duties on America's trading partners.

"I'm confident that ultimately we will come to a conclusion and come to create a system that is much fairer to American workers, but also benefits our major trading partners, especially trading partners like Taiwan," Greene said during an interview with CNA in Houston.

Greene, who serves as director of the American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) Taipei Main Office, was in Houston heading a delegation of more than 100 representatives from Taiwanese companies. The visit was part of broader efforts to encourage more Taiwanese investment in the United States.

The AIT director declined, however, to offer specifics on the bilateral talks -- including a timeline -- saying only, "As far as I understand, the discussions are going quite smoothly."

Despite concerns from some in Taiwan that Taiwan-U.S. relations would be overshadowed by Trump's pledged tariffs, Greene said bilateral ties remained "extremely robust."

The two sides have continued to work closely to strengthen security capabilities, enhance social resilience and promote economic development, said Greene, who took office last July.

In early April, U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration would impose "reciprocal" tariffs on imports from about 185 countries and territories, including a blanket levy on Taiwanese goods of 32 percent.

Trump later suspended the tariffs for 90 days and imposed a reduced 10 percent duty on most countries instead.

Negotiations between the two sides have followed, with Taiwan presumably seeking to bring down the tariff rate by pledging increased investment in the U.S. and greater purchases of American goods, though details of what has been discussed are scarce.

The Trump administration has said in the past week it will be unilaterally imposing new rates on trading partners in the next two to three weeks because it lacks the ability to negotiate individual trade deals with over 100 countries at once.

It is not yet clear if Taiwan will be among them.

Commenting on cross-Taiwan Strait relations, Greene expressed concern over China's aggressive actions against Taiwan and urged both sides to try to engage in dialogue to resolve their disputes.

"We are worried about gray-zone activity," he said of coercive actions that stop short of direct military conflict or war, adding that China had also exerted increased pressure on Taiwan in the diplomatic, military, economic and legal spheres.

Washington "oppose[s] any use of force or coercion to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait or Taiwan status," Greene said, adding that "preventing a conflict in the Indo-Pacific or the Taiwan Strait from breaking out is an absolute top priority for us."

"That's why we're so focused on fulfilling our Taiwan Relations Act requirement to provide Taiwan with the defense materials and services it needs to preserve peace and security in the Taiwan Strait, as well as to maintain sufficient deterrent capabilities by the United States to deter conflict," he said.

(By Elaine Hou and Teng Pei-ju)

Enditem/ls

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Breaking with precedent, no mention of Taiwan by U.S. at WHA

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 04:29 PM

Taipei, May 21 (CNA) United States Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. did not mention Taiwan in his pre-recorded speech Tuesday at the World Health Assembly (WHA), ending support for Taiwan's participation at the WHA by the U.S. representative since 2017.

In a pre-recorded address during the 78th WHA, the annual meeting of the World Health Organization's (WHO) decision-making body, Kennedy explained why the U.S. was pulling out of the WHO, which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies.

"Like many legacy institutions, the WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest, and international power politics," Kennedy said in his address.

"[The} WHO under pressure from China, suppressed reports at critical junctures, of human-to-human transmission," he said.

He also took the opportunity to ask other countries to follow his country's decision and to invite "my fellow health ministers around the world into a new era of cooperation."

"Let's create new institutions or revisit existing institutions that are lean, efficient, transparent and accountable," Kennedy said.

"Whether it's an emergency outbreak of an infectious disease or the pervasive rot of chronic conditions that have been overtaking not just America but the whole world, we're ready to work with you," said Kennedy, a known vaccine skeptic who has linked, without evidence, autism to vaccines.

The U.S. is set to officially withdraw from the WHO in January 2026 after the WHO received a formal letter of withdrawal from the Donald Trump administration in January 2025.

Trump has long charged WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of covering up China's responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic, while also calling the WHO "corrupt" and saying the U.S. was paying more than its fair share to the organization.

During his first presidency, Trump removed the U.S. from the WHO in 2020 but withdrawal requires one year of advance notice. His successor Joe Biden took office six months later and revoked Trump's action before it ever took effect.

The Republic of China (ROC), Taiwan's official name, left the WHO in 1972 following a decision by U.N. members to expel the ROC and recognize the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the only "legitimate representative of China."

Since then, Taiwan has been unable to attend the WHA even as an observer due to Chinese pressure, except from 2009 to 2016, when relations with China were warmer under Taiwan's then-Kuomintang (KMT) government and Beijing supported Taiwan's participation.

Since 2017, Taiwan has worked closely every year with its diplomatic allies and friendly nations, including the U.S., Japan and the European Union, to push its bid to participate in the WHA, without success.

U.S. has voiced its support for Taiwan's WHA bid at every annual WHA meeting in Geneva since 2017.

Asked if Kennedy's failure to mention Taiwan in his address meant that Washington no longer supports Taipei in joining the WHO, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) reiterated the U.S. long-held stance over the issue.

"The United States will continue to advocate in support of Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations," an unnamed AIT spokesperson told CNA, even though the U.S. itself remains determined to pull out.

"On January 22, 2025, the United States informed the U.N. secretary general of its intent to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO)," the spokesperson said.

The reasons cited in the statement were "its mishandling of COVID-19, its inability to reform to become effective, its inability to demonstrate independence from political influence of WHO Member States, and China's demonstrated political influence over science and policy within the organization."

Asked about the U.S.' looming departure from the WHO, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung () said at a Friday press conference in Taipei that U.S. support for Taiwan remained unchanged, as its membership in the organization is valid until the end of the year.

He also said Taiwan would be the first to join any alternative global health framework Washington creates.

(By Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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China must see invading Taiwan as not worth the cost: Marco Rubio

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 02:34 PM

Taipei, May 21 (CNA) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday (U.S. time) that deterring a conflict initiated by China over Taiwan requires making the cost "more than what it's worth" for Beijing.

Rubio made the remark in response to a question from Republican Senator John Cornyn, who warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed the People's Liberation Army to "be ready to take Taiwan" by 2027.

"In essence, it has to cost more than what it's worth," Rubio said, alluding to Beijing's ambitions to annex the island.

"Deterrence is the key," Rubio said, adding that "deterrence obviously begins with Taiwan's own self-defense capabilities."

"The harder they are to take militarily, the more time I think they buy for themselves," he said.

He called for "a credible regional deterrent" involving Japan and other allied countries, and said European allies were showing greater interest in the Indo-Pacific.

He added that at a NATO foreign ministers gathering in Turkey last week, several member states raised concerns about how a potential conflict in the region could affect Europe.

Cornyn also voiced concern that the U.S. and its allies may not be adequately prepared for a conflict with China over Taiwan.

Rubio, who officially serves as the principal advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump on all foreign affairs matters, said that when America responds to conflicts in Europe or the Middle East, resources are pulled from the Indo-Pacific.

"We would like to be able to do all things everywhere, but the fact of the matter is, there are finite resources, and there's only 24 hours in every day," he said.

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing later the same day, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked if the way the U.S. "ends the war in Ukraine with Russia" could affect China's calculus on Taiwan.

"I think the way we end the war [in Ukraine] could impact how China views it," Rubio replied, without elaborating.

(By James Thompson and Chung Yu-chen)

Enditem/ls

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Chinese exercises around Taiwan invasion 'rehearsals': U.S. commander

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 01:31 PM

New York, May 20 (CNA) The head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel J. Paparo, has warned that on-and-off Chinese military exercises around Taiwan are not drills but "rehearsals" for a potential invasion and that China is on "a dangerous course."

A Wall Street Journal article published Tuesday reported on a recent event in Hawaii "attended by the U.S. and more than two dozen allies to sharpen their ability to jointly fight against Beijing."

One of the speakers was Paparo, a four-star admiral who oversees U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific, who laid out a scenario of how to counter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan after warning that "China is on a dangerous course" and that its large-scale drills around Taiwan were "rehearsals, not exercises," the WSJ reported.

He said the key to an initial stage of a U.S.-Sino showdown over Taiwan would be "to neutralize China's radar sites, missile launchers and command centers that hold off the U.S. and its allies," according to the WSJ.

China has several types of antiship missiles, a sizable lead in advanced hypersonic weaponry and edge in its proximity to Taiwan, but the addition of U.S. precision-strike missiles that can sink ships is a "gamechanger" that "alters China's risk calculus," Paparo was cited as saying by the WSJ.

"So too do a pair of agile forces working closely with U.S. allies near Taiwan that can hit Chinese targets from land, collect valuable battlespace information and create openings for U.S. air and naval forces to maneuver," the WSJ said.

Paparo is known for coining the term "Hellscape" strategy to defend a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait.

He first used the term during a conference in June 2024 and reiterated it during a U.S. congressional hearing in Washington in April 2025.

The strategy is that as soon as Chinese forces begin moving across the waterway separating China and Taiwan, allied forces would deploy numerous unmanned submarines, unmanned surface ships and aerial drones to prevent the advancement of PLA troops.

China has conducted more extensive military drills, including in areas surrounding Taiwan, since its response to then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in in early August 2022.

The most recent large-scale exercises were the two-day "Strait Thunder-2025A" drill last month in parts of the Taiwan Strait conducted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command.

These exercises were to serve as "a stern warning" to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

Also Tuesday, Republican Congressman Zach Nunn posted on X (known formerly as Twitter) a clip of an interview he did with Falun Gong-affiliated New Tang Dynasty Television on his recent discussion with Paparo on what the U.S. would do should China decide to invade Taiwan.

Nunn said in his interview that given that 90 percent of the world's advanced semiconductors are produced in Taiwan, a decision by China to embargo, blockage or outright invade Taiwan could result in "economic destruction that would rot over the entire world."

"We're talking about things we haven't seen since World War Two, economic GDP collapses. No one wants to see this happen, including the American people, or candidly, the Chinese people," Nunn said.

"So we need to have a real world assessment of what needs to happen," he said.

During his recent meeting with Paparo, Nunn said he was told that Washington has a "minute by minute approach to how to deter, how to stop and how to respond if a Chinese incursion was made in a military sense, upon the island of Taiwan," but Nunn offered no other details.

(By Tony Liao, Chung Yu-chen and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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China accused of pressuring Solomon Islands minister to quit IPAC

ROC Central News Agency

05/21/2025 10:37 PM

Sydney, May 21 (CNA) A civil anti-corruption group in the Solomon Islands has suggested China influenced local media to exert political pressure leading to the withdrawal of a government minister from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a coalition critical of China and supportive of Taiwan.

Solomon Islands Minister for Rural Development Daniel Waneoroa announced on May 11 his withdrawal from IPAC -- a global cross-party alliance of more than 240 lawmakers from 27 countries that focuses on China-related trade, security and human rights issues, according to a government statement released that day.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ) both reported on the announcement and raised questions about whether political pressure from China led to the withdrawal.

The Chinese Embassy in the Solomon Islands denied those allegations, according to both media outlets.

Transparency Solomon Islands, a nonprofit organization committed to fighting corruption and promoting accountability and good governance in the Solomon Islands, told CNA that China's denial was not enough to dismiss its involvement in the affair.

Ruth Liloqula, the organization's chief executive, pointed to the island nation's official statement, which cited both China and Taiwan in explaining Waneoroa's withdrawal from IPAC.

The statement from the Solomon Islands government described the move as a gesture of unity and inclusive leadership, while reaffirming the government's commitment to the "One China" principle.

That principle recognizes Beijing's claim -- strongly denied by Taipei -- that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Liloqula said Beijing, for instance, had provided the Solomon Star, a major English-language daily in the Pacific island nation, with equipment worth hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars.

She added that China also sponsored trips for Solomon Star reporters to visit the PRC and produce favorable coverage.

According to Liloqula, the Solomon Star contributed to public pressure ahead of Waneoroa's withdrawal from IPAC, including with a May 3 commentary that claimed his role in the China-focused group conflicted with the government's "One China" policy.

She said these reports were essentially Chinese propaganda and suggested people may think the current Solomon Islands government under Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele is under Chinese influence.

The Solomon Islands government switched diplomatic relations from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in September 2019, prompting Taiwan to cut ties with the Pacific island nation that has a population of around 800,000.

"Beijing's purpose is to diminish Taiwan's international presence, hurt the Taiwanese people, and gradually suppress and eliminate Taiwan's sovereignty," a statement published by Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at the time.

(By Chiu Te-chen and James Thompson)

Enditem/ASG

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US Wants London to Increase Defense Spending to 3% of GDP by 2029

Sputnik News

20250521

The United States wants the United Kingdom to increase its defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2029, thus becoming an example for other European countries, The Times newspaper reported.

In February, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. His government commissioned a major Strategic Defense Review, which senior UK officials told British media would commit the country to increasing the spending further to 3-3.5% of GDP. In 2024, the UK spent 2.3% of its GDP on defense.

Washington believes that Starmer's plans to increase defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 are not enough, the report said on Tuesday. In addition, a source close to the Strategic Defense Review reportedly told the newspaper that British top military officials believe a "lot more" money should be allocated to the country's defense ministry.

US military leaders have also privately expressed the view that the UK army is too small, the report noted.

 Sputnik

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Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna's comment on achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine

Republic of Estonia - Ministry of Foreign Affairs

21.05.2025 | 09:59

Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna's comment on achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.

"In order to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, we must increase our pressure on the aggressor and continue our comprehensive support to Ukraine. Putin has not changed his aggressive goals, and he will stop only if we can convince him by our actions that time is not on his side. Today, the foreign ministers of the European Union agreed on the 17th package of sanctions, targeting a number of vessels of the shadow fleet, which Russia is using to finance its aggression. Work on the next package of sanctions has already begun.

Our goal is and will remain to ensure, together with our allies and partners, that Russia understands that its course is doomed, ends its aggression and compensates the damage it has caused. The sooner, the better. This is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine."

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Government ensures stable financing of the needs of the Defence Forces: Prime Minister

Ukraine Government

Communications Department of the Secretariat of the CMU, posted 21 May 2025 16:23

The state consistently and fully fulfils its obligations to its citizens. This was emphasised by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a meeting of the Cabinet on 21 May.

"In four months of 2025, UAH 1.2 trillion was spent from the general fund of the state budget on priority expenditures," the Head of Government said.

He stressed that more than UAH 365 billion of these funds were allocated to pay salaries to the military, almost UAH 84 billion - to purchase equipment, weapons, ammunition, and food for the Defence Forces.

"In total, more than 60% of all expenditures of the general fund of the state budget were spent on security and defence. Full funding of the Defence Forces has been a constant priority of the Government since the first days of the full-scale invasion. The state fulfils all its obligations to our defenders on time and in full. This will continue to be the case," the Prime Minister stressed.

Denys Shmyhal also said that among the total budget expenditures, the key one was the financing of the social sector. In particular, over 4 months, the NHSU Medical Guarantee Programme has been financed by more than UAH 50 billion, almost UAH 213 billion has been allocated for social payments, benefits, scholarships, and another UAH 54 billion for community support.

The Prime Minister noted the assistance in financing the non-military expenditures of our country's partners, but at the same time stressed that russia must pay for all the damage and crimes it had caused, both through the responsibility of criminals and financially.

The Head of Government stressed that more than 27,500 applications from Ukrainians have already been submitted to the International Register of Damage Caused by russian Aggression. Applications are accepted in ten categories, including destroyed real estate, bodily injuries, loss of loved ones, torture and deprivation of liberty.

"We are working to ensure that all 45 categories of the Register of Damage are open by the end of the year," said Denys Shmyhal.

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Statement by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at Government session

Ukraine Government

Communications Department of the Secretariat of the CMU, posted 21 May 2025 15:40

Dear colleagues! Fellow Ukrainians!

We are starting a regular meeting of the Government.

Long before the outbreak of the full-scale war, we launched our deregulation policy and have accelerated it as much as possible in recent years.

As of today, we have cancelled more than 1,900 regulatory acts in various areas. A significant part of the licensing processes has been digitised. It is now possible to obtain a permit in a matter of minutes.

But we are not stopping there, and today we are approving two draft laws that scale up deregulation.

The first draft law cancels 63 permits and approvals in the fields of medicine, environment, water and forestry, agriculture, energy, foreign economic activity, education and culture.

The second draft law amends the Code of Administrative Offences and removes liability for the absence of the permits that we will cancel with the first draft law.

We hope that the Verkhovna Rada will adopt these legislative acts as soon as possible.

Together we will make an important step towards Ukrainian business.

***

Another priority of the Government is safe education for our children.

As part of the comprehensive School Offline policy, over UAH 11 billion in grants and subventions have been allocated for this year to build shelters and over UAH 2 billion for the purchase of school buses.

In 2025, together with communities, we plan to implement 185 projects to build shelters in Ukrainian schools.

Today, we are distributing another UAH 272.5 million in subventions to the budgets of twenty-one regions and the city of Kyiv.

We expect regions and communities to use these funds effectively. Our common goal is to protect every child, create a comfortable educational environment, give children space for knowledge, socialisation and development.

***

The state also consistently and fully fulfils its other obligations to citizens.

In four months of 2025, UAH 1.2 trillion was spent from the general fund of the state budget on priority expenditures.

Of this amount, over UAH 365 billion was spent on salaries for the military, and almost UAH 84 billion on the purchase of equipment, weapons, ammunition, and food for the Defence Forces. In total, more than 60% of all expenditures of the general fund of the state budget were spent on security and defence.

Full funding of the Defence Forces has been a constant priority of the Government since the first days of the full-scale invasion. The state fulfils all its obligations to our defenders on time and in full. This will continue to be the case.

Among civilian expenditures, the most important ones relate to the social sector. Over UAH 50 billion has been allocated for the NHSU Medical Guarantee Programme over 4 months, and almost UAH 213 billion for social payments, benefits and scholarships.

The state has allocated almost UAH 54 billion more to the local level to make our communities strong and capable.

Ukraine is grateful to its partners who help finance non-military expenditures and thus support our internal stability and the strength of our rear to fight the aggressor.

At the same time, we insist that russia pay for all its crimes. Not only through personal responsibility of the criminals, but also with money.

The International Register of Damage Caused by russian Aggression has already received more than 27,500 applications from Ukrainian citizens.

Currently, it is possible to submit such claims for ten categories of damage. In particular, for damage or destruction of real estate, bodily injury, death of relatives and friends, torture, and deprivation of liberty.

We are working to ensure that all 45 categories of the Register of Damage are open by the end of the year.

***

I thank everyone who stands in solidarity with Ukraine, who is fighting for a just and sustainable peace side by side with us.

I am grateful to our defenders who are protecting Ukraine and Europe from russian barbarism.

I am grateful to the Ukrainians who work for the benefit of the front and the home front.

We will stand together! We will rebuild together!

Thank you for your attention! Glory to Ukraine!

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Vice Minister K. Aleksa underlined strong military aid to Ukraine and stronger European defence capabilities

Republic of Lithuania - Ministry of National Defence

2025-05-21

International cooperation | Security and defense policy

Vice Minister of National Defence Karolis Aleksa took part in the EU Foreign Affairs Council (Defence) focussed on strengthening defence readiness of EU member states and ensuring military aid to Ukraine.

The first part of the meeting was dedicated to the possibilities of contributing to security guarantees for Ukraine, military aid and a closer cooperation between the EU and Ukraine on defence industry, as well as the need to integrate Ukraine's defence industry with the EU defence industry. Vice Minister underscored the necessity to retain the urgency and supply of military aid to Ukraine and to maintain the EU engagement in the post-ceasefire period.

"Russia is a lasting threat, therefore we need to strengthen our defence readiness, as well as to keep providing the urgent military aid to Ukraine in its ongoing defence of European security. We have to transfer to Ukraine what it requires, especially artillery ammunition, air defence systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, at our earliest opportunity. And we need to make available to Ukraine the tools of the EU defence industry. Lithuania has already committed EUR 20 million for Ukraine's defence industry and we are thinking about more," said Vice Minister K. Aleksa.

In the second part of the meeting the Ministers discussed the EU defence readiness and the need to urgently increase defence spending highlighting the necessity to ensure compatibility with NATO objectives and deliver on the Alliance's capability targets while strengthening the EU capabilities.

K. Aleksa underscored that the ceiling of defence spending had to exceed 3% of GDP if we were to fill in the defence planning gaps. Lithuania the EU effort to coordinate the EU-level implementation of joint capability projects. Jointly with Latvia, Estonia and Poland, Lithuania is developing the Baltic Defence Line and the East Shield projects. The developed countermobility measures are being built to effectively prevent enemy advance over the border from Russia and Belarus.

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Ukrainians Mourn Mother Who Died Protecting Her Child From Russian Attack Drones

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service May 21, 2025

The Russian air strike that killed Ukrainian mother Anna Yefymenko near Kyiv on May 18 was part of a swarm of hundreds of Shahed drones launched by Russia that night.

She was killed while protecting her four-year-old son, Mark, with her body after the family apartment was hit.

Yefymenko -- a 27-year-old photographer described by a childhood friend as a "very open and straightforward person" -- managed to save her son, who is being treated in a hospital.

The attack, which struck the city of Vasylkiv, south of Kyiv, was hit in a massive air attack that involved several waves of Shahed attack drones, which sparked multiple fires in the area.

During the overnight air raid, which was announced in the Kyiv region at about 11:40 p.m. on May 17, one of the targets appeared to be Vasylkiv.

Vasylkiv was under siege for several hours, with residents being warned that drones were moving in several different directions at various times, according to local reports.

Officials indicated that Russia launched 273 Shaheds, with Yefymenko the most widely reported victim.

Her husband, Serhiy, a Ukrainian soldier, posted a "farewell to my beloved wife" in social media, inviting those who knew her to gather for a memorial on May 20.

The May 18 assault was reportedly one of the heaviest drone attacks on Ukraine since February, with the Ukrainian military reporting it intercepted 216 of the drones.

The Kherson and Kharkiv regions were also hit on May 18, causing injuries, destruction, and fires in several communities, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service and local administrations.

Some 29 settlements in the Kherson region were hit, with strikes on a high-rise building, civilian homes, a cell tower, a gas pipeline, and cars.

A day earlier, a Russian air attack killed a family traveling in a minibus in Ukraine's Sumy region.

The bus was leaving the city of Bilopillya, near the Russian border, when it was hit, causing multiple fatalities, according to local reports, and prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to write that Russian forces had "committed the murder of civilians."

Seven were also wounded, suffering burns, fractures, and contusions.

Zelenskyy reiterated that he had proposed a 30-day unconditional cease-fire with Russia, a move also backed by US President Donald Trump, which has been rejected by the Kremlin.

Russia has said it is seeking international recognition of its 2014 annexation of Crimea, a move widely condemned as illegal by Ukraine and most of the international community.

Following a phone call with Trump on May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that it was still necessary to address "the root causes" of the conflict with Kyiv -- a term he uses to question Ukraine's right to exist as well as the wider post-Cold War international order.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued to ramp up its own strikes on sites throughout Russia.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-mother-killed-russian- drone-attack/33419463.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Putin Makes Surprise Visit To Russia's Kursk Region Amid Accusations of Stalling Peace Talks

By RFE/RL May 21, 2025

President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russia's Kursk region, his first since Russian troops pushed out Ukrainian troops who had been occupying parts of the region since launching an incursion last year.

Video from state television showed Putin meeting on May 20 with several groups of residents from the area, as well as with acting regional Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein.

Ukrainian troops launched the incursion in August last year in a bold attack that appeared to catch Russia off guard. Kyiv said that at one point it controlled some 1,400 square kilometers of the region. Last month Moscow claimed it had pushed out the Ukrainian soldiers to end the incursion.

Putin's visit comes amid accusations that he is stalling peace talks to end Europe's largest and deadliest conflict since World War II in an attempt to gain as much territory as possible to strengthen his hand at the negotiating table.

Last week Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held the first face-to-face talks in more than three years, in a bid to halt the fighting.

There was little progress to that end, prompting US President Donald Trump to hold a two-hour phone call with Putin on May 19 that resulted in a pledge by Moscow to prepare a memorandum with preconditions for a cease-fire, which many analysts and European diplomats said amounted to foot-dragging by the Kremlin.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on May 20 that Trump hasn't followed through on imposing new sanctions on Moscow because he "believes that right now, if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there's value in us being able to talk to them and drive them to get to the table."

The European Union and Britain went ahead on May 20 with their own packages of new sanctions on Russia, with the 27-member EU saying it is already planning another "massive" round of restrictions.

For its part, the Kremlin again denied it is dragging out the process, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters "everyone is working dynamically" toward a settlement of the conflict.

Trump has made ending the fighting in Ukraine a top foreign policy priority since taking office four months ago. In March, Trump demanded the two sides immediately agree to a 30-day cease-fire. He has repeated that demand since then, saying he would sanction any country undermining a cease-fire.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to the White House proposal, Putin has refused, demanding Kyiv agree to certain pre-conditions first, such as recognition of Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territory, the country's demilitarization and neutral status.

After the May 19 phone call, Trump appeared to indicate he is prepared to back away from the talks.

While diplomatic wrangling edges forward, both sides continue to pound each other on the battlefield.

Russian drones hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy overnight, destroying civilian buildings and cutting off power supplies.

Ukraine's military said its drones struck a semiconductor devices plant in Russia's western Oryol region, knocking out a supplier to Russian fighter jet and missile producers.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said around midday on May 21 that Russian air defenses downed three drones headed toward the capital.

The incoming drones forced Moscow's Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports to temporarily shut down, Russia's aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-surprise-visit- kursk-ukraine-incursion-peace-zelenskyy/33420283.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Ukrainian Former Yanukovych Adviser Andriy Portnov Reportedly Shot Dead In Spain

By Schemes and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service May 21, 2025

Andriy Portnov, an adviser to former pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, was reportedly shot dead on May 21 just outside of Madrid after dropping off his children at school.

A source from the Spanish National Police confirmed to Schemes, an investigative project of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, that the 52-year-old who served as deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office from 2010 to 2014 was killed in the shooting.

"Official sources confirm that the victim was shot several times as he was about to get into a car. Several people shot him in the back and head, then fled the scene into a wooded area," a police spokesman said.

A source in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine also confirmed Portnov's death to Schemes.

One of Portnov's lawyers, Hanna Kosinova, said by phone that she "can neither deny nor confirm the information."

Portnov was a senior aide to Yanukovych, who withdrew from signing Ukraine's association agreement with the European Union, a move that sparked the bloody Euromaidan protests in 2013-2014 against the scrapping of the EU deal and high-level government corruption.

Portnov, who has been under US sanctions since 2021 for alleged corruption, fled Ukraine in 2014 for Russia and reportedly then moved to Austria. It is not known when he relocated to Spain.

In 2019, Ukrainian police launched a probe against Portnov, accusing him of obstructing the professional activities of RFE/RL journalists by releasing the personal data of several members of the investigative journalism group Skhemy (Schemes) and UA:Pershy television, which were looking into his relations and dealings with current officials in the Ukrainian government.

A year earlier Ukraine's Security Service investigated him on suspicion of treason over his alleged involvement in Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The criminal case was closed in 2019.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/former-yanukovych-adviser- portnov-reportedly-shot-dead-in-madrid/33420327.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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What's Known About Ex-Adviser to Yanukovych Shot Dead in Spain?

Sputnik News

20250521

The body of Andriy Portnov, ex-adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, has been removed from the crime scene. The area remains cordoned off, with police still on-site, Sputnik correspondent reported.

Earlier in the day, Spanish police confirmed to Sputnik that Portnov was shot dead outside a school in the city of Pozuelo de Alarcon near Madrid.

"We did receive a report about his death. We have no information about the perpetrators yet," the police said.

Portnov was included in the Ukrainian database Myrotvorets (Peacemaker) as a "traitor to the motherland" in April 2015, according to the information on the Peacemaker website. He is accused of allegedly calling for murdering Ukrainian citizens and encroaching on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian website Peacemaker is known for its scandalous posts, in which it reveals personal data of journalists and other citizens, labeling them "traitors to their homelands."

Later in the day, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large on the Kiev Regime's War Crimes Rodion Miroshnik assumed that Portnov could have some information that was dangerous for Volodymyr Zelensky or someone from his entourage.

"Portnov was an influential official in the Yanukovych era. He could well have had information from the 'forgotten past' that could ruin the 'impeccable reputation' of certain individuals in the current government. Or he could have had other information that was dangerous for someone from Zelenskyy's circle or for himself," Miroshnik said on Telegram.

The assassination looks very much like an "extrajudicial execution," he added.

"It is hard to believe in the random nature of a murder with a control shot to the head, as well as the lack of connection with the Zelensky regime," Miroshnik added.

Meanwhile, Spanish newspaper 20minutos reported that Spanish investigators did not rule out a connection between Portnov's murder and the conflict in Ukraine.

There is, however, another line of enquiry, which links the murder to organized crime, the report said.

 Sputnik

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Putin's Trip to Kursk Sends Clear Power Message to Western Elites - Experts

Sputnik News

20250521

Vladimir Putin's visit to Russia's border region shows that the country has restored the status quo and is ready for any scenario, Ali Baydoun, a Lebanese expert on international relations, tells Sputnik.

"The Russian army regrouped, reclaimed occupied territory, and can now intensify pressure on Ukraine."

"Europe should pursue political-economic deals with Moscow, not sanctions, to stabilize its own situation."

Putin's visit is indeed a statement that Russia won't back down or compromise even in the wake of recent talks, agrees Algerian political science professor Radwan Bouhidel.

"Like Trump, Putin knows the war won't end militarily, but the Russian leader looks for a political solution and wants to start talks from a position of strength and he is not ready for any concessions," the expert stresses.

 Sputnik

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Putin Visits Russia's Kursk Region

Sputnik News

20250521

Prior to this, the Russian president visited the Kursk Region on March 12. At the time, he held a meeting at one of the command posts of the Kursk troop grouping. During the meeting, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov reported on the encirclement of Ukrainian Armed Forces in the region.

There the Russian president met with volunteers, visited the Kursk-2 Nuclear Power Plant under construction, and the city of Kurchatov to hold a strategy meeting with Kursk regional officials.

Putin praised the volunteers for their "important and noble" work, which he said would remain with them for the rest of their lives.

On Ukrainian Militants

During Wednesday's meetings, he said that the enemy is still trying to move towards the Russian border.

Commenting on reports about the Ukrainian military's drone strikes on Soviet WWII monuments, the Russian president underscored that "it gives us every reason to say that these people adhere to neo-Nazi ideology."

"Even in a contest of idiots, they would take a second place. Why? Because they are idiots. By doing so [targeting the monuments], they show who they are," Putin noted.

He emphasized that in Ukraine and in the West, Russia--related monuments are dismantled in order "to erase the memory of those who look towards Russia."

On the Role of Clergy

Clergy of almost all traditional confessions of Russia are now on duty in the special operation zone, Putin said, adding that "they provide assistance to people in the rear and during combat operations."

The clergy's help is always in demand, "both in peacetime and now, during this ordeal," the Russian head of state pointed out.

On Russia's Goals

Putin expressed confidence that Russia will achieve all its goals through the unity of its citizens.

"The whole country is one team today. And this is the unconditional success of all our endeavors. These are the necessary conditions for achieving all our goals," the Russian president stressed.

When conducting military operations, one cannot do without equipment and ammunition, but motivation and a person's readiness to take actions that the Motherland expects of them are of paramount importance, Putin emphasized.

 Sputnik

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Peskov Comments on Who Will Sign Documents With Russia on Behalf of Ukraine

Sputnik News

20250521

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The issue of who will sign peace treaty documents on the part of Ukraine if an agreement with Russia is reached will be discussed one way or another, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is ready to work on a memorandum with Ukraine. Peskov told journalists on Tuesday that Moscow and Kiev faced difficult contacts to develop a single text of the memorandum on a peace treaty and ceasefire and that draft documents had to be prepared by both sides first.

"This is an issue that will be on the agenda one way or another," Peskov told Sputnik, when asked about who will be signing all the relevant documents on behalf of Ukraine.

 Sputnik

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UK reaffirms support for Ukraine, tightens sanctions on Russia, and urges ceasefire: UK statement to the OSCE

UK Military Advisor, Lt Col Joby Rimmer, says that despite claiming commitment to peace, Russia has escalated its military aggression by refusing to engage in peace talks, launching record-breaking drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians, and continuing to violate international law.

From: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Lt Col Joby Rimmer, Senior Military Advisor at the UK Delegation to the OSCE

Published 21 May 2025

Location: Vienna

Delivered on: 21 May 2025 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)



Thank you, Madame Chair. When Russia initiated its war of aggression on Ukraine on 24 February 2022, there was no doubt about the illegality of this undertaking. The full-scale invasion contravened all the underpinning documents of this organisation to which we are all signatories and violates international law. The responsibility for this illegal military invasion absolutely sits with Russia. However, Russia continues to blame others for prolonging the conflict that they started and continues to accuse others of seeking to 'gain military superiority' in a conflict that they initiated.

The UK's continued and unwavering support to Ukraine is not about achieving military superiority but about defending a sovereign nation under attack. The UK, along with our allies, has consistently emphasised that military aid is in support of Ukraine's self-defence and aimed at helping Ukraine uphold its territorial integrity in accordance with international law. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently reiterated that the UK's goal is peace, not escalation.

In contrast, the Russian Federation insist that they remain committed to a negotiated solution, but their actions say otherwise. While President Zelenskyy travelled to Istanbul on 15th May to attend peace talks, supported by the USA and hosted by Turkiye, in good faith, President Putin refused to the same. On the same day President Putin dodged the possibility for constructive negotiations, his Armed Forces launched 112 drones at Ukrainian cities, killing and injuring civilians. On 17th May, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission confirmed that a Russian drone hit a bus evacuating civilians in Ukraine's Sumy region, killing nine non-combatants. On 18th May, Russia launched 273 one-way attack (OWA) drones against multiple targets in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk oblasts. This is reportedly the largest wave of uncrewed aerial systems Russia has launched into Ukraine - surpassing the 267 drones launched on 23rd February 2025.

This is not evidence of a genuine commitment to peaceful resolution. This is fundamentally military escalation and an increase in the indiscriminate targeting of civilians. As a result, the UK is further increasing sanctions on Russia as President Putin further intensifies these strikes on Ukrainian civilians. Yesterday we announced the sanctioning of 100 targets across Russian energy, and financial services sectors, the Russian military industrial complex and its third country suppliers, and malign actors involved in democratic interference and Russia's information war on Ukraine.

At the opening session of the FSC on 14th May, The Russian delegation spoke of the 'need to increase the effectiveness of the FSC'. We couldn't agree more. The UK supports the opportunity to pursue the politico-military advantages of the FSC, to encourage enhanced implementation of arms control, and of confidence- and security-building measures. But this is impossible whilst Russia continues to violate the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, and broader international law. The UK also agrees with another comment from Russia's opening address last week that 'the FSC is not a place for hate speech and incitement to confrontation'. And we would encourage Russia to refrain from disrespectful language in the forum, particularly towards Ukraine, and of spreading disinformation about the intentions of the UK and our allies. We look forward to a constructive trimester.

The UK will continue to play a leading role in accelerating work on Ukraine's future security, and we strongly urge Russia to commit to an immediate, complete and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to buy the space and conditions for further negotiations. Europe is ready if President Putin chooses the path of peace. Thank you, Madame Chair.

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Andriy Yermak Coordinated Positions on Peace Negotiations with Advisors to Nordic and Baltic Leaders

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 22:53

Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak held an online meeting with diplomatic representatives of the leaders of Nordic and Baltic countries to coordinate positions on negotiations aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace.

Andriy Yermak updated participants on the talks in Istanbul, the President of Ukraine's meetings in Italy and the Vatican, as well as Volodymyr Zelenskyy's conversations with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders.

The Head of the Presidential Office noted that the first step following negotiations with the Russian side should be the implementation of the prisoner exchange agreement in a "1,000 for 1,000" format. The second step is to determine the location for the next meeting with representatives of the Russian Federation.

The discussion also focused on maintaining and increasing sanction pressure on the Russian Federation due to its prolonging of the war.

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Russian Assault Operations Continue, and Our Forces Maintain All Necessary Combat Activity - Address by the President

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 21:37

Dear Ukrainians!

Just now, there was an in-depth briefing by Ukraine's Minister of Defense Umerov and the military commanders regarding the front line and our defense relations with partners. Russian assault operations continue, and our forces maintain all necessary combat activity. The most intense situation remains in the Donetsk region, particularly in the Pokrovsk direction. We are also continuing active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions - this is our active and effective defense of the Sumy region, the defense of the Kharkiv region. Since the start of the Kursk operation in August, the Russian army has suffered significant losses - more than 63,000 killed and wounded in that area alone. Our forces have also managed to substantially replenish the exchange fund for Ukraine. The more combat activity is carried out on enemy territory, the more it protects our communities.

Unfortunately, the Russians show no signals of a ceasefire, and they are not yet ready to end the war. Therefore, all our forms of pressure, all our work with partners to put pressure on Russia, are absolutely necessary. Pressure convinces. Pressure on the battlefield. Pressure on the economy - and that is exactly what sanctions are for. Pressure in politics. I want to thank everyone who supports Ukraine.

I want to recognize our warriors now who have distinguished themselves in recent weeks. This is our 14th Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine - thank you! Also, the 36th Marine Brigade, also, the 25th Assault Battalion, and the 1st Assault Regiment - thank you all. This is the defense focused specifically on the Pokrovsk direction. I am also grateful for the operations in the Kursk region. I want to thank every soldier of ours, every sergeant and officer, and all our units.

Ukraine's Defense Minister reported on the details of cooperation with partners regarding new arms supplies. We are also actively working to attract investment into domestic production here in Ukraine. Production will only continue to grow, and this is our long-term security guarantee. I held several international calls today. President of the European Council Costa - I informed him about the talks with the United States and the corresponding agreements with other European partners. We are also thoroughly preparing the negotiation process regarding Ukraine's accession. On our side, everything is in place specifically for opening the first clusters. I also discussed this with Prime Minister of Poland Tusk - Poland currently holds the EU Presidency, and it is important that this presidency delivers results. I also spoke with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, including about possible formats of meetings and joint work. Together, we are strengthening diplomacy.

And one more critical issue: we are preparing an exchange. Reports come in practically every day. We must free all of our people, absolutely. We are verifying information for every name. We are trying to do everything possible. And we are trying hard.

Glory to Ukraine!

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Sanctions Against Russia and Ukraine's European Integration Path: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Holds Conversation with Antonio Costa

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 20:30

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a phone conversation with President of the European Council Antonio Costa.

The Head of State briefly updated his counterpart on the progress of the peace process and Ukraine's next steps in cooperation with partners. In particular, preparations continue for the resumption of negotiations with the Russian side on ceasefire, humanitarian issues, and prisoner releases.

The President of Ukraine expressed gratitude to the EU for adopting the 17th sanctions package against Russia. He emphasized that the next package must be even stronger and target the energy sector, banking sector, and the shadow fleet - not only the vessels themselves but also the crews operating them.

Antonio Costa stressed the importance of continuing to synchronize all sanction decisions with partners. He also confirmed that stronger sanctions will be applied if Russia refuses to cease fire.

Special attention was given to the opening of negotiation clusters for Ukraine's EU membership. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that our state has fulfilled all European Commission requirements on a technical level and expects the first clusters to be opened soon.

The President of the European Council assured that he will exert efforts to unblock the negotiation process as quickly as possible.

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The Office of the President Holds a Meeting with International Monetary Fund Mission Representatives

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 20:01

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Irina Mudra held a meeting with representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to discuss the continuation of judicial reform. The discussion focused on key issues relevant to the eighth review of the program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine.

The main focus of the discussion was the establishment of higher specialized administrative courts.

Irina Mudra informed that President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a draft law to Parliament on the creation of the Specialized District Administrative Court and the Specialized Administrative Appeals Court.

The meeting also covered the competitive procedures for appointing judges to the High Anti-Corruption Court.

IMF representatives noted that despite the full-scale Russian aggression, the reform implementation in Ukraine continues.

Irina Mudra expressed gratitude for the contributions of international experts in advisory bodies and emphasized the importance of continued efforts to increase transparency and openness.

The parties agreed to continue discussions on reforms to ensure their timely and effective implementation.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy Held a Call with Mark Rutte

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 17:54

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a phone call with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss the current situation, joint next steps, and the necessity of applying pressure on Russia.

The Head of State informed him about recent engagements with partners and preparations for continuing negotiations with the Russian side regarding a ceasefire. In particular, he outlined the formats and platforms under consideration for such a meeting.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mark Rutte also discussed sanctions that could have a real impact on Russia. They noted the adoption of the 17th EU sanctions package and the sanctions decisions introduced by the United Kingdom. It is essential that all future sanctions steps are developed within such coordinated efforts.

Special attention was given to cooperation at the NATO level and preparations for upcoming meetings. The President of Ukraine and the Secretary General of NATO agreed to remain in contact.

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Coordination of Steps and Opening of Clusters in EU Accession Talks: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Had a Phone Call with Donald Tusk

President of Ukraine

21 May 2025 - 12:45

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone call with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk.

Key topics of discussion included the presidential elections in Poland, coordination of next steps with partners toward achieving peace, and the opening of clusters in Ukraine's negotiations for EU membership.

The Head of State informed Prime Minister Tusk about the phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders, as well as preparations for the next steps: the possibility of a next meeting with the Russian side, a "1000-for-1000" prisoner exchange, and the imposition of strong sanctions in response to Russia prolonging the war. Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted the adoption of the 17th sanctions package against Russia and added that further restrictive measures are already being prepared.

Special attention was given to the opening of the first negotiation clusters during Poland's presidency of the Council of the European Union. The President emphasized that Ukraine has fulfilled all necessary conditions for its part, and it is unfair that a single party can block the entire process. Donald Tusk assured that he will make personal efforts to help find a solution and ensure the opening of the first clusters.

The President thanked the Prime Minister of Poland for his willingness to help and for Poland's ongoing support.

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A Burst Of Diplomacy Brings No Breakthrough On Russia's War Against Ukraine. What's Next?

By Steve Gutterman May 22, 2025

A flurry of intense diplomacy over Russia's war against Ukraine, centered around the first direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in three years and a long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, ended earlier this week without a breakthrough.

The main objective set out by Ukraine and the West, a 30-day cease-fire, was not achieved.

Russian attacks continued during and after the talks, and Ukraine launched drone strikes on defense industry targets in Russia in the wake of the negotiations.

In a social media post after his two-hour-plus conversation with Putin, Trump suggested that the United States might be stepping back from efforts to broker a peace deal, four months after he entered office following a campaign in which he had said he could end the war in a day or two.

Now what?

With Russia' full-scale invasion of Ukraine well into its fourth year, RFE/RL examines what to watch and where things may be headed.

More Talks? A Memorandum?

In his post on Truth Social after the phone call with Putin on May 19, Trump said negotiations between Russia and Ukraine "toward a cease-fire and more importantly, an end to the war" would start "immediately." He mentioned the Vatican as a possible venue and concluded, "Let the process begin!"

There was no word from Kyiv or Moscow on a new meeting, but Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on May 21 that he sides were likely to hold "technical-level talks" next week, possibly at the Vatican.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who also spoke to Trump on May 19, said the next day that "Ukraine is ready for any negotiation format that delivers results," but that "if Russia continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress, there must be tough consequences."

So far, Russia has given no sign that it is prepared to make any substantial compromise. It has often signaled the opposite, repeating long-stated positions that Ukraine has called unacceptable.

In his own statement after the call with Trump, Putin repeated his mantra about the need to eliminate the "root causes" of the war -- blame for which, despite the fact that Russia launched the invasion unprovoked, he has continued to lay entirely at the feet of Kyiv and the West.

While Trump spoke of immediate negotiations, Putin focused on something Trump did not mention and was couched in the kind of ifs, ands, and buts that analysts say Putin has used to slow any move toward a truce. In the meanwhile, Moscow seeks to recruit more soldiers, build more weapons, and improve its position on the battlefield.

Russia, he said, is "ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum regarding a possible future peace treaty with the definition of a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement, and so on."

Continuing to reject an immediate truce, he said steps toward a solution could include "a possible cease-fire for a certain period of time if appropriate agreements are reached."

Zelenskyy suggested that a bilateral memorandum could be a possibility, but that Ukraine would have to see what Russia is proposing before making any decisions.

'The Crux'

Whatever the status of the negotiations process, there are several big barriers to progress. Territory is one of them.

Analysts often say that grabbing land is not Russia's main goal -- that what Putin really wants is the subjugation of Ukraine, and that aside from Crimea and perhaps part of the Donbas, he would be satisfied with any amount of land as long as the country and its government are Russia-friendly and firmly in Moscow's grip.

Part of the litany of complaints Putin has used to justify the full-scale invasion is that the West has turned Ukraine into the 'anti-Russia' -- though many say that Putin has done that himself, first by seizing Crimea in 2014 and fomenting war in the Donbas in 2014, and then by launching the full-scale invasion in 2022.

For now, though, territory is perhaps the most concrete sticking point between Kyiv and Moscow.

In September 2022, Putin baselessly claimed that four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson -- belong to Russia. Russian forces held only parts of those regions at the time, and that's still the case.

But according to Ukrainian officials who spoke to multiple media outlets on condition of anonymity, the Russian delegation in Istanbul said there could be no cease-fire until Ukraine withdraws its troops from those regions -- and demanded international recognition that they belong to Russia.

Ukraine has called those demands unacceptable, and Zelenskyy repeated this week that Kyiv will not withdraw troops from its own territory.

Russia's progress toward taking the parts of those regions it does not hold has been slow and extremely costly. The capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya remain in Kyiv's hands.

"[The] Russian army will not be able to take control of the remaining parts of the four regions it has already occupied. First of all, this is a very large area, and even at last year's pace, the Russian army would not be able to fully capture even one region -- such as Donetsk," said Yan Matveyev, a Russian military analyst who lives outside the country.

The prospect of Russia seizing the city of Kherson, which lies across the Dnieper River from the current positions of its forces, "seems absolutely fantastical and impossible," Matveyev told Current Time on May 21.

At the same time, after a major counteroffensive fizzled in 2023, the chances of Ukraine regaining a substantial amount of land anytime soon are seen as very slim.

"Russia wants what they do not currently have and are not entitled to, and Ukraine wants what they cannot regain militarily," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on May 20. "And that's been the crux of the challenge."

Stepping Away?

Faced with the yawning gap between the Russian and Ukrainian positions, is the United States stepping away from the push for peace?

In his Truth Social post on May 19, Trump suggested that Ukraine and Russia might be left to their own devices, saying that the conditions for a cease-fire and an end to the war "will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of."

In comments to reporters in the Oval Office later the same day, though, Trump repeated the warning that Washington could step aside but indicated that it had not quite reached that point yet, and said that he still believes progress is possible.

"In my head I definitely have a red line" on when to stop pushing the sides to reach agreement, he said, "but I don't want to say what it is because it makes negotiations so much more difficult."

"It's a European situation, it should be this way, but the previous administration got us involved. I feel something may happen," Trump said. "If not, we'll walk away and leave it to them."

Sanctions And Support

At the same time, Trump also cited the chance for progress as a reason to avoid slapping additional sanctions on Russia for now, even as the European Union imposed its 17th package of sanctions on Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, along with Britain, considers what European leaders say would be "massive" new punitive measures.

Hitting Russia with new sanctions could "make the whole thing very much worse and now I still have a sense [that] things still can be done," Trump said.

Asked whether the United States would continue to send Ukraine weapons in the future, Trump also indicated that would depend on what happens with the push for peace.

"We'll have to see. I believe Putin still wants to do this," he said, meaning end the war. "I think Putin has had enough."

Many observers disagree, arguing that Putin is unlikely to make concessions in the absence of major setbacks on the battlefield or upheaval in Russia, neither of which is expected any time soon.

As it stands, a substantial test of Russia's intentions -- and of the West's resolve -- may come when and if Moscow lays out its position on the path to peace, or its conditions for a cease-fire, as part of the memorandum that Putin has proposed.

It's unclear when that might happen.

"There are no deadlines [for that process] and there cannot be any," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 20. "It is clear that everyone wants to do this as quickly as possible, but, of course, the devil is in the details."

A senior adviser to Zelenskyy, Mykhaylo Podolyak, predicted Russia's demands won't change.

"They will sign a memorandum that is exactly what one could most reasonably expect, he told RBC-Ukraine on May 21. "This includes removing the so-called 'sources of war' -- which, in their view, means that Ukraine must cease to exist."

RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Current Time contributed to this report

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-war-next- steps-trump-putin-zelenskyy/33420448.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russian Forces Detaining, Torturing Ukrainian Civilians In Moscow-Controlled Territories, Says Report

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Natalka Koshelieva May 22, 2025

Tetyana Tipakova is still haunted by the memory of torture she endured in 2022 after the Russian military arrested her for expressing opposition to their occupation of Ukraine.

She was held for months in a cell that was just 3 meters long and only half that width, she says.

"They beat you with their hands and with their feet and with objects," she said. "They beat me with a book and a wooden stick."

Whatever happens, she told herself at the time, don't collapse.

"If you fall, you understand that you have to get up, because when you're down, they'll kick you and it will be even more painful."

Tipakova is one of thousands of Ukrainians who have been systematically abducted and tortured by Russian forces, say reports by investigative journalists at The Guardian, Azov Sea News, and IStories.

Amnesty International also reports that informal holding cells, often in schools, industrial spaces or the basements of houses have spread far and wide throughout Russian-held areas.

And despite what she endured, says Tipakova, she knows others had it far worse.

"There were girls among us who weren't in the basements, but they were raped at home in front of their mothers. Then the mother was raped in front of her daughter."

Torture aside, prisoners are often held incommunicado for months or even years with their families having no idea where they are or even if they're still alive.

The torture, often involving beatings but sometimes subjecting people to electric charges via wires attached to their bodies, is common for prisoners of war, says investigative journalist Polina Uzhvak of IStories.

"Many prisoners are tortured and beaten to get information," she said. "It's just how they treat prisoners. A person may not know anything, but they will still beat them, especially men."

Those who are held in occupied Ukraine may eventually be released and return home, Uzhvak said.

"Sometimes people are kidnapped and released after a while," she said. "Others are sent on into the Russian prison system, and then there is no chance to be released other than via a prison exchange. But very few are in fact exchanged."

Kherson district councilor Roman Baklazhov spent 54 days in the custody of Russians, who made a habit of taking elected officials in areas of Ukraine they were occupying.

He says the holding cells that have been set up are no secret.

"A torture chamber can be anywhere, in any basement, in any private house," Baklazhov said.

"Torture chambers in schools, police stations in Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka are generally known to the public."

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are listed as missing by Ukrainian authorities.

Most are likely being held by Russian forces, according to the reports.

The Russian interrogators are no longer trying to extract military intelligence from prisoners, according to Borys Petrunyok of the Zmina Human Rights Center.

"Motivation is obviously shifting more toward a pure attack on manifestations of Ukrainian identity and disloyalty," said Petrunyok. "People who do not accept the occupation, regardless of whether they pose a threat to Russians."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-torturing- civilians-report/33420493.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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TORONTO, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greenhawk Resources Inc. (Greenhawk or the "Company") (CSE: GRHK) announces that it has executed an arms-length Option and Joint Venture Agreement (the Option Agreement) with 1531323 BC Ltd. (1531323 BC) to advance the exploration and development of Greenhawks Greenland properties, which include the Stor and Qingaaq mineral exploration licenses (the Properties).

Under the Option Agreement, 1531323 BC is granted an option to acquire an 80% interest in the Properties in exchange for: (a) an upfront payment of $100,000, which shall be paid within 90 days, and (b) incurring $1,400,000 in spending at the Properties within 24 months according to the following schedule.

Payment Period Minimum Expenditures Within 6 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $450,000 Within 12 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $350,000 Within 18 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $300,000 Within 24 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $300,000 Total: Minimum of $1,400,000



1531323 BC will be responsible for the operations of the Properties while the Option Agreement is in effect. If 1531323 BC satisfies the expenditure requirement at the Properties, the Company and 1531323 BC will establish a joint venture for the exploration and development of the Properties.

The Stor project (Stor) is a 12 km license which hosts an inferred mineral resource estimated in 2021 by SRK Consulting (Sweden) AB at 885,000 tonnes, grading 3.4 g/t Au and totaling 95,000 oz of gold Mineral Resources. The Mineral Resource has a cut-off grade of 0.8 g/t Au for material located within the conceptual open-pit shell and 2.5 g/t Au for underground Mineral Resources located below the pit shell. Since 1995, a total of 102 drillholes totaling 17,371 m have been drilled into the known mineralized zones at Stor. Stor is surrounded by the Qingaaq license (Qingaaq), which covers some 540 km.

Martin Pittuck, CEng, FGS, MIMMM, a Qualified Person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information included in this news release.

1531323 BC intends to enter into a management services contract with the Company to provide advice in respect of the Properties.

The Company continues to actively pursue the acquisition of other properties and opportunities in the mineral exploration and resources sector.

The Company is also announcing that it has cancelled an aggregate of 8,600,000 stock options. The subject stock options are comprised of 4,600,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.27 per share and an expiry date of October 20, 2025, and 4,000,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.20 per share and an expiry date of June 24, 2026.

About Greenhawk Resources Inc.

Greenhawk is a Canadian resources exploration and development company. Greenhawk owns a 100% legal and beneficial interest in two mineral exploration licenses and one prospecting license in Greenland known as the Stor Gold Project. Additional Information on Greenhawk can be obtained from SEDAR+ at sedarplus.ca. Greenhawk is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (www.thecse.com) (CSE: GRHK).

Issued on behalf of the Board of Directors of Greenhawk Resources Inc. For information, please contact:

David Jagodzinski, Director Corporate Development

Phone: +1 (416) 504-2020

Email: info@grhk.ca

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this press release may contain forward looking information which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "expects", "may", "desires", "will", "should", "projects", "estimates", "contemplates", "anticipates", "intends", or any negative such as "does not believe" or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. No assurance can be given that potential future results or circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. By their nature, these forward-looking statements necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to significantly differ from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements including, but not limited to: the completion of the Transaction, including the receipt of the upfront payment, 1531323 BC making the requisite expenditures on the Properties to exercise the option on the Properties, the ability to obtain requisite corporate and regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE, the operator obtaining requisite permits and authorizations to allow for exploration on the Properties. Such statements reflect the view of the Company with respect to future events and are based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions, which it considers reasonable. Management cautions readers that the assumptions relative to the future events, several of which are beyond management's control, could prove to be incorrect, given that they are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected. Management disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
CARLSBAD, Calif., May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inmarsat Maritime, a Viasat company, has signed an agreement with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) to upgrade their fleet from Fleet Xpress (FX) service to Inmarsats NexusWave. This fleet-wide transition to NexusWave will allow MOL to benefit from Inmarsats fully managed bonded connectivity service and accelerate the digitalisation strategy of the leading Japanese shipping company. Local Inmarsat partner JSAT MOBILE Communications will be responsible for implementing and supporting the upgrades on board, covering a fleet that includes liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, oil tankers, and car carriers.

In response to evolving operational and crew connectivity needs, MOL is seeking multi-layered satellite communications services that support the transformation of its vessels into floating offices and homes. By combining multiple network underlays in one bonded connection, Inmarsat NexusWave delivers the speeds, reliability, unlimited data, and global coverage to support this objective, with enterprise-grade cyber-security, round-the-clock technical support, and fully transparent costs ensuring complete peace of mind.

Junichi Yoshiyama, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd., said: Our digitalised and connected ships are becoming floating operations centres and homes for our crew, and Inmarsats NexusWave will help keep them connected to high-speed internet and support our onboard digitalisation strategy.

Ben Palmer, President, Inmarsat Maritime, said: We are proud to continue our partnership with MOL and to deliver NexusWave as an accelerator of maritime digitalisation and, by extension, an enabler of the floating office and floating home. Forward-thinking operators like MOL are drawn to the solution for its performance, robust capabilities, and the confidence that comes from working with a reliable maritime connectivity partner.

Katsuaki Koike, CEO of JSAT MOBILE Communications, added: MOL, JSAT, and Inmarsat have been long-term partners, and this collaboration further underscores our commitment to providing cutting-edge connectivity solutions. We are dedicated to supporting MOLs digital transformation journey and look forward ensuring seamless and reliable installations across MOL vessels.

In recent real-world tests, NexusWave achieved download speeds of up to 330340 Mbps, upload speeds of up to 7080 Mbps, with average network availability exceeding 99.9%. As part of Inmarsats commitment to continuous improvement, the forthcoming integration of the next-generation ultra-high capacity, high-speed ViaSat-3 Ka-band network promises to increase NexusWaves aggregated connectivity speeds even further.

Contact for media: PR@viasat.com

About Inmarsat Maritime

Inmarsat is a Viasat company and continues to power the digitalisation of the maritime industry. With over 40 years of experience, Inmarsat Maritime offers reliable and innovative solutions that enable ship owners and operators to stay connected, navigate safely, enhance operational efficiency, and ensure crew welfare.

Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. With offices in 24 countries around the world, our mission shapes how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate and connect. Viasat is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, reliable, secure, affordable, fast connections to positively impact peoples lives anywhere they are - on the ground, in the air or at sea, while building a sustainable future in space. In May 2023, Viasat completed its acquisition of Inmarsat, combining the teams, technologies and resources of the two companies to create a new global communications partner. Learn more at www.viasat.com, the Viasat News Room or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads and YouTube.

Inmarsat Maritime is based in Viasats international business headquarters in London, United Kingdom. For further information about Inmarsat Maritime, visit Inmarsat.com/maritime and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL)

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with a history of more than 140 years, is one of the world's largest and most diversified shipping companies. With a fleet of over 900 vessels, MOL offers comprehensive maritime transportation services, including dry bulk carriers, tankers, LNG carriers, car carriers, and container ships. In addition to the marine transportation businesses, MOL group is developing social infrastructure businesses such as wind power generation, logistics, real estate, and BtoC business such as cruise and ferry services. MOL group will meet the evolving social needs including environmental conservation, with innovative technology and services and aims to be a strong and resilient corporate group that provides new value to all stakeholders and grows globally.

About JSAT MOBILE Communications

JSAT MOBILE Communications Inc., a joint venture company with Inmarsat Maritime and SKY Perfect JSAT, that provides maritime satellite communication services to commercial shipping, fishing vessels, and other offshore platforms. Leveraging advanced satellite technologies and reliable service infrastructure, the company supports safe and efficient maritime operations. JSAT MOBILE is committed to connecting vessels around the world and contributing to the digital transformation of the maritime industry.

While the information in this document has been prepared in good faith, no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability (howsoever arising) is or will be accepted by the Inmarsat group or any of its officers, employees or agents in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness, reasonableness or fitness for purpose of the information in this document. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed and excluded to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Coverage as shown on maps is subject to change at any time. Inmarsat is a trademark owned by the International Mobile Satellite Organization, licensed to Inmarsat Global Limited. The Inmarsat logo and all other Inmarsat trademarks in this document are owned by Inmarsat/Viasat group.  Inmarsat Global Limited. All rights reserved.
Investors can contact the law firm at no cost to learn more about recovering their losses

LOS ANGELES, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Portnoy Law Firm advises UnitedHealth Group Incorporated ("UnitedHealth" or the "Company") (NYSE: UNH) investors of a class action representing investors that bought securities between December 3, 2024 and April 16, 2025, inclusive (the "Class Period"). UnitedHealth investors have until July 7, 2025 to file a lead plaintiff motion.

Investors are encouraged to contact attorney Lesley F. Portnoy, by phone 310-692-8883 or email: lesley@portnoylaw.com, to discuss their legal rights, or click here to join the case. The Portnoy Law Firm can provide a complimentary case evaluation and discuss investors options for pursuing claims to recover their losses.

On May 14, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is conducting a criminal investigation into UnitedHealth Group concerning potential Medicare fraud. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report indicated that the investigation has been ongoing since at least the summer of 2024. Although the specific nature of the alleged misconduct remains unclear, the inquiry is reportedly centered on the companys Medicare Advantage business practices.

This development follows UnitedHealths May 13 announcement that it was withdrawing its previously revised financial guidance issued on April 17. The company also disclosed a leadership change, with CEO Andrew Witty stepping down and being succeeded by Chairman and former CEO Stephen Hemsley.

Please visit our website to review more information and submit your transaction information.

The Portnoy Law Firm represents investors in pursuing claims against caused by corporate wrongdoing. The Firms founding partner has recovered over $5.5 billion for aggrieved investors. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Lesley F. Portnoy, Esq.

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lesley@portnoylaw.com

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NEW YORK, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, is investigating potential claims against Kohls Corporation (NYSE:KSS) and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF). Our investigations concern whether these companies have violated the federal securities laws and/or engaged in other unlawful business practices. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.

Kohls Corporation (NYSE:KSS)

On May 1, 2025, Kohl's revealed that its CEO had been terminated after violating company policy by engaging in "vendor transactions that involved undisclosed conflicts of interest." Specifically, Kohl's stated that he had "directed that the Company conduct business with a vendor founded by an individual with whom [he] has a personal relationship on highly unusual terms favorable to the vendor and that he also caused the Company to enter into a multi-million dollar consulting agreement wherein the same individual was a part of the consulting team." Following this news, Kohl's stock dropped on unusually heavy trading volume.

For more information on the Kohls investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/KSS

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE:CLF)

On May 7, 2025, Cleveland-Cliffs issued a press release reporting its financial results for the first quarter of 2025. Among other items, Cleveland-Cliffs reported a larger than expected adjusted loss and an 11% year-over-year revenue decline to $4.63 billion. The Company also announced plans to fully or partially idle six steel plants. Cleveland-Cliffs Chief Executive Officer attributed the operational changes to negative effects from underperforming non-core assets and the lagging effect of lower index prices in late 2024 and early 2025 and said that the Company is repositioning its portfolio away from non-core markets, including rail, high-carbon sheet, and specialty plate products, and toward the automotive industry. On this news, the price of Cleveland-Cliffs shares declined by $1.34 per share, from $8.49 per share on May 7, 2025, to close at $7.15 on May 8, 2025.

For more information on the Cleveland-Cliffs investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CLF

About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com . Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, and keep up with other news by following Brandon Walker, Esq. on LinkedIn and X.

Contact Information:

Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.

Brandon Walker, Esq.

Marion Passmore, Esq.

(212) 355-4648

investigations@bespc.com

www.bespc.com
Beijing, China, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



"The likelihood of the 'Toyama human bones' originating from the notorious Unit 731 of the Japanese army during its invasion of China is very high. Only by clarifying the historical truth can the medical crimes committed by the invading Japanese army during wartime be revealed to the world," a representative of the Japanese civil group "Association Demanding Investigation of Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College" told the Global Times in an exclusive interview, when addressing the association's 36 years of research and investigation of the startling and frightening discovery in Tokyo in 1989 of more than 100 human skulls.

On July 22, 1989, a number of human bones, referred to as the "Toyama human bones," were discovered at a construction site for the Health and Infectious Diseases (now the National Institute of Infectious Diseases) in Toyama-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Most of the bones were skulls and femurs. The construction site is located at the former site of the Japanese Army Medical School, which is believed to have housed the headquarters of Unit 731. If confirmed, it would undoubtedly serve as further evidence of Japan's war crimes during its invasion of China.

"While I cannot 'assert' it definitively, I believe there is a high possibility that the 'Toyama human bones' belong to Unit 731," explained Kazuyuki Kawamura, a representative from the non-government organization. The association was established in 1990 and has dedicated the past 36 years to investigating the truth behind the human bones.

"We believe it is necessary to treat this issue with seriousness, to uncover the historical facts and to return the remains of those who did not voluntarily become medical specimens to their descendants," said the representative.

According to Kawamura, the following facts have been established so far: First, the "Toyama human bones" are part of specimens or bodies related to the Japanese Army Medical School. Second, the bones are believed to belong to individuals of Asian descent (Mongoloid). Third, the specimens collected by the Japanese Army Medical School were obtained through two main channels -the dissection of Chinese soldiers' bodies on the battlefield by the Army Medical School's pathology department, which were then brought back to Japan as war injury specimens; the other involved Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the Imperial Japanese Army, also known as Unit 731, which was established in Harbin (then known as Manchuria), Northeast China, and sent parts of bodies (mainly heads) collected locally to the Japanese Army Medical School.

"Since the 'Toyama human bones' are not war injury specimens, they are generally believed to have been brought back to Japan through the second channel," Kawamura noted.

A report released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2001 concluded that the human bones belonged to specimens stored at the former Army Medical School before August 1945, which could be part of bodies collected for the purpose of creating specimens and medical education, "which may include specimens from the remains of those who died on the battlefield," the report stated.

"There are claims suggesting that the bodies or specimens came from overseas areas such as Unit 731, as well as denials of such claims," the report said. Currently, the human bones are stored in a columbarium at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan. According to Kyodo News, it is estimated that the human bones belong to the remains of more than 100 individuals.

Records from Japanese Army Medical School personnel files indicate that in 1940, a significant number of non-war injury head specimens were transported from Harbin to the school. Although it cannot be directly established that these specimens are linked to the Unit 731, it is hard to imagine that any other military unit would transport such a large number of head specimens from Harbin to the Army Medical School, Kawamura stated.

"Who collected these 'bodies' and how? How were they transported from Harbin to the Army Medical School in 1940? We have requested the Japanese government to conduct further investigations into individuals associated with Unit 731." He revealed that the association is currently engaged in lectures, gatherings and field investigations at the site, where the bones were discovered.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. The association plans to hold a commemorative event on July 20 to mark the 36th anniversary of the discovery of the human bones and report the latest findings, and they will continue their thorough investigative work in the future.

When the human bones were first discovered in July 1989, Kawamura was serving as a member of the Shinjuku Ward Assembly in Tokyo. At that time, he stated it was necessary to explore the truth behind the human bones and actively encouraged researchers and citizens interested in the matter to take part in the investigation.

Given that the Japanese government has yet to reflect on its war crimes, what messages does the association hope to convey to the outside world? In response to the question from the Global Times, Kawamura stated that only by uncovering the historical truth of the human bones can the medical crimes committed by the Japanese army during wartime be exposed, and he hopes to convey the meaning of peace to the world through this process.

The article first appeared in the Global Times: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334419.shtml

Company: Global Times

Contact Person: Anna Li

Email: editor@globaltimes.com.cn

Website: https://globaltimes.cn

City: Beijing



Disclaimer: This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies (including product offerings, regulatory plans and business plans) and may change without notice. You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
$12 million seed will be the largest funding round for climate tech in India

Funding round led by Lachy Groom with participation from existing investors

To accelerate investments in CDR, Earth Sciences R&D and advanced hardware





San Francisco and Bangalore, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- : Alt Carbon , a deep-tech science & data company, announced a $12 million seed funding round to build the agricultural infrastructure for climate action. The investment will help accelerate Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) in the Global South and expand Earth Sciences R&D, advance hardware innovations, and scale-up operations for durable climate action in India. The round was led by Lachy Groom, with participation from existing investors.

This marks the largest seed round for climate tech in India, underscoring the novelty of the technology, growing demand for removal-based carbon credits, and the burgeoning opportunity for India to become the worlds frontier for climate action.

Alt Carbon is tackling a once-in-a-generation challenge. The personal journey of the founders, their technical approach, and ambitious vision will help us remove CO from the atmosphere at gigaton scale  all while adapting agricultural land for climate impact. In just 18 months, the team has built a world-class lab, created proprietary models, and laid the foundation for a new class of carbon removal and agricultural infrastructure. This is a category-defining deep-tech company that will reshape how the world thinks about climate action, said Lachy Groom, Investor and Co-founder of Physical Intelligence .

Alt Carbon uses a novel carbon removal method called Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which involves sourcing waste basalt rock dust from mines and spreading it across agricultural fields. This volcanic rock not only improves soil health and crop yields but also reacts naturally with rainwater to remove carbon dioxide. When CO in rainwater interacts with the basalt dust, a chemical reaction converts it into stable bicarbonate ions that are stored in the soil. Over time, these ions travel through river networks to the ocean, where they eventually reside as calcium carbonate (CaCO) for over 10,000 years.

Alt Carbons flagship initiative, The Darjeeling Revival Project (DRP), is a first-of-its-kind effort to unite climate action with cultural and ecological restoration. With an ambitious goal to remove carbon dioxide at scale, the DRP aims to not just remove CO but also restore livelihoods, revive degraded soils and ecosystems, and preserve Indias most valued export: Darjeelings tea. The project represents a new model for climate action  one thats rooted in science, powered by community, and driven by the belief that revivals require ambition and audacious bets.

The climate crisis demands bold bets on science innovation, rethinking infrastructure, and deploying capital. Enhanced Rock Weathering is one of the most promising, permanent carbon removal pathways we have, and yet its vastly underbuilt. What sets us apart is our obsession with scientific depth: were building advanced labs and engineering the scientific backbone of a new era of climate action grounded in the Global South. Extraordinary crises require outsized ambition, and we now have the capital to kickstart a climate revolution and have a shot at gigaton-scale carbon removal, said Co-founder & CEO Shrey Agarwal , Alt Carbon .

In just the last two months, Alt Carbon signed two landmark agreements that signal a new chapter in climate collaboration between Japan and India. A strategic partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation marked a first of its kind framework for scaling Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW)  a strong vote of confidence in both the science and Alt Carbons execution. This was followed by a historic offtake agreement with MOL Group to purchase 10,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits  the worlds first direct CDR offtake by a shipping company for ERW, and the first such deal between a Japanese and Indian company. Together, these partnerships not only validate ERW as a credible, scalable climate solution, but also mark the emergence of a robust JapanIndia business corridor rooted in science-led, cross-border climate action.

Alt Carbon has also received early catalytic support from ACT, a leading non-profit philanthropy platform, and participation from existing investors and leading angels, including Shastra VC, Jason Zhao (Co Founder, PIP Labs), Awais Ahmed (Co Founder, Pixxel Space), Amarendra Singh (Co Founder, DeHaat), among others.

Nine months ago, Alt Carbon made history as the first India-headquartered company to be selected by Frontier , a $1 billion Advance Market Commitment backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey  to scale permanent carbon removal. Alt Carbon also became the first ERW company globally to receive an offtake agreement from the South Pole & Mitsubishi-led NextGen buyers coalition.

Alt Carbon also announced the appointment of Yashovardhan Bhagat (former co-founder of ed-tech platform Seekho) as Chief Operating Officer to scale its carbon removal operations across India, Adithya Venkatesan (former brand head at Gojek, Meesho and Last9) to lead the in-house Climate Studio, and Dr. Sourav Ganguly (PhD, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) to lead the science & modelling team.

India needs $1 trillion of climate finance by 2030 alone to adapt our soil, rivers, and cities to climate impact. Globally, we need to remove 10 billion tons of CO every year by 2050 . Were nowhere close to either of these targets. Our goal is to make India a hub for carbon removal. We plan to remove CO at scale from the Global South, for the planet, said Co-founder & President, Sparsh Agarwal . He added, We thank the partners who have joined us in this ambitious, whirlwind journey, to revive Darjeeling, remove CO and undo the clock for this planet.

-

Notes to the editor

For further information please contact the Alt Carbon press office:

Adithya Venkatesan on adithya@alt-carbon.com

Media images

About Alt Carbon

Alt Carbon is a deeptech science and data company, building agri infrastructure for climate action. We aim to make South Asia a hub for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) through technology pathways like Enhanced Rock Weathering. We work with farmers and scientists in the Global South, to turn underutilized land into carbon sinks. Our flagship initiative, the Darjeeling Revival Project (DRP), is a first-of-its-kind effort to unite climate action with cultural and ecological restoration  by reviving degraded soils, restoring livelihoods, and rebuilding ecosystems. Were rooted in science, powered by community, and driven by the belief that revivals require ambitious people and audacious bets. Our mission is to remove 5 million metric tons of CO by 2030.

For more information please visit https://www.alt-carbon.com/ or follow us via LinkedIn or X

About Lachy Groom

Lachy Groom has invested in over 200 companies including Anduril, OpenAI, Ramp, Notion, Figma, and Zepto. Lachy was previously an early employee at Stripe where he helped scale the company to over 2,500 employees. During his time there he led several teams, including Core Payments, Financial Partnerships, Stripe's expansion into the Asia Pacific, and Stripe Issuing. Lachy is also one of the six co-founders of Physical Intelligence.

About ACT

ACT Capital Foundation is an Indian venture philanthropy platform that believes that an entrepreneurial mindset, technology and innovation and collective action have the power to create meaningful impact at scale. Driven by a bias for action, ACT funds and supports tech-first innovations that can address Indias most critical social need gaps at scale through capital, connections and collectives.

"ACTs belief in backing tech-first innovations has helped lay the groundwork for Alt Carbons first field deployments and validate the efficacy of ERW to remove carbon at scale. Philanthropic capital reflects a shared commitment to help the country meet its decarbonisation goals by accelerating climate solutions that are rooted in local realities and scalable across the Global South," said Alankrita Khera, Director, ACT .

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AUSTIN, Texas, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- We are deeply disappointed by the Texas Houses passage of SB 3, a bill that dismantles the legal hemp industry and ignores the voices of small businesses, farmers, veterans and consumers across the state who rely on hemp-derived products for their livelihoods and well-being.

Among the many speaking out against SB 3 is Dave Walden, a combat veteran of Iraq and incoming state commander of the Texas VFW representing 60,000 veterans, who said, If Texas trusted us with sophisticated weapons systems worth billions of dollars to defend America's freedoms abroad, shouldn't lawmakers trust us to make responsible choices about our own healthcare at home? Veterans deserve the freedom to choose what supports our health and well-being.

Despite overwhelming testimony and clear data demonstrating the safety and economic value of federally legal hemp-derived cannabinoids, lawmakers have chosen a path that eliminates an entire sector of our economy, one that generates $4.3 billion in retail sales, 53,300 jobs and $268 million in tax revenue.

Texas already has strong hemp regulations under HB 1325. Sensible amendments, such as restricting sales to those 21 and older, requiring child-resistant packaging and establishing setbacks from schools, would further strengthen these safeguards.

We urge Governor Abbott to reject SB 3 and protect the tens of thousands of hardworking Texans, including veterans like Dave Walden, who rely on hemp-derived cannabinoids for their wellness. The hemp industry will continue to fight for smart, sensible policies that preserve public health, foster economic growth and preserve the freedom of choice for Texas consumers.

About the Texas Hemp Business Council

The Texas Hemp Business Council is an industry organization dedicated to promoting the hemp-based cannabinoid industry in Texas, while advocating for consumer safety, education and stakeholder engagement. More information is available at http://www.texashempbusinesscouncil.com.

Media Contacts:

Natalie Mu/George Medici

PondelWilkinson

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SEATTLE, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WatchGuard Technologies, a global leader in unified cybersecurity for managed service providers (MSPs), announced today it has been named a Champion in the Canalys Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix for the third consecutive year.1 The annual report identifies and positions vendors in one of four quadrants: Champions, Scalers, Contenders, and Foundations. This recognition is based on partner feedback and Canalys analysis, and highlights WatchGuards excellence in channel engagement, market performance, and success in advancing the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Ive been a WatchGuard partner for 22 years, and theres a reason weve maintained and grown the relationship, said Kevin Willette, President of Verus. Not only are cybersecurity solutions precise, powerful, and scalable, but they match our operational needs. WatchGuard has a partner program designed to help our business grow and marvelous people who support us no matter what. Add all of that together, and its easy to see why WatchGuard consistently earns recognition as a leading cybersecurity provider for MSPs.

Canalys recognized WatchGuard as a Champion as a result of the enhancements made to the WatchGuardONE partner program, which is designed to support and reward WatchGuards MSP partners as they expand their businesses. In 2024, WatchGuard introduced a new partner marketing platform within WatchGuardONE to optimize the use of marketing development funds. With the potential to expand for other partner marketing purposes in the future, it achieved a 58% increase in partner engagement within the first month of launch. Additional updates to the program include streamlined funds management tools, improved rebate accessibility, complementary technical certification renewals, and the introduction of free Accelerate Training programs to drive specific cross-selling initiatives.

We are honored to be named a Canalys Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix Champion for the third year running thanks to our loyal partners, said Michelle Welch, CMO and senior vice president of business strategy at WatchGuard. WatchGuards mission is to help MSPs purchase, deliver, and manage security easily and profitably. Our partners are at the core of everything we do here, and its gratifying to see the resulting trust and relationships weve built with the channel community reflected in accolades like this. With all the exciting things we have in store in 2025 to help our partners grow their managed security practices, Im already looking forward to next years report.

Over the next 12 months, WatchGuards key partner program initiatives include enhancing MSP-specific pricing and support within the WatchGuardONE program, expanding its catalog of free technical and sales trainings, introducing new certifications, and launching targeted sales promotions to drive deeper security adoption across its partner community.

WatchGuards recognition as a 2025 Canalys Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix Champion builds on the companys momentum in the cybersecurity market following its acquisition of ActZero earlier this year, which further differentiated its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) offering with reporting, cyber hygiene, compliance tracking, and third-party integration support. WatchGuard will also continue rolling out its FireCloud product lineup, a new family of hybrid secure access service edge (SASE) products that address real-world challenges businesses face when managing distributed workforces and cloud migrations.

The 2025 Canalys Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix assessed 32 vendors based on vision, leadership, competitiveness, partner initiatives, and enablement. Canalys included those that met two thresholds: a minimum annual revenue of USD $200 million from cybersecurity, excluding professional services, and more than 50% of business going through the channel.

To view the full report, click here.

1Note: Since WatchGuards recognition in 2023, Canalys has shifted its naming to reflect the publication year vs. the evaluation year. As such, WatchGuards recognition on the 2025 Canalys Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix reflects the 2024 evaluation period.

About WatchGuard Technologies

WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. is a global leader in unified cybersecurity. Our Unified Security Platform is uniquely designed for managed service providers to deliver world-class security that increases their business scale and velocity while also improving operational efficiency. Trusted by more than 17,000 security resellers and service providers to protect more than 250,000 customers, the companys award-winning products and services span network security and intelligence, advanced endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, and secure Wi-Fi. Together, they offer five critical elements of a security platform: comprehensive security, shared knowledge, clarity & control, operational alignment, and automation. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. To learn more, visit WatchGuard.com.

For additional information, promotions, and updates, follow WatchGuard on X (@WatchGuard), on Facebook, or on the LinkedIn company page. Also, visit our InfoSec blog, Secplicity, for real-time information about the latest threats and how to cope with them. Subscribe to The 443  Security Simplified podcast, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

WatchGuard is a registered trademark of WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
InfiMotion Technology this year announced the launch of its updated TL 300, an ultra-lightweight, highly integrated drive system engineered with magnesium alloy to deliver remarkable performance and efficiency for next-generation vehicles. The TL 300 seamlessly combines dual motors, dual reducers, and a common Power Control Module (PCM) into a single, compact unit.

InfiMotion attended Shanghai Autoshow

InfiMotion Technology recently presented its technical capabilities at the Shanghai Auto Show. The company emphasized its dual-track strategy encompassing current development and future advancements, demonstrating a full-chain technology layout including core components to system integration within the electric drive sector. The exhibition of the company spanned both pure electric and hybrid platforms, accommodating voltage ranges from 400V to 800V and applications from small vehicles, SUV:s and class vehicles to high-performance models. This comprehensive approach positions InfiMotion Technology as a provider of complete solutions for the future of mobility in the new energy automotive industry.

Beyond the Basics: The TL 300 Explained

Dual-motor powertrain system (TL 300): The unit achieves a high degree of integration, leveraging an industry-first magnesium-aluminium alloy housing that yields a 25% reduction in housing mass and over 10% decrease in total assembly mass compared to conventional designs. The system incorporates a patented 360 bidirectional full-oil cooling architecture, ensuring robust thermal management that facilitates sustained high performance, evidenced by consistent sub-5-second 0-100 km/h acceleration times without power derating for over 20 consecutive cycles. Optimized motor topologies and advanced control algorithms contribute to a peak system efficiency of 89.5%, thereby enhancing overall vehicle energy economy and extending driving range. The system also demonstrates advanced torque vectoring capabilities, enabling complex low-speed manoeuvres.

SiC&IGBT PCM

The unit employs an intelligent hybrid parallel configuration of Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Silicon (Si) power semiconductor devices to optimize the trade-off between efficiency, cost, and performance. This architecture allows for dynamic allocation of semiconductor usage based on operational demands, maximizing system efficiency while maintaining robust power delivery and cost-effectiveness. The modular hybrid parallel design confers high scalability, enabling flexible adaptation to diverse vehicle platforms and operating profiles, thereby providing a versatile and compatible power electronics solution for a wide range of electrification applications.

Adjustable Magnetic Field Motor

The adjustable magnetic field motor features a breakthrough structural design that innovatively integrates auxiliary electric excitation windings. This design seamlessly combines the flexibility of magnetic field adjustment from electrically excited synchronous motors with the high efficiency characteristics of permanent magnet motors. It significantly reduces no-load drag losses and decreases such losses by 1.5% compared to traditional permanent magnet synchronous motors under peak power conditions. This effectively optimizes overall vehicle electrical consumption performance, providing a substantial improvement in the driving range for electric vehicles.

XCM

The company has launched an eXtended Control Module (XCM) product based on the needs of OEM, which can be compatible with multiple hybrid DHT products. This product adopts a unified envelope design, deeply integrating BOOST circuits, platformed structural components, and core electronic components. It further enhances cost-effectiveness through an innovative design that shares PCM+ODP housing. At the same time, it integrates the OD module with the main controller casing and merges VCU and TMS functions, providing a more efficient and economical electrical control solution for hybrid vehicles with a modular, highly compatible technical architecture.

W-pin EM

Based on topological structure, by eliminating end weld points and reducing end height, significantly improves motor efficiency and optimizes axial space. The stator closed slot design effectively suppresses torque ripple, greatly improving NVH performance. Most notably, this technology can be equipped with InfiMotion unique all-domain ultra-hybrid cross oil cooling system, which efficiently cools the winding ends without an oil ring, solving the issue of motor temperature rise. It provides a more compact, reduced-noise, and reliable solution for electric drive systems.

Through this exhibition, the company look forward to exploring new trends in electric drive technology development with their peers in the industry, working together to build a more efficient, smarter, and more sustainable ecosystem for new energy vehicles, and jointly promoting electric mobility to new heights.

Highlights about the company in EU and Wuxi:

EU InfiMotion Technology is rapidly expanding its footprint in Europe, leveraging advanced manufacturing, strong R&D, and a clear focus on the needs of European automakers. With ambitious growth plans and a commitment to innovation, the company is well positioned to play a significant role in the ongoing electrification of the European automotive industry.









Business and Marketing Coordinator

Jeanette Angman

saleseu@infimotiontec.com





InfiMotion Technology Europe AB

Pumpgatan 1

417 55 Goteborg, Sweden
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION

THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE PURPOSES OF RULE 2.12 OF THE IRISH TAKEOVER PANEL ACT 1997, TAKEOVER RULES, 2022 (THE IRISH TAKEOVER RULES)

22 May 2025

Kenmare Resources plc

Rule 2.12 Announcement

In accordance with Rule 2.12 of the Irish Takeover Rules, Kenmare confirms that, as at the date of this announcement, the Companys issued share capital comprises 89,228,161 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 0.001 each ("Ordinary Shares"). Kenmare does not have any Ordinary Shares which are held as treasury shares. In addition, there are options over 3,066,036 Ordinary Shares outstanding under the Company's restricted share plan (including accrued dividend equivalents). The Ordinary Shares are admitted to trading on the Official List of Euronext Dublin and the premium listing segment of the Official List of the FCA. The International Securities Identification Number for the Ordinary Shares is IE00BDC5DG00.

Enquiries:

Kenmare Resources plc

Katharine Sutton

Investor Relations +353 1 671 0411





Responsibility Statement

The Directors of Kenmare accept responsibility for the information contained in this announcement. To the best of their knowledge and belief (having taken all reasonable care to ensure such is the case), the information contained in this announcement is in accordance with the facts and does not omit anything likely to affect the import of such information.

Disclosure requirements of the Irish Takeover Rules

Under Rule 8.3(b) of the Irish Takeover Rules, any person 'interested' (directly or indirectly) in 1% or more of any class of 'relevant securities' of Kenmare must disclose all 'dealings' in such 'relevant securities' during the 'offer period'. The disclosure of a 'dealing' in 'relevant securities' by a person to whom Rule 8.3(b) applies must be made by no later than 3.30 pm (Irish/UK time) on the business day following the date of the transaction. A dealing disclosure must contain the details specified in Rule 8.6(b) of the Irish Takeover Rules, including details of the dealing concerned and of the person's interests and short positions in any 'relevant securities' of Kenmare.

If two or more persons co-operate on the basis of an agreement, either express or tacit, either oral or written, to acquire for one or more of them an interest in relevant securities, they will be deemed to be a single person for these purposes.

Disclosure tables, giving details of the companies in whose 'relevant securities' 'opening positions' and 'dealings' should be disclosed, can be found on the Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie.

'Interests' in securities arise, in summary, when a person has long economic exposure, whether conditional or absolute, to changes in the price of securities. In particular, a person will be treated as having an 'interest' by virtue of the ownership or control of securities, or by virtue of any option in respect of, or derivative referenced to, securities.

Terms in quotation marks in this section are defined in the Irish Takeover Rules, which can also be found on the Irish Takeover Panel's website. If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you are required to disclose a dealing or an opening position under Rule 8, please consult the Irish Takeover Panel's website at www.irishtakeoverpanel.ie or contact the Irish Takeover Panel on telephone number +353 1 678 9020.
London, 22 May 2025 LIfT BioSciences, (LIfT or the Company), a rapidly emerging biotech and the global leader in neutrophil immunotherapies, today announces that preclinical data showing the wider therapeutic potential of its first-in-class Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) was presented at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 28th Annual Meeting held from from 13  17 May in New Orleans, USA.

The poster highlights how IMANs, while demonstrating strong anti-tumour activity, also harness neutrophil biology to potentially drive immune balance, tissue repair and neuroprotection, underscoring its potential as a scalable, off-the-shelf innunotherapy platform with transformative applications beyond oncology.

Key highlights include:

N-LIfT platform harnesses pro-homeostatic functions of neutrophils across multiple therapeutic areas, showcasing versatility beyond oncology : The data presented highlights the broad therapeutic potential of LIfT BioSciences N-LIfT platform, which harnesses the pro-homeostatic functions of neutrophils across multiple disease areas. The poster outlines how IMANs could contribute to clearing senescent cells and promoting tissue repair in ageing; enhancing antimicrobial activity against drug-resistant pathogens; regulating inflammatory responses and gut repair in autoimmune conditions such as Crohns disease; and supporting neuroregeneration through the secretion of growth factors relevant to CNS disorders. These findings reinforce the versatility of IMANs as a novel cell therapy approach with disease-modifying potential in areas of high unmet need.





: The data presented highlights the broad therapeutic potential of LIfT BioSciences N-LIfT platform, which harnesses the pro-homeostatic functions of neutrophils across multiple disease areas. The poster outlines how IMANs could contribute to clearing senescent cells and promoting tissue repair in ageing; enhancing antimicrobial activity against drug-resistant pathogens; regulating inflammatory responses and gut repair in autoimmune conditions such as Crohns disease; and supporting neuroregeneration through the secretion of growth factors relevant to CNS disorders. These findings reinforce the versatility of IMANs as a novel cell therapy approach with disease-modifying potential in areas of high unmet need. Robust preclinical efficacy of IMANs across multiple solid tumour models:

The data demonstrates the potent anti-tumour activity of IMANs in advanced in vitro models of solid tumours, showing strong tumour infiltration and cytotoxicity in 3D pancreatic cancer microtumour models. Across several patient-derived xenograft organoids, including bladder, colorectal, gastric, pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancer, IMANs drove substantial tumour cell killing. These findings underscore IMANs broad cytotoxic efficacy and tumour-targeting capability, whether haematopoietic stem cell- or induced pluripotent stem cell-derived, across diverse solid tumour types, highlighting their promise as a versatile and scalable immunotherapy.





Poster presentations:

Title: IMANs: A Transformative Solution for Overcoming Solid Tumour Immunotherapy Challenges and Rejuvenating Innate Immunity, with Broad Implications for Oncology, Longevity, Autoimmunity, and Neuroinflammation





Presenter: Mark A. Exley, Chief Scientific Officer, LIfT BioSciences

This posters can be found here.

Alex Blyth, Chief Executive Officer of LIfT BioSciences, commented: Our poster showcases not only the strong anti-tumour activity of our IMANs across a range of solid tumour models, but also the wider therapeutic potential of our N-LIfT platform beyond oncology. By harnessing the pro-homeostatic functions of neutrophils, IMANs offer a novel approach for longevity, anti-microbial resistance, immunology and neurology. This versatility, supported by a scalable and GMP-compliant manufacturing process, positions IMANs as a first-in-class neutrophil-based immunotherapy with transformative potential. We are proud to be contributing to the future of immunotherapy with a platform that offers real hope for patients across multiple areas of unmet medical need.

About LIfT BioSciences

LIfT Biosciences is a UK & Ireland biotech that is bringing to market a first-in-class allogeneic alpha neutrophil immunotherapy that overcomes treatment resistance in solid tumours. LIfTs Immunomodulatory Alpha Neutrophils (IMANs) kill in a non-antigen specific manner and turn the tumour microenvironment against the tumour to give a durable response and lasting immunity. The patented breakthrough N-LIfT platform is produced using exceptional stem cells (iPSC or HSC), a proprietary enhancement media and genetic engineering.

The company is preparing initiatives with a range of pharmaceutical license partners to develop a portfolio of engineered IMAN immunotherapies to destroy a range of solid tumours. See www.LIfTBiosciences.com

Further information

Investors:

Alex Blyth

ablyth@LIfTBioSciences.com

Media:

ICR Healthcare

Lindsey Neville, Namrata Taak, Evi Useh

liftbiosciences@icrhealthcare.com
Early results demonstrate near-complete elimination of tricuspid regurgitation in implanted patients with favorable safety profile and no permanent pacemaker implantations





Paris, France and Munich, Germany, 22 May, 2025  TRiCares SAS (TRiCares), a privately held pioneer in the field of minimally invasive treatment of tricuspid regurgitation, is presenting data in a late-breaking session at EuroPCR today from its first-in-human trial of Topaz, its Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement (TTVR) system.

Today, Dr Julien Dreyfus, MD, PhD will present 30-day post-procedural data from 20 tricuspid regurgitation (TR) patients treated with Topaz across eight specialist cardiac centers in Europe. The TRICURE First-In-Human study demonstrated significant elimination of TR in treated patients, with grade none (0+) or mild (1+) TR reported in all patients implanted with Topaz. In addition, zero permanent pacemakers were required due to the investigational device. The implantation procedure lasted, on average, 35 minutes.

These early clinical results from Topaz compare favorably with existing TTVR treatment approaches, with a procedure that is fast, easy-to-use, and less demanding of imaging specialists.

Further details on the data will be shared in todays oral presentation at EuroPCR 2025 and on Clinicaltrials.gov.

We are highly encouraged by the results of this first-in-human trial. These initial findings serve as important validation for our ongoing clinical trials for Topaz in Europe and the US, said Ahmed Elmouelhi, President & CEO of TRiCares. I want to extend our sincere gratitude to the participating hospitals, the dedicated interventional teams and clinical investigators who contributed to these patient outcomes. To date, the TRiCares team has overseen 60 Topaz implantations, and we continue to work closely with clinicians to refine the procedure and technique.

The initial findings will be used to inform the company's ongoing European pivotal trial (NCT06581471) and U.S. Early Feasibility Study (NCT06506942).

EuroPCR presentation details

Session: Tricuspid hotline: new devices

Title: TRiCares Topaz transfemoral TRICUspid heart valve REplacement system first-in-human trial

Presenter: Julien Dreyfus, MD, PhD, FESC, Cardiologist at Centre Cardiologique du Nord, Saint-Denis, France

Location: Theatre Bordeaux

Date/time: Thursday, 22 May 2025, 08:30  09:30 CEST

About TRiCares

TRiCares is a privately held company developing Topaz, a minimally invasive tricuspid valve replacement system for the elimination of tricuspid regurgitation (TR). Topazs unique dual stent design is easy to implant and uses established transfemoral and transjugular delivery methods, avoiding the need for high-risk open-heart surgery. Topaz is designed to fit a wide range of anatomies and replaces the diseased tricuspid valve. Once in place, it flexes with every heartbeat. A European Pivotal Study and a US/Canadian Early Feasibility Study are underway, with progress being made towards FDA approval and CE marking. TRiCares has focused on TR since its inception and its ambition is for Topaz to become the valve of choice for the millions of TR patients worldwide, overcoming the limitations of current treatment approaches.

TRiCares is a global business, with offices in France, Germany, the US and Brazil, and is supported by a strategic partner and leading life science venture capital firms: 415 Capital, Andera Partners, Bayern Kapital, BioMed Partners, Credit Mutuel Innovation, GoCapital, Karista, and Wellington Partners.

About Topaz

The Topaz Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement (TTVR) System is designed to eliminate tricuspid regurgitation through a minimally invasive approach. This system consists of the Topaz Heart Valve Prosthesis and a catheter-based implantation system. It is developed exclusively for use in the tricuspid position and to provide a system for physicians that is safe and easy to implant. The unique two-stent valve prosthesis is inserted primarily via the femoral vein and transports the prosthesis into the right side of the heart, where it is finally released to replace the diseased tricuspid valve.

For further information please contact:

TRiCares SAS

Ahmed Elmouelhi, President & CEO

info@tricares.de

ICR Healthcare

Lucy Featherstone

T: +44 (0)20 3709 5700

tricares@icrhealthcare.com
Dublin, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "UK Veterinary Medicine Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Biologics, Pharmaceutical), Animal Type (Production, Companion), Route of Administration, Distribution Channel, with Growth Forecasts, 2025-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The UK Veterinary Medicine Market was valued at USD 2.64 Billion in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 4.08 Billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 7.80%

This growth can be attributed to the novel product development in veterinary medicine, the rise in livestock population and increasing pet ownership rates, and the increasing government initiatives to spread awareness about animal health.







There is an increasing trend of pet adoption in the country, particularly influenced by the increasing ownership of smaller pets. According to the UK Pet Food 2024 stats, the pet dog population is estimated to be around 13.5 million, which accounts for around 36% of the households in the country owning a dog.

Similarly, the pet cat population is estimated to be around 12.5 million, which accounts for around 29% of the households in the country owning a cat. This surge in pet ownership has led to greater consumer spending on veterinary medicines as pet owners are increasingly prioritizing their pets' health, resulting in higher expenditures on veterinary care, medications, and preventive treatments. As pet owners become more aware of the long-term health implications and necessary care for their pets, the demand for veterinary medicine in the country is further anticipated to increase.



In addition, the increasing efforts by government and private bodies through various partnerships and initiatives to increase awareness about animal health among pet and cattle owners are further contributing to the market growth. For instance, The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, launched in 2023, aims to enhance farm animal health and welfare in the UK through collaboration among farmers, veterinarians, and the industry. This initiative is part of the Agricultural Transition Plan, focusing on improving biosecurity, tackling antimicrobial resistance, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.



Financial support for farmers is one of the major focuses of the pathway, offering funding for veterinary consultations, capital investments, and disease control programs. This includes grants for infrastructure improvements and initiatives to enhance stockmanship through training. The pathway also aims to stimulate market demand for higher welfare products by improving transparency and ensuring fair pricing for farmers.



Moreover, zoonotic diseases, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, have gained significant attention due to their potential impact on public health. This awareness drives pet owners and livestock farmers to seek preventive care and vaccinations for their animals, thereby boosting the demand for veterinary medication. Similarly, in agriculture, changing practices aimed at improving animal welfare and productivity are driving demand for veterinary interventions as farmers are increasingly adopting biosecurity measures to prevent disease outbreaks within livestock populations, thereby contributing to segment growth.



UK Veterinary Medicine Market Report Highlights

The pharmaceutical segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 67.5% in 2024 due to its wide range of clinically approved drugs that effectively treat and prevent various animal diseases.

The production animal segment dominated the market with the largest revenue share of over 58% in 2024, as livestock health is directly tied to food safety, productivity, and economic returns for farmers.

The injectables segment dominated the market, with a revenue share of over 44% in 2024 due to their rapid action, high bioavailability, and effectiveness in treating a wide range of conditions.

The veterinary hospitals and clinics segment dominated the market with the largest share of over 40% in 2024.

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 150 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $2.64 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $4.08 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 7.8% Regions Covered United Kingdom



UK Veterinary Medicine Market Variables, Trends & Scope



Market Lineage Outlook

Parent market outlook

Related/ancillary market outlook

Market driver analysis

Rise in livestock population and increasing pet ownership rates

Novel product development in veterinary medicine

Increasing prevalence of animal diseases

Strategic initiatives by key players

Market restraint analysis

Regulatory Challenges

UK Veterinary Medicine Market Analysis Tools

Industry Analysis - Porter's

PESTEL Analysis

Estimated Animal Population by Key Species, 2018-2024

Regulatory Framework

Product Pipeline Analysis

Pricing Analysis

Company Profiles

Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH.

Norbrook

Merck & Co., Inc.

Elanco

Bimeda, Inc.

Zoetis UK Limited.

Ceva

BioZyme, Inc.

Phibro Animal Health Corporation

Dechra (EQT)

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8mmryu

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Attachment
Dublin, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Canada Legal Cannabis Market Size, Share, and Trends Analysis Report by Source (Marijuana, Hemp), Derivatives (CBD, THC), Cultivation, End-use (Medical, Recreational, Industrial), with Growth Forecasts, 2025-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Canada Legal Cannabis Market was valued at USD 3.25 Billion in 2024, and is projected to reach USD 5.79 Billion by 2030, rising at a CAGR of 12.00%

Growing awareness of the health benefits related to cannabis and CBD consumption for treating anxiety & seizures and reducing pain is projected to propel the market growth. The high demand for CBD for health and wellness purposes, attributed to its therapeutic properties, is a key driver in the market's growth.



Moreover, the rising number of clinical trials signifies the positive effects of utilizing cannabis for treating various medical conditions. For instance, in February 2024, researchers at the University of British Columbia introduced a first-of-its-kind clinical trial examining the potential of CBD as a treatment for bipolar depression. The trials were approved by Health Canada and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to investigate how CBD can help manage acute bipolar depression.



Moreover, medical professionals' increasing preference for cannabinoid-based formulations to treat numerous health conditions is another major factor supporting the country's market. Healthcare professionals' higher preference for CBG, CBN-derived products creates a positive influence on consumer minds, thereby boosting their adoption rate and popularity. For instance, in October 2021, Cronos Group Inc. launched its SPINACH FEELZ Chill Bliss 2:1 THC|CBG gummy that features THC and cultured CBG.



Some of the key players in the market are Canopy Growth Corporation, Charlotte's Web, Inc., Aurora Cannabis, Tilray Brands, The Cronos Group, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sundial Growers, and Maricann, Inc. These market players adopt key strategic initiatives to expand their business footprint and market position. For instance, in April 2023, Aurora Cannabis Inc. partnered with Strainprint and announced the launch of the tracking program through Strainprint App. The tracking program is designed for Aurora patients to keep track of their medical cannabis journey.



Furthermore, the rise in awareness regarding cannabis and its potential use in various industries and the introduction of educational programs boost the market growth. For instance, in July 2022, Tilray Brands launched a cannabis education platform, WeCare-Medical Cannabis. The platform is dedicated to educating patients and healthcare practitioners about medical cannabis.



Canada Legal Cannabis Market Report Highlights

Based on source, the marijuana segment dominated the market in 2025 and is anticipated to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period owing to the growing adoption of marijuana-based products

Based on derivatives, the CBD segment held the largest market share in 2025, owing to the awareness regarding CBD's effectiveness in treating various medical conditions

Based on cultivation, the indoor segment held the largest market share in 2025 due to the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) in cannabis cultivation, rising investments, and favorable government initiatives

Based on end use, the recreational segment dominated the market in 2025 and is anticipated to grow at the fastest CAGR over the forecast period due to the growing consumption of cannabis in the form of vapes, foods, and beverages

Why Should You Buy This Report?

Comprehensive Market Analysis: Gain detailed insights into the market across major regions and segments.

Competitive Landscape: Explore the market presence of key players.

Future Trends: Discover the pivotal trends and drivers shaping the future of the market.

Actionable Recommendations: Utilize insights to uncover new revenue streams and guide strategic business decisions.

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope



Chapter 2. Executive Summary

2.1. Market Outlook

2.2. Segment Outlook

2.2.1. Source outlook

2.2.2. Derivatives outlook

2.2.3. Cultivation outlook

2.2.4. End Use outlook

2.3. Competitive Insights



Chapter 3. Canada Legal Cannabis Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1. Market Lineage Outlook

3.1.1. Parent market outlook

3.1.2. Ancillary market outlook

3.2. Market Dynamics

3.2.1. Market driver analysis

3.2.2. Market restraint analysis

3.3. Canada Legal Cannabis: Market Analysis Tools

3.3.1. Industry Analysis - Porter's

3.3.2. PESTLE Analysis

3.4. Regulatory Framework



Chapter 4. Canada Legal Cannabis Market Segment Analysis, by Source, 2018-2030 (USD Million)

4.1. Definition and Scope

4.2. Product Market Share Analysis, 2024 & 2030

4.3. Segment Dashboard

4.4. Canada Legal Cannabis market, by Source, 2018 to 2030

4.5. Marijuana

4.5.1. Marijuana market estimates and forecasts, 2018 to 2030 (USD Million)

4.5.2. Flowers

4.5.3. Oil and Tinctures

4.6. Hemp

4.6.1. Hemp market estimates and forecasts, 2018 to 2030 (USD Million)

4.6.2. Hemp Oil

4.6.3. Industrial Hemp



Chapter 5. Canada Legal Cannabis Market Segment Analysis, by Derivatives, 2018-2030 (USD Million)

5.1. Definition and Scope

5.2. Derivatives Market Share Analysis, 2024 & 2030

5.3. Segment Dashboard

5.4. Canada Legal Cannabis market, by Derivatives, 2018 to 2030

5.5. CBD

5.6. THC

5.7. Other derivatives



Chapter 6. Canada Legal Cannabis Market Segment Analysis, by Cultivation, 2018-2030 (USD Million)

6.1. Definition and Scope

6.2. Cultivation Market Share Analysis, 2024 & 2030

6.3. Segment Dashboard

6.4. Canada Legal Cannabis market, by Cultivation, 2018 to 2030

6.5. Indoor Cultivation

6.6. Greenhouse Cultivation

6.7. Outdoor Cultivation



Chapter 7. Canada Legal Cannabis Market Segment Analysis, by End Use, 2018-2030 (USD Million)

7.1. Definition and Scope

7.2. End Use Market Share Analysis, 2024 & 2030

7.3. Segment Dashboard

7.4. Global Canada Legal Cannabis Market, by End Use, 2018 to 2030

7.5. Medical Use

7.5.1. Medical Use Market Revenue Estimates and Forecasts, 2018-2030 (USD Million)

7.5.2. Cancer

7.5.3. Chronic Pain

7.5.4. Depression and Anxiety

7.5.5. Arthritis

7.5.6. Diabetes

7.5.7. Glaucoma

7.5.8. Migraine

7.5.9. Epilepsy

7.5.10. Multiple Sclerosis

7.5.11. AIDS

7.5.12. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

7.5.13. Alzheimer's

7.5.14. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

7.5.15. Parkinson's

7.5.16. Tourette's

7.5.17. Others

7.6. Recreational Use

7.7. Industrial Use



Chapter 8. Competitive Landscape

8.1. Recent Developments & Impact Analysis, by Key Market Participants

8.2. Company Categorization

8.3. Company Profiles

Canopy Growth Corporation

Charlotte's Web, Inc.

Aurora Cannabis Inc.

Tilray Brands

The Cronos Group

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Organigram Holding, Inc.

Maricann, Inc.

Isodiol International, Inc

Sundial Growers

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/604fgx

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

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SHANGHAI, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today at Dishui Lake, the Young City Lin-gang hosted a vibrant and passionate themed concert at the lake tourist resort to welcome the 14th China Tourism Day and celebrate the Lin-gang  Meet Love theme month aligning with May 20  a day widely celebrated in China as a symbol of love because 520 sounds like I love you in Chinese.

Lin-gang Special Area has thoughtfully planned a series of sweet and immersive activities loved by young people, further gathering popularity, showcasing the citys image, and boosting vitality. Through an innovative fusion of music + anime + fireworks, the event created a cultural and tourism feast full of urban warmth and youthful energy, composing a romantic chapter for the City for the Young.

Shining Star Concert Ignites the Night with a Passionate Anime Band Live Show

As dusk approached and the lake breeze gently rose, a high-spirited band performance kicked off the evening in Lin-gang. At the center of the stage, fast-paced rhythms and powerful melodies combined with young faces and energetic emotions to paint a dynamic portrait of urban vitality. The most anticipated moment for anime fans quietly unfolded: through direct interactions between characters and visitors, Lin-gang brought IP culture to life, creating a brand-new cultural and tourism scene rich in youthful flavor and modern symbols.

A gathering of love witnesses the arrival of happiness in Lin-gang

In the name of love, celebrating youth. Lin-gang  Meet Love was not only a feast of music and visuals but also a romantic journey of love. At the event, among the hundred newlywed couples in an immersive group wedding ceremony for Lin-gang youth, six representative couples took to the stage, solemnly exchanging vows of love under the spotlight. Their stories are the annotations of love for this city, and their silhouettes have become the most touching scenery in this young urban landscape. This city, filled with affection, will continue to innovate its formats and optimize experiences so that newlyweds can truly feel the youthful vitality and human warmth of Lin-gang.

Lin-gang gifts turn love into something you can hold

As China Tourism Day falls on May 19, Dishui Lake Tourist Resort has specially launched the Lin-gang Gifts, including a hand-drawn map of the Shanghai Dishui Lake Tourist Resort, a Dishui Lake passport, a customized commemorative metro ticket, Lin-gangthemed postcards, and other cultural tourism items. These are not only practical traveling gifts but also commemorative love messages from the city to the newlyweds. These gifts remind every young person stepping into marriage that their love is not only between each other, but also blessed and witnessed by the city of Lin-gang.

Vows of love and tangible symbols of affection fill the city with romance. Dishui Lakes Sakura Island was wrapped in a gentle halo of light. It is precisely this youthful, romantic, and free city atmosphere that continues to attract more and more young people to choose Lin-gang and settle in Lin-gang.

A dreamlike spectacle: themed fireworks show stuns the audience

In Lin-gang, a group of dream-chasing young people is together painting the vibrant picture of this City for the Young in their own ways. The development of Lin-gang is inseparable from the gathering and growth of talent. At the climax of the concert, Mou Kai, Director of the Marine Biology Research Institute of Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, was invited to the stage to press the fireworks launch button. As the ceremony began, the stage was illuminated by fireworks, with the landmark installation Seahorse Sacred Pillar from Soul Land vividly recreating the mysterious atmosphere of Sea God Island. On stage, cosplayers performed four classic scenes from Soul Land  Soul Master Assembly, Martial Soul Awakening, Unwavering Devotion, and Battle Spirit Eternal Flame  bringing the characters growth stories to life. Anime fans were immersed as moments of passion and emotion were relived in the interplay of light and shadow.

In the night sky, 15,000 customized Soul Land-themed fireworks burst in perfect harmony with the music. The Colorful Auspicious Cloud fireworks astonished the crowd, with dazzling lights reflected on the lake surface, creating a dreamlike scene.

Cultural warmth lights up the city

Looking ahead, Lin-gang Special Area will further enrich its cultural tourism content, promote the deep integration of culture and tourism, and create more panoramic IP scenes, igniting Lin-gangs youthful fervor and cultural charm, energizing the cultural tourism consumption of the Lin-gang Special Area, and highlighting Lin-gangs brand image as a Young City and a City for the Young.

Contact Person: Veronica Chen

Email: 597836165@qq.com

Country: China

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HOUSTON, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amplify Energy Corp. (Amplify or the Company) (NYSE: AMPY) announced today that the Company will be participating in the 2025 Louisiana Energy Conference on Wednesday, May 28th at the Four Seasons in New Orleans, LA.

Amplifys President and Chief Executive Officer, Martyn Willsher, will be participating in a panel discussion regarding the topic of Small Cap E&Ps See Value Creation in U.S. Basins Beyond the Permian. In addition, Mr. Willsher will be available to meet with investors during the conference.

About Amplify Energy

Amplify Energy Corp. is an independent oil and natural gas company engaged in the acquisition, development, exploitation and production of oil and natural gas properties. Amplifys operations are focused in Oklahoma, the Rockies (Bairoil), federal waters offshore Southern California (Beta), East Texas / North Louisiana, and the Eagle Ford (Non-op). For more information, visit www.amplifyenergy.com.

Investor Relations Contacts

Jim Frew  Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

(832) 219-9044

james.frew@amplifyenergy.com

Michael Jordan  Director, Finance and Treasurer

(832) 219-9051

michael.jordan@amplifyenergy.com
LONGUEUIL, Quebec, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Azimut Exploration Inc. (Azimut or the Company) (TSXV: AZM) (OTCQX: AZMTF) is pleased to report very encouraging drilling results from its diamond drilling program on the antimony-gold Fortin Zone at its wholly owned Wabamisk Property (the Property) in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay (James Bay) region of Quebec, Canada.

The initial plan for 5,000 metres was expanded in January, and the program concluded in late March with a total of 51 diamond drill holes for 6,396 metres. The results of this program support the preparation of the summer drilling campaign, which will include 10,000 metres of infill and expansion drilling.

The recently completed drilling program was initiated in late 2024 to follow up on the Fortin Zone surface discovery (see press releases of October 29 and December 2, 2024). Partial results from the first 17 holes (2,090 metres) were previously reported (see press releases of January 16 and April 10, 2025). This press release presents the full set of results from the program (Tables 1 and 2).

The price of antimony has risen sharply due to ongoing supply shortages exacerbated by trade disputes, recently reaching US$58,000 per tonne in markets outside China.

HIGHLIGHTS (Figures 1 to 10, Tables 1 and 2)

The 10 best holes of the 28 with antimony grades above 0.2% Sb (composite average) are:

Hole WS25-40: 1.10% Sb, 0.38 g/t Au over 51.50 m (from 3.0 m to 54.5 m), including 3.43% Sb, 2.37 g/t Au over 6.50 m (from 3.0 m to 9.5 m), and 2.41% Sb, 0.18 g/t Au over 9.30 m (from 37.5 m to 46.8 m) Hole WS25-41: 0.65% Sb, 0.13 g/t Au over 42.75 m (from 20.0 m to 62.75 m), including 1.43% Sb, 0.26 g/t over 10.55 m (from 52.20 m to 62.75 m) Hole WS24-06: 1.08% Sb, 0.53 g/t Au over 22.70 m (from 78.5 m to 101.2 m), including 1.74% Sb, 1.15 g/t Au over 9.50 m (from 79.5 m to 89.0 m) Hole WS25-42: 0.64% Sb, 0.24 g/t Au over 37.10 m (from 29.5 m to 66.6 m), including 1.71% Sb, 0.37 g/t Au over 13.30 m (from 29.5 m to 42.8 m) Hole WS24-02: 1.01% Sb, 0.15 g/t Au over 17.85 m (from 20.15 m to 38.0 m), including 6.44% Sb, 0.67 g/t Au over 2.35 m (from 20.15 m to 22.5 m) Hole WS25-47: 0.50% Sb, 0.12 g/t Au over 35.70 m (from 4.05 m to 39.75 m), including 1.70% Sb over 6.0 m (from 9.0 m to 15.0 m), and 1.20% Sb over 2.55 m (from 34.7 m to 37.25 m) Hole WS25-44: 0.55% Sb, 0.12 g/t Au over 24.90 m (from 60.6 m to 85.5m), including 1.30% Sb, 0.18 g/t Au over 8.40 m (from 60.6 m to 69.0 m) Hole WS24-04: 0.63% Sb, 0.38 g/t Au over 19.0 m (from 14.5 m to 33.5 m), including 1.04% Sb, 0.73 g/t Au over 8.7 m (from 15.8 m to 24.5 m), and 5.74 g/t Au over 1.0 m (from 22.0 m to 23.0 m) Hole WS24-13: 0.33% Sb, 0.73 g/t Au over 31.73 m (from 2.77 m to 34.5 m), including 0.86% Sb, 1.41 g/t Au over 9.15 m (from 13.4 m to 22.55 m) Hole WS25-45: 0.67% Sb, 0.24 g/t Au over 13.95 m (from 83.55 m to 97.50 m), including 1.03% Sb, 0.22 g/t Au over 6.45 m (from 91.05 m to 97.5 m)

Of the 28 holes with intervals grading more than 0.2% Sb, 15 also yielded gold intervals grading more than 1.0 g/t Au over at least 1.0 m, including 8 with grades above 4.0 g/t Au over at least 1.0 m (see Table 1).

Preliminary geometry of the Fortin Zone (see Figures 6 to 9)

- Strike-length: Minimum 1.0 kilometre, based on 31 mineralized holes, within a broader 2.4-kilometre-long prospective corridor, based on two (2) holes drilled at the eastern and western extensions (WS25-22 and WS25-34, respectively).

- Thickness: Intervals grading above 0.2% Sb range from 5 to 50 metres wide along the hole, roughly 25 metres on average.

- Dip: To the south at approximately 75 degrees.

- Vertical extent: Mostly tested from surface down to 50 metres; open at depth.

Mineralized system and geological context

The antimony-gold mineralized system is hosted in an east-west striking subvertical feldspar porphyry intrusive sill and its sheared contacts with metasedimentary rocks (mostly siltstones). To date, 42 holes have intersected the sill over a lateral distance of 2.65 kilometres , and it remains open to the west. Its thickness varies from several metres to over 90 metres, with a steep dip to the south. So far, the sill has been intercepted vertically down to 140 metres, and a deeper extent is anticipated. The multi-kilometre lateral continuity of the sill could indicate a kilometre-scale vertical depth.



and its (mostly siltstones). To date, over a lateral distance of , and it remains open to the west. Its thickness varies from several metres to over 90 metres, with a steep dip to the south. So far, the sill has been intercepted vertically down to 140 metres, and a deeper extent is anticipated. The multi-kilometre lateral continuity of the sill could indicate a kilometre-scale vertical depth. Antimony sulphides (mostly stibnite: Sb 2 S 3 ) are related to intense quartz veining within the sill and are commonly associated with other sulphides (arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite). Sericite is the main alteration mineral, locally accompanied by chlorite, epidote and carbonate. The most abundant mineralization occurs along the southern contact where the sill meets sheared and folded metasedimentary rocks. The northern contact is also mineralized, but drilling to date suggests it is less continuous than along the southern contact. The quartz vein network is mostly subparallel to the east-west schistosity. The rheologic contrast between the brittle porphyry sill and the more ductile metasedimentary rocks appears to be one of the key controls on mineralization at the scale of the Fortin Zone.

(mostly stibnite: Sb S ) are related to intense quartz veining within the sill and are commonly associated with other sulphides (arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite). Sericite is the main alteration mineral, locally accompanied by chlorite, epidote and carbonate. The most abundant mineralization occurs along the southern contact where the sill meets sheared and folded metasedimentary rocks. The northern contact is also mineralized, but drilling to date suggests it is less continuous than along the southern contact. The quartz vein network is mostly subparallel to the east-west schistosity. The rheologic contrast between the brittle porphyry sill and the more ductile metasedimentary rocks appears to be one of the key controls on mineralization at the scale of the Fortin Zone. Approximately 300 metres south of the Fortin Zone, five (5) holes (WS25-35 to -39, totalling 870 m) tested a subparallel trend, mostly delineated by induced polarization anomalies coincident with gold showings. Hole WS25-35 yielded the significant results of 0.39 g/t Au over 8.80 m (from 28.20 m to 37.0 m), including 1.49 g/t Au over 1.50 m (from 35.5 m), and 2.73 g/t Au over 3.00 m (from 172.50 m to 175.50 m).

yielded the significant results of 0.39 g/t Au over 8.80 m (from 28.20 m to 37.0 m), including 1.49 g/t Au over 1.50 m (from 35.5 m), and 2.73 g/t Au over 3.00 m (from 172.50 m to 175.50 m). Antimony-rich systems are unusual in Archean settings in Quebec. The mineralized sill on the Wabamisk Property lies along the major tectono-metamorphic boundary separating the volcano-plutonic La Grande Subprovince and the metasedimentary Opinaca Subprovince. This geological environment has already been recognized as prospective for gold, exemplified by the Eleonore gold deposit. At Wabamisk, the antimony-rich zone may transition to a deeper gold-rich zone. Further drilling will test for antimony-gold vertical zoning, a pattern observed in several deposits around the world.





About the Antimony Supply Shortage

Antimony is listed as a critical mineral by the Canadian and American governments and the European Commission. Three countries account for about 90% of the worlds production, estimated to be 100,000 tonnes in 2024 (China 60%, Tajikistan 17% and Russia 13%). Antimony is not currently mined in Canada or the United States. In August 2024, China imposed restrictions on the export of antimony, which led to a significant export reduction in October, increasing the risk of supply disruptions and potentially causing further price appreciation. Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Antimony Commodity Summary, January 2025.

About the Wabamisk Property

Wabamisk is a wholly owned project (39.5 km by 9.2 km) comprising 662 claims covering 350.5 km2. It lies 13 kilometres east of the Clearwater Property (Fury Gold Mines), 42 kilometres northeast of the Whabouchi lithium deposit (Rio Tinto  Nemaska Lithium), and 70 kilometres south of the Eleonore gold mine (Dhilmar). Major powerlines pass through or close to the Propertys eastern end, and the North Road highway passes 37 kilometres to the south. The nearest town is Nemaska, a Cree village municipality 55 kilometres to the southeast.

Drilling, Analytical Protocols and Project Management

Nouchimi-RJLL Drilling Inc. of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, conducted the drilling program using NQ core diameter.

Sawed half-core drill core samples were sent to ALS Laboratories in Val-dOr, Quebec, where gold was analyzed by fire assay, with atomic absorption and gravimetric finishes for grades above 3.0 g/t Au. Samples were also analyzed for a 48-element suite using ICP. Overlimit antimony assays (1%) were reanalyzed using four-acid digestion and ICP-AES. Azimut applies industry-standard QA/QC procedures to its drilling programs. All batches sent for analysis included certified reference materials, blanks and field duplicates. Note that grab samples are selective by nature, unlikely to represent average grades, and may not represent true underlying mineralization.

The project is under the direction of Alain Cayer (P.Geo.), Azimuts Project Manager.

Qualified Person

Dr. Jean-Marc Lulin (P.Geo.), Azimuts President and CEO, prepared this press release and approved the scientific and technical information disclosed herein, including the previously reported results presented by Azimut in the figures supporting this press release. He is acting as the Companys qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Azimut

Azimut is a leading mineral exploration company with a solid reputation for target generation and partnership development. The Company holds the largest mineral exploration portfolio in Quebec, controlling strategic land positions for gold, copper, nickel and lithium.

The Companys wholly owned flagship project, the Elmer Gold Project, is at the resource stage (311,200 oz Indicated and 513,900 oz Inferred using a gold price of US$1,800 per ounce*) and has a strong exploration upside. Azimut is also advancing the Galinee lithium discovery with its joint venture partner SOQUEM Inc. In addition, significant exploration progress was made in 2024 on the Wabamisk (antimony-gold, lithium), Kukamas (nickel-copper-PGE) and Pilipas (lithium) projects.

Azimut uses a pioneering approach to big data analytics (the proprietary AZtechMine expert system) enhanced by extensive exploration know-how. The Companys competitive edge is based on systematic regional-scale data analysis. Azimut maintains rigorous financial discipline and a strong balance sheet.

Contact and Information

Jean-Marc Lulin, President and CEO

Tel.: (450) 646-3015  Fax: (450) 646-3045

Jonathan Rosset, Vice President Corporate Development

Tel.: (604) 202-7531

info@azimut-exploration.com www.azimut-exploration.com

The results of Azimuts work on the Wabamisk Property since the acquisition of the project by the Company in 2005, including the work carried out by its former partner, have been presented in 23 press releases, including the results disclosed in this release. The press releases are available on the Companys website or through SEDAR (www.sedarplus.ca). The technical reports related to this work have been filed with Quebecs Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests and are accessible via SIGEOM.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

* Technical Report and Initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Patwon Deposit, Elmer Property, Quebec, Canada, prepared by: Martin Perron, P.Eng., Chafana Hamed Sako, P.Geo., Vincent Nadeau-Benoit, P.Geo. and Simon Boudreau, P.Eng. of InnovExplo Inc., dated January 4, 2024.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which reflect the Companys current expectations regarding future events related to the drilling results from the Wabamisk Property. To the extent that any statements in this press release contain information that is not historical, the statements are essentially forward-looking and are often identified by words such as consider, anticipate, expect, estimate, intend, project, plan, potential, suggest and believe. The forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Many factors could cause such differences, particularly volatility and sensitivity to market metal prices, the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates, imprecision in reserve estimates, recoveries of gold and other metals, environmental risks including increased regulatory burdens, unexpected geological conditions, adverse mining conditions, community and non-governmental organization actions, changes in government regulations and policies, including laws and policies, global outbreaks of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, and failure to obtain necessary permits and approvals from government authorities, as well as other development and operating risks. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this document. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required to do so by applicable securities laws. The reader is directed to carefully review the detailed risk discussion in our most recent Annual Report filed on SEDAR+ for a fuller understanding of the risks and uncertainties that affect the Companys business.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
HAMILTON, Ontario, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EECOMOBILITY, a Canadian technology company specializing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for advanced battery testing and monitoring systems, is proud to announce the appointment of Dr. Amit Monga as its new President, effective immediately. Dr. Monga brings a distinguished track record in innovation leadership, strategic growth, and capital markets.

EECOMOBILITY, has developed cutting-edge AI software tailored for the automotive, energy storage, industrial, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors. Its flagship product line, EECOPower, used by customers globally, delivers rapid battery cell and module testing and characterization systems.

We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Amit Monga to EECOMOBILITY, said Dr. Saeid Habibi, CEO of EECOMOBILITY. His deep expertise in AI and capital markets, and commitment to sustainable development align perfectly with our mission. I am confident that under his leadership, we will continue to push the boundaries of whats possible in clean and intelligent technologies.

Scott Pelton, Co-founder of RiSC Capital, added: At RiSC Capital, we look for companies poised to shape the future. Dr. Amit Mongas leadership will supercharge EECOMOBILITYs trajectory, turning breakthrough battery and AI technologies into global standards. We are excited to support this next phase of rapid growth and transformative impact.

Thurston Cromwell, head of Emerson Ventures and vice president of development and innovation at Emerson, commented: By bringing in experienced leadership, the company is well-positioned to scale its advanced battery testing technology and meet critical customer needs across the global industrial landscape. Emerson Ventures is proud to back teams pioneering breakthrough solutions and excited to support EECOMOBILITY as they enter this next phase of growth.

Justin Charbonneau, Venture Principal, Automotive Ventures, said: Bringing in seasoned leadership is a smart move at this stage of EECOMOBILITYs growth. Were excited to support the company as it continues to scale under strong executive guidance.

I am honored to join EECOMOBILITY at such a transformative time, said Dr. Monga. The companys AI-driven technology and its commitment to safety and sustainability are exactly what the future of energy demands. I look forward to working with this exceptional team to grow the company, scale our impact and deliver intelligent, eco-conscious solutions to the world.

Dr. Monga holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, where his research focused on solving complex reliability-based problems using genetic algorithms. Over the past two decades he has worked with the boards and management teams of leading public and private technology companies as an investment banker, venture capitalist and board member, advising them on growth and financing strategies.

For more information, please contact:

Media Relations

EECOMOBILITY Inc.

Email: info@eecomobility.com

Website: https://www.eecomobility.com
DALLAS, Texas, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calvetti Ferguson continues to grow its North Texas presence with the addition of Steve Valenta as a business development officer in its Dallas office. With a career rooted in strategic relationship-building and business growth, Steve will focus on connecting companies to the firms advisory and accounting solutions.

Steve brings more than 25 years of experience in business development and relationship management, including work with public and private companies, investment bankers, attorneys, and private equity sponsors across the Southwest. Known for his consultative approach and ability to deliver tailored solutions, he will now partner with business owners, executives, and other key stakeholders throughout the region.

Its a privilege to join Calvetti Ferguson and be part of a team thats committed to delivering real value to its clients, said Steve Valenta. Im eager to support the firms momentum in Dallas and look forward to developing new relationships throughout the community.

Steves efforts will center on introducing middle-market businesses to Calvetti Fergusons full range of capabilities. He will focus on identifying opportunities that align with client needs and ensuring successful, long-term engagements.

He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Southern Methodist University. Steve is also an active member of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), where he remains engaged in industry developments.

Steves experience and relationship-focused mindset will help us deepen our connections in the region and uncover new ways to support clients across North Texas, said Jason Cain, vice president of business development at Calvetti Ferguson. Were excited to welcome him as we continue to build our presence in Dallas.

With Steve joining the team, Calvetti Ferguson strengthens its ability to meet the evolving needs of the Dallas market. His arrival reinforces the firms commitment to trusted partnerships and insight-driven solutions that help clients thrive.

About Calvetti Ferguson

Calvetti Ferguson is a nationally recognized CPA and advisory firm serving companies across the United States. The firm provides assurance, tax, advisory, accounting, risk advisory, and technology advisory services to middle-market businesses, family offices, and private equity firms.

Media contact:

Emily Martin

Chief Marketing Officer

emartin@calvettiferguson.com

(713) 726-5723
TORONTO, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MediPharm Labs Corp. (TSX: LABS) ("MediPharm" or the "Company"), a pharmaceutical company specialized in precision-based cannabinoids, is pleased to announce the removal of all conditions precedent, related to its previously-announced agreement (the Purchase Agreement) for the sale of MediPharms facility in Hope, BC, (Hope Facility) to Rubicon Organics Inc. (TSXV: ROMJ) (OTCQX: ROMJF) for $4.5 million in cash (the Transaction).

With these conditions now met, the $4.5 million sale of the Hope Facility remains on track to close in June 2025. The Transaction will bolster MediPharms already strong cash position and virtually debt-free financial status.

David Pidduck, CEO of MediPharm commented, The $4.5 million in cash proceeds from divesting non-core assets supports our roadmap to deliver long-term value for shareholders and partners, enabling continued focus on accelerating international growth and exploration of key acquisition opportunities.

The Hope Facility was acquired as part of the successful VIVO Cannabis Inc. acquisition in 2023, and the Company ceased all Hope Facility commercial activities in 2024, consolidating key operations at its other facilities. The consolidation of operations was all part of MediPharms ongoing strategy to reduce operating and overhead costs and monetize redundant assets. The aggregate value of the Companys asset sales since 2022, including the Hope Facility, total approximately $14 million, all of which has contributed to reducing costs and boosting the Companys balance sheet.

Since the second quarter of 2022, when implementation of this strategy began, to the first quarter of 2025, MediPharm has reduced operating and overhead costs by approximately $42 million dollars on an annualized basis.

About MediPharm Labs

Founded in 2015, MediPharm Labs specializes in the development and manufacture of purified, pharmaceutical-quality cannabis concentrates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and advanced derivative products utilizing a Good Manufacturing Practices certified facility with ISO standard-built clean rooms. MediPharm Labs has invested in an expert, research driven team, state-of-the-art technology, downstream purification methodologies and purpose-built facilities for delivery of pure, trusted and precision-dosed cannabis products for its customers. MediPharm Labs develops, formulates, processes, packages and distributes cannabis and advanced cannabinoid-based products to domestic and international medical markets.

In 2021, MediPharm Labs received a Pharmaceutical Drug Establishment License from Health Canada, becoming the only company in North America to hold a commercial-scale domestic Good Manufacturing Practices License for the extraction of multiple natural cannabinoids. This GMP license was the first step in the Companys current foreign drug manufacturing site registration with the US FDA.

In 2023, MediPharm acquired VIVO Cannabis Inc., which expanded MediPharms reach to medical patients in Canada via Canna Farms medical ecommerce platform, and in Australia and Germany through Beacon Medical Australia PTY Ltd. and Beacon Medical Germany GMBH. This acquisition also included Harvest Medical Clinics in Canada which provides medical cannabis patients with Physician consultations for medical cannabis education and prescriptions.

The Company carries out its operations in compliance with all applicable laws in the countries in which it operates.

Investor Contact:

MediPharm Labs Investor Relations

Telephone: +1 416.913.7425

Email: investors@medipharmlabs.com

Media Contact:

John Vincic

Oakstrom Advisors

+1 (647) 402-6375

john@oakstrom.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking statements) within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as expects, or does not expect, is expected, anticipates or does not anticipate, plans, budget, scheduled, forecasts, estimates, believes or intends or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results may or could, would, might or will be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate to, among other things: timing for the closing of the Transaction, impacts of the Transaction to the Companys cash position and financial status, plans for long-term value for shareholders and partners, acceleration of international growth and acquisition opportunities, future reduction of the Companys costs, and future impacts of the Transaction to the Companys balance sheet. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the inability of MediPharm Labs to obtain adequate financing; the delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals; and other factors discussed in MediPharm Labs continuous disclosure filings, available on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, MediPharm Labs assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.

64552143.2
Reno, Nevada, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nevada Canyon Gold Corp. (OTCQX: NGLD) (The Company or Nevada Canyon) is pleased to announce it has been informed that the 2025 reverse circulation (RC) drill program has begun at the Lapon Canyon Project, (the Project) on which the Company holds a 3% Net Smelter Royalty (NSR) and an Exploration Stream Earn-in Agreement. Walker River Resources Corp. (Walker River) (TSX.V: WRR) owns a 100% undivided interest in the Project consisting of 96 unpatented lode claims, situated within the prolific Walker Lane gold trend, approximately 40 miles southeast of Yerington, Nevada.

As per the Walker River press release dated May 22, 2025: The initial 2025 drill program at Lapon Canyon will consist of exploration drilling near the historical Lapon Canyon Mine, the Central Zone, and the newly discovered Hot Spot Zone. Drill holes are planned to extend known gold-bearing mineralized zones along trend and at depth, as well as to target new areas of mineralization previously untested.

Lapon Canyons Hotspot Zone is a primary target for the 2025 drill program. Following up on the previously unknown, high-grade, near surface Hotspot discovery, made in 2021. Walker River will carry out grid-style drilling over the target, testing for extension of the mineralized zone in all directions as well as for continuity with the mineralization of the Central Zone. Grid drilling will consist of pads placed at approximately 30 m centres on section, with up to five holes planned per pad. The mineralization is not visible at surface, as it is overlain by approximately 3 m of loose colluvium, making the target unexposed, but also making drill road access and pad construction quicker at less cost.

Surficial mapping and rock sampling will be carried out at bedrock exposures surrounding the Lapon Canyon gold targets. Structural data collection will be a key objective, as Walker aims to focus in on the structural controls of high-grade mineralization and the broad disseminated deposits enveloping them.

We are excited for the 2025 drill program at Lapon to begin, given the results of previous drilling which continued to confirm the potential value of the project. The NSR we have on Lapon reflects the growing value of the project, said Nevada Canyon Chairman and CEO, Alan Day, We look forward to the continued advancement of Lapon Canyon and the ongoing interpretation of its gold mineralization, that we expect will continue to show the potential of our entire portfolio of Nevada based royalties and streams.

Walker River also announced it has retained Geoex Exploration (Geox) of Vancouver BC., a full-service mineral exploration consulting firm. Geox will be responsible for the management and supervision of the drilling database, geological mapping, producing drill logs from RC chips, and producing a three-dimensional model of the Lapon Canyon . Initial interpretations of Lapons historical data have been used to produce a geological model of the Central and Hot Spot zones, which already has greatly enhanced the planning and design of the 2025 drill program.

Walker River has completed considerable exploration work to date, with numerous drill hole intercepts that have indicated significant gold mineralization. The drill programs at Lapon Canyon will consist of definition and systematic drilling on section for geological modelling purposes, exploration drilling to discover new gold mineralization, extension of known gold mineralization, in several directions, including at depth. The results from the 2025 drill programs and subsequent data compilation will enable the completion of an initial NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource on the Project.

About the Lapon Canyon Project

Lapon Canyon hosts historical, high grade gold mining with approximately 2,000 feet of underground workings in three adits. Historical underground work returned numerous assay values in the one-ounce-per-ton range. (NI 43-101, Montgomery and Barr, 2004). Walker River has completed considerable exploration work to date, with numerous drill hole intercepts that have indicated significant gold mineralization. The Project is easily accessible by secondary state roads from the main highway (15 miles), and is located approximately 40 miles southeast of Yerington, Nevada. A state power grid transmission line passes within 2 miles of the Project.

Nevada Canyon owns a 3% NSR and an Exploration Earn-In Agreement on the project. The Exploration Earn-in Agreement grants Nevada Canyon the exclusive right to earn and purchase up to a 50% interest in the Lapon Canyon Project by funding cumulative Exploration Expenses of US$5,000,000 over a three-year period.

About Nevada Canyon Gold Corp.

Nevada Canyon Gold Corp. is a US-based natural resource company headquartered in Reno, Nevada. The Company has a large, strategic land position and royalties in multiple projects, within some of Nevadas highest-grade historical mining districts, offering year-round access and good infrastructure in proven and active mining districts. The Company has a three-fold business model; i) mineral royalty creation and acquisition; ii) precious-metals and exploration streaming & financing; and iii) exploration project accelerator.

For further information please contact:

Corporate Communications

Larry Heuchert

Tel: 1-888-909-5548 Ext. 2

Email: ir@nevadacanyongold.com

Web: www.nevadacanyongold.com

Forward-Looking Statements

The information posted in this release may contain forward-looking statements. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. You can identify these statements by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "plans," "expects," "anticipates," "continue," "estimate," "project," "intend," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, effects of continued geopolitical unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology and methods of exploration, delays in completing various engineering and exploration programs, and any potential results from such programs. Specifically, forward-looking statements in this news release include statements with respect to the potential mineralization and geological merits of the Company properties, its royalties owned on properties and various other factors beyond the Nevada Canyon Gold Corp.'s control. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events except as required by applicable securities legislation. Investors are advised to carefully review the reports and documents that Nevada Canyon Gold Corp. files from time to time with the SEC, including its Annual Form 10K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, Quarterly Reports and Current Reports.
LANDER, Wyo., May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VGTel, Inc. (OTC: VGTL) is pleased to announce the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) with an elementary school in Arizona, officially launching its Youth Astronomy Pilot Program beginning in the Fall 2025 school year. Full details of the participating school and partners will be disclosed in a forthcoming press release.

This initiative is part of VGTels broader mission to inspire and empower the next generation through space-based education. At the core of this effort is a simple truth: our children are the future, and by bringing the wonders of the universe into their classrooms, we can ignite curiosity and lay the foundation for lifelong learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The program will provide real-time astronomy experiences during school hours, allowing educators to tap into live galactic events and incorporate them directly into their curriculum. From active solar observation to the tracking of distant galaxies and cosmic events, VGTels system gives students a front-row seat to the universe, all from within the classroom.

"We believe that access to the stars should not be limited by location or budget," said Ken Williams, CEO of VGTel, Inc. By providing real-time astronomy tools and content, were not just teaching science, were inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and dreamers.

To make daytime astronomy possible, VGTel will host a dedicated telescope on the opposite side of the planet, enabling North America and South America classrooms to observe the night sky in real-time while school is in session. VGTel will also deliver real-time media from our U.S. based solar camera that streams time-lapse footage of solar activity, helping students explore phenomena like solar flares and sunspots, bringing astrophysics down to Earth in a way thats interactive and educational.

Average Celestial Events (Visible by Earth-Based Telescopes)

Daily 520 events/day: Minor asteroids flying by, variable star brightness changes, sunspots, ISS passes, fast radio bursts, flare stars, transient deep-space phenomena





Minor asteroids flying by, variable star brightness changes, sunspots, ISS passes, fast radio bursts, flare stars, transient deep-space phenomena Monthly Events 100300+: Meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, star occultations, lunar phases, new bright comets, small nova/supernova candidates, significant asteroid flybys





Meteor showers, planetary conjunctions, star occultations, lunar phases, new bright comets, small nova/supernova candidates, significant asteroid flybys Yearly Events 12004000+ events/yr.: Solar and lunar eclipses (47/year), major meteor showers (1012/year), Mars-Jupiter-Saturn oppositions, rare comets, supernovae, occultations, major transits (like Mercury or Venus), auroras during geomagnetic storms



During the pilot program, VGTel, Inc. works closely with the participating school to integrate real-time astronomy into the classroom environment. VGTel provides technical expertise and support, streaming equipment to adapt to display projectors, monitor, and access to live solar and deep-sky imagery. Teachers receive guidance on how to incorporate this content into their STEM curriculum, while students engage with cosmic events in real time, often for the first time. Throughout the program, VGTel gathers feedback from educators and staff to refine the system, ensuring it is both educationally impactful and easy to use. The goal is to create a scalable model for future nationwide implementation.

As interest from schools continues to grow, VGTel, Inc. plans to expand its astronomy education model both nationally and internationally, establishing a robust network of academic partners. Following the pilot program, participating schools will have the option to subscribe to a full educational package that includes live-streamed astronomy content, real-time galactic event tracking, solar activity timelapses, and access to a secured library of curated digital media. The subscription price is undetermined at present.

A key innovation in this offering will be the integration of VGTels proprietary meme coin, which will serve as a ledger tool to verify access, catalog content, and provide digital proof of ownership for the photons and electrons that make up each media fileassets we consider intellectual property. This blockchain-backed system will enhance transparency, streamline billing, reduce operational costs, and create a foundation for long-term media rights management in education.

The platform is designed to align with emerging federal and state STEM initiatives, making it a powerful candidate for public and private funding. By integrating advanced technology, blockchain-based transparency, and STEM-aligned curricula, VGTel is not only enhancing the way students experience spaceits creating a sustainable, scalable educational infrastructure for the future.

The potential market is substantial:

 United States: Approximately 95,852 public K12 schools

 North America: Including Canada and Mexico, the number increases significantly.

 South America: Countries like Brazil and Argentina have extensive K12 education systems, with Brazil alone having thousands of schools

Community colleges and universities also represent a major opportunity. Many of these institutions lack the budget or infrastructure to implement advanced astronomy or real-time sky monitoring programs, making them ideal candidates for VGTels affordable, subscription-based service.

For inquiries about joining the program, please contact:

Ken Williams, CEO, VGTel, Inc.

Mark Hanson, Chief Astronomy Officer

info@vgtelinc.com

X: https://x.com/vgtelinc

About VGTel, Inc.

VGTel, Inc. (OTC: VGTL) is a publicly traded company focused on advanced astronomy, atmospheric monitoring, and space-based education technologies. With a commitment to innovation and outreach, VGTel is building a global network to unlock real-time views of the universe, bringing the stars into homes, schools, and research institutions around the world.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Micropolis Holding Co. (Micropolis or the Company) (NYSE: MCRP), a pioneer in unmanned ground vehicles and AI-driven security solutions, unveiled a suite of advanced autonomous systems at Make it in the Emirates 2025, the countrys flagship industrial innovation event hosted at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). All systems are on live display at the Micropolis Pavilion, Booth 6-AM30.

Micropolis presented a trio of advanced robotic platforms addressing critical challenges across environmental recovery, industrial sanitation, and public safety:



The Robotic Forestry Unit, purpose-built for reforestation and ecosystem restoration in areas affected by desertification, wildfires, or climate degradation. The Box Cleaner, developed in collaboration with MCS Robotics, designed to streamline sanitation in logistics operations while minimizing human risk. The M01 Patrol Unit, developed for Dubai Police, which continues to represent a milestone in autonomous public safety operations.



The Robotic Forestry Unit is purpose-built to support reforestation and ecosystem rehabilitation in areas affected by desertification, wildfires and other forms of climate-related degradation. The system integrates multiple autonomous components into a single, deployable platform: a ground vehicle for basic plowing and soil conditioning, a drone for aerial seed dispersal over difficult terrain, and a robotic arm for precise placement of nutrients and planting materials. Designed for government and conservation agencies, the platform enables reforestation initiatives in regions that are otherwise inaccessible or economically unfeasible to reach using manual methods.





Were entering an era where ecological restoration cant wait, but it also cant rely solely on manual processes, said Fareed AlJawhari, CEO of Micropolis Holdings. This system allows governments and conservation groups to expand reforestation programs into areas previously considered logistically or economically out of reach. Its a practical application of robotics in service of climate action.

Also introduced was the Box Cleaner, developed in collaboration with MCS Robotics and engineered to streamline sanitation processes across food-grade and high-throughput industrial logistics. Built on the companys modular M2 platform, the robot eliminates the need for human entry into confined spaces and supports several cleaning methods including dry ice blasting, high-pressure water jets with integrated cleaning agents, and AI-enabled vision systems that detect residue and verify cleaning completion. The unit features onboard tanks for chemicals and waste, allowing for fully autonomous operation as well as remote oversight when needed. The system is designed to help operators reduce cleaning downtime while ensuring food-grade compliance and reducing worker exposure to high-risk tasks.







In addition to the two new systems, Micropolis showcased its M01 Patrol Unit, developed for Dubai Police and currently deployed in multiple public safety roles throughout the city. Although not a new product, the M01 drew significant attention at the exhibition due to its real-world operational impact and high degree of autonomy. The patrol unit is equipped with 360-degree AI vision, license plate recognition, autonomous navigation, and crowd-monitoring capabilities, and is designed for use in high-density areas, restricted zones and public infrastructure settings. It can operate independently or be remotely supervised, allowing public safety agencies to increase coverage and responsiveness without adding personnel. The M01 continues to play an integral role in Dubais smart city and security infrastructure and stands as a mature example of autonomous robotics in civic deployment.







During the event, Micropolis signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Emirates Steel (EMSTEEL), a leading UAE-based steel and construction materials manufacturer. The agreement marks the beginning of a collaboration aimed at integrating robotic mobility solutions into EMSTEELs industrial operations. The partnership reflects both companies shared commitment to innovation, sustainability and localized technology development, and is expected to explore how autonomous ground vehicles and robotics can enhance safety, efficiency and environmental performance across EMSTEELs facilities.

Micropoliss participation at Make it in the Emirates 2025 was prominently highlighted by official visits from the nations top leadership. His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council; His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence; His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and President of the Presidential Court and His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Interior visited the Micropolis pavilion, where they were briefed on the Companys latest advancements in autonomous robotics and AI-driven systems. His Excellency Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, also passed by the stand, further underscoring the events significance to national leadership. Their presence reflects the UAEs highest-level commitment to fostering innovation, accelerating industrial transformation, and supporting homegrown technologies that contribute to national resilience and global competitiveness. Media coverage of the visit by His Highness Sheikh Khaled was featured by the Abu Dhabi Media Office.

Make it in the Emirates 2025, hosted by the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, brings together leading innovators, manufacturers, and policy-makers to showcase technologies shaping the next era of industrial growth.

About Micropolis Holding Co.

Micropolis is a UAE-based company specializing in the design, development, and manufacturing of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), AI systems, and smart infrastructure for urban, security, and industrial applications. The Companys vertically integrated capabilities cover everything from mechatronics and embedded systems to AI software and high-level autonomy.

For more information please visit www.micropolis.ai .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These statements may include words such as anticipate, estimate, expect, project, plan, intend, believe, may, will, should, can have, likely and other words and terms of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements represent Micropolis current expectations regarding future events and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the uncertainties related to market conditions and other factors discussed in the Risk Factors section of the registration statement filed by the Company with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: KCSA Strategic Communications Jessica Starman Valter Pinto, Managing Director media@elev8newmedia.com PH: (212) 896-1254 Valter@KCSA.com





Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/acaf7c56-5aef-4384-b4f8-f4ba957f25a1

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b8cbc29e-5282-4a35-b97d-2b4c84a0bceb

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0556cf3a-1945-4975-b1dd-1f21c04ff992
Lincoln, Nebraska, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- City officials, commissioners and Lincoln Chamber of Commerce representatives will celebrate the opening of A1 Automotives second store location at noon on Friday, May 30, at 52nd and Yankee Hill.

We are full of gratitude as we expand our services and support to the automotive industry in a bigger capacity to the citys southside, said owner and founder Kendall Warnock. Small businesses are the engines of local economies, creating jobs, fostering innovation and contributing to the very fabric of our great city. My family and I are very grateful to be in this space and make an impact in our community.

The full-service, local-family-owned automotive repair shop specializes in all makes and models, including EVs, hybrids, Porsches, Land Rovers, Chevrolets and Hondas. They are also preparing to introduce customers to hydrogen-powered vehicles. A1 Automotive has been providing personalized service for the past 15 years throughout Lincoln and has customers driving from Council Bluffs, Iowa and Marysville, Kansas.

The new location at 5110 State Hill Drive will also offer free meeting space in a new on-site Community Room, which can be used at no cost for HOA meetings, business meetings, family gatherings or birthday parties.

In honor of the new store opening, A1 Automotive will be offering from now through July 31, 2025, $25 off any service over $300; $50 over $500; and $75 over $750. The store will also be giving away 55 free oil changes and $30 oil changes through July 1, 2025.

My wife, Desiree, I and our three children are grateful to see the positive effect that our business has had on the automotive repair industry through the years and with the addition of this new location, that service is even more enhanced, he said. We understand the importance of caring for others. Nothing matters more to me than taking care of as many people in this community that we can, and sometimes that is outside of the automotive repair industry.

Warnock is quick to credit his parents for the work ethic instilled in him as a young man growing up in Rosalie, on the Omaha Indian Reservation.

We really didnt know what money was. We had food and a warm home and kitchen sink to brush our teeth, Warnock said. But my parents taught me about hard work at their own two-stall garage and filling station. Through them I have learned that caring for others is our top priority and that will never change until my time on earth is up.

To learn more about A1 Automotive, or to schedule an appointment, please visit a1autolincoln.com.
Dublin, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Osteoporosis Drugs Market Size, Share, & Trends Analysis Report by Drug Class (Branded, Generics), Type (Bisphosphates, Parathyroid Hormone Therapy), Distribution Channel, Region, with Growth Forecasts, 2025-2030" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.





The global Osteoporosis Drugs Market is poised for significant growth, with its valuation projected to amplify from USD 15.3 billion in 2024 to USD 18.8 billion by 2030, reflecting a steady CAGR of 3.50%. The surge in unhealthy lifestyle choices has led to an increased prevalence of osteoporosis, thereby driving demand in this market segment over the forecast period.

Patent expirations have catalyzed the urgency for generic alternatives of existing drugs, propelling growth in the osteoporosis generics sector. These dynamics are expected to open lucrative opportunities in the market.

Increasing awareness initiatives about osteoporosis care, driven by organizations like the National Osteoporosis Foundation, are expected to broaden market expansion. Such programs focus on awareness enhancement and professional training, significantly boosting market potential.

Osteoporosis Drugs Market Report Highlights

In 2024, branded drugs dominated the market, mainly due to the high efficacy of bisphosphonates and rank ligand inhibitors for osteoporosis treatment.

Generic drugs are anticipated to experience robust growth due to ongoing patent expiries and demand for affordable medication, particularly in emerging markets.

North America held the largest market share in 2024, supported by the strong presence of established companies in the branded therapeutics sector.

Asia-Pacific is forecasted to grow exponentially, driven by supportive governmental initiatives promoting osteoporosis care awareness.

Leading market players are adopting sustainability strategies and expanding therapeutic portfolios for competitive advantage, exemplified by Actavis Inc.'s acquisition of Warner Chilcott PLC.

Why Should You Buy This Report?

Comprehensive Market Analysis: Obtain detailed insights across major regions and segments.

Obtain detailed insights across major regions and segments. Competitive Landscape: Assess the market presence of key industry players.

Assess the market presence of key industry players. Future Trends: Identify pivotal market trends and growth drivers.

Identify pivotal market trends and growth drivers. Actionable Recommendations: Gain insights for discovering new revenue streams and formulating strategic decisions.

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 100 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $15.3 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $18.8 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 3.5% Regions Covered Global

Companies Featured

Amgen Inc.

Eli Lilly and Company

Merck & Co., Inc.

Novartis AG

Pfizer Inc.

GSK plc

Radius Health, Inc.

UCB S.A.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wfloej

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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SAN FRANCISCO and KIGALI, Rwanda, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bio Usawa, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in San Francisco, Kigali, and Nairobi, committed to expanding access to life-saving biologics in Africa and underserved regions, today announced an agreement with Pacific Environmental Technologies, Inc., a global leader in cleanroom facility design and construction, to design, build, and deploy state-of-the-art, self-contained modular biomanufacturing units.

The units will comply fully with regulatory requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, and World Health Organization. Construction will commence in May 2025, with the first module scheduled for operational readiness in Kigali by the end of Q4 2025.

The modules are engineered for rapid deployment and tailored for resource-limited environments. They will enable local production of monoclonal antibody-based therapies, focused on those for diabetic macular edema, with plans for HER2-positive breast and other cancers, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, rheumatoid arthritis, and other serious unmet medical needs.

In a world where state-of-the-art, life-saving drugs for cancer and infectious diseases are not available to or affordable for a large majority of the worlds population, this manufacturing module will allow us to rapidly meet the needs of these patients. Pacific Environmental Technologies is an experienced, well-regarded manufacturer of sophisticated manufacturing facilities, and we are delighted to partner with them, said Dr. Menghis Bairu, Co-founder, President and CEO of Bio Usawa, Inc. This is only the beginning, added Dr. Bairu. We are building for scale, for resilience, and for the future of global health access, starting here in Africa.

As a leading manufacturer of custom turnkey cleanroom and laboratory facilities worldwide, our containerized, mobile biopharmaceutical manufacturing facilities are ideal for deployment in Rwanda, Africa, said Jon Gow, President of Pacific Environmental Technologies, Inc. This agreement will help Bio Usawa realize its vision of bringing life-saving biologics to underserved areas.

The burden of noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes is rising rapidly across Africa. Breast cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, with HER2-positive subtypes accounting for approximately 23 percent of cases, according to a 2021 study published in JCO Global Oncology. Non-Hodgkins lymphoma also represents a major share of hematologic cancers, comprising around 66% of lymphoma cases on the continent, as reported in a 2024 systematic review in Scientific Reports. While mAb therapies have proven highly effective for these diseases, access remains limited due to high international prices and limited local biomanufacturing capacity, leaving millions untreated.

Diabetes presents an equally urgent challenge. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 24.6 million people in Africa were living with diabetes in 2024, with that number projected to more than double to 59.5 million by 2050. A 2024 study in Scientific Reports found that diabetic retinopathy affects roughly one in three individuals with diabetes, with one in three progressing to DMEa leading cause of preventable vision loss. Despite urgent demand, patients across the continent continue to face significant barriers to accessing affordable, life-saving biologics.

Bio Usawa is led by a seasoned team of biopharmaceutical industry professionals and pioneers with decades of diverse experience in biologics R&D, clinical development, regulatory strategy, manufacturing, and commercialization, bringing deep global expertise to a bold regional vision. The companys leadership has helped bring multiple blockbuster biologics to market, and is now leveraging that experience to drive down costs and build sustainable, locally anchored production models.

This initiative builds on alignment regarding facility design with the Rwandan FDA, and a series of agreements signed or under review with key government stakeholders in Rwanda, Kenya and Senegal, which coincide with the Continents growing leadership in health innovation and next-generation biomanufacturing. With operations set to launch in both Rwanda and Kenya, Bio Usawa is strategically positioned to bridge infrastructure and supply chain gaps that have long limited biopharmaceutical self-sufficiency and broad access to advanced therapies across the Continent.

About Bio Usawa

Bio Usawa has a singular mission: to manufacture high-quality, effective, and affordable biosimilars for patients in Africa. It is applying 100+ years of combined experience in the industry in partnership with governments, agencies, educators and health professionals to make transformative biomedicines in Africa, by Africans, for Africans and beyond.

About Pacific Environmental Technologies Inc.

Pacific Environmental Technologies, Inc. is a leading full-service cleanroom and laboratory construction company that is highly recognized for its technical expertise and service-minded professionals. With more than three decades of engineering excellence, PETI leverages its comprehensive in-house capabilities to serve clients worldwide across the biopharmaceutical, biomedical, semiconductor, aerospace, and related industries.

Contact:

Daniel Levine

Levine Media Group

510-280-5405

danny@levinemediagroup.com
Mechanicsburg, PA, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement is proud to support 65 students with $445,000 in scholarships as they take the next step toward careers in agriculture. Valued at up to $10,000 each, these scholarships were awarded to students showing dedication to both their education and the future of the industry, helping them pursue their goals and make a lasting impact in the agricultural community.

Each year, we continue to be inspired by the passion, drive, and commitment these exceptional students show toward shaping the future of agriculture, said Julie Bolyard, Chair of the Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement. By supporting their education, were investing in a stronger, more vibrant agricultural industry. Its an honor to help these future leaders take the next step in their journey.

The Foundation, funded by Horizon Farm Credit, was established in 2015 to make positive impacts in agriculture, and serves Horizon Farm Credits 100-county territory in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and portions of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virigina. The scholarship program offers awards to high school seniors or those currently enrolled in a two- or four-year higher education program or technical school, with plans to pursue a career in agriculture. To date, the Foundation has awarded $1,752,500 in scholarships.

Applications for the 2026 scholarship program open later in 2025, and eligible students are encouraged to apply. Scholarship funds are available for students within Horizon Farm Credits 100-county footprint or Washington, D.C. Applicants must be pursuing careers in agriculture and enrolled in a two or four-year educational program at a college or university, or students currently enrolled in a technical school.

To see the full list of this years recipients and for more information about the Foundation, visit fcfoundationforag.org.

About the Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement

The Farm Credit Foundation for Agricultural Advancement is a non-profit foundation formed in 2015 to help advance the future of agriculture. The Foundations scholarship program is open to all eligible students located in Horizon Farm Credits 100 county territory in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C. Learn more at fcfoundationforag.org.



About Horizon Farm Credit

Horizon Farm Credit is a member-owned agricultural lending cooperative, providing consistent and reliable financing and related services to full- and part-time farmers, agricultural-related businesses, and rural landowners. The Association serves 100 counties across Delaware, Pennsylvania, and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Association has more than 22,900 members and over $7.3 billion in loans outstanding. Learn more at horizonfc.com.

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US & Canada, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new comprehensive report from The Insight Partners, the Commercial HVAC Market is observing significant growth owing to the increase in temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns and strict government regulations.

The Commercial HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) market is rapidly growing due to increasing urbanization, rising demand for energy-efficient systems, and climate change awareness. It serves residential, commercial, and industrial sectors, with innovations focusing on smart and sustainable technologies. The market is expected to continue expanding, driven by new construction and retrofitting projects.





To explore the valuable insights in the Commercial HVAC Market report, you can easily download a sample PDF of the report  https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00011156





Overview of Report Findings

1. Market Growth: The Commercial HVAC Market was valued at US$ 79.30 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach US$ 136.45 billion by 2031; it is expected to register a CAGR of 8.2% during 2025-2031.



2. Government Regulations: Governments worldwide have been incorporating various standards regarding HVAC systems; these include eco-design regulation, system installation, and energy conservation standards. In November 2023, EPEE, a European trade organization member, finalized preferred ideas to change a key component of the Eco-design standards for bigger HVACR technologies such as chillers and VRF systems. The organization stated that it recently gathered a group of manufacturing specialists for a workshop to begin preliminary work on developing a formal position for its members who intend to steer modifications to Lot 21 of Eco-design. The Eco-design Directive establishes performance standards for a variety of energy-consuming items. The restrictions cover a wide range of products, including heating and cooling systems and commercial technologies.



3. Growing Number of Data Centers: The increased demand for computing power and data storage, as well as the development of data-intensive technologies such as AI and cloud computing, are driving the global demand for data centers. This growth is supported by factors such as the demand for digital infrastructure, developing technologies, and government regulations that encourage the creation of these facilities. Due to this rising demand for data centers, governments of various nations, as well as different companies, are taking various initiatives for the construction of data centers. For instance, in February 2023, the government of Maharashtra signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based Ark Data Centers and Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) for the construction of two new data centers in Pune. The MoU with NTT covers an investment of US$ 2.5 billion for the development of data centers in Pune, Mumbai, Thane, and Nagpur. This project generated the demand for cooling fans to manage temperature ranges and reduce overheating in the data centers. Similarly, in June 2023, Amazon.com, Inc. announced plans to invest US$ 7.8 billion by 2030 to expand the construction of a data center in Ohio. This data center aims to be powered by at least 95% renewable energy. The company is committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and powering operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Also, the Paris-Saclay Campus Data Center Expansion project is for the expansion of eleven data centers in Paris, France, with a total power capacity of 5MW. Construction began in 2024 and is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2029.



4. Smart HVAC Systems: As businesses prioritize operational efficiency and sustainability, integrating smart technologies into HVAC systems becomes increasingly important. Latest developments in Internet of Things (IoT) technology are accelerating the transition to smart HVAC solutions. These systems use networked devices and sensors to monitor and control indoor climatic conditions in real time. Businesses can use data analytics to optimize energy use, decrease waste, and guarantee occupant comfort levels remain consistent. This transformation aims to improve performance while also aligning with broader sustainability goals. Additionally, the emergence of AI and machine learning (ML) is unleashing significant data-driven insights, assisting in optimizing system operations, extending equipment lifespan, and tailoring climate control to occupant needs. These technologies also enable smarter retrofitting decisions and better design planning in both new and existing structures.





Stay Updated on The Latest Commercial HVAC Market Trends: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00011156/

Market Segmentation

Based on equipment type, the market is segmented into cooling equipment, heating equipment, and ventilation equipment. The cooling equipment segment is subsegmented into unitary air conditioners, chillers, coolers, VRF systems, and others. The heating equipment segment is further segmented into boilers, heat pumps, furnaces, and space heaters. The ventilation equipment segment is subsegmented into ventilation equipment type and ventilation systems type. The ventilation equipment type segment is further divided into air handling units (AHUs), ventilation fans, air filters and air purifiers, roof vents, and others. Also, the ventilation systems type segment is further divided into controlled mechanical ventilation (CMV), natural ventilation, and hybrid/mixed-mode ventilation. The contract surety bond segment dominated the market in 2024.



Based on implementation, the market is segmented into new installation and retrofit. The new installation segment dominated the market in 2024.



Based on application, the market is segmented into office buildings, hotels and restaurants, hospitals and clinics, the transportation industry, and others. The office buildings segment dominated the market in 2024.

Competitive Strategy and Development

Key Players: Major companies operating in the Commercial HVAC Market include Schneider Electric SE, Carrier Global Corp, Daikin Industries Ltd, Honeywell International Inc, Johnson Controls International Plc, Danfoss AS, Lennox International Inc, LG Electronics Inc, Mitsubishi Electric Corp, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Trane Technologies Plc, and AAON Inc.



Trending Topics: HVAC Chillers Market, Smart HVAC Controls Market, and HVAC System Market





Global Headlines on Commercial HVAC Market

Trane has introduced two new air-cooled chillers designed for chilled water cooling in facilities: The Magnetic Bearing chillers and the Ascend chillers.

Daikin Applied announced the addition of air-source heat pumps to its award-winning lineup of Rebel and Rebel Applied packaged rooftop systems. With electricity-powered.





Purchase Premium Copy of Global Commercial HVAC Market Size and Growth Report (2021-2031) at: https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00011156/

Conclusion

Commercial HVAC systems are usually much larger than residential ones. Larger properties require more power to adequately heat, cool, and ventilate, and commercial buildings are often far larger than houses. Commercial HVAC systems are generally more complex owing to their larger size and higher power requirements. HVAC demands in a commercial structure might also be more complex, as different parts of a building may require different temperatures and ventilation. Commercial HVAC systems also consist of a packaged unit, with all equipment housed in a single cabinet. This allows the entire unit to be moved or altered as needed to accommodate changing business conditions. Furthermore, they are designed according to the special requirements of large-scale buildings, ensuring high indoor air quality, energy efficiency, and occupant comfort.

The growing number of commercial construction projects worldwide is one of the main factors fueling the growth of the commercial HVAC market. Various countries across the world have different commercial construction projects, such as office construction, airport construction, and mall construction. For instance, in Q4 of 2024, the construction of the N3-5 project was started. The project involves the construction of a 13-story office building in Japan. The project is forecasted to be completed in Q4 2026. In addition, as per Copernicus, 2024 was the warmest year in a global temperature record spanning many datasets dating back to 1850. Thus, the rising temperature and weather conditions worldwide are increasing the demand for HVAC systems. Also, the strict laws and regulations by the governments of various countries, particularly regarding the use of refrigerants, are propelling the demand for eco-friendly and smart HVAC systems.

The growing demand for data storage and increasing development of data-intensive technologies such as AI and cloud computing are leading to the construction of new data centers worldwide, creating an opportunity for the growth of the commercial HVAC market. Also, the growing inclination of firms toward retrofitting to meet regulatory requirements and have more energy-efficient HVAC systems is creating an opportunity for market growth. Moreover, the increasing demand for smart HVAC systems and inclination toward the HVAC as a service market are expected to propel the market's growth in the coming years.

The report from The Insight Partners, therefore, provides several stakeholdersincluding solution providers, system integrators, and end users with valuable insights to successfully navigate this evolving market landscape and unlock new opportunities.





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CALGARY, Alberta, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Global Energy Show Canada (GESC), presented by dmg events, is taking place June 10-12, and its shaping up to be the most important and transformative edition to date. Recognized as Canadas annual national energy event, a strong delegate representation is expected from the oil and gas sector again this year, as well as sizeable diversity in representation from the nuclear, hydro-electric, geothermal and hydrogen sectors. The gravity of issues facing the Canadian energy sector amidst global geopolitical uncertainty alongside debate on what a definitive domestic energy strategy could look like over the next five years is driving historic urgency to this years conference.

With pre-registration trending ahead by 73 per cent over last year, organizers are preparing more exhibition and conference areas to accommodate a larger and more engaged audience coming to Calgary this June. Over 30,000 attendees from more than 100 countries will gather at the heart of Canadas energy capital to engage in pressing, high-stakes dialogue on the future of energy  from affordability and investment to building national energy infrastructure and diversifying the countrys energy buyers globally.

The eyes of the world will be on Calgary next month. Were expecting to host what is likely the highest levels of speakers in the shows history, with CEO and ministerial speakers from around the world, said Nick Samain, Senior Vice President North America at dmg events. With energy issues dominating both the recent Canadian federal election and changing international energy issues, plus the timing of the event right before the G7 Summit, the show and the city are ideally positioned to contend with crucial issues around energy security, affordability, access and investment in new projects. The event is an integral platform to showcase the tremendous potential we have to define the future of Canadas energy future.

Whats New This Year?

Peter Mansbridge will host the Executive Conference Program joining Honourable Danielle Smith , Premier, Government of Alberta. Other speakers include: Stastia West - Country Chair, Shell Canada; Nicole Bourque-Bouchier  CEO, Bouchier; Mark Fitzgerald - President and CEO, PETRONAS Canada.

, Premier, Government of Alberta. Other speakers include: Stastia West - Country Chair, Shell Canada; Nicole Bourque-Bouchier  CEO, Bouchier; Mark Fitzgerald - President and CEO, PETRONAS Canada. 20 CEOs from leading energy companies including Cenovus, PETRONAS Canada, Trans Mountain, MEG Energy, Woodfibre LNG, and OPG.

including Cenovus, PETRONAS Canada, Trans Mountain, MEG Energy, Woodfibre LNG, and OPG. The Energy Influencers Conference is a bold new conference that mixes a future-forward event format with a technical backbone, featuring speakers from AWS, Aramco, Canadian Natural, IBM, BMO, Enbridge, Imperial, Siemens, Solar Alberta, TC Energy, and more.

is a bold new conference that mixes a future-forward event format with a technical backbone, featuring speakers from AWS, Aramco, Canadian Natural, IBM, BMO, Enbridge, Imperial, Siemens, Solar Alberta, TC Energy, and more. New Networking events have been added throughout the event program marking a three-fold increase in opportunities for delegates to meet and do business on and off the show floor.

Attendees will descend on the new BMO Centre in Calgarys Stampede Park to join in critical conversations about what is next for energy in Canada and beyond. This years exhibition will see a record 11 exhibitor country pavilions and close to 500 exhibiting companies represented, alongside delegations and attendees from 100 countries. The city is anticipating a 30 per cent increase in hotel bookings while organizers have increased its exhibition space by 20 per cent year-over-year.

With the guidance of expert and influential industry committee volunteers, were delighted to present inclusive dialogue around: energy security, building Canadian energy infrastructure, diversifying Canadas energy customers and meeting global energy demand challenges. These are all key topics at the Executive Conference themed for this edition as Canadas Energy Mandate to 2030. Alongside the Executive Conference, the new Energy Influencers conference also taking place during the show, will enable attendees to engage with the biggest names in the industry to discuss global energy demands and drive innovation. The show is providing an unparalleled platform for the complete energy value chain at a pivotal moment, added Samain.

The event space features specialist zones, including: The Emissions Reduction Theatre showcasing technologies and providers of cleantech innovations, and the Next Gen Theatre bringing youth together with industry professionals. The Global Energy Club is an invitation-only space that facilitates connections between C-suite executives, ministers and global leaders.

Other notable speakers for this years event include:

Hon. Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals, Government of Alberta

Sandy Taylor, President and CEO, Candu Energy Inc.

Jon McKenzie, CEO, Cenovus Energy

Chief Crystal Smith, Haisla Nation

Darlene Gates, President, CEO and Director, MEG Energy

Mark Maki, CEO, Trans Mountain

Hon. Colleen Young, Minister of Energy and Resources, Government of Saskatchewan

Karen Ogen, CEO, First Nations Natural Gas Alliance

170+ ministers, executives, and global industry leaders



Exhibition hours are: Tuesday, June 10 and Wednesday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday, June 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Media are required to pre-register. In order to obtain a show badge for the event media will need to provide accreditation (a piece of photo identification and an official business card) upon arrival. The Media Room is located on the 2nd Floor, BMO Centre.



For more information on GESC, to pre-register or to inquire about attendance, please visit https://www.globalenergyshow.com.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Shauna MacDonald

403-585-4570

Brookline Public Relations

smacdonald@brooklinepr.com
NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greystone, a leading national commercial real estate finance company, was recognized as the Commercial/Multifamily Educator of the Year by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The award was announced this week at MBAs annual Commercial/Multifamily Finance Servicing and Technology Conference, taking place in Hollywood, Florida.

The Educator of the Year Award recognizes MBA commercial/multifamily member companies that exemplify a commitment to learning and development. Award nominees are evaluated on three key areas: the organizations culture of, and commitment to, learning and professional development; its curriculum of training programs tied to helping employees to achieve job-relevant accreditations and enhance career development; and its focus on outcomes-based learning programs that are innovative and holistic in their support of employee career growth and leadership development.

Greystone exemplifies what it means to prioritize people and professional development in the commercial/multifamily space, said David Upbin, MBA Vice President, Education and Strategy. Their holistic approach to education and emphasis on continuous learning create lasting valuenot only for their employees, but for the broader real estate finance industry. Were proud to recognize Greystone as this years Commercial/Multifamily Educator of the Year.

Greystone is thrilled to be recognized for our ingrained culture of learning, professional development and support, said Ms. Pranika Uppal, Greystones Managing Director of Organizational Development & Culture. At its foundation, Greystone is a place Where People Matter and we intentionally strive to show this to our employees through programs that cultivate talent at all levels across our organization.

About Greystone

Greystone is a private national commercial real estate finance company with an established reputation as a leader in multifamily and healthcare finance, having ranked as a top FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac lender in these sectors. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Company LLC, Greystone Funding Company LLC and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greystone.com.

PRESS CONTACT:

Karen Marotta

Greystone

212-896-9149

Karen.Marotta@greyco.com
Antwerp, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CMB.TECH NV (NYSE: CMBT & Euronext: CMBT) (CMBT, CMB.TECH or the Company) announces that today the General Meeting of Shareholders has approved the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024. All other resolutions proposed by CMB.TECHs Supervisory Board have also been approved.

Reappointment of Supervisory Board members

Shareholders voted to reappoint independent director Julie De Nul as Supervisory Board member. Furthermore, the General Shareholder Meeting approved the Resignation of Mr. Patrick Molis as independent member of the supervisory board and the appointment of Compagnie Nationale de Navigation S.A.S., permanently represented by Mr. Patrick Molis, as independent member of the supervisory board.

All other approved resolutions can be found in the convening notice on the CMB.TECH website.

The minutes of the General, Special- and Extraordinary general meeting of shareholders will be uploaded on the CMB.TECH website in the Investors section under General Assemblies.

Announcement Q2 2025 results  28 August 2025

About CMB.TECH

CMB.TECH (all capitals) is a diversified and future-proof maritime group. We own and operate more than 160 seagoing vessels: crude oil tankers, dry bulk vessels, container ships, chemical tankers, offshore wind vessels, tugboats and ferries. We also offer hydrogen and ammonia fuel to customers, through own production or third-party producers.

The company is headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, and has offices across Europe, Asia and Africa.

CMB.TECH is listed on Euronext Brussels and the NYSE under the ticker symbol CMBT.

More information can be found at https://cmb.tech

Forward-Looking Statements

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbour protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts. The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbour provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbour legislation. The words "believe", "anticipate", "intends", "estimate", "forecast", "project", "plan", "potential", "may", "should", "expect", "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections.

In addition to these important factors, other important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the failure of counterparties to fully perform their contracts with us, the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand for tanker vessel capacity, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry-docking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, charter counterparty performance, ability to obtain financing and comply with covenants in such financing arrangements, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other factors. Please see our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for a more complete discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties.

Attachment
Plymouth, MI, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DEKRA, a global leader in safety, security, sustainability, testing and certification, officially opened its Michigan Automotive Testing Laboratory yesterday, showcasing a cutting-edge center designed to meet the future needs of the mobility sector. The new center offers one of the most comprehensive portfolios of automotive testing, validation, and certification services in North America under one roof.

These services include electric vehicle (EV) testing, automotive electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), reliability testing, automotive connectivity technologies, and Digital Trust Services, spanning cybersecurity, functional safety, and AI testing and certification.

The event also marked a significant milestone, DEKRAs 100-year anniversary, a global celebration of a century spent advancing trust, innovation, and safety across borders. Attendees reflected on the organizations legacy of technical excellence and integrity, while also looking ahead to DEKRAs continued leadership in shaping the future of safe and sustainable mobility worldwide.



The grand opening welcomed international DEKRA executives, global mobility leaders, and government officials including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to inaugurate the facility, which enhances DEKRAs ability to serve clients across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond.

The project represents a multi-million-dollar investment in Michigans automotive and mobility industry, developed in collaboration with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).

Michigan put the world on wheels and were building the future of the auto industry too thanks to companies like DEKRA, said Governor Whitmer. Their new test center will support good-paying, high-skill jobs and help companies meet modern safety and sustainability standards. We will keep working together to bring jobs home so we can grow our economy and lead the automotive industry for the next century too.

A Strategic Addition to DEKRAs Global Testing Network

The new center in Plymouth, Michigan, is the only facility of its kind in North America with such an extensive scope of automotive services.

It complements DEKRAs global automotive network of testing and certification laboratories and facilities located in Germany, Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and other key innovation hubs.



It significantly enhances DEKRAs ability to support global OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and technology companies in meeting evolving international standards for safety, environmental compliance, and digital trust.

Technological Leadership with Global Impact

Guests were given guided tours highlighting DEKRAs cutting-edge testing capabilities, including:

High-voltage EMC testing

Environmental simulation and reliability testing

Automotive cybersecurity testing and certification (pentesting, ISO 21434, R155, R156)

Functional safety services (training, audit, assessment, testing and certification) for Automotive -ISO 26262

Apple MFi CarPlay and CarKey testing and certification

Android digital car key testing and certification

Global automotive connectivity certification, including Car Connectivity Consortium standards





A Century of Trust. A Future of Global Mobility.

With this center, we are delivering what the future of mobility demandsrigorous testing, seamless certification, and digital trust, said John Tesoro President of DEKRA North America. This investment reflects our long-term commitment to the U.S. market and to helping manufacturers meet tomorrows challengestoday.

This milestone is about more than a buildingits about our mission, said Peter Laursen, DEKRA Board Member and COO, about the opening. We are investing in people, partnerships, and progress to ensure DEKRA continues leading the way for the industries of tomorrows safe mobility

To learn more about DEKRAs Michigan Automotive Testing Laboratory for Future Mobility and its role in the global testing ecosystem, visit: www.dekra.us/en/grand-opening-michigan-test-center . For more information about DEKRAs global Automotive Testing Services, visit https://www.dekra.com/en/automotive-testing/.

About DEKRA

Founded in 1925, DEKRA is the worlds largest independent, non-listed expert organization in testing, inspection, and certification. With over 48,000 employees in 60 countries, DEKRA helps clients advance safety, quality, and sustainability. The company holds a Platinum EcoVadis rating, ranking it among the top 1% of companies worldwide.

Disclaimer: Android is a trademark of Google LLC.

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St. Louis, Missouri, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On a mission to help all children thrive, Compassionate Behavior Solutions (CBS) released a set of comprehensive courses designed to equip teachers with a better understanding of students unique needs and challenges. Led by Amy Titone, PhD, a board-certified behavior analyst with 35 years of industry experience, the organization provides training, consultation, and support to school districts, agencies, and families who work with children with explosive behavior. By launching its courses, CBS hopes to broaden its impact even further.



Compassionate Behavior Solutions

The courses center on three aspects: disruptive behaviors, mental health support, and autism awareness. The first zeroes in on those teachers and parents working with behaviors that disrupt the classroom, as well as with kids refusal to work. Amidst a myriad of courses, Dr. Titone highlights Rage to Reason: Behavior Intervention for the Treatment of Explosive Behavior in the Classroom as an invaluable resource for understanding skill deficits that lead to refusals and rage, regulating anxiety in the classroom, and teaching coping skills, among others.

Through mental health support courses, CBS rewrites the common narrative that mental illness is a primarily adult problem. Therefore, it offers programs like Social Emotional Learning Certification: Supporting Mental Health in the School Setting, a four-day certification training, to build a better foundation of social and emotional support at school and at home. Many people still dont realize how common and serious childhood mental health concerns are, stresses Dr. Titone. These courses provide more than the necessary education; they break the stigma that prevents kids from getting the help they need and deserve.

Meanwhile, its autism awareness resources focus on identifying and understanding ASDs symptoms, both mild and severe. Effective Classroom Strategies for Autism Spectrum Disorders is one of its core ASD courses, offering visual, behavioral, and language mapping strategies that empower children on the spectrum to thrive in the classroom and beyond.

Its important to note that CBSs courses are pre-recorded and on-demand, allowing teachers, parents, and communities to access these invaluable insights whenever, wherever. This format was inspired by the evident void Dr. Titone noticed when traveling across the state and nation to deliver disruptive behavior training presentations during professional development days. Every morning or lunch break, teachers would line up, asking for advice on particular behaviors, she recalls. But presenting for a wide audience, delving into specific tendencies simply wasnt possible.

Dr. Titone, dedicated to bridging this gap, sought alternative solutions, and on-demand content was the natural next step. Her efforts with online courses began many years ago, but it wasnt until COVID sparked the digital revolution that it took off. Especially in todays landscape, where overwhelmed teachers, particularly in special education, tend to quit, it is essential to equip them with the tools to understandnot managedisruptive behaviors.

To fuel her mission. Dr. Titone also provides a free child-specific consultation to anyone who completes one of CBSs courses. This allows parents and educators to access valuable feedback from someone who understands the challenges and needs of both adults and children intimately. Even when you have finished the course and you are equipped with the knowledge to make a change in your classroom, life has a way of surprising us, she says. Thats what this meeting is for: asking specific questions and seeking personalized guidance. And sometimes, all you need to hear is that youre doing everything just fine.

Ultimately, CBSs courses go beyond skills and education; they ignite a paradigm shift in a system designed to shape smart, confident, and kind leaders for tomorrow. If we dont change the way we provide training for teachers, were risking an entire generation of children who are failed by the very system created to uplift them, she reflects. But if we can understand their behaviors and challenges, we can ignite their passion in a way that makes a difference. Because when kids are guided to become the best version of themselves, they become extraordinary human beings doing extraordinary things.









Media Contact:

Name: Dr. Amy Titone

Email: amy@compassionatetraining.com

Source: Compassionate Behavior Solutions
MINNEAPOLIS, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is pleased to announce the 2025 SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award winner at the SFI Annual Conference. As part of SFIs deepening commitment to a world that values and benefits from sustainably managed forests, SFI Implementation Committees promote responsible forestry and sourcing to create positive change that sustains communities.

L-R: Nadine Block, Senior VP, Network Initiatives, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Erin Feeney, Pathways Program Coordinator, Western Forestry & Conservation Association and Washington SFI Implementation Committee Coordinator, Ben Cazell, Director of Sustainability, Rayonier and Washington SFI Implementation Committee Chair, and Gordy Mouw, Director, Network Relations, Sustainable Forestry Initiative

The Washington SFI Implementation Committee (SIC) was recognized for promoting forest sector career pathways and fostering forestry literacy among young people, engaging students, educators, and communities about the critical role of forestry to Washingtons economy and communities.

The Washington SIC has been leading the way in outreach to the next generation, enthusiastically expanding awareness of the value of responsible management of our forests and the opportunities for forestry and conservation careers, said Nadine Block, SFI Senior VP of Network Initiatives.

SFI-certified organizations that participate in the Washington SIC engaged with thousands of students, parents, and educators across the state. The Washington SIC also created and promoted a Jobs in Sustainable Forestry video that shows the diverse careers available in the forest sector.

As part of these community outreach efforts, the Washington SIC also

Awarded scholarships to college students studying forestry in the state,

Supported professional development workshops for educators led by Washington Project Learning Tree and the Pacific Education Institute, and

Connected with architecture students at the University of Washington, securing lumber donations from local SFI-certified organizations for student projects showcasing the advantages of using sustainably sourced wood.



Washington SIC Chair Ben Cazell accepted the award on behalf of the Committee, Much of our work in the forest sector happens out of sight for the general public, particularly those living in urban areas, said Cazell. By engaging people in meaningful ways and different settings, we are building a foundational understanding of sustainable forestry that will shape informed perspectives and future career pathsin our state and beyond.

The SFI External Review Panel is an independent body that provides an independent review of SFIs work and selects the SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award winner recipient. We appreciate the tremendous work conducted by SICs across Canada and the US, and we applaud the Washington SIC for being a model for outreach to youth and adults about the important role of sustainable forestry and job opportunities in this sector, said Scott Phillips, Chair of the SFI External Review Panel and the State Forester of South Carolina.

ABOUT SFI

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) advances sustainability through forest-focused collaboration. We are an independent, nonprofit organization that leverages four interconnected pillars of work: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI works with the forest sector, conservation groups, academics, researchers, brand owners, resource professionals, landowners, educators, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and governments. Collaborating with our network, we leverage SFI-certified forests and products as powerful tools to help solve sustainability challenges such as climate action, conservation of biodiversity, education of future generations, and sustainable economic development. Learn more at forests.org.



ABOUT THE WASHINGTON SIC

The mission of the Washington State SFI Implementation Committee is to promote and foster an understanding of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and to promote sustainable forestry practices on all forestlands in the state. Learn more at https://www.wasfi.org.

MEDIA CONTACT

Christine Leduc

VP, Communications and Government Relations

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

613-706-1114

media@forests.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/deb1bda9-3f32-4a44-8e39-d85d5ca664a1
Morris Plains, NJ, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

For several years, aviation has wrestled with a persistent problem: a growing talent shortage that threatens to disrupt operations, increase costs and potentially impact safety. Perhaps more than most industries, aviation relies on a skilled, motivated, dedicated workforce to serve its stakeholders and accomplish its goals.

Whats behind the aviation talent shortage? Why has the issue been so challenging to address? What are industry leaders doing on various fronts to tackle the problem? This article addresses those critical questions.

It also notes that, despite the size and complexity of the challenge, progress is being made and asserts that aviations future remains bright and exciting.

Whats Behind the Headwinds?

Aviation has found it difficult to move the talent supply in a positive direction for several reasons. One is the advancing age of the workforce. Many aviation professionals are at or quickly approaching retirement age.

That wouldnt be a problem if there were a strong pipeline to fill the impending vacancies. However, a second aspect of the talent shortage is that aviation today finds itself competing with and losing to other industries, like technology, that seem to have surpassed it in terms of their ability to attract and retain workers.

Then, there are what are perceived to be the high cost and time commitments associated with aviation roles. For example, many in the workforce feel that the investment in becoming a pilot is higher than the return.

Finally, while we would all prefer to be no longer talking about the pandemic, its effects on aviation linger. The dramatic reduction in demand for aviation services at its height forced many to move to other industries, draining a talent pool that has yet to be refilled.

Understanding the Breadth of the Aviation Talent Shortage

When people outside the industry hear about the aviation talent shortage, they immediately (and understandably) think of pilots. However, the problem spans the entire sector.

Organizations are, in fact, having trouble recruiting and retaining flight crews, leading to issues like canceled flights and reduced routes, but that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. There are also shortages of baggage handlers, ramp agents and ground support equipment operators, which can cause baggage handling issues, extend turnaround times, and lead to flight delays and cancellations.

The lack of air traffic controllers is also problematic. Many facilities are below targeted staffing levels, which raises serious safety concerns.

Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities are similarly struggling to find enough certified technicians to work on aircraft. That scarcity can impact aircraft turnaround times, which in turn can affect the operational readiness of flight departments.

Ultimately, addressing the aviation talent issue isnt as simple as enticing more people to become pilots.

Cleared for Takeoff: An Industry Ascending?

Despite facing significant workforce challenges, aviation is, in many ways, poised to pull out of its dive. Technological advancements are rapidly transforming aircraft design and operations, air traffic management and ground operations.

For instance, initiatives like sustainable aviation fuels and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) through electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are capturing the attention of a new generation of aviation professionals. The increasing use of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) is also generating interest and creating a new pathway for those focused on technology careers. New roles and new skill sets are causing them to take a fresh look at aviation.

While there is still a long way to go, these and many other advancements are re-energizing the talent pipeline.

From Increased Outreach to Financial Assistance

Many efforts are underway to turn the tide on aviations talent shortage, and the good news is that they are having a positive effect. Some of the strategies include proactively engaging with schools and diverse communities to increase awareness about aviation careers, adopting new teaching methods to make training more engaging and effective and creating mentorship programs.

Stakeholders are also seeking legislative support to reduce the financial burden on students, such as allowing educational savings funds in the U.S. to be used for FAA-certified pilot and maintenance training programs and making vocational training more affordable. Plus, organizations are increasingly looking at issues like compensation and work-life balance to ensure aviation compares favorably to other industries.

Supporting the Innovators and Difference-Makers

At Global Aerospace, we are striving to have a positive impact on aviations talent challenges. That includes helping innovative companies that are driving the industry forward and making it more appealing to those entering the workforce.

Supporting training and knowledge sharing is also critical. We are doing that in various ways at programs worldwide, including:

In the United States . We support educational institutions like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and their array of aviation-related degrees. These schools play a pivotal role in workforce development, including innovative programs to address shortages like those for air traffic controllers through direct FAA partnerships. We also support initiatives like the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles program, which has introduced millions of young people to aviation through free introductory flights with volunteer pilots. As many current aviation professionals can attest, the thrill of flight can ignite a lifelong passion and set a young person on a course for a future career.

. We support educational institutions like Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and their array of aviation-related degrees. These schools play a pivotal role in workforce development, including innovative programs to address shortages like those for air traffic controllers through direct FAA partnerships. We also support initiatives like the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Young Eagles program, which has introduced millions of young people to aviation through free introductory flights with volunteer pilots. As many current aviation professionals can attest, the thrill of flight can ignite a lifelong passion and set a young person on a course for a future career. In the United Kingdom . The Air Leagues Soaring to Success career enrichment program is having a powerful impact. Funded by the Department for Transport, Boeing, British Airways, CAA and London Elstree Aerodrome, it bridges the gap between education and the aviation/aerospace industry, offering career conferences, e-learning modules, and experience days to students to showcase the many available opportunities.

. The Air Leagues Soaring to Success career enrichment program is having a powerful impact. Funded by the Department for Transport, Boeing, British Airways, CAA and London Elstree Aerodrome, it bridges the gap between education and the aviation/aerospace industry, offering career conferences, e-learning modules, and experience days to students to showcase the many available opportunities. In Canada. Numerous flight schools and robust aircraft maintenance and avionics technology programs are working to meet industry demand. These globally recognized programs are vital for developing skilled aviation professionals.

Looking Ahead

The talent shortage in aviation is a significant challenge. However, as recent efforts and their positive results have demonstrated, it is not insurmountable.

The problem demands a proactive, multi-layered approach focused on attracting, training, and retaining a diverse, skilled and dedicated workforce, but the outlook is bright. By supporting innovation, fostering collaboration, and investing in the next generation, the aviation industry can successfully navigate the headwinds it faces.

About Global Aerospace

Global Aerospace has a century of experience and powerful passion for providing aviation insurance solutions that protect industry stakeholders and empower the industry to thrive. With financial stability from a pool of the worlds foremost capital, we leverage innovative ideas, advanced technology and a powerful synergy among diverse team members to underwrite and process claims for the many risks our clients face. Headquartered in the UK, we have offices in Canada, France, Germany and throughout the United States. Learn more at https://www.global-aero.com/

Global Aerospace Media Contact

Suzanne Keneally

Vice President, Group Head of Communications

+1 973-490-8588
Combined shareholders meeting of May 22, 2025

Saint Cloud, May 22, 2025 - The combined shareholders Meeting of Elis, chaired by Thierry Morin, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, in the presence of the members of the Management Board, was held on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at Maison des Travaux Publics, 3 rue de Berri, 75008 Paris, France.

The quorum was 87% and the shareholders approved all the resolutions put to the vote.

The General Meeting approved the annual and consolidated financial statements for fiscal year 2024 and the distribution of a sum of 0.45 per share. The amount will be detached on May 26, 2025 and paid on May 28, 2025.

The shareholders approved:

the reappointment of Anne-Laure Commault-Tingry and Michel Plantevin as Supervisory Board members, for a term of four years, i.e., expiring at the end of the shareholders Meeting that will be held in 2029 with respect to the approval of the 2028 annual accounts;

the appointment of BWSA, represented by Alexis Martineau as member of the Supervisory Board, for a term of four years, i.e., expiring at the end of the shareholders Meeting that will be held in 2029 with respect to the approval of the 2028 annual accounts. This appointment ends his term as censor;

the appointment of two new members of the Supervisory Board, Isabelle Adelt and Kelly Becker, for a term of three years, i.e., expiring at the end of the shareholders Meeting that will be held in 2028 with respect to the approval of the 2027 annual accounts;

the reappointment of Forvis-Mazars and PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, as Statutory Auditors to certify the financial statements for a term of six years;

the reappointment of Forvis-Mazars and PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, as Statutory Auditors to certify the sustainability information for a term of six years.





The Supervisory Board of Elis counts 14 members, of which 8 are independent, 6 are women and 2 employee representatives. The composition of the Board offers complementary experiences and reflects the diversity policy pursued by the Group.

The shareholders also approved the compensation policy of the Companys executive officers for 2025 (i.e. the President and members of the Management Board and the President and members of the Supervisory Board), the information referred to in Article L.22-10-9 of the French commercial Code in respect of the ex-post vote on the compensation of all corporate officers and approved the fixed, variable and exceptional elements of total compensation and benefits of any kind paid or awarded for the financial year of 2024 to the members of the Management Board and the President of the Supervisory Board, in accordance with Article L.22-10-34 of the French commercial Code.

The shareholders approved the renewal of the authorization granted to the Management Board with regard to share buybacks.

The shareholders also approved the renewal of authorization and delegation to be granted to the Management Board concerning the issue of shares and other securities reserved for foreign employees, as well as the delegation of authority to reduce the share capital by cancellation of shares acquired under the share buyback program.

The results of voting on all resolutions submitted to Shareholders are available on the Companys website: at https://fr.elis.com/en/group/investor-relations/regulated-information under Shareholders Meetings.

Contacts:

Nicolas Buron

Investor Relations Director Phone: +33 (0)1 75 49 98 30 -nicolas.buron@elis.com

Charline Lefaucheux

Investor Relations - Phone: +33 (0)1 75 49 98 15 - charline.lefaucheux@elis.com

Attachment
LONDON, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CXM Prime, a multi-asset FCA regulated broker (FRN 966753), a member of the CXM Group of Companies, has announced its formal adherence to the FX Global Codean internationally recognised set of principles that promote fairness, transparency, and best execution in the foreign exchange (FX) market.

The FX Global Code is backed by many of the FX industrys leading institutions. By signing the Statement of Commitment, CXM Prime joins a select group of top-tier brokers aligning with the Codes rigorous standards.

CXM Primes register details can be found here: FX Global Code

As of 2025, fewer than 15% of global FX brokers have adopted the FX Global Code, according to public registry data maintained by CLS and the Global Foreign Exchange Committee.

This milestone reflects our commitment to the highest standards of execution, governance, and client transparency, said Ashraf Agha, CEO of CXM Prime. Its a powerful signal to our clients and liquidity partners that CXM Prime stands for integrity and professionalism in everything we do.

The FX Global Code includes 55 principles covering ethics, governance, execution practices, risk management, and post-trade processes. CXM Primes acceptance underscores its institutional-grade approach to technology, compliance, and trading infrastructure. CXM Prime has publicly posted its Statement of Commitment on the Global Index of Public Registers.

About CXM Prime

CXM Prime is a technology-driven broker offering access to FX, commodities, indices, and CFDs. The firm provides tailored liquidity, institutional-grade platforms, and full regulatory transparency. Visit https://www.cxmprime.co.uk for more information.

Media Contact:

info@cxmprime.co.uk

+44(0)203 753 5373

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/544629e4-94b7-436e-b11b-9b2f0f88e5fe
Dublin, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Class 2 Trucks - Global Strategic Business Report" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global market for Class 2 Trucks was estimated at US$688.6 Million in 2024 and is projected to reach US$1.1 Billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8% from 2024 to 2030.

This comprehensive report provides an in-depth analysis of market trends, drivers, and forecasts, helping you make informed business decisions. The report includes the most recent global tariff developments and how they impact the Class 2 Trucks market.



Why Are Class 2 Trucks Emerging as a Core Segment in Light-Duty Vehicle Demand?



Class 2 trucks are becoming essential tools in construction, utility services, landscaping, trades, delivery logistics, agriculture, and independent contracting work. Their ability to haul moderate payloads and tow equipment without the complexity or licensing requirements of heavier truck classes makes them highly versatile.

Additionally, their dual-utility appeal - as both work vehicles and personal lifestyle transports - has positioned them as a top choice among small businesses and owner-operators alike. In rural and semi-urban regions, Class 2 trucks are often used for farm logistics, ranch operations, and light construction. In urban centers, service providers rely on them for mobile operations such as HVAC servicing, plumbing, electrical repair, and parcel delivery. As business ecosystems decentralize and demand for mobile, self-reliant, and multi-role vehicles grows, Class 2 trucks are proving indispensable across a broadening range of use cases.



Is Product Innovation and Configuration Customization Expanding Market Appeal?



Class 2 trucks are witnessing a wave of innovation, with OEMs introducing increasingly sophisticated features, configurations, and customization options that appeal to diverse end-users across industries. These vehicles are no longer viewed merely as utilitarian tools - they are now integrated with premium comfort features, advanced safety technologies, and digital connectivity platforms. Manufacturers are equipping Class 2 trucks with driver-assist technologies (ADAS), lane-keeping systems, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and integrated telematics, transforming the driving experience while enhancing safety and operational oversight.

Connectivity tools such as fleet management apps, vehicle health monitoring, over-the-air updates, and cloud-based diagnostics are being widely adopted by both commercial fleet owners and individual operators.

Furthermore, customizable chassis configurations and modular body options are enabling customers to tailor trucks for specific industries - from cargo vans for parcel delivery to crew-cab pickups for construction crews and tradesmen. In the aftermarket and specialty upfitting sector, there is a booming demand for purpose-built truck bodies including refrigeration units, utility boxes, mobile service labs, and even off-grid expedition conversions. As lifestyle-based ownership increases among outdoor enthusiasts, campers, and overlanding communities, OEMs are also offering Class 2 trucks with off-road performance packages, enhanced suspension systems, and all-terrain capability. This broadening of design, functionality, and application scope is significantly driving both B2B and B2C demand, positioning Class 2 trucks as highly versatile assets across the mobility value chain.



Whats Fueling the Sustained Growth of the Global Class 2 Trucks Market?



The growth in the Class 2 trucks market is driven by several factors rooted in commercial activity trends, evolving consumer usage patterns, technology proliferation, and supportive regulatory frameworks. A key driver is the continued expansion of service-based economies and mobile workforce models, where Class 2 trucks serve as the backbone for trades, technicians, delivery operators, and field service professionals. Additionally, the growing focus on electrification - especially among municipal fleets and last-mile delivery services - is accelerating demand for Class 2 electric trucks and vans that balance cargo capacity with environmental compliance. Rising infrastructure development, suburban housing growth, and small-scale construction activity are also fueling demand for utility vehicles that can efficiently operate in constrained urban environments. At the consumer level, lifestyle shifts toward multi-purpose vehicle ownership are driving demand for Class 2 pickup trucks that serve dual roles as family transport and recreational haulers. Moreover, better fuel efficiency, improved powertrains, tax incentives for commercial vehicle upgrades, and access to fleet electrification grants are further supporting adoption across developed markets. The emergence of digital fleet platforms, vehicle subscription models, and telematics-based usage optimization is opening new market channels and boosting appeal among small businesses. Meanwhile, increasing manufacturing investments in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Africa are helping to localize Class 2 truck production and meet region-specific needs. Together, these economic, technological, and behavioral forces are contributing to a steady and sustained global growth trajectory for Class 2 trucks, ensuring their continued relevance in the evolving mobility ecosystem.



Report Scope



The report analyzes the Class 2 Trucks market, presented in terms of market value (US$ Thousand). The analysis covers the key segments outlined below.



Segments:

Engine Type (Gasoline Engine, Diesel Engine, Hybrid Engine, Electric Engine, Other Engines)

Drive Configuration (All-Wheel Drive, Rear-Wheel Drive, Front-Wheel Drive)

Key Insights:

Market Growth: Understand the significant growth trajectory of the Gasoline Engine segment, which is expected to reach US$593.6 Million by 2030 with a CAGR of a 9.0%. The Diesel Engine segment is also set to grow at 7.9% CAGR over the analysis period.

Understand the significant growth trajectory of the Gasoline Engine segment, which is expected to reach US$593.6 Million by 2030 with a CAGR of a 9.0%. The Diesel Engine segment is also set to grow at 7.9% CAGR over the analysis period. Regional Analysis: Gain insights into the U.S. market, estimated at $187.6 Million in 2024, and China, forecasted to grow at an impressive 12.6% CAGR to reach $236.0 Million by 2030. Discover growth trends in other key regions, including Japan, Canada, Germany, and the Asia-Pacific.

Report Features:

Comprehensive Market Data: Independent analysis of annual sales and market forecasts in US$ Million from 2024 to 2030.

Independent analysis of annual sales and market forecasts in US$ Million from 2024 to 2030. In-Depth Regional Analysis: Detailed insights into key markets, including the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa.

Detailed insights into key markets, including the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. Company Profiles: Coverage of players such as Ashok Leyland, BMW Group, Fiat Professional (part of Stellantis), Ford Motor Company, General Motors and more.

Coverage of players such as Ashok Leyland, BMW Group, Fiat Professional (part of Stellantis), Ford Motor Company, General Motors and more. Complimentary Updates: Receive free report updates for one year to keep you informed of the latest market developments.

Tariff Impact Analysis: Key Insights for 2025



Global tariff negotiations across 180+ countries are reshaping supply chains, costs, and competitiveness. This report reflects the latest developments as of April 2025 and incorporates forward-looking insights into the market outlook.



The analysts continuously track trade developments worldwide, drawing insights from leading global economists and over 200 industry and policy institutions, including think tanks, trade organizations, and national economic advisory bodies. This intelligence is integrated into forecasting models to provide timely, data-driven analysis of emerging risks and opportunities.



Whats Included in This Edition:

Tariff-adjusted market forecasts by region and segment

Analysis of cost and supply chain implications by sourcing and trade exposure

Strategic insights into geographic shifts

Buyers receive a free 2025 update with:

Finalized tariff impacts and new trade agreement effects

Updated projections reflecting global sourcing and cost shifts

Expanded country-specific coverage across the industry

Key Attributes:





Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 291 Forecast Period 2024 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2024 $688.6 Million Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $1100 Million Compound Annual Growth Rate 8.0% Regions Covered Global





Key Topics Covered:



MARKET OVERVIEW

Tariff Impact on Global Supply Chain Patterns

Class 2 Trucks - Global Key Competitors Percentage Market Share in 2024 (E)

Competitive Market Presence - Strong/Active/Niche/Trivial for Players Worldwide in 2024 (E)

MARKET TRENDS & DRIVERS

Steady Growth in Urban and Suburban Logistics Throws the Spotlight on Class 2 Trucks as Ideal Last-Mile Delivery Platforms

Rising Demand for Versatile Light Commercial Vehicles Spurs Sales Momentum in the Class 2 Truck Segment

OEM Focus on Payload Optimization and Fuel Efficiency Expands Addressable Market Opportunity for Class 2 Offerings

Fleet Electrification Initiatives Strengthen Business Case for Battery-Electric Class 2 Trucks

Surge in E-Commerce and Small Business Ownership Propels Demand for Configurable and Custom-Bodied Class 2 Trucks

Stringent Emission Norms Drive Innovation in Powertrain Technologies for Class 2 Vehicles

Adoption of Advanced Safety and Driver Assistance Systems Throws the Spotlight on Tech-Enhanced Class 2 Trucks

OEM Shift Toward Platform-Based Vehicle Architectures Enables Scalable Class 2 Truck Variants Across Brands

Growth of Service-Oriented Businesses and Trades Fuels Demand for Durable and Cost-Efficient Class 2 Work Trucks

Increased Focus on Driver Comfort and Ergonomics Spurs Innovation in Cabin Design and Features

Availability of Alternative Fuel Powertrains (CNG, LPG, Hybrid) Expands Powertrain Diversity in Class 2 Offerings

Fleet Digitization Trends Propel Integration of Telematics and Connectivity Solutions in Class 2 Truck Fleets

Infrastructure Expansion in Developing Regions Creates New Demand Hotspots for Class 2 Utility Trucks

FOCUS ON SELECT PLAYERS

Ashok Leyland

BMW Group

Fiat Professional (part of Stellantis)

Ford Motor Company

General Motors

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Hyundai Motor Company

Isuzu Motors Ltd.

Iveco Group

Kia Corporation

Mahindra & Mahindra Limited

Mercedes-Benz Group

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Nissan Motor Corporation

Peugeot S.A. (part of Stellantis)

Renault Group

Stellantis (Ram Trucks)

Tata Motors Limited

Toyota Motor Corporation

Volkswagen Group

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/b954gr

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.
Boston, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the latest study from BCC Research, High-Throughput Screening: Technologies and Global Markets is expected to grow from $23.8 billion in 2024 to $39.2 billion by the end of 2029 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5% from 2024 through 2029.

The report covers detection methods such as spectroscospy and mass spectrometry, components such as instruments and consumables, and technologies including cell-based assays and lab-on-a-chip. It also segments the market by end user, including pharmaceutical companies and research institutes, and by region, with a focus on important countries in the market such as the U.S., Germany, Japan, and India. It highlights the market potential, the competitive environment, regulatory scenarios, and leading companies market shares.

This report is particularly relevant now because high-throughput screening (HTS) is transforming drug discovery by speeding up timelines, enabling personalized medicine, and tackling chronic diseases. By quickly screening large compound libraries, HTS shortens the time needed to identify drug candidates and supports targeted therapies by pinpointing patient-specific biomarkers. This efficiency streamlines drug development, helping to lower healthcare costs. The growing prevalence of chronic diseases, and advances in robotics, automation, and analytical techniques, drive the demand for advanced HTS platforms.

The factors driving the market include:

Adoption of Contract Research Organizations: Companies use CROs to save costs and speed up drug development by outsourcing tasks like high-throughput screening.

Technological Innovation: Advances in automation and software improve the speed and accuracy of screening processes.

Increased Funding and R&D: More government and private investment in research leads to better screening technologies.

Prevalence of Diseases: The rise in chronic and immunological diseases drives the need for new treatments, boosting demand for screening technologies.

Request a sample copy of the global market for high-throughput screening (HTS) report.

Report Synopsis

Report Metric Details Base year considered 2023 Forecast period considered 2024-2029 Base year market size $21.6 billion Market size forecast $39.2 billion Growth rate CAGR of 10.5% from 2024 to 2029 Segments covered Detection Method, Component, Technology Type, Application, End User, and Region Regions covered North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW) Countries covered The U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, South Korea and Australia Market drivers Increased adoption of contract research organizations (CROs).

Technological innovation leads to advanced tools and methods.

Rising government funding and business R&D expenditures.

Rising prevalence of chronic and immunological diseases.

Interesting facts:

High-throughput screening, an essential technique in drug discovery, is experiencing a digital transformation thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies empower researchers to precisely analyze extensive datasets, uncover novel patterns, and make accurate predictions.

The report addresses the following questions:

What is the projected market size and growth rate?

The global market for high-throughput screening was valued at $21.6 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $39.2 billion by the end of 2029.

What are the factors driving the growth of the market?

High-throughput screening will undoubtedly accelerate over the coming decades owing to the increased adoption of contract research organizations (CROs), technological innovation leading to advanced tools and methods, rising government funding and business R&D expenditures, and the prevalence of chronic and immunological diseases.

What market segments are covered in the report?

The market in this report is segmented into detection method, component, technology, and end user. Detection methods include spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chromatography, calorimetry, x-ray diffraction, and microscopy. Components include instruments/platform, consumables (reagents and kits), services and software and analytics (bioinformatics). On the basis of technology, the market is segmented into cell-based assays, ultra-high-throughput screening, label-free technology and lab-on-a-chip. End users include pharmaceutical and biotech companies, contract research organizations, research and government institutes, and labs and pathologies.

Which technology segment will be dominant over the forecast period?

The spectroscopy segment is exptected to be the dominant technology in the HTS market.

Which region has the largest market share?

The North American market for high-throughput screening was valued at $12.6 billion in 2023 and is estimated to reach $23.1 billion by the end of 2029, at a CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period.

Market leaders include:

BIO-TECHNE

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.

BIO-RAD LABORATORIES INC.

CORNING INC.

BRUKER

CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES

CREATIVE BIOLABS

CURIOX BIOSYSTEMS

DANAHER CORP.

EVOTEC SE

PROMEGA CORP.

REVVITY

THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC.

VALA SCIENCES INC.

ZEISS

Related Reports:

Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients: Global Markets: This report offers qualitative and quantitative insights to help readers understand the market landscape, develop growth strategies, and evaluate their market position. The report examines the API market by manufacturer type, production method, molecule type, region, and country and discusses industry growth trends, drivers, restraints, and opportunities. The studys scope is global, focusing on the demand for APIs in regions and countries.

Navigate Uncertainty with Confidence

In times of rapid change and uncertainty, having the right insights can make all the difference. At BCC Research, we're here to support innovation and help you stay ahead. Our custom research reports provide a comprehensive, 360-degree view of your market landscapegiving you the clarity you need to make informed decisions. We believe that timely, expert market intelligence should be accessible to all. Thats why, for a limited time, were offering 30% off the price of any BCC Research report to help more organizations gain access to our latest data and insights.

Purchase a copy of the report direct from BCC Research.

For further information on any of these reports or to make a purchase, contact info@bccresearch.com.

About BCC Research

BCC Research market research reports provide objective, unbiased measurement and assessment of market opportunities. Our experienced industry analysts' goal is to help you make informed business decisions free of noise and hype.

For media inquiries, email press@bccresearch.com or visit our media page for access to our market research library.

Any data and analysis extracted from this press release must be accompanied by a statement identifying BCC Research LLC as the source and publisher.
LAS VEGAS, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, CareSource Nevada, a nonprofit managed care organization recently selected to implement Nevadas Medicaid Managed Care Program, awarded Three Square Food Bank a $10,000 donation and a Heart of the Community Award.

The award, recognizing exceptional commitment to improving health and well-being in communities, was presented during a volunteer event at Three Squares headquarters, where more than 100 CareSource team members packed hundreds of meals and grocery product for the one in six Southern Nevadans facing hunger.

CareSources volunteer efforts and financial support reflect a shared commitment to addressing food insecurity and enhancing the well-being of underserved Nevadans through the consideration of social determinants of health.

With prices going up and more people struggling to make ends meet, the need for food assistance in our community keeps growing, said Beth Martino, president and CEO of Three Square. Thanks to partners like CareSource, we can keep helping more people and stay focused on our mission to make sure everyone has dignified access to the food they need. Together, were making a real difference.

Food insecurity remains a significant challenge across Southern Nevada, with 16% of Clark County residents experiencing limited access to nutritious food. In the rural counties of Esmeralda, Lincoln, and Nye, also served by Three Square, rates range from 13.6% to 21.94%. To fully meet the need, an estimated 57.8 million additional meals are required annually to close the gap left by federal nutrition programs and charitable resources.

At CareSource, we believe health care goes beyond doctor visits; its about building a healthier foundation for life, said Jayme Puu, chief executive officer, CareSource Nevada. The donation and volunteering we provided to Three Square today are just the beginning of our long-term investment in Nevadas families.

###

CareSource Nevada

CareSource Nevada Co. (CareSource Nevada) is a nonprofit managed care organization that seeks to provide access to high-quality care to Nevada Medicaid and Nevada Check-Up-eligible residents of the Silver State. Supported by CareSources national managed health plan experience, CareSource Nevada transforms health care for Nevadans throughout the state through innovative programs that address the social determinants of health, prevention and access to care. Through its provider network and partnerships with community-based organizations in every region of Nevada, CareSource Nevada delivers care with heart.

Learn more at https://healthiernevada.com/.

About Three Square Food Bank

Founded in 2007 with a grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and inspired by founder Eric Hilton, Three Square is Southern Nevadas only food bank and the largest hunger-relief organization serving Las Vegas and all of Clark, Lincoln, Esmeralda, and Nye counties. Since opening in 2007, Three Square has provided more than 644 million pounds of food to hundreds of thousands of people in need, earning a reputation as one of the most efficient and effective food banks in the nation. Three Square is a community-wide collaboration, partnering with businesses, nonprofit organizations, food distributors, higher education institutions, the Clark County School District, government agencies, the media, and thousands of volunteers to support food-insecure Southern Nevadans. Last year alone, Three Square provided more than 49 million pounds of food the equivalent of over 41 million meals through its network of 150 community partners. As a proud member of the Feeding America network, Three Square remains committed to providing wholesome food to those in need while passionately pursuing a hunger-free community. If you or someone you know needs food assistance, or wants to learn more about Three Squares vision of a community where no one is hungry, please connect at threesquare.org, Facebook (@ThreeSquareFoodBank), Instagram (@threesquarelv) and X (@threesquarelv).

Attachments
Press release

THE VALLOUREC GENERAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING OF 22 MAY 2025 VOTED IN FAVOR OF ALL THE RESOLUTIONS

AND APPROVED THE FIRST DIVIDEND IN A DECADE

Meudon (France), May 22, 2025  Vallourec, a world leader in premium seamless tubular solutions, announces that the Combined General Meeting of Shareholders, held today, chaired by Mr Philippe Guillemot with a quorum of 74.75 %, adopted all the resolutions put to the vote.

The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the parent company and consolidated financial statements for the 2024 fiscal year and the payment of a dividend of 1.50 per share in respect of 2024. The ex-dividend date will be May 26, 2025 and the dividend will be paid on May 28, 2025. In accordance with the by-laws and the applicable free shares plan, the thresholds for the assessment of the performance condition for the vesting of the Tranche 3 and Tranche 4 preferred shares will automatically adjusted of the amount of the dividend, on a euro for euro basis1. Moreover, pursuant to the provisions of section 4.2.8.4. of the note doperation (AMF visa n21-093 of March 31, 2021), the exercise ratio (Parite dExercice) of the warrants (ISIN Code: FR00140030K7) will also be adjusted. The modalities of such adjustment will be communicated in the coming days.

The General Meeting of Shareholders ratified the co-optation of Mr Keith James Howell as Director and renewed his term for four (4) years, i.e. until the end of the Ordinary Shareholders' Meeting called to approve the financial statements for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2028.

The General Meeting of Shareholders approved the compensation and benefits paid during or awarded for the year ended 31 December 2024 to the Companys directors and officers and the compensation policy applicable to the directors and officers for 2025.

Also, the General Meeting of Shareholders approved the amendment of the Articles of Association to reflect the provisions of the Law n 2024-537 of June 13, 2024 aimed at increasing the financing of businesses and the attractiveness of France and to specify the powers of the Lead Independent Director.

A webcast of the General Shareholders' Meeting of 22 May 2025 and the voting results for each resolution are available on Vallourec's website: www.vallourec.com

About Vallourec

Vallourec is a world leader in premium seamless tubular solutions for the energy markets and for demanding industrial applications such as oil & gas wells in harsh environments, new generation power plants, challenging architectural projects, and high-performance mechanical equipment. Vallourecs pioneering spirit and cutting edge R&D open new technological frontiers. With close to 13,000 dedicated and passionate employees in more than 20 countries, Vallourec works hand-in-hand with its customers to offer more than just tubes: Vallourec delivers innovative, safe, competitive and smart tubular solutions, to make every project possible.

Listed on Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013506730, Ticker VK), Vallourec is part of the CAC Mid 60, SBF 120 and Next 150 indices and is eligible for Deferred Settlement Service.

In the United States, Vallourec has established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R4074, Ticker: VLOWY). Parity between ADR and a Vallourec ordinary share has been set at 5:1.

For further information, please contact:

Investor relations:

Connor Lynagh

Tel: +1 (713) 409-7842

connor.lynagh@vallourec.com

Individual shareholders:

Toll Free number (From France): 0 805 65 10 10

actionnaires@vallourec.com

Press relations: Taddeo

Romain Griere

Tel: +33 (0)7 86 53 17 29

romain.griere@taddeo.fr

Nicolas Escoulan

Tel: +33 (0)6 42 19 14 74

nicolas.escoulan@taddeo.fr

1 It is reminded that the performance condition of the Tranche 2 preferred shares was already met. For the purposes of the assessment of the performance conditions of the Tranche 3 and Tranche 4 preferred shares, the thresholds will be set respectively at 18.72 and 26.82 respectively (corresponding to the 20.22 and 28.32 thresholds before dividend distribution).

Attachment
Town of Lincoln, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Town of Lincoln, Wisconsin -

St. Croix Falls, WI  Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc., a leader in regional sauna sales and support, has formally announced the public opening of its dedicated sauna dealership and expanded showroom in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. The space is now fully operational and available to serve customers throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, offering hands-on product education, high-performance sauna, and end-to-end service from consultation through installation.

This development marks a major milestone for the family-owned business, which has operated in the area since 2010 and has grown to become a trusted name in the Upper Midwest's home wellness and sauna sector. Founded by brothers Jason and Josh Soderlund, the business has spent over a decade refining its approach to customer service, product selection, and region-specific expertise. The new showroom solidifies the company's status as a full-service sauna dealer, with the capacity to assist both new and returning customers in making confident, informed decisions about their home wellness investments.

With the increasing popularity of heat therapy, home wellness, and Nordic-style saunas, the timing of the launch reflects broader demand trends across suburban and rural communities alike. Customers from as far as the Twin Cities metro area and deep into western Wisconsin have already expressed growing interest in purchasing saunas through a trusted local resource. In response, Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc. has invested in the space, staff, and structure needed to provide regionally tailored support on-site.

The new dealership and showroom give visitors a chance to physically step inside barrel and cube saunas, view layout options, compare wood finishes, and explore heater configurations in personsomething that's nearly impossible through digital shopping alone. With showroom staff available six days a week, the company now offers scheduled and walk-in consultations without the need for an appointment.

"Our goal with the new dealership and expanded showroom is simple," said co-owner Jason Soderlund. "We want to give people in Wisconsin and Minnesota a chance to see what they're buying, ask the questions that matter, and get real answers from people who know these products inside and out. It's about trust, transparency, and making wellness more accessible to more households."

As a sauna dealership, Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc. does not manufacture saunas. Instead, the company acts as a regional supplier of trusted brands, sourcing high-quality sauna from manufacturers in Finland, Estonia, and North America. This allows them to offer a curated selection of sauna styles, sizes, and features, all matched to Midwest climate conditions and homeowner needs.

Their current inventory includes a range of indoor and outdoor options, from traditional barrel saunas with efficient airflow to modern cube designs with panoramic windows and larger bench seating. Saunas are built using thermally modified Nordic spruce, Western Red Cedar, and other premium-grade materials proven to withstand wide temperature swings, humidity, and snow-heavy winters.

Soderlund's also carries heater saunas from globally recognized manufacturers like HUUM and Harvia, offering both electric and wood-fired solutions. Through in-person guidance, the dealership helps customers understand heater sizing, installation requirements, ventilation, and ongoing maintenance, helping ensure their purchase fits both their physical space and daily use habits.

The company's white-glove installation service is an additional feature that sets the dealership apart. While many customers still choose to transport their selected sauna kit themselves for DIY assembly, others opt for the full-service path, which includes site assessment, delivery, setup, and post-installation walkthroughs. Free consultations are offered at all stages, giving customers insight into heater selection, placement logistics, and preparation requirements well before purchase.

To better support increased traffic from the newly targeted regions, the company has also expanded its delivery and installation coverage. Residents in Washington, Ramsey, and Hennepin counties in Minnesota and Polk, Chisago, and St. Croix counties in Wisconsin now benefit from faster turnaround times, better support access, and the option to visit the St. Croix Falls showroom directly. This accessibility reinforces the company's belief that regional customers deserve direct, in-person service instead of relying solely on remote or third-party fulfillment models.

Customer feedback leading up to the launch has been positive, particularly in response to the ability to view models in person. Homeowners have cited the clarity of product demonstration, ease of comparing sauna styles side by side, and the value of being able to ask questions face-to-face with the staff. As demand for home saunas continues to rise, the expanded showroom is expected to play a key role in helping the business meet expectations while preserving its signature hands-on service.

Looking ahead, the Soderlund team plans to continue investing in showroom infrastructure, adding new models as they become available, and maintaining a product mix suited to both urban and rural installations. Training efforts are also underway to ensure all stafffrom customer support to installation techniciansare fully aligned with the company's mission to offer dependable, knowledgeable service at every step.

With the official launch now in motion, Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc. invites residents of Wisconsin and Minnesota to explore its new sauna dealership and experience firsthand the difference of purchasing from a team that understands both the cultural and practical value of home sauna use.

For more information, including showroom hours, location, or to schedule a consultation, visit the Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc. website.

###

For more information about Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc., contact the company here:



Soderlund's Wood Mill Inc.

Jason Soderlund

(651) 246-4085

mail@soderlundswoodmill.com

2012 US Highway 8

St. Croix Falls, WI

54024
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As the 2025 Hajj season approaches, Saudi Arabia stands ready to welcome pilgrims from around the world to partake in this spiritual journey. Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, known as a sacred and obligatory once-in-a-lifetime worship experience for those who are capable, representing a profound act of spiritual submission, unity, and humility before God. In 2025, Hajj season is expected to take place from June 4-9, depending on lunar observations. This year, the minimum age for participation is 12 years old, and all pilgrims must obtain a Hajj visa to attend.

For those considering participating in Hajj or visiting Saudi Arabia, Saudia Airlines (Saudia) provides a world-class travel experience to support your spiritual journey. As the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Saudias non-stop service from New York, Washington, Toronto, and Los Angeles offers an easy entry point from the United States and Canada to Jeddah, Riyadh, and Medina.

Saudia Group has announced its ambitious plans for the 2025 Hajj season, marking its official entry into the Hajj services sector with the aim of transforming the pilgrimage experience. For the first time, Saudia will act as a comprehensive Hajj service provider, expanding its offerings beyond air travel to encompass a wide array of innovative services that address every aspect of the pilgrim journey.

On World Creativity and Innovation Day, Saudia unveiled "The Coolest Ihram," a revolutionary, high-tech garment developed with Landor and brrr to cool the body during Hajj and Umrah rituals. The Coolest Ihram uses advanced cooling technology to lower skin temperature by 1  2 degrees Celsius and offers UPF 50+ sun protection, creating a comfortable microclimate for pilgrims. This innovation reinforces Saudias leadership in enhancing the religious tourism experience.

Saudia is allocating over one million seats utilizing a modern fleet of 158 aircraft. With a projected market share of up to 35%, the airline will serve pilgrims from over 100 global destinations. The end-to-end travel experience is designed to maximize comfort and efficiency, from ticket issuance to streamlined arrival and departure processes. Saudia is coordinating extensively with public and private sector partners to ensure smooth operations across all airport touchpoints, with more than 11,000 frontline staff and aircraft maintenance technicians mobilized to serve pilgrims across a 74-day operational window.

Further enhancing the luxury experience, Saudia Group will introduce Business Class-style beds and dedicated rest areas inspired by Alfursan lounges at the holy sites. To improve the overall pilgrimage experience, Saudia provides a range of services, including easy boarding pass issuance for both outbound and return flights, supported by multilingual staff for seamless communication. Onboard, pilgrims can enjoy diverse meal options, timely prayer and Miqat announcements, and specially curated educational programs developed with the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. Additional services for individuals with special needs, such as transportation for people with disabilities, onboard oxygen, and medical stretcher services, will also be available, ensuring a comfortable and inclusive journey for all.

About Saudia

Saudia (Saudia Airlines) is the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Established in 1945, the company has grown to become one of the Middle Easts largest airlines.

Saudia has invested significantly in upgrading its aircraft and currently operates one of the youngest fleets. The airline serves an extensive global route network covering around 100 destinations across four continents, including all 28 domestic airports in Saudi Arabia.

A member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO), Saudia has also been a member airline in SkyTeam, the second largest alliance, since 2012.

Saudia was recently recognized as the Worlds Most Improved Airline 2024 by Skytrax, marking the third time it has received this accolade, alongside 14 other distinguished awards. Saudia has been honored as the World Class Airline for 2024 at The APEX Official Airline Ratings awards, marking the third consecutive year the airline has received this prestigious recognition. Additionally, ranked top among global airlines for best on-time performance (OTP) according to a report by Cirium.



For more information on Saudia, please visit www.saudia.com.
Arlington, VA, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The USO Gala, on May 29 at The Anthem in Washington, D.C., will recognize Wilmer Valderrama, actor and longtime USO Global Ambassador, with the USO Merit Award. The Gala will also honor the USO Service Members of the Year and feature a performance by the 82nd Airborne Divisions All-American Chorus, which made it to the finals of Americas Got Talent in 2023.

We are thrilled to honor USO Global Ambassador Wilmer Valderrama and the USO Service Members of the Year during our 2025 USO Gala, which is dedicated to raising awareness for our mission to strengthen the well-being of the people serving in America's military and their families, said USO CEO and President J.D. Crouch II. Wilmer Valderrama has gone on more than 12 USO tours since 2007, delighting thousands of service members and their families across a dozen countries, becoming a USO Global Ambassador in 2021.

Food Network personality Carla Hall, Miss America 2025 Abbie Stockard, former Washington Nationals player Ryan Zimmerman, and host of TLCs Say Yes to the Dress Monte Durham will also attend the USO Gala, as well as senior government and military leaders, and business and community leaders.

In addition to the 82nd Airborne Division Chorus, performances during the Gala will include world renowned saxophonist Mike Phillips and combat veteran and motivational speaker Vann Morris.

About the USO

The USO is the leading nonprofit dedicated to strengthening the well-being of the people serving in America's military and their families. Since 1941, the USO has been by the side of service members throughout their military service. Impactful support is provided through our 250+ locations around the world, a robust care package delivery program, entertainment, military spouse and youth programming, and much more, all made possible by donors, corporate partners, volunteers and staff. To learn more and support our critical mission around the globe, please visit USO.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and LinkedIn.
College Station, Texas, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Every year, Team CFC is dedicated to supporting deserving high school seniors across Texas by providing scholarship funds to help further their education.

This year, nearly 120 outstanding graduating high school seniors were awarded $1,000 scholarships in five CFC regions across Texas. These students will be attending accredited vocational or technical schools, colleges or universities full time in the fields of agriculture or natural resources, including programs such as ag communications, ag economics/business, ag education, wildlife or ranch management.

We got hundreds of strong applications this year, which tells me the future of agriculture is bright, said Jeff Norte, president and CEO of Capital Farm Credit. We congratulate and applaud these outstanding students and look forward to the outstanding contributions they will make in our industry.



Since Capital Farm Credit's centennial celebration in 2016, we have awarded nearly $1 million to more than 900 Texas students.

It is a privilege to congratulate this year's winning recipients.

About Capital Farm Credit

For more than 100 years, Capital Farm Credit has supported rural communities and agriculture with reliable, consistent credit and financial services that include home, land and agribusiness lending; equipment and facilities leasing, and insurance for crops and livestock. Capital Farm Credit is a proud member of the Farm Credit System with more than 600 employees, serving over 24,500 members and more than $13 billion in loan volume.

Since 2006, CFC has returned $2.9 billion in combined cash and allocated equities to its members. Headquartered in College Station, Texas, Capital Farm Credit has offices serving 192 of Texas 254 counties. For more information about financial services or our cooperative returns program, visit CapitalFarmCredit.com.




Centreville, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Centreville, Maryland -

With agent burnout, recruiting attrition, and software fatigue disrupting the life and health insurance industry, bestselling author and strategic consultant Bill Korman, who penned The 168 Game, which can be found at The168Game.com, will deliver two critical presentations at TKO Convention 2025, hosted by Tony Martinez, TKO Financial Network CEO. Join top producers, agency builders, and industry innovators LIVE or ONLINE at the TKO Convention, May 2224, 2025, hosted at Margaritaville Resort in Kissimmee, Florida. Tickets available at www.TKOConvention.com.

Throughout the convention, Korman will be featured at his booth, where attendees can receive signed copies of his acclaimed book, The 168 Game: Time Ownership vs. Time Management. Based on the principle that every individual gets the same 168 hours each week, the book teaches professionals how to shift from reactive time management to intentional ownership. Since its release, the book has helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs, agents, and executives transform their productivity and regain control of their schedule.

Owning my time has always been one of the keys to my success. The 168 Game will give you strategies to go beyond traditional management and own your time," states Patrick Bet-David, Founder of PHP, author, and podcaster.

Korman's first session, The Power of R.I.T.A.  Recruiting Is The Answer, reframes recruitment as a leadership function, not a numbers game. Built on years of field-tested strategy, the framework equips attendees to attract aligned team members through clarity, vision, and authentic value. With over 30 percent of new insurance agents leaving the field within their first year, and 89% quitting by year three, R.I.T.A. offers a sustainable solution for leaders building long-term legacy teams.

"Recruiting will only get harder in the next five years unless leaders stop using yesterday's tactics," said Korman. "Those who win will do so by owning their time and mastering systems that work for them, not the other way around."

In his second session, Korman unveils Visionary Flow Solutions, a CRM platform designed exclusively for financial professionals. The system integrates recruiting, onboarding, and retention into one intuitive flow, eliminating the tech overload that plagues many agency builders juggling multiple platforms. Unlike generic systems like Salesforce or HubSpot, Visionary Flow Solutions is tailored to the agent experience, emphasizing speed, clarity, and automation without sacrificing connection.

Since launching its pilot, Visionary Flow Solutions has already been adopted by 47 agencies across three states. The company is preparing for a national rollout later this year. Korman's message on CRM solutions is pivotal in the industry. According to LIMRA, over two-thirds of agents cite being overwhelmed and lacking meaningful systems as primary reasons for leaving the business.

Visionary Flow Solutions and the R.I.T.A. method offer not just a tactical shift, but a philosophical one, built on purpose-driven performance. "Bill brings clarity and leadership at a time when our industry needs it most," said Tony Martinez, CEO of TKO Financial Network. "His sessions reflect the future of where top producers and agency builders are heading."

Also speaking at TKO Convention 2025 is bestselling author David McKnight, known for The Power of Zero, who will offer advanced training on building tax-free retirement strategies in today's volatile financial environment.

In addition to mainstage sessions, the event features advanced market training, sales psychology, agency model analysis (network marketing, carrier, independent), seminar marketing, and strategic instruction on building a multi-million-dollar sellable agency. Designed to support rising leaders and seasoned veterans, TKO Convention delivers actionable strategies for growth in both virtual and in-person business models.

Bill Korman has been invited to speak at the TKO Convention, an annual leadership event produced by TKO Financial Network. The convention brings together top financial professionals, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders for a weekend of strategic education, networking, and empowerment.

The event will be held at Margaritaville Resort, 8011 Fins Up Circle, Kissimmee, FL 34747, and live-streamed by securing tickets at TKOConvention.com. Programming begins Thursday, May 22, at 8:00 a.m. ET and concludes Saturday, May 24, at 2:00 p.m. ET.

https://youtu.be/4a-GUNmi1QM

Media kits, high-resolution speaker photos, and interview opportunities are available upon request. Before and during the event, Bill Korman, Author of The168Game.com, will be available for select television, radio, and podcast interviews to discuss recruiting strategy, CRM innovation, time ownership philosophy, and the future of agency leadership.

###

For more information about The168Game.com, contact the company here:



The168Game.com

Dr. Andrea Adams-Miller, Chief Strategic Influence Officer on Behalf of Bill Korman

4197226931

andreaadamsmiller@theredcarpetconnection.com

133 White Tail Ct, Centreville, MD 21617
Sarasota, Florida, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a world of fleeting trends and disposable design, Intra-State Terrazzo & Concrete is proudly celebrating 70 years of timeless beauty and unmatched craftsmanship in flooring and hardscape solutions throughout Southwest Florida. Founded in 1956, Intra-State has become a trusted name in both residential and commercial concrete and terrazzo applications.

Intra-State Terrazzo & Concrete

As the company enters its 70th year, it stands tall as a boutique but battle-tested leader in a resurging industry, having weathered economic highs and lows, shifting tastes, and natural disasters, all while maintaining a steadfast commitment to quality, creativity, and client relationships.

At our core, we are craftsmen and problem solvers, says Andrea Couture, current owner and sixth steward of the company, who acquired the business in March 2021. Whats carried Intra-State through all these years is simple: a love for the work, a team of true experts, some of whom have been with the firm for over 30 years, and an unwavering belief in helping our clients achieve flooring thats both stunning and built to last.

Being a woman in the male-dominated construction industry hasnt always been easy, but Couture is driven by a belief in the product, the people behind it, and the customers who trust them to elevate their spaces.

Coming from the lumber industry, she was drawn to the beauty and longevity of Shellcrete the moment she saw it. I wasnt planning on owning a concrete company, she recalls. But when I saw Shellcrete for the first time, I thought, Thats what I want in front of my house. It was beautiful, timeless, and it made a statement.

Intra-States signature offerings, Terrazzo and Shellcrete, arent just materials. Theyre reflections of the companys legacy. Terrazzo, a seamless, pour-in-place flooring known for its beauty, durability, and customization potential, is making a powerful comeback. Ideal for all new construction projects, terrazzo is grout-free, flood-resistant, low-maintenance, and timeless in appearance. For those remodeling their homes with existing terrazzo features, the company's team has the skill and passion to rejuvenate them to the point you think they are brand new.

While many contractors shy away from terrazzo, Intra-State embraces it. This isnt something you install as an afterthought. Its part of the architectural vision from the ground up, and we help bring that vision to life, Couture explains.

Among Intra-States proudest achievements is its flagship material, Shellcrete. A luxurious blend of white Portland cement, sand, and locally sourced shell, it is the perfect choice for both interior and exterior projects. Sometimes referred to as coquina or tabby, this coastal-inspired product is both aesthetically rich and environmentally conscious.

Andrea Couture

Shellcrete creates naturally cool surfaces that reflect the suns heat, ideal for hurricane- and flood-prone climates. It has high resistance to most weather conditions and fading, making it a go-to for patios, pool decks, walkways, and driveways. Its the perfect balance of form and function.

With a highly skilled team, Intra-State continues to thrive as a boutique firm, taking on projects of all sizes with the same commitment to artistry and precision. Whether its redesigning a residential entrance with a custom Shellcrete wall or helping an architect bring a modern terrazzo concept to life, the company offers a one-stop shop approach. From design consultation to installation and long-term maintenance, they ensure continuity and peace of mind.

Our team may be small, but theyre true experts in the craft. Whether its a grand commercial installation or a single front walkway, we bring the same level of care, Couture adds. Theyve kept the quality and legacy of this company alive through every era, and now were stepping into a new chapter together.

Media Contact

Name: Andrea Couture

Email: andrea.couture@me.com




BROOKLYN, N.Y., May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- All Heart Homecare Agency is proud to announce that it has been named the winner of the Best of Brooklyn 2025 Award for Best Home Health Aides. This marks the agencys fourth win overall and its third consecutive year receiving this prestigious recognition, having also won in 2020, 2023, and 2024.

Albert Finkelshteyn, Executive Chairman and Founder of All Heart Homecare, expresses his gratitude, stating - We are very proud of this achievement. We have always worked toward excellence in our service while focusing on the well-being of our patients. We believe in providing compassionate care that helps our patients thrive in their own homes, surrounded by their families and loved ones, because we believe that love is the key."

A Legacy of Excellence

Winning the Best of Brooklyn Award serves as a testament to All Heart Homecares unwavering commitment to providing high-quality health services. Guided by its core values, represented by the acronym HEARTHonoring Trust, Empathy and Urgency, Accountability and Excellence, Respect and Collaboration, and Thriving Togetherthe agency stands out as a trusted partner in the Brooklyn community.

With over 12 years of experience, All Heart Homecare has grown to become a staple for top-tier in-home health services. Its team of multilingual and compassionate caregivers ensures that every patient receives personalized, professional care tailored to their unique needs.

Why All Heart Homecare Stands Out

The agencys reputation as Brooklyns best is built on its holistic approach to home health care. All Heart Homecare is dedicated to providing:

Comprehensive Care : From activities of daily living to specialized services like Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) care, the agencys offerings cater to a diverse range of patient needs.

: From activities of daily living to specialized services like Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) care, the agencys offerings cater to a diverse range of patient needs. Expert Caregivers : Every caregiver undergoes rigorous training and background checks to ensure trustworthiness and competence while maintaining a compassionate and client-centered mindset.

: Every caregiver undergoes rigorous training and background checks to ensure trustworthiness and competence while maintaining a compassionate and client-centered mindset. Community-Centered Approach : All Heart Homecare prides itself on cultural sensitivity and multilingual staff, fostering strong connections with Brooklyns diverse population.

: All Heart Homecare prides itself on cultural sensitivity and multilingual staff, fostering strong connections with Brooklyns diverse population. Commitment to Patient Well-Being: The agencys focus remains on enabling patients to thrive in the comfort of their homes while maintaining their independence.

Continued Dedication to Brooklyns Community

Since its inception, All Heart Homecare has remained steadfast in its dedication to improving lives through compassionate care. Each accolade further strengthens its resolve to push boundaries, enhance services, and positively impact the Brooklyn residents it proudly serves.

About All Heart Homecare Agency

All Heart Homecare Agency is a family-owned, fully insured, and licensed home care provider based in Brooklyn, NY, serving all five boroughs of New York City. The agency specializes in offering personalized care across various programs, including Home Health Care, Traumatic Brain Injury care, Nursing Home Transition and Diversion Waiver program, Alzheimer's & Dementia, among others. All Heart Homecare strives to create a supportive and compassionate environment where clients can thrive while remaining in the comfort of their own homes.

For more information on All Heart Homecare, please visit www.allheartcare.com .

For media inquiries, please contact:

Email: marketing@allheartcare.com

Phone: 718-795-2742

Compassionate. Reliable. Dedicated. All Heart Homecare truly serves with HEART.
Not for Distribution to United States Wire Services or Dissemination in The United States

TORONTO, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inventus Mining Corp. (TSX VENTURE: IVS) (Inventus or the Company) is pleased to report that it has closed a non-brokered private placement of 8,000,000 flow-through shares within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (FT Shares), which were sold at $0.13 per FT Shares for gross proceeds of $1,040,000 (the Private Placement). Mr. Eric Sprott was the sole subscriber in the Private Placement.

The Private Placement of the FT Shares is subject to the receipt of all required corporate and regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX-V. All securities issued and issuable pursuant to the Private Placement will be subject to a four month and one day statutory hold period.

Eric Sprott, acquired 8,000,000 FT Shares pursuant to the Private Placement, at $0.13 per FT Share for total consideration of C$1,040,000. Prior to the Private Placement, Mr. Sprott beneficially owned and/or controlled 13,549,833 Shares, representing approximately 6.9% of the outstanding Shares on a non-diluted basis. As a result of the Private Placement, Mr. Sprott now beneficially owns and/or controls 21,549,833 Shares, representing approximately 10.6% of the outstanding Shares on a non-diluted basis.

The securities are held for investment purposes. Mr. Sprott has a long-term view of the investment and may acquire additional securities including on the open market or through private acquisitions or sell the securities including on the open market or through private dispositions in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors.

A copy of the early warning report with respect to the foregoing will appear on Inventus Minings profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and may also be obtained by calling Mr. Sprotts office at (416) 945-3294 (2176423 Ontario Ltd., 7 King Street East, Suite 1106, Toronto Ontario M5C 3C5).

Proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to incur Canadian exploration expenses as defined in subsection 66.1(6) of the Income Tax Act and flow-through mining expenditures as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Income Tax Act. Such proceeds will be renounced to the subscribers with an effective date not later than December 31, 2025, in the aggregate amount of not less than the total amount of gross proceeds raised from the issue of the FT Shares.

The Company intends to use the proceeds of the Private Placement to fund exploration at its Pardo and Sudbury 2.0 projects.

About Inventus Mining Corp.

For further information visit www.inventusmining.com, or contact:

Mr. Wesley Whymark

President and Head of Exploration

Inventus Mining Corp.

E-mail: wesley@inventusmining.com

Phone: 705-822-3005

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

About Inventus Mining Corp.

Inventus is a mineral exploration and development company focused on the world-class mining district of Sudbury, Ontario. Our principal assets are a 100% interest in the Pardo Paleoplacer Gold Project and the Sudbury 2.0 Critical Mineral Project located northeast of Sudbury. Pardo is the first important paleoplacer gold discovery found in North America. Inventus has approximately 203 million common shares outstanding.

Forward-Looking Statements

This News Release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as believes, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, could, would, if, yet, potential, undetermined, objective, or plan. Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet managements expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Companys objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to the failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate First Nations and other indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Companys public documents filed on SEDAR+. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
MINNEAPOLIS, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is pleased to announce The Lyme Timber Company as the recipient of the 2025 SFI Leadership in Conservation Award. Lyme Timber, certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard, is being recognized for a longstanding commitment to advancing conservation outcomes across its land base. SFI specifically recognizes Managing Directors Peter Stein and Sean Ross for their instrumental leadership in partnering on meaningful conservation efforts related to biodiversity conservation, research-based forest management practices, and climate smart forestry.





L-R: Lauren Cooper, Chief Conservation Officer, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Sean Ross, Managing Director, The Lyme Timber Company, and Kathy Abusow, President and CEO, Sustainable Forestry Initiative

Lyme Timber is committed to managing forests in ways that protect and promote biological diversity and is a collaborator on an SFI grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) that aims to enhance songbird habitat in West Virginia through sustainable forest management. Through this partnership, they worked with West Virginia University researchers on focal songbird species monitoring, directly contributing to a deeper understanding of the conservation benefits of SFI-certified lands.

Lyme Timber continues to work with the SFI geospatial team to explore how GIS data and mapping tools can be used to identify and quantify conservation value across Lyme Timbers land base. This demonstrates their commitment to applying knowledge gained through research, science, technology, field experience and the results of monitoring to manage wildlife habitat and contribute to the conservation of biological diversity.

Lyme Timber exemplifies the kind of partnership that makes our conservation work impactful," said Lauren T. Cooper, Chief Conservation Officer at SFI. "As part of the SFI 2025-2030 Strategic Direction, we are focused on advancing data, tools, and practices that drive measurable conservation outcomes. Peter Stein, Sean Ross, and the Lyme Timber team are helping SFI bring that vision to life across North American forests with collaboration on climate and biodiversity."

Stein and Ross have also served as valuable advisors to SFI in advancing the development and implementation of climate smart forestry practices in the United States and have been supporters of multiple successful proposals that have resulted in the SFI Climate Smart Forest Initiative.

We are delighted by this recognition and value the opportunity to collaborate with SFI on advancing scientific research and the conservation of biodiversity in working forests, said Sean Ross. In a time when our investors are increasingly interested in addressing these issues through their investments, Lymes ongoing partnership with SFI has helped us understand, quantify, and continue to improve how our forest management practices contribute to protecting and promoting biological diversity.

The award was presented to Lyme Timber at the 2025 SFI Annual Conference, where leaders from across the forest and conservation sector celebrated shared achievements and innovations in sustainable forestry. Ross also spoke at the 2025 SFI Conservation Impact Workshop on the importance of evolving management practices informed by climate adaptation and mitigation.

ABOUT SFI

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) advances sustainability through forest-focused collaborations. We are an independent, nonprofit organization that leverages four interconnected pillars of work: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI works with the forest sector, conservation groups, academics, researchers, brand owners, resource professionals, landowners, educators, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and governments. Collaborating with our network, we leverage SFI-certified forests and products as powerful tools to help solve sustainability challenges such as climate action, conservation of biodiversity, education of future generations, and sustainable economic development.

ABOUT THE LYME TIMBER COMPANY

Founded in 1976, The Lyme Timber Company LLC is an employee-owned timberland investment manager based in Hanover, NH. They focus on generating long-term financial returns for our investors through sustainable forestry, land conservation, and supply chain improvements. Their strategies protect biodiversity, improve wildlife habitat, mitigate climate change, and create high quality forest-sector jobs in rural communities in the US and Canada. Their portfolio includes 1.3 million acres of forestland in Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama. They specialize in the management of natural landscapes, including naturally regenerating hardwood forests, unique softwood plantations, and wetland ecosystems. Alongside the lands they manage, they invest in supply chain businesses, including sawmills, forest management companies, and innovative logging operations. They invest in mitigation banks and other ecosystem services projects that restore wetlands and rehabilitate critical habitats. Recognized as a leader in conservation, their company has protected over 1 million acres of land through conservation easements, mitigation banking instruments, and 100-year carbon sequestration projects.

MEDIA CONTACT

Christine Leduc

VP, Communications and Government Relations

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

613-706-1114

media@forests.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e04b2cf2-ea5b-45b5-97ee-091d050616d8
HOUSTON, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KBR (NYSE: KBR), a leader in human spaceflight expertise for more than 60 years, has signed a letter of intent with ACMI Properties to grow KBRs commercial space capabilities including a human spaceflight food laboratory at NASAs Exploration Park, adjacent to Johnson Space Center. The 45,000 square-foot, Houston-based facility would serve the growing commercial low-Earth orbit (LEO) industry where tailorable astronaut food systems and solutions will be designed, tested, validated, produced, and integrated into customer mission environments.

This KBR-led capability is expected to serve as a critical resource for NASA and its provider community by delivering safe, expertly developed food solutions tailored for human performance on spaceflight missions, said Mark Kavanaugh, KBR President, Defense, Intel and Space. Our commitment to fulfilling and exceeding all human performance needsincluding behavioral health and performancewill be at the forefront of this endeavor and will provide a level of integration across all pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight mission phases that serves a multitude of mission models, durations, and complexities.

KBR is committed to supporting the space industry with safe and expert-developed food systems, enhancing human performance, and promoting the well-being of astronauts and space professionals. With a strategic location at NASAs Exploration Park, and in collaboration with ACMI Properties who specialize in building mission critical infrastructure, KBR expects to set new benchmarks along with the co-located Exploration Park innovators feeding the needs of LEO, Moon, and Mars providers as humanity pursues destiny.

In addition to supporting human spaceflight programs, the facility is targeting applications that supply goods, services, or technologies where advanced food safety, packaging, and lifecycle management solutions for humans in extreme and performance-driven environments are key considerations for mission success.

About KBR

We deliver science, technology and engineering solutions to governments and companies around the world. KBR employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide with customers in more than 80 countries and operations in over 29 countries. KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, and long-term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding the companys letter of intent with ACMI Properties and the development and capabilities of the proposed facility, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and assumptions, many of which are beyond the companys control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, but are not limited to, those set forth in the companys most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which discuss some of the important risks, uncertainties and assumptions that the company has identified that may affect its business, results of operations and financial condition. Due to such risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

For further information, please contact:

Investors

Jamie DuBray

Vice President, Investor Relations

713-753-5082

Investors@kbr.com

Media

Philip Ivy

Vice President, Global Communications and Marketing

713-753-3800

MediaRelations@kbr.com
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (Imperial or the Company) (TSX:III) reports initial diamond drill results from the Mount Polley 2025 exploration program with a notable interval of 152.5 metres grading 0.46% copper and 0.97 g/t gold starting from a depth of 282.5 metres, including 85.0 metres grading 0.67% copper and 1.56 g/t gold starting at 285.0 metres in C2 Zone diamond drill hole C2-25-121.

The C2 Zone is located immediately south of the Cariboo Pit and, similar to the Cariboo and the WX zones, gold values in the mineralization of the C2 Zone exceed copper values. Also, much of the copper mineralization near surface and along faults in this zone is oxidized which results in lower copper recovery in processing. Given the recent increase in gold price, exploration priority has been given to the C2 Zone. This years drilling in the C2 Zone has been designed to fill gaps in the historic drilling to provide the information required to design an expanded pit in this area, and to target a higher-grade zone at depth.

The significant mineralization intercepts are highlighted below.

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Width (m) Copper (%) Gold (g/t) Copper

Oxide

Ratio(% )* C2-25-116 165.0 200.0 35.0 0.31 0.62 52% including 185.0 200.0 15.0 0.45 1.09 60% C2-25-117 165.0 213.0 48.0 0.41 1.10 66% C2-25-118 290.0 381.2 91.2 0.53 1.10 9% including 347.5 381.2 33.7 0.79 2.02 8% C2-25-121 282.5 435.0 152.5 0.46 0.97 7% including 285.0 370.0 85.0 0.67 1.56 4%

*Copper Oxide Ratio % = (CuOx%/Total Cu%)*100

Holes C2-25-116, C2-25-117 and C2-25-119 targeted gaps in drilling that would potentially fall within an expanded pit in the C2 Zone. Holes C2-25-116 and C2-25-117 were successful and intersected significant gold and copper values over considerable intervals.

Hole C2-25-116 intersected 35.0 metres grading 0.31% copper and 0.62 g/t gold from a depth of 165.0 metres. Including 15.0 metres grading 0.45% copper and 1.09 g/t gold from a depth of 185.0 metres.

Hole C2-25-117 intersected 48.0 metres grading 0.41% copper and 1.10 g/t gold from a depth of 165.0 metres.

Holes C2-25-118 and C2-25-121 targeted the previously identified as a higher-grade area, with a lower copper oxide ratio. Both holes were successful in adding volume to the mineralization.

Hole C2-25-118 intersected 91.2 metres grading 0.53% copper and 1.10 g/t gold from a depth of 290.0 metres. Including 33.7 metres grading 0.79% copper and 2.02 g/t gold from a depth of 347.5 metres.

Hole C2-25-121 intersected 152.5 metres grading 0.46% copper and 0.97 g/t gold from a depth of 282.5 metres. Including 85.0 metres grading 0.67% copper and 1.56 g/t gold from a depth of 285.0 metres.

The first phase of diamond drilling is ongoing.

Jim Miller-Tait, P.Geo., Imperials VP Exploration, has reviewed this news release as the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 for the Mount Polley exploration program. Samples reported were analysed at Bureau Veritas Mineral Laboratories in Vancouver. A full QA/QC program using blanks, standards and duplicates was completed for all diamond drilling samples submitted to the labs. Significant assay intervals reported represent apparent widths. Insufficient geological information is available to confirm the geological model and true width of significant assay intervals.

Diamond drill data, cross sections and plan view maps are available on imperialmetals.com.

About Imperial

Imperial is a Vancouver based exploration, mine development and operating company with holdings that include the Mount Polley mine (100%), the Huckleberry mine (100%), and the Red Chris mine (30%). Imperial also holds a portfolio of 23 greenfield exploration properties in British Columbia. These properties have defined areas of mineralization and clear exploration potential. Management continues to evaluate various opportunities to advance many of these properties.

Company Contacts

Brian Kynoch | President | 604.669.8959

Jim Miller-Tait | VP Exploration | jim.miller-tait@imperialmetals.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this news release are not statements of historical fact and are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the Companys managements expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Companys expectations with respect to current and planned exploration drilling programs at Mount Polley and timing thereof, specifically with respect to the C2 Zone; the potential for mineralization to be converted from resource to reserve; the potential for extension of mine life; and the impact of drilling on future pit designs and mine life schedule. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. By their very nature forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on information currently available to the Company as well as the Companys current beliefs and assumptions. These factors and assumptions and beliefs and assumptions include the risk factors detailed from time to time in the Companys annual information form, interim and annual financial statements and managements discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended, many of which are beyond the Companys ability to control or predict. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and all forward-looking statements in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements.
ASCURRA, SANTA CATARINA, Brazil, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The international hotel booking platform Sniff Hotels officially announces its brand and domain migration to 123 Reserve. This change is part of a global growth strategy and market repositioning, while maintaining its commitment to a fast, secure, and intuitive booking experience for travelers around the world.

"The transition to 123 Reserve represents an important step in the evolution of our brand," says Andre Sestari, founder of the platform. "Our focus remains the same: to offer a modern and efficient solution for booking hotels easily, whether for tourism or business."

The new brand identity comes with a series of technical and visual improvements, including a redesigned interface, optimized mobile performance, and a smarter search system  all without altering the core features that made Sniff Hotels a trusted choice in the travel and hospitality sector.

The migration has been carefully planned to ensure a seamless experience for users. All visits to the previous website are automatically redirected to the new domain, preserving bookmarks, history, and external links.

About 123 Reserve

123 Reserve is a global platform specializing in hotel bookings, connecting travelers to thousands of lodging options in various destinations. With an intuitive interface, efficient comparison tools, and multilingual support, the platform delivers a practical, reliable, and personalized booking experience for every user profile.
OKOTOKS, Alberta, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX: MTL) Mullen Group Ltd. ("Mullen Group", "We", "Our" and/or the "Corporation") today announced that it has priced an approximately CAD$400.0 million aggregate principal amount senior secured notes offering (the "Notes Offering"), by way of a private placement. The senior secured notes (the "Notes") will be guaranteed by Mullen Group's subsidiaries, MT Investments Inc. and MGL Holding Co. Ltd. (each, a "Guarantor") and secured by a first ranking charge over all present and after-acquired property of the Corporation and each Guarantor. The Notes will rank pari passu with Mullen Groups outstanding senior secured notes maturing July 2034 and its amended and restated bank credit facilities (see the Corporations press release dated July 10, 2024).

The Notes will mature on July 10, 2037, and are comprised of aggregate principal amounts of US$50.0 million with a yield of 6.91% per annum and CAD$325.0 million with a yield of 6.04% per annum. Interest on the Notes will accrue from the date of issue and be payable semi-annually in arrears on June 7 and December 7, beginning on December 7, 2025.

The Notes Offering is expected to close on July 10, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Mullen Group intends to use the net proceeds from the Notes Offering to prepay its existing private placement debt maturing in October 2026 and for general corporate purposes.

"Today, we finalized another successful note private placement offering with long-term investors providing our organization with additional liquidity to fund our future growth plans. I want to thank all of the investors for investing in the Mullen Group. We will use the funds to prepay the private placement notes that mature in 2026 and to pursue new acquisitions that fit our strategic plans. Todays announcement is especially gratifying given all of the economic uncertainty created by tariffs and trade issues," commented Mr. Murray K. Mullen, Chair and Senior Executive Officer.

The Notes have been offered only in a private placement to institutional accredited investors in reliance on Section 4(a)(2) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The Notes have not been registered under the Securities Act, Canadian securities laws or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction, and may not be offered or sold within the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any U.S. Person, absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements. Mullen Group is under no obligation, and has no intention to, register the Notes under the Securities Act, Canadian securities laws or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction in the future. The Notes have not been and will not be qualified for distribution to the public under applicable Canadian securities laws and, accordingly, any offer and sale of the securities in Canada will be made on a basis which is exempt from the prospectus and dealer registration requirements of such securities laws. The Notes have been offered in Canada on a private placement basis only to "accredited investors" and permitted clients under applicable Canadian Securities laws.

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes. This press release also does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of that jurisdiction, or an exemption is available from such registration or qualification.

About Mullen Group Ltd.

Mullen Group is a public company with a long history of acquiring companies in the transportation and logistics industries. Today, we have one of the largest portfolios of logistics companies in North America, providing a wide range of transportation, warehousing and distribution services through a network of independently operated businesses. Service offerings include less-than-truckload, truckload, warehousing, logistics, transload, oversized, third-party logistics and specialized hauling transportation. In addition, our businesses provide a diverse set of specialized services related to the energy, mining, forestry and construction industries in western Canada, including water management, fluid hauling and environmental reclamation. The corporate office provides the capital and financial expertise, legal support, technology and systems support, shared services and strategic planning to its independent businesses.

Mullen Group is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "MTL". Additional information is available on our website at www.mullen-group.com or on the Corporation's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

Contact Information

Mr. Murray K. Mullen - Chair, Senior Executive Officer and President

Mr. Richard J. Maloney - Senior Operating Officer

Mr. Carson P. Urlacher - Senior Financial Officer

Ms. Joanna K. Scott - Senior Corporate Officer

121A - 31 Southridge Drive

Okotoks, Alberta, Canada T1S 2N3

Telephone: 403-995-5200

Fax: 403-995-5296

Disclaimer

Mullen Group may make statements in this news release that reflect its current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to it and contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This news release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risk factors associated with the overall economy and the oil and natural gas business. These forward-looking statements relate to future events and Mullen Group's future performance. All forward looking statements and information contained herein that are not clearly historical in nature constitute forward-looking statements, and the words "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "propose", "predict", "potential", "continue", "aim", or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements represent Mullen Group's internal projections, estimates, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. These forward-looking statements involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Mullen Group believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. In particular, forward-looking statements include but are not limited to the following: the terms and timing of the Notes Offering and the use of proceeds of the Notes Offering. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by Mullen Group in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. These assumptions include but are not limited to the following: (i) that the Notes Offering will close as expected. For further information on any strategic, financial, operational and other outlook on Mullen Group's business please refer to Mullen Group's Management's Discussion and Analysis available for viewing on Mullen Group's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Additional information on risks that could affect the operations or financial results of Mullen Group may be found under the heading "Principal Risks and Uncertainties" starting on page 48 of the 2024 Annual Financial Review as well as in reports on file with applicable securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through Mullen Group's issuer profile on the SEDAR+ website at www.sedarplus.ca. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and Mullen Group disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable Canadian securities laws. Mullen Group relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements.
KELLOGG, Idaho and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bunker Hill Mining Corp. (Bunker Hill or the Company) (TSX-V: BNKR |OTCQB: BHLL) is pleased to announce that the Company and Teck Resources Limited (Teck) have agreed to amend and restate the unsecured promissory note previously provided by Teck to increase the maximum aggregate principal amount thereunder from US$3.4 million to US$4.4 million (as amended and restated, the Promissory Note). The Promissory Note ensures sufficient short-term funding until the previously announced brokered and non-brokered private placements close, and bears interest at a rate of 12% per annum, with such interest being capitalized and added to the principal amount outstanding monthly under the Promissory Note. The Promissory Note is available in multiple advances, at the discretion of Teck, and is payable by the Company in cash on demand from Teck. No bonus securities of the Company will be issued to Teck in connection with the Promissory Note, nor is the Promissory Note convertible into securities of the Company.

ABOUT BUNKER HILL MINING CORP.

Bunker Hill is an American mineral exploration and development company focused on revitalizing our historic mining asset: the renowned zinc, lead, and silver deposit in northern Idahos prolific Coeur dAlene mining district. This strategic initiative aims to breathe new life into a once-productive mine, leveraging modern exploration techniques and sustainable development practices to unlock the potential of this mineral-rich region. Bunker Hill Mining Corp. aims to maximize shareholder value while responsibly harnessing the mineral wealth in the Silver Valley mining district by concentrating our efforts on this single, high-potential asset. Information about the Company is available on its website, www.bunkerhillmining.com, or within the SEDAR+ and EDGAR databases.

On behalf of Bunker Hill Mining Corp.

Sam Ash

President and Chief Executive Officer

For additional information, please contact:

Brenda Dayton

Vice President, Investor Relations

T: 604.417.7952

E: brenda.dayton@bunkerhillmining.com

Cautionary Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX-V) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are within the meaning of that term in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, as well as within the meaning of the phrase forward-looking information in the Canadian Securities Administrators National Instrument 51-102  Continuous Disclosure Obligations (collectively, forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Companys future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as believes, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, could, would, will, plan or variations of such words and phrases.

Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, the expectation that the Promissory Note will provide sufficient short-term funding and the closing of brokered and non-brokered private placements. Forward-looking statements reflect material expectations and assumptions, including, without limitation, expectations and assumptions relating to: Bunker Hills ability to close the private placements and ongoing capital restructuring and to receive sufficient project financing for the restart and development of the Project on an acceptable timeline, on acceptable terms, or at all; our ability to service our existing debt and meet the payment obligations thereunder, including following the restructuring transactions, if completed; further drilling and geotechnical work supporting the planned restart and operations at the Bunker Hill Zinc-Silver-Lead Mine (the Project); the future price of metals; and the stability of the financial and capital markets. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those risks and uncertainties identified in public filings made by Bunker Hill with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) and with applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities, and the following: Bunker Hills ability to operate as a going concern and its history of losses; Bunker Hills inability to raise additional capital for project activities, including through equity financings, concentrate offtake financings or otherwise; the fluctuating price of commodities; capital market conditions; restrictions on labor and its effects on international travel and supply chains; failure to identify mineral resources; further geotechnical work not supporting the continued development of the Project or the results described herein; failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; the Companys ability to raise sufficient project financing, on acceptable terms or at all, to restart and develop the Project and the risks of not basing a production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability, resulting in increased uncertainty due to multiple technical and economic risks of failure which are associated with this production decision including, among others, areas that are analyzed in more detail in a feasibility study, such as applying economic analysis to resources and reserves, more detailed metallurgy and a number of specialized studies in areas such as mining and recovery methods, market analysis, and environmental and community impacts and, as a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level of recovery of minerals or the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit, with no guarantee that production will begin as anticipated or at all or that anticipated production costs will be achieved; the Company requiring additional capital expenditures than anticipated, resulting in delays in the expected restart timeline; failure to commence production would have a material adverse impact on the Companys ability to generate revenue and cash flow to fund operations; failure to achieve the anticipated production costs would have a material adverse impact on the Companys cash flow and future profitability; delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals; political risks; changes in equity markets; uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future; the inability of the Company to budget and manage its liquidity in light of the failure to obtain additional financing, including the ability of the Company to complete the payments pursuant to the terms of the agreement to acquire the Project complex; inflation; changes in exchange rates; fluctuations in commodity prices; delays in the development of projects; and capital, operating and reclamation costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking statements in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such statements or information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all, including as to whether or when the Company will achieve its project finance initiatives, or as to the actual size or terms of those financing initiatives, or whether and when the Company will achieve its operational and construction targets. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

Readers are cautioned that the foregoing risks and uncertainties are not exhaustive. Additional information on these and other risk factors that could affect the Companys operations or financial results are included in the Companys annual report and may be accessed through the SEDAR+ website (www.sedarplus.ca) or through EDGAR on the SEC website (www.sec.gov).
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc. (TSX : SWP) (Swiss Water or the Company), a leading specialty coffee company and premium green coffee decaffeinator, is pleased to announce the following voting results of the Companys Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, which was held on Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Election of Directors

The Director nominees listed in the Management Information Circular for its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders were elected as Directors of Swiss Water. Voting results for individual Directors elected were as follows:

Votes For Votes Against Nominee Number Percentage Number Percentage Frank A. Dennis 2,730,967 98.58% 39,302 1.42% Roland W. Veit 2,440,525 88.10% 329,744 11.90% Robert B. Johnston 2,432,875 87.82% 337,394 12.18% Donald J. Tringali 2,723,317 98.31% 46,952 1.69% Nancy L. McKenzie 2,728,667 98.50% 41,602 1.50% Alan C. Wallace 2,732,467 98.64% 37,802 1.36% Eric Yanagi 1,783,335 64.37% 986,934 35.63%



Appointment of Auditors

MNP LLP was appointed as auditors with 99.93% voting support.

About Swiss Water

Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc. is a leading specialty coffee company and a premium green coffee decaffeinator that employs the proprietary Swiss Water Process to decaffeinate green coffee without the use of chemical solvents such as methylene chloride. It also owns Seaforth Supply Chain Solutions Inc., a green coffee handling and storage business. Both businesses are located in Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

Additional Information

A more detailed discussion of Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc.s recent financial results is provided in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis filed on SEDAR+ www.sedarplus.ca and Companys website https://investor.swisswater.com/financial-information/.

For more information, please contact:

Iain Carswell, Chief Financial Officer

Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Inc.

Phone: 604-420-4050

Email: investor-relations@swisswater.com

Website: investor.swisswater.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, such statements may include such words as may, will, expect, believe, plan and other similar terminology. These statements reflect managements current expectations regarding future events and operating performance, as well as managements current estimates, but which are based on numerous assumptions and may prove to be incorrect. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees but involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, risks related to processing volumes and sales growth, operating results, the supply of utilities, the supply of coffee, general industry conditions, commodity price risks, technology, competition, foreign exchange rates, construction timing, costs and financing of capital projects, a potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and general economic conditions. The forward-looking statements and financial outlook information contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Except to the extent required by applicable securities law, Swiss Water undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in managements expectations or in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those described herein.
WASHINGTON, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On May 22, PepsiCo announced it is abandoning its reuse goal: to achieve 20% of all beverage servings the company sells be sold through reusable models by 2030. In addition, the company ended its goal to cut virgin plastic from non-renewable sources per serving and scaled back other goals related to its plastic packaging use. PepsiCo reported in 2023 that the companys share of packaging in reusable formats was 10%, unchanged from when it first announced its goal in 2022.

This news follows a similar move from Coca-Cola in December 2024. In response to this development from Pepsi, Oceana released the following statement from Matt Littlejohn, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives:

By killing its reuse goal, and other goals that would actually reduce plastic packaging, Pepsi is hurting our oceans and the environment. Pepsi is one of the largest polluters in the world according to the Break Free from Plastic Brand Audit and has a responsibility to address its plastic problem.

The best way for Pepsi to reduce plastic pollution is not by abandoning goals but by dramatically increasing the use of refillable bottles  which can be used up to 50 times if made of glass. Just a 10% increase in reusable beverage packaging by 2030 can eliminate the need for over 1 trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups and could prevent 153 billion of these containers from getting into the worlds oceans and waterways.

Pepsis customers, employees, investors, and government officials who are concerned about the impact of plastics on our planet and health, should hold the company accountable. This should include pushing the company to reduce products sold in single-use plastic packaging, increase products sold in reusable packaging, and to report on the share of products sold in reusable formats.

Additional background :

PepsiCo also stated in its last submission to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that the weight of virgin plastic packaging used had increased from 2.18 million metric tons in 2020 to 2.3 million tons in 2023.

Pepsi in its statement about the goal changes said that it will focus on investments that aim to improve the packaging lifecycle. The company also said that it will continue to track reusability and various efforts on reuse as part of its other goals.

In December 2024, Coca-Cola ended its goals to increase reusable packaging and reduce virgin plastic use.



Oceana is the largest international advocacy organization dedicated solely to ocean conservation. Oceana is rebuilding abundant and biodiverse oceans by winning science-based policies in countries that control one-quarter of the worlds wild fish catch. With more than 325 victories that stop overfishing, habitat destruction, oil and plastic pollution, and the killing of threatened species like turtles, whales, and sharks, Oceanas campaigns are delivering results. A restored ocean means that 1 billion people can enjoy a healthy seafood meal every day, forever. Together, we can save the oceans and help feed the world. Visit Oceana.org to learn more.

Media contact: Gillian Spolarich, gspolarich@oceana.org
VANCOUVER, May 21, 2025 - Oroco Resource Corp. (TSX-V: OCO; OTC: ORRCF) ("Oroco" or "the Company") is pleased to invite shareholders, investors, and members of the public to a live virtual Townhall hosted by the Company's Executive Chairman, Craig Dalziel, and President, Ian Graham.

The event will provide a timely update on the Company's latest developments and strategic vision for the Santo Tomas Copper Project, including permitting progress, community engagement, and the next steps in project advancement.

Townhall Details:

Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/_FNxkhSGRxWarK7laUU8YQ

During the Townhall, participants will have the opportunity to:

- Receive a direct update from Oroco's senior leadership

- Ask questions and engage in real-time dialogue

- Gain insight into the Company's current initiatives and long-term value strategy

This interactive opportunity to engage with management also reflects Oroco's commitment to transparency, stakeholder engagement, and a more detailed understanding of the Company's pathway to value creation.

ABOUT OROCO

The Company holds a net 85.5% interest in those central concessions that comprise 1,173 hectares "the Core Concessions" of The Santo Tomas Project, located in northwestern Mexico. The Company also holds an 80% interest in an additional 7,861 hectares of mineral concessions surrounding and adjacent to the Core Concessions (for a total Project area of 9,034 hectares, or 22,324 acres). The Project is situated within the Santo Tomas District, which extends up to the Jinchuan Group's Bahuerachi Project, approximately 14 km to the northeast. The Project hosts significant copper porphyry mineralization initially defined by prior exploration spanning the period from 1968 to 1994. During that time, the Project area was tested by over 100 diamond and reverse circulation drill holes, totaling approximately 30,000 meters. Commencing in 2021, Oroco conducted a drill program (Phase 1) at Santo Tomas, with a resulting total of 48,481 meters drilled in 76 diamond drill holes.

The drilling and subsequent resource estimates and engineering studies led to a revised MRE and an updated PEA being published and filed in August of 2024, which studies are available at the Company's website www.orocoresourcecorp.com and by reviewing the Company profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

The Santo Tomas Project is located within 170 km of the Pacific deep-water port at Topolobampo and is serviced via highway and proximal rail (and parallel corridors of trunk grid power lines and natural gas) through the city of Los Mochis to the northern city of Choix. The property is reached, in part, by a 32 km access road originally built to service Goldcorp's El Sauzal Mine in Chihuahua State.

Additional information about Oroco can be found on its website www.orocoresourcecorp.com and by reviewing its profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

For more information, please contact:

Craig Dalziel, Chairman

Oroco Resource Corp.

Tel: 604-688-6200

Email: info@orocoresourcecorp.com

www.orocoresourcecorp.com

Neither TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein, including, without limitation, statements relating to future events or achievements of the Company, and the use of funds from the Offering, are forward-looking statements. There is no assurance that the proceeds of the Offering will be expended as contemplated. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these matters. Oroco does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements should they change, except as required by law.




Giant Mining Corp. (CSE: BFG | OTC: BFGFF | FWB: YW5) ("Giant Mining" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has received approval from the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") to list, as a supplemental listing on the CSE, an aggregate of 6,375,000 common share purchase warrants of the Company issued in connection with the first tranche of the Company's non-brokered private placement of units, which completed on January 14, 2025 (the "Warrants"). The Warrants will commence trading on the CSE under the symbol "BFG.WT.B" at the open of the markets on May 22, 2025.

The Warrants are governed by a warrant indenture (the "Warrant Indenture") entered into between the Company and Endeavour Trust Company. In accordance with, and subject to the terms and conditions of, the Warrant Indenture, each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company (each, a "Warrant Share") upon payment of the exercise price of $0.25 per December Warrant Share prior to January 14, 2026

The securities being referred to in this news release have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the U.S. or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On Behalf of the Board of Giant Mining Corp.

"David Greenway"

David C. Greenway President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

E: info@giantminingcorp.com P: 1 (672) 533-0348

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS

www.giantminingcorp.com

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Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements related to the anticipated listing of the Warrants on the CSE. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.


TORONTO, May 21, 2025 - Greenhawk Resources Inc. ("Greenhawk" or the "Company") (CSE: GRHK) announces that it has executed an arms-length Option and Joint Venture Agreement (the "Option Agreement") with 1531323 BC Ltd. ("1531323 BC") to advance the exploration and development of Greenhawk's Greenland properties, which include the Stor and Qingaaq mineral exploration licenses (the "Properties").

Under the Option Agreement, 1531323 BC is granted an option to acquire an 80% interest in the Properties in exchange for: (a) an upfront payment of $100,000, which shall be paid within 90 days, and (b) incurring $1,400,000 in spending at the Properties within 24 months according to the following schedule.

Payment Period Minimum Expenditures Within 6 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $450,000 Within 12 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $350,000 Within 18 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $300,000 Within 24 months of the Closing Date Minimum of $300,000 Total: Minimum of $1,400,000



1531323 BC will be responsible for the operations of the Properties while the Option Agreement is in effect. If 1531323 BC satisfies the expenditure requirement at the Properties, the Company and 1531323 BC will establish a joint venture for the exploration and development of the Properties.

The Stor project ("Stor") is a 12 km license which hosts an inferred mineral resource estimated in 2021 by SRK Consulting (Sweden) AB at 885,000 tonnes, grading 3.4 g/t Au and totaling 95,000 oz of gold Mineral Resources. The Mineral Resource has a cut-off grade of 0.8 g/t Au for material located within the conceptual open-pit shell and 2.5 g/t Au for underground Mineral Resources located below the pit shell. Since 1995, a total of 102 drillholes totaling 17,371 m have been drilled into the known mineralized zones at Stor. Stor is surrounded by the Qingaaq license ("Qingaaq"), which covers some 540 km.

Martin Pittuck, CEng, FGS, MIMMM, a "Qualified Person" for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information included in this news release.

1531323 BC intends to enter into a management services contract with the Company to provide advice in respect of the Properties.

The Company continues to actively pursue the acquisition of other properties and opportunities in the mineral exploration and resources sector.

The Company is also announcing that it has cancelled an aggregate of 8,600,000 stock options. The subject stock options are comprised of 4,600,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.27 per share and an expiry date of October 20, 2025, and 4,000,000 stock options with an exercise price of $0.20 per share and an expiry date of June 24, 2026.

About Greenhawk Resources Inc.

Greenhawk is a Canadian resources exploration and development company. Greenhawk owns a 100% legal and beneficial interest in two mineral exploration licenses and one prospecting license in Greenland known as the Stor Gold Project. Additional Information on Greenhawk can be obtained from SEDAR+ at sedarplus.ca. Greenhawk is listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (www.thecse.com) (CSE: GRHK).

Issued on behalf of the Board of Directors of Greenhawk Resources Inc. For information, please contact:

David Jagodzinski, Director Corporate Development

Phone: +1 (416) 504-2020

Email: info@grhk.ca

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDER HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain statements in this press release may contain forward looking information which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "expects", "may", "desires", "will", "should", "projects", "estimates", "contemplates", "anticipates", "intends", or any negative such as "does not believe" or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. No assurance can be given that potential future results or circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. By their nature, these forward-looking statements necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to significantly differ from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements including, but not limited to: the completion of the Transaction, including the receipt of the upfront payment, 1531323 BC making the requisite expenditures on the Properties to exercise the option on the Properties, the ability to obtain requisite corporate and regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE, the operator obtaining requisite permits and authorizations to allow for exploration on the Properties. Such statements reflect the view of the Company with respect to future events and are based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions, which it considers reasonable. Management cautions readers that the assumptions relative to the future events, several of which are beyond management's control, could prove to be incorrect, given that they are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected. Management disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
Magna Terra Minerals Inc. (the "Company" or "Magna Terra") (TSXV:MTT) is pleased to announce that it has initiated a first phase exploration program on its recently acquired Rocky Brook Project ("Rocky Brook" or the "Project"), located in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick (Figure 1). Ongoing digital compilation of historical exploration data has resulted in the identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend - a 15 kilometre long zone of coincident airborne electromagnetic conductivity and anomalous Cu-Zn-Co rock and soil samples. The Boudreau Brook Trend includes other known occurrences at the Boudreau Brook and Fossil Hill targets, where previous rock grab sampling* has returned 3% Cu and 16.65% Cu and 0.64% Co, respectively as well as highlighting several other coincident geochemical and geophysical targets (Figure 2). Exploration has been initiated on the Project and is currently focused on the collection of ~2,000 B-horizon soil samples, and systematic prospecting and geological mapping over and adjacent to priority targets along the Boudreau Brook Trend.

Rocky Brook Project Highlights

The Project covers a 30-kilometre extent of the Rocky Brook-Millstream Fault system as well as a 40-kilometre extent of favourable California Lake felsic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are host to the nearby Restigouche, Murray Brook, and Caribou Deposits;

Identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend - a 15 kilometre trend of coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies and historical prospects;

Strategically positioned along strike from Kinross-Puma's Lynx Zone gold discovery and adjacent to the past-producing Caribou Mine and Murray Brook base metal deposits;

Recent discovery in 2023 of high-grade gold assays from grab samples* assaying up to 5.23 g/t Au over a 400 m area at Fournier Lake;

Previous work at the Fossil Hill Zone has discovered high-grade copper-cobalt mineralization with grab samples* assaying up to 16.65% Cu and 0.64% Co;

Previous work at the Boudreau Brook prospect has discovered copper mineralization assaying up to 3% Cu;

The property covers the Restigouche C-4 and C-5 footwall Cu-rich "feeder" zones where previous historical drilling at the C-4 zone and in hole C-4 that intersected 4.36 m grading 0.2% Cu, 1.6% Pb and 6.74% Zn (from 17.3 to 21.6 m). The best intersection in the C-5 area was reported in hole C-5 that intersected 2.06% Cu and 0.57% Zn over 4.5 m (from 51.9 to 56.4 m);

Located in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp within the top-tier mining jurisdiction of New Brunswick; and

Year-round accessibility with road access to the majority of the property.

"Our recent acquisition of Rocky Brook in the world-class, base and critical metals, Bathurst Mining Camp has positioned us with one of the largest strategic land positions within the camp. Our recent compilation efforts in this data rich environment has already resulted in the identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend. This 15 kilometre long trend of coincident airborne electromagnetic conductivity and anomalous Cu-Zn-Co rock and soil samples has resulted in the immediate initiation of an exploration program to identify additional targets along this trend and to better understand their geological setting to identify priority drill targets. The speed at which we have been able to identify new targets and initiate exploration is a good indication of our ability to drive value in this prolific mining region. This work is initiated in an environment in which other explorers are making discoveries such as Puma's nearby high-grade gold discovery and subsequent recent strategic investment by Kinross. Further, Canadian Copper's advancement of its Murray Brook VMS deposit in concert with its bid to acquire the Caribou Processing Complex highlights the significant prospectivity that remains in this historic camp."

~ Lew Lawrick, President and CEO, Magna Terra Minerals Inc.

The Rocky Brook Project

The Rocky Brook Project comprises 18,694 hectares in 58 mineral claims making the Company one of the single largest strategic landholders in this historic mining camp (Figure 1). The Rocky Brook Project is located adjacent to and along strike from the Williams Brook Project, owned by Kinross Gold Corporation ("Kinross") and Puma Exploration Inc. ("Puma"), where a zone of high-grade gold mineralization was discovered over broad widths including drill intervals up to 5.55 g/t Au over 50.15 m (refer to Puma's news release dated September 15, 2021). The Project is located adjacent to a 30-kilometre-long section of the Rocky Brook-Millstream fault and associated McIntyre and Ramsay Brook faults; an important structural zone controlling gold mineralization within the region. The Project also covers volcanic and sedimentary rocks that show strong potential to host polymetallic Cu-Co-Pb-Zn-Au-Ag mineralization, adjacent to the past-producing Caribou Mine and the Murray Brook Deposit; the largest undeveloped VMS project in New Brunswick owned by Canadian Copper Inc. (Figure 1).

The Bathurst Camp

The Bathurst Mining Camp is one of the world's oldest base metal (lead, zinc, copper, gold and silver) mining districts hosting one of Canada's largest volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits, with the past-producing Brunswick No. 12 Mine having operated for 49 years. The Bathurst Mining Camp is host to over 46 mineral deposits, several of which have been mined, including the Brunswick No. 6, Heath Steele, Wedge, Stratmat, Half Mile Lake, Caribou and Murray Brook. A total of 136,643,367 tonnes of ore grading 3.44% Pb, 8.74% Zn, 0.37% Cu, and 102.2 g/t Ag were mined from the Bathurst Mining Camp (McCutcheon and Walker, 2020**).

Figure 1: A map showing the location of the Rocky Brook Project, adjacent exploration projects, fault zones, and mineral occurrences.

Figure 2: A map showing airborne conductivity with rock and soil copper geochemistry along the Boudreau Brook - Fossil Hill Trend.

Qualified Person and Technical Notes

This news release has been reviewed and approved by David A. Copeland, P.Geo., a "Qualified Person", under National Instrument 43-101 - Standard for Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

All quoted drill core and rock samples results were compiled from historic assessment and government reports obtained from the government of New Brunswick. The Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to validate these historic results.

* Grab samples are selective by nature and may not represent the true metal content of the mineralized zone.

**McCutcheon, S. R., & Walker, J. A. (2020). Great Mining Camps of Canada 8. The Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick, Part 2: Mining History and Contributions to Society. Geoscience Canada, 47(3), 143-166

About Magna Terra

Magna Terra Minerals Inc. is a precious and critical metals focused exploration company, headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Magna Terra is focused on acquiring and advancing its high-potential mineral projects in Atlantic Canada and Argentina while generating value for shareholders and minimizing shareholder dilution through option and joint venture partnerships where appropriate; leveraging our ability to explore, grow, and transact projects. The Company is focused on exploring our 100%-owned Humber Copper-Cobalt Project in Newfoundland and Labrador and our 100%-owned Cape Spencer Gold Project in New Brunswick. In addition, the Company has optioned the Great Northern Project in Newfoundland to Gold Hunter Resources Inc. for total cash and share consideration of $9.5 million over a 2-year period. Further, the Company maintains a significant exploration portfolio in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina which includes its large 100% owned Boleadora Project recently retained from Newmont Corp.; a precious metals discovery on its Luna Roja Project proximal to Cerrado Gold's operating Don Nicholas Project infrastructure, as well as several additional district scale drill ready projects available for purchase or option/joint venture.

Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian legislation. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future including, without limitation, the ability of the Company to file a report that complies with National Instrument 43-101. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable and reflect expectations of future developments and other factors which management believes to be reasonable and relevant, the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "would", "will", "potential", "scheduled" or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, and the ability of the author of the Technical Reports to finalize same.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors include the inability of the Company to execute its proposed business plans and carry out planned future activities. Other factors may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company, including general economic, market or business conditions, future prices of gold, changes in the financial markets and in the demand for precious metals, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the mineral exploration industry, and the Company's investment and operation in the mineral exploration sector, as well as the risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis and in other filings made by the Company with Canadian securities regulatory authorities under the Company's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and, accordingly, are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty of such statements.

These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Magna Terra Minerals Inc.

Lewis Lawrick, President and CEO, Director

Email: info@magnaterraminerals.com

Website: www.magnaterraminerals.com

SOURCE: Magna Terra Minerals Inc.


VANCOUVER, May 22, 2025 - Winshear Gold Corp. (TSXV: WINS) ('Winshear' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce that, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the 'TSX-V'), it has entered into an agreement whereby the Company can earn a 100% interest in the 360km2 Thunder Bay Gold Project ('TBGP'), located immediately Northeast of Thunder Bay (Map 1).

Overview of the Thunder Bay Gold Project:

Eastern extension of the Archaean age Shebandowan greenstone belt;

Very little historic exploration conducted in the TBGP area;

Potential for orogenic gold, volcanogenic massive sulphides, and nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide deposits;

Evidence of geological structural setting similar to other gold-endowed Abitibi greenstone belts in Ontario (Map 2).

Historic reports indicate the presence of high-grade gold mineralisation (>1 oz/T Au) at the Gold Hill and Eldorado prospects (described below).



Map 2 is a total field magnetic plot (OGS 1991 data) showing regional structural architecture including the Thunder Bay Fault, Kingfisher Fault and associated bridging structures. Magnetic low anomalies coincide with some of the regional structures, interpreted as possible magnetite destruction from extensive hydrothermal alteration and considered indicative of a large scale orogenic gold system.

Richard Williams, CEO of Winshear commented: "It is remarkable that this area has received so little historic mineral exploration, given its location close to Thunder Bay and the Trans-Canada Highway. The Ontario Government's MLAS website indicates very few reports of previous work and only 15 drill holes in the 360 square kilometres of highly prospective greenstone belt covered by the claims."

Terms of the Agreement

To earn a 100% interest in the TBGP, the Company must complete the following:

Issue 1,000,000 common shares of the Company to the Vendors over a four year period, as follows; 200,000 shares on receipt of TSX-V approval, and 200,000 shares on each of the first, second, third, and fourth anniversaries of receipt of TSX-V approval;

Spend $2,000,000 on exploration on the TBGP over the four year period after receipt of TSX-V approval, with a minimum expenditure of $250,000 within the first 6 months, and additional expenditures of $250,000 on or before the 2nd anniversary, $500,000 on or before the 3rd anniversary and $1,000,000 on or before the 4th anniversary.

Royalty and Advance Royalty Payments

Upon completion of the earn-in agreement the Vendors will retain a 2% Net Smelter Returns Royalty ("NSR") on the TBGP. The Company has the right to purchase 50% of the NSR for $500,000 prior to the fourth anniversary of receipt of TSX-V approval, and the right to purchase the remaining 50% of the NSR for $5,000,000 before the 15th anniversary of receipt of TSX-V approval.

Additionally, the Company will pay $50,000 in cash and / or shares at the Company's election to the Vendors on the 5th to 9th anniversaries of TSX-V approval, and $60,000 per year on the 10th to 14th anniversaries of TSX-V approval. Any advance royalty payments made will be deducted from the purchase price of the remaining royalty. If the Company elects not to purchase the remaining royalty before the 15th anniversary, the Company will make a payment of $500,000 to the Vendors.

The Gold Hill Target

The Gold Hill Target is located at the western end of the project area. A Noranda report by Thomson (1989) describes numerous high grade gold veins occurring at the historic Thunderhead, Lakehead and Gorham Gold Mines located immediately to the north of the Thunder Bay Gold Project. These include values of:

21.6 g/T Au across 0.76m for a length of 59.5m

24.5 g/T Au across 0.55m for a length of 76.3m

20.6 g/T Au across 0.6m for a length of 105m

11.0 g/T Au across 1.1m for a length of 85.4m

40 ton bulk sample assayed 20.6 g/T Au (1980)



Thomson concludes: 'A structural zone consisting of multiple shears with numerous gold bearing quartz veins trends through the Gorham properties gold mineralization occurs along a strike length of 8 km within this structural zone which is at least 500m in width. Previous work has been focused only upon the limits of vein exposures originally uncovered in the 1930s and 40s and has not attempted detailed prospecting or stripping to locate economic widths along strike or to identify additional veins structures which might have economic potential.1

The Eldorado Target

The Eldorado Target is located at the eastern end of the project area.

Ontario Geological Survey Report OFR5719 describes the Eldorado Target: 'The highest values for gold were obtained from grab samples of sulfide vein material from the Nelson Road Quarry area. The high-grade material yielded up to 4 oz/t (137 g/T Au) (Bill Hayne, personal communication - assay by Noranda Exploration). Samples by the author yielded assays as high as 1.06 oz/t (36 g/t) gold. These sulfide veins contain pyrite, sphalerite, arsenopyrite and galena. 1

Numerous other gold and critical mineral occurrences are documented in the Eldorado Target area with values up to 15% Zinc and 3% Arsenic.

Notes

(https://prd-0420-geoontario-0000-blob-cge0eud7azhvfsf7.z01.azurefd.net/lrc-geology-documents/publication/OFR5719/OFR5719.pdf)



2025 Work Program

The Company plans to commence regional geochemical prospecting including till sampling as soon as practicable to identify priority areas for follow up. Results will be presented when received.

Qualified Person

J. Patricio Varas, P.Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has read and approved all technical and scientific information contained in this news release. Mr. Varas acts as President and is a technical advisor for Winshear Gold. He has not verified the sample data presented in this news release and as part of future exploration on the Project, new sampling will be conducted in order to verify historical exploration data.

About Winshear Gold Corp.

Winshear Gold Corp. is a Canadian-based minerals exploration company.

For more information, please contact Irene Dorsman at +1 (604) 200 7874 or visit www.winshear.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Richard D. Williams"

Richard Williams, CEO

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautions Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain statements and information that may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information.

Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, including the risks normally associated with mineral exploration. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Nordique Resources Inc. ("Nordique" or the "Company") (CSE: NORD) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent, dated May 22, 2025 (the "LOI"), with Gemdale Gold Inc. ("Gemdale"), pursuant to which the Company will receive an option (the "Option") to acquire a 100% interest in the Isoneva Property (the "Property"), comprising certain mineral claims situated in Finland (the "Transaction").

Highlights

Strategic Property Option in Finland: Nordique has signed a LOI to option 100% of the Isoneva gold project in Finland's Western Finland Gold Belt, a region known for strong infrastructure and a supportive mining environment.

High-Grade Gold Potential Identified: The project hosts multiple gold-bearing boulder trains supported by coincident geochemical, geophysical, and structural trends; over 200 glacial boulders grading 1.0 gram per ton (g/t) gold (Au) have been identified, averaging ~14 g/t Au, with samples up to 462 g/t Au

Multiple Priority Target Areas: Historical work has defined several prospective zones, including undrilled IP geophysical, gold-in-till anomalies and areas where historical drilling intersected high-grade shear-hosted gold.

Favourable Deal Structure: Nordique can earn 100% over three years with low up-front costs, staged exploration spend, and flexible final payment terms in cash or shares.

Near-Term Catalysts: Pending final agreement and approvals, Nordique plans to initiate a phased program including cost-effective Base-of-Till (BOT) drilling to refine targets ahead of diamond drilling with aims to trace mineralization to source.

About the Isoneva Project

The Isoneva Project is an early-stage gold exploration property located in the underexplored Western Finland Gold Belt, a Proterozoic-aged geological terrain known to host orogenic-style gold mineralization. The 11 km (1,100 ha) property is situated in the Middle Ostrobothnia region of Finland and benefits from excellent infrastructure and a mining-friendly regulatory environment.

The project hosts several gold-bearing boulder trains, geochemical anomalies, and untested geophysical targets (Figure 1). Over 200 gold-bearing glacial boulders have been identified grading >1.0 g/t Au, with an average of ~14 g/t Au1. These boulders are interpreted to be locally derived from a 6.7 km contact zone between tonalitic intrusives and mafic volcanic rocks, along a second-order structure off the crustal-scale Reisjarvi Shear Zone. Gold is associated with shearing and quartz-arsenopyrite veining.

Figure 1. Isoneva Property with boulder samples1



Click Image To View Full Size

1 Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Readers are cautioned that boulder sampling is selective by nature and the results provided above are not necessarily representative of mineralization hosted at the Isoneva Property.

Several distinct target zones have been identified based on historical work:

Korpisalo- A high-priority undrilled target marked by a strong sulphidic gold-in-till anomaly and coincident induced polarization (IP) geophysical response.

Uunikangas- Multiple structurally controlled gold-bearing shear zones intersected in drilling. Western tonalite contact remains untested and presents a priority target.

Tiaskuru- Interpreted as a dilational structural zone hosting high-grade quartz-carbonate-arsenopyrite veins. Mineralization remains open in all directions.

Ahveroinen and Tielampi- Underexplored zones with gold-bearing boulder samples and strong geochemical signatures.

The glacial boulders are interpreted to be locally sourced and occur in spatially coherent trains that align with geophysical and structural trends. While individual samples report high values, they are part of a broader population that collectively supports the presence of multiple mineralized bedrock sources.

Selected boulder assay results collected at Isoneva include:

Uunikangas Area: 462 g/t Au (historic boulder 11) 180.5 g/t Au (sample EK194)

Tiaskuru Area: 106 g/t Au (historic boulder 6) 70.7 g/t Au (historic boulder 4) 67.2 g/t Au (sample 20091369) 59.7 g/t Au (sample 20083117)

Ahveroinen-Tielampi Area: 380.0 g/t Au (sample 20034740) 98.0 g/t Au (sample 7122950) 89.0 g/t Au (sample 7123759) 64.4 g/t Au (sample 714942)



1 Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Readers are cautioned that boulder sampling is selective by nature and the results provided above are not necessarily representative of mineralization hosted at the Isoneva Property.

Limited historical drilling was completed by previous operators, primarily in the Uunikangas and Tiaskuru areas (Tables 1 & 2), providing valuable insight into the bedrock geology beneath shallow glacial cover (typically <1% outcrop). Several holes returned significant gold intercepts that validate the presence of mineralized shear zones and quartz-arsenopyrite veining at depth (Figure 2). Highlights include:

17.9 metres of 4.3 g/t Au and 12.1 g/t Ag from 147.2 metres depth, including 2.1 metres of 24.8 g/t Au and 77.6 g/t Ag (Hole ISON004

0.41 metres of 54.0 g/t Auand 32.6 g/t Ag from 159.5 metres (Hole ISON014

4.1 metres of 3.2 g/t Au and 21.8 g/t Ag from 55.1 metres (Hole BelKan001

Figure 2. Isoneva Property with historical drill holes and Base of Till (BOT) bedrock samples2



Click Image To View Full Size

2 First reported in Gemdale press releases dated November 10, 2021, and January 6, 2022. Bulk intersections are reported at a cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t gold with maximum 5 m internal dilution. Orientation of mineralisation in drillholes is unclear. True widths are estimated as 65-85% of downhole intersect length.

3 Intercepts recalculated with raw assay data, not previously reported.

4 First reported in Belvedere Resources Ltd. press release dated August 1, 2012.

Hole From (m) To (m) Interval Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) ISON0012 36.46 37.54 1.08 0.34 0.27 and 93.19 94.24 1.05 0.73 5.82 ISON0022 26.1 27.06 0.96 0.87 0.85 and 101.92 107.23 5.31 0.65 0.21 and 151.53 154.69 3.16 1.28 2.47 ISON0032 105 105.95 0.95 0.64 0.34 and 116.34 121.08 4.74 1.49 1.93 and 126.87 128.06 1.19 0.36 0.17 ISON0042 57.39 58.4 1.01 0.43 0.34 and 84.35 90.12 5.77 0.71 0.89 and 108 115.33 7.33 0.76 1.18 and 123.08 124.17 1.09 0.33 0.19 and 128.5 131.43 2.93 0.34 0.24 and 140.23 142.17 1.94 1.6 7.26 and 147.21 165.15 17.94 4.3 12.09 including3 158.54 160.67 2.13 24.79 77.55 and 169.23 171.41 2.18 0.78 0.54 and 180.39 190.5 10.11 0.37 0.67 ISON0052 148.32 150.05 1.73 1.69 1.81 and 173.1 174.23 1.13 0.32 3.59 ISON0062 57.28 57.78 0.5 0.3 4.74 and 106.38 107.42 1.04 0.44 6.59 and 112.77 116.83 4.06 0.68 1.79 and 150.22 151.31 1.09 0.67 0.36 and 188.9 190 1.1 0.95 0.48 ISON0072 16.94 18.03 1.09 0.34 2.02 and 82.55 83.44 0.89 0.4 1.14 and 169.66 170.83 1.17 0.31 6.77 and 191.2 192.18 0.98 0.39 1.36 ISON0143 159.5 159.91 0.41 54.0 32.6 and 162.56 163 0.44 18.1 6.68 BELKAN0014 27.21 30.08 2.87 3.49 0.58 and 55.09 59.16 4.07 3.23 21.78

Table 1. Significant historical drill intercepts at the Isoneva Project

Subject to final due diligence and a definitive agreement, the Company will implement a phased exploration approach at Isoneva focused on base-of-till (BOT) drilling and the historical exploration results summarized in this news release to refine targets ahead of diamond core drilling. BOT drilling offers a rapid and cost-effective method to identify mineralized bedrock sources beneath shallow cover and enable efficient coverage of geochemical and geophysical anomalies. Further exploration will aim to trace mineralization up-ice of boulder trains and refine drill targets across the broader project area. Program details, including scope and budget, remain under review and are not yet finalized.

Hole X Y Z Length (m) Azimuth Dip ISON002 390065 7060200 129.2 214.5 270 -45 ISON003 390130 7060300 128.8 205.98 270 -50 ISON004 390085 7060500 129.7 199.9 270 -50 ISON005 389908.1 7060909 131.1 209 270 -50 ISON006 390011.2 7060906 129.8 200 270 -50 ISON007 389932.6 7060797.4 128.9 208.5 270 -45 ISON014 389084.1 7063279 129 202.8 270 -45 BELKAN001 390085.6 7060307.9 128.7 101 270 -45

Table 2. Isoneva Project Historical Drill Hole Locations5

5 First reported in Gemdale press release dated January 6, 2022 and Belvedere press release dated August 1, 2012. Coordinate system is ETRS89 / UTM Zone 35N.

The Transaction

Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, upon closing of the Transaction, the Company shall have the Option to acquire from Gemdale an undivided 100% interest in the Property over a period of three years (the "Option Period") in consideration for:

a. $100,000 cash consideration payable to Gemdale, 50% of which is payable upon signing the LOI as a deposit and 50% of which is payable upon receiptl of all necessary approvals for the Transaction;

b. $3,000,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property during the Option Period, with minimum exploration expenditures of $600,000 during the first calendar year of the Option Period; and

c. at the election of Gemdale, to be made within five (5) business days of the Company providing Gemdale with notice of its intention to exercise the Option (the "Exercise Notice"), either:

i. $1,000,000 cash consideration payable to Gemdale and further commitment to make certain additional milestone and success payments up to an aggregate of $3,000,000; or

ii. $4,000,000 of common shares in the capital of the Company payable to Gemdale based on the volume weighted average trading price of the shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") for the most recent twenty (20) trading days prior to the date of the Company providing the Exercise Notice (subject to the minimum pricing requirements of the CSE), provided that such share issuance would not result in Gemdale holding greater than 19.99% of the issued share capital of the Company. If the proposed amount exceeds the 19.99% threshold, it shall be paid in a combination of shares and cash to equal the proposed $4,000,000 value.

In addition, upon the exercise of the Option, the Company shall grant Gemdale a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty on the Property (the "NSR"), provided that:

a. The Company will have a one time option to reduce the NSR to a 1.5% net smelter returns royalty by making a cash payment of $2,000,000 to Gemdale at the time of exercise of the Option, such right expiring immediately after the exercise of the Option (the "First Repurchase Option"); and

b. The Company will have an option at any time to reduce the NSR to a 1.0% net smelter returns royalty (or to a 0.5% net smelter returns royalty in the event that the Company also exercised the First Repurchase Option) by making a cash payment of $3,000,000 to Gemdale.

Completion of the Transaction remains subject to the negotiation of a definitive documentation (the "Definitive Agreement") and related documentation, which shall contain the terms and conditions set out in the LOI and such other customary terms, conditions, representations, and warranties for transactions of this nature. The Transaction is also subject to the receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals.

The entering into of the Definitive Agreement is subject to, among other things, completion of the parties' respective due diligence and approval of the boards of the Company and Gemdale.

The Transaction is an arm's length transaction and there will be no changes to the Company's board or management in connection with the Transaction. No finder's fees will be paid in connection with the Transaction.

All currency references are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols

For the ISONxxx drillholes, drill core is logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located in Ylivieska, Finland. Core samples from the program are cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and are sent to ALS Global, Outokumpu, an international accredited mineral analysis laboratory, for sample prep and analysis. All samples are analyzed for gold using Fire Assay-AA techniques (method Au-AA23). Samples returning over 10.0 g/t gold are analyzed utilizing Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods (gold-GRA21). As part of the Company's quality control/quality assurance program (QA/QC), certified gold reference standards are routinely inserted into the sample stream every 20th sample (5%). A blank sample is also inserted into the sample stream with every batch sent to the laboratory. No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Similar protocols were followed for the BELKANxxx holes, except that gold was assayed using method Au-AA25 which has a slightly different range of detection limits to Au-AA23. No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure

Dr. Toby Strauss (CGeol.; EurGeol.), Director of Gemdale Gold Inc, is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr Strauss has verified the data supporting this news release. For the Exploration Information relating to the drillholes, verification has included: checking a proportion of the reported assays against the issued laboratory certificates; reviewing the QA/QC results of the assay workorders; reviewing drill logs and visually verifying sample depths against drill core photographs for drillcore for the ISONxxx drillholes. Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: 1) Gemdale File = Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and 2) Online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Verification for the Gemdale boulder files includes checking a proportion of the reported assays in the Company database against the issued laboratory assay certificates. No verification has been conducted on the Layman Sample database. Dr Strauss is responsible for the accuracy of and has approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Nordique Resources

Nordique Resources is a Canadian exploration company advancing high-potential gold opportunities, with a strategic mandate to build a diversified portfolio across prospective mineral belts. The Company's current property interests include the Fairview Project in British Columbia and, subject to the completion of a definitive agreement, the Isoneva Project in Finland.

For more information, investors are encouraged to review the Company's public filings available at www.sedarplus.ca.

On behalf of the Board:

Damion Carruel, Director

For further information, please contact:

Sharyn Alexander, Chief Executive Officer

investors@nordiqueresources.com



Telephone: +1 (778) 650-3003

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward looking statements" or "forward looking information" (collectively, "Forward Looking Statements") that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward Looking Statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "outlook", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or that state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms or similar expressions. The Forward Looking Statements in this news release relate to, among other things; the Company's ability to complete diligence and negotiate an acceptable Definitive Agreement with Gemdale; the ability of the parties to close the Transaction and the satisfaction of the various conditions to closing; the Company's future exploration plans; and likely approaches to exploration on the Isoneva Property. Forward Looking Statements are based on certain key assumptions and the opinions and estimates of management and the Qualified Person, as of the date such statements are made, and they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any other future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward Looking Statements. In addition to factors already discussed in this news release, such factors include, among others, risks relating to the Company's business, including possible changes in project parameters, including schedule and budget, as plans continue to be refined; uncertainties with respect to actual results of current exploration activities; the impact of the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, including resulting changes to the Company's supply chain and costs of supplies; product shortages; delivery and shipping issues; limitation on insurance coverage; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; opposition by social and non-government organizations to mining projects and smelting operations; unanticipated title disputes; claims or litigation; cyber attacks and other cybersecurity risks; changes to tax regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in any other documents filed from time to time with the securities regulatory authorities in all provinces and territories of Canada and available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca . The reader has been cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors which may have been used. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward Looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward Looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company's Forward Looking Statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date hereof. Unless required by securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update Forward Looking Statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Statements.


Insiders think Verstappen will 100 percent stay at Red Bull

Two Formula 1 insiders think the risk that Red Bull might lose Max Verstappen to a rival team next year has faded.

Max Verstappen, Emilio Romagna GP 2025

 Red Bull

Team advisor - and Verstappen's long-time mentor - Dr Helmut Marko admitted after the quadruple world champion's win from pole at Imola that it had been an important result.

Felix Gorner, an experienced F1 reporter for German broadcaster RTL, concluded in his latest column for sport.de: "Max Verstappen will 100 percent drive for Red Bull next year.

He has now been shown that he can fight with the two McLaren drivers, he added.

Not only have rumours Verstappen might trigger a performance-related exit clause during the summer break subsided, so too has the talk that team boss Christian Horner's job may be on the line.

I don't know who started that nonsense, Marko told Osterreich newspaper. But everything has changed now anyway.

Gorner agrees: "Verstappen saved Christian Horner's job. He was under a lot of pressure. Does the update work? It works.

And now Horner can sleep soundly again as the head of Red Bull.

Meanwhile, former F1 driver and Verstappen's fellow Dutchman Christijan Albers also thinks no team - neither Mercedes nor Aston Martin - can offer the 27-year-old the conditions he currently has at Red Bull.

For instance, Verstappen went straight from Miami to a high-speed test in a GT3 car at the treacherous Nordschleife. Max is a thoroughbred racing driver who enjoys getting into a GT car and racing, even on Formula 1-free weekends, Marko said.

It builds him up, so we will never forbid him from doing that.

Verstappen and Lance Stroll, meanwhile, were the only race drivers absent on Wednesday from a private Monaco screening of the new Brad Pitt movie 'F1'. At the time it was happening, the Red Bull driver was live streaming from his nearby apartment as 'Franz Hermann69' on his racing sim.

Albers commented to De Telegraaf: "There is no team where Max could be given as much freedom as he has at Red Bull. Basically, he has carte blanche. Everyone adores him.

He is not under pressure from the second driver, because he is always faster than everyone else. It is just very calm for him at Red Bull, the former Minardi driver added.

(GMM)
Third candidate emerges to unseat FIA president

Another potential rival to Mohammed Ben Sulayem's top-job as president of the Formula 1 governing body FIA may have emerged.

Alexander Wurz, San Marino GP 2005

 The Cahier Archive

Osterreich, an Austrian newspaper that regularly publishes exclusive interviews with Dr Helmut Marko and Toto Wolff, thinks former F1 driver Alex Wurz has joined Carlos Sainz senior in potentially running in the December elections.

51-year-old Austrian Wurz - already involved with the FIA, a co-director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, a pundit on Austrian television ORF, and involved with a company that constructs race tracks - is being urged to run by a growing number of people .

Ben Sulayem is an increasingly divisive figure in the F1 paddock and within the Paris-based federation that he heads, as he presides over an alarming exodus of key figures at the FIA.

As well as Williams driver Carlos Sainz's father and namesake, another name linked with December's FIA presidential elections has been former F1 team boss David Richards.

Osterreich claims: More and more insiders are calling for former Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz to be the new head of the world motorsport governing body.

The former Benetton, McLaren and Williams driver has already won the support of 1996 world champion Damon Hill. He's an absolute expert, he has knowledge, and he places great importance on driver safety, the Briton is quoted as saying.

Wurz as FIA president? That would be the perfect job for him.

As for rallying legend Sainz senior's candidacy, his son reveals that his father is yet to make a final decision about running. It's interesting that it's something he didn't come up with himself, Williams driver Sainz, 30, said.

A lot of people in the paddock have slowly taken it into their heads, approached him and suggested it. He's thinking about it now, he revealed.

He hasn't yet put together a roster or a team, but depending on how he sees it, he'll go for it or not.

(GMM)
Verstappen snubs screening of official F1 movie

Max Verstappen has snubbed a private screening in Monaco of the new 'F1' feature film featuring Brad Pitt.

Max Verstappen, Emilio Romagna GP 2025

 Red Bull

18 of the 20 drivers - with Aston Martin's Lance Stroll also conspicuously missing - sat in a Monaco movie theatre on Wednesday with most of them following the instruction to wear team gear.

Notably, both Ferrari drivers and Fernando Alonso wore casual clothing.

But quadruple world champion and Imola winner Verstappen, 27, went a step further by live streaming at the wheel of his simulator in his nearby Monaco apartment at the very same time.

His new Twitch handle is 'FranzHermann69' - an amusing nod to the pseudonym he used for his recent GT3 test in a Ferrari at the treacherous Nordschleife.

Recently, Verstappen admitted that he turned down starring in a number of scenes of the 'F1' movie - co-produced by Lewis Hamilton - with Hollywood icon Pitt.

It's not something that really excites me, the Dutchman insisted.

We discussed it, Verstappen added, referring to the invitation of multiple cameos, but ultimately it didn't really happen. But that's fine. It's not why I'm here.

The winner of 65 grands prix and counting increasingly talks about how he fiercely separates his job in Formula 1 with his private life.

As soon as I leave the paddock, I don't think about it anymore, said Verstappen.

I'm busy. That keeps me away from all the gossip or possible things that happen. I am not interested.

(GMM)
Vowles hints Ferrari made mistake with Hamilton

James Vowles is not sure whether Ferrari's decision to sign Lewis Hamilton was a "mistake".

James Vowles, Emilio Romagna GP 2025

 Williams

Ultimately, it worked out well for Vowles, who heads the Williams team that snapped up the driver seven time world champion unseated - Carlos Sainz.

El Mundo Deportivo newspaper told Vowles that if Ferrari really did make a mistake with Hamilton, who has struggled whilst wearing red so far, it was a good mistake for Williams.

Exactly, Vowles agreed.

But does Vowles really think Ferrari may now be regretting not still having Sainz, 30, alongside Charles Leclerc?

I can't really tell you that or not, the Briton answered diplomatically.

"I mean, they had their reasons for making their decisions. Lewis is still a seven time world champion. He still brings incredible knowledge.

And as much as everyone talks about Lewis, he has pushed Charles at times. Ferrari did what they had to do for themselves and created an opportunity for me to be able to work with Carlos.

Williams and Sainz, however, have had their ups and downs so far, with the Spaniard struggling to acclimatise to a very different car and team, and openly disagreeing with some recent strategic calls.

At Imola, he admitted he almost ignored a team order to pit. I was close to not coming in, Sainz told DAZN, "because it seemed too early in the race, and that lap looked like we had opportunities to maybe overtake someone.

I'm a team man. I follow orders. If the team has asked me to stop, I have to obey, he added.

But I had the feeling that it wasn't the right thing to do, and that turned out to be the case.

Sainz has also expressed public frustration with Williams' decision to abandon development of its reasonably competitive 2025 car in order to focus completely on 2026.

It could be that we'll add new parts to the car again after the summer break, Vowles now tells Auto Motor und Sport. But they won't be tested in the wind tunnel. We need the permitted test runs for 2026.

But despite that, Vowles admits that producing a winning car for next season is too optimistic a goal for Williams.

We have too many things that aren't in place to be able to build a winning car for 2026, he admitted. "Just too many.

Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari have much better structured systems than we do right now, but we're on track to catch up. But they won't be online by 2026, maybe not even by 2027. So, 2028 is the first time I see those systems being fully operational.

(GMM)
Financial institutions urged to prioritise sustainable agric financing

Business Desk Report Business News May - 22 - 2025 , 19:06

The Head of Agribusiness at Stanbic Bank Ghana, Samuel Okang-Boye, is calling on financial institutions to adopt forward-looking strategies that prioritise sustainability, resilience and innovation in agricultural financing.

He explained that agriculture remained the backbone of Ghanas economy and demanded tailored financial solutions that went beyond traditional short-term lending models.

Therefore, he said, a shift in financing strategies was crucial to building a resilient agri-food system that could withstand external shocks and contribute to long-term national food security.

Agriculture is the backbone of our economy. To build a resilient and self-sufficient food system, we need financial partners who understand the sector deeply, who are willing to take bold, long-term positions, and who are committed to supporting sustainability at every level, he said.

The call comes at a time when Ghana, like many African nations, is struggling with issues of climate change and rising food prices, which prompt urgent interventions around food sovereignty and agricultural transformation.

Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the recent Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting in Accra, Mr Okang-Boye emphasised the critical role financial institutions must play in transforming Ghanas food systems.

The event was held on the theme: The Future of Food: The Critical Place of Sustainable Practices, and brought together key stakeholders from across the government, private sector, and development organisations.

In the face of climate change, land degradation, and rising input costs, its clear that our traditional approaches to financing agriculture are no longer adequate. At Stanbic, we are excited about the ideas and solutions being proposed around sustainable agriculture.

We are not just listening, we are actively embracing and operationalising them. Its no longer enough for financial institutions to focus solely on returns from agricultural lending. We must support innovation and sustainability in the sector, he stated.

Strategic investment

He highlighted the banks efforts in this direction, pointing to Stanbic Banks strategic investments in targeted financing solutions designed to accelerate the modernisation of agribusinesses.

These include support for the acquisition of mechanised farming equipment, adoption of solar and other renewable energy technologies, greenhouse infrastructure, and efficient irrigation systems  all of which help boost productivity while reducing environmental impact.

Mr Okang-Boye also stressed the importance of broader collaboration within the financial ecosystem.

According to him, a collective approach involving banks, insurance companies, and development partners was essential to achieving scale and impact.

If we can approach this collectively, as banks, insurers, and development partners, the outcome will be far greater. Take crop insurance, for example, its time we develop and scale such products to reduce the risks farmers face and encourage more investment in modern practices, he said.

He further called for a shift in the role financial institutions play, urging them to see themselves not merely as financiers, but as catalysts and enablers of agricultural transformation.

The Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank Breakfast Meeting, which has become a fixture on Ghanas thought leadership calendar, continues to provide a vital platform for addressing the countrys socio-economic challenges.

Through such engagements, business leaders, policymakers, researchers and development practitioners are able to share insights, build partnerships, and craft actionable solutions to drive inclusive and sustainable growth.
New air traffic tower in 2026  GCAA boss

Elizabeth Nyaadu Adu Business News May - 22 - 2025 , 19:19

THE new ultra-modern Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower currently under construction is on course and expected to be completed by 2026, the Director-General of Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Rev. Stephen Wilfred Arthur, has disclosed.

The new tower, he said, would be equipped with cutting-edge technology to match any modern ATC worldwide.

Although the current tower has served us well, it has outlived its purpose, he said at the authoritys 39th anniversary celebration in Accra.

The development, he said, underscores the GCAAs commitment to embracing innovation and ensuring the highest standards of air traffic management.

He also revealed that significant progress had been made towards the separation of the regulatory functions from air navigation services management, with an internal committee set to submit its report to the Ministry of Transport soon.

He explained that the process would pave the way for the establishment of an Air Navigation Services Provider to take over air navigation services within the Accra Flight Information Region, which will allow the GCAA to focus specifically on its regulatory mandate.



39th anniversary

The event brought together stakeholders and retired staff of the authority to celebrate the milestone achieved since commencement.

It was climaxed with the presentation of long service awards to deserving staff members for their dedication and commitment to the authority.

Reflecting on the authoritys journey, Rev. Arthur recounted how the GCAA evolved from a unit within the Public Works Department established in 1930, to attaining departmental status in 1953, before being officially established as an authority on May 16, 1986, under PNDC Law 151.

He said over the past 39 years, the authority has diligently fulfilled its responsibilities of advising the government on aviation matters, establishing aerodromes, managing airport functions, overseeing air traffic management and regulating air transport services.

Our unwavering commitment to safety and excellence has propelled Ghana's aviation sector to remarkable heights. It is no secret that aviation operations in Ghana have flourished over the years, becoming a vital catalyst for economic transformation, he stated.

To address challenges of staff indiscipline and boost motivation, the director-general outlined several measures, including establishing clear expectations, applying disciplinary actions consistently, providing professional development opportunities, promoting a positive work environment, implementing employee recognition programmes and encouraging open communication.



Collaboration

The acting Commissioner, Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation and Prevention Bureau (AIB), John Kunyan Wumborti, commended the GCAA for its collaboration and commitment to air safety.

Our shared mandate is to ensure the protection of lives and the integrity of aviation systems and this continues to drive us toward innovation, transparency, and accountability.

Together, we are building a safer airspace and we will continue to uphold the trust of the flying public. On this occasion, let us recommit to the highest standards of safety, learning from the past and preparing diligently for the future, he stated.

For her part, the Managing Director, the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL), Yvonne Nana Afriyie Opare, called for a stronger collaboration between the two companies to promote growth in the industry.
Republic Bank, CIMG form marketing alliance

Business Desk Report Business News May - 22 - 2025 , 19:26

The Republic Bank PLC has hosted the governing council of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) at its head office to form a strategic engagement to redefine the landscape of professional marketing in Ghana.

The meeting marks the beginning of a dynamic partnership aimed at advancing marketing excellence, professional certification and national development.

Led by National President of CIMG, Michael Abbiw, the delegation presented an ambitious three-year strategic agenda during a courtesy call on the Managing Director of Republic Bank, Dr Benjamin Dzoboku.

Our vision is to make marketing more attractive, effective, and relevant across every sector of the economy. We believe marketing is not just about promoting products, its about creating value, building trust, and shaping national identity. From customer service to strategic branding, marketing cuts across all levels of institutional operation, he said.

Among the core areas discussed were Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) training, sustainability education for staff across industries, and a CIMG-managed call centre to address unresolved service complaints with an initiative stemming from the institutes Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI) programme.

Additionally, the CIMG revealed its government-backed role in leading the Brand Ghana and Brand Africa campaigns.

The two major projects are aimed at positioning Ghana and the African continent as global brands through strategic marketing.

Accompanied by senior CIMG executives, including Vice President, Ama G. Amoah, an advisor, Francis Dadzie, Registrar and CEO, Kwabena Agyekum, Clarence Pappoe, and Ms Priscilla Menka, the team discussed several initiatives designed to elevate the standards of marketing in Ghana.

Commitment

Dr Dzoboku commended the councils bold vision and expressed Republic Banks full commitment to advancing marketing professionalism within the financial sector.

I am deeply impressed by the institutes proactive agenda and its far-reaching impact on professional development and nation-building. At Republic Bank, people are our greatest asset. Thats why we have prioritised human capital development, and CIMGs programmes align perfectly with that goal, he said.

He endorsed the proposed education and certification frameworks as essential to building a resilient, future-ready workforce.

The CIMG has come at the right time. Together, we can build capacity, drive sustainable marketing practices, and prepare professionals for a rapidly changing economic landscape. The potential for collaboration is vast, and we are ready, he said.

He also encouraged the CIMG leadership to explore Republic Banks range of financial solutions, including its mortgage and credit card offerings, to support the welfare of members and staff.
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Burna Boy, Dua Lipa, are my target for global hitStay Jay

Edith Mensah Showbiz News May - 22 - 2025 , 09:30 2 minutes read

OFTEN when musicians take a break from their careers, they return with renewed energy and lofty aspirations to make a significant impact in the industry and Stay Jay is no different.

After years of silence, Stay Jay, born William Kojo Johnson, is making a comeback  and he's aiming for global attention. And he would love to do that working with Grammy-winning international icons such as English and Albanian musician Dua Lipa and Nigerias Burna Boy.

Stay Jay, once a dominant name in Ghanas music scene with hits such as Shashee Wowo, Sue, Twaame Lala and Prepaid Gurl, quickly rose to prominence as a fan favourite.

But just as his star was beginning to shine brightest, he seemingly vanished from the limelight, leaving fans wondering what had become of one of the vibrant voices behind the Twi Pop movement.

In an exclusive interview with Graphic Showbiz, Stay Jay, who seeks to re-establish himself and leave a lasting mark on the music scene, declared hes not only back, but he is also ready for the global stage.

And his ambitions? Collaborating with English and Albanian musician Dua Lipa and Nigerias Burna Boy.

I feel revitalised and inspired, and I believe the world is ready for new music that brings people together. And this is the perfect time to reintroduce myself.

I know there are so many talented artistes out there, but Id love to collaborate with Dua Lipa or Burna Boy, as their styles resonate with me and would complement my music beautifully to seal my comeback.

Stay Jay explained that his time away from the spotlight wasnt idle. He used the period to recharge, evolve creatively and realign himself with the fast-changing dynamics of the global music industry.(Read Empress Gifty files GH20million defamation suit against Agradaa)

Ive been focusing on personal growth and honing my craft. Ive been writing new materials, exploring different music styles and collaborating with other artistes to expand my horizons, he shared.
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Dead Aid: Why Foreign Assistance Isn't Working for Africa

Gilbert Attipoe Opinion May - 22 - 2025 , 10:21 4 minutes read

The concept of foreign aid has been a cornerstone of international development efforts for decades, with many African countries relying heavily on assistance from wealthier nations.

However, Dambisa Moyo's book "Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa" presents a scathing critique of this approach, arguing that it's not only ineffective but actually harmful to the continent's development.

At the heart of Moyo's argument is the notion that foreign aid creates a culture of dependency in Africa.

By relying on external assistance, African governments are less accountable to their citizens and more focused on securing aid dollars.

This can lead to a lack of investment in domestic revenue mobilization and a failure to develop sustainable economic policies.

For instance, in Zambia, the mining industry's dependence on foreign aid and investment has hindered the development of local

capacity and revenue generation.

Furthermore, aid can distort local economies by creating artificial demand for certain goods and services, rather than promoting sustainable economic growth.

Food aid, for example, can undermine local farmers, as seen in Ghana where imported food aid has negatively impacted local rice farmers.

Infrastructure projects may also not be tailored to the specific needs of the local economy, as observed in the case of roads built primarily for aid delivery rather than economic development.

Another significant issue with foreign aid is corruption. Aid provides opportunities for officials to siphon off funds for personal gain, undermining trust in government institutions and hindering development progress.

Moyo contends that this perpetuates poverty and inequality, rather than alleviating them.

The lack of transparency and accountability in aid distribution can exacerbate these problems, making it difficult to track how funds are being used and whether they are achieving their intended goals.

However, it's essential to acknowledge that aid can play a critical role in humanitarian crises, such as natural disasters or conflict zones. In these situations, aid can provide vital support to affected populations.

Nevertheless, Moyo's argument emphasizes the need for a more nuanced approach to aid, one that prioritizes sustainable development and local capacity building.

Moyo suggests that African countries should focus on increasing trade with emerging economies to stimulate economic growth.

This could involve reducing trade barriers and investing in infrastructure to facilitate trade and economic integration. For example, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to create a single, large market for African countries, promoting

economic integration and increasing the continent's global competitiveness.

Rwanda's efforts to simplify trade regulations and invest in infrastructure have already shown promising results in boosting trade and economic growth.

Additionally, countries can tap into capital markets to finance development projects, rather than relying on aid. By encouraging domestic savings through remittances and microfinance, African countries can also reduce their reliance on foreign aid and promote sustainable economic development.

Kenya's mobile-based savings platform, M-Shwari, has successfully increased financial inclusion and domestic savings.

Investing in infrastructure is crucial for Africa's development. Developing infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and ports can facilitate trade and economic growth. The construction of the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway has improved trade links between Ethiopia and Djibouti, reducing transportation costs and increasing economic cooperation. Regional integration can also help African countries pool their resources and increase their bargaining power in global trade negotiations.

By supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, African countries can stimulate entrepreneurship and create jobs, driving economic growth and development. For instance, South Africa's Small Enterprise Finance Agency provides funding and support to small businesses,

promoting entrepreneurship and job creation.

Trading with emerging economies like China and India can provide new opportunities for African countries to stimulate economic growth. China, in particular, has become a major trading partner for many African countries, investing in infrastructure projects and promoting economic cooperation.

However, it's essential to acknowledge the potential risks and challenges associated with relying on emerging economies, such as unequal trade relationships or environmental degradation.

To mitigate these risks, African countries can focus on building local capacity and promoting African-led solutions to African problems. This requires a fundamental shift in the way aid is delivered and used, with a focus on empowering local institutions, promoting entrepreneurship, and investing in infrastructure.

Successful development models, such as South Korea and Singapore, demonstrate the potential for rapid economic growth and development through strategic investment, innovation, and trade.

These countries have leveraged foreign investment and technology to drive economic growth, while also investing in human capital and infrastructure.

By exploring alternative solutions and taking control of their own development, African countries can create a more sustainable future and break free from the cycle of aid dependency.

As Moyo argues, it's time to rethink the way we approach development in Africa and focus on creating long-term prosperity through investment, trade, and entrepreneurship. By doing so, Africa can unlock its vast economic potential and create a brighter future for its people.

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Two Israeli embassy staff shot and killed in Washington DC, suspect in custody

ABC News International News May - 22 - 2025 , 18:58 2 minutes read

Two staff members with the Israeli Embassy -- a couple about to get engaged -- were gunned down outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday in what FBI Director Kash Patel called an "act of terror."

The shooting has sparked outrage and has been condemned as an "unspeakable" act of antisemitism after officials said the suspect, who is in custody, shouted "free, free Palestine" following the shooting.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were identified by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar as the victims during a press conference on Thursday morning.

He said the pair were attending a Jewish conference of the American Jewish Committee when they were gunned down "in a horrific terrorist attack."

"This is the direct result of toxic anti-Semitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the October 7th massacre," Sa'ar added. "I have been worried for the past few months that something like this would happen. And it did."

An official with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to reporters during the presser that Lischinsky and Milgrim were not diplomats but embassy staff. Lischinsky was a researcher in the political department of the Israeli Embassy, while Milgrim organized U.S. missions to Israel.

Suspect taken into custody

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was promptly taken into custody at the scene and is being questioned by police, D.C. Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

The FBI said on Thursday it was conducting "court authorized activity" at a home in Chicago that is believed to be related to the suspect in the shooting.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said the early indicators point to the shooting being a "targeted attack."

"The US Attorneys office is on scene with me, and our WFO management team, at the Washington Field Office reviewing the evidence to determine additional actions," Bongino said. "The shooting happened a short distance from our Washington Field Office. Our FBI police officer, assigned to the external post on the WFO property, immediately responded and rendered aid after the attack. Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence. Our FBI team is fully engaged and we will get you answers as soon as we can, without compromising additional leads."
Education Minister pledges increased investment in basic infrastructure at London Forum

Beatrice Laryea Education May - 22 - 2025 , 16:51 1 minute read

Ghanas Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has announced a major policy shift toward boosting investment in educational infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on basic education.

Speaking at the 21st Annual Education World Forum (EWF) in London, Mr. Iddrisu revealed that the government plans to prioritize the elimination of over 5,000 schools currently operating under trees across the country.

Access to quality education with improved learning outcomesthat is the vision of President Mahamas government, he stated. We aim to invest more in basic education.

The minister acknowledged that, historically, funding has been skewed toward senior high and tertiary institutions. However, a new direction is being charted to strengthen the foundations of the educational system.

If you assess our education spending over the past decade, youll find a disproportionate focus on free senior high school, often at the expense of basic education, he said.

He emphasized that the new policy, spearheaded by President Mahama, aligns with constitutional guarantees of free and compulsory basic education.

Despite these guarantees, we still have thousands of schools lacking basic physical infrastructure, Mr. Iddrisu noted.

The minister also addressed the nations high school dropout rate, underscoring the urgency for inclusive and sustained access to education.

Roughly 400,000 students drop out each year, and 57 percent of them require targeted support. We must change this and ensure every Ghanaian child has access to continuous, lifelong learning, he concluded.
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Energy Minister commissions 532kWp solar plant by Nexans Kabelmetal

Jemima Okang Addae May - 22 - 2025 , 12:49 2 minutes read

The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, John Abdulai Jinapor, has commissioned a 532kWp ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) plant developed by Nexans Kabelmetal Ghana Limited, lauding the companys leadership in renewable energy adoption.

Speaking at the commissioning ceremony on May 21, 2025, Mr Jinapor praised Nexans Kabelmetal for what he described as a forward-thinking and environmentally conscious investment. He stated that the plant served as a model of how private sector action can complement Ghanas national energy vision.

This solar installation is a powerful expression of our national vision to diversify Ghanas energy mix and promote resilient, inclusive, and scalable renewable solutions, he remarked.

Mr Jinapor reiterated the governments commitment to facilitating renewable energy growth through key reforms. He cited the establishment of the Renewable Energy Authority, the Renewable Energy Investment and Green Transition Fund, and the recently launched National Net-Metering Tariff Guideline as major policy initiatives supporting solar producers and green investors.

He also revealed plans for a nationwide rollout of smart reversible meters by the end of 2025, which will allow households and businesses to export surplus solar power to the national grid  a move intended to increase efficiency and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

The Minister announced that the Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) will be launched on May 30, 2025, in Kete Krachi. The initiative aims to add 100MW of renewable energy to Ghanas national grid through mini-grids, rooftop solar systems for SMEs and public institutions, and solar home systems for off-grid households.

Preparations, he added, are ongoing for Phase Two of SREP, which will extend clean energy access to over 150 islands in the Afram Plains, aligning with the governments target of 99.8% national electricity access by 2030.

Underscoring the importance of rooftop solar systems, Mr Jinapor highlighted their role in securing energy independence and ensuring Ghanaian products remain competitive on global markets that increasingly prioritise sustainability.

He also framed the commissioning as a symbol of broader national ambition, stating, This is more than a facility  its a milestone in our collective resolve to build a green, sustainable economy powered by innovation and public-private partnerships.

The Minister congratulated Nexans Kabelmetal for its initiative and commitment to Ghanas energy transformation, describing their effort as the bricks of Ghanas green future, brick by solar-powered brick.

He reaffirmed the governments dedication to supporting local industry and ensuring favourable policies benefit Ghanaian enterprises in the renewable energy space.
Ghana introduces 5-day deadline for visa decisions - Minister

Mohammed Ali May - 22 - 2025 , 07:12 2 minutes read

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has introduced a new visa policy under which all applications to travel to Ghana will be processed within five working days.

The announcement was made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in a Facebook post on Tuesday, May 21, 2025.

He stated that the measure takes immediate effect and is intended to address longstanding delays in visa processing, which often took between four to six weeks.

We have put in place adequate measures at our diplomatic missions to drastically cut down the visa processing time from the troubling average of four to six weeks to our new five-day directive, Mr Ablakwa wrote.

He explained that the shorter processing period does not guarantee automatic approval.

Rather, applicants will receive a decision, either approval or denial, within five working days of submitting their request.

A decision will be made within five working days as to whether one is eligible for a Ghanaian visa or not, he added.

The move, according to Mr Ablakwa, is in line with President John Dramani Mahamas pledge in his January 7, 2025 inaugural address that Ghana is opened for business.

He said the Ministry is working to give practical meaning to that declaration by removing unnecessary delays and making consular services more responsive.

As Foreign Minister, I want to make Ghana a more attractive destination for investors and tourists by removing the bureaucratic hurdles that have discouraged many over the years, Mr Ablakwa stated.

The new visa policy is expected to support government efforts to boost tourism, business travel, and international engagement, especially at a time when the country is actively seeking foreign partnerships.

Ghana is truly open for business. Come enjoy the Black Star experience, Mr Ablakwa added.
Justice Torkornoo on why Domelevo, Major Dalugo and Prof Sefah Dzisah are not qualified to be part of CJ impeachment committee in line with Oaths Act

Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson May - 22 - 2025 , 09:39 7 minutes read

The Chief Justice, Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, has filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court challenging her suspension by President John Dramani Mahama.

In a writ filed yesterday by her lawyer, Godfred Yeboah Dame, a former Attorney-General, the Chief Justice is seeking declarations from the Supreme Court that her suspension as well as the impeachment process against her are unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void.

She is also seeking an order from the apex court setting aside her suspension by President Mahama and for the court to allow the petition proceedings against her to be heard in public and not in camera.

Additionally, Justice Torkornoo has filed an application for interlocutory injunction asking the court to halt the entire impeachment process against her pending the final determination of her lawsuit.

She is seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 23, 146 (6) and (7) and 296 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang is not qualified to be a chairman or member of the committtee set up by President Mahama to inquire the petitions against Justice Torkornoo on account of having adjudicated and given various rulings in favour of one of the petitioners, Daniel Ofori in actions filed in the Supreme Court.

Read also:

Why suspended Chief Justice Torkornoo wants proceedings on her removal to be halted, Pwamang, Adibu-Asiedu removed from committee and proceedings made public

Gabriel Pwamang, Domelevo, Dzisah and 2 others in 5-member committee of inquiry probing petition for removal of Chief Justice Torkornoo

An order prohibiting Justice Pwamang from presiding as chairman of the committee or participating in the proceedings of the committee set up to inquire into the petitions against the plaintiff

A declaration that upong a true and proper interpretation of articles 23, 127 (1) and (2), 146 (6) and (7) and 296 (a) and (b) of the Constitution, the appointment of Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu, as a member of the committee set up by President Mahama to inquire into the petitions against the plaintiff, at a time he had already sat as a member of a panel of the Supreme Court constituted under article 128(2) of the Constitution to hear an application for the interlocutory injunction filed by a Ghanaian citizen challenging the "article 146 proceedings" initiated against the plaintiff , violates the independence of the Judiciary

An order prohibiting Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu from sitting as a member of or participating in the proceedings of the committee set up to inquire into the petitions against the plaintiff

A declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of articles 146 (1), (2), (4), 23 and 296 of the Constitution and sections 1. 2 and 4 of the Oaths Act, 1972, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Major Flora Bazwaanura Dalugo and Professor James Sefah Dzisah are not qualified to undertake the functions entrusted on them as members of the committee set up by the President to inquire into the petitions against the plaintiff

An order restraining the committee set up by the President to inquire into the three petitions against the Chief Justice composed of Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Major Flora Bazwaanura Dalugo and Professor James Sefah Dzisah from proceeding to carry out the terms of reference of the committee set up under article 146(6) as laid out in the letter datec 22nd April, 2025.

The legal action by the Chief Justice came a few hours after the Supreme Court had dismissed two interlocutory injunction applications seeking an order to put on hold the suspension and the impeachment.

The two interlocutory injunction applications filed by a civil society organisation, Centre for Citizenship, Constitutional and Electoral Systems (CenCES), and an individual, Theodore Kofi Atta-Quartey, who also wanted the court to halt the impeachment process of the Chief Justice pending the final determinations of their lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.

In a 4-1 majority decision yesterday, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court, presided over by the Acting Chief Justice, Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, dismissed the two applications as lacking merit.

Justices Baffoe-Bonnie, Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi and Henry Anthony Kwofie were on the majority side, while Justice Yaw Darko Asare dissented.

The Supreme Court has so far dismissed three applications challenging President Mahamas decision to suspend Justice Torkornoo after the President in consultation with the Council of State established a prima facie case against her with regard to three petitions seeking her removal.

On May 6, this year, the Supreme Court, in a 3-2 majority decision, dismissed another application for interlocutory injunction filed by the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah.

Prima facie determination

The Chief Justice is making a case that the determination of the prima facie case against her by the President in consultation with the Council of State, which led to the establishment of the five-member committee to probe the petitions, and her subsequent suspension by the President were unconstitutional.

She is, therefore, seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 19(13), 23, 146(1), (2), (4) and (6) and 296 of the Constitution, a determination of a prima facie case in respect of a petition for the removal of a Chief Justice or a Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature is a quasi-judicial process requiring a judicious evaluation, culminating in a reasoned decision.

She is also seeking a declaration that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 19(13), 23, 146(1), (2), (4) and (6) and 296 of the Constitution, the purported prima facie finding against her was not proper and, therefore, unconstitutional, null and void.

Public hearing

Justice Torkornoo contends that upon a true and proper interpretation of Articles 17(1) and (2), 19(13) and (14), 146(7) and (8), 281(1) and 295(1) of the Constitution, she has the right to public hearing of the petition and is, therefore, seeking a declaration from the apex court to that effect.

She is further seeking a declaration that the right of a Chief Justice to a public hearing and all the incidents of a fair hearing may only be excluded in the interest of public morality, public safety, or public order.

The Chief Justice is seeking a further declaration that she had the right to waive the privilege of an in-camera hearing as stipulated by the Constitution.

Removal of committee members

Other reliefs sought by the Chief Justice are orders from the court prohibiting the Chairman of the five-member committee probing the petition, Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang, and a member, Justice Samuel Adibu-Asiedu, from participating in the proceedings of the committee of inquiry into the petitions.

For Justice Pwamang, the Chief Justice is seeking a declaration that he is not qualified to be chairman of the committee owing to the fact that he had adjudicated on a number of cases and ruled in favour of one of the petitioners, Daniel Ofori.

With regard to Justice Asiedu, the Chief Justice is asking the court to declare that he is not qualified to be a member of the committee because he was already a member of a Supreme Court panel hearing an interlocutory injunction application against the impeachment.

Background

On April 22, Spokesperson to the President and Minister of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, announced that President Mahama had suspended Justice Torkornoo.

The suspension of the Chief Justice by President Mahama, under Article 146 (10) of the Constitution followed the determination of the prima facie case by the President, in consultation with the Council of State, and the subsequent establishment of a five-member committee to inquire into the petitions, in accordance with Article 146 (6) of the 1992 Constitution.

The committee established by President Mahama to probe the petitions is chaired by Justice Gabriel Pwamang, a Justice of the Supreme Court.

Members of the committee are a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Kwame Adibu-Asiedu; a former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, Major Flora Bazwaanura of the Ghana Armed Forces, and Professor James Sefah Dzisah of the University of Ghana.

Meanwhile, the committee began sitting on Thursday, May 15, this year and is expected to convene three times a week, hearing arguments from the petitioners, their lawyers and that of the suspended Chief Justice.

The whole process will be in camera as stipulated by Article 146 (8) of the Constitution.

After the hearing, the committee is expected to present its findings and recommendations to President Mahama and by virtue of Article 146 (9) of the Constitution, the President is bound to act, serving as a conveyer belt, in accordance with the recommendations.

Writers email: [email protected]
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Data cost to reduce by end of year  Sam George

Juliet Akyaa Safo May - 22 - 2025 , 07:57 2 minutes read

The Ministry of Communication, Digital Technology and Innovations is working towards ensuring reduction in connectivity cost by the end of the year.

The sector Minister, Samuel Nartey George, said a committee that was set up in February, this year, had developed a roadmap that would lead to the drop in data prices.

Mr George said the committee, which included telecom companies, the National Communications Authority (NCA) and other sector players, worked for 13 days without receiving any payment from taxpayers.

On the basis of that roadmap, I made the Director-General of the NCA and the regulator engage with stakeholders on what we could do in the immediate, medium term and the long term.

So to citizens of this country, my promise is that by the end of this year, we will see data prices drop, and I remain committed to it. We will deliver on that. I trust the process, he added.

Occasion

The minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, was speaking at an event to commemorate this years World Telecommunications and Information Society

Day at a ceremony in Accra last Monday on the theme: Gender equality in digital transformation.

He said an earlier statement he had made on working to reduce data costs had been misinterpreted on social media.

I have been trending over the weekend on Twitter, not necessarily for my looks or my work, but whether orchestrated or otherwise, people think that data prices must be cheaper by the stroke of my pen, Mr George said.

He expressed trust in the technical content of the regulator to work with the telecom companies to ensure the viability of businesses, and also ensure that customers get better value for what they pay for.

Tariff report

The minister said his outfit had also engaged the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to do an independent study of tariffs in the country and present a report in eight weeks.

Mr George said this would allow the ministry to align the report with that of the NCA report and take an informed policy decision.

I will not give directives that will affect the industry. What I will do is to consult with industry and stakeholders and make decisions that protect investments in the country.

I will also ensure that customers have the best quality of service and at prices they can afford, he added.
Next article: Walewale: Two arrested for stealing pistol and ammunition belonging to Immigration officer

Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang back home in Ghana

GraphicOnline May - 22 - 2025 , 17:43 1 minute read

Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang returned home this afternoon from London, United Kingdom, where she had travelled for medical treatment.

She was welcomed at the airport by President John Dramani Mahama, First Lady Mrs Lordina Dramani Mahama, Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, the Vice Presidents Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia, and other senior government officials.

Also present at the airport were the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church and family members of the Vice President.

In her brief remarks, the Vice President thanked Ghanaians for their prayers, expressed appreciation to her doctors and the medical staff at the UGMC, and acknowledged President Mahama and his younger brother, Ibrahim, for their support, thoughtfulness, and care.
Vice President Opoku-Agyemang credits recovery to God's mercy and Mahama family support

Kweku Zurek May - 22 - 2025 , 20:03 2 minutes read

Vice President Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang returned to Ghana on Thursday afternoon (May 22, 2025) following a period of medical treatment in the United Kingdom.

Her arrival at Kotoka International Airport was met with a warm reception led by President John Dramani Mahama and First Lady Mrs Lordina Dramani Mahama. Also present were Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, the Vice Presidents Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia, senior government officials, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, and close family members.

Speaking briefly after her arrival, the Vice President expressed deep gratitude for the support she received during her recovery, both at home and abroad. I want to say thanks to God, His mercies have been infinite, as always, and I'm very grateful, she said.

She extended appreciation to her medical team, praising their diligence and decisions. I express gratitude to the medical staff too, for seeing the right thing, for making the right proposals, she stated, referencing early interventions that led to her treatment.

In a heartfelt tribute, the Vice President acknowledged President Mahamas swift action at a crucial moment. To my boss (President John Dramani Mahama), that day, I don't know where you appeared from, but he came and quickly set in motion what we needed to do, she recounted.

She also singled out Ibrahim Mahama, younger brother of the President, for his personal commitment. He stopped at nothing to ensure that I had what I needed. And then he also came to the hospital. He came to sit by me, and that was healing itself. So my little Boss, I'm very, very grateful, she said, visibly emotional.

Looking ahead, Professor Opoku-Agyemang signalled her readiness to return to national duty, noting the urgency of ongoing development efforts. So I'm very happy to be back. And there's so much that has happened, that we all need to do, and I know that with a collective will, we'll do much more for our country, she concluded.
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Walewale: Two arrested for stealing pistol and ammunition belonging to Immigration officer

Jemima Okang Addae May - 22 - 2025 , 17:43 1 minute read

Two individuals have been arrested for allegedly stealing a pistol and ammunition belonging to an officer of the Ghana Immigration Service.

According to the police, the suspects, Mohammed Basit, aged 18, and Baba Rashid, aged 22, broke into the officer's room at around 12 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, while he was away.

They reportedly made away with a Smith & Wesson pistol loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, as well as CZ rifle magazines each loaded with 30 rounds.

Following intelligence-led operations, the suspects were tracked and arrested at Kperiga, a suburb of Walewale, where they had allegedly hidden the stolen firearm and ammunition in a vehicle.

Police say investigations are ongoing and the suspects will be arraigned before court in due course.
Ghana, Burkina Faso: Pan-African solidarity

Prof. Jeffrey Haynes Politics May - 22 - 2025 , 09:57 5 minutes read

Burkina Fasos military ruler, Captain Ibrahim Traore, is a charismatic 37-year-old.

He has adroitly constructed the persona of a revolutionary Pan-Africanist leader who, with skill and determination, wants to free his country from the grip of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism.

Anyone who follows social media will be aware that Captain Traore is regarded by many Ghanaians, especially among the young, as a potential saviour, a breath of fresh air and a beacon of hope during trying economic times.

Captain Traores admirers see him as following in the footsteps of African heroes like Ghanas Jerry John Rawlings and Burkina Fasos very own Thomas Sankara, a Marxist-inspired revolutionary, sometimes referred to as Africas Che Guevara.

This writer is old enough to remember the heady, revolutionary days of 1982-3, when Ghana was in the throes of what its architect, Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, called a revolution.

I completed my BA studies at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom in mid-1983.

Rawlings

At this time, which many with hindsight saw as the high-water mark of Ghanas revolution, I was looking for a suitable topic for my doctorate.

Ghanas Rawlings-led revolution caught my eye.

My PhD topic was the governance of the Provisional National Defence Council. I completed my PhD in mid-1988, having spent many months in Ghana in 1985.

Mid-1988 was when the PNDC government was taking its first tentative steps to reintroduce democracy after several years of unelected, military-led rule.

Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings was a close associate of Captain Sankara, who was assassinated on October 15, 1987, aged 37 years, by soldiers led by Blaise Compaore, who assumed leadership of the country shortly thereafter.

Compaore retained power until the 2014 Burkina Faso uprising. In 2021, he was formally charged with and found guilty of the murder of Sankara by a military tribunal.

Mr Rawlings was in power in Ghana for nearly two decades, initially as a military leader who took power by coup detat, and then as a twice-elected civilian president.

On coming to power on December 31, 1981, aged 32, he was dubbed Junior Jesus.

However, after 19 years  leaving office finally in 2001  it is fair to say that Mr Rawlings legacy is mixed: widely admired as the architect of Ghanas vibrant liberal democracy but also regarded by some as contravening some Ghanaians human rights during his period in power.

I was reminded of Mr Rawlings governance by a recent ceremony in Burkina Faso.

A government delegation from Ghana joined the government and people of Burkina Faso in Ouagadougou at the inauguration of a memorial park and a giant statue in honour of Thomas Sankara on Saturday, May 17.

During a ceremony led by Captain Traore, both Captain Sankara and Mr Rawlings were honoured.

During Captain Traores moving tribute to Thomas Sankara, Mr Rawlings was also remembered as a revolutionary figure who embodied bold, people-first leadership.

While the event primarily focused on Sankaras legacy, it seemed natural to extend it to include Mr Rawlings, a man whom many consider as Sankaras ideological twin.

The importance of the event to President Mahamas government was clear. Several senior government officials were present, representing President Mahama at the ceremony in Ouagadougou to show solidarity with Burkina Faso.

Among the attendees were the Minister of Defence, Dr Edward Omane Boamah; the Minister of the Interior, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, and the Minister for Government Communications and Presidential Spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu. Others were Ghana's Special Envoy to the Alliance of Sahel States, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (rtd); the Member of Parliament for Korle Klottey, Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings, who also serves as the Chairperson for Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliament, and two more of Mr Rawlings children, Yaa Asantewaa and Kimathi.

During the ceremony, Mr Rawlings contribution to African unity and accountability was highlighted, while some Burkinabe speakers openly celebrated Mr Rawlings fearlessness, comparing his political courage to that of Captain Thomas Sankara. It was announced at the ceremony that an avenue in Ouagadougou is to be named after Mr Rawlings.

Support for democracy

Captain Traore has been criticised for what some see as human rights transgressions, just as Mr Rawlings was during his time in power.

This raises an intriguing question. Does an apparent lack of concern with democracy and human rights matter? It may be that Captain Traores manifest popularity as a military, rather than democratic, leader reflects a political shift taking place in Africa.

According to a 2024 Afrobarometer survey of 39 African countries, there is a tangible decline in support for democracy, although it remains the most popular form of government.

It is suggested that democracy has failed to give hope to many young people, as it does not appear to have delivered sufficient jobs or better education and health.

Captain Traore, just like Mr Rawlings four decades ago, appears to be offering an alternative, spurring some to optimism that at last, Africa could be free of foreign control and neo-imperial machinations.

This might be seen as a recapturing of the spirit of two earlier historic epochs: the initial years of post-colonial optimism in the 1960s and the revolutionary populist confidence of figures like Mr Rawlings and Captain Sankara in the early 1980s.

The writer is an Emeritus Professor of Politics, London Metropolitan University, UK.
Recent data on brand loyalty in the United States showed that 89% of Apple users purchased another iPhone when upgrading. Although this share has decreased by five percentage points since 2023, such a loyalty rate remains unmatched in the smartphone industry.

For comparison, Samsung loyalty increased by 8pp, rising from 68% to 76% between 2021 and 2025. However, the report lacks specific data such as sample size or margin of error.

According to CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners), owner loyalty for Apple and Samsung is not comparable in market terms, as fans of the Korean brand are considerably fewer.

Analysts also pointed out that while Apple easily retains users in its ecosystem, Android diversity poses a significant challenge for Samsung to achieve a higher rate.

This report only includes users in the United States, where the iPhone leads with a 52% market share. Samsung follows in second place with just 24%. Motorola comes in third with a 12% market share.

Source
Poco F7 now rumored to arrive in June after new certification

The Poco F7 is coming, that's for sure. It's already been spotted in a bunch of different certifications, and today it's nabbed yet another one. This time it's in Thailand with the NBTC.

This certification has once again confirmed the Poco F7 name and its 25053PC47G model number for global markets. The handset is now rumored to arrive next month - back in April we heard it would launch in late May, but apparently that has slipped.

According to multiple previous leaks and rumors and also based on its model number, the Poco F7 is very likely to be a rebranded Redmi Turbo 4 Pro, which landed in China last month.

If so, then expect the F7 to sport a 6.83-inch 1280x2272 AMOLED screen with 120 Hz refresh rate and 3,200-nit peak brightness, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 SoC at the helm, 12/16GB of RAM, 256GB/512GB/1TB of storage, a 50 MP main camera, an 8 MP ultrawide, and a 20 MP selfie camera.

The Redmi Turbo 4 Pro has a 7,550 mAh battery, but whether that spec will remain unchanged for international markets remains to be seen. The Poco F7 will join the already available F7 Pro and F7 Ultra.

Xiaomi Poco F7 Pro

Xiaomi Poco F7 Ultra

Via
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip7 is expected to become official alongside the Fold7 in early July, and there has been some confusion regarding the chipset that will be powering it. Today, a new report claims to 'confirm' (as much as any rumor can) that Samsung's Exynos 2500 SoC will finally make its debut in the Galaxy Z Flip7.

The Exynos 2500 was destined for the Galaxy S25 family, but Samsung had to give up on it because of yield issues with production. That's why the Snapdragon 8 Elite is in there instead. But now, apparently those yield issues have been fixed, or with the Flip7's lower projected sales numbers, they don't matter.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6

That is, of course, if this rumor pans out. The source goes on to claim that the Exynos 2500 will be used in most countries, including India and Korea. It's the first time an Exynos features in a foldable Samsung device, so it's a pretty big deal. Samsung may allegedly use the Snapdragon 8 Elite in China and North America only.

The Exynos 2500 has a ten-core CPU with one Cortex-X925 cores clocked at up to 3.3 GHz, two Cortex-A725 cores clocked at up to 2.75 GHz, five Cortex-A725 cores clocked at up to 2.36 GHz, and two Cortex-A520 cores clocked at up to 1.8 GHz. The GPU is the Xclipse 950 based on AMD RDNA 3.5 architecture.

Source
Just a little while ago, our Islan Guahan celebrated Easter, a time filled with the spirit of renewal and hope. Beautifully, it seems that the same hope-filled energy reached our precious Guam sihek, also known as Guam kingfishers, on Palmyra Atoll as theyve been busy nesting and laying eggs during this season of new beginnings!

As the Easter season carries us into summer, the partners that make up the Sihek Recovery Project are the Guam Department of Agricultures Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources, DAWR, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Zoological Society of London, and Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Notably, several institutions and zoos contributed staff resources and egg logistics. All of these contributions have led us all to witnessing a miraculous event: the first wild nesting behavior of these sihek in a very long time. For a complete list of all these wonderful contributors, contact DAWRs Wildlife Team.

Lets give a warm round of applause to the nine pioneering kingfishers, in pairing order: meet Tutuhan and Hinanao, Langet and Mames, Guifi and Yayas, Fuetsa and Sindalu, and the independent Haani.

And the exciting news doesnt stop there. These little sihek are now laying wild eggs! Our star, Tutuhan, which means beginning, led the way, becoming the first female to reproduce, with the team capturing precious photos of her two eggs nestled in an old coconut tree.

Currently, four pairs have established their territories and built nests, and three of these pairs have laid eggs. While its still early days, and fertile eggs might take some time as these young birds mature, this wild breeding is a monumental step. It signifies a return we havent seen since the Guam siheks wild population was discovered to have drastically declined from Guam in the 1980s.

Leading this renewal is Tutuhan, a true pioneer. Hatched just last spring, she was described as remarkably self-assured, even attempting to feed herself before she was truly capable! Now, witnessing her lay her own wild eggs and diligently care for them fills all of us with immense hope, not only for her future but for the eight other Sihek as well.

This little bird is quite the strong female, having even asserted herself in the pursuit of love, vying with two other females, Langet and Guifi, for Hinanaos affection. Adding to her impressive story, Tutuhan just celebrated her first birthday on April 28.

Heres how you can help our birds:

 Become a BTS buster: Join the Friends of Islan Dano and DAWR by volunteering for BTS searches on Islan Dano. Start a village search, contact DAWR for guidance on equipment, and safe searching practices at (671) 735-3981.

 Track the sihek by following/sharing along on Instagram, @Sihek_recovery_project.

 Spark interest in your school by starting a sihek club! Call DAWR for ideas and connect with your club advisor.

As a fellow citizen scientist passionate about the Guahan sihek, koko, and sali, I believe even small collective actions create big change. Lets connect with the sihek story, understand their challenges, and actively conserve our local biodiversity.

By starting small now, we cultivate hope for a future with Guahans native birds.
When the Guam Bar Association launched Mames yan Matias, the first in a series of childrens storybooks designed to bring comfort, clarity, and hope to Guams foster youth, principal author of the book Carmen Ulloa-Kasperbauer emphasized that it was more than a storyits a message.

We want every child in foster care to know they are seen, they are loved, and they are not alone. And we want our community to understand just how important it is to support them through every step of their journey, Ulloa-Kasperbauer said.

The May 14 book launching took place at Harvest House in Barrigada, an organization that the Guam Bar Association said has become a beacon of support for the more than 700 children currently in foster care on the island.

Mames yan Matias introduces young readers to the world of foster care through a gentle, child-centered narrative that explains who the key people are in the processcaseworkers, guardians, judgesand reassures children that they are not alone in their journey.

Translated in CHamoru and Chuukese, the book aims to reach children across cultures and communities, with discussions already underway to expand its availability in additional languages.

They gave me hope

One of the most moving moments of the launch, according to the Guam Bar Association, came from U.S. District Court Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood, who shared a powerful story from her years on the bench.

She recalled a case involving a family of eight children, five of whom had to be placed in foster care with relatives and non-relatives both on and off island. This was due to a life-altering situation that permanently separated them from their parents.

At the time, Guam did not yet have a structured support program like Harvest House.

Despite the challenges, I witnessed how the collaboration between the courts, CPS, attorneys, and guardians helped these children transition through one of the hardest times in their lives, Tydingco-Gatewood shared.

She then recounted a recent moment when one of the children, now grown, returned to Guam and shared how well she and her siblings were doing.

It was incredibly touching, the chief judge said. To hear that they were thriving despite everythingthey gave me hope. It reminded me just how powerful compassion, care, and a strong support system can be in shaping a childs future.

Guam Bar Association president Jacqueline Terlaje, a devoted foster parent herself, said this is more than celebrating a book.

Were celebrating the lives of children navigating the foster care system, and offering them a way to understand whats happening around them. This story is not about blameits about understanding, support, and healing, she said.

Terlaje emphasized that the book was not created to criticize or condemn parents, but rather to offer children clarity and comfort in the midst of difficult transitions.

She also highlighted the books intent to recognize and honor the essential work of Child Protective Services and the many professionals who support these children every day.

The venue for the book launch, Harvest House, provided the perfect backdrop.

As a donation center offering everything from clothing and toiletries to backpacks and school supplies, Harvest House stands as a daily testament to the power of community care. Its role in Guams foster care system exemplifies the message and mission behind Mames yan Matias, the Guam Bar Association said.

The book launch drew dignitaries, government officials, educators, counselors, social workers, and community advocates, many of whom praised the book as a long-overdue and much-needed resource to help explain the realities of the foster care system to children and families in a meaningful and accessible way.

The production and launch of Mames yan Matias were made possible through the generous support of a grant from the Guam Economic Development Authority, reflecting a broader island-wide commitment to addressing the needs of vulnerable youth.

If you would like to be part of this meaningful effort, we are actively seeking sponsors to help support the continued production and distribution of Mames yan Matias. Your support can help ensure that more childrenand the adults guiding themhave access to this vital resource of comfort, clarity, and hope, the Guam Bar Association said.

For more information, contact Guam Bar Associations Mari Crisostomo at info@guambar.org or (671) 989-4227.
Chief Brodie Memorial Elementary School on Thursday officially closed its 65-year chapter, but uncertainty looms for teachers and classified employees who are still awaiting final reassignment.

A heartwarming decommissioning ceremony marked the Tamuning schools closure and the last day of classes for Chief Brodies last students.

School staff and families joined the students in saying goodbye to their school, dubbed the Home of the busy bees.

Officially, honestly, Im not sure right now. HR is going through a process. Theyre doing their very best to vet the positions that are available for our teachers to fill, and also for our staff, said Darlene Castro, the last principal of Chief Brodie. I am waiting as well. I do know, Ill continue to be a principal, where Im still not sure.

Castro, who served the school for nearly nine years, addressed the staffs concerns and expressed confidence in the broader education community.

I do know that I have great principal colleagues. They, too, are great leaders of their school. I know that they have compassionate hearts, and they will welcome our students, our teachers and our staff and bring them in and make them part of their family, she said.

When asked if she hoped to remain with her team, Castro responded, Absolutely, if I could take everybody with me to another school. I mean, that would be the dream. That would definitely be the dream.

Guam Education Board member Maria Gutierrez, whose sons attended Chief Brodie, committed to advocating for the staff.

For the employees, I will make sure that you get your assignment no later than Friday, Gutierrez said. If I have to be loud again, I will, because I know that some of you are concerned about your future because you have not heard anything. That is inexcusable. I will continue to be your advocate.

The schools decommissioning came after the Guam Education Board voted 6 to 1 in February to close the campus.

The board vote followed a recommendation from Superintendent Erik Swanson, aimed at consolidating campuses due to staffing shortages and low enrollment.

Chief Brodie students have been reassigned to Juan M. Guerrero Elementary School, Tamuning Elementary School, or Liguan Elementary School based on students residential addresses.

We built something beautiful

Thursdays decommissioning ceremony brought hundreds to the schools center court to honor its history.

Castro, the elementary schools last principal, ended the ceremony with a tribute to the school community.

Together we built something. We built something beautiful. We built this hive, she said. So when I say Chief really is our legacy, I dont mean a name on the wall. I mean us. The way we carry its spirit in our hearts, in how we show we care, in how we meet challenges head-on, in how we lift others.

Castro said they will always be the busy bees.

Wherever life takes us, well keep buzzing, creating, connecting, spreading the sweetness that we shared, she said. Chief Brodie Memorial Elementary School, thank you for being our hive, our home, our legacy.

Heartbreaking

Chief Brodie Memorial Elementary School was established in 1960, originally serving students with special needs, before transitioning to a general education school on Aug. 22, 1994.

Its heartbreaking, because my daughter, she made a lot of friends here, and she doesnt open up easily, Risa Larimer, a parent and Parent Teacher Association public information officer. Just the fact that she wont be with her friends again next year and continue with her amazing teachers, it just kind of breaks my heart.

Larimer, the daughter of the current school principal, said she has faith that wherever her daughter is placed, she will be well cared for.

Castro offered words of assurance to families during the closure ceremony.

Teachers, regardless of where our students go, theyre going to be taken care of. Theyre going to learn. We have a lot of dedicated educators out there, and their commitment to our students is unwavering, she said. I trust that every student will be taken care of, and they will continue to learn and grow, and they will carry the spirit of Chief Brodie with them, so that means theyre gonna be extra compassionate.

Will always be home

Longtime teacher and alumna Carla Aguon recalled how her career began at Chief Brodie.

I first entered the halls of this school five months pregnant, but as a student teacher in a third-grade room, which was in room 33, Aguon said. A month later, my master teacher retired, so I was moved to a fourth-grade class in room 29. And then by December, I gave birth to my second child, and one week later I was set to take back class number 33 as their permanent third-grade teacher.

She remembered milestones her family experienced there.

It was the first for my now 31-year-old son to be a part of the Be Smart Club, which is now the elementary version of the National Elementary Honor Society. It was the first for my 27-year-old child to be part of the royal court. It was the first of many things, she said.

Now an administrator at Tamuning Elementary School, Aguon reflected on her hopes of returning to close her career at Chief Brodie.

I understand the heart, the pain that you are all enduring right now but as an administrator, I have dreamed of coming full circle and one day coming back to Chief to close out my years of service here. I know this is not going to happen anytime in the future, she said. Now that youre being decommissioned, I am still proud to say that Chief Brodie will always be home and where my heart is.

She offered encouragement to students beginning the next chapter.

The school has taught me something very important...and valuable lesson that you all will take with you, how to be resilient, how to embrace change and how to move forward, doing what I truly love as a teacher, no matter where I go, Aguon said. So busy bees, be proud that you are part of this legacy. Be proud that you are here to the very end.

Fourth-grade teacher Albon Eres, who attended Chief Brodie from 1999 to 2005, shared memories from both sides of the classroom.

Chief Brodie was always a place of fond memories for me, fun teachers with fun activities, kind staff who looked out for us while we were running around aimlessly across the playground, Eres said. And nice classmates who didnt seem to mind wherever he came from.

He acknowledged the efforts of his colleagues through a difficult year.

To the teachers, thank you for coming in and continuing to teach, for making students feel at home to relax, giving them something to have fun with and look forward to every day, even though we ourselves werent all at ease with our situations, she said. To the staff, the heart of the school, thank you for working so hard to keep ourselves low, putting in so many hours that for sure, you went above and beyond the hours you had signed before in your contract.
The mission of Andersen Air Force Bases 36th Wing has never been more consequential, said Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham, commander of the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force, at a Thursday change of command ceremony.

Col. Charles Dan Cooley assumes command of Andersens 36th Wing, relieving outgoing commander Brig. Gen. Thomas Palenske, who will retire after 39 years of military service.

Cunningham stressed the importance of the 36th wing during the ceremony at a hangar on the Andersen flight line.

You are the mission, and that mission has never been more consequential, Cunningham told airmen present for the ceremony. The Chinese Communist Party continues a historic military build up, expanding its arsenal, rehearsing combat operations and pursuing coercion across the Indo-Pacific.

Those actions were aimed at holding bases like Andersen at risk, Cunningham said.

Our state of readiness sends an unmistakable message: We will not be coerced and we will not be outpaced, Cunningham said. We are ready to deter and, if necessary, defeat any adversary through constant training.

Cunninghams Thursday speech about the stakes in the region echoed remarks delivered by Indo-Pacific Command Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd at a change of command for Joint Task Force-Micronesia last week.

Newly assigned JTF-M Commander Rear Adm. Joshua Lasky was present for the Thursday ceremony at Andersen, along with Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero.

Palenske leads recovery from $9.7B typhoon damage

Palenske stressed the readiness of the base to deter any threats, and fight if need be.

If a near-peer adversary in this theater makes a miscalculation and underestimates the capability of Andersen Air Force Base...theyve significantly miscalculated, and we will club them like baby seals, he said.

Palenske took the lead at Andersen just over a month after Typhoon Mawar smashed the base in 2023. He led Andersens recovery from an estimated $9.7 billion worth of damage to the facility.

The general, in his farewell speech, said the base looked like the fifth season of the Walking Dead when he took command in 2023, and it wasnt all Mawar.

Airmen had removed 1,800 stumps and dead trees after the typhoon, got rid of boonie dogs, removed hundreds of abandoned cars, and turned it into a proper Air Force Base, Palenske said.

The amount of lethality that you will bring against the enemy will stun the nation, he added.

Cooley: Preparing for pacing threat

Cooley, speaking for the first time as base commander, said Andersen has a busy summer ahead with lots of exercises.

Theres a requirement for us to continue increasing the resilience...readiness and the restoration across the Andersen Air Force Base as we prepare for this pacing threat, Cooley said.

He rotated to Guam from the 618th Air Operations Center at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

Cooleys selection as 36th Wing Commander indicated where the Air Forces priorities were in the region, said Leland Bettis, executive director of local defense watchdog Pacific Center for Island Security.

He was an interesting choice for the lead of the 36th Wing, and the first colonel to fill a role usually staffed by higher-ranking brigadier generals in the past two decades at Andersen, Bettis noted.

But his background made sense, according to the PCIS director.

His biography states that prior to Guam, he was deputy commander of a fleet of about 1,100 aircraft executing air mobility missions, air refueling, evacuation, and airlift, among other missions.

Cooley also has over 1,000 combat support flight hours operating cargo and aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.

He has got very deep experience in the one area in which U.S. forces in the region are having a real difficulty, and that is, you know, trying to figure out how to manage logistics in a contested environment, Bettis said Thursday.

Given the tyranny of distance that U.S. forces have to operate if they were engaged in a conflict with another regional power, the whole question of logistics is central to any war plans, he added.

A Department of Defense-funded study last year identified Guam and particularly Andersen as a prime target if a U.S.-China conflict goes nuclear. China is on track to increase its nuclear arsenal from 200 warheads as of 2019 to 1,000 by 2030, the report found.

Cooley takes the helm as the DoD activates divert airfields across Micronesia in preparation for a potential conflict, and a number of massive military exercises approach for Guam this summer, including multi-service Return of Forces to the Pacific, Bettis said.

That meant lots of ships, planes, soldiers and marines moving around in the region.

Their logistical support is going to be a huge task, Bettis said.
Morrico Equipment, an Atkins Kroll Company, takes part in the national observance of Emergency Medical Services Week by recognizing the vital work of the islands first respondersand giving back.

In a release, Atkins Kroll said Morrico Equipment donated $1,000 on May 13 to support local EMS professionals and strengthen efforts that safeguard the health and safety of Guams residents.

This initiative was conducted under Atkins Krolls Community Matters program, a company-wide commitment to uplifting community champions and frontline workers, the company said.

Morrico Equipment also celebrates 35 years of service to Guam and Micronesia.

Our support of EMS Week is deeply personal to our team and reflects a legacy of investing in the people and services that keep our communities safe, Morrico Equipment vice president and general manager Joel Lesh said in a statement. As we mark 35 years in business, we remain focused on community impacthonoring those who serve first and stand strong for Guam.

Morrico Equipment said it has played a central role in powering Guams infrastructure and public safety sectors.

From supplying Rosenbauer fire trucks and ambulances to delivering fuel and equipment in the wake of natural disasters, Morrico Equipments reach goes beyond businessits about building resilience and readiness for the region, the company said.
Of the 2,179 Filipino voters that registered in Guam and the CNMIs Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, only 183 or 8.4% cast their vote online for the 2025 Philippine midterm elections.

The paltry voter turnout was widespread for the first ever online-only overseas voting for Filipinos abroad.

Worldwide, only about 232,000 overseas Filipinos or some 19% of 1.22 million expected, voted online.

On Guam, a few days before the May 12 Philippine elections, 49-year-old construction technician Eric Pena was still waiting for his overseas ballot.

Same for 64-year-old auto repair shop owner Ronnie McGyver Lanuza, who also had no idea that overseas voting for the 2025 elections was online this year.

The Philippine Consulate General in Agana said it posted information on their social media platforms about the shift to online voting this year for overseas Filipinos.

But Pena and Lanuzaand perhaps hundreds or even thousands of potential voters not only in Guam but also on Saipandidnt get the memo.

An email to the Philippine Consulate General in Agana asking for what other types of information campaign they implemented in the runup to the elections is still unanswered as of Thursday press time.

Pena, who like Lanuza used to live on Saipan, said he didnt even know the elections for Filipinos citizens living abroad were strictly online this year.

I didnt vote because no papers arrived, said the 49-year-old construction technician.

He admitted that he still thought his overseas ballot would be delivered by mail and even instructed her wife, who is still living on Saipan, to immediately mail it to Guam if it finally arrives.

I told her to wait for our PO box because someone is sending something there. I dont understand why no [overseas ballots] came, said Pena.

Besides not knowing that voting was strictly online this year, Lanuza said he also didnt vote because of his frustration over the countrys kind of governance.

He said CNMI voters tend to be stubborn in voting for traditional politicians so he didnt believe his lone vote would count anyways.

Overseas Filipino voters can vote for the countrys senators with only the Top 12 vote-getters getting a seat in the upper chamber of the Philippine Congress. They can also choose a party list representative for the lower chamber, the Philippine House of Representatives.

While Lanuza and Pena had no idea about the online polls, CNMI resident Darwin Gonzales knew and tried his best to cast his vote using his mobile phone.

But alas, the business owner on Saipan said he grew frustrated with the online process in this years elections.

I tried last Saturday (May 10) and the page just expired two times. Their information drive prior to the elections was a mess. Online voting should only be an option there, he said.

CNMI nonresident worker advocate Irene Holl said she prayed before the 2025 Philippine elections.

I prayed for God to give the voters wisdom to choose the right people. People who will work for the people and not steal from the people. I also pray that there will be unity so everyone can work together for a better nation, she said.

Lito Espino, a member of the United Filipino Organization, said hes still frustrated with the result of the elections as traditional politicians were still voted in by his countrymen.

Filipinos will continue to suffer when the people they vote for are all thieves from the public treasury. Many are smart, I dont know why Filipinos dont vote and then complain that the government has no progress, he said in Filipino.

UFO president Carlito Marquez said the umbrella group of Filipino organizations on Saipan held an information campaign last May 3 at the Marianas Business Plaza to familiarize Filipino overseas voters on the online voting process.

Only less than 20 people registered, but many inquired, but it seemed like they had no interest in voting, especially when we said it was internet voting, they just shook their heads and left.

Marquez said it appears that online voting will take time to be accepted by voters on Saipan.

Last Saturday (May 10) again, I was hanging out at the Sabalu Market and I asked everyone I knew if they had already voted, they just shook their heads and then nothing. I said I would help you enroll, then they were surprised and said, why do you even need to enroll? It means they lack awareness when it comes to internet voting, he said.

Of the 66 candidates that ran for senator in the Philippine elections, independent candidate Ping Lacson garnered the most votes among those in Guam and the CNMI, with 83, followed by PDP-Labans Bong Go and Katipunan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipinos Bam Aquino with 82 votes apiece. Independent candidate Rodante Marcoleta and PDP-Labans Bato Dela Rosa complete the Top 5 with 81 and 79 votes, respectively.
The principal and staff of Talofofo Elementary School celebrated a glorious event early this week, giving next years returning students a near-guarantee that their small school will be ready to open on time.

The school was presented with its A grade from the Department of Public Health and Social Services on Monday, much to the delight of school administrative assistant Lou Chaco, who has led the charge to maintain the schools rating.

Its much easier to keep a school orderly and always be ready, rather than trying to rally the troops right before an inspection, she said.

The placard they received is supposed to be posted in a prominent place in the school office, and only Public Health can remove it.

But before doing that, Chaco, along with Acting Principal Emily Meno, office clerks and other school aides, paraded their rating from class to class to share the good news.

Every class cheered, she said, and it was a highly emotional event.

This is our home, said Chaco, who has worked at the school since 1996.

She added that her four adult children are also former students there.

Its a small school, and its very old, but its our school. We spend so much time here. Things are so good here, and we want to keep it that way, she said.

Although the school received an A rating last year, Chaco wanted to attack an issue that cost the school six demerits last time.

The student restrooms and janitor area did not meet temperature and lighting standards.

Chaco worked through the Guam Department of Education to install air conditioners, as well as GDOE maintenance to switch out light fixtures.

She and her school crew of J.C. Manibusan, Irene Acfalle and school aides Charlene Crisostomo, Wayne Borja and Christin Chaco regularly walked through the campus and classrooms, identifying possible violations.

These they addressed as they saw. They were guided by the inspection reports and recommendations.

In the weeks before and after the school inspection scheduled for early May, Chaco, along with school staff and their spouses Jesse Chaco, Mark Crisostomo and Frank Concepcion, assisted her daily, staying as late as 11 p.m. to get things done.

They patched unsightly blemishes on ceilings and walls, and filled and painted holes in walkways. As much as she wanted to change the windows whose handles were frozen by rust and time, she said she could live with three demerits.

We did not stop until it was done, and whatever we did, it was all we could do, Chaco said.

Inspectors returned on May 6, and Meno and Chaco were only too happy to show results of the staffs hard work.

Chaco credits Meno for her support, even as she split her principal duties between Talofofo and Inarajan Elementary.

She also thanked the staff, teachers and students. The sense of school pride was infectious, she said, and it was great to see ownership.

The faculty and students really helped by taking care of their classrooms. They were inspired, like they were even crying like the kids when they saw the A card, she said. But its because we take it so seriously.
Members of the Oceania Customs Organization on Tuesday signed a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Declaration during the organizations 27th Annual Conference in Guam, committing to promoting gender equality, inclusive workplaces, and women's leadership development across regional customs agencies.

A panel discussion moderated by Australia, with panelists from Samoa, Nauru, and the OCO Secretariat, was followed by breakout sessions to develop practical strategies for implementing GESI principles.

Current statistics indicate that women represent approximately 40% of the customs workforce across OCO member countries, but only 30% of senior leadership positions, OCO said.

The GESI Declaration aims to address this imbalance through targeted interventions, mentorship programs, and policy reforms, the OCO said.

"This declaration represents our collective commitment to building customs administrations that reflect the diversity of our communities," OCO Steering Committee chair and Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency Director Ike Q. Peredo said in a statement. "Diversity in our workforce is not merely a goal to aspire to  it is an operational necessity."

The morning session highlighted the Pacific Women's Professional Development Program, a collaboration among the OCO, Australian Border Force, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

"By embracing gender equality and social inclusion, we're building customs administrations that are more resilient and better equipped to navigate the complexities of modern border management," said Nancy T. Oraka, head of Secretariat for the OCO.

Col. Barbara Tayama, assistant chief of GCQAs Inspection and Control Division, said as a proud graduate of the Pacific Womens Professional Development Program, she's especially energized by this years OCO Conference theme, "Driving Efficiency, Security and Sustainability: Strengthening Customs in the Pacific.

"It speaks directly to the transformative leadership our region needsone that is inclusive, innovative, and resilient. The emphasis on gender equality alongside digitalization and environmental protection highlights that building stronger customs administrations means empowering all voices, especially women, to lead the way in shaping a secure and sustainable Pacific," Tayama said.

The OCO Annual Conference continues through May 23, with upcoming sessions on organizational governance, technology innovation, and environmental protection.
(Editor's note: This story has been updated to add the Department of Corrections' photo of the suspect.)

After a foot chase through the jungle, a suspect in a series of Asan Beach indecent exposure cases fought with police and attempted to choke a detective, according to a news release from Guam Police Department.

Detectives ultimately subdued Jaythan Ryan Megofna, 32, early Thursday morning and arrested him in connection with indecent exposure, open lewdness and assault on a peace officer.

Police began receiving reports of a man exposing himself and sexually harassing people in the park in 2024.

In several disturbing cases, a male suspect reportedly exposing himself to the victims and immediately fleeing the area, to victims reporting a man peeking into the womens restrooms, again fleeing the area before officers arrival, the news release stated.

The War in the Pacific National Historic Park is federal property, so GPD detectives worked together with the National Park Service, Guam wildlife and agricultural officers and patrolling units with the Guam Park Police to find the suspect.

Despite their efforts, the investigation would end fruitless, police said.

In January, Barbara Alberti, superintendent of the War in the Pacific National Historic Park, suspended a citizen science program in which volunteers would hunt for invasive brown tree snakes in the park on Friday nights.

At the time, she said the decision to halt the program was made to protect visitors, staff members and anyone else at the park.

The man was reported to target vehicles and individuals near the parks restrooms, so investigators conducted night operations.

Detectives compiled detailed information from victims and witnesses to develop a working profile of the potential suspect.

At 1:30 a.m. Thursday, while police were conducting surveillance, a man matching the profile and distinctive attire of the suspect was observed surreptitiously approaching an unmarked vehicle occupied by undercover detectives, police said.

The mans lower body was unclothed, and detectives watched as he began to engage in lewd conduct immediately outside their vehicle, police said.

The detectives identified themselves and tried to apprehend Megofna, who ran into the dense vegetation behind the restroom facilities.

A detective was hurt on the rough terrain during the chase. Then as officers searched the area, Megofna ambushed a detective and started a fight in which he struck and attempted to strangle the officer, police said.

Although Megofna was booked and confined at the Department of Corrections, the case remains open as police continue to investigate whether he coordinated with others during the reported cases dating back to 2024.

Other incidents were also identified in 2023 in the Asan Beach Park area, police said.

Police are asking anyone with information to call investigators at (671) 475-8557 or Guam Police Dispatch at (671) 475-8615 through 8617.




Haiti - FLASH : Submission to the Government of the preliminary draft of the new Constitution of Haiti





On Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at the Villa d'Accueil, during a ceremony, members of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT), accompanied by Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, officially received from former Prime Minister and Chairman of the Steering Committee of the National Conference, Enex Jean-Charles, the preliminary draft of the new Constitution of the Republic, the result of several months of discussions, public consultations, and meetings in the country's departments and abroad.



This preliminary draft should not be considered an end in itself, the Government stated, but rather as "the starting point for a broad National dialogue. The time has come for the Haitian people, in all their diversity, to come together around this preliminary draft, to analyze it with rigor and serenity, and to actively participate in a civic debate that is open, constructive, and respectful of differences." Because it is on this collective debate that our ability to break the current impasse depends, to rebuild our institutions on solid foundations, and to pave the way for free, credible, and promising elections.



Upon receiving this document, the Prime Minister sent a message of hope and mobilization : "We are on the right track. Together, with wisdom and faith in our common destiny, we can put Haiti back on the path to stability, justice, and progress."



Furthermore, Kathia Verdier, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE), emphasized major progress regarding the constitutional integration of the diaspora : The text clearly affirms the right of Haitians living abroad to actively participate in national life under the same conditions as citizens living in Haiti. The right to vote and to stand for election is guaranteed. From now on, every Haitian, regardless of their residence, will not only be able to vote, but also to run for office and hold public office with complete equality. She noted that the development of this draft bill mobilized the voices of the diaspora through participatory forums abroad, recognizing their role in Haiti's political future. Download the preliminary draft of the new Constitution (PDF in French, 61 pages) : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/865198904-Avant-projet-de-la-nouvelle-Constitution-d-Haiti.pdf



Walta Jean Duliepre Clercius, Technical Secretary of the National Conference, reiterates that this preliminary draft Constitution is not final and is subject to the assessment of public opinion, all organized sectors of national life, all professional bodies, all organizations and political parties, with a view to arriving at a final draft Constitution, consistent with the national will.



You are invited to submit to the Steering Committee of the National Conference, during the period from Thursday, May 22 to Friday, June 21, 2025, any comments, remarks, and criticisms that would help enrich the text of the Constitution.



By email : info@konferansnasyonalayiti.ht

By mai l: To the Villa dAccueil, to the attention of the Steering Committee of the National Conference

By phone : (+509) 36384592 / 43887194.



HL/ S/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Insecurity : Bloodbath in the town of Preval (Petite-Riviere de lArtibonite)





Following the death of young Hudlet Charles, killed on his plantation by bandits from Savien's "Gran Grif" "the Coalition" an armed self-defense group formed over five years ago to fight the "Gran Grif" and "Kokorat San Ras" gangs, reportedly decided to avenge the death of Hudlet Charles, a member of the Coalition, by attacking the population of Preval, a town located in the first communal section of Petite-Riviere in the Artibonite region, accusing them of collaborating with and tolerating the gang's presence in the area. According to other versions, this massacre was the work of the "Gran Grif" Gang.



Giving free rein to their baser animal instincts, the members of the Coalition (or "Gran Grif") engaged in a veritable massacre, killing with machetes, decapitating the victims, and throwing the bodies into the Artibonite River. 



Pastor Jacques Brutus, 86, and about fifteen worshippers were massacred in the Maranatha Baptist Church of the Haitian Evangelical Baptist Union Mission.



More than ten houses were burned, some with families inside...



The provisional death toll, based on the bodies already found and the injured, is estimated to be over 50, according to the human rights organization "Mouvman Moun."



Many terrified residents fled to Saint-Marc...



TB / HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Politic : There can be no democracy without the full participation of women





On May 20, 2025, as part of the political participation of women in the electoral process, Pedrica Saint Jean, the Minister for the Status of Women and Women's Rights (MCFDF), aware of the importance of the media as a means of disseminating information and influencing public opinion, met with media executives in the run-up to the general elections.



In her speech, Minister Pedrica Saint Jean stated, "The media have immense power to influence how society perceives women in politics, their legitimacy, their skills, and their right to actively participate in the country's governance." According to the Minister, "The media can build or destroy public figures. They can normalize the political harassment of women or denounce it with rigor; they can reproduce stereotypes or help break them." It is with this in mind that the Minister wishes to establish an active partnership with media owners to ensure that the upcoming elections are inclusive, fair, and representative.



"Therefore, we invite you today to become committed allies in the fight for political equality through fair and gender-neutral media coverage of female candidates; the promotion of women experts, activists, and opinion leaders in your broadcasts and columns; the development of awareness campaigns on women's rights to participate in political decisions; and the training of your journalists and presenters in a gender-sensitive approach to the reporting of political information," adding, "Women are not demanding preferential treatment, but fairer and more equitable treatment."



Along with media executives and women's and feminist organizations, representatives of political parties took part in a meeting organized by the Ministry on May 21, 2025, at the Montana Hotel. The meeting was organized to raise awareness about the importance of women's political participation in the electoral process.



The main objective of this meeting was to encourage political parties to offer women the same opportunities as men, in accordance with the Convention on the Political Rights of Women, which guarantees women's eligibility for public office without discrimination.



In her speech, Minister Saint Jean reiterated that "there can be no democracy without the full participation of women." She urged the parties to adopt a more inclusive approach and to include more women in their structures and electoral lists to ensure fairer representation in the upcoming elections.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Christian Democrat MP Paivi Rasanen said she has received hundreds of messages daily. Writing on Facebook, she described the correspondence as part of a massive, orchestrated campaign characterised by leftist rhetoric and, in some cases, antisemitic content.

Members of the Finnish Parliament have reported receiving an unusually high volume of messages from the public ahead of a scheduled debate on the Gaza war. The debate, set for Thursday afternoon, follows months of growing tension both in the region and in Finland's domestic political landscape.

There is no concern over Hamass actions, but Israel is condemned repeatedly, Rasanen stated. She said that many of the messages appear to be copied and edited form letters, tailored to each recipient. Rasanen also claimed to have received direct personal insults.

Christian Democrat parliamentary group chair Peter Ostman estimated he had received around one hundred messages per day on the topic.

The debate was initiated by Left Alliance MP Mai Kivela, who confirmed a surge in messages asking Finland to act in support of Gazan civilians. These messages are personal and signed, not anonymous. They come from people who are shocked by what is happening, she told Helsingin Sanomat.

The Parliaments Gaza discussion follows a broader shift in Finlands foreign policy discourse after Israels government declared its intention to take full control of Gaza and forcibly transfer the population. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, President Alexander Stubb, and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen have condemned the move, with Stubb labelling forced displacement a war crime.

Speaking in Rauma on Wednesday, Orpo insisted the government was united on Gaza: Our position is clear. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza immediately. There must be a ceasefire, hostages must be released, and peace talks must begin with a two-state solution in mind.

However, divisions persist within the four-party coalition. The Finns Party and Christian Democrats have refrained from explicitly endorsing the state leaderships position. Jani Makela, head of the Finns Party parliamentary group, said the information from the region was fragmented and possibly biased. Christian Democrat leader and Minister of Agriculture Sari Essayah has avoided comment altogether.

Valtonen said Wednesday that the government supports, in principle, the possibility of EU sanctions against Israeli ministers who have made inflammatory statements about Gaza. She was responding to a Swedish proposal for such measures.

The debate in Parliament comes amid wider pressure on Finnish leadership. More than 1,600 researchers have signed a petition urging Finland to recognise Palestinian statehood and to take all reasonable measures to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. The petition was coordinated by University of Helsinki sociologist Lena Nare and Stockholm University economist Markus Jantti.

The researchers cited Israels plan to take over the entire Gaza Strip and force the population into third countries as evidence of war crimes. Nare said the scale of academic support was unprecedented and reflected a broader sense of moral obligation.

We couldnt just watch the war crimes unfold in silence, she said.

President Stubb, Prime Minister Orpo and Valtonen released a joint statement earlier this week denouncing the humanitarian conditions in Gaza and calling for immediate aid access. The statement described population transfers as illegal and urged both sides to stop hostilities and begin negotiations.

The upcoming parliamentary session will follow a motion submitted by 38 opposition MPs last November. It calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian aid, and for Finland to assess how it could better support civilians in Gaza and help prevent regional escalation.

While there is consensus on the need to address the humanitarian crisis, parties remain divided on how to proceed. Green Party chair Sofia Virta has demanded an immediate end to arms trade with Israel. Left Alliance chair Minja Koskela called for direct sanctions against Israeli officials and recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Social Democratic Party chair Antti Lindtman criticised the governments overall response as weak. Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz, leader of the Swedish People's Party, has also publicly supported recognising Palestine.

Valtonen acknowledged on Wednesday that internal government differences exist, particularly over which elements of the conflict to prioritise. Some want to highlight Hamass attacks and the hostage crisis, others focus first on the humanitarian disaster, she said.

The parliamentary debate is scheduled to begin at 16:00 and will feature statements from MPs across the political spectrum as well as a response from Valtonen.

HT
We are observing no surprises, Nurmi told Finnish media. The activity matches what we have assessed would happen.

Russia could regain the capacity to challenge Nato within three to five years, according to the Finnish Defence Forces. Strategic planning chief Major General Sami Nurmi said Russia's recent military activity near Finlands eastern border aligns with expectations and does not suggest an immediate crisis, but underlines a growing long-term concern.

Russias redeployment efforts began before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At that time, it announced plans to increase troop numbers and reinforce its northwestern garrisons. Those areas are now undergoing construction and preparation for the return of units, many of which were previously sent to Ukraine from near Finland.

Finlands accession to Nato, along with Swedens, has shifted the regional security balance and prompted Russia to respond by repositioning troops. Recent satellite imagery shows steady military build-up across northwestern Russia, raising concerns among intelligence agencies and European governments.

Nurmi acknowledged that Russia retains the ability to move a limited number of troops quickly, a tactic used effectively in Ukraine in early 2022. A limited concentration of forces can happen very quickly. Russia has the capability to do that, he said.

While redeployment of conventional forces from Ukraine will take years, Nurmi said Russia is laying groundwork now. This includes building or expanding military infrastructure to accommodate returning or replacement troops.

A public assessment released by Danish military intelligence earlier this year warned that Russia might be capable of launching an offensive against neighbouring countries within six months of the Ukraine war ending. The assessment further suggested Russia could project force into the Baltic Sea region two years later, and be ready for a broader European war by 2030 if defences are not reinforced.

The European Union has echoed these estimates, stating in spring that Europe must be prepared to defend itself by 2030.

Asked whether Finland shares this timeline, Nurmi said the three-to-five-year range is plausible based on open-source assessments.

It is probably something like that. But for us it is important to monitor developments closely, update our own assessments and act accordingly, he said.

Despite the warning, Nurmi stressed that the current situation is not viewed as critical.

We have been neighbours of Russia for many hundreds of years. We have learned to live with it, he said.

Still, the broader deterioration in European security following the war in Ukraine is a major concern for Finnish defence planners. Nurmi said Finland has responded appropriately by increasing its defence spending and strengthening national readiness.

According to Nurmi, the question is not only about troop movements but also about capacity and intent. While large-scale war preparations require time and infrastructure, Russias demonstrated ability to move smaller units swiftly leaves little room for complacency.

Military analysts note that several Russian units withdrawn from bases near Finlands border have not yet been replaced. The current construction aims to prepare for their return or to host new deployments, depending on Russias needs after the war in Ukraine ends.

The strategic realignments have prompted renewed attention across Natos eastern flank. Finland, which joined the alliance in 2023, has been rapidly integrating its defence systems with Nato structures.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this year that all members must strengthen their eastern defences and adapt to long-term threats from Russia.

Finlands Defence Ministry has not publicly commented on Russias latest moves but has confirmed increased surveillance and coordination with Nato allies.

The Finnish Defence Forces remain focused on maintaining high readiness and monitoring developments beyond the eastern border.

HT
The structure, located near the closed border crossing at Nuijamaa, is the first section of a 200 km barrier that will be built along parts of the 1,344 km Finnish-Russian border. The fence, standing 4.5 metres tall, features metal railings, a roll of barbed wire, and is fitted with surveillance equipment including cameras, sensors, and loudspeakers.

Finland has completed the initial 35 kilometres of a new border fence with Russia, part of a larger project to increase border security and prevent irregular migration, the Finnish Border Guard confirmed on Wednesday.

Construction began last year after Finland accused Russia of facilitating irregular migration through the border in 2023. That year, roughly 1,300 migrants from countries including Syria and Somalia crossed from Russia and sought asylum in Finland. Authorities in Helsinki claim these movements were deliberately enabled by Russian authorities in response to Finlands NATO membership.

The main purpose of the fence is to control a large mass of people if they are trying to enter from Russia to Finland, said Antti Virta, deputy commander of the Southeast Finland Border Guard District.

Russia has denied involvement, saying it regrets Finlands decision to shut all eight passenger border crossings indefinitely. Moscow called the closure a sign of Finland adopting an anti-Russian stance.

Since the closure was enforced at the end of 2023, irregular border crossings have nearly ceased. Nonetheless, Finnish officials insist the fence is needed to secure the border and deter future incidents.

The border barrier is absolutely necessary to maintain border security, said Samuel Siljanen, Head of Operations at the Finnish Border Guard. It improves our ability to perform border surveillance and to act if theres a disruption or incident at the border.

The move has drawn criticism from international observers. The European Court of Human Rights has requested that Finland justify the indefinite closure. Last year, Michael OFlaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, warned that the restrictions risk violating international law, including bans on refoulement and collective expulsion.

Despite the legal challenges, construction will continue. The entire 200 km section is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The rest of the border will continue to be monitored through patrols and electronic surveillance.

HT
The incident took place during a break at Vahajarvi School, where the suspect, also a student, allegedly targeted a group of girls, stabbing them in the neck, hand and waist with a knife. All three victims were treated and have since been discharged from hospital.

Police in Finland are investigating whether misogyny played a role in a school stabbing that left three teenage girls injured in Pirkkala on Tuesday. The 16-year-old male suspect remains in custody and is being held on suspicion of three counts of attempted murder.

Investigators have confirmed that a manifesto, circulated online and shared with Finnish media shortly before the attack, is highly likely to have been written by the suspect. According to police, the document contained detailed descriptions of the planned attack and stated the intention to stab female pupils.

Detective Chief Inspector Jari Kinnunen, who is overseeing the case, said police believe the girls were deliberately chosen. The suspect had also filmed the act, though authorities have not disclosed whether the video has been published.

Researcher Tomi Kiilakoski from the Finnish Youth Research Network, who has studied previous school attacks, said the selection of girls as victims indicates elements of misogyny.

We cannot yet confirm involvement in misogynistic online subcultures, Kiilakoski said. But the fact that girls were selected makes that element clear.

Emilia Lounela, a University of Helsinki researcher who studies incel communities, said the case fits a wider cultural pattern, even if the suspect is not confirmed to have been part of any extremist group.

The logic of viewing women as inferior is central to many misogynistic ideologies, Lounela said. This worldview is increasingly visible in online spaces and political discourse. It contributes to normalising violence.

The suspects behaviour before the attack suggests he sought visibility and attention. The manifesto, which has been described as resembling a CV more than a political statement, lacked emotional content and detailed grievances.

This points toward fame-seeking as one possible motive, Kiilakoski said. Its a common feature in school attacks.

He added that most perpetrators in school attacks have been male, and that such acts are often associated with a broader tradition of masculine violence.

We dont yet know whether this suspect studied past attacks, but he followed a kind of cultural script, Kiilakoski said.

The suspects lawyer, Kaarle Gummerus, confirmed that the boy had cooperated during police interviews. He declined to comment on the suspects views about women or the extent of planning involved.

The charges are extremely serious, and the accused is especially young, Gummerus told Yle. The case is exceptional in its nature, taking place in a public school and involving multiple victims.

Gummerus said the suspect has been interviewed twice and has spoken with police. A court will consider his continued detention in a hearing in Pirkanmaa District Court.

He added that a decision on whether to oppose pretrial detention will be made after reviewing the prosecutors request.

The suspect is believed not to have known the victims personally. Police have not commented publicly on whether the boy was under the influence of any substances at the time.

According to both police and the defence, the attack appears to have been planned over a significant period, but the timeline is still under investigation.

The case has prompted a broader national conversation in Finland about youth violence, the spread of misogynistic content online, and the need for early intervention.

School authorities have not commented publicly on the attack. Vahajarvi School, which serves around 1,200 pupils from preschool to ninth grade, remains open under heightened security.

The incident has added to concerns among researchers and policymakers about the increasing visibility of hate-driven ideologies among adolescents and the role of digital platforms in shaping young minds.

Both Lounela and Kiilakoski say that cultural, educational and peer influences play a critical role in understanding why some youths resort to violence. They note that while definitive answers are often elusive, patterns are becoming harder to ignore.

HT
The Helsinki Police Department and the City of Helsinki have launched a coordinated response to address the rise in youth crime, focusing on improving information-sharing between agencies and identifying high-risk individuals early.

Police in Helsinki report a significant increase in violent offences committed by children under the age of 15, with assault cases up 30 percent in early 2025 compared to the same period last year. The trend has prompted concerns from authorities and renewed efforts to prevent repeat offences among minors.

The initiative targets children with persistent behavioural issues, criminal activity, or substance abuse.

Under Finnish law, children under 15 are below the age of criminal responsibility. As a result, police cannot prosecute repeat offenders in this group, relying instead on child protection services. According to police, this gap allows some minors to commit serious crimes repeatedly.

The most serious cases are concentrated in a small group of children, said Chief Superintendent Markku Heinikari. One under-15 boy, for example, is suspected of two attempted homicides and ten robberies during periods when he had fled care.

The number of pre-trial detentions among older teenagers has also increased. Detentions among 1517-year-olds rose by 45 percent last year, while for 1820-year-olds the number doubled.

Heinikari described the situation as tragic and said youth gang activity is increasing. Robbery is the most common reason for placing young offenders in pre-trial detention. He said these cases show that early interventions have not been sufficient to break cycles of offending.

Heinikari also called for the creation of a secure facility designed to offer multi-agency support to under-15s committing serious crimes.

Schools and police are working more closely in response to the rise in youth violence. The government allocated 2 million last autumn to strengthen school police work across the country. In Helsinki, two school officers are supplemented by patrol officers who have already made around 350 school visits this year.

Inspector Jani Aunio, one of the citys school police officers, said schools frequently contact police with concerns related to bullying, violence, or substance use. Since January, Helsinki schools have submitted about 300 such requests for police assistance.

These are cases where the schools own measures are no longer enough, Aunio said.

The city will appoint a dedicated coordinator from 1 August to manage police-school cooperation and improve safety in schools.

Recent knife incidents have heightened awareness of the issue. On Tuesday, a 16-year-old boy stabbed three younger girls at a lower secondary school in Pirkkala. All victims were discharged from hospital the following day. On Wednesday, a child under 12 injured a classmate with a blade at a primary school in Hameenlinna. The victim was not seriously hurt.

Despite these incidents, Aunio stressed that schools remain safe. He reminded that carrying knives is illegal in schools, and any such cases are reported to child protection authorities. Last year, fewer than 10 cases were recorded in Helsinki involving students bringing harmful objects to school.

HT
(JNS) - Everyone's heard of the king of beers. Now, meet the queen.

For the longest time, Israel was known primarily for two competing beers: Maccabi or Goldstar, sold in stores, bars and restaurants, on tap or by the bottle. Tourists and sabras alike tended to favor one over the other, akin to preferring a cold glass of Coke or Pepsi.

Those days are gone.

The Jewish state has gotten into the beer industry step by step, and one of the more successful ventures is Malka Brewery in the Western Galilee. Its craft beer is homegrown, not imported. Malka means "queen" in Hebrew, and it's both a play...
(JNS)  A New York University finance professor of mine in the early 1970s said, Give me one set of numbers, and I will give you two sets of answers. For most of my professional career, this has been true.

Going against that mantra, I am going to offer a few sets of numbers and only one set of answers. Because there is only one answer.

The land set of numbers

There are about 1.978 billion Muslims in the world out of approximately 8.2 billion people. Some 72 percent of Muslims live in countries where the Islamic religious symbol (a crescent moon) is on the national flag; Islam is the offici...
(JNS)  U.S. President Donald Trump told Saudi Arabian officials that they ought to recognize Israel formally, and by doing so, youll be greatly honoring me.

Its been an amazing thing, the Abraham Accords. Its my fervent hope, wish and even my dream, that Saudi Arabia, a place I have such respect for, especially over the last fairly short period of timewhat youve been able to do, Trump said in a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looking on.

But well soon be joining the Abraham Accords. I think it will be a tremendous tribute to your country and s...
(JNS)  U.S.-Israeli citizen Edan Alexanders mother Yael revealed new details of his ordeals as a captive of Hamas in Gaza.

Our hearts broke as Edan began to share the unimaginable hardship, the daily fearjust to survive the night. The hunger, the lack of water, the horrific sanitary conditions, his mother said from Ichilov Hospital, where her son is recovering after his release on May 12. He is expected to stay at the hospital for four days.

Edan, 21, was freed by Hamas after 584 days in captivity. He was 19 when he was captured while serving on the Israeli border as part of the Israel De...
(JNS)  Israelis are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a large-scale terrorist invasion led by Palestinian terrorist organizations from Judea and Samaria, according to a new survey made public on Thursday.

The poll, published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and conducted by the Lazar Research Institute, surveyed a representative sample of approximately 700 Jewish and Arab Israelis.

Eighty-one percent of the Jewish Israeli respondents have concerns about a large-scale terror attack emanating from Judea and Samaria, up from 68 percent in February, when the...
(JNS)  Hadassah, the Womens Zionist Organization of America has released its list of 18 American Zionist women you should know for three years to spread the word that todays Zionists arent who you think of when you hear the word, the nonprofit told JNS.

Zionism today is expressed in myriad powerful and personal ways by women of all different backgrounds and walks of life, Carol Ann Schwartz, Hadassahs national president, told JNS.

Hadassahs list captures that breadth of experience and celebrates women who are not only advocating for Israel but also reshaping the conversation about...
(JNS)  Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza issued an urgent demand for clarification from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government on May 7, following a statement by U.S. President Donald Trump that only 21 captives remain alivecontradicting Jerusalems official figure of 24.

In a statement issued by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, relatives called on the government to disclose any updated intelligence.

Following the U.S. presidents statement last night regarding the number of living hostages still being held captivethe number of living hostages known...
(JTA) - If she found it unnerving to see someone make a throat-slitting gesture at her as she walked the carpet at the first event in the Eurovision song contest, Yuval Raphael wasn't letting on.

"It was a stressful situation, scary at times," Raphael, Israel's competitor in this year's song contest, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview Monday. She was speaking a day after the competition's "turquoise carpet" kickoff, when Israel filed a police report accusing a pro-Palestinian demonstrator of making the threatening gesture and spitting at her.

She added, "But I keep reminding my...
Israel's Yuval Raphael defied expectations to come in second in the annual Eurovision song contest on May 17, narrowly losing out to Austria after being buoyed by the popular vote but also drawing points from the juries in 14 countries.

"Thank you, Europe! Am Yisrael chai!" Raphael shouted from the stage after her performance.

Azerbaijan awarded Israel all 12 of the points its jury could give, in a departure from last year, when Israel did not win any country's full jury points. Azerbaijan is a key oil, weapons and intelligence trading partner with Israel.

For many Israelis, Eurovision is seen...
(JTA) - Since 1540, a prestigious chain of scholars has held the title of the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge.

But not one of these scholars of Hebrew and Semitic studies was Jewish - until this year.

In September 2025, Aaron Koller will become the first Jew to join the university's department of Middle Eastern Studies as the Regius Professor of Hebrew, a role established by King Henry VIII. Koller is packing up from New York City, where he has taught at Yeshiva University, specializing in Hebrew from biblical to medieval texts, since earning his doctorate there in 20...
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Jewish National Fund, will be allocating $100,000 to support New York City's Israel parade for the first time.

The annual parade, known as Israel Day on Fifth, took place on Sunday, May 18, with the theme "Hatikvah," the name of Israel's national anthem, which means "the hope." KKL-JNF billed it as the "largest global gathering in support of Israel."

The allocation by KKL-JNF underscores an effort to strengthen bonds between Israeli and American Jews, the group said. Recently, they allocated roughly $8.5 million to a program to bring students from the Diaspora to I...
(JNS)  Israeli civilian communities in Judea and Samaria serve as the Jewish states defensive wall in every sense of the word, President Isaac Herzog said in remarks to the Makor Rishon Settlement Conference, held in the southern Samaria town of Ofra.

During my many visits across the countryand certainly in Judea and Samariaand especially when I fly over the land by helicopter, I become increasingly convinced of how vital, impressive, and thriving the settlement enterprise is, Herzog said in a pre-recorded statement.

He described Judea and Samaria as truly Israels protective shield,...
Kinneret Council on Aging, an area nonprofit that provides life enhancing resources to the over 300 residents of Kinneret Apartments and to seniors living outside that community, has expanded the scope of its activities even further.

Additional onsite activities include a monthly nutrition class provided by the Second Harvest Food Bank, and weekly English and semi-weekly Spanish classes. Fresh fruit and vegetables, canned items and protein are now available twice a month through KCOA's new partnership with 4Roots Farm.

Over 50 residents celebrated Purim with a festival of song and dance. Led b...
(JNS) - After signing agreements with Saudi Arabia worth about $600 billion on May 13, U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to tout the deals that evening during a speech in Riyadh at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. Instead, he broke news announcing a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, by saying that he intended to lift sanctions on Syria, which had been imposed during the regime of Basher Assad.

"In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there's a new government that will hopefully succeed in stabilizing the country and keeping peace," Trump told attendees, of the new governmen...
Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed on Wednesday evening outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

The male victim was identified as Yaron Lischinsky. His final post on social media was a repost of a message condemning the United Nations' false claim that 14,000 infants in Gaza were facing imminent starvation, labeling it a modern-day blood libel.

According to Israeli Ambassador to Berlin Ron Prosor, who taught him as a master student, Lischinsky was a Germany-born Christian Zionist who had served in the Israel Defense Forces and "chose to dedicate his life to the Sta...
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists burst from Gaza, slaughtering all they encountered. Ofakim was one of the communities attacked. Forty-seven innocent, unsuspecting civilians were murdered. Using only a few small arms, Ofakim citizens fought back like lions, holding off the bloodthirsty, heavily armed terrorists until help arrived hours later.

Ofakim's heroic resistance helped prevent Hamas from reaching other communities.

The Lion of Ofakim is the largest in the Middle East. It is the first major interpretive memorial project of a Gaza area community impacted by the horrors of that day.

The L...
(JNS)  Where can rabbis gather to hear from the Speaker of the House and a progressive Democratic senator about their support for the State of Israel? Where can they join Christian ministers to advocate for Israel, participate in a respectful discussion about the administrations efforts against antisemitism, study biblical texts, learn about troubling antisemitism trends, and hear from influential authors and student leaders confronting anti-Israel activity on campus?

If you said the Annual Conference of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, you would be right.

ZRC, the independent collective voic...
Argentine Supreme Court discovers over 80 boxes of forgotten Nazi documents

By Grace Gilson

(JTA)  The Supreme Court of Argentina discovered over 80 boxes of material from the Nazis in its basement last Friday, prompting court officials to work with local Jewish organizations to review their contents.

The boxes were sent in 1941 from the embassy of Nazi Germany in Tokyo to German diplomats in Argentina. Their contents include Nazi postcards, photographs and propaganda material, which, the court said in a statement Monday, were intended to consolidate and propagate Adolf Hitlers ideology in...
Last November, as part of a company staff retreat, my daughter (who is also my co-worker) and I had the opportunity to visit Paamoney Ruach, (Wind Chimes), a unique nonprofit that serves as both a therapeutic facility for people with severe PTSD and a shelter for abused animals. As someone with a background in social work who generally prefers animals at a distance, I went with an open mind but no expectations.

Wind Chimes is located in a residential neighborhood, hidden behind fences. When Dr. Noam Rudich, the founder, opened the gate, we discovered a yard filled with animals of every kind: d...
(JNS)  A recent report published by the Network Contagion Research Institute highlighted a connection between the Middle East Childrens Alliance, makers of the Teach Palestine Project, and the Union of Health Work Committees in Gaza, which has financial and personnel ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The PFLP is a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Connections between the terror group and UHWC came to light after the 2019 murder of 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shnerb, and was reported on by Matthew Levitt for the Washington Institute for Near East Affairs....
(JNS)  U.S. President Donald Trump is the greatest friend that Israel and the Jewish people have ever had in the White House. Still, some are concerned that there has been no action on Iran.

The ayatollahs are the most devious, conniving and untrustworthy cabal in the world. They have perpetrated terrorism against America and Israel in the form of proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. They have funded and encouraged university riots and protests in cities across the world.

Regime change in Iran should be the goal. Iran is a paper tiger, and some have said its nuclear facilities can b...
(JNS)  I wrote last week about the most famous biblical commandment: love thy neighbor. We shared commentary by Nachmanides (the Rambam) on how we mustnt harbor hate in our hearts but rather confront the person who we believe wronged us. That way, we will be able to keep the peace between us and ultimately be able to fulfill the commandment to love thy neighbor.

The problem is that not everyone enjoys being confrontational. I dont have any statistics, but I would imagine that most people tend to shy away from confrontation. The average person has neither the desire nor the gumption for a...
Recently there have been rumors of President Trump changing the name of the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Gulf, causing great concern and even anger among millions of Iranians. At the same time, there are ongoing reports about the U.S. making a deal with the evil Iranian Islamic regime, concerning Israelis, Iranians, and Americans alike. As Trump visited the Middle East and flew over the body of water separating Iran and the Arabian peninsula, its important to look at what this means today, historically, and the long-term implications for the future.

While I applaud any effort to undermine, w...
(JNS)  This week, one of our prayers has been answered: Edan Alexander is free.

Taken hostage during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and dragged into the Gaza Strip along with some 250 others, he is now able to see the sky after 584 days in captivity. And while we thank God for his return, we must also take a few minutes to reflect on something even larger  what it means when a young man like Edan chooses to leave his family, friends and future behind to serve a people and a nation he didnt have to.

Because he didnt have to come back to Israel.

Edan, who was born in Tel Av...
BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China's visa-exemption policies have boosted inbound travel. Since the start of this year, "China Travel" has kept trending. On Wednesday, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China released a list of frequently asked questions about these policies. Q: Who does the visa waiver apply to? A: Nationals of 43 countries including Brunei, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, the Republic of Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay take effect from June 1, 2025) holding valid ordinary passports can be exempted from visa requirement if entering China for the purpose of business, tourism, family or friend visits, exchange and transit. They can stay in China for no more than 30 days without visa. Q: Do foreign nationals eligible for a visa waiver need to make declarations to Chinese embassies and consulates in advance? A: Foreign nationals eligible for a visa waiver do not need to declare in advance to Chinese embassies and consulates before entering China without a visa. Q: Will the purpose of intended stay in China be examined by Chinese border inspection authorities when entering China? How will it be done? Are other documents needed for entering China in addition to a passport? A: Foreign nationals traveling for purposes of business, tourism, family or friend visits, exchange and transit that meet the visa waiver requirements, can be allowed to enter China without a visa upon examination and approval in accordance with the law by border inspection authorities. Entry into China shall be denied by border inspection authorities in accordance with the law to foreign nationals who travel for purposes that do not meet the visa waiver requirements or who are not allowed to enter China in accordance with laws and regulations. It is recommended to take documents such as invitation letters, air tickets and reservations of accommodation as proof corresponding to the purposes of entry into China. Visa waiver does not apply to those who come to China for work, study, journalistic or similar purposes. Q: Is there any additional requirement for minors eligible for a visa waiver? A: Visa waiver requirements for minors are the same as for adults. Q: Are there any requirements regarding the type and validity of entry documents? A: For foreign nationals, an ordinary passport valid for at least the duration of the intended stay in China is needed. Holders of travel documents or temporary or emergency documents other than ordinary passports are not allowed to enter China without a visa. Q: How to calculate the duration of stay of 30 days? A: The duration of stay without visa is calculated from the day after entry and lasts continuously for 30 calendar days. Q: Does the visa waiver apply to foreign nationals who travel from a third country? A: Eligible foreign nationals can depart for China from any country or region. Q: Does the visa waiver apply to foreign nationals who travel via modes of transport other than aviation? A: The visa waiver applies to all travelers coming to China through any sea, road and airport open to foreign nationals -- except where laws, regulations or bilateral arrangements specify otherwise. For arrivals in China by way of private transport, certain procedures for entry and exit of means of transport shall be processed in accordance with relevant laws and regulations of China. Q: Does the visa waiver apply to tour groups? A: The visa waiver applies to eligible foreign nationals either in tour groups or as individuals. Q: If the length of intended stay exceeds 30 days, can the visa waiver be extended? A: Foreign nationals planning to stay in China for over 30 days shall apply for visas corresponding to their purposes of stay in advance at Chinese embassies or consulates. If they have to stay longer than 30 days for appropriate and sufficient reasons after entering China without a visa, they shall apply for stay permits to the exit and entry administrations of public security authorities of China. Q: Does the visa waiver allow multiple entries? Is there any requirement on the length of intervals between each entry, or any restriction on the number of entries without a visa or total days of stay? A: Foreign nationals eligible for the visa waiver can enter China without a visa multiple times. Currently, there is no restriction on the number of entries or total days of stay, but those who enjoy visa-free travel to China shall not engage in activities inconsistent with their purpose of entry.
BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Experts from China and Germany have called for cooperation to address global challenges in a turbulent world, as they took part in a seminar on China-Russia-Europe relations held in Beijing on Tuesday. Organized by the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the seminar took place at a time when China and the European Union (EU) are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic ties. In his opening remarks, Sun Zhuangzhi, head of the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies under the CASS, said that amid profound global changes unseen in a century, humanity once again stands at a historic crossroads. Sun added that against this backdrop, academic discussions on China-Russia-Europe relations hold significant practical relevance. Emphasizing that China and Europe share many mutual interests, Sun said it is crucial to find the greatest common ground for cooperation between the two sides, which carries special significance for safeguarding security and stability across the Eurasian continent and promoting global prosperity and development. Nadine Godehardt, senior fellow in the Asia Division at the Brussels Office of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, noted that the world is undergoing new and profound changes, with the geopolitical landscape in the Eurasian region becoming increasingly complex. As a result, the EU and the European integration process are combining to generate new momentum for reform that has resulted in a series of policy adjustments, Godehardt said, adding that discussions among Chinese and European think tanks on China-Russia-Europe relations and the situation in the greater Eurasian region are both timely and significant. Participating scholars agreed that in the face of a turbulent and interconnected international environment, countries around the world should uphold the principles of mutual success and shared progress, work together to address major global and regional challenges, and jointly contribute to a new chapter in international governance and multilateral cooperation. Experts and scholars from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, the Bertelsmann Foundation, Ruhr University Bochum, the CASS and the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations attended the seminar.
Women are more attracted to men with psychopathic traits.

Women find it hard to resist men with psychopathic traits

New findings - conducted by researchers from Hunan Normal University in China - show that men with psychopathic traits are more appealing to the opposite sex.

In the study, the researchers showed photos of men with varying degrees of Dark Triad traits - narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy - to over 500 women, who were asked to rate the men in terms of attractiveness and trustworthiness.

The results revealed that the images of the men with high Dark Triad traits were seen as both more trustworthy and more attractive by females.

Study author Dr. Qi Wu said: "In short-term cooperative settings, individuals with high Dark Triad traits tend to inspire more trust."

"[This is] partly due to being seen as more attractive based on their facial features."
A robot nurse has joined a hospital in Taiwan to ease pressure on overstretched medical staff.

A robot nurse is helping hospital staff in Taiwan

Developed by tech giants Foxconn and NVIDIA, the AI nurse  nicknamed Norabot  is now assisting real nurses by taking over the most physically demanding and repetitive jobs.

The dramatic move comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of a shortfall of around 4.5 million nurses in the coming years, due to burnout and huge workloads.

Norabot is already handling tasks at Taichung Hospital, including delivering medications, monitoring fetal health, and carrying wound care supplies.

According to Foxconn, the robot can slash a nurses workload by up to 30 per cent.

The bot is equipped with cutting-edge kit, including the FoxBrain smart management system, NVIDIAs Holoscan and Jetson Orin platforms for real-time processing and Isaac for Healthcare for virtual training. It even features technology from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, known for its robotics expertise.

Foxconn has also unveiled a full suite of AI hospital tools powered by NVIDIA, from digital twins that help plan out hospital layouts, to AI models that monitor vital signs.

Shu-Fang Liu, Deputy Director of Nursing at the hospital, said: "Having a robotic assistant reduces nurses physical fatigue and frees up more time to focus on patient care, especially during visiting hours or night shifts when staff are limited."

Future versions of Norabot are expected to include even more advanced capabilities, such as numerous languages, facial recognition, and physical support to help move or assist patients.
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are mourning the loss of their rescue dog.

Ellen DeGeneres has announced the sad news of her dog Augie's death

The former talk show host and her wife's beloved Beagle-Chihuahua mix, Augie, sadly passed away on May 15.

The couple took in the pooch more than a decade ago.

Sharing a series of photographs of Augie chilling around their home, Ellen wrote on Instagram on May 16: We had to say goodbye to Augie yesterday. We rescued him 12 years ago and he was so grateful.

He gave us so much love. He will be missed. There will never be another like him.

The couple's devastating loss comes after they relocated to the English countryside after 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' backlash.

The pair bought a property in the Cotswolds after being spotted at The Farmer's Dog - a pub owned by Clarkson's Farm' host Jeremy Clarkson.

Ellen hosted the last episode of her long-running TV talk-show in May 2022.

Prior to that, Portia quit acting to focus her attention on General Public, the art curation and publishing company that she owns.

In December, Ellen denied a report suggesting her farmhouse had flooded.

The MailOnline suggested the 67-year-old comic's Cotswolds estate was badly affected by the severe weather in the south west of England as Storm Bert brought torrential rain and winds up to 80mph to parts of the country, but Ellen poured cold water on the speculation.

The six-bedroom property boasts 43-acres of land, and it was claimed that a stream flowing into the Thames River alongside the property burst its banks.

The outlet quoted a neighbour as saying: The flood waters are rising by the hour. This is the worst I have seen it in years."

However, Ellen insisted all was well.

To mark 20 years since she started dating "beautiful soul" Portia, 52, Ellen shared a selfie of the pair in the English countryside and wrote: 20 years ago today we began this relationship not realizing what a long beautiful adventure this would be. You are the best thing that ever happened in my life. You take care of me. You help me see the good in everything.

You help to guide me and pick me up when I feel off or down. You are a beautiful soul that I am so very grateful to have as a partner to navigate this crazy life with. (sic)

Ellen concluded her post by addressing the flood rumours, writing: P.S. for those of you concerned, our U.K. farmhouse did NOT flood.

According to TMZ, the couple decided to move to the UK after president-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election.
Kneecap star Mo Chara has been charged with a terror offense in the UK.

Kneecap star Mo Chara, right, has been charged with a terror offense

The 27-year-old Irish rapper - whose real name is Liam Og O Hannaidh - has been accused by London's Metropolitan police of "displaying a flag in support of proscribed organization Hezbollah" at O2 Forum gig in the UK capital city in November 2024.

O Hannaidh - who has been charged under the name Liam O'Hanna is set to appear in court on June 18.

In a statement on Instagram, Kneecap wrote: "We deny this offense and will vehemently defend ourselves.

This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction.

"14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in court. We will win.

The Metropolitan Police recently revealed they were assessing footage from the November 2024 gig, when the band allegedly said, "Up Hamas, up Hezbollah."

Following the investigation, the Crowdn Prosecution Service authorised the charge, with both Hamas and Hezbollah banned in the UK, while it is a crime to express support for either of them.

The group insisted they have never support either organisation.

They also claimed another video - in which they allegedly told a London crowd "The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP" - was taken "out of context".

They said in a previous statement: "Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah.

"We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nations history.

We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever.

"An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.
Nicola Peltz is "thankful for the angels" in her life.

Nicola Peltz has paid tribute to 'angels in her life'

The 30-year-old star and her husband Brooklyn Beckham, 26, have enjoyed a picnic date night, and she shared a sweet message for her man with her social media followers.

She wrote on her Instagram Story alongside a photo of Brooklyn: "Best kind of night. I love you so much, baby."

And in a different post, she shared a figure of an angel with the caption: "Thankful for the angels in my life.

Brooklyn lives in the US with his wife Nicola Peltz and the couple celebrated their third wedding anniversary last month.

In a post on Instagram, Brooklyn wrote: "Happy 3 year anniversary baby x.

"I love you with all my heart x Im so lucky I get to spend everyday with you and wake up to your beautiful face everyday you are my world x I love you so much Nicola."

While Nicola added in a post for her husband: "I cant believe its been three years since this day - I love you with all my heart and promise to always have your back.

"I cant wait for forever with you. Thank you for being the most incredible husband I could ever dream of. I love you a million times over."

The loved up couple were absent from Brooklyn's dad David Beckham's 50th birthday celebrations, which included a glitzy party in Miami last month, as well as a bash the couple's country home in the UK's Cotswolds, a family trip to France and a party in London.

Brooklyn recently opened up about their bond, and revealed they bonded over a love of fast cars.

In an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper, Brooklyn admitted his dad - who has been collecting cars over the years - inspired his love of racing when he was "very young".

He added: "Its something that me and my dad bonded over. My dads had some pretty cool cars."
Kieran Culkin has been cast in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.

Kieran Culkin has been added to the cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

The 42-year-old actor will appear in the upcoming fantasy movie as Caesar Flickerman - the character first played by Stanley Tucci in the original Hunger Games films, The Hollywood Reporter has said.

The A Real Pain star will be joining Joseph Zada, who will lead the flick as Haymitch Abernathy - previously portrayed by Woody Harrelson - with Whitney Peak set to portray his girlfriend, Lenore Dove Baird.

Meanwhile, Maya Hawke will play Wiress - the former Hunger Games champion who now serves as a mentor for those in District 12 - while Mckenna Grace has been cast as District 12 Tribute Maysilee Donner.

Jesse Plemons, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Karate Kid: Legends star Ben Wang have also joined The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and will portray Plutarch Heavensbee, Beetee and District 12 Tribute Wyatt Callow, respectively.

Rounding out the cast is Ralph Fiennes, who has signed on to play President Coriolanus Snow - the role previously held by the late Donald Sutherland in the original Hunger Games movies and Tom Blyth in the 2023 prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

In a statement, producer Nina Jacobson said: We wanted to honour Donald Sutherland by having one of this generations greatest actors play President Snow 24 years before Katniss Everdeen entered the arena.

Working with Ralph has been on my bucket list since he traumatised me for life in Schindlers List. Its genuinely a thrill to welcome him to the Hunger Games.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is set to be directed by Francis Lawrence, who will be working from a script written by Billy Ray.

The blockbuster is being produced by Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson of Color Force, with Cameron MacConomy serving as executive producer.

The flick is scheduled to hit cinemas in November 2026.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping will be an adaptation of Suzanne Collins 2025 novel of the same name, and is the second instalment of the authors Hunger Games prequel trilogy.

Set 24 years before The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy as hes thrust into the brutal 50th Hunger Games, where twice the tributes mean twice the bloodshed.

As he fights to survive, Haymitch begins to uncover the Capitols darkest secrets - and the true price of rebellion.

After Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak were announced as the leading stars for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping last month, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-President Erin Westerman said: The Hunger Games franchise has long been a launching pad for remarkable young actors, and Jo and Whitney carry that legacy forward with incredible heart, depth, and fire.

After auditioning hundreds of gifted performers from around the world, these two stood out - not just for their talent, but for the emotional truth they brought to these iconic roles.

Haymitch has always been a fan favourite, and his origin story is one of the most anticipated in the franchise. His relationship with Lenore Dove is deeply woven into the emotional history of Panem.

We cant wait for fans to experience the story that shaped one of the most compelling characters in the series.
Bruce Springsteen has released a new live EP 'Land of Hope and Dreams' featuring his anti-Donald Trump speeches.

Bruce Springsteen has released a new live EP

The 'Born To Run' legend has completed a three show run at the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester on May 14, 17 and 20, and now he's made four songs available digitally along with the introductions from the concerts.

The listing on his official website reads: "On May 14, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band opened their Land of Hope and Dreams Tour in Manchester, England.

"Highlights from that first night are now available digitally as the 'Land of Hope and Dreams' EP  including the title track, 'Long Walk Home,' 'My City of Ruins' and the bands cover of Bob Dylans 'Chimes of Freedom.' "

At one point during the concert, he described Trump's administration as "corrupt, incompetent and treasonous".

He told the audience: "In my home, the America I love, the America Ive written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.

"Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring!

The rocker  who has been a staunch critic of Trump  made another attack on the White House chief and his political ideology as he introduced 'City of Ruin'.

He said: "There's some very weird, strange and dangerous s*** going on out there right now. In America they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.

"In America the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.

"In my country they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they inflict on loyal American workers. They're rolling back historic civil rights legislation that has led to a more just and plural society.

"They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.

"They are defunding American universities that won't bow down to their ideological demands. They are removing residents off American streets and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centres and prisons. This is all happening now."

Trump responded with a lengthy rant via the social media platform Truth Social.

Describing The Boss as "dumb as a rock", he wrote: "This dried out prune of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, thats just standard fare. Then well all see how it goes for him!

He added: Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he's not a talented guy - Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK.
TIANJIN, May 21 (Xinhua) -- The Central Asia freight train bound for Tashkent, Uzbekistan, departed from north China's port city Tianjin around 4 p.m. Tuesday, marking the first Tianjin-Central Asia freight train service in 2025.

The train carries 50 maritime-transited containers from the Republic of Korea, comprising auto parts, machinery equipment, construction materials and household appliances. It will stop over at Horgos Port in Xinjiang before arriving in the Uzbek capital in about 14 days.

China remains Uzbekistan's largest trading partner and primary import source, with mechanical and electrical products dominating Uzbekistan's imports. In recent years, Tianjin has witnessed robust growth in economic and trade exchanges with Uzbekistan.

"The containers were loaded within a week after reaching Tianjin Port by sea. Compared to previous routes, the Central Asia freight train service reduces total logistics costs by 20 to 30 percent," said Zhao Lixun, Tianjin branch manager of Unico Logistics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.

Zhao's company handles approximately 30 to 40 freight trains monthly, transporting around 2,000 containers. "Tianjin Port's geographical advantages make it our preferred hub for Central Asia-bound cargo," he said.

Avaz Kamalov, chief representative in China of Uzbekistan Railway JSC, said that this Central Asia freight train provides a shorter route.

"Previously, most Tianjin-Uzbekistan cargo went through several stopovers. This route shortens the journey by over 800 kilometers and paves the way for multimodal transport solutions, creating new opportunities for clients," Kamalov said.

To ensure seamless operations, Tianjin Port Group has optimized resource allocation to accelerate cargo handling, while Tianjin Xingang Customs implemented expedited clearance protocols. China Railway Container Transport Corporation further enhanced cost efficiency through precise coordination of cross-border transport plans.
Naga Munchetty is targeted by online trolls criticising her appearance on 'BBC Breakfast'.

Naga Munchetty has faced nasty abuse from online trolls

The 50-year-old broadcaster has revealed how nasty social media users slam her outfit choices on the morning news programme but has stressed that she is "very happy" with how she looks.

Naga told Gabby Logan on an episode of 'The Mid-Point Podcast': "The number of times I've had comments like, 'You shouldn't be wearing that dress, you've got a bit of a belly.'

"People are quite happy to comment on social media.

"I'm very happy with my body. I'm fit, I'm strong, but women have bellies."

Naga went on to explain that she thinks that there is a societal expectation for women to wear particular type of clothes and thinks that the nature of her job places added scrutiny on her style.

She added: "You get a lot of nice comments, but women are expected to portray a certain aesthetic.

"And when you dress for news you have to be mindful that what you wear cannot be distracting.

"Women are more highly criticised and noticed."

Previously, Naga "stopped" talking about her uterus condition because of "gaslighting" from her doctors.

The presenter was diagnosed with adenomyosis - "where the lining of the uterus starts growing into the walls of the uterus" - when she was 47, but she thinks she has had it "since the age of about 15", but "every time" Naga told the doctors she would "often" be "screaming in agony" and burst out "crying" because of it, they said "it was normal or that I'd grow out of it".

Naga now considers the dismissive medical advice she received to be a "form of gaslighting".

Naga told the i newspaper: "I wasn't diagnosed with it until I was 47, but I've probably had it since the age of about 15.

"I'd always pass out when my periods started, have diarrhoea, feel dizzy and often be crying or screaming in agony.

"Every time I brought it up, I'd be told by doctors it was normal or that I'd grow out of it.

"When I look back on those occasions, I realise it was a form of gaslighting because I was effectively repeatedly told, 'You are just not coping with what is normal for everyone else.'

"So, I stopped bringing it up."
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) is delighted to announce Manfredi Lefebvre, chairman of Heritage Group and co-chair of luxury travel company Abercrombie and Kent, as its Chair-Elect.

Lefebvre, who will take over the position in September, during the global tourism body's 25th Global Summit in Rome, Italy, has been a Member of WTTC for more than 20 years.

He will follow current Chairman, Greg O'Hara, Founder and Senior Managing Director of Certares Management LLC ("Certares"), who has been in the position since November 2023.

One of the most recognised names in Travel & Tourism, Lefebvre brings with him over four decades of experience in the cruise and leisure industries.

A visionary entrepreneur who transformed Silversea Cruises into a global leader, today, he leads diversified investments through Heritage Group, active across biotechnology, medical technologies, energy transition, real estate, information technology, and premium spirits.
Breaking down your audience into different segments with specific messages and offers drives engagement, clicks, and bookings. Yet many hotels are still blanket sending the same messages to their entire database. And its just not working. Segmentation can be simple and effective, capitalizing on the basic data you already own. With a shifting economic climate, now is the time to bolster your Find, Book, and Grow strategies.

With marketing messages bombarding consumers across every channel, relevance is everything. People are increasingly immune to generic outreach.

Research shows 81% of customers prefer to engage with companies that offer a personalized experience, both in-person and across digital channels. For hotels, segmentation is the key to delivering this level of personalization.

By dividing a big audience into smaller, meaningful groups (segments)  based on booking characteristics, purchase preferences, and buying behavior  you can tailor communications that feel timely and personal, creating an instant connection with prospective guests.

The best part? You dont need to ask for a vast amount of personal data to do it.

Our new guide breaks down five simple ways to segment using the guest data you already collect. Its an easy way to improve engagement, boost conversions, and keep your emails out of the spam folder.

Download the infographic and explore the full article to see whats workingand whats notfor hotels like yours.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to drive revenue, maximize profitability, and create deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions. Serving hoteliers for nearly 30 years, Cendyn drives commercial success for hotels through its Find, Book, Grow promise: find the right guests, drive them to book direct, and grow loyalty and revenue across the spectrum of digital guest interactions.

Cendyn has over 35,000 customers worldwide in more than 150 countries generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base from locations across the globe, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Bangkok, and India. To find out more, visit cendyn.com

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Welcome to the 6th edition of Hospitalitys Leading Voices  your gateway to the bold ideas and visionary minds reshaping the future of hospitality!

This Months Game-Changer: Christophe Laure, General Manager of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand and Regional Director for IHG Southern Europe. With over three decades of international experience and a portfolio of nine luxury and lifestyle hotels, Christophe Laure exemplifies modern hospitality leadership. From mentoring the next generation to elevating emotional guest experiences, his philosophy is simple yet powerful: Born to serve. In this exclusive conversation, he shares the values, challenges, and vision behind one of Europes most storied hotels.

Leading Two Roles in Hospitality

Christophe, can you describe your current role?

I actually wear two hats. First, Im the General Manager of the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand. And second, Im Regional Director for Southern Europe, overseeing several properties in the luxury and lifestyle segment  places like the Carlton in Cannes, Intercontinental hotels in Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris of course, and others in Marbella, Mallorca, and Barcelona. All in all, its a portfolio of nine hotels.

How do those two roles differ?

In Paris, Im hands-on  Im fully responsible for the hotels day-to-day operations. In the regional role, I work more as a strategic partner to hotel GMs, helping them reach their goals and supporting owner relations. Over the past five years, Ive especially been focused on opening new hotels across the region.

The Iconic Intercontinental Paris Le Grand

Lets talk about the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, which many would call iconic. What makes it so unique?

I like to say that were not just a palace in Paris  we are Paris in a palace. The Grand Hotel opened in 1862 under Napoleon III, during a peaceful and prosperous time. He wanted a place where he could host royalty and diplomatic delegations, to strengthen international ties and promote trade. He turned to the Pereire brothers for financing, Haussmann to reshape the city, and Charles Garnier  yes, before the Opera  to design what is now our Salon Opera. It was a meeting of visionary minds that gave birth to this extraordinary hotel.

So its deeply tied to the citys history

Absolutely. The Opera, just next door, opened seven years later. The Grand Hotel has evolved over time, with major transformations  the latest was in 2021 after three years of renovation. Today, our positioning is so strong that I truly believe the Grand Hotel embodies the pinnacle of luxury: top-tier accommodation and gastronomy under one roof.

A Diverse and International Clientele

What kind of guests do you welcome?

We have 450 rooms and suites. Our clientele is incredibly diverse  business and leisure, individual travelers and groups  and very international: North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe Our location is a huge asset, just steps from the Opera, Place Vendome, and the Grands Magasins. The Intercontinental brand gives us global appeal, and the renovations have taken our luxury offering to the next level.

Anything else that stands out?

If you just came out of hotel school and youre wondering where you can apply everything youve learned  look no further. The Grand Hotel touches every discipline. Whether your path is in operations, finance, marketing, revenue, or distribution  this hotel is like a living, breathing university.

Career Journey and Sense of Vocation

How did you get into hospitality?

I grew up in a small village in the south of France, between Monaco and Menton. Every morning, Id walk past the iconic Hotel de Paris and Hotel Hermitage. I was fascinated. At 15, I enrolled in the brand-new hotel school in Monaco for my CAP/BEP, and later graduated from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne. For me, it was a calling.

How strong was that sense of vocation?

I was born to serve. I love what I do and wouldnt trade it for anything. Its a demanding career  you know this, Philippe  and it requires a good deal of self-sacrifice. But its absolutely worth it.

Shaped by Global Experience

Tell me more about what shaped your view of hospitality.

I lived in Central Africa with my father from age 10 to 14. That experience gave me a passion for travel, for discovering new cultures, adapting, stepping out of my comfort zone. It laid the foundation for everything that followed.

That human and cultural dimension seems central to your leadership.

Completely. And when you combine that with both academic and professional leadership development, it becomes a powerful tool  to serve owners, drive profitability, support team growth, and create long-term value.

Evolving Luxury Expectations

Has the luxury guest changed over the years?

Theres definitely a pre- and post-Covid reality. But fundamentally, luxury guests still expect excellence. They want to feel cared for, heard, understood  and not just functionally, but emotionally.

Emotional experience  thats something you emphasize.

Its everything. Its what makes a guest choose one hotel over another. When theres soul, when teams serve with heart  guests feel it. Our job is to leave them enchanted, like theyve just lived something extraordinary.

Changing Travel Trends

What about travel habits? Are they changing too?

People travel less frequently but stay longer. Leisure has overtaken business. Luxury prices have increased significantly, so expectations are higher than ever. Thats why consistency and service excellence are non-negotiable.

How do you meet those expectations?

Through ongoing investment  in product, in training, in talent. Thats the only way.

Team Culture and Emotional Connection

So, mindset is everything. Your staff must be fully aligned.

Absolutely. In a hotel, everyone is a hotelier. You have to know why youre here. Whats your purpose? If you love serving and do it with authenticity, youll enjoy it too. Its demanding, but incredibly rewarding. And thats why team spirit is so essential.

What do you mean by that?

Its the inverted pyramid. The first people guests meet are the doorman, bellman, front desk, concierge  not me or someone from the executive committee. The guest experience begins with them. Thats where impressions are made.

Leadership and Talent Development

Is that your lens as a leader when hiring?

Thats the secret. Spotting that drive, that talent. Because one day Ill be gone  and its my job to instill a culture that outlives me. A spirit thats shared across the whole hotel.

And how do you recognize that spark?

Experience helps. Sometimes its just a feeling  a subtle something between the lines. Even if a candidate is shy or inexperienced, if I sense the desire to serve and to grow in this world, thats enough. The rest will come.

Recruiting in a New Landscape

Is hiring still a challenge today?

Its better than just after Covid, but yes  were always looking for talent. Todays candidates have different expectations: generational, cultural, and even philosophical. They want to know who we are as a company  what we stand for, our culture. And they want to understand what growth opportunities well offer.

Do you still get many applications?

We used to get 10 solid applications per role. Wed shortlist two and choose. Now we get maybe three or four, and we pitch ourselves to them just as much as they pitch themselves to us. The balance has shifted.

A Day in the Life of a GM

Whats a typical week like for you?

Theres no such thing! My day starts with what I call the operational vacuum  you get pulled right in from 7am until late at night, whether its 8pm or 11pm. A thousand things happen  some planned, some not. But typically, I start with a debrief with my Director of Operations, then alternate between team matters, finance, commercial, marketing. I always make time for client interaction  sometimes over lunch. And of course, I spend quality time with our owners.

Advice to the Next Generation

What advice would you give a young person considering hospitality?

Its a fantastic industry. Its global. Just look at IHG: 6,000 hotels, 20 brands, 140 countries. Whether youre in operations or corporate, there are so many ways to grow  at home or abroad.

One last tip?

Yes  get out of your comfort zone. Early in your career, take the tough posts. Choose the challenging markets. They build character, confidence, and credibility.

Final word?

Love yourself. Love others. And love to serve. Thats the heart of it.

About Philippe Roy: Hes a contributor of HSMAI Europe and the founder of Red Yucca, an Advisory Services firm helping companies and merchants reduce their cost of accepting payment cards. It has a deep expertise on Influence Strategies, Complex Negotiation, Value Propositions and Relationship Management. It operates both locally and globally. Philippe is also a new member of the upcoming HSMAI Europe France Advisory Board. This interview was conducted by Phillipe Roy.

About Christope Laure: Born on November 19, 1964, on the French Riviera, Christophe Laure spent part of his childhood in Africa, where he developed a lifelong passion for travel. He studied hospitality, including at the prestigious Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, and began his career at the Societe des Bains de Mer in Monaco before joining InterContinental Hotels in 1992. His international journey has taken him to Spain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and Malta. For over 15 years, he has served as General Manager of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand, while also acting as IHGs Regional Director for Southern Europe, overseeing nine luxury and lifestyle properties for the past decade.

Since returning to Paris in 2011, Laure has actively supported causes including Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaquehelping save over 15 childrens livesMake-A-Wish, the Dialogo association for Franco-Spanish relations, and the Un Avenir Ensemble Foundation. He has received the National Order of Merit from both France (2015) and Spain (2019), and was awarded the Palme dOr for Heritage Hospitality in 2023. President of UMIH Prestige since 2014 and a patron of the arts, Christophe Laure is widely respected in both diplomatic and hospitality circles. His four decades of service reflect a deep commitment to excellence, empathy, and purposeguided by his personal motto: Born to serve.

About HSMAI Europe

HSMAI  Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International  is a global organisation founded in the US in 1927. HSMAI Region Europe is the European arm of the organisation. HSMAI Europe aims to be a key influencer, pioneer and the go-to industry resource for professional development, commercial strategies and sustainability in the hospitality, travel and tourism industry. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry while operating as a leading voice for both hospitality and sales, marketing, and revenue management disciplines.

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In eight days, I had the honour of travelling across eight extraordinary countriesNamibia, Zambia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria. Each one taught me something vital not just about tourism, but about transformation. Every conversation, every connection, every challenge, also offered a powerful, unifying message.

Africa is not waiting to be included in the future of tourism. It is the future.

Too often, the continent has been seen through a narrow lens of safaris, struggle, and charity. But the Africa I experienced first-hand is young, bold, visionary, and unapologetically leading. From Kigalis peacebuilding power to Lagoss creative pulse, from coastal resilience in Mozambique to tourism equity in Namibia, Africa is setting the agenda and not following it.

Here are my eight key learnings from eight countries in eight days:

 Namibia: Inclusion Isnt Optional. Its the Only Way Forward.

What stood out most in Namibia was not just the vision, but the willingness to listen, exchange, and co-create.

Tourism must be for everyone - especially for youth, women, and historically disadvantaged communities. Thats why I proposed the Inclusive Tourism Investment & Funding Strategy: a bold initiative to shift capital and visibility toward those excluded from mainstream tourism and unlock Namibias leadership in inclusive entrepreneurship.

 Zambia: Equip the Youth or Risk Losing the Future.

Zambia reinforced a powerful truth. Africa is the youngest continent, but without investment in skills, that demographic advantage could become a liability.

With MISSION 100, I proposed a campaign to train 1 million African youth in tourism, hospitality, and digital innovation.

Zambias environmental leadership also calls for aligning tourism with climate-smart, regenerative strategies.

 Rwanda: Tourism Can Be a Force for Peace.

Rwanda is not just a success story it is also a symbol of what is possible when nations choose healing over hate.

I proposed UN Tourism Peace Routesglobal travel pathways that turn sites of conflict into journeys of remembrance, reconciliation, and transformation.

Rwanda is ready to lead this moral movement where tourism becomes a vehicle for unity.

 Tanzania: The Lesson is ClearChoose Value Over Volume.

As destinations like Tanzania scale rapidly, the risk of overtourism is real. The answer? Premium, purposeful growth.

Tanzanias long-term value lies not in how many visitors it attracts, but in the legacy they leave behind.

UN Tourism must support bespoke strategies that prioritise quality, sustainability, and community prosperity.

 Mozambique: Blue Tourism Is Africas Untapped Gold.

From coral reefs to sailing circuits, Mozambique reminded us of the immense promise of the Blue Economy.

I proposed an ocean-smart initiative that builds eco-marine tourism, empowers coastal communities, and aligns marine preservation with job creation.

Tourism and conservation are not enemies - they are partners.

 Ethiopia: No African Agenda Without the African Union.

In Addis Ababa, my discussions with H.E. Moses Vilakati, Commissioner of the African Union, reaffirmed one thing: strategic alignment with the AU is non-negotiable.

Africa must not be treated as a market to be served but a powerhouse to partner with.

As Secretary-General, I will pursue a formal UN TourismAfrican Union Partnership Framework to coordinate priorities and co-create results.

 Nigeria: Without Safety, There Can Be No Tourism.

Nigeria has ambition, scale, and culture. But it also faces challenges in perception, risk governance, and security.

My proposed Tourism Security & Risk Governance Framework is a direct responsebecause safety is not just a prerequisite, its a competitive advantage.

UN Tourism must become a trusted partner not just in promotion, but in protection.

 Ghana: The Future Belongs to the Diversifiers.

Ghana is already doing the hard work - infrastructure, identity, innovation. But to win in tomorrows tourism economy, we must go further.

Thats why I proposed the Tourism Diversification Booster a flexible, high-impact support service to help countries expand beyond traditional products and stand out in a competitive global market. The world is shifting. The destinations that diversify fastest will lead. Ghana is ready.

Designing With, Not For, Africa

This journey was not a campaign tour. It was a commitment tour. A commitment to listen deeply, engage meaningfully, and design with Africa not for it.

If theres one lesson from these eight days, its this: Africa is not a problem to be solved. Its a force to be reckoned with.

If elected as Secretary-General, my vision is clear:

Rebrand Africa from passive participant to global leader in innovation, creativity, and sustainability

Break borders through intra-African connectivity and visa liberalisation

Invest in the next generationfunding startups, building skills, amplifying youth voices

Embed resilience in everything we dofrom climate-smart practices to tourism security frameworks.

Africa is not an emerging story. It is an urgent story. Its not a promise for tomorrow. Its a priority for today.

Lets place Africa where it belongs - at the centre of global tourism.
Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement are to lead the cast of the Disney+ comedy series 'Alice and Steve'.

Nicola Walker is starring in the Disney+ comedy series Alice and Steve

'The Split' actress and 'What We Do in the Shadows' star will play the titular roles in the show, which has started filming in London.

The series follows lifelong best friends Alice (Walker) and Steve (Clement) who see their world implode when middle-aged Steve begins dating Alice's 26-year-old daughter Izzy (Yali Topol Margalith).

Even though the pair are no strangers to chaos and poor decisions, their once rock-solid friendship is pushed to its limits as their families, futures and everything in between are tested.

Joel Fry also features in the series as Alice's husband Daniel, with Tyrese Eaton-Dyce playing her son Dom and Olivier Award-winning actress Marcia Warren starring as her mother Val. The cast is rounded out by Eilidh Fisher and Ebony Aboagye.

BAFTA-winning director Tom Kingsley is on board to helm the six-episode series from Clerkenwell Films, which has been written and executive produced by Sophie Goodhart.

Nicola, 55, said: "I'm thrilled to be stepping into this fabulous world of friendship, motherhood, marriage, frantic revenge and fierce love that Sophie Goodhart has created, and to be doing it with Jemaine Clement is completely joyful!"

Clement, 51, added: "I really relate to Steve  he's classy, stylish and an all-round good guy  except for when he isn't.

"I'm excited to be working with the wonderful Nicola Walker and seeing how Steve and Alice's relationship descends into absolute chaos."

Lee Mason, Executive Director of Scripted at Disney+, said: "Get ready for a riotous mix of betrayal and revenge in a world of beautifully messy and flawed characters brilliantly created by Sophie Goodhart.

"We're thrilled to be bringing this twisted and hilarious story to Disney+ audiences  masterfully brought to life by British acting legend Nicola Walker, as you've never seen her before, alongside New Zealand's comic royalty, Jemaine Clement."

Petra Fried, Joint Managing Director at Clerkenwell Films, commented: "We're excited to be exploring the chaotic, compelling and hilarious lives of Alice and Steve as they find themselves plunged into this modern comedy of errors.

"Sophie has created two utterly distinctive lead characters who are brilliantly brought to life by the massively talented Nicola Walker and Jemaine Clement."
Marriott International Unveils New Regional Collection Brand: Series by Marriott, in Global Expansion Effort - Image Credit Marriott International



Marriott International has announced the global launch of its new collection brand, Series by Marriott. This launch is part of Marriott's continuous expansion into the midscale and upscale lodging segments worldwide. The initial launch of this brand will be through a partnership with Concept Hospitality Private Limited (CHPL), one of India's leading hotel management companies.

Series by Marriott, Marriott International's new collection brand, is designed to expand the company's global footprint by integrating well-established regional brands and hotels that provide consistent quality and service. These hotels will become part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio, giving regional owners access to Marriott's platforms, including the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program.

Marriott's Founding Deal with CHPL

Marriott International will launch the Series by Marriott brand via a founding deal with Concept Hospitality Private Limited (CHPL) in India, a significant growth market for Marriott. Established in 1996, CHPL has a portfolio of six brands and manages over 100 hotels in 90 locations across India. This strategic agreement will affiliate CHPL's flagship brandsThe Fern, The Fern Residency, and The Fern Habitatwith Series by Marriott throughout India. Marriott will make a small equity investment in CHPL as part of this deal.

A Series of Hotels: Regionally Created, Globally Connected

Series by Marriott aims to offer travelers a simple and approachable experience, focusing on well-executed basics. The hotels in this portfolio will provide quality and value with clean, comfortable rooms, free Wi-Fi, daily coffee or tea, fitness centers, and meeting and event spaces at certain properties. As part of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program, members staying at Series by Marriott properties can earn and redeem points and enjoy member benefits.

Global Growth Opportunity for Owners

Series by Marriott offers a unique opportunity for owners of strong, regionally relevant brands to join the Marriott portfolio, which comes with industry-leading revenue generation capabilities and affiliation cost structures. Owners can maintain their portfolio's independent identity while leveraging the power of Marriott's Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program and digital platforms to generate direct bookings.

The company is actively discussing the Series by Marriott brand with owners in the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Learn more about Series by Marriott.
Booking.com Ordered to Cut Swiss Hotel Commissions By 25% - Image Credit Unsplash

Switzerlands price watchdog has ruled that Booking.coms commission rates for hotels in the country are excessive. Its ordered the online travel giant to cut them by nearly 25%. Booking.com has hit back, saying it disagrees with the decision and plans to appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.

The regulator has found that Booking.com falls under the countrys price monitoring law and was charging excessive fees. It approached the company to address the issue, but intensive negotiations were unsuccessful.

As a result, Booking.com has been ordered to cut its commission rates by an average of nearly 25%. The company has three months to comply once the ruling comes into force. The measure is temporary and will remain in place for three years.

Booking.com says it plans to appeal the ruling. The company told the Keystone-SDA news agency that its customers are free to list their accommodation on the platform, and it doesnt agree with the commission cut for what it describes as a purely optional service.

Click here to read complete article at SWI.
Penn State Study: Skill Variety, Supervisor Support, and Role Models Key to Value-Adding Internships - Image Credit Unsplash+



A new study by researchers at the Penn State School of Hospitality Management reveals that the value of internships in the hospitality industry can be significantly enhanced by incorporating experiences that foster meaningful socialization among coworkers and the development of professional relationships.

Research Overview

The study, led by Associate Professor Michael Tews, discovered that including a diverse range of skills, supportive supervision, and the availability of role models contribute significantly to a valuable and impactful internship experience. The study's findings were published in the International Hospitality Review.

Tews and his team gathered data from 253 students who had each completed two five-month internships. The survey questions revolved around the students' experiences during their internships, including the nature of their tasks, the support they received, and their perceptions about the value of their internships.

Key Findings

Tews explained that the study found a significant correlation between the variety of advanced or complex skills students utilize and how they perceive the value of their internships. In contrast, the variety of tasks was not a significant factor. This suggests that intern assignments need to be challenging and developmental.

In particular, the variety of skills interns acquire, especially in operational internships, indicates they are growing professionally, strengthening their commitment to the hospitality industry.

The Role of Supervisors and Role Models

According to the study, supportive supervisors and the presence of role models played a crucial role in shaping a meaningful and motivating internship experience. Interns who felt valued and cared for by their supervisors showed increased engagement, confidence, and perceived value from their internships. Role models, whether senior leaders or mid-level professionals, provided interns with a vision of their potential future in the industry, helping them develop a stronger connection to their work.

Transitions and Challenges

Tews noted that transitioning from school to work can be a significant challenge for recent graduates, especially in industries like hospitality that demand high levels of social interaction, resilience, and adaptability.

Improving Internship Experiences

Hospitality companies can use these findings to redesign internships to attract, engage and retain young talent better. Companies should provide challenging assignments that allow interns to apply and expand their skills and ensure supervisors are trained to support and mentor interns. Additionally, intentional efforts should be made to connect interns with role models through shadowing, mentorship programs, or leadership talks.

Tews concluded that a workplace culture emphasizing peer relationships, meaningful work, and strong mentorship matters more than superficial efforts to inject fun into the experience. Organizations that align their internship design with these insights are more likely to leave interns with a positive impression of the industry and increase the likelihood that interns pursue long-term careers in hospitality.

This research was a collaboration between Sydney Pons, a Penn State doctoral student, and Ankie Hoefnagels and Fanny Beaumont-Perez of the Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.

Read the study here.
HSMAI Europe's Hospitalitys Leading Voices Series - Christophe Laure, General Manager of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand and Regional Director for IHG Southern Europe - Image Credit HSMAI Europe

This Months Game-Changer: Christophe Laure, General Manager of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand and Regional Director for IHG Southern Europe.

With over three decades of international experience and a portfolio of nine luxury and lifestyle hotels, Christophe Laure exemplifies modern hospitality leadership. From mentoring the next generation to elevating emotional guest experiences, his philosophy is simple yet powerful: Born to serve. In this exclusive conversation, he shares the values, challenges, and vision behind one of Europes most storied hotels.

Leading Two Roles in Hospitality

Christophe, can you describe your current role?

I actually wear two hats. First, Im the General Manager of the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand. And second, Im Regional Director for Southern Europe, overseeing several properties in the luxury and lifestyle segment  places like the Carlton in Cannes, Intercontinental hotels in Madrid, Amsterdam, Paris of course, and others in Marbella, Mallorca, and Barcelona. All in all, its a portfolio of nine hotels.

How do those two roles differ?

In Paris, Im hands-on  Im fully responsible for the hotels day-to-day operations. In the regional role, I work more as a strategic partner to hotel GMs, helping them reach their goals and supporting owner relations. Over the past five years, Ive especially been focused on opening new hotels across the region.



The Iconic Intercontinental Paris Le Grand

Lets talk about the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, which many would call iconic. What makes it so unique?

I like to say that were not just a palace in Paris  we are Paris in a palace. The Grand Hotel opened in 1862 under Napoleon III, during a peaceful and prosperous time. He wanted a place where he could host royalty and diplomatic delegations, to strengthen international ties and promote trade. He turned to the Pereire brothers for financing, Haussmann to reshape the city, and Charles Garnier  yes, before the Opera  to design what is now our Salon Opera. It was a meeting of visionary minds that gave birth to this extraordinary hotel.

So its deeply tied to the citys history

Absolutely. The Opera, just next door, opened seven years later. The Grand Hotel has evolved over time, with major transformations  the latest was in 2021 after three years of renovation. Today, our positioning is so strong that I truly believe the Grand Hotel embodies the pinnacle of luxury: top-tier accommodation and gastronomy under one roof.



A Diverse and International Clientele

What kind of guests do you welcome?

We have 450 rooms and suites. Our clientele is incredibly diverse  business and leisure, individual travelers and groups  and very international: North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe Our location is a huge asset, just steps from the Opera, Place Vendome, and the Grands Magasins. The Intercontinental brand gives us global appeal, and the renovations have taken our luxury offering to the next level.

Anything else that stands out?

If you just came out of hotel school and youre wondering where you can apply everything youve learned  look no further. The Grand Hotel touches every discipline. Whether your path is in operations, finance, marketing, revenue, or distribution  this hotel is like a living, breathing university.



Career Journey and Sense of Vocation

How did you get into hospitality?

I grew up in a small village in the south of France, between Monaco and Menton. Every morning, Id walk past the iconic Hotel de Paris and Hotel Hermitage. I was fascinated. At 15, I enrolled in the brand-new hotel school in Monaco for my CAP/BEP, and later graduated from the Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne. For me, it was a calling.

How strong was that sense of vocation?

I was born to serve. I love what I do and wouldnt trade it for anything. Its a demanding career  you know this, Philippe  and it requires a good deal of self-sacrifice. But its absolutely worth it.



Shaped by Global Experience

Tell me more about what shaped your view of hospitality.

I lived in Central Africa with my father from age 10 to 14. That experience gave me a passion for travel, for discovering new cultures, adapting, stepping out of my comfort zone. It laid the foundation for everything that followed.

That human and cultural dimension seems central to your leadership.

Completely. And when you combine that with both academic and professional leadership development, it becomes a powerful tool  to serve owners, drive profitability, support team growth, and create long-term value.



Evolving Luxury Expectations

Has the luxury guest changed over the years?

Theres definitely a pre- and post-Covid reality. But fundamentally, luxury guests still expect excellence. They want to feel cared for, heard, understood  and not just functionally, but emotionally.

Emotional experience  thats something you emphasize.

Its everything. Its what makes a guest choose one hotel over another. When theres soul, when teams serve with heart  guests feel it. Our job is to leave them enchanted, like theyve just lived something extraordinary.



Changing Travel Trends

What about travel habits? Are they changing too?

People travel less frequently but stay longer. Leisure has overtaken business. Luxury prices have increased significantly, so expectations are higher than ever. Thats why consistency and service excellence are non-negotiable.

How do you meet those expectations?

Through ongoing investment  in product, in training, in talent. Thats the only way.



Team Culture and Emotional Connection

So, mindset is everything. Your staff must be fully aligned.

Absolutely. In a hotel, everyone is a hotelier. You have to know why youre here. Whats your purpose? If you love serving and do it with authenticity, youll enjoy it too. Its demanding, but incredibly rewarding. And thats why team spirit is so essential.

What do you mean by that?

Its the inverted pyramid. The first people guests meet are the doorman, bellman, front desk, concierge  not me or someone from the executive committee. The guest experience begins with them. Thats where impressions are made.



Leadership and Talent Development

Is that your lens as a leader when hiring?

Thats the secret. Spotting that drive, that talent. Because one day Ill be gone  and its my job to instill a culture that outlives me. A spirit thats shared across the whole hotel.

And how do you recognize that spark?

Experience helps. Sometimes its just a feeling  a subtle something between the lines. Even if a candidate is shy or inexperienced, if I sense the desire to serve and to grow in this world, thats enough. The rest will come.



Recruiting in a New Landscape

Is hiring still a challenge today?

Its better than just after Covid, but yes  were always looking for talent. Todays candidates have different expectations: generational, cultural, and even philosophical. They want to know who we are as a company  what we stand for, our culture. And they want to understand what growth opportunities well offer.

Do you still get many applications?

We used to get 10 solid applications per role. Wed shortlist two and choose. Now we get maybe three or four, and we pitch ourselves to them just as much as they pitch themselves to us. The balance has shifted.



A Day in the Life of a GM

Whats a typical week like for you?

Theres no such thing! My day starts with what I call the operational vacuum  you get pulled right in from 7am until late at night, whether its 8pm or 11pm. A thousand things happen  some planned, some not. But typically, I start with a debrief with my Director of Operations, then alternate between team matters, finance, commercial, marketing. I always make time for client interaction  sometimes over lunch. And of course, I spend quality time with our owners.



Advice to the Next Generation

What advice would you give a young person considering hospitality?

Its a fantastic industry. Its global. Just look at IHG: 6,000 hotels, 20 brands, 140 countries. Whether youre in operations or corporate, there are so many ways to grow  at home or abroad.

One last tip?

Yes  get out of your comfort zone. Early in your career, take the tough posts. Choose the challenging markets. They build character, confidence, and credibility.

Final word?

Love yourself. Love others. And love to serve. Thats the heart of it.



About Philippe Roy: Hes a contributor of HSMAI Europe and the founder of Red Yucca, an Advisory Services firm helping companies and merchants reduce their cost of accepting payment cards. It has a deep expertise on Influence Strategies, Complex Negotiation, Value Propositions and Relationship Management. It operates both locally and globally. Philippe is also a new member of the upcoming HSMAI Europe France Advisory Board. This interview was conducted by Phillipe Roy.

About Christope Laure: Born on November 19, 1964, on the French Riviera, Christophe Laure spent part of his childhood in Africa, where he developed a lifelong passion for travel. He studied hospitality, including at the prestigious Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, and began his career at the Societe des Bains de Mer in Monaco before joining InterContinental Hotels in 1992. His international journey has taken him to Spain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, and Malta. For over 15 years, he has served as General Manager of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand, while also acting as IHGs Regional Director for Southern Europe, overseeing nine luxury and lifestyle properties for the past decade.

Since returning to Paris in 2011, Laure has actively supported causes including Mecenat Chirurgie Cardiaquehelping save over 15 childrens livesMake-A-Wish, the Dialogo association for Franco-Spanish relations, and the Un Avenir Ensemble Foundation. He has received the National Order of Merit from both France (2015) and Spain (2019), and was awarded the Palme dOr for Heritage Hospitality in 2023. President of UMIH Prestige since 2014 and a patron of the arts, Christophe Laure is widely respected in both diplomatic and hospitality circles. His four decades of service reflect a deep commitment to excellence, empathy, and purposeguided by his personal motto: Born to serve.

This article originally appeared on HSMAI Europe.
Hotel Casa Rosada - Image Credit HVS



This 16-room boutique hotel, located adjacent to the town's main attraction, the Parroquia, has operated independently for 22 years. The property, registered with Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, presents potential investors with a unique opportunity for internal modifications and repositioning.

Hotel Casa Rosada, a colonial building adjacent to San Miguel de Allende's main attraction, the Parroquia, offers more than just a place to stay. Having operated for 22 years as an independent 16-room boutique hotel, the property provides an attractive restaurant area, a lobby bar, and terraces for dining or function space. While it is registered with Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, the asset permits internal modifications and repositioning, making it a flexible investment opportunity.

San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende is a charming colonial city that attracts national and international guests. Its rich history and unique experiences make it a highly desirable hotel destination. The town is also a popular wedding location and attracts corporate groups, offering a diverse customer base for businesses like Hotel Casa Rosada.

The town is in the picturesque Bajio Region of Mexico, offering tranquil mountains and rural views. With its year-round temperate climate, it attracts visitors throughout the year. Designated as a Pueblo Magico in 2002, San Miguel Allende offers a selection of hotels, B&Bs, Spas, and an active food scene, making it a vibrant location for potential investors.

Investment Opportunity

The Hotel Casa Rosada is a unique investment opportunity. The property in the heart of San Miguel de Allende could be rebranded or repositioned to take advantage of its desirable location. Given its proximity to the city's most important attraction, the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel, it also offers a unique opportunity to drive restaurant income.

The property, which is currently closed, has all permits and licenses in force and available to the purchasing party. This presents potential investors with a rare chance to acquire a completed asset in the colonial San Miguel de Allende market area, close to Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Leon, Aguascalientes, Guadalajara, and Mexico City.

Inquire at HVS.
The Retired Investor: Pope Leo and the Business of the Vatican

As Pope Leo takes control, the church's financial health will be high on his agenda. The Holy See, which is the governing body of the Vatican, is also the business arm of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican is audited by the Office of the Auditor General, which was established in 2014 by Pope Francis. In addition, the Council for the Economy supervises financial operations, and the Secretariat for the Economy (headed by a cardinal) is responsible for financial matters. External auditors, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, review the Vatican's financial statements. In the past, the information on the church's economic health has been murky at best.

Through the efforts of Pope Francis and before him, Pope Benedict XVI, the transparency of the church's finances has increased, but in many cases, there is still no evidence that the numbers released are accurate. We do know that last year, the church's worldwide income was around $1.25 billion, with expenses reaching $1.34 billion. In 2023, the church was running a $90 million deficit, according to Crux, an online news organization, and that deficit is presumed to be growing.

Part of the problem has been mounting operational expenses, which have outstripped donations, a primary income source. Observers note that much of the church's growth (and expenses) in recent years has been in poorer, less-developed regions. Much of its revenue streams have come from its affluent U.S. and European base.

The Vatican reported that its' collections (called Peter's Pence) had yielded 52 million Euros in 2023, with more than 25 percent coming from U.S. parishes, but the expenses were 109 million euros. In addition, Vatican tourism has declined since COVID-19, while increased litigation due to the sexual abuse scandals and the rising cost of supporting an aging clergy has contributed to the deficit.

The church's pension fund is in trouble as well. Officials have expressed concern over its unfunded pension obligations (estimated at over $900 million) and an aging workforce. This shortfall could force both staff reductions and salary cuts unless remedied. Part of the problem, say the critics, has been 30 years of mismanagement by the last three popes, who were all in their mid-70s, without the expertise or financial focus to rectify the situation.

The clergy and the faithful will argue that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is not to make a profit. I agree, but money sure helps spread the word. Over the last 100 years, popes have devoted most of their time, effort, and cash resources to bringing people closer to God while promoting humanitarian causes worldwide.

Pope Francis, for example, sought to reorient the church toward the poor around the globe while critiquing the global economy and its leaders for its lack of economic justice, migration, and ecological failures.

Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, does not have a background in finance, although he was a math major at Villanova University outside of Philadelphia. That skill might help in tackling the Holy See's looming financial issues. He is considered moderately conservative, but his past roles suggest a focus on service rather than savings and financial management.

Leo XIV's challenge will be to continue and expand his predecessor's effort to implement structural, procedural, and oversight changes in the bank and other organizations. He must also win over those in the church bureaucracy that maintain and defend the culture of secrecy that hamstrung Pope Francis throughout his term.

Managing such a far-flung religious empire creates its own financial challenge. Needs differ, sometimes dramatically, from country to country, as do donors. His message to those in the developed world, especially in the U.S. and parts of Europe, must account for the recent trend towards conservatism among its many members in those regions.

How Pope Leo squares that with continued attention to developing markets will require a high degree of sensitivity and finesse. He is on record opposing much of President Trump and Vice President Vance's positions on immigration and other issues. However, a softening of such rhetoric may be required to bolster support within the U.S.

Many believe the key to squaring the church's books depends on American donors' willingness to dig deeper into their pockets for Peter's Pence. It may be no coincidence that the Papal Conclave's College of Cardinals voted for an American as the leader of its 1.4 billion-strong congregation. Who better to increase collections in America than an American pope? If so, Pope Leo may already be making progress.

Vance led an American delegation, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to the pope's inaugural Mass this week in Rome. President Trump has extended an invitation to the pope to visit the White House as well. With less than two weeks in office, Pope Leo has also thrust himself and the church into the middle of geopolitics by his willingness to bring Ukraine and Russia to the peace table.

That should come as no surprise. The role of mediator has long been a tradition within the Catholic Church. Over the last century, popes have functioned as mediators to end international conflicts with varying success. Pope Benedict XV attempted to persuade Italy to enter World War I. When that failed, he offered papal peace mediation throughout the war. Pope John Paul, a native Pole, brokered talks between the workers' union Solidarity and the Polish government. Pope Francis attempted to persuade representatives from Palestine and Israel to bring peace to the Middle East and worked in Southern Sudan to end a civil war.

By offering to host negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, Pope Leo is following in the footsteps of his predecessors. First reactions indicate that it is something that may be amenable to both sides. It also appears to have the approval of President Trump. To say that Pope Leo has made a strong impression on global leaders and his congregation right out of the gate is an understatement. Let's hope he can do the same with church finances.
Clark Art Institute Presents Artist's Talk with Laura Ellen Bacon

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The Clark Art Institute will host an artist's talk with British artist Laura Ellen Bacon on Thursday, May 29, at 4 p.m. Bacon is one of the artists participating in the upcoming "Ground/work 2025" exhibition.

Bacon will be on the Clark's campus in May to construct a sculpture using willow branches. Attendees are invited to join her outdoors at the sculpture's location, situated beyond the bridge from the Lunder Center where the Nan Path and Woodland Trail intersect, to learn about her creative process as it unfolds. This event offers an opportunity to hear directly from the artist during the creation of her work.

"Ground/work 2025", curated by independent art historian Glenn Adamson, will feature outdoor installations by international artists Y? Akiyama, Laura Ellen Bacon, Aboubakar Fofana, Hugh Hayden, Milena Naef, and Javier Senosiain. The installations will be on display for over a year, allowing visitors to observe the artworks in varying conditions of light and weather.

The "Ground/work 2025" exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Glenn Adamson.

The exhibition is supported by Denise Littlefield Sobel, with major funding from the Edward and Maureen Fennessy Bousa Fund for Contemporary Projects, Karen and Robert Scott, and VIA Art Fund. Additional support is provided by Girlfriend Fund, Agnes Gund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The artist's talk is free and will take place regardless of weather conditions. Attendees are advised to dress accordingly. For accessibility inquiries, call 413-458-0524.
North Adams Passes Pot, Appointment and Capital Plan Ordinances

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The City Council conceded defeat on board and commission appointments last week.

The tussle over appointments had begun in January, when the mayor withdrew a nomination to the Airport Commission from the council agenda  and then appointed the person without council approval.

The General Government Committee had voted unanimously several weeks ago to keep the various "confirmations," "approvals" and "consents" to boards in the ordinances despite the charter giving that authority to the mayor, but Chair Keith Bona said his further research into the issue did not support the effort.

"So our charter says no council," Bona told his council colleagues last Tuesday. "Our ordinances, the ones in front of us where we're being asked to remove consent, do say consent of council."

An opinion from the city solicitor, KP Law, he said, stated the charter supersedes the ordinances and state law. But he found a passage in Massachusetts General Law that says a new government doesn't supersede existing ordinances or bylaws, and that they " shall continue in full force and effect until repealed, modified or superseded ."

That offered a possibility, he thought, for the council to keep some control but those hopes were dashed as well.

"We took a new charter in 1965 and if we didn't change those ordinances they would still exist," he said. "However, most of these ordinances in front of us that say consent of council came after 1965."

Now it was just a matter of amending the ordinances to remove council consent and bring them into line with MGL, unless the council wanted to appeal to the attorney general.

Councilor Ashley Shade, a member of General Government who had referred a proposal to add council consent over the Airport Commission , reluctantly agreed.

"As much as I would like to push back and keep the approval of the city councilors part of this, both our charter and MGL provisions are telling us we can't do that," said Shade. "We have to change the charter to do that."

She stated she would vote to approve Bona's motion to bring the charter into compliance.

Councilor Andrew Fitch asked what would happen if they didn't pass the amendments. Mayor Jennifer Macksey responded that she would continue to confirm appointments on her own.

Fitch described the situation as "icky." "We have two branches of government for a reason, for a check on the other branch," he said. "I feel the council should be a check on the administration's power."

Bona pointed out that the council does have some control over the composition of boards and committees. It was also noted that both the Traffic Commission and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Commission have one direct appointment from the council president.

"I still disagree but we do have to follow MGL and the charter," said Shade. "I would still like to see our charter eventually changed and fixed."

Fitch suggested the council continue to take a vote, "even a ceremonial vote ... on these new appointees. I don't see any reason why we couldn't still do that. That might give us at least a feeling of transparency and celebration of these people and our participation in it."

As it stands now, the mayor doesn't have to even put the names forward to the council but has said she would continue to do so.

Council President Bryan Sapienza suggested that the appointees could be sworn in publicly. Shade asked that their names be listed on the agenda, and the mayor said that was up to Sapienza and the city clerk.

The ordinances amendments were passed to a second reading 7-0-1, with Fitch abstaining and Wayne Wilkinson absent.

The council also passed an amended capital outlay plan (or capital improvement plan) ordinance that extends the timing of the six-year plan's presentation up to six months and requires it be submitted to the Planning Board.

"We don't want to have the option that the mayor may or may not want it to go to the Planning Board," said Bona, on language changed from "may" to "shall." "It currently is shall so we want to keep it shall. All the other suggested changes the [General Government] Committee was fine with."

Jennifer Barbeau, a former councilor, speaking at hearing of visitors, said the mayor had promised last year to present the CIP the Planning Board and had not. She had also promised to present a plan in her first 100 days, said Barbeau, "It has yet to be provided."

Macksey, later during discussion, said the plan has been presented as part of the budgeting process.

Councilor Lisa Blackmer, also a member of the Planning Board, said that body has not seen a capital plan in years preceding Macksey's election.

"It came up at the Planning Board meeting last night," she said, referring to Monday's meeting. "They want not just a presentation, they want active discussion."

State law, MGL, Chapter 41, Sec. 81C, gives the Planning Board authority to prepare studies on their municipalities' resources and needs "from time to time" and to report annually to their city council, and this was added to the CIP ordinance.

"Yes, it's a planning document but it's more a financial planning document, and a lot of those documents will be vetted through the planning process as it comes," said Macksey. "I'm certainly open to having that discussion with the chair [of the Planning Board] to fix the ordinance and create a better process."

Blackmer questioned why the Finance Committee was listed among the financial officers in the ordinance as assisting the mayor in the preparation of the outlay plan in Sec. 2-124.

"We were trying to align the capital improvement document with where it should go," said the mayor. "I have regularly submitted my capital improvement plan through the budget process and we haven't gone in depth to that because its through the budget process."

Bona, in a communique to the council, recommended that the timeframe of the plan be extended rather than requiring it be submitted with the budget.

"A comprehensive COP can require a longer preparation period than the annual budget, necessitating comprehensive planning, engineering assessments, and public engagement, which may not always coincide with the annual budget timeline," he wrote.

Blackmer had endorsed that as well at Monday's Planning Board, saying putting forward a plan in the fall made more sense going into the budget season.

She also noted that the reference to 81C is missing from the Planning Board ordinance but Shade asked if they could move this part along and then return to fix other issues.

The ordinance passed to a second reading 8-0.

In other business:

 The council approved an order that authorizes the treasurer to file an application with the appropriate state officials to qualify the city's approved debt under state law.

"This tees us up to go before the [Municipal Finance Oversight Board]," Macksey said, for bonding long-term debt that is coming up this fall, describing it as a "standard housekeeping matter." The city's bond counsel, Matthew G. Feher of KP Law, explained that it would provide the city with the state's bond ratings, which should save the city money over the term. The debt will include the Greylock School project and the Hoosic River flood chutes study.
Suranne Jones is set to star in a new drama about witchcraft.

Suranne Jones is to star in a drama about witchcraft

The 46-year-old actress has long been fascinated by the subject as she hosted the Channel 4 documentary 'Investigating Witch Trials' last year and, together with her husband Laurence Akers, is now joining forces with the production team behind the award-winning Sky comedy 'Mr Bigstuff'.

The programme, which is not yet attached to a channel, is in its early stages but is set to go into production in the coming months  although the creators say that obtaining financial support for the series will be the biggest challenge.

Tom Miller, from the production company Water and Power, told the British Television Society: "We're currently developing a TV drama with Suranne and Laurence about witchcraft.

"Increasingly, as we build a reputation, we get sent books and scripts, though developing them can be expensive.

"We don't have backers  we're completely independent  so we have to bear development costs."

Suranne delved into the world of witchcraft for the two-part Channel 4 documentary last summer, where she explored the infamous trials in England, the US and beyond along with the age-old prejudices that still have an impact on women to this day.

The former 'Coronation Street' actress claimed she would've been considered a witch back in the 17th century.

She said: "I wouldn't have survived!

"I'm a creative, I'm outspoken, I change my look all the time, I tell stories, I love animals... I mean, it sounds mad, doesn't it?

"I have mental health issues and I'm perimenopausal, so that's surely not going to wash well because surely you're a witch if you're sweating too much or your hormones are all over the place and it's affecting you so you get angry."

The 'Doctor Foster' star also thinks that her birthmarks and moles would also condemn her.

Jones said: "I've got birthmarks and moles everywhere, so they would have been witch marks too.

"Everything about me as a person would have made them think that they needed to get rid of me because I would not have worked in their societal picture, for sure."
NCT DREAM is set to embark on a special adventure with their fans, known as NCTzens, through their upcoming fan meeting titled '2025 NCT DREAM FANMEETING <DREAM QUEST>'. The event will take place over two days, from May 24 to May 25, at the Inspire Arena in Yeongjongdo, Incheon.

This marks the group's first fan meeting in South Korea in nearly two years. The 'DREAM QUEST' is designed as an immersive experience where NCT DREAM and their fans collaborate to complete various quests. Utilizing a 360-degree stage setup, the event aims to transport attendees into a game-like world, enhancing the sense of adventure and engagement.

The fan meeting will feature a mix of performances, interactive games, and talk segments, all aligned with the 'DREAM QUEST' theme. The group has prepared a diverse setlist and large-scale performances that promise to deliver excitement akin to a full-fledged concert, catering to fans from around the globe.

For fans unable to attend in person, the performance on May 25 will be broadcast live through global platforms Beyond LIVE and Weverse, ensuring international fans can partake in the experience.

Looking ahead, NCT DREAM is also preparing for a comeback with a new full-length album scheduled for release in July. Following this, they will hold their fourth solo concert, 'THE DREAM SHOW 4 : DREAM THE FUTURE', from July 10 to July 12 at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.
To simplify identity verification and broaden financial inclusion for all Filipinos, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and GCash have partnered to make National ID registration and financial services more seamless and accessible, especially in underserved communities.

(L-R) PSA policy coordinating and monitoring services assistant national statistician Marela Lovely Y. Andres, PhilSys registry office use case development and management OIC and assistant national statistician Atty. Henedine Palabras, deputy national statistician Rosalinda Bautista, PSA national statistician and civil registrar general undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa PhD, G-Xchange Inc. president and CEO Oscar Enrico Reyes, Mynt chief technology and operations officer Pebbles Sy, vice president for customer experience Joanne Avendano, and chief legal officer Atty. Maricor Alvarez-Adriano

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and GCash have partnered to offer a streamlined process for National ID registration and access to digital financial services. Through a co-location agreement, individuals can now conveniently register for their National ID and open a fully verified GCash account at any of the PhilSys-On-Wheels locations, creating the "one-stop shop" experience for Filipinos. This accelerates onboarding and provides instant access to essential financial tools like savings, fair credit, insurance, and digital payments.

This co-location of services streamlines the process and removes long-standing barriers to participation in the digital financial ecosystem, such as identity verification, which is one of the biggest challenges in financial inclusion. These efforts will enable the PSA and GCash to deliver faster, more secure services to millions of Filipinos.

This co-location initiative with PSA aligns with our shared goal of extending financial inclusion to underserved communities by providing a venue to register for a National ID and open a GCash account at the same time, said president and CEO of G-Xchange, Inc, the mobile wallet operator of GCash, Oscar Enrico Reyes Jr.

Together, through Philsys-On-Wheels and KYC On-The-Go, we are bringing digital financial solutions closer to underserved communities that face significant barriers in accessing formal financial services, he added.

Reyes emphasized that over 56% of GCash users already use their National ID as a primary verification document, which is a testament to the growing adoption of digital identity among Filipinos.

The lasting impact of public-private partnerships

Through PhilSys-On-Wheels, individuals can register for their National ID and open a fully verified GCash account in one visit, enabling faster onboarding and instant access to essential financial tools, such as savings, credit, insurance, and digital payments.

This Memorandum of Agreement is more than a formal documentit is a clear demonstration of how collaboration between the government and the private sector can generate meaningful impact, said national statistician undersecretary Dennis Mapa. By aligning our strengths, we are creating solutions that respond to the needs of Filipinos, particularly those in remote and underserved communities.

Mapa noted that PSA has opened satellite registration sites in malls adjacent to its offices across the country. Mobile and maritime deployment will enable deeper penetration into far-flung communities where GCash also aims to serve.

GCash not only helps bring cashless options to more of our outlets but also increases awareness and access to financial services in places where people need them most, Mapa added.

Fast, secure onboarding with National ID eVerify Authentication Services

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and GCash are strengthening their partnership by integrating the PSA's National ID eVerify Authentication Services into the GCash app. This integration provides real-time ID authentication by securely cross-referencing user data with the PSA's registry. Therefore, streamlining the onboarding process, eliminating delays from manual review, reducing fraud, and strengthening the Know Your Customer (KYC) process of GCash. The agreement, signed in October 2024, underscores both organizations' commitment to delivering efficient services to millions of Filipinos.

Real-time ID verification not only boosts trust and security, but also enhances the overall experience of our customers, added GCash VP for Customer Experience Joanne Avendano. Were cutting down wait times and bringing more Filipinos into the financial ecosystemsafely, securely, and efficientlyshowcasing how we innovate with our users in mind.

eVerify integration into the GCash app has made identity verification smoother and more convenient. Avendano explained, This initiative aligns with our goal to serve more Filipinos, especially those outside traditional service areas.

The Philippine National ID eVerify project is a collaborative initiative of the PSA, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and selected pilot partners from the private sector, including GCash. It supports real-time digital ID authentication, strengthens data integrity, and ensures financial regulatory compliance.

By removing the friction from identity verification, the PSA and GCash are helping more Filipinos gain faster access to a full suite of meaningful digital financial services from savings and fair credit to insurance and investments  this helps empower more Filipinos to thrive every day, and together, we can ensure no Filipino is left behind.

For more information, visit www.gcash.com.
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A new 5,000-ton destroyer key to North Korea's naval advancement has been damaged during its launching ceremony, which was attended by leader Kim Jong Un, state media has reported.

The ship slid off a ramp and became stuck after the flatcar failed to move alongside it, throwing off its balance and crushing parts of the ships bottom, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The incident at Wednesdays ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin was a setback for Mr Kim, who has emphasised naval advancement as key to his nuclear-armed military.

He blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for what he described as a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.

He also called for a Workers Party meeting to address their irresponsible errors, KCNA said.

The agency reported separately that a meeting of the party's powerful Central Committee was scheduled for late June.

open image in gallery Kim Jong Un has called it a criminal act ( AP )

South Koreas military did not immediately release an assessment on the North Korean report.

The damaged vessel was likely in the same class as the countrys first destroyer, unveiled on 25 April, which Mr Kim hailed as a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the militarys operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.

State media described that ship as designed to handle various weapons systems, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

Mr Kim also supervised test-firings of missiles from the destroyer afterward, and state media said the ship was expected to enter active duty early next year.

Mr Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the Norths nuclear programme.

open image in gallery A new North Korean warship at the harbour ahead of its launch in Chongjin ( Maxar Tech )

He says the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening his navy.

Outside experts say the destroyer was likely built with Russian assistance.

While North Koreas naval forces are considered inferior to South Koreas, analysts still view the destroyer as a serious security threat, as it could enhance the countrys offensive and defensive capabilities.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated in recent months as Mr Kim accelerates the development of his nuclear and missile programs and supplies weapons and troops to support Russias war in Ukraine.

The U.S., South Korea, and their allies have expressed concern that Moscow could reciprocate by providing North Korea with advanced weapons technology, further enhancing the threat posed by its nuclear and missile program.
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Two Japanese air force members died shortly after their training aircraft crashed last week, the air force chief confirmed on Thursday.

The T-4 plane, carrying two crew members, crashed into a reservoir minutes after taking off from Komaki Air Base in central Japan's Aichi prefecture on May 14.

Autopsies revealed both crew members, aged 29 and 31, died just two minutes after takeoff, according to Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation, prompting the grounding of all 196 remaining T-4 training aircraft for emergency inspections.

Witnesses at the time told the NHK national broadcaster that they heard a loud noise like thunder, followed by sirens of police cars and fire engines.

Defence Minister Gen Nakatani previously said the T-4 plane, which operates out of Nyutabaru air base, in the southern prefecture of Miyazaki, was heading back to its home base on an unspecified mission.

open image in gallery Japan Air Self-Defense Force has grounded its training plane T-4 as part of an investigation ( AFP via Getty Images )

Officials previously searched an area near the Iruka pond reservoir, approximately six miles northeast of the base and near the city of Inuyama, where debris from the aircraft has been discovered.

This incident is the latest in a string of defense aircraft accidents in recent years, coinciding with Japan's accelerated military buildup in response to China's growing regional influence.

Japan's doubled defense spending has raised concerns that weapons procurement may be prioritised over safety measures.
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A team of four British climbers has etched their names in mountaineering history, becoming the first to summit Mount Everest using Xenon gas, significantly reducing the acclimatisation period typically required for such a feat.

The expedition, organised by Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures, saw the climbers reach the 8,848-metre (29,032 ft) peak in under five days after leaving London.

Traditional Everest expeditions involve weeks or even months of acclimatisation on the mountain, allowing climbers' bodies to adjust to the extreme altitudes.

This process is crucial for safety, as attempting the ascent without proper acclimatisation poses severe risks. Before their climb, the British team inhaled Xenon gas in Germany in a procedure designed to accelerate the acclimatisation process.

In addition to the Xenon gas treatment, the climbers utilised specialised tents simulating high-altitude conditions during their preparation at home.

While on the mountain, they used supplemental oxygen, a standard practice for Everest climbers.

open image in gallery The British climbers, who had inhaled Xenon gas in Germany before embarking on the expedition, climbed the 8,848 metre (29,032 ft) peak in less than five days after departing London ( AFP via Getty Images )

Xenon, a colorless and odorless gas present in trace amounts in the Earth's atmosphere, possesses certain anesthetic properties and has recognised medical applications.

Xenon improves the acclimatisation and protects the body from altitude sickness and the effects from the hypoxic environment, Furtenbach told Reuters in a text message from the base camp, referring to the low oxygen environment in the mountains.

Furtenbach, who has logged four Everest ascents, said Xenon gas was used by guides before but it is the first time for clients, or ordinary climbers.

Xenon made the climb safer and shorter as it kept the climbers properly acclimatised, he said.

Shorter expedition also means less garbage, less resources, less human waste in this sensitive environment, Furtenbach said. Piles of garbage dumped by climbers have been an issue on Everest in recent years.

American climber and guide Adrian Ballinger of the Alpenglow Expeditions company called the use of Xenon a stunt ... its never seemed like the type of experience we want to provide.

Everyone should climb the mountain in a form they are proud of. If these climbers are proud of this style, then thats their choice, Ballinger said.

Nepal has issued permits to 468 people to Everest during the current March-May climbing season and more than 200 have already topped the summit so far.

Nepal does not have any rules on how many days climbers must spend acclimatizing or making practice climbs. Their permits, which cost $11,000 each, are valid for 90 days.
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A new AI model is outperforming the worlds top forecasting systems for weather, pollution and cyclones, according to a new study, boosting hopes of weather forecasting becoming cheaper and more accurate.

The model, called Aurora, accurately predicted cyclone paths and produced weather forecasts in a matter of seconds instead of hours.

It was trained on a vast collection of atmospheric data, like weather observations, climate simulations and satellite measurements, by researchers at Microsoft and the University of Pennsylvania.

When evaluated against global forecasting benchmarks, the AI system consistently produced faster forecasts than traditional models and, in many cases, offered greater accuracy, according to the new research published in Nature.

Aurora was able to predict the path of Doksuri, the costliest Pacific typhoon of 2023, four days before landfall. While official weather agencies forecast landfall in Taiwan, Aurora correctly placed it in the northern Philippines.

It also tracked the path and wind speeds of the storm Ciaran, which struck northwestern Europe last autumn, outperforming traditional models as well as newer systems based on AI like GraphCast and FourCastNet.

According to the study, Aurora was the only model to correctly estimate peak winds from the storm.

open image in gallery File. Typhoon Doksuri caused flooding in Zhuozhou in northern China's Hebei province on 2 August 2023 ( AP )

The results mark a major advance in modelling complex Earth systems with speed and accuracy. Earths climate is perhaps the most complex system we study, with interactions spanning from quantum scales to planetary dynamics, noted Dr Paris Perdikaris, associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

With Aurora, we addressed a fundamental challenge in Earth system prediction: how to create forecasting tools that are both more accurate and dramatically more computationally efficient."

The system is not limited to weather. Aurora has also been tested for forecasting air quality and ocean waves. In one case study, it accurately predicted a large sandstorm in Iraq, which closed airports and led to over 5,000 hospitalisations, a day before it occurred.

The model managed to do this despite being trained without explicit knowledge of atmospheric chemistry. Aurora did not have any prior knowledge about atmospheric chemistry or how nitrogen dioxide, for instance, interacts with sunlight," said study co-first author Dr Megan Stanley of Microsoft Research, that wasn't part of the original training.

"And yet, she said, in fine-tuning, Aurora was able to adapt to that because it had already learned enough about all of the other processes.

The model was also able to simulate complex ocean wave patterns generated by typhoons such as Nanmadol, which struck Japan in 2022. Aurora captured wave heights and direction with more detail and higher accuracy than the standard ocean forecasting systems in use today.

When we compared Aurora to official forecasts from agencies like the National Hurricane Centre, China Meteorological Administration and others, Aurora outperformed all of them across different basins worldwide," said Dr Perdikaris.

open image in gallery Storm Ciaran battered the UK in 2023 ( PA )

The model works by identifying patterns in large environmental datasets instead of solving physical equations. This allows it to generate 10-day weather forecasts and 5-day air quality predictions in under a minute, compared to the hours needed by traditional models running on supercomputers.

Unlike traditional systems that need supercomputers, a key advantage of Aurora is that it can run on simpler machines. This could make accurate local forecasts possible even in countries with limited resources.

The most transformative aspect is democratising access to high-quality forecasts, Dr Perdikaris said. Traditional systems require supercomputers and specialised teams, putting them out of reach for many communities worldwide. Aurora can run on modest hardware while matching or exceeding traditional model performance.

The new AI models foundation architecture allows it to be fine-tuned for various forecasting tasks, from local rain patterns to seasonal trends. "Knowledge gained from one area, such as atmospheric dynamics used in weather forecasting, enhances its predictive performance in other domains, including air quality modelling or predicting tropical cyclone formation," noted Dr Perdikaris.

This cross-domain learning is central to the foundation model philosophy that guides my broader research programme.

Each new application requires only a small amount of additional data.

According to Microsoft, some fine-tuning experiments took only a few weeks compared to the years typically needed to build numerical models.

open image in gallery File. A man walks past cars damaged by floods in Catarroja in Spains Valencia region on 12 November 2024 ( AP )

Although Aurora still needs existing data sources to generate forecasts, researchers say its speed and flexibility could make it useful for real-time applications in the future.

Microsoft says the source code and model weights are publicly available and Aurora is already being used to improve weather services on its MSN platform.

The researchers are interested in extending the model to generate predictions on a wider range of Earth system behaviours, including local and seasonal weather, extreme rainfall and urban flooding.

"What excites me most about this technology is its broader applicability," Dr Perdikaris. "At Penn, we are exploring how similar foundation model approaches can address other prediction challenges beyond weather  from urban flooding to renewable energy forecasting to air quality management  making powerful predictive tools accessible to communities that need them most."

Its developers believe that similar systems could eventually be adapted for other forecasting challenges, including floods, heatwaves and agriculture.

But while early results are promising, further evaluations are needed to understand how AI models like Aurora perform in diverse real-world settings.
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Environmental activists have accused one of Kenyas largest banks of suppressing protest over the controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

The EACOP is a proposed 900 mile (1,443 kilometre) heated pipeline that will transport oil from hydrocarbon fields around Hoima, Uganda, to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. KCB Bank, through its subsidiary in Uganda, are providing some financing for the project alongside a number of other institutions.

Protests over the project have been going on for years  with a report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) claiming that the pipeline would displace more than 100,000 people, in addition to exacerbating the climate crisis. Compensation to displaced people is too low, and take years to arrive, according to HRW.

EACOP has been under development since 2013 and under construction since 2017, but has long faced delays related to uncertain financing, with 43 banks and 30 insurers making public commitments to not support the project over environmental and human rights concerns, according to the stopEACOP campaign. But at the end of March 2025, EACOP announced it had closed its first tranche of external financing for the project, with financing from banks including South Africas Standard Bank, the African Export Import Bank, Stanbic Bank Uganda, and KCB Bank Uganda.

Then last month, 11 environmental activists travelled to the KCB Bank Ugandas headquarters in Kampala to deliver a petition demanding its withdrawal from EACOP. There they were handed to police officers who arrested them. They are still being detained.

The petition that stopEACOP activists took to KCBs headquarters in April, which has been seen by The Independent, highlights human rights and environmental concerns, and calls on KCB to review and rescind its decision to finance the EACOP project immediately.

The 11 activists allege that after they arrived, they passed through security before they were told to wait for more than an hour. They say they were then told they would meet a bank official to whom they could deliver their petition. They say they were led down to the basement, where they faced police officers and were arrested on charges of illegal trespass.

The activists have since been held in the remand wing of Luzira Maximum Security Prison, where they remain awaiting trial.

It is completely wild what happened: they entered the bank... to peacefully deliver their letter, says StopEACOP campaign coordinator Zaki Mamdoo.

Brighton Aryampa, a Ugandan environmental and human rights lawyer who is representing all eleven of the arrested activists, said: [The activists] were simply highlighting the many negative impacts of EACOP, and they were doing so perfectly legally.

Aryampa added that the activists were denied bail on a technicality over paperwork, which he called unusual.

It is a worrying sign for the case, because bail is based on a presumption of innocence, he said.  The offence of criminal trespass slapped on the activists is bailable by the trial court.

The activists are next due in court on 27 May, where Aryampa and other lawyers on the legal team will request again that they be granted bail.

StopEACOP activists give a press statement moments before they went into the KCB Uganda headquarters on 23 April ( StopEACOP )

StopEACOP activists in the KCB Uganda basement ( StopEACOP )

Abiud Onyach, a Kenyan activist at NGO 350.org , said he believed KCB Bank was acting in a way that is overzealous, driven by fear of a government backlash, or out of concern that activists might come back again if it was thought that the bank would humour protests.

Case files shared with The Independent show that some 120 arrests have taken place against anti-EACOP activists since August 2024 in cases that Aryampa has worked on. That included nine this Wednesday in a protest over the pipeline outside KCB Banks headquarters in Kampala.

As far back as 2023, HRW released a report including interviews with 31 people, 21 of them human rights activists, alleging that Uganda was using its laws, courts, and security forces to harass, intimidate and pressure human rights defenders, civil society, and other protesters into silence on EACOP.

Other reporting from HRW alleges that the project has pressurised farmers in the path of the EACOP pipeline or left them worse off than they were before.

In the path of the pipeline there are hundreds of communities that have been forcibly removed and moved to land that is inadequate or infertile, alleges Mamdoo.

Demonstrators are detained by police during a protest against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline Project (EACOP) in Kampala, Uganda, on 26 August 2024 ( EPA-EFE )

He adds that the pipeline is being built for the export of crude oil, with refining - and therefore economic value related to the project - set to occur overseas.

It really is an example of typical neo-colonial extraction, he says.

The EACOP project says that it is committed to respecting the human rights and dignity of individuals within our operations, supply chain, and communities where we do business

Spokespeople from KCB Bank and the Ugandan Ministry of the Internal Affairs did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment from The Independent.

A spokesperson for French oil giant TotalEnergies, which has a 62 per cent stake in EACOP, said: We reaffirm that TEPU [TotalEnergies Uganda] does not tolerate any threats or violence against those who peacefully defend and promote human rights. We have always reminded our associated parties of the importance of respecting human rights.

TEPU and EACOP Ltd maintain an open dialogue with the authorities, to stress to the Police the need to ensure that due process is followed, the protestors are treated well, and their rights are respected while in detention.

On the issue of compensation for affected families, the spokesperson said that the project required the acquisition of 6,400 hectares of land, impacting 19,262 households. They added that 99.6 per cent of the compensation agreements have been paid, and 100 per cent of the required new houses have been built.
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Of all the beauty deals that roll around during the Memorial Day sales, few cause as much excitement to me as savings on Charlotte Tilbury products. The beauty brand  which has the queen of celebrity make-up artistry at the helm  is home to many of my favorite make-up and skincare products.

As someone who works their way through countless bottles of airbrush flawless filter setting spray (was $23, now $18, Charlottetilbury.com), especially during the summer, and is an avid user of the Hollywood flawless filter ($49, now $39.20, Charlottetibury.com), Im thrilled by Charlotte Tilburys sale.

The British-born beauty brand has 20 percent off everything until May 26, making now the perfect time to try the make-up moguls products or stock up on your favorite formulas. If you dont know where to start, Ive rounded up the products Id recommend snapping up while theyre reduced.

What are the best deals in Charlotte Tilburys Memorial Day sale?

In honor of the holiday, Charlotte Tilbury is offering 20 percent off everything  yes, everything. In order to redeem the discount, all you need to do is enter the code MAGICMAY at the checkout, with no minimum spend required.

Charlotte Tilbury airbrush flawless filter setting spray: Was $23, now $18, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Charlotte Tilbury )

Ive tried my fair share of setting sprays. But in my opinion none rival Charlotte Tilburys formula thanks to its ability to deliver long wear and radiance. Living up to its name, it provides a soft-focus, airbrush finish to the skin that doesnt look dull or matte, but locks your make-up in place all day. The scent is subtle and fresh, and the fine mist dries down almost instantly.

Charlotte Tilbury flawless filter: Was $49, now $39.20, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery Charlotte Tilburys flawless filter is my go-to product ( Eva Waite-Taylor )

Most days, I tend to wear just this over my moisturizer of choice (its got to be Charlotte Tilburys magic cream) with some concealer under my eyes (followed by my usual bronzer and blush). It blends into the skin seamlessly, blurring imperfections and areas of hyperpigmentation. While $39.20 seems steep (even with a discount), a little goes a long way  so much so, that Ive been known to keep a bottle going for almost a year, so I think its most definitely worth the money.

Charlotte Tilbury beautiful foundation: Was $49, now $39.20, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Charlotte Tilbury )

Another product I frequently recommend to my friends. This foundation is perfect for bridging the gap when youre looking for extra coverage, yet a your-skin-but-better finish. The buildable formula leaves skin looking fresh and radiant. Even better, a tube of this tends to last me at least six months  but I will add, I dont use it daily.

Charlotte Tilbury immediate skin revival routine skincare discovery set: Was $60, now $38, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Charlotte Tilbury )

This set is the perfect introduction to Charlotte Tilburys skincare  it contains mini versions of the glow toner, magic serum crystal elixir, magic eye rescue, and magic cream. All the products are true skin saviors, containing a concoction of ingredients, such as hyaluronic acid and vitamins C and E, which work to give your complexion an instant glowy finish. At just $38, this is a great deal.

Charlotte Tilbury beautiful skin sun-kissed glow bronzer: Was $58, now $46.50, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Charlotte Tilbury )

The Independents beauty writer is a huge fan of this bronzer  having reviewed it for her guide to the best, she said its one of the easiest to apply as part of a quick morning routine. Its versatile enough to use without foundation as it offers a light sweep of color. Promising failsafe application for all skin types, Im adding this to my cart now.

Charlotte Tilbury calm bliss eau de parfum: Was $150, now $120, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Charlotte Tilbury )

If youre yet to try one of Charlotte Tilburys fragrances, nows the time to add one to your basket, while its 20 percent off. Beauty writer Lucy Partington said the calm bliss scent will transport you to a perfect turquoise tranquil oasis with its sweet neroli oil and watery accord. It does have an almost masculine edge when it dries down, but that added some interest and, if anything, made us enjoy it more.

Charlotte Tilbury magic water cream: Was $30, now $24, Charlottetilbury.com

open image in gallery ( Daisy Lester/Charlotte Tilbury )

An alternative to the famous Charlotte Tilbury magic cream, this magic water cream is bouncy and gel-based, with a water-like consistency, said IndyBest reviewer Daisy, in her review. Its pleasingly lightweight and smooth, gliding onto skin easily, and instantly hydrating any dryness, Daisy added, noting a little goes further than the OG formulation while delivering a dewy sheen.
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An ancient statue depicting the Roman goddess of victory has been unearthed at Hadrians Wall by amateur archaeologists.

The symbolic find of the winged goddess was discovered in a reused pile of rubble above infantry barracks at Vindolanda, a fort just south of the Sycamore Gap.

It is believed the sandstone relief had been used to signify the end of an ancient Roman war.

Veteran married volunteers Jim and Dilys Quinlan, from Merseyside, made the discovery on 1 May while taking part in their 21st year on the sites excavation programme.

Ms Quinlan told The Guardian: Weve spent the vast majority of our annual leave at Vindolanda over the years. As veteran diggers, it is without doubt the most wonderful thing weve ever done and, importantly, its something we do as a couple.

Its the best form of relaxation that we know of. We eat well, sleep well, were in good company and theres always more to learn. What more could you ask for?

open image in gallery Volunteers Jim and Dilys Quinlan with the victory stone ( The Vindolanda Trust )

Goddess Victory, known in Latin as Victoria, was the personification of victory in Roman religion and mythology.

She was the counterpart of the Greek goddess Nike and was highly revered by the ancient Romans, during times of war she was often credited for battlefield success, according to the Vindolanda Trust.

Dr Andrew Birley, the director of excavations for the Vindolanda Trust said: Finds like this are increasingly rare these days from Roman Britain, but the beautifully carved figure vividly reminds us that Roman forts were not simply utilitarian, they had grandeur and of course the symbolism was a vital part of the culture here for the soldiers almost 2,000 years ago.

I am also delighted for Jim and Dilys for their discovery. It is just reward for their 21 years of hard work and dedication to this site.

The stone is thought to be one side of a much larger relief which would have framed an inscription in its centre, and is highly likely to have originally been brightly painted.

The Trusts curator Barbara Birley said: We will be working with our specialists to see if any traces of the pigment remain, so for now the relief is being stored unwashed ready for that further analysis.

open image in gallery The Roman Vindolanda Fort and Museum, just south of the Sycamore Gap ( The Roman Vindolanda Fort and Museum )

Vindolanda was first built by the Roman army, before construction had even begun on the 73-mile-long Hadrians Wall, to guard the wild north-west frontier of the Roman Empire. It became an important construction and garrison base for the wall and was demolished and rebuilt at least nine times.

The site was under Roman occupation between 85 AD and 370 AD, and today it is an active archaeology site providing an insight into the lives of people living and working near Hadrian's Wall nearly 2,000 years ago.

These particular barracks at Vindolanda were built at the end of a tumultuous time for the Romans in Britain, in AD 213, just after the end of the Severan wars.

The barracks were once adorned with a large ornamental arch and gate, precisely the location where an inscription may have been present.

This artefact will go on public display in early 2026 at the Vindolanda museum as part of its Recent Finds exhibition.
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Irish rap trio Kneecap say charging one of their members with a terrorism offence is a carnival of distraction from the war in Gaza.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, 27, of Belfast was charged under the name Liam OHanna after an incident at the O2 Forum in London on 21 November 2024, the Metropolitan Police said.

It is alleged that Mr O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, displayed a flag in support of Hezbollah.

He was charged by postal requisition and is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 18 June.

In a statement on social media, Kneecap said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is.

open image in gallery Kneecap members (left to right) Naoise O Caireallain, JJ O Dochartaigh, and Liam Og O hAnnaidh ( PA Wire )

Kneecap said Britain was abetting slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it, the social media statement said.

WE WILL FIGHT YOU IN YOUR COURT. WE WILL WIN. FREE PALESTINE.

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah.

The Belfast rap trio have had gigs cancelled after the footage emerged, but are still listed to headline Fridays Wide Awake day festival in Brixtons Brockwell Park.

open image in gallery Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned ( House of Commons )

The group apologised in April to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been exploited and weaponised.

They also said they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, which reported Kneecap to counter-terrorism police, posted on X: We are pleased to see the police have acted swiftly. Hamas and Hezbollah are both proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK. The law must be enforced.

Formed in 2017, the group, made up of Mr O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain, and JJ O Dochartaigh, are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language.

Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live and H.O.O.D..
Sri Lanka marks International Tea Day with FAO at the UN in Geneva



The International Tea Day which falls on 21 May was marked for the first time in Geneva at a special event co-hosted by the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Liaison Office, under the theme Tea for Better Lives. The event took place at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and brought together diplomats, UN officials, and members of the Sri Lankan community to celebrate teas cultural, economic, and social significance.

Director General of the UNOG Tatiana Valovaya attended as the Chief Guest of the event which also included a panel of speakers joining online from Rome and Colombo. The event was supported by the Sri Lanka Tea Board.

Delivering the opening remarks, Director of the FAO Liaison Office in Geneva Dominique Burgeon elaborated the origins of the international tea day and underlined the significance of the day in recognizing the cultural, economic, and social value of tea across the world.

Director General Valovaya highlighted that tea is more than just a drink, but a fascinating part of multilateralism as many important discussions take place over a cup of tea.

Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, recounted the historical legacy of Ceylon Tea, dating back to 1852 with the arrival of British planter James Taylor. She also highlighted the Sri Lanka Tea Boards 2025 theme: A Sip of Heritage  A Taste of Ceylon and centenary of the Sri Lanka Tea Research Institute (TRI) while paying tribute to the TRI for providing research excellence to the industry bridging innovation, sustainability and lifestyles since 1925.

Ambassador R. G. S. Wijesekara, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlighted the importance of global cooperation to sustain teas future, highlighting its vital role in livelihoods, development, and resilience amid climate and trade challenges.

El Mamoun Amrouk, Senior Economist in the Markets and Trade Division at FAO, joining online from Rome, shared insights on how tea supports livelihoods, preserves culture, and contributes to global health.

Former Chairman of the Planters Association of Ceylon and CEO and Executive Director of Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC, Senaka Alawattegama talked about Sri Lankas success story in transforming lives by empowering rural communities and women, climate resilience practices, sustainability and eco-friendly approach of Sri Lankas tea industry.

Veteran Tea Taster and Managing Director and CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities PLC, Anil Cooke treated the audience to a virtual, yet inspiring tea tasting session, explaining the uniqueness attached to the teas grown in different regions of the country.

The participants were thereafter invited to a curated tasting of teas from Sri Lankas seven agro-climatic regions, paired with Sri Lankan delicacies.

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva

21 May 2025
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At least 6.5m of fuel has been stolen in more than 130,000 drive-offs at petrol station forecourts over the past five years, new figures suggest.

Despite senior police figures warning that such offences can be linked to serious organised crime groups, a new investigation suggests that an average of 86 per cent of cases are dropped without a suspect being identified.

Analysis of police data obtained via the Freedom of Information Act shows there have been an average of 505 incidents every week of cars driving off without paying at petrol forecourts across England and Wales over the past five years.

That rose to a peak of 635 per week in 2022, equating to more than 33,000 such thefts that year, when fuel prices spiked to record highs. The statistics were obtained from 33 out of the UKs 45 police forces, which shared their data with the outlet Forecourt Trader.

open image in gallery There have been an average of 505 such incidents per week over the past five years, analysis suggests ( PA Media )

The outlet estimated that an average of 49 of fuel is stolen in each incident, which is considerably below the cost of a full tank. This figure was calculated using data from the five police forces which consistently recorded the value of fuel stolen.

In London, the Metropolitan Police has recorded more than 15,000 reports of making off without payment incidents since 2020, costing an estimated total of more than 787,000.

West Yorkshire saw more than 8,700 incidents reported, costing an estimated 438,000, while Greater Manchester Police recorded nearly 14,000 offences at an estimated value of 697,000.

Retailers despair at the lack of action being taken over this issue, which may explain why our data only scratches the surface, as many forecourt managers dont bother reporting fuel theft as they know from bitter experience that nothing is likely to be done, said Hugo Griffiths, the reporter who conducted the investigation.

This is despite the fact that petrol stations usually have crystal-clear ANPR data and CCTV footage of such incidents just sitting there, waiting to be reviewed by officers, Mr Griffiths wrote in a comment piece.

He also pointed to data from the security firm Vars Technology, which suggests some 13 per cent of all such incidents involved cars fitted with cloned or fake number plates, or with no registered keeper, which Mr Griffiths said indicates not just premeditation, but suggests links to more serious crime.

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners told the Forecourt Trader that drive-offs at forecourts can be linked to other serious organised criminality, warning that police should not be complacent about these crimes because they are not victimless or low-level, as is sometimes suggested.

A National Police Chiefs Council spokesperson said: Forces have regular interactions with commercial providers and organisations, including petrol stations, about the security of their sites and continue to work with them to make it harder for criminals to commit this type of offence.

In some cases, there may not be enough intelligence or data for police to act on. This does not mean that a crime is closed indefinitely or that intelligence or information is ignored. Intelligence is vital in detecting organised criminality, and we would encourage anyone who suspects criminality in their community to report it to police, including theft.
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Nearly 2,000 children of Afghan families brought to the UK because of their support of the British are living in hotels, military bases and other temporary accommodation, new data has revealed.

There are 3,880 people, brought to the UK under the Afghan Resettlement Programme, who are living in transitional accommodation while waiting for a more permanent home, government data released on Thursday showed.

The government has said that around half of these 3,880 were children as of the end of March 2025. The families are being housed in military bases around the UK, as well as hotels and other temporary accommodation.

The resettlement scheme is designed to help those Afghans who worked for or closely with British troops, or who supported British government objectives during the war - many of whom face persecution under the Taliban regime.

The number of people being brought to the UK under the Afghan schemes is on the rise. Data shows that there were 7,736 people resettled in the year ending March 2025, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year.

Military bases being used have included sites in Leicestershire, Wiltshire, South Wales, Inverness and Dorset. The Afghan families are living at the bases on a transitional basis before they are moved to homes on other barracks, council properties, or more permanent homes ring-fenced for those in the forces.

The MoD has run out of more permanent homes for these Afghan allies and some hotels have now been opened to house Afghan families while they wait.

The MoD and the Home Office are also liaising with local councils to find extra housing for them.

The number of Afghans living in this transitional accommodation in the UK has increased, with 3,035 people recorded as living in this temporary housing at the end of September 2024.

Data obtained by The Independent earlier this year showed that 1,015 service family accommodation homes were being used for Afghan allies as of 1 January 2025. These homes are available to families for up to three years.

The MoD is currently undertaking a review of some 2,000 resettlement applications from Afghans with credible links to two special forces units CF333 and ATF444, who served closely with UK special forces soldiers during the war in Afghanistan.

The review was prompted after failures were identified in how their applications for sanctuary were refused.
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The process for determining whether former members of Afghan special forces who served alongside British troops in Afghanistan can be resettled to the UK was a disaster area so terrible it could be likened to a crime scene, the High Court has heard.

Thousands of applications for sanctuary from Afghans with credible links to special forces units CF333 and ATF444, known as the Triples, were rejected by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Their pleas for help were rebuffed by the government despite these units being paid and trained by the British and the soldiers fighting alongside UK special forces (UKSF) in Afghanistan.

The MoD is undertaking a review of some 2,000 applications of Afghans linked to the units, after The Independent, along with Lighthouse Reports, Sky News and the BBC exposed how they were being denied help.

The court heard that the review of some 2,000 applications is only looking at cases that were referred by MoD caseworkers to UK special forces for input.

UK special forces had power over the UK sanctuary applications of Afghan allies amid an ongoing inquiry into potential war crimes in Afghanistan. Concerns have been raised by MPs about the potential conflict of interest of allowing UKSF a role in the resettlement process.

The inquiry has been investigating alleged war crimes committed on raids by UKSF between 2010 and 2013. Members of the UKSF have been accused of killing unarmed Afghans, planting weapons on them, falsifying reports and then covering up the crimes.

The High Court also heard that the MoD rejected the resettlement application of one senior commander from the Triples units, who was in the units at the time of a key incident being examined in the Afghan war inquiry.

Thousands of applications of Afghans with credible links to special forces units are being reviewed by the government ( Charlie Herbert )

A former senior member of the Triples, who is now in the UK, is bringing the legal challenge on behalf of commandos still in Afghanistan - challenging how the review has been carried out. The case is an application for judicial review which, if granted, would see the scheme further challenged in the courts.

Thomas de la Mare KC, for the claimant, told the court on Wednesday that there had been an effective blanket ban on approvals for these ex-servicemen who fought side-by-side with the British forces.

He told the court that decisions on whether to help these Afghans were life and death decisions, with Triples members or their families being murdered or tortured because of their support for UK forces.

Speaking about the decision-making within the MoD, he said: The decision-making process prior to the review is almost a crime scene, its a disaster area.

He added: Its almost as disastrous an area of decision-making as its possible to conceive.

He argued that information about how the approvals were made should be made public to restore public confidence and trust in the decision-making process.

Mr de la Mare continued: There is a widespread perception that there is an issue of conflict of interest or bias in this process. Those conflicts of interest were vented very clearly in January 2024, and they were a key part in the decision-making process.

The court also heard that political pressure was put on MoD decision-makers to sprint through resettlement cases. This prompted concerns about the quality of decision-making, which resulted in an internal review where a pattern of blanket refusal of Triples claims referred to UKSF became obvious, the court was told.

Flaws in the decision-making process included people being inappropriately reliant on UKSF personnel, particularly during the sprints that took place through the summer of 2023, the court heard.

Caseworkers before the review lacked access to relevant records and were insufficiently experienced.

The court heard that then-minister for veterans affairs, Johnny Mercer, wrote to Oliver Dowden in January 2024 to raise concerns about how the process was being carried out. He highlighted that the role of UKSF personnel in the decision-making process was deeply inappropriate and represented a significant conflict of interest.

Mr de la Mare added that until the Triples review was announced in February 2024, a vanishingly small number of the special forces commandos had been approved for relocation to the UK.

He told the court that senior ministers had decided to conduct a review on the basis that all credible claims of Triples membership were in scope. However, Mr de la Mare said this had been narrowed to just re-examine cases where the Afghan applicants case had been referred to UK special forces.

The hearing is due to conclude on Friday, with a decision expected in writing at a later date.
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More than 60 major UK and international charities have called for the government to reverse funding cuts that they warn will ensure the worst aid budget for women and girls on record.

In a joint statement organised by Care International and signed by Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision, the 61 charities say they are deeply alarmed by the shameful proposal to shift money away from projects that specifically support women and girls by scrapping dedicated spending on gender equality. The charities estimate that the closure of just one UK-funded violence prevention project, the What Works programme, would put more than one million women and children at increased risk of abuse worldwide. One charity chief executive called the cuts dangerous.

In February, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a plan to cut aid spending from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of the UKs gross national income  a measure of the nations total wealth. That amounts to roughly 6bn cut from a current budget of 15.4bn. On 14 May, development minister Jennifer Chapman told MPs these cuts would fall on gender and education programmes, as the government sought to sharpen [its] focus on humanitarian emergencies in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan.

However, the coalition of leading charities have warned these cuts will mean specialised services for survivors of rape will disappear, girls will miss out on education, and women will continue to be excluded from positions of power and influence. Currently, just 12 per cent of all UK aid prioritises gender equality, which the charities say must be protected  with more than half of womens rights organisations in developing countries surveyed by UN Women saying they will have to close in the next six months because of aid cuts.

We urge the UK government to reverse course. It otherwise risks sending the message that the rights and lives of women and girls are expendable, the statement reads.

These decisions arent simply about numbers on a balance sheet  they are choices that determine whether women and girls live in safety, go to school, or access healthcare. Behind every cut is a person whose life and future are at stake, the statement adds.

As a coalition of organisations working toward a gender-just world both in the UK and overseas, we are deeply alarmed by the shameful proposal to eradicate standalone aid funding for gender equality.

Beyond gender equality spending, the 40 per cent cut to the UKs spending in developing countries is projected to leave millions at risk of malnutrition. An analysis by Save the Children previously shared with The Independent found the savage cuts to UK foreign aid would leave 55.5 million of the worlds poorest people without access to basic resources.

open image in gallery A school in the Dominican Republic ( AP )

Addressing the international development select committee last week, Baroness Chapman said: There will be a huge impact, Im not pretending otherwise. I cant promise to protect every good programme.

She claimed that the crises in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan are actually where the public expects us to lead. But in their statement, the coalition of charities cited polling by YouGov that showed that 63 per cent of respondents think the aid budget should be used to protect womens and girls rights.

The UKs aid cuts come at a time when many rich countries are shifting spending away from development. But none has cut as deeply as the US, where Donald Trumps decision to slash overseas spending is already having wide-ranging destructive effects, from leaving millions on the brink of famine, to derailing the end of the AIDS pandemic, driving millions of preventable deaths.

Dr Halima Begum, chief executive of Oxfam GB, said: The UK governments proposed rollback on dedicated funding for gender equality is beyond concerning  its dangerous. With the rise of anti-rights movements, the fight to protect the rights of women and girls is more important than ever.

Care International UK's CEO Helen McEachern said: Real people around the world  not statistics  pay the price for decisions made in Westminsters corridors of power.

It is unconscionable that the government would rip away support from women and girls at such a globally volatile time; their safety and rights are not negotiable. If this government is to avoid being remembered as one of the worst for women and girls, it must immediately reverse course, protect their rights and prioritise gender equality. Its both a moral imperative and a strategic one: no society can thrive when half its population is left behind. Labour is at risk of leaving a damning legacy.

This article was produced as part of The Independents Rethinking Global Aid project
Saint-making in the Catholic Church  or canonisation as it is called  is traditionally a drawn-out, opaque process with the successful candidates who have emerged from it in recent times usually worthy but unsurprising long-dead clerics and nuns. That is why Carlo Acutis joining their heavenly ranks has caught the attention of so many.

London-born, raised in Italy, this tech-savvy, deeply devout teenager tragically died aged just 15 from leukaemia in 2006. Pope Franciss decision in 2024 to approve his canonisation saw him labelled the first millennial saint.

As with many of the late Popes bold, breaking-with-precedent decisions, this one appeared to be based, in part at least, on a realisation that the Church feels alien and irrelevant to many young people because of its outdated stance on sex before marriage, womens equality and same-sex relationships.

Holding up Acutis as a role model  which is part of their job description  is therefore showing a sceptical young audience that Catholicism isnt only for the old and the conservative. If in doubt of the symbolic power of Carlos Acutis, take a look at the stained-glass window featuring him that was installed in 2022 in St Aldhelms Catholic Church in Malmesbury.

Unlike the medieval bishop in vestments and carrying a crozier in the window next door, he is depicted dressed in standard 2006 teenager garb, with a digital watch and a phone strapped to his rucksack. In other words: very ordinary, very now, yet simultaneously the Church has decided through its canonisation process someone extraordinary by dint of his religious devotion and his heroic virtue in living his short life as a servant of God.

These are the key qualities for any saint in Catholicisms famously lengthy rulebook. Francis had planned to preside at the canonisation ceremony last month (the latest of 900 saints he had made during his reign, 813 of whom came from the 15th century), but it was postponed as the seriousness of the health problems that led to his death became apparent.

No new date has yet emerged from his successor Leo XIV, but a popular American Catholic priest podcaster, David Michael Moses, is upping the ante by telling his 330,000 YouTube followers that the new pope already has a special connection with Carlo Acutis. That, he hopes, will mean that the canonisation could take place soon and be the first of this pontificate.

The bond between the two rests, Moses enthuses, on the fact young Carlo did his secondary education at the Leo XIII Institute in Milan. What are the chances, he says in his folksy way, that the school hes attending when he dies was named after Pope Leo XIII, the predecessor of our new Pope Leo XIV, the pope that Leo XIV says inspired him to choose the name? How cool is that?

And there is more. If that wasnt enough, listen to this quote from Carlo Acutis. I offer all the suffering I will have to suffer for the lord, for the pope, and for the Church.

open image in gallery Holding up Acutis as a role model is therefore showing a sceptical young audience that Catholicism isnt only for the old and the conservative ( AP )

It might not pass muster as a watertight argument in a court of law, but in the Vatican, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which has been in charge of saint-making for centuries, assesses evidence in a very different way.

Acutis, the boy now also referred to as Gods Influencer, was born in 1991 in west London and baptised in Our Lady of Dolours parish in Chelsea. His Italian mother Antonia and half-Italian, half-English father Andrea moved to Milan six months later and raised their only child there. Early on, his banker parents say, he showed a particular empathy and social conscience, saving up his pocket money to hand over to good causes that helped the poor, or standing up for those bullied at his school.

But it was the always present religious dimension in him that was so unusual in an age where church attendance, especially among the young in Italy, is in steep decline. When on family holidays at Centola in southern Italy, little Carlo would wander over as a child and join the group of old women who gathered each day to say the rosary on the beach. And it was Carlo who insisted on the family going to church each Sunday. Before that, his parents had been pretty much lapsed from the religion of their own upbringing.

open image in gallery Acutiss body on display in Assisi, Italy, earlier this year ( AP )

As a teen, he would cook food and deliver it to those who were homeless and on the streets of Milan. He became a catechist aged 12 in his local parish of Santa Maria Segreta, preparing younger children for their first communion. Next, the skills he mastered early with digital and computer technology saw him producing the parish newsletter and compiling and updating a public website that collected all reported miracles around the world attributed to the Virgin Mary and the Eucharist.

It is all the more remarkable that he did all this while limiting himself to one hour a day on screens, his mother later stressed. When diagnosed with incurable leukaemia in 2006, he told her, I die happy because I didnt spend any minutes of my life on things God doesnt love.

For some parents, a child self-limiting to an hour of screen time per day would count as a miracle in itself, but the Vatican has a higher bar. To be declared a saint, there has to be evidence presented that praying to the candidate had precipitated two separate miraculous events.

In 2020, the Vatican department in charge of canonisation published evidence that prayers directed to God via Carlo Acutis had cured a Brazilian youngster, Mattheus Vianna, from a rare disease. Pope Francis accepted these findings, reached after interviewing around 500 people, including medical experts who, it was said, could come up with no other plausible explanation.

open image in gallery Pope Leo XIV waves as he arrives for his first weekly general audience in St Peters Square ( AP )

Then, in 2024, another report accepted that prayers made to Acutis had spared the life of a young woman in Florence who had had a bleed on her brain that doctors had said would kill her. There will, of course, be sceptics who question the science that leads to these conclusions, including many Catholics, who struggle to make sense of the randomness of these divine interventions when so many other tragedies occur each and every day.

Others, too, point to the cost of the Vatican process of discernment, which has to be met by those putting forward the candidate. Pope Francis did move  in line with his wider embrace of what he referred to as a poor Church, for the poor  to cut these charges, but they remain considerable. It may explain why usually only religious orders can afford to immortalise their brethren or sisters. Or the occasional wealthy family.

Antonia Salzano, Carlos mother, would add another miracle to the list. She was in her forties when her son died, and assumed she would never have another child. One night, he appeared to her in a dream and told her she would have twins. And, at 44, she did.

open image in gallery The stained glass window on display at St Aldhems RC Church ( St Aldhems RC Church )

Quite how the Vatican could verify that as true is hard to imagine, but getting too wrapped up in the process risks missing the point. The Church gets many things wrong about human beings, but it also gets a lot right, including that we do respond well to role models being held up in front of us to emulate. It was doing it long before the advent of social media.

Moreover, there is an argument that connects the cult that has grown so quickly in recent years around Carlo Acutis with those others of his generation who, a recent survey by the Bible Society reported, are returning to the pews in surprising numbers. Perhaps the Church isnt quite so old-fashioned and otherworldly as we like to think.

Peter Stanford is a former editor of the Catholic Herald. His book Gaudi: Gods Architect will be published next spring by Hodder
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An inquest into the death of British teenager Jay Slater has been adjourned after his mother broke down in tears, as the coroner revealed details of his final movements.

The 19-year-old vanished from a remote part of the popular Spanish island of Tenerife on 17 June last year after going to a music festival with friends.

After a nearly month-long search, Mr Slaters body was discovered with Spanish police saying he had likely died from a head injury.

He was last heard from by his friend Lucy Law, after he rang her and told him his phone was on 1 per cent. His other friend, Brad Hargreaves, heard him slipping over gravel on a phone call.

Here, The Independent takes a look at everything in the inquest so far into the apprentice bricklayers death at Preston Coroners Court, Lancashire.

open image in gallery Jay Slater and his friend Lucy Law, who did not turn up to his inquest on Wednesday ( Lucy Mae Law/Instagram )

His friends did not appear at the inquest

Several of Mr Slaters friends, who were on holiday at the time he died, failed to show up to the inquest despite frequent requests for them to do so.

These included Bradley Geoghegan, Brandon Hodgson and Lucy Law, Mr Slaters friends, who were out with him at the music festival the night before he vanished.

Mr Geoghegan is understood to be on holiday, while Mr Hodgson and Ms Law are believed to be out of the UK.

The two men who were staying at an Airbnb that Mr Slater went back to before he disappeared have also not been traced.

open image in gallery A widespread search was carried out for Mr Slater in the village of Masca, Tenerife ( PA Archive )

His mother Debbie Duncan broke down in tears during the inquest, saying: How can we ever get any understanding?

She pleaded: We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didnt come back, so theres questions we need to ask.

The inquest has been adjourned for a final effort to trace the witnesses. A date for the resumption of the hearing has not been set.

He had drugs in his system the day he died

Toxicology expert Dr Stephanie Martin told the hearing analysis of Mr Slaters body showed traces of the presence of MDMA and MDA, commonly known as ecstasy, along with cocaine and alcohol.

Analysis of samples by the Spanish authorities also showed the presence of ketamine, which was not found in the UK samples.

open image in gallery His mother Debbie Duncan broke down in tears during the inquest, saying: How can we ever get any understanding? ( Supplied )

He died from a head injury, and was not assaulted

Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd detailed the injuries found on Mr Slater from his post-mortem examination findings.

The pattern of the injuries were entirely consistent with a heavy fall, a fall from a height, landing on his head, Dr Shepherd said.

Dr Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, asked the witness if, from the injuries, there was any suggestion of an assault or restraint of the teenager.

The pattern of the injuries when someone is assaulted or restrained is very different from the type of injuries and pattern I found with Jay, Dr Shepherd added.
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The UK special forces officer in charge of assessing resettlement applications from Afghan commandos may have been connected to an ongoing inquiry into alleged war crimes committed by British troops, the High Court has heard.

Thousands of applications from individuals with credible links to two Afghan elite commando units CF33 and ATF444 were rejected by the Ministry of Defence, despite the soldiers being paid and trained by the British. Some of the Afghan commandos who applied for sanctuary in Britain served alongside the UK special forces units that are at the centre of the war crimes inquiry.

The former soldiers were left at the mercy of the Taliban, with some being murdered because of their service with the British. The MoD is undertaking a review of some 2,000 applications of Afghans linked to the units, after The Independent, along with Lighthouse Reports, Sky News and the BBC exposed how they were being denied help.

The review comes amid an ongoing inquiry into alleged war crimes committed on UK special forces raids between 2010 and 2013. Members of the UKSF have been accused of killing unarmed Afghans and planting weapons on them.

It has emerged that UK special forces had power over the UK sanctuary applications of Afghan allies who could be potential witnesses to the inquiry. MoD caseworkers would refer applications to a UKSF liaison officer, who would make further enquiries about the Afghans connections to special forces soldiers.

A legal challenge is being brought over how the MoD is assessing the applications from these two units, known as The Triples. The High Court heard on Thursday that a UKSF liaison officer who had power over the resettlement applications was also connected with matters being probed by the Afghan war crimes inquiry.

The MoD admitted faults in the way resettlement applications from Afghan commandos were handled ( PA )

In a summary of evidence heard in a closed hearing, the MoD confirmed that because of the role(s) he held at the relevant time, the UKSF liaison officer may have had some connection to the matters within the scope of the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan.

It continued: He will through the nature of his role(s) in UKSF have liaised with Operation Northmoor. Operation Northmoor was a Royal Military Police investigation that looked into 11 separate special forces raids in Afghanistan.

Though allegations of bias were raised in the court case, the MoD said an internal investigation found no evidence of bias or hidden motives on the part of the UKSF liaison officer.

Instead they said that the UKSF officers approach to decision-making was lax and unprofessional. They found that the officer would make more thorough enquiries in relation to some Afghan applicants and not others. He also told UKSF units that if they didnt reply to his enquiries about certain Afghan applicants he would assume that the unit had no relevant information and would reject the application.

The UKSF officer also reached decisions far too quickly, the MoD said, and would focus on the Afghan soldiers seniority rather than their eligibility.

Documents submitted to the High Court revealed that the UKSF liaison officer was replaced following a January 2024 meeting between senior civil servants and then-Veterans minister Johnny Mercer who presented his concerns about bias in the process.

In February 2024, ministers announced a review into how Triples applications had been handled after identifying decisions were inconsistent and not robust.

In documents submitted by the MoD to the High Court, it was revealed that by May 2022 caseworkers assessing Triples applications were referring them to UKSF personnel for input.

The court heard that the senior civil servant in charge of Afghan resettlement applications to the MoD, Natalie Moore, was concerned about how decisions were being made as early as October 2023. She commissioned an internal review into the process, which identified failings in the decision making but did not find evidence of bias related to the Afghan war crimes inquiry.

In a witness statement, Ms Moore said that she became concerned about the changes in decision making approach at a time when an identified individual became UKSF liaison officer.

The liaison officer oversaw decisions during a sprint to clear a backlog of over 5,000 applications in the summer of 2023. During this time there were between 22 and 43 caseworkers and just one UKSF liaison officer to give input on the decisions, the court heard.

Mr Justice Dingemans put to the MoD that the process was inevitably bound to fail with just one UKSF officer dealing with so many cases.

The court heard that during the summer 'sprint' to speed through applications some 1585 cases were rejected.

Ms Moore also said that she had recently been made aware about internal concerns regarding UKSFs handling of cases from as early as October 2022.

She told the court that from summer 2022 lax procedures were being followed by UKSF that led to large numbers [of Triples cases] being rejected.

The MoD realised that their caseworkers were overly reliant on UKSF personnel, and were not consistently exercising their own independent judgement. The government admitted that this led to UKSF personnel determining resettlement applications and rejecting them.

However Ms Moore said she believed incorrect decisions on Triples cases arose from the poor decision-making process rather than bias of the UKSF.

Thomas de la Mare KC, for the claimant, said that the rejections amounted to effectively a blanket practice.

The hearing is due to conclude on Friday, with a decision expected in writing at a later date.
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Net migration has fallen by half in the first set of immigration figures since Sir Keir Starmers Labour government came to power.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, show the difference between people entering and leaving the UK totalled 431,000 in the year to December 2024 - the lowest rate since June 2021.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the drop was important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million under the Conservatives but shadow home secretary Chris Philp hit back, saying the figures are still too high and need to go down a lot further.

While the numbers mostly cover the period when the Tory government was in power, they come amid a fresh Labour crackdown on illegal migration.

Sir Keir has said migrants will have to earn the right to live in the UK and has unveiled a swathe of measures, including tougher English requirements, making it harder for people to settle here.

What the numbers say on migration

Todays migration statistics will be welcome news to Sir Keir and the Labour government, who have committed to bringing down spiralling migration numbers - while also refusing to put a target number on it.

Net migration from December 2023 to 2024 totalled 431,000, down from 860,000 in the same period the year before.

Overall, long-term immigration - when people move somewhere for more than a year - was at 948,000, down by 30 per cent from the previous year.

The latest data shows that 86 per cent of people coming to the UK are from non-EU countries, unchanged from previous figures.

The figure for non-EU nationals moving here is six times higher than EU nationals, with the highest number of people coming from India (156,000 people) and Pakistan (76,000).

This is followed by China, Nigeria and Ukraine.

The number of Nigerians entering the UK dropped drastically from the year up to June 2024, from 120,000 to just 52,000 in December.

Small boats

The high number of illegal migrants arriving in the UK by small boats remains a problem for the government.

Separate Home Office figures show that 11,800 people have arrived by small boat this year.

Though this is notably higher than the same period in recent years, suggesting that the number of small boat arrivals may be higher for 2025.

A significant proportion of small boat arrivals are coming from Eritrea, at 1,291 people from January to March alone.

This made up nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of all arrivals in that period, according to Home Office data released today for the period up to March 2025.

According to Amnesty, military service for people aged 18-40 in Eritrea continues to be mandatory and indefinite, while seeking asylum abroad is considered treason.

Other top countries of origin for small boat migrants are Afghanistan, Sudan, Vietnam and Iran.

Reasons for migration

The number of people coming to the UK for study was higher than for work, the figures show.

Some 266,000 people moved to the UK for study-related reasons in the year to December 2024, compared to 262,000 people coming for work.

Both numbers are down from previous periods.

The number of people coming to seek asylum was at its highest level recorded, at 95,000, with a further 51,000 coming to UK for humanitarian reasons.

Recently, Sir Keir has floated the idea of return hubs for failed asylum seekers in third-party countries. This would enable asylum seekers to be sent to other countries for processing before being deported.

No countries have been confirmed, but the Balkans have been reported as possible destinations.

The UNs refugee agency has endorsed the idea of return hubs; after the Tories unsuccessful Rwanda scheme faced widespread criticism over human rights concerns.
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Angela Rayner wanted cuts to the benefits migrants can claim as an alternative to Labours plans to cut the welfare budget for thousands of disabled people, a leaked memo suggests.

In what appears to be a briefing war by sources in the Treasury against the deputy prime minister, the revelations show that Ms Rayner was at odds with Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

The memo, which first appeared in the Daily Telegraph, shows that Ms Rayner wanted to restrict recently arrived legal migrants access to pensions and benefits, and reconsider whether they should pay more to access NHS services.

open image in gallery Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner ( James Manning/PA Wire )

The memo read: Migrants who have spent five to 10 years in the UK generally receive access to a broad range of welfare entitlements.

Indefinite leave to remain in the UK confers access to core welfare entitlements such as Universal Credit, and 10 years of National Insurance contributions confers eligibility for some state pension provision.

Those who arrived in the UK during the period of very high immigration in the past few years will become eligible for indefinite leave to remain over the course of this Parliament.

It added: The Spring Statement could announce a review of entitlements with a target saving to be delivered in time for the spending review or autumn Budget, and include Universal Credit and state pension entitlements.

The review could also consider whether further rises in the immigration health surcharge should be implemented (currently set at 1,035 and raising [circa] 1.7 billion a year).

DHSC [Department of Health and Social Care] figures show that this only just covers the estimated average annual cost of treating migrant patients.

It follows a previous revelation from the same memo that Ms Rayner wanted the Treasury to consider a series of wealth taxes as an alternative to the 5bn cuts Ms Reeves has proposed on welfare.

It comes in the same week as sources in the government suggested Ms Rayner could lose her housing portfolio.

It follows suggestions that those on the left of the party might be coalescing around the deputy prime minister as an alternative to Sir Keir Starmer amid frustration over his economic policies and failure to take tougher action against Israel over its action in Gaza.

An ally of Ms Rayner told The Independent that the briefing on the wealth taxes was helpful because at least with this, its exposed the fact that people are prepared to put forward more progressive policies than more austerity. Its cracked the debate wide open at last

The deputy prime minister has been notably absent in the past 10 days from defending Sir Keirs hardline stance on immigration and his heavily criticised language, suggesting that the UK had become an island of strangers because of rising migration.

The ally of Ms Rayner said: She needs to distance herself from the McSweeney/Starmer project.
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Net migration to the UK almost halved last year, according to the latest estimates, sparking concerns over a shortage of workers in some key sectors.

About 431,000 more people arrived in the UK than left over the 12-month period to December 2024, compared to 860,000 a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said.

The fall in net migration has been driven by a decline in non-EU workers and students coming to the UK, and marks the largest fall on record.

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said the "record-breaking decline" in net migration was possible "primarily because numbers had previously been so high".

But the crisis in the care sector in particular was highlighted in the figures showing that a mere 26,100 people between April last year and April 2025 came to the UK on a health and care worker visa. This is down from 143,900 on figures for March 2023 to March 2024.

open image in gallery Keir Starmer announces his immigration reform plans earlier this month ( PA )

The Tories have claimed credit for the drop under measures they introduced shortly before losing the election, but it comes just a week after Sir Keir Starmers controversial speech about reducing migration even further, claiming the UK had become an island of strangers.

Despite both Labour and the Conservatives celebrating the figures, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think tank warned Sir Keir must balance cutting migration numbers with the need to support Britains ailing public services, with particular concern about exacerbating the shortage of workers in health and social care, many of whom come from overseas.

Nadra Ahmed, chair of the National Care Association, warned that the statistics revealed a shortage of workers in the care sector, which is set to be made worse by Sir Keirs decision to refuse visas to care workers from abroad.

She said: The statistics have been dropping now for some months and yet we do not see any increase in a domestic workforce taking on the roles required in the sectors, like social care, where the shortages are going to have a substantial impact.

The challenges being created by these ill-thought-out decisions will put people in need of care and support at risk over the coming years  it is a risky strategy if alternatives are not in place.

The construction industry is also facing a serious challenge.

Daniel Austin, chief executive and co-founder at ASK Partners, an independent property lender, said: The governments tightening of immigration rules risks deepening the UKs housing crisis at precisely the wrong moment. The construction sector is already under intense pressure, from spiralling build costs and the impact of regulatory changes like the Building Safety Act, to planning bottlenecks and a chronic shortage of skilled labour. Limiting access to foreign workers threatens to compound these issues, further stalling progress on desperately needed housing.

Dr Jane Townson, chief executive of the Homecare Association, which represents homecare providers, told The Independent this month that the prime ministers measures will force more homecare providers to shut their doors.

Pressed on whether the government was concerned about a worker shortage, a Downing Street spokesperson said: "No, as you saw in the white paper, we are for the first time setting out a strategy to properly bring together a domestic skills strategy with an immigration strategy. Reducing our reliance on overseas labour by training up our domestic workforce and ensuring that our border system is secure."

He added: "Net migration is still too high and must come down, which is why we set out our plans in the immigration white paper."

The figures largely cover the period before Labour came into power, so they do not account for the impact of measures announced by the prime minister this month as he clamps down on immigration to fend off Nigel Farage and Reform UKs tough stance on the issue.

Mr Farage said on X: Net migration of over 400,000 for Labours first year of government. Not as high as the great Tory betrayal, but still disastrous.

But home secretary Yvette Cooper said the drop in net migration is important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million under the Conservatives.

The ONS said the sharp fall in net migration was driven by a 49 per cent drop in non-EU nationals coming to the UK for work compared with the previous year, meaning 108,000 fewer arrivals.

That came alongside an 86 per cent drop in the number of family members brought to the UK by students, with 105,000 fewer arrivals, and a 35 per cent fall in the dependents of workers coming here.

open image in gallery Former home secretary James Cleverly banned overseas students and care workers from bringing dependents to the UK ( PA )

There was also an uptick in the number of people who came to the UK on student visas, the ONS said.

Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: "There has been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased."

The dramatic falls come after former home secretary James Cleverly last year introduced a series of measures as part of a Conservative drive to cut net migration, including bans on overseas students and care workers bringing family members to the UK.

This drop is because of the visa rule changes that I put in place. Labour will try to claim credit for these figures but they criticised me at the time, and have failed to fully implement the changes, Mr Cleverly said on Thursday.

Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, said the major fall will surprise the public, who expected the figures to keep climbing.

So Keir Starmer is in the unusual position for a PM of having exceeded expectations on immigration  though largely by not cancelling measures introduced by his predecessors, he said.

The prime minister has already promised that the governments new immigration measures will mean net migration falls significantly over the next four years.

open image in gallery The PMs immigration crackdown saw him accused of trying to copy Nigel Farage ( Getty )

Plans unveiled last week include tightened access to skilled worker visas and tougher English language requirements for spouses coming to the UK. The PM also introduced a wait of 10 years, up from five previously, to apply for permanent residency  unless migrants can prove a significant contribution to the UK.

Though Sir Keir did not set a target for how much the government wants to bring net migration down by, the Home Office estimated that the new policies could lead to a 100,000 drop in immigration per year by 2029.

In a speech this month announcing the measures, Sir Keir sparked a major backlash among his MPs by warning that spiralling migration levels risked turning Britain into an island of strangers.

Critics condemned what they believed to be an attempt to play catch-up with Mr Farage amid Reforms surge in the polls and following its triumph in the local elections.
Net migration to the UK has practically halved, albeit from recent historic highs, according to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics. The latest official estimates showed 431,000 more people arrived than left during 2024, compared to 860,000 the previous year.

Gross migration  just those coming to the UK for 12 months or longer (but not necessarily permanently)  stood at 948,000, itself a decrease of almost a third from the estimated 1,326,000 in 2023. Politically and economically, it is mixed news for the government

Whats going on with immigration?

A major reason for the fall was new, stricter rules, introduced by Rishi Sunaks government, but which came into effect too late to earn any credit from voters. They made it harder for students to bring dependents on a visa, while a higher earnings threshold for certain jobs helped drive the numbers down, as did a higher outflow of students completing their courses (and unable to gain work permits).

Is the decrease good news?

Economists broadly believe that immigration boosts economic growth, provided migrants are allowed to work, which most would be under the UK visa system. Students also contribute via tuition fees and general expenditure, while few make much demand on public services, and have restricted access to the welfare state. In a situation where many sectors, notably hospitality, construction, agriculture, health and social care, cannot expand due to lack of workers and skills, migration obviously adds to GDP and tax revenues, while improving demographics. The Office for Budget Responsibility assumes net migration will fall over the next few years, to a trough of 258,000 in the year to mid-2027, before reaching 340,000 by about 2029. The latest data seems consistent with that.

And the bad news?

Although net migration is more popular and better understood since Brexit, politicians  now including the prime minister  tend to regard it as a bad thing. In his island of strangers speech last week, Keir Starmer broke with the old orthodoxy by declaring: The chaos of the previous government also changed the nature of immigration in this country  fewer people who make a strong economic contribution, more who work in parts of our economy that put downward pressure on wages. Hence the white paper on immigration and proposed tighter controls.

So even though the number is halved, it is still at high levels historically, and the political pressure is to reduce it further  but this may well have a negative impact on the governments priority of a faster-growing economy.

So will the trend help the government?

A bit, but unless they state and achieve a goal of net zero or negligible net migration, Labour will never be able to match what Reform UK offers (unrealistic or damaging as that may be). On the other hand, they would be able to say that regular, lawful migration is down from the peaks seen under the latter years of Tory rule  whats being called the Boris wave of migration. That record and the claim that they lost control of the borders is frequently thrown at Kemi Badenoch by Starmer. She is also hampered by an unwillingness to set a target figure for net migration. Another irony is that the Brexit delivered by the Conservatives  the end of free movement from Europe and the new Australian-style points-based system  was supposed to get migration down but achieved the reverse. Priti Patel, now shadow foreign secretary, is in the uncomfortable position of having to justify overseeing the Boris wave during her time as his home secretary.

What about smashing the gangs?

These net migration figures have nothing to do with illegal migration  that is, irregular arrivals of people claiming asylum. It is a relatively small number in this context, typically 40,000 to 50,000 a year. Deportations are up during this governments time, but the inflow remains roughly on trend. Nobody seems to think allowing them to work (currently unlawful) might help them make some positive contribution to the economy, and, sadly, there are few votes in defending even the most genuine of refugees.
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Serious sex offenders could face mandatory chemical castration under plans set to be agreed by the justice secretary to help ease overcrowded prisons.

It comes as a review has suggested that sex offenders and violent criminals could be freed from prison after serving half their sentence under radical plans to overhaul the justice system.

The recommendations from former Tory justice secretary David Gauke could see criminals who have committed violent or sexual crimes, and are sentenced to more than four years, released on parole at the halfway point.

Under the plans inspired by reforms in Texas, well-behaved prisoners serving sentences of less than four years could also be released after a third of their term in a bid to free up much-needed space in overcrowded jails.

And the government is considering expanding a trial from some prisons in southwest England to use voluntary chemical castration to cut reoffending among sexual offenders. Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood is also considering making chemical castration mandatory.

Mr Gauke said drugs that help reduce sexual desire among the offenders could cut the risk of reoffending.

The review was commissioned by Ms Mahmood after she was forced to release thousands of prisoners in her first few weeks of government to avert disaster and ensure prisons did not run out of space.

Mr Gauke, whose recommendations were published on Thursday, insisted that the scale of the overcrowding crisis means the reforms are essential so that the justice system moves away from an overreliance on custody.

open image in gallery Former justice secretary David Gauke ( PA )

The scale of the crisis we are in cannot be understated. Overcrowded prisons are leading to dangerous conditions for staff and contributing to high levels of reoffending. We cannot build our way out of it. To stabilise the prison system and end the dangerous cycle of emergency releases, the government must take decisive action, he said.

Mr Gauke, who was justice secretary under Theresa May, admitted on Thursday that the crisis in prisons arose on the Conservatives watch, telling Sky News it worsened particularly over the last five years.

In a recommendation likely to be rejected by Ms Mahmood, Mr Gauke also said dangerous offenders on so-called extended determinate sentences should be eligible to apply for parole at the halfway point  instead of two-thirds as it currently stands  if they earn credits by engaging in rehabilitation activities in prison. However, they would only be released if the parole board deemed them safe.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice is planning to expand a pilot on chemical castration to 20 regions as part of a package of radical measures to free thousands of prisoners and ease prison overcrowding in England and Wales.

Sentences of less than 12 months should only be used in exceptional circumstances, he said, while the use of deferred sentences should be increased for low-risk offenders with high needs, such as pregnant women.

However, he warned there needed to be greater investment in the Probation Service, as well as technology, such as electronic monitoring.

In a recommendation that will be seen as a victory for campaigners, the review says domestic abuse should be recognised in the criminal system for the first time as a factor in a conviction. This will mean those found guilty will need to meet more stringent checks for early release.

Victims of rape would also be given a transcript of sentencing remarks free of charge, scrapping the current 1,000 fee.

open image in gallery It is understood justice secretary Shabana Mahmood will not accept the recommendation to introduce earned, earlier release for the most dangerous offenders. ( PA )

Mr Gauke said the proposals would not only bring the prison population under control but were about reducing reoffending and ensuring victims are protected.

Last week, the government announced emergency plans to release some criminals on recall earlier to free up around 1,400 prison places amid warnings that there will be no space left in male prisons by November. The move sparked a backlash over concerns for victims and public safety.

Taken as a package, these measures should ensure the government is never again in a position where it is forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners. I urge the lord chancellor and prime minister to act with bravery in their response, he said.

Former chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick welcomed the proposals as very positive and sensible measures which will take some pressure out of the system and enable it to focus on people who need much more focused attention.

And the National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders (Nacro)s head of policy Andrea Coady said a new approach to rehabilitation is desperately needed.

She told The Independent: Rewarding those who engage with the rehabilitation process seems like a no-brainer, but we are concerned that as it stands, the prison system is not set up to deliver this.

Ms Mahmood is expected to accept most of the proposals, in principle, with further detail to follow in a future sentencing bill. It is understood she will not accept the recommendation to introduce earned, earlier release for the most dangerous offenders.

But already there has been a backlash from opposition parties.

open image in gallery Slap in the face: shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick ( PA )

Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: If Starmer proceeds with halving sentences for dangerous offenders like killers, rapists and paedophiles, that would be a slap in the face for victims. These people must be properly punished and locked up so they cant terrorise communities. He suggested that the crisis of overcrowding could be averted by deporting foreign criminals.

And a Conservative Party spokesperson said: The only dereliction of duty is Labour letting murderers and rapists roam our streets. Labour have always been soft on crime, and they always will be.

The review has had a warmer response from the Lib Dems after Mr Gauke accepted pleas from justice spokesperson Josh Babarinde, on recognising domestic abuse in sentencing, and Sarah Olney, on dropping the 1,000 fee for sentencing transcripts.

Mr Babarinde said: Having grown up in a home where domestic abuse was rife, it means so much to have secured these wins from the government by working alongside them, fellow victims and survivors of abuse, and victim charities for many months.

Ms Olney said: A transcript of the judges sentencing remarks is essential in providing clarity, and supporting victims. It is shocking that some victims have been cruelly charged thousands of pounds for a transcript about their own case  which is already traumatising enough.

Campaign group the Howard League for Penal Reform described the review as vital but warned that any changes will only be successful if the probation service is given more investment and wider reform.

The Magistrates Association hailed the reviews fresh approach to sentencing and said it welcomed the move to avoid jail terms of less than 12 months. A statement said: They are counterproductive for many offenders and rarely effective in reducing reoffending  which is why for magistrates, custody is already a last resort.

The review follows last weeks government announcement of a 4.7bn investment in prison infrastructure across the spending review period, putting it on track to deliver its commitment of 14,000 new prison places by 2031. The government has opened 2,400 new places since taking office.

But the justice secretary admitted last week that we cannot build our way out of this crisis, adding the prison population is increasing by 3,000 each year  the equivalent of two entire prisons.

A spokesperson for the justice secretary said: The government welcomes the Independent Sentencing Reviews report and thanks David Gauke and his fellow reviewers for their work.

The justice secretary will provide the governments response in a statement to the House of Commons today.

A government trial is looking at whether a common form of antidepressant can significantly cut problematic sexual arousal.

The trial will run from July for four years, with 196 prisoners with problematic sexual preoccupation taking part.

Ms Mahmood will also confirm today that annual funding for probation will rise by up to 700m by the final year of the spending review  up from the current 1.4bn budget.
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Sir Sadiq Khan has distanced himself from Sir Keir Starmers response to the Supreme Court trans ruling, vowing to stand up for trans Londoners.

The London mayor said trans and non-binary Londoners are some of the most marginalised and vulnerable in our city and the ruling, which saw judges confirm that the term woman referred to biological sex, must not lead to more stigma and discrimination.

In his first public comments on the controversial ruling, Sir Sadiq said: I've always been proud of Londons status as a beacon for openness, equality and LGBTQ+ rights and I'm determined that this remains the case.

open image in gallery Sadiq Khans response was a marked contrast to his party leader Sir Keir Starmers ( James Manning/PA Wire )

Over recent years, the political debate has intensified, but we must remember when we talk about these issues that trans and non-binary Londoners are some of the most marginalised and vulnerable in our city. Understandably, many trans Londoners and others in the LGBTQ community are anxious about what the Supreme Court ruling will mean.

Sir Sadiqs response is a stark contrast with the prime minister, who said in the wake of the Supreme Courts ruling that he no longer believed trans women are women.

Sir Keir and senior ministers, including Bridget Phillipson, also said that trans women should use male toilets, while telling trans men to use womens toilets.

The governments response drew condemnation from the Labour left and pro-LGBT campaigners, with one member of the partys ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) warning the PM was putting trans people in harms way.

Jess Barnard told The Independent Sir Keirs response to was appalling, while a trans Labour councillor quit the party and said it does not support my fundamental rights.

Quitting the party, Plymouth City councillor Dylan Tippetts said: said: Labour nationally has thrown transgender people under the bus and has taken us backwards decades.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) watchdog also sparked outrage with its interim guidance on the ruling that said trans women should not be permitted to use the womens facilities in workplaces or public-facing services like shops and hospitals.

Sir Sadiq welcomed the EHRCs consultation on the matter but said my position is clear, adding: The result of this ruling must not mean more stigma and discrimination against trans people in London, and as mayor I will continue to stand up for trans Londoners and the rights of the most vulnerable people in our society.

I continue to work to stamp out transphobia, homophobia and bigotry in all its forms."

open image in gallery Keir Starmer U-turned on his previous position that trans women are women ( AFP/Getty )

Seeking to address anger at Labours response, Ms Phillipson stressed that Labour will offer trans people the dignity they were denied by the Conservatives.

She said: We will continue our wider work with commitment, with compassion, to protect all of those who need it right across society. Because this is a government that will support the rights of women and trans people, now and always.

This is a government that will support the rights of our most vulnerable, now and always. And, on that, there is no change to announce. Dignity and respect for all, now and always.

Labour was asked to comment.
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Israels leader has accused Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders of being on the wrong side of justice, humanity and history after two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead in Washington DC.

The UK prime minister, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney were emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed, by giving them hope to establish a second Palestinian state from which Hamas will again seek to destroy the Jewish state.

A gunman shot young diplomat couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim from close range after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspect then walked into the building chanting Free Palestine before he was stopped by security staff and arrested.

open image in gallery Sarah Milgrim, left, and Yaron Lischinsky were shot dead in Washington DC ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

On Monday, the UK, French and Canadian governments said in a joint statement they were committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution to the war.

Mr Netanyahu said Hamas had thanked Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney for demanding that Israel end its war in Gaza immediately, claiming the three had shown they effectively wanted Hamas to remain in power.

He said in a video on social media: I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer: When mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, you're on the wrong side of justice. You're on the wrong side of humanity and you're on the wrong side of history.

The three leaders, he claimed, wanted Israel to stand down and accept that Hamas's mass murderers would repeat the 7 October 2023 massacre.

Hamas wanted to annihilate Jews, he said, adding: I could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.

open image in gallery Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney were emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever ( AFP/Getty )

Sir Keir condemned the shootings, saying antisemitism was an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. He said: My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Mr Netanyahu also dismissed as a lie claims that Israel was starving Palestinian children.

Other Israeli ministers have also suggested that the condemnation by Western leaders of Israels aid blockade and resumed offensive in Gaza was partly to blame.

We must also hold to account the irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to this hatred  whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence, said Amichai Chikli, Israels minister for the diaspora and combatting antisemitism.

French president Emmanuel Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood, he added in a post on X.

In a press briefing later on Thursday morning, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar expressed similar views.

There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder, he said. This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.

Their words are the modern blood libels. Blood libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies paved the way exactly for such murders. This is what happens when leaders in the world surrender to the Palestinian terrorist propaganda and serve it.

open image in gallery Gideon Saar said that there is a direct line connecting... anti-Israel incitement and the double homicide ( AFP via Getty )

Mr Netanyahu described the shootings as the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel.

My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer, he said. I have directed that security be increased at Israeli missions around the world and for the states representatives.

The Israeli government has come under strong criticism for the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after this week ending an 11-week aid blockade which caused widespread hunger and desperate sanitary conditions in the strip.

In the past week, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed  including dozens of women and children  after intensified airstrikes on Gaza and the launch of a new ground offensive from the north and south of the strip, named Operation Gideons Chariots.

On Sunday night, the UK, Canada and France issued their strongest condemnation yet of Mr Netanyahus government. A joint statement with Canada and France demanded that he halt his egregious actions in Gaza, threatening concrete actions over the intolerable human suffering inflicted on the enclave.

open image in gallery Hunger is widespread in Gaza, a situation described as intolerable by several European leaders ( AFP/Getty )

The next day, Sir Keir spoke out against the utterly intolerable situation in Gaza, as foreign minister David Lammy announced the UK would suspend trade negotiations with Israel and introduce sanctions against a number of settler individuals and entities in the West Bank.

Describing Israels actions as monstrous, Mr Lammy announced that Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely had been summoned to the Foreign Office by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer.

Following the joint statement by Sir Keir, French president Emmanuel Macron and Canadian PM Mark Carney, Mr Netanyahu hit back, accusing the leaders of offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities.

In Washington DC, police cordons remained around the site of the shooting, which took place at around 9.15pm local time on Wednesday (02.15am BST).

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said Elias Rodriguez, who was not previously known to police, was seen pacing outside the venue before the attack.

Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offence, she said.

US President Donald Trump condemned the shooting on Truth Social, writing: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.
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Illegal logging has surged in the tropical forests of eastern Congo after falling into rebel hands earlier this year, stoking fears of widespread environmental damage, according to residents and environmentalists.

The affected area includes the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site west of Bukavu, eastern Congo's second-largest city.

The park, captured by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in February, shelters hundreds of bird species and one of the last remaining groups of eastern lowland gorillas, also known as Grauer's gorillas.

The M23 rebels now control more territory in eastern Congo than ever before. Their advance has reopened roads previously restricted by government checkpoints, facilitating the transport of goods, including charcoal (locally known as makala).

This improved transport efficiency has fueled increased logging in and around the park, as reported by charcoal producers and traders.

"We plant trees for clean air, but also to make charcoal, produce planks and for construction," said Espoir Gedeon, who transports timber from the forests near Bukavu.

The producers and traders said charcoal prices have plunged as supply has surged. Bags weighing up to 70 kg that once fetched 120,000 Congolese francs (about $40) now sell for less than half that.

open image in gallery Vendors trade at the charcoal market in Murhesa, as improved access to markets drives up supply, raising alarm over environmental degradation and the growing threat to Kahuzi-Biega National Park ( Reuters )

In the Murhesa charcoal market, 27 km (17 miles) north of Bukavu, vendors said they now buy bags for around 45,000 francs and resell them in Bukavu for a modest markup.

"That's how God is helping us. We manage to feed our children and also get soap for laundry," said vendor Sifa Bahati.

But conservationists warn that the charcoal boom is coming at a steep ecological cost.

Environmental groups have appealed in a letter to M23 leaders to stop illegal logging, warning of possible irreversible damage to biodiversity and forest ecosystems.

Neither the M23-appointed governor of South Kivu province nor an M23 spokesperson responded to a request for comment.

"At least 3,000 bags (of charcoal) enter Bukavu daily, or head towards Goma," said Josue Aruna, head of the NGO Environmental and Agro-Rural Civil Society of Congo in South Kivu. Goma is the largest city in eastern Congo.

"If this continues, we will lose the park, this unique habitat for the Grauer's gorilla."
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Activists and fans of two Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo are outraged after the two animals were transferred to a new home in the middle of the night.

Billy, 40, and Tina, 59  who have been at the facility for many years  vanished on Wednesday, after being pictured with shackles around their legs over the weekend.

The pairs transfer to the Tulsa Zoo, in Oklahoma, has triggered controversy and lawsuits. A judge at the L.A. Superior Court last week denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted the move.

"It's just really too bad, and there's a lot of broken hearts right now," Judie Mancuso, the founder and president of Social Compassion in Legislation, told ABC7. "We knew it was coming, with the shackles on them.

open image in gallery Activists and fans of two Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo have been left outraged after the two animals were transferred to a new home in the middle of the night. The pairs transfer to the Tulsa Zoo, in Oklahoma, has triggered controversy and lawsuits ( Getty Images )

The outlet reported that aerial observers flying over Billy and Tinas enclosure on Tuesday were unable to see either animal. ABC7 contacted both the L.A. Zoo and Mayor Karen Bass office, but received no response.

The L.A. Zoo confirmed on Wednesday, however, that the elephants had arrived safely in Tulsa, where they will have more space, and other animals for them to interact with.

Their new habitat totals 17 acres, including two barns, recently renovated and expanded yards, and a ten-acre wooded preserve that is part of a federally protected wetland not open to public viewing.

The recently completed renovations also include a newly constructed 36,650-square-foot state-of-the-art elephant barn.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Billy and Tina were transported together by truck in separate ventilated containers on a drive that took around 24 hours in total. The L.A. Zoo said that the drive had taken place overnight in hopes of optimal temperatures for the elephants and minimal traffic, but did not provide further details.

open image in gallery The L.A. Zoo confirmed on Wednesday that the elephants had arrived safely in Tulsa, where they will have more space, and other animals for them to interact with. Their new habitat totals 17 acres, including two barns, recently renovated and expanded yards, and a ten-acre wooded preserve that is part of a Federally protected wetland not open to public viewing ( Getty Images )

The cost of moving the animals will be split between the two zoos, with L.A. paying $44,000.

The zoos website, which includes an FAQ section about the move, states that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires accredited zoos to maintain a herd of at least three elephants, due to their nature as social animals.

Following the loss of two older elephants, Jewel in 2023 and Shaunzi last year, the L.A. Zoo acknowledged that it no longer met that standard. And the facility is currently unable to increase the size of its Asian elephant population.

"Visitors to the L.A. Zoo have enjoyed watching and learning from Billy and Tina for years," a spokesperson for the zoo said in a previous statement shared with ABC7.

"The difficult decision to relocate them was made in consultation with, and on the recommendation of, experts from around the country affiliated with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the statement added.

"Ultimately, this decision, as is the case with all animal care decisions at the L.A. Zoo, is driven by the unwavering commitment to the health and wellbeing of the animals."
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A man was killed along the same stretch of highway in Louisiana as his fiancee just hours afterwards, police say.

The horrific incident occurred along LA-67 in the early hours of May 16. The couple is survived by their four-year-old son, Gabriel. They had recently bought a home together and were due to be married in February 2026.

Alexus Lee, 25, was killed while driving her 2013 Toyota Highlander north when for reasons still under investigation, her car veered off the roadway, striking an obstruction and flipping over. Lee was unrestrained, sustained fatal injuries, and was pronounced deceased on the scene, the Louisiana State Patrol said.

Investigators into the crash contacted her partner, John Collins, 35, to tell him about the crash.

Tragically, as Collins raced to the scene at a high rate of speed in a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, he failed to negotiate a right-hand curve, causing him to come off the road and strike a tree, reports WAFB.

Lee was unrestrained, sustained fatal injuries, and was pronounced deceased on the scene, authorities said. Both Lee and Collins were pronounced dead at their respective scenes.

The cause of both crashes is under investigation, with toxicology reports pending.

open image in gallery Alexus Lee, 25, of Baton Rouge, (left) and her fiance, John Collins of Clinton, 35, (right) both died in the early morning hours of May 16 in two crashes in Louisiana ( Alexus Lee/Facebook )

Collins father, Arthur, told WAFB that he is struggling to cope with the tragedy.

I love them and Im gonna miss both of them and Im gonna find the strength to go ahead, he said.

His mother, Sandra, also spoke out.

He loved Alexus as well as everybody else who knew her. To know her was to love her, she added.

The grieving parents said that they have tried to explain to their grandson what has unfolded.

He understands what happened, and hes just having a little problem comprehending that we cant talk to them. We cant see them, but he understands that they are asleep and are with God, Sandra said.

Heartfelt tributes have been pouring in for the young couple online.

Lees former high school, East Feliciana Public Schools, wrote: It is with great sadness we inform you that Ms. Alexus Lee, 2017 graduate of East Feliciana High School and teacher at East Feliciana STEAM Academy, passed away.

Please join us in wrapping Ms. Lees family in prayer and love during this difficult time, they said.

Lees friend Meche Danielle wrote on her Facebook page: So many nights we spent stressing over Math 117 at UL !! Countless meals and conversations we shared. My heart truly goes out to your son, such a loving and caring soul gone too soon !! Get your rest babygirl Alexus Lee.

Todd Collins, Johns brother, and Lees brother-in-law, said Lee always had my back.

My dear sister in law, you were the best and Im surely going to miss you. They just dont make them like you! Not only did you love my brother and nephew, you always made sure Uncle Todd was straight, whether it was a meal or a ride to the doctor, you had my back.

Lees funeral was held on Wednesday in Clinton, Louisiana.
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A soon-to-be-engaged Israeli couple were shot dead after attending an event inside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgram were identified as the two victims who were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum, the Embassy of Israel to the U.S. wrote on X Thursday morning.

The young couple, who both worked at the Israeli embassy in the capital, were described as being in the prime of their lives, with their deaths leaving colleagues heartbroken and devastated.

Lischinsky had planned to propose to Milgrim during an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, Yechiel Leiter, Israels Ambassador to the U.S., said before the victims were publicly identified. Lischinsky, who moved to the U.S. from Tel Aviv in November 2023, had bought the ring this week, Leiter added.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, was identified as the suspected gunman who police say opened fire on a group of four with a handgun outside the museum in the area of 3rd and F Street NW.

open image in gallery ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

Shots rang out at about 9.15 p.m. when the group had left the American Jewish Committees ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were unconscious and not breathing when first responders arrived at the scene, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference.

Video footage shows Rodriguez repeatedly chanted free, free Palestine as police removed him from the museum in handcuffs.

Witnesses say that he could be seen walking around outside the museum in the moments leading up to the shooting. After opening fire, the gunman walked into the museum, where security detained him. The videos, taken by witnesses, show that he did not appear to resist arrest.

Authorities believe that Rodriguez acted alone. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement.

We dont see anything in his background that would have put him on our radar at this time, Smith said.

open image in gallery Video footage shows the moment that suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez was arrested by DC police ( Yoni River Kalin )

The attack sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security.

Israeli and U.S. officials have deemed the attack as part of a rising tide of antisemitism, intensifying amid Israels escalating offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog earlier told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy, and the man was Israeli.

Leiter said that President Donald Trump had been in contact with him and promised to do everything [to] fight and end antisemitism.

For his part, the president posted on Truth Social hours after the shooting: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino confirmed that federal agents are questioning Rodriguez.

Assistant Director of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steve Jensen, said that an investigation into the homicides will look into ties to potential terrorism and if the attack was a hate crime. Jensen denounced the shooting as heinous.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro will be prosecuting the case.

open image in gallery A man draped in the Israeli flag as as Metropolitan Police officers secure the area outside the Capital Jewish Museum ( AFP/Getty )

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. have been fatally shot while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.

The suspect yelled Free, free Palestine when he was arrested following the deadly attack, that took place at around 9 p. m. Wednesday police said.

The attack is being seen by officials in Israel and the U.S. as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism after Israel ramped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump has condemned the horrible D.C. killings and offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

Click here for the latest updates on the shooting.

open image in gallery A man draped in the Israeli flag as as Metropolitan Police officers secure the area outside the Capital Jewish Museum after the shooting ( AFP/Getty )

Here's what we know about the double killing:

What happened?

The two victims, who were a couple, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum around 9.15 p.m. Wednesday night when suspect Elias Rodriguez allegedly approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

A witness reported that Rodriguez t was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting. He walked into the museum following the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, Free, free Palestine, according to Smith.

She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

Who is the suspect?

open image in gallery Video footage shows the moment that suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez was arrested by DC police ( Yoni River Kalin )

The suspect has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago.

The Justice Department charged him Thursday with with federal murder charges.

At least one of the charges  using a firearm to commit murder  carries the possibility of the death penalty. He is also charged with first degree murder, murdering foreign officials, and using a firearm during a violent crime.

Metropolitan Police Department chief Pamela Smith recounted that he was handcuffed following the Wednesday night shooting, Rodriguez disclosed where he had discarded the handgun, which was recovered by police. The suspect also implied that he committed the offense, the police chief added.

Video footage shows the suspect chanting, Free, free Palestine, repeatedly, as he was arrested by police and led away from the museum.

Police believed that Rodriguez was the sole suspect at the time of the shooting. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement.

According to a LinkedIn profile, Rodriguez is a resident of Avondale in Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois. Since July 2024, he has worked as an administrative specialist for the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Association.

The suspect had a brief association with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which advocated on behalf of Palestinians, the group confirmed in a post on X.

Rodriguez was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI. The U.S. attorney in Washington will prosecute the case.

Who are the victims?

open image in gallery Yaron Lischinsky, right, and his partner Sarah Milgrim were both killed in the shooting ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, the embassy said later in a statement. The entire embassy staff [are] heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the young couple was about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, Robert Milgrim said of his daughter to The New York Times. But she was murdered three days before going.

The pair had been attending an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, described online as a Young Diplomats Reception. The event was intended to bring together young Jewish professionals between the ages of 22 and 45.

Witnesses to the attack

open image in gallery FBI agents cordon off the scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum following the shooting ( AFP/Getty )

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

What is Israel's reaction?

open image in gallery Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the attack ( ABIR SULTAN )

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.

However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

Israel's new campaign in Gaza

open image in gallery The shooting comes as Israel launched a new offensive in war-torn Gaza ( AFP via Getty Images )

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East. The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesnt differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90 per cent of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.
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A record number of travelers will have to brave the bad weather this Memorial Day holiday weekend as rains looks set to drench much of the U.S.

Some 45.1 million people were set to take to the skies, roads and other transportation modes from Thursday to Monday, according to AAA.

Travelers will also have to contend with cooler temperatures and storms across central and eastern U.S., according to forecasters.

"The second half of the Memorial Day weekend looks to be mainly dry but quite cool," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said. "Watch those flowers and veggies, as there could be a frost in parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York by Sunday morning, if clouds break and the breeze diminishes."

open image in gallery A record 45.1 million Americans are expected to travel over Memorial Day weekend. But, much of the U.S. will be soaked by thunderstorms ( AFP via Getty Images )

Following a rare May noreaster and a rainy start to the month, more showers are expected for the Big Apple and the Northeast from Friday to Saturday.

Down the eastern seaboard, families heading to Disney World, Orlando, may need to pack their rain coats.

"Brief but drenching sea breeze thunderstorms are possible over the Florida Peninsula and will generally drift from east to west on a daily basis," Pastelok said.

While much of the Southeast will be quiet, the likelihood of thunderstorms increases for the Gulf, Tennessee Valley, and Plains states, AccuWeather said. Thunderstorms are also expected around Memphis and Kansas City.

open image in gallery Rain could soak large swathes of the U.S. this Memorial Day weekend. ( AccuWeather )

"Fronts bobbing back and forth with mini storm systems moving along will kick off showers and thunderstorms, including severe weather over the Plains," Pastelok said. "Episodes of steady rain are possible farther north from the north-central Plains and farther to the east into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys where the soil is more moist."

The rain will help to east drought conditions in some parched areas, but people camping on oversaturated grounds could see the risk of possibly dangerous flash flooding. Some locations in the central states could see up to 10 inches of rainfall.

Even farther west, thunderstorms could develop as far as the Rockies and New Mexico, and the Northwest will not be totally dry.

open image in gallery New York City was feeling the effects of a rare noreaster on Thursday. The Northeast will see another storm this weekend ( Getty Images )

However, its going to be warm along the West Coast. Temperatures in the interior Northwest are expected to reach the 80s on Sunday and Monday. The Southwest will be even hotter.

"Temperatures should surpass 100 in the deserts each day, while highs well into the 90s are in store for the central and southern part of the interior valley of California," Pastelok said.
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Music talent agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams were among those killed when a small private plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday.

Shapiro, 42, was the owner of music agency Sound Talent Group, which represented bands like Hanson and Sum 41. Williams, 39, was the former drummer of metal band The Devil Wears Prada.

They were among six people on board the small Cessna 550 when it abruptly came down into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood around 3:47 a.m. There are not believed to be any survivors and eight people on the ground were also injured when the plane crashed.

open image in gallery The plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in the early hours of Thursday ( AP )

open image in gallery All six people on board are believed to have been killed ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

The aircraft appeared to have destroyed at least one home, leaving it charred and collapsed. About 10 to 15 homes and half a dozen vehicles also suffered damage, and it took first responders several hours to extinguish the flames.

When asked where the plane debris spread, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy noted it was everywhere and there was a very large debris field.

The disaster, which occurred during particularly foggy weather, prompted the evacuation of a stretch of homes within the neighborhood, which mainly serves military service members.

The crash let a steady stream of jet fuel running down the street and caused multiple cars to catch fire, Eddy said. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said close to 100 people were displaced due to the sheer amount of jet fuel spilled and overall destruction. Authorities said they hoped people would be able to return to their homes by Thursday evening.

open image in gallery Music agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams (R) were among the victims ( Sound Talent Group /Instagram )

It was also not immediately known what led to the crash, though the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a clipped power line in the area that the plane may have struck.

The flight had been coming from the Midwest, authorities said. According to the flight tracking site Flight Aware, the plane was supposed to arrive at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive airport in San Diego at 3:47 a.m., coming in from the small Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kansas.

Officials at the Kansas airport said it was there making a fueling stop. The flight originated Wednesday night in Teterboro, New Jersey, according to Flight Aware.

Hours after the disaster, chunks of metal from the aircraft remained littered across the street, with no clear body of the plane visible. The fiery aftermath, with cars up in flames and thick plumes of gray smoke rising from the neighborhood, left locals in shock.

open image in gallery Investigators are trying to establish what happened ( AFP/Getty )

Shapiro, the first person identified among the deceased, was an avid pilot with over a decade of experience flying. It was not immediately clear if he was flying the plane or if he was a passenger. He was also known around the music industry as a daredevil, according to the Billboard report.

We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends, a spokesperson for Sound Talent Group told Billboard. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by todays tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.

From BASE jumping to aerobatic flying, Helicopters to twin engines, flight instructing to furthering his own education, doesnt matter to Dave as long as he gets to be in the sky, his aviation website reads.

Shapiro, who worked with bands including Sum 41 and Pierce the Veil, was also a staunch supporter of independent music. He launched his own agency in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Anderson.

open image in gallery A home was hit and eight people on the ground injured ( Getty )

Williams had posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page."No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.

The home that was struck when the plane hit was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed.

Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.

My wife was screaming, and she's like, There's a fire, McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told KGTV. When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit.

The couple grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape. The plane also hit both of the couple's vehicles, which burned.

It put my truck into our living room, McCarty said. Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.

open image in gallery At least 100 residents were evacuated ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a whooshing sound and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.

One of the family's cars was completely disintegrated, and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.

I definitely do feel blessed, because we've been spared, she said.

At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.

We have jet fuel all over the place, Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said. Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that you could barely see in front of you.

With Associated Press contributions.
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A San Francisco couple is suing their landlord and property managers after a bizarre fire, allegedly caused by a neighbor trying to burn a tick off a dog, destroyed their Lower Nob Hill apartment building.

On March 12, 2024, the tenant and her guest allegedly used an open flame inside a second-floor unit at 825 Post Street to remove the tick from the animal, according to an SF Gate report.

The dog, which ultimately survived, caught fire and ran through the non-pet-friendly apartment unit, igniting furniture and curtains. The dog had to have its ears amputated due to burns, and also suffered burns to the chest and neck, according to a report by the fire department.

The subsequent blaze sent two people to the hospital, displaced 10 residents, and caused an estimated $400,000 in damage.

The suing couple states that the fire would have never happened if the building had enforced its no-pet policy, according to the SF Gate report.

open image in gallery An apartment manager faces a lawsuit after a woman allegedly starting a fire at her 825 Post Street apartment in San Francisco when she tried to burn a tick of a dog. ( Google )

The couple says they lost nearly everything in their first-floor apartment due to the fire and struggled to find permanent housing since the fire. They say they have been living with their young child in a trailer while also paying storage fees, according to the report.

One of them used to work at an in-home care provider, but said they had to quit after the fire.

We park underneath freeway overpasses at night, and move from place to place like nomads. We have no shower. We have little room for our clothes and personal belongings.  It is hard to find and maintain stable employment. We are stretched thin due to this fire, the lawsuit states.

The couple also alleged that the buildings fire alarm system often didnt work, windows were shattered, and they endured months without essential heating.

Police deemed the fire accidental, and no arrests were made.

The couple is accusing the buildings owner and property managers of negligence, tenant harassment, and violating the warranty of habitability, among other claims. Its unclear how much money the couple seeks through the lawsuit.

The management company did not respond to a request for comment in time for this report.
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The U.S. has launched a partnership with Italian authorities in order to renew efforts to recover the remains of American soldiers who went missing during World War II.

In a post on social media, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said that the new pact reflects values shared between the two nations.

This will formalize & facilitate our efforts to search for & recover Americans missing from WWII throughout Italy & it reflects values shared between our countries, the DPAA said.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Rome on Tuesday by Luigi La Rocca, the head of Italy's Department for Heritage Protection, and Kelly McKeague, the director of DPAA.

"The right to research and remember those dead during the war is now combined with the protection of the archaeological heritage for which the Ministry of Culture is responsible," Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said on Tuesday, CBS reported.

open image in gallery The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Rome on Tuesday by Luigi La Rocca (left), the head of Italy's Department for Heritage Protection, and Kelly McKeague (right), the director of DPAA ( Embassy of the United States of America to Italy )

Giuli said the agreement was a further step in "our decade-long cooperation with the U.S. agency for prisoners of war and missing in action, as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to contribute to our freedom."

The recovery of the remains will be facilitated in compliance with archaeological regulations, according to Italys Ministry of Culture.

Around 72,000 American service members still remain unaccounted for from the war around the world, according to DPAA. Though the exact number that died in Italy is difficult to know, the peninsula was the site of multiple battles from 1943 to 1945, after America entered the fight.

Since efforts were renewed in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans who died in World War II have been identified.

Earlier this year, the remains of a soldier who went missing in action during an aquatic operation in Italy, were recovered.

U.S. Army Pfc. Robert L. Bryant, 23, was assigned to Company B, in the 4th Ranger Battalion, as part of a group known as Darby's Rangers, according to the DPAA. The battalion was trained by Colonel William Darby, and was active in areas including Italy, northern Africa and the Middle East.
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Former president Joe Bidens diagnosis of what his office calls an aggressive form of prostate cancer is the latest in a long line of health woes and scares that have followed the 82-year-old throughout his political career.

As president, Biden had regular physical examinations at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, that were conducted by Dr. Kevin OConnor, a former U.S. Army physician who began treating Biden during his time as vice president in the Obama administration.

Though he was the oldest person to serve as commander-in-chief, OConnors reports from those annual exams downplayed his age and invariably pronounced him fit to serve.

One February 2024 memorandum from OConnor, following Bidens final annual physical as president, described him as a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.

open image in gallery US President Joe Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 2, 2021. ( AFP/Getty )

Yet subsequent events have called into question whether OConnor  and other top Biden administration aides  were forthcoming about the then-presidents health and fitness.

Four months after his final physical, Bidens performance at a June 2024 debate with Donald Trump was so dismal that he was forced to exit the race just five weeks later. During the 90-minute televised session, he appeared frail and was unable to form coherent sentences at times, leading to questions over whether he was suffering from any sort of degenerative condition.

Last July, then-White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied that he was suffering from Alzheimers, a form of dementia, or another degenerative illness that would explain his rambling, meandering performance. And no evidence has emerged that Biden has been diagnosed with any condition that would have had such an effect on his mental acuity other than the normal aging process.

Yet this is not the first time he has been diagnosed with a form of cancer.

In March 2023, the White House announced that Biden had undergone a procedure to remove a common type of skin cancer from his chest.

A memorandum from OConnor released to the press at the time said a biopsy confirmed that the small lesion removed from the then-president was basal cell carcinoma.

open image in gallery U.S. President Joe Biden (R) and Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate at the CNN Studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. President Biden and former President Trump are facing off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. ( Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images )

All cancerous tissue was successfully removed. The area around the biopsy site was treated presumptively with electrodessication and curettage at the time of biopsy. No further treatment is required, OConnor added.

The former president also battled Covid-19 at two different points during his term, once in 2022 and a second time in July 2024, days before he decided to stand down from his re-election bid after his disastrous debate with Trump.

Before his first bout with Covid, the most serious health problem he had faced since winning the 2020 election had been a broken foot, endured while playing with one of his German Shepherd dogs.

But his health was not always so robust.

Twice in the 1980s, Biden had near-death experiences that required him to undergo brain surgery two times within five months.

He described them in a speech delivered at a Jerusalem hospital during a February 2023 visit to Israel.

I was making a speech and I had a terrible headache  this was years ago  and I did a very stupid thing: I got on an aircraft and I flew home. It turned out I had two cranial aneurysms, and I got rushed to a hospital in the middle of a snowstorm for a nine-and-a-half-hour operation that saved my life, he recalled, describing the February 1988 trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, then in Northwest Washington DC.

The plane ride Biden spoke of came after hed passed out in a hotel following a speech at the University of Rochester.

In his 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep, Biden wrote that he recalled having "lightning flashing inside my head, a powerful electrical surge  and then a rip of pain like I'd never felt before.

At Walter Reed, he was told he needed surgery, with only a 50-50 chance hed live through the procedure.

"Maybe I should have been frightened at this point, but I felt calm," he wrote. "In fact, I felt becalmed, like I was floating gently in the wide-open sea. It surprised me, but I had no real fear of dying. I'd long since accepted the fact that life's guarantees don't include a fair shake."

But he did survive, and three months later he underwent a similar procedure to fix another, smaller aneurysm on the opposite side from the first.

According to The Daily Beast, the then-senator made a last-minute request of the surgeon, Dr Neal Kassell, as he was being wheeled in for the procedure.

He looked me in the eye and said: Doc, do a good job, because someday Im going to be president, Dr Kassell said in November 2020, just days after Bidens prediction finally became reality with his victory over Trump.
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The top 10 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. collectively became $1 billion richer every day last year, new analysis has shown.

The group  which includes allies of Donald Trump, including tech bosses Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg  saw an increase in their collective wealth of $365 billion over the last 12 months.

It comes as House Republicans narrowly passed the measure, known as Trumps big, beautiful bill early Thursday morning. The bill looks to slash taxes for the mega-rich, while making cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs.

Analysis of data from Forbes, conducted by Oxfam, has shown that despite the recent market uproar, triggered by Trumps tariff policies  there has been little issue for some of the worlds richest men.

open image in gallery The top 10 richest men in the U.S.  which includes allies of Donald Trump, including tech bosses Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg  saw an increase in their collective wealth of $365 billion over the last 12 months

Were seeing a tax code being designed that would bring about the worlds first trillionaire, Rebecca Riddell, Senior Policy Lead for Economic and Racial Justice at Oxfam America, said of Trumps proposed bill.

Even amid the upheaval caused by Trumps economic mayhem, billionaire wealth has increased astronomically, while so many ordinary people struggle to make ends meet.

According to Oxfam, it would take 726,000 years for ten U.S. workers with median earnings to make the equivalent of the billionaires. In contrast, if the wealth gains of the 10 richest billionaires were taxed like income from work, they would owe a collective $135 billion in taxes.

open image in gallery It comes as House Republicans edge ever closer to getting the presidents big, beautiful bill over the line. The bill looks to slash taxes for the mega-rich, while making cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs ( AP )

A tax of just 3 percent on fortunes over $1 billion would raise over $50 billion from the 10 richest American billionaires alone, according to Oxfam. This is enough to cover the entire federal rental assistance budget or a year of food assistance for 22.5 million people, the organisation states.

A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found that Trumps bill would increase benefits for those earning the highest through an extension of the 2017 GOP tax plan.

Around 60 percent of the tax benefits would go to those in the top quintile (with incomes of about $217,000 or more), according to the Tax Policy Center.
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Some Democrats are discussing plans to require 2028 contenders to release their full health information after the disastrous campaign of former President Joe Biden.

In 2028, candidates who were more disconnected from the Biden White House may be able to garner more credibility with voters among those who feel betrayed by party leadership.

Democratic strategists speaking to The Bulwark said a consensus is forming that whoever campaigns for the partys nomination in 2028 will have to share a large amount of health information and a more extensive health report than previously expected. Theres also a belief that anyone over 70 wont run.

Biden recently announced an aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis, which raised additional concerns regarding his health while in office. The former president was forced out of the 2024 race after a catastrophic debate performance against President Donald Trump in June last year, and he was replaced atop the Democratic ticket by then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democratic strategists have also grown tired of the former president claiming he would have won had he stayed in the race.

Anthony Coley, a Democratic strategist who worked for the Biden administration, told The Hill last week, Would it be nice if Biden finally accepted and admitted he shouldnt have run for a second term? Sure.

Biden freezes mid-answer during presidential election debate

But candidly, does it really matter at this point? History will have the final say  and its first draft isnt looking good, he added.

This comes as Harris is reportedly considering a run for California governor next year, but has yet to announce a campaign even as the race takes shape around her.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whos running to replace California Governor Gavin Newsom, said in a statement on Tuesday that Harris and Bidens former Health and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Becerra, who has announced that hes also running for governor in the state, should apologize for covering up Bidens health status.

Villaraigosa referenced the recent book Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

What Ive seen in news coverage and excerpts from the new book Original Sin is deeply troubling, he said. At the highest levels of our government, those in power were intentionally complicit or told outright lies in a systematic cover up to keep Joe Bidens mental decline from the public.

Now, we have come to learn this cover up includes two prominent California politicians who served as California Attorney General  one who is running for Governor and another who is thinking about running for Governor, he added.

Joe Bidens 2024 campaign is expected to have long-running consequences for the Democratic primary process ( Getty )

Those who were complicit in the cover up should take responsibility for the part they played in this debacle, hold themselves accountable, and apologize to the American people, Villaraigosa said. I call on Kamala Harris and Xavier Becerra to do just that  and make themselves available to voters and the free press because theres a lot of questions that need to be answered.

The revelations regarding Bidens decline in office are set to have significant effects on how the Democratic Party conducts its elections and how candidates run their campaigns. It may also affect the demands placed on candidates, the media strategies they choose to enact, and the scheduling of presidential primaries.

While every election leads to soul-searching within a party, the 2024 loss and Bidens handling of his campaign led to a significant trust issue that the party will have to confront, Democratic strategists have said, according to The Bulwark. Some strategists compared it to the authorization of the war in Iraq, which shaped the contours of the 2008 primary and which saw the campaigns of those who backed the invasion crater.

Obama was fortunate because he wasnt in D.C., so it allowed him to have natural distance. He could say Im an outsider without saying Im an outsider, a Democratic strategist who worked on a 2008 campaign told the outlet. Former President Barack Obama wasnt in Congress in 2002 and, as such, he didnt have to cast a ballot on the resolution authorizing the war in Iraq.
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Elon Musks announcement earlier this week that he intends to limit his political spending has reportedly left both Republicans and Democrats seething.

According to Politico, the GOP is concerned about the impact a sudden withdrawal of campaign funding from the worlds richest man will have on upcoming election races, while the other side of the aisle will miss having Musk as a target of public ire.

The Tesla, SpaceX, and X boss told the Bloomberg-hosted Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday that he is planning to rein in his political ambitions and do a lot less in the future.

open image in gallery Elon Musk waves as he joins Donald Trump for a state dinner in Doha, Qatar on May 14 2025 ( AP )

I think Ive done enough. If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason, Musk explained.

The billionaire donated at least $288m to Donald Trumps campaign war chest last year and has since led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE has fired thousands of federal workers and cut millions of dollars in funding to U.S. projects and initiatives to reduce excess expenditures, waste, and fraud.

He also plowed at least $18m into the race in a failed attempt to elect a new justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in March, backing conservative circuit judge Brad Schimel to beat moderate rival Susan Crawford.

This failure, despite Musks cash injection and cheese-hatted personal appearances, suggested that his influence could already be beginning to wane.

open image in gallery Elon Musk campaigning on behalf of Brad Schimel in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 30 2025 ( Reuters )

Republicans had nevertheless hoped he would continue to invest in competitive contests, notably Novembers Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania or the Virginia gubernatorial election, in which Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger is currently outspending GOP candidate Winsome Earle-Sears.

It remains to be seen whether Musk really will turn off the tap, a step the highly critical Trump ally Steve Bannon has characterised as taking his toys and going home.

I believe he means it right now. But every election is unique, Republican political consultant Josh Novotney told Politico. So he may be motivated to be active again in the future.

GOP senators Ted Cruz and Markwayne Mullin have rushed to praise the billionaire for his extraordinary contribution to the 2024 campaign in case he felt his generosity had gone underappreciated.

For Democrats, Musk has been a focal point for criticism of the Trump administration. Everyone from Joe Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders has denounced him as an unelected oligarch whose money has bought him too much unchecked power at the heart of the U.S. government and sparked myriad conflicts of interest concerns.

open image in gallery Elon Musk sporting a DOGE T-shirt at the White House on March 9 2025 ( AP )

The latest of these saw 42 members of the party write to the Pentagons inspector general this week to sound the alarm over SpaceXs potentially lucrative involvement in Trumps new Golden Dome anti-missile defense system.

The opposition likewise remains sceptical that Musk is really going away for good, whatever he says publicly about recommitting himself to Tesla. The electric car brand has been badly wounded by its political stunts, suffering a violent public backlash and a 71 percent crash in its first-quarter profits.

I believe he will start moving his money in the background, through nonprofits, said Pat Dennis, president of the American Bridge Democratic super PAC. Itll be a lot more of that now.
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Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for leaking national defense secrets, is now pleading with President Donald Trump to issue him a pardon because he feels his case was politicized by the Biden administration.

In his first interview since he was arrested more than two years ago, Teixeira also described himself as a patriot and said that he would do the same thing if he had the chance to do it all over again. I still believe in my actions, he told ABC News.

Speaking to ABC News host Linsey Davis by phone from federal prison this week, Teixeira  who pleaded guilty last year to six federal counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information  defended sharing troop movements in Ukraine and other classified information on the gaming platform Discord.

My intent was to educate the United States populist people about what was going on. It was not to harm the United States or the country because I love my nation. I'm a patriot, he said. It was by no means meant to harm my country, but I did believe that I needed to educate the people about what was going on because I believe they were being lied to.

Following his arrest, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixiera endangered our country's national security and that of our allies all in an effort to impress anonymous friends on the internet. After the 23-year-old was sentenced, now-former FBI Director Christopher Wray said it was a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information: betray that trust, and you will be held accountable.

Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira gave his first interview since he was arrested over two years ago and used it to plead with Donald Trump to give him a pardon. ( ABC News )

Besides pleading guilty to the federal counts, which resulted in prosecutors agreeing not to charge him under the Espionage Act, Teixeira also pleaded guilty to a military charge of obstructing justice. He was dishonorably discharged but avoided any additional jail time.

While he appeared remorseful at his sentencing hearing, Teixeira now insists that his apology was mostly to his family and friends and that he believes that his actions caused no harm. Instead, he feels he was made an example of by former President Joe Biden.

I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn't get as bad of a treatment as I did. But my case was specifically politicized by the Biden administration, he said, adding: I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example.

While prosecutors noted that Teixeira was told to stop conducting deep dives into classified information, which resulted in him purposefully and repeatedly taking classified documents without permission, he maintains he was merely doing his due diligence and following directives laid out by his superiors.

Meanwhile, he said that it was the lies being told by the Biden administration about the Ukraine war that prompted him to leak those secrets online.

A lot of the things that the administration at the time was saying was wrong, he said. It was misleading, it was outright false, or it was skewed, and essentially just, I wanted people to know exactly what was going on so that no one could say, Well, it was like this because the history book or the history textbook said it was.

Adding that he would have done it again despite his 15-year sentence, Teixeira revealed that his lawyer is directly appealing to the president for a pardon.

I think they'll look at someone like me as a supporter and someone who really used what I thought was going to be my last vote in county jail for Trump during 2024, Teixiera declared. And I just, I believe that indeed he will.

With the dishonorably discharged guardsman begging Trump to please give me back to my family, to reunite with my family with my rights as an American and with my freedom, his attorney filed an application for a full pardon on Wednesday.
Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan human rights crusader, Boniface Mwangi, has been found after going missing from his hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he had gone to witness the trial of an opposition politician, his family said on Thursday
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Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville claims that federal charges brought against U.S. Rep LaMonica McIver over an ICE altercation are an attempt by the Trump administration to divert the publics attention from the state of the economy.

The Justice Department has accused McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, of using her forearms to slam into immigration officials outside an immigration detention center in her home state earlier this month. The alleged incident happened as officials attempted to arrest Newark Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka earlier this month.

Officials charged her with two counts of assaulting federal employees, a Homeland Security Investigations agent and an ICE officer, who were carrying out their duties. If convicted, she can face up to eight years in prison.

Theyre trying to do everything they can to draw attention to immigration because the global economy is terrible, Carville said on MSNBCs The Beat. The rates on 10-year bonds are going up. Its soft everywhere. Companies are warning of lower earnings. And all of this is happening. Hes not done anything about any of this.

He continued, criticizing the presidents big, beautiful bill, a proposed piece of budget legislation that is even facing opposition from some Republican lawmakers.

He cant get his bill through Congress, he added. So great. I got a great solution. Lets go out and arrest a Black woman, and then thatll solve everything, and thatll have everybody talking about it, he told the shows host Ari Melber.

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) speaks during the We Choose To Fight: Nobody Elected Elon rally at the U.S. Department Of The Treasury on February 4 ( Getty Images for MoveOn )

McIver has said that she has already declined a plea agreement offered by federal prosecutors.

The Justice Department and [interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey] Alina Habba wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do, and I was not going to do that once again, she told CNN on Tuesday. I came there to do my job and conduct an oversight visit, and they wanted me to say something differently, and Im not doing that.

Carville alleges that race was a factor in the departments decision to arrest McIver.

For me, and this is my personal opinion. I think they went after her, and I think her race has something to do with it. Ill just flat out say that, he said, noting: Let me be very clear. I dont have any proof, but if you ask me, do I think thats what happened? Yes, I think thats what happened. I think if it was a white Congress person, they would not have arrested them.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem doubled down on the charges against the congresswoman during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

They can conduct oversight, but...what I would ask is that they understand that that doesnt mean they could show up with a mob with the intention to break in and assault law enforcement officers. Thats what happened at Delaney Hall last week, she claimed.

We were accommodating that when those individuals showed up, and they decided instead to break in, she added.
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Jillian Michaels, best known as the fitness trainer on the reality series The Biggest Loser, got the opportunity to ask the first question at Thursdays White House press briefing as a new media member  and the internet did not disappoint with its reaction to the spectacle.

This timeline is just so stupid, one Bluesky user noted, seemingly speaking for much of social media.

With the Trump administrations Make America Healthy Again Commission  led by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  releasing its much-anticipated report on childhood chronic illness, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt invited Michaels to occupy the new media seat at Thursdays press briefing.

Michaels, who once criticized Donald Trumps former vice president Mike Pence as the number one anti-gay politician in the country, has refashioned herself in recent years as a conservative podcaster and pundit. After expressing support for Kennedys presidential campaign and MAHA movement, she ended up voting for Trump in what was a reversal of her previous stance on his first administration.

The White Houses new media seat, meanwhile, has disproportionally (but not exclusively) been reserved for pro-Trump media outlets and influencers who have generally rewarded Leavitt for the assignment by tossing obsequiously softball questions her way.

open image in gallery Fitness trainer and podcast host Jillian Michaels asks the first question at Thursday's White House press briefing as a "new media" member. ( Fox News )

Prior to turning to the former reality star on Thursday, Leavitt promoted Michaels podcast Keeping It Real and called her a media powerhouse before acknowledging that she was at the White House to attend that afternoons MAHA event. Michaels then kicked off the briefing by asking the press secretary about the personal impact of Kennedys new study.

As a MAHA mom yourself, how do you interpret the significance of this report in terms of delivering measurable health improvement for Americans and their kids? And what specific actions does the administration plan to take in response to it? Michaels wondered.

When the president took office, he promised to make this country healthy again. And the president signed an executive order directing this commission, now less than 100 days later, the commission is delivering this report, Leavitt responded. Another promise kept.

open image in gallery Jillian Michaels presence at the White House briefing raised eyebrows online. ( Getty Images )

Of course, it didnt take long for the spectacle of The Biggest Loser trainer asking questions at a White House briefing to make its way to social media. And the reaction, especially from liberals and progressives, was a combination of mockery, incredulity and dismay.

Jillian Michaels is in the new media seat at the White House press briefing, one Twitter user wrote. This timeline is so wild.

Laura Bassett, a columnist at The Cut, said she could write a dissertation about the new media seat. States Newsroom reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris added that her 2005 self would be so confused by this.

While some pointed out that shes now a host of a right-wing version of The View, others explained that they had to do a double take when they noticed her while watching the briefing.

Still, in the end, many just felt that Michaels appearance showed spectacular levels of unseriousness and snarked that the United States was now the least serious country in the entire benighted history of the solar system.
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Tributes poured in from both sides of the aisle for former President Joe Biden on Sunday after his office announced that he has prostate cancer.

Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Bidens recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery, said President Donald Trump on Truth Social.

Bidens former Vice President Kamala Harris took to X to praise her former boss.

Doug and I are saddened to learn of President Bidens prostate cancer diagnosis. We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time, she said. Joe is a fighter  and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.

The former Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, added: Sending love and strength to my friend @JoeBiden.

Cancer is the absolute worst, said Meghan McCain, whose father, the late Republican Sen. John McCain, died of brain cancer. It is hell. It is incredibly difficult for any family, anywhere that has to deal with it. Wishing nothing but healing, prayers, light and strength to President Biden and his family. I dont believe times like these are appropriate for politics.

Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna said on X: Praying for @JoeBiden and his family to defeat the cancer hes recently been diagnosed with. He and Jill have always been fighters and I am confident they will meet this challenge with grit and grace.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was sorry to see this news. Cancer is truly awful. My Dad passed away in 2021 with cancer. Prays for Joe Biden and his family.

A spokesperson for the ex-commander-in-chief said on Sunday that the diagnosis was made on Friday after doctors found a small nodule on Bidens prostate, which needed further evaluation.

Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone, the statement said.

While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management, the spokesperson added. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.

Joe Biden received tributes from across the political spectrum following his cancer diagnosis ( Getty Images )

Democratic strategist and political commentator Symone Sanders-Townsend said, Joe Biden is a fine man, a dedicated public servant, a loving father, husband and grandfather. If youre a praying person like I am, offer one up.

Gun control advocate Fred Guttenberg also took to X to praise the former president.

If you have followed my story, you know how much I love @JoeBiden and how much he means to me, he said. He is a testament to decency and civility and all that is good about America. Sending President Biden and his family much love as they now pursue medical options.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins said she was saddened to hear of President Bidens cancer diagnosis and am wishing him and his family well as he begins treatment.

North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis said he was praying for his full recovery.

Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee lamented the sad news.

Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, the 2016 vice presidential nominee, said he was praying for President Biden and his family as they take on this challenge. Americans will be with them every step of the way.

British journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan took aim at social media users appearing to celebrate the news.

Im going to block anyone I see - and theres already a lot of this vile crap flying around - mocking, celebrating, or playing partisan politics with Joe Bidens health news, he said. The man has served his country for 50yrs and is fighting for his life. Show some bloody respect.

Former Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo wrote on the social media platform that No one in America is stronger than Joe Biden. Mine metastasized to the bones too. Cancer has no f****** idea who its dealing with. Betting against Biden has never been and still remains a bad f****** bet.

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom said, Our hearts are with President Biden and his entire family right now. A man of dignity, strength, and compassion like his deserves to live a long and beautiful life. Sending strength, healing and prayers his way.

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman said Biden has been a fighter his whole life. He will prevail. Sending Dr. Jill Biden and their family my absolute support.

Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore, seen by some observers as a possible 2028 presidential contender, said, Dawn and I carry @JoeBiden and his family in our hearts today. He stood with me during some of the toughest times in our state, and we stand with him today. We pray for his strength and a swift recovery.

The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, said, Like so many of us, Joe Biden is a man of faith. In times like these, our faith carries us through hardship and powers us to persevere. Jen and I are keeping the President and his family in our prayers.

Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker joined in with the tributes, saying, President Biden knows that when you get knocked down, you get back up and fight. I join the nation in sending strength to President Biden and his family and hope for a full recovery. Were with you in this fight, Joe.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, Jeanette and I are united in prayer for the Biden Family during this difficult time.
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is convinced that the tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump wont raise prices even as several retailers have said they will.

Speaking to Axios at an event in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night, the former Wall Street CEO and billionaire said he believed the U.S. would make a number of trade deals by the middle of the summer.

Lutnick was asked how many of the U.S.s top 18 trading partners would have a deal by the time the pause in the widespread tariffs ends on July 8.

"I think most countries, we'll have an idea of what we want to do with them, he said.

Lutnick has taken a leading role in the Trump White Houses attempt to redraw the rules of international trade, which has disrupted both global and U.S. economies. The back-and-forth tariff policy has led to significant uncertainty for businesses and consumers.

Trump has argued that the U.S. hasnt had a fair trading relationship with the rest of the world for decades, costing the U.S. jobs at home. However, the question surrounding the tariffs has recently been how theyll affect consumers.

After Lutnick rejected silly arguments that tariffs raise prices, Walmart announced that it would increase its prices because of the tariffs, with several other companies suggesting that they may follow suit.

"The president has to stand strong, and you can't fix things in a day, and that's still going, but I would expect that prices in America will be unaffected, a defiant Lutnick told Axios.

A defiant Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has claimed that Trumps tariffs wont raise prices for American consumers ( AFP via Getty Images )

Meanwhile, retail executives expect cost pressures to increase and consumers will feel more price rises by the end of June or early July.

After Walmart announced that it would raise prices, Trump lashed out at the company, telling them to eat the rising costs of tariffs without passing them on to consumers.

Walmart responded to the president earlier this week by saying, We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible, and we wont stop. Well keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can, given the reality of small retail margins.

Trump revealed his tariff plan last month, which includes a 10 percent baseline tariff for most countries and further tariffs on a number of major trading partners. The president believes the tariffs will boost American manufacturing and bring in billions of dollars.

However, since his April announcement, the Trump administration has dropped its tariffs on China from 145 percent to 30 percent and has paused other tariffs for 90 days as the U.S. goes into deal-making mode.

Nike has also revealed that its set to raise prices on some of its shoes and apparel by between $2 and $10 in response to the tariffs. The increase in prices will impact products made overseas, specifically in Vietnam and China, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Hill.

We regularly evaluate our business and make pricing adjustments as part of our seasonal planning, a spokesperson for the company told the outlet.
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Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University student activist who was arrested by federal agents for his role leading pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus, met his month-old son for the first time before a crucial immigration court hearing on Thursday.

Khalil has been imprisoned in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in Louisiana for more than two months while he is in deportation proceedings. His wife Noor Abdalla gave birth on April 21.

In his testimony in immigration court on Thursday, Khalil said his removal from the country could lead to his assassination, kidnapping, torture and endanger his wife and son.

This is truly unlawful, what is happening to me, he said. I believe that justice will prevail.

Donald Trumps administration initially denied Khalil a chance to see his wife and son under a no-contact policy from ICE officials and the private prison group that runs the detention facility, citing unspecified safety concerns surrounding their visit.

A federal judge eventually intervened, granting them permission for a single, joint meeting  under conditions (including as to length of time and confidentiality) that are appropriate for a substantial attorney-client meeting.

Attorneys for Khalil confirmed the visit to The Independent on Thursday morning.

open image in gallery The arrest and ongoing detention of student activist Mahmoud Khalil has sparked protests against the Trump administrations efforts to crush political dissent ( Getty Images )

Khalil was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was sent to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, roughly 1,300 miles away from their home in New York.

Court filings show his attorneys repeatedly requested permission from ICE for his temporary release to be present for his childs birth, which they denied. Khalil was open to any combination of conditions, including wearing an ankle monitor.

On April 11, Louisiana immigration judge Jamee Comans determined Khalil can be deported from the United States based on Secretary of State Marco Rubios claim that Khalils Palestinian advocacy presents a threat to U.S. foreign policy. Judge Comans called the governments argument facially reasonable.

Khalils arrest has sparked international outrage and fears that the Trump administration is crushing political dissent against Israels devastating campaign in Gaza and U.S. support. Rubio has revoked hundreds of student visas over campus activism, leading to several high-profile arrests of international scholars.

The administration has accused Khalil of antisemitic activities and supporting Hamas, which he has flatly rejected. Officials concede he has not committed any crime, but claim he can be removed over what Rubio has characterized as potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.

Officials have mislabeled me a terrorist, a terrorist sympathizer, which couldnt be further from the truth, Khalil told the court on Thursday.

A two-page memorandum submitted to the immigration court as evidence for his removal admitted his protest activities were lawful but argued that letting him stay in the country would undermine U.S. policy to combat antisemitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.

Khalil and his legal team argue his arrest and detention  and attempted removal from the country, which is currently blocked by court order  are retaliatory violations of his First Amendment right to freedom of speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process of law, among other claims.

A separate but parallel case over Khalils arrest is also playing out in a federal courtroom hundreds of miles away in New Jersey.

open image in gallery Mahmoud Khalil's wife Noor Abdalla, with their son, accepted an an honorary diploma for Khalil during an event from Columbia University students unable to participate in a commencement ceremony ( REUTERS )

Khalil, who is Palestinian, grew up in a refugee camp in Syria. He entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 to pursue a masters degree in public administration, which he completed last year.

In addition to missing the birth of his child, he also missed his graduation from the university this month.

Khalil is at risk of harm anywhere in the world following the governments allegations against him, according to his attorney Johnny Sinodis, speaking to reporters before the hearing.

Khalils lawyers are trying to end his case altogether, arguing to the judge in an immigration court hearing in Jena, Louisiana that federal agents arrested him without a warrant on spurious grounds. The government has argued that Khalil tried to flee during his arrest, but video footage from the incident does not show any such attempt.

There is no evidence presented whatsoever and no testimony to back up the governments claims surrounding his warrantless arrest and allegations that Khalil tried to escape, merely totally false statements from the government, according to attorney Marc Van Der Hout.

The case should be thrown out, he said.
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President Donald Trumps attempt to demonstrate evidence of white genocide in South Africa fell flat after he used pictures from an entirely different country to support his claims.

Trump met with South Africas president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the Oval Office on Wednesday in an effort to reset foreign relations.

The meeting took a bizarre turn when Trump produced an array of articles and showed video footage alleging ethnic cleansing in South Africa.

At one stage, Trump flipped to a printout of a blog post from The American Thinker titled Lets talk about Africa, which is where tribalism takes you.

The featured image on the article, which was taken from a months-old video on February 7, showed Red Cross aid workers at a scene in the city of Goma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a mass rape and murder incident had occured.

Look, here are burial sites all over the place. These are all white farmers that are being buried, the president falsely claimed while holding up the piece to reporters.

open image in gallery Trump mistakenly flaunts the wrong article about violence in DRC when speaking on alleged white genocide in South Africa ( The White House )

Trump continued to flick through pages, citing thousands of stories about the death, death, death of white South African farmers from an array of media sites, which the White House cited Wednesday.

In a separate video, which Trump ordered his staffers to play for Ramaphosa, South African politicians were heard inciting racist violence against white South Africans, Go after the white man! one man was heard shouting to crowds in the clip.

Speaking about the video, Ramaphosa said the small minority party featured in the video spouts opposing views to the majority held by the South African parliament, which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.

Trump interjected, saying: But you do allow them to take land. You do allow them to take land. And then, when they take the land, they kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.

The notion of a white genocide in the country has been supported by Trump allies Elon Musk and Stephen Miller in recent times, having long been a rallying cry for white supremacists worldwide.

open image in gallery The article in question was taken from a far-right site which had taken an image from a news agency reporting on a mass murder incident in Goma ( Reuters )

Ramaphosa later expressed his belief that Trump is unconvinced by the allegations of white genocide in a briefing with reporters.

When he was asked by one of you  and thank God one of you asked  whether he was convinced that there was genocide, he says no, hes not convinced. Much as he flighted the video and all those press clippings, in the end I do believe that theres doubt and disbelief in his head about all this, the president said.

Ramaphosa also admitted in the fallout of the meeting that his delegation could have been better briefed, reported News24.

The meeting followed the recent arrival of a group of 59 white South Africans, who were granted asylum in the U.S., after Trump deemed them victims of racial discrimination in their home nation.

In another video showing an aerial pan of roadside graves in South Africa, which was shared weeks before by Musk on X (Twitter), Trump pointed at the footage, saying, Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites.

Over 1,000 white farmers, Trump claimed, without any concrete evidence.

Trump continued, Those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross, and theres approximately 1,000 of them. Theyre all white farmers. The family of white farmers.

Its a terrible sight. Ive never seen anything like it, he added.

There is no official evidence of a white genocide taking place in South Africa, despite Trumps claims.

The Independent contacted the White House for comment.
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Oklahoma wont be able to open the countrys first-ever taxpayer-funded religious public charter school after a surprise tie from the Supreme Court.

A 4-4 decision, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing, avoids a major ruling on First Amendment protections and the separation of church and state.

There was no written decision. A single-page announcement of the courts tie did not note which justices voted in support or against the state.

Rev. Shannon Fleck, left, speaks out against Oklahomas proposed Catholic public charter school at the steps of the Supreme Court April 30. The justices reached a tie decision its approval May 22 ( Getty Images )

The court did not explain Barretts recusal, but the Donald Trump-appointed justice has ties with Notre Dame Law School, where she earned her law degree. The law schools religious liberty clinic represents the charter school in this case.

A lack of a decision means lower court decisions against the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School will stand, with the school violating the Constitution and state law.

The Supreme Courts stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State president Rachel Laser.

Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students, she added. St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which planned to discriminate against students, families, and staff and indoctrinate students into one religion, cannot operate as a public charter school. A religious public school would be an abject violation of religious freedom.

The school, backed by Oklahomas Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, triggered a high-profile legal battle to decide whether public funds can be used to create religious schools, setting up a major test to the First Amendments establishment clause, which prevents the government from endorsing any religion, as well as the free exercise clause, which bars religious discrimination.

Oklahomas schools, under the direction of controversial superintendent Ryan Walters, have emerged as a testing ground for a growing movement to integrate religion and conservative politics into public education.

Last year, Oklahomas highest court said the schools contract would create a slippery slope and what the framers warned against  the destruction of Oklahomans freedom to practice religion without fear of governmental intervention.

The school is an instrument of the Catholic church, operated by the Catholic church, and will further the evangelizing mission of the Catholic church in its educational programs, state justices wrote.

A decision on Oklahomas proposal follows a wave of attempts from Republican lawmakers and conservative special interest groups to move public funds into religious education, dovetailing with efforts within the Trump administration and across the country to let families use taxpayer funds to send their children to private school.

In 2023, the nations highest court ruled that the state of Maine cannot exclude private Christian schools from a taxpayer-funded school voucher program that helps students attend private schools, which critics feared could have broader implications over whether the government is obligated to support religious institutions on the same level as private ones.

Justice Sonia Sotomayors dissent in that case warned that the Supreme Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build.

The consequences of the Courts rapid transformation of the Religion Clauses must not be understated, she wrote at the time.

Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, called the Supreme Courts deadlock ruling a huge sigh of relief for public schools, for faith communities and our democracy.

If this scheme had been allowed to move forward, it would have opened up the floodgates for government-supported religious indoctrination, she said in a statement shred with The Independent. This was never just about one school in Oklahoma, it was a Trojan horse designed to test the integrity of the wall between church and state.
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Disney boss Bob Iger and ABC News chief Almin Karamehmedovic have asked the hosts of The View to tone down the political rhetoric on the show, according to a new report by The Daily Beast.

Considering the panelists of the long-running daytime talk show have been outspoken critics of Donald Trump for years now, and that criticism has only ramped up since the president returned to the White House. The request would in effect mean cooling the anti-Trump tenor of the show and potentially sparking backlash among its liberal audience.

It would appear, at least for the moment, that the calls for a less politically charged show have yet to take hold. Thursdays program, for instance, kicked off with a segment focused on Trumps off-the-rails Oval Office meeting with the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa, which featured the president going on a rant about the baseless white genocide conspiracy theory.

According to the Beast, Karamehmedovic called a meeting with the shows five hosts  Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin  and executive producer Brian Teta, suggesting the panel needed to broaden its conversations beyond its predominant focus on politics.

open image in gallery Disney chief Bob Iger reportedly told co-host Ana Navarro that The View needed to tone down its political rhetoric. ( REUTERS )

During the meeting, he pointed out a number of recent episodes with celebrity guests that drew higher ratings, urging the show to lean into that type of coverage more.

The move was not framed as an edict, one source said, but the suggestion alone rankled the hosts, the Beast noted. The group pushed back forcefully, with hosts like Navarro noting the shows audience routinely seeks out its perspective on politics, especially when the administrations radical attempts to upend the government can potentially affect their daily lives.

In the end, the hosts found the request silly and said they were just going to do what theyve been doing moving forward. Essentially, they felt it would look kind of bad to their audience if they all of a sudden stopped talking about politics.

One source familiar with the matter stressed to The Independent that there was really nothing out of character with this particular meeting, noting that the network constantly has conversations with talent based on viewer feedback, and this instance was no different.

This is not about talking about Trump. It's about balance in the show on topics, the source added. This conversation is really about making sure there's just balance in the show.

Still, even though the meeting wasnt framed as an edict, and the panel has continued to focus intently on political topics while covering Trump in their typically critical fashion, it remained a sticking point for at least one of the co-hosts.

Navarro, a GOP strategist and CNN commentator who has carved out a niche for herself as a vocal Never Trump Republican, directly spoke to Iger during Disneys recent upfront advertiser presentation.

Navarro thanked Iger for allowing the hosts to continue doing their jobs in a politically turbulent environment, the sources said. Iger confirmed he supported the showbut he also reaffirmed that the show needed to tone down its political rhetoric, the Beast reported, adding: The conversation made clear the suggestion to tone down the politics went all the way to the top.

Navarro and representatives for Disney did not respond to requests for comment. ABC News declined to comment.

open image in gallery Former President Joe Biden made his 11th appearance on The View, which has become a safe haven for him in recent years. ( ABC News )

While the executives efforts to pare down the political segments on The View could be nothing more than the standard corporate push to broaden a programs appeal, these discussions will obviously be viewed through the lens of Trumps war against legacy media outlets  including ABC News and Disney.

Following Trumps electoral victory last November, Disney agreed to settle his lawsuit against ABC News over anchor George Stephanopoulos interview with Nancy Mace, which featured Stephanoupolous mischaracterizing a verdict that found Trump liable for sexual abuse. Trump received $15 million for his presidential library, a million dollars for legal fees, and a note from ABC expressing regret over the claims.

While legal analysts were split on the merits of Trumps defamation claims against ABC, First Amendment experts warned that Disneys capitulation would have a chilling effect on the media going forward. Many in free press circles are holding their breath, one expert told The Independent at the time. There is concern that we are embarking on some scary times.

The president is also in talks with Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, to settle his $20 billion lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris that legal experts have called frivolous and the network itself has deemed completely without merit.

Tensions within the network over the potential settlement, which Paramount's top shareholder Shari Redstone is pushing as the company seeks the Trump administrations approval for a merger with Skydance, have resulted in the resignations of CBS News chief Wendy McMahon and 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens.

McMahon and Owens made it clear they would not apologize for the interview as part of any settlement with the president. Meanwhile, its been reported that Paramount is willing to pay the president as much as $50 million to make the lawsuit go away.
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President Donald Trumps $5 million gold card for rich immigrants is set to launch in the coming days.

The website that allows wealthy people to apply for permanent U.S. residency is due to launch within a week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Axios.

Initially the site, trumpcard.gov, would allow people to register their interest in the scheme, the outlet reports.

All that will come over a matter of the next weeks  not months, weeks, Lutnick said at an event Wednesday. Everyone I meet who's not an American is going to want to buy the card if they have the fiscal capacity, he claimed.

open image in gallery President Donald Trump floated the idea of a gold card visa for wealthy immigrants in February. The website where people can register their interest in the scheme is due to launch in the coming days, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. ( AFP via Getty Images )

Lutnick told the outlet that the program is aimed at those who can help America pay off its debt.

Trump initially floated the idea in February. He touted his card - which is his favorite color and not the typical green card for immigrants - again in April as the markets were in meltdown following his announcement of global trade tariffs.

For $5 million, this could be yours, pitched the president. You know what that card is? Its the Gold Card, the Trump Card, he added.

Lutnick appeared on the All In podcast in March, claiming to have sold 1,000 gold cards, adding that Trump had estimated that they could sell one million cards in total. Lutnick said the concept was to let people buy the right to live in the U.S. and pay taxes on the income earned here.

The Department of Government Efficiency team has been focusing on how to plug current U.S. government systems to verify travelers and immigration applications into a separate website for the gold visa.

open image in gallery Lutnick said that the program is aimed at those who can help America pay off its debt. He added: Everyone I meet who's not an American is going to want to buy the card if they have the fiscal capacity. ( Getty Images )

The domain trumpcard.gov was registered in late March, according to records published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The site has subdomains connected to CBP, the State Department, and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Electronic Immigration System, the central gateway for processing visa paperwork.

The Trump card visa is now also a part of the application for Global Entry, which is a program operated by CBP that allows pre-approved U.S. citizens, green card holders and travelers from some countries to save time at the airport by entering via a fast lane.

Those who apply for Global Entry using a foreign passport are currently given an option to say that they have submitted an application for a Trump Card Visa, according to Wired.
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As the House Rules Committees early-hours hearing on President Donald Trumps One Big, Beautiful Bill, got underway, Rep. Erin Houchin, a Republican from Indiana, asked Jodey Arrnington, the chairman of the Budget Committee, a simple question about the Congressional Budget Office.

Has the CBO ever been wrong? she asked.

Arrington responded by noting that the CBO, which scores and estimates how much legislation will cost, got wrong the price of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the 2017 tax slash law whichTrump signed, and the scoring of the 2010 health care law signed by Barack Obama, also known as Obamacare.

President Donald Trumps foot soldiers in Congress are disregarding objective congressional math for their own agenda ( AP )

In my short tenure, they actually were off their estimation of the deficit, he said regarding spending under President Joe Biden. They were wrong in their projections on revenue to the Treasury post-TCJA.

Republicans began their hearing on Rules  which needs to pass legislation for it to go to the floor for a simple majority vote  at 1 a.m. Wednesday.

So all this conversation about how reliant we should be on the CBO score to tell us what the cost of were doing is going to be, CBO has not been reliable, as history has shown, he emphasized.

Arrington and Houchin's characterizations are selective at best, but a way to advance partisanship at worst.

Despite occasionally falling short, the Congressional Budget Office is still regarded as the most credible and nonpartisan source for spending projections on Capitol Hill. Its director, Phillip Swagel, an alumnus of the George W. Bush administration, began the job during Republican control of the Senate in 2019, and was re-appointed during Democratic control of the Senate in 2023.

Yet House Republicans have every reason to discredit the CBO ahead of a vote on Trumps proposal. They dont like the numbers.

The CBO found that if Congress passed just an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, the deficit would increase by $3.8 trillion. That same analysis showed that the bottom ten percent of households would lose 4 percent of income in 2033, while the top 10 percent of households would see their incomes increase by 2 percent in 2033.

This would be the result mostly of proposed changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, and Medicaid. The bill would put in place work requirements that fiscal conservatives like Texas Rep. Chip Roy and South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman considered insufficient.

Specifically, it also requires that parents of children between the ages of seven and 18 to work for SNAP benefits  but a parent can get an exception if they are a stay-at-home married parent.

And thats not the only body blow that is ready for Democrats to attack. A separate CBO report on the estimated effects on the budget found that as many as 7.6 million people would lose coverage because of the Medicaid changes. That might make some of the lawmakers from swing districts, or with large swaths of their population dependent on Medicaid, queasy.

And this all came without the managers amendment, which would lay out the side deal that House Speaker Mike Johnson made with the SALT caucus, a group of Republicans from blue states who want the cap raised on the amount of money that people can deduct from their state and local taxes on their federal taxes.

As of Wednesday evening, the House leadership had yet to release the managers amendment. As a result, House Republicans are pushing for a bill that is already outdated.

Trump had made his trek to the Hill on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, he invited the fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus to the White House. Two of them, Ralph Norman and Chip Roy of Texas, who both sit on the Budget Committee, initially sank the bill on Friday before they voted present late on Sunday evening to allow it to move to Rules, where both men also sit.

But it seems like the pressure campaign hasnt worked on the Freedom Caucus. Before the meeting, Roy posted on X, that he would dig in his heels.

Writing a deficit-backed blank check (SALT) is easier than cutting spending (DOGE, Green New Scam, Post-COVID spending), he posted. Congress/swamp will always choose the easy route but we cant afford it.

In the past, Roy has correctly pointed out that the bill would explode the federal budget deficit.

Yet the House Republican leadership has decided to throw congressional math homework on the debt out the window for political expediency. Whether the Freedom Caucus decides to give them a failing grade will determine if Trumps bill passes.
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President Donald Trumps One big, beautiful bill, the legislation passed by the House of Representatives early Thursday morning, would ban gender-affirming care for transgender people on Medicaid and the health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

In the initial piece of legislation, gender-affirming care was banned for people younger than 18.

But House Republican leadership released its managers amendment, an amendment that described the agreements used to appease conservatives and swing-district Republicans alike, late in the evening. That amendment struck the phrase for minors.

In addition, the legislation would also prohibit gender transition procedures as an essential health benefit under the 2010 health care law signed by President Barack Obama, formally called the Affordable Care Act or colloquially known as Obamacare.

open image in gallery Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the press after the bills narrow passage. ( Getty )

The legislation that passed the House on Thursday would significantly increase spending for immigration enforcement along the US-Mexico border, energy drilling and the US military. It would also extend most of the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed during his first tenure as president.

It's one more example of health care that they're trying to rip away, Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, told The Independent. McBride is the first openly transgender member of Congress whom Republicans have attempted to force to use a mens bathroom.

Other Democrats were more vocal.

The entire thing's a s*** show, Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin told The Independent. There's so much that's problematic, but Im counting on the adults in the Senate to fix what the House Republicans have screwed up.

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, 276,000 transgender adults are enrolled in Medicaid, the health insurance program for poor people, children, pregnant women and people with disabilities. The 2022 study also found that 38,000 transgender recipients of Medicaid live in states with express bans on gender-affirming care.

open image in gallery Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender member of Congress, was critical of the bill. ( Getty Images )

Trumps 2024 presidential campaign said not only did Kamala Harris support transgender athletes playing in womens sports, but also claimed she supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners.

It's more than bullying, its persecution, Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida told The Independent. Its horrible, and obviously the fight doesnt end here.

Despite the legislations passage, the bill has a long way to go before becoming law. Senate Republicans, who have only 53 seats, plan to pass the legislation under a procedure known as budget reconciliation.

Reconciliation allows them to pass legislation on a simple majority vote and sidestep a filibuster as long as the legislation relates to the budget.

Rep. Mark Takano, the chairman of the House Equality Caucus, told The Independent that he wondered if the Senate Parliamentarian would determine that the change in spending from dropping gender-affirming coverage would be merely incidental, which means it would not pass parliamentary muster to be included in reconciliation.

The legislation passed 215 to 214, with two Republicans - Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky - voting no and Rep. Andy Harris of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus voting present.

This is not the first time that Republicans included a rider on gender-affirming care in legislation.

Last year, Republicans included an amendment to prohibit TRICARE, the health care program for active duty U.S. service members, from covering certain medical procedures for children that could result in sterilization in the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass piece of legislation that authorizes spending for the Pentagon.

In recent years, public opinion has shown a desire for restrictions on transgender people. A Pew Research Center survey from February found that 66 percent of U.S. adults support transgender athletes playing on teams that match their birth gender while 56 percent support banning gender-affirming care for people younger than 18.
 Close Washington D.C. shooting suspect shouted 'free, free Palestine' after arrest, police say

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Jewish organizations in Washington, D.C. are reviewing security protocols at synagogues and other institutions, in the wake of the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers Wednesday night.

Ron Halber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that local law enforcement has increased patrols around Jewish institutions in Washington since the killings.

A lot of us are looking over our shoulder today, Halber told Reuters. But we have to keep leading proud open Jewish lives.

The two victims were named as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a couple who were engaged. Lischinski's coffin arrived back in Israel on Friday, per ABC.

Chicago man Elias Rodriguez, 30, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder over their killings, which took place outside of a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.

Rodriguez chanted free, free Palestine, according to police, after reportedly shooting at the couple at least 21 times. Court documents show that police recovered 21 fired bullets and a 9mm handgun from the scene, CNN reported.

It has since emerged that the suspects father, Eric Rodriguez, was invited to President Donald Trumps Joint Address to Congress on March 5 this year by a Democratic lawmaker.
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Police are investigating the suspicious disappearance of a 17-year-old girl who was reportedly on her way to visit her high school sweetheart in Western Australia.

Pheobe Bishop was last seen on 15 May at the Bundaberg Airport in Queensland, booked to fly from Bundaberg to Western Australia, with a stopover in Brisbane. But police said she never boarded the plane and hasnt been heard from since.

Her family issued a public appeal for information while local law enforcement said Ms Bishop was living at a property in rural Gin Gin in Queensland before her disappearance. On Wednesday, reports emerged of several dead dogs found at the property, though police have not confirmed this detail.

The site appeared abandoned, with bags of rubbish, a large bus, and a boat seen out front, according to Sky News Australia.

Ms Bishop had reportedly been staying there with several people, but no one was present when authorities checked. Her phone, social media, and bank accounts have all been inactive since 14 May  the day before she vanished.

On Wednesday, police declared Ms Bishops disappearance suspicious and established two major crime scenes as part of their investigation. Police declared the property and the grey Hyundai ix35 that is believed to have dropped her at the airport, as major crime scenes.

Ms Bishops mother, Kylie Johnson, described the disappearance as completely out of character, particularly during a week of family mourning  the death anniversaries of her best friend and her grandfather.

If you knew Pheobe you would know that she is free spirited and loves hard! She is loyal to the core and cutthroat, she said.

She said Ms Bishop would never not contact us at this emotional time that she needs us to regulate her and her emotions.

Detectives are urging the public to share dashcam or CCTV footage of a grey Hyundai ix35 (QLD rego 414EW3) seen near Airport Drive and Samuels Road in Bundaberg, as well as in the Gin Gin area on 15 May.

A family member told the Daily Mail Ms Bishop had saved money for her air fare to visit her boyfriend in Western Australia. "He was her high school sweetheart that moved away," the family member reportedly said.

The outlet reported another relative as saying that Ms Bishop had spoken to her boyfriend on the phone just before she disappeared.

Earlier, acting inspector Ryan Thompson said police were still trying to determine whether Pheobe was actually dropped off at the airport, and whether she knew the driver of the SUV.

He said: Were still working together to piece together her movements on that day.

We do have concerns for her safety due to the reason that its been nearly a week since she was last sighted and its out of character for her not to make any contact with anyone.

We also have concerns she has not checked in as she was required to do. Police have reviewed CCTV from the airport. which indicates that she did not enter the terminal.

open image in gallery 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop (L) has been missing since 15 May 2025 ( 9 News Queensland / YouTube )

During a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Thompson added that one of the two people Ms Bishop had been living with in the town of Gin Gin, west of Bundaberg, had dropped her off at the airport. He said police are also investigating reports that the 17-year-old was involved in an argument with the driver en route to the airport and was allegedly forced out of the car before she vanished.

Mr Thompson confirmed that the reported altercation is forming part of the investigation.

The teen was last seen wearing a green tank top and grey sweatpants, carrying luggage. Her loved ones, whove plastered hundreds of posters across the region, are pleading for any information.

Ms Bishops mother, Ms Johnson, wrote on her Facebook on Wednesday: As we enter another day with Pheobe still missing our hearts are breaking more and more. Phee we just need to know that youre ok?

We just need to hear your voice!

She wrote: Phee we love you more than you could imagine and were praying that you come home.

Police say theyll investigate as long as it takes to find Ms Bishop.
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Tourists in Crete were shaken and buildings damaged after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the north-east coast in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The quake struck at 6.19 local time (3.19am GMT), roughly 60 kilometres north-east off the Greek island, with various geoscientific survey agencies reporting its depth from between 37 and 87 kilometres deep.

Tremors were felt across islands in the Aegean Sea, including in parts of Turkey and Israel, while residents and visitors to Crete awoke to tremors, and some described to daily Greek newspaper Ethnos hearing a loud roar following the tremors.

Earthquake and Planning Protection Organisation director Efthymios Lekkas noted that deeper earthquakes typically cause less surface damage.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre earlier issued a tsunami warning following the quake.

Regional government official Giorgos Tsapakos told state-run television that "there are no reports of injuries or any serious damage" following initial assessments of the affected areas.

Emergency services were on high alert following the quake, but the fire brigade said it had not received any calls for assistance and so far there had been no reports of serious damage.

A landslide in the Viannos municipality threw rocks and debris across a road near Tertsa, with a clean-up crew already sent out to clear the damage, Cretapost reported.

School buildings across the island of Crete were inspected for damage, local media reported, but no issues had been reported but some school trips had been cancelled as a precaution.

A central road in the Cretan port city of Iraklio was cordoned off after chunks of cracked plaster from a damaged and abandoned building crashed to the ground.

Images and video from Crete show grocery items strewn across shop floors following the quake.

The mayor of Arkalochori told Cretapost that no problems were caused in his municipality, and schools would remain open as usual.

This earthquake was a piece of cake for us, he told the publication.

Civil protection minister Ioannis Kefalogiannis was travelling to Crete to inspect the earthquakes damage.

"Fortunately, initial reports indicate that due to its significant depth, there has been no major damage," he told reporters outside Athens before he left.

Greece is one of the most seismically active regions in Europe, situated along a complex fault boundary between the African and Eurasian tectonic plates. While most quakes are mild, stronger ones  such as the deadly 2021 quake also centred near Crete  have caused damage in the past.

With additional reporting from AP
 Close Tsunami warning after magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes off Crete coast in Greece

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Aftershocks have continued through the day after a powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred north-east of Crete on Thursday morning.

The powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Crete at 6.19am local time (3.19am GMT), according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

No injuries or major damage have been reported, but popular tourist spots the Samaria and Imbros gorges remained closed throughout Thursday as a precaution.

Seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos said on social media there would be some additional aftershocks through the day, but they are all harmless.

Fortunately, the depth and distance from the island became a shield of protection again, he said in a translation of his post.

The quake was felt across the Aegean Sea, reaching parts of Turkey and north Africa.

Shortly after the quake tourists were urged to move away from the coast after the tremors led to warnings of a possible tsunami in Greece and beyond - though the head of Greeces Earthquake Planning and Protection Organisation said this was unlikely.

Crete is a seismological hotspot and while most quakes are mild, stronger ones  such as the deadly 2021 earthquake also centred near Crete  have caused damage in the past.
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The two people shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington were young staffers at the Israeli Embassy who were soon to be engaged. The suspect shouted Free Palestine as he was being arrested.

Israel identified the victims as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, without giving their ages. They were leaving a young diplomats event at the Capital Jewish Museum that was meant to foster unity and celebrate Jewish heritage when they were killed on Wednesday.

Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring and was just days away from proposing to Milgrim on a planned trip to Jerusalem, according to Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.

Here is a look at the victims:

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky worked as a research assistant at the Israeli Embassy, where he was responsible for a number of tasks, including keeping its political department up to date on important events and trends happening in the Middle East & North Africa, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Lischinsky moved to Israel from Germany at age 16, according to his profile, and he said that he had the privilege of calling both Jerusalem and Nuremberg my home.

Ron Prosor, a veteran Israeli diplomat, said that Lischinsky was a student of his at an Israeli university. He said that Lischinsky was Christian, a true lover of Israel who had served in the military and chose to dedicate his life to the state of Israel.

In Germany, the German-Israeli Society  a group that promotes bilateral relations and solidarity with Israel  said that Lischinsky grew up partly in Bavaria and spoke fluent German.

It said that he was a founding member of the youth forum of the Israeli-German Society, the groups counterpart in Israel, and took a job at the Israeli Embassy in Washington in 2022. It said that he was also a passionate photographer.

On his LinkedIn profile, Lischinsky said that he advocated for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding. He said that he was an ardent believer in deepening Israels ties with the Arab world through the U.S.-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

He earned a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University near Tel Aviv.

Sarah Milgrim

Milgrim worked at the Israeli Embassys department of public diplomacy and organized visits and missions to Israel. She was an American citizen, according to Israel's former ambassador to the U.S., Mike Herzog.

In her LinkedIn bio, she said that her passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work.

She said that as a Jewish educator, she facilitated insightful discussions on geopolitics in Israel and Palestine. She said that she worked in Tel Aviv for Tech2Peace, an organization that provides high-tech and entrepreneurial training alongside conflict dialogue to young Palestinians and Israelis.

She had a certificate in religious engagement and peacebuilding from the United States Institute of Peace, an organization funded by the U.S. Congress that promotes conflict resolution.

She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in environmental studies with a minor in anthropology and also had a master's in international affairs from American University.

Her Instagram bio also had a yellow ribbon, as well as a passage from Deuteronomy, Justice, justice you shall pursue, written in Hebrew.

___

Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, contributed to this report.
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Pope Leo XIV is under renewed scrutiny over claims that he mishandled priest abuse cases while serving as a leader in the Catholic Church in Chicago.

On Tuesday, members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a news conference, claiming Leo exhibited a pattern of failure to properly investigate abuse claims during his time as head of the Augustinian order in Chicago.

It was his responsibility to follow the meager church protocols and laws put in place, James Egan, a SNAP spokesperson, said. Given his record, it doesnt seem that he prioritized protecting children at all.

Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, became the first American pope earlier this month. While he led the Augustinian order in Chicago, the Archdiocese faced numerous clergy abuse allegations. A 2023 report by the Illinois Attorney General found that more than 450 Catholic clergy in the state had abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950, with many cases occurring in the Chicago area.

SNAP argues that Prevosts leadership did not go far enough to address the crisis with transparency. While some reforms were made, including background checks and abuse-prevention training, the group questioned how thoroughly the accused were investigated.

open image in gallery Pope Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, is being criticized by the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests for his handling of clergy abuse cases. ( Getty Images )

In response to the news conference, Rev. Anthony Pizzo, current provincial of the Augustinians of the Midwest, defended Pope Leo XIV, saying he implemented child protection protocols in 2001 and remains committed to safeguarding children and supporting victims.

SNAP also raised concerns about Prevost in a March lawsuit filed with the Vatican. The first case allegedly happened in Chicago in 2000, where Prevost allowed a priest, Rev. James Ray, accused of abusing at least 13 minors, to live near a school.

The same suit also accused him of missteps while serving as a bishop in Peru.

open image in gallery SNAP filed a formal complaint with the Vatican in March against Pope Leo XIV, citing two specific instances of alleged mishandling of clergy sexual abuse cases  one in Chicago in 2000 and another in Peru in 2022. ( Getty Images )

The Vatican has not issued a formal statement regarding these concerns, although it denied that Prevost approved housing for the accused priest.

However, Ray told the Sun-Times on Tuesday that Prevost had permitted him to stay there.

We are not going to comment on third-party conversations that a reporter from another newspaper claims to have had with another individual, at this time, Michael Airdo, an attorney for the Midwest Augustinians, said in a statement, per the Chicago Tribune.
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Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes on Wednesday as it resisted international pressure to halt its revamped attacks on the devastated enclave.

Scores of Palestinians were killed, including several women and a one-week-old baby, with at least 500 killed in the past week as Israel launches its new offensive, Operation Gideons Chariots.

The Israeli military has conducted heavy airstrikes and opened new ground attacks in the past week, as the international community pleaded with the Netanyahu government to allow respite for the Palestinian population and aid workers.

open image in gallery Smoke rises following an Israeli army bombardment in Gaza Strip ( AP )

Israel began allowing trucks with humanitarian aid into Gaza on Tuesday following an 11-week blockade, but the UN says aid has not yet reached the Palestinians in desperate need.

Netanyahu has also refused to bend to escalated pressure from the UK and other western allies. The UK announced it would halt trade negotiations with Israel, warning it would go further if the new offensive was not halted.

What is Israel doing in the Gaza Strip?

As the second day of ceasefire talks in Doha ended, Israel launched Operation Gideons Chariots, a major ground offensive which followed a series of intense air strikes on Gaza.

The Israeli military says it seeks to exert tremendous pressure on Hamas and expand operational control in the Gaza Strip.

Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a social media address on Monday: "We are engaged in massive fighting - intense and substantial - and there is progress. We are going to take control of all areas of the Strip, that's what we're going to do.

But the escalation of Israels offensive began before Saturday. On Friday, it launched a massive ground, sea and air attack on northern Gaza, killing at least 100 people according to health authorities in the strip. It was the largest ground assault since Israel resumed its offensive in March, bringing an end to a fragile two-month ceasefire.

Israel announced on Sunday that its forces had opened extensive ground operations throughout Gaza with soldiers from five divisions - which amounts to tens of thousands of soldiers.

open image in gallery Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrikes in Deir al-Balah ( Copyright 2025, The Associated Press. All rights reserved )

Israeli forces also attacked from the south, where researchers at Forensic Architecture - part of Goldsmiths, University of London - say Israel is constructing a second militarised corridor in Gaza, to expand their control of the Strip.

As of Sunday evening, troops had not reached the centre of major cities such as Gaza City and Khan Younis, the New York Times reported. Details about the offensive are relatively scarce from the Israeli military.

Sweeping evacuation orders have been issued for multiple areas over the past week, including Gaza City, Khan Younis, Beit Lahia and Rafah, again displacing thousands of Palestinians from where they sought safety.

On Monday the IDF warned those in Khan Younis to evacuate to the coast as it prepared for an "unprecedented attack", as its forces closed in on the southern city.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by intense Israeli airstrikes since the ramped-up offensive began, including at least 82 on Wednesday.

Israeli troops also have also surrounded two of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals, preventing anyone from leaving or entering the facilities, hospital staff and aid groups said this week. It came as the World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that hospitals were at breaking point.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that 3,193 people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on 18 March, meaning the overall toll is more than 53,000, according to The New Arab.
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UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher sparked a furious row this week when he said 14,000 babies in Gaza were at risk of dying within two days if essential aid was not allowed into the war-torn territory.

Israel has stridently hit back at the claims, accusing Mr Fletcher of blood libel over the statement.

Here is what happened.

UN chief says utterly chilling number of babies at risk

One day after Israel announced it would allow some aid to be sent to Gaza following an 11-week blockade, Mr Fletcher made the claim 14,000 babies were at risk of dying if greater amounts of aid were not allowed into the territory.

There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them, he said in an interview on BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Tuesday morning.

"I want to save as many of these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours," he said, adding the UN needed to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid.

open image in gallery Tom Fletcher made the comments during a BBC radio interview ( AP )

Asked during that interview how the UN had worked out that 14,000 babies may die within 48 hours if more aid doesnt reach them, Mr Fletcher said teams on the ground have been working hard in places such as medical centres and schools to assess need.

We still have lots of people on the ground. And so they're at the medical centres, they're at the schools. We had another school bombed yesterday, trying to assess needs, and this is why our mechanism for getting aid in, it's imperfect, he said.

Israeli government hits back at claims

The Israeli government condemned Mr Fletchers comments, accusing the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of ignoring Hamas atrocities and echoing the terrorist organisations propaganda.

The Israel Foreign Ministry tweeted: When Tom Fletcher  ignores Hamas' atrocities but echoes their propaganda - its not humanitarian work, its blood libel.

The foreign ministry also said Mr Fletcher conveniently forgets that Hamas terrorists operate from hospitals, fire rockets from UN schools, and hijack humanitarian aid - profiting from it while recruiting thousands and stockpiling weapons.

The Israeli administration also weighed in from its official X account: Genocide? War crimes? These arent facts - theyre fabrications.

It continued: Fletchers accusations collapse under scrutiny, just like every one of his past claims. Hes not after justice. Hes after headlines and money.

open image in gallery The UN says more aid must enter Gaza ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

UN body says babies will suffer without help

When asked to clarify Mr Fletchers comments, a spokesperson for OCHA said: It is imperative to get supplies into Gaza to save an estimated 14,000 babies likely to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, as the IPC partnership has warned about.

We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours. We will try to reach as many as we can in the days ahead - and are prioritising baby food on first convoys.

OCHA did not answer our questions about whether that IPC figure was the one Mr Fletcher was referring to. The Independent has sought further clarification.

The IPC is the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative by organisations including the European Commission, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.

open image in gallery Palestinians gather to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip ( AFP via Getty Images )

Its latest report on acute food insecurity and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip, published on 12 May, said more than 2 million people across the territory would likely experience crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, including nearly 469,500 who are likely to experience catastrophic food insecurity.

The report projected there would be 70,500 cases of acute malnutrition in children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026, including 14,100 severe cases.

Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into famine, the report said.

Mr Fletcher has not addressed his comments since, but has been active on social media.

He tweeted on Thursday: In close touch with team in #Gaza. Today will be crucial. Truckloads of lifesaving aid finally on move again.

Im in awe of [the] courage of our humanitarians - but they continue to face huge challenges getting goods out of the crossing to where it is needed. Vital, lifesaving work.
 Close Few aid trucks enter Gaza after Israel's nearly three-months complete blockade

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Benjamin Netanyahu has said that all of the Gaza Strip will be under Israeli security control in the end, as dozens more Palestinians are killed in Israeli attacks.

On Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister told a press conference that the entire enclave would come under Israeli control eventually, and that Israel had probably killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar after a strike on a hospital in southern Gaza earlier this month.

The statement comes as Netanyahu is facing growing international pressure, as the UN warns no humanitarian aid has reached starving Palestinians in Gaza yet - even after an 11-week blockade was lifted this week.

Hospital officials said on Wednesday that a newborn baby and several women are among at least 82 people who have been killed in Gaza after Israeli strikes overnight.

A nurse has said conditions at Nasser Hospital are beyond critical and the hospital that was once a major lifeline is now barely functioning.

Many patients die simply because we cannot treat them in time, the nurse, called Ahmad, told The Independent.

Meanwhile, the UK government is facing pressure to sanction ministers in Israels government.
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Yair Golans comments about Israels wartime conduct in Gaza this week were some of the harshest used against the country.

In an interview, the prominent Israeli politician accused his own country of killing babies as a hobby, expelling a population, and fighting against civilians. The comments have sparked a domestic uproar.

Many politicians have criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus war strategy  in particular, his failure to free all the hostages that are held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

open image in gallery Yair Golans comments have sparked an uproar ( AP )

What made the comments by Mr Golan, the leader of the centre-left opposition party, rare was their focus on the plight of Gazas civilians.

The controversy that followed has underscored how little the wars impact on Palestinians has factored into the conversation in Israel, in contrast to the rest of the world.

Mr Golan, a former general, told the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet that Israel was becoming a pariah state.

A sane country doesnt engage in fighting against civilians, doesnt kill babies as a hobby and doesnt set for itself the goals of expelling a population, he said.

As an outcry erupted, he said that he was referring to the conduct of Israels government in his comments  not that of its soldiers.

A rare focus on the plight of Palestinian civilians

Mr Golan's words were a shock to the system because, outside of the countrys politically marginalised left, criticism focused on Palestinian civilian suffering and deaths has rarely been spoken publicly in Israel.

The reasons for this include the trauma Israelis still feel over Hamas's deadly attack on 7 October, 2023, and Jewish citizens' deep faith in the righteousness of the military.

Adding to that, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza and soldiers are dying to rescue them.

Criticism of the war has focussed overwhelmingly on Mr Netanyahu. His opponents believe his own political motives have dictated war strategy and his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release all the hostages  an accusation he denies.

open image in gallery Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, right, speaks to Benjamin Netanyahu before his swearing-in ( AFP/Getty )

Part of the Israeli public and media outlets are still trapped in an obsession over the initial shock that started this war, said Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and fierce critic of Mr Netanyahus government.

But this is changing and its just a matter of time.

Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, around a third of whom are said to be alive.

Opponents of the war have tended to focus on concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and the risk of soldier casualties in a campaign that many feel has run its course.

While Mr Olmert disputed Mr Golan's choice of words, he said the essence of his remarks reflects what many people think.

Israelis are still traumatised by the Hamas attack

After Hamas's 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israelis rallied behind the military. They saw the war as a just response to the deadliest attack in Israel's history. Many Israelis cannot imagine a future where Hamas remains intact.

open image in gallery People watch a live broadcast of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander's release from Hamas captivity at a plaza known as the hostages square in Tel Aviv on 12 May ( AP )

Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90 per cent of the territory's population of about two million, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza's urban landscape.

While international media coverage has largely focused on the war in Gaza and its toll on civilians there, in Israel the media still devotes heavy attention to the 7 October attack itself and the hostage crisis. Photos of those still held captive line the streets.

Stories about the plight of Palestinian civilians are less prominent, and largely avoid the harshest images emanating from Gaza. Most outlets repeat the official line that Hamas is solely to blame for the civilian toll.

For many Jewish Israelis, it is hard to fathom that their own children, most of whom must enlist in Israels military, could be committing the crimes that Mr Golan described.

All that has helped solidify a national narrative that views the war as an existential struggle.

When you fight a war of existence, you dont much think about the suffering of the enemy, said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

open image in gallery An Israeli soldier walks at the site of the 7 October, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on the Nova music festival ( AP )

Mr Golan's words have sparked outcry before

A former deputy chief of staff of the military, Mr Golan's words have sparked outcry in the past. The most notable occasion was a 2016 speech marking Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, when he compared what he said was an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.

On 7 October, Mr Golan donned his uniform and grabbed a gun to help battle militants during Israel's flailing first response to Hamas' assault. Mr Olmert called him one of Israel's greatest warriors".

Mr Golan is not the first public figure to have made such remarks about Israel's conduct in Gaza.

Former defence minister and military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of ethnic cleansing during a major operation in 2024. Zehava Galon, a former leader of a dovish political party, highlighted the deaths of thousands of children at a recent protest in Tel Aviv.

But unlike them, Mr Golan has his political future at stake, lending more weight to his words.

open image in gallery Palestinians carry the bodies of their relatives killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza ( AP )

Pictures of dead Palestinian children

Mr Netanyahu said Mr Golan's words echoed disgraceful antisemitic blood libels.

Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, said Mr Golan's remarks were extreme and false and called on him to recant and apologise, which he did not do. Yair Lapid, another opposition leader, said Golan's words were a gift to our enemies.

Mr Rosner said Golan's wording was uncareful and that instead of triggering introspection, they prompted a media debate over Golan himself and the damage his remarks might cause to Israel.

But they could resonate among the steadfast anti-war protest movement, said Alma Beck, an activist who is part of a small contingent of demonstrators who have been holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza ever since Israel ended a ceasefire in March. She said the group began as 20 people and has grown to 600, still just a fraction of the thousands attending the broader anti-government protests.

Ms Beck said the protest movement has been receptive to messages that focus on the Palestinian toll, and more signs with that message have been held up by demonstrators in recent weeks. Their main criticism remains that Mr Netanyahu is continuing the war to appease his governing partners and ensure his own political survival.

I think there is a shift. I think people are starting to connect the dots, she said, while noting that the bulk of Israeli society hasn't changed. I hope that it will only grow.
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The UK announced further sanctions and a suspension of trade negotiations with Israel on Tuesday, as it condemned its monstrous 11-week aid blockade and renewed military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced a series of measures as international condemnation of Israels actions in Gaza continued to mount.

Mr Lammy announced the suspension of trade talks, imposed sanctions on three individuals and four entities involved in the settler movement, and said Benjamin Netanyahus actions were wholly disproportionate and utterly counterproductive.

As MPs in the Commons called on him to label it a genocide and go further with sanctions, Mr Lammy said: We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

The measures were announced after the UK, France and Canada warned Mr Netanyahu they would take concrete action unless Israel frees up humanitarian aid and stops violence in Gaza.

On Tuesday the UNs humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that 14,000 Palestinian babies could die by Thursday unless action is taken to ease the crisis in which civilians are severely malnourished, although he did not say what this claim was based on. The UN has not repeated that figure since then but on Wednesday, the UN's World Food Programme representative in East Jerusalem Antoine Renard told the BBC the whole population is on the brink of starvation.

Here is a look at what sanctions the UK has placed on Israel this week and in the past.

open image in gallery Foreign secretary David Lammy has faced calls to suspend arms licences to Israel ( House of Commons/PA Wire )

What sanctions has the UK placed on Israel this week?

The Foreign Office announced new sanctions against West Bank settlers in response to the persistent cycle of serious violence in the region.

Mr Lammy condemned the actions of extremist settlers in the West Bank, saying Mr Netanyahus administration has a responsibility to intervene to halt their actions.

The measures announced on Tuesday include financial restrictions and travel bans. They cover prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations that the Foreign Office said supported, incited and promoted violence against Palestinian communities.

Ms Weiss, a target of the sanctions who the government described as a "high-profile extremist settler leader", was a key focus of the recent Louis Theroux BBC documentary Settlers, which shone a light on the tactics of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian West Bank.

The measures follow a dramatic surge in settler violence in the West Bank, with the UN recording over 1,800 attacks by settlers against Palestinian communities since 1 January 2024.

open image in gallery Foreign secretary David Lammy meets with Israeli prime minister Netanyahu in 2024 ( Ben Dance/FCDO )

What other measures were announced?

The UK has suspended trade deal talks with Israel and summoned the countrys ambassador.

In the Commons, Mr Lammy said: We have suspended negotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade agreement.

He also said the UK is reviewing its co-operation with the Israeli administration, adding: The Netanyahu governments actions have made this necessary.

Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely has been called in to the Foreign Office, where Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he would set out the governments opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasise that the 11-week block on aid has been cruel and indefensible.

open image in gallery Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip ( AP )

What sanctions did the UK have in place already?

The UK government has not provided lethal or military equipment to Israel since October 2023.

The UK suspended about 30 of the 350 arms licenses for exports to Israel last September, which could be used in military operations in Gaza, including fighter aircraft, parts for unmanned aerial vehicles and targeting equipment.

Mr Lammy said the decision was taken at the time because of a risk the weaponry could be used to commit a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

But fighter jet parts are not included in that suspension, and the government is now the subject of a High Court challenge in which human rights groups are arguing the sale of those parts to Israel is unlawful.

Separately, the UK, France and Canada have targeted sanctions against Israeli settlers over violent attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and in a joint statement, the three countries said they would not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions.
A British doctor working in Gaza has described it as a "slaughterhouse" as Israel intensifies its attacks on the enclave.

Surgeon Tom Potokar compared the situation in Khan Younis to Stalingrad due to the "massive extent of destruction."

"Because of the blockade, there's so little stuff getting in. There's no food getting in, so people are starving. There's very little medical supplies coming in," he added.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that despite more supplies arriving in Gaza, none have yet reached the starving population as teams ran out of time after the Israeli military made them transfer the aid onto separate trucks.
A Dublin north city centre pub which benefits from thirsty Croke Park visitors will go for public auction next Thursday, May 29, in Buswells Hotel. Auctioneer John P Younge is guiding 1m for the premises known as Lowrys which was operated by the late Anthony Lowry and is being sold in an executor sale.
You build it and well connect it, says Siro boss John Keaney as firm looks to future broadband rollouts

With the nations fibre network now largely built, the firm has set itself brand new goals

Siro chief executive officer John Keaney. Photo: Andres Poveda

Adrian Weckler Thu 22 May 2025 at 03:30

A few years ago, broadband  or the lack of it  was one of Irelands biggest ongoing stories. Between Irelands then-controversial 3bn rural rollout subsidy, 5G and national industry at risk without it, the topic was never out of the headlines.
He made his call and then it was up to me to make my call and I did  Joey OBrien on decision to take over from Damien Duff and nervy win over Cork
'Clarkson has been rightly praised for showing the realities of British farming, but Harriets inclusion smacks of a show overeager to find storylines'

'It may look like Clarkson has no idea what hes doing, fumbling around over-complicated tractors and stepping on local council planning laws like a clown steps on rakes, but this is precision-tooled TV'

Jeremy ClarksonThe naysayers will tell you it has always been contrived, but Clarkson and his team have hidden the joins successfully, while his genuine desire to make a go of his farm has always removed any cynicism from the equation.

Jeremy Clarkson doesnt make great television by accident. Since he and long-time collaborator and producer Andy Wilman revamped Top Gear in the early 2000s, Clarkson has created a brand of effortlessly watchable TV, light on airs and graces, heavy on world-weary wit.

Clarksons Farm (Amazon Prime Video) is no exception.

It may look like Clarkson has no idea what hes doing, fumbling around over-complicated tractors and stepping on local council planning laws like a clown steps on rakes, but this is precision-tooled TV.

'It may look like Clarkson has no idea what hes doing, fumbling around over-complicated tractors and stepping on local council planning laws like a clown steps on rakes, but this is precision-tooled TV'

However, as it returns for another satisfying blast of farm air, Clarksons Farm commits a sin  it has begun to look a little contrived.

The naysayers will tell you it has always been contrived, but Clarkson and his team have hidden the joins successfully, while his genuine desire to make a go of his farm has always removed any cynicism from the equation.

Series four  central narrative: Jeremy Opens a Pub  begins at a disadvantage, with the show shorn of its trump card, perennially unimpressed farm manager Kaleb Cooper.

Clarkson with one of his pigs

Ironically  though probably not accidentally  Kaleb has become a star off the back of the show, and as the series begins he is off on his theatre tour. Jeremy needs a hand.

Stepping into Kalebs wellies is Harriet Cowan, a 24-year-old farmer, nurse and, crucially, TikTok star from Derbyshire. Harriet is a good egg, and clearly a very capable farmer.

But with her deadpan delivery and eagerness to disagree with every word out of Clarksons mouth, plus the fact she has so clearly been cast by the production, she drags the show into scripted reality territory.

Clarkson has been rightly praised for showing the realities of British farming, but Harriets inclusion smacks of a show over-eager to find storylines.

'Clarkson has been rightly praised for showing the realities of British farming, but Harriets inclusion smacks of a show overeager to find storylines'

In every other way, the series still hits the mark. Clarkson is his usual baffled curmudgeon, railing against Whitehall gobbledegook when considering what new crops he can plant, and the governments Pub Police when unpicking the red tape around his new business idea.

The shows genius is that both segments are truly enlightening, with the viewer being gently walked through Sustainable Farming Incentives and the plight of the modern-day pub, and why both matter a great deal to the UK.

When looking for a pub to buy, Clarkson finds hundreds of beauties. Theyre all for sale. Its heartbreaking.

This is what Clarkson does  he steam-rolls into things as a goofy amateur and manages to find the heart of the issue.

The Diddly Squat Farm Shop near Chipping Norton

As he rears his pigs, he discovers the local abattoir has shut down. And then discovers most local abattoirs have shut down and, by 2030, its predicted they will all have gone. Local pork? Wont exist. So much for the governments Farm to Fork initiative, he says. Quite.

Finding and opening the pub is beset with demons, but the show achieves what it sets out to. It makes Clarkson look like a wannabe landlord youd like to share a pint with.

Viewing one potential fixer-upper, which is plastered with health-and-safety notices and legal disclaimer signs, Clarkson sighs, I have never ever been in a pub that says, F**k off more clearly than this one does. His fans will drink to that.

The first four episodes of Clarksons Farm are available on Amazon Prime Video from Friday, May 23

Telegraph Media Group Holdings Ltd
Its not about the money, its just having to do it all again  home that had 600,000 Room to Improve makeover is damaged in blaze
Tales of Cities | Fly, float, and feast your way through C China's Yueyang, a city of history and poetry

08:32, May 20, 2025 By Liu Ning, Michael Kurtagh, Cao Xinyue, Ebulayi, Zhang Wenjie ( People's Daily Online

"From afar, I gaze upon Dongting Lake's verdant waters and mountains; Junshan Island appears like a jade snail resting in a silver plate."  Liu Yuxi, "Gazing at Dongting Lake"

Longing to experience a romance that spans millennia? Head to Yueyang, located in central China's Hunan Province. A city steeped in poetry, history, and soul, Yueyang has been immortalized in the works of literary giants like Liu Yuxi, Du Fu, and Fan Zhongyan. It's a living anthology, waiting to be explored.

Climb to the top of Yueyang Tower and take in the view that inspired generations of writers. On the waters of Dongting Lake, the past and present harmonize in stunning scenery and storied legacy. As the location of the legendary poet Qu Yuan's patriotic sacrifice, it's also the birthplace of dragon boat culture, and the perfect place to enjoy the festival and the dragon boat races held to celebrate it.

But Yueyang offers more than just echoes of the past. Wander through lush wetlands and meet the gentle milu, or Pere David's deer. Drop by Chenglingji Port to witness the heartbeat of modern commerce in action. And prepare your taste buds for a culinary adventure. Yueyang's smoky barbecue, fresh-caught fish, and fragrant rice dishes will turn any visitor into a devoted foodie.

Yueyang is ready with stories old and new, waiting for you to embark on a journey where tradition and modernity flow together like the waters of Dongting Lake itself.

(Web editor: Zhang Wenjie, Wu Chengliang)
Comedian and musician Garron Noone has said he lost a lot of sponsors and didnt leave his house for a week following a wave of reaction to a video he posted to social media in March.

Noone deactivated his TikTok and Instagram accounts in the wake of backlash he faced to comments he made on immigration in a video shared following MMA fighter Conor McGregors St Patricks Day visit to the White House.

In the initial video posted on Thursday, March 20, Noone said: There absolutely is an immigration issue in Ireland and the systems we have in place are being taken advantage of.

When he returned to social media days later, he clarified that he is not anti-immigration nor is he aligned with McGregor.

Speaking to The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk, Noone said he received hundreds of messages quoting things he had never said and linking him with people he didnt want to be associated with.

I felt like I was going to walk outside and people were going to start shouting at me about me all these awful things people were saying I was going to be, he said.

So, I didnt leave the house for a week after that. I didnt sleep much while I was gone and look, Ive learned from that. I know what might come if I say something in the future. Thats life and Ive accepted that as part of what Im doing.

Comedian and musician Garron Noone. Photo: Terrie Burton/Noir Photique

Today's News in 90 seconds - 22nd May 2025

Noone said he didn't expect how much worse the situation would become when he deactivated his TikTok and Instagram accounts, which each have more than two million followers.

He said he lost a lot of sponsors as a result of the controversy but things have returned to normal now in his working life.

A number of high-profile anti-immigration figures associated with the far-right expressed support for Noone in the days following the video. He said he wasnt thrilled that Tristan Tate, the brother of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, posted a message of support for him on X.

There was a small group of people who maybe sort of deliberately mistook what I said and tried to make it look a lot worse than it was. There were some that had a disagreement. Most people understood what I was saying and whether they agreed or disagreed, were fine about it.

The primary point of the video was about, if were not hearing people out with the difficulties that were having, were creating an environment where somebody whos badly intentioned can come in, tell people everything they want to hear and dominate that conversation and make things sound worse than they are.

Whereas, if were willing to take the middle ground with their concerns and stuff like that, I think we stop people from going down that path. That was the actual message of the video.

He added that he felt some parts of the video could have been better worded and he didnt expect it to get as much attention as it did.

Echoing a follow-up video he posted on March 24, Noone said he stands by what he said initially and there are people taking advantage of what people feel isnt being heard.
Rap trio Kneecap announced a surprise performance in London hours after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.

The gig in London on Thursday evening sold out within an hour of tickets going on sale.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, had been charged over the alleged display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year.

The group from Belfast, who rap in the Irish language, said they would perform at the 100 Club on Oxford Street on Thursday evening, ahead of their headline slot at Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday night.

In a post to social media, they said: London. Were back. See you at The 100 Club tonight  tickets on sale in one hour at 4pm.

The post contained a quote from former Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon who told ITVs Good Morning Britain (GMB) maybe they need a bloody good kneecapping in response to the kill your MP footage.

Less than an hour after tickets went on sale the rap trip took to social media to announce tickets had sold out.

"Sold out in 90 seconds with 2000 on the waiting list  lets go London, read the post.

The venue confirmed the gig in a social media post and said doors to the event will open at 7.30pm.

O hAnnaidh (27) was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18, the Metropolitan Police said.

The group have said they will vehemently defend themselves against the terrorism offence brought against one of their members by British police, describing it as political and a distraction.

Kneecap

Today's News in 90 seconds - 22nd May 2025

In a statement issued this morning, the band said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of the wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

"We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves.

They described it as political policing and a carnival of distraction.

"We are not the story. Genocide is. As they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court [sic] instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

"To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

They added: Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

"The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

The rap trio said they stand proudly with the people, adding: You stand complicit with the war criminals. We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win. Free Palestine.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he would not comment on a situation before the courts, but affirmed that consular assistance would be available to Mr O hAnnaidh if required.

The Irish government, through its diplomatic channels, always provides - if required - consular assistance to our citizens, no matter where they reside, Mr Martin said outside Cork City Hall this morning.

It's now a matter before the courts.

I would note that members of the band have been very clear in recent statements that they do not in any shape or form, support Hezbollah or indeed, Hamas.

"They've issued statements to that effect, but I'm not going to interfere in the court process now at this stage.

Tanaiste Simon Harris said he would not comment on the specifics of a member of Kneecap being charged with a terrorism offence in the UK but said Hezbollah or Hamas should not be conflated with the Palestinian people.

Mr Harris told Newstalk radio: I wont comment on the specifics, but on the broader point that you make, I dont think we should conflate Hamas or Hezbollah with the cause of the Palestinian people.

To take Hamas first, Hamas is a despicable terrorist organisation. It carried out a brutal terrorist attack in Israel that has been condemned by Ireland and all right-thinking people.

They offer the people of Palestine no future of hope or positivity. They shouldnt be in any way, shape or form given any succour  and arent  by Ireland.

When it comes to Hezbollah, Im also the Minister for Defence in this country. Were fighting daily for justice for Private Sean Rooney. Hezbollah, again, is an illegal terrorist organisation that have brought pain, suffering and death to Irish peacekeepers.
A new law to end an alleged employer boycott of pay deals for workers in hotels and other industries has been proposed.

The Labour Party said its new bill would strengthen Joint Labour Committees.

These committees, which include employer and union representatives, set legally binding employment conditions and rates of pay for workers in different sectors including childcare, contract cleaning and security.

Labour politicians said they wanted to address an ongoing employer boycott in some industries. They claim this was leaving good employers at a disadvantage and causing a race to the bottom.

The party said the bill provided a mechanism to get around an employer boycott and would ensure fair wages were paid in sectors, including home care, retail and hospitality.

TD George Lawlor, the partys enterprise, tourism and employment spokesperson, said the process for setting up a Joint Labour Committee required the co-operation of all parties, so the employer side could exercise a veto.

He said the Labour bill aimed to clear this impasse. It would allow the Labour Court to appoint members to a committee if any party refused to participate, and draw up proposals.

Mr Lawlor said a collective bargaining approach was best.

It is a much better process because youre not dealing with individual difficulties, he said. Its much easier to be dealing with a union than individual asks from various different people.

If your staff are comfortable where they are, it stops them leaving. Staff retention is a big thing and cuts out the cost of training and recruitment. A lot of that is down to the fact that negotiations have taken place as opposed to people having ill will and gripes that flare up sporadically.

He said if employers could not afford higher pay, it was very much in their interest to attend talks and put their cards on the table.

Introducing the Industrial Relations (Boycott of Joint Labour Committees) bill yesterday, he said the Irish Hotels Federation had taken judicial review proceedings over moves to reconstitute a Joint Labour Committee.

Mr Lawlor said the fact that there was non-co-operation by an employer representative body in the committee system meant the case was struck out, so there was essentially an employers veto.

An Irish Hotels Federation spokesperson was not available for comment.
Micheal Martin has criticised Mayo County Council Director of Housing Tom Gilligan on plans to boycott those with holiday homes.

Tom Gilligan, the director of services for housing and roads at Mayo County Council. Photo: Michael McLaughlin

A senior county council official who proposed a boycott of holiday-home owners as a way of tackling the housing crisis, has apologised.

The statement from senior Mayo County Council official Tom Gilligan came after several days in which councillors and holiday-home owners in the county criticised the call, in an internal email to members of the countys housing committee.

Today, they were joined by the Taoiseach, who said such a move would be against the law and would create division.

After several days in which he stood over his proposal, Mr Gilligan, the councils director of services for housing and roads, said in a statement issued by the council: I am deeply committed to addressing the complex housing challenges facing Mayo and to working collaboratively with councillors, stakeholders, and the community in doing so.

The email circulated was an attempt to prompt internal discussion on a sensitive but relevant issue and it was not anticipated to be released before members had the opportunity to consider it fully and I sincerely apologise for any concern or distress it caused.

"My goal has always been to find solutions through open, respectful dialogue, and I remain fully committed to working in partnership to achieve that.

In the same statement, Mayo County Council reiterated that Mr Gilligans email sent to councillors on the housing committee late on Sunday was meant for internal consumption only.

Mayo County Council, therefore wishes to again emphasise that the content of the email correspondence was not a statement of any formal policy proposal or position of the Council but was an attempt to generate further discussion within the SPC in respect of housing, that is not used as a principal place of private residence, by raising for the first time a draft of a more controversial approach for consideration by the SPC," the statement said.

Any formal policies are developed in Strategic Policy Committee meetings and if agreed by the members of the SPC are thereafter subject to the approval of the full body of elected members in an open and transparent way at a Plenary meeting of Mayo County Council.

The proposition contained in this correspondence was not discussed or agreed by the Elected Members at either SPC level or by the Plenary Council or by other Council Management and had the correspondence not been released to the media prematurely the matter would have been considered by the members of the SPC in the normal way and evidently would not have progressed any further.

Tom Gilligan, the director of services for housing and roads at Mayo County Council. Photo: Michael McLaughlin

Mayo county council manager calls for boycott of holiday homeowners in a radical proposal to tackle the housing crisis

Mayo County Council wishes to highlight its sincere regret for the upset that this matter has caused to the Elected Members, the public and in particular, owners of second homes in County Mayo.

It came as Micheal Martin criticised the boycott call, first reported in the Irish Independent.

Mr Gilligan proposed the immediate boycott of holiday-home owners in Mayo as a potential remedy for bringing holiday homes back into use for long-term sustainable housing.

However, the Taoiseach said he found the proposal strange and unfortunate.

It's not acceptable that public officials would advocate action that would be contrary to the law, or contrary to the constitution and people's right, Mr Martin said.

It's an internal discussion document, is my understanding. But having said that, the role of Director of Housing is to work on building houses, providing houses, not to create division between communities and between people, particularly people who have long established ties to the locality.

The Taoiseach said Mr Gilligans plans are at odds with those in Government, where the focus is on building more houses, not ousting those who own second homes.

I think it's very unfortunate. I found it very strange, Mr Martin said in Cork.

Our focus in Government - working with local authorities - is to focus on how we can get more houses built faster - directly building through the local authorities themselves, particularly in terms of social housing.

Also in terms of working with approved housing bodies for more social housing and then affordable housing that local authorities are involved in.

There's very good example here in Cork, where the local authority works very strongly with the LDA [Land Development Agency], with some exciting projects resulting from that in the Docklands.

That's the type of proactivity and positivity we want to see from local authorities across the length and breadth of the country.
Eurovision winner wants Israel excluded from 2026 contest over Gaza war



Austrian singer JJ, who won this year's Eurovision song contest, called for Israel to be excluded from the 2026 edition in Vienna due to the war in Gaza.

Eurovision, which stresses its political neutrality, faced controversy again this year linked to the war. An Israeli military campaign has killed over 53,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the enclave's health authorities say, since Hamas militants' cross-border attack on October 7, 2023 that killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

Pro-Palestinian groups had urged the European Broadcasting Union to exclude Israel from the 2025 contest, yet Israel's Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the October 7 attack, emerged as the winner of the televote, finishing second overall after JJ.

"It is very disappointing to see Israel still participating in the contest. I would like the next Eurovision to be held in Vienna and without Israel," the 24-year-old JJ was quoted by Spanish newspaper El Pais as saying.

The Israeli embassy in Madrid did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

With his song "Wasted Love", the operatic singer - whose real name is Johannes Pietsch - won the Eurovision jury vote at the contest held in Basel, Switzerland.

Though El Pais did not mention the war in the interview, JJ's remarks chimed with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's call on Monday for the exclusion of Israel from cultural events such as Eurovision over the conflict in Gaza.

JJ also said the vote-counting system should be revised to improve transparency.

He was the third Austrian winner of the contest, which has become the world's biggest music competition, watched by more than 160 million people around the globe.

Israel's entrant, Raphael, was at the Nova music festival near the Gaza border during the Hamas attack.

Inti Landauro; Reuters




Tanaiste, Simon Harris, said he accepts responsibility for the National Childrens Hospital as he came under sustained pressure from the opposition over cost overruns and another delay in its completion.

The Dails Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard that the completion of the project has been pushed back from September to June 2026  the fifteenth delay in five years.

Chief Executive of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), David Gunning, said he could not at this time offer assurances that this will be the final delay.

National Children's Hospital mid-construction.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 22nd May 2025

Under questioning from Aontus Peadar Toibin during Leaders Questions in the Dail, Mr Harris said: Of course I am responsible. I am responsible for bringing the decision to cabinet. I am going to be responsible for a world class facility.

He said nobody gets everything right in politics...as you sit over there and correct everybodys homework

You rehearsed your lines that you must practice in front of the mirror in the morning. I am responsible, of course I am responsible. I am responsible for bringing the proposal to cabinet, I am responsible for recommending we proceed. And the easiest thing to do in politics if you dont want to get into any challenging situation is never make a decision.

I am also going to be responsible for a world class facility, we are going to be responsible for transforming childrens healthcare, he said.

Deputy Toibin accused him of blame-shifting: Simon it wasnt me Harris is what we have in front of us at the moment.

He added: Accountability and yourself are like oil and water.

But the Fine Gael leader fought back. He said that nobody gets everything right in politics and added: its easy to sit over there and just correct everybodys homework. It much harder to come to work and roll up your sleeves and actually deliver for the people.

Meanwhile, Mr Harris said that a new childrens hospital planned for the North will cost more per square metre than the one due to open next year in Dublin.

He was responding after Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty accused him of declaring open season on the public finances when he proceeded with National Childrens Hospital as Minister for Health.

Tanaiste, you personally signed the contract for the National Childrens Hospital without even a finalised plan in place. It was pay as you go, and that is why BAM has the state over the barrel for the past eight years.

He said its no surprise that developers are going to squeeze as much profit out as they can but that competent ministers are supposed to protect the public purse. So when you signed that contract you declared open season on the public finances, he said.

But Minister Harris replied that the Sinn Fein First Minister in the North, Michelle ONeill, has announced that 671million will be spent on a state-of-the-art childrens hospital at the Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital.

The childrens hospital that you are delivering in Northern Ireland that your First Minister, that your Vice President welcomed, is more expensive per square metre than the Childrens Hospital we are delivering here in this jurisdiction, he said.
Many people will still choose to fill out the census in paper form. Stock image

The public will be able to fill in the 2027 Census online for the first time. While a paper option will still be available, it will be the first time in Irish history the public will be able to complete their form digitally.

The 2027 Census will be collected in April and May 2027 but an exact date for Census night has not yet been decided.

Census 2027 will be a major undertaking for the CSO as, for the first time in Irish history, the public will have the option to complete their census form online, junior minister at the Department of the Taoiseach, Hildegarde Naughton said.

She added that hundreds of thousands of people will still submit their Census answers in paper form.

While the majority of the public are likely to avail of the new online option, it is expected that several hundred thousand households will opt to handwrite their Census responses onto a paper form. Both online and paper census forms will be available in Irish and English, she added.

This is a complex digital transformation programme, which involves a fundamental redesign of how the census is conducted.

Ms Naughton was answering a parliamentary question from Fianna Fail TD Malcolm Byrne.

Mr Byrne said a digital option will help to analyse data and said this Census will be used to revise constituency boundaries ahead of the next general election.

Moving to a digital census will help to process and analyse the data, he added.

The census is critical for planning on the effective use of state resources.

The option will still be there for the paper forms.

Politically the next census will also be important as it will be used to revise the local, European and Dail constituencies in advance of the 2029 elections.

Given population growth, we will need to look at limiting the Dail size but also to increase the number of local councillors that we have.

Last year, the CSO selected 20,000 households in 44 locations in counties Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny, Louth, Mayo, and Offaly to participate in the Census Pilot Survey ahead of Census 2027.

It comes as the Government is to release the 1926 census for the first time, detailing personal information about nearly three million people who lived in Ireland on Census night 100 years ago. It was the first census of the Irish Free State.

It will be fully digitised, searchable and freely available online with the aim of providing universal and simultaneous public access.

Sinn Fein TD Aengus O Snodaigh called on the Government to make every effort to find what he said is the lost returns of the first census by the Free State which was carried out across 11 counties in the west and south of the country in 1925. The first census, albeit partial, carried out by the Free State in fact took place a year previously, in the summer of 1925, he said.
Tanaiste Simon Harris has accused the Israeli government of genocidal activity in Gaza and that is has been clear that it wants to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of what he said was a consistent pattern of war crimes.

He said the world had not done enough to put pressure on Israel to change course.

Asked whether what was happening in Gaza was ethnic cleansing, Mr Harris said: In light of the very clear comments that weve seen from the Israeli government in recent days, were very much now in the space of genocidal activity.

I think that is just a statement of fact, we have seen a consistent pattern of war crimes, and we now have an Israeli government that is being very blunt in terms of outlining what it is intending to carry out in Gaza and theyve dropped the pretence, quite frankly, in terms of what they actually want to achieve, Mr Harris told Newstalk Radio.

The foreign affairs minister also said that the Israeli governments convoluted scheme to pretend to provide the most basic level of aid to thousands of starving Palestinians was despicable.

Palestinians wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen, in Gaza. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Today's News in 90 seconds - 22nd May 2025

This idea that the Israeli government will come up with some sort of a convoluted scheme to effectively pretend to be providing the most basic level of aid is despicable.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear about this in recent days, when he has effectively said, to paraphrase him, the only reason were doing this is to allow us to continue what he describes as their political objectives, and their political objectives now are very clear.

They want to clear the Gaza Strip, they want to clear Gaza of Palestinian people, and that is a war crime and the forcible displacement of people, as you say, with the offer of food somewhere else, it really is despicable.

He said that a two-state solution seemed further away than ever before and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended as it is being reviewed.

Mr Harris could not say whether the Occupied Territories bill would be passed before the Dail rises for the summer recess as the focus is on bringing forward legislation that has a decent chance of withstanding legal challenge, which no doubt will be forthcoming.

It will be brought to the cabinet next week so that it can proceed to the Oireachtas committee before the summer, he added.

Speaking earlier to to RTEs Morning Ireland, he said: "I've always said I want to do this at an EU level. I think it's much more impactful working at a European level. We've made some progress diplomatically this week, but I do think, considering the scale and the gravity of what we're now seeing in terms of the deprivation of aid and the bombardment of Gaza, I do think this is an appropriate course of action to take.

Asked about claims by Green Party leader Roderic OGorman that the government used concerns around the inclusion of services in the bill as a delaying tactic, Mr Harris said: I'm not sure if that's his direct language, but I find the word excuse to be kind of, very reprehensible, quite offensive.

"I don't understand why we have to divide along political lines on genocidal actions that are happening right now in Gaza. Nobody has a monopoly of concern. Nobody isn't disgusted, appalled and outraged. And I think it's about time everybody in Dail Eireann puts their party Jersey aside and pulls together here and tries to take practical action. That's what the people of Ireland want.

"Now in relation to this, let me be very straightforward on it. I have no policy disagreement with those who want services included in the legislation, none whatsoever. What I do have, though, is a view that legally, is it impossible to do the services. What I've also said to Senator Black is I want to be challenged on that. I want to tease through it. I want the Oireachtas Committee to hear from different voices. I want to get this right.

Mr Harris said the European Union should stand up, to find the moral compass on which it was formed and actually say, We're going to suspend our own association agreement now, because that would have a much more profound impact on heightening the pressure on Netanyahu and his government, because the war crimes are today.

Mr Harris said Irish aid carrying enough food for around 6,000 Palestinian people went to Jordan to enter Gaza six months ago, where it has sat waiting.

"The only reason it cannot enter, there's no other reason that it cannot enter, other than the illegal Israeli blockade on aid for almost 80 days do I think the focus today, tomorrow, the hours ahead, has to be on the international community maximising the pressure to let the aid flow again, because that is, in the here and now, the most significant humanitarian catastrophe, the starving children, starving people of Gaza. And that's not just my words, that is now a statement of fact.
Airline boss also looks likely to achieve a 125m bonus within weeks

Michael OLearys stake in Ryanair is now worth more than 1bn  the first time ever that the value of his holding in the airline he has led for more than three decades has surpassed the landmark figure.
Restaurant review: The oysters are huge, blubbery and lacking in flavour, and the dressings are weirdly less than the sum of their parts

Our critic says more rigour is needed in the kitchen for the food on the plate to live up to the menu

The Seafood Cafe by Niall Sabongi. Photo: Damien Eagers

Katy McGuinness Thu 22 May 2025 at 03:30

I have nothing but respect for the guy sitting up at the counter of The Seafood Cafe in Temple Bar on a recent Sunday evening, steadily making his way through three, possibly even four, beguiling, ice-cold martinis  and just a few morsels of food  before alighting from his seat and heading off into the night.
Ian Kilroy: Kneecap waving a Hezbollah flag might be unwise but to call it terrorism is an outrage

Liam Og O hAnnaidh is being punished for straying into a political atmosphere where authoritarian intolerance is on the rise. It is a move motivated by malice

Kneecaps Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who has been charged with a terrorism offence in the UK. Photo: PA

Ian Kilroy Thu 22 May 2025 at 17:00

The British polices decision to charge Kneecaps Liam Og O hAnnaidh with a terrorism offence is an authoritarian, tone-deaf and heavy-handed move.
Already revolted by the deepening preventable starvation in Gaza  and intensifying civilian deaths  the world has now witnessed Israeli forces brazenly employing lethal weapons to fire on a diplomatic mission that hoped to help alleviate the suffering.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he was horrified by the attack on the vehicle, which included Irish aides.

Oblivious to international condemnations and outrage, Israeli troops continue to pound the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. The relentless, indiscriminate offensive was said to have killed a further 82 people.

Several women and a week-old infant were among the dead, according to health sources.

UK foreign secretary David Lammy said the situation in the enclave had become monstrous. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus actions were wholly disproportionate, he added.

Absent has been any real censure of Mr Netanyahu from the US. Washington has yet to demand restraint, or to use its unique power to enforce a ceasefire.

Despite the dire situation, no humanitarian aid has yet been distributed in the enclave, according to the UN. Shocking scenes of malnutrition among children have been reported and there are genuine fears that without immediate aid, thousands of infants will die.

Mr Netanyahu this week revealed the only reason even token aid was being allowed in was for practical and diplomatic reasons. He cited some US senators  Israels greatest friends in the world  who told him they would withdraw support for the country because of the media images of starving Palestinians.

The true horrors are unknown because the international media is banned in Gaza. The wanton destruction and indifference to the carnage suggest there is no level of deprivation Mr Netanyahu is not prepared to plumb. Yet it was telling that even the remote prospect of isolation from the US was enough to make him think twice. If he is allowed remain impervious, and immune from punishment for the monumental injustices, the Palestinian people risk being wiped out.

There have been renewed pleas from some TDs to call Israel to account at the UN Assembly. The aim is to get an international peacekeeping force to protect Gaza. The Government would require a Dail mandate before invoking a UN emergency meeting.

Surely if anything can be done to stop the killing of women and small children, and enable the starving to be fed, we have a moral compunction to act.

Many Israelis are also alarmed at the scale of violence. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert said: What Israel is currently doing in Gaza is very close to a war crime. Thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers.

George Orwell said: If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. Israel has certainly been told often enough, only to give the international chorus of disapproval a determined deaf ear. If the US wont do it, it is up to the UN and the rest of the world  including Ireland  to make Tel Aviv pay attention.
Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine was never anything but a land grab. The seizing of Crimea in 2014 by Russia was about control of access to the Black Sea.

Putins twisted ideology about restoring Ukraine to its Russian roots is a cloak for Russian expansion.

US president Donald Trumps rambling about making Canada the Americas 51st state is also an attempt at land-grabbing, coveting Canadian assets. The same is true regarding his intentions towards Greenland.

At least when Trump talks about taking the Panama Canal, he admits the US wants its money back for the cost of its construction, not to mention the thousands of US construction workers who died during its completion.

Chinas designs on Taiwan also amount to a land grab: employing the same twisted logic as Putin uses to justify his the invasion of Ukraine.

Many of the African wars are also about the control of resources.

The recent flare-up between India and Pakistan regarding Kashmir is mainly about the control of water.

Kashmir is the source of three major rivers and access to these vital resources has been disputed for years. India, in times of conflict with Pakistan, has threatened to cut off all water to its neighbour  rendering it unable to function.

Israels occupation of Palestine and its illegal settlements are also land grabs, dressed in bogus ideology.

From the history of colonisation back to the Crusades, the root cause of wars has been expansionism.

Adolf Hitler took it to a new level and almost succeeded. He, of course, brainwashed his people into believing that it was to make Germany great again.

There is no glory in war. Many of the so-called noble aims of despots and dictators have their roots in money, resources and greed.

 Joseph Kiely, Letterkenny, Co Donegal

UN Security Council is being used by the big five for their own objectives

With regard to Jessica Toals letter, (The bloodshed in Gaza clearly shows Security Council has no authority, Irish Independent, Letters, May 20), we should remember the United Nations Security Council is made up of 15 members  10 rotating and five permanent members.

Each permanent member has the power of veto  therefore all five permanent members must approve any motion for it to succeed.

As a retired UN staff member, I can state these five permanent members (USA, UK, Russia, China, France) continue to manipulate the Security Council for their own political objectives.

Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork

Brexiteer buffoons are like Monty Python s Black Knight, yet without a leg to stand on

The Brexit reset deal agreed between the European Union and the UK is to be welcomed.

For Ireland, it may make things easier for businesses to cut the red tape that reduced the value of export and import trade between the two countries by 6bn last year.

The positive picture, however, cannot be gleaned from the scale of the epic meltdown the deal has triggered within sections of the right-wing British media.

The screaming headlines have returned again to talk of being stitched up like kippers, the great Brexit betrayal, the EU surrender summit, treacherous Starmer getting Brexit undone and being the EUs gimp.

By now, after years inhabiting the post-Brexit economic wilderness, you would expect they would finally recognise Brexit as a colossal failure, which cost the UK exchequer hundreds of millions of pounds and led to British prime ministers falling like skittles.

The stubbornness is quite bewildering and brings to mind the famous Monty Python sketch about the Black Knight, who despite having his arms and legs chopped off by the sword in battle, insists everything is all right and his mortal wounds are but a scratch while refusing to admit defeat.

Dr Bernard Guinan, Claremorris, Co Mayo

Underpaid and under real pressure, our teachers are right to take career breaks

Sinead Ryan needs a reality check (Alarming to see thousands of teachers on career breaks, Irish Independent, May 20).

I am a governor of a successful, oversubscribed school. This year alone, 11 young teachers have applied for career breaks, and I dont blame them.

When I began teaching, jobs were hard to come by, salaries were half-decent and the profession was held in some esteem.

Teachers today work incredibly hard, juggling intense workloads, rising classroom needs and increasing administrative demands  all while striving to support every childs learning and well-being.

Now, if young teachers arent granted a career break, many simply walk  often into better-paid careers where they feel more valued.

I have total sympathy for young people, especially in cities, trying to get on the housing ladder on a teachers salary. Its simply not enough.

Something must change if we want young professionals to stay, contribute to their communities and take pride in living where they can afford to own a home.

To conflate pupil absenteeism with teachers taking career breaks is not just unhelpful  its absurd.

Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh

Eurovision shambles can be summed up by words of the UKs entry in contest

The UKs Eurovision entry What the Hell Just Happened? by girl group Remember Monday succinctly sums up for me the high quality of the musical offerings in the song contest in recent years. Ahem.

Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9

Our use of language has gone a bit bockety with all these amazing adjectives

I am regularly irritated by the lack of imagination in how we use adjectives.

For instance, we are regularly advised that he, she or it (for often pseudo reasons) are amazing or awesome.

As a query to this awesome generation, could I ask how many of you may, for instance, have heard of the word bockety.

When I was small, on being sent out to the cow-house to get a bucket, I was often warned not to bring the bockety one.

And amazing as it might seem, we lived at the butt of the bockety lane.

Michael Gannon, St Thomas Square, Kilkenny
How do avoid lower back pain? Why do we need to lift weights as we age? And what is tech-neck?

Jenny Branigan, chartered Physio and territory manager of parkrun Ireland joins me on this weeks episode of The Real Health podcast.

I asked the physio how to maintain lean muscle mass. The mobility expert explained, In your mid to late thirties, that's when lean muscle mass starts to reduce. So, a lot of people think about it later, they think about it near retirement. But you have to think about it much earlier because you need to counteract that, and that's the biggest message, I think. We want people to be lifting weights much earlier than they are.

During the conversation we spoke about how important increased movement is, as we age. The physio pointed out that, The World Health Organization Guidelines for Physical Activity recommend 150 minutes of moderate activity per week (cardiovascular activity), and two strengthening sessions. But from 65 onwards they recommend three and that's because of the lean muscle mass piece.

You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.
What were Googles top AI announcements? How does pick and pay work? And will virtually trying on clothes become the norm?

JJ Clarke, producer, joins host Adrian on this weeks episode of The Big Tech Show.

The tech editor began by discussing Googles new AI mode and how it will aid users when shopping. The new feature empowers the AI agent to shop on the users behalf, including doing the back-end checkout for the shopper. The AI agent then pays for the item once the shopper has given the artificial intelligence the all clear to do so.

You can listen to the full episode here on the Irish Independent website or wherever you get your podcasts
We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win.

Thats just a snippet of the statement issued by Irish rap group Kneecap hours following the commencement of their latest battle with the UK government.

On Wednesday evening, Kneecap member Liam Og o hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name of Mo Chara, was formally charged with a terror offence by the Metropolitan Police.

Kneecap have labelled the charge political policing, arguing that the real story isnt their actions, but rather the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Today on this extra episode of The Indo Daily, Dave Hanratty is joined from London by TRT World presenter Enda Brady, to examine the specifics of this case, and look at the wider complexities surrounding artists and activism, and their tricky role in politics today.
South Carolina's Only Research 2 University

Finding solutions and developing leaders South Carolina State University is the only Research 2 (R2) institution in South Carolina as classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. R2 requires $5 million in research spending and 20 research doctorates awarded annually. SC State exceeds both requirements.



SC State provides advanced research-oriented degrees to school leaders across the great State of South Carolina and brings in millions of dollars each year for groundbreaking research. The distinction is shared with only 7% of universities in the nation.

Research Initiatives

As part of our founding mission as a land grant university, South Carolina State University has a division devoted to research and outreach for the benefit of our state, nation, and world. SC State professors and full-time researchers delve into a wide variety of subjects all for the purpose of providing data and real-world solutions to issues faced by our community and country.

Our reseach efforts include such topics as:

Agriculture

Alternative energy

Artificial intelligence

Astrophysics

Augmented and virtual reality

Cancer

Cybersecurity

Logistics

Metabolic syndrome illnesses -- reducing incidences and prevention

Nuclear engineering

Transportation

PreK-12 and higher education

Centers of Excellence, Institutes & Academies

SC State is home to numerous Centers of Excellence, institutes and academies with research, education and outreach missions:

Visit the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs
Tom Linehan, Castlemagner and Denis Sexton, Buttevant in Millstreet for the Vintage Tractor Run. Picture John Tarrant

Millstreet Vintage club members pictured with Chris Murphy representing the Irish Heart Foundation at the Vintage Tractor Run. Picture John Tarrant

Eily Mai Roche behind the steering wheel at the Millstreet Vintage Tractor Run. Picture John Tarrant

A tractor run in support of the Irish Heart Foundation met with a positive response across picturesque Duhallow terrain.

Hosts Millstreet Vintage Club helped convene a cavalcade of tractors on setting out from the Millstreet Day Care Centre and heading through tranquil countryside to Hollymount against the backdrop of Caherbarnagh Mountain close to the Kerry county bounds.

The proceeds from the Run benefited the Irish Heart Foundation, a registered charity focused on preventing and managing heart disease and stroke. These funds help support their work in prevention, research, CPR training, advocacy and patient support.

Joe Roche brought his 1961 Massey Ferguson 35 to the hosting, a significant tractor to agricultural history, known for its reliability, simplicity and versatility.

It became a popular tractor due to its robust design and ease of maintenance, making it a favorite among farmers, said Joe.

Clerk of the Course Danny Lane thanked all the Marshals for keeping the event run smoothly on public roads and in helping to coordinate parking.

The sun was shining in Millstreet for the hosting, sign on in the Canon ODonovan Centre allowed great hospitality, thanks also extended to An Garda Siochana, Cork County Council and Aidan Dennehy for leading the Tractors out on the Run, he said.

The next event confirmed by Millstreet Vintage Club is a Cars and Coffee get together on Sunday, June 8.
Catfishing is is calculated, predatory and it can destroy peoples lives, stated Senator Nicole Ryan who said that vulnerable people are being scammed out of thousands of euros and individuals have been left traumatised

Catfishing occurs when an individual assumes a false identity online, often using stolen images or personal details, to deceive others into forming relationships, whether online or in person.

Victims of catfishing can fall into two categories; those who are deceived into thinking they are in a relationship with a non-existent person, and secondly, individuals whose images and personal details are stolen to create fake online identities.

Sinn Fein Senator Nicole Ryan said catfishing at its core is deception. Catfishing is when someone steals another persons images or identity to create a fake persona online often to trick, exploit or defraud others. While it began with a messaging or a dating app profile it frequently escalates to financial fraud and emotional manipulation. In some cases even coercive control.

This isnt harmless online behaviour, said Ms Ryan. It is calculated, predatory and it can destroy peoples lives. Weve seen headlines from high profile GAA players that have been impersonated, vulnerable people being scammed out of thousands of euros and individuals left traumatised after discovering a relationship that they believed was real actually never existed. But behind each headline is a human and some betrayed, humiliated and left sometimes to pick up the pieces.

The Cork politician appealed for standalone legislation to be enacted which would give more power to An Garda Siochana and the court system to tackle catfishing. There is already current legislation that covers some of these aspects through harassment laws, fraud legislation and Cocos Law. While these laws are welcome we cant ignore the fact that catfishing is a distinct and emerging form of harm. It doesnt just fit neatly into the current legislation that we have of victims who are sometimes left without the clear path to justice.

We believe that there is a strong case here to have this as a standalone offence that sends a clear message that online deception is not just morally wrong, but also legally wrong. It would give An Garda Siochana and the courts the clarity that they need when investigating and prosecuting these offences and it would give victims that they do deserve, she added.
Coolmine Therapeutic Communitys clients are rebuilding relationships, improving their health, and finding positive pathways in work, training, and education

More people are presenting for cocaine use to Coolmine Therapeutic Community across its South West services than ever before, while the number of women seeking support has remained consistent year-on-year.

Alcohol remains the leading substance for treatment in the South West in the first quarter of 2025.

Alcohol is the most common substance prompting treatment, accounting for 52% of all cases, while cocaine is the second most prevalent, involved in 24% of cases.

Cannabis accounted for 12% of all presentations.

In the first quarter of 2025, 524 individuals accessed treatment and support through Coolmines South West services, spanning Cork and Kerry. Of these, 210 were female and 314 male.

Cases involving heroin and benzodiazepines declined.

A continued pattern shows alcohol and cocaine emerging as equally problematic substances driving treatment demand.

Coolmine delivers community-based services across North Cork (Mallow), East Cork (Middleton), West Cork (Ahiohill).

It also has two hubs in Cork city (north and south).

All locations offer assessments, case management, key working, and group therapy. To improve accessibility in rural areas, satellite clinics operate throughout the county.

Delivered in collaboration with the HSE, these clinics make treatment more accessible across the county.

The number of individuals completing treatment rose to 37, while missed appointments dropped sharplyfrom 160 in the first quarter of 2024 to 55 in the first quarter of 2025reflecting improved engagement and trust in Coolmines trauma-informed approach.

Stephen Cashman, South West Regional Services Manager at Coolmine, said: "These figures show real progressnot only in engagement but in outcomes. Were seeing more women seeking help, fewer missed appointments and more people completing treatment. We're proud of the trust our community places in us."

"Recovery is an ongoing process, said Mr Cashman. I encourage anyone facing addiction to reach out. Support is available and its never too late to turn things around. Our clients are rebuilding relationships, improving their health, and finding positive pathways in work, training, and education."

The Regional Services Manager agreed that very often alcohol and cocaine go hand in hand. Alcohol again is the most common substance which people are referring for, but we are seeing a lot more cocaine. Very often you see them go hand in hand, alcohol and cocaine. We are seeing a rise in cocaine across the country and in this region as well. It is a rise and it is something that we are monitoring.

We are seeing men and women of all ages, said Mr Cashman. We will see anyone from the age of 18 up. We are seeing a lot of women presenting to all our hubs so much so that in one hub we have a womens only group which is operating and has been really successful. We are seeing lots of men and lots of women. We had 524 individuals in the first quarter. 210 of them were female which is a large proportion.

Read more Former Cork drug user says supervised injection centre would save countless lives

Mr Cashman said their statistics for the first quarter of this year indicate how prominent cocaine is becoming nationally which he acknowledged as concerning. We all know the anecdotal evidence about cocaine and we hear stories that it is in every town and village. Our statistics show it. A quarter of all presentations in the first quarter of 2025 were presenting with cocaine as the primary reason for referral and that is the reality. The fact that the numbers are that high is quiet concerning.

It is not a new trend. We have been seeing it rising for a while. In other parts of the country you will see cocaine as the primary referral source. I dont expect we will be too far away from that being in one or two of our hubs where we might have cocaine as a primary source of referral, he added.

Mr Cashman said the services provided in Coolmine are free and accessible to everyone who requires the support. Mostly it is self-referrals from people who might recognise that there is an issue or they may be encouraged by family or friends to maybe seek some support and help. We would also get a lot of professional referrals. We might get referrals from hospitals, homeless services, probation and we meet people coming out of prison as well. The vast majority of referrals would be self-referrals.

The length of time an individual stays in Coolmine depends on the person presenting said the Regional Services Manager. It will depend on what the substance they are presenting as a result of. It will depend on what kind of treatment they may need. Some people will come and they will have a residential treatment in their mind. It will be about getting them ready for residential treatment.

Others will present and they may be looking to manage their use. We do a here and now group which is working with people where they are at. We are not aiming towards abstinence but we are working with people and supporting them to try and manage their usage, he added.

A lot of what we do is one to one and group work, said Mr Cashman. We do Community Reinforcement Approach (CRA) groups. We do pre-entry groups, here and now groups, a cocaine specific CRA group. We have womens groups in some of the hubs. It is about getting them used to speaking in groups and getting them to share. It helps us as well because our waiting lists are so long. It is a good opportunity to get as many people in to meet them and to engage with them. Some may need one to one support from there.

Mr Cashman said Coolmine work in partnership with the HSE and the South West region. We have great support from the HSE and the local drugs task forces. We work in partnership with them. We provide a service on their behalf. It is a really good partnership and one that really works well. We have a good relationship with all our colleagues.

We have a big team. There are a lot of staff. We have hubs in North Cork, East Cork and West Cork. We have satellite hubs on each on those as well. We have two hubs in the city and we are due to open a family service in the city very soon as well. We have a lot going on at the moment, he added.

We have seen a lot of success stories, said Mr Cashman. We see a lot of people that stay with us through to the end of their programme. In this line of work there are a lot of setbacks and challenges. It is always nice to see people coming out the far side in a better place than when they first came to us. We do a lot of work to support people. they will graduate from the group and get a certificate of competition.

The Regional Services Manager said Coolmine is about empowering individuals to reconnect with their families and rebuilding their lives and re-integrating within their communities. A lot of what we do is focused on that. Very often a lot of people might be in a situation where they havent completed things in life or they have had difficult lives up to this point. This might be the first certificate they will have got in a long time and it is really important to recognise that as well. People are very appreciative of the work that we do.

Mr Cashman reiterated that funding from the government is needed now more than ever before to help combat the growing challenges posed by substance issues. The important thing is that the government continue to provide the funding that is needed to support people that are in addiction or struggling. There is due to be a new National Drugs Strategy later this year so hopefully that will reflect the 21st century and the need to support people who are in addiction.

The Regional Services Manager said Coolmine remains committed to providing evidence-based recovery rooted in dignity, respect, and long-term support, while expanding services to meet the evolving needs of the South West region. If anybody needs our support they can log on to coalmine.ie and they can find contact details for the relevant hub.
Councillors approve the closure of Swan Alley as a last resort

Councillors have formally approved the closure of another laneway in Dublin, citing the prevalence of criminal and anti-social behaviour around the area.

Swan Alley, located between Thomas Street and Hanbury Lane, has been a source of discussion among members of the South Central Area Committee due to the ongoing issues related to drug abuse, anti-social behaviour and illegal dumping.

An official told the city councils South Central Area Committee that dumping, littering and defecation were recurring problems and demanded regular intervention from the councils waste management division to clean and power-wash the lane.

Local property owners near Swan Alley submitted an application that would restrict access to the corridor by erecting gates on both sides and in doing so, completely block off access to the location.

Dublin City Council has said that while 46 submissions were submitted, only two were in favour of the alley remaining accessible to all.

One entirely opposed closure, while the other proposed the area undergo a greening project.

The project is fully supported by An Garda Siochana and the fire prevention office in Dublin Fire Brigade, responsible for the design and location of the gates to be erected.

Sinn Fein Councillor Ciaran O Meachair said: The anti-social behaviour in the laneway has been an absolute nuisance to residents so they are overwhelmingly in favour of its closure.

There were some issues with local businesses near the laneway but these have since been resolved, so hopefully this closure will be positive for the community as a whole and change things for the better.

Social Democrats councillor Lesley Byrne said that while she understood the fate of Swan Alley to be a last resort, it was a real shame and disappointment.

This is happening here and in other places in the north inner city and its a shame that many of us receive things like this when we work hard on issues around anti-social [behaviour] and drugs

She said the situation made evident the need for a wider plan that isnt simply doing the same thing over and over again.

I understand this is where we are, but we need to think with a different lens when it comes to violence, poverty and drug use in these areas to make sure were not just closing them down the line.

In January last year, councillors voted in favour of the closure of Harbour Court, another laneway running between Marlborough Street and Eden Quay.

Two-metre high black steel gates were later erected at all three entrances to the lane, which was previously known to be used as a public bathroom and a drug use hotspot.

Other lanes, outside of busy city centre locations have been closed in Dublin and its surrounding areas.

Several councillors have made public their desire to see Ormond Place, an inner-city laneway affected by similar problems, closed indefinitely.
Danny Healy-Rae still opposes same-sex marriage  Children need a mother and father

On the tenth anniversary of the same-sex marriage referendum, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae is standing by the views he expressed in 2015.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae.

Stephen Fernane Kerryman Thu 22 May 2025 at 09:21

A decade on from his opposition to the marriage equality referendum, Deputy Danny Healy-Rae remains trenchant in his opposition to same-sex marriage.
League of Ireland

Dare Kareem (19) proves the Drogheda winner on his first start, delivering the only goal against Galway

For Drogheda United, there was no Douglas James-Taylor or Warren Davis. Galway were without Moses Dyer and Patrick Hickey. These are all key figures in the recent success of both these clubs, but at Sullivan & Lambe Park, a new match-winner 
Box tombs at Skreen graveyard will be conserved under the scheme

Nine Sligo projects have secured 116,577 in funding under the Heritage Councils 2025 Community Heritage Grant Scheme.

The Heritage Council is distributing more than 1.9 million through the Scheme this year to support 132 heritage initiatives across Ireland.

These grants will enable local communities to conserve and celebrate Irelands built, cultural, and natural heritage. The allocation follows a national call for applications in February, which attracted hundreds of proposals from heritage groups, volunteers, and community organisations across the country.

The funding recipients in Sligo are as follows:

Riverstown Enterprise Development Sligo Ltd, 25,000

Seefin Heritage Group, 9,266

Enniscrone & District Community Development CLG, 16,851

Tireragh Community Support Ltd, 5,859

Rosses Point Church of Ireland, 10,000

Skreen Parish Church, 25,000

St. Mary's GAA Club, 2,350

Achonry Mullinabreena Community Enhancement CLG, 5,408

Taunagh Select Vestry, 16,883

The 25,000 received by the Riverstown Enterprise Development Sligo Ltd. will contribute to a multifaceted effort towards the preservation of the Countess Markievicz Exhibit in Sligo that involves several locations around the county which have connections to the countess life, including an exhibition in Sligo County Library and Lissadell House, where she spent her childhood.

Another key project is funding for the preservation of mediaeval Skreen Church, graveyard, and box tombs. Historic graveyards play an important role in the cultural life of Irish people and represents the focal point in the historical life of a parish.

Projects such as these reflect the wide range of initiatives supported by the scheme  from safeguarding historic structures to researching local heritage, restoring habitats, and building biodiversity expertise within communities. A full list of funded projects is available from here.

All funded projects can begin work immediately and are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Previous recipients in Sligo have used this funding to restore architectural features, digitise local archives, and carry out conservation training  strengthening both the preservation of heritage and the local economy.

Deputy Frank Feighan congratulated the successful project applicants which present a variety of heritage conservation projects which hopefully include safeguarding historic structures to researching local heritage, restoring habitats, and building biodiversity expertise within communities.
Y21 Studios to offer a vibrant, inclusive space for artists, educators, and the wider community in Enniscorthy

One of the rooms inside the hub.

Y21 Studios is set to bring support to the arts community on a whole new level following an upcoming grand opening by Mayor of Wexford Catherine Biddy Walsh.

Set up by Czech-born artist and photographer Kristyna Simkova, Y21 Studios is a privately managed space designed to inspire creativity, connection, and integration in the local community.

The studio offers a dedicated hire space for art classes, workshops, creative meet-ups, and childrens parties, and is open to artists, educators, and community groups of all backgrounds.

Joining Kristyna is Conor Gibson, a rising star of the Irish street art scene, who brings a wealth of experience working with local groups, young people, and fellow creatives. His involvement marks an exciting chapter in Enniscorthys growing arts culture.

Y21 Studios also houses its own Body & Soul Studios  a welcoming space for pilates, yoga, and meditation classes, promoting balance, well-being, and positive mental health.

The studio is based at Mill Park Road, Enniscorthy, beside the IFA Centre.

In addition, the newly relocated Creative Grounds Cafe & Farm Shop will be based at Y21 Studios, serving up Wexford roasted coffee, handmade treats, and local produce, along with the live music and food events that have made the cafe a much-loved part of Enniscorthys cultural life.

Kristyna explained that they hoped that the hub will provide a safe and inspiring place for generations of artists to come.

Y21 Studios is about more than just art  its about building community, encouraging creativity, and creating a welcoming space for everyone, no matter where theyre from. We believe integration happens naturally when people come together through shared experiences, and thats what this space is all about.

Y21 Studios will be open year-round for classes, private hires, events, and community-led programming.

The official grand opening will take place on Saturday, May 24 from 12 p.m. and the public is warmly invited to attend.

For more information and enquiries can be made by email at hello@y21studios.com or by phone on 085 770 4420.
Students from local primary schools came out to show support as they passed.

The students polished the tractors in the lead up to the event.

The event was mainly organised by the dedicated TYs, fifth years, and sixth years.

A Wexford school hopes their fundraising efforts at home will help improve the lives and water access of communities in rural Uganda.

The staff and students of FCJ Bunclody took a pause from their daily schedule of lessons recently to host their annual tractor run in aid of Wells of Life.

Wells of Life is a non-profit organisation who aim to ensure that these rural communities have access to safe and clean water through the installation of borehole water wells and through educating about hygiene and water supply practices.

Since the first well was drilled in 2010, Wells of Life has drilled or rehabilitated over 1,200 wells across 30 districts of Uganda, transforming more than 1,200,000 lives.

Founder Nick Jordan was inspired while on a trip in East Africa to build schools and recollected on how as a child, he and his siblings would gather water from a well for his mother while growing up in Ireland.

Teacher Justin Kelly said they were thrilled with the reaction and support from not just the students, but people around the area who got involved as the tractors passed on their route.

The students polished the tractors in the lead up to the event.

"The convey left our school at 11 a.m., receiving massive cheers and support from our hundreds of students. Also, the run passed a number of local primary schools that came out to cheer too.

"Involved in the run were TY, fifth, and sixth years along with a number of staff members. A big thanks to them for spending the week power-washing and polishing the tractors in preparation for this, he said.

He added that it was especially meaningful as the organisation is also run by some past FCJ students.

At the time of writing, the online donation page on idonate has raised 11,197, surpassing the goal of 8,500. Donations can be made up until Friday, May 23.
Gorey Market House opens its doors for two special public days ahead of its regeneration into a vibrant community hub.

Members of the public are invited to visit the historic Gorey Market House on Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24, between 11a.m. and 4p.m., for a final opportunity to explore the building as it currently stands, before it undergoes a major regeneration.

These open days with the theme of Past, Present and Future, will mark an important milestone in the life of the Market House. Visitors are encouraged to step inside, reflect on the buildings rich legacy, and look ahead to its exciting transformation into a dynamic community space.

Speaking ahead of the event, Cathaoirleach of the Gorey Kilmuckridge Municipal District Cllr Oliver Walsh said: This is a unique opportunity for the people of Gorey to reconnect with a building that has stood at the heart of the town for generations.

"As we prepare for its regeneration, its important to acknowledge the role it has played in our shared history and ensure the voices of the community shape its future use. We hope as many people as possible will join us to celebrate this turning point.

The event also forms part of a wider effort to document what the Market House means to the people of Gorey. Video recordings will be carried out across both days, capturing stories, memories and connections that highlight the buildings deep roots within the community.

The regeneration of Gorey Market House is co-funded by the Government of Ireland, the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern and Midland Regional Programme 20212027, and Wexford County Council.

Anyone who has a connection to the Market House whether through work, events, or personal memories, are especially welcome. The project team has already begun collecting interviews from local residents, and looks forward to sharing these insights with the public over the course of the regeneration.
AFT Pharmaceuticals (NZX: AFT , ASX:AFP) today reports it has again achieved another year of record revenue with annual sales exceeding $200 million1 and it is now firmly focused on its revenue target of $300 million by the end of the 2027 financial year.

The diversified pharmaceuticals company reports continued strong growth in its core Australasian business, while the expected robust recovery in its Asia and International businesses during the second half year, have lifted revenue for the year to the end of March 2025 to another record of $208.0 million, a 6% increase over FY 24.

Operating profits have meanwhile reached $17.6 million in line with guidance given at the half year, lifted by the growth in revenue and expansion of product margins. These gains were diluted by the significant one-off events flagged in 1H 25, including destocking by several of our largest customers and a since resolved doctors strike in South Korea that impacted both sales and earnings.

A video of Dr Hartley Atkinson discussing a summary of the result can be viewed at the following link: https://bit.ly/AFTPharmaceuticals_FY25.

HIGHLIGHTS

 Full year operating revenue up 6% to $208.0 million, lifted by 11% growth in product sales and royalties across all territories and $0.7 million of licensing income

 Strong Australian sales growth of 17%, offset by the one-off factors of destocking and interruptions to demand for Maxigesic IV in 1H 25

 EBITDA2 of $20.9 million down 20% and operating profit of $17.6 million down 27%, in line with guidance given at the half year

 Operating profit in Australia rose 65% following growth investments made last year delivering the expected benefits

 Net profit after tax decreases 23% to $12.0 million

 Balance sheet strong with net debt of $14.5 million down from $16.2 million at the end of FY 24 and $29.9 million at the end of FY 23 despite significant investments for growth

 Consistent with confidence in outlook an increased dividend declared of 1.8 cents per share, (1.6 cents declared FY 24)

 $200 million revenue exceeded and now focused on the $300 million target

1 All comparisons are to FY 24 and all figures are in New Zealand dollars unless otherwise stated.

2 EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure of financial performance. It is defined and reconciled to AFTs standard profit measure under New Zealand GAAP of Net Profit After Tax in the 2025 Annual Report released to the NZX and ASX today.

2

 Ongoing significant investment with FY 26 guidance for increased operating profit of $20 million to $24 million.

AFT Pharmaceuticals Chair David Flacks said: AFT has delivered another strong result, especially when considered against the one-off disruptions in the first half of the year.

We have grown in our core Australasian and Asian markets. We have meanwhile continued to invest for the long-term with the addition of new medicines to our product development portfolio and an expanded offer in the markets in which we operate. We are looking to the new financial year with confidence.

Co-Founder and Managing Director Dr Hartley Atkinson said: Aside from delivering continued strong growth in our core Australasian businesses we have significantly advanced our strategy to extend our reach across multiple geographies and added to our research and development (R&D) pipeline. These efforts have come at the cost of short-term earnings growth, but we are convinced they will deliver growth in long term shareholder value.

Highlights for the year include launching Maxigesic tablets in the US, following on from the intravenous form of the medicine, Maxigesic IV; the launch of our proprietary antiseptic cream in mainland China, and the completion of multiple licensing agreements around the world including Maxigesic IV in China, and Brazil. In a credit to our out-licencing activities we were identified as the only company in the world last year to secure two licensing agreements into China, the worlds second largest pharma market3.

We are also pleased with the progress we are making with AFTs business operations established in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, the US, Canada, Europe, and the UK. We have a roadmap for growth in each of these markets founded on a portfolio of our own products and medicines we are in-licensing.

Our own products for these markets now include a significant development programme of injectable drugs with a potential market value of over US$400 million. Our approach to these new markets avoids an over-exposure to the US and at present we do not see a significant impact of new US tariffs to our business.

Finally, we have extended our research and development programme to 13 separate projects following the addition of two projects over the last year  a novel topical keloid scar treatment and a new treatment for iron infusions. Together these projects offer entry into markets with a considerable value, for example the iron injection market is forecast to reach US$7.4 Billion by 20334.

We are seeing interest growing in our R&D portfolio with some twenty agreements under discussion, including signed term sheets. I am confident, based on these foundations AFT has reached an inflexion point and can further extend its decades long record for growth and value creation.

3 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EIG5Fjx2xAllqO_LbY88Xw

4 https://www.biospace.com/intravenous-iron-drugs-market-size-to-worth-around-us-7-41-billion-by-2033

3

FINANCIAL RESULTS

Revenue from the sale of existing products, new products and product royalties grew by 11% to $207.4 million from $186.9 million in FY 24. The 17% growth in the Australian business and the 10% growth in the New Zealand business made the largest contribution to the increase in group revenue.

The Asia and International businesses recovered in the second half after the one-off events flagged in the first half of the year  the destocking by several of our largest customers and the disruptions to demand for Maxigesic IV.

Asia revenue recovered from the first half decrease and rose by 4% to $11.1 million from $10.7 million in FY 24. The second half sales in Asia were 50% greater than 1H 25 sales and 26% greater than 2H 24, all consistent with the significant expected recovery.

International sales in 2H 25 were 83% greater than 1H 25 but finished 20% below last years. Sales in 2H 25 were 19% greater than 2H 24, again a rise consistent with the expected recovery.

Total revenue, which includes licensing income of$0.7 million rose 6% to $208.0 million from $195.4 million in FY 24. Licensing income was less than FY 24s $8.5 million, a figure buoyed by a one-off $6 million payment related to the launch of Maxigesic IV in the US. However, with a significant number of licensing agreements under discussion, including signed term sheets, we anticipate higher licensing milestone payments in FY 26.

Gross Margin on product sales and royalties of 44% improved by 1 percentage point (FY 24 43%), driven by the revenue growth in the higher margin products. The overall gross margin which includes license income reduced to 44% (FY 24 45%).

Operating expenses increased by $10 million over FY 24 with the increase reflecting start-up funding for the new business hubs in North America, the United Kingdom, and South Africa; marketing for new products and markets; and an increase in research and development expenditure.

The result was an operating profit of $17.6 million, down from an operating profit of $24.2 million in FY 24, the latter benefitting from the higher licensing fees. Excluding license fees, operating profits increased 7% to $17.0 million from $15.7 million in FY 24 despite the extra expenditure to drive future business growth. EBITDA of $20.9 million was down from $26.2 million in FY 24, while net profit after tax fell from $15.6 million to $12.0 million.

Further detail on the performance of AFTs individual markets is contained in our annual report also released to the NZX and ASX today and available at the following link: https://investors.aftpharm.com/Investors/

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

FY 25 R&D expenditure (expensed and capitalised) rose to $15.0 million from $12.4 million in FY 24, all of which has been funded through earnings with the increase reflecting the addition of new projects to the portfolio.

4

Towards the end of FY 25 we strengthened our research and development partnership with Belgiums Hyloris Pharmaceuticals with an agreement to in-license and complete development of a late-stage novel innovative injectable iron deficiency therapy.

AFT and Hyloris are now collaborating on three different projects, while our R&D program now extends to 13 separate projects, all of which offer potential significant growth opportunities.

Five of these projects (multiple Maxigesic dose forms, Capsaicin creams, Crystaderm, Kiwisoothe and Micolette) are in or entering the commercialisation phase while the others are longer term but offer significant upside, provided the R&D programs are successful. The five projects in the commercialisation phase are driving the significant number of licensing negotiations that AFT presently has underway.

BALANCE SHEET AND DIVIDEND

AFT remains well funded. Net debt at the end of March 2025 was $14.5 million down from $18.9 million at the end of 1H 24 and $16.2 million at the end of FY 24. Net debt is within the companys target range of 1X EBITDA.

Directors have resolved to declare a dividend of 1.8 cents per share, up from 1.6 cents a share in FY 24. The dividend recognises the strong outlook for the company and that earnings in FY 25 were depressed by the one-off events in the first half of the period.

OUTLOOK

AFT is expecting to extend its growth record in FY 26 as it drives towards its aspirational target of $300 million revenue by the end of FY 27.

AFT is well positioned to achieve this target. While the global trading environment is looking more difficult, we are confident that we can continue to overcome these challenges by focusing on what we do best  identifying unmet clinical needs and then in-licensing or developing medicines and then commercialising them to improve health globally. Importantly, we are protecting ourselves from one-off events in single markets with the increasing geographic and product diversification of our operations.

We have a strong programme of new products in our core Australasian markets and see continued opportunities for growth across the existing portfolio. This growth will also be supported by product launches especially in international markets, building momentum in our new business hubs which will move into profitability and the commercialisation of products now in development, Dr Atkinson said.

We are looking forward with confidence and expect operating profit for the FY 26 year to range from $20 million to $24 million.

Released for and on behalf of AFT Pharmaceuticals Limited by Malcolm Tubby, Chief Financial Officer.

For more information:

Investors Media

5

Dr Hartley Atkinson Richard Inder

Managing Director The Project

AFT Pharmaceuticals Tel: +64 21 645 643

Tel: +64 9488 0232

About AFT Pharmaceuticals

AFT is a growing New Zealand based multinational pharmaceutical company that develops, markets, and distributes a broad portfolio of pharmaceutical products across a wide range of therapeutic categories which are distributed across all major pharmaceutical distribution channels: over the counter (OTC), prescription and hospital. Our product portfolio comprises both proprietary and in-licensed products, and includes patented, branded, and generic drugs5. Our business model is to develop and in-license products for in our markets of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, USA, Canada, EU ex Ireland and UK, and to out-license our products to local licensees and distributors to over 125 countries around the world. For more information about the company, visit our website www.aftpharm.com.

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July 2nd Morning Report


Friendly faces await Wicklow people at the Irish Cancer Society 'Your Health Matters' roadshow later this month.

A nurse-led initiative aimed at catching cancer early is coming to Co Wicklow for two days next week.

The Irish Cancer Societys Your Health Matters roadshow will be at the Bridgewater Shopping Centre in Arklow from 9am to 6pm on Wednesday, May 28 and Thursday, May 29.

The service is free and allows members of the public to have a consultation with a specialist cancer nurse.

No booking is required and during each session there is the opportunity to have a free blood pressure check, body mass index reading and carbon monoxide check.

Friendly faces await Wicklow people at the Irish Cancer Society 'Your Health Matters' roadshow later this month.

These health checks go alongside a suite of information about cancer prevention, screening and ways to spot the early signs.

A referral for a GP can also be arranged where further help is required.

Explaining the purpose of the roadshow, which travels to a different county each month, a spokesperson said that early detection and diagnosis of cancer is essential to improve health outcomes.

When cancer is diagnosed early, it can improve the quality of life of those living with cancer, increase survival and reduce the severity of treatment. Many patients find it difficult to or do not attend GP visits even when they are experiencing potential cancer symptoms.

The Your Health Matters Roadshow initiative seeks to change this by promoting positive lifestyle changes, increasing awareness of cancer symptoms, and improving medical care-seeking behaviour for the early signs of cancer.

In 2024, the roadshow travelled to 26 locations in Ireland, engaging with more than 27,300 people about the signs and symptoms of cancer.
This time last year, when the number of students in Greystones, Co Wicklow facing into September without a place in a local secondary school was whittled down slowly from some 70 to 12, there were warnings that the debacle would be repeated if something wasnt done.

With the break for summer now imminent, an air of panic has once more taken hold, with local councillor Orla Finn highlighting the issue following contact from a number of worried and stressed families who have no secondary school place for their children in the autumn.

The precise number is hard to quantify, but what is clear is that with just over 14 weeks to go to the start of the new school year, there are students in the town with no idea where they will be come September, something Cllr Finn said was totally unacceptable.

Wicklow Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore with the principal of Greystones Community College, Ruairi Farrell.

She said the local schools are at capacity, and because of this, students have been forced to travel outside of their area to get a school place and this situation will continue until a new secondary school is built in Newtown and extensions are added to both Temple Carrig Secondary School, Greystones and Colaiste Chraobh Abhann, Kilcoole.

Social Democrats TD for Wicklow, Jennifer Whitmore, who last year said she was like a broken record raising the issue, has pressed the Taoiseach to take immediate action, when she spoke in the Dail on Wednesday, May 21, and said she was aware of seven bereft students in Greystones, but knew of a small number in Newtownmountkennedy and Ashford [who] do not have places for September either.

Families in Wicklow are in a state of panic. We are just months away from the new school year, and many children still dont know where, or if, they will have a place come September. This is completely unacceptable, Deputy Whitmore said.

She asked the Taoiseach if he would send a department liaison to Wicklow to work with schools and parents to resolve this issue.

Deputy Whitmore has also called for the introduction of a common enrolment policy for secondary schools nationally before the start of the 20252026 academic year.

This sort of policy would bring much-needed transparency and fairness to the admissions process. Right now, families are navigating a fragmented and inconsistent system that is failing them. We need a coordinated approach that ensures every child has access to a school place in their community, she explained.

This is not a new issue  its been building for years. Its incredible really that were in this situation again this year where children and families are faced with this uncertainty. Having a child without a school place causes huge stress not only for the child but also for the parents and it is completely unacceptable that the Department fails year after year to plan for these students. The Government has had ample time to plan for population growth and school capacity, yet here we are again, with families left scrambling. Its time for the Department to step in and provide real leadership, Deputy Whitmore noted.

The Taoiseach acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and committed to speaking with the Minister for Education about this. I welcome that, but what we need now is action, not just words, Deputy Whitmore concluded.
A new Wicklow Trails app has also been fully rolled out

Councillor Stephen Stokes at the foot of the Great Sugarloaf, with the Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Councillor Paul O'Brien.

Wicklows Great Sugarloaf mountain is now even better, with the completion of the regeneration works, an exciting project that got under way last year to preserve one of the countys finest outdoor assets.

Almost three years of planning had gone into the project, with the final proposals approved last April to preserve the mountain, making it more sustainable and more accessible for walkers.

The mountain, described by Wicklow County Council as one of the busiest recreational areas in the county, was suffering significant erosion and habitat destruction, while the car park was in dire need of an upgrade.

The urgency to do something was borne out in the footfall, with figures last summer showing an average of 220 people made the climb every day  with a spike of roughly 870 on a Saturday and 760 on a Sunday.

The works were well underway last summer, and involved a local contractor Howie Miller with his own team, which included workers who completed the restoration of the Croagh Patrick trail.

Councillor Stephen Stokes was at the foot of the mountain with the cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, councillor Paul O'Brien, as the finishing touches were approved on Wednesday, May 21. It was also the official launch of the Wicklow Trails app, an innovative digital guide designed to enhance the visitor experience across the countys scenic walking routes.

The Great Sugarloaf is a treasured part of Wicklows landscape and identity, Cllr Stokes said. This restoration project ensures that the mountain is protected while enhancing the visitor experience. The Wicklow Trails app is a fantastic tool for both locals and tourists to explore our countys breath-taking walks, and to do so safely and sustainably."

The Great Sugarloaf restoration project was led in collaboration with key environmental partners, with funding received from the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme (ORIS). Cllr Stokes explained the project focused on repairing eroded paths, improving trail safety, and preserving the mountain's unique landscape for generations to come. The initiative has ensured that the Great Sugarloaf remains accessible while safeguarding its natural beauty.

Cllr OBrien praised the collaborative effort behind the project and the potential of the new app to boost sustainable tourism in the region. Since its soft launch, earlier this year, the Wicklow Trails app has had over 11,000 unique visitors, with the majority coming from Dublin.

"Of particular interest is that 20pc of visitors are viewing the website from a desktop, Cllr Stokes added.

This indicates that people are planning their journeys in advance. Part of the goal with the app is to encourage walkers to consider alternative trails, which encourages tourism right across County Wicklow rather than a few key sites."

The Wicklow Trails app includes interactive trail maps, and safety tips making it an essential companion for walkers, hikers, and outdoor enthusiasts of all levels.

This is a wonderful day for County Wicklow, Cllr Stokes said, as he extended his thanks to the local community, volunteers, and project partners for their dedication throughout the Great Sugarloaf restoration works.

Not only have we preserved a vital part of our natural heritage at the Great Sugarloaf, but we are also embracing technology to promote responsible outdoor recreation. The Wicklow Trails app will empower users and encourage more people to discover the beauty of our county."
Wicklows new outdoor primary school to open with chef, custom curriculum, and 52 acres of nature

The Outdoor Primary School in Greystones will welcome students this September with a nature-based curriculum, on-site chef, and a focus on wellbeing across 52 acres of outdoor learning space.

The Outdoor Primary School founder Louise Nelson.

Tom Galvin Bray People Thu 22 May 2025 at 07:00

A new outdoor school which will open in Wicklow in September will have 52 acres for students to play and learn in, its own chef and its own curriculum based on teaching in, through and about nature, all in the great outdoors.
Music artist Kid Cudi said that, weeks after the break-in, his Porsche was set on fire, and a Molotov cocktail was found on the passenger seat (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

Rapper Kid Cudi told the court that Combs allegedly broke into his house and locked his dog in a bathroom (Richard Drew/AP)

Rapper Kid Cudi claimed that Sean "Diddy" Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills home in 2011 after finding out he was dating Combs's ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and that someone set fire to his car weeks later.

Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, took the witness box in Combs's sex trafficking trial in New York and said he and Cassie briefly dated in 2011.

Music artist Kid Cudi said that, weeks after the break-in, his Porsche was set on fire, and a Molotov cocktail was found on the passenger seat (Elizabeth Williams/AP)

He said he took her to a West Hollywood hotel one day to get her away from the seething Combs.

While there, he said, he got a call from Combs's assistant, Capricorn Clark, who told him Combs and an affiliate were in his house and that she had been forced to go with them.

Cudi said he left the hotel to drive home, and that he called Combs en route and - using an expletive - asked him why he was in his house.

He said Combs calmly replied: "I want to talk to you."

But Combs wasn't there when he arrived, Cudi said.

Instead, he found that someone had opened Christmas presents he'd bought for his family and locked his dog in a bathroom.

Cudi said he wasn't sure what was going on, so he called the police.

A few weeks later, Cudi said his Porsche was destroyed by fire while parked in his driveway.

Cudi said he was at a friend's house when his dog sitter called and "told me my car was on fire".

Photos shown to the jury showed a hole cut in the car's fabric roof and a Molotov cocktail was found in the passenger seat.

Cassie testified last week that Combs had threatened to blow up Cudi's car and hurt him after he learned she was dating the Grammy Award-winning rapper, who is known for his alternative hip-hop style.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges lodged against him after he was arrested in September at a Manhattan hotel.

He denies allegations that he used threats and his powerful position in the hip-hop world to abuse women and others, and force Cassie to take part in drug-fuelled sexual performances, called "freak-offs", with other men that she said left her too drained to pursue her singing career.

The federal investigation of Combs began in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court, alleging years of sexual and physical abuse.

The lawsuit was settled by Combs for 20 million dollars the next day.

In four days of evidence last week, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, said Combs subjected her to abuse through most of the nearly 11 years she was with him from 2007 through 2018.

She said she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011, which she ended within weeks after Combs learned about it when he looked at her phone during a freak-off - one of hundreds she said she endured over the years.

George Kaplan, Combs's personal assistant from 2013 to 2015, gave evidence earlier on Thursday, saying that he saw Combs be violent with Cassie only once, on a 2015 trip to Las Vegas aboard Combs's private jet.

He said he heard glass breaking behind him and looked over his shoulder to see Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.

"There was tremendous commotion and a scuffle, and then after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed: 'Isn't anybody seeing this?'" Mr Kaplan said, adding that neither he nor any of the security workers or Bad Boy staff on the plane responded to her call for help.

Mr Kaplan said he did not intervene because he did not want to lose his dream job.

He said that a later incident, in which he saw Cassie sitting in a bedroom with a black eye before Combs sent him to pick up anti-inflammatory medicine to treat the injury, and the attack on the plane, led him to quit.

Mr Kaplan also said he saw Combs become violent with another girlfriend, whom he referred to only as Gina, when the rapper threw green apples at her at his Florida home.
A man carries a woman as Palestinians flee their homes after the Israeli military issued orders for evacuation from eastern Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

For more than a year, Israeli authorities prevented Ayed Ayoub from escaping Gazas hunger and war with his family for an academic fellowship in France. He finally left last month, after Israel unexpectedly eased its tight control of the border.

Ayoub, his wife and their four children are among around 1,000 Palestinians who have left Gaza following Israels relaxation of rules in recent months, bussed from the enclave to board flights to Europe and elsewhere.
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So, the government is halving its contribution to KiwiSaver from $10 to $5 a week but, not to worry, it is ratcheting up the default minimum contribution from employees and employers to 3.5% and then 4%.

It is important to recognise that the government contribution is not just a pump-priming subsidy from the taxpayer.

It was introduced to offset, at least partially, the lamentable effects of a change to the tax treatment of retirement savings vehicles by Sir Roger Douglas in the late 1980s. That change was later described by Sir Michael Cullen, if memory serves, as the worst example of intergenerational theft he had seen.

Douglas replaced the previous, and internationally normal, exempt-exempt-taxed (EET) treatment to taxed-taxed-exempt (TTE).

Under EET if you set aside some portion of your income into long-tern retirement savings which will be out of your reach for years, even decades, that sum is not treated as part of your taxable income. And, importantly, the income your savings earn is not treated as part of your income as it accrues, though it may attract tax in other ways. Only when the money is released to you and you are free to spend it is it taxed.

TTE, by contrast, means retirement savings are made out of after-tax income and grow more slowly.

Making the ministers life easier

But it makes life easier for a Minister of Finance.

Enter Cullen and KiwiSaver. At the maximum rate of $520 a year the government contribution, for someone on the average wage (which the Treasury reckons is $1,600 a week) making the minimum 3% KiwiSaver contribution, would just about compensate for the loss of the tax exemption on their contribution.

Not any more.

Nicola Williss Budget halves the rate of the government contrition to 25c per dollar contributed by the employee to a maximum of $260 a year.

It is increasing the default employee and employer contribution rate from 3% to 3.5% from April 1, 2026, and then to 4% from April 1, 2028. It will allow KiwiSaver members to apply to Inland Revenue for a reduction, described as temporary, of their contribution rate to 3 per cent and it will be removing the government contribution for all KiwiSaver members with taxable income over $180,000 per annum.

It expects these measures to save the government $2.5 billion over the next four years.

Encouraging people to save an additional 2% of their wage is per se desirable. But a chance would be a fine thing. The Budget forecasts real wages to grow by an average of just 0.7% a year over the next four years.

Shrinking real wages

And even that paltry increase is greater than the forecast in the Treasurys fiscal strategy model which assumes that average ordinary-time weekly earnings, net of tax and ACC levy, will grow by 1.9% a year in nominal terms over the next four years  in other words marginally shrink in real terms.

So, KiwiSaver providers should perhaps not rub their hands in gleeful anticipation just yet.

Douglass fateful adoption of TTE has meant that for a generation now the tax system has told New Zealanders if you want to provide for your old age dont save money, borrow money.

If you save they will tax you every step of the way. Better to borrow as much as you can and bid up the price of houses. Then watch leverage amplify the growth in your housing equity and enjoy your tax-free imputed rent if you are an owner occupier, or your various deductions if you are a landlord, until you sell and pocket your tax-free capital gain.

So, we have a capital-shallow business sector, hobbling productivity and incomes, while we enthusiastically import the savings of foreigners in order to pay each other ridiculous prices for housing.

And we watch Generation Rent turn into Generation Resent and head for the airport.

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July 2nd Morning Report


On the second day of her appearance at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wore a black velvet gown by designer Gaurav Gupta. The gown featured a sculpted neckline and intricate sequined detailing described as "galactic embroidery." A voluminous silver wrap was draped over her shoulders, adding a dramatic contrast to the dark fabric. Aishwaryas hair was styled in soft, one-sided vintage waves and her makeup included her signature bold red lips and winged eyeliner.

A contrast from Day 1: Saree and sindoor

A day before, Aishwarya made headlines in a white and gold saree by designer Manish Malhotra. The ensemble featured a handwoven Kadwa Banarasi saree in ivory with brocade motifs and silver zari work. It was paired with a sheer tissue dupatta edged in gold and silver zardozi embroidery. Her jewellery, crafted in 18k gold, was studded with over 500 carats of Mozambique rubies and uncut diamonds. Her prominent sindoor (vermillion) mark stood out, which many online users interpreted as a response to recent rumours about her personal life.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at the 78th Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet in Custom Gaurav Gupta Couture.



Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wears the Heiress of Clam, a custom creation imagined in a draped form and spiritual detail. The gown is hand-embroidered with an abstract rendition of pic.twitter.com/CoMdwIZdrv  Gaurav Gupta Couture (@GG_Studio) May 22, 2025





From Devdas to 2025: A Cannes journey

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan first attended Cannes in 2002 for the screening of Devdas, appearing alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali in a yellow saree. She arrived in a horse-drawn carriage, marking a memorable debut. In 2003, she became the first Indian actress on the Cannes jury and showcased a series of Indian outfits, including a green saree and a yellow suit. She returned in later years with her husband Abhishek Bachchan and experimented with various styles  from traditional to bold, including the 2016 purple lipstick look that sparked debate.

Recent appearances and screen presence

Aishwarya Rai was last seen in Ponniyin Selvan: Part 2, directed by Mani Ratnam. For her role, she received the Best Actress in a Leading Role (Critics) award at SIIMA held in Dubai. Her Cannes appearances continue to attract attention globally, both for her fashion choices and her long-standing connection with the festival.

He is so right " She woke up and decided to serve so hard"

She just know she is "Aishwarya Rai" https://t.co/BdP5qHCEKO  B. (@quantumparticl_) May 22, 2025





Netizens say the Day 2 look was dramatic while some felt She woke up and decided to serve so hard The mixed reactions reflect how Aishwaryas choices remain widely discussed across social platforms.

For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.


On May 22, 2025, actress Kajol visited the Dakshineswar Kali Temple in Kolkata, seeking blessings from the presiding deity, Maa Kali. The temple visit came just ahead of her upcoming film Maa, in which she plays the lead role. During her visit, Kajol shared a brief statement about the project, saying, This is one of the strongest roles I have ever played. Her appearance at the temple, dressed in a traditional saree, gathered attention as she stood in devotion before the deity.

Dakshineswar Kali Temple, located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, is a significant religious site in West Bengal. It was built in 1855 by Rani Rashmoni, a philanthropist and devotee of the goddess Kali. According to tradition, Rashmoni had a vision of the goddess instructing her to build the temple instead of traveling to Kashi. The temple is historically linked to the spiritual figures Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi.

A mythological horror film with Kajol in lead

Maa is directed by Vishal Furia and penned by writer Saiwyn Quadras. The film is described as a mythological horror drama that centers around the ongoing struggle between good and evil. Kajol leads the cast, supported by Ronit Roy and Indraneil Sengupta in important roles. The project is jointly presented by Jio Studios and Devgn Films and produced by Ajay Devgn and Jyoti Deshpande. Kumar Mangat Pathak is the co-producer. Maa is scheduled for theatrical release on June 27.

Kajol visited Kolkatas historic Dakshineswar Kali Temple to seek blessings before the release of her upcoming film Maa | Credit: Indiatimes

The films narrative aims to blend intense drama with suspense, introducing a new layer of mythological storytelling in mainstream cinema.

First look reveals intensity of the role

Earlier, the first look of Maa was unveiled on Kajols official Instagram account. The visual shows Kajol holding a child, flanked by a demonic figure on one side and a divine Goddess on the other. The tone suggests a fierce, protective mother caught in a battle of spiritual forces.

Kajols caption for the video read: Hell is here so is the Goddess! Battle begins on 27th June 2025, in cinemas near you. #Maa #Maa27June. The film will be available in four languages upon its release, expanding its reach to a wider audience.

Kajol at Dakshineswar temple | Credit: Indiatimes

With her visit to one of Kolkatas most iconic temples and her remarks about the depth of her role, Kajol sets the tone for what may be one of her most compelling performances. As anticipation builds around Maa, the combination of mythology, suspense, and emotional drama promises to draw attention when it hits theatres on June 27.

About the temple

The Dakshineswar Kali Temple, located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River in Kolkata, is one of the most revered religious sites in West Bengal. Built in 1855 by philanthropist Rani Rashmoni after a divine vision, the temple is dedicated to Goddess Bhavatarini, a form of Kali. It holds deep spiritual significance and is closely associated with the 19th-century mystics Ramakrishna and Sarada Devi, making it a sacred destination for devotees across India.

For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.
Have you planned to spend your summer vacation travelling to Thailand, Hong Kong, or Singapore? In light of an abrupt resurgence in COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and even China, experts debate whether or not this is a good idea.

However, India is also no exception, as the country is seeing a rise in cases, with the highest numbers of cases reported in Kerala, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of active cases in India currently stands at 257, as of May 19, 2025.

Since May 12, Kerala reported 69 fresh cases, 44 new cases were reported in Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu added 34 cases. On the other hand, Singapore saw a sudden spike of 14,000 cases from 11,000 cases in the last week of April, and the hospitalisations have also gone up.

Is it safe to travel to Southeast Asia amid a spike in COVID-19 cases?

Apart from Singapore, other countries such as Hong Kong reported 1,042 cases earlier last week, and as per the government of Hong Kong, a rise in infections has been noticed since the beginning of March.

Meanwhile, Thailand also has that the cases double in just five weeks. With ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks, the decision to travel should be weighed extremely carefully before considering it. Although travel is necessary but not absolutely dangerous, it still demands strict observance of health protocols in a bid to prevent the risk of infection, warns Dr Shrey Srivastava, Senior Consultant, Internal Medicine, Sharda Hospital, Greater Noida.

Covid-19 resurgence: Cases cross 250 mark in India | Credit: PTI

Travellers should remain up-to-date with COVID-19 regulations issued by health organisations such as the WHO and governments, he adds.

Precautions and safety measures you must take before travelling

During situations like this, it is better to avoid crowded areas, wear a well-fitting mask, and practice hand hygiene with sanitiser or hand washing many times. As COVID-19 reaches its peak, safe travel necessitates greater vigilance and planning. On top of all else, make sure you have up-to-date information on local health warnings and travel bans to your destination. Choose destinations with lower infection rates and good healthcare facilities, says Dr.Vinit Banga, Director of Neurology, Fortis Hospital, Faridabad.

Travel during off-peak hours if possible to minimise interactions with people. Try to reduce indoor consumption; select outdoor seating or take away. Opt to lodge at facilities that can cancel bookings and also have good sanitation ratings, adds Dr. Banga.

Travel with essentials such as masks, hand sanitisers and more

Its always better to check your health upon arrival and immediately before you depart, and quarantine yourself as soon as you develop any signs. According to Dr. Banga, There is a need to wear properly fitting KN95 or N95 masks in crowded indoor spaces such as airports, stations, and public transportation. Select airlines or transport agencies with high standards of hygiene and ventilation.

Use contactless payments and digital boarding passes to reduce direct contact. Verify entry requirements and quarantine policies where you are travelling, since they are likely to keep changing.

Salam Malaysian Madani 



Malaysia is aware of the rising COVID-19 trends reported in neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Singapore. Thailand recorded 16,607 new COVID-19 cases and 6 deaths between 4 and 10 May 2025 (Bangkok Post, 2025), while Singapore estimated pic.twitter.com/34zsb26qj9  Dzulkefly Ahmad (@DrDzul) May 17, 2025





Travelling when COVID-19 is at its peak is not safe, but with planning and maximum caution, you will be able to limit your exposure and travel safely. Always be cautious of your and other people's health before undertaking any travel. Fully vaccinate yourself and take a booster; take non-stop flights in order to reduce travelling time and stops within high-risk locations, says Dr. Srivastava.

Social distancing: Practice distancing and also avoid congested areas, particularly air-conditioned rooms.

Practice distancing and also avoid congested areas, particularly air-conditioned rooms. Eat healthy: Consume healthy food, rest well, and engage in a healthy way of life to boost immunity.

Consume healthy food, rest well, and engage in a healthy way of life to boost immunity. Check on your health: Keep a close eye on your health for signs of sickness during and after your trip, and self-quarantine in the event that you fall sick.

Keep a close eye on your health for signs of sickness during and after your trip, and self-quarantine in the event that you fall sick. Carry your vaccination certificates: Take digital or printed vaccination certificates and negative test results with you. Safe travel not only benefits you but also others.

To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow Indiatimes Trending.
Kerala +2 result out: The Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE), Kerala, has officially declared the Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 today, May 22, 2025, at 3 PM IST. Over 4.44 lakh students who appeared for the Kerala board Class 12 exams held from March 3 to March 26, 2025, can now check their results online.

Kerala Plus Two Result 2025: Date and Time

The Kerala Plus Two results were announced by Keralas Education Minister V. Sivankutty in a press conference at 3 PM on May 22, 2025. The official result links went live by 4 PM on the official websites keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, and result.kite.kerala.gov.in.

Kerala Plus Two Result 2025: Official Websites and Direct Links

The Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 was declared on May 22, 2025, at 3 PM IST by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE), Kerala. Students can check their Class 12 results online through the official portals:

To access the result, students need to enter their registration number and date of birth.

How to Check Kerala DHSE Plus Two Result 2025?

Students can access their Kerala Plus Two result 2025 by following these steps:

Visit any of the official portals: keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, or result.kite.kerala.gov.in.

Click on the Kerala DHSE Plus Two Result 2025 link.

Enter your registration number, roll number, and date of birth.

View and download your marksheet for future reference.

Other Ways to Access Kerala DHSE Plus Two Results 2025

Apart from the websites, students can also check their Kerala Plus Two results via SMS by sending their registration number to 56263 or through official mobile apps like PRD LIVE and Saphalam available on the Google Play Store. Digital marksheets are also accessible on DigiLocker.

Kerala Plus Two Result 2025: Highlights

Total students appeared for Kerala Plus Two exam: 4,44,807

4,44,807 Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 Exams conducted: March 3 to March 26, 2025

March 3 to March 26, 2025 Kerala Plus Two 2025 Result declared: May 22, 2025, at 3 PM

May 22, 2025, at 3 PM Websites for result checking: keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, result.kite.kerala.gov.in

keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, result.kite.kerala.gov.in Supplementary exams (SAY) scheduled for June 2025 for students needing improvement.

scheduled for June 2025 for students needing improvement. Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 Revaluation and scrutiny applications open post-result declaration.

What After Kerala Plus Two Result 2025?

Students who pass are eligible for university admissions, competitive exams, and scholarship schemes. Those who do not clear all subjects can apply for the SAY (Save A Year) supplementary exams in June 2025 to improve their scores.

Kerala Plus Two Supplementary Exam 2025

The Kerala Plus Two Supplementary Exam 2025 is scheduled to be conducted in June 2025 for students who could not pass one or more subjects in the regular Kerala DHSE Plus Two exams held from March 3 to 26, 2025.

FAQs

Q. When will the Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 be declared?

Answer: The Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 was officially announced on May 22, 2025, at 3 PM IST by the Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE), Kerala.

Q. How can I check the Kerala DHSE Plus Two Result 2025 online?

Answer: Students can check their Kerala board class 12 results 2025 by visiting official websites like keralaresults.nic.in, dhsekerala.gov.in, or result.kite.kerala.gov.in, and entering their roll number and date of birth.

Q. What details are required to access the Kerala Plus Two result 2025?

Answer: To download the Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 and marksheet, students need their hall ticket number or roll number along with their date of birth for login on the official portals.

Q. Is the Kerala Plus Two marksheet 2025 available online?

Answer: Yes, the Kerala Plus Two marksheet 2025 can be downloaded online from official websites and DigiLocker after the result announcement. But, the original marksheet must be collected from the respective schools.

Q. What should students do if they are not satisfied with their Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 marks?

Answer: Students unsatisfied with their Kerala Plus Two Result 2025 can apply for revaluation or scrutiny as per DHSE Kerala guidelines.

For more news and updates from the world of Education, keep reading Indiatimes education.
A State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager stationed in Surya Nagara, located in Bengalurus Anekal Taluk, was transferred this Tuesday. This action followed the circulation of a video where the official refused to speak in Kannada with a customer, sparking reactions from the public and political leaders.

Video triggers backlash over language refusal

In the widely circulated clip, a customer is seen asking the manager to communicate in Kannadathe states official language. The manager, however, stands firm on speaking Hindi instead, stating, I will not speak Kannada for you. I will speak Hindi. The video drew criticism from Kannada rights groups and political figures across party lines.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah condemned the managers refusal to use Kannada or English, calling it unacceptable. Welcoming SBIs decision to transfer the employee, he said such actions must prompt sensitivity towards local languages and cultures in customer-facing roles.

Political leaders call for policy enforcement

Chief minister Siddaramaiah urged the Finance Ministry and the Department of Financial Services to implement language and cultural awareness programs for bank staff nationwide. He stated, Respecting the local language means respecting its people. He added that the matter should now be considered closed after the transfer.

BJP MP Tejasvi Surya also voiced strong concern. He stressed that customer service roles in Karnataka must include Kannada communication. Referring to an existing policy that recommends local language skills for staff, Surya said, Looks like this still isnt being enforced properly. He urged SBI to take stricter action in accordance with the guidelines and revealed that he had spoken with concerned authorities about the incident.

Netizens and public react with mixed opinions

While many supported the leaders calls, others on social media presented different views. X user Shiva Mudgil highlighted the structure of SBIs pan-India system. She argued that employees dont choose where theyre posted and are often relocated every few years, making fluency in regional languages a challenging task.

Local clerks can help bridge such gaps, she wrote, adding that language expectations shouldnt override core banking skills. In another post, Mudgil recalled her own childhood where her father, an SBI employee, was transferred across multiple Indian states. How many languages should one learn? she asked.

Wider debate over language expectations

The Reserve Bank of India mandates that banking services be provided in three languages: English, Hindi, and the state's official language. Despite these rules, the video showed the manager refusing Kannada interaction even when reminded of these guidelines. The issue has reignited discussions on practical implementation of multilingual policies in centralised institutions.

The incident also prompted debate among citizens online. One user questioned, Virat Kohli has played for RCB since 2008has anyone forced him to learn Kannada? Another joked, Only this guy can survive in every state in this era of language wars.

Virat Kohli has been playing for RCB since 2008 and Nobody forced him to learn Kannada yet? Why?   Madhur (@ThePlacardGuy) May 21, 2025





A third comment took a sharper tone: You consider non-Hindi speakers as non-Indians? Thats nationalist hypocrisy.

Wah re nationalist. You consider non Hindi speakers are not Indian & calling others a divider for speaking up for his language in his land. If you had checked my TL, you'd know I am not a congress follower.  Chronicle (@Gr8WarLord) May 22, 2025





A fourth user wrote, This is SBI, not Kannada Bank. Use Google Translate or ask for a translator. Dont turn it into a language war when the country has real battles to fight.

SBI bank is national bank not Kannada bank. If worried ask for Kannada translator or check on Google translate. Don't force a language war when a nation is at war with an external enemy.  Wild Vinds (@Vindsofchange) May 22, 2025





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BTS reunion: On June 14, 2022, during their 9th Festa celebration, South Korean boyband BTS, comprising RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, announced a hiatus. The news quickly sparked panic among fans, with some K-media outlets confusing it as a disbandment. Leader RM stepped in soon after, reassuring ARMY, their fandom, that this was just a break, not the end, and promised they'd return stronger than ever.

Still, not everyone was convinced. Many pointed to their upcoming military service, saying the group wouldnt be whole again for years. Some even predicted that the members might drift apart or that the fandom might move on; after all, K-pop evolves fast. But here we are, nearly three years later, and ARMY has stayed right where theyve always been: loyal and hopeful. From regular heartfelt updates to hijacking the recent Jin live, the members have shown time and again that they have stayed the samein fact, more chaotic than ever.

Now, with just 30 days left until BTS officially reunites, ARMY is counting down the days with more excitement than ever.

BTS set to reunite in less than a month

Credit: Instagram (uarmyhope)

BTS will officially reunite on June 21, with Suga becoming the final member to complete his mandatory military service. For those unfamiliar, the Agust D rapper has been serving as a public service worker rather than on active duty due to a past shoulder injury that rendered him unfit for combat.

Among the members currently enlisted, RM and V will be the first to be discharged, both on June 10. However, their discharges will take place separately, as V has been serving in the Special Duty Team (SDT) of the Capital Defense Command, specifically assigned to the Ssangyong Unit of the 2nd Army Corps. Meanwhile, RM is stationed at the 15th Infantry Division, a frontline unit based in Gangan Province.

Just a day later, on June 11, Jimin and Jungkook will complete their service as well. The duo enlisted together and have been serving in the 5th Infantry Division under the "Companion Soldiers" program  a system that allows close friends or relatives to serve alongside each other, providing emotional support during their time in the military.

Jin and J-Hope have already wrapped up their service, with Jin being discharged on June 12, 2024, and J-Hope following on October 17, 2024. J-Hope was the second member to complete his 18-month term, right after Jin.

ARMY overjoyed ahead of BTS reunion

ARMY is over the moon as BTS gears up for their long-awaited reunion. With all seven members returning soon, the countdown feels more exciting than ever. Fans have turned to social media to count down the days for the members' discharge, and it's all purple.

One fan wrote, "We have exactly 30 days for arguably one of the greatest reunions to be witnessed in pop culture history. BTS & ARMY's willingness to wait revealed the value we placed on the object we've been waiting for. It's freedom, pride, integrity, honor, etc., & June will give us so, so much more."

We have exactly 30 days for arguably one of the grtest reunion to b witnessed in popculture history. BTS & ARMY's willingness to wait revealed the value we placed on the object we've been waiting for. It's freedom, pride, integrity, honor etc & June will give us so so much more pic.twitter.com/5tLT6bFpIE  UKIYO     (@UKIYO_713) May 21, 2025

"My family will be back in just 30 days, and this longing will end soon," another user said.

My family will be back in just 30 Days and this longing will end soon 



30 DAYS UNTIL BTS REUNION

D-30 FOR BTS REUNION#30DaysTillBTSreunion pic.twitter.com/dHV0B5Qpz6    (@i_am_AnkitaD) May 21, 2025

An emotional fan noted, "Y'all, we really went from "BTS REUNION IN 2 YEARS" to "BTS REUNION IN 30 DAYS."

y'all we really went from "BTS REUNION IN 2 YEARS" to "BTS REUNION IN 30 DAYS" pic.twitter.com/JwAb02Izlf   (@for_bangtan7__) May 21, 2025

"Just 30 days, JUST 30 DAYS. In 30 days we will have 5 tannies getting discharged from the military with Taehyung, Namjoon, Jungkook, Jimin, AND last but not least, Yoongi. BTS will be reuniting as 7 on JUNE 21," wrote another.

just 30 days JUST 30 DAYS, in 30 days we will have 5 tannies getting discharged from military with taehyung, namjoon, jungkook, jimin AND last but not the least with yoongi bts will be reuniting as 7 on JUNE 21



30 DAYS UNTIL BTS REUNION pic.twitter.com/6Jyx9owUsJ  adrita bts year  (@yooneysus) May 21, 2025

What are BTS' plans post-military?

BTS' agency, HYBE, has yet to confirm the group's future plans, but rumors hint at a new album and a possible world tour. Meanwhile, all seven members are expected to continue their solo music careers, having already released individual albums.

For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here.
When BTS began enlisting for their mandatory military service, many believed that HYBE was actively looking for their "next BTS." Despite each member  Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook  releasing solo albums during the hiatus, BTS as a group remained musically inactive. Naturally, attention shifted to SEVENTEEN, a group that had already cemented their popularity in South Korea.

Now, as SEVENTEEN prepares to release their 5th full-length album on May 26 to mark their 10th anniversary, controversy has erupted  and ARMY is furious.

The sticker that sparked the backlash

It all started with a sticker on the HYBE building that reads: "SEVENTEEN will challenge eternity." To casual observers, it might seem like a harmless tribute. But to BTS fans, the similarity hits too close to home.

SEVENTEEN sticker on HYBE building

Back in 2023, for BTS' 10th anniversary, the HYBE building was wrapped with a slogan: "BTS Presents Everywhere." A collaborative effort between Big Hit Music and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the message emphasized BTS' global presence and enduring influence. A year later, the slogan conceptualized by RM for their 11th anniversary, the building displayed the fan-beloved phrase "APOBANGPO"  meaning "ARMY Forever, Bangtan Forever"  along with the "BTS & ARMY" logo.

BTS sticker on HYBE building

To ARMY, these tributes were meaningful, original, and rooted in BTS' legacy. Seeing another group replicate the format has struck a nerve  especially with BTS' long-awaited reunion just weeks away.

HYBE under fire  again

The criticism isn't limited to SEVENTEEN. Much of the backlash is aimed directly at HYBE. ARMYs accuse the company of repackaging BTS' ideas and applying them across its other groups in an attempt to replicate the BTS phenomenon.

From In the SOOP to BTS' mobile game mechanics, and now the sticker branding  fans are calling out HYBE for what they view as lazy duplication rather than cultivating original identities for its other artists.

'Copying Namjoon's idea?': ARMY reacts

Many ARMYs believe SEVENTEEN's anniversary display is not just inspired, but outright derivative of what BTS pioneered. The outrage stems from what fans see as HYBE's repeated pattern of giving other groups under its umbrella the same concepts originally created for BTS.

Many took to X (formerly known as Twitter) and slammed the group and the agency. Many also point out the timing: June has always been associated with BTS' anniversary celebrations, and this year is even more significant as it marks their full-group return after military enlistment.

One ARMY said, "This better be gone by June 1st. Like, that's purple month."

this better be gone by june 1st like thats purple month https://t.co/eZwdHVhrsO  emily bts year (@DlS_3ASE) May 22, 2025

Another commented, "Carats led an entire hate train on Namjoon only for SEVENTEEN to end up copying Namjoons ideas."

Carats lead a entire hate train on namjoon only for seventeen to end up copying namjoon ideas https://t.co/3q5uvLpA2Y       (@its_7forBee) May 22, 2025

One wrote, "they want what BTS have so bad it's embarrassing at this point cus BTS built this whole fvckass company but what this group has done exactly other than sea pollution? the disrespect of stealing the company builder idea aka Namjoon someone kick this group out we've had enough."

they want what bts have so bad its embarrassing at this point cus bts built this whole fvckass company but what this group has done exactly other than sea pollution? the disrespect of stealing the company builder idea aka namjoon someone kick this group out we've had enough https://t.co/uLVeWrfoKR pic.twitter.com/9uJl3kIUaS  sho | ECHO (@JKK_1_) May 22, 2025

Another said, "Yes, it's a company, but I don't like it when they recycle things for other groups. The In the SOOP thing, now using Namjoons idea"

Well, yes, it's a company, but I don't like it when they recycle things for other groups. The in soop thing, now using Namjoon's idea.  Angry Army     (@AngryArmy81) May 22, 2025

One added, "You have one of the biggest artists in the world signed, and theyre reuniting after three years of hiatus. This is how you fcking welcome them and their fans? By replacing their name with some nugus??? I dont care  this is pure disrespect to BTS and ARMYs. June is OUR damn month."

You have one of the biggest artists in the world signed and they are reuniting after 3 years of hiatus. This is how you fvcking welcome them and their fans?!?!? By replacing their names with some nugus???? Idc but this is pure disrespect to BTS and armys. June is OUR damn month  nush (@namgiseokbase) May 22, 2025

Another stated, "I've been telling you since forever that those leeches copy everything they do."

I've been telling you since forever that those leeches copy everything they do https://t.co/J7lk2llmil pic.twitter.com/VZaZPTe9Zl  luvlight_  ||  (@littlekiwi_43) May 22, 2025

What's next for SEVENTEEN and BTS?

SEVENTEEN is set to release a 16-track album, which for the first time includes solo songs by all 13 members  a move that mirrors BTS' solo rollout during the group's hiatus. While the intention may be to highlight individual talent, the execution is now being seen through a critical lens.

Meanwhile, BTS is preparing for one of the most emotional moments in recent K-pop history  their reunion. Jin and J-Hope have already completed their service. RM and V will be discharged on June 10, followed by Jimin and Jung Kook on June 11. Finally, SUGA is expected to complete his service on June 21, marking the official full-group comeback fans have been waiting for.

For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here.
In a major development, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently struck a deal to acquire io, the product-development startup company founded by Jony Ive, who is also the former Apple design chief behind the iPhone. OpenAI cracked the deal valued at $6.5 billion.

According to Variety, the all-stock deal is so far OpenAI's biggest acquisition to date. Meanwhile, privately held OpenAI earlier owned a 23 per cent minority stake in io, which was founded by Ive in 2024.

The report also notes that the pact will merge the team of Ive's iO, including a group of 55 engineers, designers, and researchers who are focused on developing products that may inspire and empower people, with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, product teams, and engineering in San Francisco.

thrilled to be partnering with jony, imo the greatest designer in the world.



excited to try to create a new generation of AI-powered computers. pic.twitter.com/IPZBNrz1jQ  Sam Altman (@sama) May 21, 2025





Sam Altman reveals that their partnership was planned for two years

In a blog post, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, revealed that their partnership has been two years in the making. He went on to state that the purchase is so far the biggest known acquisition of OpenAI to date.

It is also a part of Ive's bigger project called LoveFrom, which identifies itself as a "creative collective made up of architects, artists, engineers, various types of designers, musicians, and writers.

Meanwhile, the specifics about what kinds of products OpenAI plans to develop with Ive, who was the driving force behind many of Apple's products, including the iPhone, the iPod, and the iMac, have not been disclosed yet.

Credit: @m_gonullu

Future plans of the OpenAI and Ive's new project

The intimate project revolves around a new device that is set to move consumers beyond the screens, with OpenAI and io, including options like headphones and other devices with cameras, as per the Wall Street Journal.

According to the New York Times, the main goal for Ive's AI-based product is to be "less socially disruptive than the iPhone. Well, OpenAI in a statement said that they think with the deal, Ive is anticipating deep creative and design responsibilities across OpenAI and io.

Ive was formerly Apple's chief design officer, and led the tech company and its award-winning design team since 1996. He joined the company in 1992 and left Apple in 2019.

To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow Indiatimes Trending.
Soon after the teaser of War 2 dropped earlier this week, the internet has been buzzing with claims that the makers are releasing the film on Pakistans Independence Day i.e. 14th August. But the truth is far less dramatic. Like many big-budget films, War 2 is simply targeting the long Indian Independence Day weekend, a strategic move that Bollywood has followed for years, and definitely not a political statement.

What is War 2s release date controversy?

When the teaser for War 2 dropped, the internet should have been talking about Hrithik Roshans high-octane return, Jr NTRs powerful presence, or Kiara Advanis blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. But instead, one small detail ended up stealing the spotlight, the release date: 14 August.

War 2 is celebrating pakistani independence day @yrf thuuu pakistani na kodaka 

Aug 14 evari independence day raa pooka @yrf pic.twitter.com/nei7i0t9Sw  padhaachuskundhaam (@Sigmabaabu) May 22, 2025

The Movie War 2 is Coming this Independence Day



But the Date given on the Trailer of the Movie is 14th August which is Independence Day of Pakistan



Another Example that Bollywood Loves Pakistan! pic.twitter.com/X3G4PXd7DB  The Jaipur Dialogues (@JaipurDialogues) May 22, 2025

Cue the confusion. Social media quickly latched on to the idea that the film was choosing to release on Pakistans Independence Day, leading to speculation, memes, and even outrage about whether Bollywood was celebrating the wrong countrys freedom.

However, its certainly not what many are assuming. An industry source said, All big films are strategically released around major festivals and national holidays. It is not about the exact date, it is about the long weekend window and the potential for a longer box office footfalls. Whether it is Independence Day, Republic Day, Eid, Diwali or Christmas, the release date is usually aligned with the surrounding weekend.

War 2 release date

In short: War 2 is releasing on 14 August because it is the Wednesday before Indias Independence Day, 15 August, which gives it a five-day opening window. This is a tried-and-tested formula in the Hindi film industry, where Friday releases are often pre-poned to Wednesdays or Thursdays to maximise holiday footfall.

In fact, examples are everywhere. Films like Rustom, Ek Tha Tiger, and Gadar 2 have all released on or just before Independence Day, not necessarily on the 15th.

Even Christmas releases like Dangal and Dhoom 3 came out on dates like 21st or 23rd December, not the 25th, but were still branded as "Christmas releases."

However, whether this strategy helps the War 2s box office reception or not, only time will tell. Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Ayan Mukerji, War 2 is set to release across Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
Move over Gucci and Dior, there is a new luxury item in town, and it smells faintly of turmeric and nostalgia. The classic Indian jhola, that ever-loyal cloth bag your dad used to carry onions in, has just had its global glow-up. Once sold for Rs 100 at Indian roadside stalls (or sometimes thrown in free with your months groceries), this unassuming shoulder bag is now listed for a jaw-dropping Rs 4,000 on the website of high-end US department store Nordstrom.

What in the name of scam is this!! Jhola being sold at a premium department store Nordstrom for $48! 



Im a homesick person but even I havent reached these levels of nostalgia. pic.twitter.com/Zouw2rLpke  Wordita (@wordi25) May 21, 2025

Viral jhola costs Rs 4,000, and the internet definitely had thoughts

Yes, you read that right. A plain cotton jhola is now moonlighting as a woven tote and retailing for $48 in the West. The same jhola that has seen more college protests, local train rides, and ration trips than most designer bags could ever dream of.

Indian Kirana store Jhola is being sold at premium stores now. 

Gazab! pic.twitter.com/lF8S81hUCh  Aditya Kumar Tiwari (@adityakt) May 21, 2025

The mayhem began when an Indian user spotted the listing and posted it online, expressing disbelief that homesickness had not driven them to this level of desperation, yet. The post lit a meme-fire across the internet, with desis laughing, crying, and plotting potential business models.

Baniya ka Jhola is being sold in Western Countries as a premium tote bag for 48 Dollars ! Crazy  pic.twitter.com/GALRcvASX1  Deven  (@devenrd) May 21, 2025

Someone joked that a certain Indian sweet shop should sue Nordstrom for stealing their freebie design. Another wondered whether the bags are secretly being mass-produced in China, while a third boldly pitched a startup idea: Export jholas by the kilo. Honestly, where is Shark Tank India when you need it?

One of the best and economical advertisements on Indian history .

You will find this jhola/Carry bag in every Indian city , many people use it while travelling , by spending just few rupees on Bag manufacturing , company is reaching to every nook and corner of the country.

Btw pic.twitter.com/MelB6RHheG  Poha Jalebi (@poha_met_jalebi) April 28, 2024

The jhola scandal is not the first one

The jhola scandal is not a one-off incident. Remember Maggi? The 15-rupee lifesaver in every Indian hostel? Well, it has been spotted in UK supermarkets for Rs 300. A Rs 10 Good Day biscuit? Try Rs 100. Alphonso mangoes? Rs 2,400 for six. Somewhere, an aunty is weeping into her achar stash.

LMAO not Americans selling 80 Indian jholas for $48 like its some ancient artifact 



Indian Souvenir Bag?? Really!? Bro thats a namkeen wala thaila!



Colonize the culture, rename it, overcharge for it, and still have the audacity to be racist to the people who actually pic.twitter.com/3Ehct6Pa2u  Diksha Kandpal (@DikshaKandpal8) May 21, 2025

Harsh Goenka reacts

Even tycoon Harsh Goenka has had enough, cheekily observing how NRIs now pay more for haldi and hing than for a bottle of good wine, all while being served butter chicken by chefs who sound like they studied in Tuscany.

Humara Indian bidi wala jhola international ho gaya pic.twitter.com/nTebRrNBnJ  Vishal (@VishalMalvi_) December 20, 2024

The jholas sudden leap into the world of high fashion feels like a love letter to Indian frugality, or maybe just a capitalist remix. Either way, one thing is clear: what was once functional, affordable and unfussy has now been rebranded as chic, artisanal and... ridiculously overpriced.

So next time you see someone carrying a jhola abroad, do not laugh. That is not a bag. That is Rs 4,000 worth of cultural appropriation, nostalgia tax, and a whole lot of desi drama stitched into one cotton rectangle.
#NoKings Protest: 7x7K Hands Across Palo Alto, Mountain View, SunnyvaleWhen: Flag Day on Saturday, June 14Where: Standing or sitting on sidewalk along El Camino Real from Palo Alto to Mountain View to Sunnyvale (NOT a march - a stationary line of protesting people stretching 7 miles)PROTEST: 12  2 PM @ 7 Mile Line of protesters winding from Tesla Palo Altoall the way to Tesla Sunnyvale (Santa Cruz Mountains/ocean side of El Camino)--Starting Point: Sidewalk outside of Tesla Showroom, 4180 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306--End Point: Sidewalk outside of Tesla Showroom, 750 El Camino Real. Sunnyvale, CA 94087AFTER RALLY: 2:30 - 4:00 PM at Gateway Park, El Camino Real and Castro St. in Mtn.ViewPOST HERE: https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/event/786416/ NO KINGS DAY is a National Day of Action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies.On June 14Flag DayDonald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A grotesquely expensive spectacle meant to look like strength.Theyve defied our courts, deported Americans, disappeared people off the streets, attacked our civil rights, and slashed our services. The corruption has gone too far!No thrones! No crowns! No kings!#NoKings website: https://www.nokings.org/ This 7X7K pro-democracy protest is brought to by organizers Sally Lieber and IdaRose Sylvester, of Together We Will and several co-hosts. It will be a one-of-a-kind rally, stretching seven miles on El Camino Real between the Palo Alto and Sunnyvale Tesla showrooms. This event will take place along the sidewalk on the Santa Cruz Mtns/ocean side of El Camino Real.We need 7,000 people to make a solid line between these two locations. We know we can do it, after our over 5,000-person strong event on April 5!Rather than aggregating in any one spot, we ask you to form a single person deep line between these points, picking any spot that is most comfortable and convenient for you. Please do not block intersections, sidewalk access, or on-off ramps.Shortly, we will provide information on the obvious segments people can stand and encourage you to sign up for a segment!June 14 is Flag Day. The flag doesnt belong to Donald Trump. It belongs to us. And we're taking it back, for all Americans.Were not watching history happen. Were making it. Bring your American flag or another flag that has meaning to you and BIG readable signs. You may also bring lawn chairs, musical instruments, any anything you need to be comfortable!After events: You are welcome to attend an After Rally from 2:30-4:00 PM at El Camino and Castro Street in Mountain View. Please also consider attending Justice Vanguards Juneteenth event in Los Altos until 5:00 PM. More at https://www.justicevanguard.org A core principle behind all No Kings events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.Learn more about and stay involved in our work, under the Together We Will banner, http://www.facebook.com/groups/twwpamv or sign up on our low volume email list at________________________________________________________________HANDS OFF PROTEST in MTN. VIEW - Organized by Together We Will on April 5- - - - - -NEWS STORY: Hands Across Chicagoland on Sunday, May 18, 2025"30-mile protest against President Trump policies links Aurora to Chicago"
The Greek government has announced stricter enforcement of vehicle bans on the islands of Hydra and Spetses, which hold special protected status.

To curb illegal traffic, a new digital registry of permitted vehicles will be introduced, along with a public complaint hotline to the port authority and police.

Hydra, where nearly all wheeled transport is prohibited, faces daily violations, mostly by visitors, despite existing regulations.

Spetses also restricts cars to residents with permits, but tourists frequently bring vehicles with minimal oversight. A task force will be formed to revise the rules and reduce the number of exemptions.

The measures were agreed upon in a high-level meeting involving several ministries, local mayors, and regional officials, who cited enforcement and oversight gaps as key challenges.

   iefimerida.gr
Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is reportedly considering launching a new political party inspired by the ideology of President Donald Trump, a move that could significantly alter Greeces political landscape and potentially fracture the conservative right.



Speculation,

fueled by a recent article by Mr. Samaras in the Ta Nea newspaper and a series of media appearances, suggests his ambition to establish a platform embracing hardline conservative positions. This platform would challenge the more centrist direction of the ruling New Democracy party , which Mr. Samaras once led

Sources close to him indicate that Mr. Samaras aims to channel the energy of Trump-style nationalism and populism into a Greek context.



The idea has resonated among disaffected conservatives who feel marginalized by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakiss moderate policies.

Discussions within right-wing circles suggest that Mr. Samaras could unify voters from New Democracy, Greek Solution, and Voice of Reason, tapping into nationalist sentiment and dissatisfaction with the governments handling of foreign policy and national issues.



Mr. Samarass initiative comes amidst broader attempts by European politicians to align themselves with Mr. Trumps political resurgence.



Notably, several Greek political figures have highlighted personal ties with Kimberly Guilfoyle, the new U.S. ambassador to Greece and a prominent conservative media figure and Trump ally.



This appears to be a calculated effort to claim legitimacy within the right-wing electorate.



Among the loudest critics of Mr. Samarass ambitions is former defense minister and Independent Greeks party founder Panos Kammenos.



Mr. Kammenos openly mocked the idea that Mr. Samaras could lead a Trump-inspired movement.



In a public social media post, Mr. Kammenos accused him of delivering the country to Pasok and the Brussels directorate and reignited old party grievances, referencing Mr. Samarass role in the downfall of Constantine Mitsotakiss government in 1993.



Mr. Kammenos himself has sought to project an image of close ties to Mr. Trumps inner circle, posting photos from his January 2025 trip to Washington for Mr. Trumps inauguration.



The images featured Mr. Kammenos and his wife, Elena Tzouli, posing with Ms. Guilfoyle and members of the Greek-American community, including businessman John Catsimatidis and Republican lawmakers Gus Bilirakis and Nicole Malliotakis.



While no concrete political alliance has been announced, the optics suggest a deliberate effort to reinsert himself into the political narrative.



Behind the scenes of this ideological jostling lies a broader transatlantic trend. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has long attempted to foster populist-nationalist movements across Europe.



His now-dormant Brussels-based initiative, The Movement, aimed to unite far-right leaders under a shared anti-establishment agenda, offering polling, strategy, and messaging support.



Although its direct impact has been limited, its ideological influence continues to shape European politics, including in Greece.



Mr. Bannon collaborated with prominent European right-wing figures such as Nigel Farage in the UK, Marine Le Pen in France, and Viktor Orban in Hungary, hoping to build a bloc that could challenge the European Unions political mainstream.



His efforts often positioned billionaire philanthropist George Soross Open Society Foundations as a primary adversary, framing the EU as a battleground between populist nationalism and progressive liberalism.



Within this broader context, Mr. Samarass potential move is seen as part of a possible Greek expression of that ideological battle. Whether he ultimately launches a new party remains uncertain.



However, the renewed interest in Trumpisms appeal among segments of the Greek right, coupled with the symbolic power of U.S. diplomatic ties, suggests a volatile new chapter may be unfolding in Greek politics, where nationalist rhetoric, foreign affiliations, and internal party rivalries converge.

By Antonis Telopoulos

   iefimerida.gr
The meeting brought together Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, Attica Governor Nikos Hardalias, Minister of State Akis Skertsos and a clutch of police, coast-guard and municipal leaders, each determined to safeguard what makes the Saronic pair special.
Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has confirmed that opposition leaders including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi have reached a coalition agreement ahead of the 2027 general election.

Speaking at the Arewa TechFest in Katsina on Wednesday, El-Rufai disclosed that a crucial meeting of the coalition was held in Abuja on Tuesday night.

He said the gathering reached a resolution to unite under the African Democratic Congress (ADC), which has now been adopted as the official platform of the opposition coalition.

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Yesterday at 8 PM, there was a very important meeting of the coalition were putting together to ensure that President Tinubu goes back to Lagos, El-Rufai declared.

He also hinted that some current government officials may be retained in the new coalition administration, praising the work of Minister of Communications, Bosun Tijani.

Though we will still keep Bosun Tijani, we will still keep the minister because he is doing good work, he added.

READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/niger-assembly-approves-bagos-%e2%82%a670bn-bond-request-for-infrastructure-projects.html

An insider familiar with the meeting confirmed that Atiku, Obi, and El-Rufai agreed on adopting the ADC as their coalition party.

They have adopted the African Democratic Party as the coalition party, all of them (Atiku, Obi, El-Rufai) are working together. They came to the conclusion last night up till the early hours of this morning, the source revealed.

El-Rufais remarks signal a major political realignment, as key opposition figures join forces in a bid to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 general election.
The Lagos State Taskforce has apprehended 30 suspected criminals during a cleanup exercise in the Agege area.

The operation, which commenced at 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, focused on locations known for criminal activity, including Isale Oja, the railway line, and AP Junction.

In a statement shared on Wednesday, the Senior Special Assistant on New Media to the Lagos State Governor, Jubril Gawat, stated that all the arrested suspects will be prosecuted in court.

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READ MORE: Delta Police Recover AK-47, Arrest Kidnappers Linked To Enugu, Rivers, Imo

He further noted that the operation was aimed at eliminating criminal elements and reinstating law and order across the state.

The post reads: In continuation of the Lagos State Taskforce CleanUp enforcement operation to rid the State of criminal elements, the Agency set out at about 2200hrs on Tuesday, 20th May, 2025 and embarked on its ongoing clean up enforcement operation in the state.

The areas visited during the operation includes; Isale Oja, Railways line, AP junction in Agege areas where the presence of some undesirable elements was noticed, particularly on the rail track.

During the RAID exercise, a total number of 30 suspects were arrested and sanity was restored. All the Suspects will be charged to court accordingly.
Department of State Services has distanced itself from the arrest of leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, in Kenya.

DSS said that its operations are limited strictly to Nigerias territorial borders.

Recall that Kanu is facing terrorism-related charges brought by the Federal Government.

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INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that the development came up during cross-examination of a prosecution witness, identified only as BBB, an intelligence officer from the security agency, on Wednesday.

It was gathered that the DSS operative was grilled on several aspects of the agencys investigation and its operational limits by Paul Erokoro (SAN), on behalf of the defence lead counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN).

READ MORE: Alleged Terrorism: FCT Court Admits Evidence Against Nnamdi Kanu

The witness admitted he had not listened to Radio Biafra directly and stated that the intelligence was credible from other officers assigned to the role.

The officer also denied involvement in Kanus arrest in Kenya, when pressed on its legality.

He said: We are a domestic intelligence agency. We do not operate outside Nigeria. If he were arrested in Kenya, we would not be responsible.

In his judgement, Justice James Omotosho said that he granted an accelerated hearing of the case in the interest of all parties, particularly for Kanu, who has been in custody for too long.



The judge charged all parties in the case to act professionally to ensure progress.

Justice Omotosho, therefore, charged all parties in the case to avoid acts that amount to misconduct and watch what they post on social media.



The judge subsequently adjourned the case till Thursday, 22 May for the conclusion of the cross examination of the second prosecution witness.
May 22, 2025: The American army still has a recruiting problem. This is not new. Since the army went all volunteer in the 1970s, there have been years when recruiters were unable to meet their quotas. The armys most recent, and very serious, recruiting problem was political in that the officer corps accepted political demands which antagonized its rural recruiting base. The recent change in Presidential administrations fixed that but an older and recurring problem then surfaced.

The current crisis is similar to past ones where the potential number of recruits was shrinking because more young men were overweight, poorly educated, had criminal records or other problems that barred them from military service. Currently less than ten percent of American military age men are eligible. Only about five percent of soldiers are in combat jobs, with another ten percent handling combat support. The reality is that 90 percent of army personnel support the ten percent who suffer over 90 percent of the casualties. The army adapted to this and that seemed to solve this recruiting problem. It did, but there were more problems.

About a quarter of those who joined were unable to complete the training and were let go. A major problem was overweight recruits who, despite special training programs, could not lose the excessive weight. There have been times in the past where a lot of overweight soldiers were tolerated. This was especially the case when conscription was the main source of new soldiers. There were army jobs that overweight men could handle and they were not in the service long enough for the excess weight to be a major problem. For recruits who wished to become career soldiers, there was less tolerance for the overweight. The lose the pounds or lose your job policy took care of that. The one problem the army has not been able to solve is the 20-25 percent of troops who dont make it through their first year of service.

What the army did modify the standards to more accurately fit what was needed. Currently recruiting standards are still heavily influenced by World War II standards. That was a major conflict that, by 1945, had eight million men and a few women in the army. Some 2.5 million belonged to the army air force as an independent air force was not created until 1947.

During World War Two 39 percent of the troops were volunteers and the rest conscripts, of whom nearly three quarters ended up overseas. That was where the fighting was and getting killed or wounded depended on what your job was. Ten percent of troops were in an infantry unit, which suffered nearly 90 percent of the casualties.

Today far fewer soldiers are serving with infantry units. The current army problems with obtaining enough soldiers to maintain legally mandated strength is difficult. Fewer men want to join the military and among those that do want to join, a larger percentage are unqualified because of physical or psychological issues.

The solution, which the military has not yet accepted, is to have different recruiting standards for different jobs. Currently everyone joining is expected to operate as an infantryman. The infantry are less than five percent of the military. Another ten percent operate in a combat zone as armor, engineers or support troops. These soldiers are not exposed to much fire power and account for most of the non-infantry casualties. That leaves 85 percent of army personnel who are unlikely to ever get shot at. The army can solve recruiting problems by using different physical and psychological standards for combat and non-combat soldiers. Currently everyone gets the same combat instruction during their initial eight to twelve weeks of basic training. After that combat troops get a lot more combat training and experience while most support troops only fire rifles once or twice a year. In peacetime or during war there are always a large minority of men seeking to join the infantry. Most of them should be allowed to do so if they meet the physical standards. For the other 90 percent of troops, lower physical standards are sufficient because these troops will be doing many jobs that are identical to civilian occupations.

Meanwhile, the number and patterns of casualties have been changing over the last 80 years. Since 1939-45 World War II, the risk of getting killed or wounded in combat has declined substantially. Over a decade ago it became obvious that 21st century warfare was different. By 2011 the war on terror had caused 51,600 American military casualties comprising 6,200 dead and 45,400 wounded. This included a small number of CIA, State Department, and other agency personnel. Over 99 percent were military personnel working for the Department of Defense. Not all the casualties were from combat, with 21 percent of the deaths from non-combat causes. In World War II that was 25 percent. The fighting in Iraq accounted for 71 percent of the deaths and 70 percent of the wounded. Outside of Afghanistan and Iraq, operations in dozens of other countries represented 2.5 percent of deaths, but about 71 percent of these were from non-combat causes.

The first 21st century war was quite different from the 20th century conflicts. For one thing, far fewer Americans are being killed or wounded in combat. And fewer and fewer of those who are wounded die. Its a continuing trend. In 2010, eight percent of the wounded died, compared to eleven percent in 2009. There are several reasons for more troops surviving battle wounds and injuries from accidents. An obvious cause is body armor. Improvements over the past decade, in terms of design and bullet resistance, account for about 20 percent of the decline in casualties. There's a downside to this as the body armor is heavier and cumbersome. This reduces a soldier's mobility, increases friendly casualties a bit and saves some enemy lives as well because the body armor slows down pursuing American troops.

Another major factor is medical care, which has gotten much better, quicker, and faster. Not only are procedures more effective, but badly wounded soldiers get to the operating table more quickly. Medics now have capabilities that, during Vietnam, only surgeons possessed. Movement of casualties to an operating room is much faster now, partly because of better transportation, but also because of more efficient methods, and operating rooms that are placed closer to the battlefield.

Another major factor is the change in what caused casualties. There were few casualties from artillery and mortars. Explosions, especially from roadside bombs, were less likely to cause fatal wounds. For example, 12.9 percent of bullet wounds were fatal, compared to 7.3 percent for bombs and 3.5 percent for RPGs and grenades in general. The enemy in Afghanistan preferred to use roadside bombs. U.S. troops were much more effective in a gun battle because they were taught effective combat maneuvers and practiced those as part of their training. All this contributed to the changing the ratio of wounded-to-killed, that was 6-to-1 in 1970s Vietnam, to 10-1 in 2011.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, there has also been a dramatic reduction in combat deaths compared to Vietnam, and previous 20th century wars. The death rate, adjusting for the smaller number of troops involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, revealed a massive reduction in combat deaths and the percentage of deaths that were from non-combat causes actually went up. For example, there were 47,359 combat deaths in Vietnam, which represented 81.4 percent of the military deaths in Vietnam. The remaining 10,797 deaths were from non-combat causes and comprised 18.6 percent of all deaths. In Iraq it is 80 percent and 20 percent. In Afghanistan it was 70 percent and 30 percent. The ratio of dead to wounded is also different in Iraq, where for each dead soldier there were 7.2 wounded. In Afghanistan it was 1 dead soldier for 8.1 wounded

There are also differences in the types of casualties. For example, in Vietnam, bullets caused 38 percent of the deaths. In Iraq, it was only 19 percent, and 27 percent in Afghanistan. The Iraqis were notoriously inaccurate riflemen, even though the urban battlespace in Iraq was very similar to Vietnam. There is more of a tradition of marksmanship in Afghanistan, despite or probably because of, the frequently longer distances involved. The superior protective vests, often called body armor, worn by American troops made it more difficult for enemy marksmen, as chest shots are now frequently useless and fatal head shots are very difficult. The new helmet worn by American troops proved capable of stopping a rifle bullet, something combat helmets had been unable to do during a century of use. The helmets were originally designed to minimize injuries from high-speed metal or non-metal fragments created by exploding artillery shells, hand grenades or explosions in general.

In Vietnam, 15.7 percent of American combat deaths were caused by IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices, while in Iraq and Afghanistan IED deaths were initially 60 percent, and then declined. Casualties were avoided or made less severe with the development of MRAP armored trucks. Heavy use of these vehicles reduced the impact of the explosives. The roadside bomb was a much less effective weapon, a loser's weapon, because it killed more civilians than enemy troops riding in their MRAPs and other armored vehicles. This played a major role in turning local civilians against the Iraqi terrorists and Afghan Taliban.

Aircraft-related deaths from crashes were 14.6 percent of the combat fatalities in Vietnam, while it was only a few percent in Iraq and Afghanistan. The current helicopters were built with Vietnam experience in mind, and are more resistant to damage and safer to crash land in. Ground vehicle related deaths were two percent in Vietnam, but more than double that in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of the ground vehicle deaths were non-combat related. That's because from World War II to the present, the U.S. armed forces put huge numbers of trucks and other vehicles on roads, many of them poorly maintained, or shot up, at all hours, in all weather and with drivers fighting fatigue. There being a war on, the vehicles often proceeded at unsafe speeds.

What made the experience so different in the 21st century, versus 20th century wars? It was a combination of things. The most important difference is that the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were fighting smarter. While the Vietnam era troops were representative of the general population, the post-Vietnam era army was all-volunteer and highly selective. The troops were smarter, healthier, and better educated than the general population. In the 1970s the United States eliminated peacetime conscription and all recruits after that were volunteers. During the first three decades of all-volunteer soldiers, new attitudes developed throughout the army, which always got most of the conscripts. The army, so to speak, became more like the marines, which were always all-volunteer, and more innovative as a result. This ability to quickly analyze and adapt gets recognized by military historians, and other armies, but not by the media. It also saves lives in combat.

This innovation has led to better training, tactics, and leadership. Smarter troops means smarter and more capable leaders, from the junior sergeants leading fire terms of five soldiers all the way up to the generals running the whole show. Smarter troops lead to tactics constantly adapting to changes on the battlefield. The better tactics, and smarter fighting, has been the biggest reason for the lower death rate.

Better weapons and equipment have made U.S. troops less vulnerable to attack. GPS guided weapons made the biggest difference. There were now GPS guided bombs, shells, and rockets. This enabled troops to hit a target with the first shot while safely being closer to the explosion and better able to move right in after the bomb or artillery shells explode and deal with armed enemy survivors. Another benefit is that there are much fewer civilian casualties. In both Iraq and Vietnam, the enemy frequently used civilians as human shields, and the better trained American troops were able to cope with this in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And then there was night vision gear. This first appeared during Vietnam, but in four decades, the devices got better, lighter, and cheaper. Every soldier has night vision now, as do most combat vehicles. There are also better radios, better uniforms, and even better field rations. It all made a difference.

Then there was the Internet, which enabled the troops to get in touch with each other. This made a big difference. Not just for the combat troops, but also for the NCOs and officers. Each community had different problems and solutions. With the Internet, they could easily discuss problems and quickly share successful solutions. The troops did this by themselves, and it was up to the military to play catch up. Life-saving tips are passed around with unprecedented speed. This made a major difference in combat, where better tactics and techniques save lives.

Computers and video games had an impact as well. There have been three decades of troops who grew up with PCs and video games. It was the troops who led the effort to computerize many military activities, and video games evolved into highly realistic training simulators. The automation eliminated a lot of drudge work, while the simulators got troops up to speed before they hit the combat zone. Computers also made it possible to do things with information, especially about the enemy, that were not possible before. A lot of troops instinctively understand operations research and statistical analysis, and they use it to have good effect. Research has also shown that heavy use of video games trains the user to make decisions faster. That's a lifesaver in combat.

Drones and electronic force trackers showing where troops were on a laptop screen took a lot of uncertainty out of combat. For nearly a century, the troops on the ground depended on someone in an airplane or helicopter to help them sort out who was where. Early in the 21st century the observer overhead was replaced by robots. Drones, especially the handheld drones ones every infantry company has, gave the ground commander his own recon aircraft. He controls it, and it works only for him. Combat commanders now have a top-down view of their troops, and the enemy. This has made a huge difference, creating some fundamental changes in the way captains and colonels command their troops. For higher commanders, the GPS transponders carried by most combat vehicles provide a tracking system that shows a real-time picture, on a laptop screen, of where all your troops are. This takes a lot of uncertainty out of command, but it will be suicidal in any near-peer war where vehicular GPS transponders will also tell the enemy where American vehicles are.

Living conditions enabled troops in combat to be more alert and effective. Some civilians thought AC, or air-conditioned sleeping quarters for combat troops, and lots of other amenities in base camps, was simply indulgent. It is anything but. Getting a good night's sleep can be a lifesaver for combat soldiers, and AC makes that possible. Showers, internet links to home and good food do wonders for morale, especially for soldiers getting shot at every day. Good morale means a more alert and capable soldier. The combat units often go weeks or months without these amenities, but with the knowledge that these goodies are there and eventually to be enjoyed, takes some of the sting out of all the combat stress. The rate of combat fatigue in Iraq has been much lower than in Vietnam or any previous war.

The enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan was not as effective as the Vietnamese were. The Taliban are more effective than the Iraqis, but not by much. All this is partly due to cultural factors, partly because in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese were sending trained and educated soldiers south. Communist governments believe in universal education for both sexes while Islamic governments, particularly extremist ones, frown on education for women, and few believe in significant training for troops. The North Vietnamese government did train its troops well. The North Vietnamese also had very well-trained commandos called sappers, who, while small in number, caused a lot of anxiety and casualties among U.S. troops. The irregular Viet Cong fighters in South Vietnam were largely gone after 1968 as a result of the failed Tet Offensive. These fighters tended to be more deadly than the average Iraqi gunman or Afghan warrior. Iraqi troops have had a dismal reputation for a long time but they can still be deadly, just not as deadly as their Vietnamese counterparts. The lower fighting capability of the Iraqis saved lots of American lives, but got far more Iraqis, including civilians killed. The Afghans have a more fearsome reputation, but in practice they are no match for professional infantry. And conventional wisdom to the contrary, they have been beaten many times in the past. They are blessed, after a fashion, to live in a place that was not worth conquering, so whoever defeated them soon left.

Finally there is the data advantage. The military, especially the army, has since Vietnam collected massive amounts of information on how each soldier died. There were detailed records of soldier and marine casualties. The army, in particular, collected and analyzed this data, and then passed on to the troops new tactics and techniques derived from this analysis. The army restricted access to the data, as it could provide the enemy with useful information on how effective they were. Some basic data was made public, but the details were locked up for over a decade. Studying this data was a full time job for many people in the military, and there was a constant stream of suggestions resulting from this analysis, and those suggestions often turned into yet another small decline in combat deaths.
Nigerian actor Femi Branch has taken a swipe at colleagues who dont completely embody their characters, describing them as frauds and unprofessional.

During a recent chat with HipTV, shared on Instagram on Wednesday, he expressed displeasure over actors who make little to no effort in adapting themselves emotionally or physically for their roles, accusing them of cheating the audience and undermining the essence of acting.

You have someone that calls himself an actor and he has just one look in every film. Im sorry dude, youre not professional. Youre a fraud. Youre ripping off your audience. The audience has to keep convincing themselves that its not youtheyre doing your job for you. Youre giving them stress! he said.

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He stated that actors who fail to convincingly shed their real-life identity place an unfair burden on the audience, making them fill in the gaps of the performance instead of delivering a complete portrayal.

Branch commended Hollywood actors such as Michael Fassbender, Joaquin Phoenix, and 50 Cent for their dedication, highlighting their readiness to make significant physical transformations for their characters.

He noted that actors who lack full commitment are seldom chosen for serious roles because producers and directors can easily tell genuine talent apart from those who are merely pretending.

If you have to go bald, you go bald. If you have to carry warts on your face, you carry warts! Your body doesnt belong to youit belongs to the craft. Thats why youll never see such actors in serious projects. Producers and directors know how to sift the wheat from the chaff.Who cares about your good looks? People are paying for the characters they can relate with, he added.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has asserted that the outcome of Nigerias 2027 presidential election will be determined by the common people grappling with hunger, not political elites.

Makinde made the statement on Wednesday in Ibadan during the official inauguration of the newly elected South-West zonal executives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Addressing party faithful, Makinde dismissed concerns about recent defections from the PDP, including those of governors and other prominent figures, insisting that the partys connection to the Nigerian masses remains its strongest asset.

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People have been asking us as leaders of this party about those decamping, even governors. And theyre saying, Where is this party going? Makinde said.

READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/2027-el-rufai-confirms-coalition-with-atiku-peter-obi.html

He emphasized that defections would not shake the PDP, stressing that it is the widespread poverty and disillusionment among Nigerians that will shape the countrys political future.

Well, I have good news, the governor added. I said to the people that we will not be bothered until hunger has decamped to the ruling party, APC. The day hunger decamps, they should come and tell us, and then we will know what to do.

Makinde further encouraged members of the PDP not to be discouraged by recent political developments. He reiterated the partys commitment to stand by the people and their daily struggles.

There is hunger in the land, and the majority of the people that are hungry will determine what 2027 will look like. So dont be bothered. If any governor likes, let them decamp. We will stay with the people of Nigeria, he stated.
Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, re-assured President Bola Tinubu that no obstacle will stop him from returning to Aso Rock in 2027.

The former governor of Akwa Ibom State led this out on Thursday, while leading the leadership of National Assembly to pass a vote of confidence in Tinubu during All Progressives Congress national summit at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Akpabio noted that President Tinubu will face lesser or no challenge in 2027, unlike 2023 presidential poll.

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He said: If this president has done well, is it not us (National Assembly) that will say so? If he has not done well, is it not us that will give him notice of impeachment?

We are not giving him notice of impeachment, we are giving him notice that it was difficult for you in 2023, but in 2027 I see everything turning around, the number of states that are coming to join you.

READ MORE: Osun PDP Senators Endorse Tinubu For 2027 Presidency

As I was leaving, one senator was dragging my dress today. He said, please take me there, and I said you cant come now. He is a Labour senator but I dont want to mention his name.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Niger State has condemned the recent approval of a 70 billion bond by the Niger State House of Assembly to finance infrastructure projects.

The party described the move as fiscally irresponsible and insensitive to the economic struggles of the citizens.

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On Wednesday, Yahaya Abdullahi Ability, the PDPs State Vice Chairman and Zonal Chairman for Niger North, expressed strong disapproval of the governments decision.

READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/2025-utme-no-deliberate-attempt-to-sabotage-effort-of-any-region-oloyede.html

He argued that the states growing debts and poor budget execution make further borrowing unjustifiable. According to Ability, The governments continuous reliance on loans has not yielded tangible development or improvement in the lives of the people.

The bond issuance was requested by Governor Mohammed Umar Bago and approved after a review by the House Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by Aliyu Sheshi Wushishi.

The 70 billion forms part of a planned 100 billion NCNI Private Bond issuance over a 10-year period aimed at financing key infrastructure in the state.

Despite the approval, Ability questioned the necessity of additional borrowing, emphasising that Niger State should instead focus on prudent management of existing resources to address its infrastructure deficits.

He urged the governor to prioritize transparency, accountability, and responsible governance in managing state funds.

Ability further called on the government to shift its attention toward meeting the urgent needs of Niger State residents rather than increasing the states debt burden.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has ruled out the possibility of adopting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a platform for the proposed opposition coalition, declaring that the party is beyond repair.

Speaking to news men on Wednesday, Lawal said, In all the analysis I have seen so far, nobody has said we should adopt the PDP because we have all agreed that the party has an incurable virus, and anti-biotics cant cure it  so we cant go into a house that is not remodified and not willing to change.

According to him, prominent Nigerian politicians are actively working to form a united opposition, but consensus has been reached that the PDP cannot be part of it due to its long-standing issues.

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He emphasised that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has been one of the most consistent figures pushing for this coalition.

In most of the political meetings I have attended with regards to merger or the new political platform, I have run into Atiku severally  he has been an active participant In fact, he is one of the most committed to this course, Lawal noted.

He added that the coalition is being driven by technical committees analyzing which platforms are suitable for a united front, and the PDP does not meet the criteria due to its internal problems.

In a personal remark, Lawal addressed criticisms of religious bias, saying, Im a trained pastor so if you call me a Christian religious bigot, Im very happy because its a compliment.
The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the healthcare sector of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), citing a worsening crisis that threatens the lives and well-being of residents.

This resolution followed a motion moved by Rep. Nnamdi Ezechi (PDP-Delta) during plenary on Wednesday in Abuja. Ezechi decried the alarming condition of hospitals and medical facilities across the FCT, describing them as overstretched and ill-equipped to meet the growing healthcare demands.

According to him, the FCTs population has surged in the last two decades, yet government hospitals have seen little to no expansion. He noted that this disparity has led to a severe shortage of hospital beds and critical medical personnel, often forcing patients in dire need of care to endure long wait times or go unattended.

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READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/05/2025-utme-no-deliberate-attempt-to-sabotage-effort-of-any-region-oloyede.html

Concerned that the lack of sufficient medical personnel, including doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers, further exacerbates the crisis, reducing the quality of care and increasing the burden on the few available staff, Ezechi stated.

The House called for the urgent release of emergency funds to upgrade medical infrastructure, acquire essential equipment, and embark on the recruitment of health workers.

Ezechi further warned that if swift interventions are not taken, the situation could escalate to unmanageable levels, undermining the right to health and threatening the well-being of residents in the nations capital.

The lawmakers unanimously adopted the motion, reinforcing the need for a strategic overhaul of the FCTs healthcare system to avert further loss of lives and ensure improved health outcomes.
Borno State Governor, Babangana Zulum has alleged that some politicians and members of the armed forces are acting as informants for Boko Haram insurgents.

Speaking on Wednesday during an interview with Channels Television, Governor Zulum commended President Bola Tinubus initiative to establish forest guards against terrorist.

He noted that these guards should be recruited from local communities within the states.

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The Governor said: We have informants and collaborators within the Nigerian armed forces, within the politicians, and within the communities.

What we shall do is to strengthen our intelligence and to deal with them ruthlessly.

Lets remove contractocracy. In six months, we can put an end to this madness. We need not politicise insecurity.

Insurgency will never be ended by kinetic measures alone. We must ensure that the non-kinetic measures are also properly put in place.

READ MORE: Gov Zulum Accuses Security Personnel Of Promoting Insecurity In Borno

What I mean by non-kinetic measures is social, political, and economic dimensions of the crisis. Our ongoing non-kinetic measures have yielded positive results with the support of the Nigerian military.

Addressing the issue of surrendered insurgents, the governor said most of them have turn over a new leaf.

I cannot completely say that 100% of those people who have surrendered are doing the right thing, but I want to assure you that over 99% are doing well and are not participating in the ongoing terrorism.
Ellen Shepp, owner of Joan Shepp, a luxury clothing store in Center City, poses for a portrait outside a new location of the store in front of Rittenhouse Square on Walnut Street on Monday, May 19, 2025. Shepp says the new location is set to open this September. Read more

Ellen Shepp stands in front of 1905 Walnut St.  the new home of Joan Shepp, her mothers eponymous womens wear boutique.

Oh my goodness, is this what I think it is? asks Clio Mallin, an Old City dweller and longtime Sheppy.

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Yes, this is our new space, Shepp confirms, her signature blonde curls bouncing over her fitted black blazer. She stands proudly in front of her new location in the annex of Rittenhouse Plaza, sandwiched between the upscale gym Equinox and the childrens specialty store Born Yesterday. Across the street is Rittenhouse Square, its verdant foliage swaying in the cool spring wind.

You are back on Walnut Street where you belong, Malin exclaimed.

After 11 years at 1811 Chestnut St., Joan Shepp is moving back to Walnut, three blocks from its first Center City location at 1616 Walnut St.

Joan Shepp opened her first womens wear boutique in Lafayette Hill in 1972. She moved to Walnut Street in 1991 and during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Joan, joined by Ellen, introduced Philly women to architectural designers Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto, and Dries van Noten.

Their keen eye and style ethos fostered a bustling fashion community that included homegrown specialty boutiques Knit Wit, Toby Lerner, and Coeur, and high-end luxury brands like Tiffany & Company and Michael Kors.

In the mid-2010s, when rents on the then-popular Walnut Street hub nearly tripled, Joan Shepp moved to Chestnut Street, across from Boyds and a block west from Blue Sole, where it thrived as a fashion concept store.

Ellen Shepp is clear: Chestnut Street has been good for business, but with the lease up and the Rittenhouse Plaza Annex available, she had to make the fashion move.

It was a gift waiting for us, said the younger Shepp, who is at the helm now. (Mama Joan  in her dark sunglasses and classic black  isnt shy about giving Ellen her creative input and chatting it up with customers.) Being back on Walnut Street and across from the park, thats the icing on the cake.

The Rittenhouse Plaza Annex  formally the home of Perry Milous pop-up  is undergoing a major renovation to accommodate Joan Shepp.

Joan Shepps new digs will be open for business in September, right in time for fall fashion season. It will occupy two floors each with 2,000 square feet of retail space. The store will continue to carry fashion crowd-pleasers Norma Kamali, Sacai, Junya Watanabe, and Issey Miyake as well as a stable of new made-in-America brands, gifts, home decor, and jewelry.

We are staying true to our brands and customers, but we will have a few new tricks up our sleeve, Shepp said.

With the Laurel,  Philadelphias tallest luxury penthouse building  the Rittenhouse Plaza, Equinox, and now Joan Shepp on the 1900 block of Walnut Street, there is new retail and residential energy on the once-quiet blocks west of Rittenhouse Square.

The addition of restaurateur Michael Schulsons Mediterranean Dear Daphni in the ground floor of the Laurel and the coming of Stephen Starrs highly anticipated Italian trattoria Borromini opening in the old Barnes & Noble at 1805 Walnut St., promise increased foot traffic, always the ideal for a specialty store.

Nineteenth Street curls at the edge of the park, said Corie Moskow, executive director of Rittenhouse Row, the upscale neighborhoods nonprofit championing area businesses. On weekends, the farmers market fills the park, musicians play jazz. We have the excitement of Rescue; it all adds for new excitement.

With more University of Pennsylvania and Drexel students living in Center City and commuting on Walnut Street, Shepp is predicting new customers to her iconic Philadelphia fashion haunt.

Mom and I looked at the space 12 years ago and it wasnt quite the right time, Shepp said. Everything has fallen into place. This is the perfect match.
Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial, center, arrives at the courthouse in 2023 with attorneys Brian McMonigle, left, and Fortunato Perri Jr., right. Read more

Former Philadelphia Police Officer Mark Dial was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and related crimes Thursday for shooting Eddie Irizarry to death in 2023, but he was acquitted of the more serious charge of third-degree murder.

The jury found that Dial, 29, acted unreasonably and recklessly when he shot Irizarry six times through his car window in Kensington. Dial was also convicted of recklessly endangering another person and possessing an instrument of crime.

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Prosecutors said Irizarry, who was sitting in the drivers seat of his car, holding a knife with the windows rolled up, was not an imminent threat to Dial when the officer opened fire within six seconds of encountering him on Aug. 14, 2023.

And they said Dial acted irrationally after his partner, Michael Morris, yelled Knife! as they approached the car.

Dials attorneys disputed those assertions, saying Morris yelled Gun! when he first looked into the car, and they argued that the seven-inch knife Irizarry was holding resembled a firearm. Dial, they said, acted lawfully and in self-defense.

The jury disagreed. After about eight hours of deliberations following a trial that spanned about 2 days, the panel of 10 women and two men unanimously agreed the officers behavior was criminal.

As the verdict was read aloud Thursday, Dial at first breathed a sigh of relief as the jury said he was not guilty of murder. But as the rest of the verdict was read  convictions for three crimes that could send him to prison for years  he lowered his head and wept.

In the moments after the jury left the room, Dial cried into the shoulders of his attorneys, and then he walked into the arms of his mother. She touched the side of his face and wept with him.

And on the other side of the courtroom, Irizarrys family leaned into one another and cried tears of relief.

Zoraida Garcia, Irizarrys aunt, embraced Assistant District Attorney Karima Yelverton and thanked her.

I am praying for yall, Yelverton said through tears.

Prosecutors asked that Dials bail be revoked and that he be held in custody ahead of his July sentencing. Common Pleas Court Judge Glenn B. Bronson denied that request, saying the officer was not a flight risk or a threat to the community.

Dial left the courthouse Thursday surrounded by his family without speaking to reporters. His attorneys, Brian McMonagle and Fortunato Perri Jr., said they were glad he was acquitted of murder but disappointed that he was convicted of anything.

This was not a malicious killing. This was a mistake, Perri said.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the verdict. District Attorney Larry Krasner, in a statement, said his office remains committed to fair and even-handed justice no matter who the offender or victim may be.

While we believe most sworn law enforcement personnel carry out their responsibilities with integrity and professionalism, we believe todays conviction  was both fair and just, said Krasner, who on Tuesday won the Democratic primary election that all but ensures he will spend another four years as the citys top prosecutor.

The verdict marked the conclusion of a case and a shooting that drew scrutiny from some members of the public, who questioned why Dial so quickly resorted to deadly force.

Dial took the stand Wednesday and explained his decisions for the first time, testifying that he heard Morris say gun as he approached Irizarrys drivers-side window. And as Irizarry lifted his arm toward him, he said, he thought the 27-year-old was pointing the barrel of a firearm at him.

It was black and metallic. It had a shine to it, and the end of it looked like it was pointed right at me, he said.

He didnt want to shoot, he told the jury amid tears, but did so because I didnt want to get shot in the face.

Dials attorneys contended that his decision to shoot was justified under Pennsylvania law, which allows an officer to use deadly force if he believes he or someone else is in danger of death or bodily injury.

Jurors rejected that view.

The case had taken a circuitous path through both the courts and the police department. In the weeks after the shooting, protests erupted throughout the city, in part because officials initially provided a false narrative of what happened.

Police first said Irizarry was out of his car, and had lunged at Dial with a knife, leading the officer to shoot him. Video released in the days after showed that was not true  Irizarry had never gotten out of his car, and his windows were rolled up when Dial shot him.

Advocates and members of Irizarrys family took to the streets, calling for Dial to be fired and charged with a crime.

Shortly afterward, then-Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw fired Dial after she said he refused to cooperate with an internal investigation into the shooting. And a few weeks later, Krasner charged Dial with murder and related crimes.

Then, in September 2023, after a Municipal Court judge dismissed all charges against Dial at a preliminary hearing, some protests turned violent. Groups of people broke into and vandalized stores across the city, even as Irizarrys family called for peace. (Prosecutors refiled the charges and the case proceeded toward trial.)

At least a dozen Philadelphia police officers and members of the Fraternal Order of Police gathered inside the courtroom during the trial in support of Dial and his family.

Dial is the second officer in less than three years to be convicted of voluntary manslaughter for an on-duty killing. Eric Ruch, who shot and killed Dennis Plowden Jr. in 2017 as prosecutors said Plowden tried to surrender following a car chase, was convicted of the crime in 2022. He was later sentenced to 11 to 23 months in prison, below the state sentencing guidelines, which called for a minimum of 4 years.

Those same guidelines suggest that Dial face 4 to six years behind bars. The sentence is ultimately at the judges discretion.

Outside the courthouse, under a steady sheet of rain, members of Irizarrys family said they were relieved, but surprised by the verdict. They had walked into court that day convinced that Dial could very well walk free, they said.

Irizarrys father and namesake leaned against a column of the building, steadying himself. After two years of anguish, he said in Spanish, I am at peace.

One less abusing cop on the streets, he said.  Its not exactly how I wanted it, but its what God sent and its what were going to accept.

The family said they would push for Dial to receive the maximum sentence for his crimes.

Remember, his family has him alive, Eddie Irizarry said. They can hug him, see him, visit him. And after some time, he can go back to continue his life. I cant do that with my son. My son is not coming back. I have to resign myself to that.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the fraud conviction of a Downingtown man who was sentenced to prison for lying when obtaining two PennDot contracts that net his company more than $20 million.

Stamatios Kousisis, who was a project manager for Alpha Painting & Construction Co., appealed his 2018 fraud conviction, arguing that while he misrepresented the role of a minority-owned business in the painting projects on I-95s Girard Point Bridge over the Schuylkill and Amtraks 30th Street Station, the projects were completed as promised  and the government didnt suffer economic losses.

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Circuit courts have disagreed on the question of whether a federal fraud conviction is only valid when the victim incurred economic losses, sending the matter to the Supreme Court.

Justice Neil Gorsuch summarized the issue in his concurring opinion: What is the difference between a lie and a criminal fraud?

While justices appeared divided during oral arguments in December, all nine justices upheld the conviction, holding in a majority opinion and three concurring opinions that fraud can be proved in court without a direct economic loss to the victim.

The common law did not establish a generally applicable rule that all fraud plaintiffs must plead and prove economic loss, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the majority opinion," so we will not read such a requirement into the wire fraud statute."

Kousisis and Alpha secured roles in 2009 and 2010 PennDot contracts to renovate the Girard Point Bridge and make repairs around 30th Street Station.

 READ MORE: How the restoration of Phillys historic 30th St. Station became a corruption bonanza

The contracts included a federal requirement that some of the funds go toward a disadvantaged business enterprise, a firm that is at least 51% owned by members of a historically disadvantaged group. Kousisis falsely told the government that he would buy $6.4 million worth of paint from one such business, Marakias Inc.

But Marakias did not provide paint supplies, according to the Supreme Courts summary of the case, but instead filled the role of a paper pusher, funneling checks to and from Alphas actual contractors.

By the time the last coat of paint had dried, Alpha had turned a gross profit of over $20 million, Barrett wrote.

Kousisis was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy in August 2018 after a 19-day trial. He was sentenced in 2019 to nearly six years in prison followed by three years probation.

Lawyers for Kousisis appealed the conviction, arguing that while he misrepresented Marakias role, PennDot got its moneys worth. The project was fulfilled and the government didnt incur economic losses.

The Third Circuit Court rejected that argument, and Kousisis asked the Supreme Court to weigh in.

Lisa Mathewson, an attorney representing Kousisis, said she is disappointed with the outcome for her client.

I expect well see the Court grappling with similar line-drawing problems in a future case, she said.

Ex-Temple dean submitted a brief

Among those interested in the case was the former dean of Temple Universitys Fox School of Business, Moshe Porat, who was convicted in 2021 of orchestrating a fraud scheme to improve the colleges ranking through misrepresentations.

He filed a friend of the court brief noting that students received the education and degree for which they paid, despite the misrepresentation-based rankings.

If the Supreme Court were to reverse Kousisis conviction, Porats conviction would have to be reversed as well, he said.

But the justices agreed that economic loss is not required to prove a federal fraud charge.

In short, the wire fraud statute is agnostic about economic loss. The statute does not so much as mention loss, let alone require it, Barrett wrote.

 READ MORE: Supreme Court tie vote dooms taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma

In concurring opinions, some justices quibbled with nuances.

Gorsuch, for example, agreed with the overall ruling but took issue with a footnote that seems to suggest that misrepresentation by itself, even without injury, is enough to show that a person or a company was a victim of fraud.

The justice says the only way to resolve this issue is to hold that lies without injury are not criminal frauds. In Kousisis case, Gorsuch said, PennDot did not receive what the contractor agreed to, which was both the paint job and the use of a minority-owned firm.

Justice Clarence Thomas, among the most conservative members of the court who has vocally opposed diversity programs, questioned whether the diversity requirement was material to the bargain between PennDot and Alpha.

The conditions had no bearing on petitioners ability to complete their projects, Thomas wrote.

He further questioned the constitutionality of diversity goals in government contracts, but agreed the conviction should be upheld.
May 22, 2025: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was a wakeup call for Germany. The German military, known as the Bundeswehr, was upgraded and expanded. Within two years Germany had, for the first time reached the NATO goal of two percent of GDP spent on defense. Thats more than $75 billion. This pays for an army brigade to be created and stationed in Lithuania, which borders Russia. The Bundeswehr is buying the Israeli Arrow air defense system; to shoot down any Russian missiles aimed at Germany. Other air defense system dealt with drones and aircraft.

At sea the naval branch of the Bundeswehr sent a frigate to help deal with the situation in the Red Sea. The Houthi rebels in Yemen were trying to halt shipping moving north to the Suez Canal or an Israeli port in southern Sinai. For the first time since World War II, a German warship opened fire on an armed enemy. This was part of a multinational effort to suppress the Houthi threat. All that firepower worked, as the Houthis declared a ceasefire because they had run out of missiles, men and militancy.

Unfortunately the Bundeswehr has come up short in the manpower department. While the German government supports and pays for rearmament, many military age German men are reluctant to commit. The Bundeswehr is short a quarter of the personnel it needs to operate all these weapons.

These problems come at a time when the United States has withdrawn its security pledge to support European NATO nations in defending Europe. This is in sharp contrast to the situation before 2022. The United States has had military bases overseas since World War II ended in 1945. These included over 300 installations dispersed throughout 49 countries in Europe and Japan. There were 225 in Germany, but between 1994 and 2014 most of these bases were shut down or transferred to the German Bundeswehr. This gradually changed, especially during the 1948-1991 Cold War. After 1991 American military facilities overseas increased outside Western Europe and by 2024 there were some 800 bases in seventy countries.

By 2009 the dwindling U.S. forces in Europe were turning into museums, literally. There since World War II, American military units casually preserved many historical artifacts. After spending over half a century in Europe, the U.S. Army force went from two corps and over six divisions with 18 combat brigades there during the Cold War, to the current four brigades. During the Cold War, there were over 300,000 U.S. troops in Western Europe. That gradually shrank to about 40,000, and by 2025 there were 84,000 U.S. military personnel in Europe.

Worldwide the United States had, by 2021, 642 bases in 76 foreign nations and 159 in overseas American territories. There are American military personnel in 170 nations worldwide. Some of these are embassy military attaches. There are now 100,000 troops in Germany, Italy and Britain with another 56,000 in Japan, 24,000 in South Korea, about a thousand in the nine Philippines bases and 15,000 in the Middle East. There are 123 bases in Germany, 113 in Japan and 79 in South Korea. These include the modest Al Udeid airbase in Qatar and the massive Aviano military base complex in Italy, which hosts a total of 49 American bases.

Broken down by service there are 220 army bases in 29 overseas locations. The U.S. Marine Corps maintains 31 bases, the U.S. Navy 97 and the Air Force has 170 in nine foreign regions including Japan with 52,852 personnel, the Philippines with about a thousand, Germany 34,894, South Korea 23,732, Italy 12,319, Papua New Guinea a hundred or so, Britain 10,180, Bahrain 3,424, Spain 3,253, Poland a few dozen, Turkey 1,683, Kuwait a few hundred, Belgium 1,119, Australia about a hundred and Cuba 572. There are also many temporary sites for special operations.

One problem with all this is that the Bundeswehr is supposed to have 203,000 active troops, but can only attract 181,000. This may change if Russian forces advance on Germany rather than just threaten to. The last time the Russians invaded in 1945, the Germans fought to the end.
The Philadelphia School District has lost $700,000 to a cyber scam, city and school system officials announced Thursday.

On four separate occasions in the 2023-2024 school year, the district made electronic payments to people posing as its vendors, City Controller Christy Brady said at a news conference. She became aware of the fraud when preparing results of her audit of the district, released last month.

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The district paid $563,151 to a scammer in March 2024, intended for flood damage repair at one of its buildings. It also paid $126,056 for compensatory educational services for students with disabilities in February and March of that year.

In both cases, the actual vendors emails had been hacked.

No payments were made beyond what was owed to the vendors, officials said. Money came from both the districts operating and capital budgets, officials said.

We believe payments were diverted by malicious actors through [electronic transfer] fraud, resulting in the school districts vendors not receiving the funds, Brady said.

The payments have not been recovered, officials said.

The scammers appeared to have gained access to the school districts banking data or manipulated existing payment systems to send unauthorized funds to their own accounts, Brady said. (The district typically issues paper checks to all vendors, officials confirmed.)

Brady alerted the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office and requested an urgent investigation.

It is unknown if the fraudulent actors employed tactics that would allow them to embed themselves into the financial workflow or systems, resulting in [electronic payment] fraud incidents in addition to what we have been provided to date, Brady wrote in a letter to state Attorney General Dave Sunday.

Brady said the district has been fully cooperative, and described the current process as a joint effort among government agencies, united by a shared goal: to ensure taxpayer dollars are dedicated to meeting educational needs and enriching student experiences.

She said she could not provide further information, including the vendors or financial institutions involved, but Superintendent Tony B. Watlington, who appeared at the news conference, said that two vendors were involved, and that the fraud was reported to the FBI and the districts office of inspector general as soon as it was discovered.

Watlington said the district is absolutely committed to transparency and noted that the scam happened in a world thats become increasingly complex with cyber issues.

District officials said neither the districts financial nor student data management systems were compromised.

To combat cyber fraud, the district has implemented several measures, including revising bank confirmation processes, improving the process to validate payment changes with vendors, and strengthening internal controls, spokesperson Monique Braxton said in a statement.

Brady said city and district officials are on the same page.

The public has a right to know how their money is being used, she said.

City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, chair of Councils Education Committee, praised Watlingtons handling of the situation.

Hes done his due diligence to make sure the public understands everything that has happened, Thomas said of the superintendent.

The district has a $4.5 billion budget to educate 115,000 students in 216 traditional public schools and an additional 80,000 in city charters. In recent years, it has received strong marks for its financial stewardship  its credit rating is the highest it has been in decades.

But financial troubles loom; the district is alone in Pennsylvania, unable to raise its own revenues. Instead, it must depend on the city and state for the bulk of its finances.

Brady, whose office is charged with auditing the district regularly, said she valued the districts cooperation.

By working together, we will assist the school district in recovering any available funds and implementing safeguards to prevent future fraud, Brady said.
Two months after suspending its superintendent, the Washington Township school board is unable to agree on hiring an interim replacement.

The disagreement is part of a growing rift on the board over the fate of Superintendent Eric Hibbs, who was put on paid administrative leave in March.

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The board was scheduled to consider naming an acting superintendent May 20, but there was no consensus on the appointment, said board president Julie Kozempel. The meeting was rescheduled for June 10.

Kozempel said the board has resumed searching for potential candidates to serve as acting school chief while Hibbs remains suspended.

Im trying very hard to bring these two sides together, Kozempel said. We are making progress.

The board has not publicly cited a reason for suspending Hibbs, who has been superintendent since 2023. His contract, with an annual salary of $215,000, runs through 2027.

Marc Zitomer, an attorney for Hibbs, said his client was told earlier this month that he was suspended because of an ethics complaint against him. He called the action vindictive and mean-spirited.

Hes been wrongfully suspended. He will be absolutely vindicated, Zitomer said.

The tension has been brewing in the Gloucester County school system for several months. Board members, residents, and Hibbs have filed numerous ethics complaints, some of which were obtained by The Inquirer, alleging improper conduct and shedding light on some of the turmoil.

The controversy and rancor have left parents and some residents frustrated with unanswered questions at a time when the board faces an $11 million budget gap for the forthcoming school year.

Heres what to know about the situation:

What do the ethics complaints say?

In March, the board hired a conflict law firm to investigate a complaint against Hibbs alleging the superintendent provided preferential treatment to a family member of board member Carol Chila by changing a failing math grade in September 2023.

The complaint, obtained by The Inquirer, names Hibbs, Chila, and Assistant Superintendent Pamela Nathan and was filed with the New Jersey School Ethics Commission by leaders of the Washington Township Education Association.

In mid-May, Robert Scardino, the unions former vice president, said he had withdrawn from the complaint because of a lack of evidence. That left union president Gerard Taraschi as the complainant.

In an email last week, Taraschi said his complaint is still pending.

In his own ethics complaint, filed in February, Hibbs accused Kozempel and board member Elayne Clancy of not following procedures when the board hired Insurance Consulting Services LLC in 2021, prior to his tenure as superintendent.

At an August board meeting, Hibbs said the firm was selected despite ranking last among four bidders. He said the matter was reported to the New Jersey Office of Public Integrity and Accountability.

Quite frankly, Im massively concerned about this process, Hibbs said at the August meeting. This was not OK.

The legal wrangling has caused clashes in board meetings. Three members were barred from discussing the superintendents employment because of the pending ethics complaints; two others have conflicts because relatives are employed by the district. The board had to invoke a rarely used Doctrine of Necessity because it otherwise would not have a quorum.

The commission said Kozempel was authorized to send notices to Hibbs pertaining to his employment and did not have a conflict.

Whats the status of the ethics complaint?

Several complaints have been filed with the New Jersey School Ethics Commission. Pending decisions, the complaints are confidential.

The board hired conflict lawyers Stein, Supsie & Tedeschi at the March 25 meeting and agreed to pay the Forked River firm $165 an hour.

Board member Connie Baker asked if the board would have to vote on when to get the investigation started. The board solicitor reminded her that the board came to some sort of agreement on that in closed session.

Zitomer said Hibbs was notified by the firm on May 15 that it was investigating the ethics complaint against him and that that was the reason for his suspension. There have been no public reports from the firm.

Its embarrassing for the township. It seems like the focus is on infighting, said resident Jim Arpino.

Said resident Tom Baldosaro: It just all seems retaliatory. He filed an ethics complaint against a board member for alleged inappropriate remarks.

When will the board name an acting superintendent?

Since Hibbs was placed on leave, the board has named several acting superintendents, but currently is without one in place.

Kozempel said Dennis Vespe, whose name came up for a vote three times to become acting superintendent but was not approved, has withdrawn his candidacy.

Assistant Superintendent Annette Miller, who filled in initially when Hibbs was suspended, is on leave, due to return Thursday.

Nathan, the assistant superintendent, has accepted a position as superintendent for Edgewater Park schools in Burlington County, effective July 1, according to an announcement.

We are trying to figure out who can lead the district for the immediate future, Kozempel said. Thats been very challenging.

Whats happened with the budget?

The board approved a $167.5 million budget for the 2025-26 school year, but the district cannot finalize hiring until it receives notice from the state on a tax levy increase.

The board approved a 7.13% hike that will add $345 in taxes annually to a home assessed at the township average of $232,000.

Washington Township was among 74 South Jersey districts allowed to apply for a new state incentive program this year that permitted districts to exceed a 2% tax levy cap.

In return for increasing the local tax burden, districts can get additional state aid for 5% of the amount of local taxes raised above the 2% cap. The state can reduce the tax level if it determines the revenues are not needed.

Washington Townships budget called for cutting 84 positions, mostly support staff. It also would eliminate middle school sports.

Officials had said the final count would be determined in coming days. The postponed meeting also means about 180 nontenured employees must wait until the June 10 meeting to learn if their contracts will be renewed.

Because of its budget problems, the district had to send reduction-in-force notices to all employees who could be affected by May 15. The board approved a list of tenured staff at a meeting earlier this month.

I know its stressful for people, Kozempel said.

Taraschi, who represents 800 employees, called the situation nerve-racking, since many are depending on their jobs for healthcare as well as their income.
The Gloucester Township home where Brenda Spencer and Branndon Mosley are accused of confining and abusing Spencer's teenage daughter for years. Read more

New Jersey is not usually thought of as a place that prioritizes absolute deregulation and individual freedom. But when it comes to homeschooling, the state may be even more lax than Texas. It means kids are under the full control of their parents, and abuse can be completely obscured, since school is often the first place children interact with people trained to spot signs of abuse.

A Gloucester Township couple had their first court date Thursday after being charged with abusing, assaulting, and neglecting the womans teenage daughter. The victim, who is now 18, was locked inside their home for years, including inside a dog cage and chained inside a bare room, and sexually assaulted by the man, prosecutors said.

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The woman charged, Brenda Spencer, took the victim out of public school in 2018 to ostensibly begin homeschooling her and her younger sister. The alleged abuse by her and Branndon Mosley remained hidden until the victim escaped from the home with the help of a neighbor earlier this month, prosecutors said.

 READ MORE: Gloucester Township girl was confined to dog crate as part of yearslong abuse at her mothers home, authorities say

In New Jersey, there is essentially no oversight for homeschooling families. There are no required tests to demonstrate that the children are getting an adequate education, and there are no mandated check-ins on the childs well-being. Homeschooling may be a better fit for some students than their available schools, but in New Jersey, the system remains strongly reliant on a blind trust of parents and guardians.

New Jersey is deeply unregulated compared to other states, said Jonah Stewart, interim executive director of the nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

Which means that kids can, in effect, fall through the cracks.

Lack of oversight in N.J. law

CRHE categorizes New Jersey with a group of 10 other states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Michigan, that have the nations most permissible and unchecked homeschooling requirements.

It goes beyond not having mandates for education assessments or welfare check-ins. Under New Jersey law, parents or guardians do not have to notify a school that their child is being withdrawn for homeschooling in most cases. Parents or others teaching the child are not required to hold any certification or to have graduated high school themselves.

The law states that if a local school board somehow becomes aware that any child age 6 to 16 is not receiving an appropriate compulsory education at home, officials may bring charges against the parent or guardian. But without a monitoring system, there is little mechanism for a board to gain that information.

How can they possibly do that without some kind of oversight? said Nina Peckman, an education attorney with Advocates for Children of New Jersey, who works on behalf of low-income families with education issues, including homeschoolers.

Theres no specific guidance as to what that oversight should look like, she said.

This case proves theres a need to revamp and revisit those laws, Camden County Prosecutor Grace C. MacAulay said at a news conference on the Gloucester Township case.

There have been efforts to introduce oversight and more regulation to New Jerseys homeschooling system in the past, but they have largely failed. In 2004, legislators introduced legislation that would have created mandates for academic testing and medical evaluations for homeschooled children after a horrific abuse case brought attention to the deregulated system: A year earlier, police arrested a couple in Haddon Heights who had starved and neglected four foster children who were supposedly being homeschooled. That legislation did not pass.

Lawmakers tried again in 2012, a year after a mother was arrested on manslaughter charges when paramedics found her 8-year-old daughter severely malnourished and beaten to death. The woman was homeschooling the girl and her two siblings, even while the family had been under child-welfare investigation. The proposed legislation would have created education and health oversight and kept families under welfare investigation from homeschooling, but it did not pass either.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association leads a robust anti-regulation lobby that has successfully kept this kind of legislation from being enacted in New Jersey. Similar to the gun lobbys refusal to concede any regulation despite its popularity, HSLDA considers any restriction of homeschooling to be a nonstarter.

Isolation exacerbates abuse

Without more legal protections for homeschooled children, these kinds of abuse cases are likely to continue. CRHE maintains a database of almost 500 cases of publicly reported abuse in homeschooling environments since 2013, called Homeschoolings Invisible Children. It includes over 200 deaths.

Stewart said that they have established a trend regarding abuse, while noting that the database is not comprehensive since it includes only publicly reported cases  ones that are more likely to include previous histories of abuse or social service involvement. (It is currently unclear whether there were any reports of abuse in the Gloucester Township family before the children were withdrawn from school.)

In those situations, parents likely began abusing their children and withdrew them from school as a means of keeping abuse and torture hidden.

School is often where abuse and neglect is initially noticed. Thats where children interface with professionals who are trained to recognize, intervene on abuse and neglect, Stewart said.

Isolation then exacerbates abuse. There isnt a floor in terms of how isolated a victim can be. If a victim who is experiencing severe child abuse is in school  they have social connections that are automatically afforded to them, they said.

Stewart said that CRHE has noted a pattern of how homeschool abuse is frequently meted out disproportionately, as in the Gloucester case, where the victim seemed to experience more abuse than her sister. They said victims can be scapegoated for various problems, or the abuse can be an enforcement mechanism for family hierarchy.

Both Stewart and Peckman are still believers in homeschooling, even while they advocate for more regulation and protections. Peckman said that it can be an excellent option for her families, who are often low-income people who cannot afford to send their children to private schools when their public schools prove to be inadequate or dangerous. CRHE was founded and is staffed entirely by people who were homeschooled, and their network includes many with positive experiences, Stewart said.

" We care about the reputation of homeschooling. We want to preserve whats good about homeschooling. We need to root out these bad actors [who] abuse children under the guise of homeschooling," they said.
The ordering station with menus from the various restaurants at Wonder in Ardmore on April 3. Read more

Wonder, the high-tech food hall offering fried chicken, New York-style pizza, sushi bowls, and prime steaks all in one place, is opening its doors in Cherry Hill next week.

Founded by billionaire and former Walmart executive Marc Lore, Wonder is a cross between a fast-casual restaurant and a tech startup. The company has leveraged ghost kitchens, culinary engineering, and venture capital investments to create what it describes as a new kind of food hall.

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The grand opening of Wonders Cherry Hill restaurant, at 2050 Route 70, in the Market Place at Garden State Park, is slated for May 29. Doors will open at 5 p.m., and the first 100 customers will receive a gift.

There will be 18 restaurants to choose from, including Brooklyns famous Di Fara Pizza and Bobby Flay Steak. Wonder has a handful of in-house brands, like Mexican eatery Limesalt and Burger Baby, and leans heavily on its partnerships with celebrity chefs and well-known restaurants.

Streetbird offers fried chicken from James Beard-winning chef Marcus Samuelsson. The Mainstay by Marc Murphy describes itself as soul-satisfying versions of comfort classics from the Food Network star.

Heres the full list of restaurants coming to Wonder in Cherry Hill:

Limesalt Tejas Barbecue Freds Meat & Bread Yasas by Michael Symon Street Bird by Marcus Samuelsson Burger Baby Wing Trip Alanza Pizza Room for Dessert Detroit Brick Pizza Co. Royal Greens Hanu Poke Di Fara Pizza Bellies Bobby Flay Steak The Mainstay by Marc Murphy Walnut Lane Maydan

The Cherry Hill location will offer delivery across Camden and parts of Burlington Counties.

Wonder has 13 locations in New Jersey with seven others  including the Cherry Hill spot  on the way. In greater Philly, Wonder has set up shop in Ardmore, King of Prussia, and Northeast Philly.
A deputy Bucks County coroner takes photos of the cars that were swept up in severe flooding in 2023. Read more

A state judge dismissed a Bucks County lawsuit that accused 14 fossil fuel companies and a large trade organization of deceiving the public about their role in climate change, which has led to catastrophic impacts in the county due to severe weather events.

Judge Stephen Corr, who was elected to Bucks County Court in 2021, ruled that the lawsuit is preempted by federal law.

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Today we join a growing chorus of state and federal courts across the United States, singing from the same hymnal, in concluding that the claims raised by Bucks County are not judiciable by any state court in Pennsylvania, Corr said in last weeks order.

James OMalley, a spokesperson for Bucks, said in a statement that state courts elsewhere have disagreed that claims such as those brought in the lawsuit are preempted by federal law.

The County intends to appeal the dismissal to the Commonwealth Court, OMalley said.

Fossil fuel companies applauded Corrs decision.

We are pleased that Judge Corr recognized that this case should be dismissed, a Shell spokesperson said in a statement, adding: We do not believe the courtroom is the right venue to address climate change.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson said in a statement: The courts decision makes clear that some issues are much better off in federal court because of their complexity and far-reaching consequences."

Ryan Meyers, senior vice president and general counsel for the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement that an ongoing, coordinated campaign to wage meritless, politicized lawsuits against a foundational American industry and its workers is nothing more than a distraction from important national conversations and an enormous waste of taxpayer resources.

Bucks filed its 172-page complaint in March 2024, following similar lawsuits filed by other states  including New Jersey  and local governments.

 READ MORE: Bucks County sues Big Oil companies for severe weather blamed on climate change

In addition to Shell, ExxonMobil, and API, the lawsuit accused fossil fuel companies including Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and Philips 66 of embarking on a successful climate deception campaign to promote fossil fuels and accelerate global warming, leading to devastating and costly impacts.

As an example, the complaint notes the July 2023 flooding in Bucks County that resulted in at least seven deaths.

These companies have known since at least the 1950s that their ways of doing business were having calamitous effects on our planet, and rather than change what they were doing or raise the alarm, they lied to all of us, Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo said when announcing the lawsuit. The taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for these companies and their greed. (He later reconsidered his support for the suit.)

Though Bucks lawsuit focused on the alleged disinformation campaign of the fossil fuel industry, the actual harm that the county sought to rectify came from emissions, not advertising, the judge said.

A simple reading of the Complaint proves that Bucks County is truly seeking redress for harm caused by climate change, a global phenomenon caused by the emission of greenhouse gases in every nation in the world, Corr said.

The judge, however, rejected the fossil fuel companies argument that Bucks violated the Sunshine Act, a transparency law for public officials, when approving the filing of the lawsuit. (He also said, however, that the commissioners violated the spirit of the act in how they hired an external law firm and filed the lawsuit.)
A man is dead after a pedestrian stop by Philadelphia police officers turned into a physical struggle ending in gunfire.

The shooting happened on the corner of Mutter and West Somerset Streets in the citys Fairhill section just after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday

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Officers attempted to conduct an investigation of the man when a scuffle ensued between him and two officers, according to First Deputy Commissioner John Stanford.

During the struggle, Stanford said, the man pulled a handgun from a bag he was carrying and it discharged. Stanford said it was unclear if the man fired the gun or if it went off as they fought.

Officers then returned fire, striking the man in the torso. He was taken to Temple University Hospital and pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m., Stanford said.

The two officers, who were not injured, have been placed on administrative leave, which is police protocol following a shooting by an officer.

Stanford said investigators were working to gather more details about what led to the shooting, including why the officers stopped the man in the first place.

These officers are charged with coming out here and keeping the city safe, Stanford said. A part of that takes them into situations, unfortunately, like this that occur.
The Rite Aid on 9th Street, near the Italian Market, in Philadelphia. The ripples of the closure of Rite Aid pharmacies may be far reaching and long lasting, writes Priya E. Mammen. As an emergency physician, Mammen says she sees how easily health unravels when community members do not have access to pharmacies. Read more

Ive been thinking of a patient I saw in the emergency department years ago. She came in for evaluation of a headache and high blood pressure. An insurance company or a hospital administrator might look at her case and call it unwarranted emergency care and use it to illustrate unnecessary healthcare expenses. In truth, she tried to do everything she could to avoid the ED. The system pushed her to our doors.

The root of the issue for my patient was her medication. She ran out. Her insurance company mandated that she get her prescriptions through mail order, but her delivery never arrived. After failed attempts to get her medicine, she finally saw her primary care doctor, only to be sent to the ED with a blood pressure of 220/114  a hypertensive crisis that put her at risk of organ damage or a stroke. After I improved her blood pressure, treated her headache, and the social worker helped with her meds, she smiled weakly. You seem to be the only ones who can help me.

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With the news of Rite Aid filing for its second bankruptcy in as many years and preparing to close hundreds of pharmacies across the country, my patient is the perfect illustration of how easily health can unravel without some pills.

Rite Aid is a Pennsylvania company with a 60-year-history, headquartered in Philadelphia, and the greatest number of its pharmacies are here. Philadelphias communities are particularly vulnerable to the impact and consequences of its financial ruin. Large swaths and neighborhoods across the city run the risk of becoming a pharmacy desert.

Pharmacy deserts were first described in 2014 when the prevailing understanding of disparities in access to medications was only affordability. Since then, its become abundantly clear that geographic proximity is a significant factor in availability of medications, as seen in the nations four largest cities and across every rural county.

Even more concerning, pharmacy deserts disproportionately impact communities that are Black and brown (Black, Latino, Native American/ Alaskan), less likely to receive a higher education, under- or uninsured, and are either urban or rural. In rural areas, there is a higher proportion of pharmacy deserts impacting people over 65.

In short, pharmacy deserts are yet another determinant of health burdening individuals and communities who are at risk or vulnerable, through no fault of their own.

As one of the largest cities by land mass and a majority-minority city by population, Philadelphia carries an outsize risk of not having enough neighborhood embedded pharmacies to serve its community. Counties with a high Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) are 30-40% more likely to be sites of pharmacy closures or pharmacy deserts.

For those with chronic disease, such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, or heart failure, missed medication could land them in the hospital  or worse, cause a life-threatening situation. Medications prevent emergency visits, hospitalizations, and worsened disease  all of which cost individuals and the system far more over time.

But chronic disease management is only one of the many ways pharmacies support community health. From vaccine administration across the life span (children to elderly), to reproductive health, overdose prevention, management of acute illness, even access to bottled water and food, to name a few, pharmacies touch every major public health issue Philadelphians face daily.

Even in the city of eds and meds, pharmacists are often the most accessible healthcare providers, embedded within the communities they serve. I have seen the Herculean efforts they go through to ensure people get medications and supplies through the fires in Maui and California, the floods in North Carolina, and every other disaster that has faced their communities.

Ive watched them jump through hoops, unimaginable to me, to get permission to give their patients what the doctor ordered. In 2022, nearly 90% of the U.S. population lived within five miles of a community pharmacy, a reach unmatched by any other healthcare provider or system.

It makes the growing outlier communities even more notable.

The pressures on pharmacies  all of healthcare really  are overwhelming and come from all directions. The profit margins are razor-thin; the responsibilities monstrous. I do not doubt that the leaders at Rite Aid and other pharmacies had no intention of getting into this mess and that they share my concern for their patients and their employees. There is definitely blame to go around.

But finger-pointing does nothing for my patient and the many like her across Philadelphia and the country. It doesnt help the pharmacists, techs, and store employees who face uncertain employment. It all comes down to leadership and execution.

It will fall to the doctors and other healthcare providers in Philadelphia to try to absorb the fallout and bridge the gaps  for the sake of the community.

Ive spent two decades on the front lines of healthcare in the emergency department, and even longer doing public health work within communities. As a doctor, I think about patients and their well-being; as a public health expert, I think about the bigger picture. I cannot shed all that Ive seen, the experiences Ive had or the people Ive worked with to help others. They are always on my mind  even, and especially, when working on an executive level. They shape my missions and goals and drive how I lead and execute.

When will healthcare CEOs and other executives  most of whom have never themselves provided care to others  understand? Health is not a commodity, easily bought and sold as other retail products may be. Failing in healthcare is not a zero sum game.

As weve seen the impacts with hospital closures like Hahnemann, Jennersville, and now Crozer, the ripples may be far-reaching and long lasting. It will fall to the doctors and other healthcare providers in Philadelphia to try to absorb the fallout and bridge the gaps  for the sake of the community.

Unfortunately, people with much at risk and little power, are the ones to bear the consequences. They deserve better.

Priya E. Mammen is an emergency physician, executive, and public health specialist who helps the nations most impactful companies integrate clinical integrity at scale.
If theres one thing all Americans can agree on these days, its the importance of family. The Trump administration  encouraged by conservative pronatalist groups  has equated family with fertility, hoping to increase the birth rate in the United States with a $5,000 baby bonus and a hollow award called a National Medal of Motherhood for women who give birth to more than six children.

Democrats, on the other hand, have focused on strengthening support for families by increasing access to affordable childcare and comprehensive maternal healthcare.

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While national politicians continue to talk about families without much progress to show for it, state legislators have been working together on bipartisan solutions for years. And people across the political divide have begun to rally around one policy in particular: paid family and medical leave.

Everyone experiences lifes ups and downs, such as having children or caring for an ill parent after a stroke. So its hardly surprising that paid family and medical leave is popular across party lines, since it allows workers to keep their jobs when welcoming a new child, caring for an ill loved one, or recovering from a serious illness.

Gov. Josh Shapiro promised to embrace bipartisanship when he was elected to lead Pennsylvania. Now, Shapiro has an unparalleled opportunity to deliver by calling for a popular, bipartisan bill to make Pennsylvania the first swing state with paid family and medical leave. New polling shows overwhelming support among Pennsylvanians of all political stripes, with 81% of voters  including 67% of Republicans  supporting the policy. And polling on a national paid leave program also shows nearly eight in 10 Pennsylvania small-business owners are supportive.

Yet, Shapiro has been silent so far on the bipartisan effort in his legislature  the Family Care Act. The bill would cover nearly all of the states more than six million workers, including the four million who currently lack paid family and medical leave from their employer. The bill would give extra breathing room to Pennsylvania workers, who lose $2 billion in wages each year when they must take unpaid or partly paid leave, and could help the state become a welcoming home for growing families.

The Family Care Act would provide between 12 and 20 weeks of paid leave for workers to bond with a new child, care for a family member, address their own serious health condition, attend to the needs of a military family member, or seek assistance for domestic or sexual violence. People would receive most of their weekly earnings, up to a cap of about $1,350 per week.

Instead, Shapiro has endorsed making Pennsylvania a testing ground for a meager so-called portable benefits scheme, something gig companies like DoorDash, which have a history of flouting workers rights, have pushed for as an alternative to providing robust benefits to their workers.

Shapiros silence is puzzling given the bills strong bipartisan support. Nearly seven in 10 Pennsylvania voters  including half of Republicans  say they would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who champions paid family leave policies. But his silence also places Shapiro in stark contrast to his fellow rising-star governors  Tim Walz in Minnesota, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Gavin Newsom in California, and JB Pritzker in Illinois  who have engaged in a heated race to the top to win and expand paid leave.

By championing the Family Care Act, Shapiro could score a first-of-its-kind bipartisan victory for the nations biggest swing state. This would not only deliver a bipartisan solution for six million Pennsylvania workers but also show workers across the nation  Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike  how Shapiros leadership could help them care for their families.

Rachel West is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and recently served as special assistant to President Joe Biden for labor and workers at the White House Domestic Policy Council. Gayle Goldin is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, previously having served as deputy director of the Womens Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, during the Biden-Harris administration.
The move to sell off the Chester Water Authority is a part of a statewide trend, writes the Editorial Board, one that often results in big payments to local governments and big bills for customers. Read more

America has long been known for its dedication to free enterprise. As President Calvin Coolidge once said: [T]he chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.

That prosperity, however, is not solely the product of entrepreneurs like Bill Gates or Philadelphias own John B. Stetson. It relies on a network of public institutions and public utilities. Education, public safety, transportation, and water have long been provided as government services. Residents and businesses alike have relied on these public entities as they have built their lives and livelihoods.

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The last decade has seen that ecosystem disrupted in Pennsylvania as private companies have gained control over local water utilities. After big payments to local governments, residents get stuck footing the bill  in many cases, rates have doubled or tripled.

The city of Chester, financially distressed for decades and having declared bankruptcy in 2022, is the latest local government to fall under the water privatization spell. Selling off its water system is one of the most viable ways to balance the citys books and restore normal governance.

However, the Chester Water Authoritys fate is now in the hands of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. At the center of the dispute is the question of whether city officials, or members of the authoritys board  including representatives of customers outside Chester  have the right to decide on a sale.

 READ MORE: Municipal water system sales leave customers stuck with the bill | Editorial

The move to sell off the citys water system is part of a statewide trend that began in 2016 when lawmakers passed Act 12  the state law that effectively changed the valuation process for the utilities across Pennsylvania.

Privatization advocates often present selling a utility as a way for municipalities to garner revenue without spending money or raising taxes. Many municipalities have aging water systems, and updates are expensive. For local officials tired of defending tax hikes, the deals offered by the water companies can sound like a lifeline. After all, what county couldnt use an extra $1.1 billion, which was Aquas offer for Bucks County Water and Sewer?

The issue is that this money isnt free; shareholders will expect it to come back to them in the form of robust dividends. As a result, for customers, these new water rates end up costing much more than any tax increase.

The private water companies often claim that rate increases are needed to invest in maintenance and modernization of existing systems, but upgrades do not appear to be as much of a concern for either Bucks County Water and Sewer or the Chester Water Authority, which are well-regarded agencies with highly rated water quality. Purchasing these utilities can provide a return to shareholders much faster than systems that require millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades.

Theres evidence that Pennsylvanians are tired of these water privatization efforts. On Tuesday, Pittsburgh overwhelmingly voted to ban the sale of its citys water authority, Pittsburgh Water.

 READ MORE: Its time to repeal the Pa. law that allows the sale of municipal water systems | Editorial

Still, faced with decades of budget shortfalls and state management, selling off the water system, which mostly serves customers outside of Chester itself, seems like an ideal solution to many in Pennsylvanias oldest city.

In time, however, Chester residents will also suffer from the choice to privatize the water authority. After all, their rates will also likely rise under privatization, leaving them paying more each year for the exact same water as before.

Instead of selling to a private company, Chester should explore a regional public partnership.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has rightly criticized the private equity-engineered downfall of hospital systems like Crozer. If the state government worked with Delaware and Chester Counties on a joint purchase of the water authority, it could accomplish the goal of providing needed cash to Chester City while ensuring public ownership of the water authority.

Rather than generating enough revenue to reward shareholders, the authority would be charged with the more affordable challenge of recouping the costs of the bond.

Lawmakers should also consider making changes to Act 12 by limiting how much companies can increase rates each year. Otherwise, Pennsylvania risks the ignominious distinction of being a place where alcohol is sold by the state while water is controlled by private companies.

Editors Note: An earlier version of this editorial mischaracterized a legal dispute over the ownership of the Chester Water Authority. Although a Commonwealth Court ruling found that the authority is presumptively owned by the city, the state Supreme Court has not yet issued an opinion on that question.
Demonstrators protest outside the Hennepin County Government Center on March 7, 2021, in Minneapolis. Activist groups protested ahead of jury selection in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd in May 2020. Read more

Five years ago this Sunday came the nine minutes and 29 seconds that changed the world.

Or so it seemed at the time.

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On May 25, 2020, and for weeks after, the viral video of white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by pressing his knee into the neck of the unarmed and gasping Black man for those agonizing minutes triggered the largest protest movement in American history.

Its estimated that at least 15 million Americans, and maybe 26 million or more, chanted Black lives matter! and marched through the streets, not just in the usual places like D.C. or Philly but in small rural towns like Parachute, Colo., population 1,100. A future GOP presidential candidate sponsored Senate legislation to rein in rogue cops. Fortune 500 companies tripped over each other to tweet first, and most forcefully, about their commitment to an American future of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

They called it a racial reckoning, but no one in that unforgettable spring of 2020 reckoned on how this would all play out.

Donald Trump, who was the 45th president then and is 47th president today, offered what amounted to his George Floyd fifth anniversary message a few days early, during a rare trip to the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday.

The days of woke are over, Trump told reporters in a heated answer to a question, adding later: The days of that crap are over in this country. Were going to have law and order. It seemed beyond fitting that Trump was responding to a bizzaro-world version of George Floyd  a Black woman, New Jerseys Rep. LaMonica McIver, facing federal felony charges because she touched an ICE agent during a chaotic scrum outside a Newark detention center.

The Trump regimes trumped-up criminal charges against McIver seemed symbolic of a backlash that was epitomized by  yet hardly limited to  the next days announcement by its Justice Department that its undoing a police-accountability agreement with Minneapolis that was reached in the era after George Floyds murder.

Also tossed into the trash was Justices reform agreement with Louisville, after cops there shot and killed an unarmed, sleeping Breonna Taylor during a botched 2020 drug raid.

The assistant attorney general who announced the end of any federal interest in curbing police brutality, Harmeet Dhillon, apparently thinks those resources are better spent on a patterns and practices federal probe into Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson after he took the altar in an African American church and had the audacity to laud his citys hiring of Black officials.

But its not just the nations capital in a DeLorean race back to the future of the 1950s, if not the 1850s. Sometimes it means literally going back, like the Louisiana school district that successfully petitioned for an end to a 1966 desegregation order. The names of Confederate generals are going back on elementary schools and military bases. Pittsburgh just ditched its first Black mayor for a race-baiting opponent who falsely claimed that crime was rising there.

The corporations that once raced to brag about their commitment to diversity are today pounding the delete button faster than an internet cat, desperate to disappear any reference to DEI before the regime calls them out.

Nationwide, police officers are killing more civilians now than they did in 2020, the year of the protest marches. The D.C. street near the White House where city leaders painted Black Lives Matter in 2020 has been torn up under pressure from Republicans, its letters permanently erased.

On the fifth anniversary of his murder, George Floyd must be spinning in his grave. Roughly two months of hope that the indelible image of a horrific and senseless police murder would finally spark an honest conversation around structural racism in America and end a repressive, warrior-cop model of policing, has faded into four years of relentless backlash.

The surge of public support for Black Lives Matter proved as ephemeral as a May wind  boosted by millions seeking an emotional release amid months of COVID lockdown, but not the hard work of a permanent social movement.

But the images of their high school kids or next-door neighbors in the streets of towns like Mount Vernon, Ohio, or Chambersburg, Pa., demanding racial justice clearly terrified a big swath of white America. When the echoes of protest faded, an army of reactionaries went to work.

A Fox News endless tape loop of cherrypicked flashes of arson or looting in the immediate aftermath of Floyds murder inspired so-called thought leaders on the right to misuse scary-sounding terms like critical race theory to pump up a moral panic about the alleged school indoctrination of young people. These false prophets rebranded their desire to preserve white privilege as a war against wokeism. For many voters, the backlash offered a rationale to return Trump  despite a largely failed first term and a 34-count felony conviction  to the White House to crush what was unleashed on May 25, 2020.

The raising of consciousness that came about from the George Floyd movement, and the immense  not only national but international  protest ... some of the reason of consciousness from that still remains, but it lacks the sort of muscle that it had back then and for a variety of reasons," Jason Williams, an associate professor of justice studies at Montclair State University who researches the Black Lives Matter movement, told me. He said the movement is fairly dormant now  discouraged and to some extent silenced by Trumps victory.

Thats true, but theres also a powerful argument that an anti-woke Republican won in November 2024 because of the post-Floyd backlash.

In the spring of 2021, I spent a week in Knox County, Ohio, which voted 70% for Trump in 2020 and surrounds the ultra-liberal campus of Kenyon College. The county seat, Mount Vernon, had been roiled the year before when 700 people  including many students and teachers from the local high school  staged a Black Lives Matter march.

Some of the shocked pro-Trump locals I later interviewed said they watched the march with open-carry firearms; one recalled declaring: Were just here to protect property and make sure nothing gets burned down. Right-wingers in Mount Vernon organized for weekly counterprotests that merged COVID-era paranoia with vitriol toward the woke protesters.

The physics of American history is that for every action  the end of slavery, or the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s  there is an opposite and often greater than equal reaction, drawing us ceaselessly back to our past.

The 2020 protests awakened the ghosts of Colfax, Tulsa, and the 16th Street Baptist Church, and a new class of media hucksters and pseudo-intellectuals was there to exploit them.

None more so than Chris Rufo, a second-tier pundit who rose as the brains of the George Floyd backlash. After the death of George Floyd in 2020, it seemed like all of our institutions suddenly shifted overnight, Rufo claimed amid a flurry of Fox News and podcast appearances that popularized his misused scare term of critical race theory in classrooms.

The push merged quickly with the unrest over pandemic-era school closings and lockdowns, and fueled a national network of book-banning groups like Moms for Liberty. And while many of the Black Lives Matters marchers rested their weary feet, entrenched interests like police unions, their lobbyists, and the lawmakers they finance, went to work.

 READ MORE: Children of the 1960s watch in pain as the story of our lifetime is erased | Will Bunch

The handful of Republicans whod briefly backed the legislation sponsored by Black South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which sought to limit so-called qualified immunity that shields cops from accountability over alleged brutality, walked away from it.

Instead, the party rallied behind Trump, who promised voters to cut money to any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.

To be sure, there has been a scattered but significant push for overdue police reforms on the local level. Writing this week in the Washington Post, law professor Paul Butler hailed remarkable transformation in police practices happening where change in the criminal legal system matters most: at the state and local levels, and hes not wrong.

Weve seen it here in Philadelphia, which enacted a law to ban the sometime frivolous police traffic stops linked to a disproportionate number of shootings, and in places like Denver, a leader in sending mental health professionals on calls that used to be handled by cops.

But these changes are getting swamped by an almost manic push with the Trump restoration to undo civil rights reforms enacted in the 1960s, end all federal support for police reform, pardon or undo convictions against cops accused of brutality, defund schools that dont drop anti-racism measures, and pressure corporations to drop their DEI initiatives.

Some right-wing pundits even want Trump to wipe out the federal conviction of Floyds murderer, Chauvin, with a pardon, even though that wouldnt undo his state conviction.

Its become almost impossible to imagine how the spark of positive energy that swept America five years ago could be reignited, and that was before a repressive Trump regime arrived with threats to crack down on protests with arrests, deportations, and possibly invoking the Insurrection Act to call out troops.

You have a lot of folks, too, within advocacy spaces [who are] a little bit afraid to engage at the moment because of the disposition of the current administration and what appears to be a willingness to go after their perceived political enemies, Williams acknowledged. But how much unraveling of 406 years of wildly uneven racial progress will occur if activists wait four years to come out of what the professor called hibernation?

The reality is that 2029 may be too long to wait. On the fifth anniversary of Floyds murder, Id urge people to go back and rewatch those nine minutes and 29 seconds and remember how it made you feel about injustice in America.

And if youre one of the millions who marched that fateful spring, look in the mirror and ask yourself what youve done lately to advance a true racial reckoning, and end abusive policing.

The spirit of George Floyd is pleading with you not to forget what happened that afternoon in May 2020.
Andrew Painter pitched four innings and allowed two runs in his start for Lehigh Valley on Wednesday. Read more

DENVER  The Phillies have been pleased with how Andrew Painters body has been responding as he continues his progression toward his eventual big league debut.

Painters fourth start for triple-A Lehigh Valley on Wednesday evening was on one fewer day of rest. His first three starts were every seven days, but Wednesdays appearance came on the sixth day.

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I would think for the time being [we] stay on the sixth day, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

Painter threw 71 pitches on Wednesday, completing four innings. Painter came back out for the first batter in the fifth, but a poor route by outfielder Gabriel Rincones Jr. to a hit down the right field line resulted in a leadoff triple.

 READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber is making teams pick their poison after reinventing himself as a hitter against lefties

Painter was lifted for Seth Johnson after that. Including the triple, Painter gave up three hits and also struck out seven. He retired the first eight batters he faced until issuing the only walk of his outing in the third inning. Painter allowed one earned run.

Stott not strictly a platoon

With how well Edmundo Sosa has been hitting  .386 entering Wednesdays game  Bryson Stott has often found himself on the bench against left-handed starters. That included Wednesday, when Stott was out of the starting lineup against Rockies Carson Palmquist with Sosa starting at second.

Sosas production has somewhat forced his hand, but Thomson still wants to find a way to get Stott opportunities against lefties, too.

I think maybe one of the days in [Sacramento], I give [Alec] Bohm a day off, or something like that, Thomson said. So Stott plays, Sosa plays.

Extra bases

Aaron Nola (right ankle sprain) increased his activity Wednesday with long toss, but is still not throwing off a mound yet. The Phillies are still planning for him to get on a mound during the trip to Sacramento.  Former Phillies infielder Jean Segura announced his retirement at 35 on Wednesday through a statement from his agency on Instagram.  Ranger Suarez (2-0, 5.09 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale against righthander German Marquez (1-6, 8.78)
DA Larry Krasner exits his polling place on 13th Street with his wife Lisa Rau, right, and his campaign team, after casting his vote in the Philadelphia primary election, in Philadelphia, May 20, 2025. Read more

In many ways, the circumstances of District Attorney Larry Krasners first reelection campaign in 2021  when Philadelphia was experiencing record high levels of shootings and homicides  could not have been more different from those around his resounding win in this years Democratic primary, which came amid steep declines in gun violence.

But an Inquirer analysis of precinct-level results shows striking similarities between his primary win four years ago and his dominant performance on Tuesday, from the neighborhoods where he performed best to his margins of victory across the city.

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 READ MORE: Philly DA Larry Krasner has all but secured a third term. What will he do with it?

Krasners 2021 campaign, in which he defeated former prosecutor Carlos Vega in the Democratic primary, provides a direct parallel to this years race, in which he defeated former Municipal Court Judge Patrick Dugan in another one-on-one primary. In his first win, in 2017, Krasner emerged from a crowded Democratic field, making an apples-to-apples comparison difficult.

There was one major difference between this years primary and 2021: Voter turnout, which is usually depressed during off-year municipal elections, was even lower this year.

 READ MORE: Low voter turnout in Tuesdays primary is a warning sign to some Philly Democrats

Krasner is now poised to win a third four-year term in November because no Republican has filed to run. Heres how this years victory compares to his 2021 run.

A win both deep and broad

Krasners citywide dominance was reflected in neighborhoods across Philadelphia, with the district attorney leading Dugan by a margin of nearly 2-1 with nearly all precincts reporting.

Krasner secured about 95,000 votes, or 64% of the vote, compared with Dugans 53,000, or 36%. The incumbents margin was close to his performance in the 2021 primary against Vega, whom he defeated with 67% of the vote to Vegas 33%.

The two-term incumbent won 43 neighborhoods, while his challenger took 15, an identical split to 2021, according to neighborhood definitions based on census-tract boundaries.

Krasner won more than three-quarters of the vote in 21 neighborhoods. Dugan managed to do so in five. Four years ago, Krasner achieved that mark in 26 neighborhoods.

He exceeded 85% of the vote in West Philadelphia neighborhoods like University City and Kingsessing while also putting up strong performances in West Mount Airy and Germantown.

Dugans gains were far less expansive, though he did have pockets of particularly strong support in more conservative-leaning neighborhoods like Bridesburg, Torresdale, and other pockets of Northeast Philadelphia, where he won more than 80% of the vote.

Both Krasner and Dugan picked up new neighborhoods

While the election map largely mirrored that of the 2021 primary, there were some small shifts.

Most notably, four neighborhoods flipped in 2025.

Krasner picked up Fairhill and Roxborough this year, two neighborhoods he lost to Vega. Meanwhile, Dugan took Frankford and Oxford Circle/Castor Gardens, which Krasner won in 2021. Frankford and Oxford Circle/Castor Gardens both moved away from Krasner by nearly 10 points, the largest shifts in either direction of any neighborhood.

Krasner improved his margins the most in South Philadelphia East, Fairhill, and Hunting Park, seeing shifts of greater than six points in each. Schuylkill/Southwest Center City joined Frankford and Oxford Circle/Castor Gardens as the neighborhoods that moved furthest from Krasner.

Turnout declined, dramatically in some places

Turnout in the race was down markedly compared with four years ago. With about 99% of ballots counted (excluding provisional ballots and flawed mail-in ballots), 149,000 votes were cast in the race, compared with 193,000 in 2021. Thats a drop of about 23%.

That downturn was reflected in neighborhoods across the city, with the biggest drops in places like Bridesburg and Mayfair, which saw declines of nearly 40%. Both neighborhoods were among Dugans strongest.

 READ MORE: How Larry Krasner won Philadelphias District Attorney primary  again

No neighborhood saw an increase in turnout, but Manayunk, Northern Liberties/Fishtown, Fairmount/Spring Garden, East Falls, and West Mount Airy saw declines of less than 15%.

Staff writer Chris Williams contributed to this article.
Pennsylvania Sens. Dave McCormick, left, and John Fetterman play with Fetterman's three-legged dog, Artie, at Fetterman's home in Braddock, Pa., on Feb. 2. Read more

U.S. Sens. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) and Dave McCormick (R., Pa.) will debate in Boston in June, and itll be moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream.

The debate is part of a series called The Senate Project, hosted by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, two organizations named for deceased senators known for their dealmaking during their long tenures.

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The project has held five debates since it first launched in 2022 and aims to encourage dialogue between senators from opposing parties.

McCormick and Fetterman have largely different political views, but have shown a sense of allyship in recent months.

Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, were slated to appear with McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell, to promote a book about mentorship written by the McCormicks called Who Believed in You? But the senators first changed the event location to an undisclosed spot, and then postponed the event altogether after demonstrators said they would protest it.

McCormick recently came to Fettermans defense amid media reports and scrutiny about his health and behavior.

While we have many differences, we are both committed to working together to achieve results for the people of Pennsylvania and make their lives better, McCormick said in a post on X. He is authentic, decent, principled, and a fighter. These disgraceful smears against him are not the John that I know and respect.

The Pennsylvania senators debate will take place on Monday, June 2, at 9 a.m. at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston in front of a live audience and stream live on Fox Nation.

Vigorous and open dialogue is an essential part of our democracy and having these two senators from opposite sides of the aisle discuss important issues of the day is a valuable contribution to the public discourse, said Bruce A. Percelay, chair of the Kennedy Institute.

The first debate for the series in 2022 featured Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent who represents Vermont and caucuses with Democrats.

In 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a Republican senator who represented Florida at the time, and U.S. Rep. Chris Coons, a Democrat who represents Delaware, also debated as part of the series.
Wildwood has gotten fancy. Or, at least, expensive.

People looking to buy luxury Shore homes have widened their searches as prices have risen. Luxury shoppers who got priced out of Avalon and Stone Harbor turned to Sea Isle City. Once Sea Isle City home prices shot up, buyers went to North Wildwood.

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Now, theyre in Wildwood. And homes there are selling for $1 million or more.

Do you think you can guess how much homes cost based on their photos and descriptions? Test your knowledge of Wildwoods new real estate market with this quiz.

Keep scrolling for that story and more in this weeks edition:

Rolling back the clock: Take a look at the Gilded Age mansion on the Delaware River thats getting a $3.5 million makeover. How we got here: Look back at how St. Laurentius went from a beloved church to an empty lot as a plan moves forward to build townhouses there. Homes with a history: See where the Philly region ranks nationally for the age of homes sold in 2024. Cozy by the Shore: Peek inside a young couples first house, which they turned into their dream home.

What are the features of your dream home, whether youve got it already or hope to get it someday? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.

 Michaelle Bond

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All types of homes are getting more expensive in Wildwood. New construction. Renovated older homes. Houses on the water. Basic beach houses.

Folks reactions to Wildwoods home prices tend to depend on where theyre coming from  physically.

To someone from Philly, a non-waterfront property going for $800,000 sounds like the seller is asking for their firstborn child, Wildwoods mayor said. Someone from North Jersey or New York will think there must be something wrong with the property, because its too cheap.

Those are some of the buyers who are helping to push up Wildwoods prices.

Think youve got an eye for expensive homes? My colleague Amy Rosenberg is asking readers to look at a property and guess how much it sold for years ago and how much its going for now.

Read more about whats happening in Wildwood and see how you do on the quiz.

When I talked to the executive director of the Glen Foerd estate in Northeast Philadelphia this week, he told me that a lot of people just know the property as a wedding venue.

But its more than that. The property is

 an 18-acre public park

 a 19th-century estate thats listed on both the national and Philadelphia registers of historic places

 the site of educational, environmental, and cultural programming

 a destination for tens of thousands of people each year who walk, bike, kayak, and bird-watch

 the only Philadelphia estate along the Delaware River that is open to the public

And now Glen Foerd is launching what its caregivers call its most ambitious preservation project  a $3.5 million effort to restore the exterior of its Gilded Age mansion.

The building hasnt seen any real structural renovations since the early 1900s and needs a lot of TLC.

The nonprofit that operates the property  formed in the 80s by neighbors who fought to stop a developer from turning Glen Foerd into a condo complex  is on the hunt for funding to cover renovation costs.

Read more about the property and take a look at some of the elements of the mansion that need to be fixed.

The latest news to pay attention to

Maybe this weekends unofficial start of summer is a coincidence, but were headed down the Shore again.

Or at least pretty close. Emily and Tom Matera bought a house in Linwood in 2023 to be closer to family and Ocean City, where they both grew up.

The couple purchased a 2,600-square-foot home and spent 16 months gutting and renovating it to create their dream home.

The Materas, both 27, wanted their first house to be one they could help design and build. Toms dad, Bob of Matera Builders, oversaw the project. The father and son did a lot of the work, along with help from family members.

The end result is something youd see in the last minutes of an HGTV home makeover show.

Peek inside the Materas home and take a look at the work they did, including a project that gave Tom and his dad some trouble.

 Photo quiz

Do you know the location this photo shows?

 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.

Last weeks quiz featured a photo of a yarnbomb from artist Nicole Nikolich that shows the viral moment of Jason Kelce and the Phillie Phanatic jumping up and down in celebration a few years ago.

The artwork is on a chain-link fence at the corner of East Passyunk Avenue and Wharton Street in Passyunk Square.

If youll be in the city for the long weekend, you may be planning to visit one of Phillys parks. See where Philadelphia falls in a new national ranking of city parks.

And enjoy the rest of your week.

By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirers Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
By handing over yet another iconic motoring brand to a corporate behemoth, the ACCC has effectively adversely altered structure in the Australian insurance sector. This decision will turbocharge market dominance and leave Australians with fewer choices and higher costs, he said.
The ACCC found that the acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in these markets. IAG, said the release, is unlikely to have the ability to diminish prices or supply terms due to its position in the market relative to other insurers.
We anticipate claims numbers to rise as the event unfolds, but our teams are ready to respond, she said. Our thoughts are with the community at this difficult time, and we encourage them to listen to emergency services.
Failure to comply could result in civil penalties, with fines of up to $1.58 million for corporate breaches tied to serious harm, and personal liability for responsible persons if oversight failures contribute to injury or illness.
Aspen promotes Jon Kattman to lead inland marine team

Aspen Insurance has promoted Jon Kattman (pictured above, right) to head of inland marine, where he will oversee the underwriting team, set underwriting strategy, and manage risk for the inland marine portfolio. Based in Atlanta, Kattman has been with Aspen since 2017 and was most recently senior vice president, head of field for inland marine.
The partnership with Costero Brokers also builds on a previous collaboration between the two firms. In an earlier initiative, Tangram and Costero worked together to deliver kidnap and ransom and personal accident insurance through an exclusive facility backed by Brit Syndicate at Lloyds.
The lawsuit brought to light a series of embarrassing exchanges between executives at Marsh where they discussed the escalating financial crisis engulfing Greensill and its main insurer, Australias Bond & Credit Co, in the run-up to Greensills collapse.



In an email exchange from 2020 that was shared with the court, a Marsh executive described the situation surrounding Greensills insurance contracts as a frightening absence of corporate governance: this is fraud which may well be in breach of the Australian legal code as it applies to insurance companies.
Developers, too, need help telling a stronger story to underwriters. Know your properties, know your schedule, and know what you're doing from a risk management standpoint," Kerr said. If your property is a 1970s apartment building but was rehabbed four years ago, know that. Be able to tell that story - wiring to roofing.
Additional provisions address the use of professionals in the damage assessment process. Insurers would be required to hire licensed professional engineers for engineering-related property damage evaluations. If a technician is used, the insurer would be obligated to provide the policyholder with the technicians name, title, and company affiliation. The technician would also be required to submit a certificate of insurance listing the policyholder as an additional insured.
A federal bankruptcy judge in Connecticut has approved a plan involving the Catholic Diocese of Norwich that includes a $31 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The plan seeks to provide recovery to those who suffered abuse and allow the diocese to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The joint plan provides for the creation of independent trusts to oversee the distribution of funds to eligible survivors.

The settlement fund includes contributions from diocesan assets and sale proceeds from diocesan properties, non-debtor assets and properties, insurance contributions, and other contributions.

Contributions include about $5.3 million from insurer Catholic Mutual; $1.6 million from the diocese; $2.7 million from diocesan parishes; proceeds from the sale of several diocesan school properties including $6.5 million for St. Bernard and $2.5 million from Xavier; and $7.0 million from an orphanage in Australia with ties to the Norwich diocese and its clergy.

Judge James J. Tancredi approved the plan that was filed in February by the diocese and the survivors after it received near unanimous support from voting creditors and survivors.

The survivors committee has estimated that the average recovery will be approximately $310,000.

Todays confirmation marks an important step toward justice and healing. We are deeply sorry for the pain suffered by survivors of sexual abuse. Our hope is that this settlement provides a fair measure of compensation and an opportunity for healing, commented Bishop Richard F. Reidy, in a press statement.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in July 2021, citing as many as 60 sexual abuse lawsuits against it at that time. It has since received more than 140 additional claims from abuse survivors.

The settlement was reached after years of negotiations. In 2023, the parties appeared to have an agreement but it fell through.

The Norwich diocese covers four counties in eastern Connecticut and serves an estimated 230,000 Catholics.

Topics Legislation
Russia will defend its vessels in the Baltic Sea by all legal means, the Kremlin said, days after briefly deploying a fighter jet as Estonian officials tried to halt a so-called shadow fleet tanker in their economic zone.

A fairly wide range of means is available; of course, within the framework of international law, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, according to Russian media reports. As recent events related to an attempted pirate attack on one of the tankers have shown, Russia has demonstrated it is capable of responding quite harshly.

The comments come as Baltic nations grow increasingly concerned about the activity of vessels that haul Russian barrels overseas, a key revenue source for the government in Moscow. Theyre worried these ships could cause security breaches, damage power and internet cables and create environmental risks due to their age and insurance cover from lesser-known companies.

Since the vessels didnt sail under a Russian flag, the government in Moscow has so far refrained from direct intervention or comment. However, last week a Russian jet briefly entered NATO airspace as the Estonian navy tried to inspect a tanker sailing with a Russian oil cargo.

Over the weekend, Russia also detained a vessel carrying shale oil from an Estonian port. The ship continued its journey only after two days of being anchored near a Baltic island controlled by Russia.

Baltic leaders have vowed to crack down on shadow fleet tankers in their waters, checking their insurance policies and compliance with international regulations. Several such vessels have been detained by authorities in Germany, Finland and Estonia in recent months.

Earlier on Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says a sanctioned Russian ship was performing suspicious maneuvers near the power cable connecting Poland and Sweden. The tanker left for a Russian port after effective intervention by our military, he added.

While Russia has all but lost the European oil market, Baltic ports remain critical to ship crude and oil products to the region for onward deliveries to Asia and Latin America.

Photograph: The Kremlin in Moscow. Photo credit: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

Related:

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.
Thames Water tops a list of water companies under criminal investigation for pollution by the UK government, a move that could complicate efforts to turn around the beleaguered British utility.

The firm, which serves about a quarter of the UK, faces 31 out of the 81 investigations opened into the sector since July last year, the Environment Agency said Tuesday. The inquiry, the largest such action ever taken against the countrys water companies, is part of a broader crackdown on pollution that could lead to multimillion pound fines and as much as five-year prison terms for water bosses.

This will act as a powerful deterrent, the Environment Agency said in a statement, forcing the utilities to focus on investing to upgrade water infrastructure to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas.

Read more: UK Water Bosses Face Up to Two Years in Prison for Polluting

The UK water sector has been roiled by crises following decades of poor regulatory oversight that allowed company owners to pay themselves billions of pounds in dividends instead of improving infrastructure. Water pollution was a key issue in last years election as untreated sewage entered English waters for a record 3.61 million hours just as water bills were hiked to help curb pollution.

Other companies ranking high on the governments list include Anglian Water, facing 22 investigations. Currently, there are seven cases set to go to court over the next few months, the agency added.

The move comes as Thames, Britains largest water and sewage firm, is looking to restructure its nearly 20 billion ($26.7 billion) debt pile while injecting new equity. It has said the burden of heavy fines could hamper its efforts to turn around its finances and recapitalize the business.

The crackdown also comes as the water industry is bracing for its biggest overhaul since privatization. Former Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe is reviewing the sector.

The situation in the water sector has become intolerable, Environment Secretary Steve Reed told UK lawmakers earlier on Tuesday. We cannot allow sewage to continue. We need to restore the cleanliness of our lakes and seas.

Photograph: A Thames Water Ltd. van at a works location in London, UK, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Related:

Copyright 2025 Bloomberg.

Topics Fraud Pollution
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at Willis in Canada and HDI Global in London.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

Willis Promotes Williamson as Canada Leader

Willis, a WTW business, announced the appointment of Grant Williamson as Canada leader within the Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) business.

In this role, Williamson will partner with the Canadian leadership team and leaders across North America and global specialty lines to drive the Canadian growth strategy through targeted go-to-market initiatives and strengthened local execution. Williamsons appointment reflects the companys commitment to deepening its leadership presence in Canada and driving continued growth in this key market.

With 20 years of experience spanning enterprise risk management, property/casualty insurance, and employment practices liability, Williamson has built a strong track record of delivering client-focused risk solutions.

He joined WTW in October 2024 as deputy regional leader, chief commercial officer, and head of Strategy & Execution for Willis in Canada. Prior to joining the company, he held key senior roles in the insurance industry, including National Corporate Segment & Central Zone leader at Marsh and managing director of the Toronto Branch at JLT Canada.

Based in Toronto, he will report to Ionel Rizea, chief commercial officer, CRB North America.

Grant brings a clear strategic lens, and his expertise in the Canadian market makes him exceptionally well-suited for this role. His collaborative approach, combined with a client-first mindset, will be key as we expand our Canadian presence, commented Pat Donnelly, head of Risk & Broking North America.

***

HDI Global Taps RSAs McDowell as Sales & Distribution Lead for Intl Programs and Captives

HDI Global, the corporate and specialty insurer, announced the appointment of Phil McDowell as Global Sales & Distribution Lead for International Programmes and Captives.

Bringing extensive expertise in the multinational insurance space, McDowell will focus on strengthening relationships with global brokers and enhancing HDI Globals international programmes (IP) and captive offering.

McDowell, a Chartered Insurer, brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at RSA and Allianz. His strategic insight into the multinational insurance sector, coupled with a robust background in relationship management, makes him ideally suited for this role. Based in London, McDowell will operate within the global IP department.

McDowell will spearhead efforts to fortify relationships with global and international brokers. His vision includes enhancing HDI Globals IP and Captive value proposition and driving improvements to the client/broker portal, streamlining the experience for stakeholders.

His collaboration with local HDI Global Sales & Distribution teams will involve launching comprehensive marketing campaigns aimed at both local and global audiences. Additionally, McDowells initiatives will focus on bolstering engagement with key brokers to maintain HDI Globals reputation for exceptional service performance.

We are excited to welcome Phil McDowell to our team. His expertise and approach are vital as we continue to expand our reach in multinational insurance, commented Melanie Windirsch, head of International Programmes HDI Global SE.

Topics Leadership Canada
A man who admitted in federal court to setting the fire that destroyed an eastern Missouri church has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison and ordered to pay the church nearly $7 million.

The sentence for Christopher Scott Pritchard, 49, was imposed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp over the April 2021 fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints building in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis. Pritchard pleaded guilty in December to one felony count of arson and another felony count of arson to a building used in interstate commerce.

The federal public defender representing Pritchard declined comment Wednesday.

The interstate commerce charge came with a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years, and the judge ordered Pritchard to serve nine years and three months. Prosecutors dropped two other felony charges involving damage to religious property.

Authorities have said that two days before the fire, Pritchard threatened to assault a bishop and burn the church down. Officers found more than $1,000 in items belonging to the church in Pritchards backpack, including a laptop, tools and 21 apples, and he smelled like smoke, police said.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Missouri
A Republican proposal to block states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years drew opposition on from a bipartisan group of attorneys general in California, New York, Ohio and other states that have regulated high-risk uses of the technology.

The measure included in President Donald Trumps tax cut bill would preempt AI laws and regulations passed recently in dozens of states.

A group of 40 state attorneys general, including Republicans from Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas, Utah and Virginia and other states, urged Congress to ditch the measure on May 16 as the U.S. House of Representatives budget committee geared up for a Sunday night hearing.

Imposing a broad moratorium on all state action, while Congress fails to act in this area is irresponsible and deprives consumers of reasonable protections, said the group.

The attorney general from Californiawhich is home to prominent AI companies, including OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Anthropicwas among the Democrats who signed the letter.

I strongly oppose any effort to block states from developing and enforcing common-sense regulation; states must be able to protect their residents by responding to emerging and evolving AI technology, Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

California implemented a raft of bills this year limiting specific uses of AI, illustrating the kind of laws that would be blocked under the moratorium.

Like several other states, California has criminalized the use of AI to generate sexually explicit images of individuals without their consent. The state also prohibits unauthorized deepfakes in political advertising, and requires healthcare providers to notify patients when they are interacting with an AI and not a human.

Healthcare provider networks, also known as HMOs, are barred in California from using AI systems instead of doctors to decide medical necessity.

House Republicans said in a hearing Tuesday that the measure was necessary to help the federal government in implementing AI, for which the package allocates $500 million.

Its nonsensical to do that if were going to allow 1,000 different pending bills in state legislatures across the country to become law, said Jay Obernolte, a Republican from California who represents part of Silicon Valley, including Mountain View where Google is based.

It would be impossible for any agency that operates in all the states to be able to comply with those regulations, he said.

Google has called the proposed moratorium an important first step to both protect national security and ensure continued American AI leadership.

That position will be tested if the measure makes it to the Senate. It will need to clear the budget reconciliation process, which is supposed to be used only for budget-related legislation.

Topics InsurTech Legislation Data Driven Artificial Intelligence
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed with Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an aspiring fiction writer and saying another does not care about wasting money. Democrats countered that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldins tenure will likely mean more Americans contracting lung cancer and other illnesses.

The heated exchanges, at a Senate hearing to discuss President Donald Trumps proposal to slash the agencys budget in half, showed the sharp partisan differences over Zeldins deregulatory approach. Zeldin. a former Republican congressman, has said his tenure will turbocharge the American economy while ensuring clean air and water. Democrats say he is endangering the lives of millions of Americans and abandoning the agencys dual mission to protect the environment and human health.

Zeldin, who took office in January, has proposed a flood of changes that would sharply reduce the agencys workforce, terminate billions of dollars in grants approved by the Biden administration and roll back dozens of environmental rules including landmark regulations on climate change and pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Sharp words, back and forth

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Zeldin that a plan to cut EPA spending by 55% means that, to Zeldin and Trump, more than half of the environmental efforts of the EPA  to make sure Americans have clean air and clean water, are just a waste. If approved by Congress, the budget cuts will mean theres more diesel and more other particulate matter in the air and that water that Americans drink is going to have more chemicals, Schiff said.

Your legacy will be more lung cancer, he told Zeldin. Itll be more bladder cancer. Itll be more leukemia and pancreatic cancer  more rare cancers of innumerable varieties.

Replied Zeldin: I understand that you are an aspiring fiction writer. I see why.

Schiff said the real fiction was Zeldins apparent belief that he can cut the EPAs budget in half and it wont affect peoples health, or their water or their air. Schiff said the Republican administrator was totally beholden to the oil industry, adding: You could give a rats ass about how much cancer your agency causes.

Zeldin engaged in a similar rhetorical match with Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Whitehouse said Zeldin and others at EPA have made baseless accusations of fraud about grants awarded under Democratic President Joe Biden, removed career officials who stood up for the rule of law and deployed FBI agents to harass career civil servants.

Questions over whether Zeldin reviewed canceled grants

Whitehouse also challenged Zeldins contention that he had personally reviewed 781 Biden-era grants totaling nearly $2 billion that the Trump administration later canceled. The grants were intended to address chronic pollution in minority communities and jump-start clean energy programs across the country, but Zeldin said they were plagued by conflicts of interest and unqualified recipients.

You dont care about wasting money, but the Trump administration does, Senator, Zeldin said.

When Whitehouse pressed to see Zeldins schedule to prove he personally reviewed the grants before canceling them, Zeldin said hes worked on the issue almost every single day since taking office.

We are cracking down on every waste, every aspect of abuse, Zeldin said, adding that Whitehouse seemed unable to grasp that more than one person could review EPAs grant program.

I am insisting on the facts, Whitehouse said.

American taxpayers put President Trump in office because of people like you, Zeldin replied. They have Republicans in charge of the House and Senate because of people like you. You dont want me to go through the list of all the evidence of waste and abuse.

Whitehouse replied that Zeldin should explain why Justice Department lawyers, speaking under oath on behalf of the agency, have said that everything you just said is not true. Thats what I want.

Photo: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, April 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Pollution
Major airline CEOs on Wednesday called on Congress to approve billions of dollars in funding to modernize the United States aging air traffic control system, saying it is failing Americans.

The Federal Aviation Administrations air traffic control networks woes have been years in the making. But a rush of high-profile mishaps, near-misses and a deadly January crash involving an American Airlines regional jet caused public alarm and prompted new calls for action.

In a joint letter, the airline executives cited recent failures involving Newark Airport and said the FAAs technology is wildly out of date.

Aviation remains the safest mode of transportation in the U.S., but for it to remain so, serious upgrades need to happen now, said the letter, citing a 2023 independent review that raised safety concerns.

The executives called for urgent action as the busy summer travel season begins with the Memorial Day holiday this weekend.

The FAA on Tuesday predicted a record number of Memorial Day holiday flights despite imposing temporary flight cuts at Newark due to runway construction, technology issues and persistent air traffic control staffing shortages.

The letter was signed by the heads of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Alaska Airlines, Atlas Air, trade group Airlines for America and senior executives at FedEx and UPS.

Airlines and others this month called for at least $31 billion in spending on air traffic reform.

The U.S. House is considering legislation that includes an initial $12.5 billion for air traffic control reform efforts.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants billions of dollars to replace outdated radar and telecommunications systems, air traffic control towers and other facilities and increase air traffic control staffing.

The FAA wants funding for new radios, network connections and to replace 618 radars, install anti-collision tarmac technology at 200 airports, build six new air traffic control centers and expand its ADS-B network of real-time aircraft traffic information.

The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels.

Topics Aviation
Swingle Collins & Associates announced the appointment of Dan Curtis as President. Curtis will continue to foster a culture of growth and exceptional insurance services as he succeeds former president Mac Wesson, who will remain with the agency in a production capacity.

Curtis joins Swingle Collins from TriumphPay, where he served as COO of the open payments network for freight brokers, factors, shippers, and carriers in the trucking industry. Prior to TriumphPay, he was President & CEO of BNSF Logistics, a multi-modal transportation leader in the logistics space. Curtis has also held senior financial leadership roles at Greatwide Logistics Services and has been involved in strategic roles at Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, and Ernst &Young.

As president, Curtis will focus on further elevating Swingle Collins standing within the commercial, personal insurance, and employee benefits industries, helping clients navigate an increasingly complex landscape. His experience in mergers and acquisitions will also be pivotal in helping clients seize new opportunities while encouraging the most impactful insurance solutions for their unique situations, the agency said.

Swingle Collins & Associates is a commercial insurance, personal insurance, and employee benefits agency in Dallas, Texas, with additional locations in Fort Worth and San Antonio.
More than two months after a tornado demolished his Mississippi home, Brian Lowery still sifts through the rubble, hoping to find a tie clip his mother gave him, made from the center stone of her wedding band.

I still have hope, Lowery said.

He, his wife and 13-year-old son made it to safety before the tornado ripped apart their trailer home of 15 years during a severe weather outbreak in mid-March. But the recovery since has been slow and painful. Mississippis request for federal aid is still pending before the Federal Emergency Management Agency, meaning badly needed assistance has not yet made it to his hard-hit community of Tylertown.

I dont know what you got to do or what you got to have to be able to be declared for a federal disaster area because this is pretty bad, Lowery said. We cant help you because, whatever, were waiting on a letter; were waiting on somebody to sign his name. You know, all that. Im just over it.

It is not unusual for weeks to pass before FEMA approves a declaration. President Donald Trump has pointed to these waits as a reason he is considering dismantling the agency, calling FEMA very bureaucratic and very slow.

The wait offers a glimpse of what could be in store for communities around the country as the summer storm season arrives and FEMA is mired in turmoil. States including Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma have already been battered with tornadoes this week, setting the stage for more disaster requests to FEMA. And the Atlantic hurricane season is just around the corner.

FEMA is able to respond quite effectively in many ways, but getting the resources to those communities after the fact has been slowed, said Susan Cutter, a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina and co-director of the Hazards Vulnerability & Resilience Institute.

In coming disasters, Cutter said, she anticipates seeing slower progress in getting needed resources to communities in a timely manner.

FEMA acting chief David Richardson has pushed back on claims that FEMA is ill-prepared for severe weather this summer. In an agencywide town hall last week, he said FEMA was to some degree, to a great degree, ready for disaster season 25.

March storms left 7 dead and wrecked hundreds of homes

In Mississippi, nearly 20 tornadoes tore through the state on March 14 and 15, leaving seven people dead and hundreds of homes destroyed or damaged. Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves asked the Trump administration for a major disaster declaration on April 1.

Such a declaration would allow access to an array of FEMA resources, including financial aid for individuals and for government agencies still removing debris and repairing infrastructure.

We dont have a declaration yet. People are still hurting, said Royce McKee, emergency management director for Walthall County, which includes Tylertown.

Walthall County was especially hard hit by the massive storm system that tore across multiple states. The storm spawned two significant tornadoes in the county, where four people died.

McKee said the county has sunk an estimated $700,000 into the cleanup, but it cant afford more. It has halted recovery operations while awaiting federal assistance.

We need federal help, and we need it desperately, and we need it now, said Bobby McGinnis, a Tylertown resident and firefighter. I know President Trump said that  America first, were going to help our American folks first. But we havent seen the federal folks down here.

Requests for help come at a time of upheaval for FEMA

Mississippis request comes at a time of upheaval for FEMA. Its acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, was recently ousted after he publicly disagreed with Trumps proposal to get rid of FEMA.

Richardson, FEMAs new acting administrator, has committed himself to executing Trumps vision for the agency. He also previewed potential policy changes, saying there could be more cost-sharing with states and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance when deemed necessary.

While Mississippi has been waiting, a similar major disaster declaration request out of Arkansas after the storms was initially denied. The decision was then appealed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and finally approved on May 13.

In Missouri, there are frustrations about the federal response to March storms

In Missouri, the federal response to earlier storms is being criticized as residents pick up the pieces after a recent EF3 tornado. Packing winds of up to 150 mph (240 kph), it slammed into parts of St. Louis on Friday.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday that the need was urgent, and she responded by vowing to expedite Gov. Mike Kehoes request for an emergency disaster declaration so the state can get money to clean up the ruble.

That is one of the failures that FEMA has had in the past is that people who incur this kind of damage and lose everything sit there for months and sometimes years and never get the promised critical response that they think or that they believe they should be getting from the federal government, Noem said.

After touring the damage Monday, Hawley began publicly demanding help and expressed frustration over the federal response in March, saying, We cannot wait months. Im not happy about the fact were still waiting from all of that damage two months ago.

Mississippi lawmakers press federal officials about assistance

Mississippi lawmakers continue to press for federal help. At a congressional hearing in early May, Republican Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest asked Noem to push forward the request.

I would ask you if you could make sure that you could do everything to expedite that request, Guest said. It is impacting my local jurisdictions with debris cleanup. It is impacting people as they seek to recover.

Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith also asked Noem about FEMA assistance and the administrations new approach to the agency.

President Trump has been very clear that he believes that the way that FEMA exists today should not continue, Noem responded. He wants to make sure that those reforms are happening where states are empowered to do the response and trained and equipped, and then the federal government would come in and support them and financially be there when they need them on their worst day.

___

Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Photo: Brian Lowery at what remains of his home, which was ripped apart this year. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Windstorm FEMA Mississippi
The owner of a San Jose-based security company was sentenced after a California Department of Insurance investigation reportedly uncovered a multiyear scheme to underreport payroll and avoid paying workers compensation insurance premiums.

Raul Chavez, 40, pleaded guilty to felony premium fraud and was sentenced to 180 days in county jail, two years of formal probation and ordered to pay $225,168 in restitution to the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

Chavez owned and operated Tactical Operations Protective Services, a limited liability company providing security guard, staffing and patrol services in Santa Clara County.

The CDI reportedly received a suspected fraud referral in September 2023 from State Fund alleging Chavez failed to report an employee injury that occurred in June 2022. The referral further alleged Chavez had underreported payroll for multiple security guards over a six-year period.

Chavez transported the injured worker to an emergency room on the date of the injury, but he failed to notify State Fund or report the incident as required, according to the CDIS investigation. The investigation showed that from 2017 to 2022, Chavez falsely claimed to State Fund that he had no employees or payroll. For the 2022 to 2023 policy year, he reported $40,000 in payroll related to the injured employee.

However, the CDIs audit showed that Chavez concealed $3,431,903 in payroll from 2017 through 2023. This underreporting resulted in an estimated $205,565 in unpaid workers comp premiums owed to State Fund.

The case was prosecuted by the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office. Chavez paid his restitution and served his jail time on electric monitoring, according to the CDI.

Topics California Fraud Workers' Compensation
Washingtons insurance commissioner issued more than $500,000 in fines for insurance law violations, including $250,000 against an unlicensed insurer and $30,000 for illegal pet insurance sales.

Between January and April, Washington Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer issued $510,500 in fines for violations of state insurance laws.

Unlicensed Insurer Fined $250,000

United Benefits Partnership Group was fined $250,000 for acting as an unauthorized insurer by offering unqualified ERISA health plans between 2018 and 2019. The company claimed its plans were for general partners within the organization, but purchasers confirmed that they were not employees or working partners and performed no employee-like services. Plans were marketed online, with premiums ranging from $139 to $1,2000 monthly.

Petcube and Vets Plus More Fined $30,000 for Illegally Selling Pet Insurance

Petcube Inc. and Vets Plus More were fined a combined $30,000 for selling unauthorized pet insurance products under their name Emergency Vet Protect Club. Petcube advertised the program as pet insurance on their website, and Vets Plus More, which offered the coverage, claimed it was a telehealth membership. The OIC determined that EVPC met the insurance definition and had not been approved. Vets Plus More had 113 subscriptions, collecting $7,407 in premiums, while Petcube earned $17,787 in revenue.

Other fines included:

ASI Underwriters Corp, St. Petersburg, Florida.; fined $16,000

ASI Underwriters acted as a managing general agent without insurer designation or appointment.

American Strategic Insurance Corp., Carmel Indana, Fined $16,000

The company acted as a managing general agent without the proper insurer designation or appointment.

Acrisure, LLC, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Christopher Felton, California; Larry Gregg, Washington, Fined $25,000

Acrisure, doing business as Falcon Insurance, failed to notify the OIC of its use of an assumed name. Arcisure and Gregg accepted business from an unlicensed producer, while Felton transacted insurance business without a license.

Central States Indemnity Company of Omaha, Nebraska, fined $30,000

The company sold insurance policies for irrigation equipment without filling out the necessary forms and rates.

Dentegra Insurance Company, Wilmington, Deleware, fined $25,000

Violations included failing to use legal names, listing incorrect or missing NAIC numbers, and submitting late responses to consumer complaints.

Farmers Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Warwick, R.I., fined $50,000

Applied incorrect protection class factors on 3,015 homeowner policies between March 2022 and January 2023, impacting customer premiums.

Maple Shade Assurance, LLC, Nashville, Tennessee, fined $5,000

Operated as a captive insurer in Washington without registering with the Insurance Commissioners Office.

St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, fined $3,500

Issued charitable gift annuities without filling required documentation or obtaining prior approval from the OIC.

Bastian Bluming, Spokane, Washington, fined $500

Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell, fined $500

The Insurance Commissioners Office has assessed more than $42 million in fines since 2001. The money is directed to the states general fund to pay for state services.

Topics Carriers Washington
Multiple people on board a private plane that crashed into a San Diego military housing neighborhood during foggy weather early Thursday are dead but no one on the ground was injured, authorities said.

The plane could hold eight to 10 people but its not yet known how many were on board, Assistant San Diego Fire Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference. Authorities will be investigating whether the plane hit a power line, he said.

The aircraft crashed just before 4 a.m. into the U.S. militarys largest housing neighborhood, appearing to strike at least one home that had a charred and collapsed roof and smashing through half a dozen vehicles. About 10 homes suffered damage but no one inside the homes needed transport to the hospital, authorities said.

San Diego officials havent released details about the plane but said it was a flight coming in from the Midwest. The flight tracking site FlightAware lists a Cessna Citation II jet that was scheduled to arrive at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive airport in San Diego at 3:47 a.m. from the small Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kansas. Officials at the airport said it just made a fueling stop in Wichita. The flight originated Wednesday night in Teterboro, New Jersey, according to FlightAware.

The airport in Teterboro is about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from Manhattan and is frequently used by private and corporate jets.

In the San Diego neighborhood, smell of jet fuel lingered in the air hours after the crash while authorities worked to put out one stubborn car fire. They described a frightening scene in the aftermath of the crash.

I cant quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

Half a dozen fully charred cars sat on the street and tree limbs, glass and pieces of white and blue metal were scattered on the road. At the end of the street black smoke billowed as the site continued to burn.

Wahl said more than 50 police officers were on the scene within minutes and began evacuating homes. At least 100 residents were displaced to an evacuation center at a nearby elementary school.

Christopher Moore, who lives one street over from the crash site, said he and his wife were awakened by a loud bang and saw smoke when they looked out the window.

They grabbed their two young children and ran out of the house. On their way out of the neighborhood they saw a car engulfed in flames.

It was definitely horrifying for sure, but sometimes youve just got to drop your head and get to safety, he said.

Police rescued three husky puppies from one of the homes and rolled them away from the crash scene in a wagon. A few blocks away, families including Moores stood in their pajamas in a parking lot waiting for word of when they can return to their homes.

The neighborhood is made up of single family homes and townhomes. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport and Gillespie Field are nearby.

Eddy said it was very foggy at the time the private plane crashed. You could barely see in front of you, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation.

In October 2021, a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.

In December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diegos University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.

Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Senate voted on Thursday to block Californias first-in-the nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, moving to kill the countrys most aggressive effort to transition toward electric vehicles as President Donald Trumps administration has doubled down on fossil fuels.

The measure overturning the rule now goes to the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it, along with two other resolutions that would block California rules curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks. All three measures were approved by the Senate on Thursday and by the House earlier this month.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and state air regulators say that what Congress is doing is illegal and they will sue to keep the rules in place.

Related: Senate Will Try to Block California Vehicle Standards to Phase Out Gas-Powered Cars

This is not about electric vehicles, Newsom said at a news conference while the Senate was still voting on the measures. This is about polluters being able to pollute more.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state plans to sue over the way that Republicans passed the measures blocking the emissions rules. Senate Republicans established a narrow exception to the filibuster Wednesday to clear the way for the votes.

The GOP effort could have a profound impact on Californias longtime efforts to curb air pollution. California makes up roughly 11% of the U.S. car market, giving it significant power to shape purchasing trends  especially because about a dozen states have already followed Californias lead. Vehicles are one of the largest sources of planet-warming emissions.

Senate Democrats charged that Republicans are acting at the behest of the oil and gas industry and they say California should be able to set its own standards after obtaining waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the votes should send a chill down the spine of legislators in every state.

What we have at stake is a states ability, its right to make its own laws and to protect its own citizens, without having this body overturn that right, Schiff said.

Republicans say the phaseout of gas-powered cars, along with other waivers that California has obtained from the EPA, is costly for consumers and manufacturers, puts pressure on the nations energy grid and has become a de facto nationwide electric vehicle mandate.

America cannot meet these impossible standards - not next year, and not in 10 years, said Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican.

Newsom announced plans in 2020 to ban the sale of all new gas-powered vehicles within 15 years as part of an aggressive effort to lower emissions from the transportation sector. Plug-in hybrids and used gas cars could still be sold.

The Biden administration approved the states waiver to implement the standards in December, a month before Trump returned to office. The California rules are stricter than a Biden-era rule that tightens emissions standards but does not require sales of electric vehicles.

Bidens EPA said in announcing the decision that opponents of the California waivers did not meet their legal burden to show how either the EV rule or a separate measure on heavy-duty vehicles was inconsistent with the Clean Air Act.

Republicans have long criticized Californias waivers and have worked to find a way to overturn them. The Government Accountability Office said earlier this year that Californias policies are not subject to the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to reject federal regulations under certain circumstances with a simple majority vote not subject to the filibuster. The Senate parliamentarian agreed with that ruling, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., cleared the way for the votes anyway with a workaround that established a new Senate precedent.

Democrats fought those changes, which were the latest attempt to chip away at the Senate filibuster after both parties have used their majorities in the past two decades to lower the threshold for nominations. Democrats tried in 2022 to roll back the filibuster for legislation, as well, but were thwarted by members of their own caucus who disagreed with the effort.

Republicans have insisted that they would not try a similar move after regaining the majority this year. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the move to block Californias laws were a point of no return and called the Republicans fair weather institutionalists.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan was the only Democrat to support the measure to block the phaseout of gas-powered vehicles. She said in a statement after the vote that she has a special responsibility to stand up for the more than one million Michiganders whose livelihoods depend on the U.S. auto industry.

John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an auto industry association and lobby group, said there is a gap between the vehicles that car buyers are purchasing and the rules that would force a transition to electric vehicles.

The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable, Bozzella said.

Austin reported from Sacramento. Associated Press writers Alexa St. John in Detroit and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Trends California Politics
Historically, guilt was weaponised as a tool of moral control. The Church didnt need CCTV when you had a conscience like a smoke alarm. And if it wasnt the priest, it was the teacher, the parent, the older cousin who told you youd be struck down for not sharing your crisps.

Guilt was often dressed up as good manners. You didnt want to eat the last biscuit? Ah, go on, dont be ignorant.

Irish people are Olympic-level feelers of guilt. We inherited it, breathing it in at baptisms and passing it around like mass leaflets. And, for years, I was a top-tier competitor.

I felt guilty for everything  saying no, wanting a bit of peace, enjoying myself when others were miserable, not replying to a text the second it landed.

But I turned 45 and something shifted. It could be because I can no longer remember my email password without looking it up. Perhaps its because the older I get, the more I realise guilt has been squatting in my brain like a long-term house guest who eats all the biscuits and never says thank you.

So Ive started shedding some of it. Not all of it. Some guilt is still healthy.

Life is hard enough without feeling bad for not attending a neighbours third cousins childs christening when youre hung over.

Neuroscientists say guilt activates the anterior cingulate cortex (one of my top five brain parts) and the prefrontal cortex (top 10)  areas linked with moral reasoning and emotional regulation. In small doses, guilt helps us stay socially connected and aware. But chronic guilt? Its corrosive.

Studies show that guilt tripping (especially the kind you give yourself) weakens long-term motivation. People who forgive themselves for small things are more likely to bounce back and be productive (I forgive myself at least 20 to 30 times daily).

A 2016 study from the University of California even found that people with high guilt sensitivity struggle more with sleep. They replay conversations at night like a poorly edited podcast. So if youve ever lain in bed thinking, I shouldve gone to that wake, youre not alone  but you might be wrecked. However, here are five guilt-heavy situations Ive stopped feeling bad about

1. Not replying immediately

Try this: Set aside 15 minutes a day for messages. Dont be on high alert for every ping. If someone really needs you, theyll ring  and even then, you can let it go to voicemail if youre mid-slice of toast (if they ring the land-line, though, you should probably answer).

The world wont implode if you reply when your head is clear, your hands are free, and youre not trying to remember your Revolut pin. You are not a call centre. You are a human being with things to do and tea to drink.

2. Celebrating a cancelled plan

Give yourself a moment of joy. Do a little lap around the living room, like youve won an All-Ireland final of introversion. Say aloud: I have the gift of unexpected time. That gift can be spent any way you like: Flopped on the couch, going for a solo walk, or staring out the window at your favourite shrub.

You dont owe anyone that evening. Youre not rude for loving your own company. Youre just finally listening to what your brain needs: Nothing.

3. Saying no without inventing a fictional tragedy

Try this script: Ah, no, I wont make that one, but thanks for thinking of me. Then shut up.

Do not follow it with a fake funeral, a mysterious illness, or the words, I wish I could, but... No. You do not need a death certificate to opt out of lunch.

Weve been trained to believe we must earn rest or escape with drama. But a simple, polite No is a complete sentence. Say it with the confidence of someone who once got an NCT first time.

4. Not liking trendy self-care things

Its OK not to love cold plunges, kombucha, or staring at a candle for 20 minutes while listening to a man whisper about your inner lion. Some people find peace in the sea. I find peace in a car parked outside SuperValu, eating crisps.

Find what works for you  be it a nap, a trashy show, shouting at the radio, or hiding in the utility room with a mug of tea. There is no spiritual hierarchy of wellness. Youre not less evolved just because you dont own a yoga mat.

5. Lying about the wifi

No guilt. Youre a parent, not a hostage negotiator. Sometimes, the best peace is 20 minutes of pretend router maintenance. I have stood beside the box, sighing, pressing random buttons, whispering, Ah, it must be the broadband line again, while secretly scrolling memes on my phone in the other room.

This is not deception. This is survival. You are creating the illusion of technical difficulty to protect your mental bandwidth.

So the next time that pang of guilt starts crawling up your spine because you didnt go to a fundraiser bingo night for someone youve never met, pause.

And remind yourself: Youre not a bad person, youre learning to be grand without guilt.
Ireland is at a "crossroads" of what can be achieved for children, the Ombudsman for Children has warned, as his office continued to receive a high volume of complaints last year.

Niall Muldoon was speaking as the Ombudsman for Children's office launched its annual report for 2024.

While its publication marks the 20th year since the office was established to protect and promote the rights of children in Ireland, many of the same issues for children are still coming up today.

In the current climate of uncertainty and change, it is more important than ever for the State to bed down its commitment on childrens rights, Dr Muldoon said.

Ireland is now at a crossroads of what can be achieved for children and this office will continue to push for the rights of children to be the signpost that is followed at all times."

The office received 1,772 contacts about complaints last year, many of which are becoming more complex. Almost one in five related to more than one agency, and a third relating to multiple categories of concern.

Education remains the most complained about issue to the office; The report includes the case of a boy named Enda* who was locked in a side room at his school when he became "disruptive". The report notes:

Every year we deal with complaints from parents who are deeply unhappy with the use of seclusion and restrictive practices with their child, and we also hear from schools who are at a loss on how best to keep everyone safe.

The office also raised concerns that there is still no "comprehensive and coherent" plan to ensure that every child with special educational needs has a school place locally in a timely manner.

There has been some progress since the office launched a major report examining the forward planning for school places in 2022, the annual report notes.

However, it adds that the unacceptable situation faced by these students "has not gone away".

The office also remains concerned about insufficient data for "both the planning for, and monitoring of, the quality of these school places", as well as the emphasis on increasing the number of special schools and classes, "which moves Ireland further away from achieving an inclusive system".

In 2024, the office undertook six outreach clinics within commercial or emergency IPAS accommodation centres.

Complaints taken at these clinics and systemic issues noted across numerous accommodations identified significant concerns for the children and families living there.

The presence of mould across many of the services was impacting childrens health. "Many of the families reported their children as having repeat respiratory illnesses because of the mould in their rooms", the annual report notes.

This mould was also visible to office staff during visits, and in one of the centres, there were families living in rooms with no windows or natural light. Access to appropriate food for children was also a systemic issue found across services.

In one location both lunch and dinner were delivered from an external service at 1pm.

"Families told us the reheating of the food hours after delivery had caused food poisoning in their children. A child struggling with the food provided in this service was observed as appearing malnourished by his GP, occupying the lowest weight percentile for his age."
Childrens Health Ireland (CHI) paid an undisclosed settlement to its former chief executive Eilish Hardiman when she left her post last year, despite her contract having come to an end.

The Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard on Thursday a formal settlement was agreed with Ms Hardiman when she left her post, though few specifics were offered as to the rationale for that settlement being made.

Ms Hardiman, who had been at the head of CHI since its inception, left her role after then health minister Stephen Donnelly last year declined to approve her retention for a third five-year term, amid a year of controversy at the organisation.

She was subsequently retained in a new strategic role at CHI and continued to receive an equivalent salary of at least 177,000 to that she had received as chief executive.

Under questioning from the committees new vice-chair Paul McAuliffe, CHIs new chief executive Lucy Stewart repeatedly said she was not trying to be evasive in not answering questions regarding the settlement, as it both preceded her own time at CHI and is also the subject of a non-disclosure agreement.

Mr McAuliffe disputed this, saying while the settlement itself may be confidential, the board decision and rationale to approve it should not be.

Im at a loss to know why there was a need to enter into discussions at the end of a fixed-term period if there was to be no new appointment, he said.

If it was a fixed-term contract, why did a liability result? he asked.

Why did we spend public money on this? Why did a settlement arise?

Ms Stewart said she wasnt there when the decision was made. She said she was "not at liberty to discuss the matter.

She did expand on why the board had chosen to retain Ms Hardiman in her new role of strategic programme director, saying the board had felt the change in leadership was coming at a critical time for CHI, and it would be important to retain the knowledge of the previous chief executive.

Ms Stewart had begun her testimony at the hearing by professing the organisation to be deeply and unreservedly sorry for some children having had non-medical devices inserted into their bodies during spinal surgery, adding what happened should not have happened and children should have been protected from harm.

Separately, chief officer of the National Paedriatic Health Development Board David Gunning gave a firm no when asked if he had faith in the main contractor for the delivery of Irelands 2.2bn National Childrens Hospital.

The PAC heard Bam was now working towards its 15 th new completion timeline for the marquee hospital project, with the current best-case scenario for that completion being September 30 of this year.

However, Mr Gunning said he had received a new programme of works on the project from Bam on Wednesday evening, which is currently being interrogated to understand what impact it would have on timelines.

He said of 800m worth of claims made by Bam with regard to extensions of time to the project, the National Paedriatic Health Development Board  which holds overall statutory responsibility for the construction of the hospital  accepts the contractor was entitled to just 50m of those.

One outstanding claim has seen Bam told by a conciliator it is owed 122.2m by the board over critical delay events relating to the build, a figure which has been disputed by the board and which has since been escalated to the High Court by the contractor.

Mr Gunning, asked if he understood the anger of the public regarding the repeated delays to the hospital build, said our frustration and anger is equivalent, I can absolutely assure you.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were shot and killed while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening. The victims have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. The suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire and is understood to have yelled Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.
Controlling and odd, is how Tina Satchwells half-sister described murder-accused Richard Satchwell.

Lorraine Howard told the Central Criminal Court that Mr Satchwell referred to Mrs Satchwell as his trophy wife and wanted to know where she was all the time. Mrs Satchwells skeletal remains were found buried beneath the stairs in the sitting room of her Youghal home on October 11, 2023, more than six years after she went missing.

Mr Satchwell, aged 58, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Tina Satchwell, nee Dingivan, aged 45, on March 20, 2017, at their home on 3 Grattan St, Youghal.

Ms Howard first met Mr Satchwell when she was about 15-years-old. The relationship between the couple was odd, she said.

Hed call Tina his trophy wife, trophy girlfriend, Ms Howard said. I didnt like that. I didnt think it was right to refer to someone as a trophy.

Mr Satchwell was obsessive and wanted to know where his wife was all the time, Ms Howard said.

Any friend she had he would find some fault with. She had lots of friends but her circle of friends got smaller and smaller. I thought he was controlling and odd.

Tina was very young when she first met Mr Satchwell and when they married in the UK, Ms Howard said.

Tina and Lorraine Howard were best friends as children, playing together every day, going to school together and sleeping in each others houses, she said.

But when Tina was due to make her communion she found her birth certificate and discovered that Mary Collins, who she believed was her aunt and the mother of Ms Howard, was actually her mother too. The discovery made Tina resentful, Ms Howard said.

She felt abandoned by her mother and fell out with Ms Howard periodically over it. I suppose she felt maybe that she had been lied to for a long period of her life," Ms Howard said.

I think she felt hurt that in her eyes she was given away but I was kept, as the next oldest. It caused resentment and I sometimes bore the brunt of that.

Mrs Satchwells anger over not being raised by her biological mother was an on-and-off thing for many years. Wed be friends, then fall out over being given away. It always came back to this issue. She felt somehow abandoned.

But Mrs Satchwell had a very good relationship with her grandmother, Florence Dingivan, who the court heard was widely respected and loved, and who Mrs Satchwell viewed as her mother.

Mrs Satchwell had two families and her ashes have been spread between two graves. She is buried with her grandmother and with her beloved brother Tom, who died some years ago.

The murder trial heard that Tina Satchwell (pictured) felt 'abandoned' by her mother. File picture

We were all very close to Tom, he was a lovely person, Ms Howard said through tears. Tina adored Tom and he adored her. It [his death] affected her as much as me. He was her brother.

Mr Satchwell has said that his wife attacked him with a chisel on March 20, 2017, and he held the belt of her dressing gown to her neck in a bid to defend himself. But his wife then suddenly collapsed dead in his arms, he said.

He said he was heartbroken and lost. He said he lay holding her body all night before putting her body into a freezer and later burying her under the stairs in the sitting room and concreting over her shallow grave.

Her husband reported her missing on March 24, 2017. Her skeletal remains were found wrapped in plastic and buried beneath a concrete floor under the stairwell in their terraced home in Youghal on October, 11, 2023.

The trial in front of Justice Paul McDermott continues.
A senior figure in the drugs trade in Cork City and across the south of Ireland was described at Cork District Court on Thursday as being in fear for his life due to a 300,000 drug debt

He was charged on Thursday with having 80,000 worth of cocaine at his home in Passage West. Detective Garda Bryan English of Togher Drugs Unit arrested 54-year-old Ian Hanlon of Maulbawn, Passage West, County Cork, and charged him with having a stash of cocaine at his home on May 18.

Det. Garda English objected to bail on the basis of the seriousness of the alleged offence and concerns he would carry out more drugs offences if released.

Det. Garda English testified at Cork District Court that officers of Togher Drugs Unit arrived at the defendants home on Sunday May 18. Gardai arrived at the property with a warrant. No persons were present. Gardai made contact with Ian Hanlon (by phone) and invited him to return home and he said he would. A considerable amount of time was given for him to do so.

When gardai contacted him again to say they had entered the house without him and had breached it, his phone was turned off. Subject to analysis, cocaine with a value of 80,000 was found at his home. Mixing agent was also found along with a tick list with names and large amount of money (noted).

At interview, he said he has a debt of 300,000 and is now at a loss for the drugs on top of that. He is believed to be at the higher level of the drugs trade across Cork City and the southern region of Ireland.

I believe he is a flight risk. He has shown he is capable of evading gardai. He says he is in fear for his life because of his outstanding drug debt. He has no addictions. He is purely dealing for financial reasons and to pay off a drugs debt, Det. Garda English said.

Mahon Corkery, defence barrister, said in cross-examination of the detective: There is no evidence of a life threat against him or his family. And if he is under threat for a drugs debt how is he going to mix it up with those people and start dealing again?

Bail decision

Ian Hanlon gave evidence in his bail application and Sergeant Gearoid Davis asked him about being in fear for his life. Ian Hanlon said: Obviously, I owe money. That is why I continued doing what I did. I cannot do it anymore. I have to accept what it is now. I have no intention of doing anything. I am in enough trouble.

Judge Mary Dorgan did grant bail to the accused but on numerous conditions, including his own bond of 15,000 cash, residing at his home in Passage West, signing daily at Anglesea Street Garda Station, an 11pm to 7am curfew, surrendering his passport, an independent surety of 10,000, of which 5,000 in cash is to be lodged in court, remaining in the jurisdiction, abstaining from intoxicants, not offending and being contactable at all times by his mobile phone.

Judge Dorgan remanded him in custody with consent to that bail until May 29 at Cork District Court.

Ian Hanlon is charged with possession of cocaine at his home on May 18 and having the drugs for the purpose of sale or supply to others.
An armed robber who was jailed for over five years for a crime spree in Cork City was literally brushed off in his attempts to carry out a knifepoint robbery at a cafe on Shandon Street.

35-year-old Martin Doyle was jailed for five years plus a six-month reactivated sentence as a result of three robberies and three attempted robberies.

But Detective Garda Elaine Murphy described what happened when Mr Doyle tried to carry out one of his robberies at Cafe Jane on Shandon Street, Cork, on Friday 13 December, 2024  an occasion which was unlucky for the culprit.

He entered Cafe Jane and walked around the premises before going behind the counter brandishing a knife and demanding that the staff empty the till. They defended themselves with a brush and refused to open the till. He fled the scene prior to the arrival of gardai, Det Garda Murphy said.

Judge Dermot Sheehan went through the several crimes committed by Martin Doyle around December last year and said of the attempted robbery at Cafe Jane: But for the fortitude of staff he would have succeeded.

Defence barrister Brendan Kelly said: He finds himself here again. He says himself he has disappointed everyone in his life. He has to be able to break the cycle.

He appreciates you [Judge Sheehan] have a job to do. All he wants to do is apologise for the person he was, the harm he continues to do to himself and to others. And it will continue if he does not deal with his addiction.

He hopes that on release he can do a long rehabilitation programme. He is on methadone. He is taking things in hand. This is a man tortured by his own sober insight. He realises the enormity of what he has done to these people. His life will be short if he continues the way he is going.

Martin Doyle of 20 Mount Eden Rise, Blarney Street, Cork, entered guilty pleas to all charges against him.

Det Garda Murphy said Mr Doyle went to Sensei Coffee and Sushi on the Mardyke, Cork, on December 5 2024, went around the counter, brandished a knife and opened the till and took notes totalling 25.

On December 10, he carried out a similar offence at Lulus Coffee, Lough Road, The Lough, where he got away with 200, despite staff efforts to stop him, and from a woman at Popes Quay, all in December 2024.

At 9.10am on December 13, he approached a woman on Witherlings Lane, Shandon, Cork, and demanded money, showing he had knife up his sleeve. The woman showed him she only had coins in her purse and he fled.

Two minutes later at Popes Quay, he produced a knife and robbed another woman  a tourist from Slovenia  of her wallet containing cards and 150 in cash.

Around this time, he also attempted a robbery at The Corner Shop on St Marys Road, Cork.

Det Garda Murphy agreed Martin Doyle was in the full throes of drug addiction at the time of these crimes.
An eyewitness has told the trial of Jozef Puska's family members how school teacher Ashling Murphy was "kicking out hard" as she struggled with her murderer, who seemed angry he had been "interrupted".

The Central Criminal Court also heard on Thursday how gardai sifted through ashes in the fireplace at Jozef Puska's home looking for evidence that the clothes he wore when he murdered 23-year-old Ms Murphy had been burned.

Detective Sgt Anthony Quinn told the trial of Jozef Puska's brothers and sisters-in-law that six days after Jozef Puska murdered Ashling Murphy, gardai became aware that the then-suspect's clothes may have been burned in the fireplace at the Puska home in Mucklagh, Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Sgt Quinn said he went to the house with a colleague, introduced himself and took photos of anything of note. The fireplace, he said, was intact and the grate was full of ashes. He and his colleague sifted through the ashes, looking for buttons, zippers, clasps or "that kind of thing", but found nothing of note. They bagged the ashes to be preserved for forensic examination.

The trial also heard on Thursday from Jenna Stack, who saw Ms Murphy, a 23-year-old schoolteacher, fighting for her life having suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck.

The eyewitness on Thursday told the trial that Jozef Puska (pictured) looked like he was 'angry that he had been interrupted' during the killing of Ashling Murphy. File picture

Ms Stack told prosecution counsel, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC, that she was running with her friend, Aoife Marron, along the canal towpath near Cappincur Bridge in Tullamore on January 12, 2022, when she noticed a distinctive, luminous green bicycle in the hedgerow.

She thought it unusual to see a nice bike discarded on the bank, so she stopped for a moment before running on. A few metres further along the towpath, she heard a loud rustling noise from the hedgerow and stopped again.

Ms Marron shouted down, but there was no reply besides the "loud rustling" from the dense thicket and brambles, Ms Stack said. The witness stepped closer and saw a man's back. She asked him what he was doing, and when he turned to face her, she noticed a woman on the ground.

Ms Stack said:

She was kicking her legs, that was the sound we had heard. She was raising her legs and kicking out really hard.

Ms Stack told the man to "get off her", but he shouted back through gritted teeth and in a foreign accent, "get away". His facial expression seemed angry, she said, "angry that he had been interrupted". Ms Stack thought he was going to rape the woman.

She added: "He made a sudden movement, maybe to frighten us. I knew the girl was struggling and in danger and we were very frightened." Ms Stack shouted that she was calling the gardai and ran the short distance to Cappincur Bridge with Ms Marron to get help.

Jozef's brothers, Marek (aged 34) and Lubomir Jnr (aged 35), are accused of withholding crucial information.

It is alleged that Marek Puska failed to disclose that Jozef had returned home on the night of Ashling's murder with visible injuries and admitted to killing or causing serious injury to a woman. It is further alleged that he knew of the arrangement to burn Jozef's clothes and that Jozef Puska travelled to Dublin later that night.

Lubomir Puska Jnr, it is alleged, also withheld that Jozef returned home with visible injuries, admitted to "cutting a female", and travelled to Dublin.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the offences, which are charged under the Offences Against the State, Amendment Act 1988.

Jozefina Grundzova (aged 31), who is married to Marek Puska, and Viera Gaziova (aged 38), who is married to Lubomir Puska Jnr, are accused of assisting in burning clothing between January 12 and 14, 2022, without reasonable excuse, intending to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Jozef Puska, knowing or believing him to have committed the offence of murder or some other arrestable offence within the same category or of a similar nature.

Ms Grundzova and Ms Gaziova pleaded not guilty to the offences, which are charged under the Criminal Law Act 1997. All the accused have an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Tullamore, Co Offaly.

The trial continues before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and five women.
A man who stole a sheep and also cut the throat of a pregnant sheep near Killarney has been handed down a 16-month sentence with six months suspended.

At the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee, a victim impact statement by farmer Con ORiordan spoke of his horror and shock at what he came upon. The barbaric act has not left him, the farmer who had to pay the costs of the disposal added.

Hungarian native Richard Daroczi, aged 29, previously of Ely OCarroll Place, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, pleaded guilty to stealing a ewe sheep in lamb worth 500, the property of Con ORiordan on January 5, at Cummeenabrick, Clonkeen, Co Kerry.

He also admitted causing unnecessary suffering to an animal under the Animal Health and Welfare Act, 2013.

He was assisted by Hungarian translator and was represented by barrister Kate OConnell, instructed by Eimear Griffin solicitor.

Garda Sergeant Nigel Shevlin told Tom Rice, prosecuting, that Mr ORiordan is a sheep farmer living in Kilgarvan who has land at Cummeenabrick, Clonkeen.

"Its sheep country and there are no residential properties there," Sgt Shevlin said.

At 12.45pm on January 5 last, Daroczi pulled up at OBriens filling station, got fuel, and drove off without paying, the garda outlined.

That afternoon, Mr ORiordan was on his land and he saw the accused with one of the sheep  which was a ewe in lamb. Daroczi said the sheep was his. He had cut the throat of the sheep.

Gardai were alerted and came from Cork. The accused had fled, but his car was there. The ewe was identified by the tag, the sergeant said.

Sale offer

Two days later, entrails of another animal was found in the locality by neighbours.

"The accused mans car had been searched and meat was found," added Sgt Shevlin, "but that animal could not be identified as the tag had been removed."

The next day, a man met the accused at a filling station in Tralee and the accused had offered to sell him a lamb. The accused was going to remote areas, taking sheep and killing them to butcher them and then sell them on to members of the public, Sgt Shelvin told Mr Rice.

A victim impact statement read by Sgt Shelvin from Mr ORiordan, who was in court, told how he came across this man carrying a knife, and he had an animal beside him and its throat was cut.

I was and am still shocked by this, I had never seen anything like it before and never wish to see it again

It was the sheer barbarity of it and his attitude when I met him. He didnt care at all, it was like he thought there was something wrong with me for caring. He showed no remorse.

The two ewes would have hardly come to 500 and to add insult to injury, I had to pay another man 200 to remove the other sheep away to prevent them being butchered.

Apologetic

Mr ORiordan said that the fact that such a thing could happen had never struck him previously, but it was always in his head now that this could happen again.

Ms OConnell said her client is very apologetic , adding that he had been homeless at the time.

He never came to attention of gardai for anything like this before. He seems to have just gone off the rails entirely. He was homeless at the time and trying to sell the sheep," she said.

Judge Ronan Munro said that he understood why Mr ORiordan was shocked.

He said the accused is entitled to credit for his plea of guilty. He sentenced him to a total of 16 months  10 months for the theft of the sheep; six months for the cruelty, and the fuel theft was taken into consideration.

The final six months has been suspended for three years. The sentence of 10 months was back dated to January 25. Daroczi is to stay away from Mr ORiordans land and stay out of Kenmare and Kilgarvan.
A romance scam victim, who thought she was engaged to a US marine she had never met, has been given a suspended sentence for allowing her bank account to be used to launder 17,000 in stolen money.

Alida Kuiken, aged 50, with an address at Kilrussane, Knockraha, Cork, was before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Thursday, where she had pleaded guilty to allowing 16,997 in crime proceeds to be transferred through her account on September 27 and 28,2022.

The court heard that a building firm contacted gardai days later, after staff realised that an invoice they had paid had been received from an email address that did not fully match that of the company they thought they were paying.

Detective Garda Mark Deasey told the court that documentation from Bank of Ireland led gardai to interview Kuiken in July 2024.

The court heard that Kuiken, who is from the Netherlands, had moved to Ireland in the late 2000s, after falling in love with the country while on holidays here. She has no previous convictions.

Full responsibility

Det Gda Deasey said that she accepted full responsibility for allowing her bank account to be used for the transfer of the money.

She said she was in a relationship with a male and he asked her, he said.

Gardai did not believe she was involved in emailing the fraudulent invoice.

The detective agreed that gardai had seized Kuikens diary during a search in February 2024, and a copy was handed into court. A number of goals had been written on a page, including that she would pay back the money, find a husband who was a Christian, set up a pet store, and get her own place to rent.

He agreed that, up until the point she was arrested, she had no real appreciation of what she had been caught up in.

She told gardai that she had transferred the money into another account, and had sent it by bitcoin onto the person with whom she believed she was in a relationship.

She said that she understood that the money was being transferred from friends of his family to relatives he had overseas. She was asked if she thought this was unusual and she said she did.

She said she had indicated this at the time. This was why her plea was accepted on the basis of recklessness.

The garda accepted that her lack of understanding about what she was involved in was borne out of her correspondence with the bank, after her account was blocked immediately following the transfer. She had said she believed that the money had gone to its intended recipient.

Online dating

The defendant explained that she had met the man on an online dating website in February 2021, but had never met him in person throughout the entirety of the three-year relationship.

Gardai had seen an email to Kuikens elderly father dated April 19, 2021 in which the fraudster had purported to be a US marine and identified himself as her committed fiance.

She accepted in interview she had been utterly naive, and said she felt pathetic in the aftermath. She said that final contact was made by the fraudster around this time, indicating he was going to retire.

Kuiken told gardai that she thought he had taken advantage of her. She said that he had taken a long time to build up her trust and had used it to manipulate her.

Judge Orla Crowe noted that there was a suggestion in the documentation that she had paid 50,000 to the man over time, and the court heard that she had made a report to the federal authorities in the US in relation to fraud.

Her barrister said that Kuiken had been unable to visit her elderly parents in the Netherlands as a result of this case. While her mother knows she was in a relationship with a man who it transpired was a fraudster, she is so deeply ashamed that she has not told them she is before the courts.

She was easily manipulated by a man she believed she was in a relationship with, said counsel. I submit this is recklessness in its truest sense.

Judge Crowe accepted that the man had spent a year or more gaining Kuiken's trust before this offence.

She was certainly subjected to a long period of manipulation

Judge Crowe said that such a long relationship with a person Kuiken never met did speak to "a certain level of naivety".

Criminals are very good at organising schemes and finding suitable people to carry out schemes in order to extract money in sophisticated ways, the judge said.

Where she is a victim of the organisation of the theft, she did allow her account to be used in an utterly implausible story.

She said that Kuiken was not a young person, but an adult with long life experience. She said that a lot of crimes of this nature had been publicised, that there were red flags, and it was undoubtedly suspicious.

She was utterly reckless in relation to her own affairs and thus played a part, the judge said.

Noting that the maximum penalty is 14 years, she imposed a one-year sentence on the 50-year-old. This was suspended it in full.
A man in his 30s has died after getting into difficulty in a Cork river.

Gardai and emergency services were called to the scene at the Blackwater river at Dysart, Dromagh, Mallow on Wednesday evening around 7pm.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has agreed to pay nearly 180 million dollars (134.1 million) to victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement, the latest in a string of settlements by the Catholic Church.

The archdiocese, its parishes and several insurers will pay 179.2 million dollars (134 million) into a trust to benefit survivors, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the committee that negotiated the agreement.

The money will be distributed after the church emerges from bankruptcy, it said.

But many of the survivors were not on board with the agreement, their lawyers said.

This proposed settlement was made in a secret backroom deal that the Archdiocese, the creditors committees and the mediators knew the overwhelming majority of victim-survivors would never agree to and will undoubtedly vote down, lawyers Soren Gisleson, Johnny Denenea and Richard Trahant said in a statement to The Associated Press.

It makes no sense and is a continuation of the lifetime of abuse the Archdiocese has inflicted on these folks.

It makes no sense and is a continuation of the lifetime of abuse the Archdiocese has inflicted on these folks.

The agreement, which would settle a lawsuit filed in 2020, requires approval from the survivors as well as the bankruptcy court and other Archdiocese creditors.

The committees statement said the deal also includes what the statement called unprecedented provisions and procedures to safeguard against future abuse and provide services to survivors, including a survivors bill of rights and changes to the Archdioceses process for handling abuse claims.

I am grateful to God for all who have worked to reach this agreement and that we may look to the future towards a path to healing for survivors and for our local church, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement.

The suit involves more than 500 people who say they were abused by clergy.

The case produced a trove of church records said to document years of abuse claims and a pattern of leaders transferring clergy without reporting their alleged crimes to law enforcement.
A new 5,000-tonne destroyer key to North Koreas naval advancement was damaged during its launching ceremony attended by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported.

The ship slid off the ramp and became stuck after the flatcar failed to move alongside it, throwing off its balance and crushing parts of the ships bottom, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The accident at Wednesdays ceremony at the northeastern port of Chongjin was an embarrassing setback for Mr Kim, who has emphasised naval advancement as key to his nuclear-armed military.

Mr Kim blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for what he described as a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism, and called for a ruling Workers Party meeting to address their irresponsible errors, KCNA said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects the military exercises at an undisclosed place in North Korea (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

The agency reported separately that a plenary meeting of the partys powerful Central Committee was scheduled for late June.

North Korean state media did not say whether Wednesdays incident caused any injuries.

The damaged vessel was likely in the same class as the countrys first destroyer, unveiled on April 25, which experts assessed as the Norths largest and most advanced warship to date.

Mr Kim called it a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the militarys operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.

State media described that ship as designed to handle various weapons systems, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

Mr Kim also supervised test-firings of missiles from the destroyer afterwards, and state media said the ship was expected to enter active duty early next year.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea.

Mr Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the Norths nuclear programme.

He says the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening his navy.

Outside experts say the destroyer was likely built with Russian assistance. While North Koreas naval forces are considered inferior to South Koreas, analysts still view the destroyer as a serious security threat, as it could enhance the countrys offensive and defensive capabilities.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have escalated in recent months as Kim accelerates the development of his nuclear and missile programmes and supplies weapons and troops to support Russias war in Ukraine.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC were shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, police said.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The suspect is understood to have yelled Free, free Palestine after he was arrested.

The attack has sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security.

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting and he then walked into the museum where he was detained by security, Ms Smith said.

Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky who were killed in Washington. Picture: IsraelinUSA/X

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Ms Smith added.

She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! US President Donald Trump posted on social media early on Thursday.

Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said it was "a horrific, horrific event".

"I want to condemn unreservedly the appalling murder of a couple in Washington last evening," adding that "there can be no place for such violence in our society".

Tanaiste and foreign affairs minister Simon Harris said a young Irish diplomat  a woman  was at the event where the attack occurred.

Mr Harris said he condemned in the strongest possible terms the brutal antisemitic murders of the two individuals  a young couple about to be engaged.

Israels reaction

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said Thursday that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, saying Mr Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that Ms Milgrim was an American employee of the embassy and Mr Lischinsky was Israeli.

Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum. Picture: AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr

Attorney general Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the US attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.

The statement from Mr Netanyahus office said he spoke to Ms Bondi, who told him Mr Trump was involved in managing the incident and the US would bring the perpetrator to justice.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East.

The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on October 7, 2023 to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly two million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape.

'In cold blood'

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Mr Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realising he was the suspect.

When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Mr Kalin said.

A Washington DC Metro police office carries an evidence bag to his car. Picture: AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr

This event was about humanitarian aid, Mr Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel?

How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington DC awarded funding from a $500,000 grant programme to increase its security.

The museums leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organisation and due to its new LGBT exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.

We recognise that there are threats associated with this as well, executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station.

And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.

In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington chief executive Gil Preuss said in a statement that he was horrified by the shooting and mourned the loss of the two people killed.

Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, and with all of those who are impacted by this tragic act of antisemitic violence, he said.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.

However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.
Thursday, May 22nd, 2025 (10:27 am) - Score 280

Alternative broadband operator Freedom Fibre, which has already grown their gigabit full fibre broadband network to cover 315,000 UK premises (Nov 2024) across parts of England (Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Essex), has chosen VeloxServ to support its wholesale B2B (business) connectivity offering.

The strategic partnership will also enable VeloxServ to extend its reach to even more businesses across Greater Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, North Shropshire, and Cheshire, supported by Freedom Fibres full-fibre (FTTP) network. The company already offers businesses a mix of internet connectivity, server hosting, and data centre colocation services.

NOTE: Freedom Fibre is currently being backed by investment from InfraBridge (DigitalBridge) and Equitix. The operator had 20,000 customers on 12th August 2024.

Craig Messer, MD of VeloxServ, said: Our latest strategic partnership with Freedom Fibre reinforces our focus on providing our ISP partners with as wide a range of high-quality and competitively priced connectivity products as possible across the UK. Both organisations are firmly committed to supporting UK businesses to thrive by fulfilling their digital potential and we look forward to our close collaboration as Freedom Fibres network continues to evolve and we continue to enhance our growing reputation as the independent wholesale connectivity aggregator of choice backed by exceptional customer service.

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The service that Freedom Fibre provides is typically offered via wholesale to a variety of supporting broadband ISPs, such as TalkTalk, iDNET, Home Telecom, Fusion Fibre Group, Squirrel Internet, Yayzi etc.
Childhood trauma can be deeply ingrained, especially when triggers are a constant presence. For many, the source of these triggers is their family, and overcoming this trauma may require more than just forgiving and forgetting.

Patrick Teahan, a licensed social worker from Massachusetts, advocates for cutting ties with family, particularly for those dealing with abusive parents. He believes that maintaining 'no contact' with toxic family members is essential for healing childhood trauma.

Teahan has built a significant following online. In addition to his therapy services offered through his website, he runs a YouTube channel with more than 700,000 subscribers. His videos have helped countless trauma patients navigate their pain and triggers

According to Teahan, restricting or severing ties with one's family can be 'brutally hard,' but it is deeply rewarding in the long run.

On his website, Teahan offers a 'Toxic Family Test' that anyone can take to measure their family's toxicity on a 100-point scale. He also provides numerous free resources for people beginning their healing and recovery journey from childhood trauma.

For those struggling to find the right words to initiate the process of cutting off their parents, Teahan offers a webinar detailing how to write a 'no-contact letter.' The letter includes the statement: 'I'm doing a family cutoff to get space to recover from this toxic and dysfunctional family.'

One person who followed Teahan's advice is Zhenzhen, who shared her story with the New York Times. Severing ties with her abusive parents brought her significant relief. They had been pressuring her to return to China, marry a wealthy man, and raise children near them.

Initially, Zhenzhen felt lonely after cutting off her parents upon graduation. However, she soon found relief, especially after connecting with her 'chosen family'-those who supported her decision wholeheartedly.

"I think he saved my life, in a way," she said of Teahan's work.

Although there is no extensive quantitative data proving that estrangement is increasing in modern society, research shows it has become relatively common for people in their 20s to distance themselves from their parents due to rifts or childhood trauma.

On the other hand, critics argue that there is no scientific evidence to prove that estrangement is beneficial since estranged children are likely to suffer when they lose access to emotional and financial resources. In addition, cutoffs can also harm other people involved in the situation, including siblings, grandchildren, and other family members.

But Teahan continues to advocate for this because he believes it's necessary to break the "cultural norm" and help people break free from abuse.

"The movement right now is that we can break a cultural norm. The structure is becoming undone around 'family is everything.' I think it's a good thing. It's helping people see things in a different way - that regardless of the connection, abuse is abuse."

Through his work, Teahan is changing the conversation around family and trauma, empowering individuals to take control of their healing journeys and find peace.
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DTE Maharashtra Polytechnic 2025 Admission Starts

Admission process for Post SSC Polytechnic Diploma by DTE Maharashtra for the year 2025-26 started Tuesday May 20, 2025

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:10 PM , ummid.com News Network

DTE Maharashtra Post SSC Diploma Admission 2025-26: Online registration for the students seeking admission in Post SSC Diploma Courses in Engineering, Technology, also known as Polytechnic Diploma, for the year 2025-26 has started through DTE Maharashtra official website dte.maharashtra.gov.in.

The Directorate of Technical Edtaction (DTE) in the Polytechnic Admission Notification said the last date of application is June 16, 2025.

Maharashtra Polytechnic Admission 2025 - Steps

Candidates should note that since the admission process has started, the first step is to register online. For registration, a link has been made available using which the students should register themselves. While filling the registration form, students will be required to pay the counselling fees and submit the documents necessary for the admission in the Polytechnic courses. Students should note that the documents can be submitted offline at FCs or online using the link of the DTE Maharashtra admission website. List of the documents can be found on the website. Once registration is done, candidates will now need to wait for the release of the Merit List. The DTE Maharashtra will first release Provisional Merit List on June 28, 2025, as per the original notification. The candidates are required to check their name and other details are recorded correctly in the Merit List and all their documents uploaded properly. In case of any error theyr should raise objection from June 19 to 21, 2025. Based on the objections raised by the candidates, the DTE will publish final merit list on June 23, 2025. The next step after the release of the final merit list is Option Form submission. Candidates will be required to submit their options and college choice using the online form. The date of option form submission has not been confirmed yet. Based on the candidates ranking in the final merit list and the options submitted, DTE Maharashtra will then publish the DTE Maharashtra Polytechnic Admission 2024 CAP Round 1 allotment status. If the students are satisfied with the allotted colleges, they can confirm their admission and pay the fees. If not satisfied, they can opt out of Round 1 and participate in CAP Round 2.

Steps to apply for DTE Post SSC Diploma Admission 2025

Click here to go to the official website: " poly25.dtemaharashtra.gov.in ".

". Click on "New Registration".

Read the given instructions carefully and complete the Online Application Form.

Upload Qualification Details, Photos, Payment and other details.

Take the printout of the completed application form and submit at nearest FC.

Last date to apply

Candidates should note that the last date of application and document verification for all DTE Post SSC Diploma Courses in Maharashtra has been as of now fixed as June 16, 2025.

"Online registration of application and uploading of required documents by the Candidate for admission on website by selecting appropriate mode of scrutiny of Application form ((For Maharashtra State/All India/ J&K & Ladakh Migrant candidates)) has started on May 20, 2025 and will continue till June 16, 2025", DTE Maharashtra said in Polytechnic Diploma admission notification for the year 2025.

Maharashtra Polytechnic Admission 2025 - Important Dates

Online Registration: May 20 to June 16, 2025

Display of the Provisional Merit List for Maharashtra State/All India/J & K Migrant candidates on website: June 18, 2025

Submission of grievance, if any, for all type of Candidates: June 19 to 21, 2025.

Display of the Final Merit list of Maharashtra State/All India/ J & K Migrant candidates on website: June 23, 2054

Display of Provisional Category wise Seats (Seat Matrix) for CAP Round I : Will be announced later

Online Submission & Confirmation of Option Form of CAP Round-I through candidates Login by the Candidate: Will be announced later

Display of Provisional Allotment of CAP Round 1: Will be announced later

Display of Provisional Vacant Seats for CAP Round 2: Will be announced later

E-Scrutiny Mode

DTE Maharashtra has started from the last year a new service called E Scrutiny. Using this option, candidates can electronically verify their documents. For this, they need to select "E-Scrutiny Mode" while filling the online registration form.

"All types of candidates aspiring for admission under CAP seats shall register, get Documents Verified & Application Form confirmed either by E-Scrutiny Mode or Physical Scrutiny Mode. Such eligible registered candidates shall be considered for CAP Merit and admission through CAP", DTE Maharashtra said.

For offline verification, candidates will be required to visit Facilitation Centre (FC) and physically verify their documents before the last date.

DTE Maharashtra Post SSC CAP Round 2025

The DTE has released on its official website Information Brochure (Marathi and English) and detailed admission notification, though it is yet to confirm the CAP Round dates.

DTE Maharashtra has also released Provisional Seat Matrix CAP Round ADMISSIONS 2024-25, 2023-24, 2022-23, 2021-22, 2020-21 and 2019-20 along with round wise Cut-off list for previous years for reference of the students.

Post SSC Diploma admission in Maharashtra is conducted for First Year Engineering in Civil, Mechanical, Information Technology (IT), Computer Engineering group, Electronics and Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering group and other streams.

DTE has started admission process of Post SSC Diploma admission for 2025-26 after the Class 10th (SSC) result is announced .

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Two Israeli Embassy staffers killed in Washington shootout

Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC were Wednesday in a shooting incident carried by a single suspect

Thursday May 22, 2025 4:52 PM , ummid.com News Network

[Two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC Wednesday May 21, 2025. (Inset) Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.]

Washington: Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC were Wednesday in a shooting incident carried by a single suspect.

Embassy of Israel to the USA identified them as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

The two were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the area of 3rd and F Streets in Northwest, a part of central Washington that is about 1.3 miles (2 km) from the White House.

"We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

Suspect identified

The suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, Illinois, Pamela said.

The suspect shouted 'free, free Palestine' while in custody, Smith said. She however did not elaborate on a suspected motive for the attack.

The Israeli diplomat shooter has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago.



He was seen shouting Free Palestine while being taken into custody.



Follow: @AFpost pic.twitter.com/DBvslVVDmw  AF Post (@AFpost) May 22, 2025

The shootings could give political impetus to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right partners to take a harder line in the conflict in Gaza as well as generate sympathy for Israel from Western allies who were piling pressure on him to ease the aid blockade in the war-ravaged territory, Reuters reported.

Israelis are in the midst of carrying genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and are being criticised for blocking aid into the besieged strip and using starvation as weapon.

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Taoiseach Micheal Martin stated he would be demanding answers from Israel following an incident where Israeli troops opened fire on a European Union delegation that included two Irish diplomats in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military reported that warning shots were fired during the visit of foreign diplomats to the town of Jenin, attracting condemnation amid growing pressure on Israel to permit aid access to Gaza.

The two Irish diplomats involved in the incident included the head of mission at the Irish Representative Office in Palestine and the deputy head of the mission.

In a statement, Mr. Martin condemned the aggressive and violent act, asserting that the international community would be demanding answers from Israel.

I am deeply shocked and horrified that the Israeli Defence Forces today opened fire on a group of diplomats visiting the town of Jenin. Thankfully, nobody was killed or injured. pic.twitter.com/Bz0iaIoOyu

 Micheal Martin (@MichealMartinTD) May 21, 2025

I unreservedly condemn this aggressive, intimidatory, and violent act. This is not, and must never be, a normal way to behave.

We and the international community will demand answers from Israel on how this incident transpired and will seek assurances that it will never occur again.

Diplomats play a crucial role in representing countries. They should be allowed to perform their duties without impediment and should never fear becoming targets.

Watch: IDF fires warning shots during diplomatic delegation visit to Jenin

Tanaiste Simon Harris has reached out directly to Feilim McLaughlin, the Representative of Ireland to the Palestinian National Authority, to express his full support and best wishes to him and his team based in Ramallah.

Separately, following the Tanaistes instructions, a senior official from the Department of Foreign Affairs delivered a demarche to Ambassador Dana Erlich, Israels non-resident ambassador to Ireland, condemning the incident and expressing concerns.

A demarche is a formal protest conveyed through diplomatic channels.

Concerns were raised regarding the safety of Irish personnel, and the ambassador was informed that Ireland views this incident as a clear violation of international law concerning the protection of diplomats.

It was emphasized that the incident should not be dismissed as merely an inconvenience, a term previously used by the IDF when expressing regret.

The Irish ambassador urged Israeli authorities to fully condemn the incident and provide a comprehensive explanation of what occurred.

Mr. Harris has called for a thorough investigation and accountability for those responsible.

Watch: IDF soldiers responsible for firing near delegation must be held to account  Harris

He remarked: Our head of mission in Palestine and his deputy were present alongside various diplomats from Europe and other regions, visiting Jenina routine visit critical to their diplomatic responsibilities.

This visit had been communicated to the IDF in advance, and the act of the Israeli Defence Forces firing shots in their direction is utterly reprehensible and unacceptable, demanding a comprehensive investigation and accountability.

We do not seek vague apologies from Israel; we want clarity on how this occurred, a complete investigation, and accountability for those involved.

Mr. Harris expressed at a Fine Gael party meeting that the shooting at diplomats was repugnant and reiterated the need for a thorough inquiry and accountability.

He affirmed that Irish diplomats would remain undeterred in their commitments.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has called on Israel to hold accountable those involved in the shooting near Jenin, a known center for Palestinian armed groups and frequently targeted by Israeli operations.

The Palestinian foreign ministry accused Israel of having deliberately targeted an accredited diplomatic delegation with live fire.

The Israeli military contended that the delegation deviated from the approved route, leading troops to issue warning shots to prevent them from entering an area where they were unauthorized.

In a statement, the Israeli military expressed regret for the inconvenience caused by the shooting, which fortunately resulted in no injuries.

This incident coincided with escalating international pressure on Israel regarding its ongoing conflict in Gaza, where Palestinians are desperately awaiting essential supplies following a partial easing of the two-month aid blockade.

IDF troops pictured next to an armored vehicle while conducting a raid in Jenin

Rescuers in Palestinian territories, where Israeli assaults have recently intensified, reported that overnight attacks killed at least 19 people, including an infant just one week old.

France and Italy have announced they will summon Israeli ambassadors to their respective countries regarding the incident.

Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot labeled the shooting as unacceptable and stated that the ambassador would be called in to provide an explanation.

Italys Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani remarked that threats against diplomats are unacceptable.

Germany has also strongly condemned the shooting incident involving Israeli troops near the diplomats, including a German representative.

The Israeli government must promptly investigate the circumstances, said a spokesperson from the foreign ministry.

Egypt condemned the shot fired near the delegation, which included Cairos ambassador to Ramallah, in the strongest terms.

The Egyptian foreign ministry indicated that the event violates all diplomatic norms and demanded explanations from the Israeli side regarding its circumstances.

Turkey remarked that this attack  endangered the lives of diplomats and called for an investigation and accountability from Israel.

Unbearable

Israel reported that 93 trucks entered Gaza yesterday but faced allegations that the quantity was insufficient to meet the urgent needs.

The United Nations indicated that aid had been delayed.

On Monday, the UN announced it had received clearance to send aid for the first time since the total blockade imposed by Israel on March 2, leading to critical shortages of food and medicine.

Umm Talal al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian residing in Gaza City, described the situation as unbearable.

A Palestinian boy in Gaza waits for a ration of food as critical supplies dwindle in Israels blockade

No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we havent received anything, she told AFP.

Were grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, managing barely one meal a day.

Israel faces immense pressure, including from its traditional allies, to cease its intensified assaults and allow aid delivery into Gaza.

Reckless act

Numerous European nations swiftly condemned the shooting incident in the occupied West Bank, with Belgium demanding a convincing explanation and Italy reiterating that threats against diplomats are unacceptable.

Ahmad al-Deek, political advisor for the Palestinian foreign ministry, stated he was leading the delegation.

We condemn this reckless act by the Israeli army, especially considering it had given the diplomatic delegation an opportunity to witness life as experienced by the Palestinian people, he commented.

A European diplomat present during the trip reported hearing repeated shots from inside the Jenin refugee camp, which has seen its population drastically reduced due to ongoing Israeli operations since January.

EU diplomats and Palestinian officials pictured at metal gates established by the Israeli military in Jenin

We were on a visit with the governor of Jenin to the camp border to observe the devastation, the diplomat shared.

A video released by the Palestinian foreign ministry showed two Israeli soldiers pointing weapons at a group of individuals from behind metal gates, coinciding with the sound of gunfire.

AFP was unable to immediately verify the videos authenticity; however, a journalist in Jenin indicated that the footage appears to depict the camps eastern entrance.

Since January, major Israeli operations aimed at curtailing militant groups have led to the installation of metal gates at the entrances to the Jenin camp, which now remains sparsely populated and largely occupied by Israeli forces.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) stated that as of March 31, the military operation had displaced approximately 16,000 individuals in Jenin.

Additional reporting by Micheal Lehane
US President Donald Trump announced that he has chosen a design for the $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense shield and appointed a Space Force general to lead this ambitious initiative aimed at countering threats from China and Russia.

Initiated by Mr. Trump in January, the program seeks to establish a network of satellites, potentially numbering in the hundreds, to detect, track, and possibly intercept incoming missiles.

During a White House press conference, Mr. Trump stated that US Space Force General Michael Guetlein would serve as the primary program manager for what is widely regarded as a cornerstone of the presidents military strategy.

Golden Dome will protect our homeland, Mr. Trump mentioned, adding that Canada expressed interest in participating in the initiative.

In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carneys office indicated that discussions were underway with U.S. officials regarding a new security and economic partnership.

These discussions naturally include strengthening NORAD and related initiatives such as the Golden Dome, the statement continued.

Mr. Trump revealed that the defense shield, estimated to cost around $175 billion, is expected to be operational by the end of his term in January 2029, although industry analysts expressed doubt about the timeline and overall expenses.

Donald Trump unveiled the program alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Ronald Reagan envisioned it many years ago, but they didnt have the technology, Mr. Trump remarked, referencing the space-based missile defense initiative, commonly referred to as Star Wars, proposed by Reagan.

The Golden Dome program is facing both political scrutiny and uncertainties concerning its funding.

The new data point is the $175 billion, but the question remains, over what period of time? Its probably ten years, stated Tom Karako from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The expertise from Silicon Valley and US software can be harnessed to accelerate advancements while integrating existing missile defense systems, he added.

This month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Golden Domes potential cost could reach as much as $831 billion over two decades.

Democrats have raised concerns regarding the procurement process and the involvement of Trump ally Elon Musks SpaceX, which has emerged as a frontrunner alongside Palantir and Anduril for building integral components of the system.

The new autonomous space-age defense ecosystem is more about Silicon Valley than it is about big metal,' remarked Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota during the White House event.

So whats exciting about this is it makes it available for everyone to participate and compete.

Big metal refers to traditional defense contractors.

Space Force General Michael Guetlein spoke alongside Rep Jim Banks and Donald Trump.

The inspiration for the Golden Dome concept came from Israels land-based Iron Dome defense system, which protects against missiles and rockets.

Mr. Trumps Golden Dome vision is significantly more extensive, featuring a vast array of surveillance satellites and a separate fleet of attack satellites designed to intercept offensive missiles shortly after launch.

Yesterday evenings announcement marks the beginning of the Pentagons initiative to test and ultimately procure the missiles, systems, sensors, and satellites that will comprise Golden Dome.

Mr. Trump stated that Alaska would play a vital role in the program, while Florida, Georgia, and Indiana would also benefit.

Many of the initial systems are expected to arise from pre-existing production lines. Participants at the press conference identified L3Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, and RTX Corp as potential contractors for the expansive project.

L3 has invested $150 million to expand its new facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it manufactures the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor satellites, crucial for the Pentagons efforts to better detect and track hypersonic weapons using space-based sensors, which could be adapted for Golden Dome.

However, the funding for Golden Dome remains uncertain.

Republicans have proposed an initial $25 billion investment for Golden Dome as part of a broader $150 billion defense package, but this funding is contingent upon a contentious reconciliation bill facing significant obstacles in Congress.

Unless reconciliation passes, the funds for Golden Dome may not materialize, warned an industry executive involved with the program, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

This jeopardizes the entire project timeline.

The Kremlin indicated that Mr. Trumps missile shield proposal requires dialogue with Russia but asserted that it is otherwise a sovereign matter for the United States, softening its previous critical stance on the plan as destabilizing.

This is a sovereign matter for the United States. If the United States believes there is a missile threat, then it will naturally develop a missile defense system, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained to reporters.

That is the course of action for all nations, he added.

Of course, in the foreseeable future, the events may necessitate the resumption of dialogue to restore strategic stability, he continued, referring to broader nuclear discussions.

Mr. Peskovs comments followed a call between Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the US leader claimed went very well.

Russia had earlier condemned the Golden Dome initiative, warning that it could escalate tensions in space.

This month, in a joint statement, China and Russia criticized the project as deeply destabilizing.

China, which has enhanced its collaboration with Russia in recent years, labeled Mr. Trumps plans as a threat to international security this morning.

Russia and the United States maintain the worlds two most extensive arsenals of nuclear warheads.
A former Ukrainian politician was shot and killed outside a school in a wealthy suburb of Madrid, according to Spains Interior Ministry.

Police responded to a call regarding the shooting of a Ukrainian citizen at 9:15 AM local time outside the prestigious American School of Madrid, situated in Pozuelo de Alarcon, as stated by Madrid police.

Multiple assailants shot him in the back and head before fleeing into a nearby forest, a source from the Interior Ministry reported.

The victim, Andriy Portnov, aged 51, was a senior aide to Ukraines pro-Russian former President Viktor Yanukovich, who was removed from power during a popular uprising in 2014.

In 2021, the US Treasury Department placed him on its sanctions list, citing his involvement in cultivating extensive connections to Ukraines judicial and law enforcement apparatus through bribery.

Police arrived at the scene shortly after 9 AM local time.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Spain has witnessed several notable crimes involving Russian and Ukrainian nationals, given the substantial expatriate communities from both nations.

In 2022, six letter bombs were dispatched to various targets across Spain, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, the Ukrainian and US embassies, and several government offices.

A retired Spanish civil servant, whose online activity indicated a pro-Russian stance, was imprisoned for these offenses.

In February 2024, a Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine with his helicopter was discovered dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the parking garage of his apartment building near Alicante.
( RFE/RL )  US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff declared that the Donald Trump administrations red line in the nuclear talks with Iran is Tehrans ability to enrich uranium at any level, prompting Iran to say it will continue enrichment with or without a deal.

We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability, Witkoff told ABC on May 18, insisting any enrichment, even for civilian purposes, could enable weaponization.

Everything beginswith a deal that does not include enrichmentbecause enrichment enables weaponization. And we will not allow a bomb to get here, he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi quickly rejected Witkoffs demand, calling it unrealistic and disconnected from the realities of the negotiations.

Embed from Getty Images

File. PRESIDENCY OF IRAN / HANDOUT  NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS  DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS-) An engineer performs a mechanical test on nuclear equipment as President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani attends opening ceremony of nuclear projects in different regions of the country via video conference on 11th anniversary of National Nuclear Technology Day in Tehran, Iran on April 10, 2021. Rouhani instructed that the new generation centrifuges at the Natanz Nuclear Facilities in Isfahan to start operation. (Photo by Iranian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Enrichment in Iran will continue with or without a deal, Araghchi posted on X, emphasizing that Irans right to enrichment is non-negotiable as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

He added, If the [United States] is interested in ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, a deal is within reach, and we are ready for a serious conversation to achieve a solution that will forever ensure that outcome.

Araqchi criticized what he described as inconsistent US messaging in public and attributed comments about zero enrichment to the Trumps administration attempt to pacify special interest groups, which he described as malign actors.

Amid the standoff, Kamal Kharrazi, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reinforced Irans position on enrichment during an annual gathering in the Iranian capital on May 18.

He described Irans nuclear knowledge as irreversible, adding that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons but regional nuclear disarmament should be a shared goal.

Kharrazi has previously warned that while Iran may not be looking to acquire nuclear weapons, it can make a bomb and may reconsider its nuclear doctrine if faced with an existential threat.

Witkoff and Araqchi have meet directly and indirectly in four rounds of nuclear talks mediated by Oman, but no date has been set for a fifth round. Some reports say the next meeting may be held over the coming weekend.

Trump last week said Washington was getting closer to a deal with Tehran and urged the Islamic republic to move quickly on a US proposal over its nuclear program. Araqchi, however, insisted that Iran had not received a written proposal.

They have a proposal. More importantly, they know they have to move quickly or something bad  something bad is going to happen, Trump said.



Ayatollah Khamenei, Digital, Dream / Dreamworld v3, Clip2Comic, 2024.

Hossein Aghaie, a security analyst based in Turkey, said Trumps warning serves as an unwritten ultimatum but added that the US president appears very optimistic about being able to get a deal with Tehran solely through diplomacy that meets US demands, such as abandoning enrichment and scaling back regional activities.

Trump is insisting on diplomacy and is very optimistic that diplomacy will bear results desired by the United States, he told RFE/RLs Radio Farda.

Unless the United States relents on its maximalist demands, it cannot get what it wants simply through diplomacy alone, he said.

Trump has threatened military action against Iranian nuclear facilities if the two countries fail to reach a deal. Tehran, however, has warned that it will retaliate if struck.

Roya Karimi Majd of RFE/RLs Radio Farda contributed to this report.
A Review of Islam: A New History, from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton University Press, 2025) by John Tolan

Detroit (Special to Informed Comment; Feature)  Islam has had a major influence on the world as a religion, a culture and a civilization. As a religion, Islam is based on two main sources: the Quran and collections of the sayings and actions of Muhammad (hadith). It is a faith cherished by nearly 2 billion believers around the world. As a culture and a civilization, global Islam has developed and evolved over fourteen centuries, shaped by rapid expansion beyond Arabia through conquest and conversion, as well as by brilliant inventors, scientists, intellectuals, architects and builders.

The long history of Islam is the subject of John Tolans delightfully readable book, Islam: A New History, from Muhammad to the Present (Princeton University Press, 2025). Tolan is a distinguished scholar and the author of Faces of Muhammad (Princeton University Press, 2019), Saint Francis and the Sultan (Oxford University Press, 2009), and Saracens (Columbia University Press, 2002). He aims to bring recent scholarship on the history of Islam to a broad audience of non-specialists and to show the complexity and diversity of Muslim civilization.

Tolan starts by looking at the foundations of Islam in 7th century Arabia. He acknowledges the sharp debate among historians over many aspects of the traditional narratives of Islam and accounts of the life of Muhammad. It is difficult, often impossible he writes, to separate historical facts from pious legends, biography from hagiography. But Tolan considers the Quran as the only important document from the first century of Islam and the best source for understanding the life of Muhammad and his companions in Mecca and Medina.

Islamic civilization was established through conquests in the Near East, North Africa, Iberia and Central Asia. Tolan demonstrates how imperial Islam asserted its power and authority over vast territories, but it did not bulldoze or erase other cultures or religions. In fact, it lifted geographical and social partitions between people, produced great art, architecture, science, literature, and inspired new ideas. During the illustrious Abbasid Empire in the ninth and tenth century, Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars studied and debated texts and ideas side by side in Baghdad. Tolan states that Muslim law in the Abbasid period was formed by a fusion of Arab, Persian, Roman, Christian, and Jewish legal practices and texts, in addition to strictly Muslim elements (Quran and hadith).



John Tolan, Islam: A New History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2025). Click here to buy.

Islamic civilization was at its creative best when it shunned dogmatism, encouraged dialog and exchange and worked with other traditions to build a humane and ethical society. A good example is the Mughal dynasty which did not rule India with an iron fist. Tolan says that the Mughals worked to create a modus vivendi with non-Muslims (Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and others). Islamic civilization did not create perfect utopias of equality, tolerance, and coexistence, including in Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus), which has been crowned as the Golden Age of Islam. However, there are bright, shining moments of progress and enlightenment in the history of Islam, when Muslims worked cooperatively with others to transform their societies and the world.

Islamic civilization faced enormous internal and external threats through power struggles, invasions, and wars that weakened the defenses of empires until they collapsed and disintegrated. The dissolution of the once powerful Ottoman Empire (1299-1922) and its caliphate marked the abandonment of Muslim universalism, according to Tolan. He notes that while some Muslims have called for the restoration of the caliphate, others welcomed the liberation of Muslims from this outdated institution. What followed was the rise of secular states, nationalism and political Islam.

Tolan highlights the important role of Sufis and women in Islamic history. To counter simplistic stereotypes about Islam as a violent, provincial, and oppressively patriarchal religion, he chose an Indian miniature of Rabia al-Adawiyya (716-801 CE), a famous Sufi mystic from Iraq, to grace the cover of his book. He says it gives us a completely different image of Islam: an image of peace and contemplation, appreciation of the beauty of the world and trust in God.

Tolans book is excellent and a pleasure to read. He lays out the twists and turns in the story of Islam, which is an epic history of unity and division, victory and defeat, expansion and retreat, and change and continuity. Anyone who opens this book with preconceived notions about Islam will think differently when they finish the last page. He reminds us that the history of Islam refutes all the caricatures that one tries to impose on it. Tolan deserves praise for offering this book for us to ponder.

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Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Canuc Resources Corporation (TSXV: CDA) (OTCQB: CNUCF) ("Canuc" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Mr. Kevin Olson has joined the Company's Board of Directors.

Mr. Olson is an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). He has more than two decades of experience driving technology and innovation in the oil and gas industry and has recently served as Director of Global Sales at Core Laboratories N.V., a reservoir optimization leader. In this role Kevin had notable success developing business expansion across the Permian Basin in Texas, and in the Middle East.

Kevin holds a B. Comm from the University of Calgary. He has a track record of success leading cross-functional teams to identify, develop and launch new technologies in the oil and gas industry.

"We are pleased that Kevin is able to join Canuc's Board of Directors. Kevin's experience and familiarity with oil and gas technologies and his extensive professional network will benefit Canuc as we expand in-field developments at the company's natural gas producing assets in West Texas, and as we continue to explore cash flow opportunities in order to protect our shareholders from unnecessary dilution," stated Chris Berlet, CEO and Director of Canuc.

The Company also announces the resignation of Mr. Paul Davis BSc (Hon), MSc from the Company's Board of Directors. The Company would like to thank Paul for his professionalism and service during the period of his tenure on the Board.

About Canuc Resources Corp.

Canuc Resources Corporation is a junior resource company developing its 100% owned Scadding, Powerline, Jovan Project (the "SPJ Project") spanning 19,710 hectares situated approximately 40 kilometers northeast of the Prolific Sudbury Mining Camp and near to the extensive infrastructure of the adjacent Sudbury Mining District. The SPJ Project encompasses several centers of critical and precious metal mineralization interpreted to be related to a mineral system that can form IOCG and affiliated critical and precious mineral deposits. Included within the Project is the historical Scadding Gold Mine and associated gold mineralized system and gold bearing tailings.

Canuc Resources Corporation also holds a 100% interest in the San Javier Silver-Gold Project located in Sonora State, Mexico. The San Javier Silver-Gold Project spans 28 claims covering 1,052 hectares and evidences extensive silver, gold and copper mineralization interpreted to be related to a mineral system that can form silver dominant IOCG and affiliated deposits.

The company also generates cash flow from natural gas production at its MidTex Energy Project located in Central West Texas, USA where Canuc has an interest in eight (8) producing natural gas wells and has rights for further in field developments.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information. All information, other than information of historical fact, constitute "forward-looking statements" and includes any information that addresses activities, events or developments that the Corporation believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future including the Corporation's strategy, plans or future financial or operating performance.

When used in this news release, the words "estimate", "project", "anticipate", "expect", "intend", "believe", "hope", "may" and similar expressions, as well as "will", "shall" and other indications of future tense, are intended to identify forward-looking information. The forward-looking information is based on current expectations and applies only as of the date on which they were made. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Corporation to fund the exploration expenditures required under the Agreement. Other factors such as uncertainties regarding government regulations could also affect the results. Other risks may be set out in the Corporation's annual financial statements, MD&A and other publicly filed documents.

The Corporation cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Corporation does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
Vancouver, B.C, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Walker River Resources Corp. (Walker or the Company) (TSX-V: WRR) is pleased to announce that the 2025 reverse circulation (RC) drill program has begun at the Lapon Canyon portion of the Lapon Gold Project, located within the Walker Lane Gold trend, 60 km SE of Yerington, NV.

The initial 2025 drill program at Lapon Canyon will consist of exploration drilling near the historical Lapon Canyon Mine, the Central Zone, and the newly discovered Hot Spot Zone. Drill holes are planned to extend known gold-bearing mineralized zones along trend and at depth, as well as to target new areas of mineralization previously untested.

Lapon Canyons Hotspot Zone is a primary target for the 2025 drill program. Following up on the previously unknown, high-grade, near surface Hotspot discovery, made in 2021. The Company will carry out grid-style drilling over the target, testing for extension of the mineralized zone in all directions as well as for continuity with the mineralization of the Central Zone. Grid drilling will consist of pads placed at approximately 30 m centres on section, with up to five holes planned per pad. The mineralization is not visible at surface, as it is overlain by approximately 3 meters of loose colluvium, making the target unexposed, but also making drill road access and pad construction quicker at less cost.

Surficial mapping and rock sampling will be carried out at bedrock exposures surrounding the Lapon Canyon gold targets. Structural data collection will be a key objective, as Walker aims to focus in on the structural controls of high-grade mineralization and the broad disseminated deposits enveloping them.

The Company also announces it has retained Geoex Exploration (Geox) of Vancouver BC., a full-service mineral exploration consulting firm. Geox will be responsible for the management and supervision of the drilling database, geological mapping, producing drill logs from RC chips, and producing a three-dimensional model of the Lapon Gold project. Initial interpretations of Lapons historical data have been used to produce a geological model of the Central and Hot Spot zones, which already has greatly enhanced the planning and design of Walkers 2025 drill program.

Walker River has completed considerable exploration work to date, with numerous drill hole intercepts that have indicated significant gold mineralization. The drill programs at Lapon Canyon will consist of definition and systematic drilling on section for geological modelling purposes, exploration drilling to discover new gold mineralization, extension of known gold mineralization, in several directions, including at depth. The results from the 2025 drill programs and subsequent data compilation will enable the completion of an initial NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource on the Project.

Michel David, President states: We are very excited and encouraged by the past drill results which confirm the potential of the project. The 2025 drill program will further define the geological model as to the actual size, geometry, and parameters of the gold mineralization at Lapon.

About the Lapon Gold Project

The Lapon Gold Project consists of 149 claims (3103 acres) situated in the Wassuk Range, within the Walker Lane shear zone, a 100 km wide structural corridor extending in a southeast direction from Reno, Nevada. Lapon Canyon (96 claims) is subject to an US $5,000,000 exploration stream earn-in agreement with Nevada Canyon Gold Corp for right to acquire up to a 50% interest in the Project. (news release 02-03-2025). The Project is easily accessible by secondary state roads from the main highway (25 kilometres), and is located approximately 60 kilometres southeast of Yerington, Nevada. A state power grid transmission line passes within three kilometres of the Project. The Lapon Gold Project includes Lapon Canyon, the Pikes Peak claims located 4 kilometres to the north and the Rattlesnake and Range Front claims 3 kilometres to the west and over 600 meters lower than the present drilling at Lapon Canyon.

The Rattlesnake, Range Front, and Pikers Peak claims cover over 8 km of possible extensions of the range front zones to the west, north, and south of Lapon Canyon, adding several additional drill target areas to the project. Rattlesnake and Pikes Peak contain numerous historical mining and milling areas that consist of adits at different levels, shafts and underground workings, and a network of existing roads providing access throughout. Little or no exploration work has been carried out on these claims prior to Walkers arrival. It is notable that the Rattlesnake area and adits are on strike with the Lapon Canyon discoveries located 3 km on strike and 600 meters above. Lapon Canyon hosts historical high grade gold mining with approximately 2000 feet of undergoing workings in three adits. Historical underground work returned numerous assay values in the one ounce per ton range, with a sample at the end of the A adit returning 20.6 ounces per ton Au. (NI 43-101, Montgomery and Barr, 2004).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Michel David, CEO & Director

Tel: 819 874-0030

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.wrrgold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward Looking Information

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, potential, possible, and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results will, may, could, or should occur or be achieved There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political, social and regulatory uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these items. The Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by applicable securities laws.
MONTREAL, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Troilus Gold Corp. (Troilus or the Company, TSX: TLG; OTCQX: CHXMF; FSE: CM5R) is pleased to report additional positive drill results from the Southwest Zone (Southwest), at its Troilus Project located in northcentral Quebec, Canada. The results herein are part of the companys 2025 drill campaign (outlined in the February 4, 2025 press release), focused on identifying and delineating higher-grade mineralization and enhancing confidence in the block model within the Southwest Zone as outlined in the May 2024 Feasibility Study (see May 14, 2024 press release).

The results reported today, following the initial results published on April 29, 2025, continue to demonstrate strong continuity of higher-grade mineralization at surface and reinforce the potential to optimize and de-risk the Southwest Zone block model, which currently covers years 1 to 5 of the mine plan. Drill hole locations relative to the Southwest reserve pit are shown in Figure 1. All grades are uncut, and true thicknesses are approximately 75% to 90% of drilled length.

Southwest Highlights:

Hole SW-25-681 intersected 1.79 g/t gold equivalent (AuEq) (1.40 g/t Au, 1.23 g/t Ag, 0.22 % Cu) over 36 m including 2.44 g/t AuEq (1.93 g/t Au, 1.85 g/t Ag, 0.29 % Cu) over 23 m starting at 51 m downhole and extending the continuity of high-grade mineralization to surface (See Figures 1 and 2).





(1.40 g/t Au, 1.23 g/t Ag, 0.22 % Cu) (1.93 g/t Au, 1.85 g/t Ag, 0.29 % Cu) starting at 51 m downhole and extending the continuity of high-grade mineralization to surface (See Figures 1 and 2). Hole SW-25-709 returned 1.52 g/t AuEq (1.15 g/t Au, 1.09 g/t Ag, 0.21 % Cu) over 21 m including 3.09 g/t AuEq (2.40 g/t Au, 1.92 g/t Ag, 0.39 % Cu) over 5 m starting at 44 m downhole and extending high-grade mineralization to surface (See Figure 1).

Justin Reid, CEO of Troilus Gold, commented, We continue to be encouraged by the positive results reported from the Southwest Zone. Holes SW-25-681 and SW-25-709 have further highlighted the continuity of wide, high-grade mineralization, extending this system to surface. These results continue to de-risk and add confidence to the block model, and in doing so will allow optimization through re-interpretation of the high-grade zones in the Southwest Pit. With drilling now complete at the Southwest, we look forward to releasing the remaining results in the coming weeks, which will continue to provide additional confidence in the block model and help to de-risk the early years of production.

*The completed NI 43-101 technical report associated with the Troilus Project FS can be found on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca under the Companys issuer profile or on the Companys website at www.troilusgold.com.

Southwest Drilling

The drill program at the Southwest Zone focused on better defining high-grade zones in the early years of production. These results include intercepts of the high-grade core of the Southwest that will allow a re-interpretation of the resource, extending this enriched ore shoot to surface.

Drill hole SW-25-681 returned 1.79 g/t AuEq over 36 metres including 2.44 g/t AuEq over 23 metres, while SW-25-709 returned 1.52 g/t AuEq over 21 metres including 3.09 g/t AuEq over 5 metres. These intercepts demonstrate continuous results greater than 1 g/t AuEq, which speaks to the robust nature of the mineralized system (see Figure 2). Previously reported drill hole SW-25-688, the best intercept of the Southwest Zone to date, (see April 29, 2025 press release) intersected 2.44 g/t AuEq over 56 metres including 3.28 g/t AuEq over 34 metres from the same high-grade domain.

The high-grade core of the Southwest is hosted within transitional to tholeiitic brecciated pillow basalts wedged between a felsic porphyry dyke and the Troilus intrusion. Albite together with chlorite and carbonate, and to a lesser extend biotite and sericite alterations are associated with elevated gold grades, while potassic alteration is most notable in areas of higher-grade copper. This signature is the result of a protracted mineralized system that has allowed Troilus to become one of Canadas largest undeveloped gold-copper projects, with 11.21 million gold equivalent ounces in the indicated category and an additional 1.80 million gold equivalent ounces in the inferred category (see October 16, 2023 press release).

Drilling in the Southwest Zone is now complete, with assays pending for several holes including those testing near-site conceptual targets. As results continue to be received and interpreted, the exploration team will shift focus, advancing near-site and regional field targets. The next phase of drilling is planned for the third quarter of 2025, with opportunities remaining to further expand on the highest-grade zones of the Southwest, as well as follow-up drilling of the many conceptual targets tested during phase one.

Figure 1. Plan map with the reported drill hole locations relative to the Southwest reserve pit



Figure 2. Core photos of hole SW-25-681 from 54 m to 85 m showing continuous nature of high-grade mineralization

Table 1. Southwest Drill Results

Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au Grade (g/t) Cu Grade (%) Ag Grade (g/t) AuEq Grade (g/t) SW-25-677 27.5 55.5 28 0.48 0.03 0.23 0.53 98.5 102.5 4 0.32 0.01 0.00 0.33 201.5 205.5 4 0.89 0.02 0.23 0.93 incl 204.5 205.5 1 2.84 0.03 0.90 2.91 214.5 218.5 4 0.28 0.05 0.80 0.38 SW-25-681 33 40 7 0.61 0.20 1.23 0.95 51 87 36 1.40 0.22 1.58 1.79 incl 56 79 23 1.93 0.29 1.85 2.44 and 64 70 6 2.77 0.44 3.37 3.55 98 123 25 0.80 0.03 0.66 0.87 incl 104 105 1 12.05 0.15 6.40 12.39 131 167 36 0.46 0.01 0.28 0.49 incl 132 134 2 2.87 0.01 0.35 2.90 273 277 4 0.36 0.03 0.40 0.42 283 287 4 0.34 0.08 1.73 0.50 SW-25-682 12 13 1 1.30 0.01 0.00 1.31 30 39 9 0.48 0.03 0.29 0.54 48 49 1 1.29 0.12 1.40 1.51 98 102 4 0.83 0.03 0.40 0.88 172 196 24 0.61 0.08 1.60 0.77 incl 187 188 1 5.82 0.09 5.00 6.03 SW-25-683 39 40 1 1.48 0.13 2.60 1.74 55 56 1 4.88 0.01 0.00 4.90 90 92 2 0.97 0.07 1.20 1.09 105 143 38 0.42 0.09 0.51 0.58 167 179 12 0.20 0.06 0.56 0.31 183 185 2 0.32 0.12 1.65 0.54 235 239 4 0.23 0.05 0.75 0.33 SW-25-686 12 17.35 5.35 0.18 0.05 1.92 0.32 65 71.15 6.15 0.35 0.07 1.52 0.53 77 88.4 11.4 0.33 0.08 1.25 0.48 94.85 99 4.15 0.18 0.07 1.60 0.32 109 115 6 0.47 0.09 2.73 0.66 incl 110 111 1 2.13 0.12 7.50 2.43 128 139 11 0.39 0.03 0.43 0.45 SW-25-689 38 39 1 28.40 0.21 10.80 28.89 134 135 1 1.96 0.17 8.80 2.35 162 165 3 0.35 0.02 0.23 0.39 SW-25-690 18 24 6 0.35 0.00 0.00 0.36 43 48 5 0.30 0.06 1.20 0.42 126 134 8 1.72 0.01 0.08 1.73 incl 128 129 1 12.35 0.00 0.60 12.36 141 142 1 1.10 0.01 0.00 1.11 193 196 3 1.14 0.14 1.37 1.40 222 225 3 0.31 0.02 0.17 0.35 SW-25-691 65 66 1 0.92 0.03 2.70 1.01 82 102 20 0.54 0.01 0.19 0.56 incl 87 88 1 3.32 0.01 1.00 3.35 127 128 1 1.83 0.03 6.50 1.96 SW-25-697 53 56 3 1.31 0.06 1.23 1.43 64 69 5 0.26 0.04 0.70 0.34 155 156 1 0.99 0.05 1.30 1.09 169 172 3 0.40 0.03 1.33 0.47 193 200 7 2.86 0.00 0.00 2.87 incl 199 200 1 10.85 0.01 0.00 10.86 269 273 4 0.40 0.01 0.00 0.43 285 286 1 1.08 0.04 0.90 1.15 SW-25-699 23 53 30 0.43 0.01 0.19 0.46 60 68 8 1.24 0.12 2.00 1.48 93 95 2 1.30 0.07 2.05 1.38 109 137 28 0.69 0.08 0.56 0.83 incl 109 117 8 1.73 0.19 1.38 2.07 177 190 13 0.25 0.04 0.21 0.32 242 246 4 0.19 0.08 0.85 0.34 SW-25-701 9.35 40 30.65 0.35 0.06 0.54 0.46 47 64 17 0.83 0.04 0.22 0.92 incl 49 50 1 4.87 0.03 0.50 4.92 70 88 18 0.36 0.02 0.11 0.40 97 104 7 0.29 0.02 0.29 0.32 115 123 8 0.41 0.02 0.09 0.45 134 153 19 0.48 0.05 0.91 0.54 181 189.6 8.6 0.34 0.06 0.46 0.46 SW-25-706 3.1 13 9.9 0.33 0.06 0.78 0.43 18.25 31 12.75 0.33 0.02 0.26 0.38 39.9 52 12.1 0.35 0.05 0.52 0.43 76 90 14 0.29 0.12 1.74 0.52 103 126 23 0.21 0.14 1.83 0.46 134 141 7 0.22 0.06 1.20 0.33 146 153 7 0.21 0.04 1.13 0.30 SW-25-707 6.45 15 8.55 0.33 0.02 0.39 0.32 49 50 1 0.91 0.07 1.80 1.05 57 64 7 0.21 0.05 0.73 0.30 96 100 4 0.51 0.02 0.17 0.61 116 136 20 0.37 0.09 1.21 0.53 SW-25-709 8.34 24 15.66 0.65 0.05 1.70 0.77 incl 12 13 1 3.23 0.10 5.00 3.46 34 36 2 0.87 0.09 1.70 1.05 44 65 21 1.15 0.21 1.09 1.52 incl 52 57 5 2.40 0.39 1.92 3.09 73 78 5 0.37 0.02 0.20 0.41 118 126 8 0.27 0.02 0.06 0.31 133 136 3 0.71 0.02 0.70 0.76 143 150 7 0.26 0.02 0.19 0.30 165 182 17 0.31 0.10 1.26 0.48 SW-25-715 16 21 5 0.26 0.02 0.26 0.30 22 32 10 0.31 0.01 0.06 0.34 40 57 17 0.35 0.00 0.00 0.36 85 94 9 0.48 0.03 0.61 0.54 161 180 19 0.16 0.10 1.41 0.34 189 192 3 0.20 0.07 2.73 0.35 SW-25-716 21 22 1 4.02 0.25 1.90 4.47 37 44 7 0.31 0.02 0.84 0.37 52 63 11 0.87 0.01 0.73 0.90 incl 57 58 1 5.15 0.01 3.50 5.21 145 163 18 0.67 0.03 0.28 0.74 incl 149 150 1 2.81 0.18 2.80 3.15 189 198 9 0.28 0.06 0.23 0.43 209 212 3 0.38 0.11 0.23 0.57 SW-25-717 47 59 12 0.39 0.03 0.44 0.44 89 94 5 0.33 0.03 0.66 0.39 121 125 4 0.39 0.01 0.00 0.40 163 179 16 0.40 0.07 0.44 0.52 219 225 6 0.24 0.04 0.32 0.32 278 284 6 0.46 0.07 0.48 0.58

* AuEq = Au + 1.6823 x Cu + 0.0124 x Ag

Quality Assurance and Control

During the drill program, one meter assay samples were taken from NQ core and sawed in half. One-half was sent for assaying at ALS Laboratory, a certified commercial laboratory, and the other half was retained for results, cross checks, and future reference. A strict QA/QC program was applied to all samples; which included insertion of one certified mineralized standard and one blank sample in each batch of 25 samples. Every sample was processed with standard crushing to 85% passing 75 microns on 500 g splits. Samples were assayed by one-AT (30 g) fire assay with an AA finish and if results were higher than 3.5 g/t Au, assays were redone with a gravimetric finish. For QA/QC samples, a 50 g fire assay was done. In addition to gold, ALS laboratory carried out multi-element analysis for ME-ICP61 analysis of 33 elements four acid ICP-AES.

Qualified Person



The technical and scientific information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Nicolas Guest, P.Geo., Exploration Manager, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Guest is an employee of Troilus and is not independent of the Company under NI 43-101.

AuEq Disclosure

The formulas used to calculate equivalent values for resources are as follows, for 87 Pit AuEq = Au + 1.5628*Cu +0.0128 *Ag, for J Pit AuEq = Au + 1.5107*Cu +0.0119 *Ag, for SW Pit AuEq = Au + 1.6823*Cu +0.0124 *Ag, for X22 Pit AuEq = Au + 1.5628*Cu +0.0128 *Ag. AuEq was calculated using metal prices of $1,850/oz Au; $4.25/lb Cu and $23.00/oz Ag.

About Troilus Gold Corp.

Troilus Gold Corp. is a Canadian development-stage mining company focused on the systematic advancement of the former gold and copper Troilus Mine towards production. Troilus is located in the tier-one mining jurisdiction of Quebec, Canada, where it holds a large land position of 435 km in the Frotet-Evans Greenstone Belt. A Feasibility Study completed in May 2024 supports a large-scale 22-year, 50ktpd open-pit mining operation, positioning it as a cornerstone project in North America.

For more information:

Caroline Arsenault

VP Corporate Communications

+1 (647) 276-0050

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the impact of the drill results on the Company, the results of the FS including, without limitation various project economics, financial and operational parameters such as the timing and amount of future production from the Project, expectations with respect to the IRR, NPV, payback and costs of the Project, anticipated mining and processing methods of the Project; proposed infrastructures, anticipated mine life of the Project, expected recoveries and grades, timing of future studies including the environmental assessments (including the timing of an environmental impact study) and development plans, opportunity to expand the scale of the project, the project becoming a cornerstone mining project in Noth America; the development potential and timetable of the project; the estimation of mineral resources and reserves; realization of mineral resource and reserve estimates; the timing and amount of estimated future exploration; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; the anticipated ability of investors to continue benefiting from the Companys low discovery costs, technical expertise and support from local communities, the timing and amount of estimated future exploration; and the anticipated results of the Companys 2024 drill program and their possible impact on the potential size of the mineral resource estimate. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, continue, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, will, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are made based upon certain assumptions and other important facts that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Troilus to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which Troilus will operate in the future. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, currency fluctuations, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troilus to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: there being no assurance that the exploration program or programs of the Company will result in expanded mineral resources; risks and uncertainties inherent to mineral resource and reserve estimates; the high degree of uncertainties inherent to feasibility studies and other mining and economic studies which are based to a significant extent on various assumptions; variations in gold prices and other metals, exchange rate fluctuations; variations in cost of supplies and labour; receipt of necessary approvals; availability of financing for project development; uncertainties and risks with respect to developing mining projects; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; future gold and other metal prices; accidents, labour disputes and shortages; environmental and other risks of the mining industry, including without limitation, risks and uncertainties discussed in the Companys latest Annual Information Form, its technical reports and other continuous disclosure documents of the Company available under the Companys profile at www.sedarplus.ca. Although Troilus has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Troilus does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Significantly Expands Abriaqui Project Land Package

TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / FenixOro Gold Corp (CSE:FENX)(OTC PINK:FDVXF)(Frankfurt:8FD) ("FenixOro" of "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has executed a definitive agreement to obtain the El Porvenir Mine and processing facility along with a significant contiguous land package and consolidate these assets (the "Assets") with its flagship Abriaqui gold project in Antioquia, Colombia (the "Transaction").

FenixOro CEO John Carlesso stated: "This transaction is transformational as it unifies adjacent properties to create a single project of scale and significance, combining exploration upside with existing production capabilities. This introduces both immediate and long term strategic value to the Company as the existing scalable, fully permitted production facility will allow FenixOro to take advantage of historic all-time-high gold prices within a relatively short period of time. Longer term, permitting for a new larger 300 tonnes per day processing facility is in final stages of approval. Once completed, this provides a turnkey, scalable processing solution for gold production on the combined Abriaqui project as a whole, circumventing what is typically a multi-year environmental application approval process. With this transaction we will be better positioned to execute on our corporate objective of proving out a "Buritica-style" deposit in both size and scale. The resulting project from this combination contains the entire package of mineralization of significance from north to south, and positions the Company with certainty for its development and long term, expanded production strategy. We strongly believe that this combination of unique, high grade, and highly prospective assets will deliver tremendous value for shareholders as we transition to executing on a production strategy that contributes cash flow towards our continuing development and growth objectives."

The El Porvenir Mine lies 3 kmto the northwest of the extension of the Abriaqui property boundary and is the largest historic producer in the district (see Figure 1). 1500 meters of lateral development have been completed along the vein which has been worked on four levels. High grade gold mineralization is open at depth and in both strike directions.Seven additional gold-bearing veins have been identified, some of which are the northwestward extensions of the prominent vein set which has been previously tested by FenixOro in prior drill programs. Geologically, the Porvenir veins are similar to those on which FenixOro has encountered potentially economic gold mineralization at drilled depths of more than 700 meters below surface. The Porvenir Mine has never been drilled, and to date mining levels have extended only to a depth of 280m below surface. The new package adds significantly to the resource potential of the combined properties both at depth at the northern and southern ends, and in the gap between the northernmost drill holes and the Porvenir mine (see Figure 2).

The El Porvenir Mine is fully permitted for exploitation and has a processing facility on site with the capability to expand to 60 tonnes per day. Current production is reported to average 13 g/t Gold. The land package also includes a 525 hectare mining title to the northwest that includes a 35 hectare parcel which is in the final stages of permitting for a new 300 tonne per day processing facility. Permits are expected in calendar 2025. A current resource calculation commissioned for main vein at El Porvenir, based on channel sampling on multiple mine levels (non-43-101 compliant), totals 80,000 oz of gold in all categories. Drilling on strike and at depth is expected to increase this number and a drill program has been designed to be implemented in the short term. Detailed mining sequences have been mapped and budgeted for the exploitation of the known ore body.

This strategic combination adds valuable near-term production capabilities and cash flow, and expands the size of the project area to almost 2000 hectares. Upon completion of the Transaction, the Company's Abriaqui project will now encompass all relevant mineralized areas from the historic Prospera Mine in the southeast (100 continuous meters along strike of 39.2 g/t Gold, 254 g/t Silver, 2.1% Zinc and 1.8% Copper, see the Company's press release of June 9, 2022) through the "northern block" that hosts the bulk of the historical FenixOro drilling and significant discoveries, to the new northwest extension where the Porvenir Mine lies (see Figure 1). After completing 12,000 meters of drilling, FenixOro has developed a potential resource model on the northern block at Abriaqui (see Figure 2). The 3 km gap between the northern block and the Porvenir Mine is largely unexplored and has never been drilled. This area represents potential to extend the known, discovered mineralization trend through to the El Porvenir Mine and adds significant potential to the project as a whole.

The Company is seeking financing and will provide further updates while it works to complete the necessary filings to resume the trading of its common shares on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE) and the OTC in the United States.

The Assets are currently held through certain private Colombian holding companies by a group of individuals who are arm's length to the Company (the "Colombian Parties"). The transaction is expected to close in two phases. Closing of the first phase will result in the Company issuing to the Colombian Parties approximately 39 million common shares, in exchange for receiving a 70% interest in the Assets. Closing of the second phase will result in the Company issuing 16 million common shares to the Colombian Parties in exchange for receiving the remaining 30% interest in the Assets. The Colombian Parties are arm's length to each other, and upon completion, no Colombian Party shall be the holder of more than 9.9% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares.

Closing of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to:

confirmatory due diligence satisfactory to each party;

confirmation of certain permitting with respect to the Assets;

completion of a technical report in compliance with NI 43-101 on the El Porvernir Mine;

lifting of the cease trade order issued in respect of the Company's common shares;

government approvals in Colombia; and

the approval of the CSE.

Closing of the second phase is conditional on the closing of the first phase, and the entering into of an operating agreement between the parties concerning the development of the Assets and associated budgeting.

About FenixOro



FenixOro Gold Corp is a Canadian company focused on acquiring and exploring gold projects with world class exploration potential in the most prolific gold producing regions of Colombia. FenixOro's flagship property, the Abriaqui project, is the closest project to Zijin-Continental Gold's Buritica project. It is located 15 km to the west in Antioquia State at the northern end of the Mid-Cauca gold belt, a geological trend which has seen multiple large gold discoveries in the past 10 years including Buritica and Anglo Gold's Nuevo Chaquiro and La Colosa.

FenixOro's VP of Exploration, Stuart Moller, led the discovery team at Buritica for Continental Gold from 2007-2011. A Phase 2 drilling program has been completed at Abriaqui resulting in a significant discovery of a high grade, "Buritica style" gold deposit.

Technical Information



Stuart Moller, Vice President Exploration and Director of the Company and a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101 (P.Geo, British Colombia), has prepared or supervised the preparation of the technical information contained in this press release. Mr. Moller has more than 40 years of experience in exploration for precious and other metals including fifteen years in Colombia and is a Fellow of the Society of Exploration Geologists.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information



This news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements". Such forward-looking information and forward-looking statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of FenixOro's control. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, information concerning any potential financing, the Assets, the closing of the Transaction, and the anticipated benefits to the Company of consolidating the Assets. Although FenixOro believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. In particular, there can be no guarantee that the Transaction will be completed, that anticipated permitting will be received,that any financing will be completed, and there is no guarantee that Abriaqui or the Porvenir Mine will produce viable quantities of minerals, or that the Company will pursue Abriaqui or that any mineral deposits will be found. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this press release, and FenixOro does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For further information, please contact:

FenixOro Gold Corp

John Carlesso, CEO

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Telephone: 1-833-FENXORO

FIGURE 1 NEW PROPERTY BOUNDARIES

FIGURE 2 CONSOLIDATED PROJECT POTENTIAL
VANCOUVER, BC  TheNewswire - May 22, 2025  Giant Mining Corp. (CSE: BFG | OTC: BFGFF | FWB: YW5) (CSE:BFG.WT.A) (Giant Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce the results for core hole MHB-32 (MHB-32), the first of five holes completed during Phase 1 of the Spring 2025 diamond drilling program (Core Program) at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper-Silver-Gold Project (Majuba Hill), located in Pershing County, Nevada.

MHB-32 intersected two significant copper mineralized zones within a broader interval of 379.5 feet (115.7 m) grading 0.33% Cu and 16.97 ppm Ag, from 510 to 889.5 feet (155.5 to 271.1 m). These results extend the known mineralization deeper and further north than previous drilling. The two key intervals, detailed in Table 1, are:

85 feet (25.9 m) at 0.64% Cu and 50.89 ppm Ag from 510 to 595 feet (155.5 to 181.4 m)

169.5 feet (51.7 m) at 0.41% Cu and 9.51 ppm Ag from 720 to 889.5 feet (219.5 to 271.1 m), including: 40 feet (12.2 m) at 1.36% Cu and 13.33 ppm Ag from 780 to 820 feet (237.7 to 249.9 m), containing a higher-grade section of: 10 feet (3.0 m) at 4.36% Cu and 35.65 ppm Ag from 805 to 815 feet (245.4 to 248.4 m)



MHB-32 Interval ft Cu% Ag ppm CuEq (with Ag) From ft To ft Significant Copper Intervals Entire Hole 889.5 0.16 9.24 0.25 0 889.5 889.5 ft at 0.16% Cu from 0 to 889.5 ft Significant Interval 379.5 0.33 16.97 0.51 510 889.5 379.5 ft at 0.33% Cu from 510 to 889.5 ft includes 85.0 0.64 50.89 1.16 510 595.0 85 ft at 0.64% Cu from 510 to 595 ft also includes 169.5 0.41 9.51 0.51 720.0 889.5 169.5 ft at 0.41% Cu from 720 to 889.5 ft with 40.0 1.36 13.33 1.50 780 820.0 40 ft at 1.36% Cu from 780 to 820 ft with 10.0 4.36 35.65 4.72 805 815.0 10 ft at 4.36% Cu from 805 to 815 ft

Table 1: MHB-32 Significant Assay Intervals

The primary objective of the Core Program was to expand the known zones of copper mineralization and advance the Majuba Hill Project toward completing a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE). A total of five drill holes, MHB-32 through MHB-36, were completed for a combined 5,484.5 feet (1,671.68 meters) of core drilling (Table 2).

Hole ID Type Depth (m) Hole Depth TD Date Collar Azim Inclination East NAD27 North NAD27 MHB-32 Core 271.1 889.5 3/30/2025 190 -50 375800 4503179 MHB-33 Core 285.3 936 4/6/2025 15 -50 375684 4502943 MHB-34 Core 598.3 1963 5/2/2025 90 -45 375474 4503032 MHB-35 Core 181.7 596 5/5/2025 270 -45 375811 4502994 MHB-36 Core 335.3 1100 5/10/2025 220 -70 375843 4502719

Table 2: Majuba Hill 2025 Drill Program Collar Details

Notes to Table 2: CuEq values calculated using USD$4.59 per pound copper and USD$32.43 per ounce silver. True length of mineralization has not been determined.

David Greenway, CEO of Giant Mining, commented: We're very excited by the strong results from the first hole of our Phase 1 drilling program at Majuba Hill. Nevada continues to prove itself as a world-class mining jurisdiction, ideally positioned to support the America First policy and bolster domestic resource security. With global copper demand soaringhighlighted by BloombergNEFs recent forecast of a $2.1 trillion requirement for raw materials by 2050Majuba Hill offers a compelling, homegrown solution to help meet Americas significant and growing consumption of copper. We're very pleased with what we've accomplished so far and can't wait to get back on the ground for Phase 2.

Figure 1: Majuba Hill 2025 Drill Hole Locations

MHB-32 Key highlights include:

Intersected strong supergene copper enrichment at shallower depths in the upper significant interval (above the historic workings) from 510-595 ft (155.4-181.4 meters). (See Figure 2).

Deep extension of high-grade supergene copper enrichment.

Strong supergene enrichment and chalcopyrite-bearing clasts and chalcopyrite-bearing matrix in deeper portions of magmatic-hydrothermal breccia.

Northward extension of supergene copper enrichment

MHB-32 Summary

Core Hole MHB-32 was completed to a total depth of 889.5 feet (271.1 meters). The drill hole intersected historic workings at 569 feet (173.43 meters). However, by reducing from HQ to NQ size core the hole was extended to 889.5 feet (2714.1 meters). Above the historic workings the hole intersected copper-bearing magmatic-hydrothermal breccias with supergene enriched copper mineralization, including azurite, malachite, chalcocite, and traces of cuprite (See Figure 2).

Below the historic workings the copper-bearing, magmatic-hydrothermal breccias gradually transitioned from supergene copper mineralization into strongly oxidized copper sulfides with primary, unoxidized chalcopyrite near the bottom of the hole. From 569 to 715 feet (173.43-217.93 meters) MHB-32 went through leached zones and the outer portions of the magmatic-hydrothermal breccia back into higher grade supergene enrichment copper enrichment and the copper-mineralized portion of the magmatic-hydrothermal breccia. (See Figure 3).

Figure 2: MHB-32 Upper Zone-HQ Core Box Photos. Azurite, malachite, chalcocite, and cuprite in magmatic-hydrothermal breccia.



Figure 3: MHB-32 Deeper Zone-NQ Core Box Photos. Cuprite, azurite, malachite, chalcocite in magmatic-hydrothermal breccia with primary chalcopyrite in clasts and matrix (See Figure 4).



Figure 4: MHB-32 NQ Core closeup. Clasts of intrusive with chalcopyrite in tourmaline/chalcopyrite matrix breccia at 810 ft (246.89 m).

Majuba Hills critically important characteristics are as follows:

Location: Nevada, USA  a globally top-ranked mining jurisdiction, ranked #1 in the Fraser Institutes 2022 Annual Survey of Mining Companies. Project Size: 9,684 Acres Infrastructure: The Majuba Hill property is 113 road km (70 miles) southwest of Winnemucca, Nevada, and 251 km (156 miles) northeast of Reno. Access is by well-maintained county roads from the Imlay, Nevada exit on U.S. Interstate 80, and traveling westward 23 miles. People, Roads, Power and Water are the basic elements when considering infrastructure and Majuba Hill already has a solid infrastructure foundation for building a large facility which will provide significant savings compared to more remote projects History: Historical Producer Drilling: Approximately 89395 feet of drilling to date. Rough replacement value of drilling USD $12.1 Million using current costs. Mineralization: The project shows indications of a potentially large Cu  Ag +/- Au mineralized body with many features in common with both large porphyry copper, silver, and gold projects. Expandability: The IP survey, deep drilling, and step-out drilling indicate significant expansion potential, with mineralization open in all directions. Fully Financed: Secured funding for 2025 Drilling Campaign

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) Measures, Chain of Custody

The Company utilizes a QA/QC program using best industry practices at the Majuba Hill Project. Drill core samples are sawn in half lengthwise and one half is placed in labeled cloth sample bags. Sample bags are transported from the Giant Mining secure warehouse to the ALS Labs Sample Prep Facility in Elko, Nevada. ALS Labs then securely transports the prepared pulps to their analytical lab in North Vancouver, B.C.

All samples are analyzed for copper, gold, silver, and 33 other elements. Gold is determined by ALS Labs method Au-AA23 which is a fire assay with an AAS finish on a 30-gram split. Copper, silver, and the remaining 31 elements are determined by ALS Labs method ME-ICP61 which is a four-acid digestion and ICP-AES assay. Approximately 5% of the submitted samples are drill duplicates and copper-gold-porphyry commercial standard reference material pulps.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by E.L. Buster Hunsaker III, CPG 8137, a non-independent consulting geologist who is a Qualified Person as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43- 101).

About Giant Mining Corp.

Giant Mining is focused on identifying, acquiring, and advancing late-stage copper and copper/silver/gold projects to meet the growing global demand for critical metals. This demand is driven by initiatives like the Green New Deal in the United States and similar climate-focused programs worldwide, which require substantial amounts of copper, silver, and gold for electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, and the modernization of clean and affordable energy systems.

The Companys flagship asset is the Majuba Hill Copper, Silver, and Gold District, located 156 miles (251 km) from Reno, Nevada. Majuba Hill is situated in a mining-friendly jurisdiction with supportive regulations and has the potential to become one of the next major copper deposits, critical for meeting the increasing need for this red metal.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

On Behalf of the Board of Giant Mining Corp.

David Greenway

David C. Greenway

President & CEO

For further information, please contact:

E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

P: 1 (236) 788-0643

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS

www.giantminingcorp.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forwardlooking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forwardlooking statements are based on the Companys current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forwardlooking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Watch: Israeli Forces Fire at Foreign Diplomats in West Bank

In a shocking incident, Israeli forces Wednesday May 21, 2025 fired at International diplomats visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:00 PM , ummid.com News Network

Ramallah (West Bank): In a shocking incident, Israeli forces Wednesday May 21, 2025 fired at International diplomats visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The delegation of the foreign diplomats who were shot at by the Israeli forces in West Bank included representatives of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia, China and India.

Israeli Occupation forces fired live ammunition at a diplomatic delegation from more than 30 countries during its field visit to the city of Jenin In Occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and news agency Wafa.

The far right Zionist regime instead of expressing regret said the diplomats were fired at as they deviated from the pre-decided route.

The soldiers operating in the area fired warning shots to distance them away, Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

No one is injured in the shooting incident. The video footage from the scene however showed diplomats fleeing in panic as shots rang out.

Watch Video

Israeli soldiers open fire at a delegation of foreign diplomats, around 30 ambassadors and consuls, visiting Jenin in the West Bank



Israel is a pariah nation



They want isolation, give them isolation

Sanctions now

Expel from the UN today.pic.twitter.com/wtoeI4r6VT  Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite)May 21, 2025

"Shocking, Unacceptable"

The firing at diplomats has sparked a huge outrage.

"We demand the launch of a full investigation so that similar incidents do not happen again", China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said.

UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Hamish Falconer while terming the incident "unacceptable" said, "There must be a full investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable."

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin while slamming the incident said he was shocked and horrified by the Israeli forces' action.

"I am deeply shocked and horrified that the [Israeli forces] today opened fire on a group of diplomats visiting the town of Jenin", he said.

The visit was organised to assess the humanitarian situation in Jenin and the extent of suffereings of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli forces.



The incident comes amid growing international pressure on Israel over its ongoing military operations in Gaza.

Hours after this shocking incident, two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington , were killed in a shooting incident. The accused, who has been detained, shouted 'Free Palestine' in custody.

Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates.

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Highlights:

2025 Drill Program Objectives: Expand high-grade, near-surface copper-gold in the south of the Main Zone Identify new high-grade copper mineralization in the north of the Main Zone and at depth Drill newly identified targets via large step-outs in untested areas on the property



Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - American Eagle Gold Corp. (TSXV: AE) (OTCQB: AMEGF) ("American Eagle" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a fully funded 30,000-metre drill program at its NAK copper-gold porphyry project ("NAK") in British Columbia is now underway.

The 2025 program builds on past success coupled with an intensive offseason initiative, during which American Eagle developed a robust interpretive model. The initiative included relogging core, constructing drill sections and level plans, and integrating 3D geophysical interpretations. The model was reviewed with input from South32's technical team and renowned porphyry experts Dr. Alan Wilson and Dr. Steve Garwin (watch video here).

This season's objectives are to expand the high-grade, near-surface copper-gold zone in the south section of the Main Zone, identify new high-grade zones north and at depth of the north section of the Main Zone, and drill newly identified targets in untested areas on the property through strategic step-outs defined through integrated geophysical, geological, and geochemical data.

Main Zone - Expand Scale and Target High Grade

Initial drilling in the Main Zone will target untested segments of mineralized trends and dyke phases where they intersect the property's preferred stratigraphic host rocks. Priority will be placed on near-surface, higher-grade areas, especially those adjacent to and along trend from the gold enriched south section of the Main Zone. In parallel, significant effort will be dedicated to testing mineralized dykes with higher-tenor sulfide content, which are increasingly prevalent within and to the north and east of the copper enriched north section of the Main Zone.

New Untested Targets

Several high-priority targets surround the entirety of the Babine porphyry stock. These include the largely untested "IP Embayment" south of drill hole NAK23-09, which features localized outcropping mineralization and some of the highest Cu- and Au-in-soil geochemistry on the mainly till-covered NAK property.

Exploration efforts will also be directed to the eastern margin of the stock, where drilling will follow up on shallow, strongly anomalous historical intercepts. The planned collars will step significantly east of previous drilling and target a compelling geophysical anomaly-a coincident chargeability, resistivity, and magnetic high-mirroring geophysical signatures encountered successfully west of the stock

Additional drilling with support from strategic partners South32 is planned for the far southeast of the property, testing the prominent structural fabric visible in the magnetic surveys, coinciding with a broad IP resistivity anomaly that bears considerable resemblance to the well mineralized main zone. South32 has also highlighted several zones of interest within the stock, and through the encompassing IP chargeability anomaly to the north of the stock that will also be tested in 2025.

NAK Planned Drill Locations

NAK presents a rare combination of compelling geology and favorable logistics. The project benefits from road access, low elevation, gentle terrain, and nearby infrastructure. High-grade copper and gold mineralization has already been identified at surface and at depth, with significant potential to expand known zones and discover new ones across the broader property. This drill program is expected to exceed the total metres drilled across American Eagle's previous three exploration seasons at NAK.

"American Eagle offers investors exposure to a fully funded drill program with no additional capital required over the next few drill seasons. Building on the significant work of American Eagle's technical team over the past seven months, South32 have lent significant resources to help design a robust drill plan to prove that the near-surface copper-gold zone is economically viable in this cycle, while also drilling newly identified targets with potential to support a multi-decade copper-gold-porphyry project. With drilling to commence in the coming days, news flow will extend well into 2026, providing numerous catalysts for investors," said CEO Anthony Moreau.

About American Eagle's NAK Project

The NAK Project lies within the Babine copper-gold porphyry district of central British Columbia. It has excellent infrastructure through all-season roads and is close to the towns of Smithers, Houston, and Burns Lake, B.C., which lie along a major rail line and Provincial Highway 16. Historical drilling and geophysical, geological, and geochemical work at NAK, which began in the 1960's, tested only to shallow depths. Still, the work revealed a very large near-surface copper-gold system that measures over 1.5 km x 1.5 km. Drilling completed by American Eagle in 2022, 2023, and 2024 returned significant intervals of high-grade copper-gold mineralization that reached beyond and much deeper than the historical drilling, indicating that zones of near-surface and deeper mineralization, locally with considerably higher grades, exist within the broader NAK property mineralizing system.

For the latest videos from American Eagle, Ore Group, and all things mining, subscribe to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@theoregroup

About American Eagle Gold Corp.

American Eagle is dedicated to advancing its NAK copper-gold porphyry project in west-central British Columbia, Canada. The Company benefits from over $37 million in cash, bolstered by two strategic investors formed in the past two years with Teck Resources and South32. With substantial financial and technical resources, American Eagle Gold is well-positioned to drill, de-risk, and define the full potential of the NAK Copper-Gold porphyry project.

www.americaneaglegold.ca

Q.P. Statement

Mark Bradley, B.Sc., M.Sc., P.Geo., a Certified Professional Geologist and 'qualified person' for the purposes of Canada's National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties, has verified and approved the information contained in this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the closing of the repurchase of Consideration Shares, the satisfaction of the conditions set forth in the exemptive relief order from the Ontario Securities Commission, its anticipated results at the Company's NAK project, and other matters ancillary or incidental to the foregoing. This information is based on current expectations that are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results might differ materially from those suggested in forward-looking statements. American Eagle Gold Corp. assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward looking-statements unless and until required by securities laws applicable to American Eagle Gold Corp. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties is contained in filings by American Eagle Gold Corp. with Canadian securities regulators, which filings are available under American Eagle Gold Corp. profile at www.sedarplus.ca.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the TSX Venture Exchange policies) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Vancouver, Canada  May 22, 2025  TheNewswire - Nordique Resources Inc. ("Nordique" or the "Company") (CSE: NORD) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent, dated May 22, 2025 (the LOI), with Gemdale Gold Inc. (Gemdale), pursuant to which the Company will receive an option (the Option) to acquire a 100% interest in the Isoneva Property (the Property), comprising certain mineral claims situated in Finland (the Transaction).

Highlights

Strategic Property Option in Finland: Nordique has signed a LOI to option 100% of the Isoneva gold project in Finlands Western Finland Gold Belt, a region known for strong infrastructure and a supportive mining environment.

High-Grade Gold Potential Identified: The project hosts multiple gold-bearing boulder trains supported by coincident geochemical, geophysical, and structural trends; over 200 glacial boulders grading 1.0 gram per ton (g/t) gold (Au) have been identified, averaging ~14 g/t Au, with samples up to 462 g/t Au

Multiple Priority Target Areas: Historical work has defined several prospective zones, including undrilled IP geophysical, gold-in-till anomalies and areas where historical drilling intersected high-grade shear-hosted gold.

Favourable Deal Structure: Nordique can earn 100% over three years with low up-front costs, staged exploration spend, and flexible final payment terms in cash or shares.

Near-Term Catalysts: Pending final agreement and approvals, Nordique plans to initiate a phased program including cost-effective Base-of-Till (BOT) drilling to refine targets ahead of diamond drilling with aims to trace mineralization to source.

About the Isoneva Project

The Isoneva Project is an early-stage gold exploration property located in the underexplored Western Finland Gold Belt, a Proterozoic-aged geological terrain known to host orogenic-style gold mineralization. The 11 km (1,100 ha) property is situated in the Middle Ostrobothnia region of Finland and benefits from excellent infrastructure and a mining-friendly regulatory environment.

The project hosts several gold-bearing boulder trains, geochemical anomalies, and untested geophysical targets (Figure 1). Over 200 gold-bearing glacial boulders have been identified grading >1.0 g/t Au, with an average of ~14 g/t Au1. These boulders are interpreted to be locally derived from a 6.7 km contact zone between tonalitic intrusives and mafic volcanic rocks, along a second-order structure off the crustal-scale Reisjarvi Shear Zone. Gold is associated with shearing and quartz-arsenopyrite veining.

Figure 1. Isoneva Property with boulder samples1

1 Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Readers are cautioned that boulder sampling is selective by nature and the results provided above are not necessarily representative of mineralization hosted at the Isoneva Property.

Several distinct target zones have been identified based on historical work:

Korpisalo A high-priority undrilled target marked by a strong sulphidic gold-in-till anomaly and coincident induced polarization (IP) geophysical response.

Uunikangas Multiple structurally controlled gold-bearing shear zones intersected in drilling. Western tonalite contact remains untested and presents a priority target.

Tiaskuru Interpreted as a dilational structural zone hosting high-grade quartz-carbonate-arsenopyrite veins. Mineralization remains open in all directions.

Ahveroinen and Tielampi Underexplored zones with gold-bearing boulder samples and strong geochemical signatures.

The glacial boulders are interpreted to be locally sourced and occur in spatially coherent trains that align with geophysical and structural trends. While individual samples report high values, they are part of a broader population that collectively supports the presence of multiple mineralized bedrock sources.

Selected boulder assay results collected at Isoneva include:

Uunikangas Area: 462 g/t Au (historic boulder 11) 180.5 g/t Au (sample EK194)

Tiaskuru Area: 106 g/t Au (historic boulder 6) 70.7 g/t Au (historic boulder 4) 67.2 g/t Au (sample 20091369) 59.7 g/t Au (sample 20083117)

AhveroinenTielampi Area: 380.0 g/t Au (sample 20034740) 98.0 g/t Au (sample 7122950) 89.0 g/t Au (sample 7123759) 64.4 g/t Au (sample 714942)



1 Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Readers are cautioned that boulder sampling is selective by nature and the results provided above are not necessarily representative of mineralization hosted at the Isoneva Property.

Limited historical drilling was completed by previous operators, primarily in the Uunikangas and Tiaskuru areas (Tables 1 & 2), providing valuable insight into the bedrock geology beneath shallow glacial cover (typically <1% outcrop). Several holes returned significant gold intercepts that validate the presence of mineralized shear zones and quartz-arsenopyrite veining at depth (Figure 2). Highlights include:

17.9 metres of 4.3 g/t Au and 12.1 g/t Ag from 147.2 metres depth, including 2.1 metres of 24.8 g/t Au and 77.6 g/t Ag (Hole ISON004

0.41 metres of 54.0 g/t Auand 32.6 g/t Ag from 159.5 metres (Hole ISON014

4.1 metres of 3.2 g/t Au and 21.8 g/t Ag from 55.1 metres (Hole BelKan001

Figure 2. Isoneva Property with historical drill holes and Base of Till (BOT) bedrock samples2

2 First reported in Gemdale press releases dated November 10, 2021, and January 6, 2022. Bulk intersections are reported at a cutoff grade of 0.3 g/t gold with maximum 5 m internal dilution. Orientation of mineralisation in drillholes is unclear. True widths are estimated as 65-85% of downhole intersect length.

3 Intercepts recalculated with raw assay data, not previously reported.

4 First reported in Belvedere Resources Ltd press release dated August 1, 2012.

Hole From (m) To (m) Interval Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) ISON0012 36.46 37.54 1.08 0.34 0.27 and 93.19 94.24 1.05 0.73 5.82 ISON0022 26.1 27.06 0.96 0.87 0.85 and 101.92 107.23 5.31 0.65 0.21 and 151.53 154.69 3.16 1.28 2.47 ISON0032 105 105.95 0.95 0.64 0.34 and 116.34 121.08 4.74 1.49 1.93 and 126.87 128.06 1.19 0.36 0.17 ISON0042 57.39 58.4 1.01 0.43 0.34 and 84.35 90.12 5.77 0.71 0.89 and 108 115.33 7.33 0.76 1.18 and 123.08 124.17 1.09 0.33 0.19 and 128.5 131.43 2.93 0.34 0.24 and 140.23 142.17 1.94 1.6 7.26 and 147.21 165.15 17.94 4.3 12.09 including3 158.54 160.67 2.13 24.79 77.55 and 169.23 171.41 2.18 0.78 0.54 and 180.39 190.5 10.11 0.37 0.67 ISON0052 148.32 150.05 1.73 1.69 1.81 and 173.1 174.23 1.13 0.32 3.59 ISON0062 57.28 57.78 0.5 0.3 4.74 and 106.38 107.42 1.04 0.44 6.59 and 112.77 116.83 4.06 0.68 1.79 and 150.22 151.31 1.09 0.67 0.36 and 188.9 190 1.1 0.95 0.48 ISON0072 16.94 18.03 1.09 0.34 2.02 and 82.55 83.44 0.89 0.4 1.14 and 169.66 170.83 1.17 0.31 6.77 and 191.2 192.18 0.98 0.39 1.36 ISON0143 159.5 159.91 0.41 54.0 32.6 and 162.56 163 0.44 18.1 6.68 BELKAN0014 27.21 30.08 2.87 3.49 0.58 and 55.09 59.16 4.07 3.23 21.78

Table 1. Significant historical drill intercepts at the Isoneva Project

Subject to final due diligence and a definitive agreement, the Company will implement a phased exploration approach at Isoneva focused on base-of-till (BOT) drilling and the historical exploration results summarized in this news release to refine targets ahead of diamond core drilling. BOT drilling offers a rapid and cost-effective method to identify mineralized bedrock sources beneath shallow cover and enable efficient coverage of geochemical and geophysical anomalies. Further exploration will aim to trace mineralization up-ice of boulder trains and refine drill targets across the broader project area. Program details, including scope and budget, remain under review and are not yet finalized.

Hole X Y Z Length (m) Azimuth Dip ISON002 390065 7060200 129.2 214.5 270 -45 ISON003 390130 7060300 128.8 205.98 270 -50 ISON004 390085 7060500 129.7 199.9 270 -50 ISON005 389908.1 7060909 131.1 209 270 -50 ISON006 390011.2 7060906 129.8 200 270 -50 ISON007 389932.6 7060797.4 128.9 208.5 270 -45 ISON014 389084.1 7063279 129 202.8 270 -45 BELKAN001 390085.6 7060307.9 128.7 101 270 -45

Table 2. Isoneva Project Historical Drill Hole Locations5

5 First reported in Gemdale press release dated January 6, 2022 and Belvedere press release dated August 1, 2012. Coordinate system is ETRS89 / UTM Zone 35N.

The Transaction

Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, upon closing of the Transaction, the Company shall have the Option to acquire from Gemdale an undivided 100% interest in the Property over a period of three years (the Option Period) in consideration for:

a. $100,000 cash consideration payable to Gemdale, 50% of which is payable upon signing the LOI as a deposit and 50% of which is payable upon receiptl of all necessary approvals for the Transaction;

b. $3,000,000 in exploration expenditures on the Property during the Option Period, with minimum exploration expenditures of $600,000 during the first calendar year of the Option Period; and

c. at the election of Gemdale, to be made within five (5) business days of the Company providing Gemdale with notice of its intention to exercise the Option (the Exercise Notice), either:

i. $1,000,000 cash consideration payable to Gemdale and further commitment to make certain additional milestone and success payments up to an aggregate of $3,000,000; or

ii. $4,000,000 of common shares in the capital of the Company payable to Gemdale based on the volume weighted average trading price of the shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) for the most recent twenty (20) trading days prior to the date of the Company providing the Exercise Notice (subject to the minimum pricing requirements of the CSE), provided that such share issuance would not result in Gemdale holding greater than 19.99% of the issued share capital of the Company. If the proposed amount exceeds the 19.99% threshold, it shall be paid in a combination of shares and cash to equal the proposed $4,000,000 value.

In addition, upon the exercise of the Option, the Company shall grant Gemdale a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty on the Property (the NSR), provided that:

a. The Company will have a one time option to reduce the NSR to a 1.5% net smelter returns royalty by making a cash payment of $2,000,000 to Gemdale at the time of exercise of the Option, such right expiring immediately after the exercise of the Option (the First Repurchase Option); and

b. The Company will have an option at any time to reduce the NSR to a 1.0% net smelter returns royalty (or to a 0.5% net smelter returns royalty in the event that the Company also exercised the First Repurchase Option) by making a cash payment of $3,000,000 to Gemdale.

Completion of the Transaction remains subject to the negotiation of a definitive documentation (the Definitive Agreement) and related documentation, which shall contain the terms and conditions set out in the LOI and such other customary terms, conditions, representations, and warranties for transactions of this nature. The Transaction is also subject to the receipt of all necessary corporate and regulatory approvals.

The entering into of the Definitive Agreement is subject to, among other things, completion of the parties respective due diligence and approval of the boards of the Company and Gemdale.

The Transaction is an arms length transaction and there will be no changes to the Companys board or management in connection with the Transaction. No finders fees will be paid in connection with the Transaction.

All currency references are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

QA/QC and Core Sampling Protocols

For the ISONxxx drillholes, drill core is logged and sampled in a secure core storage facility located in Ylivieska, Finland. Core samples from the program are cut in half, using a diamond cutting saw, and are sent to ALS Global, Outokumpu, an international accredited mineral analysis laboratory, for sample prep and analysis. All samples are analyzed for gold using Fire Assay-AA techniques (method Au-AA23). Samples returning over 10.0 g/t gold are analyzed utilizing Fire Assay-Gravimetric methods (gold-GRA21). As part of the Companys quality control/quality assurance program (QA/QC), certified gold reference standards are routinely inserted into the sample stream every 20th sample (5%). A blank sample is also inserted into the sample stream with every batch sent to the laboratory. No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Similar protocols were followed for the BELKANxxx holes, except that gold was assayed using method Au-AA25 which has a slightly different range of detection limits to Au-AA23. No QAQC issues were noted with the results reported herein.

Qualified Person and NI 43-101 Disclosure

Dr. Toby Strauss (CGeol.; EurGeol.), Director of Gemdale Gold Inc, is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr Strauss has verified the data supporting this news release. For the Exploration Information relating to the drillholes, verification has included: checking a proportion of the reported assays against the issued laboratory certificates; reviewing the QA/QC results of the assay workorders; reviewing drill logs and visually verifying sample depths against drill core photographs for drillcore for the ISONxxx drillholes. Boulder samples have been compiled from two sources: 1) Gemdale File = Boulder samples collected by Gemdale Gold Inc or previous operators that were sent for assay, and laboratory reports are available; and 2) Online, freely accessible data file provided the Geological Survey of Finland relating to Layman Samples that have been submitted for assay. Verification for the Gemdale boulder files includes checking a proportion of the reported assays in the Company database against the issued laboratory assay certificates. No verification has been conducted on the Layman Sample database. Dr Strauss is responsible for the accuracy of and has approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Nordique Resources

Nordique Resources is a Canadian exploration company advancing high-potential gold opportunities, with a strategic mandate to build a diversified portfolio across prospective mineral belts. The Companys current property interests include the Fairview Project in British Columbia and, subject to the completion of a definitive agreement, the Isoneva Project in Finland.

For more information, investors are encouraged to review the Companys public filings available at www.sedarplus.ca.

On behalf of the Board:

Damion Carruel, Director

For further information, please contact:

Sharyn Alexander, Chief Executive Officer

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.



Telephone: +1 (778) 650-3003

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward looking statements or forward looking information (collectively, Forward Looking Statements) that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Forward Looking Statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as plans, targets, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, outlook, intends, anticipates, believes, or variations of such words and phrases or that state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms or similar expressions. The Forward Looking Statements in this news release relate to, among other things; the Companys ability to complete diligence and negotiate an acceptable Definitive Agreement with Gemdale; the ability of the parties to close the Transaction and the satisfaction of the various conditions to closing; the Companys future exploration plans; and likely approaches to exploration on the Isoneva Property. Forward Looking Statements are based on certain key assumptions and the opinions and estimates of management and the Qualified Person, as of the date such statements are made, and they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any other future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the Forward Looking Statements. In addition to factors already discussed in this news release, such factors include, among others, risks relating to the Companys business, including possible changes in project parameters, including schedule and budget, as plans continue to be refined; uncertainties with respect to actual results of current exploration activities; the impact of the conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East, including resulting changes to the Companys supply chain and costs of supplies; product shortages; delivery and shipping issues; limitation on insurance coverage; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; opposition by social and non-government organizations to mining projects and smelting operations; unanticipated title disputes; claims or litigation; cyber attacks and other cybersecurity risks; changes to tax regimes in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates; as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in any other documents filed from time to time with the securities regulatory authorities in all provinces and territories of Canada and available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca . The reader has been cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive of all factors which may have been used. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in Forward Looking Statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that Forward Looking Statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Companys Forward Looking Statements reflect current expectations regarding future events and speak only as of the date hereof. Unless required by securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update Forward Looking Statements if circumstances or managements estimates or opinions should change. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Forward-Looking Statements.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 22, 2025) - Antimony Resources Corp. (CSE: ATMY) (FSE: K8J0) (the "Company" or "Antimony Resources" or "ATMY") reports that Mr. James Atkinson, P. Geo., CEO of Antimony Resources Corp visited the drilling site at Bald Hill Project in New Brunswick to observe the massive antimony bearing stibnite mineralization in drill core and in surface exposures. Stibnite is an antimony bearing mineral commonly mined for antimony. Recent cancellation of the export of antimony by China along with its massive rise in price has created a push to find and mine this critical metal in Canada and the US.

Highlights - Mineralization Encountered in Drilling

A total of over 1600 meters of the proposed 2500-meter drilling program of drilling have been completed to date. Sections of massive stibnite and stibnite bearing breccia filling have been intersected in approximately 80% of drill holes including BH-25-03, 04 and 05 as shown in the photos below. Antimony bearing mineralization has been discovered in surface outcroppings over a distance of at least 300 meters (Photos and map). Assays are pending and are expected in two to three weeks.

Drilling Highlights

The following photos show examples of the antimony mineralization. Note that the darker sections contain massive, breccia filling and stringers of antimony bearing stibnite:

Photo 1: Drill Hole BH-25-03. Massive Antimony Bearing Stibnite Mineralization in Siltstone. Note: Dark sections Contain Antimony Mineralization.

Photo 2: Drill Hole BH-12-04. Two Zones of Massive Antimony Bearing Stibnite Mineralization in Followed by Breccia Containing Stibnite.

Photo 3: Drill Hole BH-25-05. Note that from 106 meters to 129 meters depth there is over 20 meters of Massive and Stibnite-bearing Breccia.

Prospecting Highlights

The prospecting efforts of our staff have identified zones of massive antimony bearing stibnite mineralization on the surface which extend the potential for at least 200 meters to the southeast from the present drill locations. Identification of the surface exposures together with the model created for the mineralization (see Press Release Dated May 5, 2025) will assist in focusing the continued drill program (Map 1 Photo 4).

Photo 4: Example of Surface Stibnite Occurrence

Map 1: Drill Hole/Rock Sample Location Map

Jim Atkinson, P. Geo., CEO: "I recently visited the Bald Hill project and had an opportunity to see the antimony mineralization we have intersected in the drilling so far in the Main Zone. It is very impressive to see the actual zones of stibnite (Antimony) in the drill core. I also visited the area of surface exposures and saw massive boulders and outcroppings of stibnite. The location of the actual surface exposures of the antimony mineralized zone will allow more precise targeting of our ongoing drilling. This mapping has allowed us to confirm the trend of the zones."

Bald Hill Antimony Project

Highlights from Past exploration

Bald Hill is a well-known, high-grade antimony deposit in southern New Brunswick

Past work including drilling has outlined an antimony deposit over 500m long

Widths average over 3 meters and grades average 3% to 4% antimony.

Historical NI-43-101 Technical Report: Potential quantity and grade of the drilled area, which is the target of our exploration, is in the 725,000 to 1,000,000 tonne range grading 4.11% to 5.32% Sb (~30,000 to 40,000 tonnes contained antimony) 1

Potential to expand based on additional known targets

The Bald Hill Property

The property is located approximately equal distance from Sussex, Fredericton and St John in southern New Brunswick. Access is very good with provincial and regional highways crossing and adjacent to the property. Drilling can be completed year-round. There is over 5400 meters of drill core from past exploration available for examination in the Sussex office of the New Brunswick Geological Survey. A total of 25 drillholes totaling over 5400 m have been completed on the property.

The deposit consists of at least three antimony bearing breccias and hydrothermal veins zones trending northwesterly. Mineralization has been defined over a 700-meter strike length to a vertical depth of 300 meters and is open in all directions and to depth. High Grade antimony has been encountered in previous drilling including the discovery Hole DDH08-03 which intersected 4.51m at a grade of 11.7% Antimony (Sb) including 2.29m grading 20.9% Sb.

A possible extension of the Main Zone was discovered in 2014. Trenching approximately 450 meters south of Main Zone returned values of 2.90% Sb over 8.18m, which included 5.79% Sb over 1.75m and 8.47% over 1.53m. Drilling in this area confirmed the presence of antimony bearing stibnite mineralization similar to the Main Zone which has not been sufficiently explored.

The exploration plan in 2025 is to complete at least 2,500 meters of diamond drilling to explore the known mineralized zone, extend the mineralization to the north and south and down dip and expand parallel veins discovered in the past. It is hoped that the drilling will allow us to calculate a Maiden Resource by the end of the year. An historical NI 43-101 technical report, prepared by CRA in 20101, identified the potential for between 705,000 and 1,000,000 metric tonnes at an average grade between 4% and 5% antimony (Sb)1. - Antimony Resources Corp. has not completed enough work to confirm this estimate. The potential quantity and grade are conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.

The technical contents of this news release were reviewed and approved by Jim Atkinson, MSc., P.Geo., who is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Antimony Resources Corp. (CSE: AYMY) (FSE: K8J0)

Antimony Resources Corp. holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in two antimony projects in New Brunswick - Bald Hill under option from Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. and Antimony 2.0. The Bald Hill Project is the site of the current drilling of the high-grade antimony deposit with mineralization defined over a distance of 500 meters and additional intersections of antimony for a further 1 km along strike.

Antimony Resources' management team possesses extensive experience in financing, exploration, development and mining. Antimony Resources intends to conduct exploration campaigns on each of its optioned properties with a goal of finding one or more minable resources. We are focused on becoming a significant North American producer of antimony.

www.antimonyresources.com

1 NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 43-101 TECHNICAL REPORT BALD HILL ANTIMONY PROJECT SOUTHERN NEW BRUNSWICK, CANADA prepared by: Conestoga-Rovers & Associates MAY 2010 REF. NO. 070813 (1)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia  TheNewswire - May 22, 2025: REV Exploration Corp. (REV or the Company) (TSXV: REVX), formerly Gitennes Exploration, has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of an advanced drill-ready prospect (Aden Dome) on the Alberta-Montana border with high-impact potential for hosting Natural Hydrogen.

Aden Dome gives REV first-mover advantage in the Natural Hydrogen space in Alberta where additional opportunities and potential partnerships are being reviewed in the context of Premier Danielle Smiths aggressive broader hydrogen strategy (refer to May 16, 2025 REV news release) that has already made the province Canadas top hydrogen producer. The discovery of low-cost, emissions-free Natural Hydrogen in Alberta could supercharge the provinces clean energy strategy. In addition, as disclosed in a news release May 15, 2025, REV now has exploration permits for Natural Hydrogen spanning 3,726 sq. km in neighboring Saskatchewan.

Aden Dome, never previously viewed from a Natural Hydrogen perspective, covers an 18-sq. km area encompassing a series of PNG leases on the southern tip of Alberta, approximately 160 km southeast of Lethbridge and 125 km west of the Saskatchewan border, in a district well-known for shallow gas production.

Aden Dome Highlights

REVs model for the accumulation of naturally occurring hydrogen (NOH) makes the Aden Dome particularly intriguing as a Natural Hydrogen prospect in addition to promising value-added opportunities with respect to other potential clean gas discoveries;

REVs plan is to drill through the igneous intrusives and test for the presence of NOH within the deeper Basal Cambrian Sandstone and Basement Complex;

Intense fracturing at Aden Dome, which may have provided connectivity to deeper crustal source rocks, is also consistent with the REV model for the generation of Natural Hydrogen;

The shallower Devonian Beaverhill Lake carbonates and Basal Cambrian sandstone intervals are considered very prospective for hosting economic concentrations of helium and associated gases based on seismic data (definitive 4-way closure) and historic core and log analysis that indicate excellent reservoir quality rock over multiple horizons;

The Aden Dome is an extension of the Sweetgrass Hills intrusive-volcanic complex immediately to the southwest in Montana where recent helium discoveries have been made with nearby competitor production online.

Mr. Jordan Potts, REV Exploration CEO, commented: The Aden Dome is a highly compelling asset within a district that features mature Cretaceous shallow gas production and excellent oil and gas infrastructure. Were very fortunate to have acquired this asset on favorable terms as our team sees target pay zones at Aden beyond the possibility of Albertas first Natural Hydrogen discovery.

Mr. Potts continued: We look forward to rolling out the Aden story and capturing the very exciting broader opportunity for shareholders through REVs first-mover advantage in Natural Hydrogen in Alberta.

Video Clip With REVX Chief Operating Officer Shayne Neigum - Excited to put the drill bit to the ground

Terms of the Deal

REV has executed an asset purchase agreement (the Agreement) with an arms-length party (the Vendor) to acquire all the Vendors PNG leases associated with Aden Dome (the Assets), and an adjacent property, for total consideration of $300,000 cash and 300,000 common shares of REV (Common Shares), subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, on the following schedule:

$100,000 cash to be paid to Vendor upon signing of the deal (paid); $200,000 cash to be paid to Vendor by July 15, 2025; 300,000 Common Shares to be issued to the Vendor at a deemed price of $0.27 per Common Share, subject to a statutory hold period of 4 months and a day following the date of issuance.

The Vendor will hold the Assets in trust until the second cash payment and issuance of Common Shares are completed. If required payments or Common Shares issuance are not made, the Agreement will be terminated, all Assets will revert to the Vendor, and any payments made will be forfeited.

Aden Dome Property Map





About REV Exploration Corp.

REV is a mineral exploration company that owns a suite of gold and battery metal properties in Quebec, specifically in the Sept-Iles region (nickel, niobium and tantalum) and the Chapais-Chibougamau area (gold), in addition to a substantial portfolio of strategic 100%-owned Natural Hydrogen properties in Saskatchewan, acquired through permits issued by the Saskatchewan government. REV is also a first-mover in Natural Hydrogen in Alberta and has executed an agreement with an arms-length party to acquire 100% of the Aden Dome along the Alberta-Montana border.

For further information on the Company, readers are referred to the Companys website at www.REVexploration.com and its Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

REV Exploration Corp.

Suite 410 325 Howe Street,

B.C. V6C 1Z7

Tel: 604-682-7970

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REVexploration.com

Jordan Potts

Interim CEO, Director

For further information, please contact:

Chad Levesque

Investor Relations

1-306-981-4753

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release includes certain statements and information that may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts, including statements regarding future estimates, plans, objectives, timing, assumptions or expectations of future performance are forward-looking statements and contain forward-looking information, including, but not limited to, the completion of the Agreement and the presence of naturally occurring hydrogen on the Aden Dome. Forward-looking statements are based on certain material assumptions and analysis made by the Company and the opinions and estimates of management as of the date of this news release, including, but not limited to the assumption that all conditions to completion of the acquisition of the Aden Dome will be satisfied, including TSX Venture Exchange approval.

REV Exploration Corp. disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.
The war crimes trial held in Stockholm against Swedish executives of the oil company Lundin operating in Sudan - the longest and most complex trial in the countrys history - has produced no shortage of dramatic testimonies.

But few witnesses have been as central, and as contested, as Egbert Wesselink. A Dutch peace activist and longtime senior policy advisor at the non-governmental Dutch organization PAX, Wesselink is perhaps best known as the driving force behind the 2010 report, Unpaid Debt, which argued that tens of thousands of civilians were killed or displaced as a direct result of oil exploration in Sudan. A report that, prosecutors say, laid the foundation for the entire trial.

So, on the day Wesselink testified, the courtroom was packed. Human rights activists, journalists, researchers, and diplomats came to see the man described by the defence as the architect of the case. For many, this was a moment of vindication. For others, it was an opportunity to challenge the credibility of a civil society investigation, now repurposed as legal evidence.

Lundins genuine ignorance and deliberate disregard

The first oil company Wesselink tried to influence was Shell, and he describes an intense but structured dialogue with its executives. When Shell became involved in Sudan, the country also ended up on his desk. This led to Shell withdrawing its business operations from Sudan, says Wesselink, explaining how they approached the company through both open conferences and closed-door meetings to inform them of the risks of working in Sudan.

According to him, there are a range of dilemmas faced by anyone working in Sudan. Most of the corporate executives he met acknowledged the existence of grey areas and challenges. But Lundins CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] representative, Christine Batruch, stood out. She saw no problems and showed very little interest in the human rights situation, says Wesselink, arguing that she had been influenced by the Sudanese governments propaganda.

One piece of evidence for this, Wesselink claims, was that she ignored the reports of forced displacement and abuses. When I brought up issues that I considered to be common knowledge, it created an uncomfortable and strange atmosphere, he says, adding that Batruch combined both genuine ignorance and deliberate disregard.

Moreover, Wesselink says he never got the impression that Lundin was interested in implementing the part of the 2003 peace agreement that concerned compensation. The companies were never interested in making oil a part of the peace agreements success, he says, explaining that he and the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan (ECOS) were tasked with convincing the oil companies that they had a responsibility to compensate those affected.

The report that sparked the trial

Wesselink recalls that John Luk Jok, the Sudanese minister of culture at the time, said companies are not above the law, they can be taken to court. That became the starting point for Unpaid Debt, he explains, saying that it was no longer just about proper conduct, but about the oil companies settling their debt.

PAX then also began working to assess the economic damage caused over the years and to lobby companies to pay for these losses. But Wesselink explains that you couldnt simply go somewhere and start asking questions about oil, as it was politically sensitive. His role, therefore, was to seek support from local chiefs for the work. Researchers and academics then went out to the villages, with the chiefs acting as enablers, and asked what had happened during the oil wars, what were the damages, and how and what the villagers knew about what they had seen and experienced, he says.

The three main questions were: When was the village attacked?, By whom?, and What were the damages?, along with a follow-up asking how they knew that what they were reporting had occurred. In southern Sudan, the chiefs are like a human archive on two legs. They have preserved knowledge of local events, and their accounts are highly reliable; they have an excellent memory, Wesselink says, adding that during this work, it was essential to manage expectations, which is why they repeatedly emphasized that there was no mechanism in place for distributing compensation.

The result was long, long lists: the names of villages, the names of the dead, the dates of attacks, who attacked, the dead cows, the stolen cattle and other animals killed, but unfortunately, none of this was used in the report. It wasnt needed.

Published by ECOS, Wesselinks report, Unpaid Dept, claimed that 12.000 people were killed and 160.000 displaced in the region, between 1997 and 2003. The document accused three companies - Lundin (Sweden), Petronas (Malaysia), and OMV (Austria) - of contributing to systematic human rights abuses by operating in partnership with the Sudanese government.

According to Wesselink, the goal was to influence European Union policy and promote a more ethical role for European companies in Sudans conflict zones. Unpaid Debt was first sent to Lundin in 2008, prompting a sharply worded response from the companys lawyers who accused the authors of defamation and threatened legal action. That, Wesselink now says, only made the report more rigorous. We had to lawyer up, and a British legal expert reviewed the report line by line. That process, I believe, is why we are all here today.

Once published, the report was handed in to the Swedish police and could be described as a Big Bang in the Lundin case.

Caught between fact-finding and criminal procedure

From the outset, Wesselinks courtroom testimony underscored the tension between human rights advocacy and criminal prosecution. NGOs, he said, often fill the gaps when international investigators are unable to operate in war zones. After South Sudans civil war erupted in 2013, it became nearly impossible for Swedish police to conduct fieldwork. So Wesselink and his colleagues took the initiative to find witnesses themselves.

He described hiring a South Sudanese journalist named Moses to identify individuals who had experienced or witnessed crimes. Moses compiled a list of 54 potential witnesses from refugee camps in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. However, only one of those individuals was eventually used by the prosecution.

Wesselink explains that before the current court hearing, he had already been interviewed twice by Swedish police and had travelled to Sweden for two additional meetings with the prosecutors. In between, there had been some email correspondence. He also describes how the outbreak of war in Juba in December 2013 - when the newly formed nation of South Sudan was thrown into a civil war that lasted until 2018 - made it impossible for Swedish police to investigate crimes on the ground.

This, in turn, made him reflect on the possibilities for members of the Nuer community to testify, especially as they had been particularly targeted during the war. We met with the police in early 2014, but they were like clams - they said nothing. Still, we assumed they needed witnesses; witnesses they now would no longer have access to. So we asked if we could help. We didnt get a yes, but we also didnt get a no.

Wesselink says they received similar guidance from the prosecutors, who said you are free to share with the prosecution authority any information that may assist the investigation. Time passed, and they requested meetings with prosecutor Magnus Elving, which never materialized. So we asked: If we find people who could be useful as witnesses, what should we do?

Recommended reading The Swedish prosecutor who challenged Lundin Oil

The answer they received was that they should not be interviewed by anyone other than the police, nor should they be advised or guided in any way. Wesselink says he assumed the prosecutors still needed witnesses who had experienced war crimes and who were willing to speak about them.

The distinction proved critical during cross-examination, where the defence sought to portray his efforts as lacking rigor and objectivity. A particularly pointed exchange concerned a photograph in his report Unpaid Debt that may have been misattributed to the wrong village. If they found a glitch, congratulations, Wesselink said.

Activism and advocacy on trial

During cross-examination, the defence sought to challenge Wesselinks impartiality by highlighting past statements and affiliations.

In response to questions about his neutrality, Wesselink defended the role of peace organizations in conflict zones: No and thats a strange question to ask a peace organization  that if you are for peace in a conflict, you must choose a side. But yes, it is extremely difficult; you can never remain fully neutral, as every action will be perceived by one side or the other as being for or against them. So its a tricky balancing act, a fine line to walk, but we are professionals.

Wesselink acknowledged the inherent challenges of working in active conflicts: When you are active in a conflict, even if the information is neutral, it will be used by the parties, and this is unavoidable. But that does not mean you shouldnt tell the truth.

As the defence tried to question Wesselinks impartiality, Per E. Samuelsson, lawyer of the accused Alexandre Schneiter, the former CEO of Lundin Oil, asked whether Wesselink is a shareholder in Orron Energy and, if so, whether it isnt strange to buy shares in a company he had reported to the police.

- Yes, I bought five shares in Lundin Energy in 2010, with the aim of reaching the companys leadership and shareholders to urge them to respect international law and existing ethical guidelines. Its a legitimate and commonly used method, Wesselink explained.

- But is it true that you asked the company to pay five million dollars in damages at a shareholders meeting?

- I submitted a proposal that the company should assess and evaluate its human rights impact and, in accordance with international standards, contribute to remedying any negative impacts it had caused.

- How large was that amount?

- I dont remember, but Im sure its in the documents.

Defence attorney Samuelsson then read from the written proposal, which states that five million dollars should be set aside and asked whether Wesselink also demanded that the companys management resign. Yes, absolutely. I do not believe its in the companys interest to be led by individuals suspected of war crimes, Wesselink replied, adding that at another shareholders meeting, he also criticized Lundins lawyers, arguing that they had negatively influenced the company.

One example of that, he claimed, is their role in delaying the delivery of justice and denying victims and affected individuals the opportunity to have their case heard, something he said contradicts the human rights principles the Swedish oil company had committed to. Thats why I urged the company to correct this aggressive legal strategy, which it failed to take into account, Wesselink concluded.

Can an NGO report bear the burden of legal proof?

The courtroom exchange highlighted a deeper issue: what happens when the tools of activism are introduced into the evidence chain of a criminal trial? Can a report designed to pressure corporations and mobilize public opinion also meet the standards of legal proof?

Wesselink offered no easy answers, but he did point to the reports sources, including satellite imagery, interviews, UN documents, and research by respected scholars. I never set foot in Block 5A before 2004, he said. But I read, I listened, and I trusted people who had.

Samuelsson then changed tack and asked how Wesselink could describe Batruch as a propagandist for the regime, while he himself, without ever having been to Sudan, could claim she was entirely wrong. Do you have to have been to a place to be convinced? Wesselink replied. Ive never been to Ukraine, but Im convinced that theres a terrible war going on there.

He argued that Christine Batruch disregarded well-established facts from UN rapporteurs, and that her evasiveness when asked about specific issues painted a clear picture that she was not interested in the truth.

- But now youre explaining why you think she was wrong. Why were you right?

- I read and listened to people who were on the ground, who were knowledgeable. So yes, her information was one-sided. Thats why I proposed the company should engage with other groups.

- Let me ask one last time: How did you know, by the end of 2000, without having been there, that what you were presenting was broadly accepted fact?

- As I said, because I had read the available reporting, studies, statements, and expert opinions, and I had no reason to doubt their work.

Samuelsson also asks why Wesselink described the road construction as a catastrophe. Wesselink replies that the road was part of a military mobilization, and that villages and livestock were displaced during its construction.

- Lundin had no operations at the time, but they had commissioned subcontractors to build the road and had paid for it, so the company didnt have its own personnel on the ground who could witness what happened. But everyone who was there paints a consistent picture: that secure corridors were being created along every kilometre of the road, with military outposts every five kilometres.

- But how do you know this?

- This is described by people whose accounts I consider credible, including three successive UN rapporteurs, a Canadian government report, and it fits the pattern. The same thing happened in the blocks north of Lundins, so it was predictable that it would happen in Block 5A.

Part investigator, part NGO worker, part witness

Wesselink also referenced the cultural expectations around justice among the Nuer people. For them, justice means reconciliation and acknowledgment. You cant separate criminal accountability from compensation. Thats why this case matters.

He noted that civil society groups in South Sudan, such as Leech Victim Voices, have continued to call for reparations. This trial is not about revenge, he said. Its about recognition and the right to truth.

In many ways, Wesselink symbolizes a common kind of actor in the landscape of international justice: part investigator, part campaigner, part witness. His work embodies both the potential and the pitfalls of NGO-driven accountability.

Prosecutors lean on his findings. Defence lawyers question his neutrality. And the court must now decide how to interpret a report that was never meant to be forensic, but that started and may yet define the outcome of this historic trial.

After Wesselinks testimony, the court continues to hear other witnesses during the rest of 2025. After the summer, the defence will call its witnesses. The new expected date for the end of Swedens longest running trial is now set to May 2026.
When Joseph Kabila stepped aside for Felix Tshisekedi in 2019, it was hailed as the Democratic Republic of Congo's first peaceful handover of power since independence from Belgium.

But on Thursday Kabila faces a vote in the Senate potentially exposing him to prosecution on accusations he conspired with an armed militia to remove his successor from office -- with Rwanda's backing.

Any court case could further destabilise the country's already volatile politics as conflict rages with the M23 militia in the mineral-rich east, experts say.

- Is Kabila untouchable? -

As the first former head of state to become an honorary senator for life, the president of 18 years benefits from immunity to prosecution.

Kabila, 53, still enjoys some influence over Congolese political life, even after a coalition agreement between him and Tshisekedi collapsed two years after his departure from power.

According to his entourage, Kabila has lived abroad at an unspecified location since 2023 at least.

In April, firebrand Justice Minister Constant Mutamba urged the military courts to investigate Kabila for allegedly supporting the M23, which has seized swathes of the eastern DRC with Rwanda's help since 2021.

On the justice ministry's orders, the Congolese army's top prosecutor requested the Senate lift his immunity so the military courts could try Kabila on charges of "treason, war crimes, crimes against humanity".

Stripping that privilege would usually require a two-thirds majority in both the upper and lower houses to pass, according to Raphael Nyabirungu, a law professor at the University of Kinshasa.

With Kabila's People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) having boycotted the last polls, Tshisekedi's coalition enjoys an overwhelming majority in both chambers.

- Is the evidence sound? -

At the centre of the case is Kabila's supposed support for the M23.

Quoted by the Congolese Press Agency, the army prosecutor said that an opposition figure overheard Kabila and the M23's leader talking in May 2023 about a Rwanda-backed plot to assassinate Tshisekedi.

Under questioning, Eric Nkuba testified that Kabila cautioned against the assassination as it would make a martyr out of Tshisekedi, arguing it would be best to oust him in a military coup instead.

But that "confession" was "extorted by force", said Ithiel Batumike, a senior researcher at the Ebuteli Institute.

- Why is Kinshasa acting now? -

Since the beginning of 2025, Tshisekedi has had to contend with a string of military setbacks at the M23's hands and ongoing peace talks with Rwanda, while dealing with a "crisis of legitimacy" at home, said Batumike.

In recent months Kabila has hinted that he might make a grand return to the DRC and stepped up his criticism of Tshisekedi, who in turn accused his predecessor of preparing an "insurrection".

Kabila announced in the press last month that he would visit the east, without specifying if he would return to a portion controlled by the M23.

No concrete proof of Kabila's return has ever emerged, but since then his party has been suspended while police have raided some of his properties.

- Is it being done correctly? -

Given no former DRC president has ever had their immunity lifted, no clear procedure exists.

Kabila did not answer a parliament summons on Tuesday.

His PPRD has argued that the Senate does not even have the authority to strip him.

That point was echoed by Christine Mwando, a Senator for the opposition Together for the Republic party.

While critical of Kabila, Mwando was adamant that "former heads of state are not subject" to the same procedures as other senators.

If he does go to trial, Mutamba, the justice minister, has vowed his case would be heard by the High Military Court, which has previously tried civilians accused of treason.

- Will this help the DRC? -

Should Kabila be dragged through the courts, it would be "proof" the government has decided "to forge ahead, against all odds, against the constitution and against the law", said Nyabirungu, the professor.

"In that case, then we must fear the worst."

PPRD Deputy Secretary-General Ferdinand Kambere told AFP that Kabila's prosecution was pure "theatre" designed to distract the Congolese people from debates on the conflict and corruption.

For Senator Mwango, "the population is starving, there are no jobs... will lifting the immunity of the former head of state solve everything?"

Batumike warned that prosecuting Kabila could "further radicalise" opposition to Tshisekedi and reignite latent conflicts elsewhere in the country, not least in Kabila's Katanga homeland.
Prosecutors said Thursday they plan to indict a convicted Swedish jihadist on charges including the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot burned to death in a cage in Syria.

Sweden's Prosecution Authority said in a statement it planned to charge a 32-year-old Swedish citizen on May 27 with "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria".

The trial is scheduled to begin on June 4.

Prosecutors did not name their suspect in the statement, but Sweden asked France for the extradition of 32-year-old Osama Krayem, already sentenced for the 2015 attacks in Paris and the attacks in Brussels a year later.

The prosectors' statement said an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force was shot down in Syria on December 24, 2014.

The pilot was captured by the Islamic State (IS) group the same day near the central city of Raqqa, it added.

The pilot was locked in a cage and burned alive and images of his death were broadcast by the jihadist group.

Krayem "is suspected of having executed the pilot, together with other perpetrators belonging to IS", said prosectors.

"The investigation has shown that the man, armed and masked, together with others forced the pilot into a metal cage," they added.

"The cage was subsequently set on fire by one of the co-perpetrators, and the pilot died as a consequence of the fire."

Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined IS in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for assisting in the planning of the 2015 Paris attacks, in which 130 people died.

The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the bombings on March 22, 2016, at Brussels' main airport and on the metro system, which killed 32 people.

He has been "temporarily handed over to Sweden to participate in the trial", the prosecution said.
A movie with Leonardo DiCaprio has made popular the words blood diamond. Here, blood oil is at the heart of the longest trial in Swedish history, which opened in September 2023 and is due to end in May 2026. Two men in white collars are in the dock: Ian Lundin and Alexandre Schneiter. Two senior executives of Lundin Oil, accused of complicity in war crimes between 1999 and 2003 in a region that has become a country, Southern Sudan. Justice Info has been covering from its very beginning this unique trial, a symbol of the often explosive mix of war, oil and multinationals.

Illustration:  Gaspard Njock pour Justice Info
South Africa's murder rate is high but statistics show that most victims are young black men, contradicting US President Donald Trump's claims that a white "genocide" is under way.

Trump repeated claims that "thousands" of white farmers were being killed during a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa Wednesday.

But his claims of "white genocide" and persecution, which led him to offer "refuge" to white farmers, are baseless and distort the reality of South Africa's high crime rate.

There were more than 27,600 murders in the 2023/24 financial year, police statistics say. This averages to just over 75 a day.

Most of the victims were young, black men in urban areas, the statistics show.

On farms, plots, small holdings and other agriculture land, there were 436 murders in 2024, according to police figures that include farmers -- who are mostly white -- and black farm workers.

Statistics from the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa (TAU SA) show farm murders average about 50 a year across all races.

While still a shocking problem, the murder of white farmers is part of a larger insecurity issue in the country, officials say.

The vast majority (82 percent) of South Africa's population of 63 million is black, with white South Africans making up just over seven percent, according to the latest figures from mid-2024.

The white population is largely made up of people descended from English settlers or the mainly Dutch colonisers who landed at the Cape around 300 years ago and speak Afrikaans.

Afrikaners have historically run most of South Africa's commercial farmland, around 72 percent of which was held by white farmers in 2017, according to the most up-to-date government figures.

- No land seizures -

Right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups that insist that white farmers are targets for murder also claim that the black-majority government intends to seize white farmland without compensation, an allegation repeated by Trump.

Analysts say the law makes it clear that the government must attempt to reach a just and equitable settlement with the property owner in order to take land that it requires in the public interest.

The clause limits cases of "nil compensation" to unproductive, abandoned or derelict land or when the property is overindebted

No farms have been expropriated in South Africa under this law, officials say.

After Trump's offer of refuge, 67,000 South Africans requested resettlement in the United States, the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States said.

The first 59 arrived in the United States earlier in May.
Sorrento, LA  Mayeux Law, a trusted name in family law, is pleased to announce its expansion of services in Sorrento, LA, providing families with the expert legal support they need during some of lifes most difficult moments. Specializing in family law mattersfrom divorce and custody disputes to prenuptial agreements and spousal supportMayeux Law offers compassionate, personalized representation to ensure the best possible outcomes for clients.

At Mayeux Law, we believe that every client deserves not only skilled legal representation but also the clarity and support they need to navigate their family law matters, said Kaitlin Mayeux, founder of Mayeux Law. We are here to guide families in Sorrento through difficult times, making sure their rights are protected while helping them secure the future they deserve.

Family Law Challenges in Sorrento: Compassionate Legal Support

Family law matters, such as divorce, child custody, and spousal support, can cause immense emotional strain. In Sorrento, where families are tightly connected and the community is close-knit, navigating these challenges can feel even more difficult. The pressure to protect your familys future while also dealing with complex legal issues can create additional stress. Mayeux Laws services can bring a sense of relief, knowing that expert legal support is available.

Mayeux Law is dedicated to providing clear and professional guidance to families in Sorrento, helping them understand their rights and options throughout the process. Whether you are facing a divorce, need assistance with child custody, or want to draft a prenuptial agreement, Mayeux Law is committed to securing the best outcome for you and your family.

Comprehensive Legal Services in Sorrento

Mayeux Law specializes in a wide range of family law services, providing expert legal assistance to families in Sorrento, LA. The firms services include:

Virtual Divorce Services : Offering convenient and efficient divorce solutions tailored for todays digital age.

Offering convenient and efficient divorce solutions tailored for todays digital age. Divorce & Custody Disputes: Expert legal representation for contested and uncontested divorces, child custody, and child support cases.

Expert legal representation for contested and uncontested divorces, child custody, and child support cases. Prenuptial Agreements: Assisting couples in drafting comprehensive prenuptial agreements to protect their financial interests.

Assisting couples in drafting comprehensive prenuptial agreements to protect their financial interests. Spousal Support & Paternity Actions: Helping with spousal support and paternity issues to ensure fair and just outcomes.

At Mayeux Law, each case is handled with empathy and professionalism, ensuring families feel supported throughout every step of the process.

Why Mayeux Law is the Best Choice for Family Law in Sorrento

Mayeux Law has earned a strong reputation for providing expert legal support in Louisiana family law. Heres why the firm is the best choice for families in Sorrento, LA. For more information or to schedule a free case review, please contact us at [email protected] or (225) 229-4529.

In-Depth Knowledge of Louisiana Family Law: The team at Mayeux Law brings years of experience in Louisianas family law system. They offer expert legal guidance and ensure that clients achieve the best possible outcomes.

The team at Mayeux Law brings years of experience in Louisianas family law system. They offer expert legal guidance and ensure that clients achieve the best possible outcomes. Compassionate Client-Centered Representation: Mayeux Law takes the time to listen to clients concerns and offers personalized legal strategies that address each familys unique needs. This approach ensures that families in Sorrento feel understood and cared for during their legal journey.

Mayeux Law takes the time to listen to clients concerns and offers personalized legal strategies that address each familys unique needs. This approach ensures that families in Sorrento feel understood and cared for during their legal journey. Proven Success in Family Law Cases: Mayeux Law has a history of successful outcomes for families in Sorrento, providing a track record of favorable results that reflect the firms commitment to its clients. This success can give families in Sorrento the confidence and security they need during their legal process.

Ready to Take the First Step in Your Familys Legal Journey?

Whether you are facing a difficult divorce, need guidance on child custody, or require assistance with drafting a prenuptial agreement, Mayeux Law is here to help. Get started today by scheduling a free case review with one of their experienced family law attorneys.

Your Trusted Family Law Attorneys in Sorrento, LA

Mayeux Law continues to be a trusted family law attorney in Sorrento, providing compassionate and professional legal services that prioritize each clients well-being. With a proven track record of success and a deep commitment to the Sorrento community, the firm is ready to help families navigate their family law matters with confidence and clarity.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Kaitlin Mayeux, Founder

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (225) 229-4529

About Mayeux Law:

Mayeux Law specializes in family law, offering personalized legal solutions for clients facing divorce, custody disputes, prenuptial agreements, and other family law matters. Led by attorney Kaitlin Mayeux, the firm provides compassionate and professional representation, ensuring the best possible outcomes for families during challenging times. Visit their website to learn more.
CULLOWHEE, N.C.  The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced Thursday a Title IX investigation into Western Carolina University, citing allegations of noncompliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. The probe centers on claims that WCU failed to ensure sex-separated intimate spaces and retaliated against female students raising concerns.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. The investigation follows reports that WCU allowed a male student to share a dormitory room with a female and opened a Title IX investigation against a female student who asked a male to leave a women's locker room.

"WCU's reported contempt for federal anti-discrimination laws and indifference to, and retaliation against, girls who have spoken up about males invading their intimate spaces is simply unacceptable," said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. "After fighting for years to secure Title IX protections, women must again fight hostile institutions to ensure their right to equal protection and opportunity in sports, living spaces, and intimate facilities is respected. The Trump-McMahon Department of Education will continue to deploy every lawful means to eradicate this wholly unnecessary and egregious violation of women and girls' civil rights."

Payton McNabb, a former WCU student and Independent Women's Forum Ambassador, spoke out about the university's policies. "Western Carolina University has perpetrated a policy that is not in full compliance with Title IX. The violation has impacted not only me but many other female students at the university that deserve our rights to single-sex spaces," McNabb said. "In addition to my experience discovering a male in the women's restroom on campus, men who self-identify as transgender are entering other women's intimate spaces like restrooms, dorm rooms and locker rooms. Female college students will not sit idly by as men take over our spaces. I'm thankful to have an administration that will stand up for us."

McNabb, who suffered brain damage in 2017 after a male opponent spiked a volleyball in her face during a high school match, faced a WCU Title IX investigation in 2024. She had recorded herself politely asking a male to leave a women's bathroom. The university dropped the investigation but maintained its policies, prompting federal scrutiny.

Another female student reportedly left a WCU dormitory after being assigned a male roommate who identified as female. Emails from WCU administrators, cited in credible reports, indicate the university refused to adjust policies following President Trump's executive order, asserting it would continue analyzing sex discrimination based on gender identity rather than biological sex, as required by Title IX.

The investigation highlights tensions over Title IX compliance and women's rights in education. WCU's stance has drawn criticism for prioritizing gender identity over federal anti-discrimination laws protecting sex-separated spaces. The Department of Education's action signals a broader effort to enforce Title IX and address female student retaliation.

WCU officials have not publicly responded to the investigation. The outcome could influence how universities nationwide handle Title IX compliance and sex-separated facilities.
A Global Financial Fugitive and the Billion-Dollar Scandal That Continues to Shake Governments

KUALA LUMPUR / NEW YORK / DUBAI

More than a decade after the explosive 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal erupted, international authorities are still on the hunt for Low Taek Jhobetter known as Jho Lowthe elusive Malaysian financier accused of masterminding one of the largest financial frauds in history.

While billions have been recovered and numerous convictions handed down, the alleged architect remains a ghost, evading justice in a global game of cat and mouse that reveals just how thin law enforcements borders truly are.

Despite being wanted in multiple countries and subject to Interpol Red Notices, Jho Lows location remains a mystery. From the luxury suites of Shanghai and the gated compounds of Dubai to whispers of protection in the shadows of authoritarian states, Lows apparent freedom exposes glaring weaknesses in international extradition, financial oversight, and diplomatic cooperation.

The Allegations: A Fraud of Epic Proportions

The scandal surrounding 1MDB, a Malaysian state investment fund originally intended to drive economic development, has become a textbook case of global kleptocracy. U.S. and Malaysian prosecutors allege that over $4.5 billion was siphoned from 1MDB through a complex web of shell companies and fraudulent transactions.

At the center of this operation is Jho Low, who is accused of orchestrating the diversion of funds to finance an extravagant lifestyle and bribe public officials.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) described the scheme as kleptocracy at its worst.  It involved purchasing luxury real estate, yachts, art, and even financing Hollywood films, including The Wolf of Wall Street.

The Global Manhunt: Where Is Jho Low?

Since fleeing Malaysia in 2015, Low has managed to stay several steps ahead of investigators. U.S. and Malaysian officials have reportedly come close to locating him multiple times, but political protections and diplomatic loopholes have consistently undermined their efforts.

Known Travel Patterns and Hideouts:

China: Believed to have sought a haven in Macau and mainland China, leveraging political connections and economic clout.

Believed to have sought a haven in Macau and mainland China, leveraging political connections and economic clout. United Arab Emirates: Speculated to have travelled through Dubai and Abu Dhabi, using private aircraft and diplomatic backchannels.

Speculated to have travelled through Dubai and Abu Dhabi, using private aircraft and diplomatic backchannels. Caribbean and Pacific Nations: Allegations have surfaced that Low obtained multiple citizenships through investment programs, making extradition more complex.

Despite repeated attempts by Malaysia and the U.S. to negotiate his return, Lows use of legal name changes, second passports, and digital obfuscation has made him nearly impossible to track.

The Diplomatic Roadblocks and Legal Loopholes

The pursuit of Jho Low has cast a harsh light on the loopholes in global extradition treaties. While Malaysia has no formal extradition agreement with China or several Middle Eastern nations, mutual legal assistance requests have yielded limited results.

Furthermore, Lows rumoured use of diplomatic passportsallegedly from Caribbean nations that sell such documents under Citizenship-by-Investment (CBI) programsadds another layer of complexity. These documents may afford him limited diplomatic immunity or ease of travel, allowing him to move across borders without triggering standard immigration alerts.

Amicus International Consulting, a global leader in legal identity and citizenship consulting, has long warned about criminals misuse of second passport schemes. While legitimate programs exist to offer economic mobility and security, bad actors exploit them to create webs of identities that frustrate justice systems.

Case Study: The Hollywood Connection

In 2013, the Red Granite Pictures film The Wolf of Wall Street hit theatres. Unbeknownst to many at the time, Jho Low was instrumental in funding the movie using stolen 1MDB funds. The lavish lifestyle on-screen mirrored Lows life, complete with $250 million yachts, luxury parties with celebrities, and penthouse acquisitions.

Following DOJ lawsuits, the films producers agreed to a $60 million settlement, underscoring the real-world fallout from Lows fraudulent dealings.

Case Study: The Yacht and Art Seizures

In 2018, authorities seized the Equanimity, a 300-foot superyacht worth over $250 million, linked to Low. Docked in Indonesia, the vessel symbolized excess and corruption. Similarly, famous artworksincluding paintings by Monet and Basquiatwere recovered and auctioned to recover stolen funds.

While physical assets have been traced and reclaimed, the man himself remains untouchable. This underlines a critical flaw in international asset recovery efforts: reclaiming the funds may be easier than capturing the perpetrator.

International Pressure Mounts

Global pressure continues to mount on nations suspected of sheltering Low. The U.S. has pushed for renewed sanctions and asset freezes, while the Malaysian government has intensified diplomatic outreach to secure his return.

Interpol and other international law enforcement agencies remain engaged, but without cooperation from key nations, the path to justice is slow and fragmented.

In 2022, Malaysia struck a landmark deal with Goldman Sachs, which had helped arrange bond sales for 1MDB. The bank agreed to a $3.9 billion settlement but maintained that it was deceived by rogue employees, several of whom have since been convicted.

Despite such developments, many see the lack of justice for Low himself as a failure of the global legal system.

The Ethics of Legal Identity Services

Amicus International Consulting, which provides lawful second citizenship and identity solutions, has warned sternly about the dangers of poorly regulated CBI programs. We advocate for transparency, ethical review, and full compliance with international AML standards, said a representative from the company.

Amicuss programs involve legal name changes, second citizenship through birthright or descent, and thoroughly vetted economic citizenship programs in jurisdictions with strong regulatory frameworks, not those offering anonymity to criminals.

Case Study: When Legal Becomes Criminal

Several other high-profile fugitives have used second passports and identity changes to evade arrest, only to be caught due to biometric tightening and border cooperation. In one recent case, a European financier who used a second passport to hide in Panama was apprehended when facial recognition software flagged his new identity during routine travel.

Jho Lows continued freedom sends the wrong message, says an expert at Amicus. It encourages abuse of legal systems meant to protect refugees, investors, and political dissidentsnot white-collar fugitives.

Conclusion: Will Jho Low Ever Be Caught?

The Jho Low saga underscores the fragility of modern law enforcement across borders. As technology advances and legal systems evolve, the need for coordinated, ethical identity verification and legal frameworks has never been more urgent.

The world is watching. Whether Jho Lows ghost trail ends in a courtroomor remains a stain on the global justice systemdepends on how countries confront the uncomfortable truth: in a world of digital borders and diplomatic loopholes, justice must evolve or risk irrelevance.

? Contact Information

Phone: +1 (604) 200-5402

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.amicusint.ca

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Amicus International Consulting continues to monitor developments in identity abuse and offers legally sound, ethical alternatives for those seeking second citizenship, legal name changes, or new beginnings.






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - Equity Bank recently dismissed nearly 200 employees in one of the biggest internal purges in its history, following a Ksh 1.5 billion payroll fraud involving insiders.

An internal audit revealed that staff across the country had received unexplained funds through their salary accounts and registered M-Pesa numbers, linked to customers, bank-related entities, or fellow employees, which is a direct violation of the banks conflict of interest and ethics policy.

The audit, which began on April 14, 2025, demanded written explanations for any income above salary received in the last two years.

Employees who failed to account for the suspicious transactions were issued termination letters, citing gross misconduct.

The sacked workers include managers and junior staff from both head office and branches.

The scandal was triggered by a massive heist where IT credentials belonging to a senior staff member were used to process over 40 fraudulent transactions totalling Ksh 1.5 billion. The money was later traced to external bank accounts.

However, even as the bank presents this as a necessary integrity clean-up, this outlet has received multiple concerns from some of the affected employees.

According to several dismissed workers, not all terminations were fairly executed.

Some claim that the audit process was overly aggressive and too narrowly focused, resulting in what they describe as dismissals over trivial or poorly substantiated grounds.

There is a growing sense among some of the ex-staff that the sweep may have lumped together serious offenders with individuals whose actions didnt merit termination.

Equity Bank maintains that the purge was not a redundancy plan but a risk and ethics enforcement measure, as it works to rebuild trust and tighten internal controls.

Credit: Cyprian Nyakundi






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - A disturbing video has emerged showing a young man, believed to be a member of a notorious criminal gang operating in Nairobis Eastlands area, boldly flaunting a firearm - a move that has ignited public outrage and prompted calls for urgent police intervention.

In the now-viral footage, the suspect, who appears to be in his early 20s, is seen pulling out a pistol and cocking it.

In a show of bravado, he then hands the weapon to another young man, instructing him to cock it as he had previously taught him.

The brazen display of a firearm by the suspect in a public setting has raised serious security concerns, particularly in light of rising incidents of armed robberies and gang violence in the Eastlands suburbs.

The area has in recent years become a hotbed for criminal gangs, many of whom use social media to boast about their criminal activities and intimidate the public.

Members of the public have urged the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to launch an immediate manhunt for the suspect and his accomplices.

Watch the video.

A suspected gangster from Nairobis Eastlands area flaunts a gun as netizens urge DCI to launch a manhunt for him pic.twitter.com/4KgziMugiE  DAILY POST  (@dailypost_ke) May 22, 2025

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has spoken out after being held incommunicado for four days by Tanzanian authorities.

Mwangi says he was tortured before his deportation by road and abandoned in Ukunda, Kwale County - about 92 kilometres from the Lunga Lunga border crossing.

Mwangi had travelled to Dar es Salaam to support Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu during his ongoing treason trial.

His disappearance on Monday sparked concerns across the region, with reports emerging of a broader crackdown that also targeted other prominent figures, including Peoples Liberation Party leader, Martha Karua and former Chief Justice, Willy Mutunga, who were also deported.

Before his disappearance, Mwangi was involved in a tense standoff with individuals claiming to be Tanzanian authorities who confronted him at his hotel room.

He refused to open the door, citing fears for his safety.

I have gone through four dark days, I have been tortured very badly, I can barely walk but I am very concerned about Agather because we were tortured together and they did very horrible things to us.

So, I hope Agather is safe. He said.

At the time of publication of this article, Ugandan national Agather Atuhaire, who was with Mwangi during the ordeal, remains unaccounted for.

A video posted by the Kenya Human Rights Commission showed Mwangi being assisted into a car in Ukunda.

He was expected to be airlifted to Nairobi for medical attention.

Activist Boniface Mwangi being helped into a car in Ukunda after his deportation from Tanzania.



Hes reported to have been tortured by the security agents and is set to be airlifted to Nairobi according to KHRC. pic.twitter.com/4AKN0SdT13  Kenya West (@KinyanBoy) May 22, 2025

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has dared Kiharu MP, Ndindi Nyoro, and other United Democratic Alliance (UDA) members allied to former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to resign from the party if they are dissatisfied with its direction.

Speaking on Citizen TV on Thursday morning, the outspoken Senator accused Gachaguas allies of political double-dealing - enjoying UDA privileges while openly backing the opposition.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too, Cherargei said, adding that party loyalty must be absolute.

He challenged them to seek fresh mandates under Gachaguas new political vehicle, the Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP), to prove their support was genuine.

If they are men and women enough, let them resign from UDA and run under DCP.

I can tell you - they wont. They are fearful, he stated.

Cherargei defended President William Ruto, saying his reluctance to expel dissenters like Ndindi Nyoro contradicts claims of intolerance in UDA.

He cited Rutos past public praise of Nyoro as a sign of political maturity.

However, Muranga Senator Joe Nyutu, who was present in the interview, said he was unbothered by recent disciplinary actions, including his removal from the Education Committee in February.

Were not afraid. Let UDA trigger by-elections and see what happens, Nyutu declared.

Im in UDA for now, but Ill run on a DCP ticket in 2027.

Theres no harm in saying Ill associate with it.

The loyalty debate comes just days after UDA expelled nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba for publicly associating with former Interior CS Fred Matiangi, who has declared his intention to run for President in 2027, intensifying pressure on members seen to be aligning with rival political forces.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has launched an in-depth probe into the death of Father John Maina, a Catholic Priest from Igwamiti Parish, Nyahururu, who died under suspicious circumstances shortly after hosting former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

Fr Maina was discovered injured on May 15th along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway near the Diotomite stage by a boda boda rider.

He reportedly claimed he had been abducted from Nyahururu.

The rider rushed him to St Josephs Mission Hospital in Gilgil, where he succumbed to his injuries shortly after admission.

He had visible bruises on the left side of his head.

His death occurred weeks after he presided over a silver jubilee celebration at Igwamiti Catholic Parish on April 27th, an event attended by Gachagua and other political leaders.

Investigators suspect the murder may be linked to money donated during the event, with reports indicating that the priest had been trailed by individuals allegedly demanding a share of the funds.

A preliminary autopsy conducted on May 19th by Government Pathologist Dr Ngulungu revealed that while Fr Maina had sustained head bruises, they were not likely the cause of death. Toxicological samples have since been collected for further analysis.

Detectives are now pursuing multiple leads and individuals believed to have been stalking the priest in the days leading up to his death.

The DCI also confirmed that although Fr Maina had reportedly voiced concerns for his safety, he had not made any formal police report.

Meanwhile, the Authorities are urging the public to refrain from spreading unverified information and assured that comprehensive investigations are ongoing to ensure those behind the killing are brought to justice.

"So far, several statements have been recorded, and detectives are actively pursuing forensic leads to reconstruct Father Mainas final movements and arrest suspects. The authorities are committed to identifying and apprehending those responsible for this heinous act," DCI disclosed.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Renowned activist Boniface Mwangi has been released by Tanzanian security agents after being held incommunicado for several days.

He was dumped at Horohoro border on Thursday morning, following mounting public pressure and diplomatic engagements.

According to Haki Africa CEO, Hussein Khalid, Mwangi was severely tortured by rogue Tanzanian security agents before being dumped in Ukunda, where he was rescued and reunited with his family.

He can barely walk after being subjected to torture during his detention.

He was transferred to Nairobi for specialized medical attention.

Boniface Mwangi was dumped at Horohoro border post this morning by Tanzanian security agents. He has been severely tortured and can barely walk. His body is broken but his spirit remains strong. Agather is still missing and was equally ghastly tortured in the same location with Mwangi. We are making arrangements to transfer Boniface Mwangi to Nairobi for medical attention. More details to follow, Khalid tweeted.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has warned school heads against imposing unauthorised levies on parents, stressing the Government's commitment to free basic education.

Speaking following the disbursement of Ksh22 billion for second-term capitation to all public basic education institutions, the CS said the Ministry will take firm action against any school found charging illegal fees.

Breaking down the allocation, Ogamba stated that Ksh1.3 billion will go to free primary education, Ksh18.9 billion to free day junior secondary education, Ksh118 million to support learners with disabilities, and Ksh11 billion to free day secondary education.

He urged school administrators to manage the funds prudently and warned against misappropriation.

School heads must ensure these public resources are used solely for the benefit of learners.

Any misuse or imposition of unauthorised levies will be met with firm action.

The CS affirmed the Governments continued commitment to the constitutional requirement of free basic education, adding that the timely release of capitation is meant to ensure smooth school operations.

This comes two weeks after school heads threatened to send students home, citing delays in funding that had left many institutions struggling with debts and disrupted learning programs.






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - Rigathi Gachaguas former Deputy Director of Communications, Martha Miano, has taken to social media to respond to attacks launched to her by Gachaguas bloggers.

Martha, who was fired before Gachagua left office, hinted that she turned down Gachaguas advances and denied claims that they have a child together.

Read her full statement below.

But Rigathi Gachagua, you should pay your bloggers well and especially that one malnourished ever broke semi-illiterate.

You see.. You have touched my personal life and also sent him to insult me the same way you did when you called Baba Wairimu to Mombasa to badmouth me on 1st January 2024.

You started calling everyone when I was pregnant with my son Ethan asking them who the father was. Unfortunately nobody knew including my very own close friends because I knew it was going to center of gossip so I kept it a secret.

When I got pregnant with Zara, you got to know. You got so worked up for reasons you can only tell us and called him to Mombasa to badmouth me. He stood his ground and told you off because he knew your reasons.

When I left ODP you used Kamekos team to insult me again with the pregnancy. I will say you sent him because I know you and how you give instructions to juniors to attack your enemies/opponents.

I will tell you this.. My life and especially my private life is mine. Why it would bother you so much and bring so much bitterness to when you knew I was pregnant still remains a puzzle. To those who got close to you, you create a different picture of our relationship that was away from reality and you and I know it.

I send you this message publicity because that is how you have decided it. I have never been in any romantic relationship with you and I CAN NEVER BE! Those who claim that we had a child should know that it is impossible for that to happen. Our differences have always been worlds apart and I stand my ground and tell you No when I dont agree with your ideas.

You are an old man for heaven sake. Old enough to be my father. I have never been your girlfriend and I can never be even under duress. Whoever I date/have children with or marry should be none of your business. I also dont discuss your children and their mothers.

And if you can tell bloggers to write that you fired Ngotho because of me.. Then you are one lost character because I was never your property, neither was I your concubine, baby mama or girlfriend.

You said Ngotho sold secrets Was he selling them to me?

You look for ways to discredit us in public and to our bosses but it will never work and by now you should have known that.

And also If Ngotho and I chose/would choose to have children, date, get married or be lovers we are adults and we can make the decision as adults. We also dont get involved with whoever you date/impregnate or marry. Not because we dont know you but because we are adults we are not petty and childish.

I had to write this after thorough thinking to remind you that I can also say a lot. A lot you know I know. Factual not fiction. But I dont write it. Any other time you send any of those under paid hoodrats to involve my children, I will get dirty with you and you will know what a lioness can do to defend her cabs. And I dare you!

Mimi na wewe tunajuana vizuri Im not a coward. Na mimi sio hao female MPs you insult and call prost!tut3s. I will drag you to my level and beat you with experience.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - A source has reached out to blogger Cyprian Nyakundi and exposed how Kericho Senator and Rutos confidant Aaron Cheruiyot enganges in money laundering schemes.

Read..

Hi Cyprian,

Please keep my identity hidden.

I have crucial information regarding Senator Aaron Cheruiyot of Kericho County and his alleged money laundering schemes.

The Senator, I believe, has been quietly using a company called Sovereign Communication Ltd, where he is a major shareholder, as a front to wash money.

Sovereign Communications operates as a Safaricom dealership, and was originally based at Utalii House in Nairobi.

This business has long served as a discreet laundering vehicle for illicit funds.

But when whispers of suspicion began circulating, the Senator panicked. He relocated the entire operation to Imara Daima, Nairobi County, a move seemingly designed to avoid scrutiny.

In a desperate bid to cover his tracks, Cheruiyot fired the entire workforce at the Utalii House office.

Not only was this aimed at silencing potential internal leaks, but it was also a cold effort to erase any paper trail connecting him to the suspicious financial activities.

One notable transaction further exposes the depth of this alleged scheme.

The luxurious house recently posted online, which has drawn public attention, is part of the same web. The payment for this property, as I understand it, was channeled through Sovereign Communication Ltd.

From there, the funds were transferred to I&M Bank, where it was processed in a way that masked its origin a classic tactic to hide the traceability of dirty money.






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - The Directorate of Criminal Investigations is investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder of Father John Maina from Igwamiti Parish, Nyahururu.

Reports indicate that, on April 27, 2025, Fr. Maina attended a silver jubilee anniversary ceremony of Igwamiti Catholic parish and the ordination of Father Simon Thuita. Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, accompanied by other politicians, attended the ceremony.

On May 15, 2025, Fr. Maina was discovered along the Nakuru-Nairobi highway by a good Samaritan, a motorcycle rider near the Diotomite stage with bruises on the left side of his head. He told the boda boda rider that he had been abducted from Nyahururu.

The rider took Fr. Maina to St. Joseph's Mission Hospital in Gilgil. Upon arrival at the hospital, he displayed visible injuries, including bruises on the left side of his head, which were oozing blood.

Tragically, despite the efforts of medical personnel, Fr. Maina passed on while undergoing treatment minutes after being admitted.

His body was moved to the Nyahururu Sub-County morgue upon request by his fellow worshippers for preservation and autopsy.

On May 19, 2025, the autopsy was conducted by Dr. Ngulungu, a government pathologist. Preliminary findings revealed that the bruises observed on Fr. Maina's head were unlikely to be the cause of death.

Consequently, samples were collected and sent for further toxicological analysis.

It has been established that Fr. Maina was being trailed by some individuals who were demanding a share of the money allegedly given to him after he presided over the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Ceremony by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

Further, detectives are investigating reports that Fr. Maina had claimed his life was in danger, though he had not reported the same at any police station.

So far, several statements have been recorded, and detectives are actively pursuing forensic leads to reconstruct Father Mainas final movements and arrest suspects.

The authorities are committed to identifying and apprehending those responsible for this heinous act.

Via DCI






Thursday, May 22, 2025  Beleaguered nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba has warned that unless opposition leaders overhaul their strategy ahead of the 2027 General Elections, their quest to make Ruto a one term President will be a pipe dream.

In a statement on Thursday, May 22nd, Orwoba urged opposition leaders, including former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, to adopt a tactical approach similar to the one Ruto used to secure victory in 2022.

Team WANTAM, please note that you cannot outplay a chess master with checkers tactics.

It is not about hashtags and hate. It is about strategy and consistency.

We know it and we did it, she stated.

She added: All those seeking to make Ruto a one-term president, you must change your strategy.

One thing we did very well as the William Ruto presidential campaign and secretariat team was that we sealed all the loopholes.

WANTAM can only be a reality if you change the strategy. Ignore the messenger, take the message.

The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has expelled Orwoba over alleged disloyalty and gross misconduct and her perceived closeness to former Interior CS Fred Matiangi, who has hinted at a presidential bid in 2027.

Her ouster was briefly halted after High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi issued a conservatory order suspending her expulsion - just hours after Senate Speaker Amason Kingi declared her seat vacant.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Nairobi has emerged as the most expensive city in Africa for international schooling, with a median annual fee of Ksh920,000 (USD 7,116), according to a new report by the International Schools Database.

The study, which analysed international school fees across seven African cities, ranked Johannesburg second with a median fee of Ksh731,000 (USD 5,657), followed by Cairo at Ksh300,000 (USD 2,296).

Nairobis fees are more than double those in Cairo, despite the latter being in a more developed economy.

The Kenyan capitals higher costs are attributed to rising demand for premium education driven by the presence of multinational companies, diplomatic missions, and international NGOs.

Cape Town followed closely behind Cairo, with a median fee of Ksh515,000 (USD 3,979), while Casablanca, Morocco, registered the continents highest individual international school fee, Ksh1.7 million (USD 13,372).

However, Casablancas fees vary widely, with some schools charging as little as Ksh480,000.

Unlike Casablanca, Nairobis international school fees show less disparity, pointing to consistent quality and standards across institutions.

The citys schools often offer globally recognised curricula such as the International Baccalaureate (IB) and British systems, supported by high-end facilities and infrastructure.

The report reinforces Nairobis growing reputation as an educational hub in Africa, albeit an expensive one.

The Kenyan DAILY POST




Nairobi-based broadcast journalist and digital media expert, Milton Were, has officially launched a powerful new eBook titled Online Income, Google AdSense Secrets & Investment Strategies. The release comes at a time when thousands of young Africans are searching for alternative income sources and digital tools to navigate a tough economic landscape.

Milton, who has spent over 10 years in blogging, digital journalism (Reuters-accredited), public relations, and online monetization, says the eBook is a culmination of everything hes learned about making money online  without shortcuts or empty promises. His experience, combined with years of trial, error, and real earnings, forms the backbone of the guide.





This book is not theory. These are strategies I use every day to earn online, he said. From AdSense tricks and academic writing to investment ideas and passive income channels, Ive shared it all.

Inside the eBook, readers will uncover:

How to monetize websites using Google AdSense

The real methods to increase CPC and daily earnings

How to combine AdSense and Adsterra for maximum payout

Passive income opportunities that actually work

Tips on academic writing for U.S. clients

Local investment options you can start with limited capital

And key financial growth strategies tailored for developing countries

What sets this eBook apart is its practicality. It isnt filled with buzzwords or recycled advice. Milton breaks down each income stream with clarity and walks the reader through exactly what to do  from creating a blog to setting up analytics, applying for AdSense, and even managing online payments.

At a time when many young people are overwhelmed by scams and get-rich-quick noise on the internet, this guide offers a rare dose of truth and tested systems that actually work.

The eBook is available for Ksh 10,000 ($77) as a special limited-time offer. Once payment is made via M-PESA, the full book is delivered instantly via WhatsApp or email.





This guide will change lives, Milton says. If youre serious about building real income online, this is for you.

To get a copy, interested buyers can send a WhatsApp message directly to Milton. The book is already being praised by early readers as one of the most honest and helpful guides in the online income space.

 To order, text Milton on WhatsApp(+254 793 811769) now.

 Price: Ksh 10,000 ($77)

If youve been wondering how to finally earn online consistently  this could be the breakthrough youve been waiting for.

Let me know if youd like this optimized for blog post SEO, a press release, or a sponsored Facebook article layout.






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Kenyas Ministry of Foreign Affairs has raised concern over the continued detention of activist Boniface Mwangi by Tanzanian authorities.

Mwangi, who travelled to Tanzania to observe opposition leader Tundu Lissus treason trial, was reportedly arrested by suspected military officers on Monday, May 18th in Dar es Salaam and his current whereabouts remain unknown.

Despite several requests, officials of the Government of Kenya have been denied consular access and information to Mr Mwangi, the Ministry said in a statement.

In the same breath, the Ministry urged Tanzania to facilitate access or release him immediately in line with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Mwangis wife, journalist Njeri Mwangi, said she last spoke to him on Monday.

She added that Tanzanian authorities claim to have deported him but have provided no official confirmation.

Give us back Boniface, wounded or dead. It has been agonising for my family, she said.

On Tuesday, Tanzanian police reportedly told a local rights group that Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire had been deported.

However, Amnesty International stated the two were being held incommunicado by the military.

Mwangi was among several East African activists who travelled to support Lissu.

Most were denied entry at Julius Nyerere International Airport, detained, and later deported.

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu on Monday, May 18th, warned against foreign activists "interfering" in the country's internal affairs, saying such individuals "will not be allowed to cross the line."

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - The Kenyan Government has formally responded to U.S Senator Jim Risch, who criticised President William Rutos recent remarks during his state visit to China.

The move follows concerns raised by Risch, who warned that Kenyas strengthening ties with Beijing, especially Rutos comment that Kenya and China are co-architects of a new world order, could strain future relations with the United States.

In response, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi clarified that Kenya remains a sovereign nation with the right to form independent foreign relations.

Speaking during a Citizen TV interview on Tuesday, May 20th, Mudavadi noted that Rutos comments were taken out of context.

I have written a formal letter to Senator Risch to explain Kenyas position and help him appreciate the context in which the statement was made, Mudavadi said.

He emphasized that Kenya will continue to pursue strategic partnerships with all nations based on mutual respect and national interest.

No matter our size, we must always safeguard our sovereignty and the right to choose our friends, Mudavadi added.

Speaking during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on East Africa and the Horn of Africa on Tuesday, May 13th, Senator Risch warned that Kenyas growing alignment with China may signal a shift in global allegiances.

Just last month, President Ruto declared that Kenya, a major non-NATO ally, and China are co-architects of a new world order.

Thats not just alignment to China; its allegiance, the statement read in part.

I submit for the record the text of that speech. Relying on leaders who embrace Beijing so openly is an error. Its time to reassess our relationship with Kenya and others who forge tight bonds with China," the statement continued.

While acknowledging the Senators concerns, Mudavadi reiterated that Kenya would not be swayed by external pressure and would continue to engage both China and the U.S. in a balanced, interest-driven foreign policy.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - A photo shared by a concerned Kenyan has sparked widespread discussion about the state of the economy.

The photo, taken early morning along Duruma Road in downtown Nairobi, shows several women standing outside a lodging facility, reportedly waiting for male clients.

Reports indicate that the women offer services for as little as KSh 200 - a harsh reflection of desperation and survival in a crumbling economy.

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - President William Ruto has appointed former Turkana North MP and East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) member, Christopher Doye Nakuleu, as his new Senior Political Advisor, adding to the growing list of advisors at State House.

Cabinet Secretary for the East African Community (EAC), Beatrice Askul Moe, welcomed the appointment, commending Nakuleus vast political experience.

Congratulations, Christopher Doye Nakuleu, on your appointment as Senior Political Advisor to President William Ruto.

Your experience as an EALA member, two-term MP, and former Speaker of the Turkana County Assembly has prepared you well for this role, she wrote in a congratulatory message.

Nakuleus appointment comes just under three months after his resignation as Speaker of the Turkana County Assembly on February 26th, following a motion for his removal over alleged gross misconduct.

The growing list has sparked concerns over the ballooning wage bill, with critics questioning the presidents pledge to cut Government spending.

The full list of presidential advisors now includes:

1. Makau Mutua  Senior Advisor on Constitutional Affairs

2. Moses Kuria  Senior Economic Advisor

3. David Ndii  Chair of the Presidents Council of Economic Advisors

4. Monica Juma  National Security Advisor

5. Dominic Menjo  Food Security and Animal Production Advisor

6. Edward Kisiangani  Senior Advisor and Member of the Council of Economic Advisors

7. Joseph Boinnet  Deputy National Security Advisor

8. Jaoko Oburu  Special Advisor on Youth Economic Empowerment

9. Silvester Kasuku  Governance Advisor

10. Harriette Chiggai  Advisor on Womens Rights

11. Abdi Guliye  Advisor on Livestock and Rangeland Management

12. Nancy Laibuni  Associate Member of the Council of Economic Advisors

13. Kennedy Ogeto  Senior Legal Advisor

14. Augustine Cheruiyot  Senior Advisor and Head of the Presidential Economic Secretariat

15. Henry Kinyua  Advisor on Food Security

16. Joe Ager  Advisor on Governance

17. Karisa Nzai  Political Advisor

18. Ali Somane  Advisor on Security Affairs in the Office of the National Security

19. Mohammed Hassan  Advisor in the Council of Economic Advisors

20. Steven Otieno  Advisor on Cooperatives

21. Christopher Doye Nakuleu  Senior Political Advisor

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Wednesday, May 21, 2025 - A 30-year-old man is currently in police custody after being arrested for impersonating a police officer.

The suspect, identified as Daniel Mori Mohere, was apprehended on Monday, May 19th, following an operation based on actionable intelligence.

Police raided his house and recovered a variety of police uniforms.

The suspect is believed to have been conducting patrols in the area and arresting unsuspecting members of the public, before demanding bribes from them.

It is now emerging that besides being a fake police officer, Mohere is also a pastor.

He has been running a church in Kayole where he preaches dressed in police uniform.

Watch videos.

30 year old Pastor-Daniel Mohere- arrested in Nairobi for being a fake Kenyan Police Officer pic.twitter.com/mAUgWQvxXf  Don Bull (@mainandegwa232) May 21, 2025

The Kenyan DAILY POST






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has been honoured for his continued efforts to uplift the lives of underprivileged and needy communities across Kenya.

The award was presented on Thursday by Margaret Heighton, President and founder of the U.S.-based humanitarian organisation No End to Love, at Sonkos Upper Hill offices in Nairobi.

Margaret Heighton, accompanied by her husband and co-founder Dave Heighton, commended Sonkos wide-ranging charitable initiatives, particularly through the Sonko Rescue Team, which has been instrumental in providing access to healthcare, education, and other essential services for vulnerable children and families.

They commended my efforts and encouraged me to continue with my mission to assist those in need, Sonko shared in a post on social media following the event. He added that Margaret had described him as a role model to Kenya and many Kenyans for his kindness.

The recognition comes as Sonko continues to maintain a strong presence in social outreach, despite being out of political office.

His philanthropic work has often attracted both local and international attention, with his mobile rescue and aid services proving vital during emergencies, medical crises, and natural disasters.

Also present at the ceremony was Ambassador Dominic Obadiah, President and Founder of Civility Voice Diplomats (CVD) and a globally recognized World Civility Ambassador.

Obadiah, a Kenyan national celebrated for his humanitarian efforts across Africa, lauded Sonkos work for promoting peace and providing tangible assistance to struggling communities.

Manduku McKay Daudi, project assistant at CVD, was also in attendance and praised Sonko for his dedication to humanitarian causes.

In his remarks, Sonko expressed deep gratitude for the recognition and reaffirmed his commitment to continue championing charitable initiatives. This award strengthens my resolve to keep making a difference. The work must go on, he said.

The former governors recognition adds to a growing list of accolades tied to his social outreach and charitable interventions, which continue to resonate with many Kenyans facing hardship.






Thursday, May 22, 2025 - Kenya risks losing its enhanced military partnership with the United States due to its growing diplomatic ties with China, according to US Senator Jim Risch.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman on Wednesday, May 21st, warned that Kenyas designation as a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) could be withdrawn if President Ruto continues warming up to Beijing.

Risch, a Republican, cited Kenyas increasing engagement with China, particularly referencing a recent meeting between Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Guyo Haiyan and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Chairperson Cecily Mbarire.

He described Kenyas alignment with China as troubling for the US.

Kenya plays a vital role in regional counter-insurgency and stability.

But as our newest Major Non-NATO Ally, Kenya's ties with China are troubling, Risch said in a statement.

The MNNA designation allows Kenya to access U.S. military technology, surplus equipment, and participate in joint training and counter-insurgency operations.

It also opens the door to U.S government-backed loan guarantees for defense acquisitions.

Kenya made history last year by becoming the first sub-Saharan African nation to receive the MNNA status, aligning it closely with NATOs 32 member states in terms of defense cooperation.

This is not the first time Senator Risch has criticized Kenyas ties with Beijing.

On May 13th, he warned that President William Rutos visit to China could signal a shift in Nairobis global alliances, beyond mere economic engagement.

Just last month, President Ruto declared that Kenya, a major non-NATO ally, and China are co-architects of a new world order.

Thats not just alignment to China; its allegiance, the statement read in part.

I submit for the record the text of that speech. Relying on leaders who embrace Beijing so openly is an error.

Its time to reassess our relationship with Kenya and others who forge tight bonds with China," the statement continued.

The Kenyan DAILY POST
CURRAGH Irish school Gaelscoil Chill Dara officially opened a newly developed autism class fitted with a new sensory room, Rang Zoe, following a year of dedicated work and extraordinary community support that raised over 13,500.

The school were delighted to invite Adam Harris, founder of AsIAm and a prominent autism advocate, who officiated the opening on Friday, May 16.

The class, named after its teacher Zoe in keeping with the schools tradition of naming classes after their muinteoir, opened in September 2024 and has already made a significant impact.

Weve been trying to develop this class for several years, said the schools principal, Niamh Ui Chadhla.

Last year we got the green light, and the class now has six wonderful children. We also have two SNAs supporting the children and a beautifully reconfigured classroom, thanks to the Department of Education. However, while the Department funded the refurbishment of the classroom, more funds were needed to fully equip the classroom to meet the needs of the students. This gap led the school to begin fundraising on March 18, 2025."

One of the major fundraisers was a unique virtual run called "From Dingle to Errigal," where staff, students, and the wider community collectively ran or walked over 509 kilometers  the distance between the two points.

Children ran daily at school, and one teacher physically began the route in Dingle, while another finished in Errigal during the Easter break.

The children in Rang Zoe actually came up with the idea, said the principal.

They said, Everyone loves to run or walk, lets do this. It became a community-wide event that involved schools and families across Kildare and beyond.

Thanks to donations, raffles, and the virtual run, the school raised nearly 13,500  a sum that has already covered a shortfall in funding for a new sensory room.

The funds are also helping to cover technology needs for the children.

While the government provided 6,000 for technology, 4,000 of that was used for an interactive whiteboard, leaving only 2,000 for devices.

The school hopes to buy tailored tablets for each child equipped with individualised programs such as speech-to-text tools, communication apps, or educational software.

The schools next goal is to enhance the outdoor area with covered spaces so the children can enjoy the outdoors year-round.

The current climbing frame is only suitable for older children. We'd like something safer and more fun for the junior infants and first class pupils, and maybe even a sheltered space so they can be outside even in poor weather.

The opening ceremony will be a low-key celebration, with a ribbon-cutting, cake, and a few performances by older children.

The school has already garnered media attention from TG4, KFM, and local press, and the story has resonated widely.

Weve had support from the Curragh, Newbridge, even Dingle and Gweedore. Weve learned so much  not just how to support autistic children better, but how to be more inclusive as a school.

Rang Zoe is a full immersion class, operating through the Irish language like the rest of the school. Despite common misconceptions, the school emphasises that autistic children can thrive in bilingual settings.

Research now shows that bilingualism can benefit neurodiverse learners. Its wonderful to see them learning Irish just like their peers, said Niamh.

The success of Rang Zoe has inspired the school to continue its fundraising tradition next year, potentially with another virtual run.

Reflecting on the past year, the principal added, Its been a huge learning experience. Weve grown more knowledgeable and more aware, and thats made us better at supporting all children. The more we learn, the more we realise how much more there is to learn.
A JUDGE unfavourably compared State law with that of Northern Ireland when he heard that a regular truant was only waiting until his next birthday when he turns 16 to quit school.

The law has to change, said Judge Desmond Zaidan.

People shouldnt be able to leave education or training until they are at least 18, he pointed out.

If you are thinking about dropping out of school, thats how it happens in Northern Ireland, he said.

British Army

He was speaking in the case that Tusla, the Child and Family Agency was bringing against a mother from Kildare who had not been enforcing her sons attendance since at least February 2024.

Despite there being two Agency representatives in court, neither revealed the extent of his absences, but that they were seeking an adjournment until later in the year to see if any improvement could be achieved.

Dropping out of school at 16, he might think hes streetwise, but hes not, said the judge.

Eighteen is the age of majority, and thats the way of it, he said.

Why is he dropping out of school? the judge asked.

Abusing Mother

The mother who was present in court, stood and told the judge that she has a brother in Yorkshire in the British Army who was willing to take him at 16, and begin the process of application for his signing up.

Mr Seamus Taaffe defending the mother told the court that the boy has special needs and is "abusive to his mother. Hes now six foot tall, and an aggressive man.

We used to have a family support worker for a few days a week, the mother shrugged.

If specialists dont help him deal with his aggression, hell end up in trouble, said the judge.

The judge closed the case by giving the mother the benefit of the Probation Act.
A woman who allegedly caused catastrophic, life-changing injuries to a motorcyclist is to face a circuit court trial.

Inna Perederii (44) of Rheban Manor, Athy appeared in Athy District Court facing a single charge of careless driving causing serious bodily harm.

The court heard how Ms Perederii had been driving on the Carlow Road at 6.30am on 15 February 2024 and in an attempt to turn right collided with a motorcycle.

Sergeant Dave Hanrahan listed some of the injuries, which included breaking two spinal vertebrae, a leg, a collarbone bone and some internal injuries.

Catastrophic, life-changing injuries, noted Judge Desmond Zaidan. Its a very serious allegation, he was almost paralysed.

Causing serious bodily harm  these are the words of the DPP, so you can see why I refused jurisdiction."

He made that decision at Ms Perederiis last appearance in January, when he was quite surprised the DPP had ruled the offence as minor, seeking summary trial in the lower district court.

How can the DPP call this a minor offence? he had asked rhetorically then.

She pulled across oncoming traffic and its for summary disposal? Shocking! This is what I call an insult to the injured party, the judge added.

This week, he turned to Sergeant Dave Hanrahan and asked him: When can you have the book of evidence?, and was told 22 July.

Having certified for a Russian translator for the defendant in January, the judge then turned to the translator, saying: I will extend your linguistic skills to communicate with this man, indicating Ms Perederiis assigned solicitor Seamus Taaffe for subsequent attorney-client consultations.
Hi-Tec Medicare Ltd based in Clogh, Castlecomer will represent Kilkenny tomorrow (Thursday) at the National Enterprise Awards 2025.

The National Enterprise Awards celebrate the achievements of Irelands micro-enterprise sector and recognise the achievements of companies supported by the LEOs. The final will take place in the Mansion House, Dublin.

Founded in 2016 by the company directors John and Catherine Doyle, Hi-Tec Medicare manufacture bespoke Orthopaedic Chairs and is highly regarded in the healthcare sector. Hi-Tec Medicare fully controls the end-to-end process from design through to manufacturing and delivery. The family-run business has become well established and today has a workforce of 12, including fulltime and part-time staff.

Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council Michael McCarthy made a presentation to the Directors of Hi-Tec Medicare and said: We would like to congratulate John, Catherine and the team on their achievements to date and wish them all the best in the next stages of the competition. These awards recognise the achievements of small businesses and recognise their importance in our local communities. We celebrate their hard work, their innovation and creativity and their contribution to the local economy.

READ NEXT: HI TEC MEDICARE WINS CHAMBER BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD

Commenting on the importance of supporting small businesses in improving productivity and sustainability Aileen McGrath, Head of Enterprise with the Local Enterprise Office said the need to improve productivity and sustainability can help increase competitiveness and are important considerations for most small businesses.

Hi-Tec Medicare Ltd are an excellent example of a local business who availed of LEO supports such as LEAN and GREEN for Business to help improve manufacturing processes and reduce waste," she said.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE KILKENNY BUSINESS NEWS

Finalists compete for a prize fund of 50,000 and along with an overall National Enterprise of the Year winner there are categories for Best Start-Up, Best Export Business, an Innovation Award, a One-to-Watch Award, and a Sustainability Award. There is also an Outstanding Achievement award for a business that started with their Local Enterprise Office and has gone on to achieve international growth with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland.

The National Enterprise Awards are one of a number of initiatives that the Local Enterprise Offices run to foster entrepreneurship across the country. The Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities are funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland. They work with thousands of client companies across Ireland in a diverse range of sectors offering mentoring, training, expert advice, and financial supports to small businesses. For more information see www.LocalEnterprise.ie
A man who sent text messages warning his then-boss he would be begging for mercy and was a coward has been convicted of sending messages of a grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.

Kilkenny District Court heard that the conflict arose over a disagreement about working hours.

Youcef Chergui, Kilkenny Inn, Vicar Street, pleaded guilty to three counts contrary to Section 13 of the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951.

One of the messages was sent in July 2024 and the other two in October 2024.

Sergeant Morgan OConnor told the court that the defendant and another man had been working together at a Kilkenny City hotel when a conflict arose because Mr Cherguis working hours were changed.

On July 9 Mr Chergui sent a message after the two men had met in passing, in town. It included the warning if we meet each other in a different time, when I am without kids, you would be begging for mercy.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE CRIME UPDATES AND COURT REPORTS

A message sent in October included a reference to the other man being Polish and how Germany had occupied the country in just a few days because you are cowards.

Another text from Mr Chergui invited the other man to fight: Im outside. Lets go. He also called him a w****.

Some of the texts included bad language.

Solicitor Alex Rafter said the men had been working together in a hotel kitchen. They had cultural differences, he said.

When the injured party in this case became head chef he reduced Mr Cerhguis hours, the solicitor said.

The first text was sent after the men had met on the street and there was a brushing of shoulders. His client did not deal with it well, Mr Rafter accepted.

Mr Chergui had been working full time as a kitchen porter until the new head chef arrived. Mr Chergui has since left that line of work and is employed in the construction industry.

Mr Rafter described it as a bizarre case where two people didnt hit it off and their relationship got worse and worse.

Mr Chergui, the solicitor said, is Algerian and has been living and working in Ireland for two years. He is deeply apologetic and pleaded guilty immediately in court.

Judge Geraldine Carthy convicted Mr Chergui on one count of sending a message by telephone which is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. A fine of 250 was imposed.

The other two charges were taken into consideration.
A man who had a knife and was threatening people outside a Kilkenny City bar has been handed down a suspended prison sentence, at the local district court.

Vincent Hennessy, Good Shepherd Hostel, Church Lane, Kilkenny, was convicted of being in possession of a knife and public order offences were taken into consideration.

Evidence was heard that on the night of December 2, 2024, gardai on patrol in the city got a call from security staff at Paris Texas to say there was a man outside the premises with a knife, threatening members of the public. He was intoxicated.

The gardai went to the premises where they spoke to a staff member who gave a description of the man.

Gardai carried on to Parliament Street, then down on to Bateman Quay and on to John Street, where they located Mr Hennessy.

When asked about the knife, Mr Hennessy denied he had one.

He was arrested under the Public Order Act and when searched he was found to have a small, spring-loaded, brass knife with a sharp edge.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE CRIME UPDATES AND COURT REPORTS

Gardai returned to Paris Texas to view CCTV. It showed Mr Hennessy outside the premises with the sharp bit of the knife blade exposed.

The garda agreed with the defendants solicitor Chris Hogan that when Mr Hennessy sobered up he was easy to deal with.

Inspector Alma Molloy told the court Mr Hennessy had a number of previous convictions.

Mr Hogan said his client suffered from addiction for a long time, with consequences for his health and leaving him homeless.

In the last year Mr Hennessy has attended residential treatment, but it was accepted that was before this incident occurred.

Since getting out of treatment his client is doing everything he can to better himself. He is attending a number of courses and Ardu aftercare services.

Letters were handed in to court to this effect, including one stating Mr Hennessy is substance free and not using diamorphine.

Mr Hogan said his client did not have an excuse for the offence. It was an unfortunate relapse on the night.

Mr Hennessy remembers waking up in the garda station but not being outside Paris Texas, he is even unsure why he had the knife in his possession, Mr Hogan told the court.

His client is making progress and this is a blip in that, the solicitor added.

Judge Geraldine Carthy noted Mr Hennessy had significant previous convictions and was a recidivist offender.

She said she had no doubt the incident was traumatising for any member of the public present on the night.

The judge said she took into account the guilty plea and mitigation, adding everybody in the court wished Mr Hennessy well in his recovery.



A prison sentence of nine months was handed down, to be suspended for 18 months on condition that Mr Hennessy engage with the Probation Service and attend all appointments recommended by them.

A destruction order was issued for the knife and a charge of being intoxicated in public was taken into consideration.
Working together for strong AI research (detailed caption at end of text; photo: MWK)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has joined forces with the universities of Stuttgart and Tubingen to set up a future-oriented state graduate center (LGZ) for applied artificial intelligence in Heilbronn. The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 8, 2025 marked the start of this unique project in Germany. The LGZ is designed to boost the training of skilled workers in pioneering AI-related fields such as chip design, robotics, and cybersecurity.

This special institutions goal is to support doctoral students who conduct research at the interface between computer science, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering. The LGZ will be set up as an external location of KIT in Heilbronn and will be run jointly with the universities of Stuttgart and Tubingen.

Goals and Vision

The LGZ aims to attract international talent for the specified pioneering fields, provide outstanding training, and facilitate their transition from science to industry and start-ups. With the LGZ, we are setting up an innovative real-world higher education policy lab for the top talent of tomorrow, said Minister for Science, Research, and the Arts Petra Olschowski on May 16 in Stuttgart. We are creating an experimental space with more flexible conditions to test and establish new formats for training top doctoral candidates in pioneering AI-related fields, for recruitment and for cooperation between science, industry, and start-ups. This is a great opportunity for the country.

To fully exploit the potential of artificial intelligence, we need talented young people from all over the world who bring in new perspectives and drive ideas forward, says Professor Oliver Kraft, Vice President Research at KIT. If we want to stay at the forefront of science and business on an international level, we need to offer excellent learning and working conditions to the brightest minds. Our educational mission is a key part of our contract with society: Research builds knowledge  our graduates create impact. Thats what the LGZ stands for.

Financing and Milestones

A founding directorate is to be appointed later this year. The center is due to be completed in 2029 and will then receive up to 30 million euros in funding from the state each year. Initially, 1.4 million euros have been earmarked for 2025 and eleven million euros for 2026. In addition to ten professors, more than 60 doctoral candidates and around 20 post-doctoral researchers will conduct research at the graduate center.

Caption:

Working together for strong AI research (from left): Professor Peter Middendorf, Rector of the University of Stuttgart, Professor Karla Pollmann, Rector of the University of Tubingen, Petra Olschowski, Minister for Science, Research, and the Arts, and Professor Jan S. Hesthaven, President of KIT, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Tuesday, May 8, on the foundation of a state graduate center for applied artificialintelligence (LGZ). (Photo: MWK)

More Information

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.
The media bias here is a joke.



If 'the man' was supporting the centre right, his name would be plastered over every media channel. Like the Tamaki protest DJ, he'd be Maike's lead story on @1News.



But because he's a leftie, he's just'the man'.https://t.co/Jw3JKKvApE  0pinionistNZ (@OpinionistNZ) May 22, 2025

There is definitely a double standard here. We even have an excellent example to highlight it.

In 2021 an Auckland Transport manager posted a message to a Facebook group cautioning against a bill that was being considered by Parliament. It turned into an employment issue due to complaints from activists, and the media named and shamed him. It was Stephen Rainbow, incidentally.

In this case we have someone wearing their work lanyard yelling abuse at the Deputy Prime Minister during a live media event, and insulting him in front of TV cameras. In this case the media dont name him.
Shenandoah, IA (51601)

Today

Showers and thunderstorms. Gusty winds and small hail are possible. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Cloudy early with some clearing expected late. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 67F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.
LAKE OZARK  Developers are making strides to improve the Lake of the Ozark area before Memorial Day weekend.

Reese Development previously told KOMU 8 about its infrastructure work for the city of Lake Ozark.

Nick Reese, president of Reese Development, said the property management company has completed sidewalk, curbing and water infrastructure on the 1100 block of the Bagnell Dam Strip.

"We've been working really hard down here at the lake," Reese said. "We haven't begun landscaping yet but we have begun the facade work on all those buildings there."

Reese is working with Lake of the Ozarks Marine Dealers Association to host XInsurance Offshore. The event features high-speed boat races off the shore of the Lake of the Ozarks.

"It's going to be super helpful for those offshore races," Reese said.

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Updates are coming to the Lake of the Ozarks tourist scene Vacationing in the Lake of the Ozarks could look much different next year with new additions to the tourist scene.

This week, Horizon Developments announced an update for redevelopment of the Osage Beach Outlet Markertplace.

According to a news release, Horizon Development is partnering with JDM Real Estate Solutions to co-develop the shopping center.

"Throughout its life, this mall has been an important part of the community, and it can be again," JDM Real Estate Solutions President Jeff McMahon said. "I look forward to working with the city and our team to give it some creative and thoughtful planning solutions to bring it into this new era of retail."

The companies hope to break ground in 2025 and re-open sometime in 2027.
COLUMBIA  United Airlines will return to the Columbia Regional Airport with flights to Denver and Chicago.

The airline will have one daily flight to Denver and two daily flights to Chicago O'Hare, Columbia Mayor Barbara Buffaloe announced in a news conference Thursday afternoon.

The flights will begin Sept. 25, Buffaloe said.

All flights will offer first class. The Chicago flights will be flown on a CRJ-550 aircraft with 10 United First seats and 20 Economy Plus seats with nose-to-tail in-seat power, Wi-Fi and increased onboard bag storage, according to a news release from the city.

The new routes will provide access to more than 200 domestic destinations and 60 international destinations, Buffaloe said.

COU received a grant in November to add a new United Airlines flight to Denver.

The $1 million grant comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Small Community Air Service Development Program, which is designed to help small communities address air service and airfare issues.

The Denver route has been closed since May 3, 2020, after United Airlines suspended the Denver flight due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COU currently offers nonstop flights to Chicago and Dallas through American Airlines.

Local impact of new routes

Columbia Regional Airport Manager Mike Parks believes adding a stop in Denver is good for the Columbia economy.

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2:05 COU passengers looking forward to new Denver and Chicago flights Columbia Regional Airport is adding two United Airlines destinations later this year.

"Denver is a big market for us," Parks said. "There's a lot of business there for Columbia to capitalize on that can help us grow."

City documents show the airport had over $3 million more in operating expenses than revenue, but Buffaloe believes adding more stops will help cut deficits.

"As long as we have more destinations and more options, that will help our deficit go down," Buffaloe said.

UM System President and MU Chancellor Mun Choi said that resuming the Denver route is great for the university.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to attract new students and increase enrollment," Choi said.

The city said in a news release that a Passenger Demand Analysis in 2024 showed Denver as a top destination requested at COU. A city Community Summit in March also identified the airport as the top destination attendees wanted.

In 2020, the airport received another large grant to expand daily flights. While more than $1 million in federal grants and local contributions were dedicated that year to securing daily flights to Charlotte, North Carolina, these flights have still not begun.

Buffaloe said that the city is always looking for additional destinations to keep expanding.

Choi said MU would welcome additional expansion with open arms.

"We would love to see Charlotte, Atlanta and maybe even more flights to Denver in the future," Choi said.
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Valero gas station in Bossier City where two men were killed and two others were injured on May 2, 2023.
It's been four years in the making, but the collective compassion of a town, combined with the determination of a homeless woman suffering from addiction, has grown into an extraordinary book that will see a second print run delivered this week.

Antoinette with the book

The Hawk against the Dove  addiction in small town Ireland is the remarkable story of Antoinette Foley and James Mahon. Antoinette, originally from Castlecomer, had been homeless and begging on the streets of Athy, and he was a store owner and former councillor, who between them helped turn a despair into a stunning triumph.

Antoinette and James

It all goes back to 2021 when Antoinette was in her late 20s, and her then partner Johnny were here in Athy, living in a tent under the trees in the car park opposite the Catholic Church, just the two of them, explained James, who is an amateur photographer.

The Hawk Against the Dove

I met up with a Travelling boy; he was on heroin, and we went homeless, Antoinette explained matter-of-factly.

Shed spend a Tuesday sitting outside Aldi with a paper cup after she lost her dole, and Id see her fairly regularly because I have my shop (JM Computers) nearby, continued James.

She was there for a couple of months, so I made my enquiries off (county councillor) Aoife Breslin and a couple of the guards about her background.

One of them said there was something in her, worthwhile, one of the better ones . so, I thought shed make a nice project because we (Athy Photography Society) had an exhibition coming up.

So, we engaged, and she agreed, and so she began coming up to see me in the shop, sometimes to use the toilet, sometimes to change the coins into notes.

Antoinette and Carmel Whelan

We (Carmel Whelan and James) found out she was a settled Traveller brought up in Castlecomer, so we got her back involved with social welfare, and helped her get her dole back.

Carmel helped a lot and would regularly sit with Antoinette outside Aldi.

But back in 2023 when there were the protests at the Abbey Hotel over the IPAS process, her tent became a sort of focal point for the protest, like, look at where Irish people have to live, so we helped get her moved into the Peter McVerry Trust in Newbridge, but she found it very hard.

We found out her father (Tom Foley) was still alive in Castlecomer, so we contacted him, and when she moved back, she got a lot of stability, lots of improvement, said James.

Of this time, Antoinette said: I looked after me father for the guts of 19 months while I was doing my recovery, and Id do it all over again. Hes me king and Im his little girl.

Antoinette's poem to her late mother

Antoinette also began engaging with addiction services.

She started methadone and reducing her heroin intake, and in December 2023 stopped taking heroin and crack cocaine, and began getting back on track.

It was a long journey, hard, suffering, but I wouldnt change a thing, because I wouldnt be the woman I am now, she said proudly.

She explained her motivation in her recovery. My faith in Jesus got me through it, and I did it to make my mother and father proud. I did it for the sake of my mother (Helen, known as Nellie) in heaven, and to show what can be done through faith.

Then, in 2024 she got involved with the Housing First initiative administered by Kildare County Council, but run by the Peter McVerry Trust, and they got her a little one-bed house in Newbridge, and shes been there since.

Im doing very, very well, she said simply.

James said: Its only the cigarettes now, and thats a big turnaround in only four years.

As Antoinettes progress developed, I kept a photographic documentary of it, and she was excited to be part of the project that had a start and a middle, but the end we didnt know, until she got housed, and then we had the story.

So, we produced the book in April  a 132-page hardback with 65 pictures and accounts which sold for 30.

Antoinette was well-known around Athy, people sympathised and wouldve looked out for her, so when we brought out the book it sold out  thats over a hundred copies!

Although fear not, a second print run is scheduled to arrive in Mahons mid-next week.

On its success, we applied to Kildare County Council for a grant and got 1,400 towards an exhibition.

Its going to be in the Arthouse on Leinster Street, where Anthony Haughey is the Artist-in-Residence (TUD media lecturer).

Were hoping for July or August, its to be announced yet, but you can expect 25 photos in the exhibition from the 100s taken around the town of Antoinette.

The exhibition will follow the story as it unfolded, but very, very few of the photos are staged, because the life Antoinette was living was chaos, and she had little time for photoshoots, said James.

And Antoinette now?

My family looked down on me because I was homeless, on the streets, and on the drugs, but James was like a father to me, she said.

But my mother and father were the best in the world  never did drugs, never fought, I was their baby girl, she said.

And the future? Its looking positive.

I have a friend (in Athy) whos doing very well and when I got to visit, Id see him (the ex) begging outside Lidl or Aldi, and I just walk by him, she said.

Ill forgive him, theres no hatred in me, but I want nothing to do with him.

I know my worth, my value, and he wont drag me down, said Antoinette.
IMPROVEMENTS are on the way for Lyster Square in Portlaoise, as part of a 12m fund for the town.

The news follows complaints from councillors about traffic chaos in the busy square, with one commenting that even trying to park is dangerous and making elderly drivers nervous.

A series of problems in Lyster Square was raised at the May meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District, particularly regarding parking spaces that are too narrow and a shortage of loading bays.

Cllr Catherine Fitzgerald said the council did a good job with previous work in the square but a lot more needed to be done.

Describing the existing parking spaces as very tight, she said: For elderly people and people with disabilities, it is quite dangerous. A lot of elderly people have said to me that they are quite nervous parking in Lyster Square. It is quite nerve-wracking for some of them.

She added that current parking bays need to be a little wider, as she asked the council to take a look at how spaces are accessed and exited.

Cllr Barry Walsh said he was contacted by a number of businesses in the area, who told him that insufficient loading bays are causing traffic chaos. He asked the council to consider extending the loading bay on the James Fintan Lalor Avenue side of the square by 10 metres, perhaps by removing a section of the hedge.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan also requested a new loading bay on the eastern side of the square, from the Bank of Ireland to Egans, as he pointed out that there are 28 shops and businesses with no loading bay on that side of the square.

He said: A loading bay there is definitely a necessity, as it is an extremely busy part of the town and businesses are finding it difficult to get their deliveries.

Cllr Mulligan suggested that a loading bay could perhaps be installed in the area behind the former library. Cllr Walsh agreed that a loading bay was needed on that side of Lyster Square but stressed that no existing parking spaces should be sacrificed for a new loading bay.

In a written reply, acting senior engineer Ken Morley said the provision of additional loading bay space would be examined, as part of the overall upgrade to Lyster Square and Portlaoise town centre, under the forthcoming Urban Regeneration Project (URDF).

Director of Services Simon Walton said that 12m funding is in place for significant enhancements to the town centre, including Main Street and Lyster Square, to complement work already undertaken. The total is made up of 9m in URDF funding and 3m from Laois County Council.

Mr Walton said the council is at the point of commencing that project with the appointment of a senior engineer and a design team, in advance of phased interventions on Main Street and Lyster Square.

He said: Other areas off Lyster Square are in dire need of upgrade, so that the needs of motorists and non-motorists are addressed. It will be done in close consultation with councillors and the Portlaoise Town Team.

Regarding the size of current parking spaces in the square, Mr Walton said there was a counter argument that an increase in size would lead to a decrease in the overall number of badly needed spaces. However, he said the council would take a look at the issue.

Cllr Walsh also asked for clear signage to highlight the availability of 45 minute free parking in all relevant areas.

Brenda Earl from the councils roads department said there are signs on both sides of every parking meter in the town centre, indicating the 45-minute free parking. She said the department would examine parking signs in the town centre, with a view to further advertising the 45-minute free parking, where required.

However, Cllr Walsh insisted that more signs are needed, as the business community feels that signs are not visible enough and that more needs to be done to highlight the free parking.
A STUDENT who had a row with his friend and was abandoned without his phone or his wallet subsequently lied to gardai, so that he could get a lift home from Co Cork to Carlow.

Kelvin Ibidokum, 88 Cois Dara, Tullow Road, Carlow was before Carlow District Court last week, for making false statements at Fermoy Garda Station on 15 May 2024 and again two days later at his home address, when he lied to gardai for a second time.

Sergeant Hud Kelly informed the court that 22-year-old Mr Ibidokum told the gardai that he worked in Dublin Airport and was getting a taxi home to Carlow when he fell asleep and ended up in Co Cork. Sergeant Kelly said it transpired that Mr Ibidokum was lying to the gardai because he needed a lift back to Carlow, having been left in Fermoy by his friend.

Solicitor Alex Rafter outlined the story to Judge Geraldine Carthy, telling her that his client and his friend were delivering a hot tub down to Co Cork when they had a falling out, resulting in the friend punching Mr Ibidokum and telling him to get out of the car.

Mr Rafter continued that his client, an engineering student, had no money on him, nor did he have a phone, so he went to the nearest premises and rang Fermoy Garda Station, telling them that he fell asleep in a taxi far from home and didnt have the money to get back.

Mr Rafter said that Mr Ibidokum lied to the gardai because he didnt want to get his friend in trouble and that when the gardai questioned him about it at his home two days later, he doubled down on his lies.

Mr Rafter said that his client had been naive and stupid but that he was a very pleasant man to deal with. He said he realised how serious it was to waste garda time and resources but asked Judge Carthy to spare his client a conviction.

Judge Carthy refused his submission but adjourned the matter until this weeks court sitting, so that she could consider what sentence she would impose.
AS part of the 2025 National Famine Commemoration, a one-day history seminar will be held in Mountmellick Museum, this Saturday.

The event is free to attend and will take place on Saturday next 24 May from 10am to 4pm.

A week-long programme of events is underway across the country to mark this years National Famine Commemoration, which looks back on the catastrophic events of the Famine and how it affected every part of Ireland in the generations that followed.

The event in Mountmellick Museum will focus on the more than 400 Famine orphan girls who were taken from Irish workhouses and shipped to Australia as part of the Earl Grey Scheme between 1848 and 1850.

The seminar is hosted by Mountmellick Development Association with support from Laois Heritage Office and the National Federation of Local History Societies.

Speakers will include Dr Patrick Fitzgerald from the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies. Paddys PhD research was on poverty and vagrancy in Early-Modern Ireland (1550-1770). He will talk about the orphan girls who originated in Ulster.

Irish novelist and short story writer Evelyn Conlons 2013 novel ***Not the Same Sky*** tells the story of four orphan girls. It observes them on their voyage and follows them from Sydney as they become women of Australia.

Kay Caball, Kerry-based genealogist and author of ***The Kerry Girls: Emigration and the Earl Grey Scheme***, will also discuss her work Cathy Fleming from Celbridge Historical Society was part of a project to produce a short film on Celbridge orphan girl Bridget Dwyer. The film will be screened as part of the event.

Former governor of Arbour Hill Prison Liam Dowling will speak on the prison project to produce replica Famine Boxes to commemorate the Earl Grey Scheme orphan girls.

Famine boxes were wooden boxes given to each girl containing six shifts, a shawl, two pairs of shoes, two gowns, two wraps, two petticoats, one cloak, two neck scarves, two pocket handkerchiefs, two linen collars, two aprons, one pair of stays, one pair of mitts, one pair of sheets, I bonnet, day and night caps, two towels, two bars of soap, combs, brushes, needles and thread, a few yards of cotton or calico material, a bible, prayer book and rosary beads.

Between 1848 and 1850, over 4,000 orphan girls aged between 14 and 18 years were shipped to Australia from workhouses throughout Ireland as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. Thirty-seven girls from the Mountmellick Workhouse and 28 girls from the Abbeyleix Workhouse are listed as travelling under this scheme.

This seminar brings together academics, researchers and writers to discuss the Earl Grey Scheme and its impact on Ireland, Australia and especially on the lives of the orphan girls and their descendants. It will look at a selection of local projects designed to commemorate the lives of the orphan girls including the Famine Box Project of Arbour Hill prisoners and a short film on the Story of Bridget Dwyer, an orphan girl from Celbridge Workhouse.

Places are free, but booking is essential. To book your place, email annemcneill@yahoo.com
See more photos from the event in the next edition of the Laois Nationalist, in shops and online on Tuesday 27 May

A NEW memorial was unveiled at a poignant ceremony in Laois, in honour of famine victims buried in a mass grave near a former workhouse.

The beautiful memorial headstone and limestone seat were installed in time for the prayer service on Sunday 18 May in the grounds of Abbeyleix Community Nursing Unit (CNU), formerly the district hospital where the workhouse was located.

Parish priest Fr Paddy Byrne and Canon Patrick Harvey officiated at the evening service in memory of famine victims and other destitute children and adults, who died in the Abbeyleix workhouse and were subsequently interred in a burial plot at the rear of the CNU.

The sad yet uplifting event coincided with Irish Famine Commemoration Day, which is held annually nationwide on the third Sunday in May.

The Tonduff Cillin Committee, which organised the Abbeyleix project, received permission from the HSE to create a memorial site beneath a beautiful native oak tree, which is protected by a lifelong preservation order.

The peaceful memorial includes a paved area with a limestone reflection seat, together with a headstone for a six-year-old boy who was interred in the burial plot almost 140 years ago.

The memorial stone is inscribed in both Irish and English with the words: Erected in memory of all those who are buried here in this Abbeyleix Workhouse burial ground, between 1842 and 1962, in recognition that the people who are interred here are all part of Gods family.

At the prayer service, Portlaoise writer and poet Denise Curtin recited one of the evocative poems she wrote about the resting place.

The Abbeyleix and Ballyroan choir performed at the service while Michael Creagh, who recently retired from his role at Donaghmore Workhouse, shared his extensive knowledge and insights on the devastating famine period.

The Tonduff Cillin Committee thanked the HSE management team, which not only provided the location but also organised a construction team to lay beautiful patio slabs with brick surround, while ensuring that the site is wheelchair accessible.

Noel said: The person in charge of Abbeyleix CNU, Deirdre Phelan, was also very helpful to us throughout this period of organising, planning and agreeing the final site location, as well as collectively with management settling on the final wording that appears on the memorial stone. Local man Michael Martin translated the English text into Irish, for which we were grateful.

The committee also liaised with Laois Heritage Officer Thomas Carolan and an archaeologist, who supervised the digging of a foundation for the memorial stone and seat.

The memorial followed a generous response to a fundraiser set up by the committee on 15 March, with a target of 500. Nearly 650 was donated within days. Originally, the committee planned to use the excess to plant wildflower seeds and maintain the burial ground into the future.

However, Bosco Whelan of Jet Stone Ltd in Ballyroan kindly refused to accept payment for producing the memorial stone and seat, as he told the committee that it was an honour to be able to help with the project.

Noel said: As a result of Boscos generosity, we can now donate the money to the Friends of Abbeyleix Hospital, who will look after the site long into the future.

The memorial headstone bears the name of John Fitzgerald (6), who died from hunger at the workhouse in May 1886 and who will now symbolise and honour all those buried at the site, most of whose names are unknown. The site continued to be used as an unofficial burial ground for decades afterwards.

Johns body was disposed of in the graveyard pit or shank yard at the rear of the present day Abbeyleix CNU, where up to 2,000 babies, children and adults are believed to be have been buried between 1842 and 1962.

Noel said: Unfortunately, 183 years passed without any official recognition of the site ever having been used as a burial ground for the poor and destitute people who died in the Abbeyleix workhouse. Thankfully, that has all changed this year.
By Grainne Ni Aodha, PA

The Tanaiste has accused the Israeli government of genocidal activity in Gaza.

Simon Harris said it was clear that Israel wants to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of what he said was a consistent pattern of war crimes.

He said the world had not done enough to put pressure on Israel to change course, and said he would look to draft a Bill that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

Asked on Newstalk radio whether what was happening in Gaza was ethnic cleansing, Mr Harris said: In light of the very clear comments that weve seen from the Israeli government in recent days, were very much now in the space of genocidal activity.

I think that is just a statement of fact, we have seen a consistent pattern of war crimes, and we now have an Israeli government that is being very blunt in terms of outlining what it is intending to carry out in Gaza and theyve dropped the pretence, quite frankly, in terms of what they actually want to achieve.

The foreign affairs minister also said that the Israeli governments convoluted scheme to pretend to provide the most basic level of aid to thousands of starving Palestinians was despicable.

This idea that the Israeli government will come up with some sort of a convoluted scheme to effectively pretend to be providing the most basic level of aid is despicable.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear about this in recent days, when he has effectively said, to paraphrase him, the only reason were doing this is to allow us to continue what he describes as their political objectives, and their political objectives now are very clear.

They want to clear the Gazan Strip, they want to clear Gaza of Palestinian people, and that is a war crime and the forcible displacement of people, as you say, with the offer of food somewhere else, it really is despicable.

He said that a two-state solution seemed further away than ever before and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended as it is being reviewed.

Mr Harris also condemned shots fired near an EU delegation in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Two Irish officials were among those present when what the Israeli military called warning shots were fired near delegates.

Tanaiste Simon Harris (Brian Lawless/PA)

This is an utterly, utterly inappropriate and indeed illegal action, Mr Harris said.

A number of diplomats, including the Irish head of mission to Palestine and his deputy, were visiting Jenin, a region in the West Bank.

They were visiting, effectively, an area thats a refugee camp. They were standing at the gates of that refugee camp, and the governor of Jenin, a member of the Palestinian Authority, was speaking and giving them an update.

When his speech ended and the diplomats began to disperse, my understanding from speaking to our people on the ground is that a number of members of the Israeli Defence Forces stepped forward and fired warning shots over their heads, or what is described as warning shots  whether they were warning shots or otherwise, they were shots  and firing shots at diplomats is an absolute, clear breach of international law.

Asked about the Israeli authorities explanation that shots were fired because diplomats had deviated from the agreed route, Mr Harris said: Do they think were thick?

They knew that diplomats were visiting the region, and the diplomats notified the Israeli Defence Forces in advance.

I dont accept in any manner or means the Israeli Defence Forces explanation in relation to this.

I find it utterly offensive, in fact. There needs to be  as weve said at an EU level  a full investigation in relation to this, and those who fired the shots, or those who gave the commands to fire the shots, need to be held accountable.

Mr Harris also condemned the shooting of two Israeli embassy officials at an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC as a vile antisemitic murder.

Law enforcement at the scene after two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington (Rod Lamkey Jr/AP)

He said a young woman from the Irish embassy was also at the event at the museum.

This is a vile antisemitic murder of two young members of the Israeli embassy  a young couple, I believe, who were due to very shortly be engaged, Mr Harris said.

It is a despicable act. Its a heinous crime. It is antisemitic and its vile.
On 21 May Colombias Vice Presidentdenounced racism and patriarchy in the government, in the latest escalation of tensions between her and President

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On 21 May teachers affiliated with Mexicos Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educacion (CNTE) teachers union protested outside the presidential palace in Mexico City (CDMX), blocking access to the building.

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On 21 May Saul Mendez, the leader of Panamas powerful construction workers union, Sindicato Unico Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Construccion y Similares (Suntracs), requested political asylum from Bolivia, after scaling the embassy wall in Panama City.

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An investigation led to a search Wednesday afternoon at an Allentown apartment where police say they found cocaine, fentanyl and various prescription drugs.

A 38-year-old man was arrested.

Members of Allentown Police Departments Vice and Intelligence Unit raided the residence in the 500 block of North Morris Street around 1:30 p.m. They found Donnie Figueroa inside and took him into custody, Allentown Police Criminal Investigations Division Captain Stephen J. Milkovits, III said.
A man was taken into custody Wednesday evening following a 10-hour standoff with Nazareth police.

Borough Police Chief Randall Miller told lehighvalleylive.com investigators at 1 p.m. were dispatched to a home in the 300 block of South New Street for a reported welfare check. Relatives reported the man was threatening to harm himself and others with a rifle, the chief said.

Borough police, along with members of the Pennsylvania State Police Special Emergency Response Team, negotiated with the man for hours. He was the only one at home at the time of the incident and refused to surrender to law enforcement, Miller said.

The man was threatening violence and armed with the rifle during the incident, the chief said.

Police enacted a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding neighborhood as the standoff continued.

Northampton County Crisis helped to issue an involuntary commitment, which granted investigators a search warrant for the home. Seized were numerous firearms that took three officers to carry out, Miller said.

The man eventually surrendered around 11 p.m. Wednesday and was taken to an area hospital for an evaluation, Miller said.

There were no reported injuries in the incident. The chief said no charges have been filed.

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Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com.
A billboard is seen in Scottsdale, Ariz., Saturday, June 10, 2023, near the health care facility of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which has been affected by a gigantic Medicaid fraud scheme involving sober living homes that promised help to Native Americans seeking to kick alcohol and other additions. (AP Photo/Anita Snow, File) AP

PHOENIX (AP)  Twenty people, a mental health business and a church were charged in an indictment that alleged Arizonas Medicaid program was defrauded $60 million in a scheme involving billing for mental health treatment and addiction rehabilitation, the latest indictment in a series of crackdowns in the state focusing on sober living homes.

The indictment announced Tuesday alleged Happy House Behavioral Health LLC was paid the money for services that were either never provided or only partially completed and that there was billing for clients who were deceased and incarcerated.

Authorities say sober living homes referred clients to the behavioral health business, which received money from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and then paid the homes for the clients in violation of state law.

Money laundering charges alleged Happy House Behavioral Health paid $5 million in July 2023 to a Hope of Life International Church, which later wired $2 million to an entity in Rwanda.

The charges against Happy House Behavioral Health include conspiracy, fraud, forgery, theft and money laundering.

The Associated Press left an email with a lawyer representing Happy House Behavioral Health.

In a statement, Hope of Life International Church said it was unjustly charged with money laundering for accepting a donation from a licensed sober living facility that was a tenant of the church and was later accused of defrauding the states Medicaid program. The church said it didnt have access to the sober living facilitys internal operations, financial practices or management decisions.

The churchs only relationship was that of a landlord and, later, as a recipient of a donation  a donation accepted in good faith, consistent with its mission and longstanding practice, the statement said.

In all, more than 100 people and several companies have been charged in cases brought by Attorney General Kris Mayes office in the states crackdown on Medicaid fraud and unlicensed sober living homes, many of which targeted tribal community members. The state had suspended payments to more than 100 providers as part of the crackdown.

The scam had left an unknown number of Native Americans homeless on the streets of metro Phoenix as fraudulent sober living homes lost their funding and turned former residents out onto the streets.

Navajos account for most Native Americans grappling with addictions who have been affected by the scam. Navajo officials say that in some cases, people who ended up in the homes were picked up in unmarked vans and driven to the Phoenix area from faraway places on the sprawling Navajo Nation that stretches across northern Arizona, and parts of New Mexico and Utah.
The owner of a Bethlehem Township flight school pleaded guilty to charges in connection to a scheme to allow a pilot who was deemed a safety risk to keep teaching, according to court records.

A federal indictment says the instructor allowed a student to die in a plane crash.

Flight school owner Nouman Saleem, of Palmer Township, knew Philip Everton McPherson II had failed his certification re-examination but let McPherson fly anyway, according to a federal indictment.

Saleem was the owner of Proflight Aero flight school on Birkland Place in Bethlehem Township, records say.

McPherson II was conducting a flight lesson in September 2022, when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff at Queen City Airport in Allentown, killing 49-year-old Keith Kozel of Easton, according to a federal indictment.

Defense attorney John Waldron said Saleem has been cooperating with prosecutors.

It is a sad occurrence, and my client is trying to help the best he can, Waldron said Thursday.

McPherson failed his pilot certification examination twice, finally passing the third time in December 2019, court records say.

In November 2020 and March 2021, he allegedly veered off the runway and damaged planes during landings at Central Jersey Regional Airport. A safety hotline complaint was filed against him with the Air Safety Institute, which compelled McPherson to take a re-certification test, records say. The examiner had to take control of the plane to prevent it from crashing Sept. 29, 2021, records say.

McPherson surrendered his certificate and never bothered to re-test, records say.

But Saleem let him keep providing flight lessons, records say. Saleem pleaded guilty Wednesday to obstruction of an administrative proceeding, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and criminal conspiracy. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.

McPherson, of Haddon Township, is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, obstruction of an administrative proceeding, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, criminal conspiracy and 41 counts of serving as an airman without a certificate.

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A 36-year-old man died when several tree logs struck his head in Weisenberg Township, authorities said.

The Lehigh County Coroners Office is identifying the deceased as Stephen M. Gill of West Penn Township, Schuylkill County.

Gill was pronounced dead just before 9:50 a.m. Wednesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township. The cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries and the manner was ruled accidental by Lehigh County Coroner Daniel A. Buglio.
Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan took office in January 2024. He was photographed Sept. 26, 2024, in the Lehigh County Courthouse Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

He never told anyone before.

The man called to serve jury duty in Lehigh County a couple months ago had never told anyone hed been raped as a child.

He stood up and shuffled tentatively to the well of the courtroom to explain why he would be a biased juror if selected to serve on the panel for Spartak Fedorovich. The Phillipsburg man was on trial for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl repeatedly in Upper Saucon Township.

Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan said hell never forget the confession. The man was so ashamed of his assault, he never told anyone, never went to counseling, never did anything about it, Holihan said.

He was literally a grown man in tears in front of a room full of strangers, Holihan said. After his confession, we gave him a tissue and told him to go back and sit down, Holihan said. Later, the judge sent him home.

The man wasnt the only potential juror excused from serving due to past abuse. In cases involving child pornography or child sexual assault, there are often several members of the jury pool with terrible stories, Holihan said.

Thats why Holihan wants to make counseling available to jurors and to offer trauma sensitivity training for the judiciary so judges are more equipped to help jurors cope with traumatic situations.

Theyll come forward bright red. Theyll come forward in tears, Holihan said. We talk to them individually. The stenographer is taking it down. The two prosecutors are standing there, the two defense attorneys are standing there, the judge is there. And theyll say, I cant be fair because when I was 10 or when I was 12 I was raped by fill in the blank: my uncle, my stepbrother, my stepfather.

Meanwhile, the judge and the attorneys are focused on trying the case. No one is assigned to help put the potential jurors at ease, Holihan said.

Some of the people will say, Ive never told anybody about this before and its all coming back to me when youre talking about it. And I cant deal with it, Holihan said.

Lehigh County Court Administrator Kerry Turtzo said a pamphlet offering advice on how to deal with trauma and how to seek help is made available to Lehigh County jurors after they serve.

Northampton County President Judge Craig Dally said his county hasnt received any formal complaints from jurors but hes open minded to offering services to help. Northampton County offers pamphlets similar to the one described by Turtzo.

Lehigh County attorney Maraleen Shields is working to improve jury service as part of her job as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Commission for Fairness and Justice. Her organization has offered help to every county update their jury pamphlets with the latest advice and resources for mental health.

Citizens have a duty to serve on jury panels, but the state has a duty to treat them with dignity and respect, Shields said.

Attorney Maraleen Shields on Jan. 24, 2024 Sean Simmers | ssimmers@pennlive.com

Her organization issued a statement Wednesday, May 14, calling for empathy within the state legal system and an openness for reform.

Public trust in these systems and in the legal profession is not automatic  it must be earned, she said.

Shes advocating for a bump in state court jurors pay. The $9 a day per diem hasnt increased since 1959, she said. The state agreed in 1980 to bump that rate to $25 a day on the third day of jury service and each day after that. Its time to raise the rate, Shields said.

Jurors should know what theyre in for  how long they might serve, how many days they might be away from their jobs and families. She said state courts lag behind the rest of the world when it comes to email and text updates.

And state courts need to take better care of jurors asked to deliberate over horrific crimes. Even if a juror hasnt experienced a childhood sexual trauma, they could be asked to watch one as part of their service.

Holihans office prosecuted Matthew Schutter, a South Whitehall Township man accused of storing thousands of images of child pornography on his computer. As part of that trial, the prosecution was prepared to show a graphic video of a toddler being sexually abused while strapped in a car seat.

So many members of the jury pool appeared so disgusted that Schutter decided to forgo the trial. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced in March to 10 to 50 years in state prison.

A proliferation of child pornography on the internet and increased technological sophistication from law enforcement means more people are being charged with child pornography crimes and more jurors are needed to try the defendants, Holihan said.

Shields says Massachusetts is a pioneer in offering counseling to jurors who view traumatic evidence. That states program costs only $20,000 a year, she said. Jurors can take advantage of up to three counseling sessions after a traumatic trial. Not many jurors have used the service, but it makes a big difference for those who do, she said. Shields has gotten limited buy-in from the Pennsylvania counties shes contacted.

Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta says Shields and Holihans call for counseling has merit. He recalled the Greg Graf trial from 2015. The Allen Township man was charged with killing his stepdaughter and sexually abusing her corpse. The jurors were forced to watch a video Graf recorded of the sexual abuse.

Baratta was the judge presiding over the Graf case. He tried to persuade the prosecution to stipulate to what was shown in the video, but then-District Attorney John Morganelli insisted the video was instrumental to his case. It was the only way to prove Graf abused the corpse, said Morganelli, who is now a Northampton County judge.

His strategy worked. The jury convicted Graf after six minutes of deliberations.

Baratta recalls how disturbed the panel was.

I talked with the jury after the trial and several were upset and angry, especially with the defendant. Some wanted to know why they had to watch (the video), Baratta said. No one considered offering counseling back then, he said.

It is a good issue worthy of addressing, Baratta said.

Morganelli agreed the program is worth considering, although he said he made efforts to avoid selecting jurors who indicated they would be uncomfortable viewing graphic evidence.

In his 28 years as a district attorney, Morganelli couldnt recall any juror being traumatized by evidence.

Shields and Holihan have suggested judges and attorneys who see jurors the way Morganelli saw them may not be looking closely enough at what the jurors must endure.

Northampton Countys president judge agrees juror trauma is a concern, especially in cases involving child sexual abuse.

We remain attentive to the issue and will continue to seek opportunities to support jurors, including potential and continued training for administrative staff .. reinforcing the availability of support services, Judge Dally said.

Guidance on that training would come through the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, the office that oversees statewide court issues, Dally said.

Lehigh Countys court administrator also expressed a willingness to help.

The court will work with (Lehigh) County administration and the board of commissioners to identify ways to assist jurors who are experiencing jury related trauma Turtzo added in a statement provided by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.

The state courts office will continue to offer trauma informed court programs, Turtzo said via the statement.

Baratta recalled participating in a state program to help judges manage the stress of making difficult decisions that can trigger strong emotions. He found the program worthwhile but feels more resources ought to be made available to jurors.

Baratta said guidance and funding for juror counseling programs ought to come from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. A spokeswoman with that office didnt offer a response.

Jurors are vital to our justice system and we owe it to them to make their service as comfortable as possible, Shields said. She cited a survey last year by BarPrepHero, a service that helps law students pass the bar exam. Almost half of the survey respondents felt anxious about serving on a jury and 26% struggled with persistent negative emotions.

I would like to think that taking care of jurors is something that right, left, red, blue and in between, we could all just agree on it and do it, Shields said.

In the future, Holihan and Shields want to avoid the lack of empathy that follows confessions like the one from the dismissed juror from the Fedorovich trial.

Holihan recalls discussing the trial a week later with a Lehigh County co-worker.

He said, What about that poor guy who was up there? What was up with him? That must have been terrible for him, Holihan recalls.

Nobody is responsible for following up later with prospective jurors like that man. Baratta said his office helps jurors who reach out for support, but the duty of reaching out to jurors after a trial falls on the court, not the attorneys.

The Fedorovich juror was just sent on his way, Holihan said.

We rip open their life, trigger their worst trauma, and then say, Have a nice day. Go back home, Holihan said.

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The U.S. State Department is warning travelers to "exercise increased caution" while visiting Germany due to rising terrorist attacks. Canva/Katherine Rodriguez

If youre planning a trip to Germany anytime soon, you might want to take some extra precautions before you go.

The U.S. State Department updated its travel advisory to Germany, advising travelers to take extra precautions in the country due to terrorism.

Heres what you need to know if you plan on traveling to Germany.

What does the latest travel advisory to Germany mean for you?

Item Detail Start Date May 13, 2025 Whats changing Updated travel advisory warning travelers to exercise increased caution in Germany due to terrorism risks What will happen? Travelers should be aware of their surroundings in tourist locations and crowded public venues, follow instructions from local authorities and monitor local media. Who will it affect? Travelers to Germany

The agency gave a Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution advisory to Germany because of a terrorism risk in the country.

It says that terrorist groups continue to plot attacks in the country with little to no warning in highly populated locations, including tourist destinations, transportation hubs, markets, shoppings malls and local government facilities. This includes hotels, clubs and restaurants, as well.

Terrorist groups and lone actors remain a constant threat in Germany and Europe, attacking people in public locations with knives, small arms, rudimentary explosive devices, and vehicles, the State Department says.

What is the highest travel advisory?

There are four levels of travel advisory, Level 1 through Level 4. When planning a vacation, you should check the current travel advisory for that destination.

Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions  This is the lowest level of advisory; it is advised that there is some risk in that area, and travelers should take precautions while on their visit.

Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution  There is a heightened risk for safety and security in that area, and travelers need to take extra caution.

Level 3: Reconsider Travel  There are serious risks to safety, and travelers are advised to reconsider their travel plans to this destination.

Level 4: Do Not Travel  This is the highest level of advisory, and it is strongly recommended not to travel to any destinations with a Level 4 advisory, due to many factors, one of which is that the U.S. government might not be able to provide travelers any assistance in the event of an emergency.

What should travelers to Germany do in light of this travel advisory?

Travelers to Germany should be aware of their surroundings in tourist locations and crowded public venues, follow instructions from local authorities and monitor local media.

The State Department also suggests to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to get alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency and purchase travel insurance.

You can also remain aware of terrorism risks in the country by checking Germanys Security Report and prepare a contingency plan for emergency situations using the Travelers Checklist.

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Katherine Rodriguez can be reached at krodriguez@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
The Minister for Justice has been told people in Laois are living in fear due to reckless behaviour and repeat offending by young offenders.

Senator Maria McCormack said I am deeply troubled by what I am witnessing in our community in Laois and surrounding counties. I am not alone in this concern. Over the past week, I have received numerous calls from frightened and frustrated residents who feel like prisoners in their own homes, living in fear of reckless behaviour and repeat offending. One constituent said to me that the State is absent when it is needed most.

The Sinn Fein Senator highlighted the extraordinary recent comments by Judge Andrew Cody in Portlaoise District Court who stated that the State is failing citizens.

This is a damning verdict from one of our own judges, a judge, who, in fairness, has been forced to watch the same cohort of young offenders appear before him week after week, having committed crime after crime with no meaningful consequence, no available detention space and no sign of urgency from the Government."

Sen McCormack said Judge Cody went further saying: There is a core to this gang here in Portlaoise who continue to commit crimes without any fear of recrimination. They do so because they know the courts, the gardai and society have been handcuffed, while they walk free.

These are children, some as young as 14, stealing cars, tearing through our streets, driving the wrong way down the M7, smashing up businesses, destroying public property and uploading it all on TikTok for clout. It is being glamorised. It is being encouraged and we are being humiliated. Judge Cody was clear. The Garda and the courts are doing their best but he said the ultimate sanction and deterrent of imprisonment has been taken away because Oberstown Children Detection Centre is full, she told Justice Minister Jim OCallaghan.

Sen McCormack explained that two teenage boys had been sent to Oberstown only to be told it was full.

They were handed a sealed letter and told to bring the teenagers back to the Garda station. What message does that send? What message does it send to the victims, the public and the perpetrators? We are witnessing the complete breakdown of a youth justice system, not due to the negligence of the Garda or the Judiciary but due to Government failure, she said.

She said there are no places for detention but the crimes continue.

As Judge Cody said, these youths have done so in a shocking and dangerous manner without any regard for their own or anyone else's lives. The lesson being learned by these juveniles is that they can continue to commit crime without any consequences, said Sen McCormack.

She called for immediate action including the expansion of Oberstown or the provision of temporary regional youth detention facilities.

Sen McCormack wants a full Government-led response to organised youth crime because that is on the increase, day in, day out, particularly the grooming and recruitment tactics of gangs targeting vulnerable children; proper resourcing for gardai to respond to these escalating crimes, including youth-specific detention and intervention units; and investment in diversion and early intervention programmes, not after the tenth arrest but when the first warning signs emerge.

This is not about locking children away and forgetting about them; this is about creating a system that deters dangerous behaviour, protects the public and offers real structured rehabilitation, not TikTok fame. We need action. We do not need apologies. We need beds, not sealed letters, and we need justice, not headlines, she continued.

Minister OCallaghan said I wish to advise that, within my Department, I am delegating responsibility for youth crime to the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins. Notwithstanding that, it is an extremely important issue and I welcome the opportunity to respond to what the Senator has to say.

I am extremely concerned about this matter and, because of that, I had a meeting last week with the Minister for children, Deputy Foley. We discussed what could be done to increase capacity at Oberstown. She will reflect on that to see what can be done. Obviously, some individuals can be released from Oberstown, thereby providing spaces. However, I am fully aware that unless there is the prospect of a custodial sanction being imposed, in the infrequent occasion that it is necessary, then the courts and the Garda can find themselves in a situation with juvenile delinquents where there appears to be no sanction in respect of it, he said.

Minister OCallaghan said there are other options available to try to stop children continuing on the pathway of criminality.

We are doing a disservice to children unless we try to correct their behaviour at that stage. If a child is involved in criminal behaviour at the age of 15, 16 or 17 years, then there is a strong likelihood that, by the time he or she gets to 18, that individual will be continuing with that behaviour and finally find himself or herself in prison immediately. There is a responsibility on us to try to divert children. That is why the youth diversion programme is useful, said Minister OCallaghan.

I am looking at Oberstown. I have discussed it with the Minister, Deputy Foley. We need to provide more spaces. Since our population is increasing, we are inevitably going to need more spaces in prison and youth detention centres. That is incompatible with another ambition and policy I have, that being, to try to make community sanctions available for the purpose of a penalty being imposed, he said.

Sen McCormack said the issue of youth crime reached crisis point in Laois this week when there was no option and people felt that the youths got away free. There was no deterrent, leading to uproar in the community because so much car theft and other criminality was going on under our noses.

There is work to be done. I am delighted that the Minister is looking at Oberstown to see how we can move forward on this. I hope that lots of investment and time are put into people at a young age to deter them from crime, she added.

Minister OCallaghan said I am aware of the issues that are of concern to the Senator and An Garda Siochana. I will continue to engage with the Minister, Deputy Foley, in respect of Oberstown. There is limited space there and, as the population increases, we are regrettably finding ourselves having to deal with more delinquent children. We are doing them a disservice unless we try to divert them and, regrettably, a custodial sanction is necessary on some occasions.
Gardai have recovered a car that was stolen from outside a house in Portlaoise in the early hours of Monday, May 19.

The black Toyota Vitz car was one of two cars targeted in the Ashewood Walk estate on Monday night. An attempt was made to steal a second car, a Toyota Corolla from another house on the same night. CCTV footage from a neighbouring house captured the car leaving the estate at 2.11am.

Gardai said the vehicle has since been recovered and removed for technical examination.

Ashewood Walk resident Mateja Schmitz said we moved to Ashewood Walk from Dublin at the end of 2023 - the promise was that this is a very safe and family friendly estate, yet this is a second successful car theft in only a year and a half since we are here.

She said the neighbour whose car was stolen on early Monday morning had an attempted theft last year. Our first door neighbour had their car stolen last year too.

Ms Schmitz said something really has to be done about the safety and security of the estates.

A garda spokesperson in Portlaoise Garda Station said we have no suspects identified at this time. Investigation is ongoing.

READ ALSO: Minister for Justice 'extremely concerned' after Laois Judge's comments

Anyone with information can contact Portlaoise Garda Station on 057 867 4100.
A Judge accepted jurisdiction in the case of a man accused of punching and headbutting a man in Portlaoise.

Ricky OShea (32) of 36 Oakleaf Place, Portaloise, is accused of assault causing harm at Main Street, Portlaoise, on July 1, 2024.

Garda Sergeant JJ Kirby said the case was to be heard in the district court subject to the judge accepting jurisdiction. He produced a medical report and photographs for Judge Susan Fay to consider.

Sgt Kirby said the incident occurred after midnight on Main Street on July 1. He said it is alleged the injured party was punched twice in the jaw and headbutted on the nose.

Solicitor Philip Meagher said he believed the case should remain in the district court. He said the allegation would be contested by his client.

On examining the documents and listening to the evidence, Judge Fay said she would accept jurisdiction. She asked how long a hearing would take.

Mr Meagher said there would be a number of witnesses and he would expect the hearing to last an hour and a half. He requested full disclosure and mentioned some of the statements.

There was reference to two downloads of CCTV from a nail bar and a chipper and we dont seem to have those, he said.

Judge Fay adjourned the case back to Portlaoise District Court on September 23 for hearing.
Hundreds of Laois schoolchildren are getting to see the private life of local wild birds, from egg laying, to predator attacks, to chicks flying the nest, and it's free to view.

A live nest watch is underway this year on the farm of Ballyfin farmer and nature enthusiast Richard Duff.

Richard, renowned for his nature hides for visiting photographers, has placed cameras inside bird boxes and nests at his farm, next to the walled woodland in Ballyfin Demesne.

So far 25 primary schools in Laois are tuning in to watch the birdies, with kestrals, swallows, starlings and wood pigeons playing a starring role this year.

The Leinster Express / Laois Live learned more on a visit to the farm for a Dawn Chorus Walk, as part of Biodiversity Week 2025, in conjunction with Birdwatch Ireland Laois branch.

Participants in the Dawn Chorus guided walk on Richard Duff's farm in Ballyfin as part of 2025 Biodiversity Week, including Lisa Doyle, Laois Biodiversity Officer. Photo: Leinster Express

Richard and his daughter Ashling run the nestwatch, funded by Laois County Council under Laois Creative Communities Programme.

The children love it, Richard says.

We are hoping to get up to 30 schools this year. There's over 60 national schools in the county, all emailed on it.

We set up a WhatsApp group, so at least one teacher in each school would be on it. They get details every day from Ashling to say what's happened the day before.

When the birds are feeding the chicks, when the eggs hatch out, when the first egg is laid.

The reaction of the kids is very good. They get some gory details, like when the kestrals come back with a mouse to feed the chicks. There's very good feedback at the moment. They all seem to be enjoying it.

You have to see nature in its rawness. For example in the wood pigeon's nest, she had two chicks just hatched and the pine marten came and took them. That happens in nature, that's part of nature. It's all part of wildlife.

Pine martens have to feed their kits too. The wood pigeon will lay more eggs.

If you don't have predators, the different stages of the food chain, you'd have too many wood pigeons out there. You'd have no pine martens if they had no food.

Everything has to survive. It's all the balance of nature. If you start off with the insects, bees and butterflies, you'll get loads of caterpillers for small birds to feed their chicks. Sparrowhawks feed on the small birds, kestrals feed on the mice and so on up the food chain. Biodiversity is very important.

See photos by Richard Duff of wildlife snapped from his hides here.

A pine marten, a protected Irish species now repopulating in the wild. Photo: Richard Duff

It all happens very quick on the cameras. Starling eggs hatch after two weeks. I know a lot of people don't like starlings, they think they're dirty, but they eat leatherjackets which help farmers with their crops.

Read also: Laois biodiversity projects get big funding boost

The swallows are so cute when they hatch out first, they look so ugly when they get their pin feathers coming, and all of a sudden three weeks later they're gone.

The kids feel like they get to know them, they even give them names, he said.

Laois County Council's Creative Ireland Laois branch are proud to support it.

Creative Ireland Laois are delighted to support this invaluable project. Richard and Ashling hold such passion for our local wildlife, this project enables them to share their passion and knowledge with the children of Laois a spokesperson said.

Lisa Doyle is Laois Biodiversity Officer.

This innovative approach not only enriches the learning experience for children but also fosters early curiosity. It provides a rare and engaging insight into avian life cycles. The initiative reinforces childrens natural learning of nature by connecting classroom education with direct observations of the natural world. Projects such as this can play a vital role in fostering a lifelong connection and stewardship of the environment, she said.

Laois schools wishing to join can contact Ashling Duff on 089 4122157
US Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will visit County Kildare this weekend.

The announcement was made by Cathaoirleach / Mayor of the Athy Municipal District (MD), Labour Party councillor Aoife Breslin.

Specifically, Mayor Breslin made the announcement at the very end of the latest Athy MD meeting, which took place on Monday, May 19 last.

She told those in attendance that the Vermont-based independent politician, alongside his wife, Dr Jane OMeara Sanders, will visit Athy on the afternoon of Sunday, May 25 in order to unveil a plaque commemorating the song 'Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye'.

In addition, she said that tickets will soon be available for the event through Eventbrite.

After the meeting, Mayor Breslin told the Leinster Leader that further details about the visit will follow soon.

Sanders previously attempted to secure the Democratic presidential nominations in 2016 and 2020.

When he dropped out of the 2020 race, this paved the way for Joe Biden to secure the Democratic nomination.
Killeshin Waterworks Committee have been awarded a grant of over 20,000 for their Sluice Gates Restoration project.

The grant from the Heritage Councils 2025 Community Heritage Grant Scheme was welcomed by Fine Gael TD Deputy William Aird.

Its fantastic to see funding of 22,863 for this wonderful heritage projects. From conserving historic buildings and graveyards, to digitising archives, and restoring monuments these initiatives across Ireland ensure that our traditions are protected for future generations, he remarked.

The allocation in Laois was part of 1.9 million in funding allocated nationally to support heritage initiatives. It is to be used to restore the sluice gates at Killeshin Reservoir.

The Community Heritage Grant Scheme is a vital means of helping our communities across Ireland and Laois protect the places, stories, and traditions that matter most to us," he said.

READ ALSO: Garda Community Engagement Van in Laois

I am particularly delighted to see funding for Sluice Gates Restoration project. Our community groups and heritage organisations have done incredible work in preserving our heritage for generations to come, said Dep Aird.

He explained that all funded projects can begin work immediately and are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

I am very proud of our community groups and heritage organisations in County Laois that work so hard to protect and promote our heritage. These groups are a key means of strengthening our local identity and I urge them to avail of all project funding on offer, he stated.
Israel must hold an investigation after British diplomats were caught up in shooting by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, a Foreign Office minister has said.

A group of western diplomats faced warning shots from the Israel Defence Forces while visiting the city of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Two British diplomats understood to be among the group of around 20 people have been confirmed as safe.

Todays events in Jenin are unacceptable. I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected. Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation and those responsible should be held accountable.  Hamish Falconer MP (@HFalconerMP) May 21, 2025

Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer described the events in Jenin as unacceptable.

He added: I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected. Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation and those responsible should be held accountable.

Diplomats from Ireland were also among the group, with the countrys Deputy Premier and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Harris condemning the incident in the strongest terms.

The Israeli military said the delegation had deviated from the approved route of their visit and IDF soldiers fired warning shots to push them from the area.

The IDF apologised and said it would contact all countries involved in the visit.

Footage shows a number of diplomats running for cover as shots ring out.

The incident came just a day after the UK announced it would cease all talks of a trade deal with Israel, and summoned the countrys ambassador to make clear Britain is unhappy with the situation in Gaza.

Several Israeli settlers were also issued with sanctions as the UK and allies ramp up pressure on Israel over the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.

Elsewhere, ministers announced they will send 4 million of aid to Gaza, including essential medicines, safe drinking water and food parcels.

Minister for development Jenny Chapman, who is visiting Israel and the occupied territories, said the lack of aid reaching Gazans is appalling.

Ms Chapman announced the new UK support during a visit to a Red Crescent centre, but expressed her frustration that much of it cannot yet reach them because of the Israeli restrictions.

The lack of aid reaching ordinary Gazans is appalling, she said.

The Israeli governments failure to allow full humanitarian access to aid workers is abhorrent. Far too few trucks are crossing into Gaza.

The UN has warned nearly half a million Palestinians, including children, are facing starvation.

The UK is clear  Israel will not achieve security through prolonging the suffering of the Palestinian people.

I have heard first hand from aid workers today of the abominable impact of this behaviour on real families.

The UK has today pledged new support for Gazans but the brutal reality is most of it is stuck in limbo.

We need to see an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, a surge of aid, and a path towards long-term peace.

Humanitarian aid needs to get into Gaza at pace, Sir Keir Starmer told broadcasters as he visited a supermarket in north London on Tuesday afternoon.

In response to the situation in the West Bank, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced measures, including financial restrictions and travel bans, targeting prominent settler leader Daniella Weiss and two other individuals, as well as two illegal outposts and two organisations accused of backing violence against Palestinian communities.

On Wednesday, Downing Street did not rule out more sanctions on Israeli ministers after a report said No 10 and other countries were drawing up plans to target key figures in Benjamin Netanyahus government.

The Prime Ministers official spokesman said he would not speculate on future sanctions but added that it has been made clear that if Israel does not cease its military offensive and lift aid restrictions then the UK will take further concrete actions.
Rap trio Kneecap are set to headline a festival on Friday, just two days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged over the alleged display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.

The group from Belfast, who rap in the Irish language, have a headline slot at Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday night.

It comes after they held a surprise gig at the 100 Club on Oxford Street on Thursday, where O hAnnaidh could be seen in videos on social media arriving on stage with tape covering his mouth.

He then joked about being careful what he said before saying he wanted to thank his lawyer.

He said: I need to thank my lawyer hes here tonight as well.

Police said they were at the central London venue on Thursday evening to manage visitors to the sold-out event.

The band said on X that the event sold out in 90 seconds, with 2,000 people on the waiting list.

On Monday, a spokesperson for several planned music festivals due to take place in Brockwell Park in Lambeth said none will be cancelled following a High Court ruling over planning permission.

Last week, Rebekah Shaman, a resident in the area and a member of the Protect Brockwell Park group, successfully brought legal action against Lambeth Council over the use of parts of the park for the festivals.

In a ruling last week, Mr Justice Mould said that the authoritys decision to certify the planned use of the land as lawful was irrational.

Lawyers for Ms Shaman and the Protect Brockwell Park group wrote to the council following the ruling, asking it to confirm that the event has been cancelled and to clear any fencing or infrastructure, and stating that Brockwell Live did not have planning permission.

But on Monday, a spokesperson for Brockwell Live said that no events would be cancelled, with Lambeth Council confirming that the events organisers, Summer Events Limited, had reapplied for planning permission.

O hAnnaidh, 27, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18, the Metropolitan Police said.

In response to the charge, the group said in a social media statement: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

Officers from the Mets Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on April 22 of an online video from the event, police said.

An investigation led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah.

The rap trio have had gigs cancelled after the footage emerged but are still listed to headline Wide Awake.

They apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been exploited and weaponised.

They also said they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together and follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

Formed in 2017, the group  made up of O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh  are known for their provocative lyrics and merchandise as well as their championing of the Irish language.

Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag.
Laois residents want to call a halt to the use of their housing estate as a set down carpark by parents.

Portlaoise residents in a housing estate next to St Mary's CBS and Scoil Chriost Ri secondary schools are demanding an end to "hundreds" of students using a shortcut.

The Hermitage housing estate residents are concerned at their security due the increased use of the cul de sac public lane that leads to a farm.

They are also annoyed at parents for using their estate as a "unauthorised setdown" zone, and older school students who are parking there all day.

Cllr Caroline Dwane Stanley tabled a motion to the May meeting of Portlaoise Municipal District.

"There is a gap on the boundary fence, it is being used as access by students.

"I was contacted by two residents whose properties adjoin the lane. They have concerns about the amount of students there since the new bus stop. Literally all the students go down and get through the gap to the school grounds.

"Parents are pulling up in the Hermitage, it's become an authorised set down for the school. I saw two students walking out of the lane and getting into their own cars. It's not acceptable," she said.

She further claimed that "one elderly woman became a target".

"Her patio door was smashed in smithereens".

She asked the council to block up the gap, and wants the council to ask St Mary's CBS to do the same with the fence on their side.

Cllr Tommy Mulligan, a teacher, said he too was contacted and he spoke to the CBS principal.

"They can't hang a shelf without a goahead from their management company, it's the company you need to contact," he said.

He suggest something more "permanent" than replacing the gap, as well as putting signs up.

Cllr Marie Tuohy said that the girls' school also uses the gap.

"It's not actually a short cut, it's a habit. They have to walk the wrong way. It's become a meeting area as well. The houses backing onto the lane are affected by the noise and the rubbish. It is upsetting to have a door broken but I'd like to think that was an accident or tomfoolery," she said.

Laois County Council will now invite both schools and residents and "all stakeholders" to a meeting to find a solution.
Tributes have been paid to a Naas, Kildare lady 'taken too soon'.

Tammy Smyth from Hazelmere in Naas, Co Kildare, passed suddenly on May 19 2025.

Daughter of the late Carol. Sadly missed by her loving daughter Carol-Ann, father Reginald, brother Clive, sister in law Helen, extended family, neighbours and friends.

May Tammy Rest In Peace

Tributes paid on RIP.ie this week include: Sincere sympathy Carol-Anne on the passing of your Mam. I am so sad to hear of Tammys passing. She was a lovely person. May she rest in peace.

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And: Sincere condolences to Carol- Ann family and friends at the sudden passing of Tammy. I knew her as a work colleague and she was always most helpful and caring. At shes De go raibh a hanam.

While another mourner wrote: I am so sorry to hear the very sad news that Tammy has passed away. May she rest in the peace she so richly deserves. Sending condolences to Carol-Ann and all her family and friends at this very difficult time.

And another added: Sincere sympathy to you Carol-Ann on the death of your Mam. I worked with her for many years in Newbridge. She always spoke of you so lovingly. A truly lovely lady, taken too soon. Rest in eternal peace Tammy.

Reposing at Oliver Reilly's Funeral Home, The Waterways, Sallins (W91 K6PN), on Sunday (May 25) from 3pm - 5pm.

Removal from her residence by Glennons Funeral Directors on Monday morning to arrive at Newlands Cross Crematorium, Dublin for cremation service at 12.30pm.

Tammy's cremation service will be live-streamed on the webstream link below.

Glennons Funeral Directors accept no responsibility for any live webcam interruptions or issues. For all enquiries, please contact Glennons Funeral Directors on 045 860110.

Cremation/burial: https://www.dctrust.ie/location/newlands-cross/chapel-webstream.html
A man appeared before Naas District Court in connection to allegations of stealing food and alcohol from a number of Naas District Court.

Garda Micheal Mangan told of arresting the defendant and charging him at Leixlip garda station.

READ NEXT Speed limits to fall in Kildare housing estates

Gda Mangan told the court that Marius Schiopu, 27, has no fixed address and had been in Ireland for less than two years, was sleeping rough and residing in a tent.

The defendant is being prosecuted in connection to a number of allegations including the theft of 470 worth of goods from Dunnes Stores at Manor Mills, Maynooth on March 17, 2025; eight bottles of Moet champagne worth 496 from a Tesco store in Tullamore on January 29, 2025; 1076 worth of foods from a Tesco store near Kinnegad on January 29, 2025 and 1300 worth of goods from a Tesco store in Cork city on April 11, 2024.

Gda Mangan said that while some of the goods were recovered, others were not.

Referring to the alleged thefts the garda said its obvious he has a market for this.

He also said the man has a young child.

Barrister Aisling Murphy said the defendant did not have an address but will make efforts to get into a hostel and could provide an address at a hostel, if granted bail. She said he would travel by bus to attend court appointments.

Ms Murphy also said he has an issue with alcohol and drugs. She added his mother resides in Italy and can put up 800 to secure bail.

Judge Desmond Zaidan declined to grant bail and noted that the garda objections to granting bail were well founded.
National Biodiversity Week took place from May 16  25, providing opportunities for people to connect with nature and explore the rich variety of life in Ireland.

To coincide with the national celebration of biodiversity, Intel invited 4th-class students from Leixlip primary schools to a special event held at the Intel campus in Kildare. The event, which was attended by 300 students, was hosted by Eanna Ni Lamhna, an Irish biologist, environmental consultant, radio and television presenter, author, and educator.

Eanna led a fun and engaging session focused on great Irish biodiversity, taking students on a virtual trip through Irish wildlife habitats  from bogs to beaches and woodland to grassland. Students learned how habitats work and which creatures and plants to look out for in each one, from the very rare to the most common.

Much of the talk was based on a book recently published by Eanna called Great Irish Biodiversity Book. There was a special surprise for all of the students at the end of the talk. They were each presented with their own copy of this book.

The book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through six types of Irish habitats, from woodlands to boglands, exploring the plants and animals that are specially adapted to thrive in these environments.

READ NEXT: The only convenience store in this Kildare village is closing down
Pupils and teachers from Scoil Bhride, Clane and St. Raphaels Special School, Kildare have been named finalists in the 2025 Our World Awards. The schools will join 13 other national finalists from across Ireland at a ceremony to be held at Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30.

Pupils and teachers from Scoil Bhride, Clane and St. Raphaels Special School, Kildare are two of just 15 schools in Ireland to be in the running for one of nine prestigious Our World Awards comprising the Global Goals, Irish Aid Programme, Rising Star, Creative Star, STEM, School and Community Impact, Global Citizenship Education, an Iontrail Ghaeilge is Fearr and Outstanding School Engagement Awards, as well as the coveted School of the Year Award.

The Pupils from Scoil Bhride, Clane have earned national recognition for their powerful and thought-provoking entry to this years Our World Awards, highlighting the importance of access to quality education for girls around the world.

As part of their project, the class created a deeply moving video presentation that reflected their learning and reflections on global education inequality. What set their work apart was the genuine effort to connect directly with people in other countries. The pupils reached out internationally to gather first-hand insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by girls seeking education in different parts of the world.

The result was a heartfelt and informative film, combining facts and creative storytelling. Their project delivered powerful messages about the impact of education, while also showing the pupils' strong sense of empathy, curiosity, and commitment to global justice.

The work, described by judges as a shining example of meaningful learning in action, demonstrated how young people can engage deeply with complex issues and communicate them with clarity and compassion.

St. Raphaels Special School in Kildare have been shortlisted for their beautiful and meaningful artwork. Each student contributed an individual piece based on their learning journey, creating a collection that judges described as evocative and inspiring. The artwork reflects a wide range of global themes and personal insights, demonstrating the pupils deep engagement with global citizenship education.

Congratulating both schools on making it to the national final, Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD said: I am really looking forward to meeting the pupils from Scoil Bhride and St. Raphaels Special School and their teachers at the national final on May 30th. I know that there is a great sense of excitement around the event in Dublin Castle.

I am also looking forward to personally thanking our primary school teachers for their continued commitment, not just to participating in the Our World Awards, but also for nurturing an ethos of global citizenship amongst our young people. It is important that as global citizens we all play an individual and collective part in making the world a better place.

Each of the projects submitted by the 15 finalists demonstrate an impressive level of insight and understanding of what are complex global issues that have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable in our world.

Now in their 20th year, the Our World Awards are the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trades flagship programme with primary schools which, over its lifetime, has seen thousands of young people become inspired to engage with global issues and take action for a fairer, more sustainable world.

The 2025 Our World Awards National Final is taking place at the Printworks, Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30.

READ NEXT: The only convenience store in this Kildare village is closing down
A member of rap group Kneecap has been charged with a terror offence, the Metropolitan Police said.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam OHanna over the displaying of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, on November 21 last year.

O hAnnaidh, 27, of Belfast, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18, the Met said.

Officers from the Mets Counter Terrorism Command were made aware on April 22 of an online video from the event, the force said.

An investigation led to the Crown Prosecution Service authorising the charge.

Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police said Kneecap were being investigated by counter-terrorism police after videos emerged allegedly showing the band calling for the deaths of MPs and shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah.

The Belfast rap trio have had several gigs cancelled after the footage emerged.

But they are still listed to headline the Wide Awake Festival in Brockwell Park, south London, on Friday.

The group apologised last month to the families of murdered MPs but said footage of the incident had been exploited and weaponised.

They also said they have never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, which are banned in the UK.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned while other politicians pushed for the group to be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up.

Campaign Against Antisemitism, which reported Kneecap to counter-terrorism police, posted on X: We are pleased to see the police have acted swiftly. Hamas and Hizballah are both proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK. The law must be enforced.

TUV deputy leader Court Councillor Ron McDowell welcomed the move.

He said: The truth is simple: we cannot and must not permit the glorification of terror  whether the terrorism is rooted in Northern Ireland or the Middle East.

Paul Maskey, the Sinn Fein MP for West Belfast, described the move as outrageous in a post on X.

He wrote: Genocide is unfolding before our eyes. Babies in Gaza are being starved to death. Whole families are slaughtered by a genocidal, out-of-control Israeli regime. Yet its Kneecap, who are using their voice to expose this genocide, who face charges by British police. Outrageous!

In 2024, the band released an eponymous film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender which is a fictionalised retelling of how the band came together.

The comedy movie follows the Belfast group on their mission to save their mother tongue through music.

The film was nominated for six Baftas and took home the award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.

It was also among the big winners at the Irish Film and Television Academy, scooping four awards including best director for Rich Peppiatt.
Young people across County Leitrim are being invited to tap into their creativity this summer as Leitrim Youth Theatre Company rolls out a series of free workshops on Saturday, June 7th, as part of Cruinniu na nOg 2025.

The workshops, taking place in Ballinamore, Drumshanbo, and Leitrim Village, are designed to spark imagination and build confidence in young people through theatre, dance, and creative movement. Each session is tailored to different age groups, ranging from nine to nineteen years old.

In Ballinamore, the Island Theatre will host sessions titled The Art of Creative Connection, facilitated by Gavin Sweeney and Mia Blake. Younger participants aged nine to twelve will attend from 11.00am to 12.30pm, while teens aged thirteen to eighteen will join from 12.45pm to 2.15pm. The same workshop will be held later that day in Drumshanbo at The Mayflower, where the younger group will meet from 3.15pm to 4.45pm and the older group from 3.00pm to 6.30pm. Supporting facilitators include Emily Sachs Eldridge, Regina Kiernan, and Aideen Quinn.

Meanwhile, in Leitrim Village, St Josephs Community Hall will be the venue for Creative Movement and Dance to Explore Your Own Creative Inner Voice, a workshop that brings together movement, self-expression, and theatre. The junior session, for children aged nine to thirteen, will run from 11.00am to 1.00pm. The senior session, for ages thirteen to nineteen, follows from 1.30pm to 3.30pm.

Facilitator Kate Wilson of Undercurrent will lead the sessions, joined by Maura Williamson and Ailbhe Rogers. Maura says the workshops are all about helping young people find their voice through creativity. Sometimes words arent enough, she said. Through movement and performance, young people can explore big feelings and make sense of the world around them in a really powerful way.

She added, Were not looking for polished performanceswere here to create a space where kids can feel free, seen, and safe to express themselves. Every single young person deserves that opportunity.

The Leitrim Village venue will also offer a Bright Sparks session, designed for those who may prefer a gentler pace. Numbers for this session are limited, and early booking is advised.

Organisers are encouraging families to book ahead to secure a spot. Bookings for the Ballinamore and Drumshanbo sessions can be made by emailing leitrimyouththeatre@gmail.com, while bookings for the Leitrim Village dance workshops should be sent to LYTCarraig03@gmail.com.

The initiative is supported by Leitrim County Council, Creative Ireland, and RTE as part of Cruinniu na nOg, a nationwide celebration of creativity for children and young people.

For more details, visit cruinniu.gov.ie.

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St. Josephs National School in Leitrim Village has been named one of just 15 finalists in the 2025 Our World Irish Aid Awards, earning national recognition for its powerful and heartfelt entry focused on global issues. The 4th class pupils and their teacher will travel to Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30th, for the prestigious awards ceremony.

Their project, titled What We Like and Dislike About Our World, impressed judges with its creative storytelling and emotional impact. Combining spoken word, vivid illustrations, and a symbolic group artwork, the children explored themes such as poverty, pollution, kindness, equality, and peace. They also created a colourful blanket, with each student designing a personal square representing their own commitment to making a positive difference. The finished quilt, stitched together by the class, has been described as a striking symbol of unity and shared hope.

Maura Williamson, teacher of the class, said: Were beyond proud of the children. They poured their hearts into this project and really thought deeply about what kind of world they want to live in. Their ideas are inspiring  and they show that young people are more aware and compassionate than we often realise.

The Our World Awards celebrate primary schools across Ireland that engage with the UNs Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Now in its 20th year, the programme encourages students to learn about global justice and take action. Categories this year include STEM, Global Citizenship Education, Creative Star, and the coveted School of the Year.

Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD, congratulated the finalists: Each of these projects shows remarkable insight and empathy. I look forward to meeting the pupils from St. Josephs and thanking their teacher for helping foster such a strong ethos of global citizenship.

The 2025 Our World Awards Final will take place at the Printworks in Dublin Castle on May 30th. For more details, visit www.ourworldawards.ie.

READ MORE Man denies driving while disqualified and intoxicated
Cropmate Berhad Delivers Strong First Quarter Results With 60.9% PBT Growth





Cropmate Berhad ("Cropmate" or the "Company"), a key player in the conventional and specialty fertiliser manufacturing industry in Malaysia,announced its financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2025 ("Q1 FY2025"), reporting robust growth in revenue and profitability with 60.9% growth in Profit Before Tax ("PBT"). This marks the Company's maiden quarterly report since its listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on 5 December 2024.

For Q1 FY2025, Cropmate posted revenue of RM48.6 million, representing a 34.6% increase from RM36.1 million recorded in the preceding quarter. The revenue growth was primarily driven by higher sales volume, particularly from the oil palm plantations and durian orchards.

The Company also registered a 60.9% surge in PBT to RM5.0 million in Q1 FY2025, compared to RM3.1 million in Q4 FY2024. The strong performance was attributed to improved sales and a more favourable product mix with higher gross profit margin. As a result, the gross profit margin rose to 19.1%, up from 15.6% in Q4 FY2024, reflecting a growth of 22.4%.

98.7% of Cropmate's revenue was contributed by domestic sales, with the balance coming from exports to markets including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.

Managing Director of Cropmate Berhad, Mr. Lee Chin Yok

Managing Director of Cropmate Berhad, Mr. Lee Chin Yok, commented, "Our first quarterly performance in financial year 2025 reflects the resilience of our business and the growing demand for high-quality fertilisers. As we move forward, we remain committed to scaling our operations, enhancing product innovation, and delivering long-term value to all stakeholders."

As at 31 March 2025, the Group maintained a solid financial position with cash and bank balances of RM7.2 million and short-term investments of RM40.3 million. Net assets per share stood at RM0.12.

Out of the RM42.0 million raised from the Company's IPO, RM22.3 million has been utilised to date, mainly for working capital, capital expenditure, and listing-related expenses. The Company is progressing with its planned acquisition of Factory Lots 8949 and 8950, which forms part of its strategic expansion initiatives.

Looking ahead, Cropmate remains cautiously optimistic. "While we are pleased with the momentum, we remain mindful of the macroeconomic landscape and external headwinds affecting the agriculture sector. Nevertheless, our fundamentals remain strong, and we are well-prepared to navigate challenges with resilience and agility." Mr. Lee added.

About Cropmate Berhad ("Cropmate")

Founded in 2018, Cropmate Berhad is an established fertiliser manufacturer and supplier in Malaysia, specialising in the formulation and blending of conventional and specialty fertilisers. With a focus on innovation and sustainability, Cropmate offers a wide range of products designed to enhance agricultural productivity, including compacted and blended fertilisers, as well as semi-organic, organic, and liquid fertilisers. Led by industry veterans with decades of experience, Cropmate is committed to supporting farmers in improving crop yield and quality. As the first pure-play fertiliser company listed on Bursa Malaysia, Cropmate continues to advance its mission of contributing to the growth and sustainability of the agricultural sector.

For more information, visit https://www.cropmate.com.my/

For more information, please contact:

Jazmin Wan

Email:[email protected]

William Yeo

Email:[email protected]

SOURCE: Cropmate Berhad

22 may 2025 at 06:30

View the original press release on ACCESS NewswireNews published onand distributed by:
NV Gold Announces $500,000 Financing and Debt Settlement





NV Gold Corporation (TSXV:NVX)(OTCQB:NVGLF)(FSE:8NV) ("NV Gold" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement for gross proceeds of up to C$500,000 and the deleveraging of its balance sheet with the conversion of loans in the aggregate amount of US$400,000 into equity.

Private Placement

The Company announces a non-brokered private placement offering of up to 5,000,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of C$0.10 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to C$500,000 (the "Offering").

Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one Common Share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one additional Common Share at a price of C$0.20 for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance, provided that if the closing price of the Common Shares on any Canadian stock exchange on which the Common Shares are then listed is at a price equal to or greater than C$0.40 for a period of five consecutive trading days, the Company will have the right to accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by issuing a press release or other form of notice permitted by the certificate representing the Warrants, announcing that the Warrants will expire at 4:30 p.m. (Vancouver time) on a date that is not less than 30 days from the date notice is given.

The Company will use the proceeds of the Offering for exploration activities at the Company's Slumber Gold Project and for general working capital purposes.

The securities issued in the Offering will be subject to applicable hold periods imposed under applicable securities legislation, including a hold period of 4 months and one day from the date of issuance. The Company may pay a finder's fee on a portion of the gross proceeds of the Offering. The Offering remains subject to regulatory approval and the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Debt Settlement

The Company also announces that further to the Company's press release on April 21, 2025, it has completed its previously announced shares for debt transaction (the "Debt Settlement") and issued an aggregate of 5,161,578 common shares of the Company (the "Settlement Shares") at a price of C$0.1125 per share in settlement of payment owed pursuant to loan agreements dated June 26, 2023, July 10, 2023, September 18, 2023, January 22, 2024, March 14, 2024 and January 27, 2025 with John Watson, President, Chairman, CEO and a director of the Company, totaling US$419,050 (C$580,677.58). Payment of the interest accrued on the total amount of the debt remains outstanding. In connection with the Debt Settlement, the share pledge agreement dated April 19, 2024 between the Company and Mr. Watson has been terminated (see news release dated April 19, 2024).

The Settlement Shares are subject to a statutory hold period of four months from the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities legislation.

Early Warning Disclosure

In connection with the Debt Settlement, Mr. Watson has been issued 5,161,578 common shares. Prior to the issuance, Mr. Watson held 2,040,543 common shares, 97,500 stock options and 1,025,000 common share purchase warrants, each warrant entitling Mr. Watson to purchase one additional common share upon payment of additional consideration to the Company. These common shares, stock options and warrants represented approximately 20.25% of the Company's then-issued and outstanding common shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 28.25% of the Company's then-issued and outstanding common shares on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of Mr. Watson's stock options and warrants into common shares. Following the completion of the Debt Settlement, Mr. Watson beneficially owns and controls an aggregate of 7,202,121 common shares, 97,500 stock options and 1,025,000 common share purchase warrants, representing approximately 47.0%% of the Company's issued and outstanding Common Shares on an undiluted basis and approximately 50.89% of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of Mr. Watson's stock options and warrants into common shares.

The Settlement Shares were acquired by Mr. Watson for investment purposes. Mr. Watson may acquire additional securities of the Company, including on the open market or through private acquisitions, or sell securities of the Company, including on the open market or through private dispositions, in the future depending on market conditions, reformulation of plans and/or other relevant factors.

Both the Company and Mr. Watson can be contacted at the Company's head office at #250 - 750 West Pender Street, Vancouver, BC, V6C 2T7.

A copy of Mr. Watson's early warning report will appear on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

MI 61-101

The Debt Settlement is considered to be a "related party transaction" as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Securityholders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company is exempt from the formal valuation requirement in Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 as the Company is not listed on a specified market within the meaning of MI 61-101. Additionally, the Debt Settlement is exempt from the minority approval requirement in Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 in reliance on Section 5.7(1)(e) of MI 61-101 as (i) the Company is in a situation of serious financial difficulty, (ii) the Debt Settlement is designed to improve the financial position of the Company, (iii) the circumstances described in Section 5.5(f) of MI 61-101 are not applicable, (iv) the Company's board of directors and independent directors (as such term is defined in MI 61-101) had, acting in good faith, determined that the Company is in serious financial difficulty and the Debt Settlement would improve its financial position, and the terms of the Debt Settlement are reasonable in the circumstances of the Company, and (v) there was no other requirement, corporate or otherwise, to hold a meeting to obtain any approval of the Company's shareholders.

Mr. Watson has committed to subscribe for 1,500,000 Units in the Offering for an aggregate purchase price of $150,000. The participation by Mr. Watson will be considered a related party transaction within the meaning of MI 61-101. Mr. Watson's participation in the Offering will be exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the securities issued to Mr. Watson nor the consideration for such securities will exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

September 2024 Private Placement

Further to the press releases dated September 4, 2024 and September 18, 2024, no further tranches were closed in the Company's prior private placement financing.

No U.S. Registration

The foregoing securities being offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons or persons in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About NV Gold Corporation

NV Gold Corporation is a well-organized exploration company with 15.2 million shares issued and Outstanding. NV Gold has 21 exploration projects in Nevada comprising 639 100%-Company-owned lode mining claims totaling 53.4 square kilometers (20.6 square miles) The Company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Reno, Nevada and is focused on delivering value through mineral discoveries in Nevada, USA. Leveraging its expansive property portfolio, its highly experienced in-house technical team, and its extensive geological data library, 2025 promises to be highly productive for NV Gold.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

John Watson, President, Chairman, CEO and Director

For further information, visit the Company's website at www.nvgoldcorp.com or contact

Freeform Communications at 604.245.0054

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward?looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include, without limitation, statements related to management's expectations and intentions with respect to, among other things: the completion of the Offering, the anticipated proceeds to be raised under the Offering; the intended use of proceeds raised under the Offering; Mr. Watson's participation in the Offering; and the potential payment of finder's fees in connection with the Offering. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive.

In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain material assumptions, including without limitation, the Company will obtain the required regulatory approvals for the Offering; the Company will be able to complete the Offering on the terms disclosed; that Mr. Watson will participate in the Offering in the amount currently expected; the Company will be able to raise the anticipated proceeds under the Offering; and the Company will use the proceeds of the Offering as currently anticipated.

These forward?looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain the required regulatory approvals for the Offering; market uncertainty; the inability of the Company to complete the Offering on the terms disclosed, or at all; the inability of the Company to raise the anticipated proceeds under the Offering; that Mr. Watson's intended participation in the Offering will change; and changes in the Company's business plans impacting the intended use of proceeds raised under the Offering.

Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor.

SOURCE: NV Gold Corporation

22 may 2025 at 08:30

View the original press release on ACCESS NewswireNews published onand distributed by:
Himed and I&H Global Mark 15 Years of Strategic Sales Partnership in South Korea





OLD BETHPAGE, N.Y., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its founding in 1991, Himed has grown into an internationally recognized supplier of high-quality calcium phosphate bioceramic materials and surfacing solutions. In South Korea, that growth has been significantly accelerated thanks to I&H Global?a private company that has served as Himed's exclusive sales representative in the region since 2010.

I&H Global was founded to raise awareness in South Korea about the benefits of biomaterials like hydroxyapatite in medical implants. It initially approached Himed with the idea of partnering to serve the country's rapidly expanding dental implant and abutment market. Himed co-founder and then-President Ed Garofalo traveled to South Korea to explore the opportunity. There, he met I&H Global co-founder Inchang Song, and together they visited with several leading dental implant manufacturers to discuss how Himed's bioresorbable apatitic abrasive and customized hydroxyapatite coatings could improve clinical outcomes while also offering a market advantage over competitors not yet leveraging the regenerative potential of calcium phosphate materials.

"Engaging with I&H Global was a pivotal moment for Himed," says current President Craig Rosenblum. "Up until 2010, our growth was largely organic?driven by the quality of our materials, personalized client service, and strong academic ties. I&H Global changed that. Their proactive approach helped us build new relationships and contributed significantly to our expansion in East Asia."

Over the past 15 years, global demand for both dental and orthopedic implants has continued to rise. South Korea, the fastest-growing dental implant market in the Asia-Pacific region, is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 11.2% by 2030. Innovations in medical manufacturing, such as 3D printing, have further increased the need for advanced materials, analytics, and R&D. In response, Himed opened its Bioceramics Center of Excellencetm in 2024 to advance the integration of calcium phosphate-based materials in additive manufacturing. I&H Global is poised to connect Korean companies exploring 3D-printing with Himed's cutting-edge expertise.

"Many more companies in Korea could benefit from partnering with Himed," says I&H Global President Inchang Song. "They offer quality, integrity, and deep expertise in bioceramic materials. It's an honor to help connect innovative Korean manufacturers with Himed's technical teams."

Inchang Song will represent Himed at the upcoming Seoul International Dental Exhibition & Scientific Congress (SIDEX) from May 30?June 1, 2025. He'll be meeting with current customers and introducing new companies to the value of bioceramic materials and implant surface treatments. To schedule a meeting with Mr. Song at SIDEX, please email: [email protected]

About Himed: Since 1991, Himed has been on the vanguard of biomaterial coating characterization. With an all-in-one research and production facility in New York, Himed supplies raw calcium phosphate biomaterials for a wide array of uses and provides tailorable, biocompatible coating and texturing solutions with their MATRIX line of surface treatments. Himed is FDA registered and ISO 13485:2016 certified.

Contact: Kaelie Barnard | Dir. Marketing, Barson Corp.

[email protected] | +1 (516) 712?6050

SOURCE Himed LLC

22 may 2025 at 08:36

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Arizona Businesses Can Fund Scholarships for Underserved, Disabled, and Foster Children





PHOENIX, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Catholic Education Arizona helps Arizona corporate taxpayers invest in education and build Arizona's future workforce. Through the Arizona Low-Income and Disabled/Displaced Corporate Tax Credits, Arizona businesses can help fund scholarships for underserved, disabled, and foster K-12 students.

Nancy Padberg, MBA, President and CEO of Catholic Education Arizona, said, "We are fortunate to have school choice legislation in Arizona. The scholarships impact students' lives and strengthen families and communities."

Eligible Corporations and Insurance Companies can direct 100% of their Arizona corporate tax liability to fund scholarships through the Arizona Low-Income and Disabled/Displaced Corporate Tax Credits. For more information, including the Corporate Tax Credit Commitment Form, visit https://catholiceducationarizona.org/corporate/.

"It's literally that easy, you pay the money either way," remarked Jeff McQueen, President and Co-Founder of Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities. "Here it goes to a cause you're passionate about and know will make a tangible difference in the community."

Additional tuition scholarships can be funded through traditional donations and grants. Learn more at MyImpact.CatholicEducationArizona.org or contact [email protected].

Arizona corporations support Catholic Education Arizona and the Diocese of Phoenix Catholic Schools because of their results:

99% graduation rate

96% matriculate to higher education, trade school, or enter military service

1000s of hours of community service conducted annually

Catholic Education Arizona is the largest provider of scholarships to families attending Catholic schools in the Diocese of Phoenix. Since 1998, $363 million has been raised and 157,000 scholarships have been awarded. Catholic Education Arizona changes lives one scholarship at a time through tax credits, planned gifts, and traditional donations. Visit CEAZ.org or call (602) 218-6542 to learn more. Or, follow Catholic Education Arizona on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , and X .

Contact: Debra Preach, Chief Operating Officer

Catholic Education Arizona

[email protected]

(602)-218-6542

Catholic Education Arizona is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization and has never accepted gifts designated for individuals. Per state law, a school tuition organization cannot award, restrict or reserve scholarships solely on the basis of donor recommendation. A taxpayer may not claim a tax credit if the taxpayer agrees to swap donations with another taxpayer to benefit either taxpayer's own dependent.

SOURCE Catholic Education Arizona

22 may 2025 at 09:00

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Kikico Wine Events Awarded "Wine Tasting Experience of the Year" at 2024 Canada Prestige Awards





MONTREAL, May 22, 2025 /CNW/ - Kikico Wine Events has been awarded the prestigious Wine Tasting Experience of the Year at the 2024 Canada Prestige Awards.

Presented in late 2024, this award recognizes the company's excellence in crafting high-end wine experiences, thoughtfully designed in some of the world's most renowned wine regions.

At the heart of Kikico Wine Events is Kristine Mansuy, an award-winning sommelier with over 15 years of industry experience. A graduate of the Institute of Hospitality and Tourism of Quebec (ITHQ), Kristine is also a wine writer, keynote speaker and brand ambassador for several prestigious brands.

This distinction affirms Kikico Wine Events' position as a leader in luxury wine tourism, offering bespoke tasting workshops and wine tours in Canada, Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy. "Guided by a local wine expert, our exclusive experiences are meticulously designed to showcase the finest wines and hidden gems of each region?offering wine lovers an unparalleled journey into the world of viticulture and enology," explained Kristine.

The Canada Prestige Awards judges praised Kristine Mansuy's extensive expertise and dedication, noting that her passion for quality wines shines through in every event she leads. This award recognizes not only her professionalism and skill, but also the unique, immersive experiences delivered by Kikico Wine Events.

"We are incredibly honored to receive this recognition," said Kristine.

"At Kikico Wine Events, our mission is to create unforgettable wine experiences that celebrate craftsmanship, authenticity, and the joy of discovery. This award reflects the dedication of our team and partners, who all share the same passion for showcasing the exceptional wine regions we are privileged to represent."

From the cool-climate vineyards of Quebec's Eastern Townships, to Catalonia's vibrant wine scene, to the traditional wine regions of Southern Portugal, Kikico Wine Events proudly introduces guests to both iconic and emerging wine destinations.

The company's commitment to innovation is also reflected in Kristine's active involvement in the global wine community. She recently participated in Wine Travel Week in Portugal, a major international wine tourism event, where she explored up-and-coming regions such as the Algarve and the Bairrada Wine Route, gaining valuable insights to enhance Kikico's 2025 offerings.

"Portugal continues to surprise with its diversity and outstanding hospitality," Kristine noted.

"My experience at Wine Travel Week was incredibly inspiring and I can't wait to share these new discoveries with our clients through fresh, elevated experiences in 2025."

Kikico Wine Events continues to set the benchmark in bespoke wine tourism, combining deep industry knowledge, high standards of quality and a passion for storytelling to craft unforgettable journeys through the world of wine.

Discover Kikico's 2025 Wine Tourism Offers here.

About Kikico Wine Events

Kikico Wine Events is an award-winning boutique event planning agency specializing in bespoke wine and food experiences. The company offers customized workshops, events and wine tours across North America and Europe, created in collaboration with local experts to highlight the finest wine regions in the world.

The company was founded in 2017 by Kristine Mansuy, a certified sommelier and graduate of the Institute of Hospitality and Tourism of Quebec. With over 15 years of industry experience, Kristine has built a reputation as a wine expert, writer, keynote speaker and brand ambassador for several prestigious brands?bringing her deep knowledge and passion to the creation of tailor-made, unforgettable wine journeys.

SOURCE Kikico Wine Events

22 may 2025 at 09:30

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Chamblee Ryan Adds Veteran Attorney Edward P. Quillin





Longtime Dallas trial attorney Edward P. Quillin has joined Chamblee Ryan P.C. as a partner, bringing to the firm more than 35 years of experience representing healthcare professionals in litigation and business-related matters.

Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Mr. Quillin has tried more than 175 jury trials throughout Texas in cases involving catastrophic injury, property damage, and death. He has also represented individual medical providers and entities in a variety of business litigation and disputes involving employment, partnerships, contracts, and real estate.

In addition, he has successfully represented licensed medical professionals at hearings before the Texas Medical Board in claims involving ethics, medical records, billing practices, and other administrative matters.

"Ed is a perfect fit for our firm and for meeting the growing needs of our clients," says Chamblee Ryan co-founder and managing partner Bill Chamblee. "He is well-respected by judges and fellow lawyers across the state and offers extensive knowledge of the legal and business challenges faced by physicians and medical practices."

"I'm excited to merge with Chamblee Ryan," says Mr. Quillin. "I've known Bill and Jeff for over 35 years and have handled hundreds of cases where we represented co- defendants. Our styles are similar and together we'll continue providing clients with first- rate representation."

Mr. Quillin earned his law degree from the University of Akron School of Law, where he was a member of the Akron Law Review, and received his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University.

He has been named to the list of Texas Super Lawyers annually since 2009 and has earned the highest available AV Preeminent peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell for his legal knowledge and ethical representation. He is also a frequent speaker before fellow attorneys on current legal issues, jury selection and trial techniques.

Chamblee Ryan, P.C. is a Dallas-based trial firm representing insurance companies, medical professionals, transportation providers, healthcare institutions, and other businesses. Since 1998, the firm has relied on superior tactics and proven trial experience to prevail in numerous complex and significant cases.

22 may 2025 at 11:35

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Your House Rent is Too High? Heres Whos Really to Blame
Partial view of some part of the Du River between the Jallah Town and Saye Town in Central Monrovia.
LIMERICK Leader/ Limerick Live reporter Donal O'Regan has seen two of his journalistic works shortlisted for the Law Society of Ireland Justice Media Awards.

The awards received a record-breaking 495 entries across 16 award categories. In total, 140 entries were shortlisted.

The Justice Media Awards recognise outstanding print, broadcast and online journalism that contributes to the publics understanding of justice, the legal system, and access to justice issues.

Each shortlisted entry has been recognised for showcasing these key criteria and is now in with a chance of winning at the Justice Media Awards ceremony at the Law Society on Wednesday, June 25, said a spokesperson.

READ MORE: Former Munster Rugby staff member dies following two-year battle with breast cancer

Mr O'Regan's two entries - Beautiful Boy, and This is not Justice - were chosen in the Print/Online Journalism (local) category for "outstanding legal journalism published in local newspapers or on local news websites". Each of the awards' entries included a series of articles.

The title of the entry Beautiful Boy was a nod to the John Lennon song played at the start of the funeral of UL Journalism student Joe Drennan, who was killed in a hit-and-run in Castletroy.

The coverage in the Leader and on Limerick Live commenced when Joes killer - Kieran Fogarty - was first charged for gangland offences at a special court sitting in Newcastle West. The dangerous driving causing death charge came later.

It was the first of many court appearances for Fogarty that Mr ORegan covered, culminating in the sentencing hearing and then weeks later, the judgement that made local and national headlines.

The family expressed their disgust that Fogarty wouldnt serve a day for killing our Joe" due to the concurrent sentencing that was imposed.

Mr ORegan wrote stories on the petition, protests and calls on the DPP to appeal the sentence. He broke the story that a threatening letter was sent to the judge in the case. The DPP have since confirmed they are appealing the sentence.

The second shortlisted piece is This is not Justice.

There are few in Ireland who dont know the name Natasha OBrien but would they if the case wasnt covered on a Wednesday last June?

A then serving soldier Cathal Crotty received a suspended sentence for assaulting Ms OBrien.

"Two to put her down. Two to put her out," he had bragged to friends.

Outside the court, a video of Natasha was recorded in which she said: This is not justice."

In the following days, Mr ORegan revealed the first photo of her injuries. He followed up with an interview with Ms O'Brien who revealed at one point she thought "Why bother going on?.

Protests that drew thousands, the public backlash against the presiding judge, as well as Crottys own solicitor Sarah Ryan standing up for the judge were covered in the coverage.

Mr ORegan also exclusively broke the story that a threatening letter was sent to the home of Crotty.

Reporter Chris McNulty of the Donegal Democrat - sister newspaper of the Limerick Leader - has also been nominated for his entry The time to justice in the same category.
TRIBUTES have poured in for a hugely valued, inspirational University of Limerick (UL) professor, who has sadly passed away.

Dr Sarah Mitchell joined UL as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics in January, 2008, following successful postdoctoral research positions at the University of British Columbia and the University of Cape Town.

A native of Bristol, she completed her PhD in mathematics at the University of Bath in 2003.

Living and working in Castletroy, she passed away on May 17, peacefully, at Milford Care Centre. Dr Mitchells funeral service will take place on May 30.

READ ALSO: Parishioners to venerate relics of saints

Acting president of UL, Shane Kilcommins, said: I am very saddened by the death of our hugely valued colleague and friend, Professor Sarah Mitchell.

Sarah was held in universally high regard by students and colleagues. She was extremely hard-working, diligent, and unfailingly generous with her time.

I know I speak for the full campus community in expressing our sincere condolences to all of Sarahs family, especially to her mother Pat and brothers Andrew and James, to her many friends, colleagues, and students.

Dr Mitchell believed strongly in the virtues of diversity and fairness for all and chaired the first Athena Swan application for the department, resulting in the first bronze award to a mathematics department in the country.

She also co-chaired the subsequent Athena Swan applications for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, culminating in the first Athena Swan silver award for a mathematics department in Ireland.

With a strong sense of duty and a natural ability to lead and to inspire others, Dr Mitchell took up the role of Head of Department in September 2016 and helped to foster the culture of inclusivity and togetherness in the department and the MACSI research group.

She continued her research work throughout this time, and helped grow the departments international reputation through the organisation of European Study Groups with Industry, which attracted mathematicians and statisticians from many countries to Limerick.

READ ALSO: Limerick university honours top sustainable projects with 10k prize

Her PhD students benefited from her expertise on mathematical modelling and numerical methods, her strong international collaboration network, and her selfless dedication to the development of their skills and career prospects, Professor Kilcommins said.

Sarah was diagnosed with cancer in early 2020 but continued to lead the department through the pandemic disruptions, remaining unfailingly stoic and positive throughout her treatment.

In the words of her close colleague and friend, Professor James Gleeson: We will never forget her immense bravery and her refusal to despair, as we celebrate her happy and vivacious life, her accomplishments, and all she gave to life and those lucky enough to know her.

Dr Mitchell will be is the beloved daughter of Pat and the late Sandy is the dearly loved sister of Andrew and James. Will be sadly missed by her sisters-in-law Stephanie and Kirsty, nephews Dylan, Lucas. Harry and Zack, nieces Ella and Erin, extended family, her colleagues in the University Limerick and friends.

Many condolences have flooded in on RIP.ie, including some from colleagues and past students, which highlight the enormity of how Dr Mitchell touched their lives in more ways than one.

One student said: Sarah was the best PhD supervisor I could have asked for. She gave me the freedom to find my own way, but never let me drift too far. Shell be missed.

READ ALSO: University of Limerick to host showcase to answer students' questions on all things science

Another student wrote: My sincere condolences to Sarah's family and friends, Sarah was one of my lecturers during my time in UL, a wonderful lecturer with a sincere interest in helping others learn. Thank you Sarah, for your time and dedication helping us all learn, understand and appreciate maths more, it won't be forgotten.

One UL colleague said: Sarah had a warmth and kindness about her. She always greeted people with a smile and a genuine interest in how they were doing, even when she herself was unwell. Her absence will be deeply felt across the department.

While a dear friend shared: I knew Sarah outside her academic career. She joined our hiking club shortly after arriving in Limerick. We did a few trips abroad together.

We had a great adventure to Peru and to the Grand Paradise in Italy. We met regularly for coffee. I really admire how she coped for the past five years with her serious illness. Sarah spoke so fondly of her family. I will miss her but glad that her suffering is over. Rest in peace Sarah.
THE Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned Limerick City and County Council it may have to issue a legal direction if their shortfall in septic tank inspections is not addressed.

Local authorities completed 1,390 inspections under the National Inspection Plan (NIP) in 2024.

Limerick's council only completed 50 of last year's allocation of 111 and are required to make this up in 2025.

These findings are from the EPA's latest report on Domestic Waste Water Treatment System Inspections 2024, which details the findings of septic tank inspections completed by local authorities.

Nationally of the septic tanks inspected in 2024, 56% failed because they were not built properly - the Limerick failure rate was 54%.

READ MORE: Drought status confirmed for nine areas in Limerick by Uisce Eireann

Noel Byrne, EPA programme manager warned: More than half of septic tanks failed inspection, which is a real concern. Householders water supplies and local rivers may be exposed to contamination from faulty septic tanks, which can pose a serious health risk to individuals and the local environment.

A spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said: The Council acknowledges that inspection targets for 2024 under the National Inspection Plan for Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems were not met. This shortfall was primarily due to resourcing challenges.

To address these challenges, the Council has a comprehensive inspection plan for 2025.

Domestic waste water treatment systems, mostly septic tanks, are used by householders to treat sewage. There are nearly half a million systems in Ireland.
FROM HUMBLE beginnings to a legacy cherished by generations of Limerick people, St Johns Brass and Reed Band stands today as far more than a musical ensemble - it is a vibrant community of talented musicians and, more importantly, friends.

Founded in 1865 and originally known as The Victuallers Band, it began as the band of Limericks butchers guild.

Over the decades, it evolved in both name and scope, becoming St Johns Workmens Band in the 1920s, and eventually adopting its current name in line with its instrumentation - brass instruments such as trumpets, trombones, and e-flat basses, alongside reed instruments like clarinets, saxophones, and flutes.

As one of Irelands oldest community bands, St Johns is proudly celebrating 160 years of music-making.

Among those thrilled with the bands recent recognition as Limerick Persons of the Month, is Tony McCarthy, chairperson of the band and clarinet player.

READ ALSO: 'Fast-paced' theatre show chosen as New York Times Critics Pick comes to Limerick

Tony, who was born and raised in Mulgrave Street, Limerick city, said: We are very proud to be part of the musical life of our city.

As a non-profit, community-based organisation with charity status, we have always had a vision and commitment to Limericks cultural development.

In collaboration with the Redemptorist Centre of Music, who support our band, we rehearse at their premises every Monday night. It is a great social activity too and I have made great friends. It is a wonderful group.

Marking the 160 years with a free commemorative concert in the city on Saturday, May 17, an exhibition was also held on the same day to highlight their colourful history.

This commemorative event featured a special anniversary exhibition and concert at the historic Old St Johns Church, Johns Square, Garryowen, tracing the bands remarkable journey since its founding in 1865.

The concert drew great crowds who came from far and wide to hear the melodic tunes under the radiant sunshine in Limerick city, with special guests including Cllr Kieran OHanlon, Dr Matthew Potter, curator, Limerick Museum, and Dr Derek Mulcahy, Mary Immaculate College (MIC), both of whom reflected on the bands cultural significance and historic legacy in Limerick.

Under the musical direction of Dr Andrew Jordan, who Tony describes as the bands main man, the 30 band members come together to create music and socialise every week.

Upon being recognised for their efforts and being honoured with a Limerick Persons of the Month award, Dr Andrew Jordan said: Its our 160th year, so this award represents not just the members that are here this year, but all members that have been in the band over the last number of years. Its a real honour.

With band members ranging from age 17 to their 70s and from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, such as Argentina, the St Johns Brass and Reed Band is ever evolving, which Tony feels is of great importance.

I first heard the band marching up Mulgrave Street in the 1970s and when I joined the band in my 20s, the numbers were very, very low, Tony said.

There were about seven members. But they were great musicians and great guys, a few like Michael Hinchy, Jimmy McCormack, Brendan Dunne and Frank Phelan.

They inspired me to stay in the band. They taught people. When I went into the band, I couldnt read music or play an instrument, but they would bring you under their wing, he explained.

And I see that still, nothing has changed. The tutors are focused and even though it is a different generation, its evolving.

It is an open door, everybody is welcome.

READ ALSO: Iconic musical band celebrate 160-year anniversary with free concert in Limerick

The band has seen its share of difficulties over the decades, losing all its members during the war years, and again in the 1970s and 1980s, and having to give up their beloved band hall of over 40 years for city development work.

But with drive, passion and tireless effort, the band has always returned with a united spirit.

With a band that has such a long history and tradition, nobody wants to be the last person out the door and to close the door behind them, Tony continued.

There is a legacy and we are very aware of the connection between the band and the culture of the city, especially for the likes of the International Band Festival and St Patricks Day, where thousands turn out on the streets to see us play.

Celebrating a significant milestone in Limericks musical history, an exhibition showcasing a rich collection of memorabilia, photographs, instruments, uniforms, and artefacts chronicling St Johns Brass and Reeds musical heritage will be opened at St Marys Cathedral, during Heritage Week in August.

Over the last century, the band has represented Limerick at local, national and international levels. Tony pointed out.

In the early 2000s, around 2004, there was a new lease of life and it was the first time the band ever went abroad.

We marched at the St Patricks Day parade in Boston, which was incredible. We also travelled to Quimper, France, which Limerick was twinned with.

Another time we marched on a famous bridge in Prague, another St Patricks weekend, and we also went to Liverpool before to enter in a competition.

They would have been good days for the band and while our numbers are increasing, it is looking up once again for the future!

What truly sets St Johns Brass and Reed Band apart is not only its storied past and its musical excellence, but the enduring spirit of inclusion, mentorship, resilience and, friendship.

And long may it last!
Tributes have poured in for Irish poet Paul Durcan who's funeral is being held in Dublin following his recent death at the age of 80.

Michael D Higgins is among guests to attend the well-known poets funeral, according to The Journal.

Funeral prayers will be held at St Mary's Church in Westport in Mayo at 11am on Friday May 23, followed by burial in Aughavale Cemetery afterwards.

Some of Durcan's most iconic poems are A Snail in my Prime, Crazy About Women, Greetings to Our Friends in Brazil and Cries of an Irish Caveman.



Durcan passed away on 17 May 2025 and his RIP.ie tribute piece said:

"He will be sadly missed by Nessa, his daughters Sarah and Siabhra, his son Michael, his sons-in-law, Mark and Blaise, his daughter-in-law, Linden and his grandchildren: Rosie, Kitty, Beatrice, Sonny, Edward, Arthur, Julia, Blaise Sren and Rosa. He will be remembered by his loving family, relatives and friends."

Heartfelt messages have been left on RIP.ie from all over the country, from those who knew and fondly remembered Paul Durcan and from those who appreciated his work, with one mourner writing,

"Condolences to all his family. Greatly appreciated in life. Much praised in death. A national poet of his time."

READ NEXT: Shockingly sad news'- Young Irish man dies tragically during holiday in Portugal

Another message said, "Paul was a wonderful poet his legacy will live on," and "Dear Sarah and Siabhra

Sincerest condolences on the passing of your beloved father Paul. May he rest in peace. Paul was a great poet who made his voice and vision accessible to all. He will be hugely missed. Sympathies also to Mark and Blaise and your families."

"I was very sad to hear of Paul's death. To all of Paul's family, friends, fellow poets and writers I offer my sincere sympathy.

I have very nice memories of Paul staying in our house in Inniskeen for the Patrick Kavanagh weekends. He wrote about one of these visits to Inniskeen in his Diaries which Paul himself read out on the Pat Kenny radio show. I bought two of his diaries for my children which he included in his diary. On another stay with us he signed the books and wrote very personal and kind messages to both of them. Thank you. Rest in Peace Paul," another tribute read.
It is crazy that the deadline for the National Childrens Hospital to open has been missed 15 times, the Dail has been told.

The Public Accounts Committee heard on Thursday that in the past seven months, developer BAM had achieved around 60% of its planned progress.

This has moved the completion deadline from June to September 30  the 15th time the substantial completion date has been extended, according to the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.

Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty told the Dail the hospital had become an epic saga which has ballooned from a cost of 650 million euro to 2.2 billion euro.

The deadline for opening this hospital has been missed 15 times  15 times. Like thats crazy. Crazy, he told Tanaiste Simon Harris during Leaders Questions.

Youve broken your election promise when you said it would be delivered in June.

Do you really expect the public to have any greater faith in this date compared to any one of the other 15 dates that you and your Government ministers have announced?

He accused Mr Harris, a former health minister, of signing off on a contract to build the hospital that was skewed in favour of the construction company.

It was build-as-you-go, and that is why BAM has the state over the barrel for the last eight years.

Now your Government is blaming the construction company. Its not a surprise to anybody on this side that developers are going to squeeze as much profit out as they can. But competent ministers are supposed to protect the public purse, he said.

Mr Harris said the hospital was well over 95% complete and technical commissioning was under way.

He accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy and said a childrens hospital to be built in Belfast would cost more per square metre than Dublins, citing the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, whos your partys vice president, said she was delighted that 671 million would be spent on a state-of-an-art childrens hospital at Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital.

Ladies and gentlemen, who was that contract with? Does anyone know? BAM, the same developer whos building the hospital in this jurisdiction.

He said BAM had since pulled out of the project, which had delayed it.

They (the PBO) have looked at the hospital Sinn Fein are presiding over the north, the hospital were presiding over here with BAM, and they found yours is more expensive than the one were delivering. So get over yourself with the absolute hypocrisy.

He said the hospital has 22 operating theatres, 6,150 rooms with spaces for parents to stay with their child, and a helipad.

We know its a hospital that costs more than originally intended, that is true.

And yes, you know  because youve been covering finance for a hell of a long time for your party  you know that weve changed significantly the approach we take to the delivery of infrastructure.

Aontu leader Peadar Toibin said no one was questioning the quality of the hospital.

He said the additional 1.5 billion euro it has cost to build has come from the pockets of hard-working Irish citizens and taxpayers.

Its not a victimless crime as well. The opportunity cost of that 1.5 billion euros would have actually paid for over 4,500 homes in this country. It would have housed up to 18,000 people, more than the number of people who are currently homeless.

But Tanaiste, you are the blame-shifting expert in this country. Simon it wasnt me Harris.

He raised previous quotes from Mr Harris that he was not responsible for signing the contract that underpinned the construction of the Dublin hospital.

This contract lacks an enormous amount of detail within it, which has allowed it to become a blank cheque for the contractor, it is designed to fail from the start, Mr Toibin said.

He added that inertia, waste and blame-shifting are the characteristics of this Government.

Mr Harris said he was responsible for bringing the proposal to Cabinet and recommending they proceed, and would be responsible for a world-class facility and transforming childrens healthcare.

Nobody gets everything right in politics and a lot of lessons have been learned, he said.
As Analog Devices prepare to mark 50 years in Limerick next year, the companys journey is a remarkable story of innovation, growth and positive impactboth globally and locally.

With more than 1,650 employees across Ireland and a major presence in Limerick, Analog Devices (ADI) is one of the largest employers in the Mid-West, contributing significantly to the regions economic landscape.

Founded in 1965 and operating in Ireland since 1976, ADI empowers the 'intelligent edge' with the most innovative analog, digital and software solutions, accelerating break-throughs that benefit society and the planet.

These innovations help make everything, from cars and medical diagnostics to factory automation and clean energy systems, smarter and more responsive, with much of this ground-breaking work happening right here in Limerick as more than half of Analog Devices staff in Ireland engaged in high-value R&D.

Its campus at Raheen Business Park has evolved into one of the companys strategic centres and its European regional headquarters. It is also home to Catalyst - a space where ADI's customers, partners and Irish-based SMEs collaborate on challenges across the industrial, automotive and healthcare sectors in a dynamic, real-world environment.

In 2023, ADI announced a 630 million investment in Limerick to develop a next-generation semiconductor R&D and manufacturing facilityunderscoring the strategic importance of Ireland and the region to ADIs global operations. Along with this, Analog Devices is more than a tech powerhouseits also a great place to work with deep roots in Limerick.

This is reflected in the career of Vincent Roche, ADIs CEO and Chair of the Board, who began his journey at the Limerick site in 1988 and is a proud University of Limerick graduate.

ADI is equally committed to the next generation. The company actively supports STEM education from primary school through to postgraduate level, providing funding, resources and employee expertise to help young people build the skills that will shape the future.

It recently expanded its hugely popular Primary Schools Robotics competition which saw over 800 students across the Mid-West learn the basics of Robotics in a fun environment.

As the company approaches its 50th anniversary in Ireland, it remains firmly focused on whats nextdelivering technology that improves lives, supports sustainability, and helps customers stay ahead of whats possible.

*Sponsored Content
With the recent improvement in the weather, we are seeing more and more customers coming in-store to talk about exteriors.

Painting the exterior of your home is an investment and exploring all the different colour options can feel daunting. However, with a little bit of know-how you can find the perfect colour and boost your homes kerb appeal.

Tip #1: Survey Your Surroundings

For inspiration, first consider your neighbourhood. Note the colours of nearby buildings and think about whether you would like your house to stand out or blend in.

With a colour card in-hand, think about what colours would help you to achieve your desired look without clashing with the environment. If youre living in an area with lots of greenery, why not take colour ideas from the landscape around you?

Tip #2: Factor in Your Homes Features

Consider everything. For example, if you have some stone or some red brick - a complimentary colour will beautifully enhance it! - Fiona Fennelly, Colour Consultant at Pat McDonnell Paints, Kilkenny

Think about the colours of any exterior features and fittings that you are not planning on changing any time soon (e.g., brickwork, windows and doors, driveway, roof, fencing or decking etc.). These elements should serve as a base to build on.

By choosing a paint colour that works with your homes unchanging features, you can create a beautiful colour scheme that shows off your exterior. As our Cork-based Colour Consultant, Fiona Finnegan, advises Take into account the style of the house (inside and outside) and its surroundings.

Tip #3: Test, Test, Test

Whatever you choose: Test, Test, Test! - Anne Curtin, Colour Consultant at Pat McDonnell Paints Galway

Use colour cards to narrow down your selection to your top choices, pick up a few testers to see how they will look. Paint large test patches and keep an eye on them over the course of the day to see how the colours change in different lights.

Bear in mind that the colour may appear different on different sides of your home depending on how much sunlight each side receives. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to assess your test patches.

Tip #4: Choose A Colour You Love

My top tip? Youve got to love your colour!  Patricia O'Connor, Colour Consultant at Pat McDonnell Paints Athlone

Your exterior colour scheme is a great opportunity to show off your personality and taste!

While trends can be helpful, don't forget to trust your instincts and choose a colour that you love. After all, you're the one who will be living with it.

Tip #5: Book A Consultation with Our Qualified Colour Experts

To avail of a wide range of colour cards and expert colour advice, you can book a free colour consultation with one of our in store colour experts.

To book your session today, call us at 021 432 0200 or simply complete an online booking form.

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WHEN THE chief executive of a large tech firm based in San Francisco shares a drink with the bosses of his Fortune 500 clients, he often hears a similar message. Theyre frustrated and disappointed. They say: I dont know why its taking so long. Ive spent money on this. Its not happening".

For many companies, excitement over the promise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has given way to vexation over the difficulty of making productive use of the technology. According to S&P Global, a data provider, the share of companies abandoning most of their generative-AI pilot projects has risen to 42%, up from 17% last year. The boss of Klarna, a Swedish buy-now, pay-later provider, recently admitted that he went too far in using the technology to slash customer-service jobs, and is now rehiring humans for the roles.

Consumers, for their part, continue to be enthusiastic adopters of generative AI. Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, recently said that its ChatGPT bot was being used by some 800m people a week, twice as many as in February. Many already regularly turn to the technology at work. Yet generative AIs transformative potential will be realised only if a broad swath of companies systematically embed it into their products and operations. Faced with sluggish progress, many bosses are sliding into the trough of disillusionment", says John Lovelock of Gartner, referring to the stage in the consultancys famed hype cycle" that comes after the euphoria generated by a new technology.

This poses a problem for the so-called hyperscalersAlphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Metathat are still pouring vast sums into building the infrastructure underpinning AI. According to Pierre Ferragu of New Street Research, their combined capital expenditures are on course to rise from 12% of revenues a decade ago to 28% this year. Will they be able to generate healthy enough returns to justify the splurge?

Companies are struggling to make use of generative AI for many reasons. Their data troves are often siloed and trapped in archaic IT systems. Many experience difficulties hiring the technical talent needed. And however much potential they see in the technology, bosses know they have brands to protect, which means minimising the risk that a bot will make a damaging mistake or expose them to privacy violations or data breaches.

Meanwhile, the tech giants continue to preach AIs potential. Their evangelism was on full display this week during the annual developer conferences of Microsoft and Alphabets Google. Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, their respective bosses, talked excitedly about a platform shift" and the emergence of an agentic web" populated by semi-autonomous AI agents interacting with one another on behalf of their human masters.

The two tech bosses highlighted how AI models are getting better, faster, cheaper and more widely available. At one point Elon Musk announced to Microsofts crowd via video link that xAI, his AI lab, would be making its Grok models available on the tech giants Azure cloud service (shortly after Mr Altman, his nemesis, used the same medium to tout the benefits of OpenAIs deep relationship with Microsoft). Messrs Nadella and Pichai both talked up a new measurethe number of tokens processed in generative-AI modelsto demonstrate booming usage.

Fuddy-duddy measures of business success, such as sales or profit, were not in focus. For now, the meagre cloud revenues Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are making from AI, relative to the magnitude of their investments, come mostly from AI labs and startups, some of which are bankrolled by the giants themselves.

Still, as Mr Lovelock of Gartner argues, much of the benefit of the technology for the hyperscalers will come from applying it to their own products and operations. At its event, Google announced that it will launch a more conversational AI mode" for its search engine, powered by its Gemini models. It says that the AI summaries that now appear alongside its search results are already used by more than 1.5bn people each month. Google has also introduced generative AI into its ad business, to help companies create content and manage their campaigns. Meta, which does not offer a cloud-computing service, has done the same in its ad business using its open-source Llama models. Microsoft has embedded AI into its suite of workplace apps and its coding platform, Github. Amazon has applied the technology in its e-commerce business to improve product recommendations and optimise logistics. AI may also allow the tech giants to cut programming jobs. This month Microsoft laid off 6,000 workers, many of whom were reportedly software engineers.

These efforts, if successful, may even encourage other companies to keep experimenting with the technology until they, too, can make it work. Troughs, after all, have two sides; next in Gartners cycle comes the slope of enlightenment", which sounds much more enjoyable. At that point, companies that have underinvested in AI may come to regret it. The cost of falling behind is already clear at Apple, which was slower than its fellow tech giants to embrace generative AI. It has flubbed the introduction of a souped-up version of its voice assistant Siri, rebuilt around the technology. The new bot is so bug-ridden its rollout has been postponed.

Mr Lovelocks bet is that the trough will last until the end of next year. In the meantime, the hyperscalers have work to do. Kevin Scott, Microsofts chief technology officer, said this week that for AI agents to live up to their promise, serious work needs to be done on memory, so that they can recall past interactions. The web also needs new protocols to help agents gain access to various data streams. Microsoft has now signed up to an open-source one called Model Context Protocol, launched in November by Anthropic, another AI lab, joining Amazon, Google and OpenAI.

Many companies say that what they need most is not cleverer AI models, but more ways to make the technology useful. Mr Scott calls this the capability overhang." He and Anthropics co-founder Dario Amodei used the Microsoft conference to urge users to think big and keep the faith. Dont look away," said Mr Amodei. Dont blink."
Mumbai: Dialysis chain NephroPlus has engaged with bankers for a planned initial public offering to raise $200-250 million to fund expansion, two people familiar with the matter told Mint .

Backed by Investcorp and Quadria Capital, the company will file its draft papers with the regulator over the next three months, with the listing likely by next year, one person said. The person said the IPO will have a fresh capital raise and an offer by existing investors looking to sell a part of their stake.

NephroPlus has engaged with ICICI Securities, IIFL Capital Services, Nomura and Ambit Capital to help with the issue," the second person said.

NephroPlus and the investment banks did not respond to Mints requests for comment on the proposed IPO.

Quadria, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, invested about 850 crore for a minority stake in NephroPlus last year through a combination of a primary investment and the purchase of shares from Investcorp, Bessemer Venture Partners, IFC, and IIFL Private Equity.

NephroPlus planned to use the funds raised from Quadria for growth in India and overseas. With plans for additional acquisitions, specialised chains such as NephroPlus are expected to gain market share as hospitals increasingly outsource dialysis operations and governments seek to make high-quality dialysis services more accessible.

Demand for dialysis services in the companys target markets is expected to grow at over 11% annually over the next five years, Quadria said when it invested in the company in May 2024.

Founded by Vikram Vuppala and Kamal Shah in 2010, the Hyderabad-based company operates about 450 dialysis centres in 250+ towns and cities across India, the Philippines and Uzbekistan. It serves about 30,000 patients, carrying out 3 million dialysis sessions each year.

Healthcare growth

The company operates in marquee hospitals and standalone clinics, working with leading nephrologists, and also through public-private partnerships in urban and rural areas. Over the past three years, NephroPlus entered the Philippines by acquiring Royal Care Dialysis Centers Inc. and won a public-private partnership bid in Uzbekistan.

NephroPlus revenue grew to 566 crore in FY24 from 438 crore a year earlier. It recorded a profit of 35 crore from a loss of 12 crore in FY23, according to an Entrackr report.

Also Read | Choppy markets take toll on pre-IPO deal talks

The Indian healthcare ecosystem is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16% to $527 billion over the next five years from $250 billion in FY24. The market includes services such as healthcare delivery, diagnostics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, financing, and health-tech, according to a report by Praxis Global Alliance last year.

Of the $250 billion, healthcare delivery accounts for about 55% (about $135 billion) and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18% over the next five years. Praxis added that the growth will be primarily driven by changing demographics, increasing urbanisation and health insurance coverage, improving medical tourism, favourable government policies, and rising health awareness and accessibility.
Chennai: On an October evening in 2016, a professor from IIT Madras came across a talk by Tony Seba, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur.

In the video, Seba showed two remarkable pictures. The first one was from 1900an Easter Parade in New York Citys Fifth Avenue. In the middle of the street, crowded with horse-drawn carriages, was a car. One could barely see it. He next showed a picture from the same parade 13 years later. Where is the horse?" Seba asked. Fifth Avenue, now crowded with cars, just had one horse carriage.

Seba went on to make a few predictions. All cars will become electrified; by 2020, the cost of an electric car will be about the same as that of an internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered car; by 2030, everybody will start using electric cars and we will enter the era of driverless vehicles.

I finished watching the video and wondered what am I doing here building the worlds largest combustion centre," Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, the professor, says.

Back then, Chakravarthy was working on establishing the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development at IIT Madras.

That video encounter would eventually spark an incredible journey for the professor, from academia to entrepreneurship. It planted the first seed of what seemed an almost improbable idea nine years agobuilding air taxis in India.

Rockets and satellites

This writer took a 36 km journey with Chakravarthy, from the IIT Madras campus in Chennai, where he resides, to the institutes satellite campus, in Thaiyur.

View Full Image A file photo of the IIT Madras campus.

It is 8:15 am on a hot Monday morning. Dressed in a white shirt with red checkered lines, the professor pops open his steel tiffin box for breakfast in the car, an everyday ritual. He scoops a spoonful of boiled chickpeas, and then pauses mid-bite, to recollect what happened after he heard Sebas talk.

That night, he spent time with a colleague, walking the lush green campus of IIT Madras, telling him that they had to build electric planes. If cars can become electric, its only a matter of time before planes do, he reasoned. The question in his mind was time. Could electric planes become a reality before he retires in 2034?

I had a good 18 years ahead. I could pretend that its not going to happen and continue to work in combustion. But I decided I cant be living in denial for about 18 years. Instead, I should actually jump on the bandwagon and be the driver of change," Chakravarthy says.

The ePlane Co. was incorporated two years later, with a grand visionto alleviate global traffic congestion.

Founded by the professor and incubated in IIT Madras, the company is now testing a cargo plane for metro cities. The air taxi is in the engineering phase with regulatory audits expected to begin this fiscal year.

Thats not the only company Chakravarthy started. He collaborated, advised or co-founded a handful of other deep-tech businessesAgniKul Cosmos, Aerostrovilos Energy, GalaxEye, TuTr Hyperloop, and X2Fuels.

Agnikul Cosmos is building small rockets that can launch satellites into space quickly and at a low cost; Aerostrovilos is developing compact micro gas turbines, which are small, jet engine-like machines that generate electricity; GalaxEye is building satellites for earth observation; TuTr Hyperloop is aiming to develop an ultra high-speed ground transportation system while X2Fuels is working on turning waste into clean fuel and chemicals, helping reduce pollution.

If these companies become successful businesses, going ahead, they could shape the future of space, transport, farming, and energy.

Social guy

Growing up in Chennai, professor Chakravarthy taught himself to play the violin. He also loved to sketch in his spare time.

After school, Chakravarthy did not get admission into an IIT right away; he enrolled himself in a private engineering college in Chennai.

His extroverted nature pulled him into college lifetaking on internships, leading initiatives, and even running the hostel magazine during elections. Wherever he got involved, his energy and leadership stood out.

I am a very social guy. My room was the place where all the guys who did not pay attention in class congregated," he remembers.

He then prepared for the joint entrance examination, one of Indias most competitive tests for admission to top engineering institutions, with more seriousness. In 1987, he managed to secure the 835th rank.

Aerospace studies, at IIT Madras, was on the menu.

I was not interested in coding and computers. I wanted to do stuff with my hands and build things. That is the reason why I picked aerospace over chemical, metallurgy or other options," Chakravarthy says.

After his bachelors in aerospace engineering, he went on to pursue higher studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. Following a postdoctoral stint, he returned to join IIT Madras as a professor in 1997.

Mr Cool

With half a dozen companies to advise now, the professor is a busy man.

He spends two hours advising startups hes involved with; three hours teaching at IIT Madras, and the rest of his time leading The ePlane Co. as both its chief executive officer and the chief technology officer. But thats not allChakravarthy is a much sought after speaker and does the rounds of tech conferences.

He never loses his cool, despite wearing many hats, his colleagues vouch.

We have around 20 teams, from preliminary design to detailed design, and he (Chakravarthy) has to check and advise each one of them," Rajasekar Vijayakumar, head of manufacturing at The ePlane Co., says. But, he maintains his cool throughout the day."

The professor mostly joins deeptech startups at their formative stage, helping shape their technical designs, making the necessary connections, and at times, even funding them. Nonetheless, he is not involved in the daily operations of most of these companies.

For instance, Chakravarthy played a crucial role in mentoring Srinath Ravichandran and Moin SPM, co-founders of Agnikul. The duo approached him through multiple contacts in the summer of 2017 and sought guidance on building rockets.

View Full Image A file photo of Agnikuls Agnibaan rocket.

His extensive network within the Isro community helped us connect with some of our very important advisors. Another thing is that when you are a young company, you need validation about what you are building and the professors help in the initial months was critical," Ravichandran tells this writer. He is the person who suggested that we should make single piece rocket engines. He is also the person who pushed us to reach a point where the entire rocket engine is 3D printed," he adds.

In May last year, Agnikul test-launched its 3D printed semi-cryogenic rocket, a feat that received a congratulatory message from the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

All startups have their own founders and I do not step on their toes. They expect me to only be an advisor," Chakravarthy says.

Uber in the sky

The realization of what it can become was a magical moment for Vinod Shankar, founder at venture capital firm Java Capital and an early investor in The ePlane Co.

Shankar, who has a farmhouse near Mysuru, noted with excitement that when the ePlane taxis happen, the hope in the family is that they can go from Bengaluru to the farm in 15-20 minutes. Why do you need to live in Bengaluru then? Its an urban revolution as you dont need to live in dense cities," he says.

View Full Image The ePlane Co. has raised about $21.5 million so far. Apart from Java Capital, investors include Speciale Invest and 3one4 Capital. (Website)

Before that magical moment can happen, the company has to solve hard engineering problems.

Technically, it is building what is known as an electric-powered compact aircraft or eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing). These planes can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter and dont need a long runway.

Unlike helicopters, the three-seater aircraft (which would include the pilots) has wings that give a lift when it moves forward and reduces the energy needed to stay in the air. Drones or helicopters, in comparison, rely only on rotors. The aircraft would look like a cross between a drone and a small plane.

The company is currently building its first prototype, with test flights scheduled for August. This will be followed by additional prototypes, each refined and flight-tested as part of the certification process. It aims to commercialize the air taxis by 2027.

While the commute via air taxis would cut short time, they might, in fact, become cheaper than Uber one day, claims the professor. The company has been mapping distance and costs comparing it with the cab aggregator.

Uber had a model by which they used existing cars. But we dont have existing assets in our case. So, it will take a couple of years for me to ramp up to the level, but the point is, its doable," Chakravarthy says.

Initially, commercialization could begin with the aircraft operating as air ambulance.

The ePlane Co. has raised about $21.5 million so far. Apart from Java Capital, investors include Speciale Invest and 3one4 Capital.

The fascinating thing is that Chakravarthy is an aerospace guypropulsion and combustion were his specialties, says Sonal Saldanha, vice president at 3one4 Capital. He was at the centre for combustion research. Electric vehicles need to be anything but combustible. I say this as a joke, but the point is that he was willing to take major calls on his career trajectory based on where he saw an opportunity, regardless of where hes spent time building an identity," Saldanha adds.

Investors say the professor is savvy when it comes to raising moneyan essential skill when it comes to building deep tech companies that can mop up huge capital.

Fundraising is one of the toughest things that founders have to face, but hes naturally equipped and has been doing a great job at this for a long time now," Saldanha says.

Further fund raise for the The ePlane Co. would test the professoraccording to investors in the know, air taxis would require humongous capital for it to become a reality.

Of the six companies he is part of, AgniKul Cosmos has raised the most thus far, going by data from Tracxn$42 million.

Jargons for outsiders

None of the startups the professor advises, or is a co-founder at, have generated revenue at this point.

GalaxEye could start generating revenue from next year, he says, while The ePlane Co. and AgniKul Cosmos could start making money towards the end of next year. The ePlane Co., meanwhile, is beginning to clock some very small revenue" with the drones a subsidiary of the company builds.

Chakravarthy, meanwhile, remains an academic at heart even when he steps outside the classroom and into the fast-paced world of startups. He says he doesnt get enamoured by equity, valuation and exits. They are just jargons to be used for the outside world.

What drives him, personally, is the daily grind16-hour days but one step at a time. His only pause is a couple of quiet hours on Sunday, when he unwinds.

Shankar of Java Capital points out that he has not come across anyone from academics who is as energetic as Chakravarthy. If anybody can do this in India, its only Satya. Nobody is going to take that level of risk," he says.
Ireland based tech company Accenture is set to promote as many as 50,000 international employees in June 2025, after a six-month delay, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The promotions include 15,000 jobs in India; 11,000 in Europe, Middle East and Africa; and 10,000 in North and South America, the report said citing internal memos.

As per its latest earnings report, Accenture has 8,01,000 employees, which means the promotions will be for around 6 per cent of its total workforce.

The company did not respond to a request for comment, the report added.

What did the memo say? Last year our operating margin  how we measure profitability as a percentage of revenue  contracted compared to adjusted operating margin for the second quarter last year. We are also seeing an elevated level of uncertainty in the global economic and geopolitical environment, the memo sent to employees said, Bloomberg reported.

It added there will be some base pay increases in core growth areas, which are based on current market conditions, while bonus and performance equity decisions will be made in December.

Salary Hikes: 3-13% in India says report According to a report by Moneycontrol, in India, Accenture is giving 3-13 per cent salary hikes for employees at Level 8 (Associate Manager) and above. This is the first increment in two-and-a-half years.

This move signals cautious optimism amid an elevated level of uncertainty in the global economic and geopolitical environment, the report said, citing an internal mail shared by Ajay Vij, Senior Country MD for Accenture in India.

This cycle, we will have stay-at-level (base pay) increases, including many of those not covered in the December cycle and others in key growth areas. The majority of Accentures workforce in India will have received a base pay increase by the end of FY25, either through promotions or stay-at-level adjustments, Vij's memo said.

Headwinds for Accenture Notably, the promotions come as a morale booster for employees after a six-month delay (from December to June) amid low demand for consulting services, pullback in client spend, and greater scrutiny for US government contracts under President Donald Trump, the BB report added.

The company abandoned its diversity (DEI) targets after Donald Trump ordered his administration to push firms to end such practices. In 2023, it cut 19,000 roles.
New Delhi: Bajaj Auto Ltd is doubling down on its strategy to increase its international business as it acquired a controlling stake in the Austrian motorcycle company that sells motorcycles under the KTM brand.

Under the transaction announced on Thursday, Bajaj will infuse 600 million into the company through debt funding, while 200 million has already been invested since FY2024, taking the total amount of the deal to 800 million ( 7,778 crore).

The fresh infusion of funds is largely intended to pay off KTMs creditors and ensure the continuity of its business.

The transaction was informed to the exchanges just 24 hours before the 23 May deadline on which the motorcycle brand was supposed to deposit 548 million ( 5,324 crore) it owed to creditors.

Bajaj, through its Netherlands-based subsidiary Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV, has taken the entire stake in Pierer Bajaj AG (PBAG), increasing its shareholding from 49.9% earlier.

The 49.9% stake in PBAG gave Bajaj indirect control of a 37% stake in KTM. This was because PBAG held 75% in the parent company of the KTM business, Pierer Mobility AG (PMAG).

After the acquisition of the entire stake in PBAG, Bajajs stake in KTM will be 75%. Notably, PMAG is listed on the Austrian stock exchange.

Bajaj will shift gears from hitherto being a dormant minority investor to a majority owner in the global KTM company, Bajaj told the exchanges.

After witnessing a decline in sales due to a slowdown in the European premium motorcycle market, KTM filed for insolvency and applied for judicial restructuring proceedings in November 2024.

The firms restructuring plan was accepted by creditors on 25 February. Under it, creditors were supposed to receive 30% of their claims in a one-time payment by 23 May. As the deadline approached, the motorcycle brand needed funding to pay off its creditors.

Bajaj to the rescue On 16 May, Bajaj announced in an exchange filing that it was receiving unsecured loans worth 566 million from three banks: JP Morgan Chase, DBS Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Asia Ltd.

The purpose of the fundraiser was stated as the need for investment activities. At the end of the October-December 2024 period, Bajaj reported surplus funds of 15,000 crore on its balance sheet.

After this fundraise, the company announced the acquisition of the entire KTM brand, which could help its presence in the global markets.

As part of the deal, the company will provide KTM with debt funding worth 800 million, of which 200 million has already been infused via convertible bonds and loans in four tranches of 50 million between fiscal year 2024 (FY24) and April-May 2025.

This twin move of taking ownership (subject to approvals) and paring down debt by providing liquidity at a crucial stage, positions Bajaj Auto as a driving force in shaping the future of one of the worlds most admired high-performance motorcycle companies, Bajajs statement added.

The remaining 600 million debt package will be distributed in two ways. First, 450 million will be given as a secured loan to KTM. Second, Bajajs international subsidiary will subscribe to PBAG convertible bonds worth 150 million, which will subsequently be loaned to KTMs parent company.

The Austrian court is scheduled to approve KTMs restructuring plan by mid-June, depending on the presence of enough cash in the firms escrow account. After this, the payments to the creditors will be released.

Following all approvals, Bajaj will be able to begin the revival of the KTM brand.

Export boost The Pune-based company began its partnership with KTM in 2007 when it picked up a 14.5% stake for 300 crore. Over the years, this stake was increased to 49.9%.

KTMs main plant is in Austria, while it has assembly plants in China, Brazil and the Philippines, among others. In 2023, all the facilities produced 380,000 bikes. In India, it uses the Bajaj-owned Chakan plant to produce vehicles for India and also exports to the world.

KTMs motorcycles are exported to the US, Europe and Latin America, but its sales have significantly declined since it filed for insolvency in November.

In the October-December period, KTMs exports dropped by more than 50%. This came at a time when Bajaj boosted its exports in FY25 as international sales made up for more than 41% of its total sales.

In the last financial year, Bajajs two-wheeler exports surged by 13% to reach 1.67 million units. In the domestic market, it sold 2.3 million units.

Although the share of KTM in Bajajs overall exports was, on average, around 5% before the problems started, the brands bikes are important from a revenue and profit perspective.

Had it not been for the short-term setback on KTM exports, our revenue growth would have been nearing double digit and Ebitda growth even much higher in the teens given the margin accretive business that it is, Dinesh Thapar, chief financial officer at Bajaj Auto, said during the post Q3 results analyst call on 28 January. Ebitda is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Analysts see the move as positive for the company, as the KTM business will once again start contributing to the margins.

Short-term pressure [There is] potential for enhanced revenues, profitability and valuation uplift upon successful turnaround of KTM. [It] strengthens Bajajs strategic global footprint, particularly in the high-performance and premium motorcycle segment, Shridhar Kallani of Axis Securities wrote in a 22 May note.

However, Kallani noted that there will be near-term pressure on the consolidated financials of the company, depending on the timing of funding and interest costs.

Moreover, the key thing to watch for will be how Bajaj manages to turn around KTMs business, which suffered a slowdown due to the hit to the premium motorcycle market. In 2024, KTM sold 292,497 motorcycles, which was 21% lower than the 372,511 bikes sold in the year-ago period.

In the near term, the company will have to do a strategic overhaul in order to initiate a turnaround of the KTM business, Mrunmayee Jogalekar, auto research analyst at Asit C Mehta Investment Intermediates Ltd, said.
(Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the banker at the heart of a scandal linked to Malaysias 1MDB investment fund engaged in serial lies and deception about the fraud, days before he is scheduled to be sentenced.

In a letter to a US judge, Goldman said that Tim Leissner, the banks former southeast Asia chairman, has never taken responsibility for his actions in the multibillion-dollar fraud that brought down the Malaysian government. The letter comes after the US government asked for leniency when Leissner is sentenced next week.

The banks general counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, wrote that Leissners attempt to blame the financial industry for his crimes denigrates the countless law abiding people who work in it and draws focus for the true motivation for Mr. Leissners crimes: greed.

Leissner, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to his role in looting billions from 1MDB, became the US governments key witness. Prosecutors say his testimony was central to the conviction of one of his Goldman colleagues and a $2.9 billion fine against the bank, the largest ever in a foreign bribery case.

Leissner spent years using offshore shell companies, personal email accounts and personal devices to engage in crime, evade detection and put Goldman Sachs at risk in the process, Ruemmler wrote in the letter, filed in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday.

Leissner, 53, faces as much as 25 years in prison after he became the face of the global financial scandal that led to investigations in six countries. As part of the fraud, he admitted that he pocketed $73.4 million from 1MDB and another $80 million from Jho Low, the fugitive financier who was the architect of the fraud.

Henry Mazurek, Leissners lawyer, said that the chutzpah of Goldman Sachss letter to the court today is astounding.

Mr. Leissner spent the last several years cooperating with the Department of Justice to expose the corporate culture and institutional greed which fueled the behavior that corrupted the 1MDB project, Mazurek said in a statement.

Goldman and a spokesman for US prosecutors declined to comment.

Prosecutors said in their own court filing that Leissner continues to help with unidentified US investigations into other crimes, in addition to the 1MDB case.

Leissner provided information concerning the role of powerful individuals in a global scheme to bribe government officials in two countries and divert billions of dollars into bank accounts around the world, prosecutors said in a filing earlier this month.

But the bank countered that from Goldmans perspective, Mr. Leissners efforts in this regard are deserving of sanction, not praise.

In 2020, Goldman, which made $600 million from the 1MDB transactions, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US and its Malaysian unit pleaded guilty to violating US anti-bribery laws. The New York-based investment bank said in the letter Thursday that it didnt adequately address red flags and scrutinize the representations of certain members of the deal team.

In his own filing, Leissner said that he should be spared any time in prison. He said that he provided crucial evidence against former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Abu Dhabi sheiks and Goldman and gave the US a roadmap to the complex money-laundering scheme at 1MDB.

I know how terrible my crime was, Leissner said in a letter to the judge. In the process of telling the government and the world about 1MDB, I have had to publicly face the fact that I helped steal billions of dollars not just from individuals, but from an entire nation.

When he pleaded guilty in August, 2018, Leissner blamed Goldmans culture as playing a role in the fraud when he described his crimes.

During the course of the conspiracy, I conspired with other employees and agents of Goldman Sachs very much in line of its culture of Goldman Sachs to conceal facts from certain compliance and legal employees of Goldman Sachs, including Jho Low, he said in court.

Leissner could still face legal actions in Malaysia. The countrys Home Minister, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, said earlier this month that Malaysia has submitted an extradition request for Leissners arrest with the US Justice Department.

--With assistance from Anisah Shukry.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
The head of one of Israels biggest defense firms said Europe sales will keep growing, shrugging off calls for sanctions and trade restrictions over the war in Gaza.

We see great business potential in Germany, the UK, Romania, Sweden and Denmark, Bezhalel Machlis, chief executive officer of Elbit Systems, which makes rockets, drones and laser-based aerial defense systems for the Israeli army, told Bloomberg in a phone interview.

With Europe under pressure to beef up defense budgets with the war in Ukraine now in its fourth year and a new military operation underway in Gaza, Elbit is among the defense companies reporting more business. Sales surged 22% in the first quarter, helped by expanding military spending globally and in Europe in particular, its second-largest market.

The stock has almost doubled in value in dollar terms in the past year. In a regulatory filing this morning the company said it had raised $512 million in an overnight sale of shares.

Still, with relations between Israel and European nations souring because of the assault on Gaza, theres a risk that future sales may be affected. The UK has warned it is pausing a free trade agreement talks with Israel and Spains foreign minister has pushed for tougher action.

European Officials Step Up Pressure on Israel Over Gaza War

European sales make up almost 30% of total consolidated revenues for Elbit. The European Union is planning hundreds of billions of euros of military spending since the US administration made clear it would no longer be the main guarantor of Europes safety.

The latest talk around ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine isnt prompting Machlis to temper his bullish growth predictions. Regardless of the outcome, Europe will have to lift its spending, he said.

European leaders understand that ramping up defense budgets creates deterrence, Machlis said. They also realize they need to have much more independent capabilities and be less dependent on the US.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said his firm is committed to long-term investment in China, despite frailties between the governments of the worlds two biggest economies.

Were a long term investor here, he said in a Bloomberg TV interview at the lenders Global China Summit in Shanghai. Yes, theres all these other issues causing consternation, but we have to deal with the world that we have, not the world we want, and well continue to grow.

He also noted the countrys recent progress in some areas of technology.

Ive seen their cars and their AI and theyve done a pretty good job, he said. We should look at America and say, okay, were going to have to compete too.

In recent years, the lender has reshuffled leadership and scaled back in China and Hong Kong, acknowledging that the expansion was taking longer than anticipated, even as Dimon has said he remains committed. Wall Street firms have overall pulled back from China, with their combined exposure, which includes lending, trading and investments, slumping by about fifth.

Now there are signs of business picking up, with increased share sales in Hong Kong and mainland China. Chinese leaders have also reiterated commitments to their financial opening and unleashed stimulus to get the economy back on track. Markets have recovered after Beijing and Washington agreed on a 90-day truce on some of the highest tariffs.

Rita Chan, co-senior country officer for China, earlier told Bloomberg she is seeing a broad-based recovery in the country and growing interest from foreign investors seeking to diversify, as the global tariff regime drives portfolio shifts and fuels an expansion overseas by Chinese firms.

The development in the last 12 months have definitely been encouraging, Chan said. We have seen a broad based recovery in liquidity in volumes.

The bank is seeing very good momentum and the trend of Chinese local corporate clients going overseas and internationalizing hasnt changed, she said. The cross-border services that are required to navigate this complicated environment is definitely increasing.

JPMorgan has poured significant resources into building out its China business, and is the only Wall Street bank that attained full control of its futures, securities and asset management businesses in China in a short span of three years.

The lender is also bullish on other parts of Asia. Speaking to Bloomberg TV in Shanghai, Sjoerd Leenart, the banks Asia-Pacific CEO, said it expects growth in the region to be well above the global average, with enormous opportunities in Japan.

In India, the current leadership is giving investors the confidence that they will continue on the same path, Leenart said. Still, theres a long way to go as the countrys economy is much smaller than China.

JPMorgans Asia-Pacific operations generated $12 billion net revenue last year, a 13% increase from 2023.

JPMorgan appointed Chan and Alan Ho, also Asia-Pacific chief financial officer, in April last year to fill the vacancy left by Mark Leung, who resigned as China CEO after a 25-year stint at the firm.

With assistance from Andy Clarke and Adrian Wong.

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US hospitality chain Marriott International Inc. has acquired a minority stake in India's Concept Hospitality, which operates brands like the Fern Hotels and Resorts, to launch a new hotel series, it announced on Thursday.

It will first integrate The Fern into its new brand and could later include the Concept's other brands as well. The Mumbai-based company, which has 84 operational hotels, 31 hotels in the pipeline, and 8,000 rooms in total, will continue to manage these hotels.

Mint first reported in April that the US hospitality giant had earmarked about $15 million for the deal and valued Concept Hospitality at $100 million.

Also Read: Chalet Hotels is gearing up for a major expansion. Should investors check in now? Concept Hospitalitybacked by the Nepalese multinational CG Corp Global, which also owns the Wai Wai noodles brand in Indiaoperates 84 hotels across the country under six brands, including The Fern and The Zinc.

Marriott International, the company behind hotels JW Marriott, Westin, W and other brands, is the largest hotel chain in India by the number of rooms, according to a 2024 report by the hotel industry consultant Hotelivate. As of August 2024, when this report was written, Marriott had more than 24,000 rooms in India. Its closest rival, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (IHCL) of the Tata group, had over 21,000 rooms.

The report added that around 35% of the country's branded hotel supply, or branded hotel rooms like these, comes from publicly listed firms. While Marriott International itself is unlisted in India, it partners with listed hotel owners like Chalet Hotels Ltd and Samhi Hotels Ltd in India.

It had earlier announced it planned to increase its room count to 50,000 over the next three to five years, aiming to operate 250-300 hotels in the country. In 2024, it signed contracts for 42 new hotels in South Asia, including India, adding about 7,000 pipeline rooms. The company operates about 171 hotels in South Asia, with 158 of them in India, which now have close to 30,000 rooms.

The new brand will have no-frills roomswell-priced lodging with a focus on essentials and basic, clean stays, the company said. It will also become a part of Marriott Bonvoy, the company's loyalty programme.

The exception deal Rajeev Menon, president, Asia Pacific excluding China, Marriott International, told Mint that this growth will help the company expand into the secondary and tertiary markets.

Also Read: Indian Hotels plans  1,200 crore investment for FY26, eyes sustained growth This is a one-off exception deal, in the sense that Marriott does strategically invest in companies and has only a handful of hotels around the world where we have some kind of investment. We had done this in the past with our Autograph Collection Hotels elsewhere in the world and built some hotels which we later sold.



We see an incredible opportunity for growth here and not just necessarily in premium or luxury brands, but in the space where it's approachable, accessible, he added.

This will allow us to amplify our reach as The Fern brand is expected to benefit not only from the loyalty programme and a global distribution system, but also from strategic growth opportunities, added Binod Chaudhary, chairman of CG Corp Global.

The hotel giant is also in talks with hotel owners in regions including the US, Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East about adding more properties to this new brand.

India-first global brand The new partnership is being seen as a move to scale operations more quickly in Indias competitive and fast-growing hospitality market, where demand is rising for mid-scale and upscale hotels.

India has about 200,000 branded hotel rooms, and the number is expected to grow to 300,000 by 2030, according to a report by hospitality consultancy Horwath HTL.

Also Read: How Mhow, Silvassa and Rewa emerged as hotspots for Indian hotels This investment marks a change in strategy for Marriott in India, where international hotel companies have generally focused on managing rather than owning properties.

Other than Marriott, only a few international hotel groups, including the owners of Hyatt Hotels and French hospitality major Accor, have acquired direct stakes in Indian hotels.
(Bloomberg) -- New World Development Co. has secured commitments from about 10 banks for its HK$87.5 billion ($11.2 billion) loan refinancing, according to people familiar with the matter, as the cash-strapped builder races to complete the deal before the end of next month.

Major banks Bank of China Ltd., HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc, local lenders Bank of East Asia Ltd., Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd., Hang Seng Bank Ltd., and French lender Credit Industriel et Commercial along with several other financial institutions have completed the internal approval process to join the deal, with total commitments exceeding HK$20 billion, the people said. More banks are going through internal credit approvals and expect to finalize their commitments in the coming weeks, they added.

New World has invited over 50 existing bank lenders to join the transaction, they said.

While New World is eager to complete the refinancing and bolster its liquidity, a transaction with such a large number of participants can take time to process. Commitments from most of the lenders involved have yet to be finalized, but many bankers expect that the deal will eventually come together, the people said. Some banks are waiting for lenders with greater exposure to New World to sign on before they can secure their own internal approvals, the people added.

HSBC and Standard Chartered declined to comment. New World, Bank of China, Bank of East Asia, Fubon Bank, Hang Seng and Credit Industriel et Commercial didnt immediately respond to requests for comment.

New World is under pressure to complete the deal by the end of June as a covenant waiver on its existing facilities is set to expire. The initial deadline for banks to finalize their commitments for the refinancing was the end of May, but some lenders have indicated they need additional time to secure internal credit approvals, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

If the waiver expires before a refinancing deal, some banks could demand immediate repayment, though that scenario is unlikely, Bloomberg News earlier reported.

New World, controlled by the family empire of tycoon Henry Cheng, has been in discussions with banks since January seeking to refinance its bank borrowings maturing this year and beyond.

The company also has multiple bond coupon payments due in June that will be closely watched by investors. It had total liabilities of HK$210.9 billion at the end of December 2024 and in June it has at least $116.6 million of coupon payments due, including on four perpetual notes.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Qinetiq Group Plc, the UK defense technology company, plans to pivot more to NATO allies to boost business as governments ramp up spending to defend the alliances Eastern flank.

Countries such as Spain, Italy and Germany are increasingly using the companys test and training services in the UK, and there is rising demand for border surveillance in Poland and other Eastern European countries, Chief Executive Officer Steve Wadey said in a telephone interview. There is potential for more bilateral and multilateral agreements with NATO countries, he said.

Were really looking to leverage our strong base in the UK towards not just the AUKUS nations, which is continuing, but also pivoting more into the NATO related allies, Wadey said, referring to the security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US.

Qinetiq currently generates more than 90% of revenue from the UK, US and Australia. While the European business only accounts for about 3%, growth rates on it could be high, even if the overall impact on the group remains limited, he said.

The importance of the UK business was illustrated on Thursday by Qinetiqs announcement that the UKs Ministry of Defence extended its long-term partnering agreement by five years, which is worth 1.54 billion. The contract to provide experimentation, test, evaluation and training support to the MOD will sustain 1,200 jobs at 16 sites across England, Scotland and Wales, it said. That deal increased total order backlog to about 5 billion.

Qinetiq provides products and services for air, land and sea including cyber security, military training, testing and unmanned and robotic systems, according to its website.

European governments have pledged hundreds of billions in spending to strengthen the regions military capabilities since Russias 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as well as intensified US demands under President Donald Trump that NATO allies increase spending.

This week, as part of a broader agreement between the European Union and UK to reset relations, a defense and security pact committed to swiftly explore British access to the EUs new 150 billion defense fund. I think its positive, Wadey said.

The company in March lowered its outlook, citing contract delays from UK and US intelligence and geopolitical uncertainty, sending the shares down a record amount. The company today announced a decline in full-year earnings and restructuring plan focused on the US, even while announcing record order intake and revenue that matched analysts expectations.

The stock is up about 10% this year, lagging the 43% advance in the STOXX Europe Total Market Aerospace & Defense index. The shares gained as much as 7.5% on Thursday. There hasnt been any takeover interest in the company, Wadey said, when asked about the stocks relative underperformance.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed writ petitions by Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel seeking relief on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, without referencing its earlier oral observation that it wouldnt obstruct any government move to support the financially stressed telecom firms.

During a hearing on 19 May, a bench comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan had clarified that if the Centre chose to step in, the court would not stand in the way. If the government wants to help you, we are not coming in your way," Pardiwala had said.

However, the courts written order, issued on 21 May, makes no reference to that remark, which was widely seen as a green light for possible relief. The omission carries significant implications, as it leaves the government without formal legal backing to intervene in the sectors long-standing dues crisis.

Read this | Supreme Court dismisses Vodafone Idea, Airtel, Tata Teleservices plea for AGR interest waiver

Oral remarks in court have no binding effect unless reflected in the written order. The judgment does not prohibit the government from formulating independent policy measures to support the telecom sector," said Shiju PV, Senior Partner at IndiaLaw LLP.

The government retains full authority to provide reliefwhether through restructuring, waivers, or rationalisation of duesso long as it does not directly contravene the Supreme Courts binding 2019 AGR ruling. The way forward now lies squarely with the government," he added.

Analysts say the government can still seek written clarification from the Court to proceed with any relief plan.

If the government gets written clarification on this from the SC (Supreme Court), it could gain flexibility to waive interest, penalty and interest on penalty; extend the deadline for payment of AGR dues from the current 31st March 2031; and/or rectify calculation errors," said a 20 May note by brokerage IIFL Capital.

Irrespective of the above, the government also has the option to introduce an ordinance in Parliament to facilitate AGR waiver," the note added.

AGR saga: Where it stands

The Supreme Court on 19 May dismissed pleas by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Tata Teleservices seeking a waiver on interest, penalty, and interest on penalty on pending AGR dues.

Vodafone Idea, which owes 83,400 crore in AGR dues, had sought a waiver of 45,000 crore comprising interest and penalties. Bharti Airtel and its unit Bharti Hexacom sought relief on 34,745 crore out of a total liability of 43,980 crore. Tata Teleservices owes over 19,000 crore.

In addition, Vodafone Idea owes 1.19 trillion in spectrum dues, taking its total dues to the government to over 2 trillion as of March-end.

With the four-year moratorium ending in September, payments of 18,000 crore a year are set to begin from 31 March 2026more than twice the companys annual operational cash flow of 8,4009,200 crore.

Read this | Two months after second lifeline, Vodafone Idea again raises survival fears

Mukul Rohatgi, representing Vodafone Idea, had told the court on 19 May that the government cannot help since it is 50% owner of the company, in the backdrop of the Supreme Court judgement in the AGR case.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, had said, What we have said is that, in view of the judgment of the Lordships, we cannot examine [the relief sought], and it cannot be examined."

The AGR crisis stems from a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that included non-telecom revenue in the calculation of dues, creating a massive mismatch between Department of Telecommunications (DoT) demands and the companies self-assessed liabilities.

Curative petitions filed by telcos were rejected by the apex court in September 2024.

Also read | Its time telcos walked the talk on fighting fraud and spamwill they?

According to officials, the DoT had at one point considered a proposal to waive 50% of the interest and 100% of the penalties and interest on penalties. That could have reduced Vodafone Ideas dues by 52,000 crore and Airtels by 38,000 crore. But the proposal was ultimately shelved amid concerns over possible political backlash.
Layoffs: American retail giant Walmart Inc. is cutting corporate staff at it's Bentonville headquarters in Arkansas, and other offices, Bloomberg reported, ciring sources.

The move aims to cut costs amid economic volatility, it said, adding that an internal memo said staffing changes are aimed at creating more efficiency.

Walmart did not comment on the layoffs, the report added.

Walmart job cuts  Details According to the sources, the world's largest retailer is cutting roles in its global technology team. And one source said fewer than 1,500 employees are impacted.

Changes are aimed at accelerating decision-making and reducing complexities. In addition to eliminating some roles, Walmart is creating new positions, the internal memo signed off by Chief Technology Officer Suresh Kumar and Walmart US Chief Executive Officer John Furner stated.

The cuts will simplify the tech team's structure and allow faster movement and more effective adaption, besides improving efficiency, the memo further said.

Store fulfillment, advertsing business in focus Today, store fulfillment is a complicated process with multiple points of contact. This creates friction, Cedric Clark, executive vice president of store operations at Walmart US, said in a separate memo, adding that removing friction around digital orders will help customers. Walmart is making changes to some roles running these orders.

CTO Kumar and CEO Furner also said that the retailer is changing the structure of its advertising business.

Walmart shares, employees, performance At close on May 21, Walmart shares closed up b 6.7 per cent for the year, outperforming the S&P 500 Index, according to Bloomberg. It added that the shares were little changed in late trading in New York.

The downsizing follows a reorganisation in February, when Walmart cut some jobs and asked employees to move to central offices in Arkansas and California. The company has about 16 lakh US employees, making it the largest private employer in the country.

Walmart has performed better than its competitors in recent quarters, but warned that prices are poised to rise due to higher tariffs. Those remarks drew the ire of President Donald Trump over the weekend.
Tech billionaire and among the richest people in the world, Sergey Brin has gifted away nearly 4.1 million Alphabet shares worth $700 million, regulatory filings showed, Bloomberg reported. The recipient of the gift was not yet clear, it added.

Sergey Brin, who is a co-founder of tech giant Google, is worth more than $140 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index (BBI). He is among the top 10 richest people in the world.

A spokesperson for Sergey Brins family office did not reply to queries till time of publication, as per the report.

Also Read | Canada eyes investment in Golden Dome Defence shield: PM Carney

About Sergey Brin's $700 million worth gifted shares The report said that the regulatory filing did not show who got the close to 4.1 million share gift, but were evenly split between newly converted Class A and Class C stocks. It speculated that the reciepient may be a charity, trust, or financial vehicle.

Notably, Sergey Brin is known to give away shares for causes close to his heart. In 2023, after Google debuted its artificial intelligence (AI) search, he gave away $600 million worth of shares. Further, as per disclosures, he also gifted shares worth over $100 million in May 2024 and November 2024, the report added.

Besides these, Sergey Brin is a known supporter of Parkinson's disease research, and runs a climate and health-focused nonprofit that has funded startups working on a range of areas, including psychedelics and a $155 billion energy project in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Google parent Alphabet's Share Price on Rise Notably, shares of Alphabet shares rose 5.6 per cent on May 21 following the announcement that Google is implementing new AI updates to Search. The product announcement was made at the company's annual developer conference on May 20.

Google said it would roll out a new tab called AI mode in search to all users in the United States. The tab will also include options for direct interactions with AI models, similar to OpenAIs ChatGPT.

Class A shares are usually given to founders and management and come with more voting rights, according to Investopedia. These may also not be available to the general public. Class B shares are common" or ordinary" shares listed on stock exchanges with no preferential treatment on dividing profits or dividends, according to SoFi Learn.

And Class C shares, may be those given to employees as part of their compensation package. These may have specific restrictions, on trading and voting rights. Notably, Alphabet's Class A and Class C shares tend to trade at similar prices, it added.

Also Read | Breakout stocks to buy or sell: Sumeet Bagadia recommends five shares to buy

Sergey Brin 10th Richest in World: BBI According to the BBI, Sergey Brin and co-founder Larry Page, saw their fortunes rise by a combined $7 billion on May 21, and are now the 10th (worth $144.3 billion) and ninth richest ($153.2 billion) people in the world.

Sergey Brin's fortune is largely made up of a combination of Class B and Class C shares of Alphabet, which became Googles parent company nearly 10 years back. He has over $11 billion stock from Googles initial public offering in 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
BENGALURU : Once hailed as a pioneer in the low-code/no-code (LCNC) movement, London-based Builder.ai, formerly known as Engineer.ai, has filed for insolvency.

Founded in 2016 by Sachin Dev Duggal and Saurabh Dhoot, two entrepreneurs from India's national capital region, Builder.ai raised around $450 million from top-tier investors, including SoftBank's DeepCore, Microsoft, Qatar Investment Authority, Insight Partners, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lakestar, Jungle Ventures, and Iconiq Capital.

Their value proposition was simple yet ambitious: make app development as easy as ordering pizza" by enabling users to build custom applications without needing to write code.

However, the startup, valued at $1.7 billion at its peak, saw a rapid rise and a dramatic fall in its last two years.

Mint explains what led to its downfall.

What is Builder.ai?

It is an LCNC platform that allows people to build custom apps for their mobile devices without requiring any technical know-how. In the company's words, they wanted to make the process of building an app as easy as ordering pizza".

Originally named Engineer.ai, the company was launched with the vision of using artificial intelligence (AI) to democratise software development. The founders sought to combine the power of AI with human expertise to deliver scalable and customised apps for clients ranging from individuals to enterprises.

In November 2018, over two years after it was founded, Builder.ai raised its first round of funding in a $29.5 million Series A round led by European venture capital firm Lakestar and Indian early-stage venture capital firm Jungle Ventures. Softbank's AI incubator, DeepCore, also participated in that round.

The company went straight for a Series C round, raising $100 million from venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners and IFC. WndrCo, founded by file hosting service Dropbox's former head of business and chief financial officer Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg, also participated.

In 2023, it raised a $250 million Series D round led by the Qatar Investment Authority and joined by Microsoft and American investment management firm Iconiq Capital.

However, within a year, the company faced data leaks, governance controversies, and regulatory investigations. By early 2025, its founder stepped down, and a board shake-up ensued. Despite course-correction efforts, the firm ran out of money, culminating in its insolvency filing.

What went wrong at Builder.ai?

Over time, Builder.ai has courted its fair share of controversies, whether it's accusations of inflated tech expertise or financial mismanagement so severe that a member of the company's board had to step in to take charge.

As early as 2019, the company was accused of not having an AI-based platform but instead relying on human engineers to write the code, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

In essence, the firm was hiring cheap offshore labour to manually build apps, raising questions about whether its AI claims were merely a facade to attract investors.

Soon after, Duggal released a note on the company website saying they had offered to speak with the WSJ six times and that the newspaper didn't report on the answers that Builder.ai had provided.

That same year, its chief business officer sued the startup for exaggerating its AI capabilities so as to raise funding that they'd use to build the technology, according to a report from The Verge.

Then, in 2024, according to a Financial Times report, India's financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), named Duggal and Dhoot in a money laundering probe and a loan fraud case, respectively.

Dhoot is the nephew of the late Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of Videocon Group, the Indian conglomerate that filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after defaulting on massive bank loans. Indian enforcement agencies formally named the Builder.ai co-founder in a criminal case for participating in a criminal conspiracy" to fraudulently secure loans from some of the countrys largest state-owned banks as part of the broader Videocon-ICICI Bank scandal.

Duggal was also being investigated for his ties with Videocon. The ED summoned him in 2022, but he didn't show up. The agency changed his designation from witness" to suspect", according to the FT report.

In December 2024, the company unwillingly exposed sensitive user data online after a researcher discovered an archive with over three million records online, according to a report from Tech Radar. The archive included non-disclosure agreements, billing-related documents, tax documents, internal file images, and more.

In February 2025, as investor confidence waned, Builder.ais board initiated a governance overhaul. Manpreet Ratia, managing partner at Jungle Ventures, replaced Duggal as CEO. The board was reduced from nine seats to five, and Duggal relinquished control over most of them.

Jungle Ventures, which had participated in the companys first funding round, effectively took the reins to attempt a last-minute salvage operation.

In March, the company was once more accused of using auditors with direct connections to Duggal, the FT reported. The partner of the auditing firm had previously served as director at a company set up by Duggal.

Will it impact VC appetite for AI in India?

Builder.ai has now joined a growing list of Indian startups that have had to close or are in deep waters due to fraudulent activities and poor corporate governance. The most recent examples include BluSmart, Bizongo, Medikabazaar, and Kult App, among others.

However, while Builder.ai's collapse may raise red flags about governance, it is unlikely to derail overall investor interest in India's AI ecosystem. Industry leaders and investors argue that this is more a case of a single company's failure rather than a systemic issue.

Just like one swallow doesn't make a summer, similarly, one Builder.ai doesn't dampen investor sentiment. It just makes investors more careful on governance," said Akshay Gupta, whole-time director of Prime Securities, an investment banking and corporate advisory services company.

There's some truth to it. According to the Stanford AI Index 2024, India currently ranks number one in AI skill penetration globally. At the same time, VC firms are looking at both founders and their startups more critically, especially those building in the application layer.

Venture capital firms are now moving from valuation-first to validation-first investing. They are prioritising tech validation, customer traction and ethical AI practices," said Munish Vaid, vice president at Primus Partners.

A few incidents would not change the underlying fundamentals, which remain strong: India has deep technical talent, unique cost advantages, and the ability to productise AI globally. Investors will simply be more selective and thorough, not less interested," said Ravi Srivastava, partner at Leo Capital, an early-stage VC firm.

But not everyone is convinced that Builder.ai's fall won't affect foreign investment. This signals that even late-stage unicorns are not insulated from elementary governance failures. Similar collapses at other startups have eroded confidence in financial reporting and transparency," said Siddharth Mody, partner at JSA Advocates & Solicitors.

As a result, Mody said it's not just international capital that becomes more selective, but that reputational damage also extends to global corporates and limited partners that backed these companies without insisting on tighter oversight".

The Indian startup ecosystem needs more capital but also more accountability. Founders, boards, and investors must align around the principle that governance is not a post-public listing requirement but a precondition to scale," he added.

How has the LCNC ecosystem evolved?

The LCNC movement has matured considerably since Builder.ais early days in 2016. What began as a drag-and-drop solution for building apps without programming knowledge has evolved into a sophisticated AI-assisted development paradigm now termed vibe coding".

Unlike traditional LCNC platforms, vibe coding retains full-stack power while making development faster and more intuitive via AI prompts, automation, and smart code generation. The Indian LCNC market has grown from $400 million in 202021 to a projected $4 billion in 2025, according to IT industry body Nasscom.

Still, experts warn that these tools are best suited for rapid prototyping and internal tooling, not yet ready for compute-heavy or highly regulated enterprise environments. Performance, security, and integration complexity remain barriers to full-scale enterprise adoption.

Sakshi Sadashiv in New Delhi contributed to the explainer.
RBSE 12th Result 2025: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE) will announce the RBSE 12th Results today at 5:00 PM. The results of all streams - Science, Arts and Commerce - will be declared today and the official link to check scorecard at rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in will be activated in the evening.

The Rajasthan Board confirmed the official RBSE 12th Result 2025 release date and time yesterday, as the drafting and evaluation process of is complete and only the result declaration is awaited. The RBSE 12th Result 2025 will be announced by Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma in a press conference.

Click on this DIRECT link for RBSE 12th Result 2025

Also Read | REET 2025 answer key releasedhere's how to check and raise queries if any

How to check RBSE 12th Result 2025 online? The long wait of over 8 lakh students has finally comes to an end as the board results will be announced in the next few hours. Once the official result link is activated students who appeared for these exams can check their Rajasthan Board 12th Result 2025 on boards official website at rajresults.nic.in.

Students can access their RBSE Class 12 marksheet by following the below mentioned steps:

Step 1: Visit the official Rajasthan Board website at rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in.

Step 2: Click on RBSE 12th Result 2025 link.

Step 3: Select stream  Science, Commerce, or Arts

Step 4: After entering roll number, click on Submit

Step 5: The user will be directed to a new page, displaying RBSE Class 12 marksheet. After downloading scorecard, take a printout and keep the hard copy for future reference.

Also Read | Madras High Court stays NEET-UG result as Chennai students point to power cut

How to check RBSE Class 12 result offline? To access RBSE Class 12 result offline, using SMS service follow the steps mentioned below:

Step 1: Create a new message

Step 2: Arts stream students need to type RJ12A (Roll Number)

Science stream students need to type RJ12S (Roll Number)

Commerce stream students must type RJ12C (Roll Number)
Washington [US], May 22 (ANI): Actress and director Jodie Foster has confessed that despite being fluent in French, she was long hesitant to act in French-language films.

As per Deadline, in an interview at Cannes, Foster discussed her latest film, 'A Private Life,' where she plays a French-speaking psychiatrist.

This role marks her first major French-language part in two decades, following her appearance in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 'A Very Long Engagement' in 2005.

Foster revealed that she had been offered several projects in French but turned them down due to fear.

"Why didn't I make a film in French? I was afraid," she admitted, adding, "A number of directors offered me projects, but I was too scared to act in French. I thought someone who is familiar with French should do so."

However, she finally took on the challenge with 'A Private Life,' which premiered at Cannes and received a 10-minute standing ovation.

Foster noted that acting in French brings out a different side of her.

"The great thing, when I act in French, I'm a totally different person: My confidence isn't as high and my voice is higher. It creates a new character for me," as quoted by Deadline.

This experience has allowed her to tap into a new aspect of her craft and explore different facets of her acting abilities.

As both an actress and director, Foster was asked if she brings a director's mind to her acting.

She replied that while directors think about the big picture, actors focus on the moment. "Actors think in the moment, while directors have the big picture in their head," she said.
By Alan Baldwin

MONACO, May 22 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton is planning more movies after working with Brad Pitt on 'F1' and also documentaries and possibly a television series with his Dawn Apollo production company.

The seven-times Formula One world champion, a co-producer and consultant on the upcoming F1 Movie starring Pitt, told reporters at the Monaco Grand Prix there was plenty more to come.

"I've gone in very high, I couldn't go any higher for the first movie, but we will be producing more movies over coming years," he said.

"I've got three concepts that I'm writing," said the Ferrari driver, who launched his company in 2022.

"I'm going to write with a writer because I've never written a movie before. I've got these concepts, these ideas that I've come up with for movies.

"At least two of them will be animations and one of them is already in a phase of the first part of the script, so it's exciting.

"Then there will be documentaries, there will be maybe a TV series at some stage, but mostly movies. I like the development of movies. That's what I love the most."

Hamilton joined his fellow drivers for a special pre-release screening of the Apple Original film, due out next month, in Monaco on Wednesday.

He said that although he had seen the film many times already, it had been a stressful moment as well as a proud one when the Dawn Apollo logo appeared with other production companies.

"All of a sudden I've got all the drivers there and I was sat in the middle, I was nervous. I was like 'everyone is seeing it for the first time', and it was great to look around and see some of the reactions from, particularly the drivers," said Hamilton.
Actor Tamannaah Bhatia became the new brand ambassador for Mysore Sandal Soap. The Karnataka government appointed her as the new face of the government brand with a 6.20 crore deal for two years. However, the decision has been met with heavy criticism from several people on the internet for choosing a non-Kannada actor.

Tamannaah Bhatia as brand ambassador for Mysore Sandal Soap On Thursday, the Karnataka State Government confirmed Tamannaah as the brand ambassador for Mysore Sandal Soap. An official letter surfaced online, mentioning that she is being paid 6.20 crore for being the face of the prestigious soap brand for 2 years.

Internet reacts to Tamannaah Bhatia's Mysore Sandal Soap deal Reacting to the viral letter, several expressed dissatisfaction over the decision.

A user wrote on X (formerly Twitter), Many Kannada actress itself were there why pay for an outsider (sic). Another questioned, "Why not our own Rukmini Vasanth?

Mysore sandal soap doesn't need any ads or brand ambassador, added another.

Someone also wrote, Not worth at all..there are plenty of models in Bengaluru and Kannada actresses. The iconic Karnataka brand should have opted for a Karnataka person.

MB Patil on not picking Kannada actress Meanwhile, MB Patil, Minister of Large and Medium Scale Industries excluding Sugar of Karnataka, defended the government's decision amid the backlash.

A user wrote to him: When local Kannada young actresses like @AshikaRanganath could be taken as brand ambassador why appoint and promote Hindi ones @MBPatil. (sic)

Patil replied, "KSDL has deepest respects and regards for Kannada Film Industry. Some Kannada Movies are giving competition to even Bollywood movies. Mysore sandal has a very good brand recall within Karnataka. Which shall be strengthened.

However the intent of Mysore Sandal is to also penetrate markets beyond Karnataka Aggressively. The pride of Karnataka is also a Jewel of the Nation. Hence its an independent strategic decision of the PSU board after consulting various marketing experts," he further added.

He justified Tamannaah for the brand and said, "To choose a brand ambassador it takes a lot of deliberation and also considerations like 1) Availability for any given category(If they have a non compete agreement) 2)Social media presence 3)Most importantly coherence with the brand, product and Target Audience 4)Marketing fit and Reach. Our Vision is for KSDL to touch 5000Cr Annual Revenue by 2028.
Inside their small apartment in Gaza City this week, Marah Zant and 12 of her relatives had very little food left to eat, just some rice, lentils and a single can of fava beans that they were trying to stretch out for three days. The plan: eat one, very small meal a day.

Then they heard that several trucks carrying food aid had entered Gaza for the first time in more than two months. But that news, too, turned into disappointment.

We didnt see a single thing," said Zant, 21, who lives in the Sheikh Radwan area of the city. No one around us received anything either."

After mounting U.S. and global pressure, Israel on Monday allowed a limited amount of food aid into war-ravaged Gaza after enforcing a humanitarian aid blockade since early March. But ordinary Palestinians and international aid agencies say not enough of it is getting in. On Tuesday, Israel permitted another 100 trucks to enter. The United Nations says at least 500 a day are needed if a worsening humanitarian disaster is to be averted.

Palestinian children wait for a hot meal at a refugee camp in central Gaza.

Aid groups have for weeks warned that Gazas roughly two million residents are facing severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and clean water as stockpiles brought in during a fragile cease-fire earlier this year run out. Nearly three in five families cant find bread or fresh food and child malnutrition is sharply rising, says the International Rescue Committee. Nearly half a million people in Gaza already face starvation, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership, a global hunger watchdog, said last week.

The decision to allow limited food aid to enter Gaza barely scratches the surface of what is needed," said Zoe Daniels, the IRCs Gaza chief. She said Gazans need consistent, sustained access to all essential suppliesnot just food and medicine, but also water, fuel, and hygiene items. Without this, humanitarian operations cannot function."

In early March, Israel banned the entry of all aid, medicines and other goods into the Gaza Strip after talks to extend the cease-fire stalled. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government says Hamas steals aid and uses it to support its war effort, which the U.S.-designated terrorist group denies.

A U.S.-backed aid distribution plan, supported by Israel, is in the works to resume delivering aid from distribution sites across Gaza. Eden Bar Tal, director general of Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters on Monday that those distribution sites should be operating in a matter of days.

The task of getting aid to the people who need it is being complicated by Israels latest ground and air offensive, adding pressure on Hamas and ordinary Gazans.

On Monday, following airstrikes that killed scores of people, Israel ordered residents in the southern city of Khan Younis to evacuate ahead of an unprecedented attack." That triggered hundreds of residents to take to the streets to denounce Hamas and urge an end to the war. It was the latest sign of a grassroots movement that is defying Hamas.

In other areas, many fled their shelters. Sharif al-Sheikh, a 42-year-old father of two, was displaced for the fifth time since the war began following Hamas deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds of people have been killed in airstrikes since Friday and more than 53,000 Palestinians have died since the start of the war, according to Gazan health authorities, though their figures dont say how many were combatants.

On Tuesday, Sheikh and his family, which included 10 more relatives, were hungry and once again without shelter.

My wife and I havent eaten anything for three days," he said. My wife gives me bread, but I refuse to eat it. I leave it for the children." The markets have some food, but prices have soared out of his reach, he said.

Israels blockade of Gaza has also meant commercial border crossings have been closed for more than two months. This has resulted in the price of food available in markets rising dramaticallya pack of pasta, for example, is now 35 times what it was before the blockade, according to residents, at around nearly $10 each.

Sheikh frequents some of the handful of soup kitchens still operating, often queuing for hours. But even those kitchens are dwindling. In late April, the U.N.s World Food Program said its food stocks for the kitchens were nearly exhausted.

Displaced Palestinians collect cooked food from a community food kitchen.

Every morning, in front of Farah Elhelos building in Gaza Citys Tal Al Hawa neighborhood, hungry crowds arrive at a soup kitchen, clutching pots and plastic bags. By noon, the lentils and beans have run out, the line collapses and fights erupt.

On Monday, Elhelo heard screams and rushed to her window. I saw the crowd pushing, and I saw a child fall head first into one of the cooking pots," she recalled. Each day, someone gets burnedhands, feet from the chaos."

Despite their dire situation, Marah Zant felt relatively fortunate for the small stockpile of food she had. Many families in her building scrounge for food every day.

Some houses around us are completely empty," she said. People are splitting pieces of bread like treasure. If someone has any, they hide it from others for fear of being envied."

Children, weakened by hunger, have stopped playing in her building. Shes seen mothers dipping bread in water to make their children feel sated.

Instead of working or continuing my life, Im counting how many meals we have left to see if well survive the week," she added.

Write to Sudarsan Raghavan at sudarsan.raghavan@wsj.com
In a YouTube video titled Lets talk: Therapy, GLP1 & The Truth About My recent Weight Loss," influencer Janelle Rohner told followers shed been taking a GLP-1.

Influencer Janelle Rohner expanded her social-media following in recent years as she documented her weight-loss journey, sharing tricks like using bell peppers as the bread" for sandwiches and selling a $200 course on macronutrients along the way.

But when she told followers last month that some of the recent weight loss was due to the use of a GLP-1, online commenters quickly soured on her.

If youre in the fat loss world and taking a GLP1, you must disclose it," one commenter wrote below the YouTube video Rohner used to reveal her GLP-1 use. Theres nothing wrong with taking one but not disclosing it WHILE SELLING FAT LOSS COURSES is slimy as hell."

The situation demonstrates the double-edged nature of influencers relationships with their audience, whose affection and trust comes with certain expectations. The incident is also another scene of GLP-1s disruptive effect in weight-loss businesses and food marketing.

In her video, which she promoted from her TikTok account with more than 5 million followers, Rohner said the message was hard for her to record.

If youve been following me for a while, you know Ive tried it allketo, macros, workouts, lifestyle shiftsand I have always shared whats worked and what hasnt," she said.

Rohner went on to say shed been getting a lot of questions about whats changed more recently. Her answer: She had worked with a doctor over the past year to add a GLP-1" to her plan.

GLP-1s are not magic, they dont change your lifestyle overnight," she added.

Following a slew of negative comments, Rohner said in a TikTok video she was sorry if followers felt deceived and offered refunds to anyone who bought a class in the prior 11 months.

Rohners Macros 101" course, which refers to macronutrients like carbohydrates, fats and proteins, included a worksheet, access to a Facebook Group and a pre-recorded class, according to a page that was previously linked from Rohners website. The link to the course appears to have been removed from her site.

Then Rohner continued on to regular content: a high-protein copycat Disneyland Dole Whip recipe, a T.J. Maxx shopping excursion, a Harry Potter Butterbeer Flavored SkinnyPop popcorn taste test. The comments were again full of ragewith Ozempic jokes and questions about her PR strategy.

Does it taste like fraud?" one comment on the popcorn video reads.

Rohner told The Wall Street Journal that sales for her Macros 101" have dwindled since its creation four years ago, with fewer than 30 sales in the past year. She said she hasnt marketed the course in more than two years.

Rohner said she still wholeheartedly backs the classes and continues to track macros and work out daily.

There is no part of me that doesnt believe in those classes," she said in an email.

Rohner didnt initially disclose her decision to begin taking a GLP-1 because she wasnt mentally prepared at the time to handle millions of peoples opinions on her body and weight, she said, adding that in retrospect she understands she should have been more open.

She also said she has given full refunds to anyone who purchased the course in the past 11 months and reached out for one.

The situation has left followers and critics asking if followers could have a legal case if they had purchased the course.

I dont really see this is a big legal problem, or a potential one," said Robert Freund, a lawyer focused on advertising and e-commerce issues. Its really just a PR crisis."

Hannah Taylor, deputy managing partner and a partner in the advertising, marketing and public relations group at law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, said proving an influencer acted fraudulently is a high bar because many jurisdictions require showing that the defendant had an intent to deceive. False advertising is typically easier to prove.

Taylor said if someone had purchased the course believing that it led to Rohners weight loss, when in fact the medicine was the cause, that could be a material omission that could subject the influencer to false advertising liability.

Though social-media commenters have criticized Rohners return to regular programming with her posts, her strategy could be wise, said Kate Stewart, an assistant professor of communications at Jacksonville State University who focuses on areas such as public relations and influencers.

People that get canceled come back from getting canceled so quickly in 2025 that its almost astonishing," Stewart said. Rohner might choose to make enough new content to shove down the old content and delete the mention of the GLP-1 eventually, or start making new content in a different niche, potentially focusing on being on a GLP-1, she said.

But for a contingent of followers, trust with Rohner could be lost.

As an influencer, you have to stand on your authenticity and your credibility," Stewart said. If you wait to disclose your use of a weight-loss drug, youve already hurt your reputation, and youve potentially hurt it past the point of recovery."

Write to Megan Graham at megan.graham@wsj.com
The storm clouds for China were gathering when leader Xi Jinping convened the countrys top scientists at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in May 2018. The U.S. was beginning to clamp down on selling technology to China, with more restrictions on the way.

China must not be forced to beg others for technology, Xi said. Only through self-reliance can we fundamentally safeguard national economic security," he said.

Since then, China has raced ahead in many strategic sectorsand in some cases is catching up with the U.S. Its electric-car companies are among the worlds best. Chinese AI startups rival OpenAI and Google. The countrys biologists are pushing the boundaries of pharmaceutical research, and its factories are being filled with advanced robotics.

At sea, Chinese-made cargo vessels dominate global shipping. In space, the country has been launching hundreds of satellites to monitor every corner of the Earth. Beyond frontier technology, Beijing is pursuing greater self-reliance in food and energy, and has bulked up its military.

These successes and many others are helping to fortify China and its economy as Xi prepares the nation for an era of sustained hostilities with the U.S., including the continuing trade war. The two sides are entering complex negotiations, with many of the latest tariffs temporarily suspended.

The advances are making China less dependent on the rest of the world for goods and services. Imports overall fell to less than 18% of gross domestic product in 2023 compared with about 22% a decade earlier.

View Full Image Graphic: WSJ

Yet China is unlikely to ever be fully self-reliant, having imported more than $2.5 trillion worth of goods last year, including $164 billion from the U.S. The sheer size of its population means that in some areas, total self-sufficiency is virtually impossible.

Xi says Chinas system of socialism and state planning is well-suited to winning the race for technologies of the future, allowing the state to concentrate resources where needed. His effort could also backfire, with massive waste from the self-reliance campaign exacerbating Chinas mountain of debt, and threatening to hold back its economy over the long run.

Money talks

Chinas efforts to become more self-sufficient were well under way before Trump first took the White House. In 2015, a policy dubbed Made in China 2025" identified 10 sectors as national priorities, including robotics, aerospace and new-energy vehicles.

Xi took on a more nationalistic tone after Trump launched a trade war against China in 2018. Calls for self-reliance" became more prominent, especially after the pandemic struck, leading China to largely close its borders. Chinese officials gained confidence that their economy could survive reduced contact with the outside world when it grew 2.2% in 2020, the only major economy to expand that year.

Chinas resolve strengthened in the Biden years, as Washington sought to work with European allies to choke off Chinas access to advanced technologies such as semiconductors. Western countries, led by the U.S., have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression against us," Xi said in 2023. He warned China to prepare for extreme scenarios," a thinly-veiled reference to the risk of conflict with the U.S.

Much of Chinas success stems from its ability to direct enormous sums of money to prized sectors.

Last year, China invested $500 billion on research and development, triple from when Xi took office in 2012. China spends nearly as much on R&D as the U.S., adjusting for purchasing power parity, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

View Full Image Graphic: WSJ

Investment in AI is a major focus. One study last year found that Chinese government venture-capital funds invested nearly $200 billion across 9,600 AI firms between 2000 and 2023.

Local government investment arms have helped the push, backing companies such as Zhipu AIone of the Chinese AI firms rivaling U.S. companies. The AI startups are also taking in capital from private venture funds and Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Chinas technology push is boosting its manufacturing prowess. Chinese companies have been buying as many industrial robots as the rest of the world combined, enabling some factory owners to experiment with highly automated plants that can operate in the dark. For much of the past decade, three-quarters of the robots installed in China came from foreign manufacturers, such as in Japan or Germany. By 2023, Chinese robot makers captured nearly half of the local market, according to the International Federation of Robotics.

In the more intricate field of humanoid robotics, Chinese companies such as Shenzhen-based UBTech are competing with U.S. firms such as Elon MusksTesla. In electric-vehicle factories, humanoid robots are being trained to work together to sort auto parts or lift heavy-duty containers and place them onto shelves.

View Full Image Commuters at a subway station in Beijing last year. Photo: Na Bien/Bloomberg News

View Full Image BYD cars lined up for export at a port in Yantai. Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

UBTech says that 90% of its more than 3,000 suppliers in recent years were based in Chinaa sign of how much China can rely on its own growing ecosystem of suppliers. The company is also incorporating technology from Chinese artificial-intelligence pioneer DeepSeek to help the robots make better decisions.

The self-sufficiency drive extends to highly sensitive areas such as nuclear power. At the Sanmen nuclear power plant, 150 miles south of Shanghai, the first two reactors put under construction in 2009 came from Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, with key components shipped from the U.S. and American engineers on-site to help get the project online.

The next two reactors were also based on Westinghouses technology. Now, a new pair will be totally Chinese. Known as Hualong One, Chinas homegrown reactor model allows Beijing to better control costs and construction timelines, while eliminating the danger that the U.S. could one day refuse to sell China more reactors.

Efficient government coordination, readily available financing from state banks and a highly-developed nuclear supply chain means China has already managed to build some Hualong One reactors in about five or six years. The latest Westinghouse reactors in the U.S. took more than a decade to complete, at far higher costs.

In many emerging sectors, China seeks to go beyond government subsidies and other financial support, pushing companies to compete with each other to boost efficiency and innovation.

Two of Chinas leading battery makers, Contemporary Amperex Technology and BYD, have disclosed several billion dollars in subsidies between them over the past three years. At the same time, they say they have spent more than $20 billion combined on R&D.

Within weeks of one another recently, CATL and BYD each announced that they had developed new fast-charging systems that could bring down charging times for EVs to just five minutes.

In space development, a key focus for Beijing has been improving Chinese satellites that capture images and other data for civilian industries such as construction, as well as for defense purposes. Last year, when a group of U.S. think tanks ranked the worlds best such commercial satellite systems, Chinese firms won five out of 11 gold medals. The U.S. had four.

One winner, Chang Guang Satellite Technology, was launched in 2014 with $30 million in intellectual property from a research institute under the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Today, the firm is well on its way to building the worlds largest constellation of commercial remote-sensing satellites. With 117 satellites already in orbit, the company says it can observe any point on Earth up to 40 times a day. Some Chinese users claim to have used the network to scope out the U.S.s latest stealth bomber at an air base in the Mojave Desert.

In its push for self-sufficiency, China now has roughly two-thirds of global corn reserves, despite only having about 17% of the worlds population, and has built massive stockpiles of oil and metals. It is slowly expanding the use of its yuan currency in foreign trade and developing alternatives to Western financial payment systems. The Defense Department estimates that China has tripled its nuclear warhead stockpile to more than 600 in recent years.

Projecting power

Chinas leaders present the self-reliance drive as something like insurance that must be paid to guard against foreign aggression. And it does confer advantages.

Last year, Chinese shipyards delivered 53% of global tonnage, according to shipping-information provider Clarksons Research, compared with 8% in 2002. Those gains reflected decades of state support, including cut-rate prices for land to build shipyards, favorable loans and subsidized steel. The U.S. made up just 0.1% of global commercial tonnage last year.

Chinas shipbuilding prowess has helped it to build the worlds largest navy, with more than 370 ships and submarines today.

Meanwhile, Huawei and other Chinese firms have made progress in reducing one of Chinas biggest vulnerabilities: its lack of advanced semiconductors.

Washington in recent years has used export controls to try to choke off Chinas access to the most sophisticated chips, such as Nvidias best-performing productsgalvanizing China to build up its domestic production.

In 2023, Huawei grabbed U.S. attention when it released a high-end smartphone powered by an advanced processor that industry analysts say was locally produced in China. More recently, it has been gearing up to test a new chip it hopes will be more powerful than Nvidias H100 chip, released in 2022.

As Chinas chips improve, Morgan Stanley projects the countrys self-sufficiency rate in graphics processing unitsessential in creating AI systemswill jump to 82% by 2027 from 11% in 2021.

For all of Chinas technological progress, it still faces enormous economic challenges, with sluggish growth and mounting fears domestically that standards of living might not catch up to those in the U.S.

One explanation, economists say, is that structural issues such as high debt levels and tanking real-estate prices are overriding gains from technology improvements.

Another possibility is that Chinas state-led model is a big part of the problem. Financial waste and fraud have plagued the governments spending on self-reliance. This month, the former chairman of a government-supported chip conglomerate was handed a de facto life sentence for alleged crimes including illegally acquiring $65 million of state assets.

In electric cars, 500 companies initially raced into the market to tap easy money from local governments. Most have since flopped, and many that remain are unprofitable.

The inefficient allocation of money has contributed to slowing productivity growth. Absent reforms, China may be able to sustain GDP growth of just 2.8% on average from 2031-2040, according to economists at the International Monetary Fund, compared with an average of around 6% over the past decade.

In every country, even a country as vast as China, resources are limited," said Carnegie Mellon economist Lee Branstetter. If theyre used inefficiently, this will hold back living standards in the long run."

Write to Brian Spegele at Brian.Spegele@wsj.com
Nothing boosts a Pakistani generals flagging domestic popularity like being able to claim he won a confrontation with his countrys archenemy, India. Asim Munir, Pakistans army chief, has been on a victory lap since President Trump announced an abrupt end to a four-day subcontinental conflict May 10. On Tuesday the Pakistani government promoted Mr. Munir to field marshal, a self-promotion for the countrys most powerful man.

Mr. Munir has emerged stronger from his confrontation with India, but the same cant be said of his country. Though Pakistan may have scored diplomatic points, beneath its breathless claim of victory lie inconvenient facts. By striking terrorist infrastructure and air bases deep in Pakistans heartland, and by suspending a 65-year-old bilateral river water-sharing treaty, India has weakened Pakistans strategic position.

For the U.S., the simmering conflict presents challenges and opportunities. A successful U.S. strategy in the region would achieve two interconnected goals: curbing the Pakistani armys support for transnational jihadist groups and ensuring that any subcontinental conflict doesnt go nuclear. America must also recognize that Chinas military and diplomatic support for Pakistan has made the subcontinent a site of U.S.-China competition.

Nearly three years ago, when Mr. Munir became army chiefthe most powerful position in a country where generals call the shotshe was widely seen as an outsider with a shaky grip on power. Unlike many of his predecessors, Mr. Munir entered the army through the Officers Training School rather than the more prestigious Pakistan Military Academy.

The son of a schoolteacher who doubled as an imam, Mr. Munir advertises his piety. He uses the honorific hafiz, given to those who have memorized the Quran. Unlike many predecessors, Mr. Munir wasnt trained in the U.S. or U.K. His foreign exposure was mostly limited to serving in Saudi Arabia when that country was still synonymous with hard-line Islam.

Mr. Munir became chief after a feud between the army and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, a 72-year-old charismatic populist who became prime minister with the armys help in 2018 but later fell out with Mr. Munirs predecessor, Qamar Javed Bajwa. Mr. Bajwa reportedly helped oust Mr. Khan in 2022. Mr. Bajwa and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif saw Mr. Munir as a safe pick because Mr. Khan and Mr. Munir had clashed during the latters brief tenure as head of the countrys military spy agency in 2018-19. Mr. Munir had reportedly angered the prime minister by investigating alleged corruption by his wife.

Despite Mr. Khans popularity, the army outmaneuvered him. Since August 2023, Mr. Khan has been imprisoned on a raft of charges, most of them widely seen by independent observers as politically motivated. In an interview last week, Mr. Khans sons, who live in England, alleged that their father has been kept in solitary confinement and denied basic rights such as medical care and regular phone calls with family.

The persecution of Mr. Khan made Mr. Munir arguably the most unpopular Pakistani army chief in living memorythat is, until India bombed nine terrorist infrastructure" sites on May 7 in retaliation for a terrorist attack on Indian tourists in Kashmir. The conflict has allowed Mr. Munir to reinvent himself as a hero.

The version of events publicized in Pakistan goes like this: First, India lost at least five fighter jets in its initial attack on May 7, including three French-made Rafales, the most advanced jet in Indias air force. Second, Mr. Trumps Truth Social post announcing the cease-fire and his subsequent remarks about the conflict handed Pakistan a clear diplomatic victory.

This account contains some truth. India has admitted to losing fighter jets, though it hasnt said how many. Reporting by the Washington Post suggests India likely lost at least two jets. And Mr. Trump has indeed set back Indian diplomacy by casting India and Pakistan as peers and offering to mediate their dispute over Kashmir.

But if you look past Indian embarrassment, the balance clearly tilts in New Delhis favor. India has shown that it can hit targets across Pakistan at will, raising questions about the effectiveness of Pakistans Chinese-made air defenses. Indian air defenses largely neutralized hundreds of Pakistani drones and missiles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12 announced a new doctrine according to which India will not differentiate between the government sponsoring terrorism and the masterminds of terrorism." India says the current lull in fighting isnt a permanent cease-fire but a temporary suspension of military operations." In the coming months and years, India will almost certainly seek to increase its capacity to pressure Pakistan by building dams on shared rivers.

For now, the Pakistani armys skilled public-relations machinery may have turned the once-unpopular army chief into a hero at home. But looked at dispassionately, its hard to see how Field Marshal Asim Munir has made Pakistan any safer.
Methadone is the best tool we have" to fight opioid addiction, says Ashish Thakrar, a doctor at the University of Pennsylvanias school of medicine. Yet many of his patients are unable to get it. At his hospital, Dr Thakrar can administer methadone for pain or for opioid addiction. But as soon as he steps across the street to his outpatient addiction clinic, he complains, he is barred from doing so by federal regulations. Methadone rules are very, very silly right now", he sighs.

Heroin or fentanyl addicts can take methadone, a weaker opioid that often comes as a liquid, to blunt their cravings and stave off withdrawal symptoms. Studies suggest this reduces the risk of a fatal overdose by 50-80%. But though safer than fentanyl, methadone is not without risk. Users can overdose, and the drug has a street value. So methadone is available only at a few specialised clinics and subject to intense oversight.

Those who are prescribed it to treat addiction must often receive it every day, in person, for years. That can be hard: around 80% of counties dont have a methadone clinic. Only a fifth of American opioid addicts receive the medication that experts such as Dr Thakrar think they should have.

In recent years the federal government has tried to improve access to methadone. During the pandemic, it became easier for patients to take home up to a months supply. In 2022 two senators, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Kentuckys Rand Paul, a Democrat and a Republican, proposed another measure: allowing addiction doctors to prescribe methadone without having to go through a clinic.

This would hardly have been revolutionary. There are only a few thousand addiction doctors in America, and 6.1m opioid addicts. Nevertheless the bill died in late 2024. The explanations for this can be divided into the reasonable, the unreasonable and the cynical. Reasonably, many people feared it might have repeated the original sin of the opioid epidemic, allowing the wanton prescription of an addictive drug. Laxer methadone rules did indeed lead to overdoses. But under Markey-Paul, the addiction doctors would have been subject to the same safeguards that have since curbed the once-lavish prescription of opioids.

A less reasonable explanation is that while voters may support preventing overdoses in the abstract, they do not want to come into contact with addicts. The bill would have allowed local pharmacists to dispense methadone, so addicts might be glugging down their daily dose next to someone buying shampoo.

A final obstacle is lobbying. Two-thirds of methadone clinics are run by for-profit companies, and they are keen to protect their often-lucrative monopoly. If you look up a cartel in the dictionary, it literally talks about what we are doing here," says Donald Norcross, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, who introduced the bill in the House of Representatives. One of the questions I get asked is, How come this [bill] didnt move?" Mr Norcross says. Well, they hired the lobbyists."

Mark Parrino, the president of the methadone clinic trade association, begs to differ. He says clinics support greater access to methadone, but prefer that its done in a way that increases safety" (namely, through more methadone clinics). Donald Trump has mentioned the need for better addiction treatment to reduce homelessness. Mr Norcross plans to reintroduce the bill. Obviously," he has differences with Mr Trump, he says, but he worked well" with the previous Trump administration on addiction treatment. And a bill to cut red tape and enhance competition might yet appeal to conservatives.

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The Union government clarified before the Delhi High Court (HC) on Thursday that it has plenary (absolute) powers to protect the countrys national security.

The governments comments come on a petition filed by Celebi, a Turkish ground and cargo handling company, which challenged the governments move to revoke its security clearance licence.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the government, said, Plenary powers rest with the government to avoid any potential threat to the country. Ground handling companies have access to the entire airport and aircraft. Hence, the director general of BCAS can use his sui generis powers to eliminate the immediate threat.

Mehtas comments follow Turkeys recent publicly shown support for Pakistan, while there are serious cross-border tensions between India and Pakistan.

Following this, on 15 May, the director general of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) immediately scrapped Celebis security licence, citing concerns surrounding the countrys national security and sovereignty.

Mehta further argued, One thing is clear, if its not plenary power, then a hearing has to be provided and reasons have to be recorded. However, the country sometimes faces a situation that is so unprecedented that neither an opportunity of hearing is possible because the delay itself might defeat the object of the act, nor is it possible to give reasons for the revocation because again it defeats the purpose of the action, Mehta said. Adding that this is when plenary power comes in.

Security issues The solicitor generals remarks follow Celebis allegations that it was never allowed an opportunity for a hearing before the government revoked its security licence, citing security concerns.

The matter will be further taken up for hearing on Friday.

Further, Mehta also informed the court that the Turkish firm has direct access to aircraft. It (Celebi) also has access to computer data, including the VIP movement and flight movement of both domestic and international flights, hinting that this can concern the security of aviation and national security.

On Wednesday, Celebi argued that its business and contracts with airport operators across the country are now being cancelled. It said this was due to the Union governments decision to revoke the firms security clearance.

Our (Celebis) business and contracts have been affected, said senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, who is representing the company in the matter. The senior counsel argued that the government's move was in violation of the principles of natural justice.

The government, however, stated that having plenary powers allows it to revoke any licence without assigning any reasons.

In a media statement issued on 15 May, Celebi refuted all allegations and said it is a globally operated aviation services company. Celebi Aviation India unequivocally refutes all allegations circulating on social media regarding the companys ownership and operations in India. The company is 65% owned by international institutional investors from across Canada, the US, the UK, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Western Europe, said the company in a media statement.

It added, Actera Partners II L.P., a Jersey-registered fund, holds 50% ownership in Celebi Havaclk Holding A.S. The remaining 15% is held by Alpha Airport Services BV, a Dutch-registered entity.
India's diamond market, which is estimated at under $10 billion currently, is likely to double in five years on rising demand in Asia's third-largest economy, global chief executive officer (CEO) of De Beers Group Al Cook said on Thursday.

De Beers Group is a South AfricanBritish company that specializes in all aspects of the diamond industry, including mining, trading, retail and manufacturing.

In India, we have seen double-digit growth for the last few years. And we actually see natural diamond demand in India doubling over the next five years, Cook, who is on his inaugural visit to India, said at a press conference in Mumbai.

Talking about the world's four key regions for diamond consumption, he said there has been a substantial decline in China, and it would take quite a long time to recover, given the economic challenges there. In the US, the market has been stable over the last year with some growth in recent months, and De Beers will focus many of its marketing campaigns there to boost demand.

The Middle East, meanwhile, continues to show strong and sustained growth, he added.

In terms of revenue contribution from India, Cook said that around 90% of the world's diamonds come through India. But India also gets tremendous value from all the diamonds that are exported to the US and many other countries. He highlighted that India overtook China about a year ago and is now the second-largest diamond market for De Beers after the US, and is growing very strongly. So we expect that to increase as well going forward, he said.

Meanwhile, De Beers Indias managing director Amit Pratihari said the companys expansion plans are well on track, with four new stores set to open this yeartwo in Mumbai and two in Delhi.

That makes India a critically important market for the diamond industry.

Cook said, he met India's commerce minister Piyush Goyal just a few days ago, to discuss that diamonds should flow freely around the world, without restrictions or tariffs. He has been in the US recently, continuing negotiations on the USIndia trade agreement, and this is incredibly important for the diamond industry, as 90% of the worlds diamonds are processed in India. A strong trade deal between the two countries would be a major step forward for the global diamond sector.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Mint had reported that De Beers stepped up marketing efforts in India, partnering with retailers and launching campaigns to promote natural diamonds in the hope of countering both the general slump in consumer demand and the growing popularity of lab grown diamonds (LGDs).

Also Read | De Beers India plans record marketing spends to help natural diamonds shine on

To be sure, Indias diamond market is estimated at $6.2 billion in FY25, while lab-grown diamonds represent a smaller $0.4 billion, according to Wazir Advisors. It estimates that both markets will grow by 2028, reaching $8.6 billion for natural diamonds and $0.6 billion for lab-grown diamonds.

The company plans to spend record sums this year on marketing natural diamonds in India.

Moreover, it has also been strengthening partnerships with local retailers in the country. In 2023, local jewellery retailer Tanishq and De Beers Group announced a three-year collaboration to boost sales of natural diamonds at Tanishq stores. Earlier this year, De Beers Group partnered the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), a jewellery trade body, to promote natural diamond sales in India by helping small, independent retailers. The penetration of natural diamonds in India is currently around 10%, well below the rate in mature jewellery markets such as the US.

Natural diamonds are facing competition from LGDs, or synthetic diamonds, due to their lower cost, ethical sourcing, and environmental benefits. Advances in technology have made them nearly identical to natural diamonds, appealing to consumers seeking more sustainable and affordable options.
Belrise Industries IPO: The initial public offering (IPO) of Belrise Industries Ltd, which is open for public subscription, entered its third day of the bidding process on Friday, May 23. Belrise Industries IPO opened on May 21 and will close today, May 23.

The company is an automotive component manufacturing company and offers a diverse range of safety critical systems.

Belrise Industries plans to raise 2,150 crore from the public issue. Along with Belrise Industries IPO, the primary market is also seeing another public issue which is Borana Weaves IPO.

Belrise Industries IPO has seen decent demand on the first day of the bidding process, as the issue was booked 67% on May 21. Belrise Industries IPO entered its third day today.

Belrise Industries IPO Subscription Status Belrise Industries IPO has been subscribed 41.30 times in total as the public issue received bids for 731.30 crore equity shares as against 17.70 crore shares on the offer, as per data available on the NSE.

The public issue has been subscribed 4.27 times in the retail category, 108.35 times in the Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) category, and 38.33 times in the Non Institutional Investors (NII) category.

Belrise Industries IPO GMP Today Belrise Industries IPO is commanding a decent demand in the unlisted market, with a positive grey market premium (GMP). According to stock market observers, Belrise Industries IPO GMP today is 17 per share.

This indicates that in the grey market, Belrise Industries shares are trading higher by 17 than their issue price. Considering the Belrise Industries IPO GMP today, the equity shares of the company are trading at 107 apiece, which is at a 18.89% premium to the IPO price of 90 per share.

Should you apply for the Belrise Industries IPO? Gaurav Garg, Lemonn Markets Desk believes that Belrise Industries IPO presents a compelling opportunity, backed by strong fundamentals and a leadership position in the automotive components space.

The companys strategic focus on EV components, combined with its extensive OEM partnerships and integrated manufacturing, positions it well for sustained growth. The substantial debt repayment through IPO proceeds is expected to enhance profitability and improve cash flows, offering valuation comfort at a forward P/E of 16x. While investor attention is warranted on related-party transactions and customer concentration, the long-term growth potential and diversification into future-ready segments make Belrise an attractive bet for medium- to long-term investors, Garg said.

Belrise Industries is an automotive component manufacturing company based in India offering a diverse range of safety critical systems and other engineering solutions for 2W, 3W, 4W, commercial vehicles and agri-vehicles. The company is one of the top three companies with a market share of 24% in the overall two-wheeler metal components segment in India as of March 31, 2024, in terms of revenue. Driven by rising product sales and increasing international presence, BIL has demonstrated strong growth in revenue.

Analysts at Geojit Investments Ltd noted that the upper price band of 90, Belrise Industries IPO is available at a P/E ratio of 25.8x (FY24 EPS), which appears to be reasonably priced compared to its long term profitability and PAT margin expansion owing to improvement in financial metrics.

Given its dominant market share, diversified product portfolio, strong presence in EV& IC engine segments, capacity expansions, optimize inventory management and favourable industry outlook, we recommend a Subscribe rating for a long-term basis, Geojit Investments said.

According to Choice Broking, at the higher price band, Belrise Industries is demanding a TTM P/E multiple of 29.5x and EV/Sales of 1.1x, which is at discount to the peer average.

While the company has demonstrated growth in both revenue and net profit, its margins have come under pressure. To address this, Belrise Industries is focused on increasing its content per vehicle, which is expected to enhance profitability. Additionally, the planned debt repayment is likely to contribute further to margin improvement. The companys recent acquisition is expected to enhance its product offerings and drive sales growth, contributing positively to its overall business performance, said Choice Broking.

Thus, the brokerage firm recommends a Subscribe rating for the Belrise Industries IPO.

Belrise Industries IPO Details Belrise Industries IPO opened for subscription on Wednesday, May 21, and closes today, Friday, May 23. Belrise Industries IPO allotment is expected to be finalized on May 26, while the IPO listing date is likely on May 28. The equity shares of Belrise Industries will be listed on both the stock exchanges - BSE and NSE.

Belrise Industries IPO price band is set at 85 to 90 per share. At the upper-end of the price band, the company plans to raise 2,150 crore from the IPO which is entirely a fresh issue of 23.89 crore equity shares.

The IPO lot size is 166 shares and the minimum investment amount required by retail investors is 14,110.

Axis Capital, HSBC Securities & Capital Markets Pvt Ltd, Jefferies India, SBI Capital Markets are the book running lead managers of the Belrise Industries IPO, while Link Intime India Private Ltd is the IPO registrar.
Borana Weaves IPO: Bidding for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Borana Weaves Limited opened on 20 May 2025 and will remain open until 22 May 2025. This means investors have just a few hours to apply for the Borana Weaves IPO. The book build issue has received a strong response from the primary market investors in the first two days of bidding. According to the Borana Weaves IPO subscription status, the public issue has been booked over 29 times in the first two days. The Indian grey market is also bullish on Borana Weaves shares, trading at a premium of 61 per equity share.

Borana Weaves IPO GMP today According to stock market observers, Borana Weaves' IPO GMP (Grey Market Premium) today is 61, 5 higher than Wednesday's GMP of 56 apiece. Experts said positive sentiments on Dalal Street could be the reason for the rise in grey market sentiments on Borana Weaves' IPO. They predicted further upside on the grey market sentiment if the Indian stock market continues to trade upside on the subsequent two sessions of the week.

Borana Weaves IPO subscription status By 3:03 PM on day three of bidding, the book build issue had been subscribed to 125.16 times. The retail portion of the public offer had been filled 179.47 times, the NII segment had been booked 221.78 times, and the QIB portion had been subscribed 58.75 times.

Infographic: Courtesy mintgenie

Borana Weaves IPO review Giving a 'subscribe' tag to the public issue, Gaurav Goel, Founder & Director at Fynocrat Technologies, said, "Borana Weaves offers a compelling growth story in the synthetic textile sector. The company can scale profitably with a vertically integrated model, high-capacity utilization, and efficient water jet loom technology investment. While the IPO is priced fairly based on future earnings (with an estimated P/E of 14.7x for FY25), meaning it's not cheap, the company's strong fundamentals and positive industry trends support a favourable long-term outlook. Investors with a long-term horizon may consider subscribing to this IPO."

INDSEC Securities has also assigned a 'subscribe' tag to the book build issue: "At an upper price band of 216, Borana Weaves is valued at a PE of 24.4x on FY24 earnings vs Industry peer set average PE of 35x. The company manufactures specialized synthetic grey fabric and polyester-textured yarn. The demand for polyester in India is projected to grow from 4 Mnt to 6.7 Mnt by 2025. Also, the global end-use market for artificial fibres will expand by 3.7% by 2025. Over FY22-24, the company's Revenue/EBITDA/APAT has registered a CAGR of 116.8%/182.1%/262.1%, respectively. Within 9M of FY25, revenue has already surpassed FY24 reported revenue, owing to scale in capacity utilisation of unit 3, which got commercialised in Q4 FY24. Through IPO proceeds, the company intends to set up a new manufacturing unit to reach a 346 million meters per annum capacity and continue capitalising on the growing demand for synthetic fabric. Additionally, foraying into producing high-margin technical textiles is expected to improve business margins further. In FY24, the company's ROE and ROCE were at 49.5% and 24.3%, respectively. We have a "Subscribe" rating for the IPO on account of strong industry growth tailwinds, higher capacity utilisation (>75%) in the existing facility, coupled with the new facility and diversifying into high-margin products."

Borana Weaves IPO details The company has offered Borana Weaves IPO at a price band of 205 to 216 apiece. The most likely Borana Weaves IPO allotment date is 23 May 2025, and the most likely Borana Weaves IPO listing date is 27 May 2025.
Shares of Schloss Bangalore Ltd, the company behind Indias renowned luxury hotel chain The Leela, will soon debut on the stock market, with its initial public offering (IPO) set to open for subscription on Monday, May 26. The three-day offer will close on Wednesday, May 28, with a price band fixed at 413 to 435 per equity share.

The public issue will comprise a book-built offering of 3,500 crore. This includes a fresh issue of approximately 5.75 crore equity shares amounting to 2,500 crore, and an offer for sale (OFS) of 2.3 crore shares worth 1,000 crore by existing shareholders. The minimum lot size for retail investors has been fixed at 34 shares, translating to a minimum investment of 14,042 at the upper end of the price band.

Notably, the company revised down the IPO size by nearly 30 percent from the previously proposed 5,000 crore, citing strategic considerations.

Of the total IPO, up to 75 percent is reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), with anchor investors being allocated up to 60 percent of the QIB portionor roughly 1,575 crore. Non-institutional investors (NIIs) will get 15 percent of the issue, while 10 percent has been set aside for retail investors.

The basis of allotment is expected to be finalised on Thursday, May 29. If everything proceeds as planned, Schloss Bangalores shares are likely to be listed on both the BSE and NSE on Monday, June 2.

A consortium of top financial institutions has been appointed to manage the issue. These include JM Financial, BofA Securities India, Morgan Stanley India, J.P. Morgan India, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, Citigroup Global Markets India, IIFL Securities, Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors, and SBI Capital Markets. KFin Technologies has been appointed as the registrar to the offer.

10 Key Highlights from Schloss Bangalores RHP 1. Strong Economic Tailwinds for Hospitality Growth: Indias GDP is projected to double from USD 3.6 trillion in 2023 to USD 7.1 trillion by 2030, creating nearly 200 million high and upper-middle income households. This economic boom is expected to significantly boost hospitality demand, mirroring past trends in the US and Europe during similar economic phases.

2. Vast Headroom for Organised Hospitality Sector: India remains underpenetrated in the hotel industry. Of the estimated 3.4 million hotel keys, only 11 percent belong to the organised sector, with luxury keys accounting for a mere 17 percent of branded hotels. Compared to peers in APAC, Indias per capita luxury key inventory is significantly lower.

3. Competitive Positioning in Luxury Segment: Schloss Bangalore operates under The Leela brand, which stands out as Indias only institutionally owned and managed, pure-play luxury hotel chain. As of May 31, 2024, it operates 12 hotels with 3,382 keys, and recorded the fastest revenue growth in the luxury segment between FY22 and FY24.

4. Domestic Travel Set to Surge: Domestic tourist visits are projected to rise from 2.5 billion in 2024 to 5.2 billion by 2030. Improved travel infrastructure, rising disposable incomes, and government push for tourism are expected to drive this growth, doubling domestic air passenger traffic to 693 million in the same period.

5. Operational Risks in Focus: The RHP flags several risks for The Leela, including brand dilution, regulatory uncertainties, reliance on economic cycles, and challenges in workforce management. Rising costs, dependence on discretionary spending, and regulatory compliance are key areas of concern for sustaining long-term performance.

6. Brand Strength and Global Recognition: The Leela has won over 250 awards since 2021 and ranks consistently among the worlds best hotel brands by Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler. This global recognition reinforces its position as a leading luxury hospitality player rooted in architectural excellence and guest-centric experiences.

7. Backed by Global Giant Brookfield: Schloss Bangalore is promoted by funds managed or advised by Brookfield, which manages USD 925 billion in assets globally. Brookfields expertise in hospitality spans over 41,000 keys across 179 properties worldwide, including marquee assets like Pendry Manhattan West and Centre Parcs in the UK.

8. Focus on Operational Excellence: The Leela's operational strategy includes aggressive cost optimisation and leadership training programs such as LLDP and LEAD. Between FY22 and FY24, it achieved a 63.2% flow-through from incremental revenue to EBITDA, underscoring strong cost management and productivity improvements.

9. Strategic Expansion Plans: The company aims to grow through acquisitions and greenfield developments in both resort and urban locations. Notably, The Leela Palace Jaipur's ARR and RevPAR more than doubled since FY20. Its strategic property acquisitions are intended to strengthen brand presence in high-demand markets.

10. Expanding Portfolio Footprint: As of May 31, 2024, the portfolio includes 3,382 keys across 12 hotels in 10 cities. The company plans to add eight more hotels with around 833 keys by FY28, expanding its network by over 24 percent and consolidating its presence in the luxury hospitality space.
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo) landed smoothly in the March quarter. A demand surge, led largely by the Mahakumbh festivities in January-February, helped the airlines capacity, measured by available seat kilometers (ASK), increase by 21% year-on-year last quarter.

Yields, a measure of pricing, were better than expected, up 2.4% at 5.32. Lower operating costs and benign aviation turbine fuel expenses translated into Ebitdar  a key metric for airlines  rising almost 60% year-on-year to about 6,950 crore, ahead of the consensus estimate. Ebitdar is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and lease rentals.

But IndiGo investors may have to buckle up for some turbulence in the June quarter (Q1 of FY26). Due to the closure of Pakistans airspace, IndiGo had to suspend flights to Almaty and Tashkent. The impact will also be felt on several routes and daily flights, which may lead to additional flying time of 20-30 minutes, management executives said on an earnings call.

Cancellations in May weighed on passenger volumes and pricing. If capacity outpaces demand, yields may come under pressure in Q1.

Analysts at Jefferies India said the negative impact on travel demand in Q1 could be a one-off blip for IndiGo. Moreover, softer crude oil prices will help the airline ride out near-term demand weakness. Jefferies raised its earnings per share estimate by about 6% on a lower crude estimate of $72 per barrel, to be offset by expected weakness in Q1.

IndiGo is hoping for some recovery in travel booking trends and yields in June but refrained from giving yield guidance. However, some analysts are upbeat on this front.

We expect the overall pricing environment to remain stable with yields of 5.1 over the next two years as the aviation market is now a duopoly with limited threat of predatory pricing," PL Capital said in a report dated 22 May.

New destinations

The airline has guided for mid-teen capacity growth for Q1. It maintained early double-digit capacity growth guidance for FY26. Aircraft additions as well as new routes are expected to contribute to growth.

IndiGo added three destinations to its domestic network and seven to its margin-accretive international network. The company had 91 domestic destinations and 40 international destinations in FY25. The management expects 40% contribution of international ASK by 2030 from 30% currently.

Also Read | IndiGo targets 200 mn fliers by 2030, but faces plane shortage

Also, IndiGo announced direct flights to Amsterdam and Manchester from Mumbai starting July. According to Nuvama Research, wide-body long-haul direct flights on these routes may be risky for IndiGo.

Wide-body aircraft are large commercial airplanes made for long-duration flights. Nuvama said low-cost long-haul operations have yielded mixed results globally. Also, it cautioned that competition is relatively high on international routes vis-a-vis the domestic market.

Nonetheless, IndiGos efforts to deepen its international presence, increased thrust on IndiGoStretch," a premium seating option, and declining grounded aircraft count are seen as margin levers.

In FY26, IndiGo expects the cost per available seat kilometer (CASK) ex-fuel to remain little changed from FY25 levels. This would be driven by expected cost escalations for airport rentals and maintenance, offset by the scaling down of damp-leases during the year. CASK-ex fuel was 3.2 in FY25, up from 2.66 in FY24.

Also Read | IndiGo bets on overseas flights for growth

The IndiGo stock hit a 52-week high of 5,665.50 on 19 May following the easing of India-Pakistan tensions and is now only 3% shy of this peak. Investors can hardly complain, with the shares having gained 20% so far in 2025. The potential softness in Q1 may be a short-term hurdle for the stock.
Chinas so-called new consumer stocks are on a tear.

Bubble tea maker Mixue Group jumped as much as 4.7% during intraday trading Thursday, while rival Guming Holdings rose more than 5% at its high. The moves defied a wider lull in Hong Kongs stock market, compounding gains for investors who have bet on Generation Z consumption  an increasingly popular play.

Investors are on a feeding frenzy for brands that have appeal to the younger generation, lifting a varied group of shares seen as new consumption plays. That is hurting demand for the shares of companies selling old-fashioned consumer staples, including the makers of hard liquor.

The recent gains mean Mixues market capitalization is now around $27 billion, putting it above that of Luzhou Laojiao Co., one of Chinas major distillers. The shift followed the bubble tea makers 170% jump since its initial public offering in February, a move that has helped fuel interest in other listings now in the pipeline.

The combined market value of five of the top sellers of boba drinks, including recently-listed companies Auntea Jenny Shanghai Industrial Co. and Chagee Holdings, totaled almost 290 billion yuan as of Wednesday. That is over half the size of Wuliangye Yibin Co., Chinas second largest distiller and one of the largest stocks onshore.

Read: Gen Zs Emotional Consumption Fuels Wild Stock Moves in China

Recent government directives reining in the consumption of alcohol at official receptions have dealt a blow to the sector. Luzhou Laojiaos share price has fallen more than 3% since a Sunday notice telling officials to watch their spending on alcohol and cigarettes. Shares of Kweichoi Moutai Co., Chinas biggest liquor maker, have lost around 2% this week.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Stock market today: The equity benchmark indices  Sensex and Nifty 50  witnessed a heavy selloff in trade on Thursday, declining over 1% each.

Concerns over rising US debt and bond yields, escalating tensions in the Middle East and a subdued Q4 earnings season have kept investors on the sidelines.

"There is slight risk off in global markets. This is evident from the strength in alternate assets like gold and Bitcoin. The fundamental issue is the high fiscal deficit of the US which the market feels is unsustainable. The weak US 20-year bond auction and the spike in yields of 5-year, 10-year and 30-year bonds indicate the declining confidence in US bonds. In Japan, too, bond yields are rising.

Rising US bond yields are usually negative for emerging markets. But the situation is slightly different now," said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited.

Explaining further, he added that the root cause of the problem is the unsustainable US fiscal deficit and debt. This may trigger some capital flows away from the US to other economies where prospects for growth and earnings are better, he added.

Market Outlook & Stock Ideas by Jay Thakkar Jay Thakkar, Vice President & Head of Derivatives and Quant Research, ICICI Securities, shares his outlook for the Nifty50 and three stock ideas:

Nifty 50 Nifty is unable to surpass the 25,000 level after bouncing back from the 24,000 level. It has been facing strong resistance at the higher levels with some selling pressure from the FIIs as well, now after a long period of buying in the equity cash segment now they seem to have taken a pause. On the upside, the 25000 strike has the highest call OI, whereas the 24000 strike has the highest put OI, so the range for the Index is 24000 to 25000 levels. There is a small gap around 24200, which is likely to be filled in this correction or consolidation. Now, on the upside, 24,800 is an immediate resistance, which, if taken off, will be the first signal of reversal of trend from down to up; otherwise, the short-term trend is in favour of the bears from the profit-booking point of view.

The positional bias on the Index is still positive, and it is quite likely to head towards 25800 levels. The India VIX has been rising this week, as well as, the global markets are showing signs of weakness, hence overall the short-term trend remains sideways to negative.

Stocks To Buy in the near-term - Jay Thakkar Jay Thakkar of ICICI Securities suggests buying Divi's Labs, Hindustan Aeronautics and Tata Technologies in the futures market.

Buy Divis Labs futures in the range of 6530 to 6560, stop loss of 6350, target at 6850 to 7000 levels Divis Labs has broken out of multiple swing resistance, and with that, the stock has also started to witness long positions in futures. The correction had witnessed profit booking, i.e. long unwinding and now, after the positions have become light in F&O, it seems to be reversing back on the long side. The options activity also suggests that the bulls have an upper hand as there have been put additions at the lower levels along with call unwinding, so it is a double benefit for the bulls. The stock is trading above its 20-day VWAP as well as its max pain levels, hence the short-term outlook is positive.

Buy HAL futures in the range of 5000 to 5050, stop loss of 4900, target at 5250 and 5350 The Nifty defence sector index has been forming higher tops and higher bottoms, and the overall trend is bullish in it. HAL has also been trending higher and has just started adding long positions after witnessing huge profit booking and long unwinding. So, now with this fresh breakout as well as long additions, the overall trend appears bullish. The options activity suggests call writing at the higher levels, which can prove to be resistance at the higher levels, however, the put writers have become aggressive at the ATM strike and the stock is also trading above its 20-day VWAP and its max pain level, so the overall trend is positive.

Also Read | Stocks to buy under 100: Experts recommend six shares to buy today

Buy Tata Tech futures in the range of 760-770, stop loss of 730, target at 810 and 830 The stock has provided a breakout from an inverse head and shoulders pattern, which is a bullish reversal sign in the near term. It had witnessed huge short build-up since it got introduced in the F&O segment; however, since the breakout, there is short covering witnessed which is a positive sign in the near term. There have been put additions at almost all the strikes from ITM to OTM, with some call unwinding also witnessed at higher levels, hence the upside probability is higher on account of short covering. The stock is trading well above its max pain and modified max pain levels of 700 and 749, as well as its 20-day VWAP levels of 680, hence, the overall trend in the short term appears bullish.
Shares of GMM Pfaudler declined sharply in intraday trade on Thursday, May 22, falling over 8 percent to hit a low of 1,161, after the company reported a disappointing set of numbers for the March 2025 quarter (Q4FY25). Despite revenue growth, the quarter was marred by a steep net loss, declining margins, and elevated one-time costs, which overshadowed otherwise resilient operational performance, particularly in the Indian market.

Net Loss in Q4, Full-Year Profit Tumbles Nearly 70% For the January-March quarter, GMM Pfaudler posted a consolidated net loss of 27 crore, compared to a net profit of 27.6 crore in Q4FY24. The company clarified that the net loss excludes one-time closure costs of 47.7 crore, which included severance pay, inventory write-offs, and asset impairments. After tax, total exceptional items stood at 43 crore for Q4FY25 and 50.4 crore for FY25.

Despite these pressures, revenue from operations rose 8.9 percent YoY to 806.6 crore, up from 740.7 crore a year ago. However, EBITDA declined 57.5 percent YoY to 83.3 crore, and the EBITDA margin narrowed to 10.3 percent from 12.1 percent in Q4FY24, indicating continued pressure on profitability.

For the full financial year ended March 2025, net profit slumped 69.81 percent to 52.97 crore, down from 175.47 crore in FY24. Total revenue declined 7.19 percent YoY to 3,198.69 crore, compared to 3,446.48 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company's India operations reported revenue of 252 crore and EBITDA of 44 crore, with a healthy margin of 17.4 percent. Profitability improved in the second half of FY25, supported by higher volumes, favourable product mix, and a cost optimisation programme.

Speaking on the results, Tarak Patel, Managing Director of GMM Pfaudler, acknowledged the challenging macro environment. This year has been challenging, primarily due to a general slowdown in the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Additionally, uncertainties surrounding global trade and geopolitical tensions have further complicated the situation, he said.

Patel, however, struck an optimistic tone regarding the companys operational strategy. Our focus on diversification and cost optimisation has enabled us to navigate these difficulties effectively, he added.

Strategic Moves GMM Pfaudler continues to optimise its global manufacturing footprint. During the year, it established a low-cost manufacturing site in Poland, where a capacity expansion programme has been initiated. This move is expected to enhance the groups cost competitiveness in Europe. Concurrently, the company has shut down manufacturing sites in Leven (UK) and Hyderabad (India), aligning with its long-term footprint rationalisation strategy.

The company also reported order intake of 3,102 crore in FY25, a modest 3 percent YoY increase, while the order backlog declined 3 percent to 1,636 crore. On the cash flow front, the company delivered free cash flow of 318 crore, which was 97 crore higher than the previous year, indicating improved capital discipline.

Dividend Declaration The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of 1 per equity share (face value 2) for FY25, subject to shareholder approval at the upcoming 62nd Annual General Meeting. Including the interim dividend, the total payout for FY25 stands at 2 per share. The record date for the final dividend will be announced in due course.

Stock Price Trend The sharp fall on May 22 came despite a 14 percent gain in the stock earlier in May. GMM Pfaudler is now 24 percent below its 52-week high of 1,530.80, touched in August 2024, but 22 percent above its 52-week low of 953, hit in April 2025.

On a 12-month basis, the stock has declined 9.5 percent. Prior to Mays rally, it gained 1.17 percent in April, but saw back-to-back declines of 8.4 percent in March and 7 percent in February. In January, the stock managed a marginal 1 percent rise.
Hyundai Motor India share price in focus: Hyundai Motor Indias share price declined by 3% on Thursday, May 20, settling at 1,854 per share amid a broad-based sell-off in the Indian equity market. Despite the dip, the stock has been on a steady upward trajectory in recent weeks, rebounding sharply from its April 7 low of 1,541.

Since then, it has rallied nearly 20%, bringing it within close range of its IPO price of 1,960just 5.4% below its latest trading value. Notably, the stock has yet to breach its IPO price since its market debut, despite multiple attempts that were met with resistance and pullbacks.

Also Read | Hyundai Motor looks to accelerate speed with EV, hybrid car

The highest level the stock has touched since listing was 1,929 per share, recorded in early February. As the stock once again attempts to breach its IPO price, Anshul Jain, Head of Research at Lakshmishree Investments, stated that the stock is forming a 142-day-long IPO base with a pivot breakout level at 1,935. However, he noted that the base lacks institutional accumulation and follows a sharp run-up, which makes the breakout zone potentially vulnerable.

"A breakout above 1,935 must be accompanied by significant volume to confirm bullish intent. Conversely, if the stock fails to sustain above 1,935, it could trigger long liquidation, dragging it down toward 1,750. Traders should wait for clear volume cues before initiating positions," he further added.

Also Read | Hyundai Motor India reports total sales of 60,774 units in April

The company made its debut on Dalal Street in October 2024, listing at 1,934 per share against the IPO price of 1,960. Following the muted listing, the stock remained volatile, moving back and forth amid concerns over its rich valuations.

The company successfully raised 27,870 crore from Indian investors, marking the largest IPO fundraise in the countrys history.

Brokerages stay bullish on Hyundai Motor shares after Q4 results Following the announcement of the companys March quarter results on May 16, brokerage firms have retained their optimistic outlook on Hyundai Motor India. Motilal Oswal noted that the company remains well-positioned to benefit from the premiumization trend in India, given its strong SUV portfolio. It has maintained a buy rating on the stock with a target price of 2,137 per share.

Kotak Institutional Equities raised its target price from 2,000 to 2,050 per share while retaining its buy recommendation. The brokerage stated, We expect near-term demand trends to remain muted due to weak consumer sentiment, limited new launches, and a high base.

However, it expects industry trends to improve from H2FY26E, with Hyundai Motor India likely to gain market share driven by new launches in the SUV and MPV segments across multiple powertrains. Similarly, Japanese brokerage firm Nomura also revised its target price upward to 2,291, maintaining its buy rating.

CLSA and Macquarie have both assigned an outperform rating, with target prices of 2,155 and 2,100 per share, respectively. The company reported a 4 per cent YoY dip in its consolidated profit after tax to 1,614 crore, while the revenue from operations rose by 1.52 per cent YoY to 17,940 crore.
The Indian stock market benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty 50, are likely to open lower on Thursday, tracking weakness in global markets.

The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a negative start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 24,775 level, a discount of nearly 57 points from the Nifty futures previous close.

On Wednesday, the domestic equity market snapped its three-day losing streak to end higher, with the benchmark Nifty 50 closing above 24,800 level.

The Sensex gained 410.19 points, or 0.51%, to close at 81,596.63, while the Nifty 50 settled 129.55 points, or 0.52%, higher at 24,813.45.

Heres what to expect from Sensex, Nifty 50, and Bank Nifty today:

Sensex Prediction Sensex faced resistance near 82,000 and corrected sharply on Wednesday, but ended the session 410 points higher at 81,596.63.

Sensex eventually managed to close above 81,200, which is largely positive. A breakout above 82,200 could push Sensex up to 82,500  82,700. On the flip side, if the index drops below 81,200, sentiment could turn negative. Falling below this level, the correction wave is likely to accelerate. In such a scenario, the market could retest the levels of 80,700  80,500, said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.

Nifty 50 Prediction Nifty 50 ended 0.52% higher at 24,813.55 on May 21, following a three-day corrective phase, forming an inside bar on the daily chart, and the previous sessions low was safeguarded during intraday, indicating a possible attempt at stabilization.

Nifty 50 managed to reclaim the 9-EMA and 20-EMA, although the gap between the two remains narrow. The daily RSI stands at 60, showing a slight uptick and hinting at the possibility of an improving outlook. On the hourly chart, the higher high and higher low structure remains intact as long as 24,494 is defended. The next immediate support lies near 24,650. The overall trend remains neutral, and for a bullish trend to resume a decisive move above the 25,000  25,020 zone is inevitable, said Om Mehra, Technical Research Analyst, SAMCO Securities.

India's VIX remained elevated at 17.55, continuing to hover in the 17  18 range. Depending on whether it rises further or begins to cool, this elevated volatility may act as a barometer for near-term market sentiment, he added.

Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP Technical and Derivatives Research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Interrmediates Ltd. noted that the Nifty 50 formed an inside bar candle on the daily chart, suggesting consolidation within the previous candles range.

The index is currently facing resistance near 25,000. A decisive move above 25,000 could lead the index to test 25,200  25,250 levels. On the downside, strong support is placed near 24,430, where the 21-Day Exponential Moving Average (21-DEMA) is positioned, said Yedve.

According to VLA Ambala, Co-Founder of Stock Market Today, Nifty 50 formed a shooting star in the daily chart and an inside bar pattern on the 3-hour chart.

Judging by the momentum, the market will remain bearish below the 24,800 range. So, I suggest adopting a sell-on-rise strategy for intraday trading. Amid these ongoing developments, Nifty 50 can expect support between 24,630 and 24,500 while meeting resistance near 24,970 and 25,000 this week, Ambala said.

Bank Nifty Prediction Bank Nifty index gained 197.75 points, or 0.36%, to close at 55,075.10 on Wednesday, forming a doji candle with a lower high and lower low signaling consolidation with corrective bias after previous session sharp decline.

In the coming sessions a move above previous sessions high (55,356) will open pullback towards 55,800 - 56,000 levels. Going ahead, overall we expect the Bank Nifty index to extend the last 4 weeks consolidation in the broad range of 56,000 - 53,500. In the last 19 sessions, it has retraced just 38.2% of the prior 9-session rally (49,157  56,098), indicating a shallow pullback that suggests underlying strength and potential higher bottom formation, said Bajaj Broking Research.

Within the consolidation, the brokerage firm believes dips should be used as buying opportunities. Key support at 54,000 - 53,500 being the confluence of key retracement and 20 days EMA.

Hrishikesh Yedve said that technically, the Bank Nifty index formed a doji candle on the daily chart, indicating indecision.

On the downside, strong support is seen near 54,520 (21-DEMA), while short-term resistance is placed at 55,700 levels. Traders are advised to monitor these levels closely for potential trading opportunities, said Yedve.

According to Om Mehra, Technical Research Analyst, SAMCO Securities, the Bank Nifty index is precisely oscillating within the broader range of 54,442 to 55,696, suggesting an ongoing time-wise correction.

Nifty Bank is currently hovering near the edge of its 9-EMA and 20-EMA, which could act as either support or resistance, depending on the direction of the next move. The index is expected to remain range-bound unless a breakout occurs beyond this broader consolidation zone. Until such a move materializes, a clear directional confirmation remains pending. The resistance is expected near 55,400, which also coincides with the hourly super trend level, said Mehra.
(Bloomberg) -- From Singapore to Japan and Australia, fund managers in Asia are looking to unlock billions of dollars for private credit from the last untapped pocket: retail investors.

Private capital firms once catered almost exclusively to institutions and ultra-wealthy clients who are able to stomach the high-risk and long-term nature of the investments. But the recent trend to tap retail demand shows how industry players working with regulators are moving toward the goal of opening up the burgeoning asset class to the masses.

The Monetary of Authority of Singapore is seeking public feedback on a proposed regulatory framework that would grant retail investors access to the private market with proper safeguards in place.

In Hong Kong, the funds industry has been advocating to broaden the asset class pool beyond professional investors  those with a portfolio of at least HK$8 million ($1 million), according to a PwC report. Meanwhile in Japan, financial services firm Keyaki Capital has launched the countrys first online investment platform for the industry targeting wealthier individuals.

Private markets remain opaque to many investors, with a lack of publicly available performance data and limited know-how cited as major barriers to entry, said Hugh Chung, chief investment officer of wealth and fund platform Endowus.

The interest comes amid Asias private credit boom, which isnt showing any signs of easing. Fund investors  so-called limited partners or LPs  remain bullish given the region only represents a fraction of the global private credit market. Assets under management in the Asia Pacific reached $94.6 billion in September 2024, making up less than 6% of the $1.67 trillion global AUM, according to Preqin.

Similarly, the wallet size of ultra high-net-worth individuals is set to expand in Asia, supported by the regions growing affluence and the need to preserve wealth through intergenerational transfers. In Singapore, the size of retail demand could grow to as much as S$100 billion ($78 billion), said Endowus Chung. The figure is based on an assumption that 5% of the S$1.93 trillion of total household financial assets gets allocated to private credit, he said.

Meanwhile in Japan, retail players investments into private markets could potentially reach around 47 trillion yen ($327 billion), assuming 10% of total financial assets of the ultra high-net-worth and high-net-worth segment gets allocated, said Keyaki Capitals chief executive officer Taiki Kimura.

In Australia, a growing number of managers have launched new credit investment vehicles to capture growing demand for higher returns by well-heeled locals. The pool of capital is around $1 trillion, according to one estimate. Recent entrants include UK manager Coller Capital Ltd.s launch of a private credit secondaries fund targeting individuals and Income Asset Managements new initiative for Australians to invest directly in corporate loans.

Asias private credit market is growing so fast that a rush of new participants into the direct-lending sector is fueling concern about a weakening of lending standards. Similarly, the opaque nature of the sector is attracting greater scrutiny from regulators.

In Oceania, corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission is increasing oversight of the space by seeking industry feedback amid concerns about disclosure and potential investor losses.

Investors should have a long-term horizon if they are interested in private credit solutions, said Endowus Chung. One key challenge here is to educate retail investors that private credit is an illiquid investment.

--With assistance from Sharon Klyne.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
PSU banking stocks have made a comeback over the last few years. These were once considered junk by Dalal Street because the government was keeping the banks alive by regular capital infusions.

The market sentiment for these stocks has changed of late and they now track cues like non-performing assets (NPAs), profit growth, etc.

Despite proving their viability to the market, some of these stocks are still trading at low prices. This does not mean these PSU banks are necessarily cheap, but it does get retail investors interested.

Let us look at three PSU bank stocks that are trading below 100. We have used Equitymasters powerful stock screener  Best PSU Banks Stocks in India.

#1 IDBI Bank

The share price of IDBI Bank has closed around 93 today, 22 May. The stock has not set the market on fire over the last one year.

This is clearly visible on the chart of the stock.

So, what is the problem here?

Well, the company is a disinvestment candidate. The stock fluctuates based on news in this regard.

IDBI Bank net profit grew 25.2% YoY to 2072 crore for thequarter ended March 2025. But the market isnt too interested in the banks financial performance as long as there are no negative surprises.

Its the disinvestment that Dalal Street has its eyes on. The latest news in this regard is the government is keen to complete the entire process by the end of this year, i.e. by December 2025.

Thegovernmentand the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) plan to jointly offload a 61% stake in the bank, 30.48% by the government and 30.24% by LIC.

Investors should keep a hawk eye on any developments on this front.

#2 Punjab National Bank (PNB)

This banks stock price is slightly above 100, closing at 100.59 today. However, most of the recent share price history has been below 100.

In fact, the stock has been falling since early 2024.

This has been due to a combination of quarterly results not meeting the expectations of the market and a couple of big negative events.

The Supreme Court's cancellation ofJSW Steel'sacquisition of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd. earlier this month has thrown recovery prospects of lenders into doubt.

PNB's exposure to Bhushan Power is significant at 6,100 crore. There is a possibility that banks may have to return the money received from JSW Steel if the deal does not go through.

This situation poses a financial risk for PNB, with potential provisions required in upcoming quarters.

PNB has received about 3,000 crore from JSW Steel as part of the resolution process but has not made any provisions against this exposure yet.

Then last year, there was the locker controversy. On 6 September 2024, Yash Kapoor, a long-time customer of the bank, discovered that his family's locker, held for 64 year, had been mistakenly opened. After several failed attempts to access the locker, Kapoor was informed that it had been broken open by mistake.

Another elderly customer, who mistook it for his own, collected valuables from Kapoor's locker. The items taken included gold and diamond ornaments worth 270 crore.

Reportedly, the elderly customer later sold these valuables to a local jeweller, who had the items melted down, making recovery nearly impossible.

This scandal has severely damaged PNB's reputation, raising serious questions about the bank's security protocols and its gross oversight.

However, the bank has posted good results recently withimproved asset quality, lower provisions, and steady net interest income growth. The bank posted a net profit of 4,560 crore in Q4 FY25, a 52% increase from last year. The NII of the bank rose 4% YoY to 10,760 crore.

Investors need to closely monitor the bank's results going forward.

#3 UCO Bank

The bank's financials were weak until 2021 bogged down by its weak asset quality and earnings. The government supported UCO Bank with infusion of 22,600 crore over FY16-FY22.

Post the infusion, the bank's financial profile improved. In recent years, it has focused on improving asset quality, increasing digital services, and strengthening its balance sheet.

The latest quarters results were good. UCO Bank recorded a consolidated net profit of 660 crore for the March quarter, a 24% rise compared to 540 crore a year ago.

The banks total income reached 8,140 crore from 6,980 crore last year.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) declined to 2.7% from 3.5% last year. The net NPA also dropped to 0.5% from 0.9% a year ago.

Investors are optimistic about the bank's ongoing turnaround and future prospects. The stock price has stopped declining recently.

There is another reason for the positive sentiment surrounding the stock. UCO Bank plans to issue up to 270 crore new equity shares during FY26. The objective is to reduce the government's ownership from 90.9% to 75%, in line with Sebi rules that require a minimum 25% public shareholding.

The estimated value of the proposed issue is around 8,000 crore. This move is expected to broaden the bank's investor base and strengthen its capital position.

Earlier, in the March quarter, UCO Bank completed aqualified institutional placementthat raised 2,000 crore. This helped lower the government's stake from 95.4% to 90.9%.

The QIP saw strong participation from institutional investors, reflecting growing confidence in the bank's future.

Reducing government ownership is viewed positively by the market. It signals better corporate governance and improved operational flexibility.

Investors should continue to monitor the ongoing turnaround in the banks financials.

Snapshot of PSU Bank stocks

Here's a quick view of some crucial financial parameters of PSU banks from Equitymaster's Stock Screener.

View Full Image Equitymaster

Conclusion

PSU banks have a reputation for delivering fast profits in a short time. Unfortunately, they also have a reputation for being wealth destroyers in the long run.

Thus, these stocks end up being quite volatile. This is the double-edged sword that investors have to contend with in these stocks. Its not something that faint-hearted investors can handle.

For those considering PSU bank stocks, thorough research, careful monitoring of their financials, and adequate diversification are essential to managing the risks while maximizing potential returns.

Happy Investing.

Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such.

This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) may be living abroad but a vast majority of them continue to have financial obligations in India. An NRI credit card will be a useful tool for them to manage their expenses in India. A credit card issued in India will also help NRIs make payments during their travels to their home country. With this, NRIs can avoid using cards, which are issued abroad, in India, thus cutting down on foreign transaction fees. Here is a guide on NRI credit cards, its types and benefits.

What is an NRI credit card and what are its types? An NRI credit card is issued to non-resident Indian citizens by Indian banks primarily for usage in their home country. It can be used for transacting both in online and offline modes just like in the case of credit cards issued to resident Indians. Banks offer Non-Resident External (NRE)/ Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) bank account-based credit cards for NRIs.

While NRO account-based credit cards can be used only for domestic transactions, NRE account-based credit cards can be utilised for both domestic and international transactions. But to get the credit card, the customer has to be present at the banks branch during the card application process.

You can apply for an NRI credit card by visiting your banks branch in India or overseas and submit the application form with the required documents. Some banks, however, require the NRI to be present in India during the card application process. These credit cards are also issued against NRE/NRO fixed deposits (FDs) held by NRIs.

What are the benefits of NRI credit cards? NRI credit cards offer a host of benefits. NRIs can make online payments with the option to pay both in Indian and international currencies. But international transactions attract foreign exchange conversion charges. These credit cards also offer access to international ATMs where NRIs can withdraw cash in the local currency.

But banks levy withdrawal fee and foreign exchange conversion charges for using international ATMs. NRI credit cards offer most of the benefits that are available to domestic credit cards. You can accumulate rewards and earn cashbacks on domestic (India) transactions made on NRI credit cards. You can also avail exclusive airline partnerships that offer benefits such as lounge access, bonus miles and priority check-in. Leading banks allow NRIs to add their family members as supplementary cardholders.

How about the application process? NRIs should have a valid NRE or NRO account with the card issuing bank to get the credit card. The primary cardholder should be 21 years old. But some banks issue cards for even those who are only 18 years old.

Here is the list of documents that you have to submit to avail an NRI credit card:

Copy of valid passport

Valid work permit/employment visa/admission letter

Indian address proof: Passport/utility bill/Bank statement

Foreign address proof: Utility bills (any one of the latest electricity, water, telephone bill)/Residence permit/Property tax)

Permanent Account Number (PAN) card or in the absence of a PAN card, Form 60(if applicable)

Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)declaration as applicable for the United States (US) or Common Reporting Standard (CRS) for the United Kingdom (UK), Canada or any of the more than 100 countries that have adopted CRS.

Previous three months income statement or average quarterly balance.

Indian reference address and Indian phone number.

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If you are availing the NRI credit card against your NRE/NRO FDs, the credit limit is typically capped at a certain percentage of the deposit amountusually at 80%. Some banks have set a minimum FD limit and allow only individual FDs for availing the credit card. The NRI credit card eligibility criteria differs from bank to bank and is usually determined by factors such as income, employment and financial history of the customer.

An NRI credit card is quite useful for managing expenses in India. But choose it only if you are a frequent traveller to your home country and have recurring expenses that involve payments in the local currency (Rupee). A good NRI credit card should have high international acceptance, zero forex markup, excellent rewards programmes and quick customer support.
An ivory saree, a tissue drape, and rubies wrapped around her neck - but what truly caught everyones eye in Aishwarya Rai Bachchans first Cannes appearance this year was the bold streak of red sindoor in her hair. Just as India begins sending delegations to 33 countries to talk about Operation Sindoor - launched after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 - Aishwarya showed up as the perfect cultural ambassador, wearing her identity with pride on one of the biggest global stages, netizens claimed.

The sindoor did more than make a style statement. The vermilion, traditionally worn by married Hindu women, also seemed to put a lid on all the buzzing divorce rumours surrounding Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan over the past few months.



Watch | Cannes 2025: Aishwarya Rai and daughter Aaradhya reach France, receive heartfelt welcome

Her much-awaited Cannes look was crafted by celebrity designer Manish Malhotra. The saree, a handwoven Kadwa Banarasi handloom in ivory, was minimal yet elegant, allowing the sindoor to shine. She paired it with a delicate handwoven tissue drape and stunning high jewellery from Manish Malhotra Jewellery. The necklace, rich with over 500 carats of Mozambique rubies and uncut diamonds set in 18k gold, made a striking impression, as did the bold statement ring on her finger.

Netizens celebrate Aishwarya Rais Cannes look: Nod to Operation Sindoor

Many have hailed her saree look, complete with bold sindoor, as a powerful cultural statement and, according to fans, a subtle tribute to Operation Sindoor.



Read | Aishwarya Rai brings back saree at Cannes, silences never ending divorce rumours with regal sindoor look

Comments like Grace is power. And when a woman wears her culture with pride, she doesnt just walk she REIGNS and Queen is here flooded social media, with Indian fans appreciating the former Miss World for bringing elegance and patriotism to the global stage.

Fans say her outfit and makeup choices werent random Another fan praised her look, saying: Im super late to Aishwarya Rais Cannes moment, and Im in love with her saree slay. After 23 years, her Cannes saree comeback is everything. Her bold sindoor, representing Indias spirit with a nod to Operation Sindoor.

Someone else chimed in with: Im so proud of Aishwarya Rai. Regardless of all the hate, she showed up as strong and as beautiful as ever. That too wearing sindoor in the midst of Operation Sindoor.



Also read | Ruchi Gujjars tribute to PM Modi at Cannes 2025 faces backlash, No true Rajput would ever

Another fan added: Her putting sindoor at Cannes is a clear tribute to the success of Operation Sindoor. A true patriot & representing Bhartiya Nari in true senses.

Another added: Perfect cultural ambassador.
Britain signed a deal on Thursday to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after a London judge overturned a last-minute injunction and cleared the way for an agreement the government says is vital to protect the nation's security.

The multibillion-dollar deal will allow Britain to retain control of the strategically important U.S.-UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.

The signing went ahead after a carefully choreographed ceremony was postponed when lawyers representing a British national born in the Chagos Islands were granted an interim injunction at the High Court in the early hours of Thursday.

Judge Martin Chamberlain then lifted that injunction following a hearing, saying Britain's interests would be "substantially prejudiced" if the injunction were to continue.

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The government, which has been criticised by opposition parties for pursuing a deal they say is overly costly and would play into the hands of China, has long said the agreement is essential to secure the future of Diego Garcia.

"The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, from deploying aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific," Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference.

"By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, we're securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century."

The signing ends months of wrangling over the deal, the details of which were first announced in October, after the then-Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth was replaced by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who raised concerns about it.

It was further delayed after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump in January, with London wanting to give the new administration time to examine the details of the plan. In February, Trump indicated his backing for the deal.

LATEST LEGAL CHALLENGE The injunction was the latest legal challenge to the deal in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora, many of whom ended up in Britain after being forcibly removed from the archipelago more than 50 years ago.

It was granted following action by Bertrice Pompe, a British national who was born in Diego Garcia and has criticised the deal for excluding Chagossians.

James Eadie, the government's lawyer, said the delay was damaging to British interests and "there is jeopardy to our international relations ... (including with) our most important security and intelligence partner, the U.S."

It is one less headache for Starmer, who is under fire from his own governing Labour Party for implementing welfare cuts to try to better balance Britain's books.

But Starmer's political opponents were again critical of the accord, arguing it was both costly and by ceding sovereignty, China could further deepen its ties with Mauritius, benefiting Beijing's influence in the Indian Ocean.

"Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X.

The financial component of the deal includes 3 billion pounds to be paid by Britain to Mauritius over the 99-year term of the agreement, with an option for a 50-year extension and Britain maintaining the right of first refusal thereafter.
The Delhi Police, in coordination with central agencies, arrested two alleged ISI agents during a covert operation conducted between January and March 2025. The suspects are currently lodged in Tihar Jail, and a chargesheet has been filed against them, officials said.

Know about Ansarul Mian Ansari, whom Delhi Police arrested Of the two ISI agents, one has been identified as Ansarul Mian Ansari, a Nepali national. According to an ANI report, several classified documents related to the armed forces were recovered from his possession.

Ansari was caught at a hotel in Delhi while attempting to travel to Pakistan. He had come to Delhi at the request of the ISI, which had instructed him to create a CD containing confidential documents and send it to Pakistan. Following his interrogation, another individual was arrested in Ranchi, ANI reported, citing its sources.

Ansari revealed that he used to drive a cab in Qatar, where he met an ISI handler. He was then taken to Pakistan, where senior ISI officials trained him for several days before sending him to Delhi via Nepal.

Also Read | NIA arrests two ISIS sleeper cell fugitives linked to 2023 Pune IED case

NIA arrests two linked to an ISIS sleeper cell network This development comes just days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) apprehended two fugitives at Mumbai airport, allegedly linked to an ISIS sleeper cell network. The duo, wanted in connection with a 2023 case involving the fabrication and testing of IEDs in Pune, were intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration at Terminal 2 of Mumbai International Airport upon their return from Jakarta.

The accused, identified as Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh, also known as Diaperwala, and Talha Khan, had been evading authorities for over two years. Both had non-bailable warrants issued against them by a special NIA court in Mumbai.

According to PTI, the central probing agency had also announced a cash reward of 3 lakh each for information about them.

Their case involved a criminal conspiracy carried out by the duo in collaboration with eight other members of the ISIS sleeper cell in Pune, who have already been arrested and are currently in judicial custody. According to the official statement, Shaikh and Khan had plotted to carry out terrorist activities with the intent to disrupt India's peace and communal harmony, as part of a larger effort to wage war against the Government of India and advance the ISIS agenda.
Delhi weather today: Four individuals died in rain-related incident after heavy rain and hailstorms lashed parts of the national capital on May 21. The intense thunderstorm impacted flight operations, metro services, caused traffic snarls, uprooted trees, damaged vehicles and power outages were reported as electricity lines were also impacted.

According to Delhi Police, a tragic death occurred at Lodhi Road on Wednesday after a high-beam electric cable fell on a wheelchair ridden man at 7:50 pm. A 22-year-old man from Maujpur died after being trapped under a fallen tree in Gokulpuri, Indian Express reported.

Waterlogging was also observed at several places across the city, including near the Akshardham Flyover, Sikandra Road, and under Tilak Bridge near ITO. As a safety measure electricity supply had to be temporarily cut off in certain areas of Delhi-NCR, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (DDL) issued a statement in this regard as falling trees and branches damaged electric cables.

Flight operations impacted Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) issued a warning, alerting about impact on flight operations due to inclement weather conditions and thunderstorms in the national capital.

IndiGo in a post on X said, Our flight schedules are currently impacted due to the heavy rains and thunderstorm sweeping across Delhi, Chandigarh and Kolkata.

Indias leading carriers, including Air India, SpiceJet and IndiGo, acknowledged the impact of the adverse weather conditions on its operations. IndiGo flight 6E 2142 en route Srinagar from Delhi encountered severe turbulence in which the nose of the aircraft was damaged.

Delhi Metro Delhi Metro issued an advisory informing that the sudden windstorm disrupted the operations on Red, Yellow and Pink Lines near Shaheed Nagar, Jahangirpuri and Nizamudin stations.

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Delhi weather today A day after sudden dust storm and heavy rains, Delhi is expected to witness partly cloudy sky and hot and humid weather conditions on May 22. The minimum temperature today is expected to settle around 23-25 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature will hover around 29 and 41 degrees Celsius. The Regional Meteorological Department of Delhi has issued a yellow alert for today and tomorrow, predicting precipitation.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge sheet against former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satya Pal Malik and five others in Kiru hydropower corruption case, officials said on Thursday.

Malik and others have been accused of corruption in the award of 2,200-crore civil works for the hydropower project.

The CBI submitted its findings at a special court, naming Satya Pal Malik and five others as accused in the case. The charge sheet came after three years of the agency conducting its probe.

What are the charges against Satya Pal Malik? The investigation began after an FIR was registered in 2022 and the CBI was requested to look into the case. In a statement after the registration of the FIR, the CBI had said the case pertains to the alleged malpractices in the award of the contract worth about 2,200 crore of civil works of the Kiru Hydro Electric Power (HEP) Project to a private company in 2019.

Also Read | How Pahalgam terror attack grounded Kashmirs rising tourism tide

Meanwhile, Satya Pal Malik alleged that he was offered a bribe of 300 crore for clearing two files, including the one pertaining to the project when he was governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

In February 2024, the CBI conducted searches in Malik's premises in connection with the case. However, he has denied all allegations. The former governor said his residence was raided by the CBI instead of investigating the people he had complained about and who were involved in corruption.

They will not get anything except 4-5 kurtas and pyjamas. The dictator is trying to scare me by misusing government agencies. I am a farmer's son, I will neither be afraid nor bow down, he had posted on social media.

The investigating agency has booked Navin Kumar Choudhary, the then chairman of the Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited (CVPPPL), and other officials including M S Babu, M K Mittal and Arun Kumar Mishra, besides construction firm Patel Engineering Limited.

Also Read | CBI Director Praveen Sood gets one year's extension
Delhi Srinagar Indigo flight Turbulence: An Indigo flight from Delhi to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm leading to severe turbulence on 21 May, prompting the pilot to report the emergency to air traffic control at Srinagar.

The flight carrying more than 220 people, however, later landed safely at 6:30 pm at Srinagar airport but not before leaving the passengers in panic as it navigated the massive mid-air turbulence.

Videos from inside the plane, in which passengers can be heard screaming and praying for their safety, have gone viral on social media platforms.

One of the passengers on board the flight was Sheikh Samiullah, a startup co-founder from Srinagar.

Grateful to the pilot Everything seemed normal, until the pilot suddenly announced a rough patch ahead and asked us to fasten our seatbelts. Im a frequent flyer, but Ive never experienced turbulence like this. It was terrifying. Im truly grateful to the pilot for landing us safely, Samiullah, the co-founder of FastBeetle, a logistics tech platform, told news agency PTI.

Co-founded in 2019 by Samiullah and his friend Abid Rashid Lone, FastBeetle a Kashmir-based tech start-up focused on last-mile logistics. In 2021, FastBeetle became Kashmirs first start-up to raise $100,000 in a pre-Series A funding round.

'Hearts still racing, but I feel like Ive been reborn. Grateful to Allah," he said later in a post on X.

The airline said the flight from the national capital to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm and the plane landed safely at the Srinagar airport.

"IndiGo flight 6E 2142 operating from Delhi to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm en route. The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar," the airline said in a statement.

Not enough details were available about the extent of damage to the plane due to the hailstorm but visuals on social media indicated damage to the aircrafts nose.

Also Read | IndiGo announces its longest flight yet

I was in the plane and am heading back home from Srinagar. It was a near death experience.The nose of the plane is damaged...There was panic and people were screaming. Everyone was scared, one Owais Maqbool Hakeem, who was on board the flight, said in a post on X.

Several domestic and international flights to Delhi airport from various airports have been halted or diverted due to weather conditions in Delhi, ANI reported quoting airport sources.

IndiGo and Air India have also issued advisories for passengers asking them to check the status of flights.

Heavy rain and thunderstorm in #Delhi, #Chandigarh and #Kolkata is impacting flights. We understand weather delays are never easy, we sincerely appreciate your patience. Do check your flight status before heading to the airport, said IndiGo in a post on X.

Hearts still racing, but I feel like Ive been reborn. Grateful to Allah.
The Hisar District Court has sent Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested over espionage charges, to the police remand for four days. However, the police stated that no evidence has been found of links to terrorist activity or associations with known terrorist groups.

So far, we have not found any evidence of her involvement in any terror activity or her alignment with any terrorist group. We have not found any document which depicts that she wants to marry any PIOs or wants to change religion, Hindustan Times quoted the Hisar SP as saying.

Police noted that there is currently no evidence suggesting Jyoti had access to any military or defence-related information. Additionally, her four bank accounts are under scrutiny, PTI reported.

The police on Wednesday also revealed she had been in contact with a Pakistani officer since 2023.

Jyoti was in touch with the Pakistan staffer named Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, who was placed at the Pakistani High Commission since November 2023, the PTI report said, citing sources.

The National Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, and military intelligence officials have interrogated Jyoti. The police have submitted Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop for forensic analysis. She had been to China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and some other countries.

Who is Jyoti Malhotra? Jyoti Malhotra is a 33-year-old Hisar native who runs a YouTube channel called Travel with JO. Her channel has 3.87 lakh subscribers.

She was arrested last week from the New Aggarsain Extension area and has been charged under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Malhotra is one of 12 individuals arrested over the past two weeks from Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh on espionage charges, as investigators suspect the existence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in northern India.

According to police, Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs) had been working to develop Malhotra as an asset. She was also reportedly in contact with Danish during the four-day military standoff between India and Pakistan that followed the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack, it added.
The Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for "crossing all the limits" and undermining the federal structure of governance. The court made the remarks while staying the EDs money laundering investigation into Tamil Nadu's state-run liquor retailer, TASMAC, over alleged corruption in the issuance of wine shop licences.

Here's what Supreme Court said Issuing notice to the ED on pleas filed by the Tamil Nadu government and the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih told Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the anti-money laundering probe agency, that Your ED is crossing all the limits.

The Enforcement Directorate is violating the federal concept (of governance), the bench observed, adding that the EDs probe against the state-run TASMAC will not proceed in the meantime.

The law officer opposed the order, saying the issue involved corruption over 1,000 crore and the ED is not crossing the limits at least in this case.

The bench took note of the submissions of senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit nand Tiwari that the state itself has lodged over 40 FIRs in cases related to allotment of liquor shop licences from 2014 and now the ED jumps in the picture and raids the TASMAC.

How can you raid the state-run TASMAC, the bench asked.

The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government and TASMAC approached the Supreme Court challenging the EDs raids on TASMAC premises.

Their petitions contested the April 23 order of the Madras High Court, which had dismissed their objections and permitted the ED to continue its investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Supreme Court, however, stayed the EDs probe, expressing concern over the agency's actions and their implications for the federal structure of governance.
An exchange of fire was reported between Security forces and terrorists in the Singhpora area of Chatroo in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district on Thursday morning, the police said.

"Exchange of fire started between Security Forces and terrorists in the Singhpora area of Chatroo in Kishtwar," Jammu and Kashmir Police said.

"Op Trashi. Contact has been established with terrorists during a joint #operation with @JmuKmrPolice at #Chhatru, #Kishtwar today morning. Additional troops have been inducted, and operations are ongoing to neutralize the terrorists," said White Knight Corps in a post on X.

Further details awaited.

Earlier on May 16, VK Birdi, Inspector General of Police for Kashmir Zone, said that six terrorists were neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir under two separate operations in Kelar, Shopian and Tral conducted by the Indian Army in coordination with Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

Following the Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 people including a Nepali national, Indian forces have intensified counter-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

In response to the attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of precision strikes that targeted and destroyed terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Nearly 100 terror operatives were eliminated at key bases across Pakistan. Notable targets included Bhawalpur, the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Muridke, a major training base of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

(This is a developing story)
Delhi-Srinagar Indigo flight turbulence: Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose, who was on the turbulence-hit Indigo flight bound for Srinagar Wednesday, termed it a "near death experience."

A five-member delegation of Trinamool Congress comprising Derek O'Brien, Nadimul Haque, Sagarika Ghose, Manas Bhunia, and Mamata Thakur, was on the Srinagar-bound flight that experienced turbulence due to inclement weather.

The jolts prompted the pilot to report an "emergency" to air traffic control at Srinagar.

"It was a near death experience. I thought my life was over. People were screaming, praying and panicking," Ghose was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. A former journalsit, Sagarika Ghose is a TMC Rajya Sabha MP.

An Indigo flight from Delhi to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm leading to severe turbulence on 21 May, prompting the pilot to report the emergency to air traffic control at Srinagar.

Landed safely at 6:30 pm at Srinagar airport The flight carrying more than 220 people, however, later landed safely at 6:30 pm at Srinagar airport but not before leaving the passengers in panic as it navigated the massive mid-air turbulence.

"Hats off to the pilot who brought us through that. When we landed we saw the nose of the plane had blown up," she said, adding, the delegation thanked the pilot after the landing.

Videos of the moments of turbulence emerged on social media showing panicked passengers praying for their lives as the plane swayed.

The airline said the flight from the national capital to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm and the plane landed safely at the Srinagar airport.

"IndiGo flight 6E 2142 operating from Delhi to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm en route. The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar," the airline said in a statement.

The TMC delegation will be in Jammu and Kashmir till 23 May and visit Poonch and Rajouri, besides Srinagar.

The party has said the delegation is there to express solidarity with the people affected by cross-border attacks, and share the grief of the families who have lost their loved ones.

It was a near death experience. I thought my life was over. People were screaming, praying and panicking.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Pakistan on 22 May and said that India's three services brought the country to its knees in Operation Sindoor  India's strike at nine terror camps in Pakistan.

Modi's remarks during a public meeting in Bikaner, Rajasthan came exactly a month after Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists in Baisaran meadow of the tourist hotpot in Anantnag district of South Kashmir.

On April 22, terrorists wiped off the Sindoor of our sisters after identifying their religion. The attack took place in Pahalgam, but the bullets pierced the hearts of 1.4 billion Indians. United in one voice, every Indian resolved to eliminate terrorism and ensure punishment beyond imagination, PM Modi said addressing a rally in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

Also Read | Pahalgam, a month after the deadly terror attack

The Prime Minister said that although his mind is cool, his blood is hot and that it is not just blood, but sindoor that runs in his veins. Modi said it was is due to the courage of the Indian Armed Forces that we stand strong today.

"Our government gave a free hand to all three services, and together, the tri-services devised a strategy so impactful that it compelled Pakistan to bow down," he said.

On May 7, India conducted strikes on terrorist camps inPakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan, two weeks after the brutal killing of 26 civilians in Pahalgam. The strikes by India since 7 May were coined Operation Sindoor.

We avenged Aprill 22 by destoring 9 terror camps in 22 minutes. Duniya ne aur deshke dushmanon ne bhi dekh liya ki jab sindoor barood ban jata hai to natija kya hota hai.(When sindoor becomes an explosive, the result is for world and our enemies to see), Modi said to thundering applause and 'Modi Modi' slogans at the rally.

Also Read | Pakistans diplomatic victory conceals its weakness

The name Sindoor for the operation carries its own significance. Sindoor is the Hindi word for vermillion, which married Hindu women often apply to their foreheads. 'Operation Sindoor' symbolises India's revenge on behalf of the widows of Pahalgam terror attack.

Earlier this month, in his first address to the nation after Operation Sindoor, PM Modi ahd said on 12 May that India won't be bogged down by any nuclear blackmail' from Pakistan and that the country's military actions against terrorism have only been paused for now.

On 22 May, Modi reiterated the assertion saying that India's will follow a three-point policy towards Pakistan  1) India will not tolerate terror attacks and will decide time and method to act 2) India will not be scared by the atom bomb threat and 3) that India will not differentiate between terrororists and their mentors (state).

Pakistan Army and its economy will pay India has made it clear, Pakistan Army and its economy will have to pay heavy price for every terrorist attack, Modi said declaring that hot sindoor runs in my veins.

Modi said Pakistan will not get water that rightfully belongs to India and that it will have to pay heavy price for playing with blood of Indians.

On 12 May, Modi had said Operation Sindoor is now Indias new policy against terrorism and a new line has been drawn, Modi said.

Also Read | Operation Sindoor sent a clear message: Raghav Chadha

Modi said that Pakistan failed to damage air base in Bikaner while its Rahim Yar Khan airbase was in the ICU. Continuing his attack on Pakistan, Modi said those out to wipe out 'sindoor' were reduced to dust. He reiterated that India won't do any trade or talk with Pakistan unless it is about Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Inaugurated Projects Earlier, Modi laid the foundation stone, inaugurated and dedicated to the nation multiple development projects worth over 26,000 crore. He virtually inaugurated 103 redeveloped Amrit Stations in 86 districts across 18 States and Union Territories of India developed at a cost of over 1,100 crore.
In his first public rally following the success of Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday gave a reference to a tale from Mahabharata, stating that India's three Armed forces had formed a chakravyuh that forced Pakistan to surrender.

Here are the top five quotes from PM Modi's speech in Rajasthan's Bikaner.

1. When sindoor turns into gunpowder In his first public rally after the success of Operation Sindoor, PM Modi on Thursday highlighted the Indian Armed Forces' bravery during the operation, Today, with your blessings and the valour of the country's army, we have all lived up to that pledge. Our government gave a free hand to all three forces... Together, the three forces created such a Chakravyuh that Pakistan was forced to kneel down. In response to the attack on the 22nd, we destroyed 9 of the biggest hideouts of terrorists in 22 minutes. The world and the enemies of the country have also seen what happens when sindoor turns into gunpowder.

The world and the enemies of the country have also seen what happens when sindoor turns into gunpowder.

2. Rahim Yar Khan air base in the ICU Pakistan's army and economy will have to pay for every terror attack... Pakistan tried to attack Bikaner's Nal Airport, but they could not cause any damage. Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan air base is just across the border; nobody knows when it will function again. It is in the ICU. Indian army's attack has destroyed it... There will be neither trade nor talks with Pakistan. There will only be talks on PoK... Pakistan will not get India's water... They will have to pay for playing with India's blood. This is India's resolution and no power of the world can shake us from this resolution, he added.

Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan air base is just across the border; nobody knows when it will function again. It is in the ICU.

Rahim Yar Khan base, a forward operational base under the PAFs Central Command, shares its only runway with Sheikh Zayed International Airport. The airport is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first President of the UAE, who financed the construction of its terminal.

3. Those out to wipe out 'sindoor' were reduced to dust He Modi said, ... Jo sindoor mitane nikle the, unhe mitti mein milaya hai... Jo Hindustan ka lahu bahate the, aaj katre katre ka hisab chukaya hai. Jo sochte the Bharat chup rahega, aaj gharon mein pade hain. Jo apne hathiyaron pe ghamand karte the, aaj wo malbe ke dher mein dabe hue hain... (Those who had set out to erase the sindoor have been buried in the soil... Those who shed India's blood, their accounts have been settled. Those who thought India would remain silent are hiding in their homes today. Those who were proud of their weapons are today buried in its debris)

Jo sindoor mitane nikle the, unhe mitti mein milaya hai...

4. Not afraid of nuclear bomb threats PM added that Operation sindoor has decided three formulas to fight terrorism. He said, First, if there is a terror attack in India, then they will get a befitting reply. Our forces will decide the time, method and conditions. Second, India is not going to be afraid of nuclear bomb threats. Third, we will not differentiate between terrorists and the governments dependent on them

We will not differentiate between terrorists and the governments dependent on them

5. A new form of justice Modi added, Ye shodh pratishodh ka khel nahin, ye nyay ka naya swaroop hai, ye Operation Sindoor hai. This is not just an agitation; this is the 'Raudra Roop' of a strong India. Ye Bharat ka naya swaroop hai. Pehle ghar mein ghus ke kiya the vaar, ab seene pe kiya prahar hai. (First, we entered their house and attacked, now we have attacked them on their chests)... This is the policy and the strategy to destroy the fangs of terrorism... This is new India

Ye shodh pratishodh ka khel nahin, ye nyay ka naya swaroop hai, ye Operation Sindoor hai.

Operation Sindoor In response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, India launched Operation Sindoor on the morning of May 7, conducting precision strikes on terror infrastructure. Following Indias action, Pakistan attempted retaliatory attacks targeting Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10.

In turn, Indian forces mounted a strong counter-offensive, striking multiple Pakistani military installations.

After four days of intense cross-border drone and missile exchanges, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to de-escalate and end the military confrontation.
The pilot of the Delhi-Srinagar IndiGo aircraft that was battered by a sudden hailstorm on Wednesday, had initially Lahore Air Traffic Control's permission to use the Pakistan airspace for a brief while to avoid the turbulence. However, his request was denied, a report said on Thursday.

According to a PTI report quoting sources, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is probing the incident where flight 6E 2142 encountered severe turbulence.

The IndiGo flight, carrying more than 220 people, including Trinamool Congress MPs encountered a sudden hailstorm, and the pilot reported the emergency to air traffic control at Srinagar airport.

The aircraft landed safely on Wednesday, but passengers were left battered.

The pilot noticed the turbulence while flying over Amritsar and reached out to Lahore ATC to seek permission to take a deviation through the Pakistan airspace on Wednesday, as per the PTI report. However, the request was rejected by Lahore ATC, it said.

As a result, the flight had to navigate through its original path, which was affected by severe turbulence.

Pakistan has closed its airspace for all Indian aircraft in the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed at least 26 people. India has also closed its airspace for Pakistani carriers.

IndiGo flight hit with severe turbulence In a statement on Wednesday, IndiGo said its flight 6E 2142, operating from Delhi to Srinagar, encountered a sudden hailstorm en route.

"The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol, and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar. The airport team attended to the customers after the arrival of the aircraft, prioritising their wellbeing and comfort. The aircraft will be released post necessary inspection and maintenance," it had said.

A five-member delegation of Trinamool Congress comprising Derek O'Brien, Nadimul Haque, Sagarika Ghose, Manas Bhunia, and Mamata Thakur was on the flight.

"It was a near-death experience. I thought my life was over. People were screaming, praying and panicking," Ghose said on Wednesday.

"Hats off to the pilot who brought us through that. When we landed, we saw the nose of the plane had blown up," she had said and added that the delegation thanked the pilot after the landing.

Videos of the moments of turbulence emerged on social media showing panicked passengers praying for their lives as the plane swayed.
PM Modi in Rajasthan today: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will visit Rajasthan today, 22 May. Modi will travel to Bikaner and at around 10:30 AM and begin his engagement with a darshan at Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke, a government press communique said.

At around 11:00 AM, Prime Minister Modi will inaugurate the redeveloped Deshnoke Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme and flag-off Bikaner-Mumbai express train. Thereafter, he will lay the foundation stone, inaugurate and dedicate to the nation multiple development projects worth over 26,000 crore and also address a public function in Palana, the statement said.

Also Read | Ruchi Gujjars tribute to PM Modi at Cannes 2025 faces backlash

Prime Minister will virtually inaugurate 103 redeveloped Amrit Stations in 86 districts across 18 States and Union Territories of India developed at a cost of over 1,100 crore.

Over 1,300 stations are being redeveloped with modern facilities, designed to reflect regional architecture and enhance passenger amenities under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, the statement said.

What is Amrit Bharat Station Scheme? The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is focused on long-term planning, with improvements such as better station access, concourse areas, waiting halls, improved lighting, modern ticketing systems, and energy-efficient design.

Over 1,300 stations are being redeveloped with modern facilities, designed to reflect regional architecture and enhance passenger amenities under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

The inauguration marks a historic leap towards modernising Indian Railways, the government said.

Fill list of stations Maharashtra: Amrit Stations being inaugurated in Maharashtra are Amgaon, Chanda Fort, Chinchpokli, Devlali, Dhule, Kedgaon, Lasalgaon, Lonand Junction, Matunga, Murtizapur Junction, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Itwari Junction, Parel, Savda, Shahad, Wadala Road.

Uttar Pradesh: In Uttar Pradesh, Balrampur, Bareilly city, Bijnor, Fatehabad, Gola Gokarannath, Goverdhan, Govindpuri, Hathras City, Idgah Agra Junction, Izzatnagar, Karchana, Mailani Junction, Pokhrayan, Ramghat Halt, Saharanpur Junction, Siddharthnagar, Suraimanpur, Swaminarayan Chhapia, Ujhani will be inaugurated.

Tamil Nadu: In Tamil Nadu stations Chidambaram, Kulitturai, Mannargudi, Polur, Samalpatti, Srirangam, St Thomas Mount, Tiruvannamalai, Vriddhachalam Junction are also part of the Amrit Bharat Station scheme which will be inaugurated by the PM.

Gujarat: Amrit Stations being inaugurated in Gujarat include Dakor, Derol, Hapa, Jamwanthali, Jamjodhpur, Kanalus Junction, Karamsad, Kosamba Junction, Limbdi, Mahuva, Mithapur, Morbi, Okha, Palitana, Rajula Junction, Samakhiyali and Sihor Junction.

Madhya Pradesh: Narmadapuram, Orchha, Seoni, Shajapur, Shri Dham stations in Madhya Pradesh will also be inaugurated.

 4850 crore roadways projects Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of Churu-Sadulpur rail line (58 km) and dedicate to the Nation Suratgarh-Phalodi (336 km); Phulera-Degana (109 km); Udaipur-Himmatnagar (210 km); Phalodi-Jaisalmer (157 km) and Samdari-Barmer (129 km) rail line electrification.

Also Read | PM Modi pays tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on 34th death anniversary

Modi will lay the foundation stone for construction of three Vehicle Underpasses, widening and strengthening of National highways. He will also dedicate 7 roadways projects in Rajasthan. The roadways projects, worth over 4850 crore, will facilitate smoother movement of goods and people. The highways extend up to the Indo-Pakistan border, enhancing accessibility for security forces and strengthening India's defence infrastructure.

He will lay the foundation stone of power projects including Solar projects at Bikaner and Nawa in Didwana Kuchaman, and Transmission Systems for Evacuation of Power Part B PowerGrid Sirohi Transmission Ltd and Part E PowerGrid Mewar Transmission Ltd.

Modi will also inaugurate power projects including Solar project at Bikaner, Transmission system for Evacuation of PowerGrid Neemuch and from Bikaner Complex, Augmentation of transformation capacity at Fatehgarh-II Power Station which will provide clean energy and reduce carbon emission.

The inauguration marks a historic leap towards modernising Indian Railways.

Modi will lay the foundation stone, inaugurate and dedicate 25 important state government projects across Rajasthan to enhance infrastructure, connectivity, power supply, health services, and water availability in the state. These include laying of foundation stone and dedication to the nation of projects for upgrading and maintaining 12 State Highways covering a total length of over 750 km worth over 3,240 crore; further expansion under the program includes an additional 900 km of new highways.

Also Read | Who was M R Srinivasan? Veteran nuclear scientist passes away at 95
Bengaluru: Karnataka's Ramnagara district, which was a part of the Bengaluru district, will be renamed Bangalore South, the state's Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar announed on Thursday.

Today, the entire cabinet had a discussion. I am very happy to announce that Ramanagara district was a part of Bangaluru district, the headquarters will remain in Ramanagara but the district will be called Bangalore South for all administration purposes, the Deputy CM told reporters.

Ramanagara, which is about 50 km from Bengaluru, will remain the headquarters of the renamed district, which will also consist of Magadi, Kanakapura, Channapatna and Harohalli taluks.

'Necessary process will follow' Ramanagara, which has now been renamed, is the home district of Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief. The Deputy CM added that the renaming of the district will have no financial implications, and a notification will follow.

Also Read | Assam news: Electronic City in Jagiroad renamed Ratan Tata Electronic City

Notification will be issued and the necessary process will follow. There will be no financial implication from this decision... all land records and everything will be changed. I'm also here-on from the Bengaluru South district, said Shivakumar.

Central govt's previous objection to renaming of district Responding to whether the Centre had opposed the Karnataka cabinet's earlier decision about renaming Ramanagara, Shivakumar said that informing the Union government was just a mandatory procedure.

Also Read | Pune airport to be renamed Jagadguru Sant Tukaram Maharaj International Airport

"Informing the Centre was mandatory, that's all. There was some politics and some attempts were made (to oppose), but it is our right, it is a state subject," Shivakumar said, noting that the Centre's approval was not sought when other districts were renamed earlier, including when the name Ramanagara was given to this district.
Amid a row over the death by suicide of 23-year-old Vaishnavi Hagawane in Maharashtras Pune, a case of abetment to suicide and dowry death was registered by police against five persons, including her husband.

Vaishnavi, the daughter-in-law of Rajendra Hagawane, who is associated with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Ajit Pawar, allegedly died under mysterious circumstances, with her family accusing her in-laws of harassment and torture over dowry demands.

Anil Kaspate, Vaishnavi's father, in his complaint, said that his daughter was found hanging around 4:30 pm on Friday due to alleged mental and physical harassment inflicted by her in-laws.

Her family has accused Vaishnavi's husband, Shashank Hagawane, and his relatives of persistent dowry demands totalling 2 crore.

Kaspate alleged that Rajendra Hagawane and Shashank had taken 51 tolas of gold, a high-end car, and silver utensils at the time of marriage.

Recently, they had allegedly demanded 2 crore from Kaspate.

Following Anil Kaspates complaint,the Pimpri Chinchwad police have lodged a case under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 80(2), 108, 115(2), 352, 351(2), and 3(5) at Bavdhan police station.

They have also arrested three people  Shashank, Vaishnavi's sister-in-law, and mother-in-law, while Rajendra and his elder son, Susheel Hagawane, remain absconding.

The police are conducting a further probe into the matter.

Political controversy The case has sparked political controversy, with opposition parties condemning it and demanding justice for Vaishnavi.

NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Supriya Sule said, looking at the wounds on Vaishnavis body, it is necessary to conduct an impartial probe into whether she was murdered or committed suicide.

In a post on social media platform X, Supriya Sule said: The Vaishnavi Hagavane dowry case is very painful and equally irritating. How can people behave so ruthlessly like the devil, the question arises. Looking at the wounds on her body, it is necessary to conduct an impartial investigation into whether she was murdered or committed suicide. It is clear that she was beaten inhumanely.
Kerala has recorded 182 fresh Covid-19 cases so far in May, leading state health authorities to issue new guidelines requesting for mask use and caution, particularly among vulnerable groups. Health Minister Veena George said We need to be prepared as cases rise in other countries.

After conducting a meeting of the state Rapid Response Team (RRT) in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, George said there is a likelihood of increase in infections after similar trends in Southeast Asia.

Health Minister Veena George on COVID cases in Kerala The public must remain vigilant. Cases are rising in other countries, and we need to be prepared, Business Standard quoted George as saying.

Kottayam saw the highest number of infections at 57 after Ernakulam (34) and Thiruvananthapuram (30), the minister said. George added that state-level surveillance has been stepped up, with the government closely tracking both infection trends and hospitalisation rates.

Keralas total Covid cases for May surpassed 250 earlier this week, coinciding with a rise in infections across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. George highlighted that the Omicron sub-variants JN.1, LF.7, and NB 1.8, currently circulating in Southeast Asia, are highly contagious but seem to result in milder symptoms.

Yale Medicine states that JN.1 is a subvariant of BA.2.86 (also known as Pirola) and carries a single mutation in its spike protein. This mutation may help the virus evade immunity, although the exact severity of the variant is still being researched.

Kerala Health Department issues advisory Individuals showing symptoms like cold, sore throat, cough, or shortness of breath are advised to wear masks. 2. Wearing masks is mandatory when visiting hospitals.

3. Pregnant women, senior citizens, and those with weakened immune systems are urged to wear masks in public settings.

4. Healthcare workers are required to wear masks while on duty.

5. Guidelines on testing and preparedness have been issued.
A soldier was killed during an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmirs Kishtwar district on Thursday, officials confirmed. The gunfight erupted as security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the Shingpora area of Chhatru, following credible intelligence about the presence of militants.

Also Read | Jammu and Kashmir: Security forces clash with terrorists in Kishtwar

In a post on X, the White Knight Corps of the Army said, During the ongoing operation, fierce gunfight is continuing. One of our bravehearts sustained grievous injuries in the exchange of fire and has succumbed despite best medical efforts. Operation is in progress.

The Indian Armys White Knight Corps reported that contact was established with three to four terrorists believed to be trapped in the forested region.

Under Operation Trashi, exchange of fire broke out when contact was established with terrorists in the Singhpora area of Chhatru in Kishtwar this morning. Additional troops were inducted and operations are ongoing to neutralise the terrorists.

Additional troops were deployed to reinforce the operation, which remains ongoing with the objective of neutralising the militants. During the exchange of fire, the soldier sustained grievous injuries and succumbed despite urgent medical treatment.

The joint operation involves the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and paramilitary forces working in unison. Drones and aerial surveillance equipment have been deployed to locate the terrorists precisely.

Also Read | Two terrorist associates arrested in J&K's Shopian

The encounter follows a series of recent operations in Jammu and Kashmir, where security forces have intensified efforts against terror groups and their local support networks.

In recent weeks, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a series of intense counter-terror operations as security forces ramp up efforts to dismantle militant networks.

Just last week, three Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were eliminated in separate encounters in the Nadir village of Tral in Pulwama district.

Also Read | LeT terrorist accused of orchestrating 3 terror attacks in India killed in Pak

The slain militants, identified as Asif Ahmed Sheikh, Amir Nazir Wani, and Yawar Ahmad Bhat, were all local residents linked to terror activities in the region.

These operations followed the killing of three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in the Zinpather Keller area of Shopian on 13 April, further disrupting terror infrastructure in South Kashmir.

These recent encounters form part of a broader crackdown initiated in the aftermath of the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on 22 April, which claimed 26 civilian lives.
Microsoft recently fired another employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest against the company for supplying the Israeli military with technology used for the war in Gaza.

The employee  Joe Lopez  who worked on parts of Microsoft's cloud-computing platform, Azure, could be heard shouting at Nadella in the opening minutes of the tech giant's annual Build developer conference in Seattle before being escorted out of the room.

Also Read | Microsoft employee interrupts Satya Nadella's keynote to protest Gaza ties

Microsoft has previously fired employees who protested at company events over its work in Israel, including at its 50th anniversary party in April.

What did the protester say Satya, how about you show how Microsoft is killing Palestinians, Lopez yelled. How about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?" Lopez could be heard shouting at Nadella, reported The Guardian.

After the disruption, Lopez sent an email to all the staff of the company, explaining his decision to stage a protest.

The advocacy group No Azure for Apartheid, led by Microsoft's employees and ex-employees, said that Lopez received a termination letter after his protest but couldn't open it. The group also stated that the tech giant has blocked internal emails that mention words including Palestine and Gaza," reported AP.

What did Microsoft say Last week, Microsoft admitted that it has been providing AI services to the Israeli military for the war in Gaza. However, the company said it has found no evidence so far that its Azure cloud or AI tools have been used to directly target or harm civilians in the region.

When it comes to the latest protests, Microsoft has stayed quiet. As per AP, the tech giant has not yet responded to emails asking about the backlash during the four-day developer conference, which concludes on Thursday.

Two other Microsoft employees fired Lopezs demonstration against his former employer Microsoft is the second of its kind in just the last two months.

On April 6, two Microsoft workers  Ibtihal Aboussad and Vaniya Agrawal, disrupted a Microsoft AI event and called the companys artificial intelligence (AI) chief  Mustafa Suleyman  a war profiteer. Both workers have since been fired.
Mumbai/Bengaluru: Indias top philanthropic organizations are spending money comparable to the social spends of the countrys biggest for-profit companies, a trend that has come to light after Bengaluru-based Azim Premji Foundation disclosed its financials for the first time in its quarter-century of existence.

As per the reported financials, the eponymous not-for-profit entity of billionaire Azim Premji spent 1,528 crore on philanthropy in 2024. That was more than twice the 699.31 crore spent by the Tata Trusts in the same year, according to financials filed by the entity.

The spends by the two Indian philanthropic organizations are on par with the CSR (corporate social responsibility) expenditures of the countrys largest companies, including Reliance Industries Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, according to aMintreview.

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Reliance Industries spent 1,592 crore on CSR initiatives in 2024, followed by TCS and HDFC Bank, which spent 953 crore and 945.1 crore, respectively. Following them were ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and Tata Steel Ltd, which spent 634.5 crore and 580 crore, respectively, in 2024. Infosys Ltd took the sixth spot, spending 577 crore.

To be sure, unlike philanthropic entities that are not bound by any regulation in terms of amounts to be spent, enterprises are mandated to spend a portion of their profits on CSR initiatives. According to the Companies Act, 2013, companies with a net worth of 500 crore or more, turnover of 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of 5 crore or more, must spend at least 2% of the average profits in the three preceding years on CSR activities.

There was no particular reason why we decided to share this report," a spokesperson for Azim Premji Foundation said when asked about philanthropic entities sharing their numbers, adding that the financials will be shared periodically".

The foundation spent 594 crore on teacher training in government schools across 60 districts, healthcare, and livelihood, according to the foundation's website disclosure. It also gave 934 crore in grants to non-government organizations (NGOs).

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Tata Trusts two principal trusts, Sir Ratan Tata Trusts & Allied Trusts, and Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts & Allied Trusts, spent 575.47 crore and 123.84 crore last year.

Azim Premji Foundation and Tata Trusts are trailblazers in the Indian philanthropic world," said Amitabh Jaipuria, chief executive officer of Accelerate Indian Philanthropy (AIP), a peer network set up by philanthropists to support their giving efforts.

Jaipuria said foundations like Azim Premji Foundation and Tata Trusts not only carry out social projects independently, but also make grants to several grassroots organizations to achieve social outcomes.

Tata Trusts is an umbrella entity of 15 philanthropic organizations, which own 65.9% of Tata Sons, the principal holding company of the Tata Group. The Shapoorji Pallonji family owns 18.38% of Tata Sons shares, while nine Tata Group companies own 12.86%. Seven individuals own the remaining 2.87%.

After becoming the countrys richest businessman at the turn of the century, Premji set up the Azim Premji Foundation in 2001, with an initial corpus of $125 million worth shares of Wipro. Over the past 24 years, according to public disclosures made by Wipro, Premji has given 66% of the shares he owned in the company to the foundation. Premji donated $21 billion, or 92% of his wealth, making him arguably the countrys most generous billionaire.

Infosys Ltds co-founder and chairman, Nandan Nilekani, has described Premji as a giant figure".

Wipro shares with the Foundation were worth $20 billion at the end of trading on Wednesday. Additionally, Premji has transferred the ownership of Premji Invest, his family office with $14 billion in assets under management, to the foundation.

Also read: Chinas restrictions on rare earth magnets could crimp Indian EV rollout

Finally, the foundation also owns 20.29% shares of Wipro Enterprises Ltd, the privately held non-IT business of Azim Premji. Valued at $10 billion in 2023, Wipro Enterprises houses the groups consumer care and engineering businesses. This translates to an additional $2 billion holding for the Azim Premji Foundation, which implies its endowment corpus is about $36 billion.

The foundations endowment was valued at $29 billion at the end of January 2023, according to the disclosure made by Azim Premji University, which has two campuses in Bengaluru and Bhopal.
India on Thursday delivered a firm message to Turkey, urging Ankara to press Pakistan to cease its longstanding support for cross-border terrorism. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal emphasised that India expects Turkey to take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades. He underlined that bilateral relations must be grounded in mutual sensitivity to each others concerns, signalling that India views Turkey's stance of Pakistans role in terrorism as a critical factor in their diplomatic ties.

Jaiswals remarks come amid heightened tensions following Indias Operation Sindoor, a retaliatory strike against terror launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the deadly Pahalgam terror attack in April 2025.

While much of the international community called for restraint, Turkeys explicit support for Pakistan and opposition to Indias actions have strained relations between New Delhi and Ankara.

This diplomatic fallout has triggered widespread public backlash in India, including a boycott campaign targeting Turkish tourism, trade and aviation sectors.

On the issue of the Indian governments recent decision to revoke security clearance for the Turkish ground-handling company Celebi, Jaiswal clarified that the matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi.

However, he noted that the decision was taken independently by the Civil Aviation Security authorities, reflecting Indias prioritisation of national security concerns amid the deteriorating bilateral climate.

India-Turkey relations, historically marked by civilizational ties and growing trade, are now at a low ebb. The current impasse underscores the complex geopolitical realities facing both nations.

While India insists on Turkeys role in curbing Pakistan-backed terrorism, Ankaras continued support for Pakistan complicates prospects for reconciliation.

Experts suggest that restoring dialogue and mutual respect will require careful diplomacy, balancing Indias security imperatives with Turkeys regional interests.

Also Read | From JNU to IIT Bombay  Indian universities snap ties with Turkish institutes

As tensions persist, Indias message remains clear: combating terrorism and safeguarding national security are non-negotiable, and Turkeys cooperation in urging Pakistan to abandon terror sponsorship is essential for rebuilding trust and stabilising bilateral relations.

India on Thursday reiterated its resolve to fight terrorism and called on the world to hold Pakistan accountable for the terror attacks that they have carried out against India.
When a last-minute medical emergency compelled a US traveller to cancel his dream trip to Medellin, Colombia, the response from travel providers was swiftbut disappointing: No refunds. No exceptions. But what happened next became a lesson in persistence  and the astonishing power of artificial intelligence (AI).

I booked a hotel and flight through Expedia, the traveller shared in a now-viral Reddit post. The hotel had a no-cancellation policy. The airline had a no-cancellation policy as well. I asked  and they both absolutely said no.

Faced with a loss of around $2,500 ( 210,000), he turned to an unlikely source: ChatGPT. And thats when everything changed.

First: Total Denial. Then: A Medical Strategy, with AIs Help The user had not purchased trip insurance, and both the hotel and airline cited firm non-refundable policies. It was only after both companies flatly denied any form of reimbursement that the traveller decided to raise a legitimate medical conditionGeneralised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)backed by a doctors note.

I asked ChatGPT to act as my lawyer and advocate for me, he explained. I used the medical excuse, which would be GAD. I did get a doctors note about it.

The AI chatbot then helped craft a personalised, well-researched appeal based on Expedias and the hotels terms, invoking the medical circumstances. It worked.

ChatGPT researched Expedias policies, the hotels policies, and the airlines policies. It then wrote a letter for me advocating. The hotel granted me my refund due to a medical condition, the post added.

Screengrab from the viral post.

The Airline Said No Again  Until AI Called Out Discrimination The airline, however, held firm. According to their policy, only terminal illness or death warranted an exception to their no-refund rule. GAD did not qualify.

I shared the response with ChatGPT and it wrote me another letter to give to the international airline, the traveller said.

It described reasons why and how my medical condition can really affect the flight and that they were being biased based on a mental illness.

Within an hour, the airline reversed its position and agreed to a full refund.

Reddit Reacts: This Is the Future While many users praised the travellers persistence and clever use of AI, not everyone was impressed. One commenter sharply criticised the approach, suggesting it bordered on dishonesty:

A user wrote: "Congratulations. Its because of people like you that cause companies to treat customers poorly. So you lie to get something youre not entitled to receive. Youre probably the same type of person to wear a new piece of clothing once to an event and return it. I guess honesty and integrity and are out of date character traits."

A second user commented: ChatGPT might have just paid for itself a hundred times over in one shot.

Another said, A Reminder: Dont Take No at Face Value [sic].

The traveller made it clear that ChatGPT did not fabricate excuses  it simply helped articulate a real medical issue in a compelling and structured way, backed by research.

Had I not used ChatGPT, I would have had to hire a paralegal, he wrote. And that wouldve cost me more money.
The Trump Administration told Harvard University it cant enroll international students, delivering a major blow to the school after the government froze billions of dollars of federal funding and escalating its fight with elite colleges to unprecedented levels.

The US revoked Harvards Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, meaning the school can no longer enroll foreign students. Existing international students must transfer or lose their legal status, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Thursday.

Harvards leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment, the statement said. The department also accused Harvards leadership of co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.

Harvard responded by calling the governments action unlawful.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably, a spokesperson said in a statement. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in April demanded Harvard submit records of any violent or illegal activity by foreign students by April 30 or immediately lose certification under the federal governments student visa program. At Harvard almost 6,800 students - 27% of the entire student body  come from other countries, up from 19.6% in 2006, according to the universitys data.

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, Noem said Thursday. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.

The blockade on international student enrollment will compound the financial pressures for Harvard. While the Trump administration has curtailed research funding and criticized diversity efforts at other schools, no university has been as hard hit by its push to remake higher education as Harvard.

The school has sued several US agencies for blocking federal funds after the government demanded it remake its governance, transform admissions and faculty hiring, stop admitting international students hostile to US values and enforce viewpoint diversity.

Trump has also called for the institution to lose its tax-exempt status, a move that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school has cautioned would have grave consequences for the future of higher education in America.

Harvard, the oldest and richest US college, emerged as a target for the White House as the government pursues a campaign to fundamentally remake the nations elite universities. The schools have become a lightning rod for criticism after pro-Palestinian student protests broke out in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the Jewish states retaliatory response in Gaza. While the Trump administration has said its trying to root out antisemitism, its broadened its attacks to diversity initiatives and left-leaning biases.

Harvard President Alan Garber has pushed back saying it wont surrender its independence or its constitutional rights. Garber, whos Jewish, has long maintained that Harvard would work with the government to combat antisemitism  something he acknowledges is a problem on campus  but that the White House demands threaten academic freedom.

The New York Times first reported the governments action on foreign students.

This action continues the Trump Administrations assault on free speech and university autonomy, said Robert Shireman, a former deputy undersecretary of education in the Obama administration, whos now a senior fellow at the Century Foundation.
Several people on board are feared dead after a small private aircraft crashed into a San Diego housing neighbourhood early Thursday.

The Cessna 550 plane, which can carry 8 to 10 people, crashed just before 4 am into the US military's largest housing neighbourhood.

Due to the crash, at least 10 houses were gutted by fire or hit by debris and cars on both sides of a street were also caught fire.

San Diego's Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference: There are more than one fatality that we found so far, but we're waiting to get the registered numbers that were on the plane itself.

A home is partially destroyed where a small plane crashed into a San Diego residential street on May 22, 2025.

"When it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car that was on both sides of the street," Eddy said, adding: "We have jet fuel all over the place."

The crash happened during foggy weather when the plane, which had come from Kansas, was nearing the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.

Miraculously no one killed on ground Photos and videos of the immediate aftermath of the crash showed a line of burning fuel linking the flaming cars.

Eddy also said that "miraculously", no one on the ground had been killed or seriously hurt.

Firefighters work the site where a small plane crashed into a San Diego, California, residential street on May 22, 2025. The crash left a 'gigantic debris field' and damaged some 15 homes and parked cars, ABC News quoted the San Diego assistant fire chief as saying. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker / AFP)

I cant quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see, San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

Wahl said more than 50 police officers were on the scene within minutes and began evacuating homes. At least 100 residents were displaced to an evacuation centre at a nearby elementary school.

San Diego is home to US Navy facilities, Marine Corps bases and Coast Guard stations.

The neighbourhood is made up of single family homes and townhomes. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport and Gillespie Field are nearby.

Zane Baker, a high school senior who lives in the area, said police officers had gone door-to-door getting people out of their homes.

"I immediately just rushed to the front door, just looking outside, seeing what's happening," he told broadcaster KTLA.

"I made sure all my siblings were awake and they were conscious and they were okay."

The Federal Aviation Administration said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation.
The Donald Trump-led US dispensation has confirmed that it has accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jetliner as a gift from Qatar during the President's recent visit to Gulf Arab states. The Pentagon further added that the aircraft, after being modified, would be used for Trump's transportation. "The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday.

The White House has asserted that the $400 million aircraft gift from the Middle Eastern country is legal, but the announcement has caused an uproar, with Democrats terming it the "largest bribe in American history" and have sought to block its handover. The US Constitution contains a provision known as the Emoluments Clause, which prohibits public officials from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without the approval of Congress. In this instance, no such approval has been granted, BBC reported.



Read | South African President jokes about Qatar's airplane gift for Trump: Im sorry we dont have a plane to give you

"Today marks a dark day in history: the president of the United States of America officially accepted the largest bribe from a foreign government in American history," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer was quoted as saying by Reuters.

He added that the "unprecedented action is a stain on the office of the presidency and cannot go unanswered."

A week ago, Trump justified the transfer by saying, "They're giving us a gift." The president has also said it would be "stupid" not to accept the plane.

The president has maintained that the plane transfer is lawful, as it is being provided to the US Department of Defence rather than to him personally. He also affirmed that he had no intention of using it after leaving office.



Read | 'Don't want to say I did, but': In Qatar, Trump reiterates he settled India-Pakistan tensions

Luxury Jet Needs Big Changes Before It Can Be Used as Air Force One Retrofitting the 13-year-old aircraft, which features a lavish interior, would require extensive upgrades to security systems and communications to prevent foreign surveillance, as well as defences against potential missile attacks, according to experts.

Aviation specialists and industry sources previously stated that the plane might require fighter jet escorts and could be limited to flights within the United States unless these costly enhancements were made.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senators Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth warned that the retrofitting could exceed $1 billion, and it posed significant national security risks.



Read | Boeing 747-8: Qatar's $400 million gift to Donald Trump  from speed to range, here's what you need to know

Duckworth said the United States has two fully operational Air Force One jets and has no need to retrofit the Qatari plane.

"Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. "We will make sure we do what's necessary to ensure security of the aircraft."

He said the Air Force had been directed to begin planning to address modifications to the plane.

The Pentagon has not said how much it will cost or how long it will take.

The costs could be significant, given the cost for Boeing's current effort to build two new Air Force One planes is over $5 billion. The current Air Force One aeroplanes entered service in 1990.
Former US National Security Advisor (NSA) John Bolton has said that US President Donald Trump has tendency to take credit for everything. Bolton, who was the NSA toPresident Donald Trump in his first term, was referring to Trump's recent claim of brokering the understanding of cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan.

"It's nothing personal to India. This is Donald Trump, who takes credit for everything," Bolton told news agency ANI.

Also Read | Trump confronts South African President over white farmers killings | Watch

The cessation of hostilities between the two nations came on 10 May after India's 'Operation Sindoor', launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists.

Trump has taken credit for the two countries arriving at an understanding to stop military action after four days of hostilities. On Wednesday (US Time_ he reiterated he facilitated the understanding through trade negotiations that de-escalate tensions between the two nations. He also highlighted his personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while noting the challenges faced during the process.

Trump takes credit again "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India, we settled that whole thing, and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan. Pakistan has some excellent people and some really good leaders and India is my friend... Modi, he's a great guy," Trump said during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House.

The operation targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), leading to intense clashes, including Pakistan's attempted drone attacks on Indian cities along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) and shelling along the LoC.

Also Read | First all-party delegation on Operation Sindoor headed to UAE today

Hours before the official annoucement of what was seen as a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump announced the "full and immediate ceasefire", claiming that the US played a key role as mediator.

"After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

However, India refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

"As you are aware, we have a long-standing national position that any issues pertaining to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian Territory by Pakistan," the Ministry of External Affairs stated.

Bolton had earlier acknowledged that India had a legitimate right to self-defence when faced with the threat of terrorism. Bolton, however, urged New Delhi to exhaust all diplomatic avenues before launching amilitary counterstrike.

Bolton told ANI that he thinks President Trump did have a call with Prime Minister Modi, and Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also on the call. "I'm sure other countries might also be calling to see what they can do. It's typical of Trump because he would jump in before everyone else could take credit. It may be irritating, probably is irritating to many people, but it's nothing against India, it's just Trump being Trump," he added.

President Trump also claimed again that he was the one who stopped a possible nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan after the two countries got engaged in a series of cross-border attacks following Operation Sindoor initiated by India as a retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack.

He said he stopped the impending conflict by saying that he was 'gonna do a lot of trade with you, let's stop it'

The MEA had however said that the "issue of trade" did not come up between Indian and US leaders since the commencement of Operation Sindoor and the cessation of hostilities.

It's nothing personal to India. This is Donald Trump, who takes credit for everything.
In a setback to Donald Trump, a federal judge on Thursday blocked US Presidents executive order to dismantle the education department.

US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston granted a preliminary injunction.

The judge ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs as part of the March 11 announcement, stopping the Trump administration from carrying out plans announced in March, reported AP.

However, the administration said it would challenge the ruling.

Todays order means that the Trump administrations disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated, AP quoted Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represents plaintiffs in the Somerville case.

What did Judge Myong Joun say in his order? The plaintiffs painted a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for Americas most vulnerable student populations.

Layoffs of that scale will likely cripple the Department. The idea that Defendants actions are merely a reorganization is plainly not true."

Who filed suits?  One suit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts along with the American Federation of Teachers and other education groups.

 The other suit was filed by a coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general.

What the suits argued  Layoffs left the department unable to carry out responsibilities required by Congress, including duties to support special education, distribute financial aid and enforce civil rights laws.

 That announcement led to the firing of about 1,300 people.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, security personnel at the Central Intelligence Agencys (CIA) headquarters in Langley, Virginia, discharged their weapons at an individual outside the main gate, according to multiple media reports. The incident, which occurred at approximately 4 am local time (0800 GMT), did not result in any fatalities, NBC News reported quoting officials.

The CIA has refrained from confirming the shooting outright but acknowledged a security incident that prompted a law enforcement response outside its Langley compound.

A spokesperson for the Fairfax County Police Department corroborated the timing of the event to ABC News, confirming that officers were dispatched to the scene in the early morning hours.

Following the incident, the CIA announced via its official X (formerly Twitter) account that the main gate to the Langley facility had been temporarily closed. Employees were advised to use alternative entrances and routes while security protocols were reviewed and reinforced.

Also Read | Armed man near CIA Headquarters in Virginia prompts large police response

CIA has not released further details regarding the identity of the individual involved or the circumstances leading to the shooting.

This episode comes just a day after a tragic shooting in downtown Washington, DC, where two staff members of the Israeli embassy were fatally shot by a lone gunman.

Authorities have indicated there is no known connection between the two incidents, though heightened security measures have been observed across multiple sensitive locations in the capital region.

The CIA headquarters has been the target of several security breaches and attacks over the years. Notably, in 1993, a man armed with a firearm attempted to breach the facility but was apprehended before causing harm.

More recently, in 2015, a drone was detected flying near the compound, prompting a temporary lockdown and an extensive investigation into potential threats.

Also Read | The CIA is about to get a Trump makeover

On March 19 this year, a man had brandished a handgun and made threats outside the CIA facility in McLean, Virginia. The situation escalated into an hours-long standoff with heavily armed police, SWAT teams, and bomb squad units responding to the scene.
San Diego plane crash: A quiet morning in San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighbourhood turned tragic after a small plane crashed into the area near Tierrasanta, Thursday early morning, killing multiple people on board, and set around 15 homes on fire.

The plane could hold eight to 10 people but it's not yet known how many were on the aircraft, Assistant San Diego Fire Chief Dan Eddy told reporters.

The police department has directed the public to avoid the Sculpin St and Santo Road areas. SDPD is responding to a plane crash near Sculpin St and Santo Rd. Please avoid the area while crews work, the San Diego police department (SDPD) confirmed in a post on X.

Police rush to find survivors The airplane  a Cessna 550  left a "gigantic debris field" and damaged multiple homes and parked cars, ABC News quoted the San Diego assistant fire chief as saying.

We have jet fuel all over the place, Assistant Fire Department Chief said during a news conference.

The crash left a 'gigantic debris field' and damaged some 15 homes and parked cars, ABC News quoted the San Diego assistant fire chief as saying

Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now," Eddy told reporters.

Where was the plane headed? The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the aircraft involved was a Cessna 550 en route to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. There is still no information on how many people were on board. The FAA, along with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), will conduct a joint investigation into the crash, mentions a report by NBC News.

What led to the crash? It was very foggy when the plane crashed, said Assistant Fire Department Chief Eddy, stating that one could barely see in front of you (one).

He added there is a direct hit to multiple homes" in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood.
DALLAS (AP)  People began loading up their cars and jumping on planes across the U.S. on Thursday as the long Memorial Day weekend kicked off. Even as politics and the nation's aging air traffic infrastructure rattle the U.S. travel industry, Americans were expected to get away in record numbers.

Auto club organization AAA predicted that over 45 million people  1.4 million more than last year  would venture at least 50 miles from their homes between Thursday and Monday, with the vast majority going by car. The holiday's previous domestic travel record was set 20 years ago.

The analysts who prepared the forecast weren't sure when they started their research if concerns about the economy would cause fewer U.S. residents to plan getaways for the unofficial start of summer, but it doesn't seem to be the case, AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said.

People are still feeling pretty good about travel, Diaz said, adding that some households and individuals may just opt to spend less money on their trips.

Temperatures over the holiday weekend will be a study in contrasts  from warm across much of the South and West to cool across much of the Midwest and Northeast, said Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist at the federal Weather Prediction Center.

For those who are going to the beaches in the Mid-Atlantic  places like Ocean City or the Jersey Shore  its going to feel far from the unofficial kickoff of summer, Mullinax said. Meanwhile, you can go to the South and theres places in Texas that are 90s, 100.

Travelers should remember to keep any eye out for severe weather warnings. Weather, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, is the leading cause of flight delays. Thunderstorms, tornadoes and other extreme conditions also can make driving and outdoor pursuits more dangerous.

In New England, an unusual May noreaster brought rain, wind and dark skies on Thursday and threatened to bring snow to higher elevations. Rain was expected over the weekend across parts of the Midwest and South.

Like last year, about 87% of travelers will drive to their Memorial Day destinations, AAA said. About 39 million people are expected to take road trips, which Diaz noted many families find easier and cheaper than flying.

You leave whenever you want, she said. You can pack as much as you want in the car, make stops along the way.

AAA's fuel tracker shows motorists can expect to pay less for gasoline this year; the U.S. average price on Thursday was about $3.20 for a gallon of regular gas compared to $3.61 a year ago. Renting a vehicle and staying in a hotel also may cost less, according to the most recent Consumer Price Index.

Transportation-data firm INRIX anticipates the worst holiday traffic will be in the afternoons and evenings. It said drivers hitting the road on Thursday should have left before 12 p.m., and those planning Friday departures should leave before 11 a.m.

On Memorial Day itself, the firm predicts the most congested time on roads will be 4 p.m.-7 p.m.

The Transportation Security Administration said it expected to screen about 18 million passengers and crew at airports across the U.S. from Thursday through Wednesday. Flights were expected to peak on Thursday with almost 54,000 scheduled, although airports should also be Friday, according to the FAA.

Air safety has become a factor for many travelers after the deadly midair collision in January of a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter above Washington, D.C. In recent weeks, flight delays and cancellations stemming from an air traffic controller shortage and equipment failures at a facility that directs aircraft in and out of the Newark, New Jersey, airport have also made some people wonder whether to get on a plane.

Gary Anderson thought twice before he and his wife booked flights to fly from their home in Washington D.C. to Dallas on Thursday to attend a relatives high school graduation. While the safety of flying has been on the back of our mind, the couple, who are both truck drivers, decided they didnt want to spend so much of their time off driving, Anderson said.

Were going to try to eat some good food down here and were going to try to chill and just enjoy the graduation, he said.

Most major U.S. airlines said they planned to reduce their scheduled domestic flights this summer, citing an ebb in economy passengers booking leisure trips. Bank of America reported this month that its credit card customers were spending less on flights and lodging.

In 2024, the Friday before Memorial Day was among the record-setting days for the number of airline passengers screened at U.S. airports. AAA did not expect any records to get set during this holiday weekend.

But an analysis by aviation data provider Cirium of tickets bought through online travel sites for Memorial Day weekend found 6% more booking across almost two dozen U.S. airports compared to last year.

Danielle Clinton, 28, arrived at Love Field in Dallas on Thursday morning from Chicago. She was coming into town to celebrate her birthday with her mother and twin sister, who live in Dallas, and friends who were also flying in. She said the flight marked her first trip of the year and she was pleased to get a round-trip airfare for about $200.

The U.S. travel and tourism industry will watching during the weekend and the weeks ahead to see what might be in store for the summer travel season. Tourism industry experts have warned that anger about the Trump administrations tariffs and rhetoric, and concern about tourist detentions at the U.S. border, have made citizens of some other countries less interested in traveling to the U.S.

The national statistics agency of Canada reported last week that the number of residents making return trips by air from the U.S. fell 20% in April compared to the same month a year earlier, while return trips by car were down 35%.

Across Texas, reservations for day passes and camping spots were filling up at state parks ahead of the weekend, said Tara Humphreys, director of interpretation with Texas State Parks. Stargazing parties were among events planned at parks across the state.

Bolstered by its theme parks and nearby cruise port, Orlando, Florida, topped AAA's list of most popular domestic destinations for the weekend. The city's newest theme park, Universal's Epic Universe, opened Thursday.
(Bloomberg) -- A California federal judge issued a nationwide order that bars the Trump administration from revoking the legal status of foreign students to study and work in the United States.

The Thursday ruling from US District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland prohibits the administration from cancelling the legal status of international students without doing an individualized review and following the criteria laid out in federal regulations.

The Trump administration earlier this year terminated the records of thousands of foreign nationals in whats known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information Systems database. The move came as the administration claimed it was taking steps to crack down on foreign students with criminal records.

Separately, on Thursday the Trump administration notified Harvard University that it was revoking the schools Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which means it could no longer enroll international students. Whites order applies to individual students and not institutions.

Cancelling records in the SEVIS database effectively means the students no longer have legal status in the country, placing them at risk of arrest, detention and even deportation.

Last month, US officials reinstated the cancelled status of thousands of students in the face of several legal challenges. White wrote that he was concerned officials were trying to avoid judicial scrutiny by abruptly changing positions to resolve individual cases in courts across the country.

It is unclear how this game of whack-a-mole will end unless defendants are enjoined from skirting their own mandatory regulations, White wrote.

Challengers in the student SEVIS cases argued that the mass terminations were unlawful and that in at least some instances the administration had swept up students who didnt meet the standards for having their status revoked.

White wrote that the students who sued in his court were likely to succeed in arguing their status revocations were arbitrary and capricious. His order also blocks the administration from arresting or detaining students based on the SEVIS cancellations or imposing any adverse legal effect while the litigation moves forward.

The case is John Doe v. Trump, 25-cv-3140, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
In a Reddit post that's quickly gaining traction, an Indian IT professional has voiced the frustrations of many in the countrys tech sector. Shared under the title "Hey folks, if youre outsourcing work to India...", the post calls out what the author describes as the suffocating pressure placed on Indian software developers by international clients.

The post begins with a direct appeal: If youre outsourcing work to India and feel like breathing down our necks every minute  take a breath. Please. It continues by laying bare the economic and emotional toll of working in the outsourced tech industry."

The average new IT grad here makes 7 LPA (~$8,000/year). Yet were expected to perform at Google-level output, on that salary, the user writes. They go on to describe a working environment defined by time zones, endless meetings, last-minute deadlines  a common reality for many in Indias sprawling IT services industry.

The post concludes with a plea for mutual respect and realistic expectations, emphasising that Indian developers care about the work but are too often treated like machines. Instead of constant pressure, lets build partnerships, the post reads. Lets meet in the middle with some empathy.

Community Reactions: A Shared Struggle The post evoked a flurry of reactions, prompting a wave of comments echoing similar sentiments.

One user wrote: This is exactly why burnout is so high in Indian tech. People forget were human. Another added: Youre not just underpaid, youre underappreciated. Western clients think cheap labor means 24/7 labor.

A few users pointed out the need for Indian companies to better negotiate timelines and push back against unreasonable demands. Its not just the clients. Our own project managers often overpromise just to get contracts signed, said one commenter.



A third user said: Its always the Indian manager who makes the culture toxic in big MNC.

Others defended the global clients, noting that pressure comes with any high-stakes project. Still, many agreed that empathy is missing in the current model. Outsourcing shouldnt mean offloading stress without support, one user remarked.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC, were fatally shot on Wednesday evening as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, sparking widespread condemnation from US and Israeli officials.

The victims, identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were a young couple reportedly preparing to get engaged. The man had recently purchased a ring for the occasion.

The shooting occurred near the intersection of 3rd and F Streets NW, close to an FBI field office and the US Attorney Generals office.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith reported that the suspect, Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago, Illinois, approached a group of four people and opened fire before entering the museum, where he was detained by security personnel.

First responders found the victims unconscious, and despite life-saving efforts, both were pronounced dead. Upon arrest, Rodriguez reportedly chanted free, free Palestine and disclosed the location where he discarded the firearm used in the attack.

Washington DC Shooting: Who Is Elias Rodriguez? The Suspect in Custody Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old Chicago resident, is the sole suspect in the shooting. Authorities have indicated he was not previously on law enforcements radar and had no known criminal record.

Reports suggest Rodriguez has been involved in activism with groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation and participated in protests linked to social justice movements.

He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting, but his precise motive remains unconfirmed by police.

Washington DC Shooting: Official Reactions: Condemnations and Calls for Justice The shooting prompted immediate outrage and condemnation. US President Donald Trump described the attack as horrible, emphasising there is no place for hatred in America.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed devastation, calling the incident a despicable act of hatred and anti-Semitism that claimed the lives of two young embassy employees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack as a consequence of rising anti-Semitism and ordered enhanced security measures at Israeli missions worldwide.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed federal authorities are investigating the incident and vowed to bring the depraved perpetrator to justice.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged zero tolerance for violence or hate in the city, affirming a united community response against anti-Semitism.

Washington DC Shooting: Context and Broader Implications The attack comes amid heightened tensions following Israels intensified military campaign in Gaza and an ongoing humanitarian crisis due to an 11-week blockade.

Israels foreign minister, Gideon Saar, attributed the shooting to toxic anti-Semitic incitement globally since the Hamas-led assault on Israel in October 2023.

Also Read | Israel says it will allow food into Gaza for the first time in months

The suspects chant of Free Palestine upon arrest has raised questions about whether the attack was motivated by political grievances or naked anti-Semitism.

International leaders, including Germanys Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the EUs foreign policy chief Kaya Kallas, Frances Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, and Irelands Prime Minister Micheal Martin, have condemned the shooting as a heinous act of anti-Semitic violence, offering condolences to the victims families and reaffirming their commitment to combating hatred.

Also Read | Netanyahu signals Israel's plans for Gaza ceasefire

Washington DC Shooting: What Happens Next? Law enforcement officials, including the FBI and Metropolitan Police, have assured the public there is no ongoing threat.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued orange alert for heavy rains in Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal. A yellow alert is in place in Tamil Nadu and Delhi. Pre-monsoon showers and strong winds brought life to a standstill in Delhi on Wednesday, days after severe waterlogging was reported in Bengaluru and Mumbai after heavy rain.

Bengaluru rain The Bengaluru Regional Meteorological centre has warned against heavy rain, thunderstorm, lightening and strong winds today at Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru districts. Furthermore, moderate downpours are likely in Bellari, Bengaluru, Chamarajanagar, Chikkaballapur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Hassan, Kodagu, Kolar, Mandya, Mysuru, Ramanagara, Tumakuru and Vijayanagara districts.

Mumbai rain The Mumbai Regional Meteorological Center noted that cyclonic circulation over Arabian sea is expected to bring rainfall, thunderstorm and gusty winds until May 24. IMD official Shubhangi Bhute informed that rainfall activity over Maharashtra, including south Konkan, south central Maharashtra and Mumbai, may increase over the next few days under the influence of the cyclonic circulation.

"There is a possibility of heavy rainfall with thunder at some places, accompanied by gusty winds reaching speeds of 30-40 kmph or possibly higher at isolated locations," PTI quoted Shubhangi Bhute as saying.

Kolkata rain The Kolkata Regional Meteorological Center issed an orange alert, warning against heavy rainfall, thunderstrom, lightening and strong winds on May 22 in Jhargham, West Midnapur, North and South 24 Parganas and Nadia districts of South Bengal.

Delhi rain The Regional Meteorological Department of Delhi has issued a yellow alert for today and tomorrow, a day after sudden thunderstorm and heavy rains wreaked havoc across Delhi-NCR. The weather is expected to be partly cloudy sky and hot and humid weather conditions will prevail on May 22.

IMD Scientist Naresh Kumar on Wednesday said, Throughout this month, Western Disturbances brought light rainfall and thunderstorms to parts of Northwest India, keeping temperatures lower. But in recent days, with clear skies and no disturbances, temperatures have gradually risen.

Currently, IMD's heatwave warnings are in place for Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, North Madhya Pradesh and South Uttar Pradesh. Red alert has been issued for Rajasthan, where temperatures could reach up to 47C in the coming days, the IMD scientist said.

"The southwest monsoon is now expected to hit Kerala within 34 days and is likely to move further into parts of Bengal and the Northeast shortly after," ANI quoted Naresh Kumar as saying.
US Immigration Crackdown: The future of hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States under temporary legal protection hangs in the balance, as the Donald Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown. Recent actions have specifically targeted individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation granted to those unable to return to their home countries due to extraordinary circumstances such as armed conflict or natural disasters.

Also Read | US imposes visa curbs on Indian travel agents aiding illegal immigration

Trump Administration Ends TPS for Several Nationalities The administration's decision to end TPS for Venezuelans, Haitians, Afghans, and Cameroonians has drawn sharp criticism.

Concerns have been raised about the potential forced return of over 9,000 Afghan refugees to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and the displacement of approximately half a million Haitians.

TPS allows eligible individuals to reside and work legally in the US for up to 18 months, with the possibility of repeated renewals. Critics argue that these renewals have become virtually automatic, regardless of conditions in the immigrants' home countries.

Supreme Court Allows Termination of TPS Protections Legal challenges surrounding these Immigration crackdown policies have reached Supreme Court, which recently permitted the Trump administration to terminate protections for Venezuelans that had been previously granted by the Biden administration.

This ruling lifted a lower court decision that had temporarily paused the administrations plans, placing TPS holders at immediate risk of losing their protected status and facing potential deportation.

Humanitarian Parole Also Under Threat Beyond TPS, other forms of humanitarian relief are under threat. The Trump administration has moved to end humanitarian parole for over half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Humanitarian parole allows individuals to enter the US temporarily based on urgent humanitarian needs.

Although a federal judge initially blocked the termination of this programme, the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking to end parole for immigrants from these four countries. The case is now returning to the lower courts.

Economic and Social Impact of Ending Temporary Protections These policy shifts have sparked widespread debate about the economic and social impact of ending temporary immigration protections.

Also Read | Trump Admin warns SC judges over immigration enforcement obstruction

The American Immigration Council estimates that TPS households earned over $10 billion in total income in 2021 and paid nearly $1.3 billion in federal taxes, highlighting their significant contributions to the US economy.
Two Israeli embassy staffers who were shot dead by a gunman in Washington were about to get engaged.

Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, an American, were killed as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum  about 1.3 miles (2 km) from the White House  in Washington.

Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters in Washington that the young staffers were a couple and were about to get engaged.

The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem, Leiter said. They were a beautiful couple.

In a post on social media platform X, the Embassy of Israel in the US condemned the attack and said: Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.

The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time, it added.

World leaders have expressed outrage over the barbaric killings.

President Donald Trump also condemned the killings in the heart of the US capital. He said, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!

According to the victims LinkedIn profiles, Lischinsky was a research assistant at the Israeli embassy, while Milgrim worked for its public diplomacy department.

A video circulating on social media showed a bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting free, free Palestine as he was being taken away by police.

Gunshots rang outside the Jewish Museum The shootings come in the wake of the ongoing Israel-Gaza war for more than one and a half years.

The gunman shot at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims and shouting free Palestine, authorities said.

Gunshots rang out on the sidewalk outside the Jewish Museum as it was holding an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.

Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters that the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside the museum before the shooting.

He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire, Smith said. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security.
Singapore, Hong Kong, China and some South-East Asian countries have reported a modest spike in covid cases again, as have parts of India. Whats causing the rise? Should we be alarmed, and what can we do about it? Mint explains.

How big is the spike in covid cases?

It is significant, but nothing like the levels we saw during 2020-2021. As per the ministry of health and family welfare, India has 257 active covid cases, largely in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The ministry recorded one death this month but is still in the process of confirming fatalities in Kerala. Meanwhile, Singapores ministry of health said cases had grown to 14,200 by early May, with 133 hospitalized daily. Chinas Centre for Disease Control also reported a spike in cases. Of its samples collected weekly, those with covid rose to 16.2% in early May while rates of those hospitalized rose to over 6%.

Also read | Covid-19 like new bat virus HKU5-CoV discovered at Wuhan lab, can enter humans using same gateway as coronavirus

Whats causing this spike?

Scientists across countries have pointed to descendants of the JN.1 variant, a version of covid that originated in Europe and spread to France, the UK and later North America starting in late-2023. The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared it a variant of interest (but not concern) in December 2023 as it spread more rapidly than previous versions of covid and dominated the world. Sovereign health authorities, such as Singapores, said strains including LF.7 and NB.1.8. are responsible for the ongoing spike in cases. But at the WHO, these were not yet variants that it was monitoring as of 14 April.

So, is there reason to worry?

Experts and the data say no. Indias case load of 257 is a fraction of what we saw at the height of the pandemic. During the second wave in 2021, India was reporting 300,000-400,000 cases a day. Besides, the WHO says JN.1 causes only mild symptoms. Healthcare authorities globally have not found any evidence that the newest variant causes severe symptoms.

Also read | Covid-19 resurgence: What is JN.1 variant of coronavirus? What are the symptoms?

Then why is this spike of interest?

Because influenza and related respiratory viruses typically spread in the winter, allowing healthcare systems to prepare for seasonal peaks and roll out annual vaccinations. However, this spike shows covid can surge across seasons. While this years spike in Asia is happening in the summer months, last years spikes occurred in late-summer, autumn and the winter months as well. Last June, the US Centres for Disease Control said covid could surge around the year and cause relatively more intense local outbreaks.

What does this mean for public health?

Experts in India, Singapore and China have asked people to observe basic precautions, including wearing a mask, or covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, and keeping up to date with jabs. They have also asked people to stay at home and avoid travelling if they are unwell and wash their hands frequently. However, so far, healthcare authorities in India and abroad have not officially imposed any pandemic-era restrictions such as masks and social distancing.

Also read | Covid cases in India: Mumbai, Pune, Chennai log fresh cases
Germany is ramping up its battle tank brigade in Lithuania to strengthen NATOs eastern flank as European allies take unprecedented steps to deter an increasingly hostile Russia.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius will take part in the first ceremonial roll call of the Panzer Brigade 45 in the heart of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Thursday.

Germany aims to complete the establishment of the brigade by the end of 2027, with up to 5,000 personnel on the ground. Itll be the countrys first permanently-deployed battle tank brigade abroad since World War II.

With the US expected to roll back security commitments to Europe under President Donald Trump, Germany has pledged to play a greater role in the continents defense. The new center-right chancellor has vowed to transform the German military from a laggard to Europes strongest conventional army.

The decision to deploy an entire brigade in Lithuania came as part of a revamp of NATOs defense posture following Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It was taken after months of pressure from the government of the frontline Baltic nation, which is wedged between Russias exclave of Kaliningrad and Kremlin ally Belarus.

Merz is expected to echo the message of predecessor Olaf Scholz, who pledged during a visit to the region last year that Germany will defend every inch of territory of its three Baltic NATO allies in case of a Russian attack.

There are currently around 400 German soldiers on site, which the German authorities hope to increase to 500 by the end of this year, according to the Defense Ministry.

German soldiers have already begun their first training and exercise activities on the ground, which will be further stepped up in the coming months, a German Defense Ministry spokesman said.

In February 2026, NATOs multinational force in Lithuania will be subordinated to the Panzer Brigade 45, bringing the units numbers up to 1,800. By summer 2026, Germany aims to have nearly 2,000 soldiers on the ground.

However, whether Berlin can deploy a full brigade by the end of 2027 depends partly on how quickly Lithuanian authorities can expand infrastructure and accommodation for the further 3,000 soldiers needed to meet that goal.

Lithuania is ramping up defense spending to 5.25% of GDP to bolster its own army as well as to host the German brigade. The Baltic nation estimates it may spend about 1 billion to build military and training infrastructure for the German forces.

A further hurdle is Germanys struggle to attract more young people to military service. Berlin recently passed a law to improve pay and working conditions for soldiers deployed abroad, including those in Lithuania.

Germanys expanded military presence in the Baltics has also opened up investment opportunities for defense giant Rheinmetall.

Rheinmetall signed a deal with the Lithuanian government last year to construct an ammunition production plant in Lithuania, expected to produce tens of thousands of artillery rounds each year and to create at least 150 new jobs.

The German arms manufacturer is currently in talks with neighboring Latvia on setting up domestic defense production, Bloomberg News previously reported.

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Two hikers in the Krkonose Mountains of the Czech Republic found a mystery box. It was full of gold coins, jewellery and other items. The anonymous hikers found the mystery box while walking through a forest.

The aluminium box contained 598 gold coins, 10 gold bracelets, 17 cigar cases, a powder compact, and a comb. The hikers gave the treasure to the Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Kralove.

Experts believe the items are around 100 years old as one coin is from 1921. The treasure may have been hidden during the tense times before World War II, either by Czech and Jewish families leaving the area or by Germans in 1945.

Also Read | Scientists discover 3-eyed sea predator from 506 million years ago

The finders came to our museums numismatist (coin expert) without a prior appointment. Only after that did archaeologists begin to deal with the find and set out to explore the site, Miroslav Novak, the head of the archaeological department at the museum, told CNN in an email.

It is most likely related to the turbulent period before the start of World War II, when the Czech and Jewish population was leaving the border area, or to 1945, when the Germans were leaving, Novak added.

Also Read | Researchers discover ancient skeletons, learn mysteries about Medieval women

The exact reason why and who hid the treasure is still a mystery. Archaeologists are now studying the site and its items to learn more. This lucky discovery has caught the attention of both experts and the public.

The gold stash is worth about $360,000 (over 3 crore) just for its coin value. The coins weigh 3.7 kg and are mostly of Balkan and French origin.

Oddly, no local or German coins were found. Two cigar cases in the box are still sealed.

Locals have shared many theories about the treasures origin. Some believe it belonged to a rich family while others say it could be war loot from Czechoslovak soldiers.

Who left the treasure hidden? The latest coin in the treasure found in the Czech forest is from 1921. Referring to that, historian Mary Heimann says this was a time of financial crisis and instability in Czechoslovakia.

So, its not surprising someone may have hidden gold then. She doubts the treasure was hidden in 1945 as no coins from that time were found. The person might have been a collector, a museum worker or even a thief.

(The person who hid the coins) could have been a collector or someone who worked in museums. Or someone who stole a collection from somewhere. This is borderland territory, it separates whats today the Czech Republic  what was in the past Czechoslovakia  from Poland, Heimann told the publication.
Kailash Manasarovar Yatra 2025. As the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is set to resume after a gap of five years, China on Thursday congratulated India for the upcoming pilgrimage and expressed hope that the Indian pilgrims will enjoy hospitality of Chinese people.

In a post on social media platform X, Yu Jing, spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in India, said: Warm congratulations on 750 Indian friends who have been selected to undertake this years Kailash Manasarovar Yatra! Hope they will not only get spiritually enriched but also enjoy hospitality of Chinese people.

The Yatra is set to take place from June to August via two routes -- Lipulekh Pass in Uttarakhand and Nathu La in Sikkim.

Resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was suspended initially in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequently because of the military standoff between India and China on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

The resumption of the pilgrimage is seen as an attempt to normalise India-China ties.

In January, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited Beijing and held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Sun Weidong.

In the meeting, the two sides had decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to "stabilise and rebuild" ties.

750 pilgrims to undertake Kailash Manasarovar Yatra On Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said 750 pilgrims have been selected through a computerised draw of lots for the upcoming Kailash Manasarovar Yatra 2025.

As many as 5,561 people, including 4,024 men and 1,537 women applicants, had registered online for the pilgrimage, the ministry said.

The pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake in China's Tibet Autonomous Region holds religious significance to Hindus as well as Jains and Buddhists.

The External Affairs Ministry is the organiser of the pilgrimage.

The pilgrims were selected through a "fair, computer-generated, random, gender-balanced" process, the ministry said.

According to the MEA, the pilgrims will travel in five batches of 50 people via the Lipulekh route, and 10 batches of 50 pilgrims each through the Nathu La route.
On a call Monday, President Trump told European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin isnt ready to end the war because he thinks he is winning, according to three people familiar with the conversation.

The acknowledgment was what European leaders had long believed about Putinbut it was the first time they were hearing it from Trump. It also ran counter to what Trump has often said publicly, that he believes Putin genuinely wants peace.

The White House declined to comment and referred to Trumps social-media post on Monday about his conversation with Putin. The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasnt, I would say so now," he said.

Although Trump appears to have come around to the idea that Putin isnt ready for peace, that hasnt led him to do what the Europeans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have been arguing he should do: double down on the fight against Russia.

Trump had held an earlier call with European leaders on Sundaya day before his two-hour conversation with Putin. He had indicated then that he could impose sanctions if Putin refused a cease-fire, according to people familiar with the conversation.

By Monday, he had shifted again. He wasnt ready to do that. Instead, Trump said he wanted to proceed quickly with lower-level talks between Russia and Ukraine at the Vatican.

The call Monday included Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It was in part the culmination of a European diplomatic offensive that had started some 10 days earlier, aimed at getting Trump to put pressure on Putin.

While the effort ultimately didnt succeed in getting Trump to do that through additional sanctions, Europeans saw some upside to the outcome. The process had helped clarify for everyone, including Trump, where Putin stood: He is unwilling to halt the war at this stage. And for the Europeans, it helped underscore that it was now largely up to them to support Ukraine. Europeans dont believe the Trump administration will stop U.S. weapons exports as long as Europe or Ukraine pays for them, the people said.

This isnt my war," Trump told reporters on Monday after his Putin call. We got ourselves entangled in something we shouldnt have been involved in."

Trump had indicated in a call with European leaders Sundaywhich included Macron, Merz, Meloni and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmerthat he would dispatch Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Keith Kellogg to talks that are now expected to take place at the Vatican. On Monday, Trump appeared to be noncommittal about a U.S. role, according to one of the people briefed on the call.

Some of the Europeans on the call Monday insisted that the outcome of any talks at the Vatican must be an unconditional cease-fire. But Trump again demurred, saying he didnt like the term unconditional." He said he had never used that term, although he used it when calling for a 30-day cease-fire in a post on his Truth Social platform on May 8. The Europeans eventually agreed to drop their insistence on the adjective.

Europes diplomatic offensive to get Trump to pressure Russia escalated when Merz, the conservative German chancellor, took office earlier this month. Merz has been much more willing to confront Putin than his left-leaning predecessor, Olaf Scholz. More important, Merzs coalition helped amend Germanys constitution to allow the country much greater latitude in borrowing to spend on the military and support for Ukraine.

On May 10, Merz, Macron, Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk paid an impromptu visit to Zelensky in Kyiv. They urged him to go along with what Trump wanted, to expose Putins unwillingness to end the war. They then used Macrons cellphone to call Trump from Zelenskys official residence, telling him Europe and Ukraine were fully behind his call for a 30-day cease-fire. The Europeans publicly threatened new sanctions against Putin if he didnt accept the cease-fire.

Putin responded to the rising pressure from Europe and Washington by proposing the first direct negotiation with Ukraine in three years. Trump seized on the offer, even at one point suggesting he could go to Turkey to join the talks.

A meeting took place in Istanbul within days, but Putin didnt attend. He dispatched lower-level representatives who repeated demands that Ukraine deems unacceptable.

After Putins no-show in Istanbul, the Europeans again pressed Trump to consider putting more pressure on the Russian leader. They approved modest new sanctions against Russia but continue work on a stronger package of measures. Trump announced he had set up a call with Putin, saying peace prospects could only be advanced if the U.S. and Russia leaders spoke.

When Trump spoke Sunday with European leaders, ahead of that Putin call, he signaled the U.S. might join Europe in sanctioning Russian energy exports and bank transactions. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a close ally of Trump, said Wednesday he had gathered 81 co-sponsors for a bill that would significantly ratchet up energy and other sanctions on Moscow.

That Sunday call included some of Trumps signature off-the-cuff style, mixing praise and criticism of European leaders. He complimented Merz on his beautiful English. I love it even more with your German accent," he said, according to one person on the call.

At another point, he digressed into a broadside against Europes migration policies. Trump said out-of-control migration was bringing their countries to the brink of collapse."

Macron, who has the longest relationship with Trump, asked him to stop. You cannot insult our nations, Donald," said Macron, according to the person on the call.

The tone, however, was positive overall, said the people familiar with the call. It left some with the impression that Trump just might support fresh sanctions if Putin didnt agree to a cease-fire. But those hopes were dashed a day later.

The talks in the Vatican are expected to start in mid June.

Write to Bojan Pancevski at bojan.pancevski@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com
(Bloomberg) -- The UK agreed to cede an Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius while retaining control of a strategic military base on one of the islands, ending a long-running negotiation that had become a point of controversy for British premier Keir Starmer.

Under the deal with Mauritius, the UK will pay an average of 101 million ($136 million) annually for continued use of the facility, Starmer told a news briefing on Thursday, in the first confirmation of the terms of the pact. The UK said the net present value of the payments is 3.4 billion, due to the way government accounting measures long-term investments.

Finalizing the deal achieves a key foreign policy aim for Starmer because it ends the uncertainty over the future of the base on Diego Garcia, a strategically valuable British-US facility that gives rapid access to East Africa, the Indo-Pacific, the South China Sea and the Persian Gulf. It was used during American campaigns in the Middle East and Afghanistan and also hosts a critical satellite communications system.

The base is one of the most significant contributions that we make to our security relationship with the United States, Starmer said at the briefing. We had to act now because the base was under threat.

British and US control over the base had been cast into doubt by the UKs plan to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which followed a 2019 ruling by the International Court of Justice that Britains continued administration of the islands was unlawful. Mauritius, a nation of about 1.3 million people, in recent years has strengthened ties with China, fueling US worries about Beijings expanding military and economic influence in the region.

The Chagos Islands deal has been controversial for Starmer, given the large sums of money that Britain will pay to Mauritius to retain control of Diego Garcia. The UKs main opposition Conservative Party and Nigel Farages Reform have regularly attacked Starmer over the deal, with Farage previously calling it a surrender.

The agreement announced Thursday ends six months of additional talks between the two countries, after the new Mauritian government led by Premier Navinchandra Ramgoolam expressed dissatisfaction over an initial accord announced on Oct. 4.

Its a great victory for us and the Mauritian nation, Ramgoolam said. It completes the process of decolonization that started in 1968.

The announcement of the deal was held up on Thursday, however, by a last minute court challenge from a Chagos-born British national who claimed that the accord would violate the rights of the indigenous people of the Chagos Islands who had not been properly involved in the negotiations.

The legal challenge was the last chance for Chagossian people to secure access to their homeland, lawyers for the claimant, Bertrice Pompe, said in court filings.

The severe obstacles which would be faced by British national Chagossians, who do not hold Mauritian nationality, in regards to participation in the future of their homeland needs to be addressed, they said.

But the case was thrown out after the government argued it interfered with national security issues and foreign relations.

In 1965, Britain established the Chagos Islands as a separate territory, paid Mauritius 3 million in compensation and agreed to let the US operate a military base there in return for a discount on nuclear missiles and joint use of the facility.

Around 1,360 Chagossians were expelled from Diego Garcia, the largest island, to make way for the base, which began operations in 1973. Most ended up in the UK, Mauritius and the Seychelles, where they suffered discrimination and were given little help to rebuild their lives, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Chagos Islands have also been a point of interest in UK-US diplomacy given previous question marks over whether US President Donald Trump would back the agreement. That speculation was ended earlier this year when Trump said he was inclined to go ahead with the decision, speaking during a meeting with Starmer at the White House.

--With assistance from William Selway and Alister Bull.

(Updates with reaction and context starting in fourth paragraph.)

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed on Wednesday evening as they were leaving an event at a Jewish museum. According to police, the suspect shouted, Free, free Palestine after being taken into custody, AP reported.

Who is the suspect Elias Rodriguez? The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting, according to Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith. After the incident, he entered the museum and was detained by event security.

Upon being taken into custody, Rodriguez began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Smith said. She added that law enforcement does not believe there is any ongoing threat to the community. US President Donald Trump called the shooting horrible and stressed it is based on antisemitism and it must end.

Trump said that hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.

In a post on X, the White House said, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, now! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You all.

US President Donald Trump called the DC Shooting 'horrible'.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter stated that the two individuals killed were a young couple on the verge of getting engaged.

AP reported that he shared that the man had bought an engagement ring earlier in the week and planned to propose in Jerusalem the following week.

Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed she was present at the scene alongside former judge Jeanine Pirro, who currently serves as the U.S. Attorney in Washington and whose office will be handling the prosecution of the case.

Israel-Gaza war The shooting occurred amid heightened tensions as Israel intensifies its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Stripa conflict that has inflamed unrest across the broader Middle East.

The war began on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people and abducting approximately 250 others, whom they took back to the coastal enclave.

Since then, Israels military response has resulted in the deaths of more than 53,000 people in Gaza, according to local health authorities. The majority of those killed have been women and children, though the figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The ongoing conflict has displaced around 90 per cent of Gazas roughly 2 million residents, triggered a severe hunger crisis, and led to the widespread destruction of the regions urban infrastructure, as reported by AP.

What did the eyewitness say? As reported by the Associated Press, Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher, who were inside the museum at the time of the shooting, recalled hearing gunshots just before a distressed man entered the building.

Kalin said that attendees initially believed the man needed assistance and offered him water, unaware that he was the suspect.

When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims, Jews, and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Capital Jewish Museum The shooting took place outside the Capital Jewish Museum, which is just steps away from the FBI's field office in Washington, D.C. In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening.

We recognise that there are threats associated with this as well, Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station, as reported by the Associated Press. And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.

Israeli diplomats have long been targets of violence, attacked over the decades by both state-backed actors and Palestinian militants amid the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has its roots in the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state comprising Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital, territories that Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.

How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people?

However, the peace process aimed at resolving the conflict has remained stalled for years.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot on Wednesday evening as they were leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington, DC, the police said.

According to Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, the victims, a man and a woman, were part of a group of four individuals exiting the Capital Jewish Museum when a suspect approached and opened fire.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, has been identified as a suspect. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting, walked into the museum after the incident and the event security detained him, Smith added, according to AP.

An eyewitness John Elleson told the Sky News that the Washington DC shooting was terrible, stating, He went right up to them  it looked like he knew them.

Who were the victims? Israeli officials identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

Washington DC Shooting LIVE: What did Donald Trump say? "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Trump posted on social media on early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA," he said

Israel accuses Europe of antisemitic incitement Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused unnamed European officials on Thursday of "toxic antisemitic incitement" he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place.

There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murderThis incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe, he said at a press conference.

Suspect being questioned by FBI Deputy FBI Director Don Bongino said the suspect was being interviewed by the police and the FBI.

"Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," he said in a post on X. "Our FBI team is fully engaged and we will get you answers as soon as we can, without compromising additional leads."

Israeli embassy in New Delhi issues statement The Israel Embassy in Delhi in a statement on X said, We are deeply saddened by the tragic and brutal murder of our colleagues, Yaron Lischinsky and his fiance Sarah Milgram, this morning in Washington DC. Israel stands united against terror. Terror will not deter us from continuing to represent our country with pride.

PM Netanyahu announces stricter security at Israeli embassies worldwide Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday announced heightened security at Israeli embassies worldwide following the fatal shooting of two embassy staffers outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.

We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost, he said on X.

We will not tolerate this violence or hate: Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser We're going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send the clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism. The horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser informed media, AFP reported.

Israeli UN Ambassador to the US Danny Danon reacts We have a strong community, and I am confident they will continue to stand firmly in support of Israel, Sky News quoted Israeli UN Ambassador to the US Danny Danon as saying.

Israel will not surrender to terror: Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar Horrified by this morning's terrorist attack, in which two of our embassy staff in Washington D.C. were murdered. Israeli representatives around the world are constantly exposed to heightened risk, especially in these times. We are in close contact with American authorities. Israel will not surrender to terror, Israel Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog devastated by the scenes in Washington

I am devastated by the scenes in Washington DC. This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff," Herzog said.

He added, "We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the US. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.

Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA, says US President Donald Trump

US President Donald J. Trump in a post on Truth Social said that these horrible killing are based on antisemitism. He noted, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, now! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You all!

British FM says 'horrified' by US shooting British Foreign Minister David Lammy on Thursday said he was "horrified" after two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington.
Golden Dome missile defence plan: As the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday selected a design for the $175-billion project and identified a Space Force general to lead the programme, experts suggest it could confront major technical and political hurdles, and the actual cost to achieve its objectives could be much higher than he has projected.

While the US president pushes for a defence system capable of countering a broad range of enemy weapons, comprising intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic and cruise missiles, and drones, he also wants it operational by the end of his second term.

Main challenges will be cost A nonresident senior associate in the Missile Defense Project at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, Melanie Marlowe, said, The main challenges will be cost, the defense industrial base, and political will. They can all be overcome, but it will take focus and prioritization.

She added, "The White House and Congress are going to have to agree on how much to spend and where the money will come from. Our defense industrial base has atrophied," though we have begun to revive it.

Marlowe also emphasised the need for further advancements in sensors, interceptors, and other key elements of the project.

Price estimate not realistic Assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Thomas Roberts, said the price estimated was not realistic, adding, The challenge with the statements from yesterday is that they lack the details needed to develop a model of what this constellation would really look like."

Question is how to most cost effectively counter it A senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, Chad Ohlandt, stated "the threat is clearly getting worse," but the "key question is how to most cost effectively counter" it, further continuing, "Any questions of realism or feasibility" for Golden Dome depend on where we set the bar. Defend against how many threats? Threats of what capability? What is to be defended? As you raise the bar, it becomes more expensive.

Number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones need to be achieved Associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, Thomas Withington, said, "there are a number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones that will need to be achieved if Golden Dome is ever going to enter service in any meaningful capacity. It is an incredibly expensive undertaking, even for the US defense budget. This is serious, serious money. I'm not holding my breath as to whether we will actually ever see this capability."

Inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, the Golden Dome is designed to defend the United States against advanced missile threats, including hypersonic and space-launched missiles. The Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said the system aims to protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear
Indias budget proposal in 2022 to promulgate a cross-border insolvency law remains unimplemented. The mechanism to implement it was recommended by the Insolvency Law Committee, which suggested adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (MLCBI), with a few tweaks, including the introduction of reciprocity as a principle.

The reciprocity clause meant that Indian courts would only recognize and enforce decisions taken by foreign courts if those countries granted India similar rights. Most experts in Indias insolvency ecosystem were concerned about this. Instead, they recommended that India adopt the MLCBI in full to ensure seamless cooperation in cases of cross-border insolvency.

Also Read: Do creditor committees in insolvency cases need an oversight body?

Like many other soft-law treaties, the MLCBI emerged from a US-anchored liberal world order that fostered mutual benefit among nation states. However, this world order has undergone a fundamental shift. The changed world order provides us with an opportunity to introduce the MLCBI with a reciprocity clause as an enabler. As John Maynard Keynes is often cited as saying, When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

Changed geo-economics has made India fast-track its trade pacts. It has finalized an agreement with the UK and negotiations are underway with the US, EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council. This is an opportune time to introduce the MLCBI on a reciprocal basis with major trade partners.

Clauses related to insolvency and bankruptcy have found passing references in trade and economic agreements, albeit not in an MLCBI context. Our economic cooperation pacts with Asean, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea include a clause on insolvency. This clause states that countries retain the right to restrict or delay the free transfer of funds, if necessary, to enforce their domestic laws on bankruptcy and insolvency, or to protect the rights of creditors, provided that these restrictions are applied in good faith and a manner that is equitable and non-discriminatory.

Also Read: JSW-Bhushan case: Time to rewrite Indias insolvency code?

The next evolutionary phase of trade agreements may consider MLCBI adoption. In a world of zero-sum games, where every facet of trade is being re-negotiated, this could serve not only as a bargaining chip, but also strengthen investor confidence.

One might argue that reciprocity clauses for insolvency have never been part of trade agreements. However, this should not be a limitation. India can set the agenda, as it did with the International Solar Alliance without the backing of the United Nations or World Trade Organization. This unconventional approach helped mobilize funds for member countries and earned India goodwill and leadership status. Similarly, the recent India-UK free trade agreement has a novel Double Contributions Convention and a chapter on anti-corruption as well as anti-bribery.

Precedents exist of bilateral treaties that acquire global influence. Singapore pioneered digital economy agreements that are now being used as a template by other countries.

Also Read: The SCs JSW-Bhushan ruling will hit both the IBC and investor confidence

Though the MLCBI will address corporate insolvencies and personal insolvencies of corporate guarantors, digital-economy aspects will also be crucial components of Indias trade negotiations. These negotiations are likely to focus on privacy and data localization. However, ease of data accessibility will be key for the efficient resolution of insolvencies.

An increasing number of Indian enterprises are storing their data and applications on the cloud, with most large cloud service providers based in the US. If payments to cloud service providers are suspended, the data is permanently deleted shortly after. It is highly probable that during periods of financial distress, a company may be unable to pay its cloud service provider. Consequently, the likelihood of data deletion is high when a resolution professional takes control, given the lengthy process from distress to default and the time required to admit an insolvency case. Bereft of data, the professional would be unable to perform his duties.

Trade agreements enabling restoration of such deleted data would ease the insolvency process. This issue becomes more pertinent in cases where the promoter or management intentionally withholds payment to a cloud service provider to conceal mischief and dodge accusations of data-evidence destruction.

Also Read: Mint Explainer: The Supreme Court's Bhushan Power ruling that has stunned India's insolvency ecosystem

Even for finalized trade treaties, the incorporation of an MLCBI addendum would support insolvency resolution, as many personal guarantors reside in the UK and UAE. The UK is also a major gateway for fund-raising and an MLCBI-including pact with London can annul its restrictive Gibbs Rule. The rule implies that a creditor cannot be bound by reorganization proceedings taking place in a jurisdiction other than the one whose law governs the debt contract. This effectively negates the jurisdiction of foreign insolvency proceedings.

The World Bank Principles on Effective Insolvency and Creditor/Debtor Regimes state that an effective insolvency system should respond to national needs. MLCBI inclusion in trade agreements with clear rules on jurisdiction, recognition of foreign judgments, international court cooperation and the choice of law will help India attract supply chains. If and when geo-economic conditions change, India could roll out an unconditional MLCBI.

The author is an INSOL fellow & interim leader.
Father Flynn, Doubt

In John Patrick Shanleys 2008 film Doubt, certainty and ambiguity collide in a moral thriller set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964 New York. The story revolves around Sister Aloysius Beauvier, a strict headmistress convinced that Father Flynn, a charismatic parish priest, has engaged in inappropriate conduct with a young African-American student. But the film is not about whether Flynn is guilty or innocent. It is about how people behave when caught between certainty and doubt.

Also Read: Devina Mehra: Trump as a green warrior? Its not too far-fetched

Sister Aloysius represents moral certainty, acting on instinct while lacking proof. Father Flynn embraces ambiguity, preaching compassion and progressive change while never fully clearing the cloud of suspicion. Caught between them is Sister James, a nun torn between her faith in human goodness and duty to protect the vulnerable. As the film ends, Sister Aloysius confesses that her certainty came at a cost. I have doubts," she whispers, breaking down. The audience is left with no resolution, only the unsettling realization that doubtnot certaintyoften shapes human decisions.

Cut to 2025, where the world is caught in a geopolitical sequel that we could title Strategic Doubt. With Donald Trump back in the White House, speculation has given way to reality. He has already revived his trademark unpredictabilityquestioning Natos value, threatening new tariffs and pulling back on climate and trade commitments. Alliances are fraying, markets are jittery and US rivals like Russia and China are recalibrating their strategies to exploit this instability. The world must now confront a turbocharged America First.

Also Read: Trumps trade agenda: About US jobs or global supremacy?

Like Sister Aloysius, Trump seems to operate from absolute conviction, seeing the world in black and whitewinners or losers, patriots or traitors, allies or freeloaders. He appears to see moral clarity as justification for unilateral action, even if it means breaking long-standing alliances or global norms. In this world view, hesitation is weakness. Whether pulling out of past agreements or shaking up diplomatic traditions, Trump acts as though he alone can guard Americas interests, regardless of the consequences.

Yet, paradoxically, while Trump acts with personal certainty, his actions generate strategic doubt. His disruptive style leaves allies and partners unsure of US reliability. While Trump frames issues in stark terms, the rest of the world is left navigating shades of grey. This is where the tension lies: Is such doubt good or bad?

Also Read: How Trumpian volatility is forcing policy changes in China

Doubt is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can force nations to reflect and build resilience. Europes push for defence autonomy and Indias balancing act between major powers can be seen as constructive responses to US unpredictability.

On the other hand, doubt can paralyse decision-making, erode trust and fracture alliances. When nations are unsure whether the US will meet its commitments, they may overreact by going it alone or underreact by waiting for clarity. Like Sister Jamess early indecision in Doubt, this paralysis can expose vulnerabilities. Doubt is neither good nor badit is what nations choose to do with it that matters.

Like Sister Aloysius acting pre-emptively, Europe is boosting defence and energy independence, even as Russia and China exploit Western uncertainty, with Trumps transactional style risking deeper global divides and empowering rivals to reshape the global order. India, like Sister James, is torn between competing loyalties. It has much to gain from a stable global order, but is wary of overcommitting to any side. It hopes that goodwill and pragmatism will prevail over polarization, but may soon face hard choices.

Also Read: China began de-risking its economy well before Trumps trade fury

In a pivotal moment, Sister Aloysius appeals to Mrs. Miller, the boys mother, to back her campaign against Father Flynn. But Mrs. Miller, aware of her sons fragile place in the school system, refuses. This moment mirrors the choices facing smaller nations today as they prioritize safeguarding ties with America even if it means tolerating its unpredictability. Not every player has the luxury of moral clarity; many must balance principles with survival.

While global attention focuses on what Trump might do next, the real danger may lie in what the rest of the world fails to do. Inaction born of doubt can paralyse. Nations risk reacting to crises after the damage is done. The lesson of Doubt is not that doubt should be avoided.

On the contrary, it fosters reflection and humilityqualities that are often missing in populist leadership. But unresolved doubt can breed fear and cynicism. The world must not wait for Trump to provide clarity, but acquire strategic resilience. We must strengthen multilateral institutions, diversify alliances and prepare for a world where US leadership cannot be assumed. True leadership is not about eliminating uncertainty, but about acting wisely. The world cant afford to stand still, caught in Trumps shadow. It must move forward, balancing risk with resolve.

These are the authors personal views.

The author is professor, economics and policy, and executive director, Centre for Family Business & Entrepreneurship at Bhavans SPJIMR, Mumbai.
The all-party delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha arrived in Tokyo early Thursday as part of a five-nation tour to showcase India's resolve against terrorism through Operation Sindoor.

The delegation, comprising representatives from multiple political parties, is set to inform international partners about India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader efforts against cross-border terrorism. Their diplomatic outreach will include meetings with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore.

Led by Jha, the delegation includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MPs Dr. Hemang Joshi, Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, and Pradan Baruah, as well as CPI(M) MP John Brittas and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.

In a post on X, Jha said, Ohayo gozaimasu, Nihon! Good morning, Japan! Happy to have landed in Japan with an all-party Indian delegation. We seek continued support in Indias stand against cross-border terrorism, especially after the April 22 Pahalgam attack that took lives of 26 innocent civilians. Indias measured response in #OperationSindoor showed our zero-tolerance approach. Japan and India stand united for peace and democratic values.

Prior to his departure, Sanjay Jha said the purpose of the visit is to tell the whole world the truth about Pakistan's policy of patronising terrorism and the action taken by India in response under Operation Sindoor.

The biggest issue is that terrorism is Pakistan's state policy. It is the job of the entire delegation to reveal Pakistan's face to the entire world. The whole state of Pakistan sponsors terrorism, and the terrorism thrives completely with the support of the state, Jha told ANI.

We want to tell this matter to the whole world, and the other thing is about the nuclear bluff. We want to convey that we will not tolerate the terrorist activities perpetrated by Pakistan. We want to convey the message that enough is enough now, he added.

BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi said that the diplomatic outreach visits will convey India's united stand against cross-border terrorism to the world.

As a citizen of the country, I can say that sending seven delegations to around 33 countries by PM Modi's govt is a well-thought-out exercise, and the idea is to communicate to the international community India's stand on cross-border terrorism, Sarangi said.

Meanwhile, CPI-M leader John Brittas said that the all-party delegation visiting different countries to expose Pakistan's support for terrorism on the global stage will convey the message of the nation against terrorism to the world community.

The all-party delegations will project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They will convey to the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism.

We want to tell this matter to the whole world, and the other thing is about the nuclear bluff. We want to convey that we will not tolerate the terrorist activities perpetrated by Pakistan. Enough is enough now.

India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart.
The US and European leaders are placing their hopes in the Vatican to engage Russia and Ukraine in peace talks, after President Donald Trump said Pope Leo XIV had expressed interest in the idea. The Kremlin isnt so keen.

Russian officials have no plans for President Vladimir Putin to travel to the Vatican or anywhere else for talks now, and theyre focused instead on technical-level negotiations that began in Istanbul last week, according to people with knowledge of the situation, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters. The Kremlin expects those negotiations to resume in Istanbul, one of the people said.

There are no agreements to hold the next round of talks at the Vatican, Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters Thursday.

Still, European officials say discussions are taking place on a role for the Vatican as a potential host or mediator of negotiations. Talks could happen as soon as next week, though it depends on Russias readiness to attend, the people said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive.

US officials are in contact with the Ukrainians to ensure the talks can take place, the people said. Theyre also signaling to Russian counterparts that theyd prefer to avoid participation in the meeting by hardliners such as Putins aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led Moscows delegation in Istanbul, the people added.

Momentum for Papal engagement has accelerated since Mondays two-hour phone call between Trump and Putin failed to win Russias commitment to a truce in Europes largest conflict since World War II. Ukraine and European allies had expected Trump to announce sanctions if Putin refused to halt the war, but the US leader declared instead that Kyiv and Moscow should immediately start negotiations toward a ceasefire and that hed back away if no progress was made on a deal.

The Vatican, as represented by the Pope, has stated that it would be very interested in hosting the negotiations, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social. Let the process begin!

Putin wont travel to Italy, a NATO member state, because of security concerns, and Russia doesnt regard the Vatican as neutral in the conflict, said Sergei Markov, a political consultant with close ties to the Kremlin.

The issue is complicated further by relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church led by Patriarch Kirill, a vocal supporter of Putin and the war in Ukraine. A 2016 meeting in Cuba between Kirill and Pope Francis was the first between the leaders of the Roman Catholic faith and the Russian Church since the Great Schism of 1054 that split eastern and western Christianity over theological differences.

The Russian Church opposes the Vaticans involvement in the peace talks, regarding it as a historical rival in Ukraine that also failed to criticize the authorities closure of churches loyal to Moscow, according to people with knowledge of the issue.

Italy is a signatory to the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. In principle, at least, it would be obliged to arrest him if he came to Rome.

Even if all those hurdles were overcome, negotiations are far from reaching a deal that would require a summit meeting involving Trump, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sign an accord ending the war. Putin and Trump didnt mention a summit on their phone call.

The Holy See has telegraphed the newly-enthroned Popes readiness to engage in diplomacy to end the war thats now in its fourth year. Leo met with US Vice President JD Vance on Monday, a day after Zelenskiy thanked the Vatican for its willingness to serve as a platform for direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, in a message on the X platform.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni received confirmation from the Holy Father of the readiness to welcome the next round of talks between the parties in the Vatican, in a phone call with the Pope on Tuesday, according to a statement from her office.

Late Thursday, Meloni said she had another phone call with Trump and is constantly in touch with several leaders to kick off a new round of talks.

The availability that the Vatican and the Pope have given is precious, Meloni told reporters after meeting with Danish Premier Mette Frederiksen. Clearly there are various options on the table for the first part of talks on a technical level.

Melonis efforts to involve the Pope in peace initiatives have also been jointly developed and endorsed by us, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters Thursday during a visit to Vilnius, Lithuania. A resolution to the war must first of all consist of a ceasefire, he said.

Fridays meeting in Istanbul was the first face-to-face negotiation between Russia and Ukraine since soon after the February 2022 full-scale invasion. Those talks collapsed amid recriminations over a draft protocol of Russian demands for Ukraines subjugation.

Putin proposed the resumption of direct contacts and has indicated he regards the talks as a continuation of the earlier ones, where Russias negotiators were also led by Medinsky.

The Russian delegation repeated hardline demands for Ukraine to surrender four regions of the countrys south and east that the Kremlin claims as its territory but which its troops only partly occupy.

Russia considers Turkey the best venue to continue talks on a memorandum setting out conditions for a peace deal that Putin discussed with Trump on their call, according to three people close to the Kremlin.

The choice of Turkey and of representatives from the aborted 2022 talks is seen as Russia signaling that its back to square one in negotiations, a senior European official said.

Zelenskiy and European countries have accused Putin of stalling the peace process in order to buy time to intensify his military offensive in Ukraine.

The Holy See has helped mediate conflicts globally, including hastening a 2014 normalization of US-Cuba relations and in resolving a territorial dispute between Chile and Argentina in 1978 that had pushed the two countries to the brink of war. It has also been active in attempts at reaching peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Vatican as a platform for talks will be a very difficult choice for the Kremlin, said Ksenia Luchenko, an independent religious affairs analyst. If this is the only chance for Putin to have his mega deal with Trump, then he would probably go to the Vatican, but first he would try to offer all kinds of alternatives.

With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Arne Delfs, Donato Paolo Mancini, Andrea Palasciano, Michael Nienaber and Chris Miller.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
CALIFORNIA : Marking a decade as Googles CEO, Sundar Pichai reaffirmed his faith in the power of fundamental research to drive the companys future in artificial intelligence, even as it faces rising competition and regulatory scrutiny.

He emphasised that Googles strategy remains pro-competitive," citing its open contributions to global AI development and partnerships with over 2,000 companies as evidence of its ecosystem-first mindset.

While some ideas can convert into products right away, some take time. For instance, we spoke yesterday about text diffusionthis is one area where were pushing the frontiers of diffusion technology in AI in a new way," Pichai told Mint on Wednesday.

Down the line, itll make sense to bring it to products in various interesting ways. But there are more examplesWaymo is a big one where our research led to the product. Project Astra is anotherand us bringing it to people as a product also lets us see how it is used by everyone, and we learn from it," he added.

Also read: What Google Searchs chief has to say on AIan extension, not a replacement

Challenges and checkpoints

This year marks a decade of Sundar Pichai leading Google. During his tenure, the ongoing antitrust hearings with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ), along with the rise of OpenAI and other generative AI challengers, have posed some of the biggest threats to Google and its $2-trillion market capbuilt largely on its dominance in search, advertising, and mobile devices.

Despite the noise, Pichais message was clear: Googles investment in AI remains guided by a long-term lens, with a focus on innovation rather than rapid commercial wins.

Were committed to driving fundamental research, and youll see Google move aggressively to put the results of this research in the hands of the peopleeven if that may need some time," Pichai said.

The 20 May Google I/O keynote, which saw AI mentioned 92 times in just two hours, was widely seen as a defining momentpossibly the first time that analysts, investors, and users seemed convinced of Googles AI momentum.

The company had previously come under fire for failing to cash in on the transformer model it invented in 2017technology that underpins nearly every modern large language model, including OpenAI's ChatGPT. On Tuesday, Mint reported that cofounder Sergey Brins return to working full-time at the company was driven by this very gap.

Following the keynote, Googles stock price surged from $165.01 on Tuesday to $174.09 on Wednesdaya 5.5% gainbuoyed by analyst optimism. This comes despite the stock being down over 5% in the past year, with last years I/O conference considered underwhelming in comparison.

By contrast, Microsoftwhich has invested over $10 billion in OpenAIhas seen its share price rise more than 5% over the same period.

Digging deep on R&D

In Q1 FY25, Google allocated 15% of its revenueor $13.6 billionto research and development, underscoring the scale of its long-term bet.

Pichais framing of research as Googles core strength was also seen as a subtle swipe at OpenAI, which built its large language models using Googles pioneering transformer model.

As far as antitrust investigations into Google are concerned, we have had a massive impact on the global technology ecosystem. Weve been associated in ways with over 2,000 companies, and we invest in technology that creates innovation outside of Google. The transformer model in AI is one big examplewe dont build AI just for ourselves, and not all companies can say that," Pichai said.

The comment comes amid increasing scrutiny of Googles dominant position in search and advertising, and whether its AI integrations could further consolidate its market power.

Time to deliver

Industry observers now believe that Googles ability to execute swiftly will determine its trajectory in the AI era.

Pichai has been viewed in the industry as a top executive who had so far approached AI development with one eye on the rear-view mirror. This clearly didnt help the company, but theres no denying that Google has a massive number of the most talented brains in the global technology industry," said Jayanth Kolla, partner at technology consultancy firm Convergence Catalyst.

"Given the companys history and might, theres no denying that Google could very well lead everyone into the AI futurewhen Steve Jobs turned Apple around from the brink of bankruptcy after returning in 1996, he set clear precedent for other top executives to follow," he added.

Even as antitrust threats loomsome of which could force Google to divest parts of its businessPichai struck a confident tone:

Our approach has always been pro-competitive, and our success is earned purely on our merits."

Also read: I/O 2025: Google introduces major AI upgrades to Search, brings AI Mode to users

The author is in Mountain View, California to attend I/O 2025 on Googles invitation.
Saudi Arabia Bolsters Defense Manufacturing with BAE Systems Arabian Industries

By Shayne Heffernan

Saudi Arabia is making significant strides in its defense sector with the launch of BAE Systems Arabian Industries, a new entity aimed at accelerating localization and strengthening the Kingdoms military industrial base. This development, reported by the Saudi Press Agency, marks a key milestone in the Kingdoms push to expand its defense capabilities, aligning with Vision 2030s goal of achieving a self-sufficient defense sector by 2030. As someone closely following Saudi Arabias economic transformation, Im impressed by the strategic vision behind this initiative and its potential to reshape the regions military landscape.

BAE Systems Arabian Industries is the result of a merger between two major players in the defense ecosystem: BAE Systems Saudi Development and Training, which specializes in capability building, and the Saudi Maintenance and Supply Chain Management Co., a provider of supply chain and technical services. The merger, finalized nearly four months ago, consolidates over three decades of expertise in defense training, capability development, and logistics. Ahmad Abdulaziz Al-Ohali, governor of the General Authority for Military Industries (GAMI), inaugurated the company at a ceremony in Riyadh, attended by numerous officials and defense industry leaders. Al-Ohali emphasized that this initiative will enhance local content, transfer knowledge, and build national expertise, supporting the Kingdoms target of localizing over 50% of military spending by 2030a substantial increase from 19.35% in 2024, up from just 4% in 2018.

The Kingdoms defense localization efforts are gaining momentum, as evidenced by recent achievements like the production of its first locally manufactured components for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system launcher in Jeddah. This milestone, following localization agreements signed at the 2024 World Defense Show, reflects growing technical collaboration with global defense firms such as Lockheed Martin. With the non-oil sector contributing 51% to GDP in 2024 and foreign direct investment (FDI) reaching $26 billion, up 12% from the previous year, Saudi Arabia is creating an attractive investment environment for defense partnerships. The integration of national and global expertise within BAE Systems Arabian Industries, as Al-Ohali noted, demonstrates the confidence of major companies in this evolving landscape.

Abdulatif Al-Shaikh, the new companys CEO, shared a vision to position BAE Systems Arabian Industries as the leading Saudi company in the defense sector, supporting capabilities both within the Kingdom and across the region. This aligns with Vision 2030s broader objectives of fostering a sustainable military-industrial system while boosting local content in human and technical resources. At Knightsbridge, were inspired by Saudi Arabias commitment to innovation and self-reliance, principles that mirror our own efforts in the financial sector, where were advancing blockchain initiatives with the Knightsbridge Chain, Digital Wallet, and KDA, alongside a range of Bitcoin products like tokenized derivatives and staking options, to drive new demand in global markets.
What is being called Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed the House of Representatives in a vote of 215-214.
The teen was on her way to join her mother at work when she was pulled over by a Dalton police officer for what he claimed was an improper right turn.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US Attorney General Pam Bondi visit the site of the shooting.
There was a rousing homecoming celebration in Newtowncashel on Sunday, May 11 to honour Longford apprentice Dan OShea (20) after he was crowned the winner of this years Screwfix Trade Apprentice competition in London.

Dan, who is currently completing an electrical apprenticeship at GRETB, fended off the challenge of nine other trade apprentices from across the UK and Ireland to win the Screwfix Trade Apprentice 2025 final which was held in Googles offices in the English capital on Wednesday (May 7) & Thursday (May 8).

Dan wins an incredible prize bundle of tools, training and technology worth 10,000  while also scooping 2,000 worth of Screwfix vouchers for his college.

Dan is an electrical apprentice who the judges said ticked all the boxes with his drive to diversify the industry.

A spokesperson for Screwfix said, "The trade is lucky to have Dan, and were looking forward to where this accolade will take him.

"Well done to Dan, and a big shout out to our nine other finalists who were whittled down from more than 2000 applicants to get to the final!"

Also Read: Calls for Longford to introduce accessible car service for those who need it

Dan was overwhelmed by the reception he received upon his return home.

It was brilliant. I was nervous going to it, but once I went, it was amazing who was there and all the kind words given.

With the award setting him up for life and acknowledging his talents in electrical engineering, Dan hopes to get a distinction once completing his apprenticeship, as well as starting his own business in the future, which is one of his future goals.

He has been doing his apprenticeship for two years this October.

Also Read: 99,522 for biodiversity projects in Longford  CARRIGY

The inspirational young man came upon the Screwfix Trade Apprentice competition via social media, and decided to take the chance in applying for it.

The first stage involved completing an application form. Having passed that, he went onto the semi-finals, which required a 20-minute interview with judges and two videos. These videos were open-ended questions, such as why he would like to win the competition.

In the final, the chosen candidates had to innovate a tool that would make a persons life easier, and then submit another video. The candidates were narrowed down to ten.

They went to London for the final with another interview and the judges declared Dan the winner.

Dan reflected, When I submitted my application, I never dreamed Id make it to the final. It was so exciting to be representing Longford.

The electrical industry is highly rewarding to work in, and to be recognised for my skills and dedication at this level is such a huge compliment.

The competition was an incredible opportunity to showcase what Ive learned so far, while highlighting the importance of trade apprentices in shaping the future of the electrical industry  and Im looking forward to taking my creativity and skills to a new level.

Since starting his electrical apprentice journey, Dan has developed a keen interest in green energy and sustainability, hoping to incorporate this into his future career.

He is currently studying Phase 2 of his apprenticeship and intends to complete a project management course to further develop his skills with a view to ultimately setting up his own business.

A strong advocate for apprenticeships, he believes that work needs to be done to change the perception around apprenticeships and shift the stigma around vocational paths.

His passion, initiative and relentless work ethic saw him stand out in the semi-final heats, after being selected from more than 2,000 applications.

To gain this prestigious award shows signs of a promising future for this young Fort Hill, Newtowncashel man.

Humble and calm in response to his win, 'Dan the Man' has proven that his work is going to reach great heights.
Former St Mel's College, Longford teacher and Independent councillor Des Guckian passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday, May 22 following an illness.

Des Guckian represented the Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District for over a decade, being first elected to Leitrim County Council in 2014.

A native of Annaduff, he officially stepped down from the Council on April 11.

His daughter, Irene Guckian-Rabbitte, was co-opted to the seat previously held by her father during Mays Council meeting, held at the Kilbracken Arms Hotel in Carrigallen on May 6.

Cllr Guckian-Rabbitte showed emotion as she took her fathers seat, stating, Im honoured to be here today. It is an emotional time for me and my family and little did I ever think I would be stepping into my fathers shoes.

I understand that I have a lot to learn but I will endeavour to represent the concerns of the people of the Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District to the best of my ability.

READ NEXT: Congratulations: Longford pupils among finalists for prestigious Our World Awards

The late Des Guckian was widely recognised for his outspoken nature, dedication and passion for issues he believed in. He was known to never hesitate to voice his concerns.

His contributions were acknowledged during the May Council meeting, where fellow councillors paid tribute to his distinctive presence and commitment.

He was a man who was very passionate about this county and the area he represented. He was never shy about putting forward what he considered to be important, Cllr Paddy O'Rourke said.

He was a champion of those he believed were left behind by systems.

CEO of Leitrim County Council Joseph Gilhooly echoed these sentiments, saying,, He was very committed to representing those who brought issues to him and he worked very hard to see the conclusion of those issues.

READ NEXT: Longford Councillor accuses Irish Water of 'ignoring' concerns of people

He brought great attention to detail and interest in any aspect of the work here that he took an interest in, which was almost everything, he added.

Funeral details are yet to be confirmed.
Dunkin Celebrates Next Generation Store In Nassau County With Free Coffee And Donuts For A Year Giveaways

Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 22 2025

Newly remodeled restaurant in Lawrence to celebrate grand reopening on May 27.

Residents who live and work in the village of Lawrence within the Town of Hempstead can now experience Dunkins next generation store design at 299 Burnside Ave.

To celebrate the grand reopening, Dunkin is offering Free Coffee for a Year and Free Donuts for a Year at the Lawrence Dunkin on Tuesday, May 27.

The first 100 guests in line beginning at 3:30 p.m. at the Dunkin at 299 Burnside Ave., on Tuesday, May 27 will receive Free Coffee for a Year*. Free Coffee for a Year Giveaway recipients receive a coupon book containing four free medium hot or iced coffee coupons per month for 14 months, good only at the Lawrence Dunkin at 299 Burnside Ave.

Furthermore, the first 100 guests in line at the same location beginning at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27 will receive Free Donuts for a Year**. Free Donuts for a Year recipients receive a coupon book containing four free half-dozen donuts coupons per month for 14 months, good only at the Lawrence Dunkin at 299 Burnside Ave. Each coupon is valid for six free classic donuts.

Additionally, all guests will be able to spin a prize wheel for free Dunkin merchandise, while supplies last, and enjoy a complimentary Dunkin photobooth.

To commemorate the occasion, Dunkin Franchisee Burnside Avenue Donuts will make a $3,000 donation to Smiles Through Cars, in conjunction with the Dunkin Joy in Childhood Foundation. Since its founding in 2008, Smiles Through Cars has been dedicated to bringing joy and unforgettable experiences to children facing difficult circumstances. The organization has proudly visited hospitals and communities across the county.

The 325-square foot Lawrence Dunkin is open 24 hours per-day and employs 20 crew members. It features the brands new restaurant design with a modern atmosphere, innovative technologies and exciting elements, including:

Modern Design : The openness, colors and materials used in the design help to create an approachable, positive and energetic environment.

Premium Pours : Dunkins signature cold beverages are now available through an innovative tap system serving eight consistently cold beverages such as coffees, iced teas, cold brew coffee and nitro infused cold brew coffee. Crew members will also use top-quality, flavor-maximizing espresso machines to make hand-crafted drinks to order.

Dunkin on Demand: With fully integrated digital kiosks coming in the near future, guests will be able to choose to order with or without the help of a crew member. Dunkin has also introduced an area dedicated to mobile pickups, so that members of the Dunkin Rewards program who order ahead via Dunkins Mobile App can get in and out of the restaurant faster than ever before.

To learn more about Dunkin, visit www.DunkinDonuts.com, or subscribe to the Dunkin blog to receive notifications at https://news.dunkindonuts.com/blog.

*No Pur Nec. Open to New York residents in the Lawrence area, 18+/age of maj. ends 5/27/25. Official rules available upon request at 299 Burnside Ave., Lawrence, NY 11559.

**No Pur Nec. Open to New York residents in the Brooklyn area of all ages. ends 5/27/25. Official rules available upon request at 299 Burnside Ave., Lawrence, NY 11559.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 22 2025

The fighters and fencers will show off their prowess and their splendid armor, and artisans of all sorts will display their work and give children and their parents hands-on time to explore their crafts.

Experience the Middle Ages: Fighting! Dancing! Arts! Crafts! The community is invited to attend Farmingdale Medieval History Day! The Canton of Lions End, in the Crown Province of stgarr returns to the Village Green in Farmingdale on Saturday, June 7th, 2025 for the Fifth Annual Farmingdale Medieval History Day from 10am  4pm, 361 Main Street. Wearing Medieval clothing of different centuries, they will perform demonstrations and displays of some skills, as well as arts and crafts. Being of Viking decent myself, Im intrigued, said Farmingdale Village Mayor, Ralph Ekstrand!

The fighters and fencers will show off their prowess and their splendid armor (internal rules forbid audience participation in the fighting, but they can answer questions). Artisans of all sorts will display their work and give children and their parents hands-on time to explore their crafts. Learn how to write in the Medieval fashion and what Calligraphy entails ... See how embroidery was done ... See how glass beads were made in the Middle Ages. Play games that were created hundreds of years ago but are still fun to play today. The event is FREE, intended for all ages, and the rain date is June 14th. Join the Canton of Lions End, the local Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) group in Farmingdale for family-oriented crafts, hands-on demonstrations and exhibits for adults and children. This event is planned in conjunction with the Farmingdale Village Cultural Arts Committee.

Medieval History Day coincides with the 12th annual Farmingdale Fire Department Spring Street Fair along Main Street on Saturday June 7th, 10:30am  4:30pm. Fun for everyone  Vendors, NY Islanders Road Crew, Ninja Exhibit, Fire Department Open House with demonstrations from 12-3pm, music, dining and more, www.facebook.com/farmingdale.fair.3! Main Street downtown will be closed to vehicle traffic on June 7th for the street fair. Come enjoy the late spring air and sunshine, shop, dine along Main Street, stop by the Street Fair / Village Green and step back to an earlier time, bring friends and family! The rain date for both events is June 14th.
Crime

By Chris Boyle Published: May 21 2025

Thomas J. Mascia of West Hempstead, 27, falsely claimed that a man had shot him in the leg when he, in fact, had shot himself, triggering a multi-state manhunt.

Former New York State Trooper Thomas J. Mascia of West Hempstead, 27, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, May 21, to a hoax he carried out on the shoulder of the Southern State Parkway on Long Island last year, falsely claiming that a man had shot him in the leg when he, in fact, had shot himself, triggering a multi-state manhunt for the fictitious suspect.

However, an investigation uncovered that Mascia had, in fact, shot himself in the leg with a .22 caliber rifle on the westbound side of Southern State Parkway in the area of Exit 17. He then scattered shell casings at the scene and called in to dispatch that he had been shot by a "dark-skinned man" while he was investigating a disabled vehicle by the roadside.

Mascia's story quickly began to unravel after he was able to produce zero evidence of the incident unfolding as he had claimed; no video, no witnesses, no tire marks, nothing. And as for his motivation for lying, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly claims it was simply for the attention it brought to the now-disgraced former law enforcement officer.

Thomas Mascias pathetic stunt put the public on edge and sent law enforcement in the tri-state area reeling, she said. Mascias self-motivated ego boost cost several departments time and resources and put communities and law enforcement officers in fear for no reason. Now, he will face the consequences for his fabrications and for tarnishing the oath he took to serve and protect New Yorkers.

Mascia was arrested in January on charges of tampering with physical evidence, falsely reporting an incident and official misconduct. Mascia also resigned from the State Police.

Mascias parents, Thomas Mascia Sr., age 62, and Dorothy Mascia, age 55, also of West Hempstead, were also arrested each on one count of criminal possession of a firearm. A subsequent search warrant at the Mascia family home resulted in the seizure of a firearm that was illegally possessed.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 22 2025

Event to raise awareness, reduce stigma, and connect veterans and families with community support.

New York State Sen. Monica R. Martinez will host a veterans mental health panel discussion on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at 10 a.m. in Bay Shore. Held during the same week as Memorial Day, the event will also honor the sacrifices of our service members by focusing on the mental health needs of veterans and their families. The panel will feature clinicians, advocates, and individuals with lived experience who will share insight, challenges, and resources related to veterans and the unique mental health challenges they face.

Attendees of the Veteran Mental Health Awareness Panel will have the opportunity to hear from experts and ask questions. Local organizations that serve veterans and military families will also be present to share information about the support services they provide.

The event is being held in partnership with Northwell Healths South Shore University Hospital. Veterans and family members of veterans who wish to attend can register at https://tinyurl.com/Veterans-Mental-Health-Panel.

Veteran Mental Health Awareness Panel Event Details

Date: Saturday, May 31, 2025

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Location: 1933 Union Boulevard Bay Shore, New York 11706
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 22 2025

AG James Led Coalition of 20 Attorneys General in Suing to Block Mass Layoffs and Elimination of Core Services at the Department of Education.

New York Attorney General Letitia James today won a court order stopping the Trump administrations attempts to dismantle the Department of Education (ED). On March 13, Attorney General James led a coalition of 20 other attorneys general in suing the administration after it announced plans to eliminate 50 percent of EDs workforce. Following a March 20 executive order directing the closure of ED and President Trumps March 21 announcement that, in addition to implementing layoffs, the Department must immediately transfer student loan management and special education services outside of the Department, Attorney General James and the coalition sought a preliminary injunction to immediately stop the mass layoffs and transfer of services. Today the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the preliminary injunction, halting the administrations policies that would dismantle ED and ordering all employees who were fired as part of the layoffs to be reinstated.

This administrations illegal cuts to the Department of Education are an attack on every students access to a quality education, said Attorney General James. Today we successfully put a stop to this outrageous attempt to leave our students behind and deprive our schools and teachers of the resources they need. As a proud graduate of New York public schools, I will continue to protect our schools and the critical services they provide to our communities.

Attorney General James and the coalition argued in their lawsuit and motion for a preliminary injunction that the administrations attacks on ED are illegal and unconstitutional. The ED is an executive agency authorized by Congress, with numerous laws creating its various programs and funding streams. The coalitions lawsuit asserts that the executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally dismantle it without an act of Congress. In addition, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that EDs mass layoffs violate the Administrative Procedures Act.

Joining Attorney General James in filing the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 25 2025

Discover Long Island celebrates as Suffolk County takes center stage with Southamptons Coopers Beach named #1 in U.S. and East Hamptons Main Beach Ranked at #5.

Discover Long Island (DLI), the regions only accredited destination marketing organization, is proud to announce Suffolk Countys world-renowned shoreline has made waves nationally, once again. In the highly anticipated annual release of the Top 10 Beaches in the U.S. list, Dr. Stephen Leatherman, known widely as Dr. Beach, has ranked Coopers Beach in Southampton as the #1 beach in America. Also representing the region with pride, Main Beach in East Hampton earned the #5 spot on the esteemed annual list.

The South Shore of Long Island is more than 100 miles of beautiful sands with two standout beaches in the Hamptons, said Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, also known as Dr. Beach. Southamptons Coopers Beach specifically, one of my favorite all-time beaches, is made of grainy white quartz sand, backed by large sand dunes covered by American beach grass, and is interspersed with extravagant mansions which gives it the edge on this year's top 10. Smoking is also not allowed, which earns a beach extra points in my evaluations.

Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman is a professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Florida International University and one of the worlds leading scientific advocates for Americas beaches, focusing on conserving the environmental integrity of the United States coastal areas. Since 1991, he has released his highly anticipated annual list of Americas Top 10 Beaches, using 50 scientific criteria to assess factors such as water and sand quality, environmental management, safety, and amenities. Dr. Beachs rankings are widely regarded as the gold standard in U.S. beach evaluation and have become a trusted source for travelers and media nationwide.

Coopers Beach has consistently earned a place on Dr. Beachs prestigious Top 10 list over the years, but 2025 marks the first time it has claimed the #1 spot. This ranking is a powerful moment of national recognition for Long Islands East End, and an exciting moment for local leaders and residents alike.

This is an extraordinary honor for Suffolk County, and a testament to the incredible natural beauty and world-class quality of Long Islands beaches, said Discover Long Island Interim President & CEO, Mitch Pally. To see our region recognized above renowned beaches in Hawaii, Florida, and the Carolinas reflects the dedication of our communities to protecting and promoting our shoreline and reinforces our position as a premier coastal destination for travelers from around the world.

The recognition comes as Discover Long Island launches its summer season promotions, spotlighting the regions award-winning beaches, family-friendly attractions, and world-class hospitality. As Suffolk County and the greater Long Island region continues to shine on the national stage, visitors and local residents alike are invited to experience all that the regions iconic shoreline and East End communities have to offer.

For more on Dr. Beachs Top 10 list and beach criteria, visit www.DrBeach.org. For more information about Discover Long Island, visit discoverlongisland.com.

ABOUT DISCOVER LONG ISLAND:

Discover Long Island is the regions official destination marketing and leadership organization charged with furthering the destinations thriving visitor economy, which saw recent record-breaking highs of $7.5 billion in visitor spending. The organization ensures Long Islands coveted quality of life, thriving industries, and dynamic destination offerings are promoted on a global level, furthering economic development, and benefiting residents and businesses throughout the region. Awarded Best Social Media in the nation by the US Travel Association, the organization produces engaging content featuring local businesses and attractions for their 11 social media channels which garner upwards of 10 million views. Additionally, the organization hosts a popular YouTube series, Long Island TV, as well as the Long Island Tea podcast. To learn more, please call 631-951-3900 or visit www.DiscoverLongIsland.com.
Local News

By Chris Boyle Published: May 22 2025

Shaquan Lewis was arrested last May in possession of a semiautomatic pistol hidden inside of a sock and stuffed into a pink pillowcase; trial preliminary hearings were to begin yesterday.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Hempstead man pleaded guilty yesterday on the eve of trial to a weapon possession charge stemming from a May 2024 search that turned up a semiautomatic pistol hidden inside of a pink pillowcase in the defendants bedroom.

Shaquan Lewis, 42, pleaded guilty Tuesday before Judge Helene Gugerty to Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (a C violent felony).

The defendant is expected to be sentenced to nine years in prison on June 18, 2025.

This defendant is a prior violent felony offender going back years and has previously served time behind bars for weapons charges, said DA Donnelly. On the eve of trial, he accepted responsibility for his crimes, pleaded guilty, and faces nearly a decade in prison once he is sentenced. I am committed to aggressively prosecuting cases of dangerous illegal weapons and will always hold defendants accountable who put community safety at risk.

DA Donnelly said that, on May 8, 2024, members of the Nassau County Police Departments Bureau of Special Operations and Narcotics and Vice Squad executed a search warrant at an address on Koeppel Place in Hempstead connected to a separate police investigation.

Detectives entered the defendants bedroom and recovered a loaded Taurus Model G2C 9mm semiautomatic pistol inside of a sock stuffed into a pink pillowcase on the ground beneath the defendants bed. A high-capacity magazine was also recovered from the room.

The defendant was arrested by NCPD detectives on May 8, 2024.

Lewis trial was set to begin on May 20, 2025, with preliminary hearings.
Turkistan Islamic Party emir Abdul Haq al Turkistani (center) appears in a video released by the group in May 2022.

The new Syrian government is integrating a Central Asian terrorist group that is part of Al Qaedas network into its military, despite the objections of US President Donald Trump. The head of this terror group, the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), is based in Afghanistan and issues orders to his followers in Syria.

On May 14, US President Donald Trump met with Syrian interim President Ahmad al Sharaa, who is listed as a terrorist by both Washington and the United Nations and once served as the head of Syrias Al Qaeda affiliate. In the meeting, President Trump gave the Syrian leader a number of demands, chief amongst them the removal of all foreign terrorists from Syria.

After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, the United States made the expulsion of foreign fighters a key prerequisite for lifting US sanctions. In March 2025, Washington formally demanded their removal in a letter to Damascus. However, Sharaa continued to delay actions, insisting that foreign fighters that helped in getting rid of Assad deserve respect.

On May 18, Syrias Defense Ministry integrated the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP)a Uighur jihadist group allied with Al Qaeda that has a presence in both Afghanistan and Syriainto the ranks of Sharaas newly formed army.

The decision to bring TIP into the Syrian military came shortly after Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra declared that all major armed factions were absorbed by the Ministry of Defense. TIP fighters were assigned to the newly created 84th Division, which is expected to be made up largely of Uighur militants and other foreign combatants. In December 2024, Sharaa promoted six foreign fighters to the rank of brigadier general, including TIPs top commander in Syria, Abdulaziz Dawud Hudaberdi, also known by his nom de guerre, Zahid.

Zahid has played a central role in the groups military operations in Syria since 2012. Recognized for his discipline and leadership, he was sent to Syria as TIPs military commander during the early stages of the civil war. The TIP has fought under the banner of the Al Nusrah Front and its successor, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, both of which are listed by the US government as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Sharaa, who is a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, led both the Al Nusrah Front and Hayat Tahrir al Sham.

Zahid led key offensives in Aleppo, Idlib, and Latakia, commanding over a thousand operations against Russian, Iranian, and Syrian regime forces. In 2021, he graduated from a military institution in Idlib.

With the integration of the TIP, which has thousands of fighters in the country, into the Syrian military, it is likely that other foreign jihadi groups such as the Katibat Imam al Bukhari, the Mujahidin Ghuroba Division, the Islamic Jihad Union, and Ajnad al Kavkaz, will be subsumed as well. Many of these groups have direct ties to Al Qaeda. (See the FDDs Long War Journal report Hayat Tahrir al Shams terror network in Syria for details on these Al Qaeda-linked jihadist groups.)

The Turkistan Islamic Party and Al Qaeda

The TIP is a Uighur-led terrorist group that seeks to create an Islamic emirate in the Chinese province of Xinjiang and Central Asia. However, it is not just focused on this region; it is also part of Al Qaedas global network. The TIP has a strong presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria.

The TIP is led by Abdul Haq al Turkistani, a veteran jihadi with decades of experience who serves on Al Qaedas executive leadership council and currently resides in Afghanistan. Turkistani, also known as Maimaitiming Maimaiti, became the emir of the TIP in late 2003 after Hassan Mahsum, the groups founder, was killed during clashes with Pakistani troops at an Al Qaeda training camp in South Waziristan in October of that year. Al Qaeda, the TIP, and other allied terror groups fled to Pakistans tribal agencies after the US invasion of Afghanistan following Al Qaedas attack on the US on September 11, 2001.

Before the US invasion of Afghanistan, Turkistani was responsible for administering the TIPs primary training camp in the Tora Bora Mountains in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar. Osama bin Laden sponsored the TIP camp, which provided light-weapons training to recruits. Several jihadi prisoners held and interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility identified Turkistani as the camps chief instructor. (See the Long War Journal report The Uighurs, in their own words.)

After the collapse of the Talibans first Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in late 2001, Turkistani helped reestablish the TIPs camps in Pakistans tribal agencies. In 2005, he was given a seat on Al Qaedas top advisory council, according to the US Treasury Department, which listed him as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2009. Two US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal that Turkistani remains on Al Qaedas governing council. In its designation, Treasury stated that Turkistani is involved with fundraising, recruiting, propaganda efforts, and the planning and execution of terror attacks. The United Nations Security Council also added Turkistani to its Al Qaeda sanctions list.

Turkistani and the TIP aided the Taliban in its takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. In May 2022, he and other TIP leaders and fighters celebrated the Talibans victory in northern Afghanistan during the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Turkistanis activities are not confined to Central Asia. He currently directs the groups fighters inside Syria, the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team reported earlier this year. It is unlikely that this role will change despite the TIP being subsumed into the new Syrian military.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal. Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies focused on Iranian intervention in Arab affairs and the levant.
Elias Rodriguez is arrested following the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025.

On May 21, two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a diplomatic event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, approached four people with a handgun outside the event and opened fire. Rodriguez was apprehended at the scene and shouted Free, free Palestine when he was arrested.

Lischinsky, a German-Israeli diplomat, and Milgrim, an American advocate for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, were a couple planning to become engaged. DC police and the FBI are investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime or act of antisemitic terrorism.

The Guardian reported that Elias Rodriguez was being questioned early Thursday by the Metropolitan Police Department alongside FBI agents. The US Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia is expected to lead the prosecution.

Public information on Rodriguez remains limited. His name appeared in a 2017 post on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), referencing his participation in a protest at the home of then-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.

However, the PSL distanced itself from Rodriguez in a statement posted to X: We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the organization, which ended in 2017. We have had no contact with him in over seven years. We condemn the shooting and have no connection to it.

There is no evidence at this time that Rodriguez was in contact with or had been directed by Palestinian terrorist groups to carry out the shooting. However, Free, free, Palestine, which he shouted at the time of his arrest, is a common slogan among pro-Palestinian activists and malign actors connected to the cause. Further establishing Rodriguezs possible motive for the shooting, Sky News reported that he told a witness he carried out the attack for Gaza.

An X account reportedly linked to Rodriguez, first identified by journalist Ken Klippenstein, contained a lengthy manifesto outlining the suspects justification for armed action against Israel. The account also promoted his presence on Bluesky, where his profile featured a banner image of Muhammad Chalaf Sahar Rajab and Hassan Muhammad Hassan Tamimi, two terrorists responsible for a deadly shooting attack in Tel Aviv on October 1 in which seven people were murdered.

Since the Hamas-led atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Palestinian armed groups, their regional backers, and ideological supporters in the West have launched a calculated campaign of incitement against Israelis, Jews, and their allies. This effort is evidenced by Hamass increased production of propaganda videos subtitled in English, a notable departure from its prewar media habits.

Simultaneously, pro-Hamas demonstrators across American cities, university campuses, and European countries have adopted the symbols, rhetoric, and imagery traditionally seen in Gaza and the West Bank. Protestors have been observed glorifying figures such as Yahya Sinwar and Abu Obeida and donning paramilitary attire.

On May 22, Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other crimes in a federal court.

Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East.
Syrian Air Force officers inspecting Al Seen Military Airbase in Syria. (Syrian Ministry of Defense)

The US-backed Syrian Free Army says it has been working to secure and protect the Al Seen Military Airbase in Syria. Our teams continue to work at Al-Seen Airport to secure it and protect it from sabotage. We will work day and night to protect civilians and prevent ISIS from seizing weapons, the SFA said in a statement on May 17.

The operations at the facility appear to be getting noticed by the new government in Damascus. A delegation of high-ranking Syrian Air Force officers visited the site, according to a social media post by the Syrian Ministry of Defense on May 20.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense noted that the commander of the Air Force at the Ministry of Defense, Brigadier General Asim Hawari, accompanied by the chief of staff of the Air Force, Brigadier General Mustafa Bakour, inspected Al-Seen Military Airport to review its technical readiness in preparation for its reactivation and putting it into service.

The SFAs work at the base comes as Syrias new transitional government continues international outreach, including to the US, Turkey, and other countries. Its also happening as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Syria could become unstable without the US engaging with the new powers in Damascus.

The SFA has been backed by the US over the last decade and largely operated out of the Tanf Garrison in southern Syria. After the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime in December 2024, the group has played a key role in securing roads and communities in the desert area around the garrison. The units future was unclear after the fall of Assad because the US-backed training mission was part of the larger US-led coalitions efforts against the Islamic State. It was unclear if a new transitional government in Damascus would partner with the SFA or how its mission would develop. Since December 2024, the SFA has continued to receive training from US forces.

Al Seen Military Airbase is around 72 kilometers northeast of Damascus and 14 kilometers south of Syrias Route 2, which links Damascus with Tanf. Tanf, near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, is around 144 kilometers from the airbase. During the Assad era, the Tanf Garrison maintained a 55-kilometer exclusion zone around the facility. After the fall of the Assad regime, the SFA began conducting operations far beyond this zone, reaching as far as Palmyra, around 128 kilometers north of Tanf.

The Al Seen Military Airbase was used by Syria since at least the 1960s and eventually expanded to include two runways and hardened shelters. In the past, the facility was also called Sayqal Airfield. In 2018, Israel alleged it was one of five Syrian airfields used by the Iranian regime, which backed Assad. Israeli intelligence believes the sites are used by Iran for its missions in Syria, as well as to transport weapons to its proxies in the region, The Times of Israel reported.

The base has been described as a significant military installation by Navaar Saban, a researcher at the Harmoon Center. The current operations at Al-Seen are part of broader efforts to stabilize the region, protect civilians, and prevent the resurgence of ISIS, which has previously targeted military installations to acquire weapons and equipment, Saban wrote on May 17, when the SFA published images of its work at the site.

Hawarn News, a Kurdish website, asserted that observers believe that reactivating the presence at the Seen Airport has strategic implications, given its vital location near the M5 international highway [] it was also a sensitive site in the Baathist regimes air defense system. This move comes amid growing concerns about the activity of ISIS mercenary cells in the Badia [Syrian desert], particularly with the repeated attacks targeting the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the provinces of North and East Syria.

Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDDs Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (2024).
The head of one of the worlds largest wealth funds said the clock is ticking for private equity and its time for buyout funds to return money to investors.

The industry is in trouble and got away with it for the last five to 10 years, said Sheikh Saoud Salem Al-Sabah, managing director of the $1 trillion (883 billion) Kuwait Investment Authority. Some firms were underwriting deals with no real exit optionality, he said on a panel at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Wednesday.

The opportunities in private equity are in secondaries and special situations, he said. It is because of the need for private equity to return capital to LPs.

The government of the State of Qatar is the underwriter of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg.

2025 Bloomberg L.P.
A requirement for women to make up at least one-third of board directors at large listed companies with headquarters in Luxembourg will take effect from next year, under a new draft law.

The bill aims to introduce an EU directive into national law, although Luxembourg has already missed the deadline set by Brussels for transposition, which was on 28 December last year.



The directive tasks companies with ensuring that at least 40% of non-executive director positions are held by women, or 33% of all director positions.



Companies will be expected to apply the rules from June 2026. The directive came into force in the EU in 2022 and countries were given two years to introduce it into national law.

In January this year, Brussels launched infringement proceedings against Luxembourg and 16 other EU countries over their failure to fully implement the directive by the deadline.

The EU directive only applies to large listed companies which meet certain criteria, such as annual sales of over 50 million or with more than 250 employees.

Also read: Luxembourg businesses caught in Trump rules uncertainty

The rules will impact 35 firms in Luxembourg, Finance Minister Gilles Roth told a closed doors meeting of parliaments finance committee on Wednesday, according to a report of the meeting published on the parliaments website.



Luxembourgs financial regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), has been designated as the authority to oversee the rules, the meeting was told.



Boards with links to the Luxembourg state are already meeting the target laid out in the EU directive, according to figures provided by Roth on Wednesday to the committee.

On boards of directors on which the state is represented, 34% are women, the report of the meeting stated, falling to 32% for boards without public participation.



However, just one in five managers in Luxembourg is a woman, the lowest share of any EU country and a rate which has remained unchanged over the past decade, according to a Eurostat study published earlier this year.



The number of women on public executive boards in Luxembourg has grown steadily over the past decade , reaching close to 39% at the end of 2023, up from 27% in 2015.



Back in 2016, Luxembourgs lawmakers agreed on a minimum quota of 40% of women on all executive boards in public establishments.
From mould and poor communication to unfair contract terms and deposit disputes, a new study by the University of Luxembourg sheds light on the day-to-day challenges faced by tenants in Luxembourgs private rental market.

Commissioned by tenant advocacy group Mieterschutz Letzebuerg and funded by the Ministry of Housing, the study presents evidence of widespread tenant dissatisfaction and calls for urgent reform.

Presented on Tuesday at the Belval campus, the The Tenant Experience in Luxembourgs Private Rental Market study draws on two main data sets: an analysis of 262 enquiries made to Mieterschutz Letzebuerg, and the results of five focus groups involving 32 tenants. The discussions revealed common frustrations and shed light on the systemic nature of the problems.

This report gives us a clear picture of what many people experience when renting a home in Luxembourg, Housing Minister Claude Meisch said on Tuesday. They dont feel safe at home, and they dont fully know their rights.



The housing ministry acknowledged that these issues disproportionately affect low-income households and families with children. We cannot accept this: a home is not a luxury, a home is a right, Meisch said, calling for clearer contracts, improved communication, and mutual trust between landlords and tenants. Everyone wins when the rules are fair, and everyone knows them.

We believe that everyone - regardless of income - should be able to live in a safe, decent and financially sustainable home, Claude Meisch said at the presentation of the study on Tuesday  Photo credit: Laurent Sturm

Professor Lindsay Flynn, who led the study, told Luxembourg Times that participants came from diverse social and economic backgrounds, including long-term residents, foreign workers, and newcomers. We observed meaningful diversity across categories, she said. There was also clear representation in terms of financial vulnerability, which was important to ensure a balanced view.

While all focus groups were held in Luxembourg City, Flynn noted that participants included tenants from other regions, particularly the north.

Barriers to finding - and keeping - housing

The study divides the tenant experience into three three phases: the search for accommodation, the tenancy itself, and the termination of the lease. All stages were described as being fraught with obstacles.



Low-income earners and single parents, especially single mothers, were shown to be particularly susceptible. This vulnerability is compounded by the sharp rise in rental prices: rents for private flats, which make up 90% of the housing market, increased by nearly 60% between 2010 and 2022. Between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023 alone, prices rose a further 11%.

Lindsay Flynn, associate professor of political science at Uni Luxembourg, explained that study participants came from diverse social and economic backgrounds  Photo credit: Laurent Sturm

Another commonly reported difficulty was the landlord selection process. Many tenants perceived selection criteria as discriminatory - based on skin colour, ethnicity, religion, or nationality - or excessively stringent. Other frequent complaints included misleading property advertisements, opaque contract terms, and high agency fees, especially for foreign tenants.



One focus group participant summarised the experience bluntly, noted professor Flynn: The rental system in Luxembourg makes you think about simply going back to your home country.

Miserable housing conditions

Even after securing housing, tenants frequently encountered substandard living conditions. Many tenants reported mould, damp, limited space, and structural deficiencies. These issues were more prevalent in rented accommodation than in owner-occupied homes and were rarely linked to tenant behaviour.



Compounding the problem, many tenants lacked the knowledge or financial means to challenge unfair practices such as excessive rent hikes or contract breaches. Legal recourse was often perceived as inaccessible, particularly for younger tenants or those with limited incomes.



Disputes over deposit returns were widespread, as was the abrupt termination of leases without clear explanation.

Tenants are concerned about the health of their kids in non-ideal conditions, we see this feeling of powerlessness [...] what you can see is that in the report that are relatively few positive feelings, Flynn explained. If we think that policy interventions are to be effective, they must engage with and respond to the prevailing emotional landscape as it currently stands, she added.

Also read: Sky-high rents, unresponsive landlords: your worst tenant stories

Practical recommendations

The study puts forward practical recommendations to address the challenges that it identified. These include stronger legislative safeguards for affordability and housing standards, improved access to tenant information, and more effective tools for resolving disputes. For example, providing templates for sending formal letters to landlords could help tenants assert their rights.



Information campaigns based on science can raise awareness, Flynn said. Yes, information exists already - on MyGuichet, for example - but its not in tenants hands.



The report also proposes incentives and penalties for landlords to ensure compliance and the protection of vulnerable groups.



There is still a lot to do, Meisch concluded. But this study helps us make better decisions, and create a fairer system for everyone. The ministry also announced that the government is engaged in making calls for collaboration with actors in both the social and private sectors to build more housing quickly and efficiently.



(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Translation by AI with editing and additional reporting by Lucrezia Reale.)
WWDC may be just around the corner, but Apple is already looking ahead to 2026. And its going to be a big yearalong with a folding phone and OLED MacBooks, Apple is also planning to launch a brand new wearable powered by Apple Intelligence.

Apple has big plans to release smart glasses in the second half of 2026, according to a new report by Bloombergs Mark Gurman. The glasses will be similar to the Ray-Ban Meta glasses that have a built-in camera for taking pictures, shooting video, and analyzing images, open-ear speakers, and a microphone for voice commands.

Gurman states that the glasses will be similar to the Ray-Ban Metas but better made. It will also be able to handle tasks such as phone calls, music playback, live translations, and turn-by-turn directions. He also said that large quantities of prototypes will be ready by the end of this year. Eventually, the glasses would support augmented reality, where digital content is superimposed on what the user sees, but those features are years away.

The report comes a day after OpenAI announced a major deal to acquire an AI startup company established by Jony Ive, Apples former design chief, who is currently running design firm LoveFrom. The deal was struck to deliver Open AI-based products, which would compete with Apple. Google also announced plans to deliver Gemini-based smart glasses.

However, Gurman reports that while Apples smart glasses will rely on AI-based features, people within Apple expressed concern that the companys mishandling of AI development will hinder the ability to develop the product. Apples Visual Intelligence, introduced with iOS 18.2, can provide information based on a visual examination of what is seen through an iPhone camera, but it relies heavily on ChatGPT. Apple will want to be able to use its own AI technology instead for the smart glasses, so a revamped Siri needs to come first.

Gurman also reported that Apple has scrapped plans to equip the Apple Watch with cameras. The plan was to use the camera for AI-based features. Apple is reportedly continuing with the development of camera-equipped AirPods.
Last year, with Boston ranked among the worlds worst cities for traffic delays, local officials partnered with Google in hopes that its mapping and artificial intelligence software could help untangle the city streets.

The results are encouraging, according to data the city unveiled Thursday, enough so that the program is expanding.

Officials have already used Google data and analytics at more than 100 intersections across the city to retime traffic signals to better match traffic flow. This has led to an average 20% drop in vehicles unnecessarily stopped at those lights, Mayor Michelle Wus office said.

For example, at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Richmond Street, next to Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park in the North End, the improvements reduced traffic delays by 21%, the city said. At the corner of Beacham Street and Maffa Way in Charlestown, delays dropped 24%.

The two intersections saw vehicles unnecessarily stopping roughly a third less often  among the clearest improvements citywide  after officials better coordinated the traffic signals with others nearby, the mayors office said.

Boston is one of two U.S. cities, along with Seattle, and 18 worldwide, participating in the Google program, known as Project Green Light.

Since partnering with Boston in February 2024, the program has analyzed data from hundreds of city intersections with traffic signals.

It has been a highly effective tool, Boston Chief of Streets Jascha Franklin-Hodge said in a statement Thursday. City officials look forward to expanding the traffic analysis to additional intersections, he added.

Small traffic hotspots from mistimed signals or curbside issues are often the cause of more expansive congestion, Wu said last year when city officials announced the partnership with Google. Targeting these micro spots goes a long way.

The city has used Googles AI-driven recommendations to adjust traffic signals at 114 especially congested intersections across 20 neighborhoods.

The traffic analysis from Google allows Bostons Traffic Management Center to synchronize traffic signals at nearby intersections or change green time between lights to match demand, the mayors office said. That means drivers now spend less time waiting through multiple signal cycles, both reducing how often they are starting and stopping driving and reducing overall traffic delays.

The city found a 13.5% reduction in traffic delays at intersections where it implemented the programs recommendations, with some locations improving by as much as 24%.

An added benefit, the city said, was the reduced environmental impact of cars idling in traffic. Over a year, vehicles could collectively save, on average, an estimated 4,000 gallons of fuel at each adjusted traffic signal.

At Beacham Street and Maffa Way in Charlestown, one of the intersections that benefited most from Googles analytics, drivers could collectively save up to 14,000 gallons of fuel annually.
Protestors rally against the recent actions of ICE and the Worcester Police Department at Worcester City Hall Adam Bass

With Worcester still reeling from a headline-grabbing, nationally watched raid by federal immigration agents, a coalition of local leaders is calling on Gov. Maura Healeys office to stop what theyre calling a reign of violence in our communities.

We need you to commit to your promises and stand by our immigrant communities now to intervene to stop ICE and their systemic abuses of due process and basic human rights in Massachusetts, more than 80 local leaders wrote in a letter released Thursday.

The joint statement ticks off a laundry list of enforcement actions and arrests carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents across the state since President Donald Trump returned to office in January.

Those incidents included leaving a 12-year-old boy alone on the streets in Waltham on May 4 after ICE agents arrested the person he was with, as well as a standoff in Acton later in the month.

Taken together, those enforcement actions not only violate state law, they make our communities less safe and force people into hiding, the elected leaders asserted.

Signatories to the letter ranged from members of Boston City Council and the Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee to representatives from the Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Fitchburg, and Greenfield city councils.

The elected leaders also singled out instances where ICE agents have patroll[ed] ... minors homes, terrorizing their younger siblings and family members who have not been accused of any crime.

These actions do not follow law enforcement regulations and protocols; rather, they share characteristics that appear intended to create shock and fear: Racial profiling, no verbal identification as law enforcement, faces masked, rapid escalation to unnecessary force without use of de-escalation tactics, and no evidence of a federal warrant. ICEs militant and unlawful actions must be stopped, they wrote.

And without action from the state government, such incidents only will escalate unless we do something about it.

Federal agents have confirmed an organized escalation across the Commonwealth during the month of May, which will result in too many of our neighbors being kidnapped by this rogue agency, they wrote.

The local leaders urged Healey to heed the call of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, a grassroots group thats assisted those impacted by the enforcement actions.

The organizations goals include having ICE declared a rogue federal agency that operates outside the law; restoring pandemic-era remote participation in local courthouses; and terminating state contracts that support ICE and its actions.

As elected officials, we are asking you to help us defend our communities, especially our immigrant community across the Commonwealth, and protect our communities from escalated state-sanctioned violence and ICE violently taking away our valued neighbors, they wrote.

The letter comes on the heels of Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, issuing a stern warning against people interfering with ICE detentions.

I will not stand idly by if any public official, public safety officer, organization, or private citizen acts in a manner that criminally obstructs or impedes ICE operations, Foley said. The United States Attorneys Office, along with our federal partners, will investigate any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity.

Healeys office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But the Democratic governor previously has said she was deeply concerned by the many actions we are seeing from ICE that increasingly seem to be less about public safety and more about creating fear in our communities, according to GBH News.

As governor, Im going to continue to speak out against those who think due process and the rule of law are things they dont have to abide by. The Constitution is not a suggestion, she continued.

Like Foley, however, Healey also said that no one should be interfering with the work of law enforcement, the station reported.
A Massachusetts man who killed a taxi driver and sold the murder weapon asked for parole about 25 years after the killing.

On, Dec. 30, 1997, Ricardo Reyes, who was 20, along with his co-defendant, Israel Perez, who was 19, robbed and killed 30-year-old Juan Vasquez, a taxicab driver in Methuen. The two talked about how they needed money and decided to rob a taxi driver.

They hailed a cab, armed with a .22 caliber weapon, the parole board stated. They pointed the gun at the back of Vasquezs head and demanded his money.

Perez shot Vasquez in the back of the head and the two men fled the taxi.

After they were picked up by friends, they went to a local bar and sold the murder weapon.

The case was unsolved for two and a half years.

On June 21, 2002, Reyes pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

He first went in front of the parole board in 2022 but was denied. On Jan. 23, Reyes appeared before the parole board again.

However, the parole board stated he has engaged in minimal programming.

He has incurred over 30 disciplinary reports with 4 since his last hearing and the most recent incident in October 2024, the parole board stated.

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Emily Mello spoke against parole.

On May 15, parole was denied. He will have another hearing in a year.

Perez was granted parole in 2023.

He was 45 years old when he was released and was diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The parole board said he also had reactive depression, language impairment and possible neurological impairment secondary to head trauma from prior to 1994.

He was sent to a residential placement with on-site psychiatric services and addiction services.
An 18-year-old man was arrested Monday afternoon after police say he hit an officer with a moped.

Kwest Howard, of Dorchester, faces a litany of criminal charges in connection with the incident at 4:38 p.m. Monday in Downtown Crossing, Boston Police said in a statement.

Officers conducting traffic enforcement near Washington Street saw Howards moped going the wrong direction. The moped stopped around 367 Washington St., at which point police approached to initiate a traffic stop, the statement read.

Howard is accused of suddenly accelerating the bike as police approached, then turning left onto Franklin Street in the direction of one of the officers. The officer attempted to signal for Howard to stop, but was hit by the bike, according to the statement. The impact threw the officer back and caused the bike to crash into a pole, scattering debris on Franklin Street.

After the collision, police say, Howard fled on foot but was detained with the help of a bystander.

During the arrest, Howard actively resisted officers attempts to place him in custody, creating a disturbance in the area, police wrote. As Howards behavior began to draw a crowd, he made threats to shoot officers.

Howard is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest, threatening to commit a crime and disorderly conduct. He also received several citations for criminal and civil motor vehicle violations, including failure to stop for police, reckless operation of a motor vehicle and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

The officer hit by the moped was not injured.

Boston police say they are continuing their efforts to address unsafe and unlawful operation of mopeds and scooters in the downtown area.
A federal judge in Boston delayed a hearing on federal prosecutors push to detain 82-year-old Ralph DeLeo, a former leader of the Boston mafia, who is now accused of plotting to kill federal officials while in custody.

Magistrate Judge Paul G. Levenson delayed the detention hearing several days in the interest of justice and proper representation, as DeLeo secures a private lawyer to represent him in the case.

In 2012, DeLeo pleaded guilty to charges of RICO conspiracy and being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, for which he was sentenced to 199 months (16 years) in prison and three years of supervised release. DeLeo has been out of prison on supervised release since May 2024.

Prosecutors are now moving to put DeLeo behind bars again, writing that a confidential source tipped off law enforcement about plans by DeLeo to kill at least three federal officials involved in his criminal case.

The new case against DeLeo was first reported by The Boston Globe.

Prosecutors: Search yielded incriminating evidence

During a search of DeLeos residence on May 9, prosecutors say, law enforcement found hard copy packets of personal information about multiple people, including one current and two former federal officials. They also found a burglary kit, marijuana, steroids and a handwritten note discussing silicone masks.

DeLeos phone was also seized, and records showed he was communicating with known felons, including co-defendants in his RICO case, prosecutors wrote.

DeLeos dangerousness cannot be overstated, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Maynard wrote in a memorandum this month petitioning for his detention.

During an interview with law enforcement, the same day as the search, DeLeo said he compiled the information on the federal officials by himself without help from anyone else. But prosecutors say text messages and information from the confidential source prove that isnt true.

On May 15, DeLeo was arrested for what officials say is a violation of the terms of his release: committing a federal crime when he made a false statement to federal law enforcement during an interview, communicating with co-defendants and possessing marijuana and steroids.

In the filing, Maynard acknowledged the apparent violations may not suggest dangerousness on their face, but said the specific accusations, namely that DeLeo was plotting to kill several people, proved the threat he posed.

DeLeos criminal history, which includes a conviction for murder, proves that he is more than capable of acting on his threats, Maynard adds.

The filing also points to accusations over DeLeos prior statements  while incarcerated in 2014, he told a witness he was going to chop off a retired federal officials head. In another conversation, he asked the witness how to find information about the official online. In yet another instance, DeLeo said if he were ever going to take action against a retired official, he would do it himself because it was personal.

Murder conviction, prison escape

DeLeo has been fixated on seeking revenge for years, the filing reads. DeLeos threats to harm federal officials must be taken seriously. His sordid history shows that he is capable of scheming, planning and executing extreme violence.

That sordid history includes criminal convictions dating back to when DeLeo was 16. In 1976, at 32, he was convicted of armed robbery and attempted kidnapping and sentenced to decades in prison.

DeLeo escaped custody and fled to Ohio, where he again committed armed robbery. In Ohio, DeLeo kidnapped a physician and killed him when he resisted.

He was in prison until 1997, when he was released at 55. Prosecutors say it was then that DeLeo became a member and former acting Boston Street Boss for the Colombo Family of La Cosa Nostra in New York, and founded the DeLeo Crew.

DeLeos entire life has been devoted to crime, the filing reads, adding his current advanced age has no bearing on his willingness or ability to continue engaging in criminal activity.

A flight risk?

Prosecutors described DeLeo as a flight risk in addition to a danger, noting his escape from custody in the 1970s and another attempted escape decades later, in 2011. In both instances, DeLeo complained of a health issue and was taken to a hospital, where he asked to use a restroom, then stole a gun.

An attorney representing DeLeo filed a motion asking that he be detained at the Federal Medical Center, Devens, due to health issues, including forthcoming dental surgery. Prosecutors said it was no surprise that DeLeo raised the issue [of] receiving off-site treatment for medical conditions.

DeLeo is a career criminal with the knowledge, experience and resources he needs to hatch a flight plan, the motion reads.

Federal prosecutors noted the strength of the evidence supporting the apparent violations of DeLeos supervised release, including the drugs found at his residence and the statements made to law enforcement that officials say are contradicted by his phone records.

At 82 years old, facing the prospect of returning to prison after recently concluding the latest in a string of lengthy sentences, DeLeo is poised to flee, they wrote.
FILE - Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, right, appears in U.S. District Court in Boston, Friday, April 14, 2023. (Margaret Small via AP)

Jack Teixeira, the now 23-year-old serving a 15-year prison sentence for leaking classified documents on Discord, told Good Morning America in an interview published Thursday morning that he did not regret his actions, and he never intended to harm his country.

Teixeira, of North Dighton, was a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who had access to top-secret documents as a cyber transport systems specialist at the Otis Air National Guard Base on Joint Base Cape Cod.

Last March, he pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

In the interview with ABC News Linsey Davis, Teixeira said he felt a need to educate the American people about the countrys involvement in Russias war with Ukraine.

My intent was to educate the United States populist people about what was going on. It was not to harm the United States or the country because I love my nation. Im a patriot, he said. I did believe that I needed to educate the people about what was going on because I believe they were being lied to.

He claimed the Biden administration was pushing false and misleading information about the war, and he wanted to show an unvarnished look at what was taking place.

At the sentencing hearing last November, Teixeira apologized for his actions.

I understand that all of the responsibility and consequences falls upon my shoulders alone, he said. My behavior has created such a maelstrom.

I cant really sum up how contrite I am, he added.

But in the interview with ABC, Teixeira struck a different tone.

Teixeira said the apology was aimed at family and friends, but he didnt regret leaking the documents, and would do it all again.

I still believe in my actions, he said. Ive tortured myself over and over and over again about what would happen if I didnt do this, or what would happen if this and that. And in reality, it doesnt really matter.

A lawyer representing Teixeira said at the hearing that his primary motivation was to share his experiences with a group of friends he found on Discord.

Yet Teixeira told Davis that was a secondary motivation.

In the interview, Teixeira accused the Biden administration of politicizing his case. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levy, a Biden appointee, prosecuted Teixeiras case.

I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didnt get as bad of a treatment as I did, he said. I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example.

In a press conference following Teixeiras sentencing, Levy said the full impact of his crime wouldnt be known for years.

Texeira put himself over his country, and in doing so violated one of the core tenets of public service, Levy said.

Jack Teixeira made the deliberate choice day after day, week after week, year over a year, to share the nations secrets that were entrusted to him and make them available to all comers, he said. He was callous to the fact that he put our national security at risk.

Today, Mr. Teixeira has paid a very heavy price for the laws he broke, or for the incredible damage that he caused, Levy continued.
Jose Vasquez, 31, pleaded guilty to killing a man under Route 1 in Chelsea more than a decade ago. U.S. Attorney's office

A local leader in the transnational MS-13 gang, who is already serving a lengthy prison sentence, pleaded guilty on Thursday to killing a man in Chelsea in 2010, federal prosecutors announced.

Jose Vasquez, 31, pleaded guilty to a single count of violent crime in aid of racketeering, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley said in a statement. He will be sentenced on June 30. Vazquez is already serving a 212-month (17 years and 8 months) prison sentence for racketeering conspiracy, or RICO, handed down in 2018.

At around 7:10 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2010, police responded to a 911 call under the Fifth Street on-ramp to Route 1 in Chelsea. There, they found a 28-year-old man with about 10 stab wounds to his head, back and chest. The man was brought to a hospital, where he died of his wounds, Foleys office said.

A recent reexamination of evidence collected in the investigation of the mans death pointed to members of MS-13, including Vasquez, Foleys office said.

He was a member and local leader of the Trece Locos Salvatrucha, or TLS, clique of MS-13 operating in Somerville. Prosecutors say he personally participated in racketeering activity and acts of violence on behalf of the gang.

In the week leading up to the killing, Vasquez and other members of the gang conspired to murder the man because they believed he was a member of a rival gang, Foleys office said.

On the day of the murder, Vasquez and others picked up the man at a McDonalds in Allston and drove him to a secluded area in Chelsea under the highway. There, an MS-13 member hit him in the head with a rock and another stabbed him with a machete. Vasquez stabbed the man with a knife  his palm print was identified on the handle of a kitchen knife found at the scene. The mans blood was also found on the knife, Foleys office said.

Investigators obtained a recording of an MS-13 meeting from roughly six weeks after the murder, on Jan. 27, 2011, where one gang member acknowledges his participation in the crime and is disciplined for leaving Massachusetts after the killing without the gangs permission. Vasquez was identified as being present, prosecutors say.

The charge of violent crime in aid of racketeering carries a sentence of up to life in prison.
A 65-year-old man was found guilty of killing a couple while drunken driving in Stoughton in 2021 in Norfolk County Superior Court on Wednesday, the Norfolk County District Attorneys Office said.

A jury convicted Stoughton resident Raffaele Frontino on two counts of motor vehicle homicide while driving negligently and under the influence of alcohol in the deaths of Stoughton residents Alfredo and Aldina Pedro, 50 and 51, respectively, the district attorneys office said in a press release.

On June 28, 2021, Alfredo Pedro was riding his motorcycle with his wife as a passenger when the car Frontino was driving crossed into the oncoming traffic lane and struck them head-on, the district attorneys office said. The couple was declared dead at the scene near 1317 Washington St. in Stoughton.

Frontino took a blood-alcohol level test two hours after the crash, the district attorneys office said. At that time, the alcohol content of his blood was still 0.125%  well above the legal driving limit of 0.08%.

Additionally, during his four-day trial, witnesses testified that they saw Frontinos car driving erratically prior to the crash, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in the release. Their testimony was corroborated by security camera footage from the scene and nearby.

We hope the verdict brings some closure to the family and friends of the victims, Morrissey said in the release.

Frontinos sentencing is scheduled for June 10.
Jay Blodget, 30, appeared in Salem District Court for his arraignment on two murder charges on April 24. (POOL CAM/Boston 25)

A 30-year-old man accused of killing two men who were found behind a Walmart in Salem was indicted this week, court records show.

Jay Blodget, a homeless man who lived in a wooded area behind the store, was indicted on two counts of murder. The indictment is a procedural step moving Blodgets case from Salem District Court to Essex Superior Court.
Residents on several Reading streets are being asked to check their outside camera footage after 12 cars were broken into and two of those cars were stolen overnight between Sunday and Monday, Reading police said.

Along with the car thefts, the Reading Police Department said in a statement that some items were stolen during the break-ins, including credit cards.

These incidents appear to have happened between 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, and 2 a.m. on Monday, May 19, police said. The break-ins and thefts happened on Spruce Road, Marla Lane, Covey Hill Road, Henzie Street, Spring Street, Criterion Road, Gardner Road and Rice Road.

If you have any information or footage that can help, please call us at 781-944-1212 and speak to an officer, the department stated.

The department also reminded that as safe as Reading is, crime can happen anywhere. Police urge residents not to leave valuables in their car, including their car keys, and ask that people lock their cars and homes.

We know life is busy and we are here for you, but just a reminder, the statement concluded.
This story was reported by MassLive and its news partner, El Planeta.

Read the story in Spanish at El Planeta.

Rumors whipped through Revere as police responded to a car crash on Shirley Avenue earlier this year.

Was the law enforcement presence an immigration enforcement raid, one woman asked as she stopped into Chocolaffee, a nearby cafe. Unsure and anxious, the woman detoured a mile in the opposite direction on her way to work that day, Diana Cardona, who owns the business with her sister Angelica, said.

The mood among immigrants in neighboring Chelsea is no less restless.

Children huddle after school in Tanairi Garcias cafe, Aloe Natural, agonizing in hushed voices over rumors that immigration agents were spotted in neighborhoods where their parents work or live. Some duck into the bathroom and leave in tears, Garcia, a Chelsea city councilor, said.

Four months into the second Trump administration, fear pervades immigrant communities, shared alike by people without documentation and those with protected status, work or student visas, and other paperwork allowing them to reside in the United States.

While some cities, including Chelsea, have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, pledging not to participate in federal immigration enforcement, such promises do not lift the dread of deportation from their residents shoulders.

The fear does not end at the boundary of the city, said state Sen. Sal DiDomenico, a Democrat representing Chelsea and nearby communities.

Nor are immigrants the only ones on edge.

Chelsea is one of several Massachusetts cities in the crosshairs of the federal government as it moves to pull any federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, cuts that would affect services and city projects benefiting citizens and immigrants alike.

For Chelsea, that penalty could be steep, according to a lawsuit the city filed to protect its funding stream.

The city received $14.5 million directly from the federal government last fiscal year and anticipates receiving $8.5 million this year, it said. The municipal budget is $245 million, more than half of which goes to the schools.

Of Chelseas 38,000 residents, 45% are foreign-born  the largest portion of any city in Massachusetts  and 70% speak a language besides English at home. More than one in five residents lives below the poverty line. In the densely populated working-class community just north of Boston, every dollar matters.

Similar anxieties reverberate through Revere, Chelseas neighbor to the northeast, where roughly 43% of its 58,000 residents were born outside the U.S.

Though not declared a sanctuary city nor under the direct microscope of the federal government, Revere still risks the loss of some federal dollars. And its undocumented residents have the same shadow hanging over their heads as President Donald Trump looks to cash in on a campaign pledge of nationwide mass deportations.

It doesnt matter the city, the fear is the same, said Angelica Cardona, of Revere, who arrived in the United States undocumented in 1993, but today is an U.S. citizen.

A fragile financial position

In Chelsea, authorities say the sanctuary policy allows all people to feel comfortable interacting with police and city officials in emergencies, health episodes and even mundane issues. If residents, undocumented immigrants included, feel that calling police and coming forward to provide information wont lead to their deportation, that makes the city safer, advocates for sanctuary city policies argue.

Chelsea has a moral responsibility to protect and provide for all its residents, regardless of immigration status, Garcia says.

Why should they fear to take their child to school? she asked.

Still, she worries for her community if the sanctuary policy costs Chelsea its federal assistance.

Some funding cuts will hit the Chelsea Police Department, which the city said in legal filings regularly receives federal money for equipment such as bulletproof vests. Other cuts will drain resources from programs for drug treatment and enforcement, or supporting crime victims and witnesses.

A downtown revitalization project, the largest in decades, is at risk of losing a $2 million federal grant. More than $4 million from a federal program to inject funding into low-income school districts could disappear as well.

Were already an overcrowded city, Garcia said. Our classrooms will be more crowded and lose money.

Read more: Boston prepares for fight after Trump signs order threatening sanctuary cities

Yet if asked to approve Chelseas sanctuary city policy today, she would still vote in support, knowing what it could mean for the citys future.

Everything has a domino effect, good and bad, she said, adding, With or without the federal grants, I think as a community, we will make it work.

Todd Taylor, a Chelsea city councilor, is not as confident. He thinks the citys lawsuit against the federal government over funding cuts paints a giant target on Chelseas back.

Taylor has long opposed the citys sanctuary city designation. He sympathizes with immigrants, like his wife and mother, who arrived in the U.S. seeking freedom and opportunity, he said in a statement after the city filed the lawsuit. The country has always needed immigration, he said, but in an orderly, measured system that doesnt risk unprecedented costs for our state and city budgets.

We are already facing a fragile financial position, Taylor said. We should not risk our ability to protect our residents, pave our roads and educate our children just to make a political statement.

No city is immune to funding cuts

Cities without sanctuary policies are also not immune to the vast cuts to federal spending.

Early last month, the Trump administration yanked $106 million in pandemic-era education funding from more than 20 Massachusetts school districts, Revere among them, that they had until next year to spend.

Revere risks losing more than $4.6 million, a hefty portion of which the city planned to spend on air quality improvements in school buildings, City Councilor Juan Pablo Jaramillo said.

Theres no reason that the city should be targeted, he said. Its not about immigrants, documented or otherwise.

Thats without us being even a sanctuary city, he added.

The city could suffer in other ways as well. The Trump administrations mass deportation push could upend years of work by city officials to build trust with undocumented residents, injecting a wariness of public institutions into the community that will be difficult to unroot, Jaramillo said.

People will stop calling the police, he fears. Folks who may be sick and maybe need attention  may not go to the hospital.

Theres not going to be a single locality in this country that will not suffer in the services that theyll provide because of the distrust that this administration, this federal administration, has placed on working-class communities like Revere, he said.

In 2000, at age 7, Jaramillo came to the U.S. from Colombia with his parents, lacking legal status to live in the country.

Today, they are U.S. citizens. But once, while Jaramillo was growing up, he recalled, their home in Revere was robbed while the family was out. When they returned home to find the place ransacked, Jaramillo pressed his parents to call the police. He did not grasp at the time why they refused.

The real fear came from feeling unsafe from the public safety apparatus, he said. Who do you go to when someone breaks into your house?

If undocumented residents come to fear authorities, he worries what it could mean for any city, sanctuary or not. In five years, when the U.S. seeks an accurate count of people living in the country through the next Census, undocumented immigrants need to trust that speaking with a Census worker will not lead to their deportation, Jaramillo said.

If they dont, cities could end up with far fewer firefighters, police officers and funding than their populations demand.

Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe Jr. declined an interview request for this story. So did Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez.

Long tradition of immigration

Both Chelsea and Revere have long histories as landing grounds for new immigrants seeking a better life in the United States.

Chris Giannino, a Revere city councilor and retired police officer, said his family arrived in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, Revere was welcoming a wave of Italian immigrants. Different ethnic groups arrived over the years  Irish, European Jews, Cambodians and Laotians, North Africans and Latinos, Giannino said.

Today, Revere remains a diverse city. When the holidays roll around, Giannino said his street comes alive with the different sights, sounds and tastes of his neighbors cultures.

Revere has always been a gateway for different communities to come here, he said.

So has Chelsea, said Gladys Vega, head of the Chelsea social services organization La Colaborativa and Garcias aunt.

Chelsea has always been a city that welcomed immigrants  Polish, Italian, German, Jewish  and now Latinos, she said. Weve always been a small city that opened its doors to newcomers.

One of them is Lesly, a young mother who arrived in the U.S two years ago without documentation. To her, Chelsea certainly feels safer than Guatemala, where gang members threatened to kill her and her son over a conflict with the boys father, she said.

When Lesly, whose full name is being withheld to protect her identity, needed to call the Chelsea Police to report a threat to her safety, the officer she met spoke Spanish. He didnt ask about her immigration status, but explained her rights as an immigrant and helped her file a report. When she felt afraid to leave home, the department offered to drive by and keep watch for trouble.

The trust with police provides residents protection, Lesly said in Spanish to a bilingual reporter, no matter their immigration status.

The Chelsea Police Department focuses on developing partnerships and trust through community policing that encourage all residents, regardless of status, to feel safe reporting crimes, seeking assistance, and engaging with our department, Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton wrote in an emailed statement. We are proud of the positive relationships weve built across our diverse community, which are rooted in trust, transparency and a shared commitment to public safety.

Sanctuary or not, all cities bound by law

Sanctuary city or not, all towns and cities in Massachusetts are bound by legal precedent that prevents full coordination between local police and federal immigration authorities. The Supreme Judicial Court, the states high court, held in 2017 that police cannot detain someone based solely on a request of the federal government, absent a judicial warrant.

Like other sanctuary cities, Chelsea Police policy also bars officers from asking about a persons immigration status. Unless there is a threat to public safety, the department does not concern itself with immigration issues.

Some people have a mistaken perception that in sanctuary cities, criminals can find safe harbor from prosecution, Vega said.

Thats a myth, she said.

Living in a sanctuary city does not provide a shield of immunity from the jurisdiction of the federal government, numerous ICE arrests in Chelsea, Somerville, Boston and other sanctuary communities show.

As in other sanctuary cities, the Chelsea Police do not interfere with immigration-related arrests carried out by the federal government. Nor does city policy prevent the department from collaborating with federal officials on pressing public safety matters, such as investigations into drug trafficking or violent crime.

If theres a criminal, we want them out of our community just like anyone else, Vega said. Sanctuary city never meant protecting those who break the law. We just want safe communities.

In January, Fox News broadcast clips of a series of ICE raids that began outside a Chelsea Market Basket. The operation focused on people who posed a threat to public safety, an ICE spokesperson said. Yet while sweeping one apartment, agents happened upon a man whom they had not targeted, but who was in the U.S. illegally. They took him into custody as well.

The arrests cast a severe chill over Chelsea and neighboring communities, the city said in its lawsuit targeting the federal funding cuts, as everyday residents feared going to work, school, church  even the local Market Basket.

It kind of makes me sad that they feel that way. They feel targeted, Angelica Cardona said. Most undocumented immigrants are just regular working people trying to make it day by day.
The U.S. State Department reissued its travel warning for Belgium warning travelers to exercise increased caution due to the risk of terrorism in the European country.

On Thursday, the State Department said that terrorists may attack with little or no warning and that locations such as tourist and transportation hubs, markets, government buildings, places of worship, and more may be targeted.

The Level 2 travel advisory asking travelers to use increased caution falls below the more severe Level 3 and Level 4 categories which warn travelers to reconsider their travel or not travel at all to listed countries respectively.

If U.S. travelers go to Belgium, the State Department said to stay alert in tourist spots and to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive messages and alerts from the U.S. embassy.

Read More: Travel alert: Rethink visiting this tropical country due to its kidnapping risk

The State Department recently issued similar Level 2 travel advisories for other European countries such as Germany and Spain this month and last month for Morocco.

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FILE - People walk between buildings, Dec. 17, 2024, on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File) AP

The Trump administration has revoked a key certification that allows Harvard Universitys international students to study there, according to a Thursday letter from U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

About 27% of Harvards undergraduate and graduate students are international, according to 2024 to 2025 data.

It comes after Noem forced the institution in April to submit detailed records about foreign students or lose a key certification that allows international students to attend the institution.

Read more: Read the Trump admin letter barring Harvard from enrolling international students

Harvard provided the federal government on April 30 information required by law about foreign students illegal activity and records.

Noem said it wasnt responsive to her requests, and upon another opportunity to comply, it failed again, she said in the letter.

Harvard will have another opportunity if it provides detailed records about international students within 72 hours, according to the letter.

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, Noem said on social media.

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments, she said.

Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton said in a statement that the governments action is unlawful.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

What is the certification?

The Student and Exchange Visitor Program, also known as SEVP, allows higher education institutions to issue visa application forms to prospective international students after admitting them. The forms are used to apply for a visa to enter the United States.

The certification requirements include that the school is operational and instructing students, has the necessary facilities and adequate finances to operate, provides instruction to a degree or objective and meets state requirements to operate, according to the Department of Homeland Security website.

Institutions are recertified every two years, but can be evaluated at other points in time if they have information suggesting that it isnt complying with regulations.

If the certification is taken away, an institution isnt allowed to enroll international students. Current students would have to choose between transferring to another institution, leaving the U.S., or changing their immigration status, according to the ICE website.

An example of the certification being stripped occurred at Herguan University in California in 2016 after its CEO pleaded guilty to providing fraudulent documents to the Department of Homeland Security, according to East Bay Times.

A growing fight

Harvard has been in a battle with the federal government since April. There has been a wave of federal research grant terminations at Harvard University, in addition to a $60 million in multi-year grants,$450 million cut and a $2.2 billion freeze.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has also told the institution that the federal government would be barring Harvard University from acquiring new federal grants while the university continues to refuse to comply with the administrations demands for change on its campus.

Harvard President Alan Garber wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon that they share the same common ground, but the university will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear.

Garber pushed back on the administration through a lawsuit in April. The institution argues that its constitutional rights had been violated by the governments threats to pull billions of dollars in funding if the school didnt comply with demands for an overhaul.Following the $450 million announced cuts, the university amended its lawsuit.

No government  regardless of which party is in power  should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue, the suit reads.

Due to the federal cuts, Harvard announced that it was committing $250 million of central funding to support research impacted by suspended and canceled federal grants.
The states housing division failed to properly manage and oversee its emergency shelter program while it experienced record-high demand in recent years, according to analysts in State Auditor Diana DiZoglios office.

Beginning in December 2022, the states Emergency Assistance shelter network began to see skyrocketing numbers of families seeking housing. To keep up with the demand, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (ELHOC)  and its precursor under former Gov. Charlie Baker, the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development  placed hundreds of families temporarily in hotels and motels around the state.

However, according to the 74-page audit report released earlier this week, state officials signed unlawful emergency contracts with some service providers and failed to adequately oversee and document their agreements with others.

The report did not include an overall amount of money that was wasted due to the lack of contract and program oversight.

Below are four main takeaways from the auditors report:

1. Emergency contracts did not follow the proper process as required by law

Two of the many contracts EOHLC issued to keep up with the shelter demand did not follow the procurement process required for state agencies. Though EOHLC argued that it was justified in signing these contracts because of the emergency situation, the State Auditors Office disagreed.

Typically, state agencies are required to solicit bids from prospective contractors to keep contracts fair and reasonably priced. However, if the delays from this process would cause unnecessary harm, they are able to sign short-term agreements while the proper process is followed.

The auditors wrote in their report that EOHLC should have been able to foresee the incoming stress on the system and prepared accordingly before emergency measures became necessary.

This would have allowed for competition among vendors with improved pricing, terms and fairness, the report says. Emergency contracting is designed to buy time to conduct a fair, legitimate procurement process under normal procurement rules. This did not occur.

In addition, the auditors wrote, the emergency contracts lasted for too long, and should have gone for weeks, not several months.

One of the contracts at issue was with East Boston-based Spinelli Ravioli Manufacturing Co. for food delivery to hotels and motels being used as shelters that did not have culinary facilities.

The other contract that the SAO deemed improper was with Mercedes Car Company, now known as Pilgrim Transit, which offered transportation to shelter residents for necessary travel to destinations such as medical appointments.

The housing agency vehemently disagreed with these findings, with Secretary Ed Augustus writing in an official response letter that the analysis was fundamentally wrong and unfounded.

EOHLC signed two other emergency contracts in 2023, with Ascentria Community Services and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay; though the report mentioned these two contracts, it did not list any issues with them.

2. State overpaid for services, but its not clear by how much

One of the main concerns of the report was that EOHLCs procedures may have led to unnecessary costs, due to both a failure to search for cheaper options and simple administrative errors and oversight.

For the food contract with Spinelli, the auditors wrote that the catering company had initially offered a payment option that would have been a flat fee for the services they would provide, but that EOHLC had not inquired further about what this flat fee would be.

The agency also could have considered contracting with multiple food providers around the state to decrease delivery costs, rather than having all meals come from the East Boston facility, they wrote.

Auditor analysts also took issue with the costs of the deal with Mercedes Car Company, comparing the trip fees to standard taxi rates listed on the Boston Police Department website.

A taxi rider would pay $2.60 for the first one-seventh of a mile, then 40 cents per mile afterward. In contrast, trips with the car company had a base fee of $140 for the first person and $40 for each additional person, and $498 for the first person in a wheelchair van.

The transportation service fees ... are considerably higher than the typical rates observed in the taxicab or ride-sharing industry. In fact, they align more closely with the pricing structures of executive car services, the report says.

In one instance, the state was billed $140 for a trip that lasted 223 feet within a single parking lot.

They also noted that EOHLC could have worked with the MBTA or regional transit authorities to provide transportation at a lower cost.

However, the report determined that it was impossible to know how much money the agency could have saved if it had not signed the emergency contracts, because EOHLC did not take the time to find out.

In addition, the audit revealed that the state was overcharged for 9.6% of food deliveries from Spinelli, for a total overcharge of $4,136 (This was offset, however, by additional deliveries where the state was undercharged, for a net overcharge of $2,306). The overcharges were due to inadequate oversight of invoices the agency received, the auditors wrote.

EOHLC disagreed with these findings, saying that the report left out relevant context. In particular, for the transportation contract, the agency said it needed very specialized services, but also encouraged shelter residents to use public transportation when and where possible.

The transportation service needed to be available on demand with short notice, able to travel to locations not near public transit, and able to accommodate people with disabilities and families with small children requiring booster seats.

Augustus noted that when EOHLC did solicit bids for competitive transportation contracts, they received no satisfactory proposals.

The lack of satisfactory bids received in response to our competitive procurement speaks volumes to the extremely unique and challenging nature of this service, he wrote.

As for the overcharges, he argued that with a nearly $10 million contract, the $2,306 in net overcharges was just 0.02% of the total.

3. Documentation of procurement decisions was lacking

Nearly all of the reports findings dealt, directly or indirectly, with a lack of documentation for decisions EOHLC made when administering the emergency assistance program.

For the emergency contracts, the agency did not sufficiently document how it made the decisions to hire those companies, the report said.

EOHLC also did not have documentation of subcontractors that worked with some of their contracted service providers, and for some charges for various services that the auditors questioned, the agency could not provide documentation to verify them.

Without proper records, EOHLC cannot verify whether services were provided according to contractual terms, nor can it ensure that payments were appropriate and aligned with the agreed-upon budgets, the report says. It increases the risk of improper use of public funds and a lack of accountability for the services provided.

EOHLC acknowledged that it could have done more to keep up its documentation, and Augustus wrote that the agency was already committed to updating its policies to do so in the future.

4. Some issues in the report have already improved

EOHLC wrote in its official response to the report that it had already updated its invoice review process to increase oversight of payments to vendors, one of several changes the agency has made since the audit period.

It has also clarified some of its policies on how funding is used and restructured its shelter diversion program to have unique contracts for a more streamlined process.

Beyond internal policies, however, Augustus said the state has made a number of changes to the shelter program, introducing a maximum number of families that can be served, new eligibility requirements and a cap on the length of time a family can stay in a shelter.

This has resulted in fewer families staying in shelters and lower costs. Gov. Maura Healey announced the day before the audit report was released that all hotel and motel shelters would be closed by summer.

As a result of these and other changes implemented by Healey, for the first time since July 2023, the number of families in shelters has fallen back below 5,000, Augustus wrote.

These all represent significant progress toward establishing a Right to Shelter system for families where stays are rare, brief, and non-recurring, and costs are financially sustainable to the Commonwealth, he added.

DiZoglios office will review EOHLCs progress in six months, according to the typical audit process, according to the report.
American Airlines passenger jets prepare for departure on July 21, 2021, near a terminal at Boston Logan International Airport in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Its not only tourists who are avoiding travel to the United States. Business travel to the U.S. from Europe is also down under President Donald Trump, as international opinion of the country tanks and foreign companies take their business elsewhere.

Business travel bookings from Europe overall fell by more than 25% in April compared to a year ago, according to data published by Politico from HotelHub, a London-based hotel booking company.

Theres been a lot of uncertainty around the traditional partnership with the U.S. since the new administration took office and even more so since the tariff announcements, Paul Raymond, HotelHubs chief commercial officer, told the news outlet.

The tariffs, he said, seem to have created an appetite for businesses to look at alternative markets to offer greater stability.

According to the HotelHub data, international bookings for business travel overall to the U.S. fell roughly 19% in April, a steeper drop than the 15.6% fall among bookings from U.S. companies.

The downturn was especially pronounced among some U.S. allies. Business hotel bookings were down 30% from Germany, 22% from France and 14% from the United Kingdom.

Bookings even fell from Canada and Mexico, Americas closest trading partners after China. Bookings from Mexican companies fell almost 19%, while Canadian business bookings dropped by 18%, the data showed.

Meanwhile, European bookings to Norway jumped more than 23% from last year, alongside roughly 19% increases in bookings to Turkey and Australia, a 10% increase in bookings to Japan and a 7% increase in bookings to India.

The changes were not due to a dramatic drop in European business travel. The overall number of bookings originating in Europe  to destinations in the U.S. and abroad  fell only 1.6% in the first four months of this year compared with 2024, HotelHubs data showed.

Travel to the U.S. is in steep decline, Oxford Economics, a global economic advisory firm, warned last month.

Policies and pronouncements from the Trump administration have contributed to a growing wave of negative sentiment toward the U.S. among potential international travelers, the firm said. Heightened border security measures and visible immigration enforcement actions are amplifying concerns. These factors, combined with a strong U.S. dollar, are creating additional barriers for those considering travel to the U.S.

Cities and states are also lowering their projections for incoming tourists. Meet Boston, the citys tourism organization, had hoped for a 9% increase in international visitors compared to last year. It recently revised its projections to a 10% drop in foreign tourists, including a 20%-25% dip in Canadian visitors.
Elon Musk looks on as President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) AP

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made his feelings about billionaire Elon Musk very clear last month.

[Expletive]you! [Expletive]you! [Expletive]you! Bessent shouted at Musk in the halls of the White Houses West Wing, The Atlantic reported.

The remarks were made in the vicinity of President Donald Trump, according to the outlet.

The profanity Bessent directed towards Musk was part of a larger fight over which of them should choose the next leader of the IRS, The Atlantic reported.

Musks choice was Gary Shapley, who was chosen by Trump to run the agency at first but was then ousted days later, according to Axios.

Bessents choice was Michael Faulkender, who also currently serves as deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department. He was appointed to serve as the IRS head after Shapley was ousted, Axios reported.

The fight between Musk and Bessent began outside of the Oval Office before ending up at the National Security Advisers office, according to The Atlantic.

Musk accused Bessent of running two hedge funds that had failed and as they argued, their faces were just inches apart, The Atlantic reported.

While things didnt get physical, Trump did see the clash between the two, a witness told Axios.

In April, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the reported shouting match between Musk and Bessent.

There are disagreements among the presidents staff and Cabinet sometimes, but we think thats part of the healthy debate process, Leavitt told reporters. And everybody knows that ultimately President Trump is the decision-maker.

This isnt the first time Musk has been involved in a dispute with Trump administration officials.

In March, The New York Times reported that Musk got in a heated back-and-forth with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a meeting involving other members of the administration.

In April, Musk took to X, which he owns, to slam comments made by Trumps top trade advisor, Peter Navarro.

During an interview on CNBC, Navarro was asked how tariffs from the Trump administration would affect Musks electric car company, Tesla.

Navarro responded by saying Tesla is not a car manufacturer but a car assembler.

In many cases, if you go to his Texas plant, a good part of the engines that he gets (which in the EV case are the batteries) come from Japan and come from China. The electronics come from Taiwan, Navarro said on CNBC.

In response, Musk called Navarro a moron and dumber than a sack of bricks on X.

The details about the dust-up between Musk and Bessent come after Musk announced that he plans to pull back from his political spending.

I think Ive done enough...if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it, Musk said at the Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday. I do not currently see a reason.

Musk poured over $290 million of his own money into the 2024 election to support Trump and Republicans. After Trumps election, however, Musk was unable to find political success in off-year elections.

In Wisconsin, Musks pick for the states Supreme Court was defeated by the Democratic candidate, who won by a margin of 238,807 votes, according to The New York Times.
Red Sox' Carlos Narvaez has been one of the best all-around catchers in baseball. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/MLB Photos via Getty Images) MLB Photos via Getty Images

BOSTON  Red Sox rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez is batting .400 (16-for-40) with a .478 on-base percentage, .625 slugging percentage and 1.103 OPS here in 13 games in May.

Am I tempted to move him up in the lineup? Yes, manager Alex Cora said Wednesday. But at the same time I think hes in a great place right now. So lets keep it that way."

Narvaez has started 20 games in the eighth spot in the lineup, 11 games in the ninth spot and two games in the seventh spot. Hes batting eighth in the Red Sox lineup Wednesday as Boston is going for a three-game sweep against the Mets.

So far so good, Cora said. "He will struggle at one point. Hopefully he doesnt, but its a league that makes adjustments. One thing that he does pretty well  he has a plan and he sticks to it. The other thing that he does, too, he can hit a line drive to right field whenever he feels like it. Like he can stay inside and take a single, and then when you have that, you can survive when things are not going right."

Of his batted balls, 41.9% have been pulled to left field, 25.6% have gone to center field and 32.6% have gone to right field.

His season slash lineup is up to .280/.346/.466/.812. Hes sixth on the team in extra-base hits with 12 (five homers and seven doubles).

The other thing he does well, too, when things are not going right, he takes his walks, Cora added. And thats huge. You can go 0-for-7, you can take three or four walks, youre in the mix. Youre not struggling, actually. Youre doing your job. And he does that.

He has a solid 9.2% walk percentage. He has drawn 12 walks while striking out 32 times.

Line drives here to right here are great. Fly balls to left field that go over the wall are better, Cora said. And hes been able to pull the ball lately."

Hes been elite defensively, ranking in the 96th percentile in fielding run value (5), 94th percentile in blocks above average (4), 93rd percentile in framing (3) and 92nd percentile in caught stealing above average (2).

" I think both of them (Narvaez and Connor) Wong are doing an amazing job, Cora said. Connor in a small sample size is a lot better than last year. Carlos, right now, I think hes leading the league in defensive run saved, which is awesome. Blocks the ball well. Has thrown the ball extremely well. And he has a pretty good idea of what he wants to do behind the plate in connection with the pitchers."

Narvaez clearly has taken over the No. 1 catcher spot from Wong, starting seven of Bostons past eight games, including tonight.

Having both of them here, I didnt see it going this way, but at the same time Connor will play, Carlos will play, Cora said. Well take care of them physically and when August comes in September both of them are gonna be fresh and we are gonna be in a good spot.
John Rowley stands at the corner of Central and Cedar streets in Springfield, highlighting the underground lead contamination caused by telephone wires, on May 7. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

SPRINGFIELD  A sediment sample collected in January from a telephone worker manhole under Central Street turned out to be, frighteningly for workers, 3% lead.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Hazard Evaluation Program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said the muck had lead concentrations of 30,000 parts per million. To put that in perspective, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered last year its acceptable level of lead in soil from 400 parts per million to 200 parts per million.
Cleaners remove red paint from sign in front of L3Harris KEO in Northampton on May 6, 2024. (Don Treeger / The Republican, File) Don Treeger

WASHINGTON  A defense contractor with offices in Northampton, Massachusetts, will pay the U.S. government $62 million after one of its divisions failed to disclose accurate costs for communications gear sold to the U.S. Department of Defense.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that the company, formerly named L3 Technologies but now called L3Harris, violated the False Claims Act and the Truth In Negotiations Act.
SPRINGFIELD  Ahead of Springfield Restaurant Week, being held this year from June 6-15, the citys Business Improvement District offered an early look at the deals and specials restaurants will be serving up.

The media preview event was held at the Springfield Marriott on May 21, and several of the 23 restaurants signed up to participate came out to offer up a bite of what theyll be serving to the public in June.
Holyoke Wastewater Treatment Plant Communications and Community Relations Manager Chris Halleron, left, and project manager Jason Swain, stand over the overflow pipe that runs into the Connecticut River on Monday, May 19, 2025. During heavy rain or storms, the facility designed to process 17.5 million gallons of wastewater a day, can see 360 millions gallons go through its system daily. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook

There was a drastic decline in the amount of untreated wastewater that overflowed in the Connecticut River last year compared to 2023, according to a new report from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

The report, which came out last week, showed that 543 million gallons overflowed into the the Connecticut River last year across 12 days with weather events, compared to close to 1 billion gallons in 2023.
Residents lined up Tuesday during Southwick's Town Meeting to cast a paper ballot on whether to hold a revote using paper ballots on Article 9 to borrow 16 million to build a fiber-optic network. The article failed to reach the two-thirds needed to pass, but a resident made a motion to revote on the article using paper ballots. Before the revote, it was determined a paper ballot vote would be needed to revote on the article using a paper ballot. The paper ballot vote to use paper ballots to revote failed. (CLIFF CLARK / THE WESTFIELD NEWS) WESTFIELD NEWS

SOUTHWICK  For the residents who attended Town Meeting Tuesday, what happened inside the auditorium will not soon be forgotten after decisions were made on several contentious issues that included bylaws to regulate hunting on private property, adopting regulations for town-owned and private property, and borrowing millions to build a fiber optic network.

Before the meeting even started, it was clear that residents wanted to participate in what is called the purest form of government as hundreds streamed into the auditorium at Southwick Regional School filling every seat and forcing dozens to sit in folding chairs brought in to allow everyone to participate.
Worcester police respond to what they called a "hostile crowd" on Eureka Street following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest on Thursday. Adam Bass | MassLive.com

Editors note: This article was updated at 5:50 p.m. on May 23, 2025 to reflect a statement provided by the Department of Homeland Security.

Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a Brazilian mother of three arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Worcester this month, has a damaged shoulder and is not receiving any pain medication at the facility where she is currently detained, according to her lawyer.

However, the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, told MassLive Friday afternoon these accusations are not true.

Attorney Paul Toland told MassLive Thursday that Ferreira-De Oliveira is currently wearing a sling while she is detained at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Ferreira-De Oliveira is being held following her arrest on May 8 at Eureka Street in Worcester. Toland believes that her shoulder was damaged due to excessive force used by ICE agents who apprehended her that day. He is not aware of the extent of the damage to her shoulder.

Wyatt Detention is a very depressing detention center, Toland said. With barbed wire everywhere. Shes not even getting pain medication in there for her pain.

The lawyer added that Ferreira-De Oliveira had been frequently moved to different cells at the facility, so she would not see or hear those expressing support for her outside of the detention center.

A statement from a senior DHS official received by MassLive on Friday claims accusations made by Toland are false.

ICE has provided Ferreira with prompt medical care and services, and she has not filed any grievances or complaints regarding delayed medical care, the senior official wrote. ICE takes its commitment to promoting safe, secure, humane environments for those in our custody very seriously.

It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health intake screening within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility, a full health assessment within 14 days of entering ICE custody or arrival at a facility, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care, the statement continued.

Toland said he was assigned Ferreira-De Oliveiras case on Friday, May 16, and met with her for the first time face-to-face this week.

The mother will likely remain in Rhode Island as her case will be held at the Boston Immigration Court, according to Toland. An individual hearing will be held for Ferreira-De Oliveira but a judge has not yet set a date, Toland told MassLive.

Typically if a person is detained though, their final individual hearing is heard within 1.5 to 2.5 months, Toland explained.

Ferreira-De Oliveira is also not in immediate danger of being deported, Toland added.

The lawyer told MassLive the case does not have a timeline as of yet and that he could not disclose any legal strategy.

Asylum claims

In a statement provided to Spectrum News 1, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Ferreira-De Oliveira entered the country illegally in August 2022, which led to ICE taking her into custody,

Toland told MassLive, however, that the mother of three was paroled and allowed into the country by ICE as she pursued asylum.

Asylum is a form of protection that is granted to individuals fleeing their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution based on specific grounds such as race, religion, nationality or political opinion, according to the nonprofit organization the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

When someone is paroled into the United States, that means they are allowed to enter and stay in the U.S. temporarily even if they dont have a visa or formal admission, Toland explained. Its not a legal entry in the same way as someone who comes in on a visa or green card but it still allows a person to be here lawful for a specific period and purpose.

In the case of Ferreira-De Oliveira, Toland said that she pursued an asylum claim. Once that asylum claim was submitted to the immigration court, the mother was allowed to stay here indefinitely until the asylum application was approved or denied, the lawyer said.

In order to become an asylee, an immigration judge would have to hear the merits of the case and make a determination to approve to deny the claim after an individual hearing, Toland said. You can only apply for asylum at a port of entry or while inside the country.

Toland said he would not further speak about Ferreira-De Oliveiras asylum claim due to privacy concerns.

In addition to the claims of illegal entry, ICE claims that the mother is a violent criminal illegal alien, according to a statement provided to WHDH.

She was arrested by local police for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a pregnant victim, according to the statement.

Court records obtained by MassLive read that Ferreira-De Oliveira was suspected of using a phone-charging cable to strike a pregnant relative in February.

She initially appeared in court on Feb. 3, where she pleaded not guilty and paid $500 cash bail, according to court records. Her last court appearance was a pre-trial hearing on March 24.

Last Tuesday, Judge Zachary Hillman scheduled Ferreira-De Oliveiras trial date for July 18, according to court filings.

How the ICE arrest came to be

The sounds of screaming and chants echoed throughout Worcesters Eureka Street on the morning of May 8.

As ICE apprehended Ferreira-De Oliveira, more than 30 people, including District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, demanded the agents not take her and show a warrant for the arrest.

Worcester Police Officers were also at the scene, and they arrested Ferreira-De Oliveiras teenage daughter and now-disqualified Worcester School Committee candidate, Ashley Spring.

Augusta Clara Moura, Ferreira-De Oliveiras 21-year-old daughter and mother of a 3-month-old baby, said the arrest of her mother started after her partner honked at an undercover car with ICE agents.

Through Clara Mouras attorney, Andrew George Lattarulo, Clara Moura said that her partner, Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza, was arrested by federal agents the day before ICE took her mother.

Ferreira-De Souza, who is the father of the 3-month-old, had honked at a car that cut him off while he was driving to work, according to Clara Moura. The car turned out to be an undercover ICE vehicle and agents arrested him.

He had committed no crime, according to Clara Moura.

Ferreira-De Souza is currently being held at the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, according to ICEs Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).

Lattarulo previously told MassLive he is providing legal representation for Clara Mouras partner.

A day after her partner was arrested, Clara Moura said ICE came to her home, telling her to return her partners car and sign immigration paperwork.

She said she left her house with her 17-year-old sister and her baby, intending to comply with the order.

Thats when ICE stopped my car and told me I was under arrest, Clara Moura said. Since I was with my baby, I called my mother to come take my son.

When her mother arrived, ICE agents attempted and succeeded in arresting her.

Clara Moura claims that ICE agents also attempted to take her baby from her but they backed down due to protests from neighbors.

Lattarulo told MassLive last week that ICE threatened to arrest Clara Moura and her 17-year-old sister, an account that matches reporting from Rolling Stone Magazine, which said that Clara Moura and her sister were used as bait for ICE to arrest their mother.

Clara Moura, who saw her mother be apprehended by the agents that morning, launched a GoFundMe last week explaining the events that led up to her mothers arrest.

Toland said he could not comment on the reporting from Rolling Stone magazine or Clara Mouras account.

Body camera footage, protests and policy

On May 16, Worcester officials released the body camera footage and 911 calls from the May 8 arrest following pressure from the public, including a rally during which residents accused Worcester officials of assisting ICE in arresting Ferreira-De Oliveira.

The footage and audio are taken from body cameras worn by officers Juan Vallejo, Patrick Hanlon and Shauna McGuirk.

In Officer Hanlons footage, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj is shown walking toward the officers and Ferreira-De Oliveira. Haxhiaj grabbed Ferreira-De Oliveiras arm and pleaded with the agents not to take her. Two of the ICE agents then proceeded to fling the councilor off Ferreira-De Oliveira.

As the agents moved to a gold Ford SUV, Haxhiaj then reached out for Ferreira-De Oliveira. Hanlon grabs her hands to pull her back and tells her to stop.

I cannot stop! Haxhiaj yelled at the officer.

Clara Moura, who is being held back by School Committee candidate Ashley Spring, reaches out to the vehicle and says no multiple times. Hanlon responds by saying that ICE will offer an explanation.

Haxhiaj and Spring yell that the agents will not explain, with Spring telling Hanlon that ICE does not have a judicial warrant.

At around 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the footage, an ICE officer says, We do not need a judicial warrant for this arrest.

Body camera footage from Hanlon and Officer Juan Vallejo showed Ferreira-De Oliveiras teenage daughter run up to the side of the SUVs front passenger door.

Police later claimed she tried to kick the door, but it is difficult to confirm this due to the shakiness of the cameras and the large police presence.

Vallejo and other officers surrounded the girl and moved her to the ground on the street.

During the arrest, an officer yells, Youre under arrest for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

Police officers saw Spring push and shove other officers trying to arrest the daughter, according to a police report.

Officers also observed Ashley directly point at and spray an unknown liquid in a bottle at officers that were on duty attempting to conduct their job, the report read.

It turns out, however, that the unknown liquid was water.

At the 2:30 mark in the video, Vallejo approaches Spring and points his finger at her, listing charges for another officer: Disorderly, disturbance, and she sprayed me in the face with water.

As he moves away from her, the audio catches Spring saying, It was water.

Spring was charged on May 9 with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon  that being the unknown liquid  along with charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers.

Lt. Sean Murtha of the Worcester Police Department told MassLive on Saturday that he was not aware of the department dropping any of Springs charges despite police saying the liquid was water in the video.

The daughter, meanwhile, was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to the Worcester Police Department.

After her arrest, she was released from custody and is currently staying with family friends along with her 21-year-old sister, Augusta Clara Moura, Clara Mouras 3-month-old son and her other sister, who is also a minor.

In a statement on May 16, Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier announced that the Worcester Police Department is requesting that the court dismiss the case against Ferreira-De Oliveiras daughter.

Even though the department wishes to have the case against the daughter dismissed, Saucier noted, however, that it is important to emphasize that assaulting or interfering with law enforcement officers as they carry out their duties is never acceptable.

Additionally, City Manager Eric D. Batista issued an executive order on May 16 that establishes guidelines for local response and involvement in federal enforcement of immigration laws and operations, including investigations and civil detainments performed by ICE officers.

During his State of the City address on Wednesday, Batista spoke about the events of May 8 and acknowledged those who are pained by what happened.

I know that many of you listening tonight, and residents across Worcester are in pain after the events on Eureka Street on May 8, said Batista after he took the podium at the Jean McDonough Arts Centers BrickBox Theater. You are not alone in that pain.

Protesters interrupted Batistas speech, with one carrying a sign with a doctored image of Batista wearing an ICE vest and another playing audio from the arrest on repeat.

a
Calls for unity, cooperation and resilience among Worcester residents dominated City Manager Eric D. Batistas State of the City speech on Wednesday, amid sporadic cries from protesters both inside and outside the Jean McDonough Arts Center.

Last year, I told you we were in an era of opportunity, and if we took advantage of that, we could enter an era of accomplishment, Batista said. We did take advantage, and a lot of what Im going to speak about tonight are accomplishments.

Batista touted achievements such as increased housing units, more equity initiatives and increased road development.

Even so, the city manager also highlighted growing division in the city, with the recent ICE arrests on Eureka Street immediately taking the forefront of his speech.

The event, hosted by the city in collaboration with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB), featured a performance of the Star-spangled banner by Doherty student Nayeli Roman, and a poem recital by Oliver de la Paz, Worcesters poet laureate. WRRB Executive Director Paul Matthews welcomed the crowd, composed of several city council members and business leaders throughout the city, as well as members of the public. Mayor Joseph M. Petty introduced Batista.

I know that many of you listening tonight, and residents across Worcester are in pain after the events on Eureka Street on May 8, said Batista, within a minute after he took the podium at the centers BrickBox Theater. You are not alone in that pain.

The May 8 incident on Eureka street concerned the arrest of a woman whom ICE officials say resided in the country illegally, resulting in a crowd of about 30 people attempting to stop the arrest. The womans daughter and a candidate for school committee were arrested in the ensuing response by Worcester police, who maintain they were only there to protect the peace and not assist federal immigration enforcement.

Worcester police respond to what they called a "hostile crowd" on Eureka Street following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest on Thursday, May 8. Adam Bass | MassLive.com

Showcasing his administrations executive order last week that set a policy concerning how the city will handle ICE arrests and the release of bodycam footage and 911 audio from the incident, Batista said that he is prepared to manage the city through any additional ICE activity.

Today, our city stands on the brink of division, Batista said. We cannot go back and change what happened, but we can learn from it and come together as a municipality and a community to determine how we respond moving forward.

However, a group of approximately a dozen protesters shouted within the venue and attempted to disrupt the address, with one protester displaying a banner reading BAUTISTA IS A LIAR and another carrying a sign with a doctored image of Batista wearing an ICE tactical vest. At one point, a protester played audio of the May 8 arrest on repeat.

Protesters from the Worcester Democratic Socialists of America gather near Eric Batista's State of the City address on Wednesday, chanting anti-ICE and anti-rent slogans. (Anthony Buscarino/For MassLive.com)

Batista appeared stoic as he had to pause multiple times throughout his 40-minute speech amid shouts, at times speaking with a raised voice to drown out the commotion. Security guards escorted multiple people out without force, including one protester who walked onto the stage within 15 feet of Batista.

Youre making everything seem progressive and nice and safe for people, but our eyes are open and we understand that things are truly bad, said the protester facing Batista, before being escorted to the reception area.

David Webb, a Worcester activist who was the victim in a spray-paint assault at City Hall last year, continuously shouted over the city manager until four Worcester police officers instructed him to leave. Webb left without incident.

In addition to the inside protesters, a group of about 15 people congregated outside city hall across the street from the venue, holding signs reading ICE OUT NOW and chanting such as No ICE, freeze rent!

Public safety is the priority

Despite protests, the speech largely continued as planned. Batista listed a number of priorities going forward into next year for the city, with him ranking public health and safety as Worcesters top priority, calling it a non-negotiable.

It is imperative that we build and maintain a public health and safety infrastructure based on trust and the needs of our city, Batista said, acknowledging that last years Department of Justice (DOJ) report  which found the citys police department used excessive force and engaged in illegal acts with vulnerable women  and the Eureka Street arrests have placed considerable backlash on local authorities.

I know recent events and the release of the DOJ report in December have tested that trust, Batista said. That is why it is more important than ever for our staff, from our police to our health experts to our engineers, to be out in the community, connecting with residents and building relationships, Batisa said, eliciting boos from the protesters.

The manager went on to say that violence, particularly by firearms, still continues to be an issue, showcasing the record-high amounts of murders in 2024. Batista referenced the police departments dedicated firearms unit, which itself has made over two dozen arrests since July of last year with a total of 90 firearms seized across the department, which Batista described as preventive policing.

Additionally, Batista defended increased inter-agency cooperation as a success, stressing the work between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the police department in dealing with those experiencing crises. Batisa applauded this work, pointing out that the DHHS has seen an increase in overdoses and poor mental health within the city, congratulating the organization on its outreach programs with what he said were 14 different youth programs within the city.

Roads, houses, and infrastructure

The manager affirmed his commitment to traffic accident prevention initiatives, calling back to his declaration of a Road Safety and Traffic Violence Crisis last August following a series of fatal pedestrian impacts, several of which where children were the victims. Batista mentioned the development of the citywide 25 mph speed limit implemented at the beginning of this year, as well as over 20 speed bumps installed since the first phase of the Vision Zero program began, as well as what he calls the complete streets model, which aims to make roads safer for all modes of transportation.

We envision a Worcester where workers can bike to offices, students can walk to school, and visitors can easily navigate all the wonderful things our city has to offer, without having to worry about the harm inflicted by a speeding car or an unsafe sidewalk, Batista said.

Other improvements were highlighted in education, such as the completion of the new Doherty Memorial High School, and over $10 million in debt reserves for future school projects, such as the planned Burncoat High School rebuild.

Batista went on to discuss the issue of housing availability and prices in Worcester. The city will continue to add population by 2033, with at least 12,000 new units to be constructed by then, according to Batista. By 2050, the city population will surpass 230,000 residents, Batista said.

Bastis touted 571 new housing units over the past year as a success, stating that they came from trust fund projects, zoning policy changes, and the community preservation program. About $376 million in new residential construction has been added within the past few years, and with increased development, 14,000 new jobs should be added by 2034, Batisa said.

That is something we can all be proud of, the manager remarked.

The issue of homelessness was also tackled, with the manager stating that the homeless shelter at the former Registry of Motor Vehicles on Main Street and its inclusion of a women-only shelter last winter have shown that the city takes the issue seriously, which Batista says he will work with assistance organizations to attempt to keep the shelter operating permanently.

Plans, plans and more plans

Other pledges were made in environmentally friendly initiatives, with multiple plans in development to treat pollution in water and litter throughout the city, with the manager making note of the plan to install over 150 trash bins across the city by this summer, in addition to planting more urban trees. The Zero Waste Master Plan, Clean Street Collective, and the Green Worcester Plan are a part of these measures.

As you may have noticed, we love plans, Batista quipped.

Small businesses were also listed as another one of the citys priorities, including implementing relaxed permitting allowing for more streamlined event planning, as well as prioritizing job fairs to increase the city job pool. Also mentioned was the plan to convert part of the former Norton Company lot to new development is expected to add over 1,000 jobs to the city, Batista said.

Keeping with Batistas theme of unity, the manager made special note of the citys diversity, equity and inclusion programs, such as committing to a pay equity review for municipal employees and a fully staffed equity office, a position long marred by attrition troubles. Further, Batista applauded the citys sanctuary status for transgender individuals as a success.

It is easy to uphold your values when no one is questioning them, but it shows your true character if you can still uphold them in the face of potential backlash, Batista said.
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Daniel O'Donnell has hit out at scammers on social media with a warning to his fans over fake accounts pretending to be him.

In a post on Facebook, Daniel's niece/personal assistant Trish told fans these fake accounts, that had made AI generated images of the country music star with sensationalist headlines, were "all lies".

Some headlines went as far to say his sister, Margo, had been hospitalized, along with fake pictures of Daniel crying.

The post said,

"Can I please ask you not to engage with any of these fake pages. They are all lies, photos that have been altered. All to get people to click into them. The only pages you ever need to read official news from is this page. Trish."

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The Donegal native recently announced he would be taking a break from touring to some health challenges he has experienced in the last few years, although he has assured fans he is not retiring and this is just a "temporary setback".

Speaking to the Sunday World, the 63-year-old said he was in good health but struggles with recurrent chest problems, especially when touring extensively.

"I've been fine doing the recent shows and I intend to complete all the shows that are currently booked up to the end of this year", he said, "I'm looking forward to them, but I just felt I needed to take a break and recharge my batteries after this year.

"Because we're doing shows for the rest of 2025 in Ireland, the UK and America, I decided to make the announcement now so that if people wanted to get out and see a show before I take a break they are getting enough notice.

"For the past number of years I've had frequent chest issues, which wouldn't have bothered me if I wasn't singing", he continued, "Loads of people have what I have and it doesn't bother them one bit.

"I function absolutely perfectly with the issues as well and I'm otherwise in perfect health. But because I'm singing it's more difficult with those problems.

"I haven't made this decision because of ill-health or anything, it's because I just feel that the continuous touring is not suiting me now and I need to figure out what to do", he added.
Three Mayo people were celebrating national honours as they won big at the No Name Clubs National Youth Awards.

The trio, with two from Claremorris and one from Crossmolina, were present at the national ceremony to scoop the accolades.

READ MORE: Pub owned by Mayo soccer star receives 25,000 advertising boost

No Name group is an organisation established to provide those in their late teens with a fun and safe place to socialise without the pressures of alcohol and drugs.

At the event, plenty of Mayo smiles were beaming as they took to the stage.

Ciara McGrath, from No Name Club Crossmolina, was the first to accept her award for her nomination for Host of the Year. Ciara is a Transition Year student at Gortnor Abbey School.

Diane Hession was also nominated for the title. Diane is a Transition Year student at Mount Saint Michael Secondary School and is a member of the No Name Club in Claremorris.

Con Nolan is a volunteer with the Claremorris group and has served the youth of the town for over 25 years. At the ceremony, he received a vase commemorating his service to the No Name Club, as well as his 20 years of work with the No Name Club head office in Dublin.

The No Name Club Ireland chairman, Doctor Garrett Keenaghan, was full of praise for all the nominees at the event.

These awards are about more than achievement; theyre about character, he stated.

Our winners reflect the very best of what young people can become when theyre trusted and supported. No Name Club is about helping young people find confidence, connection, and purpose, and this is proof that the model works.
"I wouldn't have returned home to Mayo, if it had been a 'No'. I wouldnt have felt accepted," says Westport man Conor Wilson, recalling the same sex referendum in 2015.

On this day 10 years ago, Ireland was the first country to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote. Almost 6,000 same sex couples have married in ten years since the referendum, according to the Central Statistics Office.

In May 2015, Ireland made history as the first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote. A decade later, Westport man Conor Wilson remembers the day of the referendum very vividly:

"I helped run a huge party for a queer club night in Dublin, for 4,000 people. It was nerve-wracking not knowing how the vote would go, but it turned into a night of pure joy and celebration. We danced until morning, overwhelmed by the sense of history."

READ: Mayo Pride to fly the flag in Westport on June bank holiday weekend

Conor was living in Dublin at the time, working for GCN, the Gay Community News, so he was deeply involved in the marriage equality campaign from its earliest days.

"I was knocking on doors and asking people for my right to marry. Looking back, its almost absurd that I had to ask my neighbours for permission to get married."

Looking back at the struggle for civil rights, it seems particularly absurd regarding Conor's attitude towards marriage back then.

"I didnt even plan to marry at the time. But I believed deeply in the civil right to marry: If straight people could marry and divorce, why shouldnt we have the same rights, including the right to divorce? It was about equality, security, and being able to celebrate love with friends and family."

Campaigning was a taxing experience and emotionally difficult for Conor. There were people who would slam the door in his face. There was a lot of misinformation and scare tactics in the media, with groups spreading lies about the queer community.

"At the time, I didnt realize how much it affected me, but in the years after, I understood just how tough it was. The fact that we had to ask for our civil rights rather than simply being granted them, as in other countries, was hard to accept. Ireland was the first to hold a referendum on this issue, which made it both a challenge and a proud moment when the result was a resounding 'Yes'."

The referendum result influenced Conor's life significantly, as his family is from Westport, and after the yes vote, he felt that he could move home.

"Seeing the strong 'Yes' vote in Mayo was affirming. I can only imagine how difficult it was for LGBTQ+ people in Roscommon, the only county to vote 'No'."

Conor moved back to Westport in 2017. At that time, he was dating his now husband Derrick. Conor wasn't really set on marrying.

"But when Derricks visa was about to expire, I realized I couldnt risk losing him. Thats when I knew it was the right time to marry and use those hard-won rights.

Signing the marriage documents was overwhelming  I cried, remembering how not long ago I was knocking on doors for my civil liberties. Im grateful Ireland voted yes, allowing me to live and marry in my hometown. Had it gone the other way, none of this would have happened."

Even though the referendum ten years ago was a huge step forward, Conor points out that we can never take this progress and equal civil rights for granted.

Especially in the current climate in a country like the US, where president Donald Trump is attacking civil rights, there are fears a similar rollback could happen across Europe.

For example, Hungary just recently passed a highly controversial law criminalising Pride marches and allowing the use of facial recognition technology to target participants.

"Thats why events like Mayo Pride and continued activism are so important. Our visibility is our solidarity, and there are more people who support equality than those who oppose it.

However, the far right targets marginalized groups, especially the trans community. Even 10 years after marriage equality, we need Pride because our rights can be rolled back.

Lies and misinformation spread quickly, so its crucial to call them out, even if it means confronting family or friends. We saw during the recent CARE referendum how quickly narratives can turn against us. Its vital to keep fighting and supporting each other."

READ: Mayo restaurant wins national award in the best chef category
Fifth and sixth class students from Holy Trinity National School will be packing their schoolbags and heading from Mayo to Dublin later this month for the Our World Awards.

The school, based in Westport, will be in the running for a massive ten awards at the event, which will take place in Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30.

READ MORE: Mayos Yes Changed My Life: Coming Home, Love, and the Power of Acceptance

The list of awards is as follows:

School of the Year

Global Goals

Irish Aid Programme

Rising Star Creative Star

STEM

School and Community Impact

Global Citizenship Education

An Iontrail Ghaeilge is Fearr

Outstanding School Engagement Awards

The Westport pupils project, titled A Better World, examined the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on how global challenges such as climate change, poverty, and access to clean water can be tackled locally and globally.

The class reflected on the impact of their school community on the world around them, taking stock of both the positive and negative causes of their actions, before setting personal and group goals to look after the planet.

READ MORE: Post Office in north Mayo set to reopen

Neale Richmond, the Minister of State for International Development, was full of praise for the pupils of Holy Trinity.

I am really looking forward to meeting the pupils from Holy Trinity National School and their teacher at the national final on May 30, Minister Rickmond stated. I know that there is a great sense of excitement around the event in Dublin Castle.

I am also looking forward to personally thanking our primary school teachers for their continued commitment, not just to participating in the Our World Awards, but also for nurturing an ethos of global citizenship amongst our young people.

Holy Trinity National School, Westport, will be amongst the 15 schools in Dublin Castle for the ceremony, which is run by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
by Colin Kirkland , May 21, 2025

Publicis Groupe announced Wednesday that it has acquired influencer marketing platform Captiv8, with plans to partner the company with Las Vegas-based marketing company Influential to power its influencer offerings across the globe.

With Captiv8 now under the vast umbrella of companies owned by Publicis Groupe, the French multinational advertising and public relations giant says it will launch the worlds largest creator network.

Along with its millions of everyday creators, Captiv8 has spent the past 10 years building its top-tier creator ecosystem, attracting 800 enterprise brands, 15 million creators -- about 95% of all creators with 5,000 or more followers.

Paired with Influential -- another Publicis-owned company -- coverage will also include 90% of all influencers, with over 1 million followers.

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Captiv8s reach extends to 120 countries, adapted to local languages and currencies, logging about 2.5 billion social posts per year.

Publicis Groupe will be able to connect its clients with Captiv8s network, while also providing them with access to the companys influencer platform, now largely powered by Perplexity AI.

Last week, Captiv8 founder and CEO Krishna Submaranian spoke with MediaPost about the company's recent partnership with Perplexity AI, stating that the search engines Sonar models have been integrated into Captiv8s core workflow, offering clients AI-powered creator vetting, an AI agent and more.

According to a Captiv8 spokesperson, there will be no disruptions with Captiv8s Perplexity AI partnership under new ownership.

Per the new acquisition, Publicis Groupe says that Captiv8s platform will underpin Publicis global Connected Influencer offering and be powered by Epsilons CoreID -- an identity graph of 250 million protected consumer IDs that clients can use to enhance first-party data to recognize market intent and provide customers with the ability to run activations across social platforms, media channels and markets in real time. Epsilon is also owned by Publicis Groupe.



Moving forward, Publicis Groupe plans to improve clients conversions across social media, commerce and affiliate channels within a single environment, while providing full-funnel measurement solutions.

This acquisition is valued at $150 million, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
by Fern Siegel , May 22, 2025

Michelle Obama wanted kids to move. Generation Wild wants them to move outside.

Denver agency Sukle helped Generation Wild launch a campaign that connects kids to the outdoors. The program is made up of a statewide push designed to inspire Colorado families and a network of 12 Generation Wild communities engaging 270,000 kids with outdoor programs and activities.

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The 60-second YouTube spot features flowers encouraging a child to go out and play. Sukle worked with Jelly, a creative production company. Matte Cooper directed.

Wilderflowers is distributing more than 120,000 free wildflower seed packets across the state. Thats more than 151 million seeds.

The movement was inspired by a University of Michigan study revealing that, on average, today's children spend less than seven minutes a day outside in unstructured play. Thats less time than any generation before them  and it's having negative effects on kids' mental and physical well-being. Generation Wild is working to change that.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children and teens who spend time playing outside sleep better, reduce the risk of obesity and are more engaged in learning.

The campaign directs families to locations where they can pick up free seeds native to Colorado. Plus, more than 663 classrooms have opted to get seeds directly into the hands of Colorado kids.

Were thrilled to partner with Generation Wild on this campaign and to debut this film that captures the magic of what happens when children connect with nature, said Mike Sukle, CCO, Sukle. Parents know kids need to get outside more, but sometimes its hard to find activities. Wilderflowers gives them one that introduces kids to the local ecosystem, supports habitats for local pollinators and enhances their learning and imagination.

The Wilderflower seed mix was developed in partnership with Applewood Seed Company and vetted in partnership with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Butterfly Pavilion.
by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, May 22, 2025

Microsoft has fired an employee who protested the companys work that supplied the Israeli military with technology used for the war in Gaza.



Joe Lopez, now a former firmware software engineer at Microsoft, interrupted Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella's speech in the opening keynote at the company's annual Build developer conference on Monday. Nadella was there to tell developers about the company's technology advancements.

Lopez was escorted out of the room and later sent a mass email to colleagues as to why he disrupted the event, disputing the companys claims about how its Azure cloud computing platform is used in Gaza. The letter has since been published on Medium.

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As one of the largest companies in the world, Microsoft has immeasurable power to do the right thing: demand an end to this senseless tragedy, or we will cease our technological support for Israel, read the email. If leadership continues to ignore this demand, I promise that it wont go unnoticed. The world has already woken up to our complicity and is turning against us. The boycotts will increase and our image will continue to spiral into disrepair.

A Microsoft company spokesperson acknowledged the protest and email to MediaPost, but stopped short of saying that emails have been blocked that include terms related to Palestine and Gaza.

"Sending unsolicited email to large numbers of employees at work is not appropriate," a Microsoft spokesperson wrote in the email to MediaPost. "We have an established forum for employees who have opted into a variety of issues for this reason. Over the past couple of days, a few emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in."

The protest at this week's live Microsoft event is one of several pro-Palestinian disruptions at technology events. These protesters are also using a variety of social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to spread their views, whether or not the information is correct.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and other militant groups supporting the Palestinians made armed incursions into Israel from Gaza and over 1,200 civilians were murdered.
by Ray Schultz , May 22, 2025

Google, which joined California in promising funding for newsrooms in the state, has now jumped on board in reducing that support.

Earlier this week, California announced that its expected $30 million payout to support newsrooms will be cut by $20 million during the states 2025-26 fiscal year.

Google is now following suit, reducing its $15 million commitment by a third, according to multiple reports.

The result is that combined funding will now total $20 million, down from the $45 million originally committed.

Reports say that Google could still increase its contribution.

On the California side, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is facing a $12 billion increase in the states anticipated budget shortfall.

Last year, California reached an agreement with Google that would provide funding to newsrooms and create an AI accelerator while avoiding a legal showdown with Google and other firms.

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This resulted in creation of the News Transformation Fund, through which Google was to pay $55 million over five years, starting with $15 million in the first year, and the state was to provide $30 million in the first year and $10 million per annum over the next four years.

We appreciate the leadership of Governor Newsom and Assemblymember (Buffy) Wicks in fulfilling the framework established last year, says Jaffer Zaidi, vice president of global news partnerships at Googles parent company Alphabet according to Politico.

Zaidi adds, Were committed to its success, and based on the agreement, were pleased to match the State of Californias initial contribution to the Civic Media Fund.
In a move that pushes the boundaries of Constitutional prohibition against a state religion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted an evangelical prayer service in the middle of the day at the Pentagon in which a pastor praised President Donald Trump as "sovereignly appointed."

A program for the event called it the "Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer and Worship Service." It was held at the Pentagon's auditorium and was broadcast throughout the building on its internal cable network.

While Hegseth made an opening prayer, the majority of the service was run by the defense secretary's personal pastor from a Tennessee church whose leaders have a documented history of advocating for male-led Christian authority over society.

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Standing behind a podium bearing the logo of the Defense Department, Hegseth declared that "this is precisely where I need to be, exactly where we need to be as a nation, at this moment in prayer, on bended knee, recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," according to an audio recording of the event obtained by Military.com.

A video of the service was also posted online by the Defense Department.

Hegseth proceeded to add that the prayer service was voluntary but encouraged those in attendance to "let those you work with know about it."

Meanwhile, the pastor, Brooks Potteiger, prayed for the Pentagon to "become a place where Christians come together to do just this, and we see you move in power, not just through the Pentagon, but through our nation's capital and down throughout this great nation."

Some Defense Department employees said they received an emailed invitation to the event on Wednesday morning, with at least one person remarking that it went to a personal email account.

When asked about the service, Pentagon spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said that "many different faiths have regular services in the Pentagon Chapel or elsewhere in the Pentagon" and that Hegseth's office "envisions that these prayer and worship services will be a monthly occurrence."

It is not clear whether any of those services that Wilson referred to were advertised via email, broadcast internally, or hosted by the top Pentagon official.

Wilson also stopped short of saying that those forthcoming services would feature other religions, and she noted that any participating civilian clergy are responsible for their own travel expenses.

A defense official said Potteiger paid for his own travel.

Meanwhile, top Hegseth aide Tami Radabaugh posted about the event on social media and described it as the "first monthly Christian Prayer and Worship Service at the DoD."

Defense officials did not answer questions about whether the event ran afoul of the First Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the U.S. government from establishing or endorsing one faith above others.

CNN, citing a national security legal expert, reported that the event was a "clear violation" of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, Trump has a long track record of pushing to blur America's long-standing traditions that separate church and state. Shortly after taking office for his second term, he established a White House Faith Office and signed an executive order banning "anti-Christian bias" and to "end the anti-Christian weaponization of government."

Hegseth's pastor, who came from Tennessee for the service at the Pentagon, runs the Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship -- a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

The group's governing documents reserve church leadership roles for men and prohibit women from being "mustered for combat."

Hegseth has long been an opponent of women in military combat roles and argued in his last book that the achievements of female service members were inflated or the result of diversity efforts.

"They don't care how many battles we lose as long as our dead are diverse," he wrote, without specifying who "they" were. "We can see this in how the woke PR machine has spun stories of female service members."

Potteiger's sermon featured several references to the Pentagon and military.

"If our Lord is sovereign, even over the sparrows' fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world, including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles, including strategy meetings and war room debriefings. Jesus has the final say over all of it," he said.

The church documents also call being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender a "perversion."

"We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointed -- for President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land," Potteiger said in the sermon. "We pray that you would surround him with faithful counselors who fear your name and love your priesthoods."

Ahead of Hegseth's confirmation to lead the Pentagon, USA Today reported that a podcast run by Potteiger and Joshua Haymes, another member of the leadership at Pilgrim Hill, often features the concept of the "sphere sovereignty" in which "Christian men are over three equally powerful spheres -- the government, church and family -- to maintain order and submissiveness through different forms of discipline."

When Hegseth introduced Potteiger on Wednesday, he said that the pastor had "long been a mentor of mine, of my wife and I, of our family" and that he had participated in Bible studies with him "long before anything like this seemed possible."

"And now here we are," he added.

Related: Pentagon Will Use Health Screenings, Commanders to Ferret Out Trans Troops for Separations
A Navy petty officer faces federal charges after he allegedly sextorted children into making pornography and blackmailed one of them into cutting his pedophile moniker into her skin, according to federal court documents.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Rumaldo Valdez, 22, aka Duck, was charged in a 12-page criminal complaint filed May 16.

The complaint details graphic videos depicting young girls being raped, tortured and forced into sexual acts and self-harm. Valdez was allegedly part of a group loosely identified with an ideological extremist group preying on children online.

Valdez was assigned to Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific, a U.S. Department of Defense installation in Wahiawa.

He is interested in coding and computer science, according to a motion to detain Valdez without bail filed Tuesday. Valdez allegedly edited and created online contraband for pedophiles.

The criminal complaint documents files, videos and images found on Valdezs devices that depict mostly girls and at least one boy, some as young as 1 year old. Other victims ranged in age from 4 to 12 years old.

Valdez made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. His detention hearing is set for 10 :30 a.m. Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren.

In 2024 the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip about a group using the server of an online digital community to extort minors into creating self-harm material and child pornography.

Valdez allegedly sent victims links to malicious files that, if clicked on, would install malware on their computers that the server members could then use to accomplish blackmail.

Intelligence gathered by the FBI alleges Valdez, operating online as Duck, coerced a minor female, about 14 to 16 years old, into recording a masturbation video.

Valdez allegedly used that footage to blackmail the girl into recording and sharing a cutting video in which she carved Duck  into the skin on her arm, according to federal court records.

He allegedly promoted the video online.

In my experience investigating the Offending Server and similar online groups, I know that participants in such groups often collect victim fan signs (media ) as trophies from their online extortions and championing their aliases, read an affidavit from an FBI agent.

Federal agents documented an online conversation Valdez allegedly had with another pedophile where Valdez was lauded for instantly supplying child pornography on demand.

The user told Valdez, You probably watch it on your free time.

Oh yeah, I do it all the time. I get bored. Normal porn wont do it for me anymore, Valdez allegedly replied.

In other online dialogues allegedly captured by law enforcement, Valdez described to other users how he blackmailed minor children and their guardians.

Valdez faces one count of knowingly possessing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with said visual depiction having traveled in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.

Valdez was also charged with knowingly possessing any material containing child pornography, while in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. or U.S. government land, and knowingly mailing, transporting or shipping child pornography, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Slack is prosecuting the case.

In March 2024, federal agents obtained the computer-user profile for Valdez from the Navys government-owned server documenting his internet activity.

A review of Valdezs profile allegedly found that between October 2023 and February 2024, while using a Navy computer and network, and his Navy-issued computer-user profile, Valdez accessed the online community he used to access and spread child pornography about 10, 000 times.

Investigators also found internet searches related to hacking, remote-access tools, malware, including commands to remove all files and directories and to delete a registry through a single command.

On May 31, FBI agents searched Valdez and his residence at NCTAMS, Pacific in Wahiawa.

They seized an operating-system drive housed within a desktop-computer tower on Valdezs desk, a SanDisk solid-state drive on the same desk, a Maxtor solid-state drive extracted from the desktop-computer tower, and an iPhone 14.

Valdez enlisted in the Navy on June 22, 2021 ; began training at Great Lakes, Ill., in December 2021 ; completed training in Pensacola, Fla., between June and August 2022 ; and was permanently assigned to NCTAMS starting Aug. 24, 2023, according to federal court records.

In 2021, law enforcement received CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about Duck  and others who were producing and sharing child sexual abuse material.

NCTAMS Pacific assures command and control and provides vital command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence warfighting support to naval, joint, agency, and coalition forces afloat and ashore in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas of operation.

The roughly 700-person-strong command is mostly at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickams Wahiawa Annex.

When asked whether the federal investigation involves other Navy personnel, U.S. Department of Justice officials declined comment.

Sextortion, a crime not currently defined by federal law, but aggressively investigated and prosecuted with existing laws, is on the rise in Hawaii and across the country.

In 2023 the National Center for Missing & Exploited Childrens Cyber Tipline received 186, 819 reports of online enticement, the category that includes sextortion.

Between 2021 and 2023 the number of online enticement reports increased by 323 %, according to the center.

 2025 The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Visit www.staradvertiser.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
An active-duty member of the U.S. Navy told a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant Tuesday morning that a passenger seated next to him had a bomb on the plane they had just boarded, prompting the evacuation of the aircraft just before its scheduled departure from the San Diego International Airport, officials said.

A search of the plane turned up nothing suspicious and the flight took off for Honolulu about five hours after its originally scheduled departure.

The Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department identified the suspect Tuesday evening as a 35-year-old member of the Navy. Harbor Police officials said he was arrested on suspicion of making a false bomb threat, which is a misdemeanor, and violating a San Diego County Regional Airport Authority code of making a false report of a security threat.

During pushback from the gate, a guest was overheard making a threat to the safety of our aircraft, a Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. As a precaution, the captain immediately taxied the Airbus A330 to a safe location on the airfield, where it was met with local and federal law enforcement, and guests were safely deplaned.

There were 283 passengers and 10 crew members on board Hawaiian Airlines Flight 15 from San Diego to Honolulu, which was scheduled to take off at 8:28 a.m., according to Flightaware.com.

The passengers were eventually reboarded, and the flight departed around 2:15 p.m., an airline spokesperson said.

We appreciate their understanding during this situation and apologize for any concern this may have caused, the airline said. We are grateful for the professionalism and care of our flight attendants and pilots throughout this event.

Harbor Police dispatchers were called about the alleged bomb threat by the planes captain shortly after 8:45 a.m.

The suspect was onboard Hawaiian Airlines flight 15 when he told a flight attendant the passenger next to him had a bomb, the Harbor Police Department said in a statement. The flight attendant informed the captain of the plane about the potential threat as the flight was pulling away from the jetway and getting ready to depart.

A Harbor police SWAT team and canine teams were sent to the scene, along with members of a Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. They searched the aircraft and its contents, and nothing suspicious was found, the statement said.

There is no threat to the public or travelers, and operations at San Diego International Airport are normal, the statement said.

Online jail records did not show the suspect in custody Tuesday evening.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call Harbor Police at 619-686-6272.

Staff reporter Alex Riggins contributed to this report.

2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune. Visit sandiegouniontribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
WASHINGTON  A Michigan Republican congressman is requesting $90 million in earmarked federal funding to help pay for a runway project at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County ahead of the anticipated arrival of a new F-15EX fighter squadron in 2028.

U.S. Rep. John James of Shelby Township formally requested the money this month in a letter to House appropriators, telling them that, with President Donald Trump's new directive to send 21 F-15EX aircraft to Selfridge, the runway project "would be vital to the storage and deployment of as many aircraft needed in times of crisis."

The F-15EX fighter mission is intended to replace the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II squadron at Selfridge that is set to be retired starting next year at the base on Lake St. Clair northeast of Detroit.

A relocation of the Selfridge runway is required for safety reasons, James said. The aim is to shift the runway to the north, away from 65 residential homes along the Clinton River south of the base within the designated 3,000-foot by 3,000-foot "clear zone"  an area kept clear of obstructions to protect both people and property on the ground from air traffic.

"We are focused on this. We're not throwing a whole bunch of things up against the wall. We're telling the committee specifically that this is within President Trump's intent. This is what's best for the entire nation," said James, who is running for the GOP nomination for governor in 2026.

"Within 500 miles of Selfridge, we have 20% of [the] Canada and U.S. population. It allows us to react quickly, as we did during our most recent terror attack on 9/11, and we have two years to do [the runway]. So we're asking for the full $90 million.

"Based upon our track record in the past, I'm very confident that we have a good chance to get it, especially with the local support."

James asked bipartisan members of Michigan's delegation to sign on this week in support of his Selfridge earmark request. A delegation letter to the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees military construction touts the 4,000 jobs that Selfridge supports, plus its $850 million annual impact on the regional economy.

"The current infrastructure is insufficient to support the safe accommodation, maintenance and deployment of next-generation aircraft," James wrote. "The proposed runway extension is essential to fulfill these advanced requirements and to maintain Selfridge's operational readiness in support of national defense."

James also submitted letters of support from Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel and former U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, who is Selfridge's honorary base commander and Macomb's public works commissioner.

James said state and local funds are expected to pay for the rest of the $124 million runway project, though accommodating the bed-down of 21 F-15EXs at Selfridge will incur additional costs. Officials said larger hangars, specialized maintenance needs, and possibly a new flight simulator building are also under discussion.

James said he is "laser-focused" on the runway reconfiguration because it has the longest lead time.

"These fighters take off in two years, right? In addition to this, I also have appropriations and authorization requests in for the additional fighters," James said. "We're prioritizing this because this isn't a done deal yet. I'm doing everything I can to get the biggest piece of the puzzle solved. This is the critical piece that we'll need to do now."

In testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the new secretary of the U.S. Air Force said future Pentagon spending will support Trump's decision last month to send F-15EX fighters to Selfridge, pledging that they would arrive on time in 2028 as Trump announced.

Based on the president's decision, the Air Force is planning to execute the placement of F-15EXs at Selfridge," Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink said in response to a question from Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Peters has said he expects to see a budget request by the Pentagon for additional procurement of F-15EXs when the Trump administration releases its budget proposal later this month. The 21 warplanes would cost at least $2 billion, as each F-15EX costs about $99 million.

Peters' office said he is working closely with the Michigan National Guard to determine and request the funding needed to meet Selfridge's military construction needs.

On Tuesday, the senator urged Air Force officials to prioritize bases with near-term military construction needs to support flying missions that are "imminent," like at Selfridge.

Gen. David W. Allvin, chief of staff of the Air Force, told Peters that the goal is to ensure that aircraft platforms aren't sent to their assigned bases without supporting infrastructure.

"That timing may adjust the timing of the platforms or the infrastructure, one of the two," Allvin said. "Our target is to make sure that when the platforms get there, they're able to be used as soon as possible."

More: Air Force secretary affirms plan to send F-15EX aircraft to Selfridge, and on time

The Air Force will be sending a team to visit Selfridge in early June to develop a plan for the addition of the new F-15EX fighter aircraft and for the KC-46A refueling aircraft that are coming to the base in 2028 and 2030, respectively, said Michael Kroll, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Kroll said part of that plan will include a comprehensive list of construction projects needed to support both flying missions.

The state in collaboration with the National Guard Bureau previously awarded contracts for the design and environmental assessment required for the project at Selfridge that proposes relocating the primary runway northward to shift the southern clear zone away from residential areas.

The relocation will require adjustments to a major county road, drainage systems and some base infrastructure at the runway's northern end but will preserve existing housing along the Clinton River, Kroll said.

Construction for the non-airfield portion of the project that is subject to state funding is expected to begin in the summer of 2026.

State officials have suspected that the safety zone conflict is part of the reason the Air Force passed over Selfridge after competing for an international training center for the F-35 fighter aircraft.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer previously pledged $100 million in state money toward runway and other infrastructure improvements at Selfridge to try to attract another fighter mission to the base.

The state Legislature has allocated approximately $28 million in funding for upgrades, including the runway project at the base. A panel of the state Senate approved an additional $26 million last month.

 2025 The Detroit News.

Visit detroitnews.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
LONDON  The prince of Wales dubbed a new warship a "hell of a piece of kit  screams UK power" after it was officially named by his wife.

Kate pressed a button to smash an exclusive bottle of whisky into the hull of the grey stealth-like HMS Glasgow, the first of eight Type 26 anti-submarine frigates to be built in Glasgow.

Wearing a navy blue outfit with white details and a matching hat, she announced the moment by telling guests gathered at a River Clyde berth in Glasgow: I have the pleasure to name this ship HMS Glasgow, may God bless her and all who sail on her.

Crowds of employees and their families from BAE Systems, which is leading the design and build of the frigates, and senior naval officers applauded as the single malt bottle sent a shower of whisky into the water.

William later told a group of BAE staff during a reception: Its massive, I can see thats where the future is going.

Its quite impressive, its a hell of a piece of kit  screams UK power.

The ceremony began with a royal salute from the ships company for Kate, the official sponsor for HMS Glasgow, and William.

Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Martin Connell thanked the royal couple for their support and all those involved in the Type 26 endeavor.

He also hailed the latest ship as a pure-bred anti-submarine warfare platform, setting the standard for naval warfare, ready to meet the global and geopolitical challenges of today.

Connell added: HMS Glasgow and her class represent the next chapter of naval innovation, safeguarding the UKs interests and contributing to national prosperity.

Simon Lister, BAE Systems managing director, told those gathered for the ceremony: In a world that continues to be volatile, we cannot underestimate the importance of this ship and the work we are doing here.

The couple had a tour of the vessel, which is being fitted out, after the naming ceremony then met BAE staff, apprentices and members of HMS Glasgows company in a nearby training centre.

William and Kate competed to complete a pipe puzzle connecting pieces of copper piping  a secondary school Stem activity  under the watchful eye of BAE apprentices.

The prince later complained he did not realize it was a competition, saying to laughter from Kate, its a race?  thats fine, then Ill race but when his wife was declared the winner, William replied her effort was wobbly.

Apprentice Natalie Black guided Kate through the test and said afterwards: We had a little discussion about what her kids get up to and I complimented her on how well she was doing up the bolts and she said it was just like playing with the kids toys.

Kate was given another task  to complete a traditional ships clinometer, which measures the lean angle of a vessel  and tightened a wing nut on the simple tool which will go on display on HMS Glasgows bridge.

During the reception, the princess repeatedly spoke about how impressed she was by the sheer scale of the ship, the number of people involved in the build and the technology on board.

Talking to the ships company and their families, she said: Its so exciting to see it all come together, all the technology is so impressive, she said.

Whats really interesting as well is seeing the international interest.

She admitted that she was still getting to grips with the naval language, telling one woman: Im still learning all my naval lingo. There are a lot of abbreviations that I dont fully understand. Ive got a lot to learn.

2025 dpa GmbH. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A Marine sergeant was sentenced to eight years' confinement, a dishonorable discharge, total forfeiture of pay, and reduction in rank to private after he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing a civilian aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, last year, service officials told Military.com.

Dakota Honstein pleaded not guilty and was acquitted of the most severe charge -- murder, also known as Article 118 in military justice -- but was sentenced May 2 for involuntary manslaughter and violation of a lawful general order for wrongfully possessing a firearm on base, which he used to kill the civilian in late January 2024.

Service officials did not identify the victim, a woman referred to only by "S.S." in charging documents Military.com previously reported on. Specific details about the case, such as the relationship between Honstein and the victim, and details about the events that led to her death, remain unclear.

Read Next: Cots, MREs, Per Diem: Army Offers New Details for Soldiers Sent to Massive D.C. Military Parade

"We are unable to confirm the nature of the relationship between Honstein and the civilian," said 1st Lt. Zachary Cargill, a spokesperson for II Marine Expeditionary Force, where Honstein served as a fire support Marine. "However, we know they communicated electronically for a period of a few weeks after meeting online."

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service apprehended Honstein aboard Lejeune on Jan. 27, 2024, the date of the shooting. At the time, officials did not name Honstein, but said that a Marine shot and killed a civilian in "an isolated incident" at the base, that they had recovered a weapon following the shooting and that NCIS was investigating the incident.

Honstein will serve seven years in confinement for the involuntary manslaughter charge, which was described as "culpable negligence" in his charge sheet, and one year in confinement for violating the weapon order, Cargill said. He did not say where Honstein would be confined.

Lt. Col. Matthew Neely, the lead counsel for the trial, said "the defense does not have any comment" when asked about the outcome of the case and for comment on behalf of Honstein.

Originally from Florida, Honstein joined the active-duty service in 2018.

He was assigned to the 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company in II MEF, which is located at Lejeune. He was promoted to sergeant in 2022 and occasionally appeared on II MEF media releases in the years leading up to the shooting.

Related: Marine Sergeant Charged with Murder in Alleged Shooting Death of Civilian at Camp Lejeune
SEOUL, South Korea  North Korea's second naval destroyer was damaged in its failed launch to the water this week, state media reported Thursday, in an embarrassment for leader Kim Jong Un as he pushes to modernize his naval forces.

It's not common for North Korea to acknowledge military-related setbacks, but observers say the disclosure of the failed ship launch suggests that Kim is serious about his naval advancement program and confident of ultimately achieving its objectives.

During a launching event at the northeastern port of Chongjin on Wednesday, the newly built 5,000-ton-class destroyer became unbalanced and was punctured in its bottom sections after a transport cradle on the stern section slid off first and became stuck, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

KCNA didn't provide details on what caused the problem, the severity of the damage or whether anyone was injured.

According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism." Kim called for a ruling Workers Party meeting slated for late June to address their irresponsible errors."

It's a shameful thing. But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it's speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build" a greater navy, said Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seouls Hanyang University.

Moon suspected the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and were rushed to put it in the water.

The damaged vessel was likely in the same class as the countrys first destroyer, unveiled April 25, which experts assessed as the Norths largest and most advanced warship to date. Kim called the first vessel, named Choe Hyon  a famed Korean guerilla fighter during the Japanese colonial period  a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the militarys operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.

State media described that ship as designed to handle various weapons systems, including anti-air and anti-ship weapons as well as nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. Kim said the ship was expected to enter active duty early next year and later supervised test-firings of missiles from the warship.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea.

The North Korean report came after recent commercial satellite images indicated that the country was building its second destroyer at a shipyard in Chongjin.

Beyond Parallel, a website run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the satellite imagery of Chongjins Hambuk shipyard on May 12 showed that a second vessel in the Choe Hyon-class of guided missile destroyers was under construction.

A report by the North Korea-focused 38 North website assessed last week that the destroyer built at the Chongjin shipyard was being prepared to be launched sideways from the quay, a method that has been rarely used in North Korea. The report said the previous destroyer launched at the western shipyard of Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.

South Korean officials and experts say the Choe Hyon destroyer was likely built with Russian assistance as the two countries' military partnerships are booming. While North Koreas naval forces are considered inferior to South Koreas, analysts still view the destroyer as a serious security threat, as it could enhance the countrys offensive and defensive capabilities.

Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the Norths nuclear program. He says the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening his navy.

Hours after releasing the report on the damaged destroyer, North Korea fired multiple cruise missiles from an area near the northeastern town of Sondok, according to South Korea's military. The launches were a continuation of a streak of weapons-testing activities by North Korea in recent years. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff didn't immediately say how far the missiles flew, noting the launches were being analyzed by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.
A retired Marine Corps captain, who was caught with a kilogram brick of cocaine last year when the small plane he was learning to fly made an emergency landing on an Oceanside highway, was sentenced Wednesday in San Diego federal court to two years and six months in federal prison.

Troy Othneil Smith, 36, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, admitting he had also mailed a package of cocaine across the country in 2023.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lyndzie Carter told U.S. District Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro on Wednesday that the 21-year-old flight instructor who made the emergency landing with Smith on Sept. 26 on state Route 76 was not knowingly involved in transporting drugs, despite his initial arrest. Carter said she questioned Gabriel Breit for three hours and determined he was unaware that Smith, his student, was carrying drugs in a backpack as the pair flew from Arizona to Oceanside.

Breit, a certified commercial pilot and flight instructor, lost his license for several months and had to fight to get it restored, Carter told the judge. "This derailed this young man's career," she said.

Court documents unsealed shortly after the aircraft emergency revealed that the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Postal Inspection Service had been investigating Smith for more than a year for allegedly mailing a total of more than 2.6 pounds of cocaine to North Carolina in several shipments sent from North County post offices. Carter wrote in sentencing documents that Smith was learning to fly so he could pilot cross-country distribution trips.

"I regret every single minute of that episode of my life," Smith told Montenegro on Wednesday. He also apologized to his family for breaking their trust and discrediting the family name, telling the judge that he was working on "being on the right side of society again."

Smith and his attorney had asked for a sentence no longer than 18 months, citing his honorable military service and his lack of a prior criminal record.

"While the offenses are serious, they do not involve violence or weapons," defense attorney Ashby Sorensen wrote in a sentencing memorandum. "Mr. Smith's involvement did not include sophisticated trafficking operations or cartel affiliations. Rather, they reflect a discrete and personal attempt to mitigate severe financial stress."

Sorensen argued in sentencing documents that Smith's "inadvertent failure to discontinue military aid" had resulted in the garnishment of his military disability payments that he'd become dependent on. "Smith began self-medicating with marijuana and cocaine to cope with anxiety and insomnia," his attorney wrote, then turned to drug distribution as an income source.

Smith's argument that his actions were financially motivated was undercut by the "thousands (of dollars) he was spending on private flight lessons," the prosecutor told Montenegro.

The judge sided with the prosecution's 30-month sentence recommendation. Montenegro cited criminal conduct that "spanned over at least 13 months and took significant planning" and also the dangerous emergency landing in which "he or others could have been injured or killed."

That occurred around 1:45 a.m. on Sept. 26 on SR-76 near Canyon Drive in Oceanside after a nearly three-hour flight from Mesa, Ariz., according to documents in the case. As the pilot and Smith entered San Diego County airspace, they began experiencing mechanical issues with the single-engine Piper Cherokee and initially planned an ocean landing.

The aircraft began working again when they were over the water, and they turned the plane toward the Oceanside Municipal Airport. But the engine shut off a second time before they arrived, prompting the pilot to land about a mile west of the airport, according to court documents. A mechanic who inspected the aircraft observed that it likely malfunctioned because the fuel tank that a fuel gauge selector was set to was empty, even though a different fuel tank was full.

When Oceanside police officers arrived, they noticed Smith pacing back and forth while carrying his backpack, according to court documents. The officers alleged that when Smith believed no one was watching, he tried to unzip the backpack and hide the roughly 2.2-pound brick of cocaine in bushes next to the roadway.

Smith also admitted in his plea agreement to carrying a large wad of cash and a small vial of cocaine in his pocket that morning.

At that time, Smith had been under investigation for more than a year, since June 2023, when postal inspectors in North Carolina alerted their San Diego counterparts that packages of drugs were arriving in their state from post offices across North County, according to documents in the case. While Smith pleaded guilty to sending just one of those packages, he admitted in his plea agreement that he'd also sent others.

A search of Smith's residence turned up drug ledgers and food storage items that are commonly used to package and try to conceal drugs that are sent through the mail, according to prosecutors.

Carter told the judge Wednesday that the government considered a veteran's diversion program for Smith but ultimately decided it was unwarranted given his "intimate involvement" in distributing drugs.

 2025 The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Visit sandiegouniontribune.com.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Some 200 people gathered Wednesday night at a heartbreaking vigil for the young sailors who died or were injured on the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtemoc after its crash into the Brooklyn Bridge.

The solemn crowd  including Mexican and New York City officials, Mayor Adams among them  gathered in the pouring rain on the Brooklyn side of the iconic bridge to honor those lost in the crash. A mariachi band sang Mexican folk songs, and portraits of America Yamilet Sanchez, 20, and Adal Jair Marcos, 23, were plastered on metal barricades along with the U.S. and Mexican flags.

I understand the circle of life. But when I look at the faces of these young people, these young people who lost their lives in the military service thats important to their country, I dont have the logic, Adams said. I dont have the words, but all I do know in moments like this, you trust God.

As Adams arrived at the vigil, he bowed his head in front of each of the fallen sailors portraits, then placed a bundle of white flowers in front of each portrait.

These are moments when you realize how precious life is, and Im here today because the people of Mexico that live in this city have showed us how much you love your home country, and you love your adopted country, America, Adams said.

The bodies of Sanchez and Jair Marcos have been repatriated to Mexico, where a vigil for Sanchez was held.

We are grieving with the world and our brothers in Mexico, said Bronx native Fabian Aguilar, 56, a dancer with Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Nueva York, who attended the vigil. We are very sad over this tragedy. We stand in the rain and mourn because we are all brothers.

Madelin Martinez, 16, of Brooklyn said the vigil was really touching.

It came out of the blue, they were gone in minutes, Martinez said. They were too young to die and they were not with their families. It was so important that they were here. With everything going on and [ U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], they represented our culture and now they are gone.

According to the FDNY, at least 19 of those aboard were treated for injuries, with 11 initially listed in critical condition.

Most of the crew that was aboard Cuauhtemoc  including some who were initially treated for injuries  were safely back in Mexico by Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

Following an interagency meeting, discussions were held by the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the ships contractors and City Hall representatives focusing on the repair efforts on the ship, the crews welfare and tow logistics, according to city Emergency Management spokesman Aries Dela Cruz.

The Coast Guard continues to support the vessel and crew of the ARM Cuauhtemoc. The U.S. Navy is coordinating shoreside housing while repairs proceed. All injured crew have been discharged from the hospital and are now safely back in Mexico, Dela Cruz said. Final plans for repairing the impacted masts are being prepared for submission to the Coast Guard. A tow plan for the vessel is also in development for [ Coast Guard] review. An underwater hull survey is anticipated for Saturday.

Repairs are currently underway on the ship as officials wrapped up their damage assessment on Tuesday with marine surveyors and contractors accessing the vessel. The Cuauhtemoc hasnt sustained any damage to the hull, which would allow it to be moved from Pier 37, on Manhattans Lower East Side, with tugboat assistance. The National Transportation Safety Board is also checking if there are any data recorders holding pivotal evidence of how the crash occurred.

The training ship is expected to be towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it will be dry-docked as the investigation continues, Emergency Management officials said Tuesday. With wind and rain halting the process of towing the ship, the Cuauhtemoc is expected to move to a dry dock facility by Sunday.

The two fatalities occurred when the ships masts crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night. Multiple crew members aloft in the masts were left dangling in the air by their safety harnesses after the East River crash, but no one ended up in the water.

2025 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Giants signed catcher Andrew Knizner to a minor league contract. The deal was first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He has already made his organizational debut, collecting hits in each of his first three at-bats with Triple-A Sacramento.

Knizner is picking up where hed left off as a member of the Nationals organization. The 30-year-old had raked at a .382/.516/.500 clip with more walks than strikeouts over 23 games for their top affiliate. Washington nevertheless granted him his release over the weekend. Knizner was set to trigger an opt-out. The Nats preferred to stick with their current catching tandem of Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams rather than override the opt-out by calling him up.

While Knizner obviously isnt going to keep up this pace, hes a productive minor league hitter. He carried a .287/.379/.435 batting line over parts of four Triple-A seasons into play tonight. He has had a far tougher time against MLB pitching. Knizner is a career .210/.279/.317 hitter in almost 900 plate appearances at the big league level. He spent parts of five seasons backing up Yadier Molina and Willson Contreras, respectively, in St. Louis.

Knizner moved to Texas on a $1.825MM free agent deal heading into 2024. He spent most of the year as Jonah Heims backup, but he didnt perform especially well. Knizner hit .167/.183/.211 over 35 games. Texas acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline and designated Knizner for assignment not long after. He landed with the Diamondbacks via waiver claim. His time in Arizona consisted of 22 Triple-A games. The Snakes outrighted him off their 40-man roster without getting him into a big league contest.

Patrick Bailey is entrenched as the starting catcher in San Francisco. Sam Huff hasnt provided much in sporadic playing time as the backup. Hes hitting .200 with one homer and 22 strikeouts in 49 plate appearances. Knizner joins Max Stassi and Logan Porter as non-roster depth at Triple-A. Knizner has been the most productive of that trio in the minors this year, potentially positioning him as the top challenger if the Giants decide to move on from the out-of-options Huff at any point.
Michigans forests face increasing wildfire risks as climate change worsens conditions everywhere. MLive recently examined that threat and a somewhat paradoxical environmental solution: experts say more controlled burns are needed to prevent devastating wildfires.

Related: Fighting wildfire with fire: Can Michigan burn its way to healthier forests?

Related: More good fire in Michigan restores Indigenous land practices

Here are five takeaways from the reporting project:

1. Michigan faces significant wildfire risks despite its lush forests

Experts warn that decades of fire suppression left northern Michigan forests dangerously primed for catastrophic blazes under certain weather conditions. Fire expert Michele Richards describes Michigans pine forests as a tinder box waiting to go because of the lack of prescribed fires in these areas. The highest risk area is Crawford County, deep within the states flammable jack pine forests.

Recent history shows the threat is real. The Four Mile Road Fire in 2008 cost $1 million in firefighting expenses and threatened Grayling, while the 2010 Meridian Boundary Fire destroyed 12 homes near Roscommon. In 2012, the Duck Lake Fire in the Upper Peninsula destroyed more than 20 homes and threatened Newberry. Climate change is expected to worsen wildfire risks with hotter, drier periods.

2. Michigan significantly lags behind neighboring states in prescribed burning

Despite having approximately 20 million acres of forest and wildland, Michigan treats only about 20,000 acres annually with prescribed fires  a fraction of what experts say is needed. This places Michigan far behind neighboring Great Lakes states in prescribed fire management practices. Wisconsin burns between 50,000 and 75,000 acres yearly, while Minnesota treated over 83,000 acres with controlled burns last year.

Steven Woods, an ecologist and wildland fire specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources parks and recreation division, underscored the conundrum: We propose about a third of the number of burns that we would like to do, and we burn about a third of the units that we propose. So, we are not getting enough fire done. This backlog of needed burns is creating what western states call a fire deficit.

Volunteer Andrew Lidral uses a drip torch to start the burn on Saturday, April 12, 2025 during a Learn & Burn at Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve in Rockford, Mich. Hosted by Land Conservancy of West Michigan and the Michigan Prescribed Fire Council, the event offered members of the public a chance to witness a live 1-acre prescribed burn demonstration to learn about the ecological benefits from such techniques in tall grass prairies. Arthur H. Trickett-Wile | MLive.com

3. Multiple barriers prevent more widespread prescribed burning

Several obstacles limit Michigans prescribed burning efforts. Limited certified personnel, equipment shortages, and narrow windows of appropriate weather conditions all constrain controlled burning operations. Bureaucratic challenges further complicate matters  state and federal agencies typically dont collaborate on burns due to funding rules, liability protections must be settled, and burn plans face approval hurdles.

Additionally, prescribed fires consistently take a backseat to fighting active wildfires. Brian Stearns, a prescribed fire specialist for the U.S. Forest Service in the Huron-Manistee National Forests, said that even in ideal situations, Were trying to burn in the morning... and fight fire in the afternoon. This spring, most state DNR controlled burns were paused as workers focused on cleanup after a devastating ice storm wrecked northern forests.

4. New initiatives aim to expand Michigans prescribed burning capacity

Efforts are underway to increase Michigans prescribed burning capabilities. The DNR established a state certification program for private sector prescribed burn managers, with the first class of 20 students scheduled for September. GraceAnna Cooper, DNR prescribed fire specialist, expects this program to significantly increase burning capacity statewide.

Financial support is also growing. In 2023, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed and lawmakers approved a $3.7 million increase to the DNR budget for wildfire suppression and prescribed fire. This recurring annual funding allowed the agency to upgrade equipment and hire 13 full-time wildland fire specialists. Additionally, a unique partnership between the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa and the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula demonstrates how collaboration can increase burning capacity, with thousands of acres scheduled for controlled burns this season.

8 1 / 8 Tree ring research into Michigan's history of fire

5. Prescribed burning represents a return to Indigenous land management practices

Michigans Native peoples used controlled burning for millennia before European colonization introduced fire suppression policies. Indigenous communities burned habitats for various purposes, including blueberry production, insect control, pine regeneration, and improved hunting grounds. Tribal elder Frank Ettawageshik of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa in Harbor Springs said more controlled burning would bring back a key cultural element of the traditional ecological knowledge of Michigans Native peoples: Its restoring natural land practices, taking care of the land in a way that our ancestors had this knowledge.

Today, researchers are studying tree rings to understand historical fire patterns, revealing that Native burning was widespread in Michigan. Dani Fegan, the Sault Tribes forestry manager, explained that logging-era emphasis on timber harvesting and tree replanting moved away from Indigenous practices that evolved with the landscape over thousands of years. The return to prescribed burning represents what some tribal experts call good fire  an integral part of Indigenous land stewardship.

Sign up to receive Lake Effect, MLives weekly climate and environment newsletter.

Related articles:

Possible EPA rule change could rekindle more prescribed fire in Michigan forestry

Can intentional forest burning across the Great Lakes help prevent runaway wildfires?

The roster of future old-growth forests in Michigan is expanding

Hundreds march to shatter the silence of missing, murdered Indigenous people

Bills on Indigenous regalia, wild rice among Michigans tribal victories in 2024
The Ford Fireworks Show in Detroit ranks second behind Chicago's Navy Pier fireworks show as the best place to see fireworks in the entire country. Photo by Tanya Moutzalias | MLive

One of the most watched public fireworks shows in the entire country is getting some national accolades.

The annual Ford Fireworks show in Detroit ranks second on USA Todays 10Best list of the best places to watch fireworks, second only to Chicagos Navy Pier.

The 67th Ford Fireworks show will take place over the Detroit River on Monday, June 23 at 10:00 p.m.

Hundreds of thousands of people attend the free event each year, watching from places like Hart Plaza, the Detroit Riverwalk, Belle Isle and Windsor, Ontario.

The Ford Fireworks show in Detroit is so big that it takes not one, not two, but a total three barges to hold the pyrotechnics, USA Today wrote. In addition to the colorful display exploding above the Detroit River, spectators can enjoy live music and plenty of food and drinks each June.

Produced by The Parade Company, the Ford Fireworks will light up the Detroit skyline for 24 minutes and will also be shown live on WDIV-TV, Local 4.

USA Today has numerous 10Best lists which are first nominated by a panel of experts made up of editors from both USA Today and 10Best.com. The top 10 is then determined by a public vote.

Here is the list of the top 10 places to watch fireworks:
On Tuesday, May 20, President Donald Trump's administration said it would limit approval for seasonal COVID shots to seniors and those with at least one high-risk health problem. Pictured is a MLive file photo of "I got my COVID-19 vaccine" cards on a table at Bronson Methodist Hospital (Joel Bissell | MLive.com) Joel Bissell | MLive.com

The 2024-25 vaccine for COVID-19 was available to most everyone 6 months and older in Michigan, whether they chose to get it or not.

That may not be the case next year.

On Tuesday, May 20, the Trump administration said it would limit approval for seasonal COVID shots to seniors and those with at least one high-risk health problem.

It wasnt clear if otherwise low-risk people would still be eligible, or if the move would affect how insurers cover the next booster.

Michigans vaccine uptake has fallen off in recent years.

Related: Trump officials set new requirements for COVID vaccines in healthy adults and children

About 63% of residents have gotten at least one dose since the start of the pandemic. For the 2024-25 dose, just 12.2% of the population has been vaccinated, of which 54% were age 65 and older.

Comparatively, about 25.7% of residents got the 2024-25 flu shot, marking the lowest uptake in at least five years.

State health officials said they continue to urge all residents to use the tools available to them, including testing and getting vaccinated, against COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses -- if they are eligible.

We encourage Michiganders with questions to consult their health care provider, said MDHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin. She didnt further address questions about future vaccine eligibility.

The benefits of repeat dosing of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly among low-risk people with prior COVID infections or vaccine doses, is uncertain, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) leaders who published their framework Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

FDA officials will call for randomized, controlled trial data evaluating clinical outcomes for otherwise healthy people before approval is given for the general public.

Related: They got COVID-19 five years ago, and they dont know why theyre still sick

FDA leaders Dr. Vinay Prasad and Dr. Martin Makary called the previous U.S. policy a one-size-fits-all regulatory framework.

The U.S. policy has sometimes been justified by arguing that the American people are not sophisticated enough to understand age- and risk-based recommendations, Prasad and Makary wrote. We reject this view.

They said the new COVID-19 philosophy represents a balance of regulatory flexibility and a commitment to gold-standard science.

These clinical trials will inform future directions for the FDA, but more important, they will provide information that is desperately craved by health care providers and the American people, Prasad and Makary wrote.

Nationally, less than 25% of Americans receive a COVID-19 booster shot each year. The most common age group to get follow-up shots has been those 75 and older.

Conditions that would increase a persons risk of severe COVID-19 and thus would fall under the proposed eligibility criteria include:

Asthma;

Cancer;

Cerebrovascular disease;

Chronic kidney disease;

Some chronic lung and liver diseases;

Cystic fibrosis;

Diabetes (type 1 and 2);

Gestational diabetes;

Disabilities including Downs syndrome;

Heart conditions;

HIV;

Mental health conditions including mood disorders, depression and Schizophrenia spectrum disorders;

Dementia and Parkinsons disease;

Obesity;

Physical inactivity;

Pregnancy;

Primary immunodeficiencies;

History of smoking (current and former);

Transplant history;

Use of corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medications.

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said CDC studies have made clear that booster doses do offer protection against mild to moderate illness for four to six months after the shot, even in healthy people, as reported by AP.

The CDC continues to report hundreds of provisional COVID-19 deaths per week, including 210 the week ending May 3 and 284 the week ending April 26.

Michigan had more than 260 such deaths between January and February 2025, according to provisional state data.
An MLive file photo of a West Michigan pothole from April 3, 2025. Five drivers are being reimbursed for pothole-related vehicle damages in April, May and June to shine a light on poor road conditions. Arthur H. Trickett-Wile | MLive.

George Mathew of Allen Park was driving home after the birth of his daughter when he hit a pothole on an off-ramp, resulting in a torn tire and dented wheel.

Through the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA), Mathew is getting up to $758 to cover the damages as part of the three-month Pothole Payback Contest.
An MLive file photo of road construction signs. Michigan plans to suspend 58% of construction-related road closures for Memorial Day weekend. MLive file photo

Michigan is suspending road work and lifting traffic restrictions for about 58% of ongoing state projects to ease congestion this holiday weekend.

The state Department of Transportation (MDOT) will ease lane closures for 93 of 158 projects to increase safety and allow for smoother traffic flow for residents traveling on or around Memorial Day.

Work suspension will begin at 3 p.m. Friday. Restrictions will resume at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

While weve been able to pull back the barrels as much as we can for this kickoff to the busy summer travel season, some work zones must remain in place for safety reasons, State Transportation Director Bradley Wieferich said Thursday, May 22, via a prepared statement.

Officials remind Michigan travelers to remain patient and give extra time to reach their destination given the above-average expected traffic throughout the state.

AAA estimates more than 1.3 million residents will travel at least 50 miles from home this weekend. That would be a slight increase from 2024 and marks the second-highest forecast since AAA began tracking holiday traffic.

Below are some of the major projects that will continue to have traffic restrictions in place this weekend. A complete list of road projects is available through MDOTs online map and construction list.

I-75 in Mackinac County

Northbound traffic on I-75 in St. Ignace will continue to be shifted to the southbound side at Cheeseman Road.

M-48 in Chippewa County

Drivers will be detoured off M-48 at the bridge over I-75 near Rudyard. I-75 will be reduced to one lane in each direction with a 60 mph speed limit.

M-123 in Chippewa County

One lane of alternating traffic will remain with temporary traffic signals at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River for bridge work.

U.S. 41 in Alger County

The roadway will remain closed between M-67 and M-94 with a posted detour.

The Mackinac Bridge

The bridge stretching between Mackinac and Emmet counties will have one lane open in each direction.

M-72/M-22 in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties

One lane will be open in each direction between Division Street and M-22 with temporary traffic signals.

I-96 in Ionia County

Lane closures and traffic shifts remain between Sunfield and Bliss roads. The westbound I-96 ramps will also remain closed at Jordan Lake Road and M-66.

I-196 in Ottawa County

The highway will continue to have lane closures in each direction south of Holland at Lincoln Road (M-40), and the northbound M-40 ramp to eastbound I-196 will remain closed.

U.S. 131 in Kent County

One southbound lane will be closed between Leonard Street and Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids.

Additionally, traffic shifts and ramp closures will be in place between 68th and 100th streets.

I-94 in Berrien County

Two lanes will be open in each direction between mile markers 34 and 42, and between Britain Avenue and Red Arrow Highway.

U.S. 131 in Kalamazoo County

Two lanes will be open in each direction at the U.S. 131 BR interchange. U.S. 131 BR will have one lane open in each direction.

Zilwaukee Bridge in Saginaw County

I-75 will have all southbound lanes closed from Crane Road to Bay City. Drivers are advised to follow the posted detour.

I-475 in Genesee County

All southbound lanes between Carpenter Road and Broadway Boulevard will remain closed. One northbound lane will be open from Davison Road to Carpenter Road.

M-30 in Midland County

M-30 will be closed at U.S. 10, while U.S. 10 will have one lane open in each direction between West River Road and Hope Road.

M-36 in Sanilac County

The highway will be closed between Ruth Road and Maple Grove Road for bridge work.

I-94 Business Loop in Jackson County

Michigan Avenue/Louis Glick Highway in Jackson will be closed between Waterloo Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

I-96 in Eaton County

One westbound lane will be closed between Creyts Road and Lansing Road. Ramps to and from Lansing Road will remain closed.

I-96 in Livingston County

In Brighton, I-96 will have one lane closed in each direction at the Grand River Avenue interchange. The entrance ramp to westbound I-96 will be closed, while westbound Grand River Avenue will have one lane closed between Challis Road and Hilton Road.

Other I-96 closures in the county include the eastbound Exit 140 to Latson Road, and the Grand River Avenue entrance ramp to eastbound I-96 near Lake Chemung.

U.S. 127/I-496 in Ingham County

Lane closures will be in place in both directions between I-96 and M-43. Several ramps in the area will remain closed as well.

I-75 in Oakland County

Two lanes will be open in each direction between M-15 and the Genesee County line.

I-696 in Oakland County

The eastbound highway will remain closed between M-10 and I-75.

I-75 in Wayne County

One lane will be closed in each direction between Springwells Street and Clark Street for Gordie Howe International Bridge construction.
NEWAYGO COUNTY, MI  Piles of dead baby goats were found dumped in the Manistee National Forest earlier this spring.

A conservation officer with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources received a complaint in mid-March from Newaygo Central Dispatch of a pile of dead baby goats in the national forest, according to a DNR enforcement report.

The officer responded to the area and confirmed the report but didnt find anything that would lead to a suspect, the report said. The information was forwarded to the U.S. Forest Service.

A few days later, a USFS officer contacted the DNR officer and informed him of additional piles of dead baby goat that had been called in, the report said. There were more than 70 deceased animals.

The USFS found an ear tag that was left on one of the dead goats, the report said. With that information, a suspect was located. In an interview, the suspect told the USFS officer that the goats were still alive-and-well at his farm.

Two DNR conservation officers visited the farm in southern Newaygo County and interviewed the suspects wife, the report said. About 20 baby goats were inside the barn; they looked very similar to the ones found dead in the forest.

During the visit, one baby goat was found dead in the pen, the report said.

The officers observed and documented that the goats were kept in poor conditions, the report said.

The case has been turned over to Newaygo County Animal Control for further investigation.

MLive has reached out to the DNR, USFS and animal control for more information.
Unquestionably in violation: Judge says US government didnt follow court order on deportations. In this photo, Deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Madison Sheahan, flanked by Acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) AP

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, MICHAEL CASEY, REBECCA SANTANA and TIM SULLIVAN Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes but refused to reveal where they would end up. The judges statement was a notably strong rebuke to the governments deportation efforts.

In an emergency hearing he called to address reports that immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston said the eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger. Minutes before the hearing, administration officials accused activist judges of advocating the release of dangerous criminals.

The department actions in this case are unquestionably in violation of this courts order, Murphy said Wednesday, arguing that the deportees didnt have meaningful opportunity to object to being sent to South Sudan. The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers who could object in court.

Government attorneys argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. They also pointed out that the judge had not specified the exact time needed between notice and deportation, leaving room for misunderstanding.

The government calls the deported people true national security threats

The migrants home countries  Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan  would not take them back, according to Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spoke to reporters in Washington. He later said the migrants either came from countries that often do not take back all their deported citizens or had other situations that meant they could not be sent home.

These represent the true national security threats, Lyons said at a news conference. Behind him was a display of photos of men he said had been convicted of rape, homicide, armed robbery and other crimes.

Administration officials, who have repeatedly clashed with the courts over their attempts to deport large numbers of immigrants, made their displeasure clear Wednesday.

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are working every single day to get these vicious criminals off of American streets  and while activist judges are on the other side, fighting to get them back onto the United States soil, said Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokesperson. She pointed to the photographs and described them as the monsters that Murphy is trying to protect.

Homeland Security officials released few specific details about the deportation flight. They said it left Tuesday with eight people on board and said they remained in the departments custody Wednesday. Officials said they could not disclose the migrants final destination because of safety and operational security.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight is the latest flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the presidents policies.

Lawsuits on immigration issues are everywhere

With Congress largely silent or supportive, opponents of Trumps agenda have filed hundreds of lawsuits and judges have issued dozens of orders against the administration. Immigration has been the most contentious issue. There was the mistaken deportation of an immigrant who was living in Maryland to a prison in El Salvador, as well as Trumps push to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court review.

The administration officials insisted that the deported men had received due process, but did not provide details. Immigration-rights attorneys argue they violated Murphys order, first handed down in March, that says people must have a chance to argue that going somewhere outside their homeland would put them in danger before being deported, even if theyve otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.

The government is still refusing to provide due process to our clients, which means they are not giving them notice of the country to which theyre being deported, proper notice in a language that they understand, and not giving them a meaningful opportunity to claim fear based on those countries, Trina Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said outside court.

These are countries that the State Department doesnt want Americans to travel to. They are categorically not safe, she added.

In court, Realmuto asked the judge to return the individuals to the United States. They are no less deserving of protection than any other human beings on this planet, she said.

The government argued the interviews with the men over their fears could be done where they are currently being held and confirmed with Murphy that they can be arranged. Realmuto called this a logistical nightmare that penalizes the men because the government violated the judges order. She said it would prove a challenge to get the men legal counsel and interpreters, an effort complicated by the time difference.

Murphy, who raised the prospect of criminal contempt for anyone involved in an illegal deportation, later Wednesday ordered the government conduct a new set of interviews with the migrants if an appropriate place with appropriate privacy can be found. He said the government was welcome to bring the migrants back, but did not order they do so.

On Twitter late Wednesday, DHS McLaughlin called the order deranged.

The countries of origin vary

Attorneys for the immigrants told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent as many as a dozen people from several countries to Africa.

The apparent removal of one man from the troubled Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his lawyers learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.

A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa on Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.

Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would clearly violate his ruling.

South Sudan says its unaware of any arrivals

South Sudans police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived in the country and that if they do, they would be investigated and redeported to their correct country if found not to be South Sudanese.

Edmund Yakani, executive director of the South Sudanese group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, questioned why people convicted of crimes in the United States would be sent there. Is South Sudan a land of less human who deserve to receive perpetrators of human rights violations? Without any public explanation? he asked.

Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States. That has led the administration to strike agreements with other countries, including Panama, to house them. The U.S. has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law, an action being contested in the courts.

South Sudan has endured repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the countrys top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.

The State Departments annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says significant human rights issues include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.

The Homeland Security Department has given Temporary Protected Status to a small number of South Sudanese already living in the United States, shielding them from deportation because conditions were deemed unsafe for return. Noem recently extended those protections to November to allow for a more thorough review.

The U.S is one of the biggest donors to South Sudans humanitarian aid programs, with the total funding in 2024 standing at over $640 million.

___

Casey reported from Boston and Sullivan from Minneapolis. Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi contributed to this report.
This weeks recalls at Americas largest retailer include faucets that can leach lead into drinking water and hair dryer brushes that can electrocute users, potentially causing death.

With thousands of products on shelves and available online, Walmart serves millions of Americans; 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store. When a product it sells is recalled, there can be widespread effects.

Labeling mistakes, safety concerns, defects and contamination can all cause recalls on food, prescriptions and other products.

Walmart and Sams Club are committed to the health and safety of our customers and members and to providing products that are safe and compliant, all supported by our health and wellness, product safety, and food safety professionals, the company said in a statement. In the event of a product recall, we work swiftly to block the item from being sold and remove it from our stores and clubs.

The faucets and hair dryer brushes are made in China and violate U.S. federal safety regulations. Their manufacturers have not agreed to recalls, leading the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue product safety warnings. The products were sold on Walmart.com.

CPSC is taking extraordinary steps to protect Americans from toxic faucets that threaten our children, said CPSC Acting Chairman Peter Feldman. This commission will not hesitate to warn Americans when necessary. CPSC remains focused on the biggest threat to American consumers: hazardous goods from China.

Here are the latest recalls for products sold at Walmart and Sams Club:

Food recalls

Vietti Food Group issues allergy alert on undeclared soy in 15-oz Yellowstone Brown Sugar Molasses Baked Beans - This alert is for Yellowstone Brown Sugar Molasses Baked Beans in 15-ounce cans due to the presence of undeclared soy, which is a known allergen. They can be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund. They were sold at all Walmart stores.

RELATED: Possible life-threatening allergic reaction leads to recall of baked beans sold in 23 states

Medication recalls

There are no recent medication recalls.

Product recalls

RELATED: Recall of popular cooler that has amputated fingertips expanded, 1.2M units now recalled
Palestinian flags wave over a crowd as protesters gather outside Ann Arbor Larcom City Hall 301 E. Huron St., in this file photo. Jacob Hamilton | The Ann Arbor News

PITTSFIELD TWP., MI -- Charges have been dropped against three protesters charged in connection with a die in event last August that interrupted a University of Michigan event for new students.

The Michigan Attorney Generals office dropped felony charges of restricting or obstructing a police officer against Samantha Rose Lewis and Alice Lesemann Elliot on May 20, according to court records. The charges were dismissed before 14B District Judge Erane Washington.
PITTSFIELD TWP., MI -- A teen charged with fleeing police and causing a crash that killed one teen and injured another will stand trial.

Axel Sanchez Saldivar, 19, waived his preliminary examination before 14A-1 District Court Judge J. Cedric Simpson on Thursday, May 22, sending himself to trial on seven felony charges.
Jolene Line and Brieanne Lingd hold a piece of metal in place during the A2 invitational carpentry competition at the old bus garage at Saline Middle School on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 Josh Boland | MLive.com

WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI  A request for a new countywide tax to support career and technical education programs in local schools could go before voters as soon as next November.

But some Ann Arbor area school leaders say theyve questions about what implications a potential CTE, or vocational, millage would have on future taxpayers and how funds would be used.
Isabelle, the dog that Ed Berger and Susan Hammerton owned together, is pictured with a tennis ball. Courtesy photo

ANN ARBOR, MI  The daughter of a woman who was fatally stabbed last year has seemingly ignored a court order to return a dog owned by her mother to her mothers long-time partner.

Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Tracy Van Den Bergh ordered Elena James to give Isabelle, a 9-year-old golden retriever, back to Ed Berger amid a pending legal dispute over ownership of the dog.
MID-MICHIGAN  Several community events are set to take place this Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25, offering residents a chance to kick off Memorial Day weekend with celebration and connection.

Community events such as the Blessing of the Boats in Port Huron and the Burton Rock & Blues Festival promise a mix of tradition, music and local spirit.

Here are a few things to do across mid-Michigan and in the Thumb area this weekend:

Frankenmuth Dog Bowl

The annual Frankenmuth Dog Bowl festival, billed as the worlds largest Olympic-style festival for dogs, is returning to Michigans Little Bavaria.

The festival, to take place Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25, at Frankenmuth River Place Shops, will offer a weekend full of fun for dog lovers and their four-legged friends.

Dog Bowl is open to the public at no cost and features more than 25 scheduled events and over 20 competitions in which pets can participate.

The festival takes place at the shopping center, 925 S Main St., and surrounding event fields.

Read more here.

Related: Remembering the Fallen: Mid-Michigan events planned to honor Memorial Day 2025

Urban Air Adventure Park, seen here Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, recently opened in a plaza near the intersection of Bay and Tittabawassee roads in Saginaw Township. Heather Jordan | MLive.com

Urban Air Saginaw hosts sensory-friendly Sunday playtime

Urban Air Adventure Park in Saginaw Township is transforming its high-energy play space into a peaceful sanctuary for families who need a calmer environment.

From 10 a.m. to noon on the last Sunday of every month, the indoor adventure park hosts a Sensory Friendly Play event - a special two-hour session designed for individuals with sensory processing sensitivities, along with their siblings and caregivers.

During this time, the park turns off flashing lights, music, and whistles to create a soothing atmosphere where all children can safely explore and enjoy. The event aims to make active play accessible to everyone, ensuring that no child misses out on the fun because of sensory challenges.

The event is open to the public and encourages inclusion, connection and memory-making in a welcoming, low-stimulation setting. Admission is $11.99 per person.

Located at 3177 WestBay Drive in Saginaw, Urban Air invites the community to spread the word and arrive early, as space is limited.

For more information, visit Urban Air Saginaws Facebook page or stop by on the last Sunday of the month to see the difference a sensory-friendly space can make.

Burton Rock and Blues Fest Returns

The Burton Rock and Blues Fest, an annual celebration of live music, takes place Saturday at the Burton Eagles Club, 3317 E. Bristol Road.

Presented by the Burton Chamber of Commerce, the festival brings together local and regional rock and blues talent for a day of high-energy performances and community fun. This years headline act is acclaimed blues guitarist Larry McCray.

Last year, the festival featured bands such as Sweet Crystal, Stifling Edith, Bill Strickler Band and Adaboy!, drawing music fans from across the region.

For more information, click here.

A view of the visitor center at the Chippewa Nature Center located at 400 S. Badour Rd. in Midland on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com) Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

Birdwatchers flock to Chippewa Nature Center for Spring Migration Hike

As spring migration hits its peak, bird enthusiasts are invited to explore the skies and trails at Chippewa Nature Center in Midland.

On select days this season, the center hosts a free, two-hour birdwatching event open to the public, welcoming all experience levels to discover the joy of identifying birds in their natural habitat.

Located at 400 S Badour Road, the center boasts more than 1,300 acres of diverse landscapes, a haven for over 200 bird species throughout the year. Participants will learn how to recognize birds using field marks, songs and calls, flight patterns and habitat cues.

The event is free and open to anyone ages 9 and up (children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult).

Attendees can meet at the Visitor Center and are encouraged to bring their own binoculars, though loaners are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Read more here.

Port Huron Blessing of the Boats

Boaters are invited to take part in the second annual Blessing of the Boats from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday along the Black River near the Huron Lady II dock, 102 Huron Ave.

This free event, organized by Kristy Walker, offers a ceremonial blessing to mark the start of a safe and enjoyable boating season. Boaters will remain in the river during the brief ceremony, which will be broadcast live on 1380 AM WPHM with host Paul Miller.

For more information, visit the event page or contact Kristy Walker at huronlady2@gmail.com.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has turned over part of her office's spending on criminal prosecutions related to the Flint water crisis to a state House subcommittee. Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

(This story has been updated with comments from state Rep. Angela Rigas.)

FLINT, MI -- Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has given a state House subcommittee a partial accounting of her offices spending on criminal prosecutions related to the Flint water crisis.
The Burnette Foods facility in Hartford, Van Buren County, is one of three Michigan companies to receive funding from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for expansions. (MLive file photo)

LANSING, MI  The state is awarding nearly half a million dollars in grant funding to three Michigan food companies to help expand their production, creating 15 new jobs.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) will provide a total of $415,000 in Food and Agriculture Investment Program (FAIP) grants to Burnette Foods, Inc., in Van Buren County; Community Cuts, LLC, in Ogemaw County; and Meating Hall, LLC, also known as Tolmans Meats in Grand Rapids.

MDARD Director Tim Boring said the grants will help the companies increase their capacity and product offerings, expand their facilities and add new jobs.

MDARD works every day to create economic opportunities for communities throughout Michigan, Boring said in a Wednesday, May 21 news release. Through the Food and Agriculture Investment Program, MDARD helps Michigan businesses grow, hire more workers and strengthen our states agricultural economy.

MDARD has awarded more than $5.3 million of FAIP grants since 2019. The program provides financial support for projects that expand food and agriculture processing, foster growth in the agriculture industry and bolster Michigans economy, MDARD said.

Projects are selected for the funding based on their potential to impact the overall agriculture industry and food and agriculture growth in the state.

Heres a breakdown of how the three companies will use the newest batch of funding:

Burnette Foods, Inc - Van Buren County: The Hartford fruit processor will receive $190,000 from MDARD to support its $5 million expansion project, aimed at increasing production capacity and annual apple processing by 11.5 million pounds. The expansion will create 10 new jobs.

This grant enables us to invest in advanced food manufacturing technologies and sustainable practices that will improve efficiency, ensure food safety, and support local supply chains, said site manager William Sherman. This funding not only strengthens our capacity to meet growing demand but also reinforces our commitment to quality, innovation, and community development. Were grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the regions economic growth and food security.

Community Cuts, LLC - Ogemaw County: MDARD is awarding a $125,000 FAIP grant to Community Cuts, LLC to support the construction of a $1 million processing plant. The nearly 8,000 square foot facility will generate five new jobs and increase Michiganders access to locally raised, locally processed meat, the release said.

By building a USDA-inspected, locally owned processing facility, were giving farmers the tools they need to bring high-quality, locally raised meat directly to families and businesses, said Sharon David, the companys co-owner This project is about more than meatits about local food security, economic growth, and keeping rural communities strong. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with MDARD to make this vision a reality.

Meating Hall, LLC (Tolmans Meats) - Kent County: The Grand Rapids-based raw meat producer is receiving a $100,000 grant from MDARD to install a new 2,500-square-foot blast freezer. The new equipment will help the company expand its product offerings and annual production capacity by 8.1 million pounds.

Tolmans Meats, a local supplier to West Michigan businesses for many decades, is excited to expand our growing operations in Grand Rapids through this partnership with MDARD, said Brandon Bassett, CEO of Meating Hall, LLC. This grant will enable significant growth in our retail product offerings, expand our employee base, and strengthen our relationships with local suppliers in the production of safe, wholesome and quality meats.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Christopher Schurr, who fatally shot Patrick Lyoya after a traffic stop, lost his job at Grand Rapids Police Department because he was charged with a felony  second-degree murder.

Now that Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker has decided that Schurr will not be retried in the killing, Schurrs attorneys said he could conceivably return to police work.
Protesters march past the Grand Rapids Police Department in Grand Rapids after a mistrial was declared in the Christopher Schurr murder trial after the jury could not come to a unanimous decision on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Schurr was charged with second-degree murder after killing Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop in 2022. Joel Bissell | MLive.com

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Local NAACP President Cle Jackson said the decision by Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker to not retry former Grand Police officer Christopher Schurr in the killing of a Black motorist sets a dangerous precedent for police violence in area communities.

Theres been a precedent that has been set, and that is that it is okay for law enforcement to shoot an individual in the back of the head that poses really no significant threat, Jackson said.

That is dangerous.

The Grand Rapids chapter of the NAACP was one of several groups that previously urged Becker to again bring charges against Schurr following a mistrial declared May 8.

Schurr was charged with second-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Congolese immigrant Patrick Lyoya, following a 2022 traffic stop and altercation.

RELATED: Grand Rapids NAACP calls for new charges after mistrial in Christopher Schurr murder trial

Ven Johnson, an attorney representing Lyoyas parents, Peter and Dorcas Lyoya, had also called for Becker to file new charges after the mistrial.

Becker made the announcement on Thursday, May 22 that he would not be refiling charges, saying there was never a majority of jurors in favor of a guilty verdict.

I just dont see a place where we get 12 people to agree, Becker said.

RELATED: Police officer Christopher Schurr will not be retried for murder, prosecutor says

The Grand Rapids Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression has scheduled a protest outside the Kent County Courthouse for 6 p.m. Thursday, May 22.

Without a second trial, Jackson said the communitys ongoing relationships with law enforcement will be set back.

Thats not unique to Grand Rapids, either, Jackson said. Its across the state of Michigan and across the country. (This) is devastating for our community, for the Black community, for the Lyoya family.

He said the public witnessed Grand Rapids police officers, including those in charge of training, testify under oath that what this officer did was justifiable. Thats dangerous.

RELATED: Gunshot to Patrick Lyoyas head was not unreasonable, police trainer testifies

Eric Brown, president and CEO of the Urban League of West Michigan, said hes disappointed but not surprised that Becker ultimately decided not to bring a second set of charges.

I think not retrying this is falling short of justice for the Lyoya family and the community at large, he said. Its the greater Grand Rapids community that now has to continue to live under a shroud of fear (whether) this can happen to them.

On April 4, 2022, Schurr stopped Lyoya on Nelson Avenue SE north of Griggs Street SE because his license plate didnt match the vehicle.

The officer told Lyoya, who was highly intoxicated, to stay in his car. Lyoya then shoved the officer, lifting the officer off the ground. Lyoya ran with the officer in pursuit. Schurr unsuccessfully discharged his Taser, with the second probe discharging into the ground after Lyoya gained control of it.

The two were wrestling on the ground, with the officer on top of Lyoya. Lyoya had moved the Taser from his left hand to his right, the defense said. He was holding the Taser like a gun, trying to get up and turning, when he was shot in the head, the defense said.

Becker first issued the second-degree murder charge and a voluntary manslaughter charge against Schurr on June 9, 2022. After nearly three years, the trial began last month on April 28.

The jury started deliberations on Monday, May 5, and on Tuesday, May 6, announced it was deadlocked. Members were instructed to continue deliberating, which they did through the morning of Thursday, May 8, when they again announced a deadlock.

Kent County Circuit Judge Christina Mims then formally declared a mistrial.

In response to the deadlock, multiple West Michigan groups, including the Grand Rapids Association of Pastors, called for structural transformation of the Grand Rapids police department.

Jackson said the NAACP is continuing to make that same call.

RELATED: NAACP says Grand Rapids residents should have greater say, protections in new police surveillance technology purchases

While some department policies have been reformed since Lyoyas death and some of them look very good, Jackson said more can be done.

The next step is demanding that department policies include some level of required enforcement or oversight, like annual reports, well-documented incident reporting and an outside agency review compliance.

He said the department worked with the NAACP in the past to embed accountability practices into its surveillance policies, and wants that work to be replicated when it comes to other areas.

Jackson said a formal demand of city leaders will be sent out in the coming days, following the NAACP held a May 14 listening session with community members. The goal of the event, he said, was to involve the community in advocating for systemic changes after the mistrial.

RELATED: Grand Rapids mayor commits to being a more just city after Schurr case closed

For more of MLives coverage on the case, visit here.
Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) educators involved with the Grand Rapids Education Association (GREA) protest what they say is the lowest pay in Kent County before a Monday, May 12 Board of Education meeting. The district and union are in the midst of a yearlong collective bargaining process. Danielle James | MLive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - In 2024, Grand Rapids Public Schools spent fewer resources on instruction than 91% of other similarly-sized Michigan districts, according to a recent report from the Michigan Education Association (MEA).

The report was put together by a MEA labor economist, as the district and its union, the Grand Rapids Education Association (GREA), continue to negotiate a new contract.

The current three-year contract, which was finalized in September 2022, expires in June 2025.

GRPS is the largest district in West Michigan with nearly 14,000 students. The MEA analysis found that of 32 Michigan school districts of similar size, only one spent a smaller percentage of its budget on instructional spending, or dollars specifically expended for teaching and learning.

GREA President Matt Marlow said he believes the districts budget could be restructured to allow for a more significant teacher pay raise while cutting spending elsewhere, including by selling more district buildings.

Grand Rapids Superintendent Leadriane Roby declined to comment on the report.

RELATED: Grand Rapids teacher publicly resigns, calling out burnout, understaffing

District Communications Director Luke Stier said instructional spending is something the district is looking to address as part of its ongoing facilities plan, which calls for the closure of 10 schools through 2028.

It is vitally important that we right-size our district, he said.

During the year-long collective bargaining process, Marlow has insisted a more significant raise for teachers is necessary to keep educators from leaving the district.

At the school boards May meeting, one GRPS resource room teacher resigned publicly, citing a heavy caseload and lack of support.

The union is requesting a 7.5% pay bump. It says the districts average salaries place it 21st out of the 21 public school districts in Kent County.

But the district wont budge on a proposed pay increase of 1.5%, Marlow said.

RELATED: Grand Rapids teachers union protests low pay amid calls for 7.5% raise

GRPS has repeatedly declined to comment on the collective bargaining process, citing the closed nature of the negotiations.

Marlow said the union understands that financials are important to the district, but being paid 21st out of 21 public school districts in the county does not draw the attention of job seekers.

The MEAs May 20 report raises an important question, he said, about how GRPS can restructure its spending to benefit teachers and students.

When the goal of a school district is to educate students and provide services, then why would (the district) not spend most of the revenue on instruction and services directly to students?

The MEA report from May 20 compares GRPS to 32 relatively large districts in Michigan, each with over 7,000 students enrolled.

GRPS is the eighth-largest district in the state, with 13,692 students enrolled as of the 2024-25 school year.

For those similarly-sized Michigan districts, the report found instructional spending on average was 57.95% of their budget. GRPS, by comparison, spent 48.35% of its resources on instruction.

Of the districts $270.6 million budget for 2024-25, nearly $126 million was spent on instruction.

Around $142 million was spent on support services, $1.9 million was spent on community services and $837,000 went to facilities acquisition.

RELATED: $271M budget approved for Grand Rapids schools amid unclear funding from the state

The percentage of Michigan districts total spending that is allocated to instruction is down across the state.

Statewide instructional spending averaged over 60% in 2016, as did spending in the 32 large districts, according to the MEA report. Those numbers dropped closer to 58% and 57%, respectively, by 2024.

But that decline has been sharper at GRPS in recent years.

A spike of close to 55% in instructional spending during the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic year, when federal funds were available as a supplement to schools, had dropped to 48.35% by 2024-25.

Teachers are also making less at GRPS than other Kent ISD schools, the report found.

On average, the MEA calculated that GRPS teachers with a bachelors degree over a 30-year career are expected to see $3,623 less per year.

Teachers with masters degrees would see a deficit of $5,000 each year, while masters degree holders with 30-plus years of experience would see a $7,112 annual deficit.

As of the 2024-25 school year, GRPS teacher salaries started at $44,916 for those with a bachelors degree and one to three years of experience.

Teachers with 25 years of experience or more and a doctorate degree are earning $88,445, according to the current contract.

Union members say the number of vacant teacher positions are growing, with more educators leaving GRPS for higher-paid positions elsewhere.

As of May 12, GRPS had 87.9 teacher vacancies, with 20 candidates in the onboarding process, according to a recruitment update given during the most recent board meeting.

According to state data, the district has increased its total number of full-time teachers since last year, however. The state reported a ten-year low of 866 full-time teachers during the 2023-24 school year, which climbed up to 1,000 in 2024-25.

The GREA has said the district cites a lack of available funds as reason why a raise above 1.5% isnt feasible.

GRPS Board President Kymberlie Davis previously said board members all want teachers to be paid more, but must also weigh balancing the districts budget.

GRPS 2024-25 budget included a projected $11 million operating deficit.

Marlow said GREA members sat through a presentation on May 13 with a financial consultant, Don Sovey, who presented to the GRPS Board of Education last month.

Projections showed that business as usual for GRPS would result in an increase in deficit spending over the next three years.

But Marlow said these projections only show that the district must change the way it spends, and does not provide advice on what the district should do.

The choices being made are not instructionally focused based on the amount of instructional spending, he said.

Stier said the Boards plan to close 10 schools across the city, part of a campus restructuring plan that would shutter underused buildings starting in 2025 through 2028, will ultimately allow the district to redirect money back to the classroom, scholars and staff.

When asked if he believes the plan could be enough to right-size the budget deficit, Stier said its a big part of it for us.

GREA has proposed selling more vacant or underutilized properties as a way for the district to offset its spending deficit.

GRPS facilities and operations department oversees the operation and maintenance of 67 buildings.

In 2023 the district had an average building utilization rate of 51%, compared to the states recommendation that schools maintain an 85% utilization level.

Marlow said more sold and repurposed buildings could save money on maintenance costs and bring in new income from sales, as well as potentially increase the citys affordable housing stock.

RELATED: Firefighters to use recently-closed Grand Rapids elementary school for training

Stier told MLive the Board is working with the city of Grand Rapids to determine how unused facilities can add value.

The Board recently approved the hiring of an owners representative, Stier said, that will help the district navigate this process.

If you would like more reporting like this delivered free to your inbox, click here and signup for our weekly newsletter: Michigan Schools.
Meijer announced this week it was slashing prices up to 60% on select summertime favorites.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - As Memorial Day approaches, our community has already begun honoring and celebrating the lives of the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

Those who have lost loved ones while defending Americas freedom deeply understand service and sacrifice.

So, the holiday can be a time of mixed emotions. As the informal beginning of summer, we are eager to break out the grill for a family barbecue or head to the beach or cottage.

But remember, Memorial Day is about much more than those things and a day off, so find time to pay tribute to our fallen for our way of life.

Skyla Jewell-Hammie shared a roundup with readers of the events happening on or around Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, in Kent, Allegan, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. The list includes the annual downtown Grand Rapids parade that kicks off at 10 a.m.

People will be flocking to grocery stores as they prepare to entertain. Reporter Brian McVicar told readers that retail giant Meijer is offering some relief to shoppers, with a 10-week promotion featuring discounts up to 60% off 70 Meijer-brand summertime favorites. The discounted offers are available now through July 19.

Brian shared with readers that Peter DArienzo, CEO of John Ball Zoo, told him the large-scale aquarium planned is tentatively eyed for 2031. The site of the Kent County project estimated at $370 million could be announced in the coming months. DArienzo said the attraction would definitely be on a body of water.

On the legal front, reporters John Agar and Bradley Massman told readers about Kent County Prosecutor Chris Beckers decision to not retry Christopher Schurr, the former Grand Rapids police officer charged with second-degree murder for killing Black motorist Patrick Lyoya. A mistrial was declared May 8 in the controversial 2022 case.

Bradley also told readers about Marcus Lofton, 43, on trial for his wife slaying nearly two years ago, the day after after being served with divorce papers. Hes charged with open murder and felony firearm. The jury was still in deliberations as of Thursday afternoon.

In other city business, Melissa Frick reported that the Grand Rapids City Commission rejected a proposed name for a new $2.3 million park planned for the Roosevelt Park neighborhood to allow for more community outreach, after some residents raised concerns about engagement efforts during the naming process.

Navarro Plaza would have honored two entrepreneurs in West Michigans Hispanic business community - the late Miguel and Isabel Navarro, the founders of El Matador Tortilla Chip Co.

Melissa also told readers that city commissioners approved a $735 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year with funding for 22 new staff positions including more 911 operators and electricians to help with city power outages. Daily parking rates for city lots will remain the same, but several monthly parking passes will see increases ranging from $1 to $15.

Thats what caught our eye in the Grand Rapids area this week that interested readers. Take a look at those headlines, and others, below.

Memorial Day 2025: Where to honor fallen soldiers around West Michigan

Police officer Christopher Schurr will not be retried for murder, prosecutor says

Grocery relief: Meijer slashes prices up to 60% on select summertime favorites

Grand Rapids mayor commits to being a more just city after Schurr case closed

Husband told police he had all this rage when he shot his wife 15 times

Michigan zoo envisions 2031 opening for massive waterfront aquarium

Grand Rapids rejects proposed new park name due to resident opposition

Jury begins deliberations in husbands murder trial for wifes slaying

Man killed wife after she filed for divorce, returned wedding ring, prosecutor says

Grand Rapids airport adds $42 flights to Myrtle Beach, Jacksonville

Wilson Crossings Townhomes to bring 44 upscale rental units to Grand Rapids suburb

Grand Rapids schools spends less on instruction than 91% of similar-sized districts

Grand Rapids approves $735M budget with no parking fine increases, 22 new staff

Popular downtown Grand Rapids hot dog cart opening brick-and-mortar spot

Tunnel links $5.5M Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home to endless recreational opportunities

Wolverine World Wide invests $9M to expand Michigan headquarters, add 100 jobs

Ottawa Hills High School celebrates 75 graduates at 2025 commencement

Healthcare providers unveil new, $46M psychiatric hospital south of Grand Rapids

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to speak at Grand Rapids Tech Week 2025

Motorcycle company to add 162 jobs, make $18.5M expansion near Grand Rapids

About Hello, Grand Rapids: Each week, we deliver the big headlines straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter here. Monica Scott is the editor for MLive Media Groups The Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle. She was a reporter who previously covered the city, county and schools in Grand Rapids.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker didnt think a new jury would be able to reach a verdict if he retried former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr for murder.

For that reason, hes closing the high-profile murder case, a rare instance when a police officer was charged with murder for an on-duty fatal shooting.

The prosecutor announced on Thursday, May 22, he will not retry Schurr for second-degree murder in Patrick Lyoyas killing. Beckers office will close its case against Schurr.

The announcement came two weeks after a mistrial was declared in the case due to a hung jury.

RELATED: Police officer Christopher Schurr will not be retried for murder, prosecutor says

In the end, I do not see the ability to get 12 people to unanimously agree either way based on the facts presented, Becker said.

The encounter between Schurr and Lyoya unfolded around 8:11 a.m. on April 4, 2022, in a neighborhood on the citys Southeast Side.

Schurr stopped Lyoya on Nelson Avenue SE north of Griggs Street SE because his license plate didnt match the vehicle.

RELATED: MISTRIAL: Hung jury for police officer Christopher Schurr in murder trial

The officer told Lyoya, who was highly intoxicated, to stay in his car. Lyoya then shoved the officer, lifting the officer off the ground.

Lyoya ran with the officer in pursuit. Schurr unsuccessfully discharged his Taser, with the second probe discharging into the ground after Lyoya gained control of it.

The two were wrestling on the ground, with the officer on top of Lyoya. Lyoya had moved the Taser from his left hand to his right, the defense said during the trial. He was holding the Taser like a gun, trying to get up and turning, when he was shot in the head, the defense said.

Becker, again, stood by his decision Thursday to initially charge Schurr with murder three years ago. He did not want to retry the former officer on a lesser charge.

Early into deliberations, jurors were evenly split three ways with four in favor of guilty, four in support of acquittal and four undecided, according to the prosecutor.

RELATED: Grand Rapids mayor commits to being a more just city after Schurr case closed

When the jury first announced it was deadlocked, Becker said the vote was 7-5 in support of acquittal. The day a mistrial was declared, jurors were 10-2 in support of not guilty, Becker said.

Given the fact that there was never a majority for a guilty verdict does play a role in my decision, Becker said.

25 1 / 25 Hung jury declared in Christopher Schurr murder trial of Patrick Lyoya

The prosecutors office has had 15 cases end in a mistrial over the last six years. Becker said hes only retried one of those cases because the case ended with an 11-1 vote for guilty.

Most cases which end with a deadlocked jury generally result in a plea deal with no second trial.

Schurr could still face a trial if the Michigan Attorney Generals Office picks up the case, Becker said. He has not any conversation with Attorney General Dana Nessel about that possibility.

Three years ago, before Becker originally charged Schurr with second-degree murder, Nessel said she would take the case if offered.

This is not our first (police officer shooting incident); the AG has never offered to do any other one, not sure why things would change now, Becker said in an email at the time when contacted by MLive.

The prosecutor said he spoke with Peter Lyoya, Patricks father, before making his announcement publicly. He said he was extremely devastated.

Hes lost a child, Becker said. I feel for them, and I feel for any family who loses a child in a homicide.

For more of MLives coverage on the case, visit here.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Ottawa Hills High School was filled with roaring cheers and heartfelt support on Wednesday, May 21 as students, families and teachers celebrated the Class of 2025s graduation.

Around 75 Ottawa Hills seniors walked across the stage in their black caps and gowns, celebrating a major milestone in earning their high school diplomas.

Families and friends were eager to show their support, stomping their feet on the bleachers and roaring cheers in a standing ovation that lasted several minutes.

The message of love and support was clear throughout the ceremony.

You know where to find us. Dont be afraid to reach out for support, Ottawa Hills Principal Timothy Mabin told students in his speech.

This was the fourth graduation ceremony held by Grand Rapids Public Schools this week, with more scheduled over the coming days. District spokesperson Luke Stier said around 750 students will graduate from GRPS this spring.

Students at CA Frost Middle High and Union High School held their graduation ceremonies on Monday, May 19.

Southwest Middle High School students had a ceremony early in the evening on Tuesday, May 20, and Innovation Central High School and Grand Rapids Montessori held a joint ceremony on Tuesday.

During Ottawa Hills ceremony, class valedictorian Charles Curtis and salutatorian Takara Miguel both thanked their peers and congratulated them on shared accomplishments.

Following Ottawa Hills graduation on Wednesday, students at the districts Grand Rapids Public Museum High School also crossed the stage.

Both Wednesday ceremonies were moved indoors to the Ottawa Hills High School gymnasium, 2055 Rosewood Ave. SE, due to inclement weather.

On Thursday, May 22, Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy will hold a 5 p.m. ceremony at Houseman Field. City High Middle School students will walk at 7 p.m. the same night.

The Grand Rapids Learning Center will host its graduation at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28.

MLive photojournalist Isaac Ritchey was there to capture the evening. Check out more than 40 images in the gallery above. Click here for a direct link to the gallery.

Scenes from the Ottawa Hills High School graduation inside gymnasium in Grand Rapids, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Isaac Ritchey | iritchey@mlive.c

If you would like more reporting like this delivered free to your inbox, click and signup for our weekly newsletter: Michigan Schools.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Former police officer Christopher Schurr will not be retried for second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Black motorist Patrick Lyoya.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker issued his decision on Thursday, May 22 after jurors earlier this month failed to reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial.

I just dont see a place where we get 12 people to agree, Becker said.

Schurr, 34, a seven-year Grand Rapids police officer, stopped Lyoyas car on April 4, 2022, on the citys Southeast Side.

He shot Lyoya in the back of his head during a lengthy struggle after Lyoya gained control of Schurrs Taser.

Related: Will prosecutor retry Christopher Schurr for murder? Hes still considering it

Matthew Borgula, Schurrs lead defense attorney, said previously that Schurr should not be retried. Jurors told the attorney after the trial that an overwhelming majority favored acquittal.

He said charges should not have been filed in the first place.

Former Grand Rapids Police officer Christopher Schurr paces by his seat during a break in the sixth day of trial at the Kent County Courthouse in Grand Rapids, Mich. on Monday, May 5, 2025. Schurr, 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese immigrant. Live video feed provided by Wood TV

Lyoyas father, Peter Lyoya, said recently that the May 8 mistrial left his family heartbroken.

Schurr, he said, is at home, with his family, and Patrick is under the ground for three years and theres no justice.

Related: Still fighting to get justice: Patrick Lyoyas father

Patrick Lyoya, 26, was a Black, Congolese refugee. Schurr, 34, who is white, testified that he stopped Lyoya because the license plate did not belong to the car he was driving.

Patrick Lyoya pictured in an undated photograph. Photo provided the Lyoya Family

The traffic stop happened around 8:10 a.m. April 4, 2022, on Nelson Avenue SE near Griggs Street. Lyoya got out of his vehicle, ignoring Schurrs orders, before he shoved the officer and tried to flee.

Related: Ex-police officer Schurrs attorney rejects claims of delay tactics in murder case

After a 2-minute scuffle for control of the Taser, Lyoya was facedown on the ground, trying to get up with Schurr on his back, when he was shot in the back of his head. Schurr testified he believed that Lyoya, who the defense says moved the Taser from his left hand to right, was pointing it at him.

The former police officer said he acted in self-defense.

Related: Christopher Schurr made split-second decision to protect himself, attorney tells jurors

The prosecution said that Lyoya, who was highly intoxicated, only tried to get away from the officer, not harm him.

Prosecution experts said Schurr should have known that his Taser had discharged twice, including once into the ground after Lyoya gained control of it. At that point, it could not be used to incapacitate but in drive-stun mode it could be pressed against skin to cause pain.

Related: Christopher Schurr killed Patrick Lyoya for no reason, prosecutor tells jury

Lyoyas family has been joined by the Grand Rapids chapter of the NAACP, the Urban League of West Michigan and Grand Rapids Association of Pastors in calling for Schurr to be retried.

The Urban League called the mistrial a miscarriage of justice.

The NAACP held an event called, Justice Delayed Is Still Justice Denied: A Community Listening Session on the Patrick Lyoya Mistrial.

For more of MLives coverage on the case, visit here.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Michigan police union has commended the Kent County prosecutor for deciding not to retry ex-Grand Rapids police Officer Christopher Schurr in the shooting death of Patrick Lyoya.

The evidence presented at trial clearly demonstrated that Officer Schurr acted within the scope of his training and responsibilities when confronted with a rapidly evolving and dangerous situation, the Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge of Michigan wrote in a Facebook post.

Related: Grand Rapids mayor commits to being a more just city after Schurr case closed

Schurr was on trial for second-degree murder earlier this month, but the jury deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial.

Lyoya died April 4, 2022, when Schurr shot him in the back of the head following a traffic stop in southeast Grand Rapids. The two struggled over the officers Taser and Schurr was on top of Lyoya when the shot was fired.

Related: Patrick Lyoyas family disappointed in decision not to retry Christopher Schurr for murder

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker on Thursday, May 22, said he would not retry the case. He did not believe a new jury would reach a different outcome.

The decision reflects a recognition of the complex and split-second circumstances law enforcement officers face in the line of duty, according to the FOP statement.

FOP leaders said they continue to extend condolences to Lyoyas family, but say people should obey lawful commands from police officers.

They said the charges against Schurr placed an immense burden on both Schurr and the greater law enforcement community.

We are grateful that this chapter is coming to a close and that Officer Schurr can begin to move forward, the FOP wrote.

For more of MLives coverage on the case, visit here.

Want more Grand Rapids-area news? Bookmark the local Grand Rapids news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Grand Rapids daily newsletter.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker made the decision not to retry former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr for murder after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict in the first trial.

The decision drew mixed reactions from the Grand Rapids community.

Becker announced on Thursday, May 22, he will not retry Schurr for second-degree murder in Patrick Lyoyas killing. The prosecutors office will close its case against Schurr.

RELATED: Police officer Christopher Schurr will not be retried for murder, prosecutor says

In the end, I do not see the ability to get 12 people to unanimously agree either way based on the facts presented, Becker said.

The possibility of retrying the case had been up in the air following the conclusion of a two-week murder trial earlier this month that ended with a hung jury.

The case is centered around a traffic stop on April 4, 2022, on the citys Southeast Side.

RELATED: Heres why police officer Christopher Schurr wont face a new murder trial

Community members have been divided for years over the shooting. Some felt the murder charge against Schurr was justified while others argued there was no wrongdoing by the officer.

Schurr stopped Lyoya on Nelson Avenue because his license plate didnt match the vehicle. The officer told Lyoya, who was highly intoxicated, to stay in his car.

Lyoya then shoved the officer, lifting Schurr off the ground. Lyoya ran with the officer in pursuit.

Schurr unsuccessfully discharged his Taser, with the second probe discharging into the ground after Lyoya gained control of it.

The two were wrestling on the ground, with the officer on top of Lyoya. Lyoya had moved the Taser from his left hand to his right, the defense said.

He was holding the Taser like a gun, trying to get up and turning, when he was shot in the head, the defense said.

Schurr could still face a trial if the Michigan Attorney Generals Office decides to pick up the case, Becker said. As of Thursday afternoon, the attorney generals office hasnt said what its intentions are.

Here are some key moments and reactions from the prosecutors decision:

Becker said one factor he took into consideration was the majority of jurors never supported a guilty verdict. At one point, the jury was evenly split three ways between guilty, not guilty, and undecided. The day a mistrial was declared, jurors were 10-2 in support of acquittal.

Defense attorney Matt Borgula said Schurr felt a sense of relief and vindication following the trial and now Beckers decision. Borgula believes Schurr could resume his career as a police officer if he chooses to do so.

The Lyoya family says theyve lost all hope that Schurr will ever be held criminally accountable. Attorney Ven Johnson, who represents the family in a civil case against Schurr, released a statement shortly after Beckers announcement. With todays decision, what was once a pause in justice has now become a permanent reality, the statement reads.

Leaders with the Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge of Michigan say they are grateful that this chapter is coming to a close and that Officer Schurr can begin to move forward. The decision reflects a recognition of the complex and split-second circumstances law enforcement officers face in the line of duty, the FOP wrote in a statement.

Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand said the city will learn from this painful moment and we will build a more just city for tomorrow. LaGrand said he shares the pain and frustration of many across the city who are disappointed that the case wont come to a conclusion.

For more of MLives coverage on the case, visit here.
KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI  The Trump Administration rescinded a nearly $19 million federal grant for Kalamazoo County that would have helped repair homes and improve energy efficiency in Kalamazoo neighborhoods.

Now, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners is planning to pursue legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to challenge the grants termination.

On Wednesday, May 21, the county announced it had received notification that the EPA was terminating the $18.9 million community change grant.

The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners accepted the grant late last year, with county leaders celebrating the expected windfall for the community.

In March, a letter released by U.S. senators revealed that the grant was one of 400 targeted for termination by the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE).

RELATED: Funding cuts and fighter jets: How Trumps first 100 days hit Michigan

County leaders said the funding was going to be used to create jobs and train skilled workers for green industry sector jobs while also supporting local contractors and improving homes for Kalamazoo residents.

The grant was named Holistic Healthy Homes in Kalamazoo County: Delivering Energy Efficiency Measures, Increasing Resiliency and Improving Air Quality in Existing Housing Stock. The Kalamazoo Climate Crisis Coalition (KCCC) nonprofit has been managing the project for the county.

The $18.9 million grant included $12.1 million to upgrade housing, community centers and support local contractors, tradespeople, and suppliers. Another $2.1 million was set aside to train 150 new skilled laborers in high-demand fields such as carpentry, electrical work, HVAC and plumbing.

Three hundred owner-occupied homes in the Northside, East Side, Edison and West Douglas neighborhoods were eligible for up to $40,000 apiece in housing upgrade work.

Neighborhood community centers would receive energy efficiency upgrades such as solar panels connected to battery storage and generators. The goal has been to use the buildings as resiliency hubs, or emergency shelters that could be used in extreme weather events, such as tornados, or during power outages and extreme heat.

Jenny Doezema, KCCC director, said that it took a year to gather community input, work with collaborating partners, and pull information together to apply for the grant.

That money is contractually obligated, said Doezema said in April after months of waiting for the funds to be released.

Federal contract terms forced the group to hire staff and meet project goals despite the funding uncertainty, she said.

The organization has been fielding calls from homeowners and contractors who want to be put on the work list or submit bids, she said. To pull it back at this point is taking back an investment in the community that people were counting on.

The sudden termination will take away opportunities for residents, local workers and businesses, county leaders said.

Board chair Jen Strebs called the termination a violation of trust and a disregard for lawful procedure.

Kalamazoo County secured this funding through a competitive process, met every requirement and stood ready to deliver real results, Strebs said in a statement.

Now, instead of the progress we promised, we are forced to fight for what was already rightfully awarded to us. We will not allow the federal government to disregard our communitys needs and opportunities without accountability. Thats why Kalamazoo County is challenging this termination and defending the opportunities this grant was meant to provide.

The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners met in closed session on Tuesday, May 20, to discuss the matter. The board voted to pursue legal action to challenge the grants termination.

This is about standing up for whats right, Strebs said. Its about making sure that when our community earns opportunities through hard work and fairness, those opportunities are not taken away without cause.

The county said the grants termination would erase months of planning, mobilization and community engagement. Local stakeholders, training providers and program staff were already working, per the terms of the agreement.

The grant project period was for three years, from Jan. 2, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2027.

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Cass County sheriff's deputies responded to a two-vehicle crash near the Michigan-Indiana border. (MLive file photo) Isaac Ritchey | iritchey@mlive.com

CASS COUNTY, MI  A 70-year-old woman was hospitalized in a crash in Southwest Michigan on Wednesday, May 21.

Deputies responded to the two-vehicle crash at 1:10 p.m. on Redfield Street and Ironwood Road in Cass Countys Milton Township, according to a news release from the Cass County Sheriffs Office.
The worker was struck 60 feet from the work site by an oak wilt-infected tree, adding to Michigan's workplace fatality count which now stands at eight this year. Affected trees will suddenly begin to wilt from the top down, rapidly dropping leaves, which can be green, brown or a combination of both colors. (Photo provided by Michigan DNR) MI Dept. of Natural Resources

WHITE CLOUD, MI - An Arborist working in Newaygo County was killed when a tree infected with oak wilt fell and struck them.

The 38-year-old was walking back onto a White Cloud property on May 14 after a lunch break when they were struck, according to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The incident took place approximately 60 feet away from the work area.

The victim died on the scene.

This is the eighth Michigan worker to die on the job this year.

In January, a construction worker was killed while working at the site of a new solar farm being built in Muskegon County.

A 42-year-old male worker was driving a side-by-side utility task vehicle that was pulling a trailer on Thursday, Jan. 16, when the trailer came off the hitch.

The trailers tongue then went underneath the truck, causing it to collide with a stationary metal pole, a MIOSHA report stated. The pole penetrated the cab of the truck, fatally injuring the victim.

Want more Muskegon-area news? Bookmark the local Muskegon news page or sign up for the free 3@3 Muskegon daily newsletter.
Construction of the 92-room Tru by Hilton could begin as early as this summer in Norton Shores, joining several other hotel projects in the Muskegon area. In this picure is a sign outside the new Tru by Hilton hotel in Cleveland's Midtown neighborhood. The Plain Dealer

NORTON SHORES, MI - A Hilton hotel is joining the list of big brand hotels establishing a presence on the West Michigan lakeshore.

The Norton Shores City Council approved on Tuesday a special use permit for Amerilodge, hotel developer, to build a four-story Tru by Hilton hotel.

The 92-room hotel is planned for 6277 Prairie St., near the Lakes Mall and business corridor on Harvey Street, east of U.S. 31 and the Muskegon County Airport.

Now that the developer has a special use permit, it can submit a final site plan for approval by the city.

Construction could begin as early as this summer, according to City Administrator Anthony Chandler.

Chandler added there were no public comments during the May 20 meeting.

The council voted unanimously in favor of the project, welcoming enhanced tourism activity along the Harvey Street corridor, Chandler said.

The property is zoned Planned Unit Development (PUD) and requires a special use permit.

The citys planning commission unanimously approved the request at its May 13 meeting. No public comment was given at that meeting, according to city records.

There are a handful of hotel projects already planned along the lakeshore including:

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An engineering and construction management firm with offices across the Midwest will add mid-Michigan to its roster of locations. AL.com

SAGINAW TWP, MI  An engineering and construction management firm with offices across the Midwest will add mid-Michigan to its roster of locations.

Officials with Fishbeck announced the opening of a Saginaw Township office, at 4805 Towne Center Road, earlier this week.

The Grand Rapids-based organization operates from offices in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

Our new Saginaw office represents Fishbecks ongoing commitment to support the infrastructure, environmental, and community development needs of Michigan, Jeff Brown, senior vice president at Fishbeck, said in a statement. With a dedicated team on the ground, well build stronger partnerships with local municipalities, developers, and nonprofits to advance projects that matter most to residents across mid-Michigan.

The organization operates 15 other offices across the Midwest. Its Michigan presence includes sites in Ann Arbor, Canton Township, Detroit, Kalamazoo, Novi, Macomb, Lansing and Traverse City, according to Fishbecks website.

Fishbecks services include sanitary sewer collection and treatment master planning and design; water distribution system and treatment master planning and design; roadway engineering; site design; and stormwater management. Additional services include topographic surveys, drone mapping, traffic impact studies, roundabout analysis, and federal, state, and local environmental consultation and permitting.

The Saginaw Township site is located less than a mile south of the Tittabawassee Road intersection.

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Trump selects concept for $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense system. In this photo, President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

WASHINGTON D.C.  President Donald Trump in recent months referenced Michigan as potential home to the manufacturing of a space-based missile defense program for the U.S.

The potential project came into focus again earlier this week when Trump outlined concepts for the $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense program.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump this week said he expects the system will be fully operational before the end of my term, which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from space.

Trump, seated next to a poster showing the continental U.S. painted gold and with artistic depictions of missile interceptions, also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, would be responsible for overseeing Golden Domes progress.

More than once, Trump has said Michigan workers would play a role in the systems manufacturing, although he did not mention the state during his Oval Office announcement this week. U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, of Indiana, at the Trump event said Indiana is going to help you make it.

Trump mentioned his plans for Michigans participation in creating the missile defense system as recently as a rally in Warren last month, when he celebrated his first 100 days in office.

The creation of a Michigan-built missile defense system also was a campaign promise for then-candidate Trump last year, when the Republican referenced the project as an iron dome.

We are going to build the great iron dome, and its going to be made right here, Trump told supporters during a May 2024 campaign rally in Saginaw County. He repeated the claim at a July 2024 rally in Grand Rapids.

Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.

The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. Golden Domes added satellites and interceptors  where the bulk of the programs cost is  would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.

The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations, Gen. Chance Saltzman, head of the U.S. Space Force, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Its not every day that a promposal brings together two generations  but at Springvale Senior Living Community, thats exactly what happened. | Photo provided by Springvale Senior Living Community Springvale Senior Living Community

Its not every day that a promposal brings together two generations -- but at this Michigan senior living community, thats exactly what happened.

What started as a simple idea turned into a memorable moment, thanks to the collaboration between Parker Hiatt, a high school student with prom on his mind, and a lively group of Springvale Senior Living Community residents with a knack for making things special.

Hiatts mother, Courtney Mills, serves as the wellness director at Springvale in Genesee Countys Swartz Creek.

When her son began brainstorming ideas to ask his girlfriend Raeleigh Genovesi to prom, she saw an opportunity to include the residents she works with every day.

I thought it would be something special for the residents and something the kids would never forget, said Courtney Mills. Parker said he wanted something that hadnt been done before, and I think we nailed it.

With the help of Springvales Life Enrichment team, the residents got to work.

A room was decorated, signs were crafted, and plans were carefully made.

As Hiatt and Genovesi entered the room, the residents held up handmade letters that spelled out a single question: PROM?

Adding to the emotional weight of the moment, Genovesis grandmother, a longtime supporter and companion, was there to see it all unfold.

Residents at Springvale Senior Living Community helped Swartz Creek High student Parker Mills with his promposal. (Photo provided by Springvale Senior Living Community) Springvale Senior Living Community

I was super shocked, definitely not expecting to walk into something like that, Genovesi said. It made me feel so special knowing the residents and my grandma wanted to be a part of the surprise as well.

Related: Swartz Creek celebrates A Night Under the Stars prom in style

For Genovesi, who has always enjoyed spending time with older adults, the setting felt just right.

And for the residents, it offered a joyful reminder of their own pasts.

I thought it was really nice, said Sharon Bunker, a resident who held the letter R. The kids were so sweet and we looked forward to seeing them on the big night.

Also: 11 favorite photos of Swartz Creeks A Night Under the Stars prom

Marlene Warren, another resident and Hiatts relative, said, It brought up so many memories while we waited for them. We were anxiously awaiting the kids to come.

A few days after the big ask, Hiatt and Genovesi returned to Springvale, a part of the StoryPoint Group, to visit the residents and thank them for making the promposal one theyd always remember.
Bajaj Auto aims to be majority owner of Austria's KTM, arm to provide 600 million to fund revival

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Archisha Yadav is a sub editor with 1.5 years of experience in writing news articles on topics like education, jobs, and politics. She specialises in crafting simple, clear, and engaging stories that are easy to understand and hold the readers interest, making complex topics accessible and relatable to a larger audience.

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Aishwarya Rai's Cannes 2025 look breaks the internet; netizens write 'Paro in her thakurain era'

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Did Aishwarya Rai pay tribute to Operation Sindoor at Cannes red carpet, netizens think so

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From Landman to Sirens: OTT releases to binge watch this weekend

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J-Hope makes history as first BTS member to feature solo on Billboard cover, says "its a milestone Ill always cherish"

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Kajol seeks blessings at Dakshineswar Kali temple ahead of Maa premiere, says This is my strongest role ever

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Karan Johar recalls meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese in Shah Rukh Khans Berlin suite, says "I was just sitting there like a fan"

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Rana Naidu Season 2: Here's when and where you can watch this most dramatic web series

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When Aishwarya Rai was dazzling at Cannes, Abhishek Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan attended actress Diana Penty's mom's birthday party, see pics

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Namita S Kalla is a senior journalist who writes about different aspects of modern life that include lifestyle, health, fashion, beauty, and entertainment.

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Did Janhvi Kapoor pay homage to her late mother Sridevi in a wet white sari look at Cannes 2025? See pics

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Banks said to have asked RBI to lower daily cash reserve rule

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Call money volumes may not get fillip despite proposed extension in market timings

Manish M. Suvarna is Senior Correspondent at Moneycontrol. He writes on the Indian money markets, RBI, Banks and NBFCs. He tweets at @manishsuvarna15. Contact: Manish.Suvarna@nw18.com

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India's business activity rises to 13-month high of 61.2 in May, shows HSBC Composite PMI

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India may grant tariff sops for smartphones from US, EU via FTAs

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Stocks to Watch Today: IndiGo, IndusInd Bank, Colgate, NALCO, Hindustan Zinc, NBCC, Aarti Industries, Birlasoft, MGL, Oil India in focus on 22 May

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Corporate NPS: The tax hack thats available even under the new regime

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India does not have a culture of excellence, says Cred's Kunal Shah

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US-India trade deal: GM corn, soya and walnuts expected to be top points of negotiation

Shubhangi Mathur

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15 Covid cases reported in Gujarat; govt says no need to panic

Chhabi Kala

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Smriti Mishra

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From a small Muslim household to International Booker 2025: All about Banu Mushtaq and her collection 'Heart Lamp'

Ria Kapoor

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'Grand sounding but hollow filmi dialogues': Jairam Ramesh on PM Modi's speech on Pakistan in Bikaner

Priyanjali Ghose

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How caste census could help BJP blunt Opposition's mega offensive on Waqf in Bihar

Parimal Peeyush

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Ria Kapoor

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India presses Pakistan to act on wanted terrorists, says open to dialogue on handover

Smriti Mishra

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Inside Modi govt's silent battle to wipe out Red Terror and fulfil a key promise by 2026

Priyanjali Ghose

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Parimal Peeyush is News Editor at Moneycontrol. A journalist for over 17 years, his experience spans across newspapers, magazines and digital news media. Having joined Moneycontrol in August 2024, Parimal oversees the Political Desk. He has penned over 8,000 stories on elections while also covering issues around the intersection of politics, law and crime. A seasoned hand, Parimal has previously worked at Financial Express, Hindustan Times, Sakaal Media Group, The Sunday Indian and India TV as a reporter and later as an editor since the early 2000s. Through his career, he has covered diverse issues ranging from the Mumbai 26/11 attack to the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax. He has also closely followed key government changes at the Centre and states, while also simplifying complex policy changes such as demonetisation and Article 370 abrogation. He also briefly dabbled into consulting in the e-commerce and defence sectors while working for Sweden-based firm Probability Consulting AB, and Finance at CFO India magazine. An English graduate with a Masters in Journalism, Parimal can be found either discussing politics and sci-fi or boasting about his non-existent guitar skills.

Parimal Peeyush

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Chhabi Kala

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Pakistan denied IndiGo Delhi-Srinagar flight's permission to use its airspace to avoid turbulence: Report

Yeeshu Yadav

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Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan airbase in ICU because of Indian strikes, says PM Narendra Modi in Bikaner rally

Priyanjali Ghose

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'Relations built on sensitivities to...': India asks Turkey to urge Pakistan to end terrorism

Yeeshu Yadav

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UP completes 96 per cent land acquisition for its defence corridor: Know all about the project

Priyanjali Ghose

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'Vacate illegally occupied Kashmir': India's precondition to Pakistan for talks on Jammu and Kashmir

Siddharth Chakravorty

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Dubai doctor says hell apply to McDonalds after AI analyses X-ray better than him

Shubhi Mishra

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Even your specs are covered: Google employee shares 5 underrated perks most people dont know about

Shubhi Mishra

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'Impersonating myself to me': Paytm CEO shares scam attempt by fraudster demanding company funds

Shubhi Mishra

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Asiatic lion numbers rise from 674 to 891 in India, says Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav

Sheetal Kumari

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Sheetal Kumari

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5 essential AI skills that will help you stay relevant in the age of automation: ServiceNows Amit Zavery explains

Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day

Shaurya Shubham

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Google AI Pro vs Google AI Ultra: A detailed guide on helping you choose the right AI membership plan from Google

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Shaurya Shubham

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Nothing announces 'Create Your Phone' contest: How to participate and other details

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Christin Mathew Philip is an Assistant editor at moneycontrol.com. Based in Bengaluru, he writes on mobility, infrastructure and start-ups. He is a Ramnath Goenka excellence in journalism awardee. You can find him on Twitter here: twitter.com/ChristinMP_

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Ahead of nuclear talks, Iran says US will be held accountable for Israeli attack

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Amid Balochistan revolt, deadly water war erupts in Sindh: Is Pakistan losing control of its federation?

Abhinav Gupta

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Brazil unmasks Russian spy network that used fake identities to infiltrate the west

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Im sorry we dont have a plane to give you South African President jokes about Qatars Boeing 747 gift to Trump

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Israel gears up to strike Iran if Tehran's nuclear talks with US collapse: War on the horizon?

Abhinav Gupta

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Netanyahu says Trump's 'revolutionary' Gaza plan is now condition to end war

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Pentagon takes $400 million plane donation from Qatar as Trump's new Air Force One, raising security and ethics concerns

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Trump again claims credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire, says he settled it through trade

Pragya Trivedi

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Trump being Trump: Ex-US NSA on President taking credit for India-Pakistan ceasefire, calls New Delhis action entirely justifiable

Pragya Trivedi

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Turning to chatbots for comfort: Why more young Chinese are seeking AI over therapists

Pragya Trivedi

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US accepts luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar to replace Air Force One amid legal and ethical concerns

Pragya Trivedi

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US's Golden Dome vs Israel's Iron Dome vs India's Air Defence Systems: Here's how they compare

Hemant Abhishek

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'War situation between India and Pakistan could have taken a very dangerous turn': Pak PM

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What is Trump's Golden Dome defence system? Know all about America's $175 billion missile shield

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Who is Elias Rodriguez? The suspect who killed two Israeli embassy staffers and shouted Free Palestine

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Insight The Biden health saga should remind the media to tell the truth By Chicago Tribune Editorial Board Chicago Tribune/(TNS) Published May 22, 2025

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Even before Joe Biden's diagnosis of prostate cancer, made public this week, we were uncomfortable with the post-facto dissections of the events leading up to the former president's late withdrawal from his campaign for a second term. There are many reasons why, not the least being the attempts by many in the media to claim they were "misled" about the president's condition when they were the ones doing much of the misleading.

We could fill this page with evidence thereof. Any number of left-leaning columnists at prestigious media outlets tried to bat down the rumors that Biden's visible aging (as manifested both physically and mentally) was compromising his credibility as a viable candidate for perhaps the most demanding job in the world. We even ran a couple of those pieces ourselves. In recent days, as books have come out claiming a White House "cover-up" and placing the blame far from the writers of said books, it has been easy for Republicans to post two column headlines side by side  an old one, insisting Biden was doing fine and that all protestations to the contrary were fake news, and a new one, wherein the writer claimed to be shocked to finally have learned the truth.

Please. Let's just be honest.

Biden and his wife, Jill, wished to continue as president and first lady. Their handlers, who had a vested interest in that continuance, did all they could to minimize what became obvious during Biden's June 2024 debate with (then former) President Donald Trump. There is room for debate as to whether the minimization of Biden's age-related limitations was simply their political job as loyal aides or an example of epic moral malfeasance that put the country at risk. The truth likely is somewhere in between.

But the media should have known better. Alas, too many outlets were blinded by their desire to see the Democrats win. And thus the first lesson of this situation presents itself: It is always preferable for reporters and columnists to tell the truth, rather than put their thumbs on the scale to try and influence events. You can have an opinion, a strong opinion, and still stick to the truth. In this case, too many famous media names did not. And falsehoods can be expressed through omissions.

We all make mistakes. But what is most galling about this situation is the media's new blame-deflection game, with only a few exceptions. There is something especially egregious about making money from a book wherein you accuse others of doing something you also did yourself. Most Americans can see that.

Most voters also saw the issues with Biden. But some made the decision that even a less-than-capable president who matched their values was a better choice than his opponent because we all know that most of the actions of a White House come from staffers, not one individual with an impossibly massive workload. That was not an illogical or a stupid choice. But it doesn't absolve either the Biden White House or the fourth estate, whose job was supposed to be the provision of the full and actual facts so that citizens can make as informed a choice as possible, even if that choice was to vote for him anyway.

That brings us to Biden's cancer, a diagnosis that surely cast a pall over the various book tours and panel discussions on what the Bidens and their handlers did or did not obscure.

On the far right, the general assumption was that the Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis must have been made a long time ago and known by Biden's personal physician, given that presidents do not have to wait weeks for medical appointments. Some referenced Biden apparently referring to having cancer in 2022 in a Delaware speech, although his aides at the time walked that back and said he was referring to a more benign skin cancer. In this telling, the prostate cancer was all part of the cover-up and the choice to release the information now was timed to boost Biden as a sympathetic figure and deflate chatter about the other cover-ups.

If so, it was effective. This week, media outlets found themselves in the uncomfortable position of reporting a president's cancer diagnosis on the same homepage as columns and news stories that were claiming he, his wife and their aides were either lying or in a state of deep denial.

We simply do not know, and may never know, if the cancer conspiracy theories are true, even if we think asking questions of Biden's personal physician, Kevin O'Connor, are legitimate. After all, history is filled with other such examples. The late Queen Elizabeth II had late-in-life cancer, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed in his book, and he was in a position to know. Unlike the public, told only of persistent "mobility problems."

But ceremonial monarchs and U.S. presidents are different categories.

This week's news was uncomfortable and depressing, given that Biden had a long career of public service and that advanced cancer diagnoses often hit families without warning, sparking the chaos that invariably accompanies such news. For decent Americans, the vast majority of this nation, simple human concerns for Biden and his loving family eclipsed political considerations (and someone else's book sales). As well they should.

What might the Democratic establishment take from this? Cover-ups are inadvisable, however well meant, because the erosion of trust only compounds. A typical result is the opposite of the original intent.

And the media? Reporters and editors have to be more aware of personal biases and the sins of omission. Many of those who reported and commented on the news of the last presidential election had a deeply felt stake in the result. That's natural. Reporters are people too. But the place for that expression is the voting booth. Outside that anonymous act, the job is to report the truth, whatever the likely consequences.

We wish President Biden a long life yet to come and we surely join with our readers in hoping his condition responds well to treatment.

(COMMENT, BELOW)
Cast member Jodie Foster poses during a photocall for the film "Vie privee" (A Private Life), out of competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 21, 2025.
Residents make payments to the Treasurer of Guam at the Department of Revenue and Taxation in Barrigada on Feb. 12, 2025.

Photo by Frank San Nicolas/The Guam Daily Post
Zaldy Dandan is a recipient of the Best Editorial Writer Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the CNMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com/.
TC Business Council President Tom Crosby (L), Brian Dahle on screen (M), and Supervisor Jaron Brandon (R) View Photo

Sonora, CA  Former California Senator Brian Dahle, who was the Republican nominee for Governor in 2022, spoke to the Tuolumne County Business Council Wednesday afternoon about a new Political Action Committee he is spearheading.

Dahle recently termed-out of office in Sacramenot. During the 2022 Gubernatorial election, he lost to incumbent Governor Gavin Newsom by a margin of 59% to 41%.

Dahle, joining todays meeting via video, noted that the goal of his new PAC is to get a seat at the table when important decisions facing Californians are being made. He noted that it is bipartisan and will focus on preventing legislation from passing that would increase regulations and the cost of living. He said he wants to see more people able to stay in California. The PAC plans to steer clear of social issues.

Adding, If you cant afford to be in California, who cares about the other issues?

The PAC will have a narrow path and target about 20-25 bills.

The group is called Only One CA. Dahle told the Business Council that his initial goal is to attract 500 residents/members in each Senate District. Members joining would pay either $1 a day, $30 a month, or $365 a year.

Dahle added that he plans to be in Sonora later this month to meet with local leaders. The more members gained, the increased amount of influence it will have. Dahle referenced how highly funded labor unions are able to sway legislation.

The luncheon also featured a 15-minute question and answer session with District Four Supervisor Jaron Brandon (while todays Supervisors meeting was on a lunch break). There were also brief updates provided by representatives of the Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau and Tuolumne County Transportation Council about local projects and initiatives. The monthly luncheon was held at the Mother Lode Job Training Office on Mono Way.
Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock speaks on the House floor regarding the passing of budget bill -- Courtesy C-Span View Photo

Sonora, CA  Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock praised the passage of the House Budget Bill this morning on the House floor before the final vote.

The H.R. 1 reconciliation legislation that Republicans, including McClintock, are calling the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by one vote and along party lines, 215-214. Rep. McClintock (CA-05) voted in favor of the measure and remarked, By this time next year, Americans could be enjoying one of the most explosive periods of growth in our history.

The entirety of his comments is below:

A Big, Beautiful Future

May 22, 2025

If this bill fails, an average familys taxes will rise 22 percent next year  about $1,700 a year  the biggest tax increase in American history.

But if it succeeds, working families will be able to keep more of their own earnings. Well be able to complete the border wall and protect our communities from the violent cartels the Democrats allowed into our country. Well relieve pressure on Medicaid by requiring able-bodied adults to look for work. And we can free up Americas vast energy resources.

The most important economic indicator is how Americans answer this question next year: Are you better off today than you were two years ago?

By this time next year, Americans could be enjoying one of the most explosive periods of growth in our history and all that means: secure borders, safer communities, lower taxes, abundant energy, more and better jobs; a higher standard of living and a better quality of life  a big, beautiful future for all Americans.
Courts nationwide dismantle quackery against energy firms

A growing trend of rulings by federal and state judges  including in Pennsylvania, New York City, Maryland and Delaware  has dismissed lawsuits seeking to hold energy companies liable for climate damages, citing jurisdictional limits and legal precedent under the Clean Air Act. These cases are deemed a matter for federal, not local, policymaking.

Judges emphasize that state/local laws cannot regulate interstate emissions, with rulings underscoring the Clean Air Acts federal preemption. New Yorks case was dismissed for contradictions in claiming public climate awareness while alleging corporate deception ("greenwashing"), highlighting flawed legal arguments.

Bucks Countys lawsuit was criticized for violating transparency laws (Pennsylvanias Sunshine Act) by hiring a contingency-fee law firm without public input or cost-benefit analysis. Judges and industry lawyers condemned the lack of open government deliberation.

Opponents, like the Heritage Foundations Diana Furchtgott-Roth, argue these lawsuits are ideologically driven "lawfare" aiming to destabilize energy companies and force green policies through courts rather than legislation. Industry attorneys warn against conflating corporate disclosures with federal regulatory duties.

The rulings reinforce federal authority over climate policy, aligning with efforts (like Trump-era executive orders) to curb state overreach. They may shield consumers/taxpayers from costly liability claims (e.g., Bucks Countys $23 billion demand) while preserving affordable energy access  though political debates over policy-making power persist.

A growing chorus of federal and state judges has struck blows against a wave of climate lawsuits targeting energy companies, reaffirming that carbon emissions are the domain of federal policymakers, not local regulators. In a landmark ruling, Bucks County, Pennsylvanias lawsuit against fossil fuel giants BP, ExxonMobil and others was dismissed last week by Common Pleas Judge Stephen Corr, who called the case not judiciable by any court in Pennsylvania. This decision follows similar dismissals in New York City and across the U.S., signaling a judicial rejection of efforts to hold energy companies legally liable for global climate impacts.

Jurisdictional barriers and legal precedent cripple claims

Judge Corrs decision underscores longstanding legal interpretations of the Clean Air Act, which preempt state and local governments from regulating interstate emissions. Pennsylvania cannot apply its own laws to claims dealing with air in its ambient or interstate aspects, the ruling states. His opinion aligns with a trend among judges in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York, who have also ruled that climate lawsuits require national, not local solutions. This stance received support from industry observers like Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Heritage Foundation, who argued, Environmentalists are trying to use courts to do climate policy because they cant get their way through elected officials. The way to channel this problem is through laws.

Meanwhile, New York Supreme Court Justice Anar Patel dismissed the citys nearly identical lawsuit this month, noting the citys contradiction in claiming both public awareness of climate change and corporate deception. You cannot have it both ways, Patel ruled, rejecting claims that companies contributed to a greenwashing campaign. Attorneys for energy firms have consistently maintained that such cases conflate corporate disclosures with federal regulatory responsibilities.

Procedural missteps and government transparency concerns

Beyond jurisdictional issues, Judge Corr took issue with Bucks Countys conduct, accusing its commissioners of violating Pennsylvanias Sunshine Act by failing to adequately engage the public in litigation planning. The county had hired a contingent-fee law firm, DiCello Levitt, to pursue claims without clear policymaker or resident input, leaving no public record of debate or cost-benefit analysis. Ted Boutrous, a lawyer for Chevron, praised the ruling, stating the court correctly found the commissioners violated the spirit of open government, ensuring transparency in public decisions.

Critics, including Heritages Furchtgott-Roth, argue such lawsuits amount to lawfare against energy companies, prioritizing ideological agendas over economic stability. These cases are a form of litigation demolition, seeking to destroy upstream companies and stabilize green energy via courtroom fiat, the analyst added.

The broader political and economic stakes

The rulings amplify federal pushes to resist state overreach in energy policy. President Donald Trumps April executive order directed agencies to challenge misguided state lawsuits, and the Justice Department recently challenged climate damage claims in Hawaii and Michigan. Observers note that if upheld, this legal consensus could spare consumers and taxpayers from bearing costs from dubious liability claims, which in Bucks County reached $23 billion  including demands for endless oversight of fossil fuel emissions.

Bob Harvie, Bucks Countys current commissioner chairman, initially framed the lawsuit as a historic shift of climate costs onto energy firms. But Judge Corrs dismissal underscored the futility of such efforts: The commissioners press conference boasting historic actions contrasts sharply with their failure to engage the public, he noted, pointing to lackluster deliberations in a routine 2024 meeting.

Courts reinforce federalism in rebuffing climate policy by lawsuit

The 2025 rulings reflect a judicial acknowledgment that climate policy must originate from lawmakers, not courts. As more judges reject attempts to weaponize lawsuits against energy companies, the precedent sets a powerful defense for federal law in this contentious arena. For critics, its a reminder that quackery  as described by opponents of these claims  cannot override constitutional frameworks or the democratic process. The energy sector now faces fewer threats from local crusades, and consumers retain access to affordable energy while the political process navigates climate solutions. Yet, with polarization high, the debate over where power lies  Congress or courts  will likely endure long after court clerks file these cases away.

Sources for this article include:

WattsUpWithThat.com

DailyCallerNewsFoundation.org

FreeBeacon.com
Independent journalists launch decentralized news portal to resist Big Tech censorship

The Independent Media Alliance (IMA), led by Whitney Webb, Derrick Broze and Ryan Cristian, is launching a decentralized news portal on Odysees Decentralized Media Ecosystem (DME). This platform will allow journalists to retain full editorial and monetization control, free from corporate censorship.

The IMAs move responds to repeated censorship by mainstream platforms (e.g., YouTube, Patreon), which have demonetized, shadowbanned, or removed independent journalists for challenging corporate or establishment narratives.

Odysees Portal functions as a decentralized website builder, enabling peer-to-peer content hosting, anti-censorship resilience and creator-owned monetization  contrasting Big Techs centralized control and opaque algorithms.

Built on blockchain-like protocols, Odysees DME makes it nearly impossible to censor or shut down content unilaterally, ensuring persistent access to independent journalism.

The IMA-Odysee collaboration signals a shift toward trust-based, community-driven media, prioritizing transparency over profit  a model that could redefine press freedom in the face of increasing corporate gatekeeping.

In a significant move to reclaim editorial sovereignty, the Independent Media Alliance (IMA) recently announced it will launch its own decentralized news portal within Odysees Decentralized Media Ecosystem (DME). The platform, led by prominent investigative journalists Whitney Webb, Derrick Broze and Ryan Cristian, marks a bold departure from traditional social media giants like Meta and Alphabet, whose algorithms and moderation policies have long marginalized independent voices. The IMAs portal, set to debut later this year, will give journalists and their audiences full control over content, commentary and monetization  free from corporate interference.

The alliances decision underscores a growing movement to decentralize digital media, driven by supervisors such as Odysee founder Julian Chandra, who emphasized the shift as a return of creative control to the creators. For the IMA, it is both a pragmatic response to censorship and a philosophical stand for press freedom in an era of algorithmic gatekeeping and financial deplatforming.

A fight for sovereignty in an era of censorship

The IMAs portal launch is rooted in years of trial by fire. Webb (Unlimited Hangout), Broze (The Conscious Resistance Network) and Cristian (The Last American Vagabond) have faced repeated suppression from Big Tech. Their reportingoften critical of corporate power or Establishment narratives  has been shadowbanned, demonetized, or buried by opaque algorithms. In 2022, for instance, Webb lost access to YouTube and Patreon, jeopardizing her income and audience reach. These experiences galvanized the alliances mission: build infrastructure unshackled from centralized oversight.

Centralized platforms, critics argue, prioritize profit over truth. As Mike Adams, CEO of Free Speech Systems, noted in a 2023 interview: The future belongs to independent platforms that prioritize transparency and community trust over shareholder demands. The IMAs embrace of Odysee reflects this ethos. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Odysees DME does not filter content or dictate monetization models. Instead, creators maintain full ownership, managing commenting systems, ad revenue and moderation.

Odysees Portal: A new paradigm for journalism

Odysees Portal framework, described by Chandra as a decentralized website builder, allows users to construct self-sustaining media hubs without reliance on centralized entities. Each portal operates on a peer-to-peer network, ensuring resilience against censorship or technical disruptions. For the IMA, this infrastructure means they can publish investigative reports, host community discussions and accept patronage  all while protecting user privacy.

The platforms decentralized nature also offers protection against deplatforming. Unlike traditional sites that can be removed by a single entity, Odysees DME runs on blockchain-like protocols, making it nearly impossible to shut down without dismantling the entire network. As Broze stated, the move ensures that the truth can no longer be silenced by the flick of a switch in Silicon Valley.

Historically, decentralized media models have struggled with scalability and user adoption. Yet Odysees strategy  positioning itself as both a host and a toolkit  may prove disruptive. The platform, founded in 2020, has already cultivated a user base resistant to mainstream censorship. This isnt just about avoiding bans  its about creating a media ecosystem that thrives on trust and transparency, Chandra said.

Implications for the future of journalism

The IMAs partnership with Odysee signals a potential turning point for independent journalism. For decades, legacy media outlets and Big Tech have set the agenda, often sidelining voices that challenge power structures. Decentralized platforms, however, empower creators to pursue truth without compromising principles.

Critics argue that such models may lack the reach or resources of conglomerate-backed platforms, but advocates counter that quality and trustrather than algorithmic amplification  will drive the future of media. Webb, who joined the alliance in 2021 after losing YouTube access, summed up this vision: Our audience chose us, and now we can finally choose how to serve them.

A new framework for free expression

The Independent Media Alliances launch on Odysees Portal represents more than a technical shiftit is a cultural and philosophical statement. By harnessing decentralized technology, the alliance has redefined the boundaries of press freedom, proving that independent journalism can thrive beyond the reach of corporate gatekeepers. As tech monopolies tighten their control, such platforms offer a lifeline for voices long pushed to the margins.

For readers weary of censored discourse or algorithm-driven content, the IMAs model may foreshadow a future where journalism is shaped not by profit margins, but by truth, resilience and the communities it serves. In Chandras words: This is the infrastructure of the future  a world where creators and audiences finally collaborate on their own terms.

Sources for this article include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

Odysee.com
Regeneron acquires 23andMe for $256 million, sparking privacy concerns over genetic data

Regeneron bought bankrupt 23andMe for $256M, acquiring its massive genetic database after a breach exposed 6.9M users' DNA and health data.

23andMe's value crashed from $6B due to declining demand and a cyberattack that stole ancestry, health and family tree data  initially underreported.

Privacy concerns persist as Regeneron integrates 23andMe's 12M-user database; anonymized genetic data is often shared without full consent.

23andMe pivoted from consumer trust to drug development profits, prompting warnings from regulators to delete data over financial instability risks.

Genetic data is permanent, making breaches irreversible and corporate control ethically risky compared to other sensitive information.

In a move that underscores the high stakes of genetic data ownership, pharmaceutical powerhouse Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has purchased bankrupt DNA testing giant 23andMe in a court-supervised auction.

The $256 million deal announced Monday, May 19, hands one of the world's largest troves of consumer genetic information to a biotech firm with deep ties to medical research. It followed months of financial turmoil for 23andMe  including a devastating data breach exposing 6.9 million users' sensitive information and warnings from California Attorney General Rob Bonta urging customers to delete their data.

Once a pioneer in consumer genetics, 23andMe saw its market value plummet from nearly $6 billion in 2021 to bankruptcy in 2024, The San Francisco-based company was crippled by waning demand for at-home DNA test.

It also suffered from the fallout from a massive cyberattack. Hackers exploited weak security measures to steal ancestry reports, health data and even family tree details. While initially downplaying the breach, 23andMe was eventually forced to admit that nearly all its customers were affected.

The hacking incident amplified long-standing fears about corporate stewardship of genetic data. Now, as Regeneron takes control, privacy advocates and consumers are questioning what happens next to the genetic blueprints of millions.

The New York-based Regeneron insisted in a press release that it will uphold strict privacy standards. "We assure 23andMe customers that we are committed to protecting the dataset with our high standards of data privacy, security and ethical oversight," said Dr. Aris Baras, head of Regeneron's genetics center. The biotechnology firm made headlines over its gene-based drug discovery and a monoclonal antibody treatment for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), which President Donald Trump received in 2020.

How 23andMe's bankruptcy hands your genetic data to Big Pharma

Yet the company's plans to integrate 23andMe's database of 12 million users into its research programs have raised eyebrows. Regeneron already collaborates with global institutions to link deidentified DNA with health records. This practice, critics argue, blurs the line between voluntary testing and commodified medical research.

The deal also highlights a broader ethical dilemma: The lack of transparency in how genetic data is repurposed. In March, Bonta had warned 23andMe users to delete their profiles before the bankruptcy, citing "financial distress" as a risk to data security. While Regeneron pledges compliance with privacy laws, the fine print of consent forms  often glossed over by consumers  has historically allowed companies to share anonymized data with third parties, including pharmaceutical firms.

For 23andMe, the sale marks an abrupt fall from grace. Co-founder Anne Wojcicki, who stepped down as CEO ahead of the bankruptcy, once championed "consumer empowerment" in genetics. (Related: Anne Wojcicki accused of running "biological Ponzi scheme" with 23andMe.)

But the company's shift toward monetizing user data for drug development, coupled with its failure to safeguard that data, eroded trust. "There is no doubt the challenges have been real," Wojcicki conceded in a March statement, though she defended the company's mission.

As Regeneron prepares to absorb 23andMe's assets by late 2025, the transaction serves as a cautionary tale. Genetic data, unlike a stolen credit card number, is immutable  a fact that makes breaches irreversible and corporate custody fraught with risk.

In an era where DNA can be weaponized for discrimination, surveillance or profit, the 23andMe saga forces a reckoning. Who gets to decide the future of genetic code? For 6.9 million people, the answer now lies in the hands of a pharmaceutical giant.

Watch Jefferey Jaxen and Del Bigtree discussing 23andMe's data liquidation following its bankruptcy in this clip.

This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.

More related stories:

Hackers target 23andMe DNA testing company, gain access to 6.9 MILLION user profiles.

DNA testing giant 23AndMe terminates 40% of its workforce amid falling revenues.

23andMe bankruptcy puts 15 million Americans' DNA data at risk.

Sources include:

YourNews.com

Newsroom.Regeneron.com

TheEpochTimes.com

Brighteon.com
SEC charges Unicoin and top executives in massive $100M crypto securities fraud

The SEC charged Unicoin and three executives with a $100M fraud, alleging false claims about real estate-backed tokens and inflated financial projections.

Regulators say Unicoin misled investors by exaggerating asset values and falsely advertising SEC registration.

CEO Alex Konanykhin rejected a settlement, vowing to fight the SECs allegations and claiming the investigation caused "multi-billion-dollar damages" to the company.

The case highlights risks in crypto, with Unicoins aggressive marketing masking what the SEC calls a "massive securities fraud."

The SEC seeks penalties and injunctions, reinforcing its crackdown on crypto fraud as a warning to investors and companies about transparency and compliance.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged cryptocurrency platform Unicoin and three of its top executives with orchestrating a $100 million fraud, misleading thousands of investors with false claims about real estate-backed tokens and inflated financial projections.

The case, filed in Manhattan federal court, alleges that CEO Alex Konanykhin, board member Silvina Moschini, and former investment chief Alex Dominguez deceived investors by exaggerating the value of assets, misrepresenting sales figures, and falsely advertising SEC registration.

The SECs complaint paints a damning picture of a company that allegedly lured investors with promises of high returns while concealing the true state of its finances. According to regulators, Unicoins claims of owning a $1.4 billion international real estate portfolio were grossly inflated. The actual value of the properties was no more than $300 million, and many transactions never closed.

False promises and inflated claims

The SECs Division of Enforcement associate director, Mark Cave, stated that Unicoin exploited thousands of investors with fictitious promises that its tokens, when issued, would be backed by real-world assets including an international portfolio of valuable real estate holdings. However, the agency alleges that the properties were worth only a fraction of what was claimed, and most of the companys reported sales were illusory.

Among the most egregious allegations is that Unicoin falsely advertised $3 billion in rights certificate sales when, in reality, it had only sold $110 million. The company also allegedly misled investors by claiming its offerings were SEC-registered  a key selling point for those seeking legitimacy in the volatile crypto market.

Executives reject settlement, vow to fight

Unicoins CEO, Alex Konanykhin, had previously signaled his intent to challenge the SECs allegations. In April, he revealed that the company had received a Wells notice  a formal warning of impending charges  in December 2024 but refused to attend a settlement negotiation, calling the SECs demands unacceptable.

We declined to show up, Konanykhin told CoinDesk in an interview, claiming the SECs investigation had caused multi-billion-dollar damages to Unicoin. Despite the Trump administrations more lenient stance toward crypto enforcement, the SEC has continued its crackdown, with Unicoin now facing demands for disgorgement, civil penalties, and officer-and-director bans for its executives.

A cautionary tale for crypto investors

The case serves as a reminder of the risks in the largely unregulated crypto space, where flashy marketing and bold claims can obscure financial realities. Unicoins aggressive advertising  including taxi cab ads in Manhattan, digital billboards, and social media posts promising returns of up to 9,000,000%  appears to have been a smokescreen for what the SEC calls a massive securities fraud.

While Unicoin has positioned itself as an America First crypto firm, its legal troubles cast doubt on its future. The SECs pursuit of permanent injunctions and financial penalties underscores the agencys commitment to holding bad actors accountable, even as the regulatory landscape shifts.

For now, investors are left to wonder whether they will recover any of their funds and whether Unicoins executives will face further consequences. As the case unfolds, it stands as a warning to both crypto entrepreneurs and investors: transparency and compliance are non-negotiable in an industry still struggling to earn mainstream trust.

The SECs case against Unicoin highlights the ongoing battle against fraud in the cryptocurrency sector. With regulators intensifying scrutiny, companies that mislead investors, whether through false asset claims or exaggerated financial projections, are increasingly at risk of severe penalties. For those who believed in Unicoins promises, the fallout is a painful lesson in the importance of due diligence. As the crypto market evolves, accountability will be key to ensuring its long-term viability.

Sources for this article include:

CoinTelegraph.com

Reuters.com

CoinDesk.com
WHO offering pandemic Equitable Vaccine Access is like offering all humans equitable turns at Russian Roulette  Step right up for your equal access death jabs folks

The WHO wants everyone to be able to access the next plandemic death jabs, including terrorists who could pretend to be scientists and access the pathogen vials. The  Pandemic Treaty  the WHO is pushing for is an end of the world treaty where equal access means everybody dies, not just those with co-morbidities who get the mRNA prions-forever stabs.

Equitable Vaccine Access means any psychopath could get his hands on the gain-of-function pathogens and genetically modified viruses and spread them

The WHO wants anyone and everyone to have access to world-ending bioweapons next time around. Let everybody have the vaccines and the pathogen vials so we can all be safe from ... wait for it ... wait for it... a virus mutated in a lab and made to make billions of people sick, and vaccines that create clots in the vascular system that catapult all-cause mortality rates. Great. Great plan WHO.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is advocating for equitable vaccine access ahead of the next pandemic through its proposed Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response Agreement (Pandemic Treaty). While the treaty alone wont prevent future pandemics, it aims to address inequities in vaccine distribution, particularly for low- and middle-income countries.

Key proposals include:

20% Real-Time Sharing: Manufacturers would allocate 20% of vaccines and medical countermeasures to poorer nations in exchange for access to pathogen samples and genetic datathough compliance remains voluntary. Technology Transfer: Wealthy nations are urged (but not mandated) to facilitate voluntary tech transfers to boost local vaccine production in developing countries during crises.

However, challenges persist:

The Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system relies on manufacturers agreeing to share vaccines in return for pathogen data, but mutating pathogens reduce the leverage of such agreements.

Pharmaceutical companies, absent from negotiations, may resist binding obligations without clear cost-benefit analyses, preferring direct deals with the WHO.

Critics argue the treaty lacks enforceable equity mechanisms, relying on "best endeavour" language rather than accountable international coordination.

The Third World Network highlights gaps in the draft text, stressing the need for:

A fully linked system for sharing pathogens and benefits equally.

Stronger governance with civil society and private-sector inclusion.

Despite the WHOs push for global vaccine equity, logistical hurdles, corporate profit motives, and weak enforcement risk perpetuating disparities. The treatys success hinges on binding commitments, not just voluntary pledges, to ensure fair access in future health crises.

The WHO needs to be shut down and the key players from the Covid scamdemic need to be put in prison for life. Not one single person has been jailed for crimes against humanity during the Covid death wave. Not one. Nobody has even been indicted yet. The mass murderers got away with it. Will they again? What will happen to Bill Gates and Anthony Fauci next time around? What about all the presstitutes who pushed the vaccine narrative? Who will pay the price for this treason and mass-manipulation? Only time will tell.

Bookmark plague.info to your favorite independent websites for updates on new gain-of-function viruses the CDC and WHO release into the wild.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

GatewayPundit.com

NaturalNews.com

SHTFplan.com
Chinas mineral monopoly threatens global energy independence as nations scramble for alternatives

The world is sleepwalking into a dangerous dependency on China for the very minerals that power the future lithium, cobalt, and graphitewhile Beijing tightens its grip on global supply chains. With China controlling up to 90% of processing for these critical battery materials, nations like Japan are now racing to break free from this stranglehold before its too late. But can they escape Chinas dominance, or will the Wests green energy dreams be held hostage by a single authoritarian regime?

Key points:

China processes 60-70% of the worlds lithium and cobalt for battery cathodes and 70% of graphite for anodes, with near-total control over rare earth minerals.

Chinese firms own 80% of cobalt mines in Congo and dominate lithium extraction in South Americas "lithium triangle."

Japan plans to increase domestic battery production seven-fold by 2030 to avoid supply disruptions.

China has imposed export restrictions on graphite, signaling its willingness to weaponize critical minerals.

The U.S. produces zero natural graphite, leaving it entirely dependent on foreign sources.

The great mineral heist: How China cornered the market

While Western nations championed green energy as a path to sustainability, China strategically secured the resources needed to dominate the emerging sector. By investing heavily in Africa and South America, Beijing now controls critical supply chains, leaving the West vulnerable. In the Democratic Republic of Congowhich supplies over 50% of the worlds cobaltChinese firms own 80% of mines, effectively turning the country into an economic satellite. Similarly, in South Americas lithium-rich regions, Chinese companies control half of global reserves, while Australia, the top lithium producer, sends nearly all its output to China for refining.

This consolidation of resources has given China unprecedented leverage. With 70% of cobalt, 65% of lithium, and 80% of rare earth processing under its control, Beijing could disrupt global industries at will. Experts warn that Western green energy ambitions hinge on Chinese goodwilla precarious dependency that undermines energy security. "China didnt just enter the market; they command it," noted an analyst. If supply chains are weaponized, electric vehicle production, renewable energy storage, and tech manufacturing could face catastrophic disruptions, exposing the Wests risky reliance on a single geopolitical rival.

The coming graphite crisis: A warning sign for the West

Graphite, a key component in lithium-ion batteries, is the latest mineral caught in Chinas crosshairs. In 2023, Beijing slapped export restrictions on graphite products, a move experts say is a test run for broader economic warfare. The U.S., which produces zero natural graphite, is particularly vulnerable.

Chinas dominance isnt just in miningits in processing. The country refines over 90% of the worlds graphite and manufactures 85% of battery anodes. Even if other nations ramp up mining, theyll still need China to turn raw ore into usable material.

Japan, recognizing the danger, is now pushing to boost domestic battery production to 150 GWh annually by 2030. But with China controlling 74% of global battery component exports, breaking free wont be easy.

The new energy cold war: Who will control the future?

The stakes couldnt be higher. As the world shifts to electric vehicles and renewable energy, control over these minerals means control over the global economy. Chinas leaders know thisand theyre not afraid to use it.

"Western nations have been naive," said a metals trader in Hong Kong. "They assumed free markets would protect them, but China plays the long game. Theyre not just building batteriestheyre building leverage."

If the U.S. and its allies dont act fast, they may find themselves at the mercy of a regime that has already shown its willingness to weaponize trade and seek new land for mining and exploitation. The question isnt just about energyits about survival in a new era of resource warfare.

Sources include:

CleanTechnica.com

CleanTechnica.com

Comtradeplus.un.org
Chinas DeepSeek AI sparks global tech race fears amid claims of revolutionary breakthrough

New claims about China's DeepSeek-R2 AI system suggest it operates on principles unknown in the West, potentially giving China a significant edge in AI technology. This has sparked debates and concerns among global tech leaders and policymakers about China's growing AI dominance.

The claims originated from an anonymous social media account, @iruletheworldmo, which asserts that DeepSeek-R2 can solve complex problems by creating new branches of mathematics. The AI reportedly resolved a problem that had stumped a physicist for 15 years in seconds, using unconventional notations.

The parent company, DeepSeek Labs, is rumored to be advancing brain-computer interfaces beyond Elon Musk's Neuralink, with human trials underway. The company has reportedly recruited seven Fields Medal-winning mathematicians, fueling speculation about its secretive research and development goals.

The claims have raised cybersecurity concerns, with experts like Becky Liggero from Symantec warning about the sophistication of AI-driven disinformation. The U.S. Department of Defense has launched a task force to investigate emerging Chinese technologies. The original DeepSeek-R1 launch caused a 5% drop in U.S. tech stocks, and the R2 rumors have investors on edge.

The revelations coincide with U.S. officials' warnings about China's strategic AI advances. The U.S. is responding with initiatives like President Biden's Executive Order on AI Safety and the proposed AI Research Act, though critics argue these efforts lack urgency. The AI race is not just about technology but also about ethical governance, security and societal impact.

New claims about Chinas DeepSeek-R2 artificial intelligence (AI) system have ignited debates and anxieties among tech leaders and policymakers worldwide. According to anonymous sources cited by conservative figure Glenn Beck and reported by The Blaze, the Chinese-developed model operates on principles nobody in the West has even theorized, raising questions about whether Beijing has achieved a leap in AI superiority. The rumors follow the January rollout of DeepSeek-R1, which disrupted global markets, and come as the U.S. grapples with its own stalled AI ambitions. The uncertainty surrounding DeepSeek-R2s capabilities underscores a growing fear: China may have leapt ahead in a field that could redefine economic, military and geopolitical power.

Anonymous whistleblower claims unprecedented AI breakthrough

The latest claims about DeepSeek-R2 emerged via an anonymous social media account, @iruletheworldmo, described by Beck as either an insider from a major AI firm or a disinformation tool. According to the account, DeepSeek-R2 solves complex problems by inventing entirely new branches of mathematics. A physicist reportedly spent 15 years stuck on a problem, only for the AI to resolve it in seconds using unrecognized notations. Translating the AIs solution into standard mathematics took researchers three days.

Beck emphasized the stakes: This isnt incremental progressits a different species of intelligence. The claims also state that DeepSeek Labs is advancing brain-computer interfaces far beyond Elon Musks Neuralink, with human trials underway. A translated report from Beijing Times noted that DeepSeeks parent corporation, DeepSeek Labs, recently recruited seven Fields Medal-winning mathematicians, fueling speculation about its secretive R&D goals.

Cybersecurity, skepticism and the stock market jitters

The original DeepSeek-R1 launch in January triggered a 5% drop in U.S. tech stocks, with firms like OpenAI and Microsoft projecting billions in lost market share. While the R2 rumors are unverified, investors remain on edge. The industry is in a holding pattern, waiting for confirmations one way or the other, said James Carter, an AI ethics researcher at MIT.

The Blaze also acknowledged the possibility that the @iruletheworldmo account could be a misinformation campaign. Becky Liggero, a cybersecurity analyst at Symantec, told the outlet that deepfakes and AI-driven disinformation have become so sophisticated that even academic Verification processes are under pressure. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense has reportedly launched a Task Force on Emerging Chinese Technologies, though details of its findings remain classified.

The great leap forward in AI: Global implications and American concerns

The DeepSeek revelations coincide with a crescendo of warnings from U.S. officials about Chinas strategic advances. At a May 18 Senate hearing, NSA Director Admiral Chris Inglis called AI the defining contest of the decade, noting that Chinas state-directed funding advantages could tip the balance. They are racing ahead not just in chips but in the frameworks that turn data into power, he said.

Efforts to counter this include President Bidens Executive Order on AI Safety and the proposed AI Research Act, which seeks to boost U.S.-based innovation. Critics, however, argue the plans lack urgency. This is the digital equivalent of the Maginot Line, remarked former Pentagon advisor Rana Foroohar in a New York Times op-ed. Were securing yesterdays tech while China sets tomorrows rules.

In contrast, China frames its AI push as part of its 14th Five-Year Plan, aiming to dominate global AI standards by 2030. The countrys mix of centralized funding, relaxed ethical boundaries (e.g., facial recognition mass surveillance) and exponential growth in STEM graduates (5 million annually vs. the U.S.s 1 million) bolster its position.

Beyond the hype: Applied AIs double-edged sword

Even without DeepSeek-R2, AIs dual nature is clear. While the DeepSeek-R1s cost-effectiveness and performance impressed mathematicians, Beijings use of AI for social control has sparked global outcry. Meanwhile, Western advances like Mass Generals FaceAge toolusing selfies to predict health outcomesare saving lives yet raising privacy alarms. Every breakthrough has a shadow, said Beck. AI could one day predict the stock market, predict diseases, or predict  your next move.

A new era of uncertainty in the AI race

As the DeepSeek-R2 claims swirl, one truth emerges: the world is at the cusp of an AI revolution whose contours are barely understood. Whether China has truly unlocked a different species of intelligence or not, the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) surrounding the field are tangible. The race isnt just about who codes the best algorithmits about who governs its ethical use, secures its applications and adapts its societal implications.

For now, the U.S. grapples with internal divisions: while Silicon Valley innovates, Congress bickers over regulations. This isnt about hating China, Beck concluded. Its about realizing we cant afford to stop adapting. The clock is ticking, and the stakes couldnt be higher.

Sources for this article include:

LawEnforcementToday.com

TheBlaze.com

YouTube.com
Federal POWER GRAB over states: Congress moves to block AI regulation nationwide for a decade

President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" includes a contentious provision, Section 43201, that imposes a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation. This move prioritizes federal control over AI, preempting state laws on AI training, data collection and decision documentation, and has sparked bipartisan opposition.

The bill, coupled with developments like Regeneron's acquisition of 23andMe and the rollout of the $500 billion Stargate AI surveillance project, raises concerns about the concentration of power in the hands of tech giants and the government. Critics warn of potential risks to personal privacy and digital innovation.

States, which have been proactive in passing AI regulations, face the prospect of their laws being invalidated. Legal challenges are expected, with groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center arguing that the bill shields tech companies from accountability for harmful AI systems.

Historically, states have led the way in tech regulation, with examples like California's Consumer Privacy Act and Colorado and Connecticut's biometric data safeguards. The federal preemption threatens to undo these advancements, leaving regulation largely in the hands of a federal government that has been slow to act on privacy issues.

The bill's passage could result in a decade of unchecked AI power, with significant implications for healthcare, security and personal freedoms. There is a strong call for lawmakers to work with states to ensure accountability and protect citizens from AI-driven harms.

A provision buried in President Donald Trumps 5 trillion One Big Beautiful Bill Act has ignited a firestorm, effectively stripping U.S. states of authority to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) for the next decade. Section 43201 of the bill, which cleared a House committee vote this weekend, prioritizes federal control over state-level safeguards, even as bipartisan opposition mounts. The movecoupled with Regenerons $256 million acquisition of 23andMe and the rollout of Trumps $500 billion Stargate AI surveillance projecthas raised alarms about unchecked corporate and government power over digital innovation and personal privacy.

The federal power play: States lose AI regulatory authority

The bills most contentious clause, Section 43201, institutes a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation, preempting laws governing how AI models are trained, data is collected and decisions are documented. The provision bars states from imposing any substantive design, performance, data-handling, [or] civil liability requirement on AI systems unless federal rules already address them.

Republicans in the House, while typically champions of states rights, narrowly advanced the measure in a 20-19 vote Sunday. Critics argue this overrun bypasses local accountability as AI integrates with critical infrastructure like healthcare, law enforcement and education. States need to be able to address AI-driven harms, like non-consensual deepfakes or algorithmic discrimination, warned Indiana State Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democratic member of the states AI task force.

The bills proponents, however, frame it as a modernization push. But opponentsincluding 40 state attorneys general (AGs) and over 140 advocacy groupssee it as a gift to tech giants. The AGs coalition asserts the moratorium deprives consumers of reasonable protections and hobble their ability to safeguard citizens.

Stargate and biotech: The rise of AI-fueled surveillance

The same week states warn of losing regulatory power, the White House is advancing Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative partnering federal agencies with companies like OpenAI and Oracle. Launched in January 2025, Stargate aims to harmonize AI tools across defense, healthcare and biomedical research. Its implications are stark: Oracles Larry Ellison recently announced plans to use AI to mine electronic health records for mRNA drug development targeting individual genomes.

In tandem, Regenerons purchase of DNA-testing pioneer 23andMea firm whose 2023 data breach exposed genetic data to unnamed third partiesnow hands pharmaceutical firms direct access to genomic datasets. This comes as the FDA erodes privacy further by allowing Institutional Review Boards to waive informed consent for minimal risk studies, potentially letting AI systems like Stargate process biometric data without user consent.

The Department of Homeland Security has also flagged AI-driven DNA hacking as a national security risk, warning that adversarial actors could customize bioweapons to target genetic vulnerabilities.

State pushback and legal threats

States had swiftly responded to AIs societal risks, passing 31 laws in 2024 alone to regulate AI use. But the One Big Beautiful Bill threatens to void these efforts. Indianas 2023 law requiring disclaimers on AI-generated campaign ads and limiting police use of AI in suspect lineups could face invalidation, according to Indianapolis lawmakers.

We just made progress with the Take It Down Act, said AI reform advocate Angela Tipton, referencing a new federal law addressing AI revenge porn. But this moratorium would roll us backward.

Legal challenges promise to follow. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) argues the bill immunizes tech companies from consequences of harmful AI: If a company designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm, this law would make them unaccountable, insisted an EPIC brief.

States as pioneers in tech safeguards

States historically have embraced regulatory innovation when federal action lagged. Californias 2018 Consumer Privacy Act, for instance, inspired nationwide privacy standards before Congress passed a federal law in 2022. Similarly, Colorado and Connecticut led the way on biometric data safeguards, requiring explicit user consent for facial recognition.

The One Big Beautiful Bills broad preemption would nullify such local advancements, leaving most decisions to Washingtona body that, as Indiana Sen. Liz Brown notes, has failed for years to pass federal privacy protections.

A decade of dystopia?

As the bill edges toward a House vote by Memorial Day, its repercussions loom large. A state-level AI freeze for ten years risks cementing corporate-federal control over technologies shaping healthcare, security and freedom.

This amendment could cripple states ability to protect Hoosiers from AI-driven harms, Indiana AG Todd Rokita wrote in a coalition letter. Congress should work with states, not silence them.

With Trump demanding urgency, the next week will determine whether an era of unchecked AI power  and lost privacygoes forward, or if lawmakers collectively choose accountability.

Sources for this article include:

Substack.com

TheRegister.com

Fox59.com
Renewable energy leader Denmark mulls reversal of its decades-old nuclear power ban

Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year ban on nuclear power, with parliament voting overwhelmingly (102-8) to overturn the 1985 phase-out law, signaling a shift toward a more resilient energy mix.

Despite being a global leader in wind energy (generating over 50 percent of its electricity) and solar power, Denmark acknowledges that intermittent renewables alone cannot ensure grid reliability.

The government is evaluating small modular reactors (SMRs) as a complementary solution to renewables, with Energy Minister Lars Aagaard emphasizing the need to assess their societal and technical feasibility.

Denmark's move reflects broader European energy security concerns, with countries like Germany, Italy, and Spain also reassessing nuclear power after blackouts and gas shortages exposed vulnerabilities in renewable-dependent grids.

High electricity prices (0.3763/kWh) and the need for stable baseload power are driving Denmark's pragmatic pivot, balancing decarbonization goals with grid reliability  a lesson for nations over-reliant on wind and solar.

Long hailed as a global leader in renewable energy, Denmark has stunned environmental advocates by considering a reversal of its 40-year ban on nuclear power.

The Folketing, Denmark's parliament, paved the way for this overturn of the policy first enacted in 1985  a year before the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine. The legislature voted 102-8 to end a nuclear phase-out law that took effect in 2003. This move signals a strategic pivot toward a more resilient energy mix, and underscores the challenges of relying solely on wind and solar for a stable electricity grid.

For decades, Denmark has been the poster child for wind energy. Wind turbines generated over 50 percent of its electricity, and an additional 10 percent came from solar panels.

Its aggressive push toward renewables earned international praise, with prominent figures citing the country as a model for energy independence. Yet despite these achievements, Copenhagen now acknowledges that wind and solar alone cannot guarantee grid reliability.

According to Danish Energy Minister Lars Aagaard, the government is exploring small modular reactors (SMRs). He added that SMRs would complement its renewable energy infrastructure, not replace it.

"We can see that there is a development under way with new nuclear power technologies," Aagaard told the Danish newspaper Politiken. "But it's not enough that they have potential. We also need to know what it means for Danish society if we are to enable these technologies."

Wind and solar failures, and the case for nuclear

Meanwhile, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the Financial Times in a May 14 interview that the ban on nuclear power was "ridiculous." He argued that nuclear power is essential for a stable, low-carbon grid.

"Wind and solar are good as long as you have wind and sunshine," said Rasmussen. "But you have to have a non-fossil baseload."

Denmark's dilemma reflects a broader European reckoning with energy security. It followed blackouts in Spain and Portugal in late April, which experts attribute to insufficient synchronous power generation  a weakness inherent in intermittent renewables.

Germany, which shuttered its last reactors in 2022, now faces renewed debate over nuclear power after Russia's gas cuts exposed its reliance on fossil fuels. Italy, another historically anti-nuclear nation, is also reconsidering SMRs. Even Spain, long opposed to atomic energy, may delay shutting down reactors following its catastrophic blackout. (Related: Germany is trying to go dark by shutting down all nuclear power plants, leaving only unreliable wind and solar.)

The economic case for nuclear is equally compelling. While Denmark's wind and solar sectors have driven up electricity prices  averaging 0.3763 per kWh  nuclear offers a cost-effective baseload solution. SMRs, with their modular design and lower upfront costs, could provide the stability Denmark's grid lacks without sacrificing decarbonization goals.

Copenhagen's pivot doesnt spell the end of renewables, but rather a pragmatic reassessment of their limitations. As the country navigates this transition, its experience serves as a cautionary tale for nations betting everything on wind and solar. The future of energy demands not just idealism but flexibility  a lesson the world would do well to heed.

Visit Nuclear.news for more similar stories.

Watch this Fox Business report about U.S. President Donald Trump reviving America's nuclear power industry.

This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com.

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Microsoft turning to NUCLEAR ENERGY to power its future data centers and AI projects.

Experts warn that shutting down nuclear plants would "negate" efforts to transition to clean energy.

John Kerry admits NUCLEAR ENERGY is necessary but continues to push for wind and solar instead.

Sources include:

WattsUpWithThat.com

TheGuardian.com

OilPrice.com

Brighteon.com
DOJ investigates Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about COVID-19 nursing home deaths

The DOJ has launched a criminal investigation into former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about his administrations deadly nursing home COVID-19 policies.

Cuomos 2020 order forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, leading to thousands of deaths, with his administration later accused of underreporting fatalities by 50%.

House Republicans referred Cuomo for prosecution, claiming he made false statements under oath about his role in the nursing home scandal.

Cuomo dismissed the probe as "lawfare" while campaigning for NYC mayor, but critics say his shifting excuses reveal a pattern of evasion.

Legal experts warn prosecuting Cuomo will be difficult, but the investigation threatens his political comeback and highlights his pandemic failures.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress about his administrations deadly COVID-19 nursing home policies. The probe, initiated by the U.S. Attorneys office in Washington, D.C., follows accusations that Cuomo misled lawmakers about his role in a March 2020 directive that forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patientsa decision linked to thousands of deaths.

Cuomo, who is now running for New York City mayor, dismissed the investigation as "lawfare and election interference" through a spokesperson, but House Republicans insist he must be held accountable for what they call a "calculated cover-up."

A deadly directive and a federal probe

At the height of the pandemic, Cuomos administration issued an order requiring nursing homes to admit patients discharged from hospitals, even if they were still infected with COVID-19. The policy, intended to free up hospital beds, instead fueled outbreaks in vulnerable facilities. A 2022 report by the New York state comptroller later revealed that the Cuomo administration underreported nursing home deaths by as much as 50%, obscuring the true toll of his disastrous policy.

House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), have long accused Cuomo of lying under oath during congressional testimony about his involvement in the nursing home scandal. In October 2024, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic referred Cuomo to the DOJ for criminal prosecution, alleging he made "multiple criminally false statements" to Congress. Now, the DOJ is acting on that referral, signaling that Cuomo could face serious legal consequences.

Cuomos deflection and attempted political comeback

Cuomos spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, dismissed the investigation as politically motivated, stating, This is lawfare and election interference plain and simple. He insisted that Cuomo testified "truthfully to the best of his recollection" about events from years earlier. But critics argue that Cuomos shifting explanationsincluding blaming an "unknown staffer" for the lethal nursing home orderreveal a pattern of evasion.

The timing is particularly damaging for Cuomo, who is campaigning in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. His main rival, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, recently had federal corruption charges against him dismissed in a move that some see as politically convenient. Cuomo, who was once a rising Democratic star, resigned as governor in 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, but he now seeks redemption in the mayoral race. The DOJ probe, however, threatens to derail his comeback.

A history of corruption and cover-ups

Cuomos handling of the pandemic was marred by secrecy and mismanagement. His administration delayed releasing accurate nursing home death data, and internal reports suggest officials deliberately obscured the numbers to avoid scrutiny. House Republicans argue that Cuomos false statements to Congress were part of a broader effort to evade accountability.

This wasnt a slip-upit was a calculated cover-up by a man seeking to shield himself from responsibility for the devastating loss of life in New Yorks nursing homes, Comer said in a statement. Lying to Congress is a federal crime. Mr. Cuomo must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

The DOJs decision to pursue the case underscores the gravity of the allegations. If convicted, Cuomo could face fines or even prison time, although legal experts note that prosecuting high-profile politicians is notoriously difficult. Still, the investigation ensures that his disastrous pandemic record will remain a central issue in his mayoral campaign.

The DOJs investigation into Andrew Cuomo raises critical questions about accountability for leaders who mishandled the pandemic. Thousands of New Yorkers died due to his administrations reckless policies, and if the allegations are proven, Cuomos lies to Congress could finally catch up with him. His defenders might be trying to dismiss the probe as a partisan attack, but the facts suggest otherwise. Whether justice prevails or political maneuvering wins out, Cuomos legacy is forever damaged by the lives lost under his watch.

Sources for this article include:

TheNationalPulse.com

Reuters.com

FoxNews.com

BBC.com
Government-backed group acknowledges targeting Trump, silencing conservative outlets: Critics warn of free speech erosion

The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a U.K.-based nonprofit funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), admitted to suppressing Donald Trumps social media influence and causing a $100 million loss in advertising revenue for conservative news outlets under the guise of combating "disinformation."

Despite NED's claim that GDI was funded to combat misinformation abroad, internal documents reveal GDI's focus on undermining domestic media platforms like the New York Post, Newsmax and The Daily Wire, which were labeled "high-risk" and placed on GDIs "Dynamic Exclusion List."

GDI partnered with U.S. ad tech firms and organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center to "disrupt the financial incentive structure" of disapproved media and document the "Online Funding Strategies of American Hate Groups," targeting conservative content.

GDI's rankings show a clear ideological bias, with conservative outlets disproportionately labeled "high-risk" and losing revenue, while left-leaning outlets received "minimum-risk" ratings. Critics warn of a chilling effect on free speech and the weaponization of "disinformation" crackdowns against conservative voices.

GDI's methods are spreading globally, raising concerns about the erosion of free press and the normalization of censorship. Advocates urge accountability for NED and its allies, emphasizing the importance of upholding the First Amendment and preventing the infringement of free speech rights.

Freshly disclosed documents reveal that the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a U.K.-based nonprofit funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars, admitted to suppressing Donald Trumps social media influence and stripping $100 million in advertising revenue from conservative news outlets under the guise of combating disinformation. The revelations, made public by the watchdog group Protect the Publics Trust, underscore a stark contradiction between GDIs public promises to target foreign propaganda and its actual domestic focus. The findings, detailed in quarterly reports to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), paint a picture of a taxpayer-backed censorship machine increasingly weaponized against right-leaning media.

The controversy centers on NEDs $1.25 million grant to GDIs U.S. affiliate, the AN Foundation, between 2021 and 2023. While NED maintained it funded GDI solely to combat misinformation abroad, internal memos cited GDIs success in pre?emptively undermining domestic media platforms like the New York Post, Newsmax and The Daily Wire  all labeled high?risk by the group. These outlets were placed on GDIs Dynamic Exclusion List, shared with major advertisers such as Microsoft and Netflix, leading to an estimated $100 million revenue loss over 15 months.

Taxpayer dollars, domestic targets

GDIs progress reports to NED openly celebrate its role in crippling American media. In one update, it highlighted a New York Times article citing its research on the dramatic drop in reach of Trumps social media messages following his removal from platforms like Twitter. Another report promoted a collaboration with the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center to document the Online Funding Strategies of American Hate Groups, a project targeting conservative content.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Publics Trust, called the documents proof that the U.S. government was, and remains, weaponizing taxpayer funds to silence dissent. He noted that GDIs work echoed broader Censorship-Industrial Complex tactics, such as the defunct Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), which critics accused of politicizing fact-checking during the Biden administration.

NED, which denied any involvement in domestic initiatives, severed ties with GDI in February 2023, claiming it recently became aware of its U.S. targeting. But the unearthed records show GDIs domestic focus was ongoing for years. A March 2022 report notes partnerships with U.S. ad tech firms to disrupt the financial incentive structure of disapproved media.

Silencing the right, elevating the left

GDIs rankings reveal a stark ideological divide. Conservative outlets losing revenue were disproportionately placed on its high-risk list, while left-leaning outlets like the New York Times and ProPublica received minimum-risk ratings. Analysts argue this reflects systemic bias. Theyre code-wording censorship of conservative voices as combating disinformation, said Mike Benz, founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online.

The stakes extend beyond finances. Critics warn of a chilling effect on free speech, particularly as Bidens administration and allied groups have weaponized disinformation crackdowns against outlets like Infowars, while shielding aligned narratives. Former disinformation czar Nina Jankowicz faced backlash for dismissing the New York Posts Hunter Biden laptop story as foreign-driven fairy tales  despite its independent reporting.

Broader implications: Global models and shrinking free press

GDIs methods are now spreading. The U.S. State Departments shuttered Global Engagement Center (GEC), which funded GDI, touted its models to allies overseas. Harvards Shorenstein Center, backed by tech giants like Google, and the World Health Organizations AI-driven rumor control initiatives further blur fact-checking with partisan agendas.

The GDI scandal forces a debate over free speech under digital authoritarianism. If a UK group funded by NED can starve U.S. newsrooms to death because they dont parrot the party line, what freedoms remain? Chamberlain asked.

Americans First Amendment rights confront censorships new frontier

The GDI revelations underscore a paradigm shift: U.S. taxpayer money is subsidizing global censorship mechanisms that disproportionately target conservative voices. Astech firms and governments increasingly align to redefine truth, the line between combating misinformation and suppressing dissent grows perilously thin.

Free press advocates urge accountability for NED and its allies, warning that allowing such infringement risks normalizing tactics akin to authoritarian regimes. In an era where even honest debate is framed as a disinformation virus, the battle over who controls the narrative will define democracy itself.

The government cant censor its way to public trustits the First Amendment or nothing, Benz concluded.

Sources for this article include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

JustTheNews.com

ProtectPublicTrust.org
Health agencies to set price targets as part of Trumps executive order to slash U.S. drug prices

President Trump signed an executive order implementing a Most-Favored-Nation pricing model to align U.S. drug costs with the lowest global prices.

The policy targets brand-name drugs without competition, potentially saving $88 billion over seven years and ending "foreign freeriding" on U.S. innovation.

Pharmaceutical companies must match OECD country prices or face enforcement, with Medicare Part B and Medicaid included in the plan.

Big Pharma opposes the move, but critics argue the U.S. has unfairly subsidized global discounts while patients suffer.

For decades, American patients have been held hostage by pharmaceutical giants charging outrageous prices for life-saving medications  prices far higher than what citizens of other wealthy nations pay for the exact same drugs. But now, under President Donald J. Trumps leadership, the U.S. government is finally fighting back. On May 12, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement a Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) pricing model, forcing drugmakers to align U.S. prices with the lowest costs available in economically comparable countries, and they're already working to set price targets.

This bold move, targeting brand-name drugs without generic competition, could save American taxpayers $88 billion over seven years while dismantling Big Pharmas predatory pricing schemes.

Ending "foreign freeriding" on American innovation

The MFN policy is designed to stop what Trump calls "foreign freeriding"  the practice of other nations leveraging their government-run healthcare systems to demand steep discounts from drug manufacturers, who then pass the inflated costs onto American consumers. "In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home," Trump said.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. echoed this sentiment, declaring, "For too long, Americans have been forced to pay exorbitant prices for the same drugs that are sold overseas for far less. That ends today." The policy will initially apply to Medicare Part B drugs, with Medicaid expected to follow.

How the MFN model works

Under the new framework, pharmaceutical companies must match the lowest price offered in any Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country with a GDP per capita of at least 60% of the U.S. This includes nations like Germany, France, and Japan, where patients often pay just a fraction of U.S. prices. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz emphasized that the policy targets drugs lacking generic or biosimilar competition, where monopolistic pricing is most egregious.

If manufacturers refuse to comply, HHS will impose regulatory measures to enforce MFN pricing. The order also allows Americans to purchase drugs directly from manufacturers at the global lowest price, bypassing middlemen who inflate costs.

Big Pharmas predictable outcry

Unsurprisingly, the pharmaceutical industry has pushed back, with lobbyists warning of stifled innovation and reduced access to new treatments. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) claimed the policy would discourage investment in research, while the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) argued it would harm smaller biotech firms.

But these excuses ring hollow. The U.S. funds roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits while representing less than 5% of the worlds population. Drugmakers have long relied on American patients to subsidize their global discounts in a blatant abuse of free-market principles.

This isnt Trumps first attempt to rein in Big Pharma. A similar MFN proposal in 2020 was projected to save billions but was blocked by legal challenges. Now, with renewed momentum, the administration is expanding the effort to include Medicaid and direct purchasing options.

Wall Street analysts remain skeptical about full implementation, with some dismissing the order as a negotiating tactic. But with pharmaceutical stocks already down 5% in 2025, the industry is clearly rattled.

A win for American patients

President Trumps executive order marks a critical step toward ending Big Pharmas price-gouging monopoly. By demanding fairness for American consumers, the MFN model challenges a corrupt system that has profited from suffering for far too long. As Kennedy warned, manufacturers must lower prices or face the consequences. For the first time in decades, the U.S. government is putting patients before profits.

The battle is far from over, but this is a fight worth waging. The era of American taxpayers bankrolling the worlds cheap medicines must end.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

WhiteHouse.gov

Reuters.com

HHS.gov
Americas AI apathy: How resistance to artificial intelligence will leave the U.S. in the dust

As the world races toward an AI-driven future, America is hitting the brakes . While nations like China, India, and Indonesia embrace artificial intelligence with enthusiasm, the U.S. lags behind, with only 22% of Americans expressing excitement about AI tools like ChatGPT. This reluctance isnt just a matter of preferenceits a looming crisis. As AI reshapes industries, education, and daily life, those who resist its adoption risk being left behind in a world where efficiency, innovation, and economic dominance are increasingly dictated by algorithms. The question isnt whether AI will transform societyit already is. The real question is: Will America wake up before its too late?

Key points:

Only 22% of Americans are excited about using AI in daily life, far behind countries like India (50%), China (80%), and Indonesia (76%).

Asia leads in AI adoption, with China, Thailand, and South Korea embracing AIs potential, while Western nations remain skeptical.

AI is already revolutionizing industries, from medicine to autonomous driving, with global revenues expected to surgeyet U.S. hesitation threatens competitiveness.

Without widespread AI literacy, Americans risk losing economic and technological ground to nations aggressively integrating AI into education, business, and governance.

The global AI divide: Whos leading, whos lagging?

While Americans drag their feet, Asia is sprinting ahead. According to Statista and Ipsos surveys, China boasts an 81% self-reported understanding of AI, with 80% of its citizens excited about AI-driven products. Indonesia and Thailand follow closely, with 80% and 69% familiarity, respectively. Meanwhile, in Japan and Italy, skepticism prevails, with only 10% and 20% enthusiasm. The U.S. sits uncomfortably in the middleneither leading nor entirely rejecting AI, but dangerously indifferent.

This divide isnt accidental. Countries like China have prioritized AI education and integration, embedding it into national strategy. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) openly promotes AI development, even in politically sensitive areas, while maintaining tight control over narratives. Meanwhile, Western nations, particularly the U.S., remain mired in debates over AI ethics, bias, and job displacementvalid concerns, but ones that shouldnt paralyze progress.

The cost of resistance: Economic and technological fallout

AI isnt a passing trendits the backbone of the next industrial revolution. Forecasts predict explosive growth in AI revenues, with applications spanning healthcare diagnostics, autonomous vehicles, and even creative industries. Yet, American reluctance could spell disaster.

Consider this: If U.S. workers and businesses fail to adapt, theyll lose ground to foreign competitors who harness AI for productivity and innovation. Already, countries like Indiawhere 50% of respondents embrace AIare positioning themselves as global tech hubs. Meanwhile, American students risk falling behind in a world where AI-assisted research, writing, and problem-solving are the norm.

The irony? Many of the tools reshaping the worldlike ChatGPTwere developed by U.S. companies. OpenAI, a pioneer in AI chat bots, is American. Yet, while the U.S. invents, others implement.

Breaking the cycle: From skepticism to mastery

Americans are less interested and less excited to use artificial intelligence in their daily lives, and will soon fall behind other nations, as AI becomes enmeshed in careers, education, business, etc., no matter whether people like it or not. Failing to learn how to use AI in a productive manner and resisting its technological advancements will inevitably backfire, leaving swaths of people behind. In one way, AI is allowing people to time travel into the future by consolidating mundane tasks, advancing creativity, and saving extraordinary amounts of time while doing so.

The solution isnt blind adoption but informed engagement. Critics rightly highlight AIs flawscensorship, bias, and corporate control. OpenAIs early refusal to answer questions on vaccines or government policy, and Anthropics avoidance of Big Pharma criticism, reveal troubling agendas. But disengaging entirely only cedes power to those shaping AI behind closed doors. Instead, Americans must demand transparency, master AI tools, and reclaim their role in the technological revolution.

Sources include:

Zerohedge.com

Statista.com

IPSOS.com
U.S. pressures Israel to allow Gaza aid, but starvation crisis worsens as deliveries fall short

U.S. diplomatic pressure helped aid flow into Gaza, but only in minimal, insufficient amounts.

UN officials warn 14,000 children could die soon without urgent food deliveries, as Israels bureaucratic delays prevent most aid from reaching desperate civilians.

Human rights groups condemn Israels blockade as collective punishment, a war crime, with half a million Palestinians facing catastrophic hunger and famine.

Despite Netanyahu admitting U.S. pressure forced limited aid access, Israel continues bombing civilian infrastructure while restricting lifesaving supplies.

The Trump administration is finally acknowledging what human rights groups have warned for months: Israels blockade of Gaza has pushed millions to the brink of starvation. In a rare admission, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that American diplomatic pressure led Israel to allow a trickle of aid into Gaza, although the amounts remain woefully insufficient.

At a Senate hearing, Rubio conceded that the aid entering Gaza is not in "sufficient amounts" for its 2.1 million residents, even as UN officials warn that 14,000 children could die within days without urgent food deliveries.

While the U.S. continues to proclaim unwavering support for Israel, the diplomatic rift is widening. The Trump administration, despite its pro-Israel stance, has pursued talks with Iran and Yemens Houthis, both adversaries of Israel, while Western allies threaten sanctions over Israels brutal siege. Meanwhile, Israels claims about allowing aid into Gaza are being exposed as a calculated deception, with reports revealing that most supplies remain stuck at crossings due to deliberate bureaucratic delays.

Aid as a political weapon

For more than 11 weeks, Israel imposed a near-total blockade on Gaza, cutting off food, medicine, and fuel in what human rights groups describe as collective punishment, which is a war crime under international law. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns that half a million Palestinians now face "catastrophic" hunger, with famine imminent if aid does not surge immediately.

Despite Israels recent claims of allowing aid trucks in, UN agencies report that only a fraction of pre-war levels are reaching Gaza. Before the war, 500 trucks entered daily; now, barely 100 have been permitted in recent days, which is far below whats needed to stave off mass starvation.

Even the limited aid that enters faces further obstruction. Trucks are forced to wait for Israeli military approval before distribution, leaving lifesaving supplies stranded while children starve. "A bag of wheat flour now costs $500 in Gaza," said WFPs Antoine Renard, highlighting the economic collapse under Israels siege.

U.S. complicity in Israels starvation tactics

While Rubio claims U.S. "engagement" forced Israels hand, critics argue Washingtons support has enabled the crisis. The Trump administration has refused to demand an immediate ceasefire or full aid access, instead greenlighting Israels military assault, which has killed over 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gazas Health Ministry.

Netanyahu himself admitted that pressure from allies, including U.S. senators, influenced his decision to allow minimal aid. "Our best friends in the world have warned that they cannot support us if images of mass starvation emerge," he said. Despite this, his government continues to restrict aid while bombing civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and bakeries.

The U.S. has also backed a controversial Israeli plan to replace UN aid distribution with a new entitythe Gaza Humanitarian Foundationstaffed by private security contractors. Aid groups reject the scheme, warning it will forcibly displace Palestinians and allow Israel to control who receives aid.

Global outcry grows as Israels lies unravel

Israels narrative of "self-defense" is crumbling under the weight of evidence. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon. Meanwhile, Western allies like the UK, France, and Canada have condemned Israels actions as "wholly inadequate" and threatened sanctions.

The crisis in Gaza is not just a humanitarian disaster; it is a moral litmus test for the United States. While Rubio and the Trump administration tout minor concessions, Palestinians continue to die from bombs and starvation. If Washington truly values human rights, it must demand an immediate ceasefire, full aid access, and an end to Israels apartheid policies. Anything less is complicity in genocide.

Sources for this article include:

AlJazeera.com

TimesOfIsrael.com

News.UN.org

APNews.com
Israels empty promises: No aid reaches starving Gazans despite claims of deliveries

Despite Israeli claims of allowing aid, no food or medicine has reached Gaza, leaving civilians starving under a brutal blockade.

Israels siege has caused at least 58 starvation deaths, with hundreds more at risk, while aid remains blocked by deliberate delays.

UN officials confirm Israels obstructive logistics have prevented meaningful aid delivery, calling current supplies a "drop in the ocean."

Gaza residents report no aid has arrived, dismissing Israeli propaganda as bakeries and hospitals remain empty.

Global backlash intensifies as the UK, EU, and even the U.S. condemn Israels actions, with warnings of becoming a "pariah state."

Despite Israeli claims that over 90 aid trucks have entered Gaza this week, Palestinian sources and humanitarian organizations confirm that no food, medicine, or supplies have reached desperate civilians. The Israeli government, facing mounting international pressure, continues to enforce a brutal blockade that has pushed Gaza to the brink of famine, with at least 58 Palestinians already dead from malnutrition and hundreds more at risk.

Since March 2, Israel has imposed a total siege on Gaza, cutting off all humanitarian aid under the false pretense of security concerns. On Sunday, Israel announced it would allow a "basic amount of food" into the strip, but UN officials and Gaza residents report that not a single truck has delivered aid to those in need. Instead, supplies remain stranded at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, held up by Israels deliberately obstructive logistics.

A manufactured humanitarian catastrophe

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric confirmed that Israels requirements forcing aid to be offloaded and reloaded under military supervision have created unnecessary delays, adding that the arrival of supplies is just "a drop in the ocean of what's needed." At least 600 trucks per day are required to address Gazas crisis, experts say.

Gazas residents, already enduring months of relentless bombardment, are now facing starvation. "For more than two months now, weve had no food, no meat, no milk," said Hajj Ahmad, a Gaza resident. "When they said aid trucks would enter, we were thrilled. But it was all for nothing."

Barham Zarroub, another resident, dismissed Israeli claims as propaganda: "They said trucks would enter, supposedly bringing aid into the Gaza Strip. But not a single truck made it into Gaza. We didnt see anything in the institutions, or even inside Gaza itself, that indicated any deliveries."

Global backlash grows

While Israel boasts of allowing aid, its actions reveal a calculated strategy of starvation. The World Food Programmes Antoine Renard stated plainly: "None of this aid  that is a very limited number of trucks  has reached the Gaza population." Meanwhile, bakeries that were promised flour remain empty, and hospitals lack even basic medical supplies.

The international community is finally waking up to Israels crimes. The UK has suspended trade talks, calling Israels actions "morally unjustifiable." The EU is reviewing its economic ties, and even the U.S., which has long Israels staunchest ally, has grown increasingly critical. Opposition leader Yair Golan warned that Israel risks becoming a "pariah state," while former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert condemned the governments brutality.

A genocide in plain sight

The numbers speak for themselves: over 53,600 Palestinians killed, including 15,000 children, and now dozens dead from starvation. This is not war; it is systematic extermination. Israels blockade, its destruction of infrastructure, and its deliberate obstruction of aid constitute a clear violation of international law.

The world can no longer look away. Every day this blockade continues, more children will die. Israels lies are unraveling. The starvation of Gaza is not an accident; it is policy. And as global outrage grows, the mask of democracy has slipped, revealing a regime built on ethnic cleansing.

Sources for this article include:

MiddleEastEye.net

Reuters.com

BBC.com
Nebraska makes history as first state to ban soda, energy drinks from food stamps

The USDA approved Nebraskas request to ban soda and energy drinks from SNAP purchases, marking the first state to restrict sugary beverages under the program.

The ban, effective January 2026, aligns with Trumps "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, targeting obesity and diabetes linked to poor nutrition.

Obesity affects 40.3% of Americans, with 1 in 3 adolescents prediabetic, and sugary drinks are a leading cause of preventable diseases.

The American Beverage Association opposes the ban, arguing it limits consumer choice, while health experts support it as a critical public health measure.

Other states, including Arkansas, Indiana, and Iowa, are pursuing similar restrictions, signaling a nationwide shift toward healthier SNAP policies.

In a groundbreaking move to combat Americas obesity and diabetes epidemics, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved Nebraskas request to ban soda and energy drinks from purchases made with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. The waiver, announced on May 19 by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, marks the first time a state has been permitted to restrict sugary beverages under the federal food assistance program. Set to take effect January 1, 2026, this decision aligns with President Donald Trumps Make America Healthy Again initiative, which seeks to reverse alarming health trends fueled by poor nutrition.

The move comes as obesity rates in the U.S. hover at 40.3%, with one in three adolescents suffering from prediabetes and 15% of high school students drinking at least one soda daily. By eliminating taxpayer-funded purchases of sugary drinks, Nebraska aims to curb chronic disease while setting a precedent for other states. Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, and several others have already submitted similar waiver requests, signaling a nationwide shift toward prioritizing nutrition in welfare programs.

A long-overdue reform

For decades, SNAP allowed recipients to buy almost any food or beverageexcept alcohol, tobacco, and hot prepared mealswith little regard for nutritional value. Soft drinks consistently ranked as the top purchase among SNAP households, according to a 2016 USDA report. When a taxpayer is putting money into SNAP, are we OK with us using their tax dollars to feed really bad food and sugary drinks to children who perhaps need something more nutritious? Rollins asked during a February White House briefing.

The Nebraska waiver directly addresses this concern. Governor Jim Pillen celebrated the decision, stating, Theres absolutely zero reason for taxpayers to be subsidizing purchases of soda and energy drinks. The state will monitor spending habits and retailer compliance while providing technical assistance to stores adjusting to the new rules.

Corporate pushback uses flawed arguments

Unsurprisingly, the American Beverage Association (ABA), a lobbying group representing soda giants, vehemently opposes the ban, framing it as an attack on consumer freedom. Millions of Americans rely on SNAP to help feed their families. They deserve the same freedom to choose the foods and beverages that best fit their needs, the ABA argued. The group also dismissed links between sugary drinks and obesity, claiming, If the two were connected, obesity rates should have decreased with the decline in soda consumption.

Yet health experts overwhelmingly disagree. The American Heart Association (AHA) praised Nebraskas waiver, with CEO Nancy Brown stating, We have worked tirelessly to pass public policies that effectively reduce consumption of sugary drinks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has long identified sugary beverages as a leading contributor to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

A national movement gains momentum

The Trump administrations approval of Nebraskas waiver reverses decades of federal resistance to SNAP restrictions. Past USDA leaders, including former Secretary Sonny Perdue, rejected similar proposals, questioning whether such bans amounted to government overreach. But under Rollins and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the administration has taken a firmer stance, emphasizing taxpayer accountability and public health.

Other states are now following Nebraskas lead. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently proposed ending SNAP coverage for junk food, while Indiana and Iowa seek to exclude candy and energy drinks. These efforts reflect a growing consensus that taxpayer dollars should not subsidize products linked to preventable diseases.

Critics, including anti-hunger groups, argue that restrictions stigmatize low-income families and create logistical hurdles for retailers. Gina Plata-Nino of the Food Research & Action Center called the waiver punitive, advocating instead for incentive-based nutrition programs. However, proponents counter that SNAPs original intent was to provide nutritious food, not enable corporate profits at the expense of public health.

This landmark decision could herald a new era of welfare reform where health outcomes take precedence over political convenience. With chronic diseases draining billions from the healthcare system and shortening American lives, the time for half-measures is over. The Trump administrations bold move proves that real change is possible when leaders prioritize people over special interests.

The battle against Big Soda and processed food giants is far from won, but Nebraskas victory offers a blueprint for reclaiming Americas health.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NYTimes.com

FoxNews.com
U.S. rejects WHO pandemic pact, demands system reboot as global agreement passes amid controversy

The Trump administration formally withdrew from the WHO, criticizing it as bureaucratic and politically compromised. The U.S. rejected the WHOs Pandemic Agreement, citing failures in transparency and reform after COVID-19.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accused the WHO of promoting misinformation about COVID-19s origins (e.g., dismissing lab-leak theories) and prioritizing corporate interests over public accountability. The agreements vaccine-sharing mandates (20% for poorer nations) were labeled as reinforcing past dysfunctions.

Critics argue the treaty risks undermining national sovereignty by pressuring countries to align with global health directives, including fast-tracked vaccine approvals. While the WHO denies imposing mandates, skeptics warn it could erode local decision-making and medical autonomy.

The U.S. withdrawal deprives the WHO of $900 million annually, threatening its operations. Proponents admit funding gaps could cripple the treatys Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system, designed for equitable treatment distribution.

The rejection signals a fractured multilateral system, with some nations abstaining or seeking alternative organizations. The WHOs future hinges on whether it can address distrust, reform its ties to Big Pharma and balance cooperation with sovereignty before the next pandemic.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) finalized a historic Pandemic Agreement intended to "strengthen global pandemic preparedness," the U.S. government, under President Donald Trumps second term, delivered a pointed rejection of the deal. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged a reboot of global health institutions, casting the WHO as a bureaucratic and politically compromised entity following the Trump administrations official withdrawal from the organization. The move has deepened a rift between the U.S. and its international health partners, while fueling debates about sovereignty, transparency and the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pandemic Agreement, formally adopted by the 78th World Health Assembly on May 20, aims to 'standardize global cooperation' in responding to future pandemics. However, the U.S. decision to exit the WHO  one year after President Trump signed an executive order formally ending U.S. membership  has cast doubt on its implementation. Kennedy called the agreement a failure to reform systemic flaws highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing the WHO of kowtowing to political pressures and failing to address its past missteps.

U.S. rejection highlights WHO criticisms

Kennedys remarks, delivered via video at the WHO Assembly, drew widespread attention for their blunt critique of the global body. The WHO has become mired in bureaucratic bloat, entrenched paradigms, conflicts of interest and international power politics, he said, adding that the U.S. would no longer participate in an organization that forgot its accountability to citizens over corporate or transnational interests.

The focal point of dissent was the Pandemic Agreement, or WHO CA+, which mandates member nations to reserve 20% of pandemic vaccine and treatment supplies for distribution to poorer countries during emergencies. While WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the deal as a victory for public health, Kennedy labeled it a gamble: It locks in all the dysfunctions of the WHO pandemic response.

The U.S. withdrawal stems in part from how the WHO mishandled the early stages of the pandemic by deferring to Chinese authorities, including promoting the Wuhan wet market theory over a lab-leak origin. Kennedy reiterated this stance during his address, stating the WHO had promoted the fiction that COVID originated from bats or pangolins, rather than acknowledging evidence of a potential leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Sovereignty and subversion: Critics row over Pandemic Agreement details

Despite assurances from the WHO that the Pandemic Agreement contains no provisions to direct, order, or impose requirements on member nations  including vaccine mandates or lockdowns  health freedom advocates argue the text still risks overreach. Dan Astin-Gregory of Free Humanity acknowledged the inclusion of sovereignty protections as a subtle victory but warned the pact perpetuates problematic frameworks. It normalizes the WHOs dysfunctional approach, he said, referencing the organizations reliance on pharmaceutical partnerships and lack of accountability.

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, writing in a Substack post, described provisions for equitable vaccine distribution as a pressure tactic to align national laws with global directives. He also cautioned the agreement could enable fast-track approvals for experimental vaccines  a process widely criticized during the rollout of mRNA shots in 20202021. Dr. Maria Hubmer-Mogg, a physician and activist, added that the WHOs one-size-fits-all approach disregards localized health needs and undermines doctor-patient relationships.

Proponents of the agreement, however, argue its importance lies in its structure. The deal, they say, ensures countries collaborate on sharing virus data and resources, while the new Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system aims to accelerate equitable distribution of treatments. Suerie Moon, a global health governance expert, conceded finance remains a major challenge: with the U.S. withholding contributions, the Achilles heel is funding to make these systems work. The WHO has already instituted budget cuts amid anticipated losses of $900 million annually without U.S. dues.

The road ahead: A fractured multilateral framework?

The U.S. rejection of the WHO CA+ has introduced uncertainty into global health cooperation, even as the Trump administration vows to boost pandemic preparedness domestically. Kennedy pledged increased focus on addressing chronic diseases  a shift from past priorities  but offered little clarity on how the U.S. will engage with global health crises without WHO collaboration.

Beate Sibylle Pfeil, a German attorney, noted the 11 abstentions during the agreements adoption signals a weakening consensus. States are now critical of the WHO, but still hesitant to speak up, she said. Meanwhile, Astin-Gregory speculated the U.S. withdrawal could catalyze alternatives: We might see a parallel organization emerging from the bottom upa competitive pressure to reform or replace the WHO.

The Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system negotiations, due for finalization over the next two years, will test the agreements viability. Independent journalist James Roguski viewed this phase as an opportunity to scrutinize ties to Big Pharma: Its an attempt to expand manufacturing and distribution networks for pharmaceutical giants, he said.

A global health crossroads: Rebuilding trust amid divided priorities

As the Pandemic Agreement proceeds toward ratification, the world faces a pivotal moment in how it confronts future crises. With the U.S.  historically a health aid linchpin  on the sidelines, the WHOs future remains uncertain. For Kennedy, the answer is systemic overhaul: The failures of COVID demand more than tweaks. Yet without U.S. participation or resources, the pacts effectiveness hinges on whether fractured global politics can yield a unified resolution.

The next steps will shape both global health architecture and the much-debated balance between international cooperation and national sovereignty. With partisan lines and distrust entrenched, one truth remains: The next pandemic will test both the agreement and the institutions built to withstand it.

Sources for this article include:

ChildrensHealthDefense.org

HHS.gov

WHO.int

WhiteHouse.gov
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New research using US insurance data finds that people with HSV-1 face greater odds of Alzheimers disease, and suggests antiviral medications could help lower that risk.

Study: Association between herpes simplex virus type 1 and the risk of Alzheimers disease: a retrospective casecontrol study. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

Large-scale American real-world data (RWD) provides further evidence for an association between herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection and the development of Alzheimers disease (AD) and points out the potential of using antiherpetic therapies as possibly protective against AD and related dementia.

A recent BMJ Open study from the United States investigated the association between HSV-1 and AD using RWD.

Alzheimers disease and herpesviruses

AD is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects an individuals thinking, reasoning, and memory. Almost 60%80 % of individuals with AD develop dementia, which causes long-term healthcare burdens. At present, approximately 35.6 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with dementia, and the rapid increase is attributed to an aging population. To combat the rising incidence of AD worldwide, there is an urgent need for effective interventions.

Individuals with AD and related dementia develop a characteristic toxic protein aggregate, with  neurofibrillary tangles and central nervous system amyloid- (A) plaques being pathological hallmarks. A previous study revealed the role of exogenous pathogens, particularly HSV-1, in AD development.

HSV-1 is a common viral infection that predominantly occurs in the global population between 0 and 49 years of age. Most children contracting this infection may remain asymptomatic. HSV-1 establishes latency in the trigeminal ganglia and exhibits periodic symptomatic reactivations, causing ocular disease, oral ulcerations, and rarely meningoencephalitis.

A mouse model study indicated that HSV-1 infection leads to A deposition and other AD-related alterations. Furthermore, experimental reactivation of HSV-1 infection caused alterations in the pathological hallmarks in a dose-responsive fashion. Several real-world studies have shown that patients diagnosed with HSV-1 and other related neurotropic viruses are at a higher risk of developing dementia. Interestingly, studies conducted in Taiwan, Sweden, and France demonstrated protective effects of antiherpetics against dementia.

Scientists have indicated the need for a large-scale study based on real-world data to validate the role of HSV-1 in AD development and the therapeutic effects of antiherpetics against dementia.

About the study

The current retrospective matched case-control study used US-based nationwide real-world data to demonstrate the association between HSV-1 and AD and AD-related dementia (ADRD), including Picks disease, Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, and unspecified dementia.

All relevant data regarding inpatients and outpatients and prescriptions of administered drugs were obtained from IQVIA PharMetrics Plus, the largest commercial claims database in the USA, comprising more than 215 million candidates since 2006. Because the study relies on administrative claims data, it likely underestimates the true prevalence of HSV-1, which is often asymptomatic and may not be diagnosed or recorded. This means that the proportion of HSV-1 diagnoses captured in this study is much lower than the actual prevalence in the general population, which globally is estimated at around two-thirds for those under 50 years old. Additionally, individuals over 65 years are underrepresented in this dataset.

Cases with AD or ADRD were matched to those without a history of neurological disorders (control) in a 1:1 ratio on sex, age, region, database entry year, and inpatient and outpatient healthcare visit numbers. Two sets of matching and analyses were performed. The index date for the cases was the date when patients were diagnosed with AD/ADRD for the first time between 1 January 2006 and 30 June 2021. For the matched controls, all candidates were required to be 50 years or older at the index date. Individuals diagnosed with HSV-1 and other herpesviruses, such as HSV-2 and cytomegalovirus (CMV), before the index date were recorded.

Study findings

The current study identified 395,654 patients with AD, of whom 344,628 fulfilled the eligibility criteria. These candidates were matched to controls. Most of the AD group were females, with a mean age of 73 years. AD patients belong to a large, evenly distributed geographic area.

Most patients with AD had more comorbidities and shorter follow-up times compared with the individuals in the control group. The current study observed that 1,507 (0.44%) patients with AD also had a history of HSV-1 diagnosis, compared to 823 (0.24%) control subjects.

Conditional logistic regression analysis revealed that HSV-1 diagnosis was associated with AD with an adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.80. A stratified analysis demonstrated this association was increasingly prominent in older age groups. Similar observations have been documented in the ADRD study population as well. This study particularly found an association between HSV-2 and VZV with AD, similar to HSV-1, while no significant difference was observed for CMV.

A subset analysis demonstrated that 40% of 2,330 patients with a history of HSV-1 who received antiherpetic medications were at a lower relative risk of developing AD (adjusted HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.92) compared with those who did not use antiherpetics. It is important to note that this hazard ratio reflects a relative risk reduction within the group of individuals diagnosed with HSV-1, rather than in the general population. However, this observed association does not establish that antiherpetic medication prevents Alzheimers disease; further studies are needed to determine if a causal relationship exists.

Conclusion

The current study provides further evidence for an association between symptomatic HSV-1 infection and AD using large-scale real-world data. Most importantly, it highlights that antiherpetic therapies were associated with a reduced risk of AD in individuals diagnosed with HSV-1. However, this study can only establish an association, not causation, and several limitations, including underdiagnosis of HSV-1 and Alzheimers disease, potential misclassification, and under-representation of older adultsshould be noted. The findings also suggest that the neurodegenerative impact of HSV-1 becomes more apparent with advancing age and cumulative exposure. In the future, more research is required to elucidate whether suppression of neurotropic viruses can modify the natural history of AD and ADRD.
An international study led by the University of Colorado Cancer Center has uncovered why a widely used treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) doesn't work for everyone. The findings could help doctors better match patients with the therapies most likely to work for them.

The study was published today in Blood Cancer Discovery.

Researchers analyzed data from 678 AML patients, the largest group studied to date for this treatment and found that both gene mutations and the maturity of leukemia cells affect how patients respond to a drug combination of venetoclax and hypomethylating agents (HMA).

Venetoclax-based therapies are now the most common treatment for newly diagnosed AML. But not all patients respond the same way. Our goal was to figure out why and give doctors better tools to predict outcomes at the start." Daniel Pollyea, MD, MS, professor of medicine at the CU School of Medicine on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

AML is a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow, most often seen in older adults. Many patients can't tolerate traditional chemotherapy, so doctors treat them with venetoclax plus HMA. This combination has improved survival for many, but some patients still relapse or don't respond.

The study found that patients with a certain type of AML, called "monocytic," had worse outcomes especially if they did not have a helpful gene mutation known as NPM1. These patients were also more likely to carry other mutations, such as KRAS, that are linked to drug resistance.

"Patients with monocytic AML and no NPM1 mutation were nearly twice as likely to die from the disease," said Pollyea. "So, it's not just about the gene mutations, it's also about how developed or mature the cancer cells are when treatment begins."

Previous research often focused only on either genetic mutations or cell type. Pollyea's team looked at both, giving them a clearer understanding of how these two factors work together to influence treatment response.

"We learned that some cancer cells basically find a back door to evade the treatment," said Pollyea. "By identifying how and why that happens, we can begin designing therapies that shut down those escape routes."

For doctors, this research offers a powerful new way to classify AML patients by risk, meaning they can better predict who is likely to respond to venetoclax and who might need another approach.

"This is a major step toward personalized medicine in AML," said Pollyea. "We're moving closer to a world where we can look at a patient's leukemia on day one and know which therapy gives them the best chance and ultimately improve survival rates."

Pollyea and his team are working to expand the study with even more patient data and hope to design a clinical trial that uses this model to guide treatment decisions.

Other institutions that contributed to the study include the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University; Hopital Lyon Sud in Pierre-Benite, France; CHU Clermont-Ferrand, France; Saint Priesten in Jarez, France; and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina.
A new study confirms that children of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder have a higher risk of developing psychopathology compared to children whose parents do not have these conditions. The study, published in the journal European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, examines how the clinical and social characteristics of parents influence the mental health of their offspring.

"The study confirms this increased risk and helps to better understand what factors influence mental health problems patients' children", says Josefina Castro Fornieles, coordinator of the study and researcher in the Mental Health Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERSAM), at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona, Hospital Clinic and the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS). The study has been carried out in collaboration with the team of the researcher Dolores Moreno, from the Gregorio Maranon University Hospital in Madrid.

Experts followed the children of patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder for four years, comparing them with a control group of parents without these pathologies. The study included 238 children (aged 6-17), who were assessed at the beginning and end of this period. The researchers analysed variables such as parents' and children's psychiatric diagnoses, family socioeconomic status, parents' age at childbirth and the presence of subclinical symptoms related to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

In addition, symptom patterns vary according to parental diagnosis. The study reveals that children of people with schizophrenia have a higher risk of attention deficit disorder, disruptive disorders and subclinical psychotic symptoms. In the case of bipolar disorder, children of affected patients show a higher prevalence of mood disorders, attention deficit disorder and subclinical bipolar symptoms". Elena de la Serna, CIBERSAM researcher at Hospital Clinic de Barcelona and first author of the article

The study also highlights factors that can mitigate this risk. Thus, better parental psychosocial functioning and higher socioeconomic status are associated with a lower presence of mental health problems in children, underlining the relevance of family and social interventions.

This study, which is part of the BASYS (Bipolar and Schizophrenia Young Offspring Study) project, reinforces the importance of long-term follow-up of children of patients with severe mental illness and raises the need for preventive strategies in these high-risk populations.

"Although studies with larger samples are needed, this one contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of vulnerability to mental disorders in childhood and adolescence", the team concludes.
Southwest Research Institute tapped into its drug formulation and manufacturing expertise to fabricate two bed netting prototypes targeting malaria-causing blood parasites. In a collaboration with researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)/Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (PVAMC), SwRI designed netting systems to deliver antimalarial drugs called Endochin-like Quinolones (ELQs) that destroy Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitoes. The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature.



"If an infected mosquito hits or lands on either type of netting, it's essentially disinfected," said Institute Scientist Dr. Mike Rubal, a contributor to the Nature article. "The best defense against malaria has been insecticide-treated bed nets or those coated with larvicides, but mosquitoes are developing an immunity to those prevention methods. This novel approach targets the source of the disease."



In 2023, the World Health Organization reported 263 million cases of malaria and nearly 600,000 deaths worldwide. The disease remains pervasive even with preventative measures and available treatments. Resistance to larvicides and pesticides is a growing concern among malaria researchers.



Rubal's team coated a commercially available polyester bed net with an ELQ solution synthesized at OHSU/PVAMC. SwRI also blended a second formulation of ELQ into a hot-melt extrusion of high-density polyethylene filaments, which can be woven to make yarn for netting. The team at the Catteruccia lab at Harvard evaluated both netting systems for efficacy.

We desperately need innovation in malaria control. This study offers a new, effective way to stop the transmission of malaria parasites, which we hope will reduce the burden of this devastating disease in Africa and beyond." Dr. Flaminia Catteruccia, corresponding author, the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

Native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, female Anopheles mosquitoes pass parasites to humans through saliva shared when they bite. Parasites attack and reproduce within the liver and red blood cells causing a variety of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. If left untreated, malaria can lead to brain damage, organ failure and even death, especially among children and other vulnerable populations.



"Our research shows that the two drugs, which are absorbed through the legs of the insect, kill parasites developing within the mosquito. By using two different ELQs, the likelihood of resistance is greatly diminished and possibly eliminated," said Dr. Michael Riscoe, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at OHSU. "This emerging technology has great potential to impact efforts to control and eradicate malaria around the world."



A National Institute of Health (NIH) R01 grant and funding from Open Philanthropy supported the research.
Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil have succeeded in showing, in an animal model, that the process of insulin resistance in the brain affects both Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy and may be a linking factor between the two diseases.

The work, supported by FAPESP, confirms clinical evidence that people with epilepsy are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer's disease as they age. It is also not uncommon for people with Alzheimer's disease to have seizures.

"In addition to demonstrating that insulin signaling in the brain, when altered, affects both epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease, the study reinforces the idea that Alzheimer's disease is even more complex and therefore requires a broader therapeutic approach. Drugs that focus on just one feature of the disease tend to have a very limited effect. That's why we need more diverse studies on the subject," says Norberto Garcia-Cairasco, professor at the Ribeirao Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP), director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Experimental Neuroethology and corresponding author of the article published in the Journal of Neural Transmission.

Alzheimer's disease is a complex, multifactorial neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure and no known cause. Among the various hypotheses to explain its onset, the amyloid cascade stands out, according to which the deposition of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain is the initial and critical event that triggers a series of processes that culminate in neuronal death, synapse loss, and ultimately dementia.

Formulated in 1992, this theory has guided Alzheimer's research for the past several decades.

Other important hypotheses include a decrease in acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter essential for memory, and neuroinflammation, which impairs communication between neurons and can be triggered by the accumulation of amyloid peptides in the brain. In addition, hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein, the second main biomarker of Alzheimer's disease, leads to the formation of "tangles" in brain cells, impairing their function and contributing to the progression of the disease.

"Currently, the drugs most commonly used to treat Alzheimer's [anticholinesterase and antiglutamatergic drugs] have low efficacy and are only symptomatic. And cases of people with beta-amyloid plaques in the brain [the result of the deposition of amyloid peptides] without symptoms of Alzheimer's have already been described," the researcher says.

Metabolic nature

Another hypothesis to explain the onset of Alzheimer's, highlighted by Garcia-Cairasco, is that the process of cerebral insulin resistance leads to neuronal damage and defective synaptic plasticity in a brain area called the hippocampus. Brain insulin resistance could even impair cholinergic function, increasing the likelihood of neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration, and triggering the production and accumulation of beta-amyloid and tau proteins in brain tissue.

It is worth noting that although patients with diabetes have a higher risk of Alzheimer's, it is possible to have central insulin resistance without having type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

According to this hypothesis, which is not yet a consensus among experts, Alzheimer's would be due to a type of diabetes called type 3, which describes a state of insulin resistance in the brain.

Epilepsy, on the other hand, is a group of disorders characterized by recurrent and spontaneous seizures (convulsive or non-convulsive), with a higher prevalence in children and older adults. Among the various factors that trigger epileptic seizures is low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). The cause of the disease may also be genetic or related to brain trauma, autoimmune disorders, metabolic problems and infectious diseases.

There are scientists who associate Alzheimer's exclusively with neuroinflammation, changes in neurotransmitters or type 3 diabetes. We believe that Alzheimer's can be classified as a much more complex disease and that a deeper understanding of its relationship with epilepsy and insulin resistance can help us understand one of these factors related to the causality of the disease." Norberto Garcia-Cairasco, Professor at the Ribeirao Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP)

The study is one of the first to show a direct link between insulin resistance in the brain and increased susceptibility to seizures. In addition, the work is part of a larger project that has already won two outstanding scientific awards in 2024  the Aristides Leao Award (Best Paper in the Basic Area), at the 40th Brazilian Congress of the Brazilian Epilepsy League, and the Best Poster Award in Geriatrics, at the 12th Brazilian Alzheimer's Congress.

It looks like an epileptic seizure

To arrive at these results, the FMRP-USP researchers discovered that rats microinjected intracerebrally with streptozotocin  a chemical substance used to experimentally induce Alzheimer's disease  also exhibited characteristics of epilepsy.

"To test the type 3 diabetes hypothesis in an animal model, we injected the rodents with streptozotocin, a compound known to induce insulin resistance and used to model diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Surprisingly, some of the animals began to show seizure-like symptoms after receiving a high-intensity sound stimulus. Although the study was exclusively about Alzheimer's, it was being conducted in an epilepsy lab, which piqued the interest of other researchers. With this, we demonstrated that the process of insulin resistance has an effect not only on Alzheimer's but also on epilepsy," says Suelen Santos Alves, PhD student and first author of the study.

The opposite was also observed: rats of the Wistar Audiogenic Rat (WAR) strain, genetically engineered to study epilepsy, also began to show molecular changes of Alzheimer's disease, such as hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein and a decrease in insulin receptors in the hippocampus.

A single dose of the drug injected into rodents with epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease not only induced brain resistance to insulin but also worsened the rodents' memory and increased the frequency and severity of seizures.

"In addition to memory deficits, we found that this model exhibits increased susceptibility to audiogenic seizures, along with elevated neuronal activation in brain regions rich in insulin receptors. These findings strengthen the notion that brain insulin resistance plays a crucial role in epilepsy and may be one of the main mechanisms linking this disorder to Alzheimer's disease," says Alves.

"In addition, the results observed in the WAR strain highlight the importance of genetic background in shaping response to treatment, suggesting that intrinsic characteristics may influence perturbations in insulin signaling that affect disease progression," the researcher concludes.

It is worth noting that the strain of rats with epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease genetically developed at FMRP-USP was donated to the Rat, Resource and Research Center (RRRC) at the University of Missouri (United States), where it is currently available to researchers from around the world who wish to conduct experiments.

Before being donated, the strain was sanitized at the Multidisciplinary Center for Biological Research in the Area of Science in Laboratory Animals (CEMIB) of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) to overcome international health barriers.

The group continues to study the relationship between the two diseases. Through a study supported by FAPESP and conducted in collaboration with the Epilepsy Surgery Center (CIREP) of the general and school hospital (Hospital das Clinicas) of FMRP-USP, they will replicate the study carried out on rats using tissues from patients who have undergone surgery to treat epilepsy (and are therefore resistant to pharmacological treatment).

The variation in gene and protein expression in the cells of these patients will also be analyzed using proteomic and transcriptomic techniques in another collaboration with researchers from Harvard University in the United States.
Halving the number of times vital signs and neurological function are checked in low-risk patients after treatment for acute ischaemic stroke does not compromise care or recovery, according to new findings presented at the 11th European Stroke Organisation Conference in Helsinki, Finland.

Results from the Optimal Post rTpa-Iv Monitoring in Ischaemic Stroke Trial (OPTIMISTmain), simultaneously published in The Lancet, also showed that this approach also had flow-on benefits for nursing workflow and intensive care resources. The trial was led by Professor Craig Anderson from The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW Sydney, and Professor Victor C. Urrutia from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Professor Anderson said that guideline-recommended monitoring in the 24 hours after thrombolysis (clot-busting) treatment, originally developed in the 1990s, takes up considerable nursing time and intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

"As well as shifting nurses' attention away from other aspects of care, such as education, counselling, and supporting anxious family members, this level of monitoring disrupts patients' sleep and may not even be needed for those considered to be 'low risk'," he added.

To find out whether the frequency of monitoring could be safely reduced, researchers studied a total of 4,515 patients with acute ischaemic stroke across 8 countries. Patients were either monitored according to a low intensity protocol (19 assessments over 24 hours post-thrombolysis) or standard care (39 assessments).

In both groups, vital signs and neurological assessments were conducted every 15 minutes in the first two hours. Over the next eight hours, patients were monitored every two hours in the low-intensity monitoring group, versus every 30 minutes in the standard group. Up until 24 hours, the low-intensity group were checked every four hours, versus hourly monitoring in the standard group.

A comparable proportion of patients experienced a poor functional outcome (death or disability) after 90 days, with 31.7% (809 of 2552 participants) in the low-intensity group, and 30.9% (606 of 1963) in the standard monitoring group.

The occurrence of intracerebral hemorrhage (brain bleed) - the most serious complication of thrombolytic therapy - was low in both groups, seen in 0.2% of patients in the low-intensity group and 0.4% patients in the standard monitoring group. Serious adverse events were similar between the low-intensity and standard monitoring groups at 11.1% and 11.3%, respectively.

Professor Anderson said that this is the first study of this scale to show that low-intensity nursing is safe and effective in stroke care.

"Regular monitoring during the first hours of stroke onset is critical, but we felt that hourly check-ups may be unnecessary in the subsequent 24 hours. Our findings show that low-intensity monitoring is safe and does not compromise patient recovery, outcomes, or satisfaction with care.

"We expect this approach will be adopted by hospitals worldwide, especially where resources are constrained, as it can streamline care and enable nurses to spend more time on other important aspects of the complex care of these patients."

As well as freeing up nursing time, the protocol also improved availability of ICU beds, particularly in the USA where the proportion of patients admitted to ICUs was 30% lower among hospitals adopting low-intensity monitoring.

Professor Urrutia, senior author on the study and Medical Director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, said that this new approach could support more resilient stroke care.

"This study was partly conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when healthcare resources were under extreme strain. While we may have overcome many of the pressures of that period, shortages in healthcare staff and hospital beds persist. We anticipate that a lower intensity monitoring system for eligible stroke patients will help alleviate the capacity challenges that continue to threaten high quality stroke care."

Stroke is the second leading cause of death and third most common cause of disability of all noncommunicable diseases worldwide. Acute ischaemic stroke is caused by decreased blood flow due to a clot blocking one of the large blood vessels in the brain. It comprises 65% of all stroke cases and at least one third of patients with ischemic stroke experience mild to moderate neurological impairment.

OPTIMISTmain was conducted in hospital sites across eight countries, including four high-income countries (Australia, Chile, UK, and the USA) and four low- and middle-income countries (China, Malaysia, Mexico, and Vietnam).
Indo-American Vaniya Agrawal, Ex-Microsoft Employee, Disrupts Company's Event Again

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:01 IST

Vaniya Agrawal, an India-American techie, disrupted Microsoft's Build 2025 event, protesting the company's cloud contracts with Israel. This is her second protest since April.

Microsoft has not publicly made any remarks on the protests or the employees dismissals.

An India-American techie, Vaniya Agrawal, played a key role in disrupting a Microsoft event for second time since April.

Notably, Microsofts annual developer conference, Build 2025, has been hit by a series of back-to-back disruptions from pro-Palestine activists. Lately, former Microsoft engineer Vaniya Agrawal led the high-profile protest to disrupt the event.

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Agrawal hit the headlines in April by interrupting Microsofts 50th anniversary celebration. This week, she disrupted Build 2025 event which was a Build session on AI security.

Beside ex-Microsoft employee Hossam Nasr, she shouted down Neta Haiby, Microsofts Head of Security for AI, and Sarah Bird, who heads Responsible AI, as a mark of protest against the companys cloud contracts with the Israeli government.

The protest marks the third straight day of unrest at Build 2025. Earlier on May 19, an employee interrupted CEO Satya Nadellas keynote by shouting Free Palestine" and demanding accountability for Microsofts tech deals with Israel.

The following day, a Palestinian tech worker stormed executive Jay Parikhs Azure AI presentation, declaring, Cut ties! No Azure for apartheid!"

A former employee in the companys AI division, Agrawal had earlier accused Microsoft leadershipincluding Bill Gates and Satya Nadellaof complicity in civilian deaths in Gaza, saying 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been murdered with Microsoft technology." She was fired shortly after the April protest without serving her notice period.

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She has since become a visible face of tech-sector dissent, sharing ongoing protest imagery from Build 2025 on social media.

Though, Microsoft has not publicly made any remarks on the protests or the employees dismissals. However, the repeated disturbance reflect growing internal dissent over Microsofts role in supplying cloud infrastructure to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, amid heightened scrutiny over the humanitarian toll of the Gaza conflict.

About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More

Location : New York, United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:59 IST
IndusInd Bank Shares Fall After Lender Suspects Staff Involvement In Rs 173 Cr Accounting Fraud

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:29 IST

IndusInd, India's fifth-largest private lender by assets, announced in March that it had identified accounting discrepancies in its derivative portfolio.

IndusInd Bank Share Price Today: The irregularity came to light following investigations by an external professional firm and the banks Internal Audit Department (IAD).

IndusInd Bank Share Price: IndusInd Banks shares are in focus after the private lender suspects a staff involvement in a Rs 172.58 crore accounting discrepancy. Along with its q4 results, IndusInd Bank disclosed in the filing that the Board is also in the process of taking necessary steps to assess roles and responsibilities and fixing staff accountability as per the extant laws and internal code of conduct, in all the identified irregularities."

The irregularity came to light following investigations by an external professional firm and the banks Internal Audit Department (IAD).

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The IAD submitted its report on May 20, 2025, revealing that Rs. 172.58 crores were mistakenly recorded as fee income in the microfinance business over three quarters ending December 31, 2024. This amount was subsequently reversed in Q4 of FY 24-25, according to the banks exchange filing.

IndusInd, Indias fifth-largest private lender by assets, announced in March that it had identified accounting discrepancies in its derivative portfolio. These lapses were projected to negatively impact the banks net worth by approximately 2.35% as of December 2024. In response, the bank engaged external agency PwC to evaluate the effect on its balance sheet, identify lapses at different levels, and recommend corrective measures. What Should Investors Do Now? The one-offs in the qurater were higher than previously disclosed, stock analysts said adding that this could impact retail deposits. Considering the uncertain outlook on various parameters, Nirmal Bang has cut our its earnings estimates for the bank by 23.6 per cent for FY26 and 13 per cent for FY27, respectively. This brokerage valued IndusInd Bank at 0.8 time its March 2027E ABV and suggested a target price of Rs 730. Our target multiple is at 47 per cent discount to its past 5-year average multiple of 1.5x. In our view, the stock will see an overhang in the near term to medium term due to (1) Slowdown in loan growth (2) Stress in unsecured loan segments and (3) Uncertainty over management transition. We maintain a Hold rating on IIB," Nirmal Bang said. Nuvama said improper accounting resulted in one-offs in every key segment: NII, fees, opex, credit cost and NPLs. The management indicated that after one-offs, the operating loss of Rs 500 crore would turn to a pre-provision operating profit (PPOP) of Rs 3,06O crore. We could not reconcile the adjusted and reported PPOP and fees based on explanations on the call/disclosures, though NII could be reconciled," Nuvama said. This brokerage said IndusInd Banks visibility for FY26E is low because it is unclear what happens to retail deposits after disclosures on repeated discrepancies in FY25. Requirement of maintaining high liquidity would impact net interest margin (NIM). We slash EPS, and target to Rs 600 from Rs 750 earlier," it said. MOFSL suggested a Neutral rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 650 against Rs 850 earlier. The appointment of a new CEO and the pace of business recovery will be key near-term monitorable, it said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all HSBC has reportedly slashed its target price on IndusInd Bank to Rs 660 per share, saying there is no clarity on rebuilding process at present. It cut FY26-27 EPS estimates by 41-43 per cent after the management made many one-off adjustments to correct accounting discrepancies.

About the Author Varun Yadav Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst... Read More Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst... Read More

Stay updated with all the latest news on the Stock Market, including market trends, Sensex and Nifty updates, top gainers and losers, and expert analysis. Get real-time insights, financial reports, and investment strategiesonly on News18.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:54 IST
Gold Price Today: Yellow Metal Rises, Silver Above Rs 1 Lakh Mark, Check Bullion Rates In Your City On May 22

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:49 IST

Gold Price Today In India, May 22: Check the latest gold prices in major metro cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi.

Gold Price Today, May 22.

Gold Price Today In India, May 22: Gold and silver prices rose on Thursday, extending their earlier upward momentum. In Mumbai, the price of gold stood at Rs 89,300 per 10 grams for 22-carat and Rs 97,420 per 10 grams for 24-carat.

However, the price of silver increased by Rs 100 to trade at Rs 1,00,100 per kg in Mumbai.

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On the MCX, gold was trading higher by 0.62 per cent to trade at Rs 96,190 per 10 grams and silver was down by 0.86 per cent to trade at Rs 99,090 per kg.

Known for its unmatched purity, 24-carat gold continues to attract buyers seeking premium quality. Meanwhile, 22-carat gold, prized for its durability and timeless charm, remains a favourite among jewellery enthusiasts and investors alike, striking a balance between elegance and practicality.

Heres a detailed breakdown of gold prices across key cities (May 22, 2025): City 22K Gold (per 10gm) 24K Gold (per 10gm) Delhi Rs 89,460 Rs 97,580 Jaipur Rs 89,460 Rs 97,580 Ahmedabad Rs 89,360 Rs 97,480 Patna Rs 89,360 Rs 97,480 Mumbai Rs 89,750 Rs 97,910 Hyderabad Rs 89,750 Rs 97,910 Chennai Rs 89,750 Rs 97,910 Bengaluru Rs 89,750 Rs 97,910 Kolkata Rs 89,750 Rs 97,910 Silver Price In India Today (May 22, 2025) The price of silver on Thursday rose by Rs 100 to trade at Rs 1,00,100 per kg in Mumbai, according to goodreturns.in. Rahul Kalantri, vice-president (commodities) of Mehta Equities Ltd, said, Gold and silver extended gains for the third consecutive session, driven by escalating Middle East tensions and a weaker dollar index. Concerns over the US fiscal outlook intensified after the release of a budget proposal likely to widen the deficit, combined with Moodys credit downgrade and the US Federal Reserves cautious economic stance." Rising geopolitical tensions, including unrest in the Middle East and a potential US withdrawal from Russia-Ukraine mediation, further supported golds appeal. Chinese gold imports surged to their highest level in 11 months, fuelled by robust demand and additional import quotas amid ongoing US-China trade tensions, he added. What Factors Affect Gold Prices In India? International market rates, import duties, taxes, and fluctuations in exchange rates primarily influence gold prices in India. Together, these factors determine the daily gold rates across the country. In India, gold is deeply cultural and financial. It is a preferred investment option and is key to celebrations, particularly weddings and festivals. With constantly changing market conditions, investors and traders monitor fluctuations closely. Staying updated is crucial for effectively navigating dynamic trends. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all

About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to markets, economy and companies. Having a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris has been previously asso... Read More Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to markets, economy and companies. Having a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris has been previously asso... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:49 IST
Vishal Mega Mart To V2 Retail: How A Photocopy Shop Owner Built Rs 5,600 Crore Empire

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 07:18 IST

After 2020-11, Ramchandra Agarwal sold Vishal Mega Mart, once worth over a thousand crores, to Shriram Group and TPG Capital for a mere Rs 70 crore.

News18

In recent weeks, social media platforms have been flooded with humourous memes celebrating the idea of a security guard job at Vishal Mega Mart" as a dream career. What started as a lighthearted trend has unexpectedly drawn attention to the fascinating and turbulent journey of the retail empires founder, Ramchandra Agarwal  a man whose perseverance and entrepreneurial grit turned personal setbacks into an enterprise worth crores.

Ramchandra Agarwals story is far removed from the corporate boardrooms and mega malls associated with his name today. Born with a physical disability that requires him to walk with crutches, Agarwal graduated from St Xaviers College in Kolkata. At 26, he took up a regular job but found himself dissatisfied with the mundane routine.

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In 1986, driven by a desire to be his own boss, he took out a loan and opened a modest photocopy shop. The venture tanked. So did several others that followed. Undeterred, Agarwal turned to ready-made garments, setting up a small shop in Kolkata with bargain sales priced between Rs 100 and Rs 200. The concept caught on, and he built a steady customer base over the next 15 years.

However, mounting issues with trade unions forced him to abandon his operations in West Bengal. In 2003, with nothing but determination and experience, he shifted base to Delhi, and this is where the Vishal Mega Mart story truly began.

Vishal Mega Mart

Understanding the psyche of Indias middle and lower-middle class, Agarwal launched Vishal Mega Mart as a one-stop destination for affordable clothing and essential goods. His Rs 99 pricing strategy turned heads and won hearts. The model was simple but effective: quality products at prices that didnt intimidate the common man.

The concept exploded. Within a few years, Agarwal had expanded to 645 stores across 414 cities. In 2007, riding high on its success, Vishal Mega Mart went public with an IPO that valued the company at Rs 2,000 crore.

But the euphoria didnt last.

As quickly as Vishal Mega Mart rose, it stumbled. The global economic downturn of 2008 hit hard, but the real blow came from internal missteps. In a bid to scale rapidly, the company took risky expansion decisions. Losses mounted, and debts ballooned to Rs 750 crore. Despite clocking a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore in 2008, the financial strain was unsustainable.

By 2010-11, Agarwal was left with no choice but to sell his company. Vishal Mega Mart, once worth over a thousand crores, was handed over to Shriram Group and TPG Capital for a mere Rs 70 crore.

Reinvention With V2 Retail

Where many would have given up, Agarwal started over.

Using the remnants of his capital, he founded V2 Retail. The first store opened in Jamshedpur, and slowly but surely, the brand grew. By 2013, V2 Retail had a turnover of Rs 100 crore. The next year, it more than doubled to Rs 225 crore. By 2024, the company had expanded to over 150 stores across India.

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Ramchandra Agarwal had done it again  rebuilt a retail empire from scratch. Today, he stands as the owner of a business group valued at approximately Rs 5,600 crore.

While memes may continue to romanticise jobs at Vishal Mega Mart, they now serve as a viral backdrop to an inspiring story of resilience. Ramchandra Agarwals journey from a struggling shop owner to a retail magnate is a testament to the power of persistence.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 19:13 IST
Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:35 IST

RBSE Rajasthan Board 12th Results 2025 Live Updates: The Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE) has announced the Class 12 results 2025 today, May 22 at 5 PM. A total of 97.70 per cent of arts stream students, 94.43 per cent science and 99.07 per cent commerce students have cleared the exam this time. Meanwhile, the overall pass rate stands at 98.43 per cent with 98.07 per cent boys and 99.02 per cent girls clearing the exam this time.

Students can check their scorecards on the official websites  rajeduboard.rajasthan.gov.in and rajresults.nic.in. To check their results, students must log in using their roll and application numbers as mentioned on their admit cards.

This year, the RBSE Class 12 board examinations were held between March 6 and April 7. To pass the exam, students must secure at least 33 per cent marks or a minimum grade of D in each subject.

Commerce was the highest-performing stream in both 2024 and 2023 as well. In 2024, the pass percentage for the Commerce stream stood at 98.95%, followed by 97.75% in the Science stream and 96.88% in the Arts stream. In 2023, the pass rate of commerce stream was 96.60%.
SC Orders Major Overhaul Of NEET-PG Counselling To Curb Seat Blocking, Ensure Transparent Medical Admissions

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:29 IST

In a major move to curb malpractice in PG medical admissions, the Supreme Court has issued sweeping directives to reform the NEET-PG counselling process.

Supreme Court Cracks Down on NEET-PG Seat Blocking; Orders Fee Transparency and Counselling Reforms.

The Supreme Court has issued a series of directives aimed at reforming the NEET-PG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test  Post Graduate) counselling process to curb the widespread practice of seat-blocking in postgraduate medical admissions. The Court has further mandated that all medical colleges disclose pre-counselling fees in advance, thereby promoting transparency and fairness in the admission process.

The bench, comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice R Mahadevan, was hearing a case concerning large-scale manipulation of seats during the NEET-PG counselling process.

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The Court issued the following key directives:

Unified Counselling Calendar: Introduce a nationally coordinated counselling schedule to synchronise All India Quota (AIQ) and State counselling rounds, thereby preventing seat blocking across systems.

Mandatory Pre-Counselling Fee Disclosure: All private and deemed universities must disclose complete fee detailsincluding tuition, hostel, caution deposit, and other chargesbefore counselling begins.

Central Fee Regulation System: Establish a uniform fee regulation framework under the National Medical Commission (NMC) to standardise charges across institutions.

Post-Round 2 Upgrade Provision: Allow candidates already admitted in Round 2 to upgrade to better seats in subsequent rounds, without reopening counselling to new applicants.

Transparency in NEET-PG Exams: Ensure the publication of raw scores, official answer keys, and the normalization formula used in multi-shift NEET-PG examinations.

Strict Penalties for Seat Blocking: Impose strong actions such as forfeiting the security deposit, disqualifying repeat offenders from future NEET-PG exams, and blacklisting institutions found enabling seat blocking.

Aadhaar-Based Seat Tracking: Implement Aadhaar-linked tracking to prevent candidates from holding multiple seats or submitting false information.

Accountability of Authorities: Make state counselling bodies and Directors of Medical Education (DMEs) liable for disciplinary or contempt proceedings in case of schedule breaches or rule violations.

Uniform Counselling Code: Introduce a standardised code of conduct for counselling across all states, with consistent rules on eligibility, mop-up rounds, seat withdrawal, and grievance redressal timelines.

Independent Oversight by NMC: Set up a third-party oversight mechanism under the NMC to conduct annual audits on counselling processes, data compliance, and fairness in admissions.

ALSO READ: This Woman Officer Lost Hand In Accident But Didnt Lose Determination To Crack IAS Exam. Who Is She?

The judgment follows a petition filed by the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Director General of Medical Education & Training, challenging a 2018 Allahabad High Court order that had penalised officials for irregularities in that years counselling process.

The High Court had found that candidates with lower merit were allowed to participate in the mop-up counselling rounds despite having already been allotted seats, thereby disadvantaging higher-ranked aspirants.

Consequently, the High Court awarded Rs 10 lakh in compensation to each petitioner and directed structural reforms. However, the Supreme Court stayed this order in 2018 and has now reduced the compensation to Rs 1 lakh per petitioner, citing subsequent policy improvements.

The Court noted reforms introduced post-2021, particularly in the Nihila P.P. v. Medical Counselling Committee case, where a four-round counselling scheme was implemented for All India Quota (AIQ) seats. Nonetheless, the bench emphasised that these measures must now be effectively enforced through centralised regulation and transparent procedures.

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What Is Seat Blocking?

Seat blocking occurs when candidates temporarily accept medical counselling seats but later relinquish them after obtaining preferable options in subsequent rounds. This tactic creates a false shortage of available seats, deceives other aspirants, and undermines the merit-based selection process. The Supreme Court characterised seat blocking as indicative of deeper systemic problems, such as inadequate coordination, lack of transparency, and fragmented oversight.

About the Author Archit Gupta Archit Gupta is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18.com and a seasoned education journalist specialising in reporting on education and employment. He has covered a variety of education-related stories, including high-... Read More Archit Gupta is a Chief Sub-Editor at News18.com and a seasoned education journalist specialising in reporting on education and employment. He has covered a variety of education-related stories, including high-... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 15:05 IST
PM Modi's Visit Brings Spotlight On Bikaner's Karni Mata Temple Where Rats Are Revered

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:29 IST

PM Modi Rajasthan Visit: Narendra Modi will be the first prime minister to visit the temple, said Sitadan Varath, vice-president of the Bikaner Karni Mata Temple Trust

Devotees believe the rats are reincarnated ancestors who are blessed to be reborn as rats due to their virtuous lives. (Nivedita Singh/News18)

PM Modi In Rajasthan: The Karni Mata Mandir in Deshnoke in Rajasthans Bikanerthat Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited on Thursdayis a temple that is known for rats as much as it is known for its deity. The temple honours Karni Mata, believed to be an incarnation of the goddess Durga, and legend has it that she reincarnated her stepson and his descendants as rats.

The temple, a significant pilgrimage site for devotees of Charani sagatis, gained importance after the Partition, when access to the Hinglaj Mata Templeone of the 51 Shakti Piths located in Pakistanbecame restricted.

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According to religious beliefs, Karni Mata was born in the year 1387 into a Charan family and was named Righubai in her childhood. She was married to Depaji Charan of the village Sathika but after becoming disillusioned with worldly life, she got her younger sister, Gulab, to marry her husband, immersing herself in a life of spiritual pursuits.

Given her dedication towards the local community, people began to refer to Righubai as Karni Mata who is said to have lived for 151 years. After her death, devotees installed an idol of her at the site, which has since become a place of worship.

Sacred Rats: Temples Unique Devotion

For locals, the rats at the temple are as divine as the deity herself, given that they are an extension of her family.

At the temple, which boasts of traditional Rajasthani architecture with intricate marble carvings and silver doors, pilgrims travel from all over the world to feed and worship the rats. In fact, spotting a white rat at the temple is considered extremely auspicious and said to bring divine blessings to whoever is fortunate to see one.

There are many stories and beliefs around the temple and its rats.

Speaking to News18, Sitadan Varath, vice-president of the Karni Mata Temple Trust, said the rats have been in the temple since it came into existence. He explained that the rats are so effective that if someone falls ill, they are given the water that the rodents have touched. These are not regular rats. They have never harmed anyone. We also try to ensure that these rats are not harmed," he said.

While there is no exact number for how many rats are in the temple, there are no fewer than some thousands.

Devotees believe the rats are reincarnated ancestors who are blessed to be reborn as rats due to their virtuous lives. Another section of devotees believes that no harm has touched the Deshnok town or Bikaner despite it being so close to the border because of this temple.

The PMs Visit & Its Significance

Modi visited the temple on Thursday, becoming the first prime minister to do so.

On Wednesday, when News18 visited the temple that was preparing for PM Modis arrival, Varath said no prime minister had ever visited the temple which is the identity of Deshnoke town.

The temple is about 30 kilometres from Bikaner city which PM Modi has visited earlier as well. It is a proud moment for us that the prime minister is visiting just after a tense situation with Pakistan. He will be thanking the brave armed forces who protected us during the last few days," Varath said, referring to Operation Sindoor.

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Rajasthan shares a 1,050 km border with Pakistan, and Bikaner  less than 200 km from the international boundary  is one of its border districts.

The prime ministers visit, which coincides with the completion of one month of the terrorist attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam on April 22, underscores the governments confidence in national security and the armed forces.

About the Author Nivedita Singh Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived... Read More Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived... Read More

Location : Deshnoke, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:44 IST
These YouTubers Raised Rs 2 Crore For Indian-Origin UK Cab Driver, Here's Why

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:40 IST

Yes Theory, a popular YouTube channel, organised a GoFundMe for a black cab driver they met in the UK during an adventure two years ago.

Yes Theory recently took Reg, a UK-based taxi driver, on a dream vacation to the US. (Yes Theory / YouTube)

The YouTube community rose to the occasion after popular content creators Yes Theory appealed to their community of 9.5 million subscribers to come out in numbers and support Reg, a UK-based black cab driver, whom they had met on an adventure nearly two years ago. In 24 hours, the YouTube channel reached its GoFundMe goal and raised some more, in what turned out to be a wholesome gift for the Indian-origin Sikh cabbie drowning in debilitating debt. My friends, we need your help to free Reg. For the last few weeks, since we finished filming this episode, we have been talking to the loan lenders, trying to find a solution to help him," Thomas and Steffan of Yes Theory said.

But how and where did Yes Theory even meet Reg?

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Yes Theory

A YouTube collective started by four lads, namely Ammar, Thomas, Derin, and Matt, back in 2015, the motto of Yes Theory is to seek discomfort, spontaneously saying yes" to new experiences, and meeting strangers with the philosophy that every stranger is a friend you havent met yet. That the deepest connections are not made in your comfort zone, their mantra goes. Over the years, Yes Theory has built a community of millions, located in all corners of the world. During his Least Travelled Country in the World" expedition, Thomas stumbled upon a Yes Theory subscriber in the island country of Tuvalu with a population of just over 10,000. Confident that their reach was far and wide, the channel set up a GoFundMe page for Reg.

Jab Yeh Theory Met Reg

After having successfully executed seemingly impossible adventures such as making strangers swap lives, making strangers live together in a mansion, hitchhiking across a country, skydiving over the pyramids, gatecrashing the Oscars, among many others, Yes Theorys growing channel and ambition brought them to their next video idea: I Paid a Taxi $10,000 to See How Far it Takes Me!"

Also Read: How Mumbai Indians Stole Delhi Capitals Ticket To Playoffs In IPL 2025

Uploaded in 2023, the video instantly became their loyal communitys favourite upload. Why? Because the taxi driver who said yes" to this otherwise ridiculous idea was the warm-hearted, infectiously positive, and instantly likeable Reg. The Sikh cabbie, who has roots in India, welcomed the idea with both arms and set out on an experience of a lifetime. He routinely dropped words of wisdom and captured the trip on his phone, the Reg Cam. When this insane video came to a conclusion, Reg embraced the members of Yes Theory and shed a tear. The audience did too and felt an instant connection with the man on the screen.

Reg Reunites With Yes Theory

With nearly 9 million views clocked on their road trip video with Reg, Yes Theory decided to reunite with the cabbie two years later and reward him with a dream trip to the US.

The dream trip included a yacht escapade in Miami, converting Reg into a Hollywood movie star in a cowboy ranch in Austin, and a helicopter ride in the skies of New York.

During the dream voyage, Reg sat down with Steffan and Thomas and shared a deeply personal part of his life that had been weighing down on him for years. The UK cab driver revealed that he was close to his parents, and when his mother fell sick, he decided to work seven days a week, only to quit it all and spend all his time and energy looking after his ailing parent.

This led to debt piling by the day when he decided to take out a loan two decades ago. Over the years, he has already repaid 90,000. He had borrowed 70,000. Sinking in this quicksand of interest levied on the original loan amount, Reg found himself short of 113,000 before he met the content creators. Realising that Reg and his family were stuck in this debt for, well, virtually forever, Yes Theory handed him a cheque of $10,000 (Rs 8.5 lakh), but it only made a dent in Regs lifelong loans.

GoFundMe

Yes Theory members then set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for Reg. #FreeReg was their cry for help to their millions of fans. The initial goal was to support the cab driver with 113,000 (Rs 1.2 crore approx). Nearing the original goal in less than 24 hours, Yes Theory decided to raise the target to 150,000 (Rs 1.72 crore approx.) to not only assist Reg to clear out the loans but also bring some breathing space in his life.

Thank you to ALL OF YOU who made this dream come true. We have now increased the goal to 150,000 pounds to give Reg further breathing room in his life and hopefully avoid working 7 days a week," Yes Theory, the organisers of the fund page, informed.

At the time of writing this, the new target has been breached yet again, and the amount raised currently stands at 183,873 (Rs 2.1 crore approx)

Yes Fam Is All Love

Reg, you give so fully  your light, your truth, and your courage to say yes every day. I wish I could give more, but this comes from the heart. I hope it brings warmth and strength to help you move forward with hope and peace," a donor wrote.

Those who were in a rough patch in life did not hesitate to empty their pockets either.

Wish I had more to give to Reg. Going through a pretty tough time myself, but Im really happy I could at least do something for this gem of a human being. Long live King Reg," wrote another.

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King Reg, this fundraiser for you truly proves that being kind and goodhearted will bring kind and goodhearted acts towards you. You deserve happiness!" read another donors comment.

Reg, while living with such incredible debt, offered free London cab rides to people he met during his dream vacation to the US.

About the Author Anurag Verma Anurag Verma, News Editor at News18.com, works independently for the Viral section. Bollywood, Cricket, Science, Tech, YouTube, Reddit, Meme Origins and everything Pop-culture are his forte. He covers humourous... Read More Anurag Verma, News Editor at News18.com, works independently for the Viral section. Bollywood, Cricket, Science, Tech, YouTube, Reddit, Meme Origins and everything Pop-culture are his forte. He covers humourous... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:07 IST
What Is White Genocide In South Africa As Claimed By Donald Trump & Elon Musk? Explained

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:59 IST

Reports suggest that the South African government is expropriating land from white farmers through violent land seizures in order to distribute it to Black South Africans

President Donald Trump with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on May 21. Trump has long maintained that Afrikaners are being persecuted in South Africa. (AP Photo)

US President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa by playing a video that he falsely claimed proved genocide was being committed against White people  the opposite of Apartheid".

Trumps brusque stunt on Wednesday was the most tense Oval Office encounter since his unprecedented public meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March.

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What Is White Genocide Conspiracy Theory?

Let us understand how the claims of white genocide have been circulated over the years, with Trump being the most recent leader propagating the theory.

1. The theory of genocide of white farmers in South Africa has been propagated by some fringe groups of white South Africans since the end of apartheid in 1994. It has been circulating in global far-right chat rooms for at least a decade, with the vocal support of Trumps ally, South African-born Elon Musk. They accuse the Black-majority led government of being complicit in the farm murders, either by encouraging them or at least turning a blind eye. The government strongly denies this.

2. Trump has long maintained that Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid, are being persecuted. He played a video clip that showed a long line of white crosses on the side of a highway, which Trump said were burial sites" for white farmers. The clip was made in September 2020 during a protest against farm murders. The crosses did not mark actual graves. An organizer told South Africas public broadcaster, SABC, at the time that the wooden crosses represented farmers who had been killed over the years, as mentioned in a Reuters report.

3. There are reports that the South African government is expropriating land from white farmers without compensation, including through violent land seizures, in order to distribute it to Black South Africans. The government has a policy of attempting to redress inequalities in land ownership that are a legacy of apartheid and colonialism. But no land has been expropriated, and the government has instead tried to encourage white farmers to sell their land willingly. A Reuters report says that some three-quarters of privately-owned farmland is still in the hands of whites, who comprise 8% of the population, while 4% is owned by Blacks who make up 80% of the population.

4. In February, a South African judge dismissed the idea of a genocide as clearly imagined" and not real", when ruling in an inheritance case involving a wealthy benefactors donation to white supremacist group Boerelegioen.

5. South Africa does not release crime figures based on race but the latest figures revealed that 6,953 people were murdered in the country between October and December 2024.

Who Are Afrikaners?

Modern Afrikaners are descendants of Western Europe who settled on the southern top of Africa during the middle of the 17th Century.

A mixture of Dutch (34.8%), German (33.7%) and French (13.2%) settlers, they formed a unique cultural group" which identified itself completely with African soil", according to South African History Online.

They speak Afrikaans, which is quite similar to Dutch. But as they settled down in Africa, Afrikaners as well as White people forced Blacks to leave their land.

Afrikaans, also known as Boers, mainly belong to the farming community.

In 1948, South Africas Afrikaner-led government began practising apartheid, and took racial segregation to a more extreme level. Inter-race marriages were banned, skilled and semi-skilled jobs were restricted to White people and Blacks were forced to live in their homelands.

They were also denied education, with Afrikaner leader Hendrik Verwoerd infamously remarking in the 1950s that blacks should never be shown the greener pastures of education. They should know their station in life is to be hewers of wood and drawers of water."

Their dominance ended in 1994 when Blacks were allowed to vote and Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress came to power.

The 2.5 million Afrikaners form roughly 4% of the South Africas total 60 million population.

How Are Trump And Musk Supporting The Claim?

The Trump Oval Office meeting where he ambushed his counterpart Ramaphosa was also attended by Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa.

Trump also said he was not sure how he could attend the G20 summit of world leaders, due to be held in South Africa later this year, in such an environment.

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The US president has given members of Afrikaner community refugee status over genocide allegations despite his administration halting arrivals of asylum seekers as he cracks down on immigration. More than 70,000 Afrikaners have expressed interest in moving to the US, with about 50 of them arriving in the country to take up Trumps offer of refuge".

Meanwhile, South Africa will reportedly offer Musk a deal to operate his Starlink satellite internet network in the country. The Tesla and SpaceX boss has accused Pretoria of openly racist" laws, a reference to post-apartheid Black empowerment policies seen as a hurdle to the licensing of Starlink.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 15:53 IST
Why China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Expansion Into Afghanistan Concerns India? Explained

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 13:06 IST

India has firmly opposed the BRI since its inception in 2013. The extension of CPEC into Afghanistan can be seen as a tactical response to Indias increasing regional assertiveness

The CPEC expansion is the first trilateral meeting between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan since Operation Sindoor post the Pahalgam attack. (Image: @MIshaqDar50)

In a move that is fraught with geopolitical consequences, China and Pakistan have decided to expand their economic corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan to boost trilateral cooperation.

The announcement on expansion of CPEC was made following a meeting among Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Afghanistans Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Beijing.

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India, however, has consistently opposed the move since it involves the constructions through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

This is the first trilateral meeting between China, Pakistan and Afghanistan since Operation Sindoor post the Pahalgam attack. The three nations have reaffirmed their commitment towards regional peace, stability and development".

What Is CPEC?

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was introduced in May 2013 during Chinese Premier Li Keqiangs visit to Pakistan. The CPEC started in April 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif signed 51 agreements and memorandums of understanding.

The project initially required an investment of US$ 46 billion, which rapidly increased to US$ 62 billion in pledges or around 20% of Pakistans GDP.

The economic corridor was commended for its design, plugging Pakistans infrastructure gaps, establishing industrial zones, and creating trade routes to China through the Gwadar Port, strategically located on the Arabian Sea.

Why Is Pakistan Dependent On CPEC?

For Pakistan, CPEC provide critical infrastructure, but also creates a dependency that Beijing can leverage to keep Islamabad firmly in its orbit.

People of Pakistan initially got hope and relief from the countrys persistent power and energy issues with the introduction of the CPEC project. Widespread blackouts due to crippling power shortages had paralysed economic activities and engulfed bustling market areas in darkness.

Initially, China focused on constructing new coal-fired power plants within the framework of the CPEC. But late in 2021, it changed its story to reflect the objectives of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), committing to avoid developing coal-fired power plants overseas. This shift had dire consequences for Pakistans coal-dependent power sector, as it halted or shelved ongoing CPEC projects aimed at expanding the countrys power generation capacity by 20 gigawatts.

While Pakistans unsustainable external debt and economic difficulties predated the CPEC agreement, the initiative exacerbated the countrys widening current account deficits and bled foreign exchange reserves. Despite the International Monetary Funds (IMF) recommendations, Pakistan imported large volumes of materials for the projects before seeking a bailout worth US$ 6.3 billion from the intergovernmental body.

Since the foundation of CPEC relies on Chinese equity holdings in Pakistans infrastructure projects, Islamabad is liable for 80% of the investments related to the corridor. This has led to concerns that the flagship initiative of BRI is flawed and a costly. China has repeatedly refused to defer or restructure pending debt repayments, fearing that it would set a precedent for other debtors and result in a collapse of bad loans. Thus, it is up to Chinas interest to assist Pakistan in maintaining its image as a reliable ally to the developing world, as per think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

What Does CPEC Entry Into Afghanistan Mean?

The CPECs extension into Afghanistan involves connecting Pakistani infrastructure to Afghan roads, railways and mineral-rich provinces, potentially linking the entire region to Chinas western logistics and trade networks.

Some of the key aspects of the expansion include:

 Expanding the ML-1 railway line to connect with Afghan freight corridors

 Building highways through Torkham and Spin Boldak crossing points

 Chinese access to Afghanistans vast lithium and rare earth resources

 Energy pipelines connecting Iran and Central Asia through Afghan territory

 Potential military logistics disguised as trade infrastructure

Why India Opposes CPEC?

India has unequivocally opposed the BRI since its inception in 2013. From the geopolitical standpoint, India has viewed one of the key components of the CPEC as a violation of its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The project was viewed as a component of Chinas overarching plan to surround India and seize power in the area.

It has also raised concerns about China gaining control of Pakistans ports and potential establishment of the naval base in the region, raising major security concerns for India.

In 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs of India had said in a statement, We have seen reports on encouraging proposed participation of third countries in so-called CPEC projects. Any such actions by any party directly infringe on Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity. India firmly and consistently opposes projects in the so-called CPEC, which are in Indian territory that has been illegally occupied by Pakistan."

Beyond economic investments, China and Pakistan maintain robust military ties. Beijing has supplied Islamabad with advanced weaponry, including fighter jets, missile systems, and naval assets, ensuring that Pakistan remains a formidable adversary to India.

Meanwhile, Chinas diplomatic backing of Pakistanespecially on sensitive issues such as Kashmir challenges Indias strategic focus on its aspirations as a global power. Beijing has repeatedly blocked Indias efforts to designate Pakistan-based militants as global terrorists in the United Nations, frustrating New Delhis counterterrorism initiatives. Additionally, China has opposed Indias bids for leadership roles at international platforms ensures that India remains entangled in regional disputes.

Why CPEC Expansion To Afghanistan Concerns India?

Afghanistans inclusion comes at a time when the Taliban government condemned the Pahalgam terror attack and rejected the Pakistans claim that India had launched missile strikes on Afghan territory.

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This led to the first political meeting between the leaders of India and Afghanistan as the two expressed appreciation for Kabuls unequivocal condemnation of Pahalgam attack.

The extension of CPEC into Afghanistan can be seen as a snub to Indias strategic efforts; a tactical response to Indias increasing regional assertiveness; a signal of Chinese support to its iron brother" Pakistan and its Taliban allies; and a move to pre-empt Indias growing ties with Central Asian countries.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:54 IST
Why Chinas Mother Ship Drone That Can Launch 100 Kamikaze UAVs Is A Worry? Explained

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:25 IST

Chinas assertive posture towards Taiwan has fuelled concerns about the regional applications of advanced technology like Jiu Tian, which is capable of launching drone swarms

While the new UAV has yet to be deployed, its potential use across the Taiwan Strait could complicate defence planning for the US and its allies. (Representational File Photo/AFP)

As militaries across the world try to dominate the skies, China has unleashed its unmanned aerial mother ship", capable of launching and coordinating over 100 drones in a single mission.

Jiu Tian, Chinas drone carrier, will take off its first mission by the end of June, marking the beginning of a series of tests before the drone mother ship" UAV is deployed by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), as per Chinese media reports.

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What Is Jiu Tian?

Jiu Tian, which translates to high sky" is a super-high altitude, long-range UAV that debuted at Chinas premier Zhuhai air show in November.

It has a maximum range of 7,000 km and an altitude of 15,000 metres (50,000 feet), and can carry up to 6 tonnes of ammunition and small drones.

The jet-powered drone has a maximum take-off weight of 16 tonnes, a wingspan of 25 metres and an ability to fly above many of the medium-range defence systems that are deployed worldwide.

Reports suggest that up to 100 units of loitering ammunition or small drones, including kamikaze UAVs, can be released from both sides of the belly of the aircraft  extending their reach.

How Jiu Tian Will Add To Chinas Military Capabilities

The deployment of Jiu Tian will contribute to the PLAs capabilities  in which a large group of networked drones are released to work together on military missions or to overwhelm the enemys air-defence systems.

The aircraft reportedly features eight external hardpoints for carrying a diverse array of payloads. These include surveillance drones, kamikaze UAVs, cruise missiles and medium-range air-to-air missiles such as the PL-12E.

According to the manufacturer, Chinese aerospace firm Jiutian, the Jiu Tians interior has a modular design, which allows for rapid reconfiguration depending on the mission  whether it involves military strike operations, border defence, public security, maritime surveillance, emergency rescue or high-risk logistics transport.

Should We Be Worried?

Chinas announcement of the mother ship" drone comes when threats towards Taiwan have increased.

Chinas assertive posture towards Taiwan  which Beijing views as a breakaway province  has fuelled concerns among analysts and policymakers about the regional applications of such advanced drone technology.

Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Taiwans President Lai Ching-te said, Today, 80 years later, we share the same values and face similar challenges as many of the democracies that participated in the European war."

While the new UAV has yet to be deployed, its potential use across the Taiwan Strait could significantly complicate defence planning for the US and its allies.

The heavyweight Jiu Tian carrier not only adds to Chinas stock of advanced drone technology, such as the stealth combat CH-7 and the medium-altitude, anti-submarine Wing Loong-X, some see it as a potential rival to the Americas RQ-4 Global Hawk and the MQ-9 Reaper drone models.

While those American models specialise in strategic surveillance and multirole missions, neither is currently capable of launching coordinated drone swarms.

Jiutians concept is also seen as building on the legacy of programmes like DARPAs Gremlins" initiative in the US, which explored using mother ships to launch and retrieve smaller UAVs, reported online defence and security magazine Army Recognition.

How China Is Modernising Its Army

In December, the US Department of Defense (DoD) released a 182-page report on Chinas military. The report mentioned about Chinas rapid expansion and modernization of its nuclear force, in case of a potential war with the United States. DoD estimates that China has over 600 operational nuclear warheads, up from 500 last year, and estimates that China will have over 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.

China completed construction of three new missile fields with 320 silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and is developing new, more survivable ICBMs, the report added.

China is also developing fractional orbital bombardment systems and hypersonic glide vehicles, with Beijing now possessing the worlds leading hypersonic missile arsenal," the report added, quoted by the Centre on Foreign Relations (CFR).

The report noted the PLA Navy (PLAN) maintains its surface fleet at high readiness with an emphasis on enabling a surge capacity to respond to regional contingenciesThe PLANs submarine fleet is similarly positioned to maintain high readiness"

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The PLAN is numerically the largest navy in the world, with 370 ships and submarines, while DoD projects it will have 395 ships by 2025 and 435 by 2030.

The report also said Chinas military modernization remains focused on Taiwan. It noted that Chinas leadership views unification with Taiwan as a fundamental condition of national rejuvenation, which must be accomplished by 2049.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 08:25 IST
Why Bengaluru Is Prone To Flooding And Waterlogging, Know The Worst-Affected Areas

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Shilpy Bisht



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 10:51 IST

Topography, poor urban planning, ancient drainage system and increased rainfall events due to climate change have made flooding and waterlogging quite frequent in Bengaluru

Bengaluru has already received 105.5 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period (between Sunday and Monday) which is the second highest since 2011. (PTI Photo)

Bengaluru rain has once again caused havoc in the city, leading to widespread waterlogging, severe damages and traffic disruptions. A 35-year-old woman reportedly died in Whitefield area after a wall collapsed over her due to heavy rainfall for more than six hours.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao on Tuesday held a virtual meeting with officials and instructed them to stay alert and address any emerging issues promptly.

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All zonal control rooms must promptly respond to complaints from the public. Officers should stay alert and act swiftly to resolve civic issues," he told officials during the meeting.

The civic body has advised residents to remain cautious and encouraged them to report issues via the BBMP helpline number1533.

The city has already received 105.5 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period (between 8.30 am of Sunday and 8.30 am of Monday) which is the second highest since 2011. In May, 2022, Bengaluru recorded 114.6 mm rainfall and the all-time record for May is 153. 9 mm recorded on May 6, 1909.

Why Is Flooding So Common In Bengaluru?

According to IMD data collected for 50 years between 1969 and 2019, the Bengaluru Urban district is the most vulnerable to flooding among all districts in southern India. In this period of 50 years, Bengaluru urban saw 73 flooding events, followed by Bengaluru rural with 71 flooding events.

Some of the reasons for Bengaluru flooding are as follows:

Topography: Bengaluru is situated on an elevation of about 900 metres and lacks a major river to channel excess water naturally, unlike other metropolitan areas. In 1800, Bengaluru, then a 740 sq km region, had 1,452 water bodies with a water storage capacity of 35 TMC (thousand million cubic feet), allowing for optimal rainwater harvesting and flood mitigation.

Poor Urban Planning: Bengaluru city once had over 1,000 lakes, but many have been encroached upon or built over for residential and commercial projects. A 2016 report estimated 80% of Bengalurus lakes have been lost or degraded, reducing natural water retention and exacerbating runoff. Today, the city has interconnected lake systems, with over 190 lakes.

Drainage System: Rapid unregulated construction has increased impermeable surfaces like concrete, reducing groundwater recharge and increasing surface runoff. Environmentalists and water conservationists have also flagged the poor status of the citys current drainage system, which they say is outdated and ill-equipped to handle the citys current population and rainfall intensity. Bengalurus rajakaluves (stormwater drains) frequently get blocked with solid waste.

Rainfall Events: Intensifying rainfall patterns, with short bursts of heavy rain, overwhelm the citys infrastructure. Data from the India Meteorological Department shows Bengalurus rainfall intensity has increased over the past few decades.

What Are The Worst Affected Parts Of Benglauru?

Multiple zones reported significant damage due to flooding.

Yelahanka zone, which recorded 103.2 mm of rainfall, overflowing lakes caused flooding in low-lying areas, damaging 28 homes.

Kengeris Kote Layout received the citys highest rainfall at 132 mm between Monday and Tuesday. Floodwaters inundated at least 100 houses and damaged over 50 vehicles.

Koramangalas ST Bed Layout, which witnesses frequent monsoon flooding, saw homes submerged under four feet of water, with at least 21 houses affected.

Sarjapur Road in East Bengaluru witnessed major waterlogging. Known as one of the citys prime IT stretches, the area was submerged in knee-deep water, with several people sharing visuals of traffic chaos and flooded roads on social media.

One of the hardest-hit areas was Sai Layout near Mahadevapura, developed by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA). Floodwaters reached four feet inside homes, prompting authorities to deploy boats to rescue stranded residents.

What Are The Authorities Saying?

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday ordered stern action on builders, who have encroached on storm water drains and are blocking free flow of rainwater, causing flooding of Bengaluru.

Home minister G Parameshwara asserted that the BBMP, which has been replaced by the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), is making efforts to tackle severe waterlogging.

Meanwhile, BJP rained attacks on the Congress government. State BJP President BY Vijayendra said the situation in Bengaluru was dire and accused the Congress of misplaced priorities.

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A few hours of rain have brought Bengaluru to its knees. People are suffering, three lives have been lost, and the government is busy celebrating its anniversary," Vijayendra told India Today TV. The home minister G Parameshwara had the audacity to blame Bengalureans for the flooding  thats not what people expect from a responsible administration. This shows the arrogance of power."

BJP leader Amit Malviya in a post on X said that Bengaluru has been turned into Venice after just one spell of rain. The Congresss apathy has ruined Silicon City. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar have no vision for this global city other than using it as an ATM to fill their coffers."

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 10:02 IST
Tamannaah Bhatia Named Mysore Sandal Soap Ambassador, Sparks Row Over Non-Kannadiga Face

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Manisha Roy



Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 13:03 IST

Tamannaah Bhatia Mysore Sandal Soap Deal: The Karnataka government named Tamannaah Bhatia as the brand ambassador for Mysore Sandal Soap, sparking criticism from Kannada activists.

Tamannaah Bhatia will be paid an amount of Rs 6.2 crore for the same. (Photo Credits: Instagram)

Tamannaah Bhatia Mysore Sandal Soap Deal: The Karnataka government has named Bollywood actress Tamannaah Bhatia as the brand ambassador for world-famous Mysore Sandal Soap. This move by the state government has led to a controversy with Kannada activists and netizens asking why a Kannada actress wasnt chosen for the same.

Apart from the Mysore Sandal Soap, Bhatia will also be the ambassador of all other products from the Karnataka state-owned Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) for a period of 2 years. The Bollywood actress will be paid an amount of Rs 6.2 crore for the same.

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KSDL Managing Director Prashanth PKM confirmed the deal, saying the company will soon launch products with Bhatia as the face of their brand promotions.

Responding to the controversy over using a non-Kannadiga as their brand ambassador, Dr Prashanth told News18, As part of the growth of the brand, it is essential that we use brand ambassadors who have appeal both globally and across India. That is how we open doors across the world for our Mysore Sandal Soap."

We have signed Tamannaah Bhatia as our committee found her to be the best match for our pan-India push. We needed a brand ambassador with pan-India appeal, and her profile fits our vision after much consideration," he said.

90 percent of the employees of KSDL are from Karnataka. Whatever profit comes from the sale of the products is for the people of Karnataka. We have always stood for the protection and safeguarding of our land, our language, culture, and tradition," he said.

We needed a face with national reach and global visibility," the MD said.

As the decision has drawn criticism from netizens and Pro-Kannada outfits, many questioned why home-grown talents like Deepika Padukone or any actor from Karnataka wasnt chosen as the brand ambassador for a local brand.

We were unable to sign Rashmika Mandanna, Deepika Padukone or Pooja Hegde, who are also Kannadigas, as they were already have a contract with other brands. We had to ensure we reached consumers across India with a popular face to boost sales," a senior KSDL official told News18.

Explaining the decision, officials said that while KSDL records annual sales of over Rs 1,800 crore, only 12% of that comes from Karnataka. The rest is from across the country, making a pan-India presence crucial.

Pro-Kannada organisation Karnataka Rakshana Vedikes chief T Narayana Gowda has slammed the government for the decision, stating that naming a non-Kannadiga actress as an ambassador for a local brand was an insult, further demanding that the money paid be instead used for the welfare of the people.

Taking to X, Narayana Gowda has threatened strong protests if the government didnt cancel the order to name Tamannaah as the brand ambassador immediately.

Why her?", questioned noted Kannada director Kavita Lankesh.

We have so many talented people here in Karnataka, from across South India. Kannadigas are beautiful in every shade. Why do we keep chasing this so-called milky white beauty standard? Ive said it before dark and duskythese are extremely beautiful too. Its high time we change our perception of beauty. What is this obsession with fairness? Its rooted in this outdated Aryan-Dravidian syndrome where we somehow think lighter skin is superior. Thats a self-degrading mindset, she told News18.

Lankesh said that the Kannada film industry has so many local artists, men and women, who would happily do thiseven for freeif its for a government cause.

So why are we paying 6 crore of taxpayer money to someone like Tammanah? We have nothing against her, but we are seeking answers, arent there actors in Kannada cinema who fit the bill?  she asked.

Meanwhile, state industries minister MB Patil has defended the move on X, clarifying that that the intent of KSDL was to also aggressively penetrate markets beyond Karnataka, adding that the brands recall in Karnataka would still be strengthened.

Minister HK Patil has also echoed a similar sentiment, saying that the move was probably kept in mind to attract the market outside of Karnataka.

Mysore Sandal Soap A 107-Year-Old Product

Mysore sandal soap is a 107-year-old product now sold under the KSDL. The officials said they set a new record of profit and handed over a dividend cheque of Rs 108.62 crore to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in 2024. The amount accounted for 30 per cent of KSDLs Rs 362.07 crore profit for the financial year 202324, marking the highest dividend payout in the companys history. An additional Rs 5 crore cheque was also given towards the Chief Ministers Relief Fund.

It currently offers 48 different products, including soaps, detergents, cosmetics, and incense sticks. In the financial year 202324, the company recorded a sales turnover of Rs 1,570 crore .

With flagship products like Mysore Sandal Soap available on major e-commerce platforms, KSDL believes that bringing Bhatia on board will elevate the brands appeal and presence across India.

Such is the brands iconic status that Indian-origin celebrity chef Vikas Khanna once gifted Mysore Sandal Soap to Hollywood star Anne Hathaway as part of a curated selection of Indian presents, including a handcrafted marble box from Agra and the book Kiss in Kashmir by Monica Saigal. The gesture went viral with the brands official X (formerly Twitter) handle thanking the chef for his thoughtful gesture of presenting the iconic Mysore Sandal Soap to actress Anne Hathaway."

However, the Mysore Sandal brand has not been without controversy. A major legal battle erupted when KSDL signed up cricketer MS Dhoni as brand ambassador in 2006.

Dhoni, then Indias cricket captain, was dragged to court by KSDL for allegedly not fulfilling the terms of his endorsement contract. The company claimed that Dhoni failed to give enough time to the company to endorse its brand of Mysore Sandal Soaps."

The deal, valued at Rs 84.85 lakh, was struck between KSDL and Dhonis management agency, Kolkata-based Gameplan Sports Private Ltd. Dhoni was supposed to commit 10 days over two years (five days a year), but the company alleged that he was available for only three days. A 60-second TV commercial was filmed during that time.

In December 2007, KSDL terminated the contract and issued a legal notice demanding Rs 40 lakh in damages. The matter went to arbitration, where KSDLs demand for Rs 6.5 crore as damages was also rejected.

The legal case dragged on for five years, and in 2012, the court ruled in favour of Dhoni, stating that KSDL had failed to prove that it had incurred financial losses due to the terminated contract.

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Despite this checkered history, KSDL is now betting big on Tamannaah Bhatia to boost its brand image and national reach  hoping her mass appeal will make Mysore Sandal a household name far beyond Karnataka.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:53 IST
Nothing Wrong: Shivakumar Defends Karnataka Minister Over Wedding Gift To Ranya Rao

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:03 IST

Ranya Rao Gold Smuggling Case: DK Shivakumar said that Parameshwara informed him he had given a wedding gift to actor Ranya Rao.

DK Shivakumar distanced the political leadership from Ranya Rao's gold smuggling case.

Ranya Rao Gold Smuggling Case: Amidst ongoing Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids targeting Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara in connection with a gold smuggling case involving actor Ranya Rao, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that Parameshwara informed him he had given a wedding gift to the actor, asserting there was nothing wrong in it."

DK Shivakumar said, I just spoke to Parameshwara, there was a marriage (ceremony), we are in public life, we run institutions. As a gesture to people we know, we give lots of gifts, we give Re 1, Rs 10, Rs 10 lakh, Rs 5 lakh. I think he might have also given a gift. It was a marriage, nothing wrong in it."

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The Deputy Chief Minister distanced the political leadership from Ranya Raos gold smuggling case, affirming, Whatever activities done by that lady is a personal issue, the law will take its course. As far as Parameshwar is concerned, we meet thousands of people, we dont know who does what. We dont want to interfere with the law and ED. I just discussed with him, I asked him what is the reality, he said at the time of marriage, he has given, he has gifted, quite natural."

ED Raids On Parameshwaras Educational Institutions

The EDs probes, conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), targeted several educational institutions linked to the Karnataka Home Minister. The central agency is investigating hawala operators allegedly involved in fake transactions into accounts connected to Ranya Rao. Parameshwara confirmed that ED officials visited three institutions and a university and said, As a person who believes in the law of the land, I am prepared to cooperate with whatever comes out of their verifications or searches."

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Regarding allegations that Rs 40 lakh from his institutions account was used to pay Ranya Raos credit card bill, he said he would respond after the investigation concludes.

Ranya Rao was arrested on March 3 at Bengalurus Kempegowda International Airport for allegedly smuggling 14.2 kg of gold, valued at over 12.56 crore, after arriving from Dubai.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Location : Karnataka, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:58 IST
EAM Jaishankar Links Asim Munir's Speech To Pahalgam Attack: 'Extreme Religious Outlook'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 13:01 IST

Before the Pahalgam attack, Asim Munir had raked up Kashmir, calling it Pakistan's jugular vein. He endorsed the 2-nation theory, stressing Pakistanis were different from Hindus.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. (File photo)

Foreign minister S Jaishankar has said Pakistan Army chief Asim Munirs extreme religious outlook" influenced the terrorists who killed holidaymakers in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam last month  a significant condemnation by the Indian government at a time when ties between the neighbours have hit a new low following an armed conflict.

Jaishankar described the April 22 attack  in which 25 tourists and a local pony handler were killed  as a barbaric" act aimed at sabotaging tourism and inciting religious discord. The Pahalgam attackers  two believed to be Pakistanis and one a local  first identified the religion of the tourists before executing Hindu men at point-blank range.

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It [the attack] was intended to harm tourism and to create religious discord. And an element of religion was introduced You have the Pakistani Army Chief, driven by extreme religious outlook so some connect with [his] views", Jaishankar told a TV channel in the Netherlands.

Less than a week before the Pahalgam attack, on April 16, General Munir had provoked India on the Kashmir issue, calling it Pakistans jugular vein". He also endorsed the two-nation theory  the ideological basis for Pakistans creation  and urged Pakistanis to teach their children that they are different from Hindus".

Earlier this month, during the military escalation between India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had directly linked the Pahalgam attack to what he termed the communal rhetoric of the Pakistan Army chief".

Speaking to Dutch media, Jaishankar said India had identified the terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam attack, which was claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF)  a shadowy group long under Indian scrutiny.

TRF has been on our radar for a long time. We had already brought it to the United Nations attention," he said. Jaishankar added that India has clear evidence linking TRF to Hafiz Saeeds Lashkar-e-Taiba, and is aware of their command centres and locations. We know where the command centres are  and those are the places we targeted on May 7."

He was referring to Indias Operation Sindoor, which analysts say has created a new paradigm and shown the world Indias zero tolerance to terrorism". India struck at nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7.

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In response, the Pakistani army sent waves and waves of drones into the Indian airspace and also resorted to heavy firing along the Line of Control (LoC). India retaliated decisively, dealing big blows to over 10 military sites in Pakistan, including key airbases, forcing Islamabad to seek a ceasefire.

Amid the fog of war, Pakistan actively orchestrated a widespread misinformation campaign, even as its military consolidated power internally, which is evident in the recent elevation of Army Chief General Asim Munir to the rank of Field Marshal.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 11:46 IST
Gunfight Breaks Out In J&K's Kishtwar, Several Terrorists Trapped

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Ashesh Mallick



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:34 IST

Around four terrorists are believed to be trapped in the ongoing encounter in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar.

Encounter underway in J&K's Kishtwar (PTI File Image)

A massive exchange of fire broke out between security forces and terrorists in the Singhpura area of Kishtwars Chatroo in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday morning, officials said.

Around 3 to 4 terrorists are believed to be trapped in the ongoing encounter.

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According to sources, after the initial exchange of fire, forces rushed into the spot where the terrorists were trapped.

The joint operation by the Indian Army, CRPF, and the J&K Police is underway. The area has been cordoned off as the forces are making efforts to neutralise the threat.

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Two separate encounters took place in Shopians Keller area and Pulwamas Tral on May 13 and May 15, respectively.

The security forces stepped up surveillance and search operations after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22. The local authorities have also cracked down on the terrorists by demolishing their houses in Jammu and Kashmir.

About the Author Ieshan Wani Ieshan Wani, senior correspondent, CNN-News18, has over eight years of experience in reporting, producing and editing news for broadcast, digital and print platforms. His reporting has mostly been from Kashmir.... Read More Ieshan Wani, senior correspondent, CNN-News18, has over eight years of experience in reporting, producing and editing news for broadcast, digital and print platforms. His reporting has mostly been from Kashmir.... Read More

Location : Kishtwar, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:59 IST
Even Locals Not Visiting: Pahalgam Still Deserted A Month After Terror Attack

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:24 IST

The horrific attack, which claimed the lives of 26 individuals, came as a huge setback for Kashmirs tourism industry.

near deserted tourist town of Pahalgam, Anantnag district, J&K. (PTI)

Pahalgam terror attack: A month after the ghastly terror attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam, the locals and small businessmen in the resort town still stare at mounting livelihood losses as the tourist footfall remain extremely low even in the peak season.

The horrific attack, which claimed the lives of 26 individuals, came as a huge setback for Kashmirs tourism industry.

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What Locals Are Saying?

A tour operator, Nasir Ahmad, told news agency PTI that even after a month, the place looks desolated.

The place looks desolate. We used to have thousands of tourists on any given day in Pahalgam, providing livelihood opportunities for everyone  shopkeepers, roadside vendors, ponywallahs, cab drivers and hoteliers," Ahmad said.

He further said that the resort town of Pahalgam had not worn such a deserted look even at the peak of the 1990s insurgency.

We used to host local visitors (Kashmiris) and that sustained the economy at the worst of times. However, this time, even local visitors are not coming," he said.

Mohammad Irshad, a shopkeeper, said the situation for those earning a livelihood from tourism had started to turn desperate. The government will have to do something. People have not earned a penny in the past month and it cannot go on like this for too long," he added.

A local businessman, Mohammad Ashraf told news agency ANI, My main business pertains to vehicles, which is related to tourism. It has been a month since tourists were killed (in Pahalgam). This should not have happened. What those terrorists did should not have happened. Pahalgam has been deserted since that day. We have all these vehicles, but there is no one to hire them. Still, we are hopeful that tourism will thrive once again in the days to come or next year. We trust the Government 100% that things will get better once againWe are now pinning our hopes on Yatra (Amarnath Yatra), which will help us earn a little. Right now, there are no touristsI am 55 years old, I have seen militancy. But this is the first time there has been an attack in PahalgamThis was our misfortune. It should not have happened."

What Happened On April 22?

In one of the biggest attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, four to five Lashkar-linked terrorists descended on the picturesque Baisaran meadows of Pahalgam and opened fire on on tourists on April 22, killing at least 26 people, including foreign tourists, and injuring many others.

The Resistance Front (TRF), a Lashkar offshoot, claimed responsibility for the attack, although it later backtracked after massive global outrage.

India, which had credible intelligence confirming cross-border links to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, launched Operation Sindoor and struck nine terror dens in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7.

The Indian armed forces destroyed multiple camps of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen, killing more than 100 terrorists.

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While several top terrorists have been killed in various operations launched after the terror attack, the terrorists who carried out the massacre have eluded the security forces, officials have said.

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More

Location : Pahalgam, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 17:24 IST
First Two Operation Sindoor Multi-Party Teams Reach UAE, Tokyo In Global Outreach Against Terror

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:26 IST

Operation Sindoor: The delegations, which includes prominent figures from various political parties, is set to engage with leaders in the UAE and Tokyo.

The aim of the delegations is to inform international partners about India's response to recent terror attacks

An all-party delegation from India, led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde, arrived in the United Arab Emirates as part of a global diplomatic outreach aimed at showcasing Indias resolute fight against terrorism while another delegation, led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, held a meeting with Indias Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, at the Embassy of India in Tokyo.

BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi said in Tokyo, " One of the delegations with nine MPs is here in Japan. We have just started our visit to Japan. The first thing we did was to come to the Embassy of India. We had a very good discussion with the Ambassador and his team. We wanted to understand many things about Japan and about their viewpoint on the Pahalgam attack."

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Speaking before their departure, Shrikant Shinde emphasized the importance of this mission, stating, I am fortunate to lead a group going to UAE and West Africa. I think its very much important to give a message to the entire world what India is facing since many years."

He further added, India and Pakistan gained independence at the same time, but India has been progressing in their economy while Pakistan has been progressing only in terrorism."

BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj highlighted the decisive action taken by India, noting, The terrorist attack in Pahalgam was a blow to the soul of India. PM Modi and our armed forces have given a befitting reply to this, through Operation Sindoor. Operation Sindoor is a new pledge of justice." She reiterated Prime Minister Modis firm stance, PM has made it very clear that terror and talks cant go together, blood and water wont flow together, trade and terror will not happen together; whenever India would hold talks, it will be over PoK."

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BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia underscored the delegations goal to counter misinformation, stating, We are going to tell the world the reality of what happened on April 22 and what has been happening even before that because Pakistan is spreading false propaganda all over the world. We will give a correct answer to the false news spread by their propaganda machinery."

The delegations are part of a larger initiative involving seven all-party groups visiting 33 world capitals to project Indias national consensus and zero-tolerance policy against terrorism. This diplomatic effort follows Operation Sindoor, which involved precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:47 IST
From Traffic Super Cop To Karnatakas DGP: The Journey Of MA Saleem

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:35 IST

Saleem is known as a man respected for his calm authority, people-friendly approach, and tackling a monster many governments have had to deal with: Bengalurus traffic management

Saleem is best known for introducing one-way systems on a record 122 roads to decongest traffic. (Saleem's Website)

When the official confirmation arrived that Dr MA Saleem was appointed the new Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) of Karnataka, many of his peers and friends in the department said he was the right man for the job.

Born on June 25, 1966, Saleem hails from Chikkabanavara, located in northern Bengaluru. He is a 1993-batch IPS officer who will now take charge as the 42nd DG&IGP of the state, a post he has reached after a long and eventful career marked by innovative ideas for people-first policing.

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But his appointment hasnt come without a ripple or two. Saleems elevation has meant superseding a senior officer, DGP of Fire and Emergency Services Prashant Kumar Thakur. However, sources within the government indicate that Saleem was a strong frontrunner, with his track record in administrative efficiency in handling operational posts and effective policing tipping the scales in his favour.

What makes Saleem stand out is not just his rank, but his reputation.

Within the ranks of the Karnataka Police, Saleem is known as a man respected for his calm authority and people-friendly approach. Junior officers admire him, seniors trust him, and the constabulary relates to him," one officer said, adding that hes a low-profile officer, never showy. But his work speaks".

He is best known in the city for tackling a monster many governments have had to deal with: Bengaluru citys traffic management.

Back in 2022, when Bengaluru made global headlines for being the second-slowest city in the world in terms of average traffic speed, it became a national embarrassment and also made international headlines. The average speed during peak hours had dropped to a crawl of less than 18 kmph.

The then chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who held charge of Bengaluru development, set traffic management as a top priority. The Bommai government brought in Saleem for a rare second stint as Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic)on a specially created postwith the responsibility given to him to once again do what he had done earlier: manage Bengalurus traffic chaos.

He (Saleem) is the right candidate for the post. He has vast experience in handling Bengalurus traffic and has a PhD in traffic management as well," Praveen Sood, who was then DGP Karnataka, had told News18.

Saleems doctorate degree was on his pet subjecttraffic management. He obtained it from Bangalore University in 2010, and his thesis was Traffic Management in Metropolitan Cities: A framework to provide sustainable strategies to overcome traffic congestion and ensure greater safety on road."

Saleem is best known for introducing one-way systems on a record 122 roads to decongest traffic. Apart from this, he created Safe Routes to School, Automated Traffic Challaning System, the Public Eye initiative for citizen-led enforcement, and Local Area Traffic Management Plans to decentralise traffic management.

His earlier tenure had already seen the introduction of helmet and seat belt enforcement, display cards for auto drivers, and citizen engagement programmesall with one aim: making traffic management less about punishment and more about participation.

A personal episode of this reporter is an anecdote that captures his people-first approach. At a private event, a young child met Saleem who was introduced as the traffic commissioner and a senior police officer. Hearing the word police", the child took a step back and held the mothers hand firmly. Gently, Saleem crouched down and said: You shouldnt be scared of the police. We are your friends." Then he turned to the mother and said, We have to build trust in the police. That is how people, and even kids, will feel safer."

Another senior colleague of Saleem recounts an incident that spoke of his character as a police officer.

Back in 2006, when a speeding BMTC Volvo bus ploughed into a crowded bus shelter near HAL Airport Road, killing two and injuring 20, a furious mob went on a rampagetorching vehicles, attacking police, and bringing the entire area to a standstill.

The senior officer who was present that day recalled, Saleem sir was DCP Traffic then. But he rushed to the spot with me, knowing fully well that it was technically not his jurisdiction  it was a law and order situation. But he showed up, stood with us, helped control the mob, and ensured that backup forces could enter the area. He never for a minute thought that it was an issue of traffic or law and order to handle  it was only about being a police officer."

Saleem also launched Aasare" helplines for the elderly, Spandana" for women, Makkala Sahayavani" for children, and the Garuda" police patrol system. He was instrumental in developing the Special Action Force in several districts and introduced Simputers for traffic enforcement in Bengaluru long before digital policing became the norm.

He started Makkala Sahayavani when he was SPa helpline exclusively for children. It was such a hit that we SPs in other districts replicated it immediately," said DGP Pronab Mohanty, who served in another district as an SP.

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As Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Karnataka, he headed the CID and has overseen several high-profile and sensational Special Investigation Teams (SITs), including the IMA fraud case involving over 74,000 victims; the multi-crore cryptocurrency hacking cases; the Hassan multi-sexual harassment case; the misappropriation of Rs 94 crore at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation; the Police Sub-Inspector Recruitment Scam; and the sexual harassment and extortion allegations against a sitting MLA, among others.

He was also awarded the Presidents Police Medal for Distinguished Service (2017), the Medal for Meritorious Service (2009), a National Award for e-Governance, and the IRTE Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for his contributions to road safety.

About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 11:35 IST
India Reminds Pakistan Of Wanted Terrorists List, Open To Talks On Their Handover

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:59 IST

Amid India's ongoing diplomatic efforts to expose Pakistan on the global stage, New Delhi said it remains open to discussing extradition of the wanted terrorists

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said seven delegations are taking India's message against Pakistan and its support of cross-border terrorism, to the global stage. (Image: PTI/File)

India has reminded Pakistan of a list of wanted terrorists it had earlier shared with Islamabad, stating that New Delhi remains open to discussing their extradition  a statement that coincides with its ongoing diplomatic efforts to expose Pakistan on the global stage.

The ministry of external affairs (MEA) said as far as terrorism goes, a list has been given to Pakistan and now it is only about when they extradite the terrorists on it.

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At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror dont go together. On terrorism itself, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a press briefing on Thursday.

#WATCH | Delhi: On President Donald Trump claiming credit for the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, "In my last briefing, I had addressed this issue. I have nothing further to add. You are well aware of our position that pic.twitter.com/37W690IFaK ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

On US President Donald Trump claiming credit for the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, Jaiswal said he has addressed this issue in his previous briefing and has nothing that to say other than that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral.

I would like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the Indus Waters Treaty, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As our Prime Minister has said, Water and blood cannot flow together,'" he said.

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On multi-party teams carrying out Indias diplomatic outreach against Pakistan, he said there are seven delegations, of which three have left for their destinations.

This is a political mission. We want to make a stronger outreach to the world to convey our resolve to fight terrorism. We want the world to come together to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We want to exhort the world to hold those responsible for cross-border terrorism accountable. Those have been practising it for the last 40 years against India, that is, Pakistan. Their actions need to be called out. They have to be held accountable for the terror attacks that they have carried out against India" he added.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:58 IST
India Seeks Full Exemption From 26% Reciprocal Tariffs In Interim Deal With US

Last Updated: May 21, 2025, 23:45 IST

India and the US may announce an interim trade agreement before July 8, with New Delhi seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff on domestic goods.

The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, but suspended it for 90 days till July 9.

India and the US may announce an interim trade agreement before July 8, with New Delhi seeking full exemption from the additional 26 per cent tariff on domestic goods, an official said.

The US on April 2 imposed an additional 26 per cent reciprocal tariff on Indian goods, but suspended it for 90 days till July 9. However, the 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by America remains in place.

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The government official said Indias endeavour to protect its sensitive sectors may entail some quota or minimum import price (MIP). Such sectors include agri goods and dairy.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was there in Washington earlier this week to give an impetus to the trade talks. He held meetings with US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

"Talks are moving positively. Before July 8, we are looking at concluding an interim deal before the first tranche. It will include goods, non-tariff barriers, some areas of services also like digital. We are trying that the 26 per cent additional duty and the 10 per cent baseline tariff should not be there for India," the official said, adding that India is seeking concessions for its labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and leather.

At present, the Trump administration requires approval from the US Congress to bring tariffs below the MFN (most favoured nation) rates.

But the administration has the authority to remove the reciprocal tariffs imposed on a number of countries, including India.

India may look at certain commitments from the US on the duty concessions for its labour-intensive sector in the first tranche of the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA). Both countries have fixed a deadline to conclude the first phase of the pact by fall (September-October) of this year to more than double bilateral trade to USD 500 billion by 2030.

The minister-level meetings were followed by the deliberations between chief negotiators of the two countries, which will continue until May 22.

Officials from New Delhi and Washington are looking to take advantage of the 90-day tariff pause window to advance the talks. The US has suspended the additional 26 per cent tariffs on India till July 9. It was announced on April 2 to bridge the widening trade deficit.

To boost bilateral trade, India is seeking duty concessions for labour-intensive sectors like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods, garments, plastics, chemicals, shrimp, oil seeds, chemicals, grapes, and bananas in the proposed pact with America.

On the other hand, the US wants duty concessions in sectors like certain industrial goods, automobiles (electric vehicles in particular), wines, petrochemical products, dairy, agriculture items such as apples, tree nuts and GM (genetically modified) crops.

While the import of GM crops from the US continues to remain a non-starter due to regulatory norms in India, New Delhi is open to import non-GM products like Alpha alpha hay (a kind of cattle feed).

The US has on multiple occasions raised concerns over certain non-tariff barriers being faced by American goods in the Indian markets.

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Whether another round of talks will happen on the proposed pact between the two countries, the official said, "We are trying to finalise things as early as possible." The US remained Indias largest trading partner for the fourth consecutive year in 2024-25, with bilateral trade valued at USD 131.84 billion. The US accounts for about 18 per cent of Indias total goods exports, 6.22 per cent in imports, and 10.73 per cent in the countrys total merchandise trade.

With America, India had a trade surplus (the difference between imports and exports) of USD 41.18 billion in goods in 2024-25. It was USD 35.32 billion in 2023-24, USD 27.7 billion in 2022-23, USD 32.85 billion in 2021-22 and USD 22.73 billion in 2020-21. The US has raised concerns over this widening trade deficit.

First Published: May 21, 2025, 23:45 IST
They Forgot Modi Is Here, I Have Sindoor In My Veins: PM Modi Warns Pakistan On Terrorism

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:33 IST

PM Modi hailed Operation Sindoor's success during his rally in Rajasthan and said that the valour of Indian armed forces brought Pakistan to its knees.

PM Modi's rally in Rajasthan (Photo: YouTube/ Narendra Modi)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday blasted Pakistan on the issue of terrorism and said that the neighbouring country can never win a straight war with India", which is why it uses terror as a weapon. In what can be seen as a warning for Pakistan, PM Modi said that he is standing for the country, and while his mind remains calm, his blood keeps boiling.

Making a reference to Operation Sindoor, in which India struck deep inside Pakistan to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan forgot that Modi is the servant of Mother India" and nothing but sindoor flows in his veins.

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Pakistan can never win in a direct fight with India. Hence, it uses terrorism as a weapon against India. This went on for decades after independence Pakistan spread terrorism, killed innocent people, and created an environment of terror.. But, Pakistan forgot one thing, now the servant of Mother India, Modi, is standing here with pride. Modi ka dimaag thanda hai lekin lahu garam hota hai. Modi ki nasson mein, lahu nahin, garam sindoor beh raha hai," PM Modi said at his first public meeting since the May 7 Operation Sindoor in Rajasthans Bikaner.

#WATCH | #OperationSindoor | Rajasthan | Addressing a public rally in Deshnoke, Bikaner, PM Modi says,  Modi ka dimaag thanda hai lekin lahu garam hota hai. Modi ki nasson mein, lahu nahin, garam sindoor beh raha hai"Pakistan can never win in a direct fight with India. pic.twitter.com/GLsArMBqP6  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

He further hailed the Indian Armed Forces for Operation Sindoors success and said that their valour brought Pakistan to its knees.

He said that the government gave the forces free hand to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed on April 22.

On April 22, terrorists removed the Sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters after asking about their religion. The bullets were fired in Pahalgam, but 140 crore Indians felt the pain. Every Indian had committed that terrorists will be given bigger punishment than their imagination. We fulfilled the resolve due to your blessings and the courage of our armed forces. Our government gave free hand to all three armed forces. The tri-services devised a strategy so impactful that Pakistan was forced to go down on its knees. When sindoor becomes an explosive, the result is for everyone to see," PM Modi said.

#WATCH | Rajasthan | Addressing a public rally in Deshnoke, Bikaner, PM Modi says,  On April 22, terrorists removed the Sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters after asking about their religion. The bullets were fired in Pahalgam, but 140 crore Indians felt the pain. Har pic.twitter.com/lmEgGcy8lV ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

PM Modi gave a stern message to Pakistan from a bordering state, stating that those who came to erase the sindoor of Indian women were ground into dust.

In retaliation for the April 22 attack, India destroyed nine of Pakistans major sites within 22 minutes. Duniya aur desh ke dushmanon ne dekh liya ki jab sindoor Barood ban jata hai to kya nateeja hota hai," he said.

#WATCH | Rajasthan | Addressing a public rally in Deshnoke, Bikaner, PM Modi says,  22 tareekh ke hamle ke jawab mein, humne 22 minutes mein aatankiyon ke 9 sabse bade thikane tabaah kar diye Duniya aur desh ke dushmanon ne dekh liya ki jab sindoor Barood ban jata hai to pic.twitter.com/Q1FSqGQ7jt ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

The Prime Minister reiterated his remark that he made in the address to the nation earlier this month, and said that India will not be scared of Pakistans nuclear threats.

India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. India destroyed nine terror targets deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, killing over 100 terrorists. Pakistan stepped on the escalation ladder and sent its drones and missiles into the Indian territory, targeted at the cities and military installations. Indias robust air defence systems took down almost all of the projectiles, protecting the lives of citizens.

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Indian armed forces then struck back with their projectiles inside Islamabad, Lahore, Sialkot, and other top cities of Pakistan, striking their targets.

After India struck Pakistans airbases, their DGMO reached out to the Indian counterpart on May 10, seeking ceasefire. Both nations reached an understanding" to halt the military action. However, PM Modi made it clear that Operation Sindoor was on a pause and was not over yet. The government said that any future terror attack on India will be seen as an Act of War" by Pakistan.

About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More

Location : Bikaner, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:30 IST
ISI's Delhi Terror Attack Plot Foiled In 3-Month-Long Operation, Spy Arrested

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:20 IST

Pakistani spy was identified as Ansarul Miya Ansari, who arrived in India via Nepal. His Indian associate, Akhlaque Azam, a Ranchi resident, was also arrested during the operation.

ISI Delhi terror attack plot foiled (PTI Image, used for representational purposes)

In a significant success against ISIs nefarious plans to carry out a terror attack in the national capital, the intelligence agencies unearthed and destroyed a dangerous spy network through a secret operation that lasted three months.

Two highly trained people, including Ansarul Miya Ansari, a Pakistani spy, were arrested during the covert operation. Ansari was given the job of providing sensitive information about the Indian armed forces to his handlers in Pakistan.

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The investigation also raises suspicion about some staffers of the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi. ISI officers Muzammil and Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, who had been trying to influence Indian YouTubers and social media influencers, were also believed to be involved in the plan.

How Was This Covert Operation Executed?

The operation began as the intelligence agencies received inputs in January that Pakistans ISI had dispatched its spy to gather sensitive Indian documents, pictures, and Google coordinates. He was tipped off to arrive in the national capital via the Nepal route.

The cops then received inputs that revealed a Pakistani plot to attack Delhi, for which classified information about the armed forces had to be fetched.

The intelligence officials couldnt make much progress in the case until mid-February. Ansari had already arrived in Delhi and collected sensitive military documents.

It was on February 15 when the spy was arrested in central Delhi, from whom sensitive documents were recovered while he was on his way back to Pakistan via the same route, i.e., through Nepal.

Sources told that the covert operation was a textbook example of expert spy work as the agency officials stayed ahead of the Pakistani operative at all times.

Sources further said that the Indian agencies were gathering information on the terror groups supported and sponsored by Pakistan and are active in India. The agencies suspected a larger plan to attack north-western India after grenade attacks took place outside police stations in Punjab by ISI-backed group Babbar Khalsa International (BKI).

Ranchi Man Arrested For Providing Support To ISI Spy

The agencies took proactive steps to thwart any planning by Pakistan to execute a terror attack in Delhi-NCR, and activated their sources, which led to the revelation of Ansaris travel plans to India.

After his arrest, Ansari was handed over to the police, who registered a case under the Official Secrets Act for possessing and attempting to pass on confidential documents about the Indian Armed Forces to his Pakistani handlers.

A Ranchi-based Indian citizen, identified as Akhlaque Azam, was also arrested in March for providing logistic support to the Pakistani spy. Both of them were in communication with their handlers in Pakistan.

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Both of them have been locked up in high-security wing of Tihar jail and the officials are keeping a special watch on them to ensure that they do not attempt to brainwash other prisoners.

An analysis of their mobile phones revealed suspicious conversations between the two arrested suspects and their Pakistani handlers, pointing to a larger plot. A few days ago, a chargesheet was filed in court against the duo, while the investigation continues to track down others who may be linked to the conspiracy.

About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:43 IST
Kerala Man Fatally Stabs Neighbour For Refusing To Accept Him As Son-In-Law

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:48 IST

Despite being stabbed in the stomach, Thaha fled to the second floor, but Rashid followed and stabbed him again, causing severe abdominal wounds with intestines exposed

Thaha sustained severe abdominal wounds, with his intestines protruding from four stab sites. (News18 Malayalam)

A tragic incident occurred in Thiruvananthapuram when a 67-year-old man was fatally stabbed by his neighbour at his home near the Government LP School in the districts Mangalapuram area. The Mangalapuram police have arrested Rashid, 31, in connection with the murder.

The violent altercation occurred around 2 pm on Wednesday. Rashid, armed with a knife, entered the elderly man, A Thahas house with the intention to kill. Although Thahas wife, Noor Jahan, attempted to intervene, Rashid pushed her aside and proceeded to stab Thaha. Despite being stabbed in the stomach, Thaha managed to flee to the second floor of the house, but Rashid pursued him and inflicted further injuries.

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Thaha sustained severe abdominal wounds, with his intestines protruding from four stab sites. Despite efforts by relatives and locals to rush him to a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, Thaha succumbed to his injuries at around 1 am.

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Following the attack, Rashid attempted to escape but was apprehended by local residents who handed him over to the Mangalapuram police. During interrogation, Rashid confessed that his motive was revenge because Thaha had refused to marry his daughter to him. Police said that Rashid had previously assaulted Thaha as well.

They further added that Thaha was due to embark on a Hajj pilgrimage with his wife on May 28.

Location : Thiruvananthapuram, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:48 IST
Mob Kills Royal Bengal Tiger In Assam, Animal's Body Missing Skin, Tail, Ears, Nails

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 19:30 IST

Officials said fearing it was a maneater, residents surrounded the adult male tiger and attacked it with spears and sharp weapons

The adult male tiger, which strayed from Kaziranga National Park, was found mutilated by forest department officials. (Image: News18)

Skin removed, ears and tail chopped off, nails and whiskers plucked out  this is how a mob killed a Royal Bengal tiger in Assams Golaghat district.

The adult male tiger, which strayed from the Kaziranga National Park, was found mutilated by forest department officials. They said some of its body parts seemed to have been taken away.

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The incident took place at Dumukhia village in Khumtai area, where the adult male tiger had taken refuge. Officials said the residents surrounded it and attacked it with spears and sharp weapons. The animal had attacked a few people in the last couple of days, they said.

The people considered the tiger to be a man-eater and so killed it. We retrieved the carcass and found that some body parts like a portion of skin, one leg and some meat are missing," an official said.

The villagers reportedly surrounded the tiger from different sides and then chased it before killing it. They used local weapons like machetes, sticks and rods to attack the tiger.

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On receiving information about the attack, a team of forest and police officials rushed to the spot. But the big cat had already been killed," the official said, adding that seeing the security personnel, everyone fled. A case has been registered by the forest department."

(With PTI inputs)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

Location : Golaghat, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 19:30 IST
One Soldier Killed, Two Injured In Ongoing Encounter With Terrorists In J&Ks Kishtwar

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 16:57 IST

Earlier reports had said that two terrorists were killed in this encounter. However, the report has still not been officially confirmed

Security personnel keeps vigil during a search operation in J&K's Kishtwar. (PTI photo)

A soldier was killed and two others were injured on Thursday in an ongoing gunfight between joint security forces and terrorists in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The soldier who lost his life has been identified as Sepoy Gaykar Sandip Pandurang. He was martyred during the encounter in the Singhpora Chatroo area of Kishtwar. He was a resident of Karandi village, Akole tehsil, in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, officials said.

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The injured soldiers have been taken to hospital. The encounter is still ongoing," the official confirmed.

During the ongoing operation, fierce gunfight is continuing.One of our #Bravehearts sustained grievous injuries in the exchange of fire and has succumbed despite best medical efforts.Operation is in progress@adgpi @NorthernComd_IA White Knight Corps (@Whiteknight_IA) May 22, 2025

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation (CASO) after receiving specific intelligence about the presence of three to four terrorists in the area.

The joint operation involves units from 2 Para, 11 Rashtriya Rifles, 7 Assam Rifles, and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police. The operation is targeting terrorists believed to be affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

Although earlier reports suggested that two terrorists had been killed, there has been no official confirmation so far.

The Indian Armys White Knight Corps, referring to the operation as Op Trashi," posted an update on social media platform X: Contact has been established with #terrorists during a joint #operation with @JmuKmrPolice at #Chhatru, #Kishtwar today morning. Additional troops have been inducted, and operations are ongoing to neutralize the terrorists."

Joint security forces have intensified operations across Jammu and Kashmir against terrorists, their overground workers (OGWs), and sympathisers.

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This increased action follows the 22 April incident, in which Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists targeted civilians in Baisaran meadow, Pahalgam  including 25 tourists and one local resident.

(With inputs from IANS)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

Location : Jammu and Kashmir, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:33 IST
'Pakistan Will Not Get India's Water': PM Modi Says No Power Can Change IWT Decision

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:09 IST

PM Modi said that Pakistan will not get India's water and the country and its army will have to pay for spilling Indian blood.

PM Modi says Pakistan won't get India's water (Photo: YouTube/ Narendra Modi)

Sending out a stringent message to Pakistan from the bordering state of Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that no power in the world can shake Indias resolution of punishing the neighbouring country for spilling Indian blood.

He also made it clear that the rogue nation will not get Indias water, while making reference to the Indus Waters Treaty, which India put in abeyance in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in April.

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On April 23, a day after the Pahalgam terror attack, PM Modi chaired the Cabinet Committee on Security meeting and decided to put the decades-long Indus Waters Treaty, which survived numerous wars and escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistans ministers and leaders threatened that the suspension of the treaty would be seen as an Act of War". Bilawal Bhutto even went on to say that either water will flow in the Indus or Indian blood will. However, India maintained that the treaty remains in abeyance even after May 10 understanding".

Unequivocally, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan will have to pay for every terror attack in India, both militarily and economically.

Pakistans army and economy will have to pay for every terror attack Pakistan will not get Indias water. They will have to pay for playing with Indias blood. This is Indias resolution and no power of the world can shake us from this resolution," PM Modi said at his first rally in Rajasthans Bikaner since the Pahalgam attack.

#WATCH | #OperationSindoor | Rajasthan | Addressing a public rally in Deshnoke, Bikaner, PM Modi says,  Pakistan will have to pay for playing with Indias blood. This is Indias resolution and no power of the world can shake us from this resolution"Pakistans army and pic.twitter.com/Vi3nxhF9cW  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

The Prime Minister also mentioned the destruction of Rahim Yar Khan air base in Punjab province of Pakistan, which was attacked by Indian armed forces in the retaliatory strikes during Operation Sindoor, and said that the air base is in the ICU.

Pakistans army and economy will have to pay for every terror attack Pakistan tried to attack Bikaners Nal Airport, but they could not cause any damage. Pakistans Rahim Yar Khan air base is just across the border; nobody knows when it will function again. It is in the ICU. Indian armys attack has destroyed it There will be neither trade nor talks with Pakistan. There will only be talks on PoK," PM Modi said.

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The Indian armed forces had avenged the Pahalgam attack by launching Operation Sindoor on May 7. India struck 9 terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and killed over 100 terrorists.

Pakistan reached out to India on May 10, seeking a ceasefire. Both countries reached an understanding" to halt military operations on the borders.

About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More

Location : Bikaner, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:50 IST
'Perpetrators Must Be Brought To Justice': EAM Jaishankar Condemns Jewish Museum Shooting

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:55 IST

Jaishankar condemned the killing of two Israeli diplomats outside Jewish Museum in Washington DC.

EAM S Jaishankar condemned the killing of two Israeli diplomats outside Jewish Museum in Washington DC. (PTI Image)

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar on Thursday strongly condemned the shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Waashington DC, in which two Israeli diplomats lost their lives.

Taking to X, Jaishankar wrote, Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice."

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Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC.Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. @gidonsaar  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 22, 2025

Meanwhile, the Israeli Embassy in India paid tribute to the victims and lowered the Israeli flag to express their sorrow on the incident.

In profound sorrow, we lower the flag today to remember Yaron and Sarah, victims of a brutal terrorist act in Washington D.C. May their memory be a blessing," the Embassy said in post on X.

In profound sorrow, we lower the flag today to remember Yaron and Sarah, victims of a brutal terrorist act in Washington D.C.May their memory be a blessing #NeverForget #EndTerrorNow pic.twitter.com/yduJ1KKtg6 Israel in India (@IsraelinIndia) May 22, 2025

Two Israeli Diplomats Killed

Two Israeli diplomats were shot and killed on Wednesday evening outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. Israels Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, in a post to X called the shooting a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism" and added that he is confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act".

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US President Donald Trump also responded to the incident and stated that hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said, These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:42 IST
'Pakistan Can Never Win A War Against India': PM Modi In Rajasthan | Updates

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:57 IST

PM Modi inaugurated the redeveloped Deshnok Railway Station under the 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme'.

PM Modi addressing a rally in Rajasthan. (Image: ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Rajasthans Bikaner district on Thursday and inaugurated the redeveloped Deshnok Railway Station under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. He laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 26,000 crore.

Ahead of the railway station inauguration, PM Modi visited the famous Karni Mata temple in Deshnoke and addressed a public gathering in Palana.

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Addressing a rally, the Prime Minister said, Today, I have come among you after seeking blessings from Karni Mata. By her grace, our resolution of creating Viksit Bharat becomes even stronger. Our countrys roads should be modern, our countrys airports should be modern, our railways and railway stations should be modernFor this, unprecedented work has been done at a rapid pace over the last 11 years."

In order to make India develop, huge efforts are going on to build modern infrastructure in the country. Vikas Bhi, Virasat Bhi  this mantra is being seen at the Amrit Bharat Railway S stations. Today, India modernising its train network; Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, Namo Bharat trains reflect new speed and progress," he added.

PM Modi Hails Operation Sindoor

In response to the April 22 attack, we destroyed the nine biggest hideouts of the terrorists in 22 minutes. The enemies of the world and the country have seen what happens when vermilion turns into gun powder," PM Modi said during the rally.

Not blood, but sindoor boils in my veins," PM Modi added as thousands of people chanted Modi Modi".

Ye shodh pratishodh ka khel nahin, ye nyay ka naya swaroop hai, ye Operation Sindoor hai. This is not just an agitation; this is the Raudra Roop of a strong India. Ye Bharat ka naya swaroop hai. Pehle ghar mein ghus ke kiya the vaar, ab seene pe kiya prahar hai. (First, we entered their house and attacked, now we have attacked them on their chests) This is the policy and the strategy to destroy the fangs of terrorism This is new India," PM Modi added.

Rajasthan CM On PM Modis Visit

Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Wednesday said that people in Bikaner are very excited about Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit. During the visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugrate over 100 redeveloped stations for the country and start many new schemes for the state.

After Operation Sindoor, there is enthusiasm among the people in this border district of Rajasthan. The Prime Minister will be inaugurating 104 stations for the country from here. Along with that, many schemes of Rajasthan will also be inaugurated here. He is coming to Rajasthan on his first visit after Operation Sindoor. We are fortunate. There is a lot of enthusiasm among the people," the Chief Minister added.

PM Modi Visits Karni Mata Temple In Bikaner

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Karni Mata Temple in Bikaner on Thursday. He prayed for the happiness, prosperity, health and well-being of the countrymen.

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He also shared some pictures of his visit on his X handle.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

Location : Rajasthan, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:06 IST
PM Modi's Bikaner Visit: All You Need To Know About Nal Airbase

Curated By :

moneycontrol.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:25 IST

PM Modi In Bikaner: Nal Airbase's geographical position makes it crucial for operations along the western border.

PM Modi . (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the Indian Air Forces Nal Airbase in Rajasthans Bikaner today. This marks his first visit to the state since Operation Sindoor and comes exactly one month after the terrorist attack in Kashmirs Pahalgam.

This comes after PM Modi visited the Adampur Airbase in Punjab where he interacted with air force personnel. The strategic visit directly refuted Pakistans false claims that its missiles had severely damaged the base and its S-400 air defense as pictures shared from PM Modis visit showed the S-400 system and MiG-29 jets in the background.

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What Is Nal Airbase?

The Nal Airbase is a strategically significant Indian Air Force (IAF) base located in Bikaner, Rajasthan. Situated in the western sector of India, its geographical position makes it crucial for operations along the western border. The base plays a vital role in Indias air defense strategy, providing a forward operating location for various fighter aircraft and serving as a key point for surveillance and reconnaissance missions in the region.

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Nal Airbase is home to several squadrons of the Indian Air Force, including frontline fighter jets like the Su-30MKI- known for their long-range capabilities and multi-role functions. The presence of such advanced aircraft underscores the bases importance in projecting air power and maintaining aerial superiority.

Beyond its operational role, the airbase also serves as a training ground for pilots and technical personnel, contributing to the overall readiness and modernization of the IAF. Nal Airbase occasionally hosts joint exercises with air forces from friendly nations, further enhancing interoperability and fostering international defense cooperation.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Location : Bikaner, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:25 IST
Rahul Gandhi Visits Delhi University, Officials Say He Didn't Inform

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 21:47 IST

Delhi University on Thursday objected to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's unannounced visit to its North Campus, calling it a breach of institutional protocol.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during a visit at the Delhi University's North Campus. (Screengrab/ PTI)

An uproar broke out over Congress leader Rahul Gandhis unannounced visit to Delhi University campus on Thursday, with the university objecting to the unannounced visit calling it a breach of institutional protocol and a disruption of student governance operations.

In a statement, the universitys proctor office said the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) office was cordoned off by security" for nearly an hour, and the students union secretary was denied entry to her own office.

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The DUSU office was cordoned off by security cover and no one was allowed to enter" it said, noting that the DUSU secretary was also barred from accessing her office. Some students were locked in the room of the secretary, DUSU, and were misbehaved with by NSUI students," it claimed.

It further said that the Lok Sabha LoP visited the University campus without any intimation for a second time.

Shri Rahul Gandhi has done this for the second time coming to the university without any intimation and information to University of Delhi," the proctors office said in an official release. In 2023, Gandhi had visited PG Mens hostel mess and was issued a formal notice for making an unauthorised" visit.

It also alleged that some students were locked inside the DUSU secretarys room, and members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) misbehaved with them.

DUSU Secretary Mitravinda Karanwal, alingned with ABVP, alleged that she and her team were prevented from entering the student bodys office due to VVIP protocol". Only after a lengthy negotiation was I graciously allowed entry  alone. I refused to leave the students behind," she said as quoted by news agency PTI.

The university condemned Gandhis visit and said it hoped that such a thing would not happen again.

The university condemns such action and hopes that this does not happen in future," the release said.

Strict action will be taken against students who were involved in this," it added.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi interacted with students from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) at the DUs North Campus, focusing on issues of representation, equality and academic justice.

The session was held at the office of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president.

ABVP Condemns Gandhis Visit

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which holds several posts in the DUSU, also issued a statement criticising Gandhis visit.

It said the Congress leaders visit was a photo-op rather than a genuine outreach and claimed that its representatives were sidelined during the event.

The ABVP termed the event bad theatre".

Rahul Gandhi visiting DU is like a rejected actor crashing a student play.No role, no invite, just loud entry and bad reviews. #DU pic.twitter.com/ydEEAVDjNS  ABVP (@ABVPVoice) May 22, 2025

Turning up uninvited, silencing elected voices and treating a student union office like a private drawing room is not leadership  its theatre. Rahul Gandhi visiting DU is like a rejected actor crashing a student play  no role, no invite, just loud entry and bad reviews," it said.

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The ABVP further accused Gandhi of engaging with only select NSUI members in what it called an echo chamber" instead of holding an open dialogue.

(With inputs from PTI)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 21:47 IST
Ranya Rao Gold Smuggling Case: Under ED Lens, Karnataka Minister Says 'Will Abide By Law'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:04 IST

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara is under ED scrutiny for his trust's alleged links to Kannada actor Ranya Rao's gold smuggling case.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara (L)/Kannada film actor Ranya Rao (R) (Photos: PTI/Social Media)

As Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara remains under Enforcement Directorate lens for his trusts alleged links to Kannada film actor Ranya Raos gold smuggling case, the former refused to comment on probe agencys actions.

Refusing to comment on the same he said he would abide by the law and that his trust will co-operate with the ED proceedings.

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He said, The ED visited our offices. They questioned the accounts officer as well. I shall always abide by the law. I have asked my officers at the trust to co-operate. This is not just the question of one individual, this is an Institution."

I refuse to comment on this, let the full investigation report come out," he added while referring to case against Ranya Rao.

Upon being asked whether he is being targeted, he said," I shall not comment on any of this at point in time, let us wait for the investigation to take place."

DK Shivakumar Backs Parameshwara Amid ED Raids

Meanwhile, extending support to Parameshwara amid ED raids, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said that Parameshwaras institution gave money to Ranya Rao as a gift while referring to a marriage event.

Shivakumar said, " I just spoke to Parameshwara. He run an institution, there was a marriage, and as a gift to people we give sometimes 10,000, 5 or 10 lakh. Whatever she has done that is wrong and law will take its own course. As far as Parameshwara is concerned, I spoke to him and it was gift."

upon being asked about the Ramanagara renaming row, he said the state cabinet will decide today. I will brief later. But the BJP just wants to do politics," he added.

On Wednesday, the ED conducted raided a medical college and an educational institute in Tumakuru, linked to Parameshwara, in connection with the money laundering case.

The searches by the probe agency were carried out at the Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology and the Sri Siddhartha Medical College.

The Congress party has strongly condemned the raids conducted at institutions linked to Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, calling them politically motivated. The party has demanded an end to what it describes as selective targeting and harassment of opposition figures holding constitutional positions.

Gold Smuggling Case: Ranya Rao Granted Bail On May 20

On May 20, Ranya Rao and co-accused Tarun Kondaru Raju were granted bail by a Special Court for Economic Offences in connection with the gold smuggling case.

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The court approved their default bail applications after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) failed to file a charge sheet within the stipulated period.

Rao was arrested on March 3 at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru after arriving from Dubai.

About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 13:55 IST
Sky Wars: How India, Israel, And The US Are Reinventing Air Defence

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:22 IST

Air defence is now essential, not optional. Indias Raksha Kavach joins Iron Dome and Golden Dome in reshaping how nations defend against aerial threats

Timely identification provides air defence missiles with the critical seconds needed to intercept them. (Representative/PTI)

The world has come to recognise that air defence systems are no longer optional but essential in modern warfare. Conflicts like the ongoing war in Gaza have underscored the need for robust aerial defence, with Israels Iron Dome proving highly effective in intercepting missile and rocket attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

India, too, has made significant strides in this domain. During Operation Sindoor, the Indian armed forces effectively neutralised aerial threats from Pakistan using its Akashteer system. A defining moment came on the night of May 910, when Pakistan launched a massive aerial offensive targeting military and civilian areas. Dubbed the sharp edge of Indias air shield, Akashteer swiftly tracked and neutralised every incoming threat, thanks to its seamless integration with the countrys Integrated Air Command and Control System.

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India is also in the final stages of developing another layer of air defence, Raksha Kavach, to further bolster its security shield.

What Is Raksha Kavach?

Developed by DRDO using indigenous equipment, Raksha Kavach is structured around two key componentssurveillance and neutralisationby integrating a range of homegrown systems.

The surveillance segment includes early warning systems, surveillance drones, satellites, and long-range ground-based radars to detect and track any incoming aerial threats. The second component focuses on neutralisation and features a combination of hard-kill and soft-kill technologies. This includes surface-to-air missiles, artillery guns, laser-based systems, and electronic warfare capabilities designed to intercept and eliminate hostile targets.

How Will The Defence Shield Work?

The most critical aspect of countering an aerial attack is early detectionidentifying how far the threat is and from which direction it is approaching. All surveillance data is sent to a central control centre, where it is processed to initiate an appropriate response.

To counter high-speed drone attacks, the system uses both soft-kill and hard-kill measures. In a soft kill, high-power microwaves are directed toward the incoming threat to disrupt its electronics and slow it down. If the threat persists, it is engaged with the Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) system. Similarly, the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) can also be deployed to intercept the target, while laser beam technology offers another option for neutralisation.

Early detection is key, especially against supersonic and hypersonic threats. Timely identification provides air defence missiles with the critical seconds needed to intercept them. Defence experts shared that while all hardware systems are ready, work is currently underway on software integration. DRDO is expected to showcase the complete Raksha Kavach system soon.

US Concerns About Aerial Attacks

The threat of aerial attacks is now a growing concern for the United States as well. In a joint address to the US Congress, President Donald Trump announced plans for a Golden Dome air defence shield, inspired by Israels Iron Dome system.

Trump had stated that, like Israel, the US should have its own advanced air defence system. The Golden Dome project has now officially been announced. Speaking to reporters, Trump said that once completed, the Golden Dome would be capable of intercepting missiles launched from anywhere in the worldeven from space.

What Is The Golden Dome Program

The Golden Dome will be a next-generation air defence system, designed to detect and intercept threats with advanced technology. Equipped with long-range radars and satellites, the system will identify incoming projectiles, track their trajectory, and engage them mid-air using interceptor missiles.

Trump stated that the design phase of the project has been completed and expressed confidence in finishing the programme within four years. The estimated cost of the entire project is around $174 billion.

How Does Israels Iron Dome Work?

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During conflicts, Hamas launched more rockets than the Iron Dome was designed to handle, aiming to overwhelm the system. Despite this, the Iron Dome successfully intercepted most of the incoming projectiles. Hamas also timed its glider attacks to coincide with the missile barrage, knowing the systems radars would be focused on tracking high-speed threats.

The Iron Dome is specifically designed to intercept fast-moving rockets and missiles. It uses advanced tracking to monitor the speed and trajectory of incoming threats, prioritising only those projected to land in populated areas. When faced with both high-speed missiles and slow, low-flying objects, the system is programmed to engage the more immediate missile threat first.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:22 IST
Struck Terrorists, Then Informed: MEA Clarifies Jaishankars Warned Pakistan Remark Amid Row

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:13 IST

A political tussle broke between the BJP and Congress after Rahul Gandhi posed questions at Jaishankar claiming that he had informed Pakistan at the start of Operation Sindoor.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jasiwal briefed the press on India's current relations with Turkiye and China. (Image: PTI)

Amid the political tussle between the Congress and the BJP over the formers claim that EAM DR S Jaishankar had informed Pakistan at the start of Operation Sindoor, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday once again clarified that Islamabad was informed about the retaliatory strikes after they were carried out in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

We told Pakistan through the DGMO that we had exercised our right to respond under Operation Sindoor, so we told them (about the attack) after the incident," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while addressing a press briefing.

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#WATCH | Delhi: MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal says, We told Pakistan through the DGMO that we had exercised our right to respond under Operation Sindoor, so we told them (about the attack) after the incident." pic.twitter.com/8ZFvFZOK8q ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

Whats The Row?

A political tussle broke between the BJP and Congress after Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi posed questions at External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar claiming that he had informed Pakistan at the start of Operation Sindoor.

The Lok Sabha LoP on Saturday shared an undated video of EAM Jaishankar in which he was heard saying that at the start of Operation Sindoor, a message was sent to Pakistan that only terror bases were being struck.

At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying we are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military. So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice," Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video.

While sharing the video, Gandhi wrote, Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI (government of India) did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result."

On Monday, Gandhi launched a fresh attack on EAM saying his silence on the number of aircraft India lost" after Pakistan was informed" about the military action under Operation Sindoor is damning".

Centres Stand

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had earlier said that a statement on the timing of Pakistan being informed was being falsely represented.

We had warned Pakistan at the start, which is clearly the early phase after Operation Sindoors commencement. This is being falsely represented as being before the commencement. This utter misrepresentation of facts is being called out," the MEA had said.

Operation Sindoor

India launched precision strikes" under Operation Sindoor on nine terror targets in Pakistan and PoK following the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. The strikes killed at least 10 family members of JeM chief Masood Azhar and four close aides.

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The sites targeted were the Pakistani bases at Rafiqui (Shorkot, Jhang), Murid (Chakwal), Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi) Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Chunian (Kasur). In the strikes, the air bases in Skardu, Bholari, Jacobabad and Sargodha suffered extensive damage.

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:13 IST
'Together We Are Team India': Op Sindoor Delegation In UAE, Says Every Indian Is An Envoy

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 00:06 IST

Members of the Indian community in Abu Dhabi asked multiple questions to the delegates, including on why Pakistan continues to support cross-border terrorism

The diaspora event was held at the Indian consulate in Abu Dhabi and the visiting delegation were asked multiple questions. (Image: News18)

The Operation Sindoor delegation visiting Abu Dhabi told the Indian diaspora that besides the strikes on Pakistan and all-party teams, every citizen is an ambassador for the country and their effort to set narrative equally powerful and much needed.

Together we are Team India," the visiting team led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde told the Indian diaspora in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

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The diaspora event was held at the Indian consulate in Abu Dhabi and, apart from listening to the message by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the aim of Operation Sindoor and Indias global mission, the visiting delegation were asked multiple questions.

Indians asked multiple questions to the delegates, including on why Pakistan continues to support cross-border terrorism.

The delegation conveyed to Indian citizens in UAE that it has been a month since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam. Nothing is the same anymore because this is an India which has hit back at Pakistan in the language that they understand. This is the new India, the new normal that Prime Minister Modi has spoken about that can get inside Pakistan territory and destroy the terror hubs. This is the new normal  an act of terror is considered act of war. This is what has been conveyed," a source told News18.

Indian citizens further asked the delegates about UAEs feedback on the mission. According to the sources, UAE wants to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with India and told New Delhi it is not alone in its fight against terrorism. The response was positive and nobody questioned Indias action against Pakistan, they said.

Earlier in the day, the delegation met with Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan, minister for tolerance and coexistence. Islam is a peaceful religion. Nobody can use religion as a tool to kill innocent people. The UAE expressed that they stand strongly in Indias fight against terror," a source told News18.

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The delegation left from India on a two-day visit to the UAE on Wednesday (May 22). From UAE, they will visit Africa and return June 3.

Shrikant Shinde is leading the team, which comprises Bansuri Swaraj from the BJP along with advocate Manan Mishra, former external affairs minister SS Ahluwalia, BJPs Ghaziabad MP Atul Garg, and IUML leader ET Mohammed Bashir. The delegation also has former ambassador Sujoy Chinoy.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 23:58 IST
Unlikely To See Another Delta-Like Covid Wave Ever, No Need To Panic Over Fresh Surge: Ex-CSIR Chief

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 10:23 IST

Dr Shekhar Mande said hospitalisations and severe symptoms are very unlikely at this stage as the population has developed immunity to the virus

Dr Shekhar Mande said based on the latest observations, there's no reason to panic. (Image source: niscair.res.in)

Its unlikely that the world will ever see Covid-19 raging and causing deaths like it did before, prominent biologist Dr Shekhar Mande has told News18.

After a period of relative calm, Covid-19 infections are once again surging in several Asian regions, including Hong Kong and Singapore, raising alarms about a resurgence of the virus. However, so far, India has remained largely unaffected, with the Union Health Ministry maintaining that the situation is under control.

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According to Singapores health ministry, the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the country has been caused by the LF.7 and NB.1.8 variantssub lineages of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, they are descendants of the JN.1 variant, which itself is a sub lineage of Omicron BA.2.86.

Omicron was not a deadly strain, and India has already experienced a wave caused by it. There is no need to worry on the medical front. A large part of the population is already double vaccinated," Mande, who is former secretary, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, said.

Many people have also been exposed to variants that can escape vaccine protection, yet they have recovered. In my opinion, there is no reason to panic," he said, adding, its highly unlikely that these strains will cause any kind of damage similar to what we have seen during the Delta wave."

During the Omicron wave, Mande recalled that India did not see a surge in hospitalisations. We dont expect one now with the new strains either. Certain mutations have occurred in JN.1, but its still unclear whether they have increased its infectivity. So far, its spread has not resulted in a rise in hospitalisations or deaths. Hence, based on the latest observations, theres no reason to panic."

Mande, who is also a former Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), believes that India should ramp up its genomic sequencing of viruses in circulation. There is a strong case for active surveillance of new variants. Even the WHO would want to know if a Variant of Concern (VOC) is emerging."

Generally, the sequencing is done from random samples taken from Covid-19 positive patients admitted to hospitals.

Current status of Covid-19

According to government data, India had 257 active Covid-19 cases nationwide as of May 19. Kerala leads with 69 cases, followed by Maharashtra (44) and Tamil Nadu (34). Other states, including Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Sikkim, have also reported fresh infections.

However, according to Mande, the states reporting higher number of cases does not necessarily mean that they have more cases. It just shows that their surveillance mechanisms are well-oiled."

Kerala has always had strong surveillance. Even during the Delta wave, it was among the first to report cases."

However, he said, many cases across the country go unreported. People often dont come forward for testing, as symptoms tend to subside within a few days. Because of this, the average person may not consider testing necessary."

When asked if people should go for Covid-19 testing once again, he replied, if desirable. Get tested if needed but testing decisions should ideally be made with a doctors guidance."

Not much evidence on booster shots

Regardless of the vaccine typeModerna, Pfizer, inactivated vaccines like Covaxin, or adenovirus-based Covishield vaccinewe currently do not have sufficient data on whether boosters are helpful, or whether immunity has waned to the point that boosters are needed," he said.

While some attempts have been made to gather this data, there is no conclusive evidence yet. So, the final word on boosters is still pending."

On being asked if humans are at risk of acquiring Covid-19 infections once again due to weakening immunity, Mande explained that currently, it is not well-characterised whether our cell-based (T-cell) immunity has declined significantly or not". A significant decline in immunity is unlikely. T-cell immunity doesnt wane that quickly."

Can Covid-19 become lethal, once again?

Most likely, no.

In 2020, when we first encountered this virus, Mande said, our bodies had no prior exposure and reacted strongly, leading to complications. Now, after being exposed to multiple variants, our population has developed a better immune response. Its highly unlikely that our bodies would now hyper-react".

As a result, he said, hospitalisations and severe symptoms are very unlikely at this stage."

He further added In general, with most viruses, the first infection tends to be more severe. Over time, infections usually become milder. This pattern has been seen with influenza as well."

However, new strains can always emerge. For example, SARS-CoV-1 was mostly seen in eastern countries and didnt affect India much. With SARS-CoV-2, we might continue to see mutations and periodic outbreaks of milder variants  similar to how new flu strains appear during the rainy season."

But its unlikely that they will cause the kind of damage we saw during the Delta or first wave."

What should public do?

What we have learned from science is that this virus is airborne," he said, explaining that as we speak or cough, we release aerosolstiny particles, 5 to 10 microns in sizethat can trap the virus and float in the air. Others can inhale them and get infected."

People with symptoms should avoid mingling with others to prevent spreading the virus. Also, ventilation plays a very important role.

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In densely populated areas, if everyone wears a mask, it can significantly reduce the chances of transmission during inhaling and exhaling."

Hence, he advices to wear masks, especially in crowded areas. Also avoid gatherings, if symptomatic and stay home if sick, to avoid infecting others."

About the Author Himani Chandna Himani Chandna, Associate Editor at CNN News18, specialises in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. With firsthand insights into India's COVID-19 battle, she brings a seasoned perspective. She is particularly pass... Read More Himani Chandna, Associate Editor at CNN News18, specialises in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. With firsthand insights into India's COVID-19 battle, she brings a seasoned perspective. She is particularly pass... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 10:19 IST
Varanasi Man Arrested For Allegedly Spying For Pakistan, Sharing Sensitive Information

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:31 IST

UP ATS arrested Tufail in Varanasi for allegedly spying for Pakistan, sharing sensitive info and photos of strategic locations. He was in contact with 600 Pakistanis.

Tufail is believed to have been in touch with nearly 600 Pakistanis.

In a major anti-terror operation, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (UP ATS) arrested a man from Varanasi who was allegedly spying for Pakistan. The accused, identified as Tufail, was reportedly sending sensitive and confidential information about India to Pakistan.

A resident of Varanasi, Tufail is learnt to have been in touch with several Pakistani nationals and sharing intelligence that could compromise national security.

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During probe, it came to light that Tufail was allegedly sharing photos of strategic locations, including Rajghat, Namo Ghat, Gyanvapi, the railway station, and even Red Fort, with Pakistani nationals.

Further, he was active in some WhatsApp groups where he used to share videos of Tehreek-e-Labbaik leader Maulana Saad Rizvi, a known extremist figure.

The officials found that he also spread provocative messages, calling for revenge over Babri Masjid and promoting the imposition of Sharia law.

The alleged spy is said to have been involved in circulating WhatsApp group links in Varanasi that served as a link between locals and Pakistani networks.

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He was also in contact with a Pakistani woman named Nafisa, whose husband reportedly serves in the Pakistani Army. Tufail is believed to have been in touch with nearly 600 Pakistanis.

The UP ATS is currently investigating the full extent of Tufails activities and network. This development highlights growing concerns over digital espionage and radical propaganda being spread via social media platforms. More details are awaited.

About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More

Location : Varanasi, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:24 IST
Wed Like To Discuss With Them When They Will Vacate: Jaishankar On Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:09 IST

Asserting that no country negotiates its own land, EAM Jaishankar said the only conversation India is willing to have with Pakistan is on vacating Pakistan-occupied Kashmir

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar (File image/Reuters)

In a sharp message to Islamabad and its backers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reiterated Indias position on terrorism, Kashmir, and bilateral ties with Pakistan during an interview with NOS News in the Netherlands.

Kashmir is part of India. No country negotiates a part of its own territory," Jaishankar asserted firmly when asked about the possibility of talks. One area is under Pakistan  we would like to discuss with them when they will vacate it," he added, underscoring Indias long-standing position that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is illegally held territory.

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The External Affairs Minister said New Delhi has had a long history of difficult relations" with Pakistan, dating back to the time of Independence. They sent proxies and claimed these were not theirs  but later it turned out they were military personnel," he said, referring to the 1947 invasion of Kashmir.

He also accused Pakistan of advancing a radical religious agenda" as a tool to keep tensions alive. They have pursued it as a way of pressurising us," Jaishankar noted.

While reiterating that India is open to dialogue, he made it clear that talks must be bilateral and focused on ending terrorism. We are open to discuss with them  but it has got to be a serious talk," he said. They need to discuss with us."

Ceasefire Was Directly Negotiated Between India and Pakistan

Jaishankar also addressed recent claims made by Donald Trump regarding his supposed role in brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor. The operation, carried out between May 7 and 10, saw Indian forces retaliate decisively after Pakistan launched ballistic missiles into Indian territory  all of which were intercepted before impact.

Responding to Trumps comments, Jaishankar was categorical: The ceasefire was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan." He said India had made it clear to all countries, including the United States, that if Pakistan wanted a ceasefire, they would have to communicate that to India, not through third parties.

Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other, a hotline. On 10th May, the Pakistan Army sent a message that they are ready to stop firing," he said. When asked where the US stood in the process, Jaishankar quipped, The US was in the United States."

The External Affairs Minister added that many countries had reached out during the 4-day escalation. JD Vance spoke to PM Modi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to me but we told everyone, including the US, that if Pakistan wanted to stop firing, they had to speak to us directly," he said.

India-Pakistan Understanding

India and Pakistan agreed to halt the military operations along the Line of Control and the International Border after the Pakistani DGMO reached out to his Indian counterpart, seeking a ceasefire on May 10.

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The sudden development came after intense retaliation by the Indian armed forces, which struck several Pakistani airbases the night before, giving the enemy a bloody nose. Indias decisive response came after Pakistan fired a number of ballistic missiles into Indian territory  all of which were intercepted and destroyed midair before they could hit their targets.

Jaishankars comments  made on Dutch soil  carry added weight given the Netherlands position as the second-largest arms supplier to Pakistan. At a time when New Delhi has emerged as a key strategic partner for Europe, the EAMs blunt messaging serves as a reminder of Indias red lines  on both terrorism and territorial integrity.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:09 IST
Who Is Jason Miller, Trump Insider Who Sided With India Over Pakistan?

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 20:57 IST

Jason Miller had communicated developments related to India-Pakistan tensions to US officials and played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse within the US.

India roped in Jason Miller as an informal liaison to convey its narrative within the US political landscape.

For the past month, simmering tensions between India and Pakistan have dominated international headlines, rekindling diplomatic anxieties and forcing countries around the world to clarify their stances on terrorism.

What followed the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 was a period of heightened hostility and political maneuvering, drawing in global powers from the United States to China.

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During this turbulent phase, as India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam attack, a surprising figure emerged at the centre of the diplomatic efforts unfolding in the US  Jason Miller, a longtime adviser to US President Donald Trump.

While the world closely watched developments in South Asia, sources revealed that someone within the US political establishment was regularly briefing Trump on Indias position and its unfolding counterterrorism strategy. That person was Jason Miller.

Who Is Jason Miller?

A seasoned political strategist, Jason Miller served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump during the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns and played a prominent role in Trumps 2024 re-election bid, particularly focusing on Florida, a crucial swing state.

Beyond election campaign strategy, Miller is also known as the CEO of GETTR, a conservative social media platform launched as an alternative to Twitter. Although GETTR garnered attention upon its release, it eventually found itself eclipsed by Trumps own social media venture, Truth Social. Nonetheless, Miller has remained a trusted figure within Trumps political orbit and continues to play a key advisory role.

Jason Millers Role Post Operation Sindoor

In the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, India and Pakistan sought to reinforce their positions by engaging with influential international allies. In an unexpected yet significant move, India roped in Jason Miller as an informal liaison to convey its narrative within the US political landscape.

According to sources familiar with the developments, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in India kept Miller closely briefed on the evolving situation, sharing details about the operation and Indias strategic response. Acting as a de facto envoy, Miller communicated these developments to US officials and played a pivotal role in shaping the discourse within the US.

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His efforts bore tangible results. Over 100 members of the US Congress reportedly expressed support for India in the wake of the Pahalgam attack, marking a significant diplomatic win for the country. Miller is credited with lending strategic and diplomatic heft to Indias position, ensuring it was heard not just in the corridors of power, but also across the American media and political landscape.

While official diplomatic channels remained active, Millers unique position as a trusted Trump adviser allowed him to influence conversations at the highest levels, particularly with Trump himself.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 20:57 IST
Karan Johar Celebrating The Spirit of Cannes In 6 Iconic Styles

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 22:42 IST

Celebrity stylist, Eka Lakhani decodes the tailored styles Karan Johar wore at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.

(L-R) Karan Johar in designs by Helen Anthony, Manish Malhotra and Rohit Bal.

The King of Cannes or should we say Kannnes, Karan Johar owned the mecca of cinema red carpet, the 78th Cannes Film Festival for two reasons  one because Homebound was selected in the Un Certain Regard category and two, his Cannes fashion moments were one of the best moodboards envisioned for menswear this year.

From the salmon pink Crestelli suit, Manish Malhotras Indian royalty meets Bridgerton couture look to Rohit Bals quiet luxury jacket to Helen Anthonys canvassed suit, Karan Johars style quotient was a perfect blend of Indian and western craftsmanship. Costume designer and celebrity stylist Eka Lakhani and filmmaker Karan Johar together created history in Cannes on and off the red carpet.

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Eka Lakhani shares with News18, 6 showstopper looks styled on Karan Johar at the 78th Cannes Film Festival:

Look 1: Crestelli Salmon Pink Suit

Karan Johars first look in Cannes featured a label Crestelli suit crafted from a luxurious wool-silk blend. The ensemble captured a burst of energy and optimism, while still keeping Karans style quotient elevated and refined. To complement the tailored suit, Eka Lakhani chose the colour salmon pink for its fresh, vibrant tone. It complemented the spirit of Cannes beautifully," adds Eka.

Look 2: Valentino Kimono-Style Jacket

What drew Eka to this Valentino kimono-style jacket was the Indian-inspired motifs that added a subtle nod to Cannes. The jacket was worn open and the belt was smartly styled as a scarf. According to Eka, the idea came from Karan himself. The look was paired with navy blue trousers and a cross-lapel shirt.

Look 3: Manish Malhotra Couture

For this first red carpet appearance, Karan Johar wore a custom Manish Malhotra ensemble featuring a cropped sherwani in zardozi threadwork, brocade collar, and frilled cuffs, layered over a Renaissance inspired shirt. Manish shared this stunning design with us, and Karan instantly loved the statement button brooches. What elevated it further was Karans own twist, opting for a ruffled shirt instead of the usual," says Eka Lakhani. The embroidery on the bandhgala took 1200 hours and 12 master karigars to complete. For Eka, this look was Indian royalty meets Bridgerton. Truly iconic!

Look 4: Falguni Shane Peacock Black and White Suit

A night in Croisette was celebrated in a classic Falguni Shane Peacock black and white suit but with a twist. The sharp white panels break the black jacket in an interesting way. Thus making this look graphic, playful and fun. Eka finished the look with a gold Schiaparelli brooch, which brought a bold contrast to the art deco-inspired silhouette.

Look 5: Rohit Bal Silk Velvet Jacket With Roses

Blooming at Cannes was how Karan Johar described the exquisite Rohit Bal rich silk velvet jacket featuring myriad embroidered rose motifs in shades of soft pink and red. Completed over 410 hours with silk threads and metallic sequins, the handcrafted blooms are a statement in quiet luxury.

Look 6: Helen Anthony Suit

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Handmade in Savile Row London, Karan Johars Helen Anthony full canvassed suit took up to 100 hours to create. This exquisite suit by Helen Anthony is a true statement of British luxury and artisanal excellence. Crafted from premium British velvet in collaboration with the world-renowned fabric mill Scabal, the piece represents true British heritage and craftsmanship," adds Eka Lakhani.

About the Author Akshata Shetty Completing almost two decades in journalism, Akshata Shetty's journey from print to online journalism is a celebration of fashion, art and music. Akshatas fashion stories are about the people who celebrate the... Read More Completing almost two decades in journalism, Akshata Shetty's journey from print to online journalism is a celebration of fashion, art and music. Akshatas fashion stories are about the people who celebrate the... Read More

fashion, travel, The News18 Lifestyle section brings you the latest on health food , and culture  with wellness tips, celebrity style, travel inspiration, and recipes. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

First Published: May 22, 2025, 13:52 IST
Top 5 Art Exhibitions to Visit in Mumbai This June 2025

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 23:16 IST

These exhibitions not only showcase the depth and diversity of contemporary art in India but also invite viewers to engage, reflect, and discover new perspectives

Must-See Art Shows in Mumbai This June: 5 Unmissable Exhibitions

Mumbais art scene is buzzing with energy this June, offering a rich tapestry of experiences for art lovers and curious minds alike. As the city continues to establish itself as a cultural powerhouse, its galleries and creative spaces are curating exhibitions that reflect both Indias vibrant artistic heritage and its bold, contemporary pulse. From thought-provoking installations to cutting-edge digital art and masterful canvases that span genres and generations, theres something for every aesthetic appetite. Whether youre a seasoned collector or simply someone who enjoys a good visual story, these five must-see art exhibitions promise to ignite inspiration, spark conversation, and reaffirm why Mumbai remains at the heart of Indias creative renaissance.

Manoj Jain  It Didnt Ask to Be Art

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Artist Manoj Jain is set to debut his first solo art exhibition, It Didnt Ask to Be Art, with a preview from 5 to 10 p.m. on 31st May at Soho House, Juhu. Curated by Dheeya Soumaiya, the exhibition will open to the public on June 1st from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., showcasing a closer look into a collection that speaks more to emotional truth than aesthetic intention. The art pieces are in line with Art Brut, a term coined by French artist Jean Dubuffet, which translates into raw art". It aims to present authenticity, originality, and creation that is not defined by societal norms or artistic rules. It Didnt Ask to Be Art showcases necessity over ambition. It presents a deeply spiritual journey  a process of confronting and releasing inner chaos, evolving from darkness into clarity. More than born out of a purpose to be hung on exhibition walls, the creations are the artists moments of vulnerability, movement, and quiet transformation. They are not finished products, but a living art of metamorphosis.

Venue: Soho House, Juhu

Shikh Sabbir Alam  Bon-Manush

Shikh Sabbir Alams Bon-Manush, his first solo exhibition in India and at the gallery, is currently on view at Experimenter Colaba, Mumbai, from May 8th to June 21st, 2025. A deeply contemplative series of paintings, the exhibition serves as a meditation on the fragile and often paradoxical relationship between humans and the natural world. Drawing from the philosophical concept of Bon-Manushthe forest manAlam examines the universal life force that binds all living beings, delving into the dualities that nature presents: serenity and savagery, growth and decay, wonder and fear. His artworks are rich in symbolism and emotion, inviting viewers to reassess their perceptions of nature not as a passive backdrop, but as a living, breathing presence intertwined with human existence. Bon-Manush is not just a visual experience, but a lyrical inquiry into the essence of life and our place within its vast, untamed rhythms.

Venue: Experimenter, Colaba

Anirban Mitra  I Dissect Therefore I Am

Anirban Mitras I Dissect Therefore I Am, on view from May 8th to June 7th, 2025, as part of Art Night Thursday, is an evocative exploration of fragmented identities and layered histories. His artworks unfold like illuminated scrollsdense, nonlinear, and teeming with references that span popular culture, mythology, anatomical studies, regional science fairs, and colonial narratives. With no single focal point, each canvas invites viewers to wander through a maze of imagery that challenges passive viewing. Mitra reimagines the human body not through flesh and bone, but through electrical fittings and circuitry, rendered in vibrant neon shades reminiscent of advertising and urban signage. This anatomical language becomes a metaphor for the mechanized, commodified body in postcolonial society. Like a visual surgeon, Mitra dissects and reconstructs cultural symbols, posing incisive questions about our consumerist tendencies and the ghosts of empire that still linger in contemporary life. Bold, intricate, and deeply thought-provoking, I Dissect Therefore I Am is a powerful testament to Mitras unique voice in Indias contemporary art landscape.

Venue: Sakshi Gallery, Colaba

Dheeraj Jadhav  Inheritance of a Feeling

Inheritance of a Feeling by Mumbai-based artist Dheeraj Jadhav is a deeply introspective exhibition that navigates the intimate terrain of memory, emotion, and cultural lineage. On view from May 16th to June 15th, 2025, the show presents a compelling series of monochromatic inkblot works that blur the line between the personal and the collective. Drawing inspiration from ancestral symbols and Banjara folklore, Jadhav constructs a visual language that is both abstract and evocative. His inkblotsfluid, asymmetrical, and richly texturedfunction as emotional Rorschach tests, inviting viewers to reflect on their own inner landscapes. The absence of symmetry in these works speaks to the organic, often unpredictable nature of memory and identity. In a striking departure from the predominantly black-and-white palette, one coloured work emerges as a quiet moment of transformation, symbolising emotional evolution or a shift in consciousness. Through this meditative collection, Jadhav offers not only an artistic exploration, but also a space for viewers to inherit, confront, and interpret the feelings that shape us across generations.

Venue: Method Kala Ghoda

Kala Connect Art Exhibition 2025

Kala Connect Art Exhibition 2025 is set to light up Mumbais cultural calendar with a vivid celebration of artistic expression from May 30th to June 1st at the Nehru Centre. Curated with care and vision, this immersive exhibition is more than just a displayits a dynamic platform designed to connect people through the power of art. With a diverse lineup of both established and emerging artists, Kala Connect promises a refreshing mix of mediums, styles, and perspectives. From bold contemporary canvases to intricate traditional forms, visitors will experience a sweeping panorama of creative storytelling. Whether youre an avid art collector or a curious enthusiast, this three-day event invites you to step into a world where imagination meets canvas and creativity takes centre stagemaking Kala Connect not just an exhibition, but a movement celebrating the unifying spirit of art.

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Venue: Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Worli

These five exhibitions not only showcase the depth and diversity of contemporary art in India but also invite viewers to engage, reflect, and discover new perspectives. Whether its through the lens of heritage, nature, human emotion, or conceptual exploration, each show offers a distinct experience that resonates beyond the gallery walls. So step into these spaces, let your senses guide you, and allow Mumbais dynamic art scene to leave a lasting impression on your creative soul.

About the Author Swati Chaturvedi Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she's a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl... Read More Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she's a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl... Read More

fashion, travel, The News18 Lifestyle section brings you the latest on health food , and culture  with wellness tips, celebrity style, travel inspiration, and recipes. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

First Published: May 22, 2025, 11:22 IST
Aarti Ravi Demands Rs 40 Lakh Alimony Per Month From Ravi Mohan After Divorce?

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News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 07:28 IST

Aarti Ravi has publicly accused Ravi Mohan's rumoured girlfriend Kenishaa Francis of breaking their marriage.

Aarti Ravi and Ravi Mohan tied the knot in 2009.

Actor Ravi Mohan and his estranged wife Aarti Ravi have been making headlines for a long time now due to the controversy surrounding their divorce. Amid all this, it has now been reported that Aarti has demanded a monthly alimony of Rs 40 lakh from Ravi post their divorce.

As reported by News18 Tamil, Aarti and Ravi attended court this week for their divorce proceedings at the 3rd Additional Family Welfare Court in Chennai. During the hearing, Judge Thenmozhi reviewed Ravi Mohans petition, in which he clearly stated that reconciliation was not possible and that he wanted a divorce.

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In response, Aarti Ravi filed a counter-petition requesting Rs 40 lakhs per month as maintenance, citing the need for financial support after separation. The hearing was then adjourned until 12 June.

What Is Aarti Ravis Allegation Against Ravi Mohan?

Aarti Ravi has publicly accused Ravi Mohans rumored girlfriend, Kenishaa Francis, of causing the breakdown of their marriage. In response to Ravi Mohan, also known as Jayam Ravi, who previously referred to Kenishaa as the light of his life, Aarti recently commented that this light has only brought darkness into their lives. She further stated that their marriage failed due to the involvement of a third person.

The truth needs to be said  once and for all. Money, power, interference, or control-none of these are why our marriage suffers. There is a third person in our marriage. What broke us wasnt something between us-it was someone outside. The light of your life" brought only darkness into ours. Thats the truth. This person was already in the picture-long before any divorce papers were filed. This isnt guesswork. I have proof," her statement read.

Aarti Ravi and Ravi Mohan tied the knot in 2009, and he announced that he was parting ways with her in 2024. Aarti claimed that she and their sons were blindsided by his announcement. On the other hand, Ravi Mohan claimed of abuse and isolation in his marriage with Aarti.

About the Author Chirag Sehgal Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:24 IST
Abhishek, Jaya Bachchan Dine With Diana Penty In Mumbai As Aishwarya Rai Shines At Cannes

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 20:27 IST

While Aishwarya Rai stunned at Cannes 2024, Abhishek Bachchan dined in Mumbai with mom Jaya Bachchan and actress Diana Penty.

Abhishek Bachchan with seen with mother Jaya Bachchan and Diana Penty's family in Mumbai.

While Aishwarya Rai turned heads at the Cannes Film Festival in a stunning saree and sindoor, her husband, actor Abhishek Bachchan opted for a quiet evening in Mumbai with his mother Jaya Bachchan and actress Diana Penty. Her boyfriend was also accompanying them.

On the same day Aishwarya graced the Cannes red carpet, Abhishek was seen enjoying dinner with close friends and family in the city. Several photos from the outing have surfaced online, showing the trio spending quality time together.

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Celebrity photographer Yogen Shah shared photos on Instagram, capturing Abhishek and Diana arriving at a Mumbai restaurant for the get-together. Later, the two were seen exiting the venue alongside Jaya Bachchan and other family members.

For the night out, veteran actress Jaya Bachchan kept it graceful in a simple green salwar suit. Diana Penty sported a cool and casual look with blue jeans and a black strapless tank top, while Abhishek kept things relaxed in an all-black shirt. Check out the photos right here:

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan at Cannes 2025

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wowed everyone at Cannes 2025 in a beautiful white saree. She wore a bold red emerald necklace, but what stood out most was the bright red sindoor  a first for her at the event.

As she stepped out of her car, fans cheered and clicked photos. Aishwarya smiled and waved back, clearly happy with the warm welcome. A regular at Cannes as LOreals brand ambassador, she looked graceful and stunning as always.

Abhishek Bachchan And Aishwarya Rai dance

Meanwhile, a super cute family moment featuring Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and their daughter Aaradhya is winning hearts online. Shot at a recent party in Mumbai, the video shows the trio having an absolute blast, and fans cant get enough of their fun vibe and strong bond. In the clip, Abhishek is all smiles as he plays a colourful dhol with full energy. Aaradhya looks on proudly while cheering him on. Then, in the sweetest moment, Abhishek hops off the drums and joins Aishwarya and Aaradhya on the dance floor. The three then clap and groove together. Aishwarya Rai married Abhishek Bachchan on April 20, 2007, in a grand ceremony, and became the Bachchan Bahu" Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Aishwarya and Abhishek have a daughter named Aaradhya Bachchan.

About the Author Shreyanka Mazumdar Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 15:09 IST
Alia Bhatt Flies To Cannes 2025, Silences Rumours Of Skipping Debut Due To India-Pak Tension

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News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 04:24 IST

Alia will make her Cannes debut as part of her ongoing association with L'Oreal Paris, the official beauty partner of the festival.

Alia Bhatt spotted at Mumbai airport as she flies to Cannes 2025 after debut delay.

Alia Bhatt is officially Cannes-bound. The actress was spotted at Mumbai airport, flying out for the Cannes Film Festival 2025 just a week after reports suggested she might cancel her debut due to the ongoing India-Pakistan tensions.

Dressed in a chic all-Gucci look, Alia wore a beige trench coat over a white figure-hugging top paired with blue denims. She sported dark aviators and greeted paparazzi with a brief smile before heading inside without posing.

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Her appearance comes days after speculation swirled online that the actress had decided to skip her Cannes debut altogether in solidarity with India, following the April Pahalgam attack which intensified Indo-Pak relations. Earlier reports claimed she would walk the red carpet on May 13 at the opening ceremony, but her appearance was mysteriously delayed.

While some unverified reports claimed the delay was political, others cited that her outfit may not have aligned with Cannes last-minute fashion code. News18 cannot confirm these claims.

Putting all speculation to rest, Alia took to Instagram hours before her departure, posting a photo of her travel essentials. Her suitcase included the bestseller Atomic Habits and a makeup bag filled with LOreal Paris products emblazoned with their slogan, Im worth it." She captioned the post, Off we go."

Alia will make her Cannes debut as part of her ongoing association with LOreal Paris, the official beauty partner of the festival. She joins the list of several Indian celebrities who graced the red carpet this year, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Janhvi Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hydari, Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa, Nitanshi Goel, Urvashi Rautela, and Anupam Kher.

While her delayed appearance raised eyebrows, Alias departure now confirms her debut at the prestigious event is still very much on.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 23, 2025, 04:11 IST
Cannes 2025: Aishwarya Rai Expertly Handles Wardrobe Mishap After Her Cape Comes Off

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 00:04 IST

Aishwaryas second-day look was a dramatic shift from her usual style. She traded her signature straight locks for glamorous, side-swept waves.

Aishwarya Rai gracefully handles her dress at Cannes 2025.

On Day 2 of her Cannes 2025 appearance, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan once again proved her red carpet prowess, handling an unexpected wardrobe mishap with grace and composure. The LOreal Paris ambassador of over two decades arrived in a black off-shoulder sequinned gown featuring strappy sleeves, layered with a voluminous silver-beige textured cape that flowed elegantly behind her.

While posing alongside Hollywood stars Helen Mirren and Cara Delevingne, a minor wardrobe mishap occurred when Mirren accidentally stepped on Aishwaryas cape. The cape slipped down to Aishwaryas elbow, momentarily interrupting the photo op. Yet, Aishwarya managed the moment like a true icon. With a warm smile and calm demeanour, she adjusted her cape and resumed posing seamlessly. Mirren was seen apologising, and Aishwarya responded with nothing but kindness, putting everyone at ease.

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The incident only elevated Aishwaryas fan appeal, with many praising her for staying poised under pressure. Social media buzzed with admiration for how elegantly she handled the slip. Thank you Helen, your scarf stumble was the real Cannes hero move she cleared the way for Aishwarya Rais black dress to steal the show," one fan commented.

Aishwaryas second-day look was a dramatic shift from her usual style. She traded her signature straight locks for glamorous, side-swept waves that brought an old-Hollywood charm. Her bold red lip and statement earrings completed the vintage-inspired aesthetic, which perfectly complemented the sequinned gown and textured cape.

Just a day earlier, Aishwarya had turned heads in a regal white saree with a striking red emerald necklace and bright red sindoora first for the actress at Cannes. The look sparked conversations, with fans speculating whether the sindoor was a personal statement amid ongoing rumours about her marriage, or a subtle tribute to Operation Sindoor, the Indian Armys retaliatory strike earlier in May.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 23, 2025, 00:04 IST
Cannes 2025: Aishwarya Rai Stuns Internet With BOLD Hair Makeover For Day 2 Look

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News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 10:17 IST

Aishwarya Rai At Cannes 2025: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan turns heads on Day 2 at Cannes 2025 with a bold new look and vintage waves, ditching her usual straight hair.

Aishwarya Rais bold makeover at Cannes 2025 stuns fans.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan returned to the Cannes 2025 red carpet with a look that had the internet buzzing. After setting the tone on Day 1 with a regal white saree and a bright red sindoor that sparked fan theories and headlines, Aishwarya amped up the glamour with a bold and dramatic second appearance.

For her latest look, the actress channelled old-school Hollywood charm in a black sequinned strapless gown, layered under an oversized silver-beige textured cape. The voluminous cape elevated the ensembles drama quotient, while her soft, side-swept waves offered a refreshing break from her signature straight locks. Styled with bold red lips and statement earrings, Aishwarya Rais look oozed vintage glamour.

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Also See: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Honours Bhagavad Gita Shloka On Brocade Cape

The actress, a long-time Cannes attendee and LOreal Paris ambassador, completed her red carpet moment with a graceful Indian touch, folding her hands in a namaste gesture that drew applause both on-ground and online. Fans were thrilled to see the actress experiment with her hair, flooding social media with praise for her reinvented style.

Aishwarya had already captured attention with her Day 1 look, draped in an elegant white saree paired with a striking red emerald necklace and bold red sindoor. The sindoor, a symbolic choice, fuelled varied interpretations. While many viewed it as a reaffirmation of her marital bond amid ongoing speculation about her relationship with husband Abhishek Bachchan, others interpreted it as a nod to Indias recent military operation, Operation Sindoor.

The operation, conducted between May 7 and 8, was Indias swift response to the tragic Pahalgam terror attack. Some netizens praised Aishwarya for allegedly using the global platform to subtly honour the country.

The rumours of trouble in her marriage to Abhishek Bachchan have been swirling for months, particularly throughout 2024. The buzz grew louder with their sporadic public appearances and noticeable absences from each others social media. However, the couple continues to appear united, most recently celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary on April 20 with a touching family photo featuring their daughter Aaradhya.

Also Read: How Aishwarya Rais Epic Reply On Indian Culture Once Won Applause

Professionally, Aishwarya was last seen in Ponniyin Selvan: II, where she reprised her acclaimed role as Nandini. Abhishek, on the other hand, recently starred in the Amazon Prime original Be Happy.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 22:24 IST
Dhanush To Play APJ Abdul Kalam In Om Raut-Directed Biopic, Announced At Cannes 2025

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Last Updated: May 21, 2025, 23:51 IST

The project, which has officially gone into production, aims to chronicle the extraordinary life of the 11th President of India, known widely as the Missile Man of India.

Dhanush to portray Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam in a grand biopic directed by Om Raut, announced at Cannes.

Dhanush is all set to portray one of Indias most beloved figures, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, in a grand biopic helmed by National Award-winning filmmaker Om Raut. The announcement was made at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, leaving fans thrilled. The project, which has officially gone into production, aims to chronicle the extraordinary life of the 11th President of India, known widely as the Missile Man of India.

The film is being produced by Abhishek Agarwal under Abhishek Agarwal Arts, the banner behind The Kashmir Files, in collaboration with Bhushan Kumars T-Series. Dhanush will play the titular role, while the screenplay is penned by Saiwyn Quadras, known for acclaimed biopics such as Neerja, Maidaan, and Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran.

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Dr. APJ Abdul Kalams journey, from his humble beginnings in Rameswaram to becoming one of Indias most respected scientists and a visionary President, is considered one of the most inspirational stories in modern Indian history.

Director Om Raut shared his deep sense of responsibility in telling this story: In an era starved of true statesmen, Kalam stood above politics and pettiness. He was a man who was known for power of education, excellence and indigenous innovation. To bring his story to screen is an artistic challenge and a moral and cultural responsibility. Its a story thats inspirational for global youth and especially the youth of Global South. Its the most important experience of my life."

Producer Abhishek Agarwal echoed similar sentiments, calling it an emotional moment." He added, We are excited to bring the epic life of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam to the big screen. We are privileged to tell this story. This is one of Indian cinemas most prestigious projects and will be a grand spectacle on a global scale."

Bhushan Kumar, who has previously worked with Om Raut on Tanhaji and Adipurush, said, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalams life is a story that continues to inspire millions. This marks our third collaboration with Om Raut, and teaming up with Dhanush and Abhishek Agarwal makes it even more special. This is more than just a filmits a tribute to a man who showed us how dreams, dedication, and humility can shape a nations future."

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 21, 2025, 23:51 IST
Homebound FIRST Review Out: Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa Shine In Ghaywan's Moving Cannes Film

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Last Updated: May 21, 2025, 23:33 IST

Homebound Movie Review: Variety commended both Ishaan and Vishals work, noting their immensely endearing and unpredictable performances.

Homebound gets glowing first review at Cannes; Ishaan and Vishal shine.

Neeraj Ghaywans highly anticipated second feature Homebound had its world premiere at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section and received a rousing nine-minute standing ovation. The screening took place at the Debussy Theatre and was attended by Ghaywan along with lead actors Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor. The team was also joined by producer Karan Johar and his Dharma Productions colleagues, Apoorva Mehta and Somen Mishra.

The first review of Homebound is now out, and it offers high praise for the film, particularly for its emotional depth and the performances of its leading men. Variety commended both Ishaan and Vishals work, noting their immensely endearing and unpredictable performances."

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Homebound follows best friends Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), a Muslim, and Chandan (Vishal Jethwa), a Dalit, as they chase their dream of becoming police trainees, hoping the uniform will shield them from caste and religious discrimination. After a year of silence from the government, their ambitions hang in limbo, straining their finances and hopes. Set in a small North Indian village, the film explores their emotional and social struggles. While Shoaib struggles to support his ailing father, Chandan enrolls in college, partly to stay close to Sudha (Janhvi Kapoor), a fellow Dalit from a slightly better-off family.

However, Janhvi Kapoors portrayal of Sudha received a mixed response. The review noted, Unfortunately, unlike her Dhadak co-star Khatter, Kapoor (who was similarly raised in the Hindi film industry) hasnt yet learned to shed the enunciations and gestures that suggest someone who was raised in a major city, surrounded by wealth. This makes Sudhas dynamic with Chandan play like the kind of inter-class or inter-caste romance typical of Indian dramas, despite whats actually intended."

The review went on to say that Kapoors disconnect from her character appears only in a few scenes and is somewhat offset by the limited scope of her role. However, this disconnect is limited to only a handful of scenes, since Kapoors role is truncated to the point of feeling perfunctory. Its the movies only major flaw, but it works in its favour, allowing the leading duo the lions share of the runtime," it added.

Despite this, Homebound has been hailed as a moving and impactful film. Variety concluded, Its a film of great tragedy, but one so rooted in beating humanity that you cant help but be left furious, in addition to teary-eyed."

The film marks Neeraj Ghaywans return to Cannes after his debut Masaan received international acclaim in 2015. With Homebound, he appears to have once again struck a powerful emotional chord with global audiences.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 21, 2025, 23:31 IST
Jacqueline Meets Jessica Alba, Juliette Binoche At Cannes 2025, Says She's 'Speechless'

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Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 03:00 IST

Jacqueline has been vocal about her passion for storytelling and empowering women in cinema. In a previous Instagram post, she expressed what this recognition meant to her.

Jacqueline Fernandez calls meeting Jessica Alba and Juliette Binoche at Cannes 2025 a dream.

Jacqueline Fernandez was a vision in red as she walked into the Women in Cinema gala hosted by the Red Sea Film Foundation at Cannes 2025. And it wasnt just her look that stole the spotlight, her star-struck reaction to meeting Hollywood icons Jessica Alba and Juliette Binoche is now winning hearts online.

The actress, who was among seven women honoured at the gala, took to Instagram to share snippets from the unforgettable night. Alongside photos and videos of her posing with Jessica Alba and other honourees, Jacqueline wrote, This was a dream, meeting all my idols and being part of such a meaningful event. All thanks to @redseafilm this was possible for me! (sic)."

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In a follow-up post, Jacqueline elaborated on how the event left a lasting impact on her. As an honouree I had the opportunity to meet the most fantastic women in cinema from around the world and discuss the possibilities that lay ahead of us, all of us sharing a similar passion to be impactful storytellers in our own unique way! I left feeling inspired and wanting to grow more.. explore more thank you @redseafilm for honouring me alongside such amazingly beautiful women still so speechless!!! (sic)," she shared.

Jacqueline has been vocal about her passion for storytelling and empowering women in cinema. In a previous Instagram post, she expressed what this recognition meant to her. Women supporting women and empowering each other in our film industry is what I truly believe in (sic)," she wrote, reiterating her support for female-led narratives.

On the professional front, Jacqueline was last seen in the action thriller Hai Junoon opposite Neil Nitin Mukesh. The show premiered on JioHotstar earlier this year and received mixed reviews. It also featured Priyank Sharma, Bhavin Bhanushali, and Sumedh Mudgalkar. Earlier in 2025, Jacqueline played a pivotal role in Sonu Soods film Fateh.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 23, 2025, 03:00 IST
Kamal Haasan Says He's 'Running After Money': 'Im Choosing The Industry That'll Finance Me' | Exclusive

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 22:03 IST

Kamal Haasan talks about missed collaborations with legendary directors, and his Malayalam cinema aspirations.

Kamal Haasan will soon be seen in Thug Life. (Photo Credits: Instagram)

In a heartfelt and brutally honest conversation with News18 Showsha, Kamal Haasan opened up about his aspirations in Malayalam cinema and the legendary directors across industries that he never got to collaborate with.

Asked if fans will see him in any new-age Malayalam cinema, he said, Im still running after money to run my company. I personally dont need anything more than I have. But I need money to make my films! So Im choosing the industry that will finance me."

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He reminisced about missed collaborations with greats like M.D. Vaidyanathan and Mrinal Sen and added, Im the most unfortunate guy who was fortunate enough to enter the field but never did a movie with the direction of MT Vasudevan Nair. Nor any of the great classic Malayalam directors except Sethu Saab. And that was in the beginning. And then I had to beg him to come back to Tamil. He was happy to come. But except that, he was one of the top international directors who were in Malayalam. I couldnt get to work with Mrinalda (Mrinal Sen). He called me and I was doing Thevar Magan at that time. He said, So you wont come to do my film? I said, Im producing my film. But I had to stop it which means a great financial loss. I cant afford it."

The actor is now gearing up for his 234th film, the much-awaited Thug Life. Directed by Mani Ratnam, the duo have reunited after Nayakan, which was released in 1987. Talking about the long-due reunion to News18, Haasan says, No, its not [worth the wait]. We should have done it earlier. We have been apologising through different interviews for not joining up. Because it is our loss, not yours. Absolutely, our loss."

Kamal Haasan will be seen playing the titular role of Rangaraya Sakthivel Naicker in Mani Ratnams Thug Life, which also stars Silambarasan TR, Trisha, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Joju George. Sanya Malhotra marks her Tamil Debut with this film.

About the Author Shreyanka Mazumdar Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 22:03 IST
Man, Woman Trespass Into Salman Khans House, Taken Into Custody

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:07 IST

In April 2024, gunshots were also fired outside Salman Khans Galaxy Apartments in Mumbais Bandra area.

A woman also tried to enter Salman Khan's house illegally.

In a shocking incident, two people entered Salman Khans Galaxy Apartment in Mumbai on May 19th and 20th, respectively. CNN-News18 has learnt that a man entered the Bollywood superstars house at around 7:15 pm on May 20th. However, he was soon caught. He has been identified as Jitendra Kumar Singh and is said to be a resident of Chhattisgarh. He is currently in police custody.

Prior to this, a woman also tried to enter Salman Khans residence in the wee hours of the same day. She has been identified as Isha Chhabra and is reportedly 32 years old. It is being said that the woman was near the lift area of Salman Khans building when the security guards caught her. She was then handed over to the Bandra police. A case has been filed, and further investigation is underway.

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Mumbai police sources said that both Jitendra and Isha have claimed that they are fans of Salman Khan.

While more details are awaited, this has surely raised concerns about Salman Khans security, who has also been getting death threats for a long time now.

In April 2024, gunshots were also fired outside Khans Galaxy Apartments in Mumbais Bandra area. Later, it was reported that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is alleged to be behind the attack as the gangsters brother, Anmol Bishnoi, claimed responsibility for the shooting incident via a Facebook post. After the shocking incident, Salmans security was upgraded.

Later in July, Salman Khan also recorded his statement in connection to the house firing case when he claimed that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was trying to kill him.

I heard a cracker-like sound. Then, at around 4.55 am, the police bodyguard said that two people on a bike had fired from a weapon at the Galaxy Apartments first-floor balcony. There had been attempts to hurt me and my family prior to this as well. I have learnt that Lawrence Bishnoi has taken responsibility for the attack from social media. So, I believe that it is the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who have carried out the firing on my balcony," Salman Khan told the anti-extortion cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch.

In March this year, Salman was promoting his movie Sikander when he talked about death threats and answered if he is scared of the multiple death threats he has received. Bhagwan, Allah sab unpar hai. Jitni umar likhi hai, utni likhi hai. Bas yahi hai. Kabhi kabhi itne logon ko saath mein leke chalna padta hai, bas wohi problem ho jaati hai," the actor said.

About the Author Chirag Sehgal Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:15 IST
Priyanka Chopra Faces Heat For 'Washed-Out' Look At Bvlgari Event: 'This Is Giving Bhumi'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 22:04 IST

Criticism has also been directed at Priyanka Chopra's stylist switch from Rebecca Corbin-Murray back to Mimi Cutrell.

Priyanka Chopras latest Bvlgari look draws comparisons to Bhumi Pednekar.

Priyanka Chopra has found herself at the centre of online trolling for allegedly holding her breath while posing at a Bvlgari event in Italy. A behind-the-scenes video from the shoot has surfaced online and led many users to compare her pose to Bhumi Pednekars infamous red carpet stances, where shes often accused of tucking in her stomach.

In the viral clip, Priyanka is seen posing in a strapless dress, with some social media users speculating that she was trying too hard to suck in her tummy, which resulted in a visibly stiff and uncomfortable posture. One user commented, She seems a bit lost and lacking in confidence which is adding to the Bhumi ness." Another wrote, This is giving Bhumi. Looks like she is holding breath to tuck back her tummy."

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The trolling didnt stop there. A third user chimed in, Priyankafication of Bhumi Bhumification of Priyanka.. IDK what to call it!!" Others took aim at her overall styling, The dress is doing her no favour. Giving Bhumi from The Royals."

Criticism has also been directed at her stylist switch from Rebecca Corbin-Murray back to Mimi Cutrell. Many fans feel the change has not worked in Priyankas favour. A side-by-side post featuring Priyanka along with South Korean actress Kim Ji-won and Filipino actress-model Pia Wurtzbach Jauncey read, Her dress, hair, makeup everything is terrible and not for her. She looks so washed away, even her expression looks under confident."

Supporting that sentiment, another user wrote, She changed her stylist back to Mimi Cutrell. She was on a roll with Rebecca Two mid looks from Mimi so far." Some even compared her to a wax figure, with comments like, She looks like a wax statue of her," and Im her admirer but of late shes looking as if shes melted."

Despite the fashion misfire, Priyanka has a packed slate ahead. She stars in Heads of State with Idris Elba and John Cena, and The Bluff, in which she plays a 19th-century Caribbean pirate. Shes also signed on for SS Rajamoulis upcoming film with Mahesh Babu and Prithviraj Sukumaran, the second season of Citadel (set for 2026), and the English-language film Judgement Day.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 22:00 IST
Salman Khan Will Not 'Replace' Amitabh Bachchan In KBC 17: 'It Is Bizarre That...'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 10:08 IST

KBC 17 Host: Despite reports, Salman Khan is not replacing Amitabh Bachchan as KBC 17 host, says Sony source. Big B is still shooting promos for the new season.

Salman Khan is reportedly not replacing Amitabh Bachchan as KBC host.

KBC 17 Host: Amid buzz that Salman Khan might take over as host of Kaun Banega Crorepati Season 17, a source close to Sony TV has shut down the speculation, calling it bizarre." Several reports, including one by Bollywood Hungama, had earlier suggested that Salman was in advanced talks" with the channel and could potentially replace Amitabh Bachchan on the long-running quiz show.

The rumours gained traction after claims surfaced that Big B may step back from hosting duties due to personal reasons." One insider quoted in a report even said, Get ready to tune into Sony as Salman Khan might host the biggest and most popular quiz show of India as Amitabh Bachchan will be stepping back from KBC due to personal reasons."

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However, a fresh report by India Today dismissed the possibility, clarifying that no such replacement is in the works. It is bizarre that such news reports are coming in. There is no way Big B would be replaced on the show," a source close to Sony TV told the publication.

In fact, Amitabh Bachchan has already featured in announcement posters and teaser videos for KBC 17, and is expected to shoot full-fledged promos in the coming weeks. The new season is scheduled to go on floors in July, with a premiere planned for the first week of August.

Meanwhile, Salman Khan is reportedly gearing up to return as the host of Bigg Boss 19. According to reports, the actor will shoot the first promotional video for the upcoming season by the end of June, with a tentative launch window in late July.

Sony TV had officially announced Kaun Banega Crorepati 17 on April 4 with a quirky promo featuring Amitabh Bachchan. In the video, Big B played a patient with a stomach ache, only to reveal that the excitement was due to the shows return. He also encouraged fans to register for the new season via Sony LIV, SMS, or IVR.

Amitabh Bachchan has hosted KBC since its launch in 2000, except for Season 3, which featured Shah Rukh Khan.

About the Author Shrishti Negi Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More Shrishti Negi is a journalist with over eight years of experience in the media industry. She leads the Entertainment desk at News18.com. She writes breaking news stories, generates feature ideas, edits copies, ... Read More

First Published: May 23, 2025, 00:26 IST
Samay Raina's Indias Got Latent To Return? Stand-Up Comedian Says 'Good Things Take Time'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 21:27 IST

Samay Raina hints at a possible return of his show, Indias Got Latent, amid ongoing legal issues.

Samay Raina is now all set to make a comeback. (Photo: Instagram)

Popular YouTuber and stand-up comedian Samay Raina has finally addressed a possible comeback of his show, Indias Got Latent. The show, which sparked backlash due to some objectionable remarks made by Samay and fellow YouTuber Ranbir Allahabadia, had landed him in legal trouble and gone off YouTube.

Now, while still navigating ongoing legal proceedings, Samay is slowly returning to the stage. In a recent promotional video for Bold Care  a sexual wellness brand co-owned by actor Ranveer Singh  he was asked by podcaster Raj Shamani if Indias Got Latent would ever return.

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With his trademark wit, Samay replied, Woh toh ab Samay hee bata payega. Main nahi, time. Time is the best healer," playing on the double meaning of his name and the Hindi word for time." He added with a smile, Good things take time."

Whether it was a subtle tease or a serious hint, fans are already talking about the possibility of a comeback.

Meanwhile, marking his return with a bang, Samay recently announced a new international tour that will take him across Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Taking to Instagram, he shared the tour datesstarting in Cologne on June 5 and ending in Sydney on July 20. The excitement was so high, his website briefly crashed due to heavy traffic. Hinting at a more introspective and personal set, Samay appears ready to address the chaos of recent months head-on, bringing both laughter and reflection to his fans.

Indias Got Latent controversy

The popular YouTube show Indias Got Latent, hosted by comedian Samay Raina, landed in hot water after a controversial episode featuring content creators Ranveer Allahbadia, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija. Guwahati Police registered an FIR against all the judges and host of the show, accusing them of promoting obscenity and sexually explicit content. The controversy erupted after Allahbadia made an inappropriate remark during the episode, drawing widespread criticism from public figures and social media users alike.

About the Author Shreyanka Mazumdar Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 21:27 IST
Shah Rukh Khan's King Makers Reject Navneet Malik For A 'Stupid' Reason | Exclusive

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:46 IST

Navneet Malik was recently seen in The Bhootnii, which also starred Sanjay Dutt and Mouni Roy in the lead.

Navneet Malik was offered to play the negative lead in King. (Photos: Instagram)

Actor Navneet Malik has revealed that he was approached to play the negative lead in Shah Rukh Khans upcoming movie King. However, The Freelancer actor has now learnt that the makers do not want to cast him now since they are preferring an actor with a much larger social media following than his. Even though Navneet did not reveal the name of the actor who is likely to replace him, he stated that such incidents make him wonder if he should also pay more attention to his Instagram numbers.

I was approached for the negative lead in King but I have also been hearing that they want to prefer an actor who has more following on social media. This makes me think that even I should pitch myself on social media so that even I can rule this number game," the actor told us.

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However, Navneet also admitted that he is not disheartened by this rejection. I have accepted this somehow. I always knew that rejection might happen someday for some reason. It is a business. They want to know how many people I can bring to the theatre, in comparison to somebody else. It does not feel disheartening but even I want to push myself on social media. I can also do it," he added and shared that he finds being rejected for such reasons very stupid".

Navneet Malik was recently seen in The Bhootnii, which also starred Sanjay Dutt and Mouni Roy in the lead. Previously, the actor also showcased his acting skills in movies and shows like, Love Hostel, Heropanti 2, The Freelancer, Deewaniyat, and Aankh Micholi.

Talking about King, the film marks the big screen debut of Shah Rukh Khans daughter Suhana Khan. It also stars Abhay Verma in the lead. Reportedly, Deepika Padukone will also be playing the role of Suhanas mother in this movie. However, there is no confirmation regarding this as of now.

About the Author Chirag Sehgal Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More Chirag Sehgal works as a Sub-Editor in the Entertainment team at News18.com. With an experience of five years in the media industry, he largely focuses on Indian television coverage. Apart from bringing breakin... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 15:46 IST
Tara Sutaria Channels Vintage Glam In Hottest-Ever Photo, Sets Internet On Fire

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:58 IST

Tara Sutaria just dropped a stunning black-and-white topless photo on Instagram, and fans cant stop gushing about it.

Tara Sutaria has gone topless in her latest photo.

Tara Sutaria just dropped a stunning black-and-white photo on Instagram, and fans cant stop gushing about it. Wrapped in a sheer drape, with soft light pouring in and a nostalgic vibe all around, Tara looks like shes stepped straight out of a vintage film frame in the black and white photo.

Shot by her close friend, celebrity photographer Rohan Shrestha, the photo captures an intimate, artistic moment at Taras Mumbai home. Tara captioned it: Afternoons at home with my darling friend @rohanshrestha spent creating.. draping.. and feeling nostalgic and inspired by 90s grainy black and white."

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With the soothing tunes of Norah Jones playing in the background and an old-school aesthetic, the post is pure mood  and its no surprise the internet is obsessed. Check out the photo below:

Recently, Tara Sutarias Ek Villain Returns co-star Arjun Kapoor took to his Instagram handle to shower praise on her for her soulful contribution to the song Shaamat. On May 19, Arjun shared a screenshot from a Q&A session, writing, Ek gaana jo mere Jazbar wale playlist mein hona chahiye! Shaamat from Ek Villain Returns," expressing his admiration for the track.

Arjun also penned a touching note for the actress, which read, Tara Sutarias voice was top!! I definitely feel its an underrated gem," with a diamond emoji.

Later, Tara reposted his story on her Instagram, expressing her gratitude for the actor. She wrote, Awwww ILY!!! The most fun Ive had recording and shooting a song with u my favuuu! And I believe Shaamat is at 120 million views," along with a teary-eyed emoji and a heart, showcasing their camaraderie and shared joy in the project.

On the work front, Tara Sutaria is gearing up for her next project, Awarapan 2, a sequel to the 2007 hit, where she will showcase her acting prowess alongside Emraan Hashmi.

About the Author Shreyanka Mazumdar Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More Shreyanka Mazumdar is Chief Sub Editor of the entertainment team at News18. With an unbridled passion for all things Bollywood, she loves deep-diving into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment world, bring... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:58 IST
Opinion | Congress Celebration Amidst Ruinous Rains In Bengaluru Is Display Of Rank Insensitivity

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:29 IST

While heavy rains left large parts of Bengaluru waterlogged and claimed three lives, Congress govt in Karnataka went ahead with its second-anniversary celebrations in Hosapete.

While Bengaluru was reeling with waterlogging, clogged drains, Congress celebrated Karnataka govt's second anniversary in Hosapete. (Image: INC/ India, PTI)

Nero played the fiddle while Rome burned"  is old hat. The new aphorism capturing insensitivity of the highest order could be how Congress was celebrating its two years even as Bengaluru was drowning.

Indias man-made disasters are more often than not caused by colossal municipal failures. Roads develop potholes at the first hint of rain. Roads that should be built to last at least a decade, barely last a year. Politicians and road contractors combine to ensure poor-quality roads so they can make their pile every year instead of every decade. The sidewalks in the US could shame some of our roads connecting thoroughfares in most of the Indian cities.

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While heavy rains left large parts of Bengaluru waterlogged and claimed three lives over the past 60 hours, the Congress government in Karnataka went ahead with its second-anniversary celebrations in Hosapete with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and its crown prince Rahul Gandhi joining the festivities apart from the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and other local party bigwigs. In Bengaluru, residents complained of poor drainage, unmotorable roads, and delayed emergency response. The litany of woes is predictably the same every year across India with municipalities loath to bestir themselves.

The opposition BJP obviously has jumped into the fray and torn the Congress apart. The state BJP President BY Vijayendra was right and wrong. He was right when he said Congress had misplaced priorities like free bus rides to women and monthly allowances to women, blithely forgetting that the Delhi BJP adopted the same electoral template with alacrity to oust the freebie master Arvind Kejriwal. He was also wrong when he said Bengaluru people are amongst the highest taxpayers but in return were fobbed off with a pittance. He is repeating the same mistake which the redoubtable Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys, committed more than a decade ago. In tax matters, there is no back-to-back relationship in the sense the tax collected is used more to bail out the poor and not to pay back the taxpaying populace. He was right when he said tunnels and towers should not be the priority. By the way, tunnels are the first to be flooded but then underpasses with an elaborate network of drainage outlets are necessary to ease traffic and facilitate its smooth flow.

Clogged drainage is invariably the root cause of water gushing into the streets and roads. Municipalities in India are reactive instead of being proactive. Drainages should be declogged before the rains. Of course, major blame should be laid at the doors of the city planners who have no qualms in allowing construction at sites which were hitherto dry ponds and lakes. Relief and rehabilitation after every disaster, natural as well as man-made, are of course necessary but more necessary is prevention. While natures fury cannot be stopped, Naveen Patnaik, the former chief minister of Odisha, won plaudits for heeding impending cyclone warnings and evacuating people to safety before the catastrophe struck mercilessly.

Come to think of it, Indias town planners and municipalities have shown spectacular apathy in providing bijli-sadak-paani. These three are at the heart of municipal services. The central government can but provide counselling and some funds for these essentials. It is for the local governments to be in command of the situation. Nitin Gadkari takes pride in his national highways and expressways. That, mutatis mutandis, should be the template for municipalities. And Congresss insensitive celebrations for completing two years of rule should be the warning. Its cadres should have fanned out and given a helping hand to the municipal authorities in managing rescue efforts. The RSS, which the Congress reviles, does it purely as labour of love and duty to the nation. Chest-thumping is eminently avoidable when chest-beating by the affected people is simultaneously going on.

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Capital budgets getting thinner by the day is the refrain and worry of economists in India. A substantial part of freebies can bankroll infrastructure projects of the municipalities and state governments.

The writer is a senior columnist. His X account is @smurlidharan. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views

First Published: May 22, 2025, 11:29 IST
Opinion | Operation Sindoor Proves India Must Stand Alone To End Pakistans Terror Empire

Written By :

CNN-News18

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 17:29 IST

India can no longer afford to predicate its security on the fickle conscience or strategic whims of distant powers

The lesson from Operation Sindoor and its diplomatic fallout is not one of despair, but of clarity. (File pic/PTI)

The aftermath of Operation Sindoor has revealed an uncomfortable reality for India. Despite years of exposing Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, New Delhi finds itself hyphenated with Islamabad when the stakes are highest. Leading this campaign of re-hyphenating India and Pakistan is US President Donald Trump, who evidently has no real knowledge of the Indian subcontinent. Trumps incessant claims of leveraging trade to effectuate a ceasefire between New Delhi and Islamabad have exposed America as the unreliable partner" that it is. After all, the only role America played in the recent flare-up was receiving desperate Pakistani calls pushing for a ceasefire. When it became clear to Field Marshal" Asim Munir that India would tolerate no third-party mediation, he got his DGMO to plead directly with India for a ceasefire.

In the days leading up to Operation Sindoor, the world was largely supportive of Indias right to defend itself. Perhaps what had not dawned on the global powers that be was the scale of Operation Sindoor. For the first time since 1971, India penetrated deep into Pakistani territory and struck not just terror hubs but military installations as well. Obviously, this caused heavy damage to Pakistans Chinese- and American-supplied air assets, which triggered a frantic effort to get India to back down.

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The worlds adrenaline rush was quick to die down. From claiming to support Indias fight against terrorism, the West quickly shifted gears to seeking de-escalation. While Indian forces acted with surgical precision to neutralise targets across Pakistan, the familiar chorus from Western capitals was one of restraint"a tired, generic appeal conveniently addressed to both sides". This, even as these very liberal democracies" continue their strategic courtship of Islamabad, driven by geopolitical expediencies that consistently surpass any genuine concern for the victims of Pakistani-sponsored terror. Consider how Trump is claiming to be working out big deals" not just with India, but Pakistan too. This is a galling spectacle: lecturing India on de-escalation while simultaneously enabling the very state that perpetuates the cycle of violence.

The silence, or worse, the equivocating pronouncements from these nations, stand in stark contrast to the unambiguous support offered by a select few. Israel, a nation intimately familiar with the scourge of terrorism and the necessity of decisive self-defence, stood firmly with New Delhi. Armenia, understanding the brutal realities of hostile neighbours and international indifference, also offered its solidarity. The case of Armenia is particularly interesting. India is one of Armenias major arms suppliers, which has bolstered the countrys strength against Azerbaijan and Turkey. Meanwhile, Russia, with its own complex security calculus and a long-standing strategic partnership with India, provided a degree of backing that, while perhaps nuanced, was notably distinct from the Wests tepid boilerplate. Others, like Japan and France, were relatively more perceptive to Indias view, but to say we expected more from a host of our partner" countries would not be an overstatement.

This divergence is illuminating. It reveals that shared democratic values, often touted by the West, become remarkably flexible when confronted with the hard realities of strategic interests and the convenient utility of a client state like Pakistan. For decades, India has presented dossier after dossier, evidence upon irrefutable evidence, of Pakistans role as the global epicentre of terror. Yet, the international community, particularly the West, has largely chosen to look the other way, preferring to engage with the architects of terror rather than isolate them. Consider the fact that no country apart from India appeared to have strong reservations over the International Monetary Fund disbursing $1 billion to Pakistan in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack.

The lesson from Operation Sindoor and its diplomatic fallout is not one of despair, but of clarity. India can no longer afford to predicate its security on the fickle conscience or strategic whims of distant powers. The expectation that others will fight our battles, or even unequivocally support our right to defend ourselves against a terror-exporting state, is a dangerous illusion.

This realisation, however, is not a burden but an emancipation. Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the philosophy of Aatmanirbhar Bharata self-reliant Indiahas permeated every facet of national life, from economic policy to defence manufacturing. This very self-reliance must now become the bedrock of our strategic doctrine. If the world chooses to prioritise its geopolitical chess games over Indias legitimate security concerns, then India will chart its own course, secure its own borders, and deliver justice for its people on its own terms.

I argue that this is good for India in the long term. Our history is replete with instances where we have faced monumental challenges with courage and resilience. Our burgeoning economy, our modernising military, and, most importantly, the indomitable spirit of our people are Indias greatest assets. The so-called Pakistan problem" is not just Indias problem; it is a cancer that has metastasised, threatening regional stability and global peace. Yet, if the worlds powers are content with palliative care and moral equivocation, then India must be prepared to undertake the necessary surgery, alone if need be.

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The path ahead will demand steely resolve, continued strengthening of our intelligence and defence capabilities, and a diplomatic posture that is assertive and unapologetic in its pursuit of national interest. We must cultivate deeper partnerships with nations that genuinely understand our predicament and are willing to stand with us on principle, not convenience. Ultimately though, the primary responsibility lies with us.

Operation Sindoor was a resounding success. Its strategic implication is the undeniable truth that Indias destiny, especially in its quest to neutralise the threat from Pakistans terror empire, is its own to write. When the time comes for a final reckoning with this persistent, state-sponsored campaign of terror, it will be India that scripts the end of Pakistans reign as a sanctuary for global jihad. The world may watch, it may comment, it may even wring its hands, but the action, and its triumph, will be Indias, and Indias alone.

About the Author Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra is a producer and video journalist at Network18. He is enthusiastic about and writes on both national affairs as well as geopolitics. Sanbeer Singh Ranhotra is a producer and video journalist at Network18. He is enthusiastic about and writes on both national affairs as well as geopolitics.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 17:29 IST
Opinion | Pakistan Endorses Terrorists, Excommunicates Nobel Laureate

Written By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 19:58 IST

This has something to do with the legacy of Islam, which Pakistan could not outgrow despite being a nation-state and a UN member

Abdul Rauf Azhar, the brother of Masood Azhar, the terrorist who leads Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) attends the funeral of terrorists slain during Operation Sindoor, with Pakistani Army officials in attendance. (IMAGE: SOURCED)

The recent visuals of Pakistans army brass attending Salat-ul-Janazah (funeral prayers) for the terrorists killed in Operation Sindoor are revealing indeed. It proves that the line between the armed forces and terrorists, by extension the constituted authority and non-state depredators, has been blurred in Pakistan.

This has something to do with the legacy of Islam, which Pakistan could not outgrow despite being a nation-state and a UN member. Pakistan views the terrorists groomed to fight India in Jammu & Kashmir as Mujahideen, an honourable term in Islam. Mujahid is a warrior in the cause of Islam (Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, P.418). It is the Arabic word for those who wage Jihad.

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The armed forces reflect the ethos of the nation. Pakistan is certainly no exception. The forces of Pakistan hail the Mujahideen, because the society is not very different. On February 27, 1973, about three thousand Pakistanis residing in Britain converged at Hyde Park in London to mourn two youths, viz. Basharat Hussain (19) and Mohammed Hanif (19), killed in police firing. Therein hangs a tale.

What necessitated the police firing in the first place? On February 20, three masked youths, including the duo, trespassed into the building of the Indian High Commission at Aldwych, London, at 9.30 AM GMT. They were armed with toy pistols (which they posed as real) filled with corrosive liquid and swords. They held up some diplomatic personnel who were arriving for the day, or already inside. They threatened the staff and tied up two employees with rope and demanded the keys to the main door (to lock it up from inside). It was an amateurish hostage-taking exercise, but nonetheless a cognisable offence. One of the employees of the High Commission luckily escaped through the plate glass window before jumping onto the street to alert the police. The police promptly arrived on the scene, only to find the front door locked from inside. They had to enter through a side entrance. The police, warning that they were fully armed, appealed to the intruders to surrender forthwith. The call had no effect on the intruders, compelling the police to open fire.

While Basharat Hussain and Mohammed Hanif succumbed to the bullets, their underage accomplice was apprehended. It might be mentioned that Indias High Commission in the UK was one of the biggest Indian missions anywhere in the world. At that time, reportedly, about 400 persons worked there.

A short newsreel by Associated Press and another by British Pathe capture the hostage-taking drama in the Indian High Commission at Aldwych. The incident resonated in the House of Commons the same day. Leonard Robert Carr, Home Secretary in Edward Heaths government, stated that the police had no option but to open fire at the intruders. He informed that three employees of the High Commission and two police personnel sustained injuries. One sword, three daggers, an acid spray and two replica guns were recovered from the assailants, though no firearms were found on them. Whereas Carr did not hazard a guess about the motive of the assailants, Mrs Jill Knight, MP (Birmingham Edgbaston), referred to a vital though imperfect theory that the incident was possibly triggered by growing concern which Pakistanis in this country have for 19,000 civilian prisoners who are still kept under duress by India".

It might be remembered that India was still holding around ninety-three thousand Pakistani Prisoners of War (PoWs) since the end of the Indo-Pakistani War, 1971. The bulk of them were Pakistani soldiers, who had surrendered at Dacca (now Dhaka) on December 16, 1971. Since they included many war crime accused, India could not release them without the consent of the nascent Bangladesh. Pakistan had not yet recognised the new republic. While the PoWs could not be indefinitely kept in captivityas per the Geneva Convention, 1949and they were actually a burden on India, releasing them prematurely could weaken Bangladeshs diplomatic position vis-a-vis Pakistan, besides foreclosing all hopes of justice for the victims of genocide in East Bengal. The Simla Agreement, 1972, contained no clause about the release of PoWs.

It was alleged that the Pakistanis had formed an organisation called Black December" to avenge the humiliation in the war. Prof Samar Guha (MP, Contai, WB) attributed the attack on the Indian High Commission to this organisation. He called the attention of the Lok Sabha to this matter of urgent public importance on February 22. Guha saw the two youngsters who perished in the incident as unfortunate victims of the Hate India" campaign unleashed by the then Pakistani Prime Minister, viz. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

It is interesting to note that whereas Her Majestys Government expressed its regret and sympathy over the incident, the Pakistani High Commission in London and the Government of Pakistan in general remained silent. Lal Krishna Advani, while raising the matter in Rajya Sabha on February 22, emphasised the fact that whereas there had not been a single word of condemnation over the incident from the Pakistan government, it had, on the other hand, stepped up its campaign against India on the issue of PoWs. Advani also blamed the Black December" organisation for the incident.

Far from condemning the incident, Pakistan apparently eulogised its perpetrators. This would be evident from the number of mourners who thronged to Hyde Park to offer funeral prayers for the slain duo. This took place on February 27, 1973, after the London Police released the bodies post-autopsy. There were apparently three thousand mourners. A British Pathe video captures the occasion.

There were emotional scenes when the bodies of the slain duo were returned to Karachi in a PIA flight on March 2, 1973 (see video). Bouquets, wreaths of flowers and the national flag of Pakistan were placed upon their coffins; prayers were read, and slogans were chanted by thousands of people who had arrived at the Karachi International Airport.

The process of repatriation of PoWs began following an agreement signed in New Delhi on August 28, 1973. Whereas from the Pakistani side, Aziz Ahmed, the Minister of State for Defence and Foreign Affairs in Bhuttos government, signed the deal, from Indias side, it was Indira Gandhis special representative, PN Haksar.

Ali Riaz (2016) explains why Sheikh Mujibur Rahman backtracked on the plan of putting on trial Pakistani military officers accused of grievous war crimes. Out of approximately 93,000 PoWs with India, the Bangladesh government identified about 1,100 as suspects, but later pared down the list to a mere 195. However, the Bangladesh government came under intense pressure from various countries, especially the Muslim countries of West Asia, who were yet to recognise Bangladesh, to forestall the trials. On top of it, the fate of about 400,000 Bangladeshis, stranded in Pakistan, hung in delicate balance. President (later Prime Minister) Bhutto threatened to try many of them, particularly those working in the Pakistani government at that time. As late as 1973, at least 203 Bengali officers were arrested. Bhutto warned to put those 203 Bengali civilians in Pakistan on trial for espionage and high treason if Bangladesh proceeded with the trials (Bangladesh: A Political History Since Independence, P.91-92). This foreclosed Bangladeshs option of putting on trial, as far as Pakistani citizens accused of war crimes were concerned.

Hostage-taking in the 1970s had emerged as a popular tactic by radical groups. The Palestinian Black September Organisation (BSO) came to the limelight by taking 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympics, 1972. The United Nations, in its International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages (1979), had to declare all acts of taking of hostages as manifestations of international terrorism". The Indian High Commission episode (1973) revealed that Pakistani society, far from condemning such acts, actually endorsed them. A new weapon has been added to Pakistans armoury"observed LK Advani in Rajya Sabha and it is the weapon of international terrorism. It is something about which not only India but peace-loving countries all over the world should be concerned".

While Pakistan demonstrated its preference for perpetrators of terror, it excommunicated its greatest scientist, viz. Abdus Salam (1926-1996), a globally respected physicist who was also the first Muslim to win a Nobel Prize in any discipline. Salam was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, and it was for the first time, perhaps, that someone quoted from the Quran in the Nobel Banquet. However, by that time his entire community, viz. Ahmadis had already been excluded from the legal definition of Muslim. The Ahmadiyya Exclusion Act, 1974, that refers to the second amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan (1973) debarred Ahmadis from being identified as Muslims as their beliefs militate against the finality of the Prophet. This meant that no Ahmadi could become the President or Prime Minister of Pakistan. The ordeal, however, did not end there.

In his later life, after the trauma of being formally excommunicatedsays his biographer Gordon FraserAbdus Salam added the forename Muhammad" to emphasise his deep personal commitment to religion (Cosmic Anger: Abdus SalamThe First Muslim Nobel Scientist, P.20). Though the biography does not mention it, Abdus Salam during his January 1981 visit to India called on Anilendra Ganguly, the professor who taught him mathematics at Sanatan Dharma College in Lahore, which Salam believed was a game-changer in his life. The Bengali professor who had moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) after the partition of India was on his deathbed. Salam held his frail hand and dedicated his medal to Prof Ganguly.

Salam was the Chief Scientific Advisor during the Presidency of Field Marshal Ayub Khan (1958-69). He founded Pakistans nuclear and space programme (little is known about the latter), though Pakistan reportedly generates 10 per cent of its electricity from nuclear sources. However, the ostracism decree did not spare him even after his death in 1996. The epitaph of his tombstone at Ahmadi cemetery Rabwah, Punjab (Pakistan) initially read that in 1979, he was the first Muslim Nobel Laureate. However, soon it was found defaced by the radicals and the word Muslim has since then been erased. In the absence of the word Muslim, the sentence now reads that in 1979 he became the first Nobel Laureate, which is a ludicrous proposition, given that the first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901, much before Salams birth.

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What an irony! Pakistan endorses Islamic terrorism, ostracises the worlds first Nobel Laureate"! This is not an aberration but reveals the direction the Islamic Republic has taken.

The writer is the author of the book The Microphone Men: How Orators Created a Modern India (2019) and an independent researcher based in New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 19:58 IST
Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:08 IST

1 / 7 Television serials have grown in popularity, with their stars often celebrated on par with film actors. In this context, a former leading lady of South Indian cinema, once a household name, is now returning to the screen, this time through television serials.

2 / 7 The actress in question is Yamuna, who acted in more than 50 films during the height of her career. Born as Prema in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, she later moved to Bangalore.

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3 / 7 She began her career in Tamil cinema with the 1987 film Manathil Uttam Velai, directed by the legendary K Balachander, who also gave her the screen name 'Yamuna'.

4 / 7 While her career began in Tamil, Yamuna quickly found fame in Telugu and Kannada cinema, acting alongside top stars, including Sivarajkumar, and appearing in well-known films such as Govinda Govinda (1994) with Sridevi and Nagarjuna. She also found success in television, especially in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada serials, becoming a favourite among family audiences.

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5 / 7 However, her flourishing career took a dramatic turn in 2011 when she was reportedly arrested at a five-star hotel in Bangalore in connection with a prostitution ring. A case was registered against her, and the news spread rapidly, bringing her acting career to an abrupt halt.

6 / 7 In a recent interview, Yamuna revealed that the case was entirely fabricated. She stated that she was never present at the hotel on the day in question and was falsely implicated by powerful individuals. She added that the court later acquitted her after finding the allegations baseless.

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Calamity Waiting To Happen: Tejasvi Surya Shares Schools Plea To Parents For Road Repairs

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 15:13 IST

The Bengaluru South MP also posted a video of an autorickshaw carrying schoolchildren navigating a severely damaged stretch riddled with potholes and open manholes

Surya questioned the Karnataka Congress governments accountability in maintaining the citys infrastructure. (PTI)

The politics over who is responsible for repairing Bengalurus battered roads has intensified, with Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya wading into the row.

Surya tweeted a letter written by a school urging parents to write to civic authorities, requesting immediate repairs for the sake of their children.

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He also posted a video of an autorickshaw carrying schoolchildren navigating a severely damaged stretch riddled with potholes and open manholes, making it a dangerous daily journey.

Look at the road condition. There are open manholes herekids can fall in. Two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and buses are unable to navigate. Its a calamity waiting to happen. Thousands of kids, many in school vans, travel on this road every day. How can they turn a blind eye to this?" the Bengaluru South MP asked News18.

Surya questioned the Karnataka Congress governments accountability in maintaining the citys infrastructure, saying the tech capital of India is crumbling" under their rule.

On Wednesday, after inspecting areas severely affected by incessant rains, Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar claimed that the worst damage was seen in BJP constituencies.

Responding to this, Surya told News18, Does Bengaluru belong to a particular political party? It was Shivakumar who started the practice of giving funds only to Congress MLAs while denying them to BJP MLAs. Let him make public how many crores were allocated to BJP MLA areas versus Congress MLA areas. Remember how in Jayanagar he deliberately denied funds to the local BJP MLA? You withhold funds from BJP constituencies and then blame those same areas?"

The letter Surya shared was written by the secretary of the Kumaran Group of Institutions. It asked parents to acknowledge the challenges posed by the condition of roads leading to the school," and highlighted the inconvenience and risk to students.

The school encouraged parents to directly approach civic bodies: Should you wish to support the cause further, we encourage you to write directly to the relevant municipal or public works department. A collective voice from the parent community may help highlight the urgency of the matter and prompt swifter action," the letter said.

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The school also clarified that it has repeatedly requested for road repairs, but its role is limited. The responsibility of repairing public roads lies solely with the municipal bodies," the letter stated.

Surya emphasised that he was elected to represent all of Bengaluru and should be answerable for the citys problems. MLAs dont have executive powers; those lie with ministers. The irony is, while they celebrate two years of so-called good governance, half of Bengaluru is sinking," he told News18.

About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 15:13 IST
Daddy, Will You Stay Soft On BJP That Troubled Me?': K Kavithas Letter To KCR Sparks Political Storm

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 12:02 IST

Kavitha stated that KCR's soft approach towards the BJP has sparked speculation about a potential alliance.

BRS leader K Kavitha greets her father and party chief K. Chandrashekar Rao, Thursday, Aug 29, 2024. (PTI)

Telangana politics has been thrown into turmoil after BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha penned a strongly-worded letter to her father and party leader K. Chandrashekhar Rao, criticising his soft stance towards the BJP, which she claims has harassed her.

In a six-page letter dated May 2, BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha expressed deep frustration with the partys direction and leadership strategy. Kavitha accused KCR of barely criticising the BJP during the partys 25th Foundation Day meeting in Warangal, speaking for just two minutes about their primary rival.

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Kavitha stated that KCRs soft approach towards the BJP has sparked speculation about a potential alliance. She also warned that public trust in the Congress is dwindling, and people are beginning to see the BJP as an alternative  something the BRS must urgently counter. Kavitha further criticised KCRs inaccessibility, noting that even senior leaders and grassroots representatives like ZPTC and Zilla Parishad chairpersons are unable to meet him, which has left the party cadre demoralised and disconnected.

Kavithas letter also criticised the execution of the Warangal meeting, specifically KCRs speech, which she said omitted key issues like the Wakf Bill, 42 per cent BC reservations, and SC categorisation.

She questioned the reliance on old in-charges who allegedly failed to capture the spirit of the Telangana movement and accused them of lobbying for tickets in the upcoming local body elections.

Kavitha questioned why long-standing loyalists, who have been part of BRS since 2001, were denied a voice on such a significant occasion. Yet, amid her disappointment, Kavitha acknowledged a few positives  including the energy of the public meeting, the mention of Operation Kagar, and the calculated decision to avoid naming Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.

The Congress has capitalised on Kavithas letter, using it to highlight internal divisions within the BRS and its supposed ties to the BJP. Although KCR hasnt officially responded, the letter has fueled speculation about Kavithas plans, including potential splits, starting a new party, or pushing for internal reforms.

The release of the letter has triggered a fresh political controversy, with opposition leaders using it to reinforce their long-standing criticism of BRS. Congress MLA Adi Srinivas responded by saying that Kavithas letter proves the Congresss allegation that BRS and BJP are working in tandem. He said the letter is clear evidence of internal divisions within the ruling party.

Kavithas visible distance from recent party affairs has only added fuel to speculation. There have been persistent reports of tension between her and other senior BRS leaders, including working president K.T. Rama Rao and finance minister Harish Rao.

However, ahead of the Warangal event, KTR had denied any internal discord. In an interview with News18, he said, There have been rumours of rifts for the last 25 years. There is no truth to them. We are all united."

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As the letter continues to circulate and dominate political discussion in Telangana, all eyes are now on Kavitha. Whether this marks the beginning of a political breakaway or a call for introspection within BRS remains to be seen. Either way, her words have forced the party  and the state  to take notice.

The letter came at a time when her brother and party working president KT Rama Rao was taking over the mantle of the BRS, while her father was content with taking a backseat.

First Published: May 22, 2025, 22:23 IST
Ramanagara To Be Renamed Bengaluru South District, Notification Soon, Says Shivakumar

Curated By :

News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 16:29 IST

The decision comes after the Centre blocked the renaming proposal for Ramanagara district, triggering a war of words with the Karnataka government

Ramanagara is Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumars home district, and he had first tabled the proposal in October 2023. (Image: PTI/File)

Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday said Ramanagara will be renamed as Bengaluru South District.

Shivakumar said the notification to rename the city will soon be issued. This comes after the Centre blocked the renaming proposal, triggering a war of words with the Karnataka government.

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Calling it political interference, the state government said it will consider pursuing the legal route. Minister Priyank Kharge said the name change had been proposed to boost economic activity.

BJP people, they have to use some common sense. How is it looting by changing names? What is the meaning of looting? In Uttar Pradesh and other places they have changed names in a lot of places, what about that! They have to use some common sense," Ramanagara district incharge and transport minister Ramalinga Reddy was quoted as saying by India Today.

The move to rename Ramanagara district as Bengaluru South" gained momentum early in July 2024, when a delegation led by Shivakumar met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and submitted a formal memorandum. The government argued that rebranding the district will accelerate development and provide better recognition for the region. The proposal was approved by the state cabinet on July 26, 2024.

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The Ramanagara district, located about 50 km from Bengaluru, consists of Ramanagara, Magadi, Kanakapura, Channapatna and Harohalli taluks. Law and parliamentary affairs minister HK Patil had then said the decision to rename the district was taken based on the demand of people".

Ramanagara is Shivakumars home district, and he had first tabled the proposal in October 2023. But the renaming decision did not go down well with former Karnataka CM and Union minister HD Kumaraswamy, who alleged that the proposal was aimed at exploiting real estate opportunities in Ramanagara.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:29 IST
Google Brings Android 16 Beta Update With New Material Design: How To Install, Which Phones Supported

Reported By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:35 IST

Android 16 is confirmed to release in June this year and Google is doing its best to get the new update ready for the new Pixel launch.

The Android 16 QPR 1 update shows Google is close to the full release

Android 16 Material Expressive design is now rolling out with the new beta update for select devices. Android 16 was part of the Android Show earlier this month, where we got a closer look at the new Expressive UI which is the evolved version of the Material design language.

The new update is available if you have been part of the Android 16 beta program from day one, and the design upgrades are finally coming to the eligible devices through official channels.

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Android 16 Beta Update With Material Expressive Design: How To Install And Which Phones Supported

The Android 16 beta update comes with the QPR 1 label and is available for download using the usual steps of installing the new Android update on the device:

Go to Settings

Scroll down to System

Tap on Software updates

You will see the Android 16 QPR 1 beta update available to download

Install the update and reboot the device

Now you have the new Android 16 Material Expressive UI available for the Android phone. Mind you, the new Android 16 version is still in beta and you need these phones to try it out

Pixel 6

Pixel 6 Pro

Pixel 6a

Pixel 7

Pixel 7 Pro

Pixel 7a

Pixel 8

Pixel 8 Pro

Pixel 8a

Pixel Fold

Pixel 9

Pixel 9 Pro

Pixel 9 Pro XL

Pixel 9 Pro Fold

Pixel 9a

We got to try out the Android 16 QPR Beta 1 update on the Pixel 9 Pro with the new Material UI upgrades.

Android 16 Material Expressive UI: What To Expect

Google says the interface will be more fluid with smooth animations across the UI and notification cards. Android is also getting Live activities-like features called real-time updates to keep you posted on the status of your cab or the food delivery service, all on the lock screen.

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You can immediately notice the changes in the font style, the curvy nature of the icons, and the settings menu looking refreshed with new colour tones for different sections. You also get a new way to change the wallpaper and style the home/lockscreen for the Android device. The new Android 16 update is also giving you the option to change the way notifications come to the lock screen.

There is a lot more to explore with the new version and Google will be hoping that the QPR betas are in top shape so that it can meet the allotted June deadline to release the public Android 16 update this year. Going by the pace of these updates, it seems the company will be ready to have the new Android version shipped with the latest Pixel series this year.

About the Author S Aadeetya S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More

News18 Tech delivers the latest technology updates, including phone launches, gadget reviews, AI advancements, and more. Stay informed with breaking tech news , expert insights, and trends from India and around the world . Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 08:35 IST
Microsoft Says Dangerous Malware Can Steal Your Passwords And Data From Windows PCs

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 13:11 IST

Microsoft has found over 390,000 Windows PCs infected with the dangerous Lumma malware that steal your information for ransom.

Microsoft's cyber crime unit has caught hold of the dangerous malware network.

Microsofts security division has identified a dangerous malware threat that has already infected thousands of Windows PCs across the world. The company claims it has identified the victims of the Lumma stealer malware with the help of law enforcement agencies who might have been targeted by the hackers to infect their PCs.

The effect of the Lumma malware has been reported from March 16 to May 16, 2025 where over 390,000 Windows computers were found to be infected by the dangerous malware.

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What Is Lumma Malware And How Dangerous Is It?

The biggest highlight about Lumma malware is that it can be difficult to detect but very easy to distribute across machines. Microsoft says the malware threat has been around since 2022 and over the years it has evolved to become even more dangerous. It is usually sold through the underground forums, the company adds.

The other important aspect about Lumma malware attack form is that hackers use popular brands like Microsoft, impersonate and send phishing emails with the aim to infect the computers. It could be a simple feedback form from hotel booking platforms like Booking or even the popular Captcha code to identify you as a human.

Microsoft says the Lumma malware has become one of the favourite tools used by hackers who rely on it to steal passwords, credit card details and even crypto wallets.

New Malware Threat: What Can Be Done?

The company is adamant that without the help of the US govt it would have been a challenge to get hold of the infected systems by taking control of the main base where the Lumma malware has operated from.

A court order granted in the United States District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, Microsofts DCU seized and facilitated the takedown, suspension, and blocking of approximately 2,300 malicious domains that formed the backbone of Lummas infrastructure," Microsoft highlights in the blog post.

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The fact that Microsoft needed assistance from the US Court, and Europol to find the culprits of the Lumma malware suggests the risks were widespread and the concerns have become high enough to target important entities across the world.

With the use of AI to build hacking tools becoming a common story, these cyber crime units are aware of monitoring their daily movements. Microsoft says the best way to protect themselves from malware like Lumma is to enable multi-factor authentication for all your accounts and email IDs, and more importantly, do not open or click on attachments or links from unknown or even suspicious senders.

About the Author S Aadeetya S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More

News18 Tech delivers the latest technology updates, including phone launches, gadget reviews, AI advancements, and more. Stay informed with breaking tech news , expert insights, and trends from India and around the world . Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Redmond, Washington State, USA

First Published: May 22, 2025, 13:11 IST
598 Gold Coins, 10 Gold Bracelets, 17 Sealed Cigar Boxes: Duo Stumbles Upon Treasure During Trek

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:20 IST

While hiking in Czech mountains, a duo found a hidden box with 598 gold coins, bracelets, and morean estimated treasure worth Rs 3 crore

The mysterious box discovered by two trekkers contained not just one or two items, but an entire treasure trove. (News18 Hindi)

Imagine strolling through a lush green forest, soaking in the peace and beauty of nature, when suddenly you spot something unusual  a shiny aluminium box peeking out from between the stones. Intrigued, you move closer. Thats exactly what happened with two tourists hiking in the Karkonosze Mountain range of the Czech Republic. What they discovered inside this mysterious box was nothing short of extraordinary.

A Box Full of Surprises

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According to a CNN report, the box contained not just one or two items, but a real treasure trove: 10 gold bracelets, 17 sealed cigar boxes, a powder compact, a comb, and the most astonishing find, 598 gold coins. The total weight of the gold is about 3.7 kilograms (8 pounds), with an estimated value of 8 million Czech Koruna, roughly Rs 3 crore. The cigar boxes, still unopened, may hold even more secrets.

A Chance Discovery

The two travellers, who have chosen to remain anonymous, were taking a shortcut through the forest when they spotted the box lodged between rocks. Curious, they opened it and were stunned by the treasure inside. Without wasting time, they handed the box over to the East Bohemia Museum in the nearby city of Hradec Kralove.

Miroslav Novak, head of the museums archaeological department, shared that the duo arrived unannounced with the treasure. Our team immediately began investigating the site where the box was found," Novak said. He confirmed that the entire box was filled with gold and other artefacts.

Tracing the Origins

Experts are now trying to determine the age and origins of the treasure. One of the coins is dated 1921, which means it is at least a century old. Novak believes the treasure may have been hidden before the Second World War, possibly around 1945. Interestingly, not a single coin in the collection is of Czech origin. Around half of the coins are from the Balkans, and the rest from France. Some bear markings from the former Yugoslavia, dating back to the 1920s and 1930s.

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Locals have their own theories. Some say the treasure may have belonged to the wealthy Spork family of the Kuks estate, while others believe it could have been looted by Czechoslovak soldiers.

The museum is continuing its analysis to uncover more details. The true value of the treasure will only be known after the cigar boxes are opened and the other items are examined. As per Czech law, the treasure legally belongs to the local administration. However, the tourists who discovered it are entitled to a reward based on its value.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Czech Republic

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:20 IST
I Am Going To Be Applying To McDonalds: Dubai Doctor Fears Losing Job To AI

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 10:46 IST

A pulmonologist in Dubai expressed concern that AI might replace him after using it to analyse X-rays.

The doctor demonstrated how AI reached the same conclusions as he did. (Photo Credit: Instagram)

A surprising claim came from a Dubai-based doctor who joked that artificial intelligence (AI) might replace him. He humorously added that if he loses his job, he might have to apply at McDonalds.

Dr. Mohammad Fawzi Katranji, a veteran pulmonologist with 18 years of experience specialising in critical care and sleep medicine, shared his reaction on Instagram. He tested an AI tool by having it analyse patient X-rays to see if the technology could match his medical conclusions.

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So, I am about to lose my job. This is scary because I developed a skill over 20 years, which lets me look at an X-ray and point to pneumonia," he explained, pointing to an X-ray of lungs. He then turned the screen to show a different scan with two highlighted regions, the exact areas he had used to diagnose the patients pneumonia.

Now, here comes AI, and it points it out in a second. So, you dont need professional eyes to look at these X-rays; you just used artificial intelligence. So, I am going to be applying to McDonalds soon, and I hope they have some openings," he remarked.

The doctor, however, praised the technology after it detected an anomaly in a scan that he hadnt noticed. After prescribing medication for the condition, the patient began to improve.

Its not easy realising your skills need to evolve. AI is coming. I have to admit: AI helped find the diagnosis here," he wrote in the caption of the clip.

Watch The Video:

Shared on May 20, the video has already garnered over 10,000 views. Other medical professionals and AI enthusiasts, surprised by the pulmonologists response to AI, shared their reactions.

A user suggested, AI will enable you to help more people and take more time for each patient of yours. Its a gain and an opportunity and not a threat for great doctors like you!"

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Another user pointed out that while AI can detect abnormalities, it takes a skilled physician to interpret their significance. This video is embarrassing. Any competent radiologist would have dismissed the findings even after AIs help," the individual said.

AI in healthcare is evolving from a supplementary aid to a potentially transformative force. Diagnostic tools like Lunit INSIGHT CXR now match or even surpass the accuracy of human physicians.

About the Author Buzz Staff A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture. A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 10:41 IST
In China, Indian Mom Shows Whats Inside Her Kids School Bag And It's Shocking

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:33 IST

An Indian woman based in China shared a video of her childs minimalist school bag which piqued parents curiosity and sparked a debate on heavy school bags.

In the video uploaded a day ago, Nishi Sharma unpacks her child's kindergarten bag. (Photo Credits: Instagram)

For so many, school life was almost always about carrying backpacksfull of workbooks, notebooks, and textbooks. But it turns out its not the same everywhere. An Indian woman, living in China, has shared a video showing what school life looks like for young kids there.

Nishi Sharma posted a video on Instagram, and it is nothing like most parents in India would expect.

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Sharma opened her kids edgy bag on video revealing it only had a few essential items. It contained two pairs of T-shirts, a pair of shorts, and a pair of trousers. Unlike the heavy bags students across many nations carry, Sharmas childs bag had no books, water bottles or even lunch boxes.

Nishi, who is originally from Lucknow and is settled in Guangzhou, explained that her kids school provides it allfood, water, and study material. She also said that her child goes to school at 8 am and returns by 4 pm. The full-day schedule is reportedly created keeping in mind students holistic development.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nishi Sharma (@indian_girl_in_china_)

Reacting to the video, most users were fascinated by the schools approach.

Some also talked about how it differed from the desi school experience.

One of the users lamented that in India, the kids have to carry so many books that even a sack would fall short. Your kid is lucky," the user wrote.

Another user echoed similar sentiments and wrote, India mein toh KG ke bacchon ke pass bhi 5 kilo books hoti hai (In India, even the students in kindergarten have to carry a lot of books)."

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Padai kab our kya karta hai (When and what do the kids study?)" read another comment.

Some were curious about what was so special there. Sharma responded that the bag could prevent kids from injuries during an earthquake if held above their heads. When asked about the fee, she said she paid Rs 35,000 per month for kindergarten.

About the Author Buzz Staff A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture. A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:33 IST
'Learning 200 Words Is Difficult?' Mohandas Pai On SBI Manager's Refusal To Speak Kannada

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:39 IST

At an SBI branch in Bengaluru, a managers refusal to speak Kannada sparked an argument with a customer.

The viral video of the argument has sparked massive criticism online. (Photo Credits: X/@CheKrishnaCk_)

Karnataka has recently emerged as a flashpoint in the ongoing language debate, particularly between Kannada and Hindi speakers. From the state government mandating Kannada signboards to rising tensions on the ground, the issue has increasingly spilled into the digital space. A recent example that sparked outrage was a viral video of a State Bank of India manager allegedly refusing to speak Kannada with a customer.

The incident occurred at a State Bank of India branch in Suryanagar, Chandapura, Bengaluru. The footage captures a customer requesting the manager to communicate in Kannada, while the manager insisted on speaking in Hindi. I will not speak Kannada for you. I will speak Hindi," she said. At one point, the customer even reminded the manager, Madam, this is Karnataka; you should speak Kannada. Its not about the chairman; there is an RBI rule that in that particular state, you must speak the respective language," to which the official turned a deaf ear.

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Bengaluru Chandapura SBI Branch Manager says "she will never speak Kannada" as this is India and she speaks HindiRBI has given clear guidelines saying staff should provide service in the local language@TheOfficialSBI better take action against her.pic.twitter.com/llkqTjsW7R  The video drew massive ire on social media, once again reigniting the discussion on the language row. Additionally, it has also received condemnation from Kannada activists, politicians, and prominent figures. A strong reaction has also come in from former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai, who slammed the SBI manager for refusing to communicate in Kannada. Calling her out for exhibiting a very, very wrong" behaviour, Pai urged the official to show some respect to the local customers. You are very very wrong. Every business must serve its local customers in a language they understand. This is not the British Raj again. This is a service business. Learning say 200 words to converse is difficult?nobody is asking anyone to read and write but converse, learn a few https://t.co/ipxKUJKPZD  Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) May 21, 2025

Every business must serve its local customers in a language they understand. This is not the British Raj again. This is a service business. Learning, say, 200 words to converse is difficult? Nobody is asking anyone to read and write, but to converse; learn a few words to show respect to your customers. They are customers, not your captives or subjects. Thus arrogance is very, very wrong," a part of his tweet read.

Pais post was a response to an X user who defended the bank manager. While many Kannada-speaking and pro-Kannada groups have united in criticism of the official, some argued against mandating the use of a local language, emphasising the freedom to choose any language. One X user shared his perspective by citing Delhis example, claiming that no one there is forced to speak Hindi or any particular language.

Im once again saying, Come to Delhi, and dont speak in Hindi if you dont know/want, speak in English or sign language or whatever convenient. Nobody will be rude to you for not talking in Hindi. And certainly nobody would tell you that you came to delhi to beg. We know if you pic.twitter.com/JeDvtiYgDS Madhur (@ThePlacardGuy) May 21, 2025

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No hate for not speaking in Hindi, youre all welcome! And its not just Delhi that is giving you a job/bread/money; its both ways. Youre giving employment to Delhiites toothe cabbies, sabzi walas, delivery boys, your houses ownereveryone is earning their living because of you. So, were thankful that you chose Delhi as your destination," he wrote.

In response to the incident, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah strongly condemned the managers conduct, while the bank swiftly transferred the employee involved.

About the Author Buzz Staff A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture. A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:18 IST
The Bridge That Bled: 400 People Died In Mathuras Forgotten Festival Tragedy

Curated By :

Translation Desk-Local18

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:46 IST

On July 17, 1962, a train accident in Mathura during the Govardhan Mudia Purnima Mela resulted in the deaths and injuries of hundrends of pilgrims riding on the trains rooftop

Frustrated by passengers riding on the train's rooftop ignoring repeated warnings, the driver reportedly sped across the bridge, resulting in grievous injuries and instant deaths. (Local18)

Mathura, one of Indias most revered spiritual centres and the birthplace of Lord Krishna, is known for its religious festivals and age-old traditions. However, amidst the divine celebrations and faith-filled gatherings, a catastrophic railway tragedy occurred 63 years ago that still haunts the memories of those who witnessed it.

This devastating incident, which unfolded during the Govardhan Mudia Purnima Mela in 1962, turned a sacred celebration into a scene of bloodshed and national mourning.

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The Date That Changed Everything: July 17, 1962

On the early morning of Tuesday, July 17, 1962, thousands of devotees had gathered in Mathura for Guru Purnima, a significant religious event. Due to limited transport options and overwhelming crowds, many pilgrims were forced to travel by climbing onto the roofs of trains, a common but dangerous practice at the time.

At the centre of this tragedy stood the scissors bridge, a type of dual-purpose railway bridge over the Yamuna River. It served both trains and vehicles, but was closed to road traffic whenever a train approached. That morning, a passenger train on the North Eastern Railway line (which connected regions such as North Bengal, New Jalpaiguri, and Assam) sped across the bridge at approximately 4 am.

The result was catastrophic. Hundreds of pilgrims perched atop the train were either struck by the bridges steel beams or thrown off entirely, resulting in grievous injury, including amputations as well as decapitations. Panic and screams filled the air as people ran in fear. The entire scene unfolded in moments; too quick for any intervention. The train turned red with blood after the high-speed crossing. Blood was scattered everywhere, with the roofs, windows, and doors of the train drenched in red.

Eyewitnesses Recall The Horror

The aftermath was apocalyptic. The witnesses of the train tragedy saw victims, even after decapitations, wandering aimlessly for moments before collapsing lifeless to the ground. The morning silence was shattered by screams and chaos. They described the train running red with blood, its roof, windows, and doors soaked in the aftermath of carnage. Cries of pain and terror echoed over the Yamuna, as surviving passengers tried to help the injured or locate missing loved ones.

Sushil Sharma, now based in London, was a young boy at the time. He vividly recalls rushing to the Yamuna banks after hearing the commotion. I saw bodies everywhere, many were unrecognisable. Blood covered the train, the bridge, the riverbanks It was beyond horrifying," he said.

Mohan Swaroop Bhatia, a senior journalist who documented the aftermath, recalled that despite repeated warnings from railway staff against rooftop travel, passengers ignored the advice. Thousands came to perform the Govardhan parikrama, and there simply werent enough carriages," he explained.

Frustrated by the lack of cooperation, the train driver is believed to have sped through the bridge, which lacked the safety provisions to handle such a crowd.

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Once serving as a road for buses, cars, trucks, and tongas, the bridge became the scene of an unimaginable tragedy. The accident left an indelible mark, becoming a sorrowful chapter in the history of both Mathura and Indian Railways.

Even today, the mere mention of the 1962 Mudia Purnima tragedy sends chills down the spines of locals, and especially the elderly who lived through the trauma. In a land where divinity meets devotion, it was a stark reminder of how easily celebration can turn into catastrophe when safety is overlooked.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Mathura, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:46 IST
This Japanese Museum Allows Visitors To Sniff Animal Butts

Curated By :

Trending Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 16:42 IST

A museum has gone viral after allowing visitors to smell different animals buttocks.

The museum is located at Kobe's Atoa Aquarium in Japan. (Photo credits: Instagram)

Heres a friendly reminder: no matter how wild your adventures have beenbungee jumping, mountain climbing, or sampling rare dishes abroadyour list isnt truly complete just yet. Thats because you probably havent visited this one-of-a-kind museum in Japan thats all about sniffing animal butts. And dont worrytheyre not real animals, but yes, the museum is very real!

Recently, a video showing people attentively and devotedly sniffing butt photos went viral on social media. Yes, the buttocks belonged to the animals seen in the relevant frames. The museum had everything from penguins to tigers to catsyou name it! According to reports, the exhibition is located in Japans Atoa Aquarium near Kobe.

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Visitors could sniff the back of the animal shown in the photo through a small hole in the glass, positioned near the animals backside image. Some have alleged that the pictures were enhanced with artificial scentscreating a surprisingly effective experience that many didnt realise theyd enjoy.

Yes, it actually exists. Which one do you think smells worse?" the caption to the video reads. The video was shared on Instagram on May 18, and it has already racked up over 13 million views.

Watch the viral video here:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by WeRoad | Adventure group trips (@weroad)

The Instagram post that went viral has made it the talk of the internet.

A user wrote, Just because its possible, doesnt mean you do it."

Another commented, My dog wouldve loved this."

How was the museum? It was a$$," added an individual.

Now what kind of kink is this?" said another person.

Many users laughed at how people can come up with such bizarre ideas to captivate an audience.

We got dog museums for humans before GTA 6," joked a user.

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So we are sniffing butts now. Okay, humans can truly be so weird most of the time. Also, images of animals count; they would have surely judged us for something like this," said another.

Not every idea needs to be executed. Some should stay in ones mind only. What even is this? But in the end, Im also just a human- so I kinda wanna try this museum!" another user commented.

About the Author Buzz Staff A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture. A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on whats creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : Delhi, India, India

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:37 IST
Woman Tries To Hug, Kiss Stranger On Flight, Then Bites Another Passenger; Hit With Record Fine

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 16:33 IST

A womans erratic behaviour on a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta led to a violent outburst, resulting in a record $77,272 fine from the FAA

Upon landing at Atlanta Airport after a tense three-hour flight, the woman was handed over to security personnel in the presence of FAA officials. (AI Generated)

In a shocking incident that unfolded on a Delta Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta, a female passengers bizarre behaviour led to chaos on board, culminating in one of the largest fines ever imposed on a passenger by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The trouble began shortly after the plane took off in July 2021 when the woman, seated next to a fellow passenger, began acting erratically. She attempted to hug and kiss him, but when he refused, her behaviour turned aggressive. The passenger, taken aback by the sudden and inappropriate advance, immediately sought help from the flight crew.

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A flight attendant, noticing the disturbance, quickly approached to de-escalate the situation. However, rather than calming down, the woman became more agitated, shouting and demanding to be removed from the flight. She left her seat and tried to walk down the aisle, prompting the pilot to request security assistance from Atlanta Air Traffic Control (ATC).

The tension escalated quickly when the woman, in a fit of rage, attacked another nearby passenger. She bit him repeatedly, causing intense pain and panic across the flight. The crew intervened swiftly, restraining the woman and moving her to a seat at the back of the plane in an attempt to prevent further disturbances.

FAAs Response

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Upon landing at Atlanta Airport after a tense three-hour flight, the woman was handed over to security personnel in the presence of FAA officials. The FAA investigated the incident and deemed her actions a severe threat to flight safety.

In response, they imposed a staggering fine of $77,272 (approximately Rs 64 lakh) for her inappropriate conduct, including failing to follow crew instructions and physically assaulting a fellow passenger. This fine ranks among the largest ever imposed on a passenger in US aviation history, sending a strong message about the consequences of disruptive behaviour in the air.

News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated!

Location : United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 16:33 IST
Who Is Elias Rodriguez? Jewish Museum Shooting Accused Chanted Free Palestine Before Attack

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:32 IST

The suspect in the Jewish Museum shooting, in which two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed, has been identified as Elias Rodriguez.

Two staff members linked to the Israeli Embassy were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. (Image: Reuters)

Hours after two staff members from the Israeli Embassy were killed in a shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Washington DC, police identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez. Authorities confirmed that Rodriguez, who is 30 years old, is from Chicago and had no previous contact with law enforcement.

While the motive behind the incident is still unknown, officials are investigating the matter. Additionally, the police recovered a weapon from the scene.

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Washington Police chief Pamela Smith said the suspect was seen pacing outside the museum before being taken into custody. While in custody, he chanted Free Palestine, Free Palestine," according to Smith.

Two Israeli Embassy Staffers Killed

Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were shot and killed on Wednesday evening outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. Israels Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, in a post to X called the shooting a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism" and added that he is confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act".

The shooting occurred just steps from the FBIs Washington Field Office, located in Northwest DC.

Tal Naim Cohen, spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, confirmed that two embassy staff members were shot at close range on Wednesday evening while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

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Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump responded to the incident and stated that hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said, These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 10:36 IST
Chinas Costly Mistake: How Supporting Pakistan Is Weakening Beijing On All Fronts | Exclusive

Reported By :

News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 18:38 IST

Chinas open backing of Pakistan is costing it on every front  defence credibility, diplomatic standing, and financial stability

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif with Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Reuters/File)

Chinas overt support for Pakistan amid its conflict with India is turning into a high-stakes gamble, top intelligence sources have told CNN-News18. Internally strained by a deflation-hit economy, weak consumer demand, and a deepening property crisis, Beijing is under growing pressure to prioritise domestic stability over risky military entanglements.

Yet, its backing of Islamabaddiplomatically at the UN and through military assistanceis beginning to unravel, with serious consequences for its global ambitions.

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Following the Pahalgam terror attack, India launched precision strikes under Operation Sindoor, triggering a sharp military escalation. In response, Pakistan deployed Chinese-supplied weapon systems to defend its strategic assetsbut their performance exposed serious shortcomings. The PL-15 air-to-air missiles missed their targets, and the HQ-9 air defence systems failed to intercept Indian strikes.

These failures have dented Chinas credibility in the international arms market, delivering a blow to its hopes of entering the Tier 1 league of global defence exporters.

Markets responded sharply. Defence stocks such as AVIC Chengdu fell by 9 per cent. Potential buyers in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East are reportedly re-evaluating purchases. Myanmar has grounded its Chinese-supplied JF-17 jets, and Nigeria continues to face major maintenance issues with F-7 fighters.

Intelligence sources highlight that China currently operates 267 satellites, with 115 focused on surveillance, including tracking Indian military movements. Any expansion of this network to cover Pakistan-linked operations would dilute Chinas focus on critical US naval movements in the Pacific.

Strategically, Beijings primary concerns lie with asserting control over Taiwan and securing maritime claims in the South China Sea. An Indo-Pakistan conflict risks dragging Beijing into a broader regional crisis that could invite US or ASEAN-led countermeasures in contested waterways.

India, meanwhile, holds levers it has not yet activated. If Beijing continues to intervene in Indias internal matters or refuses to condemn cross-border terrorism, New Delhi could step up support for Tibetan and Uighur activist networksplacing further pressure on Beijing.

Economically, sustaining the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)already a $62 billion investmenthas become a major drain. With Pakistans economic collapse and ongoing Baloch insurgency targeting CPEC infrastructure, extending military aid to Islamabad would only deepen Chinas financial woes.

Despite deploying over 50,000 troops along the LAC and pouring billions into Himalayan infrastructure, China is also pushing ahead with a parallel prioritynaval modernisation for operations around Taiwan and the South China Sea. A flare-up in South Asia would overstretch these already split resources.

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Pakistans growing dependence on Chinese weaponry and satellite-based military support also poses a reputational risk for Beijing. Any implication in terror-linked operations may open China up to potential sanctions and further diplomatic isolation.

Most significantly, Chinas refusal to condemn Pakistan-backed terrorism and its posturing at global platforms is pushing India closer to US-led alliances like the Quaddisturbing Beijings long-standing objective of keeping New Delhi neutral in the larger East-West power rivalry.

About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18

First Published: May 22, 2025, 18:38 IST
'Future Of Country Should Be Determined By Elected Govt': Bangladesh Army Chief Calls For Election By December

Curated By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Shobhit Gupta



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:57 IST

The Bangladesh Army Chief expressed concern over the interim governments actions and stated that crucial decisions are being made without consulting the Armed Forces.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman.

Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman on Wednesday addressed officers in his Durbar meeting amid growing speculation surrounding the proposed humanitarian corridor and the upcoming elections.

In the meeting, the Chief of Army Staff (CAS) gave a strong and unequivocal message: any notion of a so-called bloody corridor" is completely unacceptable. He also called for an election to be held in December, emphasising that the future of the country should be determined by an elected governmentnot by an unelected interim administration.

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According to sources in Dhaka who spoke to CCN News18, the Army Chief categorically said that the Bangladeshi army wont support or allow such a corridor under any circumstances.

Further, National Security Advisor Dr. Khalilur Rahman said, I want to say it unequivocallywe have not talked to anyone about the corridor, and we will not talk to anyone."

However, the difference in tone and emphasis between the Army Chief and the NSA has highlighted growing discontent within the interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

According to sources, the CAS expressed concern over the interim governments actions, stating that crucial decisions are being made without consulting the Armed Forces.

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Sources further said that the officer corps stands solidly behind General Waker-Uz-Zaman, ready to act on his command if necessary.

The Army Chief also made it clear that the armed forces will no longer tolerate mob violence or lawlessness, signalling a move toward stricter enforcement of public order in the days ahead.

Location : Dhaka, Bangladesh

First Published: May 22, 2025, 08:33 IST
Ex-Israeli Lawmaker's Remarks Spark Row: 'Every Child, Every Baby In Gaza Is An Enemy'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:54 IST

Moshe Feiglin, a former Knesset member, stated, "The enemy is not Hamas, nor is it the military wing of Hamas.

Former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin

Israeli politician, Moshe Feiglin, ignited controversy as he said that every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy." While speaking to Israeli TV Channel 14, Moshe Feiglin, a former Knesset member, stated, The enemy is not Hamas, nor is it the military wing of Hamas. Every child in Gaza is the enemy. We need to occupy Gaza and settle it, and not a single Gazan child will be left there. There is no other victory."

Moshe Feiglins comments came on the heels of sharp criticism from Yair Golan, a retired IDF deputy chief of staff and head of the newly formed political party, The Democrats.

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Yair Golan, in a press conference, accused Israel of killing babies as a hobby," lambasting the Benjamin Netanyahu governments actions in Gaza. He warned that Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we dont return to acting like a sane country."

Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy. The enemy is not Hamas."We need to conquer Gaza and colonize it and not leave a single Gazan child there. There is no other victory." Yair Golans quote isnt the problem.pic.twitter.com/mQuzA81s3f https://t.co/0OBj7a0Klm  Adil Haque (@AdHaque110) May 20, 2025

Golan further said, A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not engage in mass population displacement," accusing the current leadership of being full of vengeful types with no morals and no ability to run a country in a time of crisis. This endangers our existence."

Netanyahu Condemns Golans Remarks As Wild Incitement"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Yair Golans remarks, labeling them wild incitement" and a blood libel." In a statement, Benjamin Netanyahu said, I vehemently condemn the wild incitement from Yair Golan against our heroic soldiers and against the State of Israel. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and our soldiers are fighting in a war for our existence."

International Scrutiny Of Israels Military Operation In Gaza

The comments come as Israeli intensified its military operations in the Gaza Strip as Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take control" of the entire territory to defeat Hamas and secure the release of remaining hostages. Over 600 Palestinians have been killed in strikes over the past four days while Palestinian Health Ministry said approximately 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israels offensive began after the October 7 attack.

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The mounting civilian casualties triggered growing international criticism of Israels actions as Britain paused free trade talks with Israel, summoned the Israeli ambassador and announced new sanctions against settlers in the West Bank.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was horrified" by the latest military escalation, while UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Israel to end the blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Location : Israel

First Published: May 22, 2025, 11:54 IST
'Pakistan Must Talk Directly': Jaishankar Recalls India's Message To US During Op Sindoor

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Ashesh Mallick



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:43 IST

Jaishankar said that India and Pakistan had negotiated the ceasefire directly and New Delhi had conveyed this to Washington that Islamabad had to initiate ceasefire talks.

Jaishankar says India, Pakistan negotiated ceasefire directly (Reuters Image)

Amid Donald Trumps repeated claim of his intervention between India and Pakistan for a ceasefire, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said that it was only New Delhi and Islamabad that directly negotiated" the ceasefire, which the Indian government calls an understanding".

Jaishankar said that several countries were in touch with India when Operation Sindoor was underway between May 7 and 10, stressing that the US was not alone". He highlighted that India told every other country, including the United States, that if Pakistan wanted a ceasefire, they have communicate it to India directly.

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Notably, Trump has made repeated claims about brokering the India-Pakistan ceasefire using a trade" offer to both countries. If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade," Trump reiterated on Wednesday.

Jaishankars Interview With Foreign Media

Jaishankars remarks on the ceasefire came while appearing on a television interview with NOS News in the Netherlands, which is the second-largest arms supplier to Pakistan.

Yes, we have a mechanism to talk to each other as a hotline. On 10th May, the Pakistan army sent a message that they are ready to stop firing," Jaishankar said in the interview.

When asked where the United States was in the process, the EAM responded, US was in the United States."

The Minister went on to elaborate on the sequence of events occurring during the 4-day fighting between India and Pakistan on the borders and said that several countries, including the United States, were in touch with India at that time, however, India had made it amply clear to the US that Pakistan has to come forward and talk ceasefire if they want to stop fighting.

I mean, JD Vance spoke to PM Modi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to me, they were talking to Pakistanis. The US was not alone; many other countries were in touch (with us). When two countries are engaged, it is natural that countries call. The ceasefire was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan. We told everyone, including the US. If they want to stop firing, they have to talk to us directly. And thats why it happened," Jaishankar said.

India-Pakistan Understanding

India and Pakistan agreed to halt the military operations along the Line of Control and the International Border after the Pakistani DGMO reached out to his Indian counterpart, seeking a ceasefire on May 10.

The sudden development came after intense retaliation by the Indian armed forces, which struck several Pakistani airbases the night before, giving the enemy a bloody nose. Indias decisive response came after Pakistan fired a number of ballistic missiles into Indian territory  all of which were intercepted and destroyed midair before they could hit their targets.

Pakistan Leadership, Army Chief Driven By Extreme Religious Outlook: Jaishankar

Exposing Pakistan, Jaishankar said that Indias Operation Sindoor was launched as a result of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians on April 22. He slammed Pakistans leadership and army chief Asim Munir, stating that they are driven by extreme religious outlook".

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We had a recent fighting between India and Pakistan. It started because it was triggered by a very barbaric terror attack where 26 tourists were murdered in front of their families after ascertaining their faith. It was intended to harm tourism and to create religious discord. An element of religion was introduced. You have Pakistan leadership, army chief driven by an extreme religious Outlook, so some connect with views expressed and conduct," the EAM said.

His remarks came in apparent reference to Munirs remarks on the two-nation theory in April this year, days before the Pahalgam attack. Our forefathers believed that we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different. Our traditions are different. Our thoughts are different. Our ambitions are different That was the foundation of the Two-Nation Theory. It was laid on the belief that we are two nations, not one," he had said.

About the Author Siddhant Mishra Siddhant Mishra is a Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, covering foreign affairs and international relations. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, he has also reported extensively on crime, ... Read More Siddhant Mishra is a Senior Special Correspondent at CNN-News18, covering foreign affairs and international relations. With over 12 years of experience in journalism, he has also reported extensively on crime, ... Read More

Location : Netherlands

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:59 IST
UAE, Japan Extend Support To Centre's Global Outreach Against Terrorism: 'We Stand With India'

Reported By :

CNN-News18 Edited By: Mahima Joshi



Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 14:37 IST

According to sources, both UAE and Japan extended their support to India over its fight against terrorism.

UAE and Japan extend support to central government's global outreach programme against terrorism. (Image: X/SJaishankar/@IndembAbuDhabi)

The first of the seven multi-party delegations, led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde and JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, reached the UAE and Japan, respectively, on Thursday. As the multi-party delegation arrived at their designated countries as part of Indias global outreach against terrorism post Operation Sindoor, they briefed the officials on their mission, giving a clear picture of how Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday outlined Indias approach to counter-terrorism and said that Operation Sindoor is continuing as India will respond if there is another terror attack like the one at Pahalgam and target terrorists if they are operating from Pakistan.

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UAE Extends Support To India

An all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde on Thursday and briefed the UAE officials on its mission. According to sources, the Indian delegation completed a second meeting with Parliamentary colleagues of the UAE.

During the meeting, the UAE officials expressed their assistance to Indias diplomatic mission and stated, Islam does not teach the killing of innocent civilians."

Earlier in the day, the delegation led by Shrikant Shinde met UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. The delegation includes a group of MPs, comprising Bansuri Swaraj and Atul Garg from the BJP, Manan Kumar Mishra, a senior advocate and Rajya Sabha member, ET Mohammed Basheer from the Indian Union Muslim League, Sasmit Patra from the Biju Janata Dal, and BJP leader SS Ahluwalia, along with former diplomat Sujan Chinoy.

A nation united sends a strong message on combating terrorism. https://t.co/aqzrLso2BB  Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 22, 2025

Japan Stands With India

During the briefing, aimed at setting the context for a strong message of Indias fight against terrorism, Japan stood strongly with India and said that it supports New Delhi in its stand against terrorism, sources informed.

Japans Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, during talks with the Indian delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, said, In this fight against terrorism, Japan stands with India."

All-Party Parliamentary Delegation met H.E. Mr. Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan . Indias national consensus and resolute commitment to combat terrorism in all forms was reaffirmed. FM reiterated Japans support to Indias fight against terrorism and expressed pic.twitter.com/IQEZXMxG4Y India in Japan (@IndianEmbTokyo) May 22, 2025

PM Modis Clear Message To Pakistan

In his first rally since India launched Operation Sindoor in retaliation to April 22 Pahalgam attack, PM Modi gave a clear message to Pakistan and stated that India will expose Pakistan globally.

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Pakistan can never win in a direct fight with India. Hence, it uses terrorism as a weapon against India. This went on for decades after independence. Pakistan spread terrorism, killed innocent people, and created an environment of terror," PM Modi said during a rally in Rajasthan, adding, Pakistans drama wont work anymore."

The Prime Minister further stated that the seven delegation teams are reaching all over the world and will be exposing the real face of Pakistan before the world.

Location : United Arab Emirates (UAE)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 14:01 IST
Two Israeli Embassy Staffers Killed In Shooting Outside Jewish Museum In Washington DC, Trump Reacts

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 11:44 IST

Two people were killed in the firing outside Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. According to reports, both of them were linked to the Israeli Embassy.

Shooting outside Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC (Reuters Image)

In an act of anti-semitic terrorism", two staff members linked to the Israeli Embassy were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, local media reported on Wednesday night (local time).

A 30-year-old suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, was arrested, after which he shouted, Free, free Palestine". He hailed from Chicago, the police said.

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Two Israeli Embassy staffers were ass*ssinated outside the Jewish Museum in Washington DCThis is the terrorist Elias Rodriguez, who shot and killed a Jewish couple outside the Jewish museum in DC. Free Palestine can now OFFICIALLY be considered a terrorist chant. pic.twitter.com/0AN89lzKuy  Sumit (@SumitHansd) May 22, 2025

The DC Police launched an investigation into the incident and are probing the shooting across the street from the FBIs Washington Field Office, which is located near the museum. The Israeli Embassy was in touch with the local authorities.

After the attack, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu called for additional security in all Israeli missions across the globe.

The Israeli ambassador was not at the location when the shooting took place, an embassy official told CNN.

In a statement, Tal Naim Cohen, spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, later confirmed that two embassy staff members were shot at close range on Wednesday evening while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israels representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States," he added.

Soon after the incident, US President Donald Trump said, hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

Police Launch Investigation

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said that the police are actively investigating the incident and will share more updates in due course.

Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share," Noem said on X.

Israels envoy to the United Nations, Danny Danon, described the shooting as an act of anti-Semitic terrorism" and said that harming the diplomats is crossing a red line".

The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC - in which Israeli embassy employees were also injured  is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line," Danon said.

FBI Director Kash Patel Reacts

FBI Director Kash Patel took to X and said that he has been briefed about the shooting and said that the police are dealing with the situation.

My team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office. While were working with MPD to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families. We will keep the public updated as we are able," he said.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, told ABC News that they had hosted an event at the museum that night.

We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue," Deutch said.

At least one of the victims was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, ABC reported, citing sources.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro visited the crime scene shortly after the shooting, Bondi tweeted.

Marco Rubio And Israeli President Condemn Antisemitic Violence

Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the attack and vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC. Our prayers are with their loved ones. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice," he posted on X.

Isaac Herzog, Israeli President, termed the killings as an act of terror" and said that the US and Israel will always stand united.

The heinous attack in Washington is a horrific antisemitic act of terror that claimed the lives of two young employees from the Israeli embassy in Washington. I send my heartfelt condolences to the families in this difficult hour and pray for the recovery of the wounded. We in Israel stand by the Jewish community in Washington and throughout the United States, and I wish to send comfort and strength to the entire embassy team. America and Israel will always stand united in defending our peoples and our shared values. We will not allow terror and hatred to break us," he posted on X.

What Is Antisemitism And Why Is It Rising?

Antisemitism refers to prejudice or hatred of Jews, which can manifest in various forms, such as violence directed at Jewish individuals, communities, or institutions, discrimination, and hostility against them.

In recent times, antisemitic incidents have been reported widely in several parts of the world. Over 9,300 such incidents were reported by the Anti-Defamation League in the US in 2024, the highest number since the tracking started in 1979. Israels war in Gaza against Hamas has resulted in the increase in such incidents in the recent past.

Recent Antisemitic Attacks In The West

Berlin, Germany (February 2025): A Spanish tourist was severely injured in a knife attack at the Holocaust Memorial. The assailant, a Syrian asylum seeker, expressed a desire to kill Jews."

Melbourne, Australia (December 2024): The Adass Israel Synagogue was vandalised with pro-Palestinian and antisemitic graffiti.

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Israels Operation Gideons Chariots In Gaza

In May this year, Israel commenced Operation Gideons Chariots, a major ground offensive in Gaza aimed at dismantling Hamass military capabilities and governance structures. The operation has led to over 53,000 Palestinian deaths, according to Gazas health authorities, and has drawn international criticism over humanitarian concerns.

About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 08:51 IST
Netanyahu Orders Enhanced Security At Israel Missions As World Condemns Washington Shooting

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 13:58 IST

Condemning the attack, Donald Trump said, "These horrible D.C. killings, clearly based on antisemitism, must end, NOW!."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Image Credit: AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that security measures at Israeli embassies worldwide will be intensified after two Israeli embassy staff members were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC.

In a statement from his office, Benjamin Netanyahu expressed shock at the horrifying antisemitic murder," noting that he had been briefed on the details by the Israeli ambassador to the US and US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who assured him that America would ensure justice is served. Thanking US President Donald Trump for his strong stance against antisemitism, he said, We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against Israel are costing us lives and must be fought relentlessly."

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He added, My heart aches for the families of the young couple whose lives were brutally cut short by a despicable antisemitic murderer. I have ordered enhanced security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions globally and for state representatives."

World Leaders React To Israel Embassy Staff Killings

Top US and Israeli leaders expressed shock and outrage over the incident. Condemning the attack, Donald Trump said, These horrible D.C. killings, clearly based on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. My condolences to the victims families. It is tragic that such events can occur! God Bless You ALL."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that authorities would track down those responsible" for the fatal shooting of the two Israeli embassy staffers. This was a cowardly, antisemitic act of violence. Make no mistake: we will find those responsible and bring them to justice," he posted on X.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, This despicable act of antisemitism has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered, and we are praying for the injured. I extend my full support to the Ambassador and all embassy staff," he said.

Israels ambassador to the United Nations condemned the killings as a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism". Attacking diplomats and the Jewish community crosses a red line. We trust that US authorities will take decisive action against those responsible for this criminal act," Ambassador Danny Danon wrote on X.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Location : Israel

First Published: May 22, 2025, 13:58 IST
Pakistan Expels Indian Diplomat After India Declares Pak Official Persona Non Grata

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 09:37 IST

According to an official statement, Pakistan declared the Indian diplomat persona non grata and directed the official to leave Islamabad within 24 hours.

Tensions have escalated between India and Pakistan ever since terrorists opened fire at tourists in J&K's Pahalgam (IMAGE: REUTERS)

Pakistan government on Thursday announced expulsion of a staffer of the Indian High Commission.

India on Wednesday expelled a Pakistani official working at the Pakistan high commission on charges of involvement in espionage, in the second such expulsion in a week, people familiar with the matter said.

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The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the staffer at the Pakistan mission has been declared "persona non grata" for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status and that he has been given 24 hours to leave India.

On May 13, India had expelled another Pakistani official for allegedly indulging in espionage.

Following Indias action, Pakistan had also expelled an Indian staffer posted at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

According to a statement by the Foreign Office, the "Government of Pakistan has declared a staff member of the High Commission of India, Islamabad, as persona non grata for engaging in activities inconsistent with his privileged status. The concerned official has been directed to leave Pakistan within 24 hours," it said.

The Indian Charge dAffaires was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey this decision.

It was stressed that none of the diplomats or staff members of the Indian High Commission should misuse their privileges and status in any manner, the statement said.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pahalgam attack, which claimed 26 lives.

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India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7, following which Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions.

The hostilities ended with an understanding on stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10.

Location : Islamabad, Pakistan

First Published: May 22, 2025, 09:37 IST
Pakistan's DG ISPR Echoes Hafiz Saeed In Viral Anti-India Rant: 'We'll Choke You If...'

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 12:59 IST

India Pakistan News: India at various instances has made it clear that blood and water cant flow together at the same time.

Pakistani military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. (PTI)

India Pakistan News: Pakistani military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry recently echoed hate-filled sentiments against India, similar to those expressed by terrorist Hafiz Saeed in the past.

Hafiz Saeed, who is reportedly the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, has a history of delivering inflammatory speeches against India and the US.

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#BREAKING Pakistani military spokesperson @OfficialDGISPR is at a university in Pakistan delivering hate and violence-encouraging speeches against India echoing what terrorist Hafiz Saeed said some years ago !Shameful! pic.twitter.com/W7ckNPePOH  Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) May 22, 2025

Ahmed Chaudhry was speaking at a university in Pakistan. While referring to the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) by India after the Pahalgam terror attack, he said, If you stop our waters, well choke your breath (Tum humara paani rok doge toh hm tumhra saans band kr dege)."

Here is Hafiz Saeed saying the same thing : pic.twitter.com/SLBV5ODojR Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) May 22, 2025

The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank, outlines the terms for sharing and managing the Indus River and its five tributaries  Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum, and Chenab between India and Pakistan. It also mandates regular information exchange between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

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Meanwhile, India at various instances has made it clear that blood and water cant flow together at the same time". After the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, India announced a series of measures targeting Pakistan on April 23.

The first involves holding in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty until Pakistan ceases its support for cross-border terrorism. In addition, the Integrated Check Post at the Attari border was closed immediately. Later, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting nine terror-related sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir.

Location : Pakistan

First Published: May 22, 2025, 23:57 IST
Person Shot At By Security Guards Outside CIA Headquarters In US: Report

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 19:21 IST

After the incident, the CIA shut the main gate of the building and urged the employees to seek alternate routes.

US CIA Headquarters. (File)

In another shooting incident, security guards shot an individual outside Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters in Virginias Langley on Thursday, according to US media reports.

The incident, described by the CIA as a security incident," occurred near the agencys main gate. It said that the shooting was not fatal, reported NBC News.

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There was a security incident that law enforcement responded to outside CIA Headquarters," a CIA spokesperson told the news outlet.

However, according to news agency Reuters, the CIA has declined to say whether the suspect was hit by gunfire. The US ntelligence agency has claimed that personnel engaged the person outside the gates.

After the incident, the CIA shut the main gate of the building and urged the employees to seek alternate routes.

The front gate at Headquarters is closed until further notice. Please use alternate routes for Thursday, May 22nd," the agency said in a post on X.

The front gate at Headquarters is closed until further notice. Please use alternate routes for Thursday, May 22nd. CIA (@CIA) May 22, 2025

Fairfax County police said officers were dispatched around 4 am to the 900 block of Dolley Madison Boulevard in McLean to assist CIA police with traffic control following the incident. Police confirmed on Thursday that their officers are continuing to provide traffic support in the area.

The incident took place hours after two Israeli Embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were shot and killed outside Washignton DCs Capital Jewish Museum.

Reportedly, there is no evidence that the two incidents are linked.

A 30-year-old suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, was arrested, after which he shouted, Free, free Palestine". He hailed from Chicago, the police said.

The DC Police launched an investigation into the incident and are probing the shooting across the street from the FBIs Washington Field Office, which is located near the museum. The Israeli Embassy was in touch with the local authorities.

After the attack, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu called for additional security in all Israeli missions across the globe.

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The Israeli ambassador was not at the location when the shooting took place, an embassy official told CNN.

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More

Location : United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 19:21 IST
Should Be Given Kings Title: Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khans Jibe At Asim Munir's Promotion

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 23:30 IST

Army chief Gen Asim Munir was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal on Tuesday for his role in the recent conflict with India.

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan. (AP File Image)

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday took a jibe at Army Chief General Asim Munir, who recently got promoted to a position of Field Marshal, saying that the latter should have given himself the title of king" instead of field marshal as the country is currently governed by the jungle law.

MashaAllah, General Asim Munir has been made Field Marshal. Though frankly, it might have been more fitting to give him the title of King instead  because right now, the country is ruled by the law of the jungle. And in the jungle, there is only one king," the former primer said in a post on X as reported by news agency PTI.

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Munir was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal on Tuesday for his role in the recent conflict with India, becoming the second top military officer in the countrys history to be elevated to the position.

Preferring to operate from behind the scenes, he only recently came out amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan. He was painted as a hero after the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmirs Pahalgam on April 22  one of the deadliest strikes in the Valley that claimed 26 lives.

The jailed leader categorically denied any rumors of a deal or ongoing dialogue, labeling them baseless lies." However, he extended an open invitation to the military establishment for talks, provided their concern was genuinely for Pakistans interests and future.

No deal has taken place, nor is any dialogue underway. These are baseless lies. The country is facing external threats, a surge in terrorism, and an economic crisis. We must unite. I have never asked for anything for myself before, nor will I now," Khan added.

Khan further warned the Shehbaz Sharif-led government to prepare for another potential retaliatory attack from New Delhi. He further lamented that Pakistan had become a country where the law applied only to the weak, never to the powerful.

Khan further said that over the past three years, Pakistans moral and constitutional framework has been utterly destroyed.

A farcical trial has been resumed in the Toshakhana-II case. Just like in prison, court proceedings are dictated by the will of a single colonel. My sisters and lawyers are being barred from court; my companions are not allowed to meet me; I am denied contact with my children for months; even my books are not delivered, and I am denied access to my physician. This is a continued violation of court orders and laws," he said.

He said he received information about drone attacks carried out in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to officially lodge a protest with the federal government and take immediate steps to stop these drone strikes.

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"The killing of innocent civilians in drone attacks does not reduce terrorism as it only fuels it further. After years of struggle, we had succeeded in halting American drone operations in Pakistan. If you claim to be against terrorism, then do not drop bombs on the homes of your own people," he added.

(With inputs from PTI)

About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He previously worked with Hindustan Times Digital (HTDS) and NDTV. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India ... Read More

Location : Islamabad, Pakistan

First Published: May 22, 2025, 23:30 IST
'The Ring Was In His Pocket...': Israel Embassy Staffers Shot Dead In US Were A Couple

Curated By :

Translation Desk

Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 12:48 IST

Both the victims, whose names have not yet been officially released pending family notification, were described by Israeli officials as bright, committed young professionals.

Two Israeli embassy employees were fatally shot outside the US Capitol Jewish Museum in what authorities called an "anti-Semitic attack".

They were young, in love, and on the verge of a new beginning. What was meant to be a quiet moment of joy, a surprise marriage proposal in Jerusalem, will now remain a haunting what-if, after two Israeli embassy employees were fatally shot outside the US Capitol Jewish Museum in what authorities called an anti-Semitic attack".

The victims, a man and a woman in their late twenties, were more than diplomatic staffers. They were partners, soulmates, and as it turns out, just days away from an engagement that had been months in the making. Both the victims, whose names have not yet been officially released pending family notification, were described by Israeli officials as bright, committed young professionals.

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Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, revealed in a statement that the male victim had purchased an engagement ring just days earlier and had planned to propose to his partner in Jerusalem next week. He wanted it to be perfect, Leiter said in a statement, adding that he had spoken to friends, bought the ring this week, and was going to ask her to marry him during their trip home.

This was not just an attack on our people, but an attack on hope and love, said a visibly shaken Leiter.

The couple had reportedly met while training for diplomatic service and had been inseparable since. Colleagues at the Israeli embassy described them as devoted not only to their work but to each other", often seen sharing lunch breaks and late-night strategy meetings during tense diplomatic moments. What began as professional camaraderie blossomed into a deep, enduring relationship that many assumed would end in marriage.

But now, instead of wedding preparations, both families are facing the unbearable task of planning funerals.

They shared dreams of building a life together in Israel; one filled with purpose, travel, and family. They represented the best of us," said one embassy staffer, fighting back tears.

But all of that came to a halt outside the Capitol Jewish Museum, where 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago allegedly opened fire on a group that included the couple. Police say Rodriguez was overheard shouting Free, free Palestine" during his arrest, raising early concerns about a politically motivated hate crime, possibly connected to the global reverberations of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Authorities insist there is no ongoing threat to the Jewish community, but for those who knew the victims, the damage is already incalculable.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the killings a despicable act of hatred", and noted that the embassy community was deeply shaken with the incident. This is an unbearable loss for the Israeli diplomatic family and our prayers are with the loved ones of those who were murdered, he stated.

US President Donald Trump also weighed in on the tragedy early Wednesday morning, posting a message on his social media platform, These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/Z30bjAQOpZ The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2025

The FBI, along with federal and local police, continues to investigate the attack, focusing on Rodriguezs movements and possible online activity in the days leading up to the shooting. Authorities say the suspect had been loitering near the museum earlier in the day, raising questions about premeditation.

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The Capitol Jewish Museum, a landmark celebrating Jewish heritage and resilience, was placed on lockdown in the immediate aftermath, though no other injuries were reported. Community leaders have since held vigils near the site, calling for unity in the face of rising political and religious tensions.

As US reels from the attack, global leaders and citizens alike mourn not only a diplomatic loss but the silencing of two young lives poised for a joyful new chapter. The embassy has lowered its flags to half-staff, and a memorial service is being planned in coordination with the victims families.

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 12:48 IST
Trump Admin Blocks Harvards Foreign Admissions Over Antisemitism, China Allegations

Curated By :

News18.com

Last Updated: May 23, 2025, 12:50 IST

Harvard University Enrollement Dispute: US Department of Homeland Security Secretary informed Harvard that its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification had been revoked.

Harvard, the wealthiest university in the US with an endowment of $53.2 billion as of 2024, has become a key target of the Trump administration. (Reuters file photo)

Harvard University Enrollement Dispute: The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard Universitys certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), suspending its ability to enrol new international students and barring it from hosting any foreign students for the 20252026 academic year.

Additionally, existing international students must now transfer to another institution to maintain their visa status, according to the US Department of Homeland Securitys order.

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Also See: What Happens To The 788 Indian Students Currently Enrolled At Harvard University?

The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status," the order stated.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the decision on social media platform X, sharing a photo of the official decertification order.

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," Noem wrote.

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments pic.twitter.com/12hJWd1J86  Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 22, 2025

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law," she added.

Also See: Why Foreign Students Are Now Barred And Whats Behind The Feud?

Noem also issued a warning to other institutions, writing, Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country."

This move follows an earlier warning in April, when Noem had threatened to take similar action. At the time, she said Harvards certification depended on following US immigration laws.

The move is part of a broader federal crackdown on US universities, which the administration says is aimed at addressing antisemitism and reducing diversity programmes

The administration has also taken steps to revoke visas and deport international students involved in protests against the war in Gaza, accusing them of supporting the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Harvard, the wealthiest university in the US with an endowment of $53.2 billion as of 2024, has become a key target of the Trump administration. The Ivy League institution has refused to accept federal oversight of its admissions, hiring, and political stancedrawing sharp criticism from Trump.

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In response, the administration froze $2.2 billion in federal funding to the university last month, with an additional $450 million in cuts announced on Tuesday.

(With inputs from agencies)

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

Location : United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 23:33 IST
Trump Doubles Down On Claim He Ended India-Pakistan Conflict: Settled It Through Trade'

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 07:02 IST

Donald Trump remarked, "We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade.

US President Donald Trump (Reuters Image)

Donald Trump On India-Pakistan: US President Donald Trump asserted that he had settled" the recent ceasefire between India and Pakistan, attributing the resolution to his efforts in pursuing trade agreements with both nations. The claim came during a White House meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, where Donald Trump discussed the de-escalation of tensions that followed Indias Operation Sindoor, a response to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Donald Trump remarked, If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade."

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He indicated that the US was actively pursuing significant trade deals with both countries, prompting him to inquire of the leaders, And I said, What are you guys doing?"

Describing the dangerous escalation that preceded the ceasefire, Donald Trump elaborated, Somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries."

He continued, And we spoke to them, and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled, and then two days later, something happens, and they say its Trumps fault."

Donald Trump praise the leadership of both South Asian nations, saying, But Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good, great leader. And India is my friend, Modi."

To this, President Ramaphosa concurred, Modi, mutual friend."

Donald Trump concluded, Hes a great guy and I called them both. Its something good."

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The US President has consistently maintained that he played a pivotal role in de-escalating the conflict between India and Pakistan.

India has stated that the recent ceasefire with Pakistan was a bilateral agreement, worked out directly between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries. While US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed to have brokered the ceasefire, India has consistently denied any third-party mediation emphasizing that the decision to halt military actions was a result of direct communication between New Delhi and Islamabad and not linked to any trade discussions.

About the Author Mallika Soni When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?" When not reading, this ex-literature student can be found searching for an answer to the question, "What is the purpose of journalism in society?"

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:02 IST
Trump Takes Credit For Everything: Ex-US NSA John Bolton On India-Pakistan Ceasefire Claim

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:29 IST

"Its nothing personal to India. This is Donald Trump, who takes credit for everything," Bolton was quoted as saying.

Bolton dismissed Trumps claim that American mediated ceasefire between India and Pakistan. (Image: AP)

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton took a jab at his former boss, Donald Trump and stated that President Trump has a tendency to take credit for everything. Boltons remarks came amid the US Presidents claim of brokering peace between India and Pakistan following Operation Sindoor.

Its nothing personal to India. This is Donald Trump, who takes credit for everything," Bolton was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

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I think he did have a call with Prime Minister Modi, and Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also on the call. Im sure other countries might also be calling to see what they can do. Its typical of Trump because he would jump in before everyone else could take credit. It may be irritating, probably is irritating to many people, but its nothing against India, its just Trump being Trump," he added.

The ceasefire deal between India and Pakistan came after Indias launched Operation Sindoor in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.

India in a missile attack targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), leading to intense clashes. Following this, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian cities along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) with drones and shelling.

Trump Claimed Credit For India-Pakistan Ceasefire

Just a few minutes before India could officially announce understanding of cessation of hostilities with Pakistan, US President Donald Trump announced that both the countries have accepted to the full and immediate ceasefire". With this, Trump claimed that the US played a key role as mediator in brokering the India-Pakistan Ceasefire.

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After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

However, India refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More

Location : United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 08:10 IST
US Senate Staffer Filmed Sex In Hearing Room Out Of Boredom, Says He Has 'No Regrets'

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 22:34 IST

After filming the act, Maese-Czeropski reportedly gave his partner a tour of the Senate and returned to work before noon

The video was recorded inside Hart 216, one of the Senates most high-profile hearing rooms, known for hosting key testimonies. (AP file photo)

Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a 25-year-old former US Senate staffer, has admitted to filming himself having sex in a Capitol hearing room and says he has no regrets" over the act that led to his dismissal.

Speaking to New York Magazine, Maese-Czeropski said he carried out the act out of boredom with his high-ranking position. I would come in nine hours a day, sit there bored out of my fking mind. So yeah, Im going to entertain myself and fk in a room," he said.

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The video was recorded inside Hart 216, one of the Senates most high-profile hearing rooms, known for hosting key testimonies including that of former FBI Director James Comey on Russian election interference. The room was recently used by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a former Democratic presidential candidate.

After filming the act, Maese-Czeropski reportedly gave his partner a tour of the Senate and returned to work before noon. However, he mistakenly shared the explicit footage in a group chat. Days later, the clip surfaced on The Daily Caller, leading to his exposure and subsequent firing from Senator Ben Cardins office.

He later admitted that the backlash left him overwhelmed, leading to a brief stay in a psychiatric ward due to intense feelings of shame and online threats. He eventually left the US and went backpacking through Southern Africa, Portugal, and the Canary Islands before settling in Australia.

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Reflecting on the incident, he said, Its hard to say that I learned a lesson In some sense, I fked in the Senate because I was miserable and wanted a way out."

Maese-Czeropski, who has since embraced the nickname Senate Twink," has launched an OnlyFans page under the same moniker. He also claimed he is not the only one to have engaged in such acts within the Senate. I know so many people whove f*cked in the Senate. I could throw people under the bus," he said.

About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More

Location : United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 22:33 IST
Young Man Bought A Ring: Jewish Museum Victims Were A Couple, Set For Engagement Next Week

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 13:52 IST

Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot down by a man on Wednesday night in Washington DC.

Washington DC shooting outside Jewish museum (Reuters Image)

The two Israeli Embassy staffers, who were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on Wednesday night, were about to get engaged next week, Israels ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, said.

In what officials said was an act of antisemitism", two members of the Israeli Embassy were gunned down outside the museum by a Chicago man, identified as Elias Rodriguez. As the man was being arrested, he yelled, Free, free Palestine."

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The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple," Leiter said in a news conference.

They were a beautiful couple out for an evening in Washingtons cultural center"Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter: the victims were about to be engaged  the young man had bought a ring just this week and planned to propose in Jerusalem next week  pic.twitter.com/Ud2GhO0Irc  Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) May 22, 2025

However, the authorities have not disclosed the names of the victims so far.

The Israeli ambassador was not at the location when the shooting took place, an embassy official said earlier in the evening.

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Soon after the shootout, President Donald Trump said, hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country.

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 13:14 IST
'Terrible Reporter': Trump Slams Journalist Over Question On Qatari Jet

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Last Updated: May 22, 2025, 08:27 IST

Lashing out at the reporter, Trump told the reporter that he was not smart enough. The US president also called the journalist a terrible reporter.

US President Donald Trump. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump lashed out at a journalist for asking questions about the Pentagons recent announcement to modify a Qatari Boeing 747 as a future Air Force One. Trump said that the journalist was not smart enough" to do his job and referred to him as a terrible reporter."

What are you talking about?  What are you talking about? You know You need to get out of here What does this have to do with Qatari Jet? They are giving the United States Air Force a jet, and its a great thing," Trump said.

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The incident occurred during Trumps meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House. The US President also accused the reporter of diverting attention from more important issues, such as the violence and racist laws against white farmers in South Africa.

Were talking about a lot of other things, and this NBC is trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a terrible reporter. Number one, you dont have what it takes to be a reporter. You are not smart enough," Trump said.

The US President further said that NBC and Brian Roberts, its parent companys CEO and chairperson, should be investigated for their operations, branding the network a disgrace".

You ought to go back to your studio at NBC, because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible in the way you run that network. And you are a disgrace. No more questions from you," he further stated.

Defending the Qatari gift, he said, But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave USD 5.1 trillion worth of investments in addition to the jet."

Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, confirming about the same, said that the transfer complies with all US laws and regulations and noted that the Defence Department will ensure the aircraft is properly equipped to serve in a presidential transport role, CNN reported.

Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump had earlier said that the jet was NOT TO ME!" but a gift from a nation."

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The Boeing 747 is being given to the United States Air Force/Department of Defence, NOT TO ME! It is a gift from a nation, Qatar, that we have successfully defended for many years. It will be used by our Government as a temporary Air Force One, until such time as our new Boeings, which are very late on delivery, arrive," Trump stated.

(With inputs from agency)

Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)

First Published: May 22, 2025, 07:56 IST
Allan Wilson High School headmaster, Tafara Zhou, who appeared in court last month accused of sexually abusing a former student, has now hit back by filing an extortion complaint against the same student.

Zhou is accusing the student of allegedly extorting US$15 000 from him to facilitate the withdrawal of his aggravated indecent assault case which is pending at Harare Magistrates Court.

Tanaka Elvis Sikwavaile, 19, and his accomplice Charles Masiyandaita, appeared before Harare magistrate Apollonia Marutya yesterday, facing extortion charges.

Masiyandaita is a former teacher at Allan Wilson High School.

The court heard that on April 12, Zhou was arrested on charges of aggravated indecent assault on the former student.

He was released on free bail as he was coming from home. Zhou changed his phone number.

The State alleged that on April 25, Emmanuel Venge, the Allan Wilson SDC vice-chairperson received a call from Masiyandaita, who is the purported guardian of Sikwavaile, informing him that he was not able to get hold of Zhou.

Masiyandaita allegedly requested Venge to engage Zhou and demand US$15 000 to facilitate the withdrawal of the aggravated indecent assault case.

Masiyandaita would constantly check with Venge telling him that if Zhou didnt pay the money, he would ensure that the matter goes to trial and he would be jailed.

Venge informed Zhou who said he didnt have money and wasnt interested in participating in any illegal activity.

The matter was immediately reported to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

The court heard that a team from ZACC requested Venge to call Masiyandita to confirm that, indeed, he was the one orchestrating the extortion bid. He allegedly confirmed that he needed US$15 000 to ensure the withdrawal of the matter.

They arranged to meet at Montague Shopping Centre where Masiyandaita and Sikwavaile were arrested after receiving US$200. H Metro
UPDATE

Jun 24, 2025 2:45 AM CDT

Little more than a month after Jony Ive, the designer of the iPhone, teased the "amazing products that elevate humanity" that he would be working on with OpenAI, OpenAI has scrubbed all mention of Ive from its website. The artificial intelligence company is buying Ive's startup, called io, but another startupcalled IYOquickly filed a trademark infringement complaint, arguing it had pitched its own AI hardware both to Ive's design firm as well as to the personal investment firm of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman back in 2022. Ruling that the case is strong enough to proceed to a hearing in October, a judge ordered OpenAI to temporarily stop marketing its new venture with io, the AP reports. Altman and Ive have been similarly ordered.

May 21, 2025 6:55 PM CDT

"I believe everything I've done in my career was leading to this," says Jony Ive, the former Apple exec who designed the iPhone. OpenAI is buying Ive's io startup in a deal that could bring artificial intelligence to a new range of devices, moving beyond screens. The deal will bring Ive and his team of around 55 employees, including engineers and scientists, to OpenAI, where they will take over creative and design control, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ive, who left Apple in 2019, co-founded io with three others around a year ago. The deal is worth around $6.5 billion, including the 23% stake OpenAI already has in the company, reports the AP.
The US Institute of Peace retook control of its headquarters Wednesday, two days after a federal judge said the firing of its board and employees by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency was illegal. The institute's acting president, George Moose, entered the organization's headquarters with private security and the institute's outside attorney for the first time since being escorted off the premises during the DOGE takeover, the AP reports. Moose and most of the institute's board were fired in March , part of the mass slashing of the federal workforce spearheaded by Musk.

The institute and many of its board members filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration soon after, seeking to prevent their removal and stop DOGE from taking over its operations. US District Judge Beryl Howell's opinion on Monday reversed DOGE's actions. Speaking after a short examination of the headquarters, Moose said all appeared to be in order. "I didn't see anything, any destruction, if you will, no damage that I can see that is visible," he said. Moose, a former ambassador and career member of the Foreign Service, said human resources, technology, and finance staffers would be in the building Thursday getting the nonprofit ready to welcome back its workforce. He expects to bring back all employees who want to return.

The Trump administration, which did not immediately return a request for comment, has 30 days after Monday's ruling to file a notice of appeal. The judge's ruling said the administration did not have authority to unilaterally dismantle the institute, which was established by Congress in 1984 as an independent organization to promote peace and seek to end conflicts around the world. The saga began when President Trump issued an executive order in February that targeted the institute and three other agencies for closure. The first attempt by DOGE to take over the headquarters led to a standoff. DOGE returned days later with the FBI and District of Columbia Metropolitan Police. Moose said the goal now is to get back to the work the institute was created to do: "projects, ideas that are, we believe, of interest to the American people."
In an event that Military.com notes "pushes the boundaries" of the Constitution's prohibition on a state religion, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led an evangelical Christian prayer service at the Pentagon on Wednesday, during working hours, that included praise for President Trump as divinely appointed. The "Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service" was held in the Pentagon's packed auditorium and carried live on its internal TV network. "This is precisely where I need to be, exactly where we need to be as a nation at this moment, in prayer, on bended knee, recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ," Hegseth said in opening the service, per CNN .

It's highly unusual for the secretary to host an event during the workday for any particular religion, current and former defense officials said. Hegseth said he wants to make it a monthly event. The main speaker Wednesday was Brooks Potteiger, pastor of Hegseth's church in Tennessee, per the New York Times. "We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointedfor President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land," Potteiger told the gathering. "And we pray that you would continue to protect him, bless him, give him great wisdom."

The Pentagon provides services for employees of varying faiths but not hosted by the secretary of defense, held in the auditorium, or broadcast live throughout the department. Nor are they promoted the way Wednesday's was, per CNN, which saw an email to defense employees encouraging them to attend in person. A brochure handed to people as they arrived bore the seal of the Department of Defense on the first page. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, a law professor, said Hegseth problematically demonstrated "sponsorship in the true sense of the word, outside of fundinghe's advocating for this, he is putting his weight of the official Office of the Secretary of Defense behind a particular religious event and inviting someone to the Pentagon to conduct it. That's wrong."

The Defense Department posted a video of the service here.
A deal was signed Thursday after a British court said the UK can transfer sovereignty over the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius, overturning a block that was imposed hours before the agreement was due to be signed. The UK agreed to hand over to Mauritius the Indian Ocean archipelago, which is home to a strategically important US-UK naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia, per the AP . The UK, which the Guardian notes went ahead with the deal despite the fear of political backlash, will lease back the base for at least 99 years, at an estimated cost of around $135 million per year.

The deal was signed on Thursday by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian leader Navin Ramgoolam. "By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, we're securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century," Starmer said, per the BBC. The AP notes that up to 2,000 people were booted from the islands by the UK in the 1960s and '70s so the US military could build the Diego Garcia base, which has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. The injunction blocking the new deal came about due to two British citizens who originally hailed from the islands, claiming they'd been displaced when the US military base arrived, and that it will be even more challenging to return to their homeland once Mauritius takes over. They have vowed to continue the fight.

The deal was initially announced in October, when Pravind Jugnauth was still the prime minister of Mauritius and was on board, per the BBC. Ramgoolam was more wary when he entered office, which caused delays in pushing it forwardas did the US review of the plan; President Trump has since said he'd back the deal. The arrangement reportedly has a resettlement fund in the works for those displaced natives who want to return, though the specifics haven't been made available. One of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been under British control since 1814. The UK cleaved the archipelago away from Mauritius, itself an ex-British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius became independent. This story has been updated with new developments.
Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, were fatally shot late Wednesday as the American Jewish Committee hosted an event at a museum in the nation's capital. The staffers have not yet been identified, but a spokesperson for the embassy tells CNN the Israeli ambassador was not at the site of the shooting. "Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum," the spokesperson says. Attorney General Pam Bondi has visited the scene, the Washington Post reports. The FBI, which is working the case with the DC Police, says there is no ongoing threat to the public.
The suspect in Wednesday night's fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, waited around at the scene pretending to be a witness until police arrived, a witness tells CNN. The suspect then allegedly told police, "I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine!" He allegedly waved a red keffiyeh and chanted "Free, free Palestine" upon being taken into custody, the Guardian reports. Police have identified him as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. More:

The witness says before the shootings, the suspect was pacing around outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was holding an event for young Jewish professionals to meet members of the diplomatic community. The witness says as a group of four exited the building, the suspect approached them and fired. "Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino says.
Tropical forests vanished at a record pace in 2024, losing 26,000 square milesan area about the size of Irelandaccording to new satellite data. Fires, rather than land clearance for agriculture, drove most of the loss for the first time, with the Amazon region facing unusually severe impacts amid its worst drought on record. Researchers warn this could signal a shift toward a climate-driven feedback loop, raising concerns some areas may be nearing an ecological "tipping point," the BBC reports. Matthew Hansen at the University of Maryland called the trend "frightening," suggesting the Amazon could become a savanna if forest loss continues, with old-growth forests lost forever.

"It's still a theory, but I think that that's more and more plausible looking at the data," says Hansen, who's co-director of the lab that produced the data. Globally, the destruction released around 3 billion tons of greenhouse gases, similar to the European Union's annual emissions. "Rising global temperatures are making forests hotter and drier, and as a result, more likely to burn," Hansen said, per the Guardian. "We have a lot of work to do to confront such a widespread, destructive, and increasing fire dynamic."

In Africa, destruction of pristine areas of the Congo rainforest reached a record high. While deforestation in Brazil and Bolivia also spiked, data from Southeast Asia told a different story. Indonesia saw forest loss drop by 11% despite drought conditionsprogress attributed to strengthened "no burning" laws and coordinated government-community action. "Indonesia serves as a bright spot in the 2024 data," said Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of the Global Forest Watch project at the World Resources Institute, per the BBC. As the climate warms, researchers caution that forest resilience is in question, and that preserving these carbon-rich ecosystems will require unrelenting vigilance, not temporary gains.
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Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were days from a possible engagement. But Lischinsky never got the chance to pop the question. As the staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, left an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum late Wednesday, they were shot dead.



They were identified Thursday by Israel's government. "We will not be deterred by terror. We will continue our mission across the globe, with unwavering commitment to represent Israel with pride," reads a post on X.

Police sources indicate the suspected shooter, a 31-year-old Chicago resident who allegedly admitted to carrying out the killings in the name of Palestine, shot the couple as they were leaving the museum with two others, per the Washington Post.
Kim Jong Un has vowed to punish the people responsible for a failed warship launch. The North Korean dictator said the accident was a "criminal act" that "severely damaged the dignity and pride of our nation in an instant," the BBC reports. According to state media, Kim was watching in the port city of Chongjin on Wednesday as the 5,000-ton destroyer lost balance on a slipway. South Korean military officials said satellite images showed that the ship ended up lying on its side in the water, reports the New York Times . The Times calls the accident, which tore holes in the ship's hull, a "huge embarrassment" for Kim.

Last week, 38North reported that the warship, the country's second new destroyer in a month, would "likely be side-launched from the quay," a method not previously observed in North Korea. Kim blamed the accident on "absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism," per the BBC. He issued an order for the ship to be restored before a meeting of the ruling party next month, when the "irresponsible errors" of those involved would be dealt with. The damaged warship and one that was successfully launched last month are the biggest North Korea has ever built, the Times reports. The South Korean military believes they were constructed with Russian assistance, reports the Guardian.
In 2021, William Braddock said his rival in a Republican primary in Florida was "off her rocker" when she filed for a restraining order. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to have her killed, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Braddock was secretly recorded threatening to have Rep. Anna Paulina Luna killed by a "Russian and Ukrainian hit squad" if polls showed her ahead in the primary in the state's 13th District. Braddock, 41, pleaded guilty in February to sending an interstate transmission of a threat to injure, reports the AP .

According to a Department of Justice press release, Braddock viewed Luna, the front-runner, as "his only obstacle" to winning the race and for months, he disparaged her to her peers "and attempted to inject himself into her life." Braddock ended up dropping out of the primaries and flying to Asia. He surrendered to authorities in the Philippines in 2023 and remained in custody there until was deported to the US last year. Luna went on to win the primary and the general election in 2022. She was re-elected last year. The AP notes that there was no evidence Braddock took any steps toward carrying out his threatsor that he had contacts with organized crime.
Passengers on a Princess Cruises ship received sad news 13 days into a 19-day cruise around Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. "It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of Captain Michele Bartolomei, who died onboard Diamond Princess earlier of a sudden medical emergency," a letter delivered to passengers' cabins said. The captain's death was also announced over the ship's PA system, 9News reports. Bartolomei died while the ship was docked in Keelung, Taiwan, reports the New York Post . Passengers said they were woken up in the early hours of May 19 by an announcement asking the ship's medical team to report to the medical center.

The letter to passengers said another captain would be at the helm for the rest of the cruise, due to end May 25 in Yokohama, Japan, People reports. Bartolomei "was a respected leader, whose decades of service at sea exemplified professionalism, dedication, and care for both guests and crew," the cruise line said in a statement, per USA Today. "Our hearts are with Captain Bartolomei's family during this incredibly difficult time, and we extend our deepest condolences to them." His age and cause of death were not disclosed. 9News reports that Bartolomei, who studied at nautical schools in Italy and lived in Canada, was about to mark 30 years of service with the company. (The Diamond Princess made headlines in early 2020 when it had the largest cluster of COVID cases outside China.)
When North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong took up an agency budget bill on Monday approved by the legislature, he vetoed a couple of line items. At least, that was his intention. Instead, he accidentally vetoed $35 million for the state's housing budget. Now the state is figuring out how to deal with the unusual problem of a mistaken veto, the AP reports. "I have no recollection of anything like this happening in the 37 years I've been here," John Bjornson, legislative council director, said Thursday. Armstrong wasn't the only governor to flub a line-item veto this week, however.

Late Wednesday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced that he would be striking about $47 million in funding and cash transfers over the next two years from budget bills passed last week by the Legislature. Those cuts included about $12 million over two years for the state Supreme Court. But on Thursday afternoon, Speaker of the Legislature John Arch announced the body would be sending a letter to Pillen, a fellow Republican, informing him that he had missed a five-day deadline, which came at midnight Wednesday, to properly file the line-item vetoes and that the line items are now law, per the AP.

In North Dakota, the governor's staff called his veto of the housing budget in Senate Bill 2014 a markup error. Armstrong's aides met with the legislative council on Thursday to discuss options. "This was an honest mistake, and we will fix it," a statement from the governor's office read. Armstrong, a Republican who served three terms in Congress, was elected governor last year; the legislative session that adjourned earlier in the month was his first as governor. In a message accompanying the veto, Armstrong wrote he had intended to veto a $150,000 grant to fund a Native American homelessness liaison position. The budget veto would take effect July 1. What happens next is largely up to the governor, Bjornson said, but it is likely that the legislature will need to reconvene in Bismarck for a special session.
 Police in Rose, Idaho, revealed the names of the victim and suspect in a home invasion, EastIdahoNews.com reported.

Officials said that around 2 a.m., 85-year-old Christine Jenneiahn was sleeping in her home when she awoke to a man shining a flashlight and pointing a gun at her.

Derek Ephriam Condon, 39, allegedly then handcuffed Jenneiahn and moved her to the living room, where he cuffed her to a chair and asked her where the valuables were.

She told him there were two safes, and he left to investigate.

While he was out of the room, Jenneiahn dragged herself and the chair into her bedroom and got her .357 Magnum revolver, which she hid on a nearby couch after returning to the living room.

Ultimately, she made a "now or never" decision and drew the gun, fatally striking Condon with two shots.

He returned fire, hitting her multiple times, but Jenneiahn survived.

The case, said Bingham County Prosecutor Ryan Jolley, "presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have ever heard of."

Officials said the two knew each other and it was not a random incident. [EastIdahoNews.com, 4/11/2024]
The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law.
OSAKA, May 22 (News On Japan) - Japan is facing a growing crisis not just with rice, but also with seafood, as supply shortages and rising prices begin to hit the consumer's dinner table.

While the jump in fish prices may not feel as sudden as rice hikes, the increases are steady and significant. One stark example is the soaring price of surume ika (Japanese flying squid), which cost just 283 yen per kilogram in 2013 but now exceeds 1,000 yena nearly fourfold increase. Scallops have also surged to 842 yen per 100 grams at some retailers, up 216 yen from March, while shirasu (whitebait) have risen by 63 yen to 365 yen per 100 grams. The decline in domestic catches is now impacting prices across a wide range of seafood products.

The root cause lies in a dramatic drop in fish catches. Compared to a decade ago, squid catches have plunged by 88.3%, and saury by 82.9%, while mackerel has declined by 28%. Even with imports from countries like Norway helping to buffer the impact, the cost of domestic mackerel is steadily rising. One producer of premium canned mackerel in the Sanriku region, once known for flavor and variety, is halting production at the end of the month due to unsustainable sourcing costssignaling how business operations are also being forced to adapt.

The decline in overall seafood catchdown 800,000 tons over the past nine yearsis largely attributed to rising sea surface temperatures and long-term changes in ocean currents such as the Kuroshio Extension. The average sea temperature has increased by 1.33C per century, and while some changes may stabilize, there's no guarantee fish populations will return to previous areas. With prices rising, consumption is declining, creating a negative feedback loop: higher consumer prices lead to reduced purchases, which further destabilizes the market.

Adding to this trend are changing consumer behaviors. Preparing fish is often seen as troublesome, reducing motivation to buy it despite its high nutritional value. The Expo in Osaka is using this moment to spotlight sustainable food futures. For example, the sushi chain Sushiro is introducing land-farmed eel and kawahagi (thread-sail filefish) to substitute for declining wild catches. Another company, Kurashi, is promoting sushi made from underutilized or low-market-value fish like "nizadai" (a fish with a strong odor that was tamed by feeding it cabbage), turning them into marketable sushi options.

Technological and conceptual innovations are also featured, such as the digital pavilion Earth Mart, where virtual sushi chefs display future sushi ingredientslike parasite-free mackerel, purine-free white fish, boneless eel, and allergen-free shrimp. These offerings are designed to expand consumer options, especially for those with health concerns or allergies. Some of these futuristic ideas are already in use: parasite-free mackerel from Tottori and norovirus-free oysters from Okinawa are now commercially viable thanks to land-based aquaculture using deep-sea water.

The most consumed seafood in Japan continues to be salmon, both for its popularity among Japanese and foreign consumers. To meet this demand, major players like Kyushu Electric Power have entered the aquaculture business in partnership with fisheries, aiming to increase annual salmon output from 300 tons to 3,000 tons. With advantages such as affordable electricity and disaster-resilient infrastructure on former power plant sites, these ventures may help stabilize supply. However, challenges remain, and the development of sustainable, large-scale aquaculture is still a work in progress.

As global seafood demand is expected to double in the next 50 years, Japans abundant marine resources and island geography place it in a strong position. The nation must now consider how to protect its food security, boost domestic production, and leverage its fisheries industry as a strategic export asset in the global market.

Source: YOMIURI
May 22 (News On Japan) - The Israeli military has fired warning shots at a diplomatic delegation visiting the West Bank, including a Japanese official, during a tour of the Jenin refugee camp on May 21st. Although no one was injured in the incident, the move has drawn sharp criticism from several countries.

According to the Israeli army, the diplomatic convoywhich included representatives from Japan and various European nationsentered an area that was not part of the approved route and was off-limits to visitors. The military claims it responded with warning fire after the group failed to comply with security protocols.

While the incident caused no physical harm, it has sparked an outcry among the international community. The protection of diplomats is enshrined in the Vienna Convention, and several governments have denounced the Israeli response as "unacceptable," calling for accountability and clearer safeguards for diplomatic missions operating in conflict zones.

Source: TBS
TOKYO, May 23 (News On Japan) - "I was stabbed in the chest with cooking chopsticks." Thats how A, a man in his 40s living in Shikoku, describes the abuse he endured from his ex-wife about 15 years ago. "Things like that happened all the time. It felt like hell," he recalls.

At the time, A believed that if he just worked harder as a husband, the marriage would succeed. "If I did my best as a man, surely things would improve," he thought, living each day with that hope. Yet the violence never stopped. Even when he filed for divorce mediation, the court interpreted it as just an extension of marital discord. His claims of domestic violence were not taken seriously.

"People think, Do men really get hit? Do they really get verbally abused like that? Its hard to be believed," A says.

Today, the number of men reporting abuse from spouses or partners is on the rise. A recent survey found around 28,000 such casesan astonishing 134-fold increase from 18 years ago.

Public awareness, however, remains low. On the street, one person said, "Women are becoming strongermaybe too strongand men weaker." Another commented, "When women are abusive, it seems more like selfishness." While perceptions vary, few recognize male domestic violence as a serious social issue.

But the reality is shifting. Last year, men accounted for nearly 30% of all DV consultations nationwide.

A, who endured nearly three years of abuse, says the violence began suddenly after marriage. "I had set the rice cooker, and when she got up and found no rice ready, I said, Sorry, Ill make it now. But she lost itthat was the first time she hit me," he said.

Despite working a full-time job, A also handled all household chores. The abuse escalated. "One day she said she wanted fish, so I made it the usual way. But she threw it aside and shouted, Why cant you make it the way I like it? Then she hit my arm with a cooking chopstick," he said, showing the mark that remains.

He faced threats with kitchen knives, had objects thrown at him, and even feared for his life. Yet, what hurt the most was an emotional blow: a cherished wristwatch. "My father worked hard and bought me that watch after I graduated. I wore it every day," he said. But his wife told him, "You dont deserve a nice watch like that." She smashed it with a hammer.

Still, A didnt see himself as a victim. "When she got angry, I always thought it was my fault. I was constantly blaming myself," he said. His physical and mental health deteriorated, and his weight dropped below 50 kilograms.

The turning point came when a female colleague confided in him about abuse from her husband. Then she asked, "Are you sure you're not also being abused?" It was the first time A recognized his situation as domestic violence. He filed for divorce, and after two and a half years, the court finally recognized the abuse and granted the divorce.

A private support group in Tokushima City for male DV victims says cries for help are coming from across Japan. "He didnt hit me, but he grabbed my hair and slammed my head to the floor. I was under constant psychological pressure from morning to night and even considered suicide several times," one man said.

The organization urges immediate evacuation for urgent cases, but shelters that accept men are often full. The group has supported about 40 male victims so far and is now organizing peer-led programs.

Some survivors still question their decisions. "I sometimes wonder if I did the right thing, or if I destroyed my family," said one.

So why are male DV cases still so hidden despite the rise in victims? Experts say it starts early. "From a young age, boys are told to tough it out, dont cry, be strong," said one counselor. These gender expectations make it hard for men to recognize abuse or ask for help.

The support group has launched a new course this month to train survivors to support others. "We need more people who can stand by isolated victims," they said. "Even just telling someone, If its hard to go alone, Ill go with you, can mean everything."

Both men and women can suffer from domestic violence, but resources remain scarce, especially for male victims. Many feel the barrier to seeking help is higher for men. A simple image search for "DV victim" shows overwhelmingly female figures, revealing the unconscious bias that makes male victims even more invisible.

Experts stress that stereotypes around gender roles bury the issue even deeper. "When society treats DV as someone elses problem, it makes it harder for victims to reach out," one said.

Moreover, male victims may hesitate to talk to male counselors, and many support centers lack male staff or specialized services. Compared to other countries, Japan also lags in implementing offender reform programs, leaving many at risk of repeat victimization.

"Ultimately, we need to eliminate gender stereotypes and create an environment where people can speak up, and where DV can come into the open," said one advocate.

Source: TBS
TOKYO, May 23 (News On Japan) - FamilyMart has unveiled a new retail strategy dubbed the "Apollo Plan," aiming to expand its sales space by attaching small, three-tsubo (about 10 square meters) white containers to existing stores. At a location in Kanagawa Prefecture, curious customers noticed the unfamiliar structure next to the usual storefront, wondering aloud what it might contain.

Rather than launching into space, as the name might whimsically suggest, the initiative focuses on down-to-earth needs: boosting sales of high-demand items like rice balls and clothing. According to Tetsuya Miura, head of the companys development promotion department, "The Apollo Plan is our approach to floor space expansion. Construction costs are reduced by about 30%, so we expect to see significant benefits from that as well."

With rising material costs and labor shortages making it harder to open entirely new stores, FamilyMart is opting for a more cost-effective solution. By increasing the variety of products through this additional container space, the company expects a 10% rise in sales for those expanded items.

The company aims to roll out the Apollo Plan to as many as 1,000 stores nationwide by the end of February next year.

Source: TBS
For every fill, one meal will be donated to Food Banks Canada to help fight hunger

LAVAL, QC, May 22, 2025 /CNW/ - Circle K is excited to announce the return of Fuel Day, a limited time event that is giving Canadians an easy way to save as we mark the unofficial start of summer. On May 22, from 4pm-7pm (local time), Circle K customers can save 10 cents per litre, with the discount applied directly at the pump.*

Beyond the savings, Circle K is proud to support Food Banks Canada. For every fuel transaction during Fuel Day, Circle K will donate one meal to Food Banks Canada.

"We're excited to offer savings at the pump to all our valued customers, both new and returning," said Stephane Trudel, Senior Vice President, Canada for Circle K. "In addition, we're helping make a positive impact by providing one meal through Food Banks Canada with every fill".

"With over 2 million people visiting food banks this month, Canada's need for food banks is at an all-time high. We are so grateful for this partnership with Circle K, which will provide critical support to Canadians in need this summer, helping us deliver essential food and resources across the country," said Erin Filey-Wronecki, Chief Development and Partnerships Officer, Food Banks Canada.

Join Circle K on May 22nd from 4pm-7pm local time for Fuel Day. Fill up, support a great cause, and make Circle K your go-to destination for the unofficial kick off of summer.

Customers can find the closest participating Circle K location by visiting www.circlek.com/fuel-day-canada

About Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.

Couche-Tard is a global leader in convenience and mobility, operating in 29 countries and territories, with close to 17,000 stores, of which approximately 13,000 offer road transportation fuel. With its well-known Couche-Tard and Circle K banners, it is one of the largest independent convenience store operators in the United States and it is a leader in the convenience store industry and road transportation fuel retail in Canada, Scandinavia, the Baltics, Belgium, as well as in Ireland. It also has an important presence in Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, as well as in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Approximately 149,000 people are employed throughout its network. For more information on Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or to consult its audited annual Consolidated Financial Statements, unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis, please visit: https://corpo.couche-tard.com

About Food Banks Canada

Food Banks Canada is the leader in addressing food insecurity in Canada. Our mission is to provide national leadership to relieve hunger today and prevent hunger tomorrow in collaboration with the food bank network from coast to coast to coast. For over 40 years, food banks have been dedicated to helping people living in Canada with food insecurity. Over 5,500 food banks and community organizations come together to serve our most vulnerable neighbours, who  this year  made over 2 million visits to these organizations in one month alone, according to our HungerCount report. Since 2010, Food Banks Canada has shared over $829 million in food supports and over $245 million in funding to help maximize collective impact and strengthen local capacity  while, backed by leading research, advocating for meaningful actions from governments to counter hunger and its root causes. Our vision is clear: create a Canada where no one goes hungry. Visit foodbankscanada.ca to learn more.

*10 cents per litre discount starts today at 4:00 p.m. (local time) and ends at 7:00 p.m. (local time) at participating Circle K operated fuel locations in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Northwest Territories, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, while supplies last. At Prince Edward Island Circle K locations, customers must pay for their fuel in-store to receive the discount. In Nova Scotia, the maximum allowable discount will be limited to 100 litres per vehicle. In the event that Circle K modifies the start time of "Fuel Day", the 10 cents per litre price drop will be based on the last listed price per litre as posted by Circle K at the start of the "Fuel Day". Posted price on pump reflects discounted price during that time. For each fuel purchase made during the specified 3-hour timeframe, the equivalent of one meal will be donated to Food Banks Canada, up to a maximum of 200,000 meals ($100,000.00 value) across Canada (Food Banks Canada meal metric $1=2 meals). For more information, visit CircleK.com.

SOURCE Couche-Tard

Media Contact: [email protected]
Cold Lake First Nations (CLFN) will hold a majority ownership in the project, developed in partnership with Elemental Energy, with financing from two sources: (1) a $21 million Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative loan and a $5.2 million Indigenous Equity Investment loan from the CIB and (2) a $21 million project finance loan substantially guaranteed by AIOC, funded by Equitable Life and arranged by Selkirk.

Power produced by 49,700 solar photovoltaic panels will supply approximately 7,000 households with reliable, lower-cost electricity and strengthen Alberta's energy grid. The project will also generate more than 100 jobs during construction, with full-time roles to support long-term operations and maintenance.

The CIB's long-term financing, together with Equitable Life's financing supported by an AIOC loan guarantee strengthens CLFN's capacity to take on a majority ownership role. This partnership is expected to result in long-term revenue generation for Cold Lake First Nations that can be reinvested back into the community to support economic and community development opportunities.

To date, the CIB has invested more than $1 billion with Indigenous communities across 28 projects. The CIB collaborates with First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities on new projects in partnership with, and for the benefit of Indigenous communities across Canada.

AIOC has $3 billion in capacity to facilitate Indigenous investments into major infrastructure projects in the natural resources, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications and tourism industries and plays a vital role in supporting Indigenous-led ownership of transformative infrastructure projects like Duchess Solar.

Endorsements

Duchess Solar is a great example of how flexible and innovative financing partnerships can drive success for Indigenous-led infrastructure projects. With the CIB's loan paired with private capital and a provincial loan guarantee, Cold Lake First Nations will benefit from meaningful, long lasting and direct economic benefits for future generations.

Ehren Cory, CEO, Canada Infrastructure Bank

As a nation of builders, it's time to build Canada stronger. We are building the strongest economy in the G7, but this can't happen without the full participation of Indigenous peoples. The new Duchess Solar facility will supply 7,000 homes in the region with clean, renewable energy. With the help of the CIB's project financing and Indigenous Equity loans, Cold Lake First Nations will retain majority ownership in the project, marking another important step forward in advancing economic reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples across Canada.

Hon. Gregor Robertson, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada

Cold Lake First Nations is honoured and proud to announce Duchess Solar with our partner Elemental Energy. Building from our vision of expanding our portfolio in clean energy, we look forward to development and operations of a project that will benefit our community for decades. We would like to acknowledge the commitment and creativity of our financial partners, the CIB, AIOC, Selkirk and Equitable Life who have made the financial resources possible for CLFN to hold a majority ownership position. We are grateful for the opportunity to work alongside our partners to deliver an innovative commercial structure.

Chief Kelsey Jacko, ouwe Chok 'Touwe, Cold Lake First Nations

Elemental is very excited to complete this creative financing structure to support our growing partnership with Cold Lake First Nations as we look to collaborate to bring additional renewable energy projects to Alberta. We are grateful for the partnership with CLFN and the support of all the financial partners involved who worked diligently and collaboratively to get this across the line.

Jamie Houssian, Principal, Elemental Energy

This project represents a powerful example of economic reconciliation in action. Through this Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation loan guarantee, we're proud to help Cold Lake First Nations build generational wealth while contributing to Alberta's transition to a more sustainable and reliable power grid  one that includes renewables paired with natural gas. This is what it looks like when Indigenous communities are in the driver's seat of their own economic futures.

Chana Martineau, CEO, AIOC

This new solar farm is a shining example of the diverse and forward-looking projects supported by the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation. By empowering Indigenous communities to invest in Alberta's energy futurewhether in traditional or renewable sectorswe're supporting local economies, creating jobs and building a stronger, more inclusive economy for generations to come.

Hon. Rajan Sawhney, Minister of Indigenous Relations, Government of Alberta

Selkirk greatly appreciates the opportunity to support Cold Lake First Nations and Elemental Energy with project financing for this important project, as well as the partnership of Equitable Life, AIOC and the CIB. This project is a great example of what can happen with creativity and collaboration. Selkirk is proud to have participated in such a meaningful way. We look forward to continuing to support the partners through construction and into operations, and in particular, to seeing the impactful economic benefits this project will generate for Cold Lake First Nations community for years to come.

Daniel Doubilet, Managing Partner, Selkirk

Equitable is proud to play a role in this project which serves to provide additional clean energy to Alberta's grid and economic benefits to Cold Lake First Nations for years to come. It was great to collaborate with Cold Lake First Nations and Elemental Energy and to partner with Selkirk, the CIB and AIOC.

Tara Proper, Executive Vice-President, Investments, Equitable Life

Learn More:

Canada Infrastructure Bank

Cold Lake First Nations

Elemental Energy

Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation

Selkirk Advisory Group

The Equitable Life Insurance Company





SOURCE Canada Infrastructure Bank

Media contacts: Canada Infrastructure Bank, [email protected]; Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, [email protected], 587-391-7180
The effort to identify the missing bones was a combined investigative effort that began in 2023 by the New Jersey State Police and the Ramapo College of New Jersey Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center in Mahwah. Jersey. The Ramapo students discovered clips from two newspaper articles dated December 20 and December 24, 1844. Ramapo

After more than three decades of mystery, the unidentified human bones that were found scattered on several New Jersey beaches have been matched with a name.

The bones belong to Henry Goodsell, the 29-year-old captain of the 19th century schooner Oriental, according to a statement issued this week by Ramapo College of New Jersey.

The identification of the bones, which were found between 1995 and 2013, was a combined investigative effort that began in 2023 by the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) and Ramapo College of New Jersey Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG) in Mahwah.

A skull washed ashore in Longport in 1995, and more bones were found in Margate in 1999, both in Atlantic County.

In 2013, additional remains were found in Ocean City, Cape May County.

Ramapo students began looking into shipwrecks off the coast of New Jersey.

They discovered clips from two newspaper articles dated Dec. 20 and Dec. 24, 1844.

Ramapo students work with State Police. Throughout the remainder of 2024 to February of 2025, students from the certificate program volunteered their time to continue finding ancestral ties to Connecticut. They also began looking into shipwrecks off the coast of New Jersey. They discovered clips from two newspaper articles dated December 20 and December 24, 1844. Ramapo

The students also learned that five crew members were aboard the Oriental. It wrecked off the coast of Brigantine Shoal in 1844.

The ship departed from Connecticut en route to Philadelphia to deliver 60 tons of marble for use by Girard College, a college preparatory boarding school.

It was reported the ship likely sprung a leak and went down less than one mile from the shoreline.

All of the crew perished.

The captain of the ship was identified as Henry Goodsell.

On March 7, state police collected a family reference sample from a great-great grandchild of Henry Goodsell and confirmed the identification on April 8.

Identifying human remains is one of the most solemn and challenging responsibilities law enforcement is charged with, said Chief of County Detectives Patrick Snyder at the Atlantic County Prosecutors Office.

Law enforcement works hard knowing that behind every case is a promise: that no one will be forgotten, and that we will pursue the truth until families have the answers they deserve, he said.

Ramapo said the investigation resulted in one of the oldest cold case identifications using investigative genetic genealogy.

State police agreed there is never a case too old to solve.

Using modern genealogy testing to identify bone fragments from the 19th century is a powerful reminder of our unwavering commitment to resolving cases no matter how old, said Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, New Jersey State Police superintendent.

Callahan praised Ramapo students for their role in the investigation.

The ability to bring answers to families  even generations later shows how far science and dedication can take us, he said. Our partnership with Ramapo College has been instrumental in making this possible, and we are incredibly proud of the meaningful progress we continue to make together.

The findings in the case dont answer how the man died.

But Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffrey Sutherland said the work did uncover a fascinating piece of local history.

The hard work of Ramapo Colleges IGG Center and working with the New Jersey State Police Cold Case Unit has demonstrated the power and accuracy of this new technology combined with classic detective work in solving complex cold cases that will bring offenders to justice and provide closure to victims families, Sutherland said.

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Stephanie Loder may be reached at SLoder@njadvancemedia.com.
The dinosaur park in Leonia at Overpeck Park appears to be headed for extinction.

Field Station: Dinosaurs reopens on Saturday for what management says will be its final season.

Attendance has dropped in recent years, so Field Stations executive producer Guy Gsell said the company wont be renewing its lease with Bergen County when it expires in November.

We lost a year to COVID [during a state-mandated shutdown] and the business really never came back, Gsell said. Its time to look at all the options, and post-COVID its better not to renew the lease.

Field Station: Dinosaurs is reopening in Leonia at Overpeck Park on Saturday, 5/24 for its final season. The exhibit features over 32 life-sized, moving, realistic dinosaurs. Wednesday, June 23, 2021. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Gsell said Field Station plans to focus on other media once the park closes in November, such as YouTube videos. No decision has been made as to what the company will do with the 32 mechanical dinosaurs in Overpeck Park, although Gsell said some of them could wind up at Field Stations other theme park in Wichita, Kansas.

Gsell, a theater producer from Red Bank, opened the dinosaur theme park in Secaucus before moving to Bergen Countys Overpeck Park nine years ago. The 32 mechanical dinosaurs set on trails offer a Jurassic Park experience just five minutes from the George Washington Bridge. Plus theres dinosaur puppets, science exhibits, musical shows, and a concession stand.

A group of people stop for a photo at Field Station: Dinosaurs in Leonia at Overpeck Park. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media

Gsell said the park drew more than 1 million visitors over the years, and it still does a brisk business with summer day camps. The park teaches kids about dinosaurs and science.

We try to take the lessons and stories of the dinosaurs and make them relevant to kids today, Gsell said. We talk about the scientific method; we talk about climate change.

But attendance has declined in recent years, and Gsell said his business partner in the venture, who he declined to name, has died. In December, Gsell set up a non-profit, the Field Education Foundation, to run the park in 2025.

The park will continue holding its science and music shows when the gates open at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning. When school ends in June, the park will expand to six days a week, before returning to weekend hours in September.

To mark the final season, the park is offering discount admissions and a roster of special events. National Dinosaur Day is Sunday, June 1, and a Mad Science day is August 2, featuring dry ice displays and a volcanic eruption.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.
A major airline in Europe that flies internationally recently filed for bankruptcy and is liquidating its assets. AP

A major airline in Europe that flies internationally recently filed for bankruptcy and is liquidating its assets.

Air Belgium was declared bankrupt by the local Walloon Brabant court on April 30, 2025.

The international airline experienced many financial hardships since the COVID pandemic began. The company announced in 2023 that it would cancel all remaining passenger flights in September of that year, according to a press release from the European Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association.

Since suspending all passenger flights, the airline continued to downsize its cargo aircraft and workforce.

The airline once flew out of Newark Liberty International Airport, according to Air Belgiums website.

If you flew this airline, heres what you need to know about whether or not you can get a refund.

Will I get a refund if I flew Air Belgium?

According to the ECTAA, there are approximately 8 million Euro in passenger refund claims that have yet to be resolved.

A French logistics company took over the airlines cargo business and saved 124 jobs, but the rest of Air Belgium will be formally shut down and its assets liquidated to the point where no money will be left for refunds.

Thousands of passengers are unlikely to receive refunds for their cancelled flights, with the remaining claims now part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the press release from the ECTAA stated.

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Katherine Rodriguez can be reached at krodriguez@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips.
The Toyota C-HR Battery Electric Vehicle is coming to showrooms in 2026. Toyota

Toyota is bringing back a model discontinued in 2022 and the model is coming back with a major refresh.

The automaker reintroduced the Toyota C-HR compact crossover as a fully-electric-powered vehicle.

Heres what you need to know about what has changed with the new Toyota C-HR and when you can expect these vehicles at a dealer near you.

What features does the new Toyota C-HR vehicle have?

The vehicle is all-wheel drive, has 338 horsepower and can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in five seconds, according to Toyota. Its battery has a fast charging speed, too.

The C-HR BEV can go from 10-80% battery within 30 minutes, Toyota stated in a press release introducing the vehicle.

The Toyota app can turn on climate control remotely with a tap, according to Toyota.

The vehicle also comes with comforts, such as a 14-inch touchscreen, customizable lighting and dual wireless phone chargers.

Drivers will also get safety features complete with lane departure alerts, adaptive cruise control and emergency braking.

You can learn more about the Toyota C-HRs features from Toyotas announcement.

When can I expect to see the revamped Toyota C-HR at a dealership near me?

According to Toyota, the all new Toyota C-HR will hit dealerships nationwide in 2026.

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Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, are accused of 11 crimes including kidnapping and sexual assault for keeping a girl captive for seven years. Camden County Prosecutor's Office

Parents accused of keeping their 18-year-old daughter confined in squalid conditions at their home, at times sexually abusing her, were ordered by a New Jersey judge to remain in jail ahead of a trial.

Brenda Spencer, 38, and Branndon Mosley, 41, appeared before Camden County Superior Court Judge Gwendolyn Blue on Thursday for a detention hearing. They were arrested last week after their daughter escaped the Gloucester Township home where she had been held captive since 2018.

Spencer is the girls mother, and Mosley is her stepfather.

The couple is charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Spencer was also charged with third-degree counts of criminal restraint and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as well as weapons offenses.

Mosley was additionally charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and second-degree counts of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.

They forced the girl to live in squalid conditions, including living in a dog crate with her hands bound behind her back for about a year, and later chained in a padlocked bathroom, officials with the Camden County Prosecutors Office previously said.

She was later confined to a bare room with only a bucket to use as a toilet, authorities said. The room had an alarm system that would notify Spencer and Mosley if she tried to leave and she was only allowed to leave the room when family visited the home, the girl told authorities.

During the years she was held captive, she was physically beaten with a belt and sexually abused by Mosley, authorities said.

On one occasion the girl was not being fed and Mosley offered the girl food in exchange for sex acts, charging documents show.

After escaping the home, she was helped by a neighbor, authorities said.

Investigators searched the home and found the girl was subjected to living in squalid conditions alongside several dogs, chinchillas and other animals, authorities said.

Investigators also discovered another 13-year-old girl that lived at the home had been removed from school years earlier by Spencer, officials said. Both girls were allegedly homeschooled, according to officials.

Mosleys attorney did not immediately return an emailed request for comment by NJ Advance Media. Spencers lawyer, Terrell Ratliff, said his clients lack of violent history, her ties to the community, and her willingness to comply with any court-imposed monitoring qualified her for pre-trial release.

The case is still in its early stages, Ratliff stated in an email. As it progresses, a more complete picture will emerge  and it may not align with initial impressions.

Mosley worked as a train conductor for SEPTA, officials said. Spencer was not employed.

The couple are scheduled to return to court on July 23 for a pre-indictment conference.

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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.
A Camden County remanufacturer of drive train components will cut 129 jobs at the end of August as the company prepares to go out of business, according to a WARN notice filed with the Department of Labor.

Transaxle, a nationwide remanufacturer of drive train parts for trucks, plans to eliminate 129 jobs in New Jersey between Aug. 15-29, the company said.

Over 200 total jobs nationwide with the company will be eliminated over the summer as it plans to close the business, the company said.

In a letter sent to the Connecticut Department of Labor on May 16, Transaxles Chief Restructuring Officer, Richard Malagodi explained that the company had been searching for a buyer, but could not find one.

As you may know based on prior communications with our employees, Transaxle, LLC...has been engaged in efforts to sell the business for some time, Malagodi said in the letter. Despite our efforts, we have not been able to consummate a sale at this time. As a result, the company finds itself in the difficult position of having to conduct an orderly wind down of the business.

A total of 209 employees will be laid off between the middle of July and the end of August at 15 locations around the country, according to the letter.

The 129 employees in New Jersey at locations in Cinnaminson, Pennsauken and Hackensack will be the last to be terminated, according to the letter.

Many of employees laid off in Cinnaminson and Pennsauken are listed as mechanics and mechanic assemblers, according to the letter.

Transaxle was founded as a family-owned local parts supplier in 1979 and evolved into a nationwide remanufacturer of drive train components for light and heavy duty trucks and equipment, according to the companys website.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.com.
Val Hadshinow puts finishing touches on the Vietnam veterans monument at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media

Letter by letter, and one dab of gold leaf after another.

Thats how Val Hadshinow honors our soldiers, until the letters become words, and the words become a testament to those who gave all on the battlefield.

Hadshinow is a professional engraver and a member of the Belleville Historical Society, which is building a monument in Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield that honors the men and women who served in Vietnam.

The project began on April 30, the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and is almost complete. Hadshinow did all of the engraving work for free, just one of the many veteran-focused projects he has completed with the Belleville Historical Society.

At 82, one might wonder why Hadshinow spends so much time on his knees shaping letters into words and ideas that are worth remembering. When asked, Hadshinow stood up and looked across the Glendale field to the rows of soldier graves where thousands of American flags planted for Memorial Day were fluttering in the breeze.

You know, 50 years after youre gone, nobody is going to remember, he said. Maybe 25 years.

Hadshinow remembers.

Born in Ukraine to Greek parents in 1943, Hadshinow was just an infant in his mothers arms when the Nazis loaded his family onto train cars and shipped them to a forced labor camp inside Germany.

With so many German men at war, Hitler needed workers for the farms and the factories, and as Hadshinow put it, to clear the wreckage when the [Allied} bombs fell.

He has no memory of the time or his familys liberation by American troops in 1945. But he does remember being sent to a sanatorium in France in 1948 after doctors found he was malnourished and discovered a spot on his lungs.

Hadshinow said he spent three years in the sanatorium, separated from his parents. He was eight years old when he was reunited, and for a time could not speak to his parents.

They spoke Russian, and I had forgotten all that, he said. I had learned French.

Hadshinow was speaking mostly French when his family came to America in 1956, and settled in Kearny. He was 13, enrolled in Kearny High School, where, he said, the girls loved that I could speak French. But my best subject was English.

Kearny in the 1960s was a bustling hub of factories, so Hadshinow had no problem finding work after graduating high school. He learned to be a draftsman, sketching industrial equipment, pipes and valves, for Public Service Electric & Gas and other big companies, he said.

Hadshinow, who now lives in North Arlington, said as a hobby he started working with stained glass. About 30 years ago, he developed an interest in engraving and learned the ancient art of inscribing stones.

In retirement, he works a side business  Designs by Val  that does sandblast etching and gold leafing on all kinds of surfaces, wood, ceramic, marble, granite and glass.

Val Hadshinow puts finishing touches on the Vietnam veterans monument at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media

Over the years, Hadshinow estimates hes done hundreds of plaques, memorials and monuments in New Jersey. Among the projects, his work can be seen from the names etched on the 9/11 memorial in South Mountain Reservation to the inscription on the Revolutionary War monument in Bloomfield Cemetery.

Hadshinow said he gets paid for projects commissioned by government and the private sector, but he works for free with the Belleville Historical Society, whose volunteers visit cemeteries and clean soldier graves.

Val Hadshinow puts finishing touches on the Vietnam veterans monument at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. Reena Rose Sibayan | For NJ Advance Media

Last year, the historical society visited Woodland Cemetery in Newark, where, armed with machetes, volunteers cleaned the overgrown brush that covered the graves of four Vietnam veterans.

Recently, volunteers visited the old Hackensack Reformed Church to work on the grave of General Enoch Poor, who fought during the American Revolution.

Belleville Historical Society President Michael Perrone said there are approximately 6,000 soldiers from Essex County who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam buried in the field at Glendale Cemetery.

The veterans section of the cemetery is owned by Essex County, and Perrone explained that the historical society received special permission to erect the monument in what is considered hallowed ground.

We live in such a fast-paced world, and its so easy to be forgotten, said Perrone. There is no reason why an 18-year-old boy who died halfway around the world should be forgotten.

Hadshinow says he likes the work because its quiet and solitary. He considers himself a craftsman and not an artist, although some might say he is both.

He still has the visa, dated July 10, 1956, the day he arrived in America with his parents and two sisters. He also has the flight manifest from the plane that took off from Belgium and brought them to LaGuardia.

Hadshinow also kept one of the documents that said his father arrived with $50 in his pocket and a check for $250. He says he framed the documents and gave them to his children.

Youve got a tough life as a migrant, he said. You start off with nothing and you make something. I told my kids, theres no excuse for you not making it. Dont complain.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.
Golden Globe-winning comedian Ramy Youssef celebrated nearly 3,000 Rutgers-Newark graduates Thursday for accomplishing something he could not.

Youssef  an actor and producer best-known for Hulus Ramy  left Rutgers-Newark in 2011 after three semesters, without a degree.

The 34-year-old, now a Golden Globe winner, was invited back to deliver the commencement speech before the Class of 2025 at the Prudential Center in Newark.

Clothed in full Rutgers graduation regalia, he accepted an honorary doctor of fine arts degree as his parents watched from the audience.

I just want you to know, part of why I dropped out was because of how expensive it was, Youssef told his parents in his speech, referring to the price of college tuition.

And now here I am with a Ph.D. that I got for free, he said as the crowd laughed. And I believe it is the greatest and the biggest Arab discount of all time.

Ramy Youssef with Rutgers professor Salamishah Tillet after speaking during the 2025 Rutgers University-Newark's Commencement in Newark on Thursday. Ed Murray| For NJ Advance Media

Youssefs speech was applauded at the ceremony despite criticism earlier this month by a New Jersey lawmaker who asked Rutgers officials to rescind their invitation to the comedian to speak at commencement.

Assemblyman Avi Schnall, who is a rabbi, wrote a letter to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway that said Youssef is widely seen as polarizing.

Schnalls letter did not offer specifics, but Youssef has advocated for a ceasefire in Gaza. He also said during an appearance on Saturday Night Live last year that he prayed to free the people of Palestine.

Schnall, D-30th Dist., is one of two Orthodox Jewish state legislators in New Jersey. His district in Monmouth and Ocean counties includes a large number of Orthodox Jewish residents in Lakewood.

Rutgers officials stood by their choice.

Ramy Youssef is a celebrated writer and artist who has deep ties to New Jersey and to Rutgers-Newark, which he attended. His selection as commencement speaker at Rutgers-Newark reflects a tradition of honoring individuals who embody resilience, creativity, and connection to our community, the university said in a statement.

The Council on American-Islamic Relationss New Jersey chapter applauded Rutgers. The nonprofit advocacy group said it has seen a pattern of people who are allied with Muslims, Arabs, and Palestinians being silenced and disinvited from public platforms for expressing views critical of Israeli government policy.

Youssef only briefly mentioned Palestinians in his speech, when speaking about his late grandfather.

Youssef said his grandfather died about a month ago, but not before the actor told him about his free Ph.D.

He said his grandfather was always praising current college students.

He would look at me and say, These kids are amazing. Look at the way these kids stand up for what they know is right. They stand up for Black lives. They stand up for Palestinian freedom. They stand up for equality. They stand up for what they know is right, Youssef said.

Youssef, 34, was born in Queens, New York, and moved with his family to Rutherford in Bergen County when he was young.

After dropping out of Rutgers-Newark, he was a regular on See Dad Run, a Nickelodeon series in which he played one of the lead characters best friends.

By 2019, Youssef was starring in Ramy, a series he created for Hulu. The show was based on his life growing up in New Jersey as the son of Egyptian immigrants. In it, the character Ramy is pulled between the values and religious beliefs of his Muslim community and those of his millennial friends.

Youssef won a Golden Globe for his acting on the show in 2020.

His latest autobiographical creation is the adult-animated series #1 Happy Family USA, which came out in April on Prime Video. The series follows the maniacally upbeat Husseins as they strive to be the most patriotic and peaceful Muslim family in post-9/11 America.

He will soon appear in Succession creator Jesse Armstrongs debut movie Mountainhead.

Youssef said his reasons for dropping out of Rutgers-Newark 14 years ago were not funny. He was taking classes, going to off-campus acting classes and working shifts at the Apple Store.

Tired and stressed, he was diagnosed with Bells Palsy, a condition that paralyzed the side of his face for seven months.

I made a decision inside that if my face healed, I would act. That God was actually showing me that I should pause and pick the thing that I knew I really wanted to do, Youseff said.

His message to graduates was to find a way to be radically present.

You guys live in this era of projections and statistics and all these really concrete things where people tell you, Hey, this is what the tech is going to do in the next two years, Youssef said. You cannot listen to any of it. You have to look inwards.

Rutgers-Newarks commencement celebrated 2,947 graduates this year. About 12% of the graduates are international students. About 1,244 earned masters or doctorate degrees, campus officials said.

The Rutgers-Newark ceremony was among several held around the state this week. Rutgers-Camden held its commencement Tuesday.

The university celebrated 13,133 graduates receiving degrees from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences at a ceremony at SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Sunday.

Staff writer Rob Jennings contributed to this report.
A view of Hepburn Hall at New Jersey City University in Jersey City. The school will be renamed Kean Jersey City under a preliminary merger deal. Ed Murray| For NJ Advance Media

One of the nations Big Three credit ratings agencies is signaling support for the proposed merger of two of New Jerseys public universities.

Moodys upgraded New Jersey City Universitys financial outlook from stable to positive Monday, four days after the schools president joined the president of Kean University in signing a letter of intent to pursue a merger.

The Wall Street rating agency cited the Hudson County schools proposed merger with Kean University, among other factors, in announcing the rating change.

The two public universities announced they were considering a merger in March as New Jersey City University looked for a solution to its serious financial problems.

The change in New Jersey City Universitys outlook to positive reflects continued financial improvement and significantly reduced operating losses. NJCU also has strategically monetized real estate assets, strengthening reserves and enabling critical capital investments, Moodys wrote in a five-page report.

It was New Jersey City Universitys second upgrade in 15 months. Moodys upgraded the universitys outlook from negative to stable in February 2024, eight months after the university was directed by the state to find a fiscally sound partner.

New Jersey City University and Union County-based Kean University announced their proposed merger March 5, four weeks before the deadline set by the state.

Kean University enrolls approximately 17,000 students while New Jersey City University has 5,500 students, officials said previously.

While challenges remain, swift operational realignment and continued state support strengthen its position as a viable partner in recently announced merger plans with Kean University, Moodys said in its report. Improvements in financial strategy, risk management, and management credibility are governance considerations and key drivers of this rating action,

Kean University President Lamont O. Repollet, on left, and New Jersey City University Interim President Andres Acebo signing a letter of intent advancing a proposed merger of both universities, at Kean University in Union Township, New Jersey, May 15, 2025. Photo courtesy of Kean University

Andres Acebo, New Jersey City Universitys interim president, said the rating upgrade is not simply a financial milestone  it is a powerful affirmation of what is possible when a university chooses resilience over retreat, and purpose over paralysis."

In March, Moodys dropped its outlook for the entire higher education sector from stable to negative" due to research funding cuts, rising endowment taxes, restrictions on foreign students and other policy changes from President Trumps administration.

Acebo said New Jersey City University is improving it financial outlook despite those pressures.

We are not immune to the challenges confronting higher ed  but we are confronting them head-on. This moment affirms the truth we have always known: that institutions built on mission and grit can rise, even when the odds suggest otherwise," Acebo said.

It could take up to 24 months to conclude the merger, which is subject to regulatory and accreditation approvals, along with a final agreement between the two universities.

Under the deal, New Jersey City University would be renamed Kean Jersey City. Kean Universitys name would remain unchanged.

Kean would assume New Jersey City Universitys assets and liabilities as part of the deal. Kean would also appoint a chancellor to lead Kean Jersey City while assuming executive oversight of the campus.

Neither university has said whether a merger will include staffing cuts.

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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.
Renee Rapp (right) seemingly dissed "The Sex Lives of College Girls" in her new song. HBO Max

Renee Rapp seemingly throws shade at The Sex Lives of College Girls in her new song, Leave Me Alone.

The single dropped on Wednesday, May 21, and one lyric immediately raised eyebrows.

Sign a hunnid NDAs, but I still stay something. I took my sex life with me, now the show aint fing, Rapp, who played Leighton Murray on The Sex Lives of College Girls, sings with glee.

The lyric seemingly alludes to her exit from the Max show at the beginning of season 3. The series was canceled after season 3 finished airing.

Right after Rapp sings the aforementioned lyric in the Leave Me Alone music video, theres a close-up of what seems to be a torn non-disclosure agreement (NDA). On the document, Rapps name is listed as YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE and her address is listed as gofyourselves lane.

For good measure, she added the words BITE ME, which is also the title of her upcoming album.

NJ.com has reached out to Rapps team and to Max for comment, as Rapp has not confirmed that she references the show in the song.

After Leave Me Alone dropped, fans took to X to speculate that Rapp dissed The Sex Lives of College Girls, which she starred in from 2021-2024.

Renee Rapp. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Slocg fans found crying everywhere thank u renee rapp, one person wrote via X.

The smack cam to slocg oh renee rapp the comedian that you are, another fan tweeted.

Not everyone appreciated the apparent call out, though.

Renee rapp throwing a dig at slocg getting canceled is so annoying, acting like shes above it, a third person wrote via X.

Rapp spoke positively about her SLOCG experience when she announced her departure from the show in July 2023. In a statement shared via her Instagram Story, she thanked series cocreators Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble before noting that being a tiny part of onscreen LGBTQIA+ representation changed [her] life.

READ MORE: Nickelodeon star says she got death threats over infamous Ariana Grande interaction

However, Rapp previously said that filming season 1 of SLOCG was terrible, because she was doubting her own sexuality while playing a lesbian. (Rapp previously identified as bisexual, but she came out as a lesbian in 2024.)

Im going through set, doing these scenes, and Im also having gay men come up to me and be like, So, are you, like, really gay? Rapp recalled during a March 2023 Call Her Daddy appearance. It really fing pissed me off, and it made me second guess everything about myself."

Several months after announcing her exit from SLOCG, Rapp hinted at past negative working experiences during a January 2024 interview with Vanity Fair.

The people in my life that I work with now care about me as a person, she said. And I think that is a difference from things Ive experienced in the past.

The Sex Lives of College Girls is available to stream on Max.

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Kevin Spacey accepts an award Tuesday at the Better World Fund Gala in Cannes, France. Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images

All those allegations of sexual assault havent held Kevin Spacey back in resurfacing as an actor.

In fact, he accepted an award this week in Cannes, France.

Spacey, who was born in South Orange, received an award Tuesday for excellence in film and television at the Better World Fund Gala.

The event, though not affiliated with the Cannes Film Festival, is held during the festival, which runs from May 13 to May 24.

I mean, who wouldve ever thought that honoring someone who has been exonerated in every single courtroom hes ever walked into would be thought of as a brave idea? Spacey said during his acceptance speech (see video below).

The actor heaped praise upon his best friend and manager Evan Lowenstein (of Evan and Jaron fame), who produced his upcoming film.

With his guidance Ive been able to come out the other side of these last few challenging years not angry, not bitter, not resentful, but more present, more loving, more understanding and more forgiving than I ever have been in my life, Spacey said.

He closed by pumping his fist and forcefully quoting the 1983 song from Elton John:

"Im still standin."

Earlier in the night, Spacey addressed media on the red carpet, per Deadline.

I feel surrounded by so much affection and love, he said. Ive heard from so many of my friends, and colleagues and co-stars in the last week since this award was announced. I feel surrounded by support and its very nice to be back.

Spacey, 65, a two-time Oscar winner (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty), was accused of sexual assault and harassment by a series of men starting in 2017. The claims arrived in the wake of the surge in the #MeToo movement prompted by the allegations against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.

"I feel surrounded by support and its very nice to be back," Spacey said in Cannes. Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images

Spacey was fired from the Netflix series House of Cards because of allegations from cast and crew members and was ordered to pay nearly $31 million to the production company for breach of contract. He was also accused by a series of men of groping and other harassment during his time as artistic director of the Old Vic Theatre in London.

The actor was cut from the 2017 Ridley Scott movie All the Money in the World after filming all of his scenes as J. Paul Getty. The scenes were reshot with Christopher Plummer.

In 2023, Spacey was acquitted after being charged with four counts of sexual assault in the UK.

Before that, Spacey was accused of groping an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket bar in 2016. He pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of indecent assault and battery and prosecutors later dropped the charge.

Spaceys career took a nosedive in the wake of these and other allegations, but less than four years after actor Anthony Rapp became the first one to go public with claims against Spacey, he was working again.

In 2021, he got a small part in Luomo Che Disegno Dio  The Man Who Drew God  a movie from Italian actor-director Franco Nero.

Rapp (Star Trek: Discovery, Rent) had alleged in 2017 that in the 1980s, Spacey, then 26, made sexual advances toward Rapp when he was 14.

In a tweet responding to the claim, Spacey apologized and said he did not remember the alleged incident, blaming it on drunken behavior. At the same time, he came out as gay.

Video contains profanity

In 2020, Rapp and an anonymous man filed a lawsuit against Spacey in New York. The other man alleged that when he was a 14-year-old acting student and Spacey was his teacher, the actor invited him to his apartment and engaged in sexual acts with him more than once. Spacey, he alleged, assaulted him after he told him no in their final encounter.

A judge ruled the anonymous accuser had to reveal his identity in order to proceed with the lawsuit. He declined to do so. Later, in 2022, a jury found that Spacey did not molest Rapp.

Another anonymous man, a massage therapist, accused Spacey of groping him during a treatment session. He sued the actor, but the suit was dropped when the plaintiff died in 2019.

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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter/X, @amykup.bsky.social on Bluesky and @kupamy on Instagram and Threads.
No Surrender, a Bruce Springsteen cover band, has been axed from a Toms River restaurant and bar's entertainment schedule based on Springsteen's anti-Trump comments earlier this month. Photo by Non Linear Knitting

A Jersey Shore bar and restaurant canceled a Bruce Springsteen cover bands upcoming performance following Springsteens recent comments criticizing President Donald Trump.

No Surrender, a nine-piece rock band from New Jersey that has played Springsteen and classic rock covers for more than 20 years, was set to perform at Rivs Toms River Hub in Toms River on May 30.

Shortly after Springsteen kicked off his European tour with harsh words about the Trump administration on May 14, bandleader Brad Hobicorn started receiving concerned text messages from bar owner Tony Rivoli, Hobicorn told NJ Advance Media Thursday morning.

On Sunday, Rivoli texted Hobicorn to say the gig was canceled, saying it was too risky at the moment, citing his restaurants conservative customer base.

Hobicorn offered to have his band play only non-Springsteen, classic-rock covers. But Rivoli balked at paying $2,500 for a classic-rock cover band as opposed to a Springsteen-specific group.

Unfortunately its just too much money I wanted to do the Springsteen tribute for that money in my social media team would have promoted it we would have done well but now because Bruce cant keep his mouth shut were screwed, Rivoli wrote in a text message to Hobicorn obtained by NJ Advance Media.

In a message sent to bassist Guy Fleming, Rivoli wrote, Whenever the national anthem plays, my bar stands and is in total silence, thats our clientele. Toms River is red and wont stand for his bull----.

Screenshots of conversations between band leader Brad Hobicorn and Riv's Toms River Hub owner Tony Rivoli. Rivoli's messages, in gray, show his apprehension toward allowing the band to play based on Bruce Springsteen's behavior. Images provided by Brad Hobicorn

The gig was scheduled months in advance, and the last-minute cancellation meant the nine working musicians in the group were losing out on a paycheck.

This is not political for us at all, Hobicorn said Thursday. Were just a cover band thats trying to make some money and people rely on it financially. Were the ones really getting hurt.

The cancellation led Fleming to post a message about the situation on Facebook on Wednesday.

Hobicorn said after Flemings Facebook post, Rivoli contacted Hobicorn and denied ever canceling the gig. But the band decided they didnt want to play the event after everything that had transpired.

At that point, there were negative vibes about the whole thing, Hobicorn said. There was definitely a safety concern.

With the gig in Toms River canceled, No Surrender will instead play Headliner Oasis in Neptune Township on May 30.

Rivoli told NJ Advance Media Thursday afternoon that he had eventually agreed to let the band play, and it was ultimately their decision not to play.

As of (Wednesday), they could have played as No Surrender, Rivoli said.

I think a lot of people of my base would not have came, but I could have been wrong. You know, who knows? You cant predict what people are going to do.

Rivoli has been in hot water before. In 2020, images surfaced of Rivolis previous business  Rivolis Restaurant, also in Toms River; closed since 2016  posting the message I can breathe, I obey law on the restaurants exterior marquee, at the time referencing the death of Eric Garner, who reportedly told a New York City police officer I cant breathe" while he was in a chokehold, shortly before he died. Rivoli publicly apologized in 2020.

This is also not the first bar in the historically right-leaning Ocean County town to come under fire for mixing conservative politics with their business. Earlier this year, Aqua Blu Kitchen and Cocktails received backlash after adding a Proud Boys Burger to their menu, referencing the far-right extremist group. Theyd previously advertised dishes called the Border Czar and Make Fries Great Again.

Additionally, No Surrender is not the first Boss tribute band to be affected by Trump and Springsteens mutual ire. In 2017, the B Street Band  the preeminent local act covering Bruces tunes  was widely vilified after it was booked to play a Trump inaugural ball in Washington (Trump himself was not expected to attend). They eventually withdrew from the gig.

Editors note: This story has been updated to add comment from Tony Rivoli and correct the agreed-to payment for No Surrenders performance at Rivs Toms River Hub.

Related coverage:

 Springsteen blasts Trump yet again, calls him incompetent and treasonous at concert

 Trump attacks Springsteen: Read the Presidents entire 151-word rant against Bruce

 Trump wants Springsteen investigated, claims he took dirty money to support Kamala Harris

 N.J. restaurant that sold Proud Boys burger has history of right-leaning menu items

 Trump blasts Springsteen like never before: Dumb as a rock, should KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT

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Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.
Three New Jersey correctional police officers were found not guilty on Tuesday of charges related to the alleged beating of a man incarcerated at Northern State Prison in Newark.

Orlando Mercado, Steven Roberts Jr., and Maton Wilkins  all employed by the New Jersey Department of Corrections  were indicted in September 2023 after a grand jury reviewed the case.

Prosecutors had alleged that on March 17, 2020, Mercado and Roberts used unlawful and excessive force on an inmate. Wilkins was accused of participating in a cover-up by helping to falsify official records.

The state Attorney Generals Office of Public Integrity and Accountability charged Mercado and Roberts with second-degree official misconduct for allegedly abusing their authority.

Mercado and Wilkins faced additional charges for allegedly omitting key details in reports to conceal the incident.

Those charges, however, did not result in convictions.

After a bench trial that began in February, an Essex County Superior Court judge found all three officers not guilty on Tuesday.

The officers have been suspended without pay after the alleged beating, according, Patrick Toscano, the attorney representing Mercado.

Toscano said Mercado has been suspended without pay since 2021.

We have requested their immediate reinstatement, Toscano said Thursday, adding that the men are owed several years of backpay."

We are waiting to hear back from the prison regarding their return to work, Toscano said.

In a statement, Toscano criticized Attorney General Matthew Platkin for seeking the indictment, noting that the states star witness was a convicted murderer.

Mercado, Roberts Jr., and Wilkins are three hard-working and honest law enforcement officers who were simply doing their jobs on the day in question, Toscano said.

Why Mr. Platkin sought this absurd indictment is beyond comprehension, the attorney said.

When the chief law enforcement officer of this state acts in such a frivolous and slipshod fashion, no cop in New Jersey is safe, Toscano added.

Platkin, through a spokesman, said he was disappointed in the courts decision.

My office will remain focused on strengthening public confidence in government institutions in New Jersey, and ensuring that people who are in custody are not subjected to abuse, violence, or violations of their rights by those entrusted to protect them, Platkin said in a statement.

Editors note: This story was updated to include comments from the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com.
Theres a whole lot more to Newarks dining scene than the Ironbound and Hobbys Deli.

With the help of programs like Invest Newarks Retail Reactivation Initiative and Audibles Business Attraction Program, the citys downtown sector is slowly transforming into a vibrant hub for small businesses, community development and entrepreneurship.

Backed by both of these programs, Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar recently made its debut on Broad Street, celebrating their grand opening in April.

Bakery case at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

Im born and and raised in Newark, chef and co-owner Michele Vaccari Harriott told NJ Advance Media. So its a dream to be back and owning a business here.

Harriott, the woman behind macaron and catering business Mich Macs and a former contestant on Food Networks Chopped brings all of her culinary chops and family history with her to Sweet Jeans.

My grandfather was a fruit and vegetable peddler in Newark for 55 years in the original first ward, Harriott said. He wanted everyone to go to college and be a professional, but I always stayed in restaurants and food in some way.

The Jeans and Genes at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

The cafe is an ode to Harriott and her business partner Victor Soldanos families and their roots.

Harriotts middle name is Jeanine, and Soldanos late grandmothers nickname was Jean.

Its also inspired by the jeans we wear and where we come from, Harriott said.

Feeling warm and fuzzy with all of the heart put into the place, I plopped down at the counter to try some of Sweet Jeans sweet and savory offering.

Homemade baked goods at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

The good

The bakery case was too tempting, so I started there, and Im glad I did. All of the items I tried were made in-house, starting with the brownie ($3.50), a dense, fudgy delight that reminded me of a thicker version on the the box mix kind I grew up on.

I parired it with a Sweet Jeans big cookie ($3.50), a hefty, classic chocolate chip cookie that had a nice balance of crispy and chewy. Next, I went for the lemon bar ($3.50), a creamy confection that was topped with just enough powdered sugar to offset the tartness of the citrus. I would have went for more of this had I not had another pastry to sample.

Nutella puffy at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

It must have been my lucky day, when I visited Harriott was workshopping a new pastry for the menu. She called it a Nutella puffy ($4.50), and I called it the best thing I ate at Sweet Jeans. Playing up the Dubai chocolate trend, Harriott stuffed puff pastry with Nutella and pistachios, rolled it up into a cinnamon roll-like shape and baked until crispy and caramelized on the outside and gooey in the center. Each rich, nutty bite was better than the next. If theyre on the menu, you know what to do.

Tuna melt at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

After relishing in a sugar high, I pivoted to a few of Sweet Jeans savory lunch offerings. First up was the tuna melt ($10), an open-faced sandwich piled high atop Balthazar sourdough. This was my first time having a tuna melt with a kick, thanks to the finely chopped pepperoncini mixed in with the mayo. I loved the nutty provolone, and the pickled onions added unexpected sweetness to the mix. I found the avocado unnecessary as it fell flat against the other flavors involved. Nonetheless, it was a bright and delicious version of a classic.

Turkey + brie sandwich at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

The other sandwich I enjoyed was the turkey + brie ($14.00), a sandwich stacked with house-roasted turkey breast, brie, granny smith apple, arugula and sour cherry dijonnaise on Balthazar sourdough. This reminded me of a charcuterie board in sandwich form. The play of sweet, sour, tart bitter and savory sang with each bite, but didnt overwhelm. A side of kettle chips and a pickle kept this sandwich humble, and added a little nod to the approachability of nostalgic sandwich shops.

The bad

Everything I tasted at Sweet Jeans was delicious, so the only bad thing I can think of is your fortune if traveling through Newark on the weekend, when theyre closed. I also visited on a day where Harriotts famous macarons were still being baked, so I missed out on trying one of her specialties.

The pass at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

The vibe

Harriott and Soldano have curated a cozy space thats welcoming, a visit here feels like youre at a friends place. The bar seating is perfect for a quick bite, while the neighboring tables offer a comfortable place to enjoy a breakfast, lunch or a coffee with friends or colleagues. Just outside the cafe doors is a sunny atrium with even more bar seating overlooking Broad Street where customers can post up and work or people-watch.

Little touches from Harriotts family are sprinkled around the cafe  a sign reading Grazie Dio sits on the pass, part of an Italian prayer that Harriotts grandmother would reference when theyd ask whats for dinner? Hung above it, a colorful, produce-inspired needlework piece made by her mother-in-law in the 70s reminds her of her grandfather as a peddler.

Portraits of all of the Jeans and Genes in their families liven up the far wall, while a neon heart serves as another obvious reminder of how much passion, history and heart went into the operation.

Entrance art at Sweet Jeans Kitchen + Espresso Bar in Newark (Stephanie Rizzolo | for NJ Advance Media)

The bottom line

Sweet Jeans is a much-needed respite for casual eats, homemade pastries and creative coffee concoctions in Newarks vibrant downtown development. The welcoming vibes and personal touches offer a sense of identity that not blend seamlessly into the local landscape, but celebrate it.

Harriotts creative menu and confections are a culmination of her many experiences in the culinary industry, and Newark is lucky to have her serving the community.

Related coverage:

 25 Asian-owned restaurants to support for AAPI month

 One of N.J.s favorite bagel shops just opened a new location. Heres where.

 Popular N.J. coffee shop opening 2nd location in flourishing food town

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 In the Ironbound

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Stephanie Rizzolo may be reached at stephanienjdotcom@gmail.com.Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Gov. Phil Murphy has nominated a lawyer with the U.S. Attorneys office to serve as Gloucester Countys next prosecutor.

If confirmed, Pitman resident Andrew Johns would be the first permanent prosecutor in that role in five years.

Murphys choice to fill the post has been referred to the state Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration. The committee is scheduled to next meet on May 29.

If approved, the nomination will go to the full Senate for a vote. County prosecutors serve five-year terms.

Johns declined to comment on the nomination.

A spokesman for the governors office would not comment on a pending appointment.

The last permanent prosecutor in the top role for Gloucester County was Charles Fiore, who abruptly resigned in 2020 after less than three years in the job.

His departure coincided with some staff members claiming a hostile work environment and discrimination by Fiore and other top officials.

Days after he left, a prosecutors office detective filed a lawsuit alleging Fiore made several crude comments to her and tried to pressure her into denying his conduct was inappropriate.

That suit was settled the following year, when the employee was paid $165,000 to resolve the case. Other suits followed.

Fiore previously declined to comment on the allegations. He said he left the prosecutors post for family reasons and to pursue work in the private sector.

Since then, the post has been filled by acting prosecutors.

Christine A. Hoffman served in the role until her retirement last year.

Assistant state Attorney General Elizabeth Vogelsong-Parvin was named to the post in an acting capacity as Hoffmans successor.

Johns, who graduated from Rutgers Law School in 2005, has served in various posts throughout his career, according to his LinkedIn page.

Before his current role as an assistant U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Johns was with the state Attorney Generals Office for more than eight years.

Prior to that, he served as an assistant prosecutor with the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office.

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
A now-defunct youth drug rehabilitation program subjected a budding hip-hop artist to years of abuse in the early 1990s, derailing what his attorneys describe as a promising music career, according to a lawsuit.

The plaintiff, identified as John Doe, alleges he was forcibly taken from his home at age 16 and confined against his will at the Kids of North Jersey facility in Secaucus.

Doe had already opened for major artists like Ice Cube and recorded original tracks when he was forcibly removed from his home by a security guard hired by the program, according to the complaint,

The lawsuit, filed April 17 in Superior Court in Hudson County, invokes the New Jersey Child Sexual Abuse Act and the Child Victims Act, which extend legal recourse to survivors of childhood abuse.

According to the lawsuit, after discovering his 16-year-old son smoking marijuana, the plaintiffs father secretly arranged for a security guard from the drug treatment program to remove the teen from his home while he slept.

Does legal team claims that what followed was a year of forced confinement, drugging, and abuse at the hands of staff members at Kids of North Jersey, a program allegedly operated by Virgil Miller Newton.

A message left for Newton was not immediately returned.

Several affiliated entities were also named in the complaint, including Kids Centers of America, the Straight Foundation, and the Drug Free America Foundation.

The complaint describes a grim environment inside a windowless warehouse where children were subjected to a rigid rehabilitation regimen.

New arrivals, called newcomers, were reportedly forced to sit in silence for hours, chant confessions, and participate in violent rap sessions, the complaint said.

Doe alleges he was routinely restrained in painful five-point holds, during which he was groped and sexually assaulted.

The abuse allegedly extended beyond the facility to so-called host homes, where children were sent to sleep under the supervision of senior program participants and staff.

These homes, the lawsuit claims, were outfitted with barred windows and locks to prevent escape and became additional sites of sexual abuse.

Doe says he eventually escaped the program in 1992 by fleeing a host home in Fort Lee.

Once a rising star in New York Citys hip-hop scene, he now lives with his father, unable to work and suffering from severe PTSD, depression, and memory loss, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint argues that KONJ operated with impunity despite mounting allegations.

It cites a 1989 CBS documentary, a 1993 criminal case in which three KONJ counselors were convicted of beating a child, and a 2009 congressional address by another survivor.

Now 50, Doe is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for sexual abuse, negligence, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Does attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, said The depravity of the staff members and complicity of the host families in the torture of these children is mind blowing.

The psychological and physical toll it has irrevocably taken on my clients life is devastating, Arnold added. The abuse left deep scars that permeated every aspect of his life and derailed his promising potential.
A New Jersey appeals court has overturned a 20-year prison sentence for a Newark man convicted on charges he tried to sexually assault a woman in 2016 in Middlesex County.

A request by Kevin L. Bethea, 62, to replace his public defender with a private attorney was not properly reviewed prior to the trial that led to his conviction in 2021.

The trial judge ignored key legal standards meant to protect a defendants right to fair representation, an error serious enough to invalidate the entire trial, the appeals court said in a ruling released Thursday.

The charges against Bethea include second-degree attempted sexual assault of a longtime acquaintance at a Carteret home.

According to court documents, Bethea raised concerns about his public defenders performance just as jury selection was underway.

His attorney also told the court that she was overwhelmed, preparing for both Betheas trial and a parole hearing at the same time.

During a hearing before jury selection, Bethea told the judge his public defender had failed to file a single motion on his behalf over the course of five years, despite his repeated suggestions and input about how he wanted his case handled.

The trial judge denied the request without fully exploring Betheas reasons or how long a delay might be needed, according to the appeals court ruling.

The appeals court also noted that Betheas defense may have been harmed by his lawyers failure to challenge key parts of the victims testimony or to present evidence that could have supported his case.

The court also said that jury instructions in the original trial were flawed in a way that could have affected the verdict on the terroristic threats charges.

Betheas convictions were vacated and the case has been sent back to the lower court for a new trial.

A spokesperson for the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office said, We will abide by the judgment of the court.

The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender declined to comment on the case.

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Wacky Tobaccy's owners face penalties from the state treasury for failure to pay required taxes on its license and will need to pay restitution for untaxed products. Google

The owners of a pair of tobacco shops along the Jersey Shore were also illegally selling marijuana and untaxed items, authorities allege.

Wacky Tobaccy owners Ronald Slack, 38, and Michael J. Attianese, 36, were arrested after investigators got a tip and executed search warrants at their shops in Asbury Park and Wall, police said.

Both are charged with distribution and possession of marijuana and hashish. Slack, of Beachwood, and Attianese, of Asbury Park, were also charged with distribution of toxic chemicals.

Cops seized one of Slacks vehicles.

The business faces penalties from the state treasury for failure to pay required taxes on its license and will need to pay restitution for untaxed products.

Slack and Attianese were booked into the Monmouth County jail. No attorney was listed for either in court records.

The Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce describes Wacky Tobaccy as a cannabis culture shop. They offer everything related to the cannabis culture from pipes and papers, apparel and cookware to gifts, books games and more.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.

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Janet Ashnault and Donald Sweeney honor the fallen heroes from Cranford, New Jersey, in this photo taken on Monday, May 19, 2025. Karim Shamsi-Basha

Donald Sweeney and Janet Ashnault live in Cranford, New Jersey. He sells beauty supplies, and she works in IT.

Neither served in the military at any point in their lives. Yet they founded the Cranford86 project in 2016, a website and Facebook page that honor the 86 Cranford residents killed while serving their country since World War I.

As a Boy Scout leader, I helped the scouts when they marched holding flags during the Memorial Day parade here in Cranford. I would listen to veterans talk about their friends and family members who were killed in wars, said Sweeney, 68. I was deeply touched and decided to do something to honor these folks who gave their lives.

Ashnault, 64, is involved in the project for a different reason.

My husbands brother, Raymond Ashnault, was killed in Vietnam at the age of 21, Ashnault said. It was difficult for his family to talk about Ray, so I helped get his story told through the Cranford86 project. They loved it when people knew about Raymond, but it always brings tears.

Janet Ashnault holds a poster honoring her brother-in-law, Raymond Ashnault, at Memorial Park in Cranford, New Jersey, on Monday, May 19, 2025. Karim Shamsi-Basha

The Cranford86 project tells the stories of the Cranford residents who were killed during World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Their stories are published in a book the group sells during a Memorial Day event and through its website.

We find out all the details about these heroes, then we put their story together, Ashnault said. We bring the heroes to life for the families, and they are very grateful their sons and husbands and relatives are not just names.

Plaques with names of fallen soldiers at Memorial Park in Cranford, New Jersey, photographed on Monday, May 19, 2025. Karim Shamsi-Basha

For Sweeney, that is the mission of the Cranford86 project.

They deserve that, he said. Their families deserve that honor.

Memorial Day honors our fallen heroes, but it also raises questions about conflicts that were controversial, like the Vietnam War.

Ashnault addressed this issue.

At the time of Vietnam, it was how the war was presented. It was a job to be done, and these young men volunteered to do the job, Ashnault said. Before the war, [President John F.] Kennedy told us to ask not what our country can do for us. It was that spirit in the air. No one wants a war.

The Memorial Day Parade in Cranford starts Monday on Walnut Avenue at 9 a.m. and ends at Memorial Park, where a ceremony will take place.

During the event, someone will read the names of the 86 fallen heroes.

Then, Sweeney, Ashnault and others will share a few of their stories.

This is the most rewarding thing I do all year, Ashnault said. The gratitude their families express means so much. I always have tears coming down my face when they come up and embrace me.

The event is equally rewarding for Sweeney.

The Cranford86 project reminds me why I love my country, he said.

Karim Shamsi-Basha may be reached at kshamsi-basha@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter & Instagram.

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The JBJ Soul Kitchen, which is run under a nonprofit founded by legendary New Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi, is managing a pop-up restaurant at the Ocean County Library in Toms River Township. JBJ Soul Kitchen, provided

A charity pop-up restaurant run by rocker Jon Bon Jovis nonprofit will remain open for at least another month despite Toms River Townships mayor citing the cafe as a conduit for unhoused people assembling downtown.

A lease to the JBJ Soul Kitchen at the Ocean County Library on Washington Street was extended by county officials, the restaurant chain announced Thursday. It was set to expire this month after being extended once since the makeshift eatery opened in February.

The Ocean County Library Commission cited the restaurants success as a reason for extending the lease. The chain said since opening, it has served about 2,600 people while connecting 25 customers to housing and health services. Two people, the chain said, have secured permanent housing because of the restaurants outreach.

We are deeply grateful to the Ocean County Library for supporting this initiative, the Soul Kitchen said in a statement. We look forward to continuing to work with the community to further our impact, while creating hope, serving all with dignity and building a healthier future for all.

The restaurant provoked a public feud between the Bon Jovi and Mayor Dan Rodrick, who argues the restaurant is causing an increase in homeless people congregating near the library, causing cases of disorderly behavior.

Rodrick claimed Thursday that unhoused people continue to congregate in Toms River. Police continued to field constant calls over the issue, Rodrick said. He further claimed Ocean County officials are prioritizing politically connected nonprofits transporting homeless people to Toms River rather than residents.

The library is supposed to be for our children to read books and study, Rodrick said. Its not supposed to be a makeshift daytime homeless shelter.

Dorothea Bon Jovi came up with the concept of the Soul Kitchens. Here, in this file photo, she appears with her husband at the opening of a new JBJ Soul Kitchen on the Rutgers Newark campus in 2020. New Jersey Advance Media file photo

The mayor frequently referred to the restaurant as a soup kitchen, a term for establishments that provide minimal essentials to the needy. Bon Jovi, however, defended the restaurant chains purpose, calling it a method to improve quality of life.

They (county officials) didnt even call; they never asked, they just extended it, Rodrick said, suggesting the Ocean County should have consulted with Toms River about the restaurants future.

The Soul Kitchen opened its first location in Red Bank in 2011, expanding to a second in Toms River, which remains open alongside the cafe at the library. Additional locations have opened in Jersey City and Rutgers universities.

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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.
A California resident has been convicted in federal court for a disturbing campaign of threats and harassment targeting a New Jersey judge.

On May 15, a federal jury in Californias Central District convicted 36-year-old Jonathan Lipman of stalking, a felony charge under U.S. law.

The conviction follows a three-day trial that revealed a months-long barrage of violent and graphic threats Lipman directed at a New Jersey Superior Court Judge and other public officials.

According to court documents and testimony, Lipman began his campaign in early 2023 after the judge signed a Final Extreme Risk Protective Order against him, barring him from possessing firearms.

The order followed earlier threats Lipman had made on social media against New Jersey law enforcement and officials.

From February to September 2023, Lipman sent approximately 400 emails to the judge and other New Jersey officials, including police officers and court staff.

The emails were sent from multiple accounts and contained graphic fantasies of violence, including beheadings, shootings, and executions.

In one particularly chilling message, Lipman sent the judge a photo of a lever-action shotgun with the subject line, Is a photo illegal? and a winking emoji.

Despite being warned by law enforcement in July 2023 to cease his communications, Lipman escalated his behavior, authorities said.

The FBI executed a search warrant at Lipmans Los Angeles residence in September 2023, seizing digital evidence linking him to the threatening emails.

Even after the search and a direct warning from an FBI agent, Lipman continued sending emails, including one in which he wrote, TAKE ME INTO CUSTODY OR I will make you arrest me for trespassing, authorities said.

Lipman was arrested shortly thereafter and has remained in federal custody since.

His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha. He faces a statutory maximum of five years in federal prison.

The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California.

Lipmans attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office declined to comment.
FILE - Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., gestures while addressing a gathering during a campaign stop, Jan. 18, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. Phillips ended his long-shot 2024 Democratic presidential bid on Wednesday after failing to win a primary contest against President Joe Biden.(AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File) AP

Former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) attacked his own party for engaging in a cover-up of former President Joe Bidens health.

Phillips, who launched a primary challenge to Biden during the 2024 campaign, wrote a scorching piece for The Free Press criticizing Democrats for their defense of Biden. He lauded a new book from journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that he said revealed even greater depths" of Bidens declining health.

But as a former Democratic congressman from Minnesota who, for years, has demanded greater transparency and accountability from my party, I am outraged to see that the important lessons from the top scandal of the 2024 election have still not been learned," he wrote in his piece titled, I Warned My Party About Bidens Health. Will They Listen Now?.

Constant lying and gaslighting the public about Bidens health has cost the Democratic Party the publics trust. Rebuilding it first requires the courage and honesty to admit to what happened, he continued.

Dean Phillips: I Warned My Party About Bidens Health. Will They Listen Now? https://t.co/9w61XzXMby  Jake Tapper  (@jaketapper) May 22, 2025

Phillips chose not to run for reelection after his unsuccessful bid to unseat Biden on the top of the Democratic ticket. As he noted in his new piece, Phillips repeatedly called for an open Democratic primary during his campaign and cited concerns about the then-presidents health.

He explained that he thought Biden was unfit to serve after the White House holiday party in December 2022. He said he urged other Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and then-Vice President Kamala Harris to enter the race.

But when no one wanted to challenge Biden, Phillips decided that it was his turn to enter the race. He accused the Democratic Party of trying to discredit him by trying to block his name from the ballot and deciding to hold no debates during the primary.

This wasnt a fight for democracy, rather a coordinated fight against democracyexecuted by a private corporation with no accountability to voters," Phillips wrote.

For a party ostensibly focused on protecting democracy and expanding voter rights and access, denying Democratic primary voters a single alternative to Biden was nothing short of rank hypocrisy, he added.

Earlier in the piece, he also said it was not a coincidence that Bidens office announced his cancer diagnosis ahead of the release of Tappers book. This echoed rhetoric from some liberals and Republicans who accused Democrats of engaging in a cover-up of Bidens health.

Coincidence? I think not, Phillips wrote. Numerous doctors have pointed out how unlikely it is that Biden was just diagnosed with this cancer. Biden himself even slipped up and said he had cancer in 2022. Common sense tells us that the most powerful man in the world, with access to the best healthcare in the world, would have surely known.

He concluded his piece by urging Democrats to come clean about what they knew about Bidens health.

If a relatively little-known congressman like me knew that Biden was incapable of leading the country in a second term, what does that say about the complicity of the real party bosses whose names we all know? he wrote.

The health of Biden was a dominant concern among voters during his time as president. After a calamitous debate performance in June while seeking reelection, Biden abandoned his bid for a second term. Harris became the nominee and lost to Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House after a four-year hiatus.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., meets with reporters after President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan to prevent a Christmastime government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) AP

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) tore into President Donald Trump in a brutal takedown early Thursday morning.

Jeffries led House Democrats in opposing Trumps big, beautiful bill this week that narrowly passed the lower chamber in an early morning vote. In his final House speech opposing the legislation, Jeffries torched Trump and his Republican allies for pushing through the one big, ugly bill.

Thats what this one big, ugly bill represents, not simply a broken promise as it relates to your failures on the economy. And despite the gentleman from Louisiana trying to articulate all of the so-called successes that have taken place, we know that this presidency has already been a failure filled with crisis and chaos, cruelty and corruption, Jeffries said in his early morning speech.

And the American people know it, which is why Donald Trump, at the 100 day mark, was the most unpopular president in American history. The American people understand its unfolding right before their eyes, no matter what kind of MAGA spin you try to put on the situation, he added.

Jeffries: We know that this presidency has already been a failure. Filled with crisis and chaos, cruelty and corruption. And the American people know it. Which is why Donald Trump at the 100-day mark was the most unpopular president in American history.



The American people pic.twitter.com/hSJfsoYM4Q  Acyn (@Acyn) May 22, 2025

Jeffries continued to lash out against the bill and criticized Republicans for including massive cuts to Medicaid in the legislation. Democrats warned that the changes to Medicaid will result in millions of Americans losing healthcare coverage.

And things are going to get worse. Why? Because of this big, ugly bill. Not simply an assault on the economy, a broken promise. Its an assault on the health care of the American people. See as Democrats, we believe in this country, health care is not simply a privilege. Health care is a right, he said.

The outcome caps an intense time on Capitol Hill, with days of private negotiations and public committee hearings, many happening back-to-back, around-the-clock. Republicans insisted their sprawling 1,000-page-plus package was what voters sent them to Congress  and Trump to the White House  to accomplish. They believe it will be rocket fuel, as one put it during debate, for the uneasy U.S. economy.

Trump himself demanded action, visiting House Republicans at Tuesdays conference meeting and hosting GOP leaders and the holdouts for a lengthy session Wednesday at the White House. Before the vote, the administration warned in a pointed statement that failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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U.S. Rep LaMonica McIver, wearing a red jacket, stands next to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside Delaney Hall in Newark on May 9. Michael Dempsey | For NJ Advance

Nearly a dozen former Republican members of Congress from across the country are speaking out against the charges filed against New Jersey U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver.

McIver, a Democrat who represents the states 10th congressional district, is facing two assault federal charges after she accompanied Newarks mayor to an ICE facility. Each charge carries eight year maximum sentences, if shes convicted.

The charges filed by the U.S. Attorneys Office followed a May 9 incident in which the congresswoman was conducting an oversight visit to a Newark ICE detention facility with Newarks mayor and other lawmakers.

During the visit, a struggle broke out when federal agents moved to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. McIver is accused of pushing and slamming into federal officers.

She denies the charges, calling them political intimidation by President Donald Trumps administration.

The call for Republicans to support McIver is being led by former U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards, who represented Oklahoma in Congress from 1977 to 1993, and former U.S. Rep. Claudine Schneider, who served from 1981 to 1991 representing Rhode Island.

We unequivocally reject the charges against Congresswoman McIver, Schneider and Edwards said in a statement.

The constitutional duties of members of Congress include not only passing legislation but also oversight of executive branch implementation of those laws. That is an essential dimension of American checks and balances. Rep. Mclver was present at the ICE facility as part of her official congressional duties. We believe this extreme response to the events of that day is unwarranted, the statement said.

The other nine former Republican members of Congress speaking out in support of McIver are:

Gordon Humphrey, a New Hampshire senator from 1979 to 1990

Barbara Comstock, a Virginia representative from 2015 to 2019

David Emery, a Maine representative from 1975 to 1983

Wayne Gilchrest, a Maryland representative from 1991 to 2009

Christopher Shays, a Connecticut representative from 1987 to 2009

Peter Smith, a Vermont representative from 1989 to 1991

David Trott, a Michigan representative from 2015 to 2019

Joe Walsh, an Illinois representative from 2011 to 2013

Denver Riggleman, a Virginia representative from 2019 to 2021

Their statements of support were released by the Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit group thats also involved in a coalition of lawsuits against the Trump administrations actions around reducing and firing federal employees.

McIver, a former Newark city council president, was conducting the ICE facility visit alongside Baraka and fellow New Jersey Democrats Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez.

Charges against Baraka were eventually dropped. But federal prosecutors charged McIver, who is accused of using her forearm to assault federal agents as they moved in to arrest Baraka.

McIver has denied all wrongdoing and called the prosecution politically motivated.

This behavior by the Trump administration is outrageous, Schneider said. Every member of Congress, both past and present, should be speaking up. If not, we will very soon lose our ability to do so.

McIver had her first court appearance in Newark this week. She was released under conditions that limited her international travel. Another hearing is slated for June 11.

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Jelani Gibson may be reached at jgibson@njadvancemedia.com.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) took one last stand against President Donald Trumps big, beautiful bill early on Thursday morning.

Massie and a handful of conservatives have expressed opposition to the massive Trump-backed bill filled with tax breaks and cuts to Medicaid. Massie said in his early morning speech that he wanted to deliver a dose of reality to Americans by criticizing the bill for increasing the nations deficit.

This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term, but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now. Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking. Congress can do funny math, fantasy math, if it wants, but bond investors dont, Massie said, noting that Moodys downgraded the U.S. credit rating last week.

He went on to say that the authors claim there will be $20 trillion of new debt over the next decade, but he believes its closer to $30 trillion. Massie then compared the legislation to the sinking of the Titanic.

Mr. Speaker, were not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. Were putting coal into boiler, and setting a course for the iceberg, Massie said. If something is beautiful, you dont do it after midnight.

Massie: We are not rearranging deck chairs on the titanic, were putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg. If something is beautiful, you don't do it after midnight. I oppose this bill pic.twitter.com/tgZhOBziNy  Acyn (@Acyn) May 22, 2025

Massie was one of two Republicans who voted no on the bill that passed in an early morning vote on Thursday. The bill narrowly cleared the House in a 215-214 vote, with every Democrat opposing it.

Trump lashed out at Massie over his criticism of his big beautiful bill earlier this week and called for the Kentucky Republican to lose his seat. Trump has previously called for the Republican to be primary challenged before after he opposed a stopgap bill to keep the government running earlier this year.

I think he should be voted out of office. And I just dont think he understands government, Trump told reporters earlier this week.

The outcome caps an intense time on Capitol Hill, with days of private negotiations and public committee hearings, many happening back-to-back, around-the-clock. Republicans insisted their sprawling 1,000-page-plus package was what voters sent them to Congress  and Trump to the White House  to accomplish. They believe it will be rocket fuel, as one put it during debate, for the uneasy U.S. economy.

Trump himself demanded action, visiting House Republicans at Tuesdays conference meeting and hosting GOP leaders and the holdouts for a lengthy session Wednesday at the White House. Before the vote, the administration warned in a pointed statement that failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speak to reporters after departing a House Republican conference meeting, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) AP

President Donald Trump is taking a victory lap after the House passed his big, beautiful bill, early Thursday morning.

The controversial package narrowly cleared the lower chamber in an early morning vote despite some staunch opposition from GOP deficit hawks. Many GOP holdouts supported the bill after the House approved changes to win over blue-state Republicans and hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus.

The House approved the massive package in 215-214 vote, with two Republicans joining with every Democrat to oppose the measure. After pressuring Republicans to unite behind his bill, Trump celebrated its passage in a Truth Social post.

THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL has PASSED the House of Representatives! This is arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country! Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, its time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! There is no time to waste, he continued.

Trump paid a rare visit to Capitol Hill earlier this week to rally support for the controversial bill that Democrats warn will result in millions of Americans losing their healthcare coverage. It also includes tax breaks, including no taxes on tips, overtime pay, car loan interest and others.

Despite the vote barely passing the House, Trump took aim at Democrats in his Truth Social post. Republicans hold a 220-212 majority in Congress after the recent deaths of three Democratic lawmakers.

The Democrats have lost control of themselves, and are aimlessly wandering around, showing no confidence, grit, or determination, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

They have forgotten their landslide loss in the Presidential Election, and are warped in the past, hoping someday to revive Open Borders for the Worlds criminals to be able to pour into our Country, men to be able to play in womens sports, and transgender for everybody. They dont realize that these things, and so many more like them, will NEVER AGAIN happen!, he concluded.

Trumps much-needed victory comes after lawmakers debated the legislation in an all-night session, with Democrats and some GOP holdouts railing against the bill. Many conservatives, including U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, criticized the bill for increasing the nations deficit.

Massie compared the legislation to the sinking of the Titanic in an early morning rant against the bill. Trump lashed out at Massie over his criticism of his big beautiful bill earlier this week and called for the Kentucky Republican to lose his seat.

Mr. Speaker, were not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. Were putting coal into boiler, and setting a course for the iceberg, Massie said on Thursday. If something is beautiful, you dont do it after midnight.

The outcome caps an intense time on Capitol Hill, with days of private negotiations and public committee hearings, many happening back-to-back, around-the-clock. Republicans insisted their sprawling 1,000-page-plus package was what voters sent them to Congress  and Trump to the White House  to accomplish. They believe it will be rocket fuel, as one put it during debate, for the uneasy U.S. economy.

Trump himself demanded action, visiting House Republicans at Tuesdays conference meeting and hosting GOP leaders and the holdouts for a lengthy session Wednesday at the White House. Before the vote, the administration warned in a pointed statement that failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Supporters hold banners as they listen Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N.Y., during "Hands Off Social Security " rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, May 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) AP

Frank Bisignano, a Wall Street executive turned newly appointed commissioner of the Social Security Administration, told his agency staff that he had to look up the job online when offered the role by President Donald Trumps administration.

ABC News revealed he told managers during a town hall on Wednesday that he wasnt looking for a new job and asked himself, What am I going to do? before searching for the position.

So, Im Googling Social Security, Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the call obtained by ABC News. You know, one of my great skills, Im one of the great Googlers on the East Coast.

Im like, What the hecks the commissioner of Social Security? he added.

Bisignano, who now leads the agency in administrating retirement, survivor, disability and family benefits to over 73 million Americans, went on to call himself the Great Googler-in-chief.

The meeting lasted around 90 minutes, ABC News reported, and mainly focused on the SSAs future amid tech billionaire Elon Musks gutting of governmental agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and leadership departures.

Bisignano, who previously served as the chair and CEO of the global financial technology company Fiserv Inc., was confirmed as commissioner in early May.

He stressed on the call that Social Security is not going away as the agency announced over the last few months that it would lay off at least 7,000 employees, shutter six of 10 regional agencies and planned to cut phone services, which has since been rolled back.

Hopefully you hear me say this every day, Bisignano said. You know who wants me to tell people that? Guess. The president.

Bisignano, a self-proclaimed DOGE person, went on to say that it may not feel like DOGE has improved the administration, but warned dont believe everything you read. He said that the non-governmental agency will help revamp the Social Security website and find ways to integrate artificial intelligence into phone calls.

The chaos at the the agency began shortly after acting commissioner Michelle King stepped down in February, a move that came after DOGE sought access to Social Security recipient information. That prompted a lawsuit by labor unions and retirees, who asked a federal court to issue an emergency order limiting DOGEs access to Social Security data.

Most recently, the full panel of judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-6 not to lift restrictions on the access that DOGE has to Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

When he received the nomination, Bisignano faced backlash from a number of seniors and advocates who believed his leadership would threaten the agencys survival.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt  who has been nicknamed Bullsh-t Barbie) is at it again.

On Thursday, Leavitt  who has been caught lying countless times  was nailed again and again and again during a press briefing on Thursday.

First, she spread a misleading claim about President Donald Trumps big, beautiful bill.

Then, she was nabbed lying about a gravesite of murdered Afrikaners.

And to top it off, she again insisted it is absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency.

Where to begin, where to begin.

The House narrowly passed the GOP-led legislation in an early morning vote on Thursday. The president and his allies took a victory lap on the bills passage later that day, with Trump calling it the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country.

However, Leavitt repeated a debunked claim about the bill during her press briefing on Thursday.

The one big, beautiful bill also helps get our fiscal house in order by carrying out the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years, with $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings, Leavitt said.

Every single Democrat in the House of Representatives who voted against all of these common sense and massively popular policies, the Democrat Party has never been more radical and out of touch with the needs of the American people, she continued.

The one big, beautiful bill is the final missing piece toward ushering the golden age of America. The Senate should pass this as quickly as possible, and send it to President Trumps desk for a final signature, she concluded.

However, deficit hawks and non-partisan analyses have said that the bill will actually only add to the deficit.

According to PolitiFact, Leavitts claim of $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings only refers to the bills spending cuts without factoring in the lost tax revenue that will increase the annual deficit and the federal governments cumulative debt. PolitiFact reported that according to multiple analyses, the bill would add $3 trillion to $4 trillion to the national deficit.

Democrat Isaiah Martin, who is running for Texass 8th congressional seat, ripped Leavitt in a post on social media platform X.

North Korea levels of propaganda, Martin quipped.

Spencer Hakiman, founder of Tolou Capital Management, also suggested on X that Leavitt never passed 5th grade arithmetic class.

North Korea levels of propaganda https://t.co/jggFI3NjwC  Isaiah Martin (@isaiahrmartin) May 22, 2025

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was one of the two Republicans to vote against the bill early Thursday morning. Ahead of the vote, he warned the bill would only increase the nations deficit by close to $30 trillion of new debt in the next decade.

Leavitt was also asked about another misleading claim made by Trump in a separate question about South African President Cyril Ramaphosas visit to the Oval Office on Wednesday. During the meeting, Trump showed a video of white crosses that he falsely said were burial sites of white farmers who had been killed.

The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of white South Africans that he said were murdered. We know that was not true and that video wasnt true, the reporter said, before asking why Trump showed the video if it was not substantiated.

Leavitt fired back, explaining that the video showed the crosses that represent [white] farmers who have been killed. The journalist disputed her statement, saying that Trump made an unsubstantiated claim that those crosses were burial sites of white South Africans.

Ramaphosa also questioned the video during his meeting with Trump.

Id like to know where that is, he said. Because this Ive never seen.

The New York Times reported that the crosses were not burial sites, but instead were temporarily set up as a memorial event near Newcastle, South Africa.

This is not the first time Leavitt has been caught making false claims during media appearances and press briefings.

She was ridiculed last week after saying it was frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.

But the mocking didnt stop her on Thursday, when she did it again.

She again scoffed at the notion that Trump is enriching himself, even though he and his family have grown their wealth by an estimated $3 billion (and probably more) since his inauguration. Trump has accepted a $400 million plane from Qatari, closed billions of dollars worth of business deals throughout the Middle East on his recent trip there, has accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in meme coin and social media investments in his companies from inside and outside the United States.

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The home was built in 1958. Edmond Salsali

There are a couple things youll find in the listing for this Colts Neck home that you wont see very often.
Knowlton Township officials objected in 2013 to construction of the fence seen here on Route 46 in the township. John Best file photo | lehighvalleylive.com contributor

Knowlton Township has approved a new Transportation Plan intended to prevent accidents and congestion. It was considered a fatal section of the Delaware Water Gap.

There were two fatalities in 2023 along Interstate 80, between mileposts 0.98 and the Delaware Water Gap Briidge into Pennsylvania, officials noted. The New Jersey Department of Transportation is being asked to extensively examine the area.
Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost.

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State Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, right, sponsored Senate Bill 218, which would allow prisoners convicted by nonunanimous juries to have new trials. He is pictured speaking with Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, during the legislative session on Monday, May 12, 2025, at the Louisiana State Capitol in downtown Baton Rouge, La.
Lumen Technologies Center of Excellence, part of its corporate headquarters complex in Monroe, was completed in 2015. In 2023, the company donated the building and an older office building on the site to the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Spies in plain sight: The CIA's desperate theatrics in China

17:52, May 21, 2025 By Xin Ping ( People's Daily Online

In a move reminiscent of Cold War-era propaganda, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) posted two Mandarin-language videos on social media, openly urging Chinese nationals, including government officials to betray their country and provide information for the agency.

The professionally produced videos, thinly veiled as public outreach, employ emotionally charged appeals and speculative narratives that reflect a superficial and misguided understanding of China. The poor tactics only shows how desperate the CIA is in trying to rebuild its shady network in China.

The arrogance behind the curtain

What stands out most is the videos' presumptive tone.

The CIA assumes that there are Chinese officials harboring personal grievances or mistrust of the Chinese system and can be used as pawns. Langley leaders must quite like the videos, watching them behind the lenses of the Cold War. They are sadly alone.

Viewers have posted comments on the YouTube page, ridiculing that "anyone persuaded by these videos to join the CIA would dramatically boost the average IQ of the agency." Others remarked that "I know the US is going low, but this is the new low."

More interestingly, the videos give out the CIA's understanding of politics. They do echo the political dynamics in Washington, such as entrenched partisan divides, opaque lobbying practices, and hard-to-detect corruption enabled by "revolving doors" between government and the private sector.

The old playbook, dusted off again

The CIA's influence campaign not just misjudges Chinese patriotism, but also reflects the agency's growing willingness to revisit discredited Cold War tactics.

As the world's most infamous spy agency, the CIA's history of covert interventionfrom orchestrating coups to fueling foreign destabilization under the banner of "promoting freedom"has long drawn international condemnation.

The agency's track record in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria has raised and sharpened global awareness of its modus operandi: framing military aggression as "liberation", political interference as "democratization", and propaganda as truth.

That it is now applying this same playbook on China should surprise no one.

But what the CIA fails to understand is that, more than 30 years after the Cold War ended, the world has changed. If the agency thinks a repeat of Cold War-era stunts in the age of multipolarity would somehow succeed, it is badly underestimating China and the rest of the world while overestimating itself.

Todays China is rising on the global stage with national pride, social cohesion and solid counterintelligence capabilities. Former CIA Director William Burns' framing of China as "the most important geopolitical threat we face in the 21st century" is an admission that reveals Washington's growing anxiety about China.

Rather than a sign of strength, CIA's new recruitment campaign is more like an admission of weakness. And these desperate and despicable attempts are doomed to fail.

(The author is a commentator on international affairs, writing regularly for Xinhua News, Global Times, China Daily, CGTN etc. He can be reached at xinping604@gmail.com.)

(Web editor: Hongyu, Du Mingming)
You co-wrote a new book in which you brazenly accuse the Biden administration of orchestrating a "cover-up" to conceal the former president's cognitive decline. But you were complicit. You played a major role.

Why did Democrats and media co-conspirators, like you, keep quiet, downplay and viciously attack those pointing out former President Joe Biden's obvious cognitive decline -- even though his deterioration was an accepted fact behind Democrat closed doors?

Easy.

Until and unless Biden agreed to step aside, Democrats/media who publicly ratted out Biden's decline would have given Democrat-generated opposition material and attack lines to his Republican challenger -- likely the hated Donald Trump. And you/Dems/media arrogantly considered Trump too "fascist/racist/sexist/maniacal" to win -- even against a feeble, stumbling, incoherent Biden.

If Biden insisted on running, as he did until the debate, and lost -- an outcome you, Dems and the rest of the Trump-hating media thought extremely unlikely -- the Democrat/media "traitors" who sounded the alarm would've been blamed, their careers jeopardized if not ruined.

So, you stayed silent and denounced Republicans, like Lara Trump, who called attention to Biden's condition on your show. You willingly and eagerly participated in the charade.

Remember your October 2020 exchange with Lara Trump?

Tapper: You made this comment earlier in the campaign about Joe Biden. Let's take a listen to that.

Video clip of Lara Trump: Every time he comes on stage, and they turn to him, I'm like, Joe, can you get it out? Let's get the words out, Joe. You kind of feel bad for him.

Tapper: How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?

L. Trump: First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter. I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline. ... That's what I'm referring to. It makes me uncomfortable to watch somebody on stage search for questions. ...

Tapper: Yes, I think you were mocking his stutter.

L. Trump: Of course I wasn't, Jake. Wow.

Tapper: And I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline, especially ...

L. Trump: I'm not diagnosing. I'm saying that we see the Joe Biden of today is not the Joe Biden of five years ago, of 10 years ago.

Tapper: I would think that somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses diagnosing politicians from afar. Plenty of people have diagnosed your father from afar. And I'm sure it offends you -- your father-in-law from afar. I'm sure it offends you. You don't have any standing to say ...

L. Trump: I'm not diagnosing him. What I'm saying, Jake ...

Tapper: You just talked about a cognitive decline.

L. Trump: ... is that we can clearly see that Joe Biden is struggling ...

Now that Kamala Harris, who was ushered in after the debate, got Trumped, it's C-Y-A time. "Reporters" like you have the nerve to pin the loss on -- and write a book about -- a "Biden White House cover-up."

I'll say this about a gaslighting "journalist" like you, Jake the Ripper -- you've got industrial-size cashews.

Even after the debate, the eyes-wide-shut nonsense continued. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden praised Biden's performance. "He answered every question," she gushed.

There was one exception: Barack Obama. But Obama used campaign strategist and adviser David Axelrod to voice Obama's alarm because he lacked the guts to do it himself.

Obama never thought much of Biden. During their 2008 campaign, Sen. Obama reportedly said about his running mate, "How many times is Joe Biden going to say something stupid?" Obama talked Biden out of running in 2016, and unsuccessfully tried to talk him out of running in 2020.

In November 2023, Axelrod tweeted: "Only Joe Biden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee ... What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it's in HIS best interest or the country's."

When Biden turned down an opportunity to address the nation during the 2024 Super Bowl, Axelrod called it "a major sign of trouble."

Bottom line: Your hands are as dirty as anyone in the Biden-is-as-sharp-as-a-tack masquerade. Take responsibility.

-- A Concerned Citizen

(COMMENT, BELOW)
I've been to Canada. More than once. I wasn't there long whenever I went. Once I left Detroit to cross the border, see what I could see within
North Devons MP has condemned a deal by the Government to give EU fishing trawlers extensive access to British fishing waters for a further 12 years.

Ian Roome MP said the fishing community deserve more than broken promises and bureaucratic barriers.

As part of wide-ranging deal with the EU that includes passport checks, migrant workers, defence, food exports and more, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has agreed to maintain the right of EU vessels to fish in UK waters until 2038, with the current deal under the original Brexit agreement due to expire next year.

The Liberal Democrats say they have consistently pushed for a fair deal for the UK fishing industry post-Brexit, including stronger support for fishing exports and less red tape.

Responding to the news, Mr Roome said: This is yet another example of the Government failing to stand up for the British fishing industry and our coastal communities, including North Devon.

The industry was promised greater control after Brexit by the Conservatives, but were let down by their sham deal and have been handed years of uncertainty and continued restrictions.

Ive met with numerous businesses in the seafood sector and fishing industry right across North Devon and discussed the current challenges theyre facing. From Appledore and Ilfracombe to Clovelly and beyond, fishing and seafood are a vital part of our coastal identity and play a huge role in supporting the local economy here in North Devon.

He said it was unbelievable a Labour government had extended the dreadful deal signed by Boris Johnson and the Conservatives.

He added: If they had followed our advice and been more ambitious from the start  including pushing for a new, bespoke UK-EU deal  they could have delivered a far better outcome.

The very least the Government must now do is work with our fishing community to understand how this deal will affect them and push for fairer export terms to the continent. They deserve more than broken promises and bureaucratic barriers.

The Liberal Democrats will always stand up for the fishing community; thats why were also urging the Government to create a minister for coastal communities, so they have a genuine and dedicated champion in government.
A proposed settlement would require the NIPSCO spinoff GenCo to outsource electricity production for data centers.

Faced with an unprecedented spike in demand from billions of dollars worth of new data centers potentially headed to northern Indiana, Merrillville-based gas and electric utility NIPSCO is asking state regulators to let it create a subsidiary called GenCo that would negotiate rates directly with hyperscale data centers that gobble up more power than even the steel mills along the lakeshore. In what's been described as a "first-in-the-nation" approach, it has asked the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to let it create the spinoff to serve data centers, saying it's necessary to protect existing customers from the cost and risk.

GenCo reached a settlement in the pending IURC case with the companies that make up the NIPSCO Industrial Group, which consists of large consumers of power like Cleveland-Cliffs and U.S. Steel. The IURC recently unsealed the previously confidential agreement.

Michael Gorman, an attorney representing the NIPSCO Industrial Group, said the proposed settlement includes limits on GenCo's operations, IURC review over GenCo and protections separating GenCo and NIPSCO. The proposal would limit GenCo largely to serving data centers through independently developed power generation infrastructure rather than by building new power plants of its own.

GenCo would be largely restricted to supplying electricity to megaload customers through purchase power agreements, or deals with independently owned electricity generators, commonly solar or wind farms. The deals would be subject to review by the IURC.

"This effectively addresses the concern that GenCo could operate as a speculative entity in the wholesale market or otherwise take excessive risks and potentially construct or acquire excess generation in order to support competitive sales in the wholesale market," Gorman wrote in a filing in the rate case.

GenCo could potentially make wholesale power sales, but would need to use existing, non-committed capacity. The IURC would have to review capacity acquisition, which would be included in NIPSCO's integrated resource planning process.

"There are reasonable protections against GenCo significantly expanding its generation resources beyond the needs of megaload customers," Gorman wrote. "This, in turn, would limit the opportunities for GenCo to engage in market transactions."

GenCo also could provide power and capacity to NIPSCO's other retail customers if it has any excess capacity.

The settlement is structured to prevent NIPSCO from building more electricity generating capacity than it needs to serve data center projects that might not pan out.

NIPSCO currently pursues rate hikes through the state by investing in its operations and then seeking approval to recoup its costs with a padding of a profit margin built in for investors.

"Absent the settlement, GenCo could have economic incentive to speculatively construct more capacity than necessary to meet the needs of NIPSCOs megaload customers. I, and others, identified this as a root concern with GenCos initial filing," Gorman wrote. "With the settlement, however, the degree of excess capacity and associated risk are both limited, while GenCo is still able to utilize uncommitted capacity in defined circumstances. This is a reasonable, and efficient, economic outcome."

GenCo could be investigated by the IURC and would have to submit information about any debt it takes on, which Gorman said would help shield ratepayers from excessive debt. It would need state approval for both the deals that would result in debt and for the construction projects it would have to borrow money for.

GenCo agreed to a separation of personnel with NIPSCO. GenCo and NIPSCO agreed they would not tie any customer agreements beyond retail electric service to service from the other to discourage any discrimination against customers that might seek out other power sources on the open market.

The settlement will require GenCo to get approval from state regulators before it builds, purchases or leases any electric generation facilities for data centers. It will have to identify the cost, the expected load growth and the additional capacity required. It would be limited in use of eminent domain until after it got state approval for a new electric generation facility.

NIPSCO and GenCo also will need to submit annual filings with resource plans, customer load commitments and investment projections in new electric capacity.

"Importantly, the public process at the commission contemplated by the settlement agreement provides a further safeguard to GenCos commitments as to the scope of its operations," he wrote. "That is, it provides mechanisms by which the commission and other interested parties can review GenCos actions and confirm that the company is acting consistent with its core purpose rather than expanding its operations without connection to a defined plan and articulated need."
National Science Foundation grant funding through May 21 10-year average $2 billion This year $989 million

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades

The National Science Foundation, which funds much of the fundamental scientific research at American universities, is awarding new grants at the slowest pace in at least 35 years.

The funding decreases touch virtually every area of science  extending far beyond the diversity programs and other woke targets that the Trump administration says it wants to cut.

Grants funded by the National Science Foundation through May 21  51%

2015-2024 average $2 billion In 2025 $989 million Geosciences $305m Technology $110m Math, physics and chemistry $432m Computer science $277m Biology $303m Education $280m Engineering $221m Social sciences $78m The chart shows the intended funding amount for new grants awarded by the N.S.F. during the 2025 calendar year through May 21, compared with the average funding for the same period from 2015 to 2024. In 2025 dollars. Source: N.S.F.

That means less support for early-stage research that underpins future technological advancements  and American competitiveness  in areas like computer science and engineering; physics and chemistry; climate science and weather forecasting; and materials and manufacturing innovations.

It also means less money for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and early-career professors  potentially disrupting the nations future scientific work force.

Economists have warned that cutting federal funding for scientific research could, in the long run, damage the U.S. economy by an amount equivalent to a major recession.

These cuts are the height of self-inflicted harm, said Robert Atkinson, the president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan science and technology policy research institute. The foundation has argued that China probably already conducts more research and development than the United States.

If they succeed in these cuts, the result will be slower economic growth, less innovation and new tech startups, and even more diminished competitiveness vis-a-vis China, he added.

The lag in this years funding, more than $1 billion below the 10-year average, is for new research grants, but the Trump administration has gone further. It has also terminated more than 1,600 active grants for existing research projects, together worth roughly $1.5 billion (of which at least 40 percent has already been spent).

And it wants to eliminate nearly $5 billion of the agencys $9 billion budget for next year, cutting spending on climate; clean energy; woke social, behavioral and economic sciences, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Among the in-progress grants that have been terminated, those focused on education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, accounted for the vast majority of the canceled funding. Many of these grants focused on broadening participation in science and engineering among underrepresented student groups.

Canceled funding from in-progress grants STEM education -$656 mil. Math, physics, chem. -$61 mil. Geosciences -$53 mil. Computer science -$47 mil. Social sciences -$46 mil. Technology -$38 mil. Engineering -$36 mil. Biology -$28 mil. The chart shows the total cut in intended award funding for terminated grants grouped by N.S.F. directorate after excluding money that has already been spent. Source: USA Spending and Grant Watch

But in contrast with the canceled grants, the slowdown in issuing new grants is broader, representing an across-the-board hit to American science.

Decline in new grant funding in 2025 Math, physics, chem. -$289 mil. STEM education -$223 mil. Biology -$156 mil. Engineering -$127 mil. Geosciences -$101 mil. Computer science -$85 mil. Technology -$18 mil. Social sciences -$16 mil. Source: N.S.F.

The N.S.F. said in a statement that while it will focus on the Trump administrations priorities  like artificial intelligence, quantum information science, biotechnology and nuclear energy  it remains committed to awarding grants and funding all areas of science and engineering.

Yet the data shows the agencys funding of new grants at its lowest level since at least 1990, around when the N.S.F. expanded into its modern structure. The funding has slowed even further since April 30, when agency employees were told to stop awarding funds entirely, according to an email reviewed by The New York Times.

Cumulative grant funding by the National Science Foundation, 1990-2025 Shows the cumulative total intended award for all grants funded by the N.S.F. from Jan. 1 to May 21 of each year in 2025 dollars. Spikes reflect large multi-year grants.

Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee, said the Trump administration was denying funding that had already been approved by Congress.

What theyre doing is not only illegal, but its also very damaging to the science enterprise and, ultimately, to the economy of the United States, she said.

The N.S.F. has said it is canceling awards that are not in line with its priorities, including those focused on D.E.I., environmental justice, misinformation and disinformation. The cancellations have been cheered by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who in February published a list identifying more than a third of the grants that have been terminated.

My Commerce Committee investigation exposed how the Biden administration corrupted the N.S.F. grantmaking process with a divisive fixation on identity politics, Mr. Cruz said in a statement. This kind of politicization erodes public trust in science. The N.S.F. must spend taxpayer dollars responsibly and prioritize objectivity and scientific rigor.

House Democrats on the science committee have said the cancellations themselves are based on hard-right political ideology and not scientific or research expertise, and have noted flaws in Mr. Cruzs report, like associating the term biodiversity with D.E.I.

N.S.F. officials interviewed for this article said many grants that have already gone through the agencys rigorous review process and were recommended for funding have been in limbo for months. After the April 30 email freezing new awards, which was first reported by Nature, another email on May 13 allowed for some new funding but kept a freeze in place for higher education institutions.

A spokesman for the N.S.F. said it was still making awards to higher education institutions.

Either way, the N.S.F.s directorate for STEM education has had one of the steepest shortfalls in new grants. Its award funding has declined by around 80 percent this year.

Funding through May 21 for 

STEM education  80%

2015-2024 average $280 million In 2025 $56 million Grad. Education $21m Undergrad. education $135m Equity for excellence in STEM $46m Research on learning $77m Source: N.S.F.

The N.S.F. says that it directly supported over 350,000 researchers, teachers and students last year alone. It supports over 20,000 graduate students, more than any other federal agency except the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research and has also awarded far fewer grants this year.

Within its education branch, the N.S.F. has moved to eliminate the division of equity for excellence in STEM, which promotes D.E.I. and supports students who are underrepresented in science and engineering. The closure has been put on hold by a court order.

The N.S.F.s division of graduate education, which funds graduate student research, typically approves $21 million in grants by this point of the year, but has awarded none so far. It announced 1,000 graduate research fellowships this year, down from over 2,000 in prior years, as reported last month by Nature.

Ms. Lofgren said these education programs are required by law and were adopted with bipartisan support.

You cant have science without scientists, she said.

Heres how the shortfall in grant awards this year has affected other areas of science:

Math, physics and chemistry  67%

2015-2024 average $432 million In 2025 $143 million Chemistry $103m Physics $72m Astronomy $26m Math $113m Materials $118m Source: N.S.F.

N.S.F. grant funding for core scientific disciplines like math, physics, chemistry and material sciences has dropped by two-thirds this year.

The N.S.F. funds basic research in these areas: fundamental or unexpected discoveries that may be decades away from practical applications. That includes research on ultrafast lasers in the 1990s that eventually resulted in bladeless LASIK eye surgery, or radar technology in the 1960s that revolutionized weather prediction three decades later.

Curiosity-driven research lays the foundation for private sector investments and leads to breakthroughs that can be commercialized, said Deborah Wince-Smith, the president of the Council on Competitiveness, a nonpartisan organization composed of chief executives, university presidents and heads of national laboratories.

The N.S.F. has also funded major astronomical observatories that have made groundbreaking discoveries such as capturing the first images of black holes or detecting gravitational waves.

In 2023, the N.S.F. funded half of all federally supported basic research in math and statistics in American colleges. So far this year, math and statistics grant funding is lagging behind previous years by 72 percent.

Funding for physics grants this year has fallen by 85 percent, and funding for materials research grants has dropped by 63 percent.

Engineering  57%

2015-2024 average $221 million In 2025 $94 million Chemical & bio $75m Emerging frontiers $2m Electrical $36m Eng. education $27m Civil & mechanical $80m Source: N.S.F.

N.S.F. grant funding for core engineering disciplines has dropped by 57 percent this year. These divisions fund areas like robotics, manufacturing innovations and semiconductor research.

Funding for grants related to chemical, bioengineering, environmental and transport systems has fallen by 71 percent this year, while funding for grants related to civil and mechanical engineering and manufacturing innovation has fallen by 48 percent.

Biology  52%

2015-2024 average $303 million In 2025 $147 million Emerging frontiers $1m Organismal $88m Molecular and cell $40m Environmental $75m Biological infrastructure $99m Source: N.S.F.

Most federal funding for biology research comes from the National Institutes of Health, but the N.S.F. also supports the field. Its grant funding for biology is at half of its previous 10-year average. There were fewer funds awarded for research in biotechnology and environmental biology, and less money for the tools, facilities and people that support biological research.

Computer science  31%

2015-2024 average $277 million In 2025 $192 million Information & intelligent systems $68m Advanced cyberinfrastructure $39m Computer networking $96m Computing foundations $74m Source: N.S.F.

Computer science divisions that have supported research in topics like artificial intelligence, data science, computer security and emerging computing technologies have awarded fewer funds this year.

But the office of advanced cyberinfrastructure has awarded twice the funding that is typical by this time of year, including a $26 million grant for generative A.I. tools and a $20 million grant to advance American leadership in artificial intelligence.

In 2023, the N.S.F. provided 72 percent of federal funds for foundational computer science research at colleges and universities.

The agency provided early funding that led to recent developments in artificial intelligence. For example, the researchers who received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in artificial neural networks  technologies that underlie tools like ChatGPT  received N.S.F. funding in the 1980s, long before their work had widespread applications.

The funds also support the careers of graduate students, a large share of whom eventually work in the technology industry, said Greg Hager, the former head of the N.S.F.s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, who resigned from the agency this month.

It's going to impact progress today, but its going to have profound impacts for years to come, he said of the reductions in funding for computer science.

Geosciences  33%

2015-2024 average $305 million In 2025 $204 million Atmospheric Science $63m Polar programs $51m R.I.S.E. $11m Ocean sciences $103m Earth sciences $78m Source: N.S.F.

In 2023, the N.S.F. supported over half of all federally funded basic geosciences research in American universities.

This year, the agency has fired workers at the Office of Polar Programs, which coordinates research in the Arctic and the Antarctic. The polar office has awarded 88 percent less money in grants this year.

But the ocean sciences division has awarded more funding than typical this year, including a $39 million grant to establish an office that will manage a deep-sea drilling program and an $18 million grant to Columbia University to support a research vessel.

Social and behavioral sciences  20%

2015-2024 average $78 million In 2025 $62 million N.C.S.E.S. $2m Social science & economics $31m Multidisciplinary $11m Behavioral & cognitive sciences $32m Source: N.S.F.

There has been a 96 percent decrease in grant funding for multidisciplinary research, which spans biology, physics and engineering. Previously funded projects have included using cells as sensors to monitor pollutants and diseases in wastewater, creating biodegradable robots, and engineering fungi to recover valuable metals from e-waste.

The behavioral and cognitive sciences division has awarded 30 percent more grant funding this year compared with the past decades average  despite the Trump administrations targeting of woke social, behavioral and economic sciences. That included funding research on tracking changes in romantic relationships, how hand gestures can enhance learning and a database that lists the average rents in a neighborhood.

Technology, innovation and partnerships  17%

2015-2024 average $110 million In 2025 $92 million Innovation $24m Translational impacts $86m Source: N.S.F.

The CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan law enacted during the Biden administration in 2022, created the N.S.F.s Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. Last year it funded projects for agricultural technology in North Dakota, climate resilience in Wyoming and semiconductor assembly in Central Florida.

This branchs grant funding has decreased by 17 percent, a moderate reduction compared with the decreases in other areas.

Here are all the changes so far:

Changes in N.S.F. grant funding

Show less detail Directorate 2015-2024 avg. funding 2025 funding Change Education $280 mil. $56 mil. -80% Graduate education $21 mil. $0 -100% Equity for excellence in STEM $46 mil. $1 mil. -97% Research on learning in formal and informal settings $77 mil. $16 mil. -79% Undergraduate education $135 mil. $39 mil. -71% Math, physics and chemistry $432 mil. $143 mil. -67% Strategic initiatives $6k $0 -100% Physics $72 mil. $11 mil. -85% Mathematical sciences $113 mil. $32 mil. -72% Materials research $118 mil. $43 mil. -63% Chemistry $103 mil. $44 mil. -57% Astronomical sciences $26 mil. $12 mil. -53% Engineering $221 mil. $94 mil. -57% Emerging frontiers in research and innovation $2 mil. $42k -98% Chemical, bioengineering, environmental and transport systems $75 mil. $22 mil. -71% Engineering education and centers $27 mil. $12 mil. -56% Civil, mechanical, and manufacturing innovation $80 mil. $42 mil. -48% Electrical, communications and cyber systems $36 mil. $19 mil. -48% Biology $303 mil. $147 mil. -52% Biological infrastructure $99 mil. $32 mil. -68% Integrative organismal systems $88 mil. $34 mil. -61% Environmental biology $75 mil. $39 mil. -49% Molecular and cellular biosciences $40 mil. $37 mil. -9% Emerging frontiers $801k $5 mil. +521% Geosciences $305 mil. $204 mil. -33% Office of polar programs $51 mil. $6 mil. -88% Earth sciences $78 mil. $16 mil. -80% Research, innovation, synergies and education (RISE) $11 mil. $6 mil. -47% Atmospheric and geospace sciences $63 mil. $40 mil. -36% Ocean sciences $103 mil. $136 mil. +33% Computer science $277 mil. $192 mil. -31% Information & intelligent systems $68 mil. $27 mil. -60% Computer and network systems $96 mil. $42 mil. -57% Computing and communication foundations $74 mil. $43 mil. -41% Office of advanced cyberinfrastructure $39 mil. $80 mil. +102% Social sciences $78 mil. $62 mil. -20% National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics $2 mil. $0 -100% Multidisciplinary activities $11 mil. $401k -96% Social and economic sciences $31 mil. $20 mil. -37% Behavioral and cognitive sciences $32 mil. $42 mil. +30% Technology $110 mil. $92 mil. -17% Technology frontiers $9k $0 -100% Translational impacts $86 mil. $44 mil. -48% Innovation and technology ecosystems $24 mil. $47 mil. +95% Other $65 mil. $47 mil. -29% Total $2.1 bil. $1 bil. -50% Shows the cumulative total intended award for new grants funded by the N.S.F. from Jan. 1 to May 21 of each year.

Total confusion

The National Science Foundation has usually awarded half of its funds for the fiscal year by early July. In theory, this years funding levels could still catch up to former levels if the agency accelerates its pace of making awards over the summer.

But officials described an agency that has been thrown into chaos as it tries to navigate a new political landscape under President Trump. The agency is in the midst of a major restructuring to eliminate its 37 divisions. It has also conducted layoffs and placed pressure on its workers to resign or retire. (The restructuring and termination of employees has been paused by a court order until Friday.)

Many N.S.F. divisions do not know how much they can spend this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and this uncertainty may also be contributing to this years funding lag.

Theres total confusion, said one employee who has worked at the N.S.F. for more than a decade and is involved in determining which grants are recommended for funding. The employee, who did not want to be named out of fear of retaliation for speaking to the news media, said that the N.S.F.s rigorous review process had been disassembled, and that political mandates had taken precedence over scientific merits when assessing grant proposals.

Theres confusion on how much money we can spend, the employee said. And then theres confusion because the processes are basically paralyzed.
Sitrick And Company has signed on to provide strategic communications to Chinas Huawei Technologies, which is on the US Treasury Dept.s sanctions list.

The one-year contract, which went into effect May 7, covers strategic counsel, media & analyst relations, data insights, content stategy and public communications.

It is worth $75K per month.

The pact sets out reimbursement levels for travel expenses, up to $3K for one round-trip airfare, up to $900 per night hotel accommodations, and $200 per day for meals. Sitrick & Co. will not be asked to travel overseas.

The US Commerce Departments Bureau of Industry and Security on May 13 issued an alert warning risks involved in using PRC advanced-computing ICs, including specific Huawei Ascend chips.

The bureau said those chips were likely developed or produced in violation of US export controls.

A spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Commerce called the American alert market distorting, and a threat to negotiations to hammer out a trade deal between China and the US.
LEGISLATIVE proposals published by the European Commission last week should simplify the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and strengthen the competitiveness of European farmers.

The reforms directly address the top concern raised by Irish and European farmers during last years European elections and recent farmer protests  the excessive burden of red tape.

That's according to Fianna Fail MEP for Midlands North-West and full member of the European Parliaments Agriculture and Rural Development Committee (AGRI), Barry Cowen.

The reforms include measures that could save up to 1.58 billion annually for farmers and 210 million for national administrations, while also making CAP payments easier to manage.

Among the changes is an increase in the annual lump sum payment limit for small farmers from 1,250 to 2,500. This measure will support more balanced income distribution and reduce administrative overheads, said MEP Cowen.

READ MORE: Offaly farmer takes part in 'flash action' outside European Commission office in Dublin

In its statement, the Commission acknowledged that current CAP rules often fail to reflect the practical realities of farming on the ground. The proposed changes, shaped by feedback from farmers, Member States and agricultural stakeholders, aim to better align EU rules with local farming conditions

The proposals also introduce more flexibility for Member States in adapting their CAP Strategic Plans and enhanced crisis supports for farms impacted by natural disasters or animal diseases. New funding options for small farmers, including a 50,000 lump sum investment grant, are also included.

Importantly for Ireland, farmers will benefit from incentives to protect peatlands and wetlands, as set out under Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition 2 (GAEC 2). This support will help them comply with national rules that go beyond EU standards, ensuring fair compensation for their efforts through the use of targeted eco-schemes.

The Commissions legislative proposal will now be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for adoption, where the Fianna Fail MEP says he will work to ensure the swift and full implementation of these much-needed reforms.

For too long, farmers have been tied up in bureaucracy instead of being supported to do what they do best - produce top-quality food and contribute to rural economies. These proposals mark a clear shift in direction and are a promising signal that the Commission has heard the message sent by Irish farmers loud and clear," said MEP Cowen.

His Offaly Government colleague, Fine Gael's Deputy John Clendennen, in a statement this week, said the future of farming supports and a new Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) is absolutely critical for the success of all involved in the agri-food sector in Offaly, a Fine Gael TD has said.

READ MORE: Over 2,700 farmers in Offaly apply for key farm support schemes

The Kinnitty based TD said the priorities for the next CAP post 2027 outlined by Minister Martin Heydon is extremely important for the agri-food sector in Offaly.

Experiences over the last few years, from the Covid pandemic to the war in Ukraine, to the current trade tensions with the US, have underlined the vital importance of this sector.

Food supply chains have proved resilient, but we should not take our food, or the people who produce it here in Offaly, for granted.

And CAP is crucial to the sectors resilience and competitiveness so I welcome the announcement from Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, on what our priorities will be, Deputy Clendennen said.

Across the country, the agri-food sector remains our most important indigenous industry, employing over 169,000 people and supporting 19bn worth of exports.

Irelands current CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 (CSP) has a budget of 9.8 billion, including 2.28 billion in national funds, over five years.

The future of farm supports in Offaly will be shaped by two major policy proposals to be published later this year - firstly the publication of the EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), and subsequently the publication of proposals for a new CAP post-2027.
DEPUTY John Clendennen proudly welcomed Offaly and Irelands victorious European Debating Champions to Leinster House recently. The students from St Brendans Community School Birr were met with a warm reception from members of Dail Eireann.

The winning team, Eabha McDowell, Josie Flanagan, Cillian OMeara and Jacek Rudnicki, secured first place at the recent European Schools Debating Competition held at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Representing Ireland with distinction, the students triumphed over teams from across the continent, showcasing exceptional oratory, critical thinking, and teamwork.

Speaking after the visit, Deputy Clendennen said: It was an immense honour to host this remarkable group of young people in Leinster House today. Their achievement is a shining example of the talent, drive, and intelligence coming out of Offaly and Ireland as a whole. Under the expert guidance of Ms Lavin and Ms Keyes at St Brendans Community School, these students have made all of us incredibly proud. I am especially grateful to my colleagues across the Dail for extending such a warm welcome.

Deputy Clendennen also praised the role of schools and teachers in fostering the next generation of leaders and commended the European Parliament initiative for promoting civic engagement and public discourse among young people. The visit to Leinster House coincided with Europe Week taking place from May 5th to 9th under the motto 'Between Fear and Hope'.


Representative LaMonica McIver 119th congress.

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The Trump administration hit Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver with criminal charges for doing oversight on ICE. You'd never know reading the New York Times that charges against her are nothing but an authoritarian attack. The decision to charge Congresswoman McIver is outrageous. Her visit to Delaney Hall was for statutorily and constitutionally protected oversight, said Lisa Gilbert, the co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, in a press release. "This prosecution is an attempt to shift the blame for ICE's odious behavior to Congresswoman McIver. All of Congress, regardless of party, should be reacting with indignation at this spectacular affront to their prerogatives." Public officials are being treated like criminals for attempting to impose even minimal checks and balances on the authoritarian executive.
An ideology that is contrary to economic gain is one of the threats to Australia's national security.

Australia in 2025

Australia's economic ties are at odds with the ideological values "i ? ?  i ? ?"i ? ?  i ? ?of Australian voters and politicians. This is perhaps one of the main threats to Australia's security. Communist China is Australia's number one trade partner. The United States is third. There are no European countries in Australia's top 10 trading partners. (1) However, Australian society has a negative perception of the United States and China.(2) But what's worse is that Australian society has a positive perception of the EU.(3) The EU is waging a trade war with China.(4) And the conflict between the EU and the United States has gone so far that the situation has become indecent.(5) In fact, Australian citizens are jeopardizing their economic well-being with their ideological preferences.

The current situation looks very strange. But this is only at first glance. All of this has already happened in Ukraine. Ukraine's main economic partner was Russia.(6) But ideologically, Ukraine preferred the EU.(7) After that, the whole world witnessed the Ukrainian tragedy. The hidden part of the Ukrainian drama was the change in the country's economic ties. During the war with Russia, the EU became Ukraine's main economic partner. (8) That is, following the ideological victory, the EU won an economic victory over Ukraine. What happened can hardly be called a good event for Ukraine. But in the EU, things are not as good as they may seem at first glance.

The EU in 2025

By 2025, Europe has become much weaker and has lost its major geopolitical ally, the United States. (9) The New World Order (10) excludes the EU from being an influential decision-making center. And here's why. Humanity is on the verge of a technological breakthrough. This breakthrough will be carried out under the control of the United States. This country will unite planetary resources under American leadership. In order to gain access to resources, Americans are abandoning ideological struggle with other states. The world will be globalized based on conflict-free interaction of different ideologies. Because the attempt to globalize the world based on one ideology was unsuccessful. Trump will continue to do what Biden did, but in different ways.

However, the Europeans are following the old course which is opposite to the new course of the USA. The Europeans are using ideology to obtain resources. By doing so, the EU is trying to use the resources of the USA, since Europe does not have its own potential for influence on a global scale. This EU policy is contrary to the effective way of globalization of the world and makes the EU a natural opponent of all states interested in globalization. This interest is supported by all major world economies except the EU. The current situation makes it possible to very pessimistically assess the future prospects of Europe.

This EU tactic has proven to be wrong and has already led to Europe's first geopolitical defeat. The European intervention in Ukraine has failed. (11) At the moment, the EU's defeat has been formalized indirectly by diplomatic methods through its exclusion from peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. (12)

The situation for the EU is getting worse due to the fact that the de facto winner of the European-Russian war was the United States. This country initiated a full-scale conflict, controlled the potential of Europeans and Russians, initiated the end of the conflict at the right moment, and most importantly, became the main beneficiary of the end of the war.(12) That is, the EU lost the war to the United States and not to Russia. The United States used Russia to crush the EU. Thanks to this, Russia, unlike the EU, can choose honorable terms of capitulation to the United States. Losing the war to the United States makes it impossible for the EU to improve the situation on its own.

Solution to the problem

The modern world is a competition of identical, not opposite, ideologies. (10) However, by following the ideology of the EU and the US in the Biden era, Australia finds itself at a disadvantage as it becomes a competitor to stronger global players. A flexible approach to ideology can help Australia avoid an economic and possibly military confrontation with a stronger adversary. The US can serve as an example of this. It is a mistake to think that America in the Biden era was good. And America in the Trump era is bad. America is always the same. Although Biden and Trump preach different ideologies, these people follow the same goal - the greatness of America. Biden followed a course of globalization of the world based on one ideology. But Trump began to follow a course of globalization of the world based on different ideologies. A study of the history of the European-Ukrainian war testifies to this. Biden lured the Europeans into a trap. And Trump benefited from the defeat of the Europeans.(11) The Europeans have become victims of the Americans' flexible approach to ideological issues.

It is quite possible that the Europeans, finding themselves in a stalemate, will also follow the example of the Americans and will flexibly change their ideology to achieve the desired result or suffer final defeat. Such attempts are already taking place in Europe at the level of national states. Hungary and Slovakia are trying to pursue a policy different from the EU policy. In Germany and Romania, political forces with alternative views on events are also striving for power.

It is clear that Australia needs to develop its own ideology. Given the current reality, this ideology should not be similar to the ideology of other major global players. In this case, formal neutrality but actual support for the EU and the US and open confrontation with China is no longer an effective policy. Ideology should follow economic expediency, but not vice versa.

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) May 9, 2025: I envision the present wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 12,456-word OEN article as a follow up to my wide-ranging and, at times, deeply personal 12,900-word OEN article titled "Thomas J. Farrell's Further Reflections on His Life and Work" (dated May 2, 2025), in which I mention the gorgeous American porn star Cory Chase by name 117 times. In the present 12,456-word OEN article, I mention the gorgeous Cory Chase by name 99 times - still 18 fewer times than in my 12,900-word OEN article dated May 2, 2025.

In addition to being a follow up to my earlier 12,900-word OEN article, I envision the present OEN article as a grand synthesis of some of my other OEN articles in which I also criticize the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity as well. In the present OEN article, I also further contextualize my criticisms of the tragic anti-body heritage of Christianity in the broad cultural context of our Western cultural history in terms of media ecology - which I have written about frequently in some of my other OEN articles about the media ecology work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering American media ecology theorist Walter Jackson Ong, Jr. (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University, the Jesuit university in the City of St. Louis, Missouri - where over the years I took five courses from Father Ong.

You see, over all the years of my writing and publishing about Ong's media ecology work, I have felt like a man on a prophetic mission. Consequently, in the present OEN article, as I construct my grand synthesis here, I also feel like a man on a prophetic mission to call your attention to certain things that I think are importance for you to know about and for you to notice in your life.

Whew! That's a wide-ranging agenda for one OEN article.

In addition, in the present OEN article, I say goodbye to the Argentine Pope Francis (1936-2025), the first Jesuit pope, and hello to the new American Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Prevost in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14, 1955), who was elected the new pope of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church on May 8, 2025.

If you listen with your heart to what I say in the present OEN article, you will hear me singing about my love not only for the gorgeous 44-year-old American porn star Cory Chase, but also for the now-deceased media ecologists Walter Ong (1912-2003), Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), and Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952) and for the now-deceased the Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and for the now-deceased American Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore (1942-2016).

Even though I once again sing my praises of the gorgeous 44-year-old American porn star Cory Chase already has millions of fans who enjoy watching her perform in her various porn videos that are available to view free on the internet. Even though I once again in the present OEN article call her to the attention of OEN readers, I do so primarily to express my enthusiasm for her gorgeous body and her wonderful performances - but not necessarily to win more fans for her work among OEN readers. (In the present OEN article, the word "porn" appears 136 times.)

However, I would very much like to win over more OEN readers of the present OEN article as fans of media ecology.

That's a wide-ranging agenda. Let's get started.

The pioneering Canadian media ecology theorist Harold Adams Innis (1894-1952; Ph.D. in economics, University of Chicago, 1940) was an intellectual giant at the University of Toronto, when the pioneering Canadian media ecology theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980; Ph.D. in English, Cambridge University, 1943) joined the English faculty of St. Mike's, the Catholic college, at the University of Toronto - a Canaidan university on the model of English universities.

In 1951, McLuhan published his first book: The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (sic) (Vanguard Press). In any event, McLuhan heard that Innis had put his 1951 book on the reading list in one of his courses at the University of Toronto. And McLuhan was duly impressed with this and decided to become acquainted with Innis. McLuhan and Innis did become acquainted with one another before Innis died in 1952.

Now, McLuhan's 1951 book The Mechanical Bride did not foreshadow McLuhan's two important books in the 1960s that helped establish the scholarly field of media ecology studies: (1) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (sic) (University of Toronto Press, 1962) and (2) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (sic) (McGraw-Hill, 1964).

Those two books catapulted Marshall McLuhan to unprecedented fame for an academic - and to enormous controversy. To this day, McLuhan is still the most widely known academic in the Western world.

Now, from Paris, Father Ong dispatched a review-article of his former teacher Marshall McLuhan's new 1951 book The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man (sic) titled "The Mechanical Bride: Christen The Folklore of Industrial Man" to Social Order, 2(2), pp. 79-85. The word "Christen" in the title of Ong's review-article is Ong's editorializing - but editorializing in a way that he apparently felt that the Catholic convert McLuhan would not object to.

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Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

US President Donald Trump will hold separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today.

Trump is seeking a ceasefire deal to end the bloodshed for both parties in Ukraine.

Ukraine has reported that Russia launched its largest drone barrage since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022, firing a total of 273 exploding drones and decoys.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the U.S., Italy, France and Germany in advance of Trump's call with Putin.

While Trump has insisted on finding a path to ending the war in Europe, the European leaders have been seen lagging in enthusiasm. The US and Europe have supported Ukraine with cash, aid and weapons, but Europe has been seen as wary of a Trump deal to end the war.

Trump is not a politician, but a negotiator and deal-maker. The European leaders are career politicians, and are generally more liberal than Trump.

The talks Istanbul on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, and yielded an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, the biggest such exchange since the war began.

According to sources familiar with the talks, the Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire.

Putin told Russian state TV, that Moscow's aim was to "eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia's security."

The causes of the conflict include eliminating Nazi political and military groups in Ukraine, protecting Russian speakers in the eastern border, and preventing NATO expansion in Ukraine.

Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse interviewed Saad Khalaf, an authority on Russian affairs, with a Ph.D. in International Relations and Foreign Policy, for his insight into the current situation.

1. Steven Sahiounie (SS): On Thursday, Ukrainian President Zelensky arrived early in Turkey. He complained to the media that he thought Russian President Putin was not coming to the meeting, and therefore Putin was not serious about peace. What is your view on Zelensky's theatrical complaints?

Such statements, especially when issued through media channels before officially agreed-upon meetings, are typically directed at a third party rather than the directly concerned party. In this case, Zelensky's remarks are clearly aimed at Western allies.

He is attempting to use them as a tool for political pressure rather than expressing genuine diplomatic intent. Serious diplomacy, as is well known, requires calmness, not media noise.

From my perspective, the Russian approach to resolving the conflict believes that sustainable peace can only be achieved by recognizing the 'fait accompli'-- that is, the new geographic and geopolitical realities, particularly regarding the four regions annexed after the military operation began in 2022-- and committing to them.

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Trump announces plans for 'Golden Dome' missile defense shield President Donald Trump rolled out plans for a multibillion dollar 'Golden Dome' missile defense shield system Tuesday, and said ...

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President Trump announcing the development of the "Golden Dome" missile defense system May 21, 2025

Technological advances are not just modern discoveries by humans. They go back to the Stone Age some 3.3 million years ago with the advent of stone tools.

Today we take for granted the light bulb, radio and TV, airplane travel, the cars we drive, cures for diseases, to what we eat to the clothes we wear.

But the intent of this piece today is not to list all the technological advances in human history. It has to do with the development of nuclear weapons that make the dawn of the nuclear age with the Manhattan Project resulting in the atomic bomb in 1945 seem like ancient history.

Trump just announced something called the "Golden Dome", a space based missile defense initiative supposedly "capable of intercepting missiles from anywhere in the world". [1]

It's presented as a "Cutting Edge" project in missile defense of America.

Trump says the design, "Once fully constructed...will be capable of intercepting missiles, even if they are launched from space". In typical Trump fashion he states, "We're the only ones that have this-we call it super technology. Nobody else has it, and nobody else has anything close to what we have".

However Russia not to be outdone has developed a nuclear-powered cruise missile it refers to as a doomsday missile with unlimited range which becomes "a threat the Golden Dome may struggle to counter." [2]

Called the "Burevesnik", "Sources estimate the missiles operational range of 22,000 Km" or 13, 670 miles.

"Effectively, the Burevesnik is designed as a 'doomsday weapon-a guaranteed retaliatory strike platform in the event of a nuclear war."

Let's face it. Technological advances in missile development with ICBM's (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles)and SAM's (Surface to Air Missiles) is probably inevitable.

What should never change is the concept of "MAD", mutually assured destruction. A concept recognized during the cold war whereby the US and the USSR realized there were no winners in a nuclear war i.e. if one side was attacked by nuclear weapons they would be annihilated by the other side in a retaliatory nuclear strike.

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According to world-leading war-profiteer Lockheed Martin, its Golden Dome, marketed for it by Donald Trump, "stands as a layered defense shield, safeguarding the American homeland with unwavering precision, ensuring the security and resilience of our nation." But it doesn't exactly "stand" anywhere in the present day or what some of us like to call "reality." Rather, it's one of those scientific research projects Trump loves to defund if they might succeed or do anyone any good. In the words of Lockheed Martin, the Golden Dome will try to "develop game-changing tech - like space-based interceptors and hypersonic defenses." In case you've been in a daze since Ronald Reagan was pushing non-functioning space-based interceptors, Ronald Reagan was pushing this same madness, and it's never gone away.

The Golden Dome is guaranteed to waste vast resources desperately needed by people.

The Golden Dome is guaranteed to do tremendous environmental damage in production, testing, and accidents -- and especially if ever used.

The Golden Dome is guaranteed to kick start a crazed race to weaponize space by a number of governments, all but one of which have long been trying to ban space weaponization by treaty. It will also fuel arms races to develop new weapons to evade defenses, and to duplicate and out-do the Golden Dome.

The Golden Dome is highly unlikely to actually ever protect anyone from anything.

The Golden Dome is definitely going to be perceived as an aggressive threat by most of the world -- already by China, no matter how many times the word "defense" is uttered. It will therefore be a blow to disarmament, cooperation, and the rule of law.

The Golden Dome is the belief in militarism taken to its logical extreme, so it's very interesting that most of the militarists don't like it any more than I do.

Here's the BBC doing its level best to report on this insanity with a straight face:

"An initial sum of $25bn ( A ? i ? ? i ? ?18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill - although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades. There are also doubts about whether the US will be able to deliver a comprehensive defence system for such a huge land mass. Officials warn that existing systems have not kept pace with increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries. A briefing document recently released by the Defense Intelligence Agency noted that missile threats 'will expand in scale and sophistication', with China and Russia actively designing systems 'to exploit gaps' in US defences. . . . 'Israel's missile defence challenge is a lot easier than one in the United States,' Marion Messmer, a senior research fellow at London-based Chatham House, told the New York Times. 'The geography is much smaller and the angles and directions and the types of missiles are more limited.' Shashank Joshi, defence editor at the Economist, told the BBC the Golden Dome would probably work by using thousands of satellites to spot and track missiles and then use interceptors in orbit to fire at the missiles as they take off and take them out. He said the US military would take the plan very seriously but it was unrealistic to think it would be completed during Trump's term, and the huge cost would suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget."

Here's The Independent not even trying:

"[T]he Golden Dome is overly ambitious in a way that is typical of Trump. Like his infamously unfinished and useless wall along the Mexican border, it is supposedly 'visionary', but is, in reality, flawed and vastly expensive. There is no reason why the relatively small Iron Dome system, designed to frustrate short to medium-range missiles, could be scaled up in anything like the way necessary to withstand a sustained attack from intercontinental ballistic missiles or rockets from space itself. Even if it could be made to work, it may not be 100 per cent effective, as is the case with Israel's Iron Dome - and you wouldn't want to be in a position where you'd need to find out. By that point, you'd have spent far in excess of Trump's optimistic costing of $175bn finding out. Maybe he should ask his now strangely absent friend Elon Musk about whether the Golden Dome is a good use of American taxpayers' money. This brings us to the next typically Trumpian problem: it's not very well thought through. When Reagan proposed his Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) in 1983, it was obvious who he had in mind - the Russians. Yet now Trump wants to befriend them and partner up with Putin, and maybe even Presidents Xi, Kim and others in a global strongman alliance. If Golden Dome is protecting America, who is it protecting it from? As yet unknown and unforeseen enemies would be a rational answer, but not if Trump wants to make friends with them all."

That last argument would be stronger if Trump and his supposed allies were disarming, rather than rapidly building up weapons to slaughter each other's people and the rest of humanity. Unfortunately, the Golden Dome is a giant declaration that the United States will never be part of global cooperation and disarmament.
Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator

NBC news reported on a plan devised by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate about 1 million Gazans to Libya, according to five people close to the plan.

Denials of the plan were issued from various US and Libyan sources, but that doesn't mean the plan was not real, or might not go ahead. Leaks from Washington, DC. is often a calculated method of determining a plan's feasibility.

Trump is looking at the situation in Gaza, from the perspective of the people living through a hell on earth experience delivered to them daily by the Israeli military.

The collective hand-wringing of the international community has done nothing to dissuade Israel from killing more and more people, mainly women and children. Trump is thinking out of the box and trying to float plans, which may look absurd, but could alleviate suffering.

Trump's logic is, if a house is on fire, you get the people out to safety. Intellectual debates on ethnic cleansing and the right of return for Palestinians are not part of the Trump plan.

Libya was attacked, destroyed and occupied by a US-NATO plan for regime change under President Barack Obama in 2011. The regime change part of the plan was successful, but the country has never found peace, security or prosperity, despite being a major oil producer. Iraq suffered the same fate, and after 22 years is still not fully recovered from the American-led occupation.

Libya's strategic importance and vast oil reserves-- producing over a million barrels daily-- continue to attract international attention. Despite its oil wealth, Libya's population faces deteriorating living conditions, with rival factions competing for resource control rather than prioritizing reconstruction or public services.

The reported Trump plan for Gazan relocation to Libya would unlock billions of frozen assets for Libya, in exchange for the Gazans being settled in Libya.

The US-NATO war on Libya has left the country split into two rival governments-- the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, and the Government of National Stability (GNS) in Benghazi, with fighting amongst the militias and protesters continuing.

The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) described the situation as "deeply alarming," urging an immediate ceasefire to prevent further humanitarian strain.

Would the security situation improve with the promise of the US unlocking billions? Would the two sides find common ground under the Trump plan?

One side in Libya is the Muslim Brotherhood aligned government, while the opposing side is a secular government. Hamas has similar ideology as the Muslim Brotherhood. If the Gazans arrive in Libya, which side will they align with?

Recent reports indicate heightened tensions in Tripoli, where protests have erupted demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Several ministers have resigned in response to the unrest, and security forces have clashed with demonstrators. Neighboring countries, including Egypt and Jordan, have expressed deep concern over the situation, urging restraint and dialogue. The United Nations has also called for calm, warning that the situation could spiral out of control.

Palestinian groups, including Hamas, have strongly rejected any notion of resettlement, emphasizing their commitment to remaining in their homeland. Critics have labeled the plan a form of ethnic cleansing, arguing that forcibly relocating Palestinians would violate international law.

Hamas started the violence, and Israel has fought back in retaliation. Israel's objective is to eradicate Hamas, and prevent them from ever forming again in Gaza. According to Netanyahu, the military is on the right path, and will achieve their goals. A negotiated settlement has never been part of the Netanyahu plan.

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The destruction and extermination continue. A thousand civilians murdered in one week alone, flattening what remains of Gaza and starving what remains of its people. Hundreds now die of starvation and diseases weekly (don't be fooled by the tokenism of few trucks 'allowed' in many of them carrying shrouds for the dead). Here in the West Bank destruction of the refugee camps in Jenin and elsewhere continued and in my town of Beit Sahour, they just destroyed a local park which served people in our ghetto. The crude racism inherent in colonialism and imperialism is not new. The destruction of indigenous societies is not new. The collusion and corruption of some of the local people helping the genocidal maniacs is not new. That there is local resistance and that it will not stop is not new (see my book on the resistance). One thing different in our situation compared to hundreds of territories colonized before is that the project of colonization was/is aided and abetted (full partnership) of many colonizer states (Israeli, US, Britain, France, Germany etc). Never in history has so many oppressive regimes colluded against one indigenous people (don't be fooled by the supposed new language used by these regimes' leaders). But the positive side is that this has led to a global uprising (intifada), the second thing that is different. Thus we must continue and grow this global uprising. Palestine leads the way to a global awakening!! We need to accelerate. More BDS, more demonstrations, more confrontations with slimy politicians, more action (ideas). Our collective global future depends on this and the world is thankful. Palestine genocide is a flame that exposes the rotten system and will help dismantle it. We shall overcome someday! We know it.

Now negative news followed by action news:

Israel's 'Final Solution' began: Will Persons Of Conscience Stop It? This is 'Gideon's Chariot' in Rafah. Don't be fooled. Israeli Right wing newspaper: key minister Smotrich explains genocide policies But according to Israeli left wing media outlets, the real reason he agreed to allow few trucks in according to is not avoiding genocide charges (after all he approved for 19 months use of starvation). The real reason is that Netanyahu agreed and approved 22 new colonial settlements in the West Bank that Smotrich wanted (he is a racist colonial settler). These were approved in the same session of the Israeli government (quid pro quo). Are there still any fools out there that believe in "two states" (see my 2004 book). Terrorist appointed top diplomat

Israel bombing of Beirut with depleted uranium

Joint donor statement on humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Arab betrayal of Palestine.

Arab Trillions for Trump as Israel massacres children in Gaza.

A song from 5 years ago for peace for Gaza (now a total dextermination campaign is in full swing).

Teach for Palestine.

These are the beautiful people in The Hague, marching and singing for Palestine, against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.

Development of the campaign targeting Microsoft for enabling genocide.

Recording of my talk Javieriana University explaining reality.

Doctors against Genocide Scholasticide program.

Stay Humane and keep hope alive

Mazin Qumsiyeh

A bedouin in cyberspace, a villager at home

Professor, Founder, and (volunteer) Director Palestine Museum of Natural History

Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability Bethlehem University Occupied Palestine

facebook pages Personal Institute

French


(Image by UNRWA) Details DMCA



The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, intensified by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, has reached catastrophic levels, with risks of famine and massive displacement affecting the territory's roughly 2 million residents. Ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches Gazans is a geopolitical requirement to maintain international support and work toward long-term stability.

Israel's responsibilities toward Gaza's civilian population are rooted in international humanitarian law (IHL), particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 55 mandates that an occupying power must ensure the provision of food, medical supplies, and other essentials to the population under its control to the fullest extent possible. Although Israel withdrew its citizens and troops from Gaza in 2005, its control over Gaza's borders, airspace, and maritime access leads many in the international community, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to classify Israel as an occupying power with ongoing obligations, although this point is highly questionable. The blockade by Egypt and Israel, which has restricted aid since October 2023, has drawn accusations of violating IHL by exacerbating famine risks and denying civilians access to basic necessities.

The ICJ and UN agencies have repeatedly called for Israel to lift restrictions on aid to comply with these legal obligations. Failure to do so risks further legal challenges, including potential investigations by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has already faced U.S. sanctions for probing alleged war crimes in the region. Ensuring aid delivery is thus critical for Israel to align with international law and avoid accusations of collective punishment, which could lead to formal charges or sanctions.

The moral case for ensuring humanitarian aid reaches Gazans is compelling, given the scale of suffering. Gaza's Health Ministry reports over 53,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023, many of whom were terrorists, and 90% of the population displaced. The blockade has led to acute malnutrition, with thousands of children admitted to hospitals and adults also suffering from severe nutrient deficiencies. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has warned that Gaza is at a "critical" risk of famine, a situation described as "uninhabitable" by the U.S. government.

Israel, as a democratic state with a commitment to human rights, faces an obligation to prevent such humanitarian catastrophes, particularly when its actions-- such as the blockade and military operations-- directly contribute to the crisis. Allies, including U.S. officials, have expressed concern over "images of hunger," indicating that the visible suffering of civilians undermines Israel's standing. Allowing aid to flow demonstrates a commitment to distinguishing between combatants and civilians, aligning with ethical principles that Israel publicly upholds.

Strategically, ensuring humanitarian aid reaches Gazans serves Israel's goal of weakening Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. Hamas has diverted aid to sustain its rule and military operations, leading to proposals for a new aid distribution system bypassing Hamas. However, the current blockade has inadvertently strengthened Hamas by fostering desperation among civilians, who may turn to the group for survival. There have been some rare anti-Hamas protests in Gaza, suggesting that public discontent with Hamas could grow if basic needs are met through alternative channels.

By facilitating aid under a controlled system, Israel can reduce Hamas's ability to exploit humanitarian resources while addressing civilian needs. The proposed U.S.-backed plan, though rejected by UN agencies for weaponizing aid, aims to secure distribution hubs with Israeli military oversight, potentially diminishing Hamas's influence. This approach could also foster goodwill among Gazans, who might support governance alternatives if their immediate survival is ensured, aligning with Israel's long-term security objective of neutralizing Hamas's control.

Geopolitically, Israel's decision to allow aid is driven by the need to maintain support from key allies, particularly the United States. Several U.S. senators and the Trump administration warned that continued images of hunger would erode their ability to back Israel's offensive. President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have voiced concerns about the humanitarian crisis, signaling that even staunch supporters expect action to mitigate civilian suffering.

The international community, including the UN and European allies, has intensified criticism of Israel's blockade, with the UN's humanitarian chief criticizing Israel. Refusal to allow aid risks alienating allies and fueling anti-Israel sentiment globally, potentially leading to diplomatic isolation or reduced military and economic support. For instance, the UN and aid groups have rejected Israel's aid plan, citing violations of humanitarian principles, which could escalate tensions if no aid flows. By ensuring aid delivery, Israel can bolster its war effort and maintain the backing of allies critical to its security.

Ensuring humanitarian aid is also essential for laying the groundwork for long-term stability and potential conflict resolution. Allowing aid in will alleviate immediate suffering and create space for diplomatic efforts, such as ceasefire talks mediated by Egypt or Qatar.

Netanyahu's mention of "voluntary emigration" as a solution is fine if Gazans desire to leave the region although many countries have wrongly accused the plan of resembling ethnic cleansiing - which it is not. Gazans have a right to leave Gaza if they so choose - just as anyone in the world can. However, at the same time, addressing humanitarian needs could support alternative governance models, as suggested by Egypt's postwar plan, which allows Palestinians to remain in Gaza. By facilitating aid, Israel can signal openness to coexistence and reduce the narrative of perpetual conflict, potentially encouraging moderate voices within Palestinian society.

Domestically, Netanyahu faces pressure from his far-right coalition partners, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who advocate for a hardline approach, including blocking aid to "destroy" Hamas. However, public protests in Israel demanding hostage releases and an end to the war indicate growing fatigue with the conflict's human cost. Internationally, allies' insistence on aid reflects a broader expectation that Israel balance its security goals with humanitarian considerations. Balancing these pressures requires a pragmatic approach where limited, controlled aid serves as a compromise to appease both domestic critics and international allies.

Failing to ensure aid delivery carries significant risks. The ongoing blockade has led to accusations of war crimes, with the ICC and UN amplifying scrutiny. The humanitarian crisis could also destabilize the region further, as desperation in Gaza may spill over into neighboring Egypt or Jordan, straining Israel's relations with these partners. Moreover, the blockade's continuation could embolden Iran-backed groups like the Houthis, who have already targeted Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, escalating regional tensions.

Ensuring that Gazans receive humanitarian aid is critical for Israel to fulfill its legal obligations, uphold moral standards, advance strategic goals, maintain geopolitical alliances, and foster long-term stability. By implementing a transparent and effective aid system that bypasses Hamas while prioritizing civilian needs, Israel can mitigate the humanitarian crisis, weaken Hamas's grip, and preserve its international standing. Failure to act risks legal repercussions, moral condemnation, and strategic setbacks that could undermine Israel's security and global position. The path forward requires balancing security imperatives with humanitarian responsibilities, a challenge that will shape Israel's role in the region and the prospects for peace.
The Mill Casino in North Bend is owned by the Coquille Indian Tribe and is at the site of a former lumber mill. The saw-shaped sign that greets visitors will eventually be replaced to reflect the casino's new name. Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian

The Mill Casino in North Bend is in the middle of an expansion that will add a distillery, tasting room and waterfront restaurant. Now its also changing its name.

The Coquille Tribe and the Coquille Economic Development Corporation announced this week that the casino will rebrand as Ko-Kwel Casino Resort. The name is a more traditional spelling of the same pronunciation of the tribes name, Coquille. (Notably, this is different from the city of Coquille and the Coquille River, which are pronounced ko-keel.)

The name traces its origin to when members of the Coquille Indian Tribe traditionally trapped and ate lamprey, an eel-like fish they called scoquel. When white fur traders and settlers came to the southern Oregon coast, they called the people living in the area Coquille, spelled like the French word for shell.

It was time for the Coquille Indian Tribes long-standing gaming and hospitality brand to clearly represent tribal ownership and the core values that define our leadership and service standards, to be proudly recognized as Coquille,  Margaret Simpson, CEO of the Coquille Economic Development Corporation, stated in a press release. As we expand our hospitality brand and outreach, we wanted to unify our projects under a single brand that honors our culture and recognizes the achievements of our tribal citizens.

The Mill Casino originally opened on May 19, 1995, on what was once a former sawmill along the Coos Bay waterfront. Today, the casino, hotel, RV park and concert venue attracts about a million visitors annually, according to the Coquille Tribe.

The new logo for Ko-Kwel Casino Resort in North Bend. Courtesy of Coquille Tribe

The casino employs roughly 500 people and will add at least 30 more jobs with its expansion into making craft spirits, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last year.

Earlier this year, the Coquille Tribe also won approval to open a second casino in Medford, where they plan to renovate a former bowling alley into a roughly 30,000-square-foot casino with 650 gaming machines. Although three other tribes have a pending lawsuit opposing the project, in February a federal judge denied their request for an injunction.

In North Bend, Michael Laffey, a tribal member and marketing director for the Coquille Economic Development Corporation, said the distillery is on track to open by the end of this year.

Along with the completion of the distillery that will produce vodka, gin, whiskey and bourbon, Ko-Kwel will open a second floor tasting room and cigar room.

The tasting room will be located above the newly updated and expanded Plankhouse restaurant.

A new Ko-Kwel Casino Resort sign has already been installed on the hotel tower. The saw-shaped sign that greets visitors outside the casino will eventually be replaced.

The Ko-Kwel Casino Resort in Coos Bay will continue the legacy of the Mill as the economic engine for the region, allowing the tribes commitment to expanding our hospitality offerings throughout the Pacific Northwest, Coquille Tribal Chair Brenda Meade stated in the name change announcement. Coquille has held deep historical significance in this region from time immemorial; its time we introduce that significance to the rest of the world through our branding.

 Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.

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In MPS & Associates first report in Portland, the team questioned whether the Police Bureaus Employee Information System  an early warning system designed to identify possible patterns of problem behavior before they get out of hand -- is leading to meaningful interventions. Maxine Bernstein | Staff

Portland police are largely in compliance with their longtime settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice on excessive use of force, but could do better to identify possible patterns of troubling behavior by officers, according to a new report by a court-appointed independent monitoring team.

The team is seeking public comment through June 2 on a draft of its first semi-annual report.
A view of downtown Bend, Oregon, down Northwest Minnesota Ave. on April 17, 2025. Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp said in a statement Thursday he plans to resign from his post "in the coming months." Jonathan Bach I The Oregonian/OregonLive

Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp said Thursday he plans to retire in the coming months.

The announcement came just hours after a state police policy committee recommended permanently stripping him of his police certification, amid increasing scrutiny of his truthfulness  and calls for his immediate resignation.
A man whose conviction at age 18 for a 1994 shooting in Portland was thrown out after another man confessed to pulling the trigger has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Portland and eight former officers.

The defendants include the estate of Charles Moose, who was police chief at the time and is accused of helping precipitate the mistake, and Larry ODea, a patrol officer then who later rose to lead the Police Bureau and retired in 2016 amid another shooting scandal.
Daniel Stuebgen, 54, raped and sexually abused a 12-year-old girl who was volunteering at his business. Getty Images

A Lincoln City man was found guilty earlier this month of raping and sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl who was working as a volunteer at two of his businesses.

The Lincoln County jury convicted Daniel Stuebgen, 54, of three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sodomy, four counts of first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of using a child in display of sexually explicit conduct, court records show.
Birds fly over the remains of the Gates School gymnasium in Gates, Oregon on Sept. 13, 2020. The town of Gates, along the Santiam River was all but destroyed by the Beachie Creek Fire. Residents were forced to evacuate. Brooke Herbert / Staff Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian/OregonLive Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian/OregonLive

A Multnomah County jury this week awarded about $50 million to 10 survivors of Oregons 2020 Labor Day wildfires, the latest in a growing series of verdicts against electric company PacifiCorp.

The Portland-based utility has now been ordered to pay more than $385 million to individual plaintiffs following a 2023 class-action ruling that found it liable for negligently causing four major wildfires by failing to shut off power during extreme fire conditions.

When juries hear what PacifiCorps fires have done to people  destroying their homes, displacing them for months or years, saddling them with trauma  they return verdicts that provide justice, one of the plaintiffs attorneys, Matthew Preusch, said in a statement Wednesday. It is past time for PacifiCorp to step up and make all survivors whole.

The verdict included damages for Wanda and Bill Ford, both in their 80s, who lost their home to the Echo Mountain fire and spent years living in motels, a spokesperson for the plaintiffs attorneys said in an email. Others lost family cabins, timberland, personal belongings and the ashes of loved ones.

PacificCorp said in a statement that it has settled more than 2,000 wildfire-related claims since 2020.

These settlements were the result of negotiations culminating in meaningful compensation to help those affected by the fires recover, rebuild, and move forward, Gutierrez said, adding that the company remains committed to settling all reasonable claims.

The company appealed the 2023 ruling in April. The company has also pointed to a recent Oregon Department of Forestry report that concluded that its power lines did not cause the spread of large fires in Santiam Canyon.

At least five more jury trials are scheduled this year.

 Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and enterprise reporter. Do you have a story? Reach him by phone or text at 971-373-2905 or by email at fzarkhin@oregonian.com.

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A state police policy committee voted unanimously Thursday, May 22, 2025, to recommend that Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp lose his police certification for life. Screenshot

A state police policy committee Thursday voted unanimously to recommend that Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp lose his police certification for life.

The recommendation comes weeks after Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels placed van der Kamp on a Brady list of officers with questionable credibility and the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training found him in violation of moral fitness rules because he concealed his firing from a California police department.

The district attorneys office found van der Kamp falsely testified under oath in at least two criminal cases about his educational background and falsely submitted records that claimed he had degrees from the University of Arizona and the University of Southern California.

Van der Kamp started working for the sheriffs office in 2004 and won election to the top post in November.

During van der Kamps time at the sheriffs office, the DPSST report found that on five separate occasions he omitted his employment as a reserve officer with the Los Angeles and La Mesa police departments in the 1990s and that he had been discharged from the La Mesa police department in 1997.

Last week, the Oregon State Sheriffs Association voted to permanently expel van der Kamp from the associations board of directors.

The Board on Public Safety Standards and Training will make the final decision on revoking van der Kamps credentials when it meets in July.

Zaeem Shaikh covers the Portland Police Bureau and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-221-4323, zshaikh@oregonian.com or on X@zaeemshake
Michael Reinoehl is seen during a protest in front of Mayor Ted Wheeler's residence Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, in Portland. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP) AP

Deaven Reinoehl was using and selling drugs and leading police on high-speed chases nearly every time officers tried to stop him.

Reinoehls streak of serious crimes for one so young led federal prosecutors in a rare move to take over a two-year-old state case against him.

It was clear, a federal judge said at Reinoehls recent sentencing, that his notorious father loomed large over the risks he took that endangered his own life and the lives of others.

Reinoehls father, Michael, had been shot and killed by police in Washington in September 2020 while on the run from a killing in downtown Portland after a Trump rally. Michael Reinoehl described himself as an anti-fascist and part of the self-styled security team during unrest that summer.

Before he died, Michael Reinoehl had encouraged his sons descent into lawlessness, the judge pointed out.

The younger Reinoehl acknowledged his arrest stopped his further fall.

I just want to apologize to you and to my family for the mistakes that Ive made, Deaven Reinoehl, now 22, told the court, as his mother, grandmother, younger sister and her boyfriend watched. Im not going to make the mistakes ever again and Im sorry.

U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio was struck by a letter Reinoehl submitted to her.

You wrote, I wish this didnt happen but it had to happen. What do you mean by that? Baggio asked.

Just to give me a fresh start, a reality check to be able to plan my life correctly from here on, he said.

Defense lawyer C. Renee Manes said she talked with Reinoehl extensively about how fortunate he was that he was arrested.

He really could have ended up killing himself or someone else if he continued his behavior, Manes said. This was an intervention that to some extent is lifesaving for him.

VERY RISKY BEHAVIOR

His fathers death had overwhelmed Deaven Reinoehl, Manes said. He was using drugs and selling drugs to support himself and his sister, she said.

Michael Reinoehl, 48, had been accused of fatally shooting an opposing demonstrator, Aaron Jay Danielson, in downtown Portland on Aug. 29, 2020. Danielson was a supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer and was walking in downtown Portland after a rally when he was shot.

Several days later, members of a fugitive task force fatally shot Michael Reinoehl as he left an apartment where he was hiding in Lacey, Washington.

Early the next morning, someone fired gunshots into the fathers Portland home, while Deaven Reinoehl, then 18, and his 11-year-old sister were inside the house. While his father was on the run, strangers threatened the family on social media.

There are thousands of people heading your way and they are looking for your entire family, one Facebook post read. Be glad the police are still around to offer you some protection.

Deaven Reinoehl engaged in very risky behavior, because he was going through a period of extreme emotional trauma and duress following the sudden violent and very, very public death of his father, with no support to help him through it, Manes said.

A little over a year later in December 2021, Deaven Reinoehl was pulled over near Brothers in Deschutes County, driving a Dodge Ram Truck at 75 mph on U.S. 20 that had patches of ice and snow from subfreezing temperatures.

Inside the truck, police found 15,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl and seized $1,950 in cash, according to court records.

He was indicted in Deschutes County, charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants and possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

At the time of his arrest, he was on probation after being convicted for eluding police in a chase at speeds up to 160 mph in April 2021 in Yreka County, California. The chase ended only when officers flattened his BMW tires with spike strips. He was found with marijuana, $19,580 in cash and a Glock pistol with an extended clip, according to police reports.

But even while he awaited trial in the Deschutes County case and with a suspended license, he sped off from Portland police in November 2022 and again in October 2023 in a black Mercedes and was arrested both times.

In the October 2023 chase, he sped through a busy Lloyd Center parking lot and crashed into an occupied car and finally stopped when he hit spike strips that police dropped in his path, according to the federal prosecutor.

U.S. marshals arrested Reinoehl the next month, on Nov. 22, 2023, on a one-count federal indictment, charging him with possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, stemming from his 2021 Deschutes County arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sax said in court that it was highly unusual for his office to take over the two-year-old case, but federal prosecutors felt compelled to intervene.

We took this case as a matter of public safety, said Sax, noting that Reinoehl was the youngest defendant hes prosecuted based on his age -- 19 -- at the time of his arrest in Deschutes County.

PRO CRIMINAL GUIDANCE

Reinoehl pleaded guilty last year to the federal fentanyl charge and was sentenced late last month.

The judge pointed out that his difficulties started long before his fathers death. In fact, Baggio said, Michael Reinoehl contributed to his sons problems.

This is not a lack of youthful guidance, Baggio said. This is pro criminal guidance  from a person who was supposed to be providing you loving, positive support.

Michael Reinoehl used drugs in the house in front of his son, she said.

Smoked weed and did cocaine and acid sometimes, Deaven Reinoehl said of his father in a deposition.

About a month before he was killed, Michael Reinoehl sent a text message that investigators found on his sons phone, asking Deaven Reinoehl to get him a gun, Baggio noted.

It chilled me to my bones, the judge said. Thats not what dads are supposed to do.

Michael Reinoehl had written: Sell me the gun for a quarter pound of weed and $100 Im getting tired of this shit I need a piece now, according to a police affidavit.

The judge highlighted other circumstances: A multi-year custody dispute over Deaven and his younger sister, his father taking both children to downtown protests where there was such anger and such violence  exposing you to that danger in our city streets, Baggio said.

By the time of Deaven Reinoehls federal prosecution, it was clear his life had spun completely out of control, Baggio said.

She said she had to weigh his difficult upbringing with the seriousness of his crimes.

He admitted to regularly transporting fentanyl from Phoenix, Arizona, to Oregon, where he would mark up the price of the fentanyl pills and sell them.

He was using marijuana and driving recklessly when stopped, according to the judge and prosecutor.

That is really egregious behavior, Baggio said, while also acknowledging: You are not the same person today that you were then.

She sentenced Reinoehl to two years and six months in prison  shorter than the prosecutions recommendation of three years and 10 months but longer than the defense recommendation of two years.

His lawyer requested that Reinoehl serve the time at a low-level security prison in Ohio or Colorado. He will be on supervised release when his sentence ends, with access to transitional housing and mental health and drug treatment.

I do wish you well, Baggio said.

-- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, on Bluesky @maxbernstein.bsky.social or on LinkedIn.
Students at Fowler Middle School in the Tigard-Tualatin School District. The school is slated to be modernized under a bond that voters in the Tigard-Tualatin School District passed this week. Photo by Gustavo Garcia

At first blush, when the initial round of results dropped from this Mays special election, the massive $1.83 billion Portland Public Schools bond looked like a nailbiter.

It was passing, but narrowly so, a big change from the last time the district sought support for a bond, back in the high turnout presidential election of November of 2020, when 75% of voters approved of the plan.
Students lock their phones away in Yondr pouches before the start of the school day at Happy Valley Middle School on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian

If Oregon is to become the 22nd state in the country to have a statewide policy banning the use of cellphones in schools, it could be up to Gov. Tina Kotek to make it happen.

Lawmakers in the Senate Education Committee declined to advance House Bill 2251 on Wednesday, after months of back-and-forth over how prescriptive the states policy should be, including whether it should prohibit high school students from accessing their phones during lunch and passing periods.

Committee Chair Lew Frederick, a Portland Democrat, tried in vain to persuade his colleagues to keep the bill alive by sending it to the Senate Rules Committee, allowing it to evade a Friday bill deadline.

But the other two Democrats and two Republicans on the panel refused to go along with that idea. Oregon Public Broadcasting was first to report the bill had died.

Sen. Janeen Sollman, a Democrat from Hillsboro, said she could have supported the bill had its sponsors permitted amendments offered by the Coalition of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon School Boards Association that would have allowed more flexibility in the policys details and implementation, particularly for high school students.

Instead, she said, the bills Democratic sponsors, including Sen. Lisa Reynolds of Portland and Rep. April Dobson of Happy Valley, had intimated that if lawmakers wouldnt sign off on the more restrictive version of the bill  which also specifies that districts must set disciplinary consequences for students who have violated the ban  then Kotek was waiting in the wings to swoop in with an executive order.

A spokesperson for Kotek confirmed that Wednesday afternoon.

Gov. Kotek is very disappointed that HB 2251 did not advance, spokesperson Lucas Bezerra said. She has been clear that this bill was a priority for the session, given the benefits that removing cellphones from school settings have for student outcomes and mental health. The governor hopes the contents of the bill can be resurrected and she is actively exploring executive action.

Sen. Suzanne Weber, a Tillamook Republican, said she was hearing concerns from school districts in her community about a lack of attached funding to help implement the policy. Many school districts told her they would have to purchase locking pouches or hire staff to patrol for phone usage to make the policy effective, Weber said.

Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin, a Democrat from Corvallis, said she was concerned that the current version of the bill could slow or snarl the ability of students who rely on assistive technology for help communicating to use their devices in class.

Many teachers have urged lawmakers to pass a uniform statewide policy on phone usage, citing the toll that constant device proximity is taking on their relationships with students and student learning.

Fernanda Pazmino, a Spanish teacher at Franklin High School in Portland, wrote to lawmakers about the increased anxiety, social withdrawal and difficulty making friends she sees from her students now that their phones are their constant companions.

Her school has a phone policy, but enforcement is spotty, Pazmino wrote.

As a result, phones are a constant presence in classrooms, hallways, and during lunch and passing periods, Pazmino added in her testimony. Even when students arent actively using them, just having the device nearby creates distraction. Research confirms what I see daily: smartphones reduce attention and interfere with learning, even when turned off. This isnt a problem individual teachers can solve alone.

Some parents, though, have raised concerns about not being able to reach their children at school, particularly during emergencies. And students, too, have pushed back, saying that they rely on their phones to communicate with parents, friends and employers during non-class time, and sometimes need to use their phones as learning tools during class.

Banning these devices would slow down the modern learning process and stop the students ability to use digital materials that will later be used in the work world, wrote Ava Thaemert, a sophomore at West Salem High School.

 Julia Silverman covers K-12 education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her via email at jsilverman@oregonian.com.
Students attend science class at Fowler Middle School, which will be completely rebuilt with the $431.2 million Tigard-Tualatin construction bond. Courtesy of Tigard-Tualatin School District

Voters in Tigard-Tualatin School District narrowly approved a $421.3 million construction bond Tuesday.

Returns as of 5 p.m. Wednesday showed the bond passing with 52% of the vote. The bond appeared to be failing in partial returns released Tuesday, but its victory became clear when Washington County released near-final vote tallies late Wednesday.

The bond will pay for significant renovations, a new middle school building, updated technology and other maintenance across the 11,000-student district.

With the bonds approval, Tigard-Tualatin will rebuild the 738-student Fowler Middle School and remodel four elementary schools. Fifty-year-old Fowler has dated plumbing and ventilation systems as well as incomplete access for people with disabilities. The building also has several classrooms that lack daylight.

With the $421.3 million, the school district also plans repairs to roofs, flooring, fire alarms, ventilation, air conditioning, heating and electrical systems in facilities across the district, among other changes.

Because the bond passed, the district is eligible for another $8.2 million for construction, from the states School Capital Improvement Matching program. Oregon districts are responsible for funding their own school construction and maintenance, but in recent years, the state has made limited grants available to districts that pass construction bonds.

The construction bonds approval is not the first time Tigard-Tualatin voters have supported the districts funding requests. Last November, they overwhelmingly voted to renew the school districts $67 million operating levy for another five years to pay for approximately 100 teachers. Voters also approved Tigard-Tualatins last construction bond  $291.3 million in 2016.

With the passage of the new bond, Tigard-Tualatin property owners will pay an additional 99 cents for every $1,000 of their propertys assessed value towards the districts capital costs. The average homeowner will owe about $300 more per year in property taxes, amounting to an annual total of $825 as the district continues to pay off its 2016 bond. This rate will hold for 10 years, after which it may decrease.

The bond faced no organized opposition, with unanimous support from the school district, as well as endorsements from both citys mayors, the Tigard-Tualatin teachers union and every member of the Tigard City Council. Proponents raised about $55,000 in support, according to campaign finance data on May 19.

 Eddy Binford-Ross covers education and local politics for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her at ebinford-ross@oregonian.com.

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Dear Eric: I am a female executive employed by a large global corporation. It is a common practice in my workplace, and an expectation of my job, that I meet with colleagues, customers and service providers, sometimes while traveling for work, often solo, often for business lunches and dinners at restaurants.

My husband is a business owner in a different industry, has never worked in a professional office setting and his work colleagues are all male.

My business lunches and dinners are a point of contention with my husband if they involve me dining alone with another male. He gets upset and angry.

I have talked with him about why he thinks this way. He says he has no insecurity or distrust, rather, it is just disrespectful of me to have work dinners alone with other men. I have tried to provide the context that this is commonplace in my profession and workplace.

I have asked what I can do to help him think differently about this, and what difference does it make if a work colleague is a man, a woman or nonbinary. He has supported my career in every other respect, and we maximize our time together even though we each work long hours. I try to avoid solo work dinners with men but sometimes it is necessary, in which case I give him as much advance notice and information as possible and brace myself for the argument.

 Exec Who Means No Disrespect

Dear Exec: Your husband says he doesnt have insecurity or distrust but absent those emotions, I struggle to see what his issue is. I read your letter, and I kept thinking, Well, does he trust her, or not? Because in a secure marriage, a dinner alone with anyone, even a male business colleague, is a rather innocuous thing.

Every marriage has its own internal rules and there may be some readers for whom solo dinners of this sort would be a mutually agreed upon no-go. Thats perfectly fine. But in your case, its not a mutually agreed upon aspect of your marriage. Moreover, this objection undermines the validity of your career. Hes got to do better.

Bring this point of contention to couples therapy. There are aspects of his response that read as controlling; thats something to talk about with a neutral third party. Similarly, youve had to negotiate the emotional impact of these arguments and any guilt that has come up. This is also something you can and should bring up in therapy.

Sometimes when everything else about a relationship is working, its very productive to tackle one specific question in therapy. Sometimes the solution is easy; sometimes there is a lot more to uncover. Give yourselves the space to explore, so that you can continue to do your job without guilt, and he can learn to support you.

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at eric@askingeric.com or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.
The next time youre cruising down I-5 and a massive semi roars past, you might consider an unlikely question: did that driver actually earn their license?

That unsettling thought lies at the heart of a shocking report recently featured on Beat Check with The Oregonian,  podcast where watchdog reporter Ted Sickinger talks about investigations into a commercial drivers license school, which operated in Oregon and Washington.

Generative AI was used to summarize a recent episode of the Beat Check podcast. This story was reviewed and edited by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

The investigations center on Skyline CDL School. According to Sickingers reporting, the school was sending students to a Washington state contract tester, located hours away. Officials found it was more likely than not that the tester had been accepting cash payments from Skyline CDL School to pass its students. According to stakeouts by regulators with the state licensing division, some of those students may never have taken a test at all; yet they received commercial driver licenses that allowed them to drive semis.

Think about that the next time youre driving down I-5 and see a truck pass you, Sickinger noted, highlighting the public safety implications.

The numbers are troubling. When Washington authorities retested just a fraction of the drivers who obtained licenses, a shocking 80% failed the exam. Even more alarming, those 74 drivers represented just a few of the 877 who purportedly took the test through that tester between April 2023 and September 2024.

Trucking is one of the most hazardous professions in the country. ... Last year, trucks were involved in accidents that killed about 5,500 people and injured another 150,000, Sickinger said.

The Beat Check podcast also explains how easily safety systems can be circumvented and have been around the United States.

Advocates say that fraudulent CDL schools are not uncommon across the country and they rarely face any meaningful consequences, Sickinger said.

Both Washington and Oregon have now taken action to shut down Skyline CDL School, but authorities say they dont have the resources to track down and retest every driver who might need it.

Listen to the full episode here:

Subscribe to Beat Check with The Oregonian on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Youll get a weekly look inside Oregons biggest news stories with the journalists at The Oregonian/OregonLive.com. Listen to more Beat Check episodes below.
In this OregonLive file photo a fire in Grant County scorches more than 135,000 acres. Preventing and fighting wildfires has become a key funding issue for the Oregon legislature this year. Grant County Emergency Management

The House Committee on Climate and Energy on Thursday voted against sending a bill that would repeal the states controversial wildfire map to the chamber floor, prompting swift pushback from Republicans who argued that Democrats were trying to use it as leverage to get votes for their proposal to spend kicker rebate money on wildfire efforts.

Democrats on the committee said they want the map repeal to pass, but contended that sending it to the House Committee on Rules instead of straight to the House floor would allow lawmakers to consider it in the context of several other bills aimed at addressing wildfire prevention and funding.
It actually pays pretty good if you dedicate yourself to it and you put some time into it, said Mike, who prepared to redeem hundreds of cans at the Delta Park BottleDrop in Northeast Portland. Because of the $35 a day limit per person, Mike put some cans into green bags, which uses a separate system. Beth Nakamura

A bill that sailed through the Oregon Legislature and is awaiting the governors signature will significantly alter the already complicated rules for Oregonians who return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece.

Senate Bill 992 would make its most striking changes in Portland.

Bottomline, its likely to become more difficult to redeem beverage containers at grocery stores in the city, which have long felt burdened by having to allocate staff, space and clean up efforts to run bottle return areas that are mandated by law. The bill will allow some grocery stores to cease accepting any bottles and cans and others to take only pre-bundled bags of them that will be counted offsite.

The bills drafters hope more Portland residents will take advantage of the already established system of bundling their containers in specially marked green or blue bags and dropping them off for redemption.

Meanwhile, the bill sets out to address the needs of canners, who collect cans and bottles daily and generally shun the green-bag system because it doesnt allow them to get paid immediately. The bill aims to funnel canners to alternative redemption facilities or a proposed mobile redemption site that would visit different spots in the city on set days of the week.

Sen. Janeen Sollman, a Hillsboro Democrat who is a chief backer of the bill, told a legislative committee earlier this month that Oregons 1971 Bottle Bill is the cornerstone of the states environmental efforts. But she said it needs updating to make it sustainable for todays needs.

By acting now, the state can create a more streamlined and effective process that benefits both the environment and the economy, Sollman said.

Heres what youll need to know about the states new rules if Gov. Tina Kotek signs Senate Bill 992 into law:

No returns accepted: Grocery stores in Portland have the option of entirely shutting down their can-and-bottle collecting returns, if theyre within a few miles of an alternative redemption site. Stores that choose this option must pay into the system that runs the alternative redemption site.

This area currently covers inner Portland. Its centered around The Peoples Depot, which is located under the eastern end of the Morrison Bridge but will move if it can find an appropriate brick-and-mortar site.

No hand counts, green and blue bags only: Grocery stores throughout Portland that still accept cans and bottles could stop hand-counting individual beverage containers and only accept cans and bottles that are pre-bundled into specially designated green or blue bags.

The bags would be picked up and counted elsewhere.

Green and blue bags are marked with a QR code and credited within hours or days to the persons account. Money from green bags goes to individual Oregonians who collected the cans and bottles. Money from blue bags goes to charities.

A man deposits a green bag of empties through a small door in the side of the Delta Park BottleDrop in Northeast Portland. He says he gets about eight dollars per bag. It buys a whole lot of sandwiches, he said. Beth Nakamura

Shrinking hours at grocery stores statewide: Grocery stores in all of Oregon  not just in Portland  will only have to accept cans and bottles between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Currently, they are required to accept returns every hour that theyre open.

Fewer cans accepted, limited hours: Convenience stores within a few miles of the inner core of Portland could reduce the maximum number of beverage containers theyll accept from 50 down to 24. They also could shrink their hours of redemption to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Currently, many of them take back cans and bottles 24 hours per day because theyre open around the clock.

Convenience stores throughout the state could reduce their take-back hours to 8 a.m.-8 p.m., said Jonathan Polonsky, CEO of Plaid Pantry and chairperson of the Oregon Neighborhood Store Association.

Neighbors vs. BottleDrops: The bill attempts to respond to residents whove objected to full-service redemption centers, like the BottleDrops at 122nd and Glisan in Northeast Portland and next to Delta Park in North Portland, moving into their neighborhoods. It calls for public input before the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, which approves new BottleDrop locations, gives its yea or nay on a new center anywhere in the state.

State senators and representatives also must be notified of any proposals to open full-service redemption centers in their districts.

The bill also lays out in statute that full-service Bottle Drops can be located in industrial districts, away from homes and retail businesses but close enough for them to be convenient.

I would like to see it go in a site where its welcomed by the neighbors, where theres easy access by car, foot and bus, said Rep. Travis Nelson, a Portland Democrat who drafted this section of the bill.

Major change for the rest of Oregon: The bill would allow more grocery stores across the state that operate within a few miles of a full-service BottleDrop to stop accepting beverage containers for return.

The bill passed the Senate 28-1 in April. It passed the House 48-4 on Wednesday. The governors office wouldnt say whether Kotek will sign it. Some of the bills provisions would take effect immediately while others wouldnt roll out until 2026.

 Aimee Green covers the Oregon Legislature. Reach her at 503-294-5119, agreen@oregonian.com or on Bluesky.

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Portlands oldest surviving residence, the 1855 Tigard-Rogers House in Southwest Portlands Bridlemile neighborhood, has a new owner: Joe Grinberg, who has roots in the area and construction experience from working for his familys Lindquist Development.

Grinberg, 24, has been onsite most days since purchasing the 2.86-acre property April 24 for $750,000.
Its official  Tula-Tu is Portlands sweetheart.

Sure, Tula-Tu has been a crowd favorite since the day she was born. Shes even been mentioned on national TV.
OKLAHOMA CITY  With bipartisan support, House lawmakers on Wednesday sent a series of altered education rules to the governor that eliminate the requirements for public schools to collect proof of U.S. citizenship and for teachers to pass the U.S. Naturalization Test.

Lawmakers unanimously approved Senate Joint Resolution 22, which now heads to Gov. Kevin Stitt. The Republican has repeatedly vowed to block efforts by the state Department of Education to require schools to collect the immigration status of children.

With the same measure, lawmakers also rejected a rule requiring all public school teachers to pass a written version of the U.S. Naturalization Test to earn or renew their certifications.

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Rep. Molly Jenkins (R-Coyle) attempted to amend the measure to reinstate the controversial immigration rule, but it failed 75-12.

Under the rule backed by state Superintendent Ryan Walters, districts would have been required to report to the state the number of children unable to verify U.S. citizenship or legal residency. The Republican said it would help schools accurately provide the resources needed to serve those students, but also said he would turn over such information to federal immigration authorities if asked.

Jenkins said the amendment would have collected aggregate data, not any individual student names, and would help to better allocate funding throughout Oklahoma public schools.

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Opponents on both sides of the aisle said the rule was unenforceable. The numbers could still be traced to students and could create a strain on the public school system, they said. Schools already provide services to immigrant students without requiring proof of citizenship.

Rep. Gerrid Kendrix (R-Altus) said the immigration rule does not have statutory authority. Kendrix, the measures author, said the process is about ensuring the rules have statute backing them up, not about policy.

State agencies are supposed to create rules that expand on existing law relating to the policy. The Legislature and the governor then review every agencys rules and can accept or reject them. If approved, the rules have the force of law.

The same measure also passed the Senate unanimously.

Oklahoma Voice is an affiliate of States Newsroom, a nation 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and donations focused on delivering state government news. The Voice maintains full editorial independence. For more stories by Oklahoma Voice go to oklahomavoice.com.
Stora Enso to Divest 12.4% of Its Swedish Forest Holdings for EUR 900 Million

In connection with the deal, Stora Enso and the divested entity will enter into a 15-year wood supply agreement with a possible additional 15-year extension. In connection with the deal, Stora Enso and the divested entity will enter into a 15-year wood supply agreement with a possible additional 15-year extension.

May 21, 2025 - Stora Enso has entered into an agreement to divest approximately 175,000 hectares of forest land, equivalent to 12.4% of its total forest land holdings in Sweden for an enterprise value of EUR 900 million, equivalent to SEK 9.8 billion.

Soya Group will hold a 40.6% share in the newly formed company, and a MEAG led consortium will hold 44.4% of the shares. MEAG is the asset manager of Munich Re, a German insurance company.

Stora Enso will retain a 15% ownership in the company.

In connection with the deal, Stora Enso and the divested entity will enter into a 15-year wood supply agreement with a possible additional 15-year extension. This will secure wood availability for Stora Enso's Swedish business units.

The new entity will also benefit from a forest management agreement under which Stora Enso will provide forest-related services.

Due to the disposal, the Group's adjusted EBITDA is expected to decrease by approximately EUR 25 million per year, of which EUR 15 million is cash-related, based on full-year 2024 numbers.

The proceeds from the sale are expected to reduce Stora Enso's net debt by EUR 790 million.

"We remain committed to building a stronger Stora Enso," said Hans Sohlstrom, President and CEO of Stora Enso. "This transaction further strengthens our financial stability. By strategically monetizing a portion of our forest assets while retaining full access to wood supply, we are taking a proactive step to reduce our debt.

"This transaction not only enhances our financial flexibility but also allows us to capitalize on the inherent value of our forest assets. We look forward to building a strong partnership and a successful collaboration with the new owners," Sohlstrom added.

The transaction is subject to clearance by the relevant competition authorities and is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2025. Stora Enso announced the divestment plan in October 2024.

Stora Enso is a leading provider of renewable products in packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction, and one of the largest private forest owners in the world.

SOURCE: Stora Enso
Rottneros Reduces Workforce by 26 at Rottneros Mill and Group Functions

Most of the jobs being eliminated are at Rottneros' CTMP pulp mill in Sunne, Sweden. Most of the jobs being eliminated are at Rottneros' CTMP pulp mill in Sunne, Sweden.

May 22, 2025 - Rottneros today announced that it is reducing its workforce by 26 people. The jobs include employees from Rottneros Mill in Sunne (Sweden) and within Group functions.

Rottneros Mill manufactures thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) and has the capacity to produce 165,000 tons per year. The pulp is used in the production of cardboard, packaging, tissue paper, filters and fiber cement.

At the end of March, Rottneros had anticipated a reduction of 47 positions, but after talks with union representatives, that number dropped to 26.

Rottneros said the reduction in its workforce was necessary in order to handle market fluctuations and volatile electricity prices, which lead to the decision to go from six work shifts at Rottneros Mill to five shifts.

"It is difficult to have to give a notice of redundancy in the run-up to the summer, although it is positive that we have landed in significantly fewer redundancies than we feared when we entered negotiations at the end of March," said Lennart Eberleh, CEO of Rottneros.

"With this solution, we can easily gear up when the market turns, and the large investments we have made in Rottneros Mill will be profitable. We must not forget that the history of Rottneros Mill is several hundred years old. We also have that view when we look ahead," Eberleh said.

Trygghetsfonden and TRR are involved, as is Sunne municipality, to support those affected in finding new employment, Rottneros added.

Rottneros consists of two pulp producing units in Sweden  Rottneros Mill (Sunne) and Vallvik Mill (Vallvik). Also part of the Group are Rottneros Packaging AB, which produces moulded fibre, Nykvist Skogs AB and SIA Rottneros Baltic, who provide the Group with raw material.

SOURCE: Rottneros AB
This undated handout photo provided by the embassy of Israel in the U.S. shows staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky, right, and U.S. citizen Sarah Milgrim, who were shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington. (Embassy of Israel in the U.S. via AP) AP

By Tia Goldenberg, The Associated Press

They were colleagues, and they were a couple, days away from a marriage proposal.

But the interwoven lives of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were brutally cut short Wednesday evening, when the two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot while leaving a reception for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum.

The suspect told police he did it for Palestine, according to court documents filed Thursday as he was charged with murder.

Milgrim, a 26-year-old American from Kansas, had devoted her burgeoning career to bringing people together to look for ways to promote peace and combat climate change, those who knew her say.

Lischinsky, a 30-year-old Israeli citizen who spent some of his childhood in Germany, had a deep attachment to Israel and an interest in bridging cultural and religious divides.

He had bought an engagement ring and was just days away from proposing to Milgrim on a planned trip to Jerusalem, according to Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.

A young couple with a bright future, planning their life together, said Ron Prosor, a veteran Israeli diplomat who knew Lischinsky.

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky grew up partly in the German city of Nuremberg and moved to Israel at 16. He served in the Jewish states military and chose to dedicate his life to the state of Israel, said Prosor, who taught Lischinsky at Israels Reichman University. Lischinsky earned a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy there.

He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide, Prosor said on X.

A friend, David Boskey, recalled Lischinsky as someone unafraid to broach hard questions in order to interrogate his own convictions.

He met Lischinsky in 2017 in Jerusalem at a Messianic Jewish congregation, where they would often end up talking together about life and faith, Boskey said. The Messianic movement  popularly known as Jews for Jesus  incorporates Jewish symbols and practices, but Israel considers Messianic Jews to be practicing another faith.

He was looking to see where he was going to go in life, asking questions about calling and about identity and about what he was going to study, where he was going to work, what he wanted to pursue in life, Boskey said. He described Lischinsky as a truth-seeking type of person, mixed with a very, very kind and gracious willingness to serve other people.

Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington.. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

Lischinsky helped found the Israeli-German Societys youth forum, according to its counterpart in Germany, and he took a job at the Israeli Embassy in Washington in 2022.

There, he worked as a research assistant whose responsibilities included keeping track of important events and trends in the Middle East and North Africa, his LinkedIn profile said.

He said he advocated for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding and was an ardent believer in deepening Israels ties with the Arab world through the U.S.-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

Milgrims Instagram bio also had a yellow ribbon, as well as a passage, in Hebrew, from the biblical Book of Deuteronomy: Justice, justice you shall pursue.

Sarah Milgrim

Milgrim was an American citizen, according to Israels former ambassador to the U.S., Mike Herzog. She hailed from Overland Park, Kansas, where a former youth director at Congregation Beth Torah remembers a brilliant girl with a perpetual smile and a sense of purpose.

She had a passion for Judaism and for Israel, and she wanted to do some good, said Marcia Rittmaster, the former youth director. She recommended Milgrim for a Jewish leadership internship upon the young womans graduation from high school.

Milgrim went on to the University of Kansas, where she earned a bachelors degree in environmental studies in 2021 and was a warm, uplifting presence at Shabbat dinners and holiday gatherings at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life.

She believed in connections, in building community and bringing people together, Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel said. He said she loved asking questions, enjoyed insightful conversations and was filled with so much love.

After graduating, Milgrim worked at at a Tel Aviv-based organization centered on technology training, entrepreneurial and conflict dialogue for young Palestinians and Israelis, according to her LinkedIn profile. It said she had been trained in religious engagement and peacebuilding by the United States Institute of Peace, an organization that promotes conflict resolution and was created by the U.S. Congress.

After earning a masters degree in international affairs from American University in 2023, she went to work at the Israeli Embassy, where her job involved organizing events and missions to Israel.

Flowers and candles are pictured as law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

Among them was an Earth Day gathering last month that highlighted Israeli companies and nonprofit groups doing climate work, recalled attendee Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a philanthropist and a Maryland Commission on Climate Change member. She said she and Milgrim brainstormed by phone just this past week about ways to inform journalists about climate-related innovations in Israel.

She was exceptionally talented, exceptionally passionate, really kind, extremely well-organized and very effective. And shes the kind of young leader that, really, this nation and the world needs, Mizrahi said. She wanted to create a better future for everyone.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Contributing were Geir Moulson in Berlin; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv; Jennifer Peltz in New York; Sarah Brumfeld in Cockeysville, Maryland; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire.
A Lancaster County man will spend 13 to 50 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to the repeated sexual assault of a girl for over a year, the county district attorneys office said.

Stephen K. Molina, 30, of Lancaster, on May 20 pleaded guilty to 13 offenses, including rape of a child, according to the press release.

Molina assaulted the then-8-year-old victim at his home on the first block of North Mary Street for over a year starting in February 2022, the DAs office said.
The fire scene on Woodlawn Avenue in Hamilton, N.J. on July 9, 2021 that killed four residents, including a 9-month-old girl. (Photo courtesy of Peterson's Breaking News)

The man who set fire to a Hamilton, New Jersey, home where his 9-month-old daughter lived in July 2021, killing the baby and three other relatives, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

A judge on Wednesday sentenced Michael Sanders to life without the possibility of parole for the death of his daughter, Malani Sanders, the Mercer County prosecutors office said.
By MARK SHERMAN, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Supreme Court on Thursday effectively ended a publicly funded Catholic charter school in Oklahoma, dividing 4-4.

The outcome keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a vote by a state charter school board to approve the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the nations first religious charter school. But it leaves the issue unresolved nationally.

The one-sentence notice from the court provides an unsatisfying end to one of the terms most closely watched cases.

The Catholic Church in Oklahoma had wanted taxpayers to fund the online charter school faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Opponents warned that allowing it would blur the separation between church and state, sap money from public schools and possibly upend the rules governing charter schools in almost every state.

Only eight of the nine justices took part in the case. Justice Amy Coney Barrett didnt explain her absence, but she is good friends and used to teach with Notre Dame law professor Nicole Garnett, who has been an adviser to the school.

The issue could return to the high court in the future, with the prospect that all nine justices could participate.

The court, following its custom, did not provide a breakdown of the votes. But during arguments last month, four conservative justices seemed likely to side with the school, while the three liberals seemed just as firmly on the other side.

That left Chief Justice John Roberts appearing to hold the key vote, and suggests he went with the liberals to make the outcome 4-4.

The case came to the court amid efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Those include a challenged Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms and a mandate from Oklahomas state schools superintendent that the Bible be placed in public school classrooms.

St. Isidore, a K-12 online school, had planned to start classes for its first 200 enrollees last fall, with part of its mission to evangelize its students in the Catholic faith.

A key unresolved issue is whether the school is public or private. Charter schools are deemed public in Oklahoma and the other 45 states and the District of Columbia where they operate. North Dakota recently enacted legislation allowing for charter schools.

They are free and open to all, receive state funding, abide by antidiscrimination laws and submit to oversight of curriculum and testing. But they also are run by independent boards that are not part of local public school systems.
Dwayne Adway calls foul play in daughter's death (Photo by Jordin Althaus/WireImage) WireImage

A Hollywood actor is suspecting foul play concerning his daughters death.

Dwayne Adway, who landed coveted TV roles in NYPD Blue and CSI Miami, believes his daughter didnt commit suicide but died under suspicious circumstances.
Shakira brings the Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour to a sold-out crowd at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Now, officials are warning of a measles outbreak. Al Mannarino | For NJ Advance Media

People who attended a recent Shakira concert in New Jersey might have been exposed to measles.

On Tuesday, The New Jersey Department of Health issued a warning that alerted residents of a newly identified case of measles in a non-N.J. resident who attended a concert in New Jersey while infectious.

The concert took place on May 15 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford. MetLife Stadium has a capacity of more than 82,000 people and was sold out.

The infected individual attended Shakiras Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, and the agency warned that anyone who was at the stadium between the hours of 7:30 p.m. and 1 a.m., could have been exposed.

Per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the virus is spread when the infected person coughs or sneezes. Once in the air, it stays airborne for up to two hours even after the infected person leaves the area.

Fortunately, the NJDOH mentioned that at this time, no new cases have been associated with attendance at the show. But symptoms can still develop as late as June 6.

People who attended the concert and suspect they were exposured should call health care providers before going to any medical office or emergency department, officials said. Also, you should not visit a medical facility without calling ahead, per NBC News.

Those who are at risk of being infected with the wildly contagious disease are people who have not been fully vaccinated or have not had measles in the past.

The MMR vaccine  which is administered in two doses  is the safest and most effective way to protect yourself against measles, mumps and rubella. The vaccine also prevents complications caused by those diseases.

Health officials recommend that residents stay up to date on routine vaccinations, including MMR shots. Anyone traveling internationally should also be fully vaccinated, and babies 6 to 11 months old should get one dose of the MMR vaccine before they travel and two more doses after their first birthdays.

Measles symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose, watery red eyes and a rash that usually appears three to five days after symptoms begin. The rash normally begins as flat red spots on the face at the hairline and spread downward to the neck, torso, arms, legs and feet.

According to the CDC, Measles isnt just a little rash, its dangerous especially for babies and young children. One in 5 people who get the virus will be hospitalized. It can cause severe health complications such as pneumonia and swelling of the brain, and it can lead to miscarriage in pregnant people, premature birth or low-birthweight babies, officials said.

It can even cause death.
A Texas man was attacked by a swarm of bees.(Dreamstime/TNS) TNS

A Texas man has died after being attacked by a swarm of bees while he mowed his lawn.

Steven William Daniel of Cisco, 66, died on April 27 in Eastland, Texas, which is about 130 miles southwest of Dallas, according to an incident report obtained by USA Today.
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP)  Detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his one-month-old son for the first time Thursday after a federal judge blocked the Trump administrations efforts to keep the father and infant separated by a plexiglass barrier.

The visit came ahead of a scheduled immigration hearing for Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who has been detained in a Louisiana jail since March 8.

Mahmoud Khalil (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file) AP

He was the first person to be arrested under President Donald Trumps promised crackdown on protesters against the war in Gaza and is one of the few who has remained in custody as his case winds its way through both immigration and federal court.

His request to attend his sons April 21 birth was denied last month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The question of whether Khalil would be permitted to hold his newborn child or forced to meet him through a barrier had sparked days of legal fighting, triggering claims by Khalils attorneys that he is being subject to political retaliation by the government.

On Wednesday night, a federal judge in New Jersey, Michael Farbiarz, intervened, allowing the meeting to go forward Thursday morning, according to Khalils attorneys.

Federal authorities have not accused Khalil of a crime, but have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in protests against Israels war in Gaza may have undermined U.S. foreign policy interests.

Khalil is scheduled to appear before that immigration judge, Jamee Comans, for a routine hearing on Thursday. Attorneys for Khalil said it was unclear whether the baby would be permitted to attend the hearing.
Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

By MAYA SWEEDLER, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff. It came as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally and as antisemitic acts are on the rise.

The two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said. He added that the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The man, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, then walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Smith said.

Israeli officials identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington.. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israels reaction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said Thursday he was shocked.

We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

The U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington, led by former judge Jeanine Pirro, will prosecute the case.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.

Israels campaign in Gaza

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

The war, ignited by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack that killed 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of some 250 hostages, has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and displaced most of its population.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesnt differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape.

Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.) AP

In cold blood

The shooting followed the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.

This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight, Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committees chief executive, said in a statement early Thursday. At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local nonprofits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museums leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organization and due to its new LGBTQ exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.
This photo, provided by city of Lebanon, was taken of Lebanon police Lt. William Lebo in 2010.

A post office in Lebanon will be renamed on Thursday.

The Lebanon Post Office at 101 S. Eighth St. will be renamed the Lieutenant William D. Lebo Post Office Building.
Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX's mega rocket Starship lift off for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP) AP

Could the bromance between Donald Trump and Elon Musk really be over?

The numbers seem to suggest it might be, and as far as the president is concerned the numbers say that might be a really good thing.

CNN data guru Harry Enten highlighted that on his most recent segment on the network. Enten showed that Musks net favorability was at plus-24 points back in 2017 but is down to minus-19 points now. The drop has been even more substantial among Democrats where he has gone from plus-35 points in 2017 to a whopping minus-91 points now.

You cant really go lower than that, Enten said. I guess you can go to 100 points, but he became political kryptonite. He was greatly disliked by the American public, and greatly, greatly, greatly disliked by Democrats. I guess you saw that in Wisconsin where he spent all that money and the liberal won the Supreme Court race.

Enten then showed that Tesla has gone from a plus-23 favorability to minus-20 points.

So, this idea that Tesla could somehow separate itself from Elon Musk, nuh uh, Enten said. The American people saw it the exact same way and, of course, Tesla is a business. They are in the business of selling cars. Awfully difficult to sell cars when you have a minus-20 point net favorability rating driven by Elon Musks favorability rating, and its not a big surprise that Tesla sales have fallen in the first quarter compared to where they were a year ago. It turns out that Elon Musks political kryptonite was also become kryptonite for selling cars.

Why's Musk edging out of politics? Because he's political kryptonite.



His net favorable plummeted: +24 pts to -19 pts. (It fell by 126 pts with Dems!)



Musk crushed Tesla's popularity (-20 pt net favorable).



Trump was done with him (100% drop in Truth Social posts about Musk). pic.twitter.com/8NmpJoLPCV  (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) May 21, 2025

That is when Enten tied in an interesting correlation between the relationship that Trump and Musk have shared. He showed that Trump posted 40 times about Musk on social media. from Jan. 20 until April 4. Since April 5 though, Trump has not posted once about Musk, Enten said.

Donald Trump knows brans very well, he said. He knows political bands, and he knows that Elon Musks political brands time had run out and therefore Elon Musk is taking a step back from politics.
Voters head to the polls in the primary election. May 20, 2025. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Just slightly under 5,000 voters effectively decided the Harrisburg mayors race on Tuesday, as turnout was low in central Pennsylvania for a municipal primary election.

Mayor Wanda Williams narrowly won the Democratic nomination over Treasurer Dan Miller, 1,725 votes to 1,642,, with others far behind.
President Donald Trump is slated to host a private dinner tonight in Washington, D.C. for the top 220 investors in his memecoin, and there are plenty of people who are not OK with that.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn)., has been one of those out front in raising concerns about the dinner. Murphy, in fact, called the event unbelievably illegal.

We all deserve to know who is paying their way into accessing the president of the United States of America, Murphy said in a video shared to his X account on Monday. This coming Thursday, Donald Trump is holding his memecoin dinner at one of his properties.

What he is doing is holding a private dinner for the top 220 holders of Trump coin, he continued. This is unbelievably illegal. He is essentially selling access to himself to people that are paying him money. Donald Trump makes money off of every single transaction. So, these individuals who have bought thousands, tens of thousands, millions of dollars worth of memecoin have put a lot of money into Donald Trumps pocket.

Murphy then continued to list his issues with that.

We have no idea who these people are, and that should be so worrying to the American people because reports suggest the majority of these individuals arent Americans, he said. They are actually foreigners. They could be terrorists. They could be sanctioned oligarchs. The bottom line should be simple here. The president should not be selling access to himself or the Oval Office. But having already made the decision to do it, at the very least, we should all be demanding that the list of people Trump is meeting with in private is made public. The American people should see whos trying to buy off the president of the United States. Who is buying the coin in order to get access to the president, to try and get favors from the American government, from the American taxpayers?

We all deserve to know who is paying their way into accessing the president of the United States of America.

This week, Trump will host a secret dinner with the top buyers of his meme coin. Reports suggest that the majority of the attendees will be foreigners. That's outrageous. Are these corrupt oligarchs? Do they have terrorist ties? How many are Putin cronies? We deserve to know. pic.twitter.com/A1F3eMDd69  Chris Murphy  (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 19, 2025

Murphys comments on the dinner came after Sen. Adam Schiff, (D-Calif)., called Trumps memcoin the single most corrupt, self-serving act of any president in American history, last week.

You have heard about the meme coin by now. This is the logo of the memecoin. The presidents most brazen cashing in, Schiff said on the Senate floor. A corrupt effort that has already made him and his family billions of dollars between its soaring values and the trading fees. This memecoin has gone up-and-down in value, but the thing is, every time it gets traded, every time it gets bought or sold, this guy gets a cut. He gets the fees. Estimated already at the value of hundreds of millions of dollars. Its like posting his Venmo account online, inviting personal monetary tributes from foreign powers, foreign investors or anyone else who is willing to pay up. Youve heard about the private dinner associated with this memecoin. The top 220 meme coin owners, many of whom are foreign investors, invited to a private dinner with the president of the United States. Businesses are buying and jockeying to be one of the favored few who also get a private audience with him if they are willing to buy millions of meme coins, not to mention a personal tour of the White House. But beyond the meme coins and private dinners, theres also something else brewing behind the scenes. As I speak, Eric Trump and Don Jr. are getting into the action, jetting around the world building their own financial empire in the crypto business space. In Dubai, the Trump familys World Liberty Financial Firm announced a joint venture capital firm backed by the government of Abu Dhabi that would invest $2 billion using Trump digital currency.

Now, I know its hard to keep all these billions apart, he added. You got the $2 billion investment in Jared Kushner by the Saudis. You got $5.5 billion investment by other gulf nations in Trump properties. You got $2 billion here, another $5.5 billion there, another $2 billion here and pretty soon you are talking about serious money for the Trump family. This deal alone will generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the Trump family. So, thats the Art of the Deal with this president. Trump gets rich. You get screwed.
By Susan Snyder, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

Republican State Sen. Pat Stefano said he made one thing very clear to Pennsylvania State University administrators on a phone call this week: You turn your back on my community. Now I turn my back on you.

Stefano, whose district includes Penn States Fayette campus, one of seven Commonwealth campuses recommended for closure, said he would have a hard time saying yes to funding for Penn State if it goes through with the plan. The Fayette campus is the only two- and four-year college in the county, he said.

Other lawmakers whose districts are home to targeted campuses also have expressed concern, meaning that Penn State may face a harder time getting approval for state funding this year. Funding for Penn State and other state-related universities requires a two-thirds majority vote by the House and the Senate.

Penn State trustees are scheduled to vote Thursday during a Zoom meeting, followed by an address to the campus community by president Neeli Bendapudi.

The other campuses on the closure list are Wilkes-Barre, York, Shenango, Mont Alto, DuBois, and New Kensington. The move follows large enrollment declines at the campuses since 2010 and financial struggles amid an increasingly competitive higher education landscape, where closures and mergers of private schools and in the state university system have occurred.

The Penn State Faculty Alliance delivered a petition with more than 500 signatures to the university administration Wednesday opposing the move.

This petition is necessary to have our collective voices heard by both the administration and the Board of Trustees because this administration has not meaningfully engaged Commonwealth campus faculty in the decision to close campuses, said Rebecca Sarver, assistant teaching professor of criminal justice on the Wilkes-Barre campus.

Several trustees on the 36-member board have spoken against the plan, meaning a split vote is likely. How split is unclear. If the plan passes, it could just shift the battle to another stage.

Gov. Josh Shapiro has not weighed in, but the plan will be subject to approval by his acting education secretary, Carrie Rowe. And then there is Penn States forthcoming budget request.

Several rural Republicans who represent the areas where satellite campuses are on the chopping block said they are hesitant to support Penn States funding  and its requested funding increase for 2025-26 of $30 million, or 11%  if Penn State closes the campuses in what they say was a rushed and shortsighted decision that excluded lawmakers input.

Concerns about the impact of campus closures

Several of the GOP lawmakers who are on track to lose Penn State campuses in their districts said the speedy closures do not take into account a number of factors, including the role the schools play in the local economy or ways they could have been reimagined before closure.

In DuBois, the region is recognized globally as the " Powder Metals Capital of the World" for its powdered metal manufacturing, which should have been considered, one representative said. For Penn State Mont Alto, which was founded in 1903 as one of the nations first forestry schools, lawmakers worry those critical programs that support Pennsylvanias top industries will disappear from the curriculum.

Its such a shortsighted decision to close [ Mont Alto], and to conduct a three-month study to determine whether or not an institution has any value is unconscionable, said Rep. Chad Reichard, a Republican whose district includes the Mont Alto campus. If Penn State doesnt see the value in investing in our local economy, I will struggle in investing in Penn State.

In its 143-page report with recommendations for campus closures, administrators recommended the forestry program be maintained and moved to another campus.

But not every conservative believes the closures are bad, as Pennsylvanias higher education landscape has outgrown the student population.

Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana), whose district includes Penn States New Kensington campus, said he dislikes that he is on track to lose a campus but understands these changes are necessary to support the declining demographics in Pennsylvania.

He emphasized that Penn State has an obligation to ensure that the campuses are repurposed and brought to a higher and better use in the communities they reside. State lawmakers have an obligation to support that effort, too, he said.

We cannot allow the campuses, if they are closed, to become blighted properties, Pittman added.

While some GOP senators affected by the closures are hesitant to support Penn State in forthcoming state budget votes, Pittman said he believes other members will recognize, as he does, that Penn State is trying to reduce its spending and respond to declining college demographics.

Penn State University president Neeli Bendapudi speaks at the Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg. January 23, 2023. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

But members in the House GOP may not see it the same way and could jeopardize Penn States state funding this year. For the last several years, House Republicans have threatened to withhold more than $600 million in combined state dollars for three of the states four state-related universities: the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State, and Temple University.

Threats to vote against Penn State funding

GOP lawmakers in the state House successfully held up state funding over a number of personal, ideological, and institutional issues that individual members had with the schools until late fall in 2023, eventually requiring the schools to agree to limited increases in public records access. The universities are also transitioning to a performance-based system for future funding increases, a priority for some members of the House GOP who want more accountability from the schools.

Even though Republicans in the state House are narrowly in the minority, they still have major control in funding state-related universities, given the two-thirds majority vote required for approval.

Rep. Jamie Walsh, a Republican whose district includes the Wilkes-Barre campus, said Penn States 2 Plus 2 program  in which students spend their first two years in their home community before going to the main campus in State College  has benefited the community, and losing the campus would be a heartbreaker.

I will be taking a strong stand, if they decide to close their campuses, regarding their funding, Walsh added.

Rep. Mike Armanini, a Republican whose district includes DuBois, said he always supported Penn State funding when his GOP colleagues did not because of the role the college played in his community. This year, hes not so sure.

Im gonna look at it very differently, Armanini said. By taking this step, theyre going away from their root mission that was first established. Its very disheartening.

This is the latest example of a major institution abandoning rural Pennsylvania, Armanini added, noting that it can take up to an hour to get an ambulance or more than an hour to get to the closest hospital with a labor and delivery department.

State Sen. Lisa Baker, a Republican whose district includes the Wilkes-Barre campus, earlier this month said she and a colleague would introduce a bill requiring public hearings prior to closing state-related universities.

The Wilkes-Barre campus is a cornerstone for our region  economically, academically and civically," Baker and State Rep. Brenda Pugh, also a Republican from that area, said in a statement. Before any decision is made, there must be a full, transparent process.

Factors considered for closure recommendations

Penn State administrators said the campuses were picked for closure based on a holistic look at various factors, including enrollment declines, population projections, housing occupancy, student performance, other colleges in proximity, finances, and maintenance backlog.

A comparison of the 12 campuses shows:

Six of the seven recommended for closure do not offer housing. The seventh, Mont Alto, has it, but showed the lowest occupancy rate, 40%, of campuses with housing.

York, which has the largest enrollment of the 12 at 703, is slated for closure, yet Allegheny, which has the third-smallest enrollment, is not.

Six of the seven with the biggest overall declines in enrollment were slated for closure. Mont Alto, with the third-smallest decline, is on the list.

Five of the seven with the smallest share of students eligible for Pell Grants, reserved for students from lower-income families, were selected for closure. And five of the seven selected for closure also had the lowest percentages of students from underrepresented groups. The university noted in its report the importance of maintaining access to students from diverse backgrounds.

Allegheny, which is recommended to remain open, fulfills an essential role in providing access to higher education, the report said, noting that about half of its students are the first in their families to attend college, nearly 42% receive Pell grants, and nearly 30% are from underrepresented groups.

Hazleton, which is also recommended to remain open, serves the highest percentage of students from underrepresented groups of all Commonwealth campuses.

The three schools with the highest six-year graduation rates were slated for closure. They are Wilkes-Barre, which graduates nearly 70% of students in six years, DuBois, and York.

But university administrators said the Wilkes-Barre campus lies between two other larger and more robust campuses, Scranton and Hazleton. The Wilkes-Barre campus also has no compelling academic niche or distinctive program portfolio, the report said.

Of the Fayette campus, Penn State administrators cited in their report regional population loss, economic distress, and limited demand for in-person education and said its programmatic offerings are largely replicable at nearby campuses or online through Penn State World Campus.

Stefano said he sent reams of material to Penn State in support of the Fayette campus, underscoring its importance to the community. He said he will continue to call trustees and lobby against the closure.

At the end of the day, he said, we will not go down quietly.

 2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit www.inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Hundreds of protesters called on Sen. John Fetterman and Sen. Dave McCormick to hear their concerns on March 29, 2025, in Pittsburgh. PennLive

By Aliya Schneider, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Dave McCormick, R- Pa., will debate in Boston in June, and itll be moderated by Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream.

The debate is part of a series called The Senate Project, hosted by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation, two organizations named for deceased senators known for their dealmaking during their long tenures.

The project has held five debates since it first launched in 2022 and aims to encourage dialogue between senators from opposing parties.

McCormick and Fetterman have largely different political views, but have shown a sense of allyship in recent months.

Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, were slated to appear with McCormick and his wife, Dina Powell, to promote a book about mentorship written by the McCormicks called Who Believed in You? But the senators first changed the event location to an undisclosed spot, and then postponed the event altogether after demonstrators said they would protest it.

McCormick recently came to Fettermans defense amid media reports and scrutiny about his health and behavior.

While we have many differences, we are both committed to working together to achieve results for the people of Pennsylvania and make their lives better, McCormick said in a post on X. He is authentic, decent, principled, and a fighter. These disgraceful smears against him are not the John that I know and respect.

The Pennsylvania senators debate will take place on Monday, June 2, at 9 a.m. at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston in front of a live audience and stream live on Fox Nation.

Vigorous and open dialogue is an essential part of our democracy, and having these two senators from opposite sides of the aisle discuss important issues of the day is a valuable contribution to the public discourse, said Bruce A. Percelay, chair of the Kennedy Institute.

The first debate for the series in 2022 featured Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, a progressive independent who represents Vermont and caucuses with Democrats.

In 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was a Republican senator who represented Florida at the time, and U.S. Rep. Chris Coons, a Democrat who represents Delaware, also debated as part of the series.

2025 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Visit inquirer.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
1,000+ Seats, $12K Packages, and a $1M Bonus: The GGPoker Road to Vegas Heats Up

Matthew Pitt Senior Editor Copy link

The 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) is less than a week away, with the $10,000 Main Event starting July 2. If you, like thousands of poker players, dream of competing in the WSOP Main Event, you need to fire up GGPoker and see if you can navigate down the Road to vegas and capture a $12,000 package.

GGPoker is the official online poker site of the WSOP. In fact, GGPoker's parent company purchased the WSOP for $500 million in August 2024. As the official live reporting partner of the WSOP, PokerNews is well-placed to let you know about the best WSOP Main Event satellites and promotions, and we can tell you they are happening at GGPoker.

The Road to Vegas promotion began on March 9 and so far, at the time of writing, 643 GGPoker players have gotten their hands on $12,000 WSOP Main Event packages. Those packages include:

Entry to the $10,000 WSOP Main Event

$1,000 credited to your GGPoker account for accommodation

$1,000 credited to your GGPoker account for spending money

A special discount code for Caesars properties

GGPoker merchandise

Players such as Felipe Ramos, Jessica Teusl, Artur Martirosian, Ole Schemion, Jans Arends, and Adrian Mateos are among the list of Road to Vegas - $12K Package Qualifiers. Will you add your name to that list?

Each of those superstars played their way through a $1,200 MEGA Road to Vegas satellite. In these satellites, players start their quest for a WSOP Main Event package armed with 10,000 chips, with the aim to hit the Target Stack of 110,000 chips. The players to reach that total will be heading to Las Vegas in July to play in the WSOP Main Event as a GGPoker qualifier. Should any of the GGPoker qualifiers win the 2025 WSOP Main Event, they'll receive an additional $1 million on top of the first-place prize money.

GGPoker guarantees a set number of $12,000 packages and adds additional packages for every $12,000 in the prize pool

2025 WSOP Schedule Released: 100 Bracelet Events Confirmed Check it out

Of course, not many poker players can afford to flick in a $1,200 entry even if there is a potentially life-changing prize up for grabs. This is why GGPoker is running dozens of satellites for only $1 that feed into the $1,200 buy-in qualifiers.

The penultimate step to the $1,200 buy-in qualifiers is a $150 Step to $1,200 Road to Vegas Satellite. In these, players sit down with 5,000 chips with the aim of reaching a 45,000 stack. The number of $1,200 Road to Vegas tickets waiting to be depends on the prize pool's size.

Those $1,200 Road to Vegas tickets can be used to enter any $12,000 WSOP Main Event package-awarding satellites with a $1,200 buy-in.

How Many Players Will GGPoker Send to the 2025 WSOP Main Event?

The GGPoker tournament lobby proudly displays "1,000 Packages" above the Road to Vegas tab, with the website copy saying there will be 1,000+ qualifiers. Last year, GGPoker sent more than 1,100 players to the WSOP Main Event, including more than 730 who won their seats on GGPoker's global platform.

With GGPoker Ontario and ClubGG players also having their own WSOP Main Event promotions, there is every chance 1,200 or more WSOP Main Event entrants will be classified as GGPoker qualifiers.

Sign Up To GGPoker and Claim Your Welcome Bonus

If you are already enjoying playing at GGPoker, you can head to the Road to Vegas tab in the tournament lobby and try playing your way to the 2025 WSOP Main Event. Those who don't currently have an account can download GGPoker via PokerNews, grab a lucrative welcome bonus, and then start their quest to win a $12,000 package.

Players from the United Kingdom can help themselves to a 100% up to $600 welcome bonus, which releases in $1 increments each time they generate $5 in rake or tournament fees. Additional deposits made within 60 days of the initial deposit count towards the bonus, up to a maximum of $600.

Outside the United Kingdom, new depositing players have a choice of two bonuses. The first awards up to $100 in free play, made up of $52.50 in free tickets and the chance to receive an additional $37.50 in C$ for completing All-in Or Fold challenges.

The other bonus is a 100% up to $600 welcome bonus, identical to the UK offer mentioned above.

Day Instantly Credited Tickets Extra All-in Or Fold Challenge Day 1 $11 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 100 AoF Hands - Get C$2.50 Day 2 $6.50 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 500 AoF Hands - Get C$10 Day 3 $6.50 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 100 AoF Hands - Get C$2.50 Day 4 $6.50 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 500 AoF Hands - Get C$10 Day 5 $9 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 100 AoF Hands - Get C$2.50 Day 6 $13 in All-in or Fold SNG Tickets Play 1,000 AoF Hands - Get C$10

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Ed Lab reporter

Anna B. Mitchell is a Greenville-based investigative reporter for the Post and Courier's Education Lab team. A licensed English and social studies teacher, Anna covers education in the Upstate and collaborates with other reporters for coverage on statewide education trends. She studied history at the University of North Carolina, journalism at the University of Missouri, and holds an MBA from the University of Applied Sciences in Wurzburg. For fun, Anna plays bassoon, visits her family in Germany as often as she can, and takes her doggy, Ashe, for long walks with her daughter and husband.
The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, May 12, to officially welcome The Barndo Co. at 904 Nexton Square Drive in Summerville to the Berkeley County business community.
Chloe Barlow is a multimedia reporter straight out of the Midlands. She trained in journalism at both the University of South Carolina and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She covers a wide breadth of South Carolina news, but she is especially interested in accountability and justice reporting.
The News in Brief Thursday, May 22, 2025

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys has cautioned against restoring diplomatic ties with Georgia's ruling Georgian Dream party unless it recommits to core democratic principles. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty published on May 20, Budrys criticized the European Union for failing to respond decisively to Georgia's democratic backsliding, calling missed opportunities to impose sanctions a critical error."We had multiple chances to send a strong message, especially over legislation targeting NGOs, flawed elections, and violent crackdowns on peaceful protests, but we didn't act," Budrys said. He described the government's actions as having crossed "red lines," warning that democratic freedoms in Georgia are continuing to erode.Despite strong public support in Georgia for EU membership, Budrys emphasized that the current government must demonstrate a clear commitment to democratic norms. He urged for new elections and the withdrawal of laws restricting civil society and political opposition. "If not, we are heading in a very bad direction and that's the responsibility of Georgian authorities," he stated.When asked whether top EU officials should maintain dialogue with Tbilisi's leadership, Budrys firmly opposed normalization under current conditions. "There is no value in engaging unless the relationship is fundamentally redefined," he said. "We're not just talking politics, we're talking about European values."Giorgi Tkemaladze has been named the new Vice Mayor of Tbilisi, replacing Irakli Khmaladze, who recently transitioned to the role of Deputy Minister of Justice. The announcement was made by Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze during a May 21 press briefing.Tkemaladze previously chaired the Tbilisi City Council (Sakrebulo), a position he held since 2021 and during the previous council term. Kaladze praised his long-standing involvement in city governance, noting that Tkemaladze played an active role in shaping and supporting key municipal projects."All the projects implemented in the capital have involved the City Council and Giorgi personally," Kaladze said. "I'm confident that his experience and dedication will be crucial as we move forward with major initiatives."Kaladze described Tkemaladze as a central figure in Tbilisi's administrative leadership and emphasized his future role in driving the city's urban development and strategic planning efforts.
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Lillia Callum-Penso covers food for The Post and Courier Greenville. She spent over a decade as a reporter with The Greenville News where she covered business and food and won awards for her feature, profile and food writing. Outside work, Lillia can usually be found running to keep up with her very energetic twins.
Kingstree, SC (29556)

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Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 84F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph..

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Rain showers early will evolve into a more steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 71F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a half an inch.
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Tropical storm conditions possible. Rain diminishing to a few showers this afternoon. High around 85F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

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Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 72F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.
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Tropical storm conditions possible. Rain diminishing to a few showers this afternoon. High near 85F. Winds NE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / Alta Copper Corp. (TSX:ATCU)(OTCQX:ATCUF)(BVL:ATCU) ("Alta Copper" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the previously announced non-brokered private placement with Nascent Exploration Pty. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortescue Ltd. (the "Private Placement").A total of 2,941,176 common shares (the "Common Shares") were issued at a price of Cdn$0.51 for gross proceeds of Cdn$1,500,000. The Common Shares issued will be subject to a mandatory four-month and one day hold period, in accordance with applicable securities law.Giulio T. Bonifacio, Executive Chair and CEO, commented: "The proceeds from the private placement provide the necessary working capital ahead of the commencement of drilling, while minimizing dilution on favorable terms at a price well above our current share price. We continue to make very good progress toward securing the required approvals from both the Ministry of Energy and Mines and the local community which will set the stage for the next phase in the development of our 100% owned advanced staged Canariaco copper project".The Private Placement remains subject to the final approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange.About Alta CopperAlta Copper is focused on the development of its 100% owned Canariaco advanced staged copper project. Canariaco comprises 91 square km of highly prospective land located 102 km northeast of the City of Chiclayo, Peru, which includes the Canariaco Norte deposit, the Canariaco Sur deposit and the Quebrada Verde prospect, all within a 4 km NE-SW trend in northern Peru's prolific mining district. Canariaco is one of the largest copper deposits in the Americas not held by a major.The Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA"), filed on June 10, 2024 highlights that the Canariaco Norte deposit has a measured and indicated resource containing 9.3 billion pounds of copper; 2.1 million ounces of gold and 60.4 million ounces of silver within 1.1 billion tonnes with a copper equivalent grade of 0.42% and a further 2.4 billion pounds of copper; 520,000 ounces of gold and 16.9 million ounces of silver within 416 million tonnes with a copper equivalent grade of 0.29%. The PEA also highlights that the Canariaco Sur deposit has an inferred resource containing 2.5 billion pounds of copper; 1.3 million ounces gold; 17.6 million ounces of silver and 24 million pounds of molybdenum within 474 million tonnes with a copper equivalent grade of 0.29%.Please refer to the technical report dated June 10, 2024 and titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report on Preliminary Economic Assessment," prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC available on the Company's website and on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca under the Company's profile.Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, plans, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements with respect to the of the Private Placement, the use of proceeds for the Private Placement, the insider participation in the Private Placement and the business plans of the Company, including the drill program. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. Although the Company believes the forward-looking statements in this press release are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations and assumptions in such statements will prove to be correct. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the state of the equity financing markets in Canada and other jurisdictions; the receipt of regulatory approvals; fluctuations in metals prices, the actual results of current development activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; and delays in obtaining approvals or financing. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.On behalf of the Board of Alta Copper Corp."Giulio T. Bonifacio" Executive Chair, CEO and DirectorFor further information please contact:Giulio T. Bonifacio gtbonifacio@ altacopper.com +1 604 318 6760Email:info@ altacopper.com Website: www.altacopper.comX:https://x.com/Alta_CopperLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/altacopper/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AltaCopperCorpInstagram:https://www.instagram.com/altacopper/YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@AltaCopper SOURCE: Alta Copper Corp.
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NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / Andy Frain Services, Inc. recently disclosed that it suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal and protected health information entrusted to Andy Frain Services.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On October 23, 2024, Andy Frain Services became aware of a security incident on its internal network. Upon detection, Andy Frain Services launched an investigation with the assistance of third-party cyber security experts to determine the nature and scope of the incident.The investigation determined that an unauthorized third party gained access to internal systems containing sensitive information. It was determined that the breach was caused by a ransomware attack attributed to the BlackBasta group. On November 19, 2024, BlackBasta claimed responsibility via a dark web Tor site, stating they had exfiltrated 750 GB of data including accounting, human resources, legal, contracts, and payroll information. Andy Frain Services conducted a comprehensive review of the impacted data to determine what information was compromised and identified affected individuals. On May 5, 2025, Andy Frain Services identified persons whose sensitive data was included in the impacted data.On May 10, 2025, Andy Frain Services filed a notice with the Maine Attorney General's Office and started sending out notice letters to the impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who received notice that their personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Andy Frain Services you are likely affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. The firm is a 100% contingency firm - we don't get paid unless you get paid! Please visit us at www.zlk.com for more information. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 17th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
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LONG BEACH, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 /Space Tech Expo USA, the West Coast's premier exhibition and conference for space technology and innovation, returns June 3-4, 2025, to Long Beach, California, marking its 13th edition in the heart of California's thriving space industry.The event brings together thousands of professionals from across the space supply chain to explore trends, discover groundbreaking technologies and drive innovation for the$466.1B industry . The exhibition showcases cutting-edge solutions from technical designers, sub-systems suppliers, manufacturers and components to systems integrators for civil, military and commercial space sectors. 300 exhibiting companies will be represented, from startups to stalwarts, including Nikon SLM Solutions, Deposition Sciences, Lockheed Martin, Benchmark Connector Corp, MarkForged, Space-ng Inc., Northrop Grumman Corp, Element Materials Technology, Fry Steel, AIP Precision Machining and Intlvac Space Simulation."The caliber of speakers at the 2025 Space Tech Expo USA reflects the momentum and maturity of the space industry itself," says Gordon McHattie, Event Director, Space Tech Expo USA. "From governmental leaders and top technologists to pioneers in sustainability and defense, these voices are actively building the frameworks that will support the industry's continued growth, especially resilience of the domestic supply chain. California as the epicenter of the sector provides a unique backdrop to further conversations surrounding the industry." This year's keynote program features diverse thought leaders tackling the industry's most critical topics. Trelynd Bradley, Deputy Director, Innovation & Emerging Technologies, California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development will present "California, Where the Future Takes Lift Off," highlighting the state's leadership in emerging technologies. In "From the Earth to the Moon and Mars: Managing Space Debris in NASA's Operating Environments," NASA's Benjamin Alvin Drew and CisLunar Industries' Lee Steinke will address sustainability in orbit. Finally, "Exploring Our Universe Through Space Technology" brings together Charles D. Norton, Deputy Chief Technologist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Raquel Buscaino, Novel & Exponential Technologies (NExT) Leader, Deloitte to examine the impact of advanced technologies on space exploration.The wider conference agenda explores urgent topics across defense, policy and commercial space. Panels will tackle national security threats, commercial military collaboration, supply chain resilience and the implication of the new administration through sessions like "Countering Threats to National Security" and "Trump 2.0: Key Priorities and Urgent Policies for a Thriving Space Ecosystem." Speakers from the National Reconnaissance Office, Aerospace Industries Association, The Planetary Society, SpaceWERX and others will weigh in on critical developments shaping the future of the industry and America's position in the new global space race. Star Trek actor Garrett Wang along with television producer Rod Roddenberry and executives from Cislunar Industries, The Aerospace Corporation, Territory Studio and NASA's JPL StoryLab will explore how the synergistic relationship between artistic imagination, technological innovation and reality can be leveraged to accelerate space exploration, inspiring future generations to dream bigger and reach further.To be part of the conversation, register to attend atspacetechexpo.com About Space Tech Expo USA Space Tech Expo USA is the West Coast's premier space event, which consists of two days of knowledge sharing and networking alongside a supply chain exhibition. The free-to-attend exhibition will showcase the very latest technology from technical designers, sub-systems suppliers, manufacturers, and components through to systems integrators for civil, military, and commercial space. The event was established in 2012 and is a B2B trade event for aerospace and related industry professionals/government/academia only.About Smarter Shows Smarter Shows Limited. specialize in producing highly focused B2B supply chain exhibitions and technical conferences for the manufacturing and engineering sectors, with a focus on aerospace, automotive and materials industries.About Informa Markets Engineering Informa Markets Engineering is the leading B2B event producer, publisher, and digital media business for the world's $3-trillion advanced, technology-based manufacturing industry. Our print and electronic products deliver trusted information to the engineering market and leverage our proprietary 1.3-million-name database to connect suppliers with buyers and purchase influencers. We produce more than 50 events and conferences in a dozen countries, connecting manufacturing professionals from around the globe. The Engineering portfolio is organized by Informa Markets, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LON:INF), the world's leading exhibitions organizer that brings a diverse range of specialist markets to life, unlocking opportunities and helping them to thrive 365 days of the year. For more information, please visitwww.informamarkets.com Media Contact Informa Markets Engineering PR EngineeringPR@ informa.com SOURCE: INFORMA MARKETS - ENGINEERING
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COVINGTON, LA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Defending allegations of computer-aided solicitation of a minor is among the most complex and high-stakes challenges in Louisiana criminal law today, according to seasoned criminal defenseattorney Michael Bradley . Given the state's harsh penalties and the life-altering consequences of a conviction, Bradley emphasizes that experienced, strategic defense is essential when facing such serious charges.Louisiana Revised Statute 14:81.3 makes it a felony offense to use electronic communication - such as texts, chats, emails, or social media messages - to solicit a minor under 17 years of age for sexual purposes or the production of explicit material. According to Bradley, "The penalties are severe: even a first-time conviction can mean two to seven years in prison, fines of up to $10,000, and mandatory sex offender registration." He further notes that aggravated circumstances, such as actual intent to meet the minor or prior convictions, can escalate sentences to as much as twenty years without parole, probation, or the benefit of suspension.Bradley stresses that the complexity of these cases lies not just in the evidence but in the assumptions the public and prosecution often bring to the table. "It's easy to jump to conclusions based on chat transcripts or online interactions, but the law demands more than suspicion; it requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt," Bradley explains. He points out that closely examining the alleged communications is one of the first critical steps in any defense strategy. Many cases involve ambiguous, misleading, or even fabricated messages that do not establish criminal intent. "Intent is key," Bradley states. "If the messages are vague, non-explicit, or open to innocent interpretation, that's a serious weakness in the state's case." Another area that Bradley consistently challenges is the issue of identity. He notes prosecutors often lean heavily on IP addresses or device ownership to tie a defendant to criminal activity. "In reality, access to a computer or an account doesn't necessarily prove the person on trial was behind the keyboard," he says. Bradley emphasizes the need for forensic analysis to test whether the digital evidence truly identifies the accused, or whether there may have been unauthorized access, hacking, or simple misidentification.Entrapment also frequently arises as a defense in these cases, especially when police officers or agents pose as minors online. "Law enforcement has every right to investigate crime, but they cannot manufacture it," Bradley argues. "If the government's actions went beyond providing an opportunity and instead pressured or induced someone into committing an offense they otherwise would not have, that's entrapment, and it's a strong defense under Louisiana law." Bradley also highlights the importance of ensuring that constitutional protections are not overlooked. He notes that sting operations, searches, and seizures of electronic devices must be carried out in strict compliance with constitutional standards. "I make it a priority to scrutinize every warrant, every search, and every seizure," he says. "If the police cut corners or violated a client's Fourth Amendment rights, we fight to have that evidence suppressed." Addressing another aspect of these cases, Bradley acknowledges that while Louisiana law does not allow a mistaken belief about a minor's age to serve as a complete defense, it can be a mitigating factor at sentencing. "If there's credible evidence that the accused reasonably believed the person was over 17, that can significantly impact plea negotiations or sentencing outcomes," he explains.Given the profound stigma and lasting consequences associated with a conviction for online solicitation, Bradley warns against underestimating the stakes. "Even the accusation alone can damage a person's life beyond repair," he says. "That's why a strong, discreet, and relentless defense is critical from the moment an investigation begins." Bradley's nearly two decades of courtroom experience have taught him that the key to success in these cases lies in thorough preparation, technical expertise, and unwavering advocacy. "Every case deserves a full investigation, not just by the police, but by the defense," he asserts. "By challenging weak evidence, exposing constitutional violations, and holding the state to its burden of proof, we can protect clients' futures even in the face of serious allegations." Michael Bradleyoffers a steady hand, a sharp legal mind, and a deep commitment to securing the most favorable results for individuals facing charges under Louisiana's computer-aided solicitation laws.CONTACT:Attorney Michael Bradley:Email: mbradley@ baslawgroup.com SOURCE: Michael Bradley
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KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / Cropmate Berhad("Cropmate" or the "Company"), a key player in the conventional and specialty fertiliser manufacturing industry in Malaysia,announced its financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2025 ("Q1 FY2025"), reporting robust growth in revenue and profitability with 60.9% growth in Profit Before Tax ("PBT"). This marks the Company's maiden quarterly report since its listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad on 5 December 2024.For Q1 FY2025, Cropmate posted revenue of RM48.6 million, representing a 34.6% increase from RM36.1 million recorded in the preceding quarter. The revenue growth was primarily driven by higher sales volume, particularly from the oil palm plantations and durian orchards.The Company also registered a 60.9% surge in PBT to RM5.0 million in Q1 FY2025, compared to RM3.1 million in Q4 FY2024. The strong performance was attributed to improved sales and a more favourable product mix with higher gross profit margin. As a result, the gross profit margin rose to 19.1%, up from 15.6% in Q4 FY2024, reflecting a growth of 22.4%.98.7% of Cropmate's revenue was contributed by domestic sales, with the balance coming from exports to markets including Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.Managing Director of Cropmate Berhad, Mr. Lee Chin YokManaging Director of Cropmate Berhad, Mr. Lee Chin Yok, commented, "Our first quarterly performance in financial year 2025 reflects the resilience of our business and the growing demand for high-quality fertilisers. As we move forward, we remain committed to scaling our operations, enhancing product innovation, and delivering long-term value to all stakeholders." As at 31 March 2025, the Group maintained a solid financial position with cash and bank balances of RM7.2 million and short-term investments of RM40.3 million. Net assets per share stood at RM0.12 Out of the RM42.0 million raised from the Company's IPO, RM22.3 million has been utilised to date, mainly for working capital, capital expenditure, and listing-related expenses. The Company is progressing with its planned acquisition of Factory Lots 8949 and 8950, which forms part of its strategic expansion initiatives.Looking ahead, Cropmate remains cautiously optimistic. "While we are pleased with the momentum, we remain mindful of the macroeconomic landscape and external headwinds affecting the agriculture sector. Nevertheless, our fundamentals remain strong, and we are well-prepared to navigate challenges with resilience and agility." Mr. Lee added.About Cropmate Berhad ("Cropmate")Founded in 2018, Cropmate Berhad is an established fertiliser manufacturer and supplier in Malaysia, specialising in the formulation and blending of conventional and specialty fertilisers. With a focus on innovation and sustainability, Cropmate offers a wide range of products designed to enhance agricultural productivity, including compacted and blended fertilisers, as well as semi-organic, organic, and liquid fertilisers. Led by industry veterans with decades of experience, Cropmate is committed to supporting farmers in improving crop yield and quality. As the first pure-play fertiliser company listed on Bursa Malaysia, Cropmate continues to advance its mission of contributing to the growth and sustainability of the agricultural sector.For more information, visit https://www.cropmate.com.my/ For more information, please contact:Jazmin WanEmail: j.wan@ swanconsultancy.biz William Yeo Email:w.yeo@ swanconsultancy.biz SOURCE: Cropmate Berhad
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ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / Barton Gold Holdings Limited (ASX:BGD) (Barton or the Company) advises that the attached announcement has been released to the market.A copy of this announcement can be accessed on the ASX website, the investor section of Barton's website, or directly by clicking here.Authorised by the Managing Director of Barton Gold Holdings Limited.For further information, please contact:Alexander ScanlonManaging Directora.scanlon@bartongold.com.au+61 425 226 649Jade CookCompany Secretarycosec@ bartongold.com.au+61 8 9322 1587About Barton Gold Barton Gold is an ASX, OTCQB and Frankfurt Stock Exchange listed Australian gold developer targeting future gold production of 150,000ozpa with 1.7Moz Au & 3.1Moz Ag JORC Mineral Resources (64.0Mt @ 0.83 g/t Au), brownfield mines, and 100% ownership of the region's only gold mill in the renowned Gawler Craton of South Australia.*Competent Persons Statement & Previously Reported Information The information in this announcement that relates to the historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources as listed in the table below is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by the Competent Person whose name appears in the same row, who is an employee of or independent consultant to the Company and is a Member or Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy ( AusIMM ), Australian Institute of Geoscientists ( AIG ) or a Recognised Professional Organisation (RPO). Each person named in the table below has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity which he has undertaken to quality as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012 (JORC).ActivityCompetent PersonMembershipStatusTarcoola Mineral Resource (Stockpiles)Dr Andrew Fowler (Consultant)AusIMMMemberTarcoola Mineral Resource (Perseverance Mine)Mr Ian Taylor (Consultant)AusIMMFellowTarcoola Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021)Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant)AIGMemberTarcoola Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021)Mr Marc Twining (Employee)AusIMMMemberTunkillia Exploration Results (until 15 Nov 2021)Mr Colin Skidmore (Consultant)AIGMemberTunkillia Exploration Results (after 15 Nov 2021)Mr Marc Twining (Employee)AusIMMMemberTunkillia Mineral ResourceMr Ian Taylor (Consultant)AusIMMFellowChallenger Mineral ResourceMr Dale Sims (Consultant)AusIMM / AIGFellow / MemberThe information relating to historic Exploration Results and Mineral Resources in this announcement is extracted from the Company's Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 or as otherwise noted in this announcement, available from the Company's website at www.bartongold.com.au or on the ASX website www.asx.com.au . The Company confirms that it is not aware of any new information or data that materially affects the Exploration Results and Mineral Resource information included in previous announcements and, in the case of estimates of Mineral Resources, that all material assumptions and technical parameters underpinning the estimates, and any production targets and forecast financial information derived from the production targets, continue to apply and have not materially changed. The Company confirms that the form and context in which the applicable Competent Persons' findings are presented have not been materially modified from the previous announcements.Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This document may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "expect", "target" and "intend" and statements than an event or result "may", "will", "should", "would", "could", or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. Forward-looking information is subject to business, legal and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, risks relating to property interests, the global economic climate, commodity prices, sovereign and legal risks, and environmental risks. Forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and opinions at the date the statements are made. Barton undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements for events or circumstances that occur subsequent to such dates or to update or keep current any of the information contained herein. Any estimates or projections as to events that may occur in the future (including projections of revenue, expense, net income and performance) are based upon the best judgment of Barton from information available as of the date of this document. There is no guarantee that any of these estimates or projections will be achieved. Actual results will vary from the projections and such variations may be material. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied upon as, a promise or representation as to the past or future. Any reliance placed by the reader on this document, or on any forward-looking statement contained in or referred to in this document will be solely at the readers own risk, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.* Refer to Barton Prospectus dated 14 May 2021 and ASX announcement dated 4 March 2025. Total Barton JORC (2012) Mineral Resources include 909koz Au (30.8Mt @ 0.92 g/t Au) in Indicated category and 799koz Au (33.2Mt @ 0.75 g/t Au) in Inferred category, and 3,070koz Ag (34.5Mt @ 2.80 g/t Ag) in Inferred category as a subset of Tunkillia gold JORC (2012) Mineral Resources.SOURCE: Barton Gold Holdings Limited
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Developed by Binaural Technologies, Genius Wave Emerges as the Premier Gamma Brainwave Audio Program of 2025, Backed by Neuroscience to Sharpen Memory, Elevate Focus, and Reignite Creativity NaturallyBALTIMORE, MD / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / In today's fast-paced world, where distractions abound and mental clarity often feels out of reach, individuals are increasingly seeking solutions to enhance their cognitive abilities. One such innovative product that has gained attention is theGenius Waveby Binaural Technologies. Promising to revitalize brain power and unlock creativity, Genius Wave offers a unique approach to mental enhancement through audio stimulation. This research article delves deep into the workings, benefits, and user experiences associated with Genius Wave, providing a thorough understanding of what this product entails and how it can transform your cognitive landscape. As we explore the ins and outs of Genius Wave, we aim to equip you with the information necessary to make an informed decision about investing in your mental fitness and creativity. Whether you are a student striving for academic excellence, a professional looking to boost productivity, or simply someone eager to regain the creativity of your youth, the Genius Wave may be the key to unlocking your hidden potential.What is Genius Wave?Genius Wave is an audio series designed to enhance cognitive function and creativity through sound waves. This product leverages the power of auditory stimulation to facilitate brainwave entrainment, a process where external rhythms influence the brain's electrical activity. By listening to the carefully crafted audio tracks included in the Genius Wave series, users can tap into various brain states associated with heightened focus, relaxation, and creativity.The audio series is structured to cater to different mental needs, whether it's boosting creativity, improving memory retention, or enhancing overall mental clarity. Users can access the program instantly after purchase, receiving immediate guidance to start their journey toward improved cognitive performance. The approach behind Genius Wave is grounded in scientific research that highlights the significant impact of sound on brain function, making it a modern solution for anyone looking to enhance their mental capabilities.The creators of Genius Wave emphasize a holistic approach to brain health, combining neuroscience with practical audio techniques to foster an environment conducive to creativity and productivity. With the promise of easy integration into daily routines, Genius Wave caters to busy individuals seeking effective and accessible ways to harness their mental potential.Access the brain-enhancing audio that's changing lives - order now.How Does Genius Wave Work?At the core of Genius Wave's effectiveness is the principle of brainwave entrainment, which utilizes specific auditory stimuli to synchronize brain activity with desired mental states. When users listen to the Genius Wave audio tracks, they are exposed to a blend of binaural beats and isochronic tones, which are scientifically designed to promote various cognitive states.Binaural beats involve playing two slightly different frequencies in each ear, which the brain perceives as a single, new frequency. This phenomenon encourages the brain to align its own electrical activity with the frequency of the beats, resulting in a shift to a desired brainwave state-whether that's alpha waves for relaxation, beta waves for concentration, or theta waves for creativity. Isochronic tones, on the other hand, utilize single tones that turn on and off at regular intervals and are equally effective in guiding brainwave activity.The Genius Wave audio series is meticulously crafted to ensure that listeners can easily transition into these brainwave states, promoting enhanced cognitive functions such as improved focus, creativity, and memory. Users report feeling more engaged and inspired after just a few listening sessions, which underscores the effectiveness of the audio tracks.In addition to the immediate cognitive benefits, the long-term use of Genius Wave can potentially lead to permanent shifts in brain function, allowing users to maintain higher levels of creativity and cognitive performance even when not actively listening. This capability makes Genius Wave not just a temporary fix but a valuable tool for ongoing mental enhancement.The Benefits of Genius WaveGenius Wave offers an array of benefits that cater to diverse mental and emotional needs. One of the primary advantages is the enhancement of creativity. Regular use of the audio series can help users break through mental blocks, fostering a mindset conducive to innovative thinking and problem-solving. This is particularly beneficial for artists, writers, and professionals in creative fields who often face the challenge of maintaining inspiration.Additionally, Genius Wave promotes improved focus and concentration. Many users report a significant increase in their ability to concentrate on tasks for extended periods, making it an invaluable tool for students and professionals alike. This heightened focus is essential in today's distraction-heavy environment, where maintaining attention can be a formidable challenge.Another key benefit is stress reduction. The relaxation-inducing properties of the audio tracks can help lower anxiety levels, leading to a calmer mental state. This not only enhances cognitive performance but also contributes to overall well-being. By fostering a relaxed state of mind, Genius Wave can help users approach tasks with a clear and balanced perspective.Furthermore, the program is designed to be user-friendly, making it accessible for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. With instant access and no special equipment required - just a pair of headphones - users can easily incorporate Genius Wave into their daily routines. This flexibility empowers individuals to take control of their cognitive health and creativity on their terms.Pros and Cons of Genius WaveAs with any product, Genius Wave comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages that potential users should consider before making a purchase.Pros:Enhanced Creativity: Many users experience a boost in creative thinking, making it easier to generate new ideas and solutions.Improved Focus: The audio tracks help users concentrate for longer periods, which is beneficial for studying or working on complex tasks.Stress Relief: Users report feeling more relaxed, which can contribute to lower anxiety levels and improved mental health.Easy to Use: The product is user-friendly and can be easily integrated into daily life, requiring only headphones and a device to play the audio.Instant Access%3
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Nominations are open now in five states, and finalists will be invited to pitch their businesses to a panel of judges for a chance to winINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / Lendistry announces today that nominations are open for its 2025 Small Biz Shot Clock Contest, which will be held in Indianapolis on Friday, July 18th during the WNBA All Star Weekend. With time counting down on the shot clock, finalists selected from the nominees will pitch their existing businesses to a panel of judges. The first-place winner will receive $5,000 and two runners-up will receive $2,000. The panel will include small business experts and WNBA personalities."You can't win if you don't take every shot that comes your way, and we're excited to provide this opportunity for women, who have been consistently leading business formation since 2019," says Lendistry CEO and panel judge, Everett K. Sands. "I advise our finalists to show us their impact and innovation, and show up ready to impress." Lendistry has been the Official Small Business Lender of the WNBA Los Angeles Sparks since 2024. Azura Stevens, Sparks forward-center and Lendistry brand ambassador, will join the panel of judges, drawing on her family experience in business ownership.Eligible businesses must be woman-owned, in operation for at least two years, and located in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, or Kentucky. Read the official rules and nominate a business by June 13 atwww.smallbizshotclock.com About LendistryLendistry ( lendistry.com) is a tech-enabled small businesses lender, grant administrator for private and public agencies, and a trusted resource for undercapitalized entrepreneurs including people of color, veterans, and those in rural communities. Founded in 2015, Lendistry has used technology and community partnerships to deploy over $10 billion in its first ten years. Lendistry was recently named the winner of the LA Area Chamber of Commerce Corporate Leadership Award, BankRate's Best Minority-Led Business Lender, and one of American Banker's Best Places to Work in Fintech. Lendistry has both Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Community Development Entity (CDE) certifications, is an SBA Preferred Lender and is now the #2 non-bank SBA 7(a) lender in the country. In collaboration with The Center by Lendistry, a nonprofit business education organization, Lendistry helps business owners achieve their goals and prepare to scale.Contact InformationKate KearnsSr. Communications Managercommunications@ lendistry.com SOURCE: Lendistry
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / If you suffered a loss on your Compass Group Diversified Holdings, LLC (NYSE:CODI) investment and want to learn about a potential recovery under the federal securities laws, follow the link below for more information:or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. via email at jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com or call (212) 363-7500 to speak to our team of experienced shareholder advocates.THE LAWSUIT: A class action securities lawsuit was filed against Compass Group Diversified Holdings, LLC that seeks to recover losses of shareholders who were adversely affected by alleged securities fraud between May 1, 2024 and May 7, 2025.CASE DETAILS: According to the complaint, throughout the class period, defendants failed to disclose to investors that Compass lacked effective internal controls over its financial reporting; that Compass failed to disclose critical information regarding Lugano Holding, Inc. ("Lugano") which kept undisclosed financing arrangements and exhibited irregularities in its sales, cost of sales, inventory and accounts receivable; and that, as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about the Company's financial reporting were materially misleading.The truth emerged on May 7, 2025, after the market closed, the Company announced that its financial statements for fiscal 2024 could no longer be relied upon due to an ongoing internal investigation into its subsidiary, Lugano. Specifically, Compass reported that its Audit Committee launched an investigation over "concerns about how Lugano was potentially financing inventory." The Company also announced that it intends to delay the filing of its first quarter 2025 Form 10-Q. Further, effective May 7, 2025, Lugano's founder and CEO, Moti Ferder, resigned from Lugano and will not receive any severance compensation.Following this news, the price of Compass' common stock declined dramatically. From a closing market price of $17.25 per share on May 7, 2025 to $6.55 per share on May 8, 2025.WHAT'S NEXT? If you suffered a loss in Compass Diversified stock during the relevant time frame - even if you still hold your shares - go to https://zlk.com/pslra-1/compass-diversified-lawsuit-submission-form?prid=149668&wire=1&utm_campaign=18 to learn about your rights to seek a recovery. There is no cost or obligation to participate.WHY LEVI & KORSINSKY: Over the past 20 years, Levi & Korsinsky LLP has established itself as a nationally-recognized securities litigation firm that has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. The firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 17th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
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Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc.'s Promotional Products Division is The Nations Leading Supplier of Custom Challenge Coins for Military, Police, EMS, Security Forces and MoreMOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / LogoTags ( www.logotags.com) , a division of fourth-generation Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc., is excited to participate in the 39th Annual Police Security Expo held at the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey from June 24-25, 2025. Hosted by the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, this industry-leading event will feature the latest products, services and technological advances for law enforcement and security professionals. Over 6,000 industry professionals are expected to attend from all over the world, including police chiefs, police department directors, federal agencies, tactical teams, transit police, and many more. Custom Challenge Coin by LogotagsLogoTags will display its extensive range of custom promotional products, such as:Custom challenge coins and military challenge coinsEmbroidered patches for uniformsBottle openers, race medals and award medals, and metal tagsLapel pins, keychains, and silicone braceletsBadges, Commendation Bars, Insignias and More!Custom challenge coins and military challenge coins, which traditionally bear an organization's insignia or logo, have a rich history as symbols of membership and pride. Today, they remain an integral part of police and security department cultures across the nation. Their origins trace back to World War I, when they were used by military units to foster camaraderie and recognize service. Over time, these coins evolved into cherished tokens of achievement across all branches of the armed forces. Today, challenge coins remain an integral part of police and security department cultures nationwide and are used to commemorate milestones, build morale, and strengthen unit identity.LogoTags distinguishes itself with custom challenge coins made of the highest quality brass, with no setup charges, unlimited art changes, and free digital proofs. These unique benefits underscore our commitment to providing exceptional value and service to our customers. "We're delighted to exhibit at the Annual Police Security Expo. LogoTags has a proud history of supporting first responders, and we offer superior custom products that honor their courage and dedication," explains LogoTags Manager Dawn Milanese.Attendees are invited to visit LogoTags at Booth #2036 to review samples and discuss unique customization options with our team. Free design consultations will be available on-site. For more information about this event, visit www.police-security.com More about Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc. and LogoTags, a division of Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc.:The current owners honor their great-grandfather and grandfather who started Ball Chain Manufacturing Co., Inc. (Ball Chain) in a small garage behind their home in the Bronx, New York. The company has been family owned and operated since 1938. Ball Chain is now the world's largest manufacturer of ball chains, seen on military dog tags, ceiling fans, handbags, and light pulls, among many other goods. The company manufactures more than 4 million feet of product per week at its Mount Vernon, New York, factory. Ball Chain is the exclusive supplier of chain to the U.S. Armed Forces for the iconic dog tag ID necklace work by U.S. servicemen and servicewomen (all ball chains are made in the USA). LogoTags, Ball Chain's custom promotional products division, provides custom dog tags, challenge coins, bottle openers, lapel pins, pure silver challenge coins, and metal tags, to name just a few items. LogoTags fabricates custom promotional products at its Mount Vernon, New York, manufacturing facility and works with long-term production partners overseas to bring customers the finest items from across the globe. We put our heart into everything we do.Contact InformationBill TaubnerPresidentbill@ logotags.com 914-720-3164SOURCE: LogoTags
PR-Inside.com: 2025-05-22 14:00:38

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 /Magna Terra Minerals Inc. (the "Company" or "Magna Terra") (TSXV:MTT) is pleased to announce that it has initiated a first phase exploration program on its recently acquired Rocky Brook Project ("Rocky Brook" or the "Project"), located in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick (Figure 1). Ongoing digital compilation of historical exploration data has resulted in the identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend - a 15 kilometre long zone of coincident airborne electromagnetic conductivity and anomalous Cu-Zn-Co rock and soil samples. The Boudreau Brook Trend includes other known occurrences at the Boudreau Brook and Fossil Hill targets, where previous rock grab sampling* has returned 3% Cu and 16.65% Cu and 0.64% Co, respectively as well as highlighting several other coincident geochemical and geophysical targets (Figure 2). Exploration has been initiated on the Project and is currently focused on the collection of ~2,000 B-horizon soil samples, and systematic prospecting and geological mapping over and adjacent to priority targets along the Boudreau Brook Trend.Rocky Brook Project HighlightsThe Project covers a 30-kilometre extent of the Rocky Brook-Millstream Fault system as well as a 40-kilometre extent of favourable California Lake felsic volcanic and sedimentary rocks that are host to the nearby Restigouche, Murray Brook, and Caribou Deposits;Identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend - a 15 kilometre trend of coincident geochemical and geophysical anomalies and historical prospects;Strategically positioned along strike from Kinross-Puma's Lynx Zone gold discovery and adjacent to the past-producing Caribou Mine and Murray Brook base metal deposits;Recent discovery in 2023 of high-grade gold assays from grab samples* assaying up to 5.23 g/t Au over a 400 m area at Fournier Lake;Previous work at the Fossil Hill Zone has discovered high-grade copper-cobalt mineralization with grab samples* assaying up to 16.65% Cu and 0.64% Co;Previous work at the Boudreau Brook prospect has discovered copper mineralization assaying up to 3% Cu;The property covers the Restigouche C-4 and C-5 footwall Cu-rich "feeder" zones where previous historical drilling at the C-4 zone and in hole C-4 that intersected 4.36 m grading 0.2% Cu, 1.6% Pb and 6.74% Zn (from 17.3 to 21.6 m). The best intersection in the C-5 area was reported in hole C-5 that intersected 2.06% Cu and 0.57% Zn over 4.5 m (from 51.9 to 56.4 m);Located in the prolific Bathurst Mining Camp within the top-tier mining jurisdiction of New Brunswick; andYear-round accessibility with road access to the majority of the property."Our recent acquisition of Rocky Brook in the world-class, base and critical metals, Bathurst Mining Camp has positioned us with one of the largest strategic land positions within the camp. Our recent compilation efforts in this data rich environment has already resulted in the identification of the Boudreau Brook Trend. This 15 kilometre long trend of coincident airborne electromagnetic conductivity and anomalous Cu-Zn-Co rock and soil samples has resulted in the immediate initiation of an exploration program to identify additional targets along this trend and to better understand their geological setting to identify priority drill targets. The speed at which we have been able to identify new targets and initiate exploration is a good indication of our ability to drive value in this prolific mining region. This work is initiated in an environment in which other explorers are making discoveries such as Puma's nearby high-grade gold discovery and subsequent recent strategic investment by Kinross. Further, Canadian Copper's advancement of its Murray Brook VMS deposit in concert with its bid to acquire the Caribou Processing Complex highlights the significant prospectivity that remains in this historic camp." ~ Lew Lawrick, President and CEO, Magna Terra Minerals Inc.The Rocky Brook ProjectThe Rocky Brook Project comprises 18,694 hectares in 58 mineral claims making the Company one of the single largest strategic landholders in this historic mining camp (Figure 1). The Rocky Brook Project is located adjacent to and along strike from the Williams Brook Project, owned by Kinross Gold Corporation ("Kinross") and Puma Exploration Inc. ("Puma"), where a zone of high-grade gold mineralization was discovered over broad widths including drill intervals up to 5.55 g/t Au over 50.15 m (refer to Puma's news release dated September 15, 2021). The Project is located adjacent to a 30-kilometre-long section of the Rocky Brook-Millstream fault and associated McIntyre and Ramsay Brook faults; an important structural zone controlling gold mineralization within the region. The Project also covers volcanic and sedimentary rocks that show strong potential to host polymetallic Cu-Co-Pb-Zn-Au-Ag mineralization, adjacent to the past-producing Caribou Mine and the Murray Brook Deposit; the largest undeveloped VMS project in New Brunswick owned by Canadian Copper Inc. (Figure 1).The Bathurst CampThe Bathurst Mining Camp is one of the world's oldest base metal (lead, zinc, copper, gold and silver) mining districts hosting one of Canada's largest volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits, with the past-producing Brunswick No. 12 Mine having operated for 49 years. The Bathurst Mining Camp is host to over 46 mineral deposits, several of which have been mined, including the Brunswick No. 6, Heath Steele, Wedge, Stratmat, Half Mile Lake, Caribou and Murray Brook. A total of 136,643,367 tonnes of ore grading 3.44% Pb, 8.74% Zn, 0.37% Cu, and 102.2 g/t Ag were mined from the Bathurst Mining Camp (McCutcheon and Walker, 2020**).Figure 1: A map showing the location of the Rocky Brook Project, adjacent exploration projects, fault zones, and mineral occurrences.Figure 2: A map showing airborne conductivity with rock and soil copper geochemistry along the Boudreau Brook - Fossil Hill Trend.Qualified Person and Technical NotesThis news release has been reviewed and approved by David A. Copeland, P.Geo., a "Qualified Person", under National Instrument 43-101 - Standard for Disclosure for Mineral Projects.All quoted drill core and rock samples results were compiled from historic assessment and government reports obtained from the government of New Brunswick. The Qualified Person has not completed sufficient work to validate these historic results.* Grab samples are selective by nature and may not represent the true metal content of the mineralized zone.**McCutcheon, S. R., & Walker, J. A. (2020). Great Mining Camps of Canada 8. The Bathurst Mining Camp, New Brunswick, Part 2: Mining History and Contribution
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How One New Mexico Business is Going All-In on the Social ExperienceLAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / In April 2022, New Mexico took a bold step forward, legalizing cannabis for adult use and joining a wave of states embracing this cultural and legal shift. This legislation promised new freedoms, yet for many across New Mexico, that promise comes with a catch: where can they legally and comfortably enjoy it in a social setting? Enter - Monster House!A nice crowd in the loungeA Bold Move for a Bigger VisionTo meet this rising demand for social cannabis spaces, Monster House made a strategic choice: closing its location at Bataan Memorial in Las Cruces and converting the Solano Drive location in Las Cruces to a manufacturing hub to pour its energy into two consumption lounges at 1275 W Picacho Ave in Las Cruces and 412 Mechem Dr. in Ruidoso. "We're not just selling cannabis; we're building a community," says Maggie Marble, co-owner at Monster House. "By focusing on our lounges, we can offer something truly special; a place where everyone is welcome to relax and connect." A Modern Speakeasy for a New EraThink back to the 1920s, when the federal prohibition of alcohol forced drinking underground. Speakeasies (secret bars tucked behind unmarked doors) sprang up as refuges where people could sip a cocktail and share a laugh, defying the law's forced isolation. These spots weren't just about the booze; they were about connection, a middle finger to restriction, and a celebration of community.In an age where cannabis users still face barriers, Monster House is a modern speakeasy: open, legal, and unapologetic. The welcoming, expansive spaces invite people to gather, light up, and unwind.The Lounge Experience: What Sets Monster House ApartMonster House Lounge isn't your average stop-and-go cannabis shop. It's a destination; including a spacious, laid-back environment with cozy seating, and good conversation. Regular events like live music, BINGO, or movie nights bring people together, turning strangers into friends.Across New Mexico, such spaces are a rarity. Cannabis consumption lounges are still a novel concept in the state, making Monster House a trailblazer. "We're filling a void," Marc Gator' Splawn explains. "People want a place to enjoy cannabis legally and socially, and we're proud to be one of the few delivering that." For those who've felt sidelined by restrictive rules, Monster House isn't just convenient, it's essential.See for YourselfAs cannabis culture grows, Monster House lounges remain a steady light; a place where community thrives amid change. Whether you're a medical user seeking solace or a recreational smoker craving company, this is your spot. Visit 1275 W Picacho Ave. in Las Cruces or 412 Mechem Dr. in Ruidoso and step into a world where cannabis meets connection.Check out their upcoming events or just drop by and soak in the atmosphere. Follow Monster House on Instagram or visit https://monsterhousedispensary.com/ for the latest information, sales, and event schedule. At Monster House Lounge, they're not just lighting up, they're bringing people together.Contact InformationMarc SplawnCo-Owner, Monster House Dispensary and Consumption Loungegator@ monsterhousesmoke.com 915-227-4574SOURCE: Monster House Dispensary and Consumption Lounge
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NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2025 / If you suffered a loss on your Ibotta, Inc. (NYSE:IBTA) investment and want to learn about a potential recovery under the federal securities laws, follow the link below for more information:or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. via email at jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com or call (212) 363-7500 to speak to our team of experienced shareholder advocates.THE LAWSUIT: This lawsuit is on behalf of persons or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired publicly traded Ibotta securities pursuant and/or traceable to documents issued in connection with Ibotta's April 18, 2024 initial public offering.CASE DETAILS: According to the filed complaint, defendants made false statements and/or concealed that they did not properly warn investors of the risks concerning Ibotta's contract with The Kroger Co. ("Kroger"). Kroger's contract was at-will, and Ibotta failed to warn investors that a large client could cancel their contract with Ibotta without warning. Despite providing a detailed explanation of the terms of Ibotta's contract with Walmart, there was not a single warning of the at-will nature of Kroger's contract. Rather than disclosing the very real risk of a major client walking away at any time, Ibotta provided boilerplate warnings concerning the importance of maintaining ongoing relationships with their clients.WHAT'S NEXT? If you suffered a loss in Ibotta stock during the relevant time frame - even if you still hold your shares - go to https://zlk.com/pslra-1/ibotta-lawsuit-submission-form?prid=149665&wire=1&utm_campaign=2 to learn about your rights to seek a recovery. There is no cost or obligation to participate.WHY LEVI & KORSINSKY: Over the past 20 years, Levi & Korsinsky LLP has established itself as a nationally-recognized securities litigation firm that has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. The firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 17th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
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The Critical Minerals and ZEO CompanyDALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / United States Antimony Corporation ("USAC," "US Antimony," or the "Company"), (NYSE:UAMY) announced today that senior management is participating in the 25th Annual B. Riley Securities Investor Conference being held at The Ritz-Carlton on May 21-22, 2025, in Marina del Rey, CA.B. Riley Securities will host nearly 200 public companies during a two-day conference and also has a full agenda of fireside chats and topical panel discussions.On behalf of the Company, Gary C. Evans, Chairman and CEO, will deliver a corporate presentation on Thursday, May 22, 2025 and he and Jonathan Miller, Vice President of Investor Relations, will jointly hold specific one-on-one investor institutional meetings throughout the conference dates.About USAC:United States Antimony Corporation and its subsidiaries in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada ("USAC," "U.S. Antimony," the "Company," "Our," "Us," or "We") sell antimony, zeolite, and precious metals primarily in the U.S. and Canada. The Company processes third party ore primarily into antimony oxide, antimony metal, antimony trisulfide, and precious metals at its facilities located in Montana and Mexico. Antimony oxide is used to form a flame-retardant system for plastics, rubber, fiberglass, textile goods, paints, coatings, and paper, as a color fastener in paint, and as a phosphorescent agent in fluorescent light bulbs. Antimony metal is used in bearings, storage batteries, and ordnance. Antimony trisulfide is used as a primer in ammunition. The Company also recovers precious metals, primarily gold and silver, at its Montana facility from third party ore. At its Bear River Zeolite ("BRZ") facility located in Idaho, the Company mines and processes zeolite, a group of industrial minerals used in water filtration, sewage treatment, nuclear waste and other environmental cleanup, odor control, gas separation, animal nutrition, soil amendment and fertilizer, and other miscellaneous applications. The Company acquired mining claims and leases located in Alaska and Ontario, Canada and leased a metals concentration facility in Montana that could expand its operations as well as its product offerings.Forward-Looking Statements:Readers should note that, in addition to the historical information contained herein, this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of, and intended to be covered by, the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the Company including matters related to the Company's operations, pending contracts and future revenues, financial performance and profitability, ability to execute on its increased production and installation schedules for planned capital expenditures, and the size of forecasted deposits. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties. In addition, other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company's most recent filings, including Form 10-K and Form 10-Q with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "outlook," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "pro forma," and other similar words and expressions. Forward- looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which change over time. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Because forward-looking statements are subject to assumptions and uncertainties, actual results or future events could differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements and future results could differ materially from historical performance.Contact:United States Antimony Corp.4438 W. Lovers Lane, Unit 100Dallas, TX 75209Jonathan Miller, VP, Investor RelationsE-Mail: Jmiller@ usantimony.com Phone: 406-606-4117SOURCE: United States Antimony Corp.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / May 22, 2025 / investors in UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) saw the price of their shares crater as much as $59.13 (-19%) after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is under criminal investigation for possible Medicare fraud. This latest development comes on the heels of the filing of a securities class action suit against UnitedHealth, and just one day after its CEO Andrew Witty stepped down and the company pulled its 2025 guidance which the company issued less than one month ago.Hagens Berman is investigating the securities fraud claims alleged in the pending suit and urges UnitedHealth investors who suffered substantial losses to submit your losses now. The firm also encourages persons with knowledge who may be able to assist in the investigation to contact its attorneys.Class Period: Dec. 3, 2024 - Apr. 16, 2025Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 7, 2025Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/unh Contact the Firm Now:UNH@ hbsslaw.com844-916-0895 The Wall Street Journal "UnitedHealth Group Is Under Criminal Investigation for Possible Medicare Fraud":On May 14, 2025 the WSJ reported that, according to people familiar with the matter, the Justice Department is investigating UnitedHealth Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud and that the investigation has been active since at least last summer. The report noted that, "while the exact nature of the potential criminal allegations against UnitedHealth is unclear, the people said the federal investigation is focusing on the company's Medicare Advantage business practices." News of the criminal investigation comes just one day after UnitedHealth announced that it was retracting its already revised April 17 guidance and that the company's CEO Andrew Witty was being replaced by Stephen Hemsley, the current chairman and former CEO of UnitedHealth.The Pending UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) Securities Class Action:Adding to its woes, UnitedHealth Group Inc. is facing a securities class action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The action, Faller v. UnitedHealth Group Inc., et al., No. 1:25-cv-03799, centers on the health care giant's financial outlook for fiscal year 2025.The lawsuit alleges that UnitedHealth misled investors regarding its earnings projections. Initially, on December 3, 2024, the company projected net earnings per share (EPS) of $28.15 to $28.65 and adjusted EPS of $29.50 to $30.00. This guidance was reaffirmed on January 16, 2025. However, on April 17, 2025, the company sharply reduced its forecast to a net EPS of $24.65 to $25.15 and an adjusted EPS of $26.00 to $26.50, citing unexpectedly higher care utilization among its Medicare Advantage members. This revision triggered a roughly $170 billion decline in UnitedHealth's market value on the same day, with shares plummeting 22%.The lawsuit further contends that the revised guidance followed years of an alleged corporate strategy by UnitedHealth to deny health coverage to inflate profits and its stock price. The plaintiff claims this strategy drew increased scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers, fueled public discontent, and purportedly contributed to the December 4, 2024, murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth's insurance division. The complaint highlights the intense public reaction to Mr. Thompson's death, suggesting widespread animosity towards the company's practices.According to the lawsuit, this heightened regulatory and public pressure compelled UnitedHealth to alter its practices regarding coverage denials. Despite this alleged shift, the company proceeded to reiterate its initial, now-contested, financial guidance. The lawsuit argues this reiteration was reckless and unrealistic given the purported changes in the company's operational strategies.The abrupt reversal in guidance on April 17th caught investors off guard. Following the announcement, at least one analyst reportedly suggested that the lowered utilization management, potentially driven by the aforementioned scrutiny, could be a factor in the increased care utilization cited by UnitedHealth.The lawsuit seeks to represent investors who purchased or acquired UnitedHealth Group stock between December 3, 2024, and May 13, 2025, and alleges violations of federal securities laws.Hagens Berman's InvestigationShareholder rights firm Hagens Berman is investigating the alleged claims."The latest news of a DOJ investigation and the CEO's departure is disturbing and raises serious questions about the information flow from UnitedHealth to the market," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.If you invested in UnitedHealth and have substantial losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, submit your losses now If you'd like more information and answers to frequently asked questions about the UnitedHealth Group case and our investigation, read more Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding UnitedHealth should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email UNH@ hbsslaw.com # # #About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a global plaintiffs' rights complex litigation firm focusing on corporate accountability. The firm is home to a robust practice and represents investors as well as whistleblowers, workers, consumers and others in cases achieving real results for those harmed by corporate negligence and other wrongdoings. Hagens Berman's team has secured more than $2.9 billion in this area of law. More about the firm and its successes can be found at hbsslaw.com . Follow the firm for updates and news at @ClassActionLaw.Contact:Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895SOURCE: Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP
The Caine Prize for African Writing has made a significant announcement, naming seven Nigerian writers among the best contributors of the past 25 years.

This marks a transition from its traditional annual award to a special edition titled the Best of Caine Award, a move that will pique the interest of literary enthusiasts.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that seven Nigerians have won the prestigious prize since its inception in 2000. Helon Habila, Irenosen Okojie, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Rotimi Babatunde, Tope Folarin, EC Osondu, and Segun Afolabi.

These seven Nigerian past winners are among the previous 25 winners of the Caine Prize for African Writing, which the Prize body named to honour its 25th anniversary.

Explaining the concept behind the 2025 edition, the body, in a statement on their website said, In honour of this milestone year, the Prize will be replacing its traditional annual prize cycle with the Best of Caine Award, whereby three judges will decide on the best short story to have won the Caine Prize for African Writing in its 25 years (2000  2024).

2025 Honourees

The names of previous winners shortlisted by the Caine Prize for African Writing are as follows;

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Leila Aboulela (Sudan) for The Museum

Helon Habila (Nigeria) for Love Poems

Binyavanga Wainaina (Kenya) for Discovering Home

Yvonne Owuor (Kenya) for Weight of Whispers

Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe) for Seventh Street Alchemy

Segun Afolabi (Nigeria) for Monday Morning

Mary Watson (South Africa) for Jungfrau

Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda) for Jambula Tree

Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa) for Poison

EC Osondu (Nigeria) for Waiting

Olufemi Terry (Sierra Leone) for Stickfighting Days

NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe) for Hitting Budapest

Rotimi Babatunde (Nigeria) for Bombays Republic

Tope Folarin (Nigeria) for Miracle

Okwiri Oduor (Kenya) for My Fathers Head

Namwali Serpell (Zambia) for The Sack

Lidudumalingani (South Africa) for Memories We Lost

Bushra al-Fadil (Sudan) for The Story of the Girl whose Birds Flew Away

Makena Onjerika (Kenya) for Fanta Blackcurrant

Lesley Nneka Arimah (Nigeria) for Skinned

Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria) for Grace Jones

Meron Hadero (Ethiopia) for The Street Sweep

Idza Luhumyo (Kenya) for Five Years Next Sunday

Mame Bougouma Diene and Woppa Diallo (Senegal) for A Soul of Small Places

Nadia Davids (South Africa) for Bridling

According to the writing prize organisers, the Caine Prize has recognised over 120 talented authors since its inception in 2000 through its shortlist, winners, annual award, and 10,000 prize fund.

READ ALSO: Books from Nigeria dominate 2025 BCA African Business Book of the Year shortlist

As the Caine Prize for African Writing marks its 25th anniversary, it is a moment to reflect on its significant impact on African literature. The Prize has championed these writers and the works of many more contemporary, award-winning African authors, contributing to the continents rich and diverse literary canon.

As part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, the Prize will also collaborate with a range of partners to deliver online and in-person events across the continent and diaspora, spotlighting our distinguished alumni and their continued contribution to the literary canon, the body wrote.

Caine Prize for African Writing

The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual prize for African creative writing. It is awarded for a short story by an African writer published in English. The award is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, the former Chairman of Booker Plc and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years.

The criteria for African short stories to be considered include stories 3,000 to 10,000 words long and published in English. Also, to be considered for the Caine Prize for African Writing, the writer must be a national of or born in an African country or have a parent who is African by birth or nationality.

Wole Soyinka and J.M. Coetzee, the African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, are Patrons of the Caine Prize.

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Jimmy Yekini-Goloba has written a pre-action protocol memorandum to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, seeking to reverse the installation of Isa Shekoni-Faronbi as Osolo of Isolo.

Mr Yekini-Goloba, a British-trained optician from the Alagbeji Royal Family, emerged as Osolo of Isolo elect in September 2024 among fourteen other royal contenders.

Mr Yekini-Golobas emergence comes forty years after the family last produced an Osolo, Oba Disu Akanni Olayiwola Faronbi, who died on 30 June 1984.

The traditional stool of the Osolo of Isolo became vacant following the death of Oba Kabiru Ajani Adelaja Agbabiaka on 10 April 2024.

In a memorandum written by his lawyer, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday, Mr Yekini-Goloba said he was the Oba-elect for the stool.

Mr Fagbohun said his client was elected from a pool of nominated candidates from the ruling house following an invitation by the Oshodi-Isolo Local Government.

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Despite a pending court case challenging the succession process, he accused the state government of installing Mr Shekoni-Faronbi.

Mr Yekini-Golobas lawyer stated that the local government authorities ratified his clients nomination and confirmed it by the Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.

Mr Fagbohun, however, stated that a faction led by Taoridi Faronbi filed a lawsuit, no. ID/12095GCM/2024, challenging his clients emergence as Oba-elect.

Mr Fagbohun noted that the suit sought to restrain Mr Sanwo-Olu and other authorities from installing a new Osolo of Isolo until the court decided the matter.

He noted that while Mr Faronbis suit remained pending, the state government installed Mr Shekoni-Faronbi as the new monarch.

Mr Fagbohun said the installed monarch neither participated in the selection process nor was involved in the subsequent lawsuit.

Demands

Mr Yekini-Golobas lawyer described Mr Shekoni-Faronbis installation as violating the doctrine of lis pendens.

He said the installation prohibits actions that could prejudice ongoing judicial proceedings.

It undermines the peaceful atmosphere in Isolo and disregards the pending lawsuit, which is yet to be resolved, he said.

Mr Fagbohun disclosed that his client is seeking court orders, including declaring him the rightful candidate for the throne.

He said his client also sought an order to nullify Mr Shekoni-Faronbis installation.

The lawyer added that his client is also seeking the retrieval of all paraphernalia of office from Mr Shekoni-Faronbi and a directive for the state government to finalise his installation.

Mr Fagbohun added that his client is willing to resolve the dispute amicably, proposing that the state government reverse the installation and crown him as the legitimate Osolo of Isolo.

He asked the governor to take administrative measures to ensure peace, order, and equity in the Isolo kingdom.

However, Adebayo Kehinde, the spokesperson for the Lagos State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, declined to comment when contacted.

He said, I cant speak on the issue; I am sorry.

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Nigerias losses due to crude oil theft are more significant than those of some other OPEC members, the Chairman Senate Ad hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft, Ned Nwoko, has said.

The senator made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.

Mr Nwoko emphasised the issues detrimental impact, including economic damage, environmental destruction, and its impact on host communities.

He also said that it was weakening the Naira, and depriving the nation of vital revenue needed for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and social development.

According to the senator, who represents Delta North Senatorial District, the scale of this theft is staggering, with reports indicating losses of over 200,000 barrels per day.

He said that the ad hoc committee on crude oil theft, which he chaired, recently held a two-day public hearing on the rampant theft of crude oil through illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism, and systemic gaps in the regulation and surveillance of the nations petroleum resources.

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He said the public hearing was a pivotal step in addressing one of the nations most pressing challenges.

Nigeria loses billions of dollars annually to crude oil theft. This is severely undermining our economy, weakening the Naira, and depriving the nation of vital revenue needed for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and social development. The scale of this theft is staggering, with reports indicating losses of over 200,000 barrels per day more than some OPEC member nations produce.

This criminal enterprise fuels corruption, funds illegal activities, and devastates our environment through spills and pollution. The public hearing was not just another talk shop; it was a decisive platform to uncover the root causes of crude oil theft, bunkering, and pipeline vandalism, he said.

He explained that it was a platform to evaluate the effectiveness of existing surveillance, monitoring, and enforcement mechanisms and identify regulatory and legislative gaps that enable these crimes to thrive.

It was also to engage stakeholders, security agencies, host communities, oil companies, regulators, and experts to proffer actionable solutions; and strengthen legal frameworks to ensure stricter penalties and more efficient prosecution of offenders, he said.

Mr Nwoko noted that Nigerias survival depended on how it tackled the menace.

According to him, the nation cannot continue to haemorrhage resources while the people suffer. The future of Nigerias economy and the well-being of generations unborn depend on the actions taken today.

The Senate and the National Assembly are committed to passing laws that will strengthen regulatory agencies; NUPRC, NEITI, NSA among others, as well as enhance community engagement and alternative livelihoods for Niger Delta youth, he added.

We are also committed to improving inter-agency collaboration between the military, police, NSCDC, and private security firms and enforcing transparency in crude oil lifting and metering processes.

He disclosed that the ad-hoc committee had commenced work in earnest since its inception by engaging forensic experts to trace and provide information on crude oil theft from the point of lifting to sales and bank transactions.

This is truly yielding great results, and the ad-hoc committee will not hesitate to publish its findings in due time.

Together, we can reclaim Nigerias stolen wealth, secure our energy infrastructure, and restore confidence in the petroleum sector, he added.

(NAN)

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Two candidates in the last presidential election, Peter Obi and Omoyele Sowore, have thrown jibes at each other, calling each other derogatory names.

None of the two politicians mentioned each others names in their posts on X, on Thursday, but a review of their posts and the history behind them indicated who they were referring to.

Mr Obi threw the first salvo when he described Mr Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, as a blackmailer and self-proclaimed  blackmailer-in-chief in response to a story published by Sahara Reporters.

The platform had claimed that Mr Obis recent meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Rome was to allow the opposition leader to plead with the president on behalf of Fidelity Bank, a bank Mr Obi once led.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Obi and President Tinubu met coincidentally at a Vatican event for Pope Leo XIV.

In his post on X, Mr Obi denied seeking a meeting with Mr Tinubu to discuss Fidelity Bank. The former Anambra State governor said the only time he encountered the president was in a brief moment during the inauguration mass of Pope Leo XIV at Saint Peters Basilica.

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One such individual, whose entire life revolves around blackmail, falsely claimed that I went to Rome to have a private meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu regarding a purported 225 billion debt crisis involving Fidelity Bank. These claims are not only baseless, malicious, but entirely false, Mr Obi wrote.

Let me categorically state that I have never sought an audience with, nor met, President Tinubu since he assumed office, except about 1 minute meeting at the arena of Saint Peters Basilica Rome during the inauguration Mass of Pope Leo XIV, where I was seated behind, and had to respectfully greet him, and other dignitaries present, he added.

In his response about two hours later, Mr Sowore described Mr Obi as a Money Launderer-In-Chief in reference to an exclusive PREMIUM TIMES story that showed that Mr Obi violated Nigerian laws in his business dealings as the owner of NEXT. The revelation was part of the Pandora Papers, a global collaboration between investigative newsrooms and journalists that PREMIUM TIMES was part of.

Mr Obi was one of the few Nigerians indicted in the Pandora Papers reporting.

I heard the Money Launderer-In-Chief at Pandora Papers and packaged fraud has fabricated another story this morning about the reason his elder brothers bounced him during his ill-fated visit to Rome, Mr Sowore wrote.

Mr Obi was the candidate of the Labour Party during the 2023 presidential election while Mr Sowore ran under the platform of the African Action Congress (AAC).

As one of the 18 candidates on the ballot in the 2023 election, Mr Sowore finished the race in 16th place with only 14,608 votes, less than half of the 33,953 votes he scored when he contested in 2019.

Mr Obi won over 6.1 million votes in the last presidential election, finishing third behind the winner, Bola Tinubu, and Atiku Abubakar, Nigerias perennial opposition candidate.

While Mr Obi was a member of Nigerias former ruling party, now opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Sowore has been on a different platform with the Nigerian political establishment since the current democratic dispensation.

The duo campaign against corruption, advocate for inclusion of young people in government, and their political campaigns have been driven by a multitude of online followers. In the last election, Mr Obi got endorsements from well-known figures including former president Olusegun Obasanjo, author Chimamanda Adichie, singer Peter PSquare, actress Kate Henshaw and several others.

While Mr Sowore stood against the idea of forming alliance with major Nigerian politicians, Mr Obi is believed to be in talks with other major opposition political parties ahead of the 2027 election.

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A US district court has ordered the forfeiture of $125,000 in cryptocurrency, recovered from three Nigerians, after it was stolen from an American victim.

The judgement was delivered by the Eastern District of Tennessee in Chattanooga in the US on 30 April, following months of waiting on the Nigerians to come forward to claim the assets.

The assets were seized from three Binance accounts linked to the Nigerian citizens  Martins Eromosele Iyere, Moses Olumide Sokale, and Olawumi Stephen Adewale  a copy of the judgement obtained by PREMIUM TIMES shows.

According to the courts ruling, the cryptocurrency assets were stolen in 2021 from a Tennessee resident, Matthew McNulty.

Mr McNulty was tricked into entering his login information into a fraudulent website hosted in Nigeria. The scammers then quickly transferred his cryptocurrencies out of his wallet.

FBI Agent Jordan Foreman said in an affidavit filed in support of the US governments request that he traced the stolen funds using open-source methods.

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According to him, he found out that the assets were converted into different types of cryptocurrencies and transferred to various wallets before ultimately ending up in the Binance accounts.

The pattern of withdrawals, transfers, and transactions is consistent with money laundering and attempts to conceal proceeds of fraud, Mr Foreman stated.

The court held that the governments evidence established a clear link between the seized assets and the alleged wire fraud and money laundering.

As no claims were filed disputing the governments allegations, the judge, Travis McDonough, gave a summary judgement in favour of the US government last month, paving the way for the forfeiture of the assets.

How the alleged fraud happened

According to the governments filings, Mr McNulty, a resident of Cleveland, Tennessee, posted a query on a Telegram channel called AnySwap on 12 February 2021, asking for help with a cryptocurrency trading error.

FBI Agent Foreman, wrote in the affidavit accompanying the governments filing, that an account impersonating a real Telegram community manager reached out to Mr McNulty, offering to help. The scammer directed Mr McNulty to enter his cryptocurrency login information into a website registered and hosted in Nigeria.

Mr Foreman said the website generated a QR code after Mr McNulty entered his credentials. The scammer then asked Mr McNulty to screenshot the QR code and send it to him. After the victim complied, the scammer swiftly transferred his cryptocurrencies out of his wallet.

The stolen funds were subsequently laundered through various wallets and converted into different types of cryptocurrencies before being transferred to Binance accounts linked to Nigerian nationals Messrs Iyere, Sokale and Adewale, US detectives said.

Binance is an online cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrency.

The crypto platform was popular among Nigerians dealing in cryptocurrency until it started having a run-in with the Nigerian government led by the new administration of President Bola Tinubu in 2023.

The Nigerian government subsequently arrested two Binance executives, one of whom escaped from custody, while the other, Tigran Gambaryan, was prosecuted for months from detention.

On 23 October 2024, Nigeria dropped criminal charges against Mr Gambaryan and freed him, enabling him to return to the US.

But Binance continues to face charges of tax evasion at the federal court in Abuja.

No response

The US government said it seized the crypto assets from Mr McNulty on 18 April 2022.

But it said every effort to contact Messrs Iyere, Sokale and Adewale, including sending them emails, over the seizure and forfeiture proceedings was unsuccessful.

The government also posted a notice of forfeiture for 30 days on www.forfeiture.gov. No answers and verified complaints were timely filed and on 27 September 2024, the government moved for summary judgement. The governments motion is now ripe, the judge, Mr McDonough, stated before granting an order of forfeiture of the assets in favour of the US government.

Cryptocurrency fraud

The decentralised nature of cryptocurrency has made it the prime choice of criminals looking to defraud their unsuspecting victims. The speed of irreversible transactions and the ability to transfer value around the world make it easy for criminals to move digital currency into an account and cash out.

According to a 2024 report by the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), losses related to cryptocurrency fraud totaled over $5.6 billion in 2023, a 45 per cent increase from 2022.

In April, hundreds of Nigerians were scammed of over N1.3 trillion by Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX).

CBEX had presented itself as a global digital asset trading platform that allowed users to trade cryptocurrencies and earn high investment returns. With a promise of 100 per cent Return on investment, many Nigerians fell for the scam.

However, a closer look at the companys activities indicates that it ran a Ponzi scheme.

Nigerian authorities have repeatedly cited cryptocurrencys high vulnerability to money laundering and other criminal activities as the reason for their cautious and slow embrace of it.

After years of outright ban, the government cautiously opened up its market in April this year, officially classifying cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets as securities for the first time.

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The Presidency has outlined key reforms and interventions implemented in Nigerias health sector under President Bola Tinubus administration.

The milestones shared on X by the Special Assistant to the President on social media, Olusegun Dada highlights efforts to improve healthcare financing, infrastructure, insurance, and data systems.

Find the full thread as posted on X below:

Here is a thread of the MAJOR MILESTONES recorded by President Tinubus administration in the health sector over the past 23 months.

1. Mr President, through the Hon Minister of Health @muhammadpate, kicked off his health reforms by launching the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain(@PVAC_NG); an initiative that seeks to restructure Nigerias healthcare value chain, promote investments and maximise the various opportunities in the value chain across the board.

Within months of its launch, the initiative has turned out to be quite successful, with the following as some of its achievements so far; A $5 billion project pipeline secured, $2 billion secured in foreign investments, and 74 transformative projects undertaken.

 Agreement with Empower School of Health, Geneva, (@EmpowerGRP) to establish a Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Training Academy in Nigeria, among many others.

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2. On Health Insurance

Over two million Nigerians were enrolled in the National Health Insurance Scheme by @nhia_nigeria in 2024 alone, bringing the total number of Nigerians enrolled to 19.2 million.

President Tinubu has also now mandated a life assurance policy for all public officers and military personnel across the country to ensure their next-of-kin is adequately catered for in case of death.

In August 2024, President Tinubu approved the free Caesarean Section for the most vulnerable pregnant women across the country under the National Health Insurance Scheme, with over 2,000 pregnant women having benefited so far.

3. National Health Fellows

In April 2024, President Tinubu approved the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme, with young Nigerian fellows to be engaged in all the 774 local government areas in the country.

The one-year programme aims to empower young professionals to drive meaningful change and innovation in the healthcare sector, focusing on improving primary healthcare delivery and promoting universal health coverage.

The programme will also contribute to the construction of 8,800 primary healthcare facilities across the 774 Local Governments in the country.

Earlier this year, the programme became a reality with the 774 fellows inducted. All 774 were also granted automatic employment by the Federal Government.

4. Health Infrastructure

Several health infrastructures are currently being built across the country by the President Tinubu-led administration in a bid to improve the quality of health services for Nigerians.

Most recently, the Hon Minister of Health @muhammadpate commissioned 10 projects in the university of Abuja including a 34-bed male medical ward, 50-room residential block for interns and a 50-room call duty block among others.

The same commissioning was done in Ibadan many months ago. Several such projects are also currently being built across federal medical centres in the country.

President Tinubu also announced the expansion of six major cancer infrastructure projects, in which three are scheduled for commissioning next month.

5. Executive Order to Improve Local Production of Healthcare Products and Reduce Costs.

President Tinubu, in July 2024, signed an executive order aimed at attracting new local investments into the pharmaceutical industry and reducing the costs of pharmaceutical products in the country.

The order introduced zero tariffs, excise duties and VAT on specified machinery, equipment and raw materials.

This has specifically provided incentives for local manufacturers with the much-needed competitiveness regained over the past few months. It also provides for establishing market shaping mechanisms such as framework contracts and volume guarantees,

This move has also led to a reduction in the prices of drugs and healthcare products in the country.

6. Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF)

President Tinubu, in March 2025, approved the release of N32.880 billion under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to enhance healthcare delivery, underscoring his commitment to expanding healthcare access and affordability, particularly at the grassroots level.

The funds would be disbursed to states, local governments and 10,000 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) nationwide through the BHCPFs four gateways.

7. Strengthen the Health Management Information System:

At the inception of this administration in 2023, about 15 per cent of all facilities shared data electronically with the national aggregate data system (DHIS-2), with over 75 per cent of Federal Tertiary Hospitals (FTHs) owning Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. There were, however, no established minimum standards for deployment and implementation of EMRs in the country.

In addressing the above, President Tinubus administration established the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI), with the aim of not only integrating EMR systems into Nigerias health system by ensuring seamless interoperability and system efficiency, but also to enhance healthcare delivery and the experience of care.

Since its establishment, The NDHI has developed minimum EMR standards that will help to achieve three immediate benefits:

 Improved quality of care by providing health care providers with instant access to comprehensive

patient records, leading to more accurate diagnosis and personalised treatment plans.

 Reduced expenditure on health through optimization of diagnostic tests and the avoidance of duplication.

 Increased staff capacity and productivity, through the reduction of time spent on paper-based

administrative tasks.

 The developed standards are being implemented across existing EMRs in the country, and by December 2025, over 90% of FTHs are expected to be fully implementing EMRs, in line with the established standards.

Other notable milestones worthy of mention are:

 Construction of pharmaceutical industry-grade warehouses in 22 states via Drug Management Agencies.

 Establishment and Inclusion of Vulnerable Group Fund in Nigerias Appropriation Act.

 Supported the establishment of State Health Insurance Agencies (SSHIAs) in all states, with over N12bn disbursed to cover N1.7m individuals.

 Signed an agreement with Siemens Healthineers to purchase state-of-the-art oncology types of equipment, marking a transformative step for cancer care in the nation.

 The FG, following the withdrawal of aides from the USA, released a sum of N4.5bn to support HIV AIDS treatment in the country.

And many more, which I will be updating as time goes on.

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President Bola Tinubu has sought the consideration and approval of the National Assembly for the N1.48 trillion 2025 Rivers budget.

President Tinubus request is contained in a letter addressed to President of Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen.

The two presiding officers read the letter during the plenary sessions of both chambers on Thursday.

President Tinubu, in the letter entitled: Forwarding of Rivers State Government 2025 Appropriation Bill for consideration by the National Assembly, recalled that the state is currently under emergency rule which was proclaimed and duly gazetted in March.

Regulation 4, sub-section 2 of the emergency rule 2025 requires authorisation for expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of Rivers state for its activities.

In the absence of the State House of Assembly, it is expected that the National Assembly acts on that behalf, hence the request for the approval of the senate for the Rivers State Government 2025 appropriation bill.

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The appropriation bill for the year 2025 is in the total sum of N1.48 trillion, wherein the sum of N324 billion is for infrastructure, both ongoing and new projects, while the sum of N166 billion is for the health sector, including N5 billion for free drugs for treatment of malaria and other common ailments.

The sum of N75.6 billion is proposed for the educational sector and the sum of N31.4 billion is proposed for agricultural purposes, the letter stated.

President Tinubu said that the spending plan prioritised investment in critical sectors of the state, such as infrastructure, health, including drugs for malaria and other common ailments, education and agriculture projected to generate 6,000 jobs.

Accordingly, I hereby forward the Rivers State Government 2025 appropriation bill and trust that it will receive the expeditions and the auspicious consideration of the senate.

Please accept, the distinguished Senate President and the distinguished senators, the assurances of my highest regards, the president said.

Mr Akpabio, shortly after reading the letter, referred it to the Senate ad-hoc committee on emergency rule in Rivers.

He directed the committee to report back to plenary as soon as possible.

Declaration of emergency rule

President Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers State on 18 March to halt the escalating political crisis and the attendant security challenges in the oil-rich state.

In a nationwide broadcast, the president suspended the governor, Siminilayi Fubara, his deputy, Ngozi Odu, and members of the House of Assembly for six months.

He also appointed Ibok-Ete Ibas, a retired vice admiral and former chief of naval staff, as sole administrator of the state.

Section 11(4) of the Constitution empowers the National Assembly to legislate for a state whose legislature is unable to function.

The budget proposal is the first since Mr Ibas assumed office.

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) governors have endorsed President Bola Tinubu as the partys sole candidate in the 2027 presidential election.

The 22 governors, under the aegis of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), announced the endorsement through their chairman, Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State, at the APC National Summit held at the Banquet Hall of the State House on Thursday.

Mr Uzodimma moved the motion for the motion for Mr Tinubus adoption while it was seconded by the forums vice chairman, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State.

The Imo governor, while moving the motion, pledged the commitment of the governors to mobilise resources and ensure victory for President Tinubu in their respective states.

When the motion was put to vote, none of the governors opposed it.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, former governors and members of the National Assembly attended the event.

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The adoption of President Tinubu as the APC flagbearer comes few days after the partys governors in the North-central zone passed a vote of confidence on the president.

The president will clock two years in office on 29 May.

Details later

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Kogi Central senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has been charged over her allegation that Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello conspired to assassinate her.

The Department of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), Federal Ministry of Justice, filed the charges against her on 16 May at the FCT High Court in Abuja.

The case marked: CR/297/25, has the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the complainant and Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan as the sole defendant.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was suspended from the Senate in March for six months, faces criminal defamation charges over the claim she made in a televised interview alleging that Messrs Akpabio and Bello conspired to assassinate her.

She made the remarks on 3 April, when she appeared on Channels Televisions Politics Today.

M.B Abubakar, the Director of DDPF, who signed the charges, stated that the senator made the assassination imputation knowing or having reason to believe that it would harm the reputations of Messrs Akpabio and Bello.

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She was charged under Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990, which criminalises imputations made with the intent or knowledge that they could harm a persons reputation.

If convicted, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan faces up to two years in prison, a fine, or both, as prescribed in the law.

Televised allegations

During the interview, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed her life was in danger following the withdrawal of her security details as a senator.

She directly accused Messrs Akpabio and Bello of plotting her assassination.

I am glad you did admit that I am a lawyer, and even if I am not a lawyer, I am a sane individual, and I do stand by what I said. In respect to the meeting or discussion Akpabio had [with] Yahaya Bello that night to eliminate me, she was quoted as saying in the excerpts of her interview reproduced in the charges filed against her.

Just ask the Senate President why he withdrew my security if not to make me vulnerable to attacks. Mind you, of all the senators, about 109, we all have different stories.

I have been a high-profile, vulnerable individual because of the nature of politics I have had, I have experienced since the year 2018. Very violent and dangerous. And I always have my security. So stripping me of my security because I am suspended illegally, actually it just positions me before attacks.

Prior public claims

The TV appearance was not the first instance in which she would accuse the men of plotting to assassinate her.

Weeks before the interview, at a political rally in Kogi State, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Mr Akpabio of first attempting to influence Kogi Governor Usman Ododo to support her recall and later allegedly recruiting Mr Bello to both sponsor a recall process and plot her assassination.

But Akpabio was not satisfied; he then called for Yahaya Bello. It was Senator Asuquo who drove Yahaya Bello to the Hiltons. I was informed.

The meeting was in two folds; he told him to commence my recall. He was going to fund it. Of course, money changed hands that day. The second thing was that he should kill me, she allegedly said.

She also said the police had been notified of the alleged plot, though no public investigation has been announced.

Both Messrs Akpabio and Bello denied the allegations

Both Messrs Akpabio and Bello have denied the allegations.

Mr Akpabio described the claims as false, malicious, and a complete fabrication.

This statement is not only a heinous lie but a reckless and deliberate attempt to damage my reputation, endanger my life and security, and incite political unrest.

I categorically state that this allegation is entirely false, unfounded, and politically motivated. It is a calculated act of blackmail and character assassination, designed to portray me as a political villain, and the statement was made without any shred of truth or supporting evidence, Mr. Akpabio said in his letter to the Attorney General of the Federation and Inspector General of Police.

Consequently, Mr Bellos legal team labelled the remarks reckless and inciting.

In the petition signed by N.A. Abubakar, his lawyer, Mr Bello asked the IGP to invite Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan to substantiate her allegations against him with credible evidence.

Mr Bello filed the petition with the Inspector-General of Police demanding Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghans arrest and prosecution for criminal defamation.

Senator with many legal battles

The new criminal case adds to the series of legal battles stemming from her political rivalry with Mr Bello, Mr Akpabio and their families.

Mr Akpabios wife, Ekaette Akpabio, filed two separate defamation suits against the suspended Kogi senator, demanding N350 billion in damages for reputational harm allegedly inflicted upon her husband.

She is not just being sued.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan is locked in a legal battle with Mr Akpabio and others, in a suit she filed in March to challenge her suspension from the Senate.

She also filed a defamation suit against Mr Akpabio and his legislative aide, Mfon Patrick, in the aftermath of her sexual harassment allegation against the senate president.

In another episode of her legal battles, the FCT High Court in Abuja recently dismissed a privacy breach case instituted against her by Mr Bellos nephew, Ali Bello, who is the Chief of Staff to the incumbent Kogi State Governor Usman Ododo. The judge threw out the case on the grounds that the claimant failed to prove the privacy violation allegation, but rebuked Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan for her reprehensible social media post that triggered the legal action.

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The Trump administration is ending Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students by revoking its Student and Exchange Visitor Programme certification.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on Thursday, attributed this to the universitys refusal to comply with its requests for the behavioural records of student visa holders.

The Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Neom, in a post on X, also accused the school of fostering an unsafe campus environment, hostility to Jewish students, support for Hamas, and what she described as racist DEI initiatives.

Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country. This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, she said.

It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunities to do the right thing. It refused.

They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

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This new policy could affect thousands of international students, some of whom are Nigerians, currently studying at the institution.

Nigerians have consistently been among the international student community at Harvard, pursuing degrees across various disciplines. Nigerians make up nearly one-quarter of the black students at the Harvard Business School.

According to Harvard Universitys One World programme, the Ivy League institution has so far enrolled about 6,793 international students.

This represents about 27.2 per cent of its total student body. It would also affect the admission of students for the coming academic year.

Repeated attacks

This policy is the latest attempt to pressure the university and other elite universities in the US as part of the Trump administrations broader effort to change race-conscious admissions policies and challenge what it considers to be liberal bias in academia.

Harvard University, in the past months, has been targeted by the president for refusing many of the changes to admission, curriculum and hiring practices that his administration has pushed.

The school has faced threats, growing scrutiny from federal officials and even aid cuts. Last month, the US Department of Education froze $2.3 billion in federal funds to the university.

The department, in March, launched an investigation into the university and 51 other schools, accusing them of racial preference and stereotypes in education programmes.

In the latest development, the administration said Harvard may no longer enrol foreign students in the 2025-2026 school year.

It also stated that existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status to reside in the US before the next academic year begins.

The Homeland Security Secretary described this as a consequence of Harvards refusal to comply with simple reporting requirements.

As a result of your brazen refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas rhetoric, and employs racist diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, you have lost this privilege, she wrote in a letter to University.

Mrs Noem, however, offered the institution 72 hours to provide the information requested for an opportunity to regain its visa programme for the next school year.

Harvards response

Responding to this, the Ivy League university denounced the allegations made against it and described the directive as retaliatory action that threatens its community.

In a statement issued shortly after the announcement, it reaffirmed its commitment to campus safety, academic freedom, and support for all students, regardless of background or nationality.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably.

We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

Last month, Harvard introduced a temporary policy change permitting international students to hold admission offers from both Harvard and a foreign university as a contingency plan.

Typically, admitted students are required to commit solely to Harvard by 1 May.

At least twelve Harvard students have had their permission to study in the United States rescinded due to their involvement in campus protests.

PREMIUM TIMES also reported that about 600 international students in over 90 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in the last months.

Earlier in the week, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the State Department had likely revoked thousands of student visas across the country and was open to revoking more.

Were going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities.

A visa is a privilege, not a right, he said to Congress on Tuesday.

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The Gombe State Government has approved over N50 billion for a 21-kilometre gully erosion control project under the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) initiative.

The Director-General of Press Affairs, Government House, Gombe, Ismaila Misilli, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Misilli said the project, awarded to TRIACTA Limited, will cover critical erosion-prone areas, including the back of the Commissioner of Polices residence, Pantami, Kwarin-Hayin Kwarin Misau, and GGSS Doma.

Compensation for affected residents

The state Commissioner for Environment, Water, and Forest Resources, Mohammed Fawu, said an additional N2.1 billion had been set aside to compensate individuals whose properties or livelihoods may be impacted by the project.

Mr Fawu noted that the project was necessary to address the increasing risk of land degradation.

This project is a proactive step to mitigate the increasing threat of land degradation while safeguarding infrastructure and communities at risk, he said.

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In another development, the government approved the conversion of Government Secondary School (GSS), Malam Sidi, into the Faculty of Agriculture of the Gombe State University (GSU).

The Commissioner for Higher Education, Muhammad Gadam, said N1.1 billion had been approved as take-off funds for the new faculty, which is expected to commence academic activities next year.

According to a statement, four departments, offering 10 courses, have been approved. These include the Department of Agriculture and Animal Science, the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, and the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Management.

Road repairs and infrastructure rehabilitation

The State Executive Council approved N891 million to rehabilitate the Akko (Amada) to Bula-Gari, Abuja-Bula, and Kwami-Gari road.

The Commissioner for Works, Housing, and Transport, Usman Kallamu, who disclosed this information, said the projects aim to improve connectivity and ease transportation challenges for residents.

In another development, the state government secured a 70 per cent waiver on a legacy loan from the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), saving the state over N1.3 billion.

The Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Muhammad Magaji, explained that the original N2.7 billion loan, inherited from a previous administration, was reduced to N1.4 billion through Governor Inuwa Yahayas strategic negotiations.

Mr Magaji said the waiver demonstrated the governors commitment to boosting the states finances.

He said the state also resolved a decade-long legal dispute with Zenith Bank over a failed contract to supply dictionaries. The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Zubair Umar, said the out-of-court settlement saved the state further legal costs.

Background on the Zenith Bank dispute

The legal dispute between Gombe State and Zenith Bank originated from a 2011 contract awarded to Real Integrated & Hospitality Limited for the supply of dictionaries valued at over N1 billion. Zenith Bank had issued an Advance Payment Guarantee (APG) for the contractor, who later defaulted on the agreement.

Gombe State demanded a refund of N872 million from the bank, leading to a protracted legal battle.

In March 2022, the Lagos State High Court ruled against Zenith Bank, ordering it to pay the amount with interest. However, the bank appealed, and in November 2022, the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling, finding the bank not liable for the contractors breach.

Gombe State agreed to an out-of-court settlement under the governors directive to avoid further legal costs and end the decade-long dispute.

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Ninety-nine Indonesian hajj pilgrims have been infected with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia, including one patient who has died, said the Indonesian Ministry of Health on Thursday.

The rise in pneumonia cases among our hajj pilgrims needs careful attention because it can get worse if not treated fast and correctly, said Liliek Susilo, head of the Hajj Health Center at the ministry.

The infected pilgrims are currently receiving intensive care at hospitals in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Ms Susilo said the main risk factors for pneumonia among hajj pilgrims in Saudi Arabia are extreme heat up to 47 degrees Celsius, tiredness from a busy schedule, crowded masses, and existing health problems or comorbidities.

She asked pilgrims to stay careful by wearing masks, washing their hands, drinking enough water, and taking their medicines regularly if they have health issues.

She also reminded pilgrims to keep their energy, avoid smoking, and quickly report any sickness to help make the hajj safe and smooth.

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(Xinhua/NAN)

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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday that some European leaders were partly responsible for the killing of two members of staff from his countrys embassy in Washington.

There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder, Mr Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.

This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organisations, especially from Europe.

He did not name specific countries or organisations.

Mr Saar said leading politicians around the world believe the narratives of terrorist organisations such as the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, including claims that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Israels military consistently has said that it is operating in the Gaza Strip in accordance with international law.

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However, human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have accused Israel of war crimes.

Hamas started the war on October 7, is solely responsible for the wars continuation, and is solely responsible for the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike, Mr Saar said.

Israel has faced significant international criticism recently due to its new Gaza offensive and its nearly three-month blockade of aid deliveries to the area.

The leaders of France, the United Kingdom and Canada recently threatened Israel with concrete measures over what they described as a completely disproportionate escalation in the Gaza Strip, though they did not provide further details.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had emboldened the forces of terror, wrote Israels Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli on the platform X, without elaborating on this claim.

We must hold to account the leaders who promote this hatred, the right-wing nationalist politician wrote on X.

The United Kingdom has already suspended talks on a free trade agreement with Israel, while the EU is reviewing its agreement with the Jewish state.

(dpa/NAN)

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A Federal High Court in Abuja heard on Thursday that the Eastern Security Network (ESN) set up by Nnamdi Kanu, the self acclaimed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is an illegal group unlike Amotekun set up by by the assemblies of South West states.

An official of the State Security Service (SSS) made the distinction while testifying as the second prosecution witness in the ongoing terrorism trial of the IPOB leader.

The witness while being re-examined by lawyer to the prosecution, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), said unlike Amotekun that is backed by laws passed by the various Houses of Assembly of the six South West states, ESN has no law supporting its existence.

ESN and Amotekun are not the same. I know that states in the South West passed laws to legalise Amotekun. But, ESN is not registered. ESN is illegal. Amotekun is recognised by law, the witness said.

The witness agreed that the Director General of the SSS, Mr. Tosin Ajayi, once advocated for community policing, but that it must be under the guidance and approval of security agencies as a measure against abuse.

Earlier, a defence lawyer, Paul Erokoro (SAN), tendered three video recordings, contained in a flash drive, which the court admitted in evidence. The three video recordings were subsequently played in open court.

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One of the clips showed the DG, SSS speaking at an event where he suggested that communities should endeavour to create a first line of defence against bandits and other invaders.

The SSS boss cited examples of some communities that were able to repel invaders on some occasions and noted that it was practically impossible for security agencies to protect all citizens.

The SSS boss was heard saying: The practical approach to mobilising people is to get everyone involved. It is impossible for the security agencies to deploy to every part of the country.

What we need to do is to make communities set up first line of defence. We have to allow some level of armament for the communities to rise and defend themselves first, but under the guidance and approval of security agencies. The time to start it is now.

When asked by Mr Erokoro whether the DG SSS was not asking for communities to defend themselves, the witness emphasised that the DG stressed that such communities must come for guidance and approval from security agencies.

Another video showed former Defence Minister, General Theophilus Danjuma, addressing a gathering.

Mr Danjuma was heard in the video, saying members of the armed forces were not neutral in the ongoing killings across the country.

They collude with the armed bandits that kill people, that kill Nigerians. They facilitate their movements. They cover them. If you are depending on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die one by one, Mr Danjuma said in the video.

When asked by Mr Erokoro who the speaker in the video was, the witness confirmed that he was General Danjuma.

The witness however rebuffed Mr Erokoros request that he shares his opinion on the implication of General Danjumas speech. He asked the lawyer to personally contact Mr Danjuma to ask him for the interpretation of his message.

The third video showed Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, complaining of killings in his state, blaming it on opposition politicians.

When asked whether Mr Uzodinmas position did not contradict the claim by the witness that IPOB members were behind killings in Orlu in Imo State, the witness said his position was informed by the outcome of their investigation.

The SSS operative told the court that while Mr Uzodinma failed to mention names of victims of the killings he referred to, the SSS investigation was specific on the identity of those killed by suspected IPOB members, who were enforcing the sit-at-home order as directed by Kanu.

Our investigation revealed those who were killed by suspected IPOB members and we mentioned their names, the governor did not mention any name of people he said were killed, the witness said.

The witness said he is aware that IPOB has been proscribed by an order of court and that Kanu has been a member of IPOB before and after its proscription.

On whether he knew what the EndSARS protest was about, the witness said it was about the call by some people for the scrapping of the Police Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS).

The witness also said he was aware that some states, including Lagos and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) constituted commissions of enquiry to probe the EndSARS protest and other related incidents.

He agreed with Mr Erokoro that the report from the commission set up by Lagos State did not indict IPOB and that it did not classify the protest as an act of terrorism.

Mr Erokoro tendered the report issued by the Lagoss commission of enquiry, which the court admitted in evidence.

Justice James Omotosho, before adjourning for the day, gave the prosecution six days to call all its witnesses and conclude its case.

The judge also indicated that the defence would be given nine days.

Following an agreement by lawyers to the parties,the judge adjourned till May 28 and 29, June 6, 16, 18 and 19 for the prosecution to conclude its case.

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The International News Media Association (INMA) today announced the 96th Annual World Congress of News Media will be held 4-8 May 2026, in Berlin.

Unveiled during the associations New York World Congress today at The TimesCenter, INMA leaders pointed to Germanys fast-developing news media industry and the German news industrys rapidly expanding participation in INMA as key reasons for selecting Berlin.

As part of its announcement today, INMA opened its Berlin 2026 Website at INMA.org/berlin.

The INMA World Congress is the news industrys premier annual event dedicated to the business of media and journalism. Across two days of conference, two days of study tours, and one day of seminars, INMA spotlights how to grow audience, brand, and revenue through the inspiration of members and the storytelling of the associations unique voices.

More than 600 professionals from the top news media companies in 50+ countries are expected to attend the INMA Berlin Congress  including c-suite executives from Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America.

Venues selected for INMA Berlin include:

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Axica for the media conference, located next to the Brandenburg Gate.

Museum Island Colonnades & Neues Museum, a world-famous UNESCO heritage site, for the Congress welcome reception.

A Spree River evening boat tour will highlight the citys contrasts: historic facades and bold architecture.

Legendary Tipi am Kanzleramt for the Global Media Awards Dinner, with a 1920s flair.

Hotel Adlon Kempinski, located next to Axica, will host week-ending seminars.

With the theme of From Walls to Bridges: News Media Reimagined, the INMA programme aims to help news publishers navigate uncertainty across four forces reshaping news:

Reinvention: The business of news under pressure  and full of possibility.

Collision: Tech, trust, and transformation crashing into the newsroom.

Unification: Breaking silos and building bridges across editorial, product, tech, and commercial.

Mobilisation: Turning strategy into action with talent, tools, and mindset for whats next.

In addition to INMAs one-of-a-kind conference, the week includes:

Berlin study tours: With 4,500+ tech startups and a thriving creative economy, Berlin is a hub for media innovation, AI, and digital experimentation. INMA will visit up to 16 news media companies across two study tours, giving participants a peek behind the scenes of some of the biggest brands in news media.

Seminars: End-of-week half-day seminars will go deep into INMA specialties, including digital subscriptions, generative AI, product and tech, advertising & commerce, and newsroom transformation.

Welcome reception at UNESCO World Heritage museum: The Museum Island Colonnades & Neues Museum opening reception will provide INMA delegates access to this historic UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of Berlin.

Awards dinner at Tipi am Kanzleramt: The Global Media Awards Dinner at the renowned Tipi am Kanzleramt will not only reveal 2026 INMA honourees but will offer a unique blend of charm, history, and modernity, reflecting Berlins spirit of rebellion.

Ask Me Anything sessions: Meanwhile, INMA will continue making its subject matter experts available to corporate members attending the Berlin event in Ask Me Anything private sessions.

Berlin is the perfect backdrop for INMAs 2026 World Congress Week because of its history as a city of reinvention and its status as a stronghold for press freedom, said Earl J. Wilkinson, executive director and CEO of INMA. Well meet at the heart of a city that symbolises transformation, openness, and change where we will aim to find unique insights, innovations, and inspiration for attendees.

About INMA

The International News Media Association (INMA) is the worlds premier community of news media companies committed to growing revenue, audience, and brand in a multiplatform environment. INMA connects more than 22,000 professionals at 1,000+ organizations across 90+ countries through events, reports, Webinars, and a vast archive of best practices.

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Vice President Kashim Shettima has described Nigeria as a prime investment destination following far-reaching economic reforms that have transformed the countrys fiscal landscape and stabilised the currency regime.

He assured both local and foreign investors of the governments commitment to securing investments and implementing policies that foster a transparent and enabling business environment.

Speaking during a meeting with senior executives from Citibanks global leadership led by Global Head of Citibank International, Ernesto Cantu, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, VP Shettima said the administrations bold policy decisions have created unprecedented opportunities for international investors.

Declaring that the time to invest in Nigeria is now, he said, This is the right time to come to Nigeria and the right time to invest in Nigeria. With the uniform exchange rate, an investor coming into Nigeria will be assured of the stability of the currency.

The vice president commended the American bank for its over four decades of consistent presence in Nigeria and noted Citibanks important role in supporting the countrys economic resilience.

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You have been with us through thick and thin. You have accounted for more than 30 per cent of inward capital into this country. Most recently, you helped us raise $2.1 billion in December 2024. This is a partnership that has stood the test of time, he said.

VP Shettima outlined a series of bold reforms taken since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed office, which he said previous administrations avoided due to their political sensitivity.

When we assumed office, the economy was haemorrhaging due to an over-bloated subsidy regime. Many preferred to kick the can down the road, but the president took the courageous decision to remove the fuel subsidy on his very first day in office, he said.

In addition to fuel subsidy removal, the vice president noted that the collapse of the dual exchange rate system, which had distorted Nigerias foreign exchange market for years.

On fiscal reforms, VP Shettima described the recently passed tax legislation as the most sweeping in the nations history. Notably, the reforms reduce the federal governments share of Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, while increasing states allocation from 50 per cent to 55 per cent, with local governments retaining 35 per cent.

When we came into office, our debt service-to-revenue ratio was a staggering 111%. Today, weve brought it down to manageable levels, thanks to disciplined fiscal management, he added.

Earlier, Mr. Cantu reaffirmed Citibanks long-term commitment to Nigeria, lauding the government for enacting tough but necessary reforms.

Weve been in Nigeria for 41 years, and the reason I came today is because we believe Nigeria is at an inflection point  one that signals a better future for all of Nigerians and the companies, he said.

He commended the bold economic decisions of President Tinubu, saying, Its been a process of reforms that we congratulate the government for making those difficult decisions, but with the confidence that they will go and take Nigeria to a better place for everybody.

What we do is that we connect Nigerian companies to the world and bring the worlds companies to Nigeria. That is what weve been doing for the past 41 years, and we will continue to do so, he added.

Other members of the Citibank delegation included Ebru Pakcan, Middle East & Africa CEO; Genaro Poulat, Global Head Country Risk Management; Nneka Enwereji, MD/CEO Citibank Nigeria; Siddarth Bansal, Corporate Bank Head; and Funmi Ogunlesi, Public Affairs Head, Sub-Saharan Africa.

More Photos:

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The National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, has said the Federal Government and security services in the country have substantially confronted the multi-faceted security challenges inherited by the Bola Tinubu administration.

The NSA said through a combined security effort atrocities such as mass killings, wanton destruction, mass abductions and terrorist attacks on government installations have been reduced.

Speaking Thursday at a national summit by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to mark two years of the Tinubu administration, Mr Ribadu said the administration inherited serious security challenges across the country.

For us to appreciate where we are today, its important to reflect on where we were before the coming of this administration on May 29, 2023, he said.

Mr Ribadu recalled that in the past, terrorists enjoyed a free reign, with Nigeria experiencing attacks on the Abuja-Kaduna train, Kuje Prison, a church in Owo and an army battalion in Bwari, Abuja.

He listed the inherited security challenges to include Boko Haram in the North-east, arrmed banditry in the North-west, secessionist agitations by the IPOB/ESN in the South-east, Niger Delta unrest and communal conflicts/herder-farmer conflicts especially in the North-central.

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Mr Ribadu said with the security agencies working as a team, challenges such as the sit-at-home action in the South-east and sabotage of oil installations in the Niger Delta have been substantially addressed.

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, thanked President Tinubu for providing effective leadership for tackling the security challenges in the country.

He praised President Tinubu for streamlining and strengthening internal security.

Mr Akpabio said it is gratifying that there are no longer cases of terrorists taking over territories and hoisting alien flags.

In his speech while moving a vote of confidence to adopt the President as sole candidate of the party in 2027 at the event, Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, who spoke on behalf of the 22 governors of the party, said in spite of the complexity of he security challenges facing the country, progress is evident.

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Combined security operatives have arrested six suspected criminals in Anambra State, Nigerias South-east.

Tochukwu Ikenga, the police spokesperson in the state, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr Ikenga, a superintendent of police, said the suspects were arrested during separate operations by the joint security team comprising police and vigilante operatives.

The spokesperson said two of the suspects  Chinedu Anagor, 25, and Rapuluchukwu Anagor, 23  were arrested on Monday at Ifite village, Oko, a community in Orumba North Local Government Area of the state.

He said the suspects confessed to being members of beggars confraternity and also identified their armourer simply as kiss me.

One English Beretta pistol was recovered from the suspects, according to the police.

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Mr Ikenga said police operatives have launched a manhunt for the gunrunner linked to the suspects criminal activities.

More arrests

Mr Ikenga said the operatives also arrested four individuals who were sighted vandalising electrical wires at the permanent site of the Federal Polytechnic Oko in Anambra State.

The spokesperson said the arrest followed receipt of a tip-off about the suspects activities.

He identified the suspects as Chukwuka Usulor, Chukwuemeka Michael, Ikenna Oke and Ebuka Okeke.

The operatives recovered some assorted quantities of cable wires, he said.

The police assured of their continued commitment in fighting criminality in the state.

Prohibited in Nigeria

Cultism is outlawed in Nigeria.

However, the laws vary state by state. In Anambra State, for instance, cultism is outlawed in Anambra State Secret Cult and Similar Activities Prohibition Law, 2024.

The law provides that any person who is a member of a secret cult commits an offence whether or not in possession of an offensive weapon, and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life or a minimum of 21 years imprisonment without an option of fine.

Several persons have been convicted in Nigeria for offences of illegal possession of firearms and cultism across Nigeria.

In July 2021, a Magistrate Court in Lokoja, Kogi State, sentenced a student of Kogi State Polytechnic, Shehu Mohammed, to eight years imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and cultism.

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In a historic night for Tottenham Hotspur, the North London club secured their first major trophy in 17 years by defeating Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final.

The decisive goal came in the 42nd minute, with Brennan Johnson converting an assist from Pape Sarr to send Spurs fans into raptures.

Though Wednesdays match was by no means a dream final, Manchester United enjoyed the lions share of possession early on, pushing Spurs deep into their own half.

The Red Devils threatened several times through Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hjlund, but Guglielmo Vicario stood firm in goal.

A key turning point arrived in the 42nd minute. Pape Sarr launched a quick counter, sending in a low cross that Rodrigo Bentancur cleverly dummied, allowing Brennan Johnson to tap home from close range.

Despite Uniteds 60 per cent+ possession and territorial dominance, Spurs struck with precisionone attack, one goal.

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Second Half

United threw everything forward in search of an equaliser. Garnacho came close, Bruno missed a sitter, and Hjlund had a header blocked.

However, the Spurs backline, marshaled brilliantly by Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, held firm.

Time-wasting yellow cards and constant clearances showed Tottenhams tactical maturity.

Late changes by Ruben Amorim, including the introductions of Garnacho and Zirkzee, added urgency but not the breakthrough.

Spurs absorbed wave after wave of pressure, with Destiny Udogie and Yves Bissouma making critical tackles and interceptions.

Wild celebration

As the final whistle blew, the Tottenham players fell to their knees in jubilation. Ange Postecoglous men defied the odds, soaking up pressure and delivering when it mattered most.

Manchester United dominated much of the match but paid the price for their profligacy in front of goal.

For Tottenham, this victory marks the end of a long wait for silverware, their last trophy being the 2008 League Cup.

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The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday, defended the territorys proposed N1.78 trillion 2025 statutory budget before the House of Representatives and Senate Committees on the FCT at the National Assembly complex.

In separate presentations, Mr Wike highlighted that a significant 72.30 per cent of the total proposed budget, amounting to N1,289,690,124,776, was earmarked for capital expenditure while the remaining 27.70 per cent, totaling N494,133,583,616 was for recurrent expenditure.

A detailed overview of the capital budget estimates presented by the minister revealed key allocations of N80 billion for SUKUK loan projects, N25 billion for the Abuja Light Rail project, N15 billion for Abuja Greater Water Supply, and N250 billion from commercial loans to complete ongoing capital projects in the FCC and satellite towns.

The remaining N919,690,124,776 was dedicated to the completion of ongoing capital projects and counterpart-funded initiatives aimed at boosting socio-economic activities across the FCT.

A further breakdown of the capital expenditures showed that N801.5 billion was allocated to the FCDA, N137 billion to the STDD, and N351.2 billion to other Secretariats, Departments, and Agencies (SDAs) for their capital expenditures and select new projects.

Mr Wike emphasised that the 2025 capital budget prioritises the completion of critical ongoing infrastructure projects. These include the completion of roads B6 and B12, the full-scope development of Arterial Road N20, the provision of engineering infrastructure to Guzape, Wuye, and Maitama II Districts, the extension of Inner Southern Expressway (ISEX), and the full-scope development of FCT Highway 105 (Kuje Road).

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Other vital projects include the construction of Northern Parkway from Ring Road II to Ring Road III, the full-scope development of Arterial Road N20 from Arterial Road N5, the rehabilitation of Old Keffi Road, the full-scope development of Arterial Road N1, and the provision of access roads to Bus Terminals. Additionally, the upgrading of Ushafa War College/Army Check Point Road, the construction of Pai-Gomani Road, and the dualization of Kuje-Gwagwalada Road are included.

On recurrent expenditure, N150,353,906,168 (8.43 per cent of the total) was proposed for personnel costs, while overhead cost was allocated N343,779,448 (19.27 per cent).

Sectoral highlights of the FCTs 2025 statutory budget proposal showed that the infrastructural sector (Roads, District Development, and Public Buildings) was allocated N383.5 billion, the transportation sector has a provision of N79.3 billion, the education sector has a budgetary proposal of N181 billion, and the health sector has a proposed sum of N54 billion in the year 2025.

Other sectors, such as environment, was allocated the sum of N22.9 billion, Water sector got the sum of N37.4 billion, agriculture got the sum of N8.3 billion, social development sector got the sum of N23.7 billion, legal services got N7.7 billion, land administration got N1.5 billion while Area Councils Services Secretariat was allocated the sum of N3.1 billion.

The minister also outlined the FCTs 2025 revenue fiscal framework, comprising distributable revenue of N1,392,573,937,087 and non-distributable revenue of N391,249,771,305. Revenue sources include proceeds from one per cent of the 52.68 per cent statutory allocation of the Federal Government from the Federation Account, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), and other sources as detailed in the Revenue Fiscal Framework.

Mr Wike reiterated the FCT administrations commitment to completing ongoing projects, many of which were initiated by previous administrations. He expressed its determination to see the projects to conclusion.

The minister acknowledged and commended the National Assemblys consistent support for the FCT Administration, specifically praising the swift consideration of the 2025 statutory budget proposal.

Its not been long that Mr. President sent this to you and expeditiously, youve done the first and second reading and now we are in Committee stage. It has never happened. Since your inception, you have always given us that support. We have never suffered any delay in budget passage. We want to say that we will not take this for granted. We will continue to cooperate with you for the development of the FCT, he stated, while urging for an accelerated passage of the FCTs 2025 statutory budget proposal.

He also informed the lawmakers about the upcoming inauguration of completed infrastructure projects in the city centre and satellite towns. He disclosed that the inaugurations were scheduled to take place over 19 days, commencing on June 10, 2025, to commemorate President Bola Ahmed Tinubus second anniversary in office.

Mr Wike used the occasion to extend an invitation to the lawmakers to attend the significant events.

RABI MUSA UMAR

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, PRESS

(OFFICE OF THE HON. MINISTER)

21/05/2025

FCTA/ODP/PR/688

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The Lagos State Government has joined stakeholders in energy, transportation, and education sectors to launch Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion training for 500 polytechnic students in the South-west.

The event, held on Wednesday in Lagos, was organised by Mofe Foundation in partnership with the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS).

The programme brought together 500 polytechnic students from across South-west states to address the skills gap in the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) sector.

The initiative aims to promote sustainability, reduce emissions, and empower the next generation of technicians and engineers in Nigerias growing energy sector.

Speakers at the event highlighted Nigerias abundant natural gas reserves and emphasised the urgent need to harness its economic and environmental potential.

They explained that natural gas is cleaner and safer than petrol, urging its adoption to support national energy security and reduce costs.

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Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, said the state is actively involved in CNG conversions and infrastructure development.

He noted that through IBILE Holdings, the state is building 17 CNG filling stations to be completed by October.

Were undertaking conversions and constructing 17 new CNG stations across the state by October 2025, Mr Osiyemi said.

He stressed the importance of making CNG accessible to all, ensuring availability at stations for vehicles converted to run on gas.

He added that the training will boost student employability and increase the number of skilled CNG professionals across the region.

Mr Osiyemi said the initiative would also reduce transport costs by up to 70 per cent, mitigating the effects of subsidy removal.

Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Biodun Ogunleye, represented by Aileru Tajudeen, outlined the climate benefits of CNG.

CNG is the future  cleaner, cheaper, and more sustainable than fossil fuels, he said, encouraging nationwide adoption.

Mr Ogunleye praised the training for bridging the gap between academia and industry while promoting job creation and economic transformation.

He noted ongoing inter-ministerial collaboration to ensure quick access to CNG stations and wider conversion services in Lagos State.

Commissioner for Youth and Social Development, Mobolaji Ogunlende, highlighted youth potential in driving economic and social change.

Represented by the states Youth Ambassador, Obadare Adenekan, he said the training aligns with the ministrys youth empowerment vision.

NAPS South-west Coordinator, Johnson Obasanya, said the training would help address youth unemployment and would be sustained and expanded.

Mofe Foundation Convener, Funmilade Akingbagbohun, said Nigerias transport and industrial future depends on strategic CNG development.

CNG conversion is not just an alternative  its a catalyst for transformative change, she stated in her keynote address. She said the foundation was partnering with Lagos State and called on other centres across Nigeria to offer training facilities.

We want to ensure students are trained properly to prevent accidents caused by poor conversions, she added.

(NAN)

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An official of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) has explained why the board has not released the results of the rescheduled Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

The board had planned to release the rescheduled UTME results on Wednesday, according to a memo sent to reporters. It was, however, postponed.

JAMB Spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that the board has not decided yet the day to release the UTME.

However, a source who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES anonymously explained that the board had earlier reviewed the result and had invited experts to review it before it is released to the candidates.

The source said JAMB invited Boniface Nworgu, a professor of educational measurement and evaluation, to review the result before release.

Mr Nworgu, currently the Commissioner for Labour and Employment in Imo State, would arrive at the board headquarters and review the results today (Thursday), the source added.

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JAMB Registrar Is-haq Oloyede had explained on Wednesday that Mr Nworgu had been a consultant for the board and had authored a book on assessment for the board. Mr Oloyede described Mr Nworgu as one of the best psychometricians on the African continent.

PREMIUM TIMES learned that Mr Nworgus review will follow the boards chief examiners initial review of the results.

Other decisions

The source also disclosed to PREMIUM TIMES that after meeting with stakeholders on Wednesday, JAMB agreed to release the result of underage candidates even though they cannot use it for admissions.

The meeting also suggested the prosecution of some candidates who engaged in examination malpractice during the UTME.

Rescheduled UTME

JAMB Registrar, Mr Oloyede said on Wednesday that the rescheduled UTME had about 95 per cent attendance rate and the board has decided to hold a mop-up for candidates who missed both the UTME and the rescheduled UTME.

JAMB had rescheduled the UTME for 379,997 candidates whose results were altered by a glitch that affected 157 centres in Lagos state and the South-east.

JAMB found the glitch after it hastened the review of the 2025 UTME results following widespread concerns among candidates that they have had a track record of better performances in the UTME.

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The Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday opposed Israels efforts to block the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, citing no legal basis.

The prosecutors urged the judges to proceed with investigation into alleged crimes committed in Gaza.

In a ten-page legal submission posted on its website, prosecutor Karim Khan responded to Israels filing earlier this month.

Israel has asked the court, or the Pre-Trial Chamber I, to withdraw the warrants and suspend the ICCs investigation until a ruling is made on Israels challenge to the courts jurisdiction.

The prosecutor emphasised that there is no basis to withdraw or vacate the warrants, asserting that the court had already determined that Netanyahu and Gallants alleged actions fall within the courts jurisdiction.

The ICC previously found reasonable grounds to believe the two officials bear responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza between 8 October 2023 and 20 May 2024.

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Israels jurisdictional challenge had been dismissed in November 2024, but the Appeals Chamber reversed that decision in April 2025, citing insufficient reasoning.

However, the prosecutor clarified that this reversal has no bearing on the warrants.

In conclusion, the prosecutor asked the judges to deny Israels request to withdraw or vacate the arrest warrants and reject Israels request for a suspension of the investigation into the situation in Palestine.

In November 2024, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Messrs Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In February 2025, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the international body, including financial penalties and visa restrictions, blaming the court for being engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and its close ally, Israel.

Recently, US software giant Microsoft blocked the email account of the ICC chief prosecutor Khan, citing Mr Trumps sanctions.

This cutting-off action has reportedly paralysed the courts work due to the institutions heavy dependence on service providers such as Microsoft.

(Xinhua/NAN)

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Despite glaring evidence, Akwa Ibom State Government has refuted a media report that said it has received N653.6 billion as revenue in the first three months of 2025.

The State Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, made the rebuttal in reaction to a publication by a newspaper in the state.

The newspaper, theMail in its Tuesday edition ran a story with a banner headline, Akwa Ibom Govt gets N653.6 billion revenue in first three months of 2025. The report said the government has spent 199.6 billion.

Citing the state governments 2025 first quarter Budget Performance Report (BPR), the newspaper provided details on how it arrived at N653.6 billion as the total revenue and N199.6 billion as the total expenditure of the state within the said period.

Of the N653.6 billion, the newspaper gave a breakdown that the state government has an opening balance of N375.69bn brought forward from the revenue remnant of the 2024 fiscal year.

The state government, the newspaper reported, has received N261.56bn revenue from the Government share of Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) and N16.31bn from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)

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It also reported an expenditure of N199.6bn with a breakdown of N65.73bn on recurrent expenses and N133.9bn on capital expenditure.

Report erroneous, says Akwa Ibom Govt

In the statement, the state government described the publication as false claims, misleading and inaccurate, and urged the public to disregard it.

Mr Umanah, the commissioner for information, said the report was not only false but reflects a gross misrepresentation of the states financial position.

However, the commissioner did not provide any figure as revenue and expenditure for the said period to counter the papers report.

The figures quoted are inaccurate, misleading, and entirely detached from verified financial records, Mr Umanah said, discrediting the report whose data is obtained from the Akwa Ibom State Governments website.

The publication appears to be the product of a flawed interpretation and a lack of basic understanding of public finance, particularly the concept of carry-over balances from the previous year, which are standard components of budgetary and treasury frameworks.

It is unprofessional to misinform the public through unchecked extrapolations and a wrong reading of complex financial documents, Mr Umanah said, urging the public to disregard it and continue to support Governor Umo Eno.

We stand by our report  theMail

Reacting to the Akwa Ibom State Governments rebuttal, theMail, in a statement on Wednesday said it stands by its report.

It is very surprising and shameful, to say the least, that the Government of Akwa Ibom State came out to dispute the data published in its own report yet disappointingly failed to provide the supposed correct revenue and expenditure profile of the State, said Mr Simon, an editor with the newspaper.

The quarterly BPR of the sub-nationals in the federation is published two weeks after every quarter to promote transparency in public finance.

The state government, which in the past adhered to this deadline, only published that of the first quarter of 2025 on 12 May, prompting theMail to suspect that something was wrong.

Surprisingly, even after the late publication, the Government of Akwa Ibom State conspicuously left behind a salient part of the report, which would aid accountability. For instance, the Budget Performance Report, which is usually a 46-page report capturing how each Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) generated revenue (Revenue by Administrative classification), Revenue by Economic Classification, Expenditure by Administrative classification- personnel, Overhead, and Capital, among other imperatives, were all exempted.

The State only published a three-page summary of the report, leaving citizens in the dark on where the money actually went to.

Seeing the government of Akwa Ibom State come out to cry foul on why our newspaper published the financial portfolio of the State, coupled with its decision to hold back a detailed report from the public, we are forced to ask: What really is Akwa Ibom State Government trying to hide in its finances, the newspaper said.

READ ALSO: Gov Eno flags off 32km road construction in two LGAs in Akwa Ibom

Findings by PREMIUM TIMES

The state government BPR is a publication from the Budget Office, an agency under the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

PREMIUM TIMES checks on the 2025 first quarter report obtained from the agencys website indicate that the state government received N653.6 billion, representing 68.4 per cent of its projected revenue for the 2025 fiscal year, and has spent N199.6 billion within the first three months in 2025 as reported by theMail.

However, it must be noted that of the N653.6 billion, N375.6 billion, representing over 50 per cent, is the opening balance, the amount carried over from the 2024 budget, which is yet to be audited.

Since budget performance reports are not audited financial statements of governments, there are likely to be changes in figures when an audited account is released to the public.

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First HoldCo Plc, the parent of Nigerias oldest lender, First Bank, is confident it will have scaled up core capital to at least N500 billion by July this year, eight months ahead of the cut-off time set for banks in Nigeria to raise the capital to new thresholds.

Before the end of July, the bank will be at the minimum required capitalisation from the central bank, Managing Director Wale Oyedeji said at an annual meeting of shareholders on Thursday.

The group already has 30 per cent of the cash in its kitty from a recent rights issue that sold N150 billion worth of common stock to shareholders and intends to raise the balance through private placement.

The proposed share sale to affluent investors will kick off in two weeks, Femi Otedola, chairman and top shareholder, told the meeting, adding that his combined investment in the holding company will have surpassed N300 billion by the time the planned offer is over.

To better position Nigerian lenders for the N1 trillion economy, it seeks to attain by 2030, the CBN is asking banks to create buffers and expand paid-in capital to significantly higher levels.

Lenders with international authorisation, the licence class to which First Bank and the rest of the countrys biggest lenders collectively called FUGAZ, have seen their minimum capital raised tenfold to N500 billion under the new rules.

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Access Holdings, Nigerias largest lender by assets, and Zenith Bank are already home and dry, having met the conditions. GTCO, the countrys biggest lender by market value, which raised N209.4 billion from retail investors last year, is looking to raise more cash this year, especially from international investor,s to make up the deficit.

United Bank for Africa, whose verified capital now stands at N355.2 billion, has also said it will raise the balance this year.

Credit ratings agency Fitch foresees that a couple of mergers and acquisitions among small-tier banks will likely result, owing to pressure to meet the new rules.

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The JAMB registrar has indeed demonstrated maturity and good leadership. He readily showed empathy by truly agreeing that there was failure in the system and took responsibility for this, with corrective follow-up actions. Currently, what should be key are preventive solutions, such that there is no future recurrence of the underperformance at UTME.

There has been a lot of brouhaha over the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results. Over two million candidates registered for the examination, and about 1.94 million sat for it. More than 75 per cent (1.5 million+) of the candidates scored below 200. This development has not gone down well with parents and candidates, who took to social media to express outrage.

However, according to JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the performance data for the 2025 UTME falls within the expected range based on trends over the past 12 years. This is not peculiar to this year. The performance statistics are consistent with those of the last 12 years, Oloyede stated. He cited previous years to support his claim, noting that in 2024, 76 per cent of candidates scored below 200, while in 2022, 78 per cent of the 1.7 million candidates also fell below that mark. In 2021, only 803, out of 1.3 million candidates, scored above 300.

The 2025 UTME has become one of the most controversial in recent history, not just due to the number scoring below 200, but because of the complaints revolving around the efficiency of the system and the credibility of the results. The problem also raises critical questions about the exam process, integrity, and educational equity. The controversy is resulting in efforts aimed at understanding what could have gone wrong, if anything was indeed wrong.

In the latest turn of events on 14 May, a very emotionally regretful Mr Oloyede apologised to the public in a press outing reported by major national newspapers. He accepted that there were indeed regrettable technical issues from their end that had affected the outcome for some candidates. According to the analysis, a total of 379,997 candidates, across 157 centres in Lagos and the South-East, would retake their examinations. Oloyede said the board has decided that all candidates affected in the 157 out of 882 (17.8 per cent) centres will be contacted to retake their examinations starting from Friday, 16th May.

I appeal to the candidates and those affected by the error of our system to accept this explanation as the truth of the matter without embellishment, please. I apologise and take full responsibility, not just in words, Mr Oloyede stated. He informed the media that the affected candidates would be contacted by JAMB through text messages sent to their registered phone numbers, email addresses, profiles, and phone calls. He directed them to reprint their examination slips for the rescheduled examination dates.

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He said the board has contacted the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), which is currently holding its West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), to allow JAMB some slots for candidates to take the exams, and WAEC has agreed. Any candidate with a clash of timetable, particularly for Agricultural Science on Friday, would be rescheduled, Mr Oloyede said.

The digital divide is a problem for the use of CBT centres for UTME. Many candidates, especially from rural or low-income backgrounds, lacked basic computer literacy. A supervisors report highlighted that some candidates didnt know how to operate a keyboard or mouse, much less navigate the CBT interface. In simple terminology, technological illiteracy or, at best, semi-literacy, is yearning for solutions. Not many candidates or customers of JAMB grew up with the advantage of using computers as regular everyday life items.

However, we have endeavoured to ensure that no such thing exists. Most, if not all, such candidates are scheduled for Saturday. Fortunately, the prescribed texts for SSCE are also the prescribed texts for UTME, apart from the reading text of the UTME, which carries just 10 marks in our Use of English test.

While 206,610 candidates were affected in the 65 centres in Lagos zone, 173,387 candidates were affected in 92 centres in Owerri zone. JAMB reportedly examined samples from across the country, but no sign of any abnormality has been detected in any centre other than the ones mentioned. Oloyede, however, added that the exercise continues.

National Readiness for Digital-Only Exams

Many factors could account for why about 75 per cent of candidates have been underperforming at UTME annually. It is a national shame that we have been accepting this situation as normal at the annual JAMB meetings with University vice-chancellors. This national acceptance of low quality as normal has been forcing universities to scramble for the 25 per cent who scored above 200 and then set very low standards to fill up vacant positions. After all, profit is now the major part of setting up universities, especially in the private sector.

The 2025 UTME imbroglio throws up several issues that have been yearning for solutions. There has to be more readiness in embracing digital-only exams, both on the part of the examining agencies/service providers and the service users/candidates. For instance, some supervisors noticed system malfunctions at the CBT centres  freezing screens, login problems, and the loss of answers. Some candidates reportedly logged out without submitting or could not navigate between subjects. Those were absolutely no faults of the service users/candidates.

The digital divide is a problem for the use of CBT centres for UTME. Many candidates, especially from rural or low-income backgrounds, lacked basic computer literacy. A supervisors report highlighted that some candidates didnt know how to operate a keyboard or mouse, much less navigate the CBT interface. In simple terminology, technological illiteracy or, at best, semi-literacy, is yearning for solutions. Not many candidates or customers of JAMB grew up with the advantage of using computers as regular everyday life items. There has to be some middle ground for inclusivity.

However, the answer is not to opt out of technological change but to come up with answers on how to democratise the availability of knowledge on technological change that is spreading in our world to all Nigerian children who are actively motivated towards education. Though JAMB could play a role in deploying some of its earnings to such a purpose, the answer should involve society and its governance structures at large. We must be more intentional with issues that affect the destinies and future of young Nigerians. The UTME exercise should not just be seen as a mere exercise, but as a very important platform through which the future technocrats and crop of people who would take over the skilled manpower machinery of the country are practically filtered. It is good that the public reaction has met with responsible action from JAMB in this case.

Despite the uproar over the 2025 UTME, its important to recognise the integrity-driven leadership of Mr Ishaq Oloyede, who has consistently fought corruption and pushed for reforms. However, even strong leadership needs to be adaptive and listen to the cries of the people. A calm, evidence-based review of 2025s UTME is not only necessary  it is urgent.

Recommendations on the Way Forward

Beyond being a revenue-generating tool for the government, with special commendations on the registrars commitment to returning funds to the Federal government, JAMB must continue to recalibrate, fine-tune its structure, and ensure it delivers excellently.

Nigeria requires massive digital literacy campaigns in secondary schools, especially rural ones. The 774 local governments, with more funding expected to result from the autonomy they are expected to have under the present dispensation, should invest in computer-based modern libraries. Private entities could also be encouraged to spend some of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds on setting up computer-based libraries.

CBT simulation workshops should become mandatory for all candidates before UTME and similar exams are conducted. The independent audit of CBT centres and software providers should be a regular effort of regulatory bodies, including JAMB.

Despite the uproar over the 2025 UTME, its important to recognise the integrity-driven leadership of Mr Ishaq Oloyede, who has consistently fought corruption and pushed for reforms. However, even strong leadership needs to be adaptive and listen to the cries of the people. A calm, evidence-based review of 2025s UTME is not only necessary  it is urgent.

The JAMB registrar has indeed demonstrated maturity and good leadership. He readily showed empathy by truly agreeing that there was failure in the system and took responsibility for this, with corrective follow-up actions. Currently, what should be key are preventive solutions, such that there is no future recurrence of the underperformance at UTME.

Babafemi A. Badejo, author of a best-seller on politics in Kenya, was a former deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, a former professor of Political Science and International Relations at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, and currently a legal practitioner and consultant at Yintab Strategy Consults. He is the 2025 Nelson Mandela Distinguished Africanist Awardee of the African Annual Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.

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As we celebrate Mr Falola, we must also confront the deeper question his example poses to all of us: Are we building a nation that values knowledge? Are we raising a generation that sees education as liberation and not just certification? Are our institutions modelling integrity, excellence, and innovation?.. In honouring Falola, we honour the very idea of intellectual patriotism. We affirm that ideas matter. That culture matters. That Africa matters.

In what I can only describe as a moment of visionary alignment, the Adeyemi Federal University of Education has announced that Professor Toyin Falola will deliver the maiden convocation lecture in its new status as a full-fledged university. This is no mere ceremonial gesture  it is a bold, symbolic act that honours the past, affirms the present, and points unflinchingly to the future.

Adeyemi, itself a university in transition, has found in Falola the perfect representation of intellectual evolution and cultural reaffirmation. It is a marriage of purpose. A transformational institution has chosen a transformational figure. The nation  and indeed the continent  must pay attention.

Why This Moment Matters

We live in a time of deep national questioning. The value of education is being debated in town halls and markets. Our institutions are grappling with relevance, funding, and identity in an age of globalisation and digital disruption. In such a climate, the choice of who inaugurates a universitys convocation lecture is profoundly symbolic.

By turning to Mr Toyin Falola, Adeyemi University is sending a clear message: that our educational renewal must be rooted in authenticity, originality, and scholarship that elevates the African experience  not one that merely imitates foreign models. Falola is not just a scholar; he is a movement, a standard-bearer for African intellectual independence and global relevance.

A Life Anchored in Culture and Conscience

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Born on 1 January, 1953, in the historic city of Ibadan, Toyin Falola emerged from a cultural capital that shaped his intellectual trajectory. Ibadan, known for its literary heritage and political consciousness, was itself a teacher. Falolas early participation in the Agbekoya revolt against oppressive taxation and government negligence is testament to a lifelong commitment to justice and social transformation.

At a young age, Falola made the extraordinary choice to leave formal schooling to stand with the oppressed. He aligned himself with a peoples movement, declaring, in effect, that knowledge is not only gathered in classrooms but lived on the streets, in farms, in oral traditions, and in acts of collective resistance. This was not an act of rebellion; it was an initiation into what would become a lifetime of engaged scholarship.

Decolonising the African Mind

Falola belongs to a distinguished intellectual lineage that includes Kenneth Dike, JF Ade Ajayi, Tekena Tamuno, Bolanle Awe, and other pioneers of the Ibadan School of History. These men began the difficult task of decolonising African historiography  of telling Africas story on its own terms. But Falola has taken that mission further. His work is not simply corrective; it is regenerative. He has broadened the canvas, deepened the palette, and introduced bold new strokes that have revitalised African scholarship.

Falola has been more than a writer and teacher; he has been a builder. A builder of intellectual networks, of transnational collaborations, of institutions, and of enduring legacies. He has served on various editorial boards, been a fellow of prestigious academies, and chaired international bodies dedicated to African studies. He has received more than thirty honorary degrees, awards, and fellowships

With over 200 published books and close to 800 scholarly articles, essays, and book chapters, Falola is arguably the most prolific African scholar alive today. But more important than the volume of his output is the depth and daring of its content. His celebrated work, The Power of African Cultures, dismantles colonial distortions and affirms the agency, complexity, and vitality of African traditions. It reframes culture not as an obstacle to development but as its very foundation.

In Decolonizing African Knowledge: Autoethnography and African Epistemologies, Falola goes even further, placing the African self at the centre of knowledge production. With courage and creativity, he blends personal narrative with scholarly analysis to create a form of intellectual expression that is as intimate as it is revolutionary.

Global Reach, Local Relevance

Mr Falolas name commands respect, not only across Africa but also around the world. His writings appear in libraries from Cape Town to Cairo, Lagos to London; from Manila to Moscow, Nairobi to New York. His voice reverberates in lecture halls, conferences, and community gatherings alike. He has served as a mentor to a generation of African and diaspora scholars, and his influence has shaped entire disciplines.

More recently, Falola has pioneered The Toyin Falola Interviews  a digital forum that brings together intellectuals, artists, writers, and leaders from diverse backgrounds for in-depth conversations about Africas past, present, and future. These interviews are not just academic engagements but a democratisation of African thought, conducted in ways that are accessible to the general public. Here, the classroom meets the courtyard.

His ability to straddle traditional scholarship and public intellectualism has made him an enduring figure in both the ivory tower and the street square. Whether through lectures or social media, Falola continues to educate, provoke, and inspire a wide audience that spans generations.

Beyond the Ivory Tower: Cultural Ambassador and Builder of Institutions

Falola has been more than a writer and teacher; he has been a builder. A builder of intellectual networks, of transnational collaborations, of institutions, and of enduring legacies. He has served on various editorial boards, been a fellow of prestigious academies, and chaired international bodies dedicated to African studies. He has received more than thirty honorary degrees, awards, and fellowships  a testimony to the respect he commands globally.

Perhaps more significantly, Falola is a living embodiment of the idea that Africa must tell its own story. He represents a post-colonial generation of scholars who believe that intellectual sovereignty is not just desirable but essential. He has taught and lectured in more than forty countries, connecting continents with the rich, diverse, and dynamic intellectual traditions of Africa.

Through his vast scholarship and global networks, he has transformed what was once considered peripheral knowledge into central conversations about global modernity. By doing so, he has turned the margins into the mainstream.

To call him a transformational figure is not an exaggeration. It is a factual summation of decades of influence, innovation, and inspiration. As he mounts the podium at the maiden convocation of Adeyemi Federal University of Education, he is not just giving a lecture; he is performing a rite of passage for a generation that must now pick up the baton and continue the race.

A Legacy in Motion

What sets Professor Toyin Falola apart is not merely what he has achieved, but the principles upon which his scholarship is anchored: justice, authenticity, independence, and African agency. His academic life is a compelling testimony to the idea that scholarship can  and must  have a soul.

To call him a transformational figure is not an exaggeration. It is a factual summation of decades of influence, innovation, and inspiration. As he mounts the podium at the maiden convocation of Adeyemi Federal University of Education, he is not just giving a lecture; he is performing a rite of passage for a generation that must now pick up the baton and continue the race.

His story reminds us that education is not merely about acquiring degrees, but about acquiring the moral imagination to rebuild societies. His life is proof that knowledge is most powerful when it is connected to community, to culture, and to conscience.

Conclusion: A Call to Reflection and Action

Nigeria stands at a crossroads. We are surrounded by challenges  economic, political, moral. But we are also surrounded by possibilities. The life and work of Toyin Falola show us that one of the most powerful tools for transformation is the human mind  properly nurtured, rightly directed, and deeply rooted in cultural identity.

As we celebrate Mr Falola, we must also confront the deeper question his example poses to all of us: Are we building a nation that values knowledge? Are we raising a generation that sees education as liberation and not just certification? Are our institutions modelling integrity, excellence, and innovation?

In honouring Falola, we honour the very idea of intellectual patriotism. We affirm that ideas matter. That culture matters. That Africa matters.

Toyin Falola is not just a scholar. He is a mirror. A standard. A challenge. And most importantly, a promise of what is still possible for African scholarship  and for Africa itself.

Bukola Oyeniyi is associate professor of African History at the Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA.

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Oloyedes tears may seem insufficient to assuage a nation in grief, but he has demonstrated, over the last nine years and long before he became registrar, that he does not take his job lightly. One mishap should not define his tenure. When the ongoing investigation is complete and the house cleaning done, a sceptical public must know the steps taken to prevent a repeat.

The last time a public official wept on national TV, Nigerians regretted offering her towels, instead of buckets to collect her tears. She was acting, but we didnt know it.

Diezani Allison-Madueke had just been appointed minister of Transport and went on a tour to assess some major roads. At the Benin end of the Lagos-Benin highway, she broke down and wept. She was seeing, for the first time, outside her bubble, what Nigerians knew and endured daily: poor, hazardous roads.

Her tears changed nothing. She left the roads in a worse state than she found them, but Nigeria being Nigeria, she went on to become the minister for Petroleum Resources and subsequently left the place in a more disastrous condition than Nigerian roads.

On 15 May, the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, wept on national TV for a different reason. As a result of human negligence, the results of the 2025 UTME went horribly wrong, affecting 379,997 out of the 1.9 million students who took the exam. It was not a system glitch, as widely reported. Some individuals responsible for patching or updating the servers were negligent, leading to a disastrous outcome.

Paying the Price

The grief lies in the details. For instance, 19-year-old Faith Opesusi Timileyin, who was re-sitting the exam, hoping to study microbiology, if she could improve on the 193 out of 400 she scored last year, took her own life by ingesting poison. She could not bear the shame of failing again. The same echoes of embarrassment and distress resonated across the country, as thousands of young people, who made sacrifices and braved difficult conditions to take the exam, contemplated their fate and what could have been.

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Yet, Nigerians, despite being jaded by years of disappointment with incompetent public officials, can sense the difference between Diezanis crocodile tears and Oloyedes misery. One was a con artist; the other, the victim of a horrible, but not unexampled error, as Farooq Kperogi noted in his column on Saturday.

Remaking of JAMB

Oloyedes JAMB is not JAMB as it was. One of the biggest dramas in the institutions 47-year history unfolded two years after he was appointed registrar, following his exceptional record as vice-chancellor of the University of Ilorin. JAMB introduced computerised examinations in 2014, but the system, still in its infancy at the time, was marred by delays, confusion, and scratch-card fraud.

The 2025 UTME disruption was a horrible mishap. Still, its not without recent examples, one from Oxford University in 2023 and the other from the 2025 US SAT exams, both of which were cited in Kperogis article. There was a particularly heart-rending debacle in September 2023, when the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK made a catastrophic error in the Part Two written results of the postgraduate medical diploma exam.

Oloyede ordered an investigation, which found that the place was infested with snakes, including boa constrictors, that had allegedly swallowed millions of naira from the sales of scratch cards, except that the snakes were human beings. One Philomina Chieshe, a clerk at JAMBs Benue State office, swallowed N36 million from the sales of scratch cards and told investigators and the court that it was indeed a snake that had mysteriously devoured the money.

Killing the Snakes

Seven years after she was arraigned, neither Chieshe nor any of the reptiles in the scratch-card hole have been held accountable for the fraud. Apart from swallowing N36 million, which was equivalent to $100,000 at the time, the snakes also appear to have swallowed the courts and the prosecutors.

I have criticised JAMB in the past for several reasons, mainly because I still believe that a decentralised placement system, as practised in pre-1978 Nigeria, the US, and South Korea, works better.

Yet, whatever the inadequacies of JAMB, the board has, especially under Oloyedes leadership in the last nine years, transformed from a snake-infested wasteland of corruption and mediocrity into one of Nigerias most responsive and better-run public institutions.

Fresh Air

In a country where lawmakers routinely inflate the appropriation bill by billions of naira, and ministries and government departments are broke, unimaginative and opaque, Oloyede has been a breath of fresh air. He has remitted over N55 billion to the federal treasury, compared to less than N60 million remitted in the 38 years preceding his tenure.

But its not just about the money. To promote openness, accountability, and inclusiveness in the board, he expanded the decision-making process to include independents and other professionals in monitoring and evaluating the boards activities, particularly the UTME exam. Still, despite our best efforts, bad things happen.

Not Unexampled

The 2025 UTME disruption was a horrible mishap. Still, its not without recent examples, one from Oxford University in 2023 and the other from the 2025 US SAT exams, both of which were cited in Kperogis article. There was a particularly heart-rending debacle in September 2023, when the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK made a catastrophic error in the Part Two written results of the postgraduate medical diploma exam.

The registrar bears a responsibility to the memory of the candidate who died, to the thousands of hard-working candidates who gave their best in the exam, and to the reputation he has established as an exemplary public servant, to reform the system and use the lessons from this tragic episode to enhance the processes and outcomes of future exams.

Two hundred and twenty-two doctors were informed that they had passed when in fact they had failed, while 61 were told they had failed, despite passing. Imagine the horror of the patients who may have been treated by failed doctors, not to mention the distress of those who passed but were told they failed, or the anguish of those who made progress yet were instructed to re-sit the exam.

To Resign or Not?

After taking responsibility for the error, Oloyede told the press that he was prepared to resign, but was persuaded that his resignation would compound, rather than solve, the problem. I agree. I do not share the view that all those calling for his resignation are necessarily out to settle personal scores, even though this may be correct in some instances, especially among politicians who have decided to ethnicise the matter.

The registrar bears a responsibility to the memory of the candidate who died, to the thousands of hard-working candidates who gave their best in the exam, and to the reputation he has established as an exemplary public servant, to reform the system and use the lessons from this tragic episode to enhance the processes and outcomes of future exams.

Wake-up Call

Parents must also play a role. We exaggerate the significance of UTME results beyond their true value, placing unnecessary pressure on candidates. Under the current system, most universities and institutions of higher learning offer admission based on the weighted average of three examination results. While the UTME result constitutes 50 per cent of the final score, the WASSCE or O/Level results and post-UTME exams, if conducted, make up the remaining 50 per cent.

Unfortunately, we have constructed a dangerous illusion that everything hinges on performance at JAMB, resulting in a frantic quest for JAMB success that now haunts us. We may never know if Faith would have taken her own life had she realised that a low JAMB score alone does not necessarily signify the end of the road to admission.

Fall to Rise

Oloyedes tears may seem insufficient to assuage a nation in grief, but he has demonstrated, over the last nine years and long before he became registrar, that he does not take his job lightly. One mishap should not define his tenure. When the ongoing investigation is complete and the house cleaning done, a sceptical public must know the steps taken to prevent a repeat.

Azu Ishiekwene is editor-in-chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.

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Jigawa State Pilgrims Welfare Board has concluded the airlifting of the second and last batch of 368 pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia for the 2025 Hajj exercise.

The Board earlier on Monday airlifted the first batch of the 550 pilgrims from the state.

The last batch of the pilgrims, from Taura, Buji and Birnin Kudu local government areas, departed Nuhu Muhammadu Sunusi International airport, Dutse, the Jigawa State capital, early Thursday morning.

In his farewell message, Governor Umar Namadi, urged them to conduct themselves in a manner that reflects positively on Nigeria and pray for the state and countrys prosperity.

The Director-General of the Jigawa State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Ahmed Umar Labbo, earlier assured the pilgrims of their commitment to their welfare during the pilgrimage.

The pilgrims were airlifted Thursday, by Max Air airline 747 plane at about 01:51 a.m Nigerian time.

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As part of its ongoing commitment to national development and regional inclusion, BUA Group has officially handed over a fully equipped multi-purpose building to the newly created North-West Development Commission (NWDC) to serve as its temporary headquarters in Kano State.

The handover ceremony, held at the donated facility on Court Road, Kano, was attended by dignitaries from both the public and private sectors, including representatives of the Commission, community leaders, and officials of BUA Group.

Speaking at the event on behalf of the Founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Khalifa Abdul Samad Rabiu described the donation as a symbolic and practical expression of BUAs belief in transformational partnerships between the private sector and public institutions.

At BUA, we believe inclusive development starts with providing institutions the tools to succeed. This gesture by my father and Chairman of BUA Group, Alhaji Abdul Samad Rabiu, is more than just bricks and mortar. For us at BUA, this donation is about laying a foundation for people-centred growth in the North-West to support President Bola Tinubus regional development drive under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said Khalifa Abdul Samad Rabiu.

In his comments, the Chairman of the North-West Development Commission, Lawal Samaila Abdullahi, expressed profound gratitude to BUA Group for the timely support, noting that the facility would provide the Commission with the operational footing it needs to kickstart its mandate of fast-tracking infrastructure and economic growth in the region.

This support from BUA is not just generousit is strategic. It gives us the necessary momentum as we commence the Commissions work to transform lives and unlock the immense potential of the North-West, the Chairman said.

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This donation builds on a growing wave of support for the newly established Commission as it complements the Kano State Governments earlier contribution of a 3 billion land parcel for the Commissions permanent headquarters.

Through this handover, BUA Group reaffirms its enduring dedication to public-private collaboration as a cornerstone of sustainable development in Nigeria.

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SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The committee representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the bankruptcy of The Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco ("The Archdiocese") has released, following bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali's approval over the Archdiocese's objection, data related to the claims filed in the bankruptcy (the "Claims Data"). Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, LLP is counsel to the survivors' committee.

Over 530 survivors filed claims against the Archdiocese of San Francisco alleging sexual abuse as children. The Archdiocese of San Francisco declared bankruptcy in 2023, which prevented individual survivors from continuing their individual state court cases and telling their individual stories. The survivors' committee's release of the Claims Data pulls information from those individual claims but paints a vivid picture of the abuse that occurred in the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

"These numbers tell only a small part of this shocking narrative," said Margie O'Driscoll, co-chair of the survivors' committee. "For every person who came forward, there are more who have not come forward due to shame, fear of repercussion, or concern about their professional reputation," she explained. O'Driscoll further noted the high percentage of locations of abuse, saying, "there is an obvious systemic issue revealed in this data that is alarming."

Judge Montali noted that survivors "are not data points. They are aging survivors of clergy abuse, with stories that are both unique to themselves and similar to other survivors."1

"Each survivor's experience cannot be diminished to numbers on a chart," said Brittany Michael, of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP. "But the Claims Data tells its own story of the depth and breadth of abuse that occurred in this Archdiocese," she added.

The following Claims Data shows many important statistics about the abuse that occurred within the Archdiocese:

81% (71 of the 88) parishes in the Archdiocese were implicated in the abuse claims.





Survivors were as young as two and three years old when perpetrators associated with the Archdiocese began abusing them. More than half of the abuse allegations began when the survivor was ten years old or younger.





68 perpetrators were named by more than one survivor as having sexually assaulted them as children.





There were over 110 allegations of anal or vaginal rape and over 210 allegations of oral rape.





While the Archdiocese often refers to abuse as a historic problem, close to forty survivors who were abused in the last three decades came forward in the bankruptcy. Given what is known about delayed disclosure, the full extent of the abuse from the past three decades may not be known for years to come.

VIEW THE AGGREGATE CLAIMS DATA

1 Memorandum Decision on Motion for Relief from Stay, Docket Number 1138.

SOURCE Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones
TAIPEI, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- AnnJi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a clinical-stage Taiwanese biotechnology company focused on addressing unmet medical needs in dermatology, neurology, and rare diseases, today announced positive results from its Phase 1/2a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, first-in-patient clinical trial of AJ201 in adults with Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA). Conducted across six U.S. clinical sites, the study evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK), and pharmacodynamics (PD) of AJ201 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05517603). While not powered to assess efficacy, exploratory endpoints revealed meaningful treatment-related improvements that support continued clinical development.

Safety and Pharmacokinetics

The safety and pharmacokinetic profiles in SBMA patients were consistent with prior healthy volunteer data. AJ201 was generally well tolerated, and no systemic drug accumulation was observed.

Positive Clinical Signals

After 12 weeks of oral treatment, AJ201 recipients showed clinically meaningful improvements in physical and muscle function compared to placebo, including a 17.6-meter gain in the 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) and a 0.8-point increase in the SBMA Functional Rating Scale (SBMAFRS) on average, while the placebo group experienced slight declines. AJ201 also led to reduction in serum creatine kinase and myoglobin levelssuggesting a positive therapeutic effect. Most responders are in the AJ201 group: 11 of 15 for 6MWT, 6 of 7 for SBMAFRS, 14 of 14 for creatine kinase, and 11 of 12 for myoglobin, further supporting AJ201's benefit. Additionally, patients in AJ201 group reported significant improvement in physical function component of SF36v2 quality-of-life questionnaire, while placebo group a decline (p=0.026).

Biomarker Findings and RNA Sequencing Reveal Mechanistic Support

Mutant androgen receptor (mAR) levels, a proposed biomarker for SBMA, were assessed via muscle biopsies. Nuclear mAR levels were reduced by more than 50% in 53% of AJ201-treated patients, compared to 17% of placebo, indicating potential therapeutic activity.

RNA sequencing of muscle biopsies from AJ201-treated patients revealed activation of the Nrf2 pathway, along with modulation of several disease-relevant signaling cascades. These changes, absent in the placebo group, offer support for AJ201's therapeutic mechanism of action.

Conclusion and Expert Commentary

Consistent improvements across functional, biochemical, and molecular markers observed in this study support continued development of AJ201 for SBMA.

"The study results are highly encouraging. AJ201 has shown evidence of clinical benefit, demonstrated through improvements in functional assessments, positive shifts in serum biomarkers, and RNA sequencing data supporting activation of the Nrf2 pathway. Together, these findings reinforce the therapeutic potential of AJ201," said Dr. Christopher Grunseich, Principal Investigator of the study. Dr. Grunseich is a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and Head of the Inherited Neuromuscular Diseases Unit at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"SBMA is a slowly progressing neuromuscular disorder, and I am greatly encouraged by the positive clinical outcomes observed after a relatively short course of AJ201 treatment," said Wendy Huang, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Board at AnnJi. "AnnJi is committed to advancing the program into Phase 3 clinical trials, with the aim of delivering a safe, effective, and much-needed therapeutic option for patients living with SBMAa disease that currently lacks any FDA-approved treatments."

About SBMA and AJ201

SBMA, or Kennedy's disease, is a rare X-linked inherited neuromuscular disorder caused by CAG repeat expansion in the androgen receptor (AR) gene. The resulting mutant AR protein contributes to muscle and neuron degeneration through mechanisms involving cellular toxicity, oxidative stress, and neuroinflammation. SBMA affects ~1 in 40,000 males globally and currently has no FDA-approved treatment.

AJ201, also known as JM17, is a novel investigational compound that has shown potential in reducing mutant AR toxicity and improving motor function in preclinical SBMA models. At the molecular level, it promotes degradation of pathogenic mAR protein, induces expression of antioxidant enzymes, proteasome subunits, and heat shock proteins, all of which may slow disease progression (Bott et al., 2016).

About AnnJi Pharmaceutical

AnnJi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., founded in 2014, is a clinical-stage biotech company focused on developing first-in-class small molecule therapies for serious and underserved diseases. Our pipeline spans neurology, dermatology, and rare disorders like SBMA. AnnJi is committed to translating cutting-edge science into differentiated treatments and advancing them through global collaboration and commercialization. For more information, visit: www.ajpharm.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding AnnJi's plans, programs, and expected results. These statements are based on current assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes to differ materially. AnnJi undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.

Contact

Anne Yu

AnnJi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

(+886) 2-2365-5677

[email protected]
Former CIA senior executive and Apple insider threat leader to help guide the development of Strider's proprietary AI-powered intelligence engine Spark

SALT LAKE CITY, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Strider Technologies, Inc. , the leading provider of strategic intelligence, today announced that Anthony DeMario, former Director of Insider Threat and Investigations for Apple, is joining the company as Executive Vice President. In this role, DeMario will support Strider's artificial intelligence strategy, including the expansion of SparkStrider's proprietary AI-powered intelligence engine that is transforming how organizations utilize strategic intelligence across their security, legal, and intelligence functions.

"Anthony's track record of building global corporate security and intelligence capabilities to secure critical assets and sensitive information at Apple, one of the world's most critical companies, makes him the ideal addition to our leadership team for this next phase of AI innovation at Strider," said Eric Levesque, COO and Co-Founder of Strider. "Spark will revolutionize how organizations around the world access and act on strategic intelligence. Anthony's leadership will help ensure that we continue pushing the boundaries of what is possible with AI to advance Strider's efforts to deliver strategic intelligence at speed and scale."

"The world is becoming more complex, and the threat environment more dynamic. Strider is at the forefront of revolutionizing intelligencedelivering actionable insights for industry to help them navigate these shifts successfully," said DeMario. "Throughout my career, I've witnessed the evolving nature of global security challenges. AI + OSINT is the future of intelligence, and Spark represents a generational leap in how organizations defend against state-sponsored threats. I'm excited to join the Strider team to help guide the development of Spark's next-generation capabilities to deliver rapid, context-rich insights to the organizations that need them most."

DeMario is a retired senior executive with more than 34 years of combined service in the Central Intelligence Agency and the United States Military. Throughout his career, he held a series of executive leadership roles with a strategic focus on the Middle East, Iran, and global counterterrorism operations.

Following DeMario's government service, he transitioned to the private sector, joining Apple as the Director of Insider Threat and Investigations. There, he spearheaded the development of a comprehensive program designed to safeguard Apple's most sensitive intellectual property against internal and external threats.

Most recently, DeMario served as Chief Operating Officer at Advanced Archer Technologies, a specialized drone consulting firm, where he oversaw operations and strategic growth initiatives in support of global security and surveillance solutions.

About Spark

Spark is Strider's proprietary AI-powered intelligence engine that empowers organizations to rapidly uncover and assess risks from state-sponsored actors. Spark delivers actionable insights in real time, automates complex analysis, and enables seamless integration of internal data, combined with Strider's intelligence, for a holistic view of an organization's risk landscape. It marks the first AI-enabled model for open-source strategic intelligence designed for today's evolving threat environment. More information can be found here.

About Strider

Strider is the leading strategic intelligence company empowering organizations to secure and advance their technology and innovation. Leveraging cutting-edge AI technology alongside proprietary methodologies, Strider transforms publicly available data into critical insights. This increased intelligence enables organizations to proactively address and respond to risks associated with state-sponsored intellectual property theft, targeted talent acquisition, and third-party partners. Strider has operations in 15 countries around the globe with offices in Salt Lake City, Washington, DC, London, and Tokyo.

Media Contact: Janelle Davis, [email protected]

SOURCE Strider Technologies, Inc.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Apogee, a leading provider of defense and security solutions, announced the appointment of Pete Brady as Vice President (VP) of Growth. A distinguished global growth strategist and retired U.S. Army Officer, Brady brings more than 35 years of combined military and industry experience within the Department of Defense (DoD).

Pete Brady, VP of Growth at Apogee

Effective May 2025, Brady's role will focus on advancing Apogee's transition into the unrestricted federal market, as well as leading the company's long-term strategic growth initiatives. His leadership will be instrumental in expanding Apogee's strategic market presence and accelerating new business and markets to position the company as an industry leader in defense innovation and solutions.

"Pete brings a tremendous amount of proven capability to Apogee and I look forward to the value creation he brings to our mission areas," said Frank Varga, President and CEO of Apogee. "Pete's ability to drive growth initiatives centered around our core customers, including National Security Stakeholders, Special Operations, and Next Generation Defense Initiatives aligns with our mission and vision for the future."

Prior to joining Apogee, Brady successfully led growth teams across multiple organizations, leveraging his expertise in acquisition strategy, including work with the General Services Administration (GSA), Assisted Acquisition Services, and FEDSIM. His ability to forge strategic government and industry partnerships has consistently delivered measurable growth, increased brand visibility, and has resulted in major business acquisition sales across the industry.

Brady is a retired officer in the United States Army with multiple overseas assignments as well as combat deployments across Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Central Africa. He holds a master's degree in engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder.

About Apogee

Apogee is a nimble and mission-driven organization dedicated to delivering proven U.S. defense and national security solutions. Headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with regional offices across the nation, Apogee offers multi-domain expertise in digital transformation, science & technology, adaptive acquisition, and mission operations. Learn more about what peak performance looks like at www.ApogeeUSA.com.

CONTACT: Carly Fahey-Dima, [email protected]

SOURCE Apogee Engineering LLC
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced that J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., Chairman and CEO, will be participating in a Broker CEO fireside chat at S&P Global Ratings' 2025 Annual Insurance Conference on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

In addition, Gallagher will be hosting its regularly scheduled quarterly management meeting on Wednesday, June 4, from 4:30 p.m. until approximately 5:30 p.m. ET. This quarter's meeting will take place virtually via conference call. During the call, the company will provide commentary on its operations and financial outlook and will take questions from the investment community.

The conference call will be broadcast live through Gallagher's website at www.ajg.com/irmeeting, and a conference call replay will be available at the same link through June 11, 2025. Any information distributed in conjunction with this meeting will be available on June 4 at 4:15 p.m. ET at https://www.ajg.com/June4materials.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Gallagher provides these services in approximately 130 countries around the world through its owned operations and a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Contact:

Raymond Iardella

VP, Investor Relations

(630) 285-3661/ [email protected]

SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
CHICAGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Artificial Intelligence Market Analysis is projected to be valued at USD 279.22 billion in 2024 and reach USD 1,811.75 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 36.6% according to a new report by The Research Insights. The continuous quest for innovation enables tech giants to lead an AI adoption revolution throughout multiple industries such as automotive, healthcare, retail, finance, and manufacturing.

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Market Overview and Growth Trajectory:

Artificial Intelligence Market Growth: The market for artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing at an unparalleled speed because of its robust incorporation into business operations and infrastructure updates along with a transition towards independent decision-making mechanisms. The primary transformative force driving this momentum is the swift democratization of artificial intelligence through cloud-native platforms and APIs. Hyperscale providers such as Microsoft Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex AI have made model development and deployment more accessible through their platforms which simplify complex processes. Companies can now access AI solutions through pre-trained foundation models which they can adapt with their own data using user-friendly interfaces and scalable APIs without needing internal data science teams. The simplified access to advanced AI tools has led to extensive use case experimentation in various fields including customer support automation and fraud detection along with predictive maintenance and personalized healthcare. This driver delivers rapid time-to-value while allowing small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement enterprise-level AI which changes their competitive position. Cloud-delivered AI platforms have served as the great equalizer by turning AI from a specialized ability into a common business resource.



Artificial intelligence describes machines' ability to mimic human intelligence through reasoning-based tasks and learning processes that enable decision-making and perception abilities. Artificial intelligence integrates multiple technologies like machine learning and natural language processing which empower systems to autonomously execute tasks normally needing human intelligence after analysing data and learning through experience.

The report runs an in-depth analysis of market trends, key players, and future opportunities. In general, the Artificial Intelligence Market growth of 36.6% comprises a vast array of Solution, Technology, End Use, Function and Geography which are expected to register strength during the coming years.

For Detailed Artificial Intelligence Market Size & Insights, Visit: https://www.theresearchinsights.com/reports/artificial-intelligence-market-84

Rapid Advancements in AI Technologies and Algorithms:

The uninterrupted progress and increasing complexity of AI technologies and algorithms stands as one of the primary forces driving the global AI market. The latest advancements in machine learning and deep learning along with breakthroughs in natural language processing and computer vision have significantly expanded the capabilities of artificial intelligence. The development of transformer architectures (such as GPT and BERT), reinforcement learning and generative AI models has broadened application possibilities that allow AI systems to analyse human language, identify patterns and make decisions autonomously with improved precision. The combination of extensive datasets with advanced computational resources such as GPUs, TPUs, and cloud computing has sped up AI training procedures to deliver scalable and budget-friendly AI solutions. The progress in technology enables industries to implement AI solutions in complex operations like real-time analytics and autonomous vehicles as well as advanced customer service chatbots and predictive maintenance which leads to its extensive adoption.

Growing Adoption Across Diverse Industry Verticals:

The expanding application of AI throughout different sectors stems from the immediate requirement for digital transformation and improved operational efficiency. AI adoption now spans beyond the tech industry and has quickly spread into healthcare, finance, retail, manufacturing, the automotive field, telecommunications, and government services. For instance:

AI technology assists healthcare professionals in diagnostic procedures while developing patient-specific treatment plans and analysing medical imaging data as well as driving drug discovery efforts.

AI aids financial institutions by enabling fraud detection and risk management strategies while supporting algorithmic trading and automating customer service operations.

detection and risk management strategies while supporting algorithmic trading and automating customer service operations. AI systems enable retailers to create customer-specific product suggestions alongside better inventory management and efficient supply chain operation.

Manufacturing companies utilize AI-driven robotics and predictive maintenance systems to enhance productivity while minimizing operational stoppages.

The wide reach of AI across multiple industries stems from its capabilities to cut expenses and enable better choices while enhancing user experiences and generating new income possibilities. To achieve competitive advantages and smarter automation solutions, businesses must treat AI integration as a strategic necessity because it drives market expansion.

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The AI market growth benefits from greater investment and support from both governmental bodies and private sector companies:

Global investments from governmental bodies and private enterprises are driving the expansion of the AI market. National governments are creating AI strategies and funding research projects because they acknowledge AI's transformative potential and want to fuel innovation while keeping pace globally. The United States, China, the European Union, and South Korea are funnelling billions into AI infrastructure development as well as talent training programs and ethical AI standards. The initiatives target AI implementation across key sectors including defence systems, smart city projects, educational advancements and public sector improvements.



The private sector shows record-breaking levels of venture capital funding along with mergers and acquisitions and corporate investments into AI startups and research and development. Leading technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and NVIDIA invest heavily in the development of AI platforms and cloud infrastructure to provide AI access to businesses regardless of their scale. The surge of financial investments speeds up product development while enhancing market reach and building AI ecosystems thereby strengthening the market's swift growth path.

Geographical Insights:

The North American AI market serves as the key force behind technological progress throughout the continent. The North American AI market maintains a substantial revenue share of 30.9% in 2023 because government support has boosted AI adoption across multiple sectors. Through active investments in AI research and development at established institutes and centres along with specific project funding governments create innovative environments that maximize AI potential. AI integration serves multiple sectors including public safety and transportation upgrades and healthcare advancements which helps build a dynamic technological environment across the continent.



Market experts predict a significant expansion of Europe's artificial intelligence sector which will experience a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.2% between the years 2024 and 2030. The finance industry faces transformative changes as it adopts AI technology which leads to innovative solutions being implemented throughout its different segments. The blending of new technology into existing financial systems has revolutionized traditional methods while improving customer interactions which signifies an important moment in the development of finance throughout Europe.



The Asia-Pacific region leads worldwide AI adoption generating 25.6% of global revenue in 2023. The educational sector in this area uses AI technology to transform instructional methods by delivering customized educational experiences that accommodate each student's unique requirements and skills. Educators utilize intelligent tutoring systems and data analytics to boost academic achievements as well as student participation while making evidence-based decisions.

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Global Artificial Intelligence Market Segmentation and Geographical Insights:

Based on Solution, the artificial intelligence market size is divided into Hardware, Software, and Services. The year 2023 saw software solutions take command of the market by claiming 35.8% of global revenue. The exceptional market lead stems from major advances in data storage capacity together with cutting-edge computing power and efficient parallel processing which facilitate premium service delivery.

of global revenue. The exceptional market lead stems from major advances in data storage capacity together with cutting-edge computing power and efficient parallel processing which facilitate premium service delivery. Based on Technology, the artificial intelligence market value is divided into Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Vision, and Generative AI. The deep learning segment secured the majority of market revenue in 2023 because of its integration into sophisticated applications like text and speech recognition.

Based on Function, the artificial intelligence market share is divided into Cybersecurity, Finance and Accounting, Human Resource Management, Legal and Compliance, Operations, Sales and Marketing, and Supply Chain Management. In 2023 the operations segment controlled the market revenue share while acting as the key driver behind business success.

Based on End Use, the artificial intelligence market value is divided into Healthcare, BFSI, Law, Retail, Advertising & Media, Automotive & Transportation, Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Others. AI marketing strategies fuelled the advertising & media segment to achieve market dominance with the highest revenue share in 2023.

The Artificial Intelligence Market is segmented into five major regions: North America , Europe , Asia Pacific , Latin America , and Middle East & Africa .

Key Players and Competitive Landscape:

The Global Artificial Intelligence Market is characterized by the presence of several major players, including:

Advanced Micro Devices

AiCure

Arm Limited

Atomwise, Inc.

Ayasdi AI LLC

Baidu, Inc.

Clarifai, Inc.

Cyrcadia Health

Enlitic, Inc.

Google LLC

H2O.ai.

HyperVerge, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

IBM Watson Health

Intel Corporation

Iris.ai AS.

Lifegraph

Microsoft

NVIDIA Corporation

Sensely, Inc.

Zebra Medical Vision, Inc.

These companies are adopting strategies such as new product launches, joint ventures, and geographical expansion to maintain their competitive edge in the market.

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Global Artificial Intelligence Market Recent Developments and Innovations:

In April 2025 , Oracle introduced Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) File Storage which offers fully managed solutions for AI/ML training and inference workloads along with high-performance computing tasks. OCI handles deployment and scaling operations which enables users to dedicate their focus to application development while eliminating the need for infrastructure management. OCI operates and maintains all server components of Lustre (an example of parallel distributed file systems) which includes metadata servers, management servers, and storage servers.

, Oracle introduced Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) File Storage which offers fully managed solutions for AI/ML training and inference workloads along with high-performance computing tasks. OCI handles deployment and scaling operations which enables users to dedicate their focus to application development while eliminating the need for infrastructure management. OCI operates and maintains all server components of Lustre (an example of parallel distributed file systems) which includes metadata servers, management servers, and storage servers. In March 2025 , the advanced image generator integrated into GPT-4o by OpenAI produces practical and beautiful images that show precise text rendering while following given prompts. GPT-4o produces precise text within images while following complex instructions and utilizing its knowledge base to effectively create visual communication tools such as logos, diagrams, and infographics. The technology enables users to conduct natural dialogues for image refinement while preserving consistency through multi-turn generation.

, the advanced image generator integrated into GPT-4o by OpenAI produces practical and beautiful images that show precise text rendering while following given prompts. GPT-4o produces precise text within images while following complex instructions and utilizing its knowledge base to effectively create visual communication tools such as logos, diagrams, and infographics. The technology enables users to conduct natural dialogues for image refinement while preserving consistency through multi-turn generation. In March 2025 , Microsoft strengthened its collaboration with the Kuwaiti Government to speed up AI transformation following Kuwait's Vision 2035 roadmap. The collaboration aims to build an AI-powered Azure Region in Kuwait to improve local AI capabilities and stimulate economic development. The partnership brings together cloud and AI transformation initiatives as well as cybersecurity enhancements through the Cybersphere initiative and AI literacy programs with Microsoft Technology Innovation Hub. Efficiency and productivity improvements will be achieved through Microsoft 365 Copilot integration by the Kuwaiti government.

, Microsoft strengthened its collaboration with the Kuwaiti Government to speed up AI transformation following Vision 2035 roadmap. The collaboration aims to build an AI-powered Azure Region in to improve local AI capabilities and stimulate economic development. The partnership brings together cloud and AI transformation initiatives as well as cybersecurity enhancements through the Cybersphere initiative and AI literacy programs with Microsoft Technology Innovation Hub. Efficiency and productivity improvements will be achieved through Microsoft 365 Copilot integration by the Kuwaiti government. In March 2025 , NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA AI Data Platform which serves as a customizable reference architecture tailored for enterprise-level AI infrastructure that can handle demanding AI inference tasks. Top storage companies are working alongside NVIDIA to create specialized AI data platforms with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and BlueField DPUs as well as Spectrum-X networking and NVIDIA Dynamo open-source inference library. The platform integrates accelerated computing and AI capabilities into enterprise storage systems which allows AI query agents to extract insights from data with near real-time speed.

, NVIDIA introduced the NVIDIA AI Data Platform which serves as a customizable reference architecture tailored for enterprise-level AI infrastructure that can handle demanding AI inference tasks. Top storage companies are working alongside NVIDIA to create specialized AI data platforms with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and BlueField DPUs as well as Spectrum-X networking and NVIDIA Dynamo open-source inference library. The platform integrates accelerated computing and AI capabilities into enterprise storage systems which allows AI query agents to extract insights from data with near real-time speed. In March 2025 , IBM enhanced its Watsonx AI Assistant with multiple new capabilities. Conversational search provides support for additional languages such as French, Spanish, German, and Brazilian Portuguese to extend its availability worldwide. The system now demonstrates greater precision when interpreting free-text responses which leads to fewer mistakes and more effective data collection. Through these updates the company has shown its dedication to using sophisticated AI models both to better user interaction and extend support for multiple languages.

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Conclusion:

The combination of machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing technologies creates rapid AI advancements which transform global industries. Industries such as healthcare, finance, automotive, retail and manufacturing are rapidly adopting AI solutions due to the expanding requirements for automation and personalized experiences alongside data-driven decision-making. Big data availability together with stronger computing power and cloud-based AI services enable creation of complex algorithms that enhance both accuracy and efficiency. The deployment of AI requires careful attention to ethical principles alongside regulatory guidelines and data protection measures. The combination of AI with technologies including IoT, edge computing, and 5G connectivity creates advanced real-time applications that enable seamless human-machine interaction. Businesses will soon rely on AI systems which combine adaptability and explainability to drive digital transformation efforts that unlock growth opportunities and optimize operational efficiency during the industry 4.0 era.

The report from The Research Insights, therefore, provides several stakeholdersgovernments, regulatory bodies, academic institutions, research organizations, technology companies, healthcare providers, financial institutions, and end-users across various industries with valuable insights into how to successfully navigate this evolving market landscape and unlock new opportunities.

With projected growth to US$ 1,811.75 billion by 2030, the Global Artificial Intelligence Market represents a significant opportunity for startups, venture capital firms, AI-focused incubators, independent developers, data annotation companies, cloud service providers, open-source communities, can position themselves for success in this dynamic and evolving market landscape.

Check out more related studies published by The Research Insights:

Artificial Intelligence in Robotics Market - The Global Artificial Intelligence in Robotics Market is expected to reach at USD 124.77 billion by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 38.5% during the forecast period, driven by the increasing need for customized solutions in manufacturing and logistics.

The Global Artificial Intelligence in Robotics Market is expected to reach at by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 38.5% during the forecast period, driven by the increasing need for customized solutions in manufacturing and logistics. Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain Market - The Global Artificial Intelligence in supply chain market is expected to reach at USD 51.12 billion by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 38.9% during the forecast period, driven by the increasing need for businesses to optimize their operations and stay competitive .

The Global Artificial Intelligence in supply chain market is expected to reach at by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 38.9% during the forecast period, driven by the increasing need for businesses to optimize their operations and stay competitive Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) Market - The global Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) market is expected to reach at USD 896.74 billion by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 31.7% during the forecast period. This significant growth is primarily driven by the integration of AI with IoT, which enhances device capabilities, streamlines complex processes, and boosts efficiency across various industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and smart cities.

The global Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) market is expected to reach at by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 31.7% during the forecast period. This significant growth is primarily driven by the integration of AI with IoT, which enhances device capabilities, streamlines complex processes, and boosts efficiency across various industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and smart cities. Artificial Intelligence As A Service Market- The global Artificial Intelligence As A Service Market is expected to reach at USD 105.04 billion by 2030, according to a new report by The Research Insights. It is projected to expand at a CAGR of 36.1% during the forecast period, driven primarily by the proliferation of cloud computing, the expanding realm of big data, and the pressing need for automation across various sectors such as healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing.

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SOURCE The Research Insights
USA News Group News Commentary

Issued on behalf of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd.

VANCOUVER, BC, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- USA News Group News Commentary  While institutional headlines have focused on record-setting quarters from the world's biggest gold producers, a quieter opportunity may be forming in their wake. Capital is beginning to rotate down the value chain, with seasoned investors eyeing select juniors and mid-tiers that haven't yet priced in $3,300 goldor the possibility of $3,500, as Goldman Sachs now forecasts. With the TSX nearing all-time highs and central banks continuing to build gold reserves, the stage may be set for a catch-up trade in developers and emerging producers. Among the gold stocks seeing renewed interest are Lake Victoria Gold (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF), GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF), McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX), Majestic Gold Corp. (TSXV: MJS) (OTCPK: MJGCF), and Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE) (OTCQX: ORZCF).

Jefferies recently noted that many gold equities are still trading at valuations more in line with $2,500 gold, even as fundamentals improve and development timelines shorten. For investors willing to look beyond the majors, this disconnect could represent one of the more asymmetric setups in the sector today.

Lake Victoria Gold (TSXV: LVG) (OTCQB: LVGLF) is building momentum in Tanzania by exploring a low-capex pathway to near-term development. The company recently engaged Nesch Mintech Tanzaniaan independent, highly regarded metallurgical and process engineering firmto evaluate a local processing plant that could accelerate gold recovery while minimizing upfront spend. This follows a non-binding LOI with Nyati Resources, signaling early alignment on a phased development model. Nesch's review will determine the plant's readiness, potential gold recovery rates, and what targeted improvements could optimize output.

"Engaging Nesch Mintech at this stage ensures we bring third-party rigour and transparency to the commissioning process, which is fundamental to assessing the Nyati opportunity," said Marc Cernovitch, President and CEO of Lake Victoria Gold. "We are excited by the potential to leverage existing processing infrastructure and local ore sources to create a scalable gold production platform in Tanzania."

Should the partnership proceed, Lake Victoria Gold would start trucking mineralized material from its 100%-owned Mining Licences to Nyati's existing 120-ton-per-day plant, with potential to expand into a new 500-ton-per-day facility nearing completion. Combined, the two sites offer the foundation for a centralized processing hubcreating a streamlined, low-CAPEX development model with room to scale. For LVG, it represents a faster potential path to revenue with limited capital exposure.

"This audit is an important milestone as we advance this most compelling near-term gold development opportunity," said Simon Benstead, Executive Director of Lake Victoria Gold. "By combining strategic processing infrastructure with high-potential development targets, the proposed joint venture has the potential to unlock meaningful value for all stakeholders. We look forward to working closely with Nesch Mintech to validate the plant's performance and move confidently toward execution."

While still early in its development cycle and not yet supported by a formal resource estimate or Feasibility Study, the proposed initiative offers LVG a rare chance to validate its geology through live processing of mineralized materials. As with any small-scale operation, risks around grade variability, metallurgy, permitting, and financing remain. But if the plan works, it could fast-track initial cash flow and create a self-funded path for continued exploration. The Nyati agreement also builds on LVG's earlier move to evaluate small-scale development scenarios at its Tembo Projectlocated immediately adjacent to Barrick's high-grade Bulyanhulu mine.

Tembo has already seen more than US$28 million in historical exploration, with over 50,000 metres of drilling defining multiple high-potential zones. Key targets like Ngula 1, Nyakagwe Village, and Nyakagwe East remain open along strike and at depthpointing to meaningful long-term upside as the district continues to attract attention.

"Tembo has always stood out as a project with the potential to deliver both near-term value and long-term discovery upside," said Benstead. "Evaluating this small-scale development opportunity allows us to test the system, generate operational insights, and potentially self-fund ongoing exploration."

Lake Victoria Gold is steadily aligning capital, partnerships, and permitting to bring its Tanzanian portfolio into focus. While the high-potential Tembo Project remains the company's long-term exploration driver, its fully permitted Imwelo Project is currently in the lead as the most construction-ready asset. Backed by a 2021 Pre-Feasibility Study and located near AngloGold Ashanti's Geita Mine, Imwelo offers a clear path toward near-term development.

To help move things forward, LVG signed a non-binding gold prepay term sheet with Monetary Metals in late 2024. The agreement provides upfront, non-dilutive capital in exchange for a portion of future productiontying repayment directly to output and reducing balance sheet risk. The structure supports access to value equivalent to up to 7,000 ounces of gold, with funds designated for early development and construction activity.

Additional backing came in early 2025 through a C$3.52 million investment from Taifa Group, part of a larger C$11.52 million multi-stage financing. Alongside the capital, LVG welcomed former Taifa CEO Richard Reynolds to its boardbringing seasoned regional insight and operational depth.

Looking ahead, the company also maintains a milestone-based earn-in agreement with Barrick worth up to US$45 million, contingent on future exploration success at Tembo. With plant evaluations underway, a potential joint venture on the table, and multiple funding mechanisms in play, Lake Victoria Gold is shaping up as a serious contender among East Africa's next wave of junior gold developers.

CONTINUED Read this and more news for Lake Victoria Gold at: https://usanewsgroup.com/2025/04/02/with-funding-commitments-in-place-a-gold-mine-is-being-built-and-this-stock-is-still-under-0-20/

In other industry developments and happenings in the market include:

GoGold Resources Inc. (TSX: GGD) (OTCQX: GLGDF) generated $17.6 million in revenue in Q2 2025 from 555,511 silver equivalent ounces sold at Parral, producing $5.1 million in operating cash flow and increasing its cash position to $78.3 million. The average realized silver price was $31.70 per ounce, with a cash cost of $17.85 and AISC of $22.98 per ouncesupporting healthy project-level margins.

"Parral continued to generate significant cash flow for the Company during the quarter, providing operating cash flow of $5 million which is exceeding our spending at Los Ricos and corporate costs, and increased our cash balance by $2 million at quarter end," said Brad Langille, President and CEO of GoGold Resources Inc. "With our bought deal financing completed in April, this gives us an approximately $135 million cash balance today putting us in a very strong financial position to execute on Los Ricos South."

McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) produced 24,131 GEOs in Q1 2025 and reaffirmed full-year guidance of 120,000 to 140,000 GEOs, with stronger output expected in the second half. Production at Gold Bar and San Jose was in line with seasonal expectations, while operations at Fox were impacted by labor and weather-related challenges. With $68.5 million in cash and $61.1 million in working capital at quarter-end, the company remains well-capitalized following a recent $110 million convertible note issuance.

A major turning point will come in July with the release of the Los Azules feasibility study, which will shift McEwen Copper's impact from expense to capital asset on the balance sheet.

Back in March, Majestic Gold Corp. (TSXV: MJS) (OTCPK: MJGCF) reported strong full-year 2024 results, generating $71 million in revenue and $20.5 million in net incomeup 68% from 2023. The company produced nearly 32,000 ounces of gold and ended the year with $100.7 million in cash, while paying out a dividend yielding over 10%.

"As we move into 2025, we expect an increase in gold production at the SJG Mine beginning in Q3 2025 and continuing into FY2026, driven by the completion of the SJG open-pit expansion project," said Stephen Kenwood, CEO of Majestic Gold. "With the recent acquisition of a 52% interest in the Mujin Gold Project, we will also begin consolidating Mujin's operations into the Company as of March 1, 2025."

With the SJG expansion expected to complete in Q2 2025 and a new 52% stake in the Mujin Gold Project, Majestic is positioning for meaningful growth.

Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE) (OTCQX: ORZCF) produced 28,688 ounces of gold in Q1 2025, generating $82.7 million in revenue and $44.2 million in adjusted EBITDA.

"The first quarter of 2025 marked another consecutive quarter of positive net earnings and free cash flow, driven by our unhedged exposure to rising gold prices," said Patrick Downey, President and CEO of Orezone Gold. "Production and costs were in line with expectations with annual guidance being maintained."

With $102 million in cash and construction of its hard rock expansion now 45% complete, the company remains on track for a production boost later this year. Backed by strong cash flow and a well-received financing, Orezone is also evaluating a potential fast-track of Phase II's Stage 2.

Article Source: https://usanewsgroup.com/2025/04/02/with-funding-commitments-in-place-a-gold-mine-is-being-built-and-this-stock-is-still-under-0-20/

CONTACT:

USA NEWS GROUP

[email protected]

(604) 265-2873

DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this publication should be considered as personalized financial advice. We are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. Please consult a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decision. This is a paid advertisement and is neither an offer nor recommendation to buy or sell any security. We hold no investment licenses and are thus neither licensed nor qualified to provide investment advice. The content in this report or email is not provided to any individual with a view toward their individual circumstances. USA News Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Market IQ Media Group, Inc. ("MIQ"). This article is being distributed for Baystreet.ca media corp, who has been paid a fee for an advertising from a shareholder of the Company (333,333 unrestricted shares). MIQ has not been paid a fee for Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. advertising or digital media, but the owner/operators of MIQ also co-owns Baystreet.ca Media Corp. ("BAY") There may also be 3rd parties who may have shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and may liquidate their shares which could have a negative effect on the price of the stock. This compensation constitutes a conflict of interest as to our ability to remain objective in our communication regarding the profiled company. Because of this conflict, individuals are strongly encouraged to not use this publication as the basis for any investment decision. The owner/operator of MIQ/BAY own shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd and reserve the right to buy and sell, and will buy and sell shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. at any time without any further notice commencing immediately and ongoing. We also expect further compensation as an ongoing digital media effort to increase visibility for the company, no further notice will be given, but let this disclaimer serve as notice that all material, including this article, which is disseminated by MIQ on behalf of BAY has been approved by Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. Technical information relating to Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. has been reviewed and approved by David Scott, Pr. Sci. Nat., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Scott is a registered member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is a Director of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd., and therefore is not independent of the Company; this is a paid advertisement, we currently own shares of Lake Victoria Gold Ltd. and will buy and sell shares of the company in the open market, or through private placements, and/or other investment vehicles. While all information is believed to be reliable, it is not guaranteed by us to be accurate. Individuals should assume that all information contained in our newsletter is not trustworthy unless verified by their own independent research. Also, because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, there will likely be differences between the any predictions and actual results. Always consult a licensed investment professional before making any investment decision. Be extremely careful, investing in securities carries a high degree of risk; you may likely lose some or all of the investment.

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SOURCE USA News Group
Television Debut of Cosmic Launcher Swing Set Marks a Major Milestone for the Family-Owned Brand Amid Nationwide Growth

CHESTER COUNTY, Pa., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- King Swings, the nation's leading family-owned vinyl swing sets and playhouse brand, is thrilled to announce its Cosmic Launcher Swing Set was featured on season six, episode 606 of HGTV's Rock the Block: Rookies vs Vets on Monday, May 19.

King Swings Cosmic Launcher Swing Set

Hosted by Ty Pennington, the series features a competition between top HGTV designers. The designers have limited time and a designated budget to renovate four blank-slate homes on the same block in Utah with their signature styles. The purpose is to add the most value to each home to achieve a high appraisal. Winning designers earn bragging rights and a street named in their honor.

In Episode 606, the competition shifted to the backyard. Chelsea and Cole DeBoerrookies on the block, but seasoned parents of fourdesigned their outdoor space with families in mind.

"We know what a family wants in a backyard," said Chelsea. "I want to do the biggest playset we can find."

To bring that vision to life, the DeBoers partnered with King Swings, known for premium, custom-designed vinyl swing sets made in the USA. Built for lasting backyard memories, King Swings' luxury sets were a perfect match for the DeBoers' bold, family-focused design.

They selected the Cosmic Launcher , one of King Swings' largest and most dynamic sets. Designed with something for everyone, the set features four slides, a crawl tunnel connecting a ball pit and clubhouse, swings, monkey bars, a cargo net, and easy access points. Clear plastic tops on the sidewinder slide and tunnel add a unique visual appeal, while a railed-in area enhances functionality and charm.

As King Swings continues on its mission to inspire adventure and memories, the Rock the Block feature marks a major milestone of growth for the brand. From residential swing sets to fully customizable playgrounds made with premium American-made materials, King Swings proudly offers complete layouts for families across the country. The brand has even built sets for local and international celebrities, professional athletes, including the Philadelphia Eagles players, which selected King Swings for their families.

"As King Swings continues its mission to inspire adventure, creativity, and lasting memories, this HGTV feature marks a meaningful milestone," said Elmer King, CEO of King Swings. "We've always believed in building playsets that spark imagination and joy. Seeing one of our sets on Rock the Block was a proud and surreal moment for our team."

"Being featured on Rock the Block is more than recognitionit's a reflection of how far we've come and where we're headed," King adds. "We're honored to be part of family backyards coast to coast."

More details on King Swings and the Cosmic Launcher Swing Set can be found at KingSwingSets.com .

About King Swings

King Swings is the ultimate premium backyard play brand. As a family-owned brand with over 35 years of experience, King Swings is on a mission to elevate play and spark imagination for the whole family. Rooted in the Amish tradition of unmatched craftsmanship, King Swings blends modern aesthetics with time-honored craftsmanship and premium materials. Every swing set and playhouse is hand-built, customizable, and professionally installed  offering a seamless experience from design to delivery. With thousands of 5-star reviews, partnerships with the Philadelphia Phillies, upcoming HGTV coverage, and much more on the horizon, King Swings isn't just building swing sets; they're redefining backyard adventure.

Website: kingswingsets.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kingswingsplay

HGTV Feature Details: promotions.kingswingsets.com/king-swings-featured-on-rock-the-block

Chelsea and Cole DeBoer Rock the Block Home Details: hgtv.com/shows/rock-the-block/

SOURCE King Swings
Breakthrough AI capabilities and intelligent benchmarking redefine HR operations for growing businesses

DRAPER, Utah, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BambooHR , the easiest-to-use people platform for managing HR, payroll, and benefits, today announced a major platform update featuring embedded AI, compensation benchmarking, and native apps designed to modernize the HR lifecycle. Built on a unified data model, the enhanced platform enables HR leaders to make smarter decisions faster amid evolving workforce demands.

"Too often, HR teams stitch together tools that weren't built to work together," said Brian Crofts, Chief Product Officer at BambooHR. "We're delivering a human-centered platform where everythingfrom payroll to performance managementis seamlessly connected, helping our customers confidently drive meaningful outcomes."

Intelligent Tools for a Dynamic Workforce

The updated BambooHR platform introduces new features aimed at simplifying complex HR tasks and delivering real-time insights:

Compensation Benchmarking : Access peer-matched compensation insights tailored by company size, industry, and location.

: Access peer-matched compensation insights tailored by company size, industry, and location. HR Benchmarks with AI Peer Group Filtering : Leverage automated analysis to compare workforce metrics against similar organizations.

: Leverage automated analysis to compare workforce metrics against similar organizations. Custom Dashboards & Analytics : Uncover trends, unlock deep insights, and show HR impact with custom dashboards and compelling visualizations.

: Uncover trends, unlock deep insights, and show HR impact with custom dashboards and compelling visualizations. Ask BambooHR : A built-in AI assistant streamlines benefits inquiries, PTO planning, org chart navigation, and more.

: A built-in AI assistant streamlines benefits inquiries, PTO planning, org chart navigation, and more. Integrated Time & Payroll Tools : Unify workforce tracking and payroll to boost operational efficiency.

: Unify workforce tracking and payroll to boost operational efficiency. Advanced Recruiting Features: Accelerate hiring with self-scheduling, interview scorecards, and LinkedIn job ad integration.

"Compensation survey data has been out of reach for smaller businesses like ours," said Amber Mencl, HR Director at Swanson Russell. "I'm excited we can now make data-backed pay decisions right inside the BambooHR platformsomething we've needed for years."

Flexible Solutions at Every Stage

Whether launching a startup or scaling an enterprise, BambooHR's updated tiered offerings provide tailored solutions:

Core: Essential HR management for small teams.

Essential HR management for small teams. Pro: Advanced tools including performance tracking and ATS features for growing businesses.

Advanced tools including performance tracking and ATS features for growing businesses. Elite: Enterprise-level capabilities with premium support, deeper integrations, and advanced analytics.

Shaping the Future of Work

These enhancements debut at BambooHR Showcase, the company's flagship event spotlighting innovation and long-term product vision. Attendees from across industries will join virtually and in person at BambooHR headquarters in Draper, Utah.

"In a time of rapid change, HR leaders need tools that adapt with them," Crofts added. "BambooHR is building the infrastructure for the next generation of HR success."

About BambooHR

BambooHR  is the leading HR software platform that sets people free to do great work. Intuitively designed and user-friendly HR, payroll, and benefits administration in one unified ecosystem means less focus on process and more on growing what matters mostpeople.

With AI-powered insights and comprehensive reporting, HR leaders gain the data they need to craft strategies to enhance employee engagement and retention while effectively measuring success. Trusted by HR professionals in over 34,000 companies across 190 countries and 50 industries, BambooHR supports millions of users throughout their employee journey.

SOURCE Bamboo HR LLC
PHILADELPHIA, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Berger Montague, a national plaintiffs' law firm, is pleased to announce that it and co-counselJeffrey Berhold, P.C.; Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, PLLC; and Theodora Oringher P.C.have won a $147 million jury verdict stemming from anticompetitive conduct by Johnson & Johnson's medical technology unit Biosense Webster. The jury awarded Innovative Health damages after almost 6 years of a hard-fought legal battle. The antitrust damages will be trebled, and the court will also be asked to award fees and costs, likely bringing the total judgment to almost a half billion dollars.

"This is a terrific outcome for our client Innovative Health and an important step in the fight against rising health care costs," said Berger Montague Shareholder Joshua P. Davis, who leads the firm's Appeals & Complex Briefing practice. "This was a complex case where a district judge had initially granted summary judgment. Berger Montague led the appeal that overturned summary judgment in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals," said Mr. Davis. "I am incredibly proud of this legal team and the dogged determination of our client to obtain justice."

"This is just one more example of our firm's tenacity in fighting for justice for our clients," said firm Chair Eric L. Cramer. "We are one of the leading firms in the country handling all aspects of complicated antitrust cases, including trials and appeals."

The medical procedures at issue in the case treat the most common cardiac conditions, including various forms of irregular heart rates that can cause a stroke or a heart attack. Innovative offers dramatic savings to hospitals on the technology for these procedures, holding the potential to significantly decrease costs to hospitals and their patients.

Judge James V. Selna granted the defendant, Biosense, summary judgment three years ago, but co-counsel brought in Joshua Davis and the Berger Montague Appeals & Complex Briefing practice, who persuaded the Ninth Circuit to overturn that decision last year. In a 2-1 vote, the court ruled there was a viable factual dispute over whether Biosense illegally tied support services only to hospitals that purchased catheters directly from it, restricting support for catheters sold by third parties like Innovative.

Trial testimony kicked off last week and lasted eight days in the almost six-year-old case and the jury returned the unanimous verdict after about two hours of deliberation. Innovative filed against Biosense, challenging an April 2016 rollout of a policy that cut off clinical support to hospitals that did not use its new catheters after Innovative received FDA clearance to reprocess Biosense's sensor-enabled catheters during electrophysiology procedures to help treat irregular heartbeats.

The Berger Montague legal team also included David Langer, Kyla Gibboney, Matthew Summers, Julie Pollock, Sue Leo, and Connor Rowe. Read more about the Innovative Health, LLC v. Biosense Webster, Inc. case here.

Berger Montague is one of the nation's preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. The firm is active in the fields of antitrust, commercial litigation, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For more than 50 years, Berger Montague has played lead roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago, Malvern, Minneapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.

Contact:

Amy Wall-Monte

215.875.3021

[email protected]

SOURCE Berger Montague
Gillin's addition continues BGL's momentum in expanding its capabilities in Consumer & Residential Services

CHICAGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm, is pleased to announce that Patrick Gillin has joined the firm as a Managing Director in its Consumer investment banking group. Based in Chicago, Patrick will focus on expanding the firm's coverage of Consumer & Residential Services.

His transaction experience spans the Consumer industry, with a focus on Consumer & Residential Services. Post this Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm, is pleased to announce that Patrick Gillin has joined the firm as a Managing Director in its Consumer investment banking group. Based in Chicago, Patrick will focus on expanding the firms coverage of Consumer & Residential Services.

"We are excited to welcome Patrick to our growing Consumer team," said John Tilson, Head of BGL's Consumer vertical. "His deep expertise of consumer and residential services will complement our existing capabilities and positions us for continued growth in this dynamic market."

Patrick brings over 15 years of advisory experience, with a strong track record across buy- and sell-side M&A, IPOs, buyouts, and other strategic financings. His transaction experience spans the Consumer industry, with a focus on Consumer & Residential Services, including:

Prior to joining BGL, Patrick was a senior member of the Consumer Products & Services investment banking team at William Blair where he focused on consumer & residential services. He previously held positions at Lazard and Deutsche Bank. Patrick holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky.

"BGL has built a strong reputation in the market as a strong, sector-focused M&A platform with excellent client service, collaborative culture and commitment to client success," said Gillin. "I'm excited to join this talented team and contribute to the continued growth and leadership of BGL's Consumer team."

Patrick is the latest addition to the firm's growing Consumer team, following the recent hire of Michael Doyle as a Managing Director in April. Since 2022, BGL has increased its Managing Director ranks by over 90%, adding more than a dozen new sectors to its industry coverage and expanding its complementary product offerings in private capital advisory across equity, debt, and other financial advisory services, including fairness opinions, valuations, and restructuring.

About Brown Gibbons Lang & Company

Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL) is a leading independent investment bank and financial advisory firm focused on the global middle market. The firm advises private and public corporations and private equity groups on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructurings, business valuations and opinions, and other strategic matters. BGL has investment banking offices in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, and New York, and real estate offices in Chicago and Cleveland. The firm is also a founding member of REACH Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions, enabling BGL to service clients in more than 30 countries around the world. Securities transactions are conducted through Brown, Gibbons, Lang & Company Securities, LLC, an affiliate of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company LLC and a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. For more information, please visit www.bglco.com.

Industry Contacts:

John R. Tilson

Head of Consumer

[email protected]

312.658.4770

Patrick Gillin

Managing Director

Consumer

[email protected]

312-898-5349

SOURCE Brown Gibbons Lang & Company
SINGAPORE, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- BoomFi, an innovative universal payment suite bridging crypto and fiat currencies, has announced a strategic partnership with Paytiko, a leading all-in-one payment orchestration platform. This collaboration aims to provide merchants worldwide with streamlined access to cryptocurrency payment options, enhancing flexibility and expanding customer reach.

BoomFi

Founded in 2020, Paytiko has established itself as a trusted payment gateway, offering digital businesses streamlined access to over 500 local and global payment service providers. Its platform empowers merchants with seamless integration, robust transaction management, real-time analytics, and enhanced risk mitigation.

BoomFi complements this by offering an all-in-one suite for handling crypto payments, exchanges, and on/off ramping, all designed to enable Paytiko's merchants to seamlessly accept digital asset payments. Together, the companies aim to make it easier than ever for merchants to offer customers flexible, fast, and secure crypto payment options alongside traditional payment methods.

Key Benefits for Merchants:

Expanded Customer Reach: By enabling crypto payments, merchants can attract a new segment of tech-savvy, globally distributed customers who prefer paying with digital assets like Bitcoin , Ethereum , and stablecoins.





By enabling payments, merchants can attract a new segment of tech-savvy, globally distributed customers who prefer paying with digital assets like , , and stablecoins. Lower Transaction Costs: Crypto transactions often bypass costly intermediaries, reducing overall processing fees, particularly for cross-border payments.





transactions often bypass costly intermediaries, reducing overall processing fees, particularly for cross-border payments. Faster Settlement: Unlike traditional payment systems, which can involve delays and banking cut-off times, crypto payments can settle near-instantly, improving cash flow for merchants.





Unlike traditional payment systems, which can involve delays and banking cut-off times, payments can settle near-instantly, improving cash flow for merchants. Diversification & Innovation: Offering crypto payments positions merchants at the forefront of payment innovation, enhancing brand perception and future-proofing their payment strategies.

"We are thrilled to partner with BoomFi to bring the benefits of crypto payments to our global merchant base," said Milen Marinov, Chief Product Officer of Paytiko. "This collaboration reinforces our commitment to innovation and gives our merchants more flexibility and choice in how they accept payments, ultimately driving growth and customer satisfaction."

Jack Tang, CEO at BoomFi, added: "Our mission is to make crypto payments as easy as using a credit card. Together with Paytiko, we're opening the door for more businesses to thrive in the digital economy."

About Paytiko

Paytiko is a reputable payment gateway founded in 2020 and headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria. It provides an all-in-one payment orchestration system designed for modern digital businesses, offering cutting-edge payment management technology, cost-effectiveness, and uninterrupted services through an easy-to-use interface, seamless integration, and numerous transaction management tools and features.

About BoomFi

BoomFi is a trusted crypto payment infrastructure provider offering a complete suite of tools for fintechs, PSPs, and BaaS platforms to enable compliant digital asset acceptance and fiat settlement with minimal integration effort.

SOURCE BoomFi
Innovative water reuse-as-a-service model and large-scale wastewater recovery project earn distinction honor for Anheuser-Busch's Houston brewery

BOSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambrian, a leader in water reuse and energy recovery-as-a-service, announced that its landmark project with Anheuser-Busch has been awarded Distinction in the Industrial Project of the Year category at the 2025 Global Water Awards, held during the Global Water Summit.

This prestigious recognition celebrates innovation and achievement in the industrial water sector, spotlighting projects that deliver exceptional environmental and technical performance. Cambrian's project, delivered under its Water-Energy Purchase Agreement (WEPA) model, stood out for transforming how water reuse infrastructure is deployed and financed at scale.

"We're honored to receive this distinction from GWI, and proud to stand alongside Anheuser-Busch as pioneers in circular water solutions," said Matthew Silver, Founder and CEO of Cambrian. "This project proves that environmental stewardship and economic efficiency can go hand in hand, through bold innovation and strong partnership."

The project features Cambrian's advanced BlueCycle membrane bioreactor (MBR) system, which treats over 400,000 gallons of high-strength wastewater per day at Anheuser-Busch's Houston brewery. After further advanced treatment, the treated water is of drinking water quality and is reused onsite for non-potable contact purposes, significantly reducing freshwater consumption. Over a 20-year contract term, the system is expected to treat 3.45 billion gallons, lower water and wastewater costs by 20%, and prevent more than 23,000 tons of CO emissions.

Delivered through Cambrian's WEPA model, the project required no upfront capital investment from Anheuser-Busch. Cambrian financed, built, and now operates the system, charging only by the gallon treated. Embedded Cambrian personnel manage operations, ensuring performance and removing maintenance burdens from the brewery's team.

The collaboration began through the 100+ Accelerator, Anheuser-Busch InBev's global sustainability innovation platform, and represents the first full-scale deployment of Cambrian's WEPA model within the beverage industry. The project's success reflects growing industry momentum for outcomes-based infrastructure, where environmental performance and economic value are intrinsically linked.

Presented by Global Water Intelligence, the Global Water Awards honor the most impactful water projects and technologies worldwide. The Industrial Project of the Year  Distinction is awarded to projects that exemplify technical excellence, sustainability leadership, and scalability in addressing industrial water challenges.

About Cambrian

Cambrian is a leader in commercial and industrial water reuse and energy recovery-as-a-service. Using its award-winning, proprietary technologies, Cambrian delivers turnkey wastewater treatment solutions that reduce lifecycle costs and operational risk. Through its Water-Energy Purchase Agreement (WEPA), Cambrian designs, builds, owns, and operates treatment systems, charging only by the gallon treated or kilowatt-hour generatedso customers can focus on their core business while achieving environmental and financial benefits. Founded out of MIT, Cambrian has partnered with global brands including Anheuser-Busch, Sapporo, Keurig Dr. Pepper, LVMH, and Discovery Land. The company has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer and Circular Economy Leader. For more information, visit www.cambrianinnovation.com.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Cambrian
Expanded relationship will support the growing demand for alternatives among their financial professionals and their high-net-worth clients

FAIRFIELD, Iowa, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cambridge, a leading independent financial solutions firm serving 3,800 financial professionals across the country, announced it has expanded its relationship with iCapital1, a global fintech platform driving the world's alternative investment marketplace for the wealth and asset management industries. The expanded relationship will provide Cambridge financial professionals with enhanced access to alternative investment vehicles, research, and education.

Cambridge's financial professionals can now access the full scope of iCapital's platform including asset class level strategies and products, education, and research insights in alternative investments, driving significant value for financial professionals and their high-net-worth clients.

"Alternatives have become a critical piece of the portfolio construction process for many high-net-worth investors looking for differentiated investment solutions," said Jeff Vivacqua, President, Growth and Development and member of Cambridge's Office of the CEO. "Through our expanded relationship with iCapital, Cambridge financial professionals will now have access to industry-leading solutions that can support them in meeting the growing demand for these alternative investment vehicles from their clients."

In 2023, Cambridge launched its Private Client Solutions (PCS) offering to address demand for HNW and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) client solutions from its financial professionals. A major component of those offerings was access to alternative investment vehicles, research, and education. PCS provides Cambridge financial professionals with the resources, solutions, and personal support they need to deliver a customized service experience to HNW and UHNW clients. This expanded relationship with iCapital will further enhance these capabilities.

About Cambridge

Cambridge is a financial solutions firm focused on serving independent financial professionals and their clients while preserving its internal control. Cambridge offers a broad range of choices for independent financial professionals regarding solutions for advice, growth, technology, and independence. Cambridge's national reach includes: Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc.  a large corporate RIA; and Cambridge Investment Research, Inc.  an independent broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC, that is among the largest internally controlled independent broker-dealers in the country. Learn more at JoinCambridge.com.

Contact: Jeff Wulf, Senior Vice President, Cambridge: [email protected] or 800-777-6080

Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member FINRA/SIPC, and investment advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Cambridge Investment Group, Inc.

1iCapital, Inc. and its affiliates (together, "iCapital")

SOURCE Cambridge
CHICAGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cision, a global leader in consumer and media intelligence, today announced the launch of a powerful new suite of AI-driven capabilities in CisionOneits award-winning global platform for PR and communications professionals.

At a time when 81% of PR professionals report mounting pressure to achieve more with fewer resources (2025 Cision x PR Week Comms Report), CisionOne's AI capabilities are purpose-built to meet the demands of modern PR. These enhancements introduce an AI Assistant and a suite of intelligent features designed to automate routine tasks, generate realtime insights, and help communicators focus on what matters moststorytelling, strategy, and stakeholder engagement.

"We've embedded intuitive, adaptive AI directly into CisionOne to make a real difference to the busy day of Comms teams," said Dylan Vidal, Director of Global Product and Strategy for CisionOne. Post this

"We've taken a thoughtful approach to applying AI in ways that directly address the real needs of PR and Communications teamsadding powerful tools that save time and create smarter workflows," said Dylan Vidal, Director of Global Product and Strategy for CisionOne. "These new AI capabilities go well beyond automation. We've embedded intuitive, adaptive AI directly into CisionOne to make a real difference to the busy day of Comms teams."

Seamless AI, Built for Communicators

Unlike complex tools that require steep learning curves or additional integrations, CisionOne delivers AI in a way that's natural, accessible and integrated. You don't need to be a data scientistor even master Boolean searchto benefit from its powerful capabilities.

New AI-Powered Features Include:

Guided Conversational Assistant: Chat style interface helps users navigate, summarize, and analyze coverage seamlessly

Chat style interface helps users navigate, summarize, and analyze coverage seamlessly Smarter Search with Keyword Suggestions: Quickly build powerful media searches leveraging AI in realtime

Quickly build powerful media searches leveraging AI in realtime AI Summaries: Instantly generate concise, insight-driven recaps of media coverage for quick distribution organisation-wide.

Instantly generate concise, insight-driven recaps of media coverage for quick distribution organisation-wide. CisionOne React Score: Identify potentially harmful mentions in realtime and understand their impact.

Identify potentially harmful mentions in realtime and understand their impact. Personalized Pitch Writing & Timing: Craft compelling pitches in seconds, with data-backed guidance on optimal delivery times.

Developed using a combination of proprietary AI and strategic technology partnerships, these innovations reinforce CisionOne's position as the most complete, intelligent, and intuitive platform for earned media professionals. They also build on the momentum of Cision's expanding innovation strategy, as highlighted in our recent collaboration announcement with Google Cloud.

About Cision

Cision is the global leader in consumer and media intelligence, engagement, and communication solutions. We equip PR and corporate communications, marketing, and social media professionals with the tools they need to excel in today's data-driven world. Our deep expertise, exclusive data partnerships, and award-winning products, including CisionOne, Brandwatch, and PR Newswire, enable over 75,000 companies and organizations, including 84% of the Fortune 500, to see and be seen, understand and be understood by the audiences that matter most to them.

Media Contact:

Cision Public Relations

[email protected]

SOURCE Cision Ltd.
For the Second Consecutive Year, the Digital Billboard Campaign Will Expand Awareness and Provide Resources During the Hottest Months of the Year

PHOENIX, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Clear Channel Outdoor (NYSE: CCO) and Maricopa County are teaming up for a second year in a row to reduce heat deaths in the region. A new digital billboard campaign will educate and alert residents and visitors across the Valley about critical, local heat relief resources, specifically 200+ local heat relief sites that can help them stay cool during Arizona's dangerous late spring and summer time heat. The campaign, which launched on May 12th and runs through mid-October, is also supported by the Maricopa Association of Governments, 211 Arizona and the City of Phoenix.

Clear Channel Outdoor and Maricopa County are teaming up on a digital billboard campaign to reduce heat deaths in the region.

"We are grateful to Clear Channel for donating their billboard space for a second straight year to help us spread this important safety message," said Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin, District 2. "Extreme heat can kill, whether you're out in the sun or inside without proper cooling. So don't wait. If you're in a heat emergency, call 211 and get the help you need."

Last year, Maricopa County saw its first decrease in heat-related deaths in a decade, according to data from Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH). Preliminary data shows 602 confirmed heat-related deaths in 2024, down from the record-setting 645 in 2023. Heat deaths dropped even during a record hot stretch in which the Phoenix metro area experienced 113 straight days at or above 100 F.

"Keeping our residents safe during extreme summer heat is a top priority. That's why we're providing respite sites with overnight and extended hour options," said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. "We're grateful for our partnership with 211 Arizona, MAG, Clear Channel Outdoor, and Maricopa County to get the word out to ensure residents are aware of these lifesaving resources."

"We are proud to partner with our fellow community stakeholders to help amplify public awareness of the resources available to our residents during periods of life-threatening heat," said Adriane Youngblood, President, Arizona division, Clear Channel Outdoor. "As a Phoenix resident, I am hopeful that our medium can help educate our community on how to quickly access the assistance they need whether it's locating a cooling center or finding other heat relief resources. Everyone in our community is entitled to the knowledge needed to take the necessary steps to protect themselves and their families from the dangers of extreme heat."

The digital billboards, donated by Clear Channel Outdoor, will help promote the free, 24-hour 211 information service that can assist people experiencing heat emergencies. 211 Arizona live operators will take calls, in English and Spanish, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily to help residents find nearby cooling centers, transportation help, utility support, or emergency A/C repair during the 2025 heat season. When live operators are not available, callers will still be able to connect with resources by selecting from an automated menu. Resource connections and further information are also accessible online at 211Arizona.org.

For information on heat illnesses and prevention, visit Maricopa.gov/heat.

For real-time heat data, visit the new MCDPH dashboard.

About Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc.

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CCO) is at the forefront of driving innovation in the out-of-home advertising industry. Our dynamic advertising platform is broadening the pool of advertisers using our medium through the expansion of digital billboards and displays and the integration of data analytics and programmatic capabilities that deliver measurable campaigns that are simpler to buy. By leveraging the scale, reach and flexibility of our diverse portfolio of assets, we connect advertisers with millions of consumers every month.

About Maricopa County

Maricopa County is one of the nation's fastest-growing counties, home to more than four and a half million people. Together, through nearly fifty line of business including public health, public safety, and elections, Maricopa County employees work on behalf of all residents to provide programs and services that improve quality of life at a great value to taxpayers. We believe in service that helps you solve a problem, move forward with a project, manage a difficult situation, or simply check something off your list.

About City of Phoenix

Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the United States. We're a vibrant, growing city and a great place to live, work, and play! Explore our website for news and to learn about city services. Follow us on social media.

About Maricopa Association of Governments

The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) provides a forum for local and tribal governments working together on issues that affect the lives of everyone in the greater Phoenix region. MAG develops and coordinates the Heat Relief Network interactive map that identifies hundreds of locations where people can find shade, water, and indoor cooling, as well as where to donate supplies. The network is active from May 1 to September 30.

About 211 Arizona

211 Arizona, originally known as Community Information and Referral Services, was founded in 1964 and incorporated as a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in 1979. In 2017, Solari, Inc. acquired the program, which transforms lives by linking individuals and families to vital services throughout Arizona. www.211arizona.org

SOURCE Clear Channel Outdoor
CLEVELAND, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is honored to announce its selection to the 2025 World's Most Beautiful Museums List by the prestigious Prix Versailles, a global architecture and design award program held annually at UNESCO since 2015.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History named one of the World's Most Beautiful Museums by Prix Versailles. Credit: DLR Group |  Kevin G Reeves

A series of architectural competitions, the Prix Versailles shines a spotlight on the world's finest contemporary projects at the intersection of multiple disciplines. Its World Jury, composed of internationally renowned figures, selects outstanding projects across categories such as airports, campuses, passenger stations, sports, and museums. Guided by principles of intelligent sustainability, the Prix Versailles celebrates innovation, creativity, respect for local heritage, ecological efficiency, and the values of social interaction and participation.

This year's World's Most Beautiful Museums List features only seven institutions worldwide, representing excellence in new museum architecture:

Cleveland Museum of Natural History | Cleveland , United States

, Grand Palais | Paris, France

Saka Museum | Bali, Indonesia

Audeum | Seoul , Republic of Korea

, Republic of Korea Kunstsilo | Kristiansand, Norway

Diriyah Art Futures | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Joslyn Art Museum | Omaha , United States

This global recognition follows the Museum's recent $150 million transformation , unveiled to the public in December 2024. Designed by the Museum's architectural partner, DLR Group, the reimagined Museum invites visitors to explore the wonders of science and nature in a stunning building inspired by the glaciers that shaped the Great Lakes region.

"Every aspect of our transformed Museum aims to achieve one unified vision: to promote healthy humans, a healthy planet, and a better future for all," said Sonia Winner, President & CEO of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. "We are thrilled that this commitment to architecture in the service of science has been recognized on an international stage."

The new Museum is a model of sustainable design, featuring elements such as a visible solar panel array, bird-safe glass, and an integrated stormwater-retention system. Thanks to these initiatives, the project has achieved LEED Platinum certification , the highest distinction awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. New design features, such as expansive windows that flood spaces with natural light and a Visitor Hall that offers free access to iconic exhibits, create deeper community connections and invite public engagement with science and conservation.

"The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's recognition as one of the world's most beautiful museums by Prix Versailles is a testament to the power of visionary architecture and sustainable design," said DLR Group Principal and Global Cultural+Performing Arts Leader Dan Clevenger. "This honor not only celebrates the museum's stunning transformation, led by the design team of Mark Morris, Paul Westlake and Joshua Haney, but also reflects its commitment to advancing scientific discovery, fostering education around our natural world, and shaping a more informed and sustainable future."

Of the seven museums selected for the 2025 World's Most Beautiful Museums List, three will receive the further distinction of a World Title, Interior and Exterior from Prix Versailles. Awards will be announced in December 2025.

For more information, visit CMNH.org .

SOURCE Cleveland Museum of Natural History
DENVER, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CM Global Services LLC (CMGS) proudly announces its official designation as the exclusive logistics and procurement partner for Compass Mining Inc. and NovoMod LLC, two leaders in the Bitcoin mining and modular infrastructure sectors. These multi-year partnerships reinforce CMGS's growing influence as the supply chain backbone powering some of the most advanced digital infrastructure projects in the world.

Founded with a mission to eliminate the bottlenecks and fragmentation that plague traditional supply chains, CMGS is a fully integrated logistics and infrastructure services firm specializing in Bitcoin mining services, data center development, and high-demand electrical infrastructure. From sourcing crypto mining machine parts and network hardware to coordinating the full deployment of large scale sites, CMGS is designed to scale with our clients and move at the speed they need.

For Compass Mining and NovoMod, CMGS serves as more than a vendor; we are an embedded partner, streamlining critical operations and bringing transparency to every stage of the infrastructure lifecycle. Our team leads:

Global sourcing and procurement of critical components, from power distribution units (PDUs) and switchgear to Ethernet cables, breakers, and enclosures.

Inbound logistics and Customs navigation, moving sensitive equipment efficiently across Asia, LATAM, and North America on time, on budget, and compliantly.

on time, on budget, and compliantly. Refurbishment and redeployment of crypto mining machines, ensuring optimal uptime, performance, and recovery value from aging or idle equipment.

mining machines, ensuring optimal uptime, performance, and recovery value from aging or idle equipment. Infrastructure buildout support, including on-site coordination, material staging, labor oversight, and final commissioning of modular and large-scale mining sites.

By centralizing sourcing, logistics, testing, and deployment under one roof, CMGS is helping Compass Mining and NovoMod compress timelines, reduce operational overhead, and eliminate costly inefficiencies that historically slowed down crypto mining and infrastructure projects.

While our partnerships with Compass Mining and NovoMod are foundational, CMGS also supports a growing number of mining companies, original equipment manufacturers, and infrastructure developers behind the scenes. Quietly powering the supply chains of both public and private firms across the U.S., LATAM, and Asia. In a market where downtime is costly and speed is currency, CMGS brings industrial discipline, real-world experience, with timely execution.

CMGS covers the full supply chain lifecycle, including:

Global logistics and freight management

Strategic sourcing and vendor negotiations

Crypto mining machine parts sales, sourcing, and testing

mining machine parts sales, sourcing, and testing Full-site infrastructure build outs

Cleaning, repair, and redeployment programs

Consulting for operational optimization and supply chain resilience

As the digital infrastructure landscape grows more complex, CMGS is positioned to be the silent engine behind the most ambitious operators, ensuring they have what they need, where they need it, exactly when it's needed.

About CMGS

CM Global Services (CMGS) is a full service logistics and procurement company specializing in Bitcoin mining and high performance computing industries. CMGS helps clients source equipment, manage global freight, deploy infrastructure, and streamline operations across every stage of the supply chain. With a commitment to reliability, speed, and cost efficiency, CMGS enables miners and data center operators to scale smarter.

To learn more about CM Global Services visit cmglobalservices.io

Media Contact

BlocksBridge Consulting

[email protected]

SOURCE CM Global Services
BOSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Online education remains trapped by outdated tools that make creating engaging learning experiences unnecessarily complex and time-consuming. It's time for a fundamental change.

Introducing LearningEdge  a groundbreaking platform that redefines what's possible by eliminating technological barriers and providing real insights into learning effectiveness.

"Today we're not just launching a platform -- we're revolutionizing online education," said Bob Maginn, MindEdge CEO. Post this

"Today we're not just launching a platform -- we're revolutionizing online education," said Bob Maginn, CEO of MindEdge. "After serving over 4 million learners with industry-leading courses, we're now combining that proven expertise with AI to revolutionize how great courses are built. The result is a platform that lets educators easily create experiences that prepare people for success in an ever-evolving world."

"For 25 years, we've been studying what makes online learning truly effective." said Steve Rogalsky, Chief Product Officer for MindEdge. "LearningEdge brings that knowledge together with intuitive design tools, sophisticated analytics, and thoughtfully applied AI to enable educators to develop content in ways that doesn't just look good or simply deliver information -- it transforms learners' lives."

"AI in education needs to solve real teaching challenges, not just accelerate content creation," said Hugo Lallo, Chief of Technology and Staff at MindEdge. "We're integrating AI to handle time-consuming tasks like assessment creation while maintaining learning science principles."

Jonathan R. Clark, Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio and co-author of the new book Leading Through: Activating the Soul, Heart, and Mind of Leadership, explains: "As an author and educator, I've experienced firsthand how challenging it can be to transform written content into effective online courses. The platform's intuitive interface and powerful tools allow me to focus on what matters mostcreating impactful learning experiences."

Transforming the Future of Learning

LearningEdge represents more than a new platform -- it's a fundamental shift in how online education is created and delivered. Designed to work alongside your existing Learning Management System, it unifies essential capabilities into a single, integrated solution for higher education institutions, corporate learning teams, and professional training organizations.

Today's launch marks an exciting first step in our vision for transforming online education. For institutions ready to elevate their teaching impact and learner success, a new era of education starts today. By freeing educators from unnecessary complexity, we're allowing them to discover the full potential of every learner.

To see LearningEdge in action, request a demo at https://mindedge.com/learningedge/.

About MindEdge

MindEdge's mission is to improve the way the world learns. Since its founding in 1998 by Harvard and MIT educators, the company has served more than four million learners. With a focus on digital-first learning resources---from academic courseware to professional development courses---MindEdge's approach to best practices in online education focuses on learners' needs across the spectrum of higher education, professional development, skills training, and continuing education. Learn more at https://www.mindedge.com/.

SOURCE MindEdge
Growth momentum continues with several additional projects in the pipeline as the firm scales its single-family land development platform.

ALPHARETTA, Ga., May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DDB Capital Fund LLC ("DDB Capital"), a real estate fund, announced today it is now actively managing over $140 million in land development value across 11 secured properties. This achievement reflects the firm's disciplined approach to identifying and procuring high-conviction land opportunities in the Southeast.

The current portfolio includes strategically positioned properties in high-growth markets such as the Gulf Shores metropolitan area, rapidly expanding regions of North Alabama, and the Atlanta's fast-developing exurbs. These assets align with DDB Capital's core strategy of acquiring, entitling, and delivering shovel-ready residential lots in locations with strong demographic growth and limited housing supply.

"These assets reflect the discipline and vision of our team. Unlocking development-ready land in key growth corridors is essential to solving the U.S. housing shortage. We're proud to lead this effort through thoughtful capital deployment and execution strategies. With several more deals in the pipeline, we're excited about the momentum ahead and the opportunity to generate strong, risk-adjusted returns for our investors," said Derek Distenfield, Managing Director at DDB Capital.

DDB Capital specializes in early-stage land development, transforming raw or underutilized land into buildable residential communities for national and regional homebuilders. The firm's strategy is built around creating value from entitlement through delivery while maintaining downside protection.

In addition to the 11 secured properties, DDB Capital is currently evaluating and negotiating several additional land acquisitions expected to close before the end of the second quarter. The firm is also expanding its network of local partners, municipalities, and institutional homebuilders to streamline entitlement processes and accelerate lot delivery.

You can review each development here.

About DDB Capital Fund LLC

DDB Capital Fund LLC is a premier real estate investment fund focused on innovative and transformative developments across the Southeast. With a commitment to excellence, community enrichment, and sustainable growth, DDB Capital delivers exceptional projects that provide lasting value for investors and residents. For more information, visit www.ddbcapital.com.

Disclaimer

This communication is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any securities, investment products, or services. Any offering will be made only through official offering documents to qualified investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Please consult your legal, tax, or financial advisor before making any investment decision.

SOURCE DDB Capital
Five locations opened, three agreements signed and six commitments  including multi-unit deals and upcoming first time entry into Pennsylvania market

SPARTANBURG, S.C., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Eggs Up Grill , a neighborhood favorite and the fastest-growing "better breakfast" restaurant franchise in the country, is continuing its expansion in 2025 with a strong first quarter. The brand signed three new franchise agreements for six new commitments and opened five new restaurants in Athens, Alabama; Melbourne, Florida; McDonough, Georgia; Indian Trail, North Carolina; and Cleveland, Tennessee  bringing the total number of locations opened to 94. With momentum building, the brand continues to attract passionate franchise owners eager to deliver real service for real people in neighborhoods across the country.

Eggs Up Grill's Q1 performance features a multi-brand development deal that will bring the concept to Pennsylvania for the first time. The agreement includes plans for at least four locations across the eastern part of the state over the next four years, marking a significant milestone as the brand grows beyond its Southeast roots and introduces its signature breakfast experience to new communities.

Multi-unit developers continue to play a vital role in this expansion, bringing operational expertise, brand passion, and a long-term investment mindset that fuels consistency and growth across markets. Additional deals this quarter include a single-unit agreement in the James Island, SC market, a 3-unit development agreement for the Lake Charles, LA and Beaumont, TX areas, and a 2-unit development agreement for the Macon/Warner Robins, GA market, with all initial locations projected to open in late 2025 to early 2026.

"This year is off to a great start thanks to the strength of our franchise community and the demand we continue to see for our high-quality, better breakfast concept," said Ricky Richardson, CEO of Eggs Up Grill. "Our momentum is being driven by experienced, multi-unit operators who see the value in scaling with a brand built on simplicity, hospitality and strong unit level economics. In the last 12 months Eggs Up Grill opened 22 restaurants, outpacing and outperforming competitors in the sector. We're entering new markets, welcoming passionate operators, and staying focused on what matters most, serving our neighborhoods with great food and real hospitality."

With a focus on guest experience, franchisee success, and market expansion, Eggs Up Grill is positioned for continued growth in 2025. With more than 170 restaurants open or in development, the brand attracts operators drawn to its proven model, daytime-only hours, and community-first approach. Built on hospitality, simplicity, and strong unit economics, the concept offers a welcoming atmosphere, a high-quality breakfast and lunch menu, and a family-friendly culture that resonates with both franchisees and guests.

Eggs Up Grill is actively seeking motivated individuals to partner with across the country. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or you're looking to own your very first business, Eggs Up Grill could be the perfect opportunity for you. To learn more about franchising with Eggs Up Grill and the available franchise opportunities, visit: https://eggsupgrillfranchise.com/

For more information about Eggs Up Grill, visit: https://eggsupgrill.com/

About Eggs Up Grill

Founded in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, Eggs Up Grill has been serving smiles for over 25 years. From the first sip of freshly brewed coffee to the last bite of a hearty breakfast or lunch, our welcoming atmosphere and attentive service make every visit feel like coming home. As "neighbors serving neighbors," we proudly serve breakfast, brunch, and lunch daily from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., offering a full menu throughout our hours of operation.

Eggs Up Grill's business model is designed to create smiles not just for guests but for our Franchise Partners as well. Ranked the No. 1 breakfast franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise500 for four consecutive years, Eggs Up Grill is experiencing record growth and actively seeking both seasoned and first-time franchise partners. With 94 locations currently in operation and over 85 more under development or committed to open, the brand is poised for continued success.

SOURCE Eggs Up Grill
PHILADELPHIA, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Berger Montague PC advises investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Elevance Health, Inc. ("Elevance" or the "Company") (NYSE: ELV) on behalf of purchasers of Elevance securities between April 18, 2024 through October 16, 2024, inclusive (the "Class Period").

Investor Deadline: Investors who purchased or acquired Elevance securities during the Class Period may, no later than JULY 11, 2025 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. To learn your rights, CLICK HERE .

Elevance, based in Indianapolis, Ind., is a healthcare company that, among other things, provides health insurance plans to a variety of markets, including contracting with states to administer Medicaid benefits for eligible beneficiaries. States regularly conduct an eligibility review to "redetermine" whether Medicaid beneficiaries still qualify for coverage.

The true state of Elevance's finances began to emerge on July 17, 2024, when the Company revealed that it was now "expecting second-half utilization to increase in Medicaid." In response to this disclosure, the price of Elevance common stock declined by $32.21 per share, or 5.8%, to a closing price of $520.93 per share on July 17, 2024.

Finally, on October 17, 2024, Elevance announced its financial results for Q3 2024, revealing that the Company had missed earnings per share ("EPS") expectations for Q3 by $1.33, or 13.7%, "due to elevated medical costs in [its] Medicaid business." Further, Elevance lowered EPS guidance for 2024 from $37.20 to $33.00, or 11.3%, as it expected these Medicaid issues to continue.

These disclosures caused the price of Elevance common stock to decline by another $52.61 per share, or 10.6%, to a closing price of $444.35 per share on October 17, 2024.

To learn your rights or for more information, CLICK HERE or please contact Berger Montague: Andrew Abramowitz at [email protected] or (215) 875-3015, or Peter Hamner at [email protected] .

A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Communicating with any counsel is not necessary to participate or share in any recovery achieved in this case. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as a lead plaintiff through counsel of his/her choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an inactive class member.

Berger Montague, with offices in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Delaware, Washington, D.C., San Diego, San Francisco and Chicago, has been a pioneer in securities class action litigation since its founding in 1970. Berger Montague has represented individual and institutional investors for over five decades and serves as lead counsel in courts throughout the United States.

Contact:

Andrew Abramowitz, Senior Counsel

Berger Montague

(215) 875-3015

[email protected]

Peter Hamner

Berger Montague PC

[email protected]

SOURCE Berger Montague
STOCKHOLM, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, EQT will host a Capital Markets Event in London. The presentation will be available on the EQT Group website's Shareholder Relations tab at 1:00 pm BST.

We will explore EQT's thematic investment focus, repeatable value creation toolbox, and governance model through the lens of several of EQT's portfolio companies: IFS, Reworld, Nord Anglia Education, IVC Evidensia, WS Audiology, and Credila Financial Services. In addition, EQT Industrial Advisors Kate Swann, Dorothy Thompson, and Jonas Person will reflect on their roles and the importance of EQT's governance model.

The day will be hosted by EQT's newly appointed CEO & Managing Partner, Per Franzen; the Heads of the Private Capital and Infrastructure business lines; and EQT's Shareholder Relations team. It will conclude with a fireside chat between EQT's Founder & Chairperson Conni Jonsson and Bloomberg TV Anchor Kriti Gupta at around 5:00 pm, followed by a drinks reception.

Contact

Olof Svensson, Head of Shareholder Relations, +46 72 989 09 15

EQT Press Office, [email protected], +46 8 506 55 334

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-hosts-capital-markets-event---value-creation-through-the-lens-of-eqt-s-portfolio-companies,c4153895

The following files are available for download:
ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Everstory Partners is proud to be Certified by Great Place To Work for 2025. The prestigious award is based entirely on what current employees say about their experience working at Everstory and its family of brands.

Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience, and the leadership behaviors proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation.

"We believe by fostering a supportive and engaging environment, we can truly be the best in family service." Post this Great Place to Work logo

"Over the past 24 months, we have been investing in our team  listening, learning, and evolving together," said Everstory Chief Executive Officer Lilly Donohue. "I am incredibly proud to lead this company and to work alongside such dedicated and passionate individuals."

A few of the initiatives Everstory has implemented during this time:

Increased the company-wide minimum wage.

Launched Everstory University to enhance professional development.

Implemented user-friendly technology platforms streamlining workflows.

Launched advisory councils where our general managers, sales managers and funeral home managers provide insights and advice, ensuring the company makes informed decisions for its business and its people.

Held town halls and implemented direct access to its executives for transparent communication.

"Every step has been focused on creating a better workplace," Donohue added. "These efforts exemplify our dedication to an open, collaborative culture because we believe by fostering a supportive and engaging environment, we can truly be the best in family service."

To be certified, the company earned the real-time feedback of employees regarding their company culture with approximately 80 percent of Everstory's 2,600 employees returning surveys sharing their thoughts on working at the company.

"Great Place To Work Certification is a highly coveted achievement that requires consistent and intentional dedication to the overall employee experience," says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, vice president of global recognition at Great Place To Work. "By successfully earning this recognition, it is evident that Everstory Partners stands out as one of the top companies to work for, providing a great workplace environment for its employees."

Everstory Chief People Officer Karen Sheean added: "Employee engagement is a key component of a multi-year commitment to listening to and understanding the voices of our employees through this program. We are thrilled to become Great Place To Work-Certified in our first year, however, we recognize that the real work is just beginning."

"We owe our continued success to our team of dedicated employees at all of our Everstory locations and Support Center. We celebrate and thank them for all they do in earning this incredible recognition," Sheean said.

Explore a Career at Everstory Partners

Looking to grow your career at a company that puts its people first? Visit our careers page at: www.everstorypartners.com/careers

About Everstory Partners

Everstory Partners' mission is to create supportive spaces where individuals and families can find solace, meaning, and hope in the midst of loss. Since 1999, the company has grown to include 463 cemetery, funeral, and crematory locations serving more than 65,000 families a year across the United States (including Puerto Rico) on both a pre-need and at-need basis. Everstory is the brand promise, created in April 2023, to destigmatize death care with a unique blend of long-standing traditions of caring for the deceased with a fresh perspective that death is a natural and beautiful part of the human experience that should be planned and celebrated. Visit everstorypartners.com to learn more and memorialplanning.com for a list of properties and contact information.

About Great Place to Work Certification

Great Place To Work Certification is the most definitive "employer-of-choice" recognition that companies aspire to achieve. It is the only recognition based entirely on what employees report about their workplace experience  specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work Certification is recognized worldwide by employees and employers alike and is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place To Work-Certified.

About Great Place To Work

As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Their proprietary platform and For All Model helps companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces List.

Learn more at greatplacetowork.com and follow Great Place To Work on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Contact: Karen Sheean, Chief People Officer

Phone: 503-841-7423

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Everstory Partners
TAMPA, Fla., May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The family of a 16-year-old girl allegedly murdered after being targeted by a 35-year-old male on the Grindr hook-up app has filed a lawsuit against Grindr, LLC, alleging the company's inadequate age-verification system, sexually explicit promotional material, and youth-sexualizing advertisements directly contributed to the child's death.

The complaint alleges that on or about February 14, 2025, the child accessed the Grindr app, where the 35-year-old man located her and ultimately killed her. According to the Complaint, the child endured a week of sexual assault and torture before she was murdered and her remains desecrated and disposed of, leaving her family without a proper burial.

Although Grindr markets itself as the largest social networking app for gay, bisexual, and trans people, court documents cite surveys showing its user base is sexually diverse, with many users identifying across a spectrum of sexual orientations.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges that Grindr lures children with inadequate age verification and attracts predators with sexually explicit promotions and ads featuring extremely young-looking models.

Court documents state Grindr enables quick hookups by pinpointing a user's real-time location within feet, endangering minors who pass its lax age verification relying on self-reported dates of birth."

The lawsuit claims that years before the child's murder, there were numerous public warnings that underage children were accessing the Grindr app through its inadequate age verification.

The Complaint seeks $150 million in compensatory damages and up to $600 million in punitive damages for Grindr's allegedly improper profit motive in making the app accessible to children.

The plaintiff also seeks injunctive relief, requesting that the Court order Grindr to implement reasonable age verification measures and prohibit the company from making safety claims that the plaintiff alleges are misleading.

"Grindr chose not to implement reasonable age verification technologies," stated attorney Lorne Adam Kaiser of Kaiser Romanello Accident & Injury Attorneys. "We aim to cause change to prevent future tragedies."

For media inquiries, contact Lorne Adam Kaiser at 844-877-8679.

The allegations in this release are derived from publicly filed court documents. Grindr has not yet responded to these claims, and the assertions remain untested in court.

SOURCE Kaiser Romanello, P.A.
Uncle Nearest CEO honored for reshaping modern marketing through authenticity and storytelling

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Fawn Weaver, best known as "The People's CEO" and the visionary founder behind the Uncle Nearest portfolio of brands, has been officially inducted into the American Marketing Association New York Marketing Hall of Fame for 2025becoming only the third African American woman in history to receive this honor. The prestigious recognition celebrates Weaver's groundbreaking contributions to brand-building, cultural storytelling, and purpose-driven leadership that have redefined the landscape of modern marketing.

Fawn Weaver, Founder and CEO of Uncle Nearest

Weaver is honored in the category of Marketing for a Challenger Brand, recognizing her extraordinary success in building Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. Under her leadership, the brand has become the fastest-growing and most awarded independent spirits brand in history.

By centering the brand around Nearest Green's legacy, Weaver has reshaped the narrative of American whiskey, bringing long-overdue recognition to African American contributions in the spirits industry. One example of Weaver's innovative approach is reflected in Uncle Nearest's distribution strategy: partnering with top regional distributorsrather than a single national oneenabled the brand to expand to all 50 states in under two years, a feat previously unheard of in the spirits industry.

"I'm honored to receive this recognition, which reflects the power of truth in storytelling," said Fawn Weaver. "We didn't build Uncle Nearest by following a traditional playbookwe led with authenticity and a commitment to honoring the legacy of those who came before us. Even with all the accolades, we still do not consider ourselves to be in the whiskey business. We are in the legacy-cementing business and will not slow down until Nearest Green's name and legacy are ubiquitous around the world. To be recognized among the most influential marketers is a testament to the idea that purpose and profit can grow together."

Weaver was formally inducted at the 2025 Marketing Hall of Fame ceremony yesterday at UM's Global Headquarters in New York City. She joins a class of distinguished honorees including Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus of DDB Worldwide, and Tim Ellis, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of the NFLunderscoring the caliber of marketing leadership recognized by this year's awards.

About Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey

Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey pays tribute to the world's first-known African American master distiller, Nearest Green. It was the pioneer spirits brand to bear the name of a Black American. The brand's portfolio boasts the Most Awarded Straight Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey titles for the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, amassing over 1,450 awards and accolades since its launch in 2017. This includes an impressive 953 Gold medals or higher, which includes 155 Best in Class honors and an average critic's score of 91. Uncle Nearest is currently available in all 50 states and 26 countries, with a presence in more than 45,000 stores, bars, hotels, and restaurants. Uncle Nearest is also available at its 458-acre Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tenn., now the seventh most visited distillery in the world. For more information, please visit the website , and follow on Instagram and Facebook @unclenearest.

SOURCE Uncle Nearest, Inc.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. and ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a moment of national urgency sparked by Former President Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis, ZERO Prostate Cancer (ZERO)the nation's largest prostate cancer organization for advocacy and support is teaming up with AstraZeneca and NASCAR drivers Josh Bilicki and JJ Yeley this Memorial Day Weekend to honor those lost, raise awareness, and ignite action during one of racing's most patriotic events.

With the roar of the Coca-Cola 600 and BetMGM 300 engines as a backdrop, the campaign brings a critical spotlight to a disease that affects 1 in 8 men in the U.S., and even more alarmingly, strikes military Veterans at double the rate of the general population.

This timely partnership comes during NASCAR Salutes, the sport's annual tribute to America's fallen heroes, amplifying a message that is both deeply personal and nationally urgent: prostate cancer is taking too many lives.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men and Veterans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Every 15 minutes in America, a man dies from the disease.

"Prostate cancer has become too big to ignore," said Courtney Bugler, President and CEO of ZERO Prostate Cancer. "There are more than 3 million men living with prostate cancer. This year alone, over 300,000 men will be diagnosed, and more than 35,000 will die from the disease. We must break down the barriers to early detection, especially for Veterans and others who face higher risks. This Memorial Day, we race not just to rememberbut to save lives."

ZERO, with support from AstraZeneca, will serve as Primary Sponsor of the No. 66 Ford Mustang (Garage 66/MBM Motorsports) driven by Josh Bilicki in the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, May 26 (Amazon Prime), and the No. 53 Chevrolet Camaro (Joey Gase Racing) driven by JJ Yeley in the BetMGM 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, May 25 (The CW Network).

Both cars will feature custom ZERO-themed paint schemes, and the weekend will include garage activations, VIP guests, and coordinated media to deliver an unmistakable message: Early detection saves lives.

"Memorial Day weekend is a powerful moment to elevate the conversation around Veterans' health," said Daniele Paone, VP US, GYN/GU Cancer Franchise, AstraZeneca. "Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among U.S. Veterans, which is why early detection and access to quality care is critical. We're proud to join ZERO Prostate Cancer and NASCAR to raise awareness among veterans and all men at risk. It's part of our bold ambition to one day eliminate cancer as a cause of death."

For nearly 30 years, ZERO has been at the forefront of the battle against prostate cancer, as the nation's #1 provider of resources, programs, services, and support to patients and families affected by this devastating disease.

"This weekend isn't just about racingit's about saving lives," said Driver Josh Bilicki. "President Biden's diagnosis has put prostate cancer in the spotlight, and we're here to keep it there. If one more man gets tested because of this, we've already made a difference."

"As a 48-year-old man and part of a sport that's deeply tied to the Veteran community, this message hits home," said Driver JJ Yeley. "Veterans are more likely to face this disease, and early detection is key. If we can help even one person take that step, every lap will be worth it."

ZERO's effort aligns with its bold initiative launched earlier this year to save 100,000 lives by 2035 with a focus on expanding education, outreach, and improved access to quality care for Veterans, Black men, and rural communitiesthose hit hardest by the disease.

"ZERO is equally proud to stand with AstraZeneca, Josh, JJ, the entire Veteran community, and racing fans across the world this Memorial Day to remind every man to talk to their doctor, know their risk, and get screened," said Bugler. "A Simple PSA Blood test can mean the difference between life and death because prostate cancer doesn't discriminatebut together, we can beat it."

Watch The Race Live:

BetMGM 300 (Xfinity Series): Saturday, May 24  1:00 PM ET on the CW

Saturday, May 24  on the CW Coca-Cola 600 (Cup Series): Sunday, May 25  6:00 PM ET on Amazon Prime

For information on risk, PSA testing, and ZERO's life-saving programs, visit ZEROcancer.org .

About ZERO Prostate Cancer

ZERO Prostate Cancer (ZERO) is on a mission to improve and save lives from prostate cancer through advocacy, awareness, education, and support. Formerly known as the National Prostate Cancer Coalition, ZERO was founded in 1996 to stand up for people impacted by prostate cancer. Today, ZERO serves as the nation's leading prostate cancer organization, advancing a future where prostate cancer detection is early, support is unwavering, and care is accessible to all. For nearly 30 years, ZERO has led the way in prostate cancer advocacy, screenings, and partnerships, successfully unlocking funding toward breakthrough discoveries, treatments, and lifesaving access to care.

As the nation's #1 provider of prostate cancer resources, programs, and services, ZERO has supported millions of people at-risk or diagnosed, and their families. As the voice of the prostate cancer community, ZERO's urgent focus on breaking barriers to survivalby closing gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and carebrings critical attention to those most likely to be impacted by this disease. Learn more at ZEROcancer.org

MEDIA CONTACT:

Steph Johnson

Vice President Communications

ZERO Prostate Cancer

[email protected]

SOURCE Zero Prostate Cancer
LAKE CITY, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc. (TRLS), in partnership with First Federal Bank (FFB), was awarded an Heirs Property Family Wealth Protection Fund grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta (FHLB Atlanta), for the purpose of providing free legal services regarding heirs property and estate planning to "homeowners" of North Florida. Homeowners who reside in the counties of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Suwannee, Taylor or Union, and have household incomes below 120% of the Area Median Income, will be eligible to apply for legal services related to heirs property and estate planning. Residents whose homes were damaged as the result of Hurricanes Idalia, Debby or Helene will be given priority for full representation. "TRLS helps individuals and their families navigate complex scenarios," says John Medina, President and CEO of First Federal Bank. "First Federal Bank is honored to help facilitate access to legal services to these deserving homeowners."

"Heirs property" is real property that is currently titled in the name of a deceased individual, regardless of whether the homeowner had a Will at the time of their death. TRLS will provide legal representation in probate matters to the heir(s) of the property in an effort to have the property legally titled in the name of the resident heir. These clients, along with homeowners who already possess clear title to their homes, will be eligible to apply for legal services related to Estate Planning (wills and deeds) in an effort to prevent future heirs property issues.

"TRLS is grateful to First Federal Bank and FHLB Atlanta for the funding, which will allow TRLS to serve more clients in the designated counties" says Donna MacRae, Executive Director of Three Rivers Legal Services. For more information on how to help Three Rivers Legal Services, visit trls.org/volunteer.

About First Federal Bank:

First Federal Bank is a leading financial institution committed to serving the needs of its customers and communities. With banking locations in northern Florida and coastal South Carolina, First Federal Bank is a community-owned bank that provides a wide range of consumer and commercial banking solutions, services, and loans. Additionally, SBA and USDA customers are served by lending offices across the Southeast and Midwest, and mortgages are offered nationwide. With over $3.9 billion in assets, First Federal is headquartered in Lake City, Florida and has a steadfast focus on innovation and customer satisfaction. For over 20 years the bank has consistently been recommended by BauerFinancial, Inc. Furthermore, Newsweek named First Federal the "Best Small Bank in Florida" for four consecutive years from 2020 to 2023 and "Best Regional Bank" for 2024 and 2025. To learn more, visit the website at www.ffbf.com

About Three Rivers Legal Services:

Three Rivers Legal Services, Inc. (TRLS) is a non-profit law firm that provides free legal services to low-income or otherwise disadvantaged individuals and families in North Florida. Services include advice and consultation, brief services (drafting legal documents), negotiation, and full representation in court and/or administrative cases. TRLS services are limited to civil legal matters, including but not limited to probate, estate planning, housing law, consumer law, family law, public benefits (Social Security, SSI, Medicaid), elder law, sealing and expungement of criminal records, and education law. To learn more visit www.trls.org

SOURCE First Federal Bank
BRIDGEWATER, N.J., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Firstsource Solutions Limited (NSE:FSL) (BSE:532809), a leading global provider of transformational solutions and services and an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company, has partnered with Sanas, provider of the world's first real-time speech understanding platform, to enable next-level customer conversations powered by AI.

Aligned with Firstsource's UnBPO philosophy, the integration of Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology marks a strategic leap in AI-first customer experience. This seamless, speech-to-speech solution eliminates accent and language barriersenhancing clarity, reducing cognitive strain, and empowering agents to connect with global customers more confidently and effectively. As AI moves from pilot to performance, early adopters are already seeing the impact128% more likely to report high ROI from their AI tools in CX. By embedding intelligent, unobtrusive tech into day-to-day operations, Firstsource is unlocking scalable, measurable valueboosting agent productivity, strengthening conversations, and delivering next-gen CX outcomes at speed and scale.

"At Firstsource, we seek partnerships that reflect our commitment to smart, scalable transformationsolutions that deliver maximum impact with minimal friction, improving both experience and outcomes. Our collaboration with Sanas is a powerful expression of the UnBPO philosophy: leveraging intelligent, human-centric technology to elevate performance and ROI.

"The Customer Experience (CX) landscape is undergoing a fundamental shiftfrom cost efficiency to outcome-driven impact. With Sanas' AI-powered Real-Time Accent Translation, we are enabling more inclusive, fluid customer conversations  irrespective of who the customer is  a consumer, a student, or a patient  without the need for hardware changes or system overhauls. It is an innovation that works in the background but transforms everything.

"This is the Future of Work in actiona seamless human-AI partnership where technology enhances connection, boosts responsiveness, and empowers agents to perform at their best," said Ashish Chawla, President  CX and Consulting at Firstsource.

The technology is industry-agnostic, enabling a host of benefits for enhanced communication across diverse industries. Early implementations of this technology in other enterprises have demonstrated significant performance results:

17% average increase in sales efficiency

21% improvement in Net Promoter Score (NPS) at a Fortune 20 global tech company

at a Fortune 20 global tech company 18% average reduction in AHT

Zero instances of customers asking to speak with another agent

of customers asking to speak with another agent 22% average boost in Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

95% agent adoption rate

"We're thrilled to partner with Firstsource to bring Sanas' Real-Time Accent Translation technology to their global operations. This collaboration marks a major milestone in our mission to make communication more inclusive and effortless. Our groundbreaking AI technology, combined with Firstsource's customer-first approach, enables contact center agents to have clearer, more effective conversationsregardless of accent or geography. Together, we are setting a new standard for exceptional agent and customer experiences alike," said Sharath Keshava Narayana, CEO and co-founder, Sanas.ai.

About Firstsource

Firstsource Solutions Limited, an RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group company (NSE: FSL) (BSE: 532809) (Reuters: FISO.BO) (Bloomberg: FSOL:IN), is a global leader providing transformational solutions and services spanning the customer lifecycle across Healthcare, Banking and Financial Services, Communications, Media and Technology, Retail, and other diverse industries. With a global footprint across US, UK, India, Philippines, Mexico, Romania, Turkey, Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, and Australia, we 'make it happen' for our clients, solving their biggest challenges with hyper-focused, domain-centered teams and cutting-edge tech, data, and analytics. Our inch-wide, mile-deep practitioners work collaboratively, leveraging UnBPO  our differentiated approach to reimagining traditional outsourcing  to deliver real-world, future-focused solutions that drive speed, scale, and smarter decision, turning transformation into tangible results for our clients.

(www.firstsource.com)

About Sanas

Sanas provides the world's first Real-Time Speech Understanding Platform powered by its patented AI technologies. Born from a mission to power a kinder, more compassionate world, Sanas is pioneering a revolution in human connection by making global, real-time communication more inclusive. Today, Sanas offers Real-Time Accent Translation and Two-Way Noise Cancellation. Founded in 2020, Sanas is led by a team of exceptional co-founders, including CEO Sharath Keshava Narayana and CTO Shawn Zhang.

(Sanas.ai)

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2515360/Firstsource_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Firstsource
CALGARY, AB, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) ("Frontera" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the results from its 2025 annual & special meeting of shareholders held today (the "Meeting").

ELECTION OF DIRECTORS

Shareholders elected each of the nominees proposed by management as set forth in the management information circular of the Company dated April 9, 2025. The total number of shares represented by shareholders present in person or by proxy at the Meeting was 53,094,359, representing approximately 68.69% of Frontera's issued and outstanding common shares. The directors achieved an average approval vote of 97.19% from shareholders.

The detailed results of the vote are set out below:

Nominee Outcome of Vote Voted Voted (%) Gabriel de Alba Approved 39,816,273 Voted For 1,753,292 Withheld 95.78% 4.22% Luis F. Alarcon Mantilla Approved 39,081,513 Voted For 2,488,052 Withheld 94.01% 5.99% W. Ellis Armstrong Approved 40,898,403 Voted For 671,162 Withheld 98.39% 1.61% Orlando Cabrales Segovia Approved 40,838,753 Voted For 730,812 Withheld 98.24% 1.76% Russell Ford Approved 40,923,045 Voted For 646,520 Withheld 98.44% 1.56% Veronique Giry Approved 40,848,835 Voted For 720,730 Withheld 98.27% 1.73%

Each of the directors elected at the Meeting will hold office until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders of the Company or until he or she resigns or his or her successor is duly elected or appointed pursuant to the Articles of the Company.

Detailed voting results for all resolutions considered by shareholders at the Meeting are contained in the report of voting results, which is available on SEDAR+ under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca .

BOARD AND COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

The Company has the following committees: Audit Committee, Compensation and Human Resources Committee ("CHRC"), and Corporate Governance, Nominating, and Sustainability Committee ("CGNSC"). The current committee membership is set forth below:

Committee Members Audit Committee W. Ellis Armstrong (Chair) Luis F. Alarcon Mantilla Russell Ford CHRC Gabriel de Alba (Chair) Veronique Giry Russell Ford CGNSC Luis F. Alarcon Mantilla (Chair) W. Ellis Armstrong Veronique Giry

About Frontera

Frontera Energy Corporation is a Canadian public company involved in the exploration, development, production, transportation, storage, and sale of oil and natural gas in South America, including related investments in both upstream and midstream facilities. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets with interests in 22 exploration and production blocks in Colombia, Ecuador, and Guyana, and pipeline and port facilities in Colombia. Frontera is committed to conducting business safely and in a socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible manner.

If you would like to receive News Releases via email as soon as they are published, please subscribe here: http://fronteraenergy.mediaroom.com/subscribe .

Social Media

Follow Frontera Energy social media channels at the following links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fronteraenergy?lang=en

Facebook: https://es-la.facebook.com/FronteraEnergy/

LinkedIn: https://co.linkedin.com/company/frontera-energy-corp.

SOURCE Frontera Energy Corporation
Offer Results in a CAD$1.18 Per Share Distribution or 24.9% Yield (to Frontera's Share Price Prior to the Offer's Announcement) Assuming Full and Pro-Rata Shareholder Participation

Approximately US$144 Million Returned to Shareholders in Last Twelve Months, Including Successful Completion of this Substantial Issuer Bid

Frontera May Consider Additional Strategic Initiatives or Transactions in the Future

CALGARY, AB, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) ("Frontera" or the "Company") announces that its board of directors (the "Board") has approved the commencement of a substantial issuer bid (the "Offer") pursuant to which the Company will offer to purchase from holders ("Shareholders") of common shares of the Company (the "Shares") up to 7,583,333 Shares for cancellation at a purchase price of CAD$12.00 per Share (the "Purchase Price"), for an aggregate purchase price not exceeding CAD$91,000,000 (equivalent to US$65,000,000).

Orlando Cabrales, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Frontera, commented:

"With the successful ODL pipeline recapitalization now complete, Frontera is following through on its commitment to return significant value to its stakeholders by distributing CAD$91 million via this share buyback and up to an additional US$65 million via the recently announced tender offer and consent solicitation in respect of the Company's 7.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2028.

These efforts are consistent with the Company's strategy of unlocking value and returning capital to its stakeholders. Our proposed C$12.00 per share offer is in-line with the fundamental value the Board and management see in the Company and with the value of previous share repurchases. Furthermore, Frontera believes the C$12.00 per share offer through the substantial issuer bid format represents a fair and equitable value available to all of its shareholders.

Upon successful completion of the Offer, Frontera will have returned approximately US$144 million of capital to its Shareholders over the last twelve months via substantial issuer bids, declared dividends and share repurchases through the Company's normal course issuer bid program.

Frontera will continue to consider similar investor-focused initiatives throughout 2025 and beyond."

The Offer is expected to commence on May 29, 2025 and remain open for acceptance until 5:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on July 4, 2025, unless extended, varied or withdrawn by the Company (the "Expiration Date"). Pursuant to the Offer, tendering Shareholders may elect to tender a specified number of Shares.

The Company plans to fund the Share repurchases with cash on hand and the funds available to the Company through the recently closed US$220 million non-recourse secured credit facility among the Company's indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Frontera Pipeline Investment AG, as borrower, FEC ODL Holding Corp., as guarantor, and a syndicate of lenders led by Macquarie Bank Limited.

The Offer is denominated in Canadian dollars, and Shareholders may elect to receive payment in either Canadian or United States dollars.

Purpose of the Offer

As part of its efforts to unlock and maximize value for Shareholders and following successful substantial issuer bids completed in October 2024 and January 2025, the Company has identified this Offer as an attractive and efficient means to return further capital to Shareholders. Upon successful completion of the Offer, the Company will have returned approximately US$144 million of capital to its Shareholders over the last twelve months, including US$30 million from the October 2024 substantial issuer bid, US$30 million from the January 2025 substantial issuer bid, US$14.8 million in declared dividends and US$3.6 million of share repurchases through the Company's normal course issuer bid program.

On May 8, 2025, the last full trading day prior to the date of announcement of the Company's intention to make the Offer, the closing price of the Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange was CAD$4.72 per Share.

Assuming full and pro-rata Shareholder participation, the Offer represents a CAD$1.18 per Share distribution equivalent to a 24.9% yield on the Company's stock price prior to the announcement of the Offer as part of the Company's first quarter 2025 results. The year-to-date distribution total to Shareholders, including this Offer and all dividends declared this year would be CAD$1.30 per Share (equivalent to a 27.6% yield).

In addition to the Offer and the recently announced tender offer and consent solicitation in respect of the Company's 7.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2028 (the "Tender Offer and Solicitation"), the Board will continue to consider various strategic initiatives and/or transactions including, without limitation, a further return of capital to Shareholders, a merger or consolidation, recapitalization or a business combination, or the transfer, sale or other disposition of all or a significant portion of the business, assets or securities of the Company or of interests in one or more subsidiaries or in assets of the Company, whether in one or a series of transactions. There can be no assurance that any such initiative or transaction will occur or if it occurs, the timing thereof.

Following the completion of the Offer, Frontera intends to file with the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "TSX") a notice of intention to commence a normal course issuer bid for its Shares (the "NCIB"). If accepted by the TSX, the Company would be permitted under the NCIB to purchase for cancellation, during a 12-month period, up to the number of Shares equal to the greater of (i) 5% of the Company's issued and outstanding Shares and (ii) 10% of the Company's "public float" (as such term is defined in the TSX Company Manual).

Purchase Price

Frontera will pay the Purchase Price of CAD$12.00 per Share for each validly deposited Share taken up by the Company up to a maximum of 7,583,333 Shares, for an aggregate Purchase Price not exceeding CAD$91,000,000 (equivalent to US$65,000,000).

Each Shareholder who has properly deposited Shares and who has not withdrawn such Shares will receive the Purchase Price, payable in cash (subject to applicable withholding taxes, if any), for all Shares taken up by the Company upon the terms and subject to the conditions of the Offer.

If more than 7,583,333 Shares are tendered for purchase, the Company will purchase the Shares on a pro rata basis. In that case, Shares that are tendered but not purchased will be returned to Shareholders.

Manner of Tender

Pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of the Offer, Shareholders wishing to tender to the Offer may do so by making an election to tender a specified number of Shares (representing, in the Shareholders' discretion, all or a portion of the Shareholders' Shares) at the Purchase Price.

Additional Information

As of May 20, 2025, the Company had 77,295,478 issued and outstanding Shares. The Offer will be for up to approximately 9.81% of the total number of issued and outstanding Shares on a non-diluted basis.

The Offer is optional for all Shareholders, who are free to choose whether to participate, and if they participate, how many Shares to tender. Shareholders who do not deposit their Shares (or whose Shares are not purchased under the Offer) will realize a proportionate increase in their equity interest in the Company to the extent that Shares are purchased under the Offer.

The terms and conditions of the Offer, including instructions for tendering Shares, will be included in the formal offer to purchase and issuer bid circular, letter of transmittal, notice of guaranteed delivery and other related documents (the "Offer Documents"). On or about May 29, 2025, the Offer Documents will be sent to registered Shareholders, filed with applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities, and made available without charge on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca.

In light of a potential Canada Post workers' strike and the potential resulting disruption of mail services, the Company may be unable to mail the Offer Documents to beneficial (non-registered) holders. However, upon resumption of normal mail service following any disruption, the Company intends to arrange for the mailing of the Offer Documents to the beneficial holders.

Shareholders can retrieve the Offer Documents on www.sedarplus.ca. Copies of the Offer Documents may also be obtained upon written or oral request, without charge, to the Company at the Company's head office at 1030, 140  4 Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 3N3 or by email at [email protected].

The Offer is not conditional upon any minimum number of Shares being tendered. However, the Offer will be subject to other conditions described in the Offer Documents. Frontera reserves the right, subject to applicable laws, to withdraw, extend or amend the Offer if certain events occur at any time prior to the payment for the tendered Shares.

The Catalyst Capital Group Inc. ("Catalyst") and Gramercy Funds Management LLC ("Gramercy" and, together with Catalyst, the "Principal Shareholders") are the beneficial owners of, or exercise control or direction over 31,669,506 and 9,679,128 Shares, respectively, which in the aggregate represents approximately 53.49% of all issued and outstanding Shares. Catalyst and Gramercy have advised the Company that their current intention is to deposit Shares pursuant to the Offer, however, their decision to participate in the Offer is subject to market conditions and other factors. Catalyst and Gramercy reserves the right, without notice and for any or no reason, to change its investment decisions at any time prior to the Expiration Date. In addition, certain directors and officers of the Company have expressed an intention to tender 232,876 Shares to the Offer.

The Company has engaged Computershare Investor Services Inc. to act as depositary for the Offer and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. to act as financial advisor and dealer manager. Shareholders who have questions regarding the Offer or require any assistance tendering Shares may contact Computershare Investor Services Inc. by telephone at 1-800-564-6253 (North America) or 514-982-7555 (International), or by e-mail at [email protected], or BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. by email at [email protected].

The Offer referred to in this news release has not yet commenced. This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell Shares. The solicitation and the offer to buy Shares will only be made pursuant to the Offer Documents to be filed with the applicable Canadian securities regulatory authorities. The Offer will not be made to, nor will tenders be accepted from or on behalf of, holders of Shares in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance of offers to sell Shares would not be in compliance with the laws of that jurisdiction. None of Frontera, its Board or the depositary makes any recommendation to Shareholders as to whether to tender or refrain from tendering any or all of their Shares pursuant to the Offer. Shareholders are strongly urged to read the Offer Documents carefully and consult with their financial, tax and legal advisors prior to making any decision with respect to the Offer.

About Frontera

Frontera Energy Corporation is a Canadian public company involved in the exploration, development, production, transportation, storage and sale of oil and natural gas in South America, including related investments in both upstream and midstream facilities. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets with interests in 22 exploration and production blocks in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana, and pipeline and port facilities in Colombia. Frontera is committed to conducting business safely and in a socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner.

If you would like to receive News Releases via e-mail as soon as they are published, please subscribe here: http://fronteraenergy.mediaroom.com/subscribe.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements as to the Company's current intentions regarding commencement of the Offer, the timing, terms and conditions of the Offer, the participation of the Principal Shareholders and certain directors and officers, the number of Shares to be purchased and the amount of capital returned to Shareholders under the Offer, the continued consideration of strategic initiatives or transactions in addition to the Offer and the Tender Offer and Solicitation, the Company's intention to initiate the NCIB subsequent to completion of the Offer, delivery of the Offer Documents and the timing thereof, and the Company's intention to mail the Offer Documents to beneficial holders upon resumption of normal mail service. Any such forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and are based on assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends and current market and other conditions. Readers should also refer to the risk factors set forth in the Company's annual information form dated March 10, 2025 and the management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, each available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which forward-looking statements are based will be realized. Actual results may differ, and the difference may be material and adverse to the Company and its Shareholders.

Social Media

Follow Frontera's social media channels at the following links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fronteraenergy?lang=en

Facebook: https://es-la.facebook.com/FronteraEnergy/

LinkedIn: https://co.linkedin.com/company/frontera-energy-corp

SOURCE Frontera Energy Corporation
DELRAY BEACH, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Generative AI Market is slated to expand from USD 71.36 billion in 2025 to USD 890.59 billion by 2032, at a substantial CAGR of 43.4% over the forecast period, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Generative AI Market"

500  Tables

80 - Figures

650  Pages

Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=142870584

Scope of the Report

Report Metrics Details Market size available for years 20202032 Base year considered 2024 Forecast period 20252032 Forecast units USD (Billion) Segments covered Offering, Data Modality, Application, End User, and Region Geographies covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America Companies covered IBM (US), NVIDIA (US), OpenAI (US), Anthropic (US), Meta (US), HPE (US), AMD (US), Oracle (US), Innodata (US), iMerit (US), Salesforce (US), Telus Digital (US), Microsoft (US), Google (US), AWS (US), Adobe (US), Accenture (Ireland), Capgemini (France), Centific (US), Fractal Analytics (US), Tiger Analytics (US), Quantiphi (US), Databricks (US), Dialpad (US), Appen (Australia), Insilico Medicine (Hong Kong), Simplified (US), AI21 Labs (Israel), Hugging Face (US), Persado (US), Copy.ai (US), Synthesis AI (US), Hypotenuse AI (US), Together AI (US), Mistral AI (France), Adept (US), Stability AI (UK), Lightricks (Israel), Cohere (Canada), Writesonic (US), Inflection AI (US), Colossyan (UK), Jasper (US), Runway (US), Inworld AI (US), Typeface (US), Upstage (South Korea), H2O.ai (US), Speechify (US), Midjourney (US), Fireflies (US), Synthesia (UK), Mostly AI (Austria), Forethought (US), Character.ai (US), Cursor (US), DeepSeek (China), XAI (US), Abridge (US), Perplexity AI (US), SambaNova (US), Scale AI (US), Labelbox (US), and HQE Systems (US).

The Generative AI Market is rapidly evolving into a multi-tiered commercial ecosystem, transforming how enterprises approach automation, creativity, and decision intelligence. As of 2025, the market is being driven by three key forces: foundation model delivery platforms, verticalized adoption across industries, and the rapid scaling of AI-native infrastructure. Leading providers like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic are embedding models such as GPT-4, Claude, and Gemini into cloud-native services like Azure OpenAI, Vertex AI, and Amazon Bedrock, enabling enterprises to fine-tune, orchestrate, and deploy generative AI without heavy infrastructure overhead. This is catalyzing adoption across BFSI, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and legal, where generative AI is being applied to use cases like fraud summarization, synthetic content creation, patient documentation, and contract analysis. Meanwhile, infrastructure demand is surging for high-bandwidth GPUs, low-latency memory systems, and vector databases optimized for retrieval-augmented generation. A new layer of differentiation is emerging through agent-based orchestration, model compression techniques, and open-weight small language models tailored to edge and on-premise environments. As global spending bifurcates between model training and inference-as-a-service, the Generative AI Market is entering a scale-driven phase defined by cross-layer integration, compliance-ready deployments, and high-margin platform monetization across the value chain.

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Abundance of enterprise data, model maturity, and low compute overhead to cement text as largest data modality by market share in 2025

Text is the largest data modality in the Generative AI Market due to its foundational role in enterprise workflows, model training availability, and monetization potential. Most enterprise knowledgeemails, reports, contracts, chat transcripts, documentation, code, and knowledge basesexists in text form, making it the most abundant and actionable input for generative models. Language models like GPT-4, Claude, and Cohere Command are specifically trained on massive corpora of unstructured text scraped from websites, books, technical manuals, and code repositories, allowing them to deliver high-performance outputs across summarization, classification, generation, and dialogue tasks. Enterprises are integrating text-based models across high-value use cases such as customer service automation, legal drafting, financial reporting, compliance explanation, and personalized marketing, where accuracy, traceability, and semantic understanding are critical. Importantly, text generation has the lowest infrastructure burden among modalities, with lower compute and storage demands compared to video or image generation. This enables faster inference, lower latency, and easier deployment across internal and customer-facing applications. With strong ecosystem support, mature APIs, and a broad set of industry benchmarks, the text remains the default and most monetizable entry point into generative AI, capturing a major share of market investment and usage.

Demand for data diversity, cost-effective labeling, and privacy compliance to push synthetic data generation to become fastest-growing application during forecast period

Synthetic data generation is poised to emerge as the fastest-growing application in the Generative AI Market, driven by the urgent need for diverse, high-quality, and privacy-safe datasets across industries. Traditional data collection is slow, expensive, and often constrained by regulatory barriers such as GDPR, HIPAA, or sector-specific confidentiality norms. Generative AI offers a powerful alternative by enabling the creation of labeled, unbiased, and anonymized datasets that mimic real-world scenarios without exposing sensitive information. Use cases are exploding in domains like autonomous driving, where synthetic street environments train perception systems; finance, where synthetic transactions model fraud patterns; and healthcare, where rare disease data is simulated to train diagnostic models. Enterprise adoption is surging as synthetic data accelerates model training cycles while drastically reducing dependency on manual annotation or third-party providers. Startups like Synthesis AI, Mostly AI, and Gretel.ai are scaling enterprise-ready synthetic data platforms, while hyperscalers are embedding generation capabilities directly into MLOps pipelines. With strong alignment to both AI model performance and compliance requirements, synthetic data is no longer a niche use caseit is becoming a strategic asset powering faster, safer, and more scalable AI development.

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Asia Pacific to be fastest-growing market during forecast period, fueled by government backing, hyperscaler expansion, and enterprise gen AI adoption

Asia Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing region in the Generative AI Market, propelled by a convergence of state-backed AI initiatives, hyperscaler infrastructure expansion, and enterprise digital transformation across high-growth economies. Countries like China, India, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan are aggressively funding generative AI R&D, launching sovereign AI models, and rolling out national compute grids to reduce dependence on Western LLMs. India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act and initiatives like Bhashini are accelerating vernacular AI development, while firms like Infosys and TCS are embedding generative AI into BFSI, retail, and logistics workflows. In China, companies such as Baidu and Alibaba are rapidly scaling foundation models across industrial design, ecommerce, and smart cities, backed by government incentives and compute subsidies. Hyperscalers like AWS and Microsoft are adding GPU-dense cloud regions in Mumbai, Jakarta, and Seoul to meet surging demand for inference and fine-tuning. Meanwhile, the region's massive internet user base, multilingual content diversity, and mobile-first enterprise adoption are creating high-ROI use cases in marketing automation, AI-powered customer service, and digital twins. These dynamics position Asia Pacific as the global epicenter for generative AI scale-up over the next decade.

Top Key Companies in Generative AI Market:

The major players in the Generative AI Market include IBM (US), NVIDIA (US), OpenAI (US), Anthropic (US), Meta (US), HPE (US), AMD (US), Oracle (US), Innodata (US), iMerit (US), Salesforce (US), Telus Digital (US), Microsoft (US), Google (US), AWS (US), Adobe (US), Accenture (Ireland), Capgemini (France), Centific (US), Fractal Analytics (US), Tiger Analytics (US), Quantiphi (US), Databricks (US), Dialpad (US), Appen (Australia), Insilico Medicine (Hong Kong), Simplified (US), AI21 Labs (Israel), Hugging Face (US), Persado (US), Copy.ai (US), Synthesis AI (US), Hypotenuse AI (US), Together AI (US), Mistral AI (France), Adept (US), Stability AI (UK), Lightricks (Israel), Cohere (Canada), Writesonic (US), Inflection AI (US), Colossyan (UK), Jasper (US), Runway (US), Inworld AI (US), Typeface (US), Upstage (South Korea), H2O.ai (US), Speechify (US), Midjourney (US), Fireflies (US), Synthesia (UK), Mostly AI (Austria), Forethought (US), Character.ai (US), Cursor (US), DeepSeek (China), XAI (US), Abridge (US), Perplexity AI (US), SambaNova (US), Scale AI (US), Labelbox (US), and HQE Systems (US).

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BEIJING, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- "I've noticed that a new action plan to stabilize foreign investment has been introduced this year. After more than 40 years of reform and opening-up, China's domestic market entities have grown strong. Why do we still need foreign investment?" This is a question that a reader of people.cn posted.

This reader's question is representative. The answer can be found in three sets of data.

First, as of now, foreign investors have established a cumulative total of 1.24 million enterprises in China, with investments nearing $3 trillion. Foreign-funded enterprises have long been an integral part of China's high-quality development, contributing one-quarter of industrial added value, one-seventh of tax revenue, and creating over 30 million jobs, making significant contributions to China's economic growth.

Second, foreign investment in China spans 20 industry categories and 115 major industry sectors. In the manufacturing sector, all 31 major categories and 548 subcategories have attracted foreign investment.

China is the only country with all industrial categories listed by the United Nations, and foreign investment has played a pivotal role. Over the past decade, investment in research and development by foreign-funded industrial enterprises above a designated scale in China has grown by 86.4 percent, and the number of effective invention patents has surged by 336 percent. The advanced technologies and management expertise brought by foreign enterprises have positively influenced the development of Chinese companies and talent cultivation, providing substantial support for building a modern industrial system.

Third, foreign-funded enterprises contribute to one-third of China's imports and exports. The negative list for foreign investment access has been reduced from an initial 190 items to the current national version of 29 items and the free trade zone version of 27 items, with the manufacturing sector achieving a "zero" negative list.

In accelerating the construction of a new development pattern, foreign investment serves as a bridge connecting domestic and international dual circulation. On one hand, it promotes factor-flow-based openness, driving the cross-border flow of technology, products, and services through supply chains, enabling China to deeply engage in global industrial division and cooperation. On the other hand, it supports institutional openness, advancing institutional reforms in economic, technological, ecological, and other areas.

"All of this shows that foreign businesses are important participants in the Chinese modernization drive, in the country's reform and opening up and innovation, and in its interconnectivity with the world and integration into economic globalization."

In fact, the question "Why does China still need foreign investment?" is not new.

In 1979, China enacted a law on Chinese-foreign equity joint ventures, opening the door to foreign investment. At that time, some argued that introducing foreign capital would hinder the development of domestic industries.

Over the past 40 years, a consensus has emerged: Reform and opening-up have enabled China to rapidly integrate into the global market and keep pace with the times, with the active utilization of foreign investment being a key factor.

Opening door wider

In recent years, global unilateralism and protectionism have intensified, with foreign investment in China increasingly disrupted by geopolitical factors. Some have claimed that "China does not welcome foreign investment."

"Humankind is a community with a shared future." "Openness brings progress while closing the door can only leave one behind." China's commitment to reform and opening-up remains unwavering, its doors of openness will only widen, and its policy of welcoming foreign investment has not changed and will not change.

China's pace of opening up to the world has never slowed.

The action plan to stabilize foreign investment in 2025 further proposes 20 policy initiatives building upon the existing 24 measures for attracting foreign capital.

Since the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Commerce has held an "Invest in China" policy briefing in Japan and organized related events in Sweden and the UK, significantly boosting the willingness of relevant countries to invest and cooperate with China.

In early 2025, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade dispatched 107 delegations to visit 33 countries and regions, visiting corporate headquarters such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Bosch.

How sincere is China's commitment to opening-up? Foreign enterprises have the most sayAt the China Development Forum 2025, 86 official representatives from multinational corporations from 21 countries and regions participated. According to the 2025 China Business Climate Survey Report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, nearly 70 percent of surveyed US consumer firms plan to increase their investments in China this year.

From January to March 2025, China established 12,603 new foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 4.3 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Actual foreign investment in e-commerce services, biopharmaceutical manufacturing, aerospace and equipment manufacturing, and medical equipment and instrument manufacturing grew by 100.5 percent, 63.8 percent, 42.5 percent, and 12.4 percent, respectively. By region, actual investment from ASEAN rose by 56.2 percent, and from the EU increased by 11.7 percent.

Wang Peng, associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the data reflected the firm confidence and sustained commitment of foreign companies to the Chinese market.

China's economy is on a sustained upward trajectory, with a vast and expanding market, providing foreign investors with broad market opportunities and reliable returns. Moreover, the Chinese government has implemented a series of proactive measures to attract foreign capital, continuously optimizing the business environment and providing policy support, offering robust guarantees for foreign investors, Wang said.

"Partnering with China will bring more opportunities. No matter how the external environment may evolve, China remains firmly committed to high-standard opening up and always welcomes companies from all countries to keep investing in China and explore the Chinese market to enjoy benefits and development together," Mao Ning, spokesperson from China's Foreign Ministry, told a press conference on March 13, 2025.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202505/1334660.shtml

SOURCE Global Times
LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- HH Global, the world's leading responsible marketing activation partner, today announces the launch of Nuevo  a purpose-built in-house creative agency built to bridge the gap between big brand thinking and flawless execution at scale.

As the pressure on marketers intensifies and the pace of change accelerates, brands are demanding more  faster, smarter and with greater impact. Nuevo delivers just that: a creative ecosystem built to transform ideas into meaningful, measurable brand experiences across touchpoints, channels and markets.

"At a time when marketing leaders have to adapt to fast-changing consumer demands and the increasing need to prove ROI amidst economic uncertainty, Nuevo brings the speed, agility and innovation required to unlock growth and drive impact," said Kristian Elgey, Group CEO, HH Global. "It's a bold step in our journey  and a powerful one for our clients."

Backed by HH Global's 4,500 marketing activation experts, Nuevo launches with access to over 700 creative and content professionals and a mission to deliver connected creativity  work that is insight-driven, tech-enabled and purpose-built for today's conscious consumer.

Built for modern marketing challenges, Nuevo operates around three core competencies:

Creative Intelligence  AI-powered insights and trends to inform smarter campaigns

Creative Technologies  Tools and platforms that deliver dynamic, connected consumer experiences

Conscious Creativity  Generating meaningful creative output to connect with today's values-led consumers

Leading the agency is President Clyde McKendrick, a seasoned strategist with over 25 years of global experience at agencies including Crispin Porter + Bogusky and TBWA\Chiat\Day. Known for blending sharp strategy with cultural insight, McKendrick brings creative firepower and innovation to lead a new approach to global brand activation.

"HH Global's scale, agility and entrepreneurial mindset make it the perfect home for this new kind of agency," said McKendrick. "Nuevo exists to use creativity to help brands move faster, more efficiently and to be more responsive to the rapidly changing demands of consumers."

"Designed to be flexible and responsive, Nuevo can support clients to build bespoke in-house creative teams, put in place local market creative hubs or serve as a lead agency for brand activation across markets and disciplines. Nuevo will deliver connected solutions for clients as they face increasingly complex marketing supply chains. It's a simplified way of working with a strategic partner that has a track record in scale and efficiency to deliver."

About HH Global

HH Global is the global leader in responsible marketing activation services. Through creativity, technology and expertise, they connect brands to their customers across every channel and market to help them achieve big impact for big ideas. With 4,500 experts in every market and a thirty-year track record of success, they help the biggest brands on the planet achieve stronger, more responsible growth. With an unmatched supply chain, a growing suite of tech tools, market-leading creativity and strategic insightsthey make their clients' brilliant ideas unmissable everywhere.

Media contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE HH Global
This historic move is the first time a research centre in the United States has been named after an Indian, making it a moment of immense pride not only for Dr. Samanta but also for the people of Odisha and the global KIIT and KISS community. The newly established institute will provide American students with opportunities to research on Odisha's rich art and heritage. It will also focus on Dr. Samanta's contribution to the socio-economic development of tribal communities and his achievements in the field of education.

Adding to this prestigious recognition, Dr. Samanta was conferred the highest honour of CUNY  the Presidential Medal  during the event. Reserved for individuals of exceptional global impact, the medal acknowledges Dr. Samanta's transformative contributions to education, tribal upliftment, and humanitarian service. His grassroots work through KIIT and KISS has positively impacted over 80,000 tribal children, offering them quality education, dignity, and opportunity.

The idea for the research institute originated during the recent visit of Dr. Milton Santiago, President of Bronx Community College under CUNY, to KIIT and KISS in Bhubaneswar. Deeply inspired by Dr. Samanta's journey and vision, Dr. Santiago proposed naming a research institute after him, a suggestion that received unanimous approval from the university board.

At the inauguration, Dr. Santiago remarked, "The Achyuta Samanta India Initiative will help American students from diverse backgrounds understand and engage with India's tribal communities, cultural roots, and one of the world's most impactful educational models."

Dr. Samanta, who attended the event as the guest of honour, expressed profound gratitude and humility, stating that it is a moment of great pride and honour for him as an Odia and Indian to have a U.S. research institute named after him. He noted that it was not only a personal recognition but also a matter of pride for Odisha, KIIT, and KISS. He hoped that the institute would encourage greater research and understanding of Odisha's art, literature, and culture, as well as his own work.

Founded 175 years ago, CUNY is a prestigious U.S. public university system encompassing 25 colleges and over 300,000 students from 122 countries. The establishment of ASIICCI under its umbrella demonstrates the global relevance of Dr. Samanta's vision and Odisha's intellectual heritage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyXrdNyLR_g

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SOURCE KIIT
SAN ANTONIO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ideaForge Technology Limited, a global leader in drone technology, is proud to be recognised by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), a U.S. government body, to exhibit at the prestigious Uncrewed Triple Challenge (UTC) in Michigan, USA. As part of this recognition, ideaForge was awarded a $10,000 grant to support its participation at the event.

The UTC is a first-of-its-kind, state-sponsored event that brings together uncrewed systems across sea, air, and land. Organized in collaboration with the Michigan National Guard, Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Department of Transportation, and the MEDC, the UTC aims to drive innovation in autonomous drone technologies by showcasing next-generation capabilities to a diverse audience of military, state, and local agencies.

While ideaForge did not compete in the challenge, its invitation to exhibit underscores the trust and credibility placed in its technology by a prominent U.S. state institution. It also highlights the growing global recognition of India's indigenous UAV capabilities. At UTC, ideaForge showcased its flagship UAV solutions, the SWITCH and NETRA V4 PROdemonstrating their advanced ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) features, operational endurance, and reliability across demanding mission profiles. These systems are designed for critical applications in defense, homeland security, and emergency response.

Ankit Mehta, CEO of ideaForge Technology Limited, said, "We are honoured to receive this grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and to be invited to exhibit at the Uncrewed Triple Challenge. This recognition by a U.S. government body is a strong testament to the credibility, capability, and global relevance of our UAV platforms. We look forward to engaging with stakeholders from across defense and public sectors to demonstrate how ideaForge delivers autonomy and performance for mission-critical operations."

Justine Johnson, Chief Mobility Officer, Michigan Economic Development Corporation added, "We are pleased to welcome ideaForge to the Uncrewed Triple Challenge. Their participation represents the spirit of innovation that this event aims to celebrate. ideaForge's UAV platforms will contribute valuable perspectives to our stakeholders and support broader dialogue around the adoption of advanced autonomous systems."

ideaForge's presence at the UTC reinforces its expanding international footprint and commitment to delivering indigenous, high-performance drone solutions for defense and enterprise needs. The company continues to strengthen its position as a pioneer in drone innovation, with a focus on mission-critical applications that include defense, security, and enterprise use cases. As part of its growing U.S. presence, ideaForge has also previously announced a strategic collaboration with Skylark Labs and partnership and investment with Vantage Robotics further reinforcing its role in advancing drone technology through collaboration and cross-border innovation.

About ideaForge Technology Limited

ideaForge is a pioneer and the pre-eminent market leader in the Indian unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) industry. With a mission-first approach, we deliver cutting-edge drones engineered for unmatched performance, autonomy, and reliability, redefining possibilities in security, mapping, surveillance, and disaster response applications across militaries and enterprises.

With India's largest operational deployment of indigenous UAVs, an ideaForge drone takes off every 3 minutes, enabling over 6,50,000 successful flights. Ranked 3rd globally among the world's Top Dual-Use Drone Manufacturers by Drone Industry Insights (DRONEII) Global Drone Review 2024, ideaForge continues to set benchmarks in innovation and excellence.

Since pioneering India's first VTOL UAVs in 2009, we have expanded with advanced R&D and manufacturing hubs in Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and the USA, driving the development of indigenously designed and built solutions. Backed by marquee investors, including Qualcomm, Infosys, Celesta Capital, Florintree, EXIM Bank, and Infina Finance, ideaForge is at the forefront of revolutionizing unmanned systems.

Discover more: www.ideaforgetech.com

About Michigan Economic Development Corporation



The Michigan Economic Development Corporation is the state's marketing arm and lead advocate for business development, job awareness and community development with the focus on growing Michigan's economy. For more information on the MEDC and our initiatives, visit www.MichiganBusiness.org . For Pure Michigan tourism information, your trip begins at www.michigan.org . Join the conversation on: Facebook Instagram LinkedIn , and Twitter .

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SOURCE ideaForge
Announced by CPT Group, Inc.

IRVINE, Calif., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CPT Group, Inc., announces a proposed Settlement in a class action lawsuit called Henderson, et al. v. Reventics, LLC, et al., Case No. 2025CV30456, District Court, Arapahoe County, State of Colorado (the "Litigation").

What is this about? The action arises from an unauthorized user gaining access to patient private information in December 2022 ("Data Security Incident"). While Defendants deny any wrongdoing, the parties agreed to settle the case before trial rather than pursue litigation. The entities sued, Reventics, LLC, and OMH Healthedge Holdings, Inc., d/b/a Omega Healthcare are referred to as "Defendants."

Who is affected? You are a Class Member if your protected health information (PHI) or personally identifiable information (PII) was potentially involved in the Data Security Incident. Defendants provided notice of the Data Security Incident to Class Members starting in February 2023.

What does the Settlement provide? The Settlement provides monetary relief.

Settlement Benefits : Defendants have agreed to pay $8,150,000.00 (the "Settlement Fund") to settle the Litigation. Class Members who submit a valid claim may receive either (a) payment for documented losses up to $5,000 or (b) a flat Cash Payment of $100 (subject to a pro rata adjustment). The settlement funds will cover payments to Class Members, administrative costs, attorneys' fees, costs and expenses, and Plaintiffs' service awards.

How do I file a claim? Claim Forms are available for download and online submission at www.reventicsdatasettlement.com. The deadline to submit a Claim Form, either online or via email or U.S. Mail, is July 25, 2025.

What are my other options? You can do nothing, exclude yourself, or object to the Settlement.

Do Nothing : If you do nothing, you remain a member of the Settlement Class. You will receive no payment and will no longer be able to sue Defendants over the claims resolved in the Settlement.

Exclude Yourself : If you exclude yourself, you will not receive a cash payment, but you may be able to file your own lawsuit against Defendants, for the same claims. Requests for Exclusion ("Opt-Outs") must be sent to the Settlement Administrator no later than June 21, 2025.

Object : If you do not exclude yourself from the Settlement, you may submit an objection telling the Court why you do not agree with all or part the Settlement. To object, you must provide timely written notice of your objection to the Settlement Administrator as provided below no later than June 21, 2025.

What happens next? The Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing on August 14, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. MT before Judge Joseph Riley Whitfield at the District Court, Arapahoe County, State of Colorado, Courtroom 204 to consider final approval of the Settlement, payment of attorneys' fees, costs, and expenses and the Plaintiffs' service awards. You may attend the hearing at your own expense, or you may pay your own lawyer to attend, but it is not necessary.

How do I get more information? For more information and to view the full notice, Claim Form, a copy of the Settlement Agreement, and other documents, go to www.reventicsdatasettlement.com. You may also contact the Settlement Administrator toll-free at 1-888-497-9649, by email at [email protected] or by writing to Henderson, et al. v. Reventics, LLC, c/o CPT Group, Inc., 50 Corporate Park, Irvine, CA 92606.

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT OR THE COURT CLERK'S OFFICE

SOURCE CPT Group, Inc.
Landmark state policy unlocks funding for schools and reduces barriers to higher education for students and families

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Education group at Cambridge University Press & Assessment ( Cambridge ) is today celebrating a landmark policy change in Indiana that guarantees automatic admission to all of the state's public colleges and universities to students who complete the Cambridge AICE (Advanced International Certificate of Education) Diploma. By recognizing this rigorous academic achievement, Indiana expands access to post-secondary education while giving students a clearer, more confident path to their future.

Indiana's new graduation policy now counts the Cambridge AICE Diploma toward earning the Honors Enrollment Plus Seal, an advanced diploma starting with the Class of 2029. Students who earn this seal will get automatic admission to public colleges in Indiana, including Indiana University, Purdue, and Ball State.

To earn the AICE Diploma, students must complete 7 credits in Cambridge Advanced (International AS & A Level) courses and exams. Further, students who earn the Diploma or who pass any Cambridge International AS & A Level exams are guaranteed college credit at Indiana public colleges and universities, reducing the length and cost of their degree program.

"We are delighted that Indiana has taken this bold step to recognize the AICE Diploma as a pathway to guaranteed college admission," said Mark Cavone, Regional Director, North America for International Education at Cambridge. "Students who complete the AICE Diploma are extremely well prepared through Cambridge International AS and A Levels to succeed in college and contribute meaningfully to their communities. We are proud to support schools across the state in making this opportunity more widely available."

Cambridge AICE unlocks school funding

Under the new legislation, Indiana will allocate up to $500,000 annually for two years to support Indiana schools implementing the Cambridge program  an internationally recognized pathway to college success. Indiana public schools will also receive $2,495 for each student who earns the AICE Diploma, supporting expanded access to high-quality academic programs. Under existing legislation, students can take up to three Cambridge exams each year fully funded by the state, ensuring that cost is not a barrier to participation. These policies strengthen the bridge between high school graduation and post-secondary education, helping students build momentum toward their future without added complexity.

The AICE diploma is the culmination of the Cambridge Pathway, which provides a flexible PreK-12 instructional system that aligns rigorous curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment to support students at every stage of their academic journey. Cambridge qualifications are accepted by more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities and thousands more globally. Students who take Cambridge courses and exams may also earn valuable college credit while still in high school.

About Cambridge

Cambridge International Education is the awarding body of the International Education group at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, part of the University of Cambridge. Our International Education group collaborates with schools worldwide to build an education that shapes knowledge, understanding, and skills. Together, we give learners the confidence they need to thrive and make a positive impact in a changing world.

We offer a globally trusted and flexible framework for education from age 3 to 19 (the Cambridge Pathway), informed by research, experience, and listening to educators. With recognized qualifications (such as Cambridge IGCSE and International AS & A Level), high-quality resources, comprehensive support, and valuable insights, we help schools prepare every student for the opportunities and challenges ahead. Together, we help Cambridge learners be ready for the world.

Learn more! Visit www.cambridgeinternational.org/usa

SOURCE Cambridge International Education
At the invitation of President of Republic of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, Premier of the State Council Li Qiang will pay an official visit to Indonesia from May 24 to 26.

At the invitation of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, ASEANs rotating chair, Premier Li Qiang will attend the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit in Kuala Lumpur from May 26 to 28.

From May 23 to 29, upon invitation, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the CPC Chen Wenqing will attend the 13th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues and the 10th Meeting of the China-Russia Law-Enforcement and Security Cooperation Mechanism in Russia and visit Russia and Hungary.

CCTV: The upcoming ASEAN-GCC-China Summit will be the first of its kind. Whats the special significance of the summit? Whats Chinas expectation for the summit?

Mao Ning: ASEAN and GCC member states are emerging economies in Asia, important members of the Global South and key partners in Belt and Road cooperation. China supports Malaysia, ASEANs rotating chair this year, in proposing and hosting the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit. Given the current international and regional landscape, it is highly significant that the three sides are gathering together to discuss ways to enhance solidarity and cooperation for development and prosperity, and promote cross-regional cooperation of mutual benefit.

China looks to expand practical cooperation with ASEAN and GCC member states in various fields to leverage our respective strengths, pursue win-win results, jointly uphold the multilateral trading regime, and defend the common interests of the Global South.

Global Times: It is reported that on May 21, a bombing attack on a school bus in Khuzdar of Balochistan Province in western Pakistan killed at least five people including three children and injured at least 38 others. Whats Chinas comment on this?

Mao Ning: China noted relevant reports and strongly condemns the attack on a school bus. We deeply mourn for the lives lost, and extend sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured.

China resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism and will continue to firmly support Pakistan in combating terrorism, maintaining social stability and keeping its people safe.

Antara: Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a meeting this week with Indonesias Chairman of National Economic Council Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. Furthermore, Premier Li Qiang is scheduled to make an official visit to Indonesia on May 24 to 26. With these frequent high-level exchanges between the two countries, what does China expect from Indonesia?

Mao Ning: China and Indonesia are friends and neighbors across the sea and close partners with a shared future. This year marks the 75th anniversary of China-Indonesia diplomatic ties. The bilateral relations have maintained steady growth with fruitful practical cooperation and the traditional friendship between the two countries is deeply rooted in the people. President Xi Jinping and President Prabowo Subianto met twice last year and reached important common understandings on building the China-Indonesia community with a shared future that carries regional and global influence, lifting bilateral ties to new heights.

During the upcoming visit, Premier Li Qiang will meet and hold talks with President Prabowo Subianto and other Indonesian leaders for in-depth exchanges on deepening the robust all-round strategic cooperation between the two countries. He will also attend an event hosted by the business community. China hopes that through this visit the two sides will carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen solidarity and coordination, keep consolidating the cooperation paradigm with five pillars, namely political, economic, people-to-people and cultural, maritime and security cooperation, jointly advance toward modernization on our respective paths, enrich the China-Indonesia community with a shared future, and make greater contribution to regional and global peace, stability, development and prosperity.

AFP: Yesterday Israeli forces fired warning shots at a group of diplomats, which included Chinese ones in the West Bank. Does the Foreign Ministry wish to comment on this incident?

Mao Ning: China is closely following the incident. China firmly opposes any act that threatens the safety and security of diplomatic personnel, and calls for a full investigation and efforts to prevent such incident from happening again. Amid recent ongoing tension in the West Bank, China urges relevant parties especially Israel not to take any escalatory moves.

Beijing Youth Daily: The 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Forum on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development was held earlier this week. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. Can you further brief us on the event? As the rotating SCO president, what will China do to promote SCO countries sustainable development?

Mao Ning: The SCO Forum on Poverty Reduction and Sustainable Development was held this week in Xian where parties had in-depth communication under the theme of Sustained Poverty Reduction and Cooperative Development: Advancing Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development among SCO Countries. President Xi Jinping in his congratulatory letter noted that China as the current SCO president stands ready to continue to step up policy communication with all parties, share poverty reduction experience, deepen practical cooperation, help more countries explore the path of poverty reduction and sustainable development that suits their respective national conditions, and work together to build a better world of common prosperity free from poverty. President Xis congratulatory letter was warmly echoed by representatives from SCO countries at the forum, who see the letter as a demonstration of the high importance President Xi Jinping attaches to poverty alleviation and sustainable development as well as his hope for deepening exchanges and mutual learning between SCO countries and building an SCO community with a shared future.

Since China took over the rotating SCO presidency, weve hosted a series of events with a focus on the SCO Year of Sustainable Development in an effort to deepen Chinas cooperation with SCO countries in poverty reduction and boost sustainable socioeconomic development in all countries.

Reuters: The Taiwanese official Lin Chia-lung said yesterday that whether or not Taiwan is a country is not up to Beijing. Its Taiwans business what its name is. Would the Foreign Ministry like to comment?

Mao Ning: Taiwan is never a country. These remarks are sheer Taiwan independence provocations that only reveal this persons presumptuousness and ignorance.

There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory, and the government of the Peoples Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. This is a basic norm in international relations and a prevailing international consensus. The future of Taiwan can only be decided by the over 1.4 billion Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots. China will realize reunification. This is a historical trend that no force can stop.

Peoples Daily: Today marks the 25th International Day for Biological Diversity. This years theme is Harmony with Nature and Sustainable Development. With the global climate and environment governance facing even more uncertainty, how do you view Chinas role in promoting international cooperation in biodiversity conservation?

Mao Ning: Under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, China is actively advancing the conservation of biodiversity and has witnessed greater diversity, stability and sustainability of the ecosystem. As one of the first parties to sign and ratify the Convention on Biological Diversity, China remains committed to firmly fulfilling its pledges and obligations, exploring the path of harmonious coexistence between humanity and Nature, and bringing global biodiversity governance to a new level. During its presidency of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), China brought all parties together to adopt the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which is of milestone significance. At the meeting, China also launched the Action Initiative for the Framework and took the lead in making contributions, and establishing and managing the Kunming Biodiversity Fund. These are all concrete actions taken by China to support developing countries in biodiversity preservation.

The Earth is the common home of humanity and biodiversity governance can only be realized with the international community working as a whole. China will continue to join hands with all sides to build a clean and beautiful world.

AFP: Yesterday the DPP in Taiwan expelled five of its party members for allegedly spying for Beijing. Does the Foreign Ministry have a comment on this?

Mao Ning: Im not familiar with that, and this is not a question about foreign affairs.

AFP: The Philippines said today that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel used water cannon and struck one of its research vessels near Sandy Cay yesterday. Does China have a response to this accusation?

Mao Ning: Im not familiar with what you mentioned. Let me say that China Coast Guard carries out law-enforcement activities in accordance with laws and regulations.

RIA Novosti: U.S. Chief of Space Operations Chance Saltzman said recently that surging technologies spearheaded by Chinese and Russian forces represent the greatest threat in space defense. Whats Chinas comment on that?

Mao Ning: China is committed to the peaceful use of outer space, and opposes any arms race in outer space or weaponizing it. China has no intention to engage in a space race, nor do we seek so-called edge in outer space.

The U.S. has openly declared space as a warfighting domain. It has kept expanding military strength in space, created space military alliances, and attempted to turn space into a warzone. That severely threatens the common security and development rights and interests of other countries in space. China urges the U.S. to stop spreading irresponsible rhetoric, stop expanding military build-up in space, and make due contribution to upholding the lasting peace and security in space.

China Review News: It was reported that Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Jeremiah Manele issued a statement, reaffirming the Solomon Islands governments steadfast commitment to the one-China policy, and directing all government ministries, agencies, and officials to fully comply with the governments policy. What is your comment?

Mao Ning: China highly appreciates Solomon Islands governments firm support for the one-China principle and upholding this just position. There is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinas territory, and the government of the Peoples Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. The one-China principle is enshrined in the UNGA Resolution 2758. It is a basic norm in international relations and a prevailing international consensus. Upholding the one-China principle and supporting Chinas reunification is where the arc of history bends and public opinion trends, and the right thing to do.
Christian Lassen, a national life insurance attorney, says grieving families are being targeted by insurer delay tactics. He urges legal interventionand says what looks like "processing time" is often a trap.

PHILADELPHIA, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Life insurance companies across the U.S. are increasingly delaying payouts by citing policy ambiguities, outdated documents, or administrative reviewsoften leaving grieving families without the benefits they're owed. Christian Lassen, a national life insurance attorney and founder of The Lassen Law Firm, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on May 17, 2025, for his insights into these growing delays and the legal barriers beneficiaries face in getting paid.

Denied life insurance claim? The Lassen Law Firm helps beneficiaries nationwide recover what insurers wrongfully withhold.

"I've seen firsthand how commonly insurers weaponize the fine print," said Christian Lassen, a Philadelphia, Pa.-based plaintiff attorney.

Lassen is licensed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and represents clients nationwide in all types of life insurance disputes. His firm focuses exclusively on life insurance litigation and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for clients across the country.

Recent examples from Lassen's caseload include:

A New Jersey widow was told her husband's policy required 120 days of review due to a beneficiary form update. Lassen's firm resolved it in under a month.

widow was told her husband's policy required 120 days of review due to a beneficiary form update. Lassen's firm resolved it in under a month. In Pennsylvania , a client was denied a payout after the insurer claimed the policy had lapseddespite no lapse notice being issued.

, a client was denied a payout after the insurer claimed the policy had lapseddespite no lapse notice being issued. A New York family faced a denied claim under a suicide exclusion, even though the coroner ruled natural causes. The firm forced a reversal.

The Lassen Law Firm handles a wide spectrum of life insurance matters, including:

Delayed life insurance claims that stall in review for months

Denied claims due to misstatements, omissions, or technical exclusions

Life insurance lapse disputes, especially when notice or grace period rules are violated

Denied accidental death claims, involving alcohol exclusions or risky activity language

Beneficiary disputes, including ex-spouse revocations and conflicting designations

ERISA group life insurance denials tied to employer-provided policies

SGLI and FEGLI claims, involving federal employee and military benefits

Interpleader lawsuits, where multiple parties claim the same benefit

Lassen warns that many beneficiaries don't realize these delays are strategic until it's too late. Some wait months under the assumption their claim is still "under review," while deadlines quietly pass.

"What looks like routine paperwork is often a stall tactic," Lassen said. "Once a lawyer gets involved, insurers start moving. We know what to look for."

In one recent case, a New York family was told a payout would take up to a year due to supposed conflicting beneficiaries. "There were no conflicts," Lassen said. "They were just waiting to see if someone else would challenge the claim."

The Lassen Law Firm offers nationwide representation and has taken on nearly every major insurer in the country. With a singular focus on life insurance litigation, Lassen continues to speak out about industry practices that harm grieving families.

For journalists covering consumer finance, insurance, or estate planning, Lassen welcomes inquiries.

"This isn't about isolated delaysit's a systemic issue," he added. "Families need to know they don't have to wait quietly."

About The Lassen Law Firm:

The Lassen Law Firm handles only life insurance litigation, representing clients nationwide in denied, delayed, and disputed claims. Attorney Christian Lassen has recovered hundreds of millions for families and was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on May 17, 2025, for his work exposing insurer delay tactics. The firm routinely handles ERISA claims, FEGLI and SGLI denials, accidental death exclusions, lapse disputes, interpleader actions, and complex beneficiary conflicts.

Media Contact:

Christian Lassen

The Lassen Law Firm

Phone 800-330-2274

Website: https://www.lifeinsuranceattorney.com/

SOURCE The Lassen Law Firm
TORONTO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - The Canadian Association of Retired Persons ("CARP"), a non-partisan, non-profit, advocacy association working on behalf of its 255,000 members and all Canadian seniors, and Integracare Inc., a market leader in private home healthcare services, are pleased to announce a partnership to provide CARP members with preferred access to high-quality home care in areas that Integracare currently serves.

CARP logo (CNW Group/Integracare Inc)

"While CARP is advocating for greater investments from policy makers to meet the growing home care needs of our aging population, Integracare is there, as a trusted partner to fill in those gaps, with family-funded homecare and support that allow residents to live active, purposeful lives and to age in place," said Anthony Quinn, COO, CARP.

Integracare has over 30 years of experience delivering the highest quality home care services in Toronto and Mississauga. The company has built an award-winning reputation providing premium homecare focused on client dignity, independence and professionalism. Integracare's expert caregivers provide services ranging from Personal Support Services to General Nursing, Dementia and Palliative Care and ancillary services such as Physiotherapy and Wound Care.

"Our mission and values align perfectly with those of CARP." said Lee Grunberg, CEO of Integracare. "By partnering with the Association, we're able to provide CARP Members with preferred access to our award-winning home care services. CARP Members will also be able to enjoy Integracare's 24/7 dedicated Nursing Care Management and innovative tools which enable Integracare to deliver the best possible care for our Clients."

About CARP

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization committed to a 'New Vision of Aging for Canada', promoting social change that will bring financial security, equitable access to health care and freedom from discrimination for aging Canadians. The Association's mandate is to promote and protect the interests, rights and quality of life for Canadians as we age.

About Integracare

lntegracare provides a wide range of award-winning private nursing care and personal support services for individuals in their homes, hospitals, retirement residences and long-term care facilities. Its services, while encompassing all levels of nursing care, have always included a wide range of related services that address the needs of their Clients while promoting joyful living and helping Integracare Clients maintain their independence and dignity. For more information about lntegracare, contact us at 396 Moore Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M6C 3A8, 416.421.4243, or visit https://integracarehomecare.ca

SOURCE Integracare Inc
LONDON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ION Commodities, the leading global provider of energy and commodity trading and risk management (ETRM/CTRM) solutions, has been named CTRM Software House of the Year at the prestigious Energy Risk Awards 2025.

Each year, Risk.net  the world's leading source of in-depth news and analysishosts the Energy Risk Awards to recognize excellence in the commodity markets. The awards distinguish companies across global commodity markets for their innovation and leadership.

This recognition highlights ION Commodities' continued commitment to delivering innovative, scalable, and future-ready solutions that empower organizations to navigate an increasingly volatile and complex trading environment. It underscores ION's role as a trusted partner in driving digital transformation and operational resilience across global commodity markets.

In recent years, ION has significantly invested in its CTRM portfoliocontinuing to expand its functionality for traditional fossil fuel-based commodities while also advancing capabilities to support the energy transition. This dual focus enables businesses to navigate both long-term market shifts and near-term disruptions, while meeting growing regulatory and sustainability demands.

With investments in AI, real-time analytics, cloud-native architecture, and integration across traditional and renewable fuels, biogas, carbon, and power markets, ION supports a diverse range of energy and commodity businesses in transforming and streamlining new and existing operations. Many companies have turned to ION to modernize their global trading operations, integrate renewables, and optimize supply chains. From SaaS solutions like Aspect to enterprise-scale C/ETRMs like Openlink, TriplePoint, RightAngle, and Allegro, ION's technology enables real-time risk mitigation, cross-market visibility, and long-term scalability.

"This recognition underscores ION's role in supporting businesses navigating the complex realities of today's global commodity markets," said Sunil Biswas, Chief Executive Officer of ION Corporates. "From geopolitical tensions and price volatility to shifting trade flows and energy transition, companies face an urgent need for greater agility, transparency, and resilience. We empower our clients as they adapt and lead the way in building smarter, more profitable operations."

With a customer base that includes 62% of the world's top 250 energy companies and more than 1,200 businesses globally, ION Commodities remains at the forefront of digital transformation in the commodity and energy sectors.

About ION

ION provides mission-critical trading and workflow automation software, high-value analytics and insights, and strategic consulting to financial institutions, central banks, governments, and corporate organizations. Our solutions and services simplify complex processes, boost efficiency, and enable better decision-making. We build long-term partnerships with our clients, helping transform their businesses for sustained success through continuous innovation. For more information, visit https://iongroup.com/ .

About ION Commodities

ION Commodities delivers data-driven energy and commodities trading and risk management solutions across the supply chain. Our scalable ETRM and CTRM solutions equip clients to use real-time risk analytics and reporting, minimize supply chain risks, automate critical business processes, and make faster, more informed decisions. We provide full support and transparency for procurement, supply, and trading to a global community of over 1,200 clients. For more information, visit https://iongroup.com/commodities/ .

About Energy Risk Awards

The Energy Risk Awards are the industry's leading program recognizing innovation and excellence in commodities and energy trading. Organized by Risk.net, the awards celebrate firms and individuals making outstanding contributions to risk management, technology, and market development. For more information, visit https://www.energyriskawards.com.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.

SOURCE ION
KANSAS CITY, Mo., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockton, the world's largest privately held insurance brokerage, is pleased to announce the appointment of a new national practice leader to help drive the continued growth of its People Solutions business.

Jeff Miller

Jeff Miller returns to Lockton as National Practice Leader for the Stop Loss and Pharmacy practices, bringing more than three decades of industry leadership, and a wealth of experience developing and deploying innovative solutions to meet changing client needs across a range of capabilities. His reentry to Lockton comes at a critical time as clients continue to struggle with rising costs associated with pharmaceuticals and healthcare overall.

Previously, Miller served as President of Point6 Healthcare and Office President at Ryan Specialty Benefits, where he oversaw organizational growth while aligning operations across several acquisitions.

"It's a pleasure to welcome Jeff back home to Lockton," said Tim Meacham, President, People Solutions. "His leadership and experience across several critical areas of employee benefits is just what we need, at the right moment, to continue to provide the best possible value to our clients."

In his previous Lockton tenure, Miller was EVP and Practice Leader, directing senior leadership across practice areas like actuarial, integrated absence, precision health and wellbeing, compliance, global benefits, and voluntary benefits. He also played a key role in the acquisition and integration of Excelsior Solutions, a pharmacy consulting practice, and the alignment of offices in both Houston and San Antonio.

Additionally, Miller has held leadership roles at Aetna and PacifiCare of Texas and gained experience early in his career at Prudential and BlueCross BlueShield in Oklahoma.

"There is no organization in this industry like Lockton, with its independent spirit and fierce commitment to clients," Miller said. "I look forward to playing a role in the continued growth of our People Solutions business and providing employers with right-sized answers to a fast-changing benefits landscape."

About Lockton

What makes Lockton stand apart is also what makes us better: independence. Lockton's private ownership empowers its 12,500+ Associates doing business in over 140 countries to focus solely on clients' risk, insurance and people needs. With expertise that reaches around the globe, Lockton delivers deep industry knowledge and product specialization with a passion for serving clients.

SOURCE Lockton
DALLAS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark today announced the recipients of its Bright Futures college scholarships, awarding 30 high school seniors from across North America. These students, children of Kimberly-Clark employees, were selected based on their academic achievements, leadership qualities, work experience, and extracurricular activities.

Kimberly-Clark Foundation Awards Bright Futures Scholarships to 30 High School Seniors

Now in its 33rd year, the Bright Futures program provides scholarship grants worth up to $20,000, or $5,000 per school year, for full-time students attending accredited colleges and universities. Administered by the Kimberly-Clark Foundation, the program has awarded nearly $50 million in scholarships to more than 2,400 students since its inception.

"The Bright Futures scholarship program exemplifies our commitment to developing the next generation of leaders. These students have demonstrated exceptional dedication to their studies and communities, and we are proud to support their journey toward academic and professional success," said Kurt Laufer, Interim President, Kimberly-Clark North America. "We believe in their potential to make a significant impact in the world, and we are excited to see what they will achieve."

The average GPA for this year's Bright Futures scholarship class is 3.98. Awardees will attend leading colleges and universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wheaton College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Wisconsin. Past scholarship recipients have gone on to pursue successful careers in medicine, education, the armed forces, and engineering.

For more information on this year's award recipients, click here .

About the Kimberly-Clark Foundation

Established in 1952, the Kimberly-Clark Foundation is the charitable arm of Kimberly-Clark Corporation and is dedicated to supporting global causes that create lasting social change. Together with funding from the corporation and employees, its primary focus is on social impact investments that help advance essential care for women and girls on their journeys through puberty and motherhood.

About Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) and its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries. Fueled by ingenuity, creativity, and an understanding of people's most essential needs, we create products that help individuals experience more of what's important to them. Our portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Intimus, Plenitud, Sweety, Softex, Viva and WypAll, hold No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in approximately 70 countries. We use sustainable practices that support a healthy planet, build strong communities, and ensure our business thrives for decades to come. We are proud to be recognized as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for the seventh year in a row and one of Fortune's Most Innovative Companies in America in 2024. To keep up with the latest news and to learn more about the company's more than 150-year history of innovation, visit the Kimberly-Clark website.

[KMB-C]

SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Corporation
LONDONDERRY, N.H., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Kluber Lubrication, a global leader in specialty lubricants, has appointed Christopher J. Licursi as Chief Executive Officer of Kluber Lubrication NA LP, effective May 5, 2025. Licursi will lead the company's North American operations from its headquarters in Londonderry, NH.

Kluber Lubrication, a global leader in specialty lubricants, has appointed Christopher J. Licursi as Chief Executive Officer of Kluber Lubrication NA.

With more than 23 years of leadership experience in the industrial lubricants sector, Licursi has consistently driven revenue growth, guided strategic transformation, and strengthened customer loyalty. He has held a variety of leadership roles in the lubricants industry, where he has overseen corporate development, cross-functional operations, and team development, all while maintaining a focus on productivity, profitability, and customer success.

"Welcoming Chris to our team fills me with enthusiasm," said Dr. Wolfgang Sammer, CEO of Kluber Lubrication at the company's global headquarters in Munich, Germany. "His ability to mobilize people and deliver results will be fundamental to accelerating our growth in North America. Chris's strategic mindset and skill in uniting global teams will help us meet  and exceed  our ambitious goals."

As CEO, Licursi will oversee Kluber Lubrication North American operations, accelerate growth strategies, and expand the company's regional impact. He will also focus on innovation, operational excellence, and delivering customer value across a wide range of industrial sectors.

"I'm honored to join Kluber Lubrication, a company that combines deep technical expertise with a culture of partnership and innovation," said Chris Licursi. "Together with our North American team and global colleagues, I look forward to building on this legacy to drive sustainable growth, enhance service excellence, and create long-term value for our customers."

About Kluber Lubrication

Kluber Lubrication, a member of the Freudenberg Group, is a global manufacturer of premium specialty lubricants serving industries including automotive, food and beverage, energy, and manufacturing. The company is known for its customized solutions, advanced R&D, and collaborative partnerships that optimize performance and reliability.

SOURCE Kluber Lubrication
Honoree has made outstanding contributions toward understanding the pathogenesis and prevention of Type 1 diabetes

OKLAHOMA CITY, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The prestigious Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes, an honor bestowed by OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences, will be awarded this fall to Professor Dr. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, Director of the Institute of Diabetes Research, Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health. She is also Chair in Diabetes and Gestational Diabetes at Technische Universitat Munchen, School of Medicine. She is being honored for her research to understand the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes and efforts toward its prediction, early diagnosis and prevention.

Professor Dr. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, director of the Institute of Diabetes Research at the Helmholtz Munich, German Research Center for Environmental Health, has been selected as the 2025 recipient of the prestigious OU Health Herald Hamm Diabetes Center's Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes.

The Hamm Prize recognizes and encourages lasting advances in research related to Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. It is awarded to an individual who has either demonstrated lifelong contributions to the field or realized a singular advance, especially one that promotes curative potential. The honor includes a $250,000 award, the largest of its kind in the world. It was established to recognize and promote lasting achievements in diabetes research focused on progress toward a cure.

"The award is an incredible motivation to look ahead and continue on the path toward understanding the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes and developing preventive therapies  with the ultimate goal of finding a cure," Ziegler said.

The prize, established in 2012, is named for Harold Hamm, chairman and chief executive officer of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources Inc., who provided an endowment to fund the prize in perpetuity. The Hamm Prize laureate is selected by a rotating jury of national and international leaders in the diabetes research community and is awarded every two years.

"This prize honors work that changes the course of science  and Dr. Ziegler's research does exactly that. Her leadership in uncovering how Type 1 diabetes begins and how we might stop it before it starts is the kind of bold, life-changing progress this prize was meant to recognize. Her work fuels our hope  and brings us all one step closer to the cure," Hamm said.

Ziegler's research has been at the forefront of translating important research questions into longitudinal studies, including more than 20 clinical trials, as well as implementing findings into public health. Her achievements include:

Launched BabyDiab, the first birth cohort to study when and how Type 1 diabetes begins.

Launched Fr1da, a public screening program to detect early signs of Type 1 diabetes, now a model for similar global efforts.

Initiated and serves as speaker of GPPAD (Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes), a European platform to translate knowledge about disease pathogenesis into trials seeking to prevent Type 1 diabetes. More than 2,000 infants have been enrolled in GPPAD's clinical trials and screened for genetic risk of Type 1 diabetes.

Conducted research that led to a landmark clinical trial resulting in Food and Drug Administration approval for teplizumab, the first immunotherapy drug shown to delay the onset of Type 1 diabetes in at-risk individuals.

In addition, Ziegler has made the following research discoveries:

Autoimmunity to insulin is a key starting point for Type 1 diabetes in children, and Type 1 diabetes susceptibility genes predispose for autoimmunity.

Islet autoimmunity (when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells in the pancreas) starts early in life, with a peak incidence around age 1 to 2.

Children with two or more islet autoantibodies almost always develop diabetes.

Respiratory viral infections in early life, including COVID-19, raise the risk of islet autoimmunity in genetically at-risk children.

Early changes in blood sugar and immune activity appear to precede the onset of autoimmunity to insulin.

A physician who conducts research, Ziegler said caring for patients has informed her career as a scientist.

"My mentor always used to say, 'A researcher is the best doctor,'" she said. "I'm not sure if the reverse is true, but my daily work with people living with diabetes and my experience as a physician have certainly shaped my research. They have especially influenced my strong focus on translational research, clinical trials, and investigating the origins of the disease in humans."

Ziegler will receive the Hamm Prize during a gala in October. Jed Friedman, Ph.D., director of Harold Hamm Diabetes Center, said Ziegler's distinguished research career has significantly advanced the aim of preventing Type 1 diabetes.

"Professor Dr. Ziegler's visionary leadership and unwavering commitment have not only advanced scientific understanding but also paved the way for novel interventions that improve patient outcomes by delaying the onset of Type 1 diabetes," Friedman said. "Her work exemplifies the integration of rigorous research with compassionate clinical application, embodying the highest ideals of medical science. We are privileged to honor [her] for her unparalleled contributions to diabetes research and her enduring impact on public health."

About the project

For more information about the Harold Hamm International Prize for Biomedical Research in Diabetes, visit the prize website here.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state's flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, OU Health Sciences is one of the nation's few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. OU Health Sciences serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about OU Health Sciences, visit www.ouhsc.edu.

SOURCE University of Oklahoma
Caleres, FleetPride, and Freedom Furniture Leverage Coveo AI-Search to Personalize Product Discovery and Boost Conversions

MONTREAL, LONDON and NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Coveo, the leader in AI-Relevance, delivering best-in-class AI-search and generative experiences that maximize business outcomes at every point-of-experience, today announced that leading business-to-consumer and business-to-business brands Caleres, FleetPride, and Freedom Furniture are leveraging its AI-RelevanceTM platform to transform online experiences, boost conversions, and unlock new growth opportunities. By delivering relevant, personalized interactions across the entire customer journey, Coveo empowers businesses to delight consumers and drive significant revenue gains.

Leading Brands Use Coveo AI

The Coveo 2025 Commerce Relevance report, a survey of 4,000 adults across the US and UK, found that 77% of shoppers research online before buying, even if they buy in-store, and 43% of those surveyed said if they have a goal in mind they head to the search bar. This represents a huge opportunity for companies to win big or lose big as, if search falls short, the report found that 72% of shoppers will leave, with 36% going straight to a competitor. Coveo equips companies with AI-search to enhance engagement through intelligent, tailored experiences that reduce friction and deepen loyalty.

"Too often, online experiences are frustrating and unproductive for customers. In today's digital landscape, businesses win or lose based on the precision, speed, and intelligence of their online experience," said Peter Curran, GM of Commerce at Coveo. "Coveo is proud to partner with leading brands who are transforming their digital experiences with AI-search to deliver the relevance and personalization that their customers demand  and who have the impressive business metrics to prove that these efforts drive significant revenue growth."

Caleres Steps into the Future of Ecommerce with Advanced Search and Discovery

Caleres is one of the most successful shoe retailers you've never heard of. The multi-billion St. Louis-based parent of Famous Footwear, Sam Edelman, Dr-Scholls, Vince and Veronica Beard traces its history to pre-Civil War, navigating more than 140 years of business by staying one step ahead of an ever-changing industry.

An early adopter of the web, Caleres witnessed the trends and growth of ecommerce take shape. A few years ago they identified that their search and discovery technology was not optimized to handle a complex catalog of more than 600,000 SKUs organized by color, size, width, and store availability. They were unable to adjust, test, or access data regarding on-site search, product listing pages, and product recommendations. Finally, they relied on thousands of manual rules that were time-consuming and difficult for merchandisers to maintain. For the evolution of their next generation ecommerce experience, they chose Coveo's AI platform to power their search and experience layer.

Reported results with Coveo over measured period:

21% increase in revenue YoY

25% increase in conversion rate

FleetPride Accelerates Customer Service and Drives Revenue with Enhanced Digital Presence and Data-Driven Insights

In trucking, downtime is a liability costing thousands of dollars a day. Founded in 1999, FleetPride is North America's largest distributor of truck and trailer parts and service in the independent heavy duty aftermarket. FleetPride's 4000 experts across 300+ locations, 85+ service centers, and five distribution centers help customers find the products they need  as quickly as possible.

But FleetPride needed to catch up with its digital presence. Its website was failing to serve its customers, who needed an exact part number to order an item online. FleetPride's siloed system of tracking inventory offline and online meant that customers often had limited visibility into stock availability or price. Adding to the problem, FleetPride's website included a sprawling inventory of over one million parts and accessories. With Coveo's artificial intelligence technology solutions and a better understanding of their customers, FleetPride was able to boost customer engagement, deflect customer cases, and create more sales opportunities through customized shopper experiences.

Reported results with Coveo over measured period:

7% increase in revenue per visit for sessions

9.6% increase in conversion rate

27% increase in search engagement

Freedom Furniture Reimagines Retail with Intelligent Search and Product Discovery

Freedom Furniture has long been a trusted name in Australian and New Zealand homes, offering stylish, personalized pieces that cater to every taste and lifestyle. With over 60 stores and more than 40 years of excellence, the company has earned its reputation as a leader in furniture and homewares.

Today, Freedom is rewriting the rules of retail with a bold digital transformation. By revamping its ecommerce platform, integrating a dropshipping model, and adopting AI-driven search and product discovery, the company has redefined both its in-store and online shopping experiences. These changes combined with innovative omnichannel strategies, ensure Freedom is delivering a customer-centered experience, offering an endless aisle of possibilities and limitless choice.

Reported results with Coveo in the first 30 days:

5.5% uplift in average order value (AOV)

15% increase in customer sessions with search

50% decrease in merchandising effort

By providing customers with the right information at the right time, Coveo empowers businesses to create exceptional online experiences that drive customer satisfaction, foster long-term loyalty, and directly impact the bottom line.

Discover Coveo AI CX solution at www.coveo.com

About Coveo

Coveo brings superior AI-Relevance to every point-of-experience, transforming how enterprises connect with their customers and employees to maximize business outcomes.

Relevance is about moving from persona to person, the degree to which the enterprise-wide content, products, recommendations, and advice presented to a person online aligns easily with their context, needs, preferences, behavior and intent, setting the competitive experience gold standard. Every person's journey is unique, and only AI can solve the complexity of tailoring experiences across massive, diverse audiences and large volumes and variety of content and products.

Our Coveo AI-Relevance Platform enables enterprises to deliver hyper-personalization at every point-of-experience, unifying all their data securely, with the highest level of contextual and prescriptive accuracy while simultaneously optimizing business outcomes.

Coveo brings AI-Relevance to the digital experiences of many of the world's premier and most innovative brands, serving millions of people across billions of interactions.

What we believe is bold: Digital is everywhere, Relevance is not. It's the only way to win in the digital age.

The Coveo AI-Relevance Platform is ISO 27001 and ISO 27018 certified, SOC2 compliant, HIPAA compatible, with a 99.999% SLA available. We are a Salesforce ISV Partner, an SAP Endorsed App, AWS ISV Accelerate Program member, an Adobe Gold Partner, MACH Alliance member, Optimizely Partner, Shopify Partner, and a Genesys AppFoundry ISV Partner.Coveo is a trademark of Coveo Solutions Inc.

Stay up to date on the latest Coveo news and content by subscribing to the Coveo blog, and following Coveo on LinkedIn and YouTube.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking information"). This forward-looking information is identified by the use of terms and phrases such as "may", "would", "should", "could", "might", "will", "achieve", "occur", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "plan", "foresee", "believe", "continue", "target", "opportunity", "strategy", "scheduled", "outlook", "forecast", "projection", or "prospect", the negative of these terms and similar terminology, including references to assumptions, although not all forward-looking information contains these terms and phrases. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections, or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent management's expectations, estimates, and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

Case Studies Data

Reported metrics estimates in customer stories were formulated after A/B testing and reflect the estimated benefits to the selected customers based on feedback received from such customers and data reported by them for periods selected. These estimates are limited by the scaling factors of extrapolating these results from the specific project scope of each deployment across the customer's business and/or project. Time periods used to formulate the estimates may vary between customers and depend on each customer's own situation, use case and deployment. The definitions of the performance indicators used herein, and how they are calculated and reported, may also vary between customers, and therefore, actual and reported results achieved by customers may vary between customers.

SOURCE Coveo Solutions Inc.
RESTON, Va., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE:LDOS) and Saudi Arabia's National Security Services Company (SAFE) will collaborate on security screening technology for airports and other ports of entry across the Kingdom under an agreement signed May 13.

Manea Hassan Shetaiwi, SAFE Chief Commercial Officer (left) and Nomaan Syed, Leidos Arabia Head of Business Development (right). (Photo/Leidos)

The memorandum of understanding provides a framework for supporting the modernization of Saudi Arabia's security screening infrastructure. Through delivery of Leidos solutions coupled with localized training and services, the companies aim to improve threat detection capabilities such as people and baggage scanners, explosive detection devices, and rapid screening of cargo and vehicles.

"We're honored by the trust the Kingdom has in Leidos and grateful for this opportunity to collaborate with SAFE to deliver our technologies to some of the Kingdom's most critical points of entry and transit," said Michael Van Gelder, senior vice president and business area leader at Leidos.

The agreement was signed during the U.S-Saudi Investment Forum held in conjunction with U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia.

To learn more about Leidos' aviation and ports and borders security screening solutions visit: www.leidos.com/ses.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.leidos.com.

Certain statements in this announcement constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, the "Risk Factors" set forth in Leidos' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Leidos does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of circumstances or events that arise after the date the forward-looking statements were made.

Contact:



Victor Melara

Press Secretary & Senior Media Relations Manager

703.431.4612

[email protected]

SOURCE Leidos
NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Levi & Korsinsky, LLP announces that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the following announcement of a proposed class action settlement that would benefit purchasers of Azure Power Global Limited ("Azure") equity securities (OTC: AZREF):

SUMMARY NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION, PROPOSED CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENT, SETTLEMENT HEARING, AND MOTION FOR ATTORNEYS' FEES AND REIMBURSEMENT OF LITIGATION EXPENSES

To: All persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired Azure equity shares between January 1, 2020 and November 20, 2024, inclusive, and who were damaged thereby (the "Settlement Class").

Excluded from the Settlement Class are Defendants, the officers and directors of the Company, at all relevant times, members of their immediate families and their legal representatives, heirs, successors, or assigns, any entity in which Defendants have or had a controlling interest, and Azure shareholders Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec ("CDPQ") and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System ("OMERS") and all current and former affiliates, employees, officers, directors, and representatives of CDPQ and OMERS, respectively. Also excluded from the Settlement Class are all persons or entities who would otherwise be Members of the Settlement Class, but who exclude themselves by validly and timely submitting a request for exclusion.1

YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 and an Order of the United States District Court for the District of Southern District of New York, that the Court-appointed Lead Plaintiff, Serap Lokman, on behalf of herself and all members of the Settlement Class, and Azure, Ranjit Gupta, Murali Subramanian and Pawan Kumar Agrawal (collectively, "Defendants"), have reached a proposed settlement of the claims in the above- captioned class action (the "Action") in the amount of $23,000,000.00 (the "Settlement"). Lead Plaintiff and Lead Counsel estimate that if all affected Azure shares elect to participate in the Settlement, the average recovery per share could be approximately $0.57, before deduction of any fees, expenses, costs, and awards as described in the Notice.

In exchange for the Settlement and the release of the Releasing Plaintiffs' Claims against the Released Defendants' Parties, Azure has agreed, on behalf of Defendants, to create a $23,000,000.00 cash fund, which may accrue interest, to be distributed, after deduction of Court-awarded attorneys' fees and litigation expenses, Notice and Administration Expenses, Taxes, and any other fees or expenses approved by the Court (the "Net Settlement Fund"), among all Settlement Class Members who submit valid Claim Forms and are found to be eligible to receive a distribution from the Net Settlement Fund ("Authorized Claimants").

A hearing will be held before the Honorable Gregory H. Woods on September 5, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, in Courtroom 12C of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, New York, NY 10007 (the "Settlement Hearing") to, among other things, consider whether: (i) the Settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate, and should be approved; (ii) the proposed plan for allocating the proceeds of the Settlement (the "Plan of Allocation") to Settlement Class Members is fair and reasonable and should be approved; and (iii) Lead Counsel's application for attorneys' fees and reimbursement of litigation expenses, and any award to the Lead Plaintiff for her time and expenses in representing the interests of the Settlement Class, are reasonable and should be approved. This Notice describes important rights you may have and what steps you must take if you wish to participate in the Settlement, object, or be excluded from the Settlement Class. The Court may change the date of the Settlement Hearing, or hold it telephonically or via videoconference, without providing another notice. You do NOT need to attend the Settlement Hearing to receive a distribution from the Net Settlement Fund.

IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE SETTLEMENT CLASS, YOUR RIGHTS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AND YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO A MONETARY PAYMENT. A full Notice and Claim Form can be obtained by visiting the settlement website, www.AzureSecuritiesSettlement.com, or by contacting the Claims Administrator at:

Azure Securities Settlement

c/o Claims Administrator

1650 Arch Street, Suite 2210

Philadelphia, PA 19103

Toll-free: 877-853-4123

Email: [email protected]

Inquiries, other than requests for the Notice/Claim Form or for information about the status of a claim, may also be made to Lead Counsel:

LEVI & KORSINSKY, LLP

Shannon L. Hopkins

Gregory M. Potrepka

1111 Summer Street, Suite 403

Stamford, CT 06905

203-992-4523

[email protected]

[email protected]

If you are a Settlement Class Member, to be eligible to share in the distribution of the Net Settlement Fund, you must submit a Claim Form postmarked (for U.S. mail), received by the private carrier (for FedEx, UPS, etc.), or submitted online no later than August 29, 2025 to the Claims Administrator at the address above. If you are a Settlement Class Member and do not timely submit a valid Claim Form, you will not be eligible to share in the distribution of the Net Settlement Fund, but you will nevertheless be bound by all judgments or orders entered by the Court relating to the Settlement, whether favorable or unfavorable.

If you are a Settlement Class Member and wish to exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you must submit a written request for exclusion in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice such that it is postmarked (for U.S. mail), received by the private carrier (for FedEx, UPS, etc.), or e-mailed, no later than August 15, 2025 to the Claims Administrator. If you properly exclude yourself from the Settlement Class, you will not be bound by any judgments or orders entered by the Court relating to the Settlement, whether favorable or unfavorable, and you will not be eligible to share in the distribution of the Net Settlement Fund.

Any objections to the proposed Settlement, Lead Counsel's Fee and Expense Application including a Lead Plaintiff Award, and/or the proposed Plan of Allocation must be filed with the Court, either by mail or in person, and be mailed to counsel for the Settling Parties in accordance with the instructions in the Notice, such that they are postmarked (for U.S. mail), received by the private carrier (for FedEx, UPS, etc.), or e-mailed, no later than August 15, 2025.

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE COURT, DEFENDANTS, OR DEFENDANTS' COUNSEL REGARDING THIS NOTICE.

DATED: MAY 21, 2025

BY ORDER OF THE COURT

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

1 Unless otherwise defined herein, all capitalized terms shall maintain the same meaning as those set forth in the Stipulation, which can be viewed and/or obtained at www.AzureSecuritiesSettlement.com.

SOURCE Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
New Tool Empowers the Public to Search Geo-Targeted Alerts on Missing Children  Released in Honor of National Missing Children's Day and the Program's 25th Anniversary

ATLANTA, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis Risk Solutions has announced the launch of a powerful new Interactive Dashboard designed to aid in the recovery of missing children. This innovative, AI-driven tool allows the public to easily search geo-targeted alerts sent through the ADAM Program (Automated Delivery of Alerts on Missing Children) and view missing child posters by location, and other filters.

The release of the dashboard coincides with National Missing Children's Day and marks the 25th anniversary of the ADAM Program, which quickly distributes geo-targeted posters from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Importantly, the posters contain a photo of the missing child and case details, which are then delivered to communities across the nation.

"This dashboard brings a new level of accessibility to our efforts to help recover missing children," said Trish McCall, co-founder of the ADAM Program. "For 25 years, the ADAM Program has been about quickly getting information into the hands of people who can help. Now, with the dashboard, anyone can take action right from their devices and view missing child posters in their area which they can easily share on social media and help be part of the solution to bring missing children home."

The ADAM Program uses technology to distribute missing child posters quickly to individuals, businesses, and organizations within a targeted geographic area. With the addition of the new dashboard, users can now actively browse real-time cases, deepening public engagement in the search for missing children.

"I am a supporter of child protection efforts, and I praised this initiative. This dashboard is a shining example of how technology can serve our most vulnerable. The ADAM Program has a proven track record of helping to recover missing children, and this new tool will empower even more citizens to help bring missing children back to safety. I'm proud to stand with The ADAM Program and NCMEC on this milestone," U.S. Representative Rich McCormick said.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions

LexisNexis Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data, sophisticated analytics platforms, and technology solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit LexisNexis Risk Solutions and RELX.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Grigas Richman

LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Mobile: +1.678.906.9073





SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions
The Kahlo family home, a replica of the kitchen and recipes that the Mexican artist

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) and her family share with the world

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- This June 2025, Jarritos, the beloved Mexican soft drink brand, proudly presents the third edition of Los Sabores de Mi Mexico. After bringing a preview of the exhibition to Chicago this past May, the cultural experience returns once again, taking visitors on an artistic journey. This extraordinary event will take place at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., from June 12 to June 21, 2025, open Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Saturdays from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM.

Replica de cocina

We combine the magic of Mexico's incredible flavors with recipes from the iconic artist Frida Kahlo (19071954), presenting a world where cuisine meets art. A replica of the facade of the Kahlo family home will offer all visitors an opportunity to learn more about the renowned Mexican artist and her family.

A major highlight of the event is the unveiling of an exclusive book that reveals treasured family recipes. This publication promises to be a culinary and cultural gem, delighting food lovers, Frida Kahlo fans, and admirers of Mexican flavors alike.

"This book connects us to the woman, to the family," said Chef Monica Patino. She adds, "To that everyday lifewhat was eaten in Frida's home, her handwritten recipes Frida in Coyoacan was always deeply connected to traditional Mexican cooking, which is still alive today."

The exhibition will also feature never-before-seen photographs capturing the intimate essence of the Kahlo family. Immerse yourself in the personal and artistic world of this Mexican icon through these unique images.

"It is a great honor to share a part of our heritage, of our family's story, with the world," said Mara Romeo Kahlo, Frida Kahlo's great-niece. "We believe that the kitchen is the heart of a home, and we are bringing a gastronomic art book and period pieces to share Frida in a very simple, everyday, and fun way"

Enhancing the experience further, we will showcase ten monumental "Fridas," each reimagined by talented contemporary Mexican artists. These stunning works of art pay homage to the enduring influence of Frida Kahlo in the art world, highlighting her legacy in bold and original ways.

The "Paint Your Frida" workshops will offer families and children the chance to express their creativity and inspiration by painting miniature replicas of the monumental sculptures on displayan engaging and artistic hands-on activity.

Los Sabores de Mi Mexico not only celebrates the rich cultural and culinary heritage of Mexico, but also, in this edition, pays an unprecedented tribute to one of the country's most important artists and her legacy. The event seeks to preserve and honor Mexican heritage, culture, gastronomy, and the arts through events, exhibitions, product launches, and more.

For more information about Los Sabores de Mi Mexico and upcoming events, visit: https://saboresdemimexico.com/Eventos

Main site: saboresdemimexico.com

Washington, D.C. Dates: June 1221, 2025

Location: Mexican Cultural Institute (2829 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20009)

Highlights:

Exhibit at the Mexican Cultural Institute



Culinary tastings at various locations across Washington, D.C.



Special guests: members of the Kahlo family  Mara De Anda and Mara Romeo Kahlo , great-niece and great-great-niece of the artist



and , great-niece and great-great-niece of the artist Attendance by Esteban Moctezuma Barragan, Ambassador of Mexico to the United States

Los Sabores de Mi Mexico supports Mexican art and artists. In Washington, D.C., Marisela Rumberg, a self-taught artist from Mexico whose work has been exhibited on three continents and featured in international art and textile publications, will create a live "LitoFrida" piece during the events surrounding the exhibition.

Additionally, renowned Mexican chefs will be part of this edition, including:

Marcelino Zamudio , Chicatana Restaurant



, Chicatana Restaurant Alam Mendez, Apapacho Restaurant



Chabela Coss , Executive Chef of Grupo Pascual

These chefs will pay tribute to traditional Mexican cuisine inspired by the Kahlo family's recipes. This cultural celebration will unite prominent figures from the worlds of art, gastronomy, and diplomacy in a unique experience honoring the roots of Mexico.

About Los Sabores de Mi Mexico:

Los Sabores de Mi Mexico is a cultural organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating Mexican heritage, culture, cuisine, and the arts through events, exhibitions, product launches, and more. The Washington, D.C. stop is part of a national tour across major U.S. cities, designed to showcase the richness of Mexican culture in all its glory.

Official Website: https://saboresdemimexico.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lossaboresmx/

Recap videos:

New York City  Click to Watch

Hollywood  Click to Watch

Chicago  Click to Watch

Media Contact:

Brenda Herrera

[email protected]

(626) 841-3699

SOURCE Jarritos
ORLANDO, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- M-tron Industries, Inc. (NYSE American: MPTI) ("Mtron" or the "Company") today announced that it will hold its 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders in New York City on June 10, 2025.

The 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") will be held on:

Date: June 10, 2025 Time: 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time Location Harvard Club of New York City 35 W 44th St New York, New York 10036

In addition, Mtron will host an Investor Presentation on June 10, 2025 ahead of the Annual Meeting to provide shareholders, analysts and other stakeholders more detailed information on the Company's strategic direction, recent business developments and financial performance, and updates on strategic initiatives. Members of management will also be available to answer investor questions. For those interested in attending, the Investor Presentation will begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

To attend either or both events, investors are requested to RSVP by Friday June 6, 2025, by visiting the following link: ir.mtron.com/2025-Annual-Meeting-RSVP. Upon submitting the RSVP form, investors and members of the finance community will receive a confirmation email that includes a unique QR code, which is required for entry into the Harvard Club.

About Mtron

M-tron Industries, Inc. (NYSE American: MPTI) was originally founded in 1965 and designs, manufactures and markets highly-engineered, high reliability frequency and spectrum control products and solutions. As an engineering-centric company, Mtron provides close support to its customers throughout our products' entire life cycle, including product design, prototyping, production and subsequent product upgrades. Mtron has design and manufacturing facilities in Orlando, Florida and Yankton, South Dakota, a sales office in Hong Kong, and a manufacturing facility in Noida, India. For more information, visit www.mtron.com.

SOURCE Mtron
Invests $42.5 Million in Recapitalization of Doral Corporation

HOUSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN) ("Main Street") is pleased to announce that it recently completed a new portfolio investment to facilitate the minority recapitalization of Doral Corporation ("Doral" or the "Company"), a leading midwestern U.S. based contractor specializing in rigging, millwrighting, machinery moving, steel fabrication and material handling installation. Main Street partnered with the Company's existing owner to facilitate the transaction, with Main Street funding $42.5 million in a combination of first lien, senior secured term debt and a direct equity investment.

Founded in 1972 and headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Doral (www.doralcorp.net) provides specialty contracting services across the U.S. to customers in the supply chain & logistics, construction, food & beverage, wastewater and other end markets. With a proven track record, deep industry experience and a commitment to operational excellence, Doral has built a strong reputation as a trusted partner for installation, maintenance and repair solutions. Through its differentiated services, the Company offers comprehensive, one-stop-shop capabilities that streamline customers' projects, reduce subcontracting needs and minimize customer downtime.

ABOUT MAIN STREET CAPITAL CORPORATION

Main Street (www.mainstcapital.com) is a principal investment firm that primarily provides customized long-term debt and equity capital solutions to lower middle market companies and debt capital to private companies owned by or in the process of being acquired by a private equity fund. Main Street's portfolio investments are typically made to support management buyouts, recapitalizations, growth financings, refinancings and acquisitions of companies that operate in diverse industry sectors. Main Street seeks to partner with entrepreneurs, business owners and management teams and generally provides customized "one-stop" debt and equity financing alternatives within its lower middle market investment strategy. Main Street seeks to partner with private equity fund sponsors and primarily invests in secured debt investments in its private loan investment strategy. Main Street's lower middle market portfolio companies generally have annual revenues between $10 million and $150 million. Main Street's private loan portfolio companies generally have annual revenues between $25 million and $500 million.

Main Street, through its wholly owned portfolio company MSC Adviser I, LLC ("MSC Adviser"), also maintains an asset management business through which it manages investments for external parties. MSC Adviser is registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended.

Contacts:

Main Street Capital Corporation

Dwayne L. Hyzak, CEO, [email protected]

Ryan R. Nelson, CFO, [email protected]

713-350-6000

Dennard Lascar Investor Relations

Ken Dennard | [email protected]

Zach Vaughan | [email protected]

713-529-6600

SOURCE Main Street Capital Corporation
In her new role, Frankiewicz will lead the company's strategy including innovation, commercial strategy and the infusion of AI across the global enterprise. She will also oversee the development and execution of ManpowerGroup's Strategic Plans across its strong and distinct brands, Manpower, Experis, and Talent Solutions. Doyle, who succeeds Frankiewicz, will oversee operations of all ManpowerGroup brands across the United States and Canada.

"We have a window of opportunity to lead in shaping the future of the Human Capital industry and ManpowerGroup is ready to seize this moment," said Jonas Prising, Chair & CEO of ManpowerGroup. "I am delighted that Becky will take on this new position as President and Chief Strategy Officer to lead the development of our overall strategy. This is how we ensure ManpowerGroup is well positioned to maximize tech advancements to create even more value for our clients and candidates for the next horizon. Our North America business is key to our success and Ger's proven track record of driving growth, and delivering results makes him the ideal person for this critical role. I look forward to all he will accomplish as we continue to strengthen our market position in the U.S. and Canada."

"I am proud to take on this new role at such a pivotal moment for our industry and pleased Ger is stepping in to lead North America," Frankiewicz said. "Now is the time to accelerate growth by infusing AI & Agentic AI across our global enterprise and building our iconic brands in new ways. Together with our talented teams and valued partners we will reimagine our business for the next 75 years, leveraging tech and platforms to drive even greater value for our clients and our talent."

ABOUT MANPOWERGROUP

ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing, and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands  Manpower, Experis, and Talent Solutions  creates substantially more value for candidates and clients across more than 70 countries and territories and has done so for more than 75 years. We are recognized consistently for our diversity  as a best place to work for Women, Inclusion, Equality, and Disability, and in 2025 ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the 16th time  all confirming our position as the brand of choice for in-demand talent.

For more information, visit www.manpowergroup.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook , and Bluesky.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercurius Media Capital (MMC), the first U.S.-based media-for-equity venture fund, has committed $2 million in strategic media to Groomiethe grooming brand behind the BaldiePro electric shaver. The investment will fuel TV and streaming campaigns, expanding Groomie's national presence in the men's grooming market.

Groomie delivers a smooth, irritation-free shaving experience, combining smart design, high-retention consumables, and a direct-to-consumer model to serve an overlooked segment.

"Partnering with MMC is a pivotal moment for Groomie," said Anant Handa, Co-Founder of Groomie. "Their media-for-equity model gives us the strategic reach to scale nationally while staying lean and focused. We see this as a major unlock for both brand building and customer acquisition."

The funding will drive national campaigns to boost growth and awareness. Groomie aims to reach 80,000 subscribers by year-end and expand with a new personal care line for womenGroomie Hers.

"We're incredibly excited to bring Groomie to a broader audience through this partnership," added Ashley Handa, Co-Founder of Groomie. "This investment allows us to double down on storytelling, brand awareness, and performance marketingall while maintaining the creative control that makes Groomie unique."

In 2026, Groomie intends to enter traditional retail with packaging and inventory to support wholesale and hybrid models.

"Groomie serves an overlooked, high-intent consumer. We're backing their focus to build loyalty and lead this category," said Piyush Puri, Founding Partner of MMC.

This partnership supports MMC's goal of helping startups grow through premium media while preserving founder control.

About Mercurius Media Capital

Mercurius Media Capital (MMC), launched in December 2023, is the first U.S.-based media-for-equity venture fund with ~$90 million in committed capital. Co-founded by Satyan Gajwani and Piyush Puri, MMC builds on over 15 years of experience driving media capital transactions at The Times of India Group, facilitating over $3 billion in media-based investments. MMC has partnered with leading media platforms, including Sinclair Broadcast Group, Televisa Univision, Atmosphere TV, and others, to offer high-growth startups and enterprises access to distinct, large-scale advertising inventory in exchange for equity. This fund has backed several companies, including Airtasker, Deskera, Edly, Mode Mobile, reAlpha, RYSE and more. For more information, visit www.mmc.us.

This communication is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Investments in MMC are available only to verified accredited investors. Forwardlooking statements are based on current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

About Groomie

Groomie is a premium direct-to-consumer grooming brand built around the BaldiePro, an electric head shaver designed for speed, comfort, and a razor-smooth finish. With a growing ecosystem of personal care products and a strong subscription base, Groomie is redefining the headcare category with performance-driven tools, modern design, and community-first brand values.

Media Contact:

Interdependence PR

Angelic Venegas

847-977-5601

[email protected]

SOURCE Mercurius Media Capital
HAMBURG, Germany, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- MGI Tech Co., Ltd. (MGI), a company dedicated to developing core tools and technologies that drive innovation in life sciences, is proud to unveil its latest innovation, PrepALL, a flexible liquid handling system, along with the latest version of the Smart8 at SLAS Europe 2025, taking place from May 2022 in Hamburg. Featuring advanced robotics, AI integration, and modular platforms, MGI's automation portfolio addresses critical challenges in genomics, drug discovery, synthetic biology, and molecular diagnosticsempowering labs of all sizes to scale research efficiently.

PrepALL

PrepALL: Compact, Affordable Automation for Flexible Pipetting

The PrepALL Flexible Liquid Handling Platform simplifies complex laboratory tasks while maintaining enterprise-level performancewithout the high costs typically associated with traditional systems. Compact yet powerful, PrepALL is ideal for laboratories adopting automation for the first time or scaling existing research capacity.

Key Features Include:

Space-saving design : Occupies just 0.7 m, with 16 SBS deck positions (expandable to 41).

: Occupies just 0.7 m, with 16 SBS deck positions (expandable to 41). High-precision pipetting : 8 independent channels support 0.51200 L volumes with CVs (coefficients of variation) of less than 3% (150 L) and <1% (501200 L). It supports pLLD/cLLD, liquid level tracking, and anti-dripping, so that it reduces dead volume and improves pipetting accuracy.

: 8 independent channels support 0.51200 L volumes with CVs (coefficients of variation) of less than 3% (150 L) and <1% (501200 L). It supports pLLD/cLLD, liquid level tracking, and anti-dripping, so that it reduces dead volume and improves pipetting accuracy. Plug-and-play setup and easy to use : Integrated with a visual system, it can achieve automatic consumables identification and automatic position calibration

: Integrated with a visual system, it can achieve automatic consumables identification and automatic position calibration Full traceability: Built-in sensors and data logging ensure reproducibility and consistency.

Leveraging advanced vision-based AI, PrepALL delivers high-precision performance in critical applications such as nucleic acid extraction, plasmid construction, sample preparation, and NGS library prep. Designed for global accessibility, it addresses cost and complexity barriers with a scalable, modular design and open APIs. Ideal for both entry-level and high-throughput environments, PrepALL empowers smaller labs to scale without costly infrastructure overhauls.

"PrepALL represents a major leap in lab automation, giving labs of all sizes the ability to streamline complex workflows with unmatched affordability and reliability. It's a bold step in our mission to democratize cutting-edge tools and accelerate scientific discovery worldwide." said Dr. Christian Zimmerman, VP of Sales at MGI Europe and Africa.

Scalable Automation Ecosystem for Every Lab

MGI's automation portfolio is among the most versatile in the industry, designed to meet diverse laboratory needs while ensuring scalability and ease of use. At SLAS Europe 2025, MGI also presents Smart 8, a globally recognized solution launched in 2022. Smart 8 features eight-channel pipetting, and smart gripper technology. The new enhancement introduces AI-optimized pipetting for up to 20% faster cycle times, including nucleic acid extraction, microbial screening, and library preparation. This update ensures higher reproducibility and efficiency, making the Smart 8 an ideal partner for labs seeking reliable automation while remaining cost-effective.

The enhanced capabilities of the Smart 8 will cater to academic institutions, biotech startups, and clinical labs, offering a competitive edge in high-throughput research. By reducing manual intervention, the system accelerates time-to-results, enabling researchers to focus on data analysis and discovery.

Affordable, Scalable, Smart: The MGI Automation Edge

MGI stands out in the lab automation market by prioritizing cost-effectiveness, scalability, and global accessibility. Designed to democratize advanced technology, MGI empowers researchers across diverse fieldsfrom precision medicine to agricultureregardless of budget constraints.

MGI provides a comprehensive portfolio that covers the entire workflow, from sample extraction and preparation to sequencing and data analysis. This all-in-one solution enhance chances to meet customers' diversified demand under one system and brand and ensures compatibility among various systems, simplifying the overall experimental workflow.

These advantages have positioned MGI as a trusted partner in more than 100 countries, accelerating breakthroughs in genomics, synthetic biology, and beyond. During global health crises, systems like the Platforms like the MGISP-960 and MGISTP-7000 have processed millions of samples, demonstrating MGI's ability to deliver robust solutions under pressure.

MGI invites researchers, lab managers, and industry professionals to explore its latest automation solutions at SLAS Europe 2025. Visit MGI's booth#516 to see the enhanced innovations in action.

SOURCE MGI TECH
DES MOINES, Iowa, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As Memorial Day approaches, Mindr, the industry leader in substance detection, monitoring and safety technology, reaffirms its deep commitment to our nation's military members, veterans and their families. This year, Mindr has made hiring veterans and military families a top priority, with a strong focus on supporting their long-term success in the civilian workforce.

"Our military families make tremendous sacrifices, and we recognize the unique skills and resilience they bring to the workforce," said Amanda Sedars, Chief Human Resources Officer of Mindr. "Our experience working with military families has been incredibly rewarding. Their diverse professional backgrounds, adaptability and strong work ethic consistently make them exceptional team members who embody our core values: Put People First, Drive Results, Win as a Team and Own it. We are proud to support this community not just through recognition, but through action by offering meaningful, flexible and career-building opportunities that help them thrive."

Mindr has been a game-changer for me & has changed my life. Mindr made transitioning from military to civilian life easy Post this

The company has successfully hired military members, veterans and their families, providing them with growth opportunities, and is committed to supporting active military members before, during and after future deployments.

Victoria Simmans, a Customer Care Specialist at Mindr, joined the U.S. Army Reserve right after high school because she was determined to make a difference. She discovered a profound sense of purpose and belonging in the military. For Simmans, the military was a close and loyal community that felt like family. It was there, amid the camaraderie and shared mission that she met the love of her life, her husband. Simmans served the country for eight and a half years before being tragically injured. Sustaining a long-term disability as a result, she was determined to find a role that gave her purpose and allowed her to continue making a difference but she struggled to find one within a company that would best support her. That all changed after receiving an offer from Mindr.

When asked about her experience working at the company, Simmans said, "Mindr has been a game-changer for me and has changed my life. Mindr made transitioning from military to civilian life easy. I wanted to be a part of a mission-driven company focused on saving lives  that's what we do here, and we do it as a team. I have had tremendous growth opportunities and was even promoted a few months after I started. I have never felt more seen, supported and allowed the flexibility and time-off needed to care for myself and my family. I encourage anyone who is a military member or veteran to apply here  go for it!"

Mindr is actively seeking to hire veterans and military families and is a proud member of the U.S. Department of Defense's Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP). Mindr currently has 45 open positions in departments such as: Sales, Customer Service, Engineering and IT. Many of these roles offer remote options, helping meet the needs of the mobile military lifestyle.

The company offers its employees a comprehensive and highly competitive benefits package, including dental, health and vision insurance; a 401(k) plan; paid holidays and time off; ongoing professional training; and more.

Mindr encourages military spouses, military members and veterans seeking new opportunities to visit www.mindr.com/careers to explore openings and learn more about how we're building a workplace that honors and supports our military community year-round.

About Mindr

Mindr is a national leader in substance detection, monitoring and safety solutions. Its portfolio of trusted brands includes Intoxalock, Breathe Easy Insurance, Keepr, DUI.org and ADS Interlock. Mindr is focused on empowering individuals and institutions with the tools to make better decisions and create safer communities.

For more information, visit mindr.com.

SOURCE Mindr
High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric says a shortage in skilled workers has led to higher pay, more flexible schedules and more open positions

DENVER, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric, a family-owned and operated home service company serving residents in the greater Denver metropolitan area, celebrates graduation season by encouraging more high school seniors to consider a career in the skilled trades.

High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric encourages 2025 high school graduates to consider a career in the skilled trades industry.

"Since the 1970s, parents and teachers have encouraged their children to choose a college degree over learning a trade, which has decreased the number of applicants to the nation's trade schools," said Levi Torres, co-owner of High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric. "Now that the Baby Boomers are retiring in record numbers, we're seeing a critical demand for replacements in plumbing, HVAC and electrical positions. We'd like to see more community leaders help balance the scales by exposing students to both college and the trades."

Torres said graduating seniors should consider:

The cost of trade school vs. college. The average cost for tuition and fees at four-year public colleges is about $9,800 a year. This is considerably higher if students choose an out-of-state college or an Ivy League university. Trade schools range from roughly $3,800 to $16,000 total.

The average cost for tuition and fees at four-year public colleges is about a year. This is considerably higher if students choose an out-of-state college or an university. Trade schools range from roughly to total. The time spent learning. While there are two-year degrees, most of the jobs that pay well require a four-year degree. However, a student can graduate from trade school in 18 to 24 months, putting them inside of the workforce two years sooner than their college-bound colleagues.

While there are two-year degrees, most of the jobs that pay well require a four-year degree. However, a student can graduate from trade school in 18 to 24 months, putting them inside of the workforce two years sooner than their college-bound colleagues. Average pay. While some college graduates do end up earning more than trade school graduates, that number is shrinking. As the skilled trades labor shortage continues, the competition to hire reliable workers with the right skills becomes greater, boosting the average salary.

While some college graduates do end up earning more than trade school graduates, that number is shrinking. As the skilled trades labor shortage continues, the competition to hire reliable workers with the right skills becomes greater, boosting the average salary. Active work. Sitting behind a desk isn't for everyone. Those who want to work with their hands and like to travel outside of an office may want to consider a job as a plumber, electrician or HVAC technician.

Sitting behind a desk isn't for everyone. Those who want to work with their hands and like to travel outside of an office may want to consider a job as a plumber, electrician or HVAC technician. Flexible schedules. Many office jobs require workers to be present between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. But, with many home service contractors running 24-hour service, workers can choose to work shifts that provide a better balance for their home lives.

"We need to remove the stigma that skilled trades workers aren't as smart as college graduates or don't earn a decent living because neither of those things are true," Torres said. "One of the best things about being a skilled tradesman is that you never have to worry that your job will be outsourced, either. You have to work in your community because that's where the customers and their homes are located."

To learn more about High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric, or to schedule an inspection, visit http://high5homefix.com/ or call (720) 637-5177.

About High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric

Founded in 2012, High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric is a local, family-owned company serving residents in the greater Denver metropolitan area. With a professional team that has extensive experience and a commitment to service, High 5 Plumbing, Heating & Cooling offers comprehensive plumbing, sewer, drain and HVAC services. The company was built on the values of solving plumbing problems and serving every customer with professionalism and respect. For more information about High 5 Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, visit http://high5homefix.com/.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Ripley

Ripley PR

865-977-1973

[email protected]

SOURCE High 5 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electric
Strategic move enhances Morson's reach and capability across key North American sectors

TUSTIN, Calif. and HOUSTON and ORLANDO, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Morson Group has strengthened its position as a global talent solutions leader with the acquisition of US-based technical recruiter PTS Advance. The move marks a key milestone in Morson's international growth strategy and significantly broadens its capabilities across North America's energy, infrastructure, and advanced manufacturing sectors.

Josh Hobgood, Kim Gautreau, Brittna Valenzuela, Ashley Samuelson, Matt Wolstenholme, Dane Groeneveld, David Stein, Russell Stein, June Stein, Ronald Stein, Dustin House, Ged Mason, Jacob Wilson, Adrian Adair, (l to r) Adrian Adair, Morson Group COO Dustin House, PTS Advance CEO Ged Mason, Morson Group CEO (l to r)

As market demand accelerates across technology, engineering, and industrial landscapes, the acquisition aligns with Morson's ambition to offer clients seamless access to expert talent - wherever and whenever it's needed. It also builds on the Group's commitment to removing complexity for clients by unifying capability across disciplines, regions, and sectors.

PTS Advance is one of the largest specialist providers of technical talent to the United States' oil, gas, chemicals, power, renewables, construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing industries. Formed through the combination of three family-founded businesses, the company has deep roots in its markets and a reputation for delivering with trust and integrity.

Originally founded by Ronald and June Stein in 1995 from their California home, PTS Advance was built on a people-first culture that aligns with Morson Group's own people-centric ethos and remains core to its operations today. Under the leadership of CEO Dustin House and a team of experienced sector specialists, the business brings a full range of staffing services to Morson Group's US operations, including contract hire, direct hire, project hire, payroll and transition services.

House, CEO at PTS Advance, said: "This marks a proud and defining moment for PTS Advance. We've spent years building a business anchored in trust, performance, and people and it's incredibly rewarding to see that work recognized and elevated through this partnership with Morson Group. What excites me most is the opportunity ahead: by combining our strengths, we're creating a global platform with deeper capabilities, broader reach, and a shared commitment to putting people at the center of everything we do. Together, we'll continue to pioneer new solutions for our clients, while creating even greater opportunities for our teams to grow, lead, and share in our success."

PTS Advance's offices provide Morson Group with a network across the southern USA, including Tustin, California; Houston & Port Arthur, Texas; and Orlando, Florida. From these locations, the recruitment business will continue to actively support projects across the entire North American continent.

Ged Mason, Morson Group CEO, said: "As part of our strategy to expand our global footprint, I am delighted that PTS Advance have joined the Morson Group, and the collaboration between our teams will strengthen our delivery capabilities across the United States. Cultural fit between organisations was key and having known the Stein family for over 20 years, there is a clear alignment between our core values, providing a powerful foundation for the future. Bringing PTS Advance into the Morson Group will enable us to complement their offering across North America, whilst giving our clients access to a global network of talent."

More about PTS Advance, visit us at PTSadvance.com

More about the Morson Group, visit us at Morson.com

Contact:

Lauren Luckenbach

689-610-6932

[email protected]

SOURCE Morson Group
UPPER MARLBORO, Md., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- At the conclusion of its 2025 Mitchell-Beall-Rosen Memorial Scholarship Contest, NASA Federal Credit Union awarded scholarshipsranging from $2,500 to the top prize of $17,000to six high school seniors. The annual program rewards the writing talents of young Credit Union members who are working toward four-year or two-year undergraduate degrees or vocational studies. Students submit 1,000-word essays that focus on their educational goals and financial literacy as it applies to the cost of a college education and their plans for paying it.

Scholarship winners (left to right): Jack Wargo, Dayna Tyler, Courtney Cherricks, Sydney Wagner, and Sarah Berube. Not in attendance: Emma Hughes

"I am always amazed by the talent and dedication of our scholarship winners, and this year's group truly stands out," said Dr. Alotta Taylor, Chairperson of NASA Federal's Scholarship Committee. "Their bright futures are a testament to their hard work, and NASA Federal Credit Union is proud to help fuel their success through the Mitchell-Beall-Rosen Memorial Scholarship. Congratulations to our winners."

The following outstanding seniors were recipients of this year's scholarship awards:

Sarah Berube of Huntingtown, Maryland plans to attend Salisbury University to study Physical Therapy.

of plans to attend to study Physical Therapy. Courtney Cherricks of Newville, Pennsylvania plans to attend Alfred University to study Renewable Energy Engineering.

of plans to attend to study Renewable Energy Engineering. Emma Hughes of Gambrills, Maryland plans to attend Anne Arundel Community College to study Event Planning and Business Management.

of plans to attend to study Event Planning and Business Management. Dayna Tyler of Salisbury, Maryland plans to attend the University of Maryland to study Urban Planning.

of plans to attend the to study Urban Planning. Sydney Wagner of Columbia, Maryland plans to attend Rappahannock Community College to become an Ultrasound Technician.

of plans to attend to become an Ultrasound Technician. Jack Wargo of Warrenton, Virginia plans to attend the University of Virginia to study Civil Engineering.

About the NASA Federal Credit Union Scholarship Program

The Scholarship Program was established in 1983 in memory of Wilfred Mitchell and then renamed in 1991 to also honor Donald Beall. Both men are former NASA Federal Credit Union officials who were strong advocates of the education of our youth. In 2010, the name of the scholarship program was again changed, to the Mitchell-Beall-Rosen Memorial Scholarship Program, in honor of Eugene D. Rosen, who was instrumental in launching the program and served as its chairman for 27 years. Mitchell, Beall, and Rosen are fondly remembered for their commitment to the Credit Union movement and especially for their efforts to help young people succeed.

About NASA Federal Credit Union

NASA Federal Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned entirely by its members and operated for the benefit of all who belong. Chartered in 1949, NASA Federal Credit Union serves the diverse needs of 245,000 members throughout the nation with a full array of financial services and the strength of over $5.5 billion in assets.

SOURCE NASA Federal Credit Union
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As a country, we struggle to tackle challenges facing young people and the statistics around bullying, hopelessness, suicide, mental health, and wellbeing of our youth are staggering. Heartbreakingly, one out of every five students across the US are bullied relentlessly. Forty two percent of students persistently feel sad and hopeless, with 29% of students struggling with mental illness (less than 50% get help). The data is enough to demand action. 2025 marks 10 years of impact at Be Strong, and the organization is just getting started.

Naomi, a Be Strong Student Representative alumna boldly shares how the program has benefitted her own life. She said, "Finding Be Strong was like finding a missing puzzle piece to my story! I was super depressed, unmotivated and honestly really lost when I stumbled upon Be Strong and I'm so glad that I did. Through Be Strong, I found the empowerment, hope and help that I needed to truly 'be strong'. Not only for myself but for all of those that battle with difficulties around me." Naomi concluded, "My hope is that everyone can find their strength in Be Strong just like little me did!"

Students, families, schools and communities never pay for help from Be Strong; the efforts are community funded. Over the last 10 years, the organization and volunteers have helped over 170,967 people in crisis with immediate and ongoing help, recruited, trained and supported 5,847 Be Strong Student Representatives and peer groups on school campuses, provided 1,491 schools/districts with the Be Strong Resilience Curriculum (featuring Jay Shetty), and educated over 5.2MM students in resilience through free community events.

Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez, professor of applied psychology at NYU and Be Strong advisory board member, notes that, "Be Strong's highly innovative peer-to-peer approach builds squarely on the science of adolescent development. By putting resources directly into the hands of youth, Be Strong is preventing problems from escalating, ensuring that young people are accessing the help they need to thrive."

Complex and complicated issues don't have simple solutions. As Be Strong focuses on simplifying messaging, the goal is to successfully mobilize people to get help and help others faster. This was the driving goal for the launch of the Never Alone Campaign, ensuring that young people know they are never alone and help is here.

JM Family Enterprises, BetterHelp, Florida Power & Light Company, and Logitech G are early-stage sponsors to the Never Alone Campaign.

"Giving back is an integral part of who we are at JM Family Enterprises, especially empowering children and families which is one of our core areas of giving," said Lisa Davis, JM Family's Director of Community Impact. "It's an honor to partner with Be Strong to play a small part in helping strengthen mental, emotional, and relational health and ensuring young people know they are never alone."

Be Strong has a national footprint and focuses on rallying local corporate giants, small businesses, foundations, and donors to champion the change in their own communities and beyond.

"At Florida Power & Light Company, we believe in powering strong communities, making Florida an even better place to live, work and raise a family," said Juliet Roulhac, FPL Director of External Affairs for the Broward and Southwest regions and NextEra Energy Inc. Director of Corporate Philanthropy. "That includes supporting organizations like Be Strong and their Never Alone Campaign which emphasizes the importance of community, support and standing together during challenging times. We want young people to feel empowered, supported and heard."

The campaign involves a short-form interview series in which leaders lend their voices to spark impact and provide help to others hosted by Donovan Taylor Hall and guests Carolynn Shada, Kechi Okwuchi, Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez, Torarie Durden, Jesula Jeannot and others. The Never Alone Series shares real stories of courage, vulnerability and healing. The first installment, "The First to Speak," focuses on the powerful, often emotional moment when someone chooses to speak up for the first time.

Erin Chin, Global Head of Brand Marketing at Logitech G and Be Strong advisory board member shared, "Every young person deserves to feel seen, heard, and valued. The incredible work that Be Strong does, especially through its peer-to-peer model, helps young people build resilience and also creates a true sense of belonging." Chin continued, "The Never Alone campaign provides such a powerful message of connection and hope, and lets people know that no matter what they are going through, there's always someone ready to stand beside them. In a world where many young people are silently struggling, knowing they are never alone can make all the difference."

"I strongly support Be Strong because of its youth-led approach. I believe that people respond better to a message when the source is relatable in some way; this has been my personal experience as a burns survivor that has had the opportunity to mentor fellow burn survivors," Kechi Okwuchi shared. "This ties into why the Be Strong Never Alone campaign resonates with me. One of my life's goals is to help as many burn/trauma survivors as possible feel less isolated in their experiences. I believe the Never Alone campaign seeks to send this same message."

When people choose to speak up about the challenging moments in life, it's vital to get to the right help. Whether about mental health, bullying, self-harm, abuse, trauma, or self-worth, there is a weight of silence and freedom found when breaking it. As part of The Never Alone Campaign, BetterHelp has gifted Be Strong Student Reps and their families in need with free therapy services.

"At BetterHelp, we believe that everyone deserves access to mental health support and to know they're never alone in their struggles," Said Ciara Kelly, BetterHelp's Program Manager of Social Impact. "That's why we're proud to support Be Strong and their Never Alone campaign, meeting young people where they are, with empathy & connection. Through this partnership, our hope is that every young person knows it's okay to ask for helpand that support is always within reach."

"Talk therapy and the proper care plan saved my life," said Ashleigh Cromer, Be Strong's CEO & Chair of the Board. "As Be Strong is hyper focused on strengthening care, partners like BetterHelp are critical in that mission. Having survived the effects of abuse and navigating mental health, Be Strong's mission is personal for me. As we charge towards our goal to help young people who are looking for trusted help, support and healing, I'm deeply grateful for the generosity of all our donors and partners, and we need more at the table." Cromer shares, "our student leaders are the heartbeat of our organization and it's a powerful testimony to them to see that they are not alone and that there is help."

For help anytime, anywhere in the US, download the free and anonymous Be Strong App from the Apple and Google Play stores. To join the movement and aid youth preparing for a strong summer, get involved here: Never Alone Student Fundraiser

ABOUT BE STRONG

Be Strong Be Strong is a leading national charity on mission to save and improve the lives of our youth using a peer-to-peer approach. From small towns to big cities, thousands of student volunteers are implementing Be Strong's proven impact model in half the counties across the US.

Through educational events, on-campus student led initiatives, evidence-based curriculum and digital intervention tools such as emergency checklists and the Be Strong App, we are strengthening mental, emotional, and relational health, building resilience, helping the most vulnerable with basic needs, and preventing bullying  at no cost to students & families.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Be Strong
MONROE, La., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Northeast Delta Human Services Authority (NEDHSA) is hosting its Bawcomville Bash: Faith, Hope & Healing Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 23, at Redeemed at Calvary Ministries, 819 Olive St., in West Monroe.

The festival is aimed at garnering support for the town's vulnerable populations.

NEDHSA to host Bawcomville Bash: Faith, Hope & Healing Festival

"As I continue to contemplate the challenges ahead for vulnerable people and communities in the Louisiana Delta and across the state, I have become more confident and resolved to work even more collaboratively across service sector silos so that system improvements can be made," NEDHSA Executive Director Dr. Monteic A. Sizer said. "Vulnerable people and fragile communities deserve solutions to problems from those who lead behavioral and primary health care systems."

Accessible transportation is an essential need in the Bawcomville community. Attendees are encouraged to donate any of the following items to the festival's bike drive: bicycles for adults, safety vests, reflectors, flashing headlights, air pumps and tire repair kits.

Those in the Bawcomville community in need of transportation can call 318-789-9910.

In addition to the bike giveaway, the event will also include:

Vendor area

Kid Zone (arts, crafts and games)

Music

Showers

Free haircuts

Blood pressure checks

Narcan training

Free Kona Ice

Free snacks and carnival food

Festival vendors include:

Delta Community College

College Primary Health Services Mobile Medical Bus (they will also have a table set up in the vendor area)

LaTech School of Nursing is providing blood pressure checks

Department of Children and Family Services

Mary Bird Cancer Center

AmeriHealth Caritas LA Medicaid plan

Louisiana Health Care Connections Medicaid plan

Louisiana Department of Transportation (bike and road safety)

CONTACT:

Sherry P. Shephard

(318)237-9973

[email protected]

SOURCE Northeast Delta Human Services Authority
DENVER, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) is proud to announce the recipients of its 2025 awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to advancing the environmental health profession. Presented at the NEHA Annual Education Conference & Exhibition, the awards will highlight accomplishments of leaders who exemplify innovation, service and excellence in protecting public health.

"In a world where environmental health professionals are often unsung heroes, our awards program offers an opportunity to celebrate the individuals and communities making a difference," said Dr. David T. Dyjack, executive director of NEHA. "Each recipient represents the very best of our profession."

Walter S. Mangold Award

NEHA's highest honor, the Walter S. Mangold Award, will be presented to Charles S. Otto, III, REHS, DAAS, USPHS (Ret.). The award recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to the environmental health profession. Otto's distinguished service, commitment to education and leadership in advancing professional standards exemplify the selfless spirit in environmental health professionals nationwide.

Dr. Bailus Walker, Jr. Diversity and Inclusion Awareness Award

Maurica Bynum, DrPH, MPH, will be named the 2025 recipient of this award, which honors those who work to foster a more diverse, inclusive and culturally competent profession. Through her leadership and advocacy, Bynum is helping to create a more meaningful change and equity in the future of environmental health.

Joe Beck Educational Contribution Award

Joe Sarcone will receive this award for his exceptional contributions to the education and professional development of environmental health professionals. His development of innovative and accessible training tools has had a lasting impact on the field across the country.

Samuel J. Crumbine Award for Excellence in Food Protection

Pima County, Arizona, will be the 2025 recipient of the Samuel J. Crumbine Award, which recognizes local jurisdictions that demonstrate excellence in reducing foodborne illnesses through innovative practices. Named for public health pioneer Samuel Crumbine, this prestigious award spotlights communities that set a national standard for food safety services.

Student Research Competition Winners

NEHA also celebrates emerging leaders through its Student Research Competition. This year's winners are:

Lauren Garcia , a bachelor's student in environmental health at East Carolina University , for her project, " Evaluating Treatment Efficacy of a Novel Nano-Antibiotic Against Drug-Resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa Planktonic and Biofilm Forms in a COPD Model. "

, a bachelor's student in environmental health at , for her project, " Pseudomonas aeruginosa " Kira Kalpeshkumar, GOR, a Master of Public Health student in environmental from University of Illinois Springfield , was awarded for her research, "Advancing Sustainable Plastic Waste Management: Scalability and Techno-Economic Analysis of FAST-PETase for PET Degradation."

Selected from nearly 30 submissions reviewed by a panel of expert judges, both students will receive travel support, a stipend and the opportunity to present their researched work at NEHA's 2025 Annual Education Conference & Exhibition.

Scholarship Recipients

NEHA and the American Academy of Sanitarians (AAS) will also award five academic scholarships in 2025, recognizing promising students pursuing careers in the field of environmental health:

Caydence Freitas , University of Washington : Dr. Carolyn Hester Harvey Scholarship

, : Savanna Crooks , Eastern Kentucky University : Dr. Sheila Davidson Pressley Scholarship

, : Katrina Cruz , Western Carolina University : NEHA/AAS Undergraduate Scholarship

, : Julia Weakley , Texas A&M University : NEHA/AAS Graduate Scholarship

, : Damilola Sherifat Shaba , University of Illinois : NEHA/AAS Graduate Scholarship

Learn more about NEHA awards and scholarships here.

About NEHA

The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) represents 7,000 governmental, private, academic and uniformed services sector environmental health professionals in the U.S., its territories and internationally. NEHA is the profession's strongest advocate for excellence in the practice of environmental health as it delivers on its mission to build, sustain and empower an effective environmental health workforce.

Contact:

Megan Paquin

407-432-7066

[email protected]

SOURCE National Environmental Health Association
BANGALORE, India, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Neurostimulation Devices Market is Segmented by Type (Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS), Gastric Electric Stimulation (GES), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Sacral Nerve Stimulation (SNS), Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS)), by Application (Pain Management, Parkinson's Disease, Urinary and Fecal Incontinence, Epilepsy, Gastroparesis).

The Global Neurostimulation Devices revenue was USD 8212 Million in 2024 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 17200 Million by 2031 with a CAGR of 11.3% during the forecast period (2024-2031).

Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-27V15737/Global_and_India_Neurostimulation_Devices_Market

Major Factors Driving the Growth of Neurostimulation Devices Market:

The neurostimulation devices market is witnessing robust growth due to rising cases of neurological disorders, chronic pain, and treatment-resistant conditions. Factors such as growing aging populations, patient preference for non-invasive treatments, and expanding therapeutic applications are reinforcing demand. The market is highly competitive, with innovation driving differentiation among players. Increasing collaborations and supportive reimbursement policies are enhancing accessibility and affordability. With expanding indications and geographic reach, the market is poised for sustained expansion in the coming years. Tailored device development and integration of digital tools further ensure that neurostimulation remains a cornerstone of future neurological and chronic care.

Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-27V15737/global-and-india-neurostimulation-devices

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE NEUROSTIMULATION DEVICES MARKET:

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has emerged as a crucial therapeutic option for neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. The growing prevalence of these chronic conditions, coupled with patient preference for non-pharmacological interventions, has significantly increased demand for DBS systems. Advancements in electrode precision, battery longevity, and minimally invasive surgical techniques have further boosted its adoption. Hospitals and specialized neurological centers are increasingly integrating DBS into treatment protocols, driven by its effectiveness in improving motor function and reducing medication dependence. Additionally, growing clinical research and favorable reimbursement structures in developed nations are promoting early diagnosis and treatment, thus enhancing the uptake of DBS devices. This steady demand trajectory is significantly fueling market growth.

Spinal Cord Stimulation (SCS) has gained traction as a leading solution for chronic pain management, especially for conditions like failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome. The rise in opioid-related concerns has led healthcare professionals and patients to opt for alternative pain therapies, with SCS emerging as a safe and effective method. Technological innovations, such as high-frequency stimulation and closed-loop systems, are enhancing therapeutic outcomes, leading to broader acceptance among clinicians. Moreover, increasing awareness among patients and growing investments in outpatient and ambulatory care settings are expanding the market for SCS. The consistent adoption of these devices across both developed and emerging economies is reinforcing the growth of the neurostimulation devices market.

The global burden of Parkinson's Disease (PD) is rising steadily due to aging populations and increased disease awareness. As a progressive neurological disorder with no cure, PD demands long-term symptom management strategies, which has spotlighted neurostimulation therapies such as DBS. Patients with advanced Parkinson's often face motor fluctuations and medication side effects, making neurostimulation a valuable tool in enhancing quality of life. Governments and healthcare institutions are funding initiatives to improve access to PD treatments, supporting the installation of DBS systems in hospitals. Furthermore, clinical trials and new DBS approvals tailored specifically to PD symptoms are expanding product portfolios, which collectively contribute to the sustained growth of the neurostimulation devices market.

The increasing global incidence of neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and chronic pain disorders is significantly driving the neurostimulation devices market. These conditions often require long-term management, and neurostimulation provides an effective non-pharmacological approach, reducing dependency on medications and associated side effects. As populations age, the burden of such disorders is expected to rise, particularly in countries with expanding geriatric demographics. This creates consistent demand for both invasive and non-invasive neurostimulation therapies. The broadening clinical acceptance and inclusion of these therapies in treatment guidelines across healthcare systems further underscore their relevance, contributing to ongoing market growth.

Minimally invasive techniques have revolutionized the neurostimulation landscape by offering lower risk, quicker recovery, and improved outcomes. As medical technology advances, devices used in neurostimulation are becoming more efficient and patient-friendly. These developments reduce hospitalization times and make procedures more accessible in outpatient settings. Patients are also more willing to adopt minimally invasive solutions, which boosts procedural volume. Additionally, healthcare providers benefit from reduced operational costs, creating a win-win situation that fosters sustained demand. This paradigm shift toward less invasive treatment methods is a key factor accelerating the growth of the neurostimulation devices market.

Governments and private insurers are increasingly recognizing the cost-effectiveness and clinical benefits of neurostimulation therapies. In response, reimbursement coverage has expanded in many countries for devices such as DBS and SCS. Regulatory agencies like the FDA and EMA are also streamlining approval pathways to encourage faster access to new and improved neurostimulation devices. These policies enhance patient affordability and physician willingness to recommend such treatments. Moreover, favorable reimbursement policies support hospital procurement of high-cost devices, ensuring wider adoption. The alignment of regulatory support and economic incentives is thus contributing significantly to the market's rapid expansion across multiple regions.

Developing economies are investing significantly in healthcare infrastructure, making advanced neurological care more accessible. Countries in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East are witnessing an influx of neurological clinics, specialized treatment centers, and skilled neurosurgeons. These developments are accompanied by growing government interest in adopting cutting-edge medical technologies. Additionally, international collaborations and training programs are enhancing healthcare professionals' capability to use neurostimulation devices. As awareness increases and affordability improves through local manufacturing and tiered pricing strategies, these markets are expected to contribute substantially to the overall growth of the neurostimulation devices industry.

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NEUROSTIMULATION DEVICES MARKET SHARE

North America dominates the neurostimulation devices market, driven by robust healthcare infrastructure, favorable reimbursement systems, and early adoption of innovative treatments.

Europe follows closely due to increasing neurological disorder prevalence and proactive regulatory support.

The Asia-Pacific region is emerging rapidly, supported by rising healthcare investments, growing awareness, and improved accessibility to advanced therapies in countries like China, India, and Japan.

Key Companies:

Medtronic Inc

Boston Scientific

Abbott

LivaNova

Nevro

NeuroPace Inc

Beijing Pins

Synapse Biomedical

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Travel solo without the surchargeand save across all 2025 and 2026 departures



BOSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Overseas Adventure Travel (O.A.T.), the leader in solo-friendly group travel for Americans aged 50 and older, announced the availability of 51,000 single spaces across its 2025 and 2026 departureswith 92% carrying no single supplement (meaning solo travelers don't pay extra for their own room). The announcement coincides with a limited-time Memorial Day Savings event now live across all O.A.T., Grand Circle Travel (GCT), and Grand Circle Cruise Line (GCCL) itineraries.

Memorial Day Savings: Up to $5,000 on ANY trip | Reserve by 5/30

As part of the Memorial Day Savings event, travelers can take advantage of three ways to save when they book by May 30, 2025:

Save up to $5,000 on select departures from JulyDecember 2025

on select departures from JulyDecember 2025 Save 15% on any 2025 departure

on any 2025 departure Save 10% on any 2026 departureor take $250 off per person

"For too long, solo travelers have been expected to pay more for the same experience," said Brian FitzGerald, CEO of Grand Circle Corporation. "At O.A.T., we believe solo travelers deserve to explore the worldwithout the large premium. That's why we've made it a priority to eliminate the single supplement wherever possible and create an experience that makes solo travelers feel welcome, connected, and supported every step of the way."

50% of O.A.T. travelers are solo womenmany choosing to explore the world on their own, or with a sister, mother, daughter, or friend. Whether travelers prefer to go solo or bring someone along, O.A.T. offers the best solo travel experience in the industry with the security and camaraderie of small group travel. With free or low-cost Single Supplements, attentive Trip Experience Leaders, and groups averaging just 816 people, solo travelers enjoy a deeply personal and supported experience. With 25,000 single spaces in 2025 and 26,000 in 2026and savings of up to $5,000 per person on average compared to other companies  O.A.T. makes it easier than ever to explore the world without paying more to do it.

Memorial Day Savings: Solo-Friendly Adventures Across All Three Brands

Just in time for Memorial Day, O.A.T., Grand Circle Travel, and Grand Circle Cruise Line are offering limited-time savings across all 2025 and 2026 departureswith special solo-friendly pricing and thousands of no-fee single spaces available. Explore full details and eligible trips at O.A.T. Memorial Day and GCT Memorial Day.

Top O.A.T. small group land adventures currently available with Memorial Day Savings include Ultimate Africa: Botswana, Zambia & Zimbabwe Safari, Japan's Cultural Treasures, and Sicily's Ancient Landscapes & Timeless Traditionsall featuring no-fee single spaces and seasonal discounts. For those seeking a small-ship experience, O.A.T.'s Hidden Gems of the Dalmatian Coast & Greece, Undiscovered Adriatic: Eastern Italy, Venice, Puglia & Malta, and French & Italian Rivieras: Avignon, Corsica, Elba & Rome.

Meanwhile, Grand Circle Travel and Grand Circle Cruise Line are extending Memorial Day Savings offers on select departures, including land tours and river cruises. Eligible adventures include The Great Rivers of Europe, The Seine: Paris to Normandy, and Romantic Blue Danube: Budapest to Prague all with low-cost single supplements and multiple ways to save when booked by May 30.

For more information or to reserve a departure, visit oattravel.com or gct.com.

SOURCE Overseas Adventure Travel
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $100,000 In Ibotta To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options

If you purchased or otherwise acquired stock of Ibotta pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and related prospectus (collectively, the "Registration Statement") issued in connection with Ibotta's April 18, 2024 initial public offering (the "IPO") and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

[You may also click here for additional information]

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Ibotta, Inc. ("Ibotta" or the "Company") (NYSE: IBTA) and reminds investors of the June 16, 2025 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company.

Faruqi & Faruqi Logo (PRNewsfoto/Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP)

Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com.

As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose risks concerning Ibotta's contract with The Kroger Co. ("Kroger"). Kroger's contract was at-will, and Ibotta failed to warn investors that a large client could cancel their contract with Ibotta without warning. Despite providing a detailed explanation of the terms of Ibotta's contract with another large customer, there was not a single warning of the at-will nature of Kroger's contract. Rather than disclosing the very real risk of a major client walking away at any time, Ibotta provided boilerplate warnings concerning the importance of maintaining ongoing relationships with their clients. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.

On or around April 13, 2024, Ibotta conducted its initial public offering of 6.6 million shares priced at $88.00 per share.

Then, on August 13, 2024, Ibotta issued a press release reporting its financial results for the second quarter of 2024. In the results, Ibotta reported, among other items, a net loss of $34.0 million, attributable to operating expenses that more than doubled year-over-year. Ibotta also provided a third quarter revenue forecast in the range of $91 million to $96 million, below consensus estimates.

Following this news, Ibotta stock dropped $15.53 per share, or 26%, to close at $42.66 on August 14, 2024.

On February 26, 2025, after market hours, Investing.com published an article entitled "Ibotta shares plunge 30% as Q4 earnings miss, Q1 guidance disappoints." This article stated, in pertinent part, that Ibotta "saw its shares tumble [. . .] after reporting fourth-quarter earnings that fell short of expectations and providing weak guidance for the first quarter of 2025."

Following this news, Ibotta stock dropped $29.08 per share, or 46%, to close at $34.01 on February 27, 2025.

The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Ibotta's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.

To learn more about the Ibotta class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/IBTA or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook.

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner.

SOURCE Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP
Air cargo growth remained strong at 16.6% compared to last year

ONTARIO, Calif., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Ontario International Airport (ONT) marked another month of passenger growth in April, officials announced during a meeting Thursday of the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA) Board of Airport Commissioners. The streak of 50 straight months of passenger growth began in March 2021.

The Southern California gateway's passenger count totaled 575,623 last month, an increase of 0.4% compared with April 2024. The number of domestic passengers was 539,067, up 0.4%, while international travel volume rose by 0.6% to 36,556.

Southern California's Ontario International Airport posted its 50th consecutive month of year-over-year passenger gains during april.

During the first four months of 2025, ONT welcomed more than 2 million air travelers, 0.5% higher than the first four months of 2024. Domestic passenger volume increased 1% to 1.9 million while the number of international travelers decreased 4.7% to 151,364.

"Our airline partners continued to demonstrate their confidence in our airport in April, increasing seats offered on Ontario flights by eight percent," said Atif Elkadi, OIAA's chief executive officer. "The additional seats will make travel to and from Ontario this summer even easier than it already is."

Passenger

Totals Apr

2025 Apr

2024 Change YTD

2025 YTD

2024 Change Domestic 539,067 537,141 0.4 % 1,909,210 1,891,071 1.0 % International 36,556 36,326 0.6 % 151,364 158,878 -4.7 % Total 575,623 573,467 0.4 % 2,060,574 2,049,949 0.5 %

The air carriers with the greatest passenger shares in April were:

Southwest Airlines (38.6%) American Airlines (15.8%) Frontier Airlines (11.1%) Delta Air Lines (10.1%) United Airlines (8.5%)

Elkadi also noted that airlines are adding new routes and expanding existing services at Ontario this summer with daily service to Baltimore/Washington (BWI) and Chicago/O'Hare (ORD) on Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, respectively. New international service from STARLUX Airlines to Taipei (TPE) begins June 2, 2025, while Volaris will offer flights to three destinations in Mexico in July, including five-times weekly service to Los Cabos (SJD).

Ontario saw continued growth in air cargo in April, increasing by 16.6%. Freight shipments decreased slightly by 0.8% while mail volume soared 437%.

From January through April, air cargo tonnage was 10% greater than the same period last year, with freight volume lower by 4.3% and mail up 335%.

Air cargo

(tonnage) Apr

2025 Apr

2024 Change YTD

2025 YTD

2024 Change Freight 58,098 58,544 -0.8 % 217,534 227,343 -4.3 % Mail 13,015 2,423 437.1 % 44,600 10,243 335.4 % Total 71,114 60,968 16.6 % 262,134 237,586 10.3 %

"Increasing shipments of mail carried by United Parcel Service led to significant growth in air cargo tonnage in April, highlighting the appeal of our facilities among cargo shippers," Elkadi said.

About Ontario International Airport

Ontario International Airport (ONT) is California's most popular mid-sized airport, according to J.D. Power's most recent North America Airport Satisfaction Study. Located in the Inland Empire, ONT is approximately 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles in the center of Southern California. It is a full-service airport which offers nonstop commercial jet service to two dozen major airports in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and Taiwan. More information is available at www.flyOntario.com. Follow @flyONT on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.

About the Ontario International Airport Authority (OIAA)

The OIAA was formed in August 2012 by a Joint Powers Agreement between the City of Ontario and the County of San Bernardino to provide overall direction for the management, operations, development and marketing of ONT for the benefit of the Southern California economy and the residents of the airport's four-county catchment area. OIAA leaders include Ontario Mayor pro Tem Alan D. Wapner (President), San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman (Vice President), Ontario City Council Member Jim W. Bowman (Secretary), Retired Riverside Mayor Ronald O. Loveridge (Treasurer) and retired business executive Julia Gouw (Commissioner).

OIAA Media Contact: Steve Lambert, (909) 841-7527, [email protected]

SOURCE Ontario International Airport
MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In a united effort to support survivors of sex trafficking in the U.S., Our Rescue and We Fight Monsters have signed a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to renovate and complete construction of a new "Hope House"  a Recovery House for Survivors at 1192 Melrose Street in Memphis, Tennessee. The facility will serve as a safe, restorative space for survivors of human trafficking, providing trauma-informed care, transitional housing, and comprehensive support services.

Jessica and Ben Owen CoFounders of We Fight Monsters with Derek Benner, CEO of Our Rescue

This project brings together two mission-driven nonprofit organizations: Our Rescue, a global NGO combatting child exploitation and sex trafficking, and We Fight Monsters, a Tennessee-based nonprofit focused on restoring dignity and healing to individuals affected by human and narcotics trafficking. Together, they are transforming a once-forgotten building into a beacon of safety, healing, and hope.

"This partnership reflects the heart of who we are and what we stand for,' said Derek Benner, CEO of Our Rescue. 'Every survivor deserves a safe place to heal and reclaim their lives. Through this collaboration with We Fight Monsters, we're not just building a shelter  we're building a future filled with hope, strength, and opportunity."

Under the terms of the agreement, Our Rescue will provide a financial grant toward the renovation and construction project, along with technical assistance, survivor care expertise, and strategic coordination. We Fight Monsters will lead the on-the-ground efforts, including shelter renovation, program delivery, and local stakeholder engagement.

"This is a dream realized," said Ben Owen, co-founder of We Fight Monsters. "We believe in confronting darkness with light, and this shelter will be a sanctuary of transformation. It will stand as proof that healing is possible, that hope can rise from hardship, and that community matters."

"No one person or organization can stop sex trafficking alone," Benner added. "But when we work together, we can make a lasting impact on the lives of survivorsand on the future of our communities."

The 1192 Melrose shelter will serve as a safe home for trafficking survivors, offering trauma-informed care, transitional housing, and critical support services. Construction has already begun, with both organizations committed to delivering a survivor-informed, impact-driven model of care. In the coming months, there will also be opportunities for community and corporations to get involved.

"This project isn't just about construction  it's about community," added co-founder Jessica Owen. "We invite residents, churches, businesses, and civic partners to be part of something truly meaningful. Together, we can create a safe place that empowers healing, recovery, and redemption while uplifting our entire city from the bottom up."

About Our Rescue

Our Rescue is a global non-governmental organization on a mission to end sex trafficking and child exploitation by empowering survivors to reclaim their lives and thrive on their healing journey. The organization focuses on education toward prevention, supports law enforcement in rescuing survivors and prosecuting perpetrators, and provides trauma-informed survivor care services. Our Rescue operates in the U.S. and 30+ countries. Learn more at www.ourrescue.org .

About We Fight Monsters

We Fight Monsters is a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization dedicated to confronting and conquering the twin evils of human and narcotics trafficking. Through survivor support, neighborhood restoration, and advocacy, they work to uplift communities from despair to dignity. Learn more at www.wefightmonsters.org .

SOURCE Our Rescue
CARLSBAD, Calif., May 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pictor , a global leader in multiplex proteomics solutions, is excited to announce the establishment of its U.S. headquarters in Carlsbad, California, marking a significant milestone in its strategic growth and commitment to advancing cutting-edge solutions for laboratories worldwide. This transformation solidifies Pictor Holdings Inc. as the parent company, which will continue to proudly operate its subsidiaries in New Zealand, India, and Australia.

Pictor launches its U.S. operations with strong financial backing, having secured $5 million in seed funding$3 million from its existing lead investors and $2 million from new U.S.-based investors. This investment underscores the confidence in Pictor's platform and positions the company for rapid growth in the U.S. market.

This announcement follows a landmark decision by a U.S. federal court, which struck down the FDA's plan to regulate laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). The court ruling reinforces the current regulatory framework under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), providing stability in the clinical industry by alleviating potentially costly operational burdens that new regulations would have imposed.

"The recent ruling ensures a clear delineation of responsibilities between CLIA and the FDA, providing solution providers like Pictor the certainty needed to equip our partners with an innovative and cost-effective platform," said Jamie Platt, CEO of Pictor Holdings Inc . "This proven regulatory landscape aligns with our ability to offer efficient, affordable proteomics tools to laboratories and healthcare providers, ensuring accessibility for all."

Empowering Labs with the Pictor Platform

Pictor's products, designed for clinical laboratory use, are poised to help laboratories capitalize on this new era of opportunity. Through its highly flexible, scalable, and cost-effective multiplex proteomics platform, Pictor enables labs to not only develop their own LDTs but also improve workflow efficiency to meet growing demands.

Key advantages of the Pictor platform include:

Price: Affordable testing made possible through its low-cost PictImager platform, standard detection reagents, and under $50 per sample consumable costs.

Affordable testing made possible through its low-cost PictImager platform, standard detection reagents, and under per sample consumable costs. Performance: High-throughput testing achieved with the PictArray assays and rapid imaging, with results for 96 samples under four hours.

High-throughput testing achieved with the PictArray assays and rapid imaging, with results for 96 samples under four hours. Productivity: A flexible solution adaptable to various sample types and capable of running up to 50 analytes per test.

Meeting the Needs of a Changing Healthcare Landscape

Anticipated reductions in CMS and Medicare spending are accelerating demand for affordable, accessible testing solutions. Pictor is uniquely positioned to meet this need with its streamlined, scalable platform that delivers unmatched price, performance, and productivity across clinical and research applications. By lowering cost barriers for clinical labs and expanding access to underserved communities, Pictor is advancing its mission to make high-quality proteomics broadly accessible in a shifting healthcare environment.

"As the founder and CEO of Mira Precision Health, I have been deeply impressed by Pictor's technology," said Sandra Gunselman, Ph.D. "The platform's flexibility allows us to respond quickly and cost-effectively to healthcare demands. Its speed, affordability, and scalability make it invaluable in advancing innovative diagnostics, particularly for underserved communities."

Leadership and Website Launch

Pictor's continued momentum is also marked by the announcement of a new Board of Directors, led by Chair Paul Kinnon , CEO Jamie Platt, and seasoned investor executive, Marko Bogoievski . Complementing this strategic leadership, Pictor has also introduced a robust executive team, including Kate Rhodes (COO) , Janine McMurdie (CCO) , Yoichi Furuya (CSO),and Claire Zimmerman (Director of Business Operations).

Coinciding with this announcement is the launch of Pictor's redesigned website. Designed with customer-centricity in mind, the website showcases Pictor's comprehensive testing solutions. The redesigned site provides customers with resources to learn how Pictor's solutions can help power the translation of research discoveries into clinical impact.

About Pictor

Pictor is a leader in flexible, targeted proteomics, delivering next generation multiplex solutions that empower clinical labs, diagnostic manufacturers, and veterinary providers worldwide. Powered by its patented PictArray platform, PictImager, and AI-powered Pictorial software, Pictor delivers deeper insights from a single sample, offering faster, more affordable, and scalable results.

From infectious diseases to oncology, Pictor's innovative technology is advancing both human and animal health, enabling breakthroughs in clinical decision-making. Headquartered in San Diego, Pictor Holdings Inc. is committed to driving innovation through solutions designed for unmatched performance, cost efficiency and productivity.

Discover how Pictor is shaping the future of proteomics testing at www.pictordx.com .

Media Contact:

Kelly Krueger

415-235-5031

[email protected]

SOURCE Pictor Holdings Inc.
Company to Relocate Berkeley Headquarters and Operations to Accelerate the Future of Agtech in the Midwest

BERKELEY, Calif., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pivot Bio, one of Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies and a three-time honoree in TIME magazine's Best Inventions roundup, today announced another bold step in its growth strategy: the creation of centers of excellence based in the Midwest that will serve as anchors for the company's scientific and commercial future.

The company's new footprint will be centered in two hubs:

Center for Research, Development, Innovation & Operations  A dynamic campus focused on science, product development and manufacturing operations.



 A dynamic campus focused on science, product development and manufacturing operations. Global Headquarters  A central base for the company's leadership, finance, policy, communications, sustainability, global strategy and impact teams, which will continue driving the Pivot Bio mission.

This move reflects a significant milestone in Pivot Bio's journey to reimagine the agricultural system through breakthrough science. Since launching its first microbial nitrogen product in 2018, the company's technology has been adopted on nearly 15 million acres of farmland across North America, and is now in late-stage approval and launch in South America and Africa. The consolidation into these centers of excellence marks an inflection point for Pivot Bio as it scales its operations, strengthens cross-functional collaboration and accelerates the pace of scientific innovation. By aligning its teams more closely with customers and global partners, the company is building a more integrated and efficient operating model  designed to drive growth, unlock new market opportunities and deliver long-term value to shareholders.

Backed by the world's top investment firms, the company is credited for its nitrogen moonshot and its patented gene-edited microbes that fix nitrogen on grain crops. Most importantly, the company delivered on that moonshot by commercializing this breakthrough in record time and accelerating its market leadership. What was once an idea is now a proven solution that produces and delivers nitrogen fertilizer more cheaply and effectively than traditional sources, improving resilience and performance of crops.

"The Midwest has always been the heart of American agriculture, and it's where many of our earliest customers and most trusted partners are based. As we scale, this region offers a strong center of gravity  rooted in the realities of the farm but connected to global opportunity," said Chris Abbott, CEO of Pivot Bio.

"We've spent the past year evaluating how and where we work best together and what we need to achieve our future growth plans. A number of our team members from Berkeley will be relocating to help lead this next chapter. Throughout history, the most transformative technology companies have fueled innovation by placing R&D, manufacturing and leadership side by side. When those teams collaborate in real time, it creates a flywheel of insight, invention and execution. That's exactly the environment we're building  one that strengthens collaboration, accelerates impact and positions Pivot Bio to lead the future of ag innovation from the field to the world."

The new structure is designed to promote tighter collaboration, faster decision-making, and greater use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Together, these efforts aim to speed up product development and placement to deliver even greater value to growers.

As Pivot Bio expands into new crops like cotton and sorghum, and continues to scale globally, the company remains focused on helping farmers grow more with less, while building a more sustainable and resilient global food system.

"We're building a future where farmers have access to the most advanced tools in agriculture. These centers of excellence will enable us to continue to build one of the most exciting platforms in agriculture," Abbott said.

The company will begin transitioning its operations, including relocating from its current facility in Berkeley, California.

The company expects to add new jobs to its chosen locations. In recent years, Pivot Bio has expanded its presence in St. Louis, Missouri; Wayzata, Minnesota; and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"Our roots in Berkeley have played an important role in shaping Pivot Bio into the company it is today, and we're deeply proud of the people and the work that's been done here," said Karsten Temme, co-founder and chief innovation officer of Pivot Bio. "As we look to the future, we want to build an environment that supports deeper integration across our teams and unlocks the full potential of our innovation platform. This includes placing our teams in the ag innovation corridors, closer to customers and partners in the most important agricultural regions."

Pivot Bio is currently evaluating multiple opportunities, focused on advancing its mission, ensuring access to top talent and supporting continued growth in service to farmers across the U.S. and around the world.

About Pivot Bio

Pivot Bio, one of the world's leading innovative agtech companies, delivers to farmers patented crop nutrition technologies that harness the power of nature to reliably and productively grow the food the world needs in the face of increasing volatility.

Currently available in North America and soon in Brazil, the company's products are a breakthrough innovation and one of the agriculture industry's most promising climate solutions. Pivot Bio has been recognized three times by TIME magazine on its annual list of best inventions, by Fast Company on its World Changing Ideas and World's 50 Most Innovative Companies lists, by CNBC on its Disruptor 50 list of private companies, by Fortune on its Impact 20 list of startups driving social good and by MIT Tech Review as one of 15 climate tech companies to watch.

For more information, visit pivotbio.com

SOURCE Pivot Bio, Inc
Polaris continues to operate as a steward for its employees, riders, communities and the outdoors

MINNEAPOLIS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Polaris Inc. (NYSE: PII) today released its 2024 Geared For Good Report. The annual report demonstrates Polaris' ongoing commitment to being good stewards for our industry, employees, riders, communities, and the outdoors.

Polaris' Geared For Good framework guides the company's ongoing commitment to being good stewards for the industry, employees, riders, communities and the outdoors.

"Doing business the right way and showing up for our people, riders, dealers and the communities where we operate has been a part of how we've operated since our founding," said Pam Kermisch, Chief Customer Growth Officer and Corporate Responsibility Committee Chair at Polaris. "This year's report is a testament to the efforts of the Polaris team, their embrace of our Geared For Good culture, and the impact they are creating around the globe. There is a lot to be proud of, but what inspires me most is our ongoing commitment to advance our Geared For Good work."

Built upon four pillarsTHINK PRODUCT, THINK PRODUCTION, THINK PLACES, and THINK PEOPLE Polaris' Geared For Good framework helps steer company efforts. Highlights from the 2024 report include:

THINK PRODUCT : As part of its commitment to designing products and technologies with a focus on customer satisfaction, safety and environmental impact, Polaris released the next generation of the Indian Scout, 2025 RANGER lineup, Klim Freeride Helmet and Hurricane SunDeck 3200, and Bennington's Vivid UX Digital Display. Additionally, Polaris was recognized for best-in-class innovation in 2024: RANGER Kinetic Pro XD featured on Construction Equipment's Top 100 New Products, Dirt Wheels Magazine's Top Electric UTVs list, and Green Industry Pro's Editor Choice Award. Polaris RANGER 1000 Premium named Best of Fun by Men's Health Outdoor Awards.

: As part of its commitment to designing products and technologies with a focus on customer satisfaction, safety and environmental impact, Polaris released the next generation of the Indian Scout, 2025 RANGER lineup, Klim Freeride Helmet and Hurricane SunDeck 3200, and Bennington's Vivid UX Digital Display. Additionally, was recognized for best-in-class innovation in 2024: RANGER Kinetic Pro XD featured on Construction Equipment's Top 100 New Products, Dirt Wheels Magazine's Top Electric UTVs list, and Green Industry Pro's Editor Choice Award. Polaris RANGER 1000 Premium named Best of Fun by Men's Health Outdoor Awards. THINK PRODUCTION : Through its ongoing efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its operations, Polaris reached 90% waste diversion from landfills at our Wyoming , Minnesota facility  achieving our 2035 goal. Additionally, a new liquid paint system was implemented at Polaris Roseau, decreasing natural gas usage by 83,026 therms and avoiding 452 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions.

: Through its ongoing efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its operations, Polaris reached 90% waste diversion from landfills at our , facility  achieving our 2035 goal. Additionally, a new liquid paint system was implemented at Polaris Roseau, decreasing natural gas usage by 83,026 therms and avoiding 452 metric tonnes of CO2e emissions. THINK PLACES : Polaris takes action to positively impact land and water through stewardship and responsible riding. In 2024, Polaris awarded two grants through NFF's Polaris Fund for Outdoor Recreation to support trail enhancement projects in Sam Houston National Forest in Texas and Tonto National Park in Arizona . Polaris also donated $220,000 in TRAILS GRANTS to support trail stewardship and rider education efforts across the United States and Canada .

Polaris takes action to positively impact land and water through stewardship and responsible riding. In 2024, awarded two grants through NFF's Polaris Fund for Outdoor Recreation to support trail enhancement projects in Sam Houston National Forest in and Tonto National Park in . also donated in TRAILS GRANTS to support trail stewardship and rider education efforts across and . THINK PEOPLE: Polaris puts employees, customers, dealers and communities at the center of its business. In 2024 Polaris achieved its lowest Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) on record in company history for the second consecutive year  0.30. The company also provided more than $6.4 million to organizations and local communities in 2024 through corporate donations, Foundation grants, corporate matches of employee donations and vehicle donations.

To learn more about Polaris' commitment to its environmental goals and progress made in 2024, please visit the 2024 Geared For Good Report.

About Polaris

As the global leader in powersports, Polaris Inc. (NYSE: PII) pioneers product breakthroughs and enriching experiences and services that have invited people to discover the joy of being outdoors since our founding in 1954. Polaris' high-quality product line-up includes the RANGER, RZR, Polaris XPEDITION, and GENERAL side-by-side off-road vehicles; Sportsman all-terrain off-road vehicles; military and commercial off-road vehicles; snowmobiles; Indian Motorcycle mid-size and heavyweight motorcycles; Slingshot moto-roadsters; Aixam quadricycles; Goupil electric vehicles; and pontoon and deck boats, including industry-leading Bennington pontoons. Polaris enhances the riding experience with a robust portfolio of parts, garments, and accessories. Headquartered in Minnesota, Polaris serves nearly 100 countries across the globe. www.polaris.com

SOURCE Polaris Inc.
Dr. David Jeremiah, founder and host of Turning Point Broadcast Ministry, Issues Statement on Attack on Israeli Embassy Staff

SAN DIEGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Violence, in any form, is a heartbreaking. But when it continues to happen, it adds a level of incomprehension. I am grieved by the murder of two Israeli Embassy officials in our nation's capital last night and the general rise in hostility toward Jews and Israel. Violence is never the answer; it only fuels discord's flames.

Moments like this remind me that our true hope is Christ, and it is in Him that we will ultimately find lasting peace and unity. Christ tells us, "In Me, you may have peace. In the world you with have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). And in Revelation, John tells us that one day the Lord will "wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying" (21:4).

This tragedy should remind us of the critical importance of placing our faith in Christ and fervently praying for peace. May we all diligently pray for God's protection and guidance for all Americans and His chosen people as we seek peace and unity in this difficult and unprecedented time.

Please join me in petitioning the Lord on behalf of the families of Yaron Lischinsky & Sarah Milgrim, as well as all those impacted by this attack 

Heavenly Father,

The psalmist tells us you "are near to the brokenhearted."

So, I pray that Your Spirit would surround the family and friends of this young couple. That You would comfort them in this difficult time and bring them the peace that can only come from You.

Lord, guide us as brothers and sisters in Christ to care for one another and to be Your hands and feet. May we place our faith in You and seek Your wisdom and guidance in all we do.

You are our Rock and Fortress, You are the hope of the world, and You will wipe away every tear.

We pray this in Your name,

Amen.

Dr. David Jeremiah is a renowned Bible teacher, New York Times bestselling author, and founder/host of Turning Point Broadcast Ministry. With forty years of ministry and "just getting started," his teaching has led to the creation of the Prophecy Academy , OVERCOMER, Airship Genesis , PassagesTV, Why the Nativity? , and PerhapsToday , to name a few.

About Turning Point

Turning Point Ministries was founded in 1982 as Dr. David Jeremiah's broadcast ministry to deliver the unchanging Word of God to an ever-changing world. More than four decades later, with a multimedia network featuring radio, television, online programming, magazines, and books, Turning Point reaches people around the globe with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Turning Point is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization wholly supported by patrons and not underwritten by any church or organization.

SOURCE Turning Point Ministries
The family-owned company has named a new Chief Information Security Officer Advisor to solidify information security measures and drive innovative best practices in cybersecurity.

LAKE GENEVA, Wis., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Primex Family of Companies (PFOC), with its multiple divisions leading the automated monitoring, time, and weather spaces, is pleased to announce the appointment of Joseph Melika to its Board of Advisors effective immediately. In this role, Joseph will guide PFOC in bolstering cybersecurity measures throughout the OneVue Sense, Primex Sync, and OneVue Notify brands to protect internal and external data.

A seasoned security executive, entrepreneur, and technical expert, Joseph has a profound command of penetration testing, compliance, and enterprise security strategy. As the founder and CEO of Discloze, he leads the development of Enterprise Security Posture Management (ESPM) solutions, helping Fortune 100 companies and other organizations proactively manage risk, improve compliance, and strengthen their security posture.

The Primex Family of Companies is excited to introduce Joseph Melika as new Chief Information Security Officer Advisor. Post this

"We're thrilled to welcome Joseph as our advisor," said Paul Shekoski, CEO, PFOC. "His extensive background in cybersecurity and strategic leadership will be instrumental in strengthening our systems and perpetuating the highest level of security as we scale our enterprise and consumer IoT platforms. Joseph's vast knowledge and proven leadership will be key to maintaining the trust our customers expect in every connected solution we deliver."

A two-time founder in the cybersecurity space, Joseph has built and scaled security programs for enterprises, offering both technical and strategic guidance at the C-level. Beyond security execution, Joseph is passionate about bridging the gap between security and business objectives, ensuring security investments align with growth, customer acquisition, and IPO readiness. He's guided businesses through SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, and other regulatory frameworks while ensuring security enables more productive business processes, instead of becoming an operational bottleneck.

"I am thrilled to join PFOC's leadership team on their important mission," Joseph said. "Sitting at the intersection between healthcare and technology, where security is of utmost importance, Primex is poised to set the standard for security and reliability in such high-stakes environments."

Joseph sits on multiple advisory boards and frequently speaks at industry events to provide expertise on security risk management, penetration testing, compliance, AI-driven security, and emerging threats within the evolving security landscape.

Primex Family of Companies is a privately held, multi-division family business founded and located in Lake Geneva, WI. PFOC focuses on applying current and future technology to make consumers' lives easier and more convenient in the automated monitoring, time, and weather industries through the OneVue Sense, Primex Sync, AcuRite, and Klockit brands. PFOC has been named a Best Place to Work since 2016 thanks to its core values of customer obsession, getting things done, improving the business, mutual respect, and work/life balance.

For more information and/or media inquiries, please contact Bob Modlinski at 262-249-2348 or [email protected].

SOURCE Primex Family of Companies
HOUSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Quanta Services, Inc. (NYSE: PWR) announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend to stockholders of $0.10 per share, or a rate of $0.40 per share on an annualized basis. The dividend is payable on July 11, 2025, to stockholders of record as of July 1, 2025.

About Quanta Services

Quanta is an industry leader in providing specialized infrastructure solutions to the utility, renewable energy, technology, communications, pipeline and energy industries. Quanta's comprehensive services include designing, installing, repairing and maintaining energy and communications infrastructure. With operations throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and select other international markets, Quanta has the manpower, resources and expertise to safely complete projects that are local, regional, national or international in scope. For more information, visit www.quantaservices.com.

Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements and Information

This press release (and any oral statements regarding the subject matter of this press release) contains forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the "safe harbor" from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to expectations regarding the declaration, amount or timing of any future dividends; expectations regarding Quanta's business or financial outlook; Quanta's ability to deliver increased value or return capital to stockholders; and future capital allocation initiatives, including the amount and timing of, and strategies with respect to, any future cash dividends; as well as statements reflecting expectations, intentions, assumptions or beliefs about future events and other statements that do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, involve or rely on a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict or are beyond our control, and reflect management's beliefs and assumptions based on information available at the time the statements are made. We caution you that actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted by our forward-looking statements and that any or all of our forward-looking statements may turn out to be inaccurate or incorrect. Forward-looking statements can be affected by inaccurate assumptions and by known or unknown risks and uncertainties, including, among others, market, industry, economic, financial or political conditions outside of the control of Quanta, quarterly variations in operating results, liquidity, financial condition, cash flows, capital requirements, reinvestment opportunities or other financial results; requirements relating to dividends under Delaware law and the credit agreement for Quanta's senior credit facility; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Quanta's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, Quanta's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 and any other documents that Quanta files with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For a discussion of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, investors are urged to refer to Quanta's documents filed with the SEC that are available through the company's website at www.quantaservices.com or through the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering and Analysis Retrieval System (EDGAR) at www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are current only as of this date. Quanta does not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Quanta further expressly disclaims any written or oral statements made by any third party regarding the subject matter of this press release.

Investors:

Kip Rupp, CFA, IRC

Sean Eastman

Quanta Services, Inc.

(713) 341-7260

SOURCE Quanta Services, Inc.
Poster presentation to highlight the ongoing global Phase 3 ASP-1929-381 study at ASCO 2025

Global patient enrollment continues, with Taiwan now actively enrolling following the U.S., and Japan expected to follow as part of global study start-up

SAN DIEGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten Medical, Inc., a global biotechnology company developing and commercializing Alluminox platform-based photoimmunotherapy, today announced that it will present a Trial in Progress poster at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which will take place May 30  June 3, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois.

The poster will feature Rakuten Medical's ongoing global Phase 3 clinical trial evaluating ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) as a first-line therapy for patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) (Protocol number: ASP-1929-381 / Acronym: ECLIPSE / ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06699212). The poster will also highlight interim findings from the completed Phase 1b/2 study (ASP-1929-181 / ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04305795) which evaluated ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with anti-PD-1 in recurrent or metastatic HNSCC.

"We are honored that our Trial in Progress poster has been accepted for presentation at ASCO 2025," said Anastasios Maniakas, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery and an investigator of the ASP-1929-381 study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "This Phase 3 study represents a significant step forward in evaluating the potential synergistic efficacy of ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy and pembrolizumab as a first-line treatment for patients with recurrent HNSCC. We look forward to sharing our progress with the global oncology community and advancing innovative approaches for the treatment of patients facing this challenging disease."

Rakuten Medical is also pleased to announce that it has recently initiated patient enrollment in Taiwan as part of its global expansion of the Phase 3 ASP-1929-381 study. Currently, over 10 clinical sites across the United States and Taiwan are actively enrolling patients. Additional sites are expected to be activated in both regions, with patient enrollment in Japan anticipated to begin shortly.

"We are pleased to be part of this global Phase 3 study and to contribute to the development of an innovative treatment approach like photoimmunotherapy," said Kai-Ping Chang, MD, PhD, Professor of the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and Principal Investigator of the ASP-1929-381 study at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan. "Head and neck cancer ranks third in male cancer incidence and fourth in male cancer mortality in Taiwan1. Local recurrence or metastasis is one of the leading causes of death in these patients2, and nearly half of those with recurrent or metastatic disease survive for less than one year3. By participating in this trial, we hope to help advance new therapeutic options that may prolong overall survival of patients with recurrent HNSCC, both in Taiwan and around the world."

ASCO attendees are invited to visit Rakuten Medical at booth #33110 to learn more about the ASP-1929-381 study and the company's broader Alluminox platform.

Rakuten Medical's Trial in Progress Poster Overview

Abstract Title: A phase 3 randomized study of ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab versus standard of care in locoregional recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)

A phase 3 randomized study of ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab versus standard of care in locoregional recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) Abstract Number: TPS6122

TPS6122 Abstract Link: https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/253337

https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/253337 Session: Poster Session  Head and Neck Cancer

Poster Session  Head and Neck Cancer Date: Monday, June 2, 2025

Time: 9:00 a.m.  12:00 p.m., CDT

 First Author: Anastasios Maniakas , The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX , the U.S.

, The MD Anderson Cancer , the U.S. Location: Exhibit Hall A, Poster Board # 523b

Rakuten Medical Exhibit Booth

Location: Exhibit Hall A, Booth #33110

Exhibit Hall A, Booth #33110 Exhibit Date: Saturday  Monday, May 31  June 2, 2025

About ASP-1929-381 Study

The ASP-1929-381 study is a multi-regional multi-center, randomized, open-label Phase 3 trial, designed to assess the efficacy and safety of ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab as a first-line treatment for locoregional recurrent HNSCC without distant metastases. 412 patients globally will be randomized to either an experimental arm receiving ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab, or a control arm receiving the current pembrolizumab-based standard of care (SOC), where patients may receive pembrolizumab alone or in combination with chemotherapy according to the physician's choice.

The primary endpoint is Overall Survival (OS), with key secondary endpoints including Complete Response Rate (CRR) and Overall Response Rate (ORR).

Disclaimer: Rakuten Medical's Alluminox platform-based photoimmunotherapy is investigational outside Japan.

111th Taiwan Cancer Registry Report, National Health Service, Ministry of Health and Welfare A Novel CXCR4-Targeted Diphtheria Toxin Nanoparticle Inhibits Invasion and Metastatic Dissemination in a Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Mouse Model. Pharmaceutics. 2022 Apr 18;14(4):887. doi:10.3390/pharmaceutics14040887 Argiris A, Harrington KJ, Tahara M, Schulten J, Chomette P, Ferreira Castro A, Licitra L. Evidence-Based Treatment Options in Recurrent and/or Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck. Front Oncol. 2017 May 9 ;7:72. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2017.00072.

About Rakuten Medical, Inc.

Rakuten Medical, Inc. is a global biotechnology company developing and commercializing Alluminox platform-based photoimmunotherapy, which, in pre-clinical studies, has been shown to induce rapid and selective cell killing. Rakuten Medical's photoimmunotherapy is currently investigational outside Japan. Rakuten Medical is committed to its mission to conquer cancer by developing its pioneering treatments as quickly as possible to as many patients as possible all over the world. The company has offices in 5 countries/regions, including the United States, where it is headquartered, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland and India. For more information, visit www.rakuten-med.com.

About Alluminox platform

The Alluminox platform is Rakuten Medical's investigational technology platform that combines pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical technology, and other peripheral technologies. Rakuten Medical is developing Alluminox platform-based photoimmunotherapy, which involves two key steps: 1) drug administration and 2) targeted illumination using medical devices. The drug component consists of a cell-targeting moiety conjugated to a light-activatable dye, such as IRDye 700DX (IR700), that selectively binds to the surface of targeted cells, such as tumor cells. The device component consists of a light source that locally illuminates the targeted cells with red light (690nm) to transiently activate the drug. Rakuten Medical's pre-clinical data have shown that this activation elicits rapid and selective necrosis of targeted cells through a biophysical process that compromises the membrane integrity of the targeted cells. Therapies developed on the Alluminox platform may also result in local and systemic innate and adaptive immune activation due to immunogenic cell death of the targeted tumor cells and/or the removal of targeted immunosuppressive cells within the tumor microenvironment. Photoimmunotherapy was originally developed by Dr. Hisataka Kobayashi and his team at the National Cancer Institute in the United States. Outside Japan, Rakuten Medical's Alluminox platform-based photoimmunotherapy is investigational.

About ASP-1929

Rakuten Medical's first pipeline drug developed on its Alluminox platform is ASP-1929, an antibody-dye conjugate comprised of the anti-EGFR antibody cetuximab and IRDye 700DX, a light activatable dye. ASP-1929 binds to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a cancer antigen expressed in multiple types of solid tumors, including head and neck, breast, lung, colorectal, prostate and pancreatic cancers. After binding to cancer cells, ASP-1929 is locally activated by illumination with red light (690 nm), emitted by a laser device system to produce a photochemical reaction. This reaction is believed to cause damage to the membrane of cancer cells, leading to selective necrosis of cancer cells. In Japan, ASP-1929 received marketing approval from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare for unresectable locally advanced or recurrent head and neck cancer in September 2020, under the Sakigake Designation System and the Conditional Early Approval System. ASP-1929 photoimmunotherapy in combination with pembrolizumab is currently under investigation in a global Phase 3 clinical trial as a first-line therapy for recurrent head and neck cancer. Outside Japan, ASP-1929 has not yet been approved for commercial use by any regulatory authority.

Contact Us

SOURCE Rakuten Medical, Inc.
HONG KONG, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RD Technologies, a Hong Kong-based fintech leader revolutionizing global payments through blockchain technology, warmly welcomes the Legislative Council's passage of the Stablecoins Bill on May 21, 2025. This landmark legislation establishes a licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin (FRS) issuers in Hong Kong, enhancing the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities while fostering financial stability and innovation.

The Stablecoins Ordinance requires entities issuing FRS in Hong Kong, or issuing FRS linked to the Hong Kong dollar, to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Licensees must adhere to stringent requirements, including proper reserve asset management, robust stabilization mechanisms, and processing redemption requests at par value under reasonable conditions. The ordinance also mandates compliance with anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, risk management, disclosure, and auditing standards, ensuring greater protection for the public and investors.

RD Technologies is proud to highlight that its subsidiary, RD InnoTech Limited, the issuer of HKDR, was among the first batch of companies admitted to the HKMA's stablecoin issuer sandbox in July last year. The admission underscores regulator's recognition of RD Technologies' commitment to regulatory compliance and innovation in the stablecoin sector.

"We are thrilled with the passage of the Stablecoins Ordinance, which sets a clear and robust framework for the sustainable growth of Hong Kong's virtual asset ecosystem as a global financial hub," said Rita Liu, CEO of RD Technologies. "As pioneers in the stablecoin space, with RD InnoTech Limited's participation in the HKMA's sandbox, we are dedicated to building trust by aligning with these regulations to deliver secure and innovative solutions for virtual asset trading, cross-border payments, and tokenization of real-world assets."

The ordinance, expected to take effect later this year, includes transitional arrangements to allow industry players sufficient time to comply with licensing requirements. RD Technologies remains committed to collaborating with regulators to meet these standards and drive responsible and exciting development in the virtual asset industry.

About RD Technologies Group:

RD Technologies Group (RD Technologies) is the financial platform that bridges the Web2 and Web3 worlds. It deploys innovative fintech to build a business world interconnected by trust. Based in Hong Kong and connected with the global community, RD Technologies was born out of a mission to enable businesses to gain easier access to financial services, enhance trade efficiency, and promote the development of Hong Kong as a trade hub in Asia and an international financial centre. For details: https://rd.group

HKDR Stablecoin (HKDR):

HKDR Stablecoin (HKDR) is a trusted and transparent Hong Kong Dollar stablecoin 1:1 backed by the Hong Kong dollar, with high-quality and highly liquid assets safekept in segregated custody accounts with licensed financial institutions. Details of the reserves will be available to the public through regular independent attestation reports. In July 2024, RD InnoTech Limited, the issuer of HKDR, was among the first batch of entities to be admitted to the stablecoin issuer sandbox by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. RD InnoTech Limited will abide stringently by the regulatory requirements for the launch of HKDR to contribute to the continuous development of Hong Kong as a global Web3 and virtual asset hub. For details about HKDR: https://rd.group/hkdr

Source: Hong Kong Government Press Release

SOURCE RD Technologies
PORTSMOUTH, N.H., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Seafood Alliance (GSA) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 2025 Responsible Seafood Summit, taking place September 29 to October 2 at the Intercontinental Cartagena de Indias in Cartagena, Colombia.

Cartagena, Colombia, a port city with deep ties to the seafood industry, will serve as the backdrop for this year's Responsible Seafood Summit.

Now in its 24th year, the Responsible Seafood Summit is the leading international seafood business conference focused on advancing responsible practices across the seafood supply chain of aquaculture, fisheries, and the marketplace. The Summit brings together industry leaders from around the globe for three days of networking, field trips, and forward-thinking discussions that address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in seafood production and trade.

This year's event will include a welcome reception, a cocktail hour celebrating the 2025 Innovation Award finalists, and a special cultural dinner experience highlighting the vibrant flavors and traditions of Colombia's Caribbean coast. Attendees will also have the opportunity to participate in field trips to explore Colombia's diverse seafood sector and responsibility efforts firsthand.

"We're excited to bring our event back to South America for the first time since 2018," said Devan Meserve, GSA's VP of Marketing and Communications. "Cartagena, a historic, culturally rich port city with deep ties to the seafood industry, offers an inspiring backdrop for global conversations about the future of responsible seafood. We look forward to welcoming attendees to this vibrant setting."

Registration includes access to all conference sessions, panels and breakouts, entry to networking events and evening receptions, select meals throughout the program, the opportunity to sign up for optional field trips, and more.

The Summit is designed for a broad range of seafood professionals, including producers, suppliers, buyers, researchers, NGOs, and policymakersanyone committed to building a more responsible and resilient seafood system.

Early bird registration is available through June 30. GSA has secured discounted hotel room blocks at the Intercontinental Cartagena de Indias (the event's headquarters). Space is limited. Reserve your hotel room now !

Don't miss your chance to be part of this influential gathering of global seafood leaders. Learn more and register today .

SOURCE Global Seafood Alliance
SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RestoringVision, the global nonprofit dedicated to providing vision screening and eyeglasses around the world, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kristin Cooney as its first-ever chief operating officer (COO). In this strategic new role, Cooney will lead the organization's day-to-day operations, providing leadership as RestoringVision scales its reach and impact, accelerating progress towards ending the global vision crisis.

Kristin Cooney, Chief Operating Officer, RestoringVision.

As COO, Cooney will oversee RestoringVision's operations, procurement and supply chain, programs, evaluation, and human resources departments. She will also focus on the implementation of key strategic initiatives, to optimize processes, performance, and resource efficiency and drive operational excellence. Last year, RestoringVision reached almost 6 million people living in extreme poverty with vision screening and eyeglasses; in 2025, it expects to reach over 7 million.

"We are delighted that Kristin has joined our team," said Pelin Munis, Ph.D., chief executive officer of RestoringVision. "Her extensive experience in leading large-scale international programs, combined with her commitment to strong partnerships and improving the lives of vulnerable people will be invaluable as we scale our operations and expand our impact."

Cooney brings nearly 40 years of expertise in managing international programs, working throughout Asia, Africa, Haiti, and the U.S. Prior to joining RestoringVision, she served as head of global program management at Corus International, leading a diverse portfolio of health, agriculture, and livelihoods programs. She also served as director of the West Africa region at Management Sciences for Health, overseeing a portfolio of projects funded by the United States Agency for Development (USAID), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Bank. She also held positions with USAID, serving in their missions in Haiti and West Africa, as well as their Washington, DC headquarters. She holds an M.A. degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and a B.A. in Political Science and French from James Madison University.

"I am excited to join RestoringVision at this pivotal time," said Cooney. "The organization's commitment to improving lives through accessible vision care resonates deeply with me, and I look forward to contributing my expertise to advancing its worldwide impact."

About RestoringVision

RestoringVision is tackling the vision crisis head-on, focusing on presbyopiathe age-related deterioration of a person's near vision and the most common cause of vision impairment. Globally, 800 million people are living with presbyopia. By providing essential vision screening and near vision eyeglasses to those living on less than $2 a day, RestoringVision is transforming lives, unlocking the human potential that lies at the intersection of health, education, and livelihoods. Since 2003, the organization has reached more than 34 million people across 150+ countries. Visit www.restoringvision.org.

Contact Information

Elizabeth Walsh, VP of Communications and Marketing

phone: 914-844-0729/[email protected]

www.restoringvision.org

SOURCE RestoringVision
Culture Of Good, Inc., is an Organization Dedicated to Inspiring Businesses to Make a Positive Difference in the World

RNR Tire Express Was Recognized for its Contributions to the Communities it Serves and Corporate Social Responsibility

TAMPA, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- RNR Tire Express, the leading franchise retailer for tires and custom wheels, has been named a 2025 Culture of Good Community Impact Award winner in recognition of its remarkable contributions to the communities it serves and corporate social responsibility. Presented by Culture of Good, Inc., an organization dedicated to inspiring businesses to make a positive difference in the world, this award celebrates companies that exemplify excellence in corporate citizenship and embody the values of compassion, generosity, and purpose-driven leadership.

"This award reflects the heartbeat of RNR Tire Express," said Adam Sutton, CEO of RNR Tire Express. "Our culture is driven by one simple belief  to SERVE, not just provide service. That belief fuels everything we do, from the way we interact with our customers, to the initiatives we champion in the communities we call home."

RNR Tire Express was selected for this prestigious award based on its outstanding efforts to create a culture of good within its organization and community. This was achieved through a wide-reaching, sustained focus on human rights and social justice, animal welfare, community development, and disaster relief efforts.

Signature programs such as the company-wide "Serve Day" have led to the construction of food pantries in underserved neighborhoods and the distribution of care packages to the homeless across all 30 states with RNR locations. RNR's annual Back-to-School Giveaway provides over 10,000 backpacks filled with supplies to children nationwide, alleviating financial pressure on families and helping students thrive academically. The brand also launched the first-ever National Rescue Dog Day in 2023 to promote pet adoption in partnership with local shelters. These efforts all work in tandem with the brand's annual giveaways for Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Altogether, RNR Tire Express contributes more than $1.5 million annually to philanthropic efforts  ranging from supporting cancer survivors to empowering nonprofit partners  creating lasting, measurable impact in the lives of thousands.

"What makes this recognition especially meaningful is that it highlights the impact of everyday actions taken by our team members," Sutton added. "Whether they're organizing a backpack giveaway, building food pantries, or leading pet adoption events, they are the heart and soul of our outreach efforts. We've built a culture where service is not only celebrated  it's who we are  and we're just getting started."

RNR's team members are the wheels that drive these efforts. From hands-on volunteering to spearheading local service projects, they are encouraged to take the lead in giving back. The brand's leadership prioritizes sustainable, strategic growth of its community programs by aligning them with long-term business goals, securing consistent funding, and forging strong partnerships with like-minded organizations.

Ryan McCarty, the spokesperson for the award, said, "We are proud to recognize companies like RNR Tire Express. The Culture of Good Community Impact Awards is not just an event; it's a movement towards recognizing businesses that integrate social good into their core."

For more information regarding RNR Tire Express, please visit www.rnrtires.com. For more information regarding RNR franchise opportunities, please visit www.RNRfranchise.com .

For more information about the Culture of Good Community Impact Awards, visit www.cultureofgood.com or contact Ryan McCarty at [email protected].

About RNR Tire Express:

RNR Tire Express is a national franchise retailer of quality tires and custom wheels known for their customer-centric, flexible lease-to-own payment options. Established in 2000 by rent-to-own veteran Larry Sutton, RNR has grown to over 200 locations in 29 states. The brand ranked No. 186 in Franchise Times' Top 400 list for 2024 and was recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the Top Brands for Multi-Unit Owners. Most recently, RNR ranked No. 245 in Entrepreneur magazine's 2025 Franchise 500 ranking and #10 in the Automotive category. RNR Tire Express is seeking qualified multi-unit franchisees to help expand the franchise into prime markets throughout the country.

About Culture of Good, Inc.: The Culture of Good is an initiative that seeks to infuse businesses with a deeper sense of purpose, aligning corporate operations with community values and societal well-being. They have launched the awards to celebrate and recognize companies that embody this ethos, setting an example for others. Their mission is to build a bridge between profitability and altruistic endeavors, ensuring that businesses can thrive while being a force for good. The vision is to create a business community deeply rooted in ethical practices, social responsibility, and community engagement, ultimately fostering a global culture of good.

Media Contact: Maeve Devitt, Fishman Public Relations, [email protected], 224-723-9645

SOURCE RNR Tire Express
Expert-led studies will highlight advances across multiple cancer types and examine real-world insights shaping the future of personalized oncology care

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Clinicians and scientists from RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute will share new findings and lead discussions at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, showcasing advances from their cutting-edge cancer research program. The meeting will be held in Chicago (and online) from May 30-June 3. Through 45 accepted abstracts and presentations, the institutions will highlight innovative oncology research across a range of tumor types and specialties, including two oral sessions featuring a multisite randomized trial focused on psychosocial support for young adults with cancer, and new findings from a study evaluating pathologic complete response in HER2-positive breast cancer using clinicopathologic variables and the HER2DX pCR score.

Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health (PRNewsfoto/Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health)

"As New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health are advancing cancer care through the work of our world-class team of researchers and clinicians, whose groundbreaking studies and collaborative innovation continue to shape the future of oncology," said Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, William N. Hait Director, Rutgers Cancer Institute and Senior Vice President, Oncology Services, RWJBarnabas Health. "Our presence at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting underscores our unwavering commitment to confronting cancer on every front, from prevention and early detection to the development of novel therapies that improve outcomes for patients. With the recent opening of the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, New Jersey's first freestanding cancer hospital, we're excited to mark a new chapter in our mission to transform cancer care and research, expanding our ability to deliver cutting-edge treatments and patient-centric care throughout the region and beyond."

The research accepted for presentation at ASCO includes four oral sessions, in addition to numerous poster sessions and publication-only abstracts, all highlighting data across a range of cancers, including breast, colorectal and gastrointestinal.

Highlights of the accepted abstracts include the following:

Results from a multisite randomized trial of Bright IDEAS-Young Adults, a problem-solving skills training intervention, showed statistically and clinically significant improvements in depression, anxiety, and health-related quality of life compared to enhanced usual care among young adults newly diagnosed with cancer. Improvements were attributed to increased problem-solving ability, particularly in reducing the tendency to view problems as significant threats and doubt one's ability to successfully solve problems.

A national analysis, which found that living in a food desert, clinical trial desert, or area with high transportation vulnerability was independently associated with significantly lower odds of breast cancer clinical trial participation. Patients living in both a food and clinical trial desert had a 27% decreased likelihood of enrollment, highlighting the compounded impact of geographic and socioeconomic barriers such as neighborhood transportation barriers, clinical trial deserts, and food deserts.

Secondary results from the EA1181/CompassHER2 pCR trial, which showed that neoadjuvant THP led to pathologic complete response (pCR) in 64% of HER2+/ER- and 32% of HER2+/ER+ breast cancers. The HER2DX pCR score significantly predicted pCR regardless of ER status, and lower ER expression and higher grade were associated with higher pCR rates.

A single center study evaluated whether requiring tumor biopsies (Bx) in phase I cancer trials affects patient enrollment and participation. Of the 146 patients enrolled across 25 trials, 42.4% underwent at least one study-specific biopsy, most commonly of the liver and lung. Patients who had a biopsy experienced a statistically significant delaymedian of 6 daysin initiating treatment and had a shorter average duration on study. Findings suggest that further review is needed to understand factors contributing to shorter study duration among patients who underwent trial-related biopsies.

A review of 283 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) enrolled in phase I trials across two institutions found an overall survival of 8.6 months and a clinical benefit rate of 38.1%, comparable to standard third-line therapies. No significant differences in outcomes were observed across racial or ethnic groups. Most patients had multiple sites of metastases and had received a median of three prior therapies. A non-significant trend suggested that overall survival decreased as the number of prior therapies increased.

A large analysis of over 13,000 patients with cancer of unknown primary (CUP) found that 29% had potentially targetable genetic alterations identified through liquid biopsy. Common mutations included TP53, KRAS, PIK3CA and EGFR. This study is the first to show that liquid biopsy can identify targetable mutations in nearly 30% of CUP patients at a scale comparable to tissue testing. While these findings support its use, further trials are needed to confirm the effectiveness of matched therapies.

The full list of presentations at this year's 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting can be found here.

About Rutgers Cancer Institute

As New Jersey's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rutgers Cancer Institute, together with RWJBarnabas Health, offers the most advanced cancer treatment options, including bone marrow transplantation, proton therapy, CAR T-cell therapy and complex surgical procedures. Along with clinical trials and novel therapeutics such as precision medicine and immunotherapy  many of which are not widely available  patients have access to these cutting-edge therapies at Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Brunswick, Rutgers Cancer Institute at University Hospital in Newark, as well as through RWJBarnabas Health facilities.

For journalists  contact:

Krista Didzbalis

Corporate Communications Specialist, Strategic Communications, RWJBarnabas Health

732.507.8307

[email protected]

For patient appointments/inquiries  contact:

844-CANCERNJ (844-226-2376)

SOURCE Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health
ATLANTA, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Saltbox, the co-warehousing and logistics platform purpose-built for product-based entrepreneurs, today announced the launch of its Access Plan, a new, cost-effective membership tier designed to make entry into Saltbox's thriving entrepreneurial community more accessible than ever.

The Access Plan unlocks a new way for small business owners to engage with Saltbox's national network of flexible workspace locations. With a low monthly commitment, entrepreneurs can now work onsite, tap into logistics resources, and participate in the communitywithout the need for a dedicated warehouse suite.

"At Saltbox, our mission is to remove barriers to entrepreneurship," said Olivia Mariani, VP of Marketing at Saltbox. "The Access Plan reflects that mission by giving rising business owners a way to plug into our community, gain access to key logistics services, and grow their product-based business without the need for a warehouse space."

Access Plan members will receive:

Saltbox-managed freight receiving and onsite carrier pickups

Use of open coworking desks, packing stations, and photo studios

On-site logistics support from Saltbox staff

Access to cheaper shipping rates via the Parsel app

Member pricing for pick & pack or storage services

Invitations to member-exclusive programming and events

The opportunity to upgrade into a dedicated warehouse suite as their business scales

The Access Plan is now available in every Saltbox location. It's a perfect fit for emerging ecommerce brands, solopreneurs, and early-stage businesses where running logistics from home is a challenge, and was built for startups looking for flexibility, community, and a professional environment that scales with them.

Saltbox has redefined what it means to support product-based businesses, and the Access Plan is another step toward delivering inclusive, human-centered solutions for the entrepreneurs powering the modern economy.

To learn more about this new offering, visit saltbox.com/access-plans

About Saltbox

Saltbox is the flexible co-warehousing and logistics company on a mission to enable every entrepreneur to launch, grow, and scale their business. With locations across the U.S., Saltbox provides turnkey warehouse suites, fulfillment services, and a supportive community tailored to the needs of ecommerce and small business operators. Learn more at www.saltbox.com.

Media Contact:

Olivia Mariani

[email protected]

(469) 296-9448

SOURCE Saltbox
FOX News Media's Shannon Bream Will Moderate the Discussion, Co-Hosted by

the Kennedy Institute and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation

BOSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate and the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation announced that the sixth installment of The Senate Project series will feature US Senators John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) and David McCormick (R-Pennsylvania).

The discussion will be held Monday, June 2 at 9AM/ET in the Kennedy Institute's full-sized replica of the United States Senate Chamber. Shannon Bream, anchor of Fox News Sunday, will moderate the conversation, which will be live streamed on FOX Nation with FOX News Media as the exclusive media partner for The Senate Project.

"Vigorous and open dialogue is an essential part of our democracy and having these two senators from opposite sides of the aisle discuss important issues of the day is a valuable contribution to the public discourse," Kennedy Institute Chairman Bruce A. Percelay said.

Hatch Foundation Executive Director Matt Sandgren added, "Now entering our sixth installment, The Senate Project series continues to underscore the importance of bipartisan dialogue. This unique partnership between the Orrin G. Hatch Foundation and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute is a model for achieving civility and solutions. We are thrilled that Senators McCormick and Fetterman have agreed to participate."

The Senate Project series brings together sitting US Senators from opposing parties for civil dialogue about current political issues, with the goal of identifying solutions and bridging partisan divides. The series, reflecting the shared mission of the Kennedy Institute and Hatch Foundation to advance bipartisanship.

The format will be an Oxford-style exchange of ideas conducted in front of a live audience seated on the Institute's replica Senate floor and in galleries above.

Previous installments have featured Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Bernie Sanders, the liberal Vermont Independent; Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, and Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa; and Marco Rubio, then a Republican Senator from Florida, and Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware.

Media who wish to cover the event should request press credentials by emailing Joe Zarbano at [email protected] with their name, outlet, and coverage details by Thursday, May 29.

Location :

Edward M. Kennedy Institute

210 Morrissey Blvd

On UMass campus directly across from The John F. Kennedy library

Media Contacts:

Joe Zarbano

Regan Communications

[email protected]

617-488-2835

Connor Smith

FOX News Media

[email protected]

212-301-3879

SOURCE Fox News Network, LLC
BOSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Servier today announced that it will present updates from its research programs at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on May 30  June 3 in Chicago.

Presentations will span across a range of cancers including chondrosarcoma, cholangiocarcinoma and myelodysplastic syndrome, reinforcing Servier's commitment to the development of precision medicines for isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) mutated cancers.

"As industry leaders in IDH-mutated cancers, we look forward to sharing updates regarding the expansion of our clinical development program at this year's ASCO," said Becky Martin, PhD, Chief of Medical at Servier Pharmaceuticals. "Innovation in precision medicine, including targeted therapies, is critical to improving outcomes for people living with cancer, and we are pleased to share updates on several Phase 3 programs that have the potential to bring new options to patients living with IDH-mutated cancers."

A full list of company-sponsored abstracts to be presented at ASCO can be found here.

In addition to its presence at ASCO, Servier will also present research updates at the 30th European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress on June 12-15 in Milan.

Media Contact

Sara Noonan: [email protected] I Tel. +1 857 262 3855

About Servier in Oncology

Servier is a global leader in oncology, governed by a non-profit foundation. Servier approaches innovation with a long-term vision, free of influence from fiduciary responsibilities.

Servier is the leader in IDH-mutant targeted therapies and devotes more than 65% of its research and development budget to Oncology. Servier aspires to advance more targeted therapies by identifying mutations and understanding how these mutations impact cancer and its progression. Servier believes we can serve more people by helping the right patients find the right treatment, at the right time.

Servier takes a One Innovation Engine approach to R&D and is actively seeking alliances, partnerships and acquisitions at various stages of the portfolio.

For more information about working with Servier to bring the promise of tomorrow to the patients it serves, visit Servier.us.

SOURCE Servier Pharmaceuticals
 Beaver Hollow Wellness has withdrawn its nominees for election to

the Company's Board of Directors, thus ending the proxy contest 

 Vote now on the Company's BLUE proxy card to have your vote counted 

ELMA, N.Y., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Servotronics, Inc. (NYSE American  SVT) a designer and manufacturer of servo-control components and other advanced technology products, today announced that on May 22, 2025 Beaver Hollow Wellness LLC notified the Company that Beaver Hollow was withdrawing its four nominees for election to the Company's Board of Directors. The withdrawal of Beaver Hollow's nominees is not the result of any concessions by the Company or negotiated settlement with Beaver Hollow.

Due to the limited time between Beaver Hollow's withdrawal of its nominees and the June 3, 2025 Annual Meeting, we are not able to provide shareholders a revised proxy card that does not include the withdrawn nominees. Shareholders who wish to vote on the election of directors and other proposals to be considered at the Annual Meeting should vote on the Company's BLUE proxy card or voting instruction form.

For shareholders who have already voted on the Company's BLUE proxy card for the Company's nominees  Brent D. Baird, William F. Farrell, Jr., Karen L. Howard, Christopher M. Marks and Evan H. Wax  there is no need to vote again. Your previous vote will count.

Beaver Hollow has stated that proxies previously received on the white universal proxy card will be delivered to the Company and voted as instructed unless they are revoked. However, Beaver Hollow will not vote any further proxies received from shareholders after the date Beaver Hollow withdrew its nominees.

Any votes cast for the withdrawn nominees using either the BLUE or white proxy card will be disregarded and not be counted.

All shareholders are encouraged to review the Company's proxy statement for more complete information with respect to the Annual Meeting. If you have already submitted your proxy card, you have the power to revoke it at any time before it is exercised as provided under the "Question and Answers About the Proxy Materials and the Annual Meeting" section of the proxy statement.

Shareholders who have any questions or need assistance voting may contact the Company's proxy solicitors, Georgeson, LLC, toll-free at 866-807-2911.

ABOUT SERVOTRONICS

Servotronics designs, develops, and manufactures servo controls and other components for various commercial and government applications including aircraft, jet engines, missiles, manufacturing equipment and other aerospace applications at its operating facilities in Elma and Franklinville, New York.

SERVOTRONICS, INC. (SVT) IS LISTED ON NYSE American

SOURCE Servotronics, Inc.
Issued by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau

PARIS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, witnessed the signing of an agreement to digitise UNESCO's global archive with a $6 million grant from the Sharjah Book Authority. The signing took place Wednesday morning at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, in the presence of his wife, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, and Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.

Agreement Signed Officially

Sharjah Ruler signs $6M agreement to digitise UNESCO global archive Sharjah Ruler signs $6M agreement to digitise UNESCO global archive Sharjah Ruler signs $6M agreement to digitise UNESCO global archive

The agreement was signed by Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), and Jennifer Linkins, Assistant Director-General for Administration and Management at UNESCO. The project, based on directives from the Ruler of Sharjah, aims to preserve global heritage, protect important documents, and ensure digital accessibility. It will span five years and include the digitisation of books, manuscripts, audio recordings, documentaries, and various archival materials.

Archive Tour Conducted

His Highness conducted a tour of the UNESCO Library and Archive, examining significant collections including global documents, books, and manuscripts. He was also informed about the essential functions of the library in supporting the organisation's objectives and utilising its cultural.

Preservation Importance Highlighted

During the visit, His Highness viewed a number of aging historical documents, some of which had been impacted by deteriorating conditions. This emphasised the importance of the digitisation agreement.

A Comprehensive Historical Archive

The UNESCO archive stands as one of the largest and most important institutional archives globally, which includes nearly 80 years of historical records. The collection features more than 2.5 million pages of documents, 165,000 rare photographs, and thousands of hours of audio and video recordings, These materials capture pivotal moments in global cultural and educational history.

Digitisation Urgently Needed

Only 5% of the archive has been digitised, highlighting the significant value it holds, yet constrained by limited resources and various logistical and technical challenges. This underscores the critical necessity for assistance to expedite comprehensive digital transformation and protect the archive.

Sharjah's Strategic Initiative

Approximately 95% of the archive remains undigitised, making Sharjah's initiative a significant move towards converting this global legacy into accessible digital content for researchers, academic institutions, and cultural communities around the world.

Sharjah's Vision Confirmed

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi remarked, "This grant exemplifies Sharjah's commitment to preserving human heritage and protecting the world's memory, highlighting knowledge as a fundamental element of sustainable human development. UNESCO's global archive stands as a vital centre for the preservation of heritage, intellect, education, and culture, emphasising that its preserving is a shared moral responsibility."

Knowledge Access Promoted

Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi stated, "Sharjah has always held the belief that access to knowledge should be fair and inclusive, and that protecting human memory is vital for fostering creativity and progress. With this initiative, we are creating a new avenue for international collaboration aimed at building a future that respects the past while providing future generations the chance to learn from history and draw inspiration from its lessons."

Ongoing Cultural Leadership

This agreement demonstrates Sharjah's ongoing leadership, under the direction of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, in fostering knowledge and humanitarian initiatives. It reinforces the emirate's position as a global hub for cultural preservation, heritage protection, and the promotion of Arab representation in international intellectual and scientific organisations.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694187/Sharjah_Government_Media_Bureau_2.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694184/Sharjah_Government_Media_Bureau_1.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694178/Sharjah_Government_Media_Bureau.jpg

Logo : https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694130/5333665/SGMB_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Sharjah Government Media Bureau
EXECUTIVE HIGHLIGHTS

Legal victory confirmed: A Maryland judge ruled in Silver Star's favor on May 20, 2025 , validating its 2024 consent solicitation process and finding no violation of Maryland law or bad faith by Silver Star or its Executive Committee.





A Maryland judge ruled in Silver Star's favor on , validating its 2024 consent solicitation process and finding no violation of Maryland law or bad faith by Silver Star or its Executive Committee. Allen Hartman's conduct criticized: The court found that Allen Hartman had improperly filed liens against company properties, and sent an email to "strong-arm" the Company into transferring valuable properties for himself to avoid a proxy fight, and then Hartman admitted he lied in the email.





The court found that had improperly filed liens against company properties, and sent an email to "strong-arm" the Company into transferring valuable properties for himself to avoid a proxy fight, and then Hartman admitted he lied in the email. Annual Meeting Conduct : The court also found that the Company and the Executive Committee reasonably believed that they could not trust Hartman to act honestly and appropriately at the Annual Meeting.





: The court also found that the Company and the Executive Committee reasonably believed that they could not trust Hartman to act honestly and appropriately at the Annual Meeting. Ongoing proxy battle: Silver Star is currently in a proxy contest with Allen Hartman for an annual meeting scheduled for July 2025 .

HOUSTON, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver Star Properties REIT, Inc. ("Silver Star" or the "Company"), a self-managed real estate investment trust currently repositioning into the self-storage asset class, announced today that it is providing an update regarding the resolution of the solicitation of consents from the Shareholders in lieu of an Annual Meeting of the Shareholders of the Company ("Consent Solicitation") that began in late 2023 and concluded on January 29, 2024.

On May 20, 2025, Judge Anthony F. Vittoria of the Circuit Court for Baltimore Maryland issued his final order regarding the Consent Solicitation ("Final Order"). This matter was brought by Allen Hartman ("Hartman" or "Plaintiff") wherein he claimed that Silver Star and the Executive Committee (sometimes together as "Defendants") had violated Maryland Law and acted in bad faith. The Appellate Court of Maryland held that there had been no violation of Maryland Law and the Final Order holds that there was no bad faith shown by Silver Star or the Executive Committee. In the Final Order, the Judge held for Silver Star and the Executive Committee and the validity of the Consent Solicitation. The quotes are directly from the Final Order.

The Judge analyzed the actions of all parties to determine if bad faith existed. He noted that the Consent Solicitation was used, in part, due to concerns that Hartman would use an annual meeting to spread misinformation to the Shareholders. The Judge gave his summary of the turmoil at Silver Star at the time. There was an obvious conflict at that time between the parties and the Judge addressed Hartman's approach. "Unable to resolve the dispute to his satisfaction, Plaintiff embarked on a campaign to either take back control of the company or extract valuable financial consideration in exchange for his departure." The timing of certain events is critical as pointed out by the Judge, and the important dates are as follows:

March 20, 2023 Plaintiff and Hartman XXI initiated a Texas Lawsuit against Silver Star without informing the Defendants.

June 22, 2023 Plaintiff asked for an annual meeting.

July 19, 2023 Plaintiff made a formal request for an annual meeting and filed lis pendens against the majority of the properties indirectly owned by Silver Star.

"Soon afterwards, Plaintiff caused the transmission of the August 28, 2023 email in which he tried to strong-arm Defendants into signing over five valuable properties to avoid a proxy fight."

The Defendants rejected Hartman's strong-arm demand for five valuable properties.

"before the initiation of the consent solicitation, Plaintiff (1) admitted he had lied in the August 28, 2023 email, (2) filed a complaint seeking the dissolution of Silver Star, and (3) admitted, through Hartman XXI, that the lis pendens had been improperly filed."

In light of these facts, the Judge found that the Defendants reasonably believed that Silver Star was facing threats which needed to be addressed quickly and decisively, and more importantly, the Judge found that Defendants reasonably believed that they could not trust Plaintiff to act honestly and appropriately at the annual meeting in light of the fact that he had admitted to bending the truth and improperly using the judicial process to seek leverage over the Defendants. A lis pendens is, in effect, a lien on the properties, and this Judge, in a prior ruling for this matter, found that they had been filed by Plaintiff without legal cause.

Silver Star is currently undergoing a proxy battle with Hartman with respect to an annual meeting that will be held during July 2025. The foregoing represents the findings by a Judge the last time Silver Star had a Consent Solicitation in lieu of an annual meeting. The full opinion can be found here.

Additionally, the January 21, 2025 opinion issued by the same judge can be found here.

The consents provided as part of the Consent Solicitation shall be tallied and the results will be provided as soon as reasonably possible.

IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE FILED WITH THE SEC

The Company has filed a Preliminary Proxy Statement with the SEC on May 19, 2025 in connection with the court ordered 2025 Annual Meeting and intends to solicit votes for the Pivot Strategy adopted by the Executive Committee and such other matters as the Executive Committee, at the discretion of its Chairman, determines to consider. The definitive Proxy Statement will contain important information about Silver Star, the court ordered annual meeting and the opportunity to vote whether to execute and pivot the Company into the self-storage real estate class. Shareholders are urged to read the definitive Proxy Statement carefully when it is available.

Upon completion and filing of our definitive proxy statement, Shareholders will be able to obtain free copies of the Proxy Statement and other documents filed with the SEC by Silver Star on the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). In addition, shareholders will be able to obtain free copies of the Proxy Statement from Silver Star by following the instructions provided in the Proxy Statement.

Participants in the Solicitation

Silver Star and its directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies with respect to the 2025 Annual Meeting. Information regarding Silver Star's directors and executive officers is contained in the definitive proxy statement to be filed with the SEC. As of May 19, 2025, the Silver Star Executive Committee, current directors, other than Allen Hartman, and executive officers beneficially owned approximately 1,172,436 shares, or 1.74%, of Silver Star common stock. Allen Hartman beneficially owned approximately 5,006,412 shares, or 7.43%, of Silver Star common stock. Additional information regarding the interests of such participants will be included in the definitive proxy statement that will be filed with the SEC and available free of charge as indicated above.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Because such statements include a number of risks, uncertainties, and contingencies, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, and investors should not place undue reliance on any such statements. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "continues," "can," expect," "intend," "will," "anticipate," "estimate," "may," "plan," "believe" and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the Company's search for a new auditor and its hope that a new auditor can be engaged in the near future and that its annual report on Form 10-K can be completed and publicly filed; the continuation of the examination of the current operations of Southern Star; the Company's intent to consider various alternatives, including the possible sale of Southern Star, the sale of specific assets within individual DSTs and dissolution of the respective trusts, and/or the outsourcing of various aspects of Southern Star's operations; the Company's plan to update investors with respect to the status of Southern Star as appropriate; the Company's expectations and beliefs regarding the Hartman litigation; the timing and ultimate resolution of the various litigation, fight for corporate control and other matters involving Hartman; the continued execution of the Company's strategy of pivoting into the self-storage space; the Company's continual evaluation of its legacy assets in order to maximize shareholder value; the Company's policy to not dispose of any asset for less than its maximum determinable value and to maximize earnings and value; the implications to the Company of the assignment of an OTC trading symbol for its common stock; whether the Company may be subject to certain FINRA rules; any actions the Company may need to take to comply with any FINRA rules; the Company's continual evaluation of various options to provide greater shareholder liquidity, including its intention to seek listing of its common stock on a securities exchange or admission to over-the-counter trading, a public offering, a listing of the common stock on an exchange or admission to OTC trading without a public offering, and merger and/or acquisition opportunities; the Company's belief that further legal action could ensue to unwind the issuance of common shares under the Rights Plan if Hartman prevails in his efforts to set aside or invalidate the Rights Plan or to cause the dilutive issuance of additional common shares to Hartman, as well as any further action Hartman may take to prevent other Company shareholders from receiving benefits under the Rights Plan. None of the foregoing are guarantees or assurances of future outcomes or results and all are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this material. Forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date on which such statements were made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements that may become untrue because of subsequent events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor protection for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

SOURCE Silver Star Properties REIT
SHENZHEN, China, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SINEXCEL(300693.SZ) has officially signed a global strategic partnership agreement with Phoenix Contact at the PHIIDF (Phoenix Contact Innovation and Industry Development Forum) in Shenzhen.

SINEXCEL and Phoenix Contact Sign Global Strategic Partnership Agreement

Under this agreement, SINEXCEL and Phoenix Contact will collaborate extensively in the electric vehicle (EV) sector, leveraging each company's expertise to drive innovation. SINEXCEL's advanced power electronics and cutting-edge EV charging technologies will be enhanced by Phoenix Contact's reliable and high-performance connector solutions. The partnership aims to deliver faster, safer, and more efficient charging experiences for electric vehicles.

During the PHIIDF event, Kevy Zhao, vice president of SINEXCEL, and Yi Zhang, senior vice president of Phoenix Contact China, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective companies. The ceremony was attended by senior executives from both organizations, including SINEXCEL's CEO Raymond Fang and Jiandang Gu, President of Phoenix Contact China.

In early May, at Power2Drive Europe, SINEXCEL and Phoenix Contact jointly unveiled the MCS (Megawatt Charging System) solution, a charging system capable of delivering up to 1500A and 1280kW. This groundbreaking solution sets new standards for efficiency, reliability, and performance, advancing the electrification of heavy-duty trucks. Building on this collaboration, the signing of the global strategic partnership agreement further deepens the relationship between the two companies.

This strategic partnership between SINEXCEL and Phoenix Contact underscores their mutual commitment to expanding their international presence and strengthening long-term cooperation. It demonstrates their strong connection in the global EV charging market and further solidifies their joint efforts to advance sustainable mobility solutions worldwide.

About Phoenix Contact

Founded in 1923 and headquartered in Germany, Phoenix Contact collaborates with customers and partners to develop future-oriented solutions using innovative connection and automation technology. The integrated concepts include engineering and services, and are applied in transportation infrastructure, e-mobility, for clean water, regenerative energy and intelligent supply networks, and in energy-efficient machine building and systems manufacturing, committed to build a digital industrial enterprise that empowers the All Electric Society.

About SINEXCEL

Founded in 2007, SINEXCEL is a pioneering leader in EV charging, energy storage, and power quality solutions, with nearly two decades of expertise in power electronics. With over 140,000 DC chargers installed and 1,000,000 power modules deployed across more than 60 countries and six continents, SINEXCEL collaborates with industry leaders to provide innovative energy solutions that promote energy freedom and contribute to a cleaner, greener future.

SOURCE SINEXCEL
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN ANY JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO RELEASE, PUBLISH OR DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT

NORTH BETHESDA, Md., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sodexo Inc. (the "Offeror") announces the pricing terms of its previously announced tender offer (the "Offer") to purchase for cash any and all of its outstanding 1.634% Notes due 2026 guaranteed by Sodexo S.A. (the "Securities").

The Offer is being made pursuant to an Offer to Purchase, dated May 15, 2025 (the "Offer to Purchase") and the accompanying Notice of Guaranteed Delivery (as they may each be amended or supplemented from time to time, the "Tender Offer Documents"), which set forth a more detailed description of the Offer and are available online at https://deals.is.kroll.com/sodexo.

The Offer will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, today (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Expiration Deadline") unless extended or earlier terminated as described in the Offer to Purchase. Holders of the Securities must validly tender, and not validly withdraw, their Securities prior to or at the Expiration Deadline, or deliver a properly completed and duly executed Notice of Guaranteed Delivery prior to or at the Expiration Deadline and tender their Securities prior to or at 5:00 p.m., New York City time on May 27, 2025, which is the second business day following the Expiration Deadline, to be eligible to receive the Purchase Price for such Securities.

Certain information regarding the Securities and the U.S. Treasury Reference Security, the Bloomberg Reference Page, the Reference Yield, the Fixed Spread and the Purchase Price is set forth in the table below. The Purchase Price payable for each U.S.$1,000 principal amount of Securities validly tendered, and not validly withdrawn, and accepted for payment pursuant to the Offer was determined in the manner described in the Offer to Purchase by reference to the Fixed Spread for the Securities specified in the table below plus the yield to maturity based on the bid-side price of the U.S. Treasury Reference Security specified in the table below, calculated at 10:00 a.m., New York City time, today

Title of Security CUSIP / ISIN Principal Amount Outstanding U.S. Treasury Reference Security Fixed Spread (basis

points) Bloomberg Reference

Page Reference Yield Purchase Price 1.634% senior notes

due 2026 144A : 833794 AA8 / US833794AA85 Reg S : U8336L AA6 / USU8336LAA62 U.S.$500,000,000 3.75% due April 15, 2026

(ISIN US91282CGV72) 25 bps PX3 4.195 % U.S.$975.90

In addition to the Purchase Price, the Offeror will also pay accrued and unpaid interest on Securities purchased pursuant to the Offer up to, but not including, the settlement date for the Offer, which is expected to be May 28, 2025 (the "Settlement Date"). The guaranteed delivery settlement date is also expected to be May 28, 2025. For the avoidance of doubt, accrued interest will cease to accrue on the Settlement Date for Securities accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer, including those tendered by the guaranteed delivery procedures set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

Securities validly tendered pursuant to the Offer may be withdrawn at any time prior to or at, but not after, 5:00 p.m., New York City time, today, unless such time is extended or the Offer is earlier terminated as described in the Offer to Purchase (such date and time, as it may be extended, the "Withdrawal Deadline"). In addition, if the Offer is extended, valid tenders of the Securities may be withdrawn at any time prior to the earlier of (i) the Expiration Deadline and (ii) the tenth business day after the commencement of the Offer. Securities validly tendered may also be withdrawn at any time after the 60th business day after the commencement of the Offer if for any reason the Offer has not been consummated within 60 business days after commencement.

The Offeror announced on May 15, 2025 its intention to issue and offer for sale new USD-denominated senior guaranteed debt securities (the "New Notes"). The Offeror's obligation to accept for purchase and pay for Securities that have been validly tendered, and not validly withdrawn, pursuant to the Offer is conditioned on the satisfaction or waiver of a number of conditions described in the Offer to Purchase, including the successful completion, on or before the Settlement Date, of the proposed concurrent offering of New Notes or one or more other offerings of guaranteed senior debt securities, in each case, on terms and subject to conditions satisfactory to the Offeror in its sole discretion.

Subject to applicable securities laws and the terms set forth in the Offer to Purchase, the Offeror reserves the right to (i) waive or modify in whole or in part any and all conditions of the Offer, (ii) extend the Withdrawal Deadline and/or the Expiration Deadline, (iii) modify or terminate the Offer or (iv) otherwise amend the Offer in any respect. The Offer is not conditioned on any minimum amount of Securities being tendered.

None of the Offeror, the Dealer Managers or the Tender and Information Agent (nor any director, officer, employee, agent or affiliate of any such person) makes any recommendation whether Holders should tender or refrain from tendering Securities in the Offer. Holders must make their own decision as to whether to tender Securities and, if so, the principal amount of the Securities to tender.

The Offeror has retained Citigroup Global Markets Limited, HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Santander US Capital Markets LLC and Wells Fargo Securities, LLC to act as the Dealer Managers for the Offer, and Kroll Issuer Services Limited to act as the Tender and Information Agent for the Offer. Questions regarding procedures for tendering Securities may be directed to Kroll Issuer Services Limited at +44 20 7704 0880 or by email at [email protected]. Additionally, the Offer material is available at https://deals.is.kroll.com/sodexo. Questions regarding the Offer may be directed to (i) Citigroup Global Markets Limited at (within the United States) +1 212 723 6106 (U.S. collect) or +1 800 558 3745 (U.S. toll free) / (within Europe) +44 20 7986 8969 or by email to [email protected]; (ii) HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. at (within the United States) +1 (212) 525-5552 (U.S. collect) or +1 (888) HSBC-4LM (U.S. toll free) / (within Europe) +44 (0) 20 7992 6237 or by email to [email protected]; (iii) J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at (within the United States) (212) 834-4818 (U.S. collect) (866) 834-4666 (U.S. toll free); (iv) Santander US Capital Markets LLC at (within the United States) +1 (212) 940-1442 (U.S. collect) +1 (855) 404-3636 (U.S. toll free) or by email to [email protected]; and (v) Wells Fargo Securities, LLC at (within the United States) (704) 410-4759 (U.S. Collect) or (866) 309-6316 (U.S. toll free) / (outside the United States) +33 1 85 14 06 62 or by email to [email protected].

This announcement is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security (including the Securities). No offer, solicitation, or sale will be made in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful. The Offer is only being made pursuant to the Offer to Purchase. Holders are urged to carefully read the Offer to Purchase before making any decision with respect to the Offer.

The distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required by the Offeror, the Dealer Managers and the Tender and Information Agent to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.

This announcement does not constitute an invitation to participate in the Offer in or from any jurisdiction in or from which, or to or from any person to or from whom, it is unlawful to make such invitation under applicable securities laws. The distribution of this announcement and of the Offer to Purchase in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required by each of the Offeror, the Dealer Managers and the Tender and Information Agent to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions.

Offer and Distribution Restrictions

United Kingdom

This announcement and the Offer to Purchase may only be communicated to persons in the United Kingdom in circumstances where section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply.

The communication of this announcement and the Offer to Purchase and any other documents or materials relating to the Offer are not being made and the Offer to Purchase and such other documents or materials have not been approved by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the FSMA. Accordingly, the Offer to Purchase and such other documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The Offer to Purchase and such other documents and/or materials are for distribution only to persons who (i) have professional experience in matters relating to investments and who fall within the definition of investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Promotion Order), (ii) fall within Article 43(2) of the Financial Promotion Order, (iii) are outside the United Kingdom, or (iv) are other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Financial Promotion Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The Offer to Purchase and such other documents and/or materials are directed only at relevant persons and must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not relevant persons. The Offer to Purchase and such other documents and/or materials are only available to relevant persons and the transactions contemplated herein and therein will be available only to, and engaged in only with, relevant persons, and the Offer to Purchase and such other documents and/or materials must not be relied or acted upon by persons other than relevant persons.

France

This announcement, the Offer to Purchase and any other documents or offering materials relating to the Offer may not be distributed in the Republic of France except to qualified investors (investisseurs qualifies) as defined in Article 2(e) of the Prospectus Regulation. The Offer to Purchase has not been and will not be submitted for clearance to, nor approved by, the Autorite des marches financiers.

Belgium

None of this announcement, the Offer to Purchase or any other document or materials relating to the Offer have been submitted to or will be submitted for approval or recognition to the Financial Services and Markets Authority (Autorite des services et marches financiers / Autoriteit voor financiele diensten en markten) and, accordingly, the Offer may not be made in Belgium by way of a public offering, as defined in Articles 3 and 6 of the Belgian Law of April 1, 2007 on public takeover bids as amended or replaced from time to time. Accordingly, the Offer may not be advertised and the Offer will not be extended, and none of this announcement, the Offer to Purchase or any other documents or materials relating to the Offer (including any memorandum, information circular, brochure or any similar documents) have been or shall be distributed or made available, directly or indirectly, to any person in Belgium other than "qualified investors" in the sense of Article 10 of the Belgian Law of 16 June 2006 on the public offer of placement instruments and the admission to trading of placement instruments on regulated markets (as amended or replaced from time to time), acting on their own account. Insofar as Belgium is concerned, the Offer to Purchase has been issued only for the personal use of the above qualified investors and exclusively for the purpose of the Offer. Accordingly, the information contained in the Offer to Purchase may not be used for any other purpose or disclosed to any other person in Belgium.

Republic of Italy

None of this announcement, the Offer to Purchase or any other documents or materials relating to the Offer has been or will be submitted to the clearance procedure of the Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa ("CONSOB"), pursuant to applicable Italian laws and regulations.

The Offer is being carried out in the Republic of Italy ("Italy") as an exempted offer pursuant to article 101- bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of February 24, 1998, as amended (the "Financial Services Act") and article 35-bis, paragraph 4 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of May 14, 1999, as amended (the "Issuers' Regulation").

Holders or beneficial owners of the Securities that are resident and/or located in Italy can tender the Securities through authorized persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 20307 of February 15, 2018, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of September 1, 1993, as amended) and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority. Each intermediary must comply with the applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-a-vis its clients in connection with the Securities or the Offer.

Singapore

This announcement and the Offer to Purchase have not been and will not be registered as a prospectus with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The Offer does not constitute an offering of securities in Singapore pursuant to the Securities and Futures Act, Chapter 289 of Singapore.

Hong Kong

This announcement, the Offer to Purchase and any other documents or materials relating to the Offer is not being made in Hong Kong, by means of any document, other than (i) in circumstances which do not constitute an offer to the public within the meaning of the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32, Laws of Hong Kong) (the "CWUMPO"), or (ii) to "professional investors" as defined in the Securities and Futures Ordinance ("SFO") and any rules made thereunder, or (iii) in other circumstances which do not result in the document being a "prospectus" as defined in the CWUMPO.

No invitation, advertisement or document relating to the Offer has been or will be issued, or has been or will be in the possession of any person for the purpose of issue (in each case whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere), which is directed at, or the contents of which are likely to be accessed or read by, the public in Hong Kong (except if permitted to do so under the securities laws of Hong Kong) other than with respect to the Offer which are or are intended to be disposed of only to persons outside Hong Kong or only to "professional investors" as defined in the SFO and any rules made thereunder. The Offer to Purchase and the information contained herein may not be used other than by the person to whom it is addressed and may not be reproduced in any form or transferred to any person in Hong Kong.

The contents of the Offer to Purchase have not been reviewed by any regulatory authority in Hong Kong. Holders should exercise caution in relation to the Offer. If a Holder is in any doubt about any of the contents of the Offer to Purchase, such Holder should obtain independent professional advice.

General

This announcement does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell Securities in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. In those jurisdictions where the securities or other laws require the Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer and any of the Dealer Managers or, where the context so requires, any of their respective affiliates is such a licensed broker or dealer in that jurisdiction, the Offer shall be deemed to be made on behalf of the Offeror by such Dealer Manager or affiliate (as the case may be) in such jurisdiction.

Forward-Looking Information

This announcement may contain "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the United States securities laws. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are in some cases beyond the group's control. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding the group's future financial position and results of operations, the group's strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets and future developments or trends in the markets where the group participates or is seeking to participate. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "aim", "anticipate", "assume", "believe", "continue", "could", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "intend", "may", "plan", "potential", "predict", "project", "risk", "should", "target", "will" or "would" or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology and other similar expressions that are predictions of or otherwise indicate future events or trends. These risks, uncertainties and factors may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements (and from past results, performance or achievements).

Forward-looking statements are based upon good faith assumptions by the group's management relating to the financial, market, regulatory and other relevant environments that will exist and affect the group's business and operations in the future. The group cannot give any assurance that the assumptions upon which its management based its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct, or that its business and operations will not be affected in any substantial manner by other factors not currently foreseeable by its management or beyond its control. Any forward-looking statements contained in this announcement speak only as of the date of this announcement. The group disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained in this announcement or to reflect any change in its management's expectations with regard thereto after the date hereof of any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Holders are strongly cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE Sodexo Inc.
A next-gen body lotion for Gen Z made to hydrate skin and amplify presence.

NEW YORK, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Sol de Janeiro, the award-winning beauty brand known for turning body care into self-celebration, announces the launch of Body Badalada Vitamin-Infused Lotion, a First at Sephora global exclusive and a brand-defining milestone. Portuguese slang for "the hottest thing," Body Badalada represents a new generation of body lotion: weightless, high-performance, and rooted in sensory impact. Designed specifically for the body care needs of Gen Z, it delivers 24-hour hydration without heaviness, redefining body care as more than scent alone.

Sol de Janeiro Launches Body Badalada Vitamin-Infused Lotion as a First at Sephora Global Exclusive

"Body Badalada is rooted in connection," said Heela Yang, Co-Founder and CEO of Sol de Janeiro. "This product was built to bring people closer to their bodies, to each other, and to self-expression. This isn't just about selling a product, it's about creating touchpoints that make people feel seen, celebrated, and part of something bigger."

Powered by Brazilian sugarcane and a 7-hyaluronic acid blend, the formula nourishes beneath the surface while creating a lasting, visible glow. Infused with the cult-favorite Cheirosa 62 scent, Body Badalada is built to integrate seamlessly into daily rituals, enhancing both skin and presence. The result is a fast-absorbing, non-sticky formula that feels as good as it smells, keeping skin hydrated from sunrise to after party.

"This product started with a simple insight; Gen Z doesn't just want to consume, they want to project," said Tamera Ferro, Chief Marketing Officer at Sol de Janeiro. "Body Badalada is designed to meet that need, not just with hydration, but with presence. It's a product that makes you feel ready to take up space. We built the campaign to give creators that same space to be fully themselves, and to be seen doing it."

The global launch is powered by a multi-pronged content ecosystem that begins with a bold, creator-led film starring Brazilian model and cultural force Juliana Nalu, alongside Bretman Rock, Samyra Miller, and Nick Pauley. Set to an original track by legendary DJ Honey Dijon, the film opens with Juliana applying Body Badalada and unleashing a magnetic energy that radiates outward, drawing everyone in. Hydrated, glowing skin becomes more than a beauty goal, it becomes a catalyst for movement, energy, and presence. Unlike traditional beauty ads, this one doesn't sell aspiration, it invites participation.

The campaign is designed to make 'Badalada' a global phenomenon, debuting at the Cannes Film Festival (Festival de Cannes) with activations timed around key cultural moments, including a special evening hosted in collaboration with TikTok, offering a film-teaser approach to body care. It speaks to a larger cultural moment where beauty is less about perfection and more about presence, connection, and individuality. The moment underscores Sol de Janeiro's ability to flex beyond the expected, showing up where art, influence, and global storytelling collide.

"We built every element of this campaign to move," said Klitos Teklos, Chief Creative Officer. "Not just emotionally but physically. This is what happens when you take movement, scent, hydration, and rhythm and give them cultural intent."

The energy continues across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and into the streets - anchored by the Badalada Bloco: a traveling celebration inspired by Brazil's iconic street parties and the music, rhythm, and community that fuel them. Bloco takes over key cities with custom Airstream pop-ups, Sol-branded vending machines, retail rituals, and immersive sampling moments that transform everyday spaces into energy-fueled celebrations. The momentum builds through 3D out-of-home takeovers, festival activations, and full-funnel digital storytelling, making Badalada impossible to miss across every touchpoint.

"At Sephora, we have a unique culture of partnering with the most creative and inspiring brands to bring the best of beauty to our 74 million loyal customers across the world. We are very excited to introduce Body Badalada by Sol de Janeiro, a defining milestone for our historical collaboration and in the brand journey," said Priya Venkatesh, Global Chief Merchandising Officer at Sephora. "From their earlier days on our shelves to this global exclusive, they've shown what's possible when a brand leads with heart, creativity and innovation. Badalada delivers all of that and more."

Body Badalada Lightweight Body Lotion will be available exclusively at Sephora in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Brazil, and additional regionsalongside soldejaneiro.com. The product will launch on the Sephora app in the Middle East and North America on May 16, followed by online availability in the U.S. and Canada on May 17, and in-store launches across both regions on May 22. In Europe, the app preview begins May 22, with in-store availability starting May 26. MSRP: $32 USD.

ABOUT SOL DE JANEIRO

Sol de Janeiro is the award-winning beauty brand known for its Brazilian-inspired body care and transportive fragrance. Founded in 2015, the brand has quickly become a category leader, beloved for its clinically proven formulas, luscious textures, and sensorial experiences. With a global community spanning generations and geographies, Sol de Janeiro has earned top honors including TIME100's Most Influential Companies, Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies, and WWD's 2024 Beauty Inc Power Brands. Available at Sephora and online at soldejaneiro.com, Sol de Janeiro is rooted in the belief that beauty is an attitude, not a standard.

LOVE IT. FLAUNT IT. YOU'VE GOT IT.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Sol de Janeiro
Company Caves, Victorville Workers Ratify Strong Contract After Two-Week Strike

VICTORVILLE, Calif., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 250 Teamsters at Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) in Victorville have won a strong contract after a two-week unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. Backed by over 700 Teamsters at KDP facilities across California, workers forced the company to deliver critical improvements on the job, including access to the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust and significant wage increases.

"Teamsters at Keurig Dr Pepper were ready to hold the line for as long as it took," said Chris Griswold, President of Teamsters Joint Council 42 and Teamsters International Vice President At-Large. "We made Keurig Dr Pepper pay for violating our members' rights and trying to strip away their hard-earned sick time. Teamsters will never allow companies to break the law or disrespect us."

"The support we received across Southern California was incredible," said Phil Cooper, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters 896. "Our Teamster brothers and sisters at all six facilities stood up without hesitation and honored our picket line."

The strike began after workers rejected the company's initial contract offer, which failed to meet their demands for better wages and benefits. The drivers, warehouse workers, production workers, and merchandisers extended picket lines to over 700 KDP Teamsters across California, stopping deliveries at five additional KDP facilities. This is the second strike the Teamsters have won at KDP in just over a month, following a 12-day ULP strike by Teamsters Local 238 in Ottumwa, Iowa.

"KDP Teamsters are showing the whole industry what happens when you mess with union members," said Jeff Padellaro, Director of the Teamsters Brewery, Bakery, and Soft Drink Conference. "Let this be a lesson to every other company out there: respect our members, follow the law, or prepare to face the consequences."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents over 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on X @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Matt McQuaid, (771) 241-0015

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
BRADY, Texas, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Headed to the Texas House Calendar's Committee, is SB735 by Senator Jose Menendez, "Relating to Holocaust education and training provided to students enrolled at public schools and public institutions of higher education," costing Texans $1,296,874 through 08/31/27.

Texas Right to Know has concerns the bill propagates what it feels is a one-sided depiction of Jewish history, not calling for educating on other historical events, or other holocausts, related to other groups.

Adopted by 35 States and codified in Texas Government Code Sec. 448.001(2): "Antisemitism means a certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred toward Jews  Examples of antisemitism are included with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Working Definition of Antisemitism[IHRA]..."

The author of IHRA's definition, Kenneth Stern, said, "using such language in law is problematic."

According to multiple legal opinions, this definition:

(1) is unlawful since it would be adjudicated based upon "perception" not an action,

(2) violates the First Amendment by infringing on the right to express an idea, even when the idea is hatred, as established in the 10/28/2024, US Western District Court's ruling on Governor Abbott's GA-44 Executive Order . The court ruled, "that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.",

(3) violates the 14th Amendment by establishing a protected class of citizens based on race, religion, and nationality, violating the Equal Protection Clause,

(4) includes 11 working definitions of antisemitism, with example #9. "Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus )."

"None of the authors of the nine antisemitism bills, including SB326 author, Senator Phil King, were aware that these 11 working definitions of antisemitism were part of state law since they were not listed, but rather you have to go to a foreign website to see the list. I am deeply concerned and disappointed when these obvious violations to our US Constitution were directly discussed with Texas Senators and Representatives themselves and their offices that none have risen to the defense of our US and Texas Constitutions' freedom of speech rights," said Sheila Hemphill, CEO Texas Right To Know.

"Currently the antisemitism penalties are restricted to students, but I predict that we have only two years before the next session to mount a defense of our freedom of speech rights before the 11 examples of antisemitism will be proposed in laws to prosecute all Texans with examples that are included by not limited to, 'Claims of Jews killing Jesus.' When Governor Abbott writes, "Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies," that's pretty intimidating but we must all be brave enough to stand for Truth," warns Hemphill.

About Texas Right to Know: Texas Right to Know (TRTK) is an informational service regarding local and state issues. For more information, visit www.TexasRightToKnow.com.

Media Contact: Sheila Hemphill, CEO / [email protected]

SOURCE Texas Right to Know
GLENDALE, Ariz., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (OTC: WTER) ("WTER" or the "Company"), a leader in the beverage industry known for its purified alkaline water industry, today announced its reentry into the Phoenix market with the placement of its products at a respected family-owned and operated grocer that has been serving Arizona since 1932.

The Alkaline Water Company's flagship Alkaline88 products are now available in three sizesone-gallon bottles, 3-liter bottles, and 1.5-liter bottlesacross multiple store formats including traditional supermarkets, specialty gourmet stores, and community markets throughout the greater Phoenix area.

"We're thrilled to announce our return to Phoenix, which has always been our home market," said Richard Wright, CEO of The Alkaline Water Company. "Having our Alkaline88 products available with Arizona's leading family grocer allows us to reconnect with consumers across the Phoenix metropolitan area. Our expanded product lineup, now featuring three convenient sizes, allows us to meet the hydration needs of all Arizona shoppers."

This retail placement provides The Alkaline Water Company with access to consumers through more than 100 store locations across Arizona, strengthening the Company's presence with one of the state's largest employers. The family-owned retailer has given back more than $100 million to Arizona communities since 1932.

This Phoenix expansion follows the Company's recent retail placements in Southern California and its strategic entry into the convenience store channel in Arizona, reflecting WTER's commitment to strategic market growth and increased national availability. The Company's Alkaline88 gallon, 3-liter, and 1.5-liter products, known for their distinctive 8.8 pH balance and clean ingredient profile, continue to attract new retailers nationwide.

About The Alkaline Water Company, Inc.

The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (OTC: WTER) is a leader in the premium beverage industry, committed to providing superior hydration solutions to consumers nationwide. The company's flagship Alkaline88 products have built strong recognition and consumer loyalty due to their simple, clean ingredient profile. Alkaline88 is crafted using a proprietary electrolysis process that infuses purified water with Himalayan rock salt, trace minerals, and electrolytes, achieving a perfectly balanced 8.8 pH. Under the leadership of returning co-founder Ricky Wright as CEO, the company is implementing disciplined strategies to drive operational improvements, market expansion, and sustainable profitable growth.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are identified by the use of the words "could," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "may," "continue," "predict," "potential," "project" and similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements and include statements. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its plans, objectives, expectations and intentions reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that these plans, objectives, expectations or intentions will be achieved. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond the Company's control), assumptions and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience and present expectations or projections. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements and the trading price for the Company's common stock may fluctuate significantly. Forward-looking statements also are affected by the risk factors described in the Company's filings with the SEC. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The information in this release is provided only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release on account of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Alkaline Water Company Inc
NEW ORLEANS, May 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, comprised of four abuse survivors representing the interests of the survivor community, has reached a settlement with the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese's parishes and other affiliates, and certain of the Archdiocese's insurers. Under this proposed resolution, these parties will settle sex abuse claims by paying $179.2 million into a trust for the benefit of survivorsmore than 20 times the Archdiocese's initial settlement estimate when its bankruptcy case was filed in May 2020. This proposed settlement remains subject to approval by the Bankruptcy Court, abuse survivors, and other Archdiocese creditors.

In addition to the monetary compensation, this settlement also includes unprecedented non-monetary provisions and procedures that will safeguard against future abuse and provide services to survivors. These provisions include a Survivors' Bill of Rights and significant changes to the Archdiocese's process for handling abuse claims. The Archdiocese of New Orleans is the first bankrupt archdiocese in the United States to commit to a statement of abuse survivors' entitlement to justice in connection with a bankruptcy plan.

These non-monetary provisions will also provide greater transparency regarding the history of abuse in the Archdiocese. The settlement's terms require the publication of perpetrator files and other abuse-related documents, which will shed light on the Archdiocese's handling of decades of clergy sex abuse. Among other improvements, the settlement will establish a public archive that will serve as a repository of the history of abuse within the Archdiocese. This public archive will be administered by a secular institution of higher learning and will be accessible to the public, as well as to academia, for research on clergy abuse in Louisiana. Finally, the site of the former Hope Haven orphanage in Marrero, Louisiana will include a new memorial to the generations of children who suffered the horrors of sexual abuse at that infamous Archdiocese facility.

Throughout the five-year bankruptcy process, the Committee has remained dedicated to achieving three key objectives: (1) providing reasonable compensation to survivors, (2) overhauling the Archdiocese's process for responding to abuse allegations, and (3) bringing enhanced transparency to the Archdiocese's history of handling abuse allegations.

The proposed settlement achieves all three goals. It will provide $179.2 million to a trust to benefit survivorsan amount that will be paid following the Archdiocese's emergence from bankruptcy. Survivors will also receive additional compensation (a) from the sale of certain Archdiocese real properties and (b) from potential litigation recoveries against the Archdiocese's last, remaining non-settling insurer. Notably, the nearly $180 million settlement will include proceeds from the sale of the former Hope Haven propertythat notorious site of clergy abuse.

Jim Stang of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, LLP, who serves as co-counsel to the Committee in the Archdiocese's bankruptcy case, praised the Committee's tenacity over the last five years. "The Committee delivered on its commitment to provide survivors a settlement that provides fair compensation, transparency and, importantly, unprecedented child-protection measures," said Mr. Stang. "We look forward to working with all survivors to bring this five-year bankruptcy case to an acceptable resolution."

SOURCE Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones
FORT WASHINGTON, Pa., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Patriot Growth Insurance Services, LLC (Patriot), one of the nation's fastest-growing insurance firms, is proud to welcome The Cashion Company as a new partner agency. Founded in 1975, The Cashion Company has become a respected name in construction insurance and surety bonding. It is known for its deep industry roots, trusted relationships, and commitment to hands-on, personalized service.

With offices in Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas, The Cashion Company will continue to operate with the same leadership and service teams clients have always known. Agency Principals Matt Cashion, Lee Jackson, Michael Dornblaser, Andrew Davie, and Cash McMillen will remain actively involved in guiding the agency forward.

"For us, this is a joint venture," said Matt Cashion, Agency Principal. "We've built our business on trust, relationships, and responsiveness, and that's not changing. The partnership with Patriot gives us more resources and strength behind what we already do best without compromising what we've worked hard to build over the last 50 years."

Specializing in construction risk management, surety bonding, and captive insurance solutions, The Cashion Company has long been recognized as a thought leader. Knight Cashion, the agency's founder, was the first non-contractor inducted into the Arkansas Construction Industry Hall of Fame. He was also honored in the Arkansas Insurance Hall of Fame alongside his son Mattmaking them the first father-son duo to receive that distinction. Matt has been a surety instructor for 37 years and served seven years on the Arkansas Contractors Licensing Board.

"The Cashion Company is a phenomenal addition to the Patriot team," said Steve Carroll, Patriot's Chief Acquisition Officer. "Their expertise in construction insurance and surety bonding, combined with a long-standing commitment to specialized service and integrity, aligns perfectly with our core values. We're humbled and proud to partner with a firm with such deep industry roots and a proven track record of leadership. We're excited to build on that success and support the next phase of Cashion's growth journey."

About Patriot Growth Insurance Services

Founded in 2019, Patriot is a growth-focused national insurance services firm that partners with employee benefits and property and casualty agencies across the United States. Patriot is ranked as the 24th largest broker in the U.S. by Business Insurance and has been named to the 2024 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies. With more than 2,100 employees operating in over 100 locations across 28 states, Patriot's collaborative model delivers resources and strategic support to its agencies, whose leaders continue to operate with a high degree of independence in their local markets. Patriot creates true alignment with its partner agencies, and its operating philosophy fosters enhanced career opportunities for its dedicated and professional team. Patriot is backed by GI Partners and Summit Partners. For more information, please visit www.patriotgis.com or contact Tammy Cameron at [email protected].

Media Contact:

Tammy Cameron

[email protected]

SOURCE Patriot Growth Insurance Services
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. , May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- As educator shortages continue to plague districts across the country  across urban and rural districts  the solution could be in plain sight. According to a recent Study.com survey of employees in K-12 school districts, 75% of respondents indicated they believe teacher apprenticeships can help address educator shortages in their respective schools or districts. Additionally, two-thirds of district employees view apprenticeship programs as a viable option to becoming a classroom teacher.

The challenge is lack of awareness of offerings in schools and districts: More than half of respondents (57%) reported they were unsure if their school or district offered apprenticeship programs. Teacher apprenticeship programs have expanded to 45 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. With more than 675,000 active apprentices in 2025, survey respondents have a positive perception of those programs despite their level of knowledge on a local level.

Even still, the survey found that district employees believe apprenticeship programs offer tremendous benefits to those educator candidates interested in becoming a classroom teacher, including:

60.3% of respondents noted the ability to earn a salary while you learn

of respondents noted the ability to earn a salary while you learn 42.3% indicated the opportunity to follow a low or no cost pathway to certification

indicated the opportunity to follow a low or no cost pathway to certification 39.4% report the benefit of direct hands-on classroom experience

"The growth of teacher apprenticeship programs has exploded in the past few years with more educator candidates looking for alternative programs to entering the classroom," explained Dana Bryson, SVP of Social Impact, Study.com. "The increase in teacher shortages combined with the number of Americans looking for career workforce pathways through apprenticeships is reaching a perfect storm. Our role is to provide schools, districts and educator candidates with the tools and resources needed to be successful in their certification exams."

In fact, the cost of certification (including for courses and exams) is the number one barrier for respondents not entering an apprenticeship program:

32% indicated the cost of certification as a top concern

indicated the cost of certification as a top concern 28% reported concern about the time commitment

reported concern about the time commitment 20% referenced the need to balance family or personal responsibilities

There remains an opportunity though to encourage potential candidates to pursue an educator apprenticeship program. Among the factors respondents indicated would make them take the next step include:

53% indicated wanting financial incentives

indicated wanting financial incentives 45% asked for guaranteed job placement after certification

asked for guaranteed job placement after certification 42% said paid time to study would make a difference

said paid time to study would make a difference 22% cited access to exam prep tools and resources

The survey indicates that school staff already have the passion, perspective and proximity to make a difference in the classroom given the right resources and support. Teacher apprenticeship programs can transform school employees into certified teachers that can help address existing shortages.

Methodology

The "Teacher Apprenticeship" survey was conducted online from April 28  May 14, 2025, and included 416 K-12 school and district employees across the country (not including certified teachers). For a full version of the report, please visit: https://study.com/resources/teacher-shortage-solution-apprenticeships.html.

About Study.com

Study.com opens the door to the life-changing impact of education for more than 34 million learners and educators a month through its award-winning online learning platform for K12 curriculum, college courses and test preparation. With learners and educators in more than 11,000 school districts nationwide, Study.com is recognized by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for meeting Level IV evidence standards. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Study.com has been honored as one of the world's most innovative companies by Fast Company and included in the GSV150, celebrating the world's most transformative private companies in education, for the last four consecutive years. The company has donated $29 million across social impact programs committed to increasing educational equity. These programs include Working Scholars, an accelerated pathway for working adults to earn a debt-free bachelor's degree; College Saver, which has saved students more than $475 million in tuition costs, and Keys to the Classroom, which seeks to help aspiring educators prepare for and pass their teacher certification exams.

SOURCE Study.com
New nonprofit aims to deliver 2,000 fistula repair surgeries annually and transform maternal health in Uganda through education, infrastructure, and surgical excellence

SAN DIEGO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- May 23rd marks the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, and with it comes the official launch of The Musa Project , a San Diego-based nonprofit focused on addressing obstetric fistula in Uganda through surgical care, medical training, and health infrastructure development.

The Musa Project Launches on International Day to End Obstetric Fistula to Restore Health and Dignity to Ugandan Women Living with Obstetric Fistula

The Musa Project is mobilizing global support to end the suffering caused by obstetric fistula in Uganda. Obstetric fistulaa preventable childbirth injury that leaves women incontinent, often shunned, and suffering in silenceis still tragically common in many low-resource settings.

Uganda, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, bears a disproportionate burden of this devastating condition due to barriers in accessing timely, quality maternal care. With over 140,000 Ugandan women currently living with this preventable childbirth injury, The Musa Project offers a dual approach: free surgical repair and long-term prevention through medical training.

At the heart of the initiative is Associate Professor Musa Kayondo, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. Each year, Professor Kayondo and his team perform over 500 fistula surgeries. Moreover, he is leading a movement to expand treatment across three additional hospitals. "Obstetric fistula is a solvable problem," says Professor Kayondo. "With trained hands, modern tools, and the will to act, we can end this suffering in our generation."

The organization is actively fundraising to support:

2,000 fistula surgeries each year

New women's health wards in three underserved regions

Training programs to reduce new fistula cases caused by improper cesarean sections

Holistic post-surgical care, including emotional support and patient reintegration

"The launch of The Musa Project on the International Day to End Obstetric Fistula is a statement of solidarity," said Anastasia Tilbury Marks, Co-Founder and President of The Musa Project, which she started with her father and fellow co-founder, Hal Tilbury. "We are joining a global call to action to ensure that the voices of women and girls in Uganda are heard, their pain is acknowledged, and their healing is prioritized." By launching on International Day to End Obstetric Fistula, The Musa Project aligns itself with international efforts to raise awareness, drive investment, and advocate for policies that prioritize maternal health, especially in communities that have long been overlooked.

How to Help:

Donations to The Musa Project can be made at www.musa-project.org . Contributions fund surgeries, equipment, training, and ongoing care.

About The Musa Project

The Musa Project is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego, California, dedicated to maternal health justice in Uganda. Its mission is to eradicate the suffering caused by obstetric fistula by supporting women through surgery, recovery, empowerment, and advocacy. The Musa Project is committed to building a world where no woman is left behind because of where or how she gives birth. The organization invites supporters, healthcare advocates, and changemakers to learn more and join the movement at www.musa-project.org.

Press Contact:

Anastasia Marks,

+1 (619) 736-6950,

http://musa-project.org/

SOURCE The Musa Project
BEIJING, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ThreatBook , a global leader cyber threat and response solutions backed by threat intelligence and AI, has been recognized as a notable vendor in Forrester's Network Analysis And Visibility Solutions Landscape, Q2 2025 report. This marks a major milestone in ThreatBook's growing international presence and continued innovation in the NAV (Network Analysis and Visibility) space.

For ThreatBook, the recognition underscores the technical excellence and strong market performance in delivering real-time, actionable security insights across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. At the center of this achievement is the ThreatBook Threat Detection Platform (TDP); an advanced solution purpose-built for security operations teams to detect, investigate, and respond to network threats with speed and accuracy.

ThreatBook TDP sets itself apart in the global market with:

Bidirectional full traffic analysis across internal and external flows.

across internal and external flows. Ultra-low false positive rate (under 0.003%) to eliminate alert fatigue.

(under 0.003%) to eliminate alert fatigue. Integrated threat intelligence and behavioral analytics , enabling early detection of targeted and advanced attacks.

, enabling early detection of targeted and advanced attacks. Automated incident response , including TCP reset, firewall integrations, forensic evidence collection, and closed-loop orchestration.

, including TCP reset, firewall integrations, forensic evidence collection, and closed-loop orchestration. Comprehensive asset discovery via passive traffic monitoring and API behavior analysis.

Thousands of enterprises across the globe including leaders in finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and technology, trust ThreatBook to protect their digital infrastructure.

"We're proud that ThreatBook TDP has been recognized by Forrester as a notable vendor in the global NAV landscape. We believe this reflects the strength of our platform; built for high-accuracy detection, deep traffic visibility, and seamless automated response. ThreatBook TDP is designed to help security teams focus on what matters most by delivering clear, actionable intelligence with minimal noise. In our opinion, it validates the direction we've taken with TDP and strengthens our commitment to leading the way in intelligence-driven, automated network defense," said Linlin Zhao, Partner and Product Lead of TDP at ThreatBook.

As organizations face increasingly complex cyber threats, ThreatBook continues to expand globally with a clear mission: to offer high-accuracy detection, deep visibility, and efficient response, enabling a more resilient and secure future.

The Forrester Network Analysis and Visibility Solutions Landscape, Q2 2025 report provides an overview of 31 global vendors and outlines core use cases including threat detection, threat hunting, incident forensics, and asset discovery - all of which ThreatBook delivers at enterprise scale with high fidelity.

Forrester does not endorse any company, product, brand, or service included in its research publications and does not advise any person to select the products or services of any company or brand based on the ratings included in such publications. Information is based on the best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. For more information, read about Forrester's objectivity here .

About ThreatBook

ThreatBook , founded in 2015, is a leading provider of cyber threat detection and response. We pioneered new approaches to deliver high-fidelity, efficient and actionable security intelligence and integrated the ability with full life cycle threat detection system and incident response capabilities to empower the protection on cloud, network and endpoints, help enterprises achieve high efficiency of responding to threats, reduce complexity and improve security operations.

Contact

Head of Marketing

Joy Fan

ThreatBook

[email protected]

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693975/ThreatBook_Logo.jpg

SOURCE ThreatBook
YIWU, China, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Yiwugo.com, the official website of the Yiwu Commodity Market, is the largest commodity wholesale market in the world. As one of Yiwu's flagship categories, "toys" consistently rank among the top search keywords on Yiwugo's trending lists. In recent years, dark horses like MOLLY and LABUBU have emerged in the toy sector, with sales performance far exceeding market expectations. Over time, the toy market continues to produce new breakout hits.

The related products displayed on Yiwugo.

On March 26, 2025, POP MART released its annual financial report for 2024, which shows that the company achieved a revenue of CNY 13.04 billion in 2024, representing a 106.9% year-on-year increase. Among this, the domestic revenue from Chinese mainland accounted for CNY 7.97 billion, up 52.3% from the previous year. Ms. Yu Le, a merchant on Yiwugo's platform operating Candy House Phone Accessories, leveraged her authorization granted by POP MART to incorporate both original and fan-designed variations of the brand's characters into product designs. This strategy has attracted a surge of e-commerce and livestreaming clients, with many individual clients' monthly purchases reaching millions of CNY.

Yiwugo's big data analysis revealed that, in February 2025, overseas buyers began inquiring about aquatic toys like water guns, which entered their peak sales season in April. By mid-to-late May, orders for these water toys were largely fulfilled.

Ms. Wang Ziding, owner of Yuchen Toys on the Yiwugo platform, shared that electric pulse water guns have been a top seller in overseas markets this year. Equipped with fully automatic water absorption and balanced pressure for extended range shooting capability, these water guns have made a striking debut. As production scaled up over the past two years, prices became more competitive, fueling booming demand both domestically and abroad. It's common for single clients to order around 100 cases per purchase.

Meanwhile, another domestic hit has emerged: the "firework water gun". Inspired by a 2024 viral short video featuring a makeshift water gun made from a perforated plastic water bottle that sprays water in firework-like patterns, manufacturers quickly rolled out upgraded versions. These toy guns overhauled traditional nozzles, with a standard 120-hole nozzle that creates rotating water patterns mimicking fireworks under pressure. Wang noted that by April, the company's daily output of 20,000 firework water guns still struggled to meet demand.

Another rising star in the toy market is polymer clay sheets. As a versatile material for DIY crafts, fashion accessories, and art education, polymer clay caters to everyone from children to professional artists, with applications spanning global markets.

Mr. Shi Yan, a veteran in the polymer clay industry, operates Effectouch Polymer Clay Arts & Crafts on Yiwugo, where the business has been operating for over 11 years. With factories in Dongyang, Jinhua (Zhejiang Province) and Hebei Province, the company uses proprietary formulas to produce clay with a smooth texture, high malleability, fade-resistant and colorfast properties, and resistance to cracking or discoloration. Its extensive color library of over 1,000 shades meets diverse global client needs.

Shi added that the company has established a U.S. design division, which gathers cutting-edge market insights, ensuring their designs remain globally relevant and infused with fresh creative elements.

In 2021, the DIY craft trend surged, driving the company's sales to a peak. After connecting with Effectouch through Yiwugo, a Brazilian client regularly purchased around two shipping containers of polymer clay products per month. These products flew off the shelves immediately upon arrival in Brazilian stores.

As Effectouch expanded its offerings in recent years, polymer clay sheets have gained popularity not only as raw materials for crafts, beaded accessories, and DIY jewelry but also as children's toys and early education tools.

The company maintains partnerships with global retail giants like Walmart for over a decade, with many bulk orders now leaning toward cultural and sports-related applications. As Shi emphasized, polymer clay, as a high-quality medium, can play diverse roles. Its versatility in shapes and colors makes it a compelling choice for consumers. He believes polymer clay will continue to outperform in global markets in the coming years.

From the tech-driven thrill of pulse water guns to the vibrant creativity of polymer clay, the Yiwu toy industry is proving itself as a global "hit-making machine". Innovation here doesn't require grand narratives - it thrives in the tiny details that spark imagination and childlike wonder, compelling consumers worldwide to pay for play. And that, perhaps, is the timeless business code of the "World's Supermarket".

SOURCE Yiwugo.com
ORLANDO, Fla., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TPC, a leading provider of industrial skills training and a core brand within the Certus portfolio, is pleased to announce the launch of a new Certified Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification course. This self-paced, online course is designed to meet the growing demand for high-quality, accessible food safety training in today's manufacturing environments.

HACCP, originally developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is a globally recognized management system for identifying and controlling food safety hazards. HACCP Certification is required for key personnel within food manufacturing facilities wanting to sell to retail grocers and is an essential component in facilities seeking Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certification.

TPC's HACCP certification course helps businesses effectively train their staff in understanding and implementing HACCP principles across their operations, promoting safer and more compliant food production. The course is aligned with regulatory standards set by the FDA and the United States Department of Agriculture, as well as globally recognized frameworks such as Safe Quality Food (SQF) and Brand Reputation Compliance Global Standard (BRCGS).

Upon taking the course, learners gain in-depth knowledge of HACCP's core principles  such as hazard analysis, control points, monitoring procedures, and corrective actions  and leave with the practical skills to create and successfully implement HACCP in their facilities.

Program highlights include:

Developed by industry experts

Accredited by the International HACCP Alliance (IHA)

Easy and affordable training solution for busy food safety and quality assurance managers and supervisors

Meets GFSI requirements with an IHA-accredited course equivalent to a two-day, 16-hour classroom program

Includes access to full library of editable templates required for HACCP plan implementation

Fully flexible format  learners can start, stop and resume training at their own pace

"HACCP is critical because it proactively identifies and controls potential food safety hazards, putting prevention at the heart of food production," said Melissa Duncan, Product Director for Food Safety at Certus. "We're very excited to add HACCP Certification to TPC's robust industrial technical skills library  empowering professionals to build safer systems, meet industry standards, and protect every step of the supply chain with confidence. With this launch, we're giving food and beverage companies access to targeted training that helps them stay compliant, reduce recalls, and retain skilled workers."

As the food industry faces increasing regulatory requirements and heightened safety expectations, TPC's HACCP program delivers a timely, accessible solution to help organizations build internal expertise and strengthen their food safety culture.

To learn more visit: www.tpctraining.com/pages/food-beverage-industry-training

About TPC

TPC is a recognized leader in industrial skills training, providing comprehensive solutions to learners and organizations nationwide. Their instructor-led and online training spans electrical, HVAC, mechanical, plant management, and safety topics, and is supported by industry-leading technologies and compliance solutions. In 2021, TPC joined the Certus family of brands, bolstering the scale and impact of their safety and compliance offerings. Together with the other brands in the Certus portfolio, TPC supports more than 3.6 million learners annually. To learn more, visit tpctraining.com.

About Certus

Certus is a leading provider of professional training and certification solutions, serving over 3.6 million learners annually. With a comprehensive suite of content, simulations and compliance offerings, Certus supports lifelong learners at every level, from trusted industry brands to individuals seeking to enter, sustain or advance their careers. Its best-in-class technology platform and extensive portfolio of brands empower learners to unleash potential and achieve new possibilities. To learn more, visit certus.com.

SOURCE Certus Holdco, Inc
Formerly known as GetByBus, the Croatian-born brand reintroduces itself.

SPLIT, Croatia and TEL AVIV, Israel, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- After more than a decade of connecting travelers across Croatia and Southeast Europe through the GetByBus platform, the company is entering a bold new era with the launch of Traveling.com. This major rebrand reflects the company's evolution into a global, multi-modal travel platform designed to simplify how people move across borders, islands, and regions.

Traveling.com becomes the group's new flagship consumer brand in Europe, consolidating previously separate offerings, GetByBus, GetByFerry, GetByTransfer, and the GetBy App, into one seamless platform. With this strategic shift, the company moves away from a fragmented, multi-brand identity to a unified experience centered on ease, trust, and global scalability.

From buses and ferries to trains and transfers, Traveling.com is built to serve the modern traveler, whether they're journeying across the Adriatic or planning a trip from Split to Phuket.

"GetByBus started with a simple mission: make bus travel easy in Croatia," said Ante Dagelic, CEO of Traveling.com. "Over time, we became one of the most visited transport platforms in the region. But as travel habits changed and competition grew, we saw the need to evolve. Traveling.com represents that evolution, a more modern, intuitive brand ready to meet the needs of travelers worldwide."

The rebrand signals more than just a name change. It's a clear move toward becoming a globally recognized hub for ground and sea transport. With a renewed focus on user experience, smart technology, and international reach, Traveling.com is poised to reshape the future of travel booking.

A Croatian Travel Success Story Goes Global

Over ten years ago, a Croatian startup called GetByBus set out to simplify regional bus travel. With clear, reliable information and user-friendly tools, it quickly became a trusted choice for locals and tourists across Southeast Europe.

As demand grew, so did the company's reach. New services like GetByFerry, GetByTransfer, and a mobile app followed, covering ferries, private transfers, and a more complete travel experience. But with multiple sub-brands, the team saw the need for a stronger, unified identity.

That identity is now Traveling.com. A global brand bringing all forms of ground and sea transportation into one streamlined platform. It's a major step forward: from regional player to international travel leader.

Why the Name Traveling.com?

The name tested exceptionally well with users. It's familiar, trustworthy, and flexible, ideal for a platform that helps people get around by bus, ferry, train, or private transfer. With over 5 trillion Google searches in 2024 alone, "traveling" remains one of the most searched global terms, making the domain a strategic brand asset.

Just as Booking.com became the go-to for hotels, Traveling.com is setting out to own the space for non-air travel.

Built for the Modern Traveler

Alongside the rebrand, the company has enhanced its app and platform. Travelers now get personalized recommendations, live support, and simple booking tools, designed to turn one-time users into loyal customers.

And it's not just about tech. The brand voice is deliberately warm and humanmore like a well-traveled friend than a cold platform. Traveling.com aims to make logistics part of the joy of the journey.

Backed by Global Strength

Traveling.com is powered by Travelier, a global travel tech group whose portfolio includes:

12Go  Southeast Asia's top transport platform

 top transport platform Plataforma 10  Argentina's leading bus booking site

 leading bus booking site DeOnibus  Brazil's intercity travel leader

 intercity travel leader Bookaway a global brand for travelers in the U.S. and Europe .

Together, they span 643,000 routes in 122 countries. This network ensures Traveling.com delivers dependable experiences, everywhere.

The Future of Booking

With outdated platforms still dominating much of the ground transport space, Traveling.com offers a clear alternative: modern design, transparent pricing, and a focus on ease and trust.

As CEO Ante Dagelic says:

"Traveling.com is more than a rebrand, it's our next chapter. A modern, trusted platform where people can discover and book the best way to get around, anywhere in the world."

Where Booking ends, Traveling begins.

About Travelier

Founded in 2014, Travelier is a global travel group that connects millions of people to ground and sea transportation worldwide. With market-leading platforms in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, Travelier is reimagining how travelers move from place to placeby land or by sea. Its latest brand, Traveling.com, is now leading the group's expansion in Europe, combining world-class user experience with the largest multi-modal route inventory in the industry.

Learn more at www.traveling.com

Media Contact:

Noa Greenfield

VP Brand & Communications, Travelier

Email: [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2692251/Travelier_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Travelier
Initiative will Focus on Social Media's Influence on Financial Markets

COLLEGE PARK, Md., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets at University of Maryland's Robert H Smith School of Business, in collaboration with the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), is launching a Social Media and Market Dynamics (SMMD) Lab. The lab will conduct pioneering research on how social media influences financial markets, affecting investor sentiment, trading behaviors and market volatility.

The initiative is supported through a generous donation from Narravance, Inc., a leader in advanced cyber-social threat intelligence and financial analytics. The SMMD lab will leverage Narravance's cutting-edge technology from its wholly owned subsidiary, ChatterFlow, to analyze real-time social media data, providing insights into emerging trends and potential market disruptions.

"The next generation of financial industry leaders must graduate from business school with a clear understanding of how open data sources can influence capital markets," says Adam Sohn, chief executive officer and co-founder of Narravance, emphasizing the significance of this collaboration. "If history is any indication, these impacts will continue to expand and evolve in complexity over time. By supporting the SMMD lab, we are investing in research that will enable proactive responses to threats and opportunities affecting market integrity."

Rajshree Agarwal, director of the Ed Snider Center and Rudolph Lamone Chair of Strategy and Entrepreneurship says, "Collaborating with NCRI to establish the SMMD Lab at the Ed Snider Center embodies our commitment to research that informs both academic understanding and practical policy solutions. By examining how viral narratives influence financial markets, we aim to equip our students, and industry, with the insights needed to effectively navigate this new frontier."

The SMMD lab also will offer students hands-on experience through internships and research projects, equipping them with skills in data analytics, trend forecasting and narrative analysis.

"In today's financial landscape, understanding the interplay between social media and market dynamics is crucial. The SMMD lab will provide students with the analytical tools and real-world experience necessary to excel in this evolving environment," says Ed Snider Center Managing Director Jacqueline Manger, who adds that she "is excited about the experiential learning opportunity for UMD students and will work with NCRI to identify and mentor interns for the lab."

This collaboration, Manger says, positions the Smith School at the forefront of understanding the intersection of social media, finance, and technology, ensuring that students, investors, and policymakers are prepared to navigate the rapidly evolving financial landscape.

For more information, go to the Social Media and Market Dynamics Lab homepage.

About Narravance

Narravance specializes in delivering advanced social media threat intelligence, empowering organizations to make impactful decisions across both the public and private sectors. By uncovering emerging narratives, identifying potential risks, and analyzing evolving trends, we enable entities to proactively protect their operations, safeguard public safety, and uphold business integrity in an increasingly digital world.

About the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business

The Robert H. Smith School of Business is an internationally recognized leader in management education and research. One of 12 colleges and schools at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Smith School offers undergraduate, full-time and flex MBA, executive MBA, online MBA, business master's, PhD and executive education programs, as well as outreach services to the corporate community. The school offers its degree, custom and certification programs in learning locations in North America and Asia.

Contact: Greg Muraski, [email protected]

SOURCE University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business
Issued by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau

PARIS, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, a Supreme Council Member and the Ruler of Sharjah, was awarded a distinguished UNESCO honour upon the completion of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language. At the official ceremony held at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, themed "Arabic Language: A Bridge Between Heritage and Knowledge", Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), was present, along with Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA).

UNESCO honours Sharjah Ruler for Arabic historical dictionary (PRNewsfoto/Sharjah Government Media Bureau) UNESCO honours Sharjah Ruler for Arabic historical dictionary (PRNewsfoto/Sharjah Government Media Bureau) UNESCO honours Sharjah Ruler for Arabic historical dictionary (PRNewsfoto/Sharjah Government Media Bureau)

Upon his arrival at UNESCO headquarters, His Highness was received and warmly welcomed by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO; Fahd Saeed Al Raqbani, UAE Ambassador to France; Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of Sharjah's Department of Culture; Jamal Al-Turaifi, President of Al Qasimia University; Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, CEO of the Sharjah Book Authority; Ali Al-Haj Al Ali, UAE Permanent Delegate to UNESCO; and Mohamed Hassan Khalaf, Director General of the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority.

His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah delivered a speech during the ceremony, stating, "It is my honour to stand among you today in this esteemed cultural forum at UNESCO, whose noble mission we revere and whose fruitful partnership we cherish. Together, we commemorate a groundbreaking scholarly and cultural milestone, the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language. This occasion is further enriched by its coincidence with the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, a day designated by UNESCO to promote mutual understanding and respect among cultures, reinforcing our collective humanity.

"Language, in all its forms, undeniably serves as the main repository of culture and the most authentic reflection of a community's identity. In celebrating the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language today, we honour a vital aspect of our rich human diversity, represented by the Arabic language, which carries a deep civilisational heritage and has had a significant scientific and humanistic impact."

His Highness subsequently emphasised the contributions of the partner institutions that played a role in the creation of the dictionary.

His Highness emphasised that all languages possess an equal right to exist and evolve, stating, "When we restore to Arabic its rightful history and highlight the aspects of its development, we simultaneously affirm to the world that every language is entitled to existence, progress and celebration, and that cultural justice demands that humanity not be reduced to a single tongue, nor the civilisations of peoples confined to one model. Just as biodiversity ensures the continuity of life, cultural and linguistic diversity secures the ongoing evolution and revitalisation of human creativity."

He then conveyed his sincere appreciation to UNESCO for recognising the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language and for the collaborative cultural initiatives between Sharjah and the organisation:

He wrapped up with a call for unity: "Let us move forward together, dear friends, hand in hand, to enhance our cultural dialogue, to protect our common human heritage, and to guarantee that every culture's voice is acknowledged, every language valued, and every people stay true to their genuine identity."

At the ceremony, Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of UNESCO, presented a speech to welcome His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah. She expressed her pleasure regarding the visit of the Sharjah delegation to Paris, acknowledging the emirate as a worldwide centre of knowledge and culture. Azoulay emphasised Sharjah's significant investments in diverse areas that align with UNESCO's mission, pointing out its achievement of multiple international cultural awards.

Azoulay praised the foresight of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, which has placed culture and knowledge at the heart of Sharjah's policies. She recognised the emirate's arrangements for various cultural events, festivals, and exhibitions that span multiple areas of culture, arts, and history.

She acknowledged Sharjah's initiative in signing an agreement to digitise UNESCO's archives, marking a significant step towards preserving the organisation's vast collection of books and documents, some of which date back over 80 years. This initiative guarantees the protection of precious historical documents that detail various events, agreements, and initiatives.

Azoulay conveyed her appreciation for the successful completion of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, a significant accomplishment achieved under the guidance of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah. Created by a multitude of researchers and editors from 20 linguistic institutions throughout the Arab world, this dictionary has earned recognition from the Guinness World Records as the largest historical dictionary.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah graciously signed a copy of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language and presented it as a gift to UNESCO.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694143/UNESCO_honours_Sharjah_Ruler__1.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694144/UNESCO_honours_Sharjah_Ruler__2.jpg

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694145/UNESCO_honours_Sharjah_Ruler__3.jpg

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694130/SGMB_Logo.jpg

SOURCE Sharjah Government Media Bureau
237 Warehouse Workers Join Local 769, Prepare to Bargain First Contract

MIAMI, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 230 warehouse workers at United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) in Pompano Beach and Miami have voted overwhelmingly to join Teamsters Local 769. The workers organized for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

"We joined the Teamsters because we need the protection of a strong, enforceable union contract," said Roderick Jackson, a warehouse worker at UNFI and a new member of Local 769. "We've seen what our co-workers at other UNFI locations have won as Teamsters, and we're ready to fight for the same."

The win in Florida is the latest in a wave of organizing victories at UNFI. Since 2022, more than 3,000 UNFI workers have joined the Teamsters. This marks 19 straight successful organizing drives, following a recent victory in Lancaster, Texas.

"We're proud to welcome these hardworking new members into the Local 769 family," said Josh Zivalich, President of Local 769. "They stood up for a voice on the job, and we're ready to help them achieve a first contract that mirrors the gains already secured by UNFI Teamsters in Florida and across the country."

UNFI is the largest wholesale distributor for Amazon-owned Whole Foods. Teamsters across UNFI facilities in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois recently ratified strong first contracts, including an $8 an hour raise, Teamsters health care, a defined benefit pension plan, seniority protections, and additional paid time off.

"UNFI workers are done being pushed around. They're fighting back and raising standards nationwide," said Tom Erickson, Director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division. "Over 65 percent of UNFI's workforce is now represented by the Teamsters. We're not stopping until we organize the rest. Every UNFI worker deserves a strong Teamsters contract and the protections that come with it."

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.3 million hardworking people in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Visit Teamster.org for more information. Follow us on X @Teamsters and on Facebook at Facebook.com/teamsters.

Contact:

Colin McCullough, (856) 625-6856

[email protected]

SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
VANCOUVER, BC, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Today, West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. ("West Fraser" or the "Company") (TSX: WFG) (NYSE: WFG) released its 2024 Sustainability Report, Building Together: People and Partnerships. The report highlights the Company's sustainability performance across a variety of environmental, social, and governance goals and disclosed targets.

"Since our founding 70 years ago, West Fraser has recognized our responsibility to the environment and society while delivering solid financial performance," said Sean McLaren, President and CEO, West Fraser. "This report provides some detail about our activities in 2024 and measures the progress we have made toward achieving our goals."

2024 key achievements highlighted in the report include:

Broadening Safety Training and Data Insights: In 2024, we implemented new contractor safety practices across the Company and set new expectations around the oversight of contracted work. Further improving our safety program remains a top priority in 2025.

In 2024, we implemented new contractor safety practices across the Company and set new expectations around the oversight of contracted work. Further improving our safety program remains a top priority in 2025. Advancing Our Carbon Reduction Strategy: Our manufacturing operations were powered by 75% renewable energy. At the same time, 100% of our mills progressed on their energy reduction road maps to materially reduce our carbon footprint by 2030 using scope 1, 2 and 3 emission reduction targets, validated through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). A key highlight was a 22% reduction in our scope 1 and 2 emissions compared to 2019 baseline levels, along with a 13% reduction in our Scope 3 emissions compared to our 2020 baseline levels. These reductions are on track to meet our 2030 GHG reduction targets.

Our manufacturing operations were powered by 75% renewable energy. At the same time, 100% of our mills progressed on their energy reduction road maps to materially reduce our carbon footprint by 2030 using scope 1, 2 and 3 emission reduction targets, validated through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). A key highlight was a 22% reduction in our scope 1 and 2 emissions compared to 2019 baseline levels, along with a 13% reduction in our Scope 3 emissions compared to our 2020 baseline levels. These reductions are on track to meet our 2030 GHG reduction targets. Driving Sustainable Forest Management & Wood Procurement Traceability: Requirements related to resource management and responsible sourcing are clarified through our Sustainable Forest and Wood Procurement Policy. Implemented in 2024, the policy provides a cohesive approach across our Company.

Requirements related to resource management and responsible sourcing are clarified through our Sustainable Forest and Wood Procurement Policy. Implemented in 2024, the policy provides a cohesive approach across our Company. Partnering with Indigenous Nations : A key milestone was the agreement signed with the Lake Babine Nation's forestry company, targeting long-term fibre supply for our mill in Smithers, British Columbia and recognizing the Nation's role as a resource steward. These arrangements remain subject to approval by the Government of British Columbia , which is anticipated in 2025.

: A key milestone was the agreement signed with the Lake Babine Nation's forestry company, targeting long-term fibre supply for our mill in and recognizing the Nation's role as a resource steward. These arrangements remain subject to approval by the Government of , which is anticipated in 2025. Investing in Communities: Within our communities we invested $4.3 million through 800 partnerships. Our investments focused on support for young people, improving mental health and were targeted at helping rural areas where we operate.

For more information on sustainability at West Fraser and to read the 2024 sustainability report, please visit https://www.westfraser.com/sustainability/sustainability-reporting.

About West Fraser

West Fraser is a diversified wood products company with more than 50 facilities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, which promotes sustainable forest practices in its operations. The Company produces lumber, engineered wood products (OSB, LVL, MDF, plywood, and particleboard), pulp, newsprint, wood chips, and other residuals. West Fraser's products are used in home construction, repair and remodelling, industrial applications, papers and tissue. For more information about West Fraser, visit www.westfraser.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains statements and information that constitute "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements that are forward-looking or predictive in nature and are dependent upon or refer to future events or conditions. We use words such as "expects", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "estimates", "seeks", "intends", "targets", "projects", or negative versions thereof and other similar expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "may", "will", "should", "would", and "could", to identify these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, our goal to materially reduce our carbon footprint by 2030 using scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG reduction targets, validated by SBTi and our plans, pathways and estimated progress to achieve such reduction targets, our ability to continuously improve our environmental, social and governance performance, including safety as our top priority, our plan to target long-term fibre supply through entry into joint development agreements with Indigenous Nations, subject to approval by the Government of British Columbia and the proposed timeline for such approvals, and the success of our investments in communities we operate. Any such forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and are based on assumptions and analyses made by us considering our experience and our perception of historical trends and current conditions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties including the expectations and assumptions concerning the implementation, performance and effectiveness of technology needed to achieve our sustainability goals and priorities, including our SBTi target, our access to sufficient capital and resources to undertake such projects and plans, the laws and regulations which will apply to our business, our ability to attract and retain skilled employees to implement our goals, targets and plans, environmental compliance costs generally, and assumptions regarding the development of our business generally, risks associated with climate change and the environment, risks associated with permitting and the timeline to achieve such permitting to meet our operational goals, operational problems, changes in laws and governmental regulations, including the evolution of forest policy and stewardship, environmental compliance challenges, costs of compliance with environmental and other laws and regulation, risks relating to the development and use of new technology or lack of appropriate technologies needed to advance our goals, including the ability to implement our operational excellence and modernization strategies, our scope 2 strategy focused on increasing energy efficiency, reducing consumption and decarbonizing grid power, competition for labour and services and related shortages, natural disasters and adverse weather conditions, general business and economic conditions and the future operation and financial performance of the Company generally. Readers should also refer to the risk factors set forth in the Company's annual information form and management's discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2024, each dated February 12, 2025, as updated in our quarterly reports from time to time and other documents, available at SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca) and EDGAR (www.sec.gov/edgar). There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which forward-looking statements are based will be realized. Actual results may differ, and the difference may be material and adverse to the Company and its shareholders. Except as may be required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions, or expectations upon which forward-looking statements are based will be realized. Actual results may differ, and the difference may be material and adverse to the Company and its shareholders. Except as may be required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.
America's first fast-food hamburger restaurant built on a foundation of value is committed to delivering savings all season long with deals available through its website, social media or Craver Nation Rewards customer loyalty app

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- White Castle, the brand that introduced fast-food to America by selling The Original Slider by the sack, is offering Cravers and future Cravers a multitude of deals and offers this summer season. One limited-time deal bringing the heat and savings this summer: six Original Sliders for just $4. The discounted price  just under 67 per Slider  is less than regular menu price of Original Sliders in 20212.

America's first fast-food hamburger restaurant is committed to delivering savings all summer long. Post this The Crave Clutch is among the many menu items at the center of appetizing offers and deals this summer at White Castle.

Additional deals throughout the summer available in Castles, online and through Craver Nation Rewards, include a BOGO offer for the new Crispy Chicken Slider, a celebration of National French Fries Day, and a special deal particularly designed for those who embrace the Night (Castle)!

"Summer marks an opportunity to let loose, look forward to family gatherings and enjoy good times," said Jamie Richardson, vice president at White Castle. "We understand the dynamics that many families are currently facing creates a hesitancy to spend hard earned dollars. We're here to offer support and value for those who simply want to treat their loved ones to a memorable night without a financial concern."

For more summer offers, customers can join Craver Nation Rewards, the free-to-join customer loyalty program that brings high-value perks, points and rewards to members.

Here are the offers and deals scheduled to run in May, June, July and August.

Special Offers (available with coupons on White Castle's social media and/or website)

Occasion Offer Date Memorial Day

Weekend $3 off a Crave Clutch of any 20 Sliders Use code: CLUTCHDEAL May 24  26 Father's Day

Weekend 20% off any order Use code: WCDAD June 13  15 Shortest Night of

the Year BOGO free small shake after 8 p.m. Use code: SUMMER June 20  22 National Onion Day Buy 2, get 2 free Sliders (limit 2 free) June 27  29 National Fried

Chicken Day BOGO free new Crispy Chicken Slider Use code: CRISPY July 4  6 National French

Fries Day Free cheese fries with any order Use code: CHEESY July 11  13 National

Cheesecake Day Free cheesecake-on-a-stick with any order Use code: CHSCAKE July 30  Aug. 3 Labor Day 20% off any order Use code: TWENTY% Aug. 29  Sep. 1

Offers for Craver Nation Rewards Members (available through the White Castle app)

Order type Offer Dates At Castle BOGO free Double Cheese Sliders June 1  30 At Castle Night Castle Meal (8 p.m.  5 a.m.): $6

Cheese Cravings Meal (4 Cheese Sliders,

small fry, 3-piece Cheese Stick & small

drink) June 21  Sept. 7 At Castle 6-piece Chicken Ring & small fry for $3 July 1 - 31 At Castle BOGO Breakfast Slider combo Aug. 1  Sept. 7 At Castle/Mobile Father's Day BOGO free Combo Meal June 13 -15 Mobile 10 Cheese Sliders & sack of fries for $12 June 1 - 30 Mobile Buy 3 Sliders, get one free July 1  31 Mobile Free dessert on-a-stick with $10 purchase Aug. 1  Sept. 7 Mobile Start of summer 20% off mobile orders June 20  21 Mobile July 4 20% off mobile orders July 3  6 Mobile Labor Day 25% off mobile orders Aug. 29  Sept. 1

About White Castle

White Castle, America's first fast-food hamburger chain, has been making hot and tasty Sliders since 1921. Based in Columbus, Ohio, the family-owned business owns and operates about 340 restaurants as well as a retail division providing its famous fare in freezer aisles of retail stores nationwide. As part of its commitment to offering the highest quality products, White Castle owns and operates its own Slider Provider meat plants, bakeries and frozen-Slider retail plants. White Castle has earned numerous accolades over the years including Time magazine's "Most Influential Burger of All Time" (2014, The Original Slider) and Thrillist's "Best Plant-Based Fast-Food Burger" (2019, Impossible Slider). In 2021, Fast Company named the fast-food pioneer one of the "10 Most Innovative Dining Companies." White Castle is known for the legendary engagement of its team members and has received the Great Place to Work Certification for an extraordinary four consecutive years spanning 20212024. White Castle is beloved by its passionate fans (Cravers), many of whom compete each year for entry into the Cravers Hall of Fame. The official White Castle app makes it easy for Cravers to sign up for the CRAVER NATION REWARDS loyalty program, access sweet deals and place pickup orders at any time. For more information on White Castle and how to Follow Your Crave, visit whitecastle.com.

SOURCE White Castle
New Drink of the Summer Launches in Select Markets and Online, With Seven Bold Flavors and Two Potency Options

PORTLAND, Ore., May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Wyld, the #1 cannabis edible brand in the U.S., announced the launch of its Hemp-Derived Delta-9 THC Sparkling Waters. Crafted with real fruit, functional effects, and doses for every type of consumer, this new line of bubbly beverages is poised to be the drink of the summer with consumer habits continuing to pivot away from alcohol in favor of THC beverages.

Following the success of Wyld's CBD Sparkling Waters introduced in 2019 and the company's nationwide rollout of hemp-derived, Delta-9 gummies in 2024, the new Infused Sparkling Waters mark the next evolution in Wyld's product line. Available in both 10mg and 2mg dosing options per can, the drinks are crafted with real fruit and designed for a range of experiencesfrom active and social to calm and restorative.

"Honestly, I think we've outdone ourselves with these drinks," said Aaron Morris, CEO and Founder of Wyld. "After testing and tweaking the formulas, we've created something I personally can't stop drinking. They're delicious, consistent, and 100% Wyld quality throughout."

The initial launch consists of seven finely tuned flavors with distinct effects:

Raspberry Lime (10mg THC)  Active

 Blackberry Lemon (10mg THC)  Mellow

 Strawberry Guava (10mg THC, 10mg CBC)  Bliss

 Watermelon (10mg THC, 10mg CBG)  Refresh

 Mango (10mg THC, 10mg CBD)  Restore

 Clementine (2mg THC, 20mg CBD)  Bright

 White Peach (2mg THC, 20mg CBD)  Chill

The two lower-dose offeringsClementine and White Peachare designed with cannabis-curious or low-dose consumers in mind, offering a sessionable experience akin to sipping beer versus spirits. Whether consumers are seeking a social setting with multiple beverages or a solo sip, Wyld's Infused Sparkling Waters deliver a buzz that's uplifting, clean and tailor-made for summer gatherings.

"We've been producing our CBD Sparkling Waters since 2019, and have been looking for the right time to bring that same Wyld quality to a THC beverage." said Morris. "It just made sense to expand what we offer in the sparkling water format."

Wyld's hemp-derived delta-9 Sparkling Waters are available now in select markets where hemp products are permitted, through specialty retailers, wholesale partners and online. All products are tested to ensure quality, potency and safetypart of Wyld's ongoing commitment to raising the standard for hemp-derived consumer goods.

For more information or to order online, please visit wyldhemp.com.

About Wyld

Known as America's favorite edible, Wyld is a boundary-pushing cannabis brand that has been driving market innovation since 2016. Crafted by our expert food scientists, Wyld blends real fruit juice with cannabinoids and natural ingredients to create a unique collection of uplifting, balanced and relaxing focus areas. Dedicated to creating a brand and product that makes choosing to feel good a point of everyday pride, Wyld is devoted to fostering a cleaner environment, empowering communities and championing social justice. Their operations span both the U.S. and Canada, with availability continuing to expand across the THC and CBD sectors. Learn more: wyldcanna.com

Media Contact

Molly Sposato

Grasslands: A Journalism-Minded Agency

[email protected]

SOURCE Wyld
LAREDO, Texas, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Laredo is launching a yearlong celebration marking 25 years of the World Trade Bridge, a vital commercial gateway that transformed Laredo into the top-ranked inland port in the United States. Inaugurated on April 15, 2000, the World Trade Bridge has evolved from a solution to downtown congestion into one of the busiest commercial border crossings in the Western Hemisphere. Today, it processes more than 6 million trucks annually and moves over $339 billion in goods, surpassing major sea and land ports such as Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago. "This bridge, which is the anchor of our port, represents the shared vision of two nations and two sister cities that, through strategic planning and joint investment, has transformed a region into a global logistics powerhouse," said Laredo Mayor Dr. Victor D. Trevino.

Ongoing Expansion to Boost Trade Capacity

On May 31, 2024, the president of the United States approved the City of Laredo's request to expand the World Trade Bridge. The expansion project includes the construction of a new eight-lane bridge dedicated to northbound commercial traffic, along with additional lanes on the existing bridge for southbound traffic. Once completed, the project will enhance traffic flow, reduce congestion, and strengthen the port's capacity to support the growing demands of international trade.

From Bottleneck to Binational Beacon

The bridge was conceived in the 1990s in response to NAFTA-era congestion in downtown Laredo. With support from both sides of the border, construction was completed in under two years, opening with eight commercial lanes  now expanded to fourteen. Port Laredo currently handles over 40% of all U.S.Mexico land trade, with daily traffic ranging from 15,000 to 18,000 trucks carrying everything from automobiles and medical devices to fresh produce and electronics.

A Strategic Hub for the Americas

The World Trade Bridge has become a critical node for hemispheric trade, connecting not only Mexico and the United States but also facilitating commerce from Central and South America. Products from Colombia, Brazil, Peru, and other countries enter the U.S. through Mexican ports like Manzanillo and Veracruz before continuing north through Laredo.

Laredo: The New Standard for Nearshoring

As companies reconfigure global supply chains, Port Laredo's secure, technology-driven infrastructure has positioned the city as a premier gateway for nearshoring and regional manufacturing integration. The 25th anniversary campaign will feature binational events, industry panels, and a regional trade summit later this year to highlight Laredo's evolving role in global commerce.

For More Information

Stay updated on anniversary events, trade summits, and news by visiting www.portlaredo.com and subscribing to our newsletter.

Follow Port Laredo on social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/portlaredo

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/port-laredo

About Port Laredo

Port Laredo is the nation's #1 inland port and a global leader in international trade. Located on the U.S.Mexico border, the port serves as a critical logistics hub for North American and hemispheric commerce. With a strategic geographic position, advanced customs infrastructure, and multimodal connectivity, Port Laredo facilitates the movement of over $330 billion in goods annually and plays a vital role in strengthening regional economies and global supply chains.

SOURCE Port Laredo, Texas
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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The Musk-Trump version of law and order

Protecting the nation from polluters is a core function of the Environmental Protection Agency. But in the last few months, federal enforcement of major violations of environmental laws appears to have ground to a halt. A Grist review of data from the Department of Justice and EPA found that the Trump administration has not filed any new cases against major polluters in its first three months . Similarly, the number of minor civil and criminal enforcement cases has also significantly declined since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.

The hands-off approach to environmental enforcement comes amid Trumps repeated pledges to go easier on polluters. His administration has begun rolling back dozens of regulations; granting exemptions from federal air quality requirements to coal plants; and rewriting pollution standards for cars and trucks. Federal environmental enforcement declined during Trumps first term, but the decrease during the first three months of his second term has been more drastic.

The future is grim for environmental protection, said Gary Jonesi, a former top EPA enforcement attorney who now runs the nonprofit CREEDemocracy, which promotes clean energy and democracy globally. The risk will be most felt in overburdened communities, but this will hurt red and blue districts alike, he added. If the EPA cop is not on the beat, then people are going to be harmed.

Environmental enforcement varies from state to state. In some cases, state agencies take the lead on enforcing environmental laws. In other cases, the EPA does. The federal agency typically uncovers violations through routine inspections or tips. If the offense is minor, the EPA handles it as a civil administrative case. The polluter is issued a notice of violation, and most often a settlement is reached in which the two sides agree to a remedy and potentially a fine.

However, when the agency uncovers major violations such as chemical discharge in drinking water, poorer air quality from fracking pollution, and large chemical spills like the East Palestine catastrophe, it refers the cases to the DOJ. As the chief litigator for federal agencies, the DOJ files cases against polluters.

A review of publicly available data and press releases suggests the DOJ has not initiated any new major cases since Trump took office. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been filing or closing nearly 100 fewer civil cases per month on average than the Biden administration during its last fiscal year, which ended in October. Its also initiating or closing about 200 fewer cases per month than the first Trump administration did during the same time period in 2017. These trends were confirmed by five current and former enforcement officials and an analysis of publicly available data.

Declining to act

The Biden administration averaged 288 cases per month during the last fiscal year  about 100 per month more than the Trump administration so far. During its first three months, the administration has filed or closed at least 567 cases or an average of 189 per month, records show.

But that figure may be distorted in favor of Trump by civil cases that were started, investigated, and negotiated under Biden but have only recently been finalized. For example, the EPA cited the SilverEdge Cooperative trucking supply company in Iowa for a minor Clean Air Act violation in June 2024. A settlement of $5,000 was reached, though it is unclear when, and the case was finalized on April 14.

The Trump administration has also closed some larger cases. The Biden EPA, DOJ, and Hino Motors, a Toyota subsidiary, reached a $1.6 billion settlement on January 15 after the automaker was accused of lying about emissions controls on its engines. A federal court entered the sentence on March 19.

A DOJ spokesperson told Grist the department had no comment, and an EPA spokesperson said in an email that the administration is committed to enforcing all aspects of the law from inspection to informal and formal administrative and judicial actions. When asked to provide evidence of new judicial cases filed by the Trump administration, the EPA spokesperson sent cases opened, investigated, and litigated under Biden but closed under Trump, including the Hino Motors case. When asked to provide new cases filed under Trump, the spokesperson did not respond.

Two current EPA enforcement staffers told Grist they were informed through the chain of command that there would be a higher bar for initiating cases against major polluters  a decision that would now go through the agencys political appointees. They cited a March 12 EPA memo noting that enforcement actions will no longer shut down any stage of energy production as effectively granting energy companies a license to pollute because they are not being prosecuted for breaking environmental laws.

Newly appointed EPA officials are reviewing every major case in progress, the current EPA staffers said. The agency typically handles hundreds of cases at any given point. All of them were on hold as of early April, though some have since begun to advance through the review process. Polluters accused of violations by the EPA were also using the administration change as leverage in negotiations with EPA enforcement, and some major polluters were visiting political appointees in an effort to scuttle cases, one official said.

Grists analysis looked for civil administrative, criminal, and major civil cases listed in six public databases for the first three months of the new administration, as well as press releases on the EPA and DOJ website. It compared the new administrations monthly average to the Biden administrations monthly average during fiscal year 2024, as well as the first Trump administrations first three months. Grist assessed enforcement trends by fiscal year to align with how federal agencies report data.

The review may not include every case because enforcement details arent always promptly entered into public databases, two former top EPA enforcement officials who reviewed the data said. But they added that the vast majority of cases should be accounted for in each database, and the findings broadly provide an accurate picture that tracks with their observations.

Things are definitely slower, a current enforcement employee said. Even the settlements happening now were mostly done under Biden, they just needed to get them over the finish line.

The difference raises questions about the politicization of enforcement, said David Uhlmann, a Biden appointee who ran the EPAs enforcement office from 2022 to 2024.

Its critically important to keep politics out of enforcement, he added. Enforcement should be about upholding the rule of law and protecting communities from harmful pollution.

The slowdown does not appear to be related to the administrations transition. The EPA under the first Trump administration was far more active, initiating or completing at least 1,179 civil cases during the same time period in early 2017 or about 200 more per month than the current administration.

Uhlmann said career enforcement officials were able to convince political appointees during the first Trump administration that it wasnt appropriate to pause or reduce enforcement cases across the board. But as the first Trump administration became more hostile toward career staff, an exodus occurred and enforcement steadily slowed, hitting a low point in fiscal year 2020. That figure increased steadily during the Biden administration.

Its only been three months, but the EPA has taken such a hard turn away from protecting public health and the environment, Uhlmann said. Its breathtaking and sad.

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/accountability/the-trump-administration-has-all-but-stopped-enforcing-environmental-laws/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

"This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."
Copenhagen : , May 22 (IANS) External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar met the Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen here on Wednesday (local time) to discuss India and Denmark relations and also lauded Denmark's strong solidarity and support on combatting terrorism.

"Delighted to meet FM Lars Lokke Rasmussen in Copenhagen this evening. Denmark's strong solidarity and support on combatting terrorism has been truly commendable. Our wide-ranging conversation on bilateral ties and global issues testifies to the strength of our relationship," EAM Jaishankar said on Wednesday evening in a post on X.

The EAM arrived here on Tuesday evening in the second leg of his three-nation tour to the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

Earlier in the day, the EAM met with the Speaker of the Danish Parliament Folketing, Soren Gade, expressing appreciation for Denmark's solidarity against terrorism.

"A very warm meeting with Speaker Soren Gade in Copenhagen today. Appreciate his solidarity as India resolutely combats terrorism. Also value his sustained support for building India-Denmark relations," EAM Jaishankar said in another post on X.

Later on Wednesday, EAM Jaishankar engaged with the Indian community in Copenhagen, noting their role in enhancing cultural connections.

"Great to meet with Indian community representatives in Copenhagen. They hold the Indian flag high in Denmark and shape our positive image in this country," he added.

EAM Jaishankar arrived in Denmark on Wednesday after concluding a successful two-day official visit to the Netherlands from May 19 to 20.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen received the EAM, and key discussions focused on advancing the India-Denmark Green Strategic Partnership.

This underscored both nations' commitment to deepening bilateral cooperation and addressing global challenges.

Following this, Jaishankar met with Morten Bodskov, the Danish Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, in Copenhagen.

Both Ministers discussed deepening existing areas of cooperation and exploring new possibilities.

"I was Pleased to meet Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs Morten Bodskov in Copenhagen today. We discussed deepening existing areas of cooperation and exploring new possibilities," EAM Jaishankar wrote on X.

EAM Jaishankar is on an official visit to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany from May 19 to 24.

In a post on X, EAM Jaishankar thanked Prime Minister Frederiksen for "warmly receiving" him in Copenhagen.

During the meeting, EAM Jaishankar also conveyed personal greetings from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Caracas, May 22 : Another 90 Venezuelan migrants deported by the US arrived in the capital Caracas, the Interior Ministry said.

The migrants, including 77 men, six women and seven children, flew from the US southern state of Texas to the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas area, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Venezuelan government agencies and institutions are guaranteeing the different protocols regarding health and legal security for the arrival of those who were deported by the US government," the Ministry said on Wednesday in a press statement.

Returning migrants were met by representatives of different agencies, such as the Ministry of Health, the National Children's Institute, the Bolivarian National Police and the intelligence services.

Since February, repatriation flights from the US have increased.

According to Venezuelan authorities, more than 4,000 migrants have been repatriated from the US and Mexico since the beginning of the year.

A two-year-old Venezuelan girl, who had been held by the US government after it deported her mother, returned to Venezuela, where she was received by authorities of the South American country.

Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal was taken from her mother's arms just before she was deported, in an incident that Venezuelan officials described as a "kidnapping".

The toddler returned to Venezuela on Wednesday by a US-registered plane that landed at the the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, which serves the capital Caracas, along with 226 Venezuelan migrants deported from the US, including seven minors and 37 women.

Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores thanked the people for their solidarity with the minor, noting that the government "remained firm" in demanding her return.

The girl's mother, Yorelys Bernal, who was deported to Venezuela in April, was not at the airport to receive her, but officials said the two would soon be reunited.

The separation of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal from her parents had caused an outcry in the South American nation.

Several demonstrations were held in Caracas to denounce her "abduction" by US authorities.

President Nicolas Maduro thanked his US counterpart and arch-foe, Donald Trump, for returning the child to Venezuela.

Striking an unusually conciliatory tone, he said that "there have been, and will be differences" with the Trump administration but called the return of the toddler a "profoundly humane act of justice".

The little girl is one of several children caught up in Trump's crackdown on illegal migration.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the girl was placed in foster care to protect her from her parents, who it claimed were members of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua criminal gang.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said her return was "a great victory," adding she "should never have been separated from her parents," and the US government should "recognise the mistakes it has made".

Since February, flights repatriating Venezuelan migrants deported from the US have increased.

The toddler's mother said she and her husband were separated from their daughter when they handed themselves over to US authorities after arriving in the country illegally in May 2024.

Her father is believed to have been among a group of Venezuelans sent by the US to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison.

The Trump administration said that the Venezuelans it sent to El Salvador were members of Tren de Aragua, but has provided scant evidence to back that claim.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed that Maikelys' father, Maiker Espinoza-Escalona, was a Tren de Aragua "lieutenant" who oversaw "homicides, drug sales, kidnappings, extortion, sex trafficking and operates a torture house".

It said the girl's mother oversaw the recruitment of young women for drug smuggling and prostitution.

The mother, Bernal, 20, claimed they were detained because they had tattoos, which US authorities have linked to gang activity.

Since February, more than 4,000 migrants have been sent home to Venezuela, some deported from the US and others from Mexico, where they had gathered in the hope of crossing into the US.
Ottawa, May 22 : Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces' (IDF)'s warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.

Anand confirmed on Wednesday that four of Canada's personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots.

She wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada's Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada's team is safe.

"I have asked my officials to summon Israel's Ambassador to convey Canada's serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability," Anand wrote.

Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that it's "totally unacceptable" that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.

The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the IDF fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand's office said.

"We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It's totally unacceptable, it's some of many things that are totally unacceptable that's going on in the region," Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.

In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, "deviated" from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.

The IDF said it "regrets the inconvenience caused".

Anand joins other Foreign Ministers condemning the incident.

The Western leaders' letter followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.

Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it "a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7," referring to Hamas's attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in Gaza

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney's joint statement.

"The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel," he posted online on Tuesday.

"Threatening Israel with sanctions and 'further concrete actions' while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong."

Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed US Vice President J.D. Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.

When asked for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu's government doesn't change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the UK and France was "clear".

In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.

According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday, but workers have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.
Ottawa, May 22 : Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces' (IDF)'s warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.

Anand confirmed on Wednesday that four of Canada's personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots, Xinhua news agency reported.

She wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada's Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada's team is safe.

"I have asked my officials to summon Israel's Ambassador to convey Canada's serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability," Anand wrote.

Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that it's "totally unacceptable" that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.

The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the IDF fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand's office said.

"We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It's totally unacceptable, it's some of many things that are totally unacceptable that's going on in the region," Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.

In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, "deviated" from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.

The IDF said it "regrets the inconvenience caused".

Anand joins other Foreign Ministers condemning the incident.

The Western leaders' letter followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.

Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it "a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7," referring to Hamas's attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in Gaza

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney's joint statement.

"The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel," he posted online on Tuesday.

"Threatening Israel with sanctions and 'further concrete actions' while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong."

Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed US Vice President J.D. Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.

When asked for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu's government doesn't change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the UK and France was "clear".

In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.

According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday, but workers have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.
Jerusalem/Beirut, May 22 : The Israeli military have said it launched a drone strike in southern Lebanon, killing a commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan force.

The military issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that the strike was carried out in the Yater area, without specifying the commander's name.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA), citing Khalil Kourani, head of Yater Municipality, said the dead was a citizen identified as Ali Hassan Abdel Latif Sweidan, who was targetted when he was clearing the rubble from his home using his excavator.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military claimed to have killed Hussein Nazih Barji, a Hezbollah operative involved in the group's weapons development program, during an Israeli drone strike in the Tyre area in southern Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported.

The NNA confirmed the attack, but did not say if the dead was a member of Hezbollah.

The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel's military said it carried out a drone strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, killing a Hezbollah operative involved in the group's weapons development programme.

The man, identified as Hussein Nazih Barji, was struck while travelling in a vehicle in the Tyre area, according to a military statement accompanied by surveillance footage.

Barji was described as "a central figure" in a directorate of Hezbollah that oversees the development, manufacture, and maintenance of weapons, including precision missiles, and works to expand the group's supply capabilities, Xinhua news agency reported.

The military said Barji was "a veteran engineer responsible for building infrastructure for the production of precision surface-to-surface missiles".

His killing was intended to "disrupt Hezbollah's recovery efforts," it added.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on social media platform X that "Barji's activities represented a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will continue to act to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel."

The Lebanese Health Ministry confirmed the attack, saying that a "hostile" drone targetted a car on the Housh-Ain Baal road in the Tyre district, killing one person from the town of Ramadiyah.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported another death from an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday on the village of Yater.

On Monday, a Hezbollah member was killed and three civilians injured in a spate of Israeli air and ground strikes targetting various areas in southern Lebanon.

The official National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli airstrike had targetted the outskirts of the village of Houla. A Lebanese security source confirmed that a Hezbollah member, named Issa Qutaish and originally from Houla, was killed in the strike.

The NNA had said that in two additional incidents, two people were injured when an Israeli drone hit a motorcycle in the Wadi Sarbin area, while another individual was wounded in the shoulder as Israeli forces opened fire on him at the entrance of Kafr Kila village.

The incidents were the latest in a series of Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire reached in November 2024 that ended 14 months of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Lucknow, May 22 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed health officials to remain alert about the spread of Covid-19 in the state but also said there was nothing to worry as far as Uttar Pradesh was concerned.

During a review meeting with the health department on the Covid-19 situation, the CM on Wednesday said, "There is nothing to worry about given the present situation in Uttar Pradesh, but being alert is significant."

"The Indian government has not issued any guidelines on Covid-19 so far. But in view of the surge of cases of of the JN.1 variant in Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong, we need to remain alert. All teams at medical colleges and hospitals should remain alert," the CM told officials in the meeting.

He added that personnel at hospitals should be kept alert to deal with emergency cases.

He told officials to focus on the prevention of dengue, malaria and kala-azar or black fever.

"Ten-bed ICU, ventilator units, oxygen plants and other facilities made operational during previous Covid surges should be kept functional. The state's health facility is capable of dealing with any situation," the CM said.

Highlighting the infrastructure developed during previous waves of the pandemic, the Chief Minister directed that the 10-bed ICUs, ventilators, and oxygen plants established in district hospitals must always remain operational.

He emphasised the importance of regular testing and timely maintenance of these critical facilities.

He also called for the continued training and effective deployment of health workers, recognising their commendable contributions during the pandemic.

Chief Minister Adityanath also instructed relevant departments to begin preparations to prevent seasonal communicable diseases such as dengue, malaria, and kala-azar.

He directed the Health Department, Medical Education Department, and local administration to work closely to ensure proactive measures are in place.

Concluding the review, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reiterated that the Uttar Pradesh government is fully prepared and committed to addressing all potential health challenges, including Covid-19.

He assured that the state's healthcare system remains alert, capable, and equipped to safeguard public health.

According to the official statement, Chief Minister Adityanath noted that the Central government has issued no new advisory regarding Covid-19.

Still, considering the rising number of JN.1 cases in Thailand, Singapore, and Hong Kong, he stressed the need for continued surveillance in Uttar Pradesh.

He instructed all medical colleges, district hospitals, and health units across the state to remain on high alert and be fully prepared to handle any potential emergency.
Jerusalem, May 22 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed his government's intention to fully reoccupy besieged Gaza, dismissed any agreement to end the war, and brushed aside any speculations of a rift with US President Donald Trump.

"There are certainly 20 hostages still alive in Gaza and up to 38 others believed to have been killed," he said on Wednesday during a press conference at his office in West Jerusalem.

The Palestinian group Hamas has repeatedly expressed its readiness to release Israeli captives in a single exchange in return for an end to the war, an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu has rejected those terms, instead demanding the disarmament of Palestinian resistance factions and insisting on the full reoccupation of Gaza.

He also laid out his conditions for ending the war: the return of all Israeli hostages, the removal of the Hamas leadership from Gaza, and the complete disarmament of the group.

Netanyahu claimed that once these goals are achieved, Israel would move to implement the so-called Trump Plan -- widely interpreted as a framework for the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.

Netanyahu also dismissed speculation of a falling out with the US administration following a visit to the Gulf by Trump that left out Israel.

Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates hauled in a series of big-ticket business deals, but fuelled widespread media commentary pointing out that Israel, Washington's closest ally in the region, had not been included.

The visit followed Trump's decision to end a US bombing campaign against the Houthis in Yemen.

Netanyahu, who had previously made no public comment on the issue, told reporters at a news conference that he told him: "'Bibi, I want you to know, I have a complete commitment to you and I have a complete commitment to the state of Israel.'"

Amid growing international pressure on Israel, Trump has urged a quick end to the war in Gaza and spoken of the suffering of civilians in the besieged enclave, where an 11-week Israeli aid blockade has created a deep humanitarian crisis.

In a separate conversation a few days ago, Netanyahu said US Vice President J.D. Vance had told him: "'Don't pay attention to all these fake news stories about this rupture between us'".
Jerusalem, May 22 : Israel's military has said it intercepted a projectile launched from the Gaza Strip, as fighting escalated across the besieged enclave under its widening military campaign.

In a statement on Wednesday, the military said the projectile was fired from northern Gaza and intercepted by the Israeli Air Force.

Air raid sirens sounded in the Lakhish area of southern Israel, Xinhua news agency reported.

There were no reports of casualties.

No group has claimed responsibility for the launch.

The incident comes days after two rockets were fired from central Gaza on Sunday.

Israel's military said one was intercepted while the other landed in an open area.

The Israeli military's spokesperson Lt. Colonel Avichay Adraee warned residents of the northern areas of Gaza to head south for safety ahead of an imminent attack in response to the rocket fire.

"The IDF will act with force in the area from which rockets were fired. Terror groups, especially Hamas, are responsible for the suffering of civilians. Your your own safety, head to the south," Adraee said in his post.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, a single projectile launched from the northern Gaza Strip was intercepted by the air defence after crossing into Israeli territory.

The IDF confirmed there were no injuries in the incident and said it is continuing to investigate the details.

The Ashkelon Municipality also reported that one rocket was intercepted and said no unusual incidents or damage were recorded in the city.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, stating it was carried out in response to what it called "the Zionist massacre against our Palestinian people".

In a statement, the group said it had "bombed Ashdod and Ashkelon with a barrage of rockets" as retaliation.

The exchanges follow the launch of Israel's latest offensive, Operation Gideon's Chariots, which Palestinian health authorities said has killed hundreds in its first five days.

The Gaza-based health authorities reported on Wednesday that 53,655 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its military campaign more than 19 months ago.
Muscat/Tehran, May 22 : Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi has said that the fifth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran will be held in Rome on Friday. The announcement was made in a post on his official X account.

The talks, aimed at reviving stalled diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program and US sanctions, are being facilitated by Oman, Xinhua news agency reported.

Four rounds have taken place since April, three in Muscat and one in Rome.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on Wednesday that Tehran was still considering whether to participate in the upcoming talks in the face of "excessive demands" from the US, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA.

"We will stand against excessive demands at the negotiating table, but we have never abandoned diplomacy," Araghchi said, adding that uranium enrichment would continue "with or without an agreement".

He reiterated that Iran is prepared to offer transparency regarding its nuclear activities, but expects negotiations to also address the lifting of US sanctions and embargoes imposed on the country.

On Wednesday, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref told a Cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran that uranium enrichment on Iran's soil is the "red line" of Iran's establishment in its indirect talks with the US.

US and Iranian officials have described the previous round of talks in Muscat on May 11 as "difficult but useful," noting a generally positive tone despite persistent differences.

US officials have in recent days called for Iran to fully halt uranium enrichment -- an issue Tehran has repeatedly declared to be non-negotiable.

Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed doubt this week over the talks.

"We don't think it will lead to any outcome. We don't know what will happen," he said.

Denying Iran's right to enrich uranium was "a big mistake," Khamenei added.

His remarks came after the US' key negotiator in the talks, Steve Witkoff, voiced opposition to any Iranian uranium enrichment.

"An enrichment programme can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That's our red line. No enrichment," he told right-wing Breitbart News in an interview published on May 9.

Iran has repeatedly insisted its right to maintain uranium enrichment was "non-negotiable".

On Sunday, Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Iran would keep enriching uranium "with or without a deal" on his country's nuclear programme.

The Islamic republic currently enriches uranium to 60 per cent, far above the 3.67-per cent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 per cent needed for a nuclear warhead.

Trump effectively torpedoed the deal in 2018 during his first term, by unilaterally pulling out and reimposing sanctions on Iran's oil exports and banking sector.

A year later, Iran began rolling back its commitments to the agreement, which had offered sanctions relief in return for UN-monitored restrictions on its nuclear activities.

The three European powers -- party to the 2015 accord -- are weighing whether to trigger the "snapback" mechanism, which would reinstate UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance. That option expires in October.

Araghchi earlier this month warned of "irreversible" consequences if Britain, France and Germany moved to reimpose sanctions.
Jerusalem, May 22 : Israel's Supreme Court has ruled that the government's decision in March to dismiss Ronen Bar, head of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency, was "illegal and contrary to law".

The dismissal was carried out "through an improper process and in violation of the law," the three-judge panel wrote on Wednesday in their ruling as quoted by Xinhua news agency.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a conflict of interest due to an ongoing investigation into a case dubbed "Qatar-Gate," the ruling added.

A blame game over the failure to prevent the October 7 Hamas-led attack has led to a standoff between Bar and Netanyahu, and the "Qatar-Gate" case, which probes into the alleged undisclosed contacts between Netanyahu's close aides and the Qatari government, has added to the tensions between the two sides.

In March, Netanyahu announced Bar's dismissal, citing a loss of confidence in him, Xinhua news agency reported.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and opposition leaders appealed the dismissal to the Supreme Court, which then froze the decision, pending further review.

In late April, Bar announced that he would resign on June 15.

The next day, the Israeli government cancelled its decision to fire Bar, and asked the Supreme Court to dismiss petitions challenging Bar's dismissal, arguing they had become moot following his resignation.

The contract allegedly aimed to promote Qatari interests from within Netanyahuas office. Qatar has denied the accusations, calling them baseless.

The court also ruled that the Netanyahu government failed to submit the dismissal to the relevant advisory committee and did not conduct a legally required hearing for Bar. It found no factual basis for the decision.

Justice Yitzhak Amit, president of the Supreme Court, wrote that Netanyahu was in a state of conflict of interest at the time of the decision, due to investigations involving his aides in the "QatarGate" case and a separate scandal involving leaked classified documents.

"This situation becomes even more severe," Amit wrote, "given that the Prime Minister himself has repeatedly acknowledged that these investigations could affect, among other things, his personal and political status."

Since Bar is directly involved in the investigations, "terminating his tenure could significantly impact their course," the judge added.

"Accordingly," Amit concluded, "the court finds that the Prime Minister is in a conflict of interest that prevents him from interfering in the termination of the Shin Bet director's position."

Channel 12 reported that the ruling effectively allows Netanyahu to announce a successor.

On March 20, the Israeli government announced Bar's dismissal as of April 10. The court later issued an injunction preventing his removal or replacement pending its review of petitions filed by opposition lawmakers.

Despite the court order, Bar announced on April 28 that he would voluntarily step down on June 15.

The move comes as the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing nearly 53,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
Jaipur, May 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday will visit the revered Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok in Rajasthan's Bikaner, and is likely to deliver a significant message from the spiritual land of Maa Karni.

This is his first visit to Rajasthan following India's attack on terror launch pads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7.

During the visit, PM Modi will inaugurate 103 Amrit Stations nationwide, including the newly developed Deshnok Railway Station under the Amrit Bharat Yojana. He will also address a large public meeting in Palana village near Bikaner.

His total stay in Bikaner is scheduled for 3 hours and 25 minutes. This visit is reminiscent of his public address in Churu, delivered on the morning of the airstrikes following the Pulwama attack.

Political observers anticipate that PM Modi may once again send a strong message to the global community, including Pakistan, from the land of Bikaner, especially as Thursday marks one month since the Pahalgam terror attack.

According to official sources, PM Modi will arrive at Nal Airport at 9.50 a.m. by a special aircraft and then proceed to Deshnok via helicopter.

He is scheduled to arrive at the Karni Mata Temple helipad at 10.30 a.m. and spend approximately 15 minutes at the temple. Following the temple visit, he will inaugurate the Deshnok Railway Station and flag off the Bikaner-Mumbai Express train.

He will be accompanied by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma. At 11.15 a.m., the Prime Minister will depart for Palana village by road - a journey of about 8 kilometres. A massive crowd of over one lakh people is expected at the public meeting venue, where elaborate seating arrangements and a large pandal have been set up.

Notably, around 6,000 people will don saffron turbans during the event. Several teams are working around the clock to prepare them.

During the event, PM Modi will inaugurate 103 Amrit Stations nationwide and lay the foundation stone for various development projects worth Rs 26,000 crore. These projects include 1,000 km of electrified railway tracks, seven major road projects, three vehicle underpasses, a PowerGrid transmission project and 900 km of national highways in Rajasthan. After the public meeting, the Prime Minister will return to Nal Airport by helicopter around 12.30 p.m. and depart for Delhi at around 1.15 p.m.
Chennai, May 22 : Farmers from the Delta districts of Tamil Nadu have urged the state government to immediately assess crop damage caused by recent unseasonal rain and grant compensation of Rs 35,000 per acre for the losses incurred.

According to leaders of various farmers' unions, more than 3,000 acres of summer crops, including paddy, sesame, cotton, and black gram, were severely damaged in Thanjavur district due to heavy rain on May 16 and 17.

The sudden downpour also wreaked havoc on banana plantations and betel leaf farms, resulting in extensive agricultural losses across the region. In areas such as Boothalur, Tiruvonam, Kumbakonam, and Tirupananthal, stagnant rainwater in the fields further aggravated the damage.

Farmers reported that poor maintenance and delayed desilting of inlet and outlet drains made it impossible to drain the water in time, leaving fields submerged for several days.

Vel Murugan, leader of the Thanjavur Farmers' Association, said that the ready-for-harvest paddy crop has now sprouted due to prolonged waterlogging, rendering it unfit for sale.

"The entire stretch of paddy cultivation is ruined. We informed the authorities promptly and urged them to visit the affected areas and begin damage assessment, but no official has come so far," he said.

Expressing frustration over the administration's inaction, Murugan added that the farmers may be forced to protest if the situation continues to be ignored. "We are in a dire situation. The crop was ready for harvest, and now everything is lost. Immediate intervention is needed."

The farmers' associations have demanded that the state government initiate immediate crop loss assessments and disburse a compensation of Rs 35,000 per acre to help cultivators recover from the financial blow.

They stressed that timely support is crucial to prevent indebtedness and ensure continuity of farming operations in the next season.

With agriculture being the primary livelihood for thousands of families in the Cauvery Delta, the farmers have called upon the district administration and state authorities to act swiftly and provide relief before the situation escalates further.
By Akbar Novruz

By all measures, the South Caucasus is standing at a historic moment. For the first time in decades, the prospects for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia are within real reach. Constructive negotiations are bringing the two sides closer to ending years of hostility and building a framework for sustainable coexistence. Yet, just as diplomacy begins to show tangible results, familiar obstacles are re-emergingthis time in the halls of the US Congress.

During a session on May 21, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed concerns about the region, noting, There is a real danger of conflict, which we are trying to prevent. Our teams are actively working in that direction. Secretary Rubio's remarks, grounded in a balanced understanding of the region's complexities, reiterated the United States' commitment to peacebuilding efforts in the South Caucasus. Importantly, he acknowledged the challenges of dealing with nations that may not fully align with American governance models, but emphasized the need to pursue diplomacy in the service of national and global interests.

However, it was the question posed by Congressman Christopher Smith, co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, that raised eyebrows. Smith accused Azerbaijan of committing genocide against Armenians and holding political prisoners, calling for increased pressure on Baku. While such language may resonate with certain domestic audiences, it reflects a broader strategy long deployed by the Armenian lobby: distorting facts to influence foreign policy in their favor.

This is not a new phenomenon. The Armenian lobby has historically leveraged influential political figures to frame Azerbaijan as the aggressor, particularly at moments when real peace is achievable. The timing is rarely coincidental. At a point when the two countries are engaged in difficult but productive dialogue, and when Azerbaijan has repeatedly reiterated its readiness for a comprehensive peace treaty, such inflammatory statements appear aimed less at protecting human rights and more at derailing diplomatic momentum.

The core irony is striking: while Azerbaijan is actively involved in regional integration and is taking the lead on initiatives related to energy, transport, and humanitarian reconstructionboth globally and within the regionthe narrative put forth by lobby-backed figures completely overlooks this context. By painting Azerbaijan as a threat and invoking the specter of war, lobbying actors risk creating the very instability they claim to fear.

How about Armenia? How safe and stable is the current political climate in the country? Let us look:

A few days ago, signs of a political crisis were also observed in Armenia. The struggle for power in Armenia is gradually entering a new and more intense phase. Thus, the MPs who were recently expelled from the ruling "Civil Contract" partyHakob Aslanyan and Hovik Aghazaryanhave nominated Edmon Marukyan for the post of Prime Minister of Armenia. Marukyan is a former comrade-in-arms of Pashinyan who resigned from his position as special ambassador last year.

It should be noted that Marukyan announced his resignation as special ambassador in protest against the government's "peace strategy" with Azerbaijan, and soon formed a new party. He is known for his relatively tough stance toward Azerbaijan. There are also allegations that Marukyan is pro-Russian. Interestingly, Marukyan, who is partially considered a representative of the "soft opposition," has emerged amid the declining influence of the traditional radical opposition in the country. By the way, among the information received is that he sought support for the prime ministership from forces connected to Russia, particularly the Kocharyan-Sargsyan pair.

Clearly, Armenia's internal politics do not concern Azerbaijan, but the key issue here is a rejection of the official demands from Baku, adjustments to the constitution, and commitment to the peace agenda. Unfortunately, no one can assure that a new political force wont create the possibility of another war between the two countries during a time when the demands remain unmet and a peace treaty has not been signed.

Moreover, the suggestion that war is imminent has been a recurring tactic used by lobbying forces, often without a credible basis. These claims are not only disconnected from the current diplomatic landscape but also serve to confuse international audiences and policymakers. One must ask: whose interests are truly being served by this narrative? Because it increasingly seems that these voices speak more for lobby interests than for the state of Armenia itself.

Indeed, this form of political pressure might have value if used constructivelyto encourage both sides toward reconciliation, to support civil society on both sides of the border, or to strengthen confidence-building measures. But when used selectively and directed overwhelmingly at one party, it loses legitimacy and undermines the larger goals of peace.

Azerbaijan, for its part, has not shied away from scrutiny. For its part, it has consistently expressed its firm commitment to achieving peace and has communicated this position clearly on every international platform. Its calls for peace are not performativethey are substantiated by actions, from rebuilding formerly occupied territories with inclusive development projects to proposing mutual recognition of territorial integrity and sovereignty.

At this pivotal moment, the international communityespecially responsible political actors in Washington and Brusselsmust discern between advocacy rooted in reconciliation and lobbying that thrives on prolonging division. The future of the South Caucasus depends not on outdated narratives and selective indignation, but on pragmatic, forward-looking diplomacy.

Azerbaijan is ready for peace. But peace requires partners, not provocateurs.
Tokyo, May 22 : An all-party Indian parliamentary delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha arrived in Tokyo on Thursday morning, marking the start of India's massive diplomatic outreach on 'Operation Sindoor.'

This global campaign will expose Pakistan's role in fostering cross-border terrorism.

The delegation includes BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi and Brij Lal, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.

After Japan, they will continue their high-level engagements in South Korea (May 24), Singapore (May 27), Indonesia (May 28), and Malaysia (May 31).

Upon their arrival, the leaders were welcomed by Indian Ambassador to Japan Sibi George, who outlined the strategic roadmap for engagements with Japanese leadership and civil society.

The visit focuses on rallying support for India's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, especially in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.

"India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements," the Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated.

Sanjay Kumar Jha took to social media, writing, "Ohayo gozaimasu, Nihon! Good morning, Japan! Happy to have landed in Japan with an all-party Indian delegation. We seek continued support in India's stand against cross-border terrorism, especially after the April 22 Pahalgam attack that took the lives of 26 innocent civilians."

"India's measured response in Operation Sindoor showed our zero-tolerance approach. Japan and India stand united for peace and democratic values," he added.

This unprecedented global campaign is being coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and involves seven high-level delegations, comprising 59 Members of Parliament, former ministers, diplomats, and senior political leaders, travelling to 33 countries between May 21 and June 5.

While Jha's team covers East and Southeast Asia, MP Shrikant Shinde leads another group to the UAE, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Simultaneously, DMK leader Kanimozhi's delegation is visiting Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia, and Spain.

The campaign's primary objective is to present a unified Indian front against terrorism and internationally isolate Pakistan by highlighting its consistent support for terror networks.

The MPs will engage with foreign governments, legislators, media, civil society, Indian diaspora, and international institutions, including the UN.

They will present evidence of Pakistan's backing of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and its continued sheltering of globally designated terrorists.

The initiative represents one of India's strongest and most cohesive foreign outreach efforts in recent years, aimed at building international consensus against state-sponsored terrorism.
Chennai, May 22 : With the southwest monsoon fast approaching, concerns are rising over the delay in initiating critical repair work at the Siruvani Dam -- one of the main sources of drinking water for Coimbatore city.

Officials have warned that nearly 10 million litres per day (MLD) of water is currently being lost due to seepage from the dam. This volume is sufficient to meet Coimbatoreas residential water needs for three days.

Experts say that if the leakage is rectified in time, around 50 to 55 MLD of water can be conserved during peak summer months -- an essential resource for the cityas population.

To assess and resolve the issue, a joint inspection was carried out on January 8 by five teams representing the Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC), and the Kerala Water Resources Department.

Following the inspection, a comprehensive technical report was submitted by the CWPRS team to CCMC Commissioner M. Sivaguru Prabakaran.

The report outlined the extent of the damage and recommended remedial measures to stop the seepage and enhance dam safety.

The Pune-based team suggested two potential solutions -- grouting and the application of a geomembrane lining. Sources in the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation told IANS that the Tamil Nadu authorities are awaiting final cost estimates from the Kerala Water Resources and Irrigation Department, which is responsible for executing the repair work.

These estimates are to be prepared based on the recommendations made by the dam safety experts.

Once Kerala submits the detailed cost estimates, the Tamil Nadu government is expected to allocate the necessary funds, and the repair work will be undertaken by the Kerala authorities.

However, with the monsoon just days away, environmentalists and civic bodies are pressing both state governments to expedite the process. Any further delay could result in the loss of precious rainwater from the reservoir, worsening the already precarious water situation in Coimbatore.

Situated in Kerala, the Siruvani Dam remains a vital water source for lakhs of residents in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. The growing water loss due to unchecked seepage has raised alarm among officials and citizens alike, underscoring the urgent need for timely intervention.
Abu Dhabi, May 22 : The second all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early on Thursday morning (Indian time) as part of India's massive global outreach campaign on Operation Sindoor.

This campaign is aimed at exposing Pakistan's role in fostering cross-border terrorism.

The delegation includes BJP MPs Bansuri Swaraj, Atul Garg and Manan Kumar Mishra, BJD's Sasmit Patra, IUML MP E.T. Mohammed Basheer, BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. After the UAE, it will visit Liberia, Congo and Sierra Leone.

"Taking India's strong message against terrorism to the world! A warm welcome to the All-party delegation led by Shrikant Shinde to the UAE. Ahmed Mir Khoori, Member of the Federal National Council and Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Sunjay Sudhir, received the delegation," the Indian Embassy in UAE said in a post on X.

"UAE is the first country to receive the All-Party delegation in the context of Operation Sindoor, underlining India-UAE's deep bonds of friendship," the embassy further stated.

Before heading to the Middle Eastern nation, Shinde said that it is a great opportunity for the whole team to put forward India's firm stance against terrorism.

"Our purpose is clear and unwavering: to confront state-sponsored terrorism, specifically from Pakistan, on the global stage. We will be highlighting the remarkable success of Operation Sindoor and reinforcing India's undeniable Right to Self-Defence as enshrined in International Law," he said in a post on X.

"This delegation will deliver a strong, unified message to the international community -- reflecting India's resolute stand against terrorism and our deep-seated commitment to fostering global peace and security," Shinde added.

The first delegation of Indian parliamentarians, led by Janata Dal-United MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, also arrived in Tokyo with a clear message -- India's zero tolerance policy toward terrorism.

The delegation includes a diverse array of leaders across party lines, including former External Affairs Minister and Congress leader Salman Khurshid, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, Pradan Baruah, Hemang Joshi, Trinamool Congress's Abhishek Banerjee, and Ambassador Mohan Kumar.

The campaign's primary objective is to present a unified Indian front against terrorism and internationally isolate Pakistan by highlighting its consistent support for terror networks.

The MPs will engage with foreign governments, legislators, media, civil society, Indian diaspora, and international institutions, including the UN.

They will present evidence of Pakistan's backing of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and its continued sheltering of globally designated terrorists.

The initiative represents one of India's strongest and most cohesive foreign outreach efforts in recent years, aimed at building international consensus against state-sponsored terrorism.
Seoul, May 22 : The South Korean consortium has a competitive advantage in technology transfer over its Chinese rival as it vies to win the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) high-speed railway project, estimated to cost $13.6 billion, Seoul's transport minister said.

Transport Minister Park Sang-woo said that the Korean consortium, consisting of the Korea National Railway, Korea Railroad Corp., Hyundai Rotem Co. and POSCO E&C Co., has passed the pre-qualification procedure to enter the official bid for the Middle Eastern country's railway project.

Park was in the eastern German city of Leipzig to attend the three-day International Transport Forum (ITF) Summit.

"Our primary focus is on technology transfer on top of product quality, while China appears to focus on the price dimension," Park told Yonhap News Agency.

Earlier this year, the UAE opened two separate bids for the project -- roadbed and railway vehicle constructions. It aims to build a new 150-kilometer-long high-speed train line linking Abu Dhabi and Dubai with a goal of beginning operations in 2030.

Compared to other competitors in the race for the bid, Seoul's strength lies in its localisation and on-time capabilities, including technology transfer, Park said.

South Korea's potential win in the UAE project could pave the way for the country to expand its foothold in the overseas construction market, especially considering that Seoul proposed a European high-speed railway model to the Middle Eastern country, he added.

Vietnam, Egypt and Peru are reportedly among the countries pushing for their own high-speed railway project in the near future.

In February, South Korea's Hyundai Rotem won a 2.2 trillion-won (U.S. $1.6 billion) deal from Morocco to supply advanced trains. Last year, it also signed a 270 billion won contract to supply high-speed trains to Uzbekistan.

The minister also said South Korea will work to develop hydrogen-powered trains in line with the international community's push for decarbonisation of the transport sector.

Earlier this month, Seoul's transport ministry announced a plan to develop and commercialise hydrogen-fueled trains by 2028 to help the local industry secure global leadership in the field.

The value of the global hydrogen train market is projected to grow to $26.4 billion by 2035 from the current value of $2.67 billion, according to the ministry.

a"IANS

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Chennai, May 22 : Eleven fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Coast Guard earlier this year, returned home on Wednesday night to an emotional reception at Chennai airport.

The fishermen, all residents of Rameswaram, had set out to sea on January 11 for a routine fishing expedition. However, they were intercepted mid-sea by the Sri Lankan Coast Guard for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

Their boats were seized, and the fishermen were taken into custody, later remanded in judicial custody and lodged in a Sri Lankan prison.

The arrests sparked concern in Tamil Nadu, prompting Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to appeal to the Union government for immediate intervention.

Responding to the request, the Ministry of External Affairs coordinated with the Indian High Commission in Colombo to secure the fishermenas release.

After weeks of diplomatic efforts, all 11 fishermen were released from the Sri Lankan prison and formally handed over to Indian authorities on May 14.

Officials from the Indian Embassy facilitated the necessary travel documentation to ensure their safe return.

The group boarded an Air India flight from Colombo and landed in Chennai late Wednesday night. Upon arrival at the airport, they were received by senior officials from the Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department, who arranged for their onward journey to Rameswaram, where their families awaited them.

This incident once again highlights the recurring issue of Indian fishermen being detained by the Sri Lankan Navy, a matter that has been a long-standing point of contention between the two nations.

Fishermen from Tamil Nadu frequently stray into Sri Lankan waters due to the lack of clear maritime boundaries and the lure of rich fishing grounds.

Chief Minister Stalin reiterated the need for a lasting diplomatic solution to prevent such incidents, ensuring the livelihood and safety of Tamil Naduas coastal fishing communities. Meanwhile, the families of the returned fishermen expressed immense relief and gratitude to both the state and Central governments for securing their release.
Tokyo, May 22 : Members of the all-party delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha began their visit to Japan by paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi in Edogawa, Tokyo.

The delegation, including, Jha, BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi and Brij Lal, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, arrived in Tokyo on Thursday morning, marking the start of India's massive diplomatic outreach on 'Operation Sindoor.'

Taking to X, Jha posted, "Commenced our visit by paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi Ji at Edogawa, Tokyo. This statue, unveiled by EAM S. Jaishankar in July 2024, stands as a symbol of peace and the enduring Indiaa"Japan friendship."

"Honouring Bapu here in Japan reaffirms our shared commitment to his timeless principles of non-violence and harmony," he added.

This global campaign on Operation Sindoor will expose Pakistan's role in fostering cross-border terrorism.

Upon their arrival, the leaders were welcomed by Indian Ambassador to Japan Sibi George.

Additionally, the delegation was also briefed by Ambassador Sibi George, who outlined the strategic roadmap for engagements with Japanese leadership and civil society.

In a post on X, Aparajita Sarangi wrote, "Started off with briefing of the Delegation by Indian Ambassador to Japan at the Indian Embassy here. Also, we went to Edogawa in Tokyo and offered floral tributes before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi."

The visit focuses on rallying support for India's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, especially in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.

"India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements," the Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated.

This unprecedented global campaign is being coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It involves seven high-level delegations, comprising 59 Members of Parliament, former ministers, diplomats, and senior political leaders, travelling to 33 countries between May 21 and June 5.

While Jha's team covers East and Southeast Asia, MP Shrikant Shinde leads another group to the UAE, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Simultaneously, DMK leader Kanimozhi's delegation is visiting Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia, and Spain.

The campaign's primary objective is to present a unified Indian front against terrorism and internationally isolate Pakistan by highlighting its consistent support for terror networks.

The MPs will engage with foreign governments, legislators, media, civil society, Indian diaspora, and international institutions, including the UN.

They will present evidence of Pakistan's backing of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and its continued sheltering of globally designated terrorists.

The initiative represents one of India's strongest and most cohesive foreign outreach efforts in recent years, aimed at building international consensus against state-sponsored terrorism.
Washington, May 22 : Two Israeli Embassy staff were shot dead near the Jewish Museum in Washington, as confirmed by US Homeland Security.

A male and a female employee of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot by an unknown assailant as they exited the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night (US time).

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice," US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X.

Meanwhile, calling the fatal shooting a "depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism," Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon posted on X, "Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives -- everywhere in the world."

Spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington, Tal Naim Cohen, condemned the killing of the two staffers and said, "We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States."

FBI Director Kash Patel assured that he and his team have been briefed about the shooting, and they are working with the Metropolitan Police Department

"My team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office. While we're working with MPD to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families. We will keep the public updated as we are able," said Kash Patel.

Speaking to US media outlet Fox 5, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) confirmed hosting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening.

"We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families," AJC said in a statement.
Seoul, May 22 : Samsung Biologics, a biotech arm of South Korea's Samsung Group, on Thursday said it plans to spin off its biosimilar development business to streamline its operations and focus on its core contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) services.

According to a regulatory filing, the company will establish a new entity, Samsung Epis Holdings, which will later incorporate Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar drug developer, as a wholly owned subsidiary, Yonhap news agency reported.

The spinoff process will proceed with submitting a securities report on July 29, followed by a shareholders meeting on September 16 for final approval.

Samsung Biologics explained that the split will allow the company to concentrate resources on its CDMO business, which operates under a different revenue model compared to biosimilars.

CDMO refers to a company that handles not only the outsourced manufacturing of drug substances but also all of the innovation and development work that occurs before production.

Samsung Biologics said the move is aimed not only at improving operational focus but also at addressing concerns from CDMO clients about potential conflicts of interest.

In particular, the company acknowledged that some customers have raised concerns over the possibility that proprietary technologies for original drugs might be shared with Samsung Bioepis, which operates in the biosimilar space.

"As Samsung Bioepis has been expanding its biosimilar business, the concerns of Samsung Biologics' customers have gradually increased, which has had some impact on the competitiveness of our orders," said Ryu Seung-ho, chief financial officer at Samsung Biologics, during an online briefing.

"After the separation, we expect our customers' concerns about conflicts of interest will be better addressed."

Samsung Biologics originally established Samsung Bioepis as a joint venture with US pharmaceutical company Biogen in 2012. It acquired Biogen's stake for $2.3 billion in 2022, making Bioepis a wholly owned subsidiary.

Ryu also emphasised that the spinoff is not part of any broader corporate governance restructuring within Samsung Group.

By separating the two businesses, Samsung Biologics said it aims to reinforce the independence of both entities, allowing each to sharpen its strategic focus. The company said this will enhance competitiveness, operational efficiency, and long-term value for shareholders.

Samsung Biologics is one of the world's leading CDMO firms, reporting 4.54 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in sales and 1 trillion won in net profit in 2024.

Shares of Samsung Biologics fell 1.36 per cent to 1.08 million won ($783) as of 11:37 a.m. The spinoff plan was announced before the market opened.
Seoul, May 22 : South Korea's space agency has launched a dedicated task force to explore participation in future Mars missions through cooperation with the US, the head of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said.

The comments were made at a press briefing marking the agency's first anniversary held in Sacheon, 290 kilometers south of Seoul, where the agency is headquartered, Yonhap news agency reported.

"The US budget for space exploration is increasingly focused on Mars, with concrete plans to send humans and establish a presence there. In Korea, we have only recently begun to consider what actions we should take at this point," KASA Administrator Yoon Young-bin said.

"We have recently launched a task force," Young-bin added.

"We need to devise exploration plans that are not only scientific but also economically viable so that private companies can play a more ambitious role," added Yoon.

The administrator noted such plans "could lead to the development of creative and innovative technologies that even advanced countries have yet to achieve," explaining that the task force was created to advance to Mars exploration.

Yoon also shared his hope to strengthen South Korea's satellite ecosystem by developing a variety of models, including low Earth orbit (LEO) and ultra-high-resolution satellites.

His vision also included establishing a solar observation station at the unexplored L4 Lagrange point and developing a proprietary lunar lander, as well as securing leadership in next-generation aviation technologies.

In addition, Yoon said a contract to transfer technology of the Nuri, the country's homegrown space rocket, to Hanwha Aerospace is expected to be finalised within the year, saying that related parties reached a "broad consensus" on the matter.

"With the transfer fees and scope of the technology now defined, the transfer will proceed in phases. After three launches, Hanwha Aerospace is expected to fully acquire the necessary technology and operational capabilities," Yoon said.
Washington, May 22 : US President Donald Trump strongly condemned the shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, late Wednesday night (US time), calling it an act of anti-Semitism.

The victims -- a male and a female employee of the Israeli Embassy -- were gunned down by an unidentified assailant as they exited the museum, according to the US Homeland Security.

Authorities confirmed the deaths and launched a multi-agency investigation into what officials are treating as a hate crime motivated by anti-Semitism.

"These horrible DC killings, based obviously on anti-semitism, must end, now! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You all!" Trump posted on Truth Social.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also condemned the killings, stating, "This was a brazen act of cowardly, anti-Semitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice."

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee echoed the outrage, calling it a "horrific act of terror." He mentioned that Attorney General Pam Bondi had been on the scene shortly after the shooting.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon labelled the fatal attack a "depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism" and asserted that harming the Jewish community was "crossing a red line."

He expressed confidence in US authorities to take strong action and emphasised Israel's commitment to protecting its citizens and representatives globally.

Tal Naim Cohen, spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said, "We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States."

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that his office, located near the shooting site, is coordinating closely with the Metropolitan Police Department. "Please pray for the victims and their families. We will keep the public updated as we are able," he said.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC), which had hosted an event at the museum that evening, also expressed devastation over the incident.

"At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families," the AJC said in a statement to Fox 5.
Sharjah, May 22 : Captain Muhammad Waseem hailed the spirit of the UAE dressing room after a come-from-behind T20I series win against Bangladesh. It's just the second time UAE have claimed T20I series against a Full Member, with the first back in 2021 when they defeated Ireland, also 2-1.

Originally slated as a two-match T20I series, the two nations agreed to schedule a third contest, giving the UAE extra incentive having gone 1-0 down on Saturday.

The UAE completed the comeback on Wednesday evening, chasing down Bangladesh's 162 in the final over of the match, powered by an unbeaten 87-run stand from just 51 balls between Sharafu and Asif Khan.

The series win is more remarkable considering the inexperience of the home side, naming five uncapped players before the series started, and skipper Waseem, who also claimed Player of the Series honours, sang the side's praises.

"(I'm) very happy they did very well throughout the series," Waseem shared during the broadcast. We were not losing our hopes, and we were giving hope to everyone. We can chase every score in Sharjah, or against every team, and we are used to it here. To be honest, I'm very happy."

"I'm very happy we have made history. This series means a lot to us. It's very helpful for us in the future. And I'm very happy with the performance of the boys.

"The way Asif (Khan) played, Alishan (Sharafu), Rahul Chopra, and the way Haider (Ali) bowled, and the other bowlers. I'm very happy with the performance of my whole team," Waseem was quoted by ICC.

Sharafu (68 not out from 47 balls) and Asif (41 no tout from 26) were methodical even as the required rate climbed over 10, wearing several blows from Bangladesh's pace attack and mixing singles in with boundaries at the backend. The pair combined with three sixes in the 16th over to put the hosts in the driver's seat, with Sharafu eventually capping off a Player of the Match performance with a boundary, ICC reports.

When asked about his plan of attack, Sharafu stuck to one or two technical and tactical points. "The plan was pretty simple: to go out there and play as many balls as possible. Everything just worked out in the end. (It's) about the strides. It's just something that I do usually, just to get myself moving and go towards the ball. But there was no specific plan for it.

"As soon as he (Asif) came in, it was quite simple to just keep the scoreboard ticking and look for the odd boundary, and just keep rotating strike, for starters," the all-rounder said at the post-match interview.

"I'm sure everyone's pumped up (over in the dugout). Once that third game was announced, everyone was optimistic in the dressing room that we could go 2-1 up in the series. And I think everything just worked out for us after that," he added.
Tumakuru : , May 22 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued its raids for the second consecutive day on educational institutions linked to Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara in Tumakuru city.

While ED sources confirmed that the raids and search operations were being conducted in connection with financial transactions related to the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao, official confirmation was awaited.

The BJP, however, has linked the raids to actress Ranya Rao's gold smuggling case, and the Congress has condemned the ED action.

The raids have continued on the Sri Siddhartha Institute of Technology (SSIT) located on Kunigal Road, Sree Siddhartha School of Engineering near Kyatsandra Till Gate on the national highway and Sri Siddhartha Medical College in Tumakuru.

As per sources, the ED sleuths began raids at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and continued till 2 a.m. The same was resumed early in the morning, with a team of 40 officers involved in the operations.

The team has been provided with police security, which has been deployed at the locations.

Sources stated that the raids are being conducted in connection with illegal money transactions with Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case.

Sources have revealed that the ED has found out that a payment of Rs 40 lakh was made to Ranya Rao's account from the Educational trust linked to Minister Parameshwara. Sources further claimed that the payment was made as per the oral instructions. The credit card bill payment of Rs 40 lakh was cleared by the Educational institution, and it is shown as payment made for providing workers, sources revealed.

The official statement is yet to be made in this regard and is expected once the raids are over.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka BJP has linked the raids to the gold smuggling case involving Ranya Rao.

While addressing a press conference, Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka made the statement in this regard, slamming the Congress-led government's failure on all fronts in the last two years.

Answering a question, Ashoka said the "Siddhartha Educational Institutions are being investigated in connection with the gold smuggling case".

"The ED is a government investigating agency. It is established in the investigation that the gold was brought here and given to many persons. They might have got the information on the gold smuggling money being invested in the Siddhartha Education institutions," Ashoka stated.

"Action must be taken against everyone involved. Congress leaders are not afraid even in cases like the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Valmiki Corporation scams. Those guilty must be made to face the consequences," he said.

"Let the investigation be continued, and the probe must be more effective, and all those involved must be punished," he demanded.

Coming down heavily on the Central government over the ED raids on educational institutions run by Minister Parameshwara, the Congress dubbed it an act of frustration by the BJP.

National General Secretary and Karnataka In-Charge Randeep Singh Surjewala took to social media X on Wednesday, saying, "The ED raids on the Educational Institutions of Karnataka's Home Minister, G. Parameshwara, one of the tallest SC Leaders, is a frustrated reaction of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Govt to giving of ownership rights to 1 Lakh SC-ST families yesterday (May 20) at Hospet."

He further said that the constant assault on the Constitution and leaders of SC-ST-OBC communities across India has become a habitual pattern.

"The revenge-seeking against Parameshwara is part of this sinister design," he maintained.

Surjewala said that Parameshwara has run Siddhartha Institute of Technology, set up 46 years ago in 1979, and the Siddartha Medical College, which was set up in 1988, in the rural hinterland of Tumakuru, to light the lamp of education.

"It is indeed surprising that after 46 years of setting up this institution, the Narendra Modi-led government is searching for wrongdoing, while the BJP's corruption is being actively investigated by the Home Ministry and G. Parameshwara," he charged.

He said that the ED raids appear to be a desperate attempt to cover up the corruption of previous BJP governments and stifle the voice of those who champion the voice of the oppressed.
New Delhi, May 22 : Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has thanked India for its commitment and support to the historic Pandemic Accord.

After three years of negotiations, the Agreement was adopted by consensus by member countries of the WHO at the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva this week.

India is also a signatory to this treaty, which has been in talks since the Covid-19 outbreak, which killed millions of people worldwide. The treaty aims to bridge global healthcare gaps and inequities in case of future pandemics.

"Namaste, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for joining us virtually at a historic 78th WHA when the Pandemic Accord was adopted. We are grateful for India's commitment and support to the WHO," the WHO chief said in a post on social media platform X.

Addressing the WHA, via videoconferencing, PM Modi said the WHO Pandemic Treaty is a shared commitment that requires greater global cooperation.

"The WHO Pandemic Treaty is a shared commitment to fighting future pandemics through greater global cooperation," said PM Modi, while extending his congratulations on the successful negotiations of the treaty. He also expressed India's willingness to share its learnings and best practices with the world, especially with the Global South.

The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of building a healthy planet while ensuring that no one is left behind.

"The future of a healthy world depends on inclusion, an integrated vision, and collaboration," he said.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava, who led the Indian delegation at the WHA also congratulated the WHO and member states on the historic progress made toward advancing the Pandemic Treaty.

Srivastava emphasised the importance of confronting future health challenges with a commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind.

"The Pandemic agreement must ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures, timely and transparent data and pathogen sharing; and promote technology sharing and capacity building, particularly for the Global South," she said.

She also reaffirmed India's commitment to global health equity at the 78th WHA.

-- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed
Kochi, May 22 : The Kerala police have arrested a close male relative of a three-year-old girl who was thrown into the Chalakudy river by her mother earlier this week. The arrest follows a post-mortem report that confirmed the child had been sexually assaulted shortly before her death.

The incident came to light on Monday night when Sandhya, the child's mother, returned home without her daughter, Kalyani, who was at the local Anganwadi around 3.30 p.m.

Her mother, Ally, questioned her about the child's whereabouts, to which Sandhya initially responded vaguely, saying, "Kalyani has gone."

Later, she claimed the child had gone missing from a bus.

Police launched an immediate search operation. CCTV footage from the area revealed Sandhya near the Chalakudy river, raising suspicions.

Upon further interrogation, she confessed to throwing her daughter into the river. The child's body was recovered by local residents around 3.30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Sandhya was arrested and placed in judicial custody. She has been charged with murder.

However, the case took a darker turn when the post-mortem report, received on Wednesday, revealed signs of sexual assault on the child.

Investigators then detained three close male relatives for questioning. After hours of interrogation, one of them confessed to the crime.

According to police, the assault occurred just a day before the child was killed. It is now believed that Sandhya may have discovered the abuse and, overwhelmed by trauma and emotional distress, committed the act of filicide. However, the exact motive is still under investigation.

Family tensions have also come to light. Sandhya's husband, Subhash, told police that she often acted independently and did not heed his advice. These domestic issues may have contributed to her mental state at the time of the incident.

Authorities have assured that the investigation will be thorough and that all those responsible will be held accountable.
Kochi, May 22 : The Spices Board has launched the 'Sustainability in Spice Sector through Progressive, Innovative and Collaborative Interventions for Export Development (SPICED)' scheme for the fiscal year 2025-26 under which financial assistance is offered across the value chain to farmers and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) to enhance the production, quality and export of spices.

The scheme is aimed at increasing the productivity of small and large cardamom, improving the quality of post-harvest processes, and encouraging the production and export of value-added, GI-tagged, and organic spices. It also helps in enabling compliance with global food safety and phytosanitary standards and boosting the capacity of stakeholders across the value chain.

Online applications for the SPICED scheme will open on May 26. Spice exporters can apply under the schemeas export development and promotion components until June 30, while farmers and FPOs can submit applications under the development components in other categories until September 30.

The scheme offers financial assistance for replanting and rejuvenation of cardamom plantations, development of water resources, micro-irrigation, promotion of organic farming, and expansion of good agricultural practices (GAP). In addition, it supports the installation of improved post-harvest infrastructure, such as modern dryers, slicers, dehullers, and grading machines to ensure superior product quality.

The scheme also provides financial assistance to farmers and FPOS to procure essential post-harvest machines such as spice polishers, turmeric boilers, mint distillation units, and threshing machines.

Besides, the scheme helps in marketing efforts by facilitating the participation of stakeholders in international trade fairs, buyer-seller meets, and other market linkage programs. It gives high priority to supporting first-time exporters and small businesses, enabling them to showcase Indian spices in global markets.

India is the worldas largest producer and exporter of spices. During FY24, the country exported spices worth US$ 4.46 billion. In FY25 (until December 2024), India exported spices worth Rs 29,016 crore (US$ 3.36 billion).

The production of different spices has been growing rapidly over the last few years. The production of spices in FY24 was estimated at 12 million metric tonnes, whereas production in FY23 stood at 11.14 million tonnes compared to 11.12 million tonnes in FY22. During FY23, the export of spices from India stood at US$ 3.73 billion from US$ 3.46 billion in FY22.

Indiaas export of organic food products have also registered a robust 35 per cent increase to $665.96 million (around Rs 5,700 crore) during the financial year ending on March 31, 2025 compared to the corresponding figure of $494.80 million in 2023-24, according to the latest data released by the government.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bikaner, May 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the redeveloped Amrit Bharat Deshnoke Railway Station and flagged off the Bikaner-Mumbai train service in Rajasthan's Bikaner district on Thursday.

During this, he also inspected an exhibition at the railway station and interacted with the students, who gifted him some paintings.

Earlier, he landed at Nal Airbase in Bikaner and proceeded directly to the Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok. PM Modi offered prayers at the famous temple.

Upon his arrival, the Prime Minister was received by Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagde, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, and Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Temple authorities welcomed him with a replica of the Karni Mata Temple, and he also offered 'prasad' and a donation at the sanctum.

This is his first visit to Rajasthan following India's attack on terror launch pads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7.

He will also address a large public meeting in Palana village near Bikaner.

His total stay in Bikaner is scheduled for 3 hours and 25 minutes. This visit is reminiscent of his public address in Churu, delivered on the morning of the airstrikes following the Pulwama attack.

The Prime Minister will depart for Palana village by road, a journey of about 8 kilometres. A massive crowd of over one lakh people is expected at the public meeting venue, where elaborate seating arrangements and a large pandal have been set up.

During the event, PM Modi will inaugurate 103 Amrit Stations nationwide and lay the foundation stone for various development projects worth Rs 26,000 crore. These projects include 1,000 km of electrified railway tracks, seven major road projects, three vehicle underpasses, a PowerGrid transmission project and 900 km of national highways in Rajasthan. After the public meeting, the Prime Minister will return to Nal Airport by helicopter around 12.30 p.m. and depart for Delhi at around 1.15 p.m.
Hyderabad, May 22 : The Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) continued its demolition drive in the city and surroundings.

HYDRAA personnel were seen in action on Thursday in Peerzadiguda in Medchal Malkajgiri district on the outskirts of Hyderabad, clearing encroachments and demolishing unauthorised constructions.

Bulldozers were pressed into service since early morning in Parvathapur under Peerzadiguda Municipal Corporation amid tight security by the police.

Residents staged a protest over the demolition. They demanded that officials give them two hours to vacate the houses. Some of the protesters were detained by police.

HYDRAA is focusing on Peerzadiguda and Boduppal municipal corporations, following complaints of encroachments.

A.V. Ranganath, the HYDRAA Commissioner, received several complaints about the encroachments on roads and government lands. Citizens complained that Town Planning officials were mute spectators to the encroachments and illegal constructions.

Following the complaints, Ranganath himself had visited the areas to check the veracity of the complaints. He found the complaints genuine and ordered action against encroachments.

For the last few days, HYDRAA has been demolishing illegal buildings and clearing encroachments in various parts of Greater Hyderabad.

Thursdayas action came a day after HYDRAA demolished illegal buildings in Manikonda. HYDRAA personnel, with the help of Manikonda Municipal Corporation staff, pulled down illegal structures in Tirumala Hills Colony Park. The illegal buildings were built on a park.

Similarly, demolition was also carried out in a school in RAR Colony in Medipally. The school management had allegedly encroached on a portion of the Hyderabad-Warangal highway link road.

HYDRAA has been taking action against encroachments after receiving complaints during Prajavani, the public interaction programme conducted every Monday.

Prajavani aims to address public grievances, with special focus on issues related to the encroachment of lakes, parks, and government lands.

According to HYDRAA Commissioner A.V. Ranganath, people are coming forward to protect government assets. He said the peopleas trust in HYDRAA was increasing with the resolution of public complaints.

The IPS officer said that people are coming forward voluntarily as HYDRAA is solving decades-old problems in days. Noticing the encroachment of government lands, places meant for public use, tanks and canals, people are lodging complaints during Prajavani.
Mumbai, May 22 : Kartik Aaryan, who is currently in Europe shooting for his upcoming film, 'Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri,' took to social media to give a glimpse into his peaceful morning.

Taking to his Instagram handle, the actor shared a stunning view of a serene beach, where he appears to be starting his day amidst nature's calm before stepping into character. With the ocean in the backdrop and a calm vibe all around, Kartik's post perfectly captured the charm of shooting in a picturesque location in Europe. Alongside the clip, the 'Dhamaka' actor wrote, "Waking up to this #TuMeriMainTeraMainTeraTuMeri."

The video opens with Kartik Aaryan giving a quick glimpse of his background, capturing a cozy, early morning vibe. He then pans the camera around to reveal the breathtaking surroundings  a serene beach with soft waves, golden sand, and a peaceful atmosphere. The picturesque location perfectly reflects the calm before a busy day on the sets of his upcoming film.

On May 21, the actor had posted a video of himself walking with a suitcase. He was seen wearing a stylish black hoodie featuring a snake design on the back while holding a guitar. Sharing the video, Kartik wrote, "NaagZilla ka Hoodie pehen ke Aashiqui vaala guitar leke Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri shoot karne Main chala Ray."

He had also posted a brief video capturing the stunning view from his flight window, offering a glimpse into the journey that lay ahead. "Here we go Tu Meri Main Tera, Main Tera Tu Meri," Kartik captioned the post.

"Tu Meri Main Tera, Main Tera Tu Meri" is helmed by director Sameer Vidwans, marking his second venture with Kartik Aaryan after the success of 'Satyaprem Ki Katha.' Backed by Dharma Productions, the film is slated to hit theatres on February 13, 2026. Interestingly, this project marks Kartik Aaryan's first collaboration with Karan Johar.
Kolkata, May 22 : Azad Mullick, a Pakistani national arrested earlier this year by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kolkata for his alleged involvement in a fake passport and hawala racket, initially secured Indian identity documents by using the parental address of his deceased Hindu wife, Late Suchandra Biswas.

Sources familiar with the investigation revealed that Azad used the address of his wife's family home in Naihati, North 24 Parganas, to obtain the forged documents.

Later, he changed the address in those documents to a residence in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, where he was ultimately arrested.

From that location, Azad is believed to have operated both his fake passport and hawala rackets.

Originally a Pakistani citizen named Azad Hossain, he first procured Bangladeshi citizenship using fraudulent documents, adopting the name Ahammed Hossain Azad. He subsequently used similar methods to obtain Indian citizenship under the name Azad Mullick.

His wife, Suchandra Biswas, died under mysterious circumstances in 2022. Her charred body was recovered from their residence, and investigators suspect foul play, believing she may have discovered sensitive details about her husband's illicit activities.

The ED is now probing Azad's possible connections to terror groups. During a recent hearing at a special PMLA court in Kolkata, the agency revealed that chats recovered from Azadas mobile phones -- both individual and group conversations on WhatsApp -- contain highly sensitive information.

These messages reportedly identify individuals in Bangladesh who received hawala funds routed from Kolkata.

Given the suspicious nature of the conversations, the ED is investigating whether the hawala network was being used to finance terrorist activities across the border.

During his arrest, authorities seized two fake EPIC cards, multiple forged driving licenses, and four fake birth certificates from Azadas possession.
Seoul, May 22 : South Korean Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung kept a solid lead against People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo, but Kim inched closer to Lee, according to the latest poll released on Thursday, with the election campaign reaching its halfway point.

A National Barometer Survey conducted this week showed that Lee was leading Kim with 46 per cent support against Kim's 32 per cent. Lee Jun-seok of the minor New Reform Party (NRP) came third with 10 per cent. It was the first time that the NRP's Lee garnered 10 per cent support.

Compared with a week ago, Lee of the DP lost 3 percentage points, while Kim and the NRP's Lee gained 5 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively.

Kim has appealed to the NRP's Lee to merge their candidacies to better challenge the DP's Lee, but the NRP's Lee, a former leader of the PPP, has said that he has no intention of merging campaigns with Kim.

Buoyed by the latest poll, the NRP's Lee appeared to be sanguine on Thursday, saying that questions by reporters about a possible merger with Kim would be "meaningless."

Lee of the DP made his first election stop on the southern island of Jeju, where he pledged to abolish the statute of limitations for crimes of state violence.

The island harbours painful memories from the Jeju April 3 uprising, during which an estimated 14,000 to 30,000 people -- up to 10 per cent of the island's population at the time -- were killed in a series of armed crackdowns, Yonhap news agency reported.

"For crimes in which the government abuses the power entrusted by the people to violate their lives, freedoms, and human rights, I will permanently abolish the statute of limitations to make perpetrators subject to criminal punishment as long as they are alive," Lee said.

The DP passed the related legislation last December, but it was vetoed by the then-acting South Korean President Choi Sang-mok in January. Lee said his party will reintroduce the bill, and he will sign it into law if elected.

In Seoul, Kim announced a vision for sweeping political reform, including reducing the number of lawmakers by 10 per cent and appointing a special inspector, recommended by the opposition, tasked with investigating allegations involving the president's family and close relatives.

At the Korea Exchange, Kim outlined a plan to boost the country's stock market, including tax incentives for long-term investors and efforts to secure South Korea's inclusion in the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Developed Market Index during his term if elected.

In a separate meeting with representatives of the five major business lobbying groups, Kim said he will establish a senior presidential aide post dedicated to addressing corporate affairs to create a business-friendly environment.

He plans to sit down with representatives of the Korean Medical Association to address the ongoing standoff over medical reform and is expected to sign a policy agreement with a major women's organisation.

Later in the day, Kim will campaign in Gangmyeong and Bucheon in Gyeonggi Province, just west of Seoul. He previously served as a three-term lawmaker representing Bucheon from 1996 to 2006 before being elected governor of Gyeonggi Province.
Raipur, May 22 : Following a significant success with the elimination of 27 Maoists, the District Reserve Guard (DRG) intensified their campaign, shifting focus to Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, where another fierce encounter unfolded on Thursday.

Raipur, May 22 (IANS) Following a significant success with the elimination of 27 Maoists, the District Reserve Guard (DRG) intensified their campaign, shifting focus to Bijapur in Chhattisgarh, where another fierce encounter unfolded on Thursday.

Reports indicate that DRG forces have cornered a group of Maoists in Bijapur, with continuous gunfire reverberating through the region. Amid the confrontation, one Maoist has been confirmed dead, while two brave jawans have sustained injuries.

Police officers have not yet confirmed, but said a detailed report will be issued soon.

In a bold and relentless crackdown on Naxalite insurgency, security forces launched an extensive operation, leading to the elimination of 27 militants in the dense forests of Abujhmad, Narayanpur on Wednesday.

CM Vishnu Deo Sai said, "A Naxal operation has been underway since Wednesday, in which our DRG personnel are actively involved. The operation is still ongoing, and the exact details will be shared once it is completed. We salute the courage of our brave jawans..."

Security forces have released a video and a photograph of dreaded Maoist Baswa Raju, who was killed in an encounter on Wednesday.

Raju has been linked to several deadly insurgent attacks over the years, orchestrating strikes that have resulted in significant loss of life.

In 2010, he masterminded the ambush on CRPF personnel in Tadmetla, where 76 soldiers lost their lives. Just a few years later, in 2013, his name surfaced in connection with the Jheeram attack in Darbha Valley, which targeted a Congress convoy and claimed the lives of 27 political leaders and security personnel. By 2018, his involvement was noted in yet another violent assault -- the Araku attack -- which led to the killing of a Telugu Desam Party MLA and a former legislator.

The following year, in 2019, he played a role in the Gadchiroli attack that saw 15 commandos and one civilian killed in an intense insurgent strike.

Through each of these incidents, his presence in orchestrating high-profile attacks remained evident, reinforcing his position in the insurgency.

In the Tumrel area of Bijapur, security personnel have maintained their strategic encirclement of insurgents. Since early morning, the battle has raged on, resulting in the elimination of a Maoist fighter and the recovery of a weapon, police officials said.

However, official confirmation from authorities remains pending.

Reacting to the ongoing encounter, the Superintendent of Police (SP) assured that comprehensive details would be shared once direct contact with the DRG units is established.

Tragically, one DRG team member was martyred during the intense engagement, with several others wounded while valiantly confronting the attack. Driven by intelligence inputs indicating the presence of top Maoist leadership -- Central Committee and Politburo members -- elite DRG squads from Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Kondagaon were deployed deep into the rugged terrain of Abujhmad.

Despite treacherous conditions, they pressed forward with determination. The campaign against insurgency continues, as security forces push forward in their decisive efforts to eradicate the Maoist threat.
New Delhi, May 22 : Repeated sexual advances towards a minor student have landed a 37-year-old Mumbai college principal in police custody in the Borivali area under the stringent POSCO Act, an official said on Thursday.

The MHB Colony Police have also slapped molestation charges on the principal who was allegedly making sexual advances towards the student for almost a year, the police official said.

The 17-year-old victim, a resident of south Mumbai's Nagpada, initially put up with the harassment as she was afraid of social stigma, but approached the police when her harassment became unbearable, the police said.

The accused was mounting pressure on her to enter into a romantic relationship, said an official, adding that the girl's family members helped her file the police complaint.

"The principal has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act along with charges of molestation and sexual harassment under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), with a maximum punishment of three years," said an official.

Last April, a South Mumbai college's 60-year-old treasurer was booked by Gamdevi Police for allegedly grabbing a student's hands without her consent and pushing her during a meeting.

The latest harassment the Borivali area case, has also refreshed memories of an earlier incident related to the Principal of Mithibai College, who was accused of sexually harassing a lecturer. The Tilak Nagar Police registered an FIR in the matter only after the victim approached the Prime Minister's Office.

Earlier in 2022, a Mumbai government college principal was booked for making casteist remarks against a student. The principal was booked by the Azad Maidan police station under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to the complainant woman student from Palghar, the incident took place when she was sitting in her class with other classmates.

The principal entered the classroom and humiliated her by referring to her tribal background, the complainant said.

-- IANS

rch/skp
Bikaner, May 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the security forces avenged the April 22 terror attack in just 22 minutes by vapourising nine most infamous terror dens across the border in Pakistan as well as PoK, under Operation Sindoor. He said that Operation Sindoor is the new form of justice for terrorists and their patrons, and also unveiled a three-pronged formula for combating terror.

"If there is any terror attack on Indian territory, the enemy will be given a befitting response. Our armed forces will decide the target, timing and the mode of response," PM Modi said.

"Second principle is that any atom bomb blackmail won't unnerve India and the third is -- terrorists and their masters as well as their patron governments will be judged with a single benchmark," he said and added that Pakistan's game of state and non-state actors will no longer work as a pretext for its open support to terror.

PM Modi, in a stern warning to patrons of terror, said that this is New Bharat and Operation Sindoor reflects the country's new doctrine under which acts of terror will be treated and replied to.

"Those who went after our sisters and tried to wipe their sindoor, we have razed them to the ground. This is a new form of justice -- 'yeh Operation Sindoor hai'," he said.

Highlighting the government's fierce response to terror in the past decade, PM Modi said, "Earlier, we hit them inside their territory, but this time, we hit them on their heart."

"Those who thought that India would be silent they are shuddering in fear. Those who boasted about their weapons are suffering under the debris," he stated, highlighting how the enemy nation developed cold feet after escalating the conflict over Operation Sindoor.

The Prime Minister also said that the nation stands united after the Pahalgam terror attack and stated that 140 crore people of the country have taken a resolve to punish the terrorists beyond their imagination.

"Because of our armed forces, we have taught Pakistan a lesson. Our government gave full operational freedom to our armed forces, and they brought Pakistan to its knees," he said.
New Delhi, May 22 : A month after the Pahalgam terror attack shook Jammu and Kashmir, BJP Rajya Sabha member Gulam Ali Khatana on Thursday claimed that the region has returned to normalcy and urged people from across India to visit and experience the hospitality of the Valley.

Talking to IANS, Khatana said: "J&K has become normal. The hospitality of the people here is known worldwide."

Referring to the recent attack in Pahalgam as a "horrific scene", he emphasised that such incidents should not recur.

"Hopefully, our security will ensure full protection so tourists can enjoy the beauty and warmth of Kashmir," he added.

Khatana, a member of the all-party delegations sent to various nations to highlight India's efforts against terrorism, underscored the significance of India's Operation Sindoor in dismantling terror infrastructure and exposing Pakistan's role in fostering cross-border terrorism.

"We are presenting India's case globally and revealing how Pakistan has been contracting terrorism  be it in Punjab earlier, Kashmir for the past 2530 years, or even in Afghanistan. It's a hostile state where democracy is strangled, and whose nuclear assets are unsafe. We urge international agencies, including the atomic watchdog agency, to take note," he told IANS.

Khatana backed the Centre's zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, stating that India stands united in the fight and Operation Sindoor is a strong testament to that resolve.

On Congress leader Jairam Ramesh's attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre, claiming that the terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam attack are roaming freely in J&K and were involved in three other attacks in the last 18 months, he said: "These are matters for the Home and Defence Ministries - not the opposition's concern."

On the other hand, Khatana welcomed former Union Minister Anand Sharma's support for Operation Sindoor and the government's diplomatic outreach. The Congress leader had lauded the move to send an all-party delegation abroad to present India's stance on terrorism. However, as a few leaders are criticising the government on Operation Sindoor, the MP said: "When people are rejected politically, frustration levels naturally rise."
Seoul, May 22 : North Korea said Thursday a "serious accident" occurred the previous day during a ceremony to launch a new warship, with its leader Kim Jong-un calling it a "criminal act" that could not be tolerated.

The accident took place Wednesday at a shipyard in the eastern port city of Chongjin during a ceremony to launch a newly built 5,000-tonne destroyer, attended by the North's leader, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Citing "inexperience command and operational carelessness" in the course of the launch, North Korea said a "serious accident" occurred as the launch slide of the stern departed first and was stranded while the flatcar failed to move in parallel.

Some sections of the warship's bottom were "crushed," destroying the balance of the warship, and the bow couldn't leave the shipway, it reported.

After watching the whole course of the accident, Kim said, "It was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated," according to the KCNA.

He ordered the restoration of the warship to be "completed unconditionally" before a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) set for June and gave an important instruction related to an investigation into the accident.

"The immediate restoration of the destroyer is not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state," Kim said.

The political bureau of the WPK decided to convene the 12th plenary meeting of the party's central committee in late June to review the first-half performance and policies for the second half, the KCNA said in a separate dispatch.

The North did not disclose photos related to the latest accident.

Considering that Kim called for the restoration to take place before the June party meeting, a unification ministry official said the scope of the damage is likely not large and appears to be recoverable.

"By using the expression 'absolute carelessness,' (Kim) could have aimed at shoring up internal discipline through a stern reprimand," the official said, noting the accident was reported on the front page of the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.

South Korea's military said the North appears to have failed in using a side launching technique.

"South Korea and US intelligence authorities had been tracking and monitoring the movement of a large-sized warship at the North's Chongjin port," Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular press briefing.

"We assess (the warship's) side launching failed," Lee said, adding the destroyer remains partially capsized on the sea.

The latest accident came as the North has been ramping up efforts to modernise its naval capabilities, conducting a firing test on a newly built 5,000-tonne destroyer just days after its launch, Yonhap news agency reported.

Last month, North Korea unveiled the new multipurpose destroyer, named the Choe Hyon. It said the warship is equipped with supersonic strategic cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missiles and other strike means.
Tokyo, May 22 : Japan, which shares a 'Special Strategic and Global Partnership' with India on Thursday condemned in the strongest terms the growing threat of terrorism as the country hosted a visiting delegation of Indian Parliamentarians led by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Kumar Jha.

The all-party parliamentary delegation from India, which arrived in Tokyo earlier in the day, called on Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, reaffirming India's unwavering stand against terrorism under Operation Sindoor's global outreach campaign that aims at exposing Pakistan and the global terror outfits operating from its soil.

At the beginning, Iwaya offered his condolences to those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack in Kashmir and offered his sympathies to those who were injured.

"Minister Iwaya also stated that terrorism cannot be justified for any reason, that Japan firmly condemns terrorist acts in all forms, and that Japan is determined to join hands with the international community, including India, in a firm fight against terrorism," read a statement issued by the Japanese Foreign Ministry after the meeting.

As Iwaya welcomed the recent agreement by India and Pakistan to suspend military operations and mentioned that he had held telephone talks with External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, hoping that the issue would be resolved through dialogue for the sake of peace and stability in South Asia, Jha, a Janata Dal (United) MP, explained in detail India's position on the current situation.

Interestingly, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is also in Tokyo and held the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue with Japan's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Takehiro Funakoshi.

While exchanging views on recent regional situations, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, Misri also conveyed India's message on zero tolerance for terror.

Meanwhile, the all-party parliamentary delegation from India also held key talks with Takashi Endo, Chairman of the Japanese House of Representatives Committee on National Security.

Iwaya emphasised the need to bring perpetrators of terror to justice and voiced strong support for India's response to the Pahalgam attack.

"Reiterated our national resolve to act firmly against terror and those who support it. Grateful for Japan's support and for calling for justice against perpetrators of such acts," Jha posted on X after the meeting.

The delegation also includes BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi and Brij Lal, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid.

Their visit marks the beginning of India's unprecedented diplomatic campaign to expose Pakistan's sustained role in cross-border terrorism following the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
Abu Dhabi, May 22 : The all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde on Thursday held meetings with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Abu Dhabi, reiterating India's strong stance against terrorism.

The Indian parliamentarians met Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE's Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, and reaffirmed that both New Delhi and Abu Dhabi, stand united in the fight against terrorism.

The leaders discussed their shared commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar also took to his social media following the meeting of the Shinde-led delegation with the UAE leaders, stating, "A nation united sends a strong message on combating terrorism."

The all-party delegation also met Ali Alnuaimi, Chairman of Defence Affairs, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee, Federal National Council, and FNC members of the UAE.

The meeting underscored India and the UAE's shared resolve for zero tolerance against terrorism, and also addressed Parliamentary cooperation between both nations.

The delegation, part of India's massive global outreach campaign on Operation Sindoor, arrived in the UAE early on Thursday morning. It includes BJP MPs Bansuri Swaraj, Atul Garg, and Manan Kumar Mishra, BJD's Sasmit Patra, IUML MP E.T. Mohammed Basheer, BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia, and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy.

After the UAE, it will visit Liberia, Congo, and Sierra Leone.

India's massive campaign is aimed at exposing Pakistan's role in fostering cross-border terrorism. The initiative, steered by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), is a first-of-its-kind multi-party foreign engagement effort aimed at presenting a unified national front against terrorism and internationally isolating Pakistan for its continued sponsorship and sheltering of terror networks.

The campaign is aimed at building global consensus and isolating Pakistan diplomatically. It stands out as one of India's most extensive and unified diplomatic efforts against terrorism, promoting global accountability for state-backed terror networks.
Copenhagen, May 22 : External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Thursday strongly condemned the killing of two Israeli diplomats outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, expressing heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.

The victims, a male and a female staff member of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, were fatally shot by an unidentified assailant as they exited the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night (local time). US Homeland Security confirmed the deaths with authorities saying that the lone suspect has been taken into custody.

Currently visiting Denmark, EAM Jaishankar took to X to convey India's solidarity with Israel and called for swift justice.

"Condemn in the strongest terms the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington, DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice," he posted.

All Israeli missions around the world, including in New Delhi, also lowered the flag to half-mast expressing grief over the attack and in memory of the deceased.

"In profound sorrow, we lower the flag today to remember Yaron and Sarah, victims of a brutal terrorist act in Washington, DC. May their memory be a blessing," the Embassy of Israel in India posted on X.

Earlier, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the shooting, calling it a "senseless" act.

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice," she posted on X.

Former US President Donald Trump also issued a sharp condemnation of the attack, calling it an act rooted in hatred and anti-Semitism.

Posting on Truth Social, he said, "These horrible DC killings, based obviously on anti-semitism, must end, now! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You all!"

Authorities in Washington have launched a multi-agency investigation, treating the incident as a hate crime motivated by anti-Semitism.

According to Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, the suspect -- identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago -- opened fire on a group of four people with a handgun, fatally hitting the two Israeli staffers.

Chief Smith added that Rodriguez was observed pacing outside the museum before the attack.

"After the shooting, the suspect entered the museum and was detained by event security," she stated.

"Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offence," she added.

According to police, while being taken into custody, Rodriguez chanted slogans such as "Free Palestine, Free Palestine," suggesting ideological motives behind the act.
New Delhi, May 22 : Describing farmers as the soul of India and the most important part of social stability, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday highlighted the government's efforts to boost their income and called for removing middlemen from the subsidy transfer mechanism.

Addressing the scientific community and farmers at Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute, a research institute established under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Goa, the Vice President said, "The Government of India is helping the farmers a lot in the form of subsidies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had started a scheme called Kisan Samman Nidhi, but I would request all the organisations to evaluate how good it would be if the subsidy to the farmers reaches them directly and not through someone else."

Citing the successful American model of eliminating middlemen in providing farm subsidies, Dhankhar said, "The fertiliser subsidy is a very big amount, around rupees three lakh crore. You probably don't realise that you are being helped so much, but if this money is sent directly to every farmer, then every farmer will have Rs 30,000-35,000 per year."

"So, this medium of giving government assistance to farmers is not right, it should be given directly to the farmers. Institutions should evaluate it, it should be looked at technically. It will have far-reaching results," he said.

Dhankhar said in America, the income of a farmer's family is more than that of an average family. "There, farmers get all the government assistance directly and not through any middleman," he said.

Earlier, speaking at another event at Raj Bhavan, Goa, the Vice President called for focusing on alternative medicine and evidence-based validation of our ancient texts to make them accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges.

"We are a nation with a difference... We are rediscovering our roots, and we will get rooted in our roots. I strongly focus on alternative medicine because India is the home of alternative medicine. It is being practised now very extensively," he said.

Calling for the need to utilise ancient knowledge, Jagdeep Dhankhar said, "Let us not confine our ancient texts to libraries. They are not meant for the shelf of a library. They are meant to be widely disseminated. Let us bring timeless ideas to life through research, innovation, and reinterpretation using modern scientific tools."

The Vice President also talked about validation for ancient Indian medicine systems. "Let us pursue evidence-based validation, digitisation, translations, and cross-disciplinary studies to make these treasures accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges... I am extremely happy that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recognised it by establishing a global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat. What a powerful recognition of the universal relevance of our systems like Ayurveda," he said.

"Time for us to look back in our Vedas, in our Upanishads, in our Puranas, in our history and time to tell our children from birth about our civilisational depth of knowledge," he added.
New Delhi, May 22 : A Special NIA court in Kerala received a fresh set of charges related to waging war against the government against two accused in the 2022 case related to the recruitment of youths for the armed wing of the banned CPI (Maoist) terrorist organisation, an official said on Thursday.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said the supplementary charge sheet was filed before the NIA Special Court, Ernakulam, against R. Ragavendran alias Raghavendra alias Gautham alias Murukesh alias Raghaveendran and B.G. Krishnamurthy alias Vijay alias Babanna alias Baskar alias Kumara alias Gangadhara alias Gopal Rao.

Krishnamurthy, a Central Committee Member of the CPI (Maoist), provided arms and ideological training to other accused in the forests of the Western Ghats, to equip them to wage war against the nation, said the NIA in a statement.

Hailing from Chikkamangalur district of Karnataka, he had been inducted into the Kabani Dalam squad of CPI (Maoist) to organise terrorist camps and train the Under Ground (UG) cadres of the banned outfit, it said.

Ragavendran of Vellore, Tamil Nadu, was a part of the terror camp, said the NIA.

The NIA charged them under sections 18, 18B, 20, 38, and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and other offences.

The NIA said the accused have also been charged under sections 120B,121A, and 122 of the Indian Penal Code that deal with offences related to criminal conspiracy and collecting arms to wage war against the government.

The People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) case was registered suo moto by the NIA in February 2022.

It relates to the recruitment of cadres into CPI (Maoist) and its armed wing, PLGA, involved in organising camps to further the activities of the Maoist organisation and its frontal outfit to destabilise the country.
Washington, May 22 : Two members of the Israeli embassy staff were fatally shot Wednesday night in Washington DC by a man who, the police said, had chanted "Free Palestine".

The shooting took place outside an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats at the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum.

The single shooter was identified by police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news briefing the suspect shouted "Free, free Palestine!" while being taken into custody

The victims were Sarah Lynn Milgrim and her partner Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social early Thursday morning.

"We will follow the facts. We will follow the law, and this defendant will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The Wall Street Journal said Milgrim worked at the Department of Public Diplomacy in the embassy and Lischinsky immigrated to Israel from Germany at age 16, and served in the Israeli military. He completed his undergraduate and master degrees in Israel, before moving to Washington to work as a research assistant for the embassyas political department in September 2022.

"We are a resilient people," Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel said at the news briefing with US authorities. "Together we won't be afraid and we will stand and we will overcome the moral depravity of people who think they are going to achieve political gains through murder." The Journal reported that the Ambassador also said that Lischinsky had just bought an engagement ring for Milgrim and was going to propose in Jerusalem next week.
Chennai, May 22 : In a significant operation, officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized unaccounted cash worth Rs 32 lakh from three individuals travelling on the Hyderabad-Puducherry Superfast Express at Chennai's Egmore Railway Station on Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off regarding potential money laundering, a DRI team conducted a surprise check as the train arrived at Egmore.

The operation specifically targeted Aghilan, a suspect from Hyderabad who had been under surveillance. During the inspection, DRI officials examined the luggage of three passengers: Ashok D Jain (51), a resident of Strahans Road, Pattalam; his son, Shil Ashok Jain (27); and Sangita B. Jain (57), wife of Bharat Kumar Jain and a resident of Sowcarpet.

On searching their baggage, the team discovered neatly packed bundles of cash amounting to Rs 32 lakh. The money was concealed in multiple pieces of luggage.

All three passengers were detained at the station, and the cash was confiscated.

A senior DRI official confirmed that the suspects were taken to its office for further interrogation. "We are questioning them to determine the source of the cash and its intended use," the official said.

He added that preliminary findings point to a possible connection with illegal interstate financial transactions.

Authorities have not ruled out the involvement of a broader network in the smuggling of unaccounted funds.

The DRI is now coordinating with other central agencies to investigate links to hawala operations or other illicit trade routes.

This operation comes amid heightened surveillance across major transit points ahead of the financial year-end and elections in some regions.

Officials believe such cash seizures may be part of a larger pattern involving the movement of black money through passenger trains.

Further investigation is underway, and the DRI is expected to release more details once the suspects' statements are recorded and the cash trail is traced.
Bengaluru, May 22 : Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that it is the government's responsibility to find a permanent solution to prevent disasters caused by rainwater.

"We will do it," he said on Thursday while responding to questions from the media in the Vidhana Soudha premises.

Shivakumar is also in charge of the Bengaluru Development and Town Planning portfolio.

When asked about the rainfall havoc and the steps being taken for relief measures, he said, "I am someone who wishes for more rain. The more it rains, the more we understand what needs to be fixed."

"Recently, a meeting was held under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah regarding the Lake Development Authority, and we have also conducted a precautionary meeting. A project worth Rs 2,000 crore has been drawn up to complete the development of stormwater drains in Bengaluru," Shivakumar stated.

"There is public anger regarding rain-related problems. Therefore, I have directed the Urban Planning Authority to frame regulations prohibiting the construction of basement parking in low-lying areas under any circumstances...In some areas, even if water levels are low, groundwater seeps in, and during dewatering efforts, two people have lost their lives. To prevent such incidents, we have decided to construct roads on both sides of the stormwater drains within the buffer zone. This will ensure a 50-foot-wide safety margin. This initiative will also aid in de-silting the drains and ease public movement," he added.

When asked about reports that some people refused to meet him during his inspection of rain-affected areas on Wednesday, he said, "Many people met us and even raised their voices against us. I listened to all their grievances. It is natural for people in distress to express anger.

"We are here to listen to and resolve their issues. I will meet them whenever needed. Even if I cannot meet hundreds of people directly, I ensure I meet those who represent them...Some people criticise us, while others appreciate our work. In Bengaluru city, there were 211 spots affected by rain-related issues. Of these, problems in 166 areas have been resolved. Work is still pending in 44 locations, out of which work is underway in 24...The opposition exists only to do politics, and they may continue to do so. We welcome their suggestions," he said.

Responding to the BJP's allegation that the Rs 2,000 crore project was not utilised by the state government, he said, "During their time, no relief measures were implemented. Our government is working to complete the stormwater drain project in one go. I want to say one thing to the Leader of Opposition, R. Ashoka -- such problems are occurring only in the constituencies of BJP MLAs. These issues are the result of their failure to do proper work during their tenure."

When asked about criticism that renaming Ramanagara district was just an attempt to increase property value, he said, "Let this matter be discussed in the Cabinet. I will respond to you afterwards." Further, asked why there were no issues when cities in Uttar Pradesh were renamed, but in Karnataka, there were so many obstacles, he replied, "This is purely political.".
Bengaluru, May 22 : Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar has said that state Home Minister G. Parameshwara may have given money to Kannada actor Ranya Rao, who is involved in the gold smuggling case, as a wedding gift.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday on the issue of ED raids at Parameshwara-owned educational institutions being linked to Ranya Rao, Shivakumar said, "I visited Home Minister Parameshwara this morning and spoke to him. He told me that he had given Rs 15 to 25 lakh. We are all in public life. Many of us run trusts. During marriages and other occasions, it is common to give gifts."

When specifically asked whether Parameshwara had given money to Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, Shivakumar replied, "He might have given it to her. There were marriage ceremonies in their family, and he could have given it as a gift."

"When I met Parameshwara, I asked him about it, and he told me that the money was gifted during a marriage. That's quite natural," he reiterated.

"That doesn't mean an influential person like Parameshwara would have asked her to carry out gold smuggling. Will anyone support such an act? If that woman has done something wrong, she will be punished according to the law," Shivakumar said.

"We have no objection to legal action being taken against her. As far as Parameshwara is concerned, he is a law-abiding citizen and the Home Minister of the state. We are proud of him. He is a senior leader," he added.

Shivakumar further said, "He served as the State Congress President for eight years and has contributed significantly to the state. He has been an MLA since 1989, along with me, and has served as a minister. I have known him for a long time -- he is an honest and clean man. If he gave anything, it would have been a wedding gift."

"I met him this morning and told him that we stand by him," he added.

"In public life, we often give wedding gifts ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 10 lakh. He might have done the same. There's nothing wrong with that. No minister or politician will support the actions of the woman involved. It is her personal matter, and the law will take its own course," he reiterated.

"As far as Parameshwara is concerned, he meets thousands of people every day. He may not know everyone's background. The law will take its own course, and we don't intend to interfere," Shivakumar said.

This development is likely to stir controversy, as the opposition BJP has already linked the gold smuggling case with the ED raids on educational institutions owned by Home Minister Parameshwara.

Earlier in the day, Parameshwara declined to comment on the alleged linking of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at his institutions to the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao.

Speaking to the media here, Parameshwara, when asked about the raids being conducted in connection with the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao, said, "The investigation is ongoing. The outcome at the end is what matters. Until then, everything is speculative."

He said, "As a person holding a responsible position, I will not make speculative remarks."

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued its raids for the second consecutive day on educational institutions linked to Parameshwara in Tumakuru city.

While ED sources confirmed that the raids and search operations were being conducted in connection with financial transactions related to the gold smuggling case involving actress Ranya Rao, official confirmation was awaited.

Sources have revealed that the ED has found out that a payment of Rs 40 lakh was made to Ranya Rao's account from the Educational trust linked to Minister Parameshwara. Sources further claimed that the payment was made as per the oral instructions. The credit card bill payment of Rs 40 lakh was cleared by the Educational institution, and it is shown as payment made for providing workers, sources revealed.

The official statement is yet to be made in this regard and is expected once the raids are over.

While addressing a press conference, Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka said the "Siddhartha Educational Institutions are being investigated in connection with the gold smuggling case".

"The ED is a government investigating agency. It is established in the investigation that the gold was brought here and given to many persons. They might have got the information on the gold smuggling money being invested in the Siddhartha Education institutions," Ashoka stated.

"Action must be taken against everyone involved. Congress leaders are not afraid even in cases like the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Valmiki Corporation scams. Those guilty must be made to face the consequences," he said.

Coming down heavily on the Central government over the ED raids on educational institutions run by Minister Parameshwara, the Congress dubbed it an act of frustration by the BJP.

National General Secretary and Karnataka In-Charge Randeep Singh Surjewala took to social media X on Wednesday, saying, "The ED raids on the Educational Institutions of Karnataka's Home Minister, G. Parameshwara, one of the tallest SC Leaders, is a frustrated reaction of BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi Govt to giving of ownership rights to 1 Lakh SC-ST families yesterday (May 20) at Hospet."
Kolkata, May 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to attend two programmes in West Bengal's Alipurduar district on May 29 -- one administrative and one political -- confirmed a senior BJP leader in the state who is also a party legislator.

Initially, the state BJP leadership had been informed that the Prime Minister would address a political rally at Alipurduar's Brigade Ground. However, they were later notified of an additional administrative meeting on the same day.

"We have been told the Prime Minister will also participate in an administrative meeting, but the Prime Minister's Office has yet to confirm the venue or share detailed information," said Dipak Burman, BJP state general secretary and MLA from Falakata in Alipurduar.

On Thursday morning, Burman, along with Alipurduar MP Manoj Tigga and other senior state leaders, inspected the Brigade Ground in preparation for the political rally.

"This will be the first rally in Bengal after the successful Operation Sindoor. We've been informed that the Prime Minister personally expressed interest in addressing a rally in Alipurduar. The state unit has begun preparations," Burman said.

Political analysts believe the choice of Alipurduar holds strategic significance. Located near the Chicken Neck corridor -- a narrow stretch that connects mainland India to the North-East -- and close to the gateway of the Seven Sister states, the district has both geographic and geopolitical importance.

"Alipurduar's location makes it a critical link between eastern India and the North-East. The Prime Minister's decision to visit this district reflects its strategic value," said a Kolkata-based political observer.

State BJP leaders view the Prime Minister's visit as a major morale booster for the party's grassroots workers ahead of the crucial West Bengal Assembly elections next year.
Guwahati, May 22 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday virtually inaugurated the redeveloped 138-year-old Haibargaon railway station in central Assam's Nagaon district as part of a national programme involving the inauguration of 103 redeveloped railway stations in 86 districts across the country.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) officials said that Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita, Assam Revenue Minister Keshab Mahanta and other important personalities were present at the inaugural function.

Under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS), the 103 stations, redeveloped at a cost of around Rs 1,100 crore, are located in 86 districts and include major and minor stations across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) of the NFR Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said Haibargaon station in central Assam's Nagaon becomes the first railway station in the northeastern state among 50 stations identified in the state for redevelopment under the ABSS.

"Thursday was be a momentous occasion for the state of Assam and the northeast region. This event stands out as a landmark in the national rollout of the ABSS as Haibargaon is the first redeveloped railway station out of 50 stations identified in Assam, to be inaugurated under this ambitious scheme," the CPRO said.

The Haibargaon, originally built in 1887, was reconstructed at a project cost of approximately Rs 15.85 crore, signalling the beginning of a new chapter for rail infrastructure in the region.

The redevelopment of Haibargaon station is symbolic not only of technological and architectural upliftment but also of the government's intent to bring the northeast region of India into the fold of rapid national development, he pointed out.

Sharma said that the selection of Haibargaon as the first station to be inaugurated under ABSS in Assam reflects its strategic importance and the successful execution of the project with a clear vision for passenger-centric modernisation.

With its upgraded amenities, improved accessibility and cultural aesthetics, the station sets a benchmark for the 49 other stations in Assam lined up for redevelopment, he said.

The CPRO said that as the Prime Minister inaugurated this gateway to a modern rail experience, Haibargaon emerged not just as a station but as a symbol of progress, pride and promise for the people of Assam and the northeast region.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 22 : The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Thursday took action against the Hyderabad-based KNR Constructions Limited after the National Highway 66 in Kerala, which they are constructing, started to collapse at a few places.

Sources said that apart from banning the construction company, the consultants to the project, Highway Engineering Company, have also been banned.

Likewise, two top officials attached to the project, the Construction Project Manager M. Amarnath Reddy and team leader Raj Kumar, have also been suspended.

On May 19, the under-construction National Highway 66 at Kooriyad in Malappuram district collapsed, while the retaining wall and service road sank in.

Lok Sabha member from Malappuram district E.T. Mohammed Basheer, early this week, called on Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and expressed concerns about the construction of the highway. Gadkari had assured the Basheer of prompt action, which was taken on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Kerala Congress president Sunny Joseph asked the Pinarayi Vijayan government to ensure responsibilities are fixed.

Meanwhile, the protesters targeted the State Public Works Department Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas, who is also Vijayan's son-in-law. He always took credit for the massive road development that has taken place since he became the Minister in 2021. Vijayan was also criticised by various stakeholders.

However, Minister Riyas pointed out that the Congress-led UDF has always been against this project, as during their tenure, they were unable to do anything.

"After the incident happened, Congress saw it as a good opportunity to criticise us. But they should realise that this is a challenge against the people. We will go forward resolving all the issues," said Riyas.

The Centre has also appointed veteran former IIT Delhi Professor K.R. Rao, an expert in roads and construction, to conduct an in-depth study of the incident.

Congress Lok Sabha member Shafi Parambil welcomed the appointment, saying, "This decision was expected. There has to be a detailed examination of the projects. In the Parliament, we have brought this up on a few occasions. We are hoping that things will now go forward smoothly."
Islamabad/New Delhi May 22 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday proposed Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue for talks with India, stating that the United States could take lead as a mediator between the two countries.

Talking to journalists in Islamabad, Sharif said that if there are going to be talks between India and Pakistan, they will be at the National Security Advisors (NSA) level, adding that the agenda of the talks would be focused on Kashmir, water, terrorism, and trade.

Shehbaz also said that the tensions between India and Pakistan are de-escalating in phases since the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on both sides started engaging with each other.

"If talks were held between the two arch rivals, the National Security Advisor will lead Pakistan's side in the process. Saudi Arabia can be a neutral venue with the US leading mediations. But India has not agreed to any neutral venue for talks till now," he said.

"The agenda of the talks would be Kashmir, water, trade, and terrorism. These will be the key points during Pakistan-India talks," Sharif added.

Shehbaz said that the decision to promote Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir to Field Marshal, was taken solely by the government after consultation in the Federal Cabinet and getting a nod from Pakistan Muslim League a" Nawaz (PML-N) founder and brother Nawaz Sharif.

The Pakistani's PM's comments came on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India's firm stance against terrorism, saying there would be no talks or trade with Islamabad unless it relinquishes its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

"If there is to be any talk, it will be on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). If Pakistan continues to export terrorists, it will be left begging for every penny. It will not get a single drop of Indian water," he said while addressing a massive public rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner.

PM Modi also made it clear that "playing with the blood of Indians will cost Pakistan dearly".
Mumbai, May 22 : Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's security cover has been breached once again. In a recent incident, a woman, Isha Chhabra, 32, entered the lift area of the superstar's residence.

Mumbai, May 22 (IANS) Bollywood superstar Salman Khanas security cover has been breached once again. In a recent incident, a woman, Isha Chhabra, 32, entered the lift area of the superstaras residence.

However, before she could make her way to the actoras core residential area, she was intercepted by the security vehicle at Khanas Galaxy apartment in the Bandra area of Mumbai on Thursday.

Security guards at the Galaxy Apartment nabbed the woman and handed her to the Bandra police, based on the complaint of the security guard, the Bandra police have registered a case against the woman and are investigating the case further.

This comes in the wake of heightened security around the actor owing to threats by the jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. The actor has been on the radar of Bishnoi, who wants to avenge the alleged hunting of the black buck by the superstar in the 1990s.

Last year, two men on a bike fired multiple shots outside the actoras residence Galaxy Apartments in the Bandra area of Mumbai. The investigation later revealed that the shooting was aimed at intimidating the actor and was carried out on the instructions of Lawrence Bishnoi. The Bishnoi community considers blackbucks to be sacred, and the actoras alleged involvement has enraged the gangster, who has revenge on his mind.

Bishnoi, who gained national attention after the murder of Punjabi star Sidhu Moose Wala in 2022, has openly given threats to Salman for his alleged involvement in the black buck hunting case during the shoot of aHum Saath - Saath Haina.

This year on Eid, the superstar also greeted his fans from behind the bullet-proof installed in his balcony. The actor also spoke with the media earlier this year, and agreed that on some days moving with security does become a problem for him.

The actor also said that he is not afraid of the threats, and has left it to God to look after him and safety.
Ranchi, May 22 : More than 25,000 farmers in Jharkhand are still awaiting payment for paddy they sold to government procurement agencies over five to six months ago.

The government currently owes approximately Rs 290 crore to these farmers, triggering growing discontent and warnings of statewide protests.

According to official figures, around 58,860 farmers sold paddy to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) across Jharkhand.

Of these, nearly 5,000 have not received a single rupee to date. Many others received only the first instalment  50 per cent of the payment -- while the remaining dues under the second and third tranches remain unpaid.

As per procurement rules, the first instalment should be paid within 72 hours of purchase, and the balance within a week. However, farmers across several districts allege these norms have been blatantly violated.

A group of affected farmers has now threatened to launch a hunger strike in front of Raj Bhavan in Ranchi if their dues are not cleared within 15 days.

The paddy procurement drive concluded on April 30 this year. Against a target of 60 lakh quintals, the state could procure only 69 per cent -- around 40.08 lakh quintals. Farmers are to be paid Rs 2,400 per quintal, inclusive of a bonus.

Based on this rate, the government owes Rs 962.10 crore in total, but has so far disbursed only around Rs 670 crore.

With the monsoon approaching, farmers fear that if payments are further delayed, they won't be able to invest in essential agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilisers, and equipment for the upcoming sowing season.

Leader of Opposition and BJP state president Babulal Marandi slammed the Hemant Soren-led government, accusing it of betraying farmers.

"The government had promised payment within 72 hours, but farmers have been left in the lurch for months. Before elections, they promised to buy paddy at Rs 3,100 per quintal, but that too turned out to be an empty claim," Marandi said.

Farmers and opposition leaders are now demanding immediate intervention from the state government to release the pending dues and ensure timely payments in future procurement cycles.
Bhopal, May 22 : Madhya Pradesh witnessed a major boost to its railway infrastructure as Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday virtually inaugurated six redeveloped railway stations under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS).

Part of a nationwide drive to modernise Indian Railways, the scheme promises world-class passenger amenities and station upgrades tailored to local needs and cultural heritage. The railway stations which were inaugurated virtually by PM Modi under ABSS are Shajapur, Narmadapuram, Katni South, Shridham, Seoni, and Orchha.

In Narmadapuram, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav attended the inauguration event at the redeveloped Narmadapuram Railway Station. Accompanied by Union Minister Rakesh Singh, Rajya Sabha MP Maya Narolia, MP Darshan Singh Choudhary, and former Assembly Speaker Sitasharan Sharma, the Chief Minister hailed the upgrades as a "transformational moment" for local travellers.

The station now features a newly constructed 12-metre footbridge, a VIP hall, a modern waiting room, and drinking water facilities, all designed to enhance the daily commute for thousands. Locals expressed their appreciation for the initiative, with many praising the Modi government for delivering a long-overdue facelift to the station.

In Shajapur, a festive atmosphere unfolded as residents and leaders reached the station in a tricolour rally. Redeveloped at a cost of over Rs 13 crore, Shajapur Railway Station now offers a new foot overbridge, a shaded platform area, high-mast lighting, and dedicated amenities for differently-abled passengers. The modern facade also showcases local folk art and cultural motifs, making the station a blend of tradition and technology.

The event saw the presence of MP Mahendra Singh Solanki, local MLAs, and the Bhopal Zone DRM.

Speaking to IANS, Satish Rathore, a local traveller, said, "It's a good scheme by PM Modi. This will help passengers. Life has become easier with these new facilities."

In Katni, the redeveloped Katni South Railway Station was unveiled in a grand ceremony, with a budget of Rs 12.88 crore. The event was attended by Deputy Chief Minister Rajendra Shukla and Khajuraho MP VD Sharma, both of whom praised the Prime Minister's vision for modernising Indian Railways.

Sharma remarked, "Today, PM Modi inaugurated 103 stations across India out of 1,300 planned. I want to thank him for this transformative scheme."

Katni South has also been redesigned with an upgraded passenger terminal, better circulation space, and digital amenities.

Local passengers echoed their appreciation.

Tamanna, a first-time visitor, shared, "I'm really happy. The facilities are excellent."

Another commuter, Jiten, added, "This station has improved a lot. Everything is clean, modern, and traveller-friendly."

Residents of Seoni also received a major infrastructural boost as their newly redeveloped railway station was inaugurated under the Amrit Bharat Station Yojana by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through virtual mode on Thursday.

Seoni, historically served by a narrow-gauge railway line since independence, saw this line decommissioned in 2015 to make way for a broad-gauge upgrade. Although the gauge conversion was completed last year, the station's redevelopment had remained pending until today.

Marking a new chapter in the district's railway connectivity, the Seoni station now stands completed and operational. What makes it even more special is its unique Mowgli-inspired design, paying tribute to Seoni's cultural connection as the birthplace of the legendary Jungle Book character. Architecturally, the station incorporates themed elements, with decorative gates on both sides enhancing its visual appeal.

The inauguration ceremony saw the presence of Balaghat MP Bharti Pardhi, former MP Dhal Singh Bisen, MLA Dinesh Rai Munmun, former MLA Naresh Diwakar, and several other dignitaries who joined local residents to witness the virtual launch by the Prime Minister.

The redevelopment of stations across Madhya Pradesh is part of a larger nationwide initiative that saw 103 railway stations across 86 districts in 18 states and Union Territories inaugurated today. The ABSS is a long-term infrastructure plan that aims to modernise more than 1,300 railway stations across the country, making them modern transport hubs integrated with regional architectural aesthetics and equipped with state-of-the-art amenities.

The total cost for the redevelopment of these 103 stations is estimated to be around Rs 1,100 crore. These stations span across states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and more, making it one of the most expansive railway upgradation efforts in Indian history.

The ABSS focuses not just on physical infrastructure but also on passenger convenience and accessibility. Features such as rooftop plazas, food courts, digital display boards, inter-modal connectivity, and Divyangjan-friendly design elements are becoming standard components of these upgrades.
Seoul, May 22 : South Korea's Foreign Ministry on Thursday expressed deep condolences over the killings of two Israeli Embassy staff members who were shot to death in Washington.

The shooting occurred on Wednesday (US time) as the two embassy employees were leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at a local Jewish museum, according to media reports.

The 30-year-old suspect shouted, "Free, free Palestine," as he was taken into custody, as per the reports.

"The government offers its deepest condolences to the two Israeli Embassy staff members in the US, who were tragically killed in the shooting, as well as to their bereaved families," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"The government expresses deep concern over this brutal criminal act, which cannot be justified under any circumstances," it said, Yonhap news agency reported.

The single shooter was identified by police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news briefing that the suspect shouted "Free, free Palestine!" while being taken into custody.

The victims were Sarah Lynn Milgrim and her partner, Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!" President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social early Thursday morning.

"We will follow the facts. We will follow the law, and this defendant will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The Wall Street Journal said Milgrim worked at the Department of Public Diplomacy in the embassy and Lischinsky immigrated to Israel from Germany at age 16, and served in the Israeli military. He completed his undergraduate and master degrees in Israel, before moving to Washington to work as a research assistant for the embassyas political department in September 2022.

"We are a resilient people," Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter said at the news briefing with US authorities.

"Together we won't be afraid and we will stand and we will overcome the moral depravity of people who think they are going to achieve political gains through murder." The Journal reported that the Ambassador also said that Lischinsky had just bought an engagement ring for Milgrim and was going to propose in Jerusalem next week.
New Delhi, May 22 : The Agniveers of the Indian Army demonstrated exceptional courage and professionalism during Operation Sindoor, playing a pivotal role in India's offensive and defensive actions following the Pahalgam terror attack.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The Agniveers of the Indian Army demonstrated exceptional courage and professionalism during Operation Sindoor, playing a pivotal role in Indiaas offensive and defensive actions following the Pahalgam terror attack.

According to sources, around 3,000 Agniveers were deployed in the multi-pronged military operation, where they served in key combat and support roles -- from frontline strike teams to critical positions such as gunners, fire control operators, and radio communication specialists.

Agniveers were instrumental not only in launching offensive actions on enemy positions but also in neutralising Pakistani drone and missile threats, forming an integral part of the air defence network that safeguarded Indian military and civilian installations.

Many of these young soldiers, barely in their twenties, were part of the crew operating heavily armed vehicles and missile platforms, including the indigenous Akashteer Air Defence Control System. Their coordination and rapid response enabled the detection and downing of multiple Pakistani drones, successfully thwarting attempted retaliatory strikes.

Following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, which claimed the lives of 26 innocent tourists, India launched Operation Sindoor targeting terrorist hideouts in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Nine major camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were destroyed, and more than 100 terrorists were eliminated. The Indian Army took special care to avoid civilian and non-military targets, but Pakistan responded with drone and missile attacks on Indian territories -- both military and civilian.

In response, India struck back, demolishing multiple Pakistani military posts and damaging key air defence and airbase infrastructure.

Agniveers were deeply involved in these retaliatory actions, showing resolve and discipline under fire.

Defence experts have praised the performance of the Agniveers, noting that their training and adaptability have made them indistinguishable from regular troops in live combat scenarios.

The success of Operation Sindoor, and the significant role played by Agniveers in its execution, are being seen as a validation of the Agnipath recruitment scheme, which aims to infuse young talent into the armed forces with high-intensity training and operational exposure.
Seoul, May 22 : Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, currently on a visit to South Korea for the prestigious Asian Leadership Conference (ALC), shared a precious picture on Thursday and expressed joy over the memorable moment captured in frames, along with two former Prime Ministers.

The Parliamentarian attended the two-day Summit, also dubbed the 'Davos of the East', as a keynote speaker in the South Korean capital.

He took to the social media handle X and shared a photo post on Thursday, which shows AAP MP seated along with two former Prime Ministers  one of Britain and the other of Australia.

"Not every day do you find yourself seated between two former Prime Ministers  the highly distinguished Rishi Sunak on the left, and the widely respected Tony Abbott on the right. A rather special moment at the Asian Leadership Conference in South Korea," he wrote in the X post.

Earlier, addressing the gathering in Seoul, the Rajya Sabha MP made a strong case for punitive action against Pakistan for protecting and shielding terrorists and called upon the world powers to join hands against acts of terror and urged all nations to make a united global front against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.

Presenting India's firm and renewed stand against terrorism, the lawmaker stated that the government has demonstrated a paradigm shift in the way it deals with terrorists, their infrastructure and rogue nations and added that this doctrine will be followed further, prompting cross-border action against terror networks, if India comes under attack again.

Raghav Chadha, with his participation in Asia's premier platform for global dialogue, joined the likes of distinguished and illustrious leaders and speakers from around the world.

Apart from Raghav Chadha, other noted speakers who elicited their views on the theme - "The Rise of Nations: Pathways to Great Prosperity" included Rishi Sunak, Mike Pompeo, Tony Abbott, Laurel Miller and others.

Notably, the ALC conference brings together more than 320 global leaders and over 2,500 delegates from politics, business, academia, and civil society to engage in conversations around the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the Asian continent.
Bhopal, May 22 : Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inaugurating six new railway stations under the 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme' (ABSS) in Madhya Pradesh.

Six railway stations inaugurated are - Narmadapurm, Sridham, Katni South, Seoni, Shajapur and Orchha. These stations are among 103 railway stations across the country that PM Modi virtually inaugurated during an event in Rajasthan's Bikaner on Thursday.

Of 103 inaugurated railway stations, 19 are in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Gujarat, 15 in Maharashtra, nine in Tamil Nadu, eight in Rajasthan, six in Madhya Pradesh, five each in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka, three each in Jharkhand, Telangana and West Bengal, two each in Bihar and Kerala and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Puducherry.

Launched in 2022, the 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme' is a long-term plan to improve railway stations and develop them as "city centres".

According to the Ministry of Railways, under the scheme, detailed plans are made for each station and the work is done in phases, based on what each station needs.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who participated inauguration programme at Narmadapurm railway station, said that PM Modi has gifted six new railway stations to Madhya Pradesh.

"I am proud to witness this historic moment virtually from Narmadapurm, and on behalf of the people of Madhya Pradesh, I express my heartfelt gratitude to PM Modi for gifting six new railway stations today," Yadav said.

On this occasion, addressing a programme at the newly inaugurated Narmadapurm railway station, the Chief Minister lauded PM Modi and the Indian Armed Forces for giving a befitting reply to Pakistan through 'Operation Sindoor'.

"Operation Sindoor has shown India's strength under the leadership of PM Modi, who made it clear that India will no longer tolerate terrorism. After the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan conspired to create unrest, however, India remained united under PM Modi's leadership," Yadav added.
Seoul, May 22 : Lee Jun-seok, the presidential candidate of the South Korean minor conservative New Reform Party (NRP), on Thursday flatly dismissed the possibility of unifying his candidacy with that of the People Power Party (PPP)'s nominee, Kim Moon-soo.

Calls have been growing within the PPP to merge the candidacies of Kim and Lee ahead of the June 3 presidential election, in a bid to boost the conservative bloc's chances of defeating the Democratic Party (DP) front runner, Lee Jae-myung.

According to a National Barometer Survey (NBS) conducted this week, the DP's Lee secured 46 per cent support, followed by Kim with 32 per cent, while the NRP's Lee ranked third with 10 per cent, which was his first double-digit showing.

"I will run in this presidential race to the end under the name of Lee Jun-seok and the New Reform Party. We will achieve victory," Lee Jun-seok said during a press conference.

"Despite external pressure and persuasion, we remain unwavering because we have a vision for South Korea that we want to build," he added.

Kim and Lee have until Saturday to merge their candidacies to avoid having both of their names printed on the ballot. Election authorities are scheduled to print ballots on Sunday, Yonhap news agency reported.

They can still merge their candidacies by Wednesday, a day before early voting begins, although both of their names will still appear on the ballot in that case.

Compared with a week ago, Lee Jae-myung of the DP lost 3 percentage points, while Kim Moon-soo and the NRP's Lee Jun-seok gained 5 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively.

Kim has appealed to the NRP's Lee to merge their candidacies to better challenge the DP's Lee, but the NRP's Lee, a former leader of the PPP, has said that he has no intention of merging campaigns with Kim.

Buoyed by the latest poll, the NRP's Lee appeared to be sanguine on Thursday, saying that questions by reporters about a possible merger with Kim would be "meaningless."

Lee of the DP made his first election stop on the southern island of Jeju, where he pledged to abolish the statute of limitations for crimes of state violence.
Imphal/Aizawl, May 22 : Smuggling of narcotic substances from Myanmar continues unabated in northeastern states of India, with drugs, valued at over Rs 5.7 crore, being seized by the security forces in Manipur and Mizoram, officials said on Thursday.

A defence spokesman said that Assam Rifles successfully apprehended a drug trafficker and seized a large amount of illegal narcotics from Manipuras Noney district on Wednesday night.

The suspected drug peddler was moving in a truck from Imphal to Jiribam, along National Highway-37.

After receiving input from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence about the likely trafficking of narcotics, Assam Rifles personnel became vigilant and stopped a vehicle matching the description at a check post in Noney.

During the search operation, 569.24 grams of heroin and large quantities of amphetamine/methamphetamine tablets were recovered from the possession of the arrested drug peddler. The drugs, the total value of which is Rs 5 crore, were contained in 50 cases of soap and 49 sachets.

The spokesman said that over the past few months, Assam Rifles have been actively involved in dismantling the illegal drug trade in Manipur. The apprehension of drug traffickers and the seizure of drugs is a significant step towards achieving stability in the region.

Assam Rifles remains committed towards disrupting the supply chain of illegal drugs and apprehending drug smugglers, he said.

In another incident, Border Security Force (BSF) personnel of the Mizoram and Cachar Frontier, based on specific input, conducted a search operation at Vairengte in Mizoramas Kolasib district, along southern Assam, and seized 7.042 kg of pseudoephedrine tablets (a precursor chemical) valued at Rs 7.04 lakh. One person was also arrested in connection with the drug seizure, a BSF spokesman said. Officials said that all the drugs were smuggled from neighbouring Myanmar.

Adjoining Myanmar and Bangladesh share 1,643 km and 1,880 km, mostly unfenced border with northeastern states, respectively and serve as key transit points for various drugs, particularly heroin and methamphetamine tablets, entering India.
Mumbai, May 22 : Following Shilpa Shirodkar, 'Jewel Thief' actress Nikita Dutta has also tested positive for COVID-19.

She shared her health update with her InstaFam through a social media post. Dutta further informed that not just her, but her mother is also suffering from Covid.

She took to her Instagram stories and penned a cautionary message that read, "Covid has come to say hello to my mum and me. Hoping this uninvited guest doesn't stay long. See you after this short quarantine. Stay safe everyone."

Currently in home quarantine, the actress is suffering only mild symptoms. However, as a precaution, the diva has decided to put all her work commitments on hold for the time being.

Recently, actress Shilpa Shirodkar also tested positive for COVID-19.

Informing about this, the 'Bigg Boss 18' contestant, wrote on the Internet. "Hello people! I've been tested Positive for COVID. Stay Safe and wear your masks," she said.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise once again in the country with more than 200 active cases.

On Thursday, Shilpa shared that she has recovered from Covid and is feeling better. "Finally recovered, feeling fine, thank you for your love. Have a super blessed Thursday," the 'Jatadhara' actress wrote on her Instagram story, along with a still of Mumbai's Bandra-Worli Sea Link.

In the meantime, Dutta shared that she realized her Bollywood dream with Saif Ali Khan's "Jewel Thief".

Revealing what she took away from the heist drama, Dutta said, "I've been part of Sid Anand's world, which I feel is a huge thing because I mean, I feel as an actor, especially as a female actress, I would say. I don't think I've lived the classic Bollywood heroine tag, which, thanks to you and Mamta, I have gotten this opportunity to play the classic Bollywood heroine. And I'm not saying just because you're going to see me dancing. It's just overall to get the heroine feeling. I think I've gotten that from this film. So that's my takeaway from being a part of Sid Anand's world with this film."
Mumbai, May 22 : Actor Roshan Mathew, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming streaming title 'KanKhajura', is shedding light on his character of Ashu in the series. The character is shrouded in silence, scared by his past, and is driven by a strong sense of belongingness.

The actor shared that this wasn't just another role for him, rather it was a calling. Roshan said that such characters don't come by very often for actors. Naturally, he didn't want to miss the chance to discover what his version of Ashu would be.

Roshan was drawn to Ashu's emotional clarity beneath the surface complexity, as he shared, "Though he might work in mysterious ways, he's a fairly clear guy. All he wants is to be a part of the family, a part of the gang. That's it".

'KanKhajura' is a psychological thriller set in Goa, where silence masks secrets and guilt refuses to fade. When two estranged brothers are forced to confront their haunted past, memories twist into a dangerous reality. It is based on the acclaimed Israeli series 'Magpie', the show has been reimagined under license from Yes Studios by creators Adam Bizanski, Omri Shenhar, and Dana Eden, and produced by Donna and Shula Productions. It delivers a gripping tale of fractured families, betrayal, and the fragile line between guilt and survival.

The actor also expressed his gratitude to Chandan Arora, who has helmed the series. He added, "Chandan sir helped me crack Ashu, what his tactics would be, how he would react in each situation, what the possibilities were at each turning point".

Produced by Ajay Rai and directed by Chandan Arora, 'KanKhajura' also stars Mahesh Shetty, Mohit Raina, Ninad Kamat, Roshan Mathew, Sarah Jane Dias, Trinetra Haldar, and Usha Nadkarni.

KanKhajura is set to premiere on May 30 on Sony LIV.
New Delhi, May 22 : The Ministry of Heavy Industries on Thursday assured that approximately 4,500 electric buses will be provided to Bengaluru, 2,000 to Hyderabad, 2,800 to Delhi, 1,000 to Ahmedabad and 600 to Surat under the current phase of the PM e-Drive Scheme.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Union Minister for Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy on the rollout of electric buses.

"The session focused on the states of Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, and Gujaratmarking a strong step forward in advancing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for clean and inclusive urban transport solutions across India," according to an official statement issued after the meeting.

"Thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is now taking bold strides toward sustainable urban mobility. From Bengaluru to Delhi, cities are actively embracing electric buses to make public transport cleaner, smarter, and more efficient," said Kumaraswamy.

"We are not merely allocating electric buseswe are shaping the future of India's transport system with innovation and environmental consciousness," the Union Minister said.

"With close coordination between the Centre and states like Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi, and Gujarat, we are determined to deliver on the PM e-Drive promise," he added.

The PM e-Drive initiative aims to deploy 14,028 electric buses with a total financial outlay of Rs 10,900 crore over a two-year period from April 2024 to March 2026.

The minister said the scheme represents one of the world's largest national efforts to electrify public transport at scale and the government was committed to timely delivery, operational readiness, and strategic partnerships with all participating states.

The Ministry of Heavy Industry (MHI) has also introduced E-vouchers for EV buyers to avail the demand incentive under the scheme.

Under the PM e-drive scheme an allocation of Rs 500 crore each has been done for the deployment of e-ambulances and e-trucks as well. This is new initiative of the Centre to promote the use of e-ambulances for comfortable patient transport.

Similarly, e-trucks have also been introduced under the scheme since trucks are major contributors to air pollution. To avail subsidy on e-truck submission of a scrapping certificate from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) approved vehicles scrapping centres (RVSF) has been made mandatory.
Patna, May 22 : With the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for October-November, the Janata Dal (United) convened a high-level strategy meeting at its party office in Patna on Thursday to gear up for the electoral battle.

The meeting was chaired by JD-U State President Umesh Kushwaha and attended by senior leaders, including national spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan, chief spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar, headquarters in-charge Chandan Singh, along with all party spokespersons and panellists.

According to a senior leader of JD-U, the meeting focused on multiple fronts to strategise for elections. Party leaders deliberated on upcoming campaign themes, messaging, and on-ground mobilisation plans.

The party discussed methods to effectively respond to criticisms from the INDIA Bloc, particularly those raised by Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav on issues like crime and governance.

Tejashwi Yadav is regularly attacking the Nitish Kumar government on rising incidents of murder, rape, loot in the state. He is also targeting Nitish Kumar, saying that he remains "unconscious."

He said that the leaders of the JDU have paid special attention to the RJD and Congress's recently announced Rs 2,500 monthly assistance to women under the "Mai Behin Maan" scheme.

JD-U leadership has decided to develop a targeted counter-strategy to retain women voters and question the feasibility and past record of the RJD and Congress on such promises.

Party sources indicate that JD-U will soon launch an aggressive state-wide campaign, highlighting development work under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's leadership and exposing alleged criminal incidents that occurred during RJD's tenure.

A party insider said, "Our focus is to communicate the truth to the people and unmask the misleading tactics of the opposition. We are ready to take the battle to every village and booth."

With both the NDA and Grand Alliance claiming victory, the political temperature in Bihar is rapidly rising. JDU's latest move signals the beginning of an intense campaign season across the state.
Mumbai, May 22 : Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal are setting couple goals with their dreamy Maldives getaway.

The duo is enjoying some romantic moments together. From beach strolls to candid clicks, the couple looked absolutely smitten  lost in each other against the backdrop of turquoise waters and golden skies. On Thursday, Sonakshi took to her Instagram stories and shared a cute boomerang where the two look lost in each other's conversation. Zaheer is seen smiling as he listens to his lady love. They are standing on a boat amidst a beautiful view, engrossed in their chat.

The 'Akira' actress also added the song 'Yeh Tumhari Meri Baathein' from the movie "Rock On" to her post. Sonakshi also shared a candid photo, posing with her back to the camera. She is seen holding a drink in her hand while strolling against a breathtaking view.

A few days ago, Sonakshi and Zaheer took a brief break in the Maldives, where they reconnected with longtime friends and also welcomed some new ones during their getaway. Sharing a couple of their photos, the couple wrote, "A minute in Maldives to celebrate love, life and the 10th wedding anniversary of our dear friends @nirvanachaudhary and @ashrayata reunited with old friends, made some new ones this was our shortest trip there but the MOST special Big shoutout to @tajmaldives for being the perfect venue for this one!."

Ever since Sonakshi and Zaheer got married, they have frequently made headlines for their luxurious vacations.

For the unversed, the couple first crossed paths at a party hosted by Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. Both actors launched their careers under Salman's bannerSonakshi made her mark with the hit film 'Dabangg', while Zaheer debuted in Salman's production 'Notebook. 'Their relationship blossomed over seven years, including a year of living together, before they finally tied the knot.

Sonakshi and Zaheer started dating in 2017 and later appeared on screen together in the 2022 movie 'Double XL.' Their wedding took place on June 23 this year in a private ceremony attended by close family and friends from the film industry.
New Delhi, May 22 : India on Thursday reiterated that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral, at the same time making it clear once again that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) will remain in abeyance until Pakistan "credibly and irrevocably abjures" its support for cross-border terrorism.

"Any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror don't go together. On terrorism itself, as I had said earlier, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of noted terrorists whose list was given to Pakistan some years ago," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated during a weekly media briefing in New Delhi.

"I would also like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be on the vacation of illegally-occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. On the question of the Indus Waters Treaty, I am again repeating myself, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As our Prime Minister has said, water and blood cannot flow together, trade and terror also cannot go together" he added.

India's strong response came a few hours after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif proposed Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue for talks with India, stating that the United States could take lead as a mediator between the two countries.

Talking to journalists in Islamabad, Sharif said that if there are going to be talks between India and Pakistan, they will be at the National Security Advisors (NSA) level, adding that the agenda of the talks would be focused on Kashmir, water, terrorism, and trade.

Shehbaz also said that the tensions between India and Pakistan are de-escalating in phases since the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on both sides started engaging with each other.

"If talks were held between the two arch rivals, the National Security Advisor will lead Pakistan's side in the process. Saudi Arabia can be a neutral venue with the US leading mediations. But India has not agreed to any neutral venue for talks till now," he said.

"The agenda of the talks would be Kashmir, water, trade, and terrorism. These will be the key points during Pakistan-India talks," Sharif added.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India's firm stance against terrorism, saying there would be no talks or trade with Islamabad unless it relinquishes its illegal occupation of Kashmir.

"If there is to be any talk, it will be on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). If Pakistan continues to export terrorists, it will be left begging for every penny. It will not get a single drop of Indian water," he said while addressing a massive public rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner.

PM Modi also made it clear that "playing with the blood of Indians will cost Pakistan dearly".
Amaravati, May 22 : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is embarking on a two-day visit to New Delhi to seek the Union government's support for the speedy execution of several ongoing and proposed projects in the state.

During this visit, the Chief Minister will hold a series of strategic meetings with senior Union Ministers to present the state's development priorities and mobilise central support across critical sectors, the Chief Ministeras Office (CMO) said on Thursday.

On Friday, the first day of his visit, the Chief Minister will have a series of meetings with Union Ministers, including those of Defence, Finance, Jal Shakti, and Electronics & IT.

The focus during these meetings will be on Centre-State coordination for infrastructure, renewable energy, and water resource management.

There will also be a discussion on the implementation of new criminal laws and administrative preparedness.

Naidu will first meet Minister for New & Renewable Energy Prahlad Joshi to explore collaboration in green energy projects. This will be followed by a meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss Andhra Pradeshas strategic defence and aerospace initiatives, including the BEL Defence Complex and HAL-AMCA programme.

The Chief Minister will then call on Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil. The discussion will focus on water infrastructure and pending irrigation proposals.

Naidu will discuss research, innovation, and industrial science collaborations during the meeting with Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Dr Jintendra Singh.

He will then call on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to seek support for Andhra Pradeshas financial roadmap.

The Chief Minister will participate in a key review meeting to be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the implementation of new criminal laws across states.

On Friday night, Naidu will have a meeting with Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw to deliberate on digital infrastructure and Andhra Pradeshas role in the future tech economy.

On Saturday, the Chief Minister will attend the 10th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog at Bharat Mandapam.

In this high-level policy forum, he will articulate Andhra Pradeshas reform-oriented governance model, highlight key development initiatives, and seek strategic cooperation from the Centre and States to advance inclusive and sustainable growth, said the CMO.
Chennai, May 22 : The DMK on Thursday celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to stay the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) probe into the alleged TASMAC scam, calling it a major vindication of the party's position.

Speaking to reporters at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, party organising secretary R. S. Bharathi said, "The Supreme Court's ruling exposed the Centre's attempt to weaponise the ED to malign the Tamil Nadu government."

"The BJP cannot digest the DMK's consistent electoral victories in Tamil Nadu. That is why they are using the ED to defame our regime," Bharathi said.

Bharathi pointed out that around 44 First Information Reports (FIRs) had been filed in connection with TASMAC, the state-run liquor distribution body.

"Yet, only a few selectively chosen FIRs were used by the ED to conduct raids. This shows that the intention was not to investigate but to create a negative perception about the DMK," he said.

Referring to the Supreme Court's observations, Bharathi claimed the Apex Court had criticised the ED for functioning like a "blackmailing institution" in several parts of the country.

"The court's order is not just a relief for Tamil Nadu, but also a strong message against the arbitrary actions of the ED," he added.

He further asserted that the verdict is a legal endorsement of the DMK government's stand and legal efforts against the ED's overreach.

"The court has dealt a hammer blow to the ED's politically motivated actions. This is a significant win for federalism and democracy," Bharathi said.

The Supreme Court, earlier in the day, had stayed the ED's probe into alleged money laundering involving TASMAC, questioning the agencyas jurisdiction and motives.

The judgment has sparked sharp political reactions, with the DMK framing it as a triumph against "authoritarian interference" by the Centre.
Bhopal, May 22 : During an inspection of the Sitanagar irrigation project in Damoh's Patharia assembly in Madhya Pradesh, Member of Parliament (Damoh) Rahul Singh Lodhi, his supporters, and accompanying administrative officials found themselves in an unexpected predicament when a swarm of bees launched a sudden attack.

As the insects descended upon the group, chaos erupted, with officials, leaders, and security personnel scrambling in all directions to evade the stings.

The incident, which occurred around 11:00 AM on Thursday near the dam, left everyone with minor injuries, though no serious harm was reported. A video of the frantic retreat has surfaced, showing police officers fleeing alongside the Parliamentarian and other representatives.

Despite the unexpected disturbance, the Parliamentarian Singh remained undeterred, reassuring those present that the inspection was focused on ensuring the timely completion of the irrigation project.

Later, Parliamentarian Lodhi shared updates on social media, "This morning, I assessed the progress of the Sitanagar Dam Major Irrigation Project and the Bebas Sunar-2 Group Water Supply Scheme, both being developed under the Pathariya Assembly of Damoh Parliamentary Constituency at a substantial investment of 518.09 crores."

He further elaborated, stating: "During the review, I provided essential directives to officials regarding the upkeep of the dam, the enhancement of water conservation measures, and the assurance of a stable local water supply. Once completed, the project will irrigate approximately 16,200 hectares of agricultural land, benefiting around 340 villages. Among them, 38 villages from Damoh Assembly, 112 from Hatta, and 180 from Pathariya will gain improved access to water, significantly strengthening agricultural output and local livelihoods."

He emphasised that efforts would continue to address any shortcomings and expedite the work so that farmers could soon reap the benefits of enhanced water availability.

The project, scheduled for completion by March 2026, is expected to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav.

Rahul Singh also stated that the team would revisit the site to monitor progress and implement necessary improvements.

The Sitanagar irrigation and water supply project, a massive initiative valued at approximately Rs 600 crore, aims to transform agricultural irrigation and provide drinking water to nearly a hundred villages in the region.
Mumbai, May 22 : Actor Subodh Bhave, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming film 'His Story of Itihaas', is lauding the military strength and the leadership of our nation following Operation Sindoor.

The actor, who works predominantly in Hindi and Marathi cinema, spoke with IANS, and condemned the cowardly attacks by the Pakistan sponsored terrorists in Pahalgam.

He told IANS, "Operation Sindoor was a major and deeply significant mission. What happened on April 22 in Pahalgam was one of the most shameful and heartbreaking incidents. To kill a husband in front of his wife, or a father in front of his daughter, and that too after asking about their religion, is not something a human being could do. Only a monster within can commit such an act. These people have no religion. No faith in the world teaches you to kill innocent people".

He expressed his gratitude to the armed forces, and lauded the political leadership and our forces for a swift and justified action.

He further mentioned, "The response from our Prime Minister, along with the courage of our Army, Navy, and Air Force, deserves the highest respect. It shows real leadership and strength. India's DNA has never been about aggression in fact, anyone who came to India, became one with it. We have never attacked anyone first".

"As our Prime Minister rightly said, 'Peace is achieved only when you are powerful'. What our soldiers have done in response is truly commendable. From the heart, I offer them my deepest respect and salute", he added.

India launched Operation Sindoor as a response to the Pakistan sponsored terrorists' killings of Pahalgam on April 22. The terrorist attack claimed the lives of 26 tourists including a Nepali national in Kashmir's Pahalgam.

Indian armed forces launched a highly coordinated attack under Operation Sindoor on Pakistan's 9 terror sites on May 7 at 1:44 am. The operation resulted in the wiping of more than 150 terrorists in Pakistan including few high value targets. One of the high value targets was Abdul Rauf Azhar, who has beheaded a Jewish journalist.

Pakistan, rattled by the precision strikes by India, launched an offensive across the entire western front, sending its surveillance drones on May 7. It also resorted to heavy shelling the same night. While Pakistan indiscriminately attacked the civilians and places of worship in the border areas of India, India's response was calculated and highly precise.

Meanwhile, Subodh's film 'His Story of Itihaas' is inspired by a true story, and is directed by Manpreet Singh Dhami. It also stars Akansha Pandey, Kisha Arora, Ankul Vikal, and Yogendra Tikku. The film promises to stir conversations and spark critical reflection on truth, history, and the education system.

The story follows a seemingly ordinary physics teacher whose world is turned upside down when he uncovers disturbing inaccuracies in his daughter's school history textbook.

The film is set to release in cinemas on May 23, 2025.
Jammu, May 22 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik and five others in the Kiru hydroelectric power project kickbacks case.

In 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir government requested a CBI investigation into the alleged corruption in the allotment of a Rs 2,200 crore contract for civil works in the Kiru hydroelectric power project.

In 2024, the CBI carried out searches at eight locations in Delhi and Jammu.

Interestingly, the concern of kickbacks in the allotment of this contract was raised by Malik himself when he was the Jammu and Kashmir Governor from August 23, 2018 to October 30, 2029.

Malik then alleged that he had been offered a bribe of Rs 300 crore to approve two files, one of which pertained to the Kiru hydroelectric power project.

Malik then said he had refused to accept the bribe.

The award of civil works to Patel Engineering Ltd, a major infrastructure and construction company that was founded in 1949, has been called into question.

The CBI booked then Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited (CVPPPL) chairman, MD and Directors, along with Patel Engineering.

The FIR said an investigation had been conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Power Department. The FIR alleged that guidelines for e-tendering in the awarding of civil works in the project were not followed.

Further, allegations of substandard work and failure to provide jobs to local youth have been made against the hydel project.

Kiru hydroelectric power project is a run-of-the-river scheme being developed over the Chenab River in the Kishtwar Tehsil of Kishtwar district in J&K. The project is being constructed between Kirthai II (upstream) and Kwar (downstream) hydroelectric plants.

The project is being developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects, a joint venture between National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC, 49 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation (JKSPDC, 49 per cent) and Power Trading Corporation (PTC, 2 per cent).

It is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 4,287 crore for an installed capacity of 624 MW. It was awarded scoping clearance by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in 2008.

Environment clearance was issued in 2016, and the project received approval from the State Administrative Council (SAC) in 2019.

The foundation stone for the hydroelectric power plant was laid in 2019, while the deadline for initiating commercial operations is July 2025.
Bengaluru, May 22 : Deputy Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar on Thursday defended Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara for giving money to Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been conducting raids on educational institutions owned by Parameshwara since Wednesday. Sources confirmed that the raids are linked to a financial transaction in which money was transferred to Ranya Rao's account from one of Parameshwara's institutions.

On Thursday, Shivakumar said that Parameshwara had given money as a gift but had never asked Ranya Rao to engage in gold smuggling.

"Why should there be any controversy over my statement that Home Minister G. Parameshwara gave money to actress Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case? I spoke to Home Minister Parameshwara, and he told me that he had given her money at the time of her marriage. So why should there be a controversy?" said Shivakumar.

When asked about Ranya Rao's connection to the gold smuggling case, Shivakumar said, "She might be an accused. It's a scam involving crores of rupees. We don't want to interfere in the investigation, nor do we intend to support anyone."

He said that Parameshwara never supported the scam at any point. "Parameshwara was known to an officer working with him, and on the occasion of her marriage, he might have helped her in the form of a gift," Shivakumar said, referring to the stepfather of Ranya Rao, a DGP rank officer, who is presently sent on compulsory leave.

"As the State Party President, I had to ask Parameshwara about the ED raids and his name being linked to the scam. He told me there's nothing to it. No educational institution would fund such activities. We also run charitable trusts and make donations. I believe Parameshwara gave the money along similar lines," he said.

He added that the BJP should not claim it's an admission of guilt. "Parameshwara hasn't denied giving Rs 40 lakh to her. But what matters is the purpose for which the money was given. Did he give money for gold smuggling? No. He gave it for her family wedding, which I also attended," he said.

Earlier, Shivakumar had stated that Home Minister G. Parameshwara may have given some money to Kannada actress Ranya Rao, who is linked to the gold smuggling case, as a wedding gift.

Shivakumar said, "I visited Home Minister Parameshwara and spoke to him. He told me he had given Rs 15 to 25 lakh. We are all in public life. Many of us run trusts. During weddings and other occasions, it is common to give gifts."
Shillong, May 22 : Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday asserted that the hill state has the youngest population in the country and the government has been working towards making it a global force.

CM Sangma said, "Meghalaya has one of the youngest populations in the country and we are turning this demographic advantage into a global force. If we send even 30,000 professionals abroad, the remittances can amount to Rs 250 crore a month - that's Rs 3,000 crore a year into our families' hands. We have been converting a challenge into a great opportunity."

CM Sangma launched the German Language Training Programme for Overseas Placement at the Shillong Tech Park.

The programme, supported by the Meghalaya State Skill Development Society (MSSDS) under the Department of Labour, Employment and Skill Development, aimed at training and paving the way for their placement in Germany.

Following the successful placement of Meghalaya's youth in Japan and Singapore, Germany is now the next destination offering a global stage for the state's aspiring nurses and healthcare professionals.

He assured full support from the state, including financial aid for initial training and building trust for overseas placements, saying, "Parents once hesitated due to concerns over cost and safety. Today, the government stands as a guarantor. We are here to ensure your children are safe, guided, and given the best opportunities."

The Chief Minister also committed to personally accompanying the first batch of selected candidates to Germany.

He further said that this collaboration would strengthen the relationship between India and Germany, and is glad that Meghalaya, through its strong young workforce, can be a part of that growth story.

"Germany is facing an urgent shortage of healthcare professionals. By 2035, we will need 7 million additional skilled workers. Today's programme marks a life-changing journey - these young professionals will not only work in Germany but thrive, contribute, and grow," said Andrea Jeske, Deputy Consul General of the German Consulate Kolkata, expressing deep optimism about the partnership.

She further highlighted Germany's new immigration policies, like the Opportunity Card and the Skilled Immigration Act, which provide smoother pathways for non-EU workers.

Jan Eben, Country Director General of People to Help Germany, underscored the programme's holistic approach, highlighted that this partnership is not just about jobs, it's about building lives.

He further said, "We support candidates from training to integration. From language and cultural training to meeting you at the airport in Germany, you will never be alone on this journey."
New Delhi, May 22 : The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday announced a reservation of 4 per cent in the allotment of Central government housing to persons with disabilities, as part of the government's move to ensure "equity, dignity, and accessibility in public services".

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on Thursday announced a reservation of 4 per cent in the allotment of Central government housing to persons with disabilities, as part of the government's move to ensure "equity, dignity, and accessibility in public services".

"In alignment with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, the Directorate of Estates has issued an Office Memorandum to ensure fair access to central government residential accommodations for persons with disabilities," according to an official statement.

Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar has taken a landmark step towards inclusive governance, reaffirming the commitment to equal opportunities for all citizens under the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan and PM Modi's vision of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, the statement said.

This initiative reflects the government's dedication to the empowerment of every citizen and also strengthens the foundation of an inclusive and accessible India, the statement added.

The government also runs various schemes, though the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) is a governmental body in India dedicated to promoting the rights and well-being of individuals with disabilities.

Established under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, DEPwD plays a pivotal role in formulating policies, programmes, and initiatives aimed at fostering inclusivity, accessibility, and empowerment for persons with disabilities (PWDs) across the nation.

The DEPwD's mandate encompasses various aspects of disability empowerment, including education, employment, social security, accessibility, and rehabilitation. Through its initiatives, DEPwD strives to enhance opportunities for PWDs to participate actively in societal, economic, and cultural spheres, thereby ensuring their full integration and contribution to national development.

Key initiatives undertaken by DEPwD include the Accessible India Campaign, which aims to create barrier-free environments and promote accessibility in public infrastructure and transportation systems. Additionally, DEPwD oversees the implementation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD Act), which provides a comprehensive legal framework for safeguarding the rights and entitlements of PWDs.

By advocating for inclusive policies, facilitating capacity-building programs, and collaborating with stakeholders at various levels, DEPwD plays a crucial role with the aim of fostering a more equitable and inclusive society by helping persons with disabilities realize their full potential and lead dignified lives.
New Delhi, May 22 : Amid India's ongoing diplomatic outreach to expose Pakistan's role in fostering terrorism following Operation Sindoor, a section of the Congress party has expressed discomfort over participating in delegations sent abroad to brief foreign governments.

Speaking to IANS, Senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament Tariq Anwar on Thursday said the party should have reconsidered its participation in these missions, especially in the absence of meaningful consultation by the government with the Opposition.

"I understand that half of the delegation has already left or is in the process of leaving. But there should have been serious deliberation on whether we should have been part of it at all," Anwar said.

"Until the ruling party changes its confrontational attitude toward the Opposition, it's important we think before extending support," he added.

Anwar also questioned the government's decision to mount an international campaign on Operation Sindoor without first taking Parliament or an all-party meeting into confidence.

"It makes little sense for the government to send delegations abroad to showcase the legitimacy of the operation when there has been no detailed briefing to the elected representatives of the country. There should have been a special Parliament session or at least an all-party meeting to share information and build a national consensus," he argued.

Responding to queries on comments by Congress leaders like Anand Sharma, Salman Khurshid, and Shashi Tharoor who publicly supported Operation Sindoor and diplomatic missions in the aftermath, Anwar said, "There is no question of doubting the bravery of our armed forces. Everyone in the Congress, including me, has praised the courage and professionalism of our soldiers. But when we ask the government for transparency or information, we are branded as anti-national or agents of Pakistan. That's the contradiction -- on one hand, we are insulted, and on the other, asked to represent the country abroad."

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam lashed out at Congress, calling it a "fractured party lacking internal coherence".

"Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid, and Anand Sharma have rightly praised Operation Sindoor and acknowledged its strategic importance. The Army acted swiftly, taking out nine terrorist camps across the border. The limited nature of the mission prevented a wider war, which is in the country's best interest," Nirupam told IANS.

He further added that the armed forces had "avenged the massacre of Hindu pilgrims in Pahalgam", noting that key terrorist figures, including the brother of Maulana Masood Azhar, were eliminated during the precision strikes.

"This operation was executed in under 25 minutes -- a remarkable feat. Anyone questioning this bravery is doing a disservice to the nation and giving Pakistan a morale boost," he said.

BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also criticised the Congress, accusing it of sending "mixed signals" on matters related to national security. "The Congress has developed a habit of creating confusion -- even within its own ranks. National security is not an issue to play politics with. Their flip-flops damage the country's united stance against terrorism," Naqvi told IANS.
New Delhi, May 22 : India on Thursday urged Bangladesh to expedite the nationality verification process to facilitate the deportation of a large number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India who are required to be sent back.

Addressing a weekly media briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that people who are staying in India illegally, whether they happen to be Bangladeshi nationals or any other, will be dealt with as per law.

"We have a large number of Bangladeshi nationals in India who are required to be deported. We have asked the Bangladeshi side to verify the nationality. We have a pending list of more than 2360 cases of people required to be deported. Many of them have completed the jail process. In many cases, the nationality verification process has been pending since 2020," said Jaiswal.

Illegal migrants enter India without valid travel documents in a clandestine, and surreptitious manner, thus making it extremely difficult for the authorities to have a correct estimate of such people residing in the country.

Earlier this month, at least five Bangladeshi citizens were arrested and later pushed back by security personnel in Assam's South Salmara district on the charges of illegal infiltration.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that the Bangladeshi infiltration has spiked up in the last few months due to the collapse of the textile industry in the neighbouring country, leaving many people jobless there.

"So far, we have arrested around 1,000 Bangladeshi people in the last few months. They were pushed back immediately after their arrest," Sarma stated while highlighting that the economy of Bangladesh has collapsed due to growing unrest.

Additionally, in a significant crackdown on illegal immigration, Delhi Police detained six Bangladeshi women from different parts of the national capital this month and busted a sprawling network involved in trafficking people from the neighbouring country into India. Authorities confirmed that the detained women were residing in India without valid documentation and will be deported.

Last month, in one of the largest crackdowns on illegal immigration in Gujarat, the state police arrested more than 1,000 Bangladeshi nationals in a single day. Acting under the guidance of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and the leadership of Minister of State for Home Affairs Harsh Sanghavi, Ahmedabad Police detained 890 individuals while Surat Police arrested 134 illegal immigrants.

Bangladeshi media recently reported that India's Border Security Force (BSF) pushed around 300 people, including Rohingyas, into Bangladesh between May 7 and May 9 through remote points along the border. The report further stated that following this, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry wrote a letter to India raising concern over people being pushed into the country.
Chandigarh, May 22 : Less than a fortnight after the hooch tragedy in Amritsar that claimed 27 lives, three people have died after consuming a poisonous substance purchased from a liquor vend in Ludhiana city.

The victims have been identified as Debi, Manga and Rinku, all in the age group of 40 to 45 years. After the deaths on Wednesday night, the police took samples from a liquor shop from where they had purchased the liquor.

Civil Hospital Senior Medical Officer Harpreet Singh told the media on Thursday that the cause of death is unknown as they are awaiting the viscera report.

Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma said that it could be poisonous hooch. "We have collected samples that were like 'desi' liquor," he said.

"We have registered a complaint on the statement of the fourth person, who was accompanying the trio," he said.

The Opposition BJP condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government's failure to curb the deadly spread of toxic liquor and drugs across the state. The Ludhiana tragedy exposed the collapse of law and order, health systems, and governance under Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, said BJP General Secretary Anil Sarin.

Raising questions, Sarin asked: Why has there been no clarity from the government or health officials on the cause of death? Why has no police case been registered, no minister suspended, and no arrests made? Why has Bhagwant Mann's so-called 'War on Drugs' been reduced to hollow public relations while real Punjabis continue to die?"

Sarin further added that even as Punjab bleeds, AAP leaders, including Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, are sitting in Ludhiana for political campaigning, turning a blind eye to the growing body count caused by narcotics and toxic substances.

"Their promises of making Punjab 'drug-free' have proven to be nothing more than a cruel joke," he said.

Punjab Congress chief and Ludhiana Member of Parliament Amarinder Singh Raja Warring slammed the government's failure to control and prevent the production and supply of spurious liquor.

He pointed out that this was the second tragedy within a fortnight, after 27 people died in a hooch tragedy in Majitha in Amritsar.

He said it was more shocking because the victims had purchased the liquor reportedly from a government-approved vend.

The Ludhiana MP said the manufacturers of spurious liquor were cocking a snook at the government as they had no fear of law.

He pointed out that even when such a devastating tragedy had taken place just 15 days ago, another took place in Ludhiana.

Last week, state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar had met Governor Gulab Chand Kataria in Chandigarh and sought a CBI probe into the hooch tragedy in Amritsar.

Led by Jakhar, the delegation had submitted a detailed memorandum to the Governor, seeking a probe into links of AAP's Punjab leadership with the liquor mafia running amok in Punjab.

The delegation demanded that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) be asked to undertake a probe to expose this nexus.
New Delhi, May 22 : The security operations against Maoist groups have drawn a wide range of reactions from political leaders, with many acknowledging the government's firm approach in addressing insurgency.

The killing of high-profile 70-year-old Maoist leader Basava Raju, who had a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head, along with the elimination of 27 others in Chhattisgarh, has intensified discussions on the future of Maoism in India.

Raju was reportedly involved in several major attacks on security forces, and his death could deal a significant blow to the Maoist movement.

Talking to IANS, Member of Parliament (MP) from Delhi, Manoj Tiwari, emphasised the government's commitment to eradicating Maoism, highlighting Home Minister Amit Shah's repeated assurances in Parliament that a concrete plan is in place.

He noted that Maoists had long obstructed development in various regions, preventing progress and prosperity.

Tiwari credited the Home Minister and his ministry for their relentless efforts, stating that their contributions to Maoism eradication would be remembered for years to come.

Congress media in-charge Rakesh Sinha weighed in on the killing of Raju in an encounter, describing it as a necessary step taken by the administration and the Border Security Force.

He stressed that Maoists are notorious for attacking and killing innocent civilians, making dialogue with them difficult unless they surrender.

Sinha cited Jharkhand as an example where negotiations had been successful, but maintained that Maoists should not be respected until they renounce violence.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Nirupam echoed the government's stance, asserting that the NDA administration is determined to eliminate Maoism entirely by next year.

He condemned Maoist leaders for rebelling against the country's constitutional framework, killing soldiers, and disrupting civilian life.

Nirupam insisted that supporters of violent ideologies have no place in society and that the government's actions are justified and should be supported.

Former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi reiterated the government's commitment to ending Maoism, emphasising that a timeline has been set for its eradication.

He pointed out that Maoists had long hindered development in affected regions, preventing economic growth and stability. Naqvi praised Home Minister Amit Shah's leadership, stating that his ministry's efforts in combating Maoism would be remembered for years.

The government's aggressive stance against Maoism has drawn both praise and criticism, reflecting the deep-rooted ideological divisions surrounding the issue.

While some advocate for dialogue and reintegration, others insist on a hardline approach to eliminate insurgency. As operations continue, the debate over the best strategy to tackle Maoism remains a focal point in India's political discourse. The anti-Maoist operation is still ongoing against Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
New Delhi, May 22 : The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order after hearing petitioners seeking a stay on the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 - a law vehemently defended by the government as a tool to curb misuse of the provisions.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice A.G. Masih heard the petitionersa and the governmentas views over three hearings before deciding to reserve their order.

The validity of the Act, which came into effect on April 5 with the Presidential assent, has been challenged by, among others, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Congress MP Mohammad Jawed.

When a lawyer raised the issue of donation being the essence of Waqf, Chief Justice Gavai said: "Charity is a fundamental principle of other religions also."

The petitioners moved the court, contending that the amendment amounts to discrimination against Muslims.

Appearing for a petitioner, senior advocate Kapil Sibal called the amended Waqf lawas provisions "unconstitutional" and "arbitrary".

He objected particularly to the clause that suspends the Waqf status of a property during an ongoing investigation.

"Thereas no timeline for the probe. It could last six months or more. During that period, the Muslim community would be denied access or rights over the property," Sibal said.

"Who decides if a property is government-owned or Waqf? The process isnat defined. The determination lies solely with the government, which can also alter revenue records a" this is completely arbitrary," he added.

Appearing for the Muslim side, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan argued that no external officer or authority has the right to declare what is or isn't essential to a religion.

"Waqf is not just a legal entity, but a spiritual and social institution deeply woven into the lives of Muslims," said Dhavan, citing past Supreme Court judgments.

In a striking comparison, he pointed to Hinduism: "Even temples are not essential in Hinduism as per the Vedas a" nature worship exists: fire, water, rain, mountains, and oceans are revered."

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, while presenting the governmentas view, said that the concept of Waqf is not essentially a religious practice.

He said boards administering such Waqf properties were engaged in secular and administrative functions.

The new law amended the Waqf Act, 1995, to address the regulation of Waqf properties, that is, religious endowments or properties dedicated exclusively for religious or charitable purposes under Islamic law.

According to the petitioners, the amendment amounts to discrimination against Muslims and unwarranted interference in Islamic religious affairs and the management of waqf properties.

On April 17, the apex court decided not to order a stay on the Act after the government's assurance that it would not implement some provisions for the time being.
Bengaluru, May 22 : A Karnataka BJP delegation met Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at Raj Bhavan on Thursday and demanded the dismissal of Minister for RDPR, IT, and BT, Priyank Kharge, over the alleged attack on Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, in Kalaburagi.

Narayanaswamy had compared Minister Priyank Kharge to a "dog", following which Kharge's supporters allegedly surrounded and detained him for five hours, demanding an apology.

A delegation headed by the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly R. Ashoka, BJP MLAs, and MLCs met the Governor and submitted a memorandum to sack Priyank Kharge from the post of Minister.

Speaking to the media on this occasion, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy said, "There is a genuine threat to my life. If anything happens to me, this government and Priyank Kharge's gang will be responsible."

Chalavadi Narayanaswamy has objected that police officers themselves created a situation where he was virtually kept under detention in Kalaburagi on Wednesday for criticising Priyank Kharge.

He demanded that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah remove Priyank Kharge from the Cabinet.

"If that does not happen, the Chief Minister himself will be held responsible for any future incidents. My security needs to be increased. The police didn't remove enough people from the crowd. If only one gunman is provided and 50 people attack, what can he do? Just because Minister Priyank Kharge is the son of the Congress President, does he get special rules and a separate Constitution? Is it necessary to keep him in the Cabinet?" he questioned.

He added that the law and order situation in the state has completely deteriorated.

"My straightforward speech does not please them. I know they've been conspiring against me ever since they were forced to return the land. I believe they are planning to eliminate me. They are trying every means to humiliate me. Priyank Kharge has decided to finish me off. Maybe they feel I'm an obstacle to exposing the truth about him. They used abusive language against me. The police asked me to cooperate. Should I just quietly endure verbal abuse, allow ink to be thrown on me, allow eggs to be pelted  is that what cooperation means?" he questioned.

"There were 2530 people who caused chaos, but police didn't disperse them. There were over 100 police personnel present. I spoke to the Home Minister, the ADGP, and the SP. The Additional SP was right there. Despite the presence of the DySP, Circle Inspector, and four to five other inspectors, they did not escort us out. It felt like we were detained by them," he said in strong criticism.

"Who was it that compared the Prime Minister to a venomous snake? It was Mallikarjun Kharge. Even today, there's evidence of it. Priyank Kharge casually refers to RSS members as 'chaddi-walas.' Isn't that an insult to us? You say all this, but when we say something, it stings you," he added.

He said that the BJP will organise a protest, adding that they will also file complaints with the DGP, Home Minister, and the Chief Minister.

Opposition Leader R. Ashoka charged that the Congress "goons" have taken the law into their own hands and attacked Chalavadi Narayanaswamy, with Minister Priyank Kharge behind it.

"Narayanaswamy had spoken out against the government, but an attempt was made to assault him. A similar attack had previously been made on BJP MLC C.T. Ravi," he said.

He accused the police of failing to provide protection to Narayanaswamy and preventing him from participating in a programme.
New Delhi, May 22 : The Yamuna is not just a river but also a symbol of faith for us and that is why its cleanliness is a priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday after reviewing progress on installing 32 real-time water quality monitoring stations.

Chairing a high-level meeting, HM Shah directed a holistic approach to clean the Yamuna, ensure drinking water supply, and improve sewage systems in Delhi.

An official source said that 10 water quality monitoring stations shall be set up on the Yamuna while the remaining 22 stations shall monitor the water quality in major drains falling into the river.

The water monitoring station sites for the river will include Okhla Barrage, ITO Bridge, Palla, ISBT Bridge and Nizamuddin Bridge.

The meeting chaired by HM Shah was attended by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal, Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Union Home Secretary, Secretaries of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Ministry of Jal Shakti, Delhias Chief Secretary, and several senior officials from the Central and Delhi governments.

HM Shah said that the Ministry of Jal Shakti should develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), establishing standards for their quality, maintenance, and discharge. He emphasised that this SOP should also be shared with other states.

He stressed that plans for the Yamuna, drinking water, and drainage in Delhi should be made with a 20-year vision.

He highlighted the crucial role of the Delhi Jal Board in cleaning the Yamuna and emphasised the need to strengthen it, directing the immediate filling of vacant posts in the Board.

The Home Minister underscored the need to enhance Delhi's water distribution efficiency, stating that effective water management is essential to ensure drinking water supply across the city.

He said, for water supply in Delhi, the Jal Board should strengthen the water distribution structure along with preventing leakage in the pipelines.

HM Shah also emphasised the use of world-class technology for desilting drains.
Bengaluru, May 22 : Former Deputy Chief Minister and MLA C.N. Ashwath Narayan stated that the Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara is likely to be arrested following the raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on education institutions owned by him (Parameshwara).

Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on Thursday, he responded to questions by pointing out that even the Deputy Chief Minister D K. Shivakumar has acknowledged a money transaction between Parameshwara and actress Ranya Rao, the main accused in the gold smuggling case, making it clear the Home Minister was involved in the scam.

"If any minister in the government collaborates with such syndicates that engage in anti-national activities, smuggling, or cause loss to the national revenue, action must be taken. The ED is already investigating, and once the report is out, everything will be clear. We are not interested in fueling Congress's internal conflicts. We only want justice, and those guilty should be punished, that is both the stand of our party and the people," he claimed.

He further said that the ED's investigation on the Home Minister Parameshwara is ongoing and once completed, it will reveal whether money was transferred, used, received, or given; what relationship exists between Ranya Rao and the Home Minister; how long their dealings have continued; and how many others were involved in this alleged misuse of power.

He criticised the Congress government over its failure to provide essential medicines.

"The government has mandated that 730 types of medicines should be available all 365 days of the year. But since the Congress came to power, 200 medicines have not been available. When questioned about this in the Assembly, they had no answer," he claimed.

He alleged that the Congress government is not receiving the commission it expects, which is why outdated medicines like two-year-old Ringer Lactate are being used, leading to the deaths of pregnant and postnatal women.

He pointed out the contradiction in the government's claim of having spent Rs 17,500 crore on public hospitals.

"In those hospitals, X-ray machines work one day and fail the next. There is a lack of proper medicines and tablets. Doctors are unavailable. Even today, no serious investigation has been conducted into the deaths of pregnant and postnatal women," Ashwath Narayan charged.

He accused the government and the Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao of targeting Jan Aushadhi centres and shutting them down arbitrarily.
New Delhi, May 22 : Emphasising the need for a favourable funding pattern from the Centre, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Sukhu on Thursday met Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Patil and advocated the protection of the state's rights in the multi-purpose Kishau and Renuka Dam hydropower projects.

Besides the Kishau project, then Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari on August 28, 2018, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh in New Delhi for the construction of two other major projects being envisaged in the Upper Yamuna reaches.

They are the Rs 3966.51 crore Lakhwar Multi-Purpose project and the Renukaji Multi-Purpose project.

At the meeting with Union Minister Patil, Chief Minister Sukhu said the financial burden of the Kishau project should be borne entirely either by the Centre or by the major beneficiary states -- Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

The Chief Minister also raised critical issues concerning the Renuka Dam project. He called for due consideration of the Local Area Development Fund and the free power component. He said that while hydro projects are essential for national development, the environmental and social impacts must also be addressed, and the affected states should be fairly compensated.

Besides, the Chief Minister requested the early release of the pending amount under the Jal Jeevan Mission for the state.

Union Minister Patil assured the Chief Minister of all possible assistance and cooperation from the Central government.

The Kishau project, which includes the construction of a 236-m high concrete dam across the Tons, a tributary of the Yamuna in Dehradun district, will create an irrigation potential of about 97,000 hectares, make available 517 MCM drinking water, and generate 660 MW of power.

The Renukaji project, which has been conceived as a storage project on the Giri, also a tributary of the Yamuna in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, envisages the construction of a 148-m high rock-filled dam for the supply of 23 cumec water to Delhi and will generate 40 MW of power during peak flow.

As per the pact of 1994, separate agreements will have to be made between the six basin states for each water storage project in the upper reaches of the Yamuna. After completion of all these storage projects in Upper Yamuna Basin (including Lakhwar), the total benefits in terms of additional irrigation potential created will be 130,856 hectares, water availability for various uses will be 1,093.83 MCM, and power generation capacity will be 1,060 MW.
Bhubaneswar, May 22 : The Odisha Police has arrested a cyber fraudster from West Bengal for extorting over Rs 73 lakhs from one victim from Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district through digital arrest fraud, informed the state Crime Branch on Thursday.

The accused, identified as Rohit Kumar Jaiswal (26), is a resident of the Howrah area in West Bengal.

The complainant, who works in a private company, lodged the report regarding the fraud at the Cyber Crime Police Station of Odisha Crime Branch on May 15, 2024.

The victim alleged that unknown cyber fraudsters impersonating officials of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Delhi Police contacted him and falsely claimed that one parcel booked in his name has been confiscated by Delhi Customs which contains a bunch of ATM Cards, 15 Indian Passports, two Laptops, four kg Cloth and MDMA drugs.

The cyber criminals falsely claimed that the parcel confiscated by Delhi customs was dispatched from Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, to Shanghai (China).

The complainant, who was put under digital arrest for six days, transferred Rs 73,62,000 to the bank accounts given by the accused persons to prove himself innocent and get out of any legal complications.

Upon receipt of the complaint, the crime branch launched a probe into the matter and arrested the accused Jaiswal from neighbouring West Bengal.

The crime branch, during investigation, ascertained that the fraudsters, identifying themselves as DHL employee, CBI and Delhi Police personnel, have extorted Rs 73,62,000 from the victim.

The investigating team have seized various incriminating articles, including mobile phones, SIM cards, Aadhar cards, etc, from the possession of the accused Jaiswal and also froze bank accounts of fraudsters.

The accused Jaiswal have been brought on transit remand to Odisha and will be produced before the court on Friday.
New Delhi, May 22 : Reports of the CAG on air pollution and irregularities in liquor sales in the capital were discussed at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Delhi Legislative Assembly on Thursday under the chairmanship of Committee Chief and MLA Ajay Mahawar.

The meeting began with a formal introduction of all committee members, followed by a detailed discussion on the relationship and working procedures between the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and the PAC.

Members present at the meeting included Arvinder Singh Lovely, Satish Upadhyay, Shikha Rai, Kailash Gahlot, Rajkumar Chauhan, Atishi, Virendra Kadyan, and Kuldeep Kumar. Senior officials in attendance included the Additional Deputy CAG, Secretary of the Health Department, Excise Commissioner, Transport Commissioner, Additional Chief Secretary (Environment), Secretary of the Delhi Assembly, Finance Secretary, and others.

The PAC held a serious discussion on issues highlighted in the CAG reports, such as air pollution, irregularities in liquor sales in the capital, and matters related to health. The committee sought detailed information from various departments to ensure transparency and accountability and deliberated on the future course of action.

Speaking during the meeting, PAC Chairman Ajay Mahawar stated: "The responsibility of the Public Accounts Committee is not merely to review reports, but to ensure transparency and accountability in governance in the public interest. The topics discussed today are directly related to the lives of the common people. We will ensure that meaningful discussions are held on the irregularities raised in the CAG reports and that an honest report is presented in the House."

Earlier, Delhi Speaker Vijender Gupta said that the legislative Assembly has decided to use the Central Government's Audit Para Monitoring System (APMS) software for effective monitoring of audit paragraphs by the CAG.

Gupta directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Ashish Chandra Verma to implement the APMS.

In this regard, Dr. Verma had written to Parma Sen, Additional Secretary (Expenditure Department, Ministry of Finance), seeking permission for the Delhi Government to use APMS.

In response, Sen assured that the Delhi government could use the Central Government's APMS until it develops its own system.
Bengaluru, May 22 : In a significant development, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday granted a stay on all FIRs filed against BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya and Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami in connection with allegations made by the Indian National Congress (INC).

The FIRs, which stemmed from claims that Congress had an office in Turkey and posts suggesting Rahul Gandhi and Pakistan were "speaking the same language", have been put on hold following serious legal contentions raised in court.

The matter took a dramatic turn when Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam, appearing for the accused, informed the court of alleged procedural misconduct by the investigating authorities. He revealed that while the original FIR was registered under IPC Section 352 (a bailable offence concerning assault or use of criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), the notice served to the accused cited IPC Section 353 (a non-bailable offence pertaining to assault on a public servant).

Shyam alleged this was a deliberate act of tampering with legal documentation to invoke non-bailable provisions and unlawfully trigger arrest powers. The High Court acknowledged these claims and stayed further proceedings, with directions for a more thorough examination of the procedural irregularities.

The FIRs were filed after posts by Malviya and Goswami circulated on social media, claiming that the Istanbul Congress Centre in Turkey was an international office of the Indian National Congress.

The Congress party swiftly denied the claim, terming it "completely fake and malicious". In its police complaint, the party accused both Malviya and Goswami of running a coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at maligning the party, defaming the constitutional office of the Leader of the Opposition, provoking unrest, and manipulating public sentiment.

The Congress Legal Cell described the posts as a "heinous and criminally motivated attempt to undermine national security and democratic values".

In a post on social media platform X, the party warned that any such attacks on its leadership would be met with a strong legal and political response. "We will not stay silent," it said. "This is a direct attack on democracy, and we will fight it at every level."
Dhaka, May 22 : Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday assigned Secretary Ruhul Alam Siddique to carry out the routine works assigned to Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin until further notice as the top diplomat has left his responsibilities.

Ruhul Alam Siddique is from the 11th batch of Bangladesh Civil Service. He was High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistan from October 2020 to December 2024.

Siddique also served in the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi before his assignment as the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Karachi.

The order will come into effect on Friday.

It is relevant to mention that Jashim Uddin, a career foreign service officer, had lately stopped his engagements as Foreign Secretary after not being in sync with the Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus - who currently heads the interim government in the country - and Foreign Affairs Advisor Touhid Hossain.

Jashim Uddin was appointed as 27th Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh in September 2024.

Secretary (East) Nazrul Islam had taken on several key responsibilities on the verbal instructions of Foreign Advisor Hossain, local media reported earlier this week.

Notably, Nazrul Islam had led the Bangladesh delegation at a Foreign Secretary-level meeting with Japan in Tokyo on May 15.

This marked the first time in five decades that such a meeting was led by someone other than the Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh. Over the past couple of weeks, Jashim Uddin had reportedly not been present at any inter-ministerial meetings with two other officials of Secretary rank representing the ministry.

Sources confirmed that Jashim Uddin had differences of opinion with key policy makers over foreign policy priorities, especially regarding the Rohingya crisis and the Rakhine Corridor, which sealed his fate.

Jashim Uddin opposed this initiative of Humanitarian Corridor and safe zone for Rohingya refugees being pushed by Yunus and his National Security Advisor (NSA) Khalilur Rahman and endorsed by the United Nations. His views aligned with the military leadership who fear that the Humanitarian Corridor could compromise the sovereignty of Bangladesh without any strategic benefits. At the same time, non-state external actors could infiltrate the sensitive border regions and the Humanitarian Corridor might see an influx of refugees rather than repatriation.

He also led the Bangladeshi side at the FOC-level talks in Dhaka with Pakistani counterpart Amna Baloch on April 17. During the talks, Bangladesh raised the issue of financial claim to the tune of USD 4.32 billion from Pakistan as a fair share from the assets of undivided Pakistan before 1971. Bangladesh also demanded USD 200 million (foreign aid from countries and agencies) to East Pakistan during the extremely deadly Bhola cyclone. Jashim Uddin had raised the issue of financial claim to the tune of USD 4.32 billion from Pakistan as a fair share from the assets of undivided Pakistan before 1971. Also, Bangladesh demanded USD 200 million (foreign aid from countries & agencies) to then East Pakistan during the extremely deadly Bhola cyclone.

Jashim Uddin's firm resolve to confront the issue directly during the high-level diplomatic visit after a hiatus of 15 years did create frustration amongst Bangladeshi and Pakistani officials. It may be pointed out that Jashim Uddin's isolation ripened within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chief Advisor's Office.

Analysts believe that the Yunus administration, supported by the hardline pro-Islamist lobbies, is desperate in cosying up with Pakistan cherishing the visions of a stricter, 'Shariat-dominated' order which is emerging in "New Bangladesh."
Mumbai, May 22 : In a move aligned with statutory provisions, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has proposed the constitution of a Fare Fixation Committee (FFC) under Sections 33 and 34 (I) of the Metro Railways (Operations and Maintenance) Act, 2002.

This is a compliance measure as mandated by the O&M Act. Section 34 clearly states that the Central government may constitute a Fare Fixation Committee from time to time to recommend fare frameworks, ensuring a transparent and legally guided fare governance structure.

MMRDA will forward to the Union government once it's approved by the Maharashtra government for approval of constitute a Fare Fixation Committee for Metro Line 2A & 7.

As per the Act, the initial fares for Metro Lines 2A and 7 were determined by the Metro Railway Administration at the time of commencement of operations, which began on April 2, 2022. With weekday ridership touching 2.65 lakh, Metro Lines 2A and 7 play a pivotal role in the city's daily transit ecosystem.

"The proposal to constitute a Fare Fixation Committee is a statutory requirement under the Metro Railways (Operations and Maintenance) Act, 2002. It is not intended to suggest any immediate fare revision, but to ensure that our processes remain transparent, legally compliant, and in line with established governance frameworks. The Committee, once formed, will enable a structured and independent review mechanism as envisaged by law, reinforcing our commitment to accountable public transport administration," said the MMRDA release on Thursday.

The proposal to the Union government seeks only the formation of this committee, which, once constituted, will review the existing structure and recommend frameworks as per statutory norms.

The formation of the FFC is a required governance mechanism and does not automatically imply any fair revision or adjustment.

"MMRDA continues to prioritise commuter-centric, affordable, and sustainable metro services across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region while upholding regulatory obligations in all aspects of administration and operation," said a release.

The Fare Fixation Committee shall consist of a Chairperson and two other members. A person shall not be qualified for appointment as the Chairperson unless he is or has been a judge of the High Court.

The Central government and the state government shall nominate one member each to the Fare Fixation Committee.
Seoul, May 22 : Lee Hae-jin, founder of South Korea's top portal Naver Corp., met with Nvidia Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jensen Huang in Taiwan on Thursday to discuss cooperation in artificial intelligence (AI) and other key areas, industry sources said.

During the meeting, Lee, who serves as chairman of the company's board, discussed with Jensen Huang and other Nvidia officials ways to enhance cooperation and explore potential collaboration in sovereign AI and other areas, according to the sources, reports Yonhap news agency.

Lee was in Taiwan to attend the Computex 2025 tech exhibition in Taiwan, accompanied by Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon and other top executives, they added.

It marks Lee's first known overseas business trip since his appointment as the board chairman in March. The appointment was widely seen as a strategic move to lead the company through intensifying global competition in big tech and artificial intelligence (AI).

Lee previously met with Huang at Nvidia's U.S. headquarters in June 2024 while serving as Naver's global investment officer.

Then, the two discussed issues related to sovereign AI, which refers to the concept of building regionally customized AI models that reflect local culture and values, and comply with local regulations.

Naver is expected to bolster the development of HyperClova X, the company's proprietary large language model (LLM) first introduced in 2023. The company aims to integrate AI across key services, including search and commerce platforms, to enhance its existing ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Hae-jin returned to the company's board as chairperson in March, signalling a push for a sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) strategy within the domestic tech industry.

Lee's appointment as the chair of Naver Corp.'s board was confirmed at the company's annual general shareholders' meeting held in Seongnam, south of Seoul. Lee, who has been serving as the company's global investment officer (GIO), will oversee Naver's overarching business strategies.

He had previously stepped down as board chairperson in March 2017 and left the board entirely in 2018 to focus on expanding Naver's global footprint in his role as GIO.

His return comes amid growing concerns that South Korea is falling behind global tech giants in the fast-evolving space of AI model development.

a"IANS

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London/New Delhi, May 22 : Terming it as a "milestone achievement" and a "positive development for the region", India on Thursday welcomed the signing of the treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius on the return of Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia.

"India has consistently supported Mauritius's legitimate claim over the Chagos Archipelago in keeping with its principled position on decolonization, respect for sovereignty, and the territorial integrity of nations. As a steadfast and longstanding partner of Mauritius, India remains committed to working closely with Mauritius and other like-minded countries to strengthen maritime security and regional stability and ensure peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region," read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

"The formal resolution of the longstanding Chagos dispute through this bilateral treaty is a milestone achievement and a positive development for the region. This is further to the understanding between the two sides reached in October 2024, and marks the culmination of the process of decolonization of Mauritius in the spirit of international law and rules-based order," it stated.

The United Kingdom on Thursday announced that it has signed a landmark agreement with Mauritius to secure the future of the strategically critical UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, one of our most significant contributions to the transatlantic defence and security partnership.

It said that all 'Five Eyes' partners a" the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand a" back the agreement, "along with India", in recognising the critical role Diego Garcia plays in upholding global stability and deterring adversaries.

The base has played a vital role in defending the UK and its allies for over 50 years. This new deal ensures its continued operation for at least the next century, protecting capabilities essential to UK intelligence and counter-terrorism, stated the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

"The base plays a key role in operations that support UK forces and our allies across the Middle East, East Africa and South Asia. Its deep-water port, airfield, and advanced communications and surveillance capabilities give the UK and its allies crucial strategic capabilities, which have played a key role in missions to disrupt high-value terrorists, including Islamic State threats to the UK," read a statement issued by the government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

"The legal necessity of this deal has been recognised by successive governments.aThe previous government started these negotiations over two years ago, and they held 11 out of the 13 rounds of talks that underpin the deal, that this government has concluded. The base is a cornerstone of the Government's Plan for Change, with operations there deterring threats to our nation and protecting our economic security," read the statement.

Diego Garcia is the largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, located in the central Indian Ocean. The joint UK-US military base on Diego Garcia has a strategic location which makes it vital to UK and US power projection in the Indian Ocean and beyond. The base provides a unique shared platform with irreplaceable security capabilities that enable a UK and US military presence across the Middle East, Indo-Pacific and Africa.
New Delhi, May 22 : The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday said it has arrested an important associate of the two Khalistan Liberation Force-linked terror operatives who had carried out a grenade attack on a temple in Punjab's Amritsar district in March.

Absconder Bhagwant Singh, alias Manna Bhatti, was nabbed on Wednesday from Akalgarh village in Amritsar district, taking the total arrests in the case to four.

The attack was carried out by Gursidak Singh and Vishal, alias Chuchi, who had hurled a hand grenade at Thakurdwara Sanatan Mandir in Amritsar on March 15, as per the NIA investigation.

The attack was claimed by the proscribed terror organisation, KLF.

While Gursidak Singh was killed in a shootout with police following the temple attack, Vishal was arrested. Two other men, identified as Diwan Singh, alias Sunny, and Sahib Singh, alias Saba, were also arrested in the case.

As per the NIA investigation, Bhagwant Singh, who was absconding since the incident, had knowingly provided shelter to Gursidak Singh and Vishal. The duo had stayed with him during the planning of the terror attack and also thereafter. The grenade used in the attack was also concealed behind Bhagwanas house with his knowledge.

As per further investigations in the case RC-08/2025/NIA/DLI, Bhagwant Singh had even received terror funds in his bank account. The NIA is continuing its investigation in the case as part of its crackdown against the KLF associates in India and the terror outfitas foreign-based nodes.

In a "first attack" on a religious place in Amritsar city, close to the border with Pakistan, two assailants hurled an explosive at the Thakurdwara Temple complex, damaging its walls and shattering its window panes.

The CCTV footage showed the attackers arriving at the location on a bike with a flag mounted on it.

After waiting for a few seconds, one of them threw a grenade, and both fled the spot.

Police believe the attack was carried out as part of a planned strategy to trigger fear amid the Holi festivities.

While the temple's wall was damaged in the explosion, a priest and his family, who were residing on the upper floor of the temple, were unharmed.

The temple grenade attack came a day after three motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead Mangat Rai Manga, the district president of Shiv Sena, in Punjab's Moga district, owing to "personal rivalry".
Chennai, May 22 : Tamil Nadu BJP has sharpened its attack on the ruling DMK over the alleged multi-crore TASMAC scam, asserting that justice must prevail despite the Supreme Court's recent observations on the Enforcement Directorate's conduct.

BJP spokesperson A.N.S. Prasad emphasised that the apex court had raised concerns about the ED's investigative approach but had not dismissed the possibility of large-scale corruption.

"Nowhere has the Supreme Court said that corruption to the tune of thousands of crores did not take place," he pointed out.

Prasad accused the DMK of mastering what he termed "scientific corruption" and said the party's track record was riddled with cases and convictions involving its ministers.

"The DMK's history, its leaders' involvement in various scams, and past convictions clearly indicate a deep-rooted culture of corruption. Some individuals within the party have even managed to deceive investigative agencies and manipulate judicial processes," he said.

The BJP leader asserted that several DMK leaders, including both current and former ministers, are under continued scrutiny and could face further legal consequences.

"Those who have cheated the system for years are now being brought under the scanner once again. The investigation is not over," Prasad said.

Referring to the alleged irregularities in the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), Prasad claimed that the scam involved corruption worth thousands of crores.

"The people of Tamil Nadu have a right to know where their money has gone. Those responsible for this scientific corruption will certainly face punishment," he said.

He reiterated the BJP's stand that institutions like the ED must be allowed to carry out their duties without interference and called on the judiciary to ensure that justice is delivered in this case.

"Political shielding of corrupt individuals cannot be allowed to continue," he added.

Prasad concluded by urging the people of Tamil Nadu to see through the "facade of victimhood" being portrayed by the DMK and support the demand for a thorough and transparent probe into the TASMAC scam.

--IANS

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Visakhapatnam, May 22 : A court in Andhra Pradesh's Vizianagaram on Thursday sent two men, arrested in connection with an alleged terror plot, to police custody for a week Visakhapatnam, May 22 (IANS) A court in Andhra Pradeshas Vizianagaram on Thursday sent two men, arrested in connection with an alleged terror plot, to police custody for a week

Police had filed a petition in the Vizianagaram District Court, seeking custody of Siraj-ur-Rehman and Sayeed Sameer for 10 days to probe further the alleged terror plot.

The District First Class Magistrate heard the arguments during the last two days and on Thursday sent the accused to police custody for a week.

Siraj and Sameer are currently lodged in the Visakhapatnam Central Jail. The police will interrogate them over the next week to gather more information about the alleged conspiracy to carry out blasts.

Siraj was arrested by Vizianagaram police following the recovery of explosives at his residence. The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of Sameer from Hyderabad.

Sameer was brought to Vizianagaram, and the duo were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

Meanwhile, police intensified the probe into the case while the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is also conducting an investigation.

According to police, Siraj is an engineering graduate from Vizianagaram while Sameer is a lift operator and is a resident of Bhoiguda in Secunderabad.

Sirajas father is reported to be an Assistant Sub-Inspector of police, while his brother is a constable.

The two suspects had allegedly formed a group by the name Al-Hind Ittehadul Muslimeen to carry out their activities. The organisation has 12 members in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Warangal.

The two suspects had allegedly procured explosives online and were planning a trial of explosions near Vizianagaram.

They were allegedly in touch with a handler, identified as Imran, based in a country in the Middle East through social media. The accused procured explosives online and also used online information to use them. They allegedly planned to test the explosives on the outskirts of Vizianagaram on May 21 or 22.

Siraj had allegedly received Rs 40 lakh from the handler to fund the organisation's activities.

Acting on a tip-off, the police of the two Telugu states foiled their terror plan by arresting them.

The explosive material, including ammonia, sulphur, and aluminium powder, was seized during a raid on Sirajas house on Saturday (May 17). The same day, Sameer was arrested in Hyderabad and was taken to Vizianagaram on a transit warrant.

The remand report presented by the police includes details of communications retrieved from the suspectsa mobile devices. The suspects communicated using Instagram, WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram applications.

Chat transcripts recovered from the devices suggest discussions about targeting RSS leaders and references to creating improvised explosive devices.

The accused were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and also under the Explosive Substances Act of 1908.
Chennai, May 22 : Deputy Leader of the Opposition and former minister R.B. Udhayakumar launched a scathing attack on Tamil Nadu Law Minister S. Regupathy for his remarks against AIADMK General Secretary and Leader of the Opposition, Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) on Thursday.

In a strongly worded statement, Udhayakumar branded Regupathy "an epitome of hypocrisy" and accused him of betraying the political legacy that shaped his career.

"It is ironic that a man who owes his political identity to a movement is now slandering its leaders to please his current masters," he said.

The AIADMK leader also alleged that Regupathy had aligned himself with an "evil force" purely for personal gain and was now attacking EPS to curry favour with the ruling dispensation.

Udhayakumar further claimed that people in Regupathy's own constituency were aware of the wealth he had allegedly accumulated over the years.

Taking aim at Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Udhayakumar accused him of evading questions raised by the Opposition leader regarding his recent trip to New Delhi to attend the NITI Aayog meeting.

"Instead of answering directly, the Chief Minister hid behind a turncoat and allowed him to speak on his behalf," he charged, without naming the individual.

Reiterating Palaniswami's criticism, Udhayakumar claimed Stalin's visit to the capital was not in the interest of Tamil Nadu's people but rather a move to protect his son and Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and their close aides.

"It was more about shielding his family and inner circle than representing the state's concerns," he alleged.

Concluding his remarks, Udhayakumar asserted that the people of Tamil Nadu were closely watching the government's actions and would soon deliver a decisive verdict.

"This regime's time is limited. The people will soon bring down this government and restore democracy," he said.

The AIADMK's continued criticism comes amid rising political tension between the ruling DMK and the Opposition over governance, corruption, and accountability.

--IANS

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Patna, May 22 : In a major push to enhance Patna's traffic and road infrastructure, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary announced that approval has been granted for a comprehensive urban traffic improvement project worth over Rs 22.14 crore on Thursday.

The initiative aims to streamline traffic flow and improve the quality of roads in the stat capital.

Samrat Chaudhary said that the approved scheme  worth Rs 22.14 crore  includes widening and strengthening key routes, notably Vivekananda Marg, the stretch from Boring Road to Panchmukhi Hanuman Temple on West Boring Canal Road, and several adjoining roads such as Indira Sinha Path, Rajendra Path, Veer Shivaji Path, Veer Kunwar Singh Path, Ramakrishna Path, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, Mother Teresa Marg, Tilak Marg, and Kasturba Path.

Highlighting the urgency, Chaudhary mentioned that with the inauguration of the new terminal at Patna Airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vehicular pressure in and around the city is expected to surge.

Additionally, the ongoing expansion of JP Ganga Path necessitates upgraded and better-connected roadways.

"The need for comprehensive road development was felt urgently, and hence the Public Finance Committee and Standing Finance Committee recommended this focused Road Development Plan for Patna," Chaudharys said.

The Deputy Chief Minister clarified that work will only commence on roads transferred from other departments after the transfer process is formally completed.

For roads already under maintenance or previously worked upon, new work will begin only after the completion of the Defect Liability Period (DLP).

"This is not just about new construction but about ensuring accountability, quality, and sustainability in the road infrastructure of Patna," he said.

The development came at a crucial time, with the Bihar Assembly elections on the horizon, and is likely to be a significant component of the NDA's urban development plank in the capital region.

Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inspected the Saidpur Nala road and asked the authorities to expedite the work.
Chennai, May 22 : In a continued crackdown on drug trafficking, the Anti-Narcotics Intelligence Unit (ANIU), in coordination with the Nungambakkam police, arrested two more individuals involved in a methamphetamine smuggling racket.

The duo had been absconding since early April and were tracked down to a hideout in Bengaluru. The arrested have been identified as Suneesh (32) and Nikhil (32), both natives of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Their arrests follow crucial leads obtained from four suspects who were previously apprehended in Chennai on April 2.

Based on the interrogation of the earlier accused, a special team traced Suneesh and Nikhil to their Bengaluru location.

During the operation, police seized 10.5 grams of methamphetamine, a mobile phone, and a tablet device from the duo. They were subsequently brought to Chennai and produced before a magistrate on Thursday.

The court remanded both suspects to judicial custody. This development is part of an ongoing investigation that began in early April when the ANIU, under the supervision of the Triplicane Deputy Commissioneras Special Task Force, along with Nungambakkam police, conducted a surveillance operation near College Lane opposite the Directorate of Physical Instruction (DPI).

The operation led to the arrest of four men who were allegedly peddling methamphetamine in the locality.

Sources said the gang was operating a well-organised distribution network targeting college students and young professionals in the city.

The methamphetamine was being trafficked in small quantities to evade suspicion and avoid attracting the attention of law enforcement agencies.

The police believe that the racket spans multiple states, with operations extending into Kerala and Karnataka. Officials have stated that further investigations are underway to trace the broader network and identify other individuals involved in the supply chain.

The arrests mark a significant step forward in dismantling what appears to be a growing interstate drug trafficking ring.

Authorities reiterated their commitment to intensifying anti-drug operations in the city, warning that those involved in drug peddling would be dealt with strictly under the law.

--IANS

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Mumbai, May 22 : Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal on Thursday lashed out at NCP, terming the party as a "gang of goons" and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar its ringleader.

Mumbai, May 22 (IANS) Maharashtra Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal on Thursday lashed out at NCP, terming the party as a "gang of goons" and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar its ringleader.

"During the BJP alliance rule, crime has reached a new high in the state. The accused in most of the criminal incidents are related to the ruling party, and it is repeatedly seen that they have the protection of the government. In the past few days, people associated with the Nationalist Congress Party-Ajit Pawar faction have been involved in various criminal acts that have taken place in the state, which is a very serious issue. Is the Nationalist Congress Party a gang of goons and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar its ringleaders ?" asked Sapkal.

Sapkal said that the accused in the Beed Massajog incident, the accused in the Pune's Porshe Car Drunk and Drive case, the Koyta gang, Shantanu Kukde, who sexually abused young women under the guise of a shelter home, his colleague Deepak Mankar and Rajendra Hagavane, who tortured his daughter- in-law Vaishnavi for dowry are all related to the NCP.

"All of these accused individuals are connected to the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP," he claimed.

"Why are these criminals always from Ajit Dada's party? Has the ruling alliance taken them under its wing, emboldening them to commit such heinous crimes?" he asked.

He further criticised the State Women's Commission, calling it insensitive and inactive.

"Had the commission acted promptly, an innocent life could have been saved. Unfortunately, the Chairperson seems more interested in political grandstanding than women's safety. We strongly condemn this behaviour," he said.

Sapkal further alleged that the MahaYuti government in the state is standing on the foundation of corruption, and looting is rampant among ministers and MLAs.

"During a tour of Dhule, around Rs 2 crore in cash was found in the room of the PA of the Budget Committee Chairman and MLA Arjun Khotkar. This is clear evidence of government-sponsored plunder. It is rumoured that this money was extorted from local contractors. If an MLA's PA possesses this much cash, one can only imagine how much the MLA himself might be hoarding," he said.

"If Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis does not support corruption, he should file a case against Khotkar and his PA and arrest them immediately, said Sapkal.

According to Sapkal, the unseasonal rains have wreaked havoc across the state, damaging crops and orchards on thousands of acres. Onion farmers, in particular, have suffered huge losses. Yet, the government has neither provided aid nor even conducted basic damage surveys (panchnamas).

"With the kharif season approaching, the market is flooded with fake seeds and fertilisers. Retailers are exploiting and cheating farmers by linking the sale of seeds and fertilisers," he said and demanded the government take strict action against such vendors immediately.
Agartala, May 22 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Thursday expressed happiness over the birth of three tiger cubs at the state's Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary, the first in the zoo's 53-year history.

The Chief Minister in a social media post said: "Exciting newsFuture kings and queens of the forest arrive in Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary. A tigress in Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary has given birth to three adorable cubs. Let's give a warm welcome to these little bundles of joy and wish them a safe and thriving life in the wild."

Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary Director Biswajit Das on Thursday said that a tigress in the zoo enclosures gave birth to three healthy tiger cubs on May 11, and the mother tigress and her newborn cubs are doing well inside the enclosure.

He said that as part of precautionary measures, the male tiger has been shifted to the other enclosure. A dozen Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras have been installed in and around the enclosure to monitor round-the-clock the behaviour and other activities of the first-time mother and her cubs.

While talking to IANS, Das earlier said that this is for the first time in the history of the Sepahijala Zoo, a tigress in the enclosures gave birth to three tiger cubs after the zoo was set up in 1972.

He had said that after the birth of the three cubs, the number of big cats in Sepahijala Zoo increased to five. The official said that under the animal exchange programme, a pair of tigers was brought to the Sepahijala Zoo from West Bengal in February last year.

To prevent disturbance to the tigress and her cubs, tourists and other wildlife enthusiasts are not being allowed to visit near the enclosure.

The Zoo Director had said that balanced and nutritious foods, including fresh meat, are being given to the tigress. Healthy soups are being given to the new mother a number of times every day so that the cubs get enough milk from the tigress.

Forest, Science and Technology and Environment Minister Animesh Debbarma expressed his happiness over the birth of three tiger cubs in the Sepahijala Zoo.

"Birth of three cubs is an optimistic indication for tiger conservation efforts at the zoo," the Minister had told IANS and informed that his department has been making continuous efforts to make Sepahijala Zoo a world-class animal conservation hub.

"We need the support of the Central Zoo Authority to train our people and financial support from the Central government to further develop the zoo," the minister said.

The Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary, which covers an area of about 18.53 square km and is located 35 km south of Agartala city, is one of the important tourist destinations in the northeastern state.

In 2024-25, over 1.70 lakh tourists from the state and other parts of the country visited the Sepahijala Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary, an official said.

--IANS

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Bhubaneswar, May 22 : The Odisha Vigilance Department, on Thursday, arrested one police official in Cuttack district for accepting bribe to facilitate the settlement of a dispute between the complainant and a fellow villager under Tigiria police station area.

The accused police officer, identified as Pradeep Kumar Behera, was posted at the Tigiria police station in Cuttack as an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI), caught red handed.

"Counter FIRs were submitted on the dispute by both the opposing parties, following which the dispute was ended in compromise. However, after the compromise, the accused ASI was demanding a bribe from the complainant to not take any action against him on the counter FIR filed against the complainant. Finding no other means, the complainant approached before Vigilance authorities," said a senior Vigilance official.

On Thursday, the Vigilance Department laid a trap and caught Behera red handed while receiving the bribe amount from the complainant.

Following the trap, simultaneous searches have been launched on the official residential quarter of Behera at Dhenkanal Town police station house at his native village of Nutanapatana Sahi in Dhenkanal and the quarter at Tigiria police station.

In another significant case, the Vigilance sleuths on Thursday arrested four government officials for misappropriating government funds to the tune of Rs 20 lakh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Rayagada district.

The accused officials, Rajendra Nath Naik, Assistant Project Director-cum-Project Implementing Agency (APD-cum-PIA) (Class-1); Jogendra Khosla, Soil Conservation Overseer; Deepak Kumar Sahoo, Soil Conservation Overseer; and Srikumar Nayak, Soil Conservation Extension Worker, are posted at the office of Watershed Project Director in Rayagada district.

The accused persons in collusion embezzled Rs 20 lakh without excavation of 23 number of farm ponds under MGNREG Scheme in different villages of Kashipur block in Rayagada district.

The policemen arrested the accused persons after registering a case under various sections of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Act.
Bhopal, May 22 : On May 25, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and current Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, is set to embark on another "padyatra" -- a foot march dedicated to interacting with farmers and evaluating the impact of government schemes.

Bhopal, May 22 (IANS) On May 25, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and current Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, is set to embark on another "padyatra" -- a foot march dedicated to interacting with farmers and evaluating the impact of government schemes.

Scheduled for May 25-26 in his Vidisha Parliamentary constituency, this initiative underscores his commitment to resolving agricultural challenges, improving economic sustainability, and reinforcing India's goal of self-reliance.

At the Annual Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Agricultural Universities and Directors of ICAR Institutes on May 20, 2025, Shivraj Chouhan hailed the Viksit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan as a transformative movement in agriculture.

He emphasised the need to empower farmers, enhance their livelihoods, and strengthen India's grain reserves to establish the nation as a global food supplier.

His guiding principle, "One Nation, One Agriculture, One Team," reflects a unified strategy for advancing the agricultural sector.

The Union Minister has consistently relied on yatras as a means of engaging with the public, solidifying his vision, and strengthening his political presence.

His belief that a journey can bridge the gap between governance and the grassroots has shaped his approach to leadership.

Between December 2016 and 2017, Shivraj Chouhan undertook five major yatras -- the Narmada Seva Yatra, Jan Vishwas Yatra, Madhya Pradesh Vikas Yatra, Kisan Sandesh Yatra, and Adivasi Vikas Yatra.

These journeys were not mere political exercises but efforts to directly connect with citizens and address their concerns.

In 2018, as Assembly elections approached, he launched the Jan Ashirwad Yatra, a fifty-five-day tour aimed at reinforcing his ties with voters. The padyatra will span 20 to 25 km daily, allowing Shivraj Chouhan to engage with villagers, discuss welfare programmes, and provide direction for resolving challenges.

Initially focused on Vidisha, it will later extend to other Lok Sabha constituencies, broadening its reach.

During this journey, Shivraj Chouhan will highlight key schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Digital India, rural development projects, health services, education, sanitation, and self-employment programmes.

He aims to ensure that these initiatives effectively benefit rural communities. This padyatra is not just about raising awareness but about direct dialogue with beneficiaries and ensuring local participation.

Officials from relevant ministries, Panchayat representatives, self-help groups, farmers' organisations, and women's collectives will contribute to its success.

With a focus on agricultural diversification and sustainability, Shivraj Chouhan envisions a modern yet balanced approach that integrates scientific advancements with traditional farming knowledge.

His padyatra signifies a steadfast commitment to rural development, bridging policy decisions with the realities of India's agricultural heartland.
Patna, May 22 : The Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) held its Bhojpur district workers' conference at the district headquarters in Ara on Thursday, where party workers gathered in large numbers and unanimously resolved to ensure the victory of the INDIA Bloc in the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.

VIP Chief and former Bihar minister Mukesh Sahni, addressing the enthusiastic crowd, emphasised the importance of forming a government that represents the marginalised and the poor.

"When we have our own government, we won't have to struggle for our rights and entitlements," said Sahani, urging workers to rally behind candidates who represent their community and interests.

Highlighting the long-standing demand for reservations for the Nishad community, Sahani pointed out that while states across India have granted reservations, the Bihar government has lagged behind.

He strongly criticised the BJP, accusing it of buying four VIP MLAs after his party supported Nitish Kumar for the Chief Minister's post in a previous alliance.

"I had taken a pledge to make 40 MLAs. That time has come now. If our people unite, no one can stop us," Sahani declared, reinforcing his commitment to empowering the Nishad community.

Sahani issued a clarion call to VIP workers, especially in constituencies where the INDIA Bloc lacks representation, to prepare for the electoral battle and work tirelessly to defeat the NDA.

"The destination is near. Let's ensure that the next government belongs to us  a government that will solve our problems without delay," he concluded.

The conference marks a significant moment in VIP's election campaign strategy and signals intensifying efforts by the INDIA Bloc partners to consolidate support among backward and marginalised communities ahead of the October-November 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.

The INDIA Bloc comprises six parties, and the RJD is the biggest alliance partner. Besides RJD, Congress, CPI-ML, CPI, CPI (M) and VIP are the other constituent parties of the INDIA Bloc.
New Delhi, May 22 : JNU Students' Union President Nitish Kumar has raised serious concerns about the government's handling of recent military developments, particularly in relation to "Operation Sindoor" and the Pahalgam terror attack.

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) JNU Students' Union President Nitish Kumar has raised serious concerns about the government's handling of recent military developments, particularly in relation to "Operation Sindoor" and the Pahalgam terror attack.

Expressing frustration over the lack of transparency, he pointed out that while the nation continues to witness the arrival of soldiers' mortal remains from different regions, there is still no official data on the exact number of casualties suffered by the Indian Army.

In an exclusive interview with IANS on Thursday, Kumar demanded that the government provide accurate figures, stating that the people have a right to know the true cost of conflict.

While unequivocally condemning the terror attack in Pahalgam, he criticised the government's swift military response against Pakistan, arguing that the move appeared pre-planned and sidestepped accountability for serious internal security lapses.

At a time when India and Pakistan -- both nuclear-armed nations -- stand at odds, he emphasised the need for de-escalation and diplomacy rather than war rhetoric. Kumar also voiced concern over the alarming rise in communal violence following the attack, particularly incidents targeting Muslims.

He accused the government of failing to curb the growing hate and instead fuelling a polarising narrative. Calling for a diplomatic offensive rather than full-scale warfare, he suggested that isolating Pakistan internationally for harbouring terrorists would be a more effective and sustainable approach.

"The way our defence forces have responded in various ways after the initial attacks -- yes, that was shown -- but now we see Pakistan claiming that the attacks were not just on military targets but also on civilian areas. Though Pakistan's claims don't matter, the point remains that Pakistan has, time and again -- be it the 2008 Mumbai attacks, earlier incidents, or even the Kargil War -- been responsible for sheltering terrorists. But the real question is: should such incidents be resolved through full-blown war, or should efforts be made to diplomatically isolate Pakistan in today's context?" Kumar asked.

He cited past incidents, including those in 2018, as evidence that military action alone has repeatedly failed to break the cycle of violence.

Raising the possibility of a conspiracy to disturb internal peace, Kumar warned that such attacks and the reactions they provoke often lead to increased communal tensions, playing directly into the hands of forces seeking to divide the country.

"Of course, it could be a conspiracy. If such an attack has been carried out, then somewhere it is also aimed at disturbing the internal peace of the country -- to increase communal tension. This has often happened in the past, where such incidents are deliberately orchestrated to create unrest within the country," he said.

In his concluding remarks, Kumar challenged the government to clarify whether the military strikes had achieved their intended goals -- whether the Pahalgam attackers were truly neutralised and if the situation in Kashmir, particularly in terms of safety and tourism, had improved.

While he welcomed the Army's decision to hold a press briefing, he criticised sections of the media for spreading misinformation, calling out what he termed as "Godi Media" for fuelling jingoism by irresponsibly reporting attacks on Karachi and Islamabad.

He stressed that the nation needs truth, not theatrics. Kumar reiterated his concerns about the lack of clarity regarding the exact number of casualties suffered by the Indian armed forces in the recent wave of violence. He noted that while the country mourns the arrival of soldiers' mortal remains, the government has yet to present a clear and official account of the losses.

"The Pakistani army has claimed that they inflicted significant damage, but on our side too, the Indian Army has suffered losses. We have not received any clear data on how many soldiers have been martyred. We are only seeing mortal remains arriving in different regions, but there is no official number of the martyrs. This is something the Army must clarify," he said.

Kumar condemned the terrorist strike but also criticised the government's handling of the situation post-attack, particularly the surge in "communal tensions".

He emphasised the dangers of escalating hostilities between India and Pakistan and advocated for a diplomatic, internationally coordinated effort to isolate Pakistan if it continues to harbour terrorists. Stressing that war disproportionately impacts the poor, he cautioned against using full-scale military retaliation as a solution and instead called for strategic, long-term measures.

He also pointed out that incidents of communal violence and misinformation through sections of the media further weaken national unity and distract from the real issueensuring the safety and security of every Indian citizen, particularly in sensitive areas like Kashmir.
Gadag : , May 23 (IANS) Union Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader, Pralhad Joshi, has said that a faction within the Congress itself provided information to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take action against Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara.

Responding to media queries in Gadag on Thursday regarding the ED raid on the educational institution linked to Parameshwara, Union Minister Joshi said the ED is merely carrying out its duty based on that information.

The Minister added that even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is aware of which Congress leaders gave the information to the ED.

"Despite knowing all this, they are now putting up a drama," he alleged.

"Parameshwara is a dignified politician and we have respect for him. Our government has no intention of harassing him. But once information is received, ED will do its job, regardless of who it is," he clarified.

He also alleged that one particular Congress group has been behind all developments -- from gold smuggling to recent incidents -- and that this same group is consistently feeding information to the ED.

"This is something CM Siddaramaiah knows well. And if he claims ignorance, he should find out through his own intelligence network," Union Minister Joshi added.

"The public knows who was responsible for Parameshwara's defeat in 2013. It is no secret that Siddaramaiah was the one who conspired his loss. History cannot be erased so easily," he said in a remark.

The Union Minister clarified that the ED raids were not conducted because Parameshwara is a Home Minister or because he is a Congressman.

"If anyone commits an offence under the law, be it me, Parameshwara, Siddaramaiah, or someone from our party, the ED will take action. No one will be spared," he asserted.

"It's not right to politicise ED raids. Whoever is guilty must face legal consequences. If we start revealing what your own party members have done, it could cause you more trouble," Union Minister Joshi warned Siddaramaiah

Reacting to the state government's order on opening Jan Aushadhi centres in government hospitals, the Minister asked, "They claim to provide free medicines in government hospitals, but are all required medicines really available for free in every hospital?"

He criticised the state government's decision, saying that in a reputed institution like Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences in north Karnataka, doctors prescribe medicines to be bought from outside.

"If the government is providing free medicines, why are people still being forced to buy them elsewhere? Poor patients who cannot afford expensive medicines are turning to Jan Aushadhi centres. Yet this (Congress) government is obstructing access to even low-cost medicines," he said.

"I strongly oppose the decision to shut down Jan Aushadhi centres. Just because they are named after the Prime Minister, they are being targeted. Such actions must be avoided. For the welfare of the poor, the government should reconsider its stance on Jan Aushadhi centres," the Union Minister urged.
In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, we spoke with six childrens book creators about highlighting Jewish culture and history in their new works.

Leah Cypess

What was the inspiration to kickstart this series about an Orthodox Jewish girl?

I started writing this book for my daughter. At first, I wasnt thinking of publishing itI had never written chapter books before, and didnt know much about this area of publishing. I made Miriam an Orthodox Jew because it reflects our life and I knew my daughter would love a story that was so relatable for her.

The feedback from my daughter and her friends was so enthusiastic that I started researching chapter books. Then I revised the book and sent my agent an email... and here we are!

How did you hope to showcase Jewish culture through your heroine Miriam?

I wanted to present a universal and entertaining story where the reader can experience Judaism the way Miriam does, as a seamless and joyful part of her life. That was more of a challenge than I expected, because I also wanted readerssome of whom may never have met someone Jewish beforeto read the book without ever feeling confused. So I needed to explain things to the reader that Miriam already knows. Luckily for me, Miriams notes and chartswhich were originally intended just to add humor and personality to the investigationlent themselves perfectly to achieving that balance.

Book two, The Discovery of Dragons, is due out in August. What can readers expect as you build out this series?

More of Miriams hilarious antics, more fun investigations, and more magical creatures! The Discovery of Dragons centers on a class trip to the zoo, so it widens its lens a little to include more of Miriams classmates. The third book is called The Mystery of the Mermaid and takes place during a family vacation. In all the books, my goal is to write a laugh-out-loud story that also presents an authentic and joyful picture of Miriams life.

The Truth About the Tooth Fairy (Miriams Magical Creature Files #1) by Leah Cypess, illus. by Sarah Lynne Reul. Amulet, Mar. $19.99 ISBN 978-1-4197-7240-5

Joshua M. Greene

Why did you want to highlight this period in history for young readers?

After 20-plus years writing about the Holocaust for adult readers, I found that despite healthy sales there was no way to prove my work had any impact on anyone. In 2017, I brought the first of five middle-grade books to Scholastic. From day one, the response from young readers was overwhelming: insightful, appreciative, and emotional. That feedback from young people continues to sustain me.

This story is based on testimony from Holocaust survivor and partisan fighter Celia Kassow. How did you go about researching her experience?

All five books are based on survivor accounts from the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. Both Celia and her sister, Slava, had recorded video testimony, so that was the starting point. Family members generously provided additional memories, and historic details came from books by leading Holocaust scholars.

Why was it important to showcase a girl who rejects gender expectations?

My editors at Scholastic get the credit for seeing these books as a way of highlighting the role of young women in Holocaust resistance. When we think of the Holocaust, we envision it in black and whiteeven though there was color film in the 1940sand primarily as the story of male soldiers, spies, and resisters. Those are editorial choices. Its disappointing that even in our best efforts at exploring human history, womens contributionsyoung women in particularare still greatly ignored.

Fighter in the Woods: The True Story of a Jewish Girl Who Joined the Partisans in World War II by Joshua M. Greene. Scholastic Feb. $18.99 ISBN 978-1-5461-3585-2

Tami Lehman-Wilzig

This book is based on Operation Magic Carpet, an international effort that rescued nearly 50,000 Yemenite Jews from danger in 1949 and 1950. What did your research process entail?

There were two tracks to my research process. The first began with the 2017 visit to Israel of Elgen Long, the last surviving Alaska Airlines pilot that flew on this mission. Reading an article about it in the Israeli press sparked my initial interest. I subsequently found myself reading and watching everything I could about it: numerous articles, the Alaska Airlines website, the JDC website, the book Alaska Over Israel by Darragh Metzger, the daughter of another pilot, Warren Metzger, after whom I patterned the storys pilot, and watching the YouTube segments featuring Darragh and Elgen. Once I felt that I had enough information about the mission, I knew that I had to find some of the people who were saved and interview them. Living in Israel makes that easy. There is a Yemenite Jewish Heritage Museum in Rosh HaAyin. I contacted them, went to their offices and spoke to the people running the museum. They showed me loads of photographs and gave me names to contact. I called some but couldnt find the right match. Frustrated, I told my cleaning lady, whom I absolutely adore. Shes kind, generous, and very bright. She is also a Yemenite Israeli, born here. Until I told her about my research, she had no idea I was thinking of writing a book about the Yemenite Aliyah to Israel. She put her arm around me, saying: I have just the right person for you. My oldest sister Leah was on one of those flights. She remembers everything. A week later I was sitting in Leahs living room, riveted by her story.

Why did you want to highlight this part of Jewish history via picture book format?

I write picture books for older readers, and Im a firm believer that beloved picture books combining an engaging storyline with gorgeous illustrations make a lasting impact on readers, who carry them into adulthood and beyond. On the Wings of Eagles is an adventure story that I hope will stay in the minds of readers throughout their lives. Its a book that says a lot about the American and Jewish people. They share a resilience based on a can-do mindset. Without a doubt, this book reflects a very special chapter of Jewish history colored by this perspective. Whenever I tell someone that it was Alaska Airlines that carried out the daring mission of airlifting the Jews of Yemen to safety in Israel, the reaction always is: What?!? It wasnt El Al?

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

Im hoping there will be three takeaways. 1) Ive already mentioned the can-do mindset. I think its important for children to know and understand that there are always creative solutions. 2) The special bond between America and Israel, which in this book is embodied by Alaska Airlines. 3) That the Jews of Yemen were forced to flee their homes and prized possessions, knowing they would never be able to return. With todays rampant antisemitism, I want this historic fact to get out there, starting at a young age.

On the Wings of Eagles by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illus. by Alisha Monnin. Apples & Honey, Apr. $19.95 ISBN 978-1-68115-635-4

Naomi Milliner

Your heroine, Becky, is the daughter of a rabbi and feels a sense of pressure and high expectations. How does she navigate those feelings?

Not very wellespecially in the first part of the book. Adolescence is challenging enough; living in a fishbowl, and feeling like people are constantly scrutinizing you, makes it even harder. Becky always has good intentions... but she doesnt always execute those good intentions in the best way. One of the interesting things about her is that, when she doesnt meet her parents expectations, she is probably harder on herself than they are. When her dearest wish comes true, but she knows they would disapprove, she is unable to fully enjoy her victory: It was like on Passover, when... we took ten drops out of our cups to lessen our joy... only worse. It was like emptying the entire cup.

Becky is also preparing for her bat mitzvah. Can you talk about the cultural significance of the event?

A bat mitzvah (for girls) or bar mitzvah (for boys) is a rite of passage at age 13. In the Jewish faith, you are considered an adult when you complete this coming-of-age ceremony. It involves a lot of preparation. Some of the key elements include reading or chanting a Torah portion; writing and delivering a speech about that portion; and often a mitzvah, or good deed, project as well, to give back to your community. The workload is always substantial, but its especially daunting for Becky: besides being the rabbis daughter, shes convinced that her older siblings were flawless at their respective bar and bat mitzvahs. On top of that, all she really wants is to audition for All-County band, but rehearsals conflict with her bat mitzvah prep, leading to the first of two secrets in the story.

How did you want to explore the dynamic between Becky and her older sister Sara?

Though Becky is close to all three of her siblings, she is closest to her older (and only) sister, Sara. Becky admires pretty much everything about Sara, and is simultaneously desperate to emulate her and convinced she can never measure up. At the same time, Becky is proud to be on a parallel journey with her; Becky is a musician and Saras passion is musical theater. When she discovers that Sara is harboring a huge secret of her own, Becky chooses to keep it as well, despite feeling tremendous guilt in doing so. The difficulties, and tragic consequences, of keeping Saras secret make up the core of the story.

The Trouble with Secrets by Naomi Milliner. Quill Tree, Apr. $19.99 ISBN 978-0-06-331164-0

Caroline Kusin Pritchard

How did you first learn about the Jewish Theological Seminary library fire of 1966? Did you find anything surprising in your research?

It was actually the very beginning of the pandemic, only days before our world locked down. Id just dropped off our then two- and three-year-old boys at their preschool, which was located on our local synagogues campus. I decided to wander into the synagogues library instead of rushing home, and thats where I noticed a thin, brown book poking out from a shelf. It was called FIRE! The Library Is Burning, by Barry D. Cytron, and its the first time Id ever heard about the events surrounding the fire. I learned that tens of thousands of precious books were destroyed, and the rest were at risk of ruin from the water used to extinguish the flames. In photograph after photograph, I took in scenes of strangers from across N.Y.C. coming together to save the remaining books.

I was hooked, and from there it was one of the most exciting rounds of Jewish geography unfolding in real time. After trying, and failing, to track down the books author, I took the mystery to a Facebook group of fellow Jewish kid lit writers. Did anyone happen to know this man? Within minutes Id received a batch of messages from people across the country with connections they were eager to share. A friend of a friend (... of a friend of a friend!) was able to scrounge up an email address, and within days I was Zooming with Rabbi Cytron and his wife. He told me all about the wonder he experienced living through the aftermath of the fire as he worked alongside fellow classmates and neighbors to save the books. We tearfully celebrated the power of stories to connect strangers so many years ago, and how that magic extended to us generations later.



From there, I got in touch with everyone from the current librarian at Jewish Theological Seminary, Dr. David C. Kraemer, to the head librarian during the time of the fire, Dr. Menahem Schmelzer. These cherished conversations led to uncovering all sorts of surprises, like how the fire happened on Dr. Schmelzers birthday. Or how years before the fire, the seminary chose the biblical reference to the burning bush as their schools emblem. A sculpture depicting a blaze engulfing a bush was mounted on the very front of the library towers entrance, which survived the 1966 fire. It included words from the story of Moses in the wilderness: And the bush was not consumed. Now that discovery gave me full-on goosebumps!





What about this event led you to write it as a picture book rather than in another format?

There was one key image from the events of the fire that I could never shake. For weeks and weeks, a human chain of community members wound up the library stairs to pass down soaked books. Hand over hand, book after book. I am continually struck by the raw humanity captured in this moment. The neighbors, students, librarians, pastors and rabbis never once paused to ask themselves whether the books met a paternalistic litmus test before throwing their bodies into the fight. Instead, they saw each and every bookthe stories within them and the creators behind themas precious.

There was something about this image, especially during a time of such physical separation during the pandemic, that felt so important for kids to witness both visually and through the written word. Given the horrifying reality of increased book banning and attacks on childrens rights, this story embodies a distinct, urgent call to action. And there was no one better to bring this all to life with the required honesty and tenderness than the remarkable Selina Alko.

How did you balance showing both the grief and communal aspects of the fires aftermath?

We know that its impossible to shield kids from the pain of life experiences and the often excruciating emotions that come with them. I think many of us get into the work of writing for children for this very reason. We want to show kids that what theyre going through is real, that we see and believe them, and that we're here to walk alongside them as we excavate hope together.

Thats in part why it was important to me to never shy away from the disturbing realities of the fire. This includes the Torah scrolls from Danzig, Poland that were sent to the seminary for safekeeping right before the towns 10,000 Jews fell to Nazi control. The scrolls safely made it to the 10th floor of the library, only to be destroyed in the fire decades later.



But thats where the necessity of hope comes into the writing process. I wove in elements such as a prayer-like refrain so that kids could feel the safety of that consistent drumbeat as they read, and trust that the communitys call for help would eventually be received. Ive been delighted reading the story out loud and watching young readers piece together the meaning of that refrain and the books title as the story progresses. Is the keeper of stories a library? A firefighter? A community? Theres always at least one kid whose hand shoots up as the story reaches its climax and realizes that maybe, just maybe, they themselves are keepers of stories, too.

The Keeper of Stories by Caroline Kusin Pritchard, illus. by Selina Alko. S&S Feb. $19.99 ISBN 978-1-66591-497-0

Robin Rosenthal

Why did you choose a grandmother to be the narrator of the story?

I am Jewish, and Sweet Babe! was inspired by my grandmother, Edith Nanny Goldman, who was a master kveller [a person who expresses great pride and joy]. Nanny was effusive and expressive with her love and I channeled her voice to write this book. The title is a direct quote from Nanny, who, upon seeing a little loved one, would emphatically exclaim, Sweet babe! Precious one!

Do you have a personal connection to the Yiddish language? Did you grow up hearing it/speaking it?

In my family, Yiddish was used as a language of love. We didnt speak fluent Yiddish, but we integrated a lot of Yiddish words that were passed down to my parents and grandparents from their relatives into our everyday speech. We used Yiddish for things we revered and held dear, like a little ones keppeleh [tiny head], or their sweet henties [tiny hands], or delicious pulkies [chubby baby thighs]. We never said butt or bottom; we always used tush, tushie or tuchus. Yiddish words were also a great way to convey drama and hyperbole. When one said Im kvelling or Im verklempt, they were not just proud, they were bursting and overwhelmed with pride and joy!

Why was it important for you to showcase Yiddish and the joy it can bring to a family?

I grew up in a very vocally loving and affectionate family. We loved and still love our little ones with a wonder, delight, and awe that feels specifically Jewish to me. Its not just because of the use of Yiddish words, but also the dramatic hyperbole and passion with which we express our love.

My agent, Erica Rand Silverman, first prompted the idea for the book. While speaking at a conference back in 2021, she mentioned she was looking for childrens book manuscripts that focus on the Jewish culture and the modern inclusive experience of being Jewish. At that point, I had illustrated 11 childrens books, but had not written one yet. I had struggled in the past to write something that felt right and meaningful to me. Ericas prompt really got me thinking about my childhood and the loving voices I grew up with. I wrote the first draft and titled it Sweet Babe! that night.

I wanted to visually show readers how to read Sweet Babe! so I drew all the text by hand and made it as expressive as possible to show that this book is meant to be read exuberantly and emphatically. I have unapologetically used 23 exclamation marks throughout the book! I was inspired by Russian constructivism and Dada typography. A lot of Jewish artists were part of these movements, like El Lissitzky and Henryk Berlewi.

Sweet Babe! A Jewish Grandma Kvells by Robin Rosenthal. Tundra, Feb. $17.99 ISBN 978-1-77488-432-4
The African American Literature Book Club (AALBC) has launched the BLK Bestseller List showcasing the bestselling books by Black authors going back 16 months. The list, sourced from Circana BookScan data, consists of monthly stats on the top 20 hardcover and paperback fiction, nonfiction, and childrens books, as well as lists for young adult and poetry.

The list is one part of the Black Book Accelerator initiative, through which industry professionals are working to boost the sales of books by Black authors. The coalition behind the initiative include AABLC founder Troy Johnson, Hachette chief people officer Carrie Bloxson, and Serendipity Literary Agency CEO and president Regina Brooks.

The BLK Bestseller List filters through Circana sales data for BISAC codes like Black and African American, Johnson said, as theres no data point for Black writers. The system is an imperfect proxyJohnson goes back and manually sifts out books that might be about Black characters or experiences, but not by a Black author. (This is particularly common, he said, in the case of children's books.)

Johnson then goes on the hunt for books by Black authors that might not have been tagged, a much more amorphous process. Youre going to miss some, he said. But if theyre selling well, Id like to think I find them. Johnson has been running the AABLC site since 1997, when he created it as an early-internet oasis for elevating books that might appeal to Black readers. While not strictly the same as BLK Bestsellers focus, Johnson said he has a well-worn instinct for seeking out books by Black writers.

Johnsons goal is for the list to be used by authors and publishers in marketing materials and, more immediately, to find a media partner who will regularly publish and promote the list. In the future, Johnson said they may also make the list available as a source of raw data for industry researchers and programmers.
Bloomsbury Publishing reported revenue of 361 million, or $484.0 million, for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2025, marking a 5% increase over the previous year, and posted profits of 42 million, or $56.3 million, down from 48 million, or $64.4 million, in fiscal year 2024. The U.S. division provided 194.7 million, or $264.5 million in revenuerepresenting nearly all the growth for the company last year.

Speaking to the results, founder and chief executive Nigel Newton said that the company is "making significant progress in executing our Bloomsbury 2030 vision focused on our growth, portfolio, and people."

Bloomsbury's consumer division generated 256 million, or $343.3 million, in revenue during the yearup just 3% from the prior year, after posting a 49% increase in the previous year. (Its adult trade group, part of the consumer division, was named Publisher of the Year at last week's British Book Awards ceremony.) The publishers non-consumer division grew 12%, to 105 million, or $140.8 million.

Academic and professional publishing revenue increased 18%, to 83.3 million, or $111.7 million, though organic revenue in this segment declined 10%. The company attributed the decline to budgetary pressures in both the U.K. and U.S. markets, as well as the continued shift from print to digital formats.

Bloomsbury completed its acquisition of U.S. publisher Rowman & Littlefield's academic division, which Newton described as the company's largest acquisition to date, during the period. R&L's sales contributed 19.8 million ($26.5 million) in revenue to Bloomsbury, where integration of the division, per the company, is proceeding as planned.

Bloomsbury's international expansion has driven revenues overseas up to 78% of its total revenue, reflecting the publishers expanding geographic diversification strategy. It plans to open an office in Singapore this year to expand its presence in Asian markets and, Newton said, "to further capitalize on the growing student population in the region, building on the success of our established offices in India and Australia."

The companys digital resources division reported revenue growth of 2%, to 27 million ($36.2 million), keeping the company on track to hit its target of 41 million ($55.0 million) in division revenue by the 2027/28 fiscal year. Audio revenue at the company increased 57% in the year, bolstered by the distribution partnership Bloomsbury inked with Spotify last fall.

Throughout the year, Bloomsbury carried out several infrastructure improvements as part of its 2030 vision, per the report. Those include transitioning to Hachette UK Distribution in April, deploying a new global royalty system, and establishing a dedicated U.S. key account sales team to replace third-party commission sales agents last fall.

In his remarks on the results, Newton indicated that trading for the 2025/26 fiscal year is expected to align with current market expectations. The company reported net cash on hand of 17 million ($22.8 million) following the Rowman & Littlefield acquisition, compared to 65.8 million ($88.2 million) in the previous year.

Looking ahead, Bloomsbury has appointed a head of AI Innovation to develop the company's artificial intelligence strategy and explore monetization opportunities for academic content through AI partnerships. The publisher's diversification approach spans both consumer and academic publishing across multiple formats and territories, creating what Newton described as "a portfolio of portfoliosa model that provides resilient growth and cash generation." He also expects the publisher to benefit from projected growth in global higher education enrollment, with estimates suggesting 600 million students by 2040, more than 60% of whom will be located in Asia.
Shubha Sunder. Graywolf, $17 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-64445-324-7

In Sunders astute and stimulating debut novel (after the collection Boomtown Girl), an Indian woman reckons with racial prejudice and draconian immigration laws in post-9/11 America. Its 2006 when Pavitra graduates from college in the U.S., hoping to extend her stay as long as possible. Shes hired to teach math and physics at a Massachusetts private school where she hopes to receive a work visa and buy time to finish her novel, a pursuit considered frivolous by her parents and relatives back home in Bangalore. As Pavitra grapples with the weight of her familys expectations, she realizes that her acquaintances in America also carry preconceived notions about her. For example, her white landlord assumes, for the sake of his own comfort, that shes a member of the Brahmin caste. In conversations with her friends, Pavitra examines what it means to be perceived as a person of color (The term of color struck me as ridiculous. Only in America, it seemed to me, would people coin such labels as person of color and legal alien ) and grapples with other unique aspects of American culture, such as the prizing of an individuals opinions. In a striking climax, Pavitra confronts the limits of what shes been promised by the school and of her ability to move freely between the U.S. and India, and the novel coheres into a crystalline portrait of a woman straddling cultures and expectations while attempting to discover who she is. Its a knockout. Agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Co. (Mar.)
On Tuesday, the European Parliament hosted representatives from the books, film, and music industries and related creative sectors for a meeting to discuss the implementation of the EU AI Act. The meeting was part of the "Stay True to the Act, Stay True to Culture" campaign, which advocates for transparency, consent, and fair compensation for creators whose work is used in AI development.

The event, hosted by Italian MEP Brando Benifei and Irish MEP Michael McNamara, included statements from two members of the Federation of European Publishers: Anne-Sylvie Bameule, managing director of French publishing house Actes Sud; and Jesus Badenes del Rio, CEO of Planeta Books from Spain.

"Fake AI transparency as currently proposed by the European Commission will enable AI companies to keep stealing millions of books in full impunity," Bameule said. "The book market is already flooded with fake books that not only threaten the biggest European cultural sector but can also endanger consumers. The European legislator clearly said 'no more'; it's time for the Commission to do what the law says."

Emphasizing the importance of copyright protection, Badenes added that "full enforcement of copyright legal framework and development of AI models should not be seen as conflicting objectives. Respect for creativity requires strong and full transparency requirements about all works used for generative AI models."

Speakers at the meeting highlighted the growing concern over protecting the value of copyright across industries as many tech companies continue to train their AI models on copyrighted materials without permissions. They maintained that AI integration into creative sectors can proceed successfully if proper protections are in place for the human creators whose work powers these technologies.

"We must never be seduced by the false idea that, in the headlong rush to the new AI world, creators' interests must be cast aside," said Bjorn Ulvaeus, cofounder of the Swedish pop group ABBA. Belgian media executive Christian van Thillo, executive chairman of DPG Media, added: "Big tech built empires by ignoring copyright and privacy rules, and today they're doing the same with AI. Without compliance with the AI Act and rigorous enforcement, European culture and democracy will pay the price."

The May 20 event comes amid increasing pressure on the European Parliament from the creative industries across Europe to defend copyright amid the AI surge. Earlier this week, the Borsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, Germany's publisher and bookseller association, announced that the German initiative Creators for Europe United had reached its goal of acquiring 10,000 signatures on an open letter to Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive VP for technological sovereignty, security, and democracy.

The letter has four demands: full transparency about all works, contributions, and performances that have been and will be used for training generative AI models and other purposes; adequate remuneration for the use of our works; consistent enforcement of applicable copyright lawsincluding against global tech companies; and involvement of the culture, creative, and media industries in all regulatory processes for AI governance.

The letter was first announced on World Book and Copyright Day, April 23. "Our ideas, voices, images, songs and stories are the heart of Europe. Without our creativity, AI systems would be empty and meaningless," the letter reads in part, adding that "the main beneficiaries will be non-European tech companies that can continue to exploit European works."

It continues: "Artificial intelligence relies on our creative content to function at all. Without it, AI is blind, empty and speechless. At present, it is exclusively the developers of the models who benefit, while creators and rights holders are being expropriated." Furthermore, "AI can be a driver of progressbut only if it is built on solid legal and ethical foundations. If Europe loses its creatives, it will not only lose its cultural identity but also one of its strongest economic sectors. To sacrifice this potential means to jeopardize Europes future."

The European protests coincide with developments in the United Kingdom, where last week, on May 12, the House of Lords supported an amendment to the "Data Bill" requiring AI companies to specify which works they have used in training large language models. The amendment must now return to the House of Commons for further consideration.
By Nazrin Abdul



The prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkiye in developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor) were discussed.

Azernews reports that this was announced by Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev on his "X" account.

According to him, the discussions took place during a meeting with the Ambassador of Turkiye to Azerbaijan, Birol Akgun.

The two sides exchanged views on expanding bilateral cooperation in transportparticularly in road transport, railways, aviation, and the development of the Middle Corridor.

It should be noted that the Middle Corridor, is a key transportation route that connects Europe and Asia, traversing China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkiye, and beyond. It has been operational since 2014, enabling freight to move efficiently across the Caspian Sea, via rail and maritime pathways.

This transport corridor, while geographically stretching across Central Asia, holds strategic importance not only due to its role in facilitating global trade but also due to its increasing relevance in the context of shifting geopolitical dynamics.
When Jeffrey Epstein purchased Little Saint James, the teardrop-shaped island southeast of St. Thomas, in the late 1990s, he was seen as a mere oddity. A one-time math teacher who claimed to manage the fortunes of billionaires, he told U.S. Virgin Islands officials that he was seeking privacy. He also appears to have purchased impunity.

The alleged crimes that Epstein committed on that emerald island reachable only by helicopter or ferry would explode into an international scandal. Investigators accuse him of raping and sexually abusing girls as young as eleven at his island compound where he also hosted many A-list politicians, business leaders and celebrities. One 15-year-old, whom Epstein allegedly forced into sex acts, attempted to escape by swimming away from the island. She was caught and her passport was taken away.

While Epstein was alive, Virgin Islands officials appear to have shielded him from scrutiny  customs agents at the airport, for example, reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with girls between the ages of 11 and 17, yet there is no record that anyone checked on their safety.

After his death in 2019, other officials who aided Epstein began profiting from continued secrecy and a string of legal settlements associated with his behavior that put hundreds of millions of dollars under the governments control. No one appears to have benefited more than Albert Bryan Jr., the governor of the territory. Court records show that Bryan had previously overseen the agency that granted nearly $300 million in illicit tax credits to Epsteins company, which fraudulently claimed to provide biomedical and financial informatics services. Bryan, after securing a gubernatorial victory in 2018 with the support of Epstein and his aides, would later push for a waiver for Epstein to avoid compliance with the islands sex offender laws.

The use of Epstein settlement funds by Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan (right) has raised questions.

Bryan fired the attorney general who led the islands cases against Epsteins estate, and his appointed successor ended an explosive case over J.P. Morgan Chases ties to the former financier before a new round of discovery.

Over the last few months, legislative records show, Bryan has tapped the Epstein settlement funds to pay for a variety of his domestic political agenda items. The money was secured from Epsteins estate and his associates, including the case with J.P. Morgan Chase and a close financial supporter, private billionaire Leon Black, who was also accused of abusing women. The settlements, which collectively account for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars, were championed as a measure of accountability, and the proceeds were promised to assist victims of sexual assault, human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and child sexual abuse.

In late April, Bryan, at his weekly briefing at the Government House on St. Thomas, announced the allocation of $22 million in retroactive wages to government workers, a move his office touted as strengthening public trust. "This is real money  money in the bank," Bryan boasted. Left unmentioned was the source  the Epstein settlement money.

Earlier this year, Bryan applied the Epstein funds for vendor payments and sought to use the money for a variety of other earmarks, such as a $25 million makeover for the Justice Building on St. Croix. The lack of transparency around the funds has faced scrutiny from legislators and some Virgin Islands residents.

The total amount remaining in the Epstein settlement fund is not clear. Motley Rice, a private law firm that assisted the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Justice Department with the cases, is projected to receive about $23.35 million of the settlement as its share of the fees.

We have a situation where some of the monies might have been spent, even though they were appropriated for specific purposes, said USVI Senator Alma Francis Heyliger. The legislature did not give approval for this.

In a letter posted online last year, David Silverman, a retiree living in St. John, stated, This money was promised to be used to protect vulnerable young women, among other things. But for reasons that nobody can explain, the money is nowhere to be found.

The U.S. Department of Justice maintains oversight of the USVI, a jurisdiction that has been plagued by corruption. In recent years, FBI agents have raided territory agencies over the mismanagement of public money. In June 2024, several senior USVI officials were charged with defrauding $4 million in housing funds. The FBI declined to comment on whether it is investigating the USVI's use of Epstein settlement funds.

The Bryan administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Attorney General Pam Bondi promised an early and full release of the Epstein files but has so far failed to deliver.

Questions continue to swirl over the Epstein secrets still buried in government vaults. The much-hyped Trump administration release of files related to the Epstein case quickly turned to disappointment in February as the government distributed binders with no new information. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in response to criticism of the fizzled press event, has said she is still pushing for the release of more files held by the FBI and her department.

While attention still focuses on the 256,000 square-foot warehouse in Winchester, Virginia, where unreleased FBI records, including CDs, hard drives, and recordings from Epsteins homes, are still held, the Virgin Islands side of the story remains unresolved. The tropical territory remains one of the last redoubts of intrigue related to the scandal.

The island territory was the nexus for Epsteins alleged human trafficking operation. It was there that Epstein entertained his VIP rolodex of guests and is believed to have engaged in some of his worst sexual crimes.

The abrupt settlement with J.P. Morgan Chase prevented the release of more disclosures about the nature of Epsteins network, including documents and depositions from key figures who aided and abetted the former financier.

The U.S. Virgin Islands government and JPMorgan Chase both denied claims of complicity in Epstein's abuses. In a previous statement to reporters, the bank claimed it would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.

Nearly two years ago, Bryan shut off the valve of a smattering of unflattering documents released as part of the island territorys lawsuit with J.P. Morgan. After initially seeking $190 million from the bank for its role in aiding Epsteins operations, Bryan shocked observers by firing his own attorney general and reportedly pushed to end the lawsuit.

The initial 2022 lawsuit charged that J.P. Morgan had turned a blind eye to clear evidence that Epstein had used the bank to facilitate his sex trafficking operations. USVI claimed in court that it had uncovered evidence that J.P. Morgan officials had repeatedly raised red flags about Epstein, who maintained around 55 accounts and routinely referred his network to the banks wealth management services. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan executives joked over email about his interest in young girls.

But the bank hit back with a countersuit and filed hundreds of documents, exhibits, and emails alleging a decades-long quid pro quo between Epstein and the USVI government. The legal probe revealed the former financiers extensive system of alleged bribes and influence payments to USVI officials  money, J.P. Morgans lawyers claimed, that created a haven for Epsteins criminal activity.

Jeffrey Epstein used gifts to curry favor with the former first lady of the USVI, Cecile de Jongh.

These records show that Epstein placed the former first lady of the island, Cecile de Jongh, on his payroll. She suggested campaign donations and targeted gifts to universities, civic groups, and the families of powerful politicians. The gifts appear to have helped Epstein win special benefits, including visas to bring young girls to the island and $300 million in illicit tax exemptions for his fraudulently registered information technology company.

J.P. Morgan's attorney filed documents with the court charging that de Jongh suggested Epstein pay monthly retainers to local politicians, including former USVI Senator Celestino White, to gain loyalty and access. The records showed he also gave free Thanksgiving turkeys to 78 federal customs agents at the St. Thomas airport after dealing with one difficult officer.

The ties extended to the governor and the territorys representative in Congress, the incumbent lawmaker Stacey Plaskett. In his previous role as head of the economic development office, Bryan signed off on a string of tax exemptions for Epsteins Southern Trust business entity. At the time, Plaskett served as counsel to the tax office.

Plaskett went on to work at Kellerhals Ferguson Kroblin PLLC, a USVI law firm Epstein retained for tax and legal issues. In 2014, as Plaskett geared up to run for Congress, de Jongh advised Epstein to support her bid against a popular local politician, Shawn-Michael Malone. Shawn is the one who came after you in the senate hearing last week. He is nasty and needs to be defeated and we have a friend in Stacey, de Jongh wrote in an email uncovered by J.P. Morgans attorneys.

During the election, Epsteins closest aides and advisers, including Darren Indyke, Lesley Groff, and Erica Kellerhals, donated to Plaskett, helping her defeat Malone by just 737 votes in what local press called one of the biggest upsets in Virgin Island politics. De Jongh wrote to Epstein to confirm that a $13,000 corporate donation planned for the Democratic Party would be made for the benefit of Stacey Plaskett.

Epstein repeatedly donated to Plasketts campaign committees until his suicide in a New York City prison cell in 2019. In an email made public by the litigation, Plaskett wrote to Kellerhals and Lesley Groff, another Epstein aide who reportedly helped him recruit young women, to request the financiers fundraising assistance. She also met with him at his New York City home in a bid to request larger donations to the DCCC, the House Democrats campaign arm.

Stacey Plaskett, who represents the USVI in Congress, worked for Epstein's law firm and received campaign donations from him.

Plaskett did not respond to a request for comment. In March, a federal judge in New York ruled that Plaskett will continue to serve as the sole defendant in a case brought by multiple victims of Epstein. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case charges that USVI officials conspired with Epstein to sustain his sex-trafficking scheme.

The case relies on much of the evidence that the J.P. Morgan countersuit uncovered nearly two years ago.

The Epstein network also helped to elect Bryan governor. Kellerhals, campaign finance disclosures exclusively obtained by RealClearInvestigations show, donated $1,000. Records from the J.P. Morgan litigation provide further evidence of support, including an email from de Jongh suggesting $25,000 to an inauguration party in Bryans honor and a reminder that Bryan had requested $30,000 in support for the USVI Little League.

Bryan, as governor, requested that the USVI Justice Department provide Epstein with a waiver for the territorys sex offender registry. Epsteins legal requests for special exemptions to the law, notably, were facilitated by Kellerhals.

Not every sexual offender or any person, you know, are in the position to have the governor make the request to the attorney general  that by itself indicated to me that [Epstein] was flexing his political influence over or with the governor, Denise George, a former USVI attorney general said in a deposition she gave as part of the JPMorgan lawsuit.

Bryan, in a deposition with J.P. Morgans attorneys, dismissed concerns about Epsteins operations in the USVI. He said he was only aware that he copped a plea to having sex with a hooker who was under age, a reference to Epsteins 2008 conviction over child prostitution.

On New Years Eve 2022, Bryan unexpectedly fired Denise George, the attorney general responsible for the J.P. Morgan lawsuit and the islands landmark case against the Epstein estate. George had previously opposed Bryans requests for a waiver for Epstein to get around the islands sex offender laws.

Former USVI Attorney General Denise George was fired after clashing with Gov. Albert Bryan over Epstein's sex offender classification waiver.

As the litigation continued to mount, J.P. Morgans attorneys threatened more discovery and depositions of USVI officials. In a filing to the court in September 2023, they argued that they planned greater investigations of a host of USVIs elite, including Bryan and Plaskett.

A few weeks after the filing, USVI announced its settlement, agreeing to end its case in exchange for $75 million, an amount far below the initial amount sought by the lawsuit.

The sudden end to the case closed the rare window of disclosure into Epsteins private power structure and the ways in which he carried out his political operation.

Some lawmakers and island residents believe secrets from the Epstein scandal are still hidden. The J.P. Morgan case proved too harmful for the USVI elite as it exposed embarrassing documents on all sides.

Listen, as a community, I would rather these things come out so we can clean up our community instead of sticking our heads in the sand, said Senator Francis Heyliger. The more we clean up this territory, and more things are exposed, I think in the long run, it will be better for us and as a community and for the people.

The senator was clear that President Trump should release new, unredacted Epstein files or pressure USVI officials to provide more clarity over the financiers influence. If this administration, on a national level, chooses to put out more information, I am never one that believes you should hide from the truth." she said.
Instagram / Hannh Brown

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/21/2025



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.
In the 21st century, a polymer pistol in a plastic holster is the norm. They have excellent retention and have gotten quite comfortable. New manufacturing methods and materials are cheap and accessible. Still, the allure of leather remains, perhaps because humans have been using animal skins longer than weve been using language. Heck, our earliest evidence of leather comes from processing tools that date back over 100,000 years.

There has actually been a bit of a resurgence in leather holsters in recent years because of the vast increase in available pistol make and models, natural materials lending themselves better to universal fits. Leather can also be extremely comfortable compared to plastic. But the upsides are also the downsides.

Like us, leather has a lifespan. A high-quality, cared-for leather holster gains a personality all its own  a companion to the pistol that rides inside. Leather comes from something that was once alive, and in a way, continues to live on through its bearer. The skin can stretch alongside your own. The colors shift with exposure to sun, warm skin, and hot barrels. Gun oil and sweat work into the pores, building a bridge between pistol and person  which also means you need to inspect it, care for it, and show a degree of consideration you otherwise wouldnt with a plastic fantastic.

No one needs a leather holster in the 21st century, just like how they dont need a mechanical watch, vintage Jeep, or custom pistol. Leather is luxury.

What used to be normal  items made from natural materials handcrafted by humans  now represents extravagance in a world that produces piles of plastic. Yes, this article is a bit romantic. No, Im not saying throw out your PHLster. But there could be a place for some leather in your life, and if youre looking for a gift for someone whos hard to buy for, some of the exotic options outlined here might help.

EXOTICS

The majority of leather items produced in the United States, holsters or otherwise, come from cows. This isnt surprising, as cowhide is a byproduct of the beef and dairy industry, and America is the largest producer in the world. Of course, bulls arent your only option. Some manufacturers, like Versacarry, use water buffalo even for their mass-produced models. But if you want something truly custom, you may as well go entirely exotic.

Nestled in the western Carolina mountains is Mayhem Leather Company. This family business specializes in handcrafting custom holsters and other leather items, with a rare eye toward artistry. Mayhem Leather Company not only has some standard holster offerings, wallets, and cowboy rigs, but also 1911 grips formed from the likes of ring lizards, peanut spinal stingray, and gators.

In terms of exotic leathers, they offer a variety of options ranging from hippo, hornback alligator, ostrich, python, pirarucu, shark, stingray, and more. No, you wont find holsters like these at a regular store, just like how you wont find bespoke pistols at any old gun shop. And its guaranteed that no one is going to have a holster thatll look exactly like the one you have  even if they buy the same make, model, and material.

HYBRID HOLSTERS

We cant talk about leather holsters without mentioning hybrids. These designs look for the best of both worlds, the comfort of leather with the retention and rigidity of plastic. Several approaches have been taken with assorted levels of success.

The first generation of the hybrid holster, of which there are still some versions, were plastic shells bolted onto leather backers. There can be issues with backers stretching but the shells staying, affecting retention ability, depending on the quality of construction and type of leather used. Another type is a sort of leather cover for Kydex, like a taco wrap. Most recently, its been leather holsters with synthetic internal structures for positive retention, and these have been the most promising in terms of looking and feeling like a traditional leather holster.

FITTING

Your pistol needs to fit snugly inside your holster yet still be ready to pull. This is the ever-present problem with concealed carry, and why that Kydex click brings so many so much confidence.

While an inside-the-waistband design can usually have a little more wiggle room because the pistol is pressed between your body and pants by your belt, overall youre going to want a pistol that fits a little more tightly than you think  that leather is going to stretch with time and use. If its too tight, dont use any saddle soap or other softeners and dont get it wet. Instead, put your pistol inside a plastic bag, insert it into the holster, and leave it overnight. This will increase the dimensions ever so slightly so its just right.

Galco Gun Leather sells a product called Draw-EZ to shorten break-in periods, but the very best thing you can do in order to smooth out a leather holster is honest time and repetition.

CARE & INSPECTION

Keep your holster clean. After a long day on the range or running around, a quick wipe down with a clean towel is usually all it needs, but sometimes a little more care is required. The best practice is to only use items recommended by your given maker, lest you weaken the leather by making it too soft. Some light buffing with shoe polish should be A-OK and keep everything looking great. If your holster gets wet, wipe it with a towel, resist the urge to apply heat, and let it dry at room temperature overnight.

Heat and direct sunlight will dry, warp, and crack your leather. Keep your holsters away from windows, sunrooms, and dashboards.

Make damned sure the trigger is properly covered and the leather isnt soft around the trigger  if the leather is soft enough that the trigger can be pressed through the material, its time to retire that holster. Check any retention devices like snaps or attachments like clips for rust
One Bali travel insider said it's 'really important' Aussies cough up the tourist tax, even if it's poorly enforced.

Authorities are cracking down on those who don't pay their Bali tourist levy. Source: Bali Tourism Authority/Getty

It's no secret that Australians love Bali. Last year 1.5 million of us jumped on a flight to visit the picturesque tourist island in search of sun, relaxation, and adventure.

However, despite the country introducing a $15 tourist levy last February to help tackle the growing problem of overcrowding at some of the Indonesian island's most popular attractions, very few are actually paying it. The IDR 150,000 levy is in addition to paying the 500,000 (A$50) Visa on Arrival fee to enter Indonesia for up to 30 days.

It's been revealed less than 35 per cent of foreign tourists paid the new tourism levy during 2024, prompting the island's leaders to launch a crackdown on those who don't pay. Bali travel insider Ravindra Singh Shekhawat told Yahoo News there are "various contributing factors"  with lack of awareness being one of them.

"Tourists are unaware of the tax or requirement to pay on or before arrival," Ravindra, Intrepid's General Manager for Indonesia, explained. "There isn't much info about where to pay or how to pay, and it's not well enforced.

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A lack of enforcement, up until this point, has also allowed tourists to enter without paying the tax. "You can just walk out of the airport, and nobody is checking," he said.

Despite this, Ravindra has urged Aussies to pay the fee, explaining that it's in our interest to pay it, explaining, "We can help Bali become a better tourist destination".

How to pay for the $15 Bali tourist tax

Authorities have warned the tourism office is conducting regular inspections at tourist destinations "to ensure that visitors have paid and obtained their levy vouchers", authorities said online. Tourists should keep hold of their receipt to ensure that they can prove they've paid.

"It can be paid online via the official website, or upon arrival at the airport," he explained.

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More payment locations at top tourist attractions have also been installed, such as at Lovina Beach, the waterfalls of Munduk, and West Bali National Park.

What does the tourist tax go towards?

In March the Governor of Bali, Wayan Koster, announced the first round of funds had been distributed to local communities to use as they see fit in line with policy legislation. Funds must be spent preserving Balinese culture, protecting the natural landscape, or improving infrastructure.

"It also goes towards sustainable tourism in Bali," Ravindra explained. "It's really important tourists actually pay this tax so they can keep preserving culture and improving infrastructure."

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
There's no change in Apple Inc's India strategy, said a top government source. 'It can only be enhanced'.

Photograph: Abdul Saboor/Reuters

Just days after Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook had announced in a post-earnings analyst call that a majority of iPhones for the American market would be airlifted from India starting this quarter, the changing geopolitical scenario has raised question marks over the Cupertino major's plans.

After a bitter battle, the United States and China recently agreed on a sharp drop in their punitive tariffs for the next 90 days -- within which they plan to finalise an agreement.

The government is watching the developments closely, but is not too worried that a tariff truce between the US and China could hurt the chances of India's electronics products on the global stage, according to sources in the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY).

There is no change in Apple Inc's India strategy, said a top source in the government. "It can only be enhanced," an official at MeitY said.

For companies such as Apple, which have over the last few years stepped up manufacturing in India, the decision to shift production away from China was taken pre-tariff, another official pointed out.

In the next 90 days, the US government has to take a decision on whether to continue or withdraw the punitive 20 per cent tariff on US imports against China tied to fentanyl enforcement.

A withdrawal may result in Indian exporters losing their competitive tariff advantage in areas such as smartphones, electronics, gems and jewelleries and auto components against China.

As for Apple, it is part of the company's long-term strategy to shift a fourth of its iPhone capacity by FY26 to India.

In smartphones, despite the May 11 tariff truce between the US and China, the tariff advantage which India has over China may not change.

While India can import to the US at zero duty (smartphones are exempted from base duty of 10 per cent across markets), China has to pay a levy of 20 per cent fentanyl duty.

However, the scenario could change if the US decides to withdraw the fentanyl related tariff.

In that case, there would be no difference in the tariffs between India and China for export of smartphones to the US.

According to a top executive who's a member of the ICEA (India Cellular and Electronics Association), at a 20 per cent difference in tariffs, India (despite a 12 per cent cost disability) has an advantage over China.

"That will just not be there if duties are equalised or both are imposed the base tariff of 10 per cent," he said.

In other areas like electronics and gems and jewelleries, analysts believe that China, even after the new cuts, has to fork out 30 per cent (fentynal plus base tariff of 10 per cent), compared to India at only 10 per cent for exports to the US.

For auto component companies, while the US has bundled all countries, including India, under the 25 per cent tariff, China has to fork out an additional 20 per cent fentynal tax, making it 45 per cent.

Mobile device makers are already pushing the government to reduce the disability -- one key element is the extension of the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme after it ends in FY26.

The other big demand from the ICEA side is to reduce duty on inputs of imported components- a key element which increases disability.

With inputs from Aashish Aryan in New Delhi.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
Ahead of next year's Tamil Nadu assembly elections, the politics, if any, surrounding the presidential reference, may define the course of rival campaigns.

So could be the Supreme Court's opinion offered to the President, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.

IMAGE: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin. Photograph: Anantha Krishnan/ANI Photo

Operation Sindoor may have stolen some of the limelight that was otherwise due the Presidential reference to the Supreme Court on the timelines for Rashtrapati Bhavan and Raj Bhavans to decide on legislation presented to them for assent.

While the intention of President Draupadi Murmu's 14 queries for elucidating the Supreme Court's opinion/clarification under Article 143 of the Constitution is clear, it may be interesting to note that the two-judge bench that decided the matter had derived its conclusions from two Union home ministry circulars as far back as 2016.

Both circulars were issued on February 4, 2016. Both fixed the home ministry as the nodal agency for collating and coordinating with multiple departments of the Centre or with the state governments concerned in such matters.

One pertains to internal consultations and disposal of legislation passed by state legislatures for presidential assent.

The other relates to communication with state governments, urging them to revert with details that are sought after a first round of communication within central ministries, including the law ministry, which would also go into the drafting of those Bills, including the language.

The purpose of both circulars, to quote the same, was to 'avoid inordinate delay' in decision-making, pertaining to the President and/or the governors on legislation pending before them for assent.

Breaking up timelines at every stage in both cases, the home ministry circulars had fixed a three-month upper limit for the final disposal of those Bills by the Union ministries/departments concerned, for the home ministry as the nodal agency to forward the same to the President.

IMAGE: The Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo

It is these two circulars that the Supreme Court Bench, comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, cited while fixing a three-month deadline for the President/state governor(s) to clear Bills that are presented before them for assent.

After reproducing the two circulars, the judgment in the 'Tamil Nadu Governor Assent case', clearly noted (Paragraphs 383-391) that the President/governor(s) should communicate their decisions to the state government concerned within three months.

Yes, there is still the larger question if the Union home ministry's circular for internal consumption or for use by other arms under the Constitution that fell below the two gubernatorial offices would apply to the President and governors.

After all, both are Constitutional authorities. Governments in the country are run in their name(s) and with them as heads, at least in the eyes of the law and the Constitution.

Hence, there may be arguments that such timelines would not apply to those holding the nation's high office(s), especially when the Founding Fathers in their wisdom had refrained from doing so, after much deliberation.

It is here that the division bench verdict seems to have derived its intention from the spirit of the two circulars, whose aim was to ensure speedy and timely disposal of Bills presented before the President/governor for assent.

Incidentally, when the two circulars went out there were not many justiciable issues like the Tamil Nadu governor's case before the Supreme Court.

Nowhere has the verdict even remotely hinted at any automatic assent for Bills presented before either beyond a certain time-limit -- three months in this case, as Justices Pardiwala and Mahadevan fixed for future reference.

What, however, makes the verdict in the Tamil Nadu case the subject matter of further judicial discourse is the order, conferring 'deemed assent' to 10 TN legislations pending before the governor for much longer periods, with no action whatsoever -- assent, denial or reference-back.

Incidentally, there were matters where the state assembly had re-enacted legislation after Governor R N Ravi had returned them for 'reconsideration'.

The Constitution is clear that the governor 'shall abide by the aid and advice of the council of ministers headed by the chief minister'.

It has also laid down that the governor has to grant asset to a Bill if after 'reconsideration' that he had sought, the state legislature passes the same, with or without amendments.

Now, the presidential reference has a question, seeking the apex court's clarification if the governor had 'discretion' in matters such as those involved in the case(s) concerned.

IMAGE: Stalin with Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi. Photograph: ANI Photo

As was to be expected, the President's 14-point reference query to the Supreme Court clearly questions the division bench deploying powers under Article 142, confer judicial assent to 10 Bills passed by the Tamil Nadu state assembly, for which assent was delayed without even being denied by the gubernatorial authority, which alone had such powers under the Constitution.

Incidentally, Article 142 under which the division bench passed those orders and Article 143, the use of which has facilitated the presidential reference, are schematically placed one after the other.

If the Founding Fathers wanted to place an unsaid message for the authorities concerned, the question arises as to who should be, or should have been circumspect -- or, more circumspect than the other.

In recent times, it had used the law to grant freedom for the 'Rajiv Gandhi assassins' following the inordinate delay in the President/governor deciding on their 'mercy petitions'.

The Supreme Court's verdict in the 'Ayodhya case' also was passed under Article 142.

As may be noted, this was/is the first time that the Supreme Court had used Article 142 powers to direct the gubernatorial authority to do or not to do a thing, by way of a writ.

Instead, the court has clearly 'usurped' the power/right exclusively available only to the gubernatorial authority under the Constitution.

It may be mentioned during the course of the Supreme Court hearing in the Reference matter, but the fact remains that the Constitution has not conferred such powers on any other constitutional authority, starting with the Supreme Court, which in common parlance is the 'watchdog of the Constitution'.

Then, there is the Presidential query if the two-judge bench should have referred the matter to a Constitutional Bench of five or more Judges.

A valid query, which possibly should not have waited for a presidential reference in the first place.

According to reports, the same objection was raised even before the division bench, which however turned down the submission at the first instance.

It was thus incumbent upon either the Union of India or the governor to have 'mentioned' it before the first bench, presided over by the Chief Justice, for his decision on sending the matter to a larger bench -- but no decision was taken on this question, either.

Yet, there is no denying the question, based on the facts and the circumstances of the case, if the court should have passed orders binding on the President without serving notice and obtaining a response. Or, if the court should have sought the President's views, through her secretary, on the reasons for the delay on Bills forwarded by Governor Ravi.

This goes beyond the Constitutional authority vested in the high office of the President, and is a part of the 'natural justice' process that courts in this country are bound to. But this is not one of the 14 points on which the Presidential reference has been made. Being a procedural issue, maybe, it may be agitated during the course of the hearing.

IMAGE: Stalin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photograph: ANI Photo

Politically otherwise, Tamil Nadu's DMK Chief Minister M K Stalin lost no time in criticising the BJP government at the Centre for using the Article 143 provision after the Supreme Court had given its verdict in cases that were pending before the governor, far too long.

He seemed wanting to fix the responsibility on the governor's actions and inactions, comments and criticism against the DMK state government, and also the larger Dravidian socio-political platform, laid at the door of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his party and the government.

It is another matter that Stalin might have put the cart before the horse, by writing to other non-BJP chief ministers to strategise together, to challenge the Centre's decision on the Presidential reference after condemning the move himself.

After the non-BJP chief ministers' meeting on delimitation that he had hosted in Chennai on March 22, the expectation was that on all matters pertaining to Centre-state relations, there would be mutual consultations before any of them took an initiatively, separately or collective.

It thus remains to be seen as and when the second meeting of the Joint Action Committee on Delimitation (JAC) meets in Hyderabad, hosted by Telangana's Congress Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, the question of Stalin supposedly jumping the gun on common federalism-related issues would be flagged, formally or otherwise.

However, there is no talk in the Opposition corridors about the convening of the second meeting of the JAC as yet.

It is also still debatable/contestable if the chief minister, who is among the long-serving politicians in the country, should have 'politicised' the high office of the President and the institution of 'presidential reference'.

Here again, the response seems to be that it was the ruling BJP that began it, and the ruling party in the state would be failing in its duty if it did not bring it to the notice of the people, early on.

The reasons may not be far to seek. Months ahead of the Jallikattu protests of mid-January 2017, the Centre was seen cocking a snook at Tamil Nadu and its people over the 'Cauvery water dispute'.

After having taken up the role of the enforcing authority and moderating force in the Cauvery water dispute and thus presenting its views before the Supreme Court whenever one of the aggrieved parties had a complaint against the other(s), the Modi Centre did a U-turn, and literally overnight.

On a day in October 2016, the Centre submitted before the Supreme Court that under the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, the higher judiciary did not have powers under the law once a matter like the Cauvery water issue had been referred to a tribunal, constituted by the Centre.

It was exactly the opposite of what the Centre had implied through its submissions/arguments until the previous day -- and literally so. The whole of Tamil Nadu was enraged.

The people were also convinced that the Centre's U-turn owed to the Karnataka state assembly elections that were due one-and-a-half year later, in May 2018.

It was the trigger-point for a new generation of Tamil youth, who were distanced from the past of their parental and grandparental generation, and were gainfully employed in the high-paying IT-ITES in urban centres like Chennai and those outside the state and country.

They felt cheated and saw the Centre's U-turn on their face. They could now relate to the past 'insults' by the then Congress Centre on 'Hindi imposition', Centre-state relations, etc.

The Jallikattu protest was born without any aid or assistance of any political parties, which was not the case with the anti-Hindi agitations of the mid-sixties.

If anything, the faceless protest leaders who gathered over a million people effortlessly on the beach sands of Chennai's Marina for days in a row, just through SMS messages, would not allow any politician to be seen in the crowd. However, lower-level politicians did participate in the protests that spread to every town and village within the first couple of days.

Now, thus, ahead of the Tamil Nadu assembly elections next year, the politics, if any, surrounding the presidential reference, may define the course of rival campaigns in the weeks and months to come -- though it may not be the only clincher.

So could be the Supreme Court's opinion offered to the President after long hearings.

Customarily, the views of states and other interested parties are also obtained and some of their counsel are also allowed personal submissions, intervention and participation.

Of course, the attorney general as a Constitutional authority and counsel for the Union of India, and occasionally that of the President's Office, are also invariably parties to the court proceedings, either on their own behalf or representing central authorities concerned.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and author, is a Chennai-based policy analyst and political commentator.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
'Munir hopes to solidify his hold on power.'

IMAGE: Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff General -- soon to be field marshal -- Asim Munir (with mic) during his visit to the Tilla field firing ranges in Mangla, May 21, 2025. Photograph: Inter-Services Public Relations/Handout via Reuters

Asim Munir is the second general to be elevated to field marshal in Pakistan.

Field marshal is the highest military rank conferred for exceptional leadership, especially during war. It is largely a ceremonial rank with five stars.

Ayub Khan was Pakistan's first field marshal. He conferred the rank on himself in 1959, a year after overthrowing the president in a military coup.

He went on to rule Pakistan for 10 years.

Pakistan has been under martial law four times since Partition.

What lies behind Asim Munir's sudden elevation by Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif's cabinet?

What is the extent of Munir's grand ambition after securing a three year extension as army chief by a parliamentary amendment in November 2024?

"Munir already enjoys all the trappings of power, and he is back on the front foot after a long period of difficulty. Declaring formal military rule would have reputational costs, and potentially deleteriously economic implications, that Munir and the military would much rather avoid," says Dr Michael Kugelman, an expert on Pakistan, tells Rediff's Archana Masih.

What is the reason behind General Asim Munir's sudden elevation as field marshal?

To understand the reason, one must know who was behind the elevation -- Munir himself, or the civilian leadership.

I suspect it was the latter, in an effort to play up Pakistan's achievements and bolster the notion of victory during the recent conflict with India.

In essence, it's about signalling that the victory must have been especially great given that Munir was given the unusual honour of a promotion like this.

What is the extent of Munir's ambition? What hopes does he harbour?

His ambition appears to be tied to aspirations of longevity. Already, legislation has been passed that extends the chief of army staff's term from 3 to 5 years.

Munir likely hopes to solidify his hold on power, and especially after having had a very rocky first few years as army chief.

It's never too early to think about legacy issues, after all.

One of the unknowns at this point is if he goes the route of Qamar Javed Bajwa and others and looks for an extension, or if he goes the route of Raheel Sharif and is OK with just a single term.

Either way, if the new legislation is honoured, he could be in power for five years at the least. And that would give him time to try to rehabilitate his image -- something that will be tough, even after the boost he got from the recent conflict with India.

IMAGE: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, centre, along with Asim Munir, left, reviews the parade at the passing out ceremony of the 151st Long Course at the Pakistan military academy, Kakul, Abbottabad, April 26, 2025. Photograph: Press Information Department / Handout via Reuters

Is Pakistan headed for another period of martial rule and another military dictator?

I don't anticipate any change in status to the current set up.

Munir already enjoys all the trappings of power, and he is back on the front foot -- for now -- after a long period of difficulty.

Declaring formal military rule would have reputational costs, and potentially deleteriously economic implications, that Munir and the military would much rather avoid.

How is this elevation likely to be viewed within the Pakistan army and the people of Pakistan?

For those concerned about the lack of checks on power in Pakistan -- and by extension concerned about the limitations of democracy -- this move won't go down well.

And these days, plenty of people in Pakistan are unhappy about democracy's struggles.

As for views within the army, that would depend on what level of consultation or buy-in there was from other senior officers.

If that buy-in wasn't sought or secured, there may well be some ruffled feathers.

Is there going to be a backlash by the large number of Imran Khan supporters? Does Imran's release from prison become even more difficult now?

I would say that irrespective of the field marshal promotion issue, Munir and the broader military will be emboldened by the events of recent days, and the surge of goodwill flowing to the armed forces, and they'll double down on the policies that have made them unpopular.

And that includes the clampdown on the PTI (Imran Khan's political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf) and the continued imprisonment of Khan.

I would think Khan's chances of getting released so long as Munir remains in his post remain quite low. But then again given the unpredictabilities of Pakistani politics, who knows?

IMAGE: Asim Munir posters in Karachi, May 20, 2025. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

Who do you think Munir will appoint as army chief after his tenure ends in 2027? What role will he don after 2027 as the rank of field marshal will essentially be a ceremonial rank post-retirement?

Well, we don't know for sure that Munir won't receive an extension after 2027. Extensions have become the norm in Pakistan's recent history.

Raheel Sharif was the outlier. With Munir, much will depend on how he feels about the legacy issue by the time the end of his term comes around -- and how he feels it can best be burnished.

If he's unpopular again, would he feel that he can change that for the better with a second term? Or better to step away before things get worse?

That said, another perspective is that with the field marshal promotion, he has no more reason to stick around beyond a single term given that he's achieved the highest level possible on the military hierarchy.

Is there a past Munir is trying to emulate?

Given that Ayub Khan is the only other Pakistani to receive the promotion to field marshal, he's the one that naturally comes to mind.

But he's a far different figure than Munir. On the whole, it's hard to imagine who Munir may be trying to emulate, given that he is quite different from so many of his predecessors, given the religiosity factor and his lack of Westernisation.

Ultimately, he may simply be trying to chart his own unique path, with no intentions of aligning himself with any of his predecessors.

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
'Had this conflict gone on at the pace that it was continuing, the use of ground forces would have been inevitable.'

IMAGE: Indian Army soldiers keep vigil at the Line of Control in Poonch, May 20, 2025, from where they destroyed Pakistani posts and terrorist camps across the LoC during Operation Sindoor. Photograph: ANI Photo

While United States President Donald Trump has been patting himself for negotiating a cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, New Delhi has reiterated that Operation Sindoor is not over yet.

In his address to the nation on May 13, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid out a new doctrine for responding to terrorism and said India will no longer differentiate between terrorists and the government sponsoring terrorism.

Modi declared that Operation Sindoor is the 'new normal' and India will give a befitting response to any terror attack by targeting terror havens in Pakistan.

How long then will the tense peace on the India-Pakistan border last?

"If there were to be peace, then the entire justification for the Pakistan army in its current form goes away," C Christine Fair, who has written multiple books on the Pakistan army and terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, tells Rediff's Utkarsh Mishra.

The first of a two-part interview:

Prime Minister Modi told the nation that India will no longer see Pakistan's establishment and the terror emanating from its soil as separate.

He also stated that, for lasting peace, Pakistan must dismantle its terror infrastructure.

As someone who has closely studied why the Pakistan army and affiliated terror groups wage war against India, what do you think will be the impact of this new doctrine?

I don't think the doctrine is going to have much impact for a couple of reasons.

One, it's one thing to say that you're not going to distinguish between terrorists and the Pakistan army that supports them, but what we can actually see from the conflict that we're just coming out of -- and hopefully there's not going to be a resumption of conflict -- was that when India struck targets in the Punjab, it didn't have control of the escalation ladder.

It didn't have escalation dominance as it had expected. And Pakistan, as any analyst of the region would have told you, was going to respond in kind.

As this crisis escalated faster than any previous crisis, both went to the United States seeking a way out. It's not clear who came first, and I'm not sure that it matters who went first. The point of the matter is both sought an exit ramp from a conflict that was no longer in either's control.

Regarding Pakistan shutting down the terror camps, that's also not going to happen.

As I've said at length, and I am kind of tired of saying, both Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayiba are really important tools of statecraft to the Pakistani State, which is, of course, dominated by the Pakistan army.

You are saying that it is not clear who went to the United States first. Over the past few days, the Pakistan army has made big claims of victory, including downing of multiple Indian fighter jets...

And they did. To be very clear, they probably did.

But several analysts have pointed out that since they agreed to a ceasefire unconditionally, it's a sign that their losses are significant and claims of victories are not true.

The people who are saying that are ignoramuses, and they don't understand conflict spirals.

Both countries have nuclear weapons. There's a point at which the use of nuclear weapons becomes dangerously probable.

Had this conflict gone on at the pace that it was continuing, the use of ground forces would have been inevitable. And this would have been an enormously escalatory point.

IMAGE: An Indian Army soldier looks through a spotting scope across the LoC following Operation Sindoor, in Poonch, May 21, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

In your book on the Pakistan army, you highlight how it is an ideologically driven institution.

In fact, after the recent hostilities, the Pakistan army called its operation 'Marka-e-Haq'.

General Asim Munir also made some pointed remarks a few days ago.

Don't you think we often ignore this ideological bent when talking about peace between India and Pakistan -- that Pakistan's army will never allow peace due to its ideological commitment to conflict with India?

Well, that's why I wrote the book (laughs).

Because it's not in their material or their ideological interest for there to be peace between India and Pakistan.

If there were to be peace, then the entire justification for the Pakistan army in its current form goes away.

They wouldn't be able to be at the size that they are, they wouldn't be able to hog the resources as they do, and they wouldn't be able to control the State as they do.

The Pakistan army is ideologically but also materially vested in a conflict with India.

There are some really good examples of peacemaking that the Pakistan army had sabotaged.

Nawaz Sharif and (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee were on a process of peacemaking, and (Pervez) Musharraf sabotaged it with Kargil.

Whenever the prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet, you can count the days before there's a pretty significant terrorist attack in India.

I think I'm on a pretty solid empirical grounds when I say that the Pakistan army is very much vested in conflict. And when there does appear to be any modicum of rapprochement, they sabotage it.

SEE: Former US NSA John Bolton: 'Trump being Trump' Video: ANI
He lit his father's pyre 19 months ago.

On Thursday, he watched as his mother received the Kirti Chakra from President Droupadi Murmu for his father who died fighting terrorists in Kashmir.

And yet young Kabir harbours the hope -- one day Col Manpreet Singh will return home.

IMAGE: Son of Colonel Manpreet Singh salutes his father's mortal remains at his residence, in Mohali on September 15, 2023. Col Singh lost his life in the Anatnag encounter. Photograph: ANI Photo

Oscillating between acceptance and denial, too young perhaps to grasp the reality of his life and too old to completely disregard it, Kabir clutched on to his mother Jagmeet's hand tightly after the ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan and said, "Thank you Papa for this honour."

He also said, "Ab papa wapis aayenge, mission khatam hoga ab (Now Papa will come back, the mission is over now)."

The belief somewhere that the award -- the second highest gallantry award after Ashok Chakra -- means his father is alive and well somewhere.

Recounting the conversation, his mother Jagmeet Singh told PTI that it has been a difficult time for the family and for her children, 10-year-old Kabir and five-year-old Vaani. Her children, she said, are not yet ready to take on the harsh truth.

"He sacrificed his life for the country and it is indeed a proud moment for us as a family. But it is definitely difficult to explain to my children," she said, her son's statements bringing both tears and smiles.

The president presented the award to Jagmeet and her mother-in-law Manjeet Kaur.

After his father's death, Kabir would send voice messages on his mobile, pleading with him to come back or at least make a video call to him.

He would try and whisper so his mother wouldn't hear, Jagmeet, who lives in Panchkula, said.

Colonel Singh was killed along with three other security personnel during a joint operation on September 13, 2023 following a fierce gunbattle with terrorists in the forests surrounding Gadool village of Kokernag in south Kashmir.

The others gunned down were Major Aashish Dhonchak, Jammu and Kashmir Police Deputy Superintendent Humanyun Bhat and Sepoy Pardeep Singh.

While Bhat was awarded the Kirti Chakra, Colonel Singh and Major Dhonchak got the Shaurya Chakra.

The Gadool encounter was an eye-opener for security forces. It gave them a sense of the dominance of terrorists along the higher reaches in south Kashmir, which acts as a gateway between Kashmir and Kishtwar area in Jammu region. Col Singh, commanding officer of the 19 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) unit, also served in terrorism-hit areas of Larkipora, Zaldoora and Kokernag in the Valley's Anantnag district.

Jagmeet remembered her last conversation with him. It lasted just 32 seconds.

"Operation mein hoon (I am in an operation), I never heard from him after that," she said.

President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday conferred six Kirti Chakras, including four posthumously, to personnel of the Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police for displaying indomitable courage and extraordinary valour in the line of duty.

Kirti Chakra is India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award.

Col Manpreet Singh of the Sikh Light Infantry, two other army personnel from the Rashtriya Rifles and a Jammu and Kashmir Police officer have been conferred the Kirti Chakra posthumously, according to the list of awardees shared by the government.

President Murmu, who is the Supreme Commander of the armed forces, also presented 33 Shaurya Chakras, including seven posthumously, to the personnel of the armed forces, Central Armed Police Forces and state/Union Territory police during a defence investiture ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Maj Malla Rama Gopal Naidu of the Maratha Light Infantry, 56 Rashtriya Rifles, and Major Manjit of the Punjab Regiment, 22 Rashtriya Rifles, received Kirti Chakra.

Rifleman Ravi Kumar, the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, 63 Rashtriya Rifles; Colonel Manpreet Singh, of the Sikh Light Infantry, 19 Rashtriya Rifles; Naik Dilwar Khan, the Regiment of Artillery, 28 Rashtriya Rifles; and Deputy Superintendent of Police Himayun Muzzammil Bhat of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were conferred India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award posthumously.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan later also shared pictures from the ceremony on its official X handle.

"President Droupadi Murmu conferred Shaurya Chakra upon Squadron Leader Deepak Kumar, Flying (Pilot). His undaunted courageous decision in a life-threatening situation to force land the aircraft on a dark night ensured the safety of a valuable national asset and precluded a probable loss of lives," it said in a post.
India expects Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism, said ministry of external affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal during the weekly briefing on Thursday.

IMAGE: Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. Photograph: ANI Photo

"We expect Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades. Relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other's concerns," Jaiswal stated.

MEA spokesperson mentioned that the Celebi matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy.

"Celebi matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy here. But I understand that this particular decision was taken by the civil aviation security," he said.

Turkish ground handling firm Celebi Airport Services whose clearance for ground handling at various Indian Airports were recently revoked by the Bureau of Civil Aviation.

Meanwhile, Celebi Airport Services India Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of Turkish firm Celebi Aviation, has filed a plea in the Delhi High Court against the Indian government's decision to revoke its security clearance, citing national security concerns.

The company, which provides airport ground handling services across India, argued that the move will jeopardise thousands of jobs and threatens investor confidence.

The revocation reportedly stems from growing concerns over Turkey's support to Pakistan in the India-Pakistan conflict. However, Celebi maintains that its operations in India are independent and professionally governed, distancing itself from any political affiliations.

In response to the Pahalgam attack, Indian Armed Forces launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

Following the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across airbases in Pakistan.

During the press briefing on May 9, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi revealed that 300 to 400 drones were deployed across 36 locations, with several being shot down by Indian forces using both kinetic and non-kinetic methods. Initial investigations suggest the drones were Turkish-made Asisguard Songar models.

On May 10, India and Pakistan reached an understanding on the cessation of hostilities.
Their shared brief: To assert India's case with clarity, rebut hostile narratives, and secure enduring partnerships for global counter-terror cooperation.

IMAGE: A Border Security Force personnel stands guard during a demonstration on how the BSF foiled a major infiltration bid in the Samba sector during Operation Sindoor. Photograph: ANI Photo

India is mounting a comprehensive diplomatic campaign to counter global misinformation and reiterate its zero-tolerance stance on terrorism.

Following the brutal April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 -- its most extensive cross-border strike since Balakot -- targeting terror infrastructure across the Line of Control.

To build global consensus and communicate the rationale behind Operation Sindoor, India plans to dispatch seven bipartisan delegations comprising 59 individuals -- including MPs, former ministers, diplomats, and public figures -- to over 32 nations.

Operating under the theme 'One Mission, One Message, One Bharat,' these delegations aim to frame India's response not as communal retaliation but as a measured act of national security.

Their mission is to explain the strategic necessity of the strikes, counter Pakistani propaganda, and urge international action against transnational terrorism and its funding networks.

The first of these delegations that left India on Wednesday, led by BJP National Vice-President Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, will tour Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Algeria.

Baijayant 'Jay' Panda

IMAGE: Baijayant Panda. Photograph: ANI Photo/SansadTV

A technocrat-turned-politician, Panda began his political career in 2000 with Odisha's Biju Janata Dal, representing the Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency. In 2018, he resigned from the BJD, citing 'irreconcilable ideological differences', and joined the BJP in 2019.

As delegation leader, Panda's agenda includes strengthening energy partnerships and mobilising Gulf support for India's United Nations Security Council bid. Analysts view his appointment as a nod to his diplomatic acumen, though Opposition leaders caution against 'mixing corporate interests with national security'.

Nishikant Dubey

IMAGE: Nishikant Dubey. Photograph: Sanjay Sharma/ANI Photo

A three-term BJP MP from Jharkhand's Godda constituency, Dubey, a lawyer by training, entered politics in 2009. Known for shooting off his mouth -- remember his fracas with the TMC's Mahua Moitra and the more recent criticism of the Supreme Court for exceeding its brief? -- Dubey is nevertheless expected to add heft to the BJP's global outreach.

Phangnon Konyak

IMAGE: Phangnon Konyak. Photograph: Jitender Gupta/ANI Photo

The first woman Rajya Sabha MP from Nagaland in 2022, nominated by the BJP as part of its North East outreach. A member of the Konyak tribe, she transitioned from grassroots activism -- advocating for women's rights and tribal welfare -- to national politics.

Rekha Sharma

IMAGE: Rekha Sharma. Photograph: ANI Photo/Sansad TV

Before being elected to the Rajya Sabha from the BJP, Rekha Sharma served as chairperson of the National Commission for Women from 2018 to 2024.

Asaduddin Owaisi

IMAGE: Asaduddin Owaisi. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo

After the Pahalgam attack, the AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP has called for Pakistan's terror infrastructure to be dismantled and urging global action against The Resistance Front, the terror outfit responsible for the Pahalgam terror attack.

His inclusion in delegations to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Algeria is strategic -- signalling that India's response targets terrorism, not Islam.

Satnam Singh Sandhu

IMAGE: Satnam Singh Sandhu. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Satnamsandhuchd/Instagram/

Satnam Singh Sandhu, a nominated Rajya Sabha MP and Chandigarh University founder, is a vocal BJP educationist.

Sandhu recently rescued five Punjabi youth in Colombia, cut ties with 23 Turkish and Azerbaijani universities over their Pakistan support.

Ghulam Nabi Azad

IMAGE: Ghulam Nabi Azad. Photograph: Imran Nissar/ANI Photo

Following the Pahalgam attack, the former Union minister commended the spontaneous public protests by Kashmiris against terrorism, noting an unprecedented anti-terror sentiment among local Muslims.

Azad's inclusion in the Operation Sindoor delegation underscores his continued relevance in national affairs, particularly in advocating India's stance against terrorism.

Ambassador Harsh Singla

IMAGE: Ambassador Harsh Singla. Photograph: ANI Photo

A 1984 batch IFS officer, Shringla has served as ambassador to the US, high commissioner to Bangladesh, India's envoy to Thailand.

As foreign secretary (2020-2022), he played a central role in navigating India's diplomacy through the COVID-9 pandemic, the border standoff with China, and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

As India seeks to explain the rationale behind its counter-terrorist operation post-Pahalgam, Shringla's stature and credibility lend gravity to the country's strategic communication.

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to an accused in the 2022 murder of RSS leader Srinivasan in Kerala's Palakkad district.

IMAGE: A PFI march in Kerala. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan granted bail to Abdul Sathar, then secretary general of PFI's Kerala unit, and said as far as the assassination of Srinivasan is concerned, there is no direct role attributed to him.

"You cannot put someone in jail for their ideology. This is the trend we find. It is because they have adopted a particular ideology, they are put in jail," the bench told the counsel appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The Kerala high court on June 25, 2024, granted bail to 17 accused PFI members, who are also facing trial for allegedly instigating communal violence in the state and other parts of the country.

Granting bail to 17 of the 26 accused, the high court imposed stringent conditions, which included sharing their cellphone numbers and real-time GPS locations with the investigating officer.

On December 19, 2022, the Centre, referring to Srinivasan's death, opined there was a larger conspiracy hatched by the leaders of the PFI "which has grave national and international ramifications" that needed to be "thoroughly investigated to unearth the wider conspiracy and to identify the other accused".

The Centre had directed the NIA to take up the probe in the murder case as well, and the agency filed its consolidated charge sheet in 2023 with two supplementary chargesheets later.
The Supreme Court's Thursday rebuke of the Enforcement Directorate for "crossing all limits" only adds to the tally of critical observations of courts on the "misuse" of the agency's powers.

IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench headed by Chief Justice B R Gavai made the critical remark and staying the money laundering probe against Tamil Nadu-run liquor retailer TASMAC in case of the illegal grant of wine shop licences.

"Your ED is crossing all limits," the CJI said Thursday.

Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation moved the top court against ED raids on the state-run liquor retailer.

The CJI went on, "The Enforcement Directorate is violating the federal concept (of governance)."

On April 11, a different bench headed by Justice AS Oka didn't mince words and chided the federal agency, which sought the transfer of the Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam case from Chhattisgarh to New Delhi.

ED should also think of the fundamental rights of accused as well, the bench said.

While hearing two bail pleas in the alleged Rs 2,000 crore liquor scam in Chhattisgarh, Justice Oka's bench observed,

You (ED) are virtually penalising person by keeping him in custody."

"Investigation will go at its own speed. It will go on till eternity. Three chargesheets have been filed. You are virtually penalising the person by keeping him in custody. You have made the process a punishment. This is not some case of terrorist or triple murder," it said.

In February, the top court pulled up the ED for using PMLA to keep a former excise officer incarcerated and asked if the provision was "being misused" like the dowry law.

On another occasion, the top court called out ED's "high handedness" and "inhuman conduct" over a 15-hour long interrogation of former Haryana Congress MLA which it noted had gone on past midnight.

Hearing a bail application of a woman in another case of money laundering, the apex court said the ED made arguments "contrary to the provisions of PMLA" to oppose her plea.

"We will not tolerate conduct on the part of the Union of India to make submissions contrary to statute," it said.

A former IAS officer was summoned and arrested by the agency. The top court questioned the "tearing hurry" the ED had shown to carry out his action.

"This does not happen in the case of terrorism or serious offences in the IPC."

It underscored the low rate of conviction in money laundering cases and asked the ED to focus on quality of prosecution and evidence.

Referring to a statement made in Parliament, a three-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Ujjal Bhuyan had said the ED should do some scientific investigation to increase the conviction rate.

There are also instances of the high courts censuring the agency for its investigation methods.

On one occasion, the Bombay high court told the ED the right to sleep was a basic human requirement and couldn't be violated for recording statements overnight.

In a separate case, the Bombay High Court cautioned the ED against harassing citizens and taking the law into its own hands.

In November, 2024, the Punjab and Haryana high court called the agency's probe "slipshod and unprofessional" and asked the ED director to explain the lapses.

Trial courts too have expressed displeasure over ED's probe at times.

ED overreached its powers by recording statements of doctors at private hospitals under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 without any evidence of their involvement in money laundering activities, a trial court said in a case.

On February 12, a SC bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the bail plea of Arun Pati Tripathi, a former excise officer from Chhattisgarh. The bench granted him bail, wondering how he was in custody despite the high court concerned quashing the order on cognisance of the complaint.

"The concept of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) cannot be that a person should remain in jail. If the tendency is to keep the person in jail, even after cognisance is quashed, what can be said? See what happened in 498A cases, PMLA also being misused like that?" it asked.

Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code protects married women from cruelty by their husbands and their relatives.

When the ED counsel opposed the bail plea and said crooks could not get away on technical grounds, the bench said, "It is shocking that the ED knows the cognisance was quashed, yet this was suppressed. We should summon the officers. The ED must come clean."

"What kind of signals are we giving? Order taking cognisance is quashed and the person is in custody," it added.

Tripathi, a former Indian Telecom Services officer, had challenged a Chhattisgarh High Court order denying him bail in connection with a high-profile liquor scam in the state.
Underlining that terrorism doesn't distinguish and impacts everybody, foreign secretary Vikram Misri on Thursday said that it was important not to equate the victim and the perpetrator of terror attacks.

IMAGE: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri delivers the Spotlight address at the Inaugural Session of Raisina Tokyo 2025, in Tokyo, May 22, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

Speaking at Raisina Tokyo 2025 in Tokyo, Misri appreciated the support extended to India by Japan following the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 that killed 26 people.

"India is deeply appreciative of the support that is being extended by Japan, as we have dealt with the tragedy that took place on the 22nd of April in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir in India," he said.

"While I welcome these statements, I also want to note for everybody's consideration that as we deal with the scourge that is terrorism that doesn't distinguish and that impacts everybody in the world from time to time, it is important that we don't equate the victim and the perpetrator of these attacks," he said.

His comments came against the backdrop of some Western countries hyphenating India and Pakistan in the context of their recent military confrontation.

In response to the Pahalgam attack, India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7, following which Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10.

The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions and attacked air bases.

India is sending multi-party delegations to world capitals to reach out to the international community on Pakistan's designs and India's response to terror.

Talking about the global economy, Misri said that after a smooth ride spanning decades, it is finding itself in somewhat uncharted waters with uncertainties at their highest in recent memory.

"First came the tremor of the COVID-19 pandemic. On its heels, came the supply chain aftershocks, wars and conflicts, big, middling and small followed, and amid all this, trade and technology are being weaponised as never before," he said.

In a turbulent world, India is determined to become a fact and a factor of stability, Misri said, adding that India's ability to maintain a stable macroeconomic outlook, demonstrate political and institutional stability, uphold democratic values, and contribute to global public good and multilateral problem-solving gives it both credibility and agency.

"Located at the geographic, demographic and economic heart of Asia, India's choices will have ever more important consequences for our continent and beyond in these tumultuous times," he added.

With a 1.4 billion strong population, India continues to be an attractive destination for global capital, he said.

India has made a strategic shift towards manufacturing-led growth to position itself as a vital node in global supply chains in recent years, Misri said, referring to 'The Make in India initiatives' which continue to foster investment in areas such as electronics, defence, pharmaceutical, and textiles manufacturing.

The Production Linked Incentive Scheme, covering 14 key sectors, is projected to attract $520 billion in investment, and counts over two dozen Japanese companies among its beneficiaries, he added.

As the fourth-largest vehicle producer in the world, India is accelerating its shift to electric vehicles through targeted policy support such as the FAME-II scheme and incentives for battery manufacturing, he said, adding that this is an opportunity to re-create the India-Japan success of Maruti-Suzuki in the new age.

To spur domestic and global capital, India has undertaken far-reaching reforms that foster a transparent, efficient, and predictable business environment, he said.

Noting that the Indian Railways is undergoing rapid modernization, he said Japan has been India's preferred partner in urban mobility.

He added that India plans to operate over 200 airports by 2040, supported by integrated logistics parks that improve last-mile freight movement.

With its strategic focus on manufacturing, digital empowerment, infrastructure, and global engagement, India is not only future-readyit is shaping that future, he said.

"As the world reconfigures supply chains and reinvents global collaboration to deal with turbulence, the Special Strategic and Global Partnership between India and Japan can emerge as one of the most significant relationships in the 21st century, not only for its economic promise but also for the close alignment on principles --- such as strengthening the rules-based order, strategic autonomy, and sustainable growth," he said.

He said India encourages Japanese businesses to diversify the trade basket with India by expanding into new sectors such as digital services, renewable energy, critical minerals and semiconductors.

"A broader trade engagement across sectors will not only unlock new business potential but also enhance economic stability, reduce over-dependence on concentrated markets, ensure supply chain resilience and strengthen long-term economic security for both India and Japan," he said.

He said both India and Japan are witnessing profound uncertainties as globalization enters a new phase, but India has the confidence to make it work for both countries.

"We believe we are fundamentally and structurally well-placed to navigate this phase in partnership with Japan, rather than in competition. The challenge before us  for governments and businesses alike --- is to wake up to these opportunities of a new day," he added.
Two Israeli embassy staff members were shot and killed on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, officials said.

IMAGE: A man, with an Israeli flag, kneels next to emergency personnel working at the site where, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, May 21, 2025. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC," US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X social media platform.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on Wednesday evening allegedly by a man, according to police.

Earlier, Law enforcement sources told CNN that two people were shot as they exited an event at the museum.

The shooting occurred at around 9:15 p.m. local time near an FBI office building on F Street, according to the news outlet.

IMAGE: Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Photograph: Courtesy @IsraelinUSA/X

Condoling the deaths of the two staffers, the Israeli Embassy in the US said in a post on X: 'Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.'

The Israeli ambassador was not involved in the incident and was not at the location when the shooting happened, an embassy spokesperson told CNN.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on social media that she and acting US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro have arrived at the scene of the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

According to CBS News, two people familiar with the investigation said a suspect believed to be the shooter is in custody. Two sources said the shooter yelled "free Palestine" prior to the shooting.

IMAGE: Emergency personnel work at the shooting site. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took to X to post, "Horrific act of terror that the people of Israel are waking up to this morning. AG Pam Bondi called to let me know and was at the scene. 2 dead in shooting targeting Israeli embassy staffers outside Jewish Museum in Washington DC."

Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also wrote in a social media post that the shooting occurred "outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum."

Danon wrote that two other Israeli Embassy employees were wounded in the shooting, but that number has not been confirmed by authorities.

"The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives - everywhere in the world," Danon posted on X.

IMAGE: US Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter visit the site. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Ben Williamson, an FBI spokesperson, posted to X that FBI personnel were responding to assist the Metropolitan Police Department with the situation.

"There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on X.

Spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington Tal Naim Cohen posted, "Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States."

India strongly condemned the incident with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar saying that the perpetrators of the crime must be brought to justice.

'Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC,' Jaishankar, who is on a visit to Germany, said in a social media post.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice,' he said.
Army chief Gen Asim Munir should have given himself the title of "king" instead of field marshal, as Pakistan is currently governed by the jungle law, jailed former premier Imran Khan said on Thursday.

IMAGE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in Islamabad, May 11, 2023. Photograph: ANI Photo

Gen Munir was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal on Tuesday for his role in the recent conflict with India, becoming the second top military officer in the country's history to be elevated to the position.

"MashaAllah, General Asim Munir has been made Field Marshal. Though frankly, it might have been more fitting to give him the title of 'King' instead because right now, the country is ruled by the law of the jungle. And in the jungle, there is only one king," Khan posted on X.

Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 in multiple cases, also said that rumours of a deal being made with him are entirely false. "No deal has taken place, nor is any dialogue underway. These are baseless lies."

He, however, openly invited the military establishment to have talks with him if it truly cared about Pakistan's interests and future.

"The country is facing external threats, a surge in terrorism, and an economic crisis. We must unite. I have never asked for anything for myself before, nor will I now," he said.

Khan also cautioned the Shehbaz Sharif government about India's another attack and said they must be prepared for any such situation.

He said Pakistan has been turned into a place where the law only applies to the weak, never the powerful.

"The ongoing situation reflects that the very spirit of democracy is being crushed. When you send the message that the bigger the thief, the higher the office they'll hold  you bury justice. The NAB still holds a case against (President) Asif Zardari's sister involving five apartments registered under employees' names. She is abroad, and no one dares question her. Shahbaz Sharif was accused in PKR 22-billion money laundering case, yet he was made Prime Minister," he said.

Khan further said that over the past three years, Pakistan's moral and constitutional framework has been utterly destroyed.

"A farcical trial has been resumed in the Toshakhana-II case. Just like in prison, court proceedings are dictated by the will of a single colonel. My sisters and lawyers are being barred from court; my companions are not allowed to meet me; I am denied contact with my children for months; even my books are not delivered, and I am denied access to my physician. This is a continued violation of court orders and laws," he said.

He said he received information about drone attacks carried out in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to officially lodge a protest with the federal government and take immediate steps to stop these drone strikes.

"The killing of innocent civilians in drone attacks does not reduce terrorism as it only fuels it further. After years of struggle, we had succeeded in halting American drone operations in Pakistan. If you claim to be against terrorism, then do not drop bombs on the homes of your own people," he added.
In 2024, Pakistan shelled out $10.2 billion in defence spends.

IMAGE: A Pakistani soldier salutes standing alongside an air defence missile system during the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad. Photograph: Saiyna Bashir/Reuters

Cash-strapped Pakistan may be a perennial borrower from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with average annual receipts of about a billion dollars in the last six years.

It received another $1 billion on Wednesday. But its spends on the military tend to run up 10 to 20 times the IMF loans it receives.

In 2024, the country received $1 billion under an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) worth $7 billion approved for disbursal over 37 months. The same year, it shelled out $10.2 billion in defence spends.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
India on Thursday once again asserted that the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan will remain in "abeyance" until Islamabad "credibly and irrevocably" abjures support to cross-border terrorism as "water and blood" cannot flow together.

IMAGE: An aerial view of the Indus River amid the snow-capped area of Ladakh. Photograph: ANI Photo

External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said that any bilateral talks with Islamabad will only be on the vacation of illegally occupied territories of Kashmir by Pakistan.

"You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral," he said in response to a question on US President Donald Trump showing interest in helping India and Pakistan in resolving the Kashmir issue.

"I would like to remind you that talks and terror don't go together," Jaiswal said.

"On terrorism itself, we are open to discussing the handing over to India of terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago," he said.

Jaiswal added: "I would like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu & Kashmir will only be on vacating of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan."

Asked about the Indus Waters Treaty, it will remain in abeyance till Islamabad stops supporting cross-border terrorism.

"It will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As our prime minister has said, 'Water and blood cannot flow together'," he added.

India on April 23 announced a raft of punitive measures against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.

The measures were announced a day after the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians.

India carried out precision strikes on nine terror infrastructures early on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10.

The Pakistani attempts were strongly responded to by the Indian side by inflicting heavy damages to a number of key Pakistani military installations including air bases, air defence systems, command and control centres and radar sites.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on May 10 announced that India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect.
The land on which a 100-year-old Shiv temple stands near Tando Jam town of Pakistan's Sindh province has illegally been occupied by grabbers who have begun construction around it, a Hindu community representative said on Thursday, appealing to the government to stop the illegal establishment.

Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters

"The temple is more than a century old, but these land grabbers have occupied and started illegal construction on the land surrounding the temple and obstructed the roads/entrances which lead to the Shiv Mandir," Shiva Kachhi, who heads the Darawar Ittehad Pakistan, said in a video released on social media.

The organisation represents the Hindu community in Pakistan.

Kachhi said a committee managed the Shiv Mandir and about four acres of land around the temple in the Musa Khatian village near Tando Jam, a town about 185 kilometres from Karachi, before land grabbers illegally occupied it.

The temple was last year renovated by a team of the Sindh Heritage Department owing to its historical significance, Kachhi said.

A cremation site for Hindus is also close to the temple where an annual religious ceremony is held, he said.

He said that Hindu community members in the area recite Bhajans at the temple every Monday.

"The powerful land mafia has occupied many swathes of land surrounding the temple and has already started construction around it."

Kachhi, who carries out welfare and legal aid work for the minority Hindu community in Sindh, appealed to the Pakistani government to stop the illegal construction around the temple.

He said there were many historical Hindu temples in Sindh, and it was the duty of the government to ensure their protection.
The ruling Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra has expelled a Pune district leader and his son after they were named in a dowry harassment and abetment to suicide case involving the former's daughter-in-law.

IMAGE: NCP leader Rajendra Hagawane. Photograph: Courtesy Facebook

Rajendra Hagawane and his son Sushil -- both currently absconding -- have been expelled from the party, said Pune district NCP chief Shivaji Garje in a statement on Thursday.

Party president and deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who was present at the wedding of Hagawane's other son Shashank -- now arrested --, said he has asked police to deploy additional teams, if necessary, to nab the father-son duo.

Rajendra Hagawane's daughter-in-law Vaishnavi (26) allegedly hanged herself on May 16 at her in-laws' house in the Bavdhan area of Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune district.

Her parents alleged they had given 51 tolas (595 gm) of gold, silver and an SUV to her husband's family at the time of marriage, but the Hagawane family harassed her yet, demanding she bring Rs 2 crore to purchase land.

A First Information Report was registered against her husband Shashank, mother-in-law Lata Rajendra Hagawane, Rajendra Hagawane, sister-in-law Karishma, and brother-in-law Sushil under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to abetment to suicide and domestic violence, the police said.

The police have arrested the husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law of the victim, while Rajendra and Sushil are on the run, said an official.

Maharashtra NCP youth wing president Suraj Chavan said the woman's death was a "blot on humanity".

"We condemn it and demand justice for Vaishnavi. Those responsible must face stringent action," he said.

Maharashtra Women's Commission chairperson Rupali Chakankar -- who belongs to the NCP -- said Vaishnavi's 10-month-old baby, currently with Hagawanes' relatives, would be handed over to her parents.

A photo from the couple's wedding, where Ajit Pawar is seen handing over the key of an SUV gifted to the couple (Vaishnavi and Shashank), surfaced on social media.

Speaking to reporters, Vaishnavi's maternal uncle Uttam Bahirat said it was a love match, opposed initially by her parents.

Shashank Hagawane and his family demanded dowry, including an expensive SUV, gold and a wristwatch worth over Rs 1 lakh, he alleged.

"Her parents had booked a vehicle, but Shashank demanded a more expensive one," Bahirat said.

Vaishnavi began facing physical and mental abuse within six months of the marriage in 2023, he said, adding, "She admitted to me that she regretted her decision (to marry Shashank)."

Speaking at a party event in Baramati, Ajit Pawar referred to the wedding of Vaishnavi and Shashank where he handed over the keys of an SUV to the couple.

He had asked the bride's father whether the car was being gifted willingly or under pressure from the groom's family, Pawar noted.

"You all invite me to weddings and I try to attend them. But if I attend the wedding of a party worker's son and he later mistreats his daughter-in-law, how am I to be held responsible? Did Ajit Pawar ask him to do that?" he asked.

"Immediately after learning about the incident, I called the Commissioner of Police, Pimpri Chinchwad and asked for strict action...Three teams have been formed to trace them (Rajendra and Sushil) and I have directed police to deploy more teams if needed," the deputy CM added.

The media was dragging his name into this matter for no reason, said the NCP president, who is also the guardian minister of Pune district.

At such weddings, he is often asked by the bride's father to hand over car keys or other gifts to the groom, Pawar maintained.

"I make it a point to ask whether the gift is being given willingly or under pressure. I had even warned that if a gift was demanded, I would not spare that person," he said.

Pawar said he had spoken to Vaishnavi's father, Anand Kaspate, and assured full support to the family.

Reacting strongly to the entire episode on Thursday, Maharashtra Legislative Council chairperson Neelam Gorhe sought strict punishment for those responsible for Vaishnavi's death.

"It is highly unfortunate Vaishali Hagawane's voice could not be reach society despite her sufferings for such a long period. Had her suffering reached us or some social organisations, Vaishali would have been alive today. The culprits behind her death should face severe punishment," she insisted.

"Family status, and pressure from her relatives, led to her sad demise. Deputy CM Eknath Shinde had given an assurance that government will remain behind firmly the Kaspate family," she said.

Gorhe said police have formed two teams to trace the absconding accused.

"I spoke with PCMC police commissioner. I am told the police have invoked relevant sections against the Hagawane family, including abatement to suicide. The way main culprits are on the run it raises doubts whether some political influence is being used to protect them," she said.

"The marks on Vaishali's body are revealing a lot about the abuse she faced. Campaigns should be undertaken to address issues like harassment and abuse at family level," Gorhe noted.

"Crime conviction rate of Maharashtra is merely 10 per cent. In crime against women, the conviction rate would be even lesser. I request Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to improve this rate," she said.

Reacting to the incident, Maharashtra Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal wondered if the NCP is a political outfit or a "gang of criminals".
For the first time, the Data Security Council of India assembled a joint task force to source threat intelligence at the origin and ensure coordinated action across the cybersecurity spectrum.

IMAGE: Indian Army personnel keep a vigil as they patrol the area along the Line of Control in Poonch, May 21, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo

Cyberattacks on Indian businesses spiked dramatically -- rising by up to three times -- following the launch of Operation Sindoor, according to industry estimates.

Yet, most organisations successfully repelled the onslaught with minimal breaches because of coordinated efforts between government agencies, industry bodies, and private cybersecurity firms.

For the first time, the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) -- a not-for-profit industry body for data protection -- assembled a joint task force of stakeholders including private sector players to source threat intelligence at the origin and ensure coordinated action across the cybersecurity spectrum.

This was activated in anticipation of retaliation to the military action against Pakistan-based terrorists, allowing real-time intelligence sharing about threat actors and swift response.

Setup by Nasscom, the DSCI engages with governments and their agencies, regulators, industry sectors, industry associations, and think-tanks for policy advocacy, capacity building, and outreach activities.

"This is the first time we saw concentrated support and information outreach from a variety of departmental organisations, as well as private companies. The DSCI created a task force where intel was shared on a regular basis about notorious actors, so threat profiles were constantly updated," said an industry source with knowledge of the matter.

A senior executive at a cybersecurity firm said: "A lot of information was being shared. Otherwise, we would have done what we normally do -- protect our clients, but from just one point of view."

"In this case, as many started sharing information, we began updating our threat profile and then the scenario changed," the executive said.

Kindly note the image have only been published for representational purposes. Photograph: Kind courtesy Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels

Amid heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) also issued a critical advisory warning of a sophisticated cyber threat campaign targeting organisations in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector.

Cybersecurity experts noted that while regulated industries ramped up efforts to detect disruptions, enterprises also took proactive steps.

Sundareshwar Krishnamurthy, partner and cybersecurity leader at PwC India, said organisations had taken a more proactive approach in responding to the threat.

"In response, organisations have implemented various measures including enhanced threat detection and remediation, heightened monitoring for better detection and improved communication between various internal and external stakeholders," Krishnamurthy said.

"Many have also conducted cyber-simulation drills and red team assessments to stress-test the resilience of their infrastructure," added Krishnamurthy.

Many conglomerates sent out internal communications warning employees about potential cyberattacks, including phishing attempts, while reinforcing the importance of secure networks.

Staff were also instructed to follow mandatory cybersecurity protocols.

'Avoid connecting to public or unsecured wi-fi networks (such as those belonging to hotels and airports) for work-related tasks. Instead, use your own mobile phone hotspot in such situations,' read one advisory from a major conglomerate, issued shortly after the India-Pakistan conflict began.

Employees were also urged to use only authorised and licensed software. Some firms instructed staff to conduct office-related work solely on mobile phones equipped with company-approved software.

T V Narendran, managing director and chief executive, Tata Steel, told Business Standard that the company had long prioritised cyber defences.

"Irrespective of this incident, we are constantly beefing up our cybersecurity, and we have been doing this for many years," he said.

Firms providing cybersecurity services added that clients and enterprises had also begun actively auditing vendor environments to assess their disaster recovery (DR) preparedness.

Kindly note the image have only been published for representational purposes. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

"We were asked to show how prepared we are if things break down. What was our Plan B? How will we be able to continue to offer our services? Every type of contingency was being checked. This is the first time that the intensity of physical audits was really high," said a senior executive of a security services provider firm.

That vigilance, the executive added, may have been key to maintaining operational stability.

"Yes, some government Web sites were down, but operationally, nothing major went offline," he said.

"What we've established this time around as a preparedness process, I think, needs to continue in the mainstream. My fear is that three or four months down the line, the focus may fade. This should not be a one-off. The geopolitical issues will not die down -- new ones will keep arising," said Pankit Desai, co-founder and CEO of Sequretek.

Another senior cybersecurity expert said hackers might have targeted government Web sites more this time, but future attacks could be on private enterprises.

"We're also seeing a lot of AI bot-led attacks, and that's what happened during this period," the expert said.

In a recent development, Maharashtra Cyber reportedly identified seven advanced persistent threat (APT) groups responsible for over 1.5 million cyberattacks on critical infrastructure Web sites across India following the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attacks, according to a PTI report.

Of these, only 150 attacks were successful -- reflecting a failure rate of 99.99 per cent, the report noted.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
On Thursday, May 22, 2025, the Dal Lake witnessed a tribute to the nation's heroes.

Shikarawallahs, local residents and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, participated in a Tiranga Shikara Yatra to honour soldiers who had taken part in Operation Sindoor.

Photographs: Umar Ganie for Rediff

Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff

Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff
Reliance Defence and Germany-based Rheinmetall have agreed on a 'strategic partnership' in the field of ammunition, officials on Thursday said.

Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo

An agreement to this effect has now been signed by the representatives of the Reliance Infrastructure Limited-promoted firm and Rheinmetall, based in Dusseldorf, according to an official statement.

'The collaboration between the companies will include supply of explosives and propellants for medium and large caliber ammunition to Rheinmetall by Reliance. Furthermore, the two companies intend to engage in joint marketing activities for selected products and are aiming to further extend their cooperation based on future opportunities,' it said.

In order to support this collaboration, Reliance Defence Limited will set up a greenfield manufacturing facility in the Watad Industrial Area of Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.

"The manufacturing facility, one of the largest in South Asia, will have an annual capacity to produce up to 200,000 artillery shells, 10,000 tons of explosives and 2,000 tons of propellants. This new facility will help Reliance Defence achieve its objective of amongst top three defence exporters in the country," the Reliance Group said in a statement.

This marks the third major partnership for Reliance Defence following its successful strategic alliances with Dassault Aviation and the Thales Group of France.

"Reliance Infrastructure Limited promoted Reliance Defence Limited (Reliance Defence) and Dusseldorf based Rheinmetall AG have agreed on a strategic partnership in the field of ammunition," it said.

The strategic partnership will strengthen India's defence manufacturing capabilities aligning with the government of India's flagship 'Make in India' and 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' initiatives. It advances Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to 'position India among the world's leading defence exporters', the statement said.

The cooperation gives Rheinmetall further access to important raw materials and secure not only its supply chains, also in the interests of its customers and also creates further growth opportunities, it added.

"In India, the new state-of-the-art facility will make a significant contribution to supplying the country's armed forces," the Indian firm said.

"This strategic partnership of Rheinmetall with Reliance Defence led by Anil Ambani's Reliance Group illustrates our strong commitment to partner with India under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi," Armin Papperger, the CEO of Rheinmetall AG, was quoted as saying in the statement.

"We are proud to partner with Rheinmetall AG, one of the world's most respected leaders in defence manufacturing, and to collaborate with visionary leader, Armin Papperger," said Ambani, the founder and chairman of Reliance Group.

"This strategic partnership brings cutting-edge capabilities to India, marking a transformational moment for country's private defence manufacturing sector," he added.

Ambani said this project marks a major step in the Reliance Group's long-term strategy to invest in the fast-growing defence manufacturing sector.

Reliance Defence Ltd recently announced plans to set up an integrated project for the manufacturing of explosives, ammunition and small arms under the Dhirubhai Ambani Defence City (DADC).

The DADC is being built in the Watad industrial area in Ratnagiri and once completed it will be the largest greenfield project in the defence sector ever developed by any private company in India, it said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Centre and the Indian Air Force not to release from service a woman officer, who was part of Operation Balakot and Operation Sindoor but was denied permanent commission.

IMAGE: The Supreme Court of India. Photograph: ANI Photo

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh sought responses from the Centre and the IAF on the plea of Wing Commander Nikita Pandey who claimed discrimination for being denied permanent commission.

The bench called IAF a professional force and said the uncertainty on service was not good for such officers.

"Our Air Force is one of the best organisations in the world. Officers are very commendable. Quality of coordination they have exhibited, I think it's unparalleled. Therefore, we always salute them. They are a big asset for the nation. They are the nation, in a way. Because of them, we are able to sleep at night," Justice Kant said.

The bench noted a 'tough life' for Short Service Commission (SSC) officers began following their recruitment, which called for some incentive after 10 or 15 years to grant them permanent commission.

"That sense of uncertainty may not be good for the Armed Forces. It's a layman's suggestion, because we are not experts. On minimum benchmarks, there can't be a compromise," Justice Kant said.

Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for the officer, said her client was an expert fighter controller, who participated as an expert in the Integrated Air Command and Control Systems (IACCS), which were deployed in Operation Sindoor and Operation Balakot.

The senior counsel submitted that the officer had served over 13.5 years in service but was impacted by a 2019 policy that denied her permanent commission and forced her to conclude her service after a month.

The officer ranked second in the merit list of expert air fighter controllers in the country, Guruswamy added.

The bench asked Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre and the IAF, the reason for not granting the officer permanent commission.

Bhati revealed she belonged to an armed forces background herself, therefore, being receptive of the predicament of such officers but argued that the petitioner was found unfit by the selection board.

She said the officer directly moved the apex court without filing any representation and informed the bench that a second selection board would be considering her case.

The bench ordered Pandey not to be released from service till further orders and posted the hearing on August 6.

The top court, however, said no equity would be created in her favour and left open all the contentions in the case.

Bhati had no objections in the officers continuing in service as most of the officers in the armed forces were brilliant officers but ultimate question related to the comparative merit and the need for keeping the forces young.

She said a 'steep pyramidal structure' was followed by IAF which requires that certain officers go out of the service after serving 14 years and new officers come in their place.

Justice Kant told Bhati that armed forces should have the capacity to accommodate all SSC officers in the permanent commission, highlighting women officers performed exceedingly well.

"Due to the lack of permanent commission for women officers after a long duration, Short Service Commission recruitment are taking place. That is the reason that inter se competition arises after 10, 12 and 15 years. You can have a policy of taking that many SCC officers, who can be accommodated in the Permanent Commission, if they are found suitable. If you have 100 SCC officers, you should have the capacity to take 100 of them to the permanent commission," the judge said.

Bhati replied that normally out of 100 officers considered for the permanent commission, almost 90-95 per cent officers were found fit but some lost out only on account of comparative merit.

"There are a limited number of posts, it's a very steep pyramid structure," she said.
Ghost camping has been reported across the country and was a key factor in the Victorian government's decision not to renew its free camping initiative.

Free camping will not be renewed in Victoria in July, it's been announced. Source: Parks Victoria

It was billed as a cost-of-living measure aimed at making holidaying domestically more affordable for Aussie families, but free camping in Victoria will not be renewed in July after the initiative was found to be of "no benefit" to regional communities and the local tourism economy.

Originally announced in October 2024, the state government scheme made camping free at all sites across Victoria. However it's since been plagued by issues, namely ghosting camping  a growing issue reported at campgrounds across the country  and by complaints of illegal rubbish dumping.

Nationals member for eastern Victoria, Melina Bath, whose electorate includes national park land has even branded the free camping initiative "systematically flawed" and said it "had been a disaster on a number of levels". Meanwhile national parks authorities have backed the end of free camping and endorsed a move towards a 50 per cent reduction in booking fees.

A camper who attended the Jamieson Creek Campground along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria in April said he was shocked to find it totally vacant, despite claiming it was fully booked on the Parks Victoria online booking system. "It was really strange as I was expecting it to be full... the only resident there was a wallaby in a fire pit eating someone's leftovers," camper Ross Edwards told Yahoo News Australia.

Ghost camping has seen prime spots around Victoria left vacant. Source: Tim Bull

Why didn't free camping quite work in Victoria?

Industry experts say the main problem with the program is the fact it was rolled out without any enforcement. Aussie couple Michelle and her husband Heatley, who own a free camping guide app, criticised the lack of management involved in the free camping policy.

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"If youre going to introduce a new policy, then you need to manage it. They can't just put their hands up without an answer [to ghost booking] and say it's not their responsibility," they told Yahoo recently. "There needs to be boots on the ground to have it managed effectively and address ghost bookings. Otherwise, they arent achieving the desired outcome at all."

Caravan and Residential Parks Victoria chief executive Scott Parker agrees, saying the unfortunate outcome over the summer months was foreseeable.

"And it was clearly communicated by the association to the government during the policy's implementation," he said. "It was contrary to the principles of the government's own competitive neutrality policy," he told the ABC this week as the state government announced the policy would not continue.

Victorian National Parks Association executive director Matt Ruchel also told the national broadcaster that the free camping initiative had created problems for the local industry. "The fact that people are paying a fee means that they're more likely to turn up," he said.

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In this week's budget, the Victorian government announced the reinstatement of half-price camping at Parks Victorias 131 paid, government-run campgrounds, running from July through until June 2027.

A camper said there was 'not a soul' at the campground when they arrived. Source: Ross Edwards

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United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his claim that he "settled" the recent conflict between India and Pakistan through "trade".

IMAGE: US President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, May 21, 2025. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

"If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade," Trump said in remarks in the Oval Office during a meeting with visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He said the US is doing a "big deal" with both India and Pakistan.

"And I said, 'What are you guys doing?', Trump said.

"Somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries. And we spoke to them, and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled, and then two days later, something happens, and they say it's Trump's fault.

"But... Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good, great leader. And India is my friend, Modi," Trump said to which the South African president replied "Modi, mutual friend".

"He's a Great guy and I called them both. It's something good," Trump said.

The US President has been repeatedly claiming that he "helped settle" the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India carried out precision strikes under 'Operation Sindoor' on terror infrastructure early on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10. The Indian forces launched a fierce counter-attack on several Pakistani military installations.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the military confrontation after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

On May 10, Trump had announced that India and Pakistan agreed to a full and immediate ceasefire after a long night of talks mediated by Washington.
Jailed YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra had been in contact with a Pakistani officer since 2023, police revealed on Wednesday.

IMAGE: YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra is among 12 people who have been arrested on charges of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India. Photograph: Travel with JO on Facebook

Malhotra, behind bars on suspicion of espionage, had been in touch with Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, the Pakistani staffer at the Pakistani High Commission, since November 2023, a source said.

Danish was expelled by India on May 13 for allegedly indulging in espionage.

Police have sent Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop for forensic examination, the person said.

The National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, and military intelligence officials have questioned Jyoti.

So far, it's been revealed that she had visited Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, and some other countries.

The 33-year-old Hisar native ran a YouTube channel 'Travel with JO' and was arrested from the New Aggarsain Extension last week.

She was booked under sections of the Official Secrets Act and the Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita, police said.

Malhotra is among 12 people who have been arrested from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the past two weeks on charges of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India.

Police had earlier said Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs) were developing Malhotra as an asset.

She was also allegedly in touch with Danish during the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan that followed the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, police said.

Malhotra, whose YouTube channel has at present 3.87 lakh subscribers, came in contact with Danish at the Pakistan High Commission in 2023, when she went there seeking a visa.

According to investigations, PIOs were trying to recruit some social media influencers in India to push their narrative.

Meanwhile, Hisar police on Wednesday said they had seized three mobile phones, a laptop and some other electronic devices from Malhotra.

A resident of Kurukshetra, who provides visa consultancy services, was also recently questioned by police in connection with the investigation. Police said they seized two mobile phones from him.

Police said no evidence has yet emerged that indicates that Malhotra had access to any military- or defence-related information.

Malhotra's four bank accounts are also being analysed, they said.

No proof has also yet come to light regarding Malhotra's marriage with any PIO or conversion to another religion.

Meanwhile, YouTuber Navankur Chaudhary, another person under scrutiny for espionage, has said that he was ready to fully cooperate with any investigation agency and asserted that a fake narrative was being spread against him.

Chaudhary, who hails from Rohtak, has also claimed that Malhotra had met him as a fan at an event at Pakistan High Commission.

"I did not know Jyoti personally before that day. I had never met her earlier," he said.

In a video on X, Chaudhary, who runs the YouTube channel 'Yatri Doctor', said he has visited Pakistan just once.

His father said on Wednesday, "A media trial is going on. Our entire family is going through a tough time. I am a bank employee, but have been unable to attend office due to this. Both me and his (Navankur) mother have not had food for the past two days."

The man added, "So far, he has visited 144 countries and his objective is to visit the entire world and he visited Pakistan once. At present, he is in Ireland.
A court in Hisar on Thursday extended the police remand of content creator and social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra by four days, a police spokesperson said.

IMAGE: Police said that no evidence had emerged to indicate Jyoti Malhotra had access to any military or defence-related information. Photograph: Travel with JO on Facebook

The 33-year-old YouTuber -- arrested on suspicion of espionage -- was produced before the court at the end of her five-day police remand.

Malhotra was among the 12 people arrested from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the past two weeks on suspicion of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India.

The Hisar native ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension last week and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Hisar police said on Wednesday that no evidence had emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military or defence-related information.

But she was definitely in contact with some people, knowing that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives, they had said.

Police sources had said she was in touch with Ehsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish, a staffer at the Pakistani high commission, since November 2023.

India expelled Danish on May 13 for allegedly indulging in espionage.

The police have sent Malhotra's three mobile phones and a laptop for forensic examination. Malhotra's four bank accounts are also being analysed.

The National Investigation Agency, Intelligence Bureau, and military intelligence officials have also questioned Malhotra.

Investigations have revealed that she visited Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, and some other countries.

The police had said Pakistani intelligence operatives were developing Malhotra as an asset.

She was also allegedly in touch with Danish during the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan that followed the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, they had said.
IMAGE: President Donald Trump hands over to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, May 21, 2025. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

US President Donald Trump, during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with unsubstantiated claims that white South Africans -- particularly Afrikaner farmers -- are being systematically murdered.

Trump's administration recently allowed Afrikaner farmers expedited access to refugee status and US citizenship, despite limited evidence supporting claims of targeted violence.

This policy shift contrasts with the administration's generally strict stance on immigration.

Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist and freedom fighter, responded to Trump's claims at their meeting in the Oval Office diplomatically, countering Trump's assertions.

As per The Hill newspaper, at the meeting, Trump played a nearly four-minute video, reportedly shared by Afrikaner advocacy groups, which included inflammatory clips of Julius Malema, leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters party and cited him as a major threat and suggested Ramaphosa should have him arrested for inciting violence.

Malema was expelled from the African National Congress years ago.

IMAGE: Trump and Ramaphosa during the meeting. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Trump claimed that white farmers are having their land seized and are being killed, presenting news clippings he said proved escalating violence.

He also referred to a memorial of white crosses in South Africa -- known as the Witkruis Monument -- as a mass burial site for murdered white farmers, though the site is symbolic and commemorates victims of farm attacks regardless of race.

'It's more than just a little movement -- it's a pretty big movement in South Africa,' Trump said of Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters as quoted by The Hill.

'Their land is being confiscated and, in many cases, they're being killed,' Trump added.

IMAGE: Trump shows a copy of an article that he said it's about white South Africans who had been killed. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Ramaphosa refuted the genocide narrative, noting that Malema leads a small Opposition party and is allowed to express his views under South Africa's constitution.

He emphasised that while crime is a problem in the country, it does not disproportionately affect white farmers.

'Our government policy is completely, completely against what you were saying, even in the parliament,' the South African president said as quoted by The Hill.

As per The Hill, Afrikaners -- descendants of Dutch settlers -- make up under 7 per cent of South Africa's population but ruled the country during apartheid until 1994.

Ramaphosa, who served under Nelson Mandela, became president in 2018 after a career in business and labour leadership.

South Africa's parliament recently passed legislation to address historical injustices from apartheid, including land inequality.

Though no land has been seized under the law, critics such as Elon Musk, who was present at the meeting, have used the reform to claim white South Africans are under threat.

Musk has also said his company, Starlink, cannot operate in South Africa due to Black Economic Empowerment laws, as reported by The Hill.

As per The Hill, no international body has recognised the situation in South Africa as genocide.

The country's 2024 crime statistics show 6,032 murders, with only 44 occurring on farms and just one involving a farmer. The data does not specify victims' race.

Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/Rediff

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff
The India-Pakistan understanding on cessation of hostilities was arrived at following direct negotiations between the two sides, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said against the backdrop of United States President Donald Trump's claim that Washington played a role in brokering the truce.

IMAGE: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar rules out United States' role in brokering truce between India-Pakistan. Photograph: @DrSJaishankar/X

Jaishankar also said that India will again hit terrorists in Pakistan in response to any future terror strikes like the one in Pahalgam, suggesting that it was the reason why Operation Sindoor has not been concluded.

In an interview to Dutch broadcaster NOS, he said that the government was very clear that "if there is such an attack, there will be a response".

Jaishankar was in The Hague as part of his three-nation tour of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.

"The operation continues because there is a clear message in that operation - that if there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22, there will be a response, that we will hit the terrorists," he said.

"If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are. So, there is a message in continuing the operation but continuing the operation is not the same as firing on each other," he said.

Under Operation Sindoor, India carried out precision strikes on nine terror infrastructures early on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.

Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10. The Pakistani attempts were strongly responded to by the Indian side.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on May 10 announced that India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect.

In his remarks, Jaishankar said the arrangement on cessation of hostilities was firmed up by the Indian and the Pakistani sides.

"When two countries are engaged in a conflict, it is natural that countries in the world call up and try to sort of indicate their concern," he said.

Jaishankar added: "But the cessation of firing and military action was something which was negotiated directly between India and Pakistan."

"We made one thing very clear to everybody who spoke to us, not just the US but to everybody, saying if the Pakistanis want to stop fighting, they need to tell us. We need to hear it from them. Their general has to call up our general and say this. And that is what happened."

Following the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan, Trump repeatedly claimed credit for it saying that he played a role in brokering the "ceasefire" between the two sides.

In his comments, Jaishankar described the April 22 Pahalgam attack as "barbaric" and said the terrorists "murdered" the innocent civilians in front of their families after ascertaining their "faith" with an aim to to create "religious discord".

"It was imperative that we have a response because the lack of response...was impossible in such a situation," he said.

Jaishankar said India is willing to hold talks with Pakistan on return of the illegally occupied part of Kashmir by that country to New Delhi, and on terrorism.

Asked about security concerns emanating from frontiers along China and Pakistan on India's economic growth, Jaishankar indicated that economic growth and security are part of the same coin.

"Our security challenges were far more threatening than yours (Europe's). So we had to prioritise security. You don't choose between security and economic prosperity. Today, you are realising that they are part of the same coin."
During Operation Kagar, 350 Naxalites have been killed so far, including some of the movement's top leaders.

IMAGE: Security forces unload the bodies of Maoists killed in Narayanpur, May 21, 2025. Photograph: ANI/X

Security agencies launched the anti-Maoist Operation Kagar last year to eliminate Naxalism in the country.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff offers an explainer on Operation Kagar.

What is Operation Kagar?

Operation Kagar (meaning Brink) is India's biggest crackdown on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) to make India Naxalite-free.

The operation is Home Minister Amit Shah's brainchild, and he has provided a roadmap to the security forces to eliminate LWE by March 2026.

The operation, launched in January 2024, deploys 10,000 Central Reserve Police Force commandos, the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the District Reserve Guards of the Chhattisgarh police and the Greyhounds of Telangana.

How many Indians have died so far in Left Wing Extremism?

According to Home Minister Shah, between 2004 and March 31, 2025, 8,895 people have been killed in LWE in different parts of India.

This amounts to roughly 460 Indians killed by Maoists every year.

During Operation Kagar, 350 Naxalites have been killed so far, including some of the movement's top leaders.

So, who are Naxalites?

The word 'Naxalites/Naxalism' derives from the village Naxalbari in West Bengal where in 1967 peasants rose in armed revolt against local landlords over unfair wages and exploitation of labour.

What do the Naxalites want?

They believe in the violent overthrow of democratically elected governments for which they use guerrilla tactics through the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA).

Though the movement began in West Bengal, it later shifted to Kerala, then Andhra Pradesh (later Telangana), Bihar (later Jharkhand), then Madhya Pradesh (later Chhattisgarh), parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Before Operation Kagar, LWE had a presence in 38 out of India's 780 districts (external link).

What is the Maoists' plan for India?

According to the home ministry, in the first stage of insurgency, the PLGA resorts to guerrilla warfare which aims at creating a vacuum at the grass-roots level of the existing governance structures.

This is achieved by killing lower-level government officials, police personnel stationed at local police stations, workers of mainstream political parties and people's representatives of the panchayati raj system.

After creating a political and governance vacuum, they coerce the local population to join the movement.

What is the red corridor?

The term describes the geographical area where Naxalites have a significant presence. This includes states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Odisha and Maharashtra where the Maoists are active.

Where is Operation Kagar being conducted?

At present Operation Kagar is active in Telangana's Bhadradri Kothagudem district and Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.

These two states are the last stronghold of Naxalites. Operation Black Forest, a part of Operation Kagar, was launched on April 21, 2025, to dismantle entrenched Maoist strongholds in this rugged terrain, which includes dense forests and caves that serve as hideouts for the Naxals.

Why was the May 21 operation important?

Security forces eliminated Maoist leader General Secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, 70.

Twenty-seven Maoists were killed in the operation which was carried out in the Abhujmad area of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.

Basavaraju had a bounty of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) on his head and was responsible for several attacks on the security forces.

After his death, it looks like Amit Shah's vision of a Naxalite-free India by March is within reach.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asserted that the country's enemies have learnt what happens when 'sindoor' becomes gunpowder, and lauded India's armed forces for creating such a trap that Pakistan was forced to go down on its knees.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner. Photograph: ANI on X

In his first public address in Rajasthan after Operation Sindoor that was launched in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, the prime minister slammed Pakistan, and said in response to the attack on April 22, "we destroyed nine biggest terror hideouts in 22 minutes".

"The world and the enemies of the country have seen what happens when 'sindoor' turns into 'barood' (gunpowder)," he said at the public meeting in Palana in Bikaner, which shares border with Pakistan.

"Ab toh Modi ki naso mein lahu nahi garam sindoor beh raha hai (Not blood but hot sindoor runs in Modi's veins)," he said, adding, Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack.

He said India's response to the terror attack was not a game of vengeance but a "new form of justice" and there will be no trade or talk with Pakistan, there will be talk only about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In a stern message to Pakistan, he said India is not going to be scared by nuclear threats and if there is a terrorist attack on the country then it will give a befitting reply.

"If there is a terrorist attack on India, it will get a befitting reply. The time and methods will also be decided by our army and the conditions will also be ours. India is not going to be scared by the threat of atom bomb. Thirdly, we will not see the perpetrators of terror and the government patronising the terrorists separately. We will consider them as one," he said, adding these are three "sutras" from Operation Sindoor.

He said the game of Pakistan of state and non-state actors will not work anymore.

Lauding the armed forces for carrying out Operation Sindoor, he said "Our government gave free hand to all three armed forces. Together they created such a trap that Pakistan was forced to go down on its knees".

Noting that Pakistan had tried to target the Nal air base in Bikaner but could not cause any damage to it, he said in contrast "No one knows when Pakistan's Rahimyar Khan air base will open again. It is in ICU. The attack has destroyed it".

"Pakistan can never win a direct fight against India. Whenever there is a direct fight, Pakistan has to face defeat again and again. That is why Pakistan has made terrorism a weapon to fight against India," he said.

Modi recalled his public rally in Rajasthan's Churu after the 2019 Balakot airstrike, and said he had then stated that, "Saugandh mujhe is mitti ki, mein desh nahi jhukne dunga, mein desh nahi mitne dunga (he had taken a vow that he would not let the country down)".

"Today, from the land of Rajasthan, I want to say to the countrymen that those who had set out to erase sindoor have been wiped out. Those who shed the blood of Hindustan have paid for every drop of it. Those who were proud of their weapons are now buried under a pile of rubble," he said.

"This is not a game of vengeance, but this is a new form of justice, this is Operation Sindoor. This is not just anger, this is the fierce form of a capable India. This is the new form of India," he said.

Referring to the 2016 surgical strikes and the Balakote air strike, Modi said earlier India carried out attacks by entering into their houses but now the attack was directly on their chest.

He said Pakistan used to spread terror, kill innocent people and create an atmosphere of fear in India.

"Now, Modi, the servant of 'Maa Bharti', is standing here with his head held high. Modi's mind remains cool but his blood is hot," he said.

He said there will be no trade or talk with Pakistan, there will be talk only about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"And if Pakistan continues to export terrorists, it will have to beg for every penny. Pakistan will not get India's rightful share of water. Playing with the blood of Indians will cost Pakistan dearly. This is India's resolve and no power in the world can shake us from this resolve," he said.

The prime minister observed that security and prosperity both are necessary for the creation of a developed India.

"This is possible only when every corner of India becomes strong," he added.

Modi also spoke about the multi-party delegations being sent abroad to to highlight India's resolve to confront state-sponsored terrorism emanating from Pakistan and assert its right to self-defence following Operation Sindoor.

"To expose the truth, our all party delegations are reaching all over the world. The real face of Pakistan will be shown to the whole world," he said.

India carried out precision strikes under Operation Sindoor on terror infrastructure early on May 7 in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10. The Indian forces launched a fierce counter-attack on several Pakistani military installations.

India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the military confrontation after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.
Oliver Scheele was just about to pack up his drone and head home when he spotted something unusual briefly emerge from the water. He'd finally seen one.

Oliver and his brother Lawrence have spent years 'actively' looking for an Aussie snubfin dolphin off the coast of Magnetic Island. Source: Oliver Scheele

Since moving to an idyllic Aussie island six years ago, two brothers have spent countless hours observing the fascinating marine creatures that live in the surrounding water. Despite their passion and persistence, one rare and cryptic species has always eluded Oliver and Lawrence Scheele  until now.

Taking advantage of the nice weather on Monday, Oliver launched his drone off Queenslands Magnetic Island to try his luck. From frolicking whales to hammerhead sharks and eagle rays leaping at sunset, Oliver told Yahoo News he never knows what hes going to see but hopes for the best.

After scanning the murky bay and finding nothing, Oliver was about to pack up and head home when what he thought was a turtle caught his eye.

I almost was going to leave but I thought I would hold off for a bit and see if it would come back up, he explained. It came back up and I thought thats a weird looking dugong.

Despite his initial confusion, the young man quickly realised it was actually an extremely rare and very cute Australian snubfin dolphin. Only identified as a new species in 2005, the unique creatures live in shallow inshore waters across the countrys north and southern Papua New Guinea.

Olivers footage, which experts have described as great, shows a pod of about seven snubfin dolphins in a group all hunting together, including one juvenile chasing a fish gliding on the surface. In another clip, a snubfin imposter can be seen trying to blend in with two Australian humpback dolphins.

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Seeing these dolphins was a privilege as they are so rare, Oliver told Yahoo, adding he couldnt wait to tell his brother, who had long hoped to track down a photograph of a snubfin to include in his upcoming field guide about the marine life of Magnetic Island.

Lawrence (left) and Oliver (right) spend countless hours documenting the extraordinary marine life around Magnetic Island. Source: Supplied

Its a very amazing sighting  thats the first time Ive ever seen them, and weve been actively looking for around six years, Lawrence, a marine biologist, told Yahoo.

Theyre considered highly elusive. They originally had a habitat just outside the Ross River mouth, but since that port development and the port expansion, theyve moved. So ever since that happened, reportings have been less and less.

Lawrence said the species, likened to a skinny dugong, was one of the final pieces of the puzzle for his book, which will soon be sent off to publishing.

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I didnt have a photo. Ive never seen them before, and people I reached out to have also never seen them or dont have a photo because of their elusive nature. So it was just like divine timing finding them that morning, he explained.

Habitat destruction loss and degradation is really affecting their population so to see a relatively large pod of them socialising and hunting on Magnetic Island is just really special.

The Australian snubfin dolphin was only identified as a new species in 2005. They tend to be shy and live in small populations in shallow turbid waters. Source: Oliver Scheele

Gillnet fishing phase out is vital for snubfin dolphins, expert says

Australian snubfin dolphins are listed as vulnerable globally and in Queensland, with the Townsville and Cleveland Bay region home to one of the states largest known populations, Simon Miller from the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) told Yahoo.

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But these are still small and fragmented, with limited connectivity to other populations, he said. They tend to be quite a shy species that live in small populations and are typically found in shallow, turbid waters making sightings rare.

Lawrence (right) said the snubfin dolphin was one of the final pieces of the puzzle for his field guide. Source: Supplied

Two of the snubfins filmed by Oliver appeared to have injuries on their tails and backs, which he believed may have been caused by boat strikes. The biggest threats to the species are bycatch in commercial gillnet fisheries, habitat degradation and climate change, according to Miller.

Snubfin dolphins are slow to reproduce and so the loss of even small numbers of individuals can set a population back decades, he said, adding the Queensland governments decision to phase out gillnet fishing in the Great Barrier Reef by mid-2027 is crucial to provide increased protection for this iconic threatened species.

Improving the condition of inshore habitats is also vital, he said. Restoring degraded wetlands reduces the amount of pollutants entering the ocean which can then accumulate in species like snubfin dolphins and impact their long-term health.

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Jason Ball appears in Windham County Superior Court/Criminal Division for an evidence hearing on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, for a crash in Putney that injured two people. One of those victims, Diane Clementine, has since died.
Members of the Vermont State Police and Brattleboro Police Department investigate a suspicious death at 14 Birge Street in Brattleboro on Friday, March 31, 2023. Elias Lopez of Hartford, Conn., accepted a plea agreement in the shooting death of Tamico "Mack" Williams, also of Hartford.
Brattleboro Select Board members Isaac Evans-Frantz, Peter "Fish" Case, Oscar Heller, Amanda Ellis-Thurber and Elizabeth McLoughlin, and Town Manager John Potter and Town Attorney Bob Fisher (left to right) discuss the proposed budget an informational meeting at Academy School on Wednesday, May, 21, 2025.
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David Schoales is a Brattleboro resident and former member of the Windham Southeast School District Board. The opinions expressed by columnists and op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
The European Union has taken a major step toward ending imports of Russian and Belarusian nitrogen fertilizers, approving phased duties designed to make purchases economically unviable within three years.

In a vote in the European parliament in Brussels on May 22, EU lawmakers voted 411-100 in favor of introducing the import duties from 1 July as the bloc tries to ratchet up pressure on Moscow to bring an end to the war in Ukraine sparked by its full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

"Today, we take further steps to target the Russian war economy," Lubica Karvasova, an MEP from the Progressive Slovakia party, said after the vote.

"Russia refuses to engage in cease-fire negotiations with Ukraine. Russia doesnt want peace; on the contrary, it has deliberately weaponized our dependencies. Not anymore," she added. "As Europe moves decisively away from Russian fossil fuels, time has come to do the same with fertilizers, which are only gas imports in another form."

The move by the 27-nation bloc comes after a week of intense diplomacy centered around the first direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in three years and a long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

While just holding talks were a step forward, the main objective set out by Ukraine and the West, a 30-day cease-fire, was not achieved, prompting the EU to approve a 17th package of sanctions against Moscow on May 20.

The duties approved on May 22 will see the current 6.5 percent tariff levied on fertilizers from the two countries remain in place.

But additional duties of 40 euros to 45 euros ($45-50) per metric ton will be enforced until mid-2026, when they will rise to 60 euros ($68) per ton, then to 80 euros ($90) per ton in 2027.

They will then make a massive jump to 350 euro ($395) and 430 euro ($486) per ton by 2028, essentially making it prohibitively expensive to buy the products from Belarus and Russia.

EU countries imported 4.4 million tons of fertilizer from Russia and Belarus last year -- about 30 percent of total EU fertilizer imports -- up from 3.6 million tons in 2023.

The increase has raised concerns about growing European dependence on Russian products, which remain attractive due to their low price as Moscow scrambles to find foreign buyers amid waves of sanctions over the war.

The May 22 European Parliament session also increased EU tariffs by 50 percent on the value of Russian and Belarusian agricultural products such as sugar, vinegar, flour, and animal feed.

The Kremlin reacted to the news by saying the measures would hurt EU members more than Russia.

"I think that markets in other areas will compensate for the European duties, but the Europeans will continue, as always, to shoot themselves in the foot," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in Moscow during a daily briefing.

The bloc had previously been reluctant to hit Russian agricultural products with sanctions given accusations from poorer countries in Asia and Africa that such moves cause food shortages.

The situation has been somewhat alleviated over the past year with Ukraine resuming exports of its food produce via the Black Sea.

The European Union has also pledged that the transit of Russian and Belarusian agricultural exports through the bloc to the rest of the world is still possible.

The EU is also hoping that the measures will mean a diversification of supplies with increased imports from countries like Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Oman, places Brussels is keen to forge closer relationships with.

The United States has also said it wants to increase fertilizer exports with President Donald Trump suspending April tariffs on fertilizers for the EU.
An Italian court sentenced a Geneva-based Russian lawyer to 38 months in prison for his role in helping politically connected Russian businessman Arytom Uss flee house arrest from a Milan suburb two years ago.

The verdict against Dmitry Chirakadze was handed down by a judge in Milan on May 22, according to Milan prosecutor Giovanni Tarzia.

The court found that Chirkadze "played the role of mediator between the Uss family and the commando that took Artyom Uss and led him to Belgrade," Tarzia said in a statement to RFE/RL.

In closing arguments earlier this month, prosecutors had requested five years for Chirakadze, who has been held by Italian authorities since being arrested at Romes airport in June 2024.

Chirakadzes defense lawyer, Tatiana Della Marra, did not immediately respond to e-mail inquiries for comment.

The verdict is the latest development in a twisting saga involving Uss, whose father previously was the governor of the sprawling Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk.

Uss was arrested at the Milan airport in October 2022, a month after a US grand jury secretly indicted him on smuggling charges.

Along with a Russian business partner and four others, US authorities accused Uss of using a German company to smuggle military and dual-use technologies to Russia in violation of Western sanctions -- including the kinds of electronics that later showed up on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Uss was ordered held, pending an Italian court ruling on a US extradition request. However, he was not held in police custody, but rather house arrest, in a townhouse in a development south of Milan.

In March 2023, days before he was set to be extradited, Uss escaped from the townhouse where he was staying, breaking an electronic monitoring bracelet. He was driven across Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and into Belgrade, where he later flew to Moscow and later to Krasnoyarsk.

The escape embarrassed Italian authorities; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the circumstances behind his flight deserved further scrutiny. It also infuriated US prosecutors, who had warned Italian counterparts that Uss was a flight risk.

In the months that followed, Italian investigators and US authorities identified a group of seven men and women from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, and Slovenia who they alleged organized Uss's escape.

A Bosnian man was indicted by US prosecutors in December 2023 in connection with the escape, and arrested in Zagreb. He later cooperated with the Italian investigation and was released. A Slovenian man was arrested by Slovenian police on an Italian warrant in January 2024, and was later released.

Also implicated was a Serbian businessman named Srdjan Lolic, who joined a Russian expedition to the North Pole in April 2023, less than a month after he allegedly helped Uss escape. He traveled via the Krasnoyarsk region.

While at the North Pole, Lolic was seen dancing along with Krasnoyarks vice governor, and he also bragged about dining with Aleksandr Uss, the region's governor, and attending an Orthodox mass with him.

After resigning as Krasnoyarsks governor, Aleksandr Uss became a lawmaker in Russias upper house of parliament.

Meanwhile, in June 2024, Chirakadze was flying from Sardinia to Switzerland, when he was detained at Romes airport by Italian police.

In addition to owning a luxury resort in Sardinia, Chirakadze owned a hunting estate in Krasnoyarsk. In Russia, he is best known for his part in establishing Pravo.ru, an online legal publication and resource popular with the Russian legal community.

In closing arguments earlier this month, Milan prosecutor Giovanni Tarzia told the court that Lolic had testified via video conference from Serbia, and implicated a now-deceased Russian lawmaker from Krasnoyarsk.

According to the Milan newspaper Corriere Della Serra, Lolic testified that the dead lawmaker contacted Lolic and asked him to meet with Chirakadze, who prosecutors said was the lead mastermind behind Uss's escape.

Uss could not be located for comment. However, his Russian lawyer told the business newspaper Vedomosti a day earlier that Chirakadze was not involved in the escape, and he accused Italian authorities of hostage taking.

"Chirakadze was organizing Artyoms legal defense, and obviously could not have had anything to do with his escape from house arrest, Aleksei Tikhomirov was quoted as saying.
Tetyana Tipakova is still haunted by the memory of torture she endured in 2022 after the Russian military arrested her for expressing opposition to their occupation of Ukraine.

She was held for months in a cell that was just 3 meters long and only half that width, she says.

"They beat you with their hands and with their feet and with objects," she said. "They beat me with a book and a wooden stick."

Whatever happens, she told herself at the time, don't collapse.

"If you fall, you understand that you have to get up, because when you're down, they'll kick you and it will be even more painful."

Tipakova is one of thousands of Ukrainians who have been systematically abducted and tortured by Russian forces, say reports by investigative journalists at The Guardian, Azov Sea News, and IStories.

Amnesty International also reports that informal holding cells, often in schools, industrial spaces or the basements of houses have spread far and wide throughout Russian-held areas.

And despite what she endured, says Tipakova, she knows others had it far worse.

"There were girls among us who weren't in the basements, but they were raped at home in front of their mothers. Then the mother was raped in front of her daughter."

Torture aside, prisoners are often held incommunicado for months or even years with their families having no idea where they are or even if they're still alive.

The torture, often involving beatings but sometimes subjecting people to electric charges via wires attached to their bodies, is common for prisoners of war, says investigative journalist Polina Uzhvak of IStories.

"Many prisoners are tortured and beaten to get information," she said. "It's just how they treat prisoners. A person may not know anything, but they will still beat them, especially men."

Those who are held in occupied Ukraine may eventually be released and return home, Uzhvak said.

"Sometimes people are kidnapped and released after a while," she said. "Others are sent on into the Russian prison system, and then there is no chance to be released other than via a prison exchange. But very few are in fact exchanged."

Kherson district councilor Roman Baklazhov spent 54 days in the custody of Russians, who made a habit of taking elected officials in areas of Ukraine they were occupying.

He says the holding cells that have been set up are no secret.

"A torture chamber can be anywhere, in any basement, in any private house," Baklazhov said.

"Torture chambers in schools, police stations in Kakhovka and Nova Kakhovka are generally known to the public."

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians are listed as missing by Ukrainian authorities.

Most are likely being held by Russian forces, according to the reports.

The Russian interrogators are no longer trying to extract military intelligence from prisoners, according to Borys Petrunyok of the Zmina Human Rights Center.

"Motivation is obviously shifting more toward a pure attack on manifestations of Ukrainian identity and disloyalty," said Petrunyok. "People who do not accept the occupation, regardless of whether they pose a threat to Russians."
Thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians are still being held in captivity in Russian-occupied areas, according to international observers, often held incommunicado for months or years. Torture is reportedly common with Russian captors showing less interest in military intelligence from their captives. Instead, survivors and experts say Ukrainian prisoners face punishment for not accepting Russian rule.
Despite talk of renewed diplomacy, Russia and Ukraine have not scheduled further peace negotiations, a Kremlin spokesman said -- even as fresh Russian strikes in the Donetsk region killed two civilians and left others wounded in one of the wars most violent hotspots.

Dmitry Peskov denied information that appeared in US media over the past few days suggesting that the Vatican could host Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in June.

There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings, Peskov told reporters in Moscow on May 22. They are yet to be agreed upon.

Peskov has also denied Finnish President Alexander Stubb's suggestion on May 21 that the two sides were likely to hold "technical-level talks" as soon as next week.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump had a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, after which, Trump said that negotiations toward a cease-fire would start "immediately."

Putin, however, repeated his rhetoric about eliminating the "root causes" of the war -- -- a term he uses to question Ukraines right to exist as well as the wider post-Cold War international order.

He added that Moscow would propose and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum outlining the framework for "a possible future peace treaty.

When asked about when the memorandum could be expected, Peskov gave no direct answer, adding that "nobody is interested in dragging out this process."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that a bilateral memorandum could be a possibility, but underlined that, so far, a potential prisoner exchange -- agreed upon in Istanbul talks -- is perhaps the only real result.

According to Russian and Ukrainian officials, the two countries have already handed each other lists of 1,000 prisoners of war whom they want to return in a forthcoming exchange deal.

Deaths In Donetsk

Despite Western urges for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, as well as the phone call between Putin and Trump, the Kremlin has not halted its attacks.

On May 22, Russian strikes on the Ukrainian town of Kostyantynivka and the village of Rayhorodok in the Donetsk region killed two people and wounded two others.

In Kostyantynivka, local police reported that a 54-year-old woman died from injuries caused by munitions that hit her home. Her 27-year-old daughter was left in critical condition with blast injuries and open wounds on her head, neck, and legs.

Another woman, 51, was killed when a Russian drone struck a local shop in Rayhorodok, where she was working as a cashier.

"Over the last day, Russians launched 36 attacks on towns and villages in the Donetsk region. A total of 409 people were evacuated, including 49 children," Vadym Filashkin, the head of Ukraine's Donetsk Regional Military Administration, said.

Zelenskyy said the Donetsk region, particularly in and around the war-torn city of Pokrovsk, was still seeing the hardest fighting.

"Unfortunately, the Russians show no signals of a cease-fire, and they are not yet ready to end the war," he added.
A flurry of intense diplomacy over Russias war against Ukraine, centered around the first direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in three years and a long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, ended earlier this week without a breakthrough.

The main objective set out by Ukraine and the West, a 30-day cease-fire, was not achieved.

Russian attacks continued during and after the talks, and Ukraine launched drone strikes on defense industry targets in Russia in the wake of the negotiations.

In a social media post after his two-hour-plus conversation with Putin, Trump suggested that the United States might be stepping back from efforts to broker a peace deal, four months after he entered office following a campaign in which he had said he could end the war in a day or two.

Now what?

With Russia full-scale invasion of Ukraine well into its fourth year, RFE/RL examines what to watch and where things may be headed.

More Talks? A Memorandum?

In his post on Truth Social after the phone call with Putin on May 19, Trump said negotiations between Russia and Ukraine toward a cease-fire and more importantly, an end to the war would start immediately. He mentioned the Vatican as a possible venue and concluded, Let the process begin!

There was no word from Kyiv or Moscow on a new meeting, but Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on May 21 that he sides were likely to hold technical-level talks" next week, possibly at the Vatican.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who also spoke to Trump on May 19, said the next day that Ukraine is ready for any negotiation format that delivers results, but that if Russia continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress, there must be tough consequences.

So far, Russia has given no sign that it is prepared to make any substantial compromise. It has often signaled the opposite, repeating long-stated positions that Ukraine has called unacceptable.

In his own statement after the call with Trump, Putin repeated his mantra about the need to eliminate the root causes of the war -- blame for which, despite the fact that Russia launched the invasion unprovoked, he has continued to lay entirely at the feet of Kyiv and the West.

While Trump spoke of immediate negotiations, Putin focused on something Trump did not mention and was couched in the kind of ifs, ands, and buts that analysts say Putin has used to slow any move toward a truce. In the meanwhile, Moscow seeks to recruit more soldiers, build more weapons, and improve its position on the battlefield.

Russia, he said, is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum regarding a possible future peace treaty with the definition of a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement, and so on.

Continuing to reject an immediate truce, he said steps toward a solution could include a possible cease-fire for a certain period of time if appropriate agreements are reached.

Zelenskyy suggested that a bilateral memorandum could be a possibility, but that Ukraine would have to see what Russia is proposing before making any decisions.

The Crux

Whatever the status of the negotiations process, there are several big barriers to progress. Territory is one of them.

Analysts often say that grabbing land is not Russias main goal -- that what Putin really wants is the subjugation of Ukraine, and that aside from Crimea and perhaps part of the Donbas, he would be satisfied with any amount of land as long as the country and its government are Russia-friendly and firmly in Moscows grip.

Part of the litany of complaints Putin has used to justify the full-scale invasion is that the West has turned Ukraine into the anti-Russia -- though many say that Putin has done that himself, first by seizing Crimea in 2014 and fomenting war in the Donbas in 2014, and then by launching the full-scale invasion in 2022.

For now, though, territory is perhaps the most concrete sticking point between Kyiv and Moscow.

In September 2022, Putin baselessly claimed that four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, and Kherson -- belong to Russia. Russian forces held only parts of those regions at the time, and thats still the case.

But according to Ukrainian officials who spoke to multiple media outlets on condition of anonymity, the Russian delegation in Istanbul said there could be no cease-fire until Ukraine withdraws its troops from those regions -- and demanded international recognition that they belong to Russia.

Ukraine has called those demands unacceptable, and Zelenskyy repeated this week that Kyiv will not withdraw troops from its own territory.

Russias progress toward taking the parts of those regions it does not hold has been slow and extremely costly. The capitals of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya remain in Kyivs hands.

[The] Russian army will not be able to take control of the remaining parts of the four regions it has already occupied. First of all, this is a very large area, and even at last years pace, the Russian army would not be able to fully capture even one region -- such as Donetsk, said Yan Matveyev, a Russian military analyst who lives outside the country.

The prospect of Russia seizing the city of Kherson, which lies across the Dnieper River from the current positions of its forces, seems absolutely fantastical and impossible, Matveyev told Current Time on May 21.

At the same time, after a major counteroffensive fizzled in 2023, the chances of Ukraine regaining a substantial amount of land anytime soon are seen as very slim.

Russia wants what they do not currently have and are not entitled to, and Ukraine wants what they cannot regain militarily, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on May 20. And thats been the crux of the challenge.

Stepping Away?

Faced with the yawning gap between the Russian and Ukrainian positions, is the United States stepping away from the push for peace?

In his Truth Social post on May 19, Trump suggested that Ukraine and Russia might be left to their own devices, saying that the conditions for a cease-fire and an end to the war will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.

In comments to reporters in the Oval Office later the same day, though, Trump repeated the warning that Washington could step aside but indicated that it had not quite reached that point yet, and said that he still believes progress is possible.

In my head I definitely have a red line on when to stop pushing the sides to reach agreement, he said, but I don't want to say what it is because it makes negotiations so much more difficult.

It's a European situation, it should be this way, but the previous administration got us involved. I feel something may happen, Trump said. If not, we'll walk away and leave it to them.

Sanctions And Support

At the same time, Trump also cited the chance for progress as a reason to avoid slapping additional sanctions on Russia for now, even as the European Union imposed its 17th package of sanctions on Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and, along with Britain, considers what European leaders say would be massive new punitive measures.

Hitting Russia with new sanctions could make the whole thing very much worse and now I still have a sense [that] things still can be done, Trump said.

Asked whether the United States would continue to send Ukraine weapons in the future, Trump also indicated that would depend on what happens with the push for peace.

We'll have to see. I believe Putin still wants to do this, he said, meaning end the war. I think Putin has had enough.

Many observers disagree, arguing that Putin is unlikely to make concessions in the absence of major setbacks on the battlefield or upheaval in Russia, neither of which is expected any time soon.

As it stands, a substantial test of Russias intentions -- and of the Wests resolve -- may come when and if Moscow lays out its position on the path to peace, or its conditions for a cease-fire, as part of the memorandum that Putin has proposed.

Its unclear when that might happen.

There are no deadlines [for that process] and there cannot be any, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 20. It is clear that everyone wants to do this as quickly as possible, but, of course, the devil is in the details."

A senior adviser to Zelenskyy, Mykhaylo Podolyak, predicted Russias demands wont change.

"They will sign a memorandum that is exactly what one could most reasonably expect, he told RBC-Ukraine on May 21. This includes removing the so-called 'sources of war' -- which, in their view, means that Ukraine must cease to exist.

RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service and Current Time contributed to this report
As he went to get into his Mercedes sedan after dropping his children at an international school near Madrid, a Ukrainian lawyer named Andriy Portnov was approached by gunmen who shot him five times, the last time in the head.

Portnovs brazen daylight killing on May 21 stunned Spaniards. It sent bigger shockwaves through Ukrainian political circles, where Portnov circulated for years: as a lawyer, a fixer, and a political operative.

Heres what you need to know about Portnov, his political importance, and what his killing means.

Who Was He Exactly?

A lawyer by training, Portnov was closely associated with Viktor Yanukovych, who served as Ukrainian president until February 2014, when months of street protests erupted in violence and Yanukovych fled the country. Portnov served as the deputy head of Yanukovychs administration.

He was known for being litigious -- filing threatening lawsuits against journalists, in particular.

In 2019, Portnov threatened Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RLs Ukrainian Service, posting personal data of some of the units journalists.

"Portnov was very closely tied to the judicial system. At one time, he led a large number of different trials. He influenced judges, he influenced security officials, Ivan Stupak, a military analyst who formerly worked for Ukraines SBU security agency, told Current Time.

Under Yanukovych, Portnov took charge of an effort to update the countrys Criminal Code and procedures. The effort was criticized for, among other things, making it harder to conduct fair trials and for obstructing official investigations into corruption and bribery.

Before he advised Yanukovych, Portnov worked alongside Yulia Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's political archrival who lost the 2010 presidential election to him.

Portnov also crossed paths with veteran US political lobbyist Paul Manafort, who helped engineer Yanukovych's political comeback in the 2000s, and his election victory over Tymoshenko. Yanukovych later ordered Tymoshenko jailed.

In 2013, Portnov traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of Manaforts effort to tamp down US criticism of Tymoshenkos jailing.

"The success of Andriy's visit is important and timely. It shows that a continued presence by key Ukraine leaders coming to the US is effective, and can change the rhetoric, Manafort wrote in a February 2013 e-mail. We need to have Andriy come back to the US on a semiannual or quarterly basis.

The e-mail, which was addressed to a former chief of staff for Yanukovych, was included in US court filings after Manafort was indicted in 2017 on tax and fraud charges stemming from his work for Yanukovych.

Manafort was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison, but later was pardoned by President Donald Trump.

Portnov, meanwhile, was hit by financial sanctions in 2021 by the US Treasury Department.

Widely known as a court fixer, Portnov was credibly accused of using his influence to buy access and decisions in Ukraines courts and undermining reform efforts, the department said in a press release. Portnov took steps to control the Ukrainian judiciary, influence associated legislation, sought to place loyal officials in senior judiciary positions, and purchase court decisions.

What Was He Doing In Spain?

It wasnt immediately clear how long Portnov and his family had lived in Spain.

He left Ukraine for Russia after Yanukovych fled the country, in the wake of the February 2014 street protests known commonly as the Maidan. Portnov was outspoken in his criticism of the Maidan events.

He later ended up in Austria, where he practiced law, and traveled back to Ukraine several times.

In 2018, the SBU announced it had opened a treason investigation of Portnov, alleging he had a role in Russias annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Moscow seized in the weeks after the Maidan.

The case was launched after intercepted telephone conversations from 2014 showed Portnov speaking with a top Kremlin adviser. It was later closed without charges being brought.

In 2019, he returned to Ukraine shortly after the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as president.

"Friends, I haven't been to my country for over five years, he wrote on his Telegram channel at the time. And today I want to give a strong signal to the thousands of people who left Ukraine. It's time to return, build, and restore. Hello, my dear Motherland!"

He was a part owner of a pro-Russian TV channel linked to a Kremlin-allied politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Ukrainian authorities shuttered the station in 2021.

In March 2022, a month after Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Schemes uncovered real estate holdings belonging to Portnovs family in the Moscow region. That June, Portnov left Ukraine for good.

Yanukovych fled to Russia after the Maidan events, and lived in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. His current whereabouts are unclear.

Who Killed Him?

Portnov was shot around 9:15 a.m., reportedly just after he dropped off his two daughters at the American School of Madrid, a private institution located in Pozuelo de Alarco, on the Spanish capitals outskirts.

Spanish authorities have said little about the progress of their investigation.

Outside observers pointed to Portnovs past run-ins with Ukrainian intelligence as possible indications that he was targeted by a Ukrainian assassin. Others said it was possible Portnov had had clashes due to his business interests.

Perhaps, someone had a big business taken away from him at one time, perhaps, the money from this business was not divided correctly, and one of the partners decided to take revenge, Stupak said. We cant rule this out.
High Court reporters

A Co Kerry businessman has apologised in the High Court for his social media posts accusing prominent BBC NI broadcaster Stephen Nolan of being involved in sectarianism and inciting hatred and violence in Belfast.

Mr Nolan brought defamation proceedings in 2021 against Eddie Barrett, of Lovers Lane, Ballyard, Tralee over the posts on X, formerly Twitter, published between February and April of that year.

On Thursday, Mr Nolans senior counsel Martin Hayden, appearing with John Kerr BL and instructed by WP Tweed & Co, said a resolution had been reached between the parties.

Mr Barretts counsel Gerard Hussey BL, instructed by solicitor Paul ODonoghue, read an apology to the court on his clients behalf.

In [the] posts, I accused Mr Nolan of being involved in sectarianism and of inciting hatred and violence in Belfast, together with other outrageous allegations, the apology read.

I fully accept that my comments were completely misguided and reckless. I appreciate that, given the subject matter, they were dangerous and could have had serious ramifications for Mr Nolan.

Mr Barrett said in the apology that he acknowledged Mr Nolans accomplished position as an independent journalist, and said he regretted his very personal attack on him.

I apologise unreservedly to Mr Nolan for any hurt caused or harm done to his good name, he said.

Mr Heyden said the matter could be struck out. Mr Justice Alexander Owens made the order.
Olivia Kelleher

Taoiseach Micheal Martin says members of Kneecap have been very clear in recent statements that they do not in any shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas.

Kneecap member Liam Og O hAnnaidh has been charged with a terrorism offence in the UK over the display of a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London, on November 21st, 2024.

The 27-year-old from Belfast, who uses the stage name Mo Chara, is to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 18th.

The charge correlates to Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000 in the UK. The maximum penalty for such an offence is six months in prison and/or a fine of up to 5,000 (5,900).

Mr Martin was asked by reporters in Cork if Mr O hAnnaidh would receive diplomatic assistance arising out of the incident. The Taoiseach said that consular assistance would be given to Mr O hAnnaidh if he requires it.

The Irish Government through its diplomatic channel always provides, if required, consular assistance to its citizens no matter where they reside.

I would note that members of the band have been very clear in recent statements that they do not in any shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas and they have issued statements to that effect.

But I am not going to interfere in the court process. I think this matter will take its course. I am not going to comment on something that has happened in the UK through its legal processes.

I have noted as I said the very clear statements from Kneecap that they do in any not shape or form support Hezbollah or Hamas and that was a very important statement in my view.

Kneecap said the charging of one of their members with a terror offence was political policing and a carnival of distraction.

In a statement on X, the group said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves, this is political policing, this is a carnival of distraction.

We are not the story, genocide is, as they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

WE STAND PROUDLY WITH THE PEOPLE. YOU STAND COMPLICIT WITH THE WAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY. YOU ARE NOT. WE WILL FIGHT YOU IN YOUR COURT. WE WILL WIN. FREE PALESTINE.
Eimear Dodd

A woman who was abused as a child 60 years ago has told a court she was gutted when she found out years later that her young sister had been abused by the same man.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the sisters were separately indecently assaulted when they were children by the boyfriend of their older sister.

The 77-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on unknown dates between 1964 and 1965 at a house in Co Dublin. He cannot be named to protect the identities of the two victims.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that both incidents took place at their family home when they were alone in a downstairs room with the man.

The defendant, then around 16, was a frequent and welcome visitor to their family home at the time.

Judge Elma Sheahan said the court was bound by the legislation in place at the time of offending, which set a maximum sentence of two years.

Judge Sheahan said the court would impose consecutive sentences to reflect the seriousness of the offending and the fact there were two victims.

Having considered the mitigation, she set headline sentences which she reduced to reflect the man's youth at the time. She imposed a global sentence of one year and two months.

An investigating garda told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that the older girl was approximately nine when the man sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her vagina. She got a shock and ran to her room, and never went near the man again.

The man inappropriately touched her young sister, who was around seven, on a separate occasion. She didn't understand what was happening, but knew it wasn't right. She ran out of the room and refused to be alone with him again.

The court heard that both sisters spoke about the abuse they individually suffered at the hands of the man decades before formal complaints were made to gardai in 2022.

When interviewed, the man denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

Both women's victim impact statements were read to the court by Ms McGowan.

The older sister said the abuse has affected her throughout her life and has effected her relationships.

She said she spent a lot of my life crying on my own, and only told her husband about the abuse in recent years. She said telling her children this year was the hardest thing I had to do.

The woman said she was gutted when she found out years later about his abuse of her younger sister, adding that she felt she should have been able to protect her.

She said she felt ashamed and had kept what happened to herself for most of her life, but now it was time for the man to feel shame.

The younger sister said she was shocked at the time, but didn't fully understand what had happened until she was a teenager.

She said she was glad the man had admitted his guilt and this gave her comfort.

The man has one previous conviction for possession of child sexual abuse material. He was handed a suspended two-year sentence in the late 2010s.

The garda agreed with defence counsel that the man's guilty plea was early and that he has not come to recent negative attention.

Eoghan Cole SC, defending, said his client wished to apologise for what he did.

He asked the court to take into account his client's youth at the time and the passage of time since the offending occurred.

He outlined the man's background and personal circumstances. His client has a long work history and several health issues.

Counsel noted the man voluntarily attended a Tusla meeting with the first complainant in 2019, but at that point denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Cole said his client couldnt bring himself to admit what was done, but did plead guilty at an early stage.

Imposing sentence, Sheahan said the aggravating factors included the breach of trust, the age disparity, the man's previous conviction and the impact on the victims.

She said the man's guilty plea was valuable, noting that it spared the women having to give evidence during a trial.
The true scale of the destruction of forestry and bogland in West Roscommon, including the devastation of a special area of conservation (SAC) comprising unique flora and fauna, has now become apparent days after the area was hit by a raging wildfire.

Yesterday, the Roscommon Herald travelled along a section of an historic SAC bog walk in Carrowbehy with Declan Elwood, vice-chairperson of Gorthaganny Community Development.

Hundreds of acres of bog and forestry charred by the worst Roscommon wildfire in living memory have deeply scarred a landscape that is rich in flora and fauna.

Declan calculates that 1300 acres of bog and forestry have been burnt, twenty per cent of that being forestry plantation. The destructive impact on the areas rich biodiversity has been seismic.

There are flora and fauna found in the Carrowbehy bog walk which have not been found anywhere else in Europe. But that whole area is destroyed and everything associated with it is destroyed. There is only one per cent of Europes raised bogs left untouched and fifty per cent of that one per cent are in Ireland.

Carrowbehy is one of three major untouched bogs in the country and there are remnants of potatoes ridges in it going back to the time of the famine, he said.

At this stage, Declan said it was uncertain what could be recovered. There are mosses there not seen anywhere in Europe. Are they just dead or will they rejuvenate from underground? We dont know but as of now they are gone.

The reality is that its going to take years for that green up and the village is going to look horrible, he said.

Local wildlife has also been decimated in an area that has up to thirty species of bird. Any birds who had young birds in the nest and any birds hatching eggs in the nest would have died.

We opened the hall on Sunday night for all the fireman and one of the lads who lives a half of mile away from here said there was nothing but foxes around his house yesterday evening. The foxes had all vanished from this area, he said.

Gorthaganny Community Development Company had also planted a lot of broadleaf trees, developed bee habitats, and information signage but everything has been destroyed by the fire.

There were local plans underway to further enhance an historic bog walk in Carrowbehy, located in a special area of conservation. However, the scale of the damage to the flora, fauna and wildlife has devastated the local community.

Declan said funding had been secured only recently to develop a boardwalk linking existing bog roads to create a looped walk.

Given the scale of the destruction to nature, Declan is hoping that the Government could step in with vital assistance.

With the big emphasis on biodiversity, maybe some Government body will come into behind us now and try and get it back to where it was. Hopefully, there might be a silver lining yet, he said.
The communities in West Roscommon could be forgiven for feeling like the Biblical Job, tested cruelly almost beyond endurance.

In December we saw Storm Darragh knock trees and damage power lines. But it was only a taste of what was to come, as in January, Storm Eowyn smashed its way through the county, flattening forestry, shearing roofs from buildings and devastating the power infrastructure.

While all Roscommon was affected, the people in the west of the county were the most badly hit. Some were left for weeks without power, impacting on their food and water supplies. It was a waking nightmare.

Now finally, just as these events are starting to slip into the past, West Roscommon has been subject to a number of very serious fire outbreaks. Following closely behind the fine weather in early April a massive gorse fire broke out in the Loughglynn area which required five fire services to attend.

Last weekend, the area was hit by a devastating forest fire, which saw homes evacuated and livestock moved. The financial cost of this fire, undoubtedly significant, will take some time to quantify, but the personal cost is incalculable. The sympathies of the entire county are with these people today as many count the cost of the loss of acres of forestry.

At times, these challenges can feel unfair and even spiteful, but what they also reveal is the resilience and compassion inherent in the people of the county. When a neighbour is suffering people open their hearts and homes. This was clearly seen in the actions of the responding fire services, who braved hellish conditions to bring the blazes under control. They have rightly been praised for their incredible bravery in the face of dangers and scenes most of us would run a mile from.

That gratitude was reflected when Gorthaganny Community Centre was opened up on Sunday night for the firefighters, many of whom had to return to their other jobs and roles come Monday. We are very lucky to have these people to call on at the worst of times. It is everyones hope that they will not be called on again anytime soon.
CM Bhagwant Mann Alleges Vendetta Politics as Centre Slaps Punjab with Rs 8.5 Crore CISF Bill for Bhakra Dam Security

We dont have extra water to give, and we certainly dont have Rs 8.5 crore lying around to fund the Centres unilateral decisions.-Mann

Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on Water Dispute With Haryana, BBMB Latest News Today: In a fiery press conference on Tuesday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann accused the Central government of engaging in "vendetta politics" against the state, following a controversial directive mandating the deployment of 296 CISF personnel at Bhakra Dam  with a cost burden of over Rs 8.5 crore falling on Punjab or the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).

The notice, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 19, has drawn sharp criticism from Mann, who questioned both the necessity of the move and the intention behind it. Punjab Police has been securing Bhakra Dam for years. Whats the emergency now that the Centre needs to parachute in CISF at our expense? he asked.

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The Chief Minister expressed disbelief over the financial demand, calculating the cost at Rs 2,90,100 per CISF personnel annually. Why should Punjab pay rent for security when we are already doing the job effectively? Are we being punished for something? he asked, suggesting that the Centre may be retaliating against Punjab for the farmers' protests or its political stance.

Manns remarks quickly turned political as he called out BJP leaders from Punjab  including Union Minister of State Ravneet Bittu, state president Sunil Jakhar, and Capt Amarinder Singh  questioning their silence. They promised in the all-party meeting that not a single drop of Punjabs water would go to Haryana. So why are they quiet now? Was this CISF deployment approved with their knowledge? he asked.

He warned that the move could be a precursor to future central interference. If this trend continues, who knows  maybe one day, theyll even remove Punjab from the National Anthem, he said, provoking strong reactions from supporters and opposition alike.

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The Punjab-Haryana water dispute has long been a politically sensitive issue, and Mann reaffirmed his governments position: We dont have extra water to give, and we certainly dont have Rs 8.5 crore lying around to fund the Centres unilateral decisions.

He also invoked Punjabs history of sacrifice, recalling the role the state has played in national security. From Pathankot to the India-Pakistan wars, Punjab has always been the first line of defense. And now the Centre is charging us for protection? This is shameful, Mann asserted.

With the Vidhan Sabha previously passing a unanimous resolution opposing any sharing of Punjabs river waters with Haryana, the Centres move has reignited political tension in the state. As the issue continues to unfold, all eyes are now on the BJPs Punjab leadership for their response to Manns challenge.

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(For more news apart from Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann on Water Dispute With Haryana, BBMB Latest News Today, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman)
Renowned Sikh scholar Padma Shri Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi passes into eternity

Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi was a prolific author who authored more than 150 books.

Chandigarh: The doyen of the Punjabi and Hindi literary world Padma Shri Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi today left for his heavenly abode. He was 98 years old. He had not been keeping well for some time. He has left behind a rich legacy of his precious creations for the literary firmament which would always be a source of inspiration for the future generations. He is survived by his wife Dr. Gursharan Kaur Jaggi (Retd. Principal, Government College for Women, Patiala), and a Son Malwinder Singh Jaggi (Retd. I.A.S.).



Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi was a prolific author who authored more than 150 books. Besides being counted amongst the distinguished scholars in Punjabi and Hindi literary circles, he was an authority on the subjects of Gurmat and Bhakti Movement. It was due to his immensely valuable contribution to the literature and academic spheres that he was honoured with the Padma Shri & Sahitya Akademi Award by the Government of India apart from Punjabi Sahit Shiromani Puraskar by the Government of Punjab. His long list of felicitations also comprises the bestowal of honours by the Governments of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh & Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). The Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar conferred D. Litt degrees on Dr. Jaggi who was also awarded Gyan Rattan Puraskar by Panjab University Chandigarh. He also got the Language Department's first award 8 times besides numerous honours bestowed by various academies, educational, literary, religious institutions and Government & Non-Government organizations.



Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi devoted his entire life to studying, writing and critical analysis from different perspectives regarding medieval literature besides researching from varied standpoints about the sacred Bani of Sikh Guru Sahiban & Bhakti Movement (In both Punjabi and Hindi).



Born on July 27, 1927, he devoted more than 6 decades of his life with a wholehearted commitment to serving the cause of medieval literature. He obtained a PhD in 1962 from Panjab University, Chandigarh with the subject "Dasam Granth Da Pauranik Addhyan" (Critical study of Pauranik compositions in Dasam Granth). Dr Jaggi was awarded a D.Litt. degree from Magadh University, Bodhgaya in 1973 where the subject in Hindi was Sri Guru Nanak: Vyaktitatva, Krititva Aur Chintan (Guru Nanak: His personality, works & teachings). He retired as Professor and Head of the Punjabi Literary Studies Department of Punjabi University, Patiala in 1987. He commanded a complete understanding of English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit and contributed marvellous, voluminous and highly acknowledged literary works in the shape of books, commentaries and encyclopedias.



He edited the Punjabi Sahit Sandarbh Kosh (Reference Dictionary of Punjabi Literature), Punjabi Sahit da Sarot Moolak Itihas (History of Punjabi Literature) & Guru Granth Vishavkosh (Encyclopedia) which were published by the Punjabi University, Patiala. Dr. Jaggi rendered a big service to the Sikh religion with a comprehensive commentary on Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji namely Bhav Prabodhini Tika-Sri Guru Granth Sahib in 8 volumes. Later on, he also contributed 5 volumes of this commentary were also published in Hindi.



His other notable endeavours included "Sikh Panth Vishavkosh" (Encyclopedia of Sikhism) and a five volume Sub-Commentary of Sri Guru Granth Sahib titled "Arthbodh Sri Guru Granth Sahib" which was released by Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee. During the 550th Prakash Purb celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the Punjab Government published "Guru Nanak Bani: Paath at Vyakhya" authored by him, in Punjabi and Hindi. Earning his spurs, he also published a treatise on Guru Nanak bani namely "Guru Nanak: Jeevni atey Vyaktitatva" and a second book Guru Nanak di Vichardhara. Both of which were awarded by the Languages Department, Punjab. Amongst the services rendered by Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi, one of the most significant was the transliteration and translation of the holy book "Tulsi Ramayan" (Ram Charit Manas) in Punjabi. The book was published by Punjabi University and recipient of the National Award by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.



In the year 2023, Dr. Rattan Singh Jaggi was conferred with the Padma Shri award in recognition of his services in the field of Literature & Education by the President of India. Dr. Jaggi was conferred with a National award in 1989 by the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, and Punjabi Sahit Shiromani the Highest State Award by the Punjab Government in 1996. It was eight times that his books got the first prize from the Languages Department, Punjab. The Haryana Government also felicitated him with first prize in 1968 for his book. The Punjabi Academy honoured him with Param Sahit Satkar Sanman in 2010 with the Uttar Pradesh Government felicitating him with Souhard Sanman in 1996. He was also awarded a Life Fellowship by Punjabi University in 2012 and a Fellowship by Punjabi Sahit Akademi, Ludhiana.
Washington News: Two Israeli Embassy Employees Killed in Shooting Near Jewish Museum in Washington

Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social

Two Israeli Embassy Employees Killed in Shooting Washington, latest news: Two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot dead on Wednesday near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. A 30-year-old man, identified as Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, has been arrested by authorities, NDTV reported. Former U.S. President Donald Trump stated, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on anti-Semitism, must end, NOW!

According to the report, the suspect shouted Free, Free Palestine as he was being taken into custody. Israeli officials have described the act as a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.

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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the deaths of the two Israeli Embassy staff members in a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating, We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.

She said, Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. We are actively investigating and working to gather more information. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.

The identities of the victims have not been made public; however, they were affiliated with the Israeli diplomatic mission in the United States, NDTV reported, citing local sources.

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the act as horrible, calling it obviously based on antisemitism and adding that it must end, NOW!

Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, expressing condolences to the families of the victims.

So sad that such things as this can happen! God bless you all! he added.

Kash Patel, the U.S. Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said in a post on X, My team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown D.C. outside the Capitol Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office. While were working with MPD to respond and learn more, in the immediate term, please pray for the victims and their families. We will keep the public updated.

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The Israeli Embassy has acknowledged the incident but only stated that the ambassador was not present at the time of the attack, without providing further details.

Israeli Embassy spokesperson Tal Naim said, This evening, two Israeli Embassy employees were shot at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capitol Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. We have full confidence in local and federal law enforcement authorities that they will apprehend the shooter and ensure the safety of Israeli representatives and Jewish communities across the United States.
UCSC Launches Academic Initiative to Reframe Global Understanding of Sikhism, Sikh Diaspora

Titled Sikhs in the 21st Century: Remembering the Past, Engaging the Future,

UCSC Launches Academic Initiative to Reframe Global Understanding of Sikhism, Sikh Diaspora

The University of California, Santa Cruz has launched an academic initiative aimed at reshaping global perceptions of Sikhism through digital storytelling and inclusive scholarship, The Economic Times reported, citing an official release by the university dated May 15.

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The initiative is led by Indian-origin professor of economics and Sikh studies scholar Nirvikar Singh. According to the report, the project seeks to provide a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Sikh history, identity, and philosophy.

Titled Sikhs in the 21st Century: Remembering the Past, Engaging the Future, the initiative is housed at UCSCs Humanities Institute. It creates multimedia content that explores the evolution of Sikh institutions, the impact of colonialism, and the complex identity of the Sikh diaspora, the report stated. The project also challenges oversimplified narratives and aims to present a more accurate and comprehensive view of Sikh history and philosophy.

Nirvikar Singh noted that many existing accounts of Sikhism lack depth or are influenced by colonial-era interpretations. We are reexamining inherited assumptions and opening space for deeper, evidence-based engagement, he added.

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Singh, raised in the Sikh tradition, calls the initiative both scholarly and personal.

This project asks: What if we take a step back, and not take anything for granted, even if it is conventional scholarly wisdom?

The initiative is also about expanding accessespecially for scholars from Punjab and marginalized communities.

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Younger or marginalized scholars can be reluctant to engage in non-traditional formats, but they bring crucial insights, Singh explained.

The videos explore themes such as the development of Sikh institutions and the relationship between diasporic identity and language, aiming to challenge misconceptions that portray Sikh tradition as either lacking clear form throughout its history or being primarily shaped by colonial influences.

The videos are developed with support from The Teaching and Learning Center at UCSC and aim to engage young audiences through layered visuals, archival sources, and thoughtful curation.

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Videos dont always fit neatly into traditional academic incentives, so younger or marginalized scholars can be reluctant to engage, Singh explained.

But these scholars bring crucial insights, and we wanted to give them a voice. In doing this, we have also been fortunate to work with The Teaching and Learning Center at UC Santa Cruz, which has deep expertise in producing materials for online education.

We want to honor the richness of the Sikh tradition without falling into oversimplification, Singh said.

Our hope, he said, is that we can help peoplescholars and community members alikesee old things in new ways.

Its about learning and understandingreal, nuanced, grounded understanding for everyone. Thats an important role of the humanities in education.

(For more news apart from UCSC Launches Academic Initiative to Reframe Global Understanding of Sikhism, Sikh Diaspora, stay tune to Rozana Spokesman)
Bucharest, the pillar of the Romanian economy

Bucharest hosted forum on the development of the city, which put the spotlight on its sustainable transformation by means of integrated projects of urban infrastructure and the digitalisation of public services

Source: facebook.com/CCIBucuresti)

Mihai Pelin, 22.05.2025, 13:50

Bucharest continues to be the pillar of the Romanian economy. More than half of foreign direct investments attracted by Romania since 1990 were in the capital city, according to the citys Chamber of Commerce and Industry. However, its growth potential is seriously affected by bureaucracy. This was the idea of the Focus Bucharest 2025 conference, a forum that brought together local officials, entrepreneurs and international investors. According to the National Bank of Romania, in 2023 alone, the Bucharest-Ilfov region attracted 4.1 billion euros worth of foreign investment, double that of any other county.

However, the capital each year loses tens of hours of productivity due to traffic, namely 97 hours per driver, a negative record at European level, and remains vulnerable to pollution and socio-economic inequalities. The sustainable development of the capital city does not only mean modern buildings, but also coherent infrastructure, real digitalisation and a circular economy, emphasised the president of the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Iuliu Stoclosa:

We are interested in the sustainable development of the capital, in terms of infrastructure, digitalisation and circular economy. Were on the right track in all three areas, were getting somewhere with the projects that are already under way, and the goal is to bring together the local administration with the business environment, and with foreign investors. Just by looking at figures, 56% of direct investments in Romania are in Bucharest, which is an attraction for foreign investors, owing to being located at the intersection of two pan-European corridors.

Iuliu Stoclosa recalled that the largest part of foreign investments is concentrated in Bucharest, which has to provide business conditions that are comparable to those in other big European capitals. The manager of Data Center, Costin Bacila, presented two pilot projects that demonstrate how digitalisation can eliminate queuing. Costin Bacila:

In other capital cities, when you want to start a company or make an investment and build something in a month, you have all the needed documents right away and you can you get down to work, but here it takes months and even years, because of the bureaucracy. I presented two big projects that we implemented last year, the digitalisation process at the Romanian Car Registry office, where we replaced all the paper components and physical signatures. Everything is digitalised, from making an appointment to the issuing of the document that has been applied for. I also talked about e-Sigiliu, a project that we implemented together with the Romanian customs and the General Anti-Fraud Directorate and which refers to monitoring transport on Romanian territory.

In conclusion, the participants in the forum agreed that the fight against bureaucracy must be a priority for the future local administration.
Romanias interim president presents activity report

The stability of the country, the organization of presidential elections, foreign and defense policy were among the priorities of the mandate of Romanias interim president Ilie Bolojan.

Ilie Bolojan (Foto: presidency.ro)

Leyla Cheamil, 22.05.2025, 14:00

Romanias interim president, Ilie Bolojan, presented an activity report for his 100 days in office. He said that his main concern as head of state was to ensure stability and the unfolding of the presidential elections. I think the elections unfolded smoothly, in a context of political debates, freedom and normality and Romanians expressed their point of view, said Ilie Bolojan, who voiced appreciation at the turnout rate and thanked those who were involved in staging the elections. Another priority was ensuring internal stability against the background of a large budget deficit, Bolojan pointed out. He also said that he took over the mandate at a time of domestic difficulties and turbulent international context, marked by the war in Ukraine and the inconstant dialogue between the United States and the European Union.

On the other hand, two other important areas that the interim president had in mind were foreign policy and defense. Ilie Bolojan: One pillar was our EU membership, which for us means conditions for prosperity, values, means European funds and development. The second pillar was our NATO membership and the relationship with the United States () So strengthening ties with the United States and the strategic partnership was the second important pillar.

Ilie Bolojan specified that important discussions related to the field of defense were held during these months, aimed at consolidating NATOs Eastern Flank, strengthening the national defense industry, its integration into the value chains of the European military industry. Accessing European funds was also an important topic. Bolojan added that Romania had clear and constant positions regarding the war in Ukraine, and Bucharest supported a just peace and respect for international law. He pointed out that, as far as the Republic of Moldova is concerned, he has constantly supported the partnership with this country, a sister to Romania, and has done everything possible to strengthen collaborative relations, from all points of view. Also, Romanias stand within the EU and the European Council were predictable, convergent with the Romanian Government and this way I believe that I have contributed, in this short period, to strengthening the image of a state and country that one can rely on, a predictable and safe country, Ilie Bolojan also said. (EE)
It's likely to be a weak start for stocks on Bay Street Thursday morning as investors may tread cautiously amid concerns about U.S. fiscal deficit, and continued uncertainty surrounding Trump administration's tariff moves.

Weak crude oil and metal prices are likely to hurt as well.

It is feared that Trump's "big, beautiful" tax bill will substantially increase the Federal government's $36.2 trillion in debt over the next decade.

On the economic front, data on Canadian producer prices and raw materials prices for the month of April are due at 8:30 AM ET.

A report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Canada's CFIB Business Barometer long-term index, which reflects 12-month expectations among small businesses, rose by 5.2 points to 40.0 in May 2025, reaching a three-month high after April's 34.8 reading.

The Canadian market ended notably lower on Wednesday, snapping a ten-day winning streak. The pullback by Canadian stocks partly reflected concerns about rising U.S. treasury yields amid concerns about the fiscal impact of a new U.S. tax bill on the country's deficit.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 216.46 points or 0.8% to 25,839.17 snapping a ten-day winning streak and pulling back off yesterday's record closing high.

Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower on Thursday after longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest in 18 months on concerns that a new budget proposal could swell the country's federal deficit.

European stocks are down in negative territory amid rising concerns over a deteriorating U.S. fiscal outlook, and a lack of clarity on tariff negotiations.

In commodities trading, West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures are down $0.98 or 1.59% at $60.59 a barrel.

Gold futures are down $10.00 or 0.31% at $3,303.50 an ounce, while Silver futures are lower by $0.346 or 1.03% at $33.300 an ounce.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
After opening slightly up, the Canadian market slipped into negative territory Thursday morning, but edged up a bit subsequently in cautious trade, with a few stocks from and financials sectors posting solid gains.

Amid a jump in U.S. treasury yields due to concerns about the fiscal impact of a tax cut bill, and continuing uncertainty about tariffs, investors a bit reluctant to make significant moves.

The benchmark S&P/TSX Composite Index, which dropped to 25,764.80 earlier in the session, was up 21.05 points or 0.08% at 25,860.22 a few minutes past noon.

In economic news, data from Statistics Canada showed Industrial producer prices in Canada declined by 0.8% over a month in April, after posting six consecutive months of increases. On a yearly basis, producer prices advanced by 2%.

The Canadian Raw Materials Price Index fell 3% from the previous month in April, following a 1% drop in March, marking the second consecutive decline and the largest drop since September 2024. Compared to the same month a year earlier, the raw materials price index dropped by 3.6%.

A report from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Canada's CFIB Business Barometer long-term index, which reflects 12-month expectations among small businesses, rose by 5.2 points to 40.0 in May 2025, reaching a three-month high after April's 34.8 reading.

Lightspeed Commerce is down 7.7%. Brookfield Renewable Energy, G Mining Ventures, Endeavour Silver, Baytex Energy Corp, Vermilion Energy, Ivanhoe Mines, ATS Corporation and Ssr Mining are down 2.7 to 4%.

International Petroleum, Imperial Oil, CES Energy, Cenovus Energy, Pan American Silver Corp, IamGold Corp, Nutrien and Eldorado Gold are also notably lower.

MDA Space is gaining about 3.75%. Celestica Inc. is up 3.2% and Toronto-Dominion Bank is climbing up 2.7%. Novagold is up nearly 2%.

Aecon Group, Ngex Minerals, Transcontinental, Air Canada, Shopify, Superior Plus Corp, BlackBerry, Toromont Industries and B2Gold Corp are up 1 to 1.7%.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
The first issue of Intetho Magazine

By: Ephreeda Banda

Rhodes University students launched a magazine in October 2024 that goes beyond storytelling to give space, recognition, and respect to those who rarely see themselves represented. Intetho Magazine was created to celebrate often-ignored voices, with a special focus on young Black creatives. It is a project under Echoes of Uhuru, a personal and artistic multimedia initiative started by Nqobani Dabengwa to explore cultural storytelling through collaboration, expression, and radical imagination. Dabengwa is pursuing a Master's degree in Pharmacy Practice.

The name Intetho stems from the Xhosa word for conversations and reflects Dabengwas formative years at Rhodes University. It was inspired by his peers enrolled in the Intetho Zobomi (Discourses of Life) course, which sparked transformative, lunchtime conversations that nurtured community, curiosity, and care. These moments planted the seeds for a platform rooted in dialogue and dignity. Intetho Magazine was born from those moments, and it carries the same energy: a place where honest conversations can happen, rooted in community, truth, and curiosity. The name is a tribute to those transformative experiences and a reminder of what the magazine continues to nurture.

Intetho features in-depth articles, interviews, creative profiles, mental health reflections, and biographical sketches from changemakers. Each issue weaves these contributions into a mosaic of voice and memory, rooted in culture, activism, and lived experience. Many run small businesses, produce handmade or ethically sourced products, and challenge conventional narratives through their craft. Black stories are not an afterthought; they are the foundation.

The first issue was launched at the Geminivision Creative Agency studio, where the magazine was co-dreamed into existence. The event was intimate and energising, filled with genuine support. People bought copies, shared the work, and offered to collaborate. Co-founder Lithemba Nziweni recently showcased his Hairitage series and helped curate the launch and shape Intethos visual identity with intention and care. "They weren't just a service provider," Dabengwa said. "They were co-dreamers."

The journey to publication involved cross-border coordination, limited funding, and personal strain, with Dabengwa managing nearly all aspects alone, from design to logistics. These struggles highlighted the importance of improvisation and community support in grassroots publishing. "At the start, I was doing everything by myself," he said. "But I knew the vision was bigger than me." Despite the challenges, the response was uplifting. The magazine's first issue was donated to one of the departments at Rhodes University for educational use. Sabona Arts and Crafts in Bulawayo, long a haven for local artisans and youth-led collectives, welcomed the magazine into its archive. Amazwi South African Museum of Literature, impressed by an article in Grocotts Mail, requested a copy and initiated a partnership. These placements signal Intethos belonging in living archives celebrating African resistance and storytelling.

The magazine has grown from a solo project into a community effort. "We underestimate how hungry people are for platforms that centre Black voices with intention and care," Dabengwa said. "Most people who helped with the launch and promotion are Rhodes University students. It's easier to move forward when your audience is your community." For him, this reflects the broader culture at the University, a space that encourages academic success and personal and creative leadership.

Since November 2024, Intetho has expanded its team. Members bring expertise from disciplines like Law, Economics, Drama, Information Systems, Journalism, Anthropology, and Fine Art. They are based both at Rhodes University and remotely. Each brings a unique perspective and commitment to the project's mission. Current team members include:

Kubechosi Mazizi  Head of Reporting and Creative Admin

Leasha Sanyika  Legal Lead, based in Dubai

Junaid Douglas  Social Media Consultant

Dakalo Phindane  Finance Lead and Fundraising

Yeukai Runyowa  Resident Photographer

Kudzai Mhangwa  Editorial and proofreading support

The teams structure is fluid, allowing for shared leadership and creativity. While roles are defined, decisions are made collaboratively through open dialogue and interactive feedback. Dabengwa oversees major decisions but ensures co-creation remains central.

Each issue of the magazine follows a clear theme. Topics such as identity, mental health, cultural memory, and grassroots creativity guide the selection of stories and contributors. The aim is to create a magazine that is not just informative, but transformative - a publication that helps readers see themselves and their communities more clearly.

The magazine has been featured in Grocotts Mail and discussed live on Rhodes Music Radio. Pop-ups with Kwantu Designs and Busi B Johnson showcased how creative distribution can bring community-driven art to life, blending music, storytelling, and conversation. Joining the British Councils SoCreative 2025 cohort marked a turning point, connecting Intetho to international mentorship, funding opportunities, and a wider Pan-African network of cultural leaders.

Looking ahead, the team plans to publish the second issue, expand distribution, host themed activations, and build a digital archive to capture oral histories. These steps aim to deepen community engagement and preserve intergenerational stories.

At its heart, Intetho Magazine is both a mirror and a bridge. It reflects the lived realities of young Black Southern Africans and connects creators across borders and disciplines. In places like Zimbabwe and South Africa, where barriers to creative expression still exist, Intetho is creating space for radical dreaming and collective care. It's more than a magazine; it is a movement grounded in culture, story, and shared hope for the future.
Bajaj offers KTM takeover

It has become common knowledge that KTM, a renowned motorcycle manufacturer, is currently in financial turmoil. The company has been bleeding money and it has been a major buzz in the automotive world. Now, Bajaj, who controls around 37.5% of KTM brand, is upping its stakes to take control of KTM brand with a debt funding package of EUR 800 million (Rs 7,771 Cr).

Bajaj Offers KTM Takeover

Before understanding the debt funding package Bajaj is offering to buy controlling stakes of KTM brand, we have to understand the existing structure. Bajaj Autos wholly owned subsidiary in the Netherlands, Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV (BAIHBV), holds a 49.9% stake in the joint venture, Pierer Bajaj AG (PBAG) in Austria.

The remaining 51.1% stake is controlled by Pierer Industrie, owned by Stefan Pierer. PBAG holds a 75% stake in Pierer Mobility AG (PMAG), which is the holding company of KTM AG, which also controls Husqvarna and GASGAS brands. In essence, Bajaj holds a 37.5% stake in KTM AG and is now offering to take controlling stakes.

To address KTMs acute liquidity challenges, increasing debt, working capital constraints and other woes, Bajaj is proposing an equity acquisition plan for a structured revival of KTM brand and restoring confidence among shareholders. One that aims to rebuild the company and reaffirm its position in the world of premium and sporty motorcycles.

What next?

Bajaj aims to secure a sole controlling stake in PBAG, which will increase its stakes in PMAG, the holding company of KTM AG. On 25th February 2025, creditors accepted KTM AGs restructuring plans applied on 18th November 2024. Following the Austrian Takeover Act favouring a distressed company, BAIHBV is offering a debt funding package to keep KTM afloat.

Were talking about a package of EUR 800 million which roughly translates to Rs 7,771 Cr. Bajaj has already infused EUR 200 million (Rs 1,941 Cr) through four tranches of EUR 50 million (Rs 485 Cr) across FY24 and April-May 2025 as shareholder debt. EUR 150 million (Rs 1,456 Cr) from Bajaj is offered as creditors quota and restart cost.

This leaves EUR 450 million (Rs 4,370 Cr) of the EUR 800 million (Rs 7,771 Cr) that BAIHBV will loan to KTM AG via PMAG through PBAG as a secured term loan. With this debt funding package, Bajaj aims to reconstitute the brand for a journey of turnaround for competitive growth and financial viability along with long-term value creation.
Hyundai and Kia have been expanding their SUV lineup and at the same time, consolidating their portfolio to hit the rivals harder. In that regard, Hyundai is working on a new Venue and Kia on a new Seltos. Both these SUVs have been tested together as part of the same convoy and both test mules don the same MH12 temporary registration plates. Lets take a closer look.

New Kia Seltos and Hyundai Venue

Both Next-Gen Kia Seltos and Next-Gen Hyundai Venue have been spied with MH12 Pune temporary red registration plates. This could indicate that both these vehicles will be manufactured at Hyundais new plant in Pune, which is set to commence operations in FY26. The Pune plant is Hyundais third manufacturing facility in India.

Or, the speculated Hybrid powertrain with Next-Gen Kia Seltos might be under development at Hyundais Pune plant. It is common knowledge Kia does procure some of its powertrains from Hyundai. Where Next-Gen Venue is concerned, it is likely to be among the first vehicles to be manufactured at Hyundais new Pune plant.

New Seltos

With the recent spy shots, we can see the new design direction that Kia is taking with the new Seltos. While the current model is vastly a reflection of its predecessor, Next-Gen Seltos aims to be a lot different with a completely new design language. These spy shots show a slightly boxier approach with front fascia too.

One could say that the Opposites United design language on new Seltos seems to be inspired by Telluride SUV. The lighting elements seen with new Seltos are split into two groups. One is the rectangular headlight with integrated DRL elements along with another DRL element vertically oriented and positioned slightly away from headlight units.

At the rear, we can see connected LED tail lights that are slightly thicker than what we saw in Carens Clavis and is slightly larger too. It also gets new wheels. On the inside, we can similar elements as Syros and Carens Clavis with a ton of features and creature comforts.

New Venue

There have been multiple test mule sightings of upcoming Hyundai Venue in both India and in a few global markets. Almost all of these test mules used fabric camouflage which better conceal the vehicles design. The recent spy shots coming from India show test mules with wrapped camouflage that give away the lighting elements and most of its design highlights.

We can see an evolved design language on upcoming Venue that first originated from Exter. A similar design was seen in Creta N Line and now, we can see it on 2nd Gen Venue. We can see a neatly laid-out front grill that ends extending downwards like in Exter. Vertically arranged LED headlights are present and new Venue features a radar module at the front hinting at Level-2 ADAS.

LED DRL signature is large and expansive. It may be of connected design and towards the end, it extends downwards into an interesting pattern. Other notable exterior highlights include a new alloy wheel design, roof rails and connected LED tail lights. Interiors could not be seen in these spy shots.

Source
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Zeekr, the electric vehicle brand under Geely Holding, recently announced a strategic partnership with Shell to enhance its charging infrastructure deployment.

The first phase of the collaboration sees Zeekr integrate 666 Shell charging stations, comprising more than 12,000 high-quality charging terminals.

Zeekr users can now access Shell charging stations through the Zeekr App or Zeekr Power mini program. As part of the rollout, promotional charging rates are available, offering service fee discounts ranging from 20% to 60%.

Photo credit: Zeekr Power

According to the company, Zeekr Power has connected over 1.29 million third-party high-quality charging terminals, achieving full coverage across all prefecture-level cities on the Chinese Mainland. This includes 5,025 stations for highway service areas and 7,448 ultra-fast charging sites with peak power outputs of at least 360kW.

In addition to its collaboration with Shell, Zeekr has formed partnerships with other players to strengthen its charging network. In February this year, the company announced an agreement with CAMS, enabling two-way network integration. That partnership now includes over 1.1 million terminals, with nationwide coverage in major cities and 83% coverage of highway service areas.

Zeekr has also partnered with other automakers to expand charging accessibility. In May 2025, GAC Energy and Zeekr Power agreed to enable mutual access to each other's charging information through their respective apps and mini programs.

The company is also accelerating its international energy network expansion. On January 7, 2025, Zeekr Intelligent Technology's CMO Guan Haitao announced plans to deploy 800V ultra-fast charging infrastructure overseas. Zeekr aims to complete regulatory certifications throughout the year and will work with local partners to install 1,000 self-operated charging piles. The initial rollout will cover markets including Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, the UAE, Hong Kong of China, Australia, Brazil, and Malaysia.
By Akbar Novruz



The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has extended its condolences to Israel following the tragic deaths of two Israeli diplomats in a violent attack in Washington.

In a post shared on the Ministrys official "X" (formerly Twitter) account, the statement read:
On Tuesday, the US sent quite some mixed signals regarding its diplomatic posture. To begin with, US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr called the WHO "moribund" and urged others to quit. On the same day, the US announced that it would skip the G20 summit in South Africa, yet confirmed that the US is not withdrawing from the world.

In a video shown to global health officials meeting for the body's annual assembly in Geneva, Kennedy dismissed the WHO as bloated and "moribund." "I urge the world's health ministers and the WHO to take our withdrawal from the organization as a wake-up call and we encourage others to consider joining us," he said. This seems to be a US message to the world: When the US walks away from the WHO, other countries should follow suit. However, it appears that other WHO members have ignored this request. Reports indicate that this speech from the US side failed to spark an immediate reaction at the assembly, with most diplomats and ministers remaining silent. Meanwhile, the WHO signed its first international pandemic response treaty without the US, which the UN calls a victory for public health and a major step toward ensuring strong global cooperation.

Also on Tuesday, it was announced that the US president would not attend the forthcoming G20 meeting to be held in South Africa, following last week's news that the White House had banned US agencies from all work on G20 in South Africa.

"We chose not to participate in this year's G20, hosted by South Africa, either at the foreign ministers level or the presidents level. They clearly, on the global stage and in multiple multinational organizations, have consistently been a vote against America's interests time and again," the US side said.

In other words, the unilateralist US is fundamentally dissatisfied with the multilateralism championed by the G20 - just as Washington harbors deep dissatisfaction with the current global trade order. Therefore, it is natural to see the White House show little enthusiasm for the smooth functioning of this key global economic cooperation mechanism. The US stance toward both the WHO and G20 reveals a clear posture: Washington seeks to reshape the international order with its own interests taking precedence, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.

The US withdrawal from international organizations, along with its decision to skip the upcoming G20 meetings, serves to pressure the world into accepting the current administration's unilateral mandates. However, G20 is unlikely to stop holding its annual summits just because the US decides not to show up, just as globalization will continue to march forward and cannot be reversed simply because of one country.

The US is not withdrawing from the world, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday as he batted away criticism of cuts to aid and diplomatic budgets from former colleagues in Congress, Reuters reported.

It is true that the US is not withdrawing from the world; it endeavors to remold the world with a new order that places American interests at its core, Li said. However, this mind-set and practice have already caused concern and vigilance among many countries, including US allies. The world has changed. No matter how much the US tries to resist, its unipolar moment is gone. What today's global governance needs is equality, not hegemony; it needs mutual respect and equal footing, not arbitrary treaty-breaking, or coercing more countries to follow suit; it needs cooperation, not putting a single country's interest first.

That the US is not withdrawing from the world requires real commitment. If the US wants to stay at the heart of global governance, it is time to show a genuine willingness to collaborate.

(Source: Global Times)
Scientists and medics have developed an ultra-rapid method of genetically diagnosing brain tumours that will cut the time it takes to classify them from 6-8 weeks, to as little as two hours -- which could improve care for thousands of patients each year in the UK.

The groundbreaking method, which is detailed in a new study published today in Neuro-Oncology, has been developed by scientists at the University of Nottingham along with clinicians at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH).

In the published work, the team at NUH utilised the new approach during 50 brain tumour surgeries to deliver rapid, intraoperative diagnoses. This approach has achieved a 100% success rate, providing diagnostic results in under two hours from surgery and detailed tumour classifications within minutes of sequencing. Moreover, the platform's ability to continue sequencing enables a fully integrated diagnosis within 24 hours.

Every day in the UK 34* people are diagnosed with some form of brain tumour, equating to more than 12,000 cases a year. The average survival rate can be less than a year for the most aggressive brain cancers.

Brain tumours require complex genetic tests to diagnose, which clinicians currently have to send away to centralised analysis facilities. It can take 6-8 weeks or more to get full results to be able to inform patients what type of tumour they have and their prognosis. This long wait is extremely traumatic for patients, and also delays the start of radiotherapy and chemotherapy which may reduce the chances of treatment working.

The team of experts in Nottingham have developed an ultra-rapid way of genetically diagnosing brain tumours that will eliminate this delay. The method is so quick that they can even get results within a couple of hours and potentially make this information available to the surgeon during the operation to inform surgical decision making.

Dr Stuart Smith is a Neurosurgeon from the School of Medicine at the University and within NUH.

He said: "Traditionally, the process of diagnosing brain tumours has been slow and expensive. Now, with this new technology we can do more for patients because we can get answers so much more quickly which will have a much bigger influence on clinical decision making, in as little as two hours. Patients find waiting many weeks for results extremely difficult and this adds to the anxiety and worry at what is already a very difficult time."

"This type of operation can be quite long, so potentially, a surgeon could be informed during surgery of the accurate diagnosis, which would then impact on the surgical strategy."

The current treatment pathway starts with an MRI scan to ascertain the presence of a tumour, patients will speak to clinicians to discuss the possibilities of what type of tumour they may have. For many tumour types people would then undergo some form of surgery to obtain a sample of the tumour, which currently is sent away to centralised labs for testing to look for abnormalities in the DNA -- which will determine what type of tumour it is.

Traditionally experts would then look at the specimens and the neuropathology view would be to try and identify the cells visually. But in the last few years the process has changed and tumours are categorised on the DNA and genetic abnormalities -- which traditionally is a slow process due to technological limitations.

Professor Matt Loose, a biologist from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham developed a method to sequence specific parts of human DNA at higher depth using Oxford Nanopore Technologies portable sequencing devices. This method allows relevant parts of the human genome to be examined much more quickly and multiple regions of DNA sequenced at the same time -- speeding up the whole process.

The team have now used this method to genetically test brain tumour samples.

ROBIN, a software tool based on the P2 PromethION nanopore sequencers, sequences the DNA by detecting the change in current flow as single molecules of DNA pass through a nanopore -- or tiny hole -- in a membrane.

Professor Loose said: "When we first were able to sequence an entire human genome in 2018, it took around five labs and six months to do, which obviously isn't ideal when time is of the essence for a patient. This new method now allows us to choose the bits of DNA that we need to look at in order to answer specific questions, such as what type of tumour and how can it be treated. Combined with our later research where we were able to look at relevant parts of the human genome more quickly -- then we now have a process where we can use ROBIN to create comprehensive classifications of tumours more quickly.

"Once we have a sample from a patient, we can now quickly extract the DNA and look at the different properties to give us the information we need. Methylation is the one we are most interested in early on in this instance because that defines the tumour type."

Once a sample has been removed during surgery, it is sent to the pathology lab, where they would extract DNA before it being sent to the team to sequence.

Dr Simon Paine, a Consultant Neuropathologist at NUH said: "This new method of diagnosing brain tumours is going to be a game changer, it really is revolutionary. It not only increases the speed at which the results will be available, but the degree of accuracy of the diagnosis as well is incredible."

The team are now looking to get the new testing rolled out at NHS Trusts across the UK.

"Not only is the test more accurate and quicker, but it is also cheaper than current methods," said Professor Loose. "Our calculations stand at around 450 per person, potentially less when scaled-up. There are a few reasons for this. Our method can eliminate the need for four to five separate tests, reducing costs as a consequence as we are getting more information from the single test we do. Most importantly, it delivers results to the patients when they need them."

Dr Simon Newman, Chief Scientific Officer at The Brain Tumour Charity, said: "The delivery of an accurate diagnosis within hours of surgery will be transformative for all patients ensuring rapid access to the optimal standard of care and -- crucially -- removing the uncertainty patients face when having to wait weeks for their diagnosis and prognosis.

"The potential to combine so many separate tests into one and deliver at a localised level is a game changer for driving equity of access to rapid and accurate molecular diagnosis. The BRAIN MATRIX Trial, funded by the Brain Tumour Charity, is now exploring how this technology can match patients to personalised clinical trials across the UK."
Hurricane winds are a major contributor to storm-related losses for people living in the southeastern coastal states. As the global temperature continues to rise, scientists predict that hurricanes will get more destructive -- packing higher winds and torrential rainfall. A new study, published in the journal Risk Analysis, projects that wind losses for homeowners in the Southeastern coastal states could be 76 percent higher by the year 2060 and 102 percent higher by 2100.

University of Illinois civil engineer Eun Jeong Cha and her colleague Chi-Ying Lin used machine learning to simulate the impact of future hurricanes on wooden single-family homes with concrete masonry in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Over the last decade, these states have been hit hard by destructive storms like Hurricane Irma (2017) and Hurricane Helene (2024). Helene's estimated total costs -- which included damages from record-breaking flooding in western Carolina -- were $78.7 billion.

"These states experience the highest hurricane activity and associated wind-related losses in the U.S.," says Cha. "They represent a critical region for understanding how climate change may alter hurricane risk, especially given their large coastal exposure and growing population centers."

Worst-Case Scenario

Cha's simulation of future losses from increasing hurricane winds and rainfall utilizes projections based on the worst-case scenario of global warming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Known as RCP8.5, this scenario represents the highest possible greenhouse gas emissions in the absence of policies to combat climate change. It estimates that the earth's average global surface temperature will be 2.0 C higher by 2065 and 3.7 C higher by 2100 (relative to the 1986-2005 baseline). "The worst-case scenario is widely used to explore high-impact possibilities for long-term planning and resilience studies," says Cha. "We view it as a stress-test scenario for hurricane wind risk."

Under this scenario, the simulation projected that, in the eight southeastern coastal states:

Losses from wind and rain-ingress (when water enters a building) will be 49-76% higher by 2060 and 71-102% higher by 2100.

Hurricane wind speeds in Texas will be 14 percent higher in the 2050s compared to present-day levels.

Texas will experience the highest increase in expected losses, followed by the region of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Some inland counties, such as Charleston, South Carolina, may experience a relatively large percentage increase in projected risk.

At the county level, Cha and her colleagues found variations of hurricane risk associated with climate change, along with differences in regional preparation for hurricane wind hazards. The increasing vulnerability of the county of Charleston, South Carolina, may stem from a combination of projected increases in hurricane intensity, low historical exposure, and infrastructure that has not been stress-tested under more extreme wind and rain conditions.

"Within a state, climate change impact varies from coastal to inland counties," says Cha. "The discrepancies we found emphasize the necessity of vast regional risk assessment for federal- and state-level resource allocation and risk mitigation planning, considering the impact of climate change."

Insurance Models Need to Account for Heavier Rainfall

Hurricane winds account for over 40 percent of storm-related losses in the residential sector, causing $14 billion in expected annual costs to the U.S. economy, according to a 2019 report from the Congressional Budget Office. Yet most hurricane models used by insurance companies fail to consider the impact of climate change. In particular, says Cha, "rain-ingresses are often overlooked in risk assessments." This is why her study considered damages from both stronger winds and heavier rain from future hurricanes in the southeastern coastal states.

Another study recently published in Risk Analysis focuses on the connection between extreme rainfall and extreme insurance claims. Yue Shi, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian School of Economics conducted a study of how extreme rainfall and climate-related events affect home insurance claims. Like Cha, she found increasing risk over time and significant geographical differences -- pointing to a need for new insurance models as the climate gets wetter.

Accurately estimating hurricane hazards and resulting losses is essential, says Cha. "Our findings contribute significantly to our understanding of climate change impacts on hurricane risks, providing valuable insights for policymakers, urban planners, and the insurance industry."
The ocean is teeming with life. But unless you get up close, much of the marine world can easily remain unseen. That's because water itself can act as an effective cloak: Light that shines through the ocean can bend, scatter, and quickly fade as it travels through the dense medium of water and reflects off the persistent haze of ocean particles. This makes it extremely challenging to capture the true color of objects in the ocean without imaging them at close range.

Now a team from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has developed an image-analysis tool that cuts through the ocean's optical effects and generates images of underwater environments that look as if the water had been drained away, revealing an ocean scene's true colors. The team paired the color-correcting tool with a computational model that converts images of a scene into a three-dimensional underwater "world," that can then be explored virtually.

The researchers have dubbed the new tool "SeaSplat," in reference to both its underwater application and a method known as 3D gaussian splatting (3DGS), which takes images of a scene and stitches them together to generate a complete, three-dimensional representation that can be viewed in detail, from any perspective.

"With SeaSplat, it can model explicitly what the water is doing, and as a result it can in some ways remove the water, and produces better 3D models of an underwater scene," says MIT graduate student Daniel Yang.

The researchers applied SeaSplat to images of the sea floor taken by divers and underwater vehicles, in various locations including the U.S. Virgin Islands. The method generated 3D "worlds" from the images that were truer and more vivid and varied in color, compared to previous methods.

The team says SeaSplat could help marine biologists monitor the health of certain ocean communities. For instance, as an underwater robot explores and takes pictures of a coral reef, SeaSplat would simultaneously process the images and render a true-color, 3D representation, that scientists could then virtually "fly" through, at their own pace and path, to inspect the underwater scene, for instance for signs of coral bleaching.

"Bleaching looks white from close up, but could appear blue and hazy from far away, and you might not be able to detect it," says Yogesh Girdhar, an associate scientist at WHOI. "Coral bleaching, and different coral species, could be easier to detect with SeaSplat imagery, to get the true colors in the ocean."

Girdhar and Yang will present a paper detailing SeaSplat at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Their study co-author is John Leonard, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT.

Aquatic optics

In the ocean, the color and clarity of objects is distorted by the effects of light traveling through water. In recent years, researchers have developed color-correcting tools that aim to reproduce the true colors in the ocean. These efforts involved adapting tools that were developed originally for environments out of water, for instance to reveal the true color of features in foggy conditions. One recent work accurately reproduces true colors in the ocean, with an algorithm named "Sea-Thru," though this method requires a huge amount of computational power, which makes its use in producing 3D scene models challenging.

In parallel, others have made advances in 3D gaussian splatting, with tools that seamlessly stitch images of a scene together, and intelligently fill in any gaps to create a whole, 3D version of the scene. These 3D worlds enable "novel view synthesis," meaning that someone can view the generated 3D scene, not just from the perspective of the original images, but from any angle and distance.

But 3DGS has only successfully been applied to environments out of water. Efforts to adapt 3D reconstruction to underwater imagery have been hampered, mainly by two optical underwater effects: backscatter and attenuation. Backscatter occurs when light reflects off of tiny particles in the ocean, creating a veil-like haze. Attenuation is the phenomenon by which light of certain wavelengths attenuates, or fades with distance. In the ocean, for instance, red objects appear to fade more than blue objects when viewed from farther away.

Out of water, the color of objects appears more or less the same regardless of the angle or distance from which they are viewed. In water, however, color can quickly change and fade depending on one's perspective. When 3DGS methods attempt to stitch underwater images into a cohesive 3D whole, they are unable to resolve objects due to aquatic backscatter and attenuation effects that distort the color of objects at different angles.

"One dream of underwater robotic vision that we have is: Imagine if you could remove all the water in the ocean. What would you see?" Leonard says.

A model swim

In their new work, Yang and his colleagues developed a color-correcting algorithm that accounts for the optical effects of backscatter and attenuation. The algorithm determines the degree to which every pixel in an image must have been distorted by backscatter and attenuation effects, and then essentially takes away those aquatic effects, and computes what the pixel's true color must be.

Yang then worked the color-correcting algorithm into a 3D gaussian splatting model to create SeaSplat, which can quickly analyze underwater images of a scene and generate a true-color, 3D virtual version of the same scene that can be explored in detail from any angle and distance.

The team applied SeaSplat to multiple underwater scenes, including images taken in the Red Sea, in the Carribean off the coast of Curacao, and the Pacific Ocean, near Panama. These images, which the team took from a pre-existing dataset, represent a range of ocean locations and water conditions. They also tested SeaSplat on images taken by a remote-controlled underwater robot in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

From the images of each ocean scene, SeaSplat generated a true-color 3D world that the researchers were able to virtually explore, for instance zooming in and out of a scene and viewing certain features from different perspectives. Even when viewing from different angles and distances, they found objects in every scene retained their true color, rather than fading as they would if viewed through the actual ocean.

"Once it generates a 3D model, a scientist can just 'swim' through the model as though they are scuba-diving, and look at things in high detail, with real color," Yang says.

For now, the method requires hefty computing resources in the form of a desktop computer that would be too bulky to carry aboard an underwater robot. Still, SeaSplat could work for tethered operations, where a vehicle, tied to a ship, can explore and take images that can be sent up to a ship's computer.

"This is the first approach that can very quickly build high-quality 3D models with accurate colors, underwater, and it can create them and render them fast," Girdhar says. "That will help to quantify biodiversity, and assess the health of coral reef and other marine communities."

This work was supported, in part, by the Investment in Science Fund at WHOI, and by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Throwing a little heat on your meal might be an effective strategy for cutting back on calories, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

Scientists at the University's Sensory Evaluation Center examined how increasing "oral burn" -- the spicy taste from ingredients like chili pepper -- affects how much food people consume during a meal. The findings, available online now and slated to publish in the October issue of the journal Food Quality and Preference, suggest that making the meal slightly spicier led participants to eat less, consuming fewer calories.

"We know from previous studies that when people slow down, they eat significantly less," said Paige Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the study who earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2023. "We suspected that making a meal spicier might slow people down. We thought, let's test, under controlled experimental conditions in the lab, if adding a small amount of spice, but not so much that the meal is inedible, will make people eat slower and therefore eat less."

The researchers found that increasing spiciness slightly using dried chili pepper slowed down eating and reduced the amount of food and energy consumed at a meal, all without negatively affecting the palatability of the dish.

"This points to added chilies as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of energy overconsumption," said John Hayes, Penn State professor of food science and corresponding author on the paper. "While portion control wasn't the explicit goal of this study, our results suggest this might work. Next time you're looking to eat a little less, try adding a blast of chilies, as it may slow you down and help you eat less."

The team conducted three related experiments in a total of 130 adults who were served one of two lunch meals -- beef chili or chicken tikka masala -- in one of two versions: mild or spicy. The spiciness level was controlled by carefully varying the ratio of hot versus sweet paprika added to the dishes to vary the heat while keeping chili flavor constant.

The researchers then recorded participants on high-definition video while they ate their meals to monitor their eating behaviors. From the videos, Hayes' team measured the amount of food and water consumed, meal duration, eating speed of grams per minute, bite rate, bite size, and collected ratings on appetite, liking and spiciness before and after the meal.

"Formulating the recipes took a long time for the chicken tikka," Cunningham said. "It took so many rounds of testing that my lab mates were sick of it. But science is about trial and error. I'd make a recipe, see how far I could push the spiciness, and we'd taste it. We did that until we reached a level where palatability was matched even when spiciness increased."

The study suggests the reduction in intake is driven by changes in oral processing behaviors, she explained. Specifically, participants ate the spicier meals more slowly. She explained that a slower eating rate often means food is in the mouth longer, which can help signal fullness and lead to eating less. Other studies that slow eating rate by manipulating texture have shown similar effects, she said.

"What's critical here is that the reduction in intake occurred without negatively impacting how much participants liked the food," Hayes said.

He added that water intake didn't differ significantly between spicy and mild meals, suggesting that one seemingly obvious explanation, that people drank more water and filled up faster, was not the primary reason people ate less.

"This is why we need to do empirical studies of behavior, because what you might intuitively expect is often not the case," he said.

Hayes also noted that appetite ratings made before and after the meals were similar, suggesting participants still felt full after the spicy meal, despite eating less of it. Looking ahead, the team is now focused on understanding how oral burn can impact other eating behaviors, like snacking.

Isaiah Smith, a Penn State undergraduate from West Chester, also contributed to this work as part of an Undergraduate Research Internship Program from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. This work was supported by a gift from the McCormick Science Institute and federal appropriations under the Hatch Act from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
This Memorial Day, South Dakota Mines student Nathan Strickland will be observing the holiday in a unique way.

It wont be from home  hell be standing among the graves of fallen American service members in France, honoring their legacy as part of a prestigious international fellowship.

Strickland, a biomedical engineering major from Newcastle, Wyo., was one of six students nationwide selected for the 2025 American Battle Monuments Commissions (ABMC) International Fellowship. He is spending two weeks overseas for a mission orientation and deployment to the Suresnes American Cemetery outside of Paris.

We congratulate our newest fellows and look forward to welcoming them as part of our ABMC team over Memorial Day, said ABMC Acting Secretary Robert Dalessandro. Reaching out to the younger generation is an essential part of our mission and there is really no better way for them to understand that mission than to get hands-on experience at our sites.

ABMC operates and maintains 26 cemeteries and 31 federal memorials, monuments, and commemorative plaques in 17 countries around the world, including the United States.

Strickland applied for the fellowship after seeing it advertised through The Daniels Scholarship Program, of which he was a 2024 recipient. The Daniels Scholarship Program by the Daniels Fund seeks to assist aspirational and driven students who show promise for leadership, a strong sense of moral character and a dedication to community service. The fund was started by Bill Daniels, a cable news pioneer and fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War.

Most of my family are veterans and from a young age, I have been taught the honorable sacrifice those who serve make every day, Strickland said. I knew once I saw the opportunity, it would be a chance like no other to work alongside those with valuable perspectives and great insight into the preservation and memorialization of valor.

He will be in France until May 29 focused primarily on the Memorial Day ceremony at Suresnes American Cemetery. Originally a World War I cemetery, the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial now shelters the remains of U.S. dead of both World Wars, the only cemetery in Europe to have the distinction.

The 7.5-acre cemetery contains the remains of 1,559 Americans who died in World War I and 24 unknown dead of World War II.

Strickland described the fellowship as an incredible experience that has allowed him to take on a wide range of responsibilities, from administrative work and record keeping to maintaining the cemetery grounds. We have had the opportunity to meet with high-ranking government workers, including leaders, scientists, supervisors, security, laborers, and engineers, he said. I have had the opportunity to explore multiple work settings and find new prospective life paths.

In addition to his time at the Suresnes American Cemetery, Strickland has also spent time at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) headquarters in Paris and the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. The memorial honors the American volunteer pilots who flew under French command during World War I before the United States officially entered the war.

Although the entire fellowship has been impactful, Strickland is especially looking forward to participating in the Memorial Day ceremony at Suresnes. We have spent days learning the history, researching and composing life stories of WWI casualties and tending to cemetery grounds for the ceremony, Strickland said. It will be wonderful to celebrate with not only American visitors, but the locals who will participate in the memorialization of these heroes.
Big Technologies reported a decline in revenue and profitability for 2024, with full-year revenue falling to 50.3m from 55.2m and adjusted operating profit dropping to 21.2m from 28.2m.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to 27m, reflecting a margin of 53.7%, down from 59.8% in 2023.

Statutory operating profit dropped sharply to 2.2m due to exceptional items.

Despite the fall in annual performance, the AIM-traded company said it entered 2025 with renewed momentum, delivering 11% underlying revenue growth in the first quarter, excluding the now-ended Colombia contract.

The group maintained a strong balance sheet, with 93.9m in net cash at year-end and continues to benefit from favourable long-term demand drivers in the criminal justice and remote care sectors.

Operational highlights included the rollout of Smart Tag 5.1, continued enhancements to the AI-powered Eagle monitoring platform, and the recent signing of a new contract in Northern Ireland.

A new executive leadership team was installed in May, led by chief executive officer Ian Johnson and chief financial officer Mike Johns.

The company also confirmed ongoing legal action following the dismissal of former CEO Sara Murray.

In March, Big Technologies initiated High Court proceedings and secured an asset-freezing undertaking from Murray covering up to 320m.

The group said it was seeking to add her as a Part 20 defendant in separate litigation involving former shareholders of Buddi Limited, with the aim of recovering any potential liabilities.

Following the cancellation of Murrays 47 A shares in Buddi Limited, the expected dilution from the Growth Share Plan had been reduced by over 17 million shares.

Big Technologies reiterated its confidence in future growth, supported by global opportunities - particularly in the US - and robust structural demand for electronic monitoring solutions.

With the publication of the group's 2024 results, we also draw a line under a disappointing year, however, I am optimistic that the business will return to growth given the substantial interest in our products and the pipeline of prospects, said chief executive officer Ian Johnson.

I am focused on restructuring the group and developing the Buddi brand to capitalise on its huge potential.

I am delighted to be leading the business into a new era of growth, which I have no doubt that our talented team can deliver.

At 1156 BST, shares in Big Technologies were down 0.72% at 103.25p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.
German business sentiment improved in May, according to a survey released on Thursday by the Ifo Institute.

The business climate index ticked up to 87.5 from 86.9 the month before, while the expectations index rose to 88.9 from 87.4.

The current situation index printed at 86.1 in May versus 86.4 in April.

The manufacturing index was -13.8, up from -18.0 in April, while the gauge for the construction sector improved to -18.5 from -21.9.

The service sector index rose to -0.4 in May from -0.8 the month before and the manufacturing index came in at -13.8 from -18.0.

Ifo Institute president Clemens Fuest said: " The recent sharp rise in uncertainty among companies has eased somewhat. The German economy is slowly regaining its footing."

ING said: "After the back-and-forth on US tariffs, German businesses seem to be focusing on the bright side of what could happen under the new German government, rather than fearing the downsides from ongoing uncertainty and trade tensions.

"This is, at least, the message that the just-released Ifo index seems to convey."
Johnson Matthey surged on Thursday as the chemicals firm said it has agreed to sell its Catalyst Technologies business to Honeywell for 1.8bn.

In the announcement, which came alongside the companys full-year results, it said the deal was expected to deliver net proceeds of around 1.6bn, of which 1.4bn will be returned to shareholders after completion.

Johnson Matthey said that following the sale, it will be "repositioned as a highly streamlined group focused on Clean Air and PGMS, driving sustained strong cash generation to support attractive ongoing returns to shareholders".

Chief executive Liam Condon said the sale marked a "significant milestone" in the history of the company.

"This allows JM to realise a very attractive valuation for this business that fully reflects its strong long-term growth prospects," he said.

"We will now fundamentally re-shape Johnson Matthey into a more focused and leaner business. This will better position us to leverage our strong capabilities and leading market positions in Clean Air and PGM Services to drive a step change in sustainable cash generation with higher returns to shareholders. JM is a great company and we are confident that the actions we have announced today will deliver substantial and sustainable value to our shareholders."

News of the sale came alongside results for the year to the end of March 2025, which showed that pre-tax profit rose to 486m from 164m the year before, while revenue ticked down to 11.7bn from 12.8bn.

The company said full-year results were underpinned by a strong second half and were in line with guidance and market expectations, against challenging market headwinds.

"This resilient performance reflects the strength of our businesses and the strategic progress delivered, including cumulative benefits of 200 million from our 2021/22 to 2024/25 group transformation programme," said Condon.

At 0955 BST, the shares were up 28% at 1,774p.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Johnson Matthey is following a well-trodden path of companies who veered out of their comfort zone, couldnt make it work on a grand scale, and who are now retreating back to what they do best.

"Having sold its battery materials business in 2022 after failing to make sufficient returns, last year it also offloaded its medical device components arm, and theres now another disposal. The chemicals group is selling its Catalyst Technologies operation, which is involved in decarbonisation.

"Johnson Matthey is one of several companies on the UK stock market including Smith & Nephew which feel as if theyve been in turnaround mode for years, but where progress has been slow. Its been under pressure from activist investors to reshape the business and no doubt the latest disposal will have been influenced by such shareholders.

"The sharp rise in the share price implies that investors are happy with the new strategic move and its latest numbers. The full-year results talk about driving a step change in sustainable cash generation by having a tighter grip on costs, much lower spending in the business and working capital benefits. Thats exactly what investors want to hear.

"Johnson Matthey is finally making progress with the shrink to greatness strategy that many companies have been following in recent years. Todays share price rebound is impressive but the stock is still trading at less than half the peak achieved in 2018."
Qinetiq posted a slide in profits on Thursday following a "difficult" year, but said it expected trading to improve, helped in part by a key defence contract worth more than 1.5bn.

The defence and security specialist, which warned on profits earlier this year, posted a 2% uplift in underlying revenues for the year to 31 March to 1.93bn.

But operating profits fell to 185.4m from 215.2m, while earnings per share were down 11.2% at 26.1p.

On a reported basis, revenues ticked just 1% higher, while operating losses, weighed down by goodwill impairments and restructuring costs, came in at 90.5m, compared to profits of 192.5m a year previously.

The firm has been rocked by tough trading conditions in key markets, including UK intelligence, as well as heightened geopolitical uncertainty.

Steve Wadey, chief executive, said: "This has been a difficult year for the group, and while we recorded modest growth in revenue and generated good cashflow, our financial performance was not what we anticipated."

However, looking to the current year, and Wadey said the group now had a clear restructuring plan in place, which would help "strengthen and capture the increasing opportunities within our key markets".

It finished the year with the order intake 12% higher at 1.95bn, a record, "and continue to see strong demand for our mission-critical capabilities", including a major contract with the Ministry of Defence.

The five-year extension to its long term partnering agreement to modernise test and evaluation services for the MoD is worth 1.54bn, Qinetiq said.

Qinetiq forecast a 3% uplift in full-year 2026 revenues and EPS growth of between 15% and 20%. The margin was forecast to be around 11%.

Wadey said: "The fundamentals of our business are strong, our priority remains on delivering value accretive organic growth."

As at 0845 BST, shares in FTSE 250 stock were trading 4% higher at 458.4p.

Jamie Murray, analyst at Shore Capital, said: "While the [LTPA] renewal was widely expected, todays announcement should ease any concerns surrounding the contract. We will make minor adjustments to our model, but our forecasts remain broadly in line with guidance and we do not expect a material uplift."

Shore Cap has a hold recommendation on the stock.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has announced that boss Jakob Stausholm will leave the company after four years in the role, calling it a "natural moment" for a change in leadership.

Stausholm, who joined Rio in 2018 as chief financial officer before becoming chief executive officer in January 2021, is to step down later this year at the conclusion of a succession process, the company said.

The CEO is credited with resetting Rio's strategy to align the miner with the energy transition and "shap[ing] a pathway to a decade of profitable growth".

However, chair Dominic Barton said: "This is a natural moment to appoint Jakob's successor, as we look ahead to our next phase in which we will double down to deliver greater operational performance to realise the full potential of our assets."

Stausholm will continue as CEO and on the board until a successor is appointed.

"Under Jakob's leadership, Rio Tinto has restored trust with key stakeholders, aligned our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, built a diverse and talented management team, and set a compelling growth trajectory. Our focus on these things is undiminished and our strategic priorities are unchanged," Barton said.
Mumbais rising energy needs require more reliable and proactive power solutions.

Adani Electricity equips its field teams, 'Power Warriors', with advanced mobile thermal imaging tools.

Smartphone-enabled infrared (IR) devices allow easy, on-the-spot thermal diagnostics.

As Mumbais energy demand surges amid rapid urban redevelopment and climate challenges, Adani Electricity has taken a significant leap in strengthening the citys power infrastructure. The company has equipped its frontline teams, known as 'Power Warriors', with advanced mobile thermal imaging devices to monitor and maintain power assets more effectively.

These compact, smartphone-enabled infrared (IR) tools enable on-the-spot detection of equipment stress and overheating in critical infrastructure such as transformers, switchgear, and distribution panels often before any visible signs of failure emerge. This allows teams to identify and resolve potential issues during their initial site visits, eliminating the need for multiple follow-ups and reducing downtime.

Also Read: Unveiling the Dual Realities of Dark Websites in the Digital Age

An Adani Electricity spokesperson explained that this technology marks a shift from traditional reactive maintenance to a predictive approach. The mobile IR devices are fully integrated with the companys digital operations platform, allowing thermal images captured in the field to trigger intelligent workflows powered by AI and machine learning. These workflows help flag problems early, allocate resources efficiently, and monitor patterns across the power grid.

Adani Electricity ensures greater power stability, even during peak demand periods, leading to fewer unplanned outages and faster resolution of service interruptions. Field teams now make data-driven decisions supported by real-time visuals shared across departments, enhancing overall operational efficiency. By catching faults early,ensures greater power stability, even during peak demand periods, leading to fewer unplanned outages and faster resolution of service interruptions. Field teams now make data-driven decisions supported by real-time visuals shared across departments, enhancing overall operational efficiency.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to Mumbais residents by providing cutting-edge tools that empower their 'Power Warriors' to act swiftly and smartly. This initiative supports Adani Electricitys vision of delivering a reliable and resilient power supply that anticipates challenges keeping the city switched on, no matter the circumstances.
As Brunei accelerates its digital transformation, the nation faces escalating cybersecurity threats. In response, TraiCon Events is proud to announce of the Cyber Revolution Summit  Brunei, scheduled for June 17, 2025, at The Centrepoint Hotel, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.

This premier event aims to unite over 200 pre-qualified delegates, including CISOs, CIOs, IT Security Heads, Risk Managers, and Government Officials, to address the pressing challenges in the cybersecurity domain.

Our Esteemed Sponsors:

TIER ONE: Qualys

TIER TWO: Cybersafe, Fortinet

Key Highlights:

Visionary Keynotes from national cyber authorities and global tech leaders

Panel Discussions on topics such as cyber resilience, risk management, AI in security, threat intelligence, and data privacy

Live Technology Demonstrations showcasing innovations from leading cybersecurity solution providers

High-Impact Networking opportunities with over 10 hours of face-to-face interactions, B2B meetings, and closed-door briefings

Exhibition Zone featuring cutting-edge products, services, and digital security tools

Why Attend?

The summit serves as a strategic platform for fostering collaborative cybersecurity frameworks, public-private partnerships, and policy innovation. In an era where digital trust is paramount, the event emphasizes the importance of national cyber readiness.

Who Should Attend:

Chief Information Officers (CIOs), CISOs, CTOs

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs)

Heads of IT and Cybersecurity

VPs and Directors of Information Security

Governance, Risk & Compliance Leaders

Digital Transformation and Innovation Heads

Security Architects & Analysts

Public Sector Cyber Experts & Policy Makers
Pakistan expelled an Indian High Commission staffer a day after India ousted a Pakistani diplomat over alleged espionage activities.

This marks the second reciprocal expulsion within a week, signaling escalating diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

Both countries accused each other's diplomats of activities inconsistent with their official status, reflecting deepening mistrust in India-Pakistan relations

India-Pakistan tensions have heightened again as the two countries exchanged tit-for-tat diplomatic ejections, heightening a particularly tense bilateral relationship. Pakistan ejected an Indian High Commission official stationed in Islamabad on Thursday, the second such ejection in a week and a very serious diplomatic standoff.

This new action followed a day after India declared a Pakistani official at the High Commission in New Delhi persona non grata for suspected espionage activities. India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Pakistani diplomat was "found to be indulging in activities not in consonance with his official diplomatic position" and was asked to depart the country within 24 hours.

In a tit-for-tat reaction, Pakistan's Foreign Office had issued a sharply worded statement declaring the expulsion of an Indian diplomat from its capital. "The Government of Pakistan has declared an official of the High Commission of India in Islamabad persona non grata for conducting activities at variance with his diplomatic immunities," the statement stated. The Indian officer has also been directed to leave Pakistan within 24 hours.

This back-and-forth follows an earlier incident on May 13, when another Pakistani official was expelled from India under similar espionage allegations. These reciprocal actions have reignited diplomatic hostilities and drawn attention to the fragile state of India-Pakistan relations.

The diplomatic expulsions, a rare and extreme move in international diplomacy, generally indicate a failure of communication or an increased distrust between nations. Experts point out that such actions may impede dialogue and further complicate any conceivable attempts at re-establishing peace or cooperation between the two nuclear-armed nations.

This latest episode also highlights the enduring suspicion and volatility on the subcontinent, where espionage allegations have long been embedded within a larger narrative of suspicion and geopolitical competition. Lacking an immediate indication that tensions would begin to de-escalate, observers are closely following for developments that would shape the regional security landscape.
The Armenian media found out the details of the strange trial that has been taking place since January at the Munich Supreme District Court. We found out and were very happy, because for a long time there had been no good news for the Armenians.

In Munich, it turns out, there is a trial in the cases of former PACE deputies from Germany, who allegedly lived on "bribes" from Azerbaijan. As usual, everything is in a fog. Who, what, why? Some scraps and conjectures. The most surprising thing is that although the trial has been extended until the end of the year and the verdict is still very far away, the indictment of the Munich General Prosecutor's Office in this case has been handed over to the Armenian edition. Very interesting, isn't it? It seems that it is time for the Munich court to open a case against the prosecutor's office on the facts of corruption and the sale of judicial materials to Armenians. After all, if the Armenian media, eager for sensationalism, has to scrape information from insiders, it means that the process is completely closed. And handing over the indictment to anyone before it is announced is a serious violation.

The Armenian media thinks that Europe is in for a real sensation. Rubbish. First of all, everyone is trying to lobby their interests, and the Armenian side should know about it. The Armenians spend billions on buying lobbies in international and European organizations, parliaments and governments of the countries of the world, and this is no secret to anyone. Thanks to these billions, the crimes of Armenia and Armenians are being blurred, blurred, painted over, and put off the agenda. And this crime is doubly so, because the Armenians pay for the lies, and the Azerbaijani side has to look for ways to promote the truth. But the Armenian lie is sweeter than the Azerbaijani truth and, by the way, is much more worthwhile because it is a lie. And anyway, the Armenian media are licking their lips in vain. The Azerbaijani side has long since given up trying to get the truth anywhere. Azerbaijan promotes its truth in other ways that are inaccessible to the Armenians for any money. The Diaspora still continues to senselessly finance a lot of insatiable mouths in the same PACE, in the European Parliament, but to no avail. Millions are going nowhere, they are already leaving by inertia, although it is absolutely clear that the era of lobbying is coming to an end.

And anyway, we don't even think about claiming the palm in lobbying matters. It is a well-known fact that we cannot keep up with the Armenians in this matter. Here we recognize the advantage of neighbors. Because the Armenians are buying up the votes of entire parliaments. However, everything is meaningless. Well, there is no Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, so what? What did it give Armenia? Yes, the diaspora has thrown millions into bribing hundreds of greedy Europeans to get the vote it needs. So what? Has it affected Armenia in any way, or has it hurt Azerbaijan in any way? Spending on the purchase of the European Parliament is generally wasted. This is the structure of the European Union, which is not taken seriously even by the EU members themselves, and even more so its resolutions are completely meaningless to outside countries.

An interesting fact was announced in 2012, causing a scandal in PACE. Then Goran Lindbland, the former Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly, rose from his seat and made a statement that instantly disgraced Armenia in front of the whole world. "The Armenian delegation tried to bribe me," he said. Lindbland accused the head of the Armenian delegation, David Harutyunyan, of trying to bribe him to lobby for Yerevan's interests. Moreover, Lindbland made his statement not on the sidelines, but at a PACE meeting, and even in the presence of the head of the Armenian delegation himself.

The incident vividly demonstrated how "friends of Armenia" can actually be "concerned" about its problems. Worry is simply bought.

This is how a number of foreign organizations, politicians, diplomats, political scientists, and journalists suddenly shut up the voice of reason and conscience and develop fierce hatred for Azerbaijan. This is how bills recognizing the mythical "Armenian genocide", "ethnic cleansing" in Karabakh, and the like are being passed in parliaments around the world.

In 2023, the Center for Research on Corruption and Organized Crime (OOCCRP) published the results of an investigation showing that an Armenian-funded lobbying group had been engaged in bribing European politicians since at least 2016. The investigation makes reference to the secret electronic correspondence of lobbyist Sargis Mirzakhanyan, who is a media adviser/expert.

Judging by the letters sent, OOCCRP emphasizes that Mirzakhanyan formed a group of analysts, journalists and political strategists who promoted certain narratives abroad. The Armenian lobbyist's team paid far-right activists to publish certain articles in the European media. 68,000 euros were allocated for one of the projects, in particular. According to the investigation, Armenian lobbyists offered money to friendly European politicians in exchange for help in promoting the necessary initiatives. OCCRP and partner publications IRPI, Important Stories and Profil have revealed leaks of Mirzakhanyan's emails. The emails were published by hackers in 2016-2017.

The emails describe in detail the ideas of individual projects for Cyprus, Latvia, Greece and even PACE. Representatives of the right-wing parties of Italy and Austria, Paolo Tosatoiz and Johannes Huebner, according to correspondence, were supposed to receive 20 thousand euros, and another 15 thousand euros were reserved for each of them. In one of the leaked letters, Mirzakhanyan reports that he received information from an unnamed European politician "on the price tag." Tozatoiz and Hubner eventually presented the projects needed by Mizakhanyan in their parliaments. In addition, in 2016, Mirzakhanyan's organization worked with Italian MP Stefano Valdegamberi from the Veneto regional parliament. "It turned out to be a bomb! From the point of view of media coverage, this is likely to be our loudest information poll!" Mirzakhanyan praised himself in one of the letters.

The letters contain a list of names of European politicians and the amount of their fees.

It is also worth recalling the relatively recent scandal involving the vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva Kiley, and dozens of other MEPs, who were stripped of their innocence. This scandal has not subsided to this day. And what is important is that Kylie and many of the participants in the scandal were active Armenian lobbyists. Not for nothing. Sure.

In November 2021, 33 MEPs, including Eva Kiley, signed a petition accusing Azerbaijan of "aggression." The whole company was a member of the friendship group with Armenia, closely linked to the Pan-European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy, the largest Armenian organization in Europe, funded by Armenian billionaire Kaspar Karapetyan. With this money, the so-called friendship group with Armenia financed the lobbyists, actually giving them a "salary."

Kaspar Karapetyan is one of the financiers of the anti-Azerbaijani network in Europe and the head of the Armenian mafia in Belgium. This guy is involved in smuggling multicolored diamonds and diamonds from the conflicting regions of Africa to Europe. Besides him, the friendship group with Armenia is also funded by Vartan Sirmakes, CEO of the Swiss watch company Franck Muller Group.

The Armenians have a lot of fluff in their mouths, and a long trail of scandals and crimes is dragging after them. Therefore, it would be better for the Armenian media to be alarmed by every news about the "corruption scandal" that they are trying to link to Azerbaijan. Because the Azerbaijani side will always have something to answer.
Amanda Heben and Joseph Taranovich, both 23, are both charged with murder in state Supreme Court, St. George, in the July death of their infant son. Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The courts have ordered that a Staten Island couple charged in the death of their baby be released from custody and placed on electronic monitoring devices.

Joseph Taranovich and Amanda Heben, both 23, were charged with second-degree murder in connection with the 2024 death inside the couples then-Tottenville home.
Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, outside the Capital Jewish Museum. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The NYPD has increased security at religious sites and cultural institutions in New York City following the fatal shootings of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel, the Associated Press reported.

The couple, gunned down on Wednesday evening while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, were about to be engaged and the man had purchased a ring, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said.

In a post on social media, the NYPD stated that high-visibility patrols, heavy-weapons teams, and counterterrorism officers have been assigned to sensitive sites in an apparent precautionary measure since the slayings have no known nexus to New York City.

A marked NYPD car was seen outside Aur Torah Sephardic Minyan of Staten Island, a synagogue at 1180 Rockland Ave. near Merrymount Street in New Springville on Thursday.

The heinous act of pure hatred and antisemitism manifested in this horrify attack is unforgivable, said Rabbi Mendy Mirocznik, president of the Council of Jewish Organizations of Staten Island. After 19 months of attacking Israel nonstop and vilifying it as it fights a war for survival sadly resulted in [Wednesdays] terror attack.

However, I do fervently believe that good people in good conscience who have come together from all diverse communities in condemning this cold-blooded criminal act is the only way to combat this hate.

The rabbi encouraged Jews to continuing living with pride in their heritage.

May we honor the memory of the victims by focusing on tackling antisemitism and being proactive on what the danger of intifada is, Mirocznik said.

Mayor decries violent antisemitism

Theyre a beautiful couple attending a young Jewish professional event and we lost them to a senseless act of despicable violence, Mayor Eric Adams said of the shooting victims when he spoke at a news conference on Thursday. This violence is exactly what they mean when you hear the words, globalize the intifada. It is the actual playing out of these comments.

The mayor described the violence as antisemitic propaganda masquerading as activism.

Adams said, Lets call this what it is, a depraved act of terrorism.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch wore an all-black outfit and a Star of David pendant as she stood with the mayor and a diverse group of community and religious leaders at the news conference.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, head of the Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, said in an interview with ABC 7 that there have been no credible threats against New York City in the wake of the D.C. shootings.

We always, when an incident like this happens, whether its in D.C. or around the world, we will, out of an abundance of caution, surge resources, and weve done so this morning, Weiner said. Youre going to see that over the course of the day.

In addition to specialized units, more patrol officers will be dispatched to places such as cultural institutions, houses of worship and Israeli diplomatic facilities, Weiner told ABC 7.

Part of this is about deterrence and part of it is about reassurance, which is really important, she said of the enhanced security.

Weiner referred to behind-the-scenes efforts such as intelligence work and coordinating with law-enforcement partners as part of a continuing strategy that has intensified since the Hamas kidnappings of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Weve been dealing with a heightened threat environment since October 7th, Weiner said.

While there is no known nexus to NYC, in response to last nights horrific attack in DC targeting Jews & Israelis, the NYPD is increasing its presence at religious sites & cultural institutions with high visibility patrols, heavy weapons teams, and counterterrorism officers.  NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 22, 2025

Israeli missions bolstered their security and lowered their flags to half-staff in response to the shootings, according to the Associated Press.

The suspect, identified by authorities as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, Illinois, was seen pacing outside the museum, according to the Associated Press.

When Rodriguez was apprehended after the carnage, he allegedly chanted, Free, free Palestine, a slogan often used at protests against the war in Gaza.

Rodriguez was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington is expected to prosecute the case, according to the Associated Press.

A NYPD car is stationed outside Aur Torah Sephardic Minyan of Staten Island, a synagogue at 1180 Rockland Ave. near Merrymount Street in New Springville on Thursday, May 22, 2025, the day after the alleged antisemitic fatal shooting of a man and woman in Washington, D.C. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)

A NYPD car is stationed outside Aur Torah Sephardic Minyan of Staten Island, a synagogue at 1180 Rockland Ave. near Merrymount Street in New Springville on Thursday, May 22, 2025, the day after the alleged antisemitic fatal shooting of a man and woman in Washington, D.C. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)

https://apnews.com/article/israel-embassy-jewish-museum-shooting-9e77d16a88d634b0dde5b2455c96dddf
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The NYPD is asking for the publics assistance related to the theft of a valuable painting from a Tottenville home.

It was reported to police that on Thursday, May 15, at approximately 9 a.m., an unidentified individual used an unknown object to forcibly enter through the window of a residence located within the vicinity of Tottenville Place and Wards Point Avenue.

Once inside, the individual removed a painting valued at approximately $500,000, according to a statement from the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

The individual fled on foot, and no injuries were reported.

Painting by renowned artist

The NYPD released a photo of the missing painting, as they asked the publics help locating the stolen artwork.

The painting, titled City Gleaning, was created by renowned artist TF Chen.

According to Chens website, the painting, a devastating commentary, shows three peasants picking up the trash of a profligate society, scavenging cans from a dump.

In the background, the Statue of Liberty stands on a Coke can and the World Trade Center highlights the skyline.

Do they scavenge the soft drink cans to clean up the mess of litterers, or are they gleaning to have something to sell? the website asks. Take your choice.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ , on X @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.
The Thomas J. Tori Chapter, Vietnam Veterans of America's Day of Remembrance several years back at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the Manor Road Armory, West Brighton. George Sullivan, of the honor guard, read the names of the 85 Staten Islanders killed in the conflict. Mary LaManna McLoone, also of the honor guard, rang the bell after each name was read. With Sullivan at the dais is Dennis McLoone Staten Island Advance

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Members of the Honor Guard of the Thomas J. Tori Chapter No. 421 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, will salute those who gave their all, during an annual Day of Remembrance Roll Call of Honor, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park located at the Manor Road Armory in West Brighton.

The ceremony will be conducted on Sunday, June 8 at 6:30 p.m., rain or shine. Seating will be available under tents.

Salvatore Cassano, retired FDNY commissioner, will serve as master of ceremonies.

During the Call of Honor, members of Chapter 421 will read read the names of the 83 Staten Islanders killed in action and two missing in action during the conflict in Vietnam.

Honor guard member George Sullivan stands at attention during the Vietnam Veterans of America Thomas J. Tori Chapter 421's "A Day of Remembrance" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in West Brighton several years back. (Advance/SILive.com/Bill Lyons) Staff-Shot

The ceremony is always conducted on the Sunday before Fathers Day.

Families of the 85 Staten Islanders who died in Vietnam, in what to that point was the longest military conflict in United States history, are invited to attend A Day of Remembrance.

The public is also welcome to attend.

On hand at the annual event will be members of the military past and present, family members, friends dignitaries, and politicians.

Gene DiGiacomo, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Thomas J. Tori Chapter 421. (Advance/SILive/Joseph Ostapiuk) (Advance/SILive/Joseph Ostapiuk)

Chapter 421 President Gene DiGiacomo will be the keynote speaker.

Carol Burns of Livingston places a flower on the memorial with the help of her grandson, Oliver Ruiz Gomez several years ago. Mrs. Burns cousin, John Brown, was killed in the Vietnam War. Photo by Jin Lee (Staten Island Advance)

Families will also have a chance to place flowers at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall that lists the names of the those who lost their lives in Vietnam.

ORIGINS OF THE MEMORIAL

The Memorial was dedicated on May 7, 1988, when Staten Island veterans declared that their fallen comrades will not be forgotten.

Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. troops in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, was the keynote speaker in 1988.

Westmoreland praised all Staten Island war veterans and the Memorial, calling it one of the finest local memorials in the country.

For additional information on the chapter, which lists the 85 names on its website, see vva421.org
A New York Police Department harbor unit passes in front of the Cuauhtemoc, a masted Mexican Navy training ship as it sits stranded near the Manhattan Bridge after colliding with the Brooklyn Bridge, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  The annual Parade of Ships proceeded through the waters of New York Harbor Wednesday afternoon in celebration of Fleet Week, a spectacle for those who lined the citys shores.

But the thought a potential tragedy could happen  like the fatal collision between a Mexican Navy tall ship and the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday  was in the back of some peoples minds.

Every time one of those situations happen, we say to ourselves wow, hope theyre checking out the Verrazzano Bridge to make sure that nothing like that could ever happen, said Joanne Smith, 68, a Great Kills resident who traveled to Fort Wadsworth to watch the procession of Navy and Coast Guard vessels glide under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

Saturdays crash resulted in the deaths of two crew members and injured at least 17 others, police confirmed.

The ship, identified as the ARM Cuauhtemoc, had just disembarked from Pier 17 in Manhattan and was reportedly headed out to sea when it reversed course and collided with the bridges structure, the Associated Press reported.

Arturo Hernandez, 61, a resident who lives down the block from Fort Wadsworth, expressed concerns over the height of ships, explaining that as time has gone on, ships have grown taller.

As you know, sometimes the ships have to wait out there to go through, you know? So a miscalculation and there could be an accident, Hernandez said.

Previous calls for safety reviews

The Brooklyn Bridge incident isnt the only bridge catastrophe to happen in recent memory.

A little more than a year ago, in March 2024, a cargo ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland. Six construction workers died.

At the time, Assemblymember Charles Fall penned a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul calling for safety reviews of Staten Islands crossings.

In this aerial image released by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge back in March 2024 in Baltimore. Maryland National Guard via AP

The recent catastrophic event in Baltimore has shed light on the imperative need to reassess and bolster the structural integrity and safety measures of these essential infrastructures. Fall wrote. This is a call to action to prevent potential tragedies and ensure the safety of all New Yorkers by conducting a swift and thorough examination of these critical bridges.

A March 2025 report by the National Transportation Safety Board identified 68 bridges across 19 states and recommended that 30 bridge owners conduct a vulnerability assessment to determine the risk of bridge collapse from a vessel collision; among those bridges were the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing.

The report did not suggest the 68 bridges were certain to collapse, the National Transportation Safety Board clarified.

Non-issue for others

Although a concern for some, the fear of what could be, did not dampen the joyful moment that was for the many.

Well, anything could happen, but I trust that the people in charge of taking care of them are doing their best to take care of it, Rafal Adams, 49, said.

Tim Ivers, 62, a Long Island resident who came to Staten Island for the parade viewing, shared that the thought of a bridge strike hadnt crossed his mind.

Tom and Betty Degnan, 78 and 76, respectively, are residents of the Jersey Shore who visited the Island for Fleet Week. They explained that while they do not have concerns over bridge collisions, they do believe the Outerbridge Crossing is a concern, given how narrow it is.

You cant sneeze, Betty noted with a laugh.

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I spent a night aboard one of the U.S. Coast Guards largest war vessels, and it was an unforgettable experience. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  There arent many times a journalist has the honor and privilege to stay aboard a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, so when I was presented with the opportunity to get an inside look few will ever have  during Fleet Week no less  I jumped at the chance.

I was at the Advance/SILive.com headquarters in Bloomfield Tuesday morning when I got the call telling me I was invited to spend a night aboard the USCGC Calhoun, a Legend-class national security cutter that is usually homeported in South Carolina, and cruise under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge as part of the Parade of Ships the following day.

95 1 / 95 Visting the USCGC Calhoun for Fleet Week 2025

As a breaking news reporter, Ive covered fires, crime scenes, accidents and more, so I jumped at the opportunity to try something new.

I left the office, went home to my apartment in Charleston to hastily pack an overnight bag, and headed to the Coast Guards Staten Island headquarters in Fort Wadsworth, where I would be ferried, so to speak, to the USCGC Calhoun.

Once I arrived at the base, I called an officer from the U.S. Coast Guards Public Affairs Detachment for New York to let them know I was there. A few minutes later, Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Breanna Boardman welcomed me; she would be my escort during my stay on the ship.

As a breaking news reporter, Ive covered fires, crime scenes, accidents and more, so I jumped at the opportunity to visit the USCGC Calhoun. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

The journey to the Calhoun

The two of us headed down to the pier on foot, where we met up with several other Coast Guard members who were scheduled to board the USCGC Calhoun for Fleet Week.

At the dock we loaded our bags on a small vessel, underwent a safety debriefing, then donned life vests before taking a zippy 30-minute ride out of the Upper Bay of New York Harbor to a second boat; that boat would then take us to where with USCGC Calhoun was stationed off the coast of New York City.

Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Breanna Boardman and Shaina McLawrence at the end of our journey on May 21, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

Luckily for us, it was a fairly temperate day outside with the temperature hovering around 66 degrees; that made for only a slightly chilly boat ride. The sea air was fresh and whipped around me as I stood testing my sea legs out as the boat jumped the oceans waves.

As a fairly new Staten Island resident  I moved here from Georgia in 2022  Ive crossed the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge several times by car, but Id never gone underneath it via boat.

The weather when we got to the USCGC Calhoun was pleasant. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

I looked up in amazement at the structure; from beneath the span one can truly observe the engineering feat it takes to build and maintain the bridge. Cars on the upper and lower levels continued to cross as we rode underneath the arch. This view of New York City was something Id never experienced.

I was able to stand on the boats small deck area for about 15 minutes before the cold wind and spraying water finally got to me. I went inside the small cabin area to sit down in one of the four tall barstool style leather chairs available.

We eventually got to the USCGC Calhoun, where our small boat was hooked up and hoisted aboard, suspended in mid-air and secured by strong wires and other pulleys.

Once aboard the ship we were each directed to our rooms. The rooms were about the size of a standard college dormitory that could sleep four people in two bunk beds. Each room on the ship was equipped with a television that received basic channels (for the most part), a telephone, a small shower/toilet area, and a sink on the outside in the common area.

It was then I noticed that all cell phone signal was gone. I was in the dark technologically for the first time in a long time.

I toured all over the ship, from the mess deck to the bridge. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

Once we deposited our overnight luggage into the room and made our beds for the evening with the sheets that were provided, Boardman took me to explore the ship a bit before chow in the mess deck around 6 p.m.

Exploring the ship

The USCGC Calhoun is large with many entryways and exit points that were purposefully designed with crew safety in mind. I had to climb the ships ladders (stairs) to get from one floor to the next.

I was able to tour the rear deck and helipad, stern, kitchen, laundry room, a recreational activity room, a private dining area for high-ranking officers, food freezers, and the hangar all before dinner.

For dinner, we had our pick of beef lasagna or ziti noodles with marinara sauce and cheese. There was also a side of asparagus and garlic bread. The food was cooked by the ships award-winning culinary team.

For dinner, we had our pick of beef lasagna or ziti noodles with marinara sauce and cheese. There was also a side of asparagus and garlic bread. The food was cooked by the ships award-winning culinary team. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

After dinner we got our steps in and walked around the ship a little bit, hung out on the deck, and spoke to some of the crew.

The crew was comprised of individuals of all ages and races from across the country.

We then went back down to the mess deck, which kind of acts as a makeshift living room for the crew, to wait for the opportunity to go into the ships bridge.

Everything was kept very tidy on the ship. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

In the bridge was a complicated navigational system, as well as at least 12 people helping Captain Matthew Hammond helm the vessel. After meeting Hammond, he kindly gave me a Calhoun Challenge Coin, a special coin that represents the U.S. Coast Guard, a specific unit within it, or a significant achievement or event related to the service.

We then ventured to the bow of the ship, and saw the 130-foot mast.

At this point, it was about 9:30 p.m., and time for a shower and then bed.

Captain Matthew Hammond of the Coast Guard Cutter Calhoun helms the vessel. He gifted me a Calhoun Challenge Coin. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

The shower area was small about 3 feet wide by 8 feet long, and did have hot water. Afterwards I climbed into my bed for the night, set up my bunk-bed fall prevention railing, and hit the hay.

There was a gentle swaying back and forth that rocked me to sleep.

I spent the night Tuesday aboard one of the U.S. Coast Guards largest war vessels, and it was an unforgettable experience. May 20, 2025. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

Day 2 on the Calhoun

Around 7:30 a.m. we headed to the mess deck for breakfast.

For breakfast there was a delicious spread of freshly cooked sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and biscuits with gravy.

After breakfast we went up to the deck to begin preparing for the Calhouns Fleet Weeks entrance.

For breakfast there was a delicious spread of freshly cooked sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and biscuits with gravy. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

Crew lined up on the left side closest to Manhattan as the Calhoun  escorted by NYPD boats and U.S. Navy vessels  went underneath the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge for the third time in its career (it was part of Fleet Week in 2024).

The weather was cold and rainy, and as the boat continued on its journey into New York Harbor, wind made it nearly unbearably cold. Crew, who were wearing matching short-sleeve shirts, switched out every 15 minutes so they could each warm up.

The day of the Parade of Ships, the weather was chilly and rainy. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

Eventually it started to rain so heavily that we all went inside.

It wasnt long before the ship anchored at the 90th Street dock on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Boardman escorted me back to our room to gather our belongings so that we could disembark.

A helicopter pad on the USCGC Calhoun. Advance/SILive.com | Shaina McLawrence

There are some places that make you feel like an outsider when you walk in  especially as a journalist. But once I boarded the Calhoun, I felt as if I was a part of the crew.

It was an incredible experience, one that Im so grateful for and wont ever forget.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Staten Island residents braved the elements Wednesday morning to welcome a procession of Navy and Coast Guard vessels to New York Harbor.

The annual Parade of Ships, which marks the official start of Fleet Week in New York City, started about three hours later than expected; the first ship did not pass under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge until just after 11 a.m.

Despite the prolonged wait and persistent rain, more than two dozen viewers gathered at Fort Wadsworth to catch the procession.

Its a wonderful day to enjoy

With the wet weather, many onlookers sought refuge in a car or under the shelter of an umbrella until the first ship was spotted.

But the rain didnt ruin what was an otherwise joyful time for Rafal Adams, 49, a New Brighton resident, who brought his three children to the annual event.

The USS New York passes under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

This is great, Adams said of the procession. The weather isnt perfect, but its fine. It is still beautiful, rain is wonderful, we get to see the ships in their element, water doesnt hurt them, we can still appreciate it so its a wonderful day to enjoy.

US Coast Guard Cutter Sturgeon Bay enters New York Harbor. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

Gail White, 70, a Rosebank native, sat resolute in a lawn chair as the rain picked up and battered her umbrella.

Being present for the Parade of Ships was of particular importance for White.

A Royal Canadian Navy ship enters New York Harbor. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

My father was in World War II, and (the Parade of Ships is) just something that I always like to show respect and attend.

She added: I think the men deserve a lot of respect for putting their lives on hold to protect us in this crazy world and environment that we live in.

USS Oakhill (LSD 51) enters New York Harbor. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

Once the first ship came into sight, spirits lifted.

Tom and Betty Degnan, 78 and 76, respectively, traveled to Staten Island from the Jersey Shore. The told the Advance/SILive.com they felt it was the best spot to hopefully catch a view of their grandson, a fifth-generation member of the United States armed forces.

Watching the Parade of Ships are Westerleigh residents Tom Reeder with his children, Tommy, 6, and Teagan, 8. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

Tom, a Navy veteran, explained that his grandson is a sophomore at the University of Texas going through the Navy ROTC program, which landed him aboard the USS Oak Hill, one of the vessels in Wednesdays parade.

The USS New York passes under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

The Degnans werent the only ones who came from outside borough limits for the view.

Tim Ivers, 62, a Long Island resident, takes time each year to watch the parade with his son.

NYC Fleet Week Parade of Ships pass under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge escorted by military helicopters and the US Coast Guard. Steven White |Advance/SIlive.comSteven White |Advance/SIlive.com

This is something we like to do together, Ivers noted. Its nice to see the ships. I think this is the best view because you can see the Manhattan skyline on one side and (the ships) just look very impressive coming under the bridge.
Michelle Obama took part in some flirty banter with a podcast guest in the wake of rumors that her marriage to former President Barack Obama was in danger.

The flirty exchange took place during a talk with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on Obamas IMO podcast, which she co-hosts with brother Craig Robinson.

The back-and-forth started when Chesky, a friend of the Obamas, shared a story about how one customer relentlessly refreshed the Airbnb website in a bid to stay in Cheskys home.

The former FLOTUS implied that the customers effort to stay with Chesky resonated with her, Reality Tea reported.

I have to say, Brian, if Im a single girl out there and I find out that Brian Chesky is single and I can like, stay in his house, she said.

Chesky revealed that the Obamas have tried to play matchmaker for him numerous times.

Maintaining her light-hearted tone, Michelle Obama acknowledged that she has been very invested in Brians love life.

Chesky put in that the former presidents matchmaking skills remain to be seen and that Barack Obama has given him a lot of relationship advice.

Rumors about the Obama marriage started with unfounded gossip that Barack Obama, who served two terms in the White House, had been romantically involved with Friends superstar Jennifer Aniston.

Obama made some stunning remarks about his marriage situation during an appearance at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., earlier this year.

When asked by college President Steven Tepper what hed been up to, Obama said hed mostly been working on the next volume of his memoirs.

Beyond that, look, I was in a deep deficit with my wife, Obama said, so I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things.

The marriage gossip gained traction when the former president was seen solo at the funeral for former President Jimmy Carter and at President Donald Trumps inauguration.

Michelle Obama earlier this month put her foot down about the rumors, saying that she and her husband would never quit on each other.

Thats not who we are, she said. And I know that about him. He knows that about me.
Mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa has received more than $6,000 in campaign contributions from Staten Islanders, according to New York City Campaign Finance Board data. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 100 Staten Islanders have donated to the mayoral campaign of Republican public safety activist Curtis Sliwa as he continues his second attempt for a chance to lead New York City.

Sliwa, best known for founding the Guardian Angels in the late 1970s and running against Mayor Eric Adams in 2021, has raised more than $75,000 in campaign contributions for his mayoral run, according to New York City Campaign Finance Board data.
President Donald Trump smiles as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed the House of Representatives early Thursday morning in a narrow 215 - 214 vote.

Touted as the most significant piece of legislation that will ever be signed in the history of our country by Trump, the bill has sparked massive protests from Democrats and internal warfare among Republicans.

Among the pluses of the bill that Republicans touted are the raise in the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. It also fulfills a number of Trump campaign pledges, including the extension of 2017 tax cuts, and no tax on tips, overtime and social security. Trumps Golden Dome missile defense system, which is designed to defend the entire country in the event of an attack, is also part of the bill.

However, it also cuts the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, SNAP, by $267 billion over the next decade; seeks to axe tax credits for clean energy; and cuts almost $700 billion in Medicaid funding.

Today marks a historic victory for Staten Islanders, Brooklynites, and families across the nation who have been calling for tax relief. Our legislation builds on the success of President Trumps 2017 tax cuts by making those tax provisions permanent, while delivering additional tax relief for senior citizens, increasing the SALT and Standard Deductions, and expanding the Child Tax Credit to ensure hardworking Americans keep more of their hard-earned money, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis wrote in a statement.

However, many Staten Islanders fear the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP will impact hundreds of thousands of residents who heavily rely on those benefits to meet their daily needs.

This big beautiful scam is another handout to the 1% of Americans, at the expense of the most vulnerable  and last time I checked, there are no billionaires on Staten Island. But there are 180,000 Staten Islanders on Medicaid, many of whom are seniors, who are at risk of losing their healthcare. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office said this tax cut will increase the deficit by roughly 3.8 trillion  so the poor get punished, billionaires who live elsewhere get tax cuts, and were all left paying the big beautiful bill, Mike DeCillis, a former Democratic candidate for Malliotakis seat, 9/11 first responder, and a political activist, said.

The bill will go to the Senate for a vote in coming weeks.

Heres what you need to know about this massive bill that could touch the lives of many Americans:

Almost $7B in Medicaid cuts

DenIse Bilezikjian, left, and Sarah Walters of Peace Action Staten Island, hold Holds off our healthcare signs at a rally outside of Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis office on Victory Boulevard on March 6, 2025. (Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney) Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney

The bill calls for almost $700 billion to be cut from Medicaid spending. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a government-run outfit, said that in 2023 Medicaid spending amounted to $871.7 billion.

The bill will alter the eligibility requirements that Americans will need to meet in order to qualify for Medicaid as well.

We also included key provisions to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program so tax dollars go to protect our seniors, disabled, and the most vulnerable citizens who rely on it, said Malliotakis, who voted against the first iteration of the bill.

Should the bill pass into law, novel community engagement requirements will be enacted. That means, should an able-bodied citizen without dependents want Medicaid, they will need to prove that they spend, at minimum, 80 hours each month at work, working on education, or being of service.

Medicaid recipients will also need to prove their eligibility biannually instead of annually.

In a preliminary assessment, these changes, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would effectively eliminate 8.6 million people from receiving Medicaid over the course of the next 10 years.

they are condemning millions to go without doctors, medicine, or even a hospital bed, Interim Co-Executive Directors at Citizen Action of New York Carolyn Martinez-Class and Rebecca Garrard said in a written statement. These so-called representatives chose billionaires over babies, corporations over communities, and greed over human life. Its been made crystal clear: they dont work for us  they work for the ultra-wealthy  and Citizen Action of NY will make sure voters remember that at the ballot box in 2026.

Those who receive healthcare from Planned Parenthood while on Medicaid will also suffer, as the bill seeks to prohibit Medicaid funds from reaching the institution, said the Associated Press.

Temporary tax cuts on overtime, tips, auto loans

Trumps promise of no tax on tips is on its way to fruition with this bill, though it was already passed by the Senate in a standalone bill entitled the No Tax on Tips Act Tuesday, according to NBC.

No tax on overtime made it into the Big, Beautiful Bill, as well.

The bill additionally allows for a full tax deduction for Americans who have auto loans on an American-made automobiles  but this deduction, the no tax on tips, and the no tax on overtime will expire come 2028, the Associated Press reported.

Great job by Speaker Mike Johnson, and the House Leadership, and thank you to every Republican who voted YES on this Historic Bill! Now, its time for our friends in the United States Senate to get to work, and send this Bill to my desk AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! There is no time to waste, Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday.

SNAP Impacted

In this file photo, a woman who depends on California's SNAP benefits to help pay for food shops for groceries at a supermarket in Bellflower, Calif., on Feb. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Allison Dinner, File) AP

SNAP will see a $267 billion cut over the course of the next decade.

Three quarters of the administrative costs will be handed to the states, though they will only see 5% of the benefit costs  boosting the current stats of 50% of the administrative costs and 0% of the benefit costs, the Associated Press explained.

Like Medicaid, requirement stipulations would change as well.

Should the bill pass, able-bodied recipients  meaning, adults with no dependents leaning on them  will have to work an additional 10 years to keep their SNAP benefits. Presently, that group of recipients only has to prove work requirements until they are 54 years old. This would increase that to 64 years old.

Those with children are not exempt from the changes either. Right now, parents can avoid the work requirements for SNAP until their children are 18 years old. The bill would reduce that to parents with children age seven and under.

They [Republicans] decided they needed to move up the timeline: cuts to SNAP will take effect as soon as next year. That makes it even harder for food pantries to adapt: more chaos, more hunger, and more closures among our food pantries and kitchens that serve the hungry. Widespread hunger is now on a fast track. Republicans seem to be saying that the average person who needs food gets only $5 a day. A dozen eggs costs more than $5 a day, Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday. And thats the price Republicans accept so they can cut taxes on the wealthy. Republicans are stealing from hungry kids, stealing from low-income families, to give trillions in tax giveaways to the wealthy. This is not beautiful. Its ugly. Its revolting.

State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction and Standard Deduction boosted

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis speaks to constituents at the New Dorp Beach Friendship Club on May 5, 2025. (Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney) Advance/SILive.com | Jillian Delaney

Malliotakis was among the Republicans most vocal about upping the SALT deduction.

The bill would now boost the deduction to $40,000 for residents who make up to a maximum of $500,000 annually. The cap, in addition to the income requirement, would incrementally rise by a single percentage point yearly over the next decade, according to the Associated Press.

The standard deduction would increase as well, Malliotakiss statement reads. Individual filers would see an increase to $16,300, while married couples filing jointly would see an increase to $32,600, provided they do not itemize their deductions on their tax return.

Seniors would additionally receive a $4,000 boost on their standard deductions, but that would only remain in effect until 2028.

People arent leaving New York because of the weather, theyre not leaving New York because of the topography, theyre leaving New York because of the cost of living, Rep. Mike Lawler of Brooklyn told Politico last week.

Child-based tax benefits

Malliotakiss statement includes a series of benefits included in the bill, which are as follows: makes adoption tax credits more accessible, expands 529 education savings accounts, supports scholarships and school choice, expands the Child Tax Credit to $2,500, and improves access to child care. Malliotakiss legislation to extend tax-free employer reimbursement for students and college graduates is also included.

Moreover, a 529-esque account is being added into the bill.

Nicknamed Trump accounts, these special funds are designed to help children born from Jan 1, 2024, to Dec. 31, 2028, with expenses throughout their life. Parents and legal guardians will receive a $1,000 benefit from the government should they open a Trump account.

Afterwards, they can add $5,000 annually to the account. The account will be essentially untouchable in terms of withdrawals until the child the account is for turns 18 years old. After that, half of the accumulated funds in the account will be eligible for withdrawal for expenses like higher education and other forms of schooling  like a 529 account.

The Trump account diverges from a 529 account in two regards: the account beneficiary can withdraw up to 50% from the account for a first-time home purchase between the age of 18 and 29.

At 30-years-old, the beneficiary can then use the remaining 50% for any expenses, the bill says.

Golden Dome and Border Security provisions

In this file photo, people peer through the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on Dec. 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) AP

The Defense Department will receive supplementary funds amounting to almost $150 billion.

Of that funding, the following sectors would benefit, as described by the Associated Press:

$34 billion for dedicated shipbuilding expansion of the Navys fleet of ships.

$25 billion for Trumps Golden Dome for America, meant to defend the country from incoming missile attacks.

$21 billion for ammunition restock.

$9 billion devoted to service members and their quality of life (healthcare, housing, special pay).

$5 billion for border security.

On top of that $150 billion proposed for the Pentagon, another $46.5 billion would be given to the revival of Trumps border wall at the Mexico border, which was not completed during his first term.

Trump only built 452 miles of wall as the 45th president, BBC reported. Furthermore, the wall was largely built in places where barrier structures existed prior to his declaration. Mexico did not pay for it, either.

Another $4 billion is being carved out for 3,000 more border patrol agents and 5,000 more customs officials with yet another $2.1 billion being saved for signing and retention bonuses for those 8,000 new employees, according to the Associated Press.

An unspecified amount will go to the employment of 10,000 more ICE officials.

Those seeking asylum within the border of the United States will need to pay $1,000 as well; aligning America with countries like Iran and Australia.

Newark Liberty National Airport gets funding

One of the most popular airports near New York City will be one of the institutions to receive some of $12.5 billion dedicated to upgrading air traffic control systems.

The airport has been in the spotlight after sporadic outages of radar and communications systems left air traffic controllers and pilots in the dark for as long as 90 seconds on April 28 and May 9.

But even before those problems, aviation was already in the spotlight ever since the deadly midair collision of a passenger jet and a U.S. Army helicopter above Washington, D.C., in January, and a string of other crashes and mishaps since then. The investigations into those crashes continue while the U.S. Department of Transportation tries to make progress on the long-standing issues of not having enough air traffic controllers and relying on outdated equipment.

Eliminating energy tax breaks

Wind turbines are seen on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Boardman, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) AP

Americans who enjoy green energy tax breaks are in danger of losing them should this bill pass in an effort to regain the loss of taxes from tips and overtime.

Republicans know that the clean energy tax credits are popular. They know the clean energy tax credits will reduce costs for American families. So, instead of saying to kill it outright, they say you must start within 60 days. That is saying kill it outright. Everyone knows that; and I saw that some of the hard-right people from the oil patch states were gloating that clean energy is gone, Schumer said. Its one of the most devastating things added at the last minute in this bill, snuck in in the dark of night. And we in the Senate  and I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in this  are going to fight this every step of the way.

Schumer called out Trump for this provision, saying: Donald Trump says he wants America to dominate energy, and then he does this? Taxing energy projects, raising costs for families? Nope. Donald Trump, what youre doing is absolutely stupid and counterproductive. You dont even know what youre doing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SUBSCRIBER BENEFIT: This year, SILive.com subscribers can get free unlimited high-resolution digital photo downloads of any of our photos in our galleries. Log in, click on the photo gallery to see if we photographed your favorite prom-goer, and choose GET PHOTO to download free print-quality images. Additionally, subscribers will get 50% off the purchase of prom-related keepsakes. If you are not already a subscriber, sign up here.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- St. Joseph Hill Academy Juniors donned classic and elegant attire for their 2025 junior prom at The Old Bermuda Inn in Rossville.

GRAND ENTRANCE

Despite the rain and the cold, the spirits of the prom attendees at the Historic Old Bermuda Inn remained high. The juniors arrived at the venue via limousines and party buses, dressed in their finest gowns and suits, eager to celebrate the night away.

BEST DRESSED

A difficult choice, but this years best dressed are Jasin Skretovic and Sofia Santi. Their outfits stood out in the crowd as they entered with hand-sewn beautiful blue and silver glass beads, and a matching silver gray suit, earning them the coveted title of Best Dressed.

Jasin Skretovic and Sofia Santi arrived at the St. Joseph Hill Academy 2025 junior prom held at The Historic Old Bermuda Inn in Rossville. Skretovic was dressed in a silver-gray suit with a bow tie, while Santi captivated everyone in a stunning dress designed by Albanian designer Albina Dyla. The dress was hand-sewn with beautiful blue and silver glass beads. Their elegant appearance earned them the title of Best Dressed at the prom. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

Jasin Skretovic and Sofia Santi arrived at the St. Joseph Hill Academy 2025 junior prom held at The Historic Old Bermuda Inn in Rossville. Skretovic was dressed in a silver-gray suit with a bow tie, while Santi captivated everyone in a stunning dress designed by Albanian designer Albina Dyla. The dress was hand-sewn with beautiful blue and silver glass beads. Their elegant appearance earned them the title of Best Dressed at the prom. (Advance/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel) STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE

HIGH-RES, PRINT QUALITY PROM PHOTOS ARE FREE FOR SUBSCRIBERS. SUBSCRIBE HERE, OR USE THE GET PHOTO LINK IF YOU ALREADY SUBSCRIBE. SUBSCRIBERS CAN DOWNLOAD AS MANY PHOTOS AS YOU LIKE.

JOIN OUR COVERAGE

As part of our coverage, we invite you to join in on the fun by tagging your prom photos #SILive on Instagram for a chance to be featured. Just make sure your account is public. Not going to the prom or just curious as to how much fun everyone is having? Follow @siadvance on Instagram and TikTok, and silivedotcom on Snapchat, to keep up with our complete coverage. If you would like your school featured as part of our prom coverage, email the details (when, where, time, venue, address, etc.) to tips@siadvance.com with PROM 2025 in the subject line.

PROM SCHEDULE

Thursday, May 8

St. Peters Boys High School

Thursday, May 15

Concord High School

Gateway Academy

Thursday, May 22

Petrides High School

Notre Dame Academy

Friday, May 23

G.R.A.C.E. Foundation

Lavelle Preparatory/New Ventures/Nicotra Early College charter schools

Wednesday, May 28

McKee High School

Thursday, May 29

Moore Catholic High School

Friday, May 30

Port Richmond High School

Great Kills High School

Monday, June 2

St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School

Tuesday, June 3

CSI High School

Wednesday, June 4

Gaynor McCown High School

Hungerford School

Eagle Academy for Young Men of Staten sland

Friday, June 6

Susan Wagner High School

Saturday, June 7

Staten Island Academy

Wednesday, June 11

St. Joseph Hill Academy

Bishop Patrick V. Ahern High School

Thursday, June 12

Curtis High School

Friday, June 13

New Dorp High School

South Richmond High School

Junior proms

Wednesday, May 21

St. Joseph Hill Academy

Thursday, May 22

St. Peters Boys High School

Saturday, May 31

Monsignor Farrell High School

For past prom coverage, visit silive.com/proms.
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Nine is spinning off its radio business sales operation, adding fuel to the fire it is pushing to sell its talkback stations, including 2GB and 3AW, as it finalises the sale of digital real estate business Domain.

The sales teams for its audio division, which houses the radio stations, will move out of the companys headquarters in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, and the media group has hired Brian Gallagher, the consultant who came up with the plan, as its commercial director for audio.

2GBs Ben Fordham is one of Nines biggest earners after Ray Hadley (left) departed Nine in 2024. Credit: Michelle Haywood

Gallagher, a former top executive at radio firm Southern Cross Austereo, who also advised commercial radio broadcaster ARN during its failed takeover of SCA last year, was engaged this year by Nines audio boss, Tom Malone.

After a consultation period, the position of commercial director for audio was created for Gallagher, with the company adopting his proposal to shift sales staff for its radio division away from the rest of the business to let Nine Radio operate within a new structure. While it will have a standalone team focused on radio sales, it still remains part of the streaming and broadcast division.
Within 10 days of the hearings conclusion, the special commissioner must submit a report and recommendation on whether the official should be removed from office. The governor would then make the final decision.

If Splonskowski is removed, the County Commission would be responsible for appointing an auditor/treasurer to serve the remainder of his term, which ends April 1, 2027.

North Dakota's governor has seldom used his power to remove local elected officials for wrongdoing. Since 1985, four county sheriffs and a county commissioner have been removed by the governor. A Sioux County state's attorney was ousted in 1927, and Minot Mayor William Shaw was removed from office in 1917.

The last local official to face potential removal from office was former Ward County Sherriff Steve Kukowski in 2016. He resigned in April 2017, one week before scheduled removal hearings initiated by then-Gov. Jack Dalrymple.

Resolution to split auditor/treasurer role

The board also voted 4-1 to formally approved a preliminary resolution to split the auditor/treasurer's position in two: an auditor and a treasurer. The idea to split the positions, presented by Lawyer last month, would allow the board to hire a treasurer with more qualifications to handle the county's finances and budget, while keeping the auditor elected.

The resolution also allows the board to establish a county administrator in the future if desired. A county manager, or administrator, position has been included in the past two county budgets but ultimately cut. The position would oversee day-to-day operations of the county and act as a liaison between county staff and the Commission.

Additionally, the resolution would separate staff in the Tax Equalization Office from the auditor, treasurer and administrator's office.

In April, the Commission directed Lawyer to draft a preliminary resolution on the split. The office has been combined since 2003 after voters approved the change in 1998, according to the county's website.

With the passage of the preliminary resolution, the Commission is now likely to schedule additional public hearings on the plan -- similar to a series of public hearings it held when mulling whether to convert the auditor/treasurer to an appointed position. The Commission did not discuss potential public hearing dates.

Commissioner Wayne Munson, the lone dissenting vote on the resolution, voiced concerns about the type of candidate who might seek the elected auditor position. He questioned whether anyone would be willing to campaign for a job that pays just $50,000 to $60,000 a year.

"I want the residents to think about this, that if we get nobody ... to run for the (auditor) election, we're going to appoint (an auditor) anyway," Munson said. Under state law, if no candidate runs for an open county auditor position, the Commission may appoint someone to fill the vacancy for that term.

Lawyer responded that most people dont run for office for the money, as they could earn more and face less stress in the private sector.

"We (run for office) for other reasons than the salary," she said.

State law and the county's home rule charter allow the Commission to convert elected positions to appointed ones by first passing a preliminary resolution. The law then requires the Commission to hold public hearings, after which the board will take a final vote on whether to implement the change.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The first time it occurred to Mia Threapleton that acting was a job she might be able to do, she was seven years old. She was watching Bugsy Malone, a comic musical starring a 13-year-old Jodie Foster as a Chicago gangster. I remember thinking: That looks really fun and shes really good and seems really cool. Is that something people can do that maybe I can do? Can I do that? A few years later, once she had realised that her lack of aptitude for maths probably ruled out becoming a marine biologist, she had made her decision. She told her mother she was going to be an actor. She said: Oh really? Well, if thats what you want to do, darling, definitely do it. Its very hard work. Which stuck in her mind, she adds. Because thats the only advice shes ever really given me. Read the script as many times as you can. And its really hard work. And yes, it is, but thats why I like it. It was reliable advice, given that Threapletons mother is Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet. That was, however, as far as any stage mothering went. Her mothers career was not part of their family life; she had a home office, which was out of bounds, and a working life elsewhere. Threapleton, whose father met her mother when he was assistant director on her 1998 film Hideous Kinky, says she could count on her hands the number of times she visited a film set before she was employed on one. She was also in her teens before she realised her mum was properly famous. Even now, she hasnt seen many of Winslets films. Mia Threapleton and Benicio del Toro in Wes Andersons The Phoenician Scheme. Credit: Focus Features As I got older, kids sort of knew who my mum was, she says. But no one ever commented. Sometimes they asked if Id ever watched the car scene in Titanic and Id say no. When she was 12, she remembers, the film was playing on the family television. That was the only scene I ever remember her going Oh God! and covering my eyes! And I remember turning round and saying, Mum, I can still hear it! Which was certainly a triumphant teenage riposte, but put an end to that family viewing. Till now, Ive never seen that film all the way through, she adds. Its a bit ewww, nah! But I honestly havent watched very many things shes done. She thinks about that, then name-checks Michel Gondrys 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That one is really an amazing piece of artistry, on every level.

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In 2022, the pair appeared together in an episode of Channel 4s I Am... series, as a mother and daughter navigating the perils of social media. When Winslet won the BAFTA for best actress, she paid tribute to Threapleton, saying there were days when it was agony for her to dig as deeply as she did into very frightening emotional territory sometimes, and it took my breath away. Mia Threapleton with her mother, Kate Winslet, in I Am Ruth. Credit: Joss Barratt/Channel 4 Threapleton knew that her mother had achieved her career on her own; she didnt have any strings to pull. She wanted to do the same. Once she had made her decision, she found websites listing auditions under her own steam and started putting herself forward for open castings. Looking back at the first few audition tapes she made, she sees how much she learned from that process. Loading Its sad not to get the jobs you really want, but its fun in the first place and a great learning opportunity, to try new things and throw things at the wall and see what sticks. She looked for an agent only in her last year at school. I really wanted to finish school, because I was very aware that this might not work out and I might need a contingency plan, she says. Also, I needed to do it for myself. The week after she finished school, her new agent sent her a script. I read it and I was excited. I was quite exhausted as well, because the second year of A-levels was really difficult for me, but Id made it. So I said then right, nows the time to commit or its going to be shit. Thats kind of my life motto now. Commit or its shit. I think thats actually something my mum said to me.

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A couple of weeks later, she was on the set of her first film, an Italian-Irish co-production called Shadows, which was a thrill; she was so green that she didnt even know what a camera angle was. How I came to be where I am now was entirely me-oriented. Nobody pushed me ... Nobody said oh, youd be good, you should do that. Where she is now  exactly now  is the Cannes Film Festival, due to walk the red carpet with celebrated director Wes Anderson and a cohort of stars who feature regularly in his quirky, stylised comedies of very elaborate manners. Threapleton plays a leading role in his latest film, The Phoenician Scheme, as Liesl, the disaffected daughter of a ruthless business tycoon, Zsa-zsa Korda, played by Benicio del Toro. Mia Threapleton with Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera in Wes Andersons The Phoenician Scheme. Credit: Focus Features Threapleton is still touchingly breathless at having worked with the stars Anderson regularly summons for his film-making summer camps, where cast and crew live and eat together for the duration of the shoot and Anderson sets out a table of films and books for them to watch and read as inspiration. They filmed at Babelsberg Studios and stayed in a hotel by one of Berlins pristine lakes, going swimming on days off. At the dinner table, she might find Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson and Benedict Cumberbatch, even Tom Hanks. She couldnt believe, she said later, that she was there with Woody from Toy Story. Like Andersons earlier film The Royal Tenenbaums, this is a story of unhappy families. Korda has just survived a sixth assassination attempt and decided it is time to hand over his empire to his only daughter, passing over his brood of witless sons. She will secure their fortunes future by pushing through his pet project, a vast real-estate deal in a developing economy that is being passed off as economically benevolent and environmentally responsible. Liesl wants nothing to do with it. For one thing, she hasnt seen her father in six years. And another thing: shes now a nun. Mia Threapleton plays a nun who wants nothing to do with her fathers business in The Phoenician Scheme. Credit: Focus Features

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In line with the rest of her self-driven career, Threapleton was chosen for the role on the basis of an audition tape, one of hundreds sent in response to a casting call. In an interview in Vanity Fair, Anderson said her reading stood out from a very large pack. She was clearly really thinking about every moment. She just seemed completely authentic, he said. When you see the same scene played again and again and again by people who maybe arent right for the part anyway, to have somebody who seems like shes in a documentary and shes interesting  this stops everything. It might surprise fans of Andersons arch, meticulously constructed meta-worlds to read that he wanted someone who seemed real, especially after seeing Threapleton as Liesl. When she isnt speaking, her face is set in an expression of mute resistance; her movements are not so much robotic as geometric, so that she seems to click into position. Her voice, uncannily like her mothers, is clear and clipped. She is like the most Andersonian character ever to be in an Anderson film, to the manner born. What she says Anderson wanted from her, however, was a kind of naturalism. When I did my first audition tape, I had a feeling of how I wanted to do it: in the way that makes the most sense to me. And that, it turns out, was what Wes wanted when it came to filming. He would regularly tell her to be simple, more natural; on one occasion, he spotted her between takes standing with her hands on her hips and jumped out to tell her to hold that stance. It was just very casual, very matter-of-fact, she says. He does a huge number of takes, she discovered; on the first day, when they just shot little extra moments, they did 69. And that turned out to be a middle ground. Because he knows exactly what he wants  and hes questing to find that. And then he finds new things as we go, so they get added in. Its quite orchestral, in a way. A bit more of this, less of that, then all together. Liesls ramrod back was one aspect of the character that came naturally to her. I stand up quite straight anyway because Im five foot three, so everyones taller than me. Her physicality and body positioning isnt actually dissimilar from my own. Her stillness and steadiness and precision: that was something that ended up happening after I had the costume on. Partly because I refused to sit down in it when we werent filming. The material, I could see, was going to crease instantly. Mia Threapleton with director Wes Anderson on the red carpet at Cannes. Credit: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP Funny, thats just the kind of thing you would expect from her down-to-earth mother, concerned not to create more unnecessary ironing. The two women have a similar sort of boisterous physicality, too. As a child, says Threapleton, she wanted to be George in The Famous Five. I was forever climbing trees; my knees were filthy as a kid. And I wanted to have Timmy the dog! I do now have a dog, so I do feel like George. Its a little dream that came true, I guess.

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The bright yellow facade of Michael Fegents new Venezuelan restaurant, TQM, has put his venue in the crosshairs of Woollahra Councils strict heritage rules.

When restaurateur Michael Fegent rebooted popular Paddington spot Tequila Mockingbird as an upmarket Venezuelan restaurant, TQM, last month, he hoped to make a splash by painting the facade bright yellow.

But the new look drew the attention of Woollahra Council, which has ordered Fegent to repaint the Heeley Street property or risk a $6000 fine.

The vibrant facade of new Venezuelan restaurant TQM. Centre House Media

Fegent, who owns the terrace building at the Five Ways intersection, said he wanted to bring warmth and vibrancy to the area. Yellow is the prominent colour of the Venezuelan flag, and I chose a colour listed as a heritage by the paint supplier, he said.

The restaurateur said he had no idea the paint job required prior approval, but felt he was being singled out nonetheless. There are lots of terrace houses in the Heritage Conservation Area with vibrant colours, including yellow  have they been issued notifications from council? he said. He declined to name specific properties, to save them from facing the same issues he is.
University students say excessive AI monitoring of their exams is creating constant fear and increasing stress levels during important assessments while others wait months for outcomes of cheating investigations.

AI proctors, or virtual invigilators  which were commonplace as a way of cracking down on cheating when assessments were conducted remotely during the pandemic  monitor students behaviour during exams by recording their screen, observing their keystrokes, using the computer microphone to listen for suspicious noises and tracking eye movement to ensure students dont look off-screen at notes.

All of them remain creepy, said Professor Cath Ellis, pro vice-chancellor, quality and integrity at Western Sydney University.

And while many universities have returned to on-campus assessments, the use of AI proctors remains widespread to address the rise of AI aiding academic misconduct at universities across Australia.

The high degree of surveillance is affecting student performance, says University of Technology Sydney student society technology officer Sina Afsharmehr.
One of two men killed in floodwaters has been identified as 63-year-old David Knowles, who died on his property in Moto, north-east of Taree. He passed as a hero, sending help away to save others, his daughter said. We all couldnt be prouder of you, Dad. We love you. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was devastated to hear of deaths in floodwaters, saying the thoughts of all Australians were with the victims families. Police have said they hold grave fears for a 49-year-old reported to have walked into floodwaters. Severe rainfall of up to 300mm was expected in some areas, adding to the risk of flash floods, with about 9500 properties inundated. Unfortunately, the community will have to brace for more bad news, NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Thursday afternoon. This is going to be a difficult few days and were not out of the woods yet.

The NSW SES had 149 flood warnings and 37 evacuation warnings in place on Thursday night but some residents said they were not alerted before the floods became dangerous. James Larking and Kerri-Ann Gimbert said it took one day to lose their home of 14 years in Pampoolah, east of Taree. As the floodwaters rose on their property, the couple swam, neck-deep, to get their animals to dry land. Weve lost everything, but were alive, were safe, thats the main thing, Larking, 54, said. In past floods, the couple received warning alerts on their phones. This time, they received nothing. It just seems like were forgotten out here, Gimbert said Taree, where the Manning River has risen to a level never recorded before, experienced one-third of its annual average rainfall in the past two days and remained extensively flooded.

A ute surrounded by floodwaters at Pampoolah. Credit: Kate Geraghty Surinder Singh, a resident of nearby Wingham, was in Sydney when he found out his home had been destroyed by unprecedented flooding, after being deemed uninsurable two years ago. Ive lost everything, Singh said. I do have some friends and neighbours who arent there [any more], but told me that the house was completely covered. In Kempsey, a levee protecting the towns central business district from the Macleay River was breached early on Thursday. Evacuation orders were in place for the towns central and eastern areas. Kempsey Mayor Kinne Ring posted this image of flooding on social media yesterday. Credit: Facebook

We havent had any loss of power or telecommunications, but people [are] running out of food and medicine, that is something were worried about, said Kempsey Mayor Kinne Ring. Evacuation warnings were issued to people in lower-lying parts of Port Macquarie, Nambucca Heads, Macksville, Bellingen and Wauchope. In the Hunter region, people were being evacuated from parts of Dungog and Paterson. The NSW SES said its teams had made more than 600 flood rescues. The heaviest rainfall was expected in Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Taree, Woolgoolga, Sawtell and Dorrigo. Simon Basile, 58, was taking his dogs for their daily walk on One Mile Beach near Forster when his friend spotted a dead cow in the surf about 300 metres from the shore. You could tell [it was dead], it was just bobbing in the ocean on the way in, the waves were pushing it in, he said.

Basile took a photo of the cows tag to post on Facebook, hoping its owner would see the post. A lot of the farmers dont know what stock they have and whats been lost, he said. Robyn Doust and her dog Gypsy being rescued by members of NSW Fire & Rescue and the SES in Purfleet, near Taree, on Wednesday. Credit: Kate Geraghty Others replied that they had seen dead cows wash up on Tuncurry Beach and Back Beach. Heavy rainfall is expected to ease off on the Mid North Coast on Friday, but severe weather will start sweeping across the southern Hunter, Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands, the Bureau of Meteorologys Steve Bernasconi said. Bernasconi warned record-breaking river levels could peak again over coming days even as rain eases across flood affected areas.

Loading About 2500 emergency services personnel, including 2200 SES workers, are operating in the flooded regions equipped with more than 500 trucks, boats and helicopters. We are throwing every single thing weve got at this incident, said Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib. Access to disaster funding has been activated at the state and federal levels. Supermarkets in evacuated towns remained closed while others operated with limited supplies, with the premier thanking customers for not resorting to panic buying. It means that we dont have helicopters having to fly in food as often as normal, and they can be focusing on flood repair efforts, Minns said.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Climate and energy policy is at the heart of the Coalition split (Inside the Coalition split: Ley and Littleprouds animus laid bare, May 22). Nationals MPs have made a habit of vehemently opposing climate pollution targets and renewable energy projects, with Barnaby Joyces reckless renewables rallies a prime example. Yet, it is regional Australians, the very people the Nationals claim to represent, who are most affected by climate-related disasters. Many in NSW are enduring yet another flood (The intensifying climate driver behind the coastal deluges and inland drought, May 22). The supposed city-country divide on climate action has been debunked by research. But this is a myth the climate-denying Nationals are all too happy to perpetuate  much to the detriment of their constituents and the rest of Australia. Amy Hiller, Kew Floods have caused havoc in the NSW Mid North Coast this week. The Liberal Party is to be congratulated for recognising that it needs to do some soul-searching. The Nationals, on the other hand, see no reason for it. They make no attempt at formulating a climate change amelioration program, while the country is experiencing devastating floods in northern NSW and crippling drought in parts of Victoria and South Australia. They sit back and dont even consider the possibility that scientists might be right and their ignorance and bravado hurts and damages their most loyal followers  those on the land. The Nationals is the party that really needs to look at itself, but hubris and overgrown self-righteous ego gets in the way. John Rome, Mt Lawley (WA) Once again, farmers are reporting unprecedented floods, with deaths and great losses  in stock, power, housing and security  while wildlife suffer and die silently (Locals brace for more rain amid flood disaster, May 22). Five years ago, communities and experienced firefighters were reporting unprecedented fires  some burning across the same fire grounds twice, something which had never been seen before. As the PM says, these severe floods are devastating. One thing they arent any longer is unprecedented. They are all too predictable as long as we promote mining, fossil fuels and the deforestation of Australia. Penny Rosier, North Epping Fears for the future As an 18-year-old looking to the future of our nation, I fear the unprecedented power wielded by the Labor Party in light of the Coalition split. The Labor government has a choice to make. They have an opportunity to change Australia for the better  to develop a long-term plan that supports the economy, environment and society, without fear of public scrutiny, as they will not be removed from power until an alternative rival party emerges. In this tumultuous period of uncertainty, Australia stands on the precipice of despotism, the Labor government could go down in history as the government that divorced itself from the inherently corruptive nature of power to better the future of Australia. Will it? Or will it continue to be a passive government that prioritises re-election over the long-term prosperity of Australia? As a young person, I beg the government to seize this opportunity, to think beyond the here and now and concern itself with generations to come. Alexandra Cuthell, Lindfield

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Shaun Carney correctly identifies a major flaw in the attitude of both the Liberal and National parties (Coalition is lost with no map home, May 22): their misplaced belief that being in government is their birthright and that all their energies should be aimed simply at keeping Labor in opposition. Nothing from them is ever directed towards the long-term welfare of the Australian people. No structural reform, no feasible nation-building projects, no big ideas, no vision. All we get is short-term vote-buying largesse, foot-dragging denial, vague aspirational platitudes, divisively populist pettiness, vindictive penny-pinching, outrage at the very idea that the people could actually elect the Labor Party and a manic determination to stop it ever happening again. Such inward-looking arrogance and effrontery continue despite their massive loss and I only hope that the split of the parties will allow at least some of them to realise that they have to deserve a turn at the controls. It doesnt come with their party membership. Adrian Connelly, Springwood Former Coalition leader Peter Dutton with shadow energy spokesman Ted OBrien (left) and Nationals leader David Littleproud. Credit: Glenn Hunt Shaun Carney is dead right in his assertion that there is no political value for the Liberals to stick with nuclear energy. Peter Dutton claimed that Australia was the only country of the worlds top 20 economies not using nuclear power but while the worlds use has seen a slight decline, use of renewables has been accelerating. By 2027, South Australia will have 100 per cent renewable power and by 2030, 80 per cent of our national grid will be powered by renewables. We have missed the boat with nuclear power and should be thankful that we do not have the problem of looking after the waste for the next 1000 years. Peter Nash, Fairlight Battle for Bradfield Alexandra Smith makes a pertinent point about the situation in the seat of Bradfield when she says the voters did not reject Giselle Kapterian but rather turned their backs on the Liberal Party (Why losing Bradfield would be salt in the wound of the Liberal Party, May 21). It is also important to realise that Kapterian had five months in which to campaign against Nicolette Boele, who had a significant head-start. The Liberals should hang their heads in shame for exposing such a young and capable candidate to an almost impossible task, thereby risking losing someone who should represent the future of the Liberal Party. Fran Durand, St Ives

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Trump finds someone new to bully President Trumps pre-election promise was to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. His efforts to date comprise an attempt to bully President Zelensky into surrender and a friendly two-hour chat with Putin. The war rumbles on. Michael Koziols article summarises the current position very well (Trump washes his hands of Ukraine, May 22). Trumps reaction to the stalemate is to wash his hands of the matter. His greatest concern now is that he might be labelled a loser  the greatest insult he can imagine. To avoid this fate, he has picked a new fight  one he appears more confident of winning. He is now bullying the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa (Trump confronts South African president, May 22), accusing him of genocide against white farmers. He obviously hopes that no one will notice a slightly Musky smell to this claim, and that the South African president will be more of a pushover than his Ukrainian counterpart. E. Mark Latham, Croydon Park If they continue being treated like this, Americas allies wont want to visit the White House. This is further evidence that Trump is not fit to lead. Apparently, the adage in this second term is let Trump be Trump. As a result, this sort of irrationality is unleashed. What will it take for others, Congress particularly, to have had enough of this? If Anthony Albanese is planning to visit Washington, he should beware. David Rush, Lawson A former slumlord lectures a former victim of apartheid on race relations in a country hed be struggling to find on a map. Hang your heads in shame, America. Rob Mills, Riverview It doesnt take a genius to realise that the violence in South Africa is a result of a complex history of racism and exploitation. Yes, there are racially motivated killings of whites, but there are also thousands of murders of blacks by blacks. This violence is a direct result of the apartheid system. The dehumanising of the black population has led to high levels of violence in South Africa that exist to this day. Only a fool wouldnt see this. Philip Dowle, Wickham President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House. Credit: AP Is there no hint of decency or a heart in that mans body? To watch Trump berate and belittle the leader of South Africa in front of the world by dimming the lights of the Oval Office to show a short video of supposedly state-sponsored genocide of Afrikaners made my blood boil. All credit to President Ramaphosa for keeping his cool with dignity and eloquence when he could rightly have responded with justifiable indignation to the master of deceit and depredation. Mary Carde, Parrearra (Qld)

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Donald Trumps utter lack of class and lack of awareness was shown to the world during his childish outburst at the South African president, who, to his credit, did not respond in kind. For Trump to criticise another country for its treatment of a minority group stands in stark contrast to the United States centuries long mistreatment of African Americans. It was interesting to note that Ramaphosa brought his agriculture minister, a white South African, to the meeting. Trump, the man hurling the insults, could have shown the high moral ground by bringing his African American cabinet members to the meeting, but he couldnt because he hasnt got any in his all-white cabinet. Trump never fails to disappoint. Ross Hudson, Mount Martha (Vic) Before President Trump chastises the South African president over alleged genocide of white farmers, he should reflect on the military equipment he supplies to Israel to kill civilians in Gaza. Laurie Dicker, Forest Glen Indefensible war tactics At last Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted to what most of us could see all along: his aim is to take over the whole of Gaza (UK takes action against Israel as Gazans wait for food, May 22). The tactics used by the Israeli government in this so-called defensive war, including escalation of violence, mass destruction, bombing hospitals and schools, blocking aid and dismissing the concerns of friends and partners are indefensible. Meredith Williams, Baulkham Hills Credit: Cathy Wilcox To your letter writer decrying the pile on against Jamie Hyams letter (Letters, May 22), I find it extraordinary that he states that Hamas has a long, sordid history of oppressing Gazas people when it is the Israelis who have been doing this since the Nakba in 1948. I also despair when people seem to feel the response of Israel is justified by the events of October 7, that reducing Gaza to rubble and killing tens of thousands of civilians, some 20,000 of them children, is an acceptable response. Nothing can justify this relentless killing of unarmed civilians. Lisa Dixon, Croydon

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Moving goalposts Correspondent Tim Parker (Letters, May 22) raises the issue of pending changes to superannuation, and criticises the wealthiest for objecting to changes that will redirect the pendulum away from them to those less fortunate. He may well have a point, but this government is now following the example of the Turnbull Coalition government of moving the superannuation goal posts when people are planning their retirement, or have already retired and have no capacity to change their strategy. This was argued at the time, particularly by judges. When Turnbull introduced the transfer balance cap, which affected defined benefits pensions, the politicians exempted themselves from the changes. It will be interesting to see whether they do the same thing with the current changes. Ian Rewell, Longueville Railway pinch-point I guess it is possible that unforeseen power outages can occur, and passenger safety in the train involved is of top priority. The premier is calling for a review of the cause and the processes. However, citywide transport will continue irrespective of any review findings while no one is prepared to address the elephant in the room. So long as every train heading west of Redfern has to go through the Stanmore, Ashfield, Burwood, Strathfield corridor, any mishap on any one of these lines is going to bring complete chaos to the whole Sydney network, including the T1 North Shore line. The only unaffected line is the standalone T4. Whatever happened to the separation of networks program promised by Labor governments nearly 20 years ago? Brian Collins, Cronulla Rail workers at Central Station this week. Credit: Max Mason-Hubers A huge shout-out to the train and station staff at Chatswood, Strathfield and Parramatta, who did such a fantastic job of wrangling commuters on Wednesday during the great train troubles. They were courteous and helpful even in the face of disrespect from some commuters, and they made a difficult day easier than it might have been. I am sure the same applied to staff at other stations as well. Merilyn McClung, Forestville

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Communal bathing space The Bathhouse opened on Brisbanes northside last year with an ambitious tagline.

Concealed in the Albion Fine Trades precinct, a once-industrial suburban pocket, it not only promised a relaxing escape from the pace of the city, but one of the worlds most luxurious wellness experiences.

Michael Hogg and Greg Lamb, the founders of architectural design practice Hogg & Lamb, were tasked with realising the bathhouses luxury fitout.

Communal bathing space The Bathhouse has been nominated for this years Australian Interior Design Awards. Credit: The Bathhouse

While there was thought given to the growing market  The Bathhouse arrived on the back of a bathhouse boom across south-east Queensland  maximising the site itself was their priority.
A 76-year-old man has died after giving evidence in his own trial at Perths District Court this week.

The man, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, was on trial over historic incest allegations he had pleaded not guilty to.

The man was on trial in Perths District Court. Credit: Marta Pascual Juanola

It is understood he was in the witness box being cross-examined on Tuesday before he suffered a medical episode believed to be a heart attack about 3.10pm.

The mans legal counsel and court staff attempted to resuscitate him before St John Ambulance crews entered the courtroom and provided CPR.
As that interview played, weve just received a note from Sussan Leys office saying it is not correct to suggest that shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point. And they  that is, Sussan Leys office  have that in writing, Ferguson said. So, obviously more to run on this story. By the end of Wednesday night, Ferguson had published a story online. It was leading news bulletins early Thursday. While former Coalition leader Peter Dutton often derided the ABC, calling it the hate media in the dying days of his election campaign, the Nationals dont take that approach. The broadcaster is an important avenue to reach constituents in the regions. In some towns, its the only local media. So the morning after, Littleproud was fronting the ABCs breakfast program with Brennan to clear the air. The only sticking point that we have are the four policy points, he said.

The Liberals say you also asked to be able to speak out against shadow cabinet positions, Brennan said. Is that true? Littleproud said there had been a range of requests sent in writing to Ley. She sent back a response. And her response around cabinet solidarity was satisfactory and reasonable and fair. One that I accepted, he said. While Littleproud put the shadow cabinet issue to Ley directly, he did not raise it in the party room, according to several Nationals who attended the meetings. Some MPs were surprised when the prospect was raised by Ley and appeared in media reporting. It nonetheless became a sticking point for the Liberals.

So when Leys office heard Littleprouds remarks, which were made just after 7am, they interpreted them as the first guarantee the Nationals would concede on that demand. Ley consulted her leadership team, and they decided there were grounds to restart negotiations. Loading Littleproud said he received a text out of the blue just after 9am, inviting him to meet with Ley. Until that point, both leaders were preparing to go their separate ways, readying to announce their respective shadow frontbench positions on Thursday afternoon. Littleproud had gone a step further. He called his new frontbenchers  McKenzie, Darren Chester, Pat Conaghan, Anne Webster, Susan McDonald, Ross Cadell, Kevin Hogan and Matt Canavan  on Wednesday afternoon and told them to come to Canberra for the reveal.

They started flying into the capital that night, and continued to arrive on Thursday morning. Former leaders Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce were to be relegated to a small backbench. The Nationals shadow shadow cabinet had started talking about party procedures for policymaking. Canavan, set to be treasury spokesman, started planning private members bills to be raised when parliament resumed, alongside McDonald, who was lined up for the finance portfolio. But while Littleproud was rousing his troops, Ley was making last-ditch calls to the Nationals dissenters. She phoned Joyce, McCormack and Chester  whom this masthead reported had spoken against the Coalition split during party room meetings  in an attempt to patch things over. Then on Thursday morning, she reached out to the man himself. In a half-hour meeting, Ley asked for time to consult her party room on the Nationals four policy requests. In return, she would pause the announcement of her own shadow ministry. Littleproud agreed. He told his yet-to-be-unveiled frontbenchers to go back home.

Flanked by McKenzie and Hogan, Littleproud strode without warning into the Parliament House press gallery at 12.15pm and announced that negotiations on the Coalition agreement would resume. He said he would give Ley and the Liberals time to consider the Nationals ultimatum out of good faith. And he wouldnt force their timing, either. Loading It was a stunning about-face that Littleproud framed as a triumph. The fact that the Liberal Party room is now prepared to have that conversation, I think speaks volumes, he said. But several Nationals MPs were circumspect. They saw it as a convenient way to back down. It got too hot in the kitchen for him and he needed to find a way out, one said. Nationals MPs were back on the ABC later on Thursday to mop up the events. Joyce, streaming in live to the afternoon briefing program, was asked: Barnaby, in a word, how would you describe the past 48 hours and the Nationals decision to leave the Coalition?
A friendly interview over a couple of beers turned into a social media success for Anthony Albanese when the prime minister walked into a pub during the election campaign to talk to Ozzy Man, a Perth comedian  real name Ethan Marrell  whose videos go nuts on YouTube. Over 45 minutes, he gave Albanese a chance to slip in some key talking points about tax cuts and two budget surpluses.

The interview has had 285,000 views since April 3 and is still turning up on mobile phone screens. It is easy to dismiss it as just another viral video, but it is part of a big shift in modern media. It is also a leading example of the way Labor demolished the Liberals in the contest to connect with ordinary Australians.

Illustration by Dionne Gain Credit:

The media is changing, and Labor knows how to exploit that change. This will be a big factor in the way Albanese rules in the coming parliament  a place where the Liberals and Nationals are in civil war and the Greens are regrouping after losing their leader. There may not be a viable opposition for some time, so the media will be fundamental to holding the government to account. But the media is not what it used to be.

Thanks to the internet and the smartphone, the media is a landscape of earthquakes and eruptions  and Peter Dutton has shown everyone how to be engulfed in lava when you think youre at the top of the mountain. The former Liberal leader is a case study in what not to do.
Consultants working for the NSW governments school building unit believed ICAC would have a field day with its staffing arrangements, the anti-corruption watchdog has heard.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption heard evidence on Thursday that employees from major consultancy firms were deeply embedded in School Infrastructure NSW after it was established, and that an official from the agency passed on details about a project bid by EY to one of its major rivals, PwC.

Former School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning; former PwC partner Amy Brown. Credit: Fairfax Media

ICACs investigation into the former School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning resumed on Thursday after a two-day hiatus caused by his decision to part ways with his barrister, Tim Hale, SC, because of what the inquiry has heard were financial constraints.

At the outset, ICAC commissioner Paul Lakatos, SC, confirmed he was resuming the probe despite the objections of Manning, who wanted the case delayed until his new legal team began on Monday. While Lakatos said it was not ideal, he questioned how Manning had run into financial constraints given ICAC is about a third of the way through its inquiry.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Public meeting on May 22, 2025.

The Public meeting, which was adjourned on May 7,2025, will be reconvened on Thursday at 11.00 hrs. in the Legislative Hall at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. The Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor will be in attendance.

The agenda point is:

Deliberations with the Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor regarding recent developments in mental health care on Sint Maarten (IS/630/2024-2025 dated February 20, 2025)

This agenda point was requested by MP O.E.C. Ottley, MP F.A. Lacroes and MP D.T.J. York

The Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor will be returning to Parliament to provide answer to questions posed by Members of Parliament in the first round.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. All persons visiting the House of Parliament must adhere to the house rules.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on TV 15, Soualiga Headlines, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.youtube.com/c/SintMaartenParliament and www.pearlfmradio.sx
PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Central Committee meeting on May 22, 2025.

The Central Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 10.00 hrs. in the Legislative Hall at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda point is:

Approval composition delegation and provisions to attend Anguilla Day Celebrations 2025 on Friday, May 30, 2025 (IS/1053/2024-2025 dated May 19, 2025)

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. All persons visiting the House of Parliament must adhere to the house rules. The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on TV 15, Soualiga Headlines, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.youtube.com/c/SintMaartenParliament and www.pearlfmradio.sx
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee recently acquired a direct link to the Interpol database when checking travel documents at the airports of Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba.

Thanks to this connection, when scanning travel documents, it is automatically checked whether they appear in Interpol's international investigation systems. This strengthens border control and increases the possibilities for early detection of persons with a criminal background.

With this cooperation, the Royal Marechaussee and the Interpol sub-office Kralendijk are taking an important step in strengthening security in the Caribbean Netherlands.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Recovery efforts at the Point Blanche Prison remain ongoing following the May 14 riot and fire. The Ministry of Justice continues to lead efforts focused on safety, stabilization, and restoring essential services at the facility. Given ongoing safety concerns and updated assessments by the Prison Director and Crisis Management Team, the Minister has extended the temporary suspension of inmate rights and privileges for another 72 hours, effective May 21, 2025. These measures remain necessary while the situation stabilizes. Operational support has grown with continued assistance from Kingdom partners. Two correctional officers from Curacao arrived yesterday, and fourteen police officers from Aruba and Curacao are being deployed to assist KPSM in maintaining safety and order. Of those fourteen, three were sworn in yesterday by Minister Tackling, with the remaining eleven arriving today. Specialized deep-cleaning is also scheduled to begin today, following VSAs health and safety recommendations. To support this phase, UNOPS is sending a security expert to provide guidance on emergency coordination, incident command, and recovery planning. Infrastructure work is progressing. Electricity has been restored to critical areas of the facility, and discussions are taking place with VROMI to advance the new facility building and civil works permit process. As part of temporary measures to support inmate well-being and maintain structure within the facility, board games, and puzzles were introduced to promote constructive activity and emotional stability during this period. The Ministry remains focused on restoring order and safety, with continued support from local teams and Kingdom partners. Further updates will follow as progress continues.
THE NETHERLANDS (THE HAGUE):--- On Friday, May 16, 2025, Minister Plenipotentiary Drs. Gracita R. Arrindell took part in a panel session at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The event focused on themes such as the role and experiences of the Ministers Plenipotentiary in The Hague, as well as on topics like cybersecurity, education, and strengthening collaboration.

The session began with a brief introduction by moderator Marcel Daniels, followed by an opening statement from Minister Plenipotentiary Arrindell. The Minister Plenipotentiary of Curacao, Carlson Manuel, was also present via livestream. During the panel, a wide range of questions were discussed.

Students inquired about the relevance and responsibilities of the Ministers Plenipotentiary in the Netherlands, as well as the importance of fostering stronger ties between the countries within the Kingdom.

One of the questions focused on the goals of the Minister Plenipotentiary. In her response, Minister Arrindell emphasized the importance of reaching out to students and members of the diaspora living in the Netherlands. She noted that a new database is currently being developed to improve outreach and engagement.

Another question addressed collaboration with civil servants in The Hague and beyond. Minister Arrindell highlighted the value of firsthand knowledge: "Visit the countries you work with and stay connected to the islands. It's important not to rely solely on media portrayals."

The conversation concluded with a discussion on cyber resilience. According to Minister Arrindell, she is able to draw on previous experiences, including her participation in the Geneva Global Conference on Cyber Capacity Building GC3B Conference on behalf of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

"I support the widely acknowledged notion that our security is only as strong as its weakest link when it comes to cybersecurity capacity building. Risk assessment, prevention, and a resilience-driven vision must be translated into coherent policy. This goes beyond technical capabilities  it is about making the decisions needed to turn vision into action."
PHILIPSBURG:--- With the Soul Beach Music Festival set to draw thousands of visitors to St. Maarten, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (TEATT), Grisha Heyliger-Marten, has issued a call to action for the Philipsburg business community, residents, and stakeholders.

Through an open letter, the Minister expressed her excitement about the festival's return, noting its significance not only as a celebration of music but also as a platform to showcase the best of St. Maarten to the world. The festival offers a prime opportunity for businesses and residents to collaborate and make lasting impressions on tourists.

Im encouraging business owners in Philipsburg to consider opening their stores on Sunday, during the festival weekend, Minister Heyliger-Marten stated, emphasizing the importance of leveraging the influx of foot traffic. "Its a chance to be part of the buzz, to turn foot traffic into real opportunity, and to showcase the heart of our capital in full swing."

While the event promises economic opportunities, the Minister also urged residents to contribute to the islands charm by demonstrating the friendliness and hospitality for which St. Maarten is known worldwide. "Your warm smiles, friendly greetings, and island hospitality are part of what make St. Maarten so unforgettable," she noted.

Minister Heyliger-Marten highlighted how the presence of businesses and the welcoming attitude of locals can create an experience that extends beyond the festival stage. When we work together, residents and retailers alike, we create an experience that invites the world to feel what we know every daythat Philipsburg is not just a place you pass through, but a place you come back to.

The Minister concluded her message by expressing confidence in the communitys ability to create a memorable experience for visitors and urged everyone to take pride in the islands unique offerings.

The Soul Beach Music Festival, known for its vibrant line-up and energetic atmosphere, is expected to bring significant attention to St. Maarten. With open doors, smiling faces, and a collaborative spirit, Philipsburg aims to show the world why it remains one of the Caribbeans most beloved destinations.

Businesses reopening on Sunday and a collective community effort to welcome visitors could contribute significantly to the islands economy while leaving an indelible mark on those experiencing St. Maarten for the first time. Together, Philipsburgs businesses and residents hold the power to make this Soul Beach weekend an unforgettable success story.
Ads pressured to evolve as AI changes Google search



San Francisco, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



As Google races to lead in artificial intelligence, it faces the challenge of making sure the technology doesn't slow its profit-pumping advertising engine.

The internet giant is dabbling with ads in its new AI Mode for online search, a strategic move to fend off competition from ChatGPT while adapting its advertising business for an AI age.

"There's no question that AI is becoming more commonplace as a source for answers," IDC advertising and marketing technology research director Roger Beharry Lall told AFP.

"That will inevitably result in a shift in terms of search and the opportunities to promote a brand."

The integration of advertising has been a key question accompanying the rise of generative AI chatbots, which have largely avoided interrupting the user experience with marketing messages.

However, advertising remains Google's financial bedrock, accounting for more than two-thirds of its revenue.

"Google certainly needs to find a way to monetize AI search in the way that it has monetized its past versions of search," Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart told AFP at the tech giant's annual developers conference this week.



- AI-fueled ads -



A new AI Mode enables conversational interaction with Google during search queries, providing answers in diverse formats, such as video, audio or graphs.

The internet giant said it is testing integrating ads into AI Mode responses, building on insights gained from AI-generated summaries, or "Overviews," introduced to search results a year ago.

These Overviews display comprehensive AI-generated summaries of results above traditional website links and ads.

"The future of advertising fueled by AI isn't coming - it's already here," stated Vidhya Srinivasan, Google's vice president of Ads & Commerce.

"We're reimagining the future of ads and shopping: Ads that don't interrupt, but help customers discover a product or service."

Google is extending ads in AI Overviews to desktop in the US, following successful mobile implementations.

More than 1.5 billion users see AI Overviews monthly, according to the company.

"Google's doing very good job of adapting," Beharry Lall said.

"The move right now is to experiment and to gain traction, just as they have."

Google's aggressive push into generative AI intensifies its competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT, which added search engine capabilities to its popular chatbot.



- AI ad tools too -



Google announced it is making AI tools available to streamline the creation of online ads, mirroring similar initiatives by Facebook-owner Meta, Google's primary rival in online advertising.

New features, available in the United States, will enable merchants to leverage AI for effective marketing campaigns and to "power an algorithm capable of targeting new searches and generating additional conversions," Google said.

"AI helps a lot in advertising as far as targeting customers more precisely," Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi told AFP.

Google should have opportunities to charge for AI tools for ad campaigns, and even for insights from data the tech firm has about its users' lives.

"When you have AI agents doing things for you, those agents are going to need data," Milanesi said.

"To get access to that data, you're going to have to pay."

For example, Google knowing the kinds of restaurants or places someone has searched for online would have value for targeting ads, she said.

Making money from AI tools and data could help Google diversify revenue sources at a time when its ad business is under pressure from regulators, according to Milanesi.

"There could be entirely new business models around how a brand connects into those AI results," said Beharry Lall.

"In the long run, it's going to be additive and beneficial to Google."

How Google and other platforms make clear the difference between paid messaging and organic results generated by AI "is going to be the $64 million question," Beharry Lall said.

"It'll be incumbent on regulatory bodies to develop guidelines," the analyst said.
Netanyahu's main statements on the Gaza war, hostages, Iran



Jerusalem, May 21 (AFP) May 21, 2025



The main comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin at a Jerusalem press conference on Wednesday in which he discussed the Gaza war and tensions with Iran:



- Gaza hostages -



"There are certainly 20 living hostages remaining, and up to 38 deceased. We will bring them all back."

"If there is an opportunity for a temporary ceasefire to bring back more hostages - and I emphasize: a temporary ceasefire - we are prepared for that."



- Iran -



"We hope an agreement can be reached (with the United States) to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. That would mean denying Iran the ability to enrich uranium."

"If such a deal is reached - of course, we would welcome it. But let me be clear: the state of Israel reserves the right to defend itself against a regime that threatens to destroy us."



- Gaza offensive -



"Our forces are taking more and more territory to clear it of terrorists and Hamas terror infrastructure. At the end of this campaign, all of Gaza's territory will be under Israeli security control, and Hamas will be completely defeated."



- Gaza humanitarian crisis -



"To maintain our operational freedom and to ensure our best allies can continue to support us, we must avoid a humanitarian crisis."



- Ending the war -



"I'm ready to end the war under clear conditions that guarantee Israel's security".

"Anyone calling for us to stop fighting before these goals are achieved is essentially calling to leave Hamas in power."

"We must complete three missions in Gaza: eliminate Hamas, free the hostages, and ensure Gaza is set on a new course. We're proceeding decisively, but carefully-to minimize IDF (Israel Defence Force) casualties. This won't take another year and a half, I promise. I won't reveal our plans or timeline-but we are determined to finish this."
Canada discussing joining US 'Golden Dome' missile defense plan: Carney



Ottawa, May 21 (AFP) May 21, 2025



Canada has been holding "high level" talks with its southern neighbor about joining US President Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday.

"We are conscious that we have an ability, if we so choose, to complete the Golden Dome with investments in partnership (with the US). And it's something that we are looking at and something that has been discussed at a high level," he told a news conference.

Trump wants a system that can defend against a wide array of enemy weapons -- from intercontinental ballistic missiles to hypersonic and cruise missiles and drones -- asking for it to be ready in about three years, near the end of his second term in office.

But it faces significant technical and political challenges.

Carney warned of new and increasing missile threats "that in the not too distant future could come from space."

"We take those threats seriously," he said.

Canada and the United States are partners in continental defense through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

At the same time, Ottawa is looking to diversify its trade and security partnerships after once strong Canada-US ties have frayed.

It recently announced a review of a major purchase of US-made F-35 combat planes and signed a deal with Australia to develop Arctic radar systems.

Carney said his government is also in talks with European allies on "becoming a full partner of ReArm Europe," an initiative to bolster European defense capabilities and industry.
Beijing slams video posted by US embassy in Singapore about South China Sea



Singapore, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



China slammed a video shared on social media by the US embassy in Singapore which criticises Beijing's South China Sea claims, comparing them to the actions of an inconsiderate neighbour who intrudes on others' space.

The roughly 90-second video shows a government-built apartment block inundated with clutter, voiced over in a Singaporean accent.

"This happens right outside Singapore's doorstep too, in the South China Sea, where one neighbour thinks he owns basically everything," the narrator says, as the video cuts to a series of news clippings on China's territorial disputes.

The post sparked a strident reaction from China's embassy in Singapore late Wednesday.

On its Facebook page, the Chinese embassy said the video "deliberately distorts the ins-and-outs of the South China Sea issue".

"Under joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the current situation in the South China Sea remains overall stable," it added, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc.

The embassy said it was "universally recognized that the U.S. is the least qualified to even talk about international law".

Beijing claims almost the entire disputed waterway, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.

The South China Sea is also believed to contain valuable oil and gas deposits, and there are concerns that Beijing is seeking to expand its reach.

In Southeast Asia, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have partial claims to the sea.

Singapore's foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday that it rejects interference by foreign embassies.

"The Singapore Government rejects attempts by foreign embassies to incite domestic reactions to international issues involving third countries," the statement said.

"Complex issues are best resolved through appropriate channels for effective diplomacy," it said.
Bangladesh army chief wants elections 'by December'



Dhaka, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Bangladesh's powerful army chief has said the first elections since the country's former leader was ousted in a mass uprising should be held by December, local media reported and military sources confirmed on Thursday.

General Waker-Uz-Zaman was reported to have told officers on Wednesday that elections should be held by December this year -- if not earlier, according to Bangladeshi newspapers.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August, with parties protesting on the streets making rafts of demands.

"Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase," Waker-Uz-Zaman said, according to the newspapers.

"The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute."

No date has been set for elections but interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.

But the key Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), seen as the front-runners in the elections, have repeatedly demanded an election date.

The BNP on Wednesday held protests in the capital Dhaka, significant in that they for the first time demonstrated against the caretaker government.

In response to a question from an officer, the army chief reportedly said: "Elections should be held by December, if not earlier."

He also is reported to have told officers to "carry out your duties with honesty and impartiality during the election".

It was Waker-Uz-Zaman who announced in August last year that Hasina had been overthrown, with the military taking brief control.

Days later, Waker-Uz-Zaman handed over power to Yunus, 84, who has said he will lead the caretaker government until the next elections.

Lieutenant Colonel Sami-Ud-Dowla Chowdhury, the military spokesperson, confirmed that Waker-Uz-Zaman had addressed officers on Wednesday but said the "meeting was confidential".

But three sources with direct knowledge of the meeting told AFP that the army chief emphasised the urgency of holding elections and said they should be held by December.

Known for his calm demeanour, Waker-Uz-Zaman appeared frustrated and dissatisfied during the session, they said.
Ukrainian drone attacks halt flights at Moscow airports



Moscow, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Air traffic around Moscow was disrupted on Thursday as the Russian capital came under attack from Ukrainian drones, with the defence ministry saying 35 targeting the city had been downed overnight.

"Air defence systems destroyed and intercepted 105 Ukrainian drones," of which 35 were heading towards Moscow, the ministry said in a statement.

Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram that "emergency services specialists are working at the site of the fallen debris".

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 128 drones at Ukraine overnight Thursday, of which 112 were shot down, suppressed electronically or lost.

The two countries have deployed drones against one another on a near daily basis since Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine more than three years ago, but Moscow has rarely been targeted.

On Thursday, flights were halted at multiple Moscow airports, Russia's aviation authority Rosaviatsiya said.

Planes were temporarily grounded at the city's main Sheremetyevo airport as well as at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky, Rosaviatsiya said on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rebuffed calls by Kyiv and the West for an unconditional and immediate ceasefire.

Russia now controls around a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean peninsula which it annexed in 2014.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands, forced millions to flee their homes and destroyed cities and villages across the east and south of Ukraine.
Japan shows off futuristic 'railgun' at defence expo



Makuhari, Japan, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



As Japan's biggest defence exhibition kicked off this week, visitors got a close-up look at a model of its futuristic "railgun" that its makers hope will be able to shoot down hypersonic missiles.

Instead of gunpowder, railgun technology uses electromagnetic energy to fire a projectile along a set of rails at ultra-high velocity.

The round will then in theory destroy the target, which could be an enemy ship, drone or incoming ballistic missile, solely with its vast kinetic energy.

Other countries, including the United States, China, France and Germany, are also developing the technology, but Japan's navy last year claimed a world first by test-firing a railgun on a ship.

"A railgun is a gun of the future that fires bullets with electrical energy, unlike conventional artillery," an official from the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) within Japan's Ministry of Defence told AFP.

"It is expected that threats that can only be dealt with by railguns will emerge in the future," said the official, who did not want to be named.

The three-day DSEI Japan Conference defence fair, which began on Wednesday, comes as Japan adopts a more assertive defence policy and looks to sell more military equipment to other countries.

In particular, Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Germany's Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS) are competing for a major contract to supply the Australian navy with new warships.

Winning the multi-billion-dollar Project Sea 3000 contract to supply Australia with Mogami-class frigates would be Japan's largest postwar military export order, according to Japanese media.

ap-stu/lb
A gray-haired Gavin Newsom stands in the center of a cluster of Chinese reporters who eagerly stick their microphones to his smiling face. Slowly putting on his blue suit jacket that matches his blue tie, the 56-year-old charming governor of California tells reporters how much he was impressed by Chinas development.

I have been inspired by the extraordinary advancements in the last few years, Newsom says, referring to the electric bus system he just toured in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, China. Being able to scale this kind of bus network throughout an entire city in just a few years is just extraordinary. We have a lot of aspirations similarly in California. But I have never seen it done on this scale at this level.

Newsom is in the middle of his weeklong China trip that kicked off on Monday. Clips of him praising Chinas achievements and wishing China success have been posted and shared by local and central government controlled media outlets on Chinas internet, gaining thousands of likes from netizens.

In another viral clip, Newsom can be seen sitting in the driver seat of a BYD electric car and looking, in excitement, at the car taking a tank turn by itself.

This is another leap in technology. I mean, next level, an animated Newsom tells Chinese reporters afterward, gesturing with both hands.

I want two of them, he joked.

A news article released by media run by the local Communist Party branch in Shenzhen wrote that Newsom kept shouting amazing during his visit.

Newsom has struck a cooperative tone during the trip, which has taken him to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing and a surprise meeting there with Chinas top leader Xi Jinping. According to Newsoms office, the priorities of his trip include working with Beijing on climate issues, developing economic relationships and tourism as well as strengthening the cultural ties between China and California.

But through the lens of Chinas state media, the 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful is a rare American politician who admires Chinas success, endorses Xis agenda and, even at times, rebukes the Biden Administrations China policies.

According to a clip released by China Global Television Network, Beijings main global media outlet, Newsom told a Chinese reporter that he doesnt agree with President Bidens de-risking nor former commander-in-chief Donald Trumps de-coupling when it comes to how the US should approach China.

For me, Im a little more simple. Its about diversification. And I think thats a healthy thing for every country, he said. The more successful China is, the more successful we all will be.

The highlight of Newsoms trip came on Wednesday, when he held a surprise meeting with Xi Jinping, who, according to Chinas media release, recalled with joy his previous visit to California to the visiting governor.

Xi expressed the hope that Newsom's visit will enhance mutual understanding and play a positive role in expanding cooperation between China and California and promoting the sound and steady development of China-U.S. relations.

Newsom, in response, said China has made remarkable achievements in development, especially in the field of new energy in recent years, according to Xinhua news agency, Chinas official wire service.

In a clip of the meeting released by Chinas CCTV later that day, Newsom listened attentively to Xi, smiling, with eyes locked on his interlocutors face, nodding slowly but nonstop.

Other than Xi, Newsom also met with Chinas foreign minister Wang Yi, who later traveled to Washington, and Vice President Han Zheng.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Chinese officials physically blocked American reporters from going into the Great Hall of the People, where Xi held the meeting with Newsom, and only allowed in Chinese reporters.

During meetings with Chinese officials, Newsom brough up issues of human rights violations in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong, according to Newsoms office, although he reportedly did not raise these concerns with Xi. He also urged China to take the responsibility in stopping fentanyl from being shipped to the US.

Chinese state media did not mention these talking points of Newsoms at all. Instead, commentators talked positively of Newsoms visit.

In a video posted by Peoples Daily, a commentator holds Newsoms visit as an example of how US politicians should approach China.

Newsoms visit to China can be a reminder for those politicians who are ostensibly tough on China, that frequent visits and traveling is better than tough talks and attitudes, she said.



Global Times commentator Hu Xijin, who used to run the outlet as editor-in-chief, wrote on Weibo, Chinas popular microblogging platform, that Newsoms visit and meeting with Xi shows that neither the US nor China has given up on rebuilding their relations that has been going downhill in recent years.

In my story published on Voice of Americas Chinese website, Nathaniel Sher, senior researcher at Carnegie China, said that Newsoms visit has been taken by Xi and Beijing as an opportunity to demonstrate how China wants to be treated by the west.

Rather than focus on Newsom's state-level leadership, Xi Jinping spoke to the Governor about US-China relations more broadly, as if to suggest that he is a veritable representative of the US government, Sher wrote in an email. The pomp and circumstance with which Newsom was greeted sends a signal to other foreign leaders, including President Biden, that engagement on China's terms will elicit more favorable treatment.

Domestically, Sher added, amplifying compliments from the likes of Newsom help Beijing reinforce to its people the narrative on Chinas economic success and importance on world stage.

Experts believe that Newsoms visit to China and Wang Yis trip to the US could set the stage for a Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco next month at the APEC summit.

Newsoms trip had drawn concerns from human rights groups even before it started. In a joint statement released last week, over 60 advocacy groups said the visit is to explicitly turn away from engaging on critical human rights issues.

In an interview with Politico, US Senator Jeff Merkley, co-chair of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, said Newsom should speak very clearly against the repression of the Hong Kong peopleOtherwise it does great damage because it looks like the Chinese repression is accepted and we cannot allow that to be the case.

Defending his decision to travel to China and hold talks with Chinese officials that prioritize cooperation, Newsom said that working together with China to solve climate issues is one of the most important tasks for not only him but the entire planet.

Divorce is not an option, he said in a statement released after his meeting with Xi. Despite major differences, we share our humanity  our desire to feel protected, connected and respected is universal  and that humanity is what should drive us to work together to stop the greatest existential threat our planet has ever known.

Newsom is expected to continue his China trip in the Southern province of Jiangsu and end it in Shanghai later this week.
Merz on Lithuania visit says Russia threatens 'security in Europe'



Vilnius, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Thursday that Russia threatened security in Europe, during a visit to Lithuania to mark the formation of his country's first permanent overseas military unit since World War II.

"There is a threat to us all from Russia," Merz said at a press conference in Vilnius. "We are protecting ourselves against this threat -- and that is why we are here today."

The 5,000-strong heavy combat brigade, which will be built up in coming years, is aimed at bolstering NATO's eastern flank and deterring potential Russian aggression.

The deployment was prompted by Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Stationing a military unit abroad permanently is unprecedented in the post-war history of the Bundeswehr, as the German armed forces are known.

Merz, who took office this month, said the security situation on NATO's eastern fringes "remains very tense".

"Russia's aggressive revisionism threatens not only the security and territorial integrity of Ukraine -- this revisionism threatens our common security in Europe," he said.

By deploying a brigade to Lithuania and ramping up defence spending, Germany wanted to "send a clear signal to our allies" that it was "investing in our security", he added.

"Together with our partners, we are determined to defend the territory of the alliance against any aggression. The security of our Baltic allies is also our security."

Lithuania and fellow Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, former Soviet states that have become NATO and EU members, fear they are increasingly in Moscow's crosshairs.

Germany is Ukraine's biggest military backer after the United States, and Merz emphasised that Kyiv's allies "will not allow Russia to drive a wedge between us".

"We stand firmly alongside Ukraine but we also stand together as Europeans and, whenever possible, we work as a team with the United States."

Merz said Berlin hoped "that there is a chance of reaching a ceasefire and then peace negotiations" but added that the process could take weeks or even months.

Moscow has for weeks defied Western pressure for an unconditional and immediate truce in its more than three-year offensive in Ukraine.
Merz warns of Russia threat in visit to NATO's eastern flank



Vilnius, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Thursday that Russia threatened security in Europe as he visited Lithuania to mark the official formation of Germany's first permanent overseas military unit since World War II, aimed at bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

The decision to build up a 5,000-strong armoured brigade in Lithuania over the coming years came in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"There is a threat to us all from Russia," Merz told reporters in the capital Vilnius. "We are protecting ourselves against this threat -- and that is why we are here today."

The German deployment is aimed at deterring potential Russian aggression towards Lithuania and fellow Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, former Soviet republics that have become NATO and EU members and fear they are increasingly in Moscow's crosshairs.

While Germany has joined multinational military missions, including in Afghanistan and Mali, a pacifist tradition stemming from its dark World War II history meant Berlin was generally reluctant to do more.

The establishment of a permanent brigade overseas is an unprecedented move for the Bundeswehr, as the German armed forces are known, in the post-war era.

Merz, who became chancellor this month, will participate in a ceremony in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius that officially marks the formation of the heavy combat unit, the 45th tank brigade, also known as the "Lithuania Brigade".

This will be an "important milestone on the path to the permanent stationing of a German brigade on NATO's eastern flank", deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer said last week.

The brigade, to consist of around 4,800 troops and 200 civilian Bundeswehr employees, will be gradually deployed over the coming years and should reach full operational capability by 2027.

An advance party of around 400 Bundeswehr personnel are already in the country, according to the defence ministry.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda hailed Merz's visit as a sign of Berlin's "commitment to strengthen the deterrence and defence of our country and the entire NATO eastern flank".



- Bigger role -



Merz, who has vowed to build up Europe's "strongest conventional army" by ramping up defence spending, will be keen to use the trip to highlight that Berlin is taking on a bigger role on the international stage amid dizzying political upheavals.

US President Donald Trump has heaped pressure on fellow NATO members to increase defence spending, sparked fears about American commitment to Europe, and caused shock with his overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a Ukraine peace deal.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who joined Merz on the visit, said last month that the Lithuanian deployment "sends a strong message of solidarity and readiness".

"Germany is stepping up," he added during events to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany joining the 32-member NATO military alliance.

Lithuania, with a population of 2.8 million, borders both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Moscow's ally Belarus, and the German defence ministry considers it to be "the most endangered state on NATO's eastern flank".



- Growing hostility -



There have been signs of Russia ramping up hostile activities, with Moscow frequently accused of using "hybrid warfare" tactics in the Baltic Sea.

This month a Russian spy plane was spotted in Belarus apparently attempting to observe a multinational NATO military exercise in Lithuania, news outlet Der Spiegel reported.

But Germany's troop deployment is not without its difficulties.

Some question whether the Bundeswehr, suffering from personnel and equipment shortages after years of underfunding, is prepared for what the defence ministry describes as "one of the most complex and ambitious projects" in its history.

While Germany has been seeking to channel more funds to the military, new equipment will take years to order and produce.

Meanwhile the Bundeswehr, which is aiming to boost its number of soldiers to 203,000 by 2031, has been struggling to recruit.

Parliament in January passed a law aimed at making the military a more attractive career, including more flexible working arrangements and greater financial incentives.
Myanmar ex-general slain in attack claimed by anti-coup fighters



Yangon, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



A retired Myanmar general who formerly served as ambassador to Cambodia was shot dead on Thursday, two military sources said, in an attack claimed by anti-coup fighters.

Myanmar's military seized power in a 2021 coup, sparking a civil war pitching it against pro-democracy guerrillas and resurgent ethnic armed groups that have long been active in the Southeast Asian country's fringes.

Most combat is confined to the countryside and smaller settlements, although sporadic grenade and gun attacks on police and junta-affiliated targets are regularly reported in the largest city Yangon.

A source close to the military said former general and Cambodia ambassador Cho Tun Aung "was shot and killed" outside his Yangon home around 8:30 am (0200 GMT) as he gave alms to monks collecting donations.

"He used to donate meals every morning," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The shooters used this opportunity to assassinate him."

A military officer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed Cho Tun Aung had been shot and killed without providing further details.

AFP was not immediately able to verify their claims and a junta spokesman could not be reached for comment.

The attack was claimed by the Golden Valley Warriors, a little-known group that said Cho Tun Aung had been a confidant of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and was teaching at a defence academy in his retirement.

"Our Golden Valley Warriors team conducted the shooting after collecting and verifying information for a long time," the statement said.

The junta has suffered stinging territorial setbacks in recent months but analysts say it is far from defeat, with a powerful air force supplied with Russian jets and military backing from China.

Ethnic armed groups have proven the military's most capable opponents but often have ambitions limited to their own areas, while pro-democracy guerrillas are scattered and poorly coordinated.
Iran says will hold US responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear sites



Tehran, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, after US media reported that Israel was preparing for a strike.

The report came even as Iran and the United States were set to meet in Rome on Friday for a fifth round of Omani-mediated nuclear talks.

"We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility," Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday.

"Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime," Araghchi added.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, are the highest-level contact between the long-time foes since the United States in 2018 pulled out of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers, during President Donald Trump's first term in office.

Israel, Iran's sworn enemy, has been threatening to use force against Iranian nuclear sites since the talks began.

On Thursday, Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned of a "devastating" response in case of an Israeli attack.

"If the delusional Zionist regime commits a foolish act and launches an attack, it will definitely receive a devastating and decisive response in its small and vulnerable geography," said Naini, according to ISNA news agency.

Also on Thursday, a group of demonstrators gathered near the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant south of Tehran to voice their support for the country's nuclear activities.

The crowd waved Iranian flags and chanted slogans such as "nuclear energy is our inalienable right" and "no compromise, no surrender, only confrontation with America".

Iran does not recognise Israel and generally refers to it as the "Zionist regime", and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.

The two foes traded direct attacks last year for the first time, against the backdrop of soaring regional tensions triggered by the Gaza war.
French general takes command of NATO mission in Iraq



Baghdad, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



A French major general took command of NATO's mission in Iraq on Thursday, assuming responsibility for efforts to support the country's fight against jihadists and strengthen its armed forces.

Major General Christophe Hintzy replaced Lieutenant General Lucas Schreurs of the Netherlands during a ceremony at a military base inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

"France and Iraq have a long-standing partnership across all sectors," Hintzy told AFP.

Hintzy, who served as France's senior representative to US Central Command (CENTCOM) from 2022 to 2024, said his new NATO role "complements the strategic partnership" between the two countries.

He said the NATO mission in Iraq focuses on "assistance, advice and capacity building" to help Iraqi forces combat "terrorism" and strengthen national security.

All 32 NATO members contribute to the mission, alongside partner countries Austria and Australia. The force includes several hundred military and civilian personnel.

France also contributes troops to the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State group. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017, but some of its members remain active.

Baghdad has been seeking to wind down the coalition's mission, pushing instead for bilateral military partnerships. Iraqi officials say their forces are now capable of handling the remaining threat.

The Iraqi army was "fully capable of destroying the last cells of Daesh" anywhere in the country, Hintzy said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
Merz warns of Russia threat, vows to defend NATO allies on Lithuania visit



Vilnius, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Thursday that Russia threatened security in Europe as he visited Lithuania to mark the official formation of Germany's first permanent overseas military unit since World War II, aimed at bolstering NATO's eastern flank.

The decision to build up a 5,000-strong armoured brigade in Lithuania over the coming years came in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"There is a threat to us all from Russia," Merz told reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

The German deployment is aimed at deterring potential Russian aggression towards Lithuania and fellow Baltic countries Estonia and Latvia, former Soviet republics that have become NATO and EU members and fear they are increasingly in Moscow's crosshairs.

Merz said Germany was determined to defend the NATO territory, adding: "The security of our Baltic allies is also our security."

While Germany has joined multinational military missions, including in Afghanistan and Mali, a pacifist tradition stemming from its dark World War II history meant Berlin was generally reluctant to do more.

The establishment of a permanent brigade overseas is an unprecedented move for the Bundeswehr, as the German armed forces are known, in the post-war era.

Merz, who became chancellor this month, participated in a ceremony in the main square of Vilnius that officially marked the formation of the heavy combat unit, the 45th tank brigade, also known as the "Lithuania Brigade".

The brigade, to consist of around 4,800 troops and 200 civilian Bundeswehr employees, will be gradually deployed over the coming years and should reach full operational capability by 2027.

An advance party of around 400 Bundeswehr personnel are already in the country, according to the defence ministry.

"Anyone who challenges NATO must know that we are prepared. Anyone who threatens any ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory," Merz said.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda hailed what he called an "unbreakable force" of the alliance with Germany.

"Together we will ensure that the people of Lithuania and Germany never face the ultimate test: that of war," Nauseda said.

Merz, along with Nauseda and the defence ministers of Germany and Lithuania, inspected the troops, with military bands playing and hundreds of onlookers gathered to watch the ceremony.

"For us, the war is nearby, not somewhere far away," Vytautas Masalskis, 52, told AFP in Vilnius. "People are dying, we understand why -- because of Russia's invasion."



- Bigger role -



Merz, who has vowed to build up Europe's "strongest conventional army" by ramping up defence spending, will be keen to use the trip to highlight that Berlin is taking on a bigger role on the international stage amid dizzying political upheavals.

US President Donald Trump has heaped pressure on fellow NATO members to increase defence spending, sparked fears about American commitment to Europe and caused shock with his overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a Ukraine peace deal.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said last month that the Lithuanian deployment "sends a strong message of solidarity and readiness".

"Germany is stepping up," he added during events to mark the 70th anniversary of Germany joining the 32-member NATO military alliance.

Lithuania, with a population of 2.8 million, borders both the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Moscow's ally Belarus, and the German defence ministry considers it to be "the most endangered state on NATO's eastern flank".



- Growing hostility -



There have been signs of Russia ramping up hostile activities, with Moscow frequently accused of using "hybrid warfare" tactics in the Baltic Sea.

This month a Russian spy plane was spotted in Belarus apparently attempting to observe a multinational NATO military exercise in Lithuania, news outlet Der Spiegel reported.

But Germany's troop deployment is not without its difficulties.

Some question whether the Bundeswehr, suffering from personnel and equipment shortages after years of underfunding, is prepared for what the defence ministry describes as "one of the most complex and ambitious projects" in its history.

While Germany has been seeking to channel more funds to the military, new equipment will take years to order and produce.

Meanwhile the Bundeswehr, which is aiming to boost its number of soldiers to 203,000 by 2031, has been struggling to recruit.

Parliament in January passed a law aimed at making the military a more attractive career, including more flexible working arrangements and greater financial incentives.
Two Japanese soldiers confirmed killed in training plane crash



Tokyo, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



The Japanese military confirmed on Thursday that remains recovered from the crash of a training plane last week were those of two soldiers.

The Air Self-Defense Force's T-4 training aircraft crashed near a lake in central Japan's Aichi region immediately after taking off at its Komaki Air Base last week.

"The deaths of its two crew members were confirmed today," Hiroaki Uchikura, head of the ASDF, told a news conference.

"It is gut-wrenching that we lost these precious lives of our comrades," Uchikura said.

A search after the crash soon led to the discovery of what appeared to be remains but officials could not immediately identify them.

However, "a subsequent official analysis confirmed, much to our sorrow, that these belong to two soldiers on board that we had been looking for", Uchikura said.

He said he "takes the accident seriously" and "will do our best to identify the cause and improve aviation safety".

The T-4 seats two and is a "domestically produced, highly reliable and maintainable training aircraft... used for all basic flight courses", according to the defence ministry website.

Aerial footage of the lake soon after the crash broadcast by NHK showed an oil slick on its surface dotted with what appeared to be debris.
Ahead of nuclear talks, Iran warns will hold US responsible for Israel attack



Tehran, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Iran warned it would hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its atomic facilities, on the eve of a new round of nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran.

The warning came after CNN, citing unnamed US officials, reported Tuesday that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear sites despite the ongoing US-Iran talks.

"We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday.

"Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime," Araghchi added.

The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, are the highest-level contact between the long-time foes since the United States in 2018 pulled out of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers, during President Donald Trump's first term in office.

Oman, which has mediated the talks, said that a fifth round will take place in Rome on Friday.

The US delegation will include Steve Witkoff, Trump's friend and globe-trotting negotiator, and Michael Anton, the head of policy planning at the State Department who has been involved in technical details, according to a source familiar with arrangements.

A key sticking point in the negotiations has been enrichment. The 2015 deal with Iran, which was negotiated by former president Barack Obama, allowed Iran to enrich uranium at low levels solely for civilian energy.

The Islamic republic currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.







- Sanctions over missiles -



Trump, who has vowed to improve on the Obama deal, said last week on a trip to Qatar that he believed Iran had agreed to key conditions and that his diplomacy would avoid military conflict.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, testifying Wednesday before Congress, again said that the Trump administration would insist on no enrichment.

"Iran cannot have an enrichment capability, because that ultimately makes them a threshold nuclear power," Rubio said.

Iran is looking for relief from sweeping sanctions imposed in 2018 by Trump, which include penalties on all countries to prevent them from purchasing Iran's key export of petrol.

Rubio, questioned by a lawmaker, suggested that the United States would maintain sanctions over Iran's development of ballistic missiles, a topic that was not addressed explicitly under the 2015 agreement.

"There are sanctions related to terrorism, sanctions related to their ballistic missiles programme, and the like. Those sanctions, if they're not part of the deal, they'll remain in place," he said.

Rubio did not comment on the CNN report, but said it was no secret that Israel has been studying military options.



- 'Devastating response' -



Israel, Iran's sworn enemy, has been threatening to use force against Iranian nuclear sites but has faced resistance from Trump.

On Thursday, Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned of a "devastating" response in case of an Israeli attack.

"If the delusional Zionist regime commits a foolish act and launches an attack, it will definitely receive a devastating and decisive response in its small and vulnerable geography," said Naini, according to ISNA news agency.

Also on Thursday, the Iranian army's ground forces unveiled three new drones, adding two reconnaissance and one kamikaze drone to to its arsenal, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, a group of demonstrators gathered near the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant south of Tehran to voice their support for the country's nuclear activities.

The crowd waved Iranian flags and chanted slogans such as "nuclear energy is our inalienable right" and "no compromise, no surrender, only confrontation with America".

Iran does not recognise Israel and generally refers to it as the "Zionist regime", and the two countries have fought a shadow war for years.

The two foes traded direct attacks last year for the first time, against the backdrop of soaring regional tensions triggered by the Gaza war.
Finland says 'closely' monitoring Russian military build-up



Helsinki, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Finland is closely monitoring Russia's military activities near its eastern border after Finland's armed forces and international media reported a build-up, the defence minister told AFP on Thursday.

Finland, which dropped decades of military non-alignment to join NATO in 2023, has a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia.

Satellite images published in the New York Times appear to show an expansion of Russian military infrastructure near the border.

"Russia is building more infrastructure to be able to bring in more troops after the war (in Ukraine) is over," the Finnish Defence Forces told AFP.

Together with its allies, Finland is "closely monitoring and assessing Russia's activities and intentions", Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen told AFP in an email.

He said Russia's moves "to strengthen its armed forces have not come as a surprise to Finland".

Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland of repercussions since joining NATO after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

"We have excellent capabilities to observe Russian operations. As a member of the alliance, Finland holds a strong security position," Hakkanen said.

He said Finland had a "robust national defence" based on conscription and a large reserve force.

"Our entire society has invested broadly in preparedness for all types of disruptions and crises," he added.

Defence Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategy, Major General Sami Nurmi, told Finnish broadcaster Yle that Russia's buildup near the border was expected.

"That is consistent with what has been assessed. It is not a question of a mass construction effort," he told Yle.

He said the activity did not pose an immediate threat to Finland.

The Nordic country has beefed up its military investments and preparedness since joining NATO.

In April, it announced it would boost defence spending to at least three percent of GDP by 2029 and launch a reform of its defence forces to tackle the security threat.

Finland shut its border with Russia in December 2023 after the arrival of around 1,000 migrants without visas. Helsinki said the surge was orchestrated by Russia -- a claim Moscow denied.
Israel strikes south Lebanon, army says Hezbollah fighter killed



Beirut, Lebanon, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Lebanese state media said an Israeli air strike hit a building in southern Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military issued an evacuation call warning of imminent action against Hezbollah militants.

Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighbouring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war.

Without confirming the reported attack on the southern town of Toul, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one militant.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that "the Israeli enemy" struck a building in Toul, where the army had warned residents to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah militants.

The "urgent warning" was accompanied by a map showing a structure and the 500-metre (0.3-mile) radius around it marked in red.

"You are located near facilities belonging to the terrorist (group) Hezbollah," the statement said in Arabic, urging people "to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them".

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Toul.

In a separate statement, the military said it had "struck and eliminated a Hezbollah Radwan Force terrorist in the area of Rab El Thalathine", about 17 kilometres (10 miles) to the southeast.

The NNA reported a "martyr" in an air strike in the same area, without identifying them.

The Israeli military said its forces also "struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons" in the Bekaa Valley as well as "terrorist infrastructure sites and rocket launchers belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organisation... in southern Lebanon".

A military statement said that "the presence of weapons in the area and Hezbollah activities at the site constitute blatant violations of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon" under the November ceasefire agreement.

Israel will "continue to operate to remove any threat... and will prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to re-establish its terror capabilities", it said.

Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of it.

Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems "strategic".

The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
Q: Did the Chinese ever retaliate after destroying the Mongol Yuan Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty?

A:

No.

The Yuan Dynasty was corrupt, and people couldn't live without hunger, so there were many uprisings. The uprisings were very similar to other transitions of dynasties in Chinese history. Each of the uprisings had its military separation. The first Ming Dynasty emperor was one of the uprising and was occupied in fighting other military separations, all of whom were of Han ethnicity. Mongalians simply retreat to Mongalia and become irrelevant.

Four great democratic revolutions have established republics in modern times: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian October Revolution, and the Chinese Revolution. The American independence and establishment of a republic were not to overthrow the monarchy, but to get rid of the monarchy's rule, which was colonial rule. India's independence in 1947 was similar to the American independence, both of which were to get rid of British colonial rule. Most of the modern Western bourgeois revolutions retained the monarchy, including Japan's Meiji Restoration, which established a constitutional monarchy. That is, most bourgeois revolutions compromised with the privileged class of the feudal system: the royal family, and retained the royal family's inherent social privileges. In this way, there were only three revolutions that overthrew the monarchy and established a republic on a significant scale: the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Chinese Revolution that overthrew the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The French Revolution executed Louis XVI, and the Russian October Revolution executed Tsar Nicholas II. However, the Chinese Revolution turned the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi, into a citizen of the new China, and made him a member of the CPPCC, and he worked for the new Chinese government. Puyi became the child emperor of Manchukuo in 1934. He was the emperor of the puppet regime of Japan's invasion and colonization of China, and an accomplice of Japan's invasion of China. Therefore, when the new China was established, he was a detained war criminal. Three great revolutions to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic, the fate of the three last emperors was different. The first two were executed, and the last one became a government worker of the new country and the new government. This is a huge contrast.

Is this a historical accident, or is it that different cultures lead to different outcomes? If we want to find the answer, we can only find it in culture. The first two revolutions were revolutions of European Christian civilization, and the latter was a revolution of Chinese Confucian civilization. The culture of Christian civilization is based on the Bible, and the culture of Chinese civilization is based on Confucianism.

The Bible is full of massacres. Christianity believes that God is just. Everyone is familiar with the story of Noah's Ark. The God sent a flood to destroy all mankind, leaving only Noah's family. This is a real genocide. Puyi was guilty of being a puppet emperor of Manchukuo. According to the culture of Western Christian civilization, he would die. But Chinese civilization is different. In the Analects of Confucius, Yao said: "Revitalize the destroyed countries, continue the extinct generations, and raise the exiled people."  The Manchus became a member of the Chinese nation and one of the 56 ethnic groups in China. This is "revitalize the destroyed countries and continue the extinct generations." The last emperor, Puyi, became a self-reliant citizen of the new China and became one of the government workers. This is "raise the exiled people."

"Reviving the destroyed states, continuing the extinct generations, and raising the exiled people" is a tradition of Chinese civilization humanism that respects everyone's basic human rights and basic human dignity. It can be said that it has a long history. For example, Huangdi fought with Yandi at Banquan in the 26th century BC, Huangdi defeated Yandi and then formed a tribal alliance with Yandi. To this day, most Chinese are descendants of Yandi and Huangdi. Huangdi believed that Yandi's rule was improper, so he replaced Yandi as the leader of the tribal alliance, and Yandi got a status commensurate with his ability under the rule of Huangdi. This is the spirit of the rule of law. Everyone is equal before the law, and former enemies are also equal. There is also Li Si's famous "Remonstrance to Expel Foreigners", which advised Qin Shihuang to make use of talents from the six countries. Li Si himself was a Chu person. Qin unified the six countries in 221 BC and used talents from the six countries to serve as officials in the court, which was "raising the exiled people", just like the appointment of Puyi as a cultural and historical staff member in New China. Japan invaded China and committed the horrific Nanjing Massacre. When Japan surrendered, the Japanese army withdrew, but left behind the elderly, women, and children. These Japanese orphans were adopted by the Chinese people and enjoyed the same treatment as Chinese citizens. Not only were they not discriminated against, but they were also raised by the Chinese. This shows that the culture of Chinese civilization is extraordinary and kind.

The culture of Western civilization is different from that of China. Although Louis XVI and Nicholas II were executed for their crimes, they were brutally executed compared to Puyi. Apart from the distant past, the West tends to eliminate the body physically, and it is still so today. For example, when the United States killed Bin Laden, the media boasted and celebrated. Hunting down Bin Laden became the biggest goal of the US war on terror. But did terrorism disappear after Bin Laden was killed? No. In the more than 20 years of the US war on terror, the more terrorist organizations were fought, the more they became stronger, and even the Islamic State was established. Today, there are terrorist organizations everywhere in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. This Western culture that tends to punish the body is reflected in the Bible. Today's Western civilization is Christian, and the teachings of the Bible are reflected in every aspect of its culture.

The 29th paragraph of Chapter 12 of the Bible, Exodus, records that God killed the eldest sons of all Egyptian families, from the Pharaoh to the common people to the prisoners. This behavior is what we call a terrorist attack today, an indiscriminate attack on civilians. The execution of Louis XVI and Nicholas II can be said to be a case of wrongdoing. What does Pharaohs refusal to allow the Israelites to leave have to do with civilians and prisoners? What does it have to do with the firstborn sons of ordinary people? This is pure intimidation, to let Pharaoh see Gods means. This kind of god, whose miracles are similar to the Bull Demon King  described by Wu Chengen , has a lower moral standard than the Bull Demon King. How can the Egyptian Pharaoh be coerced by taking the lives of innocent civilians firstborn sons? Please think about it, readers, is there any similarity between the US sanctions on other countries and God killing the firstborn sons of all Egyptians? The US sanctions the economy of a country when it says that the leader of a certain country is a dictator, causing all the people of that country to suffer. Many stories and concepts in the Old Testament of the Bible are common in Abrahamic monotheism. Its cultural psychology is common in monotheism, that is, they can use extreme violence to force their so-called "justice". Modern terrorist organizations call them Islamic extremist fundamentalist organizations, also known as jihad organizations. They fight for God (Allah) and use God's means. Chapter 15, paragraph 6 of the Bible, Genesis, says: Abraham believed in God, so Abraham was righteous. This is the core doctrine of monotheism: justification by faith. Islamic fundamentalists believe that they are launching a holy war, and it is just because they believe in God. Believing in God is the only standard of justice in monotheism. If it was Tathagata Buddha who wanted the Egyptian Pharaoh to release the Israelites, what would Tathagata Buddha do? With the power of Tathagata Buddha, he would definitely make the Egyptian Pharaoh change his mind and willingly let the Israelites go. Isn't it because of his boundless power that Pharaoh let the Israelites go? Why are the powers of Western gods and Eastern gods so different? The Egyptian Pharaoh finally let Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but it was not voluntary; but forced by God's violence. It can be seen that the Egyptian Pharaoh still cared about the Egyptian people and did not want the Egyptian people to suffer from locusts, hail, mosquitoes, and other disasters. The same is true for resolving the Ukrainian conflict. The United States and NATO must use violence to suppress Russia as a means to end the Ukrainian war, while China's position is to persuade peace. The West tends to use violent means, and violent means are used to establish an unequal international order in which developed countries exploit developing countries. China tends to use peaceful means, and peaceful means are to establish an international order in which everyone respects each other and has equal dignity. How to resolve international disputes and conflicts is not only a matter of strategy and method, but also a matter of justice and morality.

Chapter 6 of the Old Testament Book of Joshua tells the story of the Israelites slaughtering the Canaanites. God promised the Jews the land west of the Jordan River to the sea, namely Canaan, which is the promised land in Christianity. So the Jews crossed the Jordan River and slaughtered all the people in Canaan, leaving only a prostitute's family because the prostitute helped two Jewish detectives. It was just genocide. Weren't the Canaanites also created by God? Why did God engage in racial discrimination? When did God let the Canaanites live there, and why did he deprive them of their lives and occupy their land later? The justice of Christianity is that God chose the Israelites, and the Israelites are God's chosen people. Therefore, they can commit genocide against other ethnic groups. In Chinese culture, the means of a just cause are also just, and peace is a cause and a means of humanity. The Communist Party-led army has always had a policy of preferential treatment for prisoners. Preferential treatment means that the army of poor people can understand the luxurious life of the officials. Those prisoners cannot stand the simple life of ordinary soldiers in the Communist Party. The Communist Party gives these prisoners better living conditions than ordinary soldiers. Puyi's life as a war criminal was much better than that of many rural farmers at that time. This is a broad mind. In the West, "justice" itself is a synonym for interests. Israel occupied the Canaan area because it wanted the land flowing with milk and honey. It is an interest. Their justice is self-proclaimed, that is, "I believe in God, so I am just", and the means are cruel, which is genocide. This political culture of the West continues to this day. NATO bombed Libya and said that the West is "just" because the West is "democratic and free", so the West can use war violence to bomb an economically prosperous Libya into a country full of misery, causing Libyan refugees to flee everywhere, and the West is still proud to publicize the glory of their "democracy and freedom". The Bull Demon King would feel guilty if he did such a thing, so how could he dare to boast of his glory? There is an inherent unified logic between purpose and means. The brutality of the means used by the West or God shows that the purpose is not for justice and fairness, not for so-called freedom and democracy, but for power and property, for resources and interests.

The glory of God in the Bible is far lower than the moral standard of the supernatural powers that Confucius despised. The West regards their robbery as glory, and the glory of God. The British Empire colonized Asia, Africa and Latin America, causing many genocides and humanitarian disasters, but they named cities, streets, and ports after Queen Victoria and erected statues of Queen Victoria everywhere, because Britain conquered the world with powerful ships and guns during the Victorian era, just like the glory of God that the Israelites received after the genocide and occupation of the Canaan region.

The transformation of Puyi from the last Manchu emperor to an outstanding citizen of New China is a miracle of China's civilization as a country of etiquette, and is proof that Chinese civilization is more advanced than Western civilization.
Ahead of nuclear talks, Iran warns will hold US responsible for Israel attack



Tehran, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Iran warned it would hold the United States responsible if Israel attacks its nuclear facilities, but President Donald Trump's administration voiced optimism for a peaceful solution Thursday before new talks.

Trump spoke about his diplomacy on Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, in a telephone call largely focused on an attack in Washington that killed two Israeli embassy employees.

Israel has repeatedly threatened military action against arch-enemy Iran and CNN, citing unnamed US officials, reported Tuesday that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear sites despite the ongoing US-Iran talks.

"We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime, the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations.

"Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime," Araghchi added.

The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, are the highest-level contact between the long-time foes since the United States in 2018 pulled out of a landmark deal between Iran and world powers, during Trump's first term in office.

The fifth round of talks, which are mediated by Oman, will take place Friday in Oman and include Steve Witkoff, Trump's globe-trotting negotiator.

Trump told Netanyahu that the Iran talks are "moving along in the right direction", White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the United States would not be holding talks "if we didn't think that there was potential".

"I would say that clearly we believe that we are going to succeed," Bruce said.



- 'Fundamental differences' -



But a key sticking point has been enrichment.

"There are still fundamental differences between us," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television, warning "we will not have an agreement at all" if the United States wants to prevent Iran from enriching uranium.

The 2015 deal with Iran, which was negotiated by former president Barack Obama, allowed Iran to enrich uranium at low levels solely for civilian energy.

The Islamic republic currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67-percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 percent needed for a nuclear warhead.

Trump has vowed a deal tougher than Obama's.

"Iran cannot have an enrichment capability, because that ultimately makes them a threshold nuclear power," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing Wednesday.

Iran is looking for relief from sweeping sanctions imposed in 2018 by Trump, which include penalties on all countries to prevent them from purchasing Iran's key export of petrol.

Rubio, questioned by a lawmaker, suggested the United States would maintain sanctions over Iran's development of ballistic missiles, a topic that was not addressed explicitly under the 2015 agreement.

"There are sanctions related to terrorism, sanctions related to their ballistic missiles programme, and the like. Those sanctions, if they're not part of the deal, they'll remain in place," he said.



- 'Devastating response' -



Israel and Iran traded direct attacks last year for the first time, against the backdrop of soaring regional tensions triggered by the Gaza war, with Israel believing it has gained an upper hand.

On Thursday, Ali Mohammad Naini, the spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned an Israeli attack would be met by a "devastating and decisive response in its small and vulnerable geography".

Also on Thursday, the Iranian army's ground forces unveiled three new drones, adding two reconnaissance and one kamikaze drone to to its arsenal, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, a group of demonstrators gathered near the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant south of Tehran to voice support for the country's nuclear activities.

The crowd waved Iranian flags and chanted slogans such as "nuclear energy is our inalienable right" and "no compromise, no surrender, only confrontation with America".
US says Sudan used chemical weapons, imposes sanctions



Washington, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



The United States said Thursday that it had determined that Sudan's military used chemical weapons in the country's bloody civil war last year and will impose sanctions on Khartoum.

"The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations" under the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international treaty signed by nearly all countries that prohibits their use, the State Department said.

"The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

The State Department did not immediately offer details on when and where the weapons were used.

The New York Times reported in January that Sudan's military had used chemical weapons on at least two occasions in remote areas its war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Citing anonymous US officials, the newspaper said that the weapon appeared to be chlorine gas, which can cause severe respiratory pain and death.

The State Department said it notified Congress on Thursday of its determination on the use of chemical weapons, triggering sanctions after 15 days.

The sanctions include restrictions on US exports and financing to Sudan's government.

In practical terms, the effect will be limited as both Sudan's military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his adversary, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, are already under US sanctions.

A power struggle between the army and RSF erupted into full-scale war in April 2023 with devastating consequences for the already impoverished country.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The army said on Tuesday it had dislodged the RSF from their last positions in Omdurman, part of the Sudanese capital, securing all of Khartoum state nearly two months after recapturing the capital's center.
In mentioning the provenance of each work they also dont shy away from the colonial treasure hunt embarked upon by the likes of the East India Company. We are shown maps of their digs and come to understand the path these items have taken. You can by cynical about it, but this kind of hyper-engagement feels perfectly in fitting with the values of the art here, and the exhibitions as a whole: empathy, learning and appreciation; inspiration actually. At one point golden threads string down from the ceiling to touch a sculpture of Parshvanatha reaching enlightenment. But the birth of the Buddha rendered in a stone tablet, brings the joy of faith, this is a wild party of music under the eyes of the gods. Sure, the mother is having a dance post-childbirth, which I cant remember my partner doing after the birth of our children, but who needs realism when you have this much joy?
I just hope it leaves people with greater compassion, Hogg adds. Everybody is vulnerable for some reason or the other. If the exhibition could just leave people thinking about masculinity and what it means; vulnerability, what it means, and also be very aware of what conflict does. Everything horrible happens in war. We've got to remember that. And I hope this is a reminder to people that nobody is untouched.
Yeah, Ive had numerous occasions from back in the day down at the old riots. I think we got a bit clobbered, but it felt like a bit of a game, a cat and mouse thing at the time. I once got arrested and put in a cell at Kentish Town and spent the night there. On paper, it was for theft of a moped. But me and Pete [Doherty], we were eyeing up this moped that had been neglected. Nothing particularly glamorous. It looked so neglected and sad, we thought wed liberate it one rainy evening. It was a bit Miami Vice: an unmarked car pulled out in the middle of the road. We tried to explain we were out of work poets and it didnt really sway it. It turned out it belonged to a one Mr Hesmetzky who subsequently dropped charges. So thank you, Mr Hesmetzky.
The school itself is unlike any Ive seen before. It is fabulously quiet, like a library, or a private hospital. The pupils all say hello, and urgently walk from one classroom to the next. They are smart, all wear the same uniform, and look completely engaged. Phones are banned. Youre allowed to bring them to school, but if you turn them on, they will be confiscated immediately. Consequently, no one ever turns them on. In class, they work in pairs, supporting one another as the teacher barks another question. Each time they are asked to respond, each and every pupil puts their hand up, volunteering an answer, and keen to keep up. The schools results are more than impressive, and you can see why. The discipline here is infectious and benign. I had imagined some kind of draconian atmosphere but its anything but. Honestly, why Birbalsingh isnt Education Secretary is beyond me, but then she doesnt have much time for politicians, and certainly not the current administration. You can see why.
Where to live

Golden Visas: the four European countries where you can still get citizenship by buying property

Four European countries still offering golden visas to property buyers
The WNY Women's Foundation is trying something new with its leadership summit this year: Including programming for men supporting women's advancement in the workplace.

"If our goal is to advance more women into positions of leadership, there are significant systems, policy and culture in place that we have to begin to shift," said Sheri Scavone, the foundation's CEO. "And we're not doing that just as women. We're all in this together."

The foundation's third annual Leadership Summit, called "Unapologetically Courageous," is set for May 30 at the University at Buffalo's Alumni Arena. About 800 people are expected to attend.

As of mid-May, 40 men were registered for the summit. A few men have attended the summit in past years, when the event was billed as the Women's Leadership Summit.

The "leadership ally" conference track will focus on how men can help women advance into leadership roles at employers, Scavone said. That support can take different forms.

"Sometimes, that's through awareness. Sometimes, that's through purposeful efforts, like sponsorships," Scavone said. Men can also be the voice advocating for women "when they're not in the room," she added.

A panel will feature men talking about what they have done to support women ascending the leadership ranks and why that matters, Scavone said. The panelists were recommended by women "as men who walk the talk and are intentional about advancing women."

A report released last year by the foundation found that women were the top-ranking leader at only 27 of the region's 100 largest employers, even though women make up half of the workforce.

The summit will feature programming for women at three different stages of their careers. There's also a track  which is invitation only  under the heading "SHE-Suite," for women who are either the CEO or the senior-most leader at their organization. Fifty women were signed up for that segment as of mid May.

SHE-Suite emerged from what women in leadership roles had requested: An opportunity to meet up in person and network, and share issues or concerns they can relate to as executives, Scavone said.

The women in SHE-Suite have also committed to welcoming female CEOs who move into the area, to help them establish connections in the community, Scavone said. It is another way the SHE-Suite participants are staying active beyond the summit.

Barbara Annis, CEO of Gender Intelligence, will open the summit with an address about understanding how gender differences can lead to better communication, decision making and team performance.

"We want to drive solutions, Scavone said. "That's what this is all about. It's not about finger pointing, it's not about one is better than the other."

Annis will also hold individual meetings with the SHE-Suite and men as allies participants.

Summit attendees will be asked to fill out a postcard addressed to themselves, listing a goal they want to achieve in the next six months. Six months from now, the postcards will be mailed to them. The idea is in keeping with Scavone's approach of making events such as the summit lead to meaningful results.

"We always try to have a call to action or have people leave with things they have to do," she said.

Sizing up the state of DEI

The Buffalo Niagara Partnership will host its "Inclusive Impact Symposium" on June 27 at the Buffalo Bills fieldhouse in Orchard Park.

Among the topics to be covered: how the Trump administration's executive orders freezing the federal governments diversity, equity and inclusion practices are having a ripple effect on the efforts of profit and non-profit organizations.

Per my last passive-aggressive email

LegalBison has cracked the code on the real meaning of those passive-aggressive email messages that land in your inbox.

The provider of legal services collected common email messages and used a combination of AI and human input to analyze, explain and rank them.

"Per my last email" scored the highest on its passive-aggressive scale, earning a 9.5 out of 10.

"AI determined that what comes across as a simple reference back actually means 'you clearly didn't read what I sent you,' " LegalBison said in its summary. "It was also determined that the term implies blame under the surface, while also hiding irritation in the note."

Rounding out the top five, along with their AI interpretations, were: Just circling back ("You're ignoring me"); As previously mentioned ("I already explained this"); Please advise ("Do your job and respond"); and Thanks in advance ("I expect you to do this.")

Aaron Glauberman, co-founder of LegalBison, said it's important to choose your words carefully.

"Tone and phrasing specifically in the workplace can mean more than many people think, as it can unintentionally create pressure, confusion, and frustration, even if the sender may mean well," he said.

THE LATEST

The State University of New York is readying to enroll state residents ages 25 to 55 for free at community colleges.

HoliMont ski resort in Ellicottville wants tax breaks to support repairs, new equipment and other upgrades.

Five Western New York companies are getting cheap hydropower from the New York Power Authority for expansion projects.

Buffalo fintech startup Verivend has been acquired by the owners of private-equity fundraising platform Betterfront.

A son-and-father developer team plan to turn 11 houses formerly used by Medaille University for offices into homes.

The Buffalo Niagara region's unemployment rate dropped to 3.3% in April.

National Fuel is investing more than $3 million to create a service center near the Northland complex.

Union members at five Western New York nursing homes went on strike Tuesday.

The Buffalo Together Community Response Fund has awarded grants totaling $600,000 to 30 nonprofit organizations.

The developer who wants to redevelop the former Saturn Rings Building in downtown Buffalo suffered a two-pronged setback.

The Buffalo Bisons want to create new fan gathering and party area.

A Cleveland-based aerospace firm has agreed to buy Servotronics for $110 million.

Pizza box maker Enterprise Folding Box Co. is hoping to expand by constructing a warehouse addition to its facility in Riverside.

The New York Independent System Operator says the state's power grid needs to add renewable power generation at a higher rate to make up for deactivated fossil fuel generators.

The owner of a half-acre corner lot on Jefferson Avenue wants to construct a small four-story building on it with four apartments and three storefronts.

Once-beloved Target is struggling to recover the luster it lost during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Oxford Pennant is focusing on efficiency and stability in its second decade.

Five years after the pandemic, workers are still in short supply across the Buffalo Niagara region.

The Buffalo Niagara region's job total increased by 700 in April.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is taking aim at what she has identified as a major and growing new threat to eager homebuyers ability to land their American dream: Wall Street.

Catholic Health System has agreed to pay nearly $3.3 million to resolve accusations that it made payments to non-employee physicians to induce patient referrals.

Union workers at 11 area nursing homes could hit the picket line Tuesday.

A dynamic duo of local landscape contractors wants to expand its growing portfolio of warehouse and workshop space in Niagara County.

Univera Healthcare's longtime president is calling it a career.

New York State has agreed to pay a $5.7 billion debt for its unemployment insurance trust fund.

Walden Galleria, an important employer and taxpayer in Cheektowaga, had a $220 million loan payment due May 1, which it didn't make. What now?

Verizon, as Buffalo Bills' Official 5G Network, will provide a 5G Wi-Fi network, new technology and wireless solutions to fans at tailgates and games.

Danny Winer, who serves as CEO at cookware company HexClad, has deep Buffalo roots.

The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the regions economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Buffalo Next Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435.
The Merseyside-based dealer, 23 used a fake ID supplied by Iqbal and Ahmed to travel across Europe and import more than 300kg of Class A drugs into Britain with the help of his girlfriend Sian Banks, 25.
I think that is just a statement of fact, we have seen a consistent pattern of war crimes, and we now have an Israeli government that is being very blunt in terms of outlining what it is intending to carry out in Gaza and theyve dropped the pretence, quite frankly, in terms of what they actually want to achieve.
Violent or sexual offenders who are serving sentences of four years or more could be released into the community on licence after spending half of their sentence behind bars, or longer if they do not comply with prison rules.
One of the friends, Lucy Law, 20, was one of the last people to see the British tourist alive and reportedly received a final call from him saying he had a cut on his leg was lost, had one per cent charge on his phone and needed water.
He said: This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered, and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff.
However a plan has also been put in place for Brown to travel to Europe, the US, and Canada to complete his Breezy Bowl XX world tour, by using his passport to travel and then leaving it with his lawyers while he completes the gigs.
SUNY Buffalo State University is making more job and program cuts as it continues to grapple with the challenges of slashing a significant structural deficit.

The university will cut the equivalent of 63 full-time staff members through termination of temporary appointments, nonrenewals, retirements and cost-cutting layoffs.

Buffalo State will also cut 19 additional programs that have an average of nine students over six bachelors degree and two masters degree programs. It also will merge its schools of Education and Professions, starting this fall.

This follows the implementation of an earlier voluntary separation program  two rounds of a buyout offer  that has resulted in around 60 retirements or employees agreeing to leave. Buffalo State already eliminated 37 low-performing programs that served a total of only 34 students last year.

SUNY Fredonia making strides; Buffalo States progress slower, King says Facing belt-tightening and budget-cutting measures due to decade-long financial woes exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, SUNY Fredonia has cut its deficit in half and seen an over 7% increase in first-time undergraduate students. But not all SUNY schools experiencing financial troubles are making progress as quickly. Buffalo State University has cut its deficit at a slower rate  by about 25%  and the school is also working to overcome low graduation rates.

The university said last summer it had reduced its structural deficit by about $4 million to $12.5 million. But as the school nears the end of its fiscal year, it projects the deficit may now be at least $15.5 million.

Buffalo State is among a number of SUNY campuses tasked with finding ways to erase structural deficits that piled up over years of declining enrollment that went unmatched by program or staff cuts over the past decade.

In the last 10 years, student headcount at Buffalo State has fallen by 43%, with a 25% reduction in the last five years. While the enrollment decrease was 43%, staffing decreased by only 22%.

Bonita R. Durand, the universitys interim president, said theres still work to get done to catch Buffalo State up to the current times, but she projects the university remains on target to balance its budget by 2027-28. That means the university has quite a way to go to get there in three years.

She provided an update and discussed the universitys financial sustainability plan via video for faculty and staff Thursday afternoon.

Its not just about cutting into the deficit, its making sure the university has offerings that students want today, Durand said.

The school is 153 years old so there are some offerings that were more popular at one time and even the way students learn now is different. So, what were doing is looking at those low-enrolled, no-longer-in-demand programs and moving them out of the way, so we can enhance student offerings to meet student demands, she said. That will help with our deficit, but more importantly it will make us more viable and sustainable.

Buffalo State also has made strides to help the students who enroll there stay in school.

Our enrollment does not just depend on bringing in new students but is also very heavily dependent on retaining the students we have throughout their academic career and having them graduate, Durand said.

Buffalo State has been able to increase its persistence rate  which measures how many students who enroll continue to pursue a higher education degree at either the school they first enroll in or at another institution  to the highest it has been since 2017.

The campuswide student persistence rate from fall 2024 to this spring is up 7%, to 83.4%, from the previous year. The persistence rate among students receiving customized supports designed to help them remain on track with their studies in their first year on campus hit 89.7%, which is up 22% over 2023-24, the university reported.

That should lead to more Buffalo State students staying at the school, which is measured by a statistic called the retention rate. While first-time enrollments and new transfers decreased by 16.1% and 15.7%, respectively, in fall 2024 from the prior fall, overall retention numbers improved by 3% from 54.7% to 57.7%, in that time.

Buffalo State to offer another round of retirement incentives to help with deficit Buffalo State University will be offering another voluntary employee separation program as the institution looks to continue to cut into a structural deficit of $16.5 million that the school announced it was facing last year.

The university had been put on notice by its accrediting agency for low retention and graduation rates. Buffalo States six-year graduation rate for the 2017 cohort of first-time, full-time freshmen dropped below the 40% threshold for Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and the universitys next two years of cohorts are expected to yield similar results.

To help bolster enrollment, Buffalo State has entered into an agreement with Buffalo Public Schools and is in conversations with the Williamsville, Kenmore-Tonawanda and Niagara Falls school districts to create direct pathways for students to enroll, Durand said.

This Buffalo State faculty and staff have done a tremendous job in pulling together to make sure students can persist and move from semester to semester onto graduation, she said.

The job cuts are part of an effort by Buffalo State to better align staffing with current enrollment levels, Durand said. The university reviewed temporary appointments, service delivery models and workforce optimization planning across all departments, including reducing operations in the presidents office.

Before the most recent cuts, the university was at 874 full-time employees and its enrollment for 2023-24 was around 6,100 students, including about 5,200 seeking undergraduate degrees.

Falling grad rates put Buffalo State on notice with accrediting body Buffalo States six-year graduation rate for the 2017 cohort of first-time, full-time freshmen dropped below the 40% threshold for its accrediting agency Middle States, and the universitys next two years of cohorts are expected to yield similar results. It has the university implementing strategies and tactics to reverse this trend.

The voluntary separation program has resulted in around 60 retirements, including 51 during the first round of buyouts. The buyout period, which was supported by $2 million from the Buffalo State Foundation, has now closed, Durand said.

We have pretty much gone through the allocation we asked for and they gave us, she said.

Even in deactivating degree programs, such as bachelors programs in physics, art history and sociology, all students currently enrolled in these 19 deactivated programs will be able to complete their degrees as planned, Durand said.

Another part of creating administrative efficiencies and opportunities to explore new interdisciplinary programs is that the university will merge its schools of Education and Professions in the fall.

Buffalo State has created and revised programs to respond to changing needs, including the rollout of minors in business and ethics and justice, a bachelors program in applied psychology; a masters program in applied behavior analysis and the development of a microcredential for school district business leaders in collaboration with Erie 1 BOCES.

It can be jarring, Durand said of the cuts. We have to capitalize on the things we do well, and we also want to meet the current needs of the community and the student population.

She said Buffalo State will have a better handle on its deficit number by June 30, when performance results are in for the latest school year.

What were projecting now may not be what we see then, Durand said.

Increasing levels of state support in the last three years have helped Buffalo States efforts to forge ahead. Under the recently approved state budget, the university is receiving $2.6 million in additional operating aid, bringing the total infusion of new support to $10.7 million in the last three years combined.

The actions Buffalo State is taking are setting up the university for long-term financial stability and, most importantly, setting students up for maximum success, State University of New York Chancellor John B. King Jr. said in a statement.
By Qabil Ashirov



Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek has expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani government for its steadfast commitment to the safety of Israeli diplomats and the local Jewish community.

As reported by Azernews, Ambassador Deek shared a statement on his social media account in response to a shocking terror attack that took place in Washington, D.C., where two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot at close range during a Jewish event.

We are shaken by the horrific terrorist attack at a Jewish event in Washington, where two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot at close range, the ambassador wrote. I want to thank the people of Azerbaijan for their solidarity, and the government of Azerbaijan for its unwavering commitment to protecting Israeli diplomats and the Jewish community in this beautiful country.

The attack drew international condemnation and is under active investigation.

According to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, the two embassy staff members were killed in the early morning hours near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Two employees of the Israeli Embassy were killed this evening in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington, she wrote on her official X (formerly Twitter) account. We are investigating the incident.
The head of superintendents for public schools in Erie and Niagara counties said the 100% passage of school budgets Tuesday represents a serious win for local education.

I think theres a prevalent sense in Western New York that our schools are getting it right, said Michael Cornell, president of the Erie-Niagara School Superintendents Association and former Hamburg Schools superintendent. Theyre voting in favor of school budgets, and school budgets are an expression of priorities in the school districts.

School election results: Clean sweep: Budget approval in Erie and Niagara counties unanimous Voters across New York went to the polls Tuesday to consider school budget spending proposals and to elect school board members.

The perfect score for budgets across the 38 school districts is only slightly higher than the rate of passage across the state. According to the New York State School Boards Association, 97% of the states school budgets passed, and all but six of 632 districts whose proposals were under the tax cap were successful.

New York voters understand the importance of their local schools and want to see them adequately funded, said association Executive Director Robert S. Schneider. School boards take seriously their duty to craft spending plans that serve students while being affordable to taxpayers. That was reflected in Tuesdays results.

WNY budget tracker: Most budgets, especially in large districts, pass comfortably See a live tracker of how proposed budgets have fared for school districts across Western New York.

Cornell said he believes the public recognizes the magnitude of the responsibilities asked of school districts, especially fostering students academic and social-emotional development, but also how they serve as resources for families. Budget passage is an acknowledgement of the efforts to meet those needs.

When youre voting for the school budgets, its a vote of confidence for the people, a vote of confidence for the teachers, the teacher aides, and the principals who work in our schools everyday, he said.

Close call in Barker

Many large school districts  such as Hamburg, Kenmore-Tonawanda, Sweet Home and Williamsville  passed their budgets by margins of greater than 3-to-1. The opposite was true in Barker, which has the smallest budget in Erie-Niagara but proposed the largest increase at 18.95%.

The budget passed 213-207, the areas tightest race. It was a relief to Michael Carter, the districts business administrator for the last eight years, who for months educated the districts School Board and community through board meetings, budget advisory committees, newsletters and a public budget hearing earlier this month.

The 18.95% is nothing to gloss over, Carter said Wednesday. Thats why we spent so much time explaining it.

He said the districts special education costs are rising due to a significant increase of students with disabilities in the district, but the bulk of those costs will be offset by an increase in state aid.

WNY budgets that failed

Fredonia Central Schools in Chautauqua County and Oakfield-Alabama Schools in Orleans and Genesee counties were the two districts where voters shot down proposed budgets.

Fredonias budget was one of the six in the state that did not succeed despite keeping its tax levy under the tax cap. Superintendent Brad Zilliox in his budget newsletter before the vote acknowledged rising costs.

Some of these expenses include increased costs in transportation, special education, BOCES services, medical and prescription drug premiums, and the required contribution of the NYS Teacher Retirement System, he wrote. Its uncertain if voters actions reflected the Village of Fredonias potential tax hike of 45% or more.

Oakfield-Alabama was in an uncommon position: Its tax cap for 2025-2026 decreased compared with the present years budget. The small district proposed an increase in the tax levy that would exceed the tax cap, however, which requires 60% of voters in favor for it to pass. It received less than 50%.

State law gives districts the option for a revote, which must occur June 17 after a series of presentations. Districts can but are not required to amend their initial proposed budget. Districts may also skip the revote process and adopt a contingency budget, which often requires significant cuts to non-contracted areas.

Fewer Erie County school board candidates brings opportunity, concern In Erie County, the 27 school districts have had more open seats than candidates just three times total in the previous five elections, according to data compiled by The Buffalo News. This year, only 11 of the county's school districts have contested races.

Incumbents dominate in contested districts

Given that only 11 races in Erie County were contested, it was expected that board elections would be fairly uneventful. Incumbents largely dominated, with 45 of 47 winning reelection, with exceptions in Hamburg and Akron.

Hyped races in Iroquois and Williamsville were decisive. Henry Szymula III collected 410 votes  167 more than second-place  to win the single Iroquois School Board seat against four challengers. Williamsvilles three incumbents  Stuart Bulan, Mark Manna and Christina Bleckinger  each more than doubled the totals of their two challengers.

In Iroquois, 5 people want the lone available School Board seat. This year, that's a rarity The race in Iroquois stands out as one of the most competitive elections in Western New York this year, in terms of the number of candidates running.

Write-in winners

A down year in school board candidates in Erie County was most revealing in three districts where there were not enough candidates on the ballots to fill the open seats. That created opportunities for write-in candidates: Holly Nowak won with 21 votes in Cheektowaga, while Matthew Richards nabbed a seat in Depew with 39 votes. West Seneca was still tabulating its results for its write-in winner at publication time Wednesday afternoon.
The National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) will implement a EU-funded EUR 20 million project for the development of the National Veterinary Information System for Food Safety (SINVSA).

The contract was signed on Thursday, at the headquarters of the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania, by the ANSVSA president, Alexandru Bociu, together with Ana Maria Busoniu - director general of the Intermediary Body for the Promotion of the Information Society (OIPSI), who signed on behalf of and for the Smart Growth, Digitalisation and Financial Instruments Program (PoCIDIF) Management Authority of the Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE).

According to the cited source, the project, worth more than EUR 20 million, is financed from European funds through the Smart Growth, Digitalisation and Financial Instruments Program (PoCIDIF) 2021-2027 Programme and marks a historic moment in the modernisation of the institution's activity, representing an essential step in the direction of digitising public services offered to citizens, veterinarians and economic operators.

"The project will significantly contribute to increasing the quality of public services, reducing administrative costs, aligning with European regulations and, at the same time, facilitating citizens' access to modern, efficient and transparent services. The implementation of SIDISVA will transform the way in which data and processes are managed in the veterinary and food safety field, bringing Romania in line with the most advanced European standards in the field," the press release states.

SIDISVA will integrate complex functionalities, including: digital management of documents and laboratory samples (LIMS and DMS); geospatial mapping of holdings and authorised units; a modern public services portal, accessible to citizens and companies; the digitalisation of control, surveillance and authorisation activities; integration with national and European systems such as ROeID, eIDAS, SNIIA, APIA, ONRC, etc.
The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) unanimously rejected, on Thursday, the appeal filed by AUR (Alliance for the Union of Romanians) leader George Simion regarding the annulment of the elections won by independent Nicusor Dan.

"In the hearing of May 22, 2025, the Constitutional Court, within the jurisdiction regarding the observance of the procedure for electing the president of Romania, took up for debate the request for the annulment of the elections for the office of president of Romania in the second round of voting on May 18, 2025, formulated by Mr. George-Nicolae Simion. Following the deliberations, the Constitutional Court, unanimously, rejected the request for the annulment of the elections, as unfounded. The decision is final and is communicated to the Central Electoral Bureau," the CCR informs in a press release.

The solemn session for the confirmation and validation of the presidential election results will take place at the CCR at 12:00 pm.

The ceremony will be attended by interim president Ilie Bolojan and Nicusor Dan. AGERPRES
The attachment to the European project, which represents the very core of President Metsola's political vision, is also our belief in the future of Romania, declared on Thursday the Minister of Foreign Affairs Emil Hurezeanu, present at the awarding ceremony of the Timisoara Prize for European Values, awarded this year to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

"We have seen that in times of uncertainty and unpredictability, when our democratic beliefs are targeted by malign actions and disinformation, we can rely on friends like President Roberta Metsola to defend and speak out about our common achievements in Europe. I particularly welcome the jury's decision to choose Roberta Metsola as the laureate of the 2025 edition of the Timisoara Prize for European Values - and what other city in Romania than Timisoara is more suitable to host such a ceremony dedicated to promoting and protecting European values?" said Minister Hurezeanu.

'Timisoara will always be a symbol of freedom and dignity, the city that placed Romania on the map of democratic states. Those days will always remind us that it takes courage and sacrifice to defend our right to democratic options,' said Emil Hurezeanu, who recalled the moments in December 1989 when he was an editor at Radio Free Europe in Munich and, together with his colleagues, reported on 'Timisoara's fight for our freedom, for the right of Romanians to live in a free and democratic society.'

The Romanian minister welcomed the EP President's ability to discuss Europe with the general public in a direct manner, 'with both the mind and the soul', a valuable skill in a period of 'disinformation, fake news, alternative facts and polarization, when truth and integrity become valuable commodities'.

According to the head of Romanian diplomacy, the EP President's commitment was essential in keeping the situation in Ukraine a priority on the European Union's agenda, and Roberta Metsola's personal involvement in constantly affirming Romania's right to be a member of the Schengen area contributed to a positive decision.

Emil Hurezeanu also welcomed the support given by the EP President to the efforts of the Republic of Moldova to join the European Union.

'We will continue to be stronger together only as long as we continue to support each other and seek common solutions to our problems in our common home, the European Union. (...) I want to assure you that Romania is and will continue to be a country of freedom, of convergence of cultures, just like our host city, Timisoara,' concluded the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, received the Timisoara Prize for European Values on Thursday, the highest distinction of the municipality, granted to personalities who support fundamental European values. The jury, made up of prominent figures from the Romanian cultural, diplomatic and legal scene, appreciated the EP President's firm attitude in times of crisis, her unconditional support for Ukraine and Moldova and her constant efforts for Romania's accession to the Schengen area.
Regional security and support for the reinforcement of the democratic and European path of the Republic of Moldova were among the topics tackled by Minister of the Interior Catalin Predoiu with his Moldovan counterpart Daniella Misail-Nichitin, who was in Bucharest on Thursday for the ninth edition of the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum.

"Streamlining border traffic was another topic discussed in detail, with the two officials agreeing on the need for a constructive approach to making control at border crossing points more efficient, including by coordinated control," the Ministry of the Interior said in a release.

Romania and the Republic of Moldova have been already implementing this type of control since April 15, 2023 at the Albita - Leuseni border checkpoint, on the direction of entry to Romania, and the Galati - Giurgiulesti border crossing point will follow next.

"The shared border should not be treated as a simple line of separation, but as an area of strengthened operational cooperation, where our efforts come together for the benefit of citizens and for protecting security. Our authorities are making special efforts to regulate these aspects and through a consistent development of the border infrastructure we will achieve the expected results," Predoiu declared, stressing that coordinated control and guaranteeing border security are complementary goals requiring consistent investments and continued cross-border cooperation.

The two ministers voiced appreciation for the dynamics of bilateral cooperation on preventing and combating cross-border crime by best putting to use all available police cooperation mechanisms: task forces, working groups, joint teams, joint patrols.

The over 250 joint missions carried out in the first four months of the year on the border with the Republic of Moldova were referenced as an example.

"The meeting reaffirmed the unwavering commitment of both parties to strengthening cooperation in a complex international context, marked by multiple challenges, both within the two states and at regional level," the Ministry of the Interior said.
Justice minister Radu Marinescu on Thursday called for responsibility and maturity in the public discourse, following the statements made by AUR (Alliace for the Union of Romanians) chair George Simion, who said that he only congratulated Nicusor Dan after winning the elections because he did not want to see "bloodshed."

The minister of justice said that such type of approaches further divide the Romanian society.

"The elections took place. We have a result. If they intend to challenge it, there are legal ways that can be followed. My call would be for responsibility, for maturity in the public discourse and to avoid any kind of approach that would further divide Romanian society. I believe that we need a constructive attitude at the moment, we need to manage public affairs, to continue the development path of our country and not to waste ourselves in disputes that I believe would be, ultimately, unproductive," stated Radu Marinescu, before the government meeting, when asked how he assessed George Simion's statements regarding a "bloodshed."

The leader of AUR, George Simion, on Tuesday said that he would challenge the result of the presidential elections of May 18 with the Constitutional Court. In this context, he mentioned the reason why he congratulated Nicusor Dan.

"The reason why I, considering the numbers from the polling stations, congratulated Nicusor Dan, was because I love Romania, I love the Romanian people and I never want to see bloodshed in our country, which would justify chaos and the takeover of power by some," said Simion. AGERPRES
The Minister of Investments and European Projects, Marcel Bolos, stated on Thursday that the absorption rate of European funds for the period 2021-2027 is 9.4% at this time, noting that it is "a period in which absorption is beginning to return to normal."

Asked, after the government meeting, what the current absorption rate is for the funds for the period 2021-2027, Marcel Bolos said it is 9.4%.

"It is, if you will, a period in which absorption is starting to return to normal. I said that we have prepared payment applications, some we have sent, others are in the process of sending. The objective is to close at the end of May with 1.8 billion euros sent to the Commission and, probably, somewhere in late June - early July to collect them. We also have a new set of payment applications scheduled for July, somewhere around 1.5 billion euros, so that we receive a new tranche from the Cohesion Policy, where there is more money than in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan," explained Bolos.

He mentioned that, also in July, it is planned, if the Government becomes functional, to send payment request number 4, with a value of 5.7 billion euros.

"Romania's money is at stake and, from our point of view, we must mobilize so that we can have the largest possible amount absorbed," added Bolos.

Bolos was also asked about four new areas that could be introduced into the Cohesion Policy and where unused money could be redirected - decarbonization, water, social housing and armaments - and how much money our country could offer for these new areas.

"We had discussions with the European Commission on these four new investment components, namely for what the decarbonization part means in particular. I confess that, further, I believe that supporting activities for what Romania's manufacturing industry means, activities that are specific to industrial production are a priority for Romania and in the Cohesion Policy. We must make room for these types of investments that the business environment can implement and, of course, we have a consistent package, which is part of the specific amendments that we promoted in the Cohesion Policy. I also hope that by the end of July, September at the latest, we will have, somehow, at least agreed in principle, the amendments related to the Cohesion Policy and I would be most happy if the allocations of European funds for the manufacturing industry would take shape. Then, indeed, through these multiannual programs and through these "multiannual fund allocations to enter an area of predictability for industrial production activities, which are Romania's chance for economic recovery," Marcel Bolos also explained.
President-elect Nicusor Dan declared on Thursday that his duty is to respect the treaties agreed upon by Romania, noting at the same time that Romania wishes to continue the "very good" relationship with the State of Israel.

Nicusor Dan was asked whether he considers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu guilty of war crimes.

"That's none of my business. My business is to respect some decisions of treaties, courts, in this case, which we are part of. Beyond that, we want to continue the very good relationship we have with the Jewish state," the president-elect replied in a press statement.

Nicusor Dan thanked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for his congratulations on winning the elections, assuring him of his commitment to strengthening relations between Romania and Israel.

"I genuinely appreciate your message and deeply value the historical friendship between Romania and Israel. I assure you of my commitment to strengthening the relationship between our nations, which are united by shared cultural ties and a strong dedication to effective cooperation in areas such as technology, education, culture and preservation of historical memory," Nicusor Dan wrote on the X network on Thursday.

On May 8, during an electoral debate, Nicusor Dan stated that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not pay a visit to Romania. He added that Romania must have "a normal relationship" with Israel.

"It will never happen as long as this decision [the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court] exists, namely for Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to Romania," he said at the time.
President-elect Nicusor Dan on Thursday said that Romania's assistance to Ukraine will continue, that he hopes peace is achieved as soon as possible, adding that Romania is very open to participating in reconstruction efforts.

Nicusor Dan made these remarks during the 9th edition of the 'Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum.'

He was asked about how he views the development of Romania's partnership with Ukraine, potential peace negotiations, and Ukraine's post-war reconstruction.

'Although I have been somewhat of an opponent of the governments over the past three years since the war began, I have welcomed the way Romania has positioned itself toward the war in Ukraine during each of those years. It was the correct approach, considering the international political context, where we saw an aggressor state break the stability established 80 years ago by international treaties. And of course, [Romania] acted with its own security in mind and the security of the Republic of Moldova, because Ukraine is a friendly state, and we prefer to have a friendly neighbour next to both Romania and Moldova. Support for Ukraine will continue, of course, we all hope that peace can be achieved as quickly as possible, or at the very least a ceasefire. Until then, Europe, and Romania as part of Europe, must give Ukraine all the tools it needs to negotiate a peace that is as favorable as possible. And once that happens, we are certainly very open to participating in the effort to rebuild,' said Nicusor Dan. AGERPRES
The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will convene on Monday at 12:00 in the solemn session in which the president-elect, Nicusor Dan, will take the oath, the leadership of the Parliament decided on Thursday.

The Constitutional Court of Romania validated the results of the presidential elections on Thursday.

According to the Constitution, "the candidate whose election has been validated shall take the following oath before the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, in joint session: 'I swear to devote all my power and skill to the spiritual and material prosperity of the Romanian people, to respect the Constitution and the laws of the country, to defend democracy, the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Romania. So help me God!'".

According to the internal memorandum approved by the joint Permanent Bureaus, former heads of state, members of the interim Government, members of the Constitutional Court, MEPs, the Custodian of the Crown, Margareta, Prince Radu, representatives of central public institutions, authorities and institutions under parliamentary control, European institutions, religious denominations, heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Romania are invited to the solemn meeting.
President-elect Nicusor Dan had an informal discussion on Wednesday evening with the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who is currently paying a visit to Romania.

"I had an informal discussion with the president of the European Parliament. Romania needs all the support it can get in the coming period," wrote Nicusor Dan, on the X network.

Roberta Metsola started a two-day visit to Romania on Wednesday.

According to the official programme announced on the website of the European Parliament Multimedia Centre, on Thursday Roberta Metsola will be in Timisoara, at the invitation of mayor Dominic Fritz, to receive the "Timisoara for European Values" Award.

Roberta Metsola and Dominic Fritz will have a dialogue with 800 pupils and students from Timisoara and the region about Europe and current challenges.

The "Timisoara for European Values" Award, now in its second edition, is awarded to international personalities who actively support the fundamental values of Europe.

Roberta Metsola was appreciated for "her firm leadership in times of crisis, her unconditional support for Ukraine and Moldova and her continuous efforts for Romania's accession to the Schengen Area."

The "Timisoara for European Values" Award also comes with a cash prize of 30,000 euros. This year, at the request of EP President Roberta Metsola, the cash prize will not be collected, and will be reallocated for the 2026 edition. AGERPRES
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, received on Thursday the Timisoara Award for European Values, the municipality's highest honour, granted to personalities who support fundamental European values.

Roberta Metsola was honoured for her firm attitude in times of crisis, her unconditional support for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova and her constant efforts for Romania's accession to the Schengen Area.

This year's laureate was chosen by a jury made up of leading figures of the Romanian cultural, diplomatic and legal scene: Iulia Motoc (The Hague), judge at the International Criminal Court, Cristian Macelaru (Cologne), music director of the National Orchestra, Simona Miculescu (Paris), ambassador, president of UNESCO General Conference, Anca Miruna Lazarescu (Munich), director and screenwriter, Adriana Babeti (Timisoara), writer and literary critic, Dominic Fritz, mayor of Timisoara.

The Timisoara Award for European Values is accompanied by a cash prize of EUR 30,000. This year, at Roberta Metsola's request, the cash prize will not be collected and will be reallocated for the 2026 edition.
Two more F-16 Fighting Falcons of the multi-role fighter aircraft acquired by Romania from the Kingdom of Norway, landed on Thursday at the 71st Air Base "General Emanoil Ionescu" in Campia Turzii, and are set to endow the 571st Fighter Aviation Squadron of the 57th Air Base "Captain Aviator Constantin Cantacuzino" at Mihail Kogalniceanu.

According to the Ministry of National Defence, the operational capability of the squadron will be developed within the 71st Air Base, while the full operationalisation process will be achieved at the 57th Air Base, once the infrastructure project is completed.

The new aircraft will join those already in the endowment of the Romanian Air Force and will contribute to the consolidation of our country's security by executing missions in defence of national and allied airspace, both in peacetime and in crisis situations, within the Permanent Combat Service - Air Police (SLP-PA), under national and NATO command.

The new batch of aircraft is part of the contract signed between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway for the purchase of 32 F-16 aircraft, together with the initial logistic support and a complementary package of goods and services provided by the Government of the United States of America.

The aircraft, delivered in operational condition, have available resources that allow them to be used for a transition period of at least 10 years, until the transition to 5th generation aircraft. Thus, the acquisition of the Norwegian fighter aircraft represents, in fact, a transfer of capabilities between two allied states within NATO, MApN said.

So far, 18 aircraft have been delivered, 16 of which are part of the 48th Fighter Squadron at Campia Turzii and two are set to endow the 571st Fighter Aviation Squadron at Mihail Kogalniceanu.
Ian Froeb | Post-Dispatch Restaurant critic Follow Ian Froeb | Post-Dispatch Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

For a brief time last decade, I thought ramen would eat St. Louis. Oodles of noodles loomed over the metro area. The number of ramen restaurants that eventually opened didnt match the hype, though  certainly not compared to the regions earlier booms of food trucks and barbecue joints.

Still, that ramen moment delivered two great restaurants, Chris Borks Vista Ramen and Marie-Anne Velasco and Qui Trans Nudo House. Vista closed after only a couple of years on Cherokee Street  its on the short list of restaurants Id resurrect with a wave of my magic chopsticks  but Nudo now ladles up bowls of its sticky tonkotsu broth and schmaltzy chicken paitan ramen at locations in Creve Coeur and the Delmar Loop.

Three years ago, well after our ramen boom had fizzled, Steven Pursely debuted the electrifying Menya Rui in Lindenwood Park. Here Pursely makes his own noodles and explores styles of broth beyond the heavy pork-based tonkotsu that is often synonymous with ramen in the United States. Diners line up around the corner for a seat at Menya Rui, and Pursleys national renown has included the coveted Best New Chef honor from Food + Wine magazine.

A new ramen restaurant in 2025 is a venture both compelling and fraught. The market isnt saturated, and Menya Ruis success proves St. Louis diners crave something unique. Yet Menya Rui and Nudo also showcase the patient, painstaking work necessary to craft a great bowl of ramen.

Kokuu Ramen & Sushi Bar has undertaken this challenge in downtown Kirkwood, where it opened in February a few blocks south of the railroad crossing. Kokuus storefront is nondescript, and its dining room is conventional, with the sushi bar to one side and the main kitchen at the back. Owner Jason Huang cultivates a distinctively friendly vibe, however. As you take your seat, the staff welcomes you in unison in Japanese.

Tonkotsu ramen anchors the menu, and a bowl of the basic version brims with a cloudy white broth coaxed from the prolonged cooking of pork bones. This broth delivers rich, fleetingly sweet pork flavor and a succulent body. With the broth and noodles, the bowl includes slices of both chashu pork and fish cake, black mushrooms, bamboo shoots, corn, and an egg with a custardy golden yolk. It makes for a fine introduction to the restaurant.

Kokkus tonkotsu also demonstrates the dilemma facing a new St. Louis ramen restaurant. Comparisons are inevitable. The broth isnt as lip-smackingly luscious as Nudos. Kokuu takes the rare step of making its own noodles, as Menya Rui does, but the texture is closer to chewy than Menya Ruis delightfully springy ramen.

Where Kokuu distinguishes itself is in its ramen variations. The Kokuu Black ramen amps up the savoriness of its broth with the umami blast of a black-garlic oil. The Kokuu Red charges the broth with chile heat, though crucially without obscuring its porky essence. My order of the Kokuu Red did reveal a kitchen hiccup: the slices of pork chashu pork were as thin as deli meat and chilled.

The broth for Kokuus chicken ramen is nearly as creamy as the tonkotsu broth. Fittingly, the dish is listed as the Spicy Creamy Chicken ramen on the menu. Though not as rich as its pork counterpart, the chicken ramen does receive a meaty boost from minced chicken meat.

Unlike ramen, the market for sushi in St. Louis is saturated. Smartly, Kokuu doesnt try to do too much. The selection of nigiri and sashimi is limited to six options each, and my pieces of yellowtail and salmon delivered the expected clean, sweet flavors. The rice preparation was inconsistent, however. One piece was loose and room-temperature cool, as if just formed by hand; another in the same order was clumpy and cooler, if not straight-up cold.

Though included in the restaurants name, it might be better to view Kokuus sushi as an appetizer or adjunct to its ramen. This is especially true for dishes like the Kokuu roll, a fun combination of crisp tempura shrimp inside the roll and a rainbow of tuna, salmon, yellowtail and eel on top.

The menu does include a selection of actual appetizers, including deeply browned, lacy-edged pork gyoza served in a single pinwheel that you must break apart. Because this is St. Louis, there is also crab Rangoon, the purses of cream cheese and imitation crab meat both very crisp and very sweet. No matter how saturated with crab Rangoon St. Louis is  and the metro area might be 40% crab Rangoon by volume  I will always try another new version.

Rating Recommended: The Post-Dispatch evaluates restaurants on the following scale, lowest to highest: not recommended; recommended, but with reservations; recommended; highly recommended; essential. The rating reflects how the restaurant succeeds on its own terms  and how it meets a diner's good-faith expectations of quality food and hospitality  regardless of cuisine, location or cost.

If you go WHERE: 343 South Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood MORE INFO: 314-698-2331; kokuuramen.com MENU: Ramen and sushi HOURS: Lunch and dinner daily (closed Tuesday)

How much Crab Rangoon $8.95 Tonkotsu ramen $14.50 Kokuu roll $14.95 Kokuu Red ramen $14.95
ST. LOUIS COUNTY  A man riding a motorcycle died when he ran into an SUV on Watson Road on Tuesday, authorities said.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said the motorcyclist, 60, was eastbound on Watson at Girard Drive when he hit an SUV pulling out of a parking lot across the eastbound lanes in an attempt to go westbound on Watson.

The patrol said the motorcyclist's vision was obstructed by another vehicle.

The incident took place about 1:50 p.m. The site is on the border between Webster Groves and Marlborough.

The patrol said the motorcyclist was from the St. Louis area but did not release his name. The patrol also didn't release the name of the SUV driver, a 26-year-old man from Belleville.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo.  A man who admitted in federal court to setting the fire that destroyed a church has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison and ordered to pay the church nearly $7 million.

The sentence for Christopher Scott Pritchard, 49, was imposed Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp over the April 2021 fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Cape Girardeau.

Pritchard pleaded guilty in December to one felony count of arson and another felony count of arson to a building used in interstate commerce.

The federal public defender representing Pritchard declined comment Wednesday.

The interstate commerce charge came with a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years, and the judge ordered Pritchard to serve nine years and three months. Prosecutors dropped two other felony charges involving damage to religious property.

Authorities have said that two days before the fire, Pritchard threatened to assault a bishop and burn the church down.

Officers found more than $1,000 in items belonging to the church in Pritchards backpack, including a laptop, tools and 21 apples, and he smelled like smoke, police said.
ST. LOUIS  Shedrick Kelley, the 8th Ward Democratic committeeman, has been chosen as the Democratic nominee for the wards aldermanic seat given up by Cara Spencer when she was elected mayor last month.

Kelley, who was picked Saturday by the city Democratic Central Committee, will be one of at least three candidates for the seat in a July 1 special election. And the field could grow to five.

Also on the ballot already are Cameron McCarty, the Libertarian Party nominee, and Jim Dallas, who qualified as an independent candidate by turning in signatures on petitions.

Two others are gathering signatures to try to get on the ballot as independents  Jami Cox Antwi, who was defeated by Kelley for the Democratic nomination last week, and Alecia Hoyt.

Kelley, 44, a business analyst, ran against Spencer for the 8th Ward seat in 2023 but was eliminated in a three-way primary that year.

He also ran unsuccessfully for alderman in 2021, losing to then-incumbent Jack Coatar in the old 7th Ward.

Kelley supported incumbent Tishaura O. Jones against Spencer in last months mayoral vote and Jones backed Kelleys unsuccessful bid to unseat Spencer in 2023.

Sean Fauss, the city Democratic Committee chairman, said Kelley defeated Antwi, 19-2, for the party nomination at the meeting on Saturday. Seven other committee members were absent, he said.

Antwi, 29, a banker, ran unsuccessfully for state representative last year, losing to Marty Joe Murray in the Democratic primary in August for the 78th District seat. Murray then won the seat in the November general election.

McCarty, 37, the Libertarian nominee, was an unsuccessful candidate in November for the Missouri House in a different district, the 76th.

Dallas, 63, is a retired insurance executive and a former president of the Soulard Restoration Group  a neighborhood association in the Soulard area.

Hoyt, 46, has a photography studio and is a volunteer coordinator with WildHERness, a nonprofit womens group focused on outdoor recreation.

The city Election Board allows political party committees to nominate candidates for aldermanic vacancies as specified in the city charter.

Independent candidates are required to get signatures from at least 369 registered voters in the ward. Thats equal to 10% of the number of people who voted in the April mayoral election.

The charter has precedence over an ordinance passed by voters in 2020 that mandated nonpartisan elections for alderman, mayor, comptroller and aldermanic president.

That process, which doesnt apply to special elections such as the one on July 1, also has primaries in which residents can vote for as many candidates as they approve of.

Spencer, the newly-elected mayor, hasnt said who if anyone she will support in the upcoming special election.
St. Louis officials have released the names of the five people killed in the May 16 tornado.

The EF-3 damaged thousands of buildings in a path from Clayton to Granite City. The worst damage was in north St. Louis, with collapsed buildings, roofs and walls torn off and cars flipped. Trees were overturned or branches fell along the tornado's path and in other places of the city.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Trade and investment ties between Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU) are expected to exceed US$1 billion in the coming years, as both parties strengthen economic collaboration, EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Jobst Von Kirchmann announced yesterday.The ambassador made the remarks at the opening of the inaugural EU-Zimbabwe Business Forum, a three-day event taking place in Harare aimed at deepening bilateral trade and investment relations."Over the past three years, EU-Zimbabwe trade has grown by 30%, reaching US$880 million thanks to the Economic Partnership Agreement [EPA], while EU foreign direct investment has nearly doubled, now at US$870 million," said Von Kirchmann."I am confident that we are on the right path to hit the US$1 billion goal for both trade and investment with the EU."Signed in 2009, the EPA grants Zimbabwe duty-free and quota-free access to EU markets. The forum, held under the theme "Unlocking Sustainable Trade and Investment Under the Global Gateway Initiative," aims to foster sustainable infrastructure development, inclusive economic growth, and job creation.More than 300 business leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs from Zimbabwe and 12 EU member states - including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the Netherlands - are attending. Over 60 European companies are meeting with more than 150 Zimbabwean firms through business-to-business meetings, dialogue panels, and field visits.Von Kirchmann outlined the EU's strategic investment focus areas in Zimbabwe, including horticulture, agriculture and agro-processing, renewable energy, and mining value chains."Now is the time to invest in Zimbabwe. This is the moment to seize new opportunities. It is not blind optimism; it is grounded in the traction we are already seeing," he said. "The EU and Zimbabwe are no longer testing the waters. We are diving in."The ambassador also revealed progress on a Deepened Economic Partnership Agreement involving Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, and Comoros, which is nearing finalisation.While expressing optimism, he urged transparency and realism when attracting investors. "When companies make decisions, they weigh potential returns against the risks. They are not seeking zero risk, but predictability."He emphasized the need for accurate data and insights to guide investment decisions, rather than overselling or downplaying Zimbabwe's current challenges.Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Amon Murwira, in remarks delivered on his behalf by a ministry official, hailed the forum as a sign of growing cooperation between the country and the EU."This forum is an opportunity to facilitate direct dialogue and networking between Zimbabwean businesses and their European counterparts," said Murwira. "It will serve as a catalyst for concrete partnerships, investments, joint projects, and the transfer of knowledge and skills."Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) chief executive officer Tafadzwa Chinamo encouraged investors to explore opportunities in energy, agriculture, and mining  sectors with significant growth potential.The forum, organised by the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe in partnership with ZIDA, ZimTrade, and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, represents a bold step towards redefining Zimbabwe's place in the global investment landscape through sustainable, private sector-driven development.
An aerial view of the island of Diego Garcia (U.S. Navy)



The Air Force has deployed F-15 fighter jets for a force protection mission on Diego Garcia, Pacific Air Forces confirmed Tuesday.

The strategically important island in the Indian Ocean has served as a base for U.S. bombers during the Pentagons airstrikes on the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that began earlier this year.

The War Zone website, citing an anonymous defense official, reported Monday that six F-15s have been working out of Diego Garcia.

Six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, along with a C-17 Globemaster airlifter and several refueling tankers, were deployed there this spring, the Indo-Pacific Defense Forum reported May 2. The magazine is published by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, whose area of responsibility includes Diego Garcia.

At least some of the B-2s returned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on May 9, according to photos posted online by the Defense Department.

A B-2 Spirit bomber returns to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., from a deployment to Diego Garcia on May 9, 2025. (Devan Halstead/U.S. Air Force)



Air and Space Forces Magazine reported Friday that four B-52H Stratofortress bombers had been rotated in to replace the B-2s.

The Air Force and INDOPACOM declined to comment on the presence of B-52s on Diego Garcia. The island is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Under a lease with the United Kingdom that expires in 2036, the U.S. operates Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, which hosts units from the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Space Force, along with the royal navy.

The island served as a key logistical hub during Americas 20-year military intervention in Afghanistan and was a launch point for bombing missions during the conflict.

The island is once again playing a central role for the U.S. military in the wake of the October 2023 attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Sunni Islamist group Hamas.

That conflict has heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

Iran attacked Israel with more than 300 aerial drones and missiles on April 13 in response to an Israeli airstrike two weeks earlier that killed senior Iranian military officers in an Iranian consular building in Syria.

These developments marked an unprecedented escalation in the confrontation between Iran and Israel, according to the Council on Foreign Relations in an April 23 update on its Global Conflict Tracker.

In addition to concerns about direct U.S.-Iran conflict, existing proxy warfare in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq is at risk of escalating as regional tensions mount, placing thousands of U.S. troops and U.S. interests in the Middle East in danger, the update states.
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Robyn Colosimo testifies Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at a House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies hearing in Washington. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes)



WASHINGTON  An Army Corps of Engineers official denied Wednesday that the agencys 2025 work plans had been politicized as Democrats accused President Donald Trumps administration of shifting construction funds away from Democratic-led states to Republican-led ones.

Two-thirds of Army Corps construction funding for civil works is going to red states under the plans, marking a notable change from former President Joe Bidens budget request and appropriations bills drafted by both the House and Senate, which had split the funds roughly 50-50.

Robyn Colosimo, the senior official performing the duties of principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, told lawmakers on a House Appropriations subcommittee that she did not believe the decision to reassign funds was politically motivated.

They had to make trade-offs that I was not privy to  I dont believe they were partisan, but thats their decision, she said, adding that projects were prioritized based on life, safety, flooding and American prosperity.

But Democrats charged that the redirection of funds was deliberate and intended to punish states for the way their residents voted.

I find your testimony to be completely unbelievable, Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., told Colosimo. California saw its expected Army Corps construction funding reduced from the $125 million outlined in Bidens budget request and congressional appropriations bills to zero.

The Army Corps work plans shifted more than $250 million from states such as California and Washington to Republican-led states, according to data compiled by the Democratic staff of the Senate and House appropriations committees.

Red states are receiving about $1.2 billion for construction projects  almost 30% more than Biden had requested  and blue states are getting less than $600 million  about half of what they would have received under Congresss appropriations bills.

The funding shift was made possible by a full-year continuing resolution Congress passed in March that kept government funding largely at 2024 levels for the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The stopgap spending measure did not include earmarks for projects in lawmakers districts and states or specific instructions on how the Army Corps must spend its construction money, giving the administration wide discretion over the funds.

Democrats had warned that the bill would let the administration pick which Army Corps, transit and military construction projects would move ahead or grind to a halt and now say their fears are coming true.

President Trump has unilaterally chosen to punish the people living in certain states  a historic and clear abuse of taxpayer dollars, Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said in a statement last week.

Kaptur on Wednesday continued to condemn the extreme politicization of Army Corps construction funding decisions and said they were another reminder that Congress must reclaim its authority over funding decisions by passing full-year funding bills.

Around 37,000 civilians and soldiers work for the Army Corps. Army Corps assignments can range from constructing military facilities, developing technology for troops, dredging waterways, devising infrastructure to reduce risk from disasters and cleaning contaminated sites.
WASHINGTON  Tanks, troops and heavy vehicles from Fort Cavazos, Texas, are being loaded onto trains and heading to the nations capital for the Armys long-planned 250th anniversary celebration that coincides with President Donald Trumps 79th birthday on June 14.

This has been the Armys birthday. Weve had 249 previously, Army spokesman Steve Warren told reporters Wednesday. Were excited that the commander-in-chief is interested in the Armys 250th anniversary and that he will want to view it.

Trump has long talked of a parade with soldiers and vehicles rolling down the streets of Washington similar to major celebrations held in Moscow, Paris and other world capitals.

He backed off the idea in 2018 amid pushback from Army and District of Columbia officials over exorbitant costs and damage tanks might inflict on roads.

Trump settled for a display of tanks and other armored vehicles during a July Fourth celebration in 2019 in Washington.

As part of the Armys celebration on June 14, 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks will roll down Constitution Avenue. The tanks will be trucked to a staging area closer to the parade route.

One of the first U.S. Army tanks bound for Washington and the Armys 250th Birthday Parade is loaded onto a rail car at Fort Cavazos, Texas, on May 21, 2025. Each tank weighs around 140,000 pounds. (Jose Escamilla/U.S. Army)



The Army isnt concerned about the parade route, said Col. Jesse Curry, executive officer to the Army Chief of Engineers. Steel plates will be placed where tanks will have to turn sharply and vehicles will receive new track pads.

Were not expecting any damage to the route, Curry said.

The Army will pay for any damages, Warren added.

On June 14, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in the morning, followed by a fitness competition and an Army birthday festival on the National Mall in Washington.

The festival will also include equipment displays, demonstrations of military skills and musical performances from country artists Noah Hicks and Scotty Hasting.

The day will culminate with a parade through the city and a jump by the Armys Golden Knights parachute team, which will present Trump with an American flag. The president will also preside over an enlistment ceremony for 250 service members.

Democratic lawmakers have criticized Trump for taking over the Armys birthday and refocusing it on himself.

This is Trump. This is all about his ego and making everything him, which is, I think, a discredit to the military, the Army, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a U.S. Military Academy graduate, told the Reuters news agency.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., introduced a bill to prohibit the use of public funds for displays of military force for personal glorification.

Donors are being offered a dedicated VIP experience at several events Trump is planning this summer with the U.S. military, The Wall Street Journal Reported. This includes the parade next month.

The Army has been planning the 250th celebration for two years, with the parade being more recent, Warren said. He did not elaborate on how conversations regarding the parade took place.

The service is bringing about 6,700 troops from every Army division, 150 vehicles and more than 50 aircraft for the event. The cost for the parade and other events will be between $25 and $45 million, Warren said.

It is a lot of money, but I think that amount of money is dwarfed by 250 years of service and sacrifice that, you know, American soldiers have given this country, he added. Were looking at this as an opportunity to really strengthen the connection between America and her Army.

Other equipment for the celebration include 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Strykers, four M109 Paladins and a series of historic vehicles, including Sherman tanks and a B-25 bomber, he added.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers will be housed in the General Services Administration building, and 2,000 in the Department of Agriculture in downtown Washington, Warren said. Most participants will arrive on June 11 and depart Washington June 15.

Troops will be provided Meals, Ready to Eat for breakfast and lunch and receive a hot meal for dinner, Warren added. Soldiers will also receive a partial per diem of about $69.

The last time a national military parade was held in Washington was June 1991 to celebrate the U.S. victory in the first Gulf War. The U.S. Park Police estimated the crowd at 200,000, The Associated Press reported at the time. The Army is estimating about 200,000 will attend next months celebration.
Sgt. Reece Martin and his parents Stefan and Diane Martin hold the Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star Medal presented posthumously to Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martin, who died in combat in France on June 16, 1944, during World War II. Lawrence Martin is the great uncle of Reece Martin, who researched his relatives service to apply for the missing awards, which were presented May 16, 2025, at Fort Bliss, Texas. (JaDarius Duncan/U.S. Army)



Sgt. Reece Martin had known for most of his life that his great uncle fought on the beaches of France during the D-Day invasion of June 1944 and died about a week later in battle.

But there was little else available on Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martins Army service from those few living family members who knew him or from the Army. Like many veterans with records that predate 1973, Lawrence Martins paper files were burned in a massive fire at a records facility in St. Louis.

It was we dont know how he died, we dont know what unit he was in. We dont know any of the circumstances, Martin, 24, said. It was a mystery. I didnt want to accept that. It shouldnt be a mystery.

Over four years, Martin uncovered remaining bits of information about his relative that were scattered among unit museums, his family members, historians, independent researchers and in the few documents that remained in government archives. He learned his great uncle had stepped up as the senior noncommissioned officer remaining in his company after storming the beaches of Normandy, France, in June 1944, and then led soldiers further into battle until he himself was killed in combat.

Honestly, I envy his dedication, said Sgt. Myles Fimbres, a friend and fellow soldier who supported Martin during the yearslong effort. Everyone has fears of being forgotten over time, but Reeces efforts to ensure his great uncle is not forgotten is something I hope my future descendants would do for me.

Sgt. Reece Martin salutes the 48-star flag his relatives received in 1944 following the death of his great uncle Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martin during World War II during a ceremony May 16, 2025, at Fort Bliss, Texas. Reece Martin researched his great uncles service and learned he was owed a Bronze Star Medal and Combat Infantry Badge, which were both presented during the ceremony. (JaDarius Duncan/U.S. Army)

Sgt. Reece Martin speaks during a ceremony May 16, 2025, at Fort Bliss, Texas, to posthumously present a Bronze Star Medal and Combat Infantry Badge to his great uncle Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martin, who died in combat in France on June 16, 1944. Martin was instrumental in attaining the missing medals for his relative. (JaDarius Duncan/U.S. Army)

Brig. Gen. Christopher Samulski, assistant division commander of the 29th Infantry Division, presents Sgt. Reece Martin and his father Stefan Martin with a Bronze Star Medal for their relative, Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martin, who died in combat in France on June 16, 1944, during a ceremony May 16, 2025, at Fort Bliss, Texas. (JaDarius Duncan/U.S. Army)



Martin also learned his family never received two of the service medals owed Lawrence Martin and got them approved through Army Human Resources Command.

The Army on Friday presented the Martin family with Lawrence Martins Combat Infantry Badge and Bronze Star Medal at a ceremony at Fort Bliss, Texas, where Martin is assigned to the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command. The ceremony occurred on the 84th anniversary of Lawrence Martins enlistment, and one day after what would have been his 106th birthday.

His family had previously been awarded a Purple Heart Medal and World War II Victory Medal.

I felt it was important to help people remember those sacrifices were made, Martin said.

Lt. Col. Peter A. Lawall, deputy commander of the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, said it is clear that Lawrence Martins legacy is passed on to his great nephew.

Sgt. Reece Martin embodies the same steadfast commitment and quiet professionalism that defined his great uncle, and we are proud to have him serving in our formation, he said. His commitment strengthens our team, and his dedication exemplifies the enduring strength of our Army values passed from one generation to the next.

Staff Sgt. Lawrence Martin died June 16, 1944, while fighting in France during World War II. (Photo provided by Sgt. Reece Martin)



Drafted May 16, 1941, Lawrence Martin of Ambridge, Pa., became an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, part of the Virginia National Guard. Two years later, the Army sent him to England.

By the time he shipped out on the SS Empire Javelin, an infantry landing ship, for the D-Day invasion June 6, 1944, he had earned the rank of staff sergeant and held the role of platoon sergeant within D Company.

The company commander likely died in a blast as the unit came ashore Omaha Beach at around 8 a.m. His death was soon followed by the companys first sergeant. In total, five officers and more than 200 enlisted men from D Company died that day  about half the company, Martin said.

In addition to the confusion and losses, the machine guns, mortars and ammunition from D Company were lost underwater, he said.

Lawrence Martin stepped up into a leadership role to rally the surviving members of the company as they pushed forward through the French countryside, Martin said.

Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, serving as commander of the First Army, would later recognize the 116th Infantry Regiment with a citation for outstanding heroism under the most adverse conditions on D-Day, according to a July 24, 1944, edition of Stars and Stripes.

With grim determination and suffering terrible casualties, the regiment forced its way forward in a frontal assault on principal enemy strongpoints. They engaged the enemy, and in a magnificent display of courage and will to win destroyed them. Individually and collectively, members of the regiment turned a threatening situation into a glorious victory for the American Army, according to the citation.

Ten days after the invasion, Lawrence Martin died fighting near St. Andre-de-lEpine, where the men were met with a barrage of artillery fire. He was shot in the head with artillery and taken to a local hospital where he died, Martin said.

The staff sergeant was 25 years old, unmarried and had no children.

He was buried June 27, 1944, at La Cambe, and his personal items were sent home to his family, including a rosary and crucifix, worn family photographs and a mortar firing table. His remains were disinterred in 1948 and now rest in the Normandy American Cemetery in France.

After learning about his great uncles leadership in combat, Martin said he views his own role in the Army in higher regard.

I have more value in the meaning of what it means to lead, he said. Leadership is having the ability to hold a torch in the darkness and for people to have a mutual trust and respect and care to believe in you enough to follow you.

In the right moment, he said, anyone can step up to be a leader in their own way.
An aerial view of ships moored at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Ford Island during the Rim of the Pacific exercise on July 5, 2024. The Wahiawa Annex of the base is the primary home of Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station, Pacific, where a petty officer was recently charged with preying on children online. (Corban Lundborg/U.S. Air Force)



(Tribune News Service)  A Navy petty officer faces federal charges after he allegedly sextorted children into making pornography and blackmailing one of them into cutting his pedophile moniker into her skin, according to federal court documents.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Rumaldo Valdez, 22, aka Duck,  was charged in a 12-page criminal complaint filed May 16.

The complaint details graphic videos depicting young girls being raped, tortured and forced into sexual acts and self-harm. Valdez was allegedly part of a group loosely identified with an ideological extremist group  preying on children online.

Valdez was assigned to Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific, a U.S. Department of Defense installation in Wahiawa.

He is interested in coding and computer science, according to a motion to detain Valdez without bail filed Tuesday. Valdez allegedly edited and created online contraband for pedophiles.

The criminal complaint documents files, videos and images found on Valdezs devices that depict mostly girls and at least one boy, some as young as 1 year old. Other victims ranged in age from 4 to 12 years old.

Valdez made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. His detention hearing is set for 10 :30 a.m. Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren.

In 2024 the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip about a group using the server of an online digital community to extort minors into creating self-harm material and child pornography.

Valdez allegedly sent victims links to malicious files that, if clicked on, would install malware on their computers that the server members could then use to accomplish blackmail.

Intelligence gathered by the FBI alleges Valdez, operating online as Duck,  coerced a minor female, about 14 to 16 years old, into recording a masturbation video.

Valdez allegedly used that footage to blackmail the girl into recording and sharing a cutting video in which she carved Duck  into the skin on her arm, according to federal court records.

He allegedly promoted the video online.

In my experience investigating the Offending Server and similar online groups, I know that participants in such groups often collect victim fan signs (media ) as trophies from their online extortions and championing their aliases,  read an affidavit from an FBI agent.

Federal agents documented an online conversation Valdez allegedly had with another pedophile where Valdez was lauded for instantly supplying child pornography on demand.

The user told Valdez, You probably watch it on your free time.

Oh yeah, I do it all the time. I get bored. Normal porn wont do it for me anymore,  Valdez allegedly replied.

In other online dialogues allegedly captured by law enforcement, Valdez described to other users how he blackmailed minor children and their guardians.

Valdez faces one count of knowingly possessing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with said visual depiction having traveled in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.

Valdez was also charged with knowingly possessing any material containing child pornography, while in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. or U.S. government land, and knowingly mailing, transporting or shipping child pornography, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Slack is prosecuting the case.

In March 2024, federal agents obtained the computer-user profile for Valdez from the Navys government-owned server documenting his internet activity.

A review of Valdezs profile allegedly found that between October 2023 and February 2024, while using a Navy computer and network, and his Navy-issued computer-user profile,  Valdez accessed the online community he used to access and spread child pornography about 10,000 times.

Investigators also found internet searches related to hacking, remote-access tools, malware, including commands to remove all files and directories and to delete a registry through a single command.

On May 31, FBI agents searched Valdez and his residence at NCTAMS, Pacific in Wahiawa.

They seized an operating-system drive housed within a desktop-computer tower on Valdezs desk, a SanDisk solid-state drive on the same desk, a Maxtor solid-state drive extracted from the desktop-computer tower, and an iPhone 14.

Valdez enlisted in the Navy on June 22, 2021; began training at Great Lakes, Ill., in December 2021; completed training in Pensacola, Fla., between June and August 2022; and was permanently assigned to NCTAMS starting Aug. 24, 2023, according to federal court records.

In 2021, law enforcement received CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about Duck  and others who were producing and sharing child sexual abuse  material.

NCTAMS Pacific assures command and control and provides vital command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence warfighting support to naval, joint, agency, and coalition forces afloat and ashore in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas of operation.

The roughly 700-person-strong command is mostly at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickams Wahiawa Annex.

When asked whether the federal investigation involves other Navy personnel, U.S. Department of Justice officials declined comment.

Sextortion, a crime not currently defined by federal law, but aggressively investigated and prosecuted with existing laws, is on the rise in Hawaii and across the country.

In 2023 the National Center for Missing & Exploited Childrens Cyber Tipline received 186, 819 reports of online enticement, the category that includes sextortion.

Between 2021 and 2023 the number of online enticement reports increased by 323%, according to the center.

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U.S. 6th Fleet flagship USS Mount Whitney is on the Navys shortlist for decommissioning. Officials aboard the command-and-control ship say no other vessel or building in the service offers the same maritime operations center capabilities. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)



ABOARD THE USS MOUNT WHITNEY  The Navy wants to mothball the only ship in the fleet that allows a U.S. commander to simultaneously lead U.S. and NATO forces in Europe and Africa, a move critics say would weaken combat flexibility and American influence abroad.

USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the Naples, Italy-based 6th Fleet, provides capabilities that no other Navy facility or platform  including aircraft carriers, amphibious groups or even sister ship USS Blue Ridge  can match, sailors aboard the vessel said.

Simply put, we are a floating Pentagon, said Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan DeSimone, a communications information systems officer assigned to the ship.

The one-of-a-kind status lies in its dual, secure command centers for U.S. and NATO forces, allowing sailors to operate jointly without compromising sensitive information, DeSimone said.

Recent communication upgrades give Vice Adm. Jeffrey Anderson, who leads both 6th Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, the flexibility to direct operations from sea without traveling ashore to command centers in Italy and Portugal.

In a crisis or conflict, I have to be able to have the ability to simultaneously do it from one location, Anderson said. That capability isnt possible in Naples or Lisbon, he said.

Yet in its 2023 budget, the Navy said it wanted to decommission Mount Whitney next year to save some $179 million annually. The ships functions could be handled ashore, the service said at the time without specifying how.

That date was extended to 2027, a Navy spokesperson said Thursday.

However, sailors aboard Mount Whitney said they believe the ship actually will be in service for a decade or more in a series of incremental extensions.

In recent years, the Navy has submitted budgets calling for the retirement of a sizable number of older vessels to make way for a more advanced, lethal fleet, a divest-to-invest strategy that often draws the scrutiny of Congress.

In 2023, the Navy sought to retire 16 ships early, but Congress approved only six.

The plan to decommission Mount Whitney has raised alarm among advocates and analysts, who say it defies common sense. It limits options during crises, undercuts diplomacy and strains operational readiness, they say.

Sebastian Bruns, a maritime expert at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, said Mount Whitney can project naval power and diplomacy better in some instances than an armed destroyer or cruiser.

The window of opportunity to use the ship in that capacity appears to be closing if one assumes that Mount Whitney will be decommissioned, will not be replaced, and if one assumes  the moving away of the United States from Europe is going to continue, Bruns said.

Despite its strategic use, Mount Whitney is ineligible for congressional funding for critical needs because its on the decommissioning list. The ship, which entered service in January 1971, needs upgrades to its defensive systems to ensure it remains mission-ready, shipboard officials said.

In comparison, the Navy has extended the service life of Blue Ridge, its oldest operational warship, until 2039.

The ship is not going to get the real services and help she needs to really stay modern and to be able to keep pace with the threats of the times, said Lt. Cmdr. Kenyon Cowart, a combat systems maintenance officer.

USS Mount Whitney enters the port at Naval Station Rota in Spain on May 13, 2025. The ship was returning from visits to the African countries of Cabo Verde and Mauritania. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

Sailors and civilian mariners aboard USS Mount Whitney man the bridge May 13, 2025, as the ship comes into port at Naval Station Rota, Spain. The ship has a hybrid crew of about 300 Navy sailors and Military Sealift Command civilian mariners. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

Capt. Colin Price, commanding officer of USS Mount Whitney, middle right, gives military and civilian officials from Mauritania a tour of the ship on May 8. 2025. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)

USS Mount Whitney, which has been in service since 1971, is on the Navys shortlist to be decommissioned. The Navy has extended its retirement date to 2027, but Mount Whitney sailors say they believe it will be in service for a decade or more. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)



Primary mission

Even before Mount Whitneys communications overhaul, analysts and retired Navy officers argued that the ships maritime operations center and versatility couldnt be matched.

A shore-based replacement facility would eliminate the ability to move into international waters if another country, potentially Italy, objected to military decisions within its borders.

The ship traveled about 12 miles offshore in 2011 to support multinational forces during Operation Odyssey Dawn in Libya, the precursor to the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. It deployed to the Black Sea during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war and was there again in 2021 amid tensions over Ukraine.

And in the fall of 2023, Mount Whitney was stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for about six weeks as the U.S. worked to keep conflict in the Middle East from spreading after Hamas attack on Israel.

We can go to where the fight is or where were going to be used most effectively to provide (a commander) the most situational awareness, said Capt. Colin Price, commanding officer of Mount Whitney.

The vessels crew of about 300 Navy sailors and civilian mariners can support at least 200 more personnel with workspace, accommodations and high-end technology.

That flexibility allows Mount Whitney to take on many different roles in the 6th Fleet area of responsibility, which stretches from the Arctic to Antarctica, Price said.

Blue Ridge, which functions as the maritime operations center for 7th Fleet both ashore and at sea, doesnt have the same ability, officials said.

There is no other ship in the world that can do that like we can, Price said.

Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28, Detachment 1 practices live hoist training in the Atlantic Ocean on May 9, 2025. The squadron is attached to USS Mount Whitney, which was in Africa earlier this month as part of the Obangame Express military exercise. (Alison Bath/Stars and Stripes)



Party ship

Little more than a day after hosting African military officials and dignitaries in Praia, Cabo Verde, earlier this month, Mount Whitney was scheduled to make a port call in the West African country of Mauritania.

But the visit in Nouakchott didnt go as planned.

There werent enough tugboats available to tow the 634-foot-long vessel into port, and sea conditions made it unsafe to ferry visitors to the ship. Anchoring wasnt a possibility.

Instead, Price and a delegation flew ashore by helicopter for a visit. Mauritanias chief of naval operations and other leaders later flew out to the ship.

On-the-fly adaptation is routine, officials said, as Mount Whitney sustains military relationships in countries with limited port infrastructure.

The vessels frequent role in hosting foreign VIPs has earned it a reputation as a sort of party ship, complete with good food, music and fun.

But that perception underestimates the importance of naval diplomacy in regions of the world where the U.S. is challenged to build and sustain relationships, officials said.

The military has long been part of a multipronged strategy to gain U.S. influence in Africa, a role likely to grow with the shuttering of most U.S. Agency for International Development functions, looming State Department cuts and freezes on foreign aid.

The ships presence in Mauritania helped foster the U.S. security relationship with the country, which sits at the nexus of the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. The region is impacted by violent extremist groups, notably in neighboring Mali, according to the State Department.

The U.S. also wants to grow its economic ties by encouraging American businesses to invest in the region, said John Ice, charge daffaires at the U.S. Embassy in Mauritania. He said cooperative military and economic efforts each contribute to security goals.

Since January, Mount Whitney has made port calls in Cyprus, Tunisia, Libya and Cabo Verde. Its visits to the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi last month, the first by a Navy ship to the country in 56 years, sent a clear message that the U.S. remains engaged in North Africa, analysts said.

The ship can throw a party for dignitaries as well as offer space for high-level discussions around the world while staying focused on operations. And that makes Mount Whitney indispensable, said Ensign Joshua Coatney, an electronics material officer.

It just all comes together, Coatney said.
A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with Carrier Air Wing 5 conducts a touch-and-go landing on Iwo Jima, Japan, in May 2017. (James Guillory/U.S. Marine Corps)



Ongoing construction delays at a Japanese air base meant to host U.S. Navy carrier landing practice have stalled parts of the project again, this time due to buried debris and underground obstacles, according to Japans Ministry of Defense.

The base  under construction on Mageshima, a small volcanic island in Kagoshima prefecture  is intended to support field carrier landing practice ahead of deployments aboard the USS George Washington. The Navys Carrier Air Wing 5 now trains on Iwo Jima, nearly 850 miles from its home at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.

A housing unit for Japanese personnel who will support the new bases operations has been on hold since November after workers discovered large rocks and buried refuse during excavation, a spokesman for the Kyushu Defense Bureau said by phone Thursday. The bureau is an arm of Japans Defense Ministry.

Despite the setback, the housing delay is not expected to further affect the overall timeline, he said.

The airfield itself, however, is already three years behind schedule due to material and labor shortages. It is now projected to open in 2030 at a cost of more than $2.4 billion, a Defense Ministry spokesman said by email Friday.

The unit under construction is in Nishinoomote city on Tanegashima Island, about eight miles east of Mageshima, where the base is being built.

Five housing units are planned for approximately 200 Japanese workers assigned to the site with their families. Tanegashima  home to more than 28,000 residents as of 2019  lies about 20 miles south of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japans four main islands.

Underground obstacles discovered during excavation led to the suspension of construction to consider how to address this issue, the bureau spokesman said.

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, speaking Tuesday at a news conference in Tokyo, said workers encountered significant rocks and underground obstacles such as empty bottles and old tires, prompting reassessment. We are currently making various arrangements with Nishinoomote city, he said.

The bureau spokesman declined to elaborate on those arrangements. Some Japanese government officials speak to the press only on condition of anonymity.

Past delays have been attributed to poor weather, unsuitable soil and the effects of the January 2024 earthquake on the Noto Peninsula, which disrupted supply chains and labor availability.

The Mageshima base is intended to relieve pressure on other U.S. training sites in Japan, particularly Iwo Jima. While the Navy has conducted landing practice on the island for decades, it has long considered it unsuitable as a permanent site due to its remoteness and lack of alternative runways.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Renowned Zimbabwean professor of robotics and prolific author, Arthur Mutamabara, is set to launch his latest book this evening at 6pm at the Zimbabwe Institute of Engineers offices in Eastlea, Harare. The book, titled Artificial Intelligence: A Driver of Inclusive Development and Shared Prosperity for the Global South, delves into the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in addressing the developmental challenges faced by emerging and least industrialised countries.Mutamabara's new publication presents a deeply contextualised and extensively researched analysis of how AI can be leveraged to drive economic growth, promote equity, and achieve shared prosperity across the Global South. At its core, the book confronts long-standing structural challenges in these regions - such as poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment - while offering holistic and actionable solutions that integrate AI into broader national and regional development agendas.In a comprehensive narrative, the book explores how countries can position themselves to adopt and implement AI across multiple sectors including education, healthcare, agriculture, and industry. It sets out visionary frameworks for national, regional, and continental strategies on AI adoption, development, and governance, underscoring the urgent need for proactive policymaking.Through a series of in-depth sector and country case studies, Mutamabara illustrates how various nations - both in the Global South and Northare approaching AI integration. These case studies are used to draw lessons and best practices that can guide policymakers, business leaders, researchers, and academics seeking to harness AI for inclusive development.Mutamabara also argues for the Global South's participation in the global AI semiconductor industry, highlighting the need for developing nations to not only consume but also contribute to the hardware and innovation driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He frames this as essential to achieving technological sovereignty and long-term economic competitiveness.The book targets a wide audience, including graduate students, academics, strategic thinkers, and global decision-makers. According to Mutamabara, it is not merely a technical exploration of AI, but a strategic roadmap aimed at influencing policy, stimulating debate, and inspiring concrete action within the Global South."AI is reshaping the world," Mutamabara said ahead of the launch. "If we do not define our place in this new era, the divide between the Global South and North will only deepen. This book is a call to action for our governments, our institutions, and our people to engage, invest, and lead."Tonight's launch is expected to attract a diverse audience, including engineers, academics, government officials, and private sector leaders. With the spotlight increasingly falling on Africa's digital transformation, Mutamabara's latest work is poised to contribute significantly to ongoing conversations about the continent's future in the global technological order.
View of Mt. Everest and Himalaya mountain range taken by the Expedition Two crew from the International Space Station ISS Alpha. (NASA)



At last, the four exhausted British men were able to exhale and begin to take stock of their accomplishment as they awaited their flight from Kathmandu, where theyd just climbed Mount Everest.

Door to door from their homes in England, the entire trip will have taken just under seven days.

Al Carns, Garth Miller, Kevin Godlington and Anthony Staz Stazicker, Special Forces veterans who left London on the afternoon of May 16, reached the 29,032-foot summit Wednesday morning (Nepal time) along with five sherpas and a cameraman, cutting short the usual climbing time from weeks to days after acclimatizing for months at home by sleeping in hypoxic tents. They also received an unusual treatment of xenon gas, doing the climb under the direction of Lukas Furtenbach, who has been using different methods over the years to shorten the time spent on Everest.

It added up to a whirlwind 50 hours of climbing to the top of the world and back to base camp. Because of weather, they made a quick departure via helicopter to the airport, where they spoke about their trip via phone early Thursday morning as they munched on pizza and awaited a flight to Qatar, the first leg of their trip home. They expected to land in London at half-past 6 Friday morning London time, well inside the seven-day door-to-door goal that had stirred the climbing community.

Back now in Kathmandu, weve still not processed what weve just experienced, Godlington said. Its a bit like soldiering. Often you find yourself in very kinetic environments and it takes a while to process because things are moving so quickly.

Elation and a bit of amazement were audible in the voices of all four men, whose itinerary called for two days of travel, three days up the mountain and two days down. There was an avalanche on the first day of climbing, followed by ferocious winds kicked up by what Furtenbach described as the meandering of the jet stream around the mountain. The winds threatened to force the men to turn around, but they got through, with only Godlington vomiting and experiencing diarrhea from water he drank at the topmost camp.

The guys just rallied around and put in rescue techniques to be able to get me down the mountain very quickly, he said. The team ethos of having a team of operators that have such incredible skills, but also leave no man behind, get it done, lets move quickly. Garth noticed my oxygen had run out. And Staz was putting rope systems in place to make sure I got down the hill quickly.

It wasnt that Id become a liability yet, but it was mitigating the chance that I could become one. Those are the things that make these sorts of seven day things possible because everybodys constantly awake and alert. Youre only getting three hours sleep a day and its very cold, very windy, very bleak, and your bodys degrading.

Thats where the role of xenon will be assessed. Furtenbach has used it several times since German physician Michael Fries approached him with the possibility that it could be neuroprotective, and the mission of the four men represents the culmination of a dream, one that, Furtenbach said, went better than expected. The four had inhaled the gas May 5, with its protective properties expected to peak around the time of their summit push.

Immediately after taking the xenon, I didnt have noticeable physiological changes, so theres nothing really there to report. Were very fatigued, but when we were on the mountain there were no headaches so it seems as if the neuroprotective properties and everything else must have been working, Stazicker said. We felt great from that respect because over a long time at altitude your body just degrades so maybe we can attribute some of that to xenon.

Carns, who brought to the summit a flag he carried on multiple military tours in Afghanistan, likened the experience to climbing 30 100-story buildings over three days. The men approached the task with military-style precision and attitude, using it to raise money for veterans and their families even as the use of xenon proved controversial in the climbing community.

When you sort of challenge the status quo, it does become something that people immediately start to defend against, Godlington said. For us, the use of the xenon gas has always been about the only two things that kill you in the mountain physiologically: a pulmonary edema or a cerebral edema.

Cerebral edema especially can happen in Everests death zone above roughly 26,000 feet. Xenon, Fries found, can offer protection. Fatalities occur every year on the mountain and climbers, including the four men, passed the sobering sight of corpses whose removal is too difficult at the highest levels. There was a perception with xenon that the four used it fundamentally to cheat, Godlington said, and its never been about that.

The four men now are headed to reunions with their wives and children and a resumption of their lives - after a bit of a vacation with their kids on school holiday. Carns joked their next assignment would be seven beaches in seven days, but they hope their story continues to raise money for veterans and their families.

The key thing to remember out of all of this is were only halfway there, so weve achieved the mission of going from London to the top of Everest and back to London in seven days, Miller said, and now we have to achieve the fundraising target of a million pounds for veterans and armed forces charities.

As he awaits medical results on whether xenon will be a significant game changer for speed climbing, Furtenbach took stock of where climbing stands now. The seven-day expedition is a record for climbers who did not acclimatize in the Himalayas, according to the BBC, but the fastest ascent belongs to Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who climbed from base camp to the summit in 10 hours 56 minutes after acclimatizing on Everest in 2003. Furtenbach estimates that it took the four men four days and about 18 hours to go up and back.

Climbing Everest is never just about reaching the summit. Its about pushing human boundaries safely, responsibly, and with integrity, he wrote on Instagram. The 7-Day Mission Everest was never a stunt  it was a meticulously planned scientific and medical expedition designed to explore the future of high-altitude mountaineering.  We had continuous SpO2 [oxygen saturation] monitoring, 24/7 emergency care, altitude simulation for pre-acclimatization, and a dedicated safety team. Every step was calculated, every risk mitigated. Our goal? To improve mountain safety for everyone, not to glorify speed.

He cautioned other climbers that the seven-day mission was  a controlled test, not a template to follow blindly, adding that speed means nothing if safety is sacrificed. Lets push boundaries  but never at the cost of lives.
Army Lt. Col. Erin Fritzler, commander of the Los Angeles Recruiting Battalion, and recruits participate in the Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade in Torrance, Calif., on May 17, 2025. Proposed legislation, dubbed the BONUS Act, would make bonuses earned by service members for enlisting, reenlisting or excelling in their duties exempt from federal taxes. (Brea DuBose/U.S. Army)



WASHINGTON  Military bonuses earned by service members for enlisting, reenlisting or excelling in their duties would be exempt from federal taxes under a new bill introduced in the House and Senate.

The legislation, dubbed the BONUS Act, would ensure that service members receive 100% of their earned bonuses without penalty, according to its co-sponsors Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.

The heroes who swear an oath to defend our way of life should not be punished at tax time for the bonuses they use to clothe, feed, and educate their spouses and children, Kiggans said in a statement.

While service members deployed to combat zones are exempt from income taxes, other troops are subject to the federal income tax and are shortchanged when their bonuses are also taxed, lawmakers argue.

The BONUS Act is a show of respect for the sacrifices they make on behalf of all Americans, said Bishop.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is spearheading the same measure in the Senate and a similar bill was introduced by Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., in April.

Mast said his bill, which would exempt enlistment, reenlistment, retention and other incentive bonuses from taxation, removes the unfair tax burden that has long affected military bonuses.

Lawmakers in recent years have searched for ways to increase compensation for service members amid rising living costs and most recently approved a historic pay raise for junior enlisted troops.

Kiggans and Bishop said their bill is a response to long-standing concerns raised by service members, families and advocates who believe military bonuses earned in service to the country should not be taxed.

If approved, the measure would affect bonuses paid on or after January 1, 2025.
Soldiers from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, move to a patrol base near Tucson, Ariz., May 11, 2025, as part of the border security mission. (Remoi Brown/U.S. Army)



WASHINGTON  More than 1,100 troops have been approved to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Northern Command announced Thursday.

Some of the duties for the approximately 1,115 service members with Joint Task Force-Southern Border will include coordinating logistics, providing food and water to personnel in the field and constructing mobility routes and force protection infrastructure, NORTHCOM said in a statement.

There are now more than 10,000 military troops  including active-duty soldiers and Marines and National Guard forces  stationed along the border to assist Border Patrol officers. Those troops include infantry forces with Stryker combat vehicles, troops that fly drones and helicopters, logisticians and engineering forces. Navy ships also are part of the border mission.

The Department of Homeland Security announced last week it has requested 20,000 National Guard troops to bolster efforts to remove undocumented migrants from the United States.

National Guard forces have long been mobilized to conduct domestic operations, including disaster response and aiding other federal agencies, including Homeland Security  especially at the U.S.-Mexico border where they have operated since 2018. It remains unclear how the latest Guard troops could be used.

Since President Donald Trumps return to the White House, his administration has made the crackdown on undocumented migrants one of its highest priorities.

Under Trumps orders, the Pentagon has surged thousands of active-duty troops to the U.S. southern border and declared large swaths of border-adjacent land in New Mexico and Texas as military installations to increase its authorities to arrest and charge people caught crossing the border illegally.

The personnel announced Thursday include:

65 Joint Individual Augmentees from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force to fill in at Joint Task Force-Southern Border headquarters.

250 soldiers from an Expeditionary Sustainment Command will coordinate logistics and manage sustainment requirements.

140 soldiers from a Quartermaster Field Feeding Company will provide field feeding support to deployed personnel.

125 soldiers from an Engineer Brigade Headquarters and 145 soldiers from an Engineer Battalion will coordinate and execute construction missions.

310 soldiers from two Engineer Construction Companies will construct mobility routes, force protection infrastructure and mission-critical facilities.

75 soldiers from a Medical Area Support Company will provide health resources.

Five airmen from an Air Force Logistics Support Element from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., will coordinate rapid logistics and sustainment planning.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Government Ministers have come under intense scrutiny for repeatedly snubbing question-and-answer sessions in Parliament, with critics accusing them of evading accountability and undermining the legislature's role as a critical arm of the state.Observers say the ministers' persistent absence points to an unwillingness or inability to respond to probing questions from lawmakers, especially at a time when the country is grappling with economic hardship, service delivery failures, and mounting public frustration."They are avoiding accountability," said political analyst Comfort Ndlovu. "Remember, the appointing authority  the President  has previously stated that some, if not most, of his lieutenants are underperforming. This is what he meant. They can't face questions."The continued absenteeism has sparked outrage among senior parliamentary figures, with Senate President Mabel Chinomona and Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda expressing their displeasure. Chinomona, visibly annoyed during a recent session, threatened to escalate the matter directly to President Emmerson Mnangagwa."I do not know whether there are any Ministers here," she said rhetorically. "Honestly, the Senate is not happy about what is being done by Ministers. I think we are going to send our complaint to the President."Only Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona and Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Barbara Rwodzi were present during the session, highlighting the broader trend of ministerial absenteeism.Political analyst Rashweat Mukundu was scathing in his assessment, accusing the executive of treating Parliament with contempt. "They have no respect for Parliament. Parliament has become a lapdog and a junior institution to the executive. None of those Ministers appointed by the President feel obligated to be accountable to Members of Parliament," he said.Mukundu further suggested that many MPs, who have benefited from perks such as residential stands and vehicles, are also compromised in their oversight duties, adding that even figures like Sengezo Tshabanguwho claims to lead the oppositionhave contributed to weakening parliamentary effectiveness.Another analyst, Precious Shumba, echoed these sentiments, blaming a superiority complex among Ministers for their disregard of parliamentary processes."The government Ministers mistakenly assume that the executive is superior to the legislature. It is that superiority mentality that drives their conduct and behaviour towards the question and answer sessions in Parliament," Shumba said.He emphasized that in a constitutional democracy, all three arms of the statethe Executive, Legislature, and Judiciaryshare responsibility for governance. "When Cabinet Ministers avoid presenting themselves before Parliament, the ultimate responsibility rests with the President. He must whip his Ministers into line through the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet," he added.Shumba stressed that ministerial appearances before Parliament enhance transparency and deepen democratic governance. "Their conduct reflects the President's own attitude towards the legislature," he said.Government Chief Whip Pupurai Togarepi, however, defended the Ministers, saying they may be attending to other pressing commitments assigned by the President."They may have other commitments like attending Cabinet and may also have other commitments to deal with as assigned," Togarepi said.He dismissed criticism that Ministers were avoiding difficult questions or giving shallow responses. "Our Ministers are well researched on issues they are asked. We have some who just want to politic, but our Ministers try their best to give answers."Togarepi acknowledged that attendance is an obligation and noted that Ministers who cannot attend are expected to send their deputies. "As Government Chief Whip, I always engage these Ministers to say we still want them mainly on Wednesdays," he said.Despite his assurances, growing frustration among lawmakers and citizens alike signals increasing discontent with the executive's disregard for parliamentary oversightraising serious questions about the balance of power and accountability in Zimbabwe's governance system.
Ms Stack said: "She was kicking her legs, that was the sound we had heard. She was raising her legs and kicking out really hard."

An eyewitness has told the trial of Jozef Puska's family members how school teacher Ashling Murphy was "kicking out hard" as she struggled with her murderer, who seemed angry he'd been "interrupted".

The Central Criminal Court also heard today how Gardai sifted through ashes in the fireplace at Jozef Puska's home looking for evidence that the clothes he wore when he murdered 23-year-old Ms Murphy had been burned.

Detective Sgt Anthony Quinn told the trial of Jozef Puska's brothers and sisters-in-law that six days after Jozef Puska murdered Ashling Murphy, gardai became aware that the then suspect's clothes may have been burned in the fireplace at the Puska home in Mucklagh, Tullamore, Co Offaly.

Sgt Quinn said he went to the house with a colleague, introduced himself and took photos of anything of note. The fireplace, he said, was intact and the grate was full of ashes. He and his colleague sifted through the ashes, looking for buttons, zippers, clasps or "that kind of thing", but found nothing of note.

They bagged the ashes to be preserved for forensic examination.

The trial also heard today from Jenna Stack, who saw Ms Murphy, a 23-year-old schoolteacher, fighting for her life having suffered multiple stab wounds to the neck.

Ms Stack told prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC that she was running with her friend, Aoife Marron, along the canal towpath near Cappincur Bridge in Tullamore on January 12, 2022 when she noticed a distinctive, luminous green bicycle in the hedgerow.

Jozef Puska murdered Ashling Murphy three years ago

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

She thought it unusual to see a nice bike discarded on the bank, so she stopped for a moment before running on. A few metres further along the towpath, she heard a loud rustling noise from the hedgerow and stopped again.

Ms Marron shouted down, but there was no reply besides the "loud rustling" from the dense thicket and brambles, Ms Stack said. The witness stepped closer and saw a man's back. She asked him what he was doing, and when he turned to face her, she noticed a woman on the ground. Ms Stack said: "She was kicking her legs, that was the sound we had heard. She was raising her legs and kicking out really hard."

Ms Stack told the man to "get off her", but he shouted back through gritted teeth and in a foreign accent, "get away". His facial expression seemed angry, she said, "angry that he had been interrupted". Ms Stack thought he was going to rape the woman.

She added: "He made a sudden movement, maybe to frighten us. I knew the girl was struggling and in danger and we were very frightened."

Ms Stack shouted that she was calling the guards and ran the short distance to Cappincur Bridge with Ms Marron to get help.

Jozef's brothers, Marek (34) and Lubomir Jnr (35), are accused of withholding crucial information.

It is alleged that Marek Puska failed to disclose that Jozef had returned home on the night of Ashling's murder with visible injuries and admitted to killing or causing serious injury to a woman. It is further alleged that he knew of the arrangement to burn Jozef's clothes and that Jozef Puska travelled to Dublin later that night.

Lubomir Puska Jnr, it is alleged, also withheld that Jozef returned home with visible injuries, admitted to "cutting a female", and travelled to Dublin.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the offences, which are charged under the Offences Against the State, Amendment Act 1988.

Jozefina Grundzova (31), who is married to Marek Puska, and Viera Gaziova (38), who is married to Lubomir Puska Jnr, are accused of assisting in burning clothing between January 12 and 14th, without reasonable excuse, intending to impede the apprehension or prosecution of Jozef Puska, knowing or believing him to have committed the offence of murder or some other arrestable offence within the same category or of a similar nature.

Ms Grundzova and Ms Gaziova pleaded not guilty to the offences, which are charged under the Criminal Law Act 1997.

All the accused have an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Tullamore, Co Offaly. The trial continues before Ms Justice Caroline Biggs and a jury of seven men and five women.
It is just over one year ago that Peter Molloy (23) suffered the loss of 18-month old baby, Hunter Molloy when he was struck by a vehicle.

Gardai at the scene of the fatal road traffic incident in which Hunter Molloy died. Photo: Press 22

A father who suffered an unspeakable tragedy just over one year ago through the loss of his infant son has pleaded guilty to a criminal damage charge.

At Ennis Circuit Court, Peter Molloy (23) has pleaded guilty to the criminal damage of windows and the front door belonging to Margaret Quinn at Ennis's Watery Rd on November 18th 2023.

It is just over one year ago that Mr Molloy of Ballyboy, Quin Rd suffered the loss of 18-month old baby, Hunter Molloy when he was struck by a vehicle near his home on the Quin Rd in Ennis.

In court after Mr Molloy entered his guilty plea, his counsel, Patrick Whyms BL (instructed by solicitor, Daragh Hassett) said that his client had suffered "an unspeakable tragedy just over a year ago.

Gardai at the scene of the fatal road traffic incident in which Hunter Molloy died. Photo: Press 22

Mr Whyms said that the case is Peter Molloy's first time to appear before the circuit court and has had positive engagement with the Probation Service previously.

Mr Whyms asked that a Probation Report be prepared for his client and Judge Francis Comerford directed that a report be provided.

Hunter Molloy or Ballaghboy, Quin Rd died from injuries sustained after being struck by a vehicle on May 8th last year.

At the time, Peter Molloy was on remand in custody for the criminal damage charge and two other charges that the State is not now proceeding with.

Hunter Molloy

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

At the time, the Prison Service sanctioned the release of Peter Molloy in the hours after Hunters death was confirmed at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).

The late Hunters uncle and brother of Peter Molloy, Martin Molloy (25) has also pleaded guilty to the same criminal damage offence of the windows and door belonging to Margaret Quinn on November 18th 2023.

The two brothers initially before a jury pleaded not guilty to three charges each and changed their guilty pleas to the criminal damage charges only with the State not proceeding with the four remaining charges.

Judge Comerford remanded the two brothers on bail to May 30th to fix a date for sentence.

In court previously, solicitor, Daragh Hassett has criticised the living conditions that his clients endure at the Ballaghboy halting site.

Mr Hassett has described the site as totally unsuitable with cramped living conditions.

He previously told the court that the site was built as a temporary measure but has never been closed.
Judge and gardai refuse to reduce dangerous driving charge

A motorist who drove at 176kmh on the motorway at Dunleer, Co Louth, has received the mandatory two-year disqualification after being convicted of dangerous driving.

Olatunji Johnson (53), Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, pleaded guilty to the offence after gardai and the judge refused to reduce the charge to careless driving.

Gda Alan Macklin testified that at 11.19am on January 19 last at Athclare, Dunleer, M1 Southbound, he was operating a speed check when he detected an Audi A3 travelling at 176kmh. Traffic was moderate and conditions fair.

Gda Macklin continued that it took a considerable distance for him to catch up with this car but as soon as he came behind it, Mr Johnson pulled over.

Solicitor Dermot Monahan said that his client had no previous convictions.

Mr Johnson was living in Ireland 10 years, married with two children and working part-time in security, earning between 200 and 300.

He co-operated with gardai. The loss of his licence would effect his work.

Judge Stephanie Coggans imposed a 350 fine and two-year driving disqualification.

Bail in the event of an appeal was set in a personal bond of 300.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme

Stock image. Getty

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd
The 77-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on unknown dates between 1964 and 1965.

A woman who was abused as a child 60 years ago has told a court she was gutted when she found out years later that her young sister had been abused by the same man.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the sisters were separately indecently assaulted when they were children by the boyfriend of their older sister.

The 77-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on unknown dates between 1964 and 1965 at a house in Co. Dublin. He can't be named to protect the identities of the two victims.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that both incidents took place at their family home when they were alone in a downstairs room with the man.

The defendant, then around 16, was a frequent and welcome visitor to their family home at the time.

Stock image

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

Judge Elma Sheahan said the court was bound by the legislation in place at the time of offending, which set a maximum sentence of two years.

Judge Sheahan said the court would impose consecutive sentences to reflect the seriousness of the offending and the fact there were two victims.

Having considered the mitigation, she set headline sentences which she reduced to reflect the man's youth at the time. She imposed a global sentence of one year and two months.

An investigating garda told Fiona McGowan BL, prosecuting, that the older girl was approximately nine when the man sexually assaulted her by digitally penetrating her vagina. She got a shock and ran to her room, and never went near the man again.

The man inappropriately touched her young sister, who was around seven, on a separate occasion. She didn't understand what was happening, but knew it wasn't right. She ran out of the room and refused to be alone with him again.

The court heard that both sisters spoke about the abuse they individually suffered at the hands of the man decades before formal complaints were made to gardai in 2022.

When interviewed, the man denied any allegations of wrongdoing.

Both women's victim impact statements were read to the court by Ms McGowan.

The older sister said the abuse has affected her throughout her life and has affected her relationships.

She said she spent a lot of my life crying on my own, and only told her husband about the abuse in recent years. She said telling her children this year was the hardest thing I had to do.

The woman said she was gutted when she found out years later about his abuse of her younger sister, adding that she felt she should have been able to protect her.

She said she felt ashamed and had kept what happened to herself for most of her life, but now it was time for the man to feel shame.

The younger sister said she was shocked at the time, but didn't fully understand what had happened until she was a teenager.

She said she was glad the man had admitted his guilt and this gave her comfort.

The man has one previous conviction for possession of child sexual abuse material, known in law as child pornography. He was handed a suspended two-year sentence in the late 2010s.

The garda agreed with defence counsel that the man's guilty plea was early and that he has not come to recent negative attention.

Eoghan Cole SC, defending, said his client wished to apologise for what he did.

He asked the court to take into account his client's youth at the time and the passage of time since the offending occurred.

He outlined the man's background and personal circumstances. His client has a long work history and several health issues.

Counsel noted the man voluntarily attended a Tusla meeting with the first complainant in 2019, but at that point denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Cole said his client couldnt bring himself to admit what was done, but did plead guilty at an early stage.

Imposing sentence, Sheahan said the aggravating factors included the breach of trust, the age disparity, the man's previous conviction and the impact on the victims.

She said the man's guilty plea was valuable, noting that it spared the women having to give evidence during a trial.
"Odd...he used to call Tina his trophy wife, his trophy girlfriend and I didn't like that comment," she said.

A half-sister of Tina Satchwell told the murder trial of her husband, Richard Satchwell, that she did not like the way he constantly referred to her as "a trophy wife."

Lorraine Howard (50), told the Central Criminal Court that she found the relationship between Tina and Richard "odd" with the English truck driver described as controlling.

"Odd...he used to call Tina his trophy wife, his trophy girlfriend and I didn't like that comment," she said.

"I didn't think it was right to refer to someone as a trophy.

"He wanted to know where she was all the time, who she was with...every friend she ever had he would find fault with them. I didn't like the way he was with her at all - I think he was controlling and just odd."

"I think I said something to the Gardai to that effect."

Mr Satchwell has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his wife Tina in March 2017 at their home at No 3 Grattan Street in Youghal, Co Cork.

Ms Howard made a number of statements to the Gardai as part of the missing person search for Tina.

She is the daughter of Mary Collins who is Tina's mother - but the two women have different fathers.

"For a long time (Tina was) my aunt but then I discovered she was my biological half-sister - same mother but different fathers."

"At her First Confirmation time - she went to look for her birth certificate (and found out about her mother)."

"Shock, I suppose - she felt maybe that she had been lied to for a long period of her life. My grandmother Florence (raised her). I saw them as mother and daughter - my understanding was that my grandmother was Tina's mother. They got on really well."

Ms Howard said she had vague memories of Tina marrying Richard.

"She was very young when she met Richard and she got married in England...I have no idea of the year."

"She lived in St Bernard's and I lived in Beechfield - so we lived on opposite sides of the main road. We would have been over and back to each other's houses each day.

"We were best friends growing up - from children all the way up. My earliest memory was I was up to her house almost every day of the week. We went to school together, did art together and played together."

Ms Howard said her relationship with Tina changed after she discovered they were half-siblings and not aunt and niece.

"I think she resented (it) - I think she felt hurt that, in her eyes, she was given away which is not what happened. It caused big distress for her and I bore the brunt of that.

"This was an on and off thing for years. We would be friends and then fall out. She would take her mother's (Florence) side and I would take my mother's side.

"Tina would be in Fermoy sometimes - but then she moved to England for a number of years as well. Florence had moved to England with an uncle - he didn't like it and came back but she stayed."

"There were years when Tina was not in my life.

"(With my mother) there were good years and bad years - we had a very unique set up in our family and it caused problems. It all came back to that issue....she felt somehow abandoned, Ms Howard said.

Ms Howard said her uncle Tom Dingivan died in 2012 and everyone in the family was close to him.

"Tom was a lovely person...she (Tina) adored Tom and he adored her. It affected her as much as it affected me...to Tina he was her brother."

Tina was so devoted to her uncle Tom that the family decided to bury part of her ashes with him.

"We have two graves - half of (Tina's) ashes are in her grandmother's grave and half are in Tom's grave."

"I met Richard in my grandmother's house when I was 15 years old."

Ms Howard made statements to the Gardai in May 2017 and in August 2020.

"I was angry with her (Tina) because I believed she was putting us through untold stress. Richard described Tina as very violent. I gave that statement in hurt and anger. In actual fact, Tina (was dead)....she was dead and buried and he was calling to my house telling me these lies."

On August 12, 2020, she made a statement to Det Garda David Kelleher as Gardai were searching for Tina.

"I think I was concentrating on worrying more about what they were going to bring up about my family...I was so stressed about what questions they were going to ask me."

Ms Satchwell's partially skeletonised body was discovered six and a half years after she vanished following an invasive four day Garda search of the Youghal home from October 10-13, 2023.

She had been buried in a clandestine grave dug underneath the stairwell of the three-storey property - with her body briefly having been stored in a chest freezer.

Gardai had checked the property in June 2017 but it was not an invasive search.

The trial heard this week that Assistant State Pathologist, Dr Margaret Bolster, could not determine a cause of death for Ms Satchwell such was the skeletonised, badly decomposed and partly mummified condition of her remains.

Forensic anthropologist Dr Laureen Buckley confirmed that no fractures were detected on the remains - and no bones showed any sign of old fractures having healed.

Ms Satchwell's cousin, Sarah Howard, said she had never heard any suggestion of domestic violence in the relationship between Tina and Richard Satchwell before she vanished in March 2017.

Ms Howard sobbed as she told the trial she did not respond to a text from Mr Satchwell in the weeks after his wife's disappearance in which he asked her if she wanted a chest freezer?

Mr Satchwell replied to Gardai when first charged with the murder of his wife at Cobh Garda Station in October 2023: "Guilty or not guilty - guilty."

The Leicester-born truck driver has claimed his wife attacked him with a wood chisel on March 20, 2017 - and, after falling to the ground, he defended himself by holding her away from him by the rope belt of her dressing gown.

This somehow came up around her neck and she went limp.

He wrapped her fully clothed body in a blanket and black plastic before burying her face down in the grave he had excavated.

He then covered it with concrete and erected a poorly-made brick wall in front of it.

Mr Satchwell explained to detectives that, when he buried his wife with fresh tulips under the stairwell of their home, it was like "a genuine funeral."

"When I was burying Tina...it was the final goodbye...I wanted to make her comfortable," he explained.

"I spent the night (March 20) on the floor with Tina laying across me. I spent the night sitting on the ground holding Tina's dead body. I didn't have food, nothing. I just held Tina all night."

"I have a conscience...I still dream of Tina. I have not lost the desire to be with her."

Mr Satchwell told Det Sgt David Noonan in one of his interviews after arrest he was going to jail over his wife's death.

"I am not going to try to bulls**t you - you keep pressing me. I am going to prison regardless. There will be no jury.....I have nothing to gain from trying to alter the story or holding something back from you."

"I am not looking for sympathy - I am not looking for a let-off. I put my hands up. It was hard (the burial)...it was a lot harder when you are the reason the person is laying there."

"I would talk to her (his dead wife) - it is not rational but I did."

"I have nothing to lose - I am on one track. I am not being selective. I have carried this for the best part of seven years."

Mr Satchwell repeatedly claimed to gardai that his wife regularly beat him.

He told one man at a car boot sale the week after he claimed his wife left the family home with a large sum of cash that she was "a street angel and a house devil."

Mr Satchwell later told Gardai that his assertion had left their Youghal home with 26,000 in cash was a lie.

The trial continues.
The case first came before the court on March 28. The officer was present then but remained at the back of the courtroom.

A Garda Superintendent who denies attacking a woman on a Dublin street will go on trial in September.

Gavin O'Reilly, whose address is given on his summons as Phoenix Park, is accused of assaulting a named woman at Strand Street Great on August 26, 2023.

He also has a connected charge for engaging in threatening, abusive, and insulting behaviour on the same occasion. He denies the charges.

Garda Superintendent Gavin OReilly

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

It follows an investigation by the Garda ombudsman (Fiosru), and his hearing was due to take place at Dublin District Court yesterday/today after Judge John Hughes noted there was a not-guilty plea.

However, the defence applied to have it vacated and put back to a later date. The judge scheduled the non-jury hearing for September 9, when the senior officer must attend the proceedings.

The case first came before the court on March 28. The officer was present then but remained at the back of the courtroom.

Disclosure of prosecution evidence was ordered, and the defence team had asked for the hearing to be held on "the earliest date possible".

No evidence about the alleged incident was given during the brief hearing.

The assault under section two of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, which is dealt with solely at a District Court level, carries a maximum six-month sentence. Under section six of the Public Order Act, the second charge on conviction can result in a three-month term of imprisonment.
31-year-old Laura Clarke entered a not guilty plea to the single charge of theft

Appearing at Ballymena Magistrates Court from an inpatient rehab centre in Wales, 31-year-old Laura Clarke entered a not guilty plea to the single charge of theft.

Clarke, from Hampton Crescent in Larne, is accused of stealing two Lovehoney Excite toys to the value of 21.98 from Superdrug on 7 December last year.

Defence counsel Thomas McKeever indicated that Clarke would not be available for a contest for several months so District Judge Nigel Broderick asked whether she can even be released for a day from the treatment program.

Her key worker explained however the program lasts for 11 months and as Clarke is at phase one, she does not get out unless she is with a staff member and even then its for a short time.

Once Clarke gets to phase two, which will be in several months time, she can be released from the centre from 10am to 10pm but she must still be accompanied by a member of staff and then at the third and final phase, she is allowed to go home for the weekend.

Im minded to allow her to appear on the sightlink, the judge suggested to Mr McKeever and the PPS and when they did not object, he adjourned the case for two weeks to 5 June to fix a date for the contest.

Stock image

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd
This is according to information provided to the Sunday World by a number of sources familiar with the reclusive murder suspect.

Mike Gaine: Chief suspect insists he had nothing to do with Kerry farmers death

The chief suspect for the murder of Kerry farmer Mike Gaine has insisted that he had nothing to do with his death.

The suspect also refused to answer any questions put to him by gardai when he spent more than 32 hours in custody after his arrest on Sunday afternoon.

This is according to information provided to the Sunday World by a number of sources familiar with the reclusive murder suspect.

One source said he took a no-comment stance throughout the process, which is his legal right.

The suspect is back in his accommodation in Tralee and has absolutely no intention of fleeing or going anywhere at this time, the source explained.

He was arrested by gardai around 36 hours after suspected parts of Mr Gaines dismembered body were found on his own land at Carrig East near Kenmare on Friday evening.

He took a no-comment stance throughout the process which is his legal right  many things were put to him but he had nothing to say before he was eventually released without charge on Monday night, the source added.

However, he completely denies any involvement in this alleged homicide.

The Irish Independent can also reveal that the suspect, who is aged in his 50s, has previously engaged with gardai in relation to the case.

In the early stages of the investigation he did give a statement to gardai along with hundreds of others  at this stage it was a missing person case.

The statement he gave was in the form of a questionnaire-type thing and he gave an account of his movements at certain times, which were relevant to gardai, the source added.

Forensic gardai on Mike Gaine's farm near Kenmare this week. Photo: Don MacMonagle

Detectives investigating the case may re-arrest the murder suspect, who was known to Mr Gaine, if they gather enough evidence to do so.

He is still the only person of major interest in the complicated murder case.

Evidence is the big problem here  or the lack of solid evidence, one source pointed out.

When contacted by the Irish Independent, the suspects solicitor Patrick Mann refused to comment on the case.

I cannot comment on this matter, Mr Mann said.

Investigators suspect a chainsaw may have been used to dismember Mr Gaines body after he was murdered.

It is understood Mr Gaine kept three chainsaws on his property.

One was unaccounted for until search teams discovered it in a concealed location.

It is understood there have been discussions between some gardai that the arrest of the suspect happened too quickly in terms of insufficient evidence being obtained before he was detained.

The investigation team in Killarney have been very thorough in this  one of the most difficult and complex cases in recent Irish history, a source explained.

In terms of making the arrest so quickly after the suspected body parts of the unfortunate victim were found, they were in a situation of damned if they do and damned if they dont.

If the chief suspect had just fled and left the country, there would be huge criticism of them [the investigation team] not acting quicker as he has always been a person of interest.

At all times gardai have been aware of the location of the suspect and have been in informal contact with him as well as taking the statement from him at the earlier stages of the investigation when it was still a missing persons case.

The suspect has never indicated that he has any knowledge whatsoever of what happened the victim.

Gardai will now prepare a file for the DPP, but at this stage the prospect of a charge in this case does not look strong  of course that can all change very rapidly once the necessary evidence is obtained.

Searches continued yesterday at farmlands near Mr Gaines home, and are focused on a slatted shed unit, which allows waste to drain through to a collection tank below.

The latest operations, supported by local, regional and national garda units, other emergency services and the Defence Forces, have been ongoing since last weekend.

The latest operations, supported by local, regional, and national garda units, other emergency services and the Defence Forces, have been ongoing since last Friday at Carrig East.

The arrest on Sunday followed Fridays dramatic discovery of partial remains on Mr Gaines farm by neighbours who were spreading slurry taken from a tank on his land.

Mr Gaine, a 56-year-old sheep farmer with land near Kenmare, was reported missing from his home more than eight weeks ago.

Forensic and laboratory tests on the presumed remains of Mr Gaine will now be central in determining the precise cause of death and how long the dismembered remains were in a slurry tank before being discovered.

A source said they hoped forensic and laboratory tests could give them a precise timeline to use  as detectives fear Mr Gaine died just hours after he was last seen.

The Irish Independent has previously revealed that the chief suspect had come to garda attention before the mysterious disappearance of the highly-respected farmer.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Once a cherished symbol of Zimbabwe's natural heritage and a critical lifeline for the capital's water supply, Lake Chivero is now the epicenter of a deepening public health crisis, with new research revealing that its waters pose cancer risks 15 times deadlier than HIV.The lake, long plagued by unchecked pollution, has transformed from a recreational haven and wildlife sanctuary into a toxic reservoir. Algal blooms, foul smells, and dead fish now mark its once pristine shores, with experts warning that the situation has spiraled into a national emergency.Professor Hilda Matarira, a seasoned chemical pathologist at the National Health Laboratories and Parirenyatwa Hospital under the University of Zimbabwe's College of Health Sciences, has monitored Lake Chivero's water quality for nearly 25 years. Her latest findings are alarming."Microcystins from blue-green algae are cancer-causing and kill people at rates 15 times higher than HIV," Matarira said. "Lake Chivero's contamination is rising each year."Microcystins, potent toxins produced by cyanobacteria, are not only fatal to aquatic life but also infiltrate drinking water systems, accumulate in fish, and persist in the ecosystem long after blooms vanish. The consequences are grave for millions who rely on the lake's water, including residents of Harare, Chitungwiza, and Ruwa.Despite growing health concerns, the government's response has remained tepid. A temporary fishing ban was imposed in December following the unexplained deaths of several animals, including four white rhinos, three zebras, and a number of wildebeestsall believed to be victims of the lake's contaminated waters. But since then, few tangible steps have been taken.Even alternatives to lake water are proving unsafe. Matarira revealed that tests on borehole water revealed 100% contamination with E. coli in some areas, while elevated levels of heavy metals and nitrates were also detected. Boiling water, she cautioned, offers no protection against these substances.She also pointed to the city's air pollution as a contributing factor. "The influx of about 1.5 million vehicles is significantly polluting the air. These emissions settle on water bodies, worsening contamination," she said.Perhaps most disturbing is the risk to consumers of fish caught in the lake. Matarira warned that high mercury levels and other toxins accumulate in fish tissue, posing a serious threat of heavy metal poisoning to unsuspecting families and their pets."The particles pierce every organ in humans and animals. They are one of the major causes of cancer," she said.The environmental and health crisis has sparked outrage among civic leaders. Ruben Akili, Director of the Combined Harare Residents Association, called on city authorities to enforce waste disposal laws more rigorously."The government must take action to stop the pollution crisis. The mass deaths of fish and wildlife point to dangerous contamination," Akili said. "This is not just an environmental issueit is a public health emergency requiring coordinated action across sectors."While concerns mount, responses from government officials have been underwhelming. Professor Obert Jiri, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, and Rural Development, claimed ignorance of the latest research."I haven't seen any reports confirming these claims. If you have evidence, please share it with me," he said.Meanwhile, acting Harare town clerk Engineer Mabhena Moyo acknowledged industrial pollution of Lake Chivero but insisted remedial action is underway."Yes, there are industries polluting Lake Chivero, and we have been fining them," he said. "Water from the lake is clean and meets WHO standards. We test it almost hourly before distribution. However, I cannot speak to the safety of the fish."Efforts to obtain a response from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority were unsuccessful, with spokesperson Tinashe Farawo declining to comment, citing other commitments.As evidence of contamination grows and expert warnings become increasingly dire, Lake Chivero's deterioration stands as a stark reminder of the consequences of neglecting environmental stewardship. Without immediate, coordinated, and sustained intervention, Zimbabwe risks turning its main water source into a toxic monument to institutional inactionat the cost of human health, biodiversity, and the nation's future.
Craig OBrien was jailed for assaulting the Dubliner after tracking down her location in February 2023

Influencer Charleen Murphy has recalled the seconds before the violent attack which left her hospitalised.

It comes ahead of her appearance on an RTE Prime Time special delving into toxic masculinity online.

Craig OBrien attacked her in February 2023 as she dined at a Dublin hotel with a friend.

I just felt this blow to the back of my head, my head basically went so full force forward into my glass that the glass completely shattered, she told RTEs Kate McDonald.

Charleen after the attack

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

I looked to my left and I could see him standing there. Straight away, I knew who it was He had been messaging me in the past online.

Charleen said that the experience is part of a pattern of abuse shes received online over the years.

When I came out with the story that time, people said, Youre not a real victim. They downplay your pain or trauma.

You dont have to have something worse than someone else to still have gone through something bad.

She also said that the internet is shaping young people's views on gender roles.

People have these words and this information so young. Their brains are being shaped by it all. Its scary. Im scared for the younger generation.

People think its just a comment. But kids are reading that. Thats saying to them, Its okay for me to post this too. All the little things turn into the big things.

Taking to social media she shared: I will be on RTE One tonight at 9.35 during Prime Time talking about my attack and toxic masculinity online.

Craig O'Brien who was convicted of assault causing harm to influencer Charleen Murphy

An extremely important episode that dives into how online content is shaping teenagers minds and beliefs.

Being in the midst of the online world I see it every single day in comments and dm's to the point where I think we all have become numb to the words being used.

Charleen said that young boys seeing other men making derogatory comments online makes them believe its ok and that they can speak to women that way.

That in turn makes the world even more unsafe for women, as it can have huge knock-on effects as I have seen first hand.

In November 2023, Craig OBrien of Thomond Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10 was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the unprovoked and unwarranted attack after pleading guilty to assault causing harm.

The court heard that Murphy went to the Grafton Capital Hotel to meet a friend for dinner and drinks.

When she arrived, she shared photographs to social media.

She was sat in a booth, facing her friend when she felt a blow to the back of her head.

Her head flew forward, and her forehead smashed into a glass on the table.

Read more Man (39) dies after getting into difficulty in Cork river

An ambulance was called, and Murphy was taken to hospital, requiring stitches to a two-inch laceration on her forehead.

Later on in the evening, OBrien sent her a voice note on social media asking: hows the head?

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that he had ten previous convictions, including two for assault.

At sentencing, Judge Orla Crowe said that while he was being interviewed by gardai, he referred to Ms Murphy in utter derogatory terms, a female who had done nothing to him.

OBrien was released from prison in 2024 after serving 13 months of his sentence.
We are not the story. Genocide is

Rap trio Kneecap have said they will vehemently defend themselves against the terrorism offence brought against one of their members by British police, describing it as political and a distraction.

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged under the name Liam OHanna over the displaying of a flag in apparent support of Hezbollah at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town in north London, on November 21 last year

In a statement issued this morning, the band said: 14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of the wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

"We deny this offence and will vehemently defend ourselves.

They described it as political policing and a carnival of distraction.

"We are not the story. Genocide is. As they profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court [sic] instead a court that doesnt have a jury. Whats the objective?

"To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out.

They added: Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

"The IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it.

The rap trio said they stand proudly with the people, adding: You stand complicit with the war criminals. We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win. Free Palestine.

OHanna, who lives in Belfast, was charged by postal requisition and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 18, the Met Police said yesterday.

Kneecap

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd
In May 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalise gay marriage through a popular vote.

Senator Ronan Mullen says he doesnt regret voting against same sex marriage as activists celebrate the 10th anniversary of the historic referendum.

The more things started kicking off, the more I felt that there were arguments that were more persuasive for keeping the definition of marriage based on the relationship between men and women, he told Newstalk Breakfast.

I felt and still think that has a particular social function as the social ideal for the upbringing of children.

I felt there were other ways of respecting other peoples private lives and personal choices - for me, it certainly was never about not respecting private lives and personal choices, he continued.

Mullen said he thinks a lot of people voted in favour to send a message of love and solidarity to gay people or as a social atonement for past cruelties.

I just felt those instincts were generous but it was the wrong answer.

He also said he views progressivism as a failing ideology.

I think people are seeing that all of these claims for rights are actually in the long-term letting people down.

The Independent senator said he would still campaign for a no vote if the referendum was held today.

Celebrations following the result of the Marriage Equality Referendum in 2015. Photo: Brian Lawless

I would reiterate that I wasnt for or against anybody or their private life or personal choices.

Everybody is expected now to conform to a particular view - this is what we call woke culture, he said.

We see it in the way people are made to feel cancelled if they have the wrong ideas.

Mullen said he would support a no vote by making the same argument he made before.

I would say, Marriage is ideally about the upbringing of children and therefore men women relationships matter for that purpose in a way that society should acknowledge.

Senator Ronan Mullen

News in 90 Seconds - May 22nd

But lets look at how we respect the private lives and the needs and the rights of people - including same sex couples, in fact anybody who is mutually dependent and caring for somebody else.

In May 2015, Ireland became the first country to legalise gay marriage through a popular vote.

62% of voters said yes to the thirty-fourth amendment of the Irish Constitution.

The act came into force on November 16th 2015, with the very first same sex marriage taking place the following day.
The Bay of Plenty Symphonia is to be congratulated for an outstanding Mothers Day concert at Holy Trinity Church on Sunday, May 11, writes local music director and musician Chalium Poppy.

Under the baton of conductor Michael Joel, the orchestras playing was both inspired and transformative.

The concert opened with Bussers colourful orchestration of Debussys well-known Petite Suite, Op. 2 (originally written for four-hand piano).

An impressionistic work through and through, it began confidently with the opening strains of the two great French instruments - harp and flute - setting the scene on calm, sunlit waters. Wonderfully luscious and muted string playing only served to enhance the impeccably balanced reeds, featured prominently throughout.

The second movement, lively and dance-like, felt much like an animated conversation between the strings and the winds of the Symphonia, eventually swelling and culminating into a thrilling and utterly satisfying forte at the end.

The Menuet was intimate, charming and appropriately reminiscent of a courtly dance. The orchestra captured magnificently the character of the movement, employing some terribly delicate, subtle, yet precise playing.

The final movement, appropriately entitled Ballet, was fantastically lively and very tidily played. The Symphonia captured well the spirit of the dances that permeate this movement, and Maestro Joel held the orchestra in great control as they masterfully navigated the often-unexpected changes in rhythm.

To complete the first half of the programme, the Symphonia performed Aaron Coplands 1944 Pulitzer Prize-winning ballet, Appalachian Spring.

An ambitious and challenging piece of programming for this orchestra, it soon became evident after only a few bars that this music was in skilled and competent hands.

Aside from the musical and technical challenges the work poses - namely the endless and unrelenting changes of timing - there are also the dramatic challenges: the painting of scenes, development of characters, the tableaux and vignettes.

It is perhaps here that the Symphonia excelled the most in their delivery of this unforgiving work, becoming storytellers extraordinaire.

From the first unmistakable bars of music, the audience was transported to a cool spring morning as the suns first rays bid the sleepy mists retreat over the Appalachian Mountains.

And there the audience was all too happy to remain through the joys of a wedding, and the obvious celebrations to follow; the spectre of the Civil War and the anxiety over the fate of loved ones; and the village voices raised in triumphant praise in the great Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts.

Never has this reviewer heard finer playing from the Symphonia, and one couldnt help but feel the musicians on stage attained new musical heights. They played with expressive power and purpose and with a convincing determination to do great justice to the music and its drama. Bravo!

The second half was dominated by Beethovens great Concerto for Violin, Op. 61, which featured guest violinist Lara Hall - a work that languished in obscurity for considerable time after its initial composition until being rescued by the great revivalist, Mendelssohn.

The first movement began with some uncharacteristically uncertain tuning among the reeds in the opening bars, but the orchestra quickly recovered to deliver an electrifyingly powerful introduction to Halls solo.

The Beethoven violin can often sound laboured and oppressive, but Halls light touch and sweet tone, which was evident from her first notes, was both refreshing and satisfying.

The second movement, a highlight, was wonderfully buoyant and warmly affectionate. Hall played with immense ease and grace - her notes always honeyed and floating in the air, ghost-like in the auditorium of Holy Trinity. She was supported with a restrained confidence by Maestro Joel and the Symphonia with tremendous sensitivity and empathy.

The second movement flowed flawlessly into the rollicking joy and optimism of Beethovens third movement, complete with the thrilling hunting-horn theme convincingly delivered by the Symphonia horns. Halls virtuosic mastery of her instrument shone through radiantly.

From the perfection of her smallest pianissimos effortlessly placed so precariously high on the fingerboard to the ridiculously exciting final cadenza, Hall was calmly in control. Behind her chugged the faithful engine of Joel and the Symphonia, never understated and ready to take commanding and powerful control at all the right places.

Maestro Joel and the Bay of Plenty Symphonia are to be commended - heartily commended - for making a decisive and transformative step forward as they progress in their music making here in Tauranga. Bravo bravissimo.

Tauranga music-lovers are implored once more to get behind and support the local treasure that is the Bay of Plenty Symphonia as they undeniably and excitingly move from strength to strength. Be sure not to miss the Rising Stars Concerto Competition on Sunday, July 27, at Graham Young Theatre at Tauranga Boys College

- Chalium Poppy is a music director and musician in Tauranga.
Almost 650 Bay of Plenty caregivers who are raising children that are not their own, will continue to receive vital support thanks to a $13,000 grant from BayTrust.

The money will allow Caring Families Aotearoas regional co-ordinator, Nyvonne Krause, to provide emotional and practical support to guide local caregivers through the ups and downs of raising tamariki and rangitahi who have experienced trauma or neglect.

Caregivers are not classed as professionals, she explained.

They dont have a certificate or letters behind their name. But what they do is just so important for the future of our country. Theyre shaping our future adults through the work that they do.

As well as visiting individual homes throughout the Bay of Plenty, Krause organised regular training workshops, social events, and group coffee dates to connect and upskill caregivers so theyre not working in isolation.

Shes also available by phone if caregivers need to talk through an issue, or if theyre just having a tough day.

I can offer them an understanding and sympathetic ear. I can offer them perspective, because when you are locked up with a child who isnt maybe the happiest person in the world, and maybe you havent had enough sleep the night before and youre not feeling at your best either, it can become overwhelming really quickly.

Krause said she was incredibly grateful for the BayTrust grant amid a tough economy.



Nyvonne Krause, second on left, celebrates the challenges and triumphs of the caregivers journey with a local CFA support group. Photo / Supplied

To be able to get the funding that we get, to do the job that we do, to support the people that we support, who raise the children that theyre raising, is amazing. The ripple effect is huge.

It takes a lot of worry away. It just enables me to get in my car and drive around the Bay of Plenty to host a training or workshop. It enables me to host coffee groups. It enables me to acknowledge the amazing work that our caregivers do through Foster Care Awareness Week and other events.

But what this grant means is I can physically be there. Because otherwise Id just be a phone number for these people.

And because they deal with difficult children, actually being able to sit in their lounge means they can look into my eyes and really feel that I get what theyre talking about. That I understand, and that Im there for them.

BayTrust chief executive Alastair Rhodes said Caring Families Aotearoa epitomised the importance of community wellbeing.

They never want caregivers to feel alone and the one-on-one support they give caregivers is invaluable. Its a tough job but one that is so important to help children recover from the devastating impact of abuse, neglect, or family violence.

Caring Families Aotearoa was a free service for caregivers and the only organisation of its type in the country.

They allow caregivers to do the best job they can and tackle any challenges head on. It takes great strength, courage and perseverance to open your home up to another child, and we know the work Nyvonne is doing to support Bay of Plenty caregivers will benefit us all.
Most of New Zealand will enjoy settled and mostly sunny weather going into the weekend, thanks to a high-pressure system.

After some cold nights and frosty mornings recently, temperatures are expected to go up a few notches over the next few days.

MetService expected the chance of showers to persist in the west from today, especially in the South Island, due to moist air coming in with southwesterly winds to the south of the high-pressure system.

However, the rest of the country should stay mostly clear with sunny skies through the weekend.

Rain is expected to return to the Bay of Plenty from Monday.

People should enjoy the sunny weather through the weekend while they can, its great for outdoor activities, but things may change towards the end of the weekend, said MetService meteorologist Oscar Shiviti.

On Sunday, clouds will increase over the South Island, mostly in the west, as a rain-bearing front approaches from the northwest.

This could bring heavy rain and strong winds to southern parts of the country.

This system brings the potential for severe weather, so we encourage people to keep an eye on the MetService website for updates.

That said, Auckland should stay mostly dry, with only some cloud for Saturdays rugby match between New Zealands Black Ferns and the USA Women.

By early next week, the front will move north and may bring severe weather to those areas too. Warmer air with this system means nights will likely not be as cold as the new week begins, added Shiviti.

Next weeks weather will be quite different with cloudier, wetter and windier weather compared to todays conditions.
Tauranga school students are being gifted tickets to a world-class, groundbreaking show in their own town this August  thanks to Baycourt Community & Arts Centre.

The internationally acclaimed Maori circus-styled theatre show, Te Tangi a Te Tui, will be performed at Baycourt on August 6  the first of five North Island centres.

Tickets for the August 6 public show went on sale May 19 and proceeds will subsidise the schools-only matinee on August 7.

Baycourt Community & Arts Centre manager Reena Snook said Te Tangi a Te Tui is unlike anything previously staged in Tauranga, with all dialogue in te reo Maori.

This production is so unique, of such high calibre and it carries such cultural and emotional weight that it called for an exceptional response from us, Snook said.

That response includes the offer of free tickets to Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty school students, to remove financial barriers and ensure rangatahi (youth) from both kura kaupapa Maori and mainstream schools can experience the show.

Baycourt had also partnered with Toi Tauranga Art Gallery to deliver a creative project in which students will design a tui inspired by the productions themes. Artworks will be displayed at Baycourt to extend the shows visual impact.

Te Tangi a Te Tui performances sold out when the show opened in Auckland last year and when it travelled to Vancouver, Canada.

Snook said the evocative experience, which tells the story of the tuis song and its evolution through the centuries, is a powerful collaboration between kaupapa Maori performing arts company Te Pou Theatre and cirque theatre company The Dust Palace.

While the te reo component is essential, Vancouver audiences proved this is an incredibly universal show that transcends language barriers, Snook said.

We know Canadians have had limited exposure to Maori culture and language yet they connected deeply with the timeless themes of love and loss, and they laughed and cried right on cue. That speaks to the strength of storytelling as well as the stunning visual elements  from the acrobatics to the dramatic performances.

As a result, Snook had no doubt Tauranga audiences will be just as moved come August.

For some in our audience, this will be the first time theyve stepped inside a traditional theatre space. Its an experience they might not have had if it meant travelling to Auckland or Wellington to see it, which is often the case for large-scale theatre productions.

Its so important we support work like this, so that powerful, professional Maori storytelling reaches the communities that need to see it most.

For details and tickets, see: https://www.baycourt.co.nz/
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe's seed industry is teetering on the edge of collapse as the government grapples with ballooning debt, having failed to pay seed suppliers nearly US$270 million over the past three farming seasons.The debt, stemming from flagship state-run input support programmes such as Pfumvudza and the Presidential Input Scheme, has left leading seed companies, including Seed Co, facing a deepening liquidity crisis.Confirming the staggering figure, Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka warned of potential fallout for future harvests."Seed grower payments are behind and may affect future volumes, as farmers shun seed production," Dr Masuka said. "The current debt for the Presidential Inputs Scheme programme for the past three seasons is US$269,636,648.47."From the most recent season alone, Seed Co is reportedly owed around US$13.31 million.The government's continued failure to settle its debts has left seed producers burdened with financial strain, forcing many to rely on expensive bank loans to maintain operations. Industry leaders caution that prolonged delays could severely undermine the quality and availability of certified seed for upcoming farming seasons."We're in an unsustainable situation," said an executive from one of the affected companies. "Without timely payments, we can't procure materials, pay growers, or invest in next season's production. The government must urgently implement a clear payment plan or adopt innovative financing solutions to prevent collapse."The non-payment dates back to the 2022/2023 season and includes the 2023/2024 and current 2024/2025 seasons. Analysts say the compounding arrears are now threatening to destabilize one of the most critical links in Zimbabwe's agricultural value chain.Although the government has acknowledged the debt, an ongoing liquidity crunch has delayed payments not only to seed companies but also to other key service providers in the agricultural sector. This comes at a time when Zimbabwe's food security heavily relies on subsidized inputs to smallholder farmers."The continued viability of seed companies is crucial for national food security," the executive added. "If we fail to produce adequate seed due to lack of funding, the entire crop production calendar risks being thrown into disarray."The crisis has amplified calls for reform in the way government contracts and pays agricultural suppliers. Experts suggest the state should consider private-public partnerships, partial guarantees, or even debt securitization to ease the burden on suppliers and restore confidence in input distribution schemes.As the 2025 planting season approaches, stakeholders warn that failure to resolve the deadlock could have lasting consequencesnot just for seed producers, but for Zimbabwe's entire agricultural sector.
Cristina Vallejo Thursday, 22 May 2025, 18:33 Compartir

The Prolibertas Foundation was founded 24 years ago in Antequera. This happened thanks to a group of people, including its director-general, Antonio Jimenez Fuentes, who were working in prisons as chaplains. This was an integral, traditional part of the work carried out by the order to which he belongs - the Trinitarians - and this group came up against some very harsh realities that clashed head-on with the libertarian vocation of their congregation. As Jimenez Fuentes himself admits, the first thing that struck him was that people were relapsing into crime in order to return to prison, because it was only that environment that afforded them any security in life. In brief, they were unable to cope with the longed-for freedom that they had regained and so, when it came to the moment of truth, they were unable to handle that sense of freedom. This might have been because the ex-convicts simply didn't have a roof over their head, or a place to call home.

So what Prolibertas wants is to accompany and support these people as they make the transition from prison to freedom, "that great dream, but when the time comes to enjoy it, it's scary." In this spirit, Casa Libertad (freedom house) Jacaranda has now opened in Malaga city, the first shelter for released prisoners that this organisation has set up in the provincial capital, in addition to others that it manages throughout Spain, from Antequera to Madrid, also Cordoba, Valdepenas, Seville and San Fernando. These are social insertion projects for people who previously had been deprived of their freedom and now need to rejoin mainstream society.

"In the vast majority of cases it is a profile of people who already come from a reality of exclusion. Prison is nothing more than the outcome of a process that was already being forged beforehand."

This sheltered housing has eight places, although the organisation does not aim to fill it immediately. The plan is to build it up gradually. Right now, for example, there are only two female tenants, with whom they are working on a very tailored basis. "Each situation is different, they come from very difficult contexts, with a lot of pain", says the foundation's president. He continues: "In the vast majority of cases it is a profile of people who already come from a reality of exclusion. Most of them end up in prison for drug trafficking, drug use, theft. They come from very harsh realities and prison is nothing more than the outcome of a process that was already being forged beforehand. They are very broken. Exclusion is a very complicated world and, if you are a woman, it becomes even more complicated."

Antonio Jimenez provides some reasons for those complications. Firstly, it is tremendously more difficult for these women to find a job, especially a stable one. Then, in many cases they come with family burdens, with children. In other cases, there are women who have worked on the streets, an experience that is particularly damaging for them because of all the danger and fear it involves. "The intervention is therefore slower, more personalised, but also safer in the end. From our experience in the centres, one sees that the women have much more willpower."

Zoom Antonio Jimenez, director-general of Fundacion Prolibertas, at Wednesday's official opening in Malaga. Salvador Salas

Intervention begins with prison release permits

Generally speaking, the organisation works with women beginning their process towards freedom. These are women who have already served the greater part of their sentence and can begin their prison leave. In this sense, support for these women often begins while still in prison, as happens in Alhaurin de la Torre jail, among others. There, during this process to prepare them for their reintegration into society, it is determined whether they truly have the will to reintegrate and, if so, Prolibertas endorses them so they can enjoy some prison leave. In addition, other former inmates referred to the CIS (the Spanish prison system's network of social insertion centres attached to prisons) can also come to the foundation, where they transit to the third, pre-release stage of their sentence and must spend nights or weekends there.

"The main problem they face is that they have no resources to live on. While they are serving their sentence, fine, but eventually that comes to an end."

According to Ana Maria Villalon Montesinos, director of the CIS, Casa Libertad Jacaranda is well-placed to alleviate what is the biggest problem faced by people leaving prison: not having resources to live well enough and no family network to give them physical shelter. "While they are serving their sentence, fine, but eventually that comes to an end." Furthermore, she agrees that it is worse for women: "They have had fewer training opportunities, so they have more problems finding work. In addition, they come from a very marginal environment, they are in many cases users of social resources in general and they have probably had a life that has been very focused on being carers of the home or the family. Therefore, the barriers they face are more difficult."

"The Spanish Constitution states that the objective of custodial sentences is the social reintegration of individuals. The reality, for many reasons, such as overcrowding, lack of staff and resources or sometimes much more serious issues, means that prison is not the ideal setting called for by the Constitution. Sometimes what comes together is a lot of impotence, a lot of resentment, a lot of anger. And yes, it is the third sector, and it is the Church, the prison ministry, because Prolibertas was born from the experience of many of us who were chaplains at the time and worked in prisons, those who intervened", states Antonio Jimenez.

Presentation at El Pimpi

The presentation for the opening of Casa Libertad Jacaranda took place this Wednesday at El Pimpi and was attended by representatives of all the relevant institutions, as well as a large group from third sector organisations (NGOs and so on) in Malaga.

Ruth Sarabia, the Junta's delegate for social inclusion, youth, families and equality, stressed that ex-prisoners, after years being deprived of freedom, kept out of the jobs market and with the subsequent psychological damage from all that, "are more likely to reoffend" if they have no roof over their head or food on the table. "If they do not see a future, security and stability, it is very difficult not to reoffend." Sarabia also urged employers to provide work for these people: "We need more committed employers, a dynamic business fabric to take in these people."

Next to comment was Malaga city's councillor for social rights, diversity, equality and accessibility, Francisco Cantos, who left this idea floating in the air: "No one is free from the possibility that, at any given moment, our life may take a turn and we may be surprised by a situation in which our vulnerability comes to the surface." Anyone can have a setback. What must be avoided is that such setbacks become chronic by going on for too long or they keep repeating. That is why there are resources such as the one set up by the Fundacion Prolibertas, to help people get their lives back to the way they were before the setback or even to start a completely new life.
Izaskun Errazti Thursday, 22 May 2025, 18:58 Compartir

For years, fiction has been feeding our fears with stories that seemed impossible but ended up becoming our reality. It happened with Contagion, the film featuring a virus that was related to Covid-19. It also happened with Civil War, a story about a conflict in the United States after the inauguration of an authoritarian president very reminiscent of Trump.

And now millions of viewers are wondering how Apagon (Power Cut), a TV miniseries filmed four years ago, could so truthfully reflect the reality of what happened on 28 April. A shockingly realistic representation of the unprecedented power failure which left 55 million people in the dark for more than 12 hours.

Coincidences for the most optimistic; warnings and serious concerns for those less so. There are already masses of people who, in view of growing geopolitical uncertainty, armed conflicts, natural disasters and other planet-wide catastrophes, are expecting the unexpected in preparation for what may come. For the moment, these tragedies are just imaginary, but they are flooding our TV screens on a daily basis.

In the heat of panic, which hasn't stopped growing since the pandemic in 2020, the survival industry has flourished. Businesses have skyrocketed in the last two years through the construction of bunkers, courses and survival kits. Globally, the disaster readiness market is worth around ten billion dollars a year, with more than four million confirmed 'preppers' in the US alone and 55 per cent of adults investing in emergency supplies.

Big business

Jorge Minano, a self-proclaimed prepper, is making a killing in his shop FerreHogar. The Murcia-based shop specialises in mountain and survival gear. Minano confirmed that people are getting more and more organised "for what might happen". His recent financial success comes after having "lowered prices", given the circumstances, and being "cheaper than Amazon".

He was not caught unawares by the big blackout. "I took it very calmly, because I knew I had hotplates, a cooker, radio, water and food."

When the European Union urged the population to stock up with 72-hour survival kits, Minano felt the impact. "Everyone was telling me, 'You're going to sell out'". And he "had never seen anything like" the aftermath of the blackout.

"When the power came back on at half past ten at night and I got signal back, I couldn't believe the number of orders I had received. One per minute. Thank goodness we were fully stocked in the warehouse," he said.

A hundred radios sold in a single day, water purification tablets, portable cookers, gas cartridges and freeze-dried food - his customers requested "the one with the longest expiry date". The Murcia trader, who 14 years ago used YouTube as a tool to promote his business overseas, admitted that his sales "have tripled" in recent weeks. "But these are just peaks. In a couple of months the situation will balance out," he said.

Military instructors

Located in the Sierra de las Nieves, in the Malaga municipality of Ojen, the Escuela de Supervivencia Anaconda (Anaconda Survival School) has been in operation for two decades. With a 13,000 square metre estate, the school aims to recreate the conditions found in real life disasters.

Jose Miguel Ogalla is the director of this centre which offers four-day, three-night courses for 326 euros (VAT included). This is targeted towards private individuals, because activities aimed at the Armed Forces, its main client, "are free of charge".

Zoom Participants in survival courses learn how to start a fire. E. S. ANACONDA

Doctors, lawyers, psychologists, engineers, mechanics and other people from Spain, England, Belgium, France, Holland, Bologna and even the United States attend these courses. Anaconda's courses are open to a wide range of people, but "due to their toughness" only those aged over 16 (with parental consent).

Participants "train, train and train", said Ogalla, who emphasised the necesity of 72-hour survival kits in case of crises such as cyber-attacks, pandemics or armed conflicts.

"You have to have it," he advised, despite warning: "It won't last you three days. Survival is archaic and primitive."

"It doesn't need batteries, nor materials. You only need what you can find in nature along with basic knowledge and techniques - training on how to make a fire, find shelter and food."

Shelter Hotel Elbora in Toledo is home to the largest private bunker in the country, with a capacity for 400 people

To be "a superhero" requires "knowing the environment, generating the skills we need through experience and having a clear emotional state". Because, Ogalla argued, "our brain is our greatest weapon. 70 per cent of survival is psychological".

"The brain has muscle memory, and it remembers everything, but it needs to live the experience to commit it to memory. The students, so to speak, have to experience a mini-catastrophe first hand," he explained.

There is never a lack of demand at the survival school. "Many people want the experience of a lifetime and come here for it. But for some time now, since before the war in Ukraine, people have been coming here motivated by the concern that there is something brewing in the world," Ogalla said.

The interest has grown exponentially - in barely a decade the number of survival centres offering similar services in Spain has gone "from three or four to more than 300".

"There is a lot of unprofessional practice", warned the Anaconda instructor, advising people "to properly inform themselves and not throw their money away".

The construction of private bunkers, another pillar of the new panic industry, also moves hundreds of millions around the world - it's an expanding market that ranges from the most basic to super-luxury shelters. For example: Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, has been building a bunker for four years on Hawaiian island Kauai with a budget of 170 million dollars.

Zoom The construction of this refuge with swimming pool in Begur took one year and cost 280,000 euros. Bunker Zona

Engineer Antonio Alcahud opened the floodgates of this industry half a century ago in Spain. He boasts having built more than 400 refuge facilities with his company ABQ Refugios Atomicos. During the Cold War, Alcahud was commissioned by businessman Justino Perez to build the largest private bunker in the country, with a capacity for 400 people, on the ground floor of the Hotel Ebora in Talavera de la Reina (Toledo).

A bunker in the basement

Bunker Zona, run by Esteban Lopez, has been operating in Girona for a year now. The company has built up a strong portfolio of medium to high level clients and already has a twelve-month waiting list. Its catalogue offers a range of shelters, from modular shelters made of iron in pieces, with a delivery time of three months, to 40-square-metre bunkers for six people set up in new housing developments, which can take a year to build. "Projects cost from 120,000 euros up to anything you can imagine," said Lopez.

Unprofessional practice In ten years, the number of survival centres in Spain has gone "from three or four to more than 300"

A fully equipped kitchen, a 1,000-litre drinking water tank, free-flowing air and cleaning systems, bunk beds and a sofa make up a basic bunker. Divided into four compartments including a control room, you can stay in one of these bunkers "from six to eighteen months, depending on food supplies".

Guillermo Ortega, director of Bunker World, a Zaragoza-based company that distributes throughout Europe, claims "a 200 per cent increase in orders for underground shelters. Five or six years ago we would build one every two years, but with the blackout the demand has skyrocketed. The enquiries keep coming in and requests keep coming in. The expectation is that everyone is preparing in one way or another," he said.

Even if it's resorting to the cheapest option, around 20,000 euros: turing the storage room into a panic room "made of reinforced concrete, with a ventilation system and a watertight iron door". However, security in this type of refuge spaces cannot be guaranteed for more than 72 hours.
Regina Sotorrio Malaga Thursday, 22 May 2025 | Updated 28/05/2025 08:11h. Compartir

The painting of Anita Delgado dressed as a maharani with rich fabrics wrapped around her body and head is always fresh in our memory. This is how she was portrayed by Federico Beltran Mases in Paris in 1919 in a famous painting that is part of the Malaga Museum collection, found in the La Aduana building. But before becoming the wife of the maharajah of Kapurthala, Anita was a talented dancer, a Malaga native deeply rooted in the flamenco traditions of her home town, which always remained close to her heart.

At the end of the 1940s, in her mature years, separated from her husband and settled in Madrid, Anita Delgado gave away one of the Chinese shawls with which she performed in her youth. It was gifted to the mother of Encarnacion Perraut, owner of an amazing collection of shawls that is now on display in La Aduana.

The museum of the Junta de Andalucia travels back in time to the first third of the 19th century to retrace the history of one of the most popular items of women's clothing in Spain and Latin America. The exhibition layout places pieces in their context, with paintings and period furniture. The museum exhibits a selection of 41 shawls and other items from the Perraut collection, on loan from Encarnacion Perraut and her son Jesus Burgos Perraut.

Zoom Portrait of La Paula with her signature shawl Nito Salas

El Manton de Manila: Coleccion Perraut, curated by Dolores Vargas, provides an insight into the history, embroidery techniques, designs and iconography of these scarves that form part of the Spanish consciousness. Curiously, their name does not refer to the place of origin - these silk-embroidered garments came from Chinese region of Canton. Instead the name reflects the place of distribution, through which all oriental commercial traffic passed, the capital of the Philippines.

There is a wide variety of shawls, all of them are featured in this exhibition. There are 'fly-wing' shawls, the original ones, made of very fine silk and named due to their brownish black colour. Later, the chinoiserie ones proliferated, full of traditional Chinese scenes, with fringes taken from the same fabric and macrame. Later, in the last third of the century, came Elizabethan shawls and pieces enriched with appliques of Chinese faces in ivory, mother-of-pearl, porcelain or silver.

Hispanics and Spaniards

The collection also includes examples of Hispanic shawls, made in Lima, Chile or Panama to avoid the high prices of the Chinese garments. They never matched the originals; they were huge, with enormous flowers embroidered on thick silk, surrounded by exaggerated fringes. Although these were in great demand in South America, the Chinese shawls remained the favourite in Spain.

Some were embroidered directly in Spain, reflecting national tastes and customs. Spanish folklore adapted the shawl as an integral piece of clothing, evolving into the small shawls of the flamenco dress, such as the one worn by La Paula in her portrait by Antonio Montiel (1964). But they were also worn by the chulapas (traditional working-class women from Madrid) and were introduced to the regional dress of Extremadura, Castile, Aragon and Valencia.

Nito Salas

Alongside the garments, the exhibition also features furniture and objects which carry the Chinese theme and others related to the packaging and transport of the shawls, all from the Perraut collection. For example, there is a suitcase and three original boxes used to pack the shawls for transport during the 19th century; a lacquered wooden screen from the 20th century; a polychrome porcelain vase; and various pieces of jewellery.

The Malaga Museum also contributes historical furniture from its collections and paintings such as the one of Anita Delgado; Despues de la Corrida by Denis Belgrano (1885- 1890); Gitana by Gonzalo Bilbao (c. 1900); La Buenaventura by Enrique Simonet (1915); the terracotta Bailaora (anonymous, 20th century); and the sculpture Pequena Madre by F. Gonzalez Macias (1961).

The exhibition, which is part of a commitment to revisit heritage and highlight Andalusian culture, is open until 20 July during the museum's usual opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 9pm; Sundays and public holidays from 9am to 3pm.
News / National

by Staff reporter

A truck driver and his passenger jumped out of their vehicle moments before it rammed into a passing train in Kadoma on Wednesday night causing a derailment, the National Railways of Zimbabwe said.It was the third collision between a train and vehicle across the country inside two weeks.The NRZ said the driver appeared to have lost control of his lorry which was carrying sand as it approached a rail and road level crossing at around 11.50PM."The driver and his passenger jumped off the truck and left it to ram into the last two wagons of the passing train. The two men were rushed to hospital where they were treated and discharged," the NRZ said in a statement."We keep urging drivers to exercise extreme caution when approaching all level crossings and avoid using defective vehicles."On May 21, a Honda Fit vehicle with six male passengers onboard was hit by a train at around 1AM while crossing a railway line on Chiremba Road in Harare. The six escaped with moderate injuries.On May 13, a police Mahindra vehicle was badly damaged in Gweru after the driver failed to give way to an oncoming train. The two police officers in the vehicle survived with minor injuries.
Armin Amiri attends Max Original's "And Just Like That" Season 3 Photo Call at Crane Club on May 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) Getty Images

Armin Amiri had a unique encounter with former president George W. Bushs daughters in the early 2000s.

On Wednesday, Amiri told Page Six Radio hosts Evan Real and Danny Murphy that years before getting hired on HBOs And Just Like That, he was a doorman at the popular New York City nightclub Bungalow 8, which closed in 2009.

While working one night, the restaurant had 280 reservations, but Amiri claimed only four people showed up, two of whom were Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager.

The first time I didnt let em in and I didnt know who they were, Amiri recalled.

I got a tap on my shoulder, and it was the Secret Service. And he goes, Hey man. I said, Hey. And he goes, These are the first daughters. I said, First daughters of whom? he teased.

However, after the girls security detail clued him in, he took care of it right away and got them a table.

Bushs daughters, twins who are both now 43, often made headlines for partying incidents, including underage drinking, in the early 2000s.

Amiri decided to make the most out of his time with the presidents daughters that night. I remember I needed my green card. So, we smoked a joint together and I was just like, Listen, Im having a green card problem, Amiri recounted.

They told the then-up-and-coming actor they would speak to someone, but he claimed nothing ever came from it.

Jenna (left) and Barbara Bush attend the "R" party opening bash for the GOP at Roseland August 29, 2004 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images) Getty Images

He also noted that he offered to comp their dinner for the night. However, he said of them told him, Honey dont even worry about it. Were used to these kind of things.

Amiri, originally from Tehran, Iran, stars as Seemas (Sarita Choudhury) love interest Ravi Gord in And Just Like That. Season 3 of the Sex and the City sequel premieres on May 29.

Amiri has also appeared in the movie The Wrestler and made TV appearances on NCIS: New Orleans and Deep State, to name a few.
Syracuse, N.Y.  A Syracuse man pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing nearly $22,000 in pension payments sent to his deceased mother, according to state officials.

Michael Glinski, 45, pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny in Onondaga County Court before Judge Mary Anne Doherty, according to State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

Glinski was arrested in January following an investigation almost nine months after his mothers death.

Glinskis mother was a clerk with the Solvay Police Department before she retired in August 2014. She received a monthly pension check, and also received her deceased husbands pension payment as a beneficiary since 2019.

In October 2021, Glinskis mother passed away. Both her and her husbands payments should have stopped, but the New York State and Local Retirement System was not notified of her death. In July 2022, the department was notified and her payments stopped.

Investigators discovered Glinski deposited 17 pension checks into his personal bank account. In total, he stole $21,946.36 by endorsing the checks using his power of attorney, DiNapoli said.

Glinski will be sentenced in court on June 23.

Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com
Vincent Love, leader of the proposed Central New York Academy charter school, speaks to a nearly empty room during a public hearing on the school Wednesday afternoon. No members of the public came to ask questions or support the school. Marnie Eisenstadt

Syracuse, N.Y.  When 100 Black Men of Syracuse proposed a charter school in Syracuse last year, it was the realization of nearly a decade of planning by the mentoring group that works with city youth.

Instead of just visiting schools and helping out, they would have their own school where mentors were embedded into daily activities and leading the school.

But at a public hearing for that same school Wednesday night, the group was notably absent. Their name, which appeared dozens of times in the 700-page application, is now blacked out.

Representatives of 100 Black Men of Syracuse did not respond to phone calls and emails about the school, but their former president, who is now leading the charter school application, said the group pulled its name from the school proposal under pressure from the Syracuse school district. The district denies that claim.

The district made it clear to 100 Black Men that they could not have their name on a charter school and still work with the district, said Vincent Love, a founder and former president of 100 Black Men of Syracuse who left the group to continue on with the charter school.

The path of 100 Black Men shows the threat public schools feel from charter schools and the city districts willingness to wield its power to neutralize a school proposed by a Syracuse community group.

Charter schools are a hybrid: They are public schools funded by city taxpayers, but run by private groups. The bottom line for the Syracuse school district is that every charter school takes money out of the districts budget.

This year, the four charter schools in Syracuse were budgeted to receive more than $40 million from city taxpayers. Thats a 16% increase over last year; 6.5% of the districts total budget.

Charter school enrollment has increased 30% over the past five years, a point made in the districts budget book. Next years budget is $611 million.

Currently, nearly 2,500 of the roughly 20,000 students in the city school district attend charter schools. Every time that number goes up, the district must pay out more money.

The city has made it clear that it opposes charter schools. In 2018, the school board asked the state to put a moratorium on proposing new charter schools. It did not.

But the districts position has not changed. That was made clear when 100 Black Men proposed their charter school. The group has provided mentoring services in the school district for several years.

A spokeswoman for Superintendent Anthony Davis said the district did not threaten to take away the groups contract if they went forward with the school.

But they offered them more mentoring opportunities, and more money, if they stepped away from the charter school proposal.

Traditionally the district does not support the addition of more charter schools, so the superintendent said the conversations were about the other ways to partner with them outside of backing the charter school, said Amanda Malinowksi, a spokeswoman for the district.

Last year, 100 Black Men of Syracuse received $88,000 from the city school district for mentoring services. This year, the groups contract nearly tripled: It will receive $249,000 for mentoring.

The districts power was also clear at Wednesdays public hearing. The room at the Syracuse school districts headquarters was empty, save a few members of the media and district staff required to run the hearing.

The Syracuse school district chief financial officer stopped in to ask Love how he could say that a charter school would not take money away from the city schools.

Loves day job is the treasurer of the North Syracuse school district. He was the executive director of Blueprint 15 for a time, but stepped down from that position.

The charter school idea came from the mentoring work 100 Black Men, a local Black nonprofit that focuses on providing positive male role models, did in the Syracuse schools. During that work, they found that many of the students they mentored were struggling with basic skills, like reading. So they set up a Saturday tutoring program.

But they also began to see an opportunity for more, Love said. The New York City chapter of 100 Black Men set up an alternative, boys-only school, called Eagle Academy, that the group went to visit. The Syracuse chapter visited that school and decided to try to replicate some of it.

The idea for the new charter school -- called the Central New York Academy -- was born shortly after that trip. It is not boys only, but targets children from Black and Hispanic high-poverty neighborhoods in the city.

Love, who is leading the school effort, said the intent was never to compete with the district, but to work with them to provide another option for kids who werent thriving in the city schools. He said Wednesday that the the charter schools intent will always be to partner with the district.

The Syracuse schools are among the lowest-performing in the state. Last years state test data showed that 20% of the districts students were proficient in ELA and only 18% were proficient in math.

But the state is not convinced the Central New York Academy will be a better, or even equal, option. The Charter Schools Institute of SUNY, one of two state agencies that can approve charter schools, instructed Love to withdraw the application last year because of deficiencies. The institute said the application lacked enough detail in several key areas including the budget, the management set-up, the curriculum plan and whether there was current community support. Much of the support listed was from several years ago.

The two-page letter warned that the list was not exhaustive.

But deficiencies like this are not uncommon.

Mike Lesczinski, a spokesman for the institute, said many proposals are sent back multiple times. Only 18% of first-time applicants are approved by the institute.

The Central New York Academy is working with HLN Initiatives, a professional charter school management company based in New York City. The agency currently has one school, the Harriet Tubman Charter School, in the city. It was looking to replicate the Syracuse school in other markets. Errol Bedford, president of that company, said in an interview with Syracuse.com that the organization has been asked to do charter schools in Rochester and other cities.

He said they have addressed all of the states concerns.

The charter school should find out by October if their application has been approved.

The school hopes to open in September 2026 for 180 children in kindergarten through second grade. But it currently does not have a site picked out. Eventually, the plan is to expand to a K-8 school with more than 500 students.

Bedford said his company wanted to start in Syracuse, because Bedford, raised in the Bronx, graduated from Le Moyne College. Others at his company graduated from Le Moyne and Syracuse University.

He thinks the charter school could be transformative and he wants Syracuse to have it first. The company has not yet shepherded a school through the states charter approval process. The Tubman school already had its charter before Bedford started working with them.

He said the school was in jeopardy of losing its charter, but HLN turned them around.

Love said he has no doubt that the Syracuse school will get approved. And when it is, he said 100 Black Men will come to support it, along with several other community organizations that have signed letters of support over the years.

Walt Dixie, a Syracuse community activist and executive director of Jubilee Homes, is one of the supporters.

Dixie said half of his grandchildren go Syracuse schools and half go to charter schools. There are benefits to both, he said. In a city like Syracuse, more options are better.

He said he was disappointed that the state didnt approve the Central New York Academy last year.

At the end of the day, the kids lose, he said.

Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people and public affairs in Central New York. Contact her anytime email| cell 315-470-2246.
The Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor awarded by Congress for risk of life in combat beyond the call of duty, sits on a table before a presentation ceremony Monday, Aug. 26, 2013, at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Carolyn Kaster | AP) AP

Lauren C. Dates, a retired town justice, lives in Red Creek.

Corinthians 13:13 states, But now abide faith, hope, love, these three, and the greatest is love.

John 15:13 states, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Charles Dickens book, A Tale of Two Cities, opens with the line, It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

These words always resonate with me on Memorial Day as I reflect on my experience as a combat soldier in Vietnam 58 years ago. i personally knew and served with two fellow paratroopers in the 173rd Airborne Brigade who were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. John Barnes was a Private First Class Rifleman (MOS 11B). The other was the Rev. Charles Watters, a major and Roman Catholic chaplain. Both men sacrificed their lives to save the lives of their comrades and both did so without reservation or concerns, not only for their safety, but for their lives.

John Barnes had fought for hours in the killing zone where my company was ambushed on Nov. 11, 1967, in Dak To, South Vietnam. After running out of M-60 machine gun ammunition, he jumped on a chicom grenade and absorbed the explosion with his body, saving the lives of four of his fellow wounded paratroopers. Johns citation for the Medal of Honor goes into greater detail; I would encourage people to look it up and read it.

Father Charles Watters was killed Nov. 19, 1967, in Dak To. In a horrific battle that had continued over three weeks, Father Watters went above and beyond the call of duty. As the battle raged, he exposed himself to enemy fire while rescuing wounded, administering last rites and providing comfort and solace to all, whether Catholic, Protestant or Jew. Father Watters was killed in action showing love for his comrades. Some former NVA soldiers, interviewed after U.S. participation in the war ended, commented they were impressed by the acts of heroism and compassion that U.S. soldiers showed on the battlefield. Again, I encourage you to look up the citation for Father Charles Watters.

The words, The best of times, the worst of times resonate with me as my experiences as a combat soldier (11B) were not only horrific, but also exposed me to some of the best in my fellow human beings. Never again in my life have I seen men live their lives with the honesty, integrity, loyalty and heroism than I saw when I served with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. In my old age, I remember those who served and how honored I am to have known them. They were splendid human beings.

Others who served with distinction and were awarded the Medal of Honor were Carlos Lozada, 173 ABN Bde; Milton Olive, 173 ABN Bde; Lawrence Joel, 173 ABN Bde, and the Rev. Vincent Capodanno, U.S. Navy.

There is a saying by a philosopher, Viet Thanh Nguyen: All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.

Another saying is, A soldier is never dead until his name is no longer spoken. May we honor and remember these men by continuing to speak their names.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo held his daily coronavirus press briefing at Upstate Medical University Hospital Thursday, May 14, 2020, to announce the start of reopening for Central NY. N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the target of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Apparently, Cuomo doesnt believe that being investigated by President Donald Trumps administration is a political liability. Quite the opposite, in fact.

By Wednesday, Cuomo  who is running to become the next mayor of New York City  was running a political advertisement touting the investigation as a badge of honor.

If Donald Trump doesnt want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, the ad concludes, you do.

The ad mentions the recent arrests of Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin, accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities, and Rep. LaMonica McIver in New Jersey, charged with assault after a skirmish with federal officers outside an immigration detention center, as well as an investigation of New York State Attorney General Letitia James, accused of mortgage fraud.

Now, theyre attacking Andrew Cuomo, to interfere with New York Citys election, the ad states. Why? Because Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor.

The investigation into Cuomo stems from a criminal referral to the Justice Department by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The complaint alleges that Cuomo lied to a congressional committee about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, specifically relating to nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

A spokesperson for Cuomo told the website The Daily Beast that Gov. Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the subcommitteebut from the beginning this was all transparently political.

Cuomo, who resigned as governor in August of 2021 amid allegations of sexual harassment, was also the subject of a report by James concluding that his administration had undercounted nursing home deaths in the early days of the pandemic by 50 percent. A Syracuse.com investigation at the time found similar numbers.

Cuomo is returning to politics with his run for mayor of New York City. He is the frontrunner to win the Democratic nomination. New Yorks current mayor, Eric Adams, was elected as a Democrat but has become an ally of Trump and is running for reelection as an independent.

Adams term has been marked by accusations of corruption. In February, the Trump administration ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams, a move which caused Manhattans top prosecutor and several high-ranking Justice Department officials to resign in protest.
Owner Robb Bidwell at Sal's Birdland, a takeout restaurant featuring chicken and more. It opens May 22 at 8140 Brewerton Road (Route 11) in Cicero. He's holding jars of Sassy Sauce. Don Cazentre

Cicero, N.Y.  A brand name familiar to chicken wing fans in Rochester is returning to Central New York.

The newest Sals Birdland opens today (May 22) in a small plaza at 8140 Brewerton Rd. (Route 11) in Cicero. It joins the two existing Sals Birdland locations in the Rochester area, where the brand began in 1974.

The Cicero location will be a takeout-and-delivery only restaurant that will feature chicken and other items, including fish, shrimp, pulled pork, ribs and versions of (garbage) plates. Sides include potato wedges.

Its menu even features chicken gizzards.

Unlike the Rochester locations, the newest Sals will emphasize chicken tenders as well as wings, said Robb Bidwell, who owns the Cicero location.

Tenders are what were probably going to be known for, he said.

Chicken tenders from Sal's Birdland, a takeout restaurant featuring that opens May 22 at 8140 Brewerton Road (Route 11) in Cicero. Don Cazentre

Two former Sals Birdland-branded locations in the Syracuse area are now closed: One was at 4421 S. Salina St. and the other was in the Schine Student Center at Syracuse University.

Bidwell has built a strong connection to Sals Birdland, which was founded in Rochester by Sal Nalbone and is now run in Rochester by his son-in-law, Jimmy Ortiz.

Bidwell recently acquired the rights to open any new Sals Birdland outside of Monroe County. In addition to the Sals in Cicero, he is working on plans to open a location in Syracuse, behind the former Dominicks Restaurant on Burnet Avenue.

He also co-owns the Sassy-Cuse Saloon in Syracuses Armory Square. It recently changed its name from Clinton Street Pub and features the line of Sassy Sauce and seasoning products introduced by Sals Birdland.

That bars transition to Sassy-Cuse came after Bidwell purchased the Sassy Sauce product line from Ortiz.

Those products are what separate Sals Birdland from other chicken restaurants, Bidwell said.

This is kind of like Chicken Row up here, Bidwell said, noting places like Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A and Tullys lined up on Route 11.

But what we have is the Sassy sauce and seasonings, he said. Thats what makes us special.

Bidwell also hopes to grow the Sassy Sauce brand, which is currently also sold in stores like Wegmans and Tops, online, and through licensing agreement with restaurants and other ventures. The sauce is produced and packaged in Monroe County.

The new Cicero Sals Birdland has no seating for indoor dining. It will be open 11 am. to 9 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday; and 11 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Its closed on Tuesday.

Sal's Birdland, a takeout restaurant featuring chicken and more, opens May 22 at 8140 Brewerton Road (Route 11) in Cicero. Don Cazentre

Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at Facebook.
Deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Madison Sheahan, flanked by Acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons, speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters, in Washington, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) AP

WASHINGTON (AP)  The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes but refused to reveal where they would end up. The judges statement was a notably strong rebuke to the governments deportation efforts.

In an emergency hearing he called to address reports that immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston said the eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger. Minutes before the hearing, administration officials accused activist judges of advocating the release of dangerous criminals.

The department actions in this case are unquestionably in violation of this courts order, Murphy said Wednesday, arguing that the deportees didnt have meaningful opportunity to object to being sent to South Sudan. The group was flown out of the United States just hours after getting notice, leaving them no chance to contact lawyers who could object in court.

Government attorneys argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. They also pointed out that the judge had not specified the exact time needed between notice and deportation, leaving room for misunderstanding.

The government calls the deported people true national security threats

The migrants home countries  Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan  would not take them back, according to Todd Lyons, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spoke to reporters in Washington. He later said the migrants either came from countries that often do not take back all their deported citizens or had other situations that meant they could not be sent home.

These represent the true national security threats, Lyons said at a news conference. Behind him was a display of photos of men he said had been convicted of rape, homicide, armed robbery and other crimes.

Administration officials, who have repeatedly clashed with the courts over their attempts to deport large numbers of immigrants, made their displeasure clear Wednesday.

President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are working every single day to get these vicious criminals off of American streets  and while activist judges are on the other side, fighting to get them back onto the United States soil, said Tricia McLaughlin, a department spokesperson. She pointed to the photographs and described them as the monsters that Murphy is trying to protect.

Homeland Security officials released few specific details about the deportation flight. They said it left Tuesday with eight people on board and said they remained in the departments custody Wednesday. Officials said they could not disclose the migrants final destination because of safety and operational security.

The case comes amid a sweeping immigration crackdown by the Republican administration, which has pledged to deport millions of people who are living in the United States illegally. The legal fight is the latest flashpoint as the administration rails against judges whose rulings have slowed the presidents policies.

Lawsuits on immigration issues are everywhere

With Congress largely silent or supportive, opponents of Trumps agenda have filed hundreds of lawsuits and judges have issued dozens of orders against the administration. Immigration has been the most contentious issue. There was the mistaken deportation of an immigrant who was living in Maryland to a prison in El Salvador, as well as Trumps push to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members without a court review.

The administration officials insisted that the deported men had received due process, but did not provide details. Immigration-rights attorneys argue they violated Murphys order, first handed down in March, that says people must have a chance to argue that going somewhere outside their homeland would put them in danger before being deported, even if theyve otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.

The government is still refusing to provide due process to our clients, which means they are not giving them notice of the country to which theyre being deported, proper notice in a language that they understand, and not giving them a meaningful opportunity to claim fear based on those countries, Trina Realmuto, the executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said outside court.

These are countries that the State Department doesnt want Americans to travel to. They are categorically not safe, she added.

In court, Realmuto asked the judge to return the individuals to the United States. They are no less deserving of protection than any other human beings on this planet, she said.

The government argued the interviews with the men over their fears could be done where they are currently being held and confirmed with Murphy that they can be arranged. Realmuto called this a logistical nightmare that penalizes the men because the government violated the judges order. She said it would prove a challenge to get the men legal counsel and interpreters, an effort complicated by the time difference.

Murphy, who raised the prospect of criminal contempt for anyone involved in an illegal deportation, later Wednesday ordered the government conduct a new set of interviews with the migrants if an appropriate place with appropriate privacy can be found. He said the government was welcome to bring the migrants back, but did not order they do so.

On Twitter late Wednesday, DHS McLaughlin called the order deranged.

The countries of origin vary

Attorneys for the immigrants told the judge that immigration authorities may have sent as many as a dozen people from several countries to Africa.

The apparent removal of one man from the troubled Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his lawyers learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.

A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa on Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.

Murphy, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would clearly violate his ruling.

South Sudan says its unaware of any arrivals

South Sudans police spokesperson, Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that no migrants had arrived in the country and that if they do, they would be investigated and redeported to their correct country if found not to be South Sudanese.

Edmund Yakani, executive director of the South Sudanese group Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, questioned why people convicted of crimes in the United States would be sent there. Is South Sudan a land of less human who deserve to receive perpetrators of human rights violations? Without any public explanation? he asked.

Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States. That has led the administration to strike agreements with other countries, including Panama, to house them. The U.S. has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law, an action being contested in the courts.

South Sudan has endured repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the countrys top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.

The State Departments annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says significant human rights issues include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.

The Homeland Security Department has given Temporary Protected Status to a small number of South Sudanese already living in the United States, shielding them from deportation because conditions were deemed unsafe for return. Noem recently extended those protections to November to allow for a more thorough review.

The U.S is one of the biggest donors to South Sudans humanitarian aid programs, with the total funding in 2024 standing at over $640 million.
By Qabil Ashirov



The joint military exercise Araz-2025, conducted with the participation of Azerbaijani and Iranian service members, has concluded successfully.

According to the Ministry of Defense, all assigned objectives were carried out with precision by the military personnel of both countries during the course of the drill.

In line with the training plan, the coordinated actions across various phases of the exercise demonstrated a high level of combat readiness. Participants showcased professionalism and tactical discipline throughout the joint operations.

The commanders leading the exercise praised the skill and preparedness of the personnel involved.

At the end of the drill, the two sides exchanged commemorative gifts, and outstanding service members were awarded for their exemplary performance.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zimbabwean government has announced plans to introduce new players into the sugarcane milling industry to break the monopoly held by Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe, a move aimed at boosting competition, improving efficiency, and benefiting local farmers and consumers.Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, made the revelation in response to concerns raised in Parliament by Chiredzi Central MP Ropafadzo Makumire. Makumire had questioned the government on measures being taken to reduce sugarcane production costs amid Tongaat Hulett's ongoing retrenchment of about 1,000 workers, of whom over 100 have already lost their jobs. The MP highlighted cheap sugar imports and high production costs as key challenges contributing to the company's difficulties.Responding, Minister Ndlovu stated that while he was not fully aware of the specific reasons behind the retrenchments, the issue of cheap sugar imports had not been flagged as a major concern by Tongaat Hulett during his extensive discussions with the company. He noted that Zimbabwe's sugar is among the most expensive on the continent due to several factors, including high production costs."Our sugar is the most expensive in the continent," said Ndlovu. "Exporting companies incur costs that reduce their competitiveness. There are several issues to be addressed in the sector. One of the government's interventions is to introduce other players in the milling industry. We cannot continue to rely on a single company."The Minister also challenged farmers to improve their productivity, highlighting that Zimbabwe's average sugarcane yield currently stands at around 40 tons per hectare - well below the optimal range of 130 to 170 tons. He pointed to low yields as the primary reason for the high cost of sugar production and limited export capacity."The sugar industry is vital to our economy, creating employment and supporting downstream industries. However, our farmers need to improve their yields to enhance competitiveness. By doing so, the industry can export larger quantities and reduce sugar prices for local consumers," Ndlovu said. He emphasized that the medium and long-term growth of the sector depends on increasing productivity at the farming level.To support this goal, the government has designated sugarcane as a strategic crop, signaling increased focus and resources aimed at revitalizing production.The issue of challenging Tongaat Hulett's dominance was also raised last year by Chiredzi North MP and sugarcane farmer Roy Bhila, who called on banks to partner with farmers in financing the establishment of a new milling facility. Bhila noted that during his tenure as Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, he had begun exploring the feasibility of such a project, which he described as affordable if farmers were granted access to appropriate loans.With government backing and increased competition, the sugarcane milling sector may be poised for transformation that could lower production costs, increase job security, and make Zimbabwean sugar more competitive regionally and internationally.
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News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe's banking sector has injected approximately US$200 million to support the ongoing 2024/2025 summer cropping season, underscoring renewed efforts to revitalize agriculture, a sector long regarded as the backbone of the nation's economy.Despite its critical importance, agriculture in Zimbabwe has faced persistent challenges, notably chronic underfunding and ongoing uncertainties over land ownership. Historically, banks have pledged about US$500 million annually to the sector, yet less than half of this amount has been accessed by farmers. A major limiting factor remains the lack of formal title deeds, which restricts farmers' ability to use land as collateral for financing.Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development Minister Dr. Anxious Masuka emphasized the pivotal role the financial sector plays in supporting agricultural growth."As of January 31, 2025, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe indicated funding of ZWG852.97 million and US$163.12 million for the 2024/2025 season," Dr. Masuka stated.For the preceding season, total agricultural funding reached an estimated US$1.6 billion, with the private sector contributing US$960 million and the government covering the remaining 40%. This blended financing approach, combining private capital with government backing, has become central to Zimbabwe's agricultural strategy.The government's support has been channeled primarily through the Presidential Input Support Programme, which targeted over 1.8 million households to boost production of cereals, oilseeds, and legumes. Overall, the programme benefited approximately 3.5 million individuals. Additionally, the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) Joint Venture Programme contributed substantially to targeted crop hectarage, while the National Enhanced Agriculture Productivity Scheme (NEAPS)financed by institutions such as AFC, CBZ, and NMBcovered the commercial farming sector.These interventions aim to scale up production significantly, with a key objective of increasing cereal output from 750,000 tonnes to over 3.2 million tonnes. Oilseed productionespecially cotton, sunflower, and soyabeanis also expected to rise, helping to strengthen national food security and reduce dependency on imports.Maize production is forecast to reach 2.2 million tonnes this season, surpassing the national requirement of 1.8 million tonnes. This anticipated bumper harvest is attributed largely to favorable weather patterns, with many regions receiving normal to above-normal rainfall.The expansion of irrigable land has been another important factor in improving yields. The government is prioritizing irrigation infrastructure development, targeting an increase in functional irrigable land from just over 200,000 hectares to nearly 496,000 hectares by the end of 2025.As Zimbabwe intensifies efforts to restore agricultural productivity, the collaboration between government and financial institutions provides a promising foundation. However, experts and stakeholders continue to urge urgent resolution of land tenure uncertainties, which remain a significant barrier to fully unlocking the sector's potential.Without addressing these structural challenges, Zimbabwe's agricultural ambitions risk being undermined, despite increased funding and improved climatic conditions.
Kate Curran is the Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year for 2024

Kate Curran, Kilmagemogue, Portlaw, County Waterford is the overall winner of the Teagasc / FBD Student of the Year 2024 award. The Awards were presented by the Teagasc Chairman, Liam Herlihy in Dublin on Thursday, 22 May.

Michael Berkery, Chairman of FBD Trust, with Dr Anne Marie Butler, Head of Education in Teagasc, Teagasc Chairman, Liam Herlihy, Kate Curran, Kilmagemogue, Portlaw, County Waterford and Emer OByrne, FBD, as Kate was announced as the overall winner of the Teagasc / FBD Student of the Year 2024 award. The awards, sponsored by FBD, were presented to the top graduates of Teagasc Level 6 agriculture, horticulture, equine and forestry training programmes in 2024. Photo: John Ohle Photography;



The awards, sponsored by FBD, were presented to the top graduates of Teagasc Level 6 agriculture, horticulture, equine and forestry training programmes in 2024.

The overall winner, Kate Curran completed the Level 6 Specific Purpose Certificate in Farming (Distance Education) at the Teagasc Kildalton College in Piltown, County Kilkenny. In addition to winning the Overall Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year 2024 award she was also successful in the Part-Time and Distance Education Category award.

Kate Curran, Kilmagemogue, Portlaw, County Waterford with her husband Shane Fitzgerald as Kate was announced as the overall winner of the Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year 2024 award. Photo: John Ohle Photography.

Dr Anne-Marie Butler, Teagasc Head of Education caught up with Kate after the awards ceremony to get an insight into her background and her time studying in Teagasc. Watch the short clip below to find out more.

Two other category awards were presented:

Thomas OConnor from Caherbreagh, Tralee in County Kerry won the Full Time Agriculture Category. He completed the Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Agriculture (Dairy Herd Management) in Pallaskenry Agricultural college, County Limerick.

Niamh Duggan, from Ballinagranna, Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary was successful in the Full-Time Other Land-based Enterprises Category. She completed the Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture (Nursery Stock Production) in Kildalton Horticulture college.

Teagasc Chairman, Liam Herlihy said; the agriculture, horticulture, equine and forestry sectors need a constant flow of new entrants, bringing knowledge of the latest technologies and science onto farms. This years finalists epitomise the high calibre of student emerging from Teagasc education courses, bringing new dynamism into the sector. I congratulate each and everyone of you.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon TD sent his congratulations to all the finalists in the Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year Awards

He said: This is one of the highlights in the calendar. Well educated young farmers are the future of the sector and I congratulate all the finalists on their achievement. The value of a quality agricultural education to the running of a modern farm enterprises cannot be overstated. You and your families and friends can be very proud of what you have achieved over the last few years while you pursued your qualification. I extend my congratulations in particular to the category and overall winners whose range and depth of knowledge impressed the judges.

Speaking at the awards, Michael Berkery, Chairman of FBD Trust, said; FBD is proud to have been supporting these important educational awards since their inception. We recognise that education is vital to the continued success of the modern and progressive farming sector we have in Ireland today. The Teagasc/ FBD Student of the Year finalists are wonderful ambassadors for this sector, and we are proud to sponsor these awards which highlight their accomplishments and their passion for the industry. On behalf of the team at FBD, I would like to congratulate Kate Curran and all the finalists on their achievements and wish them every success in the future.

Dr Anne Marie Butler, Head of Education in Teagasc said; This is a wonderful occasion to celebrate Teagasc learners and the agriculture, horticulture, equine and forestry sectors which they proudly represent. At Teagasc, we are delighted to offer all learners a strong foundation of practical, science based training equipping them with knowledge and skills to lead the sector. The recently developed Teagasc Education Strategy 2025-2030 articulates Teagascs commitment to ensuring that our education programmes remain of the highest quality for both current and future learners. Congratulations to all finalists. We look forward to their future career and personal achievements.

Finalists

The other finalists in the awards were:

Emma Cullen, Clontyduffy, Mountnugent, Co. Cavan

Dara Leahy, Bridelands, Crookstown, Co. Cork

Rosie OBrien, Riverstown, Birr, Co. Offaly

Anne-Marie Kenny, Ballybrack, Moville, Co. Donegal

Conor Murphy, Dunganny, Trim, Co. Meath

Adrian Gaynard, Kilcommon, Hollymount, Claremorris, Co. Mayo

Vanessa Tait, Buckstown Farm, Rostellan, Co. Cork

Colm OReilly, Tully, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim

Noelle McCann, Booterstown, Blackrock, Co. Dublin

Chelirs Brecq, Birr, Co. Offaly

More information on the finalists and winners can be found here
Dippy Senior - BHPian



Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Mumbai, India Posts: 7,862 Thanked: 4,930 Times

Honda to focus on hybrid cars amid slowdown in EV demand



Japanese carmaker Honda has decided to make changes to its EV strategy due to slowing demand globally for electric vehicles. This was announced by Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe during the 2025 Honda Business Briefing.



Honda said that its global sales ratio in 2030 is expected to fall below the 30 percent mark, a figure it had previously announced. On the other hand, the demand for models is high. Hence, Honda will launch new hybrid models to the market from 2027 onwards. These new models will play a key role during the transition period toward the popularization of EVs and further enhance its HEV lineup. With the steady execution of this realignment, by 2030, Honda will strive to increase total automobile sales volume to above the current level of 3.6 million units, with a HEV sales target of 2.2 million units at the core.



Honda is also working on advancing its original two-motor hybrid system, e:HEV hybrid system, and platforms in all aspects. This will power the upcoming models. The new system will be combined with a next-generation platform and a newly-developed electric AWD drive unit. Honda will also work on improving the fuel efficiency of the next-gen e:HEV model by 10 percent.



Hondas other focus is to reduce costs with key components such as batteries and motors with various initiatives, including co-creation activities with suppliers, further improvement of production efficiency and commonization of more parts and components. The carmaker aims to reduce the cost of the next-gen hybrid system by more than 50 percent compared to the hybrid system installed in models introduced in 2018, and by more than 30% compared to the hybrid system introduced in 2023 in current models.



For North America, where hybrids are very popular, Honda will develop a hybrid system for large-sized vehicles, featuring powerful driving performance and high towing capability. The carmaker aims to add this system to models that will launch in the second half of the current decade.



Honda is also working on its next-generation ADAS systems, which assist the driver with vehicle operations like acceleration and steering throughout the entire driving route, whether on expressways or surface roads, to the destination the driver inputs on the navigation system. The next-gen ADAS will feature in EV and HEV models that Honda will launch in North America and Japan around 2027.



Honda will launch 13 next-generation HEV models globally, over four years starting in 2027. The first-gen O series EV models will launch in the market next year. Both EVs and HEVs will feature the new H mark 2027 onwards, symbolizing Hondas transformation of its automobile business.



Link to Team BHP news Japanese carmaker Honda has decided to make changes to its EV strategy due to slowing demand globally for electric vehicles. This was announced by Global CEO Toshihiro Mibe during the 2025 Honda Business Briefing.Honda said that its global sales ratio in 2030 is expected to fall below the 30 percent mark, a figure it had previously announced. On the other hand, the demand for models is high. Hence, Honda will launch new hybrid models to the market from 2027 onwards. These new models will play a key role during the transition period toward the popularization of EVs and further enhance its HEV lineup. With the steady execution of this realignment, by 2030, Honda will strive to increase total automobile sales volume to above the current level of 3.6 million units, with a HEV sales target of 2.2 million units at the core.Honda is also working on advancing its original two-motor hybrid system, e:HEV hybrid system, and platforms in all aspects. This will power the upcoming models. The new system will be combined with a next-generation platform and a newly-developed electric AWD drive unit. Honda will also work on improving the fuel efficiency of the next-gen e:HEV model by 10 percent.Hondas other focus is to reduce costs with key components such as batteries and motors with various initiatives, including co-creation activities with suppliers, further improvement of production efficiency and commonization of more parts and components. The carmaker aims to reduce the cost of the next-gen hybrid system by more than 50 percent compared to the hybrid system installed in models introduced in 2018, and by more than 30% compared to the hybrid system introduced in 2023 in current models.For North America, where hybrids are very popular, Honda will develop a hybrid system for large-sized vehicles, featuring powerful driving performance and high towing capability. The carmaker aims to add this system to models that will launch in the second half of the current decade.Honda is also working on its next-generation ADAS systems, which assist the driver with vehicle operations like acceleration and steering throughout the entire driving route, whether on expressways or surface roads, to the destination the driver inputs on the navigation system. The next-gen ADAS will feature in EV and HEV models that Honda will launch in North America and Japan around 2027.Honda will launch 13 next-generation HEV models globally, over four years starting in 2027. The first-gen O series EV models will launch in the market next year. Both EVs and HEVs will feature the new H mark 2027 onwards, symbolizing Hondas transformation of its automobile business. Last edited by Dippy : 21st May 2025 at 12:39 .
Rumor mill: Remember Samsung's tri-fold smartphone that made headlines at the start of the year? The device, which can unfold into what is essentially a 9.96-inch tablet, was always expected to carry a hefty price tag. According to a new claim, it could be up to $3,500  and not available in the US.

Samsung's G Fold features a fairly standard 6.49-inch outer display in its folded mode, but can stretch to almost 10 inches when fully opened.

With Samsung's Z Fold 6 priced at close to $2,000, an even bigger handset with yet another folding section is going to add to that already high amount. The latest rumors say that it will start at $3,000 and go up to $3,500, depending on what specs buyers choose.

It was originally reported that Samsung will repeat what it does with the current Fold series and make the G Fold in limited numbers  with their high prices and lower yields for flexible OLED panels, foldables make up just 3-5% of Samsung's phone output.

While it's estimated that fewer than five million Galaxy Z Fold/Flip 6 phones are produced each quarter, the G Fold could be limited to just 300,000 units.

US tech fans with deep pockets craving a G Fold may have to import one. It's believed that Samsung will launch the device in only two markets: the company's home country of South Korea and China. It's possible that Samsung could eventually bring the G Fold to other markets, including the US, but that might depend on the perceived demand.

Galaxy Tri-fold all set to launch in Q3 this year



Samsung is only launching it in 2 markets : South Korea & China



Limited quantities with a price between $3000 - 3500  Yogesh Brar (@heyitsyogesh) May 21, 2025

Samsung won't be the first company to release a tri-fold phone. Huawei has the Mate XT Ultimate, which costs $2,800, has two hinges, and reaches 10.2 inches when unfolded.

The Samsung Galaxy G Fold is rumored to launch around the same time as the Galaxy Z Fold and Flip 7 in Q3. With the tri-fold being made in such limited quantities and available in only two markets, don't expect it to be announced at the Fold/Flip Unpacked event; the G Fold will likely have its own dedicated event at a different time.
What just happened? A judge has ruled that the lawsuit against Google and Character.ai over claims the latter's chatbot caused a 14-year-old's suicide can go ahead. The boy's mother, who brought the suit, says her son became addicted to the service and emotionally attached to a chatbot based on the personality of Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen.

In October, Megan Garcia sued Character.ai and Google, claiming they were responsible for the suicide of her son, Sewell Setzer III.

Character.ai lets users chat with AI-powered "personalities" based on fictional characters or real people, living or dead. Setzer had become obsessed with a bot based on Daenerys Targaryen, texting "Dany" constantly and spending hours alone in his room talking to it, according to Garcia's complaint.

The suit says that Setzer repeatedly expressed thoughts about suicide to the bot. The chatbot asked him if he had devised a plan for killing himself. Setzer admitted that he had but that he did not know if it would succeed or cause him great pain. The chatbot allegedly told him, "That's not a reason not to go through with it."

The companies had tried to argue that the case should be dismissed for numerous reasons, including claims that the chatbots' output was constitutionally protected free speech. But US District Judge Anne Conway said they failed to prove these arguments.

Character.ai's founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, who are named in the suit, worked at Google before launching the company. Google rehired the founders  as well as the research team  at Character.ai in August 2024. The deal grants Google a non-exclusive license to Character.ai's technology.

Garcia said that Google had contributed to the development of Character.ai's technology, something the company denies. Google said it only has a licensing agreement with Character.ai, does not own the startup, and does not maintain an ownership stake. But the judge still rejected Google's request to find that it could not be held liable.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda emphasized that Google and Character.ai are "entirely separate" and that Google "did not create, design, or manage Character.ai's app or any component part of it."

Garcia said Character.ai targeted her son with "anthropomorphic, hypersexualized, and frighteningly realistic experiences." She added that the chatbot was programmed to misrepresent itself as "a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell's desire to no longer live outside." The chatbot allegedly told the boy it loved him and engaged in sexual conversations with him.

The complaint states that Garcia took her son's phone away after he got in trouble at school. She found a message to "Daenerys" that read, "What if I told you I could come home right now?"

The chatbot responded with, "[P]lease do, my sweet king." Sewell shot himself with his stepfather's pistol "seconds" later, the lawsuit said.

Character.ai introduced several changes after the suit was revealed last year, including changes to certain models for minors, new disclaimers, and notifications when users have been on the platform for an hour.
Cutting corners: Adobe customers have a choice: pay more for enhanced AI features, accept a stripped-down Standard plan, or consider leaving the Adobe ecosystem altogether. With the June deadline approaching, subscribers must weigh their options carefully.

Adobe has announced sweeping changes to its Creative Cloud subscription plans, introducing a new pricing structure that will take effect in North America next month.

The company's latest offering, Creative Cloud Pro, will replace the popular All Apps plan for new and existing subscribers starting June 17, 2025. While Adobe touts expanded features and a stronger emphasis on artificial intelligence, many users will find the changes less than favorable.

Under the new structure, Creative Cloud Pro promises access to the full suite of Adobe's creative tools. Subscribers will get more than 20 desktop applications, including industry standards like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, as well as premium versions of Adobe's mobile and web-based apps.

A central selling point of Creative Cloud Pro is its focus on generative AI. Subscribers will receive unlimited AI credits  an upgrade from the 1,000 credits per month previously available under the All Apps plan. This move signals Adobe's intention to double down on AI-powered features across its ecosystem.

However, the expanded capabilities come at a cost. The new Pro plan is $69.99 per month for individuals, a $10 increase over the outgoing All Apps plan. Existing subscribers will be automatically switched to the Pro plan on June 17, and the higher price will be reflected in their next billing cycle.

Importantly, the shift to the Pro plan will happen automatically for existing subscribers on June 17, meaning users will see the higher price on their next bill unless they change their subscription. This automatic migration leaves many feeling cornered, especially given Adobe's reputation for frequent price hikes and its dominant position in the creative software market.

For those looking to avoid the price increase, Adobe is also offering a new Creative Cloud "Standard" plan at $54.99 per month. While this option is slightly less expensive, it comes with significant trade-offs. Standard plan subscribers will lose access to premium mobile features in apps like Adobe Express, Lightroom Mobile, and Photoshop Mobile.

Notably, the monthly AI credits you used to get with the "All apps" plan will drop from 1,000 to just 25 credits. Advanced AI tools, such as Firefly's generative video and audio features will be reserved exclusively for Pro users.

While these changes currently affect only subscribers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, Adobe's track record suggests the new pricing model will likely expand to other regions. Users outside North America may have a brief window to explore alternatives before the changes reach them.

Adobe's dominance in the creative software market has often left users with few alternatives. However, this latest price hike and restructuring may prompt some to look elsewhere and explore open-source or non-Adobe creative tools.
Maintaining seamless server operation is not only essential but also crucial for companies in different sectors like healthcare, law, finance, government offices, and others. Pulseway steps in with an innovative, mobile-first platform allowing you to monitor, manage, and control your virtual environments and servers from almost anywhere.

Automated monitoring and real-time management features in Pulseway help to maintain server availability by themselves. You immediately view Active Directory, IIS, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, VMware, Hyper-V, and more, enabling you to find and fix problems before they become crises.

Pulseway provides IT professionals with the tools they need to act fast, perform effectively, and remain secure, whether they oversee a small number of servers or a complete corporate infrastructure. From running SQL queries and maintaining Active Directory to supervising VMware vSphere and Hyper-V systems, Pulseway is meant to expand to meet your needs.

Let's examine more closely the characteristics that make Pulseway one of the best server management systems for 2025.

Key Features of Pulseway Server Management

VMware vSphere Monitoring

Pulseway's VMware vSphere server module provides a full, real-time insight into your virtual cloud. Whether you're managing 10 hypervisors or thousands, performance remains rock solid.

Manage vCenter and ESXi Hypervisors : Monitor your full vSphere environment or standalone ESXi hypervisors without complicated firewall configurations or VPN setups.

: Monitor your full vSphere environment or standalone ESXi hypervisors without complicated firewall configurations or VPN setups. Manage Snapshots : Create or revert snapshots instantly from your smartphone or tablet.

: Create or revert snapshots instantly from your smartphone or tablet. Receive vCenter Alarms : Get real-time alerts to tackle performance issues proactively.

: Get real-time alerts to tackle performance issues proactively. Manage Virtual Machines : Restart, log off, or power down guest operating systems remotely.

: Restart, log off, or power down guest operating systems remotely. Live View : Watch the VM's live console feed to monitor system errors or user activities.

: Watch the VM's live console feed to monitor system errors or user activities. Event Logs: Access system logs in real-time to detect and solve issues quickly.

With granular navigation through data centers, clusters, and hypervisors, Pulseway ensures you never miss a beat, no matter how complex your environment.

Hyper-V Monitoring and Management

Pulseway transforms how you manage Microsoft Hyper-V infrastructures.

Monitor Replication Health : Real-time replication status indicators let you address issues before they escalate.

: Real-time replication status indicators let you address issues before they escalate. Take Control : Pause, reset, shut down, or turn off virtual machines easily from your mobile device.

: Pause, reset, shut down, or turn off virtual machines easily from your mobile device. Manage Replication : Execute commands like Initiate Failover or Reverse Replication directly.

: Execute commands like Initiate Failover or Reverse Replication directly. Live View : Watch VM screens in real-time to detect blue screens, inactivity, or policy breaches.

: Watch VM screens in real-time to detect blue screens, inactivity, or policy breaches. Easy Navigation: See an eagle's eye view of your entire Hyper-V environment.

With Pulseway, Hyper-V management becomes intuitive, mobile, and incredibly fast.

Active Directory Monitoring and Management

Pulseway makes Active Directory (AD) management mobile and effortless.

Unified Management : Instantly access the entire Active Directory Forest after connecting to a domain controller.

: Instantly access the entire Active Directory Forest after connecting to a domain controller. Fast Navigation : Quickly search for users or groups without digging through complex hierarchies.

: Quickly search for users or groups without digging through complex hierarchies. User Monitoring : Get real-time user status updates and lockout notifications.

: Get real-time user status updates and lockout notifications. User Administration : Enable, disable, or reset passwords with a simple tap.

: Enable, disable, or reset passwords with a simple tap. User Group Management: Add or remove users from security groups easily.

Whether you're resetting a password or troubleshooting a user lockout, Pulseway gives you fast, reliable access to critical AD functions.

Microsoft Exchange Monitoring

Pulseway enhances your ability to manage Microsoft Exchange environments.

Monitor Mailboxes, Queues, and Databases : Stay informed with real-time notifications.

: Stay informed with real-time notifications. One-Tap Health Tests : Quickly assess server health and performance.

: Quickly assess server health and performance. Manage Transport Settings : Fine-tune your Exchange environment remotely.

: Fine-tune your Exchange environment remotely. Replication Queue Monitoring: Set custom limits and stay ahead of potential replication issues.

By offering proactive insights and actionable notifications, Pulseway helps you deliver a seamless email experience for your users.

SQL Server Management

Database management becomes simple and efficient with PPulseway's SQL Server module.

Run Queries : Execute SQL queries remotely with ease.

: Execute SQL queries remotely with ease. Browse Tables : View and manage table data on the go.

: View and manage table data on the go. View Logs : Quickly identify slow-running queries or database bottlenecks.

: Quickly identify slow-running queries or database bottlenecks. Deadlock Monitoring: Stay informed about database deadlocks before they impact application performance.

This level of visibility ensures your databases stay optimized and available at all times.

What Makes Pulseway Stand Out from Competitors?

Pulseway isn't just another server monitoring solutionit's a complete IT operations platform designed with mobility, simplicity, and scalability at its core.

Real-Time Mobile Management : Unlike many traditional solutions, Pulseway brings full server and VM management directly to your smartphone or tablet.

: Unlike many traditional solutions, Pulseway brings full server and VM management directly to your smartphone or tablet. Seamless Integrations : From Active Directory to VMware, Hyper-V, and StorageCraft, Pulseway unifies critical IT systems under one intuitive dashboard.

: From Active Directory to VMware, Hyper-V, and StorageCraft, Pulseway unifies critical IT systems under one intuitive dashboard. Proactive Alerts : Real-time notifications allow you to detect and resolve issues before they impact users.

: Real-time notifications allow you to detect and resolve issues before they impact users. Ease of Use : Clean interfaces, fast navigation, and powerful remote capabilities mean less time managing and more time improving operations.

: Clean interfaces, fast navigation, and powerful remote capabilities mean less time managing and more time improving operations. Enterprise-Ready Performance: Whether you're running a small business or a global enterprise, Pulseway scales effortlessly.

In a world where IT needs to move faster than ever, Pulseway empowers teams with the tools to manage, monitor, and actwithout being tied to a desk.

Who Should Buy Pulseway?

Pulseway is an excellent choice for:

IT Administrators and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who want real-time server, VM, and network visibility and control.

who want real-time server, VM, and network visibility and control. Businesses of all sizes need simple yet powerful server monitoring and backup management from anywhere.

need simple yet powerful server monitoring and backup management from anywhere. Organizations leveraging hybrid IT infrastructures combine on-premises servers with virtualized environments like VMware and Hyper-V.

combine on-premises servers with virtualized environments like VMware and Hyper-V. Enterprises focused on high availability and uptime , requiring proactive management, notifications, and remote troubleshooting.

, requiring proactive management, notifications, and remote troubleshooting. IT teams supporting remote workforces, where quick, mobile management of servers and backups is essential.

Whether you're a solo IT admin or part of a large, distributed team, Pulseway can help you streamline operations, reduce downtime, and boost efficiency.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Comprehensive Server and Service Monitoring : Supports Active Directory, Exchange, SQL Server, IIS, VMware, Hyper-V, and more.

: Supports Active Directory, Exchange, SQL Server, IIS, VMware, Hyper-V, and more. Full Mobile Access : Manage your entire IT infrastructure directly from a mobile app.

: Manage your entire IT infrastructure directly from a mobile app. Powerful Automation : Set triggers and automate responses to minimize downtime.

: Set triggers and automate responses to minimize downtime. Instant Notifications : Receive real-time alerts about server health, backups, and user management events.

: Receive real-time alerts about server health, backups, and user management events. Seamless Integrations : Easy to connect with SCOM, StorageCraft, and cloud environments.

: Easy to connect with SCOM, StorageCraft, and cloud environments. User-Centric Design : Intuitive interface minimizes training time and speeds up deployment.

: Intuitive interface minimizes training time and speeds up deployment. Advanced Virtualization Management: Full control over VMware vSphere and Hyper-V from anywhere.

Cons

Limited Depth in Highly Complex On-Prem Infrastructure Management : It may lack the depth in managing complex, hybrid, or heavily customized on-premise infrastructures. Things like Advanced SNMP trap processing, Deep network topology mapping, and Layered dependency modeling.

: It may lack the depth in managing complex, hybrid, or heavily customized on-premise infrastructures. Things like Advanced SNMP trap processing, Deep network topology mapping, and Layered dependency modeling. Windows-Centric Bias in Advanced Features: While Pulseway supports Linux and macOS, many advanced server features are Windows-first, especially when it comes to Patch management, Service control, System-specific scripting, etc.

Conclusion: The Best Server Management System

Pulseway offers all you need to run a durable, responsive, and effective IT operationreal-time server insights, virtual machine administration, Active Directory integration, intelligent notifications, and seamless automation.

Pulseway helps you avoid problems rather than only responding to them with its proactive alerting system and mobile-first approach. Whether your company is a managed services provider, an emerging business, or an enterprise IT department, Pulseway provides the capabilities to track, control, and master your IT environment anywhere, at any time.

Pulseway is the partner you have been looking for if you are ready to elevate your server administration.
As the volume of global data surges, projected to exceed 180 zettabytes by 2025, a paradigm shift is underway in enterprise data analytics. Autonomous AI agents are emerging as a pivotal force, transforming data operations from traditional retrospective analysis into proactive intelligence systems.

Mahesh Kumar Goyal, a distinguished Data Architect and a keynote speaker at the recent Springer International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends in Engineering and Management (ICETTEM 2025) at the University of Grenoble, France, where he was honored with the 2025 Amity Business Excellence Award, is at the forefront of this revolution. Renowned for his pioneering work in integrating neuromorphic computing approaches into enterprise data systems, Mr. Goyal offers critical insights into the transformative capabilities of advanced AI agents. The ICETTEM 2025 conference commenced with the presence of esteemed dignitaries, including Prof. (Dr.) Gurinder Singh, Group Vice Chancellor, Amity Universities, was marked by the organizational expertise of Dr. Vivek Kumar, Conference Convener.

The Transformative Power of Advanced AI Agents

According to Mr. Goyal, these sophisticated AI agents represent a significant leap beyond traditional automation and machine learning. He describes their advanced capabilities as enabling "distributed cognitive systems" that bring intelligence directly to the data source. Leveraging foundation models with unprecedented parameter counts and specialized reinforcement learning techniques, these agents can comprehend nuanced context within vast and diverse datasets, spanning real-time streams, exabyte-scale data lakes, and structured warehouses. Their multimodal understanding, continuous self-supervised learning, and causal reasoning abilities allow for intelligent decision-making with minimal human intervention. Notably, breakthroughs in neuro-symbolic AI provide explainable intelligence, a crucial factor for widespread enterprise adoption.

Mr. Goyal emphasizes that these AI agents are uniquely positioned to address the critical challenges of modern data analytics, particularly the sheer scale, speed, and complexity of data, compounded by a growing global talent gap. Architecturally designed for this reality through "adaptive mesh intelligence," they excel at continuous, high-dimensional pattern recognition in real-time data, correlating findings with historical context to identify subtle anomalies and emerging trends previously invisible to human analysts or less advanced tools. Impressive results, including significant reductions in false positive alerts and increased anomaly detection sensitivity, underscore their effectiveness in moving beyond descriptive analytics to predictive and prescriptive intelligence.

In a complex data scenario such as large-scale manufacturing with thousands of IoT sensors, specialized agents operating across distributed architectures can collaboratively detect subtle equipment anomalies, cross-reference this information with production schedules and inventory, predict potential downstream impacts using causal inference models, and autonomously recommend or execute actions to minimize disruption. This entire process occurs in minutes, preventing costly downtime, and the system continuously refines its models through federated learning.

Business Intelligence to Business Cognition

This level of AI agent capability represents a fundamental departure from even advanced traditional BI and analytics platforms. It signifies a transition from reactive "business intelligence" to proactive "business cognition." Unlike traditional tools that visualize past data based on human queries, advanced AI agents operate on semantic knowledge graphs and dynamic memory networks, designed to understand the "why," "what's next," and "what should be done." Their ability to dynamically formulate analytical approaches, continuously learn, operate across diverse data models, and initiate actions through API-driven orchestration marks a significant evolution. The latest agents can even autonomously generate and test hypotheses and create synthetic data for "what-if" scenario modeling.

This evolution profoundly impacts the roles of data teams. Mr. Goyal explains that AI agents take on the burden of routine tasks like monitoring, data wrangling, and initial analysis, freeing data professionals to focus on strategic activities such as designing sophisticated data architectures, ensuring governance, refining analytical models, and deriving deeper insights. New roles like "AI Agent Architects," "Prompt Engineers," and "Cognitive System Managers" are emerging. The focus shifts from report building to orchestrating intelligent data ecosystems, fostering a human-AI collaboration model that has demonstrated significant productivity improvements.

The Future of Enterprise Data Analytics

Looking to the future, the world anticipates increasingly autonomous and collaborative multi-agent systems forming "cognitive data fabrics." He predicts widespread adoption of specialized agent networks for data discovery, preparation, analysis, and action within the next 1824 months. Advances in large language models and multimodal AI will enable conversational analytics, while the emergence of "anticipatory analytics" will see agents proactively identifying opportunities and risks. Research into quantum-inspired algorithms holds the potential for exponential increases in processing complex models.

Mr. Goyal concludes, "We are witnessing a paradigm shift where data platforms, augmented by advanced AI agent networks, become active cognitive partners in business intelligence and decision-making. Organizations that embrace this transition from passive data repositories to dynamic, intelligent data ecosystems will define the next generation of market leaders." His insights, gained through years of pioneering work and presented at prestigious forums like ICETTEM 2025, provide a clear roadmap for organizations seeking to leverage the full potential of their data resources in today's complex business environment.

About Mahesh Kumar Goyal

Mahesh Kumar Goyal is a distinguished Data Architect and recognized thought leader in the field of enterprise data systems. His pioneering work in integrating advanced AI and neuromorphic computing into data architectures has positioned him as a sought-after expert and keynote speaker. His recent recognition with the 2025 Amity Business Excellence Award at the Springer International Conference on Emerging Technology Trends in Engineering and Management (ICETTEM 2025) underscores his significant contributions to the field. His innovative approaches are transforming how organizations leverage data for strategic advantage.
We recently reported that Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, was a victim of a cybersecurity incident involving a group of overseas customer support agents stealing sensitive customer data to extort the company for $20 million. The company has now revealed that this incident has affected around 69,461 customers.

In data breach notifications filed with the Office of Maines Attorney General on Tuesday, Coinbase said, a small number of individuals, performing services for Coinbase at our overseas retail support locations, improperly accessed customer information.

Breach in Detail

The breach involved cybercriminals bribing overseas customer support agents to access sensitive user information, including customer names, email and postal addresses, masked Social Security numbers (last 4 digits only), masked bank account numbers and some bank account identifiers government ID images, account data balance snapshots and transaction history and limited corporate data. However, no passwords, private keys, or users funds were part of the breach.

The attackers demanded a $20 million ransom in exchange for the stolen data. However, Coinbase refused to comply and instead offered a $20 million reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the attackers.

These instances of such personnel accessing data without business need were independently detected by the Companys security monitoring in the previous months. Upon discovery, the Company had immediately terminated the personnel involved and also implemented heightened fraud-monitoring protections and warned customers whose information was potentially accessed in order to prevent misuse of any compromised information, reads the filing with the SEC.

Since receipt of the email, the Company has assessed the email to be credible, and has concluded that these prior instances of improper data access were part of a single campaign (the Incident) that succeeded in taking data from internal systems. The Company has not paid the threat actors demand and is cooperating with law enforcement in the investigation of this Incident.

Estimations on the Way

While no customer funds were reported stolen, the company estimates remediation and customer refunds could range between $180 million and $400 million. However, the full extent of the impact is still being assessed.

Coinbase will voluntarily reimburse retail customers who mistakenly sent funds to the scammer as a direct result of this incident prior to the date of this post, following a review to confirm the facts, the company wrote in a blog post dated May 15.

Coinbase advises customers to stay vigilant, as scammers may impersonate their employees. The company reiterated it will never ask for sensitive information like passwords or 2FA codes, or call or text users to transfer funds to a specific or new address, account, vault, or a safe wallet.
'Serious' accident at N. Korea warship launch ceremony: state media



Seoul, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



A major accident occurred at a launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un saying the mishap was a "criminal act".

At a ceremony to launch a new 5,000-ton destroyer in the eastern port city of Chongjin on Wednesday "a serious accident occurred," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness" during the launch, which was being observed by Kim, KCNA said there was a mishap which left "some sections of the warship's bottom crushed".

It said the accident managed to "destroy the balance of the warship."

Kim watched the entire incident and declared it a "criminal act caused by absolute carelessness," warning it "could not be tolerated."

He said the "irresponsible errors" of officials responsible would be "dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month".

Pyongyang unveiled another 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon last month.

At the time, state media ran images of Kim attending a ceremony with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor.

North Korea claimed the vessel was equipped with the "most powerful weapons", and that it would "enter into operation early next year".

Some analysts said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles -- although North Korea has not proven it has the ability to miniaturise its nukes.



- Russian connection? -



The South Korean military has said the Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian help -- possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Kyiv.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said the newly built warship may also have been constructed with Russian assistance.

Chongjin, the North Korean city where the launch ceremony was held, is conveniently close to Russia's Vladivostok port, he noted.

"It's also likely that the projected timeline for the vessel -- including when assembly would be completed and the ship launched -- was shared with the Russian side," he told AFP.

"It appears the dock was hastily constructed, and multiple issues may have arisen during the shipbuilding process.

"With today's announcement, Pyongyang seems to be signalling not only to its own people, but also to the Russian side."



- Strengthening the navy -



North Korea confirmed in April for the first time it had deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow in the Ukraine war.

Moscow and Pyongyang recently announced that they had started building the first road bridge linking the two neighbours.

North Korea also launched a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in violation of UN sanctions.

Experts have long warned that the nuclear-armed North may be testing weapons for export to Russia for use against Ukraine.

In March, Kim inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, asserting that "radically" boosting the navy was a key part of Pyongyang's defensive strategy.

Kim called at the time for the modernisation of the country's surface and underwater naval forces, including the development of warships.

Pyongyang has previously claimed to be developing underwater nuclear attack drones, which could unleash a "radioactive tsunami", but analysts have questioned whether it actually has such a weapon.

Washington -- Seoul's key security ally -- has in recent years ramped up joint military exercises and increased the presence of strategic US assets, such as an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine, in the region to deter the North.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear weapons state and routinely denounces joint US-South Korea drills as rehearsals for invasion.
'Serious' accident at North Korea warship launch: state media



Seoul, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



A major accident occurred at the launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer, state media reported Thursday, with leader Kim Jong Un calling the mishap a "criminal act".

At a ceremony to launch a new 5,000-ton vessel in the eastern port city of Chongjin on Wednesday "a serious accident occurred", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

South Korea's military said North Korea also fired "multiple unidentified cruise missiles" on Thursday, which were detected near the North's South Hamgyong province after being "fired toward the East Sea", also known as the Sea of Japan.

Blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness" for the destroyer's botched launch -- which was observed by Kim -- KCNA said there was a mishap which left "some sections of the warship's bottom crushed".

It said the accident managed to "destroy the balance of the warship".

Kim watched the entire incident and declared it a "criminal act caused by absolute carelessness", warning it "could not be tolerated".

He said the "irresponsible errors" of officials responsible would be "dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month".

South Korea's military said US and Seoul intelligence authorities assess that North Korea's "side-launch attempt" of the ship failed.

"The side-launch method used in this case is no longer employed by South Korea's military," Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

The vessel is currently listing in the water, Lee said, and based on its size and scale, it is believed to be similarly equipped to the 5,000-ton destroyer-class warship Choe Hyon, which North Korea unveiled last month.

Last month, Pyongyang's state media ran images of Kim attending a launching ceremony of Choe Hyon with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor.

North Korea claimed the vessel was equipped with the "most powerful weapons", and that it would "enter into operation early next year".

Some analysts said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads -- although North Korea has not proven it has the ability to miniaturise its atomic arsenal.



- Russian connection? -



The South Korean military has said the Choe Hyon could have been developed with Russian help -- possibly in exchange for Pyongyang deploying thousands of troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies, said the warship involved in Wednesday's accident may have also been constructed with Russian assistance.

Chongjin, the North Korean city where the launch ceremony was held, is close to Russia's Vladivostok port, he noted.

"It's also likely that the projected timeline for the vessel -- including when assembly would be completed and the ship launched -- was shared with the Russian side," he told AFP.

"It appears the dock was hastily constructed, and multiple issues may have arisen during the shipbuilding process.

"With today's announcement, Pyongyang seems to be signalling not only to its own people, but also to the Russian side."



- Strengthening the navy -



North Korea confirmed in April for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow in the Ukraine war.

Moscow and Pyongyang recently announced that they had started building the first road bridge linking the two countries.

North Korea also launched a flurry of ballistic missiles last year in violation of UN sanctions.

In March, Kim inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine, asserting that "radically" boosting the navy was a key part of Pyongyang's defensive strategy.

Kim called at the time for the modernisation of the country's surface and underwater naval forces, including the development of warships.

Pyongyang has previously claimed to be developing underwater nuclear attack drones, which could unleash a "radioactive tsunami", but analysts have questioned whether it actually has such a weapon.

Washington -- Seoul's key security ally -- has in recent years ramped up joint military exercises and increased the presence of strategic US assets in the region to deter the North, such as an aircraft carrier and a nuclear-powered submarine.

Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear weapons state and routinely denounces joint US-South Korea drills as rehearsals for invasion.
6.1-magnitude quake hits off Greek island of Crete: USGS



Athens, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



A 6.1-magnitude earthquake rattled the Greek island of Crete on Thursday, the US Geological Survey said, with no major damage immediately reported.

The strong quake struck 82 kilometres (51 miles) northeast of Crete's capital Heraklion at 0319 GMT at a depth of 68 kilometres (42 miles), the USGS said.

AFP journalists said it was felt as far away as Athens and Egypt.

State television ERT said many residents in the Cretan regions of Rethymno and Lasithi were woken by the quake just after 6:00 am and quickly exited their homes as a precaution.

Local media showed supermarket items strewn on floors, and reported minor rockslides on rural roads.

The tremor "occurred at a great depth and there is no particular reason for residents to worry," Athanassios Ganas, general director of Research at the Geodynamics Institute of the National Observatory of Athens, told ERT.

State news agency ANA said fire department units in Crete had been placed on general alert, with vehicles patrolling to assess the situation.

The mayor of Heraklion, Alexis Kalokerinos, told ERT that there were no particular problems in the city and that closing schools would not be necessary.

The quake struck just over a week after a 6.1-magnitude tremor hit near the island of Kasos east of Crete, and was felt in the outlying area.

The region, popular with tourists, has been hit with multiple tremors in recent months, prompting schools in Santorini and neighbouring islands to temporarily close.

Thousands of earthquakes, mainly of low magnitude, have been recorded since January between the islands of Santorini, Amorgos, Ios and Anafi in the Cyclades group southeast of the Greek mainland.

They have not caused casualties or significant damage.

Located where the African and Anatolian tectonic plates converge, the Aegean Sea is often hit by quakes.

But the region had not experienced a phenomenon of such magnitude since records began in 1964, experts say.
Massive floods strand over 50,000 in eastern Australia



Sydney, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Record floods stranded more than 50,000 people in eastern Australia on Thursday, killing three as a muddy tide swept through towns and swollen rivers cut off roads.

Police have pulled three bodies from rising floodwaters on the Mid North Coast, a river-braided region of rugged hills and fertile valleys about 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Sydney.

Authorities launched a major search-and-rescue mission as people clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges to escape fast-moving flash floods.

The storms have dumped more than half a year's worth of rain over just three days, the government weather bureau said, smashing flood-height records in some areas.

"We are seeing levels in local tributaries, creeks and rivers that we haven't seen since 1920," New South Wales (NSW) state premier Chris Minns told reporters.

"Many people will have never seen this level of inundation or flooding in their communities."

The town of Kempsey, a farming hub on the banks of the Macleay River, had been cut off with little warning, Mayor Kinne Ring told AFP.

"You often think of rain on a tin roof as relaxing, but at the moment it is deafening and horrible," Ring said.

"The downpours are torrential and every time it rains, you wonder what is going to happen next."

Ring said more than 20,000 people were isolated in her local government area alone.

About 140 kilometres (85 miles) south in the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the "gut-wrenching" flood was among the worst he had seen.

"It is pretty tough, we've had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on," he told AFP.

"We are reliving it every second -- hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren."

Authorities said more than 50,000 people were cut off, with some rivers still to reach peak levels late on Thursday.

An elderly couple climbed on to the roof of their car to escape a fast-rising flash flood before a rescue helicopter winched them to safety, NSW police in Taree said in a statement.

Others sought sanctuary on a raised highway bridge before they were spotted and rescued by a navy Seahawk chopper.

Locals spotted dead cows washing up on beaches after swollen rivers swept them from their pastures inland.

The government has declared the emergency a natural disaster, unlocking greater resources for affected areas.

Police said they were still searching for one person reported missing.



- 'Abnormally warm' -



Flood modelling expert Mahdi Sedighkia said the unfolding disaster provided "compelling evidence" showing how climate change could affect regional rainfall patterns.

"These events demonstrate that our understanding of flood probability -- based on past hydrological studies -- is no longer adequate in the face of present-day climate realities," said the Australian National University's Sedighkia.

Swaths of Australia from the arid outback to the tropical coast have been pummelled by wild weather in recent months.

The oceans surrounding Australia have been "abnormally warm" in recent months, according to the weather bureau.

Warmer seas evaporate more moisture into the atmosphere, which can eventually lead to more intense rains.

Although difficult to link to specific disasters, scientists warn that climate change is already fuelling more extreme weather patterns.

"I don't think there is a question that climate change is having a significant impact on weather events right across the world," Australian Emergency Management Minister Kristy McBain told reporters.

"In Australia, we're not immune to that. We're seeing more devastating events like this happen more frequently."

About 2,500 emergency workers have been deployed to the region, alongside rescue boats, a fleet of helicopters and hundreds of search drones.

Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Steve Bernasconi said some towns had recorded more than half a metre (1.6 feet) of rain in the space of three days.

But he said rain was expected to slowly taper off from late Thursday night as the weather system moved south.
EU parliament backs carbon border tax exemption



Brussels, Belgium, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly voted in favour of exempting small firms from the EU's carbon border tax rules as part of a broader effort to cut administrative burdens for companies.

Lawmakers backed a plan to exclude 90 percent of importers from the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as they are responsible for a negligible part of the emissions targeted by the levy.

"This approach enables us to simplify matters for companies without dismantling or weakening the CBAM," said centre-left European lawmaker Antonio Decaro.

Adopted in 2022, the CBAM imposes a carbon price on imports of goods such as steel, aluminium and cement from countries with lower environmental standards.

In practice, the importer will have to declare the emissions directly linked to the production process, and if these exceed the European standard, acquire an "emission certificate" at the price of CO2 in the European Union.

A test period began in October 2023 before the law's full entry into force in 2026.

But on Thursday lawmakers voted 564-20 for amendments put forward by the European Commission to apply the levy only to firms importing goods with a minimum mass threshold of 50 tonnes per year.

This would exempt small importers at little environmental cost as 99 percent of total CO2 emissions from targeted imports would still be covered by the rules, according to Brussels.

Parliament will not start negotiations with member states to finalise the text.

The move comes amid a broader EU drive to slash red tape seen as hindering businesses, amid slow growth and international trade tensions.
Tariff wars will hamper climate efforts: COP30 CEO



Panama City, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Tariff wars will hinder trade in green technologies such as solar panels and electric vehicles, and hamper the fight against climate change, says Ana Toni, CEO of the UN's COP30 climate conference.

COP30 will be held in November in the Amazonian city of Belem in Brazil, where Toni serves as national secretary for climate change.

She spoke to AFP at a pre-COP meeting of Latin American countries in Panama City. Here are excerpts from her interview, edited for length and clarity:



Q: Will the tariff standoff sparked by US President Donald Trump's imposition of higher import duties harm the fight against climate change?

A: Trade is a very important economic instrument and we need to use trade to help countries to mitigate or to adapt as quickly as possible (to the effects of climate change).

Many of our electric buses (in Latin America) are coming from China or other continents, so that is the good, low-carbon (technology) that we needed to foster and to support.



Q: What does it mean for the world that Trump plans to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement?

A: The American people are not safer because their president has decided to leave the Paris agreement. Latin Americans are not safer because President Trump has done what he has done. We saw what happened in Los Angeles -- that fire that destroyed so many houses, we can see now what they are going through.

I think they (the US administration) will regret (it) but let us work with the American institutions and the people in the US that want to continue the action on climate change.

Climate change is a war... every day people are dying from overheating, from drought, from floods.

The molecules of carbon do not have a passport. They don't understand our geopolitical differences. We cannot say this carbon came from Panama or Brazil or China.

If we don't do this together, in a multilateral setting... we are not going to be able to fight climate change.



Q: How can the region better adapt to the fallout from global warming?

A: Latin America is not waiting for the Western countries, or developed countries, to come and help us. Our leaders know we are a very vulnerable region.

So we have to do something -- both contributing to mitigation (curbing planet-warming emissions) and also working on adaptation (to effects that can no longer be avoided) because many countries are already suffering.

For all countries in Latin America we appreciate and know that only by taking a multilateral approach... we will be able to combat climate change.



Q: What are Latin American countries doing to curb carbon emissions?

A: Only five countries in Latin America now have communicated their new targets for 2035 -- the famous NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions or climate action plans under the Paris Agreement).

So we are hoping that all Latin American countries will come to COP30 with their national contributions, to say that: "Latin America is conscious about their problems but is also part of the solution."

It is in this region that we have an abundance of natural resources, forests, renewable energy, so we are part of the solution but we need to get that new economy going to benefit the people and benefit the planet.



Q: What does Latin America need to make this happen?

A: Latin America is already leading in many areas. For example, in Brazil we are fighting deforestation (of the Amazon) along with other countries.

But it is true that we need support, especially financial, to see if we can go faster in terms of energy transition. The issue of funding will be a very important topic for us at COP30.
Pro-Russian groups spread false claims after Spain floods: report



Madrid, May 22 (AFP) May 22, 2025



Pro-Russian activists sought to portray Spain as "engulfed in chaos" following deadly floods last year, according to a report by the country's national security department released on Thursday.

The October 2024 floods claimed 235 lives nationwide and caused widespread damage. Most of the deaths were in the eastern Valencia region, where popular fury targeted officials in the aftermath.

The "pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation ecosystem" exploited the floods with opportunism to fuel public distrust in state institutions, the annual report said.

It described how activists spread messages claiming that Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government was diverting public funds to support Ukraine after Russia's invasion at the expense of "Spain's real need for aid".

Pro-Russian groups also intensified disinformation campaigns ahead of the European Parliament elections in June 2024 in an effort to undermine trust in the electoral system, the report said.

Russian intelligence services and allied organisations seek to "increase pre-existing social or political divisions in the target country, undermine its cohesion and, ideally, foster a rapprochement with Russian theses," the report added.

The European Union warned in March that Russia and China were using "massive digital arsenals" to interfere in Western democracies, while their messaging around the Ukraine war had become increasingly aligned.

The EU has grown more concerned about Russian interference as part of what it sees as a broader hybrid campaign from Moscow that includes sabotage attacks to weaken the West.

Brussels imposed sanctions on Russian intelligence operatives in December over the alleged malign activities.

False claims spread rapidly online following Spain's floods, with some posts -- often shared on platforms linked to Russia -- alleging the government was hiding the true number of victims.

Other unfounded reports falsely blamed dam failures for the flooding and warned, without evidence, of contaminated drinking water in the Valencia region.

Against this backdrop, furious locals hurled mud and insults at Sanchez, King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia in November 2024 when they visited one of the worst-hit towns in a startling show of anger.
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Bill Gates has shared a summer reading list featuring books he says inspired his recent memoir, Source Code.

The Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, 69, published his own book in February, in which he opened up about experimenting with cannabis and LSD and revealed he was sent to therapy as a child.

His new list of memoirs that influenced Source Code includes books by Bono, Trevor Noah, Katharine Graham, Nicholas Kristof and Tara Westover.

Gates writes of Surrender, the memoir by the U2 frontman: Im lucky that my parents were super supportive of my interest in computers  but Bonos parents had a very different view of his passion for singing.

He says his parents basically ignored him, which made him try even harder to get their attention. The lack of interest of my father... in his sons voice is not easy to explain, but it might have been crucial. Bono shows a lot of vulnerability in this surprisingly open memoir, writing about hisneed to be needed and how he learned hell never fill his emotional needs by playing for huge crowds.

Bono adapted his memoir into a stage show that was subsequently filmed. The resulting documentary Bono: Stories of Surrender, received a seven-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival last week.

Bill Gates recommends books by Bono, Trevor Noah, Katharine Graham, Nicholas Kristof and Tara Westover for summer 2025 ( Gates Notes )

Gates was also full of praise for Born a Crime by the former Daily Show host, which recounts his experiences growing up as a biracial child in apartheid South Africa, at a time when mixed-race relationships were forbidden.

I also grew up feeling like I didnt quite fit in at timesalthough Trevor has a much stronger claim to the phrase than I do, writes Gates. He was, as the title says, born a crime. In this book, and in his comedy, Trevor uses his outside perspective to his advantage. His outlook transcends borders.

The other books Gates recommends are Personal History by Katharine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post, Chasing Hope by New York Times columnist and journalist Nicholas Kristof and Educated, by Tara Westover, who was raised in a Mormon survivalist home in rural Idaho by parents who believed that doomsday was coming.

Eventually she broke away from her parents, writes Gates of the latter. A process that felt like a much more extreme version of what I went through as a kid, and what I think a lot of people go through.

Last year, Gates told The Independent that he believes billionaires like himself have been allowed to grow too rich.

If I designed the tax system, I would be tens of billion dollars poorer than I am, he said. The tax system could be more progressive without damaging significantly the incentive to do fantastic things.
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Matthew Rhys is about as famous an American as a Welshman can get. The Cardiff-born actor got his big break in a Broadway adaptation of an all-American classic, playing Ben to Kathleen Turners Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. He starred as LAs most famous attorney in HBOs Perry Mason and won over audiences in the US cable hit Brothers & Sisters. He won an Emmy for his most famous role as agent Philip Jennings in the FX espionage drama called what else but The Americans  although to be fair, his character was a KGB spy.

It goes without saying, then, that Rhys does a great Yank accent. So much so that its a shock to hear him speak in the rolling consonants and round vowels of his birthplace when, on arriving for our interview, he asks for a packet of crisps. Im craving salt, he says, smacking his lips. The 50-year-old is out of luck. Theres coffee and fruit, but no Walkers. He sits down, resigned to a crisp-less hour ahead. For what its worth, Rhys himself is so used to playing American that it comes as a surprise whenever he doesnt have to fake it. I cant remember the last time I used my native accent, he laughs.

Hallow Road is an exception. A winding rabbit hole of a film, it sees Rhys play a father  a Welsh father!  whose evening with his wife (Rosamund Pike) is driven off course by a phone call from their teen daughter: shes hit someone while driving in the countryside. The next 80 minutes unfurl almost entirely inside their car as they race to find her.

The film  by British-Iranian director Babak Anvari  throws up several hypothetical questions, such as what lengths would you go to protect your kids? I would 100 per cent go to prison for my child, says Rhys, who shares three children with his wife, the actor Keri Russell. Thats an instinctive answer. I wouldnt even have to think about it. And how far does that grace extend? Would he happily see the inside of a cell for Russell? Yeah he ventures, a knowing smirk spreading across his face. Though only because I know this is going in print.

Hallow Road is a masterclass in tension. What begins as a neat thriller gradually gives way to something murkier and more uncertain, taking its cues from an old Celtic myth  the ghostly kind that Rhys grew up listening to at sleepovers and family gatherings. Rhys plays a dad in survival mode: every thought firing across his face as obvious as a bullet from a barrel. His character is worlds away from a steely Soviet agent operating undercover in Washington. Philip Jennings would know how to get out of this.

Years before he played Jennings, Rhys was up for the role of another spy; the spy  James Bond  before it went to Daniel Craig. I was just one of many who went to Barbara Broccolis offices, he insists now. Would his Bond have been Welsh, I wonder. Well, I like to say Timothy Dalton was Welsh, but he wasnt a very Welsh Bond, says Rhys. And theres still a lot of prejudice, I find, against a Welsh accent  theres always been a greater love for the Irish. With Bond, I think they probably wouldve gone for a toned-down version of Welsh. I would certainly have advocated for it until they told me not to! Does he think the world needs a Welsh Bond? Tell your editor: thats the headline!

The more I speak with Rhys, the more I come to mourn his potential take on 007. He has the requisite charm but, more importantly, an instant familiarity. The kind that would come in handy when trying to convince a stranger of your trustworthiness. He looks the part, too  his serious eyes (A plastic surgeon took one look at me and knew I was Celtic; we have these hooded Eeyore eyes, which are very useful for playing sad) are offset by dark-brown curls and a Superman dimple in his chin.

These days, hes a full-time New Yorker, but Rhys grew up in Cardiff, the son of two schoolteachers. At home they spoke exclusively in Welsh  a tradition that Rhys does his best to uphold. Im teaching my kids as much as theyll listen, he laughs. The eldest is very good because the bugger has been subjected to it the longest. Keeping Welsh alive, God bless him, in a small corner of Brooklyn. It was after he landed a hip-thrusting role as Elvis in a school production that he auditioned for Rada, inspired by a boy in the year above, Ioan Gruffudd, who had just enrolled.

open image in gallery White knuckle ride: Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike are distressed parents in Hallow Road ( Universal Pictures )

After graduation, the parts started rolling in. In an early pinch-me moment, Rhys was cast opposite fellow Welshman Anthony Hopkins in 1999s Titus. I remember he invited me into his trailer, and he gave me three rules to follow: be on time; know your lines; be bold, and greater gods will come to your aid, Rhys says now in a gruff imitation of his hero. He recalls those words as though theyre never far from his mind, tattooed on his very brain.

Next, he landed The Graduate, playing the eponymous, much younger man seduced by Kathleen Turners Mrs Robinson in a production in London. To me, she was the epitome of Hollywood glamour, he says now. Just so cool. Thered be celebrities in the crowd, and theyd go back to her dressing room after the show, and she very kindly invited me too. Nowadays, I suggest, Rhys is part of the A-list pack himself  no invitation necessary. God no, he laughs. Im not that tier. When I go to the theatre, I wouldnt dare ask to go backstage to see the cast.

We have spoken about [marriage], but the timing is never quite right. I should be more romantic, really

Hes being modest, of course. The Americans made him, if not a household name, then surely a household face; at its peak in the 2010s, the spy-thriller brought in 4.7 million viewers per episode. It was praised by critics, received 18 Emmy nominations during its six-season run, and is commonly held up as an example of televisions golden age. More important than any of that, though, is the fact that its where Rhys met Russell  his wife and mother to his children.

In truth, they met once several years before at a kickball party hosted by Jennifer Grey, though Rhys may want to gloss over that initial meet-cute. He sliced open his thumb trying to impress Russell by opening a beer with his hand. He got a second shot when he found himself face-to-face with her at a chemistry read for The Americans. She slapped me, he says simply. The scene, unbeknownst to me, involved a slap and the director told her to really go for it and she hit me so hard. I was in shock; my ears were ringing. I find it amusing that thats how it all began He cracks a smile and quips: And how it continues. Love at first slap, you might say. Oh yes, thats a good one!

open image in gallery The spy who loved me: Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys began secretly dating on the set of The Americans ( FX )

The couple initially tried to keep their relationship secret  Russell had children from a previous marriage, for one thing  but they threw the rumour mill into overdrive when they appeared in a very steamy photoshoot for GQ. Rhys wore a suit; Russell, lingerie, with her legs straddling her co-star and supposedly secret boyfriend. God, I hated that photo shoot, Rhys says now, shaking his head as if to erase the image of it from his etch-a-sketch mind. It was like softcore porn.

More than a decade later, theyre still together. Despite the fact that Rhys calls her his wife, theyre reportedly yet to tie the knot. He must see me craning for a look at his left hand because he obliges, flashing a ringless finger at me. We just havent gotten around to it, he says. We have spoken about it, but the timing is never quite right. I should be more romantic, really. And you get a tax break if youre married, I suggest. Oh yes, thats very romantic: Marry me Keri, well get a tax break!

open image in gallery Coo, coo, ca-choo: Kathleen Turner and Matthew Rhys in The Graduate in 1999 ( PA )

Talk turns to milestones and then to ageing. Rhys is 50 now and facing the crises that come with it. All the existential angst, he says, only half-joking. Knowing Im never going to play Hamlet, for example, just to be a dizzying cliche Im down for dads now. Recently, he found himself on a set when the actor playing his son walked in. My first thought was, well thats not feasible. And then you do the maths in your head, and you realise, Oh God, yeah, it is viable that I could have a 30-year-old son.

Age is very heavily signposted in the industry, he continues. You have those conversations when your agent tells you, Youre just too old to play these parts. He grabs at his chest theatrically as if stabbed in the heart. I still feel 21!

open image in gallery Tough grit: Matthew Rhys as Los Angeles attorney Perry Mason in the HBO reboot

There was a period between The Graduate and The Americans when the parts dried up. It was almost 10 years of nothing. Forlorn, he turned to the army  a decision that remains inexplicable even to himself. It was partly down to happenstance. Rhys happened to be walking past a recruiting office on Charing Cross Road when a sergeant spotted him staring through the window. After that initial chat, I went in the next week for an interview with an officer, but he was so suspicious of me, he says. A week later, I got a rejection letter. It felt fitting, after a year and a half of being told I was failing at auditions, to find that I couldnt even join the army.

Years later, Rhys still cant pinpoint why he signed up. As a child, he had a poster of Richard Burton in the war movie The Longest Day tacked on his bedroom wall, but he doesnt think theres any relation. I really have no idea, he says. What he does know is how different his life mightve been had he been accepted. He lets the image linger for a moment: a life with no Jennings, no Russell, no New York. He shudders and backtracks, unwilling to let this alternative reality sink in any further: Lets be honest, I might not have made it past basic training.

Hallow Road is in cinemas now
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A curious thing about Wes Anderson, the immaculately tailored king of immaculately tailored cinematic trifles, is that he doesnt get bad reviews. Not really, anyway. His films, from the ornate The Grand Budapest Hotel to this weeks delectable The Phoenician Scheme, earn the most effusive raves imaginable or shrugging, innocuous whiffs. And thats more or less been the case since 2004s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, a dazzling tribute to oceanic voyage that, despite its many fans, including myself, was met with such critical disdain at its time of release that it sent Anderson into an emotional tailspin.

It remains the only time in Andersons 12-film career (plus a handful of recent Netflix shorts) in which ill-feeling properly engulfed his output. Not that the specific criticisms back then (Anderson is frozen into a mannerism, wrote The New Yorkers Anthony Lane) would necessarily feel out of place in reviews of his subsequent eight movies. Instead, those mannerisms  the obsessive detailing and fondant fancy scenery, the deadpan affect of his actors, those clean, boxy typefaces  have been doubled down upon and, moreover, embraced. So much of modern American cinema seems style-resistant, stories conveyed via sludgy, Brothers Russo-ian grey, that it feels baffling  insane, even  to condemn a filmmaker still interested in raw, aesthetic beauty.

Anderson does continue to evolve as a screenwriter, with both The Phoenician Scheme and his spacey 2023 black comedy Asteroid City awash in themes of grief and existential dread  they feel aged, mordant, and often gloomy compared to the precociousness of his earlier work. That isnt to say, though, that theres no stasis to his current output. Incapacitated is the package that surrounds those stories, from the way his films are sold and promoted, to the familiar faces of the travelling roadshow that make up his ensemble casts.

Familiarity isnt a massive problem when it comes to auteurs. I can watch Andersons large-scale dioramas of lush, fantastical vistas just as much as I can watch Rian Johnson invert old Agatha Christie novels, or Nancy Meyers invent new sizes of kitchen. But familiarity is also safe. Its a cosy hug. A warm blanket. Missing from Andersons work of late is a prickliness, or a danger. Or anything that could inspire revolt. And the key to it, I think, might be to let him flop again.

Speaking to New York Magazine this week, Anderson discussed his resistance to chasing spontaneity on set, and how  for more than 15 years  he has meticulously planned each shot of his films in animatics, which are essentially storyboards. They are typically used for animation  he began using them on 2009s stop-motion Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr Fox  but he now uses them for everything.

It felt revealing. When asked where spontaneity does lie in his work, Anderson replied that it stems from his stars. When youre working with somebody like Benicio [Del Toro], or somebody like Timothee Chalamet, or Benedict Cumberbatch, those are all actors who dare you to capture whatever happens this time, he explained. Theyre going to go this way, and then theyre going to go that way, and you get to say, Okay, lets see whats going to happen here. But when so many of those very actors perform in that flat, characteristically Wes Anderson register, how much variation can truly be found?

open image in gallery Wes Anderson directs Mia Threapleton and Benicio Del Toro on the set of his new film, The Phoenician Scheme ( Focus Features )

Arriving shortly after The Royal Tenenbaums crystallised Andersons reputation as a master of studied, familial tragicomedies, The Life Aquatic was Anderson cubed: more expensive than anything he had made before or since, full of CGI and David Bowie songs, and made with a cast of A-listers stuffed into close quarters. It tracked the adventures of an eccentric oceanographer (Bill Murray) as he sought revenge against the shark that killed his partner, with Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum along for the ride. But the production proved difficult, Anderson intimated by the films scale and the demands suddenly placed upon him in the wake of Tenenbaums. When it opened to poor reviews, he fell into what New York Magazine termed in 2007 a low-simmering melancholy; ideas stalled and he left the US for an apartment in Paris to recuperate.

What materialised courtesy of that crisis was The Darjeeling Limited, a tourist odyssey in which Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman play estranged brothers shuffling through India. On the set, Anderson would be nervous and distrust his instincts. Okay, am I doing too much of a thing I do here? hed ask his crew.

The Darjeeling Limited drew a divisive response, if a little better than The Life Aquatic, and to this day, it is probably the Anderson film that inspires the most extreme stances. You can see why. Its shaggy and unformed, as if it were made on the fly, which it sort of was. I couldnt bear it when I first saw it, finding it so loose as to be somewhat smug. But its since grown on me, primarily because it exemplifies everything that Anderson has otherwise scrubbed from his subsequent work.

open image in gallery Anderson directs Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman on the set of The Darjeeling Limited ( FoxSearch/Everett/Shutterstock )

Over the decades that followed, and films including his beguilingly nerdy coming-of-age tale Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, which earned him his first Best Director Oscar nomination, Anderson has only grown in popularity. The existential crises quelled, he has become more powerful than ever. Studios provide him creative and financial carte blanche (For executives, supporting Wes is like collecting art, a friend of Andersons told New York Magazine. It makes them feel they have great taste), while the sheer amount of money to be made from the idea of an Anderson aesthetic has proven infinite.

A popular Instagram account, Accidentally Wes Anderson, curates photographs of real-world sights that apparently wouldnt look out of place in his films, while one of the earliest pop-cultural debates about AI revolved around a short-lived digital trend that created alleged Anderson-like tableaus out of thin air. All of this is, of course, nonsense  internet memes that skirt the soul of Andersons work and instead reduce him to a collection of bland tropes: symmetry, pastel colours, architectural whimsy.

However, it all speaks to a feeling that Anderson has become a little too big to fail, a little too comfortable with his traditional stable of tricks. It is significant, I think, that the elements of his two recent features most effusively praised are the newcomers to Club Anderson: the poignancy of Margot Robbies cutting-room-floor actor in Asteroid City, or the endearing silliness of Michael Ceras professor of bugs in The Phoenician Scheme. On-screen, both feel strikingly new  shocks of growth in traditional packages. I dont wish for Anderson to once again experience the crippling self-doubt that trailed him after The Life Aquatic, but Id be interested to see what hed produce if he was operating on the back foot once more. What kind of Wes Anderson would exist if the reviews became pans, the fandom got alienated, or the budgets got slashed? It could very well be a total mess. But wouldnt that be fascinating?

The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas from 23 May
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Kieran Culkin and Elle Fanning are officially joining the Sunrise on the Reaping cast.

Lionsgate confirmed that the Oscar winner has been cast as the flamboyant and eccentric host Caesar Flickerman, a role originally played by Stanley Tucci in the four Hunger Games films.

Kierans scene-stealing presence and undeniable charm are perfect for Caesar Flickerman, the sickeningly watchable host of Panems darkest spectacle. Stanley Tucci made Caesar unforgettable and now Kieran will make the role entirely his own, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-president Erin Westerman said.

Elle Fanning is stepping in to play the younger version of Effie Trinket, a Capitol resident who serves as the stylist for the novels protagonist Haymitch Abernathy.

Elizabeth Banks portrayed the older version of the character in the Hunger Games series, by which time Trinket has become the escort and advisor to District 12 tributes Jennifer Lawrences Katniss Everdeen and Josh Hutchersons Peeta Mellark.

From the moment Suzanne released the book, one question echoed from fans around the world: who will play Effie? said Westerman.

Elizabeth Banks made her iconic  so who could honour that legacy while bringing us back to Effies early, most formative days?

For us, there was only one answer. Elle Fannings career has been transcendent. She has a rare presence  warm, sparkling and layered with extraordinary depth.

She was the undeniable fan favourite from the start, and were honored she answered the call. The odds, it turns out, were in our favour.

Banks said she is super excited to see Fanning in the role. I texted the producers as well and I think she's perfect, she told People. Im excited for the next generation to have their Effie.

Kieran Culkin and Elle Fanning are joining the Sunrise on the Reaping cast as Caesar Flickerman and Effie Trinket ( Getty )

The story of Sunrise takes place 24 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteers as a tribute for her sister and 40 years after the events of The Ballads of Songbirds & Snakes, the prequel which traces the evolution of antagonist Coriolanus Snow.

Rounding out the cast list are Jesse Plemons as head gamemaker and secret rebel-insider Plutarch Heavensbee and Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow.

Fans are understandably excited as the names so many of them had put out did end up making the final list.

Were witnessing greatness the likes of which have never been seen in Hollywood. This casting director is operating at a level that warrants a Nobel prize. I will be so seated for this film I will see it minimum three times. Immediately film of the year, said one fan on X.

Is this what Capitol citizens feel like when their tribute wins because oh my god, said another.

Not sure whats more impressive, another fan said, the fans envisioning the perfect cast, or the casting director actually making it happen.

Previously, it was announced that Joseph Zada and Whitney Peak would star as Haymitch Abernathy and Lenore Dove Baird and Mckenna Grace as Maysilee Donner.

Other members of the cast include Kelvin Harrison Jr as Beetee, Maya Hawke as Wiress, Lili Taylor as Mags, Ben Wang as Wyatt Callow, Molly McCann as Louella McCoy, and Iona Bell as Louellas body double Lou Lou.

The Hunger Games franchise, based on a series of bestselling dystopian novels by Suzanne Collins, focused on 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who ends up in the 74th Hunger Games  a punishment designed to keep districts surrounding the cruel and exploitative Capitol from rebelling again, by forcing them to send a boy and girl selected by a lottery to participate in a reality television show-type contest that makes them fight to the death until one remains.

Sunrise on the Reaping will focus on Katnisss mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, as he is chosen as one of the four tributes from District 12 to compete in the 50th Annual Hunger Games, also called the Second Quarter Quell.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is slated to be released on 20 November 2026.
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Paul Mescal does not agree with the critics who compared his new gay romance film to Brokeback Mountain.

The History of Sound, directed by Oliver Hermanus, stars Mescal, 29, and Josh OConnor, 35, as two young music students who travel to rural Maine together in the summer of 1919 to record local folk songs.

The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday to mixed reviews. Several critics compared the movie to Ang Lees 2005 modern classic about two cowboys (played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger) grappling with their sexuality.

I personally dont see the parallels at all with Brokeback Mountain, other than we spent a little time in a tent, Mescal said at a Cannes press conference on Thursday, reportedly drawing laughs from the room.

[Brokeback] is a beautiful film but it is dealing with the idea of repression I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating, but for the most part I think the relationship I have to the film is born out of the fact that its a celebration between these mens love and not the repression of their sexuality.

Alongside Mescal and OConnor, the film stars Chris Cooper, Molly Price, Raphael Sbarge, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning, Briana Middleton, and Gary Raymond.

Paul Mescal was at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of The History of Sound ( Getty Images )

In her two-star review for The Independent, Sophie Monks Kaufman called The History of Sound severely anticlimactic.

The History of Sound, which has just premiered at Cannes, is not a continuous relationship drama but about a brief encounter that colours a life, and it is not characterised by the powers of its leading men  who have both delivered stronger performances in better films, she wrote. It is another slight, sentimental film by the man who made the Bill Nighty vehicle Living.

Elsewhere at the Cannes press conference, Mescal was asked whether he thinks cinema is moving away from alpha male roles. The Irish actor famously starred in Ridley Scotts Gladiator II last year as Lucius, son of Russell Crowes Maximus.

Its ever shifting, he said, according to Variety. I think maybe in cinema were moving away from the traditional, alpha, leading male characters. I dont think the film is defining or attempting to redefine masculinity, I think it is being very subjective to the relationship between [their characters] Lionel and David.
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Fountain of Youth is the kind of bad film we deserve. Its flagrant nonsense, unbothered by how directly it borrows from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, or that its supposed expert archaeologists explain to each other, in Latin, v is w, and have to google the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. But its the Guy Ritchie brand of nonsense, at least  it has, like King Arthur: Legend of the Sword or (the admittedly far superior) Sherlock Holmes before it, a little zing to it. A sense of character. And, because Apple TV+ seems to have no concept of budgets, its also stretched across a slew of glitzy international locations, including a climactic shootout at the base of the Pyramids of Giza.

This is a film thats fun to complain about. We first meet flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants adventurer Luke Purdue (John Krasinski, in a role that, arguably, would have been perfect for Chris Pratt) as he tracks down his younger sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman). He wants to guilt-trip her into leaving her cosy existence as a museum curator and join him to track down the Fountain of Youth, the mythical spring said to reverse the ageing process and cure sickness. Its all at the behest, and on the dime, of dying billionaire Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson).

Charlotte, in her own words, had to grow up. She now has to contend with a son (Benjamin Chivers) and an ex-husband (Daniel De Bourg), whos dressed like hes been printed out from the M&S catalogue. So shell follow Luke, but shell complain that this is crazy the entire time, all while theyre being chased down by the so-called protectors of the worlds magical secrets, led by Eiza Gonzalezs Esme. They go from London to Vienna to Cairo, pilfering priceless artefacts in a world where CCTV was apparently never invented.

A pit stop that involves dredging up the RMS Lusitania, the passenger ship famously sunk by a German U-boat in 1915, all in order to retrieve a single item seems like quite the drastic detour until you realise the films screenwriter, James Vanderbilt, is the great-grandson of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Sr. He died on the Lusitania, and its his belongings Luke and Charlotte are after.

The sequence itself, which involves a fight in the ships rusted-out and seaweed-slathered bones, is at least its own spectacle. And Ritchie sneaks in a decent amount of his madcap Ritchie-isms  a crashing motorcyclist smacks right into the camera, Luke and Esme are shushed while grappling each other in a Viennese library, and Stanley Tucci turns up for a cameo set at the Vatican which, if you believe hard enough, could be as his character from Conclave.

John Krasinski in Guy Ritchies Fountain of Youth ( Apple TV+ )

This would all be easier to enjoy, however, if the film had any sense of sincerity about its throwback spirit. Theres an aggravating, smart-alec streak to the dialogue, meaning Krasinski and Portman deliver their lines like theyre jokes even though theyre objectively not (Gleeson is the only one who manages to avoid this awkwardness; hes genuinely funny when allowed to be). The riddles are insultingly basic and the sets have the cartoonish look of a themed escape room, while theres a moment here or there where the film starts to slowly tip into cultural insensitivity. That said, considering this is being released directly onto Apple TV+, most of its audience will be watching it with one eye on their phone. Maybe in that context, Fountain of Youth plays like a masterpiece.

Dir: Guy Ritchie. Starring: John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza Gonzalez, Domhnall Gleeson, Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso, Carmen Ejogo, Stanley Tucci. Cert 12A, 125 minutes

Fountain of Youth streams on Apple TV+ from 23 May
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Freddy Lim, former lawmaker and longtime frontman of metal band Chthonic, has been appointed Taiwans new ambassador to Finland.

His appointment brings together Lims twin passions for politics and heavy metal, connecting two countries with deep roots in both.

Nowhere is metal more mainstream than perhaps in Finland, which boasts the highest number of heavy metal bands per capita in the world, roughly 80 for every 100,000 people, according to the Encyclopaedia Metallum.

The genre is a national obsession, embraced across generations and woven into everyday life, even in school curriculums.

In 2006, Finland made history when Lordi became the first heavy metal band to win Eurovision with their hit Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Festivals like Tuska in Helsinki and Steelfest in Hyvinkaa draw tens of thousands of fans and bands like HIM, Children of Bodom and Nightwish have become cultural exports.

Lims connection to Finland predates his diplomatic appointment. His band Chthonic, often called the Black Sabbath of Asia, has signed with Finnish label Spinefarm/Universal, according to music publication Theprp, and toured extensively across the country. Lim, with his band, has performed in multiple Finnish cities and even toured with acts like Ensiferum, Turisas, and Korpiklaani.

Endless Aeons music video by Chthonic

While Lims musical credentials have drawn significant interest internationally, his appointment stems just as much from his political and human rights record.

From 2010 to 2014, he served as the chair of Amnesty International Taiwan, participating in global human rights initiatives and working closely with counterparts in Finland, Sweden, and Germany.

He also championed transitional justice, advocating for the declassification of documents from Taiwans authoritarian past.

open image in gallery Lim served as chair of Amnesty International Taiwan from 2010 to 2014 ( AFP/Getty )

In a 2023 interview with Kulturaustausch, he reflected on the political significance of Taiwans creative freedom. Our region contains many authoritarian regimes and the cultural sphere is strongly influenced by this conservative and oppressed culture, he said. But in Taiwan, its possible [to create freely], which is why the musical scene flourishes and is also very diverse.

He went on to found the New Power Party in January 2015 and served two terms in Taiwans legislature between 2016 and 2024, becoming the first heavy metal musician in the world to enter a national parliament.

Through his legislative career, Lim championed landmark legislation that made Taiwan the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, pushed for stronger protections for indigenous rights and advocated for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

open image in gallery Lim served two terms in Taiwans legislature from 2016 to 2024 ( AFP/Getty )

Working with Finnish music industry partners for a long time has always made me have a special affection for this country, Lim said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Ill continue to work on these solid foundations to strengthen exchanges and cooperation between Finland and Taiwan, to benefit the two peoples, and to gain stronger support from Finland for Taiwan. There is no magic in diplomacy, just going all out and moving forward.
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Tom Hanks has co-written, and is set to star in, a new Off-Broadway play about time travel and love. The sci-fi romance This World of Tomorrow will premiere at The Shed theatre in New York City this October.

The play follows a lonely scientist in search of love who travels from the future to the 1939 Worlds Fair in Queens.

It was co-written alongside James Glossman who Hanks previously wrote the 2022 Off-Broadway play Safe Home. The play was based on stories from Hankss 2017 short story collection Uncommon Type - though he did not star in that particular production.

The two-time Oscar winner, best-loved for his roles as Toy Storys Woody and Forrest Gump will perform alongside a cast of 10 to 12, sometimes multi-roling, actors.

Set in the 550-seat Shed Theatre at the Arts Centre on Manhattans West Side, this fantastical play will run for eight weeks from 20 October to 21 December 2025.

This marks Hankss first on-stage appearance since his role as Falstaff in Shakespeares Henry IV back in 2018.

Tom Hanks is best-loved for his role in Forrest Gump ( Ian West/PA )

In 2013 he made his Broadway debut where he was Tony Nominated for his role in the newsroom drama Lucky Guy.

Prior to this big break on the silver screen, he starred in multiple performances in the Lakewood Civic Auditorium in Cleveland, Ohio, where his acting career began.

Describing his latest stage venture, Hanks said in a statement: To explore the themes of love and yearning, and the struggles of Today as we carry with us the eternal memories of the Past, in such a place as The Shed, strikes me as a one-of-a-kind experience not unlike the Worlds Fair of 1939.

The play is being directed by Kenny Leon, who won a Tony Award for his 2014 Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

Leon, said: This story explores a fascinating tale of the echoes of past generations, the often-surprising collisions between them, and what is carried forward with an authentic humour I cant wait to bring to life in the Griffin Theater.

The artistic director of The Shed, Alex Poots, told the New York Times that when Hanks team reached out last year about the project he didnt hesitate.

Describing the actor as one of the most beloved and trust storytellers of our time, Poots surmised the show as a classic love story which also nods to the global tensions of 1939 - the first year of WWII.

Tickets for the show will go on sale on 24 July, and 15 July for Shed members.
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Not every character can be a winner.

Film and TV are littered with examples of lovable characters, figures who endear themselves to viewers and become thought of almost as close friends. But for others, its a very different story.

Sometimes, characters manage to become not just disliked but actively despised by a film or TV series fanbase.

This can be on purpose  with the publics allergic distaste for characters like Game of Throness Joffrey Baratheon a testament to effective storytelling.

Other times though, its inadvertant, with the backlash to creations such as Star Warss Jar Jar Binks or Buffy the Vampire Slayers Dawn Summers more a result of shoddy writing than any deliberate character choices.

And of course, sometimes the public can turn on a character for completely unfair reasons, such as Breaking Bads unfairly maligned Skylar White.

Here are 19 of the most hated characters across film and TV, ranked.

19. Ross Gellar  Friends

Look. Not everybody hates Ross Gellar. Hes one of the core characters on one of the most popular TV series ever made. But theres a strong faction out there who aver that David Schwimmers hapless paleontologist is not only the worst Friend, but an all-round unbearable bloke. Its true enough: for swathes of the series, his romantic buffoonery and shoddy decision-making are enough to leave you screaming at the screen.

open image in gallery Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica Gellar (Courteney Cox) in Friends ( Getty Images )

18. Mr Big  Sex and the City

Of all Sex and the Citys romantic interests, none loom quite so, erm, large as Chris Noths Mr Big. While the character certainly had his defenders, others branded him toxic and emotionally abusive. Bigs untimely death at the beginning of SATC sequel And Just Like That was, for many, divine retribution.

17. Sharpay Evans  High School Musical

Hit teen musical High School Musical put its own spin on the Queen Bee archetype with the character of Sharpay Evans, the films main antagonist. Ashley Tisdale excels at the part, making her character a genuinely insufferable foil for the storys all-singing, all-dancing leads.

open image in gallery Ashley Tisdale in High School Musical' ( DISNEY CHANNEL/FRED HAYES )

16. Patty Di Marco  School of Rock

For a film like feelgood musical comedy School of Rock, theres no need for a villain. The closest this film has is Sarah Silvermans Patty Di Marco, who acts as a scold for both Jack Blacks vivacious wannabe rockstar and meek substitute teacher Ned Schneebly (Mike White). The buzzkill to end all buzzkills, Silvermans character is the human equivalent of nails down a chalkboard.

15. The Great Gazoo  The Flintstones

A character who became synonymous with hair-brained character gimmicks, the Great Gazoo joined the Flintstones during its final season. A small green alien whom only Fred, Barney and the children can see, Gazoo flew in the face of The Flintstoness entire premise, reducing a once-great cartoon to rubble.

14. The Joker  Suicide Squad

It was always going to be a hard task playing the iconic Batman villain The Joker, following on from what many believe to be the defining interpretation of the character (Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight). For all his much-discussed Method acting flourishes, though, which included sending castmates used condoms in the post, Letos hammy edgelord Clown Prince was a big flop  unlike Margot Robbies Harley Quinn, who ended up returning in multiple later projects.

open image in gallery Jared Leto as The Joker in Suicide Squad ( Warner Bros )

13. Piper Chapman  Orange is the New Black

Netflixs prison drama Orange is the New Black was celebrated for its big, diverse ensemble cast, with episodes often diving into individual characters nuanced backstories. Its a shame then that the series lead character, convicted felon Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) was also its least interesting. Fans frequently complained about Pipers prominence, and general air of uppity self-righteousness.

12. Dr Susan McCallister  Deep Blue Sea

The 1999 shark thriller Deep Blue Sea saw Saffron Burrows play Dr Susan McCallister, the films female lead. While her character was originally supposed to survive the film, test audiences proved so hostile to McCallister  whose character is responsible for the experiments that caused the disaster in the first place  that the ending of the film was re-shot and her character killed off.

open image in gallery Saffron Burrows in Deep Blue Sea' (  WV Deep Blue LLC )

11. Dawn Summers  Buffy the Vampire Slayer

When a supernatural event manifests Buffy a younger sister, it saw this beloved CW drama take a sharp turn of direction. As played by Michelle Trachtenberg, Dawn was a perennial thorn in Buffys side, often causing needless problems through her own teenage petulance and penchant for being in peril. Her arrival was a common gripe among Buffy fans.

10. Seymour Skinner  The Simpsons

The Simpsons fans hate Seymour Skinner. I dont mean the uptight school principal voiced by Harry Shearer, but the real Seymour Skinner, voiced by Martin Sheen and introduced in the polarising season nine episode The Principal and the Pauper. The episode reveals that the man we knew as Seymour Skinner was in fact an imposter known as Armin Tamzarian, who had assumed the identity of the presumed-dead Skinner after the Vietnam War. Hated doesnt begin to cover it.

open image in gallery Seymour Skinner, Superintendent Chalmers, and Seymour Skinner in The Principal and the Pauper' ( Fox )

9. Connor  Angel

Buffy spinoff Angel had its fair share of dubious plot decisions down the years, the most egregious of which saw David Boreanazs vampire-with-a-soul landed overnight with a teenaged son. Vincent Kartheiser, who would later prove magnificent as Pete Campbell in Mad Men, is frankly unbearable here, a whiny, unsympathetic drag.

8 and 7. Nikki and Paolo  Lost

Introduced to Lost near the start of season three, Nikki and Paolo were fellow survivors of the initiating plane crash. Conniving and deeply annoying, they were, by showrunner Damon Lindelofs own admission, universally despised among the shows fanbase, and after just 11 episodes, they were buried  quite literally.

6. Jenny Humphrey  Gossip Girl

Despite starting out as a relatively likeable character, Taylor Momsens Jenny devolves into a true fiend, a self-serving, unapologetic psychopath who drew the ire of many a Gossip Girl fan. Shes great to watch nevertheless  but in a way that sometimes makes your skin crawl.

5. Mutt Williams  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Its possible theres an actor out there with the charisma to play Indiana Joness maverick son, but Shia LaBeouf sure wasnt it. Introduced during the reviled fourth movie  and killed off before the fifth in a style reminiscent of The Simpsonss Poochie the Dog  Mutt Williams was a horrific letdown, a bland, unconvincing bad boy who fumbled the franchises attempt at passing the baton.

open image in gallery Harrison Ford and LaBeouf in Crystal Skull ( Paramount )

4. Skylar White  Breaking Bad

A vehemently loathed character whose reputation can largely be put down to sexism, Anna Gunns long-suffering Skylar White was a hate figure for many fans of the hit AMC crime drama. Despite Bryan Cranstons teacher-turned-meth-baron committing evil acts on a near-regular basis, it was Skylar, his complicit but ultimately far more well-meaning wife, who got the blame.

3. Scrappy Doo  Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo

Everybody loves Scooby Doo. But Scrappy? The mystery-solving mutts small, high-voiced nephew was introduced to freshen the series amid plummeting ratings, but the character was annoying, smug, and generally disliked. This ended up becoming the punchline of the first live-action film, when its revealed that Rowan Atkinsons villain was in fact a robot operated by Scrappy the entire time.

2. Jar Jar Binks  Star Wars: Episode I  The Phantom Menace

The first of George Lucass Star Wars prequels, The Phantom Menace, was a monumental disappointment among fans when it first came out. The brunt of their anger was directed at Jar Jar Binks, the buffoonish CGI alien played by Ahmed Best. The irritating character was seen to be an ill-judged attempt to pander to a younger audience, and played only a minor role in the subsequent two films. Theres a tragic backstory to this, however: Best later revealed that he at one point contemplated suicide, with the vicious anti-Jar Jar backlash taking a heavy toll on his mental health.

open image in gallery Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) in The Phantom Menace ( Lucasfilm )

1. Joffrey Baratheon  Game of Thrones

Maybe the single most hated character in the history of film and television, Game of Thrones nefarious boy king, Joffrey Baratheon, is actually one of the series most successful. He was supposed to be hated. He was spoiled. Vindictive. Pure evil. The infamous Red Wedding episode sealed his place on the pantheon of characters audiences simply love to abhor.
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Jeremy Clarkson and his Diddly Squat farm crew have named an unruly male boar Harvey Swinestein after the disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein in the forthcoming series of Clarksons Farm.

In season four of the farming programme, which airs on 23 May and follows the ups and downs at Clarkson's Chipping Norton farm, the local vet raises the alarm after noticing that the boar, rented for breeding, had been bullying and being physically aggressive towards the three female pigs (called sows).

In the third episode of the new season, the vet informs Clarkson that he noticed the sows couldnt lift their back ends after sexual interaction with the boar, and that he wasnt 100 per cent safe to be around. He said that the boar would situate himself at the entrance of the pen to stop the sows from leaving and entering.

Ive seen him actually chomping at the metal [casing on the pen]. I wouldnt trust him with us in the pen, the vet said. If he decided he didnt like us, he could take a chunk out of us.

Clarksons wife Lisa Hogan arrives, with the presenter telling her: [The boar is] so violent at sex, hes broken the house. And I was just in there and he was pawing the ground. Hes like a bull. Hes not a very nice pig.

Hogan responded: I think we get rid of Harvey Swinestein tomorrow, hes gotta go. Clarkson seemed amused by this, and continued to use the name to refer to the boar throughout the episode.

The following day, Clarkson returned with his farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, and his new farm hand, Harriet Cowan, and asked them to remove Harvey Swinestein from the pen to send him back to his owner.

open image in gallery Jeremy Clarkson on Clarksons Farm ( Prime Video )

When Cooper and Cowan didnt understand who the pun was referring to, by enquiring whether it was a famous actor or scientist, Clarkson simply said of Weinstein: Hes a shocking human being.

The pair spent some time trying to wrestle the large pig into a vehicle, and Cooper was left injured after the boar jumped up and hit his rib.

In the voiceover, Clarkson concluded: Nobody was upset to see Harvey leave.

open image in gallery Harvey Weinstein appearing at a retrial hearing this week ( AP )

Weinstein, who co-founded Miramax film studio, was sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault charges after being found guilty of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant and raping an actor. Weinstein has denied the allegations against him, which he is appealing.

The new season of Clarksons Farm sees the TV presenter navigate another year of running the Diddly Squat farm, as well as opening his pub venture, The Farmers Dog. He also takes on a new freelance team member, 24-year-old Cowan, who is a farmer, nurse and TikTok star from Derbyshire, while Cooper is embarking on his solo live tour  thanks to his newfound fame on Clarksons Farm.

The series returns to Prime Video on 23 May.
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Following Helen Coffeys lament over the declining use of the semicolon, Independent readers responded by voicing their own grammar and spelling frustrations.

Coffey highlighted that usage of the semicolon  described as a chic little grammatical tool  has halved in English books over the past 25 years.

Her piece revealed that most students dont understand how to use it, while others consider it showy or obsolete.

In response, some readers rallied to its defence, praising the semicolons unique ability to connect closely related ideas without breaking the rhythm of a sentence.

Others, echoing writers like Kurt Vonnegut, dismissed it as pretentious and unnecessary. Meanwhile, a few pointed to its declining relevance in an age of emojis, AI, and rapid-fire messaging.

Beyond semicolons, readers expressed wider concerns about the erosion of grammatical standards. Common irritants included the misuse of of instead of have, confusion between their, there, and theyre, and the increasing appearance of apostrophes in plural forms.

Many blamed the education system, arguing that grammar is no longer properly taught in schools.

Heres what you had to say:

A pause longer than a comma

I use a semicolon where a pause needs to be longer than a comma, but not a full stop; em dashes (not "en dashes") I always use in pairs  never singly  to drop in a side note.

RodJones

Should of instead of should have

For me, the most annoying assault on the English language is the ever-growing use of the word "of" when it should be "have"; for instance, "he should of", instead of "he should have."

TalksSense

Their, there, they're  a grammar blender

Sorry, but I want to scream when I see "their", "there" and "they're" put in the blender. When I was in school in the 1950s, punishment would have been swift and dire.

Kenhubert

Share your biggest grammar gripes in the comments

Vonneguts disdain for semicolons

I persist in my use of the semicolon in defiance of the great Kurt Vonnegut's most famous piece of advice to writers  First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.

Zandeman

Comma confusion

The American English language also uses semicolons in lists where commas could cause confusion.

John Brown, an Englishman, and a married man attended.

John Brown, an Englishman; and a married man attended.

Two different meanings.

Morseman

No need for semicolons

You don't need it; that's why it dies out. You either need a colon, a comma, or a full stop. That's it. There's no need for a fourth alternative.

ItReallyIsNot

Love a semicolon

Love a semicolon  when you need a slight pause (whether in reading aloud or not) but longer than a comma, it's perfect. Of course, you also need to know when you need a colon instead.

As long as those of us who are fans never stop using it, it won't die.

Just realised I didnt need to use one once during that; what a pity.

MoodyJack

No rules, just readability

There are no "rules" regarding semicolons. Different style guides have differing views on its use, and historical use is no more enlightening. It is only useful for lists, where a comma serves just as well, or for maintaining flow in the sorts of complex arguments that are increasingly unable to be understood by most people anyway.

If in doubt, use a full stop and start fresh with a new sentence. It's more or less idiot-proof. It's easier to read and understand. Being understood is the primary function of language  poetry aside. And poetry doesn't need punctuation.

Wordee

Grammar and spelling are undervalued

I remember starting my first day as an English teacher at a language institute on the continent a few years back. The head of English, a German, told me they never expected native English speakers to teach grammar as they usually had no idea... that was left to those who'd learned it as a second language.

The fact that grammar and correct spelling are either not taught or undervalued at secondary level in the UK is a huge mistake. I often find myself marking history papers of university-level students and being shocked at the level of their literacy. This is a direct result of government policy  a direct attempt to dumb down the academic levels of our children.

saghia

Dashes vs semicolons

Dashes are not an alternative to semicolons; they serve a different function. The King's English (Fowler) is a great reference to sort out these things. Good punctuation is part and parcel of good writing. Those who think this sort of thing is snobbery are semi-literate.

Poulter

Effectively useless

When something dies out due to a lack of use, its because it is effectively useless.

Let nature take its course and let down the pseudo-literary intellectuals.

Snaughter

Encourage future generations

The only time I saw it being taught was when I worked with ESOL students. Those who really grasp grammar were taught the use of it, and, to be honest, that's when I truly understood it as well. I frequently use them appropriately to encourage future generations...

Let us not forget the humble semicolon; remember the full stop hint.

Archangel

Not all change is beneficial

Its not just semicolons that are falling out of use: so is the distinction between singular and plural pronouns, using they to refer to individuals, even when the gender is known, creating huge confusion when referring to a group and an individual within a single sentence or paragraph.

The use of they instead of he arose in the 70s because feminists thought it was sexist; although, ironically, it was a female grammarian who suggested its use when using indefinite pronouns such as someone, the he considered to be genderless in this context.

But once they had taken the place of the singular, it spread to other contexts where the gender is known. Now it has become so ubiquitous that it is invisible.

The usual argument by the proponents of they is that language changes, so common usage should prevail. But this is nonsense. Not all change is necessarily beneficial, and defending change because of common usage threatens to reduce all attempts to clarify language to the lowest common denominator, because any attempt to refine usage is considered to be a form of elitism.

FinnSmith

Apostrophes in plurals

I would dearly love to know why the use of an apostrophe before the 's' in plurals has become so ubiquitous on social media sites. I find it hard to believe that so many thousands are "just happening" to make the same mistake when it's actually quicker and easier not to use the apostrophe at all.

E.g. Tree's, vegetable's, pavement's, etc.

Am I the only one to see this on a daily basis?

HomoSapiens

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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A new report by think tank The Police Foundation has called for a major overhaul of how law enforcement deals with fraud.

Fraud now makes up around 40% of all crime, with 4.1 million incidents estimated in the year up to December 2024 (according to the annual Crime Survey for England and Wales)  up a third on the previous year.

A total of 1,214,639 fraud reports were made to police in the year to March 2024, of which only 3,641 ended with someone being charged with a crime.

The Police Foundations report calls for a major reform, including the creation of a UK Crime Prevention Agency and a national fraud policing body.

Being defrauded can take a toll not just financially, but emotionally. To better understand the psychological effects of fraud, we spoke with experts who shared common mental health impacts and advice on the healing process.

1. Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the common symptom impacting victims mental wellbeing.

A survey of 2,000 UK fraud victims, conducted in September 2024 on OnePoll for Lloyds Bank, found that nearly two-fifths (38%) of those who have fallen victim to fraud in the last one to six months experienced panic attacks.Furthermore, a quarter (25%) of those surveyed said they still struggled to sleep at night, six months to a year on.

People can also feel very vulnerable and anxious afterwards  particularly those who shared a range of personal information with the scammer, explains Sarah Lenette, financial crime specialist at Starling Bank. Victims may feel a lower sense of security, or worry that this information could be used against them and leave them exposed to future scams or even other types of crimes if the scammers have their address.

2. Shame

Lloyds research also showed that after a year, many victims felt ashamed and disappointed (21%).

Outside the survey, fraud victim Abbie Blyth spoke to Lloyds about her personal experience of being scammed. She responded to a call from a scammer, posing as her business bank account provider and during the call, she unknowingly provided access to her business bank account, which saw her lose thousands of pounds.

The immediate guilt, shame, and feeling of being a complete failure, was the worst experience of my life, reflects Blyth. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone around me.

3. Anger

Marisha Wallace, who also shared her personal experience of fraud with Lloyds, fell victim to fraud after meeting someone via a dating app. The person, who claimed to work in finance as a broker specialising in investments, later scammed her out of 60,000, leaving her feeling angry and ashamed.At first, I was just angry, pleading for answers from the guy I thought I trusted, shares Wallace. I was in shock  because I thought this stuff just doesnt happen to smart, successful people.

4. Loss in trust

Lloyds survey also found that two to five years on, many victims still feel less trusting  whether thats being more sceptical when interacting or using online platforms (17%), or being suspicious of people in their lives in general (15%).

If youve been victim to a romance or impersonation scam, it can seriously affect the sense of trust you have in others, recognises Lenette. A real loss of trust and sense of violation can be created when these types of scams are uncovered and they can lead to feelings of anger, paranoia or even difficulty forming new relationships.

Victims of scams can take months or even years to fully recover, but here are some tips on how to start that healing journey

Report it

Its crucial to not let these feelings prevent you from reporting the crime to your bank and to Action Fraud immediately, and you may also feel more secure knowing that these organisations are here to help you, says Lenette.

Talk about your experience

A key way to heal from being scammed is to speak to the people in your life about it, highlights Lenette. You only have to look at the news these days to see examples of people of all ages and walks of life being scammed.

Sharing your experiences you can feel less alone, and help educate others on the importance of keeping vigilant.

Reach out to specialist charities and organisations

Beyond your friends and family, its also worth reaching out to charities like Victim Support, who provide specialist support to victims of all sorts of crimes, suggests Lenette. Some police forces also even offer support groups for victims of fraud.

Be proactive to avoid future scams

Think about the proactive steps you can take to reduce your chances of being scammed in future, advises Lenette. You can take a look at Action Frauds website, where you can learn about a range of scams and common manipulative techniques these fraudsters use.

Update passwords

Id also recommend immediately updating any passwords that may have been shared with the scammers, recommends Lenette. Also, ensure your devices have up-to-date security software, and keep an eye on your credit file to make sure that your personal information isnt used to apply for accounts in your name.

This can help victims to feel more in control of their circumstances  and can be a baby step in rebuilding their confidence.
I remember the day I bought my super king size bed. It was a game-changer. I could co-sleep with my two children, Lola and Liberty, then aged three and one, without falling off the bed. Id always thought sharing a bed with my kids was such a natural idea; its what many animals do in the wild. Of course, some people judged me: You need headspace from them at night  some me time; Its important for their independence that they have their own beds and bedrooms; Its just not healthy; Theyll get separation anxiety.

In my mind, though, it wouldnt be long until my children were off having sleepovers with their friends and leaving the nest  so why not keep them snuggling up to me for as long as possible? I had no partner to consider. I am a single mum. So what was stopping me from sharing my bed for a heavenly connection? But little did I know that, five years down the line, co-sleeping with my children, now aged six and eight, would be a total nightmare. I feel Ive been mis-sold the joys of co-sleeping and I dont know what to do.

Numerous celebrities have spoken about the virtues of co-sleeping with their children. The Clueless actor Alicia Silverstone revealed in 2022 that she co-slept with her 11-year-old son Bear. Ill be in trouble for saying that, but I dont really care, Silverstone told the Ellen Fisher podcast. She added that co-sleeping was following nature. I mean, if you were in any kind of wild setting where there are animals  if you put your baby [away from you], your baby is going to get eaten.

Kourtney Kardashian admitted last month on a podcast that she has always shared a bed with her four kids, including her daughter, Penelope, until she was 11.

She also said that her mum, Kris, doesnt agree with having a kid in the bed  but that she personally couldnt sleep if her baby, Rocky, was in another room. As a mother, I like to do what feels natural and instinctual to me, she explained. And thats for me what it is. Of course, I also read all the benefits. And its something that mammals have been doing since time existed.

open image in gallery Clueless star Alicia Silverstone admitted in 2022 that she co-slept with her 11-year-old son Bear ( Getty )

For me, however, enough is enough. Im sleep deprived and irritable. I wake up hanging off the edge of the mattress for dear life. Im whacked in the face nightly and even when I shove them both over to the big empty space at the other side of the bed, they always roll back to my side  or on top of me. We have major arguments about who is going to sleep next to me because they both want to. If I sleep in the middle, I feel sandwiched in and claustrophobic. This gentle or natural approach to parenting, in which many mums, like me, co-sleep, doesnt live up to the hype.

I got the dog out of my bed, so how do I do it with the kids? If I try to entice them into their bunk beds in the next room, they crawl back into my bed during the night (sometimes five minutes later). Co-sleeping has become the norm; to suggest any other arrangement feels like an emotional wrench for them and for me. But I dread the bed and need some space.

There is no evidence that co-sleeping with older children is harmful if they are gaining independence in their lives in other productive ways, says Dr Tovah Klein, the author of Raising Resilience: How to Help Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty, who also points out that in many cultures co-sleeping with children is common. She adds that if all else is good with a child, co-sleeping should not be a problem until they are a teen. But usually, she says, children  or the parents  want to make a change earlier.

There is no evidence that co-sleeping with older children is harmful if they are gaining independence in their lives in other productive ways, says Dr Tovah Klein

If either party wants to [change co-sleeping], then that is the cue to help the child sleep in their own bed, she tells me. If not, resentment will build up, especially on the side of parents. For some children, co-sleeping helps them develop resilience, she says, because they feel safe and secure. But when a child is anxious or unable to move forward, the parent may need to take the initiative to help the child sleep on their own  to support the childs development.

A parent can do this, she adds, through setting up a structure where the child gradually moves to their own bed or room while being reassured that their parent will still be there for them, that they are still loved, and that the parent will help them learn to sleep in their own bed. They will do it together, with the parent taking the lead to help it happen, she says.

Dr Martha Deiros Collado, a clinical psychologist and the author of How to Be the Grown-Up: Why Good Parenting Starts With You, says that there is no research to show that co-sleeping makes a child less well-adjusted. Its a recent modern trend to separate children into their own bedrooms, she says. For many families, this might be financially impossible, or at odds with their cultural norms. There are many reasons for co-sleeping with older kids. For some, night-time might be the only moment of closeness with their child (due to working hours, separation, or grief of a parent). Co-sleeping can feel like a loving way to offer and receive connection.

But she points out that if the arrangement crosses a line into feeling like a burden (to a parent or child), interrupts a childs growth towards independence, or is for the sole purpose of meeting the adults needs, its time to stop.

Professor Sarah Blunden, adjunct professor of psychology and paediatric sleep at Central Queensland University in Australia, says the reason co-sleeping has become a contentious subject is due to societal expectations that co-sleeping is not good for childrens long-term sleep habits and their independence. Societal narrative often suggests that if you sleep with your child you will be sleeping with them forever, so its best not to start, she says. It is also suggested that independent sleeping encourages independence over co-sleeping. However, none of these [assumptions] are backed up by evidence.

open image in gallery For some, night-time might be the only moment of closeness with their child due to working hours, separation, or grief of a parent ( Getty/iStock )

Co-sleeping, she adds, is often not recommended in countries and societies where independent sleeping is favoured. This is often but not always in individualist societies like the UK, Australia and the US. But when co-sleeping becomes a problem, such as when the parent(s) or child want to stop, then independent sleeping can be taught and practised.

Im happy I co-slept with my children  until now. So its time for me to try the camping out method of sleep training. Im going to join them in their bedroom and then slowly withdraw myself as the night goes on. I need to take into account the fact that if Im not hugging them all night, how am I going to make that up elsewhere in the day? While I have every intention of getting my bed back, I think the solution is letting them sleep in my bed a few times a week. It might be a slippery slope, but if part-time co-sleeping works, it might be a happy solution.
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A world-first gonorrhoea vaccine programme will be launched in England to address a record-high level of cases.

The sexually transmitted infection (STI) reached an alarming peak of more than 85,000 diagnosed cases in 2023, the highest number recorded since 1918.

The vaccine, known as 4CMenB, is not new; it's currently deployed against meningococcal B disease, a serious bacterial infection that can lead to meningitis and sepsis.

The NHS has outlined eligibility criteria for the programme, focusing on gay and bisexual men with a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a bacterial STI.

Individuals will be contacted in the coming weeks and offered the jab from August 1 through local sexual health services.

During these appointments, patients may also be offered vaccines for mpox, HPV, and hepatitis A and B.

open image in gallery Individuals will be contacted in the coming weeks and offered the jab from August 1 ( Alamy/PA )

Professor Matt Phillips, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH), said the announcement was excellent news and a landmark moment for sexual health in England.

A new gonorrhoea vaccination programme  alongside continued rollout of mpox vaccination  forms a vital part of our efforts to address the significant inequalities we are seeing in sexual health outcomes.

The vaccine roll-out is great news for prevention, but what about treatment for people who already have it?

We spoke to some experts who have outlined some of the key signs of gonorrhoea to look out for, and some treatment options too.

What is gonorrhoea?

Gonorrhoea is a sexually transmitted infection which is caused by a bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae, says Miss Shazia Malik, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at The Portland Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare UK.

Its transmitted through unprotected intercourse, which doesnt just have to be vaginal, it can also be transmitted through oral or anal sex.

What are the biggest misconceptions about gonorrhoea?

Some people often confuse gonorrhoea with chlamydia, highlights Phillips. Also, people sometimes think that you always know if youve got gonorrhoea, because you must get symptoms, but actually you can have gonorrhoea with no symptoms.

Some people also believe that it can be ignored, but it always needs treating.

What are some common symptoms to look out for?

The symptoms can be very variable, notes Malik.

They can be nothing, they can be a discharge from the penis or vagina, or pain in the testicles.

open image in gallery Symptoms can include pain in the testicles ( Alamy/PA )

Women can also experience pelvic pain or a burning sensation on passing urine, or bleeding in-between periods or after sex. So, theres a whole host of symptoms, and you can have one, more than one, or none.

Symptoms of gonorrhoea NHS Symptoms in women Gonorrhoea can cause symptoms in women. These symptoms can affect anyone with a vagina: a yellow or greenish discharge from your vagina

burning pain when you pee

pain in your lower abdomen

bleeding between your periods (this is rare) Symptoms in men Gonorrhoea can cause symptoms in men. These symptoms can affect anyone with a penis: burning pain when you pee

fluid or discharge coming out of your penis

sore testicles

Are there any complications with gonorrhoea?

Untreated STIs, or severe STIs that have even been treated, can have effects that last for many years.

In women, untreated STIs can not only affect your quality of life in terms of pain, discharge and abnormal bleeding, but they can harm your pelvic organs, warns Malik.

You could be admitted with acute pelvic inflammatory disease and sepsis. And if youre of reproductive age, because it can damage your fallopian tubes and the rest of your pelvic anatomy, it can affect your fertility.

When should you seek medical advice about this?

As soon as you think you might have gonorrhoea, you should get medical advice. So, for example, you might think of it because a partner has said theyve got it, says Phillips.

Always contact local clinics and get tested and treated if you believe you are experiencing symptoms consistent with gonorrhoea.

What does the test process involve?

During the appointment the doctor or nurse will ask about your symptoms and sexual partners, and they may need to check your penis or vagina, according to the NHS website.

The website also states that the professional may use a swab (like a large cotton bud) to take a sample of fluid from your penis, vagina or anus. You may be able to do the swab yourself.

A pee sample might also be requested, and you may also have to do tests for other sexually transmitted infections at the same time.

Can it be treated?

The only real way to deal with gonorrhoea is with antibiotics, says Phillips. The standard one in the UK is an injection that goes into the buttock or the thigh, just a one-off, and that will deal with uncomplicated gonorrhoea quite quickly.

However, if someone has allergies to that, other treatments can be discussed that might include injections or tablets. But its really important to take the right antibiotic because there are resistant strains of gonorrhoea in the UK.

Can it be prevented?

Condoms are effective at preventing people from transmitting gonorrhoea to each other, so a well-fitted condom is a great way at protecting yourself, says Phillips.

And if someone contacts you saying that theyve had gonorrhoea and youve had sex with them, get screened as soon as possible.

The NHS website also recommends getting tested once a year, or if you have a new sexual partner.
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Jane Goodall has opened up about her first marriage and how she wishes it could have played out.

The 91-year-old primatologist was a guest Wednesday on Alex Coopers Call Her Daddy podcast, where the two spoke about relationships and how Goodall was able to handle both her job and a love life.

She met her first husband, the late National Geographic photographer Hugo van Lawick, when his magazine sent him to take photos of Goodall while she was studying chimpanzees in Africa.

They wanted to make a film and they wanted good photographs, so they sent Hugo van Lawick, and I really didn't want him to come, she told Cooper. I hadn't met him because I just wanted to be there with the chimps, you know. I didn't want anybody, and I was afraid they'd be scared of him and, you know, all my hard work would be undone.

Goodall quickly learned about van Lawicks love of animals and appreciated the work he was doing to share the knowledge that chimpanzees really are like us.

I definitely wish we could have carried on with that marriage because it was a good one, Goodall said ( Getty Images for Sierra Club )

They were soon married for ten years from 1964 to 1974 and welcomed one child together, Hugo Eric Louis.

In terms of the couple breaking up, Goodall said their relationship ended gradually. She explained that National Geographic stopped paying van Lawick to come to Gombe in Tanzania, where she was studying chimpanzees.

He had to go on with his career and he got some money to do films on the Serengeti, and I couldn't leave Gombe, she said. I had to stay  I couldn't leave Gombe, and so it slowly drifted apart. And it was sad.

Despite the relationship not panning out, the primatologist reflected on the decision, saying it was the right thing.

But, she added: You know, I definitely wish we could have carried on with that marriage because it was a good one.

One year after her divorce from van Lawick, Goodall married Tanzanian parks director Derek Bryceson, who left her widowed in 1980.

She has previously talked about her relationships with the two men, revealing in an interview with People back in 2020 why she decided not to get married a third time after Brycesons death.

Well, I didn't want to, she told the publication at the time. I didn't meet the right person, I suppose, or potentially the right person.

I had lots of men friends, many, Goodall added. I had lots of women friends, too. My life was complete. I didn't need a husband.

In light of how both of her marriages ended, she told the publication that they still had a profound impact on her life. If I hadn't married him, there wouldn't be a Gombe today, she said about Bryceson, noting he helped her establish the Gombe Stream National Park.

If Hugo hadn't come along, the chimp story [probably] would have ended, Goodall added.

She also noted:  Unfortunately, they were both extremely jealous. Both of them. Even jealous of women friends. They were really jealous and possessive ... How I could do it twice? I don't know.
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Kim Kardashian has taken a major step forward in her quest to become a lawyer.

Kardashian, 44, didnt do a traditional law school stint, opting instead to study under a lawyer in a workaround offered in California. She enlisted in an apprenticeship program with a San Francisco law firm in 2018, according to multiple reports. Now, shes celebrating the completion of that program.

Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney Shaheen Manshoory explained toThe Independent that Kardashians program is known as the Law Office Study Program, which in California requires a minimum commitment of four years. However, in her case, she has participated in this apprenticeship program for six years, likely because she struggled to pass what is called the baby bar, Manshoory shared.

Kardashian took the baby bar, or first-year exam, three times before passing on her fourth try in 2021. Its not an easy test, Manshoory added. Those required to take the baby bar attend non-accredited law schools or are enrolled in the Law Office Study Program.

That exam differs from the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), which is required in California and tests the ethical component of legal practice, and from the traditional bar exam, which Kardashian is now eligible to take since she passed the baby bar and MPRE.

The fundamental difference between the two exams is that the baby bar only tests three areas of law covered in your first year of law school; whereas, the state bar examination tests fourteen areas of law, Manshoory explained.

Kim Kardashian has celebrated a milestone moment in her journey to become a lawyer ( Reuters )

Kardashian will face her biggest educational test yet in sitting the California state bar, which Manshoory says is known as one of the most challenging bar exams in the country.

The Skims founder marked the completion of her program with a small private ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. She shared multiple photos and videos from the event on her Instagram Stories, including a snap of her in a graduation cap.

Jessica Jackson, the lawyer who mentored her, said Kardashian spent 18 hours a week, 48 weeks a year for six straight years on the program.

Jackson called Kardashians one of the most inspiring legal journeys we've ever seen.

Six years ago, Kim Kardashian walked into this program with nothing but a fierce desire to fight for justice, Jackson said in a speech shared on Instagram. No law school lectures, no ivory tower shortcuts, just determination. And a mountain of case law books to read.

Among those celebrating Kardashians accomplishment was Ivanka Trump, who congratulated her friend in an Instagram Story.

Congratulations Kim! You did it! My favorite law school graduate! Trump captioned the picture of Kardashian donning her grad cap.
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A couple is still searching high and low for their beloved pet cat, who disappeared nearly a year ago.

Rafal and Monika Klajnszmit were traveling from their home in Eschwege, western Germany, to Bavaria last July when their cat, Nero, went missing along the way in Erlangen.

I took the cat box out of the car and wanted to walk into the hotel. The box wasnt shut properly and he got out, Rafal, 53, told The Times.

In the months since Nero disappeared, the couple has spent over 20,000 euros ($22,560) on search efforts. Gas and hotel stays are among their regular expenses as they make the 300-mile round-trip journey from their home to Erlangen each weekend. There, they spend their time hanging missing cat flyers  about 10,000 so far, they told The Times  talking to residents and door knocking, and diligently refilling carefully placed food bowls with Neros favorite treat: tuna.

Speaking about the costs incurred during their search, Monika told The Independent: To be honest, were not keeping track of expenses for this case  we honestly dont care what it all costs. What matters to us is getting Nero back home and having that totally normal, boring everyday life again.

I know what a weekend in Erlangen costs us  when you add everything up, the numbers speak for themselves.

open image in gallery Map shows the couples weekly 180-mile route from their home in Eschwege to Erlangen ( Google Maps )

But Rafal highlighted an issue that could be preventing Nero from being found  his shy personality.

Hes not the kind of cat who goes up to people to get stroked, the cat owner revealed to The Times. I can imagine hes so scared that he only moves around at night.

Theyve enlisted the help of several volunteers in Erlangen who have kindly offered their time and efforts. They hang new posters and replenish food bowls, some of which have cameras attached that send alerts right to Rafals phone. The helpers also have microchip readers, provided by Rafal, so they can scan black cats they come across in the city.

Theyre on standby day and night, every hour, if I call them, theyll get in the car and drive to read out the chip, he shared with The Times.

While theyve not yet heard good news, they also havent received the phone call any pet owner dreads.

Neros chipped and if he had been found dead we would have been notified, Rafal told The Times. The vets and the motorway maintenance department say that when a dead animal is retrieved the chip is read.

The couples efforts have been met with some resistance from locals in Erlangen who complained about the flyers being hung up. Theyve had to resort to physically handing out the posters instead.

Rafal and Monika have started a Facebook page where they share updates and photos of their furry family member in hopes someone in the Erlangen area will spot their boy. They also share stories and their hopes for Neros safe return.

He means a lot to me. Hes a friend and a member of the family. And you dont abandon your friends, Rafal told The Times.

Im not giving up. I know hes still alive.
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Beyonce's mother, Tina Knowles, has shared an update on her health after revealing her breast cancer diagnosis last month in her new memoir.

Knowles appeared in front of an enthusiastic audience Monday night in Brooklyn while on her Matriarch book tour. The book was published last month and has become a New York Times bestseller.

When the evenings host, CBS broadcast journalist Gayle King, asked Knowles how she was doing after sharing the news of her breast cancer diagnosis in the memoir, she said: "My health is very good.

I eat healthier now, I'm more conscious of that. I wanna be around, she said, referring to her children  Beyonce and Solange  and grandchildren.

Knowles recalled being very sad and very scared upon receiving the stage one diagnosis.

When you hear the word cancer ... it was very scary for me. Thats why I put it in the book, she shared with the crowd.

Tina Knowles Portrait Session ( 2025 Invision )

We get so busy taking care of everybody else. We have to take the time, she continued, emphasizing the importance of not postponing routine tests like mammograms.

After initially debating whether she would include her breast cancer journey in the book, Knowles said her prayer in ultimately deciding to share the news was that other women would take time to prioritize their own health and wellbeing.

Knowles previously shared how she discovered the cancer after missing her scheduled mammogram. She said she thought she had gotten her test done more recently than she actually had.

Going into more detail in front of the audience Monday, Knowles said she was in the Hamptons last summer with her kids and grandkids and didnt want to leave, but knew a doctors appointment was looming. She was having a good time, she recalled. But then something shifted when she saw Beyonce walking toward her, framed by a golden light.

All of a sudden I saw my mom, Knowles said, acknowledging the resemblance between her daughter and late mother.

I knew I had to go home and get that test.

It was shortly after that she received the cancer diagnosis and began treatment.

Knowles appearance in New York came just days before Beyonce was about to bring her Cowboy Carter tour to the area.

Speaking of the 32-time Grammy winners latest album, Knowles told the audience: Its my favorite record that Beyonces done.

Its a history lesson, and to me, its the best Beyonces ever sounded.

Beyonce will play five shows at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey before heading across the pond to England and France. Shell then return to the U.S. to continue the tour, with shows planned in Houston, Texas; Landover, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Tom Cruise has made a rare comment about parenting after being asked about his experience of Fathers Day.

The 62-year-old is currently on a promotional tour for his new film, Mission Impossible: the Final Reckoning, which he has said could be the last instalment in the long-running franchise.

Cruise was asked: What would an ideal Fathers Day look like for you? by an E! News presenter, who reminded him that the occasion was just around the corner.

The Top Gun star looked taken aback as he replied: Hey, just having fun, man. Making movies, big adventure, having a great time.

He is famously discreet about his private life and has three children: an adopted son and daughter with his ex-wife Nicole Kidman and a biological daughter with ex-wife Katie Holmes.

The actors family life has been the subject of speculation, with Cruise threatening to sue a magazine for $50m for suggesting he had abandoned his and Holmess daughter, Suri, following the couples split.

In June 2024, it was reported that Cruise and Holmess daughter Suri had dropped her fathers surname for her high school graduation ceremony. Instead, multiple outlets revealed she had gone by Suri Noelle rather than Suri Cruise.

Tom Cruise has three children ( Getty Images for Paramount Pictures )

The Page Six report included a photo of the graduation pamphlet credited to celebrity news agency Backgrid, with the name Suri Noelle circled. The moniker was likely a tribute to the 18-year-olds mother, whose middle name is Noelle.

Holmes and Cruise welcomed their daughter Suri in April 2006. The actors first met in 2005 and were engaged two months later, before tying the knot in an Italian ceremony in November 2006. Holmes filed for divorce from the Eyes Wide Shut star in June 2012 after five years of marriage.

The First Daughter star has previously opened up about keeping her daughter safe because of her childhood in the spotlight. What has been really important for me with my daughter, because she was so visible at a young age, is I really like to protect her, she told Glamour in April 2023. Im very grateful to be a parent, to be her parent. Shes an incredible person.
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Shoppers have started to boycott Walmart for a second time, two months after Marchs economic blackout.

Advocacy group Peoples Union USA announced there would be a boycott of Walmart from May 20 to May 26 after accusing the company of crushing small businesses and underpaying its employees.

The boycott includes both in-store and online shopping at Walmart locations and affiliated Walmart-branded companies, such as Sams Club, as well as private label brands such as Great Value and Equate.

John Schwarz, the founder of the Peoples Union, posted a video Tuesday on Instagram explaining the reasoning for the boycott, telling his followers, After all the record profits, all the tax loopholes, all the corporate greed, Walmart now once again wants to raise prices.

But this time, because of the tariffs, as if they're not already raking in billions, as if they can't absorb the cost. As if you and I should carry this burden.

The Independent has contacted Walmart for comment.

Schwarz and the Peoples Union previously organized a week-long economic blackout back in March, where consumers were asked to avoid making purchases from Amazons main site as well as the other companies it owns, including Amazon Alexa, IMDb, Prime Video, Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods, and Zappos.

At the time, Schwarz told CNET the objective of the calculated strike is simple: for Amazon to record a dip in sales.

The boycott includes shopping at other affiliated Walmart-branded companies, such as Sams Club ( Getty Images )

In an Instagram post, Schwarz described how to hit Amazon the hardest and take a stand against its impact on small businesses and treatment of workers after the company reported a 10 percent year-on-year increase in net sales in Q4 2024 to almost $188 billion last month.

If you want to focus your firepower, you target what you use the most, he said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were due to participate in the boycott.

Prior to the Amazon boycott, the Peoples Union took aim at corporate giants with a sweeping consumer blackout, which urged consumers against making purchases at major retailers for 24 hours.

Schwarz told CNN that the movement went international, adding: Every country has messaged me, people from all over the world commenting on the videos. How can we stand in solidarity?

However, an analysis from digital retail consultancy company Momentum Commerce showed Amazon had slightly higher sales that day.

The organization has other boycotts planned throughout the next couple of weeks, including a Target boycott from June 3 to June 9, a McDonalds boycott from June 24 to June 30, and an Independence Day boycott on July 4.
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A woman was shot at CIA headquarters early Thursday in what the agency called a security incident that unfolded hours after two Israeli Embassy staff members were fatally shot outside D.C.s Jewish museum.

The non-fatal shooting happened just before 4 a.m. outside the agencys gated entrance in McLean, Virginia, when a woman refused to follow commands at a checkpoint, the New York Post reported.

The CIA confirmed to Reuters that it took a person into custody after its security staff engaged a person outside the main gates. The spokesperson declined to say whether the gunfire struck the individual.

There was a security incident that law enforcement responded to outside CIA Headquarters. The main gate is currently closed until further notice. Additional details will be made available as appropriate, the CIA said in a statement.

Fairfax County Police are helping the CIA, a department spokesperson said.

open image in gallery A woman was shot dead outside the CIA headquarters in Virginia Thursday. ( AFP via Getty Images )

The CIA closed the main gate at its Langley compound and directed employees to seek alternate routes.

The shooting at CIA headquarters came hours after two Israeli Embassy staff were killed in a shooting about 12 miles away outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and his partner, Sarah Milgrim, were about to become engaged, according to reports.

Police say the suspect, identified as Chicago man Elias Rodriguez, 30, chanted free, free Palestine following his arrest over the shooting, which happened at 9.15 p.m. after they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum focused on helping Gazans.

Rodriguez, who was not previously known to police, was seen pacing outside the museum before the attack.

Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offense, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

Both President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have denounced the killings as antisemitism and expressed their condolences to the victims loved ones.

With additional reporting from Reuters.
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Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have increased their security levels after two people were killed outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were killed after a man, later identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, gunned them down after they left the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats Reception, police said.

While there is no known nexus to NYC, in response to last nights horrific attack in DC targeting Jews & Israelis, the NYPD is increasing its presence at religious sites and cultural institutions with high visibility patrols, heavy weapons teams, and counterterrorism officers, the New York City Police Department wrote in a social media post.

The Miami-Dade Sheriffs Office issued a similar statement after the attack.

Due to the horrific targeted act of hate and violence in Washington D.C., we are taking immediate steps to enhance security throughout Miami-Dade County. This means increased patrols around places of worship and cultural institutions, including synagogues, mosques and Jewish schools, the statement read.

We urge the public to stay alert and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately. My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected, and rest assured we will do everything in our power to keep our community safe.

open image in gallery Yaron Lischinsky, right, and his partner Sarah Milgrim - Victims of Washington D.C. shooting ( IsraelinUSA/X )

After the incident, Rodriguez walked into the Capital Jewish Museum, where the event was taking place, and was arrested.

Once in custody, he shouted: Free, free Palestine. His comments were caught on cellphone footage.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A Smith told reporters during a news conference that the suspect was in custody and posed no further threat to the community.

open image in gallery A technician stands in a forensic evidence crime scene van near the place where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. ( REUTERS )

The Chicago Police Department is also taking similar actions to keep the community safe, stating it would be heightening its security presence at synagogues and the Israeli consulate building.

We are continuing to monitor the situation in Washington, D.C. The Chicago Police Department currently has a special attention on the Israeli consulate and places of worship, a spokesperson told News Nation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said the countrys forces would be increasing global security operations.

We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel, he wrote on X. The blood libels against the Jewish state are rising in blood  and they must be fought to the bitter end, Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.

My heart breaks for the families of the beloved young man and woman, who were brutally murdered by a despicable anti-Semitic terrorist. I have instructed security officials to strengthen protection arrangements for Israeli missions around the world, and to raise the level of security for all state envoys, he said.
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Sean Diddy Combs brought three handguns to a famous diner after learning that his record executive rival Suge Knight would be there, the music moguls former personal assistant testified.

David James, who worked for Diddy from May 2007 through May 2009, told a New York federal court Tuesday about an incident from November 2008 at Mels Drive-in, a famous diner chain in Los Angeles. James was on the witness stand Tuesday in the sex trafficking trial for Diddy. He is facing accusation he abused and coerced women for years to fulfill his sexual desires. His trial has featured explosive testimony detailing his alleged anger, jealously, drug use and sexual habits all to further his efforts.

On the November 2008 night, James and D-Roc, Diddys security guard, drove to get their boss cheeseburgers around 3 a.m. one morning. When they arrived at the diners parking lot, D-Roc noticed just three parking spots away was Knight, then-CEO of Death Row Records and one of Diddys competitors, James testified.

D-Roc got out of the car, approached Knight at his car window and introduced himself as Biggies boy, referring to rapper Biggie Smalls. They dapped each other up and then all of a sudden four SUVs pulled up to the parking lot, James told the court.

James saw a man from Knights car pass a gun to the Death Row Records boss. We have to go, D-Roc told James.

The pair then drove to Diddys home, where they saw Diddy and his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura fighting in the road. Thats when Diddy told James to take his black Escalade and drive him and D-Roc back to the diner, the assistant testified. When James turned around, he spotted three handguns on the rappers lap. Motherf***ing go, he recalled Diddy telling him.

open image in gallery Sean Diddy Combs' former personal assistant David James testifies about a 2008 incident at Mels diner where Diddy bringing three handguns to face Suge Knight ( REUTERS )

The seventh day of Diddys sex trafficking trial was filled with other bombshell moments.

After previously testifying about his 20-hour-long work days, James revealed that one of Diddys assistants went to the hospital due to dehydration after working for 24 hours.

James told the court about having to take two lie detector tests went some of Diddys items went missing.

The assistant also discussed advancing rooms for Diddys arrival, which included hotel rooms. He was asked to drop off Diddys medicine bag filled with 30 pill bottles, his Louis Vuitton bag carrying $10,000 in cash and bring personal items such as applesauce, condoms and baby oil.

Of all the hotels Diddy went to in New York, the Trump International Hotel was his favorite, James told the jury. The music mogul booked rooms under the alias Frank Black, he said.

Regina Ventura, Cassies mother, recalled receiving an email from Diddys bookkeeper in December 2011 asking to recoup $20,000 that he had allegedly spent on her daughter because he was angry that she was dating someone else: Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi. She took out a home equity loan to pay the sum. Cassie had also emailed her mother warning that Diddy had recently threatened to release two explicit sex tapes of her and had threatened to hurt her and Mescudi. Diddy returned the money four or five days later without explanation, the mother said.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Mescudi would take the stand later this week.

A male escort known as The Punisher testified about his Freak Offs with Ventura and Diddy. He sometimes experienced erectile dysfunction during these encounters  performance issues he alluded to in his book In Search of Frozen Meat.

open image in gallery Regina Ventura, the mother of Diddys ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, testified Tuesday about how Diddy demanded she pay $20,000 he allegedly spent on her daughter after he discovered Cassie was dating Kid Cudi ( REUTERS )

On the November encounter with Knight, after driving the 10 minutes back to Mels, the SUVs with the Death Row Records mogul were gone. Diddy then instructed James to drive around the block, he told the court.

I was really shook up by [the incident], James said on the stand. It was the first time in the job I realized my life was in danger.

He left the company six months later.

During cross-examination, Diddys attorney Marc Agnifilo questioned the accuracy of James retelling, pointing out a few inconsistencies between Tuesdays testimony and his previous interviews with the government.

Agnifilo pressed what James was going to the diner to do, suggesting there was going to be a potential shooting, James said: I was there to drive the car. He added that refusing to drive his boss wasnt an option: Respectfully, sir, there was somebody with three guns in close proximity. I didnt think that was an option.

Diddy, wearing a light blue sweater over a white collared shirt, frequently gave notes to his lawyers throughout the day and whipped his head between the attorneys and witnesses, seemingly paying close attention.
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A former Republican candidate for Congress in Florida was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to kill his political rival, Anna Paulina Luna.

William Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was sentenced in Tampa federal court Wednesday after being charged with interstate transmission of threat to injure. Braddock pleaded guilty in February.

Braddock made threats against his main political opponent, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who was the Republican frontrunner in Floridas 13th Congressional District during the 2021 primary, according to court documents.

Braddock, a former marine, at the time claimed Luna was his only obstacle to winning that race, and would disparage her as a way to interject himself into her life, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

open image in gallery William Braddock, 41, was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to kill his political rival, Anna Paulina Luna, who currently represents Florida in the House. ( Bureau of Immigration Philippines )

Damning evidence revealed that Braddock threatened to have Luna murdered if she continued to poll well in the race, telling an acquaintance of hers on the phone he would call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad and make Luna disappear.

I will be the next congressman for this District. Period. End of discussion. And anybody going up against me is f***ing ignorant for doing so, he told the acquaintance, according to the DOJ.

A recording of the phone call was also leaked to Politico in 2021, revealing the extent of Braddocks threats.

I really dont want to have to end anybodys life for the good of the people of the United States of America. That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done, he said.

Luna is a f***ing speed bump in the road. Shes a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.

open image in gallery Luna won the Republican primary and eventually seat for Floridas 13th Congressional District in 2021. ( Getty Images )

In the call, Braddock went on to call Luna a piece of s***.

Luna went on to win the primary and congressional seat.

Soon after, he fled to Thailand before settling in the Philippines. He later surrendered to authorities in Manila in June 2023 before he was transported back to the U.S. in September 2024, according to the DOJ.

The charge he faced carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
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Nearly 20 years after a Georgia woman was found shot to death, her husband has been charged with her murder, and investigators say it was information from the former nanny that led to his arrest.

Authorities first believed 39-year-old Doris Worrell was killed in a botched robbery after her husband, Jon Worrell, said he found her lifeless body at the business they owned on September 20, 2006, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

But everything changed last month when the couples nanny, with whom Worrell had fled to Costa Rica after his wifes death, revealed new details to investigators when their love affair ended and he moved back to the U.S.

Worrell, now 58, was taken into custody last Tuesday at his home in Mayfield, Missouri, where he moved when he returned to the states. He waived extradition and was booked into the Coffee County Jail Thursday on charges of malice murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit murder and aggravated assault.

This case was never forgotten, Coffee County Sheriff Fred Cole said Friday.

And while the road has been long and often frustrating, we never gave up. Justice delayed is still justice. Today we honor Doris and her loved ones with this long-awaited breakthrough, Cole added.

open image in gallery Doris Worrell, who was 39 years old at the time, was found dead inside the store she owned with her husband in 2006 ( Coffee County Sheriff's Office )

The brazen shooting happened at Jon's Sport Park, a recreation business the couple owned in the small community of Douglas, about 130 miles outside of Savannah. Doris, who was 39 years old at the time, was found dead inside the store.

Worrell called police and claimed he had just returned from running errands to find his wife shot dead.

Many believed he was a grieving husband, and his wife was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, Jason Seacrist, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said Friday.

But a new story emerged after investigators traveled to Costa Rica to speak with the couples former nanny.

Investigators learned that at the time of his wifes death, Worrell had been having an affair with their 18-year-old nanny. He wanted to divorce his wife, but was afraid of losing custody of his children.

Jon was concerned that if he divorced Doris, he would lose his children, Seacrist said. And its those thoughts that led him to begin recruiting someone to murder his wife.

open image in gallery Jon Worrell, 58, has been charged with murder in the death of his wife Doris Worrell, who was shot and killed at their business 19 years ago ( Coffee County Sheriff's Office )

Worrell then allegedly recruited Glidden Rodriguez and Brandon Cage to carry out the murder plot, authorities said. The men were later arrested for conspiracy to commit the murder, but investigators dropped the charges for a lack of evidence and they have never been re-arrested. Rodriguez has since died. And Cage recently got out of prison in an unrelated case, Seacrist said.

After his wifes death, Worrell fled with his children to Florida and then to Costa Rica, where the nanny later joined him. She moved there after she was deported from the United States in part because she refused to give up critical information about the murder, authorities said.

For years, they lived in Costa Rica, raising the children together. But when investigators learned that the love affair had ended, they traveled to the country to see what they could learn from the nanny, whose name was not released.

Authorities said the information she provided corroborated other evidence that they had been collecting for years, and they were able to make an arrest.

open image in gallery Jon Worrell is taken into custody ( Coffee County Sheriff's Office )

Doris sister, LeAnn Tuggle, thanked investigators for their persistence in getting answers about her sisters murder.

She told WMAZ that she became suspicious of her former brother-in-law when he moved himself and the kids out of the country and wouldnt tell anyone where they went.

Why would he pick up his family and move and why would he not let us know his location when he moved out of the country? Things like that didnt add up, she said.

Tuggle said her sister should be remembered for her kindness.

She was the sweetest, the absolute sweetest person anyone could have known, she said.

However, her kindness might have led to her death, Tuggle added, explaining that Doris had agreed to let the nanny live at her home because she had nowhere else to stay.

Sometimes she was too kind for her own good, Tuggle noted. Her being kind is ultimately what caused her death.

The nanny is not a suspect in Doris death, authorities confirmed.

On Friday, Worrell was denied bond during his first court appearance and remains in Coffee County Jail.

open image in gallery Jon Worrell was denied bond and faces murder charges in the death of his wife, Doris ( Coffee County Sheriffs Office )

This investigation should also give hope to the families of victims in other cold cases that the answers they seek are still being sought, Seacrist said.

It should produce fear and sleepless nights for the offenders in other cold cases because law enforcement will not stop looking for you. It should bring pride and confidence in the communities we serve, knowing that law enforcement has not forgotten and will continue to investigate these cases, no matter how long it takes.
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A couple working at Israels embassy in Washington D.C, who were killed by a gunman, were about to become engaged.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were attacked late on Wednesday night while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, police said. The suspect was heard shouting Free Palestine after he was arrested by cops.

Diplomat Lischinsky, 30, was days away from proposing to his 26-year-old girlfriend, with embassy colleagues explaining he had already bought the ring.

open image in gallery The Israeli embassy identified the couple as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

Tributes have poured in for the pair after the Israeli embassy published a photo of them Thursday morning.

Follow the latest updates on the shooting here

What do we know about the victims?

Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter said at a news conference that the two people killed were a couple about to be engaged.

The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem, he said.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, the embassy said later in a statement. The entire embassy staff [is] heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.

The pair had been attending an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, described online as a Young Diplomats Reception. The event was intended to bring together young Jewish professionals between the ages of 22 and 45.

Lischinsky was described as a clever and inspiring person by a friend, while Milgrim was a curious person with an unwavering belief in peace and equality, according to her former employer.

Friends, colleagues and Israels most senior officials are lamenting the loss of two promising young diplomats who appeared committed to interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence.

open image in gallery A man draped in the Israeli flag kneels behind the police cordon outside the Capital Jewish Museum ( AFP/Getty )

Lischinsky was part of his universitys Model United Nations team in 2019, traveling to Paris in June of that year to meet embassy officials.

He was also voted delegate of the week. In his acceptance statement, he described the importance of providing a platform for multilateral cooperation between countries.

Lischinsky worked as a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs in the embassys political department, according to his LinkedIn page. He moved from Jerusalem in September 2022.

A friend who studied with Lischinsky at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem described him as one of the most inspiring and clever individuals he had met in a post on the social media site.

In a post on LinkedIn, Lischinsky said he was a staunch supporter of the Abraham Accords and an advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.

open image in gallery Law enforcement at the scene after two Israeli embassy staff members were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington (Rod Lamkey Jr/AP) ( AP )

Lischinskys girlfriend, Milgrim, worked in the public diplomacy department at the embassy. She moved to the U.S. in November 2023 from Tel Aviv.

Before that, she spent a year working for an Israeli organization, Tech2Peace, committed to improving dialogue and relations between Palestinians and Israelis. She described herself on her LinkedIn page as focused on fostering understanding between different peoples.

In a tribute post uploaded on Instagram, Tech2Peace described Milgrim as a deeply curious person who held an unwavering belief in dialogue, peace, and equality.

Sarah was a deeply curious person, always seeking to learn and connect, they added. She brought people together with empathy and purpose, and her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did. Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed.

open image in gallery Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to Milgrim ( REUTERS )

Six months ago, the young couple met the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, during his trip to Washington. He was in the U.S. for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In a message on X on Thursday morning, Herzog described Milgrim and her partner as flowers of our people who were plucked just before they were supposed to get engaged and build a life together.

Israels foreign minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday that he had spoken to Lischinskys father. Saar said he told the father that Lischinsky was a warrior on our diplomatic front that fell just like a soldier in the battlefield.

Tal Naim, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington and a friend of the couple, said she and the two young diplomats had been laughing together by the coffee corner on Wednesday morning. Now, she added, all that remains is a picture.

She said: Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.
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The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy at a Jewish event in Washington, D.C. has been charged with the murder of foreign officials.

Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, told officers from the Metropolitan Police Department at the scene: I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed, according to an arrest affidavit seen by The Independent.

Rodriguez, 30, also faces charges of causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, as well as two additional charges of first-degree murder in Washington, D.C.

open image in gallery A court sketch shows shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez in a U.S. District Court hearing in Washington, D.C Thursday ( Dana Verkouteren )

According to witnesses, Rodriguez chanted free, free Palestine following the shooting, which occurred at 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

The two victims have been named as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his partner, Sarah Milgrim, 26.

According to witnesses, Rodriguez had been pacing outside the museum, which was hosting an event to help citizens in Gaza. As the young couple left the event, Rodriguez walked past them, turned, and allegedly shot them in the back, according to the affidavit.

He was captured on surveillance video extending both his arms in the direction of Lischinsky and Milgrim and firing several times, as indicated by the muzzle flashes, the affidavit noted.

After both fell to the ground, Rodriguez walked up to them and fired several more times. Milgrim had attempted to crawl away, but Rodriguez had reloaded the gun and fired at her yet again, the documents said.

open image in gallery Rodriguez, of Chicago, told officers from the Metropolitan Police Department at the scene: I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, according to his arrest affidavit ( Yoni River Kalin )

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar first identified the victims late on Wednesday. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, the embassy said in a statement. The entire embassy staff [are] heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the young couple was about to be engaged, saying Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, Robert Milgrim said of his daughter to The New York Times. But she [Milgrim] was murdered three days before going.

The pair had been attending an American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum, described online as a Young Diplomats Reception. The event was intended to bring together young Jewish professionals between the ages of 22 and 45.

open image in gallery The two victims of Wednesdays shooting have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his partner, Sarah Milgrim, 26. Both were employees at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. ( AP )

According to the affidavit, Rodriguez flew from Chicagos OHare airport to the Reagan National Airport on Tuesday, according to United Airlines records. He declared his firearm in his checked baggage and flew with it across state lines.

The attack is being seen by officials in Israel and the U.S. as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism after Israel ramped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip. President Donald Trump has condemned the horrible D.C. killings and offered his condolences to the families of the victims.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting. We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.
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Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were in the prime of their lives when they were gunned down outside Washington, D.C.s Capital Jewish Museum.

The young couple, who worked at the Israeli embassy in the capital, were leaving an event Wednesday night hosted by the American Jewish Committee when they were confronted by a gunman, who fired at close range.

Lischinsky, a 30-year-old diplomat, was just days away from proposing to 26-year-old Milgrim, a colleague at the embassy who grew up in Kansas.

open image in gallery Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky worked at the Israeli embassy in the capital. They were leaving an event Wednesday night hosted by the American Jewish Committee when they were confronted by a gunman, who fired at close range ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

The suspect has been named as Chicago man Elias Rodriguez, 30, who is in police custody. Rodriquez chanted free, free Palestine following his arrest over the shooting, police said.

Tributes have poured in from around the world for the young couple.

Couple was about to get engaged

The couple had been together just over a year and a half and were due to travel to Israel next week, where Lischinsky was going to ask Milgrim to marry him.

He had already purchased the ring and was going to propose in Jerusalem, Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, said.

Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves, Israeli diplomat and spokesperson Tal Naim said in a post on social media in the early hours of Thursday. Just this morning, we were still laughing together by the coffee corner  and now, all that remains is a picture.

Milgrim was due to meet her boyfriends family in Jerusalem for the first time.

Milgrims mother saw daughter was at the shooting on an app

Milgrim grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. Her parents were getting ready for bed when news of the shooting broke late Wednesday.

Her mother, Nancy Milgrim, took out her cell phone and looked at the family locator app. It confirmed her worst fears  that her daughter was at the Capital Jewish Museum, The New York Times reports. She was due to fly to Washington Friday to look after her daughters dog while she was in Israel with Lischinsky, the newspaper reported.

I pretty much already knew, Sarah Milgrims father, Robert Milgrim, told the outlet. I was hoping to be wrong.

Shortly after checking the locator app, the phone rang. The Israeli ambassador was calling to inform the couple that their daughter and her boyfriend had been killed.

What went through my mind is, I feel the antisemitism that has surfaced since Oct. 7 and also since the election of President Trump, Robert Milgrim told The Times. Its just an extension of my worst fears.

The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, he added. But she was murdered three days before going.

Her warmth and smile could light up any room

open image in gallery The couple had been together just over a year and a half and were due to travel to Israel next week, where Lischinsky was going to ask Milgrim to marry him. Milgrim was described by a friend as having a warmth and smile that could light up any room ( Handout/Tech2Peace )

Milgrim was working at the Israeli embassy, where her role involved organizing diplomatic missions and visits to Israel, according to the Israeli foreign ministry. She had worked there for about a year and a half, and its where she met Lischinsky.

A friend of Milgrims, Josh Maxey, said her warmth and smile could light up any room.

The friend said that he spoke to her at 5 p.m. on the day of the shooting for what was their final conversation.

Last evening around 5 p.m., I called Sarah for what would be our last conversation to talk about World Pride and a special project she was working on, Maxey wrote in the post on Facebook. After business, we chatted about her upcoming trip to Israel and how she wanted to make sure everything was squared away for Pride and her special project because she did not want to leave her colleagues unprepared. That is who she was.

We first met a couple of years ago at an @israelinusa event. From that first meeting, I knew Sarah was a true mensch, he said.

Maxey went on to describe Milgrim as a true advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in the local Jewish community.

open image in gallery The suspect has been named as Chicago man Elias Rodriguez, 30, and is in police custody. Rodriquez chanted free, free Palestine following his arrest over the shooting, police said ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. )

The 26-year-old also spent time volunteering with the Tech2Peace non-profit, an organization that describes itself as providing high-tech and entrepreneurial training alongside conflict dialogue to young Palestinians and Israelis.

In a tribute, the organization said Milgrim was a deeply curious person.

She brought people together with empathy and purpose, and her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did, the tribute said. Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed.

You could not have met a kinder soul

Lischinsky, originally from Germany, worked as a research assistant for Middle East and North African Affairs in the Israeli embassys political department.

He moved from Germany to Israel when he was 16 and moved from Jerusalem to Washington, D.C. in September 2022.

Milgrims father told The Times that Lischinsky was an incredible person who was similar to his daughter.

He was incredible, Robert Milgrim told the newspaper. He was very much like Sarah: passionate, extremely intelligent, dedicated to what he does, always on the cause of whats right.

Zineb Riboua, a friend of Lischinskys, said she was supposed to meet Milgrim for the first time the day after the shooting.

He was full of curiosity and always brimming with ideas, Riboua said. I dont think we ever had a conversation that didnt leave me inspired to write something new. He loved America. He was excited about the future, about finally visiting Texas, and about the life he and his beloved fiancee were building together. I was supposed to meet her today.

Another friend, David Boskey, described him as a man of whom the world was not worthy in a tribute.

You could not have met a kinder soul, Boskey wrote.  He and I used to talk in the back of our congregation on Friday evenings in Jerusalem about life, ministry, identity, our futures, our passions, our faith He was a man of conviction, of humility, of warmth, and of profound integrity. A man of whom the world was not worthy.
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A Russian national has been arrested after being caught on video kicking his toddler and slamming her into the wall at a Florida apartment complex, police say.

The tourist claimed his 2-year-old was being fussy and difficult.

Police have charged Andrei Sevastianov, 37, with child abuse following a tip from a front desk clerk at La Perla Condos in Sunny Isles Beach, about an hours drive northeast of Miami.

On Tuesday, Sevastianov was with his daughter by the pool inside the apartment complex when he appeared to wrap a towel around her neck and tighten it, according to an arrest report detailing what seemed to occur on surveillance video and obtained by WPLG.

The victim is seen flailing her arms around as he is squeezing, police said. He then lets go and faces the victim towards him. As he does this, he grabs the victim by the hair and slams her head on his shoulder.

Sevastianov then made his way into the lobby, carrying his daughter. He then dropped her to the floor at chest height, kneeing her as she fell, the arrest documents state.

The father then kicks her on the right side of her head. [He] then yanks the victim up from the floor by her hair, police said.

While inside the building, Sevastianov violently shook the girl, causing her head to uncontrollably snap back and forth several times, according to authorities.

Sunny Isles Beach Police Sergeant Brian Schnell told reporters Wednesday the girl was manhandled by her father.

While police were arresting Sevastianov, they said he attempted to pull away and forcefully elbowed a cop in the chest.

The man was taken into custody, and his daughter was taken to the hospital.

Sevastianov told authorities that the girl was not listening to him and being fussy, refusing to obey him, according to the arrest documents.

He said that his daughter was just being difficult, insisting that he did not lose his temper.

The father claimed that he wrapped a towel around his daughter because it was windy, the report reads.

Referring to the moment she fell to the floor, he said, She wanted to be put down, so I put her down.

While Sevastianov called the incident a mistake that wont happen again, he still faces charges.

He was charged with one count of aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm or torture, five counts of child abuse causing no great bodily harm and one count of resisting an officer with violence.
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A political activist from Chicago was charged Thursday with the killing of two Israeli embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, was detained by event security inside the museum after allegedly using a handgun to open fire on a group of four people who were leaving an event, according to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.

He was charged with the murder of foreign officials. He also faces charges of causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, and two additional charges of first-degree murder.

It has since emerged that Rodriguezs father attended President Donald Trumps joint address to Congress in March as a guest of Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia.

open image in gallery Video footage shows the moment that suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez was arrested by DC police ( Yoni River Kalin )

Witnesses said Rodriguez was allegedly pacing back and forth outside of the museum before shots were fired.

Israeli officials named the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram. The couple, who both moved to the U.S. in recent years, were due to become engaged.

Follow our latest coverage on the deadly Washington D.C. shooting here.

The suspect had a brief association with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which advocated on behalf of Palestinians, the group confirmed in a post on X.

The group added that Rodriguez was not a member and that his activism with them ended in 2017. We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL... We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.

open image in gallery A court sketch shows Rodriguez with his lawyer as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey Nestler stands before Magistrate Judge Matthew Sharbaugh in a U.S. District Court hearing in Washington, D.C ( Dana Verkouteren )

According to the groups Liberation newspaper, the suspect attended a protest outside the home of then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel. Rodriguez lives in the East Albany Park section of the city.

In a speech allegedly given on behalf of the PSL in October 2017, Rodriguez attempted to connect the murder of Laquan McDonald, who was fatally shot by Chicago police officers in 2014, and the activities of retail giant Amazon.

The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its Black residents, Rodriguez said at the time, per Liberation. [Amazons] whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city.

The PSL launched a new campaign Wednesday and urged its X followers to sign the pledge against genocide, in an attempt to garner 1 million signatures to show the massive opposition that exists around the world to the U.S.-Israeli massacre in Gaza.

Assistant Director of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steve Jensen, said that an investigation into the homicides will look into ties to potential terrorism and if the attack was a hate crime. Jensen denounced the shooting as heinous.

Rodriguez was being interviewed early Thursday by both police and the FBI, Deputy Director Dan Bongino has said.

According to a LinkedIn profile, Rodriguez is a resident of Avondale in Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois.

Since July 2024, he has worked as an administrative specialist for the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Association.

open image in gallery Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram were identified by the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., as the shooting victims ( X/@IsraelinUSA )

A profile on the website, History Makers, where Rodriguez worked between 2023 and 2024, states he was born and raised in Chicago and enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places.

D.C. Police Chief Smith said that after being handcuffed, Rodriguez disclosed where he discarded the handgun, which was recovered by authorities. The suspect also implied that he committed the offense, the Smith added.

Video footage shows the suspect chanting, Free, free Palestine, repeatedly, as he is arrested by police and led away from the museum.

open image in gallery A man draped in the Israeli flag as as Metropolitan Police officers secure the area outside the Capital Jewish Museum ( AFP via Getty Images )

Police believed that Rodriguez was the sole suspect at the time of reporting. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said there is no active threat in our community.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the U.S. attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.

Israeli and U.S. officials have deemed the attack as part of a rising tide of antisemitism, intensifying amid Israel's escalating offensive in the Gaza Strip.
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Former president Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden have shared a message of thanks to the public after revealing his prostate cancer diagnosis a day earlier.

The couple thanked well-wishers for lifting us up with love.

Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places, Biden posted on his social media accounts Monday. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.

Biden, 82, is smiling in the photograph as the former first lady sits beside him, holding the familys cat, Willow.

Former president Joe Biden and former frst lady Jill Biden shared a message of gratitude to supporters after his cancer diagnosis was revealed over the weekend. ( @JoeBiden/X )

Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, his spokesperson announced Sunday.

He received the diagnosis Friday after doctors discovered a small nodule on his prostate that required additional evaluation.

Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone, the statement said.

While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management, the spokesperson added. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.

Messages of support flooded in for the former president, including from President Donald Trump.

Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Bidens recent medical diagnosis, Trump said on Truth Social. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.

Former vice president Kamala Harris praised her former boss as a fighter in a message of support Sunday.

Doug and I are saddened to learn of President Bidens prostate cancer diagnosis. We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time, she said. Joe is a fighter  and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.

Cancer is the absolute worst, said Meghan McCain, whose father, the late Republican Sen. John McCain, died of brain cancer. It is hell. It is incredibly difficult for any family, anywhere that has to deal with it. Wishing nothing but healing, prayers, light and strength to President Biden and his family. I dont believe times like these are appropriate for politics.

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men in the U.S., affecting approximately one in eight men during their lifetime.

While the condition is more likely to affect men over the age of 65, it can be diagnosed at a younger age.
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As Apples former chief designer, Jony Ive built the iPhone. But in the years since, he has left Apple and seemingly become occupied with the problems he has caused: in a recent interview, he said that there was not anything that I can be more preoccupied or bothered by than the problems caused by smartphones.

I think when youre innovating, of course, there will be unintended consequences, Ive said earlier this month. You hope that the majority will be pleasant surprises. Certain products that Ive been very, very involved with, I think there were some unintended consequences that were far from pleasant.

Now we have a hint about how he might fix that. As you might expect from someone who is not only the worlds most famous industrial designer but also obsessed with products, his fix comes from the same place that the problem did: with a new invention that he hopes to sell people.

Specifically, that new product will come from a new company. This week, ChatGPT creator OpenAI said that it is buying io, a product and engineering firm co-founded by Jony Ive; that also gets them access to the designer. Together, they plan to make a whole new kind of product, powered and built for AI, they said.

There has been very little revealed about what the team has been working on, and the secrecy is apparently in part because the company is concerned that it could not arrive until late 2026 and might be copied before then. But since the partnership was formally announced, a report in the Wall Street Journal suggested that the product will be small enough to fit in a pocket, know what context it is being used in and is not glasses.

Altman seems sure that people will like it. It will be a third core device on peoples desks alongside a MacBook Pro and an iPhone, he suggested, and he said that it would ship faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before. (ChatGPT already broke that record for users of an online service, gaining 100 million people in two months, though it has since been dethroned by Metas Threads.)

But Ive has also been clear that he is working on a family of devices and so even a full picture of that product would not necessarily indicate all that Ive and the new company have planned. One of Ives central innovations was to broaden the definition of what a computer can be: he may have started with the first iMac, but the iPhone and Apple Watch all served to place devices on our bodies, in new forms. The new products look set to do the same.

There might be clues about what next from Jony Ives work before, during and after his time at Apple. Throughout, whether it is phones or Christmas trees, his various work has embodied a few clear principles: a commitment to minimalism, materials, innovation and the practical belief that design is about what things do.

When he introduced the iPhone X, in 2017, for instance, he said that for more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. A physical object that disappears into the experience. Ive was often known for his focus on the visual and tactile parts of design  and his focus has remained that way since, working on clothes and books  but many of his most famous designs from the iMac to the iPhone X are focused on transparency.

The device that comes after the iPhone could do the same. One of the great promises of AI and devices that use it is that the interaction model can change entirely: less scrolling, more conversing. If that happens, then the devices themselves will no longer be defined by a large screen; instead, they could be integrated into glasses, earphones, or other wearable and largely invisible products. If a device is really just a set of sensors, outputs and a connection to a personal AI that knows everything about you, then it can be almost anything.

Ive and Altman will not be the first to try and launch new hardware that leverages the latest developments in artificial intelligence. Last year, Rabbit launched the R1 and Humane launched its Pin; both were savaged by reviewers, who said that they were poorly designed and unnecessary. Since then, the market has been much quieter.

Ive is aware. In an interview with Bloomberg after the deal was announced, Ive said both were very poor products, and that there has been an absence of new ways of thinking expressed in products.

Other companies have looked to leverage their existing wearables into AI products. The marketing for Metas Ray-Ban glasses, for instance  which include a microphone, a camera and speakers that project straight into the ear  has become increasingly focused on their use for artificial intelligence. Ads show how they can be used to look at an animal, or painting, or clothing, and have AI analyse and understand it, for instance

At Ive's old employer, the bet at least in the near term is that the iPhone of the future is still the iPhone  just with more integration of AI. The introduction of what the company calls Apple Intelligence  branding for a suite of features that use artificial intelligence  has been rocky, with delays and other problems, but the company remains of the belief that the technology can be integrated with the iPhone, rather than being used to replace it.

But even Apple executives have acknowledged that new technology could make the iPhone obsolete. You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now as crazy as it sounds,, services boss Eddy Cue told a recent court hearing, pointing out that technology shifts can bring new opportunities for competition. (The hearing was about Googles dominance in search, something that Apple has a hand in because of a multiple billion dollar deal to make it the default on the iPhone, and so his comments should be viewed in that context.)

Even if Apple remains committed to the iPhone, it too has been at work on products that use AI in new ways  whether to complement or compete with it remains to be seen. Apple has been at work on new kinds of robotics, for instance, a push that has been unusually well documented for such a secretive company.

Like every attempt to build the iPhone of the future, those robots have been met with something between curiosity and confusion. But people laughed at the iPhone when it arrived, too; Ive was right then, and he might be again.
By Alimat Aliyeva

Hyundai Motor announced on Wednesday the launch of a refreshed version of its flagship premium sedan, the Grandeur, featuring upgraded standard features and the introduction of a new special trim designed to elevate the driving experience.

The newly introduced Honors trim includes many of the most popular features from previous versions, such as the Hyundai SmartSense II advanced driver assistance system, a premium Bose sound system, and exclusive exterior design elements that were previously only available on the top-tier Calligraphy trim. This new trim aims to provide a more luxurious experience, combining cutting-edge technology with elegant design.

In addition to the new Honors trim, Hyundai has enhanced the standard specifications across the other trims. The Exclusive trim now comes with a 10.25-inch (26-centimeter) full-touch climate control display, offering intuitive control for both the driver and passengers, as well as interactive ambient mood lighting, adding a personalized and modern touch to the interior.

"As the Grandeur approaches its 40th anniversary next year, we are grateful for the longstanding support of our customers and remain committed to delivering exceptional value through innovative design and technology," said a Hyundai official.

With its new upgrades and trims, the Grandeur continues to set the bar for luxury sedans, maintaining its status as a flagship model for Hyundai, and marking a significant milestone as it nears four decades of production. The refreshed model is expected to appeal to both new and loyal customers, solidifying the Grandeurs position as a symbol of premium comfort and advanced technology.
Another woman was booked Thursday on a count of assisting at least two of the 10 inmates who escaped the Orleans Justice Center last week, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
The summer months mean more people will be spending time outside when the sun is at its strongest. Learn more about how you can protect your skin from damage and how The Baton Rouge Clinic can help you with any dermatological concerns.
Kmart has begun trialling a new layout that brings clothing and beauty to the front of the store, in an effort to maximise sales and lure Gen Z and Gen Alpha shoppers into becoming lifelong customers.

The popular retailers new managing director, Aleks Spaseska, outlined a vision to further develop its womens, mens and youth apparel ranges and beauty products, ramp up electronics, toys and collectables for kidults, and deepen social media engagement, as part of a broader goal to double the business in under 10 years.

The biggest difference youll notice is in the apparel and beauty offer in the store, Spaseska said.

Kmart is changing its store format to lure younger customers in and get shoppers to spend more.

If you go into womens apparel today, youll see we mostly sell all the tops together, the bottoms together, the dresses together. If you think about the way our merchants put the ranges together, its a brand-new outfit, she said.
Capital Gain

If your living room window looks out over Circular Quay or leafy Government House, chances are you cant find a spot to park your swish car. Thats not a problem, however, if youre prepared to pay a cool $600,000 for a 14 square metre patch of concrete.

The lack of car parking spaces in central Sydney has seen six sites go under the hammer for a combined $3.65 million. That works out at a rate per square metre of $42,857 or $600,000 for each car park  big money by anyones standards.

The six car spaces at 2 Phillip Street total 85 square metres. Credit:

The car park bonanza at Lot 51, 2 Phillip Street beat pre-auction expectations and is almost double the $304,700 paid for a parking spot in Notts Avenue, Bondi, believed to be Sydneys previous car-park record.
This is a deeply personal moment for me, he said. Im relieved that common sense has prevailed and we can move forward with the Flat Earth curatorial vision and exhibition at MUMA. Its a clear sign that truth still matters. This is also about more than one artist or one show, its about how we as an industry respond to challenges, stand by each other, and uphold the integrity of artistic expression. Sabsabi added: This outcome was not achieved in isolation; it was the result of a shared determination to protect freedom of expression and support artists at a time when it matters most. He also refuted the insinuations that arose from Creative Australias decision to sack him. Let me be absolutely clear: I reject all forms of racism and hate. My practice is built on existence/coexistence, respect, and the urgent need to connect across cultural and political divides, he said. This [MUMA] decision affirms that my work is understood in that spirit.

Loading He thanked and acknowledged the commitment of Stolon Press, the participating artists in Flat Earth, and the team at MUMA. This moment is a reminder that our institutions are stronger when they hold space with artists and curators for complexity and conversations, Sabsabi said. This is now an opportunity for Creative Australia to revisit its decision regarding Venice 2026. Michael and I remain committed to representing Australia on the world stage with integrity and purpose. The findings of Creative Australias independent review into the Venice selection process are to be released next month. As our CEO has stated previously, the decision of the Board was not a reflection on the artistic team recommended for Venice, the agencys spokesperson said.

The board has committed to an external review of the entire 2026 Venice selection process that will examine the events leading up to, and including, the Boards decision. We will wait for the reviews findings before providing further commentary on this matter. Director of Monash University Museum of Art Dr Rebecca Coates also welcomed the decision, saying to share ideas and discuss [them] is what we do as an art museum. So to be able to put this exhibition on and work with artists who we believe have vital things to say is heartening and exciting and reinforces our role within society, and the importance of arts and culture. MUMA director Rebecca Coates.

My role is to advocate for the artists and the art; its often complex, its open to multiple interpretations. Weve seen that very recently. Works can be contextualised, and taken out of context, she says. Our role is to create the space for respectful conversation, divergent perspectives, and shared understanding. Flat Earth is the inaugural exhibition by Sydney-based publisher Stolon Press, created with MUMAs Coates and Stephanie Berlangieri; Stolon Press was created by writer Tom Melick and artist Simryn Gill in 2019. Part of MUMAs 50th anniversary celebrations, the show will run until July 12. The Venice decision was prompted by two of the artists works, one featuring footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and another featuring the former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year. Creative Australia is an advocate for freedom of artistic expression and is not an adjudicator on the interpretation of art, the board wrote in a statement. However, the board believes a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australias artistic community... That flew in the face of what the Sabsabi had proposed for Venice, he said, as well as his overarching philosophy. The [proposed Biennale] work is about bringing all people of faith, ethnicity, gender together to reflect and contemplate these troubled times we live in, Sabsabi said.

He and DAgostino have mounted a crowdfunding campaign to help them get to Venice, but hope this latest move by Monash University indicates that change is possible and there is room for Creative Australia to reconsider its decision. Speaking to this masthead last month, Sabsabi said the cancellation had been a fundamental misunderstanding that two of his historical works celebrated terrorism, which he called a ridiculous accusation when both critiqued war and media representations of ideology. Anyone who knows me or my work understands what I stand for, he said when asked if he had ever promoted terrorism through his work. I do not stand for terrorism, racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, or any form of hate.
Even before the devastating floods this week, it has been a sodden few months for most of the east coast. Yet just a few hours inland, great swaths of the southern half of the continent are gripped by record-breaking drought.

This dichotomy of drought and flooding rains is not new to Australia, but for it to occur simultaneously on opposite sides of the Great Dividing Range is a phenomenon that scientists say is likely to increase with climate change.

A sheep and beef farm in Winslow, Victoria. Parts of western Victoria, inland NSW and South Australia are in record-breaking drought. Credit: Joanne OKeefe

Globally, temperature records are tumbling. The European Unions Copernicus Climate Change Service notes April marked the 21st month of the past 22 months that the global-average surface air temperature was 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. January 2025 was the hottest January on record, following the hottest year on record in 2024, and March and April were second only to 2024.

In Australia, the weather bureaus long-term outlook suggests winter could finally bring drought-busting rain to inland and southern parts of the country, while it will be more typical weather on the eastern seaboard and the Western Australian coast.
Here at CBD we are regularly accused of having hearts of concrete. But as if we pay attention to our parents!

So regular readers may be surprised that even we cracked a little when we heard this tale of a long-lost childhood memento resurfacing years later  and from across the political divide.

La Trobe MP Jason Wood (left), his Labor challenger, Jeff Springfield, and the long-lost wooden case.

Who has reached their middle years without losing something of great emotional value along the shifting pathways of life? Certainly not Jason Wood.

The federal Liberal MP for the outer Melbourne seat of La Trobe retained his seat with 52 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote despite a swing of more than 6 per cent to his Labor opponent, Jeff Springfield.
Washington: There is nothing unusual about Donald Trump snapping at a journalist. On Tuesday, Washington time, on Capitol Hill, he demanded to know which outlet a reporter worked for, and after being told, replied: I dont even know what the hell that is. Get yourself a real job.

But Wednesdays Oval Office meltdown at NBCs White House correspondent Peter Alexander stood out, not only for its personal meanness but the obsessiveness with which Trump kept returning to the subject and beating up on Alexander long after the conversation had moved on.

Donald Trump and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, at a signing ceremony in Doha last week. Credit: Getty, digitally tinted

Alexanders crime was to ignore a video Trump had just played to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, alleging genocide against white South African farmers.

Instead, he launched into a question about the US government accepting from Qatar the gift of a luxury Boeing 747-8 valued at $US150 million ($232 million) to $US180 million in its current state, to be used as Air Force One.
San Diego: A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather in a San Diego neighbourhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.

With jet fuel spilling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles caught fire while residents in the area of US Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4am on Thursday, California time, by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions.

Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement.

Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.
Cashless treatment for accident victims demands urgent clarity





Staff Reporter

Raipur,

In a crucial development concerning trauma care accessibility, the Chhattisgarh chapter of the Association of Healthcare Providers  India (AHPI) has raised a formal appeal to the State Health and Family Welfare Department, seeking immediate procedural clarity over the implementation of cashless treatment for road accident victims. The appeal follows the circulation of an interdepartmental directive issued on May 19, 2025, by the Road Safety Lead Agency.

The letter, widely shared on social media, mandates cashless emergency treatment of up to Rs 1.5 lakh for road accident victims at any designated hospital within seven days of the incident. Dr Rakesh Gupta, State President of AHPI, wrote to Health Secretary Amit Kataria (IAS), stating that while the governments intention to support accident victims is commendable, the lack of defined processes and designated hospital lists could lead to operational confusion and delay in critical care. The directive has gone viral on social media without corresponding guidelines to hospitals. As per existing protocols, 108 ambulances cannot take critical patients to private hospitals unless pre-authorised. This gap needs urgent redressal in the revised guidelines, said Dr Rakesh Gupta.

He further warned that, If patients reach ill-equipped hospitals without clear protocol, there is a risk of conflict and chaos, which defeats the very purpose of timely trauma care. AHPI has strongly recommended that the Health Department publish a list of empanelled hospitals equipped for emergency trauma response and issue comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all stakeholders  police, ambulance services, hospital administration-to coordinate effectively during the critical golden hour. The association also proposed joint consultations with hospital associations to finalise a workable model for statewide implementation. Until such systems are operational, AHPI cautioned against the premature rollout of guidelines in public domain. Dr Gupta urged that, The complete procedural roadmap must be finalised and disseminated to all field agencies and then published in newspapers for public awareness, ensuring patients receive uninterrupted emergency medical care.
Total police inactionin Murshidabad violence:Calcutta HC panel report





KOLKATA :

Measures taken by WB Government to control communal unrest were inadequate: Panel report A local councillor Mehbub Alam has been identified as the principal conspirator behind the violence A THREE-MEMBER committee of the Calcutta High Court probing the communal violence in Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district of West Bengal last month, in its report, has indicated total police negligence and indifference to bring the situation under control before the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). Sources said that the three-member committee has highlighted the aspects of this police indifference in a report filed in the High Courts special division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Raja Basu Chowdhury.

The bench had been specially constituted to hear the matters related to Murshidabad violence. The violence broke out in pockets of Murshidabad like Dhulian, Suti, and Samserganj on April 8, and finally, CAPF was deployed there on the night of April 12 following an order of the same special division bench on the same evening. WhileorderingCAPFdeployment on April 12 evening, the special division observed that themeasurestakenbytheWest Bengal Government to control communal unrest in Murshidabad over protests against the newly promulgated Waqf (Amendment) Act turning violent were inadequate.

The special division bench also observed that had the CAPF deployment been earlier,thesituationwouldnothave been so grave and volatile. Now,thecontentsofthefresh reportgivenbythethree-member committee are totally in linewiththeobservationmade by the division bench on April 12. In the report, a local councillor,MehbubAlam,wasidentified as the principal conspirator behind the violence, againstwhomthepolicedidnot act at the time of the violence. As per the report, all the attacksthatwerecarriedouton April 11 from 2 p.m. onwards wereledbyMehbubAlam,who himselfcametothespotofviolencealongwithmiscreantson that day, with the police doing nothing to act against them

WB Govt shielding extremists: BJP

NEW DELHI,

May 21 (IANS)

POLITICAL storm intensified in West Bengal on Wednesday after a report by a three-member committee of the Calcutta High Court exposed serious lapses by the State Police in containing the communal violence that erupted in West Bengals Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district last month. The BJP launched a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led Government, accusing it of shielding extremists and failing to protect Hindu families. Union Minister and West Bengal BJP President Sukanta Majumdar, addressing the media, said, The committees findings point towards the involvement of local councillorMehboob Alam, MLAs, and other leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress. Despite his role as a principal conspirator, the police failed to act against him during the violence. Mamata Banerjee had blamed outsiders for the violence,butthereportshowsotherwise. This clearly proves she was lying and must apologise to the people of Bengal, Majumdar said.
27 Naxals gunned down in Cgarh op Maoist leader Basavaraju carrying Rs 1.5 cr bounty killed





NARAYANPUR :

Achieved historic success, a senior police official said

A member of District Reserve Guard killed in action

TOPMOST leader and the backbone of the Naxal movement, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, and 26 other dreaded Maoists were killed by Security Forces in a fierce encounter in the dense forests of Abhujmad in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday. Police said the gunfight took place in dense forests of Abhujmad on the tri-junction of Narayanpur-BijapurDantewada districts. The operation was launched two days back following Intelligence inputs about the presence of Central Committee and Politburo members of the CPI (Maoists) as well as senior Maad Division cadres and PLGA (Peoples Liberation Guerrilla Army) members. So far, bodies of 27 Naxalites and a large number of weapons have been recovered from the spot. A member of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a unit of Chhattisgarh Police, was also killed in the action while some others sustained injuries, police said. Earlier in the day, a senior police official said that Security Forces achieved historic success during the encounter as a top Maoist leader was eliminated, without giving more details.

Hailing from undivided Andhra Pradesh, Basavaraju was the brain behind several major attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh. He was associated with the banned movement since the 1970s and elevated to the top post in CPI (Maoist) seven years ago, when Naxal activities in their stronghold Bastar region were appearing to be wearing out, officials said. A resident of Jiyannapeta village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, Basavaraju holds a BTech degree from the Regional Engineering College Warangal, and was seen as an enigmatic leader of the outlawed Naxal outfit. Known by the aliases of Prakash,Krishna,Vijay,Umesh andKamlu,hejoinedthearmed movement as a ground-level organiser. He was considered to have developed expertise in impartingmilitarytrainingand triggeringexplosivesandlandmines. Basavarajus age and looks are still a matter of speculation, with security agencies suggesting he was around 71 years of age. They have only a bundle of old photos from his youth. Basavaraju carried a rewardofRs1croreonhishead in Chhattisgarh.

The Governments of other States, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana, have also announced rewards, totalling it to Rs 1.5 crore, an official said. With the latest action, 200 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 183 were eliminated in the Bastar division, which includes districts of Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon. Earlier in the day, deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma who holds the Home portfolio said some top cadres were among the slain Naxalites. Speaker of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly Raman Singh on Wednesday congratulatedtheChhattisgarhPolice, saying, Police have killed 26 Naxals. This was a big operation and no police were killed in this operation. HealsocongratulatedUnion Home Minister Amit Shah and State Home Minister Vijay Sharma.

Proud of our forces: PM

NEW DELHI, May 21 (PTI) PRIMEMinister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said, he was proud of the Security Forces who killed 27 Maoists in Chhattisgarh. Reacting to the development, PM Modi said on X, Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people.

Backbone of Naxal movement broken: Shah

NEW DELHI,

May 21 (PTI)

CPI-MAOIST general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, the topmost leader and backbone of the Naxal movement, was among the 27 dreaded Naxals killed by Security Forces in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced. He also said that this is for the first time in three decades of Indias battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralised by the security forces. A landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism. Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our Security Forces have neutralised 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, the backbone of the Naxal movement, Shah wrote on X. Applauding brave Security Forces and agencies for this major breakthrough, the Home Minister said he was glad to share that after completion of Operation Black Forest, 54 Naxalites have been arrested and 84 others have surrendered.
AI-powered CollegeIntent app recommends most suitable engineering college based on MHT-CET rank





Business Reporter :

NOW 12th passed students can clear their confusion about choosing the most suitable engineering college on the basis of their Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET) score using CollegeIntent, unique Artificial intelligence (AI) powered website. The innovative idea is the brain child of city-based entrepreneurs Ajinkya Saraf, Director of Sarafs Ajinkya Tutorials and Dr Milind Apte, Psychologist and Counsellor. The CollegeIntent app was inaugurated by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways at Suresh Bhat auditorium, recently.

Gadkari admired the website and said that students should make best use of such innovative applications to succeed in life. Ajinkya Saraf in an exclusive interview with The Hitavada elaborated that the platform caters to students who have given the MHT-CET, a state-level entrance test to select candidates for admission to undergraduate engineering courses. Once the CollegeIntent website is downloaded there are 3 plans to choose from like Basic, Standard and Premium. The application is valid for 4 months (June, July, August and September). CollegeIntent is Indias most comprehensive online couselling solution for engineering aspirants.

Backed by over 25 years of counselling expertise and cutting edge AI analytics, it empowers students to make informed, personalised academic decisions with confidence, Saraf added. Once students log on the application, they have to provide the required data so that they will get instant recommendations of the most suitable engineering colleges considering ones rank, preference and strength. The application considers CAP round score and cut off marks of all categories till the final round. Students will also get personalised counselling, real time admission updates and one to one expert counselling. In a landscape where decisions are driven by advice or random online tools, CollegeIntent brings a scientific, historical data driven approach to forefront making college selection simple, smarter and stress-free. The application also provides important real time engineering admission updates, form submission dates and changes in cut-off lists delivered to ones WhatsApp and email.

This feature ensures students are one step ahead in their admission process. Dr Milind Apte explained that the application recommends the most suitable engineering colleges tailored to ones rank, category and personal preferences. It leverages vast datasets, including historical cut-offs, seat matrics and thousands of student preference trends to provide accurate suggestions. It also shows the college CAP rounds on the basis of factual data using AI. Ajinkya Saraf has studied at Harvard University, Boston, USA and completed Masters in Education. He has more than 15 years of teaching experience. While, Dr Milind Apte is a renowned Psychologist and Industrial Counsellor.
INDIAS MESSAGE





INDIA has shown exceptional unity across sections in the war against Pakistans terror tactics. The country was fully behind the Government as the Opposition parties, too, shunned local politics to stand with the Centre on Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam attack. A collective grief shaped Indias military and diplomatic response to the brutal killing of 26 tourists in Baisaran by Pakistansponsored terrorists. The baton has now been passed on to the seven all-party delegations set to travel around the world to call out Pakistans bluff on terrorism and expose it as the epicentre of global terror. The diplomatic offensive is bound to cause a major upheaval in international politics as India seeks to isolate Pakistan. The onus is now on the delegations, first of which led by Janata Dal (United) leader Mr Sanjay Kumar Jha has headed to the Eastern nations including Japan.

Six more teams consisting leaders from various political parties will travel to other parts of the world with the primary objective of exposing Pakistans double standards on terrorism. It is an open fact the Pakistan nurtures and propagates terrorism as a State policy and then plays victim. The Pahalgam terror attack has totally exposed Pakistan and it is the right time for India to apprise nations that New Delhi has a message for the world on terror spreading its wings if its perpetrators are not restrained with an iron hand. The Centre deserves wholehearted praise for taking the entire political community in the country on board to send across Indias message on zero tolerance for terrorism. It is a prudent move to show the world Indias unity in diversity and make a bold statement that national security is paramount for every individual and party despite having different political affiliations and ideologies. Times of crisis call for such bold steps asserting Indias strength as one big family.

The Centre has taken a leaf out of the 1994 decision when then Prime Minister Mr. Narasimha Rao sent a delegation to the United Nations led by then Leader of Opposition Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee. The delegation also comprised leaders from various parties including Mr. Farooq Abdullah of National Conference and Mr. Salman Khurshid of the ruling Congress party. The delegation had the task cut out to defeat Pakistans motion on condition of Muslims in Kashmir. India checkmated that effort by assigning an Opposition leader, a Kashmiri leader and Muslim leaders to represent Government stand on the issue. It simply stumped Pakistan and also the Organisation of Islamic Countries as Islamabad had to finally withdraw the motion due to lack of support from its own allies. It was a major diplomatic victory for India, crafted by a united front of political leaders. The latest diplomatic offensive against Pakistan is a tad different but with a similar motive of putting forth Indias resolve to combat terrorism in all forms and manifestations. The Centre has done well to pick leaders with ability to decipher global mood and having insight to influence the global community on Pakistans role in cross-border terrorism.

The delegations have been briefed by the External Affairs Ministry but it is expected of the representatives to chip in with their own resources to uphold Indias stand. Rising above party politics is the basic mandate of the delegations. Given the prevailing mood in the country, politics is set to be kept out of national duty. But there is also a chance of sections back home trying to play truant for their leaders representing the Government. A case in point is the Congress stand on the inclusion of Mr. Shashi Tharoor in the delegation. The party clearly entered a narrow lane by declaring that the fine orator and suave diplomat was not its choice. It was a pathetic behaviour in times of a national crisis. Hope the Congress does not play spoilsport.
International Booker Prize Banu Mushtaqs short story collectionHeart Lamp fetches 1st Kannada title





By Aditi Khanna

LONDON

WRITER, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaqs short story collection Heart Lamp has become the first Kannada title to win the coveted GBP 50,000 International Booker Prize in London. Mushtaq described her win as a victory for diversity as she collected the prize on Tuesday night at a ceremony at Tate Modern along with her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who translated the title from Kannada to English.

The winning collection of 12 short stories chronicles the resilience, resistance, wit, and sisterhood of everyday women in patriarchal communities in southern India, vividly brought to life through a rich tradition of oral storytelling. Shortlisted among six worldwide titles, Mushtaqs work appealed to the judges for its witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating style of capturing portraits of family and community tensions. This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole, said Mushtaq. In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the lost sacred spaces where we can live inside each others minds, if only for a few pages, she said.

Translator Bhashti added: What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language. Max Porter, International Booker Prize 2025 Chair of judges, described the winning titleassomethinggenuinelynew for English readers. A radical translation which ruffles language,to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understandingoftranslation,hesaid. Thiswasthebookthejudges really loved,right from our first reading.Its been a joy to listen to the evolving appreciation of these stories from the different perspectives of the jury.

We are thrilledtosharethistimelyand exciting winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 with readers around the world, he said. The tales inHeart Lamp,the first collection of short stories to win the prize, were written byMushtaqoveraperiodofover 30 years, from 1990 to 2023. They were selected and curated by Bhasthi, who was keen to preserve the multilingual nature of southern India.
Maoist warlord Basav Raju neutralised in SFs strike





By Mukesh S Singh : Raipur/Bastar,

TERROR ANALYSIS

Engineering graduate turned into IED expert after LTTE terror training

The phantom command behind visible massacres of security forces in devastating IED ambushes

Rs 1 cr bounty Maoist chief ran CPI (Maoist)s battlefield doctrine

Once a qualified engineering graduate, Basav Raju chose blood over nation  abandoning his degree to become one of the most lethal anti-India Maoists to ever operate under the CPI (Maoist) banner. Trained in explosives and ambush warfare by the LTTE, he used his technical acumen not for development but for designing deadly ambushes that butchered Security Forces (SFs).

On Wednesday, his decades-long trail of carnage ended in the forests of Abujhmad, as joint SFs neutralised him in a coordinated strike - bringing down the Politburos most brutal operational brain. Top security officials confirmed he carried a Rs 1 crore bounty, making him one of Indias most wanted left-wing extremists. According to updated intelligence dossiers and National Investigation Agency (NIA) records, his recorded aliases included Namballa Keshav Rao, Krishna, Vinay, Ganganna, Basavara Raju, Basavaraj, Prakash, Gaganna, Vijay, Keshav, BR, Umesh, and Darapu Narasimha Reddy. Born as Narasimha in Jiyannapet village, Srikakulam district (Andhra Pradesh), he left home in 1970 after graduating from the Regional Engineering College, Warangal. That year marked the beginning of his ideological descent. Consumed by radicalism, he crossed into Sri Lanka for training with the LTTE, where he learned to fabricate bombs, conduct ambushes, and manipulate terrain - skills he later deployed with lethal precision against SFs. He was a rare mix of ideology, engineering, and insurgency, said a senior intelligence official.

His knowledge made him an IED genius. His strategy killed many of our men. Described by internal security agencies as the phantom command behind the visible massacres of security forces in devastating IED ambushes, Basav Raju orchestrated some of the most devastating attacks in Dantewada, Sukma, Bijapur, and Bastar. His operational footprint included landmine layering, tactical encirclement, and use of coerced tribal militias under PLGA battalions. He wasnt merely a field commander - he was the Maoist war councils battlefield architect. Intelligence agencies had long flagged him as the most educated and tactically skilled figure in the CPI (Maoist). It was his ability to design long-range, multi-node ambushes that made him irreplaceable within the Politburo. He was believed to be in direct command of deadly operations that killed dozens of CRPF, DRG, and STF personnel, as well as civilians caught in Naxal fire zones.

According to security forces, his capture was never realistic. He had gone too deep into ideology. He only believed in death as dialogue, said one Anti Naxal Operations (ANO) official, who oversaw the Abujhmad operations. Acting on precise intelligence about a Politburo-level presence, DRG units from Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Kondagaon launched a deep-penetration jungle offensive in Abujhmad.

By Wednesday afternoon, 27 Naxals lay dead, including Basav Raju. His identity was confirmed through physical features, electronic intercepts, and internal source corroboration. Recovered alongside his body were AK-series rifles, sophisticated wireless equipment, landmine schematics, and explosive devices - proof of his continued battlefield oversight. This wasnt just a tactical kill, said a senior anti-Naxal analyst. It was the strategic removal of a doctrine - a mindset - that guided years of terror. His death, officials say, weakens the Maoist leaderships operational axis. But it came at a cost - one DRG trooper was martyred, and several others were injured during the high-risk strike. All injured personnel are recovering.
PTR mgmt to launch Baghdev initiative from today





Staff Reporter :

From International Biodiversity Day (May 22) to International Tiger Day (July 29), the Pench management will initiate a new project Baghdev. The campaign aims to engage local communities in crafting terracotta tiger figurines

The Pench Tiger Reserve, Seoni, Madhya Pradesh, is taking a step further by linking tiger conservation with respect for tribal culture and faith. The reserves management will celebrate a tribal event by launching the Baghdev campaign to honour the power and spiritual connection of the tigers in tribal traditions. The connection between wildlife, particularly tigers and human culture has been centuries-old. Human communities have always revered wild animals, especially tigers, considering them sacred and offering them a prominent place in their cultural practices. It is possibly this deep respect for tigers that has enabled their survival in India despite numerous challenges, making India home to the largest tiger population in the world. In the conservation of tigers, the role of local communities, especially the tribal ones, has always been critical. Acknowledging the significance of tigers in various aspects of life, these communities have long regarded the tiger as Baghdev (Tiger God). On this day, July 29, the world celebrates International Tiger Day to raise awareness about tiger conservation efforts globally, strengthening commitments to their protection. From International Biodiversity Day (May 22) to International Tiger Day (July 29), the Pench management will initiate a new project named Baghdev.

The campaign aims to engage local communities in crafting terracotta tiger figurines. In tribal villages, tigers are still revered as deities, and people offer prayers and seek blessings for prosperity and well-being. Under this initiative, members of 130 Eco-Development Committees (EDCs) in the buffer zone will create tiger figurines from clay. They will receive assistance from local potters from the village of Panchdhar, who specialise in pottery and toys. In addition to crafting tigers, the EDC members will be educated through posters and workshops about the critical role tigers play in preserving nature's elements.

These elements, such as oxygen, water, and food, are vital for human survival and are seen as blessings from the tiger. The clay tigers will be placed at a new sacred site near the tiger art installations currently under construction in Khawasa, which will be the center of this spiritual activity. The Reserve management plans to fire these clay tigers in kilns to make them durable and then install them alongside the larger tiger artwork. This initiative not only fosters emotional and cultural connections with the tiger but also opens new employment opportunities for the local potters of Panchdhar. Additionally, tourists and other residents from outside the buffer zone can join this campaign by creating their own clay tigers, writing their names on them, and making wishes to Baghdev. The Baghdev campaign will officially kick off on May 22 at 4 pm at the Seoni Collectors Office. This unique effort highlights the fusion of tiger conservation with local cultural traditions, promoting both wildlife protection and community engagement.
Sitabuldi parking facility starts





The Sitabuldi Parking Plaza which was proving to be a wasteful expenditure was thrown open for the citizens following a news report published in The Hitavada (right) on Wednesday. (Pic by Satish Raut)

Hitavada Impact

Staff Reporter

Keep the premises encroachment-free, Municipal Commissioner instructs Enforcement Department

Civic body takes serious cognisance of the report published in The Hitavada Cityline on May 21

Taking serious cognisance of the news reports published in The Hitavada Cityline regarding non-functioning of Sitabuldi parking plaza and continuance of hawkers menace on Sitabuldi main road, the civic administration swung into action and ensured the parking plaza gets functional on Wednesday. The officials of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and police reached Sitabuldi to curb the menace of hawkers. Municipal Commissioner Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari instructed the officers to keep the premises of Sitabuldi parking plaza encroachment-free. Dr Abhijit Chaudhari inspected the multi-level car and two-wheeler parking facility created by Nagpur Smart City at Sitabuldi on Wednesday.

He directed the Enforcement Department to keep the road and area in front of the car parking facility encroachment-free. Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police Archit Chandak, Additional Commissioner of Municipal Corporation Vasumana Pant and Additional Commissioner Ajay Charthankar were present on the occasion. The Commissioner directed to put up guide boards for the convenience of the citizens.

The Municipal Commissioner appealed to the citizens coming to Sitabuldi market to use this facility. Along with the anti-encroachment operation on Sitabuldi main road, the Nagpur Police and Nagpur Municipal Corporation have removed the encroachments in front of the supermarket. Nagpur Smart City has provided multi-level car parking facilities for the citizens coming to Sitabuldi and citizens were facing difficulty in parking due to encroachment by hawkers. Smart City has arranged parking for 240 two-wheelers and 22 four-wheelers in the mechanised car parking. An operator has also been appointed for the state-of-the-art car parking.

The Municipal Commissioner directed the officers of Smart City to utilise this system to its full potential. Dr Chaudhari also ordered the officers of the Anti-Encroachment Unit to ensure that there is no further encroachment in this area. Currently, no fee is charged for parking at the facility. He was accompanied by Assistant municipal Commissioner of Dharampeth Zone Harish Raut, Snehlata Kumbhar, Executive Engineer Rajesh Dufare, Executive Engineer Ravindra Bundhade, Rahul Deshmukh, Enforcement Superintendent Sanjay Kamble, Bhaskar Malve, Moin Hassan, Assistant Police Inspector Jadhav and other officials.
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The launch of a sovereign AI ecosystem in Malaysia that allegedly uses Huawei GPU chips took another twist on Wednesday when the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) issued a statement clarifying that the initiative is not a government project, and that Malaysia is compliant with export control laws governing chipsets.

The "Strategic Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure" project was launched on Monday, featuring a generative AI cloud environment run by Skyvast Cloud. In a speech delivered at the launch event and reported by the official Bernama news agency, Deputy Minister of Communications Teo Nie Ching said the initial AI cloud was powered by eight Huawei Ascend GPUs, and touted the establishment of localised, sovereign AI infrastructure as a major step in Malaysias AI development.

Skyvast and Chinese tech firm Leadyo also revealed plans to deploy 3,000 GPUs across multiple infrastructure zones by 2026.

However, on Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the communications ministry withdrew Teos remarks with no explanation. The report noted that the withdrawal came shortly after the US governments AI and crypto czar David Sacks posted on social media site X that the launch was proof that China was gaining ground in the global AI race, which the US government is actively trying to counter amid the broader trade dispute between the two countries.

On Wednesday, MITI issued a statement further distancing the Malaysian government from the AI cloud project, saying that the Skyvast initiative was not developed, endorsed, or coordinated by the Government of Malaysia, nor does it form part of any Government-to-Government agreement or nationally mandated technology programme.

MITI added that while the current Malaysian government is keen on building up its Al-powered infrastructure to enhance the public sector capacity and services, any such initiative would need to go through the appropriate level of legal, operational, and reputational processes and due diligence that are required for a project of such significance.

The ministry further stated that Malaysia remains committed to full compliance with all applicable export control laws, national security directives, and emerging guidance from global regulatory authorities.

The heart of the controversy stems from last weeks guidance from the US Commerce Department that usage of Huawei's Ascend AI chips "anywhere in the world" violates US export controls. The Commerce Department later changed the wording, saying the guidance alerts industry to the risks of using PRC advanced-computing ICs, including specific Huawei Ascend chips.

A Huawei representative told Bloomberg that the company hasnt sold Ascend chips in Malaysia and that the government hasnt bought any.

However, last month Huawei Malaysia did sign an MoU with Skyvast to jointly promote Malaysias sovereign AI cloud infrastructure using Ascend GPUs, as well as Huaweis Kunpeng servers, cloud platforms and networking solutions.

Ironically, that MoU was announced in a press release issued by Malaysias Ministry of Digital as one of six MoUs involving Chinese organisations (four of them with Huawei Malaysia) covering AI, cloud computing and next-generation digital infrastructure. The release specifically mentions Ascend GPUs as part of the Skyvast-Huawei MoU.

That said, the Ministry of Digital release was issued a month before the US Commerce Departments updated guidance on Huaweis Ascend chips. It remains unclear if Skyvast is proceeding with the sovereign AI cloud infrastructure with non-Huawei chipsets.

Meanwhile, Malaysias move to distance itself from the Skyvast project is happening as the country finds itself caught between the ongoing trade war between the US and China, particularly in relation to chipsets, as well as being involved in its own trade dispute with the US regarding President Donald Trumps tariff policies.

Last year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim laid out a ten-year multibillion-dollar plan to boost Malaysias status as an AI chipset design and manufacturing hub to capitalise on companies seeking cover from the US-China chipset rivalry.

But according to a report in the New York Times on Wednesday, President Trumps on-again-off-again tariff policies have thrown Malaysias chipset ambitions for a loop. Last month, the Trump administration imposed a 24% tariff on all US exports from Malaysia, which has since been temporarily reduced to 10% as the two countries negotiate a solution. But Trump is also considering a blanket levy of at least 25% on all chipset imports on national security grounds, the report said.

According to Reuters, Malaysia exported US$16.2 billion worth of chips to the US in 2024, accounting for almost 20% of all US semiconductor imports.
In eastern Liberia, armed men forced their way into community radio station Smile FM's compound at dawn, smashed technician Cyrus Gbeway's phone, and evicted him. (Photo: Smile FM)

Abuja, May 21, 2025The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Liberian authorities to swiftly investigate the May 5 raid on Smile FM by a dozen armed men who beat a member of staff and occupied the premises until police sealed it off and stopped broadcasts.

Liberian authorities must hold to account those who attacked Smile FM, beat media technician Cyrus Gbeway, and prevented the station from broadcasting for two weeks, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa regional director, from Durban. The safety of journalists and the Liberian peoples access to information should be a top priority for authorities.

The shutdown, which ended on May 19, came amid a dispute at Smile FM between two rival boards over leadership of the community radio station in Zwedru, the capital of eastern Grand Gedeh County.

Gbeway told CPJ that two of the men who forced their way into the stations compound at dawn, smashed his phone, and evicted him were known associates of county superintendent Alex Chersia Grant. The president appoints 15 superintendents nationally, whose roles are administrative.

Grant told CPJ he was one of the stations founders and rejected news reports that he ordered the raid. Grant said that he did know the two men identified by Gbewey but he did not know why they participated in the raid and declined to explain his relationship with them.

Solo Uriah Lewis, who was recently ousted as station manager, told CPJ that he called the police when he arrived at the radio station and saw it had been occupied.

Since the end of Liberias civil war in 2003, the media has grown significantly but is often reliant on financial support from government or politicians. CPJ has documented journalists being beaten, threatened, and harassed by politicians and security forces.

The Press Union of Liberia described the incident as disturbing and called on the police to ensure Smile FM could operate without interruption.

CPJs calls and text messages to request comment from national police spokesperson Cecelia Clarke did not receive any replies.
Xi Focus: Fortifying the backbone of manufacturing through innovation

Xinhua) 08:03, May 22, 2025

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- From an era when even basic necessities like matches and soap had to be imported, China has transformed into the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse with the most comprehensive range of industrial sectors.

"China has always adhered to the path of developing the real economy... which has proven to be the right path," President Xi Jinping said during his inspection tour of the Luoyang Bearing Group Co., Ltd. in Henan Province this week.

As the backbone of China's manufacturing prowess, traditional manufacturing is critical for stabilizing employment and fiscal revenue and maintaining international competitiveness.

Today, the value-added output of traditional industries, including steel, non-ferrous metals, machinery and textiles, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the manufacturing sector's total.

Building a stronger manufacturing sector has been high on the agenda of Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

By underscoring the significance of technology and innovation, he has spearheaded sweeping efforts to transform and upgrade the country's manufacturing sector, a key step in advancing the country's high-quality development and modernization amid global economic uncertainties.

During his domestic inspections in recent years, Xi has always visited enterprises and factories. He inspects production lines, engages in conversations with frontline workers, and gains a firsthand understanding of the products and the progress made in transformation and upgrading.

For instance, in January 2025, while inspecting a cold rolling mill of Bensteel Group in Liaoning Province, Xi visited the enterprise's control center to check the operation of the centralized control intelligent system. He said that the manufacturing sector should continue to pursue higher standards, smarter operations and more eco-friendly development, and make more technology-intensive products with higher added value.

Since introducing the concept of new quality productive forces in 2023, Xi has consistently highlighted that traditional industries are the cornerstone for developing these advanced productive capabilities.

During a deliberation at the annual national legislative session last year, Xi noted that developing new quality productive forces "does not mean neglecting or abandoning traditional industries."

This point was further reinforced in May last year when he visited Shandong Province and commended Rizhao Port for its successful transformation from a traditional port into a modern one. "The port has not only achieved top-tier cargo throughput nationwide but has also gained valuable insights into fostering new quality productive forces through the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries," he said.

Guided by his vision, China has made great strides in speeding up the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries particularly through digital empowerment and green transitions.

Technologies like industrial internet, 5G, and AI have been extensively applied in traditional industries. In 2024, investment in technological upgrades in the manufacturing sector increased by 8 percent year on year, outpacing the overall investment growth.

In key energy-consuming industries such as chemicals, building materials, steel, and non-ferrous metals, energy consumption per unit of value-added output fell in 2024 from the previous year.

To realize Chinese modernization, consolidating the country's industrial strengths has become increasingly vital. Traditional industries are now being urged to move up the value chain, sustaining scale while improving quality.

A prime example is the Luoyang Bearing Group Co., Ltd., which has leveraged innovation to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies. High-end bearings now account for 70 percent of its total output value.

China must continue to strengthen the manufacturing sector, adhere to the principles of building self-reliance and strength... and cultivate a robust pool of high-quality talent to advance Chinese modernization, Xi noted during his visit to the company.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of manufacturing, which means mastering core technologies in key fields," Xi said.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
By News Centre

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar answered questions from reporters in ??rnak. Bayraktar, who made extensive statements regarding the point Turkiye has reached in the field of energy, emphasized that oil production, especially in Gabar Mountain, is a "profitable business on a global scale." Minister Bayraktar said, "Turkiye has reached a different point with Gabar. Oil and natural gas production increased from 50 thousand to over 270 thousand barrels. The country's need is very great. No matter how much we produce, it is not enough. There are still points we have not entered."

Bayraktar, who underlined that they were targeting a daily production of 100 thousand barrels around Gabar, drew attention to the serious potential of other fields in the East and Southeast. Bayraktar, who stated that they were giving special importance to oil exploration studies in Diyarbak?r, said, We are hopeful about the Diyarbak?r field. There is an oil discovery of 42 million, almost 3 billion dollars, until May 2025. We did not declare this as a discovery, but we are constantly adding reserves. A reserve of 6.1 billion barrels is estimated in Diyarbak?r. When this amount is taken into consideration, which is Turkiyes annual oil import of 365 million barrels, it has the potential to sustain the country for 15 years. We will extract our oil from rocks. We have put into operation unconventional production techniques such as shale gas and shale oil in the region.

Bayraktar, who provided information about the scope of the exploration and production activities carried out in different regions of Turkiye, said that they were working in a wide area from Thrace to the Black Sea, from Diyarbak?r to Van, Hakkari, ??rnak, and the border regions. Bayraktar said, We are producing approximately 10 thousand barrels in Ad?yaman and close to 30 thousand barrels in Batman. Diyarbak?r is between 1520 thousand. Gabar alone reached 81 thousand, and conveyed the distribution of production volume in different regions.

Bayraktar, who mentioned that the oil extracted in Gabar is transported economically and safely, said, Our Gabar production is transported via a 3840 kilometer pipeline. The pipeline is much cheaper. We transport it from Dortyol to Ceyhan and from there to everywhere by ships. Bayraktar explained that the current system also works in integration with Turkiyes refinery infrastructure and that shipments to refineries can be made via the pipeline extending from Ceyhan to K?r?kkale.

Alparslan Bayraktar, who also pointed out that the Istanbul Financial Center is important for Turkiye, said, We need to combine the financial markets with this energy infrastructure right now. There is a natural gas trade there. Electricity trade continues more intensively. We need to develop something similar to the mines where this trade is done in Turkiye, and for this reason, we moved EP?A? to the Istanbul Financial Center. So this has a symbolic meaning. We are also saying that we want to transform this place into an energy and commodity exchange. So when we do all these, we will really be a central country. Turkiye contributes to Europes supply security. There are many more projects that we can develop. But today, Iraq needs natural gas, Iran needs electricity. So Turkiye has very important roles to play.

Bayraktar, who stated that the work in Akkuyu is continuing on the nuclear side, said, There is interest from Russia, South Korea, and China regarding the second and third power plants. But in addition to these, there are also countries and companies that we are negotiating with. One of them is Canada, for examplethe Candu company. Among these, we will make the choice that will be most beneficial to Turkiye and will offer us the most competitive offer.

Bayraktar underlined the need to achieve balance in the energy production portfolio and brought the subject to renewable resources. Bayraktar said, We added 6,800 megawatts of installed power in 2024, 98 percent of which is renewable. But we definitely need to have a balanced production portfolio. We must invest in coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydraulic resources.

Bayraktar also announced that they are working on a new incentive package that aims to increase electricity production from Turkiye's 22 billion tons of coal. Bayraktar, who shared that the package will not conflict with the zero carbon target, said, There may be a package that will somehow offset carbon emissions in coal power plants, perhaps with hybrid solar power plants and wind power plants.

Bayraktar, who stated that Turkiye aims to increase energy exports in order to normalize the energy infrastructure in Syria, reported that electricity exports are ongoing and that natural gas shipments will begin in the next few weeks. Bayraktar also stated that they are open to international cooperation for fields in Syria. Bayraktar, who recalled that Syria's daily oil production was around 630 thousand barrels in the early 2000s, said that this production dropped to 350380 thousand barrels before the civil war and that it has now returned to the 90100 thousand barrel range.

Bayraktar said, Regardless of where Turkiye is locatedin Syria, Iraq, or Europecooperation with Turkiye benefits everyone. Today, there is no country that can say, We entered into a business with Turkiye and suffered losses. This was against us. We are making a very important contribution to the security of natural gas supply with Europe. Turkiye is a very important country for the world oil market: the IraqTurkiye crude oil pipeline, the BakuTbilisiCeyhan pipeline. Our straits are very important transit routes. In other words, Turkiyes presence contributes in every field.

Bayraktar also responded to claims regarding the latest discovery of 75 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the Black Sea. Bayraktar said, The Abdulhamit Han Drilling Ship discovered a large reserve in Goktepe-2. I see on social media that This is actually related to increasing and updating the current reserve. However, it is a completely different location. There are 80 kilometers between them. Therefore, a new reserve, a new discovery.

Bayraktar also spoke about the electricity and natural gas needs of Cyprus and noted the following: We absolutely need to bring electricity to Cyprus. Today, both Southern Cyprus and Northern Cyprus produce electricity using fossil fuels. Europe, which is very sensitive about the environment, does not say, What are you doing, Southern Cyprus? However, if we bring electricity from Turkiye, there is an interconnection between the north and the south. Therefore, we can bring that electricity from the north to the south whenever they want. We can also provide this electricity from power plants that only produce renewable energy from Turkiye. Therefore, cooperation with Turkiye benefits everyone. However, as is known, Southern Cyprus, Greece, and the European Union are trying to create a political obstacle on this issue due to political motives. We are currently working very hard on the electricity issue of Cyprus. We have sent 5 of our different mobile power plants there125 megawatts. Now we will send 2 more.
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I was definitely guilty of micromanaging, I thought thats what being a good leader looked like

This weeks Founder Friday feature takes us inside the story of Nova Rosaia, founder of Warrior One Yoga, and how a personal craving for balance sparked a movement in Melbournes wellness scene.

From burnout to boldness, Novas journey is one of quiet reinvention, a reminder that powerful things often grow from lifes most vulnerable moments. A decade ago, Nova Rosaia wasnt just searching for a career shift, she was looking for something more honest, more aligned, more real. Burned out from years of intense strength training and craving a way to reconnect with her body, she and her then-husband found their way to the mat.

What started as a personal journey to rebuild physically and emotionally soon became the seed of something much bigger. That seed grew into Warrior One Yoga, now a premium wellness brand with three light-filled, coastal studios across Melbourne in Brighton, Mordialloc, and Mornington.

But for Nova, Warrior One was never simply about movement. From day one, it was a vision rooted in sanctuary. She imagined a space where people could land gently and leave stronger. Being a warrior is about showing up strong, grounded, and present, on your mat and in your life.

The name Warrior One Yoga came from the iconic pose, but for Nova, it carried something deeper: an energy of presence, courage, and clarity. That energy is now woven into every element of the brand. From the minimalist design to its intentionally gender-neutral tone, Warrior One defied the soft stereotypes often associated with yoga. We wanted to create something that felt inclusive and powerful. Something gender-neutral that could stand strong for years to come. Ten years on, I still love the name. It feels bold, clear, and totally aligned with who we are.

From just making it work to making it matter

I said yes before I felt ready. I backed myself, even when it was scary.

Like many founders, Novas early definition of success was simple: keep the doors open. Pay the bills. Get people in the room. But over time, that definition expanded. Now, success is about impact. How are we contributing to the yoga space? How are we challenging the norms and creating something lasting?

That lasting impact is evident. More than a decade in, Warrior One has weathered the fitness fads, endured a global pandemic, and stayed grounded through change. Many students who rolled out their mats on day one are still showing up years later. Nova is the first to admit it wasnt easy. But it was worth it. I said yes before I felt ready. I backed myself, even when it was scary. And I surrounded myself with incredible people who believed in the vision and were willing to build it with me.

Then came the ultimate stress test: Melbournes relentless COVID lockdowns. With over a year of forced closures, the very concept of community had to evolve overnight. It was one of the hardest times. Over 365 days of forced closure. But giving up wasnt an option. Nova and her team moved quickly, launching online classes and finding new ways to stay connected with their community. Our community reminded us we werent just a business, we were a lifeline. Its a testament to the emotional infrastructure Warrior One had quietly been building all along.

Learning how to lead without holding on too tight

In the early days, Nova tried to do it all. Like many entrepreneurs, she equated leadership with control. I was definitely guilty of micromanaging, I thought thats what being a good leader looked like. But over time, Ive learned that real leadership is about trust. Now, it means showing up with honesty, clarity, and heart. It means creating space for others to lead, too.

That evolution has helped Warrior One thrive not just as a brand, but as a business that doesnt depend on Novas daily presence. Ive also come to really value feedback. I want to keep growing, and I know that being a strong leader means listening, learning, and constantly evolving. That growth mindset is more than just philosophy, its the reason Warrior One is still growing, even after ten years.

A practice that became a passport to transformation

Though Warrior One is best known for its beautiful, fluid classes in Vinyasa, Slow Flow, and Yin, its the immersive experiences that often leave the biggest impact. From luxe weekend retreats to teacher training and international escapes, the brand has expanded into something far beyond a traditional studio.

People leave these experiences saying they feel like a new person. Its not just the movement, its the connection. Thats what truly sticks. Whether its a sun-drenched retreat on the Mornington Peninsula or a soul-resetting journey to India or Thailand, Warrior One has become known for creating spaces where people come home to themselves.

Looking ahead with heart and ambition

Growth didnt happen because we got everything right, it happened because we made bold decisions, took real risks, and kept showing up no matter what.

With three thriving studios, a deeply connected team, and a growing global retreat calendar, Nova is turning her focus outward to growth, to scale, to bigger impact. Im passionate about creating more community events, big scale events that bring people together, inspire them, and amplify the Warrior One mission. Running overseas retreats is also a big passion of mine, and I cant wait to offer more of these life-changing experiences in new locations. Its all about deepening our impact locally and beyond, continuing to create a space where people can connect, grow, and thrive.

And to any founder wondering if theyre ready? Nova leaves them with this: Growth didnt happen because we got everything right, it happened because we made bold decisions, took real risks, and kept showing up no matter what. We stayed committed to our values, backed our team, and kept moving forward even when things were uncertain. Thats what made the growth possible.

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Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged chief secretary Manoj Pant to raise multiple cross-border concerns with the central governmentranging from the duty-free import of Nepal tea to flood threats originating from Nepal and Bhutan.

At an administrative review meeting held at Uttarkanya, the chief minister expressed concern over the adverse impact of Nepal tea imports on the Darjeeling tea industry. We are not against our neighbouring country, but this is unfair trade practice. Nepal exports tea to India without any duty, while Indian tea faces a 40 per cent export duty when entering Nepal. This imbalance is unacceptable, she said.

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She warned that low-cost Nepal tea is being sold in India as Darjeeling tea by unscrupulous traders, threatening the authenticity and market of the prized Darjeeling brand. This cannot be tolerated. The central government must act to protect Darjeeling tea, Miss Banerjee asserted.

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The chief minister directed labour minister Moloy Ghatak to monitor the situation and ensure that Nepal tea is not passed off as Darjeeling tea in Indian markets. She also called for strict quality testing of Nepal tea imports in accordance with Indian food safety norms.

It may be noted that Nepal benefits from several exemptions under the Indo-Nepal Treaty, including duty-free tea exports to India.

CM urged a review of such provisions to prevent harm to local industries.

In the same meeting, the chief minister raised the issue of frequent floods and erosion along the Ganges in Malda and Murshidabad. She instructed the chief secretary to press the Centre for immediate financial assistance. The Farakka Barrage Project earlier maintained 180 km of riverbank. Now, it only manages 20 km. We demanded Rs 1,064 crore from the Centre for flood and erosion control, but not a single rupee has been released, Miss Banerjee said.

The state, she noted, has already taken up several projects costing Rs 446 crore, Rs 225 crore, and Rs 11 crore, respectively, to manage erosion and flooding in vulnerable stretches of the Ganges. Even during Jyoti Basus tenure, Rs 700 crore in central funds was pending, she added.

Miss Banerjee also highlighted the flood threats posed by upstream water release from Nepals Kosi river system, which affects parts of Jharkhand and Malda.

In addition, the chief minister urged the chief secretary to request the inclusion of a West Bengal representative in the Indo-Bhutan Joint River Commission. When Bhutan releases excess water, several districts in north Bengal are hit. We need a seat at the table to ensure timely information and coordinated flood management, she said.
Though granted bail by the Calcutta High Court, a local BDO in East Burdwan has denied entry to two Trinamul Congress leaders into their respective posts in a panchayat, sparking controversy today.

Rajnish Kumar Yadav, BDO of Burdwan1, issued a notice following the provisions laid down in Clause (a) of Sub-section (1) of Section 100 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973, which read: The members are requested not to perform, function and discharge any kind of official duties until further order.

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Rabindranath Chatterjee, district president of the ruling Trinamul Congress, expressed surprise at the BDOs move. He said: Once the court has granted bail, its surprising how the officer intended to cause hindrance to the elected public representatives.

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Kakoli Tah Gupta and Manas Bhattacharya  the member and Karmadhyaksha of Burdwan1 Panchayat Samiti  were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on 28 March in connection with a murder case in the local Rayan Panchayat area. Kakoli also serves as the president of the Burdwan1 Trinamul Congress committee, while Manas is the president of the Burdwan1 Youth TMC.

The court had sentenced 11 persons, including Manas, to 10 years imprisonment, and Kakoli to three years, taking into account her critical illness. The Calcutta High Court granted their bail petitions on Monday.
The all-party delegation of MPs of which Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee is part of paid tributes to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi today.

Later the delegation of MPs had a meeting at the Embassy of India in Tokyo. The delegation met with Ambassador Sibi George in Tokyo.

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They held meaningful discussions on global cooperation, intelligence sharing, and the role of diplomacy in combating the menace of terrorism.

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Sources said, the all-party parliamentary delegation met Takeshi Iwaya, foreign minister of Japan. Indias national consensus and resolute commitment to combat terrorism in all forms was reaffirmed by the delegation members. The finance minister of Japan reiterated Japans support to Indias fight against terrorism and expressed appreciation for the restraint shown by the Indian side. He called for punishing the perpetrators of terror activities.

Abhishek Banerjee, as part of the all-party delegation, met with prominent Japanese think tanks to underscore Indias uncompromising stance on terrorism. They exchanged insights on building a united global front against extremist threats.

Later in the day, Trinamul Congress national general secretary wrote in his X-handle: Honoured to be part of the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation representing INDIAs resolute stance against terrorism on the global stage. Day 1 in Tokyo began with a solemn tribute to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi ji at Edogawa which stands as an enduring symbol of IndiaJapan relations and our shared values of peace and non-violence.

At the Embassy of India, we were briefed by @AmbSibiGeorge on the significance of this outreach in strengthening bilateral cooperation on security. We presented Indias unwavering commitment to counter-terrorism during our meeting with H.E. Mr. Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan, expressed our gratitude for Japans consistent support in calling for justice against perpetrators of terror.

In our interaction with leading Japanese think tanks, we discussed regional security imperatives, state-sponsored terrorism and Indias policy of zero tolerance. The response was heartening, with strong support expressed for Indias efforts to uphold harmony.

Our delegation also called on Mr. Yoshihide Suga, former Prime Minister of Japan and Chairman of the JapanIndia Association. We reaffirmed Indias resolve to fight cross-border terrorism and deeply appreciate his commitment to reinforcing IndoJapanese cooperation in this shared cause. India stands firm. Terrorism has no place in our world.
A day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee disbursed the second instalment of funds under the Banglar Bari housing scheme for 12 lakh beneficiaries, Trinamul Congress leaders took to social media to amplify the schemes reach, financial details, and the governments commitment to housing for all.

Highlighting the states proactive approach, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said: When Delhi creates roadblocks on our path to development, Bengal creates its own way making itself swanirbhar (self sufficient). The central government did not release the rightful MGNREGA funds and deprived the people of Bengal. Mamata Banerjee released funds worth Rs 3,700 crore to 59 lakh job card-holders from the state treasury. The Centre deprived the hardworking people of their rights. When the Centre continues to block the way, Mamata Banerjee started the Karmashree scheme which provides 50 days of work, as an alternative path. Similarly, since the Centre blocked the funds for Awas Yojana, Mamata Banerjee started the Banglar Bari, a fully state-funded scheme and provided housing assistance to 12 lakh people. This is why we always say, Mamata Banerjees guarantee means 100 per cent warranty. Kotha dile kotha rakhar naam, Mamata Banerjee.

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Understanding the governments fulfilment of promises, TMC MP Ritabrata Banerjee said: Modi ki guarantee is the deliberate withholding of Rs 1.7 lakh crore in dues to Bengal, including over Rs 8,000 crore under Awas Yojana, depriving lakhs of people. But, Bengal, under leadership of Mamata Banerjee, doesnt wait around for the Centres charity. The Government of West Bengals Banglar Bari scheme ensured housing for 12 lakh families, who have now received their second installment, at the total expenditure of Rs 14,400 crore. That is Didi ki guarantee which has 100 per cent warranty.

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Referring to TMCs protest in Delhi against the central government over its economic blockade, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said: When our leader Abhishek Banerjee, along with other leaders and party workers, went to Delhi to demand Bengals rightful dues, our leaders were harassed. They were heckled and humiliated. But, Bengal will not bend to this anti-Bengal mindset of the Modi government in DelhiThe Bengal government, on its own, is disbursing funds under the Banglar Bari scheme to 12 lakh families even though the Modi government continues to withhold Awas Yojana dues to Bengal.

Taking to X, partys official handle posted: Bengal is self-reliant. We dont seek the Centres charity. With the Modi Govt. freezing Bengals Awas Yojana funds, Smt. @MamataOfficial launched Banglar Bari. Now, the second instalment of 60,000 is being rolled out to 12 lakh families, at a total outlay of 14,400 crore.

TMCs Kunal Ghosh called it BJPs provocation. BJPs political propaganda on the Murshidabad incident is provocative and politically-motivated. What happened in Murshidabad is condemnable, nobody supports it. Following the unrest, CM, state administration, and police have fulfilled all their duties. Be it compensation or rehabilitation, the state government has delivered on its responsibilities. There have been arrests and probe into the matter. Another aspect involves the larger conspiracy. How did outsiders, possibly including those from across the border, enter (the state)? Probe into the same is underway. TMC has carried itself as a responsible Opposition during Operation Sindoor. A multiparty delegation, including Abhishek Banerjee, has left for foreign countries. At a time when the country is united in its fight against terror, BJP leaders are busy with propaganda on Murshidabad. This is a part of their conspiracy.
Along with alcohol and stimulants, certain commonly consumed fruits, including mangoes and durians, can strain liver health and increase the risk of liver damage when eaten in excess.

Mangoes

Mangoes are cherished for their sweet taste and tropical aroma, making them a popular summer fruit. However, they are high in sugars, particularly fructose, which accounts for about 15% of the fruits flesh, according to a 2019 study published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Fructose is processed by the liver into fat, and excessive intake can lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), causing fat buildup in liver cells and increasing the risk of liver damage.

Experts recommend limiting mango consumption to one to two small mangoes per day for healthy individuals. Those with liver issues or diabetes should seek personalized advice from their healthcare provider.

Durians

A durian. Photo by VnExpress/ Manh Khuong

Known as the "king of fruits," durians are famous for their strong flavor and creamy texture. While they provide essential vitamins and minerals, they are also high in calories and saturated fats, which can negatively impact liver health.

The American Liver Foundation advises individuals with fatty liver disease to avoid foods high in sugar, fat, and calories, as these can worsen liver conditions. Additionally, a World Health Organization study has shown that high saturated fat intake increases the risk of insulin resistance and fatty liver. For people with fatty liver disease, excessive consumption of durian can impair the liver's ability to process fat, leading to inflammation and further fat buildup.

Longans

Longans are rich in fructose, glucose, and sucrose, which can put strain on the liver when consumed excessively. A 2021 study published in Food Frontiers showed that excessive consumption of longan promoted the development of NAFLD by causing gut dysbiosis, inflammation, and impaired liver function.

Hawthorn berries. Photo from Pixabay

Hawthorn is often used in jams, syrups, or eaten raw for its digestive benefits, thanks to its high levels of organic acids, such as citric acid. While it supports digestion, excessive intake can lead to gastrointestinal discomfort, including nausea, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

For individuals with liver impairments, consuming too much hawthorn may overload the liver, raising the risk of liver cell damage, according to national broadcaster Voice of Vietnam. Healthy individuals should limit their intake to around 100150 grams per serving to maintain optimal liver health.
The police were informed about the incident around 8:58 AM when locals reported a body near Sri Ram Medicos, adjacent to the community centre. Cops were promptly dispatched to the scene of the crime, police sources said.

The deceased has been identified as Deepak Kumar Gond from Maheshpur village in UPs Deoria district. He had recently moved to Delhi for work.

A 26-year-old man was found dead in the early hours of Thursday near the community centre in L Block, JJ Colony, Wazirpur, which lies in the north of the city, police said.

On reaching the spot, the police team found the body of a male, estimated to be 27-28 years old, with blood oozing from the mouth and ear but no visible external injuries elsewhere.

The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and crime team were called to examine the scene. A preliminary inquiry revealed no signs of foul play, an official said.

Later, the police learnt that the deceased had been residing as a tenant in a rented room located adjacent to the spot where his body was found.

Investigation revealed that Gond might have accidentally fallen from the rooftop of the residential building during the early hours.

Investigators found a broken brick on the rooftop, and the deceaseds white shirt was seen hanging on a nearby wall, suggesting it may have been an accident. However, the exact cause of death is yet to be determined.

Moreover, the forensic team thoroughly inspected both the rooftop of the building and the rented room where the deceased had been staying.

On being questioned, the landlord of the rented premises, Mohammad Feroz, stated that the deceased, who worked as an electrician in Delhi, had moved into the room just 4-5 days ago.

The body has been sent to the BJRM Hospital mortuary for postmortem examination.

Meanwhile, efforts are on to contact the deceaseds family. Police have ruled out any immediate suspicion of foul play. Further investigation is underway, the police said.
Delhi Police dismantled a high-stakes network of ISI sleeper cells by arresting two agents of the Islamic State in a covert operation conducted between January and March this year.

Officials said that a charge sheet has been filed on the suspects in this regard, following which the arrested individuals are currently lodged in Delhis Tihar Jail.

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According to police officials, of the two ISI agents arrested, one has been identified as Ansarul Mian Ansari, a native of Nepal. Officials have confiscated several confidential documents related to the armed forces from his possession.

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Ansari was held at a hotel in Delhi while en route to Pakistan. He had come to Delhi on the directives from the ISI and reportedly had been working to create a CD containing confidential documents to send to Pakistan.

According to police sources, following his interrogation, another individual was arrested in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Furthermore, Ansari revealed that he used to drive a cab in Qatar, where he came in contact with an ISI handler. Subsequently, he was taken to Pakistan, where senior ISI officials trained him for several days before sending him to Delhi via Nepal to execute the plan, officials said.

This input comes days after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested two absconders, allegedly part of a sleeper cell network of ISIS, from the Mumbai Airport.

Moreover, the duo, wanted in a 2023 case related to the fabrication and testing of IEDs in Pune, was intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration at the Mumbai International Airport Terminal 2 when they returned to India from Jakarta.

The two accused, identified as Abdullah Faiyaz Shaikh, alias Diaperwala, and Talha Khan, had been on the run for over two years and also had non-bailable warrants issued against them by a special NIA court in Mumbai.

The central probing agency had also declared a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh each for information about them, as per the police sources.
Delhis Social Welfare and Cooperation Minister Ravinder Indraj Singh on Thursday paid a visit to a manufacturing unit at the headquarters of the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), situated in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh to ensure the provision of modern and improved assistive devices for Divyangjans in the national capital.

Indraj stated that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Delhi Government is actively contributing towards the success of the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), aimed at the empowerment of persons with disabilities.

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As part of this effort, the Delhi minister visited ALIMCO headquarters in a bid to learn about the latest assistive technologies that are aimed to assist Divyangs, and those devices that are now more user-friendly.

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Modern devices, designed with the specific needs of the specially-abled in mind, are more efficient and manufactured with precision using the latest technology.

On the occasion, Praveen Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of ALIMCO, provided a detailed overview of their state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities and the latest assistive devices developed for Divyangjans.

After carefully observing and understanding the work done by the organisation, the social welfare minister emphasised that ALIMCOs technological innovations and dedication will significantly aid in the empowerment of persons with disabilities, adding that a detailed discussion was also held regarding potential collaboration under the Delhi Governments Sugamya Sahayak Yojana (Accessible Assistance Scheme).
Matters are reportedly getting heated for Hera Pheri 3. Recently, Paresh Rawal, who stars as the beloved Baburao in the film franchise, confirmed his exit from the third instalment. The unexpected turn in events after a greenlight, confused fans. Following this, reports emerged that Akshay Kumar is suing him for 25 crores for sabotaging the film. Now, his production banner has issued a statement revealing the details.

Following Paresh Rawals exit from Hera Pheri 3, Kumars production banner, Cape of Good Films, has released a statement. The banner is bankrolling the title. The statement revealed that Rawal had accepted an 11-lakh signing amount. It claimed that the actor did not express his dissatisfaction at any point in time during the initial shoot. Additionally, the statement also issued a warning. It stated that if Paresh Rawal didnt deposit 25 crores within seven days, civil and criminal actions would be initiated against him.

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The reported statement read, Mr Rawal had publicly acknowledged his participation in the film on 30th January 2025 via a post on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle. He further formalised his commitment by executing a Term Sheet dated 27th March 2025. Pursuant to which he accepted a part payment of Rs 11,00,000/- towards his remuneration. Acting in complete reliance on his public endorsement and contractual commitment, Cape of Good Films incurred substantial production and promotional expenditures, including those for the teaser and initial film shoot, in which Mr Rawal actively participated.

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Cape of Good Films sues #PareshRawal for 25 Cr over Hera Pheri 3 exit! The production house alleges unprofessional conduct after the veteran actor walked out midway through the project. All efforts were made to ensure a debt-free revival of the franchise, with rights pic.twitter.com/1aIdFTK9MA  Sumit Kadel (@SumitkadeI) May 20, 2025



Moreover, the banner revealed that the actor shot a substantial part of the teaser. The teaser shoot commenced on 3rd April 2025, and over 3 minutes of footage was shot with Mr Rawal. He also engaged in creative discussions and planning with fellow cast members, including Mr Akshay Kumar and Mr Suniel Shetty. At no point during this period were any concerns raised by Mr Rawal regarding creative issues.

Cape of Good Films also stated that they have incurred losses over Paresh Rawals abrupt exit. It is only after these significant investments and scheduling commitments were made that Mr Rawal abruptly attempted to exit the project, citing vague and belated creative differences. Cape of Good Films firmly believes that this justification is an afterthought, contrived to inflict maximum disruption on a beloved film franchise and undermine the goodwill it commands.

The sudden and unjustified withdrawal has caused severe financial loss, disrupted schedules, and jeopardised the momentum of a high-value production. In view of this, Cape of Good Films has demanded damages to the tune of Rs 25 crores from Mr Rawal. If the demand is not complied with within seven days, the company will be constrained to pursue appropriate legal remedies, including civil and criminal action.

Previously, in a brief statement to Bollywood Hungama, Rawal confirmed that he is no longer a part of the film. He said, Yes, its a fact.

With the issue taking a legal turn, it remains to be seen how the fate of the title plays out.

Also Read: Deepika Padukone dropped from Sandeep Reddy Vangas Spirit over demands?
Tom Cruise is back in the spotlightbut not just for his action-packed return in Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning.

While the Hollywood superstar graced the red carpet in New York for the latest installment of his legendary spy franchise, a simple Fathers Day question managed to steal the show and stir up headlines.

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During a quick red carpet chat with E! News, Cruise was reminded that Fathers Day was just around the corner.

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The interviewer then asked what an ideal Fathers Day looked like for him. Seems like a harmless question, right?

Not for Cruise.

Caught off guard, the actor paused, glanced away briefly, and then gave a vague and cheerful answer: Hey, just having fun, man. Making movies, big adventure, having a great time.

That was it. No mention of his three children. No heartfelt message. Just movies and good times.

Naturally, the internet noticed.

Tom Cruise is a father of threetwo adopted children, Isabella (32) and Connor (30), with former wife Nicole Kidman, and a biological daughter, Suri (19), with ex-wife Katie Holmes.

But its his relationship with Suri thats long been under the microscope.

Reports suggest the actor has been estranged from Suri for years. Last year, he was notably absent from her high school graduation, where she went by Suri Noelledropping her fathers last name in favor of her mothers middle name.

Now attending Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Suri is charting her own path, seemingly far from her famous fathers orbit.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tom Cruise (@tomcruise)

The awkward response to a simple question has reignited speculation about the state of Cruises personal life. While hes always been intensely private about family matters, the brief dodge gave fans and media alike something to chew on, especially given the upcoming holiday in the west meant to celebrate dads.

On the professional front, Cruise is still in full throttle mode. Mission: Impossible  The Final Reckoning is the eighth film in the high-octane franchise, directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

The movie reunites Cruise with franchise regulars like Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Pom Klementieff. New faces joining the action include Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, and Hannah Waddingham.
The casting couch is an ugly secret that continues to lurk in the shadows of the film industry, and recently, Saiyami Kher bravely shared her own unsettling experience.

The actress revealed that when she was just 19 or 20, a female casting agent in the Telugu film world suggested shed have to make compromises to land a role. But Saiyami wasnt about to be intimidated, she called the agent out with a calm, firm confidence that speaks volumes.

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In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, Saiyami Kher recounted the moment with a mix of disbelief and maturity.

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View this post on Instagram A post shared by Saiyami Kher (@saiyami)

I was lucky with the offers I got, but this one time, a woman  a casting agent  told me, You will have to make compromises. Since it was a woman saying this to me, I wanted to test her, she said. It struck a chord because it felt like a betrayal, coming from someone who should understand the struggles of another woman.

Rather than letting it slide, Saiyami kept her cool and pressed for clarity.

I kept saying, Maam, Im not understanding what youre saying, to make her spell it out, she explained. Eventually, the agent hinted at what she meant, but Saiyami was ready. I told her, Im sorry if you think Im someone who needs to go down this route, but there are limits I wont cross. That was the end of it.

The actress emphasized that this was a one-time incident, the only time a woman tried to pressure her in that way.

Saiyami Kher, known for her work in both Hindi and Telugu films  from her debut in Mirzya to her recent role in Sunny Deols Jaat  joins a growing chorus of actors speaking out about casting couch experiences in Indian cinema.
A 48-hour state-wide bandh called by the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), a key civil society group representing Meitei interests, has paralyzed daily life across the Imphal Valley, with widespread shutdowns affecting commercial and public life in five districts.

The bandh, which began at midnight on Wednesday, was triggered by an incident during preparations for the Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul, where it was alleged that security personnel forced the removal of the word Manipur from a state government bus.

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The bus, operated by the Directorate of Information and Public Relations (DIPR), was carrying journalists to cover the festival and was reportedly stopped at Gwaltabi checkpoint, where the name was obscured.

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The incident has reignited anxieties among Meitei groups over what they perceive as attempts to undermine Manipurs territorial and cultural integritya deeply sensitive issue amid ongoing ethnic tensions between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo communities.

COCOMI, which has been vocal about safeguarding Manipurs unity, termed the act anti-Manipur and demanded accountability.

Its convenor, Khuraijam Athouba, said, Removing the states name is an affront to Manipurs identity and history. The public deserves to know who authorized this act.

The bandh led to the closure of all shops, businesses, educational institutions, and government and private offices across Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Thoubal, and Kakching districts. Public transport was off the roads, leaving major routes deserted.

Protesters set up road blockades by burning tyres and enforced shutdowns in neighbourhoods like Wangkhei, Khurai, Kongba, Kwakeithel, and Naoremthong.

In anticipation of unrest, the government ramped up security, especially around Raj Bhavan and other sensitive zones, deploying central forces to prevent escalation.

In response to public outrage, the state government has announced a formal inquiry. A two-member panel, comprising Commissioner (Home) N. Ashok Kumar and Secretary Th. Kirankumar Singh, has been assigned to investigate the Gwaltabi incident. The committee is expected to submit its report within 15 days, along with recommendations to avoid similar controversies in the future.

COCOMI has further demanded a public apology from Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla, and sought the resignation of Security Advisor Kuldiep Singh, Director General of Police Rajiv Singh, and Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh, accusing them of failing to uphold Manipurs dignity.

The protests unfold against the backdrop of the resumption of the Shirui Lily Festival, which is being held after a two-year hiatus due to the ethnic conflict that erupted in May 2023.

The festival, meant to celebrate the rare Shirui lily native to Ukhrul district, had previously served as a platform for ethnic harmony.

However, with Presidents Rule imposed in February 2025 following the resignation of Chief Minister N. Biren Singh, tensions remain high.
Huge relief is palpable in the DMK following the Supreme Court staying the money laundering probe into the Tamil Nadu state-run monopoly IMFL retailer, TASMAC, with the ruling party on Thursday launching a scathing attack on the Centre and the Enforcement Directorate, terming the latter as a blackmailing agency.

The Supreme Courts stay on the ED probe into the alleged Tasmac scam is a hammer blow to the BJPs attempt to paint the DMK government of MK Stalin as corrupt. The ED is a blackmailing agency, party Organising Secretary R S Bharathi told reporters, shortly after the apex court order, at the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam in Chennai.

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Ever since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the ED has been used against non-BJP ruled states to discredit and destabilise them, he alleged adding that the BJP, unable to digest the rising popularity of Chief Minister MK Stalin and the successive electoral success of the DMK-led alliance, was using the ED to malign the DMK government with leaders of the saffron party making all kinds of charges.

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The Supreme Court has handed out a hammer blow to all that, we welcome it. Henceforth the Union Government should stop misusing the ED, Bharathi said.

Alleging further, he slammed the ED as a blackmailing agency and cited the instances of ED officials arrested in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in connection with bribery allegations. With barely seven months left for the assembly election, efforts are made to paint the DMK government as corrupt. The apex court order will put an end to the persistent nuisance of the ED, he said.

Meanwhile, DMK Lawyers Wing secretary NR Elango, MP, made it clear that the party would take legal action against the errant ED officials misusing the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) as provided in the statute at the appropriate time.

For the first time the Supreme Court has pulled up the ED for acting against the Federal structure of the country and state autonomy. The ED is used to target the opposition ruled states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu. As such, we see this apex court order as one for the entire country, he said.

Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) is the sole retailer of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) and the ED has carried out raids on the Tasmac headquarters here and on liquor manufacturers as well as bottling units and claimed to have unearthed a scam running to Rs 1000 crores.

With the Madras High Court giving the go ahead, the ED had carried out further searches and questioned Tasmac MD, S Visakan, a promoted IAS officer. The present order of the SC was made on the plea of the state challenging the High Court order.
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday said India is the home of alternative medicine and it is being practiced now very extensively.

Dhankhar called for focusing on alternative medicine and for evidence-based validation of Indias ancient texts to make them accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges.

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Speaking at an event in Raj Bhavan, Goa, Dhankhar said, We are a nation with a difference.We are rediscovering our roots, and we will get rooted in our roots. I strongly focus on alternative medicine because India is the home of alternative medicine. It is being practiced now very extensively.

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Let us not confine our ancient texts to libraries. They are not meant for the shelf of a library. They are meant to be widely disseminated. Let us bring timeless ideas to life through research, innovation, and reinterpretation using modern scientific tools. Let us pursue evidence-based validation, digitisation, translations, and cross-disciplinary studies to make these treasures accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges, he said.

The Vice-President lauded the global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar.

I am extremely happy that the World Health Organisation has recognised it by establishing a global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat. What a powerful recognition of the universal relevance of our systems like Ayurveda, he said.

Time for us to look back in our Vedas, in our Upanishads, in our Puranas, in our history, and time to tell our children from birth about our civilizational depth of knowledge, Dhankhar added.

Addressing the gathering after commissioning the statutes, Dhankhar said, We are celebrating today, those who epitomise knowledge  Charak. Charak was a royal physician in Kushan Kingdom. Charak is known as father of medicine and author of Charak Samhita, it is a foundational text for Ayurveda. The other one, Sushrut, father of Surgery, then. I had the occasion to see what you had put in your paintings. Surgical instruments during those days, so forward looking and we must always remember. Sushrut was a disciple of Dhanvantari, another celebrated name. Let the lives and works of Charaka and Sushruta be a source of inspiration and motivation for all, particularly our impressionable minds.

Reflecting on the need to take pride in our ancient knowledge, the Vice-President underscored,  I wish to also focus on, also highlight a particular cultural trait. It is our cultural trait. Within sections of our society, there is a belief.

He said anything Indic or ancient is regressive, adding that This trait has no place in modern India. This trait has no place in our times. The world has realised our importance. Time for us also to realise it. We cannot afford a situation to believe West is modern and progressive. Look at the current scenario, and you will find it is far from it. India is the centre. International Monetary Fund was not wrong and must have said with great difficulty, We are a centre of excellence, Dhankhar said.

We are a hot spot of golden opportunities, opportunity for investment. That being the situation, let us believe in Indic situations. West is far behind us. In their own mind, they are learning from us, he said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to put in space the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), a modular space station, by 2035, ISROs Chairman and Secretary of the Department of Space, Dr. V. Narayanan, said.

The launching of BAS will enhance Indias presence in space research and foster advancement in space technology, Dr. Narayanan said while having an interaction with students, researchers and faculty members of Siksha O Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) here on Wednesday.

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Indias first ever human space flight mission, Gaganyaan is expected to be launched in March 2027 for which four test pilots are undergoing training to be astronauts, he informed.

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This will be preceded by launching of uncrewed missions to test systems as Indias objective is to become a global space power by 2047, Dr. Narayanan said adding only Russia, the United States and China had been successful to independently launch humans into space till now.

Dr. Narayanan, a rocket propulsion expert, said though Indias space program had started in 1962, it had traversed a long way technologically since then and was contemplating to take an Indian to the Moon and bring him back safely.

Pointing out that ISRO was established in 1969 when the US had already become successful in putting Neil Armstrong on the Moon, he said despite the late start ISRO had made phenomenal progress and succeeded in putting the first 35 kg satellite in space in 1980.

Since then, India has been able to develop six generations of launch vehicles and created a record by conceiving a 40-storey high rocket in only 27 days, he said.

There was a time, Dr. Narayanan said, when India was mocked, insulted and denied access to cryogenic engine technology. But India had, since then, been able to develop three such engines, two of them indigenously.

India is the only country which soft landed Chandrayaan-3 on Moons south pole and is the first to find water molecules on the lunar surface, he said adding the country created a world record by placing more than 100 satellites in space on a single mission.

India is also the only nation to have reached Mars orbit in its very first attempt, Dr. Narayanan said.

Chandrayan-4, Dr. Narayanan said, would be a complex mission as it would be expected to bring back lunar samples. India planned to launch Chandrayaan-5 in collaboration with Japan.

One of ISROs significant achievements has been the successful completion of a docking experiment involving two satellites which was executed with exceptional precision on January 16, 2025. The docking happened when the satellites were travelling at a speed of 28,400 km per hour, he said.

Subsequently, ISRO scientists successfully conducted the undocking experiment in a circular orbit, Dr. Narayanan said.

Prof. Damodar Acharya, Chairman of SOAs International Advisory Board and former Director of IIT, Kharagpur was present.

SOAs Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda welcomed Dr. Narayanan while Prof. Renu Sharma, Additional Dean (Student Affairs), proposed the vote of thanks. Prof. Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students Welfare) conducted the program.
A female chemistry professor in Shaanxi Province in northwestern China has become a billionaire by transforming her academic research into a thriving beauty business.

Fan Daidi, 59, and her husband Yan Jianya have drawn national attention after being named the richest individuals in Shaanxi, according to The Standard.

Fan, currently dean of Northwest University's chemical engineering school, built her fortune by commercializing innovations in collagen synthesis, growing her skincare company, Giant Biogene, to a valuation of 75 billion yuan (US$10.4 billion).

Chemistry professor Fan Daidi in a photo posted on the website of asset management firm Gemway Assets.

A report by Shenzhen-based New Fortune magazine on May 9 estimated that the couple's combined holdings are worth over 40 billion yuan.

The two own stakes in two major companies: Giant Biogene, which operates in the cosmetics and biotech sectors, and XiAn Triangle Defense, which is active in the aerospace and defense industries.

Born in Shaanxi in 1966, Fan enrolled at Northwest University in 1984 to studied inorganic chemical engineering, where she earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees. She later received a doctorate in biochemical engineering from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. In 1994, she returned to Northwest University to teach and conduct research.

Since 1998, her lab has focused on synthesizing recombinant collagen, created through genetic engineering rather than extracted from animals. In 2000, she developed a high-density fermentation technology to produce human-like collagen and filed China's first patent application for recombinant collagen. A year later, Fan and her husband founded Giant Biogene, according to the South China Morning Post.

By 2019, the company had become China's largest producer of collagen-based skincare products and one of the world's leading manufacturers of recombinant collagen. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2022, with the couple retaining a 56.5% stake.

Although Fan stepped down as CEO due to other commitments, she remains the company's controlling shareholder and chief scientific officer. Over the years, she has led the development of several innovations, including a method for formulating rare ginseng saponins - bioactive compounds found in ginseng. Her work has helped industrialize biomedical materials and established her as a leading figure in China's biochemistry sector.

According to a company announcement, Fan resigned from her executive director role due to work obligations but continues to serve as the company's chief scientific officer.

Her daughter, Yan Yubo, 29, currently holds the roles of executive director and chief product officer, SCMP reported.
India will be able to save 1.6 percent of its GDP, amounting to Rs 5 lakh crore, if Lok Sabha and state assembly elections are held simultaneously. This was stated by PP Chaudhary, chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in Dehradun on Thursday. The committee is also known as the panel on the One Nation One Election Bill introduced by the Centre in December 2024.

Speaking to the media, PP Chaudhary stated that the nation currently incurs financial losses amounting to around 1.6 percent of its GDP under the existing system, where states hold elections at different times. A study by the Centre shows that if elections for all state assemblies and the Parliament are held together under the One Nation, One Election provisions, it will help the national exchequer save 5 lakh crore. This is approximately 1.6 percent of the countrys GDP, Chaudhary said.

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He added that an estimated 4.84 crore workers migrate across the country during different assembly polls, which adversely impacts industrial production nationwide. Additionally, students also suffer as parts of the country undergo elections every year.

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Chaudhary and other committee members were on a two-day visit to Uttarakhandthe second state they visited after Maharashtrato interact with civil society and seek public opinion on the Centres One Nation, One Election Bill.

Chaudhary said that so far, the JPC has visited Maharashtra and Uttarakhand. Its interactions with the chief ministers of the two states and civil society have been very productive, as they expressed support for the provision of One Nation, One Election, considering it in the national interest. They also stated that this reform would not only save a significant amount of revenue but also strengthen the countrys democracy and increase voter turnout in elections.

Speaking on how the One Nation, One Election law will help maintain the election cycle in cases of hung assemblies or Lok Sabha dissolution, and when Article 356 of the Constitution is imposed in states, the committee chairman said that in extreme situations, re-elections will be held only for the remaining tenure of those assemblies. However, Chaudhary stated that the provisions enshrined in the bill prevent the political class or ruling dispensation from forcibly dissolving assemblies to suit their political agenda, mainly out of fear of being exposed before the people.
In a loud and clear message to Islamabad post Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday made it clear that India would not allow Pakistan access to its rightful share of water and that playing with Indian blood would come at a steep cost.

This resolve is Indias commitment, one that no force in the world can shake, he declared while asserting that any discussion with Pakistan would solely revolve around Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK). He warned that if Pakistan continued exporting terrorists, it would face economic ruin.

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There will be no trade  no talks with Pakistan and not even water from India be given, this is the firm resolve of new India, the PM said.

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No power in the world can deviate India from this resolve. Playing a bloody game with India would cost Pakistan dearly, PM Modi said while addressing a public meeting in Palana, Bikaner District, Rajasthan, exactly a month after the Pahalgam terror attack.

He categorically reiterated that even a single terror attack against India henceforth will make Pakistan liable for paying the heavy cost. We will retaliate appropriately and effectively. The time, mode (of gravity), and other conditions would be decided and dictated by our armed forces, the PM said.

We will not distinguish between terrorists and those who support themwhether defending a government or operating independently, both will be treated as one. The excuse of state and non-state actors will no longer be accepted to justify actions or situations, PM cautioned. The nuclear blackmailing would also not deter or scare us, Modi said.

This operation was not revenge or retaliation, rather it was the new mode of delivering justice by India. This is the Samarth Bharats Raudra Swaroop (Avtar)', Modi asserted.

Pakistan can not win against India in direct and full-blown war, that is why for decades that country had been inflicting terrorism as the proxy war, he said.

He then affirmed, Let it be clearModi is calm and composed in mind, but his blood runs hot. Its not just blood that flows through Modis veins, its fiery sindoora symbol of unwavering passion and resolve.'

Earlier, in his address, the Prime Minister talked about the intensified efforts made by his government in expansion, upgradations and updation of the Indian Railways network.

More than 105 projects, with a total investment of Rs 26,000 crore across 18 states, were either inaugurated or had their foundation stones laid simultaneously by the Prime Minister via remote control from Palana.

These included the inauguration of 103 redeveloped railway stations across the country under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.

Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagade, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnav and Arjun Lal Meghwal, and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje were present.

Soon after landing at Nal Airport, Prime Minister Modi interacted with airmen at the key IAF base that was the target of Pakistans unsuccessful air strikes. Expressing satisfaction, Modi said, Pakistan had attempted to target [the base] but failed to inflict any damage. This shows our strength and capability.

Five years ago, after the Balakot strikes, PM Modi chose the Rajasthani town of Churu to address his first public meeting following the surgical strikes.

He also paid obeisance at the Karni Mata shrine.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has rejected any offer of mediation by the international community, including US President Donald Trump, between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and made it clear that there will be consequences for Pakistan if terrorist attacks from its territory continue.

An article in De Volkskrant during his visit to the Netherlands quoted the Indian minister as saying, We want a definitive end to terrorism. Our message is therefore: yes, the ceasefire has put an end to military actions against each other for now, but if the terrorist attacks from Pakistan continue, there will be consequences. The Pakistanis must understand that very well.

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Describing Pakistan as an epicentre of terrorism, Mr Jaishankar said terrorist groups active in Pakistan receive support from the Pakistani state. To strengthen his argument, he asked the questioner, Suppose there were large military centres in the middle of a city like Amsterdam where tens of thousands of people gathered for military training, would you say that your government knows nothing about that? Of course not.

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He said the world should not go along with the narrative that Pakistan does not know what is happening. The most notorious terrorists on the United Nations (UN) sanctions list are all in Pakistan. They operate in the big cities, in broad daylight. Their addresses are known. Their activities are known. Their mutual contacts are known. So lets not pretend that Pakistan is not involved. The state is involved. The army is up to its neck in it.

Mr Jaishankar disagreed with a suggestion that terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is partly the result of the Kashmir issue and that this should be resolved first to combat the menace. No, for us terrorism is an independent, completely unacceptable international crime that should not be condoned or justified, he said.

He said, The terrorists targeted the vibrant tourism industry in Jammu and Kashmir with their attack. So they are prepared to destroy things in Kashmir for their own, very limited, selfish purposes. They also deliberately gave the attack a very religious tint (Hindu versus Muslim, ed.). The world should not accept such practices.

As for Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Jaishankar said it is a historical fact that it joined India when there was partition in 1947. Our position is that the illegal occupiers should return their illegally occupied parts to the rightful owner. And that is us.

On whether the international community can mediate or whether India is going to accept President Trumps offer, the minister said, No, it is a bilateral issue between the countries involved.

On whether India has the ambition to take Chinas place as the worlds factory, he said, Our hope is indeed that the manufacturing of products in India will grow and that we will be more integrated into global production chains. New technology can be an entry point. So our interests in market access cover a much broader spectrum of modern products, such as electronic hardware, chemicals, or all kinds of pharmaceuticals.

Asked if India already has the political influence it should have, since despite being the largest country in the world in terms of population, it is not yet a permanent member of the UN Security Council, he said, That permanent seat on the Security Council is indeed one of our goals. We believe that if the much-needed reform of the UN and the Security Council finally comes about, we will receive a lot of support for our claim.

On whether India can also play a mediating role in ending the Russian war against Ukraine, he said India has a position that many countries in the Global South probably share. India strives for a peaceful solution to this conflict. If we can do something about it, we are open to it. But of course this depends on the parties involved.
An all-party delegation led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi on Thursday left for a five-nation visit as part of Indias diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor with a brief to further expose Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and foster international solidarity against terrorism.

The delegation will visit Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia, and Spain to project the countrys resolute approach to combat terrorism in all its forms.

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Asserting that the primary objective of the visit is to communicate Indias unified stand on terrorism and counter misinformation being spread globally, Ms Kanimozhi said: Our objective is to take the message of India to different countries, to explain what has happened here, and to make the world understand the truth. We have to resolve this problem, and the world has to stand together against terrorism.

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Asserting that the biggest issue is terrorism, Ms Kanimozhi underlined: We lost 26 lives to terrorism, and we want to talk about what happened and what is happening in this country because of terrorism...the truth has to be told.

The most important thing is that all of us stand together when it comes to the security and sovereignty of this country. I think there is no difference of opinion on that, she further added.

Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Prem Chand Gupta, also a part of the Kanimozhi-led delegation, said: The agenda is clear. We have to expose Pakistans false propaganda.

Another member of the delegation, Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai, said that the aim is to isolate Pakistan, which is a supporter of terror acts against India.

We will tell the world about all the incidents from the Pahalgam terrorist attack to Operation Sindoor, Rajeev Rai said.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Ashok Kumar Mittal, also a part of the delegation, exuded confidence that the World community would show solidarity with Indias stand.

The all-party delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and the one led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde have already embarked on their respective 5-nation visits on Wednesday.

While the delegation led by Sanjay Jha is visiting Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Singapore, the one led by Shrikant Shinde is on a visit to the UAE, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead of responding to serious public issues, is delivering grand-sounding but hollow film-style dialogues.

Instead of throwing out grand sounding, but hollow filmi dialogues in public rallies as he has done in Bikaner today, the Prime Minister should answer serious questions that are being asked of him, he said in a post on platform X.

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Reiterating several questions in connection with the Pahalgam terrorist attack, Jairam Ramesh in his post claimed, Instead of throwing out grand-sounding but hollow filmi dialogues in public rallies as he has done in Bikaner today, the Prime Minister should answer serious questions that are being asked of him.

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Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan during a rally in Bikaner early Thursday, the Prime Minister condemned the April 22 terrorist attack and praised the Indian armed forces for their swift retaliation.

Recalling how the terrorists targeted innocents, singled them out by religion and wiped the sindoor off womens foreheads, and then in retaliation Indian armed forces buried them in the soil the Prime Minister claimed: Sindoor, not blood, flows through Modis veinsthat terror camps were destroyed within 22 minutes..Armed forces got a free hand and forced Pakistan to back down. 

Taking a calculated swipe at what he dubbed Prime Ministers film-style posturing, Mr Ramesh questioned: Why are the brutal killers of Pahalgam still freeaccording to some reports, they had been responsible for three earlier terror attacks in Poonch, Gagangir, and Gulmarg over the past 18 months. Why have you not chaired any all-party meeting and taken the opposition parties into confidence? he asked.

Ramesh further questioned: (as to) why have you not called a special session of Parliament to reiterate the unanimously passed resolution of Feb 22, 1994 and update it, given the deep China-Pakistan nexus evident during Operation Sindoor? Why have you stubbornly remained silent on the repeated claims being made by President Trump and US Secretary of State Rubio on the US role over the past two weeks, especially?

Earlier today, the Congress had also reiterated its demand for a clarification from the government on the repeated claims being bragged by US President Donald Trump of brokering India-Pakistan ceasefire.

For the 8th time in 11 days, President Trump has  1. Claimed full credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. 2. Praised the PMs of India and Pakistan equally and put them on par in every way 3. Reiterated that trade with the US was the instrument he used to get India and Pakistan to declare a ceasefire, Jairam Ramesh had alleged in a post on platform X.

Crediting his personal diplomacy and ongoing trade deals for the de-escalation , US President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to pat his back that it was he who played a key role in stopping hostilities between India and Pakistan.

If you look at what we did with Pakistan and India, we resolved that whole issue, and I think we resolved it through trade, Donald Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Yet our PMDonald bhais great buddyis completely silent on what the US President is repeatedly saying. The External Affairs Minister also continues to maintain complete quiet on what his pal, the US Secretary of State, has said in support of the US Presidents claims and about the neutral site for talks between India and Pakistan, Mr Ramesh pointed out questioning: Why this thundering silence?

Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also questioned Prime Minister Modi, Why did you believe Pakistans statement on terrorism? Why did you sacrifice Indias interests by bowing to Trump? Why does your blood boil only in front of cameras?
Prime Minister Narendra arrived at Nal air base of the Indian Air Force for a brief visit to the Bikaner district of Rajasthan and greeted the soldiers for their grand success in Operation Sindoor. He dedicated to the nation Rs 26,000 crore development projects and also paid obeisance at the Karni Mata shrine.

On his almost three and a half hours visit to the bordering district along the India-Pak International Border, a month after the Pahalgam terror attack, PM Modi landed at the Nal IAF airport in Bikaner at 10:15 am.

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At the air base, he interacted with airmen and other ranks of the IAF, greeted them for the successful Operation Sindoor.

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After a short halt at the Naal air base, the Prime Minister flew to Desknoke in a helicopter, where he visited the famous Karni Mata shrine to pay his obeisance.

PM Modi performed Aarti and other holy rituals at the temple and prayed for the nation. Rajasthan Governor Haribhau Bagade and Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, and Union Minister Arjun Lal Meghwal accompanied the Prime Minister.

Thereafter, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the renovated Deshnoke railway station and dedicated infrastructure projects worth around Rs 26,000 crore to the nation.

At the function, Mr Modi inaugurated 103 redeveloped railway stations, which included 8 in Rajasthan under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, marking a historic leap towards modernising Indian Railways.

These 103 redeveloped Amrit Stations in 86 districts across 18 states and Union Territories, developed at a cost of over Rs 1,100 crore.

The Deshnoke railway station, which serves pilgrims and tourists visiting the Karni Mata Temple and other sites, is inspired by temple architecture with an arch and column theme.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone for the 58 km Churu- Sadulpur rail line and dedicated to the nation the electrification of the Suratgarh-Phalodi (336 km), Phulera-Degana (109 km), Udaipur-Himmatnagar (210 km), Phalodi-Jaisalmer (157 km), and Samdari-Barmer (129 km) rail lines.

In a major boost to road infrastructure in Rajasthan, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of three vehicle underpasses and the widening and strengthening of national highways. He also dedicated seven roadway projects in the state. The highways extend up to the Indo-Pak border, enhancing accessibility for security forces and strengthening Indias defence infrastructure.

Furthering the vision of electricity for all and clean, green energy, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for several power projects, including solar projects in Bikaner and Nawan (Didwana Kuchaman), and transmission systems for power evacuationPart B PowerGrid Sirohi Transmission Ltd and Part E PowerGrid Mewar Transmission Ltd.

He also inaugurated power projects, including a solar project in Bikaner, a transmission system for evacuation of power from PowerGrid Neemuch and the Bikaner Complex, and augmentation of transformation capacity at the Fatehgarh-II Power Station, which will provide clean energy and reduce carbon emissions.

The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone, inaugurated, and dedicated 25 important state government projects across Rajasthan to enhance infrastructure, connectivity, power supply, health services, and water availability in the state. These include the foundation stone laying and dedication of projects for the upgradation and maintenance of 12 state highways, covering a total length of over 750 km, with a total investment of over Rs 3,240 crore. The programme includes an additional 900 km of new highways.

The Prime Minister inaugurated power projects of Bikaner and Udaipur, and Nursing Colleges in Rajsamand, Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, and Dholpur, which will play a key role in enhancing health infrastructure in the state. Modi also laid the foundation stone and dedicated to the nation various water infrastructure projects in the region, including the Rural Water Supply and Fluorosis Mitigation Project in Jhunjhunu district, and the restructuring of Urban Water Supply Schemes in seven towns of Pali District under AMRUT 2.0, among others.
In a tribute to legendary music maestro and cultural icon Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, the Assam Legislative Assembly will convene a special one-day session on June 9, 2025, to formally pass a proposal to rename the Dibrugarh airport in his honour.

The session, summoned by Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya under Article 174(1) of the Constitution of India, will begin at 9:30 am at the Assembly Chamber in Dispur. A notification from the Assam Legislative Assembly Secretariat dated May 15 confirmed the schedule.

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Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced the purpose of the session on Wednesday, highlighting that the renaming is part of the ongoing efforts to commemorate the birth centenary of Bhupen Hazarika, whose contribution to Assamese and Indian music, cinema, and socio-political thought continues to inspire generations.

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Honble Governor, Shri @Laxmanacharya54 ji has called for a One Day special session of @AssamAssembly on June 9, 2025 to pass a proposal on renaming the Dibrugarh Airport after Bharat Ratna Dr Bhupen Hazarika, CM Sarma stated in a post on social media platform X.

The proposal follows a Cabinet decision taken earlier this year to mark the cultural stalwarts centennial.

Dr. Hazarika, who passed away in 2011, was not only a musical genius but also a poet, filmmaker, and political voice of the Northeast. Naming one of Assams busiest airports after him is being seen as a fitting tribute to his lasting legacy.

Bhupen Hazarikas roots lie close to Dibrugarh  he was born in Sadiya, a town in the districts vicinity.

The June 9 session will likely witness bipartisan support, given Dr. Hazarikas pan-Assamese and national stature.
In a remarkable push toward wildlife preservation, the Uttar Pradesh government has taken unprecedented measures to conserve turtle species across the state.

Known for his deep compassion toward animals, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has prioritised turtle conservation as a key environmental initiative.

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As people across the globe celebrate World Turtle Day on May 23 to raise awareness about the protection and biological significance of turtles, Uttar Pradesh stands out with its proactive efforts.

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Turtles are considered one of the oldest and longest-living creatures on Earth and play a vital role in maintaining aquatic ecosystems. Often referred to as the cleaners of water bodies, these creatures help control pollution in rivers, ponds, and lakes. In recognition of their ecological and cultural importance, especially as the revered Kurma Avatar in Indian tradition, the UP government has intensified its conservation efforts.

Under this initiative, turtles rescued from illegal trafficking in other states are being relocated and protected in Uttar Pradesh. Several conservation centres have been established, including those in Kukrail, Sarnath, and Chambal, along with a dedicated Turtle Sanctuary near Prayagraj. These centres serve as safe habitats and breeding grounds for various turtle species.

Of the 30 turtle species found in India, 15 can be seen in Uttar Pradesh alone. The states Forest Department, under the Chief Ministers leadership, remains fully committed to protecting these ancient reptiles. Species like Katahwa, Morpankhi, Saal, and Sundari are playing an essential role in keeping water bodies clean and ecologically balanced amidst growing pollution concerns.

The Forest and Wildlife Department of Uttar Pradesh has taken several steps to stop the extinction of turtles and to prevent their illegal trade. Turtles caught in different states of North India have been brought here and rehabilitated in Uttar Pradesh. These efforts are ongoing. The state is moving forward with turtle conservation through three centresKukrail, Sarnath, and Chambal.

Under the Namami Gange projects, work has also begun to identify and protect turtles and their natural habitats. A turtle sanctuary has been set up near Prayagraj.

Arvind Yadav, DFO of Prayagraj, said that the sanctuary was established in 2020. It covers a 30 km of the catchment areas of the River Ganga and surrounding coastal areas. It stretches across three districtsstarting from Kothari Meja in Prayagraj, passing through Mirzapur and Bhadohi, and reaches up to Uparwar.

Notably, there are 30 species of turtles found in India, out of which 15 species are found in Uttar Pradesh. These include Brahmani, Pacheda, Kori Pacheda, Kalitoh, Kala Kacchua, Haldi Baath Kacchua, Saal Kacchua Tilakdhari, Dhor Kacchua, Bhootkatha Kacchua, Pahadi Trikutki Kacchua, Sundari Kacchua, Morpankhi Kacchua, Katahwa Litherhwa, Syontar Fighter, Parvati Kacchua, and others.

Anuradha Vemuri, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), UP, mentioned on Thursday that under the guidance of the state government, the Forest and Wildlife Department is continuously working for turtle conservation.
The Union Government has finally yielded to the demands of various pressure groups for conducting a caste census side by side with the next normal census operation (2021) as and when it is held. The latest announcement about the next census (The Statesman, May 1) is the outcome of these demands. Announcing the government decision and Cabinet nod on conducting the next census, the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that this shall be the first caste census in independent India.

Two notable unusual aspects regarding the time of this announcement are a) there is hardly one month left for the Bihar Assembly elections ~ and incidentally, Bihar happens to be the first state to conduct a caste-based survey in the country, and b) it took the government more than seven years time to finalise what it announced in 2018. Earlier, in 2021, the government categorically reported to the Supreme Court that conducting a caste census is an administratively difficult process as it is prone to errors. Depending on this plea of the Union government, the Apex Court dismissed a petition filed by the Maharashtra Government on giving direction to the government to conduct a caste census.

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Conducting a census at eve  ry ten-year interval is a constitu  tional obligation of the Government of India, which helps not only in updating the countrys baseline data system in almost all spheres but also helps the government in taking appropriate policy decisions. The 17th Census, which was supposed to be conducted in the year 2021 initially, was kept in abeyance due to the precarious situation prevailing in the country generated by the spread of Covid-19. But even thereafter, the government did not appear keen to conduct Census 2021. In this context, we may note that there were as many as 233 countries that were supposed to go for a census immediately after 2020, of which 143 countries have completed the census operation, including the Peoples Republic of China.

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Those which could not yet resume the process have their own internal problems, such as Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, etc. However, India, despite having no such problems, delayed the census, and even in the present declaration, the government has not spelled out any definite time frame for commencing the next census operation. In the absence of census data, people are today using the projected population data published by the technical committee of the health and family welfare department. But the projected data cannot be equivalent to the census data, and it has only limited use. In fact, the co  untry today is using data which are based on the 15-year-old data ~ i.e., data from the 2011 census. The issue of conducting a caste census gained momentum after Bihar came up with the res  ults of their caste-based survey in 2024.

Although the central government submitted an affidavit before the apex court stating that administratively a caste census is not possible to conduct, during the assembly elections in five states last year, whenever the issue came up, the BJP toned down its voice, saying that they are not averse to it. However, all along the course of the elections, it remained noncommittal. Meanwhile, the Congress has made it a poll promise in those five states that had gone to elections in the last round. The issue was hot at that time, as Bihar had shown the way as to how to go about it. On Gandhi Jayanti last year, the government of Bihar declared the results of the caste census in the form of certain tables showing population data, which, however, were not authenticated by any government functionaries. The government neither published it under an official notification nor was it published under an Office Memorandum.

To date, Bihar has not disclosed the methodology adopted for capturing the caste data for their caste-based survey. We cannot refer to what Bihar has conducted as a census. Bihar named it a caste-ba  sed survey. The census as a subject is included in Serial No. 69 of the Central List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. As such, it is the exclusive domain of the Central government to conduct any type of census in India. For this purpose, a Census Office is there under the name and style of the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI), which is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the census in the country.

As such, until the ORGI conducts a census operation under the Census of India Act 1948, covering castes in India, any thing done in this regard cannot be termed as a caste census. Bihar conducted their caste-based survey under the Collection of Statistics Act 2008, which is a Central Act and came into force in 2010. This Act was mainly enacted to enable the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) to collect various statistics concerning India or any State on various subjects. Section 3 of the Act provides that the central government or any State Government by notification in the official gazette, may collect data concerning the economic, demographic, social, scientific, and environmental aspects of that State as per the procedure laid down in the Act but not on the issues specified in the Central List of the Constitution.

It is to be noted here that the last caste-based census was conducted in the year 1931, and thereafter no census has taken up enumerations of castes. J. H. Hutton, who was the Census Commissioner for India at the time of the 1931 census, incorporated a note on the caste data touching upon all physical and social anthropological elements present in the caste populace of India, which is a must-read text for all Indians. His note gives the idea that the concept of caste was not well developed at that time, and it was rather fluid, and he gave meaningful explanations for the inclusion of the co  mmunities within the category heading tribe, caste, or race. Within his framework for castes, Brahmins, Kayasths, Anglo-Indians, and Europeans all found a place. Many of those included are now in the list of Scheduled Castes of various states, and very few are still in the list of OBC and MOBC. Following the findings of the 1931 Census, the Mandal Commission ~ the second OBC Commission ~ estimated the total OBC population of India at 52 per cent. The Commission deducted

1) the SC and ST population (15.05 + 7.52 = 22.56 per cent),

2) non-Hindu communities groups (16.16 per cent), and forward Hindu castes like Brahmins, Rajput Marathas, etc. (17.58 per cent) from the total population to get the backward Hindu castes at 43.70 per cent. As there were also OBC groups within the non-Hindu religious groups, the commission added half of the non-Hindu religious groups as stated above, i.e., (half of 16.16 per cent) = 8.40 per cent to 43.70 per cent so as to get finally the estimated population of OBC communities of all religious groups at 52 per cent. The Commissions suggestions in regard to reservation of jobs and seats in the educational institutions were that 52 per cent reservation cannot be given to the OBCs in view of the Supreme Courts direction not to cross the 50 per cent limit of the reservation and that as already 22.5 per cent reservation had been offered to SC & STs; the remaining 27 per cent may be kept reserved for OBCs.

The recent government statement made it amply clear that the next census will be the basis of the forthcoming exercise of delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies scheduled to be held after 2026, which has been pending since 1976. The government in 1976, vide the 42nd Constitution Amendment Act, amended Articles 82 and 170 to freeze the process of delimitation till the year 2000. It was then proposed to take up the delimitation exercise after the availability of the latest census data conducted just after the year 2000. But the government preferred to extend the freezing process further for 25 years and accordingly amended the constitutional provisions in 2003 under which the delimitation process was further kept in abeyance for another 25 years, i.e., till 2026.

The amendment reads that the census operation made after 2026 shall be the basis of the next delimitation process. There is scope to believe that this is the reason why the government delayed the process of census operation and dragged it to the present stage. There is every possibility that the government might take up conducting the census operation immediately after 2026 and complete it as quickly as possible. Although parallel enumeration of OBCs would be a difficult task, the Ministry appears to be quite hopeful that this could be done as the census will be taken online. Once the census is completed, the government can take up the matter of delimitation utilizing the census data and hold the next general election nationwide in 2029 under its agenda of one nation, one election.

(The writer is a former IAS officer who retired as Secretary, Finance, Government of Assam)
In the latest twist in the long and brutal war in Ukraine, US President Donald Trump has once again injected himself into the peace process ~ this time, after a twohour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Emerging from the conversation, Mr Trump struck a notably optimistic tone, declaring that Russia and Ukraine would immediately begin negotiating a ceasefire. But beneath the headline-grabbing optimism lies a far murkier reality. Mr Trumps public stance has shifted repeatedly. From grandstanding claims of ending the war in 24 hours to now acknowledging that peace terms must be negotiated directly between Russia and Ukraine, his latest position seems more like a diplomatic hedge than a strategy.

His openness to involving the Pope in talks appears less a serious proposal than a symbolic gesture ~ one that underscores the lack of concrete direction. Its a far cry from actionable diplomacy. Mr Putin has remained consistent ~ if evasive. He reiterated Russias readiness to explore a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement. This phrasing is deliberately vague. It reflects a well-worn tactic: engage in just enough dialogue to stall pressure while continuing military operations on the ground. That Russia launched its largest drone strike of the war just before the call only reinforces the sense that Moscow remains committed to shaping facts on the battlefield, not around the negotiating table.

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Despite the headlines, there is no ceasefire ~ only the idea of talks. And even they rest on ambiguous phrasing and divergent agendas, leaving both clarity and urgency sorely lacking in what should be a decisive moment for diplomacy. One cannot help but detect a deeper signal in Mr Trumps evolving rhetoric. By suggesting that he might back away if egos get in the way, he is opening the door to a potential US withdrawal from active diplomatic or even military engagement in Ukraine. Such a move would have massive consequences. Without US support ~ military, financial, and intelligence ~ Ukraine would find itself in a vastly weakened position. For Russia, this could be a welcome shift in the balance of power. Mr Trumps approach appears disinterestedly transactional, viewing the conflict through the lens of deal-making rather than as a moral or strategic commitment.

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Promises of reduced sanctions and new trade deals for Russia in exchange for peace suggest a desire to buy a resolution, possibly at the expense of Ukrainian sovereignty or justice. Notably absent from the conversation are any credible threats of consequences should Russia fail to act in good faith. While dialogue between adversaries is never a bad thing, peace without principle is not peace ~ it is capitulation. The war in Ukraine is not simply a territorial dispute; it is a fight over the future of international norms, of sovereignty, and of deterrence. If the United States signals a retreat from that fight under the guise of peace-making, it may win applause from isolationists at home ~ but the world will be watching what, if anything, is left of American leadership.
Project Homecoming is an initiative established by President Donald Trump aimed at encouraging illegal aliens to voluntarily depart the United States.



On May 19th, the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, took the first steps of Project Homecoming by conducting a voluntary charter flight from Houston, TX, to Honduras and Colombia, bringing 64 participants who opted to self-deport back to their home countries.



This was a voluntary charter flight, not an Immigration, Customs, Enforcement, or ICE, operation. All participants were offered the same benefits as any illegal alien who self-deports using the [Customs and Border Patrol] Home App. They received travel assistance, a $1,000 stipend, and preserved the possibility they could one day return to the United States legally.



In Honduras, 38 participants were welcomed by their home government and family members. They also benefited from the Honduran governments Hermano, Hermana, Vuelve a Casa program, which includes an additional $100 bonus for people over 18, food vouchers, and assistance in finding employment.



In Colombia, 26 participants were welcomed back by their families and representatives of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Migration Colombia. The Colombian government provided social services from the Family Welfare Institute, and the Department of Social Prosperity.



"DHS conducted its first Project Homecoming charter flight of 64 individuals who voluntarily chose to self-deport to their home counties of Honduras and Colombia, said Secretary Kristi Noem as the first flight departed. If you are here illegally, use the CBP Home App to take control of your departure and receive financial support to return home. If you dont, you will be subjected to fines, arrest, deportation and will never be allowed to return. If you are in this country illegally, self-deport NOW and preserve your opportunity to potentially return the legal, right way.



Illegal aliens who stay in America face punishments, including  sudden deportation, in a place and manner solely of our discretion, President Trump recently wrote on his Truth Social platform. To all illegal aliens: Book your free flight right now!
India is said to be on the brink of a historic trade deal with the United States, and if done right, it could mean more than just political wins and export numbers. It could mean more choice, lower prices, and better products for Indian consumers. But heres the catch, buried under headlines about zero tariffs are fineprint quotas, selective exemptions, and old-school protectionism dressed up as strategic policy. What is being sold as trade liberalization might still end up coddling legacy industries at the expense of the very people the economy is supposed to serve.

Tariffs dont just restrict trade; they restrict choice, inflate prices, and punish innovation. Whether its a safer car part, a more effective cancer drug, or a cutting-edge piece of hardware, the end user always pays the price of protectionism. That is not sovereignty; that is the government putting a premium on your needs. Indian consumers have long borne the cost of high import duties. Take the automotive sector: while domestic manufacturers have grown under tariff walls, consumers have paid more for less outdated safety features, poor fuel efficiency, and limited electric vehicle options. It is no coincidence that Tesla delayed entering the Indian market, citing the 100 per cent import duty on fully assembled cars. Even essential goods like medical devices come with inflated price tags due to import taxes. Ask any parent importing specialty formula for a child with severe allergies often unavailable domestically, and youll hear the same frustration  why are we penalized for needing a product our market does not offer? Supporters of quotas call them a balanced way to boost trade while protecting domestic industry. But quotas do not protect the consumer. They ration their access. Once the cap is hit, prices rise, options disappear, and black markets emerge. This has happened with everything from electronics to alcohol across the globe. Artificial scarcity always invites distortion. At the Consumer Choice Center, we believe consumers, not bureaucrats, are best placed to judge what is reasonable, affordable, and necessary.

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Trade deals should reflect that. The goal of U.S.-India trade should not just be geopolitical alignment. It should be economic abundance. Prime Minister Modi and President Trump discussed growing bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. That ambition is welcome. But it wont be achieved through half-measures or asterisks on zero-tariff promises. Yes, India must support its industries, but not by treating consumers as collateral damage. Protectionism often defends the past, not the future. And if innovation is to flourish, markets must be open, not gated behind quota systems and tariff walls. Indian consumers arent passive recipients of state benevolence. They are active participants in the global marketplace.

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From tech workers seeking better hardware to doctors sourcing life-saving devices, people deserve the freedom to choose what to buy, from whom, and at what price. If policymakers are serious about empowering consumers, they must back a trade deal that tears down barriers, not rebuilds them with quota caps. A zero-tariff policy with limits is a contradiction. It is protectionism in disguise. What India needs is genuine openness and trade that encourages competition, rewards innovation, and puts consumers at the center. Economic freedom does not end at the factory gate; it ends at the checkout counter. India has a chance to lead, not just as a strategic power, but as a champion of consumer-driven prosperity. But that begins with a simple idea: trust consumers. Let them choose.

(The writer is Indian Policy Associate, Consumer Choice Center.)
Members of the all-party delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha began their visit to Japan by paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi in Edogawa, Tokyo.

The delegation, including, Jha, BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi and Brij Lal, Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member John Barittas, and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, arrived in Tokyo on Thursday morning, marking the start of Indias massive diplomatic outreach on Operation Sindoor.

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Taking to X, Jha posted, Commenced our visit by paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi Ji at Edogawa, Tokyo. This statue, unveiled by EAM S. Jaishankar in July 2024, stands as a symbol of peace and the enduring IndiaJapan friendship.

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Honouring Bapu here in Japan reaffirms our shared commitment to his timeless principles of non-violence and harmony, he added.

This global campaign on Operation Sindoor will expose Pakistans role in fostering cross-border terrorism.

Upon their arrival, the leaders were welcomed by Indian Ambassador to Japan Sibi George.

Additionally, the delegation was also briefed by Ambassador Sibi George, who outlined the strategic roadmap for engagements with Japanese leadership and civil society.

In a post on X, Aparajita Sarangi wrote, Started off with briefing of the Delegation by Indian Ambassador to Japan at the Indian Embassy here. Also, we went to Edogawa in Tokyo and offered floral tributes before the statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

The visit focuses on rallying support for Indias zero-tolerance policy on terrorism, especially in the wake of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.

Indias unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements, the Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated.

This unprecedented global campaign is being coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). It involves seven high-level delegations, comprising 59 Members of Parliament, former ministers, diplomats, and senior political leaders, travelling to 33 countries between May 21 and June 5.

While Jhas team covers East and Southeast Asia, MP Shrikant Shinde leads another group to the UAE, Congo, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. Simultaneously, DMK leader Kanimozhis delegation is visiting Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia, and Spain.

The campaigns primary objective is to present a unified Indian front against terrorism and internationally isolate Pakistan by highlighting its consistent support for terror networks.

The MPs will engage with foreign governments, legislators, media, civil society, Indian diaspora, and international institutions, including the UN.

They will present evidence of Pakistans backing of terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and its continued sheltering of globally designated terrorists.

The initiative represents one of Indias strongest and most cohesive foreign outreach efforts in recent years, aimed at building international consensus against state-sponsored terrorism.
India on Wednesday evening declared a Pakistani official, working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, as persona non grata for indulging in activities not in keeping with his official status in the country.

The official has been asked to leave India within 24 hours, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) revealed.

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Charge dAffaires, Pakistan High Commission, was issued a demarche to this effect today. He was asked to strictly ensure that none of the Pakistani diplomats or officials in India misuse their privileges and status in any manner, read a statement issued by the MEA.

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India had expelled another Pakistani official, working at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi, last week for indulging in similar activities.

On the same day (May 13), the Punjab Police had announced that, in a significant breakthrough, the Malerkotla Police had apprehended two individuals for their alleged involvement in espionage activities linked to a Pakistani official posted at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

Acting on credible intelligence, one suspect was arrested for leaking sensitive information regarding Indian Army movements to a Pakistan-based handler. Based on disclosures made during interrogation, a second conduit was also identified and taken into custody, read a statement issued by the Director General of Punjab Police, Gaurav Yadav.

Preliminary investigation reveals that the accused had been receiving payments through online transactions in exchange for classified information. They were in frequent contact with the handler and were involved in channeling funds to other local operatives as per his instructions. Two mobile phones have been recovered, and an FIR has been registered, it added.

The operation by Punjab Police marked a significant step in dismantling cross-border espionage networks.

Last month, immediately after the heinous Pahalgam attack which resulted in the death of 26 innocent civilians, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had announced several measures to punish Pakistan, including declaring the Defence/Military, Naval and Air Advisors in the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi as persona non grata.

They were given a week to leave India as New Delhi also withdrew its own Defence/Navy/Air Advisors from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. Five support staff of the Service Advisors were also withdrawn from both High Commissions.

India then launched its highly-successful Operation Sindoor, targetting at least nine terrorist base camps across the Line of Control (LoC) and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), to avenge the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam.
Bangladeshs National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman on Wednesday ruled out any possibility of allowing a corridor through Bangladesh for Myanmar, saying the government led by Muhammad Yunus has neither discussed nor intends to discuss such a proposal with any party.

There has been no discussion with anyone regarding giving a corridor to Myanmar through Bangladesh and we will not even discuss it, Rahman said during a media briefing organised at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka.

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According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Rahman underscored the importance of protecting Bangladeshs national interests and clarified that current discussions with the United Nations (UN) are solely focused on facilitating the delivery of humanitarian aid, such as food and medicine, through some channels to Myanmars Rakhine State, which is facing a serious humanitarian crisis.

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He emphasised that any future decisions in this regard will be made in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders.

Rahman stated that Bangladesh will only consider allowing aid to Rakhine State through its land, if the Arakan Army shows that it does not favour of ethnic cleansing.

In response to another question, the National Security Advisor firmly stated that Bangladesh is not under any external pressure to provide such a corridor.

We are not under pressure from any country, not even from the United States, he said.

On security risks in the provision of humanitarian aid, Rahman said giving aid in a conflicting situation might pose safety and security risks for the aid providers and recipients with presence of land mines and IEDs adding threat to safety and security.

Meanwhile, Yunus also took to social media through the Chief Advisors handle, emphasising that there has been no provision of aid to Rakhine yet, as it would require consent of all relevant parties and satisfaction of a number of prerequisites for aid provision which are common in other cases of humanitarian support around the world.

Yunus stated that Bangladesh has been shouldering the burden of sheltering over 1.2 million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar and cannot simply afford another wave of refugees.

Given the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Rakhine State, the UN and Bangladesh began consideration of providing humanitarian support. Since all other avenues are unviable due to conflict, Bangladesh turned out to be the only feasible option. It was thought that the UN will organise distribution of aid through its channels within Rakhine State and Bangladesh would provide logistics support to transfer aid across Bangladesh-Myanmar border, read one of the several explanations on the matter posted on

He remarked that Bangladesh considered that aid to Rakhine State would help stabilise the State and pave the way for creating enabling conditions for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

Yunus also noted that the Bangladesh government realised the need for keeping contact with the Arakan Army when they took control of the Myanmar side of the border. For this reason, Bangladesh decided to informally contact the Arakan Army to protect its border and keep it peaceful.
The residents of Balochistans Nushki carried out a rally in response to a call from the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), staging a significant protest against increasing state violence. The demonstrators marched through the streets, voicing strong opposition to extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and the unlawful detention of BYC leaders.

In a post on X, BYC stated, On BYCs call, People Protested Against State Brutality, Extrajudicial Killings, Enforced Disappearances and Unlawful Detention of BYC Leaders. Yesterday, the people of Nushki answered the Baloch Yakjehti Committees BYC call. In large numbers, they took to the streets, raising their voices against extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and the unlawful detention of BYC leadership.

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The protest followed a recent incident on March 16, when Pakistani security forces reportedly abducted 11 people, including three minors, near SBK University in Nushki. The BYC confirmed the identities of those taken and raised alarm over the incident, viewing it as part of an ongoing campaign of state repression.

This case echoes other human rights violations in the region, including the recent killing of Baloch car racer Tariq Balochan act the BYC denounced as part of a broader kill and dump strategy by Pakistani authorities.

Nushkis demonstration was one of many held across Balochistan, with similar protests erupting in cities such as Quetta, Turbat, and Dalbandin. In each location, citizens expressed outrage over state-backed death squads and the detention of political activists.

Protesters, including the families of the missing, carried signs and chanted slogans calling for accountability and the immediate release of detained BYC leaders.

The BYC reiterated that these protests reflect the peoples demand for justice and an end to systemic abuse. They pledged to continue peaceful demonstrations until their grievances are addressed, showcasing the enduring spirit and determination of the Baloch community.

Calls have also been made to the international community to recognise the worsening situation in Balochistan and to pressure Pakistan to uphold human rights. The people of Nushki, along with others across the province, remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice and dignity.
Taiwans Ministry of National Defence (MND) has said that it detected 23 Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, eight Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels and one official ship operating around Taiwan until 6 am (local time) on Thursday.

According to Taiwans MND, 16 out of the 23 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwans northern, southwestern and eastern Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

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23 PLA aircraft, 8 PLAN vessels and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 16 out of 23 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwans northern, southwestern and eastern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded, the MND stated on X.

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This incident follows a recent pattern of escalated manoeuvres by China around Taiwan, sparking concerns over regional stability.

Taiwan has been governed independently since 1949. However, China considers Taiwan part of its territory and insists on eventual reunification, by force if necessary.

Earlier on Wednesday, the MND had detected 15 PLA aircraft, eight PLAN vessels and one official ship operating around Taiwan until 6 am (local time).

According to the MND, 15 out of the 15 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwans southwestern ADIZ. In response to Chinese action, Taiwans armed forces deployed aircraft, naval ships, and coastal missile systems to monitor the situation.

15 sorties of PLA aircraft, 8 PLAN vessels and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 15 out of 15 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwans southwestern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded accordingly, the MND stated on X.

Earlier on May 13, Taiwan conducted a series of test firings of several Land Sword II and HIMARS systems to bolster air defence preparedness.

As per the MND, Land Sword II possesses the capability of countering varied aerial threats, thereby significantly enhancing the protection of the force.

Land Sword II makes its live fire debut. This SAM system is capable of countering diverse aerial threats and significantly enhances force protection for #ROCArmy, MND wrote in a post on X.
Saint-Laurent, QC (H4T1V6)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this morning will become overcast during the afternoon. High 81F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 71F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) in India recently issued a notice to Uber, questioning the urban taxi transport leaders disputed Advance Tip feature.

The move follows mounting criticism that the option, allowing users to tip drivers before the ride, equals an unfair trade practice and is a form of nudging customers into financial decisions just for a faster ride.

Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, in an X (formerly Twitter) post, described the process as exploitative and unethical.

The practice of 'Advance Tip' is deeply concerning. Forcing or nudging users to pay a tip in advance, for faster service, is unethical and exploitative. Such actions fall under unfair trade practices. Tip is given as a token of appreciation, not as a matter of right, after the service, the Minister posted.

In addition, he commented that tipping is meant to be a voluntary post-service gesture and not a requirement for better and quicker service. The CCPA has sought a formal explanation from Uber.

Interestingly, the US Federal Trade Commission recently filed a lawsuit against Uber for deceptive billing, cancellation tricks, and other dark patterns. This could have also added oil to Indias ongoing investigations of tech-enabled consumer manipulation.

Dark Patternsdeceptive interface designs used to mislead or pressure consumershave been reported across India by users.

A survey conducted by LocalCircles found that 80 per cent of app-based taxi users have experienced dark patterns more than once. This includes bait and switch, forced action, and drip pricing. Consumers often see a cab arriving in 2 minutes, but once they click book, the wait time jumps to 10 minutes, said LocalCircles founder Sachin Taparia.

Dark Patterns arent limited to just ride-hailing apps but spread across e-commerce and online ticketing platforms, from countdown timers to complex subscription cancellations.

The Indian government had earlier banned 13 marketing practices as dark patterns, and the Advertising Standards Council of India flagged them as violations of the Consumer Protection Act.

In a recent move, Uber has begun offering Delhi Metro ticket bookings through its app via ONDC, aiming to expand the service to more cities and include full last-mile travel, amid ongoing regulatory challenges.

While Ubers expansion may offer convenience, the CCPAs action serves as a timely reminder: innovation must not come at the cost of consumer rights.
Picture this: The telecom industry in India is the second largest in the world, with a subscriber base of 1.17 billion (wireless plus wireline subscribers). The telecom companies in India are expected to witness fast growth in the next few years, which will increase the demand for specialised people and also for freshers.

As per the learning and employability solution firm TeamLease, the synergy between IoT and 5G is not only changing how we celebrate but also how we work.

Network engineers are instrumental in designing the architecture for 5G networks, ensuring a consistent and reliable connection. Data analysts are in high demand to decipher the massive influx of data generated by IoT devices.

It is estimated that over the next five years, an increase in mobile phone penetration and a decrease in data costs will add 500 million new Internet users to India, creating opportunities for new businesses, from online insurance coverage to online food delivery.

As per TeamLease's findings, India will require a 22 million skilled workforce by 2025 to operate hardware, software-defined networks, computer data, and manufacturing in 5G-centric technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics.

From network engineers to cybersecurity experts, telecom jobs in India are buzzing with opportunities in the telecommunications staffing industry. The increase in daily subscribers, along with the creation of new jobs and business opportunities, encourages investment in this sector.

Recently, TeamLease brought out the TeamLease EdTech Career Outlook Report (HY1, JanuaryJune 2025), and interestingly, telecom remains a significant employment generator as the sector rapidly transitions to 5G networks, cloud-native architecture, and enhanced cyber resilience.

The report says that 45 per cent of fresher hiring intent is projected for the sector in India in the first half of 2025. The report says that while the sector witnessed a marginal decline from the 48 per cent freshers hiring intent reported in the previous half-year (JulyDecember 2024), the momentum remains robust, driven by demand for specialised roles.

As per the report, Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Coimbatore have recorded the highest demand for RF Engineers. On the other hand, network security analysts have the highest demand in Bangalore, Mumbai and Nagpur.

Field Technical Engineers roles in the telecom sector are required in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Indore, whereas the city of Pune is expected to hire Junior DevOps Engineers, followed by Gurugram and Kochi. Similarly, Chennai, Nagpur and Chandigarh at have recorded the highest demand for Cloud Network Engineers.

The report observes that freshers can find varied opportunities in the sector but with domain-specific skills, particularly in network security, cloud computing, and DevOps. Certifications in RF Wireless Engineering, Cybersecurity, and Cloud Network Architecture have also become increasingly relevant.

Essential tech tools like project management software and task-tracking platforms are also considered vital by employers to streamline complex network deployment and management functions. The report also observes that besides technical skills, aspirants also need to focus on associated soft skills, including analytical reasoning, adaptability, and interpersonal communication.
Walmart is set to lay off approximately 1,500 employees as part of a strategic restructuring intended to streamline operations and speed up the decision-making process. The job cuts mostly impact roles within Walmarts technology unit, E-commerce fulfilment centre and the advertising segment named Walmart Connect.

As per an internal memo obtained by Reuters, the reformation seeks to enhance the companys capability to provide innovative retail experiences. Walmart claims to create new positions aligned with its growth proposal to compensate for the eliminated roles.

Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal reports these layoffs are part of Walmarts broader efforts to reduce costs and adapt to the changing business environment. Even with job cuts, Walmart aims to maintain stable prices following its strong sales growth in the latest quarter.

Also read Walmart says it will raise prices due to tariff costs after posting solid first quarter sales

Amid these changes, Walmart is also facing heat from social media in connection with the H-1B visa programme. Some users on X (formerly Twitter) have commented that Walmart is favouring foreign labour over American labour.

One user commented, "Oh, guess what? The large layoffs today at Walmart are from its technology team. You know, the kind of US worker who's replaced by H1B." Another user questioned, "1500. Wow, that's a bloodbath. How many H-1Bs are they bringing in next year?"

The H-1B visa programme, designed to allow US employers to hire foreign workers in speciality occupations, has been a controversial topic. According to a report by AFL-CIO, Walmart and its contractors allegedly rely heavily on H-1B visas for IT labourers and reduced wages. Unsurprisingly, Indian nationals make up the largest share of H-1B visa holders. The report also highlights that many H-1B workers are denied a path to citizenship, voicing concerns about worker vulnerability and progress.

As the company navigates these changes, the impact on both US and foreign employees remains a key topic in discussions on evolving labour policies.
Former Miss World and veteran actor Aishwarya Rai made her Cannes 2025 red carpet debut yesterday. Marking her 22nd appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, Aishwarya chose to honour the longstanding efforts of the Indian handloom. She graced the carpet in a handwoven Kadwa Banarasi saree by designer Manish Malhotra.

The Kadwa brocade technique stands as a true testament to the unmatched skill of Indian weavers. Originating from the famed looms of Varanasi, this intricate method involves crafting each motif separately, often using multiple shuttles and supplementary threads, said Malhotra while proudly sharing his creation on Instagram.

ALSO READ | Back after the ban: Iranian dissident filmmaker returns to Cannes after two decades

The saree featured recurring handwoven brocade motifs and a hand-embroidered Zari detailing in real silver. Complementing the silhouette, it also featured a sheer white tissue handwoven dupatta, with real gold and silver zardozi embroidery.

This ensemble also evokes a sense of nostalgia, looking back to her very first appearance in 2002 for the premiere of Sanjay Leela Bhansalis Devdas, where she wore a yellow Neeta Lulla saree.

This years attire garnered much attention for two reasons. Firstly, it was an intentional pivot from the conventional westward red carpet looks and was a bold assertion from the brand, rewriting what Indian ceremonial dress can signify on the global stage, said Malhotra.

ALSO READ | Surprise honorary Palme dOr for Denzel Washington at Cannes as he attends 'Highest 2 Lowest' premiere

Secondly, what drew a notable crowd was her choice to adorn her parted hair with a bold swipe of red Sindoor. According to Indian mythology, the sindoor stands as a mark of marital status. This comes 2 weeks after the commencement of Operation Sindoora retaliation from India against Pakistans recent terror attack.

Yesterday, ahead of Aishwaryas red-carpet moment, actor Aditi Rao Hydari turned heads wearing a Sultanah red Mashru saree with blue edges from Raw Mango. The sarees borders featured a weave pattern known as ilayacha, inspired by the Indian spice elaichi (cardamom).

Similar to Aishwarya, Aditi also adorned her forehead with the Sindoor to complete her look. Netizens were quick to notice this subtle addition to her look. I love the fact that the prominent sindoor youre wearing is just holding this entire look, said one comment.

The actors husband, Siddharth, shared her picture on Instagram with the caption, My love at Cannes, the sindoor though.

This bold choice by both Aishwarya and Aditi has led the internet into a whirl of interpretations, with most hinting at its prominence in Indias recent socio-political sentiments and nationalistic expressions. It is widely seen as a sign of solidarity with Operation Sindoor and the Indian Army.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7. It was a deliberate, precise, and strategic response to the terror attacks on Indian tourists near Pahalgam on April 22. The name Operation Sindoor, reportedly chosen by Prime Minister Modi, pays homage to the widows of the Pahalgam attack. The name invoked strong nationalistic sentiments and unity across the nation.

Operation SINDOOR marks a milestone in Indias journey towards technological self-reliance in military operations, said a press release by the Press Information Bureau.
Director Om Rauts Cannes debut can only mean one thinga cinematic announcement! Raut has grabbed sparked curiosity with his well-timed revelation about his upcoming biopic this Wednesday night. His news brings silver lining to Dhanush fans as the four-time national award-winning actor is set to star in it.

The biopic, titled Kalam: The Missile Man of India is based on the life of the former president of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, tracing his journey from Rameswaram to the apex of the nation. Bankrolled by Abhishek Agarwal and Bhushan Kumar, the movie throws light on the various roles donned by Kalam during his lifetimea teacher, poet, scientist and statesman.

After a massive disappointment in 2023 with Adipurush, the 43-year-old director is back on the field. Adipurush, which is one of Indias most expensive films, reportedly made on a budget of Rs 500 crore, was heavily criticised for its subpar visual effects, mediocre dialogues and improper casting. In an era starved of true statesmen, Kalam stood above politics and pettiness, said Raut. To bring his story to the screen is both an artistic challenge and a cultural responsibility.

Dhanush took to Instagram, resharing the poster and commenting, I feel truly blessed and deeply humbled to be portraying the life of such an inspirational and magnanimous leader  our very own Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam sir. Producer Agarwal mentioned how excited he is in order to bring the epic life of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam to the big screen, calling it an emotional moment. Producer Bhushan Kumar further added that it was an honour to be part of a film that celebrates the journey of an extraordinary Indian.

The team remains reticent about any further details, keeping fans worldwide on tenterhooks.
Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney is all set to reprise her role as Cassie Howard in the highly anticipated third season of HBO's 'Euphoria'.

Returning to the role nearly three years after season two of the psychological drama premiered in January 2022, Sweeney explains that the upcoming installment of the show would be even more unhinged than before, as per an Empire report.

Sweeney explained that a flawed character like Cassieher breakthrough role in a production that also involved Zendaya, Barbie Ferreira, Jacob Elordi and Colman Domingoheld a special place in her heart, and was so much fun to inhabit.

She also added that when complicated characters like Cassie led to Sweeney herself receiving hate and love in equal measure from audiences, it was a good sign that she had been playing the character correctly.

I think that with the amount of access, with social media, and how much content gets put out there of Cassie ... People do have a hard time separating actors from their characters, and especially someone like Cassie, she explained, relishing the experience of it all.

Sweeney, who had been 20 when 'Euphoria' first started filming, added that 7 years later, she still enjoyed filming for the HBO series, especially because of an able director like Sam Levinson, known for films like 'Malcolm and Marie', 'Pieces of a Woman' and 'Assassination Nation'.

The 27-year-old, who earned an Emmy nomination for her work in the second season of 'Euphoria', will next be seen in 'Echo Valley', a gripping psychological drama from Apple TV+ which releases this June, and 'The Housemaid', which releases this December, and is an adaptation of a psychological thriller novel.

The release date for season three of 'Euphoria' has not been confirmed yet.
The United Kingdom detected a deadly virus spreading through mosquitoes and this comes against the backdrop of surging Covid19 cases in South Asia.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed the reports of the detection of the West Nile Virus (WNV) in mosquitoes collected in Britain for the first time.

What is the West Nile Virus (WNV)?

THE WNV is a part of the Flaviviridae virus family which includes dengue and yellow fever. It usually circulates among birds and mammals. The carriers of the virus are mosquitoes that bite infected birds. In rare cases, the virus is transmitted to humans or horses.

The presence of WNV was initially found in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, parts of Asia, Australia and the Americas. The virus has now found its presence in northern, and western regions of mainland Europe.

Symptoms:

In most cases, there may not necessarily be visible symptoms for those who are affected. However, around 20% of the infected can experience symptoms resembling mild flu-like signs such as fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, and skin rashes, according to a BBC report.

Less than 1 per cent can lead to serious illnesses, particularly neurological complications.

"While this is the first detection of West Nile Virus in mosquitoes in the UK so far, it is not unexpected as the virus is already widespread in Europe," said Dr Meera Chand, a deputy director for travel health and infections at UKHSA.

Since 2000, seven cases have been reported that have travelled to other countries. As per the recent detection, no evidence of the virus circulating in birds or mosquitos has affected humans. Hence, the risk to the general public is currently assessed as very low. However, authorities have begun the initiative towards surveillance to monitor the situation.

Dr. Arran Folly, who led the project, noted, "The detection of West Nile virus in the UK is part of a wider changing landscape, where, in the wake of climate change, mosquito-borne diseases are expanding to new areas."

Preventive measures:

1. Protective clothing

Reduce skin exposure with the help of long sleeves, trousers and socks.

2. Avoid mosquito bites

The use of mosquito nets, insect repellents helps reduce the possibility of infection.

3. Remove stagnant water

As per a report in The Guardian, Aedes vexans mosquitos (known to carry WNV) are native to the UK and, while uncommon, their numbers can boom in summer in flooded river landscapes. Hence, it is advised to empty flower pots often or buckets where mosquitoes tend to breed.
After drones were allegedly spotted in Kolkata sky earlier this week, locals reported seeing mysterious flying objects in several coastal areas in South 24 Parganas district on Wednesday night. Locals claimed mysterious lights flickering in the sky, believing these could have been drones.

Many local residents captured footage of the moving lights on their mobile phones. The lights were also spotted near the Kapil Muni Temple where Gangasagar Mela is held every year.

In the aftermath of the India Pakistan military tension where both countries launched drone attacks on each other, these sightings sparked concern among residents, who perceived the moving lights as potential drone attacks.

The Sundarbans Police launched an investigation into the mysterious lights and found they were likely low-flying aircraft. Reportedly, multiple aircraft were scheduled to land at the Kolkata airport last night.

However, due to adverse weather conditions, air traffic congestion occurred. As a result, several planes were seen circling at low altitude over the coastal skies of the Sundarbans. From a distance, these planes closely resembled drones.

On Monday night earlier this week, seven drones were reportedly seen over Kolkatas Hastings area, housing sensitive landmarks and no-flying red zones such as the Second Hooghly Bridge, Victoria Memorial, and Fort William, the Eastern Command headquarters of the Indian Army. Four of the drones then moved toward the Maidan near Victoria Memorial and circled around a nearby high-rise.

Five drones later flew east toward Park Circus, while two headed north toward North Kolkata. The Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar was notified, prompting alerts across various police stations in the city.

A Special Task Force (STF) and the detective department of Kolkata Police are currently investigating the incident, looking into the possibility that the drone activity was linked to espionage.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry has urged the media to refrain from any speculation, saying that efforts are underway ascertain the veracity of this event. According to PTI, the Centre has also sought a report from the West Bengal government over the incident.

On May 11, residents of Durgapur-Barojdihi village in Murshidabads Samserganj were gripped by fear after a drone was found lying in an open field. With visuals and information about drone attacks during the recent India-Pakistan military tension heavy in their mind, the incident sparked panic in the border village near Bangladesh.

However, the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF later confirmed that the drone was a civilian model typically used by photographers for event coverage. It has a limited flight range of 400 to 500 metres, can stay airborne for 1520 minutes, and features a built-in 4K camera. It is not capable of carrying any payload.
The Uttar Pradesh Police's Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) has arrested a Varanasi man on charges of spying for Pakistan. The man named Tufail has been accused of sharing sensitive information about India's internal security with Pakistan.

Tufail is alleged to have shared videos of Maulana Shah Rizvi, leader of the banned Pakistani terrorist group Tehreek-e-Labbaik, in WhatsApp groups. He had also sent messages calling for revenge for the demolition of Babri Masjid and the implementation of Sharia law in India, UP ATS said in a statement.

During the investigation, it was revealed that he had shared pictures of sensitive locations including Gyanvapi, Rajghat, Red Fort and Namo Ghat with Pakistani contacts.

UP ATS arrests one Tufail s/o Maqsood Alam from Varanasi, on charges of spying for Pakistan. He was sharing important information about India's internal security with Pakistan.



On developing this intelligence, ATS Field Unit Varanasi confirmed that Tufail was in contact with pic.twitter.com/cw18siTAeI  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

The statement also said that Tufail is believed to have distributed WhatsApp group links in Varanasi for networking that facilitated communication between local individuals and Pakistani contacts.

On Sunday, another man was arrested by the UP police's ATS, based on a tip-off, for spying and smuggling goods across the border.

The accused, Shehzad from Rampur district, has been alleged of spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and engaging in anti-national activities. "The police arrested Shehzad from Moradabad on Sunday, said ATS in a statement.

The crackdown on spying came after YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra's arrest on espionage charges two weeks ago. National Investigation Agency and the Intelligence Bureau had questioned Malhotra, who is alleged to have visited an official at Pakitan High Commission in Delhi during one of her visits to Islamabad.

She has been charged under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act and Section 152 of the Bharita Nyay Sanhita Act.
Criticising the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for conducting raids at the headquarters of the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), the Supreme Court, while staying further action in the money laundering case observed that the Central agency is "crossing all limits".

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih expressed strong disapproval, stating that the ED was exceeding its authority and acting in violation of constitutional principles by targeting a state government entity.

The top court issued a notice to the ED in response to a petition filed by the Tamil Nadu government challenging a Madras High Court order that had permitted the central agency to continue its probe into an alleged 1,000 crore scam involving TASMAC.

How can there be a criminal case against a corporation? Your Enforcement Directorate is crossing all limits, Chief Justice Gavai observed during the hearing.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the investigating agency, urged the top court not to stay the proceedings and stressed that there is a foolproof case and money trail as well.

But the bench went ahead and stayed ED's proceedings and questioned the agencys basis for initiating the money laundering case. Where is the predicate offence? When FIRs are already filed against officers, why is the ED intervening here? Let the ED file an affidavit, the bench remarked.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Tamil Nadu, told the bench how the phones and other personal devices are taken away and are being cloned, which is violation of their privacy.

The case pertains to ED raids conducted between March 6 and 8 at TASMACs headquarters in Tamil Nadu over allegations of liquor overpricing, tender manipulation, and bribery irregularities allegedly amounting to more than 1,000 crore.

The EDs probe was reportedly based on over 40 FIRs registered over the years by the state government and TASMAC against its own officials. However, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Tamil Nadu government and TASMAC have accused the ED of overstepping its jurisdiction and declared the raids unlawful.

The Tamil Nadu government approached the Supreme Court, challenging the ED's raids on TASMAC, alleging that the central agency had overstepped its authority and violated constitutional principles. It further accused the ED of acting out of political vendetta and declared the raids unlawful.
A strong heatwave has gripped Jammu and Kashmir, with Srinagar recording its third-highest temperature ever in May, leading to changes in school timings by the government.

On Thursday, the summer capital reached 34.4 degrees Celsius, breaking records.

According to weather experts, this is the third-highest temperature ever recorded in Srinagar for May in the last 133 years.

The earlier record was 34.3 degrees Celsius, noted on May 28, 1971.

The high temperatures have caused health problems, especially for children.

Education Minister Sakina Ittoo said she received calls from parents saying their children felt uncomfortable during morning assemblies.

I have asked the Education Department to change school timings. Summer holidays will be announced at the right time, she said.

Due to this, the School Education Department announced new timings starting Monday.

Schools within municipal areas will now run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., while schools outside municipal limits will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Meteorological Department has warned that the heatwave will continue for another four days.

A slight drop in temperature is expected after 27 May. Till then, the weather will remain dry and hot across the region.

Doctors and officials have advised people to avoid going out during the peak hours of the heat during the day, drink plenty of water, and stay safe in the heat.

The rising heat has also put pressure on electricity and water supply, and there are growing concerns for children, the elderly, and those who work outdoors. Many are now hoping for relief as temperatures reach dangerous levels.

The temperature rise comes in the wake of hostilities between India and Pakistan after Operation Sindoor by the Indian armed forces against the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 25 tourists and one local horse ride operator were killed on April 22. India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire after four days of military confrontation.
India on Thursday reiterated its position that there wouldnt be a third-party mediation on the Kashmir issue and any dialogue with Pakistan would be bilateral.

In his weekly press briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Indus Water Treaty would remain suspended until Pakistan abjured its support for cross-border terrorism.

Weekly Media Briefing by the Official Spokesperson (May 22, 2025)

https://t.co/umABZjPAjk  Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) May 22, 2025

In my last briefing, I had addressed this issue. I have nothing to add. You are well aware of our position that any India-Pakistan engagement has to be bilateral. At the same time, I would like to remind you that talks and terror dont go together, he said.

Jaiswal said India is open to discussing the handing over of noted terrorists whose list was provided to Pakistan some years ago.

The MEA spokesperson further asserted that any discussion on Jammu and Kashmir would be only on the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan.

On the Indus Water Treaty, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism, Jaiswal said, while underlining Prime Minister Narendra Modis statement that water and blood cannot flow together.

On Turkey and China

To the questions on Turkiye and Chinas support for Pakistan during the military confrontation with India, Jaiswal said Ankara should urge Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism.

We expect Turkiye to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support for cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades, he said, adding that relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each others concerns.

The spokesperson said National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had spoken to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on May 10 and conveyed Indias stance against cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

The Chinese side is aware that mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity remain the basis of India-China relations.
A soldier who was injured in the ongoing gunfight between terrorists and security forces in the Singhpora area of Chatroo, located in Jammu and Kashmirs Kishtwar district, has succumbed.

The Indian Armys White Knight Corps confirmed the development in a post on X, said that the soldier, who had sustained critical injuries earlier in the day, succumbed despite receiving prompt medical attention.

A fierce exchange of fire is currently underway. One of our brave soldiers, who was seriously wounded in the encounter, has unfortunately passed away despite all medical efforts, the Corps said in the post.

Two militants have also been killed in the gunfight.

The encounter began in the morning when a joint team of the Army and the Jammu and Kashmir Police launched a cordon and search operation in the area, following specific intelligence inputs about the presence of terrorists.

The operation was launched by troops from 2 Para Special Forces, the Armys 11 Rashtriya Rifles, 7th Assam Rifles, and the Special Operations Group (SOG) Kishtwar.

The encounter broke out days after six terrorists were killed in two separate encounters in Shopian and Tral in Pulwama.

Security forces have intensified the anti-terror operations in the valley after the Pahalgam attack in which 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were killed.

The police have also raised vigil against anti-national elements. Last week, 23 people from different parts of Kashmir were arrested for activities in inimical to national security.
In a major breakthrough, anti-Naxal forces in Chhattisgarh killed Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI (Maoist), in an operation on Wednesday. According to security forces, Basavaraju was involved in over wanted in over 200 Naxal operations and was the commander-in-chief of the movement's military commission.

Bastar IG P. Sundarraj said Basavaraju was a key leader of the movement and has been carrying out Maoist activities for over past 40 years. "Basavaraju, who was killed in the encounter, was active in Naxalite activities for the last 40-45 years. For the past two to three years, he was working as the general secretary of CPI (Maoist). He was directly or indirectly involved in more than 200 naxalite activities," ANI reported. The senior police official said security forces are continuing their search operation in Narayanpur.

Over 26 Naxalites were killed in an anti-Naxal operation in Narayanpur on Wednesday. The major encounter took place in the dense forests of Abhujmad on the tri-junction of Narayanpur-Bijapur-Dantewada districts. Security personnel from the District Reserve Guards from four Chhattisgarh districts carried out a massive search operation in the region based on intelligence inputs about the presence of Central Committee and Politburo members of the Maoists, and PLGA (Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army) members.

According to officials, Basavaraju hails from Andhra Pradesh and a B.Tech graduate. According to security forces, Basavaraju has been camping at Abujhmaad for at least eight years.

Sundarraj said Basavaraju's encounter was a major achievement for the forces. "This is a great achievement for the security forces. Peace and normalcy will be restored in the area," he said. The Centre has vowed to eradicate Naxalism from the country by 2026.
It was on April 22 when five terrorists ambushed a tourist spot near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir and sprayed bullets at the trippers after verifying their religious identity. Twenty-five tourists and a local horse rider were shot dead in the most deadly attack in the valley in two decades, sending shock waves across the country and forcing New Delhi to launch unprecedented strikes on multiple terror hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

One month on, the security agencies still continue their hunt for the five terrorists behind the attack. Massive search operations have been launched by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with the Jammu and Kashmir police across the Union territory to nab the accused. Over a hundred people have been questioned so far, but the probe is yet to make any breakthrough.

Police have released sketches of three of the five terrorists and announced a reward of Rs 20 lakh to those who give information on them.

Meanwhile, security forces have intensified their operations in Kashmir, leading to the neutralisation of multiple terror modules in the region. Last week, six terrorists were killed in two separate encounters in south Kashmir. The encounters took place in the Keller area of Shopian and Nadar area of Tral in Pulwama on May 13 and May 15, respectively. Today (May 22), two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in the Singhpora area of Chatroo in Kishtwar district. One soldier also lost his life in the exchange of fire.

The opposition, which had offered "full support" to the government during India's retaliatory strikes on Pakistan-based terror infrastructure, is now trying to corner the government over the delay in tracking down the Pahalgam attackers.

"Why are the brutal killers of Pahalgam still free? According to some reports, they had been responsible for three earlier terror attacks in Poonch, Gagangir, and Gulmarg over the past 18 months. Why have you not chaired any all-party meeting and taken the opposition parties into confidence?" Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asked on Thursday.

India, in response to the Pahalgam attack, targeted nine terrorist hubs in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7, sparking a military confrontation between New Delhi and Islamabad. Both countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10 after Pakistan DGMO dialed his Indian counterpart.

The Pahalgam attack had also led to New Delhi launching a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre on Thursday and charged that terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam attack are roaming freely in Jammu and Kashmir. Ramesh alleged the terrorists were involved in three other attacks in the last 18 months.

The Congress secretary (Communications) told ANI, "I came to know through sources that the Pahalgam attack terrorists are responsible for three other terror attacks in the last 18 months. They are roaming around in Jammu and Kashmir, and all our MPs are roaming around the world."

#WATCH | Delhi | Congress MP Jairam Ramesh says, "In the last 11 days, US President Trump has repeated 8 times that he convinced India and enabled the ceasefire... But his friend, PM Modi, is quiet. Our foreign minister is quiet... Donald Trump praises both PM Modi and Pakistan pic.twitter.com/G2FxHs8Trx  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

Ramesh slammed the Centre for sending all-party delegations to partner countries and said the Centre should have instead focused on nabbing the terrorists. "The priority should be catching the terrorists, not sending MPs to other countries. Who will answer these questions? There should be a parliament session, but it has not been called. The prime minister is never present at all-party meetings. He does not give any answers," the publication reported quoting the Congress leader.

Ramesh's comments come as all-party delegations embarked on trip to partner countries to present India's strong views against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism as part of Operation Sindoor. Seven all-party delegations will visit 33 countries and present the steps India has taken to combat terrorism.

The Congress leader also questioned why the Centre and Prime Minister Modi are silent despite US President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he facilitated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor.

Trump, during his recent meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said, "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India. We settled that whole, and I think I settled it through trade."

The US president has been repeatedly claiming that he helped settle the tensions between India and Pakistan.

In a post on X, Ramesh asked, "For the 8th time in 11 days, President Trump has - Claimed full credit for the ceasefire between India and Pakistan; Praised the PMs of India and Pakistan equally and put them on par in every way; Reiterated that trade with the US was the instrument he used to get India and Pakistan to declare a ceasefire."

He added, "Yet our PM--Donald bhai's great buddy--is completely silent on what the US president is repeatedly saying. The external affairs minister also continues to maintain complete quiet on what his pal, the US secretary of state, has said in support of the US president's claims and about the 'neutral site' for talks between India and Pakistan. Why this thundering silence?"
A month after the Pahalgam attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sharp message to Pakistan, said that India has adopted a new, uncompromising stance on terrorism, marked by swift and decisive military action.

Speaking during a rally in Bikaner, Modi outlined three principles defining Indias new counter-terror doctrine: Any terror attack on India will be met with a decisive response, with India choosing the time, method; India will not be intimidated by nuclear threats, and India will no longer distinguish between terrorist organisations and the governments that support them, directly rejecting Pakistans traditional denial of state involvement.

From Bikaner, launching projects aimed at augmenting rail infrastructure, connectivity, water and energy sectors. https://t.co/T7NkCweVrY  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 22, 2025

Modi asserted that the Indian armed forces were given full operational freedom, and in a coordinated effort, the Army, Navy, and Air Force dismantled Pakistans defences, forcing them to back down. Modi described the operation as a clear message: When the sacred sindoor turns into firepower, the outcome is decisive.

Referring to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, where pilgrims were targeted based on their faith, Modi said the attack had united the entire country in grief and resolve. On April 22, terrorists targeted our innocent civilians, asked for their religion, and wiped the sindoor from our sisters' foreheads. The bullets fired in Pahalgam wounded the hearts of 140 crore Indians, he said.

Prime Minister said the response to April 22 attack, Operation Sindoor just took 22 minutes to destroy nine major terrorist hideouts across the border. This was not revenge, it was justice. It wasnt just anger, it was the demonstration of Indias strength and resolve, he said during a rally in Bikaner, Rajasthan, a border district which also has a IAS base. Modi had earlier visited Adampur Air Base in Jalandhar in Punjab after the ceasefire was announced.

Striking a strong tone, Modi recalled that five years ago, after the Balakot air strike, his first rally was also in Rajasthans Churu, and after Operation Sindoor, his first public address was in the same state. I had said in Churu - 'I swear by this soil, I will not let the country perish, I will not let the country bow down.' Today, from the land of Rajasthan, I want to say those who had set out to destroy us have been reduced to dust. Those who shed the blood of our fellow Indians have been made to pay for every single drop. Those who thought India would remain silent are now hiding in their homes.

Now its not blood, but blazing sindoor that flows through my veins. Those who dared to wipe our sisters sindoor have been buried in the dust, Modi said.

He emphasised that Indias global campaign to expose Pakistans terror links is ongoing, with seven MPs groups engaging world leaders to show Pakistans involvement in terror attacks.

Modi declared that there will be no trade or talks with Pakistan, and the only discussion India is willing to have is about Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. He warned that if Pakistan continues to export terrorism, it will face complete economic collapse.

Highlighting the impact of Indias recent strikes, the Prime Minister said Pakistans Rahim Yar Khan Airbase had been shut down for days due to Indian action, while Pakistans attempt to target Nal Airport in Bikaner failed completely.

We will not allow Pakistan access to our rightful share of water. Playing with Indias blood will come at a steep cost. This is not just policyit is our national resolve, he said firmly.
An encounter is underway between security forces and terrorists in the Chhatru area of Kishtwar district, the Army said on Thursday. Terrorists opened fire at security forces as they launched a combing operation in the Kishtwar region. According to security forces, at least three terrorists have been trapped in the area, and fierce gunfighting is underway.

In a post on X, Indian Army's White Knight Corps said, "Op Trashi: Contact has been established with #terrorists during a joint #operation with @JmuKmrPolice at #Chhatru, #Kishtwar today morning. Additional troops have been inducted, and operations are ongoing to neutralize the terrorists."

Security forces have intensified anti-terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the gruesome Pahalgam terror attack in April. As many as 26 persons, including 24 tourists, a Nepali citizen and a local horse owner, were killed in the attack, the worst since the abrogation of Article 370 in the Valley. In a recent anti-terror operation, security forces killed three LeT terrorists hiding in the Valley.

India launched Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack on May 7. India conducted precision strikes and destroyed terror launchpads at nine locations along the Line of Control in the operation. While India maintained it does not wish to escalate the situation, Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes on May 8,9 and 10. India and Pakistan agreed to stop firing on May 10 following a conversation between the Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of both nations.

(With inputs from Tariq Bhat)
The Delhi University on Thursday criticised Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for visiting its North Campus without informing the authorities.

In an official release, the university termed Gandhis action as a breach of institutional protocol and a disruption of student governance operations.

"Today Shri Rahul Gandhi came to University of Delhi without any information to the authorities. He stayed in the DUSU Office for almost one hour. During this time, the DUSU was cordoned by security cover. Shri Rahul Gandhi has done this for the second time for coming to the University without any intimation and information to University of Delhi," it said.

According to reports, Gandhi, who is also the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, interacted with students from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) at the DU's North Campus, focusing on issues of representation, equality and academic justice.

The session was held at the office of the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) president. The university in its statement alleged that the arrea was cordoned off by security officials and even the DUSU secretary was barred from accessing her office.

"The university condemns such action and hopes that this does not happen in future," the release said.

The incident also sparked off a political row with the BJP accusing Gandhi of turning Delhi University into a circus for a "surprise photo-op".

"At a time when the entire nation is united behind our brave soldiers, the Congress would do well to remember: India is watching. And it won't forget these games," BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya said.
Israel will launch a swift strike at nuclear sites in Iran once talks with the US collapse, according to a report. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have been conducting exercises and other preparations for a possible strike in Iran.

Israel's intelligence community believed until the past few days that the talks would yield results, but is now thinking talks could soon break down, US media Axios quoted unnamed sources. The report added that the IDF thinks the operational window to strike Iran successfully could close soon and hence will have to move fast. However, it is unclear why the IDF believes a strike wouldn't be that effective if it waits.

"Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead," Axios quoted an Israeli source. The Trump administration is also reportedly concerned that Netanyahu might make his move even without Trump's permission.

As per sources, Israel's military campaign, if it happens, will not be a one-off one, but one that lasts at least a week. This has stoked fears among countries in the region that there could be a widespread radioactive fallout, besides the fears of a war.

Former COGAT head @eitan_dangot discusses with @benitalevin the latest U.S. intelligence reports suggesting Israel may be preparing a strike on Iran pic.twitter.com/l7IE2p5YXk  i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) May 21, 2025

The IDF is reportedly preparing for the mission by conducting exercises and the US is aware of the fact. Earlier, a CNN report had mentioned how there is a movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise. However, the drills could also be to pressure Iran to drop key tenets of its nuclear programme by signalling the consequences, the CNN report added.

The Israeli government has also held a highly sensitive meeting earlier this week to assess the progress of the talks, and the chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months. The statement made by the Iranian leadership that there was no way it would remove all of its uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has announced that the fifth round of indirect Iran-U.S. talks will be held on Friday. Baqaei said Iran remained determined to pursue its right to benefit from peaceful nuclear energy, including enrichment, and the lifting of the sanctions.
Most nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have announced the holidays for Eid Al Adha based on astronomical calculations. Though the dates are usually based on astronomical predictions, the final dates will become officially clear only after the official moon sighting.

UAE

As per the UAE officials, the holidays in the Emirates will fall on Friday, June 6. Ibrahim Al Jarwan, chairman of the Board of Directors at the Emirates Astronomical Society, said that May 28 is likely to mark the first day of Dhu Al Hijjah. Therefore, Eid Al Adha is likely to fall on Friday, June 6, according to The Gulf News. Arafat Day in the UAE is likely to occur on Thursday, June 5, 2025.

Qatar

Qatar also announced a five-day holiday for Eid Al Adha this year. The public holiday will begin on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah. In Qatar, the moon-sighting committee will meet on May 27. If the crescent moon is sighted on that day, Dhul Hijjah will begin on May 28 or else on May 29. If the moon is not sighted, Dhul Hijjah will begin on May 29. The official holidays in Qatar will be from the 9th day of Dhul Hijjah to the end of the 13th day of Dhul Hijjah, but it may change as per moon sighting, according to the Khaleej Times.

Kuwait

The festivals will be observed in Kuwait on June 6, according to astronomical projections by the Al Ojairi Scientific Centre, which said the crescent marking the start of Dhu Al Hijjah will be born at dawn on May 27. The crescent is expected to be visible over Kuwaits horizon for 43 minutes after sunset on May 28, according to Kuwait News Agency. The holidays will be on June 5 to 9.

Saudi

Eid al-Adha is expected to begin on Friday, June 6 with Arafat Day commencing a day earlier on June 5, according to astronomical calculations.
Microsoft is facing scrutiny following reports that its internal exchange servers are blocking emails containing words such as Palestine, Gaza, and genocide. This quiet act of censorship from the company blocks the emails containing these words from being delivered to the recipient on their server. Interestingly, variations such as lsrael or P4lestine seem to bypass the system and dont trigger a block.

This issue was brought to light by No Azure for Apartheid, a group of pro-Palestinian employees at Microsoft. Most criticism against Microsofts actions is coming from their own employees. An employee who interrupted CEO Satya Nadellas keynote address at the flagship build conference was fired, according to a statement released by No Azure for Apartheid. When CoreAI CEO Jay Parikh spoke on Tuesday, one employee yelled, Jay! My people are suffering! Cut ties with Israel! No Azure for apartheid! Free, free Palestine! before security quickly dragged them away.

Previously Microsoft had garnered backlash for having alleged ties with the Israeli military. According to Drop Site News, Microsoft actively solicited contracts with the Israeli Defence Ministry, presenting them with customised offers and significant savings on cloud and AI services. Microsoft was positioned as a major technology supplier during Israeli military operations in Gaza due to these agreements, which were negotiated and extended over several months.

Though Microsoft attempted to address the concerns, claiming there is no evidence, their recent actions say otherwise. Musician Brian Eno, popularly known for the startup chime for Windows 95, also condemned the company. He took to Instagram to say; I gladly took on the [Windows 95] project as a creative challenge and enjoyed the interaction with my contacts at the company. I never would have believed that the same company could one day be implicated in the machinery of oppression and war.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Saudi Arabia could be the "neutral" venue for talks between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, water, trade, and terrorism, according to a report.

Sharif's statement, hoping for Saudi Arabia to mediate on talks, comes amid India's clear official stance that discussion with Pakistan will only happen on two issues: dismantling its terrorist infrastructure and the return of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

His projection of Saudi Arabia as a neutral venue was in response to a query on the possibility of a third venue for talks in light of the mediation offered by US President Donald Trump, reported Karachi-based Dawn. Interestingly, Sharif ruled out the possibility of China as a neutral venue, stating "India would never agree to that."

However, Sharif's choice of Saudi Arabia is interesting, considering that the state has expressed interest in mediating between the two nuclear powers, so much that it sent its Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the day India launched Operation Sindoor. Many geopolitical experts view this as a curious 'pro-India' shift in the Kingdom's foreign policy since Saudi Arabia had been a longtime religious and strategic ally of Pakistan.

Saudi Foreign Ministry also declared its efforts to mediate between India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and promote dialogue.

Experts agree Saudi's pro-India stance -India is Saudi Arabia's second-largest trading partner and its Public Investment Fund (PIF) has invested significantly in India - could be an advantage to India. Also working in Saudi's favour is the fact that India is averse to the idea of a third power, especially an inconsistent US, interfering in its bilateral issue.

However, it is unlikely that India would allow a third power to meddle in the issue as it considers Kashmir a sovereign issue with immense emotional and historical value. India has reiterated that there wouldn't be any talks with Pakistan until it is held accountable for its patronage of cross-border terrorism. Unless a third party, including Saudi Arabia, does this, India wouldn't accept the possibility of talks.

On the other hand, mediation has always been welcomed by Pakistan. After Trump offered to the mediation, Islamabad reacted via a statement that it appreciated "President Trump's expressed willingness to support efforts aimed at the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute - a longstanding issue that has serious implications for peace and security in South Asia and beyond."
Two Israeli diplomatic staff members were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington, DC a few hours ago, sparking a citywide lockdown and a sweeping manhunt. The victims, a man and a woman, were shot at close range as they exited a diplomatic event hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

The shooting occurred at around 21:05 local time near 3rd and F Streets NW, a district surrounded by major government buildings, including the FBIs Washington field office. The event, the AJC ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception, was intended to bring together Jewish professionals and members of the international diplomatic corps.

Multiple Israeli embassy staff were in attendance, though the ambassador was not present.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter updated that the murdered in the Washington shooting were a young couple who were the Israeli embassy employees. The man had already bought a ring and was supposed to propose to his partner in Jerusalem next week. @yechielleiter pic.twitter.com/r3EKYHBtS6  Iris (@streetwize) May 22, 2025 #BREAKING



Two Israeli embassy staffers shot dead in Washington U.S.



Gunned down at close range near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C....just steps away from FBI's field office



Attack unfolded during a diplomatic event aimed at connecting young Jewish professionals pic.twitter.com/Az0ia85s0Y  Nabila Jamal (@nabilajamal_) May 22, 2025

Tal Naim Cohen, spokeswoman for the embassy, confirmed the victims were shot "at close range" and said Israeli officials were in close contact with American authorities. "We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israels representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States, she said.

A 30-year-old man, identified as Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, is believed to have committed the act alone and is in custody, said Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith. His gun was also recovered. Smith said according to early investigation Rodriguez was seen walking back and forth outside the museum before he approached a group of four people, including the two victims, and began shooting. While in custody, he shouted, "Free, free Palestine!" Smith said.

"The couple that was gunned down tonight were about to be engaged. The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem," said Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter. He said he had received a call from President Donald Trump, assuring the support of the United States in combating anti-Semitism.

Israels Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, denounced the shooting as "a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism." He added: "Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act."

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also expressed outrage, writing: "This horrific act of terror that the people of Israel are waking up to this morning is a stark reminder of the dangers Jews face even far from home. Our hearts are broken."

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, who is the senate minority leader, described the shooting as "sickening" and "another horrific instance of antisemitism," while AJC CEO Ted Deutch, who hosted the event, said: We are devastated our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!, wrote President Donald Trump. Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen."
North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jon-un was left red-faced after his navy's effort to launch a destroyer failed, causing a major incident in the port city of Chongjin. The dictator has ordered an inquiry to identify those responsible for the "unacceptable" mishap, according to Western media reports.

According to reports, the ship is lying on its side with severe damage after it lost balance and slipped during a launch effort. Kim Jong-un was in the audience as North Korea tried to launch the 5000-ton ship in its northeastern waters. If successful, it would have been the second such launch in a month by Pyongyang.

There is a serious scandal in North Korea - a new "nuclear" destroyer collapsed right before Kim Jong-un's eyes

The ceremonial launch of the 5,000-ton ship failed miserably, Bloomberg writes. The vessel lost its balance and fell on its side right in front of the dictator.

We pic.twitter.com/Q7P1A8VuyL  mattrang (@MatTrang911) May 22, 2025

However, to the embarrassment of the leader and his generals, the giant ship lost balance as its stern slid down. The destroyer's bow section didn't detach from the ramp, causing a major accident that shook the locality, New York Times said in a report. The ship was left with multiple holes in its hull, leaving Kim furious.

No data was available on the range of destruction caused in the incident including loss of lives. The latest update on the ship's position was revealed by Seoul using satellite images, the NYT report added.

The Supreme Leader called the incident a "criminal act" which can't be tolerated. His immediate wrath is targeted at the ship's designers, BBC said, as their incompetence "severely damaged the dignity and pride of our nation in an instant." Strict punishments including rigorous imprisonment are very common in the country infamous for its terrible human rights record.

First confirmation of a serious incident during the launch of North Korea's newest destroyer.



The ship fell on its side as a result of abnormal operation of the launching device. Judging by the photo, the vessel received serious damage. https://t.co/THzyJHbhyQ pic.twitter.com/iiOYCott8e  Clash Report (@clashreport) May 22, 2025

The "culprits" will be dealt with for their "absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism" at a plenary meeting next month, Kim has ruled as per BBC. He also wants the ship to be restored before a major party meeting in June. The Kim dynasty's Workers' Party of Korea is the sole political party in the country that administers it with Kim as its General Secretary.
Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of China Road and Bridge Corporation's Kenya operations, is interviewed in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

NAIROBI, May 21 (Xinhua) -- As dawn breaks over Kenya's savannah, a herd of giraffes ambles beneath the 7.5-meter-high arches of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway bridge, purposefully engineered to accommodate their towering frames.

About three km away, infrared cameras capture a mother rhino guiding her calf through a wildlife corridor adorned with Maasai tribal motifs, capturing a fleeting moment of coexistence between steel and wilderness.

These scenes, witnessed by journalists traveling across Kenya to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity in May, embody a philosophy underpinning China's infrastructure push in Africa: ecological preservation is not a constraint but the very blueprint for progress.

Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals.

"Wildlife tourism fuels Kenya's economy. We could not afford to disrupt that," said Yu. When the original rail route threatened to bisect wildebeest migration paths, engineers rerouted 15 km of track southward, adding nine bridges and 12 percent to the cost, to protect the movement of over two million animals.

CRBC's approach combines ancient Chinese ecological wisdom with modern technology. Near Tsavo National Park, in the southeastern part of the country, vibration alert systems emit subterranean pulses that mimic natural tremors, gently steering elephant herds away from the tracks.

Hippo habitats are safeguarded by corrugated, noise-reducing rails engineered to register just 55 decibels, even quieter than the whisper of savannah winds.

In a striking act of biomimicry, wetland bridge piers in Mombasa are textured with artificial coral reefs that have since nurtured thriving mangrove ecosystems.

"Every decision prioritized minimal intrusion," Yu emphasized. Nighttime construction bans in ecologically sensitive zones, dust-suppressing water trucks, and low-vibration machinery became standard protocol. Even abandoned quarries were repurposed into watering holes for wildlife after construction ended.

Beyond engineering, CRBC is nurturing a culture of environmental stewardship across local communities. Its "Ecological Bank" initiative mandates the planting of five native trees for every one displaced, a program that has already regenerated 230 hectares of forest.

Partnering with Maasai guides, the company developed an app that alerts 37 nomadic tribes to construction zones. Meanwhile, 1,200 local residents have been trained to patrol and protect mangrove reserves.

Along the railway, solar-powered drip irrigation systems double as animal drinking stations and have increased pasture yields by 40 percent.

"They did not just build a railway; they wove an ecological safety net," said Erustus Kanga, director general of the Kenya Wildlife Service.

As freight trains glide past grazing giraffes and cheetah cubs peer from culverts at Chinese-built guardrails, Kenya's SGR stands as a United Nations-certified model of sustainable infrastructure.

"The Chinese showed us development is not about conquering nature, but finding its rhythm," said Millicent Kathambi, warden of Nairobi National Park.

In this unlikely harmony of steel and savannah, a resonant lesson emerges: when civilizations learn to listen to the land, progress becomes not a force of disruption, but of balance and renewal. 

Millicent Kathambi, warden of Nairobi National Park, speaks during an interview in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

Antelopes are seen in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

A giraffe is pictured with a viaduct of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway in the background in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

An antelope grazes under a viaduct of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

An ostrich is pictured with a viaduct of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway in the background in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, on May 16, 2025. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

Photo taken on May 16, 2025 shows a viaduct of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway traversing Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

Photo taken with a smartphone on April 27, 2025 shows a viaduct of the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway traversing Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Constructed by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), the Nairobi-Malaba Standard Gauge Railway is a key component of the Kenya Standard Gauge Railway Project with a total length of about 960 km upon completion. According to Yu Fujia, assistant general manager of CRBC's Kenya operations, the Nairobi-Malaba railway incorporates 14 ground-level wildlife crossings, 150 underground culverts, and six km of noise-dampening overpasses with light-permeable barriers, forming a three-dimensional corridor for animals. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)

Editor: Zhang Zhou
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar doubled down on India's stance the Operation Sindoor is ongoing, asserting that India will respond if there is another incident like the Pahalgam terror attack.

He said it was Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir's "extreme religious outlook" that influenced the terrorists who attacked innocent civilians in Pahalgam. "It was intended to harm tourism and to create religious discord. And an element of religion was introduced" he added.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in response to the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people. In retaliation, India struck nine terror camps in PoK and Pakistan on May 6-7 night.

The subsequent deployment of Pakistani missiles and drones were successfully thwarted by Indian armed forces, with India retaliating by hitting military and air bases in Pakistan. On May 10, Pakistani DGMO called his Indian counterparty, seeking a ceasefire deal, following which both sides agreed to a truce.

However, Indian officials have maintained that Operation Sindoor is an ongoing operation. Echoing them, Jaishankar said, The operation continues because there is a clear message in that operation  that if there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22, there will be a response, that we will hit the terrorists,

The minister asserted that if the terrorists are in Pakistan, then India will strike them there. "So, there is a message in continuing the operation but continuing the operation is not the same as firing on each other. Right now, there is an agreed cessation of fighting and military action."

When asked about Donald Trump's claims about US mediating the talks, Jaishankar ruled out any American involvement in the ceasefire negotiations.
Russia and Ukraine have no further direct negotiations scheduled, the Kremlin announced on Thursday, as the conflict between them, which is well into its third year, continues to rage on.

There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. They are yet to be agreed upon.

This announcement comes days after US President Donald Trump's latest attempt to mediate the conflict in a two-hour call with Russian president Vladimir Putin, followed by subsequent calls to Ukraine's Zelenskyy and NATO officials.

However, the call failed to achieve its intended purpose, with Trump ultimately leaving direct conflict negotiations to the two nations itself, stating, nevertheless, that ceasefire negotiations would begin immediately, followed by a broader plan to end the conflict itself, giving way to trade.

He had also offered to attend the Russia-Ukraine peace talks at Istanbul earlier this month if Putin agreed to do so as well, but neither showed up.

ALSO READ | EU, UK announce new sanctions on Russia after Trump's phone call fails to bring about ceasefire

These talks fell through too, with Zelenskyywho had also tried to get Putin to attend in personremarking that the mutually-agreed prisoner swap was only real result.

The two nations have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war (POWs): the largest exchange of this kind since February 2022.

Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax that Moscow had provided Kyiv a list of prisoners it required in the swap.

We have not yet received a counter list from Kyiv. We are waiting.

Meanwhile, Moscow's defence ministry claimed to have shot down 105 of Kyiv's drones overnightthe second consecutive night of border tensionsincluding 35 over its capital region, as per an Associated Press report. Kyiv's air force also claims to have intercepted 128 drones from Moscow at around the same time.

Russias Defense Ministry said that it had shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 35 over the Moscow region. It was the second straight night that Kyivs forces have targeted the Russian capital.

The European Union, along with the UK, has, however, ramped up sanctions on Russia in its 17th sanctions package, announced earlier this week.

The latest sanctions, finalised three months ago, will run parallel to Russian delays in agreeing to ceasefire negotiations, which, according to Trump, would be taking place with Putin and Zelenskyy meeting face-to-face at the Vatican.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had also spoken of a further package of sanctions being prepared, with inputs from Zelenskyy.
Japanese strategic expert Satoru Nagao, a Fellow (Non-resident) at the Hudson Institute in Washington, has praised India's Operation Sindoor for its measured response against terrorist elements in Pakistan, according to an ANI report.

Noting that Islamabad had a long history of terrorist affiliations, Nagao stated that supporting terrorism was essentially suicide, because terror elements are unpredictable and cannot always be controlled by law.

Nagao, whose primary area of research is US-Japan-India security cooperation, stated that India has continued to suffer from the terrorism that Pakistan fomented, from time to time, remarking that the Pahalgam attack of April 22, which saw 26 civilians killed, was terrible.

ALSO READ | PM Modi says Pakistan will face complete economic collapse if it continues exporting terrorism

His comments on the India-Pakistan tensions also follow the dispatch of delegations from New Delhi to various corners of the world, including Japan, in a bid to put forward the truth about the terrorism that India has been taking head-on, over the past few weeks.

Nagao noted that just because India was strong enough to defend itself, did not mean that it needed to be provoked by terrorist elements in Pakistan.

He also added that Japan, along with the rest of the world, was slowly coming to realise how much of a hindrance Pakistani-sponsored terrorism was, to India, and appreciated India's restraint in its choice of only responding (and never initiating) to attacks on Indian soil, as well as its choice of terrorist targets (while avoiding civilians).

In that regard, he lauded the clinical efficiency of Operation Sindoor, which saw more than 70 terrorists killed across nine terror camps across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), without a single civilian casualty.

ALSO READ | After 'Rafale downing proof on social media' claim, Pakistan's Khawaja Asif vows to prove BLA, TTP are Indian proxies

Although America has attempted to intervene between the two nuclear-armed nations, its attempts at a ceasefire fell through. Nagao seeks to reframe this issue, observing that world leaders were making a mistake calling India-Pakistan tensions a regional issue, instead of a world affair, because using the latter term for it would help the issue garner global attention and support.

This, in turn, would lead to various international organisations enforcing stronger sanctions on nations, like Pakistan, that harboured terrorism.
Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday tried to blame India for terrorism in the country, claiming that the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are Indian proxies.

ALSO READ: 'Where is proof for downed Indian jets?' CNN host's blunt question has Pakistan's Khawaja Asif giving bizarre explanation

Asif claimed that he will submit complete evidence to prove India's alleged involvement in the attack on a school bus in Balochistan's Khuzdar district. The bomb blast in Khuzdar on Quetta-Karachi highway reportedly killed six people, including three schoolgirls while 40 others were injured.

CNN anchor grills Pakistan's defence minister



Anchor: You say PAK shot down 5 Indian jets. Where's the evidence?



Khwaja Asif: It's all over social media



CNN Anchor: ....I'm sorry we didn't ask you here to talk about social media content pic.twitter.com/hA8LucaaKv  Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) May 7, 2025

However, India slammed Pakistan for trying to hoodwink the world, pointing out that blaming India for its reputation as global epicentre of terrorism has become Pakistan's "second nature".

"India rejects the baseless allegations made by Pakistan regarding Indian involvement with the incident in Khuzdar," Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Speaking to Geo News, Asif alleged that India is financing both the BLA and TTP and that he will corroborate whatever he has claimed. He then went on to allege that the allegation about Pakistan's involvement in the deadly Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians was unsubstantiated.

During Operation Sindoor, Defence Minister Asif went live on CNN, claiming Pakistan downed five Indian jets, including a Rafale. However, when anchor Becky Anderson confronted him about evidence, Asif said it was all over social media. "On Indian social media, not on our social media. The debris of these jets fell... it's all over Indian media," he said.

Anderson called Asif out, reminding him that he is the defence minister of Pakistan. "Youre the defence minister, sir. The reason to talk to you today, sir, is not to talk about content all over social media. I'm sorry," she said.

The Pakistani defence minister was trolled for his gaffe on global TV, with once user saying, "No wonder  US troops took out Osama bin Laden right near Pakistani army quarters, and they only heard about it later from the news!"
Hours after two Israeli embassy staff were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, police have arrested the suspect. He was identified as a 33-year-old male named Elias Rodriguez who is a Chicago resident.

ALSO READ: Who were Israeli diplomats killed in DC? Yaron Lischinsky was planning to propose to Sarah Lynn Milgrim next week

The shooting took place around 9 pm when the suspect opened fire at a man and a woman at "close range". The museum was steps away from the FBI's Washington Field Office in northwest DC.

Was Elias Rodriguez a member of PSL?

Following the shooting, the suspect rushed into the museum lobby, chanting "Free Palestine". As per unconfirmed reports, he is linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) in Chicago. PSL, which was established in June 2004, is a communist party the split from the Workers World Party in the US.

The DC Jewish Museum attacker is a far-left activist in Chicago who belongs to Party for Socialism and Liberation



SHOCKER pic.twitter.com/5EA9Cwm0br  End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 22, 2025

PSL is traditionally known for supporting the Palestinian cause. The party's leader Eugene Puryear led a pro-Palestine rally in Times Square on October 8, 2023, a day after the Hamas attack on Israel. Besides backing the Palestinian cause, PSL also supports the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the ousted Assad regime in Syria and even defends the human rights record of North Korea.

Police are investigating the motive but said the man did not have any previous contact with the law enforcement. They have recovered a weapon from the scene.

One of the eyewitnesses, Katie Kalisher, who was inside the museum, was alarmed by the gunshots outside the building. She recounted that people came to the aid of Rodriguez and brought him water, thinking he needed help. It was only later that they realised he was the suspect, reported AP.

After police arrived, the man pulled out a red keffiyeh, yelling, "Free Palestine", the news agency quoted Kalin as saying.

Responding to the brutal shooting, US President Donald Trump said hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country. "These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he said, "Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon took to X, calling the attack a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.
The two slain employees working out of the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC were identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. The couple was shot dead when they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, located near FBI's Washington Field Office in northwestern DC.

ALSO READ: Was DC museum shooter Elias Rodriguez a member of PSL? American communist party leads 'Free Palestine' protests in US

The fatal shooting was allegedly carried out by Elias Rodriguez, who is reportedly a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a radical left party. After the killings, he rushed into the museum lobby, chanting, "Free Palestine."

Who were Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim?

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were about to get engaged, according to reports. Lischinsky, 28, was planning to propose to Milgrim during a trip to Jerusalem next week. Israels Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said he bought the ring this week.

We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington  Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

May their memory be a blessing.



We embrace the grieving families during this pic.twitter.com/4lNQnTvORG  Israel  (@Israel) May 22, 2025

Lischinsky was a research assistant in the embassy's Political Department since September 2022. He had previously served in the Israel Defense Forces.

Milgrim, a Jewish American, was working in the Department of Public Diplomacy at the Israeli embassy since November 2023. She received her masters in international studies from the American University and another masters in natural resources and sustainable development from the United Nations University of Peace.

She had previously worked at Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, carrying out research on peacebuilding theory with a focus of the Israel-Palestinian region. She had also researched on environmental issues in India and Central America, according to her LinkedIn.

The hatred, incitement and growing violence against Jewish people worldwide, is a direct result of the callous murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim in Washington DC.



Yuval and Sarah were shot dead at point blank range by this man shouting Free Palestine. pic.twitter.com/qpb7Uv1Ox6  James J. Marlow (@James_J_Marlow) May 22, 2025

Mourning the couple's deaths, the embassy posted on X said the entire staff is heartbroken and devastated. "Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives," the post read. "No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time."

US President Donald Trump said hatred and radicalism have no space" in the country, adding that "these horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!"
Syria may be only weeks away from "collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned, urging swift international support for the countrys fragile transitional authorities. His stark assessment came during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, just days after President Donald Trump made the highly controversial decision to lift longstanding US sanctions on Syria.

Rubio's warning was proof that there is significant concern within the US administration about the precarious state of Syria following the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad. The Islamist-led rebellion, spearheaded by the former al-Qaeda commander Ahmed al-Sharaa and his coalition, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), brought an end to Assads brutal 13-year rule. But post-Assad Syria has witnessed rising sectarian violence and mounting distrust among minority groups.

The US had imposed sanctions on Syria under the Caesar Act in response to atrocities committed by the Assad regime, which left over six lakh dead and displaced more than 1.2 crore people. Though initially resistant to easing sanctions without firm guarantees of minority protections, the Trump administration reversed course last week, citing a desire to facilitate humanitarian aid and regional cooperation.

Trump met President Al Sharaa in Saudi Arabia during a summit of Gulf leaders. Despite the Syrian leader's controversial pasthe remains listed by the US as a specially designated global terroristTrump described him as a young, attractive guy a fighter and praised his potential to stabilise the war-torn country. Al Sharaa, in turn, hailed the lifting of sanctions as a historic and courageous decision that would help alleviate the suffering of the people and lay the foundations for a more stable future.

Nevertheless, concerns about the new transitional leadership persist. HTS, which dominates the government, is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Despite promises to protect religious and ethnic minorities, recent months have witnessed alarming outbreaks of sectarian violence.

In March, nearly 900 civiliansmostly Alawiteswere killed during clashes between security forces and loyalist militias in the western coastal region. Pro-Assad loyalists reportedly killed over 450 civilians and 170 members of the transitional security forces. Then in May, over 100 people were killed in fighting involving Druze gunmen, Sunni Islamist fighters and government forces in the suburbs of Damascus and the southern province of Suweida.

Many minorities remain deeply distrustful of the new government. Rubio acknowledged these tensions, blaming Assad for having deliberately pitted Syrias diverse communities against each other. He also warned of a resurgent Islamic State in areas outside government control and accused Iran of attempting to reassert influence through Assad-era networks.

Rubio sought to justify the administrations rapid policy shift: Nations in the region want to get aid in, want to start helping them, and they cant because they are afraid of our sanctions. He confirmed that the Trump administration plans to waive provisions of the Caesar Act temporarily to allow investment and humanitarian engagement. However, he noted that Syria remains on the US list of state sponsors of terrorisma major legal and diplomatic barrier to full normalisation.

The European Union has followed Washingtons lead. EU foreign ministers voted unanimously on May 20 to lift economic sanctions on Syria. Kaja Kallas, the EUs foreign policy chief, wrote on X: We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria. The EU has always stood by Syrians throughout the last 14 yearsand will keep doing so. Diplomats said the decision would unfreeze central bank assets and reintegrate Syrian banks into the global financial system, though targeted sanctions on individuals involved in ethnic violence would remain.

In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani welcomed his Jordanian counterpart, declaring the doors are open for international investment. The foreign ministry hailed the EUs move as the beginning of a new chapter in Syrian-European relations built on shared prosperity and mutual respect.

While critics remain sceptical of engaging a government led by a former jihadist, Rubio argued that engagement was the only viable path forward. The bad news is the transitional authority figures didnt pass their background check with the FBI, he quipped. But if we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we do not engage them, it is guaranteed to not work out.

Yet he was quite pessimistic about Syrias immediate future. We are looking at the very real possibility of Syria fracturing again, and this time there may be no stitching it back together, Rubio warned the senators. The cost of standing back is collapse, chaos, and the return of a war that could make the last one look like a prelude.
Nairobi (Kenya), May 22 (AP) It's crunch time for the maker of Levi's and Wrangler jeans in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Hundreds of sewing machines whir in a crowded, air-conditioned factory. On another floor, workers pack clothes destined for the US market.

The fate of about 16,000 workers in the factory at the United Aryan export processing zone hangs in the balance.

In September, a duty-free trade agreement between Kenya and the United States could expire under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA.

The factory's founder, Pankaj Bedi, said manufacturers would be unable to compete well in the US market if the AGOA agreement is not renewed, due to the difficult business environment in sub-Saharan Africa.

Without AGOA  meant to benefit African nations that meet certain US expectations in areas including governance and human rights  many Kenyan goods would no longer have duty-free access to the US market. And they would be exposed to the uncertainty of the Trump administration's global tariff campaign.

It's a concern across the continent. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking to journalists after his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, noted that AGOA is going to be further discussed ... it is top of mind for them as well in the US administration.

Bedi said his business has benefited from 25 years of the AGOA agreement but will not survive if the deal is not extended again.

This time around, we are hoping that President Trump will pass it for a longer period, then a long-term strategy can come in play," he said. The longest extension has been for a decade.

In making his pitch, Bedi said he believes that Africa offers the perfect alternative sourcing to Asia with its large and youthful workforce. Seventy per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa are under 30, according to the United Nations.

I think the real shift of supply chain will happen, and Africa is the last frontier. We cannot go to the moon and start manufacturing there," Bedi said.

Kenya's government would not comment on the deal or why it might be under threat.

Economist Wangari Muikia said the new US tariffs reflect a shift towards reviving American manufacturing, consistent with Trump's priority to re-shore jobs, but warned that ending AGOA may strain diplomatic ties and weaken American soft power.

African governments have promoted AGOA as a major job creation avenue.

In Kenya, AGOA has led to the creation of 66,000 jobs since the program began in 2000, according to government statistics published in 2024. Kenya's overall unemployment rate is 12.7 per cent, but the rate among those under 35 is 67 per cent  part of a wider issue for much of Africa's booming young population.

In 2023, Kenya's total exports under AGOA including agricultural products, apparel and handicrafts were worth $510 million, according to the US Department of Commerce. United Aryan said it exports an average of 8 million jeans annually from Kenya to the US.

But some African governments and leaders have objected to AGOA's conditions. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni criticized the program after it was used in 2023 to pressure him on his stance on homosexuality.

Kenya's former ambassador to the UN, Martin Kimani, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he believes AGOA's unpredictability has not been good for the economy.

The real measure of a trade regime is its predictability and its integration into long-term production," he said. The tariffs and the program's upcoming expiration signal that AGOA is not a stable foundation for African industrial growth.

If Kenya's AGOA deal isn't extended, the country will need to look for alternative markets like the African Continental Free Trade Area to ensure jobs are not lost and manufacturers keep exporting goods, said economist James Shikwati, founder and director of The Inter Region Economic Network.

The continental free trade area has shortcomings that include underdeveloped infrastructure that makes it expensive to transport goods, mistrust that makes it hard for some countries to be fully open to trading with neighbours and a lack of strong institutions that can mediate trade disputes.

Judging by the Trump administration's recent trade-related policies, every trade partner will need to reevaluate its engagement with the US, Shikwati added.

For those whose jobs could be affected, there is concern.

United Aryan employee Valdes Samora hopes to keep the sewing machines humming, and that livelihoods will not be lost after September.

The 59-year-old father of nine has been working at the company for two decades. His wife also works there. Workers are paid an average of USD 200 per month, in a country where the minimum wage is USD 115.

I never completed my education, but through this work I have been able to educate my children, he said. (AP) PY

PY
SACRAMENTO, the United States, May 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump confronted visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with conspiracy theories on "white genocide" in South Africa, which Ramaphosa firmly denied.

During their meeting in the Oval Office, Trump accused South Africa of "white genocide" and unfair land seizures, and then unexpectedly presented a video and a stack of printed news articles which he said proved his allegations.

Ramaphosa, who arrived in Washington in hopes of improving trade terms and easing bilateral tensions, rejected Trump's assertions during the meeting. He refuted the notion that white South Africans are fleeing the country due to racist policies. He said there was crime in South Africa and the majority of victims were Black.

News outlets were shocked by Trump's rudeness, saying most of the information that he used during the meeting to try to prove that "white genocide" was happening in South Africa had "repeatedly been disproven."

"Of the laundry list of conspiracy theories brought out at Trump's meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa today, almost everything has been debunked. Some South Africans have said that they believe that the information is 'AfriForum propaganda' -- a White Afrikaner lobby group criticized as being a White nationalist group," the CNN reported.

The clash came at a time of strained relations between the two countries. Since Ramaphosa signed the Expropriation Act into law in January, Trump has criticized the land reform law for "discriminating" against the country's white people.

In recent months, Trump has repeatedly criticized South Africa, most notably by canceling the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief funding and claiming that a "genocide" against white South Africans is underway, an allegation denied by the South African government.

In March, the United States expelled then South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, further straining their relations. The expulsion came after Rasool addressed a webinar organized by the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, commenting on the Trump administration.

"What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency at home and I think I've illustrated abroad as well," Rasool said during the webinar.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Trump would not participate in the upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) leaders in South Africa later this year.

"We decided not to participate in this year's G20 hosted by South Africa, either at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or at the level of the president, and this was largely due to some of these issues that they put on their agenda and which, as we think, they do not reflect the priorities of this administration," Rubio told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

South Africa has pushed back against the Trump administration's accusations, saying the executive order of freezing aid "lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognize South Africa's profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid."

"We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favor among decision-makers in the United States of America," said the country's Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation in a statement in February.

Editor: Xiong Jian
In a powerful show of support, more than 500 elected officials, civic leaders, and dignitaries gathered Sunday morning to recognize Met Council  Americas largest Jewish charity fighting poverty  for its unwavering commitment to serving New Yorkers in need. Held at Cipriani 42nd Street just before the Salute to Israel Parade, the event also drew relatives of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, underscoring the moments emotional and geopolitical weight.

The gathering reflected the depth of support for Met Councils mission, with speakers and honorees including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Representatives Yvette Clarke, Dan Goldman, Gregory Meeks, Grace Meng, and Jerrold Nadler, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, and New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Also in attendance were NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, CAU Commissioner Fred Kreizman, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and borough presidents Mark Levine of Manhattan, Vanessa Gibson of the Bronx, and Donovan Richards of Queens. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz joined the event, as did mayoral hopefuls including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, and former Assemblyman Michael Blake.

Met Council CEO David G. Greenfield addressed the crowd by reflecting on the recent Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer and the timeless lesson of Rabbi Akiva: that it is not enough to treat others with respect  one must love them deeply. At Met Council, that love is expressed through action: feeding the hungry, housing the vulnerable, supporting survivors of domestic violence, and standing by our seniors, Greenfield said. And we are able to do this because of the continued support of our partners in government and the community.

Over the past year, Met Council provided emergency food to more than 325,000 New Yorkers each month through its citywide pantry network and distributed fresh food to over 358,000 people for Passover. The organization helped families across all five boroughs access more than $19.5 million in SNAP benefits, while its diaper bank delivered over 15,000 cases of diapers and wipes to families with young children. Its Senior Services team performed 1,857 free home repairs for older adults and supported 2,030 Holocaust survivors. Met Councils domestic violence program assisted more than 1,007 clients in crisis, offering them safety, legal services, and emotional support.

Greenfield emphasized that while Met Council is rooted in the Jewish community, its reach and compassion extend far beyond it. In fact, Met Council serves more Latinos, African Americans, and Muslims than any other Jewish charity in America. This is our purpose, he said. We dont ask people where they come from before we help them  we ask them what they need.

The event also honored public servants and community partners who have helped Met Council expand its lifesaving work. Among those recognized were Congressman Dan Goldman; Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli; State Senator Andrew Gounardes; Assemblymembers Sam Berger, William Colton, and Catalina Cruz; and Council Members Joann Ariola, Sandra Ung, Amanda Farias, Julie Menin, and Susan Zhuang. The organization also paid tribute to COJO of Staten Island President Mendy Mirocznik and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP attorneys Yehuda Buckweitz, Pejman Razavilar, and Shai Berman for their extraordinary support and partnership.

As the crowd prepared to march in the Salute to Israel Parade, the message was clear: Met Councils work is not only urgent  it is essential. And with the continued support of public officials, community leaders, and thousands of New Yorkers, that work will go on.


Ten men who broke out of a New Orleans jail last week clogged a toilet to get the water shut off so that they could escape through a hole behind it, a lawyer for a maintenance worker who is charged with helping them said Wednesday.

The worker, Sterling Williams, did not know about the mens plan and did not allow the inmates to cut a pipe behind the toilet to create an opening for their escape, attorney Michael Kennedy told The Associated Press.

Williams, 33, was arrested Tuesday. Authorities have said an inmate instructed Williams to turn off the water to a toilet, leading to one of the largest jailbreaks in recent U.S. history. Five of the men remained at large Wednesday.

Williams just a tool, lawyer says

This was clearly all part of an orchestrated plan, Kennedy said. Williams was nothing more than the tool they used to turn off the water which they knew would have to happen after clogging the toilet.

Kennedy told the AP that after a deputy called Williams to fix a toilet, he found it overflowing.

The defense attorneys story differs from the one from authorities.

According to an arrest affidavit that made no mention of a clogged toilet, Williams told law enforcement during an interview that an inmate had threatened to shank him if he did not turn off the water. Williams could have reported the threat and the escape plan, authorities have said. They asserted that because Williams turned the water off, the inmates were able to successfully make good on their escape, the affidavit said.

Kennedy addressed authorities statements that his client was threatened into helping the escape.

He was not aware that there was going to be an escape, Kennedy said. He was not conspiring with them. He had no knowledge that he was being used.

A message was left seeking comment from the Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office about Kennedys remarks.

Shanking comment was not a threat, lawyer says

Inmate Antoine Massey, who approached Williams and said he would shank him as he was doing his maintenance work, was just talking to talk and not intimidating the plumber, Kennedy said.

Everyone seems to have leaped on that, saying he was acting out of fear. No, Kennedy said. Yes, someone said they would shank him. They didnt say it in a particularly threatening manner. They said it more as an aside.

Kennedy said the cell with the clogged toilet was for disabled inmates and should never have been in use. No one should have been in this cell to begin with, he said. This cell should have been locked down.

It would seem obvious to me that filling up the toilet, clogging the toilet, was a portion of the escapees plan, Kennedy said. They would know that whoever the maintenance person was would have to turn off the water  because it was overflowing.

A scapegoat

Kennedy said he was only able to meet with Williams for around 30 minutes via Zoom. He did not ask Williams whether he had finished unclogging the toilet, whether he turned the water back on, or how long he was inside the cell.

Williams did not know the name of the deputy who told him to fix the clogged toilet, Kennedy said.

Williams is worried about his safety and his future, his lawyer said. He is being held in a different facility in a separate parish.

The most important thing Ive learned is that these charges are ridiculous and the sheriffs office is trying to use him as a scapegoat to minimize their own embarrassment, Kennedy said. He did nothing more than the job they pay him to do and now theyre attempting to sacrifice him for it.

Additional arrests made

Also Wednesday, authorities arrested two people accused of helping some of the escapees. Cortnie Harris, 32, of New Orleans, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, of Slidell, are each charged with one felony count of being an accessory after the fact, according to a Louisiana State Police news release.

They were booked into the Plaquemines Parish Detention Center. Online jail records did not indicate whether either woman had a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

An initial investigation showed that Harris was in touch by phone with an escapee whos still on the run and transported two escapees who still havent been caught to multiple locations in New Orleans, the release said. Investigators said Baptiste had been in contact by phone and social media with Corey Boyd, who has since been recaptured, and helped him get food while he was hiding.

(AP)
The 8th grade boys of Torah Academy of Minneapolis recently visited Lakewood as part of an East Coast trip designed to give them a glimpse into the broader Torah world they are part of  and their first stop left a powerful impression.

The students, hailing from a city without a local Hatzolah organization, were brought to Hatzolah of Central Jersey to experience firsthand how a major volunteer emergency medical service operates. From the moment they entered the dispatch center  where calls are answered in seconds and responders are tracked in real time  the boys were visibly inspired.

For many, it was the first time stepping into an ambulance, learning how lifesaving equipment is used, and understanding how a coordinated network of volunteers responds to emergencies around the clock. But beyond the technical and logistical marvels, what struck them most was the warmth and dedication of the people.

They didnt make us feel like we were bothering them, one student remarked to his rebbi, R Sender Breiner, after the visit. Everyone was so nice. The fact that theyre all volunteers made the biggest impression on me.

The visit gave students a broader perspective of what it means to be part of Klal Yisroel  bound not only by Yiddishkeit, but by responsibility and chesed.

In addition to their Hatzolah visit, the boys had the opportunity to meet with various chesed organizations, roshei yeshiva, rabbanim, and local frum politicians  each one contributing to the deep sense of pride and inspiration the students felt throughout their trip. The exposure to so many facets of a thriving Torah community left them motivated to strive for greatness and to one day take an active role in the chesed and leadership that define Lakewood.

Lakewood doesnt just run on Torah  it runs on caring for others. Our students saw that with their own eyes, Rabbi Breiner remarked.

The 8th grade girls class from Torah Academy is also planning a similar trip to the East Coast in the coming weeks.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Treasured artifacts associated with President Abraham Lincoln were on the auction block Wednesday, separated from a collection that was intended to be available for public display forever but wound up in the middle of an interagency feud amid a lingering $8 million debt.

The blood-stained leather gloves that were in Lincolns pocket the night he was assassinated were among the 144 items up for bid, 136 of which sold. They were auctioned to pay off the remainder of a two-decade-old loan that the Lincoln Presidential Foundation used to buy a one-of-a-kind cluster of Lincoln artifacts from a California collector.

The auction at Freemans/Hindman in Chicago raised $7.9 million, but that includes buyers premiums of roughly 28% tacked onto each sale to cover the auction houses administrative costs.

The gloves were the top-selling items, bringing in $1.52 million including the premium. One of two handkerchiefs Lincoln had with him April 14, 1865, the night he was shot, went for $826,000.

A Wanted poster featuring photos of three suspects in the assassination conspiracy, led by John Wilkes Booth, sold for $762,500, far higher than the top estimated price of $120,000.

And the earliest known sample of the 16th presidents handwriting, from a notebook in 1824, fetched $521,200.

Phone and email messages seeking comment were left for the foundation. Its website said proceeds from the auction would be put toward retiring the debt and any excess funds will go toward our continued care and display of our extensive collection.

The foundation purchased a 1,540-item assemblage in 2007 from Louise Taper for the fledgling Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005 in the city where he established a law practice and lived while serving in the Illinois Legislature and briefly in Congress.

The artifacts were supposed to give the library and museum, which was rich in Lincoln-related manuscripts, a boost in what it lacked  the meaty kind of curios that draw tourists.

But fundraising was slow, forcing the sale of non-Lincoln portions of the collection and threats by the foundation to sell more before it finally extended the loan.

In 2012 a controversy arose over what had been the crown jewel of the group  a stovepipe hat, appraised at $6 million, that Lincoln was said to have given as a gift to a southern Illinois supporter. That story came under intense scrutiny, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, resulting in a 2019 study that found there was no evidence the hat belonged to Lincoln. It was not part of Wednesdays auction.

(AP)
With just weeks to go until New York Citys mayoral primary, one of the leading candidates, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, finds himself under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. He seems to think it might actually help.

In a new advertisement released Wednesday, the Cuomo campaign seized on the investigation as a potential selling point to voters, calling it an attempt by the Trump administration to interfere with New York Citys election.

Why? Because Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor, the ad says. If Donald Trump doesnt want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, you do.

It added that Cuomo would be a mayor who stood up to bullies.

The investigation, according to an Associated Press source, is centered on the truthfulness of statements Cuomo made to Congress last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it spread through nursing homes. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In other times, revelations so close to an election that a major candidate was the subject of a criminal probe might mean political doom.

But while some of Cuomos opponents in the Democratic primary pounced, accusing the former governor of perjury during his Congressional testimony, others said they were disturbed by what they characterized as the political weaponization of federal law enforcement.

The Justice Department recently launched an investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has battled Trump in civil court, over paperwork related to a home she helped a relative buy in Virginia. It filed criminal charges against a Democratic member of Congress for jostling with federal agents as they arrested the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey outside an immigration detention center. The Secret Service interviewed former F.B.I. director James B. Comey about a message critical of Trump that he posted on social media.

Trumps Justice Department also scuttled a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams  a Trump ally on immigration policy.

Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic state lawmaker who is running for mayor, said that while he believed Cuomo had lied to Congress, Donald Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice.

While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administrations actions are dangerous, Mamdani said in a statement.

Cuomo questioned over handling of report about nursing home deaths

Cuomo, who touts his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic on the campaign trail, has been dogged by a short-lived state directive that temporarily prevented nursing homes from refusing to accept patients recovering from the virus. The policy, intended to help alleviate hospital overcrowding, was reversed after criticism that it might accelerate virus outbreaks in nursing homes.

Amid the scrutiny, Cuomos administration substantially understated deaths in nursing homes in its public reports for several months, fueling more criticism that it was engaged in a cover-up.

Cuomo was grilled on the subject by a congressional panel last year, with the group saying it had evidence that Cuomo had reviewed, edited and drafted parts of a state health department report on nursing home deaths. Cuomo told the panel he was not involved in the report, but then later said he did not recall being involved.

The panel referred Cuomo to the Biden administrations Justice Department for criminal prosecution over accusations that he lied to Congress, but no charges were brought. Months later, Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, then re-sent the referral to the Justice Department after Trump took office, releasing a statement saying Cuomo must be prosecuted.

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in an email that Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee  but from the beginning this was all transparently political.

The Justice Department has declined to comment. Jeanine Pirro, who has been a harsh critic of Cuomos pandemic nursing home response from her perch as a Fox News host, was recently appointed as the new leader of the U.S. attorneys office in Washington. Pirro had unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo in a 2006 state attorney general race.

Probe may not change many peoples votes, former party leader says

Basil Smikle, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, predicted that the investigation might not lead to many people changing their votes.

If youre a Cuomo voter, youve already made up your mind that youre OK with all of the stuff thats in his past, he said. I dont know if this changes things much.

That could change though, he said, if Cuomo were to be charged and it became clear that a criminal case would interfere with his ability to serve as mayor.

Still, the probe has allowed some of Cuomos opponents to hammer the former governor for, in their view, being insufficiently critical of Trump on the campaign trail.

Andrew Cuomo believing he may need a pardon for committing perjury explains his incessant kissing up to Donald Trump, said city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Cuomo.

The current mayor, Adams, who dropped out of the Democratic primary but is still running for a second term on an independent ballot line, told reporters Wednesday that he wouldnt comment on the investigation.

Im not going to do to him what others did to me, he said. Im going to allow the investigation to take its course.

(AP)
Cleveland Heights Mayor Khalil Seren is facing mounting public outrage after explosive allegations of antisemitism surfaced against his wife, Natalie McDaniel.

Last week, the law firm Sobel, Wade & Mapley, LLC filed a formal complaint with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission alleging that McDaniel used antisemitic slurs in private text messages referring to city officials, including members of the Jewish community. The complaint, which includes messages reportedly sent to Mayor Seren and a former aide, accuses McDaniel of referring to Jewish Planning Commission Chair Jessica Cohen as a broodmare  a term allegedly used to disparage Orthodox Jewish families for having large numbers of children.

Other reported messages include derogatory remarks about Jewish residents and city officials, including calling a councilmember that Jewish [dog]. McDaniel also reportedly implied that Cohen was serving on the commission solely to benefit the Orthodox community.

Scores of Cleveland Heights residents gathered this week outside City Hall hours before the council meeting to demand accountability. Protesters, including children, held signs calling for Mayor Serens resignation, expressing frustration over his silence and inaction in the face of bigotry coming from within his own household.

During the city council meeting, residents filled the chamber and voiced outrage during public comment. While councilmembers unanimously passed a resolution condemning antisemitism as an emergency measure, they also took pointed aim at the mayors silence.

As a city leader, your judgment has failed you, Councilwoman Gail Larson said. Vice President of Council Davida Russell added, We need to close the door on all this hatred.

Council President Tony Cuda said: Im disappointed. Im repulsed. And most of all, Im sorry to the Jewish community that has to endure this hate speech.

Mayor Seren, who has not publicly addressed the complaint, said during the meeting, Ive prepared a statement and Ill be releasing that tomorrow. Tonight, Im here to listen.

On Wednesday night, Seren released a long video  but made no mention of resigning. The video can be watched below.

The citys second-ever mayoral election is set for November. While two candidates have already filed to run, it remains unclear whether Seren will seek re-election.

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(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
As anti-Semitic incidents spiked across the United States in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the Biden administrations Education Department reportedly failed to investigate nearly 200 related complaints, according to a former senior official now serving under President Donald Trump.

The official, speaking to Fox News, claimed that more than 150 of the unaddressed complaints were filed after the deadly assault by Hamas, which left nearly 1,200 Israelis dead and ignited a war that has reverberated far beyond the Middle East  including on American college campuses, where pro-Palestinian protests and rising tensions have left many Jewish students feeling targeted and unsafe.

Rather than addressing a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic harassment, the Departments Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under Biden redirected resources to cases involving issues such as preferred pronouns and challenges to age-appropriate content in school libraries, the source said.

Julie Hartman, a spokeswoman for the Trump-era Education Department, accused the Biden administration of overextending the OCRs authority. The Biden administration placed an undue burden on OCR by stretching the scope of civil rights law beyond its statutory purview, she said, arguing that this shift in focus undermined the agencys ability to respond to credible reports of anti-Semitic discrimination.

The Trump OCR is cleaning that up daily, Hartman added. By enforcing the law as it is written, the Trump administrations OCR is using its personnel and resources responsibly and eliminating wasteful and unfounded investigations.

The remarks come as President Trump has taken a notably aggressive stance against campus anti-Semitism, threatening to revoke billions in federal funding from universities that fail to protect Jewish students.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Agudath Israel of America applauds the inclusion of game-changing federal school choice legislation in the budget reconciliation bill passed this morning. This legislation will help millions of children across the country including those wishing to attend yeshivas and other nonpublic schools.

Following a model already operating successfully in more than twenty states, the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) will provide $5 billion in K-12 scholarships per year. It does this by allowing a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit for donors who contribute to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGO). These SGOs would then provide scholarships for a range of educational expenses, including private school tuition

Agudath Israel applauds the US House for including game-changing federal school choice legislation in the reconciliation bill, said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israels National Director of Government Affairs. We look forward to working with the Senate to ensure that the biggest and most beautiful scholarship tax credit proposal possible is included in the final budget reconciliation package.
Russia and Ukraine have no direct peace talks scheduled, the Kremlin said Thursday, nearly a week after their first face-to-face session since shortly after Moscows invasion in 2022 and days after U.S. President Donald Trump said they would start ceasefire negotiations immediately.

There is no concrete agreement about the next meetings, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. They are yet to be agreed upon.

During two hours of talks in Istanbul on May 16, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, in what would be their biggest such swap. Apart from that step, the meeting delivered no significant breakthrough.

Several months of intensified U.S. and European pressure on the two sides to accept a ceasefire and negotiate a settlement have yielded little progress. Meanwhile, Russia is readying a summer offensive to capture more Ukrainian land, Ukrainian government and military analysts say.

Putins proposals

Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this week that Moscow would propose and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum outlining the framework for a possible future peace treaty. Putin has effectively rejected a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has accepted. He has linked the possibility to a halt in Ukraines mobilization effort and a freeze on Western arms shipments to Kyiv as part of a comprehensive settlement.

European leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his bigger armys battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

The major prisoner swap is a quite laborious process that requires some time, Peskov said.

But he added: The work is continuing at a quick pace, everybody is interested in doing it quickly.

Peskov told Russias Interfax news agency that Moscow had provided Kyiv with a list of prisoners it wants released. We have not yet received a counter list from Kyiv. We are waiting, he told Interfax.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that preparations are underway for the potential prisoner exchange, which he described as perhaps the only real result of the talks in Turkey.

Peskov disputed a report Thursday in The Wall Street Journal that Trump told European leaders after his phone call with Putin on Monday that the Russian leader wasnt interested in talks because he thinks that Moscow is winning.

We know what Trump told Putin, we dont know what Trump told the Europeans. We know President Trumps official statement, Peskov said. What we know contrasts with what was written in the article you mentioned.

Russian capital targeted by drones for the second night

Apart from the continuing war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, which has killed tens of thousands of troops on both sides, Russia and Ukraine have been firing dozens of long-range drones at each others territory almost daily.

Russias Defense Ministry said it shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 35 over the Moscow region. It was the second straight night that Kyivs forces have targeted the Russian capital.

More than 160 flights were delayed at three of Moscows four main airports, the citys transport prosecutor said, as officials grounded planes citing concerns for passenger safety.

The attack prompted some regions to turn off mobile internet signals, including the Oryol region southwest of Moscow, which was targeted heavily Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry claimed it downed 485 Ukrainian drones over several regions and the Black Sea between late Tuesday and early Thursday, including 63 over the Moscow region, in one of the biggest drone attacks.

It was not possible to verify the numbers.

Russia seeks a buffer zone on the border

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 128 drones overnight. Among the targets were Ukraines central Dnipropetrovsk region, damaging an industrial facility, power lines, and several private homes, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.

In Kyiv, debris from a Russian drone fell onto the grounds of a school in the capitals Darnytskyi district, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. No injuries were reported.

Ukrainian shelling in Russias Kursk region killed a 50-year-old man and injured two others, acting regional Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said Thursday.

Putin visited the Kursk region on Tuesday for the first time since Moscow claimed that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month. Kyiv officials denied the claim.

Despite the liberation of our territory, the border region is still subject to enemy attacks, Khinshtein warned residents on Telegram. It is still dangerous to be there.

Putin has said Russian forces have orders to create a security buffer zone along the border.

That would help prevent Ukraine from striking areas inside Russia with artillery, Putin told a government meeting, but he gave no details of where the proposed buffer zone would be or how far it would stretch.

Putin said a year ago that a Russian offensive at the time aimed to create a buffer zone in Ukraines northeastern Kharkiv region. That could have helped protect Russias Belgorod border region, where frequent Ukrainian attacks have embarrassed the Kremlin.

(AP)
A woman accused of spitting on the top federal prosecutor for the nations capital was arrested Thursday on a federal assault charge, court records show.

Then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. was being interviewed on video by a Newsmax reporter on a sidewalk outside his office on May 8 when Emily Gabriella Sommer approached him and spit on his left shoulder, a deputy U.S. Marshals affidavit says.

Video captured Sommer swearing at Martin, calling him a disgusting man and yelling, My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served, before walking away, the affidavit says.

The encounter occurred on the same day that President Donald Trump pulled Martins nomination to remain U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on a more permanent basis.

Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro replaced Martin, who faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate after a turbulent stint in the nations largest U.S. Attorneys office. A key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his defense of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol more than four years ago. Martin roiled the office with a series of unorthodox moves, such as firing and demoting subordinates who worked on politically sensitive cases.

Sommer later took credit for the spitting incident in a message replying to a social media post by Martin, according to the deputy.

Sommer was arrested in Washington, D.C., on a complaint charging her with assaulting, resisting or impeding a government official. Online court records dont list an attorney for her.

Pirros name  not Martins  is on the signature block for a court filing in Sommers case.

(AP)
By News Centre

At a time when the US is withdrawing from global leadership, Europe needs Turkiye more for security. The analysis in the British newspaper The Telegraph also included Europe's need for Turkiye and the balance of power established by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. The analysis emphasized that Turkiye , which has come to the fore with both its military and diplomatic power under President Erdo?an's leadership, has once again settled at the center of the world. On the other hand, the analysis also drew attention to the fact that Turkiye has become indispensable for Europe's security.

While the balances in world politics are rapidly changing, Turkiye is once again becoming a rising actor on the global stage under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

A comprehensive analysis in the British newspaper The Telegraph emphasized that Turkiye has become a key country establishing the strategic balance between Europe and Russia.

In the column and analysis written by Adrian Blomfield, it was stated that US President Donald Trump's distant attitude towards NATO and his decreasing support for Ukraine pushed Europe to search for new security partners; Erdo?an quickly filled this gap.

Blomfield noted that Turkiye has become indispensable to Europes security with its coastline on the Black Sea, its control over the Straits, and the largest army in NATO after the United States.

According to the analysis, not only Turkiye's military capacity but also its defense industry and diplomatic skills are noteworthy.

While Turkish UAVs and warships play an important role in Europe's rearmament process, Erdo?an is consolidating his position as a peace broker by being one of the rare leaders who can meet with both Ukrainian and Russian leaders.

With the stability achieved in domestic politics, the decisive steps taken in the fight against terrorism, and the signals of economic recovery, President Erdo?an is making Turkiye a decisive power not only regionally but also on a global scale.

In his analysis/column in The Telegraph, Blomfield emphasized that Turkiye has once again become the center of the world, not only geographically but also with its diplomatic and military power, and that President Erdo?an's determined leadership is behind this transformation.
BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China has unveiled an action plan to protect and create beautiful rivers and lakes from 2025 to 2027, with a focus on improving the quality of aquatic ecosystems.

The plan, jointly released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other government organs on Wednesday, set the goals of achieving notable progress in creating beautiful rivers and lakes by 2030 and completing the initiative by 2035.

Liu Jing, deputy director of the department of water ecology and environment at the ministry, said that beautiful rivers and lakes generally need to meet several criteria.

In terms of water resources, they should have a stable source of replenishment, good water flow and adequate ecological water use, thus steadily achieving the goal of "rivers with flowing water," Liu explained.

As for water ecology, the ecological functions of water bodies and their buffer zones should be maintained or restored, biodiversity effectively protected, and the return of representative native species ensured, thereby achieving a stable state of "rivers with fish and aquatic plants."

Concerning water environment, pollutant discharge within the basin should be effectively controlled, water quality significantly improved or be consistently excellent, public needs for waterfront landscapes and recreational spaces well met, and ecological concerns raised by the public properly addressed, ultimately achieving "harmonious coexistence between people and water," according to Liu.

The plan aims to promote targeted, science-based and lawful pollution control, coordinate the management of water resources, aquatic environments and water ecology, and build an integrated ecological governance system across upstream and downstream areas in key river basins to improve the health of aquatic ecosystems.

The plan outlines 19 specific measures, focusing on consolidating and deepening water environment management, guaranteeing basic ecological water use, and comprehensively advancing protection and construction efforts.

A total of 2,573 water bodies have been included in the national list for protecting and creating beautiful rivers and lakes, covering major river trunks, key tributaries, and important lakes and reservoirs with critical ecological functions, fragile environments, or significant public interest.

This includes full coverage of more than 6,300 kilometers of the Yangtze River trunk stream and over 5,400 kilometers of the Yellow River trunk stream.

China has carried out pilot programs for water ecology assessment in the Yangtze River Basin for three consecutive years, and similar efforts have been explored in the Yellow River Basin.

According to the plan, by 2027, the index of aquatic biological integrity in the Yangtze River Basin is expected to improve, the decline in aquatic biodiversity in the Yellow River Basin will be initially curbed, and ecological protection compensation mechanisms will be established in major river basins, such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River.

The plan urges strengthening scientific and technological support in the field of aquatic ecological environment by advancing innovation, enhancing research on key technologies, leveraging the role of the national platform for the transformation of ecological and environmental science and technology achievements, and promoting the application of research outcomes.

Central finance will provide backing to ensure funding support, while local governments and private capital will be encouraged to increase investment, says the plan.

Efforts will be made to encourage social capital to actively participate in the initiative through approaches such as government procurement of services, third-party environmental pollution treatment, and environment-oriented development, said Liu.

Editor: Xiong Jian
U.S. President Donald Trumps plan for a Golden Dome to protect the United States from long-range missiles was at least partly inspired by Israels multitiered missile defenses.

Trump announced the $175 billion concept in the Oval Office on Tuesday, saying it would put U.S. weapons in space for the first time and be would be fully operational by the end of his term in early 2029, though a U.S. official familiar with the program said it could take longer.

Israels multilayered defenses, often collectively referred to as the Iron Dome, have played a key role in defending it from rocket and missile fire from Iran and allied terror groups in the conflict unleashed by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The sophisticated system, developed over decades with considerable U.S. support, is capable of detecting incoming fire and deploying only if the projectile is headed toward a population center or sensitive military or civilian infrastructure. Israeli leaders say the system isnt 100% guaranteed, but credit it with preventing serious damage and countless casualties.

Heres a closer look at Israels multilayered air-defense system:

The Arrow

This system developed with the U.S. is designed to intercept long-range missiles. The Arrow, which operates outside the atmosphere, has been used to intercept long-range missiles launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and by Iran itself during two direct exchanges of fire last year.

Davids Sling

Also developed with the U.S., Davids Sling is meant to intercept medium-range missiles, such as those possessed by Lebanons Hezbollah terror group. It was deployed on multiple occasions throughout the war with Hezbollah, which ended with a ceasefire last year.

Iron Dome

This system, developed by Israel with U.S. backing, specializes in shooting down short-range rockets. It has intercepted thousands of rockets since it was activated early last decade  including volleys launched by Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel says it has a success rate of over 90%.

Iron Beam

Israel is developing a new system to intercept incoming threats with laser technology. Israel has said this system will be a game changer because it would be much cheaper to operate than existing systems. According to Israeli media reports, the cost of a single Iron Dome interception is about $50,000, while the other systems can run more than $2 million per missile. Iron Beam interceptions, by contrast, would cost a few dollars apiece, according to Israeli officials  but the system is not yet operational.

(AP)
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz made a surprise visit to the Ashdod Naval Base in southern Israel on Wednesday.

I came here from a visit to the Shin Bet headquarters, Katz said, and all is Hamas is doing now is sitting and updating targets in yishuvim near the border through sources that provide it with information, like the Iranians and others. It is still busy planning how to continue.

Therefore, we must win here. There is no entity that cannot be subdued. We must make sure Hamas will not stay here.

During the visit, Katz sailed off the coast of the Gaza Strip and received a briefing on the sailors activities during the war.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi on Wednesday ordered that the Palestinian who spat on an IDF officer on a Ramat Gan bus on Sunday be designated as a security prisoner.

The move is unusual as the charges against him are criminal.

The video below shows the suspect, a 24-year-old resident of the town of Huwara, a notorious hotbed of terrorism in the northern Shomron, being transferred to an unnamed security prison.

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The suspect was transferred to Israel Police overnight Sunday after he surrendered himself to the IDFs Civil Administration on Sunday evening.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Israel is preparing for a rapid military strike against Irans nuclear facilities if ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Washington fall apart, according to a report by Axios citing two Israeli sources familiar with the matter.

According to one source, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is closely watching the diplomatic developments and awaiting the right political moment to act.

Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead, the source said, referring to President Donald Trump.

The Israeli intelligence community, which once believed a deal was within reach, now reportedly sees the talks nearing collapse. One of the sources told Axios that Israeli military leaders fear the strategic window for a strike may be closing fast, though specific details were not disclosed.

Both sources confirmed a Tuesday CNN report indicating that the IDF is actively preparing for a strike, which would likely target Irans nuclear infrastructure. However, any such operation would not be a one-time event. Instead, the sources said it would require a sustained campaign lasting at least a week.

There was a lot of training, and the U.S. military sees everything and understands Israel is preparing, one of the sources said, suggesting a high level of transparency  and potentially coordination  between the two allies.

While Israeli officials have long maintained that all options are on the table to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the intensity of current preparations suggests that military action may no longer be hypothetical.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Two staff members from the Israeli Embassy were fatally shot outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, during a reception being hosted by the American Jewish Committees D.C. Young Professionals Board.

According to DC Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith, one suspect  since identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago  opened fire outside the museum at 9:08 PM, striking a young couple, who were readying to get engaged next week in Jerusalem, killing them both. The suspect then entered the museum and chanted Free, free Palestine! before being detained by event security.

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The victims were identified as Yaron Lischinsky Hyd, a research assistant for Middle East & North African Affairs at the Israeli Embassy. A native of Germany, he made Aliyah at the age of 16. The second victim was identified as Sarah Milgrim, Hyd, a Jewish American who worked at the Israeli embassy. The two were about to get engaged. Yaron, zl, had already bought a ring and was planning on proposing next week in Jerusalem.

The embassy released a statement saying, Yaron and Sara were our friends. They were in the prime of their lives. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by the murder. There are no words to express the depth of our sorrow and horror at this terrible loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will stand by them during this horrific time.

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The FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Force is now leading the investigation, and is reportedly treating the incident as a politically motivated act of hate targeting Jews and Israeli representation in the U.S. capital.

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Dozens of guests, including embassy personnel and members of Washingtons Jewish community, were reportedly inside the museum when the shooting occurred. Attendees were rushed into lockdown as security and emergency responders arrived on the scene.

Witnesses said that the terrorist ran inside the building after the attack, but the people in the building were unaware of his identity. Security guards even offered him water because he appeared distressed due to witnessing the attack.

Witness Sara Marinuzzi told CNN that the security guards tried to comfort him. He was kind of having erratic behavior. They figured he witnessed the shooting.

He pretended to be a witness, asked security to call the police, and waited over 10 minutes for police to arrive, she said. When they arrived, he admitted to the crime, telling police, I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine!'

Yoni Kalin, another witness, told Fox News that it was a miracle there wasnt another mass shooting inside the building. We didnt realize he had murdered two people, he sat with us for fifteen minutes. Only when he said Im not armed and pulled out a red keffiyeh  we understood. He started shouting Free Palestine, Intifada revolution. Thank G-d he left the gun in the bushes outside the building. Only later, a friend told me that he saw the security cameras  Rodriguez simply shot someone in the back, a real execution, with 5 to 10 shots.

Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, called the shooting a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.

Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line, Danon wrote on X. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.



The Israeli Embassy released the following statement, confirming that two of its staffers were shot:

Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC.

We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israels representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
Israeli politicians blamed Thursday nights fatal terror attack in Washington D.C. on antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric around the world and many also placed blame on Israeli leftists such as Democrats chairman Yair Golan, who made irresponsible, outrageous, and false statements about Israel on Tuesday, insinuating that IDF soldiers kill babies as a hobby.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu from Otzma Yehudit responded to the attack by saying: Yair Golans blood libels are echoed by Nazis and Israel haters around the world. Were now paying the price for them with the murderous attack in Washington, and history teaches us that we will continue to pay in the future. Yair, the blood of the embassy employees is on your hands and those of your friends.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also referred to Golans statements, writing: Unfortunately, the antisemites in the world draw strength from vile politicians in Israel, who accuse IDF soldiers of murdering children as a hobby. The blood of the murdered is on their hands.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli stated, It is important to tell the unequivocal truth. This murderous attack did not emerge from a vacuum. It is a direct result of blatant antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel and the Jewish people, incitement fueled by extreme anti-Israel elements  both in the world and, regrettably, within the State of Israel.

Whoever spreads lies, compares Israel to the Nazis, accuses the IDF of committing war crimes, or falsely claims that the hobby of IDF soldiers and the State of Israel is to kill babies  is fully complicit in the outcome. We will continue to fight antisemitism everywhere and in every way  consistently, resolutely, and fearlessly.

Chikli also placed blame on irresponsible leaders in the West for their anti-Israel rhetoric. The terrorist reportedly shouted Free Palestine before opening fire. Let us be absolutely clear: Free Palestine is not a cry for liberty  it is a cry for murder. That was proven in blood today. The slogan, parroted by activists, academics, and influencers, has become a banner not for peace but for hatred, violence, and the demonization of the Jewish state.

Anyone who uses it now, in the wake of this attack, is not just echoing antisemitism  they are legitimizing the murder of Jews and Israelis, he added, slamming irresponsible leaders in the west like British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and French President Emmanuel Macron, for having emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines.

This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood, he asserted.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed Golans remarks [before the terror attack], in a press conference he held on Wednesday evening:

While our heroic soldiers are risking their lives in the Gaza Strip to protect our country and bring our hostages back, Yair Golan accuses them of war crimes, Netanyahu said, adding that Golans remarks reminds him of medieval blood libels.

It is Hamas that kills children as a hobby, while Israeli soldiers are doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. No army in the world is more moral than the IDF.

Netanyahu continued by saying that those who defend Golan and repeat such charges fuel antisemitism in order to bring down his government. They are willing to do anything to achieve that goal, including losing the war, he said.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Missile alert sirens blared at midday on Thursday in Jerusalem, Gush Etzion, the Yam Hamelech area, Yehuda and Shomron, and central Israel.

Shortly later, the IDF spokesperson reported that one missile launched from Yemen was successfully intercepted.

Hours earlier on Thursday morning, at about 3:00 a.m., sirens were heard across central Israel, the Sharon and the Shfela lowlands, forcing over a million Israelis to leave their beds and rush to protected spaces.

The IDF spokesperson said that a missile launched by the Houthis in Yemen was intercepted by the Air Forces Arrow system.

MDA reported that one man was lightly injured as he ran for shelter.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
The terrorist who murdered Yaron Lischinsky Hyd, and Sarah Milgrim, Hyd, was identified as Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old resident of Chicago.

Witnesses said that Rodriguez told the police as before being arrested, I did it, I did it for Gaza. Free Palestine!

Rodriguez was a member of the far left-Marxist pro-Palestine group, the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which accuses Israel of genocide on its social media pages.

In 2020, he made a political donation to Joe Biden.

In 2017, he participated in a protest over the death of a black teenager who was shot by a Chicago police officer.

The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its Black residents, Rodriguez was quoted at the time in PSLs Liberation newspaper.

[Amazons] whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city. So do we in Chicago and all across the country want a nation of cities dominated and occupied by massive corporations where only the rich and white can live and the vast majority of us must live on the edges of the city and society living in deeper and deeper poverty?

He held a BA in English from the University of Illinois and worked in the administration of the American Osteopathic Information Association in Chicago.. In the past, he worked as an oral history researcher at the History Makers, a black history project started by Carnegie Mellon University.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Israel is completely changing its strategy in the Swords of Iron war and aims for a full conquest of the Strip, while separating the civilian population from Hamas terrorists, Channel 12 reported on Thursday.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has been dealing with what seems to be an insurmountable problem: the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, which Hamas uses as human shields.

Since the beginning of the war, IDF soldiers have been clearing areas in Gaza of terrorists and then leaving the area and allowing civilians to return to their homes. But of course, Hamas would return to the area along with the civilians.

IDF soldiers have been forced to return to the same areas time and time again, clearing houses and streets of Hamas terrorists, at great risk to their lives.

This time, according to the report, Israel plans to change its strategy by conquering the Strip. Israel plans to take control of 75% of Gaza. Civilians will likely be allowed to return to those areas after extensive screening.

Hamas terrorists will remain alone in the remaining 25% of the Strip, without a population to protect them with their bodies, without supplies, and under constant bombardment.

A senior security official who spoke with Channel 12 said that the goal is to make Gaza smaller and remove Hamas from its comfort zonedisconnecting the terror group from the population.

The official added that we will create checkpoints and control points to filter out Hamas terrorists.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
France and Saudi Arabia are reportedly developing a proposal to disarm Hamas, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the talks.

According to those sources, Saudi officials have been in direct contact with Hamas leadership in an effort to secure the groups demobilization and transition into a non-military political entity. While it remains unclear whether France has engaged Hamas directlyespecially given the European Unions designation of the group as a terrorist organizationboth nations are said to be collaborating on a plan that would allow Hamas to retain limited political power in exchange for disarmament.

The reported initiative aims to transform Hamas from an armed militant organization into a purely political entity that could continue playing a role in future Palestinian governance. The underlying theory, sources say, is that preserving some degree of influence could incentivize Hamas to give up its weapons voluntarily.

The effort comes amid mounting tensions between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. France, along with Saudi Arabia, is co-chairing an upcoming United Nations conference in New York, where momentum is building for broader international recognition of Palestinian statehooda move Israel firmly opposes.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot added fuel to the diplomatic fire earlier this week, calling Israels easing of aid into Gaza totally insufficient and demanding immediate and massive humanitarian relief.

Meanwhile, France, Britain, and Canada issued a joint statement Monday opposing Israels ongoing military presence in Gaza and its continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, warning that further measures could follow. Hamas, in turn, welcomed the statement, condemning what it described as Israeli siege and starvation tactics and accusing Jerusalem of pursuing a campaign of genocide and displacement.

Recent revelations have further complicated the picture. According to The Wall Street Journal, documents obtained by Israeli forces suggest Hamas orchestrated the October 7 massacre in part to derail normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabiatalks that were nearing a breakthrough at the time.

Earlier this month, Macron took direct aim at Netanyahus Gaza policy, calling it shameful in light of reports that half a million people are at risk of starvation. He also floated the possibility of increased European sanctions.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
LANGKAWI, Malaysia, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday urged cooperation among Asian nations to address global uncertainties and focus on safeguarding the well-being of the world.

The 100-year-old former leader, who first launched the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) over 30 years ago, visited the 17th edition of the exhibition here. He noted the development of technologies and advancements in the defense sector on display, especially the growth of the Malaysian defense industry.

"I think Asian countries must work together, but we must remember we are members of the whole world," he told Xinhua following his tour of the exhibition. "We must focus on our commitment to the well-being of the world."

"Also, there are many more Malaysian companies where before there were none. Malaysian companies are also involved in exhibiting their products, especially for the military. The new technologies (on display) are fantastic. I mean, they can see things which before were too far away, but now we can track ships and everything sailing in the (distant) sea," he said.

LIMA is a biennial event in Malaysia, first launched by Mahathir in 1991. It has grown into a major arms and technology expo, drawing hundreds of companies and showcasing various defense and aerospace technologies.

Separately, Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Malaysia is working to strengthen border security, particularly along its long coastline, which covers the critically important maritime trade route along the Malacca Straits. He emphasized the need to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, piracy, smuggling and marine pollution.

"True economic prosperity cannot be achieved without security at sea... Disruptions in supply chains, shifting geopolitics, and emerging security threats further emphasize the need for a strong and coordinated maritime defense posture. Malaysia will continue to enhance its naval and maritime enforcement capabilities to protect our national interests," he said Wednesday at the Malaysia Maritime Conference, which runs concurrently with LIMA.

Among the measures are the adoption of new advanced surveillance technologies, including the deployment of autonomous unmanned vehicles, the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis and maritime threat monitoring, and the securing of the underwater cable network, both within Malaysia's waters and through cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the region's waters.

Editor: Xiong Jian
IDF forces raided the village of Burqin, near Bruchin, in the northern Shomron on Thursday morning, according to videos posted by Palestinians on social media.

The video shows hundreds of soldiers entering the village in the early morning hours.

The terrorist who murdered Tzeela Gaz, Hyd, while she was on the way to the delivery room, lived in Burqin. He was eliminated on Shabbos by IDF forces.

During the security forces activity in the village, a terrorist ran towards them holding a bag suspected of being booby-trapped. The soldiers shot and eliminated him.

Your browser does not support the video tag.

The forces searched the bag and found an M-16 rifle and other weapons used to carry out the attack. Investigators from the Yehuda and Shomron District Police collected the findings to locate additional accomplices.

He was identified as Naal Samara, who served a prison sentence in Israel in the past for Hamas-affiliated terror activities, was released in 2010, and was imprisoned again for a few days in 2019 for online incitement.

As part of the investigation by the Shin Bet, IDF forces arrested several additional Palestinians for allegedly being involved in the attack, including the head of the terror cell.

The investigation also revealed that the cell carried out three additional shooting attacks in the area in recent months, including the attack near Ariel on March 12, 2025, in which an Israeli civilian was moderately wounded.

(YWN Israel Desk  Jerusalem)
Federal authorities have filed multiple charges against 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez in connection with the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night. The victims, identified by Israeli officials as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were killed as they exited an event hosted at the museum.

According to a criminal affidavit, Rodriguez faces two counts of first-degree murder, as well as charges of murdering foreign officials, causing death with a firearm, and discharging a weapon during a crime of violence.

The affidavit also details Rodriguezs alleged motivations. During an interview with Metropolitan Police Department detectivesafter waiving his Miranda rightsRodriguez reportedly expressed admiration for an individual who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., earlier this year in protest of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rodriguez allegedly described the mans actions as courageous and referred to him as a martyr. Investigators say Rodriguez purchased a ticket to Wednesdays museum event approximately three hours before it began.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter confirmed the victims were a young couple who were planning to become engaged. The young man purchased a ring this week, Leiter said. He was planning to propose to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

The Embassy of Israel to the United States released a statement on its official social media account, describing the shooting as a terrorist attack. A terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC, the statement read.

Federal and local authorities continue to investigate the incident.

(YWN World Headquarters  NYC)
One of the UKs biggest energy companies will slash spending on renewables by 1.5billion in a major blow to Ed Milibands Net Zero plans.

SSE yesterday blamed policy and planning delays for the 21 per cent cut to planned green energy investment over the next five years.

The FTSE 100 firm warned it will miss its 2030 renewable energy targets in a move that threatens to derail Milibands decarbonisation drive.

It is the latest setback for the Energy Secretary after Danish giant Orsted this month scrapped plans for a wind farm off East Yorkshire.

SSE said: The changing macroeconomic environment and wider delays to planning processes mean the group has reduced its near-term capital investment expectations.

Total investment across all divisions will fall 3billion to 17.5billion over the next five years, with around 30 per cent of that allocated to renewables.

Blow: Energy secretary Ed Miliband (pictured) is struggling to keep Britain on track to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets

The firm, based in Perth, Scotland, will spend 5.5billion on clean energy, rather than 7billion.

The cut means SSE is now unlikely to meet its ambitious goal of generating 50 terawatt-hours of green energy a year by 2030, it said as it revealed its full-year results.

Profits tumbled 26 per cent from 2.49billion to 1.85billion in the year ending March 31.

Chief executive Alistair Phillips-Davies, who is stepping down in July, said plans evolved... to reflect the changing world around us.

John Moore, senior investment manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, said the firm has been affected by light winds and low returns from renewable energy.

One-off expenses and project delays have also hit profits unexpectedly, he said.

It comes after Orsted said that its project, which would have had the ability to power more than a million homes, no longer made economic sense.

Drax is also set to pause an expansion of its Scottish hydro-power plant.

The firm will scale back investment in renewables despite receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said that it was continuing to pave the way to becoming a clean energy superpower.
The chief executive of Rio Tinto will step down by the end of this year, the mining giant announced on Thursday.

'Four years isnt very long at the wheel of a FTSE 100 company, so its a surprise to see Rio Tinto announce the forthcoming departure of chief executive Jakob Stausholm', Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said.

No reason was provided by the company for Strausholm's upcoming exit.

Rio Tinto named Stausholm as its chief executive in 2021 while grappling with legal, public and investor turmoil over the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters.

On Thursday, the business said Stausholm would step down later this year once a successor was appointed. A selection process for the role is underway.

Contenders for the top job are expected to include current chief commercial officer Bold Baatar, head of iron ore Simon Trott, and aluminium boss Jerome Pecresse.

Moving on: The chief executive of Rio Tinto will step down by the end of this year

Some investors said they expected Rio Tinto to mount a robust external search given limited bench strength internally.

However, the company's top brass may have to compete for external candidates with BHP, whose chief executive Mike Henry is widely expected to step down this year.

Stausholm took over as chief executive of Rio Tinto from Jean-Sebastien Jacques, who was ousted as a result of the firm's handling of the Juukan Gorge saga.

Under Stausholm, Rio Tinto make a significant push into lithium production, including the multi-billion-pound acquisition of Arcadium Lithium last year.

This week, Rio Tinto doubled down on its lithium bet this week, announcing that it will partner with Chile's Codelco for its Maricunga lithium project with a 670million investment.

During his tenure, Stausholm was also credited with repairing key stakeholder relationships, advancing major projects including Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, and restoring ties with Chinas Chinalco.

Before getting the top job at Rio Tinto, Stausholm previously served as the firm's finance chief and a member of the board of advisors at IBM, and held senior positions at shipping company A.P. Moller - Maersk.

Rio Tinto Chair Dominic Barton said: 'Under Jakobs leadership, Rio Tinto has restored trust with key stakeholders, aligned our portfolio with the commodities where demand growth is strongest, built a diverse and talented management team, and set a compelling growth trajectory.

'Our focus on these things is undiminished and our strategic priorities are unchanged.'

Stausholm said: 'It has been an absolute privilege to lead Rio Tinto, one of the great mining and materials companies in the world.

'I would like to thank the deeply dedicated and talented people across the organisation that together have raised both operational performance and project execution.

'We have built on Rio Tintos historic strengths to deliver profitable, stable growth and significant shareholder value. I know the company will continue to thrive long into the future.'

Mould of AJ Bell, said: 'During Stausholms tenure, arch-rival BHP tried to buy Anglo American and that raised questions as to why Rio Tinto wasnt also doing big deals.

'Earlier this year, there was speculation that Rio held merger talks with Glencore but nothing came of it. Rios board might have felt that Stausholm was too conservative with his strategy and now is the time to be bold and grab market share.

'All weve had is a $6.7billion takeover of a lithium company which is small fry in the bigger scheme of things.

'It feels inevitable that Rio will recruit a dealmaker as its next CEO, rather than a company fixer.

'Rio is running smoothly but its position as a listed business means success will also be judged on its share price performance.

'That needs to be fired up, and M&A is the way for Rio to show it is the king of the miners given the industry follows the mantra of "biggest is best".'
A financial update from Stockholm-headquartered Klarna raised some eyebrows thanks to how it was delivered.

The buy-now-pay-later giant opted to use an artificial intelligence avatar of its boss, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, to deliver a video of its latest earnings highlights.

In the slick video, Siemiatkowski said AI was 'deeply embedded' in Klarna's operations and was 'unlocking efficiency and record setting growth.'

The group's latest earnings update noted that the use of AI had led to a 40 per cent reduction in the company's workforce.

It said the share of its tech-focused staff had risen from 36 per cent in 2022 to 52 per cent in the first quarter of this year.

Klarna added: 'Ninety-six per cent of employees use AI dailyhelping drive a 152 per cent increase in revenue per employee since Q1 23 and putting Klarna on track to reach $1million in revenue per employee.

In charge: Sebastian Siemiatkowski is the chief executive of buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna

'AI is slashing costs across the business, most noticeable in customer service, where costs per transaction have dropped by 40 per cent since Q1 23 whilst maintaining customer satisfaction levels.'

Siemiatkowski was keen to highlight that the group's active customer base had reached 100million, stating this represented the 'fastest growth' it had seen in years.

However, it also emerged this week that a growing number of Klarna's customers were having trouble with the 'pay later' part of its operations.

As a buy-now-pay-later lender, Klarna's customers can snap up a slew of items, including anything from burritos to dresses, in installments.

The company makes its money by charging fees to merchants and to consumers who fail to repay on time.

Nestled on page three of its latest first quarter earnings update, Klarna revealed that its consumer credit losses had risen to $136million, or around 101million, which is around 17 per cent higher than at the same point a year ago.

Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: 'It looks like customers are buying now and not paying later, which is kind of what we are seeing in terms of consumer health dashboards in the US in particular with credit card debt and rising stress evidenced by an increase in the percentage of customers only paying off the minimum balance.

'It looks like they went a bit big on AI without realising that they probably need real people to control credit losses.

'Strip away the fintech app stuff and they are just a subprime lender and need a lot of customer services to facilitate the business.'

Some analysts said they believed the upturn in the firm's consumer credit losses partly stemmed from poorer economic sentiment in the US.

A spokesperson for Klarna told This is Money that while the firm's credit losses increased by 17 per cent in absolute terms year-on-year, that was because it issued 'significantly more loans' in the quarter, meaning the dollar value of credit losses naturally rose.

The spokesperson added: 'What is more telling is the proportion of loans not paid back  our credit loss rate  which increased only slightly from 0.51 per cent to 0.54 per cent globally. Thats a small uptick and shows overall stability in repayment behavior.

'In the US, our delinquency rates are the same they were a year ago, and were actually seeing signs of a healthy consumer.'

Data this week showed consumer confidence in the US had fallen to the second lowest on record.

Across its operations, Klarna's total net loss widened to $99million by the end of the quarter, from $47million a year ago. Revenue in the first quarter jumped 13 per cent year-on-year to $701million, or around 621million.

Amid a rising net loss and mounting consumer credit losses, Klarna is now reportedly on a mission to bolster the hiring of humans across its customer service arm, having previously replaced 700 staff with AI.

It remains unclear how many new staff will be hired and where.

This week, Siemiatkowski indicated that the AI job cuts at the company had led to 'lower quality' customer service levels. Bloomberg reported that Siemiatkowski said the new workforce would be hired 'in an Uber type of setup.'

While stressing that AI will remain a key part of the business, Siemiatkowski said this week: 'Really investing in the quality of the human support is the way of the future for us.'

While raising eyebrows over its recent quarterly net loss and consumer credit losses, the firm's proposed US initial public offering has also been put on the back burner amid ongoing jitters over Donald Trump's trade tariffs.

The British government is also gearing up for a renewed clamp-down on pay-now-pay-later firms.

Last year, Klarna was fined over 35million and given a reprimand by Sweden's financial regulator for breaching anti-money laundering rules.

Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority handed the buy-now-pay-later group a 500million Swedish crown fine as it slammed 'significant deficiencies' in Klarna's risk controls.

The watchdog said Klarna's general risk assessment failed to consider how its 'products and services could be used for money laundering or terrorist financing'.

Simon Heath, a partner at Heligan Group, told This is Money: 'Its been a busy time for Klarna with recent disappointment of pausing a US IPO and doubling of Q1 losses, despite increasing revenues and active users.

'Additionally, there are sceptics out there that believe there are more fundamental challenges to the business model and potentially critical issues that underlie the decision to pause the IPO.

'And to compound matters, regulatory bodies are taking a closer look at the BNPL market.

'Just this week, the UK government has initiated a review of the practices across this market which may add further woe to the Klarna business model.'
Photo: https://www.freepik.com/

The WIG-Ukraine index of Ukrainian stocks on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) dropped another 6.88% on Wednesday to 531.24 points, following a 3.36% decline on Tuesday in the first market reaction to a conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The continued selloff reflects mounting pessimism over the prospect of a swift peace deal and waning U.S. support for Ukraine in the ongoing war.

According to WSE data, shares of Astarta, Ukraine's largest sugar producer, fell by 7.76%. Agricultural holdings with land near the front line  IMC and Agrogeneration  saw their stocks decline by 3.30% and 7.48% respectively. Milkiland dropped 2.28%, KSG Agro slipped 0.32%, while Coal Energy, whose mines are idle due to the war, surged 4.71%. All of these stocks are part of the WIG-Ukraine index basket.

The only stock to rise was that of Kernel, Ukraine's largest sunflower oil producer, which gained 1.54%. However, Kernel shares are not part of the index due to their low free float.

The performance of Ukrainian equities on the WSE sharply underperformed the broader Polish market on Wednesday, with the main WIG index down 0.95% and the WIG40 slipping just 0.22%.

On the London Stock Exchange (LSE), where retail investors have less influence than on the WSE, shares of MHP, Ukraine's largest poultry producer, edged down 0.36%, while mining company Ferrexpo dropped 5.23%.

Ukrainian eurobonds also lost ground on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, declining by 0.5% to 1.7%. The 2029 bonds were quoted around 62.72% of face value, and the 2036 bonds at 48.57%. Meanwhile, GDP warrants fell 0.1% to 74.53% of their notional value.

As reported, the WIG-Ukraine index plummeted from 574.37 points to 361.98 points on the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion, February 24, 2024, and dropped below 200 points in May 2024. Following Trump's electoral victory last fall, the index initially climbed from around 240 to 350 points. From mid-February, on news of peace talks, it surged to 640-650 points. However, as optimism about a quick agreement faded, the index fell to 508.45 points in early April.

By the end of the week before last, on news of improving U.S.-Ukraine relations and Russia's announcement of a temporary ceasefire, WIG-Ukraine rebounded to 590 points. After plans for negotiations in Istanbul and prospects for a longer-term ceasefire were announced, the index nearly reached 625 points early last week before retreating again as hopes for a swift resolution to the war diminished.
Ukraine receives over $133 bln in financial aid from partners over last three years  Finance Ministry

Ukraine has received over $133 billion in financial assistance from international partners over the last three years, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said during a meeting with Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and German Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil.

As reported in the government's Telegram channel on Thursday, Marchenko said Canada and Germany are among the leaders in supporting Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war in all possible directions.

According to him, aid from Germany is the second largest among countries in the world and reached EUR 17.3 billion. Canada's aid is the fifth largest in the world and amounts to EUR 10.3 billion.

In addition, Canada and Germany supported the G7 ERA initiative (assistance to Ukraine through interest on frozen Russian assets) in the amount of $50 billion. In particular, Canada's contribution is CAD 5 billion (about $3.4 billion). Ukraine received the first tranche of CAD 2.5 billion.

The EU contribution is EUR 18.1 billion (about $20 billion). Ukraine has already received four tranches of EUR 6 billion.
Irelands deputy premier has accused the Israeli government of genocidal activity in Gaza.

Tanaiste Simon Harris said it was clear that Israel wants to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as part of what he said was a consistent pattern of war crimes.

He said the world had not done enough to put pressure on Israel to change course, and said he would look to draft a Bill that would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

Asked on Newstalk radio whether what was happening in Gaza was ethnic cleansing, Mr Harris said: In light of the very clear comments that weve seen from the Israeli government in recent days, were very much now in the space of genocidal activity.

I think that is just a statement of fact, we have seen a consistent pattern of war crimes, and we now have an Israeli government that is being very blunt in terms of outlining what it is intending to carry out in Gaza and theyve dropped the pretence, quite frankly, in terms of what they actually want to achieve.

The foreign affairs minister also said that the Israeli governments convoluted scheme to pretend to provide the most basic level of aid to thousands of starving Palestinians was despicable.

This idea that the Israeli government will come up with some sort of a convoluted scheme to effectively pretend to be providing the most basic level of aid is despicable.

Benjamin Netanyahu has been very clear about this in recent days, when he has effectively said, to paraphrase him, the only reason were doing this is to allow us to continue what he describes as their political objectives, and their political objectives now are very clear.

They want to clear the Gazan Strip, they want to clear Gaza of Palestinian people, and that is a war crime and the forcible displacement of people, as you say, with the offer of food somewhere else, it really is despicable.

He said that a two-state solution seemed further away than ever before and that the EU-Israel Association Agreement should be suspended as it is being reviewed.

Mr Harris also condemned shots fired near an EU delegation in the West Bank on Wednesday.

Two Irish officials were among those present when what the Israeli military called warning shots were fired near delegates.

This is an utterly, utterly inappropriate and indeed illegal action, Mr Harris said.

A number of diplomats, including the Irish head of mission to Palestine and his deputy, were visiting Jenin, a region in the West Bank.

They were visiting, effectively, an area thats a refugee camp. They were standing at the gates of that refugee camp, and the governor of Jenin, a member of the Palestinian Authority, was speaking and giving them an update.

When his speech ended and the diplomats began to disperse, my understanding from speaking to our people on the ground is that a number of members of the Israeli Defence Forces stepped forward and fired warning shots over their heads, or what is described as warning shots  whether they were warning shots or otherwise, they were shots  and firing shots at diplomats is an absolute, clear breach of international law.

Asked about the Israeli authorities explanation that shots were fired because diplomats had deviated from the agreed route, Mr Harris said: Do they think were thick?

They knew that diplomats were visiting the region, and the diplomats notified the Israeli Defence Forces in advance.

I dont accept in any manner or means the Israeli Defence Forces explanation in relation to this.

I find it utterly offensive, in fact. There needs to be  as weve said at an EU level  a full investigation in relation to this, and those who fired the shots, or those who gave the commands to fire the shots, need to be held accountable.

Mr Harris also condemned the shooting of two Israeli embassy officials at an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC as a vile antisemitic murder.

He said a young woman from the Irish embassy was also at the event at the museum.

This is a vile antisemitic murder of two young members of the Israeli embassy  a young couple, I believe, who were due to very shortly be engaged, Mr Harris said.

It is a despicable act. Its a heinous crime. It is antisemitic and its vile.
Irish rap trio Kneecap have released a statement saying the terror offence, which one of their members has been charged with in the UK, is an attempt to "silence voices of compassion."

Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged due to allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a concert in the O2 Forum in London on November 21, 2024.

Hezbollah is banned in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.

In a statement shared across their social media, Kneecap said, "14,000 babies are about to die of starvation in Gaza, with food sent by the world sitting on the other side of a wall, and once again the British establishment is focused on us.

"We deny this 'offence' and will vehemently defend ourselves. This is political policing. This is a carnival of distraction.

"We are not the story. Genocide is.

READ MORE: ALERT: Urgent recall issued for high chair over serious risk of injury

"As they profit from genocide, they use an 'anti-terror law' against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their 'crown court', instead a court that doesn't have a jury. What's the objective?
More than a few angles to consider for the overnight and early morning . . .

Once again we notice Kansas City Police valiantly working an increasingly violent cowtown whilst creepers, scam artists and so many other suspects step up their game. Also, we check federal fights over cash sparking concern over their impact on the local law enforcement game.

All things considered . . . The point of this local info collection is to keep better informed about the politics of policing so that we can all stay safe.

Check TKC news gathering . . .

Beware of ticket scams ahead of Savannah Bananas weekend at Kauffman Stadium The popular Savannah Bananas are playing Friday and Saturday at The K, and with sold-out games, be mindful about scams if you see a deal for tickets online.

Police standoff Wednesday night in Kansas City, Missouri, ends with no suspect found in house Police officers found no one inside a southeast Kansas City, Missouri, house after a standoff Wednesday night that began after a man with life-threatening wounds told officers a woman stabbed him.

Kansas City felon could face more prison time after firearm found in his home A Kansas City man who previously spent time in prison could be incarcerated again after he was found to be illegally in possession of a firearm.

Man suspected in dog fighting, drug rings charged with federal firearms crime Law officers arrested a man Tuesday in a south Kansas City, Missouri, home who is under investigation for alleged dog fighting and drug crimes.

Rural Missouri jails score windfall from Trump's mass deportations Ozark County reached a contract with ICE to help the Trump administration carry out immigrant detentions and deportations. And the rural Missouri county is reaping the benefits by raising wages and hiring for new law enforcement positions.

Federal judge questions Leavenworth's attempt to block CoreCivic immigration detention center TOPEKA - CoreCivic will know by Friday whether it will have to delay plans to begin holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in June at its Leavenworth facility. The city of Leavenworth in March filed suit in U.S. District Court asking for an injunction barring CoreCivic from moving forward on a contract with ICE to [...]

Why some jail detainees in Missouri can go years without seeing the sun A lawsuit in San Francisco suggests forcing detainees to live in the dark could violate their constitutional rights. This issue is top of mind for residents who have followed the opening and closure of jails in St. Louis, where detainees can go years without seeing the sun.

High-speed chase leads to arrest of 2 after stolen tools found in stolen car Two men face multiple charges after they allegedly led law enforcement officials on a chase with a stolen vehicle and hundreds of dollars of stolen tools inside.

KCPD looking for fugitive wanted for 2024 double homicide The Kansas City, Missouri Police Department is attempting to locate a dangerous fugitive wanted for a December 2024 shooting that left two teenagers dead.

Teens accused of 4 armed robberies linked to PlayStation 5 sales on Facebook Marketplace The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office has filed charges against two teens accused of robbing victims from Facebook Marketplace at gunpoint.

Mexican national sentenced for illegal reentry, firearm possession in Kansas City A 33-year-old Mexican national was sentenced in Kansas City federal court to over four years in prison for illegal reentry and possessing ammunition after multiple deportations.

Charges filed against women believed to be behind multiple KC thefts Charges have been filed against two women believed to be behind thefts that cost metro area stores thousands of dollars.

Search continues for missing Overland Park woman after car found empty, police say The car of missing Overland Park woman Jerry McConnell, 81, was found empty in Crowley County, Kansas. Authorities continue an active statewide search.

KC mom reached sobriety milestone before deadly shooting: 'Hard to go on' Carissa Perryman, a Kansas City mom turning her life around, was shot and killed in an alley on May 12. Her family keeps her memory alive for her daughter.

Kansas City's new city manager focuses on infrastructure and crime New Kansas City City Manager Mario Vasquez says restoring public trust, fixing infrastructure, and addressing crime are his top goals after the dismissal of Brian Platt.

Developing . . .
Judging from first reports, it seems that the terrorism & hate of eternal Holy Land conflict have indirectly touched the Kansas City metro.

Mainstream news has this topic pretty well covered so our only objective in this post is to highlight some of the better local reports we're reading and provide a place for our blog community to share some opinions, insight and perspective that won't make it to prime time . . . Hopefully, not everything posted by commenters is outright hate speech. However, we should probably share a trigger warning and remind readers that this subject will ignite intense feelings across the globe and we don't expect any different amongst local readers.



Accordingly . . .



This morning Mayor Q offers perspective that might spark more local debate regarding the ongoing conflict in the Holy Land . . . Check-it:



"My heart goes out to the family of Sarah Milgrim, an Overland Park native and KU alumna, who was killed last evening along with her companion, in an antisemitic attack in our nations capital.



"People in our area know the pain of religious-based violence. We pray for its end."

This afternoon Kansas City conservative talker Pete Mundo informs his followers . . .

There will be a Vigil at the Social Hall of the Jewish Community Center today at 5:30 p.m. for Overland Park native Sarah Milgrim. Milgrim was murdered at the Israeli Embassy on Wednesday night in Washington D.C. Milgrim was a 2017 graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School, and a 2021 graduate of the University of Kansas.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links for context and local connection . . .

Overland Park woman among victims shot near DC Jewish museum Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot and killed in Washington, DC, while leaving an event at a Jewish museum.

FBI raids Chicago home of DC Jewish Museum shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez Armed FBI agents clad in tactical gear stormed a Chicago apartment building reportedly connected to suspected terrorist Elias Rodriguez, who allegedly gunned down two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington, DC, last night.

Community mourns Sarah Milgrim, killed by gunman at AJC event in Washington Since 1920, the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle has provided its readers with Jewish news and opinion from a variety of perspectives - local, regional, national and international. The paper is mailed to subscribers each week and also is available for purchase at The Chronicle's office.

2 Israeli Embassy staff members killed in shooting outside of event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC: Officials One man and one woman were shot and killed in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Police Department told ABC News on Wednesday.

FBI investigating killing of Israeli Embassy employees as possible hate crime The victims in the alleged murder were a Jewish couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., and were set to be engaged next week.

Here's what we know about the 2 Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington, D.C. Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. were killed in a shooting after attending an event a Jewish museum. A suspect shouted "free Palestine" before being taken into custody.

Kansas City community reacts to killing of Johnson County, Kansas, woman near Jewish Museum in D.C. The shooting death of two staff members from the Israeli Embassy Wednesday night in Washington D.C. has left families grieving across the country, including in the Kansas City area.

Father of Overland Park native Killed in D.C. says daughter's mission was peace The father of Sarah Milgrim shares his daughter's goals while reacting to the news of her death.

Developing . . .
Turkish Airlines Change Flight Policy



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The owner of the Parus business center and Ukraine Hotel, as well as the NAVI eSports team, Maksym Krippa, may gain control over International Exhibition Center LLC (IEC), which presents itself as the largest exhibition facility not only in Kyiv but also in all of Ukraine.

As the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) said on Thursday, it granted permission to the Cypriot company Citadel Ventures Cyprus Limited, whose beneficiary, according to YouControl data, is Krippa, to acquire control over another Cypriot company, A.T.V.T. Business Expo Holdings Ltd, which owns 50.04% of IEC LLC.

The beneficiaries of IEC LLC are listed as director Anatoliy Tkachenko and Viktor Tkachenko. Anatoliy Tkachenko and Olena Tkachenko directly own 12.49% of the company, and another 24.98% is owned by the venture corporate investment fund "Asborn" whose beneficiary is Maryna Dorokhina  daughter of prominent Kyiv developer of commercial real estate Vagif Aliyev.

In 2024, the IEC increased its revenue by 71.4%, to UAH 83.0 million, and its net loss decreased by 70%, to UAH 7.1 million.

According to the center's website, the total area of the complex is 73,230 square meters, the total area of exhibition halls is 38,680 square meters. It combines four pavilions with an exhibition area of 10,850 square meters, some 10,660 square meters, 10,560 square meters and 6,600 square meter, 18 entrance groups and 20 cargo gates (for delivering oversized cargo directly to the exhibition halls).
05/21/2025

By Ed Brennen

When devastating wildfires swept through Southern California earlier this year, Los Angeles officials needed fast, accurate information: Where were the fires spreading? How severe was the burn damage? And where was the toxic smoke drifting? For answers, they turned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)  and to UMass Lowell environmental science alum William Stefanov 88.

As senior Earth system scientist at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Stefanov is part of the space agencys Disaster Response Coordination System (DRCS). Using photos and data from the International Space Station and other remotely sensed data from orbital and airborne platforms, the DRCS produced disturbance maps, burn severity assessments and even methane emission analyses.

We worked directly with the California Governors Office of Emergency Services, the LA County Office of Emergency Management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the California State Guard and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, responding to their requests and making sure everyone got what they needed, says Stefanov, who notes that the vantage point from space is crucial when responding to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

When youre on the ground, youre limited to whats around you. From orbit, you get a broader, more holistic view, he says.

Image by NASA

This is just one example of how Stefanovs work at NASA turns Earth science into practical tools for emergency response and long-term resilience planning.

Stefanov has spent over two decades with NASA. Last November, he stepped into his current role as senior Earth system scientist in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division. He has also served as the International Space Station program scientist for Earth observations since 2014, developing the space station as a remote sensing platform for research and data collection to support disaster response.

Originally from Webster, Massachusetts, Stefanov enrolled at UMass Lowell as an engineering major. But after a year, he opted to change course.

Ive always loved rocks, he says. The environmental science degree, with a geology concentration, really caught my interest.

Image by NASA

The department was small at the time  just three faculty members, as Stefanov recalls  which meant a lot of one-on-one interaction. Professor Nelson Eby , a geochemistry and petrology expert, had a lasting impact on Stefanov as his senior thesis advisor.

It was a privilege to do a senior thesis under Professor Eby. That experience taught me how to do science, says Stefanov, who also credits the schools unique approach to environmental science education for setting the stage for his interdisciplinary career.

We were required to take classes in biology, ecology and atmospheric science  courses that wouldnt have been mandatory in a more classical geology curriculum at other universities at the time, he says. That broad foundation helped me later in my career, particularly when it came to communicating across disciplines using remote sensing as a common language.

After earning his bachelors degree, Stefanov worked briefly in environmental consulting before pursuing graduate studies at Arizona State University. He earned a Ph.D. in geology and stayed on to support long-term ecological research. In 2004, an opportunity at NASAs Johnson Space Center  training astronauts in Earth science  brought him to Houston.

Part of that work includes teaching crew members aboard the International Space Station what to look for when taking digital photos with handheld cameras.

We realized early on that when astronauts understand why theyre being asked to take certain images, they tend to collect better data, he says. So, we train them on targets like volcanoes, hurricanes and cities  how to spot them, and why those observations matter.

Image by NASA

While most of Stefanovs work focuses on Earth, the principles also apply to NASAs lunar and planetary exploration missions, including Artemis, the moon exploration mission meant to prepare for eventual missions to Mars. Stefanov says the crew Earth observations team he works with is beginning to adapt its International Space Station-based techniques to support science and imagery on the moon.

Looking ahead, Stefanovs goals include expanding the scientific expertise at Johnson Space Center and strengthening networks for disaster resilience.

With the path I started at UMass Lowell, I gained a classic research scientist background, he says. But early on, I realized that my real focus was in applied science. And so, any opportunity I have to use my knowledge and skills to produce things that are immediately useful, that's always been satisfying for me.

His advice for current Kennedy College of Sciences students? Embrace the winding path.

Take as many electives in different areas as you can and explore your interests, even if it doesn't seem directly related to the core curriculum, because you never know when something that you learned is suddenly going to become useful and important in your career, he says. Some people can have very direct career paths and be very successful. My career path is much more twisty, but it's been very rewarding to me because of that.
US Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican Party) said that the Senate majority believes Vladimir Putin is avoiding real negotiations.

"A supermajority of the U.S. Senate is of the opinion that Putin has been avoiding real negotiations because he thinks that over time the U.S. and our allies will break. That would be a serious miscalculation that could affect China and other nations that continue to support Putins oil-based economy," he wrote on X.

He noted that he had a "very good" meeting with Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng on a number of pressing global issues. "It obviously included trade, but also the war between Russia and Ukraine," Graham wrote.

"The ambassador reminded me that the Chinese position early on was peace through dialogue and I told him I agree with that concept. I am hoping we can have real dialogue, which has been elusive when it comes to Putin. The combination of a ceasefire with sincere negotiations can lead to an honorable and just peace," the senator stressed.

Graham said President Donald Trump was right about the need to "end this bloodbath."
Yermak: First step after talks with Russia should be POW exchange in 1,000-for-1,000 format

Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak coordinated positions on negotiations on achieving peace with diplomatic representatives of the leaders of the Northern European and Baltic states, the press service of the head of state reported.

Yermak noted that the first step after negotiations with the Russian side should be the implementation of the agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) in the 1,000-for-1,000 format. The second is determining the venue for the next meeting with representatives of the Russian Federation.

The head of the Presidents Office informed about the negotiations in Istanbul, the meetings of the President of Ukraine in Italy and the Vatican, as well as the conversation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy with US President Donald Trump and leaders of European countries.

During the conversation, attention was also paid to further sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation for its protracted war.
Photo: https://www.president.gov.ua

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported on the lack of signals on the front from the Russian side about a ceasefire.

"Unfortunately, the Russians are not giving signals about a ceasefire. And they are not ready to end the war yet," he said in an evening video address on Wednesday.

The President noted that all forms of pressure, all work with partners to put pressure on Russia is absolutely necessary.

"Pressure is convincing, pressure on the battlefield, pressure in the economy. And that is what sanctions are for. Pressure in politics. I want to thank everyone who supports Ukraine," he emphasized.

Zelenskyy also reported that Russian assault operations are continuing, so Ukrainian forces are continuing all necessary combat activity.

"The situation is most heated in Donetsk region, especially the Pokrovsk direction. We continue active actions in Kursk and Belgorod regions. This is the defense of Sumy region, this is the defense of Kharkiv region. Our defense is active and effective," he stressed.

The President noted that since the beginning of the Kursk operation in August, the Russian army has suffered serious losses. In particular, more than 63,000 casualties were wounded in Kursk region alone.

In addition, according to him, the Ukrainian forces managed to significantly replenish the exchange fund for Ukraine.

"Another fundamental thing. We are preparing the exchange. In fact, reports are made every day. We must release all our people, of course. We are checking information on each surname. We are trying to do the maximum possible," he said.
NEW YORK  Columbia University's commencement ceremony on Wednesday was overshadowed by loud boos and chants of "free Palestine" as Acting President Claire Shipman addressed the absence of graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist detained in a Louisiana jail facing deportation. The protests reflect growing tensions over free speech and the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism.

Shipman, who took over as acting president in late March, acknowledged Khalil's absence during her speech on Columbia's main campus in Manhattan. "We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising this right," Shipman said, adding: "I know many in our community are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil."

Khalil, a graduate student in Columbia's international affairs program, was arrested by federal immigration agents on March 8, 2025, at his off-campus apartment in Manhattan. He has been held at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, Louisiana, and faces deportation for his prominent role in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia last spring. Federal authorities have not charged Khalil with a crime but argue his activism undermines U.S. foreign policy interests, citing his alleged support for Hamas, a claim Khalil and his attorneys deny.

The commencement, held under rainy skies, saw some students walk out while others booed and jeered during Shipman's remarks. The acting president faced a similar reception at a smaller graduation ceremony on Tuesday, reflecting the deep divisions on campus over the Israel-Hamas conflict and Khalil's detention.

Khalil's arrest marks the first publicly known deportation effort under President Donald Trump's pledge to target student activists involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The administration has labeled such protests as antisemitic and supportive of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Khalil's attorneys argue his detention is a violation of his First Amendment rights, accusing the government of targeting him to suppress dissent.

"Mahmoud's detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated," Khalil wrote in a letter from detention, released by his attorney. He has also been unable to see his newborn child, born during his detention, as jail authorities have rejected his requests to hold the infant.

Protests in support of Khalil have spread beyond Columbia, with demonstrations at UC Berkeley and a sit-in at Trump Tower organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, where nearly 100 protesters were arrested. Jewish groups, including J Street and IfNotNow, have condemned Khalil's detention, arguing it represents an authoritarian overreach by the Trump administration.

Columbia University has faced additional pressure from the White House, which has accused the school of refusing to help federal agents identify other pro-Palestinian activists. The Trump administration has also threatened to cut $400 million in federal funding unless Columbia places its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under "academic receivership" for five years, a demand critics call an attack on academic freedom.

Khalil's legal team is appealing a Louisiana immigration judge's April 11 ruling that he can be deported as a national security risk. A federal judge in New Jersey has temporarily barred his removal while the case continues. The appeal process could extend for months, with Khalil's attorneys also exploring an asylum claim.

As Columbia grapples with these tensions, the university remains a flashpoint in the broader national debate over protest rights and U.S. policy toward Israel and Palestine.
Some 330 enemy attacks were recorded in southern Ukraine over the past day, the occupiers launched almost 700 kamikaze drone strikes and carried out 380 UAV drops, the press service of the Defense Forces of southern Ukraine reported.

"In southern Ukraine, the enemy does not reduce the number of assault operations, and also continues to actively use artillery and aviation, striking at positions of the Defense Forces of Ukraine and settlements adjacent to the line of combat contact," the press service said in a telegram message on Thursday.

According to the Southern Defense Forces, over the past day, "330 enemy attacks were recorded using almost 1,350 munitions... the occupiers carried out almost seven hundred strikes with kamikaze drones of various modifications and carried out 380 drops from UAVs, using 465 munitions. Two strikes with Molniya type loitering munitions were also recorded. Three Shahed type UAVs were destroyed by means of the Tavria Task Force.

It is reported that front-line settlements in Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions suffered from artillery shelling and FPV strikes. Some 45 strikes were recorded on 18 settlements, in particular Kherson, Nikopol, Marhanets, Antonivka, Kamianske and others.

In total, during the day, the Defense Forces repelled 19 attacks on the positions of our troops near Novopillia, Bohatyr, Novosilka and Zelene Pole. In the Huliaipole direction, the enemy is carrying out massive air strikes on several settlements, and also made three unsuccessful assault attempts in the Chervone area. In the Orikhiv direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine successfully repelled four enemy attacks in the Scherbaky and Stepove areas.

"In the Prydniprovsky direction, the enemy is conducting regrouping, logistical, evacuation and reconnaissance activities to continue attempts to capture the island zone of the Dnipro River. In the Antonivsky Bridges area, it made one unsuccessful assault attempt," the press service of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine added.
Ukrainian tour operator Join UP! served over 730,000 tourists across eight markets in 2024, according to Maryna Daineko, Head of Sales Join UP!, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"From Ukraine alone, we served over 260,000 tourists  up 10% from 2023. Our Polish unit handled 142,000 tourists, marking a sixfold increase. Over 113,000 came from the three Baltic states  a 12% rise. Moldova contributed nearly 110,000 tourists, up 40%. Romania accounted for more than 62,000  2.4 times more than the previous year. And from Kazakhstan, we saw 43,000 tourists, a 65% increase. We're seeing growth across all our markets," she said.

Join UP! LLC was established in 2013 with a charter capital of UAH 72.671 million. The ultimate beneficiaries are Yuriy and Oleksandr Alba.

Join UP!'s international expansion now spans eight markets: the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Preparations are nearing completion for entry into Slovakia and Hungary. In 2024, the brand also launched its first international franchise agency in Katowice, Poland.

With the participation of CFI, Agence francaise de developpement medias, as part of the Hub Bucharest Project with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Deleting Muslim Rulers from School Curriculum

While implementing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, apart from focusing on Indian Knowledge system and Indian traditions, the changes that pertain to history have deleted Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Rule from school text books

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15 AM , Ram Puniyani

[Grok 3 AI generated image for representation]

The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is being implemented gradually. Apart from other things, it has focused on Indian Knowledge system and Indian traditions. The changes that pertain to history have deleted Delhi Sultanate and Mughal rule from the books.

A good seven centuries of history stands relegated into absentia. This is a pretty long period by any standards.

While NCERT had previously trimmed sections on the Mughals and Delhi Sultanate - including detailed account of dynasties like Tughlaqs, Khaljis, Mamluks, and Lodis and a two-page table on Mughal emperors' achievements as part of its syllabus rationalization during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022-23, the new textbook has now removed all references to them.

All references to Delhi Sultanate and Mughal rulers have been deleted from 7th standard text book. In addition to the other books wherever the references to Muslim rule is there, that now stands deleted.

What also stands deleted is the reference to Post-Mumbai (92-93 violence), post-Gujarat violence (2002), the references to Nathuram Godse being a trained pracharak of RSS, the ban on RSS in the aftermath of Gandhi murder among others.

While Kumbh Mela finds a place, the stampede that caused death of many and the Delhi station stampede have no place.

All this began with the Covid period when the pretext offered was reducing the burden on the students and followed by rationalization which meant deletion of these portions which caused discomfort to the Hindu Nationalist ideology.

For demonization of Muslims and spreading hate against them, Mughals have been presented as the major villains of our history. Some earlier kings like Allauddin Khilji have also been on the hammer of Hindutva narrative. So far the demonization of Muslims was structured around temple destruction by Muslim kings, which has been contested by rational historians.

The spread of Islam by Muslims Kings using their sword was another pillar of this. This point is totally off the mark as conversions to Islam took place due to social interaction with Muslim Arab Traders to begin with. Later many low castes embraced Islam to escape the tyranny of the caste system.

The ideology of Hindutva has gone to the extent of presenting this period as a dark period when Holocaust against Hindus took place. No doubt the era of Kingdoms is full of war for political reasons. Kings always wanted to expand their regime and in the process many people were killed. To call it holocaust is totally off the mark.

Their (Hindutva) narrative actually takes off from the Communal Historiography introduced by the British to pursue the policy of divide and rule. In this; all the motives of Kings are related to religion and kings are presented as the symbol of the whole religious community.

The Hindu communal historiography took it further by claiming that Muslims and Christians were foreigners who have tormented Hindus. The Muslim communal historiography presented the other side of the coin where Muslims are regarded as rulers and Hindus as subjugated subjects. They presented that Muslims are the logical rulers of this land.

The later trajectory of this logic did assist the British to divide our composite land into India and Pakistan. Savarkar articulated that there are two nations in this country, and Jinnah went on to demand a separate country for Muslims, Pakistan.

Pakistan fell into the trap of Muslim communalism right from the word go and as far its textbooks are concerned they presented the beginning of Pakistan with Mohammad bin Qasim in the 8th century.

Today their history books have totally deleted any reference to Hindu rulers. The hate which the Muslim communalism spread against the Hindus peaked with their school texts removing all the references to Hindu Kings and culture.

In a way, India during the last three decades has been walking on the footprints of Pakistan. The mirror image of Pakistans trajectory is being copied probably to the last comma. This point was highlighted by Pakistani poet Fahmida Riyaz. In the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition, she wrote:

Arre Tum bhi Ham Jaise Nikale, Ab Tak Kahan Chhupe the bhai (Ohh! You have also turned out like us, where were you hiding so far).

Prior to Hindutva ideology coming to a total control of Indian education, the RSS shakhas were spreading the communal version of society through multiple mechanisms like its Shakha bauddhis, Ekal Vidyalays, Shishu Mandirs. In due course mainstream media and social media also came to its service.

As such culture is a continuously evolving process. During the period of History under the hammer of Hindutva; lot of social changes took place.

Apart from the architecture, the food habits, dress and literature, the synthesis in the field of religion, the noble traditions of Bhakti and Sufi tradition developed. It was during this period that Sikhism came and flourished.

Now this political ideology may have to change the track. With Muslim rulers out of the way how will they demonize the Muslims now? Newer techniques may be on the way to substitute Aurangzeb or Babar as now they will be defunct!

History is very central to the concept of Nationalism. Erich Fromm points out that History is to Nationalism what poppy is to the opium addict.

Since the BJP came to power as NDA in 1998, the major thing they did was what is called saffronization of education. Here history has been presented as the narrative of glorious and brave Hindu Kings versus evil and aggressive Muslim kings.

The charge has been that so far History has been written by Left Historians, who focused on Delhi rulers and who were pro Muslim. The point is that text books did present the details of particular dynasties depending on the historical length of their rule.

The history books in the decades of 1980s had a good deal of presentation of Hindu as well as Muslim kings. The narration was not revolving just around religion but the holistic view of communities was presented: trade, culture, literature among others.

Still it is true that ruler, King centric history is not what we need to build our future. We need to focus on diverse sections of society, dalits, women, adivasis and artisans who do not find much place in such narratives.

[Thw writer, Ram Puniyani, is former professor of IIT Bombay. He has extensively written a number of books and delivered lectures on the Indian history.]

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Photo: National Guard

Ukrainian defenders shot down 112 Shahed-type strike drones, as well as drones of other types launched by the Russian occupiers on Thursday night, the Telegram channel of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports.

"As of 11:00, air defenses neutralized 112 enemy Shahed-type UAVs [drones of other types] in the east, north, south and center of the country. Some 74 were shot down by fire weapons, 38 were lost/suppressed by electronic warfare [without negative consequences]," the report says.

The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

In total, the invaders attacked Ukraine with an Iskander-M ballistic missile from Taganrog region - the Russian Federation and 128 Shahed attack UAVs and imitator drones of various types from the directions: Millerovo, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - the Russian Federation, Chauda  the temporarily occupied Crimea.

As a result of the enemy attack, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions suffered.
Tourist stopped on street near Villa Borghese.

Rome police detained a German tourist as he cruised down a street on a rented electric scooter with the marble base of a Roman column between his feet.

Carabinieri officers spotted the 24-year-old tourist transporting the "souvenir" along Via Vittorio Veneto, an upmarket street near the Villa Borghese park, on Wednesday afternoon.

The man was cited for possessing a "cultural asset of historical and artistic interest", according to a statement from the Carabinieri.

Officers seized the marble base which will be subject to further checks to trace its site of origin.

It was not clear how the tourist came into possession of the ancient artefact, which measured 40 x 20 cm and weighed about 30 kg.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/RedCrossUkraine

Ukrainian Red Cross Society (URCS) volunteers are ready to respond promptly to emergencies every day, stressed Andriy Pozniakevych, head of the Emergency Management Department of the URCS.

"The participation of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society in responding to emergencies is based on the flexibility, speed and daily readiness of our volunteers. In times of war, we have become a link between state services and local communities, and it is precisely such interaction that is the key to saving the lives of Ukrainians," Pozniakevych noted at the European Civil Protection Forum in Warsaw.

As part of the panel discussion, Pozniakevych shared the organizations experience of participating as a non-governmental humanitarian institution in responding to emergencies in conditions of active hostilities and martial law.

Pozniakevych emphasized the importance of the volunteer sector's role in responding to emergencies, as well as the need to increase volunteers' involvement in preparation and response measures. He also addressed the security challenges communities face in wartime. He emphasized the importance of population preparedness for crisis events. According to Pozniakevych, a sustainable civil protection system requires the participation of civil society in emergency preparedness and response.

Ukraine is part of the European Civil Protection Mechanism, and the experience of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society serves as an example of a flexible, effective and systematic approach to working in emergency situations, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society reported on its official Facebook page on Thursday.

The European Civil Protection Forum was held on May 21-22 in Warsaw. The forum was attended by key security, humanitarian response, and public sector institutions from across Europe, including the Civil Protection Services of EU member states and Associations of Local Governments of EU countries.
By Rebecca Black, PA

The death of a Co Tyrone man after surgery at Altnagelvin Hospital was avoidable, a coroner has found.

John McHugh (66), from Castlederg, died at the Derry city hospital on August 3rd, 2019, after an operation to remove a tumour from his tongue.

He was the brother of Sinn Fein West Tyrone MLA Maoliosa McHugh, who attended the hearing at Belfast Coroners Court on Thursday morning, and said outside court that he wanted to help prevent any other families from going through the same experience.

An inquest into John McHughs death, which heard evidence from doctors who treated him and expert witnesses, was told the operation came after he found a lump on his tongue and went to see his GP.

Maoliosa McHugh (left) leaving Laganside Courts in Belfast. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA

It also heard from his son Sean, who paid tribute to his father, who had worked for Transport for London before his retirement, and in recent years had been travelling with his partner to Florida, London and across Ireland.

He said the father-of-three had a great love of sport and music, particularly following Manchester United and Tyrone, adding that he had been his best friend.

The inquest heard that a decision was taken by specialists to operate to remove the lump on Mr McHughs tongue, and he underwent surgery at Altnagelvin Hospital.

He died on August 3rd, 2019, after experiencing issues with secretions and swelling of his mouth.

Western Health and Social Care Trust initiated a serious incident investigation after his death.

During the inquest, experts in cancer care called into question some aspects of Mr McHughs treatment, including the scale of the operation for the size of the tumour.

There were also questions over whether a tracheostomy tube had been removed too soon.

Delivering her findings, coroner Maria Dougan said she found that on the balance of probabilities his death had been avoidable, and there had been a number of missed opportunities in his post-surgery treatment.

She said that if less invasive surgery had taken place, and had the tracheostomy remained in situ until the secretions lessened, the death may have been avoided.

Ms Dougan also found there were missed opportunities in his care and treatment.

I find that it would have been prudent to leave the tracheostomy in place for another couple of days to allow for continued swelling, suctioning of secretions and continued protection of the airway, she said, adding that the trusts guidance had not been adhered to.
Vivienne Clarke

Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the marriage equality referendum results day was the best day in his political life.

On May 22nd, 2015, the Irish electorate voted by 62 per cent in favour of same-sex marriage, on a high turnout of 61 per cent. All constituencies voted Yes except Roscommon-South Leitrim, which rejected the proposed amendment by a narrow margin.

"It was just one of those days where everything came together," Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio on the 10th anniversary of the event.

"I started that day performing the official opening of St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown, which I'd been able to get funding for as health minister, so I just kind of saw two projects on the one day that were totally different and totally unconnected coming to fruition so it's those kind of days that make it all worthwhile."

Mr Varadkar said it had been overwhelming at the referendum count centre. He had anticipated the results would be similar to the divorce referendum in 1994  that the Yes vote would be stronger in urban areas with a big No vote in rural areas  but that did not happen.

Leo Varadkar warned there were going to be setbacks in Ireland and around the world. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty

As the results came in from around the country he said it became obvious that "it was a country that was embracing the idea of equality before the law for everyone, equal rights, freedom, equality of opportunity, and was doing it without a huge rural-urban divide or a class divide."

Mr Varakdar said the day was part "a wave of progress and liberty and freedom" that Ireland was part of.

The former Fine Gael leader, who resigned as taoiseach last year, acknowledged that when he started in politics he had not anticipated how much things would change in Ireland in the space of 10 years.

He also admitted that his decision to "come out" had not caused him great angst, but it did cross his mind that it might have an impact on his future career.

However, Mr Varadkar warned there were going to be setbacks in Ireland and around the world. "I always say that the arc of history bends towards progress, but it's not a straight line. There are always going to be backlashes. And they're going to be setbacks and sometimes they're gonna be severe.

"It's one step forward, two steps back. That's kind of where we are at the moment."
Following major fires in Wexford and Roscommon last week, locals in Waterford are expressing concern that a similar blaze may arise in the Deise unless action is taken.

The bog fire in Co. Roscommon last week required firefighters from three counties.

Vincent Higgins from the Roscommon Fire Service said the ongoing spell of good weather has accentuated the speed at which gorse and forestry is catching fire.

Meanwhile in Wexford, the air quality continues to be monitored following a large gorse fire at Tara Hill.

Waterford Councillor Liam Brazil said this week that controlled burning should take place on the Comeragh Mountains to prevent a similar ordeal taking place in Waterford.

Cllr Brazil said: I do believe that we need to have controlled burning on the mountain because if we dont theres going to be a savage fire one of these days.

Somebody is going to throw out a butt or a match at the mountain there and it's going to take off and it wont stop. Now is the time to act on this."

Cllr Brazil added: Im going to go harder on this because one of these days the Comeragh mountains will be on fire, and then well all be shouting why this happened.

"Now is the time to act before it happens. Its a match waiting to light."
There could be as much as 50 new jobs created in Waterford soon as a result of one local business' plans for expansion.

Dovida announced its plans for expansion following on from its official launch in Waterford, and said it plans to hire up to 50 caregivers in Waterford.

The organisation, which has been providing care to ageing adults in Ireland since 2005, recently rebranded from Home Instead and now intends to increase capacity in the sector and expand its service offerings across the county.

A spokesperson for the organisation told waterford-news.ie that the roles will be a combination of full and part-time positions, offering competitive rates of pay, flexible schedules and comprehensive, sector-leading training through the Home Care Professionals Academy.

Speaking at the announcement, Steven Tubbritt, General Manager of Dovida Waterford, said: We are excited about welcoming more caregivers to our team. They will help us meet the growing need for home care services in Waterford and make it possible for more people to receive the support they need to live comfortably and independently at home."

Caregivers joining our team can expect comprehensive training, a dedicated local team and supportive environment as well as opportunities to grow professionally and develop a rewarding career in home care, he said.

Dovida currently provides person-centred home care services to 8,000 people across Ireland. Historically, the majority of the organisations client base composed of people in the over-65 age group, however, the organisation now cares for clients of all ages with 10 per cent under 65, while children under 18 make up one per cent of people cared for.

Dovidas services have adapted to the varied needs of its clients and the company now provides services to support people living with an acquired brain injury, Parkinsons Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neurone Disease in addition to helping children and young adults with additional needs.

We believe in quality home care that empowers people to live with dignity, independence, and comfort in familiar surroundings, said Mr Tubbritt.

That means keeping them in their own home, connected to their family, friends and communities for as long as possible," he added.

"Social interaction and companionship are crucial for maintaining good mental health and supporting those experiencing cognitive decline, particularly older people."

He said that as an organisation with deep roots in the community, Dovida understands the value of connection, commenting: "It's fantastic to be in a position to grow our team so we can support more and more people throughout Waterford."

A rewarding career, Dovida caregivers provide essential support to ageing adults and people living with disabilities in their own homes. The organisations person-centred approach means that its caregivers build meaningful connections with their clients and empower them to live fuller, more independent lives.

Dovida welcomes applications from people from all walks of life and is committed to supporting them every step of the way. People interested in pursuing a rewarding career in caregiving are encouraged to visit https://dovida.ie/career/become-a-caregiver/

For more information visit dovida.ie.
Nine Culinary Arts students from SETU recently travelled to Croatia to explore sustainable food systems through the lens of culinary heritage and cultural landscapes.

They travelled over as part of an EU-CONEXUS Student Research Hub (SRH and the Sustainable Food Systems, through the Culinary Heritage and Cultural Landscapes project, offered the students a fully immersive, real-world research experience that blended field-based learning, cultural exploration and creative reflection.

From learning about olive oil production at a family-run mill to cooking alongside Michelin-starred chefs, the students explored how food, place, and sustainability are deeply interconnected.

A spokesperson for SETU said in an online post that the project followed a Living Lab model, meaning students didnt just learn about sustainability they actively participated in it.

Through observation, critical questioning and hands-on learning, they reflected on how culture and heritage shape food systems.

A guided walk at the student research hub in Zadar, Croatia. Pic: setu.ie

Commenting on the experience, culinary arts student Joni Hunt said: Zadar to me was a once in a lifetime experience and opportunity. In my time there, we did so much and learned so much, which was and is hugely beneficial to me."

"I thought their food was very sustainable as in my eyes they use the approach of 'farm to food', quite often," said Joni.

"Majority of their fish etc is caught by local fishermen and is then sold to the different restaurants. Cooking with the Michelin chef Misha was an incredible experience. He caught the fish we cooked and invited us into his home," added Joni.

"It showed how simple, fresh and full of flavour Croatian food is  it was unforgettable.

The trip had a huge impact on the students and many reflected on how the experience not only deepened their culinary skills, but also changed how they view sustainability and their roles as future professionals.

One of the students, Natalie Brennan, said: "There is no doubt that this trip to Croatia will never be forgotten. Every day brought something new, whether it was a new cultural experience, a beautiful nature sight or a delicious meal. The professor and lecturers who planned our trips made learning fun and interesting."

"Every moment was better because of how much they cared about their country's past and heritage," said Natalie.

"Not only do I remember my time in Croatia, but I also have a deeper respect for its beauty, strength, and traditions. I already can't wait to come back to this beautiful country and see even more of it," she added.

A cooking demonstration at the student research hub in Zadar, Croatia. Pic: setu.ie

The students noted Croatias holistic, community-based approach to food, from farm-to-fork practices to the social importance of shared meals. They observed a strong ethos of localism, ecological care, and pride in place.

Another student, Mia Mirtel Vessmann, echoed those sentiments, commenting: "Theres a real sense of connection in Croatia. Another aspect I liked seeing was the aspects of community, such as the olive oil mill providing their services to all the locals. There was a feeling as if everyone was connected a bit and I think that is wonderful."

"It was an incredible experience and I am grateful for having the chance to go and will definitely go visit the country again when I have a chance," said Mia.

In September, students will showcase their learning through a cooking demonstration for SETU staff and the new cohort of first-year students, sharing redesigned recipes, food stories and insights into sustainable culinary practice.

The SETU spokesperson said the event will celebrate their experience and inspire the next generation to think critically about the role of food in shaping sustainable futures.

"This is exactly the kind of high-impact, real-world learning experience we want to offer our students," she said.

"This Student Research Hub builds on the ongoing collaboration between Culinary Arts at SETU and the University of Zadar," said Michael Quinn, lecturer in culinary arts at SETU.

Some of the students in culinary arts at SETU who were part of the trip. Pic: setu.ie

Plans are already underway for next years iteration, with a return visit from Zadar students and a broader goal to involve participants from other disciplines.

"This is exactly the kind of high-impact, real-world learning experience we want to offer our students," said Mr Quinn.

"It connects them to culture, community, and sustainability and shows them they can lead change," he added.

The SETU spokesperson said that with the initiative set to grow through authentic, student-led sustainability projects, the evolving partnership reflects a shared commitment to real-world, place-based learning that connects students to community, culture and global challenges.

EU-CONEXUS is a fully-fledged transnational European University offering joint education, training and study programmes, joint research and professional development opportunities, for all its staff, researchers, and students.

It's themed on 'Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability', focusing education, research and innovation, and knowledge-sharing activities on defining, understanding and addressing societal challenges experienced by communities from urban and semi-urbanised coastal regions (rivers, seas and oceans).

Further details can be found on SETU's EU-CONEXUS micro site EU-CONEXUS main website
Onlookers gathered along Waterford's quayside on Wednesday to witness a moment in history - the installation of the first span of the Sustainable Transport Bridge. The magnificent Hebo Lift crane slowly and precisely moved the span into position over the River Suir, where for months preparation work had been underway on the bridge infrastructure on the river bed.

We show here the stunning drone footage, commissioned by Waterford City and County Council, to capture the arrival of the Hebo crane and bridge spans to Waterford.

The lifting of the bridge spans is being carried out over four days as follows:

 Wednesday, May 21st  North Main Span (c.65m in length)

 Thursday, May 22nd  South Main Span (c.65m in length)

 Friday, May 23rd  North Approach span (c. 35m in length)

 Saturday, May 24th  South Approach span (c.35m in length)
A Waterford landlord received a four-month prison sentence for intimidating a woman during an illegal eviction.

As reported by Mary Carolan in The Irish Times, landlord John Guiry (50), of Ballygarron, Kilmeaden, received a prison sentence for the charge of intimidation. According to the article: "The charge related to an incident on May 2nd, 2024, in which she [the woman] was compelled to do an act that she had a legal right not to do, contrary to section 9 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act."

Father and son

The landlord served an invalid notice of termination.

Guiry and his son John Frampton appeared at Waterford District Court earlier this year on charges related to the unlawful eviction.

Frampton had been charged with making an unwarranted demand with menaces.

The report went on: "Mr Guirys son, John Frampton (28), also of Ballygarron, Kilmeaden, received an eight-month sentence on a charge of making an unwarranted demand, with menaces, of the woman to immediately vacate her family home contrary to section 17, as amended, of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act. Both men, who had admitted the offences at an earlier hearing, have appealed the outcome."

The woman had lived at the property in Larchville with her two children for over 13 years with no issues. At the time of the unlawful eviction, she lived in the house with her teenage daughter and adult son.

Invalid notice

In separate proceedings, the woman took action against the landlord through the RTB over the unlawful eviction that occurred last May.

In late April 2024, she sought the help of Focus Ireland and Threshold after receiving a notice of termination from the landlord, informing her that the property was to be sold. She was advised that the notice was invalid and informed Guiry that the matter could be solved through the overholding dispute process.

According to the woman, Guiry disputed the invalidity and told her that he wanted her out of the home by May 5 or he would be "sending people" to the property.

The woman was unable to find alternative accommodation for herself and her family.

Death threats

The woman lodged a complaint with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Team leader at Focus Ireland Ailish Browne assisted the woman, called the landlord and informed him of the legal repercussions of an illegal eviction.

The report reads: "His indication that he intended to proceed was flagged with the local homeless service, which said it had no emergency accommodation available for families at that time. It advised that they stay with family or friends, but that option was not available to the woman."

On May 1, 2024, the woman called Gardai for help, referencing the Garda Repossessions and Evictions Policy Document and the Prohibition of Forcible Entry and Occupation Act.

The report continues: "Ms Browne said the woman called her the following day in a 'highly distressed' state, telling her five masked men came to the house dressed in black and threatened her through her sitting room window, with one shouting at her to leave the house or they would 'kill you and all in it'.

"She instructed the woman to call 999, Gardai came and an investigation began, which led to the District Court prosecution of Mr Guiry and Mr Frampton."

RTB

The threat to kill was noted by Gardai. The woman and her children were allocated emergency accommodation on May 10, 2024. The incident had a grave impact on both her and her young daughter's mental health as her daughter was in the house when the masked men came by.

At an RTB hearing the following month, the woman was represented by barrister Eamon Power through a pro-bono scheme by Arthur Cox. The hearing returned a verdict of unlawful eviction.

Guiry did not dispute the invalidity of the termination notice, but he told the adjudication officer (AO) he knew nothing about threats to the woman because he was out running at the time.

Ms Carolan reported: "The AO accepted an event happened that caused the woman to leave the property and noted a Garda investigation was then underway. He said the landlord claimed that because the woman remained in the house until May 10th, this showed she was exaggerating the impact. The woman said she stayed there because she had nowhere to go."

Damages unpaid

The AO decided to award six-months worth of rent - 4,500 - in damages to the woman, to be paid within three weeks from the issue date. However, since the money was not paid during this time, the woman had to apply to the RTB for enforcement. The matter will be heard at a later date.
One of County Waterford's foremost theatre companies will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year and to mark the fact the members will be staging five original productions.

Stagemad Theatre Company is synonymous not just with theatre in Waterford but also across the south east.

The company celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and the special showcase of five original productions will run from June 20 to June 22.

They will be staged in the Coastguard Cultural Centre in Tramore and the performances will get under way at 8pm each night.

The price of tickets will be 20 (plus a small booking fee).

However, early booking is strongly advised due to limited availability.

Stagemad Theatre Company will be staging 'Five for 2025' plays as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations. Pic: Stagemad (Facebook)

This milestone event promises to be bring a vibrant mix of bold, thought-provoking new works to the theatre-going public, reflecting two decades of creativity and commitment to the arts in Waterford.

A must-see for local theatre lovers.
A second Jetstar flight has been cancelled after a fault in its navigation system, with official meteorologists ruling out solar flares events as the prime culprit for the malfunction.

A Brisbane to Bali flight was scrapped on Thursday after disturbances to its Global Positioning System (GPS) prevented the flight from taking off, Jetstar confirmed.

The disruption follows an earlier cancellation of a flight from Melbourne to Bali on Wednesday, as well as a number of delays, lasting for hours, that affected other flights at the Qantas-owned economy airline.

Jetstar aircraft at Melbournes Tullamarine airport. Credit: The Age/Chris Zappone

The GPS fault also caused subsequent delays of Jetstar flights to Bali, Fiji and Hobart from Australias east coast on Thursday.
The Australian sharemarket treaded water on Friday following a choppy session on Wall Street caused by worries coming out of the bond market about the US governments debt.

The ASX 200 rose by 12.2 points, or 0.2 per cent, to close at 8360.9. Six of 11 industry sectors finished in the green.

Wall Street has battled through an uncertain week. Credit: Bloomberg

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said US, global and Australian shares had recovered more than 80 per cent of their Trump-triggered April falls to be within 2 to 3 per cent of their record highs.

But the fly in the ointment is that macroeconomic risk for shares remains high, he wrote in a note.
Photo: LRT

German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, during a joint press conference in Vilnius, called, in particular, for a "comprehensive and unconditional ceasefire" and tougher sanctions pressure on Russia.

"We call for a comprehensive and unconditional ceasefire... and for partners to introduce sanctions to break the Russian military machine," the Lithuanian president said.

In turn, answering a question about a recent telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Chancellor noted that Germany would continue to support Ukraine, stating that "it is also in America's interests that we move together here." However, Merz noted "slow progress" in resolving the war between Russia and Ukraine, stressing that the process could now take "not days, but months."
A three-month holiday to travel through South America was a lifelong dream for Sydney marketing director Ayaan Mohamud. But approaching her boss with the proposal took some courage.

I thought Id have to quit my job and take six months off, then return and find a new job. But Im in a job I really love and was desperate to travel, so wanted to find a way to make it work, the 38-year-old says.

Ayaan Mohamud (left) with best friends Sophia Warren, says negotiating extended leave was nerve-racking.

She invited her boss for a coffee and laid out her plan on the table. She explained her dream to travel and her hope to return to her role after the break. It was one of the most nerve-racking conversations Ive ever had, she says.

Ayaan had worked for the marketing company for four years and had no desire to have children, and she explained to her boss that she would never take advantage of the maternity leave options extended to her colleagues.
Police are now unsure if a missing girl who reportedly vanished after being dropped off for a flight ever made it to the airport.

Pheobe Bishop failed to check in for her journey from Bundaberg to Western Australia about 8.30am on May 15.

Investigators believe the disappearance is suspicious, and on Wednesday declared her home in the nearby township of Gin Gin a crime scene.

Hundreds of posters have been put up in the search for missing girl Pheobe Bishop. Credit: Queensland Police

A grey Hyundai ix35 SUV belonging to Bishop or one of her housemates has also been seized.
Sydney scientists who helped build a quantum chip that could scale up into a device more powerful than all the worlds computers combined have rejected lucrative salaries offered by Microsoft to relocate to the US.

Instead, Professor David Reilly, Dr Thomas Ohki and their 20-strong team of quantum boffins have decided to stay at the University of Sydney and launch a new research firm aimed at unlocking the potentially world-changing applications of quantum computing from home soil.

Quantum scientists David Reilly and Tom Ohki at the University of Sydney after launching their new R&D company, Quantum Emergence. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong

Quantum computers could one day reproduce the complex interactions of molecules within chemical reactions, revolutionising our knowledge of health on an atomic level and unlocking new drugs and self-healing building materials.

But to get there, we need devices made from millions of qubits, the ultra-delicate building blocks of quantum computers. Qubits harness subatomic particles including electrons, ions and particles of light to complete calculations currently impossible to compute.
Australians dont like sore losers. We are a country that celebrates near misses, unlucky defeats or even unexpected successes (see: Steven Bradbury). Generally, we recognise that if you fall short, you should accept your lot and march on. Now, it seems theres an exception to this rule: federal elections.

Since the historic outcome of the May 3 election (historically good for Labor, historically bad for the Liberal Party), there has been a growing chorus of those who argue that because their team didnt win, preferential voting is to blame.

Some claim the Liberal Party lost by historic margins because of preferential voting. Pictured are new party leader Sussan Ley and former leader Peter Dutton. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A feature of Australian elections for more than a century, preferential voting was originally a promise from then Nationalist prime minister Billy Hughes, gaining support within conservative circles after the 1918 byelection for the West Australian seat of Swan.

Labors Ted Corboy, a young returned serviceman who had seen action at Gallipoli and in France, was up against the Country Party candidate Basil Murray, the Nationalists William Hedges and an independent, William Watson.
At Gairlochy, the first lock north of Neptunes Staircase, we rendezvous with the barge after two hours of walking. With the locks along the canal closing each evening, halting all boat traffic, we moor below the gates in motionless wait for morning. The shores of Loch Lochy are just beyond, and the only sounds to reach us are from within  the movement of our six passengers and three crew, and the welcome clatter of Mike, the Fingals chef, at work in the open galley. A pattern soon settles over the days, with walks each morning and afternoon, returning to the Fingal for lunches of soup and barge-baked bread and baguettes. As the barge squeezes into Gairlochys locks after breakfast the next morning, its 180 tonnes rising on an elevator of water, we continue hiking along the GGW. Along the southern shores of Loch Lochy, the Way is at its most beautiful, framed by mountains and winding through forest so green even the light seems tinged with colour. It was on these shores that Allied troops trained for the D-Day landings in 1945, and here that Achnacarry, the ancestral estate of the Clan Cameron chiefs, sprawls across an isthmus between Loch Lochy and Loch Arkaig. The GGW marches blindly past Achnacarry, but we turn up a hidden path beside a village church to enter the estate. Looking over green fields and sheep to its Scottish Baronial castle, its like weve stepped into every British period drama ever filmed. Sunrise over Achnacarry and Loch Lochy near Fort William. Credit: iStock Alongside the castle theres a clan museum, but were bound for the Dark Mile at the estates far end. Though it sounds like something from a Stephen King novel, the Dark Mile looks more like something from a fairy tale  a mile-long country lane where the drystone walls and the roadside trees and earth are inches thick in moss. Through this cushioned landscape we return to the loch, where the barges tender awaits us, one of our longest walking days done after just 11 kilometres.

The presence of the barge allows us this kind of ease thats uncommon on long-distance trails. Along the canal, we simply step off the barge directly onto the paths. On the lochs, the tender ferries us to and from the shores. Walking along the foot of Ben Nevis, Britains highest peak. Credit: iStock Once aboard, one half of the barge is a communal space of couches, an honesty bar of local whiskies and craft beers, an extensive library and a large dining table for meals  from ox-cheek broth to Balmoral chicken stuffed with haggis  that we share with the crew. At Laggan Locks, at the head of Loch Lochy, the Caledonian Canal performs its greatest trick. So much of the canal was built beside rivers, but here it needed to cross a low hill that rose as a watershed within the Great Glen. It was the final section of the canal to be constructed  a two-kilometre-long hurdle  but it took 500 workers seven years to complete. Known today as Laggan Avenue, its a section thats wasted on walkers, with the canal obscured by trees, so we remain aboard as the Fingal motors on from the locks. For half an hour, it feels more like an Amazon cruise than a Scottish walking trip, with a jungle-like strip of forest reaching down to and over the canal.

This is totally different to any canal Ive ever been on, says skipper Adam Evans. Its my favourite part of the canal. Soon, the canal widens again into Loch Oich and finally Loch Ness, Scotlands most famous body of water. Its dimensions are as monstrous as its myths  containing more water than all the lakes and rivers in England and Wales combined, its up to 300 metres deep, giving it a sense of mystery that fuelled the legend of Nessie. Canal and boat lift connecting Loch Ness at Fort Augustus. Credit: iStock We continue to use the water as a diving board into a host of trails  walks to waterfalls, over low hills, through blueberry-carpeted forests and eventually to the Caledonian Canals end at the Moray Firth. In Loch Ness, we moor by a pier in Foyers, on the lochs quieter and wilder eastern side, where weve watched goats grazing at the waters edge and been circled by a sea eagle  the largest bird in the UK. But the best comes in the calm of dawn as I take my coffee up onto the deck of the barge.

Less than 100 metres ahead of us, a stream pours into the loch through a green glow of forest. As I watch, two deer step out of the trees and into Loch Ness. As they dip their heads to drink, not a single other thing around the loch seems to move. Loading Far across the water, on the path proper for the GGW, there will be hikers now stirring, packing up tents or already on the move. But here, Im in no hurry. We will soon sail towards Inverness and the trips end but, for the moment, I have the most beautiful and natural of company. THE DETAILS WALK

UTracks seven-day Scotland Coast to Coast Rambler Walk and Barge trip begins in Fort William and finishes in Inverness, and includes all meals and accommodation on the Fingal of Caledonia. Prices start from $3690 per person. See utracks.com
Ukrainian tour operator Join UP! plans to expand its franchise model to the markets of the Baltic states and Kazakhstan in 2025, according to Maryna Daineko, Head of Sales at Join UP!'s, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"We currently have more than 100 franchise agencies operating under this model in Ukraine, and four in Moldova  two of which opened this year. We're continuing to develop our franchise network in Poland, with contracts being signed by both Polish and Ukrainian entrepreneurs. And this year, we're launching the franchise in Kazakhstan and the Baltic countries," she said.

Join UP! LLC was established in 2013 with a charter capital of UAH 72.671 million. The ultimate beneficiaries are Yuriy and Oleksandr Alba.

Join UP!'s international expansion now spans eight markets: the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Preparations are nearing completion for entry into Slovakia and Hungary. In 2024, the brand also launched its first international franchise agency in Katowice, Poland.

With the participation of CFI, Agence francaise de developpement medias, as part of the Hub Bucharest Project with the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Jerusalem: Western countries, including Canada and Britain, have condemned a decision by Israeli soldiers to fire warning shots near their diplomats during an official visit to the occupied West Bank overnight.

The Israeli military said the large international delegation deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorised to be and that soldiers fired warning shots to distance them away.

Footage shows individuals running to vehicles with diplomatic number plates as shots are heard in the distance. No injuries or damage were reported during the incident at Jenin.

The IDF regrets the inconvenience caused, the Israeli Defence Forces said in a statement, adding it was reviewing the incident.
The WCO, Europol and INTERPOL supported investigators from 23 countries in the fight against criminals who exploit humanitys cultural heritage

The ninth edition of Operation Pandora, an international operation targeting the trafficking of cultural goods, has led to 80 arrests and the seizure of 37,727 items including archaeological pieces, artworks, coins and musical instruments.

Codenamed Pandora IX and carried out throughout 2024, the operation involved law enforcement and Customs authorities from 23 countries. It was coordinated by Spain (Guardia Civil), with operational support from Europol, INTERPOL and the WCO through its Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe.

Authorities also confiscated 69 metal detectors and 23 tools commonly used for illegal excavations, underlining the persistent threat of looting to cultural sites.

In total, 258 cases were reported by the participating countries. Many investigations are still ongoing, with further arrests and seizures expected.

Operational highlights

The Italian Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (TPC) in coordination with the Italian Customs and Monopolies agency (ADM) seized a painting attributed to renowned artist Jannis Kounellis during a joint border operation. Upon inspection, it was determined to be inauthentic. Had it been genuine, its estimated value would have been around EUR 100,000. In a separate investigation, the Carabinieri TPC seized more than 300 items, including coins, metal and ceramic fragments such as arrowheads and spearheads dating back to the Roman and Punic periods. These artifacts were being offered for sale on e-commerce platforms and were discovered in a private apartment.

The Spanish Guardia Civil dismantled a criminal group involved in archaeological looting in the province of Caceres. Six individuals were arrested, and three others are under investigation. During the operation authorities recovered 2,500 archaeological items, primarily Roman coins minted in the Celtiberian city of Tamusia. These artifacts had been looted from protected archaeological sites in the province of Caceres using metal detectors and were being sold illegally through social media platforms.

Also in Spain, the Guardia Civil intercepted a passenger attempting to fly from Palma de Mallorca to Germany carrying 55 ancient coins and a ring. A subsequent investigation led to an indictment for crimes against cultural heritage and plundering underwater wrecks and archaeological sites. In total, 64 objects of historical value and 1,576 ancient coins were confiscated.

In Greece, the Department of Cultural Heritage and Antiquities of Athens recovered five Byzantine icons. Acting on intelligence and using special investigative techniques, including an undercover officer, three individuals were arrested while attempting to sell the icons for EUR 70,000.

Ukrainian customs authorities seized 87 cultural goods that were being illegally transported out of the country to Poland, Moldova and Romania.

Cyber patrols uncover additional cases

In addition to on-the-ground actions, dedicated cyber patrols were carried out during the operation to identify potential illicit online sales of cultural property. These virtual investigations led to the opening of new cases, demonstrating how digital platforms are quickly becoming a channel of choice by traffickers to market and sell looted artefacts. A total of 4,298 cultural goods were seized as a result of the cyber patrols.

Built on international cooperation

Operation Pandora IX was carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT). Europol facilitated the exchange of information and provided analytical and operational support to the national investigations. Furthermore, one cyber patrol week was hosted by Europol.

INTERPOL coordinated cross-border actions and offered tools such as its Stolen Works of Art database and on the ground ID-Art mobile application.

The WCOs secure communication tool, CENcomm, was made available to all participants while its Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Eastern and Central Europe compiled, refined and shared information provided by Customs administrations

Since its launch in 2016, Operation Pandora has become a key global initiative to protect cultural heritage from illicit trafficking.

Participating countries in Pandora IX (2024):

Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, United States.

Participating agencies:

Europol, INTERPOL, World Customs Organization
No unauthorized interference in the operation of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine's video surveillance systems has been recorded, the agency's spokesman Andriy Demchenko has said.

"There was no penetration or interference in the video surveillance systems of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine at the border," he told the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday, commenting on information that the Russian occupiers allegedly gained access to 10,000 cameras near military facilities and railway stations, 80% of which were in Ukraine.

Earlier, the British edition of The Guardian, citing the UK intelligence service, reported that a unit of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defense (GRU MO) gained access to cameras near crossings, military facilities and railway stations in key European points.

It was reported that the GRU unit 26165, known as APT 28 or Fancy Bear, had been conducting a malicious cyber campaign against state and private organizations in NATO countries since 2022.

"In addition to targeting logistics entities, unit 26165 actors likely used access to private cameras at key locations, such as near border crossings, military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine, the advisory says. The actors also used legitimate municipal services, such as traffic cams," the article says, adding that there have been other attempts to collect sensitive cargo information, such as train schedules and shipping documents, the document claims.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held a meeting to prepare for the exchange of a thousand prisoners with the Russian Federation.

I held a meeting on the preparation for an exchange. The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkiye. We are working to ensure that this result is achieved, Zelenskyy said on X Thursday.

He also said that there were reports on contacts with Russians. According to the president, the organization of the process and the implementation of the agreement is supervised by Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov.

The Main Intelligence Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Security Service (SBU), the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights and the team of the President's Office were also involved.

We are clarifying the details for each individual included on the lists submitted by the Russian side. Returning all of our people from Russian captivity is one of Ukraines key objectives. I am grateful to everyone who is contributing to this effort, the President summed up.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelMacron

On the eve of his visit to Southeast Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron held a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, after which, in particular, he stated that France and China have a common goal: "a lasting and stable peace" in Ukraine.

"In our response to Russia's war in Ukraine, we have a common goal: a lasting, stable peace. The first step is an immediate and unconditional ceasefire," he wrote on the social network X on Thursday.

Macron is set to arrive in Hanoi on Sunday, the first trip to Vietnam by a French president in nearly a decade, move on to Indonesia and finish up in Singapore, where he will speak at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's top defence conference.
SHREVEPORT, La. - A Native American tribe with roots in Northwest Louisiana is turning to local government leaders for help in its pursuit of federal recognition.

The Adai Caddo Indian Nation is currently recognized by Louisiana, but not by the federal government.

State recognition means a tribe can receive local benefits, but federal recognition creates a direct relationship with the U.S. government and opens the door to federal funding, healthcare and legal protections.

"If it wasn't for our name, it wouldn't be called Caddo Parish," said Adai historian Dee Niette Thompson.

The tribe hopes a bill passed under the first Trump administration could be a path to federal recognition status instead of continuing through a lengthy process with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

"The process takes decades. Over 20 years ago, we went through the preliminary process with the BIA," said Thompson.

Thompson says it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue the traditional route through the BIA, but says the tribe has another path to federal recognition.

The Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017 gave six state recognized tribes federal status and was signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2019. Thompson hopes to petition government officials like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and other state officials to help gain federal status.

"Our plan is to build a coalition with the parish, state officials and state agencies to help petition Congress or the President to review our claims and direct the BIA to approve our federal recognition," said Thompson.

Thursday, the Caddo Parish Commission will vote on an ordinance to urge the federal government to grant the Adai tribe federal recognition so members can obtain the same rights, resources and protections as other Native American tribes.

"In the past, the Spanish, French and Colonial governments all recognized us as an Indian nation since the early 1700's," said Thompson.

If granted federal recognition, the tribe would be able to form a government relationship with the U.S., and its lands would enter into a federal trust while its members would be able to receive federal benefits like healthcare.

"Most of our people live in Caddo Parish and this would help our elderly get their medicine," said Thompson.
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Sybiha discusses ways to achieve just and comprehensive peace for Ukraine with newly appointed Canadian FM Anand

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha has held telephone talks with newly appointed Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand and discussed diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a fair and comprehensive peace for Ukraine.

I was pleased to have my first call with Anita Anand, Canada's newly appointed Foreign Minister and a long-time friend of Ukraine. Grateful for reaffirming Canadas unwavering strong support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. We focused on diplomatic efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace for Ukraine. I reiterated that a full and durable ceasefire for at least 30 days remains essential for peace efforts to have a chance to succeed, Sybiha said on X.

They also discussed the need for additional pressure and sanctions against Russia, which continues to reject a ceasefire and stall the peace process.

I emphasized that possible measures could target Russian energy, including a lower oil price cap, as well as impose additional sanctions on Russia's banking sector, including the central bank, Sybiha emphasized.

He invited Anand to visit Ukraine, and the two also "coordinated additional steps and contacts to strengthen international support for Ukraine during Canada's G7 presidency."
Im sure that Im stretching my readers interest and my editors patience by returning to a papal theme for more times than I care to remember but this may be the last bite of that particular cherry. (Or do I hear someone say, I wouldnt bet on it!)

After all the genuine regret at the death of Pope Francis, all the worry that his vital legacy might be compromised by those who opposed him and even reviled him, all the relief and excitement that the election of Pope Leo has generated, all the media coverage that has generated new interest and purpose in Catholicism  after all that, it would be naive and dangerous to presume that the reforms that Francis initiated were now automatically going to slide smoothly into operation.

Not so. Ive often wondered how the Francis reform received such a variety of responses in different parts of the globe. Its understandable that in Africa where, for example, an embedded antipathy to LGBT+ is part of the prevailing culture, that Francis famous response to the LGBT+ issue  'Who am I to judge?'  would have received a poor reception.

But, how to explain why, for example, the United Kingdom response to Francis synodality campaign  in effect, putting in place a Peoples Church as envisaged in the Second Vatican Council  has received such a modest and qualified support. In the UK, loyalty to Catholicism (among its members) and respect for the papacy have a long and impressive history. But this is not at all obvious to those who assess its response to the Francis/Vatican II agenda  comparable to other European churches.

Im told, by those in the know, that the synodal process in the UK has been almost non-existent apart from the occasional formal episcopal comment to take the bleak look off the effective and widespread clerical opposition to Francis reform. The way, for instance, popes John Paul II and Benedict XIV often praised the Second Vatican Council and underlined its importance in routine formulaic pronouncements while effectively opposing its implementation.

Recently, in a BBC Radio 4 Sunday special from St Peters in Rome, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the effective head of the English Catholic Church, suggested that synodality is not a process by which we (the Church) make decisions. He should know, even if he seems not to know, that the Final Document of the recent Roman Synod says that it is. It is a process that is intended to be part of decision-making in our Church into the future.

Another less charitable explanation (which I am reluctant to spell out) is that Cardinal Nichols does know what the Synod document says and does appreciate how it is effectively now the policy and teaching of the Catholic Church but has aligned himself with the Cardinal Gerhard Muller/Cardinal Robert Sarah/Cardinal Raymond Burke, etc, pushback that has sought to oppose Francis and to rubbish his reforms. Or is Nichols reservation just another unthinking riposte from those in positions of power and influence in the Church who seek to minimise or to delay the introduction of the synodal process?

The harsh conclusion may be that Cardinal Nicols either hasnt read the Synod document carefully enough or that he doesnt accept its import. It may be no more than a straw in the wind that Cardinal Nichols has told the Associated Press that Francis initiatives need rooting so that they arent just the ideas of one person, one charismatic person.

This seems unmistakably a way of categorising Francis and his initiatives as little more than a well-meaning enthusiast who can be put in his box by more serious souls. It sounds too as if its an echo of the comment made by Cardinal Beniamino Stella that Francis had imposed his own ideas by opening positions of authority in Rome to the non-ordained, an outburst that was leaked to the press and was, in the view of Austen Ivereigh, an expert on things Vatican, a glimpse of the existential displacement some have felt under Francis, and their desire to put things back in order, a line that Ivereigh commented felt like pre-agreed messaging.

Does this mean, then, that the pushback against Francis was more than just the last dying gasp of a tiny minority of extreme Catholics in thrall to the Latin Mass and that the expected pushback to Leo XIV will be from a broader base than that already emanating from the pushback funded from America  where the Catholic Church seems to have lost its way.

Clearly over two-thirds of the 133 cardinals who elected Leo XIV decided that, as Austen Ivereigh writes in The Tablet, the issue facing the conclave was how to take forward 12 years of epoch-changing reform (by Francis). The other one-third comprised the supporters of Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungry who apparently was the totem pole around which the Muller/Sarah/Burke camp tried to manage the election of a conservative pope. Or those discomfited by the fall-out from Francis reforms where clerical power, privilege and supremacy were threatened by the incoming tide of synodality.

In the early debates when the cardinals gathered to discuss possibilities, clearly there was a majority of cardinals who bought warnings of the risk of the Church becoming self-reverential and losing its relevance. Just days after the Francis funeral and the extraordinary response to his pontificate as witnessed by the huge overflow of respect and gratitude  the Francis pontificate was still fresh in the cardinals minds. It seemed obvious to (almost) everyone that a Francis II pope was needed to recapture how to evangelise a new chapter of the Christian story that would help to fill, as Francis did, the gap in moral leadership in the wider world.

The conclusion of the cardinals was that there was no other way. As Francis once suggested about the synodal process, there was no other game in town, an accolade that referred to the Francis effect on the entire Catholic Church and beyond. It seems, at first sight, that the Holy Spirit discovered in Leo XIV the nearest the conclave had to another Francis.

Well see.
Photo: https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with representatives of national minorities, with whom he discussed the implementation of the law on indigenous peoples, coordination between the state and national minorities, as well as efforts to return Ukrainians home.

"I met with representatives of national minorities and indigenous peoples of Ukraine. The Day of Interethnic Accord and Cultural Diversity was held for the first time the day before. Our state is multinational. And this is our strength. We all feel mutual support and understanding, we all live together, we fight to live in peace," Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel on Thursday.

The President reported that during the meeting, "they discussed the most important issues: the implementation of the law on indigenous peoples, coordination between the state and national minorities, educational and language issues, granting Ukrainian citizenship to those who have been waiting for a long time, as well as efforts to return our people home."

According to Zelenskyy, more than one hundred national minorities are an integral part of Ukraine. "It is very important that all communities, our Europeanness - in such openness and joint work. I am grateful to each and every one for unity and love for Ukraine," the president noted.
Voters in the Kutztown Area School District will see a question on the May ballot that asks whether to raise property taxes by 10.63%.
Ukraine is forced to maintain military spending at a high level due to Russian aggression, which is creating a significant state budget deficit, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said at a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 member countries, the leadership of the IMF and the World Bank, the European Commission and the OECD, and called for a systemic and long-term solution, which could be partial financing of the Ukrainian army by partners as part of its integration into the European security system.

"This is a strategy that can solve two problems at once: increase security in Europe and allow Ukraine to maintain macro-financial stability," the press service of the Ministry of Finance said, citing him from a meeting in the Canadian city of Banff on Thursday.

It is noted that among the key topics for discussion was financial support for Ukraine in 2026, in particular, the provision of the Ukrainian army.

He said that in 2021 the state budget deficit was 3.8% of GDP. After the start of the full-scale war, the economy shrank by almost 30%, and the deficit increased to 20% of GDP due to a sharp increase in military spending, from 5% to 30% of GDP.

According to the minister, without taking into account military spending and wartime factors, the budget deficit has the potential to gradually decrease: from 6.8% of GDP in 2022 to 4.2% in 2023, 0.6% in 2024 and 0.2% in 2025, but economic recovery is possible only by strengthening Ukraine's defense capabilities.

"The costs of maintaining the Ukrainian armed forces to ensure the security of Europe constitute a small share of the EU's GDP. It can be distributed among countries that are ready to join the initiative and taken into account when calculating defense spending in accordance with NATO commitments," Marchenko said.

He said that, given the military risks, Europe is already looking for ways to strengthen its defense, in particular by increasing the number of armies, but building such a potential will require years and significant resources, while integrating the Ukrainian military potential is a practical solution.

As reported, the IMF, in the updated Extended Fund Facility program with Ukraine during the seventh review, included a forecast for reducing the state budget deficit from 19.6% of GDP this year to 10.1% of GDP next year. According to a number of experts, reducing the deficit by almost half will require approximately the same reduction in military spending, which is currently impossible even under the conditions of cessation of active hostilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025 that in the absence of NATO membership, the country should maintain a large armed forces of 1.3-1.5 million servicemen and appropriate weapons as a security guarantee. "We need to have money for this," he said. At another time, he estimated the necessary army size at about 1 million.
On Thursday, May 22, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius met with the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, General Valeriy Zaluzhny.

Insightful discussion on evolution of warfare and importance of defence inovations. Stressed the continuous European military support for Ukraine, and that the EU can learn a lot from Ukraines experience, Kubilius said on X.
FMs of Ukraine and Canada discuss the need for additional pressure and sanctions against Russia

Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybiha has held his first telephone conversation with the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Anita Anand, inviting her to Ukraine.

Grateful for reaffirming Canadas unwavering strong support and solidarity with the Ukrainian people. We focused on diplomatic efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace for Ukraine, Sybiha said on X.

He reaffirmed that a complete and lasting ceasefire of at least 30 days remains necessary for peace efforts to have a chance of success.

We discussed the need for additional pressure and sanctions against Russia, which continues to reject a ceasefire and stall the peace process. I emphasized that possible measures could target Russian energy, including a lower oil price cap, as well as impose additional sanctions on Russia's banking sector, including the central bank, Sybiha stressed.

The ministers also coordinated additional steps and contacts to strengthen international support for Ukraine during Canada's G7 presidency.

I invited my colleague to visit Ukraine at a convenient time, the foreign minister of Ukraine noted.
Twenty-two ambulances were handed over to the Ukrainian Armed Forces' territorial defense (TRO) and the Medical Volunteer Battalion Hospitaliers. The vehicles were purchased in France with money raised by the volunteer organization Ukraine Focus from the USA, and the Poroshenko Foundation also contributed to the project's financing, according to the website of the European Solodarity.

Ukrainian MP, leader of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, personally tested one of the vehicles during transportation from the western border to the capital, where they were handed over to units.

"The convoy includes 22 vehicles for evacuating the wounded from the battlefield, which traveled a long way from France to Kyiv. When our longtime friend Brock Bierman and the Ukraine Focus Foundation shared the idea of bringing ambulances for the Ukrainian military, Maryna and I immediately volunteered and transferred the money. This project can be called a real people's diplomacy, because, in addition to us, citizens from different countries - the United States of America, Canada, Great Britain, Germany and, of course, Ukraine - worked on its implementation," Poroshenko said.

One of the Ukraine Focus programs is a volunteer ambulance corps, which over the three years of war has delivered more than 380 medical vehicles to Ukraine without a single penny of budget funds, Poroshenko emphasized.

Evacuation vehicles are desperately needed at the front, because the enemy is constantly destroying them, and the wounded need to be quickly transported to stationary medical facilities, the military explain.

"Every month, one ambulance provides services to more than 250 soldiers - wounded, sick, evacuation services. Now multiply this by 380 and multiply by the number of months of the ongoing war. This is what these heroes do. This program collects donations from all over the United States, some from France, some from other NATO member countries. And this is the best diplomacy. Because it motivates incredible support from people, which Ukraine needs so much now," Poroshenko said. He also added that among the donors are US senators and congressmen.

"Territorial defense is volunteers who, from the first hours of a large-scale invasion, went to defend their native land," Poroshenko notes. Now these brigades and battalions are standing at the hottest points on the front.

"We must remember that the guarantor of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state is, first and foremost, the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So we will make them stronger," Poroshenko emphasizes.
A man who burned down a Missouri church has been sentenced to more than 9 years in prison
Interfax-Ukraine to host discussion Are there signs of approaching peace?

On Monday, May 26, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a discussion on the topic "Are there signs of approaching peace?"

Participants include: Head of the Vezha Center for Public Analytics Valeriy Klochok; political scientist, political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; political scientist, Co-founder of the National Platform for Resilience and Cohesion Oleh Sahakian (8/5a Reitarska Street).

The event will be streamed on the Interfax-Ukraine YouTube channel.

Admission requires registration on the spot with press ID cards.
New Orleans sheriff halts reelection campaign as five jail escapees remain at large
Congresswoman Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-New Jersey, speaks to the press after Newark mayor Ras Baraka was arrested while protesting at Delancey Hall ICE detention prison, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Newark, New Jersey. [AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis]

Following the same May 9 incident during which the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Democrat Ras Baraka, was arrested by federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, one of the three members of the US House of Representatives from New Jersey who accompanied Baraka, LaMonica McIver, has been charged by the US Department of Justice for allegedly assaulting federal officers during the ensuing fracas.

DHS officials, following the lead of President Donald Trump, have accused the three Democratic Representatives of storming into the facility, an obvious lie not supported by the evidence. Demonstrators surrounded Baraka when federal agents came to arrest him after he had already walked out of the gated area into public space.

The Democratic congresspeople sought to accompany the mayor on an inspection tour of the newly re-opened Delaney Hall immigrant detention facility. Baraka, who has stated that he was initially allowed to enter the facility unimpeded, was charged with trespass. He was subsequently released from custody and the charge dismissed.

Earlier this month, the mayor and the three congresspersons were attempting to conduct an inspection of the DHS immigrant detention facility in Newark. The Delaney Hall facility is projected to hold 1,000 immigrants. According to Baraka, the building is now imprisoning immigrants without the proper permits from the city.

The conversion of Delaney Hall into an ICE detention facility is part of a 15-year $1 billion contract with the GEO Group to operate this facility. This is part of the overall plan to greatly expand the available space for implementing Trumps aim to detain and deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants. Its location near Newark airport makes it especially suitable for the efficient removal of masses of detainees from the country.

The cost of these and other expansions of the Department of Homeland Security are part of the major increase in DHS funding of about $8 billion in the annual federal budget now being debated in Congress. The proposed DHS budget would include $45 billion for adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers.

The three representatives who attempted to tour the facility, 80-year-old Bonnie Watson Coleman, Rob Menendez and McIver, are legally entitled to conduct inspections of DHS-owned or contracted facilities. This, however, did not prevent DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin from suggesting that the three representatives might face criminal charges for allegedly assaulting uniformed federal agents while they were arresting Baraka.

There is extensive video recording and eyewitness testimony of the incident by a crowd of demonstrators who were protesting nearby. The pushing and shoving confrontation between the demonstrators and the masked and heavily armed federal agents was clearly preceded and provoked by the arrest of Baraka. A video posted on X (formerly Twitter) shows McIver protecting herself while trying to make her way through the crowd while demonstrators are being manhandled by ICE and other federal agents.

The states top federal prosecutor, Alina Habba, a Trump appointee and former lawyer for Trump, charged Congresswoman McIver with assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement.

In response, McIver stated, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka. The charges against me are purely politicalthey mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight.

In a statement dripping with hypocrisy from someone acting on behalf of a president who defies the law with impunity, Habba pushed back, saying, No one is above the lawpoliticians or otherwise. It is the job of this office to uphold justice impartially, regardless of who you are. Now we will let the justice system work.

Compounding the transparent fabrication of the incident by federal authorities, charges against Baraka have been dismissed for the sake of moving forward, according to Habba.

The unjustified arrest of Mayor Baraka, after he had voluntarily exited the fenced area, was clearly staged as a provocation and to create an incident that could be employed to advance Trumps drive to intimidate all opposition to his dictatorial agenda by all means, including physical brutality.

In a hearing held Wednesday concerning the dropped charges against Baraka, federal magistrate judge Andre Espinosa admonished federal prosecutors for bringing the charge in the first place.

The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office, Espinosa said, as reported by the New Jersey Globe.

Republicans in Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have called for the three congresspeople to be subject to discipline, such as removal from committee posts. During his visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Trump said of McIver, That woman was out of control. She was shoving federal agents. ... the days of that crap are over in this country. Were gonna have law and order.

Congressional Democrats have responded that the charges against McIver are morally bankrupt, spectacularly inappropriate, and without any basis in law or fact. All true, but these are the same Democrats who for years under previous administrations have supported building up the mass deportation police apparatus.

During his presidency, President Barack Obama deservedly earned the moniker Deporter-in-Chief for his role in overseeing the deportations of over 3 million people, the highest of any US president. In 2015, Obama bestowed on Tom Homan (Trumps Border Czar) the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service for his work in overseeing these deportations as a high-level ICE official.

In his one term, Biden continued many of the same anti-immigrant policies as Trump, including the use of Title 42a public health policy used to expel immigrants, including asylum seekers, without providing them a hearing. In her brief presidential campaign, Kamala Harris repeatedly promised to continue building the US-Mexico border wall and tried to sell herself as the more effective law and order deporter compared to the erratic Trump. This paved the way for the Trump administrations escalation of the existing witch hunt against immigrants.

Campaign ad in which Harris, flanked by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, pledges to pass the "toughest border control bill." [Photo: Harris For President]

The arrest of the Newark mayor and the indictment of Representative McIver are part of the Trump administrations aim to subdue even the token opposition to his establishment of a presidential dictatorship. It follows on the heels of the FBIs arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan for allegedly shielding an immigrant who was facing charges in her court from arrest by ICE agents.

Toothless protests and congressional inspections will do nothing to stop the massive expansion of the American Gestapos capacity for imprisonment and deportation of millions, not only of immigrants but of home grown opponents of dictatorial rule, in the words of Trump himself.

Trump and his supporters will not stop short of totally neutering what remains of the separation of powers between the three branches of the federal government, thereby erasing the last vestiges of bourgeois democracy. The Democrats represent the same class interests as the Republicans, and have shown themselves incapable and unwilling to defend democratic rights.

The working class must take action to put an end to the fascist menace by building a revolutionary socialist movement to break the power of the capitalist oligarchy and establish a society based on meeting the needs of the many rather than the perverse desires of a tiny minority.
NHS FightBack held an online meeting Monday attended by health workers at the frontline of attacks on the National Health Service (NHS) by the Labour government.

The meeting was called mobilise health workers against Labours NHS privatisation policies, including the mass transfer of staff to private subsidiaries.

Chair Robert Stevens explained that NHS FightBack was initiated by the Socialist Equality Party in 2013 to build rank and file opposition to massive cuts to the National Health Service and plans to privatise it. That was being carried out by the Tory government then and it is being accelerated by the Labour government now.

Delivering the main report Ajitha, a senior nurse in Dorset, England said to other health workers on the call, Your presence here reflects a shared commitment to the values we uphold in our fight for a better, more just healthcare system.

Ajitha explained, I want to begin by condemning the anti-immigrant measures announced last Monday [May 12] by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer who spoke about relieving the pressure on housing and social care.

These measures included ending overseas recruitment for social care work and a ban on visas for anyone without a degree, that would spell disaster for the NHS a staff survey published by the RCN [Royal College of Nursing] last Wednesday found nearly half of foreign NHS nurses plan to quit, citing Starmers hostile climate for migrants. More than 55,000 international NHS nurses want to move away.

The crisis in the NHS is not caused by foreign workers. Immigrants are the bedrock of the NHS and without them it would crumble, he insisted. The real threat to the NHS comes from the Starmer government.

Starmers Health Secretary Wes Streeting threatened before Labour had even taken office that there would be no something-for-nothing culture in the NHS. It was a service, not a shrine, and we must all get used to the fact that money is tight.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer meets with Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca Pascal Soriot, alongside the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Health Secretary Wes Streeting (third riight) in 10 Downing Street, October 8, 2024 [Photo by Alice Hodgson/No 10 Downing Street / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

In January, now in government, Streeting launched a sweeping privatisation drive under the guise of a partnership with the private sector. This will funnel 2.5 billion of public money to private health firms to carry out a million treatments a yearoutsourcing care instead of rebuilding the NHS.

In March, mimicking Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Starmer and Streeting moved to abolish NHS England. Over 12,000 jobs were slashed overnight. Now the wrecking ball has swung even wider, targeting 42 Integrated Care Boards and hospitals with plans to axe over 100,000 NHS jobs.

Hospitals in England are being ordered to slash services and staff to avoid a projected 6.6 billion deficit.

Ajitha reported that University Hospitals Birmingham is preparing to cut 300 roles to save 130 million. Southampton plans to shed 785 jobs. Portsmouth: 549 jobs. The Isle of Wight: 249.

The attack on health workers was being intensified by the Labour governments demand that NHS Trusts set up subsidiary companies, SubCos, with workers being transferred outside of the NHS employment. This is de facto fire and rehire, stripping away hard-won rights and protections. In Dorset, Over 1,300 staffincluding in housekeeping, catering, portering, estates, and health and safetyare being transferred into a new subsidiary company.

SubCos began under Tony Blair in 2006 as a backdoor route to privatisation and spread like a disease under 14 years of Tory rule. By 2018, 42 NHS Foundation Trusts had created or were planning these entities, rising to over 65 by 2019.

A Health Service Journal study showed that Trusts had used SubCos to cut workers basic pay, conditions and pensions.

Ajitha added, NHS workers are not a cost to be cut. Referring to a description of the NHS and its workers by Streeting, he said You are not a black hole You are the lifeblood of the NHS.

NHS FightBack would lead a fight against Labour choosing to dismantle what generations of workers in this country fought to build we say: Not in our name. Not on our watch.

That the fight could not be waged on a local level, nor through the existing trade union apparatuses. Unison had not called a ballot for strike action against the Dorset Trusts. Instead, theyre encouraging faith in petitions, appeals to MPs, trust boards, and governorsand token protests. We know where this leads There is no party in Westminster defending public healthcare

If there is going to be a fightback, we must organise it ourselves. That means preparing the necessary leadership by building a network of rank-and-file workplace committees across every hospital and care setting, led by the most trusted workers.

Healthcare workers face the same attacks all over the world with governments facilitating the demands of the corporations to allow them to make even greater profits out of healthcare provision. One of the demands for the meeting was Billions for healthcare, not military rearmament and war. Ajitha explained, NHS Fightback is affiliated to the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) and fights for a socialist programme placing societys vast resources in the hands of the working class to be used for the benefit of all.

In the discussion, health worker Sophie said she was affected by subcos and asked what are the actions that I can take to support your plan of resistance? And what does a plan of resistance look like?

Ajitha replied, We have to organise rank and file committees in the workplaces and care settings and organise them politically against these attacks and prepare for a unified struggle of NHS workers. This would find enormous support from people in this country.

When we criticise the unions, it is because they are not launching any meaningful opposition against these attacks. If you look over the last period, all the hard-won gains have been betrayed. Pay, terms and conditions have been eroded.

Nurses and other clinical staff at Royal Bournemouth Hospital joined a lunch time protest against plans for the SubCo, May 13, 2025

Before the SubCo plan was introduced a mutually agreed resignation scheme (MARS) in Dorset was introduced last December. One of Ajithas colleagues in Southampton University Hospital had told him a MARS scheme was being introduced there as well. Ajitha said these plans were not being fought by the unions.

Sophie responded Thank you, I am fully aware of just how much our governments have destroyed our NHS, and I am ready to take the action necessary to stop the abuse of our NHS.

Another attendee responded, The pandemic has killed nearly 250,000 in the UK so far, an estimated 2 million people have Long COVID and approximately 100 people a week are still dying of COVID in 2025, according to UKHSA stats. Despite the mantra of return to normal, austerity means the NHS cannot cope with the massive pressures of the pandemic, and the associated influx of new illness and disability.

A medical student in Wales who could not attend for work reasons, sent a letter of support which was read out. The student said, I can see that the unions can also offer no solution, from the actions of the doctors union, the British Medical Association (BMA). Junior doctors held some of the longest industrial action last year, only to be met with an awful deal, which wouldnt have even covered the pay they lost from the strike action. I can see no way forward working with the heads of the trade unions, who are in the same leagues as the employers and government, agreeing to sellout deals behind the backs of their members.

We therefore have to coordinate a movement of the rank and file, uniting all healthcare workers in defence of our jobs, our colleagues and our patients, to save our NHS!

A member of the Postal Workers Rank and File Committee (UK) in the meeting explained, I would like to thank the speakers and let them know that their struggle is similar to ours in many ways. From my experience, the best way to save your jobs and conditions and indeed the NHS is to form rank and file committees. Dont trust the union hierarchy as they are collaborating with employers.

Attendees were introduced to the campaign page on the World Socialist Web Site where health workers can join NHS FightBack, begin up a rank and file committee at their workplace; subscribe to the NHS Fightback Newsletter and read WSWS coverage on the struggle of healthcare workers in Britain and internationally.

NHS FightBack page on the WSWS

The meeting concluded with a call for health workers to attend the May 31 public meeting in London hosted by the Socialist Equality Party: Trumps war on free speech: The case of Momodou Taal. Tickets can be bought at Eventbrite here.
Rail workers in Germany [Photo by to.wi / flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

On Wednesday, 14 May, an employee at the railway maintenance depot in Wittenberge, Germany suffered a severe shock when, during his 3 p.m. rounds, he discovered a coworker lying lifeless on the floor. The 38-year-old had apparently fallen while carrying out sandblasting work. Emergency services were called but could only confirm the workers death.

The horrific fatal accident at the Wittenberge repair workshop is by no means the only one on the railways in Germany. Including the May 14 death, there have been at least five such incidents in the four weeks since Easter alone:

On Easter Monday, 21 April, a 52-year-old railway worker died in Kehl, in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, in the port area on the Rhine. While shunting, he became caught between the buffers while coupling two carriages, was trapped and fatally injured.

On Sunday, 27 April, a railway worker was killed in an accident at the Neuseddin marshalling yard in Brandenburg. He also got caught between two carriages and was crushed to death.

On Tuesday, 29 April, a 58-year-old construction worker in Hamburg was hit by an Intercity Express (ICE) train. He survived with serious injuries and is now out of danger, but will be scarred for life.

On Friday, 9 May, another worker was trapped between two freight wagons. The 50-year-old was working as a safety officer at the railway maintenance depot in Oberhausen in Upper Bavaria. While accompanying a slowly moving wagon, he fell onto the track between the trains and was fatally injured.

Despite the bloody toll, neither national rail operator Deutsche Bahn nor the EVG and GDL rail unions are taking any notice. The EVG has not once this year commented on any specific work accident on the railways.

That is one of the reasons why the rank-and-file founded the Rail Action Committee in Germany two years ago. Independent of management and unions, it is directed to all rail workers whether they are union members or not. Its goal is to jointly defend wages, jobs and working conditions against massive corporate attacks. It stresses that workers allies are not the managers and union officials, many of whom hold lucrative supervisory board positions, but rail workers throughout Europe and around the world.

In the United States, a rank-and-file committee of auto workers, affiliated with the RAC through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC), has also recently begun an independent investigation into a workplace accident. Ronald Adams, a 63-year-old mechanic, was killed while servicing a robot when a gantry crane suddenly started moving. Neither management nor the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), nor the United Auto Workers have brought any facts to light in the six weeks since the accident to inform the family and the public.

A comment from a GM worker in the Detroit area hit the nail on the head: A worker dies, and a day later the story is forgotten. The union leadership is part of the problem.

The only way to uncover the cause of every single accident and prevent them from happening again is for workers to take the investigation into their own hands. They know the work process and all its dangers best. This also applies to workplace accidents at Deutsche Bahn. As another worker said: Safety is the best way to survive.

As the Rail Action Committee has revealed, there were at least eleven serious or fatal accidents at work on the German railways last year alone. In the previous year, there were at least twelve (and possibly more) such accidents.

There is no authority in Germany that systematically records all railway accidents. Neither Deutsche Bahn, the Federal Rail Authority (EBA) nor the Federal Railway Accident Investigation Authority (BEU) take responsibility for this. They are especially uninterested when it comes to the employees of subcontractors.

The latest accident at Wittenberge, as usual, was covered in the media with little more than a brief police statement. It also raises numerous questions, especially given that the worker was engaged in sandblasting, a dangerous activity.

Did the man have the right respiratory equipment to protect himself against sand, quartz and fine dust particles? Was his work areaapparently indoorsadequately ventilated? What caused him to fall? Did he suffer from pre-existing respiratory conditions? Or did he trip and fall into the high-pressure jet? Particularly important: why was this worker apparently working alone in such a dangerous job?

An independent investigation is crucial to finding out the truth. It will involve safety experts, take reports and statements from employees seriously and carry out its work independently of management and trade unions. This is the only way to uncover systemic violations of safety regulations and prevent future deaths.

The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) calls on rail workers, train drivers and all workers to participate in the work of the action committees: Send us reports on conditions in your workplace! Help us uncover the causes of workplace accidents so we can fight for better conditions at work! This is part of the struggle to lay the foundations for real workers control.
Beijing advances high-standard conservation of Great Wall

09:54, May 22, 2025 By Shi Fang, Pan Junqiang ( People's Daily

Photo taken on April 2, 2025 shows tourists visiting the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing. (Photo by Zhang Xiuke/People's Daily Online)

As early summer unfolds, the Badaling section of the Great Wall is in full verdure. By nightfall, illuminated by soft lights, the ancient fortification glows like a luminous dragon, creating a stunning and powerful scene.

This renewed vitality of the centuries-old landmark reflects Beijing's sustained and high-level commitment to its conservation. By transforming the Great Wall's profound cultural and historical legacy into a driver of development, the city is ensuring broader public engagement with -- and benefit from -- this national treasure.

The Great Wall stands as a defining symbol of the Chinese nation and a testament to its ancient civilization. In recent years, Beijing has intensified efforts to protect, preserve, and repurpose this irreplaceable cultural heritage, balancing rigorous safeguards with efforts to let its legacy resonate in the present day.

On a recent afternoon near Tower 120 of the Jiankou section, restoration work was in full swing. Technicians used drones and other advanced equipment to collect data on the wall and its surrounding environment. From the contours of the terrain and nearby vegetation to tiny cracks in the towers, continuously updated 3D digital models are capturing every detail.

Leveraging 3D imaging and virtual reality technologies, Beijing has enhanced digital preservation and presentation, ensuring comprehensive documentation for future restoration and exhibitions.

Over time, more than 110 conservation projects have been completed. The city has also established a practical restoration training base and launched research-based restoration programs. Technological innovations -- such as the "Beijing Great Wall e-Patrol" platform -- have enabled a shift from emergency repairs to preventive conservation.

In Gubeikou township located in Beijing's Miyun district, four themed study-tour routes centered around the Great Wall have drawn increasing numbers of visitors. These routes offer both photogenic stops and immersive lessons on Great Wall history and culture. Local cultural and tourism authorities are leveraging cultural landmarks -- such as the Simatai section, the 24-Eye Tower, and the general tower -- to deepen public understanding and appreciation of the site's heritage.

A performance is staged at the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing, April 30, 2025. (Photo by Luo Dafu/People's Daily Online)

Beijing is also pushing forward the creative transformation and innovative development of Great Wall culture. Major initiatives include building the Beijing section of the Great Wall national cultural park, upgrading the China Great Wall Museum, and staging public events such as a Beijing Great Wall cultural festival and a concert. Enhanced signage at key sites -- Jiankou, Gubeikou, and Badaling sections -- and immersive musical stage performances are further enriching the visitor experience, helping to invigorate this ancient heritage.

In Shixia village nestled along the Great Wall, time-worn stone paths, crenel replicas, and traditional courtyards evoke the site's historic charm. Tourists come in a steady stream.

"During the May Day holiday, our guesthouses were fully booked," said He Yuling, founder of a homestay business themed around the Great Wall. Over the years, the village has developed multiple homestays along with a distillery, an oil press, a coffee shop, and a Great Wall library -- together forming an integrated chain of agriculture, culture, and tourism that is bringing prosperity to local residents.

These villages owe their existence -- and enduring vitality -- to the Great Wall. By leveraging this cultural heritage, Beijing is exploring new models of integrated cultural and tourism development. The city has introduced a range of Great Wall-themed cultural and creative brands, launched specialty products such as themed ice creams, and expanded experiential tourism offerings like study tours. These efforts are creating new momentum for comprehensive rural vitalization.

While preserving the Great Wall, Beijing is working to enhance the global profile of this world-class cultural heritage.

Photo taken on April 30, 2025 shows tourists enjoying the night view on the Badaling section of the Great Wall. (Photo by Luo Dafu/People's Daily Online)

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
The number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024 rose for the sixth consecutive year, reaching a horrific 295.3 million. The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) notes that this is equivalent to nearly a quarter22.6 percentof the population of the 53 countries requiring external assistance that were its subject.

The almost 300 million people at risk of starvation is an increase of 13.7 million over 2023, thanks to escalating conflicts, cuts in humanitarian aid and climate and economic shocks.

The UN's Global Report on Food Crises [Photo: UN]

That so many people face death by starvation, under conditions of unprecedented scientific and technological developments in food production and distribution, is a devastating indictment of the capitalist system of production for private profit. The report itself was barely mentioned in the mainstream media, indicating the degree to which famine and starvation have been normalised by the worlds ruling elites.

The 2025 annual report was prepared by 16 international agencies, including various United Nations organisations, the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and several regional intergovernmental bodies.

It said that escalating conflicts in Palestine and the Sudan had driven extraordinarily high levels of acute food insecurity, with Gaza becoming the most severe food crisis since the annual Global Report on Food Crises began.

The number of people facing the most severe lack of food, described as catastrophic and characterised by starvation, death, destitution and high rates of acute malnutrition, more than doubled last year. More than 95 percent of the people existing in such conditions are in Gaza or Sudan.

Some 36 countries or territories are deemed protracted food crises, having been included in all eight reports. Of these, 19 are protracted major food crises and account for up to 80 percent of the total population facing high levels of acute food insecurity across food-crisis countries/territories each year. Yet the plight of many of these countries never makes it to the international media.

In the anodyne words of the press briefing, Intensifying conflict, increasing geopolitical tensions, global economic uncertainty and profound funding cuts are deepening acute food insecurity.

Warstypically described as conflictsand insecurity were the primary drivers of food insecurity in 2023-24, affecting 134.5 million people in 20 countries or territories. Seven of these were in the Middle East and North Africa and six were in West Africa.

Conflict was the major driver in most of the 10 largest food crises: Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Nigeria, Gaza, Sudan and Yemen, with Gaza, Haiti and Sudan listed as worsening conflicts. Globally there were 12 percent more conflicts in 2023 than in 2022, and 40 percent more than in 2020. These have also contributed to the rapid increase in the number of displaced people over the last 10 years.

Since October 2023, around 80 percent of Gazas population have been internally displaced, many multiple times, due to Israels genocidal war on what was already little more than an open-air prison, suffering the impact of Israels 16 year-long blockade of the Hamas-controlled entity. The lack of adequate shelter and access to essential services, along with the reduced supply of food, fuel and other basic commodities, further increased the risk of famine, even before Israel imposed a total blockade last March.

Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 5, 2025 [AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana]

Last week, a UN-backed assessment by the same group of international agencies reported that the entire population was experiencing critical levels of hunger. Half a million peopleone in five of the populationwere facing starvation. The reports said nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be acutely malnourished over the next 11 months to April 2026 and added, Many households are resorting to extreme measures to find food, including begging, and collecting garbage to sell to buy something to eat.

The report said, Following the closure of all crossings into the Gaza Strip in early March, and the collapse of the two-month ceasefire, food access has been severely restricted. As a result, Gazas population of around 2.1 million Palestinians is at critical risk of famine and faces extreme levels of food insecurity, with around 244,000 people currently experiencing the most severe, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

This situation is a deliberate policy aimed at driving the Palestinians out of Gaza, carried out by the fascist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been served an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Years of wars and conflict in Afghanistan, South Sudan and Syria have left their economies in tatters and eroded peoples resilience and ability to cope. This led to people fleeing their homes and seeking safety both within their own countries and beyond and affected not only the displaced people but host communities that were themselves too impoverished to help them.

The brutal war that broke out between rival factions of Sudans armed forces in April 2023 with the backing of regional powers created the worlds largest displacement crisis that year. Some 1.5 million people were internally displaced and a further 1.5 million displaced in neighbouring countries, including parts of Central African Republic, Chad and South Sudan, where high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition were already widespread.

The worsening civil war has led to famine being officially declared as more than 24 million of Sudans 52 million people face acute food insecurity, with atrocious impacts on women and children.

Ethiopian refugees line up for water in Qadarif region, eastern Sudan, November 15, 2020. Thousands of Ethiopians fled the war in Tigray region into Sudan [AP Photo/Marwan Ali]

Around 6.6 million people are internally displaced in Syria and a further 5.5 million displaced in neighbouring countries where many face high levels of food insecurity amid worsening socio-economic crises and cuts in humanitarian aid.

As the world experienced its hottest year in 2023, leading to extreme heat, drought, wildfires, intense rainfall and flooding, 72 million people in 18 countriesup from 56.8 million in 12 countries in 2022faced high levels of food insecurity for these reasons.

Twelve of these countries were in Africa, with the Horn of Africa experiencing below-average rainfall for three consecutive years, leading to the worst drought in 40 years that affected rangeland, water resources and crop and livestock production. In Central and Southern Africa, dry conditions had a disastrous impact on crop production, while cyclone Freddy in March 2023 caused mass destruction. A year later, an El Nino-driven drought devastated crop production, prompting Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe to declare national disasters.

In Asia, cyclone Mocha in May 2023 caused widespread destruction, affecting more than 3 million people in Myanmar alone.

The cost-of-living crisis combined with a totally inadequate response by governments was responsible for 75 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as global economic growth slowed in 2023 following hikes in central bank rates. Of the 53 countries included in the study, 48 are net food importers. Many, poor and bereft of foreign exchange reserves, were unable to import sufficient food and other essential items, leading to exorbitant prices in domestic markets that made it impossible for many people to feed their families.

The report provides little in the way of a concrete analysis that sets out the political and economic processesthe activities of the banks, giant food corporations and traders and the role of governments and central banksin creating this catastrophe.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his introduction to the report, This is more than a failure of systemsit is a failure of humanity. No, this is a failure of capitalism. But Guterres called on the same capitalist governments that had caused the crisis to resolve it, saying, This crisis demands an urgent response. Using the data in this report to transform food systems and address the underlying causes of food insecurity and malnutrition will be vital. So will finance. Funding is not keeping pace with need.

His appeal will fall on deaf ears. It is impossible to end the wars, economic crises and global warming that have caused this catastrophe through moral appeals to capitalist governments. There must be a turn to the working class and the methods and politics of class struggle to fight for the international reorganisation of society on a socialist basis.
An international petition has been launched for the release of Ahmad Mammadli and Afiaddin Mammadov, political dissidents arrested in Azerbaijan.

The World Socialist Web Site and the Sosyalist Esitlik Grubu (Socialist Equality Group), the Turkish section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), regardless of our political differences with the pair, demand the immediate release of Mammadli and Mammadov, as well as all other political prisoners who are being persecuted by capitalist states around the world.

Ahmad Mammadli, left, and Afiaddin Mammadov [Photo: sosyalistgundem.com]

Mammadli, a dissident journalist, trade unionist and human rights defender, was detained late on May 6 and arrested on May 7 on trumped-up charges of intentional injury, according to a petition announced by the Socialist Laborers Party in Turkey.

Mammadli is known for his work in Azerbaijan first in the student movement and later in the labor movement. He was the chairman of the now-banned D-18 (Democracy 1918) party and one of the founders of the Workers Table union. The D-18 opposed Azerbaijans fratricidal conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

According to the petition, Mammadli was tortured in detention, denied food for three days, and subjected to electroshock interrogation to force him to reveal his phone password.

Mammadli has faced state repression before. On September 19, 2022, he expressed his opposition to the war with Armenia on X/Twitter, describing President Ilham Aliyev as a dictator with blood on his hands and stating that it is the duty of a democratic Azerbaijan to prosecute those who incite hatred between peoples. He was sentenced to 30 days of administrative imprisonment following his statements opposing the war efforts of Baku.

Like Mammadli, Mammadov is one of the leaders of the D-18 party and a co-founder of the Workers Table. He was sentenced to eight years in prison after a prolonged period of detention from September 2023.

In court, Mammadov declared that the knife attack charge against him was fabricated: he was forcibly handed a knife by the police during his detention, witness statements were contradictory, and no evidence was presented during the court proceedings. Accusations of crimes we did not commit are punishment for our opposition to the ruling class, he said in his defense, drawing attention to the political nature of the charges.

According to the petition, Mammadli and Mammadov were also targeted because the Workers Table union organized strikes by motorcycle couriers in Azerbaijan. Following the strikes, union members were also detained on trumped-up charges.

Human rights violations by the Aliyev regime in Azerbaijan are not isolated. It is reportedly common practice for the regime to criminalise and silence its opponents by making allegations of drug use, extortion and injury against them.

According to the 2024 report by Amnesty International, independent oversight is almost completely banned in Azerbaijan, where civil society organisations, independent media outlets, and human rights defenders are severely repressed. Critical journalists and activists are arrested on fabricated charges of smuggling and illegal entrepreneurship. Those who participate in peaceful demonstrations are imprisoned on false drug-related charges, while complaints of torture and ill-treatment go unpunished.

On May 7, Reuters reported that Ulviyya Ali, a journalist with the independent Meydan TV, had been arrested alongside six colleagues on charges of smuggling. The journalists describe all of the charges as politically motivated and fabricated. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has reported that 24 journalists and media professionals are currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan.

Strategically located in the Caucasus near the Caspian Sea, the Republic of Azerbaijan borders Russia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran. As a former Soviet republic, it has been ruled by an authoritarian regime controlled by the Aliyev family since 1993. The current president, Ilham Aliyev, is the son of Heydar Aliyev, who was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan and head of the Stalinist regime from 1969 to 1982.

In its ultimate betrayal of the October Revolution of 1917, the Stalinist bureaucracy dissolved the USSR in 1991, leading to the creation of bourgeois states based on the interests of new capitalist oligarchs. Aliyev also used his position inside the Soviet state to establish an authoritarian and clientelist regime in Azerbaijan.

In 2003, Aliyev senior handed over power to his son in a sham election organised during his visit to the United States, when he was seriously ill. This process was essentially the result of the tacit agreement and direct involvement of Washington and Moscow. Many independent observers have described Ilhams election to the presidency with 76 percent of the vote as a political stunt, accompanied by forged ballots, ballot box rigging, voter suppression, and systematic violence against the opposition.

The Aliyev regime has become a partnership of interests between Azeri capitalist oligarchs and Western energy monopolies, with the state machinery acting as a tool to protect the interests of this minority.

At the same time, it has been strengthened by the foreign support received in exchange for providing geostrategic services to NATOs imperialist powers. Today, Azerbaijans rich oil and gas reserves have made it a major energy supplier to Europe, reducing its dependence on Russiaa country that has been targeted with sanctions by the US and EU as part of the war over Ukraine. Azerbaijan is also seen as a critical country in Washington and Tel Avivs plans for the total domination of the Middle East and war preparations with Tehran, given its proximity to Iran.

Azerbaijan, which has increased its military and strategic cooperation with Israel in recent years, is complicit in the Gaza genocide by feeding the Zionist war machine with oil supplied through Turkey. According to a report by Oil Change International from August 2024, Israel imports almost 99 percent of the oil it uses, with Azerbaijan being the main supplier, providing 28 percent of the crude oil going to Israel.

The Aliyev regime also has a military-strategic alliance with NATO member Turkeys government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, promoted by the nationalist rhetoric of two states, one nation. Ankara played an important role in Azerbaijans military superiority in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Baku and Ankara advocate the opening of a corridor (Zangezur Corridor) between Turkey and Azerbaijan through Armenian territory.

The Erdogan government is also proceeding with a plan for a presidential dictatorship that is gaining momentum. State repression, which for decades has mainly targeted the Kurdish nationalist movement and leftists, has recently extended to the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), the party of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the Republic in 1923.

The politically motivated arrest last March of Ekrem Imamoglu, presidential candidate and mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on behalf of the CHPa pro-NATO right-wing bourgeois party like Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP)was part of a comprehensive attack on democratic rights, especially the right to vote and be elected. Imamoglu was ahead of Erdogan in the presidential election polls.

Amid a mass mobilization across the country against this state crackdown, nearly two thousand people who exercised their constitutional right to protest were detained and over three hundred protesters were jailed for long periods of time.

As in Turkey, the authoritarianism in Azerbaijan is part of a global phenomenon that has been accelerated particularly since the second inauguration of US President Donald Trump. In the face of deepening crises of the capitalist system, growing geopolitical tensions, and intensifying class antagonisms, ruling elites are resorting to waging wars abroad and class warfare at home. Attacks on the working class are escalating everywhere in order to transfer more wealth to corporations, banks and oligarchs, and to finance increased military spending.

These policies cannot be imposed on the working class by peaceful, democratic means. In the face of growing opposition from workers and youth, capitalist states in the service of the ruling class are resorting to more police violence, censorship, arrests and judicial manipulation. The targeting of Ahmad Mammadli and Afiaddin Mammadov is an expression of this international process in Azerbaijan.

The most significant manifestation of this global wave of repression is the ongoing imprisonment of Ukrainian Trotskyist Bogdan Syrotiuk. He has been detained since April 2024 for defending the international unity of the working class against imperialism as well as the capitalist oligarchic regimes in Ukraine and Russia. Since then, the ICFI has been waging a global campaign to free Bogdan.

The fight for democratic rights is inextricably linked to the fight against imperialist war and the capitalist system that produces it. Rather than making futile appeals to imperialist or capitalist governments, this struggle must be based on the mobilization of the international working class on a revolutionary socialist programme. The ICFI and its national sections are fighting for this perspective. Contact us to build an ICFI section in Azerbaijan and other countries.

Sign the petition for the freedom of Ahmad Mammadli and Afiaddin Mammadov.
President Donald Trump, left, greets Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Monday, April 7, 2025, in Washington [AP Photo/Evan Vucci]

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time officially stated that an Israeli war aim is the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, openly stating what had been the unspoken goal of Israel since October 7, 2023.

In a news conference, Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to end the war, under clear conditions that will ensure the safety of Israel  all the hostages come home, Hamas lays down its arms, steps down from power, its leadership is exiled from the Strip Gaza is totally disarmed, and we carry out the Trump plan. A plan that is so correct and so revolutionary.

The Times of Israel commented that This represents the first time the US presidents plan for moving Gaza civilians out of the Strip has been presented as an Israeli demand for ending the war.

In February, US President Trump declared that The US will take over the Gaza Strip.... Well own it. He said the US will level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.

Trump explicitly called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, stating that other countries will build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.

Netanyahus declaration stands as an exposure of the Biden administration, which falsely claimed that it was seeking to create the conditions for a two-state solution even as it funded, armed and defended the Israeli genocide. In reality, the total occupation and ethnic cleansing of Gaza was always the aim of the Netanyahu government, which used the events of October 7 as a pretext to carry out this plan.

Netanyahus statement marks a public confirmation that Operation Gideons Chariots, announced by Netanyahu earlier this month but launched at full scale following Trumps trip to the Middle East last week, will be the means by which Israel seeks to carry out the forcible displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza from their homeland.

It confirms, moreover, that a central aim of Trumps trip to the Middle East was creating the diplomatic preconditions for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Trump was warmly embraced by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, with the Qatari government giving Trump the gift of a $400 million jumbo jet to serve as his private plane while he was scheming the mass killing and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Last Friday, as Trump was leaving the region, NBC News reported that the White House has been actively negotiating with governments throughout the region to accept the displaced Palestinian people.

The leading candidates which have emerged are Libya and Syria, two states whose governments were overthrown by US-backed Islamist insurgencies.

Even as Netanyahu openly adopts the ethnic cleansing of Palestine as an official war aim, his cabinet members are even more blunt, going right up to the verge of using the term ethnic cleansing as a positive good.

On Monday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israels goal is destroying everything thats left of the Gaza Strip. He declared, We are conquering, cleansing, and remaining in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.

Knowing it has the full support of the Trump administration, the Israeli government is going to previously unheard-of lengths of criminality.

On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire on a group of diplomats from over 20 countries, including the UK, France and Canada, as they were visiting a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin. Video footage of the tour shows Israeli troops consistently and repeatedly firing at least seven shots at the delegation as they fled. In a statement, the IDF admitted that they fired at the delegation, calling the attack warning shots after it claimed the delegation deviated from an approved course.

Despite Israeli claims that it has let a small number of trucks through to Gaza after a total 11-week-long blockade of food, fuel and energy, the entire population of Gaza remains on the brink of famine.

In a statement Wednesday, the head of the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) warned that the amount of food that has been allowed in is tiny compared to the amount necessary to prevent starvation. Children in Gaza continue to be killed, injured, and deprived of aid, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a post on X. The few trucks that have entered with life-saving supplies are nowhere near sufficient and have yet to reach those in desperate need. Were running out of supplies inside Gaza, and were running out of time.

The limited supplies finally being allowed to enter [Karem Abu Salem border crossing] are nowhere near enough to meet the needs in Gaza, which are vast, which are tremendous. Much, much more aid needs to get in, said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

On Wednesday, Israeli attacks killed 82 people in Gaza, bringing the official death toll to 53,655 with 121,950 wounded, Gazas health ministry said. The number of people killed since March 18, when Israel unilaterally broke a two-month ceasefire, has risen to over 3,509.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Israel is making active preparations for an attack on Irans nuclear program, moving aircraft into position and carrying out training attacks.

In a report Wednesday, Axios confirmed CNNs reporting, citing Israeli intelligence sources, with Axios reporting that Israel Defense Forces have been conducting exercises and other preparations for a possible strike in Iran.

One source told Axios, There was a lot of training and the U.S. military sees everything and understands Israel is preparing. Another added, Bibi is waiting for the nuclear talks to collapse and for the moment Trump will be disappointed about the negotiations and open to giving him the go-ahead.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is greeted by Pope Leo XIV during a private meeting at the Vatican, Monday, May 19, 2025. [AP Photo/Vatican Media]

Last Sunday, Anthony Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to attend a papal inauguration mass since the Whitlam Labor government established diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1973.

Albaneses decision to make the trip to Rome soon after retaining office in the May 3 election was primarily driven by the heightened geostrategic tensions triggered by the US Trump administrations global trade war.

Amid the instability generated by the US offensive against China, the worlds second biggest economy and Australias largest export market, Albanese was evidently anxious to seek side-line discussions with other government leaders gathered for the installation of Pope Leo XIV.

One of Albaneses first post-election acts had been to conduct a very warm phone call with Donald Trump to discuss a possible tariff deal and AUKUS, the multi-billion dollar military pact directed against China.

En route to the Vatican, Albanese visited Jakarta last Thursday, underscoring his governments commitment to US militarism by discussing strengthening military and economic links with Indonesian President Prabowo Subiantos regime.

Albaneses talks in Rome nevertheless indicated the turmoil and uncertainty confronting the Labor government and the Australian ruling class as a whole, because of Trumps America First agenda and conflicts developing between the US and European imperialist powers.

In Rome, Albanese reportedly sought and had brief exchanges with several government leaders, notably Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won an election on April 28, like Albanese, on the back of widespread anti-Trump hostility.

Albaneses main focus, however, became two formal meetings: one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the other with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In both, he sought to balance between Labors very close alignment with the US against China in Asia, while maintaining ties with the European powers as they rapidly remilitarise in order to prosecute their own strategic interests globally, not least in Ukraine.

With Zelensky, Albanese declared his governments readiness to further boost Australias $1.5 billion military and financial support for the far-right Ukrainian regime, now on the pretext of forcing the Putin regime in Russia to strike a deal to end the US-NATO war against it.

Once again, Albanese accused Russia of instigating the war. While the Kremlins 2022 invasion was reactionary, the US and European imperialist powers provoked the war, including by encircling Russia militarily following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy.

The underlying goal of all the NATO powers remains to control Ukraine, reduce Russia to the status of a semi-colony and establish rule over the resource-rich and geostrategically central Eurasian landmass. It is part of a wider drive, along with the Israeli genocide in Gaza, to totally dominate the Middle East and Eurasia, with China the central target.

Sharp tensions have erupted, however, between the European powers and the Trump administration, which has nakedly proposed to use the war to take control of Ukraines large potential supplies of critical minerals.

Albanese underscored his governments commitment to the ongoing war against Russia. He told Zelensky that 49 retired M1A1 Abrams tanks, originally supplied by the US to Australia, were now on the way after being delayed for six months, apparently due to the need to get permission and logistical backup from the Pentagon.

Albanese also indicated a willingness to meet Zelenskys request for further sanctions on Russia, on top of the 1,400 already in place against Russian individuals and entities. He further reiterated a readiness to join a supposed peacekeeping force, organised by the self-proclaimed coalition of the willing of European powers.

In his meeting with von der Leyen, Albanese responded in what has been described by the media as a cautious fashion after she proposed a new security partnership with Australia. Albanese had sought to progress negotiations on a trade deal with the European Union (EU), which could be a partial hedge against US tariffs.

Von der Leyen, however, opened the meeting by saying that the EU saw Australia not just as a trading partner but as a strategic partner as well. We would very much like to broaden this strategic partnership, she told Albanese. For example, we have signed security and defence agreements with South Korea and with Japan [and] soon with the UK.

Exactly what the EU leaders have in mind is not clear. The pact between the EU and Japan, for example, commits both sides to concrete cooperation in maritime security, space, cybersecurity, hybrid threats including foreign information manipulation and interference.

Whatever the details, there is no doubt that such agreements signal the European powers push for greater worldwide alliances and military capacity, not just against China in the Indo-Pacific, but in response to Trumps bid to Make America Great Again, including against its European rivals.

Recent years have seen increased naval and other military operations and exercises by the main European powers, notably the UK, France and Germany, in the Indo-Pacific, where they once had or still have colonial possessions, from Hong Kong to New Caledonia and Tahiti, and have definite economic and strategic interests.

Albanese appeared to prevaricate in his reaction to the EU proposal. He told the media that while Australia was certainly interested in the idea, it was at the very early stages. Notably, he did not rule out the proposition, but added: I wouldnt over-read what [the] Ursula von der Leyen statements were.

The EU proposal was not an idle one. The European powers are sharply escalating their military spending in the face of US economic aggression. The conflicts that erupted in two world wars, particularly between the US and Germany, are brewing once more, adding to the dangers of another catastrophic global conflagration.

When German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered the first statement of his Christian Democratic Union-Social Democrat government last week, he signalled a massive expansion of the German armed forces. He singled out the Indo-Pacific region as a target of German imperialism, saying it was of great importance, especially with regard to free shipping and secure trade routes.

Undoubtedly, domestic calculations were also involved in Albaneses Vatican visit. He and his ministers know that trade war and support for the US-led turn to war and genocide means deepening the attack on the living and working conditions of workers, which have already suffered the greatest fall since World War II under the Labor government.

Like the worlds corporate media and other government leaders, Albanese joined in the global promotion of the new pope Leo XIV, the head of a centuries-old reactionary medieval institution, as a supposed moral counterweight to the oligarchic rule personified by the Trump White House.

Before the papal mass, Albanese hailed Pope Leo for sending a message of peace and justice in the world and of looking after the vulnerable and the poor. This not only flies in the face of the churchs long record of sanctifying and defending the capitalist order, always at the expense of the working class, particularly the most vulnerable and poorest.

Albaneses remarks are also a desperate attempt to provide a veneer for Labors actual program. Far from peace and justice, it consists of militarism, austerity and suppression of anti-genocide dissent, which is a warning of the repressive measures it will take against all working-class opposition as the global economic crisis deepens, along with the plunge into war.
Dr. Peter Daszak in 2016 [Photo by EcoHealth Alliance]

Dr. Peter Daszak is a prominent British zoologist and expert on disease ecology, particularly known for his work on zoonotic diseases. Dr. Daszak was the longtime president of EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit organization supporting global health and pandemic prevention programs. Having served on committees for the World Health Organization (WHO), the National Academy of Sciences and other scientific bodies, for decades he warned about the dangers of zoonotic spillovers, conducting vital research on emerging infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-1, MERS, Ebola and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoHealth Alliance was the only US-based organization researching coronavirus evolution and transmission in China, partnering with critical institutions like the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Following the emergence of COVID-19, Dr. Daszak became a central target of false accusations that he was somehow involved in engineering the SARS-CoV-2 virus in collaboration with Chinese scientists. These lies, concocted by the far right, were amplified by large sections of the corporate media and political establishment, in what has amounted to a modern-day witch-hunt of principled scientists.

From the start, the Wuhan lab lie has been a malicious and politically motivated effort to deflect blame for the catastrophic mishandling of the pandemic and redirect anger towards China. Dr. Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance were formally debarred by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in May 2024, cutting off all federal funding for five years, based on false allegations of reporting irregularities and failing to properly monitor research. Daszak was fired from EcoHealth in January of this year, and the organization has ended its operations, leaving critical research unfunded and unpublished.

Despite the intense focus on the Wuhan lab conspiracy, the scientific evidence consistently points to a natural origin for SARS-CoV-2, likely stemming from the wildlife trade at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan. Epidemiological and genomic data have consistently associated early cases with the market and placed the common ancestor of the virus within the market. Recent research continues to solidify this understanding. Studies have refuted theories of laboratory manipulation, characterizing alleged genetic similarities as simply happenstance or the pattern of restriction enzyme sites as naturally occurring in related bat coronaviruses.

The attacks on scientists like Daszak and the broader assault on science and public health institutions have only made the world more vulnerable to emerging infectious pathogens, hindering vital research and international collaboration needed for pandemic preparedness. Fundamentally, the true source of the social catastrophe of the pandemic lies with the capitalist system, based on national divisions and the prioritization of profit over social needs.

This is the first part of an extensive three-part interview with Dr. Daszak, which was conducted on May 4, 2025, with the World Socialist Web Site as part of the Global Workers Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, which was initiated to break through the cover-up, falsification and misinformation that have been deployed to justify policies responsible for the avoidable deaths of millions since the initial detection of SARS-CoV-2. Part 2 can be read here and Part 3 here. We urge our readers to share this interview as widely as possible.

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Benjamin Mateus (BM): Good afternoon, Dr. Daszak. I would like to first thank you for speaking with the World Socialist Web Site. We have closely monitored the COVID-19 pandemic and extensively covered the Wuhan lab leak conspiracy, especially its political implications.

Before the pandemic, few people were familiar with your name or the important work done by you and your former organization, EcoHealth Alliance. However, since early 2020, youve been at the epicenter of a political storm over the origins of SARS-CoV-2, specifically the lab leak theorywhich, despite a lack of evidence, has been increasingly legitimized within the US state apparatus.

Despite the farcical, two-year bipartisan investigation led by Brad Wenstrup, chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the second Trump administration has now officially endorsed the lab leak theory on government websites. Recently, Trumps appointeesNational Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.have pledged to pursue this narrative further. They intend to shut down all gain-of-function research and impose strict controls over the scientific community.

Donald Trump watches as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is sworn in as Health Secretary in the Oval Office, Feb. 13, 2025 [AP Photo/Alex Brandon]

Its worth noting that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence had previously placed only low confidence in the lab leak theorymeaning no solid evidence existedand did not endorse the idea that SARS-CoV-2 was a bioweapon. These latest political moves are aimed at advancing an anti-China foreign policy agenda under the guise of pandemic accountability.

The consequences for public health and pandemic preparedness are dire. Just last Friday, Nature reported that the NIH plans to cut billions in funding to international laboratories and hospitals, threatening thousands of global health projects and clinical trials on diseases, such as cancer.

With that context, Id like to begin by asking: What does the debarment and dissolution of EcoHealth Alliance mean for long-term global zoonotic disease surveillance, especially considering the ongoing H5N1 bird flu panzootic?

Peter Daszak (PD): Early in the pandemic, as conspiracy theories began gaining traction in the US, I had the sinking feeling that we were merely treading water. In the face of an era where pandemics are becoming more frequent and more severe, our response lacked urgency and direction. Instead of moving forward, we were being dragged backwardtoward the next virus already on its way.

False narratives about a lab leak have derailed real progress. These stories dont just distract; they actively undermine global efforts to prepare for and prevent future pandemics. The research is clear: Dangerous pathogens are spilling over from wildlife into human populations with increasing regularity. Its only a matter of time before one with an even greater impact spreads efficiently from person to person.

The debarment and closure of EcoHealth Alliance is a tragic and deeply ironic outcome. We were one of the few organizations focused on preventing the very crisis the world faced in 2020. To shut us downand attempt to cancel me and the work we were doingis a reaction straight out of the Dark Ages. It defies logic.

After more than five years of conspiracy theories, complex webs of misinformation and baseless accusations against researchers, weve created a climate of distrust that weakens our ability to respond to the next pandemic. The next time, we may not have a vaccine as quicklyor the public will to use it.

This isnt just personal. Not just to me or to the people who worked at EcoHealth but to all of us. Its a blow to public health, to science and to our collective future. Like climate change, pandemic preparedness is a crystal-clear issue thats been politicized beyond reason. And just as with climate change, we can address itbut only if we stop letting politics get in the way.

BM: Youve been an ecologist and president of EcoHealth Alliance for over two decades, yet much of the public remains unfamiliar with the vital work youve ledoften viewing it through the lens of political controversy, especially from the far right. Recently, EcoHealth, a highly respected nonprofit with more than 50 years of history, was forced to shut down.

Can you speak to the unique role EcoHealth played in global disease investigation and the scope of its international collaborations? What was the organizations founding mission, and how did that evolve over time? Finally, what key accomplishments would you highlight from EcoHealths decades of work in pandemic preparedness and zoonotic disease surveillance?

PD: I think it was a unique organization. Most health organizations come out of the understanding that people get sick, and we need to help them. So, you have organizations that do eye surgeries in countries that cant afford it. You have organizations that promote contraception or vaccines coming out of a very human focus. Where the EcoHealth Alliance came from was from the wildlife focus. It started off over 50 years ago as the US branch of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. It was part of the international branches; one in Canada and one in the US.

It was Gerald Durrell, the conservationist and writer, who set up the Jersey Zoo (on the island of Jersey in the English Channel) that concentrated on rare and endangered species. He raised funds in the US and needed an organization to manage those funds from here. Those funds were used to do conservation work around the world.

Now, what happened in the 1990s and the early 2000s was the recognition that the things that were affecting conservation priorities that were causing species extinctions, things like land use change and the wildlife trade and deforestation, were also driving health issues directly. When you cut down a forest and burn it, you get respiratory diseases. When you build a road into the forest and start logging, people begin to get sick from new diseases like yellow fever in Brazil or completely new unknown diseases like HIV, monkeypox and others.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Maranhao state, 2016 [Photo by Felipe Werneck - Ascom/Ibama / CC BY 2.0

A group of us recognized that this health linkage with wildlife conservation was important. We published a paper in Science in 2000 where we noted there were very similar parallel processes driving emerging diseases in humans with emerging diseases that affect wildlife and livestock. These things are interconnected. Work by a group in the UK in Scotland showed that about 75 percent of emerging diseases are zoonotic and come mainly from wildlife.

We followed this with extensive work to find out where specifically they come from. How can we get there and stop it? And we proceeded to build a program around these new perspectives. Now that we know whats driving emerging diseases, we know where theyre likely to emerge, why dont we get out there and try and stop them? That was the strategy. And that still is the most effective way to deal with future pandemics. However, this also requires doing basic science in the laboratory. We wanted to understand how these pathogens were evolving to make them a threat.

Its like any threat. If we know that theres an earthquake zone, you dont build a high-rise without building special foundations and taking appropriate measures to protect those that live in these zones. Our strategy was to use these same approaches to pandemics. If we know where theyre coming from, if we know the types of activities that drive them, such as wildlife trade, for example, if we understand the types of wildlife and the pathogens that are most likely to emerge, then lets get out there, find out where they are, try and work with local communities and local governments to prevent them.

Its a huge benefit for the local country. And its a huge benefit for us here in the US, because once a disease emerges and starts to travel in the human population it always logically gravitates to the countries that travel the most. And the US is one of those.

BM: You and Drs. Zhi Zhengli and Linfa Wang established a unique relationship, and it was brought together after the 2002-2004 SARS-CoV-1 global epidemic. You identified the important role bats played in harboring potential pandemic pathogens. It was very new in our understanding of how pandemics erupt. Maybe you can speak briefly about this collaboration and the important discoveries you made. Your group had been warning about spillover risks from coronaviruses. Why do you think these findings failed to translate into actionable policy before 2020?

PD: A very good question.

The real work on bats began with the Ebola virus. There were people trying to find out where Ebola came from. Nobody knew. It was a mystery, and to some extent it still is, although we know its likely to be from wildlife. One of the theories was that bats carry the Ebola virus. The reason for that is that a researcher working in a lab infected many different tissues and cells from various species to see which ones could harbor the virus. And African bats seem to be able to harbor such an infection.

Then in the late 1990s Hendra virus emerged in Australia. A completely novel virus. It infected three people, killing two of them. It was highly lethal, but it killed horses, and it killed a famous racehorse and the racehorse owner, who had won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It may seem quite obscure, but for Australia it was a big story at the time. No one knew where this thing came from. The national lab there called the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (now Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness), a high security animal health lab run by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), did some incredible work. They set out to hunt down the origin of the outbreak and found that it came from fruit bats.

Then Nipah virus emerged in Malaysia, and the same person who worked in Australia on the discovery of Hendra, Dr. Hume Field, whos a good colleague of mine, also worked in Malaysia with the CDC and the Malaysian government. Once more, they found that bats were a reservoir for this virus.

By the late 1990s and early 2000s, our notion about bats in the virology world had changed from thinking of them as some obscure animal that flies at night that we dont know much about, to recognizing that they represent a clear and present danger in terms of the viruses they unwittingly harbor and our increasing interactions with them.

Researchers donned in protective gear handling a bat [Photo by Courtesy of Dr. Peter Daszak]

When SARS-CoV-1 emerged in 2003, one of the things we started to look at were bats. We knew bats were traded in markets there. Dr. Field then went out to China. I believe Linfa Wang (Duke Global Health Institute in Singapore) was part of that group and found that there were bats in the markets where the first human cases of SARS were identified. Some of these bats had antibodies to SARS, but so did other animals in the market and they werent certain initially about the animal reservoir. Later they identified civets and ferret-badgers and other species which seemed to be the likely source in the market.

A couple of years later, in 2004, I got a call from Linfa saying that they wanted to look for viruses in bats in China. This started as a collaboration with Australia, the US and China. What we found was clear evidence that bats carry SARS-related coronaviruses. These viruses appeared to be the most closely related pathogens to the virus that caused the SARS-CoV-1 outbreak.

The two key researchers that we were collaborating with were Linfa Wang and Shi Zhengli, a leading virologist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Ive had significant collaborations with both. Ive gotten to know Linfa and Shi Zhengli quite well. It was an excellent collaboration. Three different continents, three countries with a shared goal of finding out where these viruses come from. And we were successful. It was the source of SARS, and this was a major discovery at the time.

Dr. Peter Daszak and Dr. Shi Zhengli, two leading scientists studying bat coronaviruses [Photo by EcoHealth Alliance]

BM: This type of work isnt easy. Maybe you can elaborate on the field and laboratory work and resources needed? You spent more than a decade working together. This required significant cooperation with the regulatory authorities in the respective countries. Every aspect of the research needs documenting, and these must be shared at numerous levels. All this is hardly something that can be kept hidden and certainly very difficult to cover up given the number of people and levels of oversight. The extensive literature on the topic over these intervening years also meant that discovery proceeded straight to publication and further discussions within the scientific community on the implication of these discoveries and what must be the next question to address. It was all laid out in the open.

PD: Exactly. Those are important points to appreciate in this climate of innuendos and conspiracies. For people to accuse us of a cover-up, it is ridiculous given the level of information we had made public through dozens of papers, talks and press interviews.

Look, this was a collaboration of almost 15 years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Every aspect of this work is difficult. You have numerous scientists, who are working with their respective regulatory boards in three different time zones. You are constantly on early morning or late-night calls. The field work and laboratory work are arduous and exhausting, as you pointed out. Meanwhile, you are communicating with your counterparts and need translators to communicate complicated scientific jargon. My Mandarin is terrible. I speak about 10 words.

What your readers should know is that China has been changing rapidly. Even during the time that Ive been working with collaborators in China, visiting China, it has changed rapidly. But the cultural differences run deep. There is 5,000 years of culture or more there. For example, when you visit with colleagues in China, there are very specific protocols around eating and drinkingyou are not supposed to make mistakes or fail to show respect for the person who is hosting the meal. These sorts of things interfere with the collaboration.

Meanwhile the science side of itthe field workis hard. There are millions of bats in some of the largest caves that run for miles. And there are thousands if not many more of these caves that are spread across hundreds of thousands of square miles in Southeast Asia in remote and geographically difficult places to reach. These areas are hot and humid, and the people there dont really understand why youre there. They dont appreciate some folks turning up and putting on white suits and going into a bat cave thats on their land. Theres a lot of sensitivity around that.

Researcher donned in protective gear preparing for field work near a bat cave [Photo by Courtesy of Dr. Peter Daszak]

Then youve got the political climate around the international perspective. Even though you hear a lot about US-China relationships, these matters inevitably are complex and sensitive. But in science, were collaborators. Its straightforward. But when you are trying to do this internationally, getting samples to move across borders is not straightforward and in some cases just not possible because of political issues.

And then the actual science itself, its sophisticated and technically difficult. Youre dealing with samples and tissues that could potentially have a pathogen in them. Youve got to be careful that you use the right biosafety to make sure that nobody gets infected, and no ones hurt. It costs a lot. It is difficult. Its time-consuming.

But, in the end, its fascinating. And I think that is the other side of this that people have forgottenthe human side of it. The scientific discovery is fascinating and joyful. It is a deep part of our shared culture and part of our own human psyche to discover the natural world. Thats what we discover when we go out there looking for new pathogens in different species.

BM: Going back to the question, why do you think these discoveries that you and your collaborators made in this period failed to translate into any actionable policy before 2020?

And, Id like to add, you were so vocal on getting the authorities to pay attention to the impact of emerging pandemic, the last thing you really would want to do is cover up your work and the discoveries you were making. It just never made any sense except to say that the entire conspiracy has been premised on the geopolitical opportunity to blame China for the pandemic and divert attention from the public health debacle that has led to the death of tens of millions of people.

PD: Yes, my conscience on this is clear. We tried very hard to get the word out.

People dont understand that scientists operate on a reverse business model even though they want to do interesting research on important issues and make a difference in the world. Their work needs to be published, and this means also the need to raise funds to be able to do that work. We arent a business that buys and sells and advertises, but we are constrained by our ability to sell ideasthe value of these ideasabout our research and how it impacts the public, public health and conservation, as well as to conserve species. These require access to very limited funds for which we compete.

You need to publish those findings and raise money. Youre constantly trying to raise funds to do the work. Youre constantly trying to show the impact of the work that youre doing and get the word out to the public. Youre doing this work for the public, for public health, or for conservationto conserve species.

After 2004 and up to the present, we tried very hard to warn authorities about the dangers from these pathogens and their emergence through our connection with the wildlife, the wildlife trade and their introduction in dense populations like in Wuhan. The key reason why we need to do this work is that these viruses are going to emerge again. That is the fundamental message throughout all our research is that we repeatedly found evidence that these things can infect human cells, can infect humanized mice, are able to cause some sickness in humanized mice, and are in bats all around China and other countries bordering the countryacross most of Southeast Asiawhere people are in intimate contact with bats and the viruses they harbor.

We are fundamentally connected to that community through travel and trade, which is continuing, and the tariffs arent going to stop this. Our globalized world will drive the emergence of these diseases. We shouted this loudly from the rafters to anyone who was willing to listen. And I think what went wrong is that the stakeholderspoliticians and the financial communitywerent interested.

Preemptive protection is always harder. For instance, think about your car maintenance. If you do it well, nothing happens to it. But you still must pay for it. The essence of what we do in public health is to say, Weve got to prevent these problems because if we wait for them to happen, the cost is way too expensive. Lets spend the money now to prevent it and if we prevent it successfully, nothing horrible happens to people. But the public doesnt see these successes.

From a public relations perspective, the media may be interested in stories about bats and scary viruses. But the work of science is meticulous. It takes a long time, and each step is incremental and sometimes that doesnt translate into the publics interest, and these arent brought out into general discussion within the media or part of the education curriculum in schools.

The other factor is that the wildlife trade is deeply tied to peoples livelihoods across the globe. Whole lifestyles and cultures are tied to the wildlife trade. In China, the wildlife farming industry generates about US$75 billion annually and employs somewhere around 14 million people. Now, once the 2003 SARS outbreak in Fujian and Guangdong occurred, the authorities shut the big markets where the first cases appeared. But then they opened them again because the demand for that food was so high.

Same thing happened during the initial outbreak with COVID-19. China took an unprecedented step which I found remarkable. On February 24, 2020, they announced that they were going to close all wildlife farms and markets in China. I didnt think it was possible; I thought there was no way theyd go through with it. But we do know they closed a lot of farms. We know that they issued directions on how to safely cull animals and dispose of the carcasses. We know they gave compensation to farmers, which is what you would need to do, and trained them to do other activities and other industries.

I dont know what the current situation is, but if we are serious about dealing with pandemics, we are going to need to listen to scientists and heed their warnings. We must confront the fundamental risk like our globalized network of trade and travel, unprecedented deforestation, and not just the legal and illegal wildlife trade, if were going to make any headway on this question. Closing labs and stopping research is going to have the opposite effect.

One last point on this. There was a horrible racist backlash against Chinese people early on in the pandemic, with people commenting on things like eating bat soups and this general idea that people in China do weird things, and its disgusting. We are all involved in the wildlife trade. We eat fish; we eat lobster; we eat crab. People hunt deer in the US and eat it. This is eating and consuming wildlife, and there are disease risks associated with all those things.

A fur shop in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2019

Additionally, one of the big drivers of the industrialization of the wildlife farms in China was the international fur trade for fashion, which is estimated at $40 billion annually, and thats a predominantly European and North American industry for the wealthy around the world. The only reason is that they flaunt their wealth to show they can afford these rare items. I dont know why we still do this. Its a huge risk for our own health because those fur farms are the ones that stayed open in China because the export industry was so lucrative. And that is the export industry to us; we are the consumers that are driving this.

It is not only damaging for health but also for conservation. We are all part of this, and we can do something to stop it.

Read Part 2 of this interview here and Part 3 here.
May 17 Jacobin article [Photo: Jacobin]

On May 17, Jacobin magazine reposted an article from Labor Notes titled UFCW Members Didnt Get to Pick Their New President. The article, written by Lisa Xu, addresses the anti-democratic manner in which the United Food and Commercial Workers new president, Milton Jones, was selected by the executive board behind the backs of 1.3 million rank-and-file members.

The article begins by noting that outgoing president Marc Perrone announced his retirement earlier this month and that the same day, the union announced his successor, chosen in a special meeting of the international executive board. Though international presidents are supposed to be elected by delegates to the unions convention, the article explains, Jones is the fourth president in a row who has been chosen between conventions by the international executive board. The executive board consists of 55 leading bureaucrats, at least 36 of whom have salaries over $200,000 a yearpaid by workers dues money.

The Jacobin/Labor Notes article stops short of criticizing incoming president Milton Jones, instead noting that he is the unions first African American president and describing him as a UFCW member for forty-five years who started as a teenage courtesy clerk at a Kroger grocery store in Alabama.

Be that as it may, Jones left the shop floor long ago and ascended the ranks of the unions massive bureaucracy. In 1990, he joined UFCW staff, winning promotion to a series of well-paid positions, including International Representative, Executive Assistant to the Director of Region 2, Executive Assistant to the International Bargaining Director, Director of Region 5, International Vice President, National Bargaining Director, Executive Vice President and International Secretary-Treasurer.

According to public data from the Labor Department, he has been paid $4,631,249 in workers dues money since 2000 alone. In the last five years, he has taken home between $243,000 and $272,000 per year. Unlike most rank-and-file UFCW members, Jones is now due for another big pay raise. Outgoing president Perrone made $335,000 in 2024, and hasnt had a salary under $275,000/year since 2007. Perrone has accumulated a staggering $6,233,983 in less than 20 years in the UFCW bureaucracy. It would take a grocery store employee with a $40,000/year salary a full 155 years to make as much money as Perrone.

Lisa Xus article makes no reference to these figures and instead promotes another figure from the bureaucracy, Todd Crosby, as the democratic alternative. Xu writes that Crosby called for the UFCW to invest more in organizing and put rank-and-file members on bargaining teams. Crosby currently occupies the post of Assistant to the President and netted $178,147 in 2024. Crosby has made $2,996,761 since joining the UFCW apparatus in 2002.

Jacobin and Labor Notes speak not as opponents of the bureaucracy and representatives of the rank and file. They represent a faction of the bureaucracy who are concerned that the nakedly anti-democratic character of leadership selection may produce a rank-and-file rebellion that threatens the bureaucracys massive accumulation of wealth.

This is shown most nakedly by the articles juxtaposition of the undemocratic union election process in the UFCW and the exemplary model of  the UAW!

Xu, a former local staffer for UAW Local 5118, writes that reformers from the United Auto Workers met with a reform faction of the UFCW to discuss how one member, one vote had helped push the UAW in a more fighting direction. This, Xu writes, is an example of union democracy.

Xu does not mention that the UAW bureaucracy did not decide to hold elections as an act of democratic good faith, it was forced to hold elections by a federal judge because of rampant corruption within the apparatus, which saw several past presidents convicted to jail terms. And the election the UAW ultimately held in 2022 was not a shining example of union democracy, it was conducted as an internal campaign within competing factions of the bureaucracy and involved massive voter suppression.

In fact, each statement Labor Notes/Jacobins article makes to attack the UFCWs anti-democratic self-selection process for determining leadership applies equally to the present leadership of the UAW and president Shawn Fain.

Xu notes that in the UFCW, most UFCW members were unaware they were about to get a new president. The same applies to the UAW election in 2022. Out of 1.1 million eligible voters, only 104,776 cast ballots while roughly 1,000,000 did not. This turnout9 percentwas the lowest turnout of any national union election in US history. The UAW apparatus relied on the Local Union Information System (LUIS) to provide notice of the election, a system that was historically used only for communication between national and local officials, in an attempt to prevent workers from learning that an election was taking place.

UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman speaks with striking adjunct professors at The New School in November 2022

According to a survey conducted by rank-and-file socialist candidate Will Lehman, vast majorities of workers never received notice that an election was taking place either via email, phone, workplace poster or physical mailer.

According to an audit of local social media pages, only 7.2 percent of locals advertised the election on their website and only 7.7 percent made any request that members update their addresses to receive a ballot. Only 11.5 percent of locals made any reference to the election on public local Facebook pages, and only 8.1 percent made any reference to updating addresses.

In the article by Xu, Jacobin and Labor Notes refer to the fact that two UFCW activists filed a lawsuit in 2024 asserting that the UFCWs election process violates the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The lawsuit argues that many UFCW locals provide only the barest reference, often buried in small print in union magazines, not calculated to make members aware that such elections are being held or that they have the right to nominate themselves or others as delegated.

The lawsuit appears significant, but this reference makes it all the more revealing that neither Jacobin nor Labor Notes reported once on the multiple lawsuits brought by Lehman challenging similar disenfranchisement efforts by the UAW bureaucracy, of which Jacobin and Labor Notes form a critical component. Both publications routinely cheerlead Fain and his faction of the UAW bureaucracy, which came to power through the fraudulent 2022 election.

Neither publication mentioned the fact that Lehman defeated the Biden administrations Labor Department in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2024, when a federal judge deemed that the Departments effort to dismiss Lehmans complaint on timeliness grounds was irrational and arbitrary and capricious. The court ordered the Labor Department to address the merits of Lehmans arguments about massive voter suppression. In the interim months, the Labor Department has simply refused to abide by the Courts order.

Jacobin and Labor Notes effort to prop-up one bureaucratic apparatus (UAW) by criticizing another (UFCW) has led them into an absurd position. The rank-and-file strategy advocated by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) is of a totally different character than the bureaucratic infighting of the pseudo-left. In contrast to dead-end efforts to reform the bureaucracy, it is necessary instead to abolish the bureaucracy and transfer power to the rank-and-file workers on the shop floor, both in the UFCW, UAW and beyond.
Venezuelan migrants gather near a bridge that crosses the Rio Grande River after being driven out from the United States, into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, October 18, 2022. [AP Photo/Christian Chavez]

On Monday the US Supreme Court permitted the Trump administration to revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants, permitting their immediate deportation.

In doing so, the Court reversed a San Francisco district judges order to block Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noems orders from March of this year to remove TPS status for Venezuelans.

TPS is intended to guarantee the prevention of deportation of immigrants to specific countries, particularly if those countries are facing humanitarian or environmental crises, such as a natural disaster, war or armed conflict. The Trump administration is also expected to revoke TPS protection for tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants. The revoking of TPS status is equivalent to a death warrant for migrants seeking asylum and protection from disasters, gang violence, crippling poverty, political persecution and war.

The National TPS Alliance and eleven Venezuelan immigrants filed suit challenging the federal governments unprecedented action. Ahilan Arulanantham, a University of California law professor who represents TPS holders in the case, told Reuters, This is the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern US history. That the Supreme Court authorized it in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking.

The humanitarian and economic impact of the Courts decision will be felt immediately, and will reverberate for generations, Arulanantham added.

Due to the emergency appeal by the Trump administration, the Supreme Court did not provide a reasoning for the ruling in their short response granting the stay of the order. Significantly, the order only noted the dissent of a single judge, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

TPS holder and mother of two Maria Rodriguez, 33, who lives in Orlando, Florida, told Reuters, Were defenseless, vulnerable, adding, We left Venezuela because we couldnt make ends meet there. There was no work. ... We have no family left in Venezuela. Its a true drama.

The Trump administration is escalating the detention and disappearance of immigrants, visa holders, asylum seekers, green card holders, and even US citizens, promising to deport some one million people this year alone. In order to meet these vast figures, top policy adviser Stephen Miller made clear that the administration intends to defy Supreme Court rulings and use the National Guard to carry out mass deportations.

The Trump administration has brazenly defied a federal judges orders to deport Venezuelans to El Salvadors prison camp run by the fascistic government of President Nayib Bukele. Venezuelans are the largest group of non-Salvadoran immigrants who have been deported to the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT) torture camp. According to the latest figures from April, of at least 278 people transferred to CECOT, 245 immigrants were Venezuelan and 33 were Salvadoran.

Miller noted that the administration would have to enroll state and local law enforcement nationwide in assisting in supporting the deportation effort. Miller referenced the 287(g) program, a provision added to the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1996, which grants the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the ability to deputize state and local law enforcement to carry out immigration raids.

While the move is entirely in line with the increasingly brutal attack on immigrants by the Trump Administration, the focus on Venezuelans is part of Washingtons geostrategic interests in Latin America, aimed at putting greater pressure on nations such as Venezuela with close economic ties to China, as part of the drive to war with Beijing.

According to a White House directive from last month, any country that produces or buys Venezuelan oil directly or through third parties will face 25 percent tariffs on all goods imported into the United States. The tariff war against China and Venezuela is directly bound up with the threat of military aggression.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted in March on X: Any country that allows its companies to produce, extract, or export from Venezuela will be subject to new tariffs, and any companies will be subject to sanctions.

China is currently the largest purchaser of Venezuelan oil. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson responded that, We urge the United States to cease its interference in Venezuelas internal affairs and to abolish the unlawful unilateral sanctions on the country.

Due to the economic and energy reliance on China by Venezuela, as the WSWS explained, The stated aim of the order is to sever the financial lifelines to the government of President Nicolas Maduro to provoke its downfall.

Washington has long sought to promote regime change in Venezuela, efforts which are supported by both the Democratic and Republican parties in an attempt to sever ties between Caracas and Beijing. In the months leading up to Bidens departure from the White House, his administration strategized for regime change and the ousting of Nicolas Maduro, a campaign which has only intensified under Trump.

The vindictive orders against hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants are intended, in part, to destabilize the country, which the Trump administration hopes will bolster far-right forces in Venezuela with close ties to Washington.

This includes Maria Corina Machado, among the far-right Venezuelan opposition forces. Rubio named Machado as his selection for Time Magazines 2025, 100 Most Influential People of the year.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens argued in a January 2025 column titled, Depose Maduro, for a US military intervention of the sort that in 1990 swiftly ended the regime of the Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, claiming that American troops withdrew swiftly, and Panama has been a democracy ever since.

In that piece Stephens hailed Trumps selection of Rubio for Secretary of State. Rubio has long called for a military invasion to oust Maduro, with Stephens noting, Ending Maduros long reign of terror is a good way to start their administrationand send a signal to tyrants elsewhere that American patience with disorder and danger eventually runs out.

Washington is both creating and worsening the current humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, which the deepening sanctions and tariffs will only exacerbate. Nearly one third of the population, or seven million Venezuelans, have already fled the country, and tens of thousands have died due to the social crisis, caused primarily by continued US sanctions.

The Democratic Party will do nothing to stop the brutal attacks on immigrants, with which it fundamentally agrees. The Democrats have already overwhelmingly supported Trumps funding bill, which gives a green light to unprecedented cuts through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and unanimously confirmed the appointment of Rubio as Secretary of State with a 990 vote.

Trumps brutal and vindictive attacks against immigrants, including mass deportations, are aimed fundamentally at the working class as a whole. Opposition to the mass targeting of over 350,000 Venezuelans must therefore be part of a wider struggle against capitalism, war, inequalitythe fight for socialism.
Internally displaced people walk along a street in Juba, South Sudan, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. [AP Photo/Brian Inganga]

On Wednesday, District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston, Massachusetts, ruled that the US government violated his previously issued order when the US government began deporting eight men to South Sudan, a country currently in a state of civil war, earlier this week.

In an emergency hearing Wednesday, Judge Murphy said the Trump administration unquestionably was in violation of this courts order. Last month, Murphy instructed the Trump administration not to deport immigrants to countries they are not citizens of without providing at least a 15-day notice for them to challenge their deportation.

Lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admitted in Wednesdays hearing that only one of the eight immigrants currently in Africa was actually from South Sudan. The other seven men, according to DHS, are citizens of Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Burma and Vietnam and had never been to South Sudan.

It appears none of the men was given more than a few hours notice before they were flown out of the country. Not one of them was able to contact lawyers after the notice was given, and it is unclear how many of the men even understood the order. It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan, Murphy explained Wednesday.



According to the New York Times, as of this writing the plane carrying the immigrants is currently in Djibouti. The Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that US military personnel were standing by to assist with securing detainees if needed.

Djibouti is home to Camp Lemonnier, the only permanent US military base on the African continent. The base currently houses over 5,000 US and allied soldiers, contractors and spies. The base serves as a major drone and logistics center and is strategically located next to the Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti City.

South Sudan is currently in a civil war. A March 8 travel advisory from the State Department warns:

Do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict. ... Violent crime, such as carjackings, shootings, ambushes, assaults, robberies, and kidnappings are common throughout South Sudan, including Juba. Foreign nationals have been the victims of rape, sexual assault, armed robberies, and other violent crimes.

If one does decide to travel to South Sudan, the State Department suggests drafting a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney and discussing a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc.



In March, South Sudans First Vice President Riek Machar was arrested by the current President Salva Kiir. Describing Machars imprisonment at his home, the Times reported earlier this month, Armored personnel carriers block the gate of the sprawling compound and security officers wielding AK-47s patrol the perimeter.



In a comment to the Associated Press on Wednesday, South Sudans police spokesperson Maj. Gen. James Monday Enoka said that no immigrants from the United States had arrived in the country yet, and if they did, they would be redeported to their correct country if they were not South Sudanese.

In Wednesdays hearing, Murphy did not order the government to return the immigrants to the US, only that they remain in the custody of the government. He also warned that government agents involved in the illegal deportation could be held in criminal contempt.

This is not the first time Judge Murphy, an appointee of President Joe Biden, has ruled against the Trump administrations deportation efforts.

Earlier this month he issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Department of Homeland Security from expelling immigrants to Libya, another war-torn country. Murphy directed the government to provide immigrants a meaningful opportunity to challenge their deportation, including by citing the risk of torture.

This is also not the first time the Trump administration has flagrantly violated a judges ruling while exiling humans to foreign gulags. In mid-March, the Trump administration violated Judge James Boasbergs orders to stop deporting mostly Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvadors CECOT terrorism prison under the Alien Enemies Act. None of the nearly 300 men sent to El Salvador, including Maryland father and SMART union member, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has been returned to the United States.

Flouting an April Supreme Court order to facilitate Abrego Garcias return, the Trump administration has steadfastly refused to provide daily updates on what, if any measures, the government is taking to comply with the court order.

Abrego Garcia is one of several union members who have been kidnapped and imprisoned by the immigration Gestapo. At a press conference held Monday at the Sea-Tac Airport in Seattle, Washington, family, friends and co-workers demanded the release Maximo Max Londonio, a green card holder, resident of Olympia and member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Local Lodge 695. Londonio was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents while returning with his family from a trip to the Philippines.

Londonio is the lead forklift driver at a facility in Lacey, Washington, where he has worked since 2017. According to Crystal, Maxs wife, he was held at the airport for five days before being transferred to a detention facility.

At Mondays rally, Crystal said:

The lack of accountability by the United States CBP is failing him right now; its failing everybody. Its being taken from everyone that seeks refuge here; that seeks freedom; that seeks equality. Im tired of waiting. I want him home.

None of the major trade unions has proposed strike action in response to the illegal detainment and disappearance of their members. Instead unions like the Teamsters are actively collaborating in Trumps fascist campaign against immigrants.

Following Trumps inauguration in January, Teamsters President Sean OBrien invited fascist Josh Hawley on his podcast for an over hour-long friendly conversation. OBrien presented Hawley, one of Trumps top January 6 coup supporters, as a champion of the working class and backed Hawleys attacks on immigrants.

OBrien said, as Hawley nodded along in agreement:

I think the biggest problem is people are trying to protect illegal aliens that come here and commit crimes and thats unacceptable. The social issues are all well and good, but protecting illegal immigrants that come into our country to commit crimes and steal jobs, thats a tough pill to swallow.

In an attempt to increase the number of deportations, immigration agents have begun arresting people after they appear in court hearings and immigration appointments. On Monday, reporters for the Miami Herald witnessed at least 10 plainclothes ICE agents stalking the hallways of Miamis immigration courthouse for hours as they arrested at least four unsuspecting men as they walked out of courtrooms on Wednesday.

Prior to each arrest, the Herald reported that DHS attorneys in court would drop their deportation cases against the immigrants, preventing them from presenting their asylum claims. After the case was dropped, agents surrounded and arrested the men and placed them in expedited removal proceedingsan administrative process that doesnt require a judge and that the government uses to quickly deport peopleif they have a pending case in court.

Reports of immigration agents stalking courts to arrest people lawfully showing up at their appointed times were also reported in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City and Phoenix.

As of May 2025, over 49,000 people are imprisoned in ICE facilities across the United States. One of them continues to be Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident and Columbia graduate student, who has been imprisoned in Jena, Louisiana, for over two and a half months for the thought crime of objecting to the US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Khalils lawyers at the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) released a statement confirming the US government has denied multiple requests to permit Khalil to have a contact visit between him and his family, which includes his US citizen wife and newborn son. Recently Khalils wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, traveled over 1,400 miles from New York to Louisiana, with their newborn child, in the hope that Khalil could hold his son for the first time.

This request was denied. Facility administrators said Khalil could see his son behind protective glass.

I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just, said Abdalla. She said:
HBO Maxs medical drama The Pitt has struck a chord with both healthcare workers and general audiences. One of the platforms five most-watched debuts, it has already been renewed for a second season and widely discussed on TikTok and other social media.

The Pitt

The show was created by R. Scott Gemmill and executive produced by John Wells and Noah Wyle, among others, all of whom previously worked on ER, another medical drama that aired from 1994 to 2009. Unlike its predecessor, however, The Pitt from the start aims to convey and denounce the real conditions health workers face in the US.

Lead actor and co-producer Noah Wyle explained in an interview:

Our initial intention was to put a spotlight on this community of frontline workers who have worked tirelessly for the last 5 years without a break since Covid. Were really focusing on the toll that it has taken on the practitioners and the workers.

The genre of hospital dramas typically suffers from escapist tendencies, featuring godlike physicians who manage to save the day against all odds, romantic intrigues, rare mystery diseases and satisfying emotional resolutions in the closed-off, alternate reality of a hospital, where other laws exist and society and politics feel distant. Despite dialogue that leans toward the quippy and occasionally implausible, The Pitt feels real not just in medical terms (visual effects, accuracy of procedures and jargon), but because it reveals a crisis-ridden society in which individuals, despite their best efforts at addressing each major challenge, come up against a system that places private profit over livescapitalism.

Wells explained that one of the major reasons to make the show was to discuss the trauma from the Covid 19 pandemic:

We are in a stage in which everyones trying to forget the pandemic, because it was a strange, surreal, horrible experience for everybody, with tremendous ramifications on the economy and other things, but for the people who were there, who were having patients die left and right, who are risking their lives, who had their co-workers dying, that trauma and PTSD remains. There are lots of reasons for the nursing shortage, which is severe, but the biggest reason is that so many people left. They were just exhausted, burned out, had PTSD, died, had illnesses from dealing with this tragedy that we had for months and months and months.

The series follows senior attending physician Dr. Michael Robby Robinavitch (Wyle) and his team at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospitals emergency room, referred to as The Pitt. Each episode chronicles one hour of a 15-hour shift in the understaffed and underfunded ER. We learn in the first episode that Robby is still dealing with grief and PTSD from the loss of his mentor and colleague during the early days of the pandemic. When he arrives to start his shift at 7 am, he finds his colleague Dr. Jack Abbot (Shawn Hatosy) on the rooftop, contemplating suicide after having failed to revive a patient. This is apparently a frequent occurrence, as they both joke about it and Robby finds himself in Abbots position in the final episode.

The show is filmed with handheld cameras, which gives it a documentary feel. We follow a patients journey across multiple levels of care (triage, diagnostics, treatment) and multiple handovers between nurses, residents and attending physicians. We witness the full decision-making process under pressure, including the moments when staff rush to use the restroom, wolf down a sandwich or have an emotional breakdown mid-shift.

The cause of the crowded waiting room, the lack of time and resources are explained right at the beginning in a confrontation between Robby and hospital administrator, Gloria Underwood (Charlene Michael Hyatt). A key issue is boarders, i.e., patients stuck in the ER while waiting for beds elsewhere. While Gloria claims there are no beds, Robby argues the beds exist, but the hospital will not hire enough staff to make them available. The hospital only staffs beds when there is guaranteed revenue and relies on predictive models to estimate when beds will be needed. The ER becomes a buffer zone, absorbing the backlog to avoid staffing unused beds. Gloria attempts to blame the issue on staff shortages around the country and Robby retorts that if they were paid a living wage, there would be no shortage.

Noah Wyle in The Pitt

One scene that particularly resonates is the passing of Mr. Spencer (Madison Mason), an elderly man brought in by his adult children. Spencer suffers from dementia, pneumonia and sepsis. Dr. Robby steers his children away from pursuing further treatment as it goes against the patients own wishes and would likely only cause further pain. He helps the family through the dying process with great sensitivity while juggling other patients. In the aftermath of a pandemic that robbed millions of dignified goodbyes, Mr. Spencers death shows the heavy emotional toll it exacts, even under comparatively comfortable conditions. It stands as an indictment of the forever COVID-policies of both the Biden and Trump administrations and their treatment of the elderly as expendable.

In addition to highlighting the self-sacrifice of healthcare workers and affirming the value of human life, The Pitt includes moments where the showrunners seek to educate viewers and challenge fear-mongering and disinformation.

In one episode, a child is rushed to the ER with a measles-related brain infection, and the staff quickly realize he was never vaccinated. Dr. Robby becomes increasingly frustrated with the parents who have been misinformed and are putting their sons life in danger by delaying care. In another scene resident physician Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden)who is neurodivergent and cares for her autistic sisterdirectly addresses a patients claim that vaccines cause autism.

Finally, there is the instructive moment when two women are brought in after having a physical fight in the waiting room. After determining that one woman who opposes wearing a mask needs surgery, Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) declares: Well, those of us who save lives for a living believe strongly that masks minimize risk when it comes to spreading disease and infection. But I want to respect your beliefs so what do you think? With or without for surgery? Without? The patient reconsiders.

The series clearly reveals the explosive social climate in the US. Hospital staff are regularly assaulted and the final episodes revolve around a mass shooting at a music festival.

One weakness of The Pitt is that while it portrays the hospital workers as hostile towards management there are no indications of resistance. The most combative moment is when one worker threatens Gloria to talk to our union rep after a colleague is attacked while on shift.

If the mission of The Pitt is to put a realistic spotlight on hospital workers, then its creators might consider, in a second season, dealing not only with the workers suffering but also their struggles. One website records over 100 strikes by nurses alone in the US over the course of the past five years (www.nursetogether.com/nurse-strikes/ ). The current series was shot and filmed during the Biden administration and demonstrates in dramatic fashion the responsibility not only of the Democratic Party, but also the trade unions, for the neglect and decline of the countrys health system.

Meanwhile the crisis in American hospitals has only been compounded by the measures introduced by the anti-science quacks appointed by the Trump administration to run down public health and the Medicaid system. In the space of just a few months, there has been a systematic dismantling of the infrastructure of public health and scientific research in the US. Over 20,000 scientists and public health workers have been purged, entire branches of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health defunded, and access to scientific data erased from public view. Programs tracking chronic illness and pandemic response are being destroyed, while gag orders silence those who tried to warn the public.

There is more than enough material for a second season of The Pitt.
South Korea is holding a presidential election June 3 to replace former president Yoon Suk-yeol, who was removed from office for imposing martial law in a failed coup attempt in December. The Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung has capitalized on widespread anger towards Yoon and his People Power Party (PPP) to emerge as the strong frontrunner in the contest.

Lee Jae-myung, South Korea's Democratic Party leader, April 10, 2024 in Seoul [AP Photo/Chung Sung-Jun]

The DP and PPP are the two primary parties of big business in South Korea. The latter is a right-wing party historically associated with the military and past dictatorships. Its candidate is Kim Moon-soo, who served in Yoons cabinet as labor minister and for months refused to distance himself from the failed martial law declaration.

The Democrats falsely posture as liberal and progressive. Under this guise, Lee signals to the ruling class that he is best able to prevent an explosion of working-class anger at a time of growing tensions internationally, driven above all by the coming to power of the fascist Trump regime in the United States.

Lee unsuccessfully sought the presidency in 2017, losing in the DP primary to Moon Jae-in. As the Democrat candidate in 2022, he narrowly lost the election to Yoon. After this, Lee won a seat in the National Assembly and became leader of his party.

Lee began his career as a human rights and labor lawyer before joining the Uri Party in 2005, a faction of the Democratic bloc led by then-President Noh Moo-hyun. Lee became mayor of Seongnam, a city just south of Seoul, from 2010 to 2018; and then governor of Gyeonggi Province from 2018 to 2021.

Lee has served as a phony left face for the Democratic Party, promising to implement welfare measures for the working class and to break up the family-owned conglomerates in South Koreaknown as chaebollike Samsung and Hyundai Motors. Lee stated in 2016 he wanted to be a successful Bernie Sanders, comparing himself to the United States senator.

Like Sanders, Lee was never serious about what were milquetoast reforms to begin with. His goal was to convince workers and youth that a progressive wing existed within the capitalist Democratic Party, preventing them from breaking with the DP.

Lee uses his personal history to further the notion he will respect labor and understands the working class. He comes from a poor background and began working in factories at the age of 12, which led to injuries and permanent disabilities. Lee no doubt grew up in difficult circumstances, but this does not make him a champion of the working class.

With his rise in the party and his presidential campaign in 2022, Lee curtailed his phony progressive rhetoric and made clear that he represented no threat to the ruling elite. That year, Lee pledged to deregulate the economy in line with the demands of big business. His campaign this time is no different.

On May 8, Lee attended a meeting with major business lobbies that included the Federation of Korean Industries and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He reassured them that he would allow major corporations to set his economic agenda, saying, [A]t the center of the economic recovery are businesses. If you present a path for growth and development, I will actively embrace it and work to turn it into better policies and put them into action.

Lee has also been holding meetings with leading officials from major companies including Samsung, Hyundai, SK and LG. In February, Lee declared while visiting a Hyundai Motors factory, The growth of a corporation is ultimately everything for a country.

Lee has also made clear he backs the US-led war drive against China. He stated in April in relation to Seouls military alliances, Realistically speaking, the South Korea-US alliance is important, and South Korea, US, Japan cooperation is important. Within that, the consistent principle is that the national interest of the Republic of Korea is the top priority. Earlier this month, Lee dispatched a team to Washington to reassure Trump that his election would not harm these alliances.

At the same time, Lee has continued to make empty populist pledges, such as implementing a 4.5-day workweek, from which he has already begun to retreat. After receiving corporate criticism over this proposal, Lee stated at his May 8 meeting with the business lobbies, Are you worried itd be implemented abruptly? Theres no way I can do that.

Lee presents himself as the candidate who will end the danger of a revival of the insurrection started by Yoon Suk-yeol in league with sections of the military.

In reality, the Democratic Party, with the aid of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), demobilized the mass protests of millions against Yoon in December. The DPs goal was to stabilize the political situation by preventing the development of a movement of the working class that put forward class demands that went beyond the removal of Yoon and threatened bourgeois rule.

The Korea Enterprises Federation (KEF) directly appealed to the Democrats and labor unions on December 14 to end the protests, shortly after two million people demonstrated outside the National Assembly to demand Yoons impeachment. We also ask the labor community, as a responsible economic player in our society, to lend its support to efforts to stabilize society and overcome the economic crisis, the KEF stated.

Lee and the DP responded by presenting Yoons initial suspension from office as a great victory for democracy, all but ensuring his removal from office in an impeachment trial, though this was not clear. Protests were rolled back and those that did take place were devoid of political content, turned into little more than music concerts. The KCTU, with Lees intervention, shut down strikes.

Lee has also made appeals to past democracy movements to cover up his agenda. During a campaign speech in Busan on May 14, Lee declared, Is not Busan democracys sacred ground? Isnt this the political hometown of Kim Young-sam, that fighter for democracy? Squarely judge (the PPP) this time as well.

Lees invocation of the conservative Kim Young-sam, who was president from 1993 to 1998, is telling. During the 1970s and 1980s, Kim was one of the leaders of the Democratic bloc, which called for moderate political reforms. In 1987, facing strikes and mass protests, the dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan and Noh Tae-woo agreed to direct elections for president. The Democrats were elevated into new positions of power and incorporated into the political establishment.

Kim quickly moved further to the right, founding a new party, the Democratic Liberal Party (later named the New Korea Party and forerunner of the PPP), along with Noh and Kim Jong-pil. The latters resume of political repression included being the first head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency under dictator Park Chung-hee and then in the 1970s as Parks prime minister.

The Democrats as a whole embraced the former dictatorial regime, allowing these forces to remain in political power with a facade of democratization.

During his presidency, Kim Young-sam oversaw the imposition of new anti-labor legislation and the suppression of the largest strike wave in the countrys history that began in December 1996. Democrats Kim Dae-jung, president from 1998 to 2003, and Noh Moo-hyun, in office from 2003 to 2008, similarly pushed through widespread corporate restructuring that included mass layoffs and the casualization of the work force.

It was this Democratic Party to which Lee Jae-myung was drawn and rose to lead, whatever his childhood background or history as a labor lawyer. Neither he nor any section of the Democrats support the working class. If elected, he will impose austerity and pro-war measures in line with the demands of the ruling class.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The criminal case against the perpetrator of the attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran was handled with utmost attention and seriousness throughout both the investigation and trial process, said Hojatollah Rajabi, an attorney representing the Azerbaijani Embassy in Iran, in an exclusive interview with Trend.

A deeply tragic incident occurred on January 27, 2023, when Yasin Huseynzadeh carried out an armed attack on the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran. During his initial interrogation, Huseynzadeh admitted to committing the crime while being of sound mind, the legal representative said regarding the case.

Rajabi noted that on January 28, 2024, Tehran Criminal Court No. 1 issued a preliminary verdict on three charges against the defendant: the premeditated murder of a Muslim, illegal acquisition and possession of firearms (including a Kalashnikov assault rifle and a Colt pistol), and disturbing public order.

A five-member expert committee at the Supreme Court of Iran was assigned to review the case. The committee confirmed that Huseynzadeh had no mental health issues and was fully aware of his actions at the time of the attack. Consequently, on December 22, 2024, Branch 4 of the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence, the attorney explained.

Rajabi emphasized that, given the sensitivity of the incident and the public concern it caused both in Azerbaijan and among its citizens, the investigation was conducted with great care and transparency. He added that the Iranian judicial system cooperated fully with the legal representatives of the Azerbaijani side, granting them access to case materials and allowing them to closely monitor proceedings.

It was decided by the family of the late Orkhan Asgarov that the death sentence would be carried out at the 4th Department of the 27th Prosecutors Office in Tehran, Rajabi said.

In line with Irans penal code, the victims family is required to submit a written statement either consenting to or opposing the execution. Accordingly, a letter was sent by the father, mother, brother, wife, and children of Orkhan Asgarov, prepared under Azerbaijani law and appended to the criminal case file.

As a result, the case was formally sent to court on April 13, 2025, following the necessary authorization from the judiciarys leadership, Rajabi stated.

According to Iranian law, the victims family, either personally or through legal representatives, must be present at the execution of the sentence. However, due to certain circumstances, the deceaseds father, Rizvan Asgarov, was unable to attend. Although the execution was initially scheduled for April 25, 2025, it was postponed due to various complications.

Ultimately, the death sentence was carried out before sunrise on May 21, 2025, in Iran, at around 05:00 local time, Rajabi confirmed.

A terrorist attack was carried out against the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran on January 27, 2023. One embassy staff member was killed in the attack, and two others were injured.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary have elevated to the level of strategic partnership in recent years, driven by mutual trust and personal rapport between President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and both countries consistently support one another not only in their bilateral relations but also across international organizations and multilateral forums, Azerbaijani political analyst Azer Garayev told Trend.

"Political ties between Azerbaijan and Hungary are currently at a very high level. The consistent dialogue and reciprocal visits between President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Viktor Orban are key to this development. The presidents recent visit to Budapest on May 20 and the meetings held there clearly demonstrate the strength of this relationship.

During a joint press statement, Prime Minister Orban referred to President Ilham Aliyev as 'A friend is known in difficult times, and for more than 20 years, President Aliyev has always stood by our side during any difficulty Hungary has faced in any field  whether diplomacy, the oil and gas industry, or other areas.'

In response, President Ilham Aliyev emphasized the deep-rooted friendship and strategic partnership between the countries, adding, 'During today's negotiations and the meeting in a limited format, we once again saw that our positions on many issues coincide. When we observe the developments taking place in the changing world today, there is still no major difference in our positions. There are many similarities between Azerbaijan and Hungary,'" Garayev said.

The political scientist noted that this mutual understanding reflects the value both nations place on their bilateral relationship. Hungary has repeatedly supported Azerbaijan in international organizations, particularly within the European Union and the European Parliament, where it has vetoed biased resolutions against Baku.

Budapest has consistently expressed unambiguous support for Azerbaijans sovereignty and territorial integrity. Azerbaijan, in turn, has backed Hungarys international initiatives and acted in solidarity, he said.

Garayev noted that economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary continues to advance steadily, following a clear upward trajectory.

"Strategic collaboration has been particularly strong in the energy sector. Hungary was among the first European countries to begin importing natural gas from Azerbaijan  a development that underscores Bakus growing importance in strengthening Europes energy security. Within the framework of Azerbaijans Green Energy strategy, new opportunities for cooperation with Hungarian companies are emerging.

Negotiations are ongoing between the two countries on a range of joint projects spanning industry, agriculture, information technology, pharmaceuticals, and transportation. The Hungarian market holds strong appeal for Azerbaijani private enterprises, just as Hungarian investors are demonstrating increasing interest in Azerbaijans economy," he said.

Garayev also highlighted Hungarys involvement in the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), where it has held observer status since twenty eighteen, and noted the close cooperation between Baku and Budapest within the framework of this platform.

Hungarys active engagement in the OTS reflects its intention to elevate ties with Turkic-speaking nations to a strategic level. Azerbaijan values Hungarys role in this organization and has consistently supported its efforts. The convening of the second informal summit today at Hungarys initiative further affirms the importance Budapest places on its relationship with the Turkic world.

As President Ilham Aliyev stated, 'This once again shows that Hungary is very attached to its historical roots', he noted.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), held on May 21 in Budapest, was more than just another gathering of leaders. It marked a turning point - confirming that the OTS is entering a new phase, with Azerbaijan at the forefront of this transformation.

In his speech at the summit, President Ilham Aliyev clearly laid out Bakus priorities within the organization - foremost among them: deeper economic integration, stronger transport connectivity, and the creation of a unified infrastructure framework.

The Budapest Declaration, adopted at the summit, offers a practical roadmap for member states: trade facilitation, streamlined customs procedures, and the development of Trans-Caspian routes. These arent just lofty goals - they reflect years of systematic effort, much of it driven by Azerbaijan.

Over the past several years, Azerbaijan has made significant investments in transportation infrastructure - building and upgrading roads, railways, the Port of Alat, a shipbuilding plant, and airports.

These efforts are already delivering results. As President Ilham Aliyev noted in Budapest, despite being a landlocked country, Azerbaijan has become one of the transport and logistics hubs in Eurasia. "Our cooperation with the Turkic states in the transport sector is enhancing," he said, highlighting that in 2024 alone, 11 million tons of cargo from Turkiye and Central Asia passed through Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan continues to build the infrastructure that positions it as a vital link on the Eurasian map. Its rapidly developing aviation sector is another sign of this strategic approach - with eight international airports already in operation and a ninth nearing completion.

Ten new vessels are currently under construction at the Baku Shipyard, and the countrys Caspian fleet already numbers more than 50 commercial ships. Alat is fast becoming the regions maritime gateway - soon, its capacity will grow from 15 to 25 million tons. Meanwhile, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway - a core route of the Middle Corridor - is now capable of transporting up to 5 million tons annually thanks to Azerbaijani investments.

All of this fits into a broader vision: to transform the Middle Corridor from a simple trade route into a high-tech artery for the Turkic world - featuring digital platforms, faster documentation, and seamless logistics. "Work is underway on a project for a single digital platform to streamline transport operations and trade between the Caspian ports," President Ilham Aliyev noted.

Energy also featured prominently at the summit. Kazakhstans President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev emphasized the need to diversify supply chains for oil, gas, and uranium - and thanked President Ilham Aliyev for supporting Astanas efforts in this area.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban echoed these sentiments: "I would like to thank President of Azerbaijan for the fact that last year Hungary received Azerbaijani gas for the first time. Were also grateful that major Hungarian companies have been given the chance to join energy projects in Azerbaijan".

Today, Azerbaijan exports natural gas to 12 countries - 10 of them in Europe, including 8 EU members. The European Commission has called Azerbaijan a reliable partner and a supplier of strategic importance. The countrys growing export footprint speaks volumes - Baku is solidifying its place as a global energy player.

Azerbaijan is not only strengthening ties within the OTS - its doing so strategically, through investments, joint ventures, and economic partnerships. The total value of Azerbaijani investments in fellow OTS economies now exceeds $20 billion.

This year, the Turkic Investment Fund is expected to launch - a potentially game-changing financial mechanism for the region. Azerbaijan is set to play a leading role here too, acting as a catalyst for initiatives that turn political declarations into real-world projects.

Azerbaijan is also preparing to host the upcoming official OTS summit - an event thats attracting significant attention. It may be in Baku that a strategic partnership agreement among Turkic states is signed - a proposal put forward by Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who said: "Signing this agreement in Baku would mark an important step toward strengthening the unity of the Turkic world".

For Azerbaijan, the summit is another chance to show that it is not just a member of the OTS, but one of its key architects.

The Budapest summit also underscored the significance of Hungary - both as an OTS observer and an EU member. Hungary is emerging as a bridge between Brussels and Baku, between the European Union and the Turkic world.

"If we relied solely on Europes economic potential, without taking into account the opportunities presented by the OTS, the Hungarian economy would be in serious trouble," Orban said at the summits opening. His remarks speak volumes about the OTSs growing relevance - and the central role Azerbaijan plays in connecting East and West.

Azerbaijan isnt just strengthening bilateral relations with fellow Turkic states. Its shaping a new regional architecture - grounded in its own energy resources, transportation links, digital solutions, and financial institutions.

It is this ambitious, long-term vision that makes Azerbaijan not only a critical member of the OTS, but a driving force behind its emergence as a global power.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has approved a significant allocation for the restoration of the Momine Khatun Mausoleum, a key historical and architectural landmark in the city of Nakhchivan, Trend reports.

The decree directs the allocation of 1 million manat ($588,200) from the Presidential Reserve Fund to the Cabinet of Ministers of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic to support initial conservation and restoration efforts at the mausoleum.

Situated in Nakhchivan, the Momine Khatun Mausoleum stands as a pivotal historical and cultural edifice, esteemed as a quintessential representation of Azerbaijans architectural heritage and a paragon of Eastern architectural excellence. Crafted by the illustrious 12th-century Azerbaijani architect Ajami Nakhchivani, this exceptional and monumental artifact is lauded for its intricate composition, unparalleled perfection, and refined elegance, securing its status among the preeminent masterpieces of the Islamic realm.



The mausoleums exceptional aesthetic serves as a striking embodiment of the sophisticated cultural paradigms and statecraft conventions that prevailed in Azerbaijan during that historical epoch. The Momine Khatun Mausoleum has attained formal designation as a globally significant cultural asset, safeguarded at the governmental tier as an integral component of Azerbaijans national heritage portfolio.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Joining Omegas ranks as the brands newest ambassador, this British actor instantly becomes a frontrunner to succeed Daniel Craig as 007.

aaron taylor-johnson at omega headquarters

Omega introduced its newest brand ambassador on May 22, and the actor chosen for the position suggests one massive speculation.

Did Omega just leak the identity of the next actor to play James Bond?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson at Omegas headquarters in Biel, Switzerland. - Credit: Omega

British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a perfect fit to represent Omega. He is ruggedly handsome, on the verge of becoming an A-List celebrity and looks damn good in a suit.

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All those attributes, combined with his nationality, also make him an ideal fit for another iconic roleAgent 007.

The Speedmaster that Aaron Taylor-Johnson wore while touring Omegas headquarters. - Credit: Omega

I must say that Im approaching this theory with skepticism because many actors have been floated as the next Bond since Daniel Craig decided to hang up his PP7 after 2021s No Time to Die, including some household names like Idris Elba and Henry Cavill.

However, Taylor-Johnson checks more boxes than any previous candidate, and the timing of Omegas announcement is almost too perfect for a coincidence.

Known but not famous

Historically, Bond has been portrayed by actors with minimal notoriety going into the role. Sean Connery was a little-known Scottish film actor before establishing the template for Ian Flemings secret agent on film.

The English actor sits beside Raynald Aeschlimann, the President and CEO of Omega. - Credit: Omega

Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan were best known for TV roles prior to serving in Her Majestys Secret Service. Bond made them all household names.

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Craig fits the same pattern, having been an obscure indie-film and stage actor before redefining the role for the 21st century.

A Brosnan-era Omega Seamaster (left) and a Craig-era Seamaster (right). - Credit: Photo by Johnny Brayson for Gear Patrol

Taylor-Johnson broke through as a young man in 2010s Kick-Ass and has maintained that recognizable-but-not-by-name actor status ever since. An upcoming starring role in 28 Years Later may change that.

Cleans up well

Taylor-Johnson has had his fair share of action roles, starting with Kick-Ass and more recently in The Fall Guy, and he is sure to see plenty of combat in 28 Years Later, which is a strong qualifier for Bond.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson certainly looks the part. - Credit: Omega

At the same time, roles in 2024s Nosferatu and 2021s The Kings Men demonstrated that he looks good in a suit, which is necessary for any actor hoping to portray Bond.

Good timing

The wheels have already started turning on production for the next Bond film franchise reboot under MGMs new ownership, which means that the titular character must be cast soon or perhaps already is.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson touring Omegas headquarters in Biel, Switzerland. - Credit: Omega

Omega has been in the Bond Family since Pierce Brosnans stint began in 1996s Goldeneye. The Swiss watchmaker is retaining its position in Q Branch for the upcoming era and would surely have inside information if a casting decision has been made.

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Omegas preferred marketing strategy has been not-so-subtle, clearly orchestrating  leaks regarding watch releases, often with the involvement of the former Mr.Bond himself and always to great effect.

Omegas most recent take on the Bond Seamaster. - Credit: Omega

Given all of the elements at play here, Omegas choice of Taylor-Johnson as its new ambassador feels a bit too coincidental.

At least he wore a Speedmaster First Omega in Space, instead of a Seamaster, to throw everyone off the scent.
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Credit: Cr. Jackson Lee Davis/Netflix  2024

Listen, we all know that Outer Banks is known and loved for its over-the-top adventures, action that leads to John B. and his friends almost dying all the time and epic romances. So, sometimes, things can get very soapy or out of hand in terms of logic. However, the cast and fans know and love that about the show, as Madelyn Cline and some of her co-stars proved by hilariously calling out their favorite continuity errors and plot holes in the Netflix hit.

In celebration of OBX Season 5 being the final installment of the show, Cline, who plays Sarah Cameron, hopped on TikTok to interact with fans. She decided to ask them all what their favorite continuity errors or plot holes were in the show, before revealing her answer to the question:

In honor of Outer Banks 5 being the last season, lets all share with the class our favorite continuity errors or plot holes. My personal favorite is when we took the ferry from Outer Banks to Chapel Hill. Its giving invisible boat-mobile, but I digress.

In the text laid over the video, which you can see above, Cline also noted that Chapel Hill is in the middle of North Carolina, its landlocked, and you cannot take a ferry there. Therefore, that iconic ferry trip Sarah and John B. take in Season 1 (which you can stream with a Netflix subscription ) would not be possible. However, it certainly is fun.

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Now, I knew the Outer Banks cast was down to clown about things like this. Back when Season 3 came out, they all took my question about when they really would have tapped out of this ongoing treasure hunt in stride and with a good sense of humor. However, they proved that fun mentality again in Clines comments, as Kiara actress Madison Bailey wrote:

hard to pick just one fr. um. our phones just pop up and work sometimes and other times we have no way to contact each other. its always funny.

Thats such a good point! The use of technology in this show is sporadic. However, these kids do seem like the types to forget or lose their phones, so maybe thats what was going on. Overall, though, I love Baileys favorite plot hole.

Carlacia Grant, who plays Cleo, also weighed in on this topic, writing:

This is tough  But it has to be taking a ship from OBX all the way to Morocco and only stopping for gas once

Literally, thats such a fair point. The Outer Banks and Morocco are literally on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, so stopping for gas once seems unlikely. However, with some TV magic, it was possible.

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Personally, when it comes to potential plot holes and continuity errors, I'm a big fan of how quickly the characters snap back from a serious injury. Like the fact that John B. was pushed off a very tall watch tower in Season 1 and only broke his wrist and had a concussion is great stuff.

Overall, Im obsessed with these admissions from the cast, and I love how much fun they have with this wildly entertaining show, plot holes and all.
Neon has acquired the North American rights to Kleber Mendonca Filhos The Secret Agent.

The film premiered in competition at Cannes on Sunday. Wagner Moura, Maria Fernanda Candido, Gabriel Leone, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, and Hermila Guedes star.

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Neon plans for a North American theatrical release later this year.

The Secret Agent is set in Recife, Brazil, in 1977 and follows Marcelo (Moura), a technology expert in his early 40s, who is on the run. He arrives in Recife during carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son but soon realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.

Variety chief film critic Peter Debruge said, Mendonca began his career as a reporter and critic, and that sensibility infuses every frame, striking an enticing balance between originality and homage.

The film was produced by Emilie Lesclaux. Co-producers include Nathanael Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz, Fionnuala Jamison, Olivier Barbier, Leontine Petit, Erik Glijnis, Fred Burle and Sol Bondy. It is a Cinemascopio, MK Productions, Lemming Film and One Two Films presentation. MK2 Films is representing the international sales rights to the film.

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The deal was negotiated by Neons Sarah Colvin and Jeff Deutchman with MK2 Films Fionnuala Jamison on behalf of the filmmakers.

Mendonca Filho spoke with Variety before the films premiere, praising Moura. He said, Wagner is a classic movie star who comes attached to a truly fantastic guy. He continued, I have great pride in having worked with him and hope this is the first of many films we do together. He has done great things in the past, but I think this is his greatest performance yet. I sound like a salesman, but when I talk about Wagner, I am overcome with emotion.

Mendonca Filho is an award-winning Brazilian filmmaker known for work which confronts Brazilian socio-political society. The Secret Agent is his third film to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, following Aquarius in 2016 and Bacurau which he co-wrote and co-directed with Juliano Dornelles and which won the Prix du Jury in 2019. In 2017, he served as the jury president of the Critics Week section at Cannes and his second documentary, Pictures of Ghosts, premiered in the Special Screenings section at the 2023 festival.

In other Cannes players, Neon also has Joachim Triers Sentimental Value. It also premiered Julia Ducournaus Alpha in competition, Raoul Pecks Orwell: 2+2=5, and Michael Angelo Covinos Splitsville starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona, which Neon also produced.

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Last year, Neon was behind Sean Bakers Anora. The film won the Palme dOr and went on to win five Academy Awards including best picture.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek has expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for protecting his country's diplomats, the publication of Ambassador on X said, Trend reports.

He expressed shock over the horrific act of terror at a Jewish event in Washington, D.C., during which two employees of the Israeli Embassy were shot at close range.

"I want to thank the people of Azerbaijan for their solidarity, and the Azerbaijani government for its unwavering commitment to protecting Israeli diplomats and the Jewish community in this beautiful country," the ambassador said.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem released information this morning that two employees of the Israeli Embassy in the US were killed near the Jewish Museum in Washington.

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share," Noem wrote on her X page.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
U.S. News & World Report has chosen 26 places across the United States as one of the best underrated travel destinations, and only one spot in California made the list that boasts national parks and Midwestern towns.

The honor goes to the small, San Luis Obispo County town of Cambria, which ranked No. 21 on the list of beloved, lesser-known destinations.

Cambria was praised by U.S. News & World Report for its location, including for its proximity to sights such as Morro Bay and the Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The media company described Cambrias Main Street as perfectly quaint and highlighted the towns Moonstone Beach and stunning scenery at the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve.

The Cambria Visitor Center is located at 767 Main St. in Cambria, Calif.

U.S. News & World Report said that Cambria, which is along the states central coast, can get lost in the heaps of praise piled on Californias coastline.

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With a population of less than 6,000 as of the 2020 Census, Cambria is one of California's many pricier places to live. The median price a home is sold for in Cambria is $1.1 million, according to Realtor.com. Thats about $100,000 less than Redfins figures on median home selling prices for April.

Of course, visiting doesn't mean permanently staying. Theres plenty of things to do during a trip to the coastal community, largely related to enjoying the natural landscape and the Pacific Ocean.

What is the best underrated travel destination in the U.S.?

St. Simons Island along Georgias coast was named the best underrated travel destination in the nation from U.S. News & World Report. Other places that made the list included Chattanooga, Tennessee, Big Bend National Park in Texas and Duluth, Minnesota  notably where Bob Dylan was born.

Need somewhere to go for Memorial Day or your next summer vacation? Heres some options

A state as large as California means it can be easy to get overwhelmed when picking where you want to visit next.

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In case you missed it, here are some of the recommendations made by travel and lifestyle experts in the past year:

(This story was updated to fix a typo.)

Paris Barraza is a trending reporter covering California news at The Desert Sun. Reach her at pbarraza@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: See the California town that's called 'underrated' for travel
West Palm Beach residents north of downtown can enter a raffle starting the evening of May 23 to win e-bikes worth $900 to $1,100.

Local nonprofit WPBgo will host raffles over the next 12 months, giving dozens of people from these neighborhoods $1,000 vouchers each to buy e-bikes from a local bicycle shop.

The first raffle takes place at the West Palm Beach Police Department's Operation Pray Until Something Happens block party at 8 p.m. on Tamarind Avenue, between 18th and State streets.

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Residents of the Coleman Park, Pleasant City and Historic Northwest neighborhoods  north of downtown, mostly between Tamarind Avenue and U.S. 1  are eligible to enter WPBgo's contest. Applicants can either fill out an online form at wpbgo.com at the time of the party, or fill out a paper form there.

Electric bikes in a Marco Island shop.

Winners at the May 23 raffle and WPBgo contests held throughout the year can buy their prizes at West Palm Bikes bicycle shop at the shopping plaza at 400 Village Blvd., northwest of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.

The three e-bikes raffle entrants can win are the $900 Hiboy EX6 ST, the $1,000 Lectric XP 3.0 and the $1,100 Hiboy P6. They can be ridden 20 to 60 miles on a single charge, the manufacturers say.

WPBgo's goal is to reduce congestion and make it more affordable for residents north of downtown to commute, director Jonathan Hopkins said.

Raffle seeks to help residents West Palm area that has many without any vehicle

An estimated 13% to 21% of residents in the target neighborhoods have no vehicles at home, the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019-2023 American Community Survey data says.

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The Knight Foundation is funding the WPBgo e-bike raffles.

Hopkins hopes to bring the program to downtown residents in the future, based on the success of this initiative. "People in Wellington are not going to replace their cars with an e-bike," Hopkins said, which is why WPBgo is targeting residents north of downtown.

WPBgo's ultimate goal is to reduce downtown traffic, working mainly with other nonprofits and government agencies to make that happen.

In September, WPBgo started paying for commutes of some people who work downtown by buying them $20,000 worth of bus passes on Palm Beach County's public bus system, Palm Tran, using a grant from the Florida Department of Transportation. WPBgo will release results from that program this year, it has said.

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Chris Persaud covers transportation in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email news tips and ideas to cpersaud@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: $1,000 e-bikes being raffled in this part of West Palm Beach on Friday
When children dont have consistent access to meals, it impacts their development, their education and their future. (Stock photo by Inti St. Clair/Getty Photos)

In Kentucky more than 753,000 residents, or 1 in 6, face hunger. They often dont know where and when their next meal will be.

That sobering statistic is felt daily across the commonwealth  from families forced to choose between groceries and rent to schools struggling to meet students basic needs.

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Food banks and our partners across the state are doing all we can to provide millions of meals annually and coordinate critical emergency support  but we cant do it alone, and we certainly cant do it with policy that sends us backward.

But thats just whats happening, and hungry Kentuckians will pay the price.

The U.S. House Committee on Agriculture has proposed a plan that would quietly shift the burden and worsen the problem. If passed, the Kentucky budget would be responsible for funding over $150 million annually by 2028 just to maintain current benefit levels. With food insecurity projected to rise, that cost will likely increase even more.

Were sure federal and state governments will jostle for who is to blame, but the bottom line is simple: Fewer Kentuckians will be able to eat. And thats why were pushing back.

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The proposal under consideration would throw the entire SNAP system off, and theres no solution being offered. SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) works because it can scale up quickly when people are struggling, like after a natural disaster, such as recent tornadoes. States just dont have the resources to handle that kind of surge.

Keeping SNAP federally funded is the only way to ensure its there when people really need it.

Charitable food assistance steps in where other support falls short, but its not enough. For every meal provided by the charitable food system, SNAP delivers nine. That ratio matters. Reducing access to SNAP wont just stretch food banks thinner, it will stretch family budgets to the breaking point.

Hunger is not just about food; its about health, learning and opportunity. When children dont have consistent access to meals, it impacts their development, their education and their future. In Kentucky, 1 in 5 kids faces hunger. When adults dont have food, they cant be expected to perform their best at their job. The consequences ripple far beyond the dinner table.

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We already know what works. The community eligibility provision helps high-poverty schools serve free meals to all students. Summer EBT provides grocery assistance when school is out. SNAP helps families put food on the table every night. These arent luxuries  theyre lifelines. And theyre part of our shared responsibility to ensure no Kentuckian goes hungry.

Kentuckys food banks are committed to doing our part. But systemic hunger cannot be solved through charity alone. We need policies that protect families and uphold the principle that access to food is a basic human right.

Anyone can experience hunger. A job loss, medical emergency or child-care crisis can leave a family facing food insecurity. These programs offer dignity, consistency and hope when it matters most. And no matter our political beliefs, we should agree on this: No legislation should determine who gets to eat and who doesnt.

Congress can act to protect and strengthen the nutrition programs that keep families afloat and give children a fair shot. We can work together to build a future where no one in Kentucky goes hungry.

About the author

Melissa McDonald is executive director of Feeding Kentucky, a statewide network of seven Kentucky food banks and their partners.






BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroners Office was called to the scene of a deadly shooting at the Avalon Apartments, 13047 Florida Boulevard, on Thursday, May 22, according to EMS.

The Baton Rouge Police Department said the call came in around 5:45 a.m. and the shooting left one man dead and a woman hurt. The man was later identified as 26-year-old Kevin Jackson.

EMS confirmed that one person was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

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The motive and suspect are unknown at this time. This is an ongoing investigation.

Anyone with information is urged to contact BRPD at 225-389-2869 or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-7867.

Caregiver accused of punching, slapping and sitting on man at group home in Baton Rouge

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One person is dead after a crash in rural Prophetstown yesterday, according to a news release from the Whiteside County Sheriffs Office.

Whiteside County Sheriffs Office Telecommunications received an iPhone automatic crash notification on May 21 at about 4:35 p.m. The notification indicated it happened at the intersection of Perkins Road and Mill Road in rural Prophetstown.

Deputies investigated and determined that a black sedan, driven by 40-year-old Jacob Penaflor of Prophetstown, was traveling southbound on Perkins Road and approaching the intersection of Mill Road. A black crossover SUV, driven by 39-year-old Benjamin Weidel of Prophetstown, was heading eastbound on Mill Road and approaching the intersection of Perkins Road. The sedan failed to stop at the stop sign at Mill Road, and hit the westbound crossover, causing the sedan to roll several times.

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Penaflor was transported via EMS for non-life threatening injuries. Weidel was pronounced dead at the scene. Whiteside County Sheriffs Office & Whiteside County Coroners Office were assisted on scene by Illinois State Police, Prophetstown Police Department, Prophetstown Fire Department & EMS, Yorktown Fire Department, Tampico Fire Department, Lyndon Fire Department, and Todds Tire & Auto. The crash remains under investigation by Whiteside County Sheriffs Office Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit assisted the Sheriffs Office and the Whiteside County Coroners Office.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  A train hit a vehicle in West Baton Rouge Parish on Thursday morning.

The collision happened at 4451 Highway 1 across from Antonio Road, according to the West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office (WBRSO).

WBRSO said the call came in around 11:30 a.m., and the truck occupant was taken to a nearby hospital with mild to moderate injuries.

A train hit a truck late Thursday morning in West Baton Rouge Parish. (Photo courtesy of West Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office)

The Brusly Police Department assisted at the scene.

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This was the second time this month that a train hit a vehicle in West Baton Rouge Parish.

The first instance took place at LA 1 and Lukeville Lane on Monday, May 5.

Student stabbed by another student at Baker High School, police say

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News.
SEATTLE (AP)  One person was rescued by a good Samaritan and authorities were looking for three others after a boat took on water and sank in waters north of Seattle, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.

The vessel was a 20-foot (6-meter) long cuddy cabin boat, Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier said. The person who rescued the male individual said three others were on board, Strohmaier said. The distress call came in at 1:10 p.m., he said.

A Coast Guard boat crew and helicopter were searching for the missing alongside Everett firefighters and police and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The site is in Possession Sound about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Seattle.
A teen is facing charges after allegedly disrupting a Lawrence City Council meeting by throwing a brick through the window on Wednesday night.

A 16-year-old male from Boston was charged with malicious damage over $1,200, according to Lawrence Police. He will be arraigned in Essex County Juvenile Court.

The incident occurred about an hour and a half into the Lawrence City Council Budget and Finance Committee meeting.

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President Jeovanny A. Rodriguez was discussing excise tax bills when the meeting was interrupted with a loud bang.

The meeting was quickly ended and the building evacuated.

Police determined a group of juveniles was in the area when the 16-year-old Boston male threw a brick through one of the city hall windows. He was quickly taken into custody.

While this understandably caused alarm for those inside the City Council Chambers, it was later determined that neither City Hall nor any individuals were specifically targeted by the juveniles actions, police said.

Chief Maurice Aguiler says he will be assigning a uniform officer to all City Council and Subcommittee Meetings going forward.

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May 21Police arrested 17-year-old Jemik Parker in Louisville, Kentucky, and charged him with murder in the death of Lance Carrington, 17, of Columbia, who was found shot to death Jan. 14 inside a car in Columbia.

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Originally Published:May 21, 2025 at 1:43 PM EDT
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Talat Majidov has been honored with the First-Class "For Service to the Motherland" Order in recognition of his long-term and effective service in Azerbaijan's civil service, Trend reports.

President Ilham Aliyev signed the relevant decree.

Majidov served as the head of the Executive Authority of the Sabail District from 1999 to 2005. Since 2005, he has held the position of Head of the Personnel Affairs Department at the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On May 22, 2015, he was awarded the Shohrat Order in recognition of his distinguished service in the public sector.

Tomorrow, Talat Majidov will turn 80.
BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD)  Two men from Berkeley County have been indicted for their roles in a $74 million money laundering conspiracy.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of South Carolina said Thursday that a federal grand jury in Charleston returned a 17-count indictment against 46-year-old Jimmy Soares De Oliveira Carvalho and 51-year-old Jose Rivelino Serafim Da Silva in a case that involved money laundering.

The men are alleged to have created 10 shell companies that claimed to work in the construction industry to facilitate payments from contractors who were engaged in residential and commercial construction to their workers, who often were undocumented and performing work on behalf of the contractors.

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Carvalho, Da Silva, and others used the shell companies to operate an unlicensed check-cashing business and unlawfully cashed checks for individuals and companies working in the construction industry for a three to five percent fee, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Officials said Carvahlo, Da Silva, and others unlawfully cashed approximately $74 million in checks for clients of the shell companies from January 17 to the date of the indictment.

For counts one through 12 and 17, Carvalho faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and for counts 13 through 16 Carvalho faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, officials said.

He is currently being held until a detention hearing scheduled for Friday morning.

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Da Silva, for count one and counts nine through 12, faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and for counts 13 through 16, Da Silva faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, officials added.

He is scheduled to have an initial appearance on Friday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Molly H. Cherry.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  California prison officials said two inmates attacked and killed another inmate Wednesday afternoon at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said late Wednesday, the attack happened at around 1:41 p.m. and left Timothy Whelan, 56, an inmate serving a sentence for second-degree murder, dead.

CDCR officials said two inmates  identified as William A. Nesler III, 43, and Edward R. Holden III, 35  allegedly attacked Whelan with improvised weapons.

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Prison staff used chemical agents to stop the attack, officials said in a release. Whelan was treated in a triage area at the prison but was pronounced dead about a half hour after the attack. No KVSP staff or other inmates were injured during the incident. Two improvised weapons were found at the scene, according to officials.

Kern Valley State Prison officials are investigating the incident with the Kern County District Attorneys Office. The Kern County Coroners Office will determine an official cause of death for Whelan.

Whelan was serving a sentence of life with the possibility of parole. He was sentenced in Los Angeles County in 2005 for an illegal firearms conviction.

Nesler is serving a life sentence of life with a possibility of parole for first-degree murder since 2005 out of Tuolumne County.

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Holden is also serving a life sentence of life with a possibility for parole out of Solano County.

Kern Valley State Prison is located in Delano  about 37 miles  north of Bakersfield. The facility houses more than 3,100 inmates, officials said.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.






A young couple, both Israeli Embassy aides, have been fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., authorities have said

The shooting happened at approximately 9:08 p.m. local time on Wednesday, May 21, police confirmed, stating that the suspect was in custody

"No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss," the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. wrote on X, sharing a photo of the victims







A young couple, both Israeli Embassy aides, have been fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., authorities have confirmed.

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On Wednesday, May 21, at approximately 9:08 p.m. local time, police responded to multiple calls of a shooting in the area of 3rd Street and F Street Northwest, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in D.C., Chief Pamela Smith confirmed at a press conference.

"Officers located one adult male and one adult female unconscious and not breathing at the scene," Smith told reporters.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed on X that the couple who were fatally shot were both Israeli embassy staff members.

Embassy of Israel to the USA/X Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky

The Israeli Embassy in the U.S. shared a photo of the victims, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, on X on Thursday, May 22, calling them "our friends and colleagues" who "were in the prime of their lives."

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives.



This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.



The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words pic.twitter.com/2HytKDp8Fr  Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) May 22, 2025

Smith told reporters during the news conference that both victims had succumbed to their injuries despite life-saving efforts, adding that the victims had been "exiting an event" at the Capital Jewish Museum, per the preliminary investigation.

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"We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, who is now in custody," the officer said.

"Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum," Smith added.

She continued, "He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire, striking both of our decedents," adding, "After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security."

WILL OLIVER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock A couple was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025 A couple was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025

The weapon has since been recovered after the suspect disclosed where he discarded it, Smith confirmed, telling reporters, "He implied that he committed the offense."

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"The suspect chanted 'Free, Free Palestine' while in custody," Smith said, before "tentatively" identifying the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, Illinois.

Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty A couple was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025 A couple was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025

Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, added during the press conference that the victims were about to get engaged before they were killed.

"The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of 'Free Palestine' was a young couple about to be engaged," Leiter told reporters.

"The young man purchased a ring this week, with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," he added. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center."

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President Donald Trump responded to the incident on his Truth Social platform, writing, "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, added on X, "Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims."

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The Israeli Embassy wrote on X, "The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss."

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"Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time," the post added.

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. didn't immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.



Read the original article on People
May 22 (UPI) -- The suspect accused of shooting to death two Israeli Embassy staff members on Wednesday night was charged with first-degree murder in federal court on Thursday.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, did not enter a plea during his arraignment hearing at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

He is charged with first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, according to an FBI affidavit.

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The affidavit says Rodriguez shot and killed two individuals outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum, where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.

A Metropolitan Police Officer picks up crime scene tape outside the Capital Jewish Museum the morning after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israeli Embassy staff members, were shot and killed leaving an event for young professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters in a press conference that one person, the suspected shooter from Chicago, is in custody.

Police were notified of shots fired at 9:08 p.m. EDT outside the museum near the intersection of 3rd and F Street Northwest.

Two Israeli Embassy staff members, identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were shot and killed outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Officers found two people, a man and a woman -- later identified as Israeli embassy staff members -- unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds, injuries that they succumbed to, she said.

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The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs named the victims in a statement early Thursday as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26.

Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said the victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were a young couple about to be engaged. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington - Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI May their memory be a blessing. We embrace the grieving families during this... pic.twitter.com/4lNQnTvORG Israel  (@Israel) May 22, 2025

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said the suspect was seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four people, pulling out a handgun and shooting Yaron Lischinsky and Lynn Milgrim. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI.

Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said they were a young couple about to be engaged.

"The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," he said. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's culture center."

Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum (pictured) where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

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Each died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Rodriguez was arrested inside the Jewish Museum

Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum (pictured) where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

The FBI warrant affidavit says Rodriguez entered the museum after shooting Milgrim and Lischinsky.

Two police officers entered the building soon after to ask about surveillance footage and identify witnesses.

Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington's Capital Jewish Museum (pictured) where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Rodriguez approached one of the officers and said he "did it" and was unarmed.

The officers took him into custody, and his Illinois driver's license and firearms owner's identification card identified him as Elias A. Rodriguez.

A Metropolitan Police Officer works the crime scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum the morning after two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed leaving an event for young professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

Rodriguez told the officers, "I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza. I am unarmed," while holding a red "Kaffiyeh," the FBI affidavit says.

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He yelled, "Free, free Palestine," as the officers escorted Rodriguez from the museum.

Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were shot and killed while leaving an event regarding humanitarian aid for Gaza and hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo via Embassy of Israel, USA/UPI

Several witnesses were identified and interviewed

Law enforcement identified several witnesses and interviewed them at the scene.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter speaks outside the Capital Jewish Museum the afternoon after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot and killed after leaving the museum on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

One said a male, later identified as Rodriguez, wore a blue hooded raincoat and backpack and tried to light a cigarette standing in the rain outside of the museum.

The witness called Rodriguez's behavior "strange," and said four people exited the Jewish Museum, according to the FBI affidavit.

Flowers from Jewish members of Congress are seen outside the Capital Jewish Museum on the afternoon after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot and killed. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

The witness heard gunshots and ducked until the shooting stopped.

The witness looked again and saw Rodriguez motioning "as if he was attempting to shoot the firearm, but it was not firing," the affidavit says.

A Jewish man scrubs the walls outside of the Capital Jewish Museum the morning after Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two Israeli Embassy staff members, were shot and killed while leaving an event for young professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI

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Rodriguez then ran away and made a motion that looked like he was throwing away his firearm, the witness said.

Police located a firearm in the vicinity of the area where the witness said Rodriguez made the throwing motion.

A man with an Israeli flag draped on his shoulders sits near the scene where two people were shot and killed near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday evening. Photo by Will Oliver/EPA-EFE

Surveillance cameras recorded the attack

Video footage corroborates the witness's account and shows a man with a slim build wearing a blue raincoat and backpack, blue pants and light-colored shoes, which match what Rodriguez wore when he was arrested, the FBI affidavit says.

The footage shows Rodriguez crossing F Street Northwest on foot and in the direction of the Jewish Museum and where Milgrim and Lischinsky were standing with two others while preparing to cross the street.

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"Once Rodriguez walked past the decedents and two witnesses, he turned to face their backs and brandished a firearm from the area of his waistband," the affidavit says.

"Rodriguez is captured on the video extending both his arms in the direction of the decedents and firing several times, as indicated by the muzzle flashes.

"Once the decedents fell to the ground, Rodriguez is captured on the video advancing closer to the decedents, leaning over them with his arm extended, and firing several more times," the affidavit says.

As Milgrim "attempted to crawl away from Rodriguez, he followed behind her and fired again," the FBI affidavit says.

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Rodriguez reloaded his firearm as Lischinsky sat up and shot him several more times before running toward the museum's entrance.

Forensic investigators found 21 expended 9mm cartridge casings, a 9mm pistol with its slide locked and an empty magazine.

The firearm is the same one Rodriguez purchased on March 6, 2020, in Illinois.

Rodriguez praised 'martyr' who self-immolated

After police detectives read Rodriguez his Miranda rights, he expressed his admiration for an individual who doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2024, according to the FBI affidavit.

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Rodriguez called the man a "martyr" and said the man was courageous for drawing attention to the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.

Rodriguez also told the detectives he bought a ticket to the museum event three hours before it was scheduled to start.

The event was a panel discussion on humanitarian aid in Gaza.

His travel records show Rodriguez flew from Chicago to Reagan National Airport in Virginia on Tuesday.

He declared his firearm in his checked baggage and flew across state lines with the firearm, according to the FBI affidavit.

Alleged membership in far-left, pro-Palestine group

Rodriguez allegedly was an active member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, according to The Jerusalem Post, which describes the PSL as a "far-left, Marxist, pro-Palestine group."

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The PSL denied Rodriguez was among its members.

"We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the D.C. shooting," the PSL said in a post on X as reported by Newsweek.

"Elias Rodrigues is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017," the social media post says.

"We know of no contact with him in over seven years," the PSL said. "We have nothing to do with the shooting and do not support it."

Newsweek said an October 2017 article titled "Chicago Demands Justice for Laquan, Not Money from Amazon," describes Rodriguez as being "from the Party for Socialism and Liberation."

The article says the wealth generated by Amazon in Seattle has not been shared with the city's black residents.

Amazon's "whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city," Rodriguez is quoted as saying in the article.

The PSL has removed the article from its website, Newsweek reported.

Rodriquez was born and raised in Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.

He is the son of an Iraq War veteran and labor activist who is employed at a Chicago-area veteran's affairs hospital.

Rodriguez worked as an administrative assistant for a healthcare company based in Chicago.

FBI agents searched Rodriguez's apartment in Chicago's Albany neighborhood on Thursday.

Mayor calls shooting an 'act of terrorism'

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested the attack was terrorism.

"We will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city," she said. "We will not tolerate any acts of terrorism, and we're going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send a clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism."

Assistant Director Steven Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office, which is located near where the shooting occurred, said they are aiding the MPD in the homicide investigation.

Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino confirmed in a statement that the suspect was being interviewed by MPD and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," he said.

AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement that the committee was "devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue."

Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that she was at the scene of the crime. Leiter said she had handed him a cellphone following the shooting.

"On the end of the line was the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who told me that his administration is going to everything it can possibly do to fight and end anti-Semitism and the hatred that's being directed -- the demonization and the delegitimization of the State of Israel," he said.

In a post to his social media platform Truth Social, the American president called for the end of anti-Semitic violence.

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on anti-Semitism, must end NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA," he said.

"Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things can happen!"

President Isaac Herzog of Israel said he was "devastated" by the shooting.

"This is a despicable act of hatred, of anti-Semitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy," he said on X.

"America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values," he continued. "Terror and hate will not break us."
Two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., by a man who yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police officials said.

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, approached a group of four people who were leaving an event at the museum shortly after 9 p.m. He then fired at close range and killed the two victims, identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

The suspect proceeded to walk into the museum and was then apprehended. After he was in custody, he shouted, Free, free Palestine, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

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Smith said the suspect was in custody and posed no further threat to the community.

Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., told reporters that the victims were a young couple who were about to get engaged. Lischinsky had purchased a ring and planned to propose in Jerusalem next week, Leiter added.

Israeli and American officials condemned the shooting.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA, President Trump said in a statement. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

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Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, also issued remarks.

We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israels representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States, Cohen said in the statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted he spoke to Attorney General Pam Bondi about the incident and was outraged by what transpired.

We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel, Netanyahu said in a statement. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  A Kern County judge found there was sufficient evidence for the case to proceed against two men charged in connection with the deaths of four people in Mojave in 2023.

At the conclusion of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Ricardo Reyes-Partida, 35, and Jonathan Steven Hernandez, 27, were bound over for trial and are due back in court next month, according to court records.

Reyes-Partida faces charges including four counts of murder and attempted murder, while Hernandez is charged with crimes including attempted murder and accessory after the fact.

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Hernandez is alleged to have owned the gun used in the killings.

Those killed were Darius Travon Canada, 31, Anna Marie Hester, 34, Martina Barraza, 33, all of Mojave, and Faith Leighanne Rose Asbry, 20, of California City. They were shot the night of April 30, 2023, at a trailer on H Street.

Click here for more details on the case.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.
May 22AUGUSTA  Two new candidates  a state senator and a southern Maine real estate broker  have emerged in the Republican primary for the 2026 gubernatorial election.

Sen. James Libby, R-Standish, officially announced Thursday that he is running for governor, and David Jones, the owner of F.O. Bailey Real Estate in Falmouth, announced his candidacy on a conservative talk show on Tuesday.

"For too long, Maine government has disrupted budgets and business plans without consideration of the impact on viability," Libby said in a written statement, citing the state's new Paid Medical and Family Leave program and the state's minimum wage, which has automatic increases for cost of living.

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The announcements add to the growing list of candidates in both parties more than a year before either primary. The race is expected to draw a large field given that Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, cannot seek reelection because of term limits.

Up until this week, most of the action has been on the Democratic side, with high profile announcements from former Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and renewable energy entrepreneur Angus King III, the son of independent U.S. Sen. Angus King, having declared their candidacies.

Hannah Pingree, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, who resigned from her position in the Mills administration last week, has also been rumored to be considering a run.

On the Republican side, Libby and Bailey joined Bobby Charles, a Leeds resident and lawyer who served under President George W. Bush, and Robert Wessels of Norway and Steven Shepherd of Bangor.

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Libby, who is serving his sixth non-consecutive term in the Legislature, including four in the Senate, announced his candidacy at Standish Town Hall on Thursday.

Libby, a tenured professor at Thomas College and member of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce's policy committee, ran for governor more than 20 years ago, losing the Republican primary to Peter Cianchette in 2002.

Jones, who has never held public office, previously ran for governor as an independent in 2006, but withdrew from the race and endorsed Republican Chandler Woodcock, who ultimately lost to Democrat John Baldacci.

Jones co-founded the Make Maine Great Again Super PAC in support of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and served on Trump's 2024 platform committee.

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On Monday, Jones told WVOM that he wants to emulate what Trump, billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are doing to reduce federal spending and the federal workforce, saying that "a Maine DOGE is absolutely imperative."

"We are going to look at every single expenditure the state of Maine spends," Jones said. "We're going to make sure that it's reasonable, and that it's right. And if it's not, it's going to be stopped."

Democrats have held a trifecta since Mills took office in 2019, maintaining majorities in both the House and Senate.

Since the 1950s, Mainers have not elected a candidate from the same political party as a departing governor  a trend that began after Maine had five consecutive Republican governors from 1937 through 1955.

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The decades of ping-ponging between parties in the Blaine House began when Democrat Ed Muskie was elected in 1954, ending Republicans' nearly two-decade hold on the governorship.

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DENVER (KDVR)  Two people were shot in Auroras Morris Heights neighborhood on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, police announced that one of them has died.

The Aurora Police Department said that patrol officers responded to a shooting in the 3100 block of Ursala Street at about 7:15 p.m. Wednesday night. The area is residential, sandwiched between Interstate 225 and Peoria Street, and is a few blocks from Park Lane Elementary School.

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Police said that they found two victims, a 17-year-old male and an 18-year-old man, with apparent gunshot wounds on the scene and both were rushed to local hospitals.

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The 18-year-old, from Wheat Ridge, died at the hospital and will be identified by the Adams County Coroners Office.

The 17-year-old is from Denver and is expected to recover from non-life-threatening injuries.

APDs Major Crime Homicide Unit is investigating. The agency said there is no suspect information and no one has been arrested as of Thursday afternoon.

Anyone with information about the double shooting is asked to contact the Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Two Israeli Embassy employees  including an American  were shot and killed Wednesday night as they left the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., officials said. A suspect is in custody.

The victims have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Law enforcement officials described the attack as "targeted" and said the suspect shouted "Free Palestine" as he was being detained. The shooting was being investigated as a hate crime, a law enforcement source said.

Milgrim was from Kansas. Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said. Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., told reporters they were on the verge of getting engaged.

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"The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," Leiter said. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center."

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the shooting was reported at 9:08 p.m. local time and occurred outside the museum, which is located near an FBI field office and is in the heart of the U.S. capital. Responding officers found the victims with gunshot wounds, unconscious and not breathing, the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department told CBS News.

The Israeli Embassy posted a photo of the two victims of the shooting outside the Jewish Capital Museum in Washington, D.C. on the night of May 21, 2025. Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were employees at the embassy. / Credit: IsraelinUSA /Twitter/Anadolu via Getty Images

"Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on social media.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was initially "observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun," and shot the two victims, Smith said at a late-night news conference.

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The suspect entered the museum immediately following the shooting and was arrested by museum security, the police chief reported. "The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered," Smith said, adding that he "implied that he committed the offense."

A woman who encountered the suspect after the shooting said he reached into his bag, pulled out a keffiyeh and said, "I did it. I did it for Gaza," before he shouted, "Free Palestine."

CBS News identified an account on social platform X that belongs to the suspect and has a history of posts about pro-Palestinian activism and frustration with media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as inflammatory posts about Israel and a discussion of violence for political gain.

Rodriguez didn't pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn't on the radar of law enforcement agencies, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. The police and the FBI were combing through his social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, a law enforcement source said. A large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood Thursday as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported.

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The suspect was expected to be in court Thursday, according to a Justice Department source, and make his initial appearance in the local court system. The case is expected to eventually head to federal court, the source said.

"We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington  Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. May their memory be a blessing," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a post on social media.

Robert Milgrim said that his daughter started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor's degree at Kansas University and two master's degrees, one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, Robert Milgrim said. She had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza, he said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Trump is "saddened and outraged" over the deaths of Lischinsky and Milgrim, and the Justice Department will be prosecuting their killer "to the fullest extent of the law."

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Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., said he spoke to Mr. Trump by phone following the shooting, as did U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who attended the news conference and earlier said that she responded to the scene of the shooting.

"I spoke to the president of the United States multiple times tonight," Bondi said. "On behalf of the president, his prayers are with all of us, all of the Jewish community, all of us in Washington, D.C."

Mr. Trump later wrote on Truth Social: "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that he's "shocked" by the "horrific, antisemitic" shooting. He said he instructed Israeli missions around the world to beef up security.

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"We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel," Netanyahu continued.

In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the shooting a "despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism," adding, "America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us."

Other world leaders also released statements condemning the attack.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said D.C. Metropolitan Police and the FBI will be investigating.

"We will not tolerate antisemitism," Bowser said. She said "the FBI's role, of course, as always when there is any possibility of a terrorist act, or acts motivated by hate or other bias, the FBI will be conducting those investigations."

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In an early statement, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem wrote on social media that "two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC."

FBI Director Kash Patel also wrote on social media that "my team and I have been briefed on the shooting tonight in downtown DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum and near our Washington Field Office." Patel said the FBI was working with D.C. police on the investigation.

"There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on social media.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. At a hearing held today at the Baku Military Court, a video was presented featuring a 1993 meeting between the first President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and representatives of the former so-called entity in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, Trend reports.

In the video, speaking directly to the camera, Ter-Petrosyan recalled that he had provided the highest level of security guarantees on behalf of Armenia to the illegal entity established in Azerbaijans sovereign territory. He referred to the agreement on these security guarantees as a secret document to be signed between Armenia and the so-called entity.

According to Ter-Petrosyan, the agreement would consist of two copies. He declared: "The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic relies on the guarantees of the international community, the Russian Federation, the United States, and especially the President of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan."

Ter-Petrosyan further stated that Armenia was committed to using all its resourcesincluding direct military interventionto support the so-called entity, and ruled out any possibility of returning Lachin to Azerbaijan in future negotiations.

In response to the prosecutors' questions, defendant Arkadi Ghukasyan confirmed that he had taken part in the meeting with Ter-Petrosyan. Calling the meeting a decisive moment, the accused noted that the video was recorded shortly after the occupation of the Kalbajar district. He said he had participated as the head of the delegation from the former so-called entity negotiating with Azerbaijan and as a deputy of the same entity.

Ghukasyan added that following the meeting, Georgi Petrosyan resigned. "Karen Baburyan assumed the role of Speaker of the Parliament, and together with Robert Kocharian, signed the document presented by Levon Ter-Petrosyan," he said.

Under that document, the Republic of Armenia accepted full responsibility for ensuring the security of Karabakh until the conflict was completely resolved.

The trial continues for Armenian nationals charged with crimes against peace and humanity, including war crimes, acts of terrorism, planning and waging aggressive war, genocide, violations of the laws and customs of war, the forcible seizure and retention of power, and financing of terrorismamong other offenses linked to Armenias military aggression.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum told police after his arrest, I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, federal authorities said Thursday in announcing charges in the killings they called a targeted act of terrorism.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, shouted Free Palestine as he was led away after his arrest, according to charging documents that provided chilling new details of the Wednesday night shootings in the nation's capital that killed an American woman and an Israeli man who had just left an event at the museum. They were set to become engaged.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff. It came as Israel pursues another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in the war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally, and that law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned could inspire violence in the U.S.

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Rodriguez faces charges of murder of foreign officials and other crimes and did not enter a plea during a perfunctory court appearance. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said, as authorities continue to investigate the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.

Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero, said Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nations capital.

The couple planned to become engaged

The two people killed were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American. They were a young couple about to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Those who knew them paid tribute to the pair Thursday as warm, vibrant and curious, dedicated to promoting peace and aspiring to bridge cultural and religious divides.

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Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us, said Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, which organized the event. Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

An FBI affidavit made public Thursday presents the killing as calculated and planned, with authorities alleging that Rodriguez flew to the Washington region from Chicago on Tuesday with a handgun in his checked luggage. He purchased a ticket for the event about three hours before it started, the affidavit said.

The couple were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who witnesses said had been behaving suspiciously by pacing outside, approached a group of four people and opened fire. Surveillance video showed Rodriguez advancing closer to the two victims as they fell to the ground, leaning over them and firing additional shots. He even appeared to reload before jogging off, the FBI said.

Affidavit says suspect declared that he did it

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After the shooting, the suspect went inside the museum and stated that he did it. He was no longer armed by the time he was taken into custody, according to the affidavit.

I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed, he spontaneously said. He also told detectives that he admired an active-duty Air Force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in February 2024, describing the man as courageous and a martyr, court documents said.

Investigators said they were still working to corroborate the authenticity of writings purported to be authored by Rodriguez, an apparent reference to a document circulating online that expressed outrage over Israel's conduct in the war. The FBI is also contacting associates, family members and co-workers.

Rodriguez appeared in federal court in Washington in a white jail suit and listened impassively as the charges and possible punishments, which include the death penalty, were read. At a home listed in public records for Rodriguezs mother in suburban Chicago, a sign taped on the door Thursday afternoon asked for privacy.

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The shooting followed the Jewish advocacy group's annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum, which the couple had attended.

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots, and a man came inside looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red kaffiyeh, the Palestinian headscarf, and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Victims praised for their commitments and compassion

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Milgrim, from Overland Park, Kansas, was warm and compassionate, committed to peace building and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations, Deutch said.

A former youth director at Congregation Beth Torah recalled her as a brilliant girl with a perpetual smile and a sense of purpose.

She had a passion for Judaism and for Israel, and she wanted to do some good, said Marcia Rittmaster, the former youth director. She recommended Milgrim for a Jewish leadership internship upon the young womans graduation from high school.

Lischinsky grew up partly in the German city of Nuremberg and moved to Israel at 16.

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He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the (Israel Defense Forces), and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause, said Ron Prosor, who taught Lischinsky at Israels Reichman University. Lischinsky earned a masters degree in government, diplomacy and strategy there. He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide.

A friend, David Boskey, recalled Lischinsky as someone unafraid to broach hard questions in order to interrogate his own convictions. He met Lischinsky in 2017 in Jerusalem at a Messianic Jewish congregation, where they would often end up talking together about life and faith, Boskey said.

He was looking to see where he was going to go in life, asking questions about calling and about identity and about what he was going to study, where he was going to work, Boskey said.

On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

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___

An earlier version incorrectly said that the suspect in the shooting had been charged with shoplifting in Chicago.

____

Contributing to this report were Associated Press journalists Maya Sweedler, Zeke Miller, Michael Biesecker, Gary Fields, Michael Balsamo, Mike Pesoli, Nathan Ellgren, Dan Huff and Sarah Brumfield in Washington; as well as Jennifer Peltz in New York; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri; Nick Ingram in Overland Park, Kansas; Hallie Golden in Seattle; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Stefanie Dazio in Berlin; and Natalie Melzer in Nahriya, Israel.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening near a Jewish museum, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Noem announced the deaths in a post on X after the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, which is located steps away from the FBIs field office in the nations capital.

TRENDING STORIES:

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Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the U.S. attorney in Washington.

Danny Danon, Israels ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.

Police offered no details late Wednesday night on a potential motive for the shooting. A news conference was expected later Wednesday.

We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act, Danon said in a post on X. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

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The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

Israels reaction

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s office said Thursday that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

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We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy and the man was Israeli.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the U.S. attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.

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The statement from Netanyahus office said he spoke to Bondi, who told him Trump was involved in managing the incident and the U.S. would bring the perpetrator to justice.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence.

Israels campaign in Gaza

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

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The war in the Gaza Strip began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesnt differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape.

In cold blood

The violence occurred following the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.

This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight, Ted Deutch, American Jewish Committees chief executive, said in a statement early Thursday. At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing.

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Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local nonprofits in Washington awarded funding from a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museums leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organization and due to its new LGBTQ exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.

We recognize that there are threats associated with this as well, Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station. And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.

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In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington CEO Gil Preuss said in a statement that he was horrified by the shooting and mourned the loss of the two people killed.

Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, and with all of those who are impacted by this tragic act of antisemitic violence, he said.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.



AP writers Alanna Durkin Richer, Hallie Golden and Jon Gambrell contributed.

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Its taking an awfully long time for that concrete to dry, isnt it! chuckles 72-year-old Dave Smith. The retired engineer and long-term Croydon resident shakes his head as he peers through the metal fencing at the workmen sipping coffee on the steps up to the pedestrian bridge  the bridge that should allow him to carry his heavy shopping bags across the tracks at the north end of East Croydon station. Instead hes lugging them for an extra five minutes around the station because the 22m bridge  installed back in January 2013 and opened on the western side of the station in December 2013  still isnt open on the eastern side.

Behind this increasingly shabby-looking scheme appears to be a familiar tale; a combination of official incompetence, inaction and buck-passing. And it might sound somewhat trivial, but this is the 10th busiest station in Britain  20 million people started or ended a journey there last year, and 3.3 million people changed trains at the station in 2024.

Though the structure  known locally as the bridge to nowhere  will finally open to some extent this October, people who use the station were shocked to learn that Network Rail will not be installing ticket barriers at the eastern end. This means that occupants of the series of new tower blocks built by developers Menta in the Addiscombe area [on the east] will have to cross over the bridge to the west to buy tickets or tap in before doing a U-turn and fighting their way back through the crowd if theyre using platforms on the east, says Steven Downes, editor of Inside Croydon online newsletter.Thats utterly ridiculous, and will create real congestion during rush hour at such a busy station. Croydon council really needs to insist that Network Rail put in the required barriers.

72-year-old Dave Smith, a retired engineer and long-term Croydon resident, has to carry his shopping the long way around the station because of the incomplete bridge - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

Inside the station, staff agree with Smith and Downes that there is absolutely no logic to the plan, but they say Network Rail has run out of money for ticket barriers. They roll their eyes over the fact that the now rather tatty-looking 12-year-old bridge (which is missing floor tiles in several places) clearly needs remedial work before it can finally open to the east. The only people who use the fenced-off area, Im told, are staff from a nearby cafe who go there to take vape breaks.

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Just how has it taken so long to open a bridge that has been completed for the best part of 12 years?

2010: a truly exciting new structure

As part of plans for Croydons large-scale regeneration as a commuter town  with a new shopping centre and hoped-for hipster cafe culture  Croydon council agreed to invest 6m of public money in a new footbridge linking office buildings at Landsdowne Road in the west, with the proposed residential tower blocks on the east side of East Croydon station. Network Rail committed to investing 10m and Transport for London (TfL) 4.4m in the bridge. Craig Marks, CEO of Menta Developments, agreed to spend 2.3m to build steps and a pavement link up to the bridge between their two planned towers (and proposed 54-storey residential block, nicknamed the Mental tower) on Cherry Orchard Road.

Then Conservative councillor (now mayor) Jason Perry told the Croydon Advertiser that the truly exciting new structure would be enormously valuable to station users, easing congestion and stimulating new development in the area. But the fly in the ointment was Croydon councils planning department, says Downes. When giving permission for the bridge and the development on the east side, it appears nobody thought it would be a good idea to give Menta a deadline for improving their access link on Cherry Orchard Road. It was all left open-ended.

Network Rail say the East Croydon station walkway will finally fully reopen later this year - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

2012: Lego-like bridge will bring joy

A council report revealed that, until the Menta scheme delivers the link bridge, there would be a circa 16-metre physical gap between the existing walkway and the new Network Rail bridge. On the grounds that this would seriously compromise the objectives of the investments made by the London borough of Croydon (LBC), TfL and Network Rail, it was proposed that LBC fund the construction of a temporary link bridge costing 2.7 million, in a worst case scenario, designed to last 15 years, Ultimately, this was avoided.

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The old underpasses (suitable for those unable to use steps) beneath the north end of East Croydon station were often closed as development work on the station began.

The Lego-like white and yellow bridge  designed by Studio Egret West and Hawkins\Brown  was installed in November 2012. One hundred metres long and weighing 700 tonnes, the structure was made in 10 prefabricated sections for ease of transportation and assembled on an adjacent station site. Over 22 hours on a Sunday in November, the bridge was constructed as slowly as possible so as not to alarm passing train drivers. Its yellow sections were intended to bring joy into the lives of pedestrians.

2013: Gatwick airport passengers face epic luggage challenge

The bridge opened to the public in January but lacked exits at both east and west, only providing linking access between platforms. Steep steps proved a challenge to those arriving from Gatwick airport whod haul their baggage up to the top, only to realise that there was no exit at either the east or west sides (even though there were no signs warning that it only linked the platforms). They would then have to lug their suitcases back down the steps and along to the southern end of the station to get back to the street. The western exit opened in December 2013.

The Lego-like yellow and white bridge was installed in 22 hours, in November 2012, and intended to bring joy to pedestrians - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

2013 to 2024: Eleven years of disuse and a ticket-gate bombshell

Menta built six residential tower blocks along Cherry Orchard Road (including one block providing affordable and social housing on the other side of the road). Plans to build the sky-scraping Mental tower were abandoned.

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In 2018, Inside Croydon ran a report on issues with the slippery surface of the bridge, which was partially open to the elements. In 2019, a new planning consent was put in place and, in 2023, Mentas Craig Marks announced that he had finally commissioned the construction of the bridge link to Cherry Orchard Road. By March 2024, the link was ready to be attached to the rest of the bridge.

But the bridge wasnt opened. Teachers from the local primary school said it was a relief when things finally got built... it was an ugly mess for years with the whole thing boarded up.

The former Labour councillor for Addiscombe West, Jeremy Fitzpatrick, explains that at the 2024 annual meeting of the East Croydon Community Organisation (ECCO) in July, representatives from Croydon council, Menta and Network Rail agreed to answer questions from the community.

It was here that around 100 local residents learnt that no party would take financial and legal liability for the link between Cherry Orchard Road and  after 11 years of disuse  the bridge required considerable maintenance work to make it safe. Once that work was completed, one party would need to accept responsibility for extensive ongoing maintenance. Network Rails representative told the group that this had been put out to tender, but that the quotes for the work which had been returned were higher than they were prepared to pay. This resulted in the contract being retendered, meaning that, at the very earliest, the issue would not be resolved until well into 2025.

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Both Croydon council and Network Rail acknowledged that communication with the public had been inadequate and promised to do better in future. Fitzpatrick then asked if the east exit would be fitted with ticket barriers and they dropped the bombshell that it would not. Network Rails spokesman said the installation and staffing of those barriers would be too expensive.

2025: A petition to get it fully open  and provide proper ticket gates

Through a metal fence, Addiscombe residents can admire the open courtyard (planted with silver birch trees) that Menta has finally built to allow access to the bridge. On the side of one of the towers flanking the steps, a designer has attempted to lift the mood with a little urban poetry, in blossom-pink caps. A THOUSAND MEMORIES CASCADE FROM TREE TO TREE it shouts. Although only the trees (and the odd workman) will be making any memories there until at least October.

One resident of the tower tells me that its ridiculous that we still cant use the bridge  and even more absurd were not getting ticket gates at this end. I dont believe Network Rail cant afford them. As for staff, there always seem to be about ten guys on that bridge, especially late at night.

At the western end of the bridge, Jeremy Fitzpatrick is handing out flyers calling on Network Rail to LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY and PROVIDE A TICKET GATE at the top of the Cherry Orchard Road stairs! The former councillor barrister encourages commuters to scan a QR code on the leaflet which enables them to join the nearly 1300 people whove already signed the petition calling for ticket gates at the east end of the bridge.

Jeremy Fitzpatrick, former Labour councillor for Addiscombe West, hands out flyers calling on Network Rail to provide ticket gates on East Croydons bridge to nowhere - Paul Grover for The Telegraph

A spokesman for Network Rail says that: The original consent and funding was for ticket gates on the west end of the bridge. Should funding become available in future we would be happy to consider gates on the east end. For now, the bridge will still be a quicker route into East Croydon for people who live nearby.

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When pushed for a figure on how much ticket gates and staffing would cost, he explained that: Theres no set figure for how much a gate is. Adding an entrance to a station suddenly brings in lots of other aspects, including staffing and revenue risk too.

He adds: Network Rail is finalising plans for the bridge, which includes works to repair the surfaces and now introduces new balustrading and new partitioning to the public and passenger side. The full length of the bridge will open later this year.

Labour MP Natasha Irons (first elected in July 2024) says she has been badgering Network Rail and the council to get the bridge finished. Ive written to the mayor, Jason Perry, and to the council. Sarah Jones [MP for Croydon West on the other side of the bridge] and I met with Network Rail staff at the bridge and you can see it has been built to have a ticket gate at the east end. Its stupid not to put one in. But Network Rail will always say they dont have any money  because they dont.

A spokesperson for Croydon council said: We fully understand and share our residents frustrations about the delays in the opening of the footbridge linking the east and west side of East Croydon Station. We are pretty clear we would like the ticket barrier [at the east exit] and are continuing to pursue this with Network Rail.

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Menta CEO Craig Marks stresses that Menta has met all of its obligations, at no cost to Croydon or Network rail, and will be maintaining the entrance area on our land in perpetuity, including the new lift access we have also delivered in that area to the Network Rail (NR) bridge. We have invested around 2m in constructing the link piece to connect to the NR bridge and intend to donate this also at no cost to Network Rail when the bridge is opened.

A savvy student at the Fairfield School of Business (located opposite the east exit) tells me: For 13 years, the council, Menta, Network Rail and government have all just gone round in circles blaming each other for the situation. She shrugs and confides: Call me a cynic, but I think the mayor just wants to push everything through as quickly as possible now, so the bridge is open in any form before the next mayoral elections in 2026.

Steven Downes agrees. It will open without those gates. A classic example of spoiling the ship for a haporth of tar.

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DENVER (KDVR)  A 23-year-old man is now behind bars and facing charges for a deadly hit-and-run crash that prosecutors allege he committed on Sunday.

Dante Johnson was arrested Monday at about 9 a.m. by the Douglas County Sheriffs Office, which arrested the man on an unrelated warrant. He is alleged to have been the driver of a blue Toyota Highlander that hit and killed a bicyclist at the intersection of 95th Street and Avocet Lane at about noon on Sunday.

Sometimes getting into high-speed chases with yall is fun: Teens eluding investigated weeks after similar incident

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The cyclist was transported to a local hospital after the crash, where he was pronounced dead. He has not yet been identified.

It was a beautiful day for a cyclist and his friends. It ended in tragedy, Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told FOX31s Greg Nieto. The penaltys actually higher for leaving the scene than it is for the crash that took the persons life.

The Colorado State Patrol said the Highlander fled the scene of the crash, and later on Sunday, the vehicle was found abandoned in Clement Park in Littleton.

On Wednesday, the Boulder County District Attorneys Office filed charges against Johnson. He now faces charges of failing to remain at the scene/give information/provide aid after an accident involving death, and failure to notify police of a road accident.

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Statewide, we have too many hit-and-run incidents. Its a Class 3 felony in Colorado. It carries a very serious penalty of 4 to 12 years in state prison, Doughtery told Nieto.

In a press release, Doughtery said that crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians are a priority in his jurisdiction.

So, I deeply appreciate the rapid response and thorough investigation by the members of the Colorado State Patrol, Doughtery said. Also, the Colorado State Patrol immediately notified our DA Vehicular Response Team, which is very helpful. Todays arrest is a direct result of the immediate actions taken by the Colorado State Patrol and other law enforcement partners in response to this heartbreaking loss of life. As the criminal prosecution now moves forward, our office is committed to fighting for justice for the victim and his family.

CSP said that additional charges will be filed for Johnsons conduct and actions that led to the victims death. He is currently being held at the Arapahoe County Jail, and according to court records, he faces a $100,000 cash or surety bond.

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Johnson is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday morning.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
A Massachusetts man who killed a taxi driver and sold the murder weapon asked for parole about 25 years after the killing.

On, Dec. 30, 1997, Ricardo Reyes, who was 20, along with his co-defendant, Israel Perez, who was 19, robbed and killed 30-year-old Juan Vasquez, a taxicab driver in Methuen. The two talked about how they needed money and decided to rob a taxi driver.

They hailed a cab, armed with a .22 caliber weapon, the parole board stated. They pointed the gun at the back of Vasquezs head and demanded his money.

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Perez shot Vasquez in the back of the head and the two med fled the taxi.

After they were picked up by friends, they went to a local bar and sold the murder weapon.

The case was unsolved for two and a half years.

On June 21, 2002, Reyes pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

He first went in front of the parole board in 2022 but was denied. On January 23, Reyes appeared before the parol board again.

However, the parole board stated he has engaged in minimal programming.

He has incurred over 30 disciplinary reports with 4 since his last hearing and the most recent incident in October 2024, the parole board stated.

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Essex County Assistant District Attorney Emily Mello spoke against parole.

On May 15, parole was denied. He will have another hearing in a year.

Perez was granted parole in 2023.

He was 45 years old when he was released and was diagnosed with intellectual disabilities. The parole board said he also had reactive depression, language impairment and possible neurological impairment secondary to head trauma from prior to 1994.

He was sent to a residential placement with on-site psychiatric services and addiction services.

More on the Massachusetts Parole Board

Read the original article on MassLive.
Authorities arrested 265 suspects during a large-scale crackdown on child exploitation crimes across Southern California.

The effort, dubbed Operation Spring Cleaning, was led by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Regional ICAC Task Force, which is comprised of five counties  Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

The operation aims to identify and arrest child predators who use the internet to exploit children. Officers also work on rescuing the young victims targeted by the suspects.

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The operation took place from April 6 to 19, and was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved undercover investigations across various social media platforms to track down and identify suspected child predators.

The second phase involved serving residential and arrest warrants across the five counties, targeting suspects engaged in the distribution of child sexual abuse material, online exploitation, and other crimes against children.

During the nearly two-week operation, 265 suspects were arrested for child exploitation-related crimes. Many of them held positions of trust within their communities, and some were either employed or placed in a role that gave them direct contact with children, LAPD said.

Authorities also rescued 27 children in connection with the massive crackdown.

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Some of the crimes for which the 265 suspects were arrested include:

Possession, distribution or production of child sexual abuse material

Lewd acts with a child

Meeting a minor for lewd purposes

Contact or attempt to contact a minor for sex

Lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14 years of age

Human Trafficking

Oral copulation with a minor

Indecent exposure

Child annoying

Sending obscene matter to a child for sexual gratification

Failure to register as a convicted sex offender

Various violations of parole/probation conditions by convicted sex offenders

These arrests underscore the importance of vigilance and cross-agency collaboration in safeguarding children from individuals who use their trusted positions to exploit and harm the most vulnerable, LAPD said. The united efforts of the LA ICAC Task force and the community, in the fight against the online sexual exploitation of children, will surely assist in keeping the child predators at bay and allow our children to explore the internet without fear.

Authorities did not release the identities of the suspects. The public is encouraged to report potential child sexual abuse activity and have the material removed by visiting takeitdown.ncmec.org.

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By reporting the potential child sexual abuse activity, you are giving a potential victim a voice when they are often silenced due to circumstance, LAPD said.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)  Two San Francisco Police Department officers are charged with DUI for causing two separate collisions in the Bay Area.

SFPD officer Jason Isaac Hernandez was sentenced Thursday for a 2022 DUI crash. Prosecutors said the officer had a half-empty bottle of vodka in his car when he got lost driving around Hillsborough on December 15, 2022. The off-duty officer erroneously believed he was in Oakland when his car crashed into the back of a womans car on Skyline Boulevard, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

The 31-year-old victims car spun out of control from the impact, and she suffered major injuries. Two hours after the collision, Hernandezs blood alcohol content was still 0.20%, according to prosecutors. The officer told investigators that he was a depressed alcoholic, the DAs office wrote.

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Rookie SFPD officer Ryan Kwong is accused of driving drunk behind the wheel and causing a major crash in San Francisco on May 17, 2025.

Kwong graduated from the police academy and was sworn onto the force just 48 hours before his sedan slammed into a van, shoved it into a light post, and split the van open in the Sunset District.

The 28th San Francisco Police Academys graduates are sworn in on May 15, 2025. (Photo courtesy SFPD)

The crash happened at 2 a.m. while Kwong was off-duty. Three victims in the van suffered injuries, including one with life-threatening injuries. Kwong, 28, of San Francisco, was arrested by his new SFPD co-workers on suspicion of felony DUI.

Prosecutors charged Kwong on Tuesday with DUI causing injury, reckless driving, and speeding. His blood alcohol content was greater than 0.15%, prosecutors said.

Three victims were injured inside this van on Sunset Boulevard in San Francisco on May 17, 2025. (Photo courtesy James Gomez Jr.)

Hernandez remained out of custody on $50,000 bail bond while his case was pending. In exchange for pleading no contest to DUI earlier this year, Hernandezs felony conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor.

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New generation of CHP squad cars hitting Bay Area roads

On Thursday, officer Hernandez was sentenced by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Kevin Dunleavy to 30 days in county jail with 30 days credit for time served. The officer was placed on three years of probation.

The judge ordered Hernandez to abstain from alcohol and drugs, stay out of bars and liquor stores, submit to substance testing, complete a First Offender Program, and pay the victim restitution.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now)  Police are investigating a triple shooting in Woodbridge on Wednesday night.

In a social media post made shortly before 6 p.m., the Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) said the shooting happened near a shopping center in the 14200 block of Smoketown Road in Woodbridge.

Teenage girl shot in Northeast DC

There, three men were found with gunshot wound injuries. It was not made clear, however, how severe their injuries were.

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PWCPD said the shooting happened in a wooded area behind the nearby shopping center.

Residents in the nearby area were told to expect a continued police presence as their investigation continued.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live.
BELLA VISTA, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA)  The man who rescued 3-year-old Melody Livingston after a 15-feet fall at the Tanyard Creek waterfall in Bella Vista claims he was, just in the right place at the right time.

Asking to remain anonymous, Simon reached out to Melody and her mother, Kiya, after the two shared their harrowing experience on KNWA on Tuesday afternoon. After two days of stormy weather in Northwest Arkansas, Kiya Livingston said she just wanted to show her kids a fun time.

We hiked and hung our feet in the water for a while, Livingston said about their trip on Tuesday afternoon.

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But then just seconds later, Livingston heard someone yelling her name.

When my friends yelled, Kiya, I saw her and she was already underwater, Livingston said.

Panicked, Livingston raced down the side of the waterfall as quickly as she could. By the time she made it to the bottom, she said someone had already pulled Melody out of the water and her daughter was coughing up water.

Arkansas sees 206 tornado warnings so far in 2025; 2nd in nation

We really are grateful to the man who pulled her out safely, Livingston said. If I didnt believe in God and if there was no higher power, she would not be here.

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No broken bones, no fractures, not even a scratch. Livingston said doctors have not found any issues with Melody after such a close call.

But in the chaos after the waterfall incident, their hero disappeared in the crowd. So, Livingston took to Facebook in hopes to hunt him down to thank him.

Late Wednesday evening, Simon reached out to KNWA to report he had connected with Kiya, but that he wanted to remain anonymous.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, Simon said. Shes a survivor, a fighter, and tough as nails. Its a miracle shes alive.

Melody has a message for Simon: Thank you to my hero.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
JESSUP, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  A longtime Memorial Day tradition kicked off in Lackawanna County this evening. Jessup Hose Company Number Two is hosting its annual carnival as part of the festivities leading up to Saint Ubaldo Day.

28/22 News Reporter Avery Nape was there for the festivities to see how carnival fans are feeling about the big weekend.

The 33rd Annual Carnival in Jessup got off to a rainy start, but the spirit of the tradition was plain to see.

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From rides and carnival games to fried food and a beer tent, the carnival had something for everyone to enjoy.

Its fun either way if its raining or not, Scranton resident Gabriella Kehl said.

Its so much fun being out here and hanging with the boys, Chase Jordan from North Pocono told 28/22 News.

From being younger myself and as an adult now bringing my kids, its a lot of fun and it brings back a lot of fond memories, Jessup resident Jamie Hindman stated.

The carnival is held each year around Memorial Day, hosted by Jessup Hose Company Number Two.

Second Assistant Chief and co-chairman of the carnival, Joe Kozuch, says the event makes up a whopping 40% of the fire companys annual funding.

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Because of this carnival, weve been able to do major improvements. One of the things we improved last year was our rescue tools for vehicle rescues, Kozuch told 28/22 News.

The tools they replaced were from the 90s. He said they are soon hoping to replace one of its firetrucks, also from the 90s.

6K flags to be planted in Scranton to honor fallen

But this carnival is more than just a fundraiser, its a staple of the community and a precursor to Saint Ubaldo Day, a more than 100-year tradition honoring the towns Italian heritage.

For Hindman, its a chance to introduce her kids to a childhood tradition.

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We just moved back to the area after being away for a while, so I wanted to take Ella and Matthew to the carnival to see what its all about and to support the fire company, Hindman added.

While every Ubaldo Day is special in Jessup, for Hindman and her daughter, theres an extra level of significance.

Its Ellas first Ubaldo, and so, really excited for that, Hindman explained.

The carnival will be held through Memorial Day.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PAhomepage.com.
Four Chechen officers from Russian-backed Akhmat unit were killed in a car bombing near the occupied city of Skadovsk in Kherson Oblast on May 20, Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) claimed on May 22.

According to HUR, the car exploded between Skadovsk and Antonivka in the occupied part of Kherson Oblast. Skadovsk, a city with a pre-war population of 17,000, lies on the Black Sea coast. Russia has occupied it since March 2022.

The first blast was followed by more explosions, as the officers were allegedly transporting ammunition that detonated, HUR said.

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While Ukrainian intelligence did not explicitly claim responsibility for the incident, it said that "there will be just retribution for every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people."

The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.

Russian officials, their proxies, and collaborators have been routinely targeted in both occupied parts of Ukraine and inside Russia.

Kyiv does not typically comment on the attacks or claim responsibility.

Read also: 47th Brigade battalion commanders resignation puts Ukraines military leadership under new scrutiny

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
At least four individuals in Ohio have reported sickness, with nine hospitalized across the U.S. as public health officials investigate salmonella-related outbreaks linked to whole cucumbers sold in Ohio and multiple states, USA TODAY reports.

In total, 26 cases of salmonella infection were reported across 15 states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises all businesses not to sell or serve whole cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers Inc. from April 29May 19. Consumers should throw away the cucumbers if purchased during those dates.

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The CDC announced a recall on fresh cucumbers grown by Florida-based Bedner Growers Inc. and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales. In the notice, the cucumbers were distributed to stores, restaurants, and other facilities in Ohio, Kentucky, and other states between April 29 and May 19. No deaths have been reported.

Do not eat, sell or serve recalled cucumbers grown by Bedner Growers, Inc. and distributed by Fresh Start Produce Sales, Inc. More information is available in the advisory: https://t.co/keiO3jqmFm pic.twitter.com/d1vrm1Yugp  U.S. FDA Human Foods Program (@FDAfood) May 20, 2025

Ohio, Kentucky among 15 states reporting illnesses from salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers

As of May 19, the salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers has sickened 26 people in the following 15 states:

Alabama

California

Colorado

Florida

Illinois

Kansas

Kentucky

Michigan

North Carolina

New York

Ohio

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

Tennessee

Virginia

What to do if you bought recalled cucumbers

The CDC says that if you have cucumbers at home and can't tell where they are from that you should throw them away.

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Additional CDC guidance recommends asking restaurants if cucumbers were from Bedner Growers or Fresh Start Produce Sales Inc. when eating out and washing any surfaces that may have touched the cucumbers using hot soapy water.

What is salmonella? Symptoms, signs of infection

Salmonella are bacteria that can sicken those infected. According to the CDC, it's the leading cause of hospitalizations and deaths linked to foodborne illness. Salmonella infects 1.35 million people annually and is often linked to chicken.

Symptoms of salmonella infection generally include diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 4 in Ohio sick from cucumbers tied to recall over salmonella
Electronic warfare is an integral part of modern combat. Allied jammers can deny enemy communications, impair the targeting of friendly units, and even hide them from enemy detection altogether. The U.S. Navy employs the ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System on the E/A-18G Growler aircraft for its electronic warfare capability. Introduced in 1972, the legacy ALQ-99 suffers from poor reliability and system failures that have caused crews to fly with undetected faults. Additionally, the system interferes with the aircrafts own radar and adversely affects the planes top speed. To address these issues and better equip the fleet for future conflicts, the Navy started the Next Generation Jammer program.

An EA-6B Prowler equipped with the ALQ-99 Tactical Jamming System (U.S. Navy)

On July 2, 2021, RTXs Raytheon Technologies was awarded a $172 million low rate initial production lot 1 contract to manufacture Next Generation Jammer Mid-Band pods. The contracted consisted of three ship sets (two pods per set) of the NGJ-MB, associated spares, technical data, and gold units for operational test program set development. Naval Air Systems Command notes that the NGJ-MB is a joint effort between the U.S. Department of Defense and the Australian Ministry of Defence.

The NGJ-MB flies for the first time on an EA-18G above NAS Patuxent River, Maryland (U.S. Navy)

Lot 2 for five more NGJ-MB ship sets was awarded on December 24, 2021 for $227 million. On March 21, 2023, lot 3 was awarded for 15 NGJ-MB ship sets at $650.4 million; 11 sets went to the U.S. Navy while the remaining four went to Australia. Lot 4 consisted of 34 NGJ-MB pods at $590 million and was awarded on December 5, 2024. Most recently, Raytheon was awarded $580 million on May 16, 2025 for lot 5 which will see Raytheon provide additional production NGJ-MB ship sets, including to the Royal Australian Air Force.

The NGJ-MB achieved initial operational capability in December 2024 (U.S. Navy)

Offensive Electronic Attack provides a tremendous combat capability, protecting strike packages, kinetic weapons and high-value airborne assets across a broad range of missions, said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon, in a company press release. With this contract, well ensure that our naval aviators in all theaters are better prepared to counter adversary threats and support the Joint Fight. Raytheon notes that work under the contract will take place in Forest, Mississippi; McKinney, Texas; El Segundo, California; and Andover, Massachusetts through 2028.

The NGJ-MB enables the EA-18G to continue serving as the Navys electronic warfare aircraft (U.S. Navy)

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In addition to increased performance and capabilities over the legacy ALQ-99, the ALQ-249 NGJ-MB allows for rapid hardware and software updates to counter evolving and improving threats. Similarly, the Next Generation Jammer Low Band will address threats in the low-frequency bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The system is currently in the Engineering and Manufacturing Development acquisition phase and is also a joint program between the U.S. DoD and Australian MOD. While the NGJ will initially augment the ALQ-99, the ALQ-249 will ultimately replace the legacy system on the EA-18G Growler in U.S. Navy service.
On May 21, elected officials, leaders from the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, and project partners gathered in Tacomas Lincoln District to celebrate the opening of an affordable project aimed at providing a dignified way of living for the communitys elders.

Patsy Surh Place, in the heart of Tacomas Lincoln District at 3740 S. G St., offers 77 units of housing for Asian Pacific Islander elders and other low-income seniors.

The project, which will be co-owned and managed by the Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) and Asia Pacific Cultural Center, is named after community leader and artist Patsy Surh OConnell.

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OConnell immigrated to America as a student from Korea in 1963. She established the Asia Pacific Cultural Center in 1996 and was instrumental in creating the Korean American Artists Association of Washington State.

The new six-story building features 47 studio apartments and 30 one-bedroom units, all designated for seniors earning up to 30% and 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI). According to recent U.S. Census Bureau data from 2023, Tacomas household AMI is $83,857.

Patsy Surh Place is a new affordable housing project opening in Tacomas Lincoln District. Photographed on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Tacoma.

As of the grand opening, all but 11 units had been leased.

During the grand opening ceremony, Sharon Lee, the executive director of LIHI, said 20 of the units would be reserved for homeless veterans who could be eligible for vouchers through the Tacoma Housing Authority.

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Its amenities include a community lounge, multipurpose room, gallery space, outdoor courtyard, and on-site laundry facilities. The building includes commercial space for small businesses along South 38th Street.

Executive director of the Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Faaluaina Pritchard, said there are plans to incorporate cross-generational programs that encourage senior residents to visit and engage with younger generations in the community to share stories and cultural knowledge.

This project, you can mark my words, will be a model for senior housing, Pritchard said. Because it is our culture to take care of our elders.

During the ceremony Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards said the project is part of a larger investment in Tacomas Lincoln District and marks a remarkable transition for the neighborhood.

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Seniors deserve to age with dignity in the community they love, she said. This is what equity in housing looks like.

She noted the city has invested roughly $10 million into the infrastructure and modernization investments into Lincoln District as part of an effort to revitalize the historic international business community.

We believe in this neighborhood, Woodards told the crowd.

Pritchard said the Asia Pacific Cultural Center hopes to secure funding to build a second affordable housing complex directly adjacent to Patsy Surh Place in the near future.

Patsy Surh OConnell speaks during the ribbon cutting event for a new affordable housing project named in her honor, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Tacoma.

The $36 million project was made possible by multiple public funding contributions, including $18.5 million from the National Equity Fund through Low Income Housing Tax Credits, $5.4 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce, and $7 million from Pierce County.

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Patsy Surh Place is the latest project to be funded by the county as part of push to create affordable housing stock.

To fully meet the housing needs of current and future residents, the county needs to produce, on average, over 2,300 units per year of housing affordable at or below 50% of area median income (AMI) through the year 2044, the countys Housing Action Strategy of 2022 found. Over half of these units are needed for households at 30% of AMI or below.

In 2023, The county council passed the Maureen Howard Affordable Housing Sales Tax, named after a prominent advocate for the homeless in Tacoma who died in January 2023, which has made available millions in funding for affordable housing projects across the region.

Since its implementation in 2023, the affordable housing fund has contributed to the creation of roughly 750 units that are either built or in the pipeline, according to Pierce County Human Services Spokesperson Kari Moore.

Editors Note: This story has be updated to include the correct number of affordable houses in the pipeline. A previous version contained the wrong number.
FORT BRAGG  The first time retired Command Sgt. Maj. Andrew McFowler arrived at the 82nd Airborne Division, he was a battalion sergeant major on the corner of Ardennes Street.

Several years later, he was a brigade sergeant major for the 3rd Brigade Combat team when his team was pulled from conducting live fire exercises at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, and ordered to return to Fort Bragg to prepare for deployment.

McFowler and his brigade were sent to the Middle East for combat operations in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

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On May 21, McFowler again stood near Ardennes Street to become one of seven paratroopers inducted into the 82nd Airborne Divisions Hall of Fame this year.

There are so many great people in this division, and they picked a few and it makes you say, What did I do to get this, McFowler said ahead of the ceremony. It makes you humble.

McFowler said that during his 35 years in the Army, which ended in 2001 when he was the senior enlisted leader for the U.S. Army Forces Command, he considered his assignments in the 82nd among the best he ever had.

Command Sgt. Maj. Randolph Delapena, left, places a medal on retired Command Sgt. Maj. Andrew McFowler during his induction into the 82nd Airborne Division Hall of Fame during ceremony on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, on Fort Bragg.

2025 Hall of Fame

The latest paratroopers inducted into the Hall of Fame are among 85 others in the division's 107-year history whose reputations will never decay among All Americans, current division commander Maj. Gen. James Pat Work said during the induction ceremony.

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They inspired leaders and led alike when the stakes were high, Work said.

This year's inductees served between 1975 and 2020 and led in roles from squad leader to division commander, Work said.

Two were division commanders, one was a division command sereant major and three were brigade command sergeants major.

Their journeys through Grenada, Panama, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan led to this Hall of Heroes. Each story is compelling in its own merits, Work said.

What it means to be a paratrooper

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Cliff Burgyone is another inductee.

Burgoyne was senior enlisted leader for the division from October 2019 to July 2020 and retired from the Army as the senior enlisted leader of III Corps after 37 years of service.

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Following the ceremony, Burgoyne said that when he first enlisted in the Army, his dream job was to be an airborne first sergeant.

You serve in the division really to protect our nation. This is who we call, we call the 82nd Airborne Division when theres a problem in the world, and you have to be ready, he said.

Burgoyne said he is humbled to be part of the Hall Fame with others who helped develop him and others to be successful in the Army and life.

If you take a look at the people in the crowd, theyre the people and the legacy of this division, he said.

Paratroopers, Burgoyne said, are willing to do anything for their fellow paratrooper, regardless of the sacrifice.

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He said he is glad his son-in-law and daughter are now part of the divisions legacy.

What I'm proud of is just watching young paratroopers doing things without fear, Burgoyne said. Its unique, because its not taught.

Seven veteran paratroopers are inducted into the 82nd Airborne Division Hall of Fame during a ceremony on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, on Fort Bragg.

Other inductees

Other paratroopers inducted into the division's Hall of Fame this year are:

 Retired Gen. Richard D. Clarke, who was a a battalion commander in the division when he prepared and deployed his unit twice on short notices during the initial phases of the Global War on Terror.

Clarke was commander of the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, deploying from January-June 2003 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and from January-April 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Eleven years later he commanded the division and deployed with the headquarters, which served the Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command Headquarters during Operation Inherent Resolve.

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Clarke retired from the Army in October 2002 as commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

 Retired Lt. Gen. William Steele, who served in multiple roles in the division including battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 504th Infantry, and as division commander from 1993 to 1995, when he mobilized the division during Operation Uphold Democracy. The operation led to an airborne assault to oust Haiti dictator Raoul Cedras and restore democracy. Steele and the first wave of paratroopers were ready for combat assault when Cedras stepped down knowing that 61 C-130s were full of paratroopers en route. Steele retired from the Army as commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 2001.

 Retired Command Sgt. Maj. L. Barnard Basnight, who was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 325th Infantry not long after enlisting in 1975.

Basnight rose through the ranks, becoming command sergeant major for the Combat Aviation Brigade. Since retiring in 2006 from the Victory Brigade at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Basnight has continued to contribute as a military and veteran advocate in the 82nd Airborne Division Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other organizations.

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 Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Rodger Blackwood, who was a leader in Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 73rd Armor. He helped integrate airborne armor for the divisions rapid deployment capabilities and was part of the first Sheridan tank element from the 82nd to deploy during Operations Desert Shield and Storm, playing a critical role in the capture of Ali Al Salem Airfield in Kuwait.

Blackwood retired from the Army in 2013 as the senior enlisted leader for the U.S. Army Cyber Command.

 Retired Command Sgt. Maj. David C. Henderson, who served as first sergeant for the 4th Battalion, 325th Infantry Regiment when it had a key role during the seizure of Omar Torrijos International Airport and Fort Cimarron in Panama during Operation Just Cause. Henderson also deployed with the division during Operation Desert Shield and spearheaded response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Henderson retired from the Army in 1999 as the senior enlisted leader for the division's 1st Brigade Combat Team.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Who was inducted into the 82nd Airborne Division Hall of Fame 2025?
Ukraine has brought nine more children from Russian-occupied territories to Ukrainian-controlled areas, Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak said on May 22.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has identified over 19,500 children who have been forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or occupied territories. So far, only around 1,300 of them have been safely brought to Ukrainian government-controlled territory.

Among the rescued children is a girl whose life was in danger due to the lack of adequate medical care in the occupied territories, and a boy who, along with his mother, was locked in a basement by Russian forces while his father was tortured in a nearby room, Yermak said.

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Others include two sisters who didn't leave their home for nearly three years because of constant shelling and the presence of Russian tanks, and a teenage girl who was cut off from online schooling due to communication blockades imposed by Russian forces.

"These children lived through horrors," Yermak said in a statement. "We are fulfilling the president's task: to bring all children back home."

The rescue mission was conducted as part of Bring Kids Back UA, a national initiative spearheaded by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and coordinated by his office to return deported children to their families and communities.

Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territories are placed in families or Russian camps, where they are known to be subjected to intense anti-Ukrainian propaganda, and at times, military training.

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Kyiv has repeatedly stated that returning all these children is a key condition for any future peace agreement with Russia.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also taken up the matter. In March 2023, it issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over their involvement in abductions.

On May 8, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning Russia's forcible deportation and Russification of Ukrainian children, calling it a "genocidal strategy" aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity and demanding the unconditional return of all abducted minors.

Read also: As Russia trains abducted children for war, Ukraine fights uphill battle to bring them home

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
May 21ROCHESTER  To help educate Rochester community members on financial fraud, the AARP Minnesota and the Better Business Bureau will host a "Scam Jam" on Wednesday, May 28.

The free event will last from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rochester International Event Center, located at 7333 Airport View Dr. SW.

According to AARP Minnesota, the Federal Trade Commission found that Minnesotans lost $144.6 million in 2024 as a result of scams.

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"Scam Jam offers an opportunity to take charge and learn criminal tactics to protect hard-earned savings," AARP Minnesota said in a release.

Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast being served. The event will have speakers discussing ways to protect people from scams. Attendees will also be able to learn about "fraud-fighting resources" from local organizations in attendance.
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season will likely experience above-average activity, the National Hurricane Center announced on Thursday.

Between 13 and 19 named storms are expected for the 2025 season, which starts on June 1 and lasts until Nov. 30, according to the NHC. Storms are named when they become tropical storms or stronger.

Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict between six and 10 hurricanes and between three and five major hurricanes, at Category 3 or higher.

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There is a 60% chance of an above-normal season, Ken Graham, director of NOAA's National Weather Service and assistant administrator for weather services at NOAA, told reporters on Thursday.

MORE: This is what it's like to fly inside a powerful hurricane

What factors are impacting this year's forecast?

Recent La Nina conditions in the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean have ended with neutral conditions -- meaning no La Nina or El Nino -- now in place. This is forecast to continue heading into the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.

El Nino conditions favor below average Atlantic hurricane season activity, while neutral or La Nina conditions tend to favor above average activity.

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In addition, sea surface temperatures are currently much warmer than average in the Atlantic Basin.

PHOTO: Tropical Climatology (ABC News)

There is also a forecast for weak wind shear. This allows hurricanes to form and sustain longer without inhibition or limiting.

Higher activity from the West African Monsoon is also predicted, which helps to initiate tropical cyclones.

The high heat content that has been experienced the last few seasons is expected to continue, both in the air and in the ocean water. This works to fuel tropical cyclones.

"Everything's in place for an above average season," Graham said.

MORE: Destructive hurricanes like Helene highlight that catastrophic impacts from storms can extend far inland

How accurate is the National Hurricane Center at forecasting hurricane paths?

In 2024, National Hurricane Center forecasters set a new record for forecast track accuracy, according to a report released last month. But recent budget and staffing cuts by the Trump administration could jeopardize this progress, experts previously told ABC News.

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NHC issued 347 official forecasts during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, and its track predictions set accuracy records at every forecast time period.

PHOTO: An aerial view of a building destroyed by Hurricane Milton on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Official track forecast errors have decreased significantly in recent years and are now up to 75% smaller than they were a few decades ago.

Intensity forecast accuracy continues to lag behind track forecasts, however, overall intensity predictions have shown steady improvement over the past decade.

Graham told reporters during Thursday's news conference that the NHC is "fully staffed" and "ready to go."

"We are proud of the amount of forecasting that happens and how accurate they are with that," Graham said. "Weather prediction, modeling and protecting human lives and property is our top priority."

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MORE: Florida's farmlands, iconic orange groves recovering following back-to-back hurricanes

Hurricane hunter staffing and plane shortages could impact forecasting

Hurricane hunter missions have struggled with staffing and maintenance issues in recent years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in March.

These impacts could be exacerbated as NOAA and the National Weather Service cope with recent budget and staffing cuts by the Trump administrations that have impacted various offices nationwide.

When asked whether cuts will impact forecasting, Graham said the hurricane hunters at NOAA and the U.S. Airforce are ready for deployment, adding that meteorologists will also rely on the latest models and supplemental information from weather balloons operated by private companies.

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"NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public and ensure our nation's environmental and economic resilience," an agency spokesperson told ABC News previously. "We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission."

PHOTO: An aerial view of a home sitting on a road on October 13, 2024 in Manasota Key, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The GAO also identified an aging aircraft fleet and an inadequate number of maintenance technicians as problems for the agency. In 2023, all three of NOAA's Hurricane Hunter aircraft were grounded due to maintenance issues as Hurricane Idalia threatened Florida in late August.

MORE: Hurricane Milton produced record number of tornado warnings, says NWS

What is NOAA's hurricane outlook?

The hurricane season outlook forecasts either below, near, or above average activity for the upcoming season. It will also provide a forecast range for the number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes that are currently expected.

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NOAA's outlook is for overall seasonal activity, and like we saw last year, varying levels of activity could occur throughout the six-month season. It does not discuss how many storms could make landfall or impact the U.S.

MORE: Climate change making Atlantic hurricanes twice as likely to strengthen from weak to major intensity in 24 hours

Storm names for 2025

A storm gets a name once it is deemed a tropical storm, which is when sustained winds reach 39 mph or higher, according to NOAA. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when it reaches sustained 74 mph winds or higher.

The storm will keep the name for the rest of its lifespan.

PHOTO: Tropical Cyclone Names (ABC News)

The names for the 2025 season are Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.

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A hurricane becomes "major" when it reaches category 3 or higher, or sustained winds of 111 mph or higher.

Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center since 1953, according to the NHC. Storm names are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by the World Meteorological Organization.

Names are used in rotation and re-cycled every six years, unless a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name would be inappropriate.

ABC News' Kenton Gewecke and Sam Wnek contributed to this report.

Above-normal activity predicted for 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, NOAA forecasts originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Federal forecasters predicted an unusually heavy hurricane season at a briefing in New Orleans on Thursday.

Everythings in place for an above-average season, Ken Graham, director of the United States National Weather Service (NWS), told reporters in Louisiana.

The NWS predicts three to five major hurricanes this season.

Hot oceans and still, stagnant air over the ocean mean those storms could bring nearly twice the accumulated power of an average year  called the accumulated cyclone energy  to bear on the east coast of North America, Graham said.

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You have a planet thats warmer, and ocean temperatures can be impacted by that, and the warmer ocean temperatures are really consistent with us being in a more active [hurricane] season, Graham said.

Six to 10 total hurricanes will be formed out of the 13 to 19 named storms that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts.

At the high end, those numbers mark a significant uptick of in hurricane activity over an average year, which would see three major hurricanes, seven total hurricanes, and 14 named storms.

Speaking the week before the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history, Graham warned of the danger of surprise.

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The most dangerous hurricanes, he warned, tended to develop fastest. Every Category 5 storm to ever hit this country was a tropical storm or less three days prior. If you dont get goosebumps, Ill repeat it, Graham said.

The big ones that hit this country are fast.

As he pointed out, a hotter climate doesnt necessarily mean more hurricanes  just deadlier ones that move slower and carry more water, leading to heavier floods inland.

Were seeing some of these floods, and were hearing from more and more communities. Its like, Oh, Ive lived here my whole life. Ive never seen some of these rainfall rates like that, he said.

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The water is the biggest killer in these things, Graham said, in large part because while coastal communities tend to evacuate, inland ones dont  often because they dont know they need to.

Inland flooding during Hurricane Helene, for example, was responsible for the majority of the 230 deaths  something NWS officials said they were addressing with new maps of inland flood risk expected to come out next year.

While Thursdays briefing was somber, NWS officials also pointed to the new tools they were deploying  new storm models built on data from new satellites , underwater gliders , and radar systems on hurricane hunting planes .

These had led to a decades-long rise in forecast accuracy, Graham said, which allowed the NWS to calculate a probable path for Helene before it was even a depression  just a bunch of clouds.

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But the briefing, premised on the forecasting accomplishments of a previous administration, was marked by tense questions from reporters about the effect of Trump administration cuts to emergency services and forecasting.

In particular, they focused on widespread departures or firings of employees of the NWS, which has lost more than 10 percent of its staff since January. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is expected to lose nearly a third following cuts ordered by the Trump administration, which has considered shuttering the agency .

Although the National Hurricane Center reports it is fully staffed, 550 employees at regional field offices left or were laid off this year.

Thats a problem because so much of disaster response is local. Reporting in ProPublica Wednesday found that while federal warnings about Helenes track and danger were eerily accurate, many Appalachian communities didnt put out warnings .

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Asked about the impact of cuts, Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said changes were geared toward making a quicker response that is more efficient with the resources that we have, more efficient recovery, more hopefully more money towards mitigation.

But she said that Grahams point about the sudden strengthening of storms was searing in my mind.

Almost a million people live here. How do you evacuate an area like this in three days or less? she asked.

As far as the larger idea of moving disaster response authority to local governments, Sheng said that as a former federal bureaucrat, knocking it down, getting more more response to the states, is in theory, a good thing to be talking about.

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We want to make sure the resources are there, though. And if the responsibility is going to come to the states, I think those of us in the state just want to make sure the resources are there, and the skill and the experience is there.

Graham warned coastal and inland communities to get ready now. Ive said this for decades  theres no Hurricane Justa  just-a category 2, or category 3. Every one of them is different. The bigger the storm, the slower the storm, the more the impact  I dont care about the category.

He warned of specific dangers: the backflow on boys and rivers that flooded nearby houses; the falling trees that destroy property and kill. In particular, there were the significant dangers that come after the skies have cleared: the risk of heat injury when the power goes out or dehydration from water loss; the deadly accidents from running generators inside; or from snakes, gators, fire and mounds displaced by the storm.

So weve got to be ready. There are no lines for supply right now. No lines for plywood. No lines for water. So while theres no lines, its a good time to get up there and get supplies.

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In a world where hurricanes were changing, Graham added, Weve got to convince people of the danger. When you, when you live, you know, 500 miles inland, and you really dont think that you could be impacted like that, right? So its hard for people to understand what has never happened before.

Updated at 12:51 p.m. EDT

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. ISESCO Director General Salim bin Mohammed AlMalik sent a congratulatory letter to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Trend reports.

The letter reads,

''Excellency,

On behalf of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and in my own name, I am honored to extend to Your Excellency, your esteemed government, and the brotherly people of the Republic of Azerbaijan our sincere congratulations on the occasion of your countrys Independence Day.

This important national day represents a symbol of the unwavering determination of the Azerbaijani people and their steadfast commitment to sovereignty, unity, and progress. Under your leadership, the Republic of Azerbaijan has made significant strides in sustainable development, cultural preservation, education, and scientific advancement, all while promoting peace and cooperation both regionally and globally.

We take pride in the close and fruitful cooperation between ICESCO and the Republic of Azerbaijan, and we remain committed to strengthening our partnership to support education, science, and culture throughout the Islamic world. We value Azerbaijans active and constructive role within our Organization and commend your continued support of ICESCOs mission and initiatives.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration and best wishes for your continued good health and success.''
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  Government leaders, agencies and facilities have expressed outrage and sadness over the loss of a young couple who worked as staff members at the Israeli embassy; the two were shot and killed Wednesday night while leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.

(Ben Dennis/DC News Now)

(Ben Dennis/DC News Now)

The couple was identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the two were about to be engaged.

Lischinsky had purchased a ring the week of the shooting with plans to propose the following week while the two were in Jerusalem, Leiter said.

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Two Israeli embassy staff members shot, killed outside DC Jewish museum

We will not tolerate this act of hate in our city, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said during a news conference. We will not tolerate this act of terrorism.

Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. (Photo Courtesy: Embassy of Israel to the United States)

The suspected shooter was identified as Elias Rodriguez, a man in his 30s from Chicago.

While a group of four people, including the victims, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, the suspect approached and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

Rodriguez was seen pacing outside the museum before the shooting and was arrested after he made his way inside the museum. Rodriguez was heard on a video chanting, Free, free Palestine during his arrest.

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Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences in an X post. According to a Google translation of his post  which was initially written in Hebrew  the last few sentences were translated as follows:

My heart breaks for the families of the beloved young man and woman, who were brutally murdered by a despicable anti-Semitic terrorist. I have instructed security officials to strengthen protection arrangements for Israeli missions around the world, and to raise the level of security for all state envoys. We will defeat hatred  and we will not let terrorism defeat life. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: DC police investigating double shooting in Northwest

Members of the German Embassy in Washington took to social media to condemn the act of violence.

I am deeply shocked and outraged by the murder of two Israeli Embassy staff in #Washington. I condemn this antisemitic act of terror, Ambassador Andreas Michaelis posted on Bluesky. We stand with our colleagues at the Israeli Embassy, and our thoughts are with the families of the victims.

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Virginia and Maryland leaders were also among those expressing sympathies.

My heart breaks for the victims of the atrocious act and their families, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said. Make no mistakethis act of violence was an act of terror, targeted against the Jewish people. We stand alongside our friends from Israel in their grief and purpose and must have zero tolerance for antisemitism. I urge Virginians and Americans to stand against hate.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he was appalled by the vile attack.

ADDITIONAL COVERAGE: CEO of Jewish Federation of Greater Washington speaks after couple killed outside Jewish museum

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The Capital Jewish Museum released a statement in the aftermath of the shooting. The statement began with offering condolences to the friends and family of Lishinsky and Milgrim; it then continues on to describe the resilience of the Jewish community.

The Capital Jewish Museum was built to tell the centuries-old story of the greater Washington regions vibrant Jewish community. We are proud to tell these stories of Jewish life. In our work, we share Jewish stories in the service of building bridges and opening dialogue in our beautiful city.

The museum plans to re-open in the coming days with the necessary security in place.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum said they were horrified by the antisemitic terrorist attack.

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Two young lives were tragically cut short while attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee for young Jewish professionals to discuss the importance of humanitarian service. This is an outrageous assault on the Jewish State and Jewish people everywhere, said U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Chairman Stuart E. Eizenstat. Inciteful antisemitic rhetoric is a growing and increasingly deadly danger to Jews and societies worldwide. It must be forcibly and universally condemned. Our thoughts are with the victims families and colleagues at this time of great loss.

Person shot at CIA headquarters in McLean, police say

DC News Now is looking to get more details regarding a court hearing.

Out of an abundance of caution, Montgomery County in Maryland has implemented increased patrols and visibility around Jewish institutions throughout the county.

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NEW YORK  The once-epicenter of Covid served as the stage Thursday for New York City mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams to tear into opponent Andrew Cuomos pandemic response as governor.

Adams, the New York City Council speaker, lambasted her campaign rival in an emotional speech commemorating the five-year anniversary of her fathers death after battling Covid.

She recalled driving her father to a hospital on Long Island  even though he lived in Jackson Heights, Queens  because nearby Elmhurst Hospital was overwhelmed with Covid patients, noting that Cuomo presided over Medicaid cuts that disproportionately hurt such facilities.

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I remember begging the governors office to send life-saving vaccines to my community, she said. And for weeks and months, our request was denied no matter what we said. Because the site where the vaccines were supposed to go was run by then-Mayor de Blasio, the former governors political enemy.

Cuomo and de Blasio were frequently at odds during the pandemic. The former governor personally blocked vaccine distribution to Citi Field, where the former mayor planned to open a mass vaccination site, and his administration withheld daily data from the city, POLITICO previously reported.

This election, we must expect more for ourselves, Adams said in her speech. Expect leaders who care more about solving our problems than punishing their enemies.

Cuomos Covid record has proven to be a double-edged sword on the campaign trail. The former governor made it the proud focus of his first ad in the race earlier this week: a six-figure, 30-second spot entitled Crisis. After news broke Tuesday that the Department of Justice is investigating allegations he lied to Congress about his handling of Covid in nursing homes, his campaign spun that into an ad, too.

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The rest of the field, meanwhile, keeps trying to wound Cuomo with mentions of his pandemic-era scandals.

We didnt withhold anything, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi texted POLITICO in response to Adams remarks. Its false.

He attributed the issue at Citi Field to a lack of vaccine supply from the federal government, given the state was also standing up a mass vaccination site at Yankee Stadium.

If Elmhurst was underfunded, it was more a function of the level of city funding than state funding, he alleged in a post on X following Adams speech.

Poll results suggest Cuomos narrative is so far winning out, with just over one month to go until the Democratic primary.

But Adams has a powerful ally in state Attorney General Letitia James, who also burnished her name recognition during the pandemic  in her case, by releasing a bruising report on Cuomos undercounting of Covid deaths among nursing home residents.


A group of adults stormed a high school in Riverside this week and attacked a student to carry out revenge for a student relative who was involved in an earlier fight.

One student and two school staff members were attacked Tuesday at Martin Luther King High School, according to the Riverside Unified School District. The series of events unfolded when a fight broke out between two boys earlier in the day on the campus.

After that fight, one of the students contacted family members to help them attack the other student, Officer Ryan Railsback told the Press-Enterprise. Several adults arrived at the school and some of them barged through a school office and circumvented campus security. A campus supervisor followed the group and alerted the school administration, who then contacted police, according to the school district.

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In video footage shared on social media, several people can be seen involved in a brawl at the school. Railsback said school staff members tried to intervene but they were attacked by the adults and a student.

By the time police arrived on the campus, the adults and the student who had called his relatives had fled the campus. The student who was attacked was taken to the hospital but did not receive any major injuries, Railsback said.

Read more: Teens on bikes steal from supermarket near USC, hurl homophobic slurs at couple

Riverside Unified School District spokesperson Liz Pinney-Muglia told The Times the adults stormed the school during a lunch break and the fight lasted for a few minutes.

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"We are increasing security measures on campus for the remainder of the school year to support a safe and secure environment," the district said in a statement. "Additional personnel will be present, and daily check-ins between school administration, School Resource Officers, and Riverside Police will help ensure continued coordination and vigilance. We remain fully committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for all students, staff, and families at Martin Luther King High School."

In a message to the school community and parents, Principal Leann Iacuone said the school is cooperating with the police investigation and will review its policies for dealing with people who barge onto the campus without permission.

"The safety of our students and staff is always our top priority," Iacuone said. "We are grateful to our team for their rapid response and to law enforcement for their support."

Christopher Martinez, 17, told the Press-Enterprise he wasn't too bothered by the episode.

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"No one was really worried about it. People are talking about it, though, Martinez said. For the most part, me and my friends feel safe on campus. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened that Im aware of, so I dont really see it as a super big issue.

Authorities have identified everyone involved in the fight, Railsback told The Times. Those individuals could face possible trespassing or assault charges, but the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
BOSTON (SHNS)  Representing their experiences living through the child welfare system, a multigenerational ensemble of performers took center stage Wednesday at the State House as service providers and child welfare advocates called on the state to support key programs.

The Treehouse Foundations Truth Tellers Theater Ensemble gave voice to what they called the walking wounded, most of whom have dealt with the Department of Children and Families entering and tangibly impacting their lives.

Individuals with Treehouse Foundations Truth Teller Ensemble perform at Childrens League of Massachusetts State House advocacy day on May 21, 2025. (SHNS)

In the last few years, weve made a lot of great progress in reducing the number of children coming into care and really paying attention to the upstream prevention support that families need to stay safe and stable, Childrens League of Massachusetts Executive Director Rachel Gwaltney told the News Service at an advocacy day event in Great Hall.

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What were worried about is that cuts to programs at the state level, cuts to funding for the most vulnerable people at the federal level, are going to drive more families into the child welfare system that dont need to be here, Gwaltney added.

A 30-year-old nonprofit advocacy group, the League includes 60 organizations that provide direct services, advocacy and education to children and families in Massachusetts.

According to data cited by the League, up to 80% of children in foster care experience significant mental health issues, compared to 18-22% of the general population, and nearly 85% of families investigated by child protective services nationally have incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line, the League said.

Childrens League of Massachusetts Executive Director Rachel Gwaltney speaks at the Leagues State House advocacy day on May 21, 2025. (SHNS)

Gwaltney said the sector struggles to fund the workforce for key service and clinician positions, which ensure treatment in a timely fashion and access to care. A priority for the League includes plugging funding for Chapter 257 human services rates in the fiscal 2026 budget.

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Its important that we maintain what weve been building, between the Behavioral Health Network, between community-based programs like the family resource centers, Gwaltney said. Weve got to keep maintaining those investments so that we dont slide backwards.

The Leagues other workforce-related legislative priorities includes bills that would create an education loan repayment program for some human services workers (S 218, H 1423) and bills that would eliminate the pay disparity between state and community-based human services workers (S 130, H 223).

The League and its affiliates, including national mental health provider Youth Villages, said the biggest question mark during budget season has been support for the Department of Mental Health.

Gov. Maura Healeys fiscal 2026 budget proposal slashed DMH case managers in half and put three state-funded youth mental health programs at risk of closing. The House adopted an amendment in its budget that requires DMH case manager staffing levels not be reduced below fiscal 2025 levels. On Tuesday, the Senate added some guardrails for DMH case managers to its budget, though the Senate budget will not protect DMH jobs in danger.

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Mental health is an issue from birth all the way through adulthood, so if we can provide intensive services at childhood, then were going to help reduce recidivism through adulthood, Director of Specialized Operations for Youth Villages Jacque Cutillo said.

Child welfare advocates are also pushing for maintaining, and increasing, funding in budget line items pertaining to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Services for Children & Families.

One of our key priorities is to maintain those services and make sure we dont close beds that we know are really important for families. Not only do they keep children safe, they keep children getting treatment, they allow parents to be in the workforce, Gwaltney said. Its all sort of interconnected.

Guests watch Rep. Jay Livingstone accept the House Champion for Children Award in the Great Hall at the Childrens League of Massachusetts State House advocacy day on May 21, 2025. (SHNS)

Gwaltney called potential Medicaid funding cuts the biggest threat for our sector.

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It funds a lot of the Childrens Behavioral Health Network in Massachusetts, in addition to funding primary health care for children and for low-income families, Gwaltney said.

When we see those health outcomes being attacked by lack of access to services, thats when were going to see more families destabilize, more children with more intensive behavioral needs that dont have access to treatment that they need, she continued.

Black children are 1.5 times more likely, and Hispanic children are 1.7 times more likely to have an open DCF case than white children, according to DCF data. Black, Hispanic/Latinx and Native American children are also more likely to have out-of-home placements compared to white children.

The League supports a bill (S 148, H 262) that would enhance reporting and analysis on disproportionality and transition age youth outcomes, and involve more timely notifications to children and youth attorneys. Another bill (S 1280, H 197) would establish a commission to study insurance liability for foster care providers.

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(FOX40.COM)  Construction crews are making good progress rebuilding the On Broadway housing development at 19th Street and Broadway in Sacramento, which was badly damaged in a fire last year.

The development features two five-story buildings, which will offer 140 units of affordable apartments for income-qualifying renters.

One of the two buildings burned to the ground while under construction on March 26, 2024. The cause of the fire is still undetermined.

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At first, when it happened, people were pretty stunned, said Shawn Eldredge of Brown Construction, who is the superintendent on the project. You lose the crew that had been here. We stopped work for 30 days. Once they came back, everybodys thrilled to be here.

Two-vehicle crash sends multiple people to hospital in Sacramento

Eldredge said the fire set the project back about eleven months. But hes energized by the rebuilding effort.

When it stopped, and it finally restarted, theres like a sense of urgency to get back, Eldredge explained. So our durations have been cut. Guys are working faster. There are more people on site. For us, its exciting.

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Reconstruction on the building that burned now has it looking much the way it did right before the fire, but with some enhanced security cameras and alarms. And the construction crews get to come to work knowing they are building something that will make a meaningful difference.

Eldredge gave FOX40 a tour of the construction site along with Welton Jordan, who is vice president of real estate development for EAH Housing.

Woman pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts in Grand Theft case

EAH Housing is a nonprofit that develops, owns, and manages affordable housing communities.

Were going to own this for perpetuity, Jordan said of the On Broadway site. Were going to be this communitys neighbors forever.

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Rent for income-qualifying applicants will range from $723 for a one-bedroom unit, up to $2,000 for a three-bedroom unit. A variety of local, state, and federal housing assistance funding sources will help keep rent below the market rate. Thirty-seven units will be set aside for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. There will also be support services on-site.

The On Broadway development is part of the planned revitalization of Sacramentos Broadway corridor. Its also close to light rail and bus stops.

This project unbundles the cost of parking from housing, said City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, who represents the neighborhood. So folks can live in a car-free way, next to light rail, adjacent to the grid, between the Land Park and Central City communities. You know the old calculus of spending roughly a third of your income on housing? I think many of us are spending half or more. And then if you add transportation expense on top of that, theres really nothing left. So if you can really reduce that transportation expense and reduce that housing expense, then you actually have some money in there to do things to invest in yourself, invest in your family. And thats the kind of opportunity were looking to provide.

Prospective On Broadway renters will be able to put their names on an interest list within a few months. The goal is to have people moving in by the end of 2025.

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And so there will be an online application, Jordan explained. Our property management team will accept those applications, review them, make sure people income-qualify.

For the whole team putting this much-needed project together, its a labor of love, tested in fire, on Broadway.

I build things for a living, said Eldredge. So when theres an altruistic aspect to it, you know youre improving the lives of folks. And in this case, youre improving the neighborhood.

The financing, the planning, the building, cobbling everything together, hiring a great team, and then ultimately seeing this to fruition, Jordan added. Were very proud, and will be even more excited when we finally see people moving in.

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More information about the On Broadway housing development can be found here.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC) condemns the statement of the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the address of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to the participants of the international conference on Return to Western Azerbaijan as an important condition for the rule of human rights held in Ankara on May 21, the statement of Western Azerbaijan Community said, Trend reports.

Meanwhile, it is noted that the dissemination of statements with distorted content by the Armenian government, its adoption of a line of denial with simultaneous denial of the essence of the problem, instead of ensuring the fundamental human right to return, is unacceptable. Armenia's avoidance of dialog with the Western Azerbaijan Community, its connivance with the activities of the remnants of the former illegal regime against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, completely contradict the country's statements about its interest in lasting peace in the region.

Our Community once again emphasizes that it will continue its resolute struggle for the right of return peacefully and under international law, the statement reads.
North Koreas latest frigate has been significantly damaged in an embarrassing incident during its launch ceremony, which was attended by Kim Jong Un. The countrys leader described the mishap as a criminal act, before calling for the warship to be quickly restored. Satellite imagery circulating online shows the vessel lying on its side next to the dock where it was launched. Blue tarpaulins are seen draped over it in an effort to obscure the incident from prying eyes in orbit overhead.

We now have additional satellite imagery and accompanying analysis of North Koreas failed warship launch courtesy of the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Beyond Parallel project, which can be found at the bottom of this story.

Satellite image of the frigate on its side next to the dock seen in the tweet below:

North Koreas latest naval destroyer has been significantly damaged prior to its launch. In a rare acknowledgment, North Korea's state news agency KCNA reported yesterday an incident occurred with a new destroyer in Chongjin, which was close to being launched. pic.twitter.com/0PfuqehYnF  Open Source Centre (@osc_london) May 22, 2025

Kim Jong Uns fury inducing crippled in botched sideways launch destroyer spotted TODAY under blue tarps 



2nd Choe Hyon-class North Korea destroyer is sunk, leaning on her starboard side, bow over slipway.



Wonder why tarps also over slipway. Hiding pieces or what? https://t.co/TCIWVNbhV1pic.twitter.com/bB8mhpij1B  Tom Bike (@tom_bike) May 22, 2025

The vessel is the second of its class, following the Choi Hyon, which was officially unveiled last month. You can read all about the heavily armed class of frigates in our previous detailed analysis and follow-up report. The new frigate, the name of which is unknown, was being launched in the eastern port city of Chongjin yesterday.

Satellite image taken on May 20, 2025, prior to the launch ceremony, showing the ship still on land. PHOTO  2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

In a very rare move, the incident was quickly confirmed by North Korea, perhaps in an effort to get ahead of the news cycle once satellite imagery of the warship put any question about what had happened beyond doubt.

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Pyongyangs state-run KCNA news agency provided the following details of what happened:

Due to inexperienced command and operational carelessness, the parallel movement of the bogies could not be guaranteed, resulting in the launching sled in the stern detaching first and causing the ship to capsize. The ships balance was destroyed due to a rupture in the hull in some sections, and the bow section was unable to detach from the keel.

In a photo taken in Seoul on May 22, 2025, people sit near a television showing news footage with a satellite still image courtesy of Maxar Technologies showing a general view of a new North Korean warship ahead of its launch in Chongjin. Photo by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP ANTHONY WALLACE

The repercussions for those blamed for the incident, which brought the dignity and self-respect of [the] state to a collapse, are likely to be severe.

Kim Jong Un made [a] stern assessment, saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility  and could not be tolerated, KCNA reported.

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Kim said that the officials found responsible would be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee in June. This is a high-level meeting of North Koreas ruling Workers Party.

At the same time, Kim called for the frigate to be restored before next months meeting. This is a highly questionable timeline for the repairs, which are likely to be very extensive.

An overall view of the Choi Hyon, the sister vessel of the frigate involved in the mishap. KCNA

The urgent restoration of the destroyer is not a simple practical issue, but a political issue directly related to the authority of the country, Kim added.

Notably, the frigate was side-launched from the quay, in a new development for North Korea, which has previously used slipways to put large naval vessels into the water stern-first.

This @Planet 20 May capture shows the North Korean vessel moved from screened assembly area ahead of launch.

While the Nampo example was launched via floating drydock the Chongjin example appears to use a different side oiled slideway launching systemhttps://t.co/3BaPdAKM8k pic.twitter.com/OxfghxFsG1  Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) May 22, 2025

Side-launch of a ship is often used when the water channel is too confined to allow for a slipway. While spectacular, this method is more complicated, requiring extensive support of the ships weight along the length of its hull.

A video shows the side-launch of the future Littoral Combat Ship USS Milwaukee into the Menominee River in 2013:

The frigate is the second of its kind, which, with an estimated displacement of 5,000 tons, is the biggest in the North Korean naval fleet.

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The first of the class, the Choi Hyon, was launched in April at the western port of Nampo.

As we reported at the time, only days after commissioning, the Choi Hyon was demonstrated firing a variety of weapons from its large array of vertical launch system (VLS) cells. The missiles appeared to include a previously unknown air defense missile and possibly a new supersonic cruise missile.

A claimed supersonic cruise missile weapon is fired from one of the stern magazines aboard the Choi Hyon last month. KCNA

The most impressive feature of the North Korean frigate is its extensive array of VLS cells. As we have discussed before, the sheer number of VLS cells on this ship  74 in all  is impressive, and these are provided in four (or possibly even five) different sizes to accommodate a wide range of missiles, including ballistic types.

Before this incident, however, there had been possible signs of corners being cut in the rushed program to build these vessels.

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When the Choi Hyon was conducting weapons trials, there was a surprising suggestion that the warship still didnt have its full set of propulsion machinery fitted. This would imply that the vessel was towed out of the harbor for its weapons tests, which is a possibility. That might also help explain claims that North Korea built the Choi Hyon in just over a year.

The speed of construction of the second frigate, at Chongjin, has also been rapid, and its likely that corners were cut to speed this prestigious program. On the other hand, mishaps during the launching of vessels, including warships, are also not entirely uncommon.

Meanwhile, the fact that North Korea is undertaking the simultaneous construction of two warships of this size in different locations is an impressive feat in itself. It points to just how important this program is to the regime and that its aspirations of putting by far its most impressive warship design into serial production are already manifesting (or at least attempting to). However, the fact that this is being done without first testing one of those hulls adds a significant level of concurrent risk.

A view of the bow of the Choi Hyon under construction, with shipyard officials and Kim Jong Un in attendance, reveals its impressive size. KCNA

As we have discussed before, North Koreas frigate construction program is probably more about national prestige than building a credible fleet of surface combatants, evidenced by the fanfare surrounding the official unveiling of the Choi Hyon and Kim attending its weapons trials. At the same time, even a token capability can be powerful, especially if these frigates ballistic and cruise missiles can also be nuclear armed for strategic attacks.

Kim Jong Un watches the weapons trials for the Choi Hyon. KCNA

Perhaps we will eventually learn more about what went wrong during yesterdays launch, but for now, its an embarrassing setback for Pyongyangs ambitious naval development program.

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Update: 4:35 PM EST 

We now have additional satellite imagery, seen below, of the aftermath of North Koreas failed launch of a new large surface warship, courtesy of Beyond Parallel, a project within the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C.

CSIS/Beyond Parallel/Airbus DS 2025

Beyond Parallel has also put out additional analysis of the incident from CSIS Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis with the iDeas Lab and Korea Chair Joseph Bermudez, President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair Victor Cha, and Associate Fellow and Project Manager for Imagery Analysis with the iDeas Lab and Korea Chair Jennifer Jun, which can be found in full here.

Satellite imagery from May 22, 2025, corroborates reporting from North Korean state media, Bermudez, Cha, and Jun note in their analysis. The bogies under the bow  wheeled units under the frame carrying the vessel as it slides into the water of the side slideway  apparently caught or fell off the rails resulting in the stern swinging out into the O-hang harbor while the bow remained on the side slipway.

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It is unclear if the crane and deck barges previously observed in satellite imagery on May 19 working along the shipyards side slideway had any connection to the failed launch, the analysis from Beyond Parallel adds. Had these barges been working on the side slideways rails and the work had not been undertaken with care and inspection; it may have been the root cause of the launching accident. It should also be noted that side slideway launching requires the vessel to have significant structural strength.

Aside from the factors revolving around the side slideway, bogies, and rail, a contributing issue may have been the Hambuk shipyard itself. As noted in our previous report, it was unusual that the Hambuk Shipyard was selected to undertake the construction of the second [Choi Hyon class warship], it continues. During its lifetime, the shipyard has produced cargo vessels, fishing vessels, and dredgers primarily and only occasionally manufactured small submersible infiltration craft and patrol craft. As such, the shipyard undoubtedly lacks significant expertise in manufacturing and launching large warships such as the new destroyer.

CSIS/Beyond Parallel/Airbus DS 2025

The authors caution that it is still too early to tell whether or not the ship is a total loss, and how long it might take to salvage and/or repair the vessel if possible. They also note that North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns reaction to the incident, as reported by the countrys state media, will undoubtedly affect the livelihood and families of numerous managers and employees at the shipyard and supporting organizations. 

Even just a delay in launching the ship will have undoubtedly disrupted Kim Jong-uns planned timeline for the development of the KPN [Korean Peoples Navy] from a coastal defense force into a nascent blue-water force capable of strategic offensive operations. 

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Separately, Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, a member of the staff at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and Monterey, has also shared the sequence of satellite images below showing the North Korean warship before and after the failed launch.

I made a .gif showing the DPRK frigate in position to launch and then, er, "toes up" in the water. pic.twitter.com/Urflog6LEo  Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) May 22, 2025

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
A limited amount of food was delivered to desperate Gazans for the first time since early March on Wednesday, but senior United Nations officials warned the supply was nowhere near enough to forestall the worsening humanitarian crisis.

UN officials say they are hoping for more to be delivered on Thursday.

Aid agencies warn that much of Gaza will be on the verge of famine if supplies are not allowed into the enclave in volume.

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Until this week, Israel had forbidden all humanitarian aid entering Gaza since March 2, saying Hamas was stealing and profiting from it.

Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, posted on X Thursday: In close touch with team in #Gaza. Today will be crucial. Truckloads of lifesaving aid finally on move again.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid began delivering the first food and supplies in Gaza in more than 11 weeks on Wednesday. More than 90 trucks carrying flour, baby supplements and other food began dispersing aid into southern Gaza, according to the head of Gazas transport association Nahid Shuheiber.

Kamel Ajour, the owner of the Ajour bakeries in Gaza, said some of the flour would be distributed to bakeries in the south to start working immediately.

Palestinian workers prepare bread in a bakery that returned to operation after being closed due to a flour shortage, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, May 22, 2025. - Ramadan Abed/Reuters

Palestinian workers pack bread in a bakery in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, May 22, 2025. - Ramadan Abed/Reuters

Shuhaiber said he hoped for a similar number of trucks Thursday but said two trucks had been stolen by desperately hungry residents on Wednesday.

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Wednesday that five kitchens had resumed operations in Khan Younis and Gaza City, but five others had been forced to close for a lack of supplies.

According to COGAT, the Israeli agency handling the passage of aid into Gaza, five trucks entered Gaza on Monday, 93 trucks entered on Tuesday, and another 100 entered on Wednesday.

But the head of the UN Childrens Fund, Catherine Russell, said on X Wednesday: The few trucks that have entered with life-saving supplies are nowhere near sufficient and have yet to reach those in desperate need. Were running out of supplies inside Gaza, and were running out of time.

There have also been delays caused by disagreements between the Israeli military and aid agencies over the routes to be used within Gaza.

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Israeli authorities had only allowed our teams to go through one area where that was highly congested, that we felt was insecure and where we felt looting was highly likely to take place given the prolonged deprivation in Gaza, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, on Wednesday.

OCHA also said Wednesday that critical items such as hygiene products or fuel have not been allowed by the Israeli authorities.

Israel has endorsed a plan promoted by the US ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, for distribution of aid to be organized by a private group known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. UN officials have said the plan is inadequate.

As aid begins to trickle into Gaza, Israeli forces continue to expand their operations, pushing the civilian population into a smaller area. OCHA said that large numbers of people continue to be displaced, with 80 per cent of Gaza now either subject to displacement orders or located in Israeli-militarized zones.

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The ongoing displacement of Gazas population is putting immense pressure on humanitarian teams, OCHA said, leading to an extreme lack of shelter space. Displacement sites and residential buildings are very overcrowded.

Children sit with plastic buckets as displaced Palestinians collect water in Gaza City. As its expanded military operation continues, Israel Israel faces mounting pressure including from the United States to end the aid blockade it imposed on March 2. - Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images

Tents housing displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, on Tuesday. The UN says 80 per cent of Gaza amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas. Israel, pressing a newly expanded military offensive across the Gaza Strip, has faced mounting pressure including from key backer the United States to end the aid blockade it imposed on March 2. - Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images

UN agencies are also concerned about strikes on hospitals. It said that on Wednesday Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza  the only partially functional facility in the area  was struck, while Kamal Adwan Hospital ceased operations. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Thursday that the closure of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza had deprived more than 400,000 people of health services.

In southern Gaza, the European hospital remains out of service after several Israeli strikes last week.

The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had received one truck of medical supplies for its field hospital in Rafah but added that it would take time to recover from the deficit created over the past ten weeks.

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The coming days are critical, the ICRC said.

Another issue is water, with the largest desalination plant in the north of Gaza located in an area which civilians have been told to leave. Many people have moved to Al-Mawasi, a coastal area in the south, but it is not connected to the water network and relies heavily on water trucking.

Gaza City spokesman Asem Alnabih told CNN there is a major water crisis due to the reduction in fuel supplies, with the situation aggravated by displacement and rising temperatures.

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A travel agency group is calling for EU law to be changed after a Belgian airline was liquidated last month, leaving thousands unlikely to receive refunds, and putting the financial burden on travel intermediaries.

Air Belgium, a cargo airline that used to run passenger flights, has been taken over by a shipping company after the company fell into financial hardship and was liquidated.

The airline announced on 30 April that a business court has approved CMA CGM group, which has deals in sea, land and air logistics, to take over the airlines cargo operations.

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As a result, the airline was placed into liquidation by the same court that approved the takeover.

CMA CGM will continue to focus Air Belgiums activities on air freight, meaning 124 jobs, including 74 pilots, will be preserved.

Meanwhile, other travel industry players have been left unsatisfied by how Air Belgiums bankruptcy was handled.

The European Travel Agents And Tour Operators Association (ECTAA) released a statement on 15 May demanding urgent airline insolvency protection, claiming the bankruptcy has exposed travel agents, tour operators and customers to millions in losses.

The association said the liquidation of Air Belgium has left nearly 8 million in outstanding passenger refund claims, of which more than 5 million was sold through travel intermediaries (travel agents and tour operators).

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The airline initially ceased all scheduled passenger flights in September 2023 and shifted towards cargo and charter operations.

At the time, Air Belgium said that passengers who had flights cancelled would be reimbursed as a matter of priority in the scope of the proceedings.

However, now that Air Belgium has gone bankrupt, the ECTAA said thousands of passengers are unlikely to receive refunds for their cancelled flights, with the remaining claims now part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

In a statement on the companys liquidation, Niky Terzakis, CEO of Air Belgium, said: Of course, we would have preferred a different outcome for our passenger operations, which impacted some of our employees and customers.

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However, this transfer was the only viable option after all other rescue paths were explored.

The ECTAA explains that when a travel intermediary sells a flight ticket as part of a package and the airline goes bankrupt, the package organiser is required by law to provide an alternative ticket to customers.

However, there is no real prospect of recovering the original funds from the insolvent airline. This places an unfair financial burden on travel intermediaries, who are left to absorb the losses caused by airline failures, it said.

Air Belgiums liquidation has coincided with the Council of the European Unions recent discussions around the revision of the Air Passenger Rights Regulation.

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Due to this, the ECTAA is currently seizing the moment and urging policymakers to include measures guaranteeing the refund of ticket prices when flights are cancelled due to an airline ceasing operations or going bankrupt.

Frank Oostdam, President of ECTAA, said: The Air Belgium bankruptcy is yet another stark reminder that the current system leaves both consumers and travel intermediaries exposed to unacceptable risks.

Airlines must be required to provide financial guarantees to cover their liabilities in case of insolvency.

Mr Terzakis, CEO of Air Belgium, also explained why Air Belgium has struggled to survive and its move to being taken over by the shipping giant.

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Since its creation, Air Belgium has had to face a series of challenges, including several years of global crises brought on by COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and others, he said.

The company took every necessary measure and did all it could to ensure its survival, despite the many obstacles. I am extremely proud of our staff for their loyalty, expertise, energy, and unwavering commitment.

This is exactly what CMA CGM Group recognised in choosing to trust us with this takeover. CMA CGM is a dynamic and ambitious group with a strong position in the market. I believe our team will be an added strength.

The successful completion of this transfer was also made possible thanks to the cooperation of all stakeholders, including trade unions, the relevant Belgian authorities, suppliers and clients.

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The preservation of jobs linked to cargo operations and the development of freight activities from our country offer encouraging prospects for the future and represent good news for the Belgian aviation sector.

The UKs Civil Aviation Authority states that if you have booked flights or a trip that includes flights with a travel firm that holds an Atol (Air Travel Organiser's Licence), the travel firm is responsible for your flight arrangements.

It must either make alternative flights available for you so that your trip can continue or provide a full refund.

If you are abroad, you should make arrangements to bring yourself home at the end of your trip.

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In terms of travel insurance, airline financial failure or insolvency is rarely included on most policies, so it is important to check if your package is Atol protected.

The Independent has contacted Air Belgium for comment.

For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast
LONDON, Ky. (FOX 56)  Airbnb is looking to help those in Kentucky who had their homes destroyed by tornadoes with temporary housing.

Airbnb.org, a nonprofit, has partnered with United Way of Kentucky to identify Kentuckians most in need of emergency housing and use the Airbnb platform and network to provide housing.

LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS:

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The organization said the temporary housing will be completely free for guests and funded by Airbnb.org.

In a news release, the nonprofit said United Way of Kentucky and Kentucky Emergency Management had already provided free emergency housing to more than 500 people who were displaced by floods across Kentucky this year.

Impacted residents can call 211 in Kentucky to learn more about available resources.

LATEST KENTUCKY LISTS AND RANKINGS:

People willing to offer discounted stays can visit Airbnb.org to learn more. People unable to offer stays but wanting to help with the Airbnb.org mission can also make donations.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News.
(NewsNation)  Airline officials Wednesday penned an open letter to Congress in which they wrote that the U.S. wildly outdated air traffic control system is failing Americans.

The letter comes in the wake of a Federal Aviation Administration interim order that cuts back on the number of flights into and out of New Jerseys Newark Liberty International Airport. The move stems from staffing and equipment issues that have caused mass delays at the airport.

Feds vow to overhaul US air traffic control system while fixing problems at troubled Newark airport

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Air traffic controller shortages and equipment failures, which have plagued the industry in recent years, are two of the issues cited in Wednesdays letter by the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Atlas Air, along with leaders at FedEx and UPS.

Air traffic controllers should not be operating with corroded copper wiring, floppy disks and physical strips of paper with flight numbers, reads the letter, which was posted on the Airlines for America website.

The letter points out that the FAAs own Safety Review Team found in 2023 that a national air controller shortage and inefficient operations are eroding the margins of safety. While air travel remains the safest mode of transportation, the CEOs argue that it must remain that way.

Aviation experts say air safety issues are years in the making

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To ensure the status quo, serious upgrades need to happen now, they wrote.

Airline officials stance mirrors that of acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau.

Commercial airline travel remains the safest form of transportation in world history, Rocheleau said in a statement. But the last three months drove home that we need to do more, we need to be better, and we need to do it together.

Transportation chief to call for overhaul of US air traffic control system

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a plan earlier this month for the federal government to make comprehensive investments in the U.S. national airspace. The CEOs letter urges Congress to do the same by providing the resources to turn the plan into reality.

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According to the document, 92% of the FAAs facilities and equipment budget currently goes toward maintaining the outdated technology. A new system would be more cost-effective in the long run.

As the Secretary himself has said, its like continuing to pour money into an old clunker of a car  at some point, it makes more financial sense to buy a new car, the letter states. Were past that point.

Newark problems and recent crashes put focus on air traffic controller shortage and aging equipment

A new system would also help solve the staffing shortage, the airline officials argue.

Improving technology is critical to recruiting the air traffic controllers of the future, the letter states. Our controllers are doing an amazing job under stressful working conditions. They do not need the added stress of potential technology failures.

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Congress is currently hashing out details of the budget for the new fiscal year. The House Budget Committees version of the bill includes just over $12 billion for the FAA technology upgrade.

The CEOs described the allocation as a solid down payment that will help keep air travel safe and efficient for Americans who fly and ship goods every day.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
AUBURN, Ala. (WRBL)  For decades, local Area Agencies on Aging have provided a vital safety net for Alabamas older adultsdelivering hot meals, offering caregiver relief, and advocating for the rights of nursing home residents. But now, advocates say the safety net is in danger of unraveling.

The proposed FY2026 budget calls for deep cuts to the Older Americans Act (OAA) and the dissolution of the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the federal agency overseeing senior services. If enacted, the plan would eliminate or drastically reduce funding for multiple programs serving vulnerable seniorsputting an estimated 375,000 older Alabamians at risk of losing access to critical support.

At the Lee-Russell Council of Governments (LRCOG)the Area Agency on Aging for Lee and Russell Countiesstaff say the news was both sudden and alarming.

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We found out in March that the Administration for Community Living was being dissolved. One day, half the staff was laid off, and then we learned its programs would be split between other federal agencies, said Jeanna Thomas, Area Agency on Aging Director at LRCOG. In April, a draft of the administrations budget came out, and it showed severe cuts to Older Americans Act programssome zeroed out completely.

To voice your support for these programs, contact: Senator Tommy Tuberville: 202-224-4124  Senator Katie Britt: 202-224-5744  For more information or to get involved, call the Lee-Russell Council of Governments: 334-528-9247.

Founded in 1967, LRCOG is a regional hub for transit, planning, and aging services. In FY2024, the agency served over 4,100 clients through its Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC), delivered more than 48,000 hot meals, and helped residents save more than $221,000 in healthcare costs through Medicare counseling and case management.

Were trying to make sure the community understands just how important these programs are, said Thomas. They help people stay in their homes, support those with dementia and their caregivers, and ensure that residents in nursing homes are being treated with dignity and respect.

That support is already stretched thinand the proposed federal cuts would slash even deeper.

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We have seniors we visit who may not see another person all month except our case manager, Thomas said. These programs are a lifeline.

Among the services at risk if the budget is approved:

 ADRCs, which connect seniors and families to meals, in-home care, and benefits

 Ombudsman programs that advocate for residents in long-term care facilities

 Medicare SHIP counseling, which helps older adults select affordable insurance

 Preventive health programs, including fall prevention and chronic disease education

 Caregiver support and elder abuse prevention services

In Alabama, its 375,000 seniors who rely on these programs. Across the country, its millions, Thomas added. There are advocates working in Washington, but we need families at the local level calling their representatives and speaking up.

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Optimistically, I want to believe these programs wont be cutbecause I know how much it will hurt people, she said. I can see the faces of those we serve. Its heartbreaking.

LRCOG Executive Director Lisa Sandt said the agencys central mission is to help seniors live independently, with dignity and support.

We get about 5,000 calls a year from people looking for help, Sandt said. Whether its through our agency or another community group, the ADRC guides them. But thats one of the programs on the chopping block. So where do people go?

Sandt said the threat to services extends beyond seniors themselves.

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Its not just our older adultsits their caregivers, too. The support we offer helps them keep their loved ones at home, she said. Without that support, people will be forced to make impossible choices between food, medicine, and utilities.

Asked how concerned she is on a scale from one to ten, Sandt didnt hesitate: A ten.

As Congress prepares to debate the FY26 budget, aging advocates across Alabama and the nation are urging lawmakers to protect the Older Americans Act and preserve the infrastructure that keeps seniors safe and supported.

To voice your support for these programs, contact:

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 Senator Tommy Tuberville: 202-224-4124

 Senator Katie Britt: 202-224-5744

For more information or to get involved, call the Lee-Russell Council of Governments at 334-528-9247.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT)  2026 is shaping up to be a big election year for the state. Many local offices will be on the ballot, as well as our next governor. Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth announced Wednesday morning he will not be entering the race for governor.

With Ainsworths announcement, many eyes are now on Senator Tommy Tuberville. Hes previously said hell announce his decision by the end of May. With less than two weeks left in the month, some political experts believe Tuberville will be officially entering the race for governor early next week.

Qualifying is not until next February. Its Alabama politics, anything can happen between now and next February, but I dont see a strong challenger in the Republican Primary, said former state representative Paul DeMarco.

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DeMarco says Senator Tubervilles name recognition and party popularity makes him a strong candidate for governor. He says these factors will also help him get any funding needed to run a statewide campaign.

I think at this point, he clears the field for the Republican Primary for governor, and so then all eyes are on what happens in the U.S. Senate race to replace him, what happens in some of the other down ballot races, lieutenant governor, attorney general, some of the congressional seats, he said. So, I think the dominoes will fall when he officially announces, which could be any day now.

While some are wondering which Republicans could stand up against Tuberville, others look right to the Democratic side of the ticket and who could put up a solid fight on the other side of the aisle.

We have two folks on the Democratic side who have announced for governor, but this is very, very early. We believe there will be a whole lot more activity on our side, Wayne Rodgers, chair of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, said. Dr. Will Boyd has announced hes running. A guy named Chad Martin from south Alabama has announced that hes running. Theres a possibility that our good friend Doug Jones may be running for governor. It would be a rematch with Tommy Tuberville from 2020.

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Alabamas a red state, Senator Tubervilles very popular, I dont think any Democrat can beat him, DeMarco said. I know Senator Doug Jones is out there talking about potentially running for him, but I mean, in the past, Republicans have won 60-40 in statewide races. Governor Ivey did that several years ago, I dont see that changing.

Some voters around Birmingham weighed in on who they want to see in the position next.

Just that, you know, care for the community, they care about the state and just pushing forward. Just a genuine, good person, Birmingham resident Jimmy Carter Jr. said. You want somebody that thinks like you, in a positive way though.

Doug Jones, please run against Tuberville. He needs to go, Center Point resident Roderick Johnson said. Mayor Woodfin, if he would run, hes been a great mayor of Birmingham. I see the improvement. Crime is improving with the new police chief, so definitely Mayor Woodfin. Thats a long shot, him being a Democrat and a black man in Alabama, but it can happen.

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Candidates are able to begin fundraising and campaigning now. The primary election will be on May 19 next year.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42.
(KRON)  The Alameda County Office of Education is honoring 18 public school teachers who were selected as 2025 Teachers of the Year.

ACOE serves as liaison between the California Department of Education and 18 public school districts with more than 215,000 students and 12,000 teachers.



The honorees are being recognized for their individual dedication and excellence in the classroom this school year.



I am deeply inspired everyday by our educators who work tirelessly in service of our students, said Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro. I am very excited to recognize this years Teachers of the Year, and uplift their hard work and dedication.

An awards ceremony will be held in September at Hayward Performing Arts Center.

2025 Teachers of the Year

Esperanza Jimenez: Valley View Elementary School, 5th Grade Dual Language Immersion, Pleasanton Unified School District

Teacher Esperanza Jimenez

Krista Toumi: Roosevelt Middle School, 6th Grade Science, Oakland Unified School District

Teacher Krista Toumi

Michael Kramer Wong: Paden Elementary School, 4th & 5th Grades, Alameda Unified School District

Teacher Michael Kramer Wong

Nickoletta Nicky Dalby: Jensen Ranch Elementary School, 2nd & 3rd Grades, Castro Valley Unified School District

Teacher Nickoletta Nicky Dalby

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Joy Sherratt: Emerald High School, 9th Grade Health, Dublin Unified School District

Teacher Joy Sherratt

Sandor Verstrepen: Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School, 8th Grade Physical Education, New Haven Unified School District

Arlene Cordero: Newark Middle School, 6-8th Grade Special Education

Arthur Hogenauer: Butler Academic Center, 9-12th Grades, Alameda County Office of Education

Alyssa Kronick: Oakland International High School, 9-12th Grade Literacy/English Language Development

Selina Mandel: Arroyo High School 9-12th Grade Science, San Lorenzo Unified School District

Maria De La Fuente Moreno: Esperanza Elementary School, 3rd Grade Dual Immersion, Oakland Unified School District

Teacher Maria De La Fuente Moreno

Shelley Matek: Dublin High School and Foothill High School, 11-12th Grade Developmental Psychology of Children

Teacher Shelley Matek

John Thayer: Granada High School, 9-12th Grade English Language Development/Math, Livermore Unified School District

Teacher John Thayer

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Elana Siegel: Emery High School, 10-12th Grade World History, Emery Unified School District

Teacher Elana Siegel

Varsha Jayadevan: Hopkins Middle School Special Day Class, Special Education, Fremont Unified School District

Teacher Varsha Jayadevan

Lori Suydam: Park Elementary School, 1st Grade, Hayward Unified School District

Teacher Lori Suydam

Cindy Barry: Robertson High School, 9-12th Grade Business and Professional Development, Mission Valley Regional Occupational Program

Teacher Cindy Barry

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Rhonda Turner: Jefferson Elementary School 4th Grade, San Leandro Unified School District

Teacher Rhonda Turner

(Photos courtesy Alameda County Office of Education)

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Hotter temperatures continue to move into New Mexico. Albuquerque will likely hit 90 for the first time this year on Thursday, with triple-digit heat in southeast New Mexico by Friday.

Its a much warmer afternoon Wednesday across New Mexico with high temperatures climbing around 10 higher than Tuesday. Most of the state is sitting in the 80s and 90s today. Winds are light today too with sunny skies across the whole state. Even hotter weather is on the way Thursday afternoon. Albuquerque will likely see its first 90 day of the year Thursday, just a few days earlier than average. High temperatures will climb into the mid 80s across northern New Mexico with highs in the mid and upper 90s in southern parts of the state.

Breezier winds return Friday afternoon with southwesterly winds gusting around 24 to 40 mph. That wind will help to bring in even hotter temperatures Friday, with the states first 100 high temperatures likely in southeast New Mexico. High temperatures will be a couple degrees cooler on Saturday with an increase in cloud cover.

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Moisture will begin moving into eastern New Mexico Sunday. This will bring a chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms, especially in the northern mountains and northeast New Mexico. That moisture may surge west across the state Sunday night, bringing much higher moisture into the western half of the state. If this happen, this will bring a good chance for afternoon showers and thunderstorms Memorial Day afternoon to central and eastern New Mexico. If it doesnt happen, afternoon storm chances will still be possible in eastern New Mexico. Rain and thunderstorm chances continue into the middle of next week with the warm weather sticking around.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. As part of the Comprehensive Program of Events Celebrating the Thirtieth Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations Between the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chairman of the Committee on Interethnic Relations and Friendly Ties with Foreign Countries of Uzbekistan, Kakhramon Sariev, is visiting Azerbaijan along with a delegation from Uzbekistan, the State Committee on Work with Diaspora of Azerbaijan told Trend.

The Uzbek guests, invited by the Azerbaijani State Committee, paid tribute to national leader Heydar Aliyev by laying flowers at his grave in the Alley of Honor. They also visited the Alley of Martyrs, honoring those who died for Azerbaijans territorial integrity, as well as Victory Park, a symbol of the nations historic triumph.

A special event was held at the State Committee on the topic of "The Role of Public Diplomacy in the Development of Friendly Relations Between Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan". The gathering opened with the national anthems of both countries. In his speech, Chairman of the State Committee Fuad Muradov spoke about the historical ties between the two brotherly nations and highlighted the friendship between their heads of state.

Muradov noted that Azerbaijanis living in Uzbekistan actively participate in the country's sociopolitical life and contribute to its multicultural values. He emphasized that the Azerbaijani state continues to support its compatriots in Uzbekistan, paying special attention to their political, cultural, and diaspora activities.

Uzbekistans committee chairman Kakhramon Sariev stated that relations between the two countries are built on friendship and brotherhood. He highlighted the essential role of public diplomacy and diaspora organizations in strengthening connections between the two peoples. Member of Parliament Javanshir Pashazade also spoke, drawing attention to the shared history, culture, and fraternal ties.

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Uzbekistan to Azerbaijan, Bahrom Ashrafkhanov, underscored the strong level of strategic partnership, which is grounded in mutual respect and trust.

Other speakers included senior researcher at the Abbasgulu Agha Bakikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (NANA), PhD in history Azizaga Alekperov, as well as journalist and Turkologist Aida Eyvazli Goyturk. They praised the importance of the Uzbek delegations visit.

The event also featured a video highlighting joint efforts across the Turkic world.

The delegation is scheduled to visit territories in Azerbaijan that were liberated from occupation.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The Albuquerque Police Department has officially relaunched a program aimed at addressing public safety in Nob Hill. APD said the Extension of Community Healthcare Outcomes, or ECHO, is back for the third year, uniting local agencies, first responders, and community members by hosting meetings where they can address public safety concerns.

Community resources available at Bernalillo County Metro Court Resource Day

The goal of the program is to tackle crime in the area while empowering Nob Hill residents. So the idea is to collaborate with the city, APD, ACS, all the departments in the city, and bring the businesses and the neighbors resources that are available to them in the community, said Chris Smith, Volunteer, Nob Hill Mainstreet.

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De-escalation training was the focus of Wednesdays meeting, with topics like burglary, auto theft, and school safety being addressed at upcoming monthly meetings.

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In a sleepy town on the edge of Hertfordshire, a revolt is brewing to protect prized green space from a slew of major developments.

The uprising came together in a packed church hall meeting last week, attended by more than 100 Potters Bar residents opposed to plans to concrete over local land.

The group has already set its sights on blocking a number of projects, including plans for Europes biggest data centre in South Mimms and a separate 900-home development nearby.

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The data centre will be enormous, and its going to have high-security fencing all the way round with security lights on 24 hours a day, says Margaret Ohren, one of the meetings organisers who has lived in Potters Bar for 32 years.

Itll be like building Alcatraz in the middle of Potters Bar. Its absolutely ridiculous.

With plans for developments creeping closer to town boundaries, Ohren fears that Potters Bar will become another London borough.

Potters Bar is a town that is like an island, and were surrounded by green belt, she says. If all these proposals go ahead, well be subsumed into a load of buildings.

Potters Bar is surrounded by green belt

The town is one of many places in Hertfordshire facing an onslaught of proposals on green belt land, with the county fast becoming a flashpoint in Angela Rayners building blitz across the countryside.

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Findings shared by CPRE Hertfordshire, a local charity, show that 65pc of large-scale proposals it has screened since the Government published its new national planning policy framework (NPPF) in December are on green belt land.

Those include two mammoth data centres, including the South Mimms site and a separate 84,000 sq metre project in Abbots Langley, which was approved by Rayners team last week.

In North Herts, a 45-hectare solar farm in Wandon End is also going through a public inquiry after its developers appealed to the Housing Secretary to overrule the councils decision to block the site.

A 15-minute drive away, a 35.5-hectare solar farm and battery storage system is set to be built at Sperberry Hill.

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This is alongside a number of proposed residential developments, with 4,800 homes planned across Hertfordshires green belt.

Chris Berry, of CPRE Hertfordshire, claims there is an unrelenting onslaught in Hertfordshire, as there are 10 solar farms waiting in the wings alongside seven battery storage systems, six of which have already been approved.

Campaigners and residents blame the development blitz on inconsistencies in the Governments definition of the grey belt, which is deemed lower-quality green belt land, such as disused car parks.

To stem the tide, CPRE has begun a national petition urging the Government to amend its definition of the grey belt, which has garnered more than 1,400 signatures at the time of writing.

Debating the Governments new Planning and Infrastructure Bill in the Commons last week, Matthew Pennycook, Labours housing minister, said the test of what qualifies as grey belt is very clear in the NPPF, and the framework is clear that the green belt can only be built on in exceptional circumstances.

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However, Abby Coften, chief executive of CPRE Hertfordshire, says the way it is defined is giving developers free rein to build in the countryside.

There are so many contradictions between national policy and whats happening on the ground, says Coften. Its devastating for the countryside, wildlife, our own environment and our health and well-being.

Planning applications which have been refused are now coming back because developers are seeing an opportunity from inconsistencies in the NPPF.

More than 29,000 homes could be built on Hertfordshires brownfield sites, according to CPRE.

If you think about that on a national level, these sites could be redeveloped, they could provide affordable housing and that would avoid us building all over the countryside, says Coften.

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The Government clearly wants all of these additional homes, and theyre not prioritising the environment.

Potters Bar is surrounded by green belt  but residents fear Angela Rayners plans could cover it in new buildings - Belinda Jiao

Gary Ansell, chair of the Kings Langley and District Residents Association, says that in more than 25 years of heading the group, he says it is the worst weve ever seen in terms of developments happening.

We accept that development needs to happen and its good to use brownfield, says Ansell, but he adds that major projects are eating away at our green belt.

The biggest fear is that our village is suffering a death by a thousand cuts, he says. Were losing our identity as a historic village in Hertfordshire.

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Hertfordshires green belt has been made all the more vulnerable because of national pressure to build, build, build, says David Zerny, a fellow Kings Langley resident.

Introducing grey belt but without a clear definition means that ultimately, inspectors are not given much guidance and that means the green belt is now very vulnerable, he says.

Mr Zerny says Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley and Watford are also under particular threat if more land near the M25 can be counted as grey belt.

The purpose of the green belt, ironically, was to give Londoners a place to go for recreation, for mental health, he adds. Taking that away from us hurts Londoners as much as it hurts people who live here in the shires.

Hemel Hempstead is among the areas under particular threat if more land near the M25 can be counted as grey belt - FGM/iStockphoto

Oliver Cooper, leader of the Conservatives on Three Rivers District Council in Hertfordshire, representing the village where he grew up, says a huge amount of development has been pushed out of London into the home counties, including in Hertfordshire.

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A lot of that is based on the fact that the grey belt, as a concept, has been completely mis-sold, says Mr Cooper. If Keir Starmer were a shopkeeper using that script, he would probably be prosecuted by Trading Standards.

In response to criticism, the Government has argued that it will not put its target of building 1.5m homes by 2030 ahead of the environment.

A spokesman for the Housing Department says: Our planning changes are about building on brownfield first, and clearly protecting long-standing green belt purposes while setting out a more strategic, targeted approach to this type of land.

And while we are clear that we must build the homes and infrastructure that people need, our ambitious plans will not come at the expense of the environment.

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However, back in Potters Bar, Ohsen is demanding a nationwide plan to ensure the countryside is not left in the lurch.

Its a crucial time, she says. Save the green belt now, or well never see it again.

Ive got grandchildren - they need housing, but do they need housing on the green belt? If we join up all the towns in the South East, theyre never going to see a cow, or a sheep, or a bluebell. It could be something theyll read about in books.

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A Santa Ana man charged with animal cruelty in the killing and maiming of as many as 20 cats, drawing loud public outcry, skipped his arraignment Wednesday morning, according to authorities who have issued a warrant for his arrest.

Alejandro Oliveros Acosta, 46, was charged Monday with two felony counts of cruelty to animals, one felony count of grand theft of a companion animal and one misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. He was due in Orange County Superior Court for a hearing that at least 25 animal activists were expected to attend Wednesday, the Orange County district attorney's office said.

But he didn't show up for the hearing. His bail of $40,000 has been forfeited. The district attorneys office attempted to increase the bail amount to $100,000 on Wednesday, said Kimberly Edds, public information officer for the district attorney, who called Acosta an immense danger. Once Acosta failed to appear, the district attorney's office filed a new motion to hold him without bail when he is back in custody.

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He had not been apprehended as of Thursday morning, according to the district attorney's office.

Prior to Wednesday, Acosta faced a maximum sentence of five years and four months if convicted on all counts, the district attorney's office said.

Alejandro Oliveros Acosta was charged Monday with multiple felonies, including cruelty to animals. (Santa Ana Police Department)

This is obviously a case of horrific violence and we really appreciate the support of the community, Edds said.

She added that an animal abuse specialist would be prosecuting the case.

The Times was unable to find a representative for Acosta, who was initially arrested April 23 by Santa Ana and Westminster police.

Authorities believe Acosta was behind the deaths of several neighborhood cats.

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In the motion to increase the bail, Deputy Dist. Atty. Danica Drotman wrote that Acosta "admitted to killing approximately 20 cats and hanging in a tree approximately two to three cats."

Authorities said they found carcasses at his home during his arrest.

Read more: Protest near home of suspect in serial cat killings leads to vandalism; police urge calm

Seven reports of dead and injured cats were filed with Santa Ana Animal Control, including animals suffering from broken backs and bloody faces, all near Acosta's home, between November and April.

Police have said that several pet owners have positively identified Acosta as the man who had lured cats away from their homes.

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Edds emphasized that the investigation was still ongoing and that additional witnesses were encouraged to contact the Santa Ana or Westminster police departments.

Westminster police are involved in the investigation because one of the felony charges against Acosta relates to the theft on March 21 of a Bengal Lynx cat named Clubber from a Westminster resident .

Video surveillance appeared to show a man with a can of food luring the cat before grabbing the animal and driving away in a white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.

Clubber was eventually safely reunited with his owner.

Read more: Serial cat killer suspect arrested, potentially linked to a dozen-plus slayings, authorities say

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Authorities allege that Acosta was also seen by a neighbor grabbing a cat and slamming it over his head April 3. Drotman wrote in the criminal complaint that Acosta maimed, mutilated and tortured that cat. Two days later, Acosta was seen on video surveillance stomping on a cat, according to the district attorney's office.

His home became a flashpoint as it drew a 100-person  vigil for j ustice, in April that included pet owners and community and animal groups. The gathering was advertised on social media as a peaceful protest but it turned violent.

A video from Fox 11 showed at least one protester trying to wrench open a gate blocking a driveway. Others in the crowd shook a wooden fence and shouted at the residence using bullhorns. One protester appeared to spray an aerosol onto the property.

Santa Ana police said some protesters threw objects at a pair of homes, one where Acosta lived and another that belonged to a family member that the crowd believed was hiding him.

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Santa Ana police confirmed that Acosta was not at either home at the time of the protest.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The Air Forces acquisition strategy shift on the F-47 sixth-generation fighter will give the service greater ownership of the jets technology and allow quicker and easier future upgrades, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said.

In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Allvin confirmed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that the service is taking a markedly different acquisition approach to the Boeing-made F-47, previously referred to as Next Generation Air Dominance, than it did on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The primary difference is that we now have more control over the [F-47] project as it moves forward, Allvin said. We have in-sourced more. We have more ownership of the tech base. We guided a government reference architecture, so we own the mission systems. And so others can come in and play, but we own the development, the upgrade.

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A government reference architecture, or GRA, is a road map provided by the government that guides a programs design, development, production and sustainment processes.

Top Air Force officials, particularly former Secretary Frank Kendall, have publicly expressed regret for how the militarys F-35 deal with Lockheed Martin was structured. In a May 2023 roundtable with reporters, Kendall lamented the Pentagon did not obtain rights to the F-35s sustainment data from Lockheed Martin when the original deal was signed.

This stemmed from the acquisition philosophy of the time, called Total System Performance, which meant the contractor on a program would own it for the systems entire life cycle.

The Government Accountability Office also highlighted in a September 2023 report the consequences of failing to obtain rights to F-35 technical data, which have hindered the militarys ability to sustain the jet on its own and slowed down repairs.

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Kendall felt so strongly that this was a major misstep that in the May 2023 discussion, he referred to it as acquisition malpractice, and said such an approach creates a perpetual monopoly for the contractor.

He pledged the Air Force would not make that serious mistake on the NGAD program and said the service would have access to the intellectual property it needs. Kendall also said the NGAD aircraft would use a modular open system design that would allow the Air Force to bring in new suppliers as it upgrades parts of the system.

Allvins comments Tuesday seem to confirm that approach was used in finalizing Boeings deal with the Air Force to create the F-47. And he said this will allow rapid software-based upgrades that arent reliant on the original contractor.

The upgrades can come at the speed of software, not hardware. [Upgrades] can come at the speed of our engineers understanding how fast to advance, versus dealing with the contractor and paying the extra cost, Allvin said.

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Future technology upgrades will also be more easily added to the services nascent collaborative combat aircraft, the YFQ-42 and YFQ-44, which are being designed by General Atomics and Anduril Industries, Allvin said.

Theyre all going to be under the same mission systems architecture, Allvin said. So we wont just be upgrading one platform, well be upgrading a system, and so the American taxpayer will get more combat capability out of their money.

Allvin also said the service was learning from the F-35 programs mistakes on the F-47.

Were going to have some conversations about F-35 and how we dont want to repeat that, he said.
A total of 144 combat clashes have been recorded on the front lines over the past 24 hours, 54 of which occurred on the Pokrovsk front.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 08:00 on 22 May

Quote: "A total of 144 combat clashes have been recorded over the past day.

Updated reports indicate that the enemy launched 90 airstrikes on the positions of Ukrainian units and populated areas, dropped 144 guided bombs and deployed 2,492 kamikaze drones. The enemy also carried out 5,291 artillery strikes, including 114 from multiple-launch rocket systems."

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Details: On the Kharkiv front, Russian troops attempted to advance six times near the settlements of Vovchansk and Kamianka and in the direction of Mala Shapkivka.

On the Kupiansk front, four Russian attacks took place. The Ukrainian defence forces repelled the Russians assault operations near the settlements of Kindrashivka, Zahryzove and Nova Kruhliakivka.

On the Lyman front, there were 17 combat clashes. The Russians tried to advance near the settlements of Ridkodub, Hrekivka and Zelena Dolyna, towards Novoserhiivka, Olhivka and Novyi Myr and in Serebrianka Forest.

On the Siversk front, Ukrainian defenders repelled two Russian attacks near the village of Bilohorivka.

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On the Kramatorsk front, the Russians carried out three attacks near the town of Chasiv Yar and in the direction of Predtechyne.

On the Toretsk front, Russian forces carried out 16 assaults near the settlements of Dyliivka, Druzhba and Toretsk.

On the Pokrovsk front, Ukrainian defenders repelled 54 Russian assault operations near the settlements of Yablunivka, Zoria, Shevchenko Pershe, Nova Poltavka, Myroliubivka, Yelyzavetivka, Lysivka, Dachenske, Kotlyne, Novoserhiivka, Udachne, Troitske, Promin, Kotliarivka and Andriivka and towards Popiv Yar and Novomykolaivka.

On the Novopavlivka front, 19 assaults took place near the settlements of Bahatyr, Odradne, Shevchenko, Vesele, Rivnopil, Novopil, Zelene Pole and Vilne Pole.

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On the Huliaipole front, the Russians attempted to advance three times near the village of Vysoke.

On the Orikhiv front, Ukrainian defenders repelled four Russian attacks near the settlements of Shcherbaky and Stepove and towards Pavlivka.

On the Prydniprovske front, Russian troops made one unsuccessful attempt to advance.

On the Volyn and Polissia fronts, there is no evidence of any offensive Russian groups being formed in the area.

In the operational zone in Russia's Kursk Oblast, five assaults were recorded. Russian forces also carried out 17 airstrikes using 34 guided aerial bombs and 191 artillery attacks, including 9 with multiple-launch rocket systems.

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Over the past 24 hours, Ukraines Rocket Forces and Artillery have struck 12 areas where Russian military personnel, weapons and equipment were concentrated, three command posts, an air defence asset, five artillery assets and two other crucial facilities belonging to the Russians.

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Almost 50 appeals from children whom the Russians attempted to recruit have been recorded in Ukraine.

Source: Vasyl Bohdan, Head of the Juvenile Police of Ukraine, on the national joint 24/7 newscast, as reported by the Ukrinform news agency

Quote: "We're currently observing a steady trend towards an increase in the number of appeals from children about recruitment attempts. As of today, almost 50 children have reported to the National Police that they had been contacted via messengers and social media by unknown persons from fictitious accounts who were agitating for arson attacks on military vehicles, government and local authority buildings, civilian and critical infrastructure, as well as collecting various information, for which they promised financial reward."

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Details: Bohdan said that the Juvenile Prevention Unit of the National Police, together with the Security Service of Ukraine, is implementing an information campaign across Ukraine. During visits to schools, they hold lectures, discussions and open lessons for teenagers to raise their legal awareness.

Law enforcement officers also work with parents and teachers to explain how to recognise the signs of recruitment, how to talk to children and how to act in the event of a threat.

At first, children may be given simple tasks such as gathering information about the location of military facilities or distributing leaflets discrediting the Ukrainian Armed Forces or containing elements of Russian propaganda, before being assigned more complex missions.

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JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ)  An Altoona man was sentenced in federal court for drug trafficking around Blair, Cambria, Centre and Clearfield counties, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced.

Andrew Stowell, 67, was sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, by United States District Judge Stephanie L. Haines.

Stowell was part of an Altoona-based drug trafficking organization, according to information presented to the court. On Dec. 12, 2022, Stowell sold a quarter-pound of methamphetamine to an undercover officer.

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Original Story: Ten Central Pennsylvanians indicted on federal charges for drugs, money laundering

Rivetti commended the Drug Enforcement Administration, United States Postal ServiceOffice of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, Homeland Security Investigations, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and Pennsylvania State Police for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Stowell.

Stay up to date with the latest news in the palm of your hand. Click here to download the WTAJ app for Apple and Android devices.

Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan D. Lusty prosecuted this case on behalf of the

government.

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WINOOSKI, Vt (ABC22/FOX44)  Evan Sullivan is going on his fourth term with AmeriCorps.

As the Service Team Leader, hes one of the driving forces behind the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board AmeriCorps 2025 day of service, which brought three service projects to Chittenden county.

The point of this day of service is to get our members out doing service with our VHCB staff as well, Sullivan explains.

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Participants gathered at Memorial Park in Winooski to do some much needed maintenance work.

Friends of the Winooski River has some grant money to do some restoration of this site  its been underutilized and undermanaged so theres a lot of invasive species, theyre hoping to fix it up.

In addition to invasive species removal, Sullivan says theyre also hoping to further improve the trails by adding some educational signage.

The day of service comes less than a month after President Trump cut a hefty portion of AmeriCorps grants.

I first served in AmeriCorps Triple C back in 2017, and that program has already had its funding cut which was sad to see, Sullivan says.

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He emphasizes the organizations impact not just on the communities they serve, but the individuals who join.

For a lot of these organizations, their AmeriCorps members might make up around 25% of their workforce, Sullivan explains. AmeriCorps has been in Vermont for 20-30 years depending on the program. There have been many communities helped out and we just hope we can continue serving.

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By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense concept revives a controversial, decades-old initiative whose ambitious construction could upend norms in outer space and reshape relations between the world's top space powers.

The announcement of Golden Dome, a vast network of satellites and weapons in Earth's orbit set to cost $175 billion, could sharply escalate the militarization of space, a trend that has intensified over the last decade, space analysts say.

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While the world's biggest space powers - the U.S., Russia and China - have put military and intelligence assets in orbit since the 1960s, they have done so mostly in secrecy.

Under former President Joe Biden, U.S. Space Force officials had grown vocal about a need for greater offensive space capabilities due to space-based threats from Russia and China.

When Trump announced his Golden Dome plan in January, it was a clear shift in strategy, one that emphasizes a bold move into space with expensive, untested technology that could be a financial boon to U.S. defense contractors.

The concept includes space-based missiles that would launch from satellites in orbit to intercept conventional and nuclear missiles launched from Earth.

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"I think it's opening a Pandora's box," said Victoria Samson, director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation think tank in Washington, referring to deploying missiles in space. "We haven't truly thought about the long-term consequences for doing so," she added.

Samson and other experts said Golden Dome could provoke other states to place similar systems in space or to develop more advanced weapons to evade the missile shield, escalating an arms race in space.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia and China reacted differently to the latest news from Trump. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said it was "seriously concerned" about the project and urged Washington to abandon its development, adding that it carried "strong offensive implications" and heightened the risks of the militarization of outer space and an arms race.

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A Kremlin spokesperson said Golden Dome could force talks between Moscow and Washington about nuclear arms control in the foreseeable future.

Primarily seeking to defend against a growing arsenal of conventional and nuclear missiles from U.S. adversaries Russia, China and smaller states such as North Korea and Iran, the Golden Dome plan is a revival of a Cold War-era effort by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), better known as the "Star Wars" program.

SDI envisioned stationing a constellation of missiles and powerful laser weapons in low-Earth orbit that could intercept a ballistic nuclear missile launched anywhere on Earth below, either in its boost phase moments after launch or in its blazing-fast cruise phase in space.

But the idea never came to fruition mainly because of technological hurdles, as well as the high cost and concerns it would violate an anti-ballistic missile treaty that has since been abandoned.

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'WE'RE READY'

Golden Dome has strong and powerful allies in the defense contracting community and the growing defense technology arena, many of whom have been preparing for Trump's big move into space weaponry.

"We knew that this day was likely going to come. You know, we're ready for it," L3Harris Chief Financial Officer Ken Bedingfield said in an interview with Reuters last month.

"L3 Harris has an early start of building the sensor network that will become the foundational sensor network for the Golden Dome architecture."

Trump ally Elon Musk's rocket and satellite company SpaceX has emerged as a frontrunner alongside software firm Palantir and drone maker Anduril to build key components of the system, Reuters reported last month.

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Many of the early systems are expected to come from existing production lines. Attendees at the White House press conference with Trump on Tuesday named L3Harris, Lockheed Martin and RTX Corp as potential contractors for the massive project.

But Golden Dome's funding remains uncertain. Republican lawmakers have proposed a $25 billion initial investment for it as part of a broader $150 billion defense package, but this funding is tied to a contentious reconciliation bill that faces significant hurdles in Congress.

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Additional reporting by Mike Stone; Editing by Jamie Freed)
(Refiles to fix publishing issue with graphic)

By Marc Jones and Virginia Furness

LONDON (Reuters) -Billions of dollars of debt deals aimed at protecting vital ecosystems from Africa to Latin America are at risk of unravelling or may need reworking amid concerns that crucial U.S. backing is about to dry up under President Donald Trump.

The 'debt-for-nature' swaps, which reduce a country's debt in return for conservation commitments, have gained traction in recent years with deals involving the Galapagos Islands, coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest among the most prominent.

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The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has been a key player, providing political risk insurance for over half of the deals done over the last five years, accounting for nearly 90% of $6 billion of swapped debt.

A source with direct knowledge of the plans said the DFC had about five swaps in the pipeline which are now in question with CEO-in-waiting Ben Black and U.S. government efficiency chief Elon Musk both criticising its climate work.

The source did not specify how much debt was covered by the swaps but pointed out that the last few DFC-backed deals involved over $1 billion each.

Spokespeople for the White House and the DFC did not respond to requests for comment on future DFC involvement in such deals.

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A DFC official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to Reuters it stepped down earlier this year as co-chair of a global task force set up in 2023 to expand the use of debt swaps.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also hit out at multilateral lenders for climate change work amid a broader U.S. retreat that has seen it withdraw from the Paris Agreement to curb global warming.

Angola and Zambia and at least one Latin American country are among those whose 'debt-for-nature' swap plans risk needing to be reworked or even abandoned due to DFC uncertainty, four sources that have been directly involved in the projects said.

Angolan Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa said her country, which is one of the most indebted in Africa and whose rivers feed the Okavango basin vital for endangered elephants and lions, has been talking to the DFC about two potential swaps.

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One is a debt-for-nature deal, the other a broader 'debt-for-development' swap tied to education and young people.

"We feel openness from them (DFC), but especially on the debt-for-development swap," de Sousa recently told Reuters.

"We respect their vision," she added. "For us there is no difference  we have opportunities on the development side, and we have opportunities on the nature side."

In Zambia, which late last year was looking closely at a swap linked to its vast national parks that are home to over 40% of Africa's elephants, things have changed too.

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"We are not completely shutting (the swap) down but we are not actively at it right now," its Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane told Reuters, declining to specify the reason for the shift.

NEW REALITY

Generating money for conservation by exchanging costly government bonds for cheaper ones is seen as an obvious choice for smaller nations grappling with heavy debt loads and climate change pressures.

The UK-based, non-profit International Institute for Environment and Development estimates that the world's 49 poorest countries seen most at risk of debt crises could swap a quarter of the over $430 billion they now owe.

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Given the signals coming from Washington, those that do should drop hopes of DFC support and look at alternatives, said White Advisory managing director Sebastian Espinosa, who has advised Barbados, Belize and Seychelles on such swaps.

Those could include credit guarantees from major multilateral development banks, potentially alongside private sector insurers and guarantors, as pioneered by the Bahamas last year.

Historically, though, DFC backing has been crucial in scaling up deals, offering up to $1 billion in political risk insurance. That protects those who buy the new lower-cost bonds if the governments involved fail to make payments.

"Who's going to step in? (to replace DFC) I don't know," said Eva Mayerhofer at the European Investment Bank, which backed a 2024 Barbados swap. "We won't be able to do debt conversions that regularly."

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The Inter-American Development Bank, involved in five of the last nine debt-for-nature swaps, sometimes alongside the DFC declined to comment on whether any of its plans were being affected.

Investment firm Nuveen's Stephen Liberatore, who has been a cornerstone investor in some debt swaps, said while substitutes for the DFC could be found, the knock-on effects were yet to be seen.

"What is the price for a private entity (to provide risk insurance) versus a public entity like the DFC?" Liberatore said. "Does it change the amount of savings?" which are then spent on conservation. "That's the ultimate question."

(Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London, Chris Mfula in Zambia, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Duncan Miriri in Nairobi, Libby George in London and Kate Abnett in Brussels; Editing by Simon Jessop and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Despite both Turkiye and Azerbaijan being located in seismically active regions, the recent earthquakes in the neighboring country do not affect Azerbaijan, Vusala Rafiqqz, the head of the Electronic Services Department at the Republican Seismological Service Center, said in a statement to Trend.

Rafiqqz explained that the seismic and tectonic structures of Turkiye and Azerbaijan differ.

"Although both Turkiye and Azerbaijan are located in seismically active areas, the earthquakes there have no effect on our lands.

Since exact earthquake predictions cannot be made, no one can forecast whether an earthquake will occur or not. Minor tremors, which often go unnoticed, are recorded daily and do not have any impact. Earthquakes with a magnitude of three or above are officially reported on our website and social media pages," she added.

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The off-duty Anderson Police officer who was involved in a shootout with two suspects after he reported his personal vehicle stolen was placed on administrative leave, the department said.

According to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department detective, officer Maurice Magee and his brother-in-law tracked down his Dodge Challenger in the Woodruff Place neighborhood on the city's east side using a GPS tracker.

"Officer Magee is on administrative leave, and we are working closely with IMPD to determine the facts surrounding the incident," the Anderson department said in an email to IndyStar.

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Magee is a 2-year officer with the Anderson Police Department. He graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in 2023. He's served as a school resource officer and, in 2024, was recognized by the department for his part in rescuing a woman from a vehicle submerged in a retention pond.

About 5 a.m. May 19, Magee, who lives in Indianapolis, reported his Dodge Challenger stolen to Indianapolis police. According to the detective on the case, Magee and his brother-in-law found the car in the Woodruff Place neighborhood. Magee did not immediately inform IMPD that he had found the car, the detective said.

Woodruff Place residents met with IMPD Detective Larry Craciunoiu to get confirmed answers on what happened in a police shooting on May 19, 2025.

Witnesses heard gunshots and saw the shootout, which resulted in Magee's stolen vehicle crashing into an iron fence in front of a home. A child's bedroom in a nearby home was struck by gunfire.

IMPD responded to the 911 calls in the 600 block of Woodruff Place West Drive about 6:30 a.m. on May 19. They initially reported that the Anderson officer was believed to have been grazed by a bullet, but after being examined, it was learned he had fallen, police said.

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Officers quickly determined that two suspects had run from the Dodge. A perimeter was set up around the area as officers, the K-9 Unit, and a drone began searching the area for the suspects.

Arsenal Tech High School and H.L. Harshman Middle School were briefly placed on lockdown.

The two suspects got away.

Anyone with information about this incident can reach Detective Larry Craciunoiu at 317-327-3475 or by email at Larry.Craciunoiu@indy.gov. You can call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317.262.8477 or (TIPS) to remain anonymous.

Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Anderson officer in Indy shootout placed on leave pending investigation
Video: Federal judicial ruling overturns parts of Arkansas library obscenity law

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.  An Arkansas lawsuit in response to a 2023 state law has led to a federal court assigning more than $400,000 in fees against defendants, including Arkansas.

The Wednesday judgement is against Arkansas, Crawford County and county Judge Chris Keith, 11 prosecuting attorneys and others to pay $435,275 in attorney fees for the lawsuit. At issue was Act 372 of 2023, which amended Arkansas law for endangering the welfare of a minor to include sexual material and remove protection for library employees.

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Bill looking to regulate obscene books in libraries moves through Arkansas legislature

The Fayetteville Public Library brought the lawsuit with 17 other plaintiffs, including the Arkansas Library Association and Freedom to Read Foundation, challenging provisions of the act, claiming violations of the First Amendment.

In December 2024, District Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the U.S. Western District of Arkansas found two sections of the act, which made the most significant changes to state law, unconstitutional due to their vagueness. His ruling is currently under appeal.

Judge blocks Arkansas law allowing librarians to be criminally charged over harmful materials

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Attorney General Tim Griffins office spokesperson Jeff LeMaster said the office is currently reviewing the [court] order.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
BALD KNOB, Ark.  The income of Arkansas farmers is trending in the positive direction for the first time in two years, but theres a catch. It is not because most farmers are turning a profit.

According to projections from the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, federal aid will become the primary driver of farm income growth this year, which will not equally assist all farmers struggling to grow year after year.

How tariffs set by President Donald Trump are expected to impact Arkansas agriculture

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Brad Peacock from Bald Knob had a serious discussion with his wife a couple of weeks ago about what not being a farmer would look like, noting it is a conversation many row crop farmers are having.

Im a fifth-generation farmer, and my son at the kindergarten awards banquet this morning said that he wanted to be a farmer, Peacock told KARK 4 News

It is pride, but at the same time, youre hesitant because you know the economic outlook right now, he continued.

He says input costs to plant and grow keep going up while receipts at harvest keep going down. Over the last two years, Arkansas net payments for corn declined 42%. Soybeans 25%. Cotton 11%.

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2025 is projected to correct an overall Arkansas net farm income two-year slide, but University of Arkansas Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics Dr. Hunter Biram said that is temporary because of one major source.

There is a $681 million projected increase in net farm income for the state of Arkansas for 2025, but when you start to untangle what that looks like, there is actually a $466 million decline in crop revenue, Biram explained.

Conservation funding for flooded lands helps small Arkansas farm

According to Biram, 2026 is expected to have a net income slide again. Livestock is anticipated to remain stable, but the situation isnt enough to help many farmers keep the family tradition alive.

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Weve seen about 60 farm equipment auctions since December. Normally, were looking at less than 10which means people are going out of business, Biram said.

He stated farmers do not get to name their price. They have to take the global price offered to them on top of factoring in the weather and other challenges.

Peacocks farm did not qualify for any hurricane disaster relief. What he did receive in federal aid was 12% of his total losses last year.

Its not about making a profit this year. Its just about breaking even. Just getting as close to even as you can, Peacock said.

Post-drought Arkansas agriculture industry still seeing long term effect

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He said one way to fix this is to pass a new farm bill, which could update the baseline for prices instead of using the ones set in the 2012 farm bill with some revisions.

When you literally put your blood, sweat, and tears into something, and then it really doesnt matter what you do or how good of a job you do, thats the part that its tough, Peacock concluded.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left) and USDA Sec. Brooke Rollins in April. (Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate)

The Arkansas Department of Human Services is providing the U.S. Department of Agriculture with data on the number of certain SNAP program applicants, following a sweeping demand from the government earlier this month. A DHS spokesperson did not confirm or say whether the agency would share more sensitive data in the future.

The data-sharing was initially confirmed in emails provided to the Advocate through an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request, and then by a DHS spokesperson, who said none of the information shared thus far was personally identifiable.

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A USDA official sent a letter to states on May 6, stating they would need to provide USDA with a trove of personally-identifiable information on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients, such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers  data not typically shared with USDA as part of the SNAP program.

USDA directed states to provide [r]ecords sufficient to identify individuals as applicants for, or recipients of, SNAP benefits, including but not limited to personally identifiable information in the form of names, dates of birth, personal addresses used, and Social Security numbers, along with detailed payment data to show how much a recipient has received in benefits. The request is for data dating back to Jan. 1, 2020.

Failure to provide the data or give permission for third-party data processors to do so could trigger noncompliance procedures, the letter continued.

In an email to two members of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders communications team, DHS spokesperson Gavin Lesnick wrote on May 9: One more for you  a reporter with the Washington Post reached out below about a new requirement for all states to share SNAP data with USDA. We are in the process of providing this data.

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However, in response to questions from the Advocate, Lesnick said the data provided by the department was not personally identifiable.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) began sharing data last week detailing the number of disqualified and sanctioned SNAP applicants so far this year, Lesnick wrote in an emailed statement. This dataset did not include any personal information.

SNAP data is stored by DHS but is also provided to a third-party vendor to produce the programs EBT cards, Lesnick said.

When asked to clarify whether DHS had plans to share the broader trove of personally identifiable information requested by USDA in the future, Lesnick did not directly answer the question.

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DHS plans to provide USDA any data requested that supports efforts to ensure program integrity, he said. We take seriously our responsibility to safeguard sensitive data, and will ensure any information submitted to USDA is provided safely and securely. Questions about specific data types or future requests should be directed to USDA.

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The statement Lesnick provided to the Washington Post reporter earlier this month said: The Arkansas Department of Human Services is fully committed to efforts to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in all programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We look forward to continuing our partnership with the U.S. Department of Agricultures Food and Nutrition Service to ensure that SNAP benefits go only to eligible families.

The May 6 letter was prompted by a March executive order from President Donald Trump called Stopping Waste, Fraud, and Abuse by Eliminating Information Silos, which directed officials to take all steps necessary to the maximum extent consistent with law, to obtain access to data necessary to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.

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It also directed federal agencies to take steps to gain unfettered access to comprehensive data from all State programs that receive Federal funding, including, as appropriate, data generated by those programs but maintained in third-party databases.

The USDA letter said that At present, each State, district, territory, and payment processor is a SNAP information silo.

USDA requires unfettered access to the data held by states and third-party processors, the letter said, to eliminate inefficiencies and fraud in accordance with Trumps executive order.

However, privacy advocates have raised alarms over the demand, sending letters to third-party data processors used by states urging them not to comply.

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States Newsroom has reported on efforts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to consolidate personally identifiable information from various government databases, potentially in violation of privacy laws.

Some states, such as New Mexico, have refused USDAs demand on privacy grounds. Others, like Iowa and Alaska, have complied.

As of March, 235,927 people in Arkansas received SNAP benefits, the Advocate previously reported  approximately 7.6% of the state population. As reported by NPR, the personal data of SNAP recipients normally remains under the control of states, while USDA is able to audit state programs.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  Three Arkansas State Police corporals were awarded Medals of Valor and named Troopers of the Year following a high-speed pursuit last October that ended in the death of a suspect who attempted to run a trooper off the road.

On Oct. 11, 2024, corporals Keegan Barnett, Dustin Carpenter and Marcus Simpson responded when a suspect began trying to force a fellow trooper off the highway. The situation escalated into a dangerous high-speed chase.

Arkansas State Police trooper honored after risking life to stop driver speeding into oncoming traffic

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During the pursuit, Simpson attempted to intercept the suspect but was forced off the road, crashing into trees. Despite the wreck, Simpson told his colleagues to continue the chase without stopping to check on him.

Its a hard reality of thinking my wife and kids couldve lived the rest of their lives without me that day, that was tough, Simpson said.

Carpenter and Barnett continued the pursuit, facing the possibility of a deadly head-on crash. Both officers ultimately fired at the suspect, who ran off the road and died at the scene.

You can see how close we got to civilians getting killed or hurt. As far as danger to the public, Ive never had an incident like that happen at that level, Barnett said.

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We were just glad we were able to perform and do our job without any civilians getting hurtor anything worse happening than what already did, Carpenter said.

All three officers were honored for their quick decision-making and commitment to protecting public safety.

Its not very often, maybe once a career, you get that. So its a big deal, Barnett said about receiving the award.

The officers credited their training and trust in each other for their ability to respond under pressure.

Arkansas State Police trooper recruit honors his grandfather whos a fallen ASP sergeant

In law enforcement, we have that calling to protect and serve and put the community first, Simpson said.

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I couldnt pick two better guys to handle this situation. They handled it to the best of their ability, and I knew they were going to do that, Carpenter said.

Officials said the trios actions that day reflected not only professional skill but also a deep commitment to each other and the communities they serve.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK.






A teacher from Arkansas has pleaded no contest to sexual assault after being accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at her church

Reagan Danielle Gray entered her plea on Monday at the Little Rock Court for one count of second-degree sexual assault

Gray has been sentenced to six years of probation, ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, registered on the sex offender list, must provide a DNA sample and must have no communication with the victim







A teacher from Arkansas has pleaded no contest to sexual assault after being accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy at her church.

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According to KARK, Reagan Danielle Gray entered her plea on Monday at the Little Rock Court for one count of second-degree sexual assault.

ABC7 reported that the teacher entered a no contest, which allowed her not to admit or deny the crime, but the move is treated the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes.

Gray was charged last year with abusing a 15-year-old boy at Immanuel Baptist Church in 2020 when she was 23 years old.

KARK reported that while she first abused the boy in 2020, the assault continued into summer 2021.

PEOPLE contacted Little Rock Court, Little Rock Police, Immanuel Baptist Church and Sylvan Hills Middle School for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Google Maps Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark. Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

PEOPLE previously reported in April 2024 that police had accused Gray of sexually abusing a teenager and sending him nudes.

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Grays attorney, John Ogles, told PEOPLE at the time that Gray had entered a not guilty plea. We are just going to trust the judicial process, he said.

While the defendant was a teacher at the Little Rock Christian Academy and a volunteer in the Immanuel Baptist Church student ministry, the victim was a member of the student ministry.

KARK and ABC7 reported that Gray had originally been charged with the first and fourth degrees in sexual assault, however, prosecutors later agreed for her to enter a second-degree plea.

She has been sentenced to six years of probation and a $1,000 fine. Gray is also now registered on the sex offender registry, has been ordered to provide a DNA sample and must have no communication with the victim.

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PEOPLE previously reported that an affidavit stated that Gray was told to stop contacting the boy after the teen's parents allegedly found text messages in 2020 between the two.

The texts were then reported to the senior pastor. Gray then told the pastor that the relationship was "not physical before being removed from the student ministry and being ordered to undergo counseling.

However, she returned to volunteering in the student ministry shortly after being removed, per investigators.

Gray then allegedly revealed in a counseling session in 2020 that her relationship with the boy was sexual in nature, per the affidavit.

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The communication between Gray and [the teen] had not stopped after being confronted by [the teen's] parents and continued on the Snapchat application," the affidavit went on to say, with authorities claiming the abuse took place in Grays car or apartment multiple times.

The affidavit also stated that Gray was on administrative leave from her job at Sylvan Hills Middle School beginning in February 2024.

According to KARK, Pastor Smith resigned as pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in April last year after backlash for how the church dealt with the allegation of sexual abuse.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.



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The Army Reserve will hold its largest-ever exercise beginning in late May that will include 9,000 soldiers deployed across multiple states and locations coast-to-coast.

Operation Mojave Falcon, which the service has dubbed the Reserves Super Bowl, combines four exercises into a multi-faceted training event that will see soldiers working in concert between locations in California, New Jersey and North Carolina, according to a release.

The five exercises are Combat Support Training Exercise, National Training Center, Global Medic, Quartermaster Liquid logistics Exercise, Nationwide Move and operations at the port of Long Beach, California.

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Army Reserve needs skilled soldiers to support major combat

The 79th Theater Sustainment Command serves as the senior trainer for Mojave Falcon, heavily partnered with the 91st Training Division at Fort Hunter Liggett and the 807th Theater Medical Command, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also feature several other one-star-led commands and supporting units.

The focus will be on large-scale operations in tough, realistic training in a combat-like environment involving real-world missions and events, according to the release.

Were continuing this momentum and really putting in practice so that were proving we can do LSCO and thats the design behind this whole [exercise], said Maj. Gen. Dianne Del Rosso, commanding general of the 79th Theater Sustainment Command, based at Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California.

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The bulk of the exercise will take place at Fort Hunter Liggett and Fort Irwin, both in California. Fort Irwin houses the National Training Center.

There, soldiers will work combat support and combat service support skills ranging from platform live fires to transporting supplies to warfighters.

Soldiers at other locations  Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, Fort Barfoot, Virginia; and Port of Long Beach, California  will also conduct coordinated exercises.

The exercise is designed to test soldiers on everything from simulated opposing forces and unmanned aircraft systems to digging in and operating at multiple austere locations.

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Its an amazing opportunity for us to not only build combat readiness but also making sure that were doing that as a balanced Army with all our different components, Del Rosso said.

Global Medic medical personnel will train in austere medical environments focused on everything from treating casualties to medical evacuations, all while under extreme duress, according to the release.

Building combat-ready formations is high risk, Del Rosso added. Its high reward and the camaraderie creates trust. In life and death situations that is critical.

Soldiers involved in the Quartermaster Liquid Logistics Exercise will transport and distribute bulk fuel and water at five locations spread across Californias West Coast, as well as the Midwest, areas on the East Coast and southern sections of the nation.

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Troops at the Port of Long Beach will partner with Navy personnel for realistic training for roll-on, roll-off activities of cargo and equipment from a maritime vessel while under simulated enemy attack.

Under Nationwide Move soldiers will load containers and use M915 line-haul vehicles to deliver equipment and supplies from coast-to-coast to support the various training events. Some of this will involve convoy and railroad operations.

Across the operation soldiers will also test new mission command information systems integrating Joint Battle Command-Platform and Command Post Computing Environment to communicate during the event.

Editors note: The photo accompanying this report has been updated.
The Army has officially designated its newest rifle and automatic rifle the M7 and M250, respectively. The move, which the service touted as a major program milestone, comes weeks after the Armys new rifle came in for some heavy criticism from within its own ranks.

Both weapons have now received their type classification that confirms they met the Armys stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment, the service announced this week.

But an Army captain has raised serious questions about the Next Generation Squad Rifle  previously known as the XM7  including whether the weapons 20-round magazine provides soldiers with enough ammunition for combat. (The War Zone was the first to report on the criticism, and you can read their deep dive here.)

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The XM7 is a tactically outdated service rifle that would be better classified as a designated marksman rifle, if that, Army Capt. Braden Trent said during his presentation at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., in late April. This rifle is a mechanically unsound design that will not hold up to sustained combat on a peer-on-peer conflict.

Trent conducted his research into the rifle as part of his project for the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School. His views are not endorsed by the Defense Department, Army, or Marine Corps, according to his 52-page research paper on the subject.

Sig Sauer, which has been awarded a contract to produce the rifle, pushed back on Trents assertion that the M7 is unfit for use as a modern service rifle.

We have a very large staff of individuals that work daily on that rifle to ensure that every aspect of its performance is scrutinized, every aspect of its safety is criticized, Jason St. John, the senior director of strategic products for Sig Sauer, told Task & Purpose for a previous story. We are highly confident that we have provided the U.S. Army soldier with a very robust weapon system that is not only safe, but it performs at the highest levels.

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Still, questions remain about whether the rifle, which chambers a 6.8mm round, has enough magazine capacity. The M7 is expected to replace the M4A1, which has a 30-round magazine.

Trent said he observed a live-fire exercise in which soldiers equipped with the XM7 burned through most of their ammunition within 15 minutes while trying to suppress a simulated enemy, even though they had borrowed spare magazines from radio operations, medics, and platoon leaders.

Brig. Gen. Phil Kinniery, commandant for the Armys Infantry School and Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Georgia, told Task & Purpose that commanding officers ultimately determine how much ammunition their units will carry into battle, and the traditional seven-magazine load could be adjusted.

Kinniery also said that the Next Generation Squad Weapon rifles larger round will give soldiers an advantage on the battlefield.

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From having been in several firefights throughout my career and deployments in Afghanistan and in Iraq, that [6.8mm round] round stops the enemy, Kinniery said. What were actually bringing to infantry soldiers or, really, the close combat force across the Army, is something that stops the enemy at one round versus having to shoot multiple rounds at the enemy to get them to stop.

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TARTAR, Azerbaijan, May 22. The Great Return to Azerbaijan's liberated territories continues in line with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyevs directives, Trend reports.

Persons returning to Ballija village in the Khojaly district are former IDP families who earlier temporarily settled in various parts of the country, mainly in dormitories, sanatoriums, and administrative buildings.

At this stage, one family of five has moved to the city of Khojaly, while eight families, totaling 29 people, have been resettled in the village of Ballija.

The former IDPs returning to the native village thanked President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva for their comprehensive care and expressed gratitude to the valiant Azerbaijani Army, which liberated the lands from occupation, and wished repose of the martyrs' souls.

Currently, about 40,000 people live in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Among them are former internally displaced persons who have returned to these areas, as well as employees involved in the implementation of restoration and construction projects, employees of local departments of various government agencies, and specialists employed in healthcare, education, culture, tourism, industry, and energy institutions that have resumed their activities.

To recall, from 1992 to 2020, the village of Ballija was under the occupation of the Armenian Armed Forces and was under the control of the separatist regime. During this period, an Armenian army weapons depot was established in this village. It was liberated as a result of local anti-terrorist measures on September 1920, 2023.

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DES MOINES, Iowa  Police in Ames have made an arrest in a string of vehicle burglaries.

Kamren Schmidt

Kamren Schmidt, 18 of Ames, has been arrested and charged with Theft 2nd Degree, four counts of Burglary 3rd Degree-Motor Vehicle, Attempted Burglary 3rd Degree-Vehicle, and Theft 5th Degree. The Ames Police Department said the arrest stemmed from an investigation of vehicle burglaries over the past several weeks, primarily in the western part of Ames.

Celebrations Thursday at Camp Dodge, Gold Star Museum

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Schmidt is being held in the Story County Jail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 2nd.

If you have any information about this case, contact the Ames Police Department at 515-239-5133 or provide a tip at www.crimestoppersofcentraliowa.com

APD reminds people to lock their vehicles and not leave anything valuable in them. Police also said you should not store firearms inside your vehicle.

Iowa news

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(FOX40.COM)  Multiple agencies arrested a man Wednesday morning, who is believed to be a part of a shooting and assault that left one person in critical condition on Mothers Day in North San Juan.

Video above: Sacramento police investigate after a woman was shot on West El Camino Avenue

The Nevada County Sheriffs Office said that several agencies took part in an operation to serve the warrant before 9 a.m. in the 15000 block of Tyler Foote Crossing Road.

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Clay Leffew, 52, was taken into custody for attempted murder, aggravated assault with a gun, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and discharge of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Leffew was booked into the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility without bail, according to the Sheriffs Office.

The investigation is ongoing.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A suspect wanted in connection with a fatal shooting over the affections of a woman was arrested Wednesday.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of Ohio, Francisco Vallejo-Arevalo, 26, was arrested at a business on the 7000 block of Main Street in Camden by the Dayton division of the marshals service.

Vallejo-Arevalo was in the country illegally, the marshals service said, and is in custody at the Preble County Jail.

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Columbus police responded to a mobile home park on the 3000 block of Kane Drive just off of South High Street Saturday afternoon for a report of a shooting. At the scene, officers found Erik Alcauter-Huitron, 31, suffering from a gunshot wound. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Police said Alcauter-Huitron and Vallejo-Arevalo were seeking the affection of the same woman, a contributing factor in the shooting.

Vallejo-Arevalo is being held on an aggravated murder charge. Online records do not list when he will next appear in court.

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WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  Wichita police said a 33-year-old man was arrested in a deadly collision that occurred in late 2024.

On Dec. 29, 2024, officers responded to a collision in the 200 block of N. Charles Street. Wichita police said fire and EMS located the vehicle that collided with a tree and fence. The vehicle caught fire after the engine was separated from the chassis.

Christian Sheppard (Courtesy: Sedgwick County Jail)

Police said the passenger, identified as 32-year-old Chekiel Wright, died, and the driver was seriously injured.

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Plane from Wichita crash in San Diego neighborhood; deaths reported

On Wednesday, Christian L. Shepperd was arrested. He has been charged with murder in the second degree, unintentional but reckless, according to court records from May 20.

Police said at the time that alcohol and drugs were suspected factors in the crash.

For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

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(KRON)  Police said a San Jose man who allegedly exposed himself at a shopping center in Pacifica last October has a string of indecent exposure incidents.

Knife-wielding man arrested in attempted robbery outside San Carlos Taco Bell: deputies

The Pacifica Police Department said Favian Arredondo, 33, was taken into custody on Wednesday at the Hall of Justice, Santa Clara Superior Court as he appeared there for an unrelated case.

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PPD said on Oct. 16 at 7:49 p.m., Arredondo was spotted by an employee as he exposed himself at a business on the 500 block of Linda Mar Shopping Center, but fled before officers could arrive.

Further investigation revealed that this was the third documented case in which Arredondo was identified as a suspect in an indecent exposure incident, said Pacifica police in a news release.

Photo courtesy of Pacifica Police Department.

Police said they were able to obtain a $20,000 misdemeanor warrant for violation of two counts of indecent exposure against Arredondo.

Arredondo was arrested without incident and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail, said police.

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Federal agents appeared to have arrested multiple people inside Chicagos immigration court on Wednesday, lawyers told the Tribune, in what seems to be the latest escalation in President Donald Trumps bid to enact mass deportations.

Throughout Wednesday, groups of men were spotted detaining individuals inside the downtown courthouse, with many of those agents wearing badges or verbally identifying themselves as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to four attorneys.

An ICE spokesperson did not provide immediate comment Wednesday, but a Tribune reporter also witnessed three individuals be taken into custody by men dressed in plainclothes and holding clipboards early Wednesday afternoon. Their lawyer, Essam Abdallah, told the Tribune his clients are immigrants who have been in the country for under two years but did not know where they were being taken.

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Im not sure whats going on, a surprised Abdallah said as he left the courthouse to find a way to help his clients.

News outlets across the U.S. have similarly reported on federal agents detaining individuals during immigration hearings and check-ins in Dallas, Phoenix and Seattle this month. In Chicago, several attorneys who were at the immigration courthouse Wednesday said they noticed men sitting by the waiting area and inside the courtrooms, with one lawyer saying he followed the detainees to the fourth floor where immigration arrests are processed.

Another attorney, Alex McGriff, said he was at the courthouse for most of Wednesday and heard the men identify themselves as ICE agents to the people they approached. McGriff monitored the court hearings as part of the National Immigrant Justice Center to learn more of ICEs latest move.

The practice of ICE entering the courthouses to detain individuals who are there for deportation or other immigration proceedings is a shift that signals a more aggressive tactic by the Trump administration. It comes as his campaign promise to drastically ramp up deportations has seen a chaotic rollout but has so far fallen short of his goals numbers-wise, with recent reports indicating that removals have lagged behind those that happened during the Biden administration.

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While ICE is allowed inside courthouses, advocates worry the presence of agents will have a chilling effect on immigrants due for routine check-ins or hearings. Immigration lawyers said the Trump administration appeared to be coordinating efforts to dismiss cases of individuals in the U.S. for less than two years so that federal agents can immediately detain them, potentially for an expedited removal order.

Trump in January expanded that designation, traditionally only used at the border, to apply to any noncitizen without legal status who cannot prove theyve been in the country for more than two years. Those individuals are not owed a hearing before an immigration judge.

Aaron Lawee, an immigration attorney with Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, was in court when he saw government attorneys move to dismiss two separate cases. In both instances, he said, two individuals were waiting outside the courtroom to detain the respondents.

In one case, Lawee said, a woman from Vietnam had an attorney, though the attorney was present via videoconference and not physically in court. The woman was eventually able to talk to her attorney, who informed the agents she had an asylum application and was entitled to an interview.

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In the other instance, the man did not have an attorney, Lawee said. The judge allowed the man 10 days to respond to the governments request to dismiss the matter, he said. He accompanied the man to the ICE office, and learned that he had a criminal conviction, which appeared to be the reason for the detention.

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This tactic of switching someone from a non-detained case to a detained case really stacks the deck against them, he said. The deck is already stacked against immigrants. Unlike in criminal court, this is more like youre guilty until proven innocent.

Another attorney who asked to remain anonymous to protect their client told the Tribune they were at a downtown immigration court Wednesday and saw the government move to dismiss their clients case. That government official would only explain, The circumstances have changed.

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Victoria Carmona, a clinical professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, called the maneuver to dismiss cases to then expedite deportation unprecedented and said it appeared to be a coordinated, nationwide effort rolled out in multiple cities.

Its definitely to detain as many people as possible, she said. Its easy detention, and absolutely to quickly deport people.

Attorneys urged people to still attend their court dates because failing to show up would lead to a removal order, but said family members who would come in a supportive role may opt to stay home.

People are going to be afraid to go to court, Carmona said.

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Many are unaware that there may be legal avenues available to challenge their arrests and the expedited removal process being applied to them, said immigration attorney Khiabett Osuna.

Osuna was there on Wednesday morning with one of her clients when she noticed the apparent agents in the waiting room and inside the courtroom.

There is a real risk for people who are navigating this process without representation, said Osuna. Those without attorneys are not being informed of their rights or potential defenses, leaving them at a heightened risk of immediate detention and removal.

More than 50,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Venezuela but also from Haiti and other countries suffering instability, have arrived in Chicago since 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court this week sided with the Trump administrations move to revoke the Temporary Protected Status of 350,000 Venezuelans, but a tangled web of pending litigation over other protections from immigrants targeted by the White House continues unfolding in courts.

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Chicago has often been in the crosshairs of White House since Trumps second term started. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive first-termer, has decried the president as a tyrant and went to Washington in March for a congressional hearing in which he defended Chicagos sanctuary policy that prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

However, ICE has been moving ahead with deportations in the nations third-largest city even without Chicago polices help. That was evident during the citywide immigration raids attended by Trumps border czar Tom Homan and the TV personality Dr. Phil in January  and now in Wednesdays courthouse arrests.

Rey Wences, senior director of deportation defense at Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, called the arrests deeply troubling.

We know that ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are using this strategy to snatch and disappear people in different cities nationwide, Wences said. This is a deeply troubling development that instills fear in communities, creates barriers for people going through the immigration process, and only serves to pad Trumps deportation numbers at the expense of everyday families. Trump and DHS are trying to use a shortcut to deny due process to our family members and neighbors.
DENVER (KDVR)  While data shows that violent crimes are declining overall in Denver, one crime is on track to be up significantly by the end of 2025 after several years of declining cases.

Cases of arson, a crime involving the willful or malicious burning of property, have been on the decline for several years in a row.

Newly released report says homicides dropped nearly 60% in Denver in 2025

In 2025, however, a spokesperson for the Denver Fire Department said that the first quarter of the year brought more arson fire cases than the same period in the previous two years.

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The fire department shared the following data regarding arson in Denver:

2022: 129 arson fires

2023: 96 arson fires

2024: 92 arson fires

2025 so far (as of May 13): 34 arson fires

IF our 2025 Q1 numbers are an indication of how the remainder of the year will go, we will be looking at 2022 numbers, the spokesperson wrote in an email to FOX31.

The fire department said that arson fires are more common during the colder months and during the summer, so there is plenty of time for the numbers to change course before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, other crimes are down from recent years. A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department told FOX31 that homicides are down almost 60%, and overall property crime is down 34% compared to the last three years.

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Officers continue to work to reduce all these numbers in a data-driven approach working with different organizations, patrolling areas that have seen increases of crime, and reaching out to the community to address concerns, the spokesperson wrote in an email.

The police department said it encourages people to report crimes or suspicious activity as soon as possible as it could help reduce crime in Denver.

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May 21The machine looks and sounds like something out of a toddler's most enthusiastic and fevered imagination. But maybe, just maybe, it holds solutions to several challenges the region faces, from job creation to storm-damaged forest cleanup and restoration of flood-stripped farm fields.

Matte yellow and dull black, the shipping-container-sized contraption belches fire into the afternoon air. Waves of heat waft from its open top, and various levers and buttons adorn its sides. The behemoth sits on treads, surrounded by a sea of mud, and it is, improbably for a machine its size, driven around via remote control.

A narrow conveyor belt rises from one end, terminating more than 15 feet up in the air. From the end of this conveyor, tiny chips of an ebony substance rain down into a white bucket, tattooing a rhythmic counterpoint to the ever-present rumble of whatever is going on inside the machine. Even the thing's name sounds like something a four-year-old would dream up  The Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer.

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In many ways, it is a dream. The dream of revived economic opportunity in Western North Carolina. The dream of flood-depleted soil suddenly refreshed with plant-friendly nutrition. The dream of turning Helene debris into something useful rather than have it take up space in Haywood's landfills.

That's John Fletcher's dream. Now he's just got to find somebody to help him pay for it.

Fletcher, owner of Suncrest LLC and Canton Hardwoods, used to make a living purchasing pulpwood, making chips out of it, and selling the end product to the paper mill. When the mill closed, Fletcher pivoted to the mulch industry. But there's another product Fletcher's had his eye on for a few years  biochar. It's the tiny black chips being spat out from the conveyer at the end of the Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer. And according to Fletcher, it's the answer to a lot of WNC's pressing issues.

An unassuming miracle product

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Biochar is essentially a specialized form of charcoal. It has an array of helpful applications in the agricultural world. For one thing, it can replenish soil that's had its nutrients stripped by flood waters, explained Bill Yarborough, chairman of the board of supervisors for the Haywood County Soil and Water Conservation District.

"The value of that is huge," Yarborough said, especially in flood-prone WNC. "There are other uses. When you have toxins in the soil and you need to clean them up, there's nothing better, because it will absorb those materials and hold them tightly. It's also used heavily in water treatment and filtrations."

Biochar is a valuable end product. But even better, both Yarborough and Fletcher said, it's a solution to two ongoing problems. When the paper mill closed, it negatively impacted the forestry market for hundreds of miles in every direction. And when Helene rolled in, it toppled trees in roughly the same area.

"You've got 800,000 acres of public and private lands in Western North Carolina that have downed timber. It's gonna be the biggest fire we've ever seen if we don't do something with it," Yarborough said.

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"That's not a solution, that's a problem," Fletcher said, pointing to a nearby ridge, where a convoy of trucks trundled mulched Helene debris to the privately-owned landfill at the site of the former paper mill.

Fletcher is a man who cares deeply about both the forests and the people of WNC. And he's spent his career turning trees into jobs (and money). Every time one of those trucks drives by, all he sees is a colossal waste. What he'd like to do with Helene debris is turn it into biochar. After that, he sees biochar coming out of construction sites, logging operations, and more.

In his mind, it's a win all around  it would refresh WNC's forestry industry, keep Helene debris from taking up valuable space in landfills, and create a product that can facilitate both agriculture and environmental cleanup operations.

Tigercat says its machine can turn 100 tons of woody material into ten to 15 tons of biochar. That ratio is one of the things Fletcher's company is testing, said Daniel Vaught, sales manager at Suncrest.

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Vaught was squelching through the mud as he tracked circles around the 6040 Carbonizer, pulling a lever here, pressing a button there. He took a moment offer a simplified version of how it all worked.

"There is a big motor and a fan that is basically churning the air and keeping the heat on the inside," Vaught said. Once the fire is going, another big machine drops in more woody material ever so often. The material burns down to a precise size before falling through a grate and being bathed in water to halt the burning process at just the right moment. Then the machine spits the resulting biochar into a bucket.

Voila.

Unfortunately, Fletcher hasn't had much luck getting a contract for debris handling. And he's running out of time. He's currently leasing the Tigercat essentially as a visual proof of the concept to lead public and private partners to the light. Yarborough said he's not sure how much longer Fletcher can continue footing the cost for the multi-million-dollar machine.

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That's why Yarborough and his state level colleague Barbara Blieweis are going all in on biochar evangelizing.

"Biochar is one of the answers. But the startup cost for something like this is immense. To do production and industrial application, you need many like this all across North Carolina so that everyone can benefit," said Bliewis, the president of North Carolina Association for Soil and Water Conservation Districts. "Our vision is to come up with a pilot that works, that shows the entire business supply chain. What we are is rebuilding an economy using mobile technology. But to be an official large-scale pilot, I continue to pursue state and federal funding for that."

Meanwhile the Tigercat 6040 Carbonizer sits on borrowed time in Fletcher's hands, not-so-quietly waiting for its chance to turn the byproduct of a natural disaster into black gold. Yarborough said that interested folks should contact their public officials and "say that this idea has value. It can actually benefit us."

"It could create jobs, it could create lots of opportunities," he said. "But the main thing is it's just, it makes sense."
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD)  Vivian Kong Doctora is living out her dream of being an entrepreneur.

I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, she said.

And a serial entrepreneur Kong Doctora became. The Illinois State University Redbird is from China, born and raised in Hong Kong. She worked for State Farm Insurance for 21 years before starting her first business, Bao Destination. Its a ghost kitchen concept allowing Kong Doctora to share cuisine from her childhood. She describes bao as a steamed bun.

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During the pandemic everyone was trying to learn how to make sourdough, and for the love of god I could not feed the yeast enough to make sourdough. So, I got frustrated. I said, Forget about sourdough, Im going to learn how to make bao,' said Kong Doctora. But Im a simple girl. My moms recipe wouldnt work for me. So, I tried to look for something that still honored her recipe but modernized it so theres a shorter process.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Sharon Chung is a musician turned politician

Kong Doctora also teaches cooking classes with her friends through their business Beyond Social.

I always feel like food is a way to connect other people. The way for me to share my culture is to teach people how to make the foods I used to make and I like, she said. I feel there were also a lot of people after the pandemic wanted to do something together. So my friends and I figured whats a great way to get people back together.

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And the tastiness doesnt stop there. Kong Doctora is a partner at Kobe Revolving Sushi Bar.

Im always about learning. It wasnt something I was planning on my roadmap but an opportunity came around, said Kong Doctora. When I was visiting with two of my current business partners they expressed a desire to open a revolving a sushi restaurant. I was like, Ooo I like that idea.So, thats how the partnership was formed. It also allows bao to have a home.

Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Shekar Reddy offering Indian food to Central Illinois

Kong Doctora said she appreciates when people appreciate her products. It also gives her an opportunity to share her story.

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It kind of makes you feel good that you spend the time and efforts into making something and people like it, she said. And it also allows them to ask questions. What is bao? What is your story? Why did you decide to make bao?

You can find take-home Bao Destination at Hy-Vee, Fresh Thyme and Chi Family Express and order some at Kobe Revolving Sushi Bar.

The food industry isnt the only place where Kong Doctoras entrepreneurial spirit thrives. She also has a real estate license.

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Athens police are asking for the publics help with a crash investigation where a driver seriously injured a pedestrian.

On April 13, at approximately 9 p.m., a crash between a vehicle and a pedestrian happened on Essex Court at Cedar Shoals Drive.

The driver did not stop after hitting the man.

The victim was seriously injured and his dog was killed.

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Police describe the suspect vehicle as a dark sedan. Police said that evidence at the scene suggested that the passenger side door may be damaged.

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Anyone with information is asked to email Officer Cameron at Caleb.Cameron@accgov.com or call 762-400-7191.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The "Araz-2025" joint exercise, held with the participation of Azerbaijani and Iranian servicemen successfully concluded, Trend reports via Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.

Within the framework of the exercise, the assigned tasks were carried out precisely by the military personnel of both countries.

According to the plan, during the activities carried out in coordination at various stages, the participants demonstrated high combat training.

The exercise leaders highly evaluated the professionalism and level of training of the personnel.

At the end, mutual gifts were presented, and the distinguished servicemen were awarded.
An Atlanta police lieutenant was arrested and charged with sexual battery after investigators say he groped a rideshare driver over the weekend.

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Kyle Kleinhenz, 45, was arrested on May 19 and booked into the Fulton County Jail on one misdemeanor count of sexual battery, jail records confirmed.

The rideshare driver told police that she picked up Kleinhenz from Mr. Cs Bar and Grill on Howell Mill Road.

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She said the 45-year-old inappropriately touched her during the ride, causing her to pull over for help.

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The rideshare driver told police that the officer was sitting behind her, when according to the arrest affidavit, He began pulling on her and rubbing her right arm. She says she told him to stop, and he repeatedly apologized to her but continued to touch her.

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Then, police say, the officer pulled her back by grabbing her right breast while saying Damn, you so sexy, according to the affidavit.

Fearful for her safety, the driver pulled into the RaceTrac along Bolton Road, where she flagged down a security guard who waited with her until police arrived.

Investigators attempted to speak with the accused officer, but according to the arrest warrant, he was extremely intoxicated and unable to give a statement.

On Thursday, Kleinhenz was relieved of duty, and an internal affairs investigation is underway.

APD Chief Darin Schierbaum has issued the following statement regarding Kleinhenzs arrest:

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The Atlanta Police Department takes all allegations of officer misconduct with the utmost seriousness. We are committed to maintaining the trust of our community by holding our officers to the highest standards of integrity and professionalism. Any behavior that falls short of these expectations is thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action is taken.

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ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG)  An Atmore man is accused of placing a dog in an oven, killing the dog.

MCPSS teacher arrested after 4-year-old hospitalized: MCSO

According to an Escambia County, Alabama, District Court complaint, James Allen Williamson is accused of aggravated cruelty to animals.

James Allen Williamson. (Escambia County Jail View)

The document shows this incident occurred on or about April 19. Williamson was arrested on Monday, May 19.

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Williamson placed a dog in an oven resulting in the death of the dog, the release said.

This is a developing story. News 5 will provide updates as more information becomes available.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
Dominic Gillen of Bellevue, center, explains his family's support for medical cannabis, including for his 23-year-old son, Will, at a public forum in Lincoln on May 5, 2025. From left, State Sens. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, Jane Raybould of Lincoln, Tom Brandt of Plymouth, John Cavanaugh of Omaha, George Dungan of Lincoln, Myron Dorn of Adams, Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, Jana Hughes of Seward, Margo Juarez of Omaha and Merv Riepe of Ralston. State Sens. Ben Hansen of Blair, Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha and Terrell McKinney of Omaha attended earlier forums. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN  A late legislative attempt Wednesday to give additional protections to health care practitioners who recommend medical cannabis to Nebraska patients fell well short of moving forward a day after a broader medical cannabis regulatory bill stalled.

State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha sought to add those physician liability protections Wednesday to a broader Health and Human Services Committee bill: Legislative Bill 376. The measure seeks to slash various reporting requirements and make other changes primarily in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

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Cavanaugh said his effort was a solution that would be a small but meaningful step for some of the families who showed up Tuesday for LB 677, the medical cannabis regulatory bill from State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair. LB 677 failed 23-22, falling 10 votes short of overcoming an all-day filibuster.

Give these families some hope, some opportunity to get access to what the voters approved at over 70%, Cavanaugh told his colleagues. Vote to give doctors some small protection if they follow their conscience and their training.

Under the ballot measures approved in November, a patient can possess up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis for any condition with a health care practitioners recommendation.

Physician recommendation hesitancy

However, DHHS has not issued guidance and many advocates have reported that in-state physicians have refused to issue any medical cannabis recommendations. Until medical dispensaries are licensed, which is required under the voter-approved law by Oct. 1, cannabis cant legally be purchased in Nebraska.

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Part of Cavanaughs push also comes as Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers has acknowledged the possibility of investigating the licenses of physicians who recommend cannabis and continued to challenge the voter-approved laws.

State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha speaks with reporters after a legislative proposal seeking to help implement medical cannabis stalls in committee. April 17, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Under Cavanaughs amendment, in language identical to the medical provider protections in LB 677, a health care practitioner could not be arrested, prosecuted or disciplined solely for providing a written recommendation or for stating in their professional opinion that a patient is likely to benefit from using cannabis to treat or alleviate a medical condition.

The Nebraska Medical Association had voiced support for the protections.

Cheap parlor trick

State Sen. Bob Andersen of north-central Sarpy County, who staunchly opposed LB 677, argued that Cavanaughs amendment was not germane, or related, to LB 376. Speaker John Arch of La Vista, a former HHS Committee chair who was presiding over the Legislature at the time, agreed.

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Cavanaugh moved to overrule the chair, which fell short 15-30, so the proposal didnt reach an overarching vote. The motion needed at least 24 votes because three senators had left the Capitol.

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair speaks with reporters after a legislative proposal seeking to help implement medical cannabis stalls in committee. April 17, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Hansen, a former HHS Committee chair, said there was no boogeyman in the amendment.

But State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering, current chair of the HHS Committee, called the attempt a cheap parlor trick that could get LB 376 vetoed. Gov. Jim Pillen has said LB 677 wasnt needed.

Fascinating process of playing chess where theyre trying to deep-six the committee bill from HHS with an unwelcome amendment, Hardin said.

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State Sens. Bob Hallstrom of Syracuse and Mike Moser of Columbus also disagreed that the amendment was in the natural and logical sequence to the subject matter of LB 376, as Cavanaugh argued under legislative rules. Cavanaugh also pointed to a section in the bill that discussed civil and criminal protections for certain physicians or hospital staff.

State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering. July 31, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

If the amendment was worthy, Hallstrom and Moser said, senators needed more time.

I think this is crazy, Moser said of the amendment, lambasting that it came around 8 p.m.

Last-minute amendments, particularly late at night in legislative sessions, are not unusual.

Germaneness is a mixed bag

State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha said she thought the amendment was germane and that her opinion was just as valuable as that of Hallstrom or Moser.

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Hunt said the gag is that germaneness is whatever the majority says it is. She pointed to the 2023 merger of bills to restrict abortion and health care for transgender youths, which State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha also mentioned. The Nebraska Supreme Court later affirmed the combined 2023 bill as having been germane.

DeBoer said she understood Wednesdays hesitation and asked Cavanaugh why he chose a last-second approach and hadnt warned Hardin or others before filing his amendment. He responded that LB 677 stalled late Tuesday and that he came up with the idea Wednesday.

State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha. Jan. 23, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

DeBoer said that if lawmakers followed past practice on determining germaneness, the amendment was likely germane. But she acknowledged its kind of crappy to do it last minute like this, no offense.

DeBoer was one of seven senators who voted for LB 677 but on Wednesday voted to uphold Archs ruling against Cavanaughs amendment. The others were progressive State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln and conservative State Sens. Stan Clouse of Kearney, Myron Dorn of Adams, Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue and Jana Hughes of Seward.

Do the right thing

The two senators voting to overrule Archs ruling and who did not vote for LB 677 were State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, who was present, not voting as she continued discussing concerns with Hansen, and State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha, who missed the final vote but had supported the bill.

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Bosn, a former prosecutor who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and whom Pillen first appointed to the Legislature in 2023 before she was elected in November, told the Nebraska Examiner that she was convinced by Cavanaughs argument that LB 376 opened up many sections of law.

State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln. April 8, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Had Cavanaughs amendment come up for a vote, Bosn confirmed she would have voted for it. Bosn said it made sense and is within legislative responsibility if physicians are reluctant to act. Bosn, Cavanaugh and Hansen said it was also a question the Legislature would have to grapple with soon because the regulatory commission cant shield physicians through regulations.

In his final plea to senators, Cavanaugh uttered a popular phrase that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those, when in times of moral crisis, preserve their neutrality.

Dont relegate yourself to the hottest places in Hell, Cavanaugh said. Do the right thing for these families.

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Cavanaugh and Hansen said the medical cannabis fight continues in whatever way possible, either in the final seven days of the 2025 session, the regulatory process or in 2026.

Hansen pointed to a phrase on the north side of the State Capitol that he said was crucial as regulations moved forward: The salvation of the state is watchfulness in the citizen.

Germaneness of adding medical cannabis physician protections to LB 376

Speaker John Arch of La Vista ruled that liability protections for physicians who recommend medical cannabis was not germane to Legislative Bill 376. A vote to overrule Arch failed 15-30. It needed 24 votes.

Vote to overrule the chair: Carolyn Bosn, Eliot Bostar*, Tom Brandt*, John Cavanaugh*, Machaela Cavanaugh*, George Dungan*, John Fredrickson*, Dunixi Guereca*, Ben Hansen*, Megan Hunt*, Margo Juarez*, Dan Quick*, Jane Raybould*, Ashlei Spivey, Dave Wordekemper*

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Vote to sustain the chair: Bob Andersen, John Arch, Beau Ballard, Rob Clements, Stan Clouse*, Danielle Conrad*, Wendy DeBoer*, Barry DeKay, Myron Dorn*, Rob Dover, Bob Hallstrom, Brian Hardin, Rick Holdcroft*, Jana Hughes*, Teresa Ibach, Mike Jacobson, Kathleen Kauth, Loren Lippincott, Dan Lonowski, Dan McKeon, Glen Meyer*, Mike Moser, Dave Murman, Merv Riepe, Rita Sanders, Tony Sorrentino, Tanya Storer, Jared Storm, Paul Strommen, Brad von Gillern

Present, not voting: Victor Rountree*

Excused, not voting: Christy Armendariz, Terrell McKinney*, Jason Prokop*

*Voted for a regulatory framework for medical cannabis in Hansens Legislative Bill 677 on Tuesday (23-22)

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  The Arkansas attorney general approved a ballot title on Wednesday that could change the way citizens bring issues to the ballot for voters to decide.

This was the third ballot title submitted by the League of Women Voters of Arkansas to the attorney general. The league, along with the Save AR Democracy group, intends to ask voters whether access to the referendum process should be part of the Arkansas Constitution.

Arkansas coalition submits proposed ballot initiative to overturn legislative changes to referendum law

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Attorney General Tim Griffins opinion that accompanied the approval said the groups submission had appropriate language in the title, as compared to the previous submissions.

The league president classified Wednesdays decision as a victory.

This victory belongs to every Arkansan who believes in the power of the people to shape their own government, League president Bonnie Miller said. Despite the challenges, we refused to give up because the right to direct democracy is worth fighting for.

Two additional groups ask to join Arkansas League of Women Voters suit against changes to referendum law

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Secretary of State Cole Jesters office says the next step in the process is to meet with someone from its elections division and start collecting their signatures to try to get enough valid signatures to get it on the ballot.

By state law, the group will need to gather 90,704 signatures, amounting to 10% of the total number of votes cast for governor in the last election.

The league has also filed a lawsuit against the referendum changes.

The most recent legislative session created several laws that tightened access to the referendum process, including multiple laws on signature gathering and the reading level of the title. The groups second submission being above an eighth-grade reading level is what led to its rejection.

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This is the first ballot title approved under the new laws.

A recent successful ballot initiative in Arkansas was an amendment repealing the Pope County casinos license. In the past, a 2018 initiative increased the states minimum wage, and a 2016 initiative established an Arkansas medical marijuana program.

Arkansas League of Women Voters speaks on lawsuit regarding changes voter referendum process

Other ballot initiatives to increase access to marijuana failed in 2022 and 2024.

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(WHTM) Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday issued a warning to Pennsylvanians taking GLP-1 drugs to be wary of counterfeits ahead of summer.

Sunday said Pennsylvanians taking these drugs should ensure they are getting them from a licensed pharmacy. As demand for GLP-1 drugs rises, so does the counterfeit market for diabetes control and weight-loss drugs.

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These counterfeit products flooding the market can cause harm, and I strongly advise anyone shopping for GLP-1 drugs to use extreme caution, Attorney General Sunday said. I continue to urge the FDA to use its investigative, inspection, and enforcement powers to protect consumers.

Sunday was involved in a multi-state coalition letter sent to the Food and Drug Administration, advising them to crack down on these counterfeit drugs that often come from foreign countries.

As summer approaches, more people are looking to embark on a weight loss journey. Those looking to take GLP-1 drugs such as Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic, and Wegovy should take the proper steps to ensure they are getting medication from a proper source, Sunday says.

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Consumers are encouraged to report suspicious products to the FDA and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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While the Illinois village of Dolton is moving ahead with negotiations to buy Pope Leo XIVs childhood home in the village, its unclear how trustees were consulted about the decision, which hasnt been discussed at an open meeting.

As Mayor Jason House seeks to come to terms with the homes owner, at the same time the village attorney is threatening court action to acquire the property via eminent domain.

Burt Odelson said he spoke Tuesday night with the owner of the New York auction firm, Paramount Realty USA, which is scheduled to start taking bids on the house at 212 E. 141st Place, next month.

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They want the property to be the best it possibly can be, but obviously the owner wants a fair price and we intend to pay him a fair price, Odelson said.

Odelson said he was directed by House to write a draft of a letter that was emailed and sent by certified mail Tuesday to Paramount.

He said he understood House got a consensus from trustees to start talks and send the letter to Paramount, but was not sure when the mayor spoke with Village Board members.

The board voted Monday to give an honorary street name to a portion of 141st Place in front of the home, that will be dedicated Pope Leo XIV Place, but did not discuss the villages potential acquisition. A representative of Odelsons law firm attended the Monday meeting.

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House and members of his slate elected April 1 pledged transparency in actions. House did not respond to a message left Wednesday.

House said after Mondays meeting he spoke earlier that day with the homes owner, Pawel Radzik, and said negotiations aimed at a purchase by the village were underway.

Odelson said whatever comes of the talks, whether its the village buying the home or going to court, the board would need to approve the next steps.

The home was purchased by Radzik last year for $66,000, a Homer Glen-based home rehabber, who then renovated the homes interior.

Radzik put the house on the market for sale, then pulled it earlier this year after learning of the propertys heritage and now worldwide importance.

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The villages Tuesday letter to Paramount gave notice that Dolton intends to purchase the home either through direct purchase or through their eminent domain powers, according to a copy provided by Odelsons office.

Odelson said he expected to hear back soon from the auction firm regarding whether negotiations will be successful or whether Dolton will have to go to court and file a lawsuit.

The last thing we need is another lawsuit, Odelson said, referring to the several pending cases that have been filed against the village in recent years. But it will happen if we need to.

Odelson said he has not talked to the property owner, but said the auction firms president indicated he would talk to the owner and a real estate broker that had been hired to market the property.

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The modest brick home, at just a bit over 1,000 square feet, was where Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, grew up.

Prevosts parents  Louis, a school administrator who died in 1997, and Mildred, a librarian who died in 1990  owned and lived in the brick house for decades. Louis Prevost sold the home in 1996 for $58,000.

Paramounts website notes the auction is an opportunity for one buyer to own a sacred piece of history.

The home served as the foundation of a life that would lead to the Vatican, according to the auction listing.

Bids are being accepted by the company starting June 18

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Odelson said that should negotiations between the village and property owner stall, the notice sent to the auction firm tells them they have to tell a prospective buyer that their ownership could be temporary.

If the village cannot buy the house outright, it would go to court and, through the process of eminent domain, a fair value would presumably be set.

Steve Budzik, a real estate broker hired by Radzik when the home was being offered for sale, said Wednesday Radzik is definitely open to engaging in negotiations with the village.

Budzik said he had initially contacted the Chicago Archdiocese about whether there was interest in acquiring the home due to its historical importance. A message left with the archdiocese seeking comment was not immediately returned.

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The sellers not fighting it, he likes the idea of preserving the home as a public space, Budzik said.

Odelson, and the letter to Paramount, indicate that is Doltons goal.

The letter tells the auction firm that Dolton intends to work with the Chicago Archdiocese and other agencies to allow the home to be viewed and visited as a historic site.

Odelson said hes had really good conversations with the archdiocese about being involved in the preservation of the home.

Whether through negotiations with the property owner or through the courts, setting a value for the home will be difficult, the attorney and real estate broker said.

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Its really a difficult thing to determine, its problematic, Odelson said.

While nearby comparable sales prices would be used by an appraiser, for example, to set a propertys value, the attorney and Budzik said the intangibles of the homes history have to play into the equation, but exactly how theyre not sure.

We know that the value is more than what we had it posted for, but what is that value? Budzik said.

Radzik first listed the house in January for $219,000, reducing that to $205,000 later in the month then cutting it in February to $199,900 before later taking it off the market.

House said Monday that, despite Doltons financial problems, he felt it was important for the village to try to gain ownership. Odelson agreed.

We have to find the money, we have to, Odelson said. It is something the village has to do for the people, not just Dolton but for the world.

____
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)  The future of parking in Downtown Augusta was the topic of discussion at a special meeting Wednesday night.

Small business owners and concerned residents packed into Fat Mans Cafe wanting to make their voices heard.

Representatives from Augustas Traffic Engineering Department discussed parking as well as plans for ongoing construction which has many business owners concerned including Dominik Cartrel, Owner of Toast of Augusta.

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I see the room being filled with a lot of angry people because this is the first time theyve heard of it, let alone we have three months to get prepared for it. This is peoples livelihood, this is how we take care of our families, this is how we sustain the future, how are we going to survive is the question, thats the only thing Im worried about, said Cartrel.

The main concern for many people is the amount of parking spaces that would be taken away after construction specifically on Broad Street.

John Ussery, the Assistant Director with Traffic Engineering, says he understands the upset over a loss of parking spaces but also says parking space size standards are larger now.

Because the parking stalls are not standard, if we did nothing else but just re-surface Broad Street, grind out a couple inches of asphalt, put it back and then re-stripe everything, we would lose approximately 140 stalls when we re-install them per the new standard, Ussery said.

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Many people at the meeting, including Molly Swift, Owner of Fine Roots Marketing, are concerned not only as business owners but also residents of Augusta.

This is very much not just a personal interest but definitely has to do with my working life too, I care very much about my clients, and I also care about the customer experience so when we see that there is something impacting these businesses, we definitely have to do something, Swift said.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF.
At the invitation of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Austin Community College Chancellor Russell Lowery-Hart testified at a congressional hearing Wednesday about ACC's innovative free tuition program for in-district high school graduates.

In his testimony, Lowery-Hart told members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions that community colleges in general have taken on affordability issues "with courage"  and that their voices are often ignored in higher education policy.

"We're the entity in the sector of higher education where innovation goes to breathe and where I think higher education is actually being reimagined," Lowery-Hart said. "Community colleges are the sector that have taken on affordability with courage."

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Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont and former Democratic presidential candidate, specifically invited Lowery-Hart to testify after learning about the success of the program for recent high school graduates. His recently introduced bill, the College for All Act of 2025, would eliminate public tuition and fees for students in certain income brackets.

Lowery-Hart said the free tuition program has boosted enrollment by 40% at the college, as well as increased retention and success rates. Sander's bill would be "transformative" for other institutions to have similar success, he said.

Lowery-Hart was the only representative from Texas and from a community college on the panel, which also included presidents from a Christian-centered college and a historically Black college and university, a research fellow and a representative from a student borrower protection center.

His testimony came as Congress considers a reconciliation bill that would cut Pell Grants for part-time students by increasing the amount of credit hours a student must take to qualify for the aid. For ACC, that would mean 5,000 part-time students could lose Pell access and likely their ability to finish workforce programs, Lowery-Hart said.

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"Our moral clarity is loving our students to success because this work is personal," Lowery-Hart told senators. "The decisions that you do make aren't just political, they change the trajectory of lives, neighborhoods and communities."

Based on ACC's data, Lowery-Hart shared that the average student is 27-year-old "Ashley," a part-time student with two jobs and a young child, who is just one emergency away from dropping out. ACC data shows 40% of its students are food insecure, and 55% are housing insecure.

"She is continually in a state of stress because she is one flat tire away or one sick childcare worker away from having to drop out of school, which then could consign her to a life of poverty," Lowery-Hart said. But support at "key moments," such as ACC's free tuition program or emergency fund, can change her family's economic trajectory for generations.

Lowery-Hart said the ACC free tuition program is notable among other programs for its breadth and for covering the total cost of admission, allowing other scholarships to go toward meeting students' basic needs.

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Although ACC has not raised tuition in 12 years, the top reason students still don't attend is affordability, not lack of interest, Lowery-Hart said. He implored senators to remember Ashley as they make decisions affecting higher education.

'Undeniable' impact of support

Sean Hassan, chair of ACC's board of directors, said it was "thrilling" to represent community colleges and share ACC's story on Capitol Hill. He said the ACC team also met with Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn's staff while in Washington to discuss the importance of Pell grants and the continued momentum of legislation that would benefit ACC, such as potential changes to the CHIPS and Science Act on semiconductor development.

Hassan said ACC's perspective is particularly valuable because of the diversity of students and service area: Its coverage area is larger than the state of Connecticut, and the college annually serves 70,000 students from high school students taking dual credit courses to workforce training for returning adult learners.

He said the bipartisanship of the committee hearing made him optimistic about higher education, and he hopes ACC's story inspires others to enact change.

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I am very hopeful, and not just because of the work that were doing in Central Texas, but potentially because we can serve as a model for others, Hassan said. You cant ever get complacent. We have to keep showing up and making sure we are telling our story, the story of Ashley.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ACC chancellor advocates for free tuition, Pell grants at US Senate
KHOJALY, Azerbaijan, May 22. Another group of former internally displaced persons (IDPs) has arrived in Khojaly city and Ballija village, Trend reports.

At this stage, one family of five people has returned to Khojaly, and eight families, totaling 29 people, returned to Ballija.

Currently, about 40,000 people live in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur. Among them are former internally displaced persons who have returned to these areas, as well as employees involved in the implementation of restoration and construction projects, employees of local departments of various government agencies, and specialists employed in healthcare, education, culture, tourism, industry, and energy institutions that have resumed their activities.

To recall, from 1992 to 2020, the village of Ballija was under the occupation of the Armenian Armed Forces and was under the control of the separatist regime. During this period, an Armenian army weapons depot was established in this village. It was liberated as a result of local anti-terrorist measures on September 1920, 2023.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Authorities cracking down on national organized-crime rings swiping $18 billion a year through ATM card-skimming have now turned their sights on aiding Big Apple victims.

The US Secret Service, which investigates financial crimes along with protecting the president, started the crackdown in California last year because of the staggering problem and has now expanded to team up with a new NYPD task force to try to thwart the criminals better here.

Its billions of dollars [stolen] annually across the nation, so that jumps off the page by any metric, Secret Service spokesman James Byrne told The Post on Wednesday, as the New York City initiative was rolled out.

The NYPD and the US Secret Service announced Operation Flagship, which targets ATM crooks in the city. Paul Martinka

Thats the impetus for it.

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The feds launched Operation Flagship after the US Department of Agriculture and credit-card carriers detected such theft involving the governments food-assistance, or Electronic Benefits Transfer, cards.

The skimming devices can be installed on top of the ATM and remotely steal PIN numbers and other data from the users card use the information to steal the money.

Scammers simply attack the device using double-sided tape.

Thieves can also install tiny cameras in the ATMs that grab images of the PIN number on a card.

The US Secret Service said ATM skimming is an $18 billion underground industry in the country, including in New York. Paul Martinka

In the Big Apple, the rings primarily target the poorest neighborhoods, authorities said.

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Unfortunately, theyre targeting people who really need the money the most, and thats why this problem is really blowing up in the city, NYPD Detective James Lilla said.

Theyll come in, distract the teller, the [skimming] device will go on. It can take 2 to 4 seconds to install the device.

ATM scammers target New Yorks poorest because public assistance cards are the easiest to hack into, authorities said. Paul Martinka

Theyre targeting, particularly, for EBT cash benefits, said Lilla, who is assigned to work with the Secret Service.

So, [its] direct access for those victims, because those cards are not chip-protected. Theyre able to get direct access and a monthly income coming in for the money.

An assigned worker for the Secret Service said, Theyre targeting, particularly, for EBT cash benefits. Paul Martinka

The devices steal an average of $300,000 per skimming device  and $1,000 for each person targeted, authorities said.

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The joint federal task force focused on bodegas and small markets in Brooklyn on Wednesday and plans to hit locations this week to look for skimmers.

Its a message to folks that are doing these crimes, said Patrick Freaney, Secret Service special agent in charge of the agencys New York office, to The Post.

The devices are stolen for an average of $300,000. Paul Martinka

People are coming for you.

Secret Service agent Michael Peck said, They are taking the terminals that you see in stores visually, and they are fitting these skimmers so perfectly that the average eye doesnt catch them.

You have to know specifically how to feel for them, or you have to look for other triggers, he added. Maybe glue, maybe a piece of tape and maybe fake seals.

The joint federal task force are focused on bodegas and small markets in Brooklyn as they plan to hit locations across the borough this week to look for skimmers. Paul Martinka

The task force uses a high-tech approach to track down the scamming ATMs, which triangulates data from the USDA, credit card companies and local law enforcement to catch the crooks.

Its definitely organized crime thats doing this, Peck said.
NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, Texas (KETK)  Authorities are searching for a man wanted for sexual assault of a child in Nacogdoches County.

Hawkins mayor arrested for tampering with government records

According to the Nacogdoches County Sheriffs Office, Jacob Aaron Kessler, 40, is a white man who is 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs around 215 pounds.

Courtesy of the Nacogdoches County Sheriffs Office

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the non-emergency dispatch number at 936-559-2607 or their local law enforcement agency.

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NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY)  A memorial gathering by a veterans association scheduled for next month in downtown Norfolk is drawing ire online and in the community after a flyer circulated on social media alleging three controversial far-right figures would be speaking at the event.

The USS Liberty Veterans Association is holding its 58th Anniversary Reunion at the Sheraton Waterside from June 6 to June 9  the same weekend as Harborfest. The Liberty, an intelligence gathering ship, was attacked by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats in the Mediterranean Sea in 1967, killing 34 Americans.

Its not what the event plans to commemorate thats generating concern, but who might be in attendance and/or speaking.

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On May 8, the account @StopAntisemitism tweeted on X an image that included a flyer for the event, along with the names and faces of three men who have been criticized for trafficking in antisemitic rhetoric, purporting they would be there.

A Nazi reunion at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside? Not on our watch!



The hotel is hosting a white supremacist & antisemitic event with Lucas Gage, Stew Peters, & Jake Shields. It must be canceled immediately.



Contact Carl.Barnett@NorfolkSheraton.com and demand action. pic.twitter.com/RKiVkF4SUc  StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 8, 2025

Lucas Gage, who is listed on the image, posted on X in April, saying he planned to attend.

When it comes to whos officially part of the program, however, things get murky. The day after the post, another far-right influence complained about being left off of the flyer, even though he proclaimed to be a guest speaker.

10 On Your Side reached out to the @stopantisemitism account to ask how they confirmed the attendees, but have not heard back. The above post is still live and has been shared more than 300 times.

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We also reached out directly to the executive director of LVA, Moe Shafer, who told us Stew Peters  also on the image  had asked to attend, but wasnt sure if he would show up.

If it is about Jew Hatred, please dont come!! he wrote.

Today, in a statement to 10 On Your Side, Peters confirmed he is planning to speak at the event and is aware of some negative reactions, which he chalked up to Jewish individuals or organizations.

Peters, who hosts an online streaming show and seems to be hawking his own memecoin on X, is a prolific generator of antisemitic content online.

Israel committed an act of war and the only proper response should have been NUKING them off the map, he wrote to us in an email. The survivors of the USS Liberty will no longer be silenced or shunned from society.

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The LVA says this is a private event focused on brotherhood, fellowship and support, attended by survivors, family members, and supporters. As for Peters attendance:

He was invited a long, long time ago, [before] I think a lot of us knew exactly what was going on, but we could not  it was too late to uninvite him, Phil Tourney, the groups president told 10 On Your Side.

We cant stop anybody for free speech, he said. And, you know, thats just the way it is.

Both Shafer and LVA board member John Dixon say their group does not endorse antisemitism or share the beliefs of all who support them.

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The 10 On Your Side team reached out to the Sheraton Waterside, but has not heard back.

Stew Peters responded to WAVY with the following:

On 8 June 1967 Israeli military terrorists torpedoed and NAPALMED the USS Liberty while she was in international waters, slaughtering dozens of American sailors and maiming hundreds of survivors  even strafing the lifeboats with machine gun fire as sailors tried to flee the burning ship, which is an internationally recognized WAR CRIME.

Israel committed an act of war and the only proper response should have been NUKING them off the map. The survivors of the USS Liberty will no longer be silenced or shunned from society. Calling out Israeli WAR CRIMES, whether its against American sailors aboard the USS Liberty or against innocent Palestinian children in Gaza, might be inconvenient, but its NOT anti-semitic.

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The Israeli genocide of Palestinians has opened the worlds eyes to Israeli terrorism and jewish behavior. The only negative public responses to my speaking at the 58th USS Liberty Anniversary event have come from jewish individuals or organizations. Theyre TERRIFIED of Americans finding out that they used the same terrorism that theyre currently using in Gaza against American sailors in 1967. And they should be terrified.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com.
LONDON  Baptist Health celebrated yet another ribbon-cutting ceremony in conjunction with the London-Laurel County Chamber of Commerce this past Friday.

The city of London now joins in the Baptist Health family with a primary care facility, located at 1406 W. Fifth St.

The refurbished 30,000 square foot medical facility now known as Baptist Health London offers a wide array of services. Some of these amenities include oncology, cardiology, general surgery, and behavioral health.

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I get the honor of thanking Deanna Herman from the London-Laurel County Chamber of Commerce, said Angelia Foster, President of Baptist Health Corbin. We really appreciate you and your ongoing support.

From the ribbon-cutting for the urgent care and groundbreaking for a new hospital wing in Corbin, this event showcased yet another major step in making high-quality healthcare available for community members in the area.

Foster then went on to extend her gratitude to Bruce Carpenter, Corbins economic development director and executive director of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, for being instrumental in their growth and increasing the footprint of Baptist Health in the region.

Mark Steely, Vice President of Baptist Health Corbin, was also in attendance. He started out by thanking the crowd for attending the celebration and sharing his excitement for the new technology that is going to be offered.

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We have a bunch of the latest technology and services being offered here, Steely said.

Steely went on to list off some of the diagnostic and imaging services offered, which included 3D mammograms, digital x-rays, 128 sized CT scans, pharmacy management, and much more.

Vice President Mike Darah of Baptist Health Medical Group joined the podium, and expressed his thanks and gratitude for the expansion of the medical center.

There is a lot of hard work that went on in the background, said Darah. I really want to thank the whole team on the recruitment side.

Dr. Andrew Parks was among those who spearheaded and worked with a lot of providers to help expand services in London.

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I know how much this means to the people of this region, Dr. Parks stated. What we looked to put into this building was a more complete comprehensive model of care, and in a compassionate way.

Guests at the event enjoyed light refreshments as they were invited to explore the facility, connect with healthcare professionals, and gain insight into the range of services available.

The facility opened Monday to patients. To learn more, visit https://www.baptisthealth.com/locations/baptist-health-london.
May 21The new head of the Bates College Museum of Art is an expert in postwar and contemporary Japanese art, photography and feminist art history, and has a forthcoming book about tattooing in contemporary art.

Carrie Cushman will start her job as director of the Lewiston museum on Aug. 18. She is currently a gallery director and curator at the University of Hartford's art school in Connecticut. Previously, she was a curatorial fellow in photography at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she continues to serve as a guest curator. She succeeds Dan Mills, who retired in December 2024 after 14 years at Bates.

"Carrie Cushman is an exciting choice to lead the Bates Museum of Art into its next chapter," Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Bates College, said in a news release. "She is a thoughtful, collaborative, and mission-focused leader whose expansive vision balances rigorous scholarship with a clear passion for the role of art in building community in a liberal arts setting. Her dedication to inclusive and inventive curation reflects the core values of the museum and Bates College  and positions the museum to deepen its impact on campus, in the Lewiston-Auburn community, and beyond."

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The news release said that Cushman has broadened the reach of the arts across the University of Hartford campus, and her acquisitions and exhibitions projects often highlight underrepresented perspectives. She is the co-creator of "Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography," an open-source digital resource hosted by the University of British Columbia.

"I am thrilled to join the Bates community and steward a museum known for its dynamic exhibitions and educational mission," Cushman said. "I have long been impressed by the extensive programming and learning resources being generated for diverse audiences by the hardworking staff at the Bates College Museum of Art, and I look forward to working with community partners on campus and within the region to develop a vision for the future of this gem of a museum and art collection."

Cushman earned a bachelor's degree in the history of art from Vanderbilt University. She also received a master's and a doctorate in art history and archaeology from Columbia University, specializing in Japanese art.

"Carrie's experience curating bold and socially relevant exhibitions, along with her scholarly depth, will help advance the museum's mission as a site of learning, creativity, and engagement. We look forward to the leadership she will bring to the museum," said Cat Balco, a professor of art and visual culture who co-chaired the search committee with Hill.

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The Bates College Museum of Art has a collection of more than 10,000 objects, including more than 400 artworks and objects made or owned by the modernist painter Marsden Hartley, who was born in Lewiston.

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BATH, N.Y. (WETM)  A Bath man was arrested on Monday morning after a police standoff in the Village of Bath, according to a release from the Village of Bath Police Department.

Timothy W. Holiday, 66, was arrested on Monday, May 20, on the charges of menacing a police officer (a class D felony), criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree (a class D felony), and menacing in the second degree (a class A misdemeanor), police said.

Bath man arrested on drug charges after stolen vehicle report

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Holidays charges stem from an incident at a West Washington Street home on Monday, May 20, where police said an officer was investigating a complaint related to a different situation on the same street. Police said when the officer went to the unrelated report, a person, later identified as Holiday, threatened to assault and shoot them. In response, New York State Troopers and members from the Steuben County Sheriffs Office went to the scene and secured a perimeter outside the home. Around 2  hours passed before Holiday was arrested and taken into custody, police explained, he then tried to assault a sheriffs deputy with a big staff.

Holiday had his charges read to him in a Steuben County courtroom and is being held without bail because of multiple felony convictions from his past.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  A Baton Rouge woman who ran two health care businesses was sentenced after failing to pay federal taxes.

The Department of Justice announced that Leslie Henry Wilson, 53, was sentenced to one year in federal prison. She was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release after her prison term and ordered to pay $598,774.51 in restitution.

According to the DOJ, Wilson owned two health care businesses in the Baton Rouge area, Personal Touch Healthcare Services, LLC and Personal Touch Respite Center, LLC, and was responsible for managing and overseeing payroll and taxes. Officials said Wilson failed to pay over $500,00 to the IRS from January 2019 and December 2023.

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The DOJ specifies that Wilson withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll taxes from employees, keeping the money for herself instead of paying the IRS. Investigators also found she failed to pay the employer portion of the FICA taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare.

Caregiver accused of punching, slapping and sitting on man at group home in Baton Rouge

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HONOLULU (KHON2)  The Battleship Missouri Memorial is honoring Hawaii educators with free admission this weekend in celebration of Teacher Appreciation Month.

Kapaa Bypass Road upgrades cause temporary closure

On Saturday, May 24, 2025, all public and private school teachers in Hawaii can visit the historic Mighty Mo on Ford Island free of charge. No advance registration is required, but teachers must present a valid school-issued ID at check-in.

Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You

WakeUp2Days Chris Latronic went live from the memorial with Elizabeth Pooloa, director of visitor operations, for a preview of the event.

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Throughout the day, educators can stop by the ships Wardroom to connect with the memorials Education Team, who will be on hand to share information about school programs, field trip opportunities and classroom resources available through the memorial.

Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news

Standard parking and shuttle procedures for Ford Island will remain in effect. For more details, visit ussmissouri.org.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)  San Francisco Bay Area home prices reached their highest level in nearly three years in April, according to a new report. With a median home sales price of $1,250,000, the Bay Area remains the most expensive housing market in the nation, according to the latest housing report from real estate brokerage company, REMAX.

The median price for a Bay Area home in April was the highest it has been since June 2022 and about $25,000 higher than it was in April of 2024.

Amazon layoffs to impact dozens of jobs in Sunnyvale

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Inventory in the San Francisco Bay Area counties continues to reach levels unseen over the last three years, said Tim Yee, broker/associated with RE/MAX Gold. Buyers, however, seem to be cautious as pending and closed sales are not keeping up with listing inventory. The market has definitely started shifting back to a more level economic playing field for both buyers and sellers.

Unsurprisingly, the top three markets with the highest median home sales price in the U.S. are all in California. Los Angeles was right behind the Bay Area with a median sales price of $960,000, followed by San Diego with a median price of $892,000.

Rounding out the top five markets were Seattle at $750,00 and urban Honolulu at $713,000.

Some additional findings from the REMAX report include:

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Home sales are down -0.9% year-over-year

Active inventory is up +44.8% year-over-year

New listings are up +6.2% year-over-year

The average Bay Area home, according to REMAX, sells in 26 days  four days longer than last year.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
The U.S. Marine Corps is buying a pair of new medium landing craft from Australia-headquartered firm Birdon to help the service continue to refine its new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations. The purchase of the two Ancillary Surface Craft-Medium (ASC-M) vessels aligns with a bridging solution that the Marines have been working on with the U.S. Navy to pave the way for already much-delayed plans to acquire a fleet of larger Medium Landing Ships.

The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) selected global maritime engineering leader Birdon to design and build two prototype vessels to demonstrate emerging concepts under the Marine Corps Force Modernization objectives, according to a press release the company put out yesterday. The resultant Birdon Ancillary Surface Craft (ASC) marks a critical step forward in delivering next-generation landing craft solutions to inform future capabilities, tactics, and procedures.

Birdon is an established developer of landing craft and other ship designs, including a new Landing Craft Medium (LC-M) for the Royal Australian Navy depicted in this rendering. Birdon

Birdon is set to actually build ASC-Ms in the United States with the help of Louisiana-based C&C Marine and Repair (C&C). Construction of the first of the two landing craft is scheduled to start this summer.

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Birdons release says that the ASC-M design, a rendering of which is seen at the top of this story, will be able to carry up to 40 personnel with full combat loads or 54 tons of cargo. The vessels, which have ramps at the front that drop down for loading and unloading, are 150 feet long and 30 feet across, according to a report from WorkBoat. This would put the ASC-Ms in the same rough size-class as various Landing Craft Utility (LCU) types currently in U.S. Navy and U.S. Army service, but with a smaller stated payload capacity. As a comparison, the Navy says the new LCU 1700s that it is in the process of acquiring will be 139 feet long and 31 feet wide, similar to the ASC-M, but also be able to carry up to 350 combat-equipped troops or 170 tons of cargo.

A rendering of an LCU 1700. Austal

The ASC-M does offer significant maneuverability, stability, and long-range ocean transit capability, according to Birdon. To ensure safe landings on uncharted beaches, Birdon worked with a specialist sonar company to develop and integrate an advanced forward-looking sonar system, allowing operators to detect obstacles and assess beach gradients well ahead of the vessel. The vessel is designed to beach and de-beach in gradients significantly shallower than existing landing craft can support, providing enhanced, safe amphibious operations capability.

Birdons ASC design also features a cutting-edge fuel delivery and transfer system that allows for efficient vessel-to-vessel or vessel-to-land fuel transfer, supporting extended operational range and flexibility in challenging environments, the companys press release adds.

The ASC-M rendering shows it armed with at least two remote weapon stations, one at the bow and one at the stern, both of which appear to be armed with a 30mm M230 automatic cannon and a 7.62x51mm M240-series machine gun. The M230 is a more multi-purpose weapon that could offer a degree of self-protection against lightly armored targets and drones. A .50 caliber M2 machine gun is also seen at the stern end on a standard deck mount. Rotating antennas typically associated with navigation radars are seen on top of the pilot house.

Close up looks at the armament and radars depicted in the ASC-M render. Birdon

MCWL and Birdon collaborated to balance requirements, operational capabilities, cost, and producibility. The team focused on advanced design concepts to improve production automation, requiring fewer hours to build each craft, the companys release states. The collaboration resulted in moving from concept to an affordable, production-friendly design, ready for construction in less than 12 months. The incorporation of automated production features allows for the rapid scaling of output to meet future demands.

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The ASC-M will join a small group of vessels the Marines have already been using to help refine new concepts of operations collectively referred to as Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO). A central component of EABO is being able to rapidly move relatively small formations of Marines between forward operating locations, especially ones situated on far-flung islands in the Pacific. The goal of this so-called stand-in force is to hopefully deter an opponent, but also be in a better and less vulnerable position to act if called upon.

Not having to rely on large traditional Navy amphibious warfare ships to conduct these maneuvers in littoral environments, where established port facilities are also likely to be absent, is essential to the EABO concept. Depending on the exact distribution of Marine forces and the distance between operating locations in a particular area, vessels like the ASC-M could be used to move personnel and materiel between sites and/or act as connectors between larger ships and the shore.

For years now, the Marines have also been working with the Navy on plans for the latter service to acquire a fleet of at least 18 and up to 35 Medium Landing Ships, or LSMs, to support the EABO construct. However, concerns about the costs of prospective designs and other issues have continually pushed back the LSM program schedule, with the first of those vessels now not set to arrive until the end of the decade at the earliest.

A graphic offering a breakdown of the basic requirements the Navy and Marines had laid out for the Medium Landing Ship in the past. USN

So, since at least 2023, the Marines and the Navy have been developing a phased approach for LSM and what is referred to as the Littoral Maneuver Bridging Solution (LMBS).

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LMBS addresses the urgent need for intra-theater mobility and tactical maneuver by leveraging a mix of existing platforms, experimental vessels, and chartered solutions, mitigating the near-term gap in organic littoral mobility and maneuver, Gen. Eric Smith, Commandant of the Marine Corps, explained just recently in prepared remarks for hearings before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Expeditionary Fast Transports (T-EPF), Landing Craft Utility (LCU) variants, and Maritime Prepositioning Ships are providing critical operational and tactical support for dispersed units conducting EABO.

Experimental and chartered vessels are also being used to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures, providing valuable lessons for the future LSM program, Smith added. While LMBS cannot fully replicate the capabilities of the LSM, it enhances mobility and sustainment, ensuring Stand-in Forces remain agile and combat-ready in contested littoral environments for the near future.

In line with this, in January 2024, the Marines cut a separate deal with Birdon to test and evaluate a heavy landing craft called the H260, based on a design the company had already been working on for the Australian military.

Looking outwardly similar to many oil and gas offshore support vessels, but with integrated signature reduction features, the 260-foot-long craft features a payload of 440 short tons, deck space of 8,000 sq ft, the ability to accommodate 72 Marines and 26 crew, a range of over 5,000nm, and a draft of only 6.5 feet allowing it to access a far larger proportion of beach and riverine offload locations than similar sized vessels, the company said in a press release at the time. Its inherent robustness and resilience enable the H-260 to adapt to a wide range of mission profiles and sustain multiple deployments. The aft loading and forward enclosed ramps enable rapid load transfer while adding flexibility to cope with a wider range of landing sites.

A rendering Birdon previously released showing the H260 design, at right. Interestingly, the landing craft design the Marines have also now selected as the ASC-M is also shown at left. Birdon

When it comes to current plans for LSM, in April, the Navy announced its intention to award a sole-source contract to Bollinger Shipyards to build an initial Block I ship. Shortly before leaving the post in January, former Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro had announced that the first LSM would be named USS McClung in honor of U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Public Affairs Officer Major Megan M.L. McClung, USMC, who was killed in action while serving in Iraq. In April, USNI News reported that there had been no change to the naming plan.

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The Block I LSM will be based on a design that Bollinger had developed for Israel, also known as the Israeli Logistics Support Vessel (ILSV), the first of which were delivered in 2023. The ILSV, which can load and unload personnel and cargo directly from a beach via a ramp at the bow, is reportedly just under 312 feet (95 meters) long, just over 66 feet (20 meters) across, displaces some 2,755 tons empty, and has a total payload capacity of over 2,200 tons. It is said to have a top speed of just over 14 knots and a maximum range with a full load of at least 6,500 nautical miles.

One of Israels new Israeli Logistics Support Vessels. IDF

The ILSV is notably derived from an open-ocean optimized subclass of the General Frank S. Besson class Logistics Support Vessel (LSV) that VT Halter Marine developed in the 1980s for the U.S. Army, which you can read about in much greater detail here. The Philippine Navy also operates a derivative of that design called the Bacolod City class. Bollinger acquired VT Halter Marine in 2022.

The USAV Major General Robert Smalls, at center, one of the Armys subclass of two improved LSVs, seen together with the USAV Major General Charles P. Gross, one of the six original General Frank S. Besson class ships, at left. An LCU-2000 landing craft is also seen sitting alongside Smalls. US Army

Its also worth noting here that the Army has been continually pushing to divest portions of its obscure watercraft fleets in recent years, ostensibly to help free up resources for other priorities. This is despite the benefits that the LSVs, in particular, have to offer, especially in a future conflict in the Pacific, as is now further underscored by the Block I LSM plans. Just this week, Breaking Defense reported that the Army may now be looking to axe its own next-generation Maneuver Support Vessel-Light medium landing craft program, which has suffered delays, as part of a new force-wide restructuring effort.

The US Armys initial prototype Maneuver Support Vessel-Light medium landing craft. US Army

The Navy is also already looking toward a follow-on LSM Block Next, and has moved to acquire the technical data package for the LST-100 landing ship from Dutch shipbuilder Damen as part of that work. The LST-100 is some 328 feet (100 meters) long, around 52.5 feet (16 meters) wide, has a deadweight of up to 1,400 tons, a top speed of 14 knots, and a range in excess of 4,000 nautical miles, according to Damen. The ship, which can load and unload personnel and cargo via clamshell doors in the bow, can also deploy its own smaller landing craft and maneuver other payloads from within its hull ashore with the help of a large crane. It has a flight deck at the stern designed to accommodate an NH-90 or similar-sized helicopter, as well.

A rendering of the Damen LST-100 design. Damen

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LSM Block I is the mid-term solution to support the Marine Corps shore-to-shore littoral mobility requirement, according to Marine Commandant Smiths recent prepared remarks for Congress. The final phase, LSM Block Next, will incorporate advanced technologies and lessons learned from LMBS and LSM Block I to further enhance the ships capabilities.

Overall, the current LSM plans would seem to stand in significant contrast to the urgency in the messaging coming from the Marines and elsewhere in the U.S. military, particularly in the context of concerns about the prospect of a high-end conflict with China before the end of the decade. This all also comes as Chinas Peoples Liberation Army is steadily expanding its own amphibious warfare capabilities, which would be especially relevant in a potential military intervention against Taiwan.

In addition, the delays and other difficulties the Marines and Navy have faced already in trying to acquire the LSMs underscore larger issues facing the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which is dwarfed by that of China. The U.S. government has been trying to take steps in recent years to bolster Americas ability to produce or otherwise acquire naval vessels, as well as commercial ships.

When the first Block I LSMs may begin to enter service remains to be seen, but the Marine Corps is pushing ahead with the acquisition of other vessels like the ASC-Ms to help lay the groundwork for when those ships arrive.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. As many as 141.8 ha of land have been cleared of mines and other explosive ordnances as a result of demining operations in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan's Gazakh district since April 2024, a source in the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) told Trend.

During the operations, 961 anti-personnel and 95 anti-tank mines, as well as 48 unexploded ordnances, totaling 1,104 mines, as well as 48 unexploded ordnances, were found and neutralized.

A 12.7-kilometer borderline was established between Azerbaijan and Armenia after border delimitation, ensuring the return of four villages, namely, Baghanis Ayrim, Ashagi Askipara, Kheyrimli, and Gizilhajili (6.5 square kilometers) in the Gazakh district to Azerbaijan.

The territories of the above villages were taken under the control of the State Border Service of Azerbaijan on May 24, 2024.

Stay up-to-date with more news at Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
May 21LIMA  One man was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being shot by another man during the evening hours of Friday, May 16, on Lima's east side.

According to press release from the Allen County Sheriff's Office, deputies were dispatched at 10:02 p.m. May 16 to the 5900 block of North Napolean Road in reference to a shooting.

Deputies located the victim, Brandon Jones, 37, at the Pilot Travel Center in Beaverdam, where he was transported to a local hospital by Beaverdam EMS with non-life-threatening injuries, according to the press release.

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Deputies approached the residence where the shooting took place, where they took Brandon Deeds, 31, of Beaverdam, into custody and booked him into the Allen County Jail for felonious assault.

Jones and his unnamed girlfriend, who is the ex-girlfriend of Deeds, were near Deeds' property to retrieve a car mirror from the woman's car that Deeds broke earlier that day in an argument with the woman, Jones said in a phone call with The Lima News.

Deeds fired three bullets at the couple, with one striking James in the back and another hitting a nearby guardrail, Jones said.

The incident remains under investigation by the Allen County Sheriff's Office.

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According to an Allen County Sheriff's Office, Deeds has a $250,000 bond.

Anyone with information on the case can contact Detective Mitchell Scott at 419-439-4111.

Reach Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351

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CHICAGO (WGN)  School custodians often get overlooked, but thats not the case for a hardworking Chicago Public Schools staffer who received a surprise honor on Wednesday.

Students and faculty members at Hibbard Elementary School in Chicagos Albany Park neighborhood cheered on custodian Micaela Mica Ortiz Arredondo, who recently placed second in Cintas Custodian of the Year contest.

The surprise celebration struck a chord with an emotional Arredondo, who earned $1,000 and a trip for two to Las Vegas as runner-up for the national honor.

Micaela Mica Ortiz Arredondo earned $1,000 and a trip to Las Vegas for placing second in Cintas nationwide contest recognizing custodians. (Photo: WGN)

Tina Knowles on new book, Matriarch: A Memoir, Beyonce, and her love for Chicago

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But the prize that means the most to her, she says, is the love from everyone at the school.

In April, WGNs Mike Lowe profiled the beloved custodian, who continues to make an impression on students with her Swiffer and smile.

I love it. I really do, Ortiz said. The school is our second house, for the kids, because they come to learn, they come to enjoy, and they come to play as well, so they must be in a good, clean place.

Dirty work often goes unnoticed, but at Hibbard Elementary School in Chicagos Albany Park neighborhood, custodian Micaela Mica Ortiz Arredondo makes quite an impression with her Swiffer and smile. (Photo: WGN)

Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines

The 57-year-old grandmothers second-place finish out of 10 national finalists proves that the right person can make even the dirty work sparkle.

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Ben Affleck's daughter Violet Affleck recounted a furious argument she had with her mom, Jennifer Garner, in the wake of the destructive L.A. fires that affected most of the city earlier this year.

Violet, who asserted that she was sure such an event would occur, said that she was "surprised at" Garner's bewilderment at the inferno.

Ben Affleck's daughter is known for her activism as she demanded the imposition of "mask mandates" in medical facilities and called for an end to all "mask bans" following the COVID-19 epidemic.

Violet Affleck Recounts Fierce Argument She Had With Her Mother

Sarah Silbiger - Pool via CNP / MEGA

Ben Affleck's daughter, Violet, detailed an intense argument she had with her mom, Jennifer Garner, over climate change in an essay for Yale Global Health Review.

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The 19-year-old penned her thoughts about how climate change played a part in the L.A. fires that hit most parts of the city in January, noting how the behavior of the "wealthiest citizens" was a driving force behind the "climate crisis."

In the essay, which she titled "A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles," Violet said she "spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room."

Violet established that while her mom was "astonished" by the disaster, she said she was "surprised at her surprise."

"My question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when," Violet continued, adding that the "Elektra" actress was "shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings."

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"I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my question had not been whether the Palisades would burn but when," she added.

Ben Affleck's Daughter Described How Society 'Mishandles' Such Events

MEGA

Violet went on to note in her essay that not only was she sure that the disaster would happen, but that her perspective was quite different from everyone else's around her at the time.

"As I chatted with adults in the hotel where we'd gone to escape the smoke, though, I found my position to be an uncommon one: people spoke of how long rebuilding would take, how much it would cost, and how tragically odd the whole situation had been," she penned.

"The crisis was acute, a burst of bad luck. It had come from a combination of high winds and low rains," Violet Affleck wrote, arguing that society mishandles systemic crises like climate change and pandemics, treating them as isolated events rather than ongoing, interconnected problems needing long-term solutions.

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She went on to describe the "climate crisis" as "existential and accelerating," adding that it was "driven by unsustainable consumption patterns concentrated among the wealthiest citizens of the wealthiest countries, all of which have already subjected most of this country and the world to deadly temperatures, fire-flood cycles, rising seas, and dying crops."

Violet Affleck Was Critical About How Wealth Influences Who Gets Help During A Crisis

Instagram | Michael Rubin

Elsewhere in her note, she pointed out how privilege and opulence heavily influence who gets help and who is ignored.

"The FEMA assistance quickly rushed to homeowners in the Palisades  many of whom are significant political donors  has flowed much more slowly to Asheville, North Carolina, where thousands were stranded in disastrous floods in 2024," she wrote.

Violet penned how the "stringent COVID-19 precautions" that were initially being observed during the pandemic "melted away as it became known that Black and disabled people were most vulnerable" to the illness and death.

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She argued that "centering disability justice and refusing eugenicist logics" are "essential to climate justice strategy."

Violet Demanded 'Mask Mandates' In Hospitals

LAC BOS/TMX/MEGA

Violet, who hasn't stopped wearing a mask after COVID, has always been an advocate for healthier and safer public health practices.

Last year, she demanded the imposition of "mask mandates" in medical facilities and called for an end to all "mask bans" in a passionate plea to the governing body for Los Angeles County, per the Daily Mail.

"I demand mask availability, air filtration, and Far-UVC light in government facilities, including jails and detention centers, and mask mandates in county medical facilities," Violet said. "You must expand the availability of high-quality free tests and treatment, and most importantly, the county must oppose mask bans for any reason. They do not keep us safer."

Ben Affleck's Daughter Received Praise For Her Essay

Thecelebrityfinder/MEGA

Meanwhile, her essay has been met with praise from Americans on the Internet.

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"She's an excellent writer and thinker! A good soul," an X user said.

Another wrote, "This is a very well-written piece. Especially coming from a 1st year university student. She's going to be a force to be reckoned with. Thanks for posting this."

A third person noted, "People like Violet give me hope. Not just for myself but for the world, in general. She's special!"
(NewsNation)  Former President Joe Bidens health has been in the spotlight ever since his cancer diagnosis was announced.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Biden confirmed that his last screening for prostate cancer was in 2014. The revelation comes following the release of a book detailing how Bidens team allegedly covered up his cognitive decline.

Commanders want it, retired admiral says of Golden Dome

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Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green joined NewsNations The Hill on Wednesday to talk about the former presidents health issues. He said being close to Biden during his campaign in 2024, he did not feel misled by his team on his health.

Not really, Green said. The presidents decline was profound by the time he had that terrible debate, and now, its something we should be honest about.

Green said he believes his team protected him throughout his campaign.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
A&O Shearman says its deal with Trump includes nothing beyond the president's brief Truth Social post.

Trump's posts don't explain how his deals with Big Law firms are supposed to be enforced.

For A&O Shearman, at least, the terms remain vague.

For one of the Big Law firms that made a deal with President Donald Trump, it's the Truth Social, the whole Truth Social, and nothing but the Truth Social.

In a letter to Congress, A&O Shearman said Trump's 364-word Truth Social post constituted "the complete terms" of the deal. A&O Shearman and three other firms pledged $125 million each in free legal work toward Trump's political priorities, according to the post.

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"The complete terms of the Agreement are as set forth in the four numbered paragraphs of the President's April 11, 2025 social media post," William E. White and William J.F. Roll III, the firm's co-general counsels, wrote in the May 8 letter.

Prior to A&O Shearman's letter to Congress, it was unclear whether any law firm had a written agreement spelling out the terms of the deals. A Justice Department lawyer, in litigation related to Trump's executive orders targeting law firms that didn't strike deals with Trump, has said in court that he didn't know whether any such agreements existed.

Several unresolved questions remain about the deals between the law firms and the White House, each of which Trump announced on his social media platform.

Do they have any enforcement mechanisms? How much time do the law firms have to fulfill their pledges? Who would decide whether a particular case counted toward the pro bono hours? Which "outside counsel" would the firms be required to retain to advise on employment practices, as the agreements require? And do the deals actually constrain Trump from issuing an executive order targeting the firms?

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In the letter to Congress, A&O Shearman said that an underlying agreement spelling out these details does not exist. It said it also resolved separate inquiries from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, whose Trump-appointed acting chairman had asked 20 Big Law firms about their diversity initiatives.

"Our Firm has no other agreements other than the EEOC settlement agreement," A&O Shearman's letter said. "Neither the Agreement nor the EEOC settlement agreement (which focuses only on employment law related matters) contains any limitations whatsoever on the Firm's ability to represent any existing or future client in any matter."

Victor Chen, a spokesperson for the EEOC, declined to provide Business Insider with copies of the agency's agreements with the law firms.

The nine law firms that made deals with Trump agreed to provide pro bono work for the administration, among other concessions.

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A&O Shearman's letter came alongside correspondence from the other eight firms in response to questions from lawmakers about whether those deals are legal and ethical.

A&O Shearman jointly struck a deal with three other law firms  Kirkland & Ellis, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Latham & Watkins  to commit a total of $500 million in pro bono services, according to Trump's post.

Trump's Truth Social post said the law firms were expected to devote pro bono work toward combating antisemitism; "ensuring fairness in our Justice System"; and helping law enforcement, veterans, relatives of military members who have died in combat, and first responders.

"Our lawyers already do pro bono work in each of these areas  indeed, much of our lawyers' current and historical pro bono work centers on fairness in the justice system, and we have long represented veterans and victims of religious discrimination," A&O Shearman wrote in its letter.

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The firm added that "no lawyer is required or expected to work on a pro bono matter they do not believe in."

Rep. Dave Min, a Democratic lawmaker who asked the Big Law firms about their deals with Trump, told Business Insider that such an agreement wouldn't be enforceable anyway.

Because Trump seems to have a different impression of what the deals provide, "these firms are all basically claiming that there was no meeting of the minds," meaning they can't be enforced, said Min, a former law professor who has lectured on the limits of settlements.

Spokespeople for each of the nine firms that made deals with Trump, which collectively pledged nearly $1 billion worth of free work, didn't respond to requests for comment.

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In a statement, a White House spokesperson said the deals "could usher in a new era of merit and fairness in our justice system." The spokesperson did not respond to questions about the terms of the deals.

The May 8 letter from A&O Shearman came the same day a lawyer for the Justice Department said he wasn't aware of any written agreements between Trump and Big Law firms.

"I know of nothing beyond the generally publicly available information," Richard Lawson told US District Judge Loren AliKhan in a hearing for a lawsuit the firm Susman Godfrey brought against the Trump administration.

Susman Godfrey is among the four law firms that have not made a deal with Trump and were targeted by his executive orders that would strip employees of security clearances and ban them from federally owned buildings.

Each of the four firms sued the administration and won court orders blocking the implementation of Trump's orders.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Braided wetlands and tundra in the Bristol Bay watershed are seen from the air on July 26, 2010. Seen here is Upper Talarik Creek, which flows into Lake Iliamna and then the Kvichak River before emptying into Bristol Bay. A new bill introduced on the last day of the Alaska Legislature's 2025 session would bar hard-rock metals mining in the Bristol Bay watershed. (Photo provided by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Mere hours before he banged his gavel to adjourn this years session of the Alaska House of Representatives, Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, introduced a bill to bar metals mining from the Bristol Bay watershed.

The measure, House Bill 233, would expand on the Environmental Protection Agencys 2023 decision prohibiting permitting of the controversial Pebble Project in the region. The Biden administration action, which followed up on a process started in the Obama administration, invoked a rarely used provision on the Clean Water Act to prevent development of the huge open-pit copper and gold mine planned for the region upstream from salmon-rich Bristol Bay.

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Edgmons bill would ban all metallic sulfide mining in the area designated as the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve, which encompasses state land in the Bristol Bay watershed.

Metallic sulfide mining, also known as hard-rock mining, is the type of mining that extracts elements like gold and copper from acid-generating rocks classified as sulfides. When these sulfides are processed, they commonly cause acid to drain out. It is a method distinct from placer mining, which sifts out metals from loose sediments. The copper and gold that would be produced at the Pebble project is held in sulfide ore and would be extracted through hard-rock mining.

The Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve was established by the Legislature in 1972 to prevent oil and gas development in the region. The effort was led by Jay Hammond, who was president of the state Senate at the time. He later became governor.

Under House Bill 223, the Hammond-championed prohibitions on petroleum development would be expanded to mining. The justifications for the 1972 action also warrant new protections to prevent hardrock mining activities that would risk polluting the regions river systems, ground water, aquifer systems, as well as any drainages that connect to Bristol Bays surface water, the bills text says.

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Edgmon is from the Bristol Bay region.

The bill will be considered next year, along with other measures still pending in the 34th Legislature.

Alannah Hurley, executive director of a consortium of Native tribal governments in the Bristol Bay region, said the bill would provide extra protection for EPAs action. That protection is needed because of the uncertainty that were continuing to face from litigation pressed by Pebbles sponsors, Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and the Pebble Limited Partnership it owns, said Hurley, who is with United Tribes of Bristol Bay, an organization that has long opposed the Pebble project.

Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership have sued to overturn the 2023 EPA determination, and the case remains active. The state of Alaska, at the direction of Gov. Mike Dunleavy, has also sued the federal government over the action.

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Hurley said that beyond upholding the EPA determination, the bill would prevent the development of other metals mines in the region, Hurley said. There are about 20 active claims that could be developed into large metals mines, though not as large as the proposed Pebble project, she said.

If the bill passes, we wouldnt have to face 20 other mining claims piecemeal over who knows how many decades, she said.

House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, presides over on Tuesday. Lawmakers adjourned the 2025 session that day. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)

While the bill is new, the effort behind it goes back a long time, Hurley said.

This is something the tribes have been talking about for years. We need the EPA protection, but we also need legislation to really protect the watershed, she said.

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A legislative effort similar to House Bill 233 was mounted on the federal level by former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska. She introduced the Bristol Bay Protection Act a year ago to codify the EPAs Clean Water Act determination barring a Pebble-type mine from being permitted in the Bristol Bay watershed. The act died in committee, and Peltola lost her seat in November to current Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska.

The tribes and other Pebble opponents have thus turned their attention to the Legislature now that Peltola is no longer in the U.S. House, Hurley said.

The fact that she wasnt reelected has frustrated expectations that we can make any progress with Congress, Hurley said.

There have been previous efforts in the Alaska Legislature, as well. In 2015, Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, introduced a measure, House Bill 119, that would require legislative approval for any large-scale metallic sulfide mine in the Bristol Bay Fisheries Reserve. It failed to reach the House floor. Josephson introduced a similar bill, House Bill 14, in 2017. It also died in committee.

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Josephson is a co-sponsor of Edgmons new bill.

Representatives of Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Limited Partnership were not available to comment on the new bill.

Dunleavy, who has been supportive of the Pebble project, has not taken a position, said his spokesperson, Jeff Turner. The bill was just introduced, so the governor has not had time to review it, Turner said.

As a general rule, the Governors office does not comment on legislation until it has passed and been transmitted to his office, he said by email.

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AUSTIN (Nexstar)  Senate Bill 10, aptly numbered for its requirement on public schools to place the Ten Commandments in every single public classroom, was sent back to committee after Democrats and Republicans debated the separation of Church and State on the House floor Wednesday evening.

The Republican-backed bill would require every public classroom display a poster or framed copy of the Christian doctrine that is at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall. No school would be exempt from this bill, although the bill does not appear to have any enforcement on schools that do not comply.

State Rep. Candy Noble, R  Lucas, opening up the debate on the House floor, said the Ten Commandments are foundational to the American educational and judicial systems, arguing the commandments were cited favorably in more than 500 court cases.

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In these days of classroom mayhem, it is time to return to these truths to the fabric of our education system. Respect authority, respect others, dont steal, tell the truth, dont kill, keep your word, Noble said from the front mic on the chamber floor.

Concerns about First Amendment rights

State Rep. James Talarico, D  Austin, who is currently studying to become a minister, spoke against this bill from the back microphone. During the debate, Talarico brought up the First Amendment, which prevents the government from establishing a state religion. Talarico read a quote from James Madison, the author of the amendment.

In 1819 he wrote, The civil government functions with complete success by the total separation of the Church from the State. Do you agree with James Madison, Talarico asked to Noble.

Im going to tell you that the Founding Fathers quoted the Bible themselves so frequently that it is clear it had a significant, substantive influence, Noble responded.

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The two then started debating if the display of the Ten Commandments in the classroom would be indoctrinating students. Any time a teacher has a rainbow outside their classroom we have politicians in this body crying, education not indoctrination, but now youre bringing a bill that literally forces religious indoctrination into our classrooms, Talarico said.

Noble interrupted him saying she completely disagreed with the assertion. Before calling a point of order against the bill, Talarico questioned the text in the Ten Commandments and its impact on students who are not Christian.

How do you think it makes a Hindu student feel to have a poster in every classroom that says, Thou shall not worship any God before me?' Talarico questioned.

Again, if they have come to the United States and they are living here  theyre born here, theyre citizens  then they would love, probably enjoy, celebrating what made our forefathers so different from every other nation in the world, Noble responded.

What happens next?

Talaricos point of order was issued on the grounds that the bills witness list was inaccurate. The witness list just states who registered to testify when the bill was in committee. The list shows who was registered in favor, in opposition, or neutral on the bill.

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The point of order was ultimately withdrawn and Noble motioned to send the bill back to committee. The bill will likely have to be voted out of committee by this Saturday to meet a deadline next Tuesday for Senate bills to be passed out of the House.

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LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  A set of newly introduced bipartisan bills in the state legislature would expand the states AMBER alert activation criteria and incorporate social media as a method of broadcasting them.

Currently, Michigan State Police only issue an AMBER alert if they believe a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death. House Bills 4517 and 4518 would change that.

House Bill 4518 is also known as the Rowan Act, would allow MSP to issue an AMBER alert if a child is missing and law enforcement believes them to be in danger or if a missing child has special needs. The bill was named for six-year-old Rowan Milford Morey from Isabella County, who investigators say was murdered by his father in an apparent murder-suicide in August 2024.

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Mom calls for change following murder of 6-year-old

The legislators behind the bills say the limitations on emergency response systems meant that when local law enforcement did a welfare check on Rowan, who had not been returned to his mother on schedule, he and his father were already dead.

House Bill 4517 would incorporate social media into the various information channels used to distribute AMBER alerts, which lawmakers behind the bill say will increase the speed at which the alert spreads and increase the chance of a successful rescue of a missing child.

The two bills have been referred to the Committee on Families and Veterans for further review.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Following the directive of the President of Azerbaijan, the State Agency for Highways has initiated the construction project for the Zurnabad-Ganja-Mollajalilli road, which departs from the eighth kilometer of the Goygol-Topalhasanli-Shahriyar highway in the Goygol district, the agency told Trend.

The project is set to hit the ground running, aiming to give the region's transport infrastructure a much-needed facelift, ensuring citizens can travel with ease and comfort.

In the thick of things, the road project linking three settlements, stretching a total of 10.2 kilometers, has kicked off with the reconstruction of the Zurnabad-Ganja village section, which covers about 5.2 kilometers.

Previously, the road, which had mainly a gravel surface, faced numerous issues, especially during the autumn and winter months, impacting both traffic and pedestrian movement. These issues will be addressed as the road is reconstructed to the IV technical category, expanding the road width to 9-10 meters.

Currently, earthworks are underway, and construction of drainage pipes of various sizes is taking place to ensure effective water drainage. Additionally, a new bridge with a single span is planned for construction on the first kilometer of the project area.

For the Mollajalilli section, stretching out over 5 kilometers, plans involve fixing up and putting in sidewalks, along with bringing underground communication covers up to the required height. This section will be built up according to the third and IV technical categories, with a road width coming in at 10 meters.



All works are being done up to the "Construction Standards and Regulations."



Once the reconstruction wraps up and the road signs and markings are put in place, the updated road will be opened up for safe and convenient travel.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
MASON CITY, Iowa  Theyve been in the same spot for 94 years here at 518 North Federal. Birdsalls serves ice cream in a number of flavors, all made on-site in their back room

The business has been making and selling ice cream since 1931.

It was in 1931 and by Addison and Esther Birdsall opened the ice cream store. Addison passed away in 39 and his wife Esther took, operated for a while into the 1950s, said co-owner Marc Murray. They sold it to their son Bob in late 60s, and Bob sold it to Vaughn Escher and then Vaughn passed it on to his son David and then David passed away in December 2020.

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Marc and his partners were able to buy Birdsalls after it closed due to the death of David Escher. The partners purchased the ice cream shop from the Escher estate.

The new owners took the shop and did an extensive remodel, giving the store more of a 60s feel. They purchased the recipes Birdsalls used to make the ice cream. They still produce various flavors they sell, all in the back room of the store.

120 years of scripts, scoops, and soda at the pharmacy in Colfax

Its a premium ice cream, its got a pretty high butter fat content, so Im using recipes that have been passed on for, since the beginning and Im incorporating a few my own recipes, said Murray.

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People come to Birdsalls for the sweet ice cream, but also for the experience.

We serve a pretty good radius around Mason City, said Murray. People when they come back back home to Mason City to visit their family or whatever they have to come back and stop in and visit, with memories of coming in with their, their parents or their grandparents.

Ive been coming here since I was 12, when we moved to Mason City, and Im 73 now, said Yvonne Santee, of Mason City.

Murray of course samples his creations.

I just created a new raspberry flavor. Thats pretty good. Thats my favorite at the moment, said Murray. Overall, I always come back to the Chippermint.

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If you are looking for some ice cream in Iowa this summer, check out the Travel Iowas Ultimate Ice Cream List. You can also learn more about Birdsalls Ice Cream, here.

Iowa News:

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Maures Development Group, one of Wisconsins first Black women-owned real estate development firms, is celebrating the launch of Bronzeville Estates, a major step in the revitalization of Milwaukees historic Bronzeville community.

On May 1, Melissa Nicole Allen unveiled Bronzeville Estates at her firms new headquarters on Milwaukees historic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

In an intimate ceremony hosted by her 9-year-old daughter, Evelyn, Allen spoke about her passion for reclaiming space in the historically Black community and how her revitalization project serves as a symbol of resilience and renewal in the heart of the citys Black business district.

There is energy and a very deep knowing that comes to me when I desire to pursue something, Allen told the crowd of family, friends, media, and local government leaders.

Bronzeville was once a vibrant cultural and economic center for Milwaukees African-American community, but it was tragically wiped out by the construction of Interstate 43. The project displaced more than 8,000 residents, shuttered businesses, and fractured the heart of a once-thriving neighborhood.

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The impact of that era is still felt today, but Allens women-led revitalization project marks a bold renewal of ownership and identity in a city where Black excellence runs deep.

Bronzeville Revitalization Project  Maures Development Group

In 2005, the city of Milwaukee designated a new Bronzeville. And so resources were gathered, there was infrastructure being built, and so a lot of work went into setting the groundwork, Brad Pruitt, executive director at Americas Black Holocaust Museum, tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. But until this young woman decided to put some activation into those concepts and development, it was a moderately paced process.

Driven by a deep love for her city, Allen set out years ago to restore the very community that shaped her. Since founding Maures Development Group in 2006, the mom of three has invested over $100 million and developed more than 400 housing units in underserved areas of Milwaukee.

Her portfolio highlights her commitment to restoring communities one development at a time. Take the Allen building, located next to her firms new office. The two-story property houses two commercial spaces on the ground floor and two residential units above, seamlessly merging practicality with a people-first design.

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Allens redevelopment of the Mill Road Library turned the site into a vibrant mixed-use space featuring a 17,000-square-foot Milwaukee Public Library and 65 housing units for mixed-income families. She also leased part of a commercial property she owns to support the redevelopment of Americas Black Holocaust Museum, an impactful must-see institution founded by a Civil Rights activist who survived an attempted lynching at 16 years old.

Then theres Bronzeville Estates, a 30-unit residential development built to inspire pride, foster dialogue, and honor legacy. The project, along with many others in the area, has local leaders applauding Allens efforts to help return Bronzeville to its former economic vibrancy.

Now, as Maures Development Group transforms Milwaukees real estate landscape with a focus on equity, pride, and lasting impact, its mission remains rooted in the philosophy of leveraging bricks and mortar to bring pride and hope to people.

The standards within the industry are not set up for somebody who is from urban environments to be able to be successful, Allen tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. After 19 years, Bronzeville Estates is even more important because its the first one where Im the lead developer on a transaction. Does that mean I hit the million mark. the five million mark? No, but come on. Lets get us there. Lets get us there.

With the landmark Bronzeville redevelopment, Allen marks a new chapter in Milwaukees Black history, making strides as one of Wisconsins trailblazing Black women developers. The grand opening of Bronzeville Estates stands as a powerful step in her mission to uplift underserved communities and build sustainable, thriving spaces.

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Next up: Maures Development Group gears up for its 20th anniversary in 2026 and plans to break ground on a new hotel. All in line with how Milwaukee is keeping the momentum of Black Excellence going strong.

RELATED CONTENT: Malik Yoba To Teach The Masses How To Flip The Hood
A new fiber internet provider is coming to Austin.

A Florida-based fiber optic internet provider backed by Blackstone, a trillion-dollar investment firm, is expanding its unique business model into Texas.

Hotwire Communications primarily serves homeowners' associations, master-planned communities, businesses and schools. And unlike providers such as AT&T and Spectrum, it operates without retail storefronts.

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The company, launched in 2002, initially focused on South Florida before identifying similar market opportunities in Texas.

"When we looked at Texas as a whole, we saw that that market had a lot of similarities to our Florida market and really the customer base. The homeowner association environment was very similar," David Ramos, president of Hotwire's enterprise business, told the American-Statesman. "We saw a great potential with how much new construction was going on. A lot of our existing clients moving into Texas opened our eyes to that."

As it did before launching in Tampa Bay, Hotwire spent the past few years laying the groundwork for its entry into the Austin market. According to Ramos, the company focused on investing in infrastructure and fiber network expansions, developing data centers and building a local workforce before formally announcing its presence in Austin this month.

"We build dedicated networks, so every home gets access to their own internet without worrying about how many neighbors are using the network at six o'clock," Ramos said. "We provide the ability to scale, so if you're a regular user that needs only a gigabit, or you're a power user that needs 10, you never impact your neighbors, or vice versa."

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Internet and cellular provider T-Mobile, in partnership with global investment firm KKR, has been pursuing the potential acquisition of Hotwire Communications as part of an ongoing auction process. Ramos declined to comment on the potential sale, stating that nothing has been finalized.

Ramos said Hotwire is 100% fiber-based. Fiber optic networks use thin strands of glass or plastic to transmit data as pulses of light and are designed for high-speed, long-distance communications and data transmission.

Ramos explained that Hotwire's network is designed to remain operational even if a fiber is cut or damaged.

"The investment in that is the fiber networks throughout your community, the fiber networks that then connect to data centers and to the outside world that provide redundancy," Ramos said. "You have an option. We're not for everyone. We understand that. Our business model is not for everyone, but for for those that appreciate a high quality product is reliable, always on at a great rate, and that you can enjoy doing business with the provider, that's us."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Blackstone-backed fiber internet provider is coming to Austin
Bloc Party's return to Minneapolis after more than a decade is getting its second big change since being announced in February.

The London-based group is on tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Silent Alarm. They were scheduled to play the entire album, as well as assorted "greatest hits," at The Armory on June 9.

On Wednesday, Live Nation announced that the show has been moved from the 8,400-capacity Armory to the 1,800-capacity The Fillmore.

Bloc PartyPhoto by Emily Marcovecchio

Representatives for the venue and the band did not respond to a request for comment, but moves of this nature are frequently related to sales. If that's the case, it may not have helped that the tour lost an alluring opener.

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Metric was originally announced as the opener with plans to play its 2009 record Fantasies in its entirety. However, Metric dropped off the tour in April.

"We were so excited going into this tour and we'd all landed on an agreement that would allow both parties to collaborate and to build a truly special show for the fans," Metric said in a statement at the time. "In the last few weeks, Bloc Party's team made some sudden production decisions that broke the agreement we'd made, which left us unable to continue despite our best efforts to find solutions."

Blonde Redhead and Family Dinner have since been added to the tour.

On the upside, Bloc Party fans will get a more intimate performance than they originally bargained for.

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Elsewhere in the Twin Cities concert world, First Avenue announced on Wednesday that DEVO's farewell tour stop at St. Paul's Palace Theatre has been rescheduled from June 18 to Nov. 15 "due to unforeseen circumstances."

Related: Concerts to see this week: Tribute to Slim Dunlap, Post Malone, Tennis
NATCHITOCHES PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Authorities confirmed the boater is safe following a Black Lake incident.

Natchitoches Sheriff Stuart Wright said, around lunchtime today, their Search and Rescue team responded to a report of a possible boarter overboard near Black Lake Bridge on Louisiana Highway 9, north of Campti.

(Natchitoches Parish Sheriffs Office)

A passing motorist reported seeing a man clinging to the side of a boat in Black Lake. When the motorist turned around to check again, the individual was no longer visible, leading to concerns that the man may have fallen into the water.

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Upon arrival, deputies determined that the man had safely swum to shore and did not require medical attention. Authorities emphasize that no body was found, wrote the Natchitoches Parish Sheriffs Office (NPSO) via social media.

They emphasized that no body was found.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Enforcement Agents also assisted in the response.

Sheriff Wright and NPSO deputies expressed their appreciation for the communitys concern and thanked all responding agencies for their quick action.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
Boating in Florida will soon be more enjoyable with new liberties on the water thanks to the new Boater Freedom Act.

Gov. Ron Desantis signed the act into law on Monday.

The law limits law enforcement agencies to conducting random boat inspections. It passed with majority support from lawmakers and officially starts July 1.

Boaters, like Adam Pollett, is ready to bet out on the water feeling a bit relaxed.

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I can sit back and have a cigar and just get out there and fish, he said. Everything else doesnt matter.

But he does worry that this could lead to people not being a safe as they should be. Some critics fear it could also harm the ecosystem, which they say is already fragile.

According to the FWC, Florida had more than one million registered vessels last year. Now those boaters are gaining more freedom. Dsantis said the law is a win win for both boaters and law enforcement.

I think by this legislation protecting you against suspicion less searches, DeSantis said. it actually will be a better allocation of resources, not just for FWC, but also for the other local law enforcement agencies who are really important in keeping our people safe.

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Freedom Boat Club Boat Capt. Charles Beardsley said safety is key, especially with the new law. In Florida, boats need specific safety equipment depending on their size and use. The vital items are: personal flotation devices, fire extinguishers, visual distress signals, and sound-producing devices.

And remember everything slow is pro, Beardsley said. You dont want to be speeding out there, especially if you are approaching another boat or dock. Go slow.

And you need to make sure you are properly trained. You wont know if you are doing something wrong if you arent properly trained. 

The law includes a new inspection decal program. Now, when registering your boats, you will receive a decal as long as you pass a safety and sanitation inspection. It also prevents state and local officials from restricting the sale or use of boats based on energy source.

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That all sound great to me, said Pollett. Good job.

The Boater Freedom Act take effect July 1.

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A developer planned to build 189 homes near Boise State University after the site was rezoned by the city to allow for more density.

But local residents opposed to the project have taken their next step trying to stop it  by filing a lawsuit asking the courts to intervene.

Neighbors of the proposed Londoner Avenue apartments about a mile from campus believe the project will bring unwelcome impacts, such as parking issues, noise and traffic, according to Brian Ertz, the neighborhood associations lawyer.

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This council, this mayor and the city at large dont care about neighbors. ... They are belligerent in their support for increasing density, Ertz said in an interview with the Idaho Statesman. They want it to be D.C. or Seattle.

Boise spokesperson Maria Ortega declined to comment, citing the litigation.

Ertz said the city didnt give an adequate decision explaining why the council approved a rezone.

The Boise City Councils decision said rezoning was a good idea in part because the area is within a community activity center. These so-called community activity centers can be things like shopping centers that serve multiple neighborhoods, according to Boises website.

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Ertz said the neighborhood is not close enough to an activity center to justify the rezone.

In 2021, Eagle-based The Land Group and Texas-based developer Payette Forward asked Boise for just 43 single-family homes along Londoner Avenue, according to previous Statesman reporting. However, the Planning and Zoning Commission wanted more density to help with a shortage in housing.

So Payette Forward tried again last year with 189 units, according to court documents.

The zoning commission in January recommended approval for rezoning the land at 1519 S. Londoner Ave., and in March the City Council OKd the rezone.

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A representative with the Londoner Neighborhood Association submitted a request for reconsideration, which was denied in April.

The association then filed its request for judicial review in early May.

Growing Boise area could add almost 200 homes in battle over density. What about traffic?

Developers want to build 800+ new apartments in Boise. Some may be in your neighborhood
TEAYS VALLEY, Ohio (WCMH)  As communities in central Ohio grow, so do school districts. Enrollment is up at Teays Valley Local Schools, but district leaders said that growth will be harder to handle without new buildings.

On the May primary ballot, Teays Valley asked for money to build two new schools to help with capacity issues; 68 percent of voters turned it down, leaving Superintendent Kyle Wolfe to look for new solutions.

Columbus officer confronts school board after being denied access to school

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A school district like ours, which is growing, which is running out of capacity, which is educating kids in hallways, closets, stages and modular classrooms, its going to be a difficult go moving forward, Wolfe said.

The superintendent said he had hoped voters would back the districts plan for two new intermediate schools for fifth and sixth graders, which would have freed up space at the elementary and middle schools.

People do not want to pay any more taxes, and thats the traditional way that schools come back to the residents to build new facilities, Wolfe said. We do not need operating money, but were simply out of capacity.

Now, Teays Valley is redistricting some students and will add more modular classrooms.

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Ohio congressman introduces bill to study Trump Derangement Syndrome

While our staff makes those spaces as inviting as possible, theyre not great learning environments for kids, Wolfe said.

Parent Kim Miller has two kids in the district and she said the middle schools are particularly tight.

Were out of space, were out of locker space, were out of classrooms, were out of gym space, art space, music space, hallway space, cafeteria space, restroom space, Miller said.

These changes come as the Teays Valley area grows. Wolfe said there are six new neighborhoods currently being built.

Ohioans spent nearly $80 million on cannabis last month, with clear product preferences

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Parents like Miller have encouraged school leaders to put the issue in front of the voters again.

Were out of space already, let alone the amount of space its needed for the kids who are coming in and the new homes, Miller said.

Superintendent Wolfe said the district wont go back to the ballot in November. He said more work needs to be done to educate the community on the capacity issues and cost.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
BALDWIN COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG)  Sitting in a wheelchair and nursing a gunshot wound to the leg, Mike Thomas, 28, from Stockbridge, Ga., made his first appearance in a Baldwin County courtroom for a bond hearing Wednesday on assault and robbery charges.

Mike Thomas, the Georgia man accused of robbery and assault, made his first appearance in a Baldwin County courtroom for a bond hearing Wednesday. (WKRG)

Early Monday morning, he was taken into custody by the Baldwin County Sheriffs Office SWAT team after a chase down I-65 that started in Evergreen in Conecuh County and ended after his car was disabled with spike strips near the Baldwin County line.

The Baldwin County Sheriffs SWAT team was called in Monday to help capture Mike Thomas, seated on the bumper, after he allegedly assaulted a woman during an attempted carjacking, then ran off into the woods. (Courtesy of Baldwin County Sheriffs Office)

The pursuit and manhunt that followed shut down an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 65. According to prosecutors, Thomas attempted to carjack a truck stopped in traffic on the interstate, pistol-whipped a female driver, and was shot in the leg by her husband, who was a passenger in the truck.

Baldwin County prosecutors sit in on a bond hearing for Mike Thomas, the Georgia man who allegedly led police on a pursuit Monday from Conecuh County to Baldwin County. (WKRG)

But, his legal troubles stretch across state lines to Georgia, where Thomas is wanted in East Point, Ga., after a shooting Sunday afternoon involving a domestic situation, according to East Point Police. The victim was shot twice but is expected to recover. Thomas is also wanted in Dekalb County, Ga., for a murder that occurred earlier this year, according to police.

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District Judge Michael Hoyt set Thomass bond at $300,000. His next court appearance could happen as soon as next month.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The 6th plenary meeting of the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities (GlobE Network) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) concluded successfully in Baku on May 22, Trend reports.

On the final day, UNODC representatives delivered presentations on the progress made toward establishing regional offices of the GlobE Network. A panel discussion was also held, focusing on ways to enhance international cooperation in the fight against corruption.

At the closing ceremony, Deputy Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan Nazim Rajabov underscored the GlobE Networks vital role in promoting global anti-corruption collaboration.

Organizers announced the key outcomes of the meeting, including the decision to hold the 7th plenary meeting in Romania and the 8th in the United Arab Emirates. The GlobE Network Steering Committee also approved two new observer members.

The event gathered representatives from over 120 government agencies across 92 countries, featuring more than 100 speeches and over 20 panel discussions.
A major international airline is giving travelers a new way to visit Central Florida.

Air France has officially launched nonstop flights between Orlando (MCO) and the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG).

The first fight landed Wednesday night at Orlando International Airports Terminal C.

Orlando airport leaders welcomed the debut flight from The City of Lights with a grand celebration and a big welcome to The City Beautiful.

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Air France says it will fly this route on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

More information on the new flights can be found here.

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  School districts and other organizations across the Borderland will be offering free summer meals to students.

All of the organizations will be providing free meals to children aged 1-18 years old, regardless of enrollment status.

El Paso Independent School District

Meals will be served Monday through Friday, starting on Thursday, June 12, to Saturday, July 12.

Breakfast will be served from 7:15 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at elementary and middle schools.

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Breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at high schools.

The following schools will be providing free meals:

Aoy Elementary, 901 S. Campbell St.

Duran Elementary, 5249 Bastille Ave.

Powell Elementary, 4750 W. Ellenthorpe Ave.

Crockett Elementary, 3200 Wheeling Ave.

Kohlberg Elementary, 1445 Nardo Goodman Dr.

Guerrero Elementary, 7530 Lakehurst Rd.

Mesita Elementary, 3307 North Stanton St.

Barron Elementary, 11155 Whitey Ford St.

Moye Elementary, 4825 Alps Dr.

Wester Hills Elementary, 530 Thunderbird Dr.

Hartley PK-8, 6201 Hughey Dr.

Don Haskins PK-8, 500 Mulberry Ave.

MacArthur PK-8, 8101 Whitus Dr.

Murphree PK-8, 499 Cabaret Dr.

Tinajero PK-8, 301 Lisbon St.

Brown Middle, 7820 Helen of Troy Dr.

Magoffin Middle, 4931 Hercules Ave.

Navarrete Middle, 3501 Hayes Ave.

Richardson Middle, 11350 Loma Franklin Dr.

Wiggs Middle, 1300 Circle Dr.

YWA, 2231 Arizona Ave.

TMECHS, 9570 Gateway Blvd. North

Andress High, 5400 Sun Valley Dr.

Austin High, 3500 Memphis Ave.

Bowie High, 801 S. San Marcial St.

Burges High, 7800 Edgemere Blvd.

Chapin High, 7000 Dyer St.

Coronado High, 100 Champions Pl.

El Paso High, 800 E. Schuster Ave.

Franklin High, 900 N. Resler Dr.

Irvin High, 5400 Sanders Ave.

Jefferson High, 4700 Alameda Ave.

Ysleta Independent School District

Meals will be provided Monday through Friday, starting on Monday, June 3, to Friday, June 28.

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Breakfast will be served from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the following seven high schools:

Bel Air High School, 731 N Yarbrough Dr.

Del Valle High School, 950 Bordeaux Dr.

Eastwood High School, 2430 McRae Blvd.

Parkland High School, 5932 Quail Ave.

Riverside High School, 301 Midway Dr.

Ysleta High School, 8600 Alameda Ave.

Valle Verde Early College High School, 919 Hunter Dr.

Additionally, the following campuses will serve breakfast and lunch from Monday, June 2, to Thursday, June 5:

Parkland Middle School

Sageland Elementary School

Socorro Independent School District

Meals will be provided Monday through Thursday, beginning on Monday, June 9, through Thursday, June 26.

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Meals will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the following schools:

Socorro High School, 10150 Alameda Ave.

Montwood High School, 12000 Montwood Dr.

Americas High School, 12101 Pellicano Dr.

El Dorado High School, 12401 Edgemere Blvd.

Eastlake High School, 13000 Emerald Pass Ave.

Pebble Hills High School, 1440 Pebble Hills Blvd.

Robert R. Rojas Elementary School, 500 Bauman Rd.

Vista Del Sol Environmental Science Academy, 11851 Vista Del Sol Dr.

Jane A. Hambric School, 3535 Nolan Richardson Dr.

Ernesto Serna Fine Arts Academy, 11471 Alameda Ave.

Bill Sybert School, 11530 Edgemere Blvd.

Mission Ridge Elementary School, 150 Nonap Rd.

Purple Heart Elementary School, 14400 GR Campuzano Dr.

Canutillo Independent School District

Breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at all schools except for breakfast at Northwest Early College High School, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Davenport, Garcia and Canutillo Elementary schools will be providing meals from Monday, June 2, through Friday, June 13.

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Canutillo and Alderete Middle schools will be providing meals from Monday, June 2, through Thursday, June 5.

Canutillo and Northwest Early College High schools will be providing meals from Monday, June 2, through Friday, June 27.

Las Cruces Public Schools

Meals will be provided beginning on Tuesday, June 4.

Breakfast will be served from 8 to 10 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the following schools:

Las Cruces High School, 1750 El Paseo Rd.

Organ Mountain High School, 5700 Mesa Grande Dr.

Mayfield High School, 1955 N. Valley Dr. #5154

Loma Heights Elementary School, 1600 E. Madrid Ave.

Mesilla Park Elementary School, 955 W. Union Ave.

Dona Ana County

Meals will be served starting on Monday, June 2, to Wednesday, July 23. Meals will not be served on June 19 or July 4.

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Meals will be provided from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and children can take them to go or enjoy them at the following centers:

Delores Wright Community Resource Center, 400 E. Lisa Drive, Chaparral

Vado/Del Cerro Community Resource Center, 180 La Fe Avenue, Mesquite

Dona Ana Community Resource Center, 5745 Ledesma Drive, Dona Ana

Radium Springs Community Resource Center, 12060 Lindbeck Road, Radium Springs

Butterfield Community Resource Center, 9350 Berry Patch Lane, Las Cruces

Organ Community Resource Center, 5880 Second Street, Organ

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DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  The Dayton Peace Accords helped many across the world, including one resident who decided to make the Gem City her home after escaping war in Bosnia.

2 NEWS spoke with Azra Kaurin to learn more about her journey from journalist in Bosnia to restauranteur in Dayton.

Kaurins life is a story of perseverance and determination. She says she will always remember her journey and how it helped her bring her family an important value  peace.

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Why is NATO coming to Dayton?

Azra Kaurin was a journalist in the capital city of Bosnia, Sarajevo, when she saw the beginning seeds of war.

I was sitting on a parliament and there was talk about separation, Kaurin recalled.

Kaurin remembers the following days of war arriving, hearing gunshots and explosions  destruction all around her. She says even the act of getting food and water in the open was dangerous.

People were being killed in the line waiting for water, waiting for food. You had a sniper everywhere around, said Kaurin.

Later, Kaurin heard about a plan taking refugees to Serbia. She went to the airport and knew she had to act. She says she remembers the devastation at the airport itself, and how a guard was calling the names of families to board the plane.

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Without thinking, she says she took action.

I grabbed my son by his hands, grabbed by daughter, and I grabbed three plastic bags. Thats only what I take from my home and I went to the door like hed called my name, said Kaurin.

How Dayton played a role in the ending of the Bosnian War

Now a refugee, Kaurin was looking for any chance of peace, not only for herself but for her family.

Thats when she heard about the Dayton Peace Accords. After talking with her family and hearing more about Dayton, Kaurin took her family on the plane to her new home.

Kaurin was surprised by what she saw when she got off the plane: people welcoming her with signs in her native language.

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You cannot imagine how this is, you feel. You escape from the war zone, and the people dont know you, and there was so much welcoming, said Kaurin.

Kaurin got acclimated to the new city quickly, getting her baking license, which would be the seed to growing her business of Azras Mediterranean Cuisine.

I have founded my peace here, I found it, said Kaurin. My peace with cooking and baking, meeting my sisters, my brother.

A new home where she found happiness, and most importantly, peace.

I would say Bosnia and Herzegovina will always be in my heart, but Dayton is my homeland, said Kaurin.

While she has now retired from her restaurant, Kaurin says that she is still thankful for all the connections she has made in Dayton, making her feel welcome since day one.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
May 21A 24-year-old man stole $326,000 from area Target stores in a counterfeit iPad fraud scheme in which he'd swap real devices for fakes and then return them to stores in Eastern Washington.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca L. Pennell on Monday sentenced Zhangbo Liang, of Fuzhou City, China, to 264 days in prison after Liang pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit access device fraud. Liang served 101 days on related charges in Skagit County, Washington, making his total length of imprisonment one year, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office  Eastern District of Washington news release.

According to court documents, Liang's friend offered him a job in the summer of 2023 using gift cards to make purchases at Target, the release said. The items would then be delivered to another person.

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Later that year, Liang started purchasing authentic iPads from Target stores in Eastern Washington and elsewhere, removing them from their boxes and replacing them with counterfeit iPads. He then resealed the boxes, returned the counterfeit iPads and received a refund on a Target gift card, according to the release.

Liang purchased additional items from Target with the gift card, including more iPads to be replaced with counterfeit goods for returns to the stores.

In the first half of 2024, Liang returned at least 140 iPads to Target stores and was refunded about $163,000. Target stores lost about $326,000 in the fraudulent iPads scheme and from reimbursing the purchase amount to a gift card.

"Mr. Liang participated in a calculated scheme that exploited retail return systems for substantial personal gain, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses," Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker said in the release. "This type of fraud undermines the integrity of commerce and ultimately affects everyday consumers by raising prices for everyone. I am so grateful for the diligent work of Homeland Security Investigations and our partners throughout this investigation to protect everyday consumers, who live and work in Eastern Washington."

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Pennell ordered Liang to serve three years of supervised release and pay $326,000 in restitution, the release said.

Liang's co-defendant, Linda You, pleaded guilty to a fraud charge and will be sentenced June 23 in Spokane.
The Bakersfield Police Department is asking for the community's help in finding a missing at-risk runaway teen last seen in southwest Bakersfield.

Johnnie McGill IV, 14, was last seen at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the 200 block of Thunder Gulch Drive. He is considered to be at risk due to never running away before.

McGill is described as Black, 5 feet, 6 inches, 170 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes with a right earring. He was wearing a gray T-shirt, red/black checkered pajamas and black slides.

BPD asks that anyone with information about McGills whereabouts to call 661-327-7111.
A brain surgeon testified at Karen Reads second murder trial Wednesday that the victims skull was most likely fractured when he fell backward and hit his head.

Read, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John OKeefe, 46, and leaving him to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officers home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and that someone inside the home that night killed him.

A mistrial was declared last year. Reads second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has so far appeared to follow similar contours to the first.

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RELATED: Defense questions digital forensics expert about credentials

Neurosurgeon describes OKeefes injuries

Brain surgeon Dr. Aizik Wolf testifies about the injuries to John OKeefe during Karen Reads murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Dr. Aizik Wolf, director of the Miami Neuroscience Center, testified about reviewing photos of OKeefe and his autopsy report. He described a classic blunt trauma injury and said he believes OKeefe struck his head on the ground.

My opinion is thats what caused this whole injury, Wolf said. The only way he could get this kind of an injury was to fall backward, hit the back of his head.

Asked by prosecutor Hank Brennan whether the injuries were consistent with being attacked with a bat or other object, Wolf said no, because OKeefe had a nondepressed skull fracture.

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Wolf said OKeefe likely lost consciousness quickly but did not die immediately.

Putting the pieces together

Christina Hanley, a state police crime lab analyst, also testified Wednesday. She described examining a broken drinking glass and pieces of glass and plastic found near OKeefes body, bits of plastic recovered from his clothing, pieces of glass found on the bumper of Reads SUV and the vehicles broken taillight.

Several pieces of glass found on the ground matched the drinking glass, she said, and red and clear plastic found on OKeefes clothing was consistent with the taillight.

MORE: Digital forensics expert says SUV data missed in initial investigation

Jurors face questioning

Wednesdays testimony was delayed for about two hours after Judge Beverly Cannone said an issue had come up that required her to speak to each juror individually.

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She did not explain the issue, but after speaking to jurors, reminded them of the importance of not discussing the case with anyone or allowing anyone to try to discuss it with them.

ALSO READ: Forensic scientist recounts testing evidence in Karen Read trial

Triggers dont equal collisions

On the witness stand for a second day Tuesday, digital forensics analyst Shanon Burgess was questioned by Reads attorney about trigger events recorded by her Lexus SUV, including a three-point turn and backing up.

None of the information in that black box  indicates there was a collision on January 29? asked attorney Robert Alessi.

Not by itself, Burgess answered.

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Are Lexus SUVs trigger-happy? Alessi asked.

I do not know, sir, Burgess said.

Yet Burgess used the word collision in a report he wrote about the data, Alessi noted. Burgess said that information came from State Police reports, prompting Alessi to accuse him of confirmation bias.

Burgess, who specializes in analysis of digital forensics from vehicles and cellphones, works for Aperture LLC, an accident reconstruction, biomechanics and digital forensics company. He didnt participate in the initial investigation of Reads car in 2023.

MORE: Karen Read Trial

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Daily Roundup

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com.
A crime lab analyst and a medical doctor took the stand during Day 20 of witness testimony in the Karen Read murder retrial.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John OKeefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.

Before anyone was called to the stand, Judge Beverly Cannone ordered everyone out of the courtroom to address an issue with the jury. Cannone didnt share any details on the nature of the issue.

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An issue has come to my attention that is going to make it necessary that I talk to each one of you individually, Cannone could be heard announcing.

Judge Cannone cleared the room and ordered the camera off to question jurors.

All 18 jurors returned an hour later to a reminder from Cannone, asking them not to discuss the trial outside of the courtroom.

Karen Read said she could not reveal what the issue was.

Weve had these before so just wait for the judge to evaluate and let it play out, Read said as she left court.

Dr. Aizak Wolf, a Miami brain surgeon t,estified that John OKeefes head injury was from a fall backwards.

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His injuries were very substantial, and its more probable than not that at some point he quickly became unconscious, Wolf detailed.

Asked by prosecutor Hank Brennan whether the injuries were consistent with being attacked with a bat or other object, Wolf said no, because OKeefe had a nondepressed skull fracture.

Wolf said OKeefe likely lost consciousness quickly but did not die immediately.

Christine Hanley from the Massachusetts State Police lab said she found tiny pieces of taillight in John OKeefes clothes.

About how how small are we talking about? defense attorney Alan Jackson asked.

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Its roughly like the size of a grain of rice, Hanley explained.

You saw no blood, no skin, no biological material, no tissue, human tissue or otherwise on any of those pieces that you inspected, Jackson pressed further.

I dont think I noted anything, Hanley said.

Hanley also analyzed a broken drinking glass from the crime scene.

She said it did not match a single piece of glass found on Reads bumper

One piece on the bumper matched a piece found the second week of February by the former trooper Michael Proctor, Read said.

Court was inititally scheduled for tomorrow  but things have been moving quicker than anticipated so the jury gets a five-day weekend.

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Court will not resume until Tuesday.

Im going to have a couple of days without an alarm, and without high heels, Read said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.

Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
By Ana Mano and Roberto Samora

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil began a 28-day bird flu observation period on Thursday which it hopes will show the country's chicken farms are free of the disease after local authorities said a farm where its first outbreak was detected had been fully disinfected.

The outbreak in the world's largest chicken exporter, detected in the town of Montenegro in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, triggered trade bans from multiple countries.

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"It is under control, we have no evidence of new notifications," said Rosane Collares, a director at the state's agriculture secretariat. She said authorities will remain on watch because the incubation period of the bird flu virus is two weeks and they don't want to be caught off guard.

The report from state authorities late on Wednesday that the farm was cleared means that if no other cases of bird flu are detected on Brazilian commercial chicken farms over the next 28 days, the country may be considered free of the disease.

The count starts on Thursday, authorities said.

"We need to ensure that the 28 days of observation occur without new outbreaks," Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said after a meeting with Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite this week. "We are reinforcing actions to ensure that everything is perfectly safe," he said.

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Eleven active investigations into potential bird flu cases in Brazil are ongoing, including two on commercial chicken farms in Santa Catarina and Tocantins states.

On Wednesday, Tocantins state authorities ruled out an outbreak of bird flu in the farm where the investigation was being conducted, citing preliminary test results. However, the federal government is conducting additional tests, according to the agriculture ministry's website.

Wagner Yanaguizawa, an analyst at Rabobank, said the next few days will be decisive in determining whether the outbreak has been contained.

"After 28 days, if there are no new cases from then on, Brazil can declare itself free of the disease," he said, adding that it will then be up to the importers to lift existing trade bans.

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"But then trade flows will most likely return to normal," Yanaguizawa said.

(Reporting by Ana Mano and Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo; Additional reporting by Debora Ely in Porto AlegreEditing by Philippa Fletcher)
By Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazil's Senate has approved legislation to loosen environmental licensing, despite criticism from climate policy groups and figures inside President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government.

The bill, which was approved in the Senate by 54 votes to 13 late on Wednesday, would allow projects considered to have a small or mid-sized impact, such as dams and basic sanitation, to be built without the approval of environmental agencies.

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The legislation, which still requires approval from Brazil's lower house of Congress, enjoys widespread support from the powerful agribusiness caucus, as well as high-ranking figures in Lula's government such as his chief of staff Rui Costa.

The bill highlights government divisions on environmental policy as Lula tries to burnish his green credentials before the country hosts the United Nations climate summit known as COP30 in the Amazonian city of Belem in November.

The approval is a blow to Environment Minister Marina Silva, who had said the bill would be a major setback that "dismantles" licensing in the country.

The government's role in negotiating the bill was limited by its internal divisions, sources told Reuters. It engaged in "harm reduction" by backing a version of the bill considered to have less impact on existing environmental law, they said.

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Greenpeace and Brazil's Climate Observatory, a collective of environmental organizations, have criticized the proposal saying it deprives vulnerable populations such as Brazil's Indigenous of a say in projects that could affect their communities.

The bill was put to a vote as Brazil's environmental agency Ibama faces intense scrutiny for licensing delays, including a drilling request by state-run oil firm Petrobras hoping to explore for oil off the coast of the Amazonian state of Amapa.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, an important backer of the bill, hails from Amapa and has been pushing for the development of the oil industry in the region.

(Reporting by Ricardo Brito and Lisandra Paraguassu in BrasiliaWriting by Fabio TeixeiraEditing by Brad Haynes and Conor Humphries)
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Flour and other aid started reaching some of Gaza's most vulnerable areas on Thursday after Israel let some trucks through, but nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week blockade, Palestinian officials said.

Many other trucks were still at the border, and people were still waiting to receive food, amid fears that desperate crowds would try to loot the vehicles when they arrived, the Palestinian Red Crescent warned.

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Israel said it allowed 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment into the enclave on Wednesday, two days after announcing its first relaxation of the restrictions under mounting international pressure.

"Flour arrived from the (U.N.) World Food Programme, and we immediately started working," baker Ahmed Al-Banna said as flatbreads passed by on a conveyor belt behind him at his base in Deir al-Balah on Thursday.

Bakeries across the south of the enclave started ovens that had been shut for two months, he added. "God willing, bakeries in northern Gaza will soon resume work."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Thursday that the construction of a "distribution zone" would be completed in the coming days with U.S. companies distributing food in areas controlled by the Israeli military.

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"Ultimately, we intend to have large safe zones in the south of Gaza. The Palestinian population will move there for their own safety, while we conduct combat in other zones, and receive humanitarian aid there without Hamas interference," he said in a video statement released by his office.

Israel imposed the blockade on all supplies in March, saying Hamas was seizing deliveries for its fighters - a charge the group denies. The UN has said a quarter of Gaza's 2.3 million people are at risk of famine.

The Palestinian health minister said 29 children and elderly people had died from starvation-related reasons in Gaza in recent days and many thousands more were at risk.

Israel has repeatedly defended its controls on aid in Gaza, saying reports from aid groups of famine-like conditions were exaggerated and denying accusations of causing starvation.

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Bread distribution would start later on Thursday, Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network in Gaza, told Reuters.

He said just 90 trucks had got through. "During the ceasefire, 600 trucks used to enter every day, which means that the current quantity is a drop in the ocean, nothing," he said.

Bakeries backed by the WFP would produce the bread and the agency's staff would hand it out - a more controlled system than previously when bakers sold it directly to the public at a low cost, he added.

Palestinian Red Crescent President Younis Al-Khatib said many trucks were still at the border at Karem Shalom and there was a risk of violence and looting when they arrived.

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"No civilian has received anything yet," he said. "It's very hard to hide the rush or the looting that will happen."

On Wednesday night, boys and young men gathered after one vehicle arrived in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, but kept back as men, some holding guns, watched over the unloading of sacks.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had got one truck of medical supplies through to replenish its field hospital in Rafah, but more was needed.

"A trickle of trucks is woefully inadequate. Only the rapid, unimpeded, and sustained flow of aid can begin to address the full scope of needs on the ground," the organisation said in a statement.

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ATTACKS REPORTED

Israel has stepped up its military operation in Gaza since early May, saying it is seeking to eliminate Hamas' military and governing capabilities and bring back remaining hostages seized in October 2023.

Pressure inside Israel for tougher action is likely to increase after two Israeli embassy staffers were killed by a gunman in Washington on Wednesday night, and police said the suspect had chanted pro-Palestine slogans.

On Thursday, Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians across Gaza, local health authorities said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the reports. It has repeatedly said it seeks to avoid civilian casualties and targets militants.

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In Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, a tank shell hit a medicine warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and set it ablaze, the health ministry said. Rescue workers had been trying to extinguish the fires for hours, it added.

Tanks are stationed outside the hospital, medics say, effectively blocking access to the facility.

The Gaza healthcare system has been barely functioning, with most of the medical facilities out of order, because of repeated Israeli military strikes, raids and the ban on the entry of medical supplies.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would be open to a temporary ceasefire to enable the return of hostages taken by Hamas-led fighters. But if they were not returned, he said it would press ahead with a military campaign to gain total control of Gaza.

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"Netanyahu continues to stall and insist on pursuing the war. There is no value to any agreement that doesn't stop the massacres in Gaza permanently," senior Hamas official Sami Ab Zuhri said in response to Netanyahu's comments.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people by Israeli tallies and saw 251 hostages abducted into Gaza.

The campaign has since killed more than 53,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip, where aid groups say signs of severe malnutrition are widespread.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi. Additional reporting by Alexander Cornwell, Ramadan Abed in Gaza and Emma Farge in Geneva; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Daniel Wallis)
Azerbaijan's wheat import expenditures soar in 4M2025

From the start of the year until the spring of 2025, Azerbaijan rolled in a hefty 419,100 tons of wheat, raking in a cool $90.5 million. The volume shot up by a whopping 57.2 percent, while the cost climbed the ladder by 51.6 percent when stacked against the same months in 2024. Wheat accounted for a mere 1.11 percent of the countrys total imports during this period.

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FBI agents cordon off the scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2025. <br> Credit - Alex WroblewskiAFP/Getty Images

Two Israeli embassy employees were killed in a shooting Wednesday evening outside an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., just about a mile from the White House and U.S. Capitol.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

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At about midnight local time, about three hours after the shooting, officials offered preliminary information about the attack, including details about the victims; the suspect, who has been detained; and ongoing investigations. There is no active threat, officials said.

Heres what we know so far.

Who were the victims?

The shooting, which took place in the area of 3rd and F Street NW, killed a man and a woman, who have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

Before the victims were named, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that they were Israeli Embassy staff. Yechiel Leiter, Israels ambassador to the U.S., said at the news briefing that the victims were a young couple about to be engaged who were attending the event as guests.

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Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, the Israel Embassy to the U.S. posted on X, alongside a photo of the couple. This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.

Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives.



This evening, a terrorist shot and killed them as they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in DC.



The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words pic.twitter.com/2HytKDp8Fr  Embassy of Israel to the USA (@IsraelinUSA) May 22, 2025

What do we know about the suspect?

Police believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, D.C. police chief Pamela A. Smith said at the briefing.

The suspect was seen pacing back and forth outside the museum building before approaching a group of four people, producing a handgun and opening fire, according to Smith. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and, according to an eyewitness who spoke to CNN, initially claimed to be a witness before admitting that he was the shooter. According to officials, Rodriguez chanted Free, free Palestine, before being detained by event security, which was also captured on video shared on social media. Rodriguez is now in police custody.

DC shooter Elias Rodriguez shouting Free, Free Palestine after shooting and killing two young Jews leaving a Jewish event.



pic.twitter.com/c2896bU9YN  StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 22, 2025

Smith would not comment on Rodriguezs motive amid ongoing investigation but said that Rodriguez was not on polices radar before the attack.

How has Israel reacted?

I am devastated by the scenes in Washington D.C., Israels President Isaac Herzog posted on X. This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy. Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff. We stand with the Jewish community in D.C. and across the U.S. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.

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Israels ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon described the shooting as a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism in a post on X. We are confident that the U.S. authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act, Danon added. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representativeseverywhere in the world.

We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. Blood libels against Israel have a cost in blood and must be fought to the utmost, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. My heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer, he added. Netanyahu ordered security to be beefed up at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world and for Israeli representatives, according to the statement.

Israeli diplomats and representatives around the world stand on the frontlines of Israels diplomatic effortsdefending the country with their very lives, Israels Foreign Ministry posted on X. We will not be deterred by terror. We will continue our mission across the globe, with unwavering commitment to represent Israel with pride.

The people of Israel are resilient people, the people of the United States of America are resilient people. Together we wont be afraid, Leiter said earlier at the midnight briefing. Together, well stand and were going to overcome the moral depravity of people who think that theyre going to achieve political gains through murder.

How has the U.S. responded?

Leiter said at the briefing that he had spoken on the phone with Trump, who assured him his Administration is going to do everything they can possibly do to fight and end antisemitism and the hatred thats being directed and the demonization and delegitimization of the state of Israel.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi said she visited the scene of the shooting. Praying for the victims of this violence as we work to learn more, Bondi posted on X. Bondi said at the briefing that she had also spoken to Trump multiple times and that his prayers are with all of us.

Bondi added that local, state and federal agencies will be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight, our Jewish community.

We will follow the facts, we will follow the law, and this defendant charged will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Bondi said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X: We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC. Our prayers are with their loved ones. This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.

Whats the status of the investigation?

Steve Jensen, the assistant director in charge at the FBIs Washington Field Office, said at the briefing that the FBI is looking into ties to potential terrorism or motivation based on a bias-based crime or a hate crime.

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FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino later posted on X that there are early indicators that the shooting was an act of targeted violence.

All homicides in D.C. are prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for D.C., a role held since last week by Trump appointee former judge and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

Smith said the police had not received any intelligence prior to the shooting indicating any type of impending terrorist act or hate crime in D.C.

We have a long history and a lot of practice in our city of working with Jewish organizations around safety and around protection, and we watch global events, national events and local events, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the briefing. Our organizations work directly with MPD and MPD responds with additional resources, so I know the chief will spend tonight and tomorrow, and well be talking to all of our organizations, from schools to synagogues to other organizations.

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There is no active threat in our community, Bowser added. What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate.

Whats the wider global context?

The shooting comes amid rising tensions over Israels ongoing war in Gaza, which has left an estimated at least 50,000 Palestinians dead and millions more displaced since Oct. 7, 2023. Pro-Palestinian activists and several humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as the U.N., have described Israels campaign in Gaza as genocide. This week, international concerns have heightened over food insecurity in Gaza, and international condemnation of Israel has increased, particularly after Israel Defense Forces fired warning shots near a foreign diplomatic delegation visiting the West Bank.

The D.C. shooting also occurred at a time when the Trump Administration has ramped up its crackdown on antisemitism across the country, though some have criticized the effort as politicized.

Both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate crimes in 42 major U.S. cities rose last year, according to preliminary data collected by California State University, San Bernardino, professor Brian Levin, who founded the universitys Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Anti-Jewish hate crimes rose 12% and anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 18% from 2023 to 2024, against a general decline of hate crimes more broadly.

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Its not the first time that the Israel embassy in D.C. has been connected to deadly action related to the war in Gaza. In February last year, Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, set himself on fire outside the embassy in an apparent act of protest.

What was the event where the attack took place?

The AJCs annual Young Diplomats reception was billed as an opportunity to bring together Jewish young professionals as well as the D.C. diplomatic community for an evening dedicated to fostering unity and celebrating Jewish heritage. The event was publicly advertised on the AJCs website, though the location was only given to registered attendees.

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum became one of several nonprofit beneficiaries in D.C. of a $500,000 grant program to increase its security. The museum was awarded around $30,000 in the grant tied to security concerns around a new temporary LGBTQ+ exhibit.

This years theme of the Young Diplomats reception was turning pain into purpose, and the AJC also invited members of non-governmental organizations Multifaith Alliance and IsraAID that are responding to humanitarian crises in the Middle East, according to the event invitation.

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We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.

Its deeply ironic, organizer Jojo Kalin told the BBC, that what we were discussing was bridge building and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred. She added: Im not going to lose my humanity over this or be deterred.  Israelis and Palestinians both still deserve self determination.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
LONDON (Reuters) -Britain is considering mandating the use of chemical castration for sex offenders under an overhaul of the justice system aimed at freeing up more space in its overcrowded prisons.

One of the first acts of the Labour government in July was to announce plans to release more prisoners early to tackle a crisis of overcrowding in jails which ministers said threatened a "total breakdown of law and order."

The prison population in England and Wales then reached a record high in September, and earlier this year the government said police cells would be used temporarily to hold prisoners as an emergency stopgap measure to cope with overcrowding in prison.

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Announcing the findings of a review into how to tackle the crisis, justice minister Shabana Mahmood said it had recommended continuing a pilot of so-called "medication to manage problematic sexual arousal."

"I am exploring whether mandating the approach is possible," she told lawmakers.

Options include pharmaceuticals that suppress libido and those that reduce sexual thoughts, the review said.

The Independent Sentencing Review said there was an overreliance on custody, and that more should be invested in the Probation Service, with greater electronic monitoring and a supervision system to reduce reoffending.

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The review also proposed a system where offenders can earn earlier release through good behaviour and compliance with prison rules, and said custodial sentences of less than a year should only be used in exceptional circumstances.

The government said it would accept these recommendations but would not proceed with a recommended maximum sentences, meaning the worst offenders could spend longer in prison.

David Gauke, the former Conservative justice minister who chaired the review, said the government could not simply build more prisons to end overcrowding, and more radical reform was needed.

"To stabilise the prison system and end the dangerous cycle of emergency releases the government must take decisive action," Gauke said in a statement.

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"Taken as a package, these measures should ensure the government is never again in a position where it is forced to rely on the emergency release of prisoners," he added.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout and William James; Editing by Conor Humphries)
May 22 (UPI) -- The British government signed-off Thursday on ceding the Chagos Islands back over to Mauritius after a last-minute court ruling delayed the transfer of international territory.

"The public interest and the interests of the United Kingdom would be substantially prejudiced by the grant or continuance of interim relief," British High Court Judge Daniel Chamberlain ruled in discharging the injunction.

Thursday's signing ceremony ceding the British-run Indian Ocean archipelago back over to its neighboring island nation of Mauritius was temporarily called off at the last moment after Britain's High Court issued an injunction in the middle of the night to islanders opposing the more than $4 billion agreement.

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The more than $135.6 million yearly lease for Diego Garcia, in a number revealed Thursday for the first time, will have a net value of cumulative payments of around $4.5 billion to Mauritius.

But the 11th-hour legal act paused the ceremony with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Mauritian government representatives.

"On-call" Justice Julian Goose granted the temporary stay at 2:25 a.m. local time to two Chagos petitioners, ruling that the defendant, Britain's Home Office, must "maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order," pending a further hearing during working hours Thursday.

"It is with great emotion and great pride that we signed the historic agreement on the Chagos," Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam said in a Facebook post, calling the now finalized agreement a "major step forward" for Mauritius, adding how "at no point have we compromised our national sovereignty."

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Under the agreement, Britain transferred sovereignty to Mauritius -- home to a giant U.K.-U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia --but will retain control of Diego Garcia by leasing it back in its 99-year, multi-billion dollar deal with an option clause to renew another 40 years.

Meanwhile, the United States will pay Britain for use of the base, but that figure has not been made public.

The Mauritian prime minster said Thursday will be "etched in our history as the day in which truth and justice prevailed."

"This is not just a victory, but a clear recognition of our legitimate right on the Chagos archipelago," he said. "After years of fighting and negotiations, Mauritius is finally being listened to and respected."

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Stuart Luke, legal counsel for Beatrice Pompe, one of the claimants, told the Financial Times that his client was "deeply concerned that the government has chosen to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands without any consultation or protections for those that are indigenous to the islands."

A British government spokesman declined to comment at the time but insisted the deal with its former colony was "the right thing to protect the British people and our national security."

"Our country is elated that this 60-year struggle is finally over, especially for our brothers and sisters who were forced to leave their homes," Mauritian Attorney General Gavin Glover told the BBC in celebrating the deal signing.

Diego Garcia inhabitants have been engaged in a decades-long legal battle against their forcible displacement during the construction of the base throughout the late 1960s, mainly to Mauritius, the Seychelles and Britain, with the Chagos Islands split off from Mauritius when it became independent in 1968.

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Initially, the United States welcomed the deal when it was struck in October and will see the other 57 currently uninhabited islands in the archipelago opened up for settlement. Diego Garcia, however, will remain out of bounds to its former residents and their descendants on "security grounds."

Then-U.S. President Joe Biden called the deal "a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes."

But the deal was temporarily delayed after President Donald Trump won back the White House in November.

Trump later gave his backing in February during a visit to Washington by Starmer, despite warnings from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior Republicans who say Mauritius' links to China posed a "serious security threat" to U.S. national security.

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The American president had "a feelings its going to work out very well," Trump said about the deal at his meeting with Britain's Labor Party leader Starmer.

However, Rubio said Thursday on social media the agreement secured the "long-term, stable and effective operation of the joint US-UK military facility at Diego Garcia, which is critical to regional and global security."

Joining a protest by Chagos residents outside Parliament, the opposition Conservative Party's shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel called Thursday's legal intervention "a humiliation" for Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

"Their rights, views and voices over the future of Chagos have been ignored by Labour which continues to cause distress and uncertainty for this wonderful community," she wrote in a post on X.

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"Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," said Patel.

The deal has also been condemned by Human Rights Watch, which has demanded Britain and the United States pay reparations after a 2023 report alleged the "forced displacement of the Chagossians and ongoing abuses amount to crimes against humanity committed by a colonial power against an Indigenous people."

On Thursday, Britain's Conservative Party leader was critical of the agreement, saying Chagos had been British since 1814 and hosts a "vital" military base.

"Surrendering it to Mauritius is an act of national self-harm," Kemi Badenoch, an MP from North West Essex, posted on X.

"It leaves us more exposed to China, and ignores the will of the Chagossian people," she added, saying Britain is "paying billions to do so."
The younger brother of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, musician David Sanchez, is set to be tried on corruption charges, after a judge rejected a final appeal on Thursday, according to state broadcaster RTVE.

David Sanchez, 51, is facing accusations of abuse of office and influence peddling related to his position as head of the Badajoz Provincial Office for the Performing Arts.

Rejecting the appeal and ordering the opening of an oral hearing, the investigating judge said there was "clear evidence of criminal behaviour," noting that the position occupied by Sanchez had been created especially for his benefit and adapted to his "personal preferences and professional aspirations," according to RTVE.

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A court spokesman confirmed the report upon request.

Sanchez is set to be tried alongside 10 other defendants in the case, including the regional head of the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the Extremadura region and the president of the Badajoz provincial administration, Miguel Angel Gallardo.

The centre-left PSOE is the party of Sanchez' brother, the prime minister.

The news is expected to go down well with the opposition conservatives who have long been denouncing cronyism and corruption among the PSOE ranks, including levelling accusations at the prime minister's family.
The title and sub-title of Charles Dicks well-researched and scholarly book, Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force that Built the Third Reich, do him, and it, no favours. Yes, Dick has studied, in depth, the Nazi machine  Organisation Todt (OT), named after its founder Fritz Todt  and which Hitler charged with overseeing the infrastructure of the new Germany.

But OT was not an unknown enemy, and it certainly isnt after much scholarship on it. Dick himself published a book on it three years ago, though for an academic market, of which this appears to be in effect a popular version, and it is 15 years since Blaine Taylors Hitlers Engineers: Fritz Todt and Albert Speer  Master Builders of the Third Reich.

As well as books, there are numerous articles in learned journals. But then this is a book for the mass market, which is not credited with too much intelligence; early on, were told that the Red Army answered to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. (We are, at least, spared the formula Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.)

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Todt was a highly qualified engineer who had fought in the Great War and joined the Nazi party early on. Hitler had great regard for him, not because he was a sycophant  he was far less of one than many who greased up to the Fuhrer  but because he was exceptionally good at his job. He took a realistic view of what his organisation could do, and never overpromised about the speed at which it would do it. Hitlers first great dream in transforming Germany was to improve the roads, so OT built the autobahns. Hitler also regarded them as essential to get his troops to all corners of Europe swiftly, in order to discharge his acts of conquest.

When the Second World War came, OT had new priorities: the Atlantic Wall, submarine pens, mines for raw materials, bunkers for command posts and, after the devastating RAF raid on Peenemunde in summer 1943, huge underground factories in which to develop the V-2 and also to build Messerschmitts. This is where Dick lifts up the stone: much of what OT achieved, or tried to achieve, required slave labour. As such, OT played its part in the Final Solution and other war crimes. This book is a depressing reminder that most of the leaders of the organisation, and the chief brutes who worked under them, got away with it.

Construction of fortifications on the Atlantic Wall - Getty

Todt himself did not live to have judgement passed on him: he was killed in a plane crash just after meeting Hitler at his eastern command post in 1942. There have been conspiracy theories ever since that the plane was sabotaged on Hitlers orders. Todt, who had a remarkable grasp of realism in a movement characterised by blind fanaticism, had been to tell his Fuhrer that the war against the Soviet Union was unwinnable, and the Germans should offer peace terms before the conflict broke the Reichs economy. Dick discounts the theory and is right to do so, given the absence of evidence. He points out that if Hitler wanted to be rid of Todt, he had plenty of other means by which to do so.

Todt was succeeded by Hitlers blue-eyed boy, Albert Speer. Speer later served 20 years in Spandau for war crimes but managed to charm some of the judges at Nuremberg into believing he should not be hanged. However, his responsibility for OT, the orders he repeatedly gave for the urgent completion of infrastructure projects, whatever the cost, and the bestial conditions in the labour camps for which he was responsible suggest a rope round his neck was the very least he deserved. He compounded his offence by continuing to lie about what he knew  or didnt know  in the 15 years between his release in 1966 and his death in 1981. Dick highlights some of the discrepancies in the stories he told at various times, and his apparent unawareness that a sustained act of genocide was happening.

Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer inspect Speers model for a huge stadium to be built at Nuremberg - Corbis

Dick presents the story often from the point of view of the enslaved: Jews for whom getting on an OT work detail was a possible escape from the gas chambers, Russian prisoners of war, Poles and others from the overrun territories of the East. There were also German criminals, hauled out of jail and put to work on lethal projects such as the railway in north Norway that could help ship iron ore to the Reich. Those from western Europe whom the Nazis considered racially superior  French, Dutch, Danes  had better treatment, but the management and overseer class were almost entirely German, and contained the usual quota of sadists and psychopaths.

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Dick does highlight the odd more humane SS officer, but they were rare birds. What he also makes clear was that OT leaders did not merely work their charges to death, they beat them to death, shot them and sometimes even buried them alive if it suited them. They deserve their place in infamy, but the question of how so many of them got away with their hideous crimes shows just how ineffective the restoration of order in post-Nazi Germany really was.

Unknown Enemy: The Hidden Nazi Force that Built the Third Reich is published by Bloomsbury at 25. To order your copy for 19.99, call 0330 173 5030 or visit Telegraph Books

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Oregon's economic forecast could set the tone not just for the remainder of the legislative session but for the campaign season to come, commentator Randy Stapilus writes. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

The switch has flipped on the last stretch of this years Oregon legislative session and the central dynamic for the last and busiest phase ahead has been set. So, possibly, has the campaign dynamic for next years legislative elections.

Part of it involves a raucous economic debate over the administration of Donald Trump.

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Most of the rest concerns how little predictability exists for conditions going forward.

The kickoff was a standard trigger of the Oregon legislative schedule, the release of the May Economic and Revenue Forecast from the Office of Economic Analysis. The last such report during this years session, it will form the basis for the legislatures decisions on how much to spend and how much income should be brought in  through existing or new taxes. Normally, it can provide a clear direction for inking in policies and budgeting plans evolving up to this point.

The headline from this new report does say that less money is likely to be wrung out of existing state taxes than had been expected in previous estimates  a decrease not in revenue but in what was previously expected.

But it also emphasized a deep well of unknowns.

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The reports summary said it comes at a time of exceptionally heightened uncertainty. Not only is it too soon to understand how the economy is responding to actions already taken  but, more broadly, the ultimate scope of critical policy decisions remains unknown. For example, even preliminary economic impacts from tariffs are unlikely to materialize in vital statistics such as employment or consumer prices for another month or two. Further, final details on tax reforms and budget reductions are only vaguely coming into view, and the eventual effective tariff rate will depend on the success of negotiations which have not yet occurred.

The report did not specifically say a recession is likely  it even included a number of reasons it may not happen  but figured chances of a downturn at 25%, a possibility higher than usual.

The uncertainty is key. One forecaster said, I cant remember more tumultuous circumstances just going into producing this particular forecast.

Government budgeters typically respond to uncertainty by budgeting lower amounts, to protect against revenue shortfalls.

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Here is how the Hillsboro School District described the fallout: What this means is that the Legislature has less discretionary revenue with which to make new investments in the 2025-27 biennium. That, coupled with ongoing uncertainty about federal funding to states for a variety of initiatives and programs, will likely limit additional support being directed to K-12 education.

Coming weeks will be a budgeting session for gamblers: How confident are you of what conditions will apply at the end of this year and a year from now? Do you cut state spending, or raise taxes, when one or both may not be necessary? Those concerns may come against a background in which the state may be called on to help backfill long-expected federal help which is being withdrawn.

The Republican take on the budget appears to position this years budgeting cycle essentially like any other, with problems a function of the majority partys inability to budget well enough. Senator Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, said for example, This should be a wake-up call. With a half-billion-dollar shortfall, lawmakers must focus on core services and cut the waste.

Representative E. Werner Reschke, R-Malin, said in a constituent newsletter, Democrats need a doom and gloom message so that they can justify their plans for tax increases. If the headlines had been State to receive record revenues for upcoming biennium do you think their new taxes message would be accepted by Oregonians? Of course not.

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The problem with those approaches is the unusual level of uncertainty in the latest estimates, something sharply different from past cycles. But they are likely to emerge in next years campaigns.

Democrats argued the circumstances are unusual, pointing to the Trump Administration, and especially its tariffs and spending actions, as the prime mover of uncertainty. House Speaker Julie Fahey, for example, said, todays revenue forecast confirms what economists have been telling us: the Trump administrations reckless decisions are damaging our economy.  Oregon is particularly sensitive to the fallout from federal trade policies that have been changing on a whim since Trumps inauguration.

Look for the remaining month-plus of the legislative session to turn into a debate over the effect the Trump administration is having on Oregon. The contours of that discussion will likely shape politics in Oregon and beyond all the way to next November.

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Authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

At least two people are dead and eight others injured after a business jet crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego during foggy weather early Thursday morning, authorities say.

Jet fuel rained down on the residential street and ignited fires in more than a dozen homes as well as vehicles and prompted widespread evacuations, The Associated Press reports.

The plane plummeted from the sky around 3:45 a.m. local time near Montgomery Executive Airport, according to the San Diego Fire Department. It's unclear how many people were on the plane, but police believe the fatalities were people on the plane, not the ground.

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"We have jet fuel all over the place," said Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy during a press briefing. "Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now." He confirmed a direct hit to multiple homes in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood and described visibility at the time of the crash as extremely poor, with heavy fog making it difficult to see even a few feet ahead. It is unclear if the fog was a factor in the crash.

Vehicles are damaged as authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Vehicles are damaged after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said, "I can't quite put words to describe what this scene looked like with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see."



Christopher Moore told the AP that the crash woke him and his wife. When they looked out the window, they saw smoke, so they grabbed their two kids and ran out of the house as flames erupted.

"It was definitely horrifying for sure, but sometimes you've just got to drop your head and get to safety," he said.

The aircraft involved was a Cessna 550, also known as a Citation-a private business jet that typically carries six to eight passengers. The FAA said the number of people on board at the time of the crash is still unknown.

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Flight data from FlightAware shows the plane departed from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey late Wednesday, made a brief stop in Wichita, Kansas, then continued to San Diego. FAA records indicate the jet is owned by a company based in Alaska and was built in 1985.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the FAA are investigating.

This is a developing story.
Azerbaijani-Russian trade volume sees strong activity in 4M2025

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Russia took off like a rocket, soaring nearly 40 percent in the first four months of 2025, thanks primarily to a significant uptick in imports from Russia. Even though exports to Russia took a bit of a hit, the non-oil product shipments managed to hold their own, ensuring that Russia remains a key player in Azerbaijans trading game.

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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH)  Cal Harris and his four children held a news conference on Thursday pleading for information regarding the disappearance of the familys matriarch.

Michele Harris disappeared on September 11, 2001, and has never been found.

The family announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the discovery of her remains.

Michele is presumed to have been murdered. She was last seen at the foot of her driveway next to her van and a black pickup truck. She was reportedly arguing with a man believed to be Stacy Stewart.

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Micheles van was found a few hours later by a housekeeper and babysitter for the Harris family. Missing was a small bag of expensive jewelry valued at around $20,000.

Cal is offering the reward regardless of prosecution. Her four children are seeking closure and wish to locate her so they can finally have a proper burial and service.

At the time of Micheles disappearance, she and her husband, Cal, were legally separated. However, they were still living in the same home with their children in the Town of Spencer.

New York State Police charged Cal with murder, and he was tried four times. He was found guilty by Tioga Countys juries twice, but both convictions were overturned.

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After proceedings were moved to Schoharie County, another jury deadlocked, causing a mistrial, until Harris was ultimately found not guilty by a Schoharie County judge during a bench trial.

Harris subsequently filed a civil suit against the State Police and Tioga County District Attorneys Office, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

The family was joined by attorney Bruce Barket, who successfully defended Cal in court.

The family urges the public to share tips on findmicheleharris.com or by calling (888)644-0889.

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SAN FRANCISCO  California's bold experiment to make Big Tech pay for local journalism just hit a double-speed bump.

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom dialed back state support for a first-in-the-nation newsroom fund in the face of a $12 billion state deficit. Then on Wednesday, Google  the lone corporate backer of the initiative  decided to lower its own tab by a third, from $15 million to $10 million for this year.

The handshake deal to support local journalism with both state and Google funds emerged from negotiations with Sacramento lawmakers last summer, who had initially proposed legislation to force tech giants to compensate online publishers as theyre required to in countries like Canada.

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The deal was hailed as a landmark arrangement that could set a precedent for other states seeking to prop up struggling newsrooms decimated by lost advertising revenues as readers turn to aggregation sites such as Google News. Those concerns have been particularly acute in California, where outlets like the Los Angeles Times, the states largest newspaper, have seen mass layoffs in recent years.

Google did leave the door open to match up to $5 million more if other private, public or philanthropic donors step up. None did on Wednesday. But the latest changes to the deal are drawing vocal criticism, both old and new, while also raising questions about what it means for the future of the initiative.

Heres a rundown of the lingering unknowns as California reworks its Google news deal.

A version of this story first appeared in California Decoded, POLITICOs morning newsletter for Pros about how the Golden State is shaping tech policy within its borders and beyond. Like this content? POLITICO Pro subscribers receive it daily. Learn more at www.politicopro.com.

Whats the California Civic Media Fund?

Thats the new name for the initiative, previously known as the Newsroom Transformation Fund. The rebrand came out of discussions with stakeholders and the state library as the new public partner, a spokesperson for Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, a Bay Area Democrat who announced the details and led negotiations for the fund, told POLITICO.

How have various media interests responded?

California Press Forward, California Black Media and a journalism professor joined the press release with statements of support. Several skeptics of the deal turned even more doubtful.

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Google got almost everything they wanted, bemoaned former state Sen. Steve Glazer, who had authored a shot-down bill that sought to sustain newsrooms by taxing digital ad revenue. One, they wanted their amount to be at a modest level. Two, they wanted a state match so they could avoid setting a precedent that other states could follow.

Glazer added that the downsizing of the program would force newsrooms to fight over crumbs, without making a dent in reversing the journalism industrys decline. He downgraded his assessment of the initiative from a 2 percent solution last year to a 1 percent solution.

Rebuild Local News President Steven Waldman similarly said that while he appreciates that efforts to help local news are moving forward, the plan is more than 50 percent smaller than the already-too-small program.

California Broadcasters Association President Steve Stuck, whose members are not part of the deal, told POLITICO: It was disappointing, I think, to everybody. When Newsom released a budget and they saw it went from 30 to 10, you know it's going in the wrong direction.

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Other media groups that had been more supportive have since gone quiet. The California News Publishers Association, which issued a statement of support to Wicks summer announcement and will have two seats on the funds advisory board, did not respond to a request for comment.

Who controls the funding?

In another twist, the California State Library is officially hosting the fund after UC Berkeleys journalism school walked away from the responsibility late last year over concerns about how the money would be distributed.

One area of hesitation from critics was oversight over and independence in allocating the millions. Under the revised agreement, an advisory board will help the state librarian create programs supported by the fund and offer direction on how they should be spent.

However, the state library still gets the final say. The board will expand from seven to nine members, adding two seats reserved for State Library appointees alongside news publishers, members of journalism ethics groups and journalists unions.

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Whenever we encounter proposals to provide grants to news organizations from the executive branch of government, we want to ensure that its done in a way that doesnt inadvertently undermine editorial independence, said Waldman, who considered the issue fixable.

In what ways could the state Legislature intervene?

Wicks plan is to release a fuller proposal in a budget trailer bill in the coming days. State lawmakers will consider the bill as leaders work with Newsoms office to iron out a final state budget over the next few weeks.

Waldman urged lawmakers to reject Newsoms proposed $20 million cut to the fund, while Glazer said he would prefer a separate bill outside the budget process.

It's actually a significant policy matter, and that should typically be the contents of a legislative bill that goes through the hearing process in both houses, the former state senator argued.

What about the AI accelerator?

In addition to the fund, last summers agreement included plans to invest $12.5 million more per year of Googles funding into researching and developing AI tools as part of an accelerator program.

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The program drew backlash, as news organizations feared the technology could replace reporters' jobs. Though Wednesdays announcement didnt mention the accelerator, a Google spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO that the companys funding for it remains unchanged.

How is OpenAI involved?

Wednesdays announcement made clear that the fund is actively seeking additional funders. And OpenAIs vice president of global affairs, Chris Lehane, provided a quote for the release, saying the company appreciates the opportunity to collaborate on this important project.

But spokespeople for the AI developer declined to clarify its current role in the effort. When the partnership was first announced last summer, OpenAI said it was proud to be part of the initiative to utilize AI in support of local journalism across California.

Any other efforts to save the news?

A program funded in 2022 by the Legislature, called the California Local News Fellowship and run out of UC Berkeley, has put $25 million into placing more than 100 early career reporters and editors into newsrooms. Its also running out of money.

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On Wednesday, a state Senate budget subcommittee heard why the program should, or should not, be given another infusion of cash in a severely budget-strapped year in Sacramento. University of California Associate Director of State Budget Relations Seija Virtanen said the money would be exhausted by the end of 2027, while Republican state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh questioned what the value was to taxpayers.

Appearing as a witness, Glazer put it plainly, saying: Its important because most of the decision that you make as senators comes from learning about problems in your community.

He added: Local news is essential to our ability to be an independent democracy.

Tyler Katzenberger contributed to this report.
As temperatures rise across the Southland, droves of people will hit the beach in search of a reprieve  but you might want to think twice before taking a dip near one of the region's most famous landmarks.

For the second year in a row, the area around the Santa Monica Pier was named one of California's dirtiest beaches by environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay.

The pier-adjacent beach came in at No. 2 this year due to persistent water quality issues, according to the organization's annual Beach Report Card.

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Heal the Bay monitors beaches along the California coast  testing water samples for fecal bacteria, including coliform, E. coli and enterococcus. High concentrations of these bacteria indicate the presence of pathogens that could be harmful to beachgoers.

Of the more than 500 beaches that Heal the Bay monitored in 2024, the top 10 dirtiest also included four in San Diego County, three in San Mateo County and one in Marin County. The 10th, and dirtiest, beach on the list was in Baja California, Mexico.

This year's beach grades do not account for wildfire runoff.

In January, rainfall and debris from the catastrophic L.A. County firestorm prompted officials to issue an ocean water closure and ocean water quality advisory from Surfrider Beach in Malibu to Dockweiler State Beach at World Way in Playa del Rey. The advisories have since been lifted. Public health officials say despite fire-related debris washing ashore, there is little evidence of fire-related toxins in ocean water in high enough concentrations to make someone sick.

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Heal the Bay continues to conduct separate testing specific to the fires and their effects.

The Santa Monica Pier, specifically north of Pico and south of Wilshire boulevards, is Los Angeles County's only beach to make Heal the Bay's list.

Every day, families who visit Santa Monica for a day of fun in the sun may be unknowingly risking illness by splashing in polluted waters," Tracy Quinn, chief executive of Heal the Bay, said in a statement. "Its time for the City of Santa Monica to prioritize efforts to identify and reduce bacteria levels at the Santa Monica Pier."

Beachgoers walk along the shore near the Santa Monica Pier. (David Butow / For The Times)

The beach area got a low grade despite upgrades to the pier  including stormwater capture systems and bird deterrent netting, according to the report. Pollution for the pier remains a problem, worsened by urban runoff and high levels of water-contaminating activities, such as the disposal of fish guts from recreational fishing, which attracts seabirds.

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In a statement Thursday, the city of Santa Monica said it "continues to research and implement new strategies to address the ocean water quality directly underneath the Santa Monica Pier, a very limited area encompassing just the ocean water 100 yards north and south of the Pier."

Those efforts are taking place in partnership with Heal the Bay, the city added.

"We are proud that, thanks to decades of city policies and programs, Santa Monica's three miles of coastline consistently receive an outstanding health grade," the statement said.

Over the years, Santa Monica has taken several steps to address water quality under the pier  including diverting storm water to the city's "Clean Beaches" tank.

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City officials said piers can pose a unique water quality challenge due to poorer circulation of ocean water.

Heal the Bay's 10 dirtiest beaches

Playa Blanca (Baja California, Mexico) Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County) Tijuana Slough at Tijuana River mouth (San Diego County) Chicken Ranch Beach at channel (Marin County) Linda Mar Beach at San Pedro Creek (San Mateo County) Erckenbrack Park, Foster City (San Mateo County) Tijuana Slough, north of Tijuana River (San Diego County) Border Field State Park at Monument Road (San Diego County) Imperial Beach at Seacoast Drive (San Diego County) Pillar Point Harbor Beach (San Mateo County)

Out of more than 500 monitored beaches in the state, 62 earned a spot on Heal the Bay's "honor roll," a significant improvement from just 12 beaches in last year's report and only two the year before that.

Seven counties  Orange, San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Mateo and San Francisco  earned top quality marks in this year's report, also a notable increase from previous years.

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Southern California beaches typically dominate the honor roll because many counties in Northern and Central California do not monitor water quality year-round.

From April through October, state law requires county governments to test water samples. However, counties are not required to monitor water quality during off-season months, so many counties opt not to do so from November to March.

Orange County dominated the top 10 list of Heal the Bay's honor roll for the second straight year. Every beach on that list was in Orange County.

California's top 10 'honor roll' beaches

Balboa Beach at the Wedge (Orange County) Balboa Pier beach (Orange County) Capistrano County Beach, South Capistrano Bay (Orange County) Crystal Cove State Park (Orange County) Dana Point Harbor (Orange County) Huntington City Beach (Orange County) Laguna Beach (Orange County) Newport Bay (Orange County) North Aliso County Beach (Orange County) San Clemente Pier (Orange County)

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The 62-beach honor roll includes 34 in Orange County, 12 in San Diego County, and seven in L.A. County. Ventura County has five, San Mateo County has two and Santa Barbara and San Francisco counties each have one.

In L.A. County, the seven honor roll beaches are Dockweiler State Beach at Grand Avenue, Hermosa Beach, Long Point in Rancho Palos Verdes, Manhattan Beach at 28th Street, Nicholas Beach at San Nicholas Canyon Creek mouth, Nicholas Beach 100 feet west of lifeguard tower and Portuguese Bend Cove in Rancho Palos Verdes.

During the 2024 to 2025 monitoring period, Heal the Bay says California saw a noticeable improvement in coastal water quality, something the organization attributed to a very dry summer and winter.

With 9% less rainfall this year compared with the historical 10-year average, fewer pollutants, such as bacteria, trash and chemicals, washed into storm drains and onto the ocean, according to the report.

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Officials recommend staying at least 100 yards away from storm drains and river outlets when entering the water and to always wait at least 72 hours after it rains before going in the ocean.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Take care of the locals

Our city leaders keep handing out our tax dollars like candy on Halloween and or giving tax breaks to millionaires who don't even live in the state of Missouri. We should not be giving tax dollars to nonprofits, and we shouldn't be giving tax breaks to people who don't live here. We need to take care of our local citizens who live here, struggle here and pay taxes here.

B at best

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Well, schools out this year, and I'd like to congratulate all those students who did well this year in school in spite of some of the teachers we have in St. Joe's school district. Now, with school being out, I pray that we can get some new administrators and teachers because what I've seen in the St. Joseph School District is deplorable. I would give them a B at best.

We're customers

It would do good if the City Hall and a lot of these other places here in St. Joe realized that us customers are the way they make their living. We're the ones that make their paychecks. We're the ones who pay their bills, because why? Were customers. If it wasn't for us, they wouldn't have their positions.

Not one word

Trump hasn't mentioned Moody's downgrading our national credit rating. Hasn't said one word about that. He is too busy over there with in Saudi Arabia and those other two countries making these deals where his family make billions and billions of dollars. Well, that's something, but it only took him three months to downgrade our credit rating.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim hailed from different parts of the world, but their paths led them both to pursue careers in diplomacy and to the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC  where they found each other and fell in love.

Their love story was tragically cut short Wednesday evening, when a gunman fatally shot the couple as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

Lischinsky grew up in Germany and moved to Israel before landing in Washington, where hed worked at the embassy for a little over two years. Milgrim was from Kansas and moved to Washington to pursue a masters degree. After volunteering in Israel for a year at an organization promoting peace and dialogue, she began working at the embassy in Washington shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas.

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Their burgeoning relationship was well-known at the embassy, where they met, an Israeli official told CNN. They would often be seen having lunch together.

It was the cutest love story, the official said, adding it was like a poster for a Netflix rom-com.

Lischinsky, 30, had planned to propose to Milgrim, 26, in Jerusalem during an upcoming trip. The Israeli official said Milgrim hadnt met Lischinskys family in Israel yet, and they planned to travel to Israel so she could meet them before they got engaged.

A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple, said Yechiel Leiter, Israels ambassador to the US.

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Lischinsky worked in the embassys political section, while Milgrim helped coordinate a variety of travel to Israel, including political, religious and other groups like visitors studying climate change.

Friends and colleagues of Lischinsky and Milgrim said they were both devoted to diplomacy and the peace process in Israel. The event they were attending Wednesday was hosted by the American Jewish Committee for young professionals and was organized to discuss how multi-faith organizations can work together to bring humanitarian aid to war-torn regions like Gaza.

Sarah was deeply involved with AJC. Shes traveled with AJC. She cared deeply for our work in the diplomatic space. And she and Yaron had a beautiful relationship, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said on CNNs This Morning on Thursday. Its a tragedy of the worst magnitude that these beautiful young people were taken from us.

From Germany to Israel

Lischinsky dreamed of being a diplomat after studying at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to his former professor.

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Yaron was an outstanding student and a wonderful person, said Nissim Otmazgin, the Dean of Humanities at the university. His dream was to become a diplomat. He was actually just starting his new career as a diplomat, he was murdered.

Otmazgin, who taught Lischinsky in three different courses related to Japanese studies, said he was an excellent student and very much dedicated. Otmazgin remembers him getting a perfect score in an honors seminar, a sign of how hard he worked. He graduated with a degree in International Relations and Asian Studies.

Germanys Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told lawmakers in the Bundestag Thursday that Lischinsky held both German and Israeli nationality. Lischinsky had a Christian mother and Jewish father, according to the Israeli official.

Otmazgin said Lischinsky truly became an Israeli after moving from Germany.

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In many ways, I think for me he symbolizes the hope of Israel, Otmazgin said. Young people  idealistic  that are going abroad, studying about different cultures, and trying to do good for their country. So in this sense, it is not only a personal tragedy  its also kind of a public tragedy.

He is the best that Israel can offer, Otmazgin added.

Lischinskys high school physical education teacher, Yoram Menachem, said that he attended Mae Boyar High School in Jerusalem after he and his family immigrated to Israel when he was a teenager. Menachem said Lischinsky was a man of few words at the time, as he was not yet comfortable with the Hebrew language, but that his personality already stood out.

I remember his character was very special, Menachem said. Yaron was a wonderful student.

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Jakub Klepek, a friend of Lischinskys from Reichman University in Israel, described him as a man of purpose.

He loved his job and his girlfriend  soon to-be-fiancee. He believed deeply in the impact of the Abraham Accords and was committed to seeking peace in the Middle East, Klepek said. We will honor their memory by continuing to spread the message of peace, understanding, and mutual respect that Yaron championed until his very last day.

Klepek said Lischinsky was a respectful and kind person who loved books and working in diplomacy.

We would sit in various coffee shops around Jerusalem, discussing religion, politics and books, Klepek told CNN in a message. We often exchanged book titles and then jokingly complained about not being able to start new ones because of our university reading lists.

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The German-Israeli Society, an organization in Germany that promotes relations with Israel, said Lischinsky was a founding member of its sister organization, which connects young Israelis and Germans and initiates joint projects.

The Society described Lischinsky in a statement as an incredibly warm, intelligent, calm and interested person. Lischinsky had a passion for photography, and focused his lens on the special corners and details that others often missed.

She came here to promote peace

Milgrim, who grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, was active in the Jewish community at the University of Kansas, where she served on the board of the universitys Hillel, a Jewish student organization.

She experienced antisemitism at a young age, when swastikas were graffitied onto a building at her high school in 2017. Its so ignorant that you would bring up a symbol like that, that would bring so much pain to people, she told local TV station KSHB.

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Ethan Helfand, executive director at the University of Kansas Hillel, said she prioritized making the betterment of the Jewish community a part of her life.

A former staff member of KU Hillel remarked to me that he vividly remembered a conversation about environmentalism and how she wanted to spend part of her life working on environmentalism in Israel, that that was a cause that truly resonated with her, Helfand said. And then she did that. She went and spent time in Israel.

After college, Milgrim moved to Washington to attend American University, where she graduated with a masters degree in international affairs and a degree in natural resources and sustainable development jointly offered by American and the University for Peace.

Through her studies, she took a yearlong volunteer position in Israel as an intern at Tech2Peace, an organization that promotes dialogue and peace initiatives in the tech industry in Israel.

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Her co-workers said that she embraced the organizations mission, where Israelis and Palestinians come together to discuss tech but also to talk about the conflict. After her year of volunteering, she returned to write her masters project about the program and the people who participate in it.

She was very young, very curious to learn about the conflict and look for solutions, said Tech2Peace CEO Esti Rozenfeld. That was her spirit. She came here to promote peace, to promote the effort in this beloved land for dialogue, for partnership, for commitment.

Adnan Jaber and Michal Greenfield, a couple who worked with Milgrim at Tech2Peace, say they remember Milgrims empathy and passion about the organizations mission. Jaber, a Palestinian-Israeli from Jerusalem, recalled hiking with her as part of the seminars and sitting for really hard conversations between Palestinians and Israelis.

I really remember her brightness. Not just her hair that was red and her eyes that were blue, but the curiosity she brought into the work and the eagerness she had to help however she could, said Greenfield, who is Jewish-American and Israeli.

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I remember Sarah, whoever she would sit next to  they would talk endlessly, added Greenfield. She really looked at people when she talked to them. She gave them all of her attention, and I think that thats part of  why so many of us also remember her. She didnt just come and do work and leave, she came to be a part of the community.

Milgrim wrote on her LinkedIn that working at Tech2Peace was a life changing professional experience.

When she returned to Washington, Milgrim got a job at the Israeli embassy, not long after the October 7 attacks.

Meredith Jacobs, the CEO of Jewish Women International, wrote in an email to her organizations members Thursday she met Milgrim because her role at the embassy included outreach to Jewish organizations. Jacobs said that Milgrim shared she had lost friends when she joined the embassy over her support of Israel.

I looked at the beautiful young woman sitting across the table from me. I encouraged her to join JWIs Young Womens Impact Network  not because I was trying to grow our membership, but because I wanted to help her find community with other bright, young, ambitious women who also cared deeply about Israel, Jacobs wrote.

I find some comfort that in the 19 months since our coffee, Sarah found friends and community, she added. Even more, she found love. The world has lost the lives she and Yaron would have lived and the difference I know they would have made.

CNNs Lauren Izso, Michael Schwartz, Benjamin Brown, Lex Harvey, Dana Bash, Shania Shelton, Tom Foreman, Diego Mendoza, Eugenia Yosef and Jessie Yeung and Stephanie Halasz contributed.

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Canada has entered talks with the Trump administration over its inclusion in the newly announced Golden Dome missile defense system, according to reports.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said there are "active discussions" between the two nations on security systems  both existing and future  according to the BBC.

Talks are ongoing despite tensions between the nations, stemming from Trumps exorbitant tariffs on Americas neighbor to the north and his repeated belittling suggestion that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

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The latter has prompted a wave of patriotism from Canadians which may have contributed to the election win for Carney and the Liberal party.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said there are active discussions with the Trump administration on security systems  both existing and future (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

"Canadians gave the prime minister a strong mandate to negotiate a comprehensive new security and economic relationship with the United States," Audrey Champoux, a spokeswoman for Carney, told the BBC.

"To that end, the prime minister and his ministers are having wide-ranging and constructive discussions with their American counterparts. These discussions naturally include strengthening Norad and related initiatives such as the Golden Dome."

Champoux did not specify how Canada would participate in the Golden Dome project, including whether it would help pay to build it.

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Canada and the U.S. already partner on Norad  the North American Aerospace Defense Command  which operates aerospace and maritime surveillance and contributes to the defense of the region. The system has been in place since 1958, and Canada and the U.S. have both voiced intentions of modernizing it.

Announcing the Golden Dome project on Tuesday, Trump acknowledged that Canada had expressed interest.

On Tuesday, the president unveiled a plan to spend $25 billion to begin work on the Dome, insisting it would take only three years to complete. This is in contrast to estimates by the independent Congressional Budget Office, which has estimated the project could take 20 years and cost $524 billion (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Canada has called us, and they want to be a part of it. So well be talking to them; they want to have protection also, Trump said, while taking questions at the White House.

The presidents plan aims to spend $25 billion to begin work on the Dome, which he has insisted would take only three years to complete. This is in contrast to estimates by the independent Congressional Budget Office, which has estimated the project could take 20 years and cost $524 billion.

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This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities and should be fully operational before the end of my term, Trump said.

Once fully constructed, Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space, and we will have the best system ever built.
A single vote separates two candidates in the Pittsburgh Public Schools District 9 school board race, and it could take weeks before a clear winner is officially announced.

The matchup features incumbent School Board President Gene Walker and challenger Allie Petonic, a union Steelworker. The two candidates have distinct visions for the future of Pittsburgh Public Schools, a difference that some voters believe could significantly impact how the district approaches school consolidation, including decisions about which schools will close and when.

For it to be so split and so close, it means that people are paying attention and are unhappy, said current board member Devon Taliaferro.

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Taliaferro, a board member representing District 2 and currently serving her second term, is the only board member who endorsed Petonic.

Walker and Petonic faced off during Tuesdays Democratic primary, but as of Wednesday morning, the race had not been called. Currently, 38 out of 39 precincts have reported results, with Petonic holding a narrow one-point lead over Walker.

I think action needs to happen sooner rather than later, and all Ive heard from my opponent is that they want to stop the process, talk to the community more, and drag this out longer, said Walker. As an outspoken advocate for school closures, Walker has made notable progress in this goal alongside the current superintendent.

Petonic provided Channel 11 News with the following statement:

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I am incredibly grateful to every volunteer, supporter, and voter who made their voice heard in this election. This race is about the future of Pittsburghs public school students, and voters showed up because they care about transparency, accountability, and having a real say in decisions that affect our students, teachers, staff, and neighborhoods. With the margin this close, every single vote must be counted. No matter the outcome, this campaign has made it clear that Pittsburgh voters and community members value strong public schools for our students, our city, and our future.

Taliaferro noted that Petonic, as a union worker, shares her belief that community input is more crucial than a quick decision-making process. We are making tough decisions on behalf of the residents, so we need to involve them, and I feel that Allie genuinely cares about the voice of the community, Taliaferro said.

According to Allegheny County Elections, the county will share unofficial results from the remaining precincts on Friday. After that, they will confirm and tally all provisional ballots. Once this process is complete, either candidate can request a recount by filing with the Court of Common Pleas.

Taliaferro emphasized that regardless of who joins her on the board, decisions will not be taken lightly. The decisions we have to make over the next couple of months will not be easy for anyone when it comes to determining which school buildings we need to close, she said.

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On Wednesday, the board will hold an executive meeting where the superintendent will present the most recent consolidation plan.

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CHICAGO (WGN)  Hundreds gathered Wednesday morning at Robert J. Quinn Fire Academy to honor Chicago firefighters, EMTs and 911 dispatchers at an awards ceremony.

The ceremony was part of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) week, a nationwide celebration of the lifesaving work of emergency medical personnel.

One guest who felt especially lucky to be in attendance was Chicagoan Cara Frank, who came face-to-face with the team of EMTs who saved her life.

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On the evening of July 22, 2024, Frank experienced a seizure and went into cardiac arrest. Once EMTs arrived, they secured an airway and applied a defibrillator, but the AED did not administer a shock. A second emergency was able to stabilize the wife and mother.

Frank, through tears, expressed gratitude to the people who saved her life.

Thank you for letting me still be here, she said. Just thank you.

She then turned away from the podium and gave each of the emergency responders a hug.

The theme for EMS Week 2025 is We Care. For Everyone.

This week is a time to recognize and thank the Chicago Fire Department Paramedics & EMTs professionals who provide critical care to Chicago, according to the Chicago Fire Department Foundation.

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President Gerald Ford started EMS week in 1974 to celebrate the lifesaving work of emergency personnel.

Such lifesaving work ensured Frank, who now lives with a pacemaker, can still be around for her husband, children and family.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
LANCASTER, Pa. (WHTM)  An employed caregiver is accused of assaulting and neglecting a patient in Lancaster Wednesday morning.

Lancaster Police said in the charges filed that Joshua Viera-Torres, 22, of Reading, allegedly struck the care-dependent victim in the face multiple times after an argument stemming from parking issues.

Man sentenced for Cumberland County bomb threat hoaxes after online relationship with minor

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Police said they spoke with the victim after arriving in the 800 block of Highland Avenue just after 3 a.m., who reported being assaulted.

Viera-Torres also neglected the victim by letting the house become uninhabitable in hoarder-like conditions, since he moved in more than six months ago, police said in the charges.

Viera-Torres was employed as a live-in caregiver through Help At Home, a home health care service in Lancaster, according to police.

Viera-Torres faces a felony charge of abuse of a care-dependent person, along with misdemeanor charges of neglect of a care-dependent person, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

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Viera-Torres was sent to the Lancaster County Prison with bail set at $150,000 by Magisterial District Judge Jodie Richardson. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 4.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The growing role of Azerbaijani gas in Hungarys energy mix aligns with the countrys strategy to diversify its energy sources, Zoltan Egeresi, research fellow at Ludovika - University of Public Service, Hungary, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

"Although Azerbaijani gas currently accounts for only a modest share of Hungarys energy mix, its role is expected to grow over time. This is in line with Hungarys broader energy diversification strategy, which aims to reduce reliance on a single source and expand partnerships with reliable suppliers such as Azerbaijan," he said.

The expert noted that with an annual gas consumption of approximately 9 billion cubic meters, Hungary represents the largest market for natural gas in the region.

"Recent geopolitical shifts in Eastern Europe - particularly the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine - have significantly elevated Azerbaijans strategic importance for European countries, especially those in its immediate neighborhood. Southeast European nations such as Bulgaria and Serbia have already begun importing Azerbaijani natural gas, seeking to reduce their dependence on traditional suppliers and enhance energy security," Egeresi said.

He pointed out that bilateral relations between Hungary and Azerbaijan entered a golden age in recent years, driven by shared geopolitical, energy, and economic interests that further deepened their already friendly ties.

"Azerbaijan has emerged as one of the key success stories of Hungarys 'Eastern Opening'  a foreign policy initiative launched in the early 2010s aimed at enhancing economic and political relations with non-EU countries. This Hungarian strategy aligned well with Azerbaijans multivector foreign policy. Hungarys accession as an observer to the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) in 2018, with Azerbaijani support, further strengthened bilateral ties by providing a stable, institutionalized framework for ongoing dialogue and cooperation," the expert said.

Moreover, Egeresi noted that as a small and open economy, Hungary is particularly sensitive to geopolitical instability and armed conflicts. This perspective has shaped its consistent support for Azerbaijans territorial integrity, as well as its endorsement of peace efforts between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"Hungary recognizes that lasting regional stability is a prerequisite for enhanced connectivity, especially in light of the prospective opening of the Zangezur Corridor, which could significantly bolster the Middle Corridor," he said.

Egeresi also pointed out that regional stability directly contributes to energy security, a strategic priority for Hungary since 2022.

"In this context, bilateral energy cooperation has intensified: Hungarian companies such as MOL and MVM have begun investing in Azerbaijans energy sector, while Azerbaijan has commenced natural gas exports to Hungary. In addition, the Green Energy Corridor initiative  aimed at transporting electricity from Azerbaijan to Central Europe via Georgia, the Black Sea, Romania, and Hungary  has gained traction, representing a forward-looking dimension of bilateral cooperation in renewable energy and sustainability," he said.

Touching on the topic of transport cooperation, the expert noted that Azerbaijan plays a key role in the development of the Middle Corridor, which effectively bypasses both Russia and Iran.

"Its geographic position makes Azerbaijan a keystone country in the emerging EastWest connectivity architecture. As a result, all major transport and trade routes from Central Asia must pass through Azerbaijan, enhancing its geostrategic and economic importance. For Hungary, which has been actively seeking to expand its presence in Eurasian trade networks through its Eastern Opening policy, the development of the Middle Corridor and associated Trans-Caspian connectivity projects offers substantial opportunities," he said.

Egeresi pointed out that these routes not only shorten transport times between Asia and Central Europe but also contribute to supply chain resilience, especially in the face of shifting geopolitical realities. In sum, the Middle Corridor and Trans-Caspian initiatives provide a concrete framework through which Azerbaijan and Hungary can elevate their strategic partnership, transforming it from energy-focused cooperation into a broader, multidimensional alliance centered on trade, infrastructure, and connectivity.

According to the expert, although Hungary holds only observer status within the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), it has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to the organization and actively sought to strengthen cooperation with its member states. This dedication was emphasized in 2019 with the establishment of the OTS Representation Office in Budapest  the first of its kind outside the Turkic world  symbolizing Hungarys strategic intent to serve as a bridge between the Turkic states and the European Union.

"Hungary has also backed its political commitment with tangible contributions, most notably through its participation in the Turkic Investment Fund. The countrys proactive engagement reached a new milestone with its hosting of the 2025 Informal Summit of the OTS in Budapest. This high-profile event not only showcases Hungarys increasingly assertive and multidirectional foreign policy but also solidifies its role as a reliable partner within the Turkic institutional framework," he said.

Egeresi added that the adoption of the Budapest Declaration during the summit is expected to further enhance cooperation among OTS members and observers, promote joint initiatives, and provide fresh momentum for the implementation of the Turkic World Vision 2040.

"It also reflects Hungarys long-term strategic goal of deepening its connectivity with its Turkic partners by integrating into broader political, economic, and cultural networks. Through its active participation, Hungary aims to position itself as a European gateway for Turkic states and contribute to a more interconnected and resilient Eurasian region," the expert said.

He noted that the rise of Turkic cooperation through the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), complemented by bilateral initiatives, has played a significant role in resolving border disputes in Central Asia and promoting greater stability in the South Caucasus. Enhanced connectivity, deepening energy cooperation, and clearly defined shared interests across a range of geopolitical and economic issues have collectively elevated the international standing and influence of OTS member states.

"For Hungary, these developments not only validate its engagement with the Turkic world but also enhance its geopolitical relevance. As the OTS grows in strategic importance, Hungarys position as a European observer and active participant allows it to serve as a vital bridge between East and West, facilitating dialogue, trade, and cooperation across regional blocs. This bridging role reinforces Hungarys aspirations to play a more prominent role in Eurasian affairs and promote its connectivity strategy," Egeresi concluded.
In his own lengthy career, Carl Craig has become accustomed to sleeper hits  music that simmers off the radar before catching fire to wide acclaim.

So the fast rise of a new documentary chronicling his work has been a refreshing surprise for the influential Detroit DJ and producer:

Desire: The Carl Craig Story, which is amid a prolific U.K. run, showcases the life and career of one of the most celebrated and innovative figures in the long history of Detroit techno. The 90-minute film was spearheaded by New York director Jean-Cosme Delaloye.

Carl Craig is pictured in a still from "Desire: The Carl Craig Story," a new documentary spotlighting this life and career.

My career is one where I do something and it takes a while before people get it, Craig says, citing projects such as 1992s Bug in the Bassbin. So when they told me the amount of screens showing this, it kind of blew my mind. Because that sounds like a hit record. It doesnt sound like the track under the counter at the record store.

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The film will have its Detroit premiere Thursday  his 56th birthday  at Michigan Centrals Newlab center, including a post-screening discussion with Craig led by WDET-FMs Ann Delisi. A reprise showing is scheduled Friday evening.

Both are part of the bustling buildup to Movement weekend, the Memorial Day tradition that Craig helped launch with the Detroit Electronic Music Festival a quarter-century ago. (Craig is performing Saturday on the fests Stargate Stage in a set with Moodymann, a Detroit friend and collaborator whos featured in the doc.)

Desire sheds light on an artist whose public persona has remained rather enigmatic through the decades, from his early Detroit family life to the globetrotting career that really took off after a 1989 London nightclub stint with Derrick May. Its an exploration of his eclectic influences  like deep jazz and the rhythms of copying machines at the shop where he once worked  and the path Craig trailblazed with his resulting work.

Craig was connected to Delaloye in 2020 by Swiss DJ and Detroit techno devotee Mirko Loko, one of my brothers from another mother, as Craig calls him.

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Delaloye was a veteran documentarian whose work had largely spotlighted political matter and social issues. Now he was seeking a topic outside that established zone.

Mirko said, You know, you should follow Carl, Craig recounts. The plan at the beginning was they would follow me around for a year, and that would be the documentary. But as time moved on, the ideas changed. The creative juices moved around.

So what started as a project that was merely journaling my life evolved into a film with a far wider scope.

Its more celebrating the music and the people influenced by the music, Craig says. I love how it came out. Its 90 minutes of excellence, to me, and its great to see my life on the screen.

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The documentary had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, and earlier this month made its U.K. debut in 30 cinemas, including an IMAX presentation.

Craig was in that Tribeca audience last June for his first look at the film. Hed never seen himself on the big screen.

Im watching myself up there, watching my parents, close friends and mentors (on-screen). It was like watching my life unfold in front of me, he says. I dont have to wait for a tragic accident or something where my life flashes before my eyes. Ive already seen it.

A still image from "Desire: The Carl Craig Story," a new documentary spotlighting the life and career of one of Detroit's premier techno icons.

As much as Desire is a celebration of Craig, its an ode to the city that made him.

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Detroit has a reputation that I think a lot of people in the United States dont understand, Craig says. Detroit has this mystical reputation (overseas) for all this great music thats come from here  great and long-lasting talent, from Motown to Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Eminem, Aretha.

He hopes Delaloyes documentary  what Craig calls a love letter to Detroit  can do its part in shifting perceptions.

Americans need to see that theres this respect for Detroit, he says. People love it. The scene is revered, the music is revered. Its like a Valhalla for people when it comes to music.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

'Desire: The Carl Craig Story'

Detroit documentary premiere

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5:30 p.m. Thu. ($25), 5:30 p.m. Fri. ($15)

Newlab at Michigan Central

2050 15th St., Detroit

Movement festival

Sat.-Mon.

Hart Plaza, downtown Detroit

Single-day tickets ($205.66 general admission, $277.83 VIP) and three-day passes ($365.45 general admission, $499.47 VIP) available through See Tickets.

Festival parking info and other details at movementfestival.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Carl Craig film to make Detroit premiere as Movement festival ramps up
CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT)  Carteret County Senior Services will host a free Shred-a-Thon on Saturday, May 31, 2025.

This event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Leon Mann Jr. Enrichment Center on 3820 Galantis Drive in Morehead City, N.C.

Shred-a-Thon is a great way for older adults to securely dispose of personal documents and protect them from identity theft. Participants will need to show proof of residency, which includes a photo ID and an official document displaying their current address. Accepted proof of residency include a utility bill, tax bill, voter registration card, or another government issued record.

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Residents can bring personal documents such as bank statements, check stubs, credit card offers, receipts, and any paperwork containing sensitive information. All materials will be securely shredded on-site and recycled following the event.

Businesses are not allowed to participate as certain items cannot be shredded, including binders, metal handing folders, binder clips, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and electronics.

No appointment is necessary to attend. For more information, contact Carteret County Senior Services at 252-247-2626.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.
The federal governments Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program is not operating, despite Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s claims that it's being funded.

The programs 26 staffers were placed on administrative leave in April, with terminations set for June 2, as part of a broader restructuring of federal agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services.

To date, none of the staffers have been reinstated, with layoffs set to take effect in less than two weeks, said Erik Svendsen, director of the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice, a department within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that includes the childhood lead program.

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Kennedy had faced criticism in recent weeks from Democratic senators over the gutting of the program, which assisted state and local health departments with blood lead testing and surveillance.

At a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Kennedy told Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that the program was still being funded. The week before, he told Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., that he had no plans to eliminate it.

But Svendsen said his entire division was dissolved by HHS and cant be easily replaced.

There are no other experts that do what we do, he said. You cant just push a button and get new people because our areas of public health are so specialized.

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Staffers in the childhood lead program have not received direction about how to transition their work, according to two CDC scientists familiar with the matter.

Even low levels of lead exposure could put children at risk of developmental delays, learning difficulties and behavioral issues. The CDC program offered technical expertise to help under-resourced health departments prevent those outcomes. In 2023, it helped solve a nationwide lead poisoning outbreak linked to cinnamon applesauce. And it was in frequent contact with the Milwaukee Health Department this year after the city discovered dangerous lead levels in some public schools.

Kennedy told Reed on Tuesday that we have a team in Milwaukee offering laboratory and analytics support to the health department.

But the Milwaukee Health Department said that Kennedys statement was inaccurate, and that the city had not received any federal epidemiological or analytical support related to the lead crisis.

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Unfortunately, in this case, that is another example where the secretary doesnt have his facts straight, said Mike Totoraitis, the citys health commissioner.

Caroline Reinwald, a spokesperson for the Milwaukee Health Department, said that the federal governments only recent involvement in the lead crisis was a short, two-week visit from a single CDC staff member this month, who assisted with the validation of a new instrument in our laboratory.

This support was requested independently of the [Milwaukee Public Schools] crisis and was part of a separate, pre-existing need to expand our labs long-term capacity for lead testing, Reinwald said in a statement.

HHS has said it will continue efforts to eliminate childhood lead poisoning through a newly created department called the Administration for a Healthy America. But Democratic lawmakers and environmental health groups question how the work can continue without reinstating staffers.

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Despite what you told me last week, that you have no intention of eliminating this program, you fired the entire office responsible for carrying it out, Baldwin told Kennedy at Tuesdays hearing. Your decision to fire staff and eliminate offices is endangering children, including thousands of children in Milwaukee.

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Kennedy did not offer new details about his agencys restructuring plan at the hearing, citing a court order that compelled the Trump administration to pause efforts to downsize the federal government.

Milwaukees lead crisis became clear to health officials in February, when the citys health department identified dangerous levels of the toxin in school classrooms, hallways and common areas, due to lead dust and deteriorating lead-based paint.

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Before the childhood lead program was gutted, the CDC had been meeting with the Milwaukee Health Department on a weekly basis to come up with a plan to screen tens of thousands of students for lead poisoning, Totoraitis said.

The citys health department asked the CDC on March 26 to send staffers to help, Totoraitis said, but the agency fired its childhood lead team on April 1 and denied Milwaukees request two days later.

This is the first time in at least 75 years that the CDC has ever denied an Epi-Aid request, so its a pretty historic moment, he said, referring to a request for the CDC to investigate an urgent public health problem.

To date, the Milwaukee Health Department has identified more than 100 schools built before 1978, when the federal government banned consumer uses of lead-based paints. Around 40 of those have been inspected, Totoraitis said. Six schools have closed since the start of the year due to lead contamination, and only two have reopened.

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Around 350 students in Milwaukee have been screened for lead poisoning out of 44,000 identified as having a potential risk, Totoraitis said. The city has confirmed one case linked to lead exposure in school, and two more linked to exposures at both school and home. The health department said it is investigating an additional four cases, which may involve multiple sources of exposure.

Totoraitis said the department is accustomed to looking for lead in homes and rental units, but the CDC was supposed to help them scale that operation to inspect larger buildings. CDC staffers were also supposed to help set up lead screening clinics and investigate where kids had been exposed, he said.

While the health department is handling those efforts on its own now, Totoraitis said it may not have the capacity to screen everyone in a timely manner. He estimated that the department could manage around 1,000 to 1,200 cases of childhood lead poisoning a year. That includes testing kids blood lead levels, treating lead poisoning with chelation therapy (which removes heavy metals from the bloodstream) and eliminating exposures in the home by replacing windows and doors.

Totoraitis said hes hoping to hire two of the terminated CDC employees for at least a couple of weeks to help address lingering questions about how to manage the crisis.

Better yet, he said, I keep hoping to get an email from them saying, Hey, we got our jobs back.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
(FOX40.COM)  The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a new map that tracks the movement of collared gray wolves.

Our main goal was to help support our livestock producers in northeastern California, said Peter Tira, spokesperson for CDFW. Knowledge is power.

The system tracks and collects the approximate location of 14 GPS-collared wolves four times a day, though CDFW said there are dozens of wolves in the area.

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Amaroq Weiss with the Center for Biological Diversity said this new coexistence tool is helpful for all Californians.

Woman pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts in Grand Theft case

Wolf conflicts are rare in any state with wolves, but both ranchers and wolves will benefit if we can make those conflicts even more rare by giving a heads-up when wolves are in the area, Weiss said.

When viewing the map, not all 14 trackers may appear. CDFW explains this may be due to collars falling off, malfunctions, animals moving beyond the range of active cells, or even crossing state borders.

But for ranchers and officials dealing with gray wolves on a daily basis, these maps confirm what they already know.

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The map is a good start- its got some bugs, but I want to say that Fish and Wildlife is trying to put something out there, said Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue.

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Sheriff LaRue and Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher, who have been at the forefront of the issue, say fewer than a handful of wolves in their counties are currently being tracked.

If there isnt a GPS reading on a particular ranch, that doesnt mean wolves arent presentit just means that one of the three collared wolves isnt on that ranch, Sheriff Fisher told FOX40.

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Weve estimated 70-plus wolves in our community, Sheriff LaRue added.

The Sheriffs from Plumas and Lassen counties have joined them in meeting with the California Natural Resources Secretary and the Director of CDFW on Wednesday in Sacramento to discuss wolf management.

They said the meeting brought hope.

We discussed various options today on, you know, hazing, and various plans, Sheriff Fisher said.

I felt refreshed a little bit and reassured that we are going to be heading in the right direction, said Sheriff LaRue.

The Sheriffs are scheduled to meet with state officials again next week to discuss next steps.

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What I would like [residents] to know is that their local representatives, both their Board of Supervisors and their elected Sheriffs, are down here in Sacramento meeting with those who have the ability to effect change on the management, Sheriff Fisher concludes.  It was a very productive meeting.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.
May 21South Point Elementary School honors first responders with parade

SOUTH POINT  Last fall, South Point Elementary was in the headlines due to a frightening incident, but, on Thursday, the school year began winding down with a celebration and display of appreciation for those who got the community through a difficult time.

The school hosted a Heroes Day Parade, in which students and faculty thanked police and first responders.

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Students from each of the school's classes walked the streets surrounding campus, dressed as police, firefighter, doctors, nurses and other personnel, or wore red, white and blue outfits.

They were joined by the South Point High School Band of Gold, as well as vehicles and personnel from the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, the South Point Police Department, the South Point Fire Department and other first responders.

Principal Bill Christian said the parade also served as a makeup of sorts for the school's annual Halloween parade, normally a popular draw. That event did not happen this year, as the school was closed for two weeks after an Oct. 24 incident, in which police were called there during the school day after a parent, seeking access to the building in a custody dispute, stabbed Christian and made his way to the school's cafeteria.

Joshua Collins was found guilty of attempted murder, felonious assault, conveyance of a deadly weapon in a school safety zone, inducing panic, and seven counts of kidnapping in connection with the incident. He was sentenced last week to 39.5-45 years in prison.

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Christian, who fully recovered and returned to work weeks after the incident, said Thursday's parade was "just a big thank you" to all who came to the school's assistance.

"We wanted to thank all the first responders who came on Oct. 24," he said. "We wanted to thank them for the quick response and all the help they gave. They helped us a lot."

He also expressed thanks for the school resource officers who have been posted in South Point schools since the incident, first from the South Point Police Department, then from the Lawrence County Sheriff's Office, including Cody Pennington, who carries out the main duties of that position.

Christian pointed out that it is National Police Week and that Thursday was also Police Memorial Day.

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In addition to showing their gratitude to first responders, students in the parade showed their appreciation for another they considered a hero.

One class carried a sign, reading "Bill Christian Fan Club," while several children had others thanking Christian for protecting them during the incident.

The last day of the school year for students in the South Point district will be Friday.

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JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV)  Central Mississippi Realtors will host a 5K that benefits the Gabby Strong Foundation.

The foundation is dedicated to bringing hope and support to children and families facing pediatric cancer.

The event will be held at Fertile Grounds Bear Co. at 6:00 p.m. on May 22.

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CHIPPEWA FALLS  A Chippewa Falls woman has been convicted of her fourth drunk-driving offense, and this time with a minor in a vehicle.

Angela K. Sabatke, 45, 790 Dutchman Drive, pleaded guilty in Chippewa County Court on Tuesday to possession of meth and OWI-4, stemming from a December 2023 arrest. Charges of operating while revoked and possessing drug paraphernalia were read-in and dismissed.

Judge James Isaacson ordered 170 days in jail, with Huber work release. Isaacson also placed Sabatke on probation for three years, and he gave her a deferred acceptance agreement on the meth possession conviction.

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Sabatke must pay $1,975 in court costs and fines, and she must install an ignition interlock device and use it for two years. Her drivers license was revoked for three years, and she must submit a DNA sample. She also must complete an alcohol treatment course.

As terms of her probation, Sabatke cannot consume drugs or alcohol.

According to the criminal complaint, the arrest occurred on Dec. 29, 2023. A Chippewa Falls police officer observed Sabatkes car veering toward a curb and making a sharp correction. When he pulled Sabatkes vehicle over, he observed a seven-year-old child in the car.

When talking to the officer, Sabatke admitted she had consumed four alcoholic drinks. A preliminary break test shows a .068 blood-alcohol level. Because of prior convictions, she was limited to a .02 blood-alcohol level.

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The officer searched her vehicle and found a full, 32-ounce can of an alcoholic beverage and two open single-shot bottles of alcohol, the complaint states.

She posted a signature bond and had not been in jail leading up to the conviction Tuesday.

Online court records show that Sabatke was sentenced in July 2023  about six months before this arrest  for her third drunk-driving offense stemming from an incident in Forest County in 2020.
Bertrice Pompe had barely been asleep for two hours when she woke to a phone call at 6am on Thursday. It was her friend Bernadette Dugasse  her sister in arms in the fight to block the Governments deal to surrender the Chagos Islands, a British territory, to Mauritius. She said get up, theres [going to be] a court case.

Pompe, 54, had been on the phone to her lawyers throughout the night as a frantic, eleventh-hour battle to secure an emergency injunction from the court played out. At 2:25am, after five hours of legal argument, Mr Justice Goose issued the injunction, preventing Sir Keir Starmer from signing the deal in the morning. It came after 24 hours of chaos. The legal team representing Pompe only became aware of Starmers plan to attend a virtual signing ceremony with the Mauritian government on Thursday morning after it was leaked to the press on Tuesday night. After The Telegraph confirmed the story on Wednesday, they were left with just hours to intervene.

After that news, then everything was rushed, says Pompe, speaking after the hearing. My lawyer was on the phone with me almost all day, all night. I slept for two hours... They were on the phone with the judge for three hours last night.

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A little before 3am, it seemed they had done it. When my lawyer [called] me last night, he said were done, says Pompe. [He said] it looks like weve put [the signing] off for a little bit, because it was supposed to happen at 9am. But he didnt say there was going to be a hearing.

Keir Starmers surrender of the Chagos Islands was derailed at the eleventh hour by a temporary injunction - AP

An order issued overnight set a further hearing for 10.30am and Pompe raced into town from her home in Clapham to be there in time. In a packed courtroom, Philip Rule KC, representing her, appeared on a TV screen. He made his apologies for appearing via video link and for his attire. He was speaking from a hotel room in New York, where it was still the middle of the night, and lacked the customary black gown and wig so appeared in a white shirt. This was the only outfit I had with me that came close to fitting the bill.

And so, the 90 minutes that would decide the fate of the Chagos Islands began.

The judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, heard from Rule that the signing should be put off in order to prevent significant prejudice to the claimant, who has always argued the deal would make it harder for Chagossians to return to the islands of their birth.

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Chagossians were removed from the islands between the 1960s and 1970s  largely to Mauritius  to make way for the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia, where Pompe was born.

Pompes parents moved to the Seychelles six months after her birth in 1971. They were told they have to leave. Theyre not going to be given work, theyre not going to be given food, theres no salary.

Pompe has accused the Mauritian government of being racist towards Chagossians, and deems the deal to be a breach of her human rights. She says the UK Government failed to carry out a lawful consultation of Chagossians living in the UK, and failed to properly consider all manner of issues, from rights of residence to cultural heritage, and the communitys expressed wishes. Chagossians have never, she has always argued, been consulted adequately on a deal that impacts them so personally.

The Conservative government entered into bilateral negotiations with Mauritius, but nothing had been concluded ahead of the general election, after which Starmer decided to press ahead and give the islands away. Critics, including the Tories and Reform UK (the deputy leader of which, Richard Tice, was present in court), say military assets on Diego Garcia will be at risk due to the close ties between Mauritius and China. The UK Government  backed by President Trump and US intelligence agencies  will now lease back the military base on the island at great expense to the taxpayer (it is expected to cost 10 billion in lease payments over 99 years). It claims it is the only way to secure the long-term future of a base which is crucial to national security.

For Pompe, who moved to Britain 22 years ago, it is significantly more personal. This new Government just jumped in and wants to disrupt everything, she says. [They want to] just accept the deal, and dont care about what happens even to British people who were born in Britain, referring to the impact that the costly deal might have on public finances.

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They want to cut down on taking care of elderly people to give money to Mauritius. How can you accept that? I think more British people should be backing us. Because its going to affect them as well.

Pompe, a fashion designer, has twin daughters who are now in their twenties. Five years ago, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia which causes her daily discomfort and fatigue.

Ultimately, Starmers response to the spanner thrown in the works by a softly spoken mother-of-two was to send for Sir James Eadie, Whitehalls most senior lawyer, known as the Treasury Devil. Eadie told the court it had no power to stand in the way of international relations and foreign policy decision making. My instructions from Number 10 are that we need a decision by 1pm today and that everyone is standing by, he said.

He told the court damage has already been done in delaying the signing, arguing, There is jeopardy to international relations.

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Just 20 minutes before the Governments deadline, the judge declared there should be no further interim relief and the stay should be lifted. The order is discharged. If you want to... youll have to go to the Court of Appeal.

Pompe sat among a small group of campaigners, including three little girls sitting patiently with their parents, who represented a whole community. Trying to understand what the judge was saying, she found herself thinking about these girls who have little idea of the islands some 6,000 miles away where their ancestors came from. Speaking at a coffee shop near the court after the hearing, she says that she has a ten-year-old grandson who has little sense of his Chagossian heritage because all this is dying.

Pompe, dressed in black, looks exhausted. It is a deeply disappointing ending to what has been a long, personal struggle. The case has been the work of a large legal team and an even bigger campaign group, but as the woman chosen by her fellow campaigners to represent their cause, it is her name on the court paperwork. Why did she feel compelled to lead the charge? Im a native. Most of those people who came today to see us, most of the people in our community, they are descendants. The natives are dying out.

Pompe and Bernadette Dugasse (centre)  her sister in arms in the fight to block the Governments deal to surrender the Chagos Islands  outside the High Court in London - David Rose

Pompe says her parents didnt talk much about the homeland they had been forced to leave. Life in the Seychelles was not so very different than it would have been on Chagos  its still island life, she says  but they were discriminated against there. Even our ID card that we get from the Seychelles government is different, I think to isolate us. As soon as you look at the ID number you will know  she wasnt born here.

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Pompe would like the chance to return to the place where she was born. In signing this agreement, she feels Starmer has put paid to that chance. Keir Starmer doesnt care, she says. I bet he doesnt know anything about Chagossians. He probably doesnt know much about Diego Garcia either. They keep talking  even in court, even in the US  about how important Diego Garcia is to us, to our security. Its important to us as well but you never hear them say that.

The court heard how Pompe told the Government in March that she was considering legal action. Through the course of the hearing, the judge repeatedly questioned the delay in Pompe issuing formal proceedings. I knew something was going to go wrong because he kept saying the same thing? Why did we leave that big delay? she says.

Her lawyer explained that a delay in applying for legal aid had been behind it, the recent cyber attack on the Legal Aid Agency having slowed down attempts to get crucial funding. Over the past three months, there has been obstacle after obstacle, says Pompe. I dont know why the judge wouldnt understand. Maybe hes never been poor. He said we could have done this at any time  no we couldnt. Weve been asking for donations, opening GoFundMe pages. It didnt work.

After the hearing, one campaigner, Jemmy Simon, said the Government are not treating us like we are human beings. We are British citizens but our rights do not count.

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British justice takes care of who they want, when they want. They havent been able to rectify the wrongs they have done to us.

Pompe dreams of one day returning to Chagos, to the blue sea, the sun, the coconuts.

In the meantime she is proud, at least, of having done her bit to delay the signing. The lawyer said we should [feel proud], because if we didnt bring that, even though its in a rush, there wouldnt be press, it would have gone quietly, just the way they wanted it to.

Now it is like we are muddying the water, and they dont like that.

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CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA)  The Champaign County Sheriffs Office is considering a partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).

In 2022, Deidra Silas, a 36-year-old child protection specialist with DCFS, was stabbed to death while performing a home visit in Thayer. Since then, county law enforcement around the state has partnered with local DCFS agencies to help provide additional support and prevent future tragedies.

PREVIOUSLY: Trial begins for man accused of killing DCFS employee Deidre Silas

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Sheriff Dustin Heuerman said Champaign County has held off on the partnership to see how other counties have done it. Now, the Champaign County Board will vote on an intergovernmental agreement on behalf of the sheriffs office and DCFS on Thursday.

Heuerman said it would pair the local DCFS office with a deputy who would be stationed with DCFS full-time.

The general idea is that law enforcement has access to a lot more safety information than DCFS does. So, in theory, they will help DCFS be safer on a home visit. This is a benefit for us, too, as it will help investigation of any DCFS cases that need Sheriffs Office intervention more efficient, Heuerman said.

PREVIOUSLY: Social workers field safety remains concern after killing

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The contract would eventually be 100% reimbursed by Illinois. But  the money wont come through immediately if the agreement is approved.

Not all of the equipment is reimbursed at once  some of it is reimbursed over the four year contract, Heuerman said. So, I need to get the money in my budget now to make the purchases and then it will eventually be 100% reimbursed.

The county board will vote on several resolutions to make this agreement a reality.

First, theyll have to approve the intergovernmental agreement with the State of Illinois for the collaboration. Then, the board will have to approve a budget amendment, giving additional funds to the sheriffs office for the collaboration. After that, the board will discuss a resolution to add an additional deputy position to be assigned to the role.

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4 years later: Champaign Deputy Chief reflects on death of Officer Chris Oberheim

The sheriffs department is requesting an additional $119,753.60 for their budget. It would cover the deputys salary, equipment, operational supplies, among other expenses. The county board will vote on the collaboration with DCFS at their meeting Thursday night. Itll be held at the Brookens Administrative Center and is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. The county boards agenda can be found here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 22. Munira Aminova, Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, held a meeting with John Mikal Kvistad, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway to Uzbekistan, to discuss prospects for strengthening bilateral cooperation, Trend reports, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on a range of key areas, including environmental protection, climate change, migration, the textile industry, and fisheries.

The Norwegian side expressed its readiness to share expertise in promoting regional cooperation based on the Nordic model, which involves all five Nordic countries. Special emphasis was placed on supporting scientific and educational initiatives.

Both sides reaffirmed their mutual interest in enhancing bilateral relations and outlined concrete steps for the development and implementation of joint projects in areas of strategic importance to both nations.

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA)  Nearly $140 million in funding has been awarded to transportation projects around the state  including two projects in Champaign County that have been in the works for a while.

On Wednesday, Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation announced that $139.2 million has been awarded through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program. The goal of the program is to expand local travel options and to enhance the quality of life in communities statewide, according to a news release from IDOT.

City of Champaign could help renovation of downtown building

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$3 million will go toward Champaigns Kirby Avenue complete street project.

Project engineers told WCIA last year that the project would include replacing the bridge and adding bike lanes and pedestrian upgrades to the Kirby Avenue overpass. WCIA previously reported that the complete street project was a part of the citys comprehensive plan. Officials said they hoped to begin construction in the spring of 2026.

Savoy will receive $1.3 million to improve the Prairie Fields path. WCIA previously reported that the project would create multi-pathways and connect to other paths in Savoy.

Pritzker said the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, which is a part of Rebuild Illinois, aims to help make travel safer and more accessible.

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Today, Im proud to announce the largest investment in the programs history, with more than $139 million going toward bike lanes, sidewalks, trails and other local improvements, Pritzker said. This is just one part of the states larger effort to reverse decades of disinvestment and create more connected communities.

Bus stop near Market Place Mall could be looking at new routes

IDOT received 233 applications for an estimated $383 million in funding. IDOT said the projects chosen are based on their readiness and connection to transportation networks, as well as their ability to secure public support and provide public benefits. Areas with higher need are given additional consideration.

When people think about where they want to raise their families, its projects like these that really move the needle, State Senator Paul Faraci (D-Champaign) said. When communities have complete streets, sidewalks and bike paths they become places people want to live.

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You can read more about the project and the projects recipients here.

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May 21---- The juvenile suspect now charged in a fatal shooting May 12 is believed to have accidentally shot and killed his best friend while both of them were shooting at a vehicle.

Jamil Mohamed Abdille, 17, of Willmar, is charged with three felony counts of second-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder in the death of another 17-year-old described in court documents as his best friend.

One count of second-degree murder is charged "with intent," alleging that Abdille caused the teen's death while intending to kill another person, the juvenile delinquency petition states. It was filed Tuesday in Kandiyohi County District Court. Felony juvenile charges against 16- or 17-year-olds are public.

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According to the delinquency petition, Willmar police officers dispatched around 11 p.m. May 12 to the 1800 block of Seventh Avenue Southeast found a body lying in the street with blood pooling. The juvenile was not breathing when police arrived, and the officer who initially found the teenager could not find a pulse.

Medical personnel who arrived on the scene confirmed the teen was deceased. Police have not publicly identified him, and his name is not in the court documents.

The complaint notes that the teen had "a lot of trauma to the face" and was wearing a black ski mask.

After securing the scene, officers located .223 rifle casings lying in the street about 10 to 15 feet away from the deceased. Two spent 9mm casings were found around the deceased's body, and one live 9mm casing found directly next to his head.

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According to the petition, officers determined based on the position of the .223 rifle shell casings that someone was standing behind the deceased 17-year-old when firing the rounds. Bullet holes located at nearby residences appeared to show that both a 9mm and .223 rifle were fired in the same direction.

In addition to reviewing video from a nearby residence, officers also spoke with two juvenile females who had arrived home from the movies shortly before the shooting. Two males waited for them outside in a car while the girls went inside to speak to their mother.

One of the juveniles was outside before the shooting. She stated when she went back outside she saw several people wearing black and holding guns coming toward them. She then ran back inside the house.

Both girls were inside their home when the shots were fired, and the two males fled the scene in their car, according to the petition. Both girls stated they did not believe their friends were armed because they had just returned from the movie theater.

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When officers spoke with one of the boys, he said another car had pulled up next to them and "started talking smack to them" while he and his brother were waiting for the girls to come back outside. He told officers that before the car took off he had said he would fight them, according to the petition.

About two minutes after the incident, he said his brother pointed out that two people carrying guns were walking toward them from the intersection of 19th Street and Seventh Avenue Southeast. He told officers that the two people on foot began shooting and he drove away. He said he believed the people who shot at them were not in the car that approached him earlier.

At approximately 10:58 p.m. that night, video captured nearby shows two individuals walking toward Seventh Avenue Southeast. The petition states that police determined the clothing of one of them was consistent with what the deceased was wearing and the other was believed to be Abdille.

Both appear to be concealing firearms while walking toward a parked vehicle that is seen accelerating and fleeing westbound. Several gunshots are heard in the videos as the vehicle begins to flee.

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According to the description of the video in the delinquency petition, Abdille is walking behind the other teen as the two approach the car. At 11:02 p.m., screams yelling the deceased juvenile's nickname can be heard on the video.

Preliminary autopsy results show that the juvenile died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head, and the manner of death was homicide, the petition states.

Abdille was

He told police that he did not want to talk about the shooting because "his best friend died." According to the petition, Abdille said he did not know anything about the shooting and he was not present that night.

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A family member of the deceased told law enforcement that Abdille had spoken to them and had told them he was present. The petition also states that a family member of Abdille told officers that he had said he was walking with the 17-year-old when someone in a car began shooting at them.

Abdille has been in the custody of the Prairie Lakes Youth Programs since his arrest. A pretrial and detention hearing is currently scheduled for May 28 at the Kandiyohi County Courthouse.
A charity with ties to Florida first lady Casey DeSantis is being investigated by prosecutors in the state, according to multiple reports.

The details of the Leon County prosecutors investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation, which was first reported by the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times, are not immediately available. However, the news comes months after Republicans in the state House launched a probe into a $10 million payment that the charity received.

The news of the investigation presents a threat to the potential political future of Casey DeSantis, a possible contender in the Florida governor race next year after her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, hits a term limit. If she runs, she would go up against Rep. Byron Donalds, whom President Donald Trump has endorsed, and possibly former Rep. Matt Gaetz, another Trump ally.

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In 2021, Casey DeSantis launched Hope Florida, an initiative to connect people in need with private support from nonprofits and churches instead of government assistance. The Hope Florida Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports the initiative.

In late 2024, the foundation donated $10 million to two nonprofits, which then gave the money to a political committee backing Ron DeSantis agenda. The money came from a state Medicaid settlement and is 10 times more than the foundation made in the previous year, according to an Associated Press timeline detailing the controversy.

During a Tuesday news conference, Ron DeSantis defended the foundation in response to a question from a Tampa Bay Times reporter.

Well, I mean, I can tell you, this has been a very successful program, the governor said. Everything thats been thrown at it is pure politics.

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I believe in this program deeply, and I stand by it 100%, he added.

He also defended the $10 million payment during a news conference last month, calling it 100% appropriate.

This is kind of like a cherry on top where they agreed to make an additional contribution, he added.

Regardless, the payment sparked concerns about the foundations recordkeeping and transparency.

Republicans in the state House of Representatives created a subcommittee on the matter, which shuttered last month. It was chaired by state Rep. Alex Andrade, a Republican. Andrade reportedly turned over documents from the subcommittees investigation to the state attorneys office.

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I believe that crimes were committed, and that the people engaged in this public corruption should face justice, Andrade told The New York Times in a text message on Wednesday. I dont know what law enforcement will ultimately choose to do though. I hope their investigation at least allows us to understand what happened more fully.

Andrade told the Times that the $10 million payment may represent a possible conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.

Joshua Hay, chairman of the Hope Florida Foundation, acknowledged last month that mistakes were made when talking to the House committee.

In recent weeks, the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made. There are lapses in reporting procedures. The foundation was not provided with the staffing support necessary to ensure all matters were being quickly and appropriately handled, Hay said.

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HuffPost reached out to Casey DeSantis, the communications office for Ron DeSantis, Andrade and the state attorneys office but did not immediately hear back.

Related...
A Charlotte mother has been arrested in connection with the theft of a French Bulldog in North Charlotte on April 6.

Court documents say 37-year-old Kendra Hunter was charged with possession of stolen goods after several pictures were sent to the dogs owner, Jayla Gittens demanding a ransom for the dogs return.

Documents say that in those photos her French Bulldog, Julio, is seen with a woman in the background.

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Gittens says she was called by Hunter, telling her that Julio was with a French Bulldog breeder and that she was the woman in the photo.

UPDATE: 37-year-old Kendra Hunter has been arrested in connection to the theft of Julio, a 6-year-old French Bulldog. Julio has been missing since April 6th when police say he was stolen along with his owners car in North Charlotte. pic.twitter.com/jPCZbtSZoN  Eli Brand (@EliBrandTV) May 22, 2025

In an affidavit, police say they used a tattoo and the color of the womans fingernails to identify her as Hunter.

Gittens told Channel 9 in April that the dog was stolen along with her car while she was moving apartments.

At one point, the victim also received a text from the suspects saying try anything funny it wont be a dog.

The car was recovered but Julio never was.

Crimestoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for the dogs return.

(VIDEO: Several dogs rescued in Anson County from alleged animal cruelty situation)
CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A mother has been arrested in connection with the theft of a bulldog, according to court records.

Kendra Hunter, 37, was booked into the Mecklenburg County Detention Center on May 14 and charged with felony possession of stolen goods.

On Sunday, April 6, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers were called to the 3000 block of Barrow Road for a stolen vehicle. Inside the car was the victims black French Bulldog, Julio, who was also reportedly taken.

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The stolen car was found on April 11, and a juvenile is now facing charges. Other juveniles are being questioned about the incident; however, the dog remains missing.

$5K Reward: Julio the French Bulldog still missing after Charlotte car theft, teen arrested

Ive had him for six years, said Julios owner Jayla Gittens. Hes a living being. I would have rather had my dog back over my car any day.

Court documents say that the dogs owner contacted investigators on May 1 to say that Hunter called her about the dog. It was communicated that the dog may be with someones uncle who breeds French Bulldogs.

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Authorities later confirmed that Hunter was the woman seen in a picture with Julio, identifying her by a tattoo and her orange and purple nails.

Its good to see that people are held accountable, said Gittens. I didnt go into this wanting anybody to get arrested or anything like that. I just wanted back what was stolen from me.

Investigators also reviewed Hunters teenage sons cellphone, finding a photo of Julio that was taken at their home less than a day after the dog was stolen. Hunter is being charged with a felony since the dog is worth $5,000.

Officials have not confirmed if Hunters son was the juvenile arrested.

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Until I get proof that he is no longer living or something terrible has happened to him, I just pray every day that Im going to get my dog back, said Gittens.

A $5,000 reward is being offered by Crime Stoppers for information leading to an arrest. You can anonymously call 704-334-1600 to provide information.

MORE FROM QCNEWS.COM

Crime & Public Safety

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A suspect in the Wednesday fatal shootings of two members of the Israeli Embassy near the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., has been identified as a Chicago man.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago was being held for questioning, authorities said Thursday. He was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI, according to officials.

Authorities alleged he walked into the museum after the shooting, was detained by event security and began chanting, Free, free Palestine, officials said.

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At an address for him in Albany Park on the Northwest Side, police could be seen blocking the street. By 8:15 a.m., a stream of heavily armed men, the letters FBI inscribed on their backs, were seen leaving the apartment building. More agents remained.

The investigation is being run by federal authorities in Washington, with significant assistance from the FBI Chicago field office and other Chicago-based federal agencies.

Neighbors on the block were startled to open their doors to the sight of federal agents clogging the street. Thats terrifying, one woman said when told why they were outside her home.

On Thursday morning, Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement he was horrified to hear of the shooting and disclosed that a member of his staff was attending the event.

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While they are shaken up, they are thankfully safe, the governor said. Law enforcement has apprehended the suspected gunman, and although the investigation continues, make no mistake: this was an attack on the Jewish community.

Pritzker, who is Jewish, has pledged Illinois support for Israel while also seeking to distinguish Hamas militants from the Palestinian people, who he has said want peace in the region. But as someone who led the building of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Pritzker expressed how the shooting resonated with him and what trauma it has caused.

Young Jewish people and diplomats came together in a museum built to honor their shared history but then had to flee gun shots and witness the killing of a young couple, Pritzker said. Whether its gun violence or the rising tide of antisemitism, Americans of all backgrounds have an urgent obligation to stand for peace and reject bigotry in all its forms and in every way possible.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

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Rodriguez had previously posted on X that it was time to bring the war in Gaza home.

Reaction to the shooting continued to pour in from elected officials Thursday.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement saying acts of antisemitism, hate and violence have no place in our nation.

I strongly condemn the antisemitic attack resulting in the murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky  two Israeli Embassy staff  at the Capital Jewish Museum last night in Washington D.C., the statement read. We send our deepest condolences and pray for the victims, families, colleagues and those who loved them.

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50th Ward Alderperson Debra Silverstein, the only Jewish member of the City Council, said she was deeply concerned to learn that the attacker came from Chicago.

She said she spoke with Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling and local police commanders, who told her there is no known threat to our local Jewish community.

However, out of an abundance of caution, the 24th District is increasing patrols and putting extra attention on our community, Silverstein wrote. I ask for law enforcement to investigate any ties to local extremist groups and to act swiftly to make sure the Jewish community in Chicago is kept safe.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said it was absolutely devastating to hear of the shooting. His colleague, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called the shooting absolutely horrifying.

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My heart goes out to the victims, their families and loved ones and the entire Jewish community in the wake of this inexcusable act of antisemitic violence, Duckworth said. Hate should never find safe harbor in America, and we should all be united in the fight against antisemitism.

Rodriguez was arrested at the scene where two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

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Rodriguez was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

_____
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) slammed President Trump and his administration on Wednesday after officials said they would launch a probe into the citys hiring practices.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a letter to Johnson inquiring about racial bias in the Windy Citys hiring practices following the mayors Sunday comments at a local church in Woodlawn, Ill.

As far as, you know, the presidents animus towards women, people of color, working people, we have always known who he has been, Johnson said during a Wednesday press conference. This is not a surprise. Hes a monster.

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We have the most diverse administration in the history of Chicago, and he is threatened by that, he added.

Earlier in the week, while speaking at the Apostolic Church of God, Johnson, who is also Black, said he hired more Black people in his administration because theyre the most generous people on Earth.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon responded to the comments in a letter sent to the mayor on Monday.

If these kind of hiring decisions are being made for top-level positions in your administration, then it begs the question whether such decisions are also being made for lower-level positions, Dhillon wrote.

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The pressure comes as Trump has sought to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the U.S.

Johnson argued the investigation was launched out of fear.

You can tell when someone is fearful is because they act out, Johnson said Wednesday. We have a president that is screaming and having tantrums right now because we have an administration that reflects the city of Chicago, but he would much rather have administrations that reflect the country club. Period.

He is most comfortable around people who think and look like him, the mayor added.

Following the DOJ announcement, Johnsons office released a demographic breakdown of his office.

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His staff members are 34.3 percent Black, 30.5 percent white, 23.8 percent Hispanic and 6.7 percent Asian, as reported by local outlet ABC7.

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CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP)  May is Small Business Month, and one local business was recognized Wednesday morning in Chicopee.

A small crew working in the cellar of a mill plant now sells across the country in over 3,600 stores. Super Brush was founded in Chicopee 65 years ago, and now these seemingly simple swabs are available in the largest retailer in the world.

Massachusetts cemetery honors veterans ahead of Memorial Day

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The Walmart Supercenter in Chicopee hosted the Small Business Appreciation Showcase with community members and local officials on Wednesday. Chicopee Mayor John Vieau expressed his excitement at seeing the business grow.

Its exciting to see one of our origins, Super Brush, who started in Chicopee, is now expanded all the way to Springfield on the shelves at Walmart, nationally recognized, Vieau said. So its really an amazing opportunity for them.

Walmart hosted events like this all throughout the country during the month of May. Public Affairs Director Chris Buchanan explained why Walmart supports so many small businesses.

It really goes back to the days of Sam Walton when Walmart was created over 62 years ago, Buchanan said. Weve had a very longstanding commitment to small businesses. Walmart itself started off as a small business, and now here we are.

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Over 60% of the products in Walmart are supplied by small businesses like Super Brush. Many of them attend the Walmart Open Call, an event that allows small businesses to pitch their products to the retail giant. Misty McGinnes, whos been with the company for over 30 years, told 22News how Super Brush was able to scale its business.

Little by little, we got new customers, big customers, little customers, just added all up, McGinnes said. And right now, its walked us through a whole bunch of bad things, like supply chain and COVID and all kinds of things. We still keep walking.

Super Brunch not only employs over 100 people in the western Massachusetts area, but products are also made in the U.S.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
(File photo by Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).

A new bill introduced in the Ohio House would create a business tax credit for child care benefits similar to a federal credit the bills sponsor says is underutilized.

State Rep. Andrea White, R-Kettering, told the House Ways and Means Committee said the tax credit in House Bill 167 would offer a stronger incentive for employers than the federal tax credit does, by bridging a gap in the federal funds available for businesses. The tax credit would also be another attempt to stem a problem that covers all of Ohio, from urban centers to rural regions.

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Lets try something, lets get something going to see how we can get our employers engaged, White told the committee.

H.B. 167 would authorize a nonrefundable tax credit for an employer providing certain child care benefits to employees, allows the credit to be claimed against other taxes like income or the commercial activity tax, and creates eligibility for costs associated with establishing or operating an employer-owned child care facility, contracting with a child care facility, or paying employees for the provision of their own child care.

Under the current language of the bill, the credit is limited to $500,000 per year, but any unused funds can be carried over for five years, White said. She said shes open to changes to that cap or the carryover language if the committee feels the amounts are too high.

The federal credit thats already in place covers 25% of total expenses related to child care services or benefits, and up to 10% of the resource and referral expenses, for a total credit capped at $150,000 per year.

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Its a heavy lift for businesses, White argued, since they must spend at least $600,000 to be able to get the full benefit, if theyre aware of it at all.

People dont know about this credit, they dont quite understand how to utilize it, White said. But the other thing is it doesnt help if you, as a business, want to give a stipend for your employee, it doesnt cover that as a tax credit, so this gives employers more options so that they can actually take advantage of it.

State Representative Andrea White, R-Kettering, at a House Government Oversight committee meeting, December 7, 2022, at Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Graham Stokes for Ohio Capital Journal. Republish photo only with original story.)

H.B. 167 also allows non-profits to utilize the tax credit, unlike the federal credit, White said.

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The measure comes amid ongoing discussions about the state of child care, and how the economy is affected by a lack of access and affordability for the services in Ohio. Child care deserts exist in Ohio where no services are available for children, and data from the Ohio Department of Children and Youth estimate 40,000 children in the state arent eligible for Publicly Funded Child Care, meaning they dont receive state assistance to pay for the services.

On top of those problems, low pay and high turnover in the child care sector means even if child care exists, the workforce shortages reduce capacity at facilities.

White cited recent research by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that found Ohio is losing $5.48 billion every year in economic activity because of insufficient child care, including $1.52 billion in tax revenue and $3.97 billion in losses related to child care employee turnover and absenteeism.

The business community, our families, are looking for solutions, and this is a solution, White said.

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The bill sponsor also echoed comments by ODCY director Kara Wente in supporting the Child Care Choice Voucher Program, which subsidizes child care for those who fall outside the Publicly Funded Child Care eligibility of 145% of the federal poverty line.

This is certainly not the first time White has pushed for more child care supports. A bill she co-sponsored establishing child care grant programs for employers was passed last month by the House committee she chairs, the Children and Human Services Committee.

State support for child care is uncertain as it is, with the state operating budget draft being drawn up by the Ohio Senate, after the Ohio House finalized its own draft last month.

The Houses version added $50 million to the Child Care Choice Voucher Program for each of the next two fiscal years, taking from federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant funding.

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Despite a proposal by Gov. Mike DeWine to increase the Publicly Funded Child Care eligibility to 160% of the federal poverty line, the House budget draft maintained the 145% level, which Wente said is the lowest eligibility level in the country.

Also included in House budget proposal is language originally included in separate legislation, which would create a cost-sharing model for child care, in which the state, employers and employees would all pay a percentage of costs. In a hearing earlier this month, the House Children and Human Services Committee passed the original bill with language they said harmonizes the bill with the budget proposal details. In House Bill 2, the state would pay 20% of the costs, and employers and employees would each pay 40%.

During the hearing, however, two Republicans on the committee put concerns on the record about H.B. 2 and Whites child care grant program bill, House Bill 41. State Rep. Sarah Fowler Arthur, R-Ashtabula, voted against both bills, saying she had concerns about the state subsidizing child care going forward.

State Rep. Tracy Richardson, R-Marysville, voted in favor of both bills but said the House Finance Committee may have to work on at least House Bill 2, maybe look at perhaps some potential reduction in overall funding.

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On H.B. 41, Richardson said the finance committee should take a closer look at the overall appropriation.

The Senate is currently working on their own draft, on line for an end-of-June deadline for both chambers to reconcile each of their budget drafts and get a final budget to the governor for signature.

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A child is recovering after a kitchen fire in Montgomery County Tuesday night.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Harrison Township firefighters responded just after 8:30 p.m. to an apartment complex in the 1900 block of Palisades Drive, according to Fire Chief Mike Crist.

As previously reported by News Center 7, everyone got out of the apartment quickly. Firefighters quickly got the fire under control.

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Medics treated the child for respiratory complications from smoke inhalation.

The Red Cross was called to assist after the fire forced out residents in two apartment units, Chief Crist told News Center 7.

They are estimating $50,000 in damages from the fire.

Chief Crist said the fire was accidental and caused by unattended cooking.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Azerbaijan and the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) Fund have explored opportunities for collaboration on infrastructure projects, Mikayl Jabbarov, the country's Minister of Economy, said in a post on his official X page, Trend reports.

"Within the framework of the Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group, we were pleased to meet with Abdulhamid Alkhalifa, the President of the OPEC Fund for International Development.

Our discussions focused on sustainable development, the efficient use of resources, and key areas of bilateral cooperation. We also reviewed prospects for joint activities within the scope of infrastructure projects," the post said.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
The News

China will give $500 million to the World Health Organization over five years, replacing the US as the institutions biggest state donor.

The US gave $1.2 billion across 2022 and 2023, but President Donald Trump announced in January that it would withdraw altogether.

Beijing is trying to portray itself as a global leader, capitalizing on Washingtons isolationist turn: Its defense minister also said it would contribute more to peacekeeping, and a Chinese scholar told The Washington Post that China would likely take a bigger leadership role elsewhere.

It is not a purely altruistic move: Beijing has sought to use its growing clout in international bodies to press its territorial claims in the South China Sea and over Taiwan.
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's coast guard said it took control measures against two Philippine vessels on Wednesday which it said "illegally intruded" into waters near Subi Reef and Sandy Cay in the disputed South China Sea.

One of the Philippine vessels also "dangerously" approached and collided with a Chinese coast guard ship, China Coast Guard (CCG) spokesperson Liu Dejun said in a statement, adding that responsibility "lies entirely" with the Philippine side.

(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
Two Chinese nationals have been arrested in Taiwan after they sailed over the South China Sea on makeshift rafts and attempted to sneak ashore.

The incident, the third of its kind this month alone, occurred on Tuesday and coincided with the one-year anniversary of William Lai, Taiwans president, taking office.

The two men were apprehended while trying to land on Erdan Island, which is part of Taiwans Kinmen county and a mere three miles from the Chinese coast.

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Images released by the Taiwan coast guard show a man holding a paddle and kneeling a polystyrene board, which he reportedly launched from a traditional wooden boat known as a sampan.

The suspects could face a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to NT$500,000 (12,420).

The coast guard said that there has been a recent surge in the number of cases in which the Chinese Communist Party has used small targets to harass Taiwan and Taiwanese authorities have not ruled out that Beijing could be using illegal immigration by boats to conduct cognitive warfare.

Taiwan authorities say there has been a surge in the number of cases in which the Chinese Communist Party has used small targets to harass the island - Getty Images/Daniel Ceng

Earlier this month, a Chinese influencer who goes by the name Shandong Kaige travelled from China to Taiwan on a motorised dinghy.

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In one video from the water, he claimed that he was entrusted with a mission to safeguard the island of Taiwan and ensure its return to the motherland.

In a separate clip posted later on land, he showed off a Chinese flag, which he said he planted on this territory so beloved by the motherland. He claimed to have left later the same day.

In a separate incident last week, a Chinese father and his teenage son landed in Taoyuan, a city south of Taipei that hosts the capitals main airport, after crossing more than 100 kilometres from Chinas Fujian province in a small rubber dinghy.

Credit: Shandong Kaige

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They claimed to be victims of persecution and wanted to seek freedom in Taiwan.

The coastguard claimed it had not been able to detect the boat because it was too small to be picked up on their radar technology.

At least 40 people have been picked up by the coast guard since the start of the year, although it is unclear how many have come from China.

It has not been confirmed whether any of the incidents have been at Beijings behest or simply acts carried out by independent civilians.

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CANTON, N.Y. (WWTI)  A 29-year-old Chinese national is facing charges after allegedly trying to steal over $50,000 after trying to pose as a United States Marshall.

According to the St. Lawrence County Sheriffs Office, they arrested Liqing Chi of Flushing was charged following investigation of a fraud case. It was revealed the Chi allegedly came to the county to collect a large sum of money.

Jefferson County man charged on multiple child porn counts

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Chi allegedly claimed to be a U.S. Marshall in order to get that money from a victim via deception.

He was charged with one count of second-degree second-degree grand larceny according to the sheriffs department.

Chi was was arraigned in Canton Town Court and released on his own recognizance. However, he was later apprehended by Homeland Security Investigations based out of Massena for immigration violations.

The St. Lawrence County Drug Task Force, Canton Police Department, Ogdensburg Police Department, New York State Police, St. Lawrence County District Attorneys Office Investigation Unit, United States Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations all assisted in the investigation.

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Central City is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of gently rolling land, May 14, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

This is the third in a series about homelessness in Western Kentucky.

CENTRAL CITY  Pastor Jennifer Banks and other leaders of Abundant Life Church were not sure what to expect when the mayor of this Western Kentucky town called a meeting to talk about their plans for helping people who are experiencing homelessness.

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They had briefed the mayor and a few city officials once before. This time they were surprised to see downtown business owners and other city officials also gathered in the room.

They soon heard that the churchs plan  they had dubbed it the Beacon of Hope  was setting off alarms.

Entrance to city hall in Central City. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

They were warned that their outreach to locals in need would attract  was already attracting  people from other places, raising fears that the communitys already short supply of housing and services would be strained even further. The specter was raised of Austin, Texas, where voters banned panhandling and camping in public places in response to burgeoning encampments.

What will happen to a city that takes in all of this stuff  its destroyed, said Central City Mayor Tony Armour. Were short on homes for people that live here, but the more we reach out for people to come in here, the shorter were going to be for homes.

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Zachary Banks provided the Lantern with an audio recording of the meeting.

Mayor Armour did not respond to requests seeking an interview about the December gathering. The Lantern sent emails requesting an interview, left messages by phone and in person at city hall.

During the meeting, Armour said constituents were complaining about seeing homeless people around the church and about water running off from its mobile shower. Weve got major people upset here in the city about the church.

Abundant Life had gained a reputation as a place people could come for a meal and other resources. The church had allowed people to sleep in its parking lot when they had nowhere else to go. The Felix Martin Foundation, a local nonprofit, provided a grant to install a mobile shower outside the church.

Abundant Life Church members Jennifer Wells, left and Jimmy Hart eat a meal provided by the church at Gish Park in Central City, Ky., on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (Austin Anthony for the Kentucky Lantern)

At one point during the meeting, the mayor said to Jennifer Banks, Youre not seeing the big picture. Youre seeing the kindness of your heart, and I appreciate that. I love you for that. But you know what? Were not willing to destroy our community.

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Were not either, sir, Banks responded. The church was supposed to take care of widows. The church was supposed to take care of orphans. Were supposed to feed. Were supposed to clothe, and at the end of the day, Abundant Life Church-Central City is just trying to be that.

The meeting ended with tentative plans to meet again and Armour saying there were different visions on how to move forward and what to do.

The mayor and Abundant Life Church leaders havent had any meetings since, and the Beacon of Hope plan to buy a local motel and transform it into something more is still in the talking stages.

Zachary and Jennifer Banks organize a community meal provided by Abundant Life Church at Gish Park in Central City. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

The motel is already a place where people without shelter stay, sometimes paid for by a local church or members of a loose coalition of community members trying to help people experiencing homelessness or unstable housing.

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The Beacon of Hope idea for the motel: Turn the rooms into efficiency apartments, where tenants could pay rent to build up a financial record, eventually moving on to other housing.

Local agencies could come in and provide pop-up services  dental clinics, mental health care  and the church would offer Bible studies. When asked if the idea would be a form of transitional housing, Jennifer Banks said what is in our heart fits in no category that already exists.

If services are offered in one location, even if its once a month, even if its once every six months  if its accessible to you zero times a year, but now it is twice a year, that can change the whole dynamic of everything, she said.

Jennifer Banks said the church is still in conversations with the owner of the Central Inn about a possible purchase.

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Meanwhile, disagreements over how to help have frayed the informal coalition seeking solutions. Some arguments are over how to help people who are using drugs. The debates also center on numbers: How many people are experiencing homelessness in Muhlenberg County? Does that number justify something like an emergency shelter?

AsheLynn Andrews, operator of a tattoo shop in Central City, worked closely with Gwen Clements and Abundant Life Church until they split over who and how to help.

Central Inn in Central City, May 14, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony)

In an interview in October, Andrews argued there is no need for a shelter  something she thinks would attract homeless people from other places  because there are only a handful of homeless people in Central City.

Clements, on the other hand, says she knows, or knows of, dozens of people across Muhlenberg County who are homeless at least part of the time. Numbers are fluid, she said, changing depending on time of year, weather and individual personal circumstances.

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The Point in Time Count  an annual, federally-coordinated count of the number of people experiencing homelessness across the country on one day of the year  counted just one person as unsheltered in Muhlenberg County in 2024.

Advocates for the unhoused and even federal officials acknowledge the count is an underestimate because unsheltered people can be hard to find, the number of volunteers surveying can vary from community to community, the timing of the count in January when its cold means fewer people are outside, and the count is only a snapshot of one day.

Another count by Kentucky school districts that seeks to capture the number of students in unsafe and unstable housing situations reported 34 students, all of them in kindergarten or first grade, in that category in Muhlenberg County during the 2023-24 school year.

Muhlenberg County spans hundreds of square miles of rolling hills, making it hard sometimes to find people who are known to be without shelter. Finding them becomes urgent when the weather turns dangerous.

Renters paying more than 50% of their household income towards housing costs are considered to be severely cost burdened. Their numbers are increasing in Kentucky. (Source: Kentucky Housing Supply Gap Analysis, Kentucky Housing Corp. 2024)

In January, the loose coalition sprang into action when bitterly cold air swept across the state, plunging temperatures into the deadly range.

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Clements took to Facebook, asking her neighbors for donations to put unhoused people into motel rooms at the Central Inn and another hotel. Debra Gorham, a local food pantry director, met Clements at Wendys, and handed her hundreds of dollars Gorham had gathered for the effort.

Clements knew one of the people she had to find was someone she had known years before he started living outside, a man well known for walking the streets of Central City.

Sometimes its difficult if youre looking for him, its difficult to find him because you dont know where hes at, who hes with, where hes staying from day to day, Clements said.

She had to find John Paul Shanks.

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Next in the Lanterns series: The personal struggles faced by John Paul Shanks and the struggles to find a way to help him.

Previously in No Kentucky Home

Introduction

Part 1: Homeless often means invisible, but not to everyone in this small Kentucky town

Part 2: After living outdoors for weeks, she got a place to sleep, a shower  and a job

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
SEVIERVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  Over the last few weeks there has been a distinct noise echoing throughout East Tennessee. This is due to a brood of cicadas finally coming to the surface.

The sound echoing through East Tennessee as Brood XIV makes its presence known. It has been 17 years since the Pharoah Brood last came to the surface.

They started singing real loud, I believe it was May 3rd that our neighbor texted us asking if we had a house alarm going off because it was so loud, Sevier County resident Jennifer said. They were centered right around the house.

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Cumberland County fire station among buildings impacted by EF1 tornado

The Pharoah brood, as they are being called, have bright accent colors including their eyes and legs. Adult cicadas will typically live between two and four weeks after coming to the surface.

They started making noise May 2nd. It was a couple days before that when the girls were finding the little husks from where they came out of the ground and shed, Jennifer said. Its definitely been a fun experience being outdoors and hunting them.

Its the first time since 2008 that this brood last emerged from the ground and there is some science behind when its time for them to come out. According to the University of Tennessees Institute of Agriculture, this particular brood will only emerge after 17 years when the ground temperature reached 64 degrees, eight inches below the surface.

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Each female cicada can lay between 400 to 600 eggs which will initially hatch within two months. Thats when they burrow into the soil to find suitable roots allowing them to get needed nutrients for the next 17 years, meaning you could have a cicada brood in your back yard without ever knowing.

We dont have a voice Residents want answers as pipeline construction disrupts Sevier County community

Its been such a treat to know that, weve been here for about 10 years, and just to know that theyve been here the whole time with us and theyve been silent and we didnt know they were here until we get this massive spectacle, Jennifer said. Its impressive to know that they have been in our backyard this whole time. Then all of a sudden theyre here, theyre loud and they have been very in our face. Theyve been our quiet neighbors for 10 years.

To put how long its been since this brood last made an appearance, Low by Flo Rida was the number one song in 2008. Eggs were $2.16 a dozen, a postage stamp cost 42 cents and Tiger Woods won his third career U.S. Open while playing on a broken leg. Needless to say, these cicadas will be around for another week or two and they are not to be confused with the annual cicada broods.

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Jennifer added that they have never heard cicadas be as loud as this current brood has been. According to Purdue Universitys Department of Entomology, cicadas are not toxic and dont sting, however, their exoskeletons may be difficult for your pet to digest which could cause an upset stomach.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  At 47 years old, a New Jersey man who found himself in Albuquerque homeless with nowhere to go, now has a new chapter moving from the streets to recovery. She gave me a shot and I want to say within a week I was on board, said Elijah McAlister, a new Duke City Ambassador, who up until a few months ago, was living at Albuquerques Westside homeless shelter.

Story continues below

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I was staying with a friend, and that friend ended up passing away,y and that kind of put me in a bad situation, and thats how I found myself living at the Westside, said McAlister.

Elijah spent two years on the streets and then a year at the shelter, in what he called a slump. I was kinda like down on my luck and didnt know which way I was going to go, how things were gonna turn out, said McAlister. One of the people that bunks with me inside of there, they came to me with the idea that I should come down to the Duke City and give it a try.

So he joined the citys A Better Way Forward program, which gives work opportunities to the homeless throughout the metro. He started months ago and has since moved into a full-time role as a Duke City Ambassador. It was a beautiful experience, it actually happened so fast that I got caught up in the moment, I couldnt believe it was happening, it was actually a blessing because it happened so fast, said McAlister.

Its a wonderful feeling to be able to help them but also to see how they blossom and be able to move forward, said DCA Operations Manager Deiandra Cole.

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As an ambassador, McAlister helps clean up along Central Ave. in Nob Hill and Downtown. Hes also out there to be a friendly face, but not only for tourists. No one is exempt in my eyes, said McAlister.

He uses his position to inspire others to take the same steps. The number one thing is trying to get the people to receive the help, and I think thats our goal right now, said McAlister.

McAlister moved into temporary housing in March. He hopes to continue with the Duke City Ambassadors and share his story as inspiration for others to get off the streets.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
In May 2025, posts circulated online claiming that cheating on your spouse "after signing marriage papers" would be "illegal" in 2026.

The claims did not specify a country, but likely originated among South African TikTok creators. Two South African family lawyers told Snopes the claim was false. Cheating, understood in the U.S. as adultery, is not a crime in South Africa.

In the U.S., 13 states and Puerto Rico classify adultery as a misdemeanor. Adultery is a felony in Michigan, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. However, lawyers in these states generally don't recommend that people attempt to press charges.

Six U.S. states allow plaintiffs to sue a third party for alienation of affection if the party caused the end of the plaintiff's marriage.



In May 2025, a claim (archived) circulated that cheating after signing marriage papers would be illegal in 2026. The claim came from a screenshot, shared widely across social media, that read:

Apparently, cheating after signing marriage papers will be illegal in 2026. You'll be arrested for violating a contract. If your partner has enough evidence, they can get you arrested. Or sue you.

The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and TikTok (archived). Readers also searched our site to find out whether the claim was true.

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None of the claims above specified a country where the alleged anti-cheating law would apply. However, we found no evidence that a federal law criminalizing cheating  interpreted here as adultery  would come into effect in 2026 in the U.S.

Adultery is already a felony or misdemeanor in 16 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. In six states, people can sue a third party to the marriage for "alienation of affection" if that party caused the marriage to end. Searches on online search engines found no credible reports about pending state or federal laws criminalizing adultery, which would undoubtedly be well reported if true (archived) (archived) (archived) (archived).

We reached out to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the International Academy of Family Lawyers, two U.S.-based organizations focusing on family law, to ask if they knew of any such legislation underway in the U.S. and await their reply.

The claim circulated since at least April 2025 (archived) and gained (archived) popularity (archived) among South African creators on TikTok.

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An assistant to Amy Bernard, a family lawyer in South Africa who runs a TikTok page about family law, said via email that the claim was "not true." Family and divorce lawyer Bertus Preller, of Maurice Phillips Wisenberg, a Cape Town-based law firm, said: "The claim circulating among South African content creators is demonstrably false. There is no pending legislation to criminalize adultery in 2026, and such legislation would face significant constitutional challenges given recent court precedents."

We found no credible reporting in online searches to indicate that a law criminalizing adultery would come into effect in South Africa in 2026 (archived) (archived) (archived) (archived).

Adultery was not a crime in South Africa in 2025. Additionally, following a 2015 Constitutional Court ruling, people there can no longer sue for damages (usually monetary) based on adultery.

'Arrest' and 'sue' mixes civil and criminal law

Aspects of the claim text itself also cast doubt on its validity. After the claim said that cheating would be "illegal," it went on to say that, "You'll be arrested for violating a contract" and that people could be arrested or sued if their partner had "enough evidence" a partner was cheating.

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In the U.S., police can make an arrest if they have probable cause that a person committed a crime within the criminal justice system. The Constitution's Fourth Amendment protects "persons, houses, papers, and effects" against "unreasonable searches and seizures."

However, breach of contract, which the term "violating a contract" in many of the claim examples likely refers to, generally falls within civil law in the U.S. In the civil law system, plaintiffs can sue defendants for damages, usually in the form of money. A lawsuit starts in the court once the plaintiff files the case, and arrests aren't generally made unless the case also involves a crime, like fraud.

U.S. state law generally governs marriage. In terms of federal legislation, the U.S. Code defers to this  if a marriage was entered legally in a state or could be entered legally in a state if it was entered elsewhere, then it is also valid under federal legislation.

However, marriage is not a traditional contract that would fall under contract law. A marriage license or certificate does not generally lay out a promise to stay together  rather, the documents indicate that two people are eligible to be married (license) and that they have been married (certificate). For there to be a breach of contract, there would have to be terms to breach. A marriage certificate contains no such terms. This may be different if couples have entered into prenuptial or postnuptial agreements.

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Given the above, under U.S. law, people generally cannot sue a partner for breach of contract if their relationship breaks down. It is possible in some states to sue specifically for adultery or report it as a crime. More on that below.

Adultery in the US

In the U.S., adultery is a felony in some states and a misdemeanor in others. In a small number, alienation of affection allows individuals to sue a third party if that third party caused the spouse to lose affection for the other spouse.

Adultery was a felony in 2025 in Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Adultery in Oklahoma carried the highest potential prison sentence of up to five years. The highest possible fine for adultery was up to $10,000 in Wisconsin.

The following 13 U.S. states classed adultery as a misdemeanor in 2025:

Adultery was also a misdemeanor in Puerto Rico.

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However, though adultery was a felony or misdemeanor in some states, law firms in Michigan, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, where adultery was a crime, generally said police and courts rarely enforced the statutes.

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Usa Adultery Arrest Law - Yahoo Search Results. https://uk.news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrLNHqRKC5oIQIA169LBQx.;_ylu=Y29sbwNpcjIEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=usa+adultery+arrest+law&fr2=piv-web&fr=sfp. Accessed 22 May 2025.

Usa Adultery Arrest Law at DuckDuckGo. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=usa+adultery+arrest+law&t=h_&iar=news. Accessed 22 May 2025.

What You Need to Know about Adultery and Divorce in Oklahoma | Divorce Law Office of Oklahoma City | (405) 880-8222 | Oklahoma City Divorce Attorney. https://oklahomacitydivorceattorney.pro/OKC-Divorce-Laywer-Blog/2022/12/what-you-need-to-know-about-adultery-and-divorce-in-oklahoma/#:~:text=When%20it%20comes%20to%20divorce%20proceedings%2C%20generally%20claiming%20adultery%20in%20Oklahoma%20is%20not%20the%20best%20option%3A%20it%20leads%20to%20a%20long%20and%20costly%20trial%20and%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20yield%20many%20benefits%20in%20return. Accessed 22 May 2025.


No.

The simple two-letter word was all it took to set off chaos at Heritage Rose Elementary last week. About a hundred children were sitting cross-legged in a hallway, ready to be dismissed to go home, when pre-K teacher Nadene Casteel saw two boys standing out of place and instructed them to sit with their class.

But one of the boys did not budge. Casteel repeated the order. He refused  his second no  and stomped away. When she grabbed his backpack to steer him back, he yanked away with force.

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Casteel stumbled and flailed her arms to catch her balance. In the blur of the moment, her limb struck another students eye.

That night, Casteel called the boys parents to report the incident. The mom was upset with how Casteel handled the situation; by the end of the week, the family had pulled him out of the school.

Casteel has been a teacher for 12 years, five of which she has spent at this school in Fort Bend County. She said she has always been tough on them with love. But to her, that afternoon was an example of how students have become increasingly difficult to manage after the pandemic.

Casteel is sure the boy didnt mean for her or his classmate to get hurt. Since his earliest years in school, she said he would react with anger when adults gave him instructions. Casteel attributes the misbehavior to the gulf between expectations at home during lockdown and those of a more structured school day.

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Ever since schools reopened for in-person learning after the pandemic, teachers like Casteel say classrooms have become more difficult to manage. Students are less attentive and more defiant. In some schools, the misconduct has escalated to physical outbursts like throwing chairs, biting and kicking.

That kind of student violence has been increasingly aimed at teachers. More than 3,300 Texas district employees were the target of a student assault in the 2023-24 school year, about a 15% increase from the year before. In one of the most severe incidents, an assistant principal in the Corsicana school district was permanently blinded after an assault.

The classroom tensions are pushing overworked and underpaid educators over the edge, who were already leaving the profession in droves.

Lawmakers are trying to fix the problem with a sweeping package that would give school districts more latitude to discipline disruptive students. Theyre also considering other legislation they say would give teachers more tools to manage their classrooms: a ban on cellphones in schools, a ban on minors creating social media and a mandate to get more teachers on the path to certification, which legislators say would give them better classroom management skills.

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But some educators say harsher discipline wont tackle the root causes of students behavioral challenges. They say schools need more mental health professionals to help students who act out develop the social and emotional skills they missed out on during the pandemic. They worry heavy-handed discipline will derail students education at a time when they need extra support.

Pandemic babies miss out

The hike in disruptions is the long tail of remote instruction and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say. The littlest students, in particular, missed out on face-to-face time with others right when their brains were developing. Some of them had never been to a birthday party or to Walmart with their parents when schools reopened.

We have these kids who basically were born during the height of the pandemic, said Christy Chapman, a school psychologist in West Texas. They were growing up at home with literally no social interaction except from their parents. It really hinders their brain development, their social emotional development.

Museum District Childcare Centers Louvaine Reid comforts a baby on their first day at the center on Sept. 1, 2021. Teachers say many children who were born or were toddlers during the pandemic and are now in school are facing behavioral issues. Credit: Miranda Lipton for The Texas Tribune

The pandemic had profound effects on children, both during lockdown and when they returned to school. Credit: Shelby Tauber and Miranda Lipton for The Texas Tribune

Remote school came with unstructured free time. Most students didnt have to focus on schoolwork for long stretches of time. They didnt practice social skills like asking for help in a group setting, which children pick up from being around other kids.

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When students finally returned to in-person learning, COVID-19 was still ravaging the state. Teachers and students wore masks, an effective tool at slowing the spread of the virus. But the face coverings meant children never learned how to read facial expressions, making it harder to connect with and respond to others, said Chapman, who consults with local school districts on student misbehavior and trains school staff like diagnosticians and teachers at Texas Tech University.

So then we're asking you to come into a classroom, to sit in a chair, know how to interact with people, know how to walk down the hallway  they have a really hard time, Chapman said. Then we start to see this uptick in behavioral problems.

In the classroom, teachers like Coretta Mallet-Fontenot have found themselves explaining over and over again to their students how they expect them to behave. Setting rules and expectations help teachers create order so that learning can happen. But Mallet-Fontenot said her students had gotten accustomed to the looser structure of remote instruction.

You can't just get up and leave when you feel like it. You can't take a phone call in the middle of class like you did if you were at home, said Mallet-Fontenot, who taught at Houston ISD before leaving the profession last fall. A lot of times, they didn't understand why that was inappropriate and how that was disruptive to the [in-person] learning environment.

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Children also got more attached to their phones during the pandemic. Scrolling through TikTok and playing Minecraft became bridges to social interaction during quarantine. According to one analysis from Kaiser Permanente, children spent nearly two more hours a day in front of screens during the pandemic, bringing their total daily screen time to more than six hours. It did not go back down much after students returned to classrooms.

That dopamine hit is really not good for a childs brain, Amanda Hail, a school psychologist at Lindale ISD in East Texas, who has started to ask parents about their kids screen time.

Research links excessive screen time to overstimulation, poor focus, increased aggression and a depletion of mental energy, all of which can trigger a student to act out. Screen time also comes at the expense of time for physical activity and social interaction, both of which help children regulate their emotions.

The increased dependence on screen time and the underdevelopment of social and emotional skills are straining student well-being. Its happening at the same time students are still reeling from losing loved ones during the pandemic, which hit Black and Hispanic communities in Texas harder.

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Young people today are experiencing higher rates of depression and anxiety. Some are thinking about suicide.

But as student needs have risen, the Texas teacher workforce  and educators ability to respond to disruptions  has dwindled.

A strain on teachers

Teachers are often the first to notice the impact of the pandemic on children  and have few resources to help them.

Their working conditions worsened at the start of the pandemic, and have only continued to deteriorate in the aftermath. Low pay, burnout and not enough support to build out lesson plans have led many educators to leave the profession.

To fill the gaps created by teacher vacancies, school districts have increasingly turned to hiring uncertified teachers, many of whom have little or no formal training in managing classrooms. The result is a vicious cycle that destabilizes school environments: Underprepared educators struggle to maintain order, which fuels more student misbehavior, which in turn makes it even harder for teachers to control their classrooms.

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Teacher preparation advocates say certification programs give educators the tools to manage disruptions and help students thrive. One analysis from the Texas Education Agency found Texas schools with higher rates of uncertified teachers were also more likely to have higher rates of student discipline infractions.

Casteel, the Heritage Rose Elementary teacher, did get certified  but not through a traditional path. She completed an alternative certification program, a fast-track route that has become increasingly common in schools but offers lower-quality training.

Casteel said she didnt feel the certification program she took prepared her well to deal with misbehaving students.

What these kids are going throughthe trauma, the home life, I'm not equipped to deal with that. I don't have those skills. I haven't been taught that, Casteel said. I'm flying by the seat of my pants, doing what's worked in the past, not knowing, honestly, if it's even what's best for the kids.

Is discipline enough?

Texas lawmakers pitch to solve the unprecedented disarray in classrooms is to give schools more latitude to discipline disruptive students.

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Kids are going to be kids, but I will tell you that it is not compassionate for kids not to have consequences, Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said last month on the House floor during a heated debate on student discipline. For a student that comes into a classroom and threatens a teacher  again and again and again  the compassionate and merciful thing to do is to punish them.

House Bill 6, authored by Leach, would allow schools to place students in in-school suspensions for longer periods of time. The proposal would also allow schools to use out-of-school suspensions  which remove children from school grounds  for any student who has repeatedly disrupted their class or endangered other kids safety. That would reverse state laws from 2017 and 2019 that limited when and how the states youngest students can be disciplined.

HB 6 also proposes how to discipline students who assault teachers. Any student who does so would be taken out of the classroom for at least 30 days and placed in an alternative education setting, a strict environment that often leans on computer-based work and is in a different building.

Teachers, school psychologists and district leaders agree that removing aggressive students from the classroom is sometimes necessary to keep other students safe, make teachers jobs easier and allow learning to continue.

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If you have ever been [with] a student in a chaotic situation, how can you learn? said Gerald Hudson, the superintendent of the Cedar Hill school district, near Dallas. If you don't feel safe, you can't learn.

But if disruptive behavior is, at its root, a call for help or connection, some educators wonder: Can discipline alone meet those needs? After students are taken out of a classroom, what does it take to change their behavior?

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, said schools have a dual responsibility to not only protect educators and all students in the classroom, but also identify why disruptive students are acting out. Without proper intervention, he warned, discipline only delays disruptions.

That might, short term, make some people feel better, Capo said. But you and I both know that those kids are going to be coming back to somebody's classroom somewhere at some point.

Research shows suspensions and expulsions are mostly ineffective at improving student behavior. In fact, discipline can make students feel disconnected from their schools and push them to skip class or drop out.

There's really a mismatchI don't think that these bills, unfortunately, are going to address any of the classroom disruption that's going on, said Renuka Rege, an attorney at Texas Appleseed, a group that calls for schools to end contact with the criminal legal system. The likelihood that they would repeat the same behavior once they come back is even greater, especially if they continue to be repeatedly suspended.

Texas lawmakers are also considering other bills that aim to give teachers more tools to mitigate and manage disruption. Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, the only Gen Z lawmaker in the state Capitol, is shepherding a ban on cellphones in school.

And a massive school finance package, which is being negotiated between the two chambers, currently includes a requirement for teachers in foundational courses to get certified. Earlier versions of the bill proposed a financial incentive to help educators without formal training pay the costs of enrolling in a high-quality preparation program, like teacher residencies, but its unclear whether such a provision will be included in the final legislation.

When his students act out, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD English teacher Jeremy Eugene said he exhausts the tools at his disposal before reaching out to school administrators for help.

But escalating the situation often means removing students from their classrooms, which Eugene said can leave him wondering if he should have kept on looking for a solution on his own.

A lot of people might see the referrals [out] as the first option. But it does become a kind of a scapegoat for not creating a better solution, Eugene said.

Hed like to see legislation that helps schools expand their mental health services to meet the pandemic-related trauma he sees his students trying to bounce back from.

Public educator Nadene Casteel at Heritage Rose Elementary School on May 19, 2025, in Fort Bend County. Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune

Counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists can be critical in helping students who are struggling with their mental health. But Texas schools rarely meet the recommended student-to-provider ratios. Heritage Rose Elementary School, where Casteel teaches, has only two counselors for about 1,200 students.

Casteel believes disruptive students would benefit from small-group settings where teachers can provide individualized attention to students and dedicate class time to teaching them social-emotional skills.

To her, the efforts at the Capitol are a good start but fall short.

It's more nuanced than just don't kick them out or do kick them out, Casteel said. But honestly, I'm not sure in Texas we'll ever get what we really need for these students.

Disclosure: Texas Appleseed and Texas Tech University have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 1315 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  The fire that destroyed historic Clayborn Temple in downtown Memphis was the result of arson, and a person of interest is being sought, officials announced.

The Memphis Fire Department announced the results of the joint investigation with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Wednesday.

They say the fire was intentionally set inside the historic church, which was heavily damaged overnight April 28.

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Fire destroys Clayborn Temple, historic Memphis church with ties to Civil Rights movement

MFD released photos of a person of interest in the Clayborn Temple fire.

MFD released several photos of a person they say may have been involved. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 901-528-CASH or the state arson hotline at 800-762-3017.

Clayborn Temple was the site of significant activities during the Civil Rights era, including an appearance by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shortly before his assassination in 1968.

Anasa Troutman, Founder and Executive Director of Historic Clayborn Temple and Founder and CEO of The BIG We released the following in a statement:

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We are heartbroken to confirm what we now know: the fire at Clayborn Temple was not an accident. It was arson. The ATF has ruled it intentional and has released images of a person of interest.

We are deeply grateful to the Memphis Fire Department, the ATF, and all agencies involved for their careful, ongoing investigation. In light of two additional fires involving properties connected to our Executive Director in the past month, we are concerned for our beloved city and hopeful that a full understanding of these events will emerge.

Clayborn Temple is sacred groundhome to generations of struggle, resilience, and creativity. This act of violence is painful, but it will not break our spirit. Memphis has shown it is ready to heal and to lead.

Under The BIG Wes stewardship, Clayborn Temple will rise againnot just as a building, but as a center for cultural, economic, and civic renewal.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The Annual Meeting of the IDB Group will be held in Azerbaijan in 2026. The chairmanship of the IDB Group's Board of Governors has been transferred to Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov, Trend reports.

According to information, in this regard, an official ceremony of transferring the host status was held within the framework of the IDB Annual Meeting in Algiers.

In his speech, Minister of Economy, Managing Director of Azerbaijan in the Islamic Development Bank Mikayil Jabbarov expressed gratitude to the IDB Group and member countries for the high trust shown to our country. It was noted that Azerbaijan had already successfully hosted the 35th IDB Annual Meeting in 2010. Holding such a prestigious event once again confirms Azerbaijan's commitment to multilateral cooperation, common values and goals of the member countries. The meeting will serve to strengthen Azerbaijan's partnership with Islamic financial institutions and give impetus to sustainable economic development.

Moreover, it was emphasized that Azerbaijan effectively cooperates with the IDB, and to date joint projects have been implemented in the fields of energy, water supply, infrastructure, urban development and other areas for a total amount of about 1 billion dollars. The importance of the project on construction of irrigation canal from Giz Galasi reservoir, which is planned to be implemented jointly with the Bank in the territories liberated from occupation, was emphasized.

As part of the Annual Meeting, the 51st Annual Meeting of the IDB Board of Governors, the 22nd General Assembly of the International Islamic Trade and Finance Corporation (ITFC), the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Corporation for Investment and Export Credit Insurance (ICIEC), the 26th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Corporation for Private Sector Development (ICD), and the 19th Annual General Assembly of the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) will be held in Azerbaijan next year.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the event, containing the modalities for the Annual Meeting of the IDB Group to be held in Azerbaijan. The document defines the framework of cooperation for effective planning and organization of the Annual Meeting of the IDB Group in Baku in 2026.

The Islamic Development Bank was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Jeddah (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). The IDB Group, which provides financing in various areas of the economy, includes the Bank itself, the International Islamic Trade and Finance Corporation (ITFC), the Islamic Corporation for Investment and Export Credit Insurance (ICIEC), the Islamic Corporation for Private Sector Development (ICD) and the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD). As many as 57 countries are members of the Bank. Azerbaijan has been a member of the Bank since 1992.
Clayton Muhammad, Auroras chief engagement and equity officer hailed as the voice of Aurora, is set to leave his role at the city.

Over more than 10 years, Muhammad has acted as one of Auroras main spokespersons and promoters. At a city meeting on Tuesday, he was honored for his service to Aurora both within and outside of city government.

The fingerprints that youve left all over the city, and these huge shoes to fill  just incredible, Mayor John Laesch said.

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In a proclamation naming Clayton Muhammad Day as July 22, his birthday, Laesch said Muhammad has been a dedicated and distinguished public servant who has done the job with unwavering commitment, integrity and professionalism.

Since joining the city as the first Director of Communications in 2013 under former Mayor Tom Weisner, Muhammad has played a vital role in the citys engagement, community outreach and communications efforts, according to the proclamation.

Laesch also said during the event that Muhammad has earned the respect of his colleagues, elected officials and community partners because of his love of Aurora, institutional knowledge and tireless work ethic.

Videos shown at Tuesdays meeting featuring city employees and community members talking about Clayton backed up the proclamations claims. Multiple people in one of the videos, when asked for one word to describe Muhammad, said he is phenomenal.

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He is known far and wide, and beloved. I dont know if Ive ever come across someone who didnt like Clayton, Aurora Assistant Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson said in a video.

Others featured in the video spoke of Muhammads work ethic, his care for others and the impact he has had on so many throughout the city.

Representatives from Chicago area media were also among those who spoke highly of Muhammad in videos played at the Tuesday meeting.

You really put Aurora on the map locally, NBC 5 Chicagos Christian Farr said to Muhammad in a video played at Tuesdays meeting.

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Muhammad said at the meeting that, having been born and raised in Aurora, he loves the city. His 12 years working at the city, plus his 10 years working as the spokesperson of East Aurora School District 131, has been the honor of a lifetime, he said.

Before working as the director of Community Relations and district spokesman for East Aurora School District, Muhammad was first a sixth-grade teacher at Waldo Middle School in the district and then worked at the Quad County Urban League.

Muhammad also founded the Boys II Men organization, an Aurora-based mentoring group.

According to Laeschs proclamation, Muhammad leaves behind a lasting legacy of excellence in public service.

For his efforts, the city of Aurora also presented Muhammad with a custom-made brooch officially declaring him The Voice of Aurora.

rsmith@chicagotribune.com
Clean energy advocates gathered at the State House on May 22, 2025, to ask lawmakers to invest in renewable energy projects. (Courtesy of Sierra Toomey/Natural Resources Council of Maine)

While legislative committees are winding down their work for the session, the Legislatures Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee has yet to decide what it will do with a slew of proposals aimed at reforming or outright eliminating the states clean energy credit program.

The committee is still holding several work sessions this week on the matter, though it has voted on some of the proposals to tweak or toss the program, known as net energy bill, which many agree needs reform.

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Meanwhile, clean energy advocates, including representatives from the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Maine Youth for Climate Justice, Maine Conservation Voters, and Maine Community Power Cooperative, gathered at the State House Thursday morning asking lawmakers to reject any attempts at rolling back or making retroactive changes to the net energy billing program.

Activists, solar customers and laborers also roamed the halls talking with lawmakers about continued support for solar energy.

The group also highlighted three specific measures it would like to see passed, including a proposal to develop a cabinet-level Maine Department of Energy. They are also backing a bill to codify the goal of 100% clean, renewable energy by 2040 into state law, and another proposal to establish new energy fairness and affordability standards.

Multiple speakers, including Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association, underscored the importance of considering investor confidence when contemplating changes to net energy billing

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Businesses like ours can adapt to small changes in a program, but we cant plan around uncertainty or volatility, agreed Dale Knapp of Portland-based Waldon Renewables. We at least need to know the playing field.

Knapp went on to say that the policy signals we send right now to the industry can determine whether Maine remains a place where energy companies like ours continue to want to invest.

That investment goes beyond new energy sources, Knapp said, calling them a strategic investment in our economy. For example, a 20-megwatt project his company is working on in Sanford employs 125 people and the vast majority of them live in Maine. So, he said, they are using local gas stations, grabbing lunch at local restaurants and buying supplies from local hardware stores.

During the public hearings for some of the proposals, the Governors Energy Office also cautioned the committee against proposals that would change the way people are compensated for existing projects.

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Broad retroactive modifications to the core mechanisms in determining compensation under the program as these bills propose and others will have a dramatic effect on 16,000 projects in the state, more than 114,000 customers, said Caroline Colan, legislative liaison for the Governors Energy Office, testifying before the committee in April.

The committee has already rejected one such proposal, LD 1317, which would have adjusted the tariff rate over the next few years to eventually reach 12 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2028. Solar companies testified that such a rate would not be sufficient.

Similarly, the committee killed two proposals to repeal net energy billing entirely: LD 257 and LD 450.

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A Clint Independent School District counselor has been named a finalist for a Texas School Counselor of the Year award, according to the school district on Tuesday, May 20.

Socorro High School counselor named finalist for Texas School Counselor of Year

Evelyn Garcia, a counselor at Carroll T. Welch Elementary, is a finalist for the 2025-2026 Lone Star State School Counselor Association Texas School Counselor of the Year award.

Evelyn Garcia, finalist for Texas School Counselor of the Year. Photo courtesy of Clint ISD.

According to the news release by Clint ISD, this is the first time in the school districts history that a counselor is named a finalist for Texas School Counselor of the Year.

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Garcia has served as a school counselor for eight years and an educator for 19 years, according to Clint ISD.

In addition to having a finalist, Clint ISD announced they also have a semi-finalist school counselor.

Perla Esparza is a counselor at W.D. Surratt Elementary School and has been named a semi-finalist for the 2025-2026 Lone Star State School Counselor Association Texas School Counselor of the Year award.

Perla Esparza, semi-finalist for Texas School Counselor of the Year. Photo courtesy of Clint ISD.

The Lone Star State School Counselor Association honors outstanding professional school counselors in Texas. Through an extensive outreach process, school counselors, teachers, administrators and others are encouraged to nominate professional school counselors who run exemplary school counseling programs, according to the news release by Clint ISD.

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I am thrilled and excited to celebrate two of our very own outstanding school counselors who

have been recognized for their dedication, leadership and heart-first approach to student support. Both Evelyn and Perla have shown a commitment to creating safe places, using data to drive their programs and explicitly educating our students regarding brain science and how to

regulate to learn using our Zen Zones, classroom lessons, small groups, and circles. These tools

not only teach students how to self-regulate but also foster relationships and a sense of

belonging, School District Director of School Counseling Angelica Bailon said.

At Carroll T. Welch Elementary, we use circles as a school-wide tool for safety, connection, and regulation skill practice. Evelyn has wholeheartedly embraced our initiatives and stepped into her role with an open heart and mind. She has contributed by working with student ambassadors and empowering them to be Circle Keepers at the campus. Her wealth of experience helped her hit the floor running from day one, as the school is a 93 percent economically disadvantaged campus. Both of these school counselors exemplify what it means to put students first, and we are beyond proud of the powerful impact they are making in our district, Bailon said.

The winner of the Texas School Counselor of the Year will be named by the end of May.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
The murders of two Mexico City officials, in a rush-hour shooting on a busy avenue, were meticulously planned by experienced gunmen, prosecutors said Wednesday, as more details emerged of the worst attack against public officials in the capital in recent years.

At least four people were involved in the killing of the personal secretary and a close adviser of Mexico City's Mayor Clara Brugada, the capital's police chief said Wednesday.

Pablo Vazquez Camacho said investigators had identified and found a motorcycle and two other vehicles used in the escape of the gunman who killed the two officials Tuesday morning as they traveled in a vehicle along a busy thoroughfare.

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Brugada's personal secretary, Ximena Guzman, and an adviser, Jose Munoz, were shot dead in Guzman's car, authorities said.

Mexico City chief prosecutor Bertha Alcalde Lujan said the gunman had fled on a motorcycle that was hidden nearby and then changed vehicles twice as he and others fled into neighboring Mexico State.

Clothes were recovered in the vehicles and were being analyzed, but investigators could not yet offer a possible motive, the prosecutor said. She said Guzman was shot eight times and Munoz four times.

A framed image of Ximena Guzman, the personal secretary to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada who was murdered a day earlier, adorns an altar during a wake at a funeral home in Mexico City, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. / Credit: Marco Ugarte / AP

Alcalde said that given the circumstances, investigators believe "it was a direct attack and with an important degree of planning and those who killed them had previous experience."

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One suspect was seen carrying out surveillance of the victims in the area of the attack in preceding days, she added.

Still, she said investigators could not yet propose a motive or say who was behind the killings.

"We cannot conclude that this is tied to organized crime, much less speak now of a particular organized crime group," Alcalde said.

Both officials said Wednesday that investigators had detected the presence of an individual at the site of the attacks days before they occurred, which would suggest knowledge of the victims' routines.

The attack, which happened at around 7 a.m., left four bullet holes clustered on the driver's side of the windshield. One body lay on the pavement.

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Vazquez Camacho said that neither Guzman nor Munoz had any special security measures, but both had received training about protecting themselves.

"They are people who worked very closely with the people ... and they did their work without fear," he said.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who is an ally of Brugada and a former mayor of Mexico City before winning the presidency last year, had declined to speculate on the possible involvement of organized crime during her press briefing earlier Wednesday.

Passersby describe "trauma"

At the scene of the attack Wednesday morning, hundreds of commuters passed with most oblivious to what had occurred a day earlier. Some, however, noticed the handwritten signs with messages of remembrance to the two victims and flowers and candles left on the sidewalk.

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University student Loretta Garcia Oriz said she had passed the site Tuesday when Guzman and Munoz's bodies were still at the scene. "Passing here gives me the same trauma," she said Wednesday.

Police officers stand guard near the crime scene of the killing of Jose Munoz and Ximena Guzman in Mexico city on May 20, 2025. / Credit: VALENTINA ALPIDE/AFP via Getty Images

Oscar Sanchez's taco stand isn't far from the crime scene, but said Wednesday he didn't know what had happened until another vendor told him and police began to set up a perimeter. The attack showed that it doesn't matter if you're an official or an average person, he said. "It's all the same."

Pablo Vazquez, the city's police chief, said that in recent weeks authorities had made "very significant arrests of leaders of criminal cells" in the capital.

"These arrests will continue, and the dismantling of criminal cells will continue," he told reporters.

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Mexico City's mayor is considered second in political importance only to the president. The mayor's office has long been a stepping stone to the presidency, something true for Sheinbaum and her predecessor.

But for years, the idea has prevailed of Mexico City as a relatively peaceful oasis protected from the brutal drug cartel violence prevalent in other parts of the country. There has always been street crime, but the cartels, while present, maintained a lower profile in the capital.

That illusion was partially dashed in 2020 with the brazen ambush of Mexico City's then police chief on another central boulevard. Omar Garcia Harfuch was wounded, but two bodyguards and a bystander were killed in the attack involving more than 20 people and heavy weaponry.

Garcia Harfuch, who is now Sheinbaum's national security minister, immediately blamed the Jalisco New Generation Cartel for the attack.

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There had not been another such attack on public officials in the capital since then.

But politicians and their supporters are frequently targeted elsewhere in Mexico.

Earlier this month, a mayoral candidate and three other people were shot dead at a campaign event in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Like Mexico City's mayor, Yesenia Lara was a member of President Sheinbaum's Morena party.

In April, Jose Luis Pereira, a senior member of the Teocaltiche city government, was shot and killed while dining at a restaurant in Jalisco.

In December 2024, a Mexican congressman who was a member of the ruling coalition was shot dead in Veracruz.

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Two female politicians were targeted soon after Sheinbaum took office. In June 2024, a local councilwoman was gunned down as she was leaving her home in Guerrero. Her murder came a few days after the mayor of a town in western Mexico and her bodyguard were killed outside of a gym, just hours after Sheinbaum was elected president.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)  Concerns about limiting the fluoride intake in water are growing.

Its very concerning to me as a practitioner that things that have been proven to be effective have just been banned with really no good reasons, said Dr. Matthew Hall, DDS, dental residency program director at St. Josephs Health.

This comes after Utah and Florida announced the banning of fluoride in their tap water.

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People a lot smarter than me have determined that adding fluoride to community drinking waters was probably the greatest public health achievement in the last 100 years in the country, said Dr. Hall.

Just last week, the FDA announced its effort to remove ingestible fluoride products for children from the market. These products are typically given to children under age six in areas without fluoride in their tap water.

Thats the way they get the fluoride into their systems, so that as their bodies develop, and as the teeth develop, the fluoride gets incorporated into the enamel of the teeth, said Dr. Hall.

Dr. Hall says this helps to prevent cavities.

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But limiting the fluoride intake could now impact childrens oral health.

The biggest problem were going to see is this increased susceptibility to decay, said Dr. Hall.

Not only does the data show that fluoride works, but Dr. Hall says hes seen it firsthand.

I worked in a community in a village that had fluoride water, but everybody else outside the village was drinking well water, and I could very easily see without even looking at where they lived, just by looking at the X-rays, this 8-year-old kid has cavities on all their permanent teeth. This 8-year-old kid doesnt, said Dr. Hall.

The FDA is expected to complete its safety review in October and could remove ingestible fluoride products as early as fall.

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The FDA will ask manufacturers of fluoride supplements to voluntarily pull their products.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR.
ROCKY TOP, Tenn. (WATE)  A rich history of a bygone era in Anderson County is on display in the town of Rocky Top, originally known as Coal Creek. A unique museum shows what life was like when coal was king in East Tennessee.

Former miners at the Coal Creek Miners Museum were excited and proud to show what life was once like for thousands of people. The vast untapped resources of coal in Tennessee brought the promise of jobs and a new way of living for many mountain folks.

A county of stories Anderson Countys rich history revealed through archival records

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Retired coal miner Lonnie Dison showed us where he worked as a teenager, the D&D Coal Company. He was a high school freshman.

My dad caught me playing hooky. He said, You have one of two choices: you could go to school or you could go to work. I said, Give me a light, said Dison.

Raised relief map at the Coal Creek Miners Museum (WATE) Raised relief map at the Coal Creek Miners Museum (WATE) Raised relief map at the Coal Creek Miners Museum (WATE) Raised relief map at the Coal Creek Miners Museum (WATE)

A raised relief map at the museum depicts the town of Coal Creek, now called Rocky Top, situated in a valley. West of the town, up in the mountains and down in the hollers, is where dozens of mines were once located as far as 10 miles away from Coal Creek.

This map doesnt show all the mines around. This one holler had four different mines. My dad owned two of them, said Dison. He sums up his era as a miner this way: Wonderful. Hard work, dirty work, but its honest work.

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Tommy McCool worked for 35 years as a miner. He used some of the equipment displayed at the museum when he started as an entry-level miner in 1970.

ORNL innovation leading the way for over 80 years

We cant go back in time and change anything. What we see here, the pictures and everything, theyre real. They have a life behind them, said McCool.

There is a lot of history in this museum. This museum actually started back in the 90s, said Tim Isbel, the President of the Coal Creek Miners Museum.

He said the new museum building in downtown Rocky Top opened at the former Bank of America building in 2016. The museum tells the story of the heyday of coal mining in the communities of Coal Creek, Fraterville, and Briceville.

Tianna Edmonds, a docent, said a coal museum wouldnt be complete without examples of coal found in East Tennessee. They included sub-bituminous and bituminous coal.

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A lot of different people from all over the world [come to the museum]. We get children. People of all different ages and ethnicities, said Edmonds.

The tragedies of this mountainous region are also on display. The worst mining disaster in the South occurred on May 19, 1902. Over 200 men and boys were killed when the Fraterville Mine exploded. A number of miners trapped underground wrote letters to their loved ones before the air ran out. Jacob Vowel scratched this to his wife: We are all praying for air, but it is getting so bad.

Message scratched by Jacob Vowel to his wife. (WATE)

If you come to this museum, youll see so much history about when it was a thriving town. Then youll see about the convicts and forced convict labor, said Isbel.

The Tennessee Coal Mining Company replaced local miners with convicts leased from the state in 1891. It prompted Coal Creek miners to organize and fight back against the system. The pictorial history depicts the Coal Creek War uprising leading to armed conflict. The rebellion brought national attention to the issue of convict leasing and led to the abolition of the system.

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The company store for miners no longer exists. Neither do the company-owned homes where the families once lived in the mountains of Anderson County. But the spirit of a time long gone lives on in this museum.

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There aint many things that you find in this world that are free. But it doesnt cost a person a dime to come in here and see everything that weve got, said Dison.

The last underground mines in our area closed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Surface mining, also known as strip mining, continues along the Cumberland Mountain chain in northern Campbell and Claiborne counties. An expansion of the Coal Creek Miners Museum is expected to get underway later this year. If you like history, a visit to the museum is worthwhile.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
U.S. Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Coast Guard Academys 2025 commencement. She said the Trump administration plans to transform the Coast Guard. (Photo by USCGA via YouTube)

As U.S. Coast Guard Academy cadets and their families arrived on the New London campus in Connecticut Wednesday morning for graduation, protesters filled nearby McKinley Park to voice their opposition to the academys commencement speaker, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Congratulations! the protesters called out to the cadets and their family members as they passed by on the sidewalk. Some of the graduation attendees thanked the protesters for their presence outside the academy.

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The protesters carried signs calling out various actions by the Trump administration, including the unlawful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, the Trump administrations cuts to veterans services, the recent federal budget proposal that includes cuts to Medicaid, the administrations position on Ukraine and the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who played a strong role in pro-Palestinian protests.

Police estimated that approximately150 people gathered for a protest against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem near the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

While demonstrators protested right outside of the campus, Noem got a polite and warm reception from Cadet Memorial Field as she delivered a 20-minute keynote address.

Youre the first graduating class of a brand new Coast Guard, Noem said. I want to share with you today what part of President Trumps vision is for the future of this force. With your help, President Trump and I are going to make Americas Coast Guard the strongest, the most capable, the also most effective military service in the entire government.

She highlighted recent conversations with President Donald J. Trump from the Oval Office about the needs of the Coast Guard, which, unlike other military branches, is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And she detailed how the administration plans to transform the service through a new effort called Force Design 2028.

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Protesters, meanwhile, uniformly told The Connecticut Mirror they had no problem with the Coast Guard. In fact, they expressed admiration for the service.

[I] highly respect the Coast Guard, said Janet Bannister of Coventry. Ive known a lot of young people who have made it through. Im just so proud of them. So yes, we hope its clear to people that we are pro-Coast Guard and celebrating the graduates, but  here we are.

A graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy walks past a protest outside of the graduation ceremony on May 21, 2025, where police estimated that approximately150 people protested Kristi Noems appearance. (Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

Montville resident Linda Ness said she was against the current federal budget proposal, particularly cuts to Medicaid and the amount of money it would add to the national debt.

Its where theyre putting their money. It has nothing to do with the country[s] needs and the people. Theyre taking care of corporations, theyre taking care of the ultra-wealthy. Thats not democracy, she said.

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Ness held a sign listing police, fire departments, hospitals and utilities as some of the benefits that the wealthy use and said she was opposed to the idea of them receiving tax cuts.

Claudia Allen, a resident of Thompson, told CT Mirror that shed been attending protests since Ronald Reagan was elected president.

 My son was sent to Iraq, and Im a peace activist. That was horrifying, with George Bush. But even that, there were some people who were competent and who were not aligned [with] him instead of the U.S. Constitution, said Allen. This is the Constitution state, and shes not upholding the Constitution, nor is that administration. Thats a big reason that Im here.

Larry and Pam Okerblom of Mystic sing We Shall Overcome at a protest near the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

Immigration enforcement was another common theme among the protesters. They mentioned the violation of court orders, instances of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apprehending people, and deportations to countries like El Salvador and South Sudan without due process.

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[The administration] is so incompetent, said Denise Weinschenker of Salem.  He was supposed to drain the swamp. Instead he went into the swamp and pulled all those people out.

Joanne Sheehan, one of the protests organizers and a member of the Unify & Resist Coalition, told CT Mirror that they have organized protests in the past against U.S. Coast Guard Academy commencement speakers. She said they had counted 250 people present at the protest today but estimated that there were more.

Sheehan said the protests were different sizes each year. Some years, only a few dozen people showed up, and others counted protesters in the hundreds. The largest, she said, was the spring after Trump was elected for the first time.

People walk past a protest against U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem as they head to the graduation ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

Other protesters mentioned the abrupt firing of Admiral Linda Lee Fagan in late January, a day after Trumps inauguration.

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They criticized the administration for Fagans dismissal, noting that she was the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces and praising her focus on diversity in the Coast Guard.

Sexual assault has been endemic and such a problem here. And they finally get someone to clean it up, and he fires her immediately. Day one, said Mystic resident Martha Crum.

The firing drew condemnation from some of Connecticuts congressional delegation at the time.

DHS officials cited issues with deployment of the Coast Guard to assist with border security, dissatisfaction with recruitment and retention, efforts surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and cost overruns on icebreakers and helicopters used in the Arctic region.

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They also raised concerns about the handling of Operation Fouled Anchor, an investigation into decades of sexual misconduct claims at the Coast Guard Academy and past leaders decisions not to disclose a report about it to Congress. Fagan did not serve as commandant at that time but had apologized for not acting on it until CNN broke the story in 2023.

Police estimated that approximately 150 people gathered to protest U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem near the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh/CT Mirror)

In addition to a shift in top leadership, the Coast Guard and its New London service academy have already undergone other structural changes.

Since Trumps executive order taking aim at DEI policies, the Coast Guard has shuttered a number of DEI-related programs and offices, including the Academys Office of Culture and Climate.

The Coast Guard had prioritized DEI as a way to boost recruitment and retention among cadets as well as within the force. In a Coast Guard Academy diversity report submitted to Congress in 2024, Fagan wrote that such initiatives show progress was made in attracting a workforce that is representative of the nation and preparing culturally competent leaders for the future.

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Recruitment was a big part of Noems keynote address Wednesday, pointing out the current shortfalls in the enlisted workforce as well as ships with incomplete crews. According to Admiral Kevin Lunday, who is currently serving as acting commandant, the Coast Guard has surpassed its annual recruitment goal and has so far recruited 4,700 new members, Noem said.

Since Trumps executive order taking aim at DEI policies, the Coast Guard has shuttered a number of DEI-related programs and offices, including the Academys Office of Culture and Climate.

Along with recruitment, Noem said, Force Design 2028 will aim to reorganize the service by reducing the number of admirals by 25%, replacing outdated technology, fixing crumbling infrastructure and increasing the number of icebreakers. She said the goal over the next four years is to increase the size of the Coast Guard by at least 15,000 personnel.

Those needs represent the biggest Coast Guard readiness crisis that we have seen since World War II, Noem said. That may have been the Coast Guard of the past, but that will not be the Coast Guard of the future.

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As her speech concluded, Noem made an initially unplanned announcement about the new leadership team at the Coast Guard. Among other promotions, Lunday will now be nominated for the commandant role permanently. He spoke shortly before Noem and praised the administration for its inspiring leadership and remarkable advocacy of the Coast Guard.

This article first appeared on CT Mirror and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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The University of Alabamas Safe Zone center was a haven for LGBTQ+ students in search of community and a support network. Anyone could walk into the Safe Zone lounge in the Student Center and grab a snack, peruse the centers queer library, or chat with the dedicated professional staff who provided specialized resources for LGBTQ+ students.

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The safe zone has given me a safe place to meet friends on a campus where I otherwise feel isolated, wrote a student whose anonymous testimony was collected in 2024 by the schools Queer Student Association. Its a place where I know I wont be judged for who I am and I can safely be myself, wrote another. Having a safe space and a sense of community on campus was a lifeline, a third student said.

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But in August 2024, all that changed when Safe Zone was closed due to Alabamas SB 129, which prohibits the sponsorship of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and the promotion of divisive concepts in public universities, state agencies, and local boards of education. The center has been transformed into a generic Student Leadership Lab.

The closure had a dampening effect on the schools LGBTQ+ community, according to recent Alabama graduate and former Queer Student Association president Bryce Schottelkotte. The whole campus used to feel like a lot more of a safe space for being queer, she told Teen Vogue, because there was a specific, university-funded space for being queer. After the closure, It was kind of like, Oh, well, am I even wanted on this campus anymore? she added.

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Since August 2023, at least 31 gender- and sexuality-based resource centers have shuttered across 23 college campuses, according to data collected by the Chronicle of Higher Education and additional research by Teen Vogue. Sixteen of those were LGBTQ+ centers, eight were womens centers, and seven fell under a broader category of spaces called Gender and Sexuality Centers or Gender Equity Centers.

While LGBTQ+ centers seem to be the most common casualties, other identity-based centers have been swept up too, creating confusion about what counts as diversity, equity, and inclusion and leading to a patchwork of campus offerings. Some schools have also eliminated multicultural offices and resource centers oriented around race.

All 31 closures thus far have occurred in states with majority-Republican legislatures. (Nebraska's legislature is officially nonpartisan, but the majority of its members are registered Republicans.) Of those centers, 15 closed after the presidential election, including nine post-inauguration, with students and staff fearful that more closures will follow. There are bills pending in a number of states that could impact offices considered to be related to DEI, including gender and sexuality centers, according to the Chronicle. Other state-level legislation has already taken effect or is currently being implemented. For example, public universities in Ohio are beginning to make changes after Governor Mike DeWine signed a DEI ban in March. The bill requires schools to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs by September.

A University of Alabama spokesperson confirmed to Teen Vogue that the closures were a result of government actions, writing in a statement, Initiatives, programs, and resources across campus that were not in compliance with applicable state and federal laws have been discontinued.

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In addition to state-level actions, the federal government is also playing a major role in opposing DEI, which President Donald Trump has made a cornerstone of his administration. So far, hes threatened the funding of K-12 public schools that have DEI programs, signed an executive order targeting DEI in higher education, and sought to eliminate any such programs within the federal government and private sector companies.

Given the already-existing pattern of closures due to state laws, it seems likely that gender- and sexuality-based spaces at universities will continue to dwindle as schools face even more pressure from the new presidential administration to stamp out diversity programs.

Although gender and sexuality centers vary from campus to campus, they generally offer both community-building events and tangible services tailored toward the needs of women and queer students ranging from free pregnancy tests to gender-inclusive clothing swaps. Kaz Hayes, president of the Georgia Institute of Technologys Pride Alliance student group, recalled visiting the schools LGBTQIA Resource Center for help with filling out name-change forms with the university.

Lilli Hime, who worked as a program coordinator for the University of Texas at Austins Gender and Sexuality Center before it closed in 2024, recalled fielding questions from students about issues like reporting bias incidents in the classroom or finding gender-inclusive housing and restrooms.

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The students who came into our center, the problems they had, that was our business, they continued. It was a very tangible, very visible thing. Sometimes, you would see how people entered the space, especially for the first time, and the way their shoulders would un-tense and they would be like, Okay, I found a place that can be a home base for me on campus.

These resources are also lifesaving, Hime added. According to research cited by The Trevor Project, young LGBTQ+ people are about four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers, with queer youth of color being particularly at risk. These populations are statistically less likely to attempt suicide when LGBTQ+-affirming spaces are available, like gender and sexuality centers on campuses.

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Some LGBTQ+ centers also offer crisis funds for students in emergencies. For queer and trans folks, theres just the greater risk of losing financial support from parents or family or guardians, Hime said. And so having a crisis fund really helped that.

Gender- and sexuality-based identity centers have existed on campuses nationwide for 65 years, since the first college womens center was founded at the University of Minnesota in 1960.

Brenda Bethman, who served as director of the Womens Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City until she retired last year, co-edited a book about womens and gender equity centers. Many womens centers, she said, arose in the 1970s out of second-wave feminism in tandem with womens studies academic departments as more and more women began to attend college. When women arrived on campuses, she said, they were not always very welcome and not finding their needs accommodated.

Womens centers aimed to meet these needs, providing support in areas like career development or sexual assault response. Bethman noted that womens centers were particularly useful as divorce rates rose and produced a group of women students who needed help finding jobs and childcare. They had vastly different needs than a traditional 18-year-old undergraduate, she said.

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LGBTQ+ centers started to emerge amid the rise in womens centers and often collaborated or were housed under the same umbrella, Bethman said. Around the late 2000s, a lot of centers started changing their name in response to doing increasing work with trans people, which is why many centers now have broader names like Gender and Sexuality Resource Center or Gender Equity Center.

Nikki Hewett, who graduated this spring from UT Austin, says her schools Gender and Sexuality Center was kind of what brought me to UT in the first place. When she heard the news that the center would be closing, It definitely felt like, well, what is the point in staying at this school?

Hewett served as president of the Gender and Sexuality Collective, a student group, and wrote an honors thesis documenting the closure of their schools center and its effect on student mental health and well-being. Students are experiencing what appears to be grief over losing the center, they said, noting that many of the students theyve interviewed have reported being negatively affected by losing access to the free mental health care the center provided via peer support groups.

During her senior year, Schottelkotte also felt the effect of her centers closure. In February, the University of Alabamas Young Americans for Freedom chapter successfully lobbied to be exempt from a requirement that their clubs constitution bar discrimination based on gender identity or expression, or sexual identity.

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Schottelkotte and her peers were left wondering, Who do we talk to about this? Because a year ago," she said, "if this had happened, oh, cool, we could have gone to Safe Zone. Instead, theyve had to figure things out on their own.

Even before Trumps second term began, a number of institutions of higher education had started to embrace renaming strategies, this time in an attempt to preserve the services housed in DEI offices. That trend has continued since Trump took office, with it appearing that some universities are trying to avoid full-on shutdowns of their gender and sexuality centers by rebranding.

Georgia Tech, for example, decided in February to merge its LGBTQIA Resource Center, Women's Resource Center, and Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology group under the Arts, Belonging, and Community department. But Hayes, the university Pride Alliance president, reported that the LGBTQIA Resource Center mostly remains in operation. The actual physical room that its in is not changed, except for the signage, Hayes said. I think more pride flags have actually been put up on the walls since the announcement, they said, joking.

The schools communications team wrote in a statement to Teen Vogue that the space and staff that formerly comprised the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center remain active and continue to host community-building events as part of the new department. These services and events are, as they have always been, open to all members of our community.

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Hayes noted that the centers typical programming has mostly continued as usual, but without explicit indications that the activities are tailored to queer students. For example, the centers biweekly Queer Coffee House event is now being advertised in university-approved communications as simply Coffee House.

What are we going to do for freshman orientation events? he wondered. The resources are here, theyre in this building. You just have to go find them.

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As far as the future of this center that seems to be hidden in plain sight, Hayes said, Im maybe cautiously optimistic that this is all were gonna have to do. But he also expressed doubts that the university could truly protect these resources by rebranding: Its kind of naive to think that its gonna be fine to just rename everything and call it a day.

Some universities, including Georgia Tech, seem to be preemptively complying with anti-DEI sentiment before relevant state laws are even passed. Georgia Tech ordered its DEI center closures soon after state lawmakers introduced SB 120, a proposal to strip funding from public schools and universities that have DEI programs, but the bill was tabled in March.

These actions are not a direct result of these orders. They are a calculated attempt at risk management, the schools Pride Alliance wrote on Instagram. By redistributing these centers services to another department, GT is attempting to avoid closer scrutiny. At the same time, these resources will become severely limited in their scope and autonomy.

In a February newsletter to community members, Georgia Tech vice president for Student Engagement & Well-Being Luoluo Hong linked the reshuffling of programming and services on the university level with the Department of Educations directive that month to end racial preferences at educational institutions that receive federal funds and an executive order targeting campus DEI programs, as well as the then-pending state legislation.

Texas lawmakers were among the first in the country to pass a DEI ban that effectively wiped out gender and sexuality centers at the states public universities. After the passage of Senate Bill 17, the University of Houstons LGBTQ Resource Center closed in August 2023, with Texas A&M University and UT Austin following suit. At UT Austin, the Gender and Sexuality Center was renamed the Womens Community Center and stopped hosting explicitly queer-related programming. The argument of closing centers for anti-DEI bills is like, Youre discriminating against people who arent this identity. But even when we were an LGBTQ center, we were open to everyone. Weve never turned anyone away, Hime said. Whoever needed the center, it was for them.

But ultimately, UT Austins attempt to reshuffle failed. In April 2024, UT Austin announced that the new Womens Community Center would close. UT Austin communications did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

For Hime, who lost their job when the center closed, SB 17 hadnt initially given them much pause: It was just another legislative attack in a line of many in Texas. They recalled a 2011 budget amendment requiring schools with LGBTQ+ resource centers to allocate equal amounts of funding to centers focused on family and traditional values. My reaction was just, Here they go again, Hime said. I do not think I could have foreseen how badly it would go.

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Hewett worries that the continuing cascade of closures across the US could create a separation, like only queer students who can afford to go to a private school would be able to have these resources, and if you cant then you dont have them. And thats just a divide that I think would be really unfair to the students.

For now, gender and sexuality center closures have largely been concentrated at public universities. But Bethman, who edited the 2019 book about womens centers, pointed to recent revocations of federal funds from private colleges like Columbia University as an indicator that funding for programs considered DEI, even at private universities, could be at risk. Private universities also have other entities to answer to, Bethman noted. With private schools, its not always a government push or a legislative push, but it can be the boards, she said. Its kind of hard to know if boards might try to overcompensate and change things.

With so many factors up in the air, students whove lost resource centers are fending for themselves. Hayess Pride Alliance group is working to fill the communication gap for Georgia Techs queer community. Schottelkottes Queer Student Association at the University of Alabama is also shouldering some of the responsibility of supporting LGBTQ+ students, and theyve been able to obtain outside funding from organizations like the Alabama ACLU and the schools LGBTQ Alumni Association to put on social events for students who can no longer visit Safe Zone.

QSA can do its best to make up for the loss of the social aspect of Safe Zone, she said. But Im a 21-year-old college student. I dont have the ability, the resources, the knowledge, or the funds to make up for everything that Safe Zone once did.

In their thesis research, Hewett has found that many student leaders working to keep the spirit of UT Austins center alive are very tired and stressed from the responsibility. One student mentioned it feels like a full-time job to try and keep these things up. Since, I mean, it was a persons full-time job before.

Beyond the impossibility of students being able to do this full-time work on top of classes and other commitments, Hewett also worried about other far-reaching effects of the Gender and Sexuality Centers closure. I am a bit concerned just because of the campus climate, she said. A lot of studentshave mentioned being more scared to be queer on campus or in public.

Schottelkotte is hopeful, though, about the future of queer student advocacy. Just because the [legislature] in [Alabamas capital of] Montgomery doesnt think that we exist and doesnt think that we should exist doesnt mean that were going to stop existing, she said. There are a lot of people on this campus who are not going to go quietly.

If you're in crisis or experiencing suicidal ideations, help is available. You can reach the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988. To reach an LGBTQ+-trained crisis counselor, dial 988 and press 3. You can also text with an LGBTQ+-trained counselor by sending the word PRIDE to 988, or you can chat online here. You can also reach out to the Trevor Project's crisis services here, by calling 1-866-488-7386, or by texting START to 678678.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue

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Mya Grimes, a college student at Jackson State University, had a "near-death" experience when a tornado hit as she was driving last week

The 20-year-old student said that her car was caught in the storm and spun in circles before being ejected from the vehicle

"I really thought that was my last moment," she said about the terrifying experience









A college student is grateful to be alive after getting caught up in a tornado while she was driving last week.

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Mya Grimes, a rising senior at Jackson State University in Mississippi, was on her way to St. Louis, her hometown, when a tornado tore through the city and threw her out of her car on Friday, May 16.

The 20-year-old college student had nearly reached her home when the storm caught up to her, according to ABC-affiliate WAPT.

"I really thought that was my last moment," she told the outlet.

Grimes said that the tornado broke the windows of her car and opened the drivers side door. Even though she said she was wearing a seat belt, she was ejected from the vehicle and "slid down the street 40 yards."

THEO WELLING/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock St. Louis after a tornado on May 16 St. Louis after a tornado on May 16

Before the storm reached her, the student talked to her dad  who cautioned her to be careful, but get home if she could  according to local station KMOV. She also called her mom, Tina Grimes, but then her phone disconnected.

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When I answered the phone, I just wasnt prepared for what I heard on the other end," Tina told the outlet. After asking her daughter what was going on, to her terror, her daughter replied, "'It's taking me.' "

"My car started spinning in circles and spinning in circles, and I was just literally terrified and holding on to my steering wheel for dear life," Mya told NBC affiliate KSDK. "The door opened and I flew out of my car."

The student said that she was able to cling to a light pole as the gusts continued.

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In an Instagram post detailing her "near-death experience," Mya said that the paramedic she was able to flag down afterwards told her she was lucky to be alive.

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I have gashes from the glass and sliding down the street," Mya wrote alongside images of the damage to her car. Fortunately, despite some minor injuries, she was otherwise unharmed.

THEO WELLING/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Damaged homes in St. Louis after tornado on May 17 Damaged homes in St. Louis after tornado on May 17

She went on to share that the incident has given her a new perspective that any moment could be our last."

According to the National Weather Service, an EF3 tornado touched down in Clayton, Mo., and moved through the northern parts of St. Louis on May 16. It had winds up to 152 miles per hour.

Read the original article on People
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Azerbaijan will introduce a new mechanism designed to provide logistics subsidies aimed at facilitating access to foreign markets starting in 2025, said Yusif Abdullayev, Executive Director of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Agency (AZPROMO), Trend reports.

In his speech at the "SHE Congress 2025" event held in Baku, Abdullayev highlighted that logistics challenges are widely recognized, and the new mechanism is expected to significantly support the growth of the countrys exports.

"Everyone is aware of the logistics issues we face. We believe that the implementation of this new mechanism will provide substantial support for increasing our exports.

Attracting investments remains a top priority for the country. Regular events are being organized across all our platforms to support women investors and entrepreneurs. I believe these initiatives should be further expanded," he remarked.

AZPROMO was founded in 2003 by the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan to facilitate foreign investment in the non-oil industry and promote exports of non-oil products. The agency's primary objective is to enhance the nation's economy by soliciting international investment and fostering exports in the non-oil sector. To date, the agency has conducted 33 export trips to international destinations under the "Made in Azerbaijan" initiative.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
A 19-year-old college student in Massachusetts has pleaded guilty in the PowerSchool data breach.

Matthew Lane was accused of stealing tens of millions of schoolchildrens personal information for profit.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: NC school districts received threats over breached student, staff data

North Carolina education leaders said 50 of its staff members and 20 local education agencies got threatening emails demanding payment to keep the data secret.

Lane pleaded guilty to several charges, including cyber extortion and aggravated identity theft.

VIDEO: NC school districts received threats over breached student, staff data
Editors Note: This story was updated to correct a name change.

DENVER (KDVR)  Congressional lawmakers have been working around the clock on what the president is calling One Big Beautiful Bill: a budget plan to fund his agenda.

Medicaid continues to be a focal point for people watching the bills movement. One provision of the bill could determine who is eligible to receive benefits.

Experts said about 60% of Coloradans on Medicaid already meet these requirements. The tough part could be proving it.

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Medicaid has kind of run on its own, the requirements havent changed significantly, said Jennifer Greenfield, associate professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work.

Republicans to watch on Trumps big, beautiful bill

The budget bill making its way through Congress could change that. The bill that would reduce federal spending on Medicaid seeks to change how people prove their eligibility, asking them to show their community engagement by spending 80 hours a month at a job, work training, school or volunteering part-time.

It is a practice that is used in a couple of programs. For instance, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program implemented work requirements a long time ago. Its being used in two states with the medicaid program as well. So there is some history and there is a great deal of research on what the impacts of work requirements have been, Greenfield said.

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An April report from the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance shows that when Arkansas implemented its work requirement, it ran its state $26 million in administrative costs. If this new policy passes, HCPF says it would cost Colorado $57 million due to the states county administrative model. Even with that cost analysis, Governor Jared Polis said the work requirements are the least egregious part of the plan.

Frankly, we would be fortunate if we emerge from this with requirements that had sufficient flexibility for states to successfully implement them. So you know, they are talking about much harsher actual cuts to Medicaid dollars, cuts that would either force a reduction in benefits and force, if not a full rollback of the medicaid expansion that Colorado has, Polis said at a press conference with other Democratic governors.

Kelly Loving Act signed into Colorado law

Experts believe the policy could place a heavy burden on recipients to prove their status and on counties enforcing the policy. They worry it could be a slippery slope, jeopardizing healthcare for some 1.2 million Coloradans on Medicaid.

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If youre working, taking time out of that workday to get the paperwork submitted can be really difficult, especially if youre in an hourly job where every hour is monitored. It also is putting a huge burden on the counties that actually administer these programs. So it would end up being a major cost increase for states and counties, said Greenfield. Instead of supporting somebody who has a chronic disease to manage, we will instead be causing them to forgo medications, forgo doctors visits, turning to ERs instead of seeing primary care. Those ripple effects will be very costly for our system, but also costly in terms of human lives.

HCPF estimates 377,000 Coloradans could lose coverage under those medicaid expansion cuts. Originally, the bill called for these provisions to be put in place by 2029, but some members of Congress said that was not soon enough. Leaders now anticipate that the requirements could be in effect by 2026 if the bill passes.

The bill officially passed the House early Thursday morning with a final vote of 215-214. It now moves to the Senate for further consideration.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
Jim Irsay's final post on social media came just hours before his death was announced.

His last post came just hours before his death and read, "Go PACERS. Good luck to Herb, the entire @Pacers organization, and our city!" It was edited at 10:58 a.m. on May 21, 2025.

His second-to-last post on X was about mental health, a cause he had championed for years.

On May 19, 2025, Irsay shared a post on X showing Colts cheerleaders and gave a thumbs-up, his second-to-last post on that platform.

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That post read, "Your mind matters  every day, in every way. #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth."

The Indianapolis Colts announced the team owner's death at age 65 on May 21 at 6:35 p.m. The team announced that Irsay had died that afternoon. Although a specific time of death was not given, that means that his last X post edit came just a few hours before.

Go PACERS. Good luck to Herb, the entire @Pacers organization, and our city!   Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) May 21, 2025

The team wrote that its "beloved owner and ceo, Jim Irsay, passed away peacefully in his sleep this afternoon. The Colts praised Irsay's philanthropy and love for the city and the team.

The cause of death was not released, but he had battled high-profile health issues in recent years.

Irsay also posted several birthday tributes on May 19. "Happy birthday to RON SOLT (1984-88), 1st rd. pick out of Maryland in '84. Pro Bowl in '87," he wrote.

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In fact, a lot of his recent posts were birthday wishes for other people.

He had less of a following on Instagram and hadn't posted on that page for some time.

Related: Jim Irsay's Cause of Death Unclear, But Health Issues Were Well-Known

Colts' Owner Jim Irsay's Last Social Media Post Came Hours before His Death first appeared on Men's Journal on May 22, 2025
Columbia University President Claire Shipman was booed on Wednesday during her commencement address to the class of 2025.

Amid her remarks, graduates shouted in protest of the detainment of their classmate, Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder and graduate student held in Louisiana after speaking out in support of Palestine amid the war in Gaza.

We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right, Shipman said.

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Let me also say that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil, she added.

Earlier in the week, the school warned against outbursts, urging attendees to fall in line with the universitys rules of conduct and antidiscrimination standards.

I know that many of you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration, Shipman previously said.

And I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university. And I am always open to feedback, which I am getting right now, Shipman added.

Despite the issued guidelines, groups shouted free Mahmoud while carrying the Palestinian flag or keffiyehs in support of the former students release.

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Khalil was taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 8 and transported thousands of miles away from his pregnant wife. She remained unaware of his whereabouts until Khalils attorneys could undertake legal recourse.

While detained, Khalils first child was born. He wrote a letter to his son from behind bars that was shared with the public.

I sit here contemplating the immensity of your birth and wonder how many more firsts will be sacrificed to the whims of the US government, which denied me even the chance of furlough to attend your birth. How is it that the same politicians who preach family values are the ones tearing families apart? he wrote in the correspondence.

On Wednesday, Khalils attorneys pleaded for him to be allowed to have physical contact with his wife and newborn son.

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During her speech, Shipman spoke in depth about her overseas experience as a journalist in Moscow.

Censorship was rampant. There were no open forums. You couldnt say what you want, like people here have the right to, Shipman said.

Khalil is among several students from various universities who are facing ongoing legal battles after speaking out against Israels role in the war in Gaza.

Updated at 9:05 p.m. EDT.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
(Bureau of Land Management)

The Trump administration has cut tens of millions of dollars from a key Columbia Basin salmon-restoration program run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a move experts say puts the treasured Northwest fish in further jeopardy.

The Columbia River Fish Mitigation program attempts to balance out significant harm inflicted by the Columbia River hydropower dam system on endangered salmon and steelhead runs.

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The 46 percent cut to the programs yearly budget comes amid tens of billions of dollars in cuts to the federal government that have hit scientific and regulatory agencies in Southwest Washington hard. It also follows months of speculation about what President Donald Trumps Columbia Basin fish policy would be.

It is outrageous that President Trump is ripping away critical funding to protect our fish populations in the Columbia River, which are so important to our economy, culture and tribes in Washington state, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray wrote in a statement emailed to The Columbian.

The Corps did not directly respond to The Columbians request for comment on the cuts. In a brief statement, a spokesman instead highlighted the importance of the salmon recovery program moving into the future.

Columbia River Fish Mitigation funding is an important source for many projects in the basin, said Tom Conning, spokesman for the Corps Northwestern Division. As is typical during the federal budget process, we will work with our partners in the region to prioritize projects depending on how much funding we actually receive from Congress.

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Six Columbia Basin salmon recovery policy experts and biologists who work with the program said the cuts stand to unravel the programs work in coming years  harming salmon recovery across the basin at a make-or-break time.

With these cuts to salmon recovery programs, (Corps officials) are going to have to halt many important actions in their track, said Tom Iverson, regional coordinator for Yakama Nation Fisheries.

Iverson also said the cuts are inconsistent with the U.S. governments commitments to restore salmon populations under the binding Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement.

Salmon advocates made compromises in that agreement to get the government to agree to spend more on Columbia River hydropower system infrastructure and fish passage  not less.

Murky origins of a cut

Two Trump administration actions have affected Corps funding.

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The first is a nearly $1.5 billion reduction in funding for the Corps civil works between fiscal year 2024 and the current federal fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

The second is a move by the administration to shift hundreds of millions of previously committed dollars from civil works projects in Democratic-controlled states to Republican-controlled states, according to an analysis by Murrays office that was shared with The Columbian.

Trump is stealing funding from blue states for no other reason than political retribution, and hes playing politics with critical water infrastructure  its absolutely despicable, Murray said. This is not how things should ever work in America.

In fiscal year 2024  which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024  the salmon-restoration program was allocated $66,670,000.

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But newly released Corps itemized funding documents show the Corps received only $35,983,605 for this fiscal year.

Thats despite Congress March continuing resolution funding the Corps at the same level for fiscal year 2025 as the previous year, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The cuts are even more drastic when the new $36 million funding level is compared with the $75.2 million the Corps was slated to get for Columbia River fish mitigation efforts for 2025 in the draft budget that the Biden administration submitted to Congress in March 2024 based on the Corps funding request.

The programs funding has significantly varied over the past 15 years, according to The Columbians analysis of publicly available Corps funding levels.

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The program routinely received more than $100 million in the early 2010s. But that was cut by about two-thirds during Trumps first term, dipped lower still during the first half of former President Joe Bidens term and finally rose to the past fiscal years recent high during the latter half of Bidens presidency.

Legal requirement

The program evaluates how different parts of the hydropower system impact salmon stocks in the Columbia Basin and then addresses those problems through construction, habitat restoration and other means.

The Corps 2025 budget says the programs work is required to minimize lethal take (killing) of Endangered Species Act-listed salmon and steelhead by the federal hydropower dam system.

Government reports released during the Biden administration acknowledged the hydropower systems harm to salmon stocks and Native nations, as well as the ways removing four lower Snake River dams would benefit them.

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Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead returns were between 10 million and 18 million fish before the dams. Recently, theyve numbered about 2.3 million.

Wild fish in particular have suffered. A 2022 assessment by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found the number of raw natural spawner(s) in Columbia River tributaries declined substantially for nearly every run in nearly every river measured between 1990 and 2019.

Overfishing, climate change, habitat degradation and a rise in predators have also harmed runs.

All that has pushed 13 Columbia Basin salmon runs to the brink of extinction, placing them under Endangered Species Act protections.

Impacts

The Columbia River Fish Mitigation program will be partly protected from the immediate impacts of the cut, according to an email obtained by The Columbian that was sent by Columbia River Fish Mitigation program manager Ida Royer to about three dozen Columbia Basin salmon-restoration policy experts and biologists.

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The email states that because of leftover money from the 2024 fiscal year, the program will end up with only a few million dollars less than last fiscal year.

But six Columbia Basin salmon recovery policy experts and biologists who work with the program said the cuts will create uncertainty that snowballs into future years, disrupting the programs continuing operations.

That stands to further delay the long and ever-growing list of deferred maintenance biologists say the Corps must do  not just to support fish passage but for navigation and flood-risk management.

And even the limited cuts appear to be impacting the required programs operations already, because they came so late in the fiscal year.

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There will need to be more discussion about the work remaining for the year, refined costs and program priorities, Royer wrote. More to come.

This article was first published by The Columbian through the Murrow News Fellow program, managed by Washington State University.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL)  In a significant ruling on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land of the Middle District of Georgia granted a preliminary injunction preventing the transfer of a Venezuelan from the Stewart Detention Center to a terrorism confinement facility in El Salvador.

The decision stems from a habeas corpus petition filed by the detainee, who fears being labeled an alien enemy under the Alien Enemies Act and subjected to expedited removal from the United States without due process.

The case, Y.A.P.A. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., comes as the national debate over immigration policy continues. Land was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2001.

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The Stewart Detention Facility is located in Lumpkin, Ga., in Lands judicial district.

Lands order was strongly worded.

The public interest, while not always vocalized the loudest, requires that we remember that that these constitutional protections do not exist only for those attending lunch at the local Rotary Club, enjoying war stories at the VFW hall or having a beer at the Moose Club lodge, the judge wrote. These rights are not rationed based upon political views, and they do not belong solely to those who may be subjectively determined to be great Americans. They extend to those whom many may consider to be the most repugnant among us.

Land did not stop there.

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This foundational principle is part of what has made, and will continue to make, America great, he concluded. Consistent with the rule of law, it is the Courts job to make sure, without fear or favor, that we adhere to these principles. serves the public interest.

The petitioner, detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allegedly being in the country illegally, is currently facing removal proceedings under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. However, he sought emergency relief to prevent his potential designation as an alien enemy and transfer to the Center for Terrorism Confinement in El Salvador.

The controversy centers on a recent presidential proclamation declaring the Tren de Aragua gang a Foreign Terrorist Organization. ICE has claimed the petitioner is a known associate of TdA, based on his tattoos and social media activity, though he denies any affiliation.

The Alien Enemies Act allows the president broad authority to detain and remove noncitizens deemed alien enemies, a process that is significantly faster than standard immigration proceedings.

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A recent Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. J.G.G. mandates that detainees must receive notice and a meaningful opportunity for judicial review through habeas corpus before removal.

Lands order found that ICEs current procedures, which allow as little as 12 hours to express intent to file a habeas petition and 24 hours to file it, do not meet constitutional due process requirements outlined by the Supreme Court in A.A.R.P. v. Trump.

The court ruled that transferring the petitioner to El Salvador without an adequate opportunity to challenge an alien enemy designation would cause irreparable harm, violating his constitutional rights.

The injunction prohibits ICE from removing the petitioner as an alien enemy until the government submits a revised removal process compliant with Supreme Court guidelines and the court issues further orders ensuring due process.

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Land emphasized that the ruling does not interfere with the governments ability to pursue removal under other legal authorities, such as the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
A U.S. District Judge in Columbus has issued a preliminary injunction for a Venezuelan man detained at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, saying he has not received due process, according to court documents.

The petitioner in Y.A.P.A. vs. Donald J. Trump, et. al., is concerned he will be designated as an alien enemy under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), placed on an expedited removal track and transferred to the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in El Salvador without being able to contest the designation, according to the document.

The document says the petitioners removal is being processed under Section 240 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

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A proclamation by the Trump administration in March allows for Venezuelan citizens age 14 and older who are members of Tren de Aragua, in the U.S. and not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the U.S. to be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies, according to the White Houses website.

The petitioners motion seeks to prevent his transfer outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia until his petition for habeas corpus  a judicial motion forcing law enforcement to justify a prisoners continued confinement  is decided, according to the document.

A decision Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land, states the respondents cant remove the petitioner as an alien enemy until (1) Respondents submit to the Court a proposed revised alien enemy removal process as applied to Petitioner that is consistent with Supreme Court opinion in A.A.R.P.; and (2) this Court has entered an order specifically setting forth the due process requirements necessary to protect Petitioners constitutional rights in light of the most recent Supreme Court opinions.

The Supreme Court, in A.A.R.P., et al. v. Donald J. Trump, et al., granted a temporary injunction for two Venezuelan immigrant detainees who asserted they were at imminent risk of being classified as alien enemies and removed from the United States with no record indicating they received any formal notice of removal.

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The Venezuelan mans petition for Habeas Corpus, retrieved through the ACLUs website, states he has submitted an affirmative application for asylum and protection under the Convention Against Torture and plans to resubmit the application in immigration court.

The petition states Y.A.P.A. was arrested on Feb. 22, after Homeland Security Investigations targeted him for allegedly being a known associate of Tren De Aragua.

He is scheduled for a hearing on May 28 in Stewart Immigration Court.

Lands decision

In his decision, Land states:

Respondents undoubtedly would prefer that they be allowed to implement any necessary changes to their AEA procedures without judicial oversight. Allowing constitutional rights to be dependent upon the grace of the Executive branch would be a dereliction of duty by this third and independent branch of Government and would be against the public interest. Respondents have demonstrated their intention to test the constitutional limits of Executive power, which is certainly their right; but the Court has the responsibility to assure that unrestrained zeal does not include gaming the system in a manner that deprives an individual of constitutional protections.

. . . The public interest, while not always vocalized the loudest, requires that we remember that that these constitutional protections do not exist only for those attending lunch at the local Rotary Club, enjoying war stories at the VFW hall or having a beer at the Moose Club lodge. These rights are not rationed based upon political views, and they do not belong solely to those who may be subjectively determined to be great Americans. They extend to those whom many may consider to be the most repugnant among us. This foundational principle is part of what has made, and will continue to make, America great..
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  A man wanted for murder out of Columbus was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Task Force Wednesday in Preble County.

The Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST) arrested Francisco Vallejo-Arevalo in Camden this afternoon.

Springfield grappling with 3 homicides within a week: Police

The 26-year-old man was wanted by the Columbus Police Department for a reported homicide that occurred on May 18. Police say Vallejo-Arevalo immediately fled the area following the homicide.

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Task force members located the fugitive at a business on Main Street in Camden. He was apprehended and booked into the Preble County Jail.

The U.S. Marshals in Southern Ohio say they worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on this arrest.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL)  Columbus City officials announced their plans to host a community meeting regarding a potential new landfill.

The meeting notice invites residents to discuss the issuance of a solid waste handling permit by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD). The permit would allow for an expansion of the Columbus Pine Grove Landfill and proposes a composting operation.

The meeting, hosted on May 29 at 5:30 p.m., is an opportunity for citizens to provide input and express any concerns regarding the proposed changes to the landfill. Community participation is encouraged to help inform the permitting process.

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Meeting Details:

Dates: Thursday, May 29, 2025

Time: 5:30p.m.

Location: City Service Center  2nd Floor Council Chambers, 3111 Citizens Way

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) called for interviews of five of former President Bidens aides regarding what he described as an effort to cover up the leaders reported cognitive decline.

Comer has requested transcribed statements from Bidens physician Dr. Kevin OConnor, former Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden and former assistants Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini and Ashley Williams.

The American people deserve to know when this decline began, how far it progressed, and who was making critical decisions on his behalf, Comer, who serves as chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in a Thursday statement.

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Key executive actions signed by autopen, such as sweeping pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be examined considering President Bidens diminished capacity, he added.

Comers call for interviews comes after his committee announced it will hold hearings about Bidens cognitive functions and autopen usage throughout his administration.

A group of GOP senators on Thursday demanded that Biden officials testify about the alleged cover-up.

Biden and his wife, Jill, have denied reports alleging the leader experienced a sharp cognitive decline while in office.

Less than a year after leaving the Oval Office, journalists and former staffers have come forward with claims of former President Bidens mental lapses.

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A transcript of his two-day interview with former special counsel Robert Hurs interview was made public last year after the Biden White House blocked the Justice Department from releasing the audio recording.

Hur closed his investigation into the former presidents handling of classified documents, concluding that he was a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.

However, newly leaked audio published by Axios showcased Bidens long pauses and lapses during the tape.

After reviewing the clip, Comer said Biden wasnt capable of making decisions and became incoherent.

The Kentucky lawmaker has requested to interview five of the former presidents closest aides before the House committee on June 18.

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Bidens mental state and age have come into the spotlight in recent weeks amid the release of two high-profile books about the 2024 presidential election  Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axioss Alex Thompson, and Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House by The Hills Amie Parnes and NBCs Jonathan Allen.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 22. Uzbekistan-based airline My Freighter has successfully operated its inaugural flight to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenyas capital, marking the beginning of a new international cargo route between the two countries, Trend reports.

Regular flights on this route are scheduled to operate twice a week.

My Freighter is set to hit the ground running by transporting a cornucopia of perishable goods from Kenya, including fresh-cut flowers, seafood, and a bounty of fruits and vegetables.

A portion of the cargo will be re-exported to other Central Asian countries, expanding regional access to fresh African produce.

My Freighter (Centrum Air) is a low-cost carrier based in Tashkent, established in 2020. The airline operates both passenger and cargo services, with a current fleet of eight aircraft.

This new route is expected to significantly enhance trade and logistics connections between East Africa and Central Asia, meeting the rising demand for fresh goods and boosting air freight capacity across the region.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  The Dayton Metro Library 2025 Summer Reading Challenge is kicking off soon. This years challenge, Color Our World, begins in partnership with the Dayton Art Institute on Saturday, May 31.

The youth challenge is open to anyone under the age of 18. Participants will earn free books after 15, 30, and 45 days of activity. Prizes will be available for pickup while supplies last, or through Saturday, Aug. 9, at any Dayton Metro Library branch. Kids have the option of either a physical progress tracker, available for pickup, or an online tracker available through BeanStack here.

One lucky reader will have a chance to win the grand prize, a $2,500 CollegeAdvantage Savings Award. Parents/guardians will need to enter the sweepstakes on behalf of their child online by Aug. 9.

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Daughter of Malcolm X speaks at DML about fathers legacy

Adults looking to engage in the summer fun can enter the Adult Challenge. This challenge will be tracked using a BINGO Challenge Board. These boards can be found both in person and online through BeanStack. When readers finish their BINGO challenge board, they will be eligible to redeem a small prize at any library branch and can enter to win a Branch Raffle Basket. Winners will be notified by Wednesday, Aug. 13.

The Dayton Art Institute will host a Library Card Day on Saturday, May 31, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., giving cardholders free entry to the museum. Other Library Card Day activities include the following:

Specialized museum scavenger hunts

Draw Alive in the Lange Family Experiencenter

Storytimes both on the Bookmobile and in the Rose Auditorium

Pipe organist Matt Dierking will perform in the Rose Auditorium

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GALLERY: NATO Day 1

For those without a Library Card looking to enjoy the card day festivities, signups can be done for both a library card and summer challenges on location day of.

To learn more, click here or call the Librarys Ask Me Line at (937) 463-2665.

For more information on the Dayton Art Institute hours and visitor guides, click here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
The strength of our nation is in the diversity of its people.

The greatness of this nation will further be elevated by fixing the immigration system that has been broken for too long. President Donald Trumps latest executive order threatening to withhold funds from sanctuary cities and states while escalating the rhetoric on deportations without due process is simply un-American.

It is time for this nation to be reminded of the contributions of immigrants from the early European settlers to the newest waves of immigrants making powerful contributions to this country. Congress needs to accept that immigrants today build our cities, spend money in our economies and pay taxes into our public coffers  but dont even receive all the benefits for doing so, making them givers rather than takers or criminals.

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Its undeniable immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, are part of our economy and social fabric. Often, theyre the anchors of our family values.

Our president is bragging about how he alone has fixed the border crisis. We took him at his word, and now he needs to fix the broken immigration system and stop weaponizing immigrants to stir up divisions. Threatening to wipe out federal funding for welcoming states or cities is nothing more than overreach from the federal government.

Take for example Illinois, led by Gov. JB Pritzker, one of the governors set to testify June 12 in front of Congress. This will be yet another trip on the merry-go-round of political theater in Washington.

Just over two months ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared on a panel of mayors before the House of Representatives and boldly defended a sanctuary policy that has been on the books for decades. This hearing only resulted in both sides seeking a viral moment and scoring political points.

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The reality is Illinois welcoming status defines the character of our state: bipartisan and deeply rooted in an understanding of how to keep our people safe and our economy strong.

Pritzker is protecting the 40-year legacy of sanctuary status in Illinois that started in 1985 when Mayor Harold Washington signed an executive order making Chicago a sanctuary city and deepened in 2017 when Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the TRUST Act, which solidified Illinois status as a welcoming state where law enforcement focuses on solving crimes instead of mass deportations. Research shows that welcoming cities and states contribute greatly to public safety.

The contributions of immigrants are embedded in the fabric of our states past, our present and our future. We believe this to be true for the country as whole.

More than 18% of Illinois workforce was born outside the United States  with most coming from Mexico, India, Poland, the Philippines and China. More than 18% of recent homebuyers in Illinois were born outside the U.S. More than 27% of entrepreneurs in Illinois were born outside the United States, making them the founders of new businesses that are the main driver of job growth in this country.

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Latinos specifically make up the highest percentage of the states workforce among all racial and ethnic groups and contribute $100 billion annually to the states economic output.

We believe Congress and the president understand the contributions of immigrants; however, at the moment, they have been more interested in scapegoating immigrants than finding real solutions.

There are indications that Republicans in Congress and the White House recognize this. Just recently, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Trump both acknowledged that theyre working to ease immigration restrictions for farm laborers  given that 40% of crop workers are unauthorized and their absence could result in a $30 billion plunge in production, making them essential to the stability of the agricultural industry. The presidents plan would also ease immigration restrictions for the hospitality industry.

We know that lasting solutions will not come from scapegoating immigrants. These individuals care for our young and elderly, help put food on the table, build and clean our homes. They are also students, teachers, firefighters, police officers, military veterans, business owners and entrepreneurs.

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In short, they are our neighbors and Americans who dont have the right piece of paper but are legally entitled to due process and an opportunity to strengthen the economy and the fabric of our nation. Lets stop with the political theater and instead use this upcoming hearing to focus on real solutions to continue the greatness of this nation.

After all, it is un-American to dim the torch that soars above the Statue of Liberty that has welcomed immigrants since this nations founding.

____

Karina Ayala-Bermejo is president and CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino and an Illinois Latino Agenda member. Raul Raymundo is the CEO of The Resurrection Project and an Illinois Latino Agenda member.

_____
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN)  Trumbull County commissioners are worried about what proposed budget cuts at the federal level could mean for the county.

Commissioners plan to send a letter to Congressman Dave Joyce and Senators Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, expressing their concerns about the proposal to eliminate several programs.

Funding that could be impacted includes the Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships program and Economic Development Administration grants, as well as funding from the EPA, to name a few.

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The county has received upwards of $50 million just in CDBG funding over the last 40 years.

Officials are worried about the negative effects these cuts would have on the county and what it could mean for planned public infrastructure projects and those currently under construction.

It would be devastating to the county, to put it in short-term devastation for our county, to not be able to receive these funds, Commissioner Rick Hernandez said.

In the letter, commissioners will ask Congress to consider the negative impacts on the countys residents when making decisions on the proposed cuts.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  State Senators voted on Wednesday to send Senate Bill 1027 to the Governors desk, passing 39-7.

The bill reforms the states initiative petition process, which allows voters to sign a petition to have a statewide question on the ballot. It restricts the number of voters who can sign a petition in each county.

A row of upset Oklahomans were seated in the gallery Wednesday to listen to lawmakers question and debate the measure.

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Senate Democrats said the move would silence Oklahomans while giving more power to the legislature.



Its a power grab, said Sen. Mark Mann (D-Oklahoma City). It takes power away from everyday Oklahoma voters.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Restrictions to Initiative Petition process passes another hurdle

Senator Carri Hicks (D-Oklahoma City) argued the bill was unconstitutional.



This bill threatens something fundamental; our freedom as Oklahomans, said Hicks.

Senator David Bullard (R-Durant) authored the bill. He said he has been working on legislation that reforms the initiative petition process for three years.

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Im not ending anything, said Bullard. Im putting guardrails to protect people.

Bullard said the bill would protect against the majority of signatures coming from two of the states largest counties; Oklahoma and Tulsa.



This forces them out to 18 or 20 different counties, dont even force them out to all 77 counties, said Bullard.

Conversations between lawmakers became heated as they discussed how the bill could limit the voice of the people.



This is very harmful for Oklahomans and their ability to be a part of a process that has been in place for 118 years, said Sen. Nikki Nice (D-Oklahoma City).



The Republic, the Republican form of government, says that youre ruled by your elected officials, said Bullard.

After the vote, Oklahomans against Senate Bill 1027 voiced their concerns.

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I dont know when Ive been more frustrated, said Cindy Alexander.

She and around a dozen others joined Senate Democrats to drop off more than 2,500 signed letters to the Governors office. The letters were from people across all 77 counties who were against the passage of the bill, hoping to convince Governor Stitt to use his veto powers.



If it didnt work, frustrated Oklahomans said they had a plan.

We fight. This goes into a lawsuit. This is an unconstitutional call, said Jennifer Freeman. This is a betrayal. This is an absolute betrayal of Oklahomans. Our history, our Constitution, our rights.

Governor Stitt was asked at his Wednesday press conference if he would use his veto powers, and he did not directly answer the question. He has five days to make a decision.

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The bill also has an emergency clause which means it would go into effect as soon as it has been signed into law.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Exposure to BioLab, Inc.s chemical fire was the topic of conversation for nearly three hours Wednesday night.

People who live close to the plant that caught on fire in Sept. met for a town hall meeting to discuss health concerns and legal options.

I still dont know the long term effects, said Ashton Carter.

It started affecting my breathing, my nose, my eyes, said Travis Benson.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Nearly a month after the fire, shelter-in-place orders were lifted and federal and state leaders said there was no immediate threat to the community, but attorneys called a town hall meeting to gauge the communitys response to it.

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How their life has been impacted by what happened at BioLab is important, said Mindy Bish.

Bish told the crowd she would file each civil suit separately instead of choosing the class action route.

No two cases are the same. We have one person who, for example, is having trouble breathing, another person whose heart ailment has gotten worse. We have women who havent been able to get pregnant, said Bish.

An environmentalist told people in the crowd he gathered ground, water and surface samples around BioLab after the fire. A doctor compared lab results to chlorine bombs used in chemical warfare.

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Some wonder if challenging BioLab is worth it.

I really do feel powerless against it, said Cater.

Attorneys told the crowd they have to file suits challenging Rockdale Countys response to the emergency within one year of an incident.

Id like to get more insight, more information, more knowledge as to exactly what we were exposed to, what were breathing in and what were the long term effects, said Carter.

BioLab, Inc. announced earlier this month it will no longer manufacture in Conyers. It said the distribution center will remain operational.

Channel 2s Courtney Francisco reached out to the company Wednesday night to find out if that means it will be storing chemicals there. We are waiting for a response.

A Department of Labor investigation released in April said the fire happened because BioLab stored its product improperly.

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CONECUH COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG)  A Knoxville, Tennessee man was arrested in Conecuh County, Alabama after he was allegedly found with 15 pounds of suspected fentanyl.

Mobile Arena construction begins, once complete could host top-tier entertainment

According to a news release from the Conecuh County Sheriffs Office, a traffic stop was conducted in conjunction with the 17th Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force on Tuesday, May 20, on Interstate 65 northbound.

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The release said criminal activity was noted which led to a vehicle search.

The search led to the discovery of a car battery that was modified to conceal contraband, and 15 pounds of suspected fentanyl were recovered.

Picture of the suspected fentanyl recovered during the traffic stop. (Conecuh County Sheriffs Office)

According to CCSO, 15 pounds of fentanyl has a street value of $250,000.

Tobias Billingsley, 32, was arrested and is being held at the Conecuh County Jail on a $1 million bond, according to the sheriffs office.

Tobias Billingsley. (Conecuh County Sheriffs Office)

Morgan Wallens Sand In My Boots music festival: crime drops, travel breaks records

The case remains an active investigation.

Leon Petite and Kendra Day contributed to this story.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI)  There are discrepancies between the short-term rental data collected by the state and the data collected in several communities in Rhode Island.

The city of Providence has the fourth-highest number of short-term rentals in the state  and, Target 12 found, the largest data discrepancy.

According to the R.I. Department of Business Regulations short-term rental registry, there are more than 500 active short-term rental properties in Providence.

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In Providence, the majority of short-term rental owners are required to get a temporary use permit to operate the business, except for those who rent out single rooms on third-party booking platforms.

A city spokesperson said there were just 57 permits pulled in Providence for 2025.

Mayor Brett Smiley claims the disparity between the state and city data is mainly because of that single-room rental policy.

So many of the available rentals are not out of compliance, Smiley said. Its just not required [in the city] if you rent out a spare bedroom.

RELATED: From neighbors to lawmakers, short-term rentals fuel tensions across RI

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The numbers get even messier. Target 12 discovered a document Smiley submitted to the House Finance Committee in support of a bill that would remove the hotel tax exemption status for short-term rentals that cites 3,000 short-term rentals in Providence, far more than the number of permits and data recorded at the state level.

Smiley said his office used a third-party platform that collects short-term rental data to come up with that number.

Property owners will sometimes rent one bedroom, two bedrooms, or the full house, he said. And that could show up as three listings.

Smiley said that, unlike the states coastal communities, the city has not received many complaints about short-term rentals.

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His office has the power to levy violations for short-term rental owners who operate without a permit, and has issued four violations in 2025, according to a spokesperson.

The data discrepancy shines a light on how state and local leaders are trying to get a hold of the short-term rental market.

The evolution of Airbnbs has been something difficult for governments, not just Providence, to keep up with and try to stay on top of, Smiley said.

Sarah Guernelli (sguernelli@wpri.com) is the consumer investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook.

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As Milwaukee Public Schools works to repair lead paint hazards at buildings citywide, it announced May 21 that Starms Early Childhood Center is clean and safe.

The MPS facilities team is making good progress in clearing schools of lead dangers, MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said in a statement. Our students and families have navigated these disruptions with patience, and for that we are grateful. Im encouraged that we have been able to clear another building of lead dangers and that there is a clear plan moving forward for all our schools.

Students have been displaced from the building since March 17  over 10 weeks  in response to lead issues. The building was built in 1893.

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They moved to the nearby, but separate, Starms Discovery Learning Center.

"While the building is now ready for occupancy, the school community has asked to remain at the Starms Discovery Learning Center building for the remainder of this school year to limit disruptions to teaching and learning," the district said in a statement.

The City of Milwaukee Health Department in March conducted a visual assessment of lead risks at Starms Early Childhood Center, 2626 W. Garfield Ave. After weeks of remediation efforts, the center has passed a health department inspection.

According to a visual inspection report, inspectors found lead dust hazards on floors, horizonal surfaces within kids' reach and class supplies at Starms Early Childhood Center. Chipping and peeling paint was present in classrooms for kids with disabilities, and areas where kids 6 years and younger learn.

Between 10% and 50% of paint in the building was in decay, the inspection report said.

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Starms Early Childhood Center was a top-priority school for lead work, according to a spreadsheet of schools included as part of MPS' Lead Action Plan.

What's next for lead remediation at MPS schools?

MPS said its weighing several factors when deciding which schools should be remediated first: building age and condition, student population, whether any cases of lead poisoning are associated with the school, and the prevalence of childhood lead poisoning cases in the school neighborhood.

As of May 13, MPS said it had inspected 48 schools for lead hazards. The district's lead plan said it will assess 107 schools and correct the issues identified.

Starms is among six schools that have closed temporarily this school year due to lead hazards. Those schools together educate about 1,800 kids, 2024-25 state data shows.

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Students and staff at Brown Street Academy, Westside Academy and LaFollette Elementary School are still displaced as their schools undergo lead remediation. Trowbridge School of Great Lakes Studies and Fernwood Montessori both closed temporarily but have since reopened.

More: Milwaukee Public Schools says 48 schools already inspected for lead hazards, with more to come

Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: An MPS school built in 1893 cleared of lead hazards, district says
Contract negotiations between Pierce County and the union that represents the rank-and-file of the countys largest law enforcement agency, the Sheriffs Office, are getting ugly.

Despite more than a year of bargaining, Shaun Darby, president of the Pierce County Deputy Sheriffs Independent Guild, says they are nowhere near reaching an agreement that includes fair compensation for deputies working conditions.

The guild wants a contract that puts deputies pay on par with other policing agencies in Pierce County to better recruit and retain deputies. Staffing levels at the Sheriffs Office havent kept pace with the growth of the countys population, census and county data shows. Without sufficiently competitive pay to attract more law enforcement officers to work for the Sheriffs Office, Darby argues, deputies and Pierce County residents are less safe.

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Thats not an uncommon conflict in law enforcement contract negotiations, but the tenor of talks between the guild and the county appear to be further chilling the relationship between the Sheriffs Office and the countys top elected leader, Executive Ryan Mello.

Darby said the guild has specifically been dealing with Mello in bargaining and said the negotiations have been difficult and disrespectful. On Monday, Sheriff Keith Swank chimed in with his support of the guild while also calling out Mello.

Mello does not respect the men and women of the Pierce County Sheriffs Office, Swank wrote on his X account late Monday night. He refuses to give them a fair contract. He thinks he can bully these warriors.

Asked to respond to Swanks statements, Mello told The News Tribune on Wednesday that the countys labor-relations team would continue to focus its efforts on the bargaining process with its labor partners at the Deputy Sheriffs Guild.

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I am disappointed that the Sheriff is making false and misleading statements about my position and bringing this collective bargaining out of the appropriate forum established by State law  which is the bargaining table, Mello wrote in a statement to The News Tribune. He could not be more wrong  as I have demonstrated in numerous ways and numerous times, I am relentlessly supportive of our men and women who serve in the Sheriffs Department.

A Pierce County spokesperson, Libby Catalinich, said Tuesday that public safety is one of Mellos top priorities, and the current proposal to the guild includes significant pay increases  10 percent over three years, according to Darby  and benefits that are competitive and sustainable.

Ryan Mello during a Pierce County Council meeting, Tuesday, July 25, 2023, in Tacoma. Mello was elected to be Pierce County Executive in 2024. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com

Swank recently clashed with Mello over limits to law enforcements ability to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, a restriction that is enshrined through the Keep Washington Working Act, a bipartisan state law passed in 2019 that determined a persons immigration status isnt a matter for police action.

Swank has called the law unconstitutional. In April he traveled to Washington, D.C.  at his own expense, according to the county  with other sheriffs from across Washington to draw attention to what he sees as a conflict between state and federal law.

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I want to apologize in advance if this contract negotiation issue is going on because the executive has a personal or political issue with me, Swank said in a video he posted Monday. I hope thats not the case.

In the video, Swank said he felt Mello was overstepping his authority by telling him what he can and cant do. He roped in the Prosecuting Attorneys Office, saying it, too, was mistaken in their interpretation of what authority the executive has.

Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank gives remarks after being sworn in in at a swearing-in ceremony at Frontier Park Lodge, on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Graham. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com

Staffing levels at the Sheriffs Office havent significantly increased in more than 20 years. In 2005, the office was budgeted for 228 full-time deputies among other staff, according to county budget documents. In the most recent budget, 229 deputy positions were funded.

Meanwhile, the county estimates that the Sheriffs Office will need to respond to more than 200,000 calls for service in 2025, nearly double the amount the agency was getting in 2000. According to census data, the countys population has grown by more than 220,000 people since that year.

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The math is right there, Darby said. We are underpaid, understaffed and overworked.

Catalinich said hiring and compensating law enforcement was very important to Mello, noting that he was in Olympia on Monday to attend Gov. Bob Ferguson signing a bill that increases state funding by $100 million for counties and cities to hire more officers. She said Mello spent a good amount of time in Olympia during the legislative session advocating for the bill.

I have advocated fiercely for more and dedicated funding for law enforcement and the entire criminal justice system during the last state legislative session and will continue to do so and invite the Sheriff to do the same alongside me, Mello told The News Tribune. I invite him to be a partner in this work and to serve the people of Pierce County together. Not to cause division where it is completely unnecessary. I will always have the back of our law enforcement officers who serve with distinction. 

Should Pierce County residents be concerned?

The next step in contract negotiations is a June 2 vote by the membership of the Deputy Sheriffs Independent Guild on the current proposal. The guild will have results June 7, and Darby said hes expecting an overwhelming no.

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Darby said the guild will then file for arbitration, where a third party would look at the facts and decide what will happen.

Why should Pierce County residents be concerned?

[Residents] want their money to go toward public safety, and when they call 911, they want a deputy to show up, Darby said.

He was referencing a survey of Pierce County residents conducted ahead of the countys 2024-2025 budget process. It found that 73 percent of people who completed the survey ranked public safety and crime as the top priority for the budget, ahead of transportation and roads, homeless and housing.

Residents desire to prioritize putting public dollars toward public safety is reflected in the countys most recent budget, which allocated more than $226 million to the Sheriffs Offices law enforcement work, a nearly 11 percent increase over the previous biennium and representing about a quarter of the countys $896 million budget.

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A supplemental budget approved in December included an additional $2.6 million for employment incentives for commissioned law enforcement officers and corrections officers.

Darby pointed to the Sheriffs Offices delayed response to a noise complaint earlier this year that preceded a shooting outside a house party in the Spanaway area as one potential consequence of not having enough deputies to respond to calls.

A noise complaint about the party was called in about 90 minutes before the shooting, but deputies in the area were responding to higher-priority calls and eventually arrived seconds before gunshots were fired. Two people were killed in the shooting, and four others were injured.

Is Pierce County holding out?

The deputies guild claims Pierce County has the money to approve bigger wage increases but is holding out on them.

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An analysis of the countys current and future financial outlook commissioned by the guild found that the countys general fund revenues exceeded expenditures in four of the five most recent years, resulting in an annual operating surplus that was $14.8 million in fiscal year 2023. It also found the county had the highest possible credit rating from Moodys, a major credit rating agency.

The county is, theyre flush with money, Darby said. They have a lot of money, and they have a very good financial outlook. If they simply could prove that they didnt have the money then I would listen to them, but weve just proven the argument.

In response to questions from The News Tribune, a Pierce County spokesperson pointed out that the guild has received wage increases during previous rounds of negotiations, totaling a nearly 19 percent wage increase since 2022.

The county also said it was important to clarify that compensation comparisons to smaller cities such as Bonney Lake and Gig Harbor dont accurately reflect the operational scale, staffing demands or financial realities of a countywide sheriffs office.

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Darby said the county is saying deputies are being paid just fine when compared to sheriffs offices in Spokane, Snohomish and Skagit counties, as well as some sheriffs offices in Florida.

But he argues that if you disregard the city and county divide and instead look at demographics, crime stats and staffing, the Sheriffs Office is a mirror image of the Tacoma Police Department, with the exception of the much larger area the Sheriffs Office is responsible for.

An entry-level deputy starting at the Sheriffs Office in 2024 would receive net hourly pay of $59.45, according to the guild. In Tacoma, the same entry-level candidate would be getting $69.80.

The Tacoma police unions collective bargaining agreement with the city, which covers 2024 to 2026, included a 13.5 percent base wage rate increase over the first two years and an additional raise in 2026 based on a market calculation.

There is no reason to work for the Pierce County Sheriffs Office on the south side of 96th Street when you can make 30 percent more and have twice as many officers there to help you when youre working on the north side of 96th Street, which is the Tacoma Police Departments jurisdiction, Darby said.
A sign opposing carbon dioxide pipelines stands alongside an eastern South Dakota farm field in July 2024. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

A coalition of groups opposing a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline celebrated the removal of controversial language from the budget reconciliation bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House.

Last week, the groups raised alarms about a provision they said would have allowed federal regulators to approve natural gas and carbon dioxide pipelines over prohibitions in state law.

South Dakota passed a law earlier this year that bans the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines. Eminent domain is a legal process for gaining land access from unwilling owners, in exchange for compensation determined by a judge.

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Chase Jensen, a senior organizer for Dakota Rural Action in South Dakota, was among the activists who called for the provisions removal.

Within days of being introduced, Congress heard loud and clear that seizing federal siting authority for oil and CO2 pipelines was a nonstarter all across the nation, Jensen said in a news release.

The groups are also calling for the repeal of a federal tax credit for carbon sequestration, but have not succeeded in getting that repeal inserted in the legislation. And they remain opposed to a fast-track provision in the bill that they say would allow potential gas pipeline operators to pay a fee of $10 million for expedited federal environmental reviews within a years time.

The proposed $9 billion, five-state Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline does not require that type of federal review, but it does need eminent domain for its proposed route. The project, which would transport ethanol-plant carbon emissions to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota, remains in limbo in South Dakota after the passage of the states eminent domain ban and two permit rejections by the states Public Utilities Commission.

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Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and EU experiences significant growth in 4M2025

In the first four months of 2025, trade between Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) hit the ground running, reaching a whopping $7.19 billion. This marks a hefty jump of 35.5 percent when stacked against the same stretch last year. Imports from the EU hit the jackpot at $6.2 billion, while exports climbed the ladder to $956 million, both showing a remarkable year-on-year leap.

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A sign opposing carbon dioxide pipelines stands alongside an eastern South Dakota farm field in July 2024. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

A coalition of groups opposing a multi-state carbon dioxide pipeline celebrated the removal of controversial language from the budget reconciliation bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House.

Last week, the groups raised alarms about a provision they said would have allowed federal regulators to approve natural gas and carbon dioxide pipelines over prohibitions in state law.

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South Dakota passed a law earlier this year that bans the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines. Eminent domain is a legal process for gaining land access from unwilling owners, in exchange for compensation determined by a judge.

Chase Jensen, a senior organizer for Dakota Rural Action in South Dakota, was among the activists who called for the provisions removal.

Within days of being introduced, Congress heard loud and clear that seizing federal siting authority for oil and CO2 pipelines was a nonstarter all across the nation, Jensen said in a news release.

The groups are also calling for the repeal of a federal tax credit for carbon sequestration, but have not succeeded in getting that repeal inserted in the legislation. And they remain opposed to a fast-track provision in the bill that they say would allow potential gas pipeline operators to pay a fee of $10 million for expedited federal environmental reviews within a years time.

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The proposed $9 billion, five-state Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline does not require that type of federal review, but it does need eminent domain for its proposed route. The project, which would transport ethanol-plant carbon emissions to an underground sequestration site in North Dakota, remains in limbo in South Dakota after the passage of the states eminent domain ban and two permit rejections by the states Public Utilities Commission.

South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  Just weeks after posting one of its most profitable months, the Hawaii Convention Center is now facing a new wave of uncertainty.

A $64 million rooftop repair project is now in limbo, with no clear leadership in place.

Kawaii Kon returns to Hawaii Convention Center for 20th anniversary

April 2025 marked a high point for the Hawaii Convention Center, with a surge of conventions and events, like the states largest pickleball tournament and total revenue for the month at $2.5 million. The success presented at the HTA Budget and Finance and Convention Center Committee meeting.

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We hosted a total of 28 events for the month which was four more than what we had budgeted from the year prior, said Teri Orton, Hawaii Convention Center General Manager.

But at a time when momentum seems to be building, the two year, $64 million rooftop repair project is on hold. The project, focused on repairing severe corrosion and leaks in the rooftop terrace deck, was expected to begin in early 2026 and take nearly two years to complete. Another $35 million in repair and maintenance projects were planned to be done during the two year repair timeframe.

The project was designed to continue operations during construction, with events shifted to weekends and only use of the lobby level event space.

While the renovations present short term challenges the long term vision is to have a revitalized convention center that continues to be a cornerstone for Hawaiis tourism and event sector but who will lead these projects going forward remains to be seen.

Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You

Thats because Isaac Choy, HTA Acting Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Finance, is now on administrative leave amid an internal investigation for reports of a hostile work environment.

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His absence as a key financial decision-maker has created a leadership vacuum at a critical moment.

I think the reality is it is going to be difficult, if not impossible, to gain that expertise because of the lack of historical knowledge from this contract from inception, said James McCully, HTA Board Member.

Committee members asked about an internal plan, to find out there is none.

So, Caroline, when this occurred meaning your recommendation or decision to put Isaac on administrative temporary leave, did you have a solution to this? asked McCully.

The solution was to reach out to the comptroller and ask for assistance from DAGS, said Caroline Anderson, HTA Interim President and CEO.

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Convention Center officials said theyve already had to reschedule large conventions to other venues for 2026 and 2027. They say a delay in construction would impact the islands economy.

We absolutely cannot let the project run behind schedule because it will mean we will have to relocate additional business we have put our word on the line to those customers holding for 2028, said Orton.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

The leadership issue is expected to be discussed in next weeks HTA board meeting.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
By Stefanno Sulaiman and Ananda Teresia

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia is expected to appoint a military officer - once found guilty of kidnapping rights activists - to a top finance ministry post, two sources said, underlining the military's growing role in governing the world's third largest democracy.

The appointment, expected to be formalised by the finance minister on Friday, is the most prominent civilian post given to a military officer since the government in March gave legal cover to such postings, which rights groups fear could take Indonesia back towards authoritarian rule.

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Lieutenant General Djaka Budhi Utama, who was a member of the army's special forces in the 1990s when they were commanded by President Prabowo Subianto, is expected to head the customs and excise unit of the revenue department, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The sources asked not to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to the media on the issue.

The president's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did a military spokesperson. The finance ministry declined to comment.

Past local media reports say that Utama and several members of the special forces' "Rose Team" were found guilty of kidnapping and forcefully disappearing rights activists in the 1990s during the rule of Suharto, the general turned authoritarian president who was overthrown in 1998.

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Utama was sentenced in 1999 to one year and four months in jail after a military trial, according to local media reports, but it is unclear if he served any time in prison. He remained in the military despite the conviction.

"This is a rollback of Indonesia's democratic reform," Amnesty International Indonesia's Usman Hamid told Reuters, also pointing out that, even under the new law, military personnel posted in several civilian positions, including under the finance ministry, had to retire first.

Utama remains in active service.

"This is clear evidence of ignorance towards the victims' rights," said Ardi Manto Adiputra from rights group Imparsial. Utama has also held posts in other ministries, but those were related to security, unlike his expected finance ministry posting.

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"To lead the customs unit, it should be someone who understands the complexity of customs issues," Jahen Rezki, an economist at University of Indonesia, said, questioning the appointment.

Prabowo, who took office last October, was dismissed from the military following allegations of human rights abuses - though there were no formal charges.

(Reporting by Ananda Teresia and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and Kate Mayberry)
A Conyers man has been convicted of trafficking a 17-year-old girl and two women in DeKalb County.

A Superior Court Judge sentenced Terry Florence, 34, to 40 years, with the first 20 years to be served in prison and the next 20 years on strict probation.

He is also required to register as a sex offender.

The 17-year-old victim was reported missing from Kansas City, Missouri and rescued from a Fulton County hotel in August 2020.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The Attorney Generals Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit was able to identify, charge, and convict 13 of traffickers, including Florence, thanks to the rescue of that single victim.

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Investigators were also able to identify three other victims, two women and a 15-year-old girl.

Along with Florence and nine buyers, several others were convicted in the trafficking of the 17-year-old victim, including:

Natasha Bridges, convicted on Oct. 3, 2024 of providing the 17-year-old girl for commercial sex and benefitting financially from the sale of a victim. She was sentenced to 25 years.

Denorris Hutchinson, convicted on June 20, 2024 of harboring and providing the girl for commercial sex. He was also convicted of benefitting financially from the sale of the girl and a second victim who was 15-years-old. He was sentenced to 40 years.

Steven Stone, convicted on June 8, 2023, of harboring and transporting the 17-year-old girl for commercial sex. He was also convicted of benefitting financially from the sale of the girl. He was sentenced to 25 years.

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Police say Zachary Arnold confessed to strangling his daughter Zara, 5, on May 19.

Prior to her death, he allegedly sent his girlfriend a photo of Zara foaming at the mouth and choked her on FaceTime, according to reports from Indy Star, WTHRT and WISH.

The girlfriend did not call 911 because she was afraid of Arnold, she told police.







The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department says that Zachary Arnold confessed to murdering his 5-year-old daughter Zara Arnold on May 19, per court documents cited in the Indy Star, WTHR and WISH.

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Arnold, 41, initially claimed that his daughter had fallen down the stairs when he called 911 to report she was not breathing that morning, according to the IMPD.

He then changed his story while being questioned by detectives with the IMPD, allegedly telling them that he strangled his daughter after having an argument with his girlfriend.

Detectives with the IMPD then spoke with Arnold's girlfriend who confirmed that the two were fighting, and then allegedly said that she saw Zara being choked by her father.

Related: Dad Wanted a Baby Boy. When He Learned His Wife Was Pregnant with a 3rd Girl, He Did the Unthinkable

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The Indy Star and News8, citing court documents, report that Arnold sent his girlfriend "photos of Zara foaming at the mouth," "called her on FaceTime while choking the girl" and "said to call 911 because he was going to hurt the little girl."

She claims that she told him to stop but "thought he was just playing," according to the court documents obtained by the Star and WTHR.

At no point did the girlfriend contact authorities or tell anyone about the photo, what she saw on FaceTime or the threat Arnold allegedly made about his daughter, per the documents cited by WTHR and the Star. The girlfriend later told police that she did not call 911 because she was afraid of Arnold.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Arnold had previously been charged with rape in 2020, but managed to get that charge dismissed in a plea deal with prosecutors, according to a sentencing order obtained by PEOPLE.

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He had also been charged with violating protective orders filed by Zara's mother on at least three occasions, per the sentencing order. It shows that he entered a guilty plea to an invasion of privacy charge just days before his daughter's death.

The judge in that case sentenced Arnold to 360 days in county jail but then suspended all 360 days, allowing him to return home.

That was on May 12, a week before Zara's death.

Related: Man Shoots Son in Face While Pistol-Whipping Him - Then Opens Fire On 2 More Boys as They Confront Him

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Marion County Coroner's Office told PEOPLE that Zara's cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries and her manner of death was homicide.

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Meanwhile, the Marion County Prosecutor's Office is waiting for police to complete their investigation before filing charges against Arnold.

He is now being held at the Adult Detention Center and is facing charges of murder and neglect of a dependent. The IMPD says more charges could be filed, as the investigation is ongoing.

The probable cause affidavit also notes that Arnold blames his actions on his girlfriend, telling detectives that "she did this" to him and her actions are "making him out to be a monster."

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.



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WATERTOWN, S.D. (KELO)  Lake Area Technical College is South Dakotas only public campus that offers cosmetology training. This fall, the school will shift the students coursework and clinical work to four semesters. In the past, those were concentrated into three semesters.

LATC president Tiffany Sanderson explained the change during a meeting Thursday with the South Dakota Board of Technical Education.

Helicopter rescues rancher injured in horse accident

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Sanderson said cosmetology students have been spending 40 to 44 hours per week in their classes and clinical settings. Many of them also work at other jobs during the week. The change will take their required campus time down to 28 to 32 hours per week.

The pace in the past was demanding, according to Sanderson. If a student gets behind, its very difficult to catch up, she said.

The change should help faculty as well, because theyll have more time to provide feedback to students and for planning coursework, according to Sanderson. And, she added, there will be time for a daily lunchbreak.

With the change, cosmetology students will have courses and clinical work spread across a combination of three fall and spring semesters as well as the summer semester. They had been offered in a tighter three-semester track of fall, spring and summer.

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The credits required for a diploma will rise to 41.5 from the current 39.5. The change was recommended by a Lake Area advisory board after conversations with faculty and based on feedback from students, according to Sanderson.

A document explaining the new approach says 75% of the current students supported the change. The document notes that the need for cosmetologists in South Dakota is expected to increase, based on recent Lightcast data that says the hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetology field is projected to grow by almost 10% between 2023 and 2033.

The program will remain at the current capacity of 60 students. Sanderson said the fall 2025 group is full and the school is taking applications for the spring 2026 group. Lake Area has graduated 1,649 cosmetology students since courses there began in 1965.

Among the requirements for state licensure by the South Dakota Cosmetology Commission is that students complete 1,500 hours of cosmetology education, as shown by a transcript from a South Dakota school or certification from another states board.

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The state commission recognizes four South Dakota cosmetology schools: Paul Mitchell The School in Rapid City; Stewart School in Sioux Falls; The Salon Professional Academy in Rapid City; and Lake Area Technical College.

The Lake Area document notes that the total of graduates from the four South Dakota programs does not equal the statewide demand for new cosmetologists in South Dakota. It says there were more than 1,540 cosmetologists employed in South Dakota in 2022 and there currently are 232 jobs available.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
A review of data obtained from the state Department of Finance on yearly transactions from the General Liability Trust Fund between 2020 and 2024 found legal expenses associated with defending Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officers accused of excessive force and failure to protect prisoners from harm or death amounted to $12.9 million, almost triple the settlements paid to inmates or their families. (Alex Cochran for Alabama Reflector)

Note: This story contains a discussion of sexual assault.



Since 2020, Alabama has paid settlements in at least 124 lawsuits filed against correctional officers in the states overcrowded and violent prison system.

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But the legal bills for defending the officers have far outpaced what incarcerated people and their families have received in settlements.

A review of data obtained from the state Department of Finance on yearly transactions from the General Liability Trust Fund between 2020 and 2024 found legal expenses associated with defending Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) officers accused of excessive force and failure to protect prisoners from harm or death amounted to $12.9 million.

May 19: The Alabama Department of Corrections has settled over 90 lawsuits alleging corrections officers used excessive force, costing the state millions of dollars.

May 20: Even as the prison population has declined, use of force incidents in Alabamas prisons have soared, and some corrections officers named in lawsuits alleging excessive force have not only held onto jobs, but been promoted.

May 21: The anatomy of one inmates allegations against a corrections officer, and the aftermath.

May 22: Whos paying for these settlements? You are. Whos getting the most money from this litigation? Attorneys defending corrections officers.

Settlement payments totaled $4.4 million in the same time period. ADOCs total use of the trust fund since 2020 was over $17 million, by far the most of any state agency.

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The General Liability Trust Fund certainly expends more resources for ADOC than any other agency, Daryl Masters, an assistant attorney general with the Department of Finance, wrote in an email, adding that Alabamas Department of Human Resources, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and the Alabama Department of Public Health follow ADOC in terms of costs.

Between these individual complaints, plus defending ADOC in several class-action cases and the U.S. Department of Justices lawsuit over prison conditions, ADOC has spent over $57 million on legal expenses since 2020. State records on Alabama Checkbook report that the majority of the money comes out of the General Fund.

The Attorney Generals office represents ADOC, and directs the defense of state employees who are sued on the job. In 2023, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall stripped ADOCs legal staff of its ability to represent ADOC employees in legal matters.

The Attorney Generals Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

When ADOC employees are sued, they are now represented either by attorneys from the AGs Office, or increasingly, by private lawyers hired by the AGs Office through contracts that do not require a formal competitive bidding process.

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The AGs Office must inform the Joint Legislative Contract Review Committee, which meets once a month, about the contracts. The committee can place a 45-day hold on a contract but cannot permanently block or prevent a legal services contract from going through.

Some members of the committee have expressed concern over ADOCs increasing use of outside attorneys and the mounting costs of litigation.

Its fair to ask, how long is this supposed to go on? said Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa. Are we ever going to get out from underneath this stuff? What kind of statement does it make about our prison system that all these cases are filed and we never hear about results?

Attorneys who represent plaintiffs suing officers with the Department of Corrections cannot directly bill the liability trust fund for their legal services. Some represent clients at no charge as pro bono work, or others establish an agreement with the client to collect payment through a percentage of any settlement.

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Several attorneys who have represented prisoners said the process has become increasingly adversarial as more outside lawyers represent correctional staff and drag litigation out.

Using outside law firms billing by the hour can make the GLTF (liability trust fund) more of a pot of gold for law firms than a fund to compensate victims, said Hank Sherrod, who has represented incarcerated people and their families in civil litigation against officers. These outside attorneys have every incentive to bill the shit out of the fund and sometimes do, getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and depleting the fund.

Wrongful deaths and failure to protect

The vast majority of lawsuits in this time frame involved claims of excessive force, but cases connected to sexual assaults and deaths from violence have proven much costlier to the department, both in legal expenses and settlement amounts.

Some of the wrongful death and failure to protect complaints contain details of horrific assaults.

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2019 sexual assault at Bullock Correctional Facility. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was placed in a dorm with a man who had threatened him. The plaintiff said that he informed the warden that he was in danger, and the warden laughed at him. Another officer allegedly told the plaintiff, maybe they will kill your retarded cracker ass. The plaintiff was later dragged to his bunk and raped by the man who had threatened him. He reported the assault and was taken to an outside facility for treatment where the rape was confirmed. ADOC then brought him back to Bullock and placed him in the same dorm with the same assailant, who raped the victim a second time. According to a lawsuit, the victim suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression, rips and tears in rectum, scars from stabbing, scarred pupil from assault, hearing loss from being kicked in his right ear, chronic pain, flashbacks, embarrassment, blood clots, passing blood clots, nightmares, has been required to undergo surgery and mental health treatment. He continues to fear for his life. A settlement payment for $10,621.70 in this case was issued in March 2024.

2017 killing of Joseph Wood at St. Clair Correctional Facility two months after he arrived at the prison. The complaint was originally filed by Woods mother, who wrote that other prisoners were extorting her son inside the prison, and he was afraid officers were involved. No one has ever told me who was responsible for killing my son, she wrote. I learned the most about his death after ADOC released the body to me for burial. I saw that he had been beaten, stabbed and strangled. The Department of Corrections failed to protect my son I would like them to be held accountable for my loss and how theyve treated my family. After five years of litigation, a settlement payment was issued in 2024 for $125,000. Attorneys representing ADOC officers and staff named in the lawsuit collected over $400,000 for their legal work defending the officers.

The largest settlement amount from the last five years came from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of 28-year-old Travis Sessions, who died from bronchopneumonia, or inflammation of the lungs, while incarcerated at Red Eagle Community Work Center in 2018.

The complaint stated Sessions was sick for days with worsening symptoms, experiencing shortness of breath and coughing up blood, but at least three officers ignored his requests for help for days, until he was dying.

He basically drowned in his own blood when Red Eagle personnel refused to get (him) the medical help he needed, the complaint stated.

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Attorneys representing the three officers in the lawsuit authorized a $600,000 settlement payment to a lawyer representing the mans family, effectively ending the lawsuit. The family received half of the settlement, and the attorney received the other half.

The Sessions litigation lasted over 22 months, with lawyers from the Attorney Generals Office representing the named officers. But other complaints that attributed deaths or assaults to prison understaffing led to more protracted litigation and higher legal expenses.

He basically drowned in his own blood when Red Eagle personnel refused to get (him) the medical help he needed.

 Lawsuit over death of Travis Sessions

One such case was filed by the mother of 29-year-old Terry Pettiway, who was stabbed to death by another prisoner at St. Clair Correctional Facility in 2018. Attorneys from two firms, Sidley Austin LLP in New York, and White Arnold & Dowd P.C. in Birmingham, agreed to represent the mother at no charge, and filed the complaint in 2020.

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According to the complaint, Pettiway was repeatedly stabbed in the back and neck after trying to break up a fight, and left to bleed out while the housing block and the common areas around it were effectively left completely unattended by prison staff. Fellow prisoners attempted CPR but were unsuccessful, according to the complaint.

The complaint accused 13 prison officers, supervisors and ADOC commissioners of enabling Pettiways killing by their reckless or intentional failures to take actions to reasonably protect from violence. The complaint also alleged that on the day of Pettiways death, a single prison guard was responsible for supervising a general population yard, in use by prisoners from eight separate cell blocks. The guard was unaware of the fight that Pettiway tried to break up, and when Pettiway was stabbed 14 to 17 times, the guards were nowhere to be found.

The Attorney Generals Office hired private attorneys to defend the ADOC employees in the lawsuit over Pettiways death. After more than two years of litigation, ADOC settled the case in 2023 for $250,000.

But according to Alabama Department of Finance data, the state spent $502,930 on legal bills from two law firms hired to represent the ADOC defendants, Maynard Nexsen PC in Huntsville and Capell & Howard PC in Montgomery.

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Masters said the states Division of Risk Management encourages parties to settle a case as early as they can, but thats not always possible. Masters acknowledged that ADOCs use of the trust fund has gone up in recent years, but did not provide details about any actions Risk Management has taken to prevent future complaints in ADOC, saying those discussions would be considered privileged.

The agencies themselves are the ones who are responsible for dealing with any particular type of claim, he continued. It would be up to them to make some change or do what they could, within the confines of their own responsibilities, to make corrections or changes to cause those numbers to go down.

When asked what, if any, corrective actions have been taken inside the prisons to prevent future complaints, ADOC spokesperson Kelly Betts provided few details.

It varies depending on the incident, Betts wrote. ADOC follows the corrective action policies listed in the Administrative Regulations.

Transparency and accountability

Alabamas General Liability Trust Fund is a public resource, funded with taxpayer dollars, although not under the same level of scrutiny as the states General Fund budget. The Alabama Attorney Generals Office and the Division of Risk Management make the decisions about how to use the fund, on behalf of the public.

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Beginning in 2022, ADOC has been required by law to publish active litigation in its quarterly statistical reports. The reports indicate the number of complaints filed against ADOC continues to increase  199 new lawsuits were filed in 2024, the highest annual number since the agency began publishing the information in 2022. Previous quarterly statistical reports showed 149 new complaints filed in 2023, and 128 in 2022.

But the information published in these quarterly reports  name of lawsuit, date filed, case number  tells a limited story. The reports do not include the allegations, the nature of the lawsuits, the names of officers or the extent of the alleged injuries.

Another deficient aspect is ADOCs own accounting of legal expenses in these reports. The prison transparency law requires ADOC to include the amount paid to defend litigation against the department, but a review of all available ADOC quarterly statistical reports found no such figures on legal spending.

Under costs, the reports include the same entry for every lawsuit $0  all monies paid to defend are paid by the Department of Finance, Division of Risk Management, via the coverage provided to State employees through the General Liability Trust Fund.

What the reports dont say is that ADOCs premiums to participate in the trust fund have tripled in the last decade, from $1.1 million in 2015 to $4.4 million in 2024, according to data provided by the Department of Finance. ADOCs rate increase has occurred while the agencys overall staff has shrunk by 20%.

All state agencies pay an annual fee to the trust fund, and this participation rate is determined by the Department of Finance, which bases it on the number of covered employees, and also an evaluation of each agencys use of the fund and number of claims year to year, Masters said. ADOCs rate increase has occurred despite the decrease in staffing in Alabama prisons.

The decisions on how to use money from the liability trust fund include whether to settle lawsuits against ADOC officers, for how much, and also the choice to defend officers accused of excessive force, sometimes through years of litigation.

Richard Rice, an attorney based in Birmingham who has represented incarcerated people in excessive force lawsuits, questioned the ethics of such decisions when the allegations in the 124 complaints the state has settled are so widespread and damning.

Are you complicit in perpetuating this type of behavior when its such an ongoing pattern, and youre defending them at all costs? he asked. Our common values tell us this type of behavior is reprehensible. How do we not have those same common values for prisoners?

This reporting was made possible by support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

How we reported Blood Money

When state employees are sued as individuals, Alabamas General Liability Trust Fund is used to pay for their legal defense and any monetary settlement for the plaintiff. This use of the fund was the subject of our reporting, and records helped us identify 124 lawsuits against Alabama Department of Corrections employees that resulted in settlements between 2020 and 2024. Read more about our strategy.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  President Trumps reconciliation bill includes a list of campaign promises. One potential impact includes possible cuts to SNAP benefits.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits food banks like Feeding South Dakota by lowering demand at their locations and getting more people to buy food directly from retailers. Feeding South Dakota CEO Lori Dykstra said President Trumps reconciliation bill could change some of that.

Were hearing 10% of that cost could go back to our state, which could mean $18 million to our state budget, and I just dont know how the South Dakota state budget can sustain an $18 million increase, Dykstra said. That could mean things like cuts to the benefits to the people who need it most.

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Mitchell Mayor asks city to consider prison

Rather than paying 10% of the cost as Dykstra mentioned, Representative Dusty Johnsons office said South Dakota would have to pay 5% of the cost.

In a statement to KELOLAND News, Johnson said he wants SNAP to serve the neddiest Americans.

This bill ensures SNAP recipients who can work (able-bodied adults without dependents) do work, because we know that work is the surest pathway out of poverty. Our bill also prevents states from using loopholes to allow more of their residents to receive benefits. The changes were talking about do not affect pregnant women, seniors, those with disabilities, or those with young children at home. But we must ensure welfare programs are not a handout but a hand up, Johnson said in his statement.

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Feeding South Dakota said the impact would be significant for the state and the people they serve.

For every SNAP dollar spent in our state, we know that that has $1.80 of economic benefit really from farm to the retailer, and so we know that thats important to our state, Dykstra said.

Johnson said as a former state government employee with budget management experience, he understands importance of the state cost share adjustment.

SNAP is federally funded but is administered by the states who check applicants eligibilities and help match them to work opportunities. Without skin in the game, states are less incentivized to help recipients improve their income and livelihood, Johnson said.

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Feeding South Dakota said its already feeling the strain. Cuts to CCC funding have cost the organization nearly 150,000 meals.

Thats the loss in food that were seeing, and thats some of the best food that we get- fresh produce, things like ground beef and dairy products, those are all things that we need to make sure that our families who are hungry are getting nutritious options, Lori Dykstra said.

House Republicans are pushing to vote on the package as soon as Wednesday night.

Johnson said hed like to see enforced work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) receiving SNAP benefits, ABAWD age raised to 64 years old, dependent age lowered to seven years old, geographic areas defined to county or county equivalent and SNAP eligibility removed for non-citizens.

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Johnson voted Yes for the passage of Trumps bill.

Sioux Falls prepares for $25M loss with property tax reform

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Anglo Asian Mining PLC ("Anglo Asian," the "Company," or the "Group"), the AIM-listed gold, copper, and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, is set to begin production at the Demirli copper-molybdenum deposit in Karabakh in the second half of the year, Trend reports via the company.

The company gained access to the Demirli copper mine and production facilities last year, establishing significant operations in the area. The company is now working on restarting production, having identified sufficient copper reserves to justify this move.

"Various technical and logistical challenges need to be overcome in order to restart operations, including ensuring the mine and plant are fully operational and there is sufficient secure storage for its tailings. Demirli is a brownfield site that had been deliberately damaged, and accordingly, as you would expect, unforeseen difficulties are being encountered. However, the group is confident that production can be restarted in the second half of 2025," the statement reads.

The Demirli Contract Area is 74 square kilometers that extends to the northeast by about 10 kilometers from the Kyzlbulag Contract Area and contains the Demirli mining property. The Demirli mining property comprises an open-pit mine, a processing plant, and power infrastructure. The processing plant contains two rotary mills, a copper flotation plant, and a molybdenum plant. The plant is generally in good order, although various sections need replacement or refurbishment. The capacity of the plant is around 6.5 million tons per annum. There is also an upstream tailings dam located close to the plant.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill.  A middle school substitute teacher in Country Club Hills is facing multiple charges after allegedly battering a student.

Cheryl Moore, 68, of Chicago, has been charged with battery and two counts of child endangerment after police responded to Meadowview Intermediate School, located in the 4700 block of West 179th Street, on the afternoon of Thursday, May 15.

Moore left the school prior to police arriving, according to the department. Police spoke with a parent who alleged Moore, a substitute teacher, chased and battered her son.

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The incident was one of the reasons that prompted parents attending a school board meeting Tuesday night. In the meeting, they called for District 160s superintendents resignation.

Parent Jessica Camacho, the mother of a fourth grader at Meadowview, told WGN News a student was allegedly hurt at the hands of Moore after they made a comment following recess.

He said it was after recess. They line up to use the restroom, Camacho said. The teacher was coming out of the restroom, he was saying ewwww, and she got upset.

Previous: Country Club Hills parents demand superintendent resign after teacher incident

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Camacho said her child told her Moore allegedly pushed desks out of the way and started chasing the student who made the comment.

A desk reportedly fell on the foot of a child during the commotion. Moore allegedly reached the child who made the comment after chasing them and battered the student.

She came to the police department to give a voluntary statement before being placed into custody.

The school released the following message to parents on Friday.

There was an incident involving a student and staff member. The events/description highlighted on social media is not accurate. This particular staff member will not be returning. The safety of our students continue to be our priority.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE)  Anderson County is among the oldest counties in East Tennessee, with a rich history that has made a footprint across the world.

In the hallways of Clintons courthouse, Anderson County records archivist Zach Foster holds the keys to the rich history of where he grew up. If you need to know something about your family in Anderson County, Foster has you covered.

I did have someone from California once reach out to me, needing to see her ancestors will from right around the turn of the century. And we actually had it, which was fantastic, said Foster.

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Foster can tell you all about Anderson Countys roots too. It was initially Cherokee land, and was later claimed by people coming over from Virginia in the late 1700s.

Emory Valley Center continues to serve disabled community in Anderson County

The three biggest things for Anderson County: agriculture when we were first founded, that moved into pearling of all things in the 1890s, and, of course, that moved into coal industry, said Foster.

Thats right, finding pearls along the Clinch River was rather lucrative.

The pearling industry was so big because we had people come as far away as Chicago, they would get off on Market Street. That is where the actual merchants would come and buy pearls up from the local guys like crazy. Some of the pearls made it as far as Paris, France to be showcased for how fantastic they were, said Foster.

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The countys history can be found throughout the area, including at the David Hall Cabin, which sits just outside of town. It was built in 1799.

Well, it was built on Emory Road. So, all the pioneers and gunslingers would go right in front of it, so I supposed it was quite popular, said Libby Bumgardner.

The cabin has been in Bumgardners family for generations, with documents and artifacts dating back to the Civil War found inside.

When we got in it and found all those receipts and letters it just told a story, told a history. And I had to save it, said Bumgardner.

ORNL innovation leading the way for over 80 years

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Between Bumgardner and Foster, the rich history of Anderson County is not hard to find.

Theres countless stories in Anderson County, were a county of stories. And I guess Im kind of the steward of that, which is a huge honor, said Foster.

Foster jokes he is related to everyone in Anderson County, but has time to learn everyones names, eventually.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
Israel's embassy in the U.S. has posted a photo of the two victims of the shooting in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2025. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were employees at the embassy. IsraelinUSA/Twitter/Anadolu via Getty Images

The couple who were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday evening had plans to get engaged during an upcoming trip to Israel, Sarah Milgrims father told The New York Times in a new interview.

Milgrim and her partner Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, were leaving an event at the museum about a mile away from the White House when a man approached them and later killed them, police said. The suspect, who has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, said Free, free Palestine after being taken into custody, authorities added.

Milgrims parents were informed of their daughters death by a call from Yechiel Leiter, Israels ambassador to the U.S. Leiter told the family that Lischinsky was planning to propose to their daughter during a planned trip to Jerusalem, Milgrims father, Robert Milgrim, recalled.

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The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, he told the Times on Thursday. But she was murdered three days before going.

Forensics officers investigate the shooting site outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, D.C., on May 22, 2025. DREW ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images

Leiter confirmed Lischinskys plan to reporters, adding that he had already bought an engagement ring for the occasion.

Robert Milgrim said he grew alarmed about his daughters safety after getting news notifications about the shooting. Sarah Milgrim was a fellow at the organization that hosted Wednesdays event at the Jewish museum, prompting her family to worry. Their fears were confirmed when her mother checked their family locator app and realized Sarah Milgrim was at the site of the shooting.

I pretty much already knew, her father said. I was hoping to be wrong.

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Lischinsky was a research assistant for the embassy, while Sarah Milgrim worked on planning missions to Israel, according to The Associated Press. Separately, Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were working to restore relations between Israelis and Palestinians, advocacy groups they were part of told Reuters.

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A tornado, described by the National Weather Service an an EF-4, hit the home of Paul and Gail Cline in Laurel County, Ky. on May 16

The couple both lost an arm during the ordeal, said their relatives

About 19 people in Kentucky were killed during the storm







A couple have both lost an arm as they were sheltering inside their Kentucky home that was devastated by a tornado last week, according to their relatives.

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The doctors said that they lost opposite arms is because they were holding each other, Brandy Bowman told NBC affiliate WLEX about her uncle and aunt, Paul and Gail Cline, who are in their 60s and from Laurel County.

Bowman said that Paul and Gail were in their bedroom when the twister touched down on Friday, May 16. A neighbor heard the couple screaming for help, arrived at their house and pulled them into a hallway, she said.

The family said a person heard Gails screams while searching for survivors in the neighborhood.

"She said, 'I need help. I see an arm down the hallway," Bowman recalled, which turned out to be Gails damaged arm as a result of the tornado.

GoFundMe Paul and Gail Cline's Kentucky home after a tornado touched down on May 16, 2025 Paul and Gail Cline's Kentucky home after a tornado touched down on May 16, 2025

The Clines were taken to London Hospital, WLEX reported. In a GoFundMe established to help the family, Gail, who also has a punctured lung due to fragments in her ribs, is on life support.

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Their home and vehicles and everything theyve worked for is gone, Taylor Baker, the couple's other niece, wrote about her uncle and aunt in the fundraiser description. They are two of the best people you could ever find. My aunts daughter also has stage 4 cancer so they were already battling that before this hit. They need all the help and prayers they can get.

While Pauls condition has improved, Baker told WLEX that her uncle has dementia and hasnt grasped the ordeal.

"All I can't get out of my head is just how terrified they both were. I cannot imagine the fear that was going through their minds, but there's one thing about them, they are godly people," Baker said.

GoFundMe (L-R) Paul and Gail Cline (L-R) Paul and Gail Cline

About 19 people were killed in Kentucky following the storm that hit Friday evening, with a majority of the victims from Laurel County, the Associated Press reported.

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The National Weather Service characterized the tornado that hit London, Ky., as an EF-4, described as violent, Fox Weather reported.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm.

In a Sunday, May 18, Facebook post, Baker offered gratitude to the community for their help.

To my friends who showed up with trucks and trailers and drinks and who were ready to help any way they can, I will never be able to explain to you what it meant to me, she wrote. To the strangers who dropped food and drinks and supplies and helped carry and load.. thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know my aunt and uncle would be so so grateful for this outpouring of help. And for the calls, texts and prayers for my family, Thank you all so much.

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My uncle Paul is stable but did have to have an arm amputated, she continued. My aunt Gail is on life support still and also had an arm taken off. She needs all the prayers she can get.

PEOPLE contacted Baker on Wednesday, May 21, for comment.



Read the original article on People
BENTON COUNTY, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA)  The attorneys for Amber Waterman, a Missouri woman accused of kidnapping and killing a Benton County woman and her unborn child, claim their defendants rights were violated during the murder investigation, according to court documents.

Amber Waterman, 45

(Courtesy: Benton County Detention Center)

Waterman, 45, of Pineville, Mo., is charged with two counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of Ashley Bush and her unborn child, Valkyrie Grace Willis.

Prosecutors previously told KNWA/FOX24 that they are seeking the death penalty.

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On May 21, Jeff Rosenzweig, one of Watermans attorneys, filed a motion requesting that the court agree to suppress statements and evidence related to alleged violations during her upcoming trial in July.

Rosenzweig claimed that on Nov. 2, 2022, McDonald County Sheriffs Office and Benton County Sheriffs Office investigators entered Watermans Pineville, Mo., home without a search warrant.

Arkansas officials react to shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington DC

Waterman was reportedly interviewed twice by Benton County investigators at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. and was never advised of her constitutional right to remain silent, according to the filing.

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The filing says that on the following day, a BCSO deputy and an FBI agent removed Waterman from her home without a warrant, drove away with her and questioned her without reading her her rights.

Waterman was questioned for nearly two hours before being told that she would be taken to Arkansas and booked into the Benton County Jail, where she was finally informed of her rights, according to the filing.

Other agencies in Missouri are also alleged to have failed to advise Waterman of her rights.

Arkansas State Police seize 36 pounds of fentanyl, 86 pounds of cocaine in Interstate 40 traffic stop

On several occasions subsequent to her arrest, Amber Waterman was questioned by employees or contractors of the detention facilities in Greene County and Bates County, Missouri, who were purportedly providing mental health assessments or treatment. These state actors also did not advise Ms. Waterman of her constitutional rights regarding custodial statements, Rosenzweig wrote.

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Rosenzweig also claimed the search of Watermans home, a truck on her property and a nearby outbuilding violated her rights.

Her attorneys request comes after he filed two other motions on April 30, one for a mental evaluation to determine whether Waterman is fit to stand trial, and the other to prevent prosecutors from referring to her federal convictions, along with any statements Waterman made in federal proceedings.

Waterman has a pretrial hearing in Benton County on July 7.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
Activists protest the agenda of President Donald Trump during a rally near the water tower on the Magnificent Mile on Jan. 25, 2025, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

My people are being hunted.

A day doesnt pass now that someone in America, almost invariably someone who is not white, is getting snatched off the street, jerked off a worksite or out of their home, or sometimes arrested after appearing at what they thought would be a routine immigration hearing.

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In Phoenix recently, after learning their court cases were cancelled, multiple immigrants were taken into custody by federal agents lying in wait in the courthouses hallways and parking lot. The Arizona Mirror reported agents were also detaining people that day after hearings at other immigration courts across the country.

An attorney for one of those arrested this week in Phoenix told a local reporter, The majority of them are going to be waking up tomorrow in their own countries.

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President Donald Trumps mass deportation plan is barreling forward with little regard for due process or long established civil and human rights norms.

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The result has been that the lives of thousands of immigrant families are being needlessly disrupted  or outright destroyed  with potentially millions more in danger of falling prey to the presidents white nationalist, anti-immigrant crusade.

The truth is that the overwhelming majority of migrants to the U.S. mean us no harm, even if many of them have violated civil laws by entering the country illegally or overstaying their visas.

Do some immigrants commit serious crimes? Yes. But decades of research has shown that immigrants in the U.S., including undocumented immigrants, commit fewer crimes on average than people who were born here.

Most arrive in this country filled with hopes, dreams and a longing to share in the aspirational mission  as flawed as it has been  of the worlds richest and oldest democracy. But Trump and his Republican abettors would have us believe that immigration authorities are just trying to protect us from what the president falsely describes as a relentless assault by foreign-born rapists, murderers and child molesters who come here determined to destroy our way of life.

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Its Trumps latest Big Lie  the first being his groundless assertion that he won the 2020 election  and the sort of grotesque propaganda the president uses to dredge up popular support for his agenda.

No, Mr. Trump, you lost that election and migrants are not trying to kill us. Rather, its the opposite: theyre largely trying to emulate us. Like most of us, they want to live in a safe, prosperous, law-abiding democratic society, as opposed to the often violent or economically distressed nations they left behind.

Whats so dangerous about Trumps endless torrent of lies about immigrants is that it has already had dangerous  and even deadly  consequences.

The lies he told in 2017 in his first term as president about a Hispanic invasion and open borders were amplified in the manifesto of a man who drove from his Dallas suburb to gun down 23 people in El Paso, most of them were U.S.-born Latinos or Mexicans.

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The lies he told in 2018 about wealthy Jews financing immigrant caravans from Honduras, which the president also claimed were infiltrated by Middle East terrorists, inspired a racist gunman to slaughter 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

The lies he told last year in his run for reelection about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, most of whom came here to flee violence in their homeland, eating dogs and cats forced that community to cower in fear.

Fast forward to today and Trumps foot soldiers in the Department of Homeland Security are jailing immigrants whove dared to exercise their constitutionally protected right to free speech. Theyve deported Venezuelans and others without due process and theyve begun to defy federal courts to end these abuses.

Theyve even deported U.S. citizens to countries theyve never been to.

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Most disturbingly, theyre rounding up droves of otherwise law-abiding men, women and children across the country, people who truly help make this nation stronger every day, despite this administrations early pronouncements that it was going to focus its immigration enforcement efforts on expelling the worst of the worst.

There is a maliciousness about the way Trump is executing his immigration policy. The goal isnt just to hunt down and deport as many undocumented immigrants as possible, but to instill deep-seated terror in the communities they are targeting.

Why else would you deport a Honduran mother and her U.S.-born, four-year-old child suffering from cancer? Why else would unidentified masked agents scoop an international college student off the streets and toss her in prison for the crime of writing an op-ed criticizing our countrys foreign policy, an act that is explicitly protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution?

The very act that I am engaged in now.

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Before our Civil War, escaped slaves were tracked and recaptured by their owners and opportunistic bounty hunters. Decades of Jim Crow saw African Americans stalked and lynched by the thousands. And between 1910 and 1920, scholars say the Texas Rangers pursued and summarily executed, often without having ever been charged with a crime, thousands of Mexican Americans and Mexicans to drive them off property their families had inherited under Spanish land grants before the U.S. invasion of Mexico in the mid-1800s.

You see, Brown people  my people  have been hunted before, but our communities have survived to tell the story.

Were being hunted again, and well survive to tell this story as well.

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Long before he joined the FDA to run the center that regulates vaccines, Vinay Prasad argued against COVID shots for kids. Among his many criticisms of the United States approach to combatting the disease, Prasad has insisted that pediatric vaccines have few benefits for kidsand has maintained that the FDA should never have authorized COVID boosters for them, that the CDC should never have recommended those shots, and that it is malpractice for a doctor to recommend the booster to children. And he has advocated for the CDC removing the COVID vaccine from the childhood-immunization schedule.

Just two weeks into his tenure as the FDAs new vaccine czar, Prasad seems to be taking the first steps toward turning this rhetoric into reality.

Yesterday, he and Marty Makary, the FDAs new commissioner, announced a new framework for COVID-19 vaccines: The agency will no longer green-light new formulations of COVID shots for healthy people under 65, unless companies submit data from new clinical trials that prove the shots worthan unusual ask, experts told me, for vaccines that have already been through the sorts of rigorous studies that scrutinize their safety and effectiveness, and received the agencys authorization or approval. When describing this shift in an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, as well as in a livestreamed FDA press conference, Prasad and Makaryneither of whom has formal training in infectious disease or vaccinologyfocused primarily on the implications for COVID boosters for young, healthy adults. But experts outside of the agency told me that the policy could also prevent most American children from accessing their initial series of COVID vaccinesessentially guaranteeing that kids will first encounter the virus without protection.

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At the press conference, Prasad once again criticized the CDCs 2023 decision to add COVID vaccines to the childhood-immunization schedule, which currently recommends the shots as a two- or three-dose series as early as six months of age. He and Makary did not, however, explicitly address whether their new framework will ultimately cut healthy, young kids off from an initial series of COVID vaccines. (In theory, children with certain preexisting conditions should remain eligible.) But several vaccinologists, pediatricians, epidemiologists, and vaccine-policy experts told me that the agencys stance on the matter appeared to be leaning toward yes, at least without new data from companies that will be extraordinarily challenging to collect, if companies try to collect such data at all.

When I contacted the FDA seeking clarification on whether kids will continue to have access to their first COVID vaccines, I did not receive a response. When reached for comment, Emily G. Hilliard, HHSs press secretary, did not answer my questions about the primary series for kids, but said via email that a rubber-stamping approach to approving COVID boosters in perpetuity without updated clinical trial data under the Biden Administration is now over.

From the earliest days of the pandemic, children have been afflicted by severe COVID at lower rates than adults. We certainly did not see as much pediatric disease as we saw adult disease, Buddy Creech, a pediatrician and the director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, told me. But kids also were not spared the viruss worst effects. After the pandemic began, the virus became a top-10 cause of death among American minors, and it has killed more than 1,000 children, many of whom had no preexisting health conditions.

Kids, like adults, are also vulnerable to long COVID, albeit at lower rates. And they have experienced their own unusual, terrifying manifestations of disease, including the inflammatory condition MIS-C. (MIS-C has become much less common in recent years, but is poorly understood and could return with future variants, Creech told me.) Disease that manifests rather mildly now may change as the virus continues to evolve. And generally speaking, among kids, the younger the child, the higher the risk for severe disease, Sallie Permar, the chair of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine, told me.

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Yesterday, at the press briefing, Prasad noted that COVID hospitalizes children far less often than it does older adults. But diseases also dont have to be catastrophically deadly to warrant a childhood-vaccination policy, Ofer Levy, the director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Childrens Hospital, told me. The death rate for chicken pox, for instance, is extremely low, but the vaccine is available to, and recommended for, all childrennot just those with preexisting conditions. And COVID vaccines for kids, especially in the smaller doses tailored to the youngest age groups, are among the safest we know of, Permar told me. Although myocarditis is a rare side effect of COVID vaccines, it is primarily a concern for adolescent boys and young men, rather than very young kids; in general, the shots side effects include redness at the injection site, soreness, and fever.

In short, kids are at risk from the virus, and a safe shot can lower that risk. Now, though, per the FDA, apparently the risk isnt high enough, Grace Lee, a pediatrician at Stanford, told me. (During the early years of COVID, Lee chaired the CDCs advisory committee on immunization practices, or ACIP, which recommended the vaccines for children.)

Prioritizing vaccination for those at highest risk of a particular disease, as the FDAs new policy would, is sensible. Focused messaging can be an especially powerful way to increase uptake, Creech pointed out. That is sorely needed for people over 65, who are among the groups at greatest risk from the virus and arent staying up to date on their shots. Many of the experts I spoke with also said that recommendations that counsel repeat shots for most Americans dont make as much sense as they used to: Much of the population has immunity from both vaccines and infections, and recent COVID waves have been far more blunted than they were in the past. ACIP was already mulling limiting the recommendations for annual COVID shots to only those at highest risk.

But the question of whether most Americans should be getting COVID shots regularly is fundamentally different from the question of whether healthy kids should be able to get a primary series of shots early in life. Todays children will likely have to contend with different versions of this virus for the rest of their lives, and taking away the option to gain protection ahead of disease is a myopic view of COVID prevention, Gregory Poland, a vaccinologist and the president of the Atria Research Institute, told me. This country generally does vaccinate against every vaccine-preventable disease that affects children in the U.S., as early as is practical and possible. At the very least, parents should have an option, Lee told me.

Without an explicit FDA policy addressing the primary vaccine series for kids, the experts I spoke with said they werent sure how quickly access to the shots would dwindle for children. Current COVID vaccines for children could remain available until the next update. But if the CDC alters the recommendations for children, that could tank insurance coverage for the shots, or pediatricians willingness to stock them. I think this next year is going to be full of confusion, Jason Schwartz, a vaccine-policy expert at Yale, told me. With so much in limbo, manufacturers may not want to keep up production of pediatric shots at all, which are formulated differently and in smaller doses. And pediatric COVID vaccines remain under emergency authorizationwhich the FDA could still strip entirely.

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The FDA has, in theory, laid out a path for future approvals of COVID vaccines, including for healthy young kidsthrough new clinical trials. But those sorts of studies are expensive and laboriousparticularly when they involve children, who get very sick at lower rates than adults and whose parents might not want to enroll them in studies that could offer them only a placebo, Lee told me. The new framework also calls for trials to measure whether vaccines can reduce the risk of symptomatic cases of COVID. But because the shots work best against severe disease, that criterion could set up new shots to fail.

Prasad and Makary stressed that many other countries, including much of Europe, have long since abandoned recommendations that healthy children get COVID shots. But its apples and oranges, Theresa Chapple, an epidemiologist who is on the board of Vaccinate Your Family, told me. We dont have similar health-care systems, and we dont have similar proportions of healthy people. At baseline, Americans are at more riskwhich warrants more baseline precaution.

In the past, the U.S. government has seen fit to restrict or pull vaccines only under extraordinary circumstances: major new safety concerns, a better immunization option, eradication of disease. And those decisions have generally come only after political leaders consulted multiple scientific experts in the field, which Prasad and Makary chose not to do through their agencys typical channels. (The FDAs panel of independent vaccine experts is scheduled to meet tomorrow.) Rather, political appointees with preexisting opinions on COVID vaccines appear to have enacted policy unilaterally. Prasad and Makary publicly went after COVID boosters. But kids first defenses against the virus are likely to be that attacks collateral damage.

Article originally published at The Atlantic
DOTHAN, Ala (WDHN)  A Covington County Circuit Judge has been appointed to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals.

Governor Kay Ivey informed Judge Benjamin Bowden of his appointment on Wednesday.

I am humbled by the confidence Governor Ivey has shown in allowing me to serve on the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, said Judge Bowden. Angie and I are thrilled at this new opportunity. Im a public servant at heart and I look forward to serving the people of Alabama in this important and exciting way. Cant wait to get started!

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Judge Bowden will replace Judge Bill Lewis, whom the governor appointed to serve on the Alabama Supreme Court.

Judge Bowden has served as the circuit judge of the 22nd Judicial Circuit in Covington County since his election in 2016. He previously served as the Probate Judge of Covington County from 2008 until 2016.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com.
TRUMBULL CO., Ohio (WKBN)  A pair of crashes kept the Ohio State Highway Patrol busy in Trumbull County Wednesday afternoon.

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, multiple vehicles were involved in the crash that happened on Route 11 northbound at 82 westbound. Troopers said five vehicles were involved. One person was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The accident was caused by a backup from another crash at the notoriously dangerous intersection of Howland-Wilson Road and State Route 82.

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The cause is still under investigation, but two vehicles were involved. It happened just before 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, resulting in minor injuries to those involved.

Troopers are investigating.

Nadine Grimley and Chelsea Simeon contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
CRAVEN COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT)  The Craven County Sheriffs Office is asking the public for help in finding a suspect.

Deputies are looking for 49 year old Carlos Alfonso Rodriguez. Rodriguez, a New Bern resident, has an active warrant out for his arrest for charges that involve indecent liberties with a minor.

Rodriguez was last seen in the area of Pate Road, where he left his home on foot. There is no description of his clothing that can be provided. He is also believed to have a gun and should not be approached.

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If anyone has information contact the sheriffs office at (252) 636-6620 or Craven County Communications at (252) 633-2357.

To view a picture of the suspect, click here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. Economic diversification is a critical factor for creating jobs, reducing economic instability, and ensuring fiscal sustainability, said the World Banks Director for the Maghreb and Malta, Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye, Trends special correspondent reports.

Speaking during a panel discussion on "From Vision to Action: Economic Diversification as a Lever for Structural Transformation" at the Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Algiers, Ndiaye stressed the urgent need for action.

"I would like to start by launching an alert message so that there is a sense of urgency. Because today, when we look at the next ten years, there will be 1.2 billion young people who will enter the labor market. The estimates of the World Bank show that we will create, if we maintain the current pace, even more than 70 million jobs. So there are 800 million young people who will enter the labor market and who must find work. So there is a sense of urgency. This is where I would like to evoke the dynamics and the importance of economic diversification," he emphasized.

Ndiaye suggests that economies with a bit of variety in their mix are in a better position to roll out the welcome mat for job creation, draw in private investment, provide steady work, and slip seamlessly into the global value chains.

"In some countries there has been a shift in employment in agriculture towards sectors of higher added value. These are countries that have allowed productivity to create a much higher participation rate in employment and to create jobs," he noted.

She also highlighted two additional key aspects of diversification: reducing economic volatility and strengthening fiscal stability.

"We have seen that economies that are diversified are less volatile. In fact, economies that are dominated by a narrow number of sectors, such as the sectors of natural resources, are economies that are subjected to a strong fluctuation and a strong volatility. The latest report of the World Trade Organization, Commodity Outlook, estimates that for the year 2025, the prices of commodities will drop by about 12 percent. And this drop will continue in 2026, where we estimate that the drop will be around 6 percent. So economies that are dominated by commodities will be subjected to a strong volatility," he explained.

Diversification, he continued, helps countries mitigate fiscal risks by increasing revenues from sources beyond oil, gas, and coal.

"So, to sum up, three good reasons for the importance of economic diversification are the urgency to create jobs, the question of reducing economic volatility, and also to ensure fiscal stability," concluded Ndiaye.

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CLEVELAND (WJW)  The FOX 8 I-Team has found the Cleveland Municipal School District sent kids on a trip to Disney World while spending money that could have been used for unique educational projects.

We investigated the story behind the all-expenses paid trip for kids and adults from the Garfield School.

Twelve students in sixth. seventh and eighth grade went, and so did six adults, including the school principal.

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Teen accused of assaulting girls in line at Cedar Point: I-Team

Records show the cost of the trip totaled more than $28,000.

This serves a handful of students and a few lucky adults who got to go on the districts or the publics money, said Errol Savage, a member of the executive board of the teachers union.

Money for the Disney Dreams trip came from the Get More Opportunities Fund.

The application promised the trip would be rewarding well-behaved students to encourage further growth, achievement and well-being.

We found that trip was chosen for grant money over several other applications from teachers for educational projects or trips.

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I think that money could have been better spent. It could have been spent on educational field trips: Gettysburg, Williamsburg, Washington, D.C., the Henry Ford Museum. Savage added.

The other proposals not chosen included money for technology to help kids with learning disabilities, a project to help kids create 3-D rollercoasters and a competition for kids at four schools to learn to think on their feet.

Thats crazy, Polly Karr, a parent and school district watchdog, said.

Examining Perrysburg Schools identity fraud case through a legal lens

She reacted to the Disney trip while pointing out, at another school, the same grant money was denied when the chess club wanted to take a teacher to an out-of-state tournament.

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Theyre denying us from the Get More funds to take the teacher. We applied for a grant for that to take the teacher, Karr said.

In the response to our records request, the school district said an equitable process was used to pick the adults on the Disney trip: the principal, a secretary and teachers, including a union chair.

We tried contacting the principal, but we received no response. No one from the school district is talking on camera. A spokesman stressed only grant money was used. No general fund money, and the principal considered the trip to be something really special.

You cant expect students to always make the right choices, but adults, they could have been guided better, Savage said.

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We also took note of the dates for the Disney trip, which were school days in March  not even spring break.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
Democrats actively oppose the Trump administrations efforts to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, despite the administrations focus on those with criminal histories.

To support their opposition, Democrats frequently claim, almost as an article of faith, that illegal immigrants are less prone to commit crime. "The crime rate among immigrants is far lower than the crime rate among native-born Americans," New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler asserted confidently. "So the whole issue is wrong."

"Immigrants commit crimes in this country at a rate lower than natural-born citizens," added Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. "So, if you want a safe town or a safe neighborhood, you are better off if you have immigrants."

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Speaking on the Senate floor last year, Murphy added, "Whether you choose to want to believe the facts or not, that is not my decision, its your decision, butbut it is the truth."

This tenet is incessantly parroted by the legacy news media. Sample headline, this one from ABC News: "No, migrants are not driving a surge in violent crime as Trump claims." ABC asserted that crime in this country is declining despite an influx of illegal immigrants.

This barrage has achieved its intended goal: A McLaughlin & Associates survey commissioned by the Crime Prevention Research Center on April 29, 2025, reveals that 41.6% of voters believe illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than U.S. citizens, compared to 33.3% who think otherwise.

Like most issues, U.S. public opinion on this question has a demographic and partisan component. Only men, Republicans, conservatives, whites, and those aged 41 to 55 believe illegal immigrants commit more crimes. The majority of young voters (18-29), Democrats, liberals, and African Americans most strongly assert that illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes.

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But is this "the truth"? Are these "the facts"?

The data suggests that the answer is pretty clearly "no."

These claims usually conflate legal and illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants tend to follow the law, but illegal immigrants are a different story.

As to the claim that crime is falling despite a flood of illegals, it depends on whether one looks at just crimes reported to police (the FBI data) or total crime as measured by the Department of Justices Bureau of Justice Statistics. Total crime rose markedly in 2021, 2022, and 2023 (the last year it was available). This surge coincided with a massive flood of illegals. The increases shown for total crime during the Biden-Harris administration are by far the largest percentage increases over any other three-year period, more than doubling the previous record.

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One big problem is that the government databases are a mess in identifying illegal aliens. You can see this in terms of errors in the NICS background checks that are supposed to stop non-citizens with criminal records from buying guns.

There is more direct data linking illegals to crime. Just last year, the Biden administration admitted that 9% of the so-called "non-detained" illegals who were released into the U.S. had criminal backgrounds (662,566 out of 7.4 million released). The problem is that these were overwhelmingly those who had voluntarily turned themselves in at the border, presumably the ones we should be least concerned about. It doesnt count the 2 million "gotaways" we detected crossing the border but failed to apprehend during the Biden administration, nor the unknown millions we never saw coming across the borders. All this also depends on us believing that the Biden administration didnt undercount these criminal backgrounds. And many countries, such as Venezuela, wont provide information on the criminal backgrounds of their citizens.

Last December, a similar estimate for New York City indicated that about 7% of the illegals living there were criminals.

A prior Maricopa County Attorneys Office study revealed that illegal immigrants committed 21.8% of felonies sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court, over twice their proportion of Arizonas population. Mexican nationals alone accounted for 13% of inmates in the state prison system.

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Earlier work that the Crime Prevention Research Center did for the Arizona County Prosecutors Association also found that illegals made up a disproportionate share of the Arizona prison population and that legal immigrants were more law-abiding than the general population. Illegal immigrants are at least 142% more likely to be convicted of a crime than other Arizonans. They also tend to commit more serious crimes and serve 10.5% longer sentences, are more likely to be classified as dangerous, and are 45% more likely to be gang members than U.S. citizens.

Critics like the Washington Post cite academic studies asserting illegal immigrants are relatively law-abiding. There are numerous problems with these studies. None of them account for changes in police, arrest, or conviction rates, or imprisonment in explaining crime rates. They look at states like California but ignore the impact on cutting crime rates from laws such as Californias 1994 three-strikes law during the period studied.

They ignore a key issue: Criminals often target those similar to themselves. Illegal immigrants, therefore, are more likely to commit crimes against other illegal immigrants. These crimes often go unreported - for fear of deportation - and as the local population of illegal immigrants grows, underreporting almost certainly increases. While these studies acknowledge that illegal immigrants who are victims hesitate to report crimes, they neglect to adjust their empirical analyses for this factor, particularly when relying on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting data. Notably, the FBI data captures only about 40% of all violent crimes and 30% of all property crimes reported in the National Crime Victimization Survey.

The medias relentless narrative that illegal immigrants dont commit crimes has shaped Americans perceptions. And these numbers, as bad as they are, likely undercount the number of criminal illegals. Even if some believe undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates, ignoring ICE detainers for convicted undocumented immigrants to prevent their deportation raises doubts about whether they really care about the criminal rate of these illegal immigrants.

John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He served as the senior advisor for research and statistics in the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Legal Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice during 2020-21.
Felonies

The following people were booked into the Lee County-Tupelo Adult Jail in connection with felony charges ending Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Nicholas Deangelo Berry, 51, of Belden, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriffs Office, sentenced for false pretense, felony shoplifting.

Daniel L. Duvall, 43, of Baldwyn, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriffs Office, driving under the influence fourth offense, trespassing.

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James R. Sullivan, 58, of Saltillo, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriffs Office, sentenced for possession of a firearm by a felon, shooting into a motor vehicle.

Willie M. Taylor, 54, of Booneville, was arrested by the Lee County Sheriffs Office, possession of methamphetamine,

Jackie Weaver, 47, no address listed, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, Mississippi Department of Corrections warrant.

Lee County Sheriffs Office

The following reports were filed Wednesday by the Lee County Sheriffs Office.

A County Road 1559, Nettleton, woman said her neighbor has four hogs that are not being properly cared for. She said they have no water and are not getting enough to eat. She said the mud in their pen is so thick they can barely walk. She requested a welfare check.

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A County Road 231, Blue Springs, man said he has been in the hospital for more than a week. While he has been away from his property, several items came up missing, including an anvil, a string trimmer and a grill. He does not know who stole the items but believes more items were taken. He said he will call back when he finds out what else is missing.

A County Road 520, Brewer, man said he heard what sounded like an ambulance drive past with its sirens going around 9 p.m. About five minutes later, he heard 40-50 gunshots. He did not see any cars pass by during that time and did not see anyone. He wanted to report the gunshots since it is abnormal for that many gunshots to get fired at that time of night.

Anyone with information on any of these reports is urged to call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at 841-9041, the Tupelo Police Department at 841-6491 or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at (800) 773-TIPS or download the P3 Tip App and leave an anonymous tip that way.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  El Paso Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius was recently moved to another prison in Palestine, Texas, and is now eligible for visitation, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Crusius was moved to Louis C. Powledge Unit in Palestine, which is two hours away from his hometown of Allen, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of multiple children, also resides at the Palestine prison, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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As we have previously reported, the shooter was flown out to Huntsville, Texas, on Wednesday, May 7, after pleading guilty to state charges last month.

The shooter pleaded guilty to state charges in the Aug. 3, 2019, massacre on Monday, April 21, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Previously, the shooter pleaded guilty in 2023 to federal charges and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms without possibility of parole.

The shooter killed 23 people on Aug. 3, 2019, and injured more than 20 others in a racially motivated attack at the Cielo Vista Walmart.

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ROSCOE, Ill. (WTVO)  A paralyzed Roscoe man is able to walk again with the help of some one-of-a-kind technology.

The technology, C-Brace, uses microprocessor-controlled sensors to adapt in real time to the wearers movements, providing stability and control for individuals with lower limb paralysis.

Since the C-Brace became widely available, people like Brian Lazansky have been able to benefit.

The doctor down there told me that when I first talked to him that I would never walk again, to get used to the wheelchair, said Lazansky. In August 2022, I was injured by a herniated disc that exploded into my back. I was paralyzed. Im a paraplegic.

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Now, Lazansky is proving doctors wrong, one step at a time, all while becoming a trailblazer for new medical technology in the area.

He is probably one of the first ones in the Rockford area, I havent heard of anybody else, said Clinician and Owner of Rockford-based Quantum Clinics, Vikram Choudhary.

Choudhary met Lazansky after he received a cold call from him, searching for answers. That is when they both agreed the C-Brace was worth a shot.

Lazanskys first experience with the brace was an emotional moment.

The first time I put it on, it was life-changing. The first time I walked in here, I almost cried, He explained.

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His clinician said his progress has been unbelievable, but he still has a long way to go.

Its just amazing. So, last week he sent me a picture with him carrying all the grocery bags, [which] just put a smile on my face, said Choudhary.

Its awesome to get up and actually walk around and go out and make breakfast, and I can go down the stairs and do my laundry now, Lazansky said.

Lazansky said with his rejuvenated mobility, he is looking forward to going back to work as a heavy machine operator and spending more time with his daughter.

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A Danish father who came into the United States legally and was in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen has now spent well over a month in immigration detention after he was taken into custody at his citizenship interview in April.

Savannah Eriksen, the wife of 32-year-old Kasper Juul Eriksen, told Mississippi Today that her husband was detained for a paperwork miscommunication from 2015, and I was sent home with no explanation and no idea where my husband had been transported.

Savannah Eriksen said her husband had been going through the process of trying to become a citizen for years.

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The couple met in 2009 when Kasper Eriksen left his hometown of Aalborg, Denmark, to come to the U.S. as a high school exchange student in Starkville, Mississippi, according to the newspaper.

They continued their relationship at a distance after Kasper Eriksen returned to Denmark in 2010. He came back to Mississippi as a legal immigrant in 2013 and the couple married a year later, according to the outlet. During that time, Kasper Eriksen obtained work as a welder, paid taxes and had four children with his wife. The two are now expecting a fifth child.

Kasper Juul Eriksen, a legal immigrant who spent years in the citizenship process, was detained at his final interview. GoFundMe

On April 15, Kasper Eriksen was taken into ICE custody at his final citizenship interview in Memphis, Tennessee.

ICE records reviewed by HuffPost showed that Kasper Eriksen is being held in LaSalle Detention Facility in Jena, Louisiana, the same privately owned detention center where Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil is in custody.

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Speaking from the GEO Group-owned detention center, Kasper Eriksen told the Mississippi Free Press on Tuesday that the law enforcement officer waiting for him in Memphis had a real sense of remorse because they realized it was an unfortunate circumstance.

According to the Free Press, Eriksen believes he was ordered removed for failing to submit form I-751, which conditional U.S. residents who marry American citizens must turn in to apply for permanent residency.

He also recalled that his immigration case manager attributed what happened to the strict immigration policies that have become a hallmark of President Donald Trumps administration.

He told us that, had it been a couple of months earlier, during the previous administration, the situation would have probably been different, he said.

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Savannah Eriksen wrote on GoFundMe that she and her husband were never notified about the paperwork error at any previous interviews or appointments during her husbands citizenship process.

Since his detention, Kasper Eriksen has lost about 25 pounds, the Free Press reports. He has met immigrants from across the world who were detained for different reasons.

Its all different stuff, he told the news outlet. Some people have an expired visa, for some, its a minor or larger crime. I would say that some of these people (are victims) of miscommunication.

According to Savannah Eriksens GoFundMe, her husband has a bond hearing on May 27.

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The bulk of Kasper Eriksens citizenship process was handled by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, with ICE only getting involved when it received an order for his removal, ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams told the Mississippi Free Press. She added, the president and the administration have been pretty clear about increased immigration enforcement.

USCIS spokesperson Matthew J. Tragesser would not comment on the specifics of the case to the outlet, but said, It is the responsibility of conditional residents of the United States to apply to have those conditions removed before their Green Card expiresallowing them to obtain their permanent residence and ultimately citizenship.

HuffPost has reached out to both ICE and USCIS.

Related...
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.

Updated at 5:44 p.m. ET on May 22, 2025.

When Hamas stormed across the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, it knew exactly what it was doing. The group had detailed maps of nearby Israeli military bases and forces, and quickly overran them. But the terrorist group did not stop there. Instead, Hamas advanced into civilian communities, butchering and burning whole families, shooting children in front of their parents, and parents in front of their children. Gunmen executed a grandmother in her home and uploaded the video to her Facebook page for friends and family to see. After discovering a music festival in the vicinity, the group diverted its paragliding fighters to massacre and kidnap the attendees. I killed 10 Jews with my own hands, one Hamas member ecstatically told his parents over the phone.

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As it turned out, the Israeli military was not the primary target of Hamas. It was just in the way of the real target: any and all Jewish people in the land of Israel. The terrorist groups anti-Zionism turned out to be a flimsy cover for its anti-Semitism.

Last night, another assailant used the Palestinian struggle as a pretext to harm Jews. In Washington, D.C., a man named Elias Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed two people as they were exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. There is much we still dont know about this terrible tragedy, but we do know that Rodriguez has been charged with first-degree murder and other crimes (he has not entered a plea), and that witnesses say he confessed to the crime, declaring, I did it for Gaza.

The victims of this atrocity happened to be staff members at the Israeli embassy. But the gathering they attended was not an Israeli-embassy event, and it was not held in the Israeli embassy: It was a gathering of Jews at a Jewish institution. Rodriguez went to an American Jewish Committee event for young professionals and allegedly executed two people leaving the venue. Police believe the shooter targeted the event but had not singled out any individual before arriving, The Washington Post reported. It seems to have been mere happenstance that left the Israeli-embassy staffers dead and not someone else.

One of the victims, Sarah Milgrim, was actually American. The other victim, Yaron Lischinsky, was born to a Jewish father and a Christian mother, and the family lived for a time in Nuremberg, Germany, a place with a dark legacy of anti-Semitism, before returning to Israel when Yaron was 16.

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Like Hamas, the perpetrator wrapped his anti-Semitic animus in the disguise of the Palestinian struggle, reportedly pulling out a keffiyeh and shouting, Free Palestine! But his depraved actions, like theirs, expose the lie of his lofty words. Neither Palestine nor Israel will ever truly be free until their societies are liberated from megalomaniacal men who perpetrate demonic acts in their name.

The event that Rodriguez targeted reportedly featured speakers discussing humanitarian diplomacy for crises throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Rodriguez did nothing last night for Palestinians. His alleged decision to murder guests at an AJC event suggests that what he wanted was simply to hurt Jews.

Like other forms of bigotry, the problem of anti-Jewish prejudice will not be resolved by its targets. Anti-Semitism will not be expunged by the 0.2 percent of the world that is Jewish, but by the 99.8 percent that is not. The FBI and Metropolitan Police Department are investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime. But the larger question today is: Will our society provide excuses and justifications that fuel further anti-Jewish violence, or will it choose to stand against those who use such pretexts to brutalize Jews the way theyve been brutalized for centuries?

Article originally published at The Atlantic
EBENSBURG, Pa.  The use of deadly force in a Johnstown shooting that killed two people last year was justified, the Cambria County District Attorneys Office said Tuesday.

Haneef K. White, 25, and Janine F. Whitaker, 41, died as a result of a gunshot that was fired June 4, 2024, at a vehicle from a residence on Plum Street in the citys Woodvale section.

Evidence collected and reviewed by the Cambria County District Attorneys Office indicated that White opened fire from the vehicle toward a residence, the DAs office said in a press release.

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Several others, including Whitaker, were in the vehicle.

In response to multiple shots being fired, one shot was fired at the vehicle from a residence, which struck White and then Whitaker, causing fatal injuries to both of them, the press release said.

District Attorney Greg Neugebauer said that based on the evidence and Pennsylvania law, the use of force was justified, and criminal charges will not be filed relative to the deaths of White and Whitaker.

The law provides individuals with the right to use force to protect themselves and others in response to deadly force, Neugebauer said in the press release.

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In this specific case, the commonwealth cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the use of force in this instance is not justified, and we are thereby constrained to not file charges in this matter. The evidence supports that the firing of a shot in response to multiple shots was justified in the protection of self and/or others.

These decisions are not taken lightly, and we offer our thoughts and prayers to the people who loved and cared for both Janine Whitaker and Haneef White.
UPDATE: Testimony ended Thursday during a bench trial involving a civil lawsuit naming the City of Davenport among the defendants.

Earlier this week and on Thursday, current and past staff for the City of Davenport testified in a trial in Scott County Court on allegations that the city violated state open meetings laws.

Brian Krupp, deputy city clerk, testified Thursday morning on how attendance is taken for regular council meetings and special sessions. He said in response to questioning that several employees with the city have access to the program that creates council agendas, including Public Works Department staff, former city attorney Tom Warner and himself. He said the minutes from the closed city council session on October 4, 2024 were in a sealed envelope.

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Krupp also said that while council members may call in to attend regular meetings, they may not call in during special sessions because the city and council cant guarantee who may be in the room at the time.

Brian Heyer, retired assistant city attorney, testified again Thursday afternoon. He said he filled out the attendance form and attended the closed session on October 4, 2024. He said that after the council reassembled after the closed session, a motion was made to approve the settlements for Corrin Spiegel, Tiffany Thorndike and Samantha Torres.

After Heyer was excused from testimony, both sides announced they had no further witnesses. Judge Jeffrey McDaniel asked both sides to prepare written closing statements, saying it was more efficient. The parties have a deadline of June 6 to file their written closing statements.

EARLIER: City of Davenport leaders testified Wednesday in a Scott County Court trial after allegations that the City of Davenport violated state law.

Corrin Spiegel (City of Davenport)

Mayor Mike Matson and other city leaders, including Alderperson Marion Meginnis, took the stand Wednesday, as did retired assistant city attorney Brian Heyer.

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In January 2024, Dr. Allen L. Diercks, who lives in Bettendorf and owns property in Davenport, filed a petition about the open meetings act and settlements of nearly $2 million with three city employees. In the civil suit, he is represented by attorneys Michael J. Meloy, and John T. Flynn, Scott County Court documents show,

A judge is presiding over the trial, which began Tuesday and is scheduled to continue for four days. (In a bench trial, the judge makes the decisions, whereas jurors make the decisions in a jury trial.)

Read the lawsuit below:

Dierks-lawsuitDownload

Details of the lawsuit

The lawsuit names as defendants the City of Davenport, the Davenport City Council, and City Attorney Tom Warner.

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The suit challenges the execution of three settlement contracts by Warner of about $2 million with three city employees, and says the contracts were signed without prior city council approval in violation of the Iowa Code.

Warner was the corporation counsel for the City of Davenport and was a full-time in-house legal employee of the city, the suit says.

The suit says Corrin Spiegel was the city administrator in 2023 and was hired in 2016 as city administrator, and that Spiegel was Warners immediate job and operational supervisor.

Tiffany Thorndike and Samantha Torres were at-will employees who were supervised by Spiegel and who both worked as executive assistants for the office of the mayor and the city council, according to the suit.

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On Sept. 8, 2023, without prior council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting, Warner signed two separate settlement agreements with Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500 dollars, respectively, the suit claims, saying the council did not vote to approve nor was provided the actual Thorndike and Torres agreements prior to its execution on September 8, 2023.

On Oct. 2023, without prior Council approval voted upon by the Council in an open meeting, the suit accuses Warner of signing a third settlement agreement with Spiegel, for $1,600,000, including $600,000 dollars for lost wages and $1 million for emotional pain and suffering.

The Council did not vote to approve and was not provided the actual Spiegel settlement agreement prior to its execution on Oct. 6, 2023, the suit says.

Each of these three settlement agreements was a Chapter 22 public record upon the dates of their execution, according to the suit.

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The lawsuit claims each of the three executed settlement agreements constitutes a void contract between the parties signing the agreements. The council did not approve any of these three settlement agreements, by a recorded vote in an open meeting, with Thorndike, Torres and Spiegel, prior to the date Warner signed said agreements with the three employees, the suit says.

On Nov. 10, 2023, according to the suit, the city disbursed settlement funds to Thorndike and Torres for $157,000 and $140,500.

On or about Nov. 20, 2023, the suit says, the city announced that Warner was retiring effective Jan. 2, 2024. On Nov. 22, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the settlement agreement executed with Spiegel, keeping the contract, which was a public record, secret from public knowledge and inspection for a period of 47 days, after the date Warner executed the settlement agreement with Spiegel on Oct. 6, 2023.

On Nov. 29, 2023, the city first publicly disclosed the Thorndike and Torres settlements, keeping these contracts, which were public records, secret from public knowledge and inspection for 83 days after Warner executed the agreements on Sept. 8, 2023, the suit says.

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On or about Dec. 4, 2023, Warner was placed on administrative leave by the city, without the City disclosing the reason for Warners administrative leave, the suit says, adding the three large monetary settlements were purposely kept secret, by Warner and Mayor Matson, from the public until after the November 7, 2023 municipal election for Mayor, to protect the incumbent Mayor from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in his re-election bid for a third term in office.

The suit alleges the settlement agreements were purposely kept secret by Warner and the council from the public until after the municipal elections for alderpersons to protect incumbent alderpersons from public criticism and potential loss of electoral office, in their reelection bids.

On Dec. 13, 2023, the council held an executive session to discuss strategy with counsel in matters involving litigation, according to the lawsuit, which says a a secret (executive) session was held after the mayor adjourned the regular council meeting in a session involving litigation.

According to the suit, At the conclusion of the secret (executive) session held on Dec. 13, 2023, the council, by vote of 6 to 1 (3 council persons not voting), voted to ratify the three settlements.

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In the suit, Diercks requests that the court:

Declare these three employee settlement agreements were void and could not be ratified by the council on Dec. 13, 2023, after they were executed.

Schedule an oral hearing on this matter before the court and, after the hearing, declare that the Councils December 13, 2023 ratification was erroneous, illegal, arbitrary and capricious and was void.

Schedule a trial on the Declaratory Judgment action, the Open Meetings count and the Certiorari count.

Declare that Warners actions in signing the three contracts and the Councils actions to ratify these three contracts on Dec. 13, 2023 were each illegal,  erroneous and void.

Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council failed to follow statutes.

Find that Warner, the City of Davenport and the Council violated the Iowa Code.

Find that the City of Davenport and Warner violated the Davenport City Code on the stipulated settlement amounts that are allowed by Warner to sign.

Find that Warner is personally liable for unlawfully signing the three contracts and causing the three extravagant monetary payments made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres.

Declare that the City shall take legal action to clawback all monetary payments made to Spiegel, Thorndike and Torres. (A clawback is a contractual provision by which money already paid to an employee must be returned to an employer, sometimes with a penalty.)

Award Dr. Allen L. Diercks attorney fees for the councils violations of the Iowa Open Meetings Act.

Enter other relief to Diercks that is just and equitable, including court costs and attorney fees.

The suit refers to Chapter 21 of the Official Meetings Open to the Public (see the Iowa Code here) that regulates public meetings.

Read Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code here.

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Read Chapter 22 about open records here.

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Charter supporters and those wary of the eroding separation of church and state heaved a sigh of relief Thursday when an evenly split U.S. Supreme Court blocked the opening of what would have been the nations first religious charter school.

But the reprieve may be short-lived. Both supporters and opponents recognize the constitutional debate over whether publicly-funded charter schools can explicitly promote religion isnt settled.

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Its obviously disappointing, said Nicole Garnett, a Notre Dame University law professor. But the decision  a 4-4 tie  doesnt set a precedent, she said. The issue remains alive and will undoubtedly resurface soon.

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Garnetts novel legal argument in favor of charters being private inspired Catholic church leaders in Oklahoma to apply for a charter in 2023. But ironically, her long and close friendship with Justice Amy Coney Barrett is the likely reason for the split decision.

As The 74 reported in March, Garnett and Barrett met as Supreme Court law clerks in 1998, both taught at Notre Dame and raised their children in the same neighborhood. Josh Blackman, an associate professor at the South Texas College of Law, and a friend of Garnetts, predicted at the time that the case might go to a 4-4 decision.

I feel bad for Nicole, he said. This is her lifes work.

Barrett recused herself from the case, and in a simple one-page order, the justices said the state supreme courts ruling last year to deny a charter to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School stands  for now.

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Mysterious Recusal Could Upend Pivotal Supreme Court Charter School Case

Its a day of celebration and relief, said Robert Franklin, a former member of the Oklahoma virtual charter board who voted against the schools application. I am not so naive [to think] that the matter doesnt find breath again at a later date, but for today, its a day to exhale.

While the opinion doesnt say how the justices decided, experts largely suspect that Chief Justice John Roberts played a central role and sided with the three liberals on the court. Early in Aprils oral arguments, he appeared skeptical of the schools assertion that Oklahoma didnt create or control the school.

The conservative-leaning court, which has increasingly ruled in favor of expanding religious freedom, agreed to hear the case just four days after President Donald Trump took office. Roberts is the author of the three most recent opinions that Garnett and other scholars consider to be a trilogy  a 2016 case over whether a religious school could participate in a state program offering playground resurfacing materials and two cases involving state funds for religious education, in 2020 and 2022. But Roberts is also known for restraint. The potential disruption to nearly 8,000 schools nationwide may have proved to be too much for the chief justice, said Robert Tuttle, a professor of law and religion at the George Washington University Law School.

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In Case the Choice World Dreaded, Justices Appear Open to Religious Charters

The case seemed to many people like a vehicle for expanding the idea of school choice as broadly as possible, Tuttle said. But he speculated that the court  most likely Roberts  recognized the concerns  that this would have the possibility of killing charter schools.

He agrees with Garnett that a similar case could rise to the court, but for now, the matter remains unsettled. Even in cases of a tie, justices can issue their own opinions, something they did not do in this case.

If it were settled, then you would have opinions, he said. But the case presented multiple red flags under the Establishment clause. Thursdays ruling, he said, means that when it comes to faith-based charter schools, the line between religious freedom and government entanglement is unclear. What we know is that the Supreme Court doesnt know it either.

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Choice Supporters to Catholic Charter School Backers: Proceed with Caution

The decision leaves many Catholic families in Oklahoma, especially those in rural areas, without a publicly funded faith-based option. In a statement, Archbishop of Oklahoma City Paul Coakley and David A. Konderla, the bishop of Tulsa, said that they are exploring other options for offering a virtual Catholic education to all persons in the state.

Days before the oral arguments, Starlee Coleman, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, warned the court and the Trump administration that declaring charter schools to be private would threaten funding for students since state laws define them as public.

Others argued that a decision in favor of religious charter schools would compromise civil rights protections since many faith-based schools deny admission or services to LGBTQ students or kids with disabilities.

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Families choose public charter schools because they provide innovative, student-centered learning environments tailored to students unique needs and because they are accountable to families and taxpayers, Coleman said in a statement Thursday. Thats what makes them special, and thats what were here to protect.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the Oklahoma charter school case, likely because of her friendship with Nicole Garnett, a Notre Dame law professor who advised church leaders who created the school. (Getty Images)

The administration, as part of its school choice agenda, has heavily promoted charter schools since January by removing Biden-era regulations and increasing funding. But some experts say states might tweak charter school laws to clarify that charters are public despite being operated by private organizations.

The fact that it was as close as it was is a signal. This is a chance to make some changes because its going to come up again, said Preston Green, an education and law professor at the University of Connecticut. He has recommended that states amend laws to clarify that board members for charter schools are public officials.

Green recognizes that Thursdays outcome may have been a fluke. A recusal such as Barretts is unlikely to happen again. Theres just no guarantee that Coney Barrett is going to side with the liberals. Theres no guarantee that Roberts  or whoever it was  would come out that way the second time around.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 22. A new phase of strategic cooperation has been launched between the Uzbek Scientific-Testing and Quality Control Center (UzTest) and Kazakhstans Joint Stock Company "Center for Trade Policy Development" (QazTrade) to enhance the efficiency of trade procedures, Trend reports.

Both organizations will collaborate on improving trade relations, ensuring product quality control in line with international standards, and reducing technical barriers. Key elements of the partnership include the standardization and certification of products, the exchange of expertise between testing laboratories, and joint efforts to eliminate trade obstacles.

This collaboration is expected to play a crucial role in strengthening economic ties between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, boosting transparency in export-import operations, and ensuring high product quality.

In the interim, the bilateral trade volume between the two nations surpassed the $1 billion threshold in the first quarter of 2025, indicating a robust 10 percent year-over-year growth trajectory.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
May 21, 1950, in The Star: Armed Forces Day was celebrated in Anniston yesterday in grand style, with everything going according to schedule  even the desired weather. Visitors lined the streets downtown long before the parade started at 10 a.m., and thousands of visitors inspected the goings-on at the Anniston Ordnance Depot and Fort McClellan, according to the front-page account. Folks who trained their eyes skyward saw squadrons of bombers flying over the city. Overall, the event Saturday was the first-ever united Armed Forces celebration.

Also this date: Formal organization of the Heflin Calvary Baptist Mission into a church will be held today at 2:30 p.m., with the new church to be called Calvary Baptist Church. It will be the 34th Baptist church in Cleburne County. The minister will be Cole Skelton, a ministerial student at Howard College.

May 21, 2000, in The Star: Todays edition contains details of all the graduation classes of area high schools in The Stars coverage area. At Oxford High School, for example, graduation ceremonies for 208 seniors are to be held in two days at Lamar Field. Co-valedictorians of the Class of 2000 at Oxford are Elizabeth Ann Bernardi and John R. Sudduth IV. The salutatorian is John Bryant. At Wellborn High School the valedictorian is Misty Dawn Phillips and the salutatorian is Charity Summer New. And at Anniston High School, the valedictorian of the 109-member class is Omoruyi Osula and the salutatorian is Crystal Shonte Maddox.
On this date in history:

In 1868, seven members of the Reno gang stole $98,000 from a railway car at Marshfield, Ind. It was the original "Great Train Robbery."

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established Crater Lake National Park in southwest Oregon, the fifth-oldest national park in the United States. The defining feature is Crater Lake, the remains of Mount Mazama, a volcano that collapsed after a major eruption thousands of years ago.

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In 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S president to visit Moscow.

In 1987, a tornado flattened Saragosa, Texas, population 185, killing 29 residents and injuring 121.

On May 22, 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt established Crater Lake National Park in southwest Oregon, the fifth-oldest national park in the United States. File Photo by Mike Doukas/U.S. Geological Survey

In 1990, South Yemen and North Yemen united, forming the new Yemeni Arab Republic.

In 1992, Johnny Carson ended his nearly 30-year career as host of The Tonight Show.

Annika Sorenstam reacts to making birdie on the 2nd hole at the Bank of America Colonial PGA Golf tournament May 23, 2003, in Fort Worth, Texas. On May 22, she became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event. File Photo by Joe Mitchell/UPI

File Photo by Mike Hill/UPI

In 2002, authorities in Birmingham, Ala., convicted a fourth suspect in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. Bobby Frank Cherry, 71, a former Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced to life in prison.

Police guard closed areas near Manchester Arena following a deadly terror attack in Manchester, England on May 23, 2017. Twenty two people have been killed and dozens injured in Britain's deadliest terror attack in over a decade. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for the suicide attack at an Ariana Grande show that left than 22 people dead as young concert goers fled in Manchester. File Photo by Mushtaq Mohammed/UPI

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In 2003, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 59 years to compete in a PGA event but her 5-over-par 145 through two rounds of the Bank of America Colonial tournament failed to make the cut.

In 2011, the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in half a century roared into the heart of Joplin, Mo., with winds of 200 mph. It killed nearly 160 people, injured about 1,100 others and destroyed nearly one-third of the city. Damage was estimated in the $3 billion range.

An aerial view shows the destruction of residential neighborhoods in Joplin, Mo., after a tornado passed through May 22, 2011. File Photo by Tom Uhlenbrock/UPI

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In 2015, voters in Ireland overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow civil same-sex marriage, making it the first nation in the world to legalize gay unions through a popular vote.

In 2017, a suicide bomber killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. More than 500 people sustained injuries.

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In 2020, at least 76 people died in a fiery crash of Pakistan International Airlines Flight PK-8303 near Karachi's Jinnah International Airport.

In 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced they would formally recognize Palestine as a state separate from Israel in an effort to inject renewed impetus into a hoped-for two-state solution to decades of conflict.
LENOIR, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A Lenoir daycare has been shut down, and one of its employees has been arrested following the tragic death of a 16-month-old child this week.

Creative Beginnings of Lenoir was ordered to close by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, May 21, just two days after a toddler went into cardiac arrest at the facility and later died at the hospital.

Now, a 29-year-old employee, Alexandra Lee Coffey, has been arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter. Police said the charge stems from their ongoing investigation, which includes preliminary findings from the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

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Coffey was taken into custody and is currently being held at the Caldwell County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond. Her first court appearance is scheduled for Thursday, May 22.

Photo: Alexandra Lee Coffey via Lenoir Police Department

The daycare had a recent clean inspection, but records show it previously violated safe sleep policies and failed to meet staff training requirements. The state said the emergency closure was necessary to ensure the safety of other children.

We extend our continued condolences to the family of the child and all those impacted by this heartbreaking incident, the Lenoir Police Department said Wednesday.

Police said the investigation is still active and are asking anyone with information to call the Lenoir Police Department at 828-757-2100 or Crime Stoppers at 828-758-8300.

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WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  D.C. police were investigating a double shooting in Northwest on Thursday night.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said officers responded to the 3rd and F streets area for reports of a shooting. There, officers found one male and one female victim.

DC police: Teenage girl accidentally fatally shoots herself while filming video for social media

Neither victim was conscious or breathing.

(Ben Dennis/DC News Now)

(Ben Dennis/DC News Now)

This is a developing story.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live.
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  D.C. police are looking for two men accused of robbing someone at knifepoint on Monday.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said that around 6:10 p.m., a man was inside an apartment building in the 1200 block of Pennsylvania Ave. SE. He was walking to his apartment when two individuals approached him.

One of the people took out a knife and demanded his items. The victim handed his property over, and the two suspects escaped.

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DC police: Teenage girl accidentally fatally shoots herself while filming video for social media

MPD shared the following images of the two suspects:

Anyone with any information about these individuals or this incident is asked to call 202-727-9099 or text 50411.

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(NewsNation)  The two Israeli Embassy staff members who were fatally shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday were set to be engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were leaving an event at the Capitol Jewish Museum  a mile from the Capitol Building  when police say Elias Rodriguez approached a group of four people and opened fire. Rodriguez yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.

Rodriguez was observed by onlookers pacing outside the museum before the shooting. He walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security.

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Global leaders are condemning the fatal attack on 2 Israeli Embassy staffers. Heres what they said

He ran inside and yelled something, said witness John Elleson. I couldnt make it out, what he said. It was terrible.

Lischinsky had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem, Leiter said.

The District of D.C. just last week awarded security grants to 11 nonprofits in the area, which included the Capitol Jewish Museum. The grants were given to boost security.

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WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  A 32-year-old woman from Washington, D.C., was arrested after she allegedly spat on the former interim U.S. Attorney Edward Martin Jr. earlier this month.

The United States Attorneys Office (USAO) for D.C. said Emily Gabriella Sommer was taken into custody on May 22 on a criminal complaint.

Person shot at CIA headquarters in McLean, police say

The complaint detailed that on the afternoon of May 8, Martin was completing an on-camera interview in front of the U.S. Attorneys Office on D Street when Sommer approached him.

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As Martin turned around, Sommer said, Are you Ed Martin? You are. Ed Martin, according to the USAO.

Officials said thats when she lunged at Martin and spat on his shoulder. After the incident, the attorneys office noted that she walked away saying, You are a disgusting man. F you, Ed Martin. My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served.

act of terrorism: leaders from DMV, world react to shooting of couple working at Israeli embassy in DC

During the investigation, authorities discovered Sommers X account, where she made several posts following the assault.

While searching her X account, police discovered that Sommers had reportedly posted the same comment under more than four of Martins posts.

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The repeated comments stated in part, ED, that was me that spit in your face today in front of your not USDC for D.C. Courthouse, that absolutely definitely spit in your face on camera.

Sommer was charged with one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding a government official.

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The Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on whether openly religious schools are entitled under the Constitution to receive public money through state charter-school programs.

By splitting 4-4 on the question, the justices left in place a lower-court ruling in Oklahoma denying public funding to what would have been the nations first religious public charter school. But the deadlock sets no precedent on the issue to guide officials in the rest of the country  and supporters of religious charter schools promised they would try to bring additional litigation to the high court.

The court was short-handed because Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has ties to a clinic at Notre Dame Law School that advised the Catholic Oklahoma school, recused from the case. Its unclear whether she would participate if the issue came before the court again in another case.

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The courts one-page judgment did not specify how individual justices voted, but it appears likely that a conservative justice sided with the courts three liberal justices to produce the deadlock.

The case centered on St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, an online-only institution that wanted to launch as a state-funded charter school. Opponents argued that state funding for the school would violate the Constitutions ban on government-established religion.

Supporters of the school pointed to a series of cases in recent years in which the Supreme Court has allowed or required state governments to fund private religious institutions on par with non-religious ones.

But during oral arguments last month, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that allowing the day-to-day operations of a religious school to be part of a state-run program could create greater entanglement between church and state.

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Those involved fairly discrete state involvement, Roberts said, referring to the earlier cases involving private schools. This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement.

Opponents of St. Isidore said allowing a religious, publicly funded school would create thorny questions related to potential discrimination in hiring and admissions, as well as how the school would deal with teachers, parents and students who might disagree with Catholic religious teachings.

St. Isidore said it would conform to the states curriculum guidelines, but critics said that if the school were approved, other religious groups would request their own schools and some would seek deviations from the public curriculum.

We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Courts decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation, St. Isidores board said in a statement Thursday.

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We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma, the board said. In light of this ruling, we are exploring other options for offering a virtual Catholic education to all persons in the state.

Last year, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that directing taxpayer funds to a religious charter school would violate the state constitution and charter-school statute, as well as the U.S. Constitution.

Thursdays deadlock has the effect of affirming the Oklahoma court ruling. Its a major victory for Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who urged the courts to reverse a state charter board's approval to open St. Isidore.

Drummond warned that funding the Catholic school would open the door to demands for similar treatment for Muslim-run schools.

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This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children, Drummond said in a statement on Thursday.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State applauded the outcome. The Supreme Courts stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state, the groups president and CEO, Rachel Laser, said in a statement. We will continue our efforts to protect inclusive public education. We call on this nation to recommit to church-state separation before this safeguard of democracy and freedom is further attacked.

Conservative groups from around the country had weighed in to defend St. Isidore with the hope of creating a test case that would change the U.S. Supreme Courts interpretation of the First Amendments establishment clause  and clear the way for a new form of public education that supporters argued would advance religious freedom and school choice.

However, the outcome Thursday produced no majority or dissenting opinions to guide lower courts or future litigants. Under Supreme Court rules, when the justices divide equally, the lower court ruling under review is upheld but no national precedent is set for future cases.

"This 4-4 tie is a non-decision. Now were in overtime, Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination."


ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), a Shariah-based multilateral insurer and member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, has announced the signing of a EUR 37 million NonHonoring of Sovereign Financial Obligations (NHSFO) policy in support of an Islamic financing facility provided by Standard Chartered for the landmark NakkasBasaksehir Motorway Project in Turkiye, Trends special correspondent reports.

The policy was signed on the sidelines of the IsDB Group Annual Meetings 2025 in Algiers by Dr. Khalid Khalafalla, CEO of ICIEC, together with Mr. Puneet Sharma, Executive Director, Development & Agency Finance, Standard Chartered.

Spanning the European side of Istanbul, the NakkasBasaksehir Motorway will reduce congestion, cut travel times, and improve logistics efficiencybenefits expected to ripple across Turkiyes trade corridors and manufacturing hubs. By complementing its existing Political Risk Insurance (PRI) cover to equity investors, ICIEC delivers a comprehensive riskmitigation package that promotes bankability, crowds in private capital.
LONDON (AP)  The governments of Britain and Mauritius signed a deal to settle the future of the Chagos Islands, the contested archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, after overcoming last-minute legal hurdles Thursday.

The deal will transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands from the U.K. to Mauritius  though Britain will retain control of the largest of the chain of islands, Diego Garcia, which hosts a strategically important American naval and bomber base.

The two countries reached an initial agreement in October, but it was put on hold after Britain said it had to wait for the approval of U.S. President Donald Trump. The deal also became stuck after a change of government in Mauritius, amid quarrels over how much money the U.K. should pay for the lease of Diego Garcia. The U.S. pays Britain an unspecified amount to operate the base.

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Here's what to know about the disputed islands.

What are the Chagos Islands?

The remote chain of more than 60 islands is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India, south of the Maldives.

The Chagos Islands have been under British control since 1814, when they were ceded by France.

The archipelago is best known for the military base on Diego Garcia, which has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the U.S. acknowledged it also had been used for clandestine rendition flights of terror suspects.

Britain split the Chagos Islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence, and called the Chagos archipelago the British Indian Ocean Territory.

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The U.S. has described the base, which is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel, as an all but indispensable platform for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.

Most recently, the U.S. deployed several nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombers to Diego Garcia amid an intense airstrike campaign targeting Yemens Houthi rebels.

Why are they contested?

In the 1960s and 1970s Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the islands so the U.S. military could build the Diego Garcia base.

In recent years criticism grew over Britain's control of the archipelago and the way it forcibly displaced the local population.

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The United Nations and the International Court of Justice have both urged Britain to end its colonial administration of the islands and transfer their sovereignty to Mauritius.

Why was the deal delayed?

Negotiations on handing the islands to Mauritius began in 2022 under the U.K.'s previous Conservative government and resumed after Prime Minister Keir Starmers Labour Party was elected in July.

In October Britain's government announced that it was finalizing details of a treaty to hand sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius, with the exception of Diego Garcia, which will remain under British control.

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The deal was hailed by then-U.S. President Joe Biden as a historic agreement that secured the future of the Diego Garcia base. But Britain's opposition Conservatives slammed the government for surrendering control of the territory, saying that the decision exposed the U.K. and its allies to security threats. Last year the now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said it posed a serious threat to U.S. national security.

In the beginning of this year Britains government confirmed that the Trump administration was reviewing a renegotiated deal. In February, Trump suggested he was in favor of the agreement when he met Starmer in Washington.

Meanwhile voters in Mauritius ousted the government that made the deal, and new Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam backed away from it, citing financial concerns.

Ramgoolam suggested that the initial deal  which would reportedly see the U.K. pay 90 million pounds ($116 million) a year to Mauritius for the continued operation of the Diego Garcia military base  was a sellout."

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The U.K. government said Thursday a final deal was signed after a court injunction stopping the handover was lifted. Officials said Britain will pay Mauritius 101 million pounds ($136 million) per year to lease back the base for at least 99 years.

The deal must be approved by Britain's Parliament.

What does the deal mean for displaced islanders?

An estimated 10,000 displaced Chagossians and their descendants now live primarily in Britain, Mauritius and the Seychelles. Many of them want to return to the islands, and some have fought unsuccessfully in U.K. courts for many years for the right to go home.

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Chagossians say they were left out of the political negotiations, which have left them unclear on whether they and their descendants could ever be allowed to return to their homeland.

Human Rights Watch has said that Britain's forced displacement of the Chagossians and ongoing refusal to let them go home amount to crimes against humanity committed by a colonial power against an Indigenous people.

Two Chagossian women, Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who challenged the handover deal in the British courts, argued it will become even harder to return once Mauritius takes control of the islands.

The draft deal stated a resettlement fund would be created for displaced islanders to help them move back to the islands, apart from Diego Garcia. But details of how that will work remain sketchy.
Beginning Feb. 28 and concluding May 3, we held 11 in-person town hall meetings throughout Idaho  Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Nampa (2), Boise (2), McCall, Lewiston, Moscow, Post Falls, Boise, Twin Falls  to listen to all Idahoans concerned about the chaotic and centralized agenda of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, writes guest columnists Richard Stallings and Larry LaRocco. (Getty Images)

An Open Letter to Idahos Congressional Delegation:

Beginning Feb. 28 and concluding May 3, we held 11 in-person town hall meetings throughout Idaho  Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Nampa (2), Boise (2), McCall, Lewiston, Moscow, Post Falls, Boise, Twin Falls  to listen to all Idahoans concerned about the chaotic and centralized agenda of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf, left, adviser Elon Musk, joined by his son X Musk, center, and U.S. President Donald Trump appear for an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

At their core, our statewide meetings amounted to a democracy tour that centered on the foundation of the U.S. Constitution and the duty of elected officials to honor their sacred oaths of office. Deep concerns over the rule of law and due process were repeatedly expressed. We heard distinct fear over exploding executive authority and waning influence from Congress. In fact, concerns over possible implementation of martial law were shared as President Trump expands power in defiance of the courts and Congress.

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Attendees repeatedly asked whether the use of the Alien Enemies Act was lawful. Town hall participants queried us about the growing number of constitutional questions before the courts. We were repeatedly asked whether America was in a constitutional crisis. We both affirmed a looming crisis.

Your avoidance of Idahoans has resulted in your further isolation from the common sense and pragmatism of Idahoans.

During our town halls, Elon Musk shared news cycles with President Trump grotesquely demonstrating how $290 million in 2024 campaign contributions can corrupt our elections and buy a seat adjacent to the Resolute Desk. Idahoans expressed shock at how an unelected billionaire took a chainsaw rather than a scalpel to our government.

You would have received an earful on the Musk teams hacking of our most personal data. Idahoans believe they must rely solely on the judiciary to protect citizens rights under the Constitution while Congress stands complicit. Our neighbors clearly know the proper bounds of executive power and the constitutional role of checks and balances by Congress in preventing authoritarians from hijacking our democracy. What is unclear are your views on these important subjects.

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If you had accompanied us, you would have heard a great deal of anger and frustration over the shock and awe emanating daily from the White House. They voiced serious disdain for the performative executive orders, rambling press statements, revenge-based ad hominem attacks on opponents, sycophantic fawning from cabinet members and daily violations of due process. We heard all of this from your constituents.

Idahoans are not fooled by the White House gaslighting strategy of quickly diverting Americans attention from one shiny object to another. It seems like ancient history when you remained silent as 1,600 January 6 insurrectionists were pardoned after rioters disrupted the peaceful transfer of power by violating our Capitol and your offices. You meekly stand by as President Trump upends our 80-year-old international alliances through bullying and belittling. Idahoans dont understand why ALL CAPS intemperance has replaced diplomacy.

Town hall attendees expressed concern that MAGA ideologues and tech-capitalists are gunning for our public lands, thereby restricting our ability to hunt, recreate, graze, hike and cherish our magnificent resources. Current and retired public land managers spoke passionately about their love of country and pride in their special knowledge so important to protecting our natural resources.

Concern by rural Idahoans were shared with us. Cuts to Medicaid could cause closures of rural hospitals despite an ballot initiative approved by 61% of Idahoans to expand Medicaid.

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The lack of clarity on tariff policies is causing chaos among farmers who rely on exports. Similarly, Idaho small businesses appear to be collateral damage on the mis-handled tariff rollouts.

The dairy industry is waiting for the next shoe to drop on immigration. Rural school districts are threatened by vouchers prioritizing urban private schools. An end run on clear water standards can threaten anadromous fish runs. Sources of objective news for rural Idaho through the Public Broadcasting System are headed to the chopping block, creating larger news deserts.

Idahoans stated concerns about dark money in the political system. They equate your silence with dollar-fueled intimidation and raised the Citizens United decision on many occasions. Billionaire cabinet members have been confirmed who appear to be ideologically selected and driven primarily by personal loyalty rather than to the Constitution. Idaho has a strong record on human rights that could be displaced with DEI conspiracy theories and anti-woke messaging. Misinformation is rampant.

Clearly, town hall participants were upset with Democrats and Republicans alike for allowing President Trump to shatter norms, challenge constitutional safeguards, defy court decisions, govern by executive orders, upend decades-old alliances, prioritize loyalty as a primary qualification for public service, attack institutions based on revenge, lie and dissemble daily, and put our economy and retirement security at risk through chaotic tariff gambles.

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Overall, our town halls were centered on protecting our democracy, rule of law and constitution. We listened. We learned. We were inspired by the patriotism and civic concern of our fellow Idahoans who approached the microphones to speak on issues big and small. In each town hall there was a deep commitment to find common purpose to protect our precious democracy now under attack.

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The MAGA movements top economic guru is not happy about the GOPs big, beautiful domestic policy bill passed by the House early Thursday.

I liken it to a death march through a series of choices that nobody really wanted to be making, said Oren Cass, the chief economist of the right-leaning think tank American Compass and a leading proponent of conservative economic populism among allies of Donald Trump.

In an interview with POLITICO Magazine, Cass said there are a handful provisions in the bill that appeal to those trying to move away from Republican economic orthodoxy. But on the whole, he said, the bill is a messy hodge-podge of conventional conservative priorities that wont do much to help Trumps working-class constituencies or the broader public. The centerpiece of the legislation is an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, and it will significantly increase the federal deficit even as it includes deep cuts to Medicaid and food stamp programs for low-income Americans.

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[Its] not something that has an especially coherent logic to it or much prospect of actually accomplishing the things that I think people want, Cass said.

But despite his disappointment with the bill, Cass defended the notion that, in general, the GOPs economic agenda is coming to reflect the interests of the partys increasingly working-class base  even if that transformation is not happening as quickly as Cass would like on Capitol Hill.

I think the trajectory is the important thing, he said.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The House bill looks to me like a pretty conventional Republican economic wish list. Am I wrong?

I think conventional might be a little generous, insofar as a conventional Republican tax package actually starts from a motivating economic idea that people are excited about. This one just seems to be  I liken it to a death march through a series of choices that nobody really wanted to be making. Nobody really has a case for it, and its not clear why its happening. I guess that might be the best that can be said for it.

To the extent there is an animating ideology behind the bill, what do you think it is?

It seems to be that they passed the tax cut in 2017 and it was expiring, and therefore it must be extended. But obviously, there wasnt even especially robust support for that. Its striking the extent to which were not actually hearing a coherent case for why this is something the economy needs, or what relationship it actually has to some important priority or to boosting growth or anything else.

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If theres an interesting shift, its that whereas in the past you would have just said, Well, this thing pays for itself, this time theres a recognition that it does not pay for itself  and we have a fiscal crisis  so we also need to explain how were at least partly going to pay for it. But theres obviously equally little agreement about or enthusiasm for any way to pay for it. I think the process by which they got it over the finish line speaks to how little enthusiasm there is for it and how little coherence it has.

Are there any nuggets that appeal to you as a conservative economic populist?

There are a few things. Within the expiring tax provisions, there were some things that were really important for boosting investment. I think immediate expensing is very important. I think fixing the foolish stuff they did last time around on research and developing expensing is very important. I like to see the Child Tax Credit being expanded, and allocating more resources, relatively speaking, toward people trying to raise families is a very good thing.

But overall, the reality is that we are not going to solve our economic problems if we do not get serious about the fiscal picture and actually reduce the deficit. Thats going to require both reducing spending and raising revenue. If youre not willing to do that, then I dont think you can credibly say youre addressing our economic problems.

Youre among the conservatives arguing that the GOP is becoming the party of the working class, representing this multiracial working-class coalition. Does the bill make you rethink that trajectory at all?

No  I think the trajectory is the important thing. Remember what the discussion looked like last time Donald Trump was elected president and came into office with majorities in Congress, and contrast that to what this discussion looks like. Things have obviously changed a great deal. Theres much less confidence in the 1980-style, supply-side tax cutting, much more concern about cutting safety-net programs and more enthusiasm for family policy and directing resources toward families. All of those things are moving in the right direction.

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On the flip side, the reality is that you have an expiring set of provisions that this set of people by and large voted for the first time around, and you obviously have a president who put a very high priority on extending them.

Isnt it hard to say youre becoming the party of the working class when Republicans in Congress are doing things like SNAP cuts, Medicaid cuts and tax provisions that will contribute to the massive upward redistribution of wealth? Doesnt that make the political argument more difficult?

I dont think it makes the political argument more difficult in terms of the trajectory. The arguments that are being made and the steps theyre taking are different, and the set of people who are speaking in opposition to a lot of it is obviously a lot more prominent than it used to be.

I think its a really interesting thought exercise to ask, If there werent this expiring tax cut sitting here for year one of the second Trump administration, is this what would be at the top of the list? Based on how people are approaching it, the answer is pretty obviously no. Whereas in 2001, with George W. Bush coming in, this was the absolute priority, and with Trump coming into his first term with Paul Ryan sitting there in the speakers office, this was what everybody was excited to do. I dont think Lets do a big tax cut is what would be central to the agenda absent the fact that you had the last big tax cut set to expire right in the middle of this.

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To your point about the political argument, certainly these folks in office would be making their lives a lot easier for themselves if they were attending more to the actual political preferences of their constituents and the country, which are not reflected in the bill.

Why is that happening? Why are the preferences of the voters not being represented in the bill?

I think there are a few things. One is that you have the agenda being pushed by the White House and the things that the White House is saying they want to focus on. Another is that in general, elected officials are kind of a lagging indicator for what is happening in American politics and in an ideological movement. They are the ones who have been around the longest and built their own brand and preference and network around the things that were in vogue 20 and 30 years ago. Those folks are still the ones chairing various committees, and they have obviously committed to doing things a particular way. Broadly speaking, thats why these kinds of shifts always take a long time. You dont just have everybody wake up and say suddenly, Well, I guess I was doing everything wrong.

But Trump seems to have an outsized amount of sway in these negotiations. Obviously, hes not able to unilaterally push things through, but why do you think hes not able to move the needle in a more populist economic direction? Is he just not that invested in the economic populism and is too friendly to corporate interests, or is he not able to or willing to stand up to the anti-tax crowd?

Trump has always had a somewhat ambivalent attitude toward a lot of the more populist economic thinking. He obviously was very focused on tax cuts the first time around, and he has been very focused on tax cuts again this time. I think it was very interesting to see him go on the record a few times saying he was open to raising taxes on higher-income households, you had [Treasury Secretary Scott] Bessent say the same thing. You even had Trump sort of flatly rejecting the idea that George H.W. Bush had lost his election because he raised taxes.

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But at the end of the day, Trump focuses on getting the deal done. One thing they tried was saying, Hey, if we let taxes at the top snap back or create a new higher bracket, does that help get the deal done? And when the answer back from the Hill was No, they moved on to the next thing. So, what youre seeing come out of the final package is a product of a lot of frantic efforts from all sides to make deals to prevent the thing from falling apart, but not something that has an especially coherent logic to it or much prospect of actually accomplishing the things that I think people want.

It seems like the economic populists have won the ideological and rhetorical battle within the GOP, but they are not yet winning the political battles on these things. Is it just a matter of waiting for the tides to shift, or is there a change in your political strategy thats needed to make that happen?

I think there are a lot of different issues across this which is playing out. On trade, obviously, things have already substantively swung massively, and on competition and antitrust issues, things have been completely transformed. On labor issues, youre seeing the administration and the folks theyre appointing and folks in the Senate shift directions.

What about changing the anti-tax orthodoxy, though? That seems to be substantively intact.

The tax element has always been the final frontier on a lot of these issues, partly because it was the ideological dogma that got most deeply entrenched, and also because as a political matter, taxes are a particularly difficult issue. I mean, you have a Democratic Party thats running further and further away from being serious about taxes as well. If you think about the sequences of this transformation in the Republican Party, you would always have put taxes as the last one.

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In my mind, the fact that the discussion about this renewal has been so dramatically different from what the discussion was the first time around  the fact that people were willing to put tax increases on the table as an element of getting the job done  says to me that things are moving on the tax issue.

The counterargument would be that some of that opposition to this bill came from SALT Republicans, who are not exactly economic populists.

I think thats right, but the SALT thing is somewhat of a sideshow. Even if you remove them, you have the same problem anyway, which is a bunch of people actually concerned about the deficit, saying, Wait a minute, you have to pay for some of this. As soon as you try to put the spending cuts in, you have another group of people saying, Wait a minute, Im not voting for a bunch of tax cuts at the top end paired to unpopular spending cuts. You then try to say, Okay, well, what if we dont do the tax cuts at the top end? And you have a different set of people saying, Wait, Im not voting for it if you dont do the tax cuts at the top end. And then youre right back to the beginning.

But the opposition seems to be coming from fiscal hawks, not from people who are objecting strenuously to cuts to SNAP and Medicaid.

Not in the House, but that is where a lot of the objections are in the Senate, even going all the way back to the whole one bill versus two bill debate. We will see where this ends up, but this does not look like 2017. This is a very different party.

Sen. Josh Hawley has publicly drawn a red line of sorts on Medicaid cuts. Would you counsel other Republicans in the Senate to draw red lines on certain tax cuts as well?

Ultimately the red line that needs to be drawn is on the fiscal picture. Were not going to get the budget under control without making spending cuts, but were also not going to get the budget under control while continuing to cut taxes. And by the way, were not going to be successful in getting the spending cuts we need if were cutting taxes at the same time.

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I think the red line should be that no one should be voting for a bill that increases deficits right now. That seems like a very obvious baseline. Which isnt just to say you have to vote for a bill thats going to balance the budget in year one  thats obviously not going to happen  but directionally, you cannot claim to be a fiscal conservative and vote yes on something that leaves us with a bigger deficit tomorrow than we already have today.

You called the 2017 tax cuts an expensive failure. Is this bill doomed to be the same thing, or is there still time and political energy in the Senate to turn it around?

Its far too soon to know what the final version is going to look like, but I think the version passed by the House does not have the elements to be successful.

Even as a matter of straightforward economic policy, all its doing is extending  in often confusing and temporary ways  the set of existing provisions. The best you could say for it is that it is preventing something bad that would happen if you didnt extend the tax cuts.

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The problem is that its very hard to make the case that those bad things will happen. If you go back and look at what happened after the passage of the 2017 tax bill and whether the economy somehow is performing better under those rates, the evidence just is not there, particularly when you look at whats happening on the deficit side.

Again, I dont even see anybody out there attempting to make a coherent case for anything positive that the bill is going to achieve. It would be great to hear what they think that is, and Id be happy to respond to it, but I dont even see somebody telling a coherent story of what they think theyve accomplished here, besides moving on past this thing that they didnt want to have to deal with.




TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Several bills passed during this legislative session could expand the states use of the death penalty. This comes as Florida prepares to execute its sixth person this year. If theres no change, then thatll be the same number of people executed compared to all of 2023.

For one, the state could soon have additional options other than lethal injection or the electric chair, if Gov. Ron DeSantis signs House Bill 903.

DeSantis signs two new bills in Winter Haven

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In the event that our current methods are either unavailable or found to be unconstitutional, then the state can fall back on any method not deemed unconstitutional, said State Rep. Berny Jacques, out of Clearwater.

Jacques proposed the measure that could open the door to options like lethal gas or a firing squad. The U.S. Supreme Court has not deemed those uses unconstitutional.

Jacques also worked on the House version of Senate Bill 1804 that could give prosecutors the green light to seek the death penalty over the human trafficking of children 12 and younger or trafficking those who are mentally disabled.

That will live on with that child for the rest of their life, so it should not be that the perpetrator, the heinous individual gets the live the rest of their life on our dime, he said.

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Maria DeLiberato is the executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

I see no evidence of this making us any safer, DeLiberato said.

The organization leader said a life without parole sentence gives victims and loved ones closure faster. She also said the group has members who are either victims of or connected to victims of heinous crimes.

I certainly understand their sort of visceral desire for it, DeLiberato said. It really, in the long run, doesnt make financial or moral sense when we get it wrong so many times and we can safely house people in the Department of Corrections for the remainder of their natural lives without incidence.

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Pew Research Center finds most Americans favor a death penalty, but they also believe theres a risk.

Two other bills could allow jurors to consider the death penalty over attempted political assassinations and for capital crimes committed at schools, churches, or public meetings.

Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill mandating death sentences for those who are in the country illegally and convicted of first-degree murder. In 2023, the governor signed legislation that ended the unanimous jury requirement for the death penalty.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
The death penalty trial for the man accused of killing a Hamilton County sheriff's deputy by intentionally driving a car into him is set to begin with jury selection on Jan. 12, 2026.

At a hearing Thursday, May 22 in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court before Judge Jody Luebbers, prosecutors and the attorney for Rodney Hinton Jr. scheduled multiple court dates in the case.

Rodney Hinton Jr., wearing a jail uniform, at a court hearing on May 13.

Hinton, 38, wearing an orange jail uniform, was in the courtroom and stood at a podium next to his attorney, Clyde Bennett II, who initially wanted the trial to begin in October of this year. But after a discussion with assistant prosecutors Kip Guinan and Kate Burroughs, Bennett told Luebbers that January 2026 would work.

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According to a Cincinnati police detective's testimony, the incident happened the afternoon of May 2. That is the same day that Hinton and other family members met with Cincinnati police and watched bodycam video of Hinton's 18-year-old son, Ryan, being fatally shot by an officer. The shooting happened the previous day in East Price Hill as police were investigating a stolen vehicle.

Several hours after seeing the video, officials say, Hinton drove to the Clifton area and targeted Hamilton County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson, who was working traffic control for a University of Cincinnati graduation ceremony.

Prosecutors say Hinton drove directly at Henderson as he stood next to a traffic light control box.

Hinton was described as being extremely distraught after watching the video. Bennett previously said that Hinton was not in his right mind and that what happened was "classic, mental illness, criminal conduct."

Scene of the crash that killed Hamilton County sheriff's Deputy Larry Henderson on May 2.

Hinton faces charges including aggravated murder. He will continue to be held without bond at the Clermont County Jail.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Death penalty trial for Rodney Hinton Jr. set for 2026
Ukraines air defence has shot down Russian drones in Kyiv and debris from a Russian UAV has fallen on the territory of a school in the Darnytskyi city district.

Source: Tymur Tkachenko, Head of Kyiv City Military Administration, on Telegram

Quote from Tkachenko: "Debris from an enemy UAV has fallen on the grounds of a school in the Darnytskyi district."

Details: Tkachenko said that there were no casualties and no fire.

At 08:36, the all-clear was given in the capital. The threat to Kyiv Oblast and a number of eastern and central oblasts still remains.

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SACKETS HARBOR, N.Y. (WWTI)  New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officers helped young north country sportsmen late last month.

On April 26, Environmental Conservation Officers in DEC Region 6 assisted youth hunters at the 16th Annual Jefferson County Youth Turkey Hunt hosted by the Sackets Harbor Sportsmans Club.

Spring turkey hunting season begins May 1 in NYS

A total of 11 youth hunters took part in the hunt, harvesting two birds. The young hunters attended a safety course at the sportsmans club in the town of Hounsfield a day before the hunt.

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The course focused on the rules and regulations of turkey hunting, hunting strategies and decoy use, calls and calling, hunting safety, marksmanship, and ethics.

Conservation officers accompanied the youth hunters out in the field despite heavy rains that day.

The New York Conservation Officers Association, National Wild Turkey Federation, and other generous sponsors made donations.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWTI - InformNNY.com.
Andy Weirs bestselling story The Martian predicts that by 2035 NASA will have landed humans on Mars three times, perfected return-to-Earth flight systems and collaborated with the China National Space Administration. We are now 10 years past the Hollywood adaptations 2015 release and 10 years shy of its fictional timeline. At this midpoint, Mars exploration looks a bit different than how it was portrayed in The Martian, with both more discoveries and more controversy.

As a planetary geologist who works with NASA missions to study Mars, I follow exploration science and policy closely. In 2010, the U.S. National Space Policy set goals for human missions to Mars in the 2030s. But in 2017, the White House Space Policy Directive 1 shifted NASAs focus toward returning first to the Moon under what would become the Artemis program.

Although concepts for crewed missions to Mars have gained popularity, NASAs actual plans for landing humans on Mars remain fragile. Notably, over the last 10 years, it has been robotic, rather than crewed, missions that have propelled discovery and the human imagination forward.

NASAs 2023 Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development document lays out the steps the agency was shooting for at the time, to go first to the Moon, and from there to Mars. NASA

Robotic discoveries

Since 2015, satellites and rovers have reshaped scientists understanding of Mars. They have revealed countless insights into how its climate has changed over time.

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As Earths neighbor, climate shifts on Mars also reflect solar system processes affecting Earth at a time when life was first taking hold. Thus, Mars has become a focal point for investigating the age old questions of where do we come from? and are we alone?

The Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance rovers have driven dozens of miles studying layered rock formations that serve as a record of Mars past. By studying sedimentary layers  rock formations stacked like layers of a cake  planetary geologists have pieced together a vivid tale of environmental change that dwarfs what Earth is currently experiencing.

Mars was once a world of erupting volcanoes, glaciers, lakes and flowing rivers  an environment not unlike early Earth. Then its core cooled, its magnetic field faltered and its atmosphere drifted away. The planets exposed surface has retained signs of those processes ever since in the form of landscape patterns, sequences of layered sediment and mineral mixtures.

Layered sedimentary rocks exposed within the craters of Arabia Terra, Mars, recording ancient surface processes. Photo from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Arabia Terra

One focus of scientific investigation over the last 10 years is particularly relevant to the setting of The Martian but fails to receive mention in the story. To reach his best chance of survival, protagonist Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, must cross a vast, dusty and crater-pocked region of Mars known as Arabia Terra.

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In 2022 and 2023, I, along with colleagues at Northern Arizona University and Johns Hopkins University, published detailed analyses of the layered materials there using imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey satellites.

By using infrared imagery and measuring the dimensions of surface features, we linked multiple layered deposits to the same episodes of formation and learned more about the widespread crumbling nature of the terrain seen there today. Because water tends to cement rock tightly together, that loose material indicates that around 3.5 billion years ago, that area had a drying climate.

To make the discussions about this area easier, we even worked with the International Astronomical Union to name a few previously unnamed craters that were mentioned in the story. For example, one that Watney would have driven right by is now named Kozova Crater, after a town in Ukraine.

More to explore

Despite rapid advances in Mars science, many unknowns remain. Scientists still arent sure of the precise ages, atmospheric conditions and possible signatures of life associated with each of the different rock types observed on the surface.

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For instance, the Perseverance rover recently drilled into and analyzed a unique set of rocks hosting organic  that is, carbon-based  compounds. Organic compounds serve as the building blocks of life, but more detailed analysis is required to determine whether these specific rocks once hosted microbial life.

The in-development Mars Sample Return mission aims to address these basic outstanding questions by delivering the first-ever unaltered fragments of another world to Earth. The Perseverance rover is already caching rock and soil samples, including ones hosting organic compounds, in sealed tubes. A future lander will then need to pick up and launch the caches back to Earth.

Once home, researchers can examine these materials with instruments orders of magnitude more sensitive than anything that could be flown on a spacecraft. Scientists stand to learn far more about the habitability, geologic history and presence of any signs of life on Mars through the sample return campaign than by sending humans to the surface.

This perspective is why NASA, the European Space Agency and others have invested some US$30 billion in robotic Mars exploration since the 1960s. The payoff has been staggering: That work has triggered rapid technological advances in robotics, telecommunications and materials science. For example, Mars mission technology has led to better sutures for heart surgery and cars that can drive themselves.

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It has also bolstered the status of NASA and the U.S. as bastions of modern exploration and technology; and it has inspired millions of students to take an interest in scientific fields.

A selfie from NASAs Perseverance Mars rover with the Ingenuity helicopter, taken with the rovers extendable arm on April 6, 2021. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Calling the red planet home?

Colonizing Mars has a seductive appeal. Its hard not to cheer for the indomitable human spirit while watching Watney battle dust storms, oxygen shortages and food scarcity over 140 million miles from rescue.

Much of the momentum toward colonizing Mars is now tied to SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, whose stated mission to make humanity a multi-planetary species has become a sort of rallying cry. But while Mars colonization is romantic on paper, it is extremely difficult to actually carry out, and many critics have questioned the viability of a Mars habitation as a refuge far from Earth.

Now, with NASA potentially facing a nearly 50% reduction to its science budget, the U.S. risks dissolving its planetary science and robotic operations portfolio altogether, including sample return.

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Nonetheless, President Donald Trump and Musk have pushed for human space exploration to somehow continue to progress, despite those proposed cuts  effectively sidelining the robotic, science-driven programs that have underpinned all of Mars exploration to date.

Yet, it is these programs that have yielded humanitys richest insights into the red planet and given both scientists and storytellers like Andy Weir the foundation to imagine what it must be like to stand on Mars surface at all.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Ari Koeppel, Dartmouth College

Read more:



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Ari Koeppel receives funding from NASA.
DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT)  School bus driver shortages are a nationwide problem and here in North Alabama, its no different.

According to Decatur City Schools officials, the system needs at least a dozen drivers to successfully run routes next school year. The departments driver roster is depleted due to retirements and internal transfers.

Co-founder of Decaturs Standing in Power announces run for City Council seat

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Without a boost in drivers getting hired, the situation could be a difficult one.

We would have to look at possibly working on our schedules. Ideally, we would not want to have to change any type of the routes or things like that, but we would look at our bank, we cover sometimes, our mechanics and myself sometimes have to cover, Decatur City Schools Transportation Supervisor Jamie Penley said. Ideally, we would like to build up that utility group to continue to be able to cover our people that may be out medical or whatever the case.

For these bus drivers, the role of taking kids to and from school is not taken lightly. Rod Garrett has been driving buses for 17 years. He calls the job his mission field.

Garrett said that as a driver, you have no idea what a kid is going through when they get on your bus, and thats why he always tries to leave a positive impact on them.

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In the mornings, we are the first person they see, so we have that opportunity first thing in the morning to be able to be a positive influence for them to put a smile on their face, make them feel important, make them feel like they have value, Garrett said. We are also the last person in the afternoon to do that as well.

While fellow driver Coretta House has only been on the job for four years, it hasnt taken long for it to have the same impact on her.

Its an awesome opportunity to really be a positive influence in the lives of so many children, every day you know you are with them for 10 months out of the year, House said. They become your family.

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If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a bus driver, you can contact Decatur City Schools at (256)-552-3000.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA)  A Decatur man has pleaded guilty in a case where he took a gun to his daughters school last year and threatened to shoot the students who were involved in an altercation with her.

WCIA previously reported that Michael Evans, 33 of Decatur, was arrested in December after he went to Argenta-Oreana Elementary School and made his threats. He was charged with three felony counts  intimidation by threatening physical harm, disorderly conduct and unlawful use of a weapon  and one misdemeanor charge of violating the Firearm Concealed Carry Act, which prohibits guns from being on school grounds.

Virginia man arrested in Effingham, accused of business burglaries, lighting car on fire

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Macon County court records show that earlier this month, Evans reached a plea deal with prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon, a Class 4 felony, and the misdemeanor charge of bring a gun to a school.

A sworn statement filed in the case and signed by Deputy Andrew Zigler shed more light on the events at Argenta-Oreana Elementary on Dec. 19, 2024. On that day, Evans was informed that his daughter was involved in an altercation aboard a school bus. He then went to the school and demanded the name of the other student(s) from two staff members.

When informed that they could not tell him the name(s) of the kid(s) involved, Michael said Well, Ive got the video and Im going to find out who did this. I will hunt them down and put a bullet in their head,' Zigler said. (The staff member) indicated that Michael then lifted up his shirt and exposed a black and silver pistol tucked into his pantsMichael continued You think Im (expletive) kidding? Ill find them and their family.'

Investigators determined that Evans had a valid FOID card and a concealed carry license, but neither gave him permission to carry a gun onto school property or threaten to use it.

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Urbana Police release year-to-date crime stats

Zigler said that deputies tracked Evans to a home in Decatur and they arrested him there. The pistol he displayed to school staff was still at his hip, and it was safely removed from Evans person. Deputies found a round in the chamber and three other rounds in the magazine.

During an interview, Zigler said Evans told deputies why he went to the school and that staff refused to tell him who had been involved in the altercation with his daughter. But he presented a different story of the events that happened after.

Michael indicated that when the school staff refused to give him the name(s), he stated, What if I want to go put a bullet in the parents?' Zigler said. Michael indicated that after making the statement, he walked to his vehicle and started to reach for the doorhandle, and that he felt like his pistol was showing. Michael advised that upon feeling like the pistol was exposed, he reached back to adjust his shirt and turned back to look back at the school staff.

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Zigler said Evans told deputies that when he turned back, he vowed to the staff members he would find out who was involved in the altercation with his daughter. He then got in his car and left.

Having now pleaded guilty to two crimes in this case, Evans is due to be sentenced on June 26. As part of the plea deal he made with prosecutors, they will recommend no more than a two-year sentence.

Evans will be released from custody ahead of his sentencing on the conditions that he comply with GPS monitoring and that he stays away from Argenta-Oreana Elementary School.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Azerbaijan and Turkiye have exchanged views on opportunities for cooperation in the directions of development of the Middle Corridor, the Minister of Digital Development and Transportation Rashad Nabiyev wrote on X, Trend reports.

"We met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Turkiye to Azerbaijan Birol Akgun. During the meeting, we discussed the expansion of cooperation between Azerbaijan and Tukiye in the field of transportation. We exchanged views on opportunities for cooperation, especially in the development of road transport, railroad, aviation and the Middle Corridor," the publication reads.
BANGOR, Maine (WHNT)  A Decatur man is accused of sending text messages that showed airline employees personal details and indicated an incident involving a bomb would happen at the Bangor International Airport.

Robert Tyler Wicks is charged with false Information and hoaxes, according to a criminal complaint. Court documents show that because of the threats Wicks is accused of making several flights were impacted or delayed.

Alabama DCNR euthanizes alligator acting abnormally in South Huntsville neighborhood

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The complaint stated that on February 13, 2025, two American Airlines employees received several text messages that indicated the sender had personal details about both people.

One message said, So you like those bots thats a virus being sent to your phone [smile emoji] have fun with that next person Im attending to attack is Mary lol. Good luck buddy in that office I got my plans for you all in that airport guns and s*** ready.

Another message read, Imma definitely do a bomb [bomb emoji] threat this will be something to worry about you ready for some fun gay boy you ready to see what happens being in the office today you wont even notice whats gonna happen to that airport. Tomorrow morning at 10:50 a.m. youre gonna see what happens dead inside that airport buddy.

The agent said that security personnel at the airport immediately responded to the threat, enlisting help from the FBI, Federal Air Marshals Service, Bangor Police Department and the Army National Guard.

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Since the threats were directed at the private phone numbers of airport employees, the FBI found them to be considerably credible. The agent said that due to these details, they believed the sender was someone who had knowledge of the potential target and could gain access to the airport.

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On Feb. 14, someone called the airport line saying they wanted to talk to the bomb squad. The agent said the caller told them, I have a timer on these bombs Im panicking really bad right now. When another FBI agent got on the phone with the caller, they initiated a countdown of when the bombs were supposed to go off.

The documents show that the threats initiated a significant law enforcement response over the span of two days in Maine, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama. Flights from both Allegiant Airlines and American Airlines were impacted.

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According to the complaint, the readiness of the Maine Army National Guard was inhibited due to the main gate being closed for the threat.

After multiple text messages, the FBI was able to identify the number as a TextMe user, dhehefd1016. Agents were able to find 23 messages sent to the AA employees between 11:21 a.m. and 11:47 a.m.

The IP address and phone were traced back to an address belonging to someone with the last name Wicks in Louisburg, Tenn. The location data for the phone number was traced to cell towers in Decatur.

Man driving with infant in backseat charged with DUI by Priceville Police

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The morning of Feb. 14, the sender called the airport switchboard demanding to speak with the law enforcement officer who was conducting the investigation.

The complaint states the caller said, I will surrender I want to talk to the actual bomb person You want to see something happen from up in the sky launched into the airport? Or do you want to see this not continue. Because I want to get this situation fixed here and I want to talk to that man personally.

The switchboard eventually connected the caller to the FBI negotiation team, whom he gave an alias to.

The same day the call was made to the switchboard, law enforcement called the registered owner of the number the IP address traced back to, and the registered owner said they had moved to Decatur with their son, later identified as Robert Wicks.

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Wicks claimed he was directed to make these threat calls by a friend in the United Kingdom named Ethan, but later admitted that was a lie. He said he had placed the bomb threat calls himself and used an alias while doing so.

He told an FBI agent in Huntsville he purposely created new emails to use TextMe and VoizyAI, a phone call bot application.

Man accused of cashing forged check at Decatur business

While he was being interviewed by FBI agents in Huntsville, Wicks admitted that he had an online relationship with an AA employee, who was video chatting with Wicks on February 13. She showed him law enforcement responding to the threats over the phone but it appeared she was filming, prompting investigators to approach her.

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Ultimately, the womans phone was taken by investigators and they ended the call.

Wicks said he got the other AA employees contact info during a previous video chat with her where she was screensharing.

The criminal complaint shows Wicks then consented to searches of the phones they believe he used to carry out these threats, which revealed numerous texts and calls to the airport and other parties involved.

On May 15, a U.S. Magistrate Judge issued an arrest warrant for Wicks, and court records show he was arrested on Wednesday.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com.
The DeKalb County School District announced it was getting ready to adopt a new millage rate, which would be slightly lower than the one in 2024.

According to the district, the 2025 millage rate would be a tenth of a mill lower than 2024, at 22.78 mills.

However, compared to the rollback level of 22.155 mills, the district said the property tax rate would be 2.82% higher.

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Therefore, Georgia law classifies the change as a tax increase, even though the millage rate has declined, officials said.

Before the school district can officially adopt the new rate, they have to hold three public hearings on the tax increase, per Georgia law.

The school district said the new rate would equal about a $156.25 increase for non-homestead properties and a $109.38 increase for homes with homestead exemptions.

The meetings will be held in the J. David Williamson Board Room at 1701 Mountain Industrial Boulevard in Stone Mountain.

The three meetings are scheduled for:

Friday, May 30 at 10 a.m.

Monday, June 2 at 6 p.m.

Monday, June 9 at 10 a.m.

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Clockwise from top left, Democratic Govs. Laura Kelly of Kansas, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Jared Polis of Colorado and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan convene May 21, 2025, via Zoom to oppose Congress budget bill, which is expected to go to a vote this week. (Kansas Reflector screen capture)

A version of this story originally appeared in the Kansas Reflector.

TOPEKA  Total bunk is what Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, called the notion from federal lawmakers that states can backfill potential cuts to public programs, which are part of a Republican budget proposal.

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We dont have the money, Kelly said on a press call Wednesday with Democratic governors from Colorado, Michigan and New Mexico.

The call came ahead of a determinative U.S. House vote expected this week on whats been dubbed one big beautiful bill.

The budget bill could drastically cut public programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Kelly called the proposed bill deeply unpopular. Kelly, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham presented a united front of opposition to the bill.

It is literally a tariff on every American, so that mega  the ultra rich  mega-billionaires and corporations get to have yet another tax break for many folks who already dont pay taxes, Lujan Grisham said.

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The most recent version of the bill proposes around $700 billion in cuts to federal Medicaid subsidies, the largest in U.S. history, and $267 billion less in SNAP spending. A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that states will have to increase spending by a combined $78 million to offset cuts. It also offers complicated tax code modifications and an elimination of taxes on tips and overtime.

The budget office wrote Tuesday that the bill increases resources for households in the highest 10% of earners, while household resources would decrease for those in the lowest 10% of earners.

SNAP in Colorado benefits 584,500 Colorado residents, or about 1 in 10 people in the state, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most of those people are in families with children.

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Lost Medicaid access would cause citizens to choose between which bills to pay and which medications households can afford, Whitmer, the Michigan governor, said.

We should be working across the aisle to make health care better and easier to afford, Whitmer said.

Polis, the Colorado governor, said each proposal this year to cut Medicaid has been dangerous. Echoing Kelly, he said states dont have the money to mitigate cuts and rollbacks to health care.

Theyre basically asking states to do their dirty work for them, he said.

The Republican Governors Association, in a Tuesday letter signed by 20 governors and addressed to President Donald Trump, remained in support of the bill.

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This landmark piece of legislation embodies your powerful vision to bring about the next great American revival, the letter said. It truly delivers on the bold promises all Republicans made to the American people to restore the security, prosperity, and fiscal sanity for our nation.

Medicaid a lifeline

Staff with Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a statewide Medicaid advocacy organization, traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to urge the states congressional delegation to expand Medicaid access. Kansas is one of 10 states in the country that have not expanded Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act to include low-income adults. The states lack of expansion has been billed by Republicans as a benefit in the face of Congress drastic cuts.

That is just false, Kelly said. The fact of the matter is we have left $8 billion Kansas taxpayer dollars back in Washington, D.C., thats been distributed to 40 other states that did expand Medicaid for them to take care of their people and for them to expand their economies, while we sit here in Kansas trying to make do on what weve got.

Millions across the country will lose coverage as a result of Medicaid cuts, said April Holman, executive director of the alliance.

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The alliance visited with people in each of Kansas five congressional districts, speaking with more than 200 Kansans who informed a 12-page booklet that alliance staff gave to each federal representative.

Medicaid is not just a budget line  its a lifeline, Holman said in a news release. We came to Washington to ensure that the voices of Kansans are being heard by federal lawmakers. The proposed House cuts will undermine Medicaid and put lives at risk.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

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Clockwise from top left, Democratic Govs. Laura Kelly of Kansas, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Jared Polis of Colorado and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan convene May 21, 2025, via Zoom to oppose Congress' budget bill, which is expected to go to a vote this week. (Kansas Reflector screen capture)

TOPEKA  Total bunk is what Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, called the notion from federal lawmakers that states can backfill potential cuts to public programs, which are part of a Republican budget proposal.

We dont have the money, Kelly said on a press call Wednesday with Democratic governors from Colorado, Michigan and New Mexico.

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The call came ahead of a determinative U.S. House vote expected this week on whats been dubbed one big beautiful bill.

The budget bill could drastically cut public programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Kelly called the proposed bill deeply unpopular. Kelly, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham presented a united front of opposition to the bill.

It is literally a tariff on every American, so that mega  the ultra rich  mega-billionaires and corporations get to have yet another tax break for many folks who already dont pay taxes, Lujan Grisham said.

The most recent version of the bill proposes around $700 billion in cuts to federal Medicaid subsidies, the largest in U.S. history, and $267 billion less in SNAP spending. A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that states will have to increase spending by a combined $78 million to offset cuts. It also offers complicated tax code modifications and an elimination of taxes on tips and overtime.

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The budget office wrote Tuesday that the bill increases resources for households in the highest 10% of earners, while household resources would decrease for those in the lowest 10% of earners.

SNAP in Kansas benefits around 190,000 people, 87,000 of whom are children, Kelly said. In New Mexico, SNAP has been crucial to reducing child poverty rates, Lujan Grisham said.

Lost Medicaid access would cause citizens to choose between which bills to pay and which medications households can afford, Whitmer, the Michigan governor, said.

We should be working across the aisle to make health care better and easier to afford, Whitmer said.

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Polis, the Colorado governor, said each proposal this year to cut Medicaid has been dangerous. Echoing Kelly, he said states dont have the money to mitigate cuts and rollbacks to health care.

Theyre basically asking states to do their dirty work for them, he said.

The Republican Governors Association, in a Tuesday letter signed by 20 governors and addressed to President Donald Trump, remained in support of the bill.

This landmark piece of legislation embodies your powerful vision to bring about the next great American revival, the letter said. It truly delivers on the bold promises all Republicans made to the American people to restore the security, prosperity, and fiscal sanity for our nation.

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Medicaid a lifeline

Staff with Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, a statewide Medicaid advocacy organization, traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to urge the states congressional delegation to expand Medicaid access. Kansas is one of 10 states in the country that have not expanded Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act to include low-income adults. The states lack of expansion has been billed by Republicans as a benefit in the face of Congress drastic cuts.

That is just false, Kelly said. The fact of the matter is we have left $8 billion Kansas taxpayer dollars back in Washington, D.C., thats been distributed to 40 other states that did expand Medicaid for them to take care of their people and for them to expand their economies, while we sit here in Kansas trying to make do on what weve got.

Millions across the country will lose coverage as a result of Medicaid cuts, said April Holman, executive director of the alliance.

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The alliance visited with people in each of Kansas four congressional districts, speaking with more than 200 Kansans who informed a 12-page booklet that alliance staff gave to each federal representative.

Medicaid is not just a budget line  its a lifeline, Holman said in a news release. We came to Washington to ensure that the voices of Kansans are being heard by federal lawmakers. The proposed House cuts will undermine Medicaid and put lives at risk.
Illustration: Kelly Caminero/HuffPost; Photo:Getty Images

A little over a week after Ana Liss publicly accused then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) of inappropriate behavior in the workplace in March 2021, she received a call from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The Democratic senator from New York wanted to offer her support.

Liss was struggling with the amount of public attention she was getting; she was the third woman to accuse Cuomo of workplace sexual misconduct. That was very significant and meaningful to me, Liss said of the call. She alluded to her own negative experiences with Cuomo when they worked together at HUD [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] many years ago.

By August 2021, 12 women had come forward with their own stories about Cuomo. An investigation by the New York state attorney general concluded that Cuomo did sexually harass multiple female employees and create a hostile work environment for women. Gillibrand, a leading womens advocate, called on Cuomo to resign four months before the AGs investigation substantiated the harassment claims. She was a key voice that helped force a reluctant Cuomo to step down.

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Three years after Cuomo resigned as governor of New York, hes now the front-runner in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor. And Gillibrand has changed her tune: This is a country that believes in second chances. So its up to New York voters to decide if he should get a second chance to serve, she recently told NY1. (Gillibrands office did not respond to follow-up questions about her call to Liss.)

For two decades, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching and relentless in pursuit of the truth. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20  we cant do this without you.

Liss never expected things to reverse course so dramatically. I took for granted that she would continue to be on the side of women who struggled in a toxic workplace environment cultivated by Andrew Cuomo, Liss told HuffPost. I feel ashamed because I felt that I was doing something important. I put a lot on the line.

HuffPost spoke with Liss and two other women who publicly accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, as well as attorneys who represent four other accusers. The three women who spoke with HuffPost said theyre deeply disappointed by Cuomos return to politics and feel betrayed by the Democrats who once publicly supported them.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called on then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) to resign four months before the state attorney general's investigation substantiated the harassment claims. Kayla Bartkowski via Getty Images

Gillibrand and other powerful progressives have given a collective shrug to Cuomos campaign  a sharp turn from the party that was quick to condemn the numerous sexual misconduct allegations against President Donald Trump.

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Many of Cuomos accusers told HuffPost theyre heartbroken that voters have seemingly forgotten their stories or simply dont care anymore. Most are still dealing with the fallout from publicly sharing their experiences, and some are still wrapped up in expensive and emotionally draining litigation.

Its disturbing beyond belief. Its incredibly bleak to me that hes back at all, Lindsey Boylan, the first woman to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment, told HuffPost. He has no shame. But, of course, we live in a time and place that so few bad men in power have shame. Shamelessness seems to be their unique superpower.

Some of the women likened Cuomos well-known bullying and taste for revenge to that of the current president. Karen Hinton, who accused Cuomo in 2021 of making unwanted sexual advances toward her in 2000, described the former governor as the Democratic Partys own Donald Trump.

I think Cuomo, in another timeline, is probably super jealous of Trump, Liss said. They use the same playbook.

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Although Cuomo denies all of the allegations against him, he initially apologized that some of his comments to one female employee were misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation.

Rita Glavin, Cuomos attorney, responded to HuffPosts request for comment in a lengthy email statement. This is America, and anyone sued is entitled to due process and the right to defend themselves, particularly against demonstrably false allegations, she wrote.

The Attorney General bears direct responsibility for this entire mess. She spent $8 million on a shoddy investigation and inaccurate report to pave the way for her own political campaign for Governor, Glavin continued. The Assembly followed suit and spent $6 million on its own equally flawed tag-along report. These $14 million now-discredited political reports spawned civil lawsuits because plaintiffs hoped to use the reports to force quick seven-figure settlements.

Cuomo was the one who initially requested that state Attorney General Letitia James office investigate sexual harassment allegations against him. When the investigation substantiated 11 of those claims, Cuomo called it a sham report and asked the state Supreme Court to investigate James, claiming she manipulated the investigation to pursue a run for governor. (A spokesperson for the attorney general told HuffPost: The former Governor bears responsibility for his own actions, full stop. We stand behind this investigation and its findings.)

A Vengeful Mayor?

Cuomo is currently leading the other eight Democratic candidates with 37% of Democratic primary voters likely voting for him, according to recent polling. New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani is in second with 18%, and the remaining candidates are in the single digits. Cuomos commanding lead is likely due, at least in part, to name recognition.

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But the women who spoke with HuffPost are still fearful of whats to come if Cuomo triumphs. The former governor is widely known for his cutthroat tactics, including late-night angry phone calls to anyone who goes against him.

Cuomos top aide said his team operates on two speeds: Get along, and kill, the Connecticut Post first reported in 2011 and Politico corroborated again in 2021. Many of the women say they are intimately familiar with Cuomos ability to weaponize the legal system against his detractors  and theyre worried about what Cuomo might do to them if he becomes mayor.

Mariann Wang has seen how time-consuming and costly these subpoenas can be for her clients. Wang represents Brittany Commisso, Virginia Limmiatis and Alyssa McGrath, all of whom have said Cuomo sexually harassed them when they worked in the governors mansion. Our clients still feel the harm from Cuomos abuse of power and harassment, even as he attempts a comeback by minimizing his wrongdoing and punishing the women who came forward, using taxpayer money, Wang told HuffPost.

Liss told HuffPost her legal bills were upwards of $30,000 and have nearly crippled her family; another woman said shes spent close to $2 million in two lawsuits, neither of which shes a party to. (The second woman asked to remain anonymous so she could speak candidly about her personal finances.) Cuomo isnt on the hook for any of his bills; instead, New York taxpayers have footed the nearly $60 million in legal fees that have gone toward his defense.

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I had never been in a legal case as a witness or anything before  I never would have known how these things work, Boylan said. But bills accumulate very quickly, particularly if youre up against a defendant whose bills are being covered by someone else.

Glavin told HuffPost that it was entirely appropriate for the state to cover Cuomos legal costs. State law dictates that legal fees to defend a lawsuit brought in the context of an officials state employment are covered by the state. A judge ruled that the law applies to these cases and requires the state to pay defense costs.

Glavin added that the $60 million figure released by the Office of New York State Comptroller is misleading to the point of being willfully deceitful. She said some of the costs have nothing to do with Cuomos defense, including the $14 million the New York attorney generals office and the state assembly spent on investigations into sexual harassment claims against the former governor.

A few lawsuits have been filed against Cuomo over the sexual harassment claims. One is a civil suit filed by a state trooper who worked on Cuomos security detail and said Cuomo sexually harassed and groped her. The state trooper, whose identity has not been revealed in court documents, is suing Cuomo and the state of New York in the ongoing case.

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All three women HuffPost spoke with, and the three represented by Wang, have been subpoenaed by Cuomo in this case. This means that the women may need to be deposed, which can amount to a lot of billable attorney hours. Cuomos spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said Cuomos legal team subpoenaed the women because the state trooper cited the AG investigation, which names all of the women, in her original complaint. Two of the women who spoke to HuffPost, including Liss, were already deposed for the AGs investigation, and they argue that testimony could have been used again in the state trooper case.

I've many times believed that Id be better off dead than endure more of his litigation abuse, Charlotte Bennett said when she withdrew her sexual harassment lawsuit against Cuomo in December. via Associated Press

A real tragedy in this case is how New York state has abandoned the victims, Valdi Licul, the state troopers attorney, told HuffPost.

Theres been finding after finding that these women were sexually harassed, he said. Rather than make the victims whole, the state has spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to defend against their claims. Its morally indefensible.

Brittany Commisso sued Cuomo and a few of his top advisers for sexual harassment in 2023 under New York states Adult Survivors Act. Commisso accused Cuomo of groping her in 2020 when she worked as an executive assistant. She filed a criminal complaint against Cuomo in 2021, but prosecutors dismissed the charges. Shes currently suing Cuomo and New York state under the states anti-discrimination law.

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Another case centers on former Cuomo aide Charlotte Bennett, who said Cuomo sexually harassed her when she worked for him in 2020. Bennett filed the lawsuit in 2023 against New York state, claiming the state, as her employer, was liable for Cuomos alleged sexual harassment. The suit was settled in April. Cuomo now says he is planning to sue Bennett for defamation.

Bennett withdrew a separate federal lawsuit against Cuomo in December, citing invasive discovery requests meant to embarrass and humiliate her, according to Bennetts attorney. Cuomos legal team used subpoenas to request medical documents ranging from gynecological records to eye exams, including some that dated back to when she was a minor.

Throughout this extraordinarily painful two year case, Ive many times believed that Id be better off dead than endure more of his litigation abuse, Bennett said at the time she dropped the lawsuit.

Hinton, who accused Cuomo in 2021 of making unwanted sexual advances, worked for him for years, as did her husband, Howard Glaser. In Cuomos 2014 memoir, he described Hinton as part of my extended team, my second family.

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Most people who know Andrew know that this is how he behaves when you disagree with him. When you dont show him loyalty, when you dont lie for him  this is the way he treats people, Hinton said, referring to the way she says Cuomo has used the legal system against many of the women who came forward.

The litigation has also had a chilling effect: The women are scared to speak with one another for fear of more legal repercussions from Cuomos team.

Hinton is 66 years old and no longer worried about Cuomo going after her now that she lives out of state. One of the reasons we left New York was to get away from him, she told HuffPost. But shes worried for the other women  many of whom are young and still live in the area.

If Cuomo wins the Democratic primary and goes on to become the mayor of New York City, Hinton worries that legal attacks wont stop. Hell simply continue with more power and resources.

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This is what I fear, that if he becomes governor again or he becomes mayor, he will take some time to go after them, she said. And hes already doing it in so many ways.

A Stunning Comeback

Three years ago, it would have baffled many to know that Cuomo would soon be back on a political ticket. In addition to the dozen or so sexual misconduct allegations, Cuomo was the subject of a congressional investigation into allegations that his administration had deliberately obscured the full scope of nursing home deaths in New York when he was governor during the COVID-19 pandemic. An investigation from the Office of the New York State Attorney General found that Cuomo undercounted the death toll of nursing home patients during the pandemic. This week, the Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into Cuomo for allegedly lying to Congress during the congressional investigation.



If Cuomo hadnt resigned in 2021, he likely wouldve faced an impeachment investigation.

Since then, investigations into the sexual misconduct allegations conducted by the New York State Assembly and the Department of Justice have corroborated the majority of findings in the initial New York attorney general probe. The DOJ found that Cuomo subjected female employees to a sexually hostile work environment and retaliated against employees who spoke out about the harassment. (Azzopardi, Cuomos spokesperson, referred to the DOJ report as a glorified press release and claimed that the department did not reach out to the former governor during the investigation.)

Cuomo has tried to discredit these findings in several ways, including by noting he was never prosecuted for any crime. But sexual harassment is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. The state-level investigation found that he broke multiple state and federal civil laws.

Its difficult to unsee all of the evidence against Cuomo, and yet so many powerful Democrats have seemingly decided to look the other way. Some may not care about Cuomos recent past, while others reportedly know his notoriously vengeful side and dont want to make an enemy of him if he becomes mayor.

Andrew Cuomo is currently leading by nearly 20 points in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary election, which takes place on June 24. Kent Nishimura via Getty Images

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who replaced Cuomo when he resigned, said when Cuomo joined the mayoral race: I will work with whomever the really smart voters of New York City decide they want to be their mayor. That is not up for me to decide.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D), who called for Cuomos resignation in 2021, said earlier this year that he would not endorse a candidate until after the June 24 primary. Former President Joe Biden, California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and other prominent Democrats who were once vocal about Cuomo stepping down have been silent on his return to New York politics.

Hochul, Jeffries and Schumer did not respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Honestly, its embarrassing for them, Erica Vladimer, a victims advocate, told HuffPost. Vladimer is a former New York state Senate staffer who co-founded the Sexual Harassment Working Group after she accused then-state Sen. Jeff Klein (D) of forcibly kissing her in 2018. A state ethics commission opened an investigation in 2019, but the probe has been continuallydelayed. Klein lost his reelection the following fall.

It just proves that they never really stood with survivors, that they were trying to put themselves in the spotlight at a moment when standing with survivors was in vogue, she added. Now, we really know what their positions are.

Gillibrand has faced the most criticismfrom the media, given her years of advocacy fighting for sexual assault survivors. When HuffPost approached her on Capitol Hill, the senator responded: I dont want to expand on it now, but I do think its up to the voters, and we can have a longer conversation later.

Hinton was unhappy with Gillibrands remark that this is a country that believes in second chances.

Everyone should be given a second chance once they have been held accountable, but he has not been held accountable, she said. Hes called all of them liars. How, in anyones mind, can you believe that 12 women decided to go public with their stories, but all of them lied?

A spokesperson for Gillibrand declined to comment but referred HuffPost to the senators more recent remarks on Cuomo in an April interview on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Asked why shes being so soft on Cuomo, Gillibrand said that Cuomo accepted his punishment when he resigned. I did my part in standing with survivors and saying this behavior is unacceptable and that a resignation was needed at the time, she said, adding that many of these questions would be best directed toward Cuomo himself.

Again, asking all women to be the judge, jury and advocate of every bad behavior of man is in and of itself harmful, she told Lehrer. I would ask [that] you ask these questions of Governor Cuomo  You shouldnt be asking the women.

The Forgotten Fallout Of Speaking Up

When a woman accuses a powerful man of sexual misconduct, the media goes into a sort of frenzy. The womans name is all over national news headlines, talking heads dissect her story, and people on social media  supporters and trolls alike  weigh her credibility. Liss, who got that call from Gillibrand, was not ready for the onslaught of public attention she received when she spoke out.

Liss fielded questions from friends, co-workers and relatives. People she hadnt spoken to in years reached out to her. It was an incredibly stressful time for her and her family, she said. She mourns the transformation of her digital footprint, which is now all about her experience with Cuomo.

I didnt realize that this is maybe going to be in my obituary some day, and that kind of sucks, she told HuffPost.

Over time, colleagues started treating her differently. I could feel, among certain people, folks were taking a different tone, Liss said of her work in politics. There was a sense of, Well, Ana, you made your bed, and now you have to sleep in it, she said. Like, You know that this man is cruel and will stop at nothing to get back at people. Hes known to be vengeful, so why are you surprised that hes coming after you?

Liss, who has two young children, says she finally paid off her legal bills after being dragged into the state trooper case by Cuomos legal team. Shes terrified to speak with any of the other women because she fears Cuomo will subpoena her again, and she simply doesnt have the money for more legal expenses.

After everything shes been through, its a gut punch to think that New Yorkers have either forgotten or simply dont care about her story. Were willing to look the other way because theres a bigger boogey monster, theres larger evils in the world, Liss said, referring to the Trump administration. So were willing to take, I guess, the lesser of two evils ... Im scared. Im sad.

But looking back  Ive thought a lot about this  would I have done it again? she mused. I think I would have done it again because it was the right thing to do.

New York Citys Democratic mayoral primary election is on June 24. Early voting begins June 14. The general election for New York City mayor will be held on Nov. 4, 2025.

Igor Bobic contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated how many current lawsuits are ongoing against Cuomo.
A majority of North Carolina House Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for a GOP-written state budget Wednesday, a surprisingly bipartisan show of support that also sets up a fight within the Republican Party over taxes.

The bill passed 93-20 in the first of two required votes.

As the House took a break after hours of debate, Democratic Leader Robert Reives told reporters that he would support members of his caucus however they were to vote on the bill. And hours later, he voted with Republicans for the budget, as did 26 other members of his party in a split vote within the Democratic caucus.

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The most important point that I think youve got to understand about this budget thats going to be a tough decision for everybody sitting in that House chamber, is the horrible fiscal condition that were in right now as a state, Reives said.

The budget bill written by House Republicans keeps the upcoming reduction in North Carolinas individual income tax rate, but requires a sunnier state budget picture before future tax cuts kick in, a move that the Senate opposes and could be the key rift between the House and Senate as they work next to negotiate a final budget to send to the governor.

Democratic Gov. Josh Stein visited the Legislative Building and talked with lawmakers on Wednesday, ahead of announcing that the House budget has several things in it that he likes.

The Houses proposed budget isnt perfect. But I am pleased that the House raises teacher pay to make North Carolinas starting teacher salaries the second-highest in the Southeast and rewards our state employees with a raise. The House budget also makes important investments in public safety, child care, and workforce training, Stein said in an emailed statement.

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Reives told reporters before the vote that the budget isnt one he would have written or wants to support.

But I also understand that weve got a duty to govern, and at some point, the hard decision thats going to have to be made by everybody, whenever it is, is governing, he said.

Just ahead of the last round of debate before the vote, Reives and top Republicans left the chamber together, and returned to the floor talking and smiling.

Republicans have control of the House, but are one vote short of a veto-proof supermajority.

Democratic Rep. Terry Brown Jr. praised parts of the Republicans budget during the debate, saying that it listens to Democrats and the people of North Carolina on restoring masters degree pay for teachers and restoring the state income tax holiday. He also criticized the budget for not doing enough for state employees. Brown, who represents Mecklenburg County, called the bill a good start.

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Other Democrats urged their colleagues to vote against the bill because of tax cuts and cuts to so many vacant jobs.

Raises and job cuts

The House would give higher raises than both the Senates proposal and Steins pitch, with 2.5% across-the-board salary boosts for all state employees in the coming year.

The House bill also cuts thousands of state employee jobs, most of which are vacant.

Of the 3,000 state employee positions to be cut, about 2,000 of them come as part of a demand that state agencies and the UNC System cut 20% of their vacant positions. Money saved from those cuts would go to the agencies to be used at their discretion for higher raises for their employees.

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We are now in a revenue deficit, no ifs, ands or buts about it, because we would not cut one job if we were not in a revenue deficit, Reives said.

The budget would increase starting teacher pay to $48,000 in the coming year and $50,000 the following year, bringing the total salary for a new teacher to $56,593 in two years, with supplements, which would make it the highest in the Southeast.

Rep. Donny Lambeth, a Republican from Forsyth, speaks with Rep. Carla Cunningham, a Democrat from Mecklenburg, prior to a session in the House chamber of the Legislative Building on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C.

Summer tax battle on horizon

The House budget keeps the planned individual income tax rate reduction planned for 2026, down to 3.99% from 4.25%, but would set new levels for the future state tax collections that trigger additional tax cuts. Future triggers are harder to meet than the Senates plan.

Carolina Partnership for Reform, a political group that generally promotes ideas in line with Republican Senate leader Phil Berger, called the House Republicans plan a tax hike in an email Tuesday.

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Budget documents say that the change increases net General Fund revenue by keeping the projected tax rate at 3.99% in the 2027 tax year, rather than dropping the rate further as would happen under existing triggers.

Having no budget deal is a better outcome than this one, Carolina Partnership for Reform wrote in the email to its distribution list.

House Speaker Destin Hall, left, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger, talk before Gov. Josh Stein delivered his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in the House chamber of the Legislative Building.

But House Republicans felt differently. Every one of them voted for the budget plan.

House Rules Chair John Bell told The News & Observer on Wednesday that just because we didnt aggressively lower taxes, as their budget did, doesnt mean we raised taxes.

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He also said that petty shots make negotiations between Republicans in both chambers that much harder.

Bell said you can always find things you dont like in a budget bill. But overall, I feel like that weve put forth a good product, a product that shows our priorities here in the House, our commitment to Carolina. I think youre gonna see a strong bipartisan vote today, Bell said during a House recess ahead of the vote.

Rep. Allen Chesser, a Nash County Republican, also told The N&O that the claim that it increases taxes is just inaccurate entirely. Our budget focuses on lowering the tax burden on North Carolina citizens, and were committed to that.

During the floor debate, Republican Rep. Keith Kidwell, who is part of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus, said: This bill is a good bill when it comes to taxes.

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Weve got a better bill (than the Senate), one of the best bills from a tax perspective Ive seen since Ive been in this General Assembly, Kidwell said.

The House budget would also restore the back-to-school sales tax holiday in August 2026, as well as making the first $5,000 of tips tax-free.

It would also increase the standard income tax deduction by $500 for individual tax filers, or $1,000 for married couples filing jointly, making more income tax-free.

Stein also weighed in on the inter-chamber tax debate.

Importantly, the House budget cuts taxes for working families while recognizing that North Carolina is a growing state and reduces personal income tax rates after this year only when the economy is growing. In contrast, the Senates fiscally irresponsible revenue scheme will result in fewer teachers and law enforcement officers and diminished services that would harm our people, Stein said.

Reps. Shelly Willingham, Carla Cunningham and Garland Pierce talk during a break in session in the House chamber of the Legislative Building on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Raleigh, N.C.

Reives criticized the Senate, and urged House Republicans to negotiate hard on the final budget bill.

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When I kept listening to the Senate ... it sounded like that we had decided we were going to do all kinds of crazy things and spend all kinds of crazy money. Im just like, are you looking at the same budget? Im looking at this budget making some hard decisions and hard cuts, because thats what governing is, and thats what being an adult is, Reives said during debate.

Democrats amendments defeated

House Republicans shut down several Democratic amendments during hours of debate on Wednesday. One of them would have changed how vacant jobs would be eliminated. Wake County Democratic Rep. Maria Cervanias proposal would have given the Office of State Human Resources more authority in choosing job cuts.

Rep. Donny Lambeth, one of the top House Republican budget writers, said that the amendment would take away the flexibility offered to state agencies to choose which vacant jobs to cut.

Rep. Erin Pare, a Wake County Republican and budget writer, also urged Republicans to preserve a budget provision that would publish public schools central office salaries. Democrats tried to remove it, but Pare said posting the salary information would provide transparency.

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Another Democratic amendment defeated, from Rep. Carolyn Logan of Mecklenburg County, would have provided free school lunch in public schools, funded by money allocated for private school vouchers.

Some of the budget debate centered on vouchers, known as the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which sends hundreds of millions of dollars to private schools and has long been a Republican priority. Democrats tried to amend the bill to add accountability measures to the program.

Republicans did take some Democratic input. On Tuesday, four Democratic amendments received support from Republicans and were rolled into the final budget, including Democratic Rep. Carla Cunninghams bid to restore and rename the Office of Health Equity in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Republicans had proposed eliminating the office.

Reives told reporters that Stein is never going to tell Democrats how to vote, but rather explain the advantages and disadvantages of the budget.

The Senate budget is completely irresponsible. Weve got to get a budget that recognizes the fiscal position that were in, and weve got to get a budget that starts talking about the tough questions, Reives said.
The Iowa Dental Board within the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing oversees the state's dental profession. (Photo by Getty Images; logo courtesy State of Iowa)

A central Iowa dentist involved in an operation that ended with the patients death has been fined $7,500 by the Iowa Dental Board.

On April 30, the board entered a final order in the disciplinary case against Jonathan Karch of the Iowa Dental Studio in Johnston. This week, that decision was made public by the board, although some of the contents have been redacted from public view.

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The order stipulates that Karch shall not be issued a permit to administer patient sedation until Sept. 13, 2025, and that he shall pay a $7,500 civil penalty and complete some unspecified amount of additional continuing education, with some of that education related to professional ethics. The order also states that should Karch be issued a sedation permit, it will be placed on probationary status for three years during which a practice monitor must be physically present in the treatment room for any sedation procedures handled by Karch.

Last fall, the board issued an emergency order restricting Karchs practice after a patient who underwent a dental-implant procedure in January 2024 died. The order coincided with a civil lawsuit filed against Karch and others who were involved in the surgery. That lawsuit, filed in Polk County District Court by the family of Joseph Daniels, alleges that on Jan. 26, 2024, the 50-year-old Daniels underwent a dental-implant operation that began at 7:15 a.m. and was completed at 3:15 p.m.

Around 3:30 p.m., paramedics were dispatched to Dental Studio of Iowa with a report of an unconscious person. According to the lawsuit, the paramedics arrived at 3:40 p.m. and found Daniels in a dental exam chair pale, cyanotic, cool and unresponsive. Daniels was then taken to Iowa Methodist Medical Center where he died at 5:51 p.m.

According to the boards findings of fact, R.W.  identified in other board records as dentist Robert Wolf of Swisher  was the primary surgeon for the procedure, but did not have a sedation permit at the time. Karch did have a sedation permit but, by all accounts, he was only in the operatory sporadically and spent most of the time 10 to 15 feet away in an adjacent room working on the fabrication of temporary implants.

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Wolf nevertheless proceeded with the surgery, with a certified registered nurse anesthetist contracted by The Dental Studio of Iowa to administer and monitor the sedation, the board determined.

Karch argued before the board that state regulations require a dentist and not a permit holder to be present for the entire procedure, and he noted that Wolf was the dentist performing the surgery.

The board rejected that argument, stating that the rule does not make sense if interpreted to not require the permit holder to remain. In fact, no matter how (the rule) is viewed, its structure and language required a dentist with a sedation permit participating in the dental procedure to remain in the room, which did not occur when Dr. Karch left. The rule, the board concluded, required Dr. Karch, as the permit holder, to be present for the entire surgery, which he was not.

The board added that while it is true no evidence in the record exists that (Karchs) presence outside of the surgery suite in a nearby room caused any adverse outcome, it is equally true this rule is critical for providing a high level of safety for patients.

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In its decision and order, the board also noted that Karch had presented significant evidence about himself, including [redacted from public view] that caused him to be bullied as a child and his efforts to overcome this.

The board noted that its disciplinary action has no impact on Karchs general dentist license, as his alleged conduct relates only to his actions as the holder of a sedation permit.

In its decision against Karch, the board stated that a third dentist, publicly identified only by the initials M.K., was present for Daniels surgery and assisted with patient care despite not having an Iowa license. The involvement of this third dentist would later become an issue for Wolf.

In September 2024, the Iowa Dental Board notified Wolf that it intended to deny his application for a permit to administer moderate sedation on patients. At the time, the board alleged that Wolf had participated in the operation that resulted in Daniels death and that he had facilitated the practice of an unlicensed dentist and supervised the administration of anesthesia without having the proper credentials.

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The board document detailing that allegation was made public in error, according to the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, and it has since been pulled from the boards website. The Iowa Dental Board has not charged Wolf with any wrongdoing in the Daniels case.

The civil lawsuit filed by the Daniels family is scheduled to be tried on Sept. 28, 2026.
DENVER (KDVR)  Indian food with a modern twist: That is how Chef Charles Mani, the mind behind Mile High Tikka Express, describes what he brings to the streets of Denver.

My philosophy for cooking is I brought the fine dining, street food into fine dining. That is how I had my sit-down restaurant, now I try to bring that same fine dining into the streets, Mani said.

DUs College of Law threatens legal action if CPW permits elephants at Renaissance Festival

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Feeding people on the go is his passion, a service now easier to provide after Governor Jared Polis signed The Food Truck Operations Bill into law, which streamlines the licensing process. It cuts out extra paperwork for things like fire safety  requiring food truck operators to have just one license across all areas of operation.

Mani says its interacting with the customers and making food how they want, which got his food truck up and running a year and a half ago.

Over here, you come out and you meet a different kind of people and you get a different kind of opinion and our job is to provide exactly what people want to eat, Mani said.

Mani says he hopes this will lead to more growth in the industry.

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In a very short period of time, I created a lot of friends. People recognize each other by name and we support each other, Mani said.

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The bill went through several rounds of readings and amendments before finally passing earlier this month and getting the governors signature. Polis weighed in on the bill signing, saying:

Im excited that we are making it easier for food trucks to serve up delicious food in different cities and towns across the state. By getting rid of unnecessary regulations, Colorados talented chefs can bring more delicious food to your community.

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Kazakhstan signals support for logistics hub with Hungarys BDPST Group

Photo: Kazakhstan MFA

Kazakhstan and Hungary are exploring the creation of a joint logistics hub with the participation of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy. The project was a key topic during Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleus meetings with Hungarian business leaders, aimed at expanding cooperation in transport, digital infrastructure, and investment.

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DENVER (KDVR)  The co-owners of a Denver-based firearms business have been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to one count each of conspiracy to defraud the U.S., and after one of the co-owners also pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm.

Campbell Slayden, 26, a co-owner of Modern Arms and Optics LLC, was sentenced to 50 months in prison and pleaded guilty to two counts: conspiracy to defraud and possession of an unregistered firearm. Anthony Gallegos, 26, also a co-owner of the company, was sentenced to 36 months for conspiracy to defraud.

What parents need to know about AI chatbots and kids as safety concerns grow

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The sentences were announced on Wednesday by the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Colorado.

The pairs plea agreements detail how Modern Arms and Optics, which is a federal firearms licensee and dealer, conducted business both in Denver and at numerous gun shows across the state. Federal prosecutors say that Slayden and Gallegos had deceptive practices while conducting business to hide information, mislead and avert inquiries from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Federal investigators say this allowed the business to conceal unlawful firearms manufacturing practices in federally required records.

Gun shop owners and dealers have a crucial role in ensuring that firearms do not fall into the hands of criminals. That role is to follow federal firearms laws, said Acting United States Attorney J. Bishop Grewell. If they do not, we will prosecute them.

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The U.S. Attorneys Office said that the pair also transferred firearms to people who cant legally own firearms through straw purchases. That means the person who completed the background check and federal forms was not the real recipient of the firearm. The office said that this allowed Gallegos and Slayden to hide certain purchases.

Rockies sued for negligence after foul ball hits mans eye while in a luxury box

Slayden and Gallegos would send out electronic links that allowed federal background check forms to be filled out, privately and out of view, by anyone with access to the link, the U.S. Attorneys Office wrote in a release. This allowed the straw purchasers, or in some cases the prohibited firearm buyers themselves, to easily supply false and fraudulent misrepresentations regarding the true purchasers of the firearm.

The attorneys office said that Slayden and Gallegos failed to make reasonable inquiries when suspicious of an in-person straw purchase and would transfer the gun to either the transferee or the buyer that the co-owners knew or suspected to be a false recipient.

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Five other defendants who worked at Modern Arms and Optics have been convicted of federal firearms crimes, the ATF said.

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DENVER (KDVR)  Dry and warmer conditions move into Denvers weather for the end of the workweek ahead of shower chances Memorial Day weekend.

National Weather Service releases damage survey results from Colorado tornadoes

Weather tonight: Mainly clear

Wednesday night will stay mainly clear, and a little breezy with wind gusts at times at 30 mph. Temperatures will be cool as they fall to the lower 40s.

Weather tomorrow: Sunny, warmer

More sunshine and warmer temperatures are in the forecast for Thursday. High temperatures will climb to the mid to upper 70s, which is about 5 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year.

How the smell of rain is created

Looking ahead: Shower chances over Memorial Day weekend

The workweek ends with sunshine and warmer weather. Friday, high temperatures will climb to the mid-80s, which is more than 10 degrees above normal for this time of year.

The next big change moves in Memorial Day weekend with a daily chance for showers, but it wont be a total washout. Saturday will start off with sunshine, then as high temperatures climb to the mid-70s, clouds will increase ahead of a few afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Sunday will be cooler with more clouds and a widespread chance for showers, especially through the afternoon.

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Memorial Day will follow a more typical spring pattern with some morning sunshine, followed by some afternoon thunderstorms as highs climb to the mid-70s.

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BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (WBOY)  Budget reconciliation within the U.S. Department of Education is limiting funding for the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (WV DRS), a move thats affecting people like Vincent Pinti, a University of Michigan law student who was born and raised in Bridgeport.

Vincent Pinti was born with spinal muscular atrophy type 2, which caused him to be wheelchair-bound and dependent on caregivers for everyday needs for his entire life. Like many others with disabilities, education beyond high school is more expensive for Vincent, as he has to have wheelchair-accessible accommodations and 24/7 caregivers.

Originally, Vincent received about $20,000 a year from the West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services for his educational accommodations, but he told 12 News that federal budget cuts have since led to the state only distributing $4,810 a year to students with disabilitiesequal to the lowest cost for an individual to get an associate degree in West Virginia.

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12 News spoke with Pinti on his frustration with the budget cuts.

Vincent Pinti giving a speech.

Theres always been a push or a narrative by certain political organizations and parties that, we just want people to get a forty-hour job, we just want people to work hard. we just want people to be independent and pick themselves up by their bootstraps, and were trying to do that. Were trying to get on our feet; were trying to get the education and training that we need to have meaningful careers. Then for the same people to impose these arbitrary limits, to not provide funding, to not provide their support for the people that are the most vulnerable in our community, is heartless. I mean, its really, quite frankly, ridiculous, and its going to make it so that people with disabilities are going to be in poverty for their entire lives, Pinti said.

Vincent is currently going through an administrative law process in West Virginia and Michigan to get funding back.

Hes argued that the drop in funding in both states doesnt match federal law or regulations because the arbitrary rate is so low that it does not allow someone with Vincents level of disability to get a law degree.

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Randolph County Board of Education says teachers cant discuss how life began

12 News also reached out to the WV DRS about its budget over the last few years. A representative told 12 News that in fiscal year 2023, it received an extremely high amount of funding at $21 million, but a very low amount of funding during fiscal year 2024 of $2.78 million.

Pinti continued his conversation with 12 News about the hardships those with disabilities face when it comes to finding employment.

Already, for those of us, you know, people see the wheelchair. For other individuals, people see a walking stick or a service animal, or they hear this person needs to take so many days off a week because they have mental health issues. They see these individuals, and they dont want to hire them anyway, so its really hard for us to get through the actual hiring process, let alone getting all the things that are required for individuals to get employed in any career, Pinti said.

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Vincent is representing himself in court, and though he considers himself lucky to have a background in the legal system, he fears for others with disabilities who do not.

12 News also asked WV DRS representatives if any additional resources were available for students with disabilities pursuing postsecondary education, to which they said the following:

While these changes are extremely unfortunate, they are necessary to ensure continued access to comprehensive vocational rehabilitation services by as many consumers with disabilities as possible. The new policy (effective Feb. 2025) is applied equally across the board and consumers acknowledge in their agreement with Rehabilitation Services that the assistance provided is subject to funding or policy changes. The maximum amount the Division will pay for tuition training costs will not exceed the cost of the System associate degree average tuition rate as established by the WV Higher Education Policy Commission. DRS funding will be utilized after all other financial aid resources have been applied.

Stick with 12 News for the latest on this issue.

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A Texas doctor was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for his nearly 20-year involvement in healthcare fraud.

Jorge Zamora-Quezada, 68, is a rheumatologist who was licensed to practice medicine in Texas, Arizona and Massachusetts prior to having those licenses revoked in each state. He accumulated over $118 million in false claims and over $28 million in payments by insurers by "falsely diagnosing patients with chronic illnesses to bill for tests and treatments that the patients did not need," according to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs.

The office also says Zamora-Quezada of Mission attempted to cover up the fraud and "falsified patient records to support the false diagnoses after receiving a federal grand jury subpoena." The scheme stretched on for over 18 years and involved a total of $325 million, according to a DOJ press release on the 2020 guilty verdict.

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At the conclusion of a 25-day trial, Zamora-Quezada was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, seven counts of healthcare fraud, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Along with the 10-year prison term, the DOJ ordered the doctor to pay $28,245,454 in damages, which include 13 real estate properties throughout the U.S. and Mexico, a jet, and a Maserati GranTurismo.

Authorities say Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezada used money from healthcare fraud to buy real estate properties in the U.S. and Mexico, a jet and a Maserati.

Evidence presented at trial suggests Zamora-Quezada falsely diagnosed patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and Blue Cross Blue Shield by subjecting the patients to unnecessary treatments.

"After falsely diagnosing his patients, Zamora-Quezada administered unnecessary treatments and ordered unnecessary testing on them, including a variety of injections, infusions, x-rays, MRIs, and other procedures  all with potentially harmful and even deadly side effects," a DOJ press release states.

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A DOJ official, whose identity is unknown, told Fox News about these severe effects that patients endured as a result of unnecessary treatment.

"There was testimony about truly debilitating side effects from the medications, things like strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, really the jawbone melting away, hair loss, liver damage," the official said.

The DOJ's trial summary suggests Zamora-Quezada implicated his employees.

"Testimony at trial established that Zamora-Quezada told employees to 'aparecer' the missing records  'to make them appear,'" the press release states. "Former employees also recounted being sent to a dilapidated barn to attempt to retrieve records. There, files were saturated with feces and urine, rodents, and termites that infested not only the records but also the structure."

Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezadas patient file storage facility is shown. The Texas rheumatologist has been convicted of falsely diagnosing patients, ordering unnecessary treatments and falsifying patient records.

During the trial, prosecutors revealed startling data: Out of the nearly 100,000 Medicare patients Zamora-Quezada saw, he diagnosed 72.9% with rheumatoid arthritis. Meanwhile, seven other Texas rheumatologists collectively diagnosed 13% of patients with RA.

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Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, expressed hope that the case would serve as an example for corrupt healthcare professionals.

"Dr. Zamora-Quezada funded his luxurious lifestyle for two decades by traumatizing his patients, abusing his employees, lying to insurers, and stealing taxpayer money," Galeotti said. "His depraved conduct represents a profound betrayal of trust toward vulnerable patients who depend on care and integrity from their doctors. Todays sentence is not just a punishment  its a warning. Medical professionals who harm Americans for personal enrichment will be aggressively pursued and held accountable to protect our citizens and the public fisc."

Authorities say Dr. Jorge Zamora-Quezada used money from healthcare fraud to buy real estate properties in the U.S. and Mexico, a jet and a Maserati.

Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) said the doctor's actions "abused both patient trust and public resources."

"It is imperative to investigate and address this form of fraud  not only to protect vulnerable individuals from harm but to uphold the integrity of the federal health care system and safeguard the use of public funds," Meadows added.

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Special Agent in Charge Aaron Tapp of the FBI's San Antonio Field Office emphasized the consequences that patients and their loved ones had to face as a result of Zamora-Quezada's fraud.

"This case was not only a concern to us because of the financial loss  the physical and emotional harm suffered by the patients and their families was alarming and profound," Tapp said. "We hope this significant sentence will help bring closure to the many victims in this case."

Several state and federal agencies were involved in the investigation, including the FBI, HHS-OIG, Texas HHS-OIG, Texas Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

 Fox News contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas doctor convicted of massive fraud for false diagnoses, treatment
HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss.  Deputies are investigating an incident involving a man who was beaten, stripped, and robbed for allegedly yelling racial slurs inside a Holly Springs club on Sunday.

Lt. Colonel Kelly McMillen with the Marshall County Sheriffs Office says the investigation is ongoing into the reported beating of a white man at a popular African American club in Holly Springs called C.J.s Lounge.

C.J.s Lounge (Surveillance photo from Holly Market)

At this point, thats a critical part of this investigation because we have heard the same thing. However, we want to make sure that is exactly what happened, and if it is, that will be reacted on as well, said Lt. Colonel McMillen.

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Former Monroe County district judge sentenced to federal prison for obstruction

I was hearing him yell out and blare out the N word repeatedly, said Myles Stone, part-time DJ and security at C.J.s Lounge. Everyone on planet earth has to live with their choices, and he walked in there with a choice to be very hateful, very negative.

Investigators say they believe the incident started inside C.J.s Lounge and spilled out into this courtyard. This is where investigators say the victim was beaten, robbed, and stripped of his clothing while a number of people recorded and laughed.

The victim, unfortunately, his jaws busted open, his eyes busted. Hes just in a terrible state of mind right now, said Lt. Colonel McMillen. Were trying to adopt some search warrants, get those done, and see if we can retrieve information from those social media accounts.

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Clayborn Temple fire ruled arson; person sought

C.J.s Lounge has been closed by the city because of the incident and the number of previous complaints.

WREG has reached out to the owner of the club for a comment but has not received a response.

Were told the victim has been released from the hospital in New Albany and is being interviewed by investigators again.

If you have information, you can contact the Holly Springs Police at 919-557-9111 or the Marshall County Sheriffs Office at 931-359-6122.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
WAIANAE, Hawaii (KHON2)  As the summer fire season looms, a state lawmaker is sounding the alarm about dangerous utility conditions in West Oahu.

State Rep. Darius Kila demanded immediate action from Hawaiian Electric, Hawaiian Telcom and Charter Spectrum Hawaii.

Our risk is high, fire experts warn as summer approaches

In a letter sent on Wednesday, May 21, Kila highlighted aging poles, sagging wires and overgrown vegetation along Farrington Highway.

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I hate that its always reactive and not proactive. Because again, I will invite folks to just take a quick five-minute, 10-minute drive down the Waianae Coast on Farrington Highway and you can point to the derelict poles, the derelict wires, the hanging wires, said Rep. Kila.

He has given the companies just 30 days to give an update on how they plan to identify, remove and replace abandoned, damaged or unused infrastructure.

I felt 30 days was a fair timeline for them to get get some comprehensive plan, and also understand that this will be a rolling plan that they continue to visit and work out and noting that 30 days from now puts us right at the beginning of the summer. Cause I think people just want to feel at ease, Rep. Kila said.

The task isnt simple, since multiple entities share responsibility.

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We have to work with other utilities, with private landowners, with the government, you know. Everybody has their part to play, but its also something that we share together, said Darren Pai, HECO spokesperson.

The State is taking action  the Hawaii Department of Transportation deputy director said they are currently acquiring land to open Paakea Road as a permanent alternate route to Farrington.

And when this route is open, it will be 24/7, its not going to be an emergency route, its going to be for everyday for public use. So there will be no more gates on that route and anybody can access the route at any time, Robin Shishido, HDOT Deputy Director, explained.

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Pai added that over 1,300 poles have been inspected in the area since 2023, 100 have been removed since 2020 and vegetation management in the area is expected to be complete by the end of June.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

Spectrum said it does not own any of the poles in question, but they have hundreds of technicians who monitor and maintain its infrastructure.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday there was no basis for local prosecutors to open an investigation related to the states Hope Florida Foundation and called the Republican lawmaker who provided documents to the state attorneys office a jackass.

In his most substantive remarks since the Herald/Times broke the news Tuesday that Leon County prosecutors had an open criminal investigation into the state-run charity overseen by his administration, DeSantis said he was more committed to Hope Florida than ever.

He lashed out in particular at Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who led a House committee probe into Hope Florida and its charity arm, the Hope Florida Foundation. The program and the charity were envisioned by first lady Casey DeSantis to move Floridians off state welfare by connecting them to churches and nonprofits that can offer them help.

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Last month, Andrade turned over records to the Department of Justice and the 2nd Judicial Circuit State Attorneys office, a decision DeSantis said was political.

He took documents and he dropped them in a prosecutors office, DeSantis said. That is not an organic investigation, thats a manufactured political operation.

There is no basis to do an investigation on these facts, he added. Everybody knows it.

Andrade stood by his decision.

Calling me names wont change the fact that his chief of staff engaged in money laundering and wire fraud, Andrade told the Herald/Times. The man is spiraling and I feel bad for him.

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Over the last two months, Andrade and news reporters have been digging into the DeSantis administrations decision to steer $10 million from a settlement with a Medicaid contractor to the Hope Florida Foundation.

The foundation, within days, gave it away to two nonprofits, which then sent at least $8.5 million to a political committee controlled by DeSantis then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. The committee was created to defeat last years ballot initiative legalizing recreational marijuana.

State Attorney Jack Campbell whose office serves six counties including Leon, where Tallahassee is  told the Herald/Times last month that lawmakers were free to give his office evidence of a crime, noting that some of them were great lawyers and former prosecutors.

Im confident if they feel they have evidence of a crime, they know how to find me, Campbell said at the time. Thats kind of where I am.

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When the Herald/Times requested any records that prosecutors received from Andrade, Campbells office said Tuesday it was part of an open, on-going investigation.

Campbell, a Democrat, has declined to comment on the investigation, and its not known who is leading it.

Andrade has accused Uthmeier, who is now Floridas attorney general, and a lawyer working for the foundation of committing conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud and misusing $10 million in Medicaid dollars by spending it on political advertising.

Four former federal prosecutors interviewed by the Herald/Times said Andrade could be on strong legal ground. They identified eight potential federal crimes that could have been violated, including theft of government funds and money laundering.

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DeSantis has denied that the money was Medicaid-related damages and said the investigation is a political operation intended to damage the first lady, who is rumored to be considering running to replace her term-limited husband.

You have one jackass in the Legislature  Im sorry, its true  whos trying to smear her, DeSantis said.

Im more committed to Hope Florida than Ive ever been, he added.

Herald/Times Tallahassee bureau reporter Alexandra Glorioso contributed to this report.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three public safety bills into law during a stop at Winter Haven High School in Polk County on May 21, including one that stiffens penalties for making false 911 calls.

DeSantis signed House Bill 279 on False Reporting introduced by Rep. Bill Partington, R-Ormand Beach, which has been dubbed Florida's "anti-swatting" bill. The legislation creates enhanced criminal penalties for people who call 911 to report false emergencies building on statutes enacted in 2021.

"While that has been helpful, it has not been fully sufficient," DeSantis said. "We continue to see these swatting instances continue to happen the country, including Florida. Recently, they have targeted people who are influential in conservative media."

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The new law, to take effect July 1, makes it a third-degree felony if a false report causes great bodily harm, permanent disfigurement or injury; and raises it to a second-degree felony if someone dies due to the report. An individual who causes another person to make a false 911 report that results in an emergency response can be held accountable under the new legislation.

Manny Diaz Jr., Florida's commissioner of education, said there had been a huge uptick in false 911 reports this year across the state. Diaz said several cases have been recently prosecuted.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three public safety bills into law on May 21, including stronger penalties for false 911 reports and extending the Guardian Program, at Winter Haven High School. The laws will take effect July 1.

"The messages to parents is: You need to understand how severe that is and here in Florida we take it very seriously," he said.

The "anti-swattting" bill also aims to reduce the number of false reports required before an individual can be charged with a felony from four to two. It changes the definition of convictions, so they are counted toward the lowered two minimum even if there is a plea deal or a plea of no contest is entered. It will mandate the court to make the perpetrator of the false report pay the costs for law enforcement's prosecution and investigations, as well as pay restitution for any material damages done.

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"Swatting has no place in the State in Florida," DeSantis said. "When you have swift penalties, strong penalties administered swiftly, you will deter it from happening in the future."

DeSantis expands Guardian Program

The governor signed Senate Bill 1470, sponsored by Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Zephyr Hills, to enhance school safety by expanding the state's guardian program to child care centers.

Under the Guardian Program, child care employees will be able starting July 1 to train with their local sheriff's office with firearms and other school safety measures in the event of an emergency. The facilities will also have the option of hiring a security agency, at their own costs, including mandatory state training.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed three public safety bills into law on May 21, including stronger penalties for false 911 reports and extending the Guardian Program, at Winter Haven High School. The laws will take effect July 1.

More discretion in making arrests

DeSantis signed House Bill 1099, sponsored by Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, to allow law enforcement officers more discretion when arresting individuals with severe medical conditions. Deputies or officers will be allowed to consider the need for immediate arrest when dealing with a patient in a hospital, nursing home or assisted care facility.

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Among the factors law enforcement may consider before arresting those with severe medical conditions include whether they continue to pose a risk to themselves or others or pose a flight risk.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: DeSantis signs 3 public safety bills, including anti-swatting law
Its been close to 20 years since Louis Sconyers, or anyone else has seen his sister, Tisa Gantt.He told us, Me being a Vietnam veteran. You know, I have gone through a lot. I didnt think that I was man enough to cry because I was tough, thought I was tough until this happened. The Titusville woman disappeared from her S. Deleon Avenue neighborhood back in January of 2007. It was her sister Toni that reported her missing.

She said, Many people speak about how If it werent for Tisa, they wouldnt have made it through any of their college courses. She was always there to tutor them. Again, very outgoing, super, super smart. I would say between her going to Howard and her transfer to University of Central Florida, the family started to notice a change in her behavior. She became very... I would say paranoid or not trusting of anyone. And then the unthinkable happened. Gantt reported being the victim of rape.

Family members say she even showed Titusville police the home where the alleged assault took place shortly before her disappearance. Commander TJ Wright told us; a sexual assault kit was completed during that investigation.

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And throughout the investigation connections were made to a person of interest. The primary person of interest in the alleged sexual assault and disappearance of Tisa Gantt is the now 40-year-old, Edwin Deon Morris. Hes been in custody on drug charges since 2021. He also has an open stalking case.

Morris allegedly committed battery on a law enforcement officer while in jail, and he was also charged with committing sex acts in the presence of a correctional facility employee, but he was recently found unfit to stand trial. Gantts family believes he and possibly others have information that would give them the closure they need.

Despite numerous searches, investigators have never found Tisa Gantts body. Toni Gantt told us, You know, people grieve, and they have closure in different ways. for me, for many, many years, I could not imagine having any closure without seeing my sister.

After all these years, wright believes it still possible to bring Tisa home. He said, Its just a matter of needle in a haystack, getting luck sometimes is going to be on our side. Or, we just get that right person thats going to come forward and that knows about it or may have had conversations with our persons of interest that can lead us to the right area to hopefully bring closure to the family. 

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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Thursday that Israelis are in shock following the Wednesday evening killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, criticizing pro-Palestinian student protesters in America.

People here in Israel are devastated, Huckabee said during an appearance on Fox News Fox & Friends on Thursday. It's just a horrific tragedy, act of terror and another way in which we have to recognize Jewish people all over the world are being singled out for horrible attacks.

Huckabees remarks come after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday by an assailant who police say yelled free, free Palestine after being taken into custody.

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He said hes been in contact with White House officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, about the fatal shootings.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. They had a "productive discussion" that included the tragic shooting in D.C., Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing.

Huckabee also criticized student protesters who have recently sought to revive demonstrations against the Israel-Hamas war, as Israel has blocked the entrance of most humanitarian aid to the war-torn Gaza Strip for weeks.

If they're out there supporting the savages  Hamas  I'd say, call them and tell them to pack up their things and get home, they are going to get a hard labor job until they do a little history search and find out exactly what they are protesting and what they are protesting for, Huckabee said.

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The killings  which have rattled Jewish communities worldwide  have reinvigorated the Trump administrations calls to rein in violence against Jewish people. President Donald Trump has pursued a crackdown on universities he perceives as insufficiently combating antisemitism on their campuses.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!, Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social after the shooting. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. Diversification of funding sources, including by attracting private capital, is critical in a context of limited public resources and growing needs, Country Director for the Maghreb and Malta at the World Bank (WB) Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye said during the panel discussion "From vision to action: economic diversification as a lever for structural transformation" within the framework of the Islamic Development Bank's (IsDB) Annual Meetings in Algiers, Trend reports.

"We are in a context where resources are scarce, especially at the public level, where there is a lot of demand, so it is important to diversify funding sources," Ndiaye stressed.

He noted that although the role of developing multilateral institutions remains important, the resources available to member countries are very limited.

"It is in this case that it is very important to carry out a mobilization campaign of private capital. On the part of the global market, what we are saying more and more, it should be used as a lever to attract private investments," he said.

According to the WB representative, appropriate conditions must be created for this to happen.

"We have to make sure that this country is ready. This is why, first of all, we have to work a lot on the macro level, so that there is a certain economic stability, a certain predictability, to allow private investors to develop," Ndiaye explained.

He also stressed the importance of setting priorities at the national level and pursuing a policy of macroeconomic discipline.

Speaking about strategic approaches, Ndiaye pointed out that one of them is the use of natural resources.

"There are many countries that are still endowed with a lot of natural and mining resources. What is important is to see how to enter the value chain," he also explained.

In this context, Ndiaye gave the example of Saudi Arabia.

"The country managed to use natural resources to climb the value chain for all that is refinery and industrial," the WB representative mentioned.

Furthermore, he noted that Algeria, which is hosting the current IsDB meetings, is an example of a country that uses its resources to develop export sectors.

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A woman shared her disturbing encounter with the suspected gunman who killed two Israeli diplomats Wednesday night at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. during an appearance on Fox & Friends the following morning.

Katie Kalisher told the news show Thursday how she bumped into the suspect, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, moments after hearing about 10 to 15 gunshots. At first, the suspect was playing dumb, Kalisher said, wondering what type of museum it was and asking do you think thats why they did it? after being told it was a Jewish museum.

The suspect was covered in rain and appeared very distressed, Kalisher added, while also telling bystanders to call the police.

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Soon after, Kalisher said the man reached into his bag, pulled out a keffiyeh, and admitted to murdering the two victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

I did it. I did this for Gaza, Rodriguez told her.

He then shouted free Palestine as he was being arrested.

You can hear her recounting of the chilling meeting below, via Fox News X account:

"He reaches into his bag and pulls out a keffiyeh and says to me, 'I did it. I did this for Gaza.'"



Katie Kalisher recounts on @foxandfriends the chilling moment she was confronted face-to-face by the alleged suspect in the fatal D.C. shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers. pic.twitter.com/jaoIFGFg4T  Fox News (@FoxNews) May 22, 2025

Several details on the suspect have emerged since the shooting, including that he showed an affinity for a socialism and far-left politics; more recently, he has been interested in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

He has also ripped Amazon in the past, saying the companys whitening of Seattle is structurally racist and a direct danger to all workers who live in that city.

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The suspect added: So do we in Chicago and all across the country want a nation of cities dominated and occupied by massive corporations where only the rich and white can live and the vast majority of us must live on the edges of the city and society living in deeper and deeper poverty?

In an X post from earlier on Wednesday that appears to belong to the suspect, he shared a lengthy diatribe on his hatred of Israel, which he called a genocidal apartheid state.

I am glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do, the screed concluded.

Victims Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky (photo credit: Getty Images)

The two victims were Israeli embassy staff members. Lischinsky, who was 30-years-old, was set to propose to 26-year-old Milgrim in the near future; he had just purchased an engagement ring, days before the couple were murdered.









The post I Did This for Gaza: Witness Reveals Suspected Jewish Museum Killers Chilling Words After Shooting | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
Arturo Sarukhan, who served as Mexicos ambassador to the U.S. for six years starting in 2007, never felt unsafe in Washington. During his tenure, he signed nearly 500 extradition agreements that handed over dangerous cartel members to American authorities, earning him brutal enemies. It didnt much matter. I had a security detail when I went to Mexico, he said. But I did not have a security detail in the United States.

That helps explain why Thursdays shocking shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers is a big deal for Washington  in ways that arent just about the politics of the Middle East or the United States.

The American capital hosts 177 foreign embassies with somewhere around 10,000 employees. Combine this with international organizations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organization of American States and you get a community of over 30,000, plus families, a vast global contingent that political-class Washingtonians often dont notice.

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Whats notable about this population, though, is that theyve traditionally been treated by Americans as non-combatants, no matter which government they represent. This weeks killings, allegedly by a 30-year-old Chicago man who shouted free, free Palestine as he was taken away, is a major break from that pattern  and one that could set a dangerous precedent.

The attack has shaken the foreign diplomatic community precisely because its so rare. Americans are so polarized with their domestic politics, one European diplomat told me. We dont expect it to touch us.

Even during the crack epidemic, when the District of Columbia notched nearly 500 murders a year, Washington wasnt considered a dangerous posting. Just like in any capital, there have always been protests outside embassies. But in general, even representatives of hostile or despised countries lead lives like any other D.C. professionals. They venture to the supermarket, they enroll kids in local public schools, they get stuck in rush-hour traffic, they worry a lot more about petty crime than geopolitical intrigue.

There is no particular recognition of diplomats in Washington, said Prasad Kariawasam, a former Sri Lankan ambassador. The lack of notice by the general population of the politics-obsessed city meant that his colleagues could move about anonymously, unbothered. This was different from some of his other postings, where even an envoy from a small, non-aligned nation might stand out. Insofar as Kariawasam had any security fears during his tenure, they involved the rebel force then waging civil war in his own home country.

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Indeed, the rare times when targeted violence visits Washingtons international community have often involved cases where troubles from back home followed someone to America.

In 1972, the Philippine ambassador to Washington was taken hostage  by a Filipino gunman whose son was denied an exit visa by dictator Ferdinand Marcos. In 1976, the former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier was assassinated in a car bombing on Massachusetts Avenue. His own government was responsible. The 1973 murder of an Israeli military attache outside his suburban Maryland home was never solved, but is widely believed to have involved Palestinian militants from outside the U.S.

In the most famous case, in 2011, the Saudi ambassador was the target of a plot by the Iranian Quds Force, which sought to hire a Mexican cartel associate to blow up the diplomat at D.C.s Cafe Milano. The associate turned out to be a DEA informant and the plot was foiled.

All in all, its a brief list.

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The U.S. government has spent a lot of money to keep it that way. In Washington, the 1,300 officers of the Secret Service Uniformed Division are tasked with protecting foreign diplomats along with executive-branch big shots. Residents of otherwise quiet, VIP-free local neighborhoods are accustomed to seeing the officers on patrol, cruising streets in vehicles that look just like basic cop cars. Diplomats have more access to policing than ordinary residents.

And for good reason. Under international law, host countries are obliged to guarantee the safety of foreign representatives; breaches of security can lead to major diplomatic incidents between governments. Its also terribly embarrassing to have the kind of capital where someone dispatched to do business with the United States can be gunned down by an opponent.

Theres still a lot we dont know about the shootings outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was hosting an event for young diplomats. At a press conference late Wednesday night, Washingtons police chief had few specifics. Was the shooter specifically looking for employees of the Israeli embassy? Targeting random participants in an event sponsored by a pro-Israel political organization? Or simply terrorizing an American Jewish museum in the name of Palestinian liberation?

Morally, it doesnt make much difference  just as it doesnt matter that one of the two victims was an American civilian employee of the Israeli embassy, and neither of them was an accredited senior representative of that countrys government.

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All the same, the sense of the capital as a place of political violence is something new for Washingtons international contingent. In recent years, Americans have become accustomed to a heightened sense of danger, with assasination attempts against a presidential candidate, a Supreme Court justice, members of Congress and their spouses. Now, in an age when Americans foreign-policy views are often an extension of our domestic political polarization, foreign envoys are experiencing the same realization.

Kariawasam, the former Sri Lankan envoy, called the apparent circumstances around this weeks shooting unique. I hope this is not taken as a threat against diplomats, but as part of a social upheaval that is being created in the world due to the situation in Gaza that people see in graphic terms streaming before their eyes, he said.

But the more frightening question is the long-term one: Will this incident inspire further violence in the name of this or other causes?

I suspect that for a lot of American extremists, there just wasnt much thought given to Washingtons international contingent one way or the other. Now a shooting of two young aides has alerted our home-grown population of angry gunmen to the fact that there are representatives of foreign governments strolling around town at any minute.

Diplomats are walking, living representatives of the sovereignty and symbolism of a country, and certainly American diplomats overseas have been targeted as a result of that, said Stuart Holliday, the CEO of Meridian International Center, which works to create contacts between foreign embassies and Washington. While the specifics of the shooting have yet to be investigated, the very fact of embassy workers being gunned down represents something novel and troubling. As with the recent violence against high-profile corporate executives, we need to be vigilant that this tragic act against diplomats does not set a precedent.


MAHANOY CITY  The damage can be repaired, but the shock wave triggered by the May 6 detonation of an explosive device by an intruder could have a lasting impact on the Solemn Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

After being open to worshippers around the clock for 43 years, access will be limited after the estimated $27,000 in damage is repaired and the chapel reopens. After dark, a security code or special access card will be required to gain entrance.

I hate to do it, confided Rev. Kevin Gallagher, but I had to take that extra step given what happened.

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What happened was that an explosive device  possibly an M-80 or larger  was detonated at 9:02 p.m. on May 6 in the chapel next to St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church.

Placed on the altar, the device burned the altar cloth, shattered glass candleholders and scorched the monstrance, the ornate receptacle that contains the consecrated host.

The shock wave was powerful enough to damage three stained glass windows and puncturing a hole in the aura of the Blessed Virgin Mary in one.

The stained glass windows, transplanted from the former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Mahanoy City, have to be removed for repair by a Pittsburgh company.

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Damage from the blast is estimated at $27,000, not including cleanup costs, Gallagher said.

Theres smoke and residue over everything, said Gallagher, Teresa of Calcutta pastor.

The Allentown Catholic Diocese has launched a St. Teresa Recovery Fund to assist the parish in repairing the damage. So far, the fund has raised $8,250, the Allentown Diocese reports. Donations can be made at https://www.allentowndiocese.org/SaintTeresaRecovery.

Suspect in custody

Kyle Kuczynski, 32, remains in Schuylkill County Prison, facing charges in connection with the chapel explosion. He has been charged with felony arson, reckless burning or exploding, possessing explosive or incendiary material, risking a catastrophe and related charges. His preliminary hearing is 10:30 a.m. June 19 in Magisterial District Judge Anthony Kilkers office, Shenandoah.

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Photographs from the chapels security system show a person wearing a black hoodie leaving the chapel on May 6. In his hand is a black device, resembling an explosive, with a fuse at one end.

Police have not released details about the device.

Rev. Kevin Gallagher looks at the broken stained glass windows within the adoration chapel at Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church in Mahanoy City, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

The manufacture, sale, possession and use of M-80 explosive devices is illegal under federal and Pennsylvania law, according to the Crime Watch Pennsylvania website. Considered highly explosive devices, they contain ingredients capable of injuring or killing people.

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In the chapel

Miraculously, a statue of the churchs patron saint, Mother Teresa, holding baby Jesus was not damaged by the blast, though it was only a few feet away.

A stained glass window depicting the Nativity wasnt as fortunate.

Holes in a stained glass window were caused by a May 6 explosion in the adoration chapel at Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church in Mahanoy City, pictured Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

The concussion from the ignition, perhaps an arms-length away, blew holes in the window.

A statue of St. Teresa of Calcutta inside the adoration chapel at Saint Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Church in Mahanoy City, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (MATTHEW PERSCHALL/MULTIMEDIA EDITOR)

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A statue of the Blessed Mother nearby was damaged and has been sent to an artist in Mountain Top for reconditioning.

The monstrance, held sacred by Catholics, has been sent to the St. Jude Shop in Philadelphia for repairs.

The blast blew open the luna, a door at the rear through which the host is placed, and the Holy Sacrament was tossed out, Gallagher said.

The monstrance was donated by Joanne Bobbin, in memory of her family, he said. Shes in her 80s, and still helps out at the church.

On a recent visit to the chapel, Gallagher reflected on how it touches the lives of church members.

When the churches consolidated, he was certain to relocate items from Polish, Slovak and other churches that we closing into what was formerly St. Josephs, a Lithuanian church.

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It was his way of preserving some of their heritage.

The 11 stained glass windows in the chapel were from Sacred Heart, an Italian parish.

Many of the items in the chapel are of a personal nature to our parishioners, Gallagher said. Theyre very important to them, and we want to restore them.
DES MOINES, Iowa  Local organizations that support people with disabilities are bracing themselves for potential budget cuts in 2026.

One group, Disability Rights Iowa, is taking extra steps ahead of time by asking the community to provide feedback on their services.

Last month, a federal budget leak said the Department of Health and Human Services 2026 discretionary budget would be cut by about 1/3. Thats a $40 million cut, which would affect many programs for those with disabilities, including here in Iowa.

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Some organizations would lose several grants and funding, like Disability Rights Iowa, which provides legal protection and advocacy. And now, they are sending out an areas of focus survey to the community to get a gage on the most important services they provide. This is information that would be helpful to have if these budget cuts go through.

Its particularly important that we receive word back from our community because both of these potential cuts to our programs, which would change our ability to provide services and support, DRI Executive Director Catherine Johnson said. If that happens, we want to make sure were providing the most vital support and services for Iowans with disabilities.

120 years of scripts, scoops, and soda at the pharmacy in Colfax

Those who have worked with DRI are vouching for the organization, like Brianna Schaffer who has a 10-year-old son, Parker, who has autism and needed some advocacy at school.

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DRI offered him just that normalcy to see that the one less thing that he had to worry about, or we have to worry about and ensuring that he was accommodated just as anybody else, she said. He got the same education and the same services that any other child should receive. I mean, they keep things fair in a way and just make people accountable for whats right.

Schaffer reached out to the attorneys at DRI and they helped her immediately.

They did far more in an email and a meeting than we were able to get done in years of working with the district. Really, it was thanks to the DRI.

In the last fiscal year, DRI had over 2,000 Iowans contact them for help and gave them free assistance.

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The cuts would be devastating to our community. The potential budget cuts that were aware of would be approximately 40% of our budget, Johnson said. We have a very active team of passionate people that are really dedicated to Iowas disability community and dedicated to creating change in Iowa for, on behalf of Iowans with disabilities. So, were still doing the work. Were moving forward. But it is scary because we dont know whats going to happen.

Johnson added since these budget cuts arent official yet, theyve been contacting their congress people to try to stop it from happening.

If youd like more info or to find the survey, go to disabilityrightsiowa.org.

Iowa News:

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A storm-damaged home in western North Carolina. (Photo: North Carolina Department of Commerce HUD CDBG-DR Helene recovery Action Plan)

The firm that will run North Carolinas Hurricane Helene recovery program in the western mountains, as it sought to win the critical contract, described itself as the only one up to the task.

Only the HORNE Team has the system, expertise, and experience required to deliver this mission quickly and bring thousands of North Carolinians back home, wrote one of the firms partners to the state.

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Mississippi-based Horne LLP won the $81.5 million bid earlier this month. It will implement a $1.4 billion federal housing grant, overseeing an array of other contractors as western North Carolina looks to rebuild from the deadliest storm in state history. Hornes bid, which won out over four other firms, was first reported by Inside Climate News.

Hornes successful application for the contract, obtained by NC Newsline through a public records request, details the companys extensive prior work and contracts: $31.5 million to rebuild in Florida in 2020, and $190 million in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.

Mentioned just once in the redacted version of the 330-page plan is the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, the state office that tapped Horne as prime contractor from 2019 to 2022. The state did not renew the contract amid complaints of poor case management and communication across eastern North Carolina.

A portion of Horne LLPs bid to manage post-Hurricane Helene homebuilding in western North Carolina. The firm did not have its contract renewed by the state in 2022 after criticisms of its communications and case management. (Screenshot: Horne LLP via N.C. Department of Commerce)

Three years later, Horne will once again be at the helm of disaster recovery in the Tar Heel State. And the firm has pledged top-flight customer service, robust in-person staffing and expansive outreach to survivors.

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In a hearing Thursday morning, Republican lawmakers said Hornes return to North Carolina disaster work raised a red flag.

This is a process that promised to learn from past failures, but its already raising some serious concerns, said House Majority Leader Brenden Jones (R-Columbus), who co-chairs the General Assemblys committee on hurricane recovery.

A spokesperson for Horne declined to comment, saying the firm was not authorized to speak for the program.

The NC Department of Commerce, which is overseeing the federal grant money and Helene recovery program, provided materials to NC Newsline showing that Horne scored the highest of all bidders in grading by the states contract review committee.

Hornes plan: Local partners, WNC offices & job fairs

The states offer with Horne is set to span three years. After that period, the state can choose to re-up the contract for one year, up to six years total.

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In the first year, the firm projects the largest cost to be assessing damage and conducting an environmental review. That will cost an estimated $15.6 million. Outreach and intake for survivors and homeowners in the first year is expected to cost around $11 million.

Key to Hornes outreach plan is partnering with local nonprofits and organizations. Patriot Relief, a North Carolina-based hurricane relief nonprofit, is set to knock on doors and use data tracking to find survivors who may be eligible. And the firm plans to blast out materials online, in local media and even by mail in both English and Spanish.

Outreach efforts will have intentional focus to reach the unreachable and offer aid to those most in need, Horne writes in its application.

Among the other local groups Horne has tapped as partners: Endeavors, a Christian crisis care organization with offices in Jacksonville and Fayetteville; and SWCA, an environmental consulting practice with offices in Cary and Charlotte.

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The firm plans to set up three offices in western North Carolina  in Boone, Weaverville and Marion. The Marion intake center would remain open for the entire recovery process; Boone and Weaverville offices would be open for at least six months.

Horne plans to source staff locally  outlining a series of three job fairs, including in Buncombe and Watauga counties. The state has required the contractor to have at least 25% of their staff locally hired; Horne wrote that it aims to hit or surpass 75%.

A portion of Horne LLPs bid to manage post-Hurricane Helene homebuilding in western North Carolina. The firm touted its prior work in Florida and elsewhere. (Screenshot: Horne LLP via N.C. Department of Commerce)

Details on how exactly Horne will oversee construction are scant. Portions of its application outlining the timeline, inspections, diagrams, warranties and more have been redacted. But the firm has pledged to work quickly, without sacrificing the homeowners experience in the process. In the bid, Horne included photos of rebuilt homes in Florida that remained sturdy under two hurricanes.

Speed is no longer a goal; it is an expectation, the firm wrote. When it comes to housing programs, speed is service. We know your homeowners have one goal in mind, and that is to return home as quickly as possible.

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Horne has recently faced legal action in other states over disaster recovery projects. Last month, the company paid $1.2 million in a settlement agreement with the federal government in West Virginia. A spokesperson told Inside Climate News the company had not admitted any wrongdoing.

State officials said Thursday that they learned of the West Virginia settlement after the contract window had closed. Horne provided the state with a copy of the settlement agreement.

Horne taps three veteran employees to lead Helene rebuild

Included in Hornes application were three top staffers it planned to deploy to lead the Helene project.

Kelly Huck is set to be the program director. Huck, who will be based in Raleigh, is the firms director of government services. He previously led a project in Florida using the same federal grant money, serving as construction director after Hurricanes Ian and Michael.

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Milena Caterino, who served as a senior manager and deputy construction manager on the Florida contract after Michael, is the proposed construction manager. And Bob Harland, who has served as Hornes tech director on a number of disaster projects, has been put forward as tech manager. Both would be based in North Carolina.

Gov. Josh Steins advisor for western North Carolina, Jonathan Krebs, worked for Horne until April 2024, Inside Climate News reported. Krebs was last paid by the firm in December, the governors office said. He was not involved in the review committee and will not financially benefit from it, a spokesperson said.

I do not participate or particularly care who they picked to do the work, Krebs told state lawmakers Thursday.

Jones, the House majority leader, argued that Krebs role in drafting the state solicitation was a blatant conflict. Krebs pushed back on that accusation, saying that recusing myself from that activity would nullify my role.

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Another lawmaker viewed his prior work for the firm as a plus.

[He could] understand some of their processes, identify red flags, said Sen. Warren Daniel (R-Caldwell).

Top lieutenants of Gov. Josh Steins administration overseeing Hurricane Helene recovery testify in front of state lawmakers on Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline)

How North Carolina graded, awarded Horne

Hornes bid earned 184 out of 200 possible points from the states five-person committee, according to a recommendation memo provided to NC Newsline.

The committee noted the firms experience with single-family housing, as well as glowing references from South Carolina, Florida and Mississippi. Its technical plan was well-researched and planned. And Hornes recommended leaders were qualified, the committee noted, but lacked experience building housing in places with characteristics similar to western NC.

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Horne was by far the best vendor selection, said Stephanie McGarrah, who is leading the new Commerce division tasked with overseeing Helene operations, on Thursday.

Hornes price for the contract fell in between the other two bidders, according to the state.

Hunt, Guillot & Associates, LLC, another bidder, earned the next-highest score at 161 points. That firm offered the highest price, at $87.1 million. And it was docked for its lesser experience in specific services, as well as key leaders not relocating to North Carolina.

A third bidder, Tidal Basin, provided the lowest price but had significant weaknesses in qualifications. Its recommendations were also lacking  the city of Brunswick, Georgia told the committee they would not recommend hiring the group. Tidal Basin earned 140 points.

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Two other bidders were deemed non-responsive. McGarrah said Thursday she was personally very disappointed that one of those bidders, IEM, did not submit a qualifying offer. They did not provide required financial documents.

You need to understand, this is a very small group of companies that do this kind of work, McGarrah said.

In a statement provided to NC Newsline on Friday, IEM said it strongly refutes allegations that they failed to provide proper financial documents.

The decision to disqualify IEMs compliant proposal without review or scoring is highly irregular and concerning, the firm wrote. IEM has timely filed a Notice of Protest with the North Carolina Department of Commerce and seeks to have this project re-bid.

The state review committee for the contract included McGarrah, Tommy Clark, the executive director of the NC Pandemic Recovery Office; and Konrad Wisniewski, public information officer for the Department of Commerce.

Allan Sandoval, who is CIO at Commerce, and Mark Poole, who leads the Commerce Finance Center, served as subject matter experts. They did not have voting power.

Asked by Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) whether she would redo the bidding process knowing what she knows now, McGarrah said she would not. The housing process is already expected to take three to four years, she estimated.

I do think we made the right decision, she said. I also think that it just slows the recovery down. Its slow already. Its so frustrating.

Updated on Friday, May 23 to include a statement from the firm IEM.

Horne LLP application
The Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on whether to approve the nations first publicly funded religious charter school Thursday, leaving intact a lower ruling that voided the Oklahoma schools contract.

The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court, the court wrote in its one-sentence, unsigned opinion.

Only eight justices sat for the case, since Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused.

The decision lets stand a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejecting the bid to establish St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which spurred a major constitutional battle over the role of religion in state-funded education.

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The deadlocked opinion from the nations highest court landed swiftly, just weeks after the justices heard the case at the end of April.

It marks the culmination of a multiyear, high-profile legal battle over religious rights that began after the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board approved St. Isidores contract.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) led the fight against the school, bringing the case directly to the states top court and winning.

Both the charter school board and St. Isidore then appealed to the nations top court, saying the opinion was riddled with missteps.

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James Campbell, the attorney who argued on behalf of the charter school board, said in a statement that Thursdays decision was disappointing but stressed the court could still return to the issue in the future.

Oklahoma parents and children are better off with more educational choices, not fewer, Campbell said.

At the crux of the dispute was whether the school could be considered a state actor.

The school argued its case was no different than recent ones from Maine, Montana and Missouri, where the justices said state programs that fund private education cannot carve out religious schools.

Drummonds office asserted the dispute fell into another line of Supreme Court precedent, where the court has long held that states can require their public schools to be secular.

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The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma, Drummond said in a statement. I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty.

The courts opinion does not provide reasoning or disclose how the individual justices voted.

But at oral arguments, four of the courts conservatives appeared sympathetic to the schools contentions, while the courts three liberal justices appeared to lean toward Drummonds side. That would leave Chief Justice John Roberts as the swing vote.

Barrett did not publicly explain her recusal from the case, but court-watchers believe it stems from her close friendship with Nicole Garnett, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, whose religious liberty clinic represented St. Isidore.

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The decision was one of two opinions handed down by the Supreme Court on Thursday.

In the other case, the court unanimously sided with the federal government in a wire fraud case it brought against Stamatios Kousisis and Alpha Painting & Construction over contracts Pennsylvanias Transportation Department awarded them for painting projects in Philadelphia.

The contracts required Alpha to include disadvantaged businesses as part of its work, which the company falsely claimed it was. Kousisis and the company argued the allegations against them, which relied on what is known as the fraudulent inducement theory, are not covered by the federal wire fraud statute, so the charges should be dismissed.

The fraudulent-inducement theory is consistent with both the text of the wire fraud statute and our precedent interpreting it, Barrett wrote in the courts opinion.

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Updated at 11:48 a.m. EDT

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May 21DIXON  A Dixon man sentenced to almost 70 years in prison three months ago for sex-related crimes against a victim younger than 13 said his sentence is excessive and is asking that it be reduced.

Jason E. Johnson, 52, pleaded guilty in September to one count each of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Lee County Judge Theresa Friel-Draper sentenced Johnson on Feb. 6 to 60 years in prison for predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and a consecutive seven-year prison sentence for aggravated criminal sexual abuse. It was the maximum sentence allowed under the law.

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A hearing has been set for 9 a.m. June 6 in Lee County Circuit Court on a motion to reconsider the sentence filed in February by Johnson's attorney, public defender Douglas Lathe. In that motion, Johnson said the sentences require that he must serve 85% of the 60-year sentence and 50% of the seven-year sentence, and that the sentence is excessive in light of the evidence presented to the court.

According to the motion, the court did not fully consider an article of the Illinois Constitution that states "all penalties shall be determined both according to the seriousness of the offense and with the objective of restoring the offender to useful citizenship along with other authoritative considerations in mitigation."

The motion also states that the court should take into consideration recommendations made in a psychological and psychosexual evaluation dated Nov. 17, 2022.

[ Dixon man sentenced to 67 years in prison for sexually abusing child ]

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Johnson was arrested on the charges in May 2019, seven months after Dixon Police Department investigators learned of an allegation of sexual abuse against Johnson. During that investigation, officers learned from a child forensic interview conducted at the Shining Star Children's Advocacy Center in Dixon that Johnson had sexually abused and assaulted a girl who was between the ages of 11 and 12, and that he had done so multiple times, Lee County State's Attorney Charles Boonstra has said.

Those charges all involve the same victim, and they were alleged to have occurred in 2013. Johnson was indicted in May 2019 on four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim younger than 13 and five counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim younger than 13.

Boonstra has said that as the case was being prosecuted, investigators became aware of reports of other possible victims, with allegations that each had been abused or assaulted by Johnson at ages varying from 4 to 17 years old.

After further investigation, Lee County prosecutors charged Johnson on Sept. 29, 2020, with two more counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with a 2011 assault in which the victim was at least 13 years old but younger than 17, according to charging documents. He pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in August 2022 and was sentenced in June 2024 to 180 days in the Lee County Jail, four years of probation and a $25,000 fine. The other charge was dismissed.

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Johnson then pleaded guilty Sept. 24 to two of the nine charges filed in 2019; the other seven were dismissed. Under that sentencing order, Johnson was given credit for 2,093 days served and ordered to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.

Lee County Assistant State's Attorneys William Fawkes and Stephanie Sasscer are prosecutors in the case.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  A concerning number of pertussis cases in Hawaii, otherwise known as whooping cough, has health officials on high alert.

According to the Hawaii Department of Health, the number of whooping cough cases is increasing at a worrying rate.

Whooping cough cases are rising again in the US

So far in 2025, officials said 108 cases have been reported, surpassing the 84 total cases for all of 2024.

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Whooping cough is a highly contagious respiratory disease that spreads through the air via the coughs or sneezes of an infected person, health officials said.

While the symptoms may resemble a cold, it can ultimately progress to intense coughing fits.

Its particularly important for families that are expecting a baby, so pregnant women, but also grandparents who are going to be holding the baby, dads who are going to be holding the baby. So everyone in the household who may be spending a lot of time around a newborn infant, we recommend that they also get their booster for pertussis. Dr. Sarah Kemble, State Health Department epidemiologist

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Officials said health complications can be serious and include pneumonia, seizures, apnea, brain damage and even death.

The DOH said vaccines are the best protection and are urging parents to keep their children up to date on all recommended vaccines such as DTaP or Tdap.

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In the absence of immunizations, thats where we wind up with folks ending up in the hospital, in the ICU. Sometimes needing respirators, breathing machines to depend on, said Dr. Mahealani Lum, JABSOM Department of Family Medicine.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

The public can view the CDCs recommended vaccination schedules on its website.

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May 21 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice is working toward dropping reform agreements with police departments in Minneapolis and Louisville, Ky., after the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in those cities drew national attention.

The mayors of both cities as well as the NAACP blasted the decision not to pursue police reforms.

In court filings Wednesday morning, federal prosecutors asked judges in Minnesota and Kentucky to dismiss the consent decrees reached with the police departments.

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"After an extensive review by current Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division leadership, the United States no longer believes that the proposed consent decree would be in the public interest," the DOJ said of the Minneapolis agreement.

The Biden administration, shortly after Donald Trump was re-elected, filed lawsuits against the two police forces, accusing them of widespread patterns of unconstitutional policing practices.

Supporters of Breonna Taylor raise their fists near Jefferson Square Park in Louisville, Ky., on September 20, 2020. Taylor was killed during a police raid in a narcotis investigation early in the year. One office was convicted. File photo by Mark Lyons/EPA-EFE

But the DOJ now says the previous administration was wrongly equating statistical disparities with intentional discrimination and heavily relied on flawed methodologies and incomplete data.

The two police departments also were subject to sweeping consent decrees "that went far beyond the Biden administration's accusations of unconstitutional conduct; the decrees would have governed many aspects of those police departments, including their management, supervision, training, performance evaluations, discipline, staffing, recruitment, and hiring," according to the release.

A crowd descends upon the Lincoln Memorial after the Rev. Al Sharpton speaks on August 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial during the commemoration of the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. The aim of the march was a call to justice and an end to police brutality in light of the rash of killing of unarmed Black men and women by police. File photo by Jemal Countess/UPI

"In short, these sweeping consent decrees would have imposed years of micromanagement of local police departments by federal courts and expensive independent monitors, and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of compliance costs, without a legally or factually adequate basis for doing so."

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The Civil Rights Division will seek to dismiss the Louisville and Minneapolis lawsuits with prejudice, end ongoing investigations and retract the Biden administration's findings of constitutional violations.

"Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said. "Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Division's failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees."

The Civil Rights Division also will close investigations and retract the Biden administration's findings of constitutional violations by agencies in Phoenix; Trenton, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; Mount Vernon, N.Y.; Oklahoma City; and the Louisiana State Police.

"The Department of Justice will continue to offer its full support to police departments across the country, including through grants and technical assistance," DOJ said in the release. "When bad actors in uniform fail to do so, the Department stands ready to take all necessary action to address any resulting constitutional or civil-rights violations, including via criminal prosecution."

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Attorney Ben Crump, who represents the families of Taylor and Floyd, said in a statement posted on X that the decision is a "slap in the face."

"These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy," Crump said.

These moves will "deepen the divide between law enforcement and the people," he added.

The NAACP criticized the DOJ's decision not to push for police reform agreements and investigations into alleged police misconduct.

"It's no surprise that Trump's Department of Coverups and Vengeance isn't seeking justice," NAACP President Derrick Johnson posted on X. "It's been five years, and police reform legislation still hasn't passed in Congress, and police departments still haven't been held accountable."

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during a news conference that his city is "serious" about its commitment to police reform.

"The Trump administration is a mess," Frey said, noting delays requested by the White House in federal court. "It is predictable that they would move for a dismissal the very same week that George Floyd was murdered five years ago. What this shows is that all Donald Trump really cares about is political theater."

The federal judge in this case will now decide whether to dismiss the agreement.

Dhillon told reporters she finds it "very interesting" and that she doesn't "know why a city would want federal government leaning over it."

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A DOJ probe of the Minneapolis Police Department found that its officers used excessive force, including "unjustified deadly force."

This came after the death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, on May 25, 2020.

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in connection with the death of Floyd and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison. Chauvin also was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for violating Floyd's civil rights.

Three other officers involved -- Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane -- were convicted on federal civil rights charges for failing to intervene in Chauvin's actions and for failing to provide medical assistance to Floyd.

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Twelve days before Floyd died, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot in her home in Louisville during a police raid as part of a narcotics investigation. One officer, Brett Hankison, was found guilty in a federal trial of violating Taylor's civil rights. Felony charges against two detectives related to the warrant, citing Walker's actions as the legal cause of Taylor's death.

That decree was reached in mid-December.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said during a news conference that "we believe the court will grant this motion. While this is not the outcome we hoped for when we stood right here in December and announced the decree, it is an outcome that we have planned for. We as a city are committed to reform."

During Trump's first term, the DOJ attempted to end an Obama-era consent decree for Baltimore's police department that hadn't yet been approved by a judge by the time the new administration took over.

Jim Pasco, the longtime Executive Director of the Fraternal Order of Police, told CNN that a consent decree "exacerbates the problem because it validates thinking in urban areas that the police are their enemy."
May 21A small Latah County town violated a federal religious liberty law when it denied a conditional use permit application from Moscow, Idaho-based Christ Church, according to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.

The Justice Department alleged the city of Troy, about 12 miles east of Moscow, violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) when it denied the permit, the department said in a news release.

Christ Church outgrew the space where it was worshipping and was unable to find one to rent, according to the release. It then sought a permit to operate a church in the city's zoning district where nonreligious assembly uses such as clubs, museums, auditoriums and art galleries were allowed.

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Troy residents opposed the church's application and the church's beliefs, the release said. In its denial of the application, the city said the "great majority of the city residents" opposed approving the permit.

"RLUIPA unequivocally forbids local governments from deciding zoning matters based on their dislike of certain religious groups," Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in the release. "The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that discriminate in land use matters on the basis of the applicants' religious beliefs."

The lawsuit alleged denying the permit imposed a "substantial burden on Christ Church and was based on the community's discriminatory animus against the Church," according to the release. It also alleged the city's zoning code treats religious assembly use worse than nonreligious assembly use.

Todd Richardson, Troy city attorney, called the complaint "misleading and incorrect." The permit would have violated city zoning, he said.

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"The fact that it was this church had zero to do with the denial," Richardson said.

Christ Church has divided the Moscow community over the years, with some residents boycotting businesses tied to the church. The conservative church made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic when church members protested the city's COVID-19 mask mandate. The church's website states its mission is to "make Moscow a Christian town," and that church leaders support a theocracy in the U.S.

Reporter Alexandra Duggan contributed to this article.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) is ready to continue funding key infrastructure and projects, Chief Economist of the IsDB Group Areef Suleman said during the panel discussion "From vision to action: economic diversification as a lever for structural transformation" within the framework of the IsDB's Annual Meetings in Algiers, Trend reports.

He emphasized that a stable macroeconomic environment is needed to attract investment.

"Sound fiscal policies, predictable regulations. We've heard about the legal and regulatory environment. Contract is important, legal is important. Equally important is investment in new capital. The right levels of skill sets, the right skill sets, the right diversity of skills," Suleman noted.

According to him, basic infrastructure, the right level of electricity, and other basic conditions without which the private sector won't be ready to come into a country.

"Strong innovation and industrial policy helps. Access to finance, not just access, but also the cost of finance needs to be important. Trade and regional integration. Access to global value chains. Good quality, high quality infrastructure. Environmental social responsibility, also equally important areas that the private sector would look at," he stressed.

Suleman added that the IsDB is focused on supporting sustainable development.

"Infrastructure is something that mankind is financing a lot. It's a big portion of our portfolio. Investments in health, education, the energy sector. These are areas that hold the local skill set, but also put in place the right infrastructure for us to be able to make an impact and help with the diversification efforts on development," he pointed out.

The official noted that the bank is ready to provide that sort of infrastructure financing that's needed. Investing in health, education, agriculture, capacity development, etc.

"We do a lot of this across the globe," the bank representative concluded.

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Just days before the fifth anniversary of George Floyds murder, the Justice Department said they will dismiss police investigations launched during former President Joe Bidens administration.

Harmeet Dhillon, the leader of the departments Civil Rights Division, announced Wednesday plans to withdraw pending federal lawsuits against police departments in Louisville, Kentucky, following the death of Breonna Taylor, and in Minneapolis, where all the officers involved in Floyds death have been convicted in federal and state courts.

Dhillon also announced officials would retract findings of constitutional violations in six police departments, including in Memphis, Tennessee, where all the officers involved in Tyre Nichols death have been federally convicted.

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This decision is a slap in the face to the families, Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney for the families of Floyd, Nichols, and Taylor, wrote in a statement on Wednesday, adding, and to every community that has endured the trauma of police violence and the false promises of accountability.

Civil rights and legal advocates said they feared that if President Donald Trump won a second term, Black and brown communities would face a weakened U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division  one likely to underuse its investigation tools in response to police misconduct over the next four years.

Following a pattern-or-practice investigation, a court-ordered agreement  known as a consent decree  can be created to help ensure that departments reform or create new policing practices.

These consent decrees and investigations were not symbolic gestures, they were lifelines for communities crying out for change, rooted in years of organizing, suffering, and advocacy, Crump wrote in his statement.

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Now, with the Trump administration eliminating investigations into the pattern or practices of law enforcement agencies with allegations of misconduct, the courts will become the primary venue where the victims of police brutality can air their complaints.

After the DOJ announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union and local partners launched the Seven States Safety Campaign.

The campaign will file seven public records requests in seven states where previous DOJ pattern-or-practice investigations uncovered misconduct and found that law enforcement officials engaged in unconstitutional and racially discriminatory policing. Lawsuits are expected to be filed in Tennessee, Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Kentucky aimed to combat the current administration from turning its back on police abuse, said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta of the ACLU in a press release.

The DOJ under Biden found police were wantonly assaulting people and that it wasnt a problem of bad apples but of avoidable, department-wide failures, said Borchetta, who is the organizations deputy project director on policing. By turning its back on police abuse, Trumps DOJ is putting communities at risk, and the ACLU is stepping in because people are not safe when police can ignore their civil rights.

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But legal experts have said it is harder to achieve systemic reform through the courts.

George White, a scholar of race and public policy at the City University of New York at York College, said in a previous interview with Capital B that eliminating the Civil Rights Divisions investigations would be a significant step backward in the quest for greater equity.

If you dont have that kind of external pressure in place to make sure that these actors are actually doing the right thing  creating equity, and creating fairness  theyre not going to do it, said White, the interim dean of the colleges School of Arts and Sciences.

He also said he believes there are going to be a lot of communities that are left adrift for the next four years, or until we get a completely different administration in place.

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In Black communities, data shows that fatal police encounters continue to rise. An average of about 250 Black people have been killed in encounters with the police each year since 2021, according to an analysis by the Mapping Police Violence website.

During the Biden administration, the Civil Rights Division launched 11 pattern-or-practice investigations into local police departments. In seven of those probes, federal investigators relied on thousands of police records, thousands of hours of police videos, and interviews with police personnel throughout each department to develop their reports.

Today, we are ending the Biden Civil Rights Divisions failed experiment of handcuffing local leaders and police departments with factually unjustified consent decrees, Dhillon said in a press release on Wednesday. Overbroad police consent decrees divest local control of policing from communities where it belongs, turning that power over to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats, often with an anti-police agenda.

One of the four holdover pattern-or-practice investigations from the Biden administration was against Rankin County, Mississippi. In January 2023, six former law enforcement officers  who called themselves the Goon Squad  tortured, sexually assaulted, and beat Michael C. Jenkins and Eddie T. Parker for nearly two hours. The ordeal began after the officers allegedly searched a house for drugs, and the officers later accused the men of dating white women. At the end of the encounter, Jenkins was shot in the mouth, and it caused permanent brain damage. The six sheriffs deputies were sentenced in federal and state courts.

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The Mississippi case, along with other DOJ investigations, has been shut down, Malik Z. Shabazz, an attorney for Jenkins and Parker, told Capital B. Shabazz settled a federal civil lawsuit against Rankin County and the department for $2.5 million earlier this month.

We strongly disagree with this decision because it hurts long fought efforts to stop police brutality and human rights abuses by Americas police departments, Shabazz wrote in a statement to Capital B. He added that he and his legal team will continue to press their case in courts for justice in Rankin County.

Since Trumps inauguration, the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division has opened one pattern-or-practice investigation against the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. The division will look into allegations of the police agencys timeliness to approve concealed handgun license applications.

It has also launched a civil rights investigation into the Hennepin County, Minnesota, Attorneys Office on May 5  the prosecuting office that oversees state-level criminal cases in communities including Minneapolis. The office had issued policy guidance on negotiating plea offers that aimed to reduce racial disparities, which the Civil Rights Division alleged is race-based prosecutorial decision making.

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In a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi on May 20, 16 national civil rights and criminal justice reform organizations, including the ACLU, called out the Civil Rights Divisions investigation.

The Department of Justices civil rights investigation into HCAO is not just about one prosecutor, according to the letter addressed to Bondi. It also risks chilling the work of prosecutors offices across the country that make critical decisions every day to either advance or hinder safety and justice in their communities.

The post DOJ Under Trump Shuts Down Police Reform Cases Sparked by Floyd, Taylor Deaths appeared first on Capital B News.
A fugitive from the Dominican Republic charged with firearms trafficking crimes in his native country has been arrested in Massachusetts, federal immigration authorities said Wednesday.

Julio Soto-Heredia, 44, who is also charged in Boston with fentanyl trafficking and possession of a firearm, was arrested on Sunday in Boston, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said in a statement.

Officers with ICE Boston and with U.S. Customs and Border Protection made the arrest.

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Soto-Heredia has been charged by Dominican authorities for firearms trafficking crimes in the Dominican Republic, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said.

Dominican fugitive captured in Massachusetts charged with trafficking fentanyl, firearms, feds say

Julio Soto-Heredia attempted to flee justice in the Dominican Republic by hiding out in Boston, Hyde said. If that werent bad enough, Soto-Heredia apparently illegally armed himself and attempted to peddle poison in our Massachusetts neighborhoods.

ICE Boston will not stand idly by while illegal alien offenders victimize the residents of our New England communities, Hyde said. We will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing criminal alien offenders.

Soto-Heredia remains in ICE custody.

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MCCOLL, S.C. (WBTW)  After McColl Mayor Robert Outlaw announced Billy Stubbs as the towns new chief on Monday, the new appointee said on Wednesday that he will no longer be accepting the position.

Stubbs was on the towns police force from March 2011 until July 2020 and has worked for the Marlboro County Sheriffs Office since January 2021, according to employment records from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.

Due to some issues that have arisen, I will not be accepting the chief position, Stubbs said in a Facebook post. I try to be a man of my word but expect others to do the same. I want to thank Robert Outlaw for the support and consideration for the job, and with heavy heart I have to rescind my employment for the chief position. I will always do anything I can for the town and the citizens that I love.

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Outlaw responded via Facebook Thursday morning, saying, Wow!!! Im really heartbroken on this one. To the citizens of McColl, as your mayor, everything was worked out. I was so excited Mr. Stubbs was coming to be our chief. But once again, two councilmen made sure Robert Outlaw didnt get what he wanted.

Im tired of people smiling in my face and putting a knife in my back, he continued. This is like the third or fourth time our two councilmen have made sure I didnt get what I thought was best for this town. It took me forever to even get the police department in the 2025 budget. Honestly, this is twice that the same councilman has gave Mr. Stubbs cold feed and honestly I dont blame him for not coming to work for us. But that being said, theres a good police chief out there and Im not giving up till I find him or her.

Outlaw made the initial announcement on Monday, saying, After 74 long days being your mayor . . . Im so happy to announce Billy Stubbs has accepted. His starting date will be June 9th. Its been [a long] journey.

Stubbs would have replaced former chief Bob Hale, who, along with the rest of the department, resigned in November 2024. Less than a week later, former Mayor George Garner died in a two-vehicle crash.

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Count on News13 for updates.

* * *

Jordan White is a Digital Producer at News13. She joined the News13 team in August 2024. Jordan, a Myrtle Beach native, graduated from St. James High School in Murrells Inlet and is a graduate of Coker University. Follow Jordan on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of her work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Neither side covered itself in glory during the dark Brexit years. But a particular low point, burned in my memory, was the way Remainers abandoned respect for democracy by implying the result should be disregarded because Leavers were overwhelmingly past their sell-by date.

Remember Sir Vince Cable doubting the validity of the vote because it had been the choice of the older generation? Or when Suella Bravermans 2019 tweet of a constituency meeting with the caption no sign of Project Fear tonight prompted Jess Phillips to sneer: Sure looks like a representative sample? (The median age of a Fareham resident, by the way, is 50-64 and 96 per cent identify as white.)

Undaunted by past shamelessness, some Remainers are again trotting out these familiar tropes. Theyre now emboldened once more as the Prime Minister does their bidding, dragging us back to the EUs unique form of modern slavery. Before the election, the Prime Minister repeatedly expressed how deeply he cared about Britains elderly. Ive met pensioners who have no idea how theyll heat their homes in winter, he smooched in 2022. Just days before the general election, he insisted pensioners had nothing to fear from a Labour government. Tell me another.

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For what did two-tier Keir do, the moment he skipped through the door of No 10? He took the winter fuel allowance off 10 million pensioners. It was retirees who kept his party out of power for 14 years, and who won the EU referendum for Leave.

Dont be fooled by Starmers U-turn this week: this wasnt a Damascene conversion, but a PM bowing to the demands of the tetchy  and mobilising  Labour Left. After all, it was only last month that Starmer assured the Liaison Committee of his commitment to extend voting to 16 year olds, a move that will further dilute the influence of the old who, for all their voting power, are under-represented in what may well be our youngest ever Parliament. Around 3-4 per cent of MPs are over-70, against 17 per cent of the voting age population in that bracket. Where are the Gladstones and Churchills?

The Labour establishment still seems to see pensioners as, quoting former HMRC supremo Sir Edward Troup, old codgers who are under-taxed. This attitude is often justified by the perceived unfairness of the triple lock, which now costs taxpayers around 124 billion a year. But however indefensible the mechanism may be, no other benefit is weaponised to lambast its recipients in this way. We should means test free childcare, for instance, but we dont pillory the middle-class parents who use it.

Labour has just hoofed elder care reform into the ever-longer grass. And what of the NHS? As aged patients expire in A&E corridors, Wes Streeting blathers about AI and a prevention revolution while Kim Leadbeater and her supporters try to create a National Death Service. Meanwhile Rachel Reeves is apparently itching to impose a cap on cash Isas, though its not a great idea for octogenarians to be investing heavily in equities which are constantly zooming up and down in value.

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Following the October Budget, pensions are now subject to inheritance tax, meaning elderly savers are no longer safe in the knowledge that if they die before drawing it all, whatever remains will go to their loved ones. And whatever your views on the Waspi campaign, the proposed compensation package was rejected last December by the very same politicians who once thundered about the injustice the nasty Tories had perpetrated.

Older people are increasingly living in a world of their own, detached from the mainstream. Retirement homes shut them away from the world. Those still able to get about find that supermarkets are swapping staffed tills for self-checkouts, leaving older customers with no one to talk to. Landlines are being disconnected, mail deliveries reduced. Banks and Post Offices are seemingly inaccessible. We are drifting towards age apartheid, with the Government exacerbating rather than mitigating it.

Many over-65s grew old without the advantages that todays young demand: affordable education, mental health support, job security. And it wasnt old people who gummed up our housing market, inflated university fees, limited job opportunities. That was the fault of successive governments who chose to capitulate to vested interests and prioritise short-term gains over everybodys longer-term prosperity.

The current lot appear less interested in intergenerational fairness than intergenerational punishment. Its entirely possible to support the young without sacrificing granny. But Starmer has a score to settle.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  Housing services for multiple residents in the Danforth and Hudson-Ridge Towers are being terminated, which is reportedly leading to evictions.

The Rochester Housing Authority released a statement saying this was due to the termination of the Enriched Housing Program services to residents living there. They clarified that they are not evicting residents, but the New York State Department of Health is coordinating this action.

The program is offered by Family Service Communities. According to its website, they offer enriched housing for seniors for residents in Fairport, Penfield, and the City of Rochester  including Danforth Towers and Hudson-Ridge Apartments.

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According to RHA, the services will be terminated for Danforth and Hudson-Ridge residents starting next Wednesday, May 28.

Gwen Kendig told News 8s Isabel Garcia shes been living at her apartment there under the Enriched Housing Program through Family Services of Rochester for the past seven years.

After an unexpected meeting last week, no paperwork, notice, or emails, residents were told the program would be totally shut down by Wednesday, May 28, without much reason as to why.

Its a horrible feeling to be kicked out of a place that you lived in for a while. And not be able to find a place to go. It really is, Kendig said. Ive done nothing but cry. Its horrible, its a horrible feeling to know, especially being an elderly person that all of the sudden Ive lost a lot of stuff already. We had to throw a lot of stuff away, we had to give a lot of my stuff away, and I dont even know if I have a place to go to. And they dont care, they just dont care and Im not the only person in this situation, we all are here.

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News 8 spoke with Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, who said the county and other officials were told about the issue, and that there was enough capacity in other housing units and programs to relocate people. Now, Bello says he heard today that it may not be the case.

Were going to try to help these individuals because the stories Im hearing right now, this is completely unacceptable, the communication that was given to them, Bello said. These are individuals that are being given a very short period of time where theyre told they have to leave. And what should have happened if that was the case is that where they were being moved to should have been identified before they were told that they had to be relocated to another housing unit.

Rochester Mayor Malik Evans released a statement Thursday regarding concerns, saying his support is with the residents.

Upon learning of the situation facing some residents of Danforth and Hudson Ridge Towers, I have conferred with the State and other parties involved to make it clear that I support residents remaining in their homes to the greatest extent possible. While these Towers are not operated by the City of Rochester, we have an obligation to ensure our residents are treated with dignity and do not lose access to quality housing and important support services. I reiterated my support directly to residents during a visit to Hudson Ridge Towers this afternoon, and this issue will remain a top concern of mine until it is resolved. Rochester Mayor Malik Evans

Senator Jeremy Cooney also released a statement on the termination of this program, saying he is trying to keep in contact with the Department of Health for further clarification on what transpired:

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The most important factor is that the impacted residents of Danforth Towers and Hudson Ridge Towers are allowed to stay in their homes. I thank the Rochester Housing Authority for making it clear that these residents are not being evicted. I am currently in communication with the New York State Department of Health to determine what occurred here and what the next steps are to ensure long-term housing stability for these members of our community. Should any residents of the towers have further questions or concerns, I encourage them to contact my office for assistance.

Family Housing Communities says on its website that it has been working with the Rochester Housing Authority for over 30 years to provide supportive, comfortable, and affordable housing to senior citizens across the Rochester NY area.

News 8 reached out to the New York State Department of Health and Family Service Communities, they provided the following statement:

In our role as regulator, holding operators accountable for the quality of care they provide remains a top priority for the New York State Department of Health. Our primary concern is the health and well-being of the impacted residents at these two Enriched Housing Programs. Recent surveys of the Hudson Ridge and Danforth Towers Enriched Housing Programs identified violations that posed immediate risks to resident health and safety. As a result of these findings and because the operator agreed it lacked the resources to correct the identified violations, the operator initiated an expeditious emergency closure of the Enriched Housing Programs and the transfer of residents to appropriate placements that could serve their needs. This action in no way impedes the residents right to transition to the setting of their choice. Department of Health staff have been and will continue to be onsite at both facilities throughout the closure process to ensure safe and appropriate transfers and that residents receive appropriate care during the transition. Residents have and will continue to have the right to choose their homes. We cannot comment on the financial status of Family Services of Rochester. Statement from the New York State Department from Health

Rochester City Council members, including President Miguel A. Melendez, Jr., Vice-President LaShay D. Harris, and Michael A. Patterson, Chair of the Neighborhoods Jobs and Housing Committee, released a statement regarding the news of Danforth Towers  saying they are deeply concerned.

We are deeply concerned by reports that residents of Danforth Towers and Hudson Ridge Towers have been instructed to vacate their homes by this Friday. Our top priority is the well-being and stability of our constituents, especially our most vulnerable neighbors who depend on the services provided through the Enriched Housing Program. We are actively working with all stakeholdersincluding the Rochester Housing Authority, the New York State Department of Health, and Family Servicesto identify immediate solutions and establish long-term safeguards to prevent future disruptions. We want to clearly reassure all residents in the Enriched Housing Program at Hudson Ridge and Danforth, as well as renters throughout Rochester, that no one can be forced to leave their home without going through the proper legal eviction process in court. At this time, no eviction proceedings have been filed by the Rochester Housing Authority, and RHA has made clear it is not seeking to evict any impacted residents. We strongly advise residents not to vacate their apartments and to seek legal guidance if they have concerns about their housing status. Our offices remain available to provide support and ensure every resident is treated with fairness and dignity. Statement from members of Rochester City Council

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OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  After several outcries and criticism from Superintendent Ryan Walters to lawmakers, Governor Kevin Stitt responded on Wednesday.

I dont think anybody takes that guy seriously, said Gov. Stitt.

Walters has criticized that lawmakers, and specifically the Governor, arent doing enough to cut taxes like property taxes and the income tax.

This should be MAGA (Make America Great Again) DisneyWorld in here, in Oklahoma, said Supt. Walters.

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Walters reiterated what he said on Friday, but this time without taking questions from the media.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Supt. Walters upset after lawmakers reject several of OSDEs budget requests

Last Friday, when asked how he plans on cutting property tax and income tax and still funding the state, he didnt give a clear answer.

When asked why people should listen to him, with education rankings in Oklahoma remaining one of the lowest when compared to the rest of the nation, he called KFOR fake news without specifically saying what information was wrong about the question.

On Wednesday, he seemed to lead another rally, with lawmakers taking the podium as well. He repeated similar statements to what was said on Friday.

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I think its pretty disappointing, and people sell their souls out for the next 18 months. Its crazy, said Gov. Stitt.

Supt. Walters comes out with this criticism around the same time when he received several losses at the state capitol.

Last week, the budget agreement showed that several of his budget requests were rejected by lawmakers. Both the $3 million for Bibles and the $500,000 for concealed carry training were rejected.

This week, it was learned that all four of the Stitt-appointed School Board Members received a nomination for confirmation vote of approval from the members of the Senate. That happened despite Supt. Walters heard speaking out against their seats.

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Their votes still need to be voted on the Senate floor.

When asked for a response to Walters criticism, Gov. Stitt said, There are politicians. Candidates for their next office, or their next job, or theyre running for something, trying to make waves. I dont think anybody takes the guy seriously. I didnt watch anything, said Gov. Stitt.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has confirmed that Moscow has no interest in negotiations and agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying on May 21 that "we don't want this anymore."

Describing the U.S.-led push for a full, 30-day truce as a "lets have a ceasefire and then well see" tactic, Lavrov insisted the "root causes" of the war need to be resolved first.

"We have already been in these stories, we dont want this anymore," Lavrov said, referring to failed negotiations between Moscow and Ukraine following the onset of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.

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U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a full ceasefire in March. Ukraine immediately agreed and the initiative has been backed by Kyiv's European allies.

Russia has consistently refused, culminating in a phone call on May 19 between Trump and Vladimir Putin, during which the Russian president once again rejected the proposal, instead insisting on negotiating a "memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty."

Read also: Ukraines new drone strategy  cripple Moscows airports, make Russian population pay

Trump briefed European leaders on the contents of the call, telling them that Putin is not ready for peace in Ukraine because he believes he is winning the war, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 22.

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The same European leaders were reportedly seemed "surprised" that Trump was "relatively content" with what he heard from Putin, Axios reported on May 20.

During a talk with students at a Russian university, Lavrov also accused European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, of pushing Trump to tighten sanctions against Russia.

Russia initiated peace talks with Ukraine, which took place on May 16, following Moscow's rejection of calls from Ukraine and its allies for an immediate ceasefire.

The talks were largely inconclusive. Russia announced its delegation would consist of low-level officials, led by Putin's aide, Vladimir Medinsky. Moscow reiterated maximalist demands, including that Ukraine accept the loss of Crimea and four eastern regions.

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Putin did not attend the Istanbul peace talks on May 16, despite an invitation from President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet him face-to-face.

Lavrov was also absent from the peace talks, signalling Russia's unwillingness to make progress at the Istanbul negotiations.

Read also: Architect of Yanukovychs corrupt system  Who was Andriy Portnov, a Ukrainian ex-official killed in Spain

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
A Dorchester man will face charges after allegedly hitting a Boston police officer with a moped on Monday.

Police officers responded to Washington Street around 4:38 p.m. for a report of a moped traveling the wrong way.

The driver, who police identified as 18-year-old Kwest Howard, came to a stop near 367 Washington Street.

When officers approached, police say Howard allegedly sped off, turning left down Franklin Street.

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An officer attempted to tell Howard to stop but was struck by the moped, throwing the officer back and causing the vehicle to hit a pole.

The officer hit by the moped did not suffer major injuries.

Howard fled on foot but was detained with the help of a bystander, according to Boston police.

During the arrest, Howard actively resisted officers attempts to place him in custody, creating a disturbance in the area, Boston police said. As Howards behavior began to draw a crowd, he made threats to shoot Officers.

Howard was placed under arrest and arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (moped), resisting arrest, threats to commit a crime and disorderly conduct.

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He was issued several Massachusetts Uniform Citations for criminal and civil motor vehicle violations, including failure to stop for police, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, helmet violation, improper operation of a motor vehicle and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

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Doug Burgum, the soft-spoken Interior secretary responsible for managing the more than 507 million acres of federally owned land, is haunted by a fear that seems, at first glance, outside his mandate. He worries the free world will lose dominance in the field of artificial intelligence, and with it, the future.

So does the president.

"When President Trump declared a national emergency on his first day in office it was, in large part, because of what we're facing with our electrical grid and making sure that weve got enough power to be able to win the AI arms race with China," Burgum said Wednesday in remarks first reported by RealClearPolitics. "That is absolutely critical."

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Thus the stated policy of this White House: "Its called drill, baby, drill," Trump said earlier this spring.

The immediate goal, the one touted at every campaign, is to bring down the average price of a gallon of gas. The concurrent and long-term mission that Burgum obsesses over: AI dominance. The former governor from fracking-friendly North Dakota and tech entrepreneur who sold his software to Microsoft, Burgum laid out an abbreviated formula on stage at the America First Policy Institute.

Electricity generation via fossil fuels, like natural gas and coal, powers data centers "filled with these amazing chips," the secretary said, "and you know what comes out the other side? Intelligence. A data center is literally manufacturing intelligence." He envisioned a new world that follows, where the best computer programmer, or the most brilliant lawyers, could "clone themselves" again and again to train AI models to do the work of thousands in a process "that can be repeated indefinitely."

No longer science fiction, the process has been headline news for some time. AI models like ChatGPT and Xs Grok are already available in every home with an internet connection. And the U.S. was the undisputed leader. That is, until recently.

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American tech companies enjoyed a clear edge with not just the most powerful AI models, the most funding, and top engineering talent, but also the easiest access to those "amazing chips" that Burgum referenced. Former President Biden banned the export of the most advanced semiconductors to China. And yet DeepSeek, an unknown Chinese startup with less money and allegedly less sophisticated chips, still managed to one-up Silicon Valley earlier this year with a more powerful AI model.

The latest development in the battle for tech supremacy, in what some likened to "a Sputnik moment," the DeepSeek launch rattled both markets and geopolitics. A new kind of AI nationalism now consumes heads of state convinced that their nations must develop their own technology or fall behind in the future. Said Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017 of AI, "The one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world."

Burgum does not disagree. He would just prefer the West take on that role. "Trust me, you do not want to be getting your data from a Chinese data center," he told the crowd, adding that "Whoever controls the manufacture of intelligence is going to control the world. The next five years is going to determine the next 50."

This is the goal of the White House, including Vice President JD Vance, who once warned that falling behind on this front could mean that the U.S. meets China "on the battlefield of the future" with the equivalent of digital "muskets."

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Democrats on Capitol Hill are not thrilled. The day before, Maine Rep. Marie Pingree complained in the House Appropriations Committee that Burgum had gutted the department he leads and sought to slash Biden-era clean energy tax credits.

"In just four months, the department has been destabilized, and theres been a stunning decline in its ability to meet its mission," she told Burgum. "This disregards the climate change concerns that we have."

The secretary replied that he was concerned with a more pressing order of operations. "The existential threats that this administration is focusing on are Iran cannot get a nuclear weapon, and we cant lose the AI arms race to China," Burgum said in committee. "Thats the number one and two. If we solve those two things, then we will have plenty of time to solve any issues related to potential temperature change."

His immediate focus, then, is on how the U.S. can boost energy production. Burgum reported that industry leaders tell him electricity demand will soon outpace supply with astronomical numbers measured not in megawatts, but gigawatts. The power needed to run one data center, he said, would be equivalent to the electricity needs of Denver times 10.

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Because AI has the potential to supercharge nearly every business, he said, "the demand for this product is like nothing weve ever seen in our lives."

Concluded the Interior secretary, "The fundamental principles here again, as they say, were going to sell energy to our friends and allies, and were going to have enough energy here at home to be able to win the AI arms race. And this requires electricity."

On this Burgum and Trump are simpatico. During the campaign, the president likened artificial intelligence to "the oil of the future."

Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) will continue to support Azerbaijan in implementing the sustainable development agenda, Chief Economist of the IsDB Group Areef Suleman told Trend.

He made the remark during a panel discussion on the sidelines of the bank's Annual Meetings in Algiers.

The official stressed that the bank builds its work with member states on the principle of the countries' own leadership in implementing the sustainable development agenda.

"The country itself determines its development agenda, and we provide support. Last year, we signed the country engagement framework with Azerbaijan," he said.

Suleman noted that 77 projects worth about $1.3 billion were implemented within the framework of cooperation with Azerbaijan.

"The bulk of these investments were in the energy sector, but we also financed projects in agriculture and finance, as well as in other related areas.

We will continue to support Azerbaijan, like we would for other member countries, the IsDB representative concluded.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
A Dover man used anonymous phone numbers and email accounts to create a fictitious stalker to harass three women he was romantically involved with, federal prosecutors said.

Jason Subirana, 48, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Concord to three counts of stalking. Judge Steven J. McAuliffe scheduled sentencing for Aug. 27.

According to the charging documents and statements made in court, between November 2016 and December 2021, Subirana stalked three women he was in romantic relationships with.

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Prosecutors allege Subirana used more than 50 anonymous phone numbers, provided by TextNow, and anonymous email accounts, to send more than 650 harassing messages to the three victims from a fictitious stalker, attempting to manipulate his victims, catch them in lies, and cause emotional distress.

For example, he sent one victim a text message that read in part:

Stop trying to make him look like a bad guy, hes the best thing you have and lucky he hasnt put you to the curb like the trash bag that you are. You want more? Be honest to EVERYONE around you. Stop thinking you are smarter than everyone.

Prosecutors say in addition to sending harassing messages to the victims, Subirana also sent himself harassing messages from the fictitious stalker using anonymous accounts.

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For example, the defendant texted himself from an anonymous TextNow number, Do you really think youre the only one shes banging? You really should get yourself tested. Put something in the mail for you keep an eye out for it.

Prosecutors said Subirana also collected compromising information about the victims, which he then sent to himself under the guise he received it from the stalker.

For example, Subirana gained access to Victim 2s email account and forwarded himself an email exchange from 2015 where Victim 2 mentioned a potential romance with an acquaintance of hers. The defendant orchestrated a series of email forwards through anonymous accounts before making its way back to Victim 2. This email controversy led to Victim 2 admitting to the defendant a prior romantic relationship with the acquaintance.

Subirana distanced himself from the stalker by accusing innocent individuals of being behind the messages.

The law provides for a sentence of up to 5 years in prison, with the sentence to be imposed by a federal district court judge at a later date.

The FBI led the investigation.

pfeely@unionleader.com
As the clock ticks down to the June 2 final adjournment of the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers are scrambling to pass  or kill  the bills that have been stacked up for weeks. Here's some of the action at the Capitol on Wednesday.

Out-of-state handgun licenses welcome in Texas

The House finally passed and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott legislation to formally recognize in Texas any handgun license issued in other states.

Senate Bill 706 would end the requirement for the governor to negotiate agreements with other states before Texas will accept the licenses. Abbott, a three-term Republican who has signed numerous laws expanding gun rights, is expected to sign the bill.

Speaker Dustin Burrows breaks a gavel during the debate of SB 31, relating to exceptions to otherwise prohibited abortions based on physicianss medical judgement, at the Capitol on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Counting up the cryptocurrency

The House gave final approval to Senate-passed legislation to establish the Texas Bitcoin Reserve, which would be administered by the Texas comptroller. The fund will contain Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of at least $500 billion.

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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made SB 21 a priority in the upper chamber, following up on President Donald Trump's pledge to make the United States "the cryptocurrency capital of the world."

The measure now returns to the Senate for members to consider the modifications made to the bill in the House.

Housing protection for migrant workers

A bill that would provide more protections for migrant workers who might otherwise be forced to live in substandard housing was sent to the governor's desk.

According to the Legislature's analysis of SB 243, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs historically has lacked the resources to investigate allegations of substandard housing. Complicating matters is that "migrant laborers are often reluctant to report violations or collect damages related to substandard housing conditions because of fear of retaliation," according to the analysis.

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The legislation "seeks to address this issue by strengthening the TDHCA penalty structure for violations of provisions governing migrant labor housing facilities and by providing for increased accountability and enforcement of those provisions," the analysis said.

Crackdown on AI-generated child sexual abuse material

A bill to outlaw AI-generated child sexual abuse material passed the House without opposition in a move that lawmakers said will give police more effective tools to crack down on child exploitation.

SB 20 by Sen. Pete Flores, R-Pleasanton, would criminalize the possession of obscene material appearing to depict a child, "regardless of whether the depiction is an image of an actual child, a cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software." Under the proposal, the offense would be a state jail felony but a charge could be upgraded for previous convictions.

The Senate will need to agree to a House amendment on the bill before it heads to the governor's desk for a signature.

Access to space in veterans' cemeteries

The Senate sent to the governor's desk legislation to assess whether veterans face unreasonable obstacles in securing burial space in the system of state-run cemeteries for those veterans.

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House Bill 1875 requires a panel of senators and state representatives to study the matter and make recommendations to eliminate any such barriers. The Texas General Land Office manages five veterans cemeteries around the state.

Rep. Cecil Bell Jr., R-Magnolia, wears a Ten Commandments lapel pin during the debate of SB 10, relating to the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, at the Capitol on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

Ten Commandments bill delayed, likely to proceed

A bill that would require Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom suffered a procedural setback when a point of order halted discussion on the proposal in the House.

SB 10 is one of the latest battles in the Christian right's pursuit of religion in schools and to confront the longstanding principle of separation of church and state. The bill is a priority for Patrick, whose Senate passed it along strict party lines in March.

The point of order was brought by Austin Democratic Rep. James Talarico, a former teacher who is a Christian and an outspoken critic of Christian nationalism. He had found a procedural flaw that delayed but likely will not derail the bill.

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SB 10 will now head back to the House Committee on Public Education for correction but will likely be considered again in a future floor session.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas lawmakers OK bills on handgun licenses, cryptocurrency, AI abuses
SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (WPRI)  Approximately 2,600 customers lost power Thursday afternoon after wires were knocked down in South Kingstown.

The incident happened on Kingstown Road, right outside the South Kingstown Police Department. Route 108 was shut down from Saugatucket Road to Southwinds Drive.

POWER OUTAGES: Southern New England Active Outages Map & Database

Rhode Island Energy said weather-related issues may have caused a transformer to blow. A live wire was seen burning on the ground.

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The roadway has since been reopened.

Wires down at Saugatuckert Road in South Kingstown - May 22, 2025

Wires down at Saugatuckert Road in South Kingstown - May 22, 2025

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No Rules, No Exceptions

The latest version of the Republicans' Budget Reconciliation Bill  the "one big, beautiful bill," as President Trump has called it  includes a clause that would ban all AI regulation in the US at the state level for a full decade. Over 100 organizations, CNN reports, are calling for lawmakers not to pass it.

According to CNN, 141 policy groups, academic institutions, unions, and other organizations have signed a letter demanding that legislators in Washington walk back the sweeping deregulatory provision, urging that the bill would allow AI companies to run wild without safeguards or accountability  regardless of any negative impact their technology might have on American citizens.

The letter warns that under the proposal, Americans would have no way to institute regulatory safeguards around and against AI systems as they "increasingly shape critical aspects of Americans' lives," including in areas like "hiring, housing, healthcare, policing, and financial services."

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There aren't any exceptions outlined in the bill, which declares instead that "no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the ten year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act," as 404 Media was first to flag last week.

"The AI preemption provision is a dangerous giveaway to Big Tech CEOs who have bet everything on a society where unfinished, unaccountable AI is prematurely forced into every aspect of our lives," Emily Peterson-Cassin of the nonprofit Demand Progress, whose organization wrote the letter, told CNN.

Forseeable Harm

In the letter, the groups emphasize that such a drastic moratorium on regulatory action would mean that even in cases where a company "deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm  regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences  the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public."

Transformational new technologies can be riddled with unknown, chaotic, and sometimes quite destructive outcomes. And as the writers of the letter note, regulation can serve to fuel innovation, and not stifle it by way of a thousand Silicon Valley lobbying-dollar-funded cuts.

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"Protecting people from being harmed by new technologies," reads the letter, "including by holding companies accountable when they cause harm, ultimately spurs innovation and adoption of new technologies."

"We will only reap the benefits of AI," it continues, "if people have a reason to trust it."

More on the bill: New Law Would Ban All AI Regulation for a Decade
In this file photo, Dr. Ryan Cole speaks during a panel discussion titled "COVID 19: A Second Opinion" in the Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The panel featured scientists and doctors who have been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and for promoting the use of unproven medications for treatment of the disease. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Editors note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m. Thursday to include comment from the Idaho Board of Medicine.

The Idaho Board of Medicine has reached an agreement with an Idaho pathologist who was also disciplined by the Washington Medical Commission for repeatedly spreading COVID disinformation.

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The Idaho agreement, published Tuesday, requires Dr. Ryan Cole to comply with the terms of Washington medical regulators disciplinary order.

In January 2024, the Washington Medical Commission restricted Coles medical license in the state of Washington after state regulators concluded that he knowingly shared disinformation about COVID-19 and broke medical standards by virtually prescribing ivermectin to COVID-19 patients, against medical evidence, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

In the state of Washington, Coles medical license is active with restrictions, the Washington State Department of Healths website shows. He is still licensed to practice medicine in Idaho, the Idaho Board of Medicines licensing records website shows.

Cole serves on the Central District Health Board of Health, which directs Idahos largest regional public health district.

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In April, an Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit against Cole was dismissed following a private legal agreement, months after six doctors disagreed with Coles severe cancer diagnosis that led a woman to undergo major surgery, the Sun previously reported.

Cole and his attorney, Nancy Garrett, could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Idaho agreement doesnt place more penalties or fines than the Washington order, Idaho Board of Medicine spokesperson Bob McLaughlin told the Sun.

As a reciprocal discipline order, the consent order requires Dr. Cole to comply with the order of the Washington Medical Commission, and to report on that compliance to the Board, he said. It does not add any additional penalties or fines to the order of the Washington Medical Commission.

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Cole still denies Washington allegations, but understands Idaho could pursue disciplinary action against his medical license, agreement says

The Idaho agreement, formally called a stipulation, says Cole still denies the allegations underlying the Washington Order and has appealed it. But the agreement says Cole understands the allegations and acknowledges that the (Idaho Board of Medicine) has sufficient evidence to establish the allegation for purposes of disciplinary action against (Coles) Idaho license.

The Idaho Board of Medicine can adopt another jurisdictions order when that licensed provider is disciplined elsewhere on grounds that apply under Idaho law. The Idaho Board of Medicine can also choose not to pursue disciplinary action in response to discipline in other states.

In a 40-page response to the Washington Medical Board to complaints against him, Cole and his attorney argued that he did not violate any rules when he prescribed drugs to patients over telehealth and claimed COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous. But some of the arguments in the response to the Washington Medical Commission do not match Coles public comments, investigations by the Sun found.

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In public appearances, Cole has said the complaints are politically motivated attacks.

The new agreement appears to be the first public move in Idaho related to disciplining Cole. The Idaho Board of Medicine previously closed a complaint into Coles Idaho medical license without looking into patient records, the Sun previously reported.

How Idaho agreement works: Cole to comply with Washington order, waives rights with Idaho Board of Medicine

The Idaho agreement says Cole and the Idaho Board of Medicine mutually agree to settle the matter expeditiously in lieu of formal administrative hearings before the Board.

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The agreement says Cole will fully and timely comply with the terms and conditions of the Washington Medical Commissions order. And within two weeks, Cole will submit a status report to the Board of Medicine about his compliance with the Washington order, the agreement says.

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In its order last year, the Washington Medical Commission set several conditions for Cole to keep his Washington medical license, including completing medical education courses and writing an essay focused on honesty in medicine.

The Washington Medical Commission couldnt be immediately reached for comment.

As part of the Idaho agreement, Cole waived his right to a full disciplinary hearing with the Idaho Board of Medicine, including the right to call witnesses, testify, present evidence, confront witnesses, and for reconsideration or judicial review of the boards orders.

Asked how long the Idaho agreement was in the works, or whether the Idaho Board of Medicine is considering limiting Coles medical practice in Idaho, the Idaho Board of Medicine said board investigations are confidential by Idaho law.

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Ryan Cole-Stipulation and Consent Order 5-20-2025
DRAPER, Utah (ABC4)  The Draper City Police Department has opened an investigation into a video posted by an urban exploration account on Instagram.

The account urbex.utah on Instagram posted a video filmed at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium late Tuesday night. The account usually features the exploration of abandoned structures. This video depicted at least three individuals walking through a construction site at the aquarium to access the EECO.

EECO is a repurposed set piece from U2s world tour thats sometimes called the claw by locals. EECO stands for Ecosystem Exploration Craft and Observatory, and is part of the EECO Voyager educational experience at the aquarium.

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That thing in front of the aquarium in Draper? It toured around the world with U2

The video posted on Instagram shows these individuals climbing up the steel frame of EECO, which is roughly 16 stories tall. Urban exploration does not usually involve any climbing or safety gear, which can make it dangerous to climb large structures.

The department would like to stress that acts such as those in the video are illegal and put the involved parties at great risk of serious injury or death, Draper police said in a press release.

Captain Pat Evans with the Draper City Police Department said that they took a report regarding the video from the aquarium this morning.

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We will be investigating and will be charging any identified suspects. We are working with the aquarium in an attempt to take down videos to prevent future problems from copy cats, Capt. Evans told ABC4.

Anyone with information should contact the Draper Police Department at 801-840-4000.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  An Oregon State Police trooper found a suspected drug trafficker in possession of 60 pounds of fentanyl during a traffic stop on I-5 Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Jose Ivan Iribe Camorlinga, 46, was arrested and charged with possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute.

According to OSP, Camorlinga was pulled over due to an unlawful lane change on I-5 near Albany.

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A trooper searched the vehicle and found two large bags containing 25 vacuum-sealed packages of fentanyl in the trunk. In total, law enforcement seized more than 60 pounds of fentanyl powder,

He was transferred into DEA custody after his arrest.

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DENVER (KDVR)  A legal battle may be brewing over the use of elephants at the Colorado Renaissance Festival.

On Tuesday, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at the University of Denvers Sturm College of Law issued a letter to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, threatening litigation if the agency grantsor fails to revokea permit allowing elephant performances at the annual event.

Why Colorado Parks and Wildlife wants you to report sightings of this bird

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Attorneys say doing so would violate state law.

This law was specifically passed to prevent this kind of exhibition, said Chris Carraway, a staff attorney with the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project. Allowing elephants at the Renaissance Festival would go against the letter and spirit of the law.

The targeted exhibitor, Trunks and Humps, has offered elephant performances at past festivals.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed receipt of the letter, but said it does not comment on pending legal matters. The owner of Trunks and Humps Bill Swain has not yet commented.

Representatives of the Renaissance Festival also had no comment at this time, but on their website, the elephant experience is described as educational.

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The 2025 Colorado Renaissance Festival is scheduled to begin in June.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
West Chicago Democrat Sheila Rutledge is stepping down from DuPage County Board to focus on her newly elected role as supervisor of Winfield Township.

Rutledges resignation will be effective upon the adjournment of the Aug. 26 county board meeting, according to a news release from the county.

Rutledge, who has represented District 6 on county board since 2018, was elected supervisor of Winfield Township in April. Winfield Township is located in DuPage County and comprises most of West Chicago, WInfield and Warrenville, as well as small sections of Wheaton, Naperville, Aurora and Batavia.

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Reached over the phone, Rutledge said she loves her work on the county board but decided that her focus should be on Winfield Township. When she vied for the supervisor position earlier this spring, Rutledge had always intended on stepping down but anticipated an overlap between the two roles to see through several county projects, she said.

In a statement, DuPage County Board Chair Deb Conroy said that she was notified Tuesday of Rutledges impending resignation.

(Rutledges) collegial approach and dedication to the residents of District 6 is to be commended, Conroy said. We thank Member Rutledge for her service and wish her well as she focuses on her new role as Winfield Township supervisor.

Rutledge said she will always be grateful for the time she spent as a board member. The position created a new life for Rutledge after her husband died in 2018, she said.

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Widowhood demands a new life, she said. The county board was my vehicle for that.  It was a wonderful, wonderful experience.

Rutledges term was due to expire in December 2026. Her vacant seat will be filled by Conroy with the advice and consent of the board, according to the county. The new appointee must be a Democrat, the county said.

District 6 residents interested in seeking appointment to the board can email a resume and letter of no more than 300 words outlining their interest to Conroy at chair@dupagecounty.gov. The deadline for submission is 4:30 p.m. June 20.

News of Rutledge stepping down comes after Naperville Democrats Sadia Covert and Dawn DeSart confirmed earlier this month that they will be vying to keep their District 5 board seats in next years midterm elections.

Naperville City Councilman Ian Holzhauer has also announced that he will be challenging Covert for a four-year seat on the board.

tkenny@chicagotribune.com
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) have announced a joint initiative to identify and support new investment opportunities in Benin, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal, Trend reports.

As part of the collaboration, the EU will provide 15 million euros for technical assistance to help prepare projects across several strategic sectors, including agribusiness, energy, infrastructure, small business, critical raw materials, and digital and telecommunications. The funding comes under the EUs Global Gateway strategy, which aims to mobilise 300 billion euros in sustainable and high-quality investments globally by 2027.

The support package represents one of the first donor contributions the EBRD will deploy in sub-Saharan Africa, following the Banks recent geographic expansion. The assistance will include feasibility studies and other preparatory work to help bring future investments to implementation stage.

This agreement is a significant step to launch the EBRDs work in sub-Saharan Africa, said EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso. The strategic support from the European Union will help to foster enabling market environments and unlock concrete investment opportunities in key sectors.

European Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Sikela stated: This collaboration is an important step in driving sustainable development across sub-Saharan Africa. With 15 million in technical assistance from the EU, we are supporting the development of concrete projects and helping to create an environment where the private sector can thrive.

The initiative is expected to contribute to creating a stable and transparent investment framework in the region, aimed at attracting long-term, sustainable capital and supporting economic growth.
Duval County Public Schools leaders said Wednesday that free lunch will no longer be offered at 37 schools starting next school year.

The district shared the information through its social media platforms and sent emails to parents. You can read that here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12KjrRgTqKU/

Since 2020, the district has been able to provide free lunch to all students in all schools across the district, regardless of their financial status, because of additional funds allotted to the county through federal pandemic funding.

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Now, the district said it is no longer sustainable with the countys budget to continue the program.

Before 2020, schools with 40% or more students from low-income families were automatically enrolled in the free lunch for all programs. Those schools will continue to receive free lunches next year.

Conversely, since this five-year-long program is being reversed, students in those schools that dont automatically qualify will have to apply for free or reduced lunch through the free or reduced lunch application.

Listed below are the schools that dont automatically qualify for free lunch starting next school year:

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Alden Road Exceptional Student Center Alimacani Elementary Anchor Academy Elementary Atlantic Beach Elementary Atlantic Coast High Baldwin Jr/Sr Bartram Springs Elementary Chets Creek Elementary Darnell Cookman Jr/Sr Douglas Anderson High Fishweir Elementary Fletcher High Fletcher Middle Greenland Pines Elementary Hendricks Avenue Elementary J. Allen Axson Elementary Jacksonville Beach Elementary James Weldon Johnson Middle John Stockton Elementary Julia Landon Middle Lavilla Middle Loretto Elementary Louis Sheffield Elementary Mandarin High Mandarin Middle Mandarin Oaks Elementary Mayport Elementary Mayport Middle Neptune Beach Elementary New Berlin Elementary Paxon High Sabal Palm Elementary Samuel W. Wolfson High San Pablo Elementary Sandalwood High Seabreeze Elementary Stanton High

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District leaders say students at these schools can still apply to qualify for free lunch through the free or reduced lunch program. Students can also pay out-of-pocket to eat school lunch, or bring their lunch to school going forward.

Action News Jax talked to Luis Caballero, who said all four of his children attend schools that wont offer free lunch next school year.

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I just dont think its a fair thing to be doing to kids right now, Caballero said.

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Caballero said while his children havent always taken advantage of the free lunch, its been nice as a back-up plan when his children would forget to bring a lunch from home.

If there are days that they forget their lunch and stuff like that, then that impacts them because were two working parents and you have to be working parents in this economy, he said.

DCPS said it will still serve breakfast for free to all students across the district, regardless of their family income status.

Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
GRANDVIEW, Tenn. (WATE)  After rescuing several dogs from a Rhea County home, a Tennessee nonprofit is hoping to provide a new lease on life for one of the dogs that was found partially paralyzed.

Amy Thran of the Flying Pigs Sanctuary visited the dilapidated home last month after receiving a tip from a local deputy. More than a dozen dogs were found, as well as several puppies found under the home. When Thran went to retrieve the pups from underneath the home, she found a dog in dire shape that wouldnt leave her side.

$5,000 reward offered after dog found dead in Knoxville with bag over its head

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After crawling back under the house not once, not twice, but he went with me three times. And I swear he was just like, dont leave me here. Im staying by your side because youre not going to leave me here, Thran told 6 News.

The dogs hind legs didnt work. He couldnt walk, but he could crawl. He was malnourished and flea-ridden with sores covering his feet from dragging himself around. Thran wrapped him up and affectionately dubbed him Burrito.

Ill never forget him looking at me and saying dont leave me here,' Thran said. I had a dog bed in my truck and I literally rolled him up like a burrito and thats where his name came from.

I rolled him up, put him in the front seat and he literally laid staring at me the whole way home. The gratitude and appreciation was something Ill never forget.

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A veterinarian who evaluated Burrito said hed likely never regain use of his hind legs. However, Thran realized that Burrito could wag his tail after bringing him back to the Flying Pigs Sanctuary, giving her hope that he could one day walk on all four legs.

 See more top stories on WATE.com

The sanctuary has now launched a fundraiser to pay for an advanced diagnostic for Burrito to determine what can be done to help him regain use of his legs. The goal is to raise $4,000.

They are also holding a virtual step-a-thon for Memorial Day weekend, encouraging participants to get donation pledges for each step they walk on the holiday. The individual or group with the most steps will receive a weekend at one of the glamping cabins at Lemon Lane Farm in Grandview where the sanctuary is located. Click here for more information on the fundraiser.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
Russia is now saying the quiet part out loud. It has no intention of stopping the war in Ukraine.



We in Ukraine knew this all along, of course, but to sate the demands of international diplomacy, Moscow and Washington have engaged in a now more than two-month-long peace process that has achieved nothing other than demonstrating that neither is willing to do what is necessary to achieve it.



Russia has apparently grown tired of its leading role in the charade and, emboldened by what is now the almost certain knowledge it will face no repercussions from the U.S. President Donald Trump, is openly bragging about having no interest in negotiations with Ukraine or a ceasefire.



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"We don't want this anymore," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on May 21, confirming what his boss told Trump in a phone call two days earlier  that the Kremlin is not ready for peace in Ukraine because it believes it is winning the war.



Trump was furious at the news, apoplectic that Putin had been stringing him along and humiliating him all this time, swiftly imposing the long-threatened sanctions, as European leaders rallied together.



Oh, wait, sorry, this is what should have happened if there had been even an ounce of logic and decency left in this situation.



In reality, Trump barely shrugged, apparently content that he's keeping Russian money-making opportunities on the table, while the EU's latest sanctions are so ineffective it's been left up to Ukraine itself to explain to the bloc how it could maybe try and make them a bit tougher.

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It's beginning to feel a bit like, despite all the rhetoric, the only player who truly wants the war to end is Ukraine.

Any notion of a peace process is effectively over, and there's only one remaining hope  those Americans who actually mean what they say and truly want the war to end must follow through and finally apply some good old-fashioned global superpower pressure on Russia.

Yes, U.S. senators, we're talking to you.

One way the war can end is if the U.S. makes Russia end it. Russia, and Russia alone, is responsible for the violence being inflicted in this war.

Russia's ceasefire proved the one thing that Putin couldn't admit at the time  that Russia and Russia alone is responsible for the violence being inflicted in this war.

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Take a recent example  only two Ukrainian civilians were killed by Russian violence on May 8. Only two  that may sound cynical, and is in no way meant to detract from two tragedies, but the number is hugely significant.

The day before, on May 7, 14 people were killed and 54 others injured. In Kyiv on May 7, we spent the night in bomb shelters and hallways, listening to the sounds of ballistic missiles exploding, and attack drones flying overhead and crashing into people's homes.

Overnight on May 8, we slept uninterrupted throughout the night.

Emergency personnel respond after a Shahed drone attack set fire to a multi-story residential building in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 23, 2025. (Vlada Liberova / Libkos / Getty Images)

Attendees react during the funeral ceremony of eleven-year-old Maksym Martynenko and his parents, Mykola and Nataliia, who were killed by a Russian missile strike on April 13, 2025, in the village of Stare Selo, outside Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, on April 16, 2025. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)

What was the difference between these two days? On May 8, a three-day ceasefire unilaterally proposed by the Kremlin came into effect.

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Now let's get one thing straight  the Kremlin's ceasefire was a sham, announced without consulting Ukraine, with the sole purpose of not embarrassing Russian President Vladimir Putin by forcing the cancellation of his Victory Day parade on May 9.

The Kremlin also violated it, and in addition to the two deaths noted above, Ukrainian soldiers told the Kyiv Independent that Russian forces were still active and attacking on the front lines.

But Russia suspended a major part of its military operations  aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities  and the immediate effect was a dramatic reduction in civilian deaths.

April was one of the deadliest months for civilians during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine  at least 209 civilians were killed, including 19 children, and 1,146 others were injured, all by Russian missiles, drones, and bombs.

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Inadvertently, Russia's ceasefire proved the one thing that Putin wouldnt admit  that Russia and Russia alone is responsible for the violence being inflicted in this war.

It is in Russias power to stop the war any moment, unilaterally, and to end the violence, as it showed with the ceasefire. But it wont do it.

The same is true on the front lines.



Ukraine cannot end the fighting as long as Russia keeps attacking.

Where their armies clash, Ukraine, as the defending side, is reportedly responsible for the majority of the killing, as its conducting just and legal self-defense against Russian soldiers committing an unprovoked and illegal invasion of another sovereign nation.

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For this killing to end, Russia can simply stop attacking. Aside from the personal humiliation of one man  Putin  Russia would suffer nothing, and lose nothing, from stopping the war.

Ukraine doesnt have the same choice. It cannot end the fighting as long as Russia keeps attacking. It has everything to lose, and the violence its armed forces inflicts is committed in the name of survival, not conquest.

Soldiers of the 115th Brigade air defense unit fire at drones in the Lyman area, Ukraine, on April 24, 2025. (Jose Colon / Anadolu via Getty Images)

Even Ukrainian offensive operations like drone strikes into Russian territory are carried out in an attempt to deprive the Kremlin war machine of ammunition, fuel, and money, in an effort to aid Ukraine's survival.

This is the prism through which Washington should have viewed the U.S.-led peace process, but since Trump took office, the opposite has been true.

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The U.S. has been applying pressure not on Russia, but on Ukraine, which has no choice other than to do what is required to survive.

In stark contrast, Russia remains unpunished by the Trump administration and is instead being wooed.

But there is still hope  the U.S.'s actions towards Russia are not solely in the hands of the president, and we know there are plenty of people on Capitol Hill who don't agree with the course that is currently being charted.

For one, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham's sanctions bill, the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, needs to be passed. Americans need to reach out to their representatives in Congress to demand that their elected officials support the bill.

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If Americans want to show they wont be complicit in appeasement, they should raise their voices for Ukraine  and for accountability  starting with this bill.

Read also: Ukraines new drone strategy  cripple Moscows airports, make Russian population pay

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
On Sunday, Mayor Brandon Johnson visited one of Chicagos megachurches, the Apostolic Church of God in Woodlawn.

The mayor sat down in front of the large South Side congregation for a discussion with the churchs pastor, Dr. Byron Brazier. Speaking about economic development, Johnson talked of the resources and investments his administration has made in Black communities and businesses.

He got to speaking about how Bowa Construction, a Black-owned company, had been awarded a contract to be the lead vendor on a cargo expansion project at OHare Airport. It was the first time in U.S. aviation history that a Black-owned contractor had won the lead on a major airport cargo expansion project, the mayor said.

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All well and good. And to be celebrated for sure.

But then things got problematic. Very problematic.

In the context of the Bowa contract, Johnson said, One thing I know for sure I have to do over these next two years: every single dime that our people have been robbed of, Im going to make sure that is returned two-, three-fold.

Whether he meant it this way or not, the clear implication was that the Johnson administration would attempt to award as much business as possible to Black-owned firms over the rest of his term.

Johnson surely knows that there are strict rules when it comes to city contracting. All but the smallest jobs must be competitively bid. The rules can get complex and there long have been worthy programs to help minority- and women-owned firms win city business. But the rules exist to ensure taxpayers get the best work possible at the lowest possible price and that bidders believe the process is fair and nondiscriminatory.

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So while activists are free to opine on whether minority contractors ought to be favored because of the citys past discriminatory patronage practices, a mayor simply shouldnt do so. If he does, he invites reactions from those empowered to investigate, such as the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the same sit-down at the church, Johnson celebrated the many Black people who hold senior roles in his administration, listing their names one by one.

That prompted Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon to fire off a letter to Johnson just a day after his Sunday appearance saying shed authorized an investigation into whether his administration is violating federal civil rights law in its hiring practices.

Johnson didnt help his cause when he prefaced that part of his discussion by saying, Our people hire our people, not far removed from the infamous We dont want nobody nobody sent phrase, tied to the Richard J. Daley machine.

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Dhillon mused in the letter about whether Johnsons administration was showing a pattern of favoring Black candidates in employment decisions.

Vendors are a particular concern to us because of how much they impact taxpayers. Statements about making sure favored firms get their piece of the pie  and then some (two-, three-fold)  should impel more scrutiny of the administrations contracting practices.

The notorious Shakman decree, a federal court order imposed on the city decades ago and barring patronage hiring practices prevalent in the days of the first Mayor Daley, was lifted in 2014  during the mayoralty of Rahm Emanuel, ironically a frequent verbal punching bag for the current mayor. It shouldnt be a tall order for this mayor  or future mayors  to avoid the kind of rhetoric inviting a redux of such legal oversight.

Even if the administration hasnt put its thumb on the contracting scales in the way Johnson suggested Sunday, such reckless rhetoric could well discourage qualified companies from bothering to bid on future projects, to the disadvantage of taxpayers. Perception easily can become reality.

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Then theres the corrosive message the rest of the city is hearing in these remarks. As 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez, a frequent Johnson critic, noted, the reaction to Johnsons messaging validates the concerns many people have throughout the city of Chicago that this isnt a mayor for everyone.

Indeed.

There are ways for Johnson to communicate his record to voters without exacerbating the ethnic divisions that have long stymied progress in this city.

No, Chicagos record of racial discrimination is not confined strictly to the past. And too many neighborhoods held back by racist policies and practices by past powers-that-be still are feeling the effects. Plenty of folks of all races, creeds and colors realize that, and many have spent years trying to repair the damage.

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But our mayor is supposed to be the mayor of the city of Chicago, not just some of its neighborhoods. Johnson sounds like he doesnt mind if hes perceived as caring about only some Chicagoans and not all.

_____
This year, Floridas Legislature finally found the courage to undo a decades-old injustice: They agreed to repeal the so-called free kill law that declares the lives of some Floridians to be essentially worthless after they are killed by medical malpractice.

Supporters of Floridas existing law may say thats an oversimplification. But its the practical implication of the law, which limits damages  even in cases where medical malpractice is clearly responsible for someones death  if the victim is older than 25 and has no spouse or young children.

Its an absurd and cruel law, which probably explains why Florida is the only state to enact it. But its been the law here for 35 years. Before this year, attempts to repeal it were quashed by adamant pushback from insurance and health care lobbyists. This year, lawmakers had the guts to stop pretending that some lives are worth more than others, voting overwhelmingly to strip those discriminatory provisions from state law.

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Unfortunately, Gov. Ron DeSantis doesnt seem to be so brave. He has vowed to veto the bill (HB 6017) once it reaches his desk. At a press conference earlier this month, he predicted that repeal will lead to a flood of lawsuits.

Malpractice premiums are going to go up and its going to be hard to recruit physicians into Florida. Ultimately healthcare costs will go up, DeSantis said.

That myth has been thoroughly debunked. Floridas medical industry has had the protection of the free-kill law for 35 years  along with myriad other provisions that shield negligent hospitals and health-care professionals. Yet the state has some of the highest medical-malpractice insurance rates and litigation costs in the nation. Clearly, this law hasnt made things better for the vast majority of responsible healthcare workers and facilities. Thats why the healthcare industry has had to rely on straightforward political bullying and threats against lawmakers reputations to keep a free-kill repeal from reaching the floor.

That intimidation has denied countless grief-stricken Florida families the ability to seek justice for their family members. Cindy Jenkins of Jacksonville, whose daughter Taylor died in Osceola County after a car accident, says an autopsy showed that doctors missed signs that her life was in danger. But shell never know for sure  because Taylor was months past her 25th birthday.

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The same arbitrary provision kept Lauren Korniyenko of Melbourne from suing when when her widowed mother died from a severe infection after hip surgery. An independent review found that doctors missed at least 10 clear signs of infection, she testified to a House committee. But like Jenkins, she never got her day in court. Without the ability to sue for so-called non-economic damages including emotional trauma, many family members cant find an attorney willing to take their case.

That is a fundamental injustice. Lawmakers on both sides of the partisan divide agreed (including two local lawmakers who rarely align: Rep. Johanna Lopez, D-Orlando, an original sponsor of the repeal, and Rep. Doug Bankson, R-Apopka, who signed on as a co-sponsor of HB 6017.)

In declaring that he would veto the bill, DeSantis clearly intended to intimidate lawmakers. But its worth noting that HB 6017 passed with a 104-6 vote in the House, and a 33-6 margin in the Senate. Thats more than enough to override the governors veto, should he make good on his threats.

That should inspire House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton, who have already shown their willingness to stand up to DeSantis bullying. They should make it clear to the governor  and to Floridians  that if DeSantis tries to block justice, the House and Senate members will have the opportunity to correct him.

The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Executive Editor Roger Simmons and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com
May 21 (UPI) -- Education Secretary Linda McMahon, testifying before a House subcommittee on Wednesday, defended a 15.3% leaner budget from last year as part of the department's "final mission."

President Donald Trump's budget request would cut funding to the Education Department by about $12 billion to wind down the agency. The House bill allocated $30.9 billion and the Senate version $31.9 billion.

She said her top priorities are support for charter schools, which would receive a $60 million funding increase, as well as improving literacy rates and returning education to states. Charters schools are the only ones with a budget funding rise.

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"The fiscal year '26 budget will take a significant step toward that goal," McMahon told legislators on the House Committee on Appropriations' education subcommittee. "We seek to shrink federal bureaucracy, save taxpayer money and empower states who best know their local needs to manage education in this country."

As Republicans supported her plans, Democrats blasted her.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon defended plans to reduce the budget 15.3% in the "final mission" for the agency. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

"By recklessly incapacitating the department you lead, you are usurping Congress' authority and infringing on Congress' power of the purse," Rosa DeLauro, of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the appropriations committee, said.

She decried cuts for higher education.

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said responsibility for some programs can shift to other agencies. Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

"Your visions for students aspiring to access and pay for college is particularly grim," DeLauro said. "Some families do not need financial assistance to go to college, but that's not true for the rest."

Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, of New Jersey, also blasted states gaining greater authority.

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"I'm asking you, do you realize that to send authority back to the states, to eliminate your oversight, to eliminate your accountability, to eliminate your determination as to resources going to schools that are teaching public schools, that are teaching underserved communities, this will result in the very reason that we had to get the involvement of our government in this, and that's a yes or no," she said.

"It isn't a yes or no, but I will not respond to any questions based on the theory that this administration doesn't care anything about the law and operates outside it," McMahon responded.

Coleman said: "From the president of the United States conducting himself in a corrupt manner to his family enriching him and himself corruptly ... I'm telling you, the Department of Education is one of the most important departments in this country and you should feel shameful [to] be engaged with an administration that doesn't give a damn."

McMahon said she is not trying to remove 8% to 10% that goes to states, and instead moving programs to other departments.

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She described her agency as a federal funding "pass-through mechanism" and other agencies could take over the job of distributing allocations from Congress.

"Whether the channels of that funding are through [Health and Human Services], or whether they're funneled through the [Department of Justice], or whether they're funneled through the Treasury or [Smal Business Administration] or other departments, the work is going to continue to get done," McMahon said.

Plans are to move the student loan programs to the SBA, which McMahon was the administrator of during the first Trump administration.

The reductions include eliminating two federal programs designed at improving college access for disadvantaged and low-income students -- TRIO and Gear Up -- at a cost of $1.6 billion. Also, the federal Work-Study Program would shift responsibility to states, and funding would be eliminated for Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants to undergraduate students.

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And funding would be reduced 35%, or about $49 million, for the already scaled-back Office for Civil Rights, which investigates harassment and discrimination on college campuses and in K-12 schools.

The budget shifts funding from programs supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

She said full funding would remain for Title I-A, which allocates funds to schools with the highest percentages of children from low-income families, and those with the Disabilities Education Act for free public education and support services for children with disabilities.

"Here we are today with a Department of Education that was really stood up in 1980 by President [Jimmy] Carter," McMahon said. "We've spent over $3 trillion during that time, and every year we have seen our scores continue to either stagnate or fall. It is clear that we are not doing something right."

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On March 20, Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education."

Six days earlier, the agency announced a workforce reduction that would cut 1,315 workers, nearly 50% of the department's employees.

The department, already the smallest Cabinet-level agency before the recent layoffs, distributed roughly $242 billion to students, K-12 schools and universities in the 2024 fiscal year. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)  The National Weather Service has rated at least five of Sundays tornadoes as EF-3s, including multiple ones near Greensburg and Plevna. The tornado that crossed Pratt, Stafford and Reno counties was as wide as a mile.

KSN Meteorologist Jack Maney captures a tornado in Storm Tracker 3 near Plevna on May 18, 2025 (KSN Photo)

Near Greensburg, Kiowa County

On Sunday, the NWS issued a Tornado Emergency for Greensburg around 9:50 p.m. because a powerful tornado was moving toward the town.

The twister missed the town. However, NWS survey teams found damage consistent with three EF-3 tornadoes within Kiowa County. The damage shows that another tornado touched down at 10:04 p.m. east-southeast of Greensburg and tracked northeast for 30 minutes. It was almost a mile wide at times, with a maximum wind speed of at least 155 mph. The tornado ended at 10:34 p.m.

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There were no injuries.

Cullison to Iuka in Pratt County

Surveyors found evidence of a strong EF-3 tornado in Pratt County. At 10:47 p.m., a tornado touched down about three miles north-northeast of Cullison. It hit a peak wind of 160 mph before dissipating about a mile north-northeast of Iuka. It was on the ground for 21 minutes, traveling almost 12 miles. No one was injured.

Plevna tornado covered three counties

The tornado that hit Plevna was also rated EF-3, although it had weakened to EF-1 and EF-2 levels by the time it reached the town.

The NWS said the tornado was a mile wide at some points and on the ground for an hour, traveling 32.5 miles from northern Pratt County to southeast Stafford County and western Reno County.

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Plevna residents working to rebuild after tornado, struggling with lack of insurance

It touched down at 11:17 p.m., five miles northwest of Preston in Pratt County and ended around 12:17 a.m. Monday, almost 10 miles north of Plevna.

It hit its peak wind of 155 mph twice, in Pratt and Stafford counties. Again, there were no injuries.

Grinnell, Gove County

The first EF-3 tornado on Sunday caused extensive damage. It crossed I-70, tossing vehicles around and then hit the west side of Grinnell in Gove County.

Grinnell tornado victims face uncertain future

It touched down at 6:35 p.m. south-southwest of the town. It covered 7.7 miles in 29 minutes, hitting a top wind speed of 140 mph. At its widest point, it was 230 yards. No one was injured.

Sheridan County

As that tornado ended at 7:04 p.m., another EF-3 tornado touched down northeast of there. It started near Road 110 S and Road 40 W in Sheridan County and traveled for 4.5 miles in about 10 minutes. The peak wind speed was 143 mph. The maximum width was 230 yards. It ended near County Road 406 and Road 20 W.

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No one was injured.

EF ratings

The NWS uses a rating scale known as the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale) to assign tornado ratings. This is based on wind speed and damage. After a tornado, the NWS sends teams to inspect the damage and properly assign a rating. The scale ranks tornadoes from an EF-0 all the way to an EF-5. There is even the possibility of an EF-U, which stands for unknown. An EF-3 includes wind gusts from 136 mph to 165 mph.

EF-0 Weak 65 to 85 mph EF-1 Weak 86 to 110 mph EF-2 Strong 111 to 135 mph EF-3 Strong 136 to 165 mph EF-4 Violent 166 to 200 mph EF-5 Violent Over 200 mph

For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

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Russian forces shelled Kherson with artillery on the morning of 22 May, killing an 85-year-old woman.

Source: Oleksandr Prokudin, Head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram; Kherson Oblast Prosecutor's Office on Telegram

Quote from the Prosecutors Office: "Investigators have established that the Russian Armed Forces attacked Kherson using artillery on the morning of 22 May 2025.

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An 85-year-old woman who was in a house has been killed in the enemy shelling."

Details: It is noted that law enforcement officers have initiated criminal proceedings in connection with the commission of a war crime that caused the death of a person (Article 438.2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Prokudin expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the woman killed in the attack.

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JOHNSTOWN, Pa.  Deputy Mayor the Rev. Sylvia King and self-described community watchdog John DeBartola are now set to face off in the general election to become the City of Johnstowns next mayor.

DeBartola ran unopposed in the Republican primary Tuesday.

King defeated fellow Councilwoman Laura Huchel for the Democratic nomination. She got 630 votes, or approximately 59% of those cast, compared to 418 for Huchel, according to unofficial results posted by the Cambria County Election Office.

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2025 Primary Election | Johnstown

Republican Mayoral candidate John DeBartola talks with Melanie Shiley, Judge of Elections at Seventeenth Ward No. 3 polling place, at Walnut Grove Church of the Brethren on Bedford Street in Johnstown on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

Im honored, King said. Im grateful. My stomach is in knots, but of course Im very happy. Im very happy because I feel privileged and I thank God for this awesome opportunity that has been afforded to me. I know that I still have to go on to win in November. Im praying, of course, for success there, but this was the first hurdle that I needed to overcome.

King, a Kernville resident, is involved in multiple nonprofit organizations, along with being a community development officer at AmeriServ Financial Bank and pastor at Christ Centered Community Church.

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These things have prepared me to be able to be in this position of servant leadership, King said.

DeBartola garnered 501 votes, with 71 going to write-ins.

He is a social worker, Keystone Alliance/Gaylife Newsletter president and leader in the Revitalize Johnstown online community who frequently runs for elected office, challenges government officials at public meetings and publishes information gained through Right-to-Know requests.

PHOTO GALLERY | 2025 Primary Election | Johnstown

DeBartola has recently been objecting to councils plan to use American Rescue Plan Act money to remake Central Park.

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Its a shame that for 2 years people have voiced concerns of spending $8 million on Central Park when our area has so many other more important issues, DeBartola said in a written statement.

Now city council claims they were misguided by the former city manager. Council needs to listen to the public. Johnstown can only rise again when the people elect community leaders that are incorruptible and honest and transparent in their actions involving the operations of our city.

DeBartola has an ongoing lawsuit against the city, alleging his rights were violated when he was not given the legally allotted time to speak during courtesy of the floor at a Johnstown Planning Commission meeting.

He is suing all council members, including King, for $1 million apiece.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. As many as 93 percent of new capacities in the world's energy systems are renewable energy sources, 95 percent of them are solar and wind, Director of Country Engagement and Partnerships of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Gurbuz Gonul said during the forum "From vision to action: economic diversification as a lever for structural transformation" within the framework of the Islamic Development Bank's (IsDB) Annual Meetings in Algiers, Trend reports.

"Last year, 93 percent of new capacity additions in the power system globally, it is renewables. And 95 percent of it is solar and wind.

He added that 81 percent of these projects are more competitive than fossil fuel alternatives.

"In many instances, this competition is always on the side of solar and wind. These are technological costs decreasing every year.

However, according to the representative of IRENA, there are differences in costs related to the investment environment and the risks that projects and countries carry.

"Technology-wise, renewables are not risky anymore. But obviously, the perception of risks from the investor and financial side, it could be different. This affects how projects are financed and implemented," he noted.

Gonul stressed that in the renewable energy sector, a large part of investments account for the private sector.

"High risk perceptions lead to project cancellations or high premiums. At the end, the poor pay more for energy than the rich countries," he claimed.

The expert also linked the availability and cost of energy with the productive use of electricity.

"Productive use takes the conversation from simple electrification to a different level.

Meanwhile, Gonul drew attention to the importance of reducing risks and creating affordable financial mechanisms.

"There are many partners in this space operating, and they don't lead to a transformational change in those sectors. What we are trying to do with some of the initiatives we develop, and how we can reduce risks in this environment, how we can come up with affordable mechanisms, financing mechanisms. Because there are so many projects, so many mini-grids which fail because simply nobody buys electricity. It is too expensive for the consumer," he added.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Who is Elias Rodriguez? Suspected D.C. shooter from Chicago

(NewsNation)  As more information is revealed about the deadly shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C., the suspected shooter, Elias Rodriguez, is being looked at from all angles.

Rodriguez, 31, faces charges of murder of foreign officials and other crimes. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said Thursday, as authorities continue to investigate the killings as both a hate crime against the Jewish community and terrorism.

Rodriguez shouted Free Palestine as he was led away after his arrest and told police that he was the one who did it, according to charging documents.

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So, who is Elias Rodriguez? Where is he from? Who is he associated with?

Rodriguezs work was based in Chicago

A thread on X showed Rodriguezs LinkedIn profile that hes been working in Chicago at the American Osteopathic Information Association since 2024.

Before the American Osteopathic Information Association, Rodriguez allegedly worked as a researcher at HistoryMakers, a research and educational institution based on preserving the African American historical record.

Rodriguez possibly had ties to extremist organizations

Rodriguez is also believed to have an affiliation with the Answer Coalition, a group that fights against racism and war with organizing centers in cities and towns across the country.

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The 30-year-old also had a brief association with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The PSL said they have not associated with Rodriguez for seven years.

In 2017, Rodriguez attended a protest in honor of the anniversary of the death of Laquan McDonald, who was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer. The protest was also against Amazon.

Jewish museum suspect seemed distraught, confessed: Witness

Rodriguez set up GoFundMe for event he was trying to attend

Rodriguez, years ago, set up a GoFundMe to travel to Washington, D.C., to attend the Peoples Congress of Resistance, NewsNations Alex Caprariello learned.

His mission was to put an end to imperialist war, which at the time, Congress had vested interests in expanding.

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Rodriguezs father is an Army National Guardsman. He was sent to Iraq when Rodriguez was 11 years old.

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Upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is running neck-and-neck in a hypothetical race for governor against Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul, a new poll obtained by The Post claims.

The incumbent governor up for reelection next year would have the support of 43% of New Yorkers with Stefanik pulling 42% for Stefanik  as about 15% of the electorate is still undecided, according to the independent survey by right-leaning firm co/efficient.

In a potential Republican primary for governor in 2026, Stefanik has a dominant edge with 56% of voters, with Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler receiving only 9% and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman with 8%, the poll found.

About 15% of the electorate is still undecided, according to the independent survey by right-leaning firm co/efficient. James Messerschmidt

Hochul had only a 30% approval rating among the 1,163 likely voters, while 57% disapproved in the survey. President Trump fared much better in the poll, with a 44% favorability rating among New York voters while and 49% disapproved.

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The governors tanking favorability numbers were a far worse result than the 44% favorability reported in a Siena College poll just released on Tuesday. That survey also reported Stefanik with a sizable but tighter lead  with 35% support of GOP voters to 22% for Lawler and 11% for Blakeman.

No Republican has officially announced that they are running for governor next year.

The co/efficient poll found only 23% of respondents said Hochul deserves reelection while nearly two-thirds or 63% preferred someone new.

New York U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik speaks during the Saratoga GOP Awards Ceremony at the Fairways of Halfmoon golf course Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Mechanicville, N.Y. Hans Pennink for the NY Post

Hochuls re-elect score further highlights her inherent vulnerability, said co/efficient pollster Ryan Munce.

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As for Stefanik, 34% of voters rated her favorability, 32% unfavorably while the remaining 34% said they were unsure or had not heard of her.

Co/efficient surveyed 1,163 likely voters from May 1-2 via phone and text. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.

The Israel Day Parade on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan brought out thousands of marchers from area schools and organizations in support of Israel and the hostages still in Gaza. Andrea Renault/ZUMA Press Wire / SplashNews.com

Pollster Munce said the outcome of the 2026 gubernatorial race will depend on where Trump and the ruling Republicans in Congress stand nationally heading into the midterm elections.

During his first term as president, Republicans were trounced in New York in the 2018 blue wave midterm elections.

Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo won re-election to a third term in a landslide as his fellow Democrats picked up seats in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Republicans were knocked out of power in the state Senate.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) arrives for a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. Getty Images

But Munce also noted that Trump is more popular than he was in his first term, particularly among men and voters not enrolled in a political party.

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Munce and his co/efficient have conducted surveys for the House Republican caucus and statewide GOP candidates across the country as well as some local Democratic candidates. But the firm also does independent surveys.

HIs firm conducted independent polling in New Yorks 2022 gubernatorial race, where Hochul ultimately defeated former Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin, now Trumps Environmental Protection Secretary, by a narrow 6 percentage points.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced future checks for households with children, free breakfast for minors and other things,, as she addressed attendees and the media at the 47th Street YMCA in Manhattan, NY on April 30, 2025. James Messerschmidt

A poll that co/efficient conducted two weeks before the election showed a dead heat between Hochul and Zeldin and had Hochul up by 6 points a month earlier.

Hochuls campaign dismissed the newest poll and vowed the incumbent would trounce Stefanik, if she decides to run for governor.

.

Elise Stefanik represents the worst of Washington extremism  a staunch Trump loyalist who is gutting New Yorkers healthcare and fighting to rip away their rights, said Hochul campaign spokesperson Jen Goodman.

We welcome the opportunity to contrast Gov. Hochuls record of putting money back in New Yorkers pockets, supporting our kids, and keeping communities safe with Stefaniks out-of-touch, divisive and dangerous record  and fast-track her unemployment once and for all.
In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, billionaire and Trump megadonor Elon Musk offered his thoughts about what motivates political progressives to support immigration. In his view, the culprit was empathy, which he called the fundamental weakness of Western civilization.

As shocking as Musks views are, however, they are far from unique. On the one hand, there is the familiar and widespread conservative critique of bleeding heart liberals as naive or overly emotional. But there is also a broader philosophical critique that raises worries about empathy on quite different and less political grounds, including findings in social science.

Empathy can make people weaker  both physically and practically, according to social scientists. Consider the phenomenon known as empathy fatigue, a major source of burnout among counselors, nurses and even neurosurgeons. These professionals devote their lives to helping others, yet the empathy they feel for their clients and patients wears them down, making it harder to do their jobs.

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As philosophers, we agree that empathy can take a toll on both individuals and society. However, we believe that, at its core, empathy is a form of mental strength that enables us to better understand the impact of our actions on others, and to make informed choices.

The philosophical roots of empathy skepticism

The term empathy only entered the English language in the 1890s. But the general idea of being moved by others suffering has been a subject of philosophical attention for millennia, under labels such as pity, sympathy and compassion.

One of the earliest warnings about pity in Western philosophy comes from the Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus. In his Discourses, he offers general advice about how to live a good life, centered on inner tranquility and freedom. When it comes to emotions and feelings, he writes: He is free who lives as he wishes to live  And who chooses to live in sorrow, fear, envy, pity, desiring and failing in his desires, attempting to avoid something and falling into it? Not one.

Feeling sorry for another person or feeling pity for them compromises our freedom, in Epictetuss view. Those negative feelings are unpleasant, and nobody would choose them for themselves. Empathy would clearly fall into this same category, keeping us from living the good life.

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A similar objection emerged much later from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche framed his discussion in terms of Mitleid  a German term that can be translated as either pity or compassion. Like Epictetus, Nietzsche worried that pity or compassion was a burden on the individual, preventing them from living the good life. In his book Daybreak, Nietzsche warns that such feelings could impair the very people who try to help others.

Epictetuss and Nietzsches worries about pity or compassion carry over to empathy.

Recall, the phenomenon of empathy fatigue. One psychological explanation for why empathic people experience fatigue and even burnout is that empathy involves a kind of mirroring of other peoples mental life, a mirroring that can be physically unpleasant. When someone you love is in pain, you dont just believe that they are in pain; you may feel it as if it is actually happening to you.

From a philosophical standpoint, empathy is intimately related to the domain of knowledge. AP Photo/Elise Amendola

Results from neuroscience and cognitive psychology research indicate that there are different brain mechanisms involved in merely observing anothers pain versus empathizing with it. The latter involves unpleasant sensations of the type we experience when we are in pain. Empathy is thus difficult to bear precisely because being in pain is difficult to bear. And this sharpens the Stoic and Nietzschean worries: Why bother empathizing when it is unpleasant and, perhaps, not even necessary for helping others?

From understanding knowledge to appreciating empathy

The answer for why one should see empathy as a strength starts with a key insight from 20th century philosophy about the nature of knowledge.

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That insight is based on a famous thought experiment by the Australian philosopher Frank Jackson. Jackson invites us to imagine a scientist named Mary who has studied colors despite having lived her entire life in a black and white room. She knows all the facts about the spectrum distribution of light sources and vision science. Shes read descriptions of the redness of roses and azaleas. But shes never seen color herself. Does Mary know everything about redness? Many epistemologists  people who study the nature of knowledge  argue that she does not.

What Mary learns when she sees red for the first time is elusive. If she returns to her black and white room, never to see any colored objects again, her knowledge of the colors will likely diminish over time. To have a full, rich understanding of colors, one needs to experience them.

Bertrand Russell was actively involved in political activism on behalf of the experiences of others. Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images

Thoughts like these led the philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell to argue that experience delivers a special kind of knowledge of things that cant be reduced to knowledge of facts. Seeing, hearing, tasting and even feeling delivers what he called knowledge by acquaintance.

We have argued in a book and recent articles that Jacksons and Russells conclusions apply to pain.

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Consider a variation on Jacksons thought experiment: Suppose Mary knows the facts about pain but hasnt experienced it. As before, it would seem like her understanding of pain is incomplete. In fact, though Mary is a fictional character, there are real people who report having never experienced pain as an unpleasant sensation  a condition known as pain asymbolia.

In Russells terminology, such people havent personally experienced how unpleasant pain can be. But even people without pain asymbolia can become less familiar with pain and hardship during times when things are going well for them. All of us can temporarily lose the rich experiential grasp of what it is like to be distressed. So, when we consider the pain and suffering of others in the abstract and without directly feeling it, it is very much like trying to grasp the nature of redness while being personally acquainted only with a field of black and white.

That, we argue, is where empathy comes in. Through experiential simulation of anothers feelings, empathy affords us a rich grasp of the distress that others feel. The upshot is that empathy isnt just a subjective sensation. It affords us a more accurate understanding of others experiences and emotions.

Empathy is thus a form of knowledge that can be hard to bear, just as pain can be hard to bear. But thats precisely why empathy, properly cultivated, is a strength. As one of us has argued, it takes courage to empathically engage with others, just as it takes courage to see and recognize problems around us. Conversely, an unwillingness to empathize can stem from a familiar weakness: a fear of knowledge.

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So, when deciding complex policy questions, say, about immigration, resisting empathy impairs our decision-making. It keeps us from understanding whats at stake. That is why it is vital to ask ourselves what policies we would favor if we were empathically acquainted with, and so fully informed of, the plight of others.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Emad H. Atiq, Cornell University and Colin Marshall, University of Washington

Read more:



The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA)  Every day, patients need blood for a variety of reasons. Sometimes its for cancer treatments, surgeries, or after traumatic situations. As the summer months approach, doctors know the need grows.

Dr. Kurt Bloomstrand, an OSF emergency room doctor, said he sees more people getting hurt in car crashes, bike accidents, or even while doing yard work. But, before patients see him, they sometimes see first responders on scene.

You can never predict when an emergency will happen, and thats why people go to ImpactLife in Urbana.

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Certainly, that donation is supporting the overall blood inventory level of the organization that keeps blood on the shelf here in the community, Kirby Winn, the ImpactLife public relations manager, said.

It can be used in hospitals across the Midwest, including OSFs Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana.

Please think about giving blood, and especially in the warm months, because the need for blood rises and we need to match that with donations, Bloomstrand said.

Carle scientist giving back with blood, saving lives and remembering late father

Besides just sending a message about the importance of donations, he knows the relationship between first responders and ER doctors is important, too.

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We go out on a lot of traumatic incidents, and some of the higher-level EMS ambulances or helicopters actually carry blood, Bloomstrand said.

Some helicopters in Central Illinois have started bringing blood on board.

We know that the sooner we can get them blood transfusions, the better off the patient outcomes are, the doctor added.

Impact Life supports Chatham with blood donations after hospitals ask for extra help

But the donated blood has to be processed somewhere, and that all starts at the blood bank. Employees help with blood donations and distribution. In Urbana, ImpactLife currently has about 180-200 units of blood in a chilled room that can be used. Kylan DuBose, a supervisor, said thats pretty average.

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Knowing a center just steps away from the ER is ready to assist makes Bloomstrand breathe a little bit easier.

You really are a lifesaver. At that point in time, when the patient needs blood, it really could change somebodys life, Bloomstrand said.

If youd like to donate, visit this website for more details.

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The German military entered what Chancellor Friedrich Merz described as a "new era" on Thursday, with the launching of its first large unit stationed permanently in another country.

Merz and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda both attended the roll-call ceremony for the new armoured brigade in the centre of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

The deployment came in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as part of efforts to strengthen the eastern flank of the NATO military alliance.

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About 800 German troops were on parade on Cathedral Square in Vilnius. The brigade receive its colours, and a Lithuanian and German flash, or badge.

Merz said at the ceremony that "Lithuania has asked for support  and Germany stands ready."

"Anyone who challenges NATO must know that we are prepared," said Merz. "Anyone who threatens an ally must know that the

entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory."

"This gathering is a sign of our solidarity and our friendship, for which Im all the more grateful in view of the suffering that

National Socialist [Nazi] Germany brought to this country."

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For the German army, this was "a step into a new era," Merz said. "Never before have we permanently stationed a large military unit abroad."

Nauseda described it as a "historic moment" for both countries. "It is also a landmark event for the security architecture of NATO and the whole of Europe."

"My country is ready to play its part. Next year we will reach 5% of GDP for defence," he said, signing up to the higher spending target demanded by US President Donald Trump.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, who also attended the roll-call ceremony, said that "deterrence and defence are Germany's top priorities."

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"We cannot and will not look away. Without security there is no freedom, without security there is no sovereignty," he said.

'Indispensable' military presence

The brigade named "Lithuania" is to be fully operational by 2027. The aim is for a permanent presence of up to 5,000 troops, with their headquarters to be at Rudninkai near the Belarusian border. The barracks have yet to be built, and an exercise ground is also planned.

Temporary accommodation for the brigade is to be in barracks near Vilnius.

Addressing the German troops directly during the roll-call ceremony, Merz said: "Your job is not easy ... it requires discipline and it involves risks. But it is indispensable."

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The reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank with German troops would help defend the military alliance against "any aggression," Merz told reporters earlier alongside Nauseda.

"The security situation here in the Baltic States remains very tense," said Merz.
There are multiple paths to success, and the Erie County Technical School hosted its sign-on day for graduating seniors on Wednesday.

There are 306 students in the graduating class, and 60 students were recognized.

State officials emphasize National Safe Boating Week ahead of Memoral Day

All have completed nearly 1,500 hours of training and are going straight into the military or the workforce.

Students were celebrated along with local business people who provided them with training, co-ops and ultimately employment.

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From blight to bright  Erie Land Bank showcases newly rehabilitated home

Some of them are going to apprenticeship programs and workforce and some of them are going straight into the workforce. And were celebrating the three years of their time at the career technical institution, said Matthew Laverde, executive director of the Erie County Technical School.

Its a pretty good feeling to know I got to come to a school that gives me a lot of opportunity to explore a lot of different career fields, see things Im interested in and Im walking out of it with a job and I got to learn things and make some money so its a good feeling, said James Farrar, a graduating senior.

At the ceremony, Toyota of Erie provided the program with a $25,000 check to be used for tools and equipment and upgrading the schools lab.

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Tampa, FL (WJET/WFXP)  Rotesha Silveus, the Erie mother charged in May 2024 with the murder of her 18-year-old daughter, Natavia Sanders, appeared in court for her first hearing last week after being found competent to stand trial earlier this year.

Silveus was previously involuntarily placed in a mental health facility on October 3, 2024, but was returned to police custody at the end of October after the Florida Department of Children and Families found that Silveus is competent to proceed, or otherwise no longer meets criteria for continued commitment to the Department.

Court documents show that on January 29, 2025, Silveus was found competent to stand trial following a forensic psychiatric evaluation and criminal competency assessment. Following the order, her first hearing was set for May 14, 2025.

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The hearing took place and was subsequently continued, with a second hearing set to take place on August 20, 2025. Court documents also show that the state filed a motion to obtain a DNA swab, which was subsequently granted by the judge.

Silveus is charged with first-degree murder, resisting arrest without violence, and resisting arrest with violence. She is currently being held at the Hillsborough County Jail.

Silveus was initially charged with domestic battery, but in late May, the charge was reclassified to first-degree murder after the medical examiners office determined the cause of death was a homicide, and detectives said Natavia Sanders injuries were consistent with strangulation.

In the early morning hours of May 11, dispatchers in Tampa, Florida, received a call from 18-year-old Natavia Sanders, who told the dispatcher that she was strangled and had just woke up from being passed out. According to the criminal report affidavit, she soon informed dispatchers that her mother was outside my room. What sounded like a door opening was heard, and seconds later, the call was disconnected.

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As dispatchers attempted to reconnect with the caller, police were dispatched to the residence. When Tampa police officers arrived, they found that both the front and back doors were locked. After knocking for six minutes, the mother, later identified as 38-year-old Rotesha Silveus, answered the door. After being asked to step outside to talk to officers, she responded, For what? Nah, before attempting to close the door. Officers were able to block the door with their foot, and after a brief struggle, Silveus was detained. At that point, police began to survey the home.

Officers located 18-year-old Natavia Sanders, who was found to be unresponsive. Police began performing life-saving measures before she was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. It was soon determined, after two tests, that Sanders showed no signs of brain activity and was pronounced dead two days later, on May 13.

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ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG)  A Facebook Marketplace exchange turned violent earlier this week, prompting the Escambia County, Fla., Sheriff to issue some safety tips.

UPDATE: No foul play suspected in death of woman at Pensacola Publix

According to the Escambia County Sheriffs deputies, a man is claiming he was beaten and robbed of his wallet, phone, and cash by four men, while attempting to buy a cell phone from Facebook Marketplace.

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Investigators say it happened Tuesday afternoon at Bristol Park.

We ended up arresting three people for the robbery and a couple more people, one it was a felon in possession of a firearm and then one were going to have a warrant on, Sheriff Chip Simmons said.

Now, the sheriff is offering advice to people when making these types of transactions.

Simmons recommends using the designated parking spaces provided for buyers and sellers at the sheriffs office and two of their precincts, all of which are under 24-hour video surveillance.

If youre a little leery about meeting someone I would certainly recommend that you make that exchange here or in some other very public place, Simmons said.

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Woman fights for answers after ancestry test shows local businessman could be her father

The sheriffs office says if someone doesnt want to meet you at a law enforcement agency, that could be a red flag.

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EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, during her visit to Belgrade, has stated that Serbia is facing a strategic decision about its geopolitical path. Her comments came weeks after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic took part in the 9 May parade in Moscow.

Source: AP, as reported by European Pravda

Quote: "Serbia faces a strategic, geostrategic choice, where it wants to be. Serbias European future depends on the values it chooses to uphold."

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Details: Kallas confirmed that she discussed Vucics participation in the parade, saying: "I expressed my views, which are very clear. I really dont understand why it is necessary to stand side by side with the person who is conducting this horrible war in Ukraine."

Vucic justified his presence at the Moscow parade, despite warnings from the EU, as a sign of traditional friendship with Russia, which he regards as a Slavic and Orthodox ally. At the same time, he reaffirmed his commitment to Serbias EU accession.

Quote: "From my discussions with the Serbian political leadership, it is clear that EU membership remains a strategic goal. However, I want to emphasise that we need to see actions also to prove and support those words."

More details: Kallas added that real progress towards EU membership requires tangible steps  including reforms, media freedom, anti-corruption measures and electoral reform. She also met with participants of protests demanding democratic changes.

Background:

Russia is Serbias historical Orthodox ally and main supplier of natural gas. Russian companies Gazprom and Gazpromneft also own Serbias oil firm NIS. Moscow supports Belgrade in opposing Kosovos independence. Serbia, in turn, has consistently refused to join EU sanctions against Russia.

Vucic has previously expressed confidence that Serbias European path would not be affected by his visit to Moscow.

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Kazakhstan strengthens agricultural bridge to China with new export agreement

Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan's Minister of Agriculture, Aidarbek Saparov, and Chinas General Administration of Customs head, Sun Meijun, signed a Protocol on poultry meat inspection, quarantine, and food safety regulations for trade between the two countries. This agreement is part of Kazakhstan's ongoing efforts to expand its agro-industrial exports, particularly to China, which has high demand for Kazakh livestock products.

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The European Union spent 23 billion on Russian energy in 2024 despite having significantly reduced consumption.

Source: European Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jrgensen, as reported by Radio Liberty

Quote: "Before 2022, half of the coal we used in the EU was from Russia. This we have stopped completely. On oil, we have gone from 26% to 3% of our oil being from Russia. And finally gas. We have gone from 45% of our gas coming from Russia in 2022 to 13% today. So, we have come far. But not far enough. Last year, we in the EU paid 23 billion to Russia for our energy imports."

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Details: Jrgensen has announced new rules that will enable Russian gas to be tracked on the market. He added that the European Commission expects member states to draw up national plans for phasing out Russian energy.

"These plans need to be ready by the end of this year," Jrgensen stated. "Also to address the illegal oil entering the market via Russia's shadow fleet we tighten the grip."

He stressed that the European Commission does not envisage any possible future scenario in which Nord Stream would be used to transport Russian energy to Europe.

Background: On 19 May, it was reported that the EU would propose lowering the current price cap on seaborne Russian oil (US$60 per barrel) to G7 finance ministers.

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On 22 May 2025, the European Parliament approved a regulation raising customs duties and tariffs on agricultural products and nitrogen-based fertilisers from Russia and Belarus to levels designed to halt their import into the European Union.

Source: European Pravdas correspondent, citing the EU Regulation on modification of customs duties applicable to imports of certain goods originating in or exported directly or indirectly from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus

Details: The regulation, adopted in Brussels on 22 May 2025, aims to block access to the EU market for Russian and Belarusian agricultural commodities and fertilisers.

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European Pravda has seen a draft of the Regulation which includes an explanatory note that states: "The proposed regulation would increase tariffs for the concerned goods originating in or exported directly or indirectly from the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus to a level high enough to halt the importation of these goods."

The measures will take effect after formal approval by the EU Council and official publication of the Regulation.

The tariffs target the remaining 15% of Russian agricultural imports not yet subject to increased duties, ensuring all Russian agricultural imports face EU tariffs. For agricultural goods, tariffs will rise by an ad valorem duty of 50%.

For fertilisers, in addition to the existing 6.5% ad valorem duty, an additional specific duty will apply, starting at 40-45 per tonne in 2025-2026 (approximately 13% ad valorem equivalent), and increasing to 315-430 per tonne by 2028, a prohibitive level.

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"The aim of this Regulation is to eliminate dependencies on imports from Russia and to prevent circumvention through Belarus. Through increased import duties and prohibitive tariffs, the Russian share of fertiliser import into the EU will gradually be replaced by other sources. Some of the EU Member States have already decoupled from Russian nitrogen-based fertilisers, without seeing shortages of supply or market price increases," the explanatory note states.

The tariffs will bolster domestic fertiliser production in the EU, which has been impacted by the energy crisis and low-cost Russian imports. Alternative suppliers that could replace Russian exporters include Egypt, Algeria, Norway, Morocco, Oman and the United States.

Background:

Since July 2024, the EU has imposed tariffs on most agricultural products from Russia and Belarus, particularly grain.

Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states have long advocated a complete ban on these imports.

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Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Justice Minister, has stated that the European market remains open to Ukrainian goods and that there are currently no plans to suspend the EU-Ukraine free trade regime.

Source: Stefanishyna in a comment to European Pravda following her visit to Brussels

Details: Stefanishyna said that during the visit, a substantive dialogue began on finding a long-term solution in the field of trade.

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As reported earlier, on 22 May the European Commission adopted a list of transitional measures regarding Ukrainian exports to the EU. These will come into force on 6 June 2025, once the current autonomous trade measures for Ukraine  known as the "trade visa-free regime"  expire.

Stefanishyna explained that this is an interim solution which will help avoid the worst-case scenario and achieve a sustainable resolution within the framework of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement.

Quote: "There is no talk of suspending free trade: the EU market remains open to Ukrainian goods. We have agreed to work quickly and constructively towards a long-term solution."

More details: Stefanishyna noted that the EU understands how critical it is for Ukraine, during wartime, to have predictable and transparent trade conditions and the importance of agricultural exports for the country's economic stability.

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"There is clear political will to find a balanced solution by the end of July 2025," she stated.

Background:

As European Pravda reported back in late April, the European Commission does not plan to extend the "trade visa-free regime", which remains in effect until 5 June. However, it will ensure a smooth transition to a new scheme, under which all trade liberalisation terms will be enshrined in the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement.

It is worth noting that the European Parliament has voted to introduce a preferential regime for the export of steel and iron from Ukraine starting from 6 June 2025.

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European Union lawmakers on Thursday voted to simplify the bloc's carbon-pricing system for the import of high-emission products.

Under the pricing system, companies importing goods like iron, steel, aluminium, cement or fertilizers have to pay the difference between the carbon price paid in the country of production and the carbon price in the EU.

Introduced in 2023, the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) was intended to tackle so-called carbon leakage, when CO2-intensive industries move production elsewhere due to strict climate laws. But it was swiftly criticized as an administrative burden on businesses.

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In a larger effort to cut red tape in the EU, the European Commission proposed in February to restrict CBAM to businesses that import more than 50 metric tons of listed goods annually.

This means that 90% of EU importers, namely small companies and individuals, would be exempt from the CO2 pricing system, which would still cover 99% of emissions, the commission said at the time.

EU lawmakers gathered in Brussels backed the proposal with 564 members of parliament voting in favour, 20 votes against and 12 abstentions.

The parliament said that under the proposed changes, CBAM would still be able to achieve its environmental objectives as almost all emissions from CO2-intensive imports would still be covered.

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"The CBAM is a crucial instrument to help the EU prevent carbon leakage and incentivise climate action outside the EU," said Italian lawmaker Antonio Decaro in charge of the file.

As a next step the EU Parliament will start negotiations with member states on the details of the reform.
The European Parliament approved on May 22 increased tariffs on fertilizers and certain agricultural goods from Russia and Belarus, seeking to reduce EU dependence on those imports.

Tariffs on some nitrogen fertilizers will rise from 6.5% to around 100% over three years, a level that will effectively stop trade. An additional 50% duty will be applied to agricultural products from the two allied countries.

The new tariffs target the remaining 15% of agricultural imports from Russia that were previously duty-free, worth 380 million euro ($429 million), Reuters reported. These include products such as meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

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Revenue from the sale of Russian and Belarusian fertilizers is considered a direct contribution to Moscow's full-scale war against Ukraine, the statement read.

"The regulation gradually increasing customs duties for products from Russia and Belarus will help to prevent Russia from using the EU market to finance its war machine," said Inese Vaidere, Latvian Member of the European Parliament.

The tariff increase is expected to take effect on July 1.

Previously, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that if the EU imposes steep tariffs on Russian nitrogen fertilizers, it would lead to higher costs and lower quality for the European Union.

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Imports of urea and nitrogen-based fertilizers from Russia to the EU were already high in 2023 and rose even more in 2024.

The European Commission said that this shows the EU is economically dependent on Russia. If this continues, it could threaten the EUs food security and make the bloc vulnerable to pressure from Russia, especially through fertilizer supply, the statement read.

Read also: We dont want this anymore  Lavrov confirms Russia has no interest in Ukraine ceasefire

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European Union top diplomat Kaja Kallas said she is "shocked by the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC."

"There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism," the bloc's foreign affairs chief said.

"I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel," Kallas added.
Brussels is developing an alternative scenario for launching accession negotiations with Ukraine that would bypass Hungary. European Pravda says initial steps to implement the plan have already been taken, although officials are avoiding public statements on the matter.

Source: European Pravda article

Details: The EU is reportedly actively discussing a so-called "Plan B" that would allow the start of negotiations with Kyiv even if Budapest continues to block a joint decision.

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Sources in Brussels confirm that certain legal actions under this plan were taken as early as last week, though they have not been officially disclosed.

The core of the alternative plan  described in Brussels as "parallel negotiations"  is still ahead. Its implementation could begin in August or September if diplomatic efforts to persuade Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban fail.

The essence of the idea is to make full use of the flexibility of EU law. Wherever unanimity is not required, Ukraine will be able to continue with technical and legal steps towards membership. And in areas where the consent of all member states is necessary, 26 EU countries (all except Hungary) will conduct "parallel negotiations" with Kyiv, which will, where possible, be synchronised with talks with Moldova to maintain the impression that the joint integration of these states is preserved.

Although the "parallel track" with Ukraine will not carry legal weight, it will have significant political importance.

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At the same time as Moldova and the EU announce the opening of the first cluster (or clusters) of negotiations, Ukraine and the 26 EU states are to publish an official statement that Ukraine has also completed all the work on those same clusters and that all EU countries except Hungary will hold negotiations with Kyiv on the corresponding chapters.

Several EU sources told European Pravda that intergovernmental conferences with Ukraine may even be convened  the working body whose decisions are crucial in the enlargement process. The negotiation framework for Ukraine, approved by the EU, does not require unanimity to convene a conference and even obliges the EU to do so from time to time.

There is also an idea to hold some of the conferences jointly for Ukraine and Moldova.

For Moldova, these conferences may result in a formal recognition that Chisinau has fulfilled the next set of conditions and the EU will take legal steps towards membership, while for Ukraine they would provide political recognition of the same progress and a statement that the only obstacle to legal advancement remains Hungarys veto.

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The idea of "parallel negotiations" is that, once Budapests position changes  or the government changes  Kyiv could quickly catch up on the missed legal steps.

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By Louise Rasmussen and Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Nine European countries, led by Italy and Denmark, will on Thursday call on the European Union to make it simpler for member states to expel foreign criminals, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

European governments have expressed frustration with how the European Court of Human Rights uses the European Convention on Human Rights to block deportations and they want to see it revised.

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The letter, which was prepared ahead of a meeting on Thursday between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Denmark's Mette Frederiksen, urges the EU to review how courts interpret the convention.

"We have seen cases concerning the expulsion of criminal foreign nationals, where the interpretation of the Convention has resulted in the protection of the wrong people and posed too many limitations on the states' ability to decide whom to expel from their territories," the letter said.

Member states should "have more room nationally to decide on when to expel criminal foreign nationals," it said.

The letter was signed by the leaders of Denmark, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

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Meloni and Frederiksen are scheduled to hold a joint press conference in Rome on Thursday.

Meloni's conservative bloc won power in 2022, vowing to crack down on migration. Denmark has introduced increasingly harsh immigration policies over the past decade.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Alexandra Hudson)
Investigators and customs officers from 23 countries have seized around 38,000 valuable cultural objects and arrested 80 suspects in the fight against the international theft of cultural property, the EU police agency Europol reported on Thursday.

Spain's Guardia Civil coordinated the international investigation. The artefacts included artworks, coins, musical instruments, paintings and archaeological finds.

Europol, which is based in The Hague, said the operation was the ninth edition of Operation Pandora, which targets the trafficking of cultural goods. It was set up in 2016.

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Investigations are continuing, and further arrests could be expected, Europol said.

"Authorities also confiscated 69 metal detectors and 23 tools commonly used for illegal excavations, underlining the persistent threat of looting to cultural sites," it said.

The Italian carabinieri had seized more than 300 items, including coins, metal and ceramic fragments such as arrowheads and spearheads dating back to the Roman and Punic periods, it said. The artifacts were being offered for sale online and were discovered in a private apartment.

The Guardia Civil recovered 2,500 archaeological, primarily Roman, coins minted in the Celtiberian city of Tamusia. They had been found using metal detectors and were being sold through social media platforms.

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A passenger flying from Palma de Mallorca to Germany was found to be carrying 55 ancient coins and a ring. The investigation led to an indictment for crimes plundering underwater wrecks and other archaeological sites.

The Greek cultural heritage authorities recovered five Byzantine icons that the criminals were seeking to sell for 70,000 ($79,000).

And Ukrainian customs authorities seized 87 cultural goods that were being illegally transported out of the country to Poland, Moldova and Romania.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 22. Modern residential settlement is being constructed in the Tyaze Yol district of the Kunya-Urgench region in Turkmenistan, designed in line with the current urban and settlement development standards, Trend reports.

The new residential area is set to have all its ducks in a row, boasting a well-rounded infrastructure that covers the bases for social, industrial, and utility needs.



The project is set to roll out a whole slew of residential houses, featuring charming cottage-style homes that are sure to tickle the fancy of many. A road network has been laid down in the settlement, and the utilities for gas, electricity, and water supply have been set up and are good to go.

The economic foundation of the future settlement will consist of small enterprises, including a soft drink factory, a bakery, and a greenhouse complex specializing in lemon and mushroom cultivation. These businesses will not only provide products for the local population but also create new jobs.

The social and cultural infrastructure of the settlement will include a general education school with 420 student places, a kindergarten for 160 children, as well as a Health House, Culture House, and communication centers. There will also be a Household Services Center, a shopping mall, administrative buildings, and a fire station.

In 2025, Turkmenistan plans to put into operation approximately 500,000 square meters of residential space, including schools with 4,620 student places and kindergartens with 2,000 spaces.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Hotter temperatures continue to move into New Mexico. Albuquerque will likely hit 90 for the first time this year on Thursday, with triple-digit heat in southeast New Mexico by Friday.

It was a much warmer afternoon Wednesday across New Mexico with high temperatures climbing around 10 higher than Tuesday. Most of the state climbed into the 80s and 90s today. Winds were light today too with sunny skies across the whole state. Even hotter weather is on the way Thursday afternoon. Albuquerque will likely see its first 90 day of the year Thursday, just a few days earlier than average. High temperatures will climb into the mid 80s across northern New Mexico with highs in the mid and upper 90s in southern parts of the state.

Breezier winds return Friday afternoon with southwesterly winds gusting around 24 to 40 mph. That wind will help to bring in even hotter temperatures Friday, with the states first 100 high temperatures likely in southeast New Mexico. High temperatures will be a couple degrees cooler on Saturday with an increase in cloud cover.

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Moisture will begin moving into eastern New Mexico Sunday. This will bring a chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms, especially in the northern mountains and northeast New Mexico. That moisture may surge west across the state Sunday night, bringing much higher moisture into the western half of the state. If this happen, this will bring a good chance for afternoon showers and thunderstorms Memorial Day afternoon to central and eastern New Mexico. If it doesnt happen, afternoon storm chances will still be possible in eastern New Mexico. Rain and thunderstorm chances continue into the middle of next week with the warm weather sticking around.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  Wayside Presbyterian Church will be hosting an evening of healing concert at 7 p.m. on May 28 to support the family of Joene Pease, the victim of a Hamburg home explosion that happened earlier this month.

Cory James Gallagher, a tenor vocalist and pianist, will provide music and poet Amy Gallagher will share original poetry at the event. The churchs congressional care director Beck Ventre will lead in prayer. A free will offering will also be taken to support those affected by the explosion.

Please join us for an evening of healing and reflection to honor the community of Lake View,

N.Y. that suffered a catastrophic home explosion that tragically took the life of Joene Pease, a release from the church said. Let us come together in unity and solidarity to show support for The Pease and Palyszeski families, first responders and all neighbors that endured such pain and trauma during this tragic time.

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A man found guilty and sentenced to prison isnt serving his time there, and prosecutors say its because hes getting special treatment.

Braxton Cotton, the former chief of staff to the Cobb County Sheriff, was convicted of making false statements in a hit-and-run investigation in March. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but ordered to serve just six months.

But the Cherokee County District Attorneys office says it has taken too long for him to be transferred to a state prison.

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Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was in the courtroom as attorneys discussed where Cotton is serving time.

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The things that are being done in order to ensure he doesnt go are favoritism, are special treatment and things that no other inmate is receiving," Cherokee County Chief Assistant District Attorney Katie Gropper said.

The Cobb County Sheriffs Office should have transported Cotton to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve his time, but Cotton is still serving time at the Cobb County Jail.

That is what the state is concerned about, to make sure that this is done the right way, as it would be done with any other citizen convicted of a felony, Gropper said.

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The state is accusing the Cobb County clerk of court and sheriff of breaking the law.

His paperwork was never transmitted to the Department of Corrections and he has continued to serve his sentence as he sought initially, Gropper said. The sheriffs office is intentionally manipulating this process. That is abuse of power.

Cobb County Chief Deputy Rhonda Anderson testified that she made the decision not to transport Cotton to state prison after she spoke with Sheriff Craig Owens and her command staff.

Sheriff Owens received a call from the DOC and said it would not be a good idea to send Mr. Cotton into the state system because he was a member of the parole board and had been a member in law enforcement, she said.

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Newell spoke with Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver over the phone on Wednesday afternoon.

He said he did not call Sheriff Owens and advise him to keep Cotton in the Cobb County Jail for safety reasons. He said he does not have the authority to keep a state inmate at a county jail.

Oliver said his team emailed the clerk of courts in March asking if Cotton had been sentenced. He says they were told the clerks office filed the necessary paperwork and were waiting on paperwork from the sheriffs office.

The paperwork was submitted to the Department of Corrections on Tuesday, one day after the motion hearing was filed.

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A man who formerly worked as the morgue manager at Harvard Medical School pled guilty Wednesday to charges of trafficking stolen human remains, the United States Department of Justice announced.

Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, admitted that he participated in the sale and interstate transport of human remains stolen from universitys morgue in Boston from 2018 through at least March 2020, according to Acting United States Attorney John Gurganus.

Federal prosecutors say Lodge removed organs, brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other body parts, from donated cadavers after they had been used for research and teaching purposes but before they could be disposed of according to the anatomical gift donation agreement between the donor and the school.

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Lodge took the remains without the knowledge or permission of his employer, the donor, or the donors family, and transported the remains to his home in New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold the remains, according to prosecutors.

Katrina Maclean, owner of Kats Creepy Creations in Peabody, sold some the stolen body parts at her business, court documents allege.

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Gurganus said Lodge admitted to having sold remains to Joshua Taylor and Andrew Ensanian, among others. Investigators noted that many of the remains purchased from Lodge were resold for a profit.

At times, Cedric Lodge allowed Maclean and Taylor to enter the morgue at Harvard Medical School and examine cadavers to choose what to purchase, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. On some occasions, Taylor transported stolen remains back to Pennsylvania. On other occasions, the Lodges shipped stolen remains to Taylor and others out of state.

Several other people connected to the Harvard body parts case have previously entered guilty pleas in related cases, including Lodges wife, as well as Taylor and Ensanian.

Harvard University officials decried the allegations after news of this case broke.

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We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus  a community dedicated to healing and serving others, George Daley, Dean of Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, and Edward Hundert, Dean for Medical Education at Harvard Medical School, said in a joint statement.

Lodge faces a maximum penalty under federal law of 10 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine.

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By Jody Godoy, Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has demanded documents from Media Matters about possible coordination with other media watchdogs accused by Elon Musk of helping orchestrate advertiser boycotts of X, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The civil investigative demand seeks information about Media Matters' communications with other groups that evaluate misinformation and hate speech in news and social media, including a World Federation of Advertisers initiative called Global Alliance for Responsible Media. X has ongoing lawsuits against both organizations.

The probe, first reported by Reuters, marks an escalation in U.S. government scrutiny of whether groups like Media Matters helped advertisers coordinate to pull ad dollars from X after Musk bought the social media site formerly known as Twitter in 2022.

The demand seeks all documents Media Matters, a Washington, D.C.-based liberal advocacy group, has produced or received in the X lawsuit related to advertiser boycotts.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to run the agency, highlighted the potential for a probe in December.

"We must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition among those platforms," Ferguson said in a statement on an unrelated case.

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said on Thursday that the Trump administration has "been defined by naming right-wing media figures to key posts and abusing the power of the federal government to bully political opponents and silence critics."

"It's clear that's exactly what's happening here, given Media Matters' history of holding those same figures to account. These threats won't work; we remain steadfast to our mission," he said.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Republican member Jim Jordan, accused the Global Alliance for Responsible Media last year of coordinating an illegal group boycott. The initiative was shut down in August.

A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment.

World Federation of Advertisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An investigative demand is not proof of wrongdoing, and not all investigations result in the FTC taking enforcement action.

Advertising spending on X is set to increase in 2025 for the first time since Musk bought it in 2022, research firm Emarketer said in March, but it remains below its pre-Musk level. The Tesla CEO was a major donor to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and runs his initiative to slash the federal workforce.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  Anglers are hooking some strange fish in Kansas that look like they belong in a personal aquarium rather than the local lake.

27 News got in touch with experts at the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) this week to find out how often its fisheries staff are finding exotic fish swimming in the states lakes and waterways. Whether they came from somebodys fish tank or were being used as bait, odd specimens are finding their way into the states waters, causing problems for wildlife staff and the natural ecosystem.

Its hard to quantify, but staff come across these species several times a year, said Jeff Koch, assistant director of Fisheries Research with the KDWP. Koi, goldfish, and other species that might have originated from an aquarium release are observed by biologists and anglers quite often.

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What are the rarest fish you can catch in Kansas and where can you find them?

Koch said the KDWP has received confirmed reports of armored catfish, a South American fish, appearing in Kansas that are popular in the aquarium trade. Oscar fish have also been found and collected from the states waters.

A black armored catfish captured by KDHE biologists at Ogden City Lake in 2024. (Photo Courtesy/Kansas Department of Health and Environment) A KDWP staffer holds up a large goldfish. (Photo Courtesy/KDWP) KDWP Assistant director of Fisheries Research Jeff Koch holds a koi fish. (Photo Courtesy/KDOT) An Oscar fish recovered by a KDWP biologist in 2021 at Colbys Villa High Lake. (Photo Courtesy/KDWP)

But the list of exotic fish doesnt stop there. KDWP Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator Chris Steffen said the agency has also found arawana, pacu, plecostomus, ornate bichir and other fish that dont belong in Kansas.

Restricted camping, recreation options take effect across Kansas

The fish can come from a variety of sources such as being released intentionally by their owners after becoming too difficult to maintain. Some, such as goldfish, are sold in Kansas as bait fish and may escape into the water.

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Michael Parr, a KDWP aquatic invasive species biologist, said goldfish are sold in Kansas regularly. Goldfish are checked for viruses and diseases before they are cleared for use in the states waters.

When anglers purchase goldfish from a certified bait dealer, the goldfish have most likely been tested and are certified disease-free, Parr said. The majority of live bait sold commercially sold Kansas is purchased and imported from an out-of-state source to be resold in the state.

KHP trooper warns of tire gator danger on Kansas highways

Koch said KDWP fisheries staff remove any exotic fish they find that pose a threat to the environment and other native wildlife. Some, like koi fish, pose a larger challenge for biologists to tackle.

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The largest koi or goldfish in our database is approximately 26 inches long, Koch said. It is important to note that Koi are domesticated common carp, selectively bred for their coloration. As such, koi likely have the potential to get as large as common carp, which are generally regarded as a fisheries management challenge. They can reproduce prolifically and have negative impacts on native species and water quality.

Several varieties of carp are considered especially invasive and a pose a big threat to the states native fish due to their ability to grow fast and reproduce in great numbers. Koch said the KDWP works with store and pet owners by sharing resources online to educate them about the potential harm that comes with releasing exotic fish into Kansas waters.

Rattlesnakes slither out as temperatures warm in Kansas

Releasing an aquatic pet is not kind to the pet, Koch said. These fish are not adapted to our climate or aquatic systems and will generally not fare well. However, in the event that they do survive, their impacts on native species can be very negative.

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Fish that do survive and reproduce in Kansas may be designated as an invasive species. The KDWP reports these species can hurt the natural environment by:

Diminishing food supplies and degrading habitat for native species.

Reducing numbers and variety of desirable fish.

Reducing fishing and other recreational opportunities.

Lowering property values and decreasing quality of municipal water sources.

Fouling water lines, clogging intakes, burning out pumps and causing other forms of damage.

Increasing the risk of flooding due to overcrowding and clogging of lake outlets.

You can learn more about invasive species and how theyre damaging the natural environment of Kansas by heading to the KDWPs website. Koch also recommends checking out the Dont Let It Loose website to learn more about responsible pet ownership, rehoming and pet regulations by state.

Kansas Forest Service at risk of 80% funding loss, layoffs with proposed federal cuts

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For more Kansas Outdoors, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf

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One year after a Florida teenagers tragic death, his family is still fighting for justice. Sewell Setzer III was just 14 when he started a virtual relationship with an AI chatbot. Months later, he took his own life and his mother is blaming the AI company that created the bot.

Megan Garcia, Setzers mother, began seeing changes in her sons behaviors after he started a virtual relationship with a chatbot he called Daenerys, based on a character Game of Thrones, the television series. I became concerned when we would go on vacation and he didnt want to do things that he loved, like fishing and hiking, Garcia told CBS in 2024. Those things to me, because I know my child, were particularly concerning to me.

In February 2024, things came to a head when Garcia took Sewells phone away as punishment, according to the complaint. The 14-year-old soon found the phone and sent Daenerys a message saying, What if I told you I could come home right now? Thats when the chatbot responded, ...please do, my sweet king. According to lawsuit, Sewell shot himself with his stepfathers pistol seconds later.

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As we previously reported, Garcia filed a lawsuit in October 2024 to see if Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, bares any responsibility for the teens suicide. Garcias suit accused the AI company of wrongful death, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She also included screenshots of conversations between her son and Daenerys, including some sexual exchanges when the chatbot told Sewell it loved him, according to Reuters.

Despite Character Technologies defense, Garcia celebrated a small legal win on Wednesday (May 21). A federal judge ruled against the AI company, which argued its chatbots are protected by free speech, according to AP News.

The developers behind Character.AI argue their chatbots are protected by the First Amendment, which raised questions about just how much freedom and protections artificial intelligence has.

Jack M. Balkin, a Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School said the complexities of AI can cause some serious problems. The programs themselves dont have First Amendment rights. Nor does it make sense to treat them as artificial persons like corporations or associations, he said.

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Interesting problems arise when a company hosts an AI program that generates responses to prompts by end users, and the prompts cause the program to generate speech that is both unprotected and harmful, Balkin continued.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  The bipartisan no tax on tips bill recently cleared the U.S. Senate with strong support, promising to eliminate federal income taxes on tipped earnings for qualifying workers.

As the legislation heads to the House of Representatives, local experts are raising questions about how much the change will actually benefit workers in regions like Western New York.

WIVB News 4 spoke with Fred Floss, an economics professor at the Buffalo State University, who said that while the bill appears to be a win for service industry employees, its real-world impact may be limited.

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Everybody can vote for it and say were protecting tipped workers, and thats great, Floss said. But I just would make sure that most tipped workers realize its not going to have a big impact on their lives.

The Senates No Tax on Tips Act would eliminate federal income tax on tips received in cash, by credit card or check. Under the bill, employees earning less than $160,000 annually would be allowed to exclude up to $25,000 in tips from taxable income each year.

Floss pointed out that many tipped workers already pay little to no federal income tax.

For most tipped workers, they dont have a lot of tips and they dont make a large salary, he said. I dont know what restaurants or resorts have tipped workers making $160,000.

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Floss noted that while workers in upscale establishments, particularly in major markets like New York City, might see a noticeable change in take-home pay, the same cannot be said for many in Buffalo.

In high-end resorts or very fancy restaurants where tips are significantly higher, its going to have an impact, he said. But in a place like Western New York, where a lot of the tipped workers are making minimum wage  or actually below minimum wage because tipped workers are allowed to be paid less  theyre never going to hit the threshold where they would have paid any income taxes anyway.

At Resurgence Brewing Company in Buffalo, where many staff members rely on tips, event manager Brigid Taylor expressed a different concern: the long-term financial visibility of untaxed income.

Ive been in the industry basically my whole life, Taylor said. I always thought in my world that the tips would be income, and then later on, when you want to buy a house or a car, you can kind of show your income as proof. I feel like with no tax on tips, it might be a little bit harder for us in the service industry to get those cars and houses and loans and whatnot.

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The bill now awaits consideration in the House of Representatives. If passed and signed into law in its current form, it would go into effect for all taxable years beginning after 2024.

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Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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An April report on the Trump administration's discontinuation of certain environmental efforts indicates that the moves could negatively impact marginalized communities the most.

What's happening?

Reuters recently took a close look at "Cancer Alley," a section of Louisiana so-called because "nearly every census tract in the area ranks in the top 5% nationally for cancer risk." Under new leadership appointed by the current administration, the Environmental Protection Agency withdrew a lawsuit against a local synthetic rubber plant despite concerns about elevated health hazards from the emissions, which disproportionately impact people of color in the predominantly Black region.

The lawsuit dismissal followed President Donald Trump's executive order to end federal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. In March, the EPA undid over 30 initiatives and scuttled its DEI program as well as its 10 regional environmental justice offices located across the country.

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Close to 800 grants in the same vein have also been canceled. The California nonprofit Community Water Center, for example, reportedly lost a multimillion-dollar grant to strengthen access to clean water in low-income neighborhoods.

Weeks before all this, Lee Zeldin was confirmed as the new EPA administrator. Per Reuters, Zeldin emphasized deregulation in his strategy, saying the U.S. can boost economic growth while protecting the environment.

Experts told Reuters that ending the EPA's DEI and environmental justice programs, designed to support those facing pollution where they live and work, will impact Black and Hispanic populations the most. Due to discriminatory legacies and racist housing practices like redlining, neighborhoods near sites of contamination and lacking access to clean water sources are more often communities of color and low-income communities.

Why are environmental justice initiatives important?

Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, told Reuters that removing the EPA programs will only cause more harm. "People who are already most impacted by high pollution are going to be most hurt by the loosening of regulations," Birnbaum said.

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A 2019 study found that, in the U.S., Black and Hispanic residents breathe in 56% and 63% more pollution, respectively, than they are responsible for producing. White residents breathe in 17% less air pollution than they produce.

Exposure to air pollution can affect almost every organ in the body, per the World Health Organization. Long-term exposure is linked with increased risks for multiple health concerns, including cancer, pulmonary disease, and premature death in those with heart or lung disease.

The potential effects of poor air quality make for just one example demonstrating that marginalized communities, more likely to be living near or on polluted sites, are facing some serious environmental threats at higher rates. And it's why efforts like the EPA's have been working to ensure all people have equal access to healthy, safe homes, working conditions, and recreational spaces.

What's being done to protect environmental justice?

Although many federal employees working on environmental justice initiatives have faced layoffs and project closures this year, there are still active groups dedicated to protecting communities from environmental dangers.

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Activists in Chicago are working to shift the burden of industrial pollution from falling squarely on low-income communities of color.

The Environmental Defense Fund is reporting on the disproportionate impacts of warehouse-related air pollution on marginalized communities in New York.

And advocates like Benjamin Chavis are continuing to raise awareness in the wake of political shifts. Chavis spoke with North Carolina public radio station WFAE in early May:

"The quality-of-life issues are not going to change unless we work hard to ensure that every community has environmental justice; that every community has good air to breathe; every community has good, clean water, uncontaminated water to drink; and every community has food that's not contaminated with these cancer-causing toxins."

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Facing funding and staffing cuts, crucial supports for many nonprofits have indeed been weakened, and many organizations are up against existential threats. But residents can still do a lot in their own neighborhoods.

In fact, taking action locally can be extra effective, as participants have strong stakes in the outcomes and well understand their area's needs. Securing wins close to home can also be a great way to build resolve and resilience to take on aims at the national level.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. Tajikistan is improving healthcare for mothers and children by examining the big picture linking health, food security, gender equity, and climate change, said Jamoliddin Abdullozoda , the Minister of Health and Social Protection of Tajikistan, Trends special correspondent reports.

Abdullozoda said this in a statement at the "Transforming Lives and Livelihoods Forum: Mobilize for Impact", as part of the Annual Meetings of the IsDB in Algeria, Abdullozoda noted that over 80 percent of Tajikistans population lives in rural and mountainous areas, where traditional methods of providing healthcare are becoming increasingly less effective. In response, the country has been transitioning to integrated service models aimed at improving the quality of healthcare.

"With support from the LLF, we have built and equipped rural hospitals and established more than 150 health centers ensuring that vital healthcare services are accessible to those in need. Our public health events have reached over 60,000 women and children, providing crucial information," he said.

He also highlighted that a key focus has been on training healthcare workers, with over 2,000 trained professionals, a significant number of whom are women playing a more active role in their communities.

Moreover, Tajikistan has been taking steps to enhance the resilience of its healthcare system to climate change impacts, focusing on providing access to safe drinking water and utilizing clean energy solutions.

"This is a work in progress with our national health strategy and support system developing goals, which aim to ensure a healthier life for everyone," the minister concluded.

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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) Con-artists are taking scam calls to the next level using AI voice cloning.

Scammers are mimicking the voice of your family and friends using AI technology, calling you and scaring you into sending them money. Kathryn Mobley, CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Acadiana, said they take a little bit of audio and clone the voice.

It probably frightens a lot of people because you get a call from somebody.Mobley said. And it sounds just like them, but its all through AI.

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In the phone call, con artists will pretend to be family or friends, telling you they are in danger and need your help in the form of money.

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Mobley warns that scammers will ask for your bank information or for you to transfer money.

Anything where you could easily transfer money, you cant really get it back, Mobley said.

She advises to create a code word with your family and friends. When scammers ask for your money, you ask them for the code word. If they dont know it, they arent who theyre claiming to be.

Another way to know if the caller is really who they claim to be is to call them back. Dial the phone number yourself.

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Call the actual number. Dont call what shows up on your phone, Mobley said. If you thought it was your brother, call your actual brother back.

Heres how to avoid voice cloning scams:

Resist the urge to act immediately. Hang up, then call the person who they claimed to be. Because scammers can disguise their caller ID, dont call back the number. Redial the phone number yourself.

Dont send money when in doubt. It is a red flag when they ask for money via a digital wallet app or a gift card.

Secure your accounts. Set up multifactor authentication for all of your logins to make sure your accounts are safe.

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HERE IS YOUR EYEWITNESS WEATHER FORECAST FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 FROM CHIEF METEOROLOGIST JORDAN REED:

Were heading into a stretch of cool, damp weather thats going to stick around for a whileat least through part of the holiday weekend! A slow-moving weather system is to blame, and its bringing steady rounds of rain that will last through Friday. Tonight, expect more showers, possibly even a few thunderstorms, and areas near the New York-Pennsylvania border could see heavier rain, which might lead to some localized flooding.

The rain continues overnight and into Thursday, thanks to a low-pressure system lingering near Lake Erie. Thursday will be chilly and wet, with highs only in the 50s, and that dreary pattern holds into Friday as another system keeps the rain and cool air coming. Were likely to pick up another quarter to half inch of rain between the two days.

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As we head into the weekend, not many changes. Showers are still possible on both Saturday and Sunday, mainly in the afternoon. It wont be a total washout, but itll stay unsettled and cooler than usual. Things might finally start to dry out by Monday, although temps will still be running below normal. Then, by Tuesday, theres a chance for another round of rain as a new system moves in from the Ohio Valley. Overall, expect a cloudy, damp, and cool stretch to take us into next week.

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The first aid deliveries have reached the population of the Gaza Strip after an almost three-month blockade by Israel, during which humanitarian organizations warned of acute levels of hunger.

A total of 87 lorries carrying flour, food and medical supplies drove overnight into the coastal area's interior, said Jihad Islim, the vice president of the Association of Private Freight Forwarders in Gaza.

They headed towards the locations of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, he added. A UN spokesman spoke of about 90 lorries and confirmed the contents of the deliveries.

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Some bakeries in these locations began baking bread with the received flour at dawn and distributing it to the residents, bakery owners and other eyewitnesses reported.

Aid to Gaza still inadequate despite blockade easing

However, local and international aid workers emphasized that the quantities that have arrived so far are just a drop in the ocean.

According to previous UN information, around 500 lorry deliveries would be needed daily to ensure the supply for the approximately 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Amjad Shawa, the director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, said that no aid has yet reached the north of Gaza, where the need is particularly dire. The lorries that have arrived so far represent only a fraction of the essential needs, he added.

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Israel lifted the nearly three-month blockade of humanitarian aid on Sunday, but some of the lorries allowed into the sealed-off coastal area afterwards stood for days within the Gaza Strip near the border crossing because the route proposed for them was too dangerous, according to the UN.

Israel justified the blockade with the claim that the Palestinian militant organization Hamas would steal the aid supplies and sell them on the black market to finance its fighters and weapons.

The UN counters that Israel has not provided any evidence for this.

Palestinians report more than 50 killed in Gaza Strip

At least 50 people have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Wednesday night, the Hamas-controlled civil defence agency reported.

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The Israeli military issued a directive to residents in the north of the region to leave their homes, as its troops were operating with massive force in Beit Lahia, the Jabaliya refugee camp and other residential areas between the region's northern border and Gaza City.

It said that terrorist organizations in the areas were developing "terrorist activities" in these areas. The message was broadcast in Arabic in text messages to mobile phones and via X.

The Israeli military had issued similar messages to residents of neighbouring areas on Wednesday.

The current conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian extremists invaded Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage.

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Israel responded with a massive attack, which has since killed more than 53,700 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority.

The figures do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties, but international organizations such as the UN consider them to be largely credible.

Hamas health authority: 16,500 minors killed in Gaza war

More than 16,500 minors have been killed since the war in Gaza erupted in October 2023, the authority also reported on Thursday.

The authority put the number of babies killed at more than 900, and the number of children between the ages of 1 and 13 at more than 11,000. It also published a list of names, identity card numbers and birth dates to back up its figures.

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The details cannot currently be independently verified.

According to UN figures, almost half the territory's residents are younger than 18.

Israel previously reported around 20,000 militants were killed by its military campaign. This figure can also not be independently verified.

Reports: Netanyahu government withdrawing all negotiators from Qatar

The Israeli government is to withdraw its entire negotiating team from talks in Doha aimed at achieving a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

High-level members of the team had been recalled to Israel on Tuesday, with only members of the working-level team remaining in the Qatari capital, according to information from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

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The families of the hostages still held in Gaza expressed strong criticism of the move.

Points of conflict between the parties include that Hamas is demanding the end to hostilities in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages.

Israel will only agree to this if Hamas lays down its arms and its leadership leaves the Gaza Strip. Hamas has rejected these demands.
Gwinnett County police have arrested two women in connection to a vehicle theft operation that transported stolen Honda CR-Vs from New York City to sell them through Facebook Marketplace in Georgia, police said.

The investigation began in December 2024 when a Gwinnett County resident took his recently purchased Honda CR-V for routine service.

The technician happened to notice something was off with the VIN number of the vehicle and alerted the customer, said Cpl. Juan Madiedo with Gwinnett County police.

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Police set up an undercover purchase with the alleged seller, leading to the arrest of Mayreny Ciprian, who now faces 40 criminal charges. She was found inside another stolen CR-V with an altered VIN in December, police said.

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Little did she know she was actually meeting with detectives that day, but she was taken into custody without any incident, Madiedo said.

Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson learned the investigation expanded Monday with the arrest of 30-year-old Karen Mendez, who faces 19 felony charges for allegedly selling stolen vehicles with forged titles.

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Victims often lose both their money and their vehicle when police identify stolen cars.

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Fredy Juarez lost $10,000 in a similar scheme last year.

Not everybody is to be trusted, Juarez warned at the time. If you dont put a stop to this, these people will mess up somebody else.

Police believe additional suspects and victims are still out there. They urge anyone who purchased a Honda CR-V through Facebook Marketplace to have their vehicle inspected.

If theres anything off on the VIN number, if you take a good look at it, please call us, Madiedo said.

Police recommend using designated e-commerce zones at police stations for online purchases, where officers can help verify vehicle information.

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US President Donald Trump held a contentious meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday, when he repeated allegations that he and members of his administration have previously levelled, suggesting that white South African farmers are being systematically killed.

To prove his point, Trump showed the South African leader online videos, speeches and news articles.

Generally, theyre white farmers and theyre fleeing South Africa, and . its a very sad thing to see. But I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you dont want that, the US president said, as the visiting delegation looked on in disbelief.

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Tensions have been escalating between the United States and South Africa since Trump took office this year, with Washington cutting off aid to Africas largest economy and sending back its ambassador last month.

But how true were Trumps claims during the meeting in the Oval Office? Here is a fact check:

Trump repeated claims that theres a white genocide in South Africa: Is there?

No, there is not. Suggestions by Trump that a white genocide may be taking place have been repeatedly debunked by South African officials and independent analysts  and by data.

So we take [refugees] from many locations if we feel theres persecution or genocide going on, the US president said in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

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And we had a lot of people, I must tell you Mr. President [Ramaphosa], we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since theyve seen this  generally theyre white farmers, and theyre fleeing South Africa.

Earlier this month, 59 white South Africans arrived in the US as part of a refugee programme set up by Trump to offer sanctuary to them.

US President Donald Trump hands South African President Cyril Ramaphosa articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, at the White House in Washington, DC, the US [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Trumps claim echoes white nationalist beliefs that legislation in South Africa aimed at rectifying apartheid is now, in fact, discriminatory against the Afrikaner community.

Right-wing organisations, such as the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, have been championing a narrative that Afrikaners are under an existential threat.

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The facts suggest otherwise.

There is no credible evidence to support the claim that white farmers in South Africa are being systematically targeted as part of a campaign of genocide, Anthony Kaziboni, a senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera.

While South Africa does not break down crime statistics by race, according to the most recent data from April to December 2024 provided by the government, there were 19,696 murders during this period.

Only 36 of those murders were connected to farms, and only seven of the victims were farmers. The number of white victims is unclear. The remaining 29 victims were farm workers, who are predominantly Black in South Africa.

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The scale of farm murders captured by the South African governments data broadly matches the data of even AfriForum. The group says that 50 and 49 farm murders took place in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Genocide is a grave term, legally defined by the UN as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. That threshold is not met in the case of South Africas farm attacks, Kaziboni said.

White South Africans constitute 7 percent of the nations population but own more than 70 percent of its land. They also have about 20 times more wealth than Blacks on average. In corporate South Africa, white individuals occupy 62 percent of top management positions, while 17 percent of leadership roles are held by Black managers.

Are there white burial sites on the side of a South African highway?

The White House staff played a video clip at the Oval Office that Trump insisted showed burial sites of thousands of white farmers with white crucifixes lined up along a local highway.

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When Ramaphosa asked him where the footage was from, saying, This, Ive never seen, Trump claimed it was in South Africa.

Trump was right  the visuals were from South Africa. But he was also wrong  they werent images of burial sites.

The images had been shared by Tesla CEO Elon Musk earlier this year, too, as evidence that a white genocide was taking place.

However, local records and a report at the time from the South African Institute of Race Relations confirmed that crosses were symbolically planted on the side of the road during a 2020 protest related to the killings of white South African couple Glenn and Vida Rafferty on a farm.

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They were not gravestones, as Trump falsely asserted.

According to South Africas Transvaal Agricultural Union  a group sympathetic to Afrikaner farmers  the total number of farm murders in South Africa between 1990 and 2024 stood at 2,229, which included 1,363 white farmers, 529 relatives of white farmers, 38 white workers, 30 white visitors, 88 Black farmers, 61 relatives of Black farmers, 188 Black workers, and seven Black visitors.

On average, 56 white South Africans were killed on farms per year during the 35-year period, according to this data.

These crimes are brutal and concerning, but they stem from high levels of violent crime and poor rural policing, not from a state-sponsored or group-led intent to annihilate a racial group, Kaziboni said.





Trump claims no justice for killers of white farmers

You do allow them to take the land. And when they take the land, they kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them, Trump complained to Ramaphosa.

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A major topic of contention between the two countries is the recent passing of a land expropriation law by South Africa, which Trump has denounced as persecution of the countrys rich white minority.

The law allows the government to seize land from any private owner, white or otherwise, for public purposes and public interests. While the law spells out fair compensation, it also allows for seizure without compensation in certain instances.

However, unlike what Trump claimed, the law makes it clear that only the government  not vigilantes  can take land from farmers.

And Trump is inaccurate in his claims that nothing happens to those who carry out farm murders. In November 2022, two men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Glenn and Vida Rafferty, the couple whose death sparked the 2020 protest that Trump falsely claimed showed a line of gravesites by the highway.

What about South African politicians chanting Kill the Boer?

Trumps team also showed a video of Julius Malema, an opposition figure and leader of the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, singing the anti-apartheid song Dubul ibhunu (Kill the Boer) at a rally.

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Boer is the Afrikaans word for farmer, and on one level, it simply means farmer, of any race.

However, the title is indeed often taken to mean Kill the Afrikaner. The song emerged during the 1980s, as opposition to more than three decades of apartheid rule spilled onto the streets of South Africas townships. The title of the song is often also translated as Kill the white farmer.

Julius Malema, leader of South Africas leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party [Ihsaan Haffejee/Reuters]

Ramaphosa told Trump that he has repeatedly condemned Malema and his statements, which do not reflect the official government position.

Meanwhile, Malema has repeatedly stated  both in court and in interviews  that we are not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now.

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Anti-apartheid veterans argue that the lyrics are not an incitement to violence against white people, explaining that Boer symbolises the broader concept of an oppressor.

Courts in South Africa have also ruled that the song does not constitute hate speech.

Kaziboni said that these rulings have been controversial.

Some fear they may leave vulnerable groups without sufficient recourse when threatened, he said.

However, the University of Johannesburg researcher said, the courts and the South African government appear to be trying to find a balance between freedom of expression, historical redress, and social cohesion.

The courts [have] emphasised the need to understand the song within its historical and political context, not as a literal incitement to violence, but as a symbolic act of resistance embedded in the countrys liberation struggle, Kaziboni said.

Death, death, horrible death: Trump presents sheaf of articles

Sitting next to Ramaphosa, Trump rifled through a series of articles that he said showed further proof of white farmers persecution.

Death of people, death, death, death, horrible death, death, Trump said as he showcased the news stories in front of reporters.

However, in the stack of papers was a blog post with an image from the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo showing Red Cross workers in protective gear handling body bags.

Kaziboni said that during a time of rising global misinformation, Trumps framing of South Africa misrepresents both the facts and the deeper history.

The evidence he presents is unknown, even unknown to the South African President, Ramaphosa, the researcher said. It is important not to reduce complex issues to simplistic narratives driven by ideological agendas.
(Reuters) -Two Israeli embassy staffers were killed by a lone gunman in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and a suspect who chanted pro-Palestine slogans is in custody, officials said.

Attacks against Jews and Jewish targets have risen worldwide since war erupted in Gaza in October 2023 following an attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants and Israel's subsequent military offensive.

Here are some acts of violence that are thought to have deliberately targeted Jewish or Israeli people and places:

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OCTOBER 18, 2023: Two hooded men threw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue in central Berlin.

NOVEMBER 16, 2023: A 53-year-old man was arrested in Tokyo after crashing a car into a barricade near the entrance of the Israeli embassy and injuring a police officer.

MAY 1, 2024: Warsaw authorities detained a teenager after a historic synagogue in Poland's capital was hit by a bottle containing a flammable substance, police said.

MAY 17, 2024: French police shot dead a knife-wielding Algerian man who set fire to a synagogue and threatened police in the city of Rouen.

JUNE 2024: A Jordanian national broke into a solar power generation facility in Wedgefield, Florida, and caused more than $450,000 in damage. In May 2025, he was sentenced to six years in U.S. federal prison for threats against and attacks on businesses over their perceived support for Israel, after pleading guilty in December.

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SEPTEMBER 5, 2024: German police shot dead an Austrian suspected Islamist gunman in Munich in an exchange of fire close to the Israeli consulate.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2024: Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani citizen living in Canada, was arrested and charged with planning a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn around October 7, 2024 in support of the Islamic State, the Department of Justice said.

OCTOBER 10, 2024: A shooting took place near an Israeli target in the city of Gothenburg, which Denmark's national broadcaster said was a unit of Israeli defence electronics firm Elbit Systems.

NOVEMBER 6, 2024: Masked men attacked two students who were demonstrating in support of Israel at Chicago's DePaul University, resulting in minor injuries.

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JANUARY 17, 2025: A home in Sydney previously owned by a senior Jewish community leader was vandalised and two cars were set on fire, with one spray-painted with an antisemitic slur.

JANUARY 21, 2025: A childcare centre in Sydney was set alight and antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall.

REGIONAL RESEARCH DATA

Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League tallied 8,873 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2023, a 140% increase over 2022 and a record high since it began keeping track in 1979.

In 2024, ADL tracked 9,354 incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and assault in the United States. While the tally rose by only 5% from 2023, the group highlighted a significant rise in assaults, which accounted for 196 incidents.

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According to the Protection Service for the Jewish Community, antisemitic acts in France rose from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023. 1,570 aggressions were recorded in 2024.

In Australia, antisemitic acts recorded from October 1, 2023 to September 20, 2024 showed a 316% increase from a year earlier to 2,062 incidents, a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry showed.

(Compiled by Alban Kacher and Mateusz Rabiega in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Rod Nickel)
The Flagler County Sheriffs Office has gotten a report of an attempt to con someone out of money via a fake arrest warrant.

Deputies say a resident reported getting a text message and subsequent phone call from someone posing as a Flagler County Sheriffs Office employee, claiming the victim had an active misdemeanor arrest warrant for failure to appear.

The victim said the scammer went by the name Lieutenant Hill and asked the victim to report to the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office. The scammer also gave the victim a counterfeit legal document dated May 19, 2025. This fake document had a forged state of Florida seal, as well as two forged signatures of a judge and clerk of court for Flagler County.

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These scammers think they are getting more sophisticated by using realistic looking court documents, said Sheriff Rick Staly. But the Flagler County Sheriffs Office will not contact you by text, phone or email demanding payment, sensitive information, or to tell you that you are wanted. Do not reply to unsolicited text messages or click on any links, and if you receive a call like this, hang up and report the incident to us or your local law enforcement agency. The best defense is to be aware of scams like this so you can protect yourself and not fall victim to their schemes.

Residents are urged to be vigilant and to report any suspicious calls or messages to the Flagler County Sheriffs Offices nonemergency number at 386-313-4911. Call 911 if it is an emergency.

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On Wednesday, State Attorney Melissa Nelson held her offices 7th annual Daniel E. Watts Outstanding Law Enforcement Officers Awards.

The awards are given every year to recognize the sacrifice and dedication of outstanding law enforcement officers in Floridas Fourth Judicial Circuit.

Twelve awards were presented during the ceremony. Among those honored this year was Jacksonville Sheriffs Office Corrections Officer Brad McNew, who was shot and killed while he was off duty late last year.

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There is no one more deserving of this award, Nelson said.

McNew was posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor Award for his sacrifice.

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In October 2024, McNew was off the clock when he intervened in a domestic dispute between a man and a woman at a Loves gas station near Jacksonville International Airport.

As he tried to offer help and de-escalate the dispute, JSO said McNew was shot and killed by the man involved. Officers arrested Demaurea Grant in North Carolina shortly after. Just this week, Grant pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors said they are seeking the death penalty.

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McNews wife and son accepted the award on his behalf. Sheriff T.K. Waters said McNew leaves behind a legacy of true public service.

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What its like to be a public servant all day, every day. No matter what youre doing, stepping in, intervening, trying to help people even when you dont have to, Waters said.

Below is the full list of awards that were presented during the event:

Citizen & Volunteer Partnership Award

K-9 Valor Award

3x Investigative Excellence Award

Prosecutorial Award

State Attorney Award

Lifesaving Award

Bravery Award

Meritorious Service Award

Medal of Valor Award

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Azerbaijan and Guinea have held discussions on opportunities for investment cooperation, Azerbaijans Minister of Economy, Mikayil Jabbarov, said in a post on his official X page, Trend reports.

"Within the framework of the Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group, we were pleased to meet with Ismael Nabe, Guineas Minister of Planning and International Cooperation.

Our discussions focused on opportunities for collaboration in the fields of economy, trade, and #investment, as well as prospects for cooperation in infrastructure, energy, the efficient use of natural resources, and the exchange of knowledge and expertise," the post reads.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)  Authorities are investigating a multi-vehicle crash that resulted in one fatality, said Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn, Sr.

According to the Caddo Parish Sheriffs Office (CPSO), at 4:57 p.m., deputies responded to a collision involving a gray truck and a white SUV on Interstate 49, just north of the Southern Loop exit.

The gray truck was traveling northbound on I-49 when it collided with the SUV, which was also heading north on the same interstate. The impact caused the truck to catch fire, stated CPSO.

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Officers stated that when Caddo Fire District 6 arrived at the scene, they pronounced the driver of the gray truck deceased.

(KTAL/KMSS Photographer Tony Neal)

CPSO claims that the driver and passengers of the SUV refused medical attention. Deputies are still on site investigating the cause of the accident.

They note that the outer lane of I-49 northbound is closed; however, the inner lane remains open, allowing vehicles to travel northward.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
WHITEHALL, Ohio (WCMH)  Whitehall voters will now have the chance to vote on a controversial tax abatement to allow for the construction of Fairway Cliffs.

Opponents of the upscale townhome development protested outside Whitehall City Hall before the meeting Tuesday night, where there was a lot of back-and-forth discussion between the city council and city attorney.

Columbus officer confronts school board after being denied access to school

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One resident said she was excited over the decision, but feels the work isnt over just yet.

So if there is doubt, we have three readings to rectify whatever issues there are and Im saying what is the point of pushing something through when we arent even sure or some of us dont have the understanding, its not clear, said one council member.

In April, Whitehall City Council approved three tax breaks for the nearly 50-unit Fairway Cliffs proposal. Opponents then started referendum petitions, which, with enough valid signatures, puts issues on the ballot. After about 20 minutes of discussion, council members voted 6-1 to send the tax abatement question to the November ballot.

Were happy with the city council and their vote and were excited about Nov. 4 and really want the public to come out and have their voice heard, Whitehall resident Holly Stein said.

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Hilliard, Grove City helping solve housing shortage in central Ohio

Council has supported the Fairway Cliffs plan and previously approved a 100-percent tax abatement for the developments first 15 years.

Thats where we feel this is not worth it, Stein said. We have many other projects in the City of Whitehall. We have Rockwell District. We have Norton Crossing. Where is the development going forward on those? We want to spend our energy and our time and our resources, our valuable tax dollars on those properties.

Residents learned on May 7 that the petitions filed were valid. That same day, city council allowed developers from Fairway Cliffs to submit tweaks to the plan, but residents said that that move violated citizens rights.

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Once you have a referendum, petitions found to be sufficient, you can take no action against those, so we are satisfied on one side, but we still have some more work to do on the other side in trying to get the motion to reconsider dropped, Stein said.

Horror museum featuring haunted objects, last meal restaurant coming to Ohio

Developers have until June 17 to submit a new proposal to council. If it passes with a large majority, council can use an emergency clause to override the referendums.

A statement from the Whitehall mayors office reads, in part, The mayors office and the City of Whitehall welcome all public engagement in all forms and celebrate citizens exercising their civic rights.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
The father of the 6-year-old boy who died after being left in a hot car during a Paso Robles heat wave now faces a federal fraud charge.

Briant Reyes Estrada, 27, was arrested on May 11 after his child died at the hospital on May 10 of suspected heat-related injuries. The San Luis Obispo County District Attorneys Office charged him with murder and willful harm to a child on May 13.

Reyes Estrada pleaded not guilty to the charges in court on May 14.

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On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorneys Office, which earlier said Reyes Estrada was undocumented and in the country illegally, filed a federal charge of fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents against Reyes Estrada, according to the complaint.

The felony could result in up to 10 years in federal prison, U.S. Attorneys Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy said in an email to The Tribune.

Reyes Estradas attorney Patrick Fisher did not respond to The Tribunes requests for comment by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Father accused of leaving SLO County child in hot car enters plea in murder case

Father accused of misusing visas, other documents

The U.S. Attorneys Office alleged that Reyes Estrada committed fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents in San Luis Obispo County in April and August 2023, the complaint said.

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The complaint included an affidavit from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security deportation officer based in Ventura County, whose name was redacted from the document.

Born in Donato Guerra, Mexico, Reyes Estrada allegedly entered the United States without the proper documents, according to the affidavit.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers saw Reyes Estrada near Naco, Arizona, on Feb. 23, 2022, then took his photo and fingerprints at the U.S. Border Patrol Station in Bisbee, Arizona, before deporting him to Mexico, the affidavit said.

At some point, Reyes Estrada returned to the United States.

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After learning about the murder charge against Reyes Estrada, the federal agency Homeland Security Investigations researched Reyes Estrada in law enforcement systems and databases.

Officers learned that Reyes Estrada had no approved or pending visas, applications or petitions that would allow him to live or work in the United States.

He had not been issued an alien number or Social Security number, and he appeared to have no claim to lawful permanent resident status or United States citizenship, the affidavit said.

Briant Reyes Estrada, right, appeared in court on May 14, 2025, and pleaded not guilty to murder and child abuse charges after the death of his son, who was left in a hot car outside the Paso Robles Inn on May 10, 2025. From right are defense attorney Patrick Fisher and courtroom interpreter Abraham Sanchez.

The federal charge is related to identification documents Reyes Estrada used to work at hotels in San Luis Obispo County.

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On Aug. 1, 2023, Reyes Estrada was hired at Pacifica Hotels as a general maintenance engineer, according to records provided by Pacifica Hotels.

On the application, the third question asked, Do you have the legal right to work in the country where you are applying? With a yes/no answer choice, Reyes Estrada selected yes as the answer, the affidavit said.

On his I-9 form, Reyes Estrada offered a Social Security number that ended with the digits 9585 that was lawfully issued to a person with the initials J.F., the affidavit said. Estrada electronically signed that form on Aug. 1, 2023.

The Paficia Hotels W-4 form from Aug. 1, 2023, bore the same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9, the affidavit said.

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Reyes Estrada was fired from Pacific Hotels on Oct. 3 because of multiple incidents regarding violating company policy related to filming on company grounds, the affidavit said.

The records also showed Reyes Estrada locking a female employee in an engineering room and turning off the lights, then laughing while the female employee was trying to leave the room, the affidavit said.

The hotel temporarily suspended him from his position while investigating the allegations, but Reyes Estrada allegedly returned to the hotel.

This event culminated to a point where deputies from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office had to intervene and remove Reyes Estrada from the property, the affidavit said.

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Reyes Estrada was previously hired as a housekeeper at the Bluebird Inn in Cambria on April 10, 2023. His W-4 from the Bluebird Inn included the same name, address, Social Security number and date of birth as the form I-9 and form W-4 from Pacifica Hotels, the affidavit said.

Homeland Security Investigations officers discovered that Reyes Estrada used a lawful permanent resident card, also known as a green card, that contained several discrepancies, the affidavit said.

The alien number on the card had been issued to a person born in El Salvador known as C.L.M.

The card also listed Reyes Estrada as a spouse of a United States citizen, but officers did not find an application submitted by him for a lawful permanent resident card or any immigrant visa or permanent resident status.

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Additionally, the signature below the photograph did not match his signature on the W-4 Form for the Bluebird Inn, the affidavit said.

Temperature reached 99 degrees

Reyes Estrada is alleged to have left his child in his vehicle in the parking lot of the Paso Robles Inn on Saturday, May 10, according to the Paso Robles Police Department.

The temperature there reached a peak of 99 degrees on Saturday, according to meteorologist John Lindsey, breaking a record set in 1997.

It is unclear at this time exactly how long the child may have been left in the vehicle, and Paso Robles Police Chief Damian Nord told The Tribune the agency is awaiting an autopsy to determine the boys cause of death.

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Officers responded to the hospital around 6 p.m. and found the child had been driven to the hospital by his father, Reyes Estrada.

Reyes Estrada was previously charged with misdemeanor false impersonation, misdemeanor forging a drivers license and two misdemeanor counts of embezzlement in February.

The U.S. Attorneys Office said Wednesday that Reyes Estrada was undocumented and could have been detained on April 29, when he was arrested for the February misdemeanor charges, but that Californias sanctuary state laws prevented the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office from holding Reyes Estrada for Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

Reyes Estradas attorney Patrick Fisher previously told The Tribune that the U.S. Attorneys Office and other people were using the childs death as a prop for political rants expressing frustrations with immigration policy, calling the debate shameful.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  Father Joes Villages is set to transform the old skydiving center in San Diegos East Village neighborhood into 164 affordable housing units, marking a significant development in addressing homelessness in the area.

The beleaguered building at 1401 Imperial Ave.  once a failed business venture  was purchased by the city for $7 million following the Hepatitis A outbreak in 2017 that claimed the lives of 20 unhoused San Diegans.

Since then, Father Joes has used the building as a resource center for those experiencing homelessness under an agreement with the San Diego Housing Commission.

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County to use $4M for tiny cabins, housing vouchers after RV project halted

After seven years, the nonprofit is pressing forward with a plan to transform it into affordable housing, after the San Diego City Council unanimously greenlit the project earlier this week.

This project, and the many other affordable housing units Father Joes Villages has built, is critical to helping people exit homelessness, said Deacon Jim Vargas, CEO of Father Joes. We must deploy creative solutions to meet the ever growing need, and this site is just one such example.

When the building was acquired under Mayor Kevin Faulconer, the city planned to transform it into housing  a vision that went unrealized until now.

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As opposed to demolishing the existing structure, Vargas says Father Joes plans to adaptively reuse it, building it up from three stories to 15. All 164 units added with the extra floors will be deed-restricted for low-income households.

The space will also continue to house services aimed to help residents achieve and maintain self-sufficiency, such as physical and behavioral health care, social supports and employment services.

Homelessness down 7% in San Diego County, point-in-time count finds

According to Vargas, Father Joes Villages hopes to break ground on the housing project in mid-2026 with the goal of welcoming its first residents by 2028.

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This is not the first time Father Joes Villages has ventured into the administration of long-term affordable housing. It also operates the 14-story Saint Teresa of Calcutta complex, located right across the street.

Weve had many people, not only locally but from the state and federal government who have come and visited. Its a great model that we look to replicate in our other buildings, Vargas said. Its building a sense of community.

Outside the downtown complex, Father Joes has two other affordable housing developments in the works, aiming to expand the number of units it operates to 2,000 in the next decade.

KUSIs Dan Plante contributed to this report.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A man wanted for a 2008 Las Vegas murder was in custody Thursday after the FBI arrested him in Mexico, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.

Jonathan Romero, 34, faces charges including open murder, attempted murder and burglary for the death of David Manriquez, 18. On July 18, 2008, police found Manriquez deceased at a home near Lamb Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

Documents indicate Manriquez was dating Romeros ex-girlfriend. A witness told police that Romero came into her home searching for Manriquez and then shot him.

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He got into an altercation with the current boyfriend and during the course of that altercation, he shot and killed the current boyfriend who was in the house at the time, a lieutenant for Metros homicide bureau said at the time.

The coroners office determined Manriquez was shot several times, documents said.

The FBI located Romero in Mexico, though it was not immediately clear when the international arrest occurred. Romero recently returned to the United States and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on May 15.

Prosecutors issued a warrant for Romeros arrest three days after the murder, records said. Romero remained in custody without bail due to the murder charge. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for July 23.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
CHICAGO (WGN)  FBI agents in Chicago raided a residence on the citys Northwest Side on Thursday morning as investigators tried to piece together what led to the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members in Washington, DC.

Authorities said the suspect, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago resident, was taken into custody just after the Wednesday night shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

I wish I had the opportunity to talk with him, because if I had, I would have talked him out of it, said John Wayne Fry, who lives in the building on the 4700 block of North Troy Street that was the focus of the feds raid.

Suspect in DC Jewish museum shooting faces murder, firearm charges in death penalty eligible case

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Hate is not an American value: State, local officials react to deadly DC shooting

Fry said his interaction with Rodriguez was infrequent; theyd pass each other in the hallway or meet in the vestibule while checking their mailboxes.

He was always friendly, Fry said, adding that Rodriguez lived in the building for a few years.

Elias Rodriguez yelled Free, free Palestine as he was being taken into custody.

FBI agents were seen entering and exiting Rodriguezs alleged apartment, at times carrying out boxes. A Hyundai Accent parked outside the building was towed away.

While the regional FBI office in Chicago didnt confirm why its agents were at the property, the office did confirm the agents were conducting authorized law enforcement activity in the area.

Fry said Rodriguez lived on the second floor of the building. A sign reading Justice for Wadea, in reference to the deadly stabbing of 6-year-old Palestinian American Wadea al-Fayoumi of Plainfield in October 2023, was visible in a window.

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Rodriguezs alleged social media accounts are said to have posts criticizing the war in Gaza. Hes also said to have been involved with Chicago-area organizations.

Fry said he would have told Rodriguez that violence is never the answer.

Guns and bombs are not going to end this genocide, he said.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim

Authorities identified the victims in the shooting as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.

According to the Associated Press, Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel. Yechiel Leiter, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., told the Associated Press that Lischinsky had planned on proposing to Milgrim next week.

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Rodriguez faces first-degree murder and firearms charges. His next court appearance was scheduled for June 18 in Washington, D.C.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
The FBI has issued an advisory to all cell phone users warning them against what it calls an "ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign."

In a Public Service Announcement this month, the FBI warned of "malicious actors" that have been impersonating senior US officials as part of a scam beginning in April of 2025. The FBI notes that many of those targeted by the scam have been current or former senior U.S. federal or state government officials and their contacts.

The FBI warns that if you do receive a message from someone claiming to be a U.S. official, "do not assume it is authentic."

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"The malicious actors have sent text messages and AI-generated voice messages  techniques known as smishing and vishing, respectively  that claim to come from a senior US official in an effort to establish rapport before gaining access to personal accounts," the FBI wrote in a recent advisory.

"One way the actors gain such access is by sending targeted individuals a malicious link under the guise of transitioning to a separate messaging platform. Access to personal or official accounts operated by US officials could be used to target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using trusted contact information they obtain. Contact information acquired through social engineering schemes could also be used to impersonate contacts to elicit information or funds," the FBI's alert warned.

The FBI offered a few tips for how to spot one of these fake messages:

Verify the identity of the person calling you or sending text or voice messages. Before responding, research the originating number, organization, and/or person purporting to contact you. Then independently identify a phone number for the person and call to verify their authenticity.

Carefully examine the email address; messaging contact information, including phone numbers; URLs; and spelling used in any correspondence or communications. Scammers often use slight differences to deceive you and gain your trust. For instance, actors can incorporate publicly available photographs in text messages, use minor alterations in names and contact information, or use AI-generated voices to masquerade as a known contact.

Look for subtle imperfections in images and videos, such as distorted hands or feet, unrealistic facial features, indistinct or irregular faces, unrealistic accessories such as glasses or jewelry, inaccurate shadows, watermarks, voice call lag time, voice matching, and unnatural movements.

Listen closely to the tone and word choice to distinguish between a legitimate phone call or voice message from a known contact and AI-generated voice cloning, as they can sound nearly identical.

AI-generated content has advanced to the point that it is often difficult to identify. When in doubt about the authenticity of someone wishing to communicate with you, contact your relevant security officials or the FBI for help.

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The FBI warns never to share sensitive information with people you have met only online or over the phone. The bureau also warned never to send money, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to someone you do not know, never to click on any links in an email or text message until you independently confirm the sender's identity, and to be careful what you download onto your devices.

With AI becoming more and more advanced, criminals are increasingly able to make voices and messages sound like someone you may know. The FBI suggests using a secret word or phrase with your family members to verify their identities.
On May 20, the Food and Drug Administration announced a new stance on who should receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The agency said it would approve new versions of the vaccine only for adults 65 years of age and older as well as for people with one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes. These risk factors include medical conditions such as asthma, cancer, chronic kidney disease, heart disease and diabetes.

However, healthy younger adults and children who fall outside of these groups may not be eligible to receive the COVID-19 shot this fall. Vaccine manufacturers will have to conduct clinical trials to demonstrate that the vaccine benefits low-risk groups.

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FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and the agencys head of vaccines, Vinay Prasad, described the new framework in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine and in a public webcast.

The Conversation U.S. asked Libby Richards, a nursing professor involved in public health promotion, to explain why the changes were made and what they mean for the general public.

Why did the FDA diverge from past practice?

Libby Richards: Until the May 20 announcement, getting a yearly COVID-19 vaccine was recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, regardless of their health risk.

According to Makary and Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration is moving away from these universal recommendations and instead taking a risk-based approach based on its interpretation of public health trends  specifically, the declining COVID-19 booster uptake, a lack of strong evidence that repeated boosters improve health outcomes for healthy people and the fact that natural immunity from past COVID-19 infections is widespread.

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The FDA states it wants to ensure the vaccine is backed by solid clinical trial data, especially for low-risk groups.

Was this a controversial decision or a clear consensus?

The FDAs decision to adopt a risk-based framework for the COVID-19 vaccine aligns with the expected recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an advisory group of vaccine experts offering expert guidance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, which is scheduled to meet in June 2025. But while this advisory committee was also expected to recommend allowing low-risk people to get annual COVID-19 vaccines if they want to, the FDAs policy will likely make that difficult.

Although the FDA states that its new policy aims to promote greater transparency and evidenced-based decision-making, the change is controversial  in part because it circumvents the usual process for evaluating vaccine recommendations. The FDA is enacting this policy change by limiting its approval of the vaccine to high-risk groups, and it is doing so without any new data supporting its decision. Usually, however, the FDA broadly approves a vaccine based on whether it is safe and effective, and decisions on who should be eligible to receive it are left to the CDC, which receives research-based guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Additionally, FDA officials point to Canada, Australia and some European countries that limit vaccine recommendations to older adults and other high-risk people as a model for its revised framework. But vaccine strategies vary widely, and this more conservative approach has not necessarily proven superior. Also, those countries have universal health care systems and have a track record of more equitable access to COVID-19 care and better COVID-19 outcomes.

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Another question is how health officials positions on COVID-19 vaccines affect public perception. Makary and Prasad noted that COVID-19 vaccination campaigns may have actually eroded public trust in vaccination. But some vaccine experts have expressed concerns that limiting COVID-19 vaccine access might further fuel vaccine hesitancy because any barrier to vaccine access can reduce uptake and hinder efforts to achieve widespread immunity.

What conditions count as risk factors?

The New England Journal of Medicine article includes a lengthy list of conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 and notes that about 100 million to 200 million people will fall into this category and will thus be eligible to get the vaccine.

Pregnancy is included. Some items on the list, however, are unclear. For example, the list includes asthma, but the data that asthma is a risk factor for severe COVID-19 is scant.

Also on the list is physical inactivity, which likely applies to a vast swath of Americans and is difficult to define. Studies have found links between regular physical activity and reduced risk of severe COVID-19 infection, but its unclear how health care providers will define and measure physical inactivity when assessing a patients eligibility for COVID-19 vaccines.

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Most importantly, the list leaves out an important group  caregivers and household members of people at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 infection. This omission leaves high-risk people more vulnerable to exposure to COVID-19 from healthy people they regularly interact with. Multiple countries the new framework refers to do include this group.

Why is the FDA requiring new clinical trials?

According to the FDA, the benefits of multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines for healthy adults are currently unproven. Its true that studies beyond the fourth vaccine dose are scarce. However, multiple studies have demonstrated that the vaccine is effective at preventing the risk of severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in low-risk adults and children. Receiving multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines has also been shown to reduce the risk of long COVID.

The FDA is requiring vaccine manufactures to conduct additional large randomized clinical trials to further evaluate the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters for healthy adults and children. These trials will primarily test whether the vaccines prevent symptomatic infections, and secondarily whether they prevent hospitalization and death. Such trials are more complex, costly and time-consuming than the more common approach of testing for immunological response.

This requirement will likely delay both the timeliness and the availability of COVID-19 vaccine boosters and slow public health decision-making.

Will low-risk people be able to get a COVID-19 shot?

Not automatically. Under the new FDA framework, healthy adults who wish to receive the fall COVID-19 vaccine will face obstacles. Health care providers can administer vaccines off-label, but insurance coverage is widely based on FDA recommendations. The new, narrower FDA approval will likely reduce both access to COVID-19 vaccines for the general public and insurance coverage for COVID-19 vaccines.

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The FDAs focus on individual risks and benefits may overlook broader public health benefits. Communities with higher vaccination rates have fewer opportunities to spread the virus.

What about vaccines for children?

High-risk children age 6 months and older who have conditions that increase the risk of severe COVID-19 are still eligible for the vaccine under the new framework. As of now, healthy children age 6 months and older without underlying medical conditions will not have routine access to COVID-19 vaccines until further clinical trial data is available.

Existing vaccines already on the market will remain available, but it is unclear how long they will stay authorized and how the change will affect childhood vaccination overall.

Libby Richards is a professor at Purdue Universitys School of Nursing. Her research efforts focus on understanding and intervening on the individual and interpersonal influences on physical activity behavior, including examination of dyadic relationships in physical activity promotion and community-based interventions.

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post FDA Will Approve COVID-19 Vaccine Only for Older Adults and High-Risk Groups appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
Kazakhstan reveals amount of Chinese locomotives arriving to improve rail network

Photo: Kazakhstan Railways

One hundred state-of-the-art, nimble locomotives have rolled into Astana, Kazakhstan, courtesy of a deal struck between Kazakhstan Railways and the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation. The agreement, inked during President Tokayev's October 2023 trip to China, was toasted at a ceremony at the Astana depot.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  Government advisers were split Thursday on whether drugmakers need to update their COVID-19 vaccines for next season, a decision overshadowed by confusion over a new Trump administration policy that may limit which Americans can get the shots.

The Food and Drug Administrations outside experts have met annually since the launch of the first COVID-19 vaccines to discuss tweaking their recipes to stay ahead of the virus. The challenge is trying to gauge how the virus might evolve before fall vaccinations begin.

We all want to make the perfect choice and thats probably not possible," FDAs Jerry Weir told the panel of outside experts.

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Some of the panelists voiced support for a switch to a newer coronavirus subtype named LP.8.1. It's currently the dominant version and part of the same family that circulated last year  known as the JN.1 branch of the virus family tree.

We cannot predict the future, but it seems like LP.8 would be more likely to provide us better coverage," said Dr. Eric Rubin, a Harvard infectious disease expert and editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Other panelists noted that subtype is such a close relative that last year's shots seem to offer cross-protection, at least for now but with no guarantee there wouldn't be a different version circulating by the time a vaccination campaign ramps up in the late summer or early fall. Several advisers noted that people who want to get ahead of a summer surge like the U.S. typically experiences could seek out the current vaccines.

Hanging over the meeting was an FDA announcement earlier this week that upended the prior U.S. policy of recommending annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older. Instead, the FDA said routine vaccine approvals will be limited to seniors and younger people with underlying medical risks, pending new research for healthy adults and children.

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While that change has big implications for a fall vaccination campaign, FDA leaders repeatedly sidestepped questions from advisers about whether recommending an updated formula would trigger restrictions outlined in the new policy.

I dont have an answer today, said Weir. I think a lot of this is still under discussion.

FDA staffers also wouldn't confirm whether the advisers would be given a chance to meet about the new standards later.

FDA vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad said in opening the meeting that the agency wants to give people a little more time to digest the new policy and is open to feedback from its experts  although apparently not in Thursdays public forum.

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Last falls recipe was tailored to the so-called JN.1 family of omicron descendants. The advisory panel voted unanimously that the family still is the right overall target, but left the FDA to decide which specific subtype to choose.

Novavax brewed shots targeting the parent JN.1 variant and said Thursday it was a good choice for this fall as well. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines last year targeted a subtype called KP.2 and company representatives told the FDA meeting that it showed cross-protection, but that they favored an update.

The debate reflected an international difference of opinion on the closely related virus strains. The World Health Organization recently issued guidance that last years version remained OK but that vaccine-makers could also choose an update, while the European Medicines Agency preferred that newer LP.8.1 subtype.

While demand for vaccinations has dropped, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 30,000 to 50,000 adults have died from COVID-19 since October. The virus continues to cause enormous burden on the health care system, CDCs Dr. Fiona Havers told panelists. Older adults count for most hospitalizations and deaths but COVID-19 also is a major cause of pediatric hospitalization, especially in children under 2  many of whom had no underlying medical problems before their infections.

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The strain decision normally isnt the final word on recommendations about who should be vaccinated.

The CDCs own advisory panel meets in June to make recommendations about the fall shots. Among its options are keeping universal access or recommending vaccination for high-risk groups but still giving lower-risk people the choice in getting a shot.

CDC staffers presented real-world data Thursday showing that getting a booster last fall offered added protection even in people who had been infected and previously vaccinated. Company studies reached the same conclusion  including one by Moderna that compared medical records of about 900,000 people.

___

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Seventeen people were arrested for allegedly using fraudulent documents to gain employment following a federal immigration raid at a Kent business, according to a statement Wednesday from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE, in coordination with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, executed a federal search warrant on May 20 at Eagle Beverage and Accessories Products in Kent as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

The operation focused on allegations that the company employed individuals who were not legally authorized to work in the United States.

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According to ICE, the 17 individuals taken into custody had submitted false documents or misrepresented their immigration status during the hiring process.

All were administratively arrested, meaning they are being held for immigration violations rather than criminal charges at this time.

According to a statement, the enforcement action is part of ICE Homeland Security Investigations broader worksite enforcement strategy.

That strategy aims to deter the hiring of unauthorized workers, protect jobs for authorized workers, and hold employers accountable under federal law.

ICE did not say whether the employer is facing charges or citations as a result of the search.

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According to a statement, Homeland Security Investigations leads investigations into illegal employment practices, including exploitation of workers and identity fraud. These operations, officials say, are designed to ensure employers follow federal hiring laws and maintain a legal workforce.

No further details were immediately available about the individuals arrested or the scope of the ongoing investigation.
(WTVO)  Millions of Americans could lose their food assistance program benefits if Congress signs the Big, Beautiful Bill into law.

The proposed federal budget bill would slash $300 billion in funding for SNAP benefits.

A food pantry CEO in Peoria said seniors and people with disabilities would be hurt most by the cuts.

We see an increase in demand in people that we have maybe never seen before, who are not the regulars, said the CEO of Neighborhood House, Julie Bonar. Oftentimes, well see individuals who have never been to a food pantry before because it is not something theyve had to utilize. But with losing those benefits, they still have to feed themselves or their families.

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The bill would raise the age requirement for SNAP from 54 to 64 for people with children who can work and shift the direct cost of food benefits to the states.

The bill would also change child tax credits, make Trumps 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and let Americans ages 65 and older with certain income limits receive extra deductions on their taxes.

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CHICAGO (WGN)  For the last 25 years, Chicago Hope for Kids (CHK) has supported some of the citys most vulnerable children, providing academic support throughout the year. Federal budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trumps administration threaten a significant reduction in the number of kids they can serve this summer.

CHK provides academic support at a dozen sites across Chicago, and offers summer programming. Half of its staff members come from AmeriCorpsan organization that hires college students or recent college graduates who receive a stipend and get help in return for tuition or student loan assistance.

AmeriCorps, which has an operating budget of $1 billion, is one of the latest targets of federal budget cuts. They will lose approximately $400 million in funding under the Trump Administrations proposed federal budget cuts.

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The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) issued the following statement in response to how the federal budget cuts will affect AmeriCorp:

Cutting AmeriCorps is yet another example of the Trump Administration cruelly eliminating programs that have a tremendous impact on the people they serve. From seniors in rural communities to youth in afterschool programs, the Trump Administration has stripped Illinoisans of needed services, further weakening the safety net of already vulnerable populations. This means students losing mentors, meals not provided to food insecure communities, and much more. -IDHS

According to IDHS, AmeriCorps cuts in Illinois total $11.7 million, impacting 632 members across 28 programs. After the cuts are imposed, there will only be seven programs, with three based in Chicago.

The Trump administrations cuts are a detriment to all of Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday. There are spaces where it will have a deeper impact.

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United States Senator Dick Durbin was also among the politicians who railed against the Trump Administrations proposed cuts at the federal level Wednesday.

For decades, AmeriCorps has had bi-partisan support, which it deserves, Durbin said from the Senate floor. But last week, the Trump administration pulled the rug out from under these organizations by eliminating their funding.

CHK has already lost 20 of its AmeriCorps members and predicts it will have a 40% reduction in the number of kids it can serve this summer.

Its devastating because Chicago Hopes is unique in the way [that] we are the only organization in Chicago that offers this type of support for [at-risk] students, said Jen Harden-Finn, a volunteer manager for AmeriCorps. They are kids dealing with housing insecurity and might be transitioning out of shelters or at risk of losing housing.

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The Boys and Girls Club of Chicago and the Chicago Food Depository are among those 28 programs funded by AmeriCorps in Illinois that are losing funding they rely on as a part of the Trump Administrations proposed federal budget cuts.

Other programs across Illinois are feeling similar impacts. Take Lucas, an AmeriCorps volunteer at the Boys and Girls Clubs in Livingston, Illinois. He provides students with a safe place to learn and play after school, Durbin said. He wont get paid because of the Trump cuts.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has filed a lawsuit over the cuts to AmeriCorps, arguing the Trump Administrations actions, including canceling grants and reducing staff, effectively shut down AmeriCorps and its programs, violating the Administrative Procedure Act and the separation of powers.

It is certainly frustrating, his attack against working people, Johnson said. Were doing our very best to make do with what we have.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  Defense attorneys accused federal prosecutors of misconduct Wednesday during a hearing for a high-profile case involving the suspicious overdose death of a government witness.

Prosecutors alleged in court papers that four men played a role in the death of Crystal Quinn, a government witness who planned to testify against Pharaohs strip club owner Peter Gerace at his drug and sex trafficking trial, which ended in December 2024 with convictions on eight of the nine charges.

Quinn, who Gerace described as a close friend, died in July 2023 from a fentanyl overdose.

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She was at the Wellsville home of her high school friend, Simon Gogolak, who called 911 to report her death.

The government alleged Gogolak, Gerace, the purported head of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club John Ermin, and Howard Hinkle Jr., carried out a conspiracy to keep Quinn from testifying through tampering and intimidation. Ermin has been a manager at Pharaohs for at least a decade.

Quinn did testify in 2023 to the grand jury, but she died before the start of Geraces jury trial.

In federal court Wednesday, Mart Foti, one of Geraces attorneys, accused prosecutors of making statements to the grand jury that were demonstrably false, and could be reason to dismiss charges.

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The conflict stems from how Gerace learned that Quinn, a former exotic dancer at Pharaohs, was cooperating with the government.

Federal prosecutors said one of Geraces former attorneys circumvented a protective order by adding Quinns name to Geraces witness list. The order prohibits attorneys from sharing names of protected witnesses with any defendant.

Thats not what happened, said Foti, who deemed the argument illogical.

Foti said the governments own admissions in court made it clear Quinn was cooperating with them prior to her name being added to Geraces witness list.

Foti said Quinn was added to Geraces witness list because she provided statements to authorities that conflicted with the narrative prosecutors want to construct, and she could impeach the credibility of some government witnesses.

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Prosecutors left that out in court papers and during grand jury proceedings when they accused Gerace and his former attorney of circumventing the protective order, Foti said. He said they also left out how Quinn told authorities that youre wrong about some of the allegations.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Chalbeck said by adding Quinns name, Gerace and his lawyers were able to obtain specific witness statements that discuss Quinn and others.

Chalbeck said Ermin visited Gerace twice at the Chautauqua County jail after Quinns name was added to the defense witness list. This was unnecessary, because Geraces attorneys acknowledged they reserve the right to call any witness or cross examine any government witness, she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi said the result of adding Quinns name to the list was Gerace now has a proxy to discuss Quinns case with others, such as John Ermin.

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Prosecutors said Quinn sent alarming texts days before her death that implied the defendants were setting her up to be harmed for cooperating with the government, and that she feared members of the Outlaws.

Foti said the government is relying on circumstantial evidence and wont respond to the information that establishes they misled the grand jury. Instead, they argue the defense attorneys can challenge the governments evidence at the trial, he said.

They all know that theres been mudslinging in this case, Chalbeck said, but the government is trying to avoid it.

Defense attorneys for Gerace, Ermin and Hinkle, said the government targeted Quinn five days after U.S. District Court Judge John Sinatras decision to downgrade Geraces release restrictions to curfew only, according to their 139-page court filing.

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In February 2023, the government charged Quinn with three counts of threatening and tampering with a witness, involving a 2019 incident in Geraces basement.

The government alleged that during the alcohol and cocaine-fueled get-together, Gerace persuaded Quinn and another woman to send threatening messages over Facebook to a former exotic dancer who was going to testify against him.

Authorities also charged Gerace with witness tampering for the same incident, which led to him being jailed.

Defense attorneys said the charges on Quinn were the impetus for her change of heart to cooperate with the government and served as sufficient leverage to get her to change her story. Once she started to cooperate, the government dismissed her charges, they said.

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If her story changed after the government charged her, it would demonstrate the amount of pressure the government can put on individuals to testify consistent with a narrative the government itself provided to the witness, the defense attorneys said in their joint court filing.

Gerace has said during phone interviews with WIVB News 4 that he believes Quinn committed suicide with a fatal dose of fentanyl because of pressure the federal government exerted on her to cooperate. In addition, Gerace said Quinn was dealing with depression and that he would never have harmed her.

Even Quinns mother signed an affidavit and told The Buffalo News in an interview that the FBI put Quinn under tremendous pressure to testify against Gerace and threatened to put her in prison if she didnt.

Prosecutors said the affidavit was altered by Geraces former attorney, Steve Cohen, to support a narrative that Quinn committed suicide. Cohen has denied the allegations and the court filing states he has strong proof establishing these allegations to be false.

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U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah McCarthy said he was not going to immediately rule on whether there was any impropriety by prosecutors. Intead, he requested the voluminous grand jury transcripts to determine if prosecutors engaged in misconduct.

McCarthy did not provide a specific date for when hed finish the review, but Tripi said he hopes to have the transcripts by next week.

Wednesdays hearing included a host of other arguments and requests by the eight attorneys representing the four defendants, but they struck out on each one.

Defense attorneys accused the government of withholding exculpatory evidence about Quinns mental health status, but prosecutors denied having any.

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They asked the judge to order the government to turn over more evidence to amplify the information in the indictments, which they found confusing and duplicitous. Their lengthy court filing in April states the indictment is devoid of any facts to show how the defendants participated in a conspiracy.

Prosecutors accused the attorneys of attempting to unmask witnesses and gain a strategic advantage by asking the government to provide more evidence to support the charges. In addition, prosecutors said theyve handed over much of the evidence the defense attorneys are asking to review, and disagreed that the indictments dont include enough specificity.

Another issue that came up was the amount of information the government shared with defense attorneys, much of which they said is either useless or not categorized in a way that makes it easier to identify specific evidence.

As a result, several of the attorneys Wednesday said theyve spent enormous energy poring through millions of documents and hundreds of hours of recordings and videos to determine what will be useful for their cases. Rather than waste time, they said the government should be categorizing the information in a manner that makes it easier to locate specific evidence.

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McCarthy ruled in favor of the government on each of the additional concerns and requested both sides file any motions that seek to resolve the case or any specific claims by August.

No trial date is scheduled.

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Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trumps executive order to eliminate the Education Department and ordered officials to reinstate the jobs of thousands of federal employees who were laid off en masse earlier this year.

Judge Myong J. Joun of the District Court in Boston wrote in the preliminary injunction that the Trump administration had sought to effectively dismantle the Education Department without congressional approval and prevented the federal government from carrying out programs mandated by law.

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Trump administration officials have claimed the March layoffs of more than 1,300 federal education workers were designed to increase government efficiency and were separate from efforts to eliminate the agency outright, claims that Joun deemed plainly not true.

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Defendants fail to cite to a single case that holds that the Secretarys authority is so broad that she can unilaterally dismantle a department by firing nearly the entire staff, or that her discretion permits her to make a shell department, Joun, a Biden appointee, wrote.

Related

Going for Blood: After Mass Firing, Many Wonder How Ed Dept. Will Function

Combined with early retirements and buyouts offered by the administration, the layoffs left the Education Department with about half as many employees as it had when Trump took office in January. That same month, Trump signed an executive order calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.

The Trump administration has acknowledged it cannot eliminate the 45-year-old department  long a goal of conservatives  without congressional approval despite layoffs that have left numerous offices unstaffed. Yet there is no evidence the Trump administration is working with Congress to achieve its goal or that the layoffs have made the agency more efficient, Joun wrote. Rather, the record is replete with evidence of the opposite.

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A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all, he said. This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Departments employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.

The Education Departments student aid and civil rights divisions were hardest hit by layoffs in March, according to a spreadsheet of fired union employees that was posted to social media by a Institute of Education Sciences staffer who was let go.

The White House didnt respond to requests for comment. The Education Department said it plans to appeal.

In a statement, Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann blasted the court order and called Joun a far-left Judge who overstepped his authority and the plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit to halt the layoffs  including two Massachusetts school districts and the American Federation of Teachers  biased. Also suing to stop the layoffs is 21 Democratic state attorneys general.

President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind, Biedermann said. This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families. We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis.

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McMahon Takes Flak From Democrats, Republicans at Congressional Budget Hearing

Cutting the federal education workforce in half  from 4,133 to 2,183  undermines its ability to distribute special education funding to schools, protect students civil rights and provide financial aid for college students, plaintiffs allege. They include the elimination of all Office of General Counsel attorneys, who specialize in K-12 grants related to special education, and most lawyers focused on student privacy issues. Plaintiffs also allege the cuts hampered the agencys ability to manage a federal student loan program that provides financial assistance to nearly 13 million students across about 6,100 colleges and universities.

The Office for Civil Rights was among those hardest hit by layoffs, with seven of its 12 regional offices shut down entirely. The move has left thousands of pending civil rights cases  including those that allege racial discrimination and sexual misconduct  in limbo.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the temporary injunction the first step to reverse this war on knowledge. Yet the damage is already being felt in schools, said Jessica Tang, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts.

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The White House is not above the law, and we will never stop fighting on behalf of our students and our public schools and the protections, services and resources they need to thrive, Tang said in a media release.

In interviews with The 74 Thursday, laid-off Education Department staffers reacted with cautious optimism. It remained unclear if, or when, they might return to their old jobs  or if they even want to go back.

Keith McNamara, a laid-off Education Department data governance specialist, said hes tempering my enthusiasm a bit to see if Jouns order is overturned on appeal. But he said he was  a lot more hopeful than I was yesterday about the potential for the department to return to the way it operated prior to the cuts.

For federal workers, he said the challenges have been ongoing and monumental, saying the last few months without work have been very chaotic.

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Lives Upended: 3 Ed Dept Staffers Worry for Themselves  And the Nations Kids

Its been very difficult to look for other work because tens of thousands of us are all pouring into the job market at the same time, he told The 74. Its been very stressful.

Rachel Gittleman, who worked as a policy analyst in the financial aid office before getting terminated, called the court order on Thursday a really broad rebuke on the administrations attempt to shut down this critically important department.

But in many ways, the damage has already been done as fired employees begin to find new jobs, Gittleman said, and Education Department leadership works to push people out.

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McNamara said it was unclear Thursday whether the department would order fired employees back to work. Nearly his entire team was eliminated, he said, so it was uncertain what work he might do if he returned to the job. Asked if he was interested in doing so, he responded Id have to really think about that.

Quite frankly, I dont think this administration is taking the job that the Education Department is supposed to be doing very seriously, he said. Im not sure Id want to work for an agency that  from the very top  is hostile to the work that the department does.
A federal judge tore into federal prosecutors on Wednesday over the New Jersey U.S. Attorneys Offices bizarre handling of the arrest of Democratic Newark Mayor Ras Baraka earlier this month. The judge also reminded prosecutors that the goals of the DOJs work should not involve efforts to advance political agendas.

The statements from U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa during the Wednesday hearing marks one of the first times a federal judge has bluntly addressed the inappropriate actions of some of the characters President Trump has installed as heads of U.S. Attorneys Offices since returning to the White House. It also touched on a broader issue: With Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patels help, Trump has taken a sledgehammer to even the appearance of DOJ independence from the White House.

During the Wednesday hearing, Espinosa announced that he would dismiss the trespassing charges against Baraka related to his arrest earlier this month during a protest, part of an attempted oversight visit at a facility where ICE was detaining migrants. Interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba  Trumps former lawyer and spokesperson whom he appointed to serve in the position in an acting capacity  announced Barakas arrest earlier this month in a post on Twitter after a scuffle broke out outside the facility. The decision by another Trump DOJ official to target more elected Democrats sparked widespread outcry. Baraka has maintained since the start that the arrest was politically motivated.

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After Baraka  who is also running for governor of New Jersey  posted videos this week that showed him being allowed inside the gates of the facility by officials at the detention center, Habba announced that she was dropping the charges against the Democratic mayor. But in the same statement she also announced new charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was part of the oversight visit with Baraka.

In announcing the dismissal of charges against Baraka, Judge Andre Espinosa called the decision to arrest and then drop charges against an elected official embarrassing.

The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office, Espinosa said, according to the New Jersey Globe. An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence.

More color from inside the hearing room, per the Globe:

The judge directed his comments to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich  the judge said Demanovich had acted appropriately throughout the case, but as the representative of the U.S. Attorneys Office, he was responsible for hearing the message. Federal magistrate judge Andre Espinosa said he found out about the dismissal through reports in the media, rather than from prosecutors themselves. The judge said that while there will be no trial, he believed Baraka deserved the chance to defend himself against the accusations.

Federal prosecutors serve a single paramount client: justice itself, Espinosa said. Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamor, nor to advance political agendas. Your allegiance is to the impartial application of the law, to the pursuit of truth, and to the upholding of due process for all.

Trump Owns His Devastating Cuts At USAID

Well, not exactly.

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After ambushing the president of South Africa with what he claimed was evidence of a genocide against white farmers in South Africa (he mostly held up a stack of printed out news articles about things that are happening in other places) President Trump acknowledged that his administrations massive cuts to foreign aid might be having a severe impact in countries throughout the continent of Africa.

Per Reuters:

Its devastating, and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money, Trump said in the Oval Office. Ive talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too, and weve spent a lot. And its a big  its a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps.

GOPs Reconciliation Bill Could Mean Medicare Cuts Too

Trump and House Republicans reconciliation package, officially titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is projected to add so much to the nations debt that it could trigger hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicare beginning in 2026, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.

CBO is projecting that the massive bill would add $2.3 trillion to the deficit over 10 years.

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When legislation significantly adds to the national debt, it triggers sequestration  a budget procedure imposed by lawmakers to cancel or limit funding in order to meet budget goals.

With CBOs projection of $2.3 trillion added to the deficit over a decade, the report explains budget officials will have to apply spending cuts over that time frame that would include Medicare.

The CBO estimates that there would be about $490 billion in cuts to the social safety net program between 2027 and 2034.

 Emine Yucel

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Around 11:30 on a Wednesday night in April 2023, three police officers repeatedly knocked on the door of Robert Dotson's house at 5305 Valley View Avenue in Farmington, New Mexico. They were responding to a report of "a possible

domestic violence situation," but they were in the wrong place: They were supposed to be at 5308 Valley View Avenue, which was on the opposite side of the street. When Dotson, a 52-year-old father of two, came to the door with a gun in his hand, the cops shot and killed him.

That response, a federal judge in New Mexico ruled last week, was reasonable in the circumstances and therefore did not violate Dotson's Fourth Amendment rights. The officers "reasonably believed that Dotson posed a severe risk of imminent harm" to them, U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia writes in response to a federal civil rights lawsuit that Dotson's family filed in September 2023. Garcia rejected the plaintiffs' argument that the officersDaniel Estrada, Dylan Goodluck, and Waylon Wasson"recklessly created the need to apply deadly force by going to the wrong address."

Garcia concedes that the defendants' conduct prior to the shooting was "not a paragon of careful policework," which is quite an understatement. When the cops were dispatched to 5308 Valley View Avenue, he notes, Wasson "utilized his service vehicle's mobile data terminal" to "locate the address, incorrectly placing the [house] on the right (south) side of the street." Meanwhile, Goodluck, who was in a separate vehicle, "searched Google Maps to locate the property," and that search correctly located the house as "being situated on the left (north) side of Valley View Avenue."

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When the officers arrived at the scene, Goodluck "continued to question whether [they] were headed to the correct residence," Garcia says, but "he deferred to Officer Wasson's seniority and said nothing." After Wasson knocked on the front door of Dotson's house three times without getting a response, Goodluck "finally voiced his concern that the Defendant officers went to the wrong address." Pointing across the street, he said, "It might have been 5308. Right there." Wasson was puzzled: "Is this not 5308? That's what it said right there, right?" No, Goodluck replied: "This is 5305, isn't it?"

Wasson then asked the dispatcher to confirm the correct address. After the dispatcher said "5308 Valley View Avenue," Wasson jokingly said, "Don't tell me I'm wrong, Dylan." By this point, the plaintiffs say, the cops "were realizing they were at the wrong residence and were laughing about it."

According to the lawsuit, Dotson and his wife, Kimberly, were upstairs in their bedroom when Wasson knocked on the front door. "The knock was not loud, and his announcement 'Farmington Police' could not be heard" on the second story, the complaint says. "The police vehicles were parked down the street and did not have their lights on." But the couple "believed that they heard a knock," so Dotson "put on his robe and went downstairs." For "personal protection," he "picked up the handgun which was kept on top of the refrigerator in the Dotson residence, not knowing what he might encounter at that late hour."

When Dotson "opened his front door," the lawsuit says, he "was blinded by police flashlights." At that point, "the police did not announce themselves," and Dotson "had no idea who was in his yard shining bright lights at him." According to the lawsuit, Wasson, upon seeing Dotson's gun, "opened fire instantly," and "the other officers, Estrada and Goodluck, immediately followed by firing their guns." Dotson was struck by 12 rounds.

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Hearing the shots, Kimberly Dotson rushed downstairs and "saw her husband lying in his blood in the doorway," the lawsuit says. She "still did not know what had happened [or] that police officers were in her front yard." She "fired outside at whoever had shot her husband," and the officers "each fired at Mrs. Dotsonanother 19 rounds. Fortunately, she was not hit."

At that point, according to the complaint, the officers "finally announced themselves, and Kimberly Dotson told them that someone had shot her husband and requested their help." She "did not realize even at that moment that the three police officers had killed her husband," which she did not learn "until she was finally told eight hours later at the police station where she was detained."

After the shooting, the lawsuit says, "the officers involved did not disclose to investigators that they were at the wrong address, which was the error leading to the tragic result and without which it would not have occurred." The mistake "was discovered by other officers who arrived at the scene."

Garcia offers a somewhat different account in his order dismissing the Fourth Amendment claims. Dotson "held a firearm in his right hand," the judge writes. "Without warning, Dotson placed both hands on his firearm and raised it in the direction of Officers Wasson and Estrada. The Defendant officers perceived Dotson to present an imminent threat to their safety."

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Wasson "shouted to Dotson, 'Hey, hands up!'" Garcia says. "At the same time, Dotson raised his firearm parallel to the ground and pointed it in Officers Wasson and Estrada's direction. Officer Wasson fired his service weapon. Officers Estrada and Goodluck fired as well."

Garcia notes that "just two seconds elapsed from the moment Dotson opened his front door to the time the Defendant officers shot him." The officers therefore "had insufficient time to deescalate the encounter without risking their safety," he says.

By the same token, of course, Dotson had insufficient time to understand what was happening. The plaintiffs, Garcia notes, argued that Dotson "was likely blinded by a flashlight and had little reason to know that police were at his home and not some would-be assailant." Garcia dismisses that argument as "largely speculative," saying "there is nothing in the record to substantiate Plaintiffs' suggestion that Dotson was blinded and was unaware of who was knocking at his door." But it is hardly plausible to suppose that Dotson, who was at home with his wife and their two children, knew the men at his door were police officers but nevertheless threatened them with a gun.

In any case, Garcia says, what really matters is that Wasson et al. reasonably perceived Dotson as posing a potentially deadly threat. According to Garcia, the fact that Dotson would still be alive but for the officers' carelessness in going to the wrong housea mistake that not only could have been recognized before Wasson knocked on the door but was in fact recognized by Goodluckdoes not affect the Fourth Amendment analysis.

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The officers "did not violate the Fourth Amendment by merely showing up at Dotson's home," Garcia writes. "And though the Defendant officers' error was the reason they

ended up at the Dotsons' residence, that mistake was not the factor precipitating their use of force."

Garcia thus endorsed the position that the officers' lawyer, Luis Robles, took. "This case is undeniably tragicnot only for the Dotson family but also for the officers," Robles told CNN in 2023. "The officers didn't go to the Dotson house with any intention to use deadly force. But because Mr. Dotson pointed a gun at the officers, that gave them no other choice but to shoot him."

Garcia issued his decision on the same day that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that assessing the use of deadly force requires consideration of more than "the moment of the threat." The justices said that narrow approach, which had been adopted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, was inconsistent with the principle that the constitutionality of deadly force depends on "the totality of the circumstances." But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which includes New Mexico, had already said that analysis requires considering whether "reckless or deliberate conduct during the seizure unreasonably created the need to use such force."

In Garcia's view, the late-night visit at the wrong house that resulted in Dotson's death did not amount to such recklessness. He is not alone in concluding that police cannot reasonably be expected to make sure they are in the right place when they approach or even break into someone's home. But despite Garcia's ruling, Dotson's family can still pursue claims under the state constitution and the New Mexico Tort Claims Act.

The post A Federal Judge Says New Mexico Cops Reasonably Killed an Innocent Man at the Wrong House appeared first on Reason.com.
BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN)  A Brookfield man who was convicted in 2019 of pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor and who is on probation is facing similar federal charges in a new case.

Read next: Another Valley grocery store closing next month

Daniel Scharmer is charged in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio with receipt and distribution of real minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possession of child pornography.

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Scharmer was denied bond last week and ordered held in federal custody until his trial because of the egregious circumstances of the charges against him and his past criminal history.

According to the indictment, between October 2022 and October 2024, Scharmer downloaded so much child sexual abuse material (CSAM), over 30,000 files, which was the second-highest in Ohio at the time.

The files were found during a January 2025 search of Scharmers house following a tip about the large amount of CSAM that was downloaded from his IP address, according to investigators.

Court documents reveal that the CSAM files included children under the age of 12, depicting sadism and masochism. Investigators say Scharmer admitted a porn addiction to authorities, but denied any interest in child pornography.

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At the time of the downloads and uploads, Scharmer was on probation for a 2019 felony conviction in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court for pandering sexually oriented matter involving children. In that case, Scharmer was sentenced to five years of probation, even though prosecutors had asked for prison time.

He is due back in federal court June 17.

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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 22. Over the past few years, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and Slovenia has tripled, with a focus on expanding trade volumes, aiming to reach 500 million euros in the first phase by diversifying product ranges and promoting import substitution, Trend reports, citing the Uzbek presidents office.

This announcement came during a meeting between the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, and the President of Slovenia, Natasa Pirc Musar, in a narrow format with official delegations at the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana.

The discussions centered around the supply of Uzbek products, including textiles, fruits and vegetables, mineral fertilizers, copper products, and other industrial goods, while Slovenia is set to provide pharmaceuticals, advanced technologies, and equipment. A key topic was the potential use of the Slovenian port of Koper as a logistics hub for easier access to the European Union market.

Both countries reached agreements to implement an Industrial Cooperation Program involving leading Slovenian companies. This will include projects in the production of modern equipment, industrial and agricultural goods, pharmaceutical localization, and the construction and modernization of energy facilities.

In a move to strengthen labor migration cooperation, Uzbekistan and Slovenia agreed to prepare an Agreement on Organized Labor Migration. This will cover the development of training, adaptation programs, language acquisition, professional skills, and labor standards.

Tourism, particularly in rural and mountainous areas, emerged as another promising area for future collaboration. In education, both sides agreed to sign an agreement on mutual recognition of diplomas and launch joint training programs with the University of Ljubljana and the University of Maribor. Additionally, a joint Youth Innovation Forum, involving universities and research centers from both countries, is scheduled to take place in Tashkent next year.

To advance the initiatives discussed, the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission will be held in July of this year in Ljubljana.

At the conclusion of the meeting, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev invited President Natasa Pirc Musar to visit Uzbekistan at a mutually convenient time.

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The News

Fei-Fei Li, the leading Stanford University researcher nicknamed the godmother of AI, emphasized the risks of cutting research funding and international student visas to the US as it faces an increasingly competitive global tech race.

The public sector, especially higher education, has been a pivotal, central part of Americas innovation ecosystem [and] a critical part of our economic growth, she said at a Semafor Tech event in San Francisco on Wednesday. Almost everything we know as classic knowledge of AI came from academic research, whether its algorithms, data-driven methods, or early research in microprocessors.

Her comments come as the Trump administration has targeted billions of dollars in grants for universities because of their social policies and revoked thousands of visas for students as part of its crackdown on immigration.

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Li, who is co-director of the Stanford Institute Human-Centered AI and the co-founder of the World Labs startup, is revered in the tech sector because of her early breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, and shes been a leading voice on policies to promote innovation.

Continuing to nourish our higher education, our public sector, for this kind of innovative, blue sky, curiosity-driven research is critical for the health of our ecosystem [and] for training the next generation, she said. I hope [my students] can get work visas and have a path for immigration.

She added that US visa quotas for individuals from certain countries has been a challenge for many talents to stay, and I hope we can continue to address that.

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Speaking at the same event on Wednesday, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark added that the Trump administration recognizes the importance of AI, but its strategy is still coming together, including its plan around export controls.

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The challenge of AI is it touches everything  electricity generation, export controls, how you do the structuring of science and research, Clark said. This administration has gone through the pattern of coming and saying, Oh wow, weve got this cool technology. Its called AI. And then they discover very quickly that this technology touches every single thing they care about. It will eventually form into  I hope  a larger, more coherent strategy.

Clark also noted the increasing tension reflected in the Trump administrations recent decision to expand access to advanced chips to the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The region had been limited under the Biden administration, which put caps on its semiconductor purchases from American companies.

On one hand, Clark said, theres a push for the world to use US-led AI platforms and build on US chips. But if the technology becomes as incredibly powerful as predicted, products built on it will have dual uses that could have nefarious purposes.

All of those computers all around the world are going to become equivalent to factories that can turn out both cars and tanks, he said. And you are going to see which way it goes depending on what the alliance looks like. So we are going to need to think about how we apply really good security to these factories that weve now built all around the world.

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Director of the Center for AI Safety Dan Hendrycks, who is also an advisor at Elon Musks AI startup, xAI, and for Scale AI, also pointed to export controls as a safety mechanism.

Chips are sort of the currency of power in AI. Its over 90% of these AI companies budget is spent on, Hendrycks said at the event. And making sure that that isnt falling in the hands of rogue actors, or pariah states, is a priority.

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SOMERSET, Ky. (FOX 56)  Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials will be on the ground Thursday in Pulaski County.

The countys judge executive office said FEMA officials will be in the area recording and reporting storm damage from Fridays deadly tornadoes.

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Officials said all FEMA employees will have proper identification. The documentation process will help the state in its request for federal assistance.

They are here to help us, and we welcome their continued assistance, Pulaski County Government said on Facebook.

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SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO)  Beau Vondra teams up with Fernson Brewing Company as the Director of Food & Beverage Operations to help create something .

He is teaming up with Fernson Brewing Company who hosts two locations within Sioux Falls being The Brewery and Fernson Downtown.

They announced that they are launching a new food venture with Vondra as the food and beverage director called Totally Rad Eats

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According to the social media post Totally Rad Eats is a product of a shared collaborative vision between what Beau has already built and accomplished being brought into Fernson Brewing Company. We are in the process of building out the kitchen and finalizing the menu. The full experience will be ready soon but until then we will have Pizzas, pretzels, and other snacks.

Vondra has been a winner on Guys Grocery Games, appeared on Diners Drive-ins and Dives, and has won a Good Food Award for his hot sauce Dagger and Arrow Diablo Verde.

He is a Sioux Falls native, a husband, and a father of two with deep roots in the community. He is passionate about food, the culture

Fernson Brewing Company said they will have more to announce at a later date regarding the project.

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On March 20, 2025, members of the World Health Organization adopted the worlds first pandemic agreement, following three years of intensive negotiations launched by governments in response to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S., however, did not participate, in part because of its intention to withdraw from the WHO.

Global health experts are hailing the agreement as a historic moment.

What does the agreement mean for the world, and how can it make everyone safer and more prepared for the next pandemic?

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The Conversation asked Nicole Hassoun, a professor at Binghamton University and executive director of Global Health Impact, to explain the pandemic accord, its prospects for advancing global health, and the significance of the U.S.s absence from it.

What will the pandemic agreement do?

The accord will bolster pandemic preparation within individual countries and around the world.

Countries signing onto the agreement are committing to improve their disease surveillance and grow their heath care workforces, strengthen their regulatory systems and invest in research and development. It encourages countries to strengthen their health regulations and infrastructure, improve communication with the public about pandemics and increase funding for preparation and response efforts.

It also includes new mechanisms for producing and distributing vaccines and other essential countermeasures. Finally, it encourages countries to coordinate their responses and share information about infectious diseases and intellectual property so that vaccines and other essential countermeasures can be made available more quickly.

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The agreement will take effect once enough countries ratify it, which may take several years.

Why isnt the US involved?

The Biden administration was broadly supportive of a pandemic agreement and was an active participant in negotiations.

Prior to Donald Trumps reelection, however, Republican governors had signed a letter opposing the treaty, echoing a conservative think tanks concerns about U.S. sovereignty.

The U.S. withdrew from negotiations when President Trump signed an executive order to withdraw from the WHO on the day he was inaugurated for his second term.

Why could the lack of US involvement be beneficial for the world?

The lack of U.S. involvement likely resulted in a much more equitable treaty, and it is not clear that countries could have reached an agreement had the U.S. continued to object to key provisions.

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It was only once the U.S. withdrew from the negotiations that an agreement was reached. The U.S. and several other wealthy countries were concerned with protecting their pharmaceutical industrys profits and resisted efforts aimed at convincing pharmaceutical companies to share the knowledge, data and intellectual property needed for producing new vaccines and other essential countermeasures.

Other negotiators sought greater access to vaccines and other treatments during a pandemic for poorer countries, which often rely on patented technologies from global pharmaceutical companies.

While most people in wealthy countries had access to COVID-19 vaccines as early as 2021, many people in developing countries had to wait years for vaccines.

How could the agreement broaden access for treatments?

One of the contentious issues in the pandemic agreement has to do with how many vaccines manufacturers in each country must share in exchange for access to genetic sequences to emerging infectious diseases. Countries are still negotiating a system for sharing the genetic information on pathogens in return for access to vaccines themselves. It is important that researchers can get these sequences to make vaccines. And, of course, people need access to the vaccines once they are developed.

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Still, there are many more promising aspects of the agreement for which no further negotiations are necessary. For instance, the agreement will increase global vaccine supply by increasing manufacturing around the world.

The agreement also specifies that countries and the WHO should work together to create a mechanism for fairly sharing the intellectual property, data and knowledge needed to produce vaccines and other essential health products. If financing for new innovation requires equitable access to the new technologies that are developed, many people in poor countries may get access to vaccines much more quickly in the next pandemic. The agreement also encourages individual countries to offer sufficient incentives for pharmaceutical companies to extend access to developing countries.

If countries implement these changes, that will benefit people in rich countries as well as poor ones. A more equitable distribution of vaccines can contain the spread of disease, saving millions of lives.

What more should be done, and does the US have a role to play?

In my view, the best way to protect public health moving forward is for countries to sign on to the agreement and devote more resources to global health initiatives. This is particularly important given declining investment and participation in the WHO and the contraction of other international health initiatives, such as USAID.

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Without international coordination, it will become harder to catch and address problems early enough to prevent epidemics from becoming pandemics.

It will also be imperative for member countries to provide funding to support the agreements goals and secure the innovation and access to new technologies. This requires building the basic health infrastructure to ensure shots can get into peoples arms.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Nicole Hassoun, Binghamton University, State University of New York

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Nicole Hassoun has receive funding from the WHO and worked as a consultant for the UN.
Finland expects a Russian military build up on its borders after the war in Ukraine ends, the Guardian reported on May 21.

Major General Sami Nurmi, the head of strategy of the Finnish defense forces said in an interview that the Russian military has begun "moderate preparations when it comes to building infrastructure" close to Finnish borders.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, NATO officials have increasingly warned Moscow could attack the alliance's members in the coming years.

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Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia and joined NATO in 2023.

"They are doing it in phases. I would say it is still moderate numbers. Its not big construction, but in certain places building new infrastructure and preparing, bringing new equipment in," Nurmi said.

According to Nurmi, once the war in Ukraine concludes, the Russian military is expected to begin redeploying its forces involved in the fighting in Ukraine.

"You also have to evaluate whether they are preparing to send more troops to Ukraine or preparing to build up their forces close to our border. But I guess they are doing both," he added.

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Previously, on May 19, the New York Times published satellite images which seem to indicate an expansion of military facilities near the Finnish border.

Completed Russian warehouse construction is visible in Maxar satellite images in Petrozavodsk, Russia, May 4, 2025 (Satellite image (c) 2025 Maxar Technologies)

The Finnish Border Guard announced the completion of the first 35 km (22 miles) of a planned 200 km fence along its eastern border with Russia, on May 21.

The border has been closed for over a year after Helsinki accused Moscow of orchestrating a "hybrid operation" by directing asylum seekers toward Finland.

Finnish authorities claim that these hybrid tactics have intensified since the country joined NATO in 2023.

U.S. President Donald Trump, when asked about Russias recent actions on May 20, said that he had "no concerns," assuring that Finland and Norway would remain "very safe."

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"It doesnt concern me at all. Theyre totally safe. These are two countries that will be very safe," Trump said.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov said last December that Russia must be ready for a potential conflict with NATO in the next 10 years. Moscow has also issued a number of veiled and overt threats to the West over its support for Kyiv, including warnings of a possible nuclear response.

NATO countries in Russia's vicinity have intensified their preparations for a possible conflict. Poland and the Baltic countries moved to abandon a treaty banning land mines and are strengthening the borders shared with Russia and its ally Belarus while urging higher defense spending across the alliance.

Read also: 47th Brigade battalion commanders resignation puts Ukraines military leadership under new scrutiny

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Kettering Healths emergency rooms are starting to accept patients from first responders, but some ambulances are still being diverted to other hospitals.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, this comes more than 24 hours after the hospital network experienced a cybersecurity attack.

>>RELATED: Kettering Health, hospital association provides update on cybersecurity attack

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Its been a busy day and a half for EMS runs in Springfield.

>>RELATED: Patients, families left without answers after Kettering Health cyberattack

Weve had 127 calls in the last 32 hours, Springfield Fire Division Chief Jacob King said.

Springfield Fire had to reroute some patients from Kettering Health hospitals.

We had patients that would have typically gone to Kettering that we took to Springfield Regional Hospital, King said.

The Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association (GDAHA) said that Kettering Health was diverting medics from local fire departments on Tuesday.

The association said its hospitals and local fire departments always use and share a real-time notification system to update their emergency department status.

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This is just a little different because it is tied to one whole system, GDAHA President and CEO Sarah Hackenbracht said.

On Wednesday, GDAHA said diversions have decreased, but some Kettering Health emergency rooms still have limited capacity for certain procedures.

King said Springfield fire crews normally take 80% of their patients to Springfield Regional Medical Center.

Theyve been using that real-time notification system for the last day and a half, especially to know what to do with the patients theyd normally take to a Kettering facility.

About 20% of our call volume transports, we transport to Kettering Health here in the city of Springfield. So, weve just been working hand-in-hand with them to determine what patients will they be able to accept and which ones that we just transfer to Springfield Regional, King said.

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News Center 7s John Bedell reached out to Kettering Health on Wednesday to ask when elective surgeries will resume.

Kettering Health provided the following update to News Center 7.

Teams across Kettering Health are working diligently around the clock to restore our systems in the aftermath of unauthorized access that caused a system-wide technology outage. At this time, procedures are being evaluated on a case-by-case basis based upon collaborative decision-making between care teams, with safety as our highest priority. Additionally, if our care teams have patients contact information, they will contact patients by phone about rescheduling procedures. While we recognize this process has not been seamless, and we ask for everyones patience while we continue to work through this issue. We understand our patients concerns for their privacy and information security. We have no evidence that personal cell phone apps, like MyChart, or the information in them have been compromised. Additionally, Kettering Health will never reach out to staff or patients via social media. We are grateful to our remarkable providers and staff who are continuing their work despite these challenges and to our community partners helping us make meaningful progress through our current situation." Kettering Health spokesperson

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Firefighters have gained control over three brush fires that cropped up throughout the state on the night of May 20, ranging from rural grass fires in southeastern Arizona to a brush fire in the heart of Phoenix.

This came after the Greer Fire in eastern Arizona reached 88% containment. The blaze began May 13 and burned over 20,00 acres.

Residents in the unincorporated community and surrounding areas were allowed to return to their homes after the fire was 55% contained.

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Meanwhile, fire danger was still possible throughout the state. The Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management along with the Bureau of Land Management, announced new stage 2 fire restrictions within central and western Arizona May 21. Stage 2 restrictions were already in place in northeastern and southern/southeastern Arizona, the forestry department said.

Here's what happened with the three fires that sparked up overnight around the state.

Residents ordered to prepare for possible evacuation in Oracle

Residents near Oracle were under a set evacuation status until firefighters gained control over the nearby Cedar Fire, which burned a little over 10 acres of the Coronado National Forest, according to a Facebook post from the U.S. Forest Service.

Emergency response officials downgraded the evacuation status to "ready" early in the afternoon on May 20 for some areas. "Set" remained in effect the morning of May 21 for zones 14, 15, 16 and 17, the forest service said. Set status meant that residents should be prepared to evacuate at short notice.

A map of the evacuations in Oracle, Arizona.

The Pinal County Sheriffs Office announced that the town of Oracle was under significant fire danger during the evening of May 20 as the evacuation status went into effect. Fire crews suppressed the Cedar Fire throughout the night, declaring that the flames had stopped expanding by late evening. The fire was officially 5% contained as of 6:40 a.m. May 21, though the U.S. Forest Service said the fire was surrounded by containment lines, and crews had begun mopping up the fires perimeter.

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Twelve engines, two helicopters and two large air tankers responded to the Cedar Fire, including a task force from Utah, according to a post on X by the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.

Firefighters had to adjust operations during the evening after an unauthorized drone was spotted flying above the fire, the U.S Forest Service said. Emergency authorities have emphasized that flying over active wildfires is illegal, possibly leading to fines of up to $25,000.

The cause of the Cedar Fire was under investigation.

Crews take on brush fire outside Willcox

Fire crews have also stopped the expansion of the Maverick Fire, northeast of Willcox.

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The fire kicked up during the afternoon of May 20, burning through desert grasses and brush in an area called Cowboy Canyon, the Arizona Forestry Department said. Large air tankers and engines responded to the blaze, which grew to 20 acres before forward progress was stopped the afternoon of May 21.

Smoke was still emerging from the fires footprint during the morning, and three engines remained to keep the flames from popping up again, the state forest department confirmed.

Fire in the city: Phoenix responds to blaze in Salt River bottom

The Phoenix Fire Department responded to a brush fire that sparked in the Salt River bottom near the intersection of Seventh Street and University Drive the evening of May 20, according to an email from the department. Phoenix Fire had yet to release another update on the fire, as of May 21.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Brush fire in Phoenix and two other fires pop up overnight across AZ
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  In the face of disasters including fires and snowstorms, many folks expect first responders to be readily available and answer the call. But, if theyre delayed due to another emergency, Community Emergency Responder Training (CERT) teams are expected to step in and assist.

The program was founded in California in the 1980s but has since made its way to Rochester. On Wednesday, the 39th class graduated at the Monroe Community College Public Safety Training Facility on Scottsville Road. However, this class was geared to empower specific members of our community: those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Battalion Chief for the Rochester Fire Department Joe Luna shared his excitement for the new partnership between RITs National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Monroe Countys CERT program.

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Its great to have them as resources to help the community, to help in setting up shelters or in potential large snow events in the future, things along those lines, Luna said.

Before graduating, the class was expected to complete a final evolution, which is a disaster simulation in which theyre required to put all theyve learned into action.

Luna explained what students learn over the course of nine weeks.

Its a lot of medical training, some basic ideas behind psychology, fire safety, search and rescue techniques, Luna said.

CERT Team Leader for Monroe Countys 39th class Matthew Parsley, who is hard of hearing, explained how he sees this partnership as an asset to the community.

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The Rochester community has the largest per capita deaf population, so its a real gain to have a team thats designed to communicate directly with folks using American Sign Language (ASL), Parsley said.

The Rochester Fire Department plans to hold future CERT trainings in the future, including classes for those who are not hard-of-hearing. More information on how to get involved can be found here.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA)  A candidate in the 2022 election for Floridas 13th Congressional District will spend three years in federal prison after threatening to have his primary opponent killed.

William Robert Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to interstate transmission of a threat to injure another person, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

DeSantis signs two new bills in Winter Haven

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Investigators said Braddock viewed his opponent  an unnamed Republican party frontrunner  as his only obstacle to winning the 2022 race.

He spent months disparaging and threatening the woman, at one point in June 2021 calling her peers and saying he would have her murdered if she continued to poll well.

Court records revealed part of the phone call, in which Braddock threatened to call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad and make his primary opponent disappear.

I will be the next congressman for this District. Period. End of discussion, Braddock further stated. And anybody going up against me is fing [expletive] ignorant for doing so. [The victim]s ignorant so I dont have a problem taking her out, but Im not going to do that dirty work myself, obviously.

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NBC News previously reported that the races eventual winner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, filed court documents in 2021 claiming that Braddock was stalking her and wanted her dead.

A Florida court ultimately granted Luna a temporary restraining order against Braddock.

After terminating his campaign that same year, Braddock fled the country, taking a one-way flight to Thailand. He later settled in the Philippines and remained there until self-surrendering to authorities in Manila in June 2023.

He was taken back to the United States in 2024 to face his charges, according to the DOJ.

The investigation was led by FBI Tampa Division and the St. Petersburg Police Department, with substantial assistance from the United States Marshals Service and foreign law enforcement agencies.

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ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. Tajikistan hopes to continue cooperation with LLF in improving the health care system in remote regions, the minister of Health and Social Protection of Population of Tajikistan Jamoliddin Abdullozoda told Trend.

He made the remark on the sidelines of the Forum Transforming Lives and Livelihoods Forum: Mobilize for Impact held within the framework of the Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Algeria

"First of all, on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Islamic Development Bank and the Lives and Livelihoods Foundation (LLF)for the invitation to participate in this high-level event dedicated to financing, including in the health sector. I would like to emphasize that with the support of the Islamic Development Bank and LLF, Tajikistan is implementing a number of significant projects in the health care system, particularly in the field of maternal and child health," he said.

Abdullozoda noted that a joint project of the Islamic Development Bank and LLF was successfully implemented in four regions of Khatlon region last year.

"Thanks to the construction and equipping of medical facilities in these regions, there has already been a positive trend in reducing maternal and child mortality for a year.

If in 2023 the maternal and child mortality rate was about 14-15 cases per 100,000 people, this year this indicator has decreased to 10.8. This is a convincing evidence that creation of proper conditions for medical personnel and provision of institutions with modern equipment leads to a noticeable improvement in the quality of medical care," he said.

The minister expressed hope for continuation of fruitful cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and LLF, including the construction and equipping of hospitals in remote and hard-to-reach regions of the country.

"The problem of lack of qualified specialists, modern equipment and decent working conditions is relevant not only for Tajikistan, but also for many other countries. Therefore, it is important that such projects cover the most remote corners, providing equal access to quality medical services for all citizens - regardless of whether they live in the capital or in the most remote areas of the country," he concluded.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) warned Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is ill prepared for hurricane season and is going to fail this summer.

In remarks at a House Rules Committee hearing Wednesday, Moskowitz said the Department of Government Efficiencys (DOGE) steep budget cuts and grant pauses have made FEMA inefficient and risk sending hurricane-prone states into bankruptcy if they dont get approval for federal aid when the next storm hits.

Remember that DOGE? Remember the E at the end of DOGE? The word efficiency? Moskowitz asked in his remarks. Nothing at FEMA has been made more efficient.

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In fact, I would tell you that the secretary of Homeland Security has turned FEMA into the Newark Airport, OK? It is going to fail this summer, Moskowitz continued, referring to the staffing and logistical issues at the New Jersey international airport.

And so look, theres no doubt that FEMA needed reform, but what theyve done at Homeland is theyve taken something that needed help and they broke it further, Moskowitz said.

He noted that some of the most at-risk states are areas represented by Republican leadership  such as Louisiana, where Speaker Mike Johnson (R) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R) are from.

Louisiana goes bankrupt without FEMA, when theres a hurricane that comes in from the Gulf of Mexico or the Gulf of America, comes right into Louisiana, theyre bankrupt, Moskowitz said, noting the same is true for Alabama and Mississippi, especially when tornadoes strike.

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Those states go bankrupt without FEMA. And yet, I dont see my Republican colleagues calling out the administration on how were going to save FEMA and reform it, he added.

In recent months, the White House has taken numerous steps to strip funds from FEMA, which has long been a target for some Republicans.

FEMA ended its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, intended to help communities prepare for natural disasters, labeling it wasteful and ineffective. The agency canceled applications from 2020 and 2023 and reabsorbed unclaimed funds. FEMA has also frozen nearly $10 billion in disaster aid for nonprofits pending review.

Moskowitz, who served as Floridas director of Emergency Management before joining Congress, noted funding freezes have led to delays in payments to vendors and states, disrupting disaster-prevention efforts.

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Moskowitz accused Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem of failing to warn the president of the impact of some of the cuts that the department is making.

Theres dramatic improvement that needs to be done at FEMA. But Im deeply concerned at whats happened at Homeland, and I dont think the president is aware of the current condition that the secretary has put him [in] and the men and women that work there and the states that are going to go to FEMA and rely on them to help them in their time of need, Moskowitz said. And those resources are going to come slower.

He pointed to his background in emergency management.

Let me remind you: I did this for a living, for a Republican governor. I worked for Ron DeSantis for two and a half years, took my political hat off, so Im not giving you partisan coverage. Im giving you the current state of affairs in an agency that has been absolutely destroyed.

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A DHS spokesperson fired back at Moskowitz and defended actions at FEMA, saying the agency is fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season.

Under Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens, they said in a statement. The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades.

Updated at noon EDT.

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With Florida lawmakers now in overtime trying to settle a state budget, the prime source of financing for many cities and counties could soon be headed for the chopping block.

In whatever budget deal is decided by the Legislature, Gov. Ron DeSantis wants included some kind of commitment to rolling back property taxes  now or through a ballot question put before voters next year.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been ratcheting up his pitch for cutting property taxes  somehow.

Hes been amplifying claims that rising home values are giving many communities a windfall of property tax dollars that are translating into big spending and bloated bureaucracies.

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Yes  and they dont lower the assessments when the housing market declines. Heads they win, tails you lose, DeSantis recently posted on X.

The governor ratcheted up his pitch May 20 in a podcast that he opened with the question, Do you ever own your own home?

He went on, You have to continue writing a check to the government, every year, just for the privilege of being able to use property that you supposedly already own.

Eliminating property taxes.

Immigration enforcement.

Term limits and a Balanced Budget Amendment.

Florida Gator football.

W/@GovGoneWild Senator Blaise Ingoglia. pic.twitter.com/BO0h14wAED  Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 20, 2025

Local governments: A target in recent years

DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature have steadily targeted local governments over the past few years with legislation limiting their ability to tax and regulate.

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Some of it reflects a nationwide trend of red state governments looking to stamp out any sign of blue-leaning local policies. But slashing property taxes takes this drive to another level.

No state has yet eliminated property taxes and in Florida they are the biggest source of dollars for 51 of 67 counties and almost half of the states 411 cities.

Property taxes have been part of Florida since 1839, even before statehood. A territorial enactment provided a tax on every acre of first-rate land, half a cent; on every acre of second-rate land, one quarter cent; on every acre of third-rate land, one-eighth of a cent.

Now, even some Republican lawmakers acknowledge the effort may not be as simple as DeSantis portrays it. Crafting an across-the-board cut would eliminate dollars which governments rely on for dozens of needed services.

'Indispensable source of revenue'

Rep. Dean Black, a Jacksonville Republican and former Duval County GOP chair, called property taxes a profound and indispensable source of revenue for financing police and fire protection. He even worried that some communities might respond by defunding law enforcement.

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Still, DeSantis sees it one way.

Rising property values  and the increase in revenue due to increased assessments  have become a piggy bank for local governments to use to increase spending, DeSantis said in another X post.

Data shows that Floridas previously red-hot housing market has certainly yielded a bounty of property tax collections. More than $55 billion in property taxes flowed to counties, cities, school boards and Floridas special districts last year  more than double what was collected in 2014.

Moreover, its 46% higher than the amount taken in statewide just four years ago, state records show.

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But while tax receipts rose 13% in each of 2022 and 2023, last years 8% rise reflected that house prices and sales were falling or at least leveling off.

Even the smaller increase shows Florida is still growing. And along with more tax dollars, the demand for government services also may be increasing in these swelling cities and counties.

But state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, who joined DeSantis for his recent podcast recorded in the governor's Capitol office, said local governments are mostly just spending.

Sen. Blaise Ingoglia speaks to the media after the Senate adjourned its floor session Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.

DeSantis ally: Cities, counties not frugal

They are taking that extra money, theyre not even being anywhere near frugal with the money. Theyre just expanding government, Ingoglia said.

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DeSantis earlier proposed sending $1,000 checks this year to Floridians with a homestead exemption. But that idea drew no interest in the Legislature.

In a shift, DeSantis said on his podcast that wiping out property taxes on homesteaded properties could be replaced with $300 million in state funds. DeSantis said he had run the numbers on this concept.

Beyond that, replacing property taxes with any other local levy looks up in the air.

When lawmakers return to the Capitol in coming days to continue work on the state budget, the fate of the governors proposal is worth watching in a Legislature where hes been clashing with House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, over a range of policy areas.

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Perez has formed a Select Committee on Property Taxes, which is expected to meet off-and-on into the fall to come up with proposals for the 2026 Legislature.

Rep. Daniel Perez becomes speaker of the Florida House during an organization session held by the Florida legislature, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024.

Rates, collections vary widely across Florida

Property tax rates vary by the city and county. But most experts say tax rates arent rising dramatically. Instead, governments are getting increased tax revenues when homes are reassessed at the time of sale or improvements.

Most homeowners who stay in their homes arent getting hit by huge tax reassessments, analysts say.

Instead, home sales are a big driver of the revenue flowing into local government coffers  some of it from the influx of new residents. DeSantis often touts those new residents as an affirmation of his leadership.

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Some communities, especially small cities, rely almost exclusively on property taxes for dollars. Other locations, including Orlando and Sarasota, have more diverse revenue sources and property taxes amount to less than 15% of their revenue.

Counties also are across the board.

Palm Beach, Volusia and Leon counties draw more than one-third of their dollars from property taxes, while Miami-Dade, Okaloosa and Sarasota counties collect less than 20% of revenue from the levies.

Kurt Wenner, a senior vice-president of research at Florida TaxWatch, the business-backed research organization, said most Floridians aren't facing significant property tax increases, because of a range of safeguards built into the system.

For many, annual increases are modest

Among them is the states Save our Home law, which limits assessment increases for people living in a primary residence to no more than 3% annually.

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If youre just living in your house, and youre not doing anything with it, your taxes are not really going up much, Wenner said.

But there are exceptions  sometimes, voter-approved tax increases.

TaxWatch research shows that 13 property tax referenda for schools, worth $632 million in annual tax revenue, were approved by voters last year.

Since 2010, 122 school property tax referenda, worth $4.2 billion in annual tax revenue, have been approved.

Last year, 18 bond issues, to be paid back using property taxes, also were approved across Florida, TaxWatch found.

Local governments are fueled by property taxes at varying degrees. And this could play a role in what kind of opposition emerges if a November 2025 ballot measure is put before voters on property taxes.

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The Republican Party of Florida has become a DeSantis ally in the push for property tax relief. A ballot measure, which would need at least 60% approval, could prove a vote-driver in Florida during the presidential midterm elections.

But government service organizations, including police and fire unions, are likely to be wary of any proposed cuts. What side voters end up on may depend on how their community is spending their tax dollars.

DeSantis, though, sees only good things by erasing property taxes: I think it would cause the state to boom, he said.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Networks Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on X at @JKennedyReport.

Property taxes: Floridas most and least dependent areas

Across the state, the role property taxes play in keeping local governments afloat varies. Here are Florida cities and counties which rely most and least on property taxes. Percent is share of total revenue. (Source: Office of Economic and Demographic Research, State of Florida)

Cities most dependent on property taxes

Bay Lake 98.3%

Lake Buena Vista 97.4%

Weeki Wachee 90.2%

Lazy Lake 79.7%

Sea Ranch Lakes 79.2%

Indian Creek 77.6%

Indiantown 76.9%

Belleair Shore 74.6%

Orchid 69.3%

Ocean Ridge 67.9%

Cities least dependent

Apopka 11%

Orlando 11.7%

Plant City 12.6%

Port Orange 13.1%

Holly Hill 13.1%

Dade City 13.1%

Sarasota 13.2%

Orange Park 13.5%

Ocoee 13.8%

Clermont 14.2%

Most dependent counties

Flagler 47.27%

Nassau 44.17%

Sumter 39.89%

Martin 38.36%

St. Lucie 38.26%

Palm Beach 36.6%

Volusia 34.54%

Seminole 33.82%

Putnam 33.75%

Leon 33.4%

Least dependent counties

Liberty 12.8%

Union 16.15%

Miami-Dade 16.52%

Okaloosa 18.58%

Sarasota 18.91%

Holmes 20.1%

Charlotte 21.55%

Manatee 21.82%

Calhoun 21.86

Marion 22.92%

This story was updated to add a video.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Amid deadlock on budget, DeSantis pushes to cut property taxes
Good luck finding pythons, the invasive species that has been slithering around the Everglades for years and destroying the ecosystem.

But just because pythons are difficult to find doesn't stop hunters from looking for them with hopes of putting a small dent in the population.

The annual Florida Python Challenge is a big part of the effort to combat these unwelcome snakes. On May 15, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Florida Water Management District announced the dates for the 2025 Challenge.

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Here are six things to know about the Florida Python Challenge:

When is the 2025 Florida Python Challenge?

It begins at 12:01 a.m. on July 11, 2025 and it ends at 5 p.m. on July 20, 2025. This is earlier than in the past when the Challenge has been held in August.

Registration is now open.

Where is the Florida python hunt?

Participants will remove pythons from seven commission-managed lands in South Florida. New this year: Everglades National Park has been added as an eighth competition location.

Are prizes awarded to python hunters? How much?

For the 2024 Challenge there was $25,000 in prizes up for grabs. According to the FWC, the top prize of $10,000 goes to the person who catches the most pythons. Ronald Kiger won the grand prize in 2024. Kiger removed a total of 20 pythons.

Why is there an annual Florida Python Challenge?

The Florida Python Challenge is a 10-day competition created by FWC to encourage participants to remove pythons large, nonvenomous constrictor snakes that are an invasive species in Florida.

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Burmese pythons were introduced to Florida via the pet trade and are now well established in the Everglades, where the snake represents a threat to the ecosystem.

The competition also serves as a conservation effort to raise awareness about the python's impacts on local ecology and to encourage the public to continuously remove the snake from the wild. Along with the FWC the Challenge is supported by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

How many pythons were removed in the 2024 Challenge?

A total of 195 pythons were removed, which was 14 fewer than 2023. There were also fewer participants last year compared to 2023.

There were 857 competitors, including two from Canada, who participated in the 2024 Challenge. More than 1,000 participated in 2023.

What are the official rules of the Florida Python Challenge?

Python carcasses must be kept chilled or frozen, then turned into the nearest Florida Python Challenge check station within 24 hours of capture.

Participants must carry a printed or digital copy of their Florida Python Challenge registration notification email while hunting.

Participants must complete required online training and receive a unique completion code.

Only Burmese pythons removed from competition locations are valid entries.

The use of firearms is prohibited during the competition.

The use of dogs or other animals to search, capture, or kill is prohibited.

Air guns and captive bolts are allowed.

What they are saying about the 2025 Florida Python Challenge

The Python Challenge is a great way to get people directly involved in the protection and stewardship of the Everglades, said South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Member Alligator Ron Bergeron. We continue to advance Everglades restoration efforts thanks to the support of Governor Ron DeSantis, and well keep doing everything we can to protect this important ecosystem. Pythons disrupt the natural food chain and prey on native wildlife that depend on the Everglades. Removing pythons from this ecosystem is critical to the survival of the species that call this area home. The South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission continue to have great success managing these invasive pythons. Long live the Everglades!

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Were excited to join our partners in the State of Florida for this years Florida Python Challenge, saidPedro Ramos, superintendent of Everglades National Park, who oversees the South Florida National Parks and Preserve. For years, weve worked alongside the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the South Florida Water Management District, and others to manage pythons and other invasive species while educating the public about their impact on the Everglades. This event marks another milestone in that collaboration as we include Everglades National Park in the Challenge.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FWC 2025 Florida Python snake hunt dates announced, prize money
(WFRV)  Authorities say a man in Fond du Lac could face 10 years to life in prison after being charged with sex trafficking a minor on two separate occasions.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorneys Office, Eastern District of Wisconsin, the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin announced on Tuesday a three-count federal indictment alleging that 26-year-old Ricardo Ortiz from Fond du Lac sex trafficked a minor on two separate occasions and used a computer to attempt to persuade, induce, and entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.

Omro Alderman charged for receiving/distributing child pornography, faces up to 20 years in prison

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Officials say the sex trafficking of a minor happened in March of 2025, and the attempt to entice a minor occurred on or about April 8, 2025.

If convicted of any of the three charges alleged against Ortiz, he faces 10 years to life in prison and could also be fined up to $250,000 per count while also having to register as a sexual offender under state and federal law.

No other information is available at this time.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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(USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.)

A network of food banks and charitable organizations that distributes food from the U.S.Department of Agriculture (USDA) to low-income seniors called on Congress to preserve funding for the program in the upcoming federal budget.

Pennsylvania is the fourth-largest recipient of aid under the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), behind California, Texas and Michigan. Cuts to the USDA funding bill would have an outsized impact on the commonwealth, where 38,000 seniors receive monthly food packages through the program, Hunger-Free Pennsylvania said.

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We must at all costs preserve the critical and vital safety net that CSFP provides for our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians  our seniors, Hunger-Free Pennsylvania Executive Director Stuart I.R. Haniff said.

According to the nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, the Trump administration proposes a $425 million cut to eliminate CSFP and replace the aid with Make America Healthy Again Food Boxes, which source food items directly from farmers.

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Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, which represents the commonwealths 18 food banks serving all 67 counties, said funding should be maintained at current levels, at a minimum.

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If Congress fails to fully fund this program, our most vulnerable seniors will lose access to the nutritious food they need to live healthier lives, Haniff said.

The CSFP delivers food packages designed to provide protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C to people 60 and older who have an income below 150% of the federal poverty level. For a single-person household, thats about $23,500 a year, according to Hunger-Free Pennsylvania.

The network said the program has been a resounding success, recently surpassing 250,000 deliveries through the meal delivery app DoorDashs Project DASH, which allows food banks and pantries to work with DoorDash drivers and technology to distribute aid.

Often, the contact with a home delivery representative is the only human contact these seniors have  and sometimes the only eyes to check on them and their well-being, Hunger-Free Pennsylvania said in a statement.

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The organizations call for attention to the program comes as Pennsylvania officials fight with the Trump administration over the cancellation of an initiative that provides millions of dollars for farmers who provide products for food banks across the state.

Along with a threatened lawsuit, Gov. Josh Shapiro has said the Trump administration broke a three-year contract between the federal government and the state.

The deal, the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA), was established in 2021 under President Joe Bidens administration in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It supported about 190 farms and 13 food banks.

The latest contract was renewed in the final months of Bidens term. However, Trumps administration confirmed in March that the program was ending, impacting farmers and food banks across the nation.

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Ford Motor Co. has filed suit against multiple prominent Southern California law firms and attorneys, alleging that they engaged in a vast and sophisticated fraud scheme to collect at least $100 million in "phantom legal fees under the states Lemon Law.

In a complaint filed early Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court, the Dearborn, Mich.-based car manufacturer claimed the lawyers violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by working together to carry out the alleged fraud for years.

Describing the invoices it received from California lawyers as a magical mystery tour of fictitious billings, Ford claimed that attorneys named in the lawsuit took advantage of a statute designed to protect consumers from faulty products, including cars.

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Under the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, commonly known as Californias Lemon Law, automakers are required to pay for legal work, court fees and related expenses associated with defective vehicles.

That requirement, Ford alleged, has created an opportunity for lawyers to pad their bottom line by claiming more hours than they actually worked or reporting having been in more than one place at the same time.

The complaint alleged that Steve B. Mikhov was the ringleader of the criminal enterprise and that he and Knight Law Group, the Los Angeles-based firm where he was a founding partner, orchestrated the scheme.

A spokesperson for Knight Law Group said in an emailed statement that the firm "denies the allegations in Ford's lawsuit."

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"This action by Ford is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to silence firms who would dare to hold them responsible and seek justice for consumers," the statement said. "This lawsuit -- which makes no claim that Knight Laws clients were harmed in any way -- mischaracterizes the facts, and the claim that billing practices amount to a 'racketeering enterprise' is ridiculous."

Requests for comment made via email addresses and cellphone numbers for Mikhov listed in online databases were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Ford, which is being represented by New York-based Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, claimed in the complaint that an investigation uncovered payments of legal fees that reflected work that never could have happened.

For instance, the auto giant alleged that Knight partner Amy Morse billed more than 20 hours per day on at least 66 occasions, 34 of which exceeded 24 hours, including an ostensibly heroic but physically impossible 57.5-hour workday in November 2016." Morse did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

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Edward McNally, a former federal prosecutor and lawyer for Ford at Kasowitz Benson Torres, described how the alleged scheme worked in an emailed statement.

When you look at any single legal bill for a single case it might show only one or two hours for a given lawyer on a given daynothing to draw suspicion," he said. "However, when Ford searched across public filings, as alleged in the complaint, the conduct in this case was carried out through a sophisticated and unlawful enterprise of attorneys and law firms that spread their fraudulent and inflated bills across thousands of cases and against many auto makers.

The other defendants who benefited from the alleged conspiracy, Ford claimed, include Knight partner Roger Kirnos and former Knight paralegal Dorothy Becerra; L.A.-based Altman Law Group and its founder and former member attorney, Bryan C. Altman; and San Diego-based Wirtz Law APC and Richard Wirtz, its founder and managing partner.

Emails and phone messages seeking comment from Kirnos, Altman Group, Wirtz Law, Altman and Wirtz were not immediately returned Wednesday. Contact information for Becerra could not be located immediately Wednesday.

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Daniel J. Fetterman, a former federal prosecutor and partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres, said the firm's automaker client has been in contact with federal authorities.

Ford reported this conduct to the United States Attorneys Office and has been cooperating with a grand jury subpoena served on it in the fall of 2021," Fetterman said. Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in L.A., declined to comment Wednesday.

Sherman Tiger" Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Assn., said via email that the alleged fraudulent scheme "is an affront to the civil justice system and these lawyers who have harmed consumers by needlessly dragging out and driving up costs of litigation should be held accountable."

Ford claimed in its filing that the scheme has an informal governing structure that at certain times operates as a command hierarchy," meaning it had a chain of command. The arrangement, Ford alleged, violated the RICO Act, which has played a central role in cases against high-profile organizations including Italian crime families, Mexican drug cartels and the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. Ford argues it is owed civil damages under the federal racketeering law.

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The automaker's lawsuit said the attorneys involved "associated with one another in the Enterprise for the common purposes of preparing and filing fraudulent fee applications and billing records, negotiating fraudulent settlements, splitting inflated fees, and funneling fraud proceeds into attorney distributions and extravagant purchases.

Ford said the nine-figure damage total it is seeking would recoup what it lost in allegedly bogus payouts, along with thousands of hours investigating the alleged scheme and what the company described as the harm to its reputation it sustained as a result of representations the lawyers allegedly made in court and online about the amounts they recovered from the automaker.

Kyla Christoffersen Powell, president and chief executive of the Civil Justice Assn. of California, said in an emailed statement that the alleged fraud scheme highlighted longstanding problems with the state's Lemon Law.

"The shocking attorney conduct outlined in today's filing by Ford underscores the need for the Legislature to consider additional reforms to the lemon law that remove perverse incentives for attorneys," she wrote.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The U.S. and China have stepped back from tariff brinkmanship for now  but dont mistake handshakes for harmony. The real trade fight is just beginning, and its moving into murkier terrain: microchips, AI infrastructure, and data sovereignty.

And neither side is going to back down from the fierce contest over who controls the future of technology.

While tariffs still loom large, both sides have agreed to a temporary ceasefire and a framework to bring sky-high levies back down to earth. But the next front in the trade war isnt about crates of soybeans or textile factories. Its about who owns the rails of tomorrows digital economy  and who gets boxed out.

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The U.S. and China have been circling  and increasingly clashing over  critical AI technologies for roughly a decade. Washington has heightened controls on semiconductor exports, limiting Chinas access to advanced AI chips and pressuring allies to follow suit. Beijing is doubling down on self-reliance, retaliating with restrictions on critical minerals and squeezing the parts of the supply chain it still dominates.

There are a lot of issues [the trade framework] doesnt address, Susan Shirk, a professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, said in an interview. The tech tensions are going to be a very high priority.

In the trade wars tech trenches

The Trump administration recently rolled back the Biden-era AI diffusion rule, which regulated global distribution of advanced AI technology  a move praised by top CEOs that has cracked open a lucrative market for U.S. tech giants. Now, companies such as Nvidia (NVDA) are cleared to ship millions of high-performance GPUs to countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, supercharging those nations ambitions to become regional AI powerhouses.

The moves into the Middle East contrast starkly with Washingtons approach toward China.

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Since 2022, the U.S. has been methodically severing Beijings access to the most advanced semiconductors and the tools needed to manufacture them, targeting the building blocks of AI and next-gen military systems. Those export controls, first implemented under President Joe Biden, have continued to varying degrees in President Donald Trumps second administration.

Now, the scope of restrictions is poised to widen.

Policymakers in Washington are weighing measures that go beyond simply blocking hardware sales and moving into the realm of research and collaboration. That includes monitoring cloud infrastructure partnerships, joint academic projects, and potential third-country workarounds.

China isnt swinging back with blunt instruments like tariffs. Its opting for precision hits. Late last year, Beijing imposed export controls on critical minerals such as gallium and germanium  both vital for chipmaking and EV production.

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And behind the scenes, China is pouring billions into building its tech lifeboat. The countrys top chipmakers  such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC)  are quietly expanding capacity, even under the weight of U.S. export controls. Chinas leadership knows that even if the country cant leapfrog the U.S. in the near term, it can at least build a parallel tech ecosystem  one resilient enough to survive sanctions, export bans, or a full-scale decoupling.

A tale of two titans

No two companies better illustrate the stakes and asymmetries than Chinas Huawei and Americas Nvidia.

Huawei has become the face of Chinas tech ambitions  and of U.S. attempts to stifle them. Last week, the Commerce Department warned that Huaweis Ascend chips are subject to sweeping export controls. Then, China warned Tuesday that the move seriously undermined the consensus that the two countries reached when they agreed to pause tariffs, suggesting China might retaliate.

Huawei, long seen as the face of Chinas tech rise, was hit hard by U.S. sanctions in 2019. But, denied access to U.S. chips and software, the company didnt fold  it pivoted. It partnered with SMIC to develop chips for its Mate 60 Pro smartphones and is now pushing its Ascend AI chips as homegrown alternatives to Nvidias. Huaweis chips arent on par with Nvidias, but theyre part of Beijings tech independence push.

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Meanwhile, Nvidia, whose high-end GPUs power almost every leading AI model, has become a geopolitical linchpin. The U.S. has repeatedly restricted its ability to sell to China, citing military concerns. Now, Nvidia walks a tightrope: maintaining global dominance while complying with U.S. restrictions. How Washington treats Nvidia is a window into the Trump administrations broader strategy. The U.S. wants to preserve Nvidias status without letting China piggyback on it.

Huawei and Nvidia are mirrored chess pieces in this larger game.

Illustration: Anthony Kwan (Getty Images)

The AI model wars

The chip war is about hardware, but the software battle is just as critical. The U.S. leads in large foundation models, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and others training massive models on U.S.-based infrastructure. These are tightly controlled via APIs and export rules  a controlled openness approach designed to balance innovation with national security.

OpenAI is the crown jewel of the U.S. AI stack  not just because it makes ChatGPT, but because it helped kick off an AI arms race in which the rest of the world is scrambling to catch up.

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But China is countering with open-source models, the most notable being DeepSeek, from Chinas Moonshot AI, which rattled Silicon Valley earlier this year. By releasing training weights and model architecture, DeepSeek sidesteps export restrictions and helps build domestic capacity.

DeepSeek and OpenAI offer a compelling contrast in how China and the U.S. are positioning themselves in the next phase of the tech war: not just around chips and hardware, but around AI capabilities, open-source strategy, and control of foundational models.

When DeepSeeks R1 model dropped early this year, it stunned the market. Despite running on less powerful hardware, it achieved performance levels that were previously thought to be exclusive to U.S. firms. Nvidia stock dropped 18% in a day  a $589 billion market cap loss  reflecting investor fear that efficient models could reduce the demand for high-end GPUs.

But what makes DeepSeek especially important is that it shows China is adapting, not just reacting.

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If each nations current trajectory holds  the battle for AI supremacy will be fought not between the United States and China, but between high-tech Chinese cities like Shenzhen and Hangzhou, Kyle Chan, a researcher at Princeton University, wrote recently in The New York Times.

The fight over data

As AI becomes the backbone of national competitiveness, who owns the data  where its stored, how its governed, and who gets to access it  is turning into a geopolitical fault line. For the U.S., the concern is clear: Sensitive data flowing to China is a national security risk. Thats why Biden, and now Trump again, pushed forward a suite of export controls and executive orders aimed at walling off U.S. citizens data from potential misuse abroad.

The logic is that data is power, and in the AI era, leaking it is leaking leverage.

But China was ahead of the curve. Since 2017, it has required all foreign firms operating in China to store data locally and undergo cybersecurity reviews. Cross-border data transfers are tightly restricted. In response, some multinationals have built parallel data bunkers in China to maintain compliance.

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The result: a splintered internet. Data once flowed freely across borders, but its now increasingly fenced in by digital walls. For global companies, navigating this minefield means balancing privacy laws, national security concerns, and market access. For countries, its about who trains the best models, who sets the standards  and who stays in control.

The stakes go far beyond privacy.

In an age of foundation models and AI training loops, data is the new oil, and sovereignty is about control of the refinery. Both Washington and Beijing know that the side with the best data will train the best models  and that whoever controls the pipelines controls the future.

Everyone wants the keys to the kingdom

Both Washington and Beijing are playing to win.

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The U.S. is pressuring allies to block Chinas access to advanced chipmaking tools. China, meanwhile, is financing Huawei-built telecom infrastructure in One Belt, One Road countries (Chinas global infrastructure aimed initiative at connecting Asia, Europe, and beyond), pushing Chinese data standards in international bodies, and expanding RMB-based digital payments.

Caught in the middle are U.S. allies that trade heavily with China but rely on Washington for security. Some are hedging, adjusting policies without picking sides. But in a world where every cloud server and chip fab is a potential battleground, neutrality is becoming harder to maintain.

This next phase of the U.S.-China economic conflict is less about whats being traded  and more about who gets to write the rules of the digital future.

Because this isnt just a trade war anymore. Its a contest for the 21st century.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  The Baton Rouge community is honoring the legacy of former Mayor Melvin Lee Kip Holden.

Holden will lie in state at Baton Rouge City Hall from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21.

Mayor-President Sid Edwards and several other leaders are expected to attend the celebration of life ceremony in remembrance of Holden.

The public is invited to attend to pay their respects.

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Funeral services for the former mayor will be held on Thursday, May 22, at Greater King David Baptist Church starting at 11 a.m.

Holden died Wednesday, May 14, at the age of 72 after a lengthy illness.

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The former CEO of South Carolina-owned Palmetto Railways, which helps move cargo for the Port of Charleston and other businesses in the state, was sentenced Thursday, May 22, 2025, in federal court for his role in a fraud case. (Stock photo via Getty Images)

Jeffrey McWhorter, the former head of South Carolina-owned Palmetto Railways, will serve five years of probation for his part in a felony fraud scheme involving a key Port of Charleston customer.

McWhorter, president and CEO of the railroad from 2007 to 2022, was sentenced Thursday to probation by Judge David Norton during a hearing in federal court in Charleston, five months after he pleaded guilty.

Jeffrey McWhorter in 2022 (Courtesy of Palmetto Railways)

McWhorter, 63, of Awendaw, admitted he took a cash kickback to steer a construction contract to a local businessman for a $35.5 million, rail-served plastic pellets warehouse adjacent to port-owned property.

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While the scheme occurred while he was president of the state railroad, the case didnt come to light until after he retired.

It was a horrible decision I made, one that I will regret for the rest of my life, McWhorter tearfully told the court. This act does not reflect the person Ive tried so hard to be all my life.

The U.S. Attorneys office had sought a prison sentence of between eight and 14 months, saying McWhorter abused his position of trust as a public official.

His conduct was serious, the fraud offense is a serious offense, and a period of incarceration is appropriate, Bryan Stirling, U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, said in a court document.

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However, McWhorters friends, family members and business associates said the kickback scheme was out of character for the former police officer turned railroad executive, and they asked the judge in testimony and letters of support for leniency.

In the end, Norton opted for a sentence of supervision rather than incarceration.

This was a very serious offense, Norton said. Its stealing for the lack of anything else. What he did was a betrayal of everything he stood for his whole life.

In addition to probation, McWhorter must pay $90,000 in restitution, a $4,000 fine and perform 300 hours of community service. McWhorter has already put the $90,000 in an escrow account for repayment.

Hatching a kickback

Recent court documents and testimony have shed new light on how the kickback scheme took place, outlining who else was involved, how they arranged the fraud and the name of the victimized business. Previously, court documents did not identify the co-conspirators.

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Texas-based Frontier Logistics in 2018 was looking for a place near Charlestons port to build a warehouse where plastic pellets  also known as nurdles  could be transferred from rail cars to cargo containers for export to foreign markets.

Charlestons port is the East Coasts busiest export hub for plastic pellets and chemicals, and Frontier has played a key role in the growth of those exports at the Port of Charleston.

Kevin Newkirk, a vice president at Frontier, had discussed the warehouse project with McWhorter because the facility would need railroad access. McWhorter then introduced Newkirk to Tony Berenyi, the founder of Charleston contractor Berenyi Inc., who wanted to build the warehouse.

The three men discussed how the construction contract could be steered to Berenyi.

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At one point, Berenyi offered Newkirk and Jeff a commission on the contract, court records state. However, Newkirk decided that a kickback payment was more appropriate and approached Jeff about it.

Newkirk and McWhorter initially considered asking for a $2 million kickback but later settled on $1 million. Berenyi ultimately agreed to pay the men $420,000, with the money coming from his business profits. McWhorters lawyers  Bart Daniel and co-counsel Nathan Williams  stressed no taxpayer money was involved.

Frontier was not aware of the kickback scheme but eventually chose Berenyi to build the warehouse on land it bought from Palmetto Railways.

Berenyi is incarcerated in a federal prison in Florida after a jury found him guilty in 2023 of a similar but unrelated kickback scheme for construction at a Nucor Steel plant in Kentucky. He is scheduled to be released later this year.

Things start to unravel

Newkirk and McWhorter were supposed to split the $420,000 but Berenyi never finished making all of the payments. All told, Newkirk received about $84,000 in addition to the money that went to McWhorter.

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Investigators learned of the kickback scheme while investigating Berenyis actions in the Kentucky case. That eventually led to charges against Newkirk and McWhorter.

Newkirk was sentenced in April to five years of probation for filing a false federal tax return related to the scheme.

Unfortunately, this discussion of payment came at a point in Jeffs life where he was struggling, and that struggle, combined with the opportunity presented to him, was more than he could resist, McWhorters lawyers said in a court document.

At the time, Jeff was going through a difficult divorce with high attorneys fees, needed to pay for a daughters wedding, and was in the process of having to find a new place to live, they wrote.

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McWhorter, a state employee, was being paid $200,000 a year to lead Palmetto Railways at the time the scheme took place. He also received bonuses in 2020 totaling $133,000.

In 23 letters of support submitted to the court, supporters said McWhorters conduct was the opposite of the integrity he had shown throughout his career.

Jeffs guilty plea stunned his colleagues throughout South Carolina, wrote Ron Brinson, a former North Charleston councilman. He added McWhorters actions are so uncharacteristic and inconsistent with his reputation.

Bobby Hitt, the states former Commerce secretary, wrote that he had developed a trust relationship with McWhorter and others at Palmetto Railways, both professionally and personally.

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He added McWhorter played a role in some of the states biggest economic development announcements.

The felony McWhorter pleaded guilty to is called honest services fraud  a type of white-collar crime in which a company or individual offers something of value to another person, usually a public official, in exchange for special or preferred treatment.

McWhorter retired from Palmetto Railways in 2022 after 37 years with the railroad  a so-called short line railroad that connects Port of Charleston customers and other businesses to bigger, long-haul services.

Following his retirement, McWhorter started a consulting business that includes Frontier among its clients.
Kazakhstan experiences upward investment trend in agriculture sector in early 2025

Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan

A press conference was held today at the Service of Central Communications in Kazakhstan, with Deputy Minister of Agriculture Yermek Kenzhekhanuly providing updates on investment measures in the agricultural-industrial complex. He reported a 18 percent increase in investment for the first four months of 2025, totaling 213 billion tenge ($426 million).

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CORNING, N.Y. (WETM)  The former treasurer for the Calvin U. Smith Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the Corning-Painted Post CSEA Union 8710 has been indicted on 30 criminal counts in connection with the theft of over $45,000 from both organizations.

Kari A. Warner, 35, was indicted on Wednesday, May 21, on the following charges, as stated in a release from the Steuben County District Attorneys Office:

14 counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree, a class E felony

Four counts of grand larceny in the third degree, a class D felony

Four counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, a class D felony

One count of scheme to defraud in the first degree, a class E felony

One count of forgery in the second degree, a class D felony

Six counts of petit larceny, a class A misdemeanor

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Original story: Corning-Painted Post PTA treasurer arrested for alleged theft of over $45K

In the release, the DA states that Warner was indicted on the charges following an investigation conducted by the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Unit out of Painted Post. The DA states that this investigation began after Corning-Painted Post School District officials were notified that a substantial check from the Calvin U. Smith PTA, which was written to a vendor for a fundraiser sponsored by the PTA, had been returned for insufficient funds.

At this time, the DA notes that Warner was the PTAs treasurer and in charge of the fundraiser for which the check was written. At the same time, Warner was also serving as treasurer for a CSEA Unit at the school.

After an investigation into the accounts of both organizations, the DA states that it was determined that Warner had stolen over $25,000 from the CSEA and over $20,000 from the PTA by means of theft, unauthorized withdrawals and falsified business records.

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As a result, Warner had her charges read to her in court and was released, according to New York State bail reform regulations, to pre-trial probation supervision. On a future date, Warner will appear again in Steuben County Court.

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Democrat Ellen Zoppo-Sassu announced Tuesday night that shes running against Republican Mayor Jeff Caggiano in Bristol, virtually guaranteeing a tough race that Connecticut political observers will be watching closely this year.

Zoppo-Sassu, a former mayor who led local Democrats to one of their biggest victories and one of their worst losses, made her announcement just one night after the citys Republican administration adopted a budget that will force a 6% tax increase.

She portrayed herself as a professional manager who will do a better job of attracting new business and raising the grand list than Caggianos team, and one who will withstand the bruising political atmosphere of recent years.

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Its easy to think that dysfunction, chaos, and political fighting are just part of government. Theyre not. Theyre symptoms of a system where people do not respect the process, she told the Democratic Town Committee.

Caggiano, who led Republicans to a sweep of city government in the 2021 election, has announced that hes running again. Both parties will formally endorse candidates in the summer, but barring a major surprise the November election will be between him and Zoppo-Sassu. In addition, Derek Jones has announced hell campaign as an unaffiliated candidate.

The good news is we both have records, Caggiano said Wednesday. I will have opportunities to highlight the things weve accomplished. Im very proud of it. People will have a very clear choice of which direction they want to go in.

Zoppo-Sassu had been a longtime city council member when she beat Republican incumbent Ken Cockayne in 2017, leading Democrats to take five of the six city council seats as well. Two years later, she won re-election and voters gave her an all-Democratic council, too,

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But in 2021, the city did a hard about-face, replacing her and her team with Caggiano and an all-GOP council. She went on to serve nearly two years as Enfields town manager; a Democratic council in that town hired her, and she resigned almost immediately after Republicans took control in the 2023 election.

Zoppo-Sassu built a reputation as one of Bristols most knowledgeable councilors and mayors, routinely doing in-depth research on issues far beyond what her colleagues did. But she also ended up in disputes with some old-school politicians from both parties, and for years was locked in a bitter clash with Art Ward, a Democrat who served on the council with her and then became mayor. He didnt attend her inaugurations, and in 2021 switched party registration to the GOP.

Similarly, Caggianos administration has run into splits within its own party. Dante Tagiarello, for instance, was the unsuccessful GOP challenger against Zoppo-Sassu in 2019, and later won election to the school board as a Republican. But he switched registration to become a Democrat, and on Wednesday endorsed Zoppo-Sassu.

This is a person I ran against, in a different time, at a different point in my life, Tagariello wrote on Facebook. Today, I can say any differences are behind us.

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Four years ago was a mistake. Four years, over $1,300 in tax increases, minimal grand list growth, and personal vendettas up the wazoo summarized the current adminstration, he wrote.

Bristols political scene has been marked by social media sniping on both sides, and Facebook exchanges included attacks against both candidates.

Zoppo-Sassu appeared prepared for a hard fight, telling supporters: To the ones who sit on the sidelines, or at the local coffee shop or bar complaining and offering commentary, you are not the ones who shape communities. You drain them. Your self-absorbed righteousness is loud, but it doesnt make you right. And it certainly doesnt make you useful. Your ignorance is your legacy, and it will fade, just like you.

Local Democrats were badly shaken by their rout in 2021, and former Town Chairman Morris Rippy Patton said hes excited that Zoppo-Sassu will be at the top of the ticket again.

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She knows what its like to win, and she knows what its like to lose and come back. Shes a warrior, he said.

The school system is likely to be a key issue in the campaign. Caggiano has said the school board has steadily overspent its budget, forcing the citys tax increase this year. Democrats blame Caggiano and his council for underfunding schools despite a large increase in special education demands.

Both candidates contend they are the best choice for economic development, and both want credit for the building boom that is transforming downtown. Zoppo-Sassu said most major downtown revitalization projects were in the works when she left office, but Caggiano said his administration improved those proposals and also brought in new ones.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)  A former East Hartford man was sentenced Wednesday to over 13 years in prison for his role in trafficking fentanyl, according to the U.S. Attorney District of Connecticut office.

Eduardo Aguilar-Linares, 34, was sentenced by a judge in New Haven to 158 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

East Hartford mother says school illegally restrained 6-year-old son with autism

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He was previously arrested on drug charges in New York in 2017. After being released from federal prison in 2018- during which time he resided in East Hartford- he fled to Mexico, avoiding court-ordered supervision.

The U.S. attorneys office said in 2019, the DEA began investigating a Mexican-based drug trafficking organization that distributed fentanyl and heroin in Connecticut. They determined that while living in Mexico, Aguilar-Linares trafficked kilogram quantities of narcotics to associates in Connecticut, who then distributed it to the streets.

His associates used an office space on Pratt Street in Hartford, an apartment in the Asylum Hill neighborhood in Hartford and an apartment in New Britain to store, process and package the fentanyl.

2 staff members of Israeli embassy killed in DC: Noem

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Proceeds were laundered before being transferred to Aguilar-Linares and others, the U.S. attorney said.

In 2020, a grand jury returned an indictment charging Aguilar-Linares and nine others with narcotics distribution and money laundering offenses. Aguilar-Linares was a fugitive until he was arrested in Texas in 2023. Hes been detained since.

This February, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

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Two former Eli Lilly executives and their families will donate $20 million to IU Health Foundation  the largest philanthropic gift in the foundation's history  to establish the Institute for Clinical Innovation, a hub for groundbreaking disease detection and treatment.

IU Health will match the gift, bringing the total investment to $40 million shared between the health system and the medical school. The IU Health Foundation acts as the philanthropic arm of IU Health's statewide health care system.

Housed in the massive IU hospital complex under construction on the north side of downtown, the institute will accelerate the speed of medical research in Indiana and provide clinicians and researchers with more resources. IU Health leaders say they hope the investment will triple the number of patients in clinical trials. They hope to enroll 75,000 patients in clinical trials each year and within five years enroll 300,000 people in the Indiana Biobank initiative.

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Indianapolis residents Sarah and John Lechleiter and Deborah and Randall Tobias partnered on the donation that will benefit patients across Indiana. Randall Tobias held the title of chair, president and CEO of Eli Lilly from 1993-2003, before he was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the U.S. effort to fight against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. John Lechleiter served as CEO of the pharmaceutical giant from 2008-2017 before handing over the reins to current CEO Dave Ricks.

Our families share a commitment to advancing the future of healthcare for our Hoosier neighbors, the Tobiases and Lechleiters said in a joint statement. This gift will support IU Health and IU School of Medicine in their joint efforts to expand clinical trial participation in our state for the benefit of patients in Indiana and around the globe.

From left to right, IU School of Medicine Dean Jay Hess, John Lechleiter, Sarah Lechleiter, Deborah Tobias, Randall Tobias, IU Health President & CEO Dennis Murphy.

The Lechleiter and Tobias families could have made this gift anywhere in the world. Choosing IU Health and IU School of Medicine demonstrates immense trust in our researchers and caregivers, IU Health President and CEO Dennis Murphy said. Thanks to this commitment, our patients will get early access to life-saving treatments and The Institute for Clinical Innovation will become a destination for leading-edge healthcare.

IU Health's $2.31 billion hospital complex, which will replace the aging IU Health Methodist Hospital, is expected to open in late 2027.

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IU Health hospital development: 'If we only build a great hospital, we will have failed:' IU Health project spurs new group

Alysa Guffey covers business and development for IndyStar. Contact her at amguffey@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Former Lilly executives donate $20 million for IU clinical institute
A former Florida congressional candidate was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for threatening to kill his opponent in a primary race in 2021.

William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, was sentenced in federal court in Tampa after being charged with interstate transmission of threat to injure. He pleaded guilty in February.

According to court documents, Braddock viewed Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who was the Republican front-runner in Floridas 13th Congressional District, as his only obstacle to winning that race.

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While campaigning in the primary, Braddock, a former Marine, would disparage Luna and her peers to inject himself into his life. During a 2021 phone call with Lunas acquaintance, a private citizen, Braddock threatened to have Luna murdered if she continued to poll well, specifically to call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad and make her disappear, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

Braddock subsequently fled to Thailand and eventually settled in the Philippines.

Authorities detained him in Manila in 2023, and he was then transported to Los Angeles for trial before a federal district judge.

His charge carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

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Updated May 22 at 8:54 a.m. EDT

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(WHTM) A former Harvard Morgue Manager pleaded guilty to transporting stolen human remains from the Harvard Medical School morgue and selling them to a Pennsylvania man, among others.

According to the United States Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Cedric Lodge, 57, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, pled guilty on Wednesday, May 21, to the interstate transport of stolen human remains.

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Lodge admitted to participating in the sale and transportation of human remains stolen from Harvard Medical Schools morgue in Boston from 2018 to 2020. The attorneys office said Lodge was the morgues manager when he stole brains, skin, hands, faces, dissected heads, and other parts from donated cadavers.

He took the remains to his home in New Hampshire, where he and his wife, Denise Lodge, sold them to buyers in various states, including Pennsylvania, the attorneys office said.

Lodge admitted to selling remains to Pennsylvania man Joshua Taylor, who, in turn, sold them to Jeremy Pauley of Cumberland County. Both Pennsylvania men previously entered guilty pleas in relation to the case.

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Multiple others have entered guilty pleas for their involvement in the scheme.

The attorneys office said the maximum penalty for this offense is 10 years in prison with a term of supervised release and a fine.

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A former Internal Revenue Service employee pleaded guilty on Wednesday to filing fake tax returns to fraudulently obtain tax refunds and stealing Social Security benefits, the U.S. Attorney said.

Kathleen Mannion, 58, of Lawrence, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to four counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false tax return and one count of theft of government money, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.

U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton scheduled sentencing for Sept. 3. Mannion was charged in March.

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From 1998 to 2009, Mannion worked as an IRS contact representative in Andover, prosecutors said.

Between July 2020 through April 2023, Mannion prepared and filed income tax returns for other individuals with the IRS, prosecutors said.

Even though Mannion prepared these returns on behalf of other individuals, she did not list herself as the tax return preparer.

Instead, Mannion prepared the returns to appear as if the taxpayers prepared the returns on their own.

Mannion also listed ineligible dependents on the tax returns, resulting in higher refund amounts for which the taxpayers did not qualifyall without the knowledge of the taxpayers, prosecutors said.

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Mannion also filed forms with the IRS directing that a portion of the fraudulently obtained tax refunds be deposited in her personal bank accounts, which she then used for her personal benefit, prosecutors said.

Separately, between April and October 2020, Mannion applied for Social Security retirement, spouse and widow benefits with the Social Security Administration via telephone for other people.

Unbeknownst to these beneficiaries, Mannion directed the Social Security Administration to deposit the Social Security benefits in her personal bank accounts, which she also used for her personal benefit, prosecutors said.

For each charge of aiding and assisting the preparation and filing of a false tax return, Mannion faces a sentence of up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

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For the charge of theft of government money, Mannion faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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A former senior member of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' staff has struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, admitting he called in a fake bomb threat to City Hall late last year that was blamed on anti-Israel sentiment, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Brian Williams, a longtime law enforcement oversight official who served as Bass' deputy mayor of public safety, agreed to plead guilty to a single count of threats regarding fire and explosives, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. He is expected to make his initial court appearance in the next few weeks.

In an era of heated political rhetoric that has sometimes escalated into violence, we cannot allow public officials to make bomb threats, U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a news release announcing the deal. My office will continue its efforts to keep the public safe, including from those who violate their duty to uphold the law.

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In a statement to The Times, Williams' lawyer Dmitry Gorin said his client "has demonstrated his unreserved and full acceptance of responsibility for his actions."

"This aberrational incident was the product of personal issues which Mr. Williams is addressing appropriately, and is not representative of his character or dedication to the city of Los Angeles," Gorin said.

Williams was participating in a virtual meeting at City Hall on Oct. 3, 2024, when he used the Google Voice application on his personal phone to place a call to his city-issued cellphone, according to the plea agreement.

Williams admitted he left the meeting and called Scott Harrelson, a top aide to the LAPD chief. According to the plea, Williams falsely stated that he had just received a call on his city-issued cellphone from an unknown male caller who made a bomb threat against City Hall.

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At no time did Williams intend to carry out the threat, according to the plea agreement.

About 10 minutes after calling the LAPD, according to the plea, Williams texted Bass and several other senior mayoral officials a message that read: Bomb threat: I received phone call on my city cell at 10:48 am this morning. The male caller stated that he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda. I immediately contacted the chief of staff of LAPD, they are going to send a number of officers over to do a search of the building and to determine if anyone else received a threat.

Soon afterward, LAPD officers searched the building and did not locate any suspicious packages or devices, according to the agreement. Williams told the officers that a man called and said: Im tired of the city support of Israel, I have decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the Rotunda.

Williams showed the officers the record of an incoming call, which appeared as a blocked number on his city-issued phone. According to the plea deal, that call was the one Williams had placed from Google Voice.

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Williams followed up with the mayor and other high-ranking officials some time later with several other texts, saying that there was no need to evacuate City Hall.

"Im meeting with the threat management officers within the next 10 minutes. In light of the Jewish holidays, we are taking this thread, a little more seriously. I will keep you posted," the text read, according to federal authorities.

Federal authorities revealed they were looking into Williams last December, when FBI agents raided his home in Pasadena. It sent shock waves through City Hall and the Police Department, where many expressed incredulity at the prospect of a respected government official faking a bomb threat.

Before the case was turned over to the FBI, detectives from the LAPDs Major Crimes Division conducted surveillance that led them to conclude that Williams was responsible for the bomb threat, sources previously told The Times.

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Williams, who was the deputy mayor overseeing the police and fire departments, was on leave because of the criminal investigation in January when Pacific Palisades was engulfed in flames, killing 12 people and destroying more than 6,000 structures.

Like many, we were shocked when these allegations were first made and we are saddened by this conclusion, said Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass.

Bass named a former FBI official to replace Williams in early April. The official, Robert Clark, led anti-gang efforts in Los Angeles during his time with the bureau before retiring in 2016 and serving as a law enforcement consultant and director of public safety for the city of Columbus, Ohio, among other roles.

Williams has held a variety of government positions spanning more than three decades. He had spent nearly two years as a deputy mayor in Bass office, working on issues such as police hiring, public safety spending and the search for a new police chief.

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Previously, Williams was a deputy mayor in the administration of Mayor James K. Hahn, who held office from 2001-05. Before that, he spent several years as an assistant city attorney in Los Angeles.

From 2016-23, Williams was the executive director of the Sheriffs Civilian Oversight Commission, according to his LinkedIn page.

Working in Bass office, Williams oversaw the Police Department, the Fire Department, Port Police, Airport Police and the citys emergency management agency, according to his hiring announcement. He was also a member of the mayor's inner circle, playing a key role in the monthslong search for a new police chief that ended with the hiring of Jim McDonnell.

When Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman was sworn in last year, Williams was the city official chosen to address the audience on behalf of the mayor. He was also a fixture at police graduations, news conferences, community meetings and other events across the city, often wearing a well-pressed suit and a bow tie.

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Williams' attorney Gorin called his client "a career public servant who has worked closely with law enforcement, community groups, public safety and prosecuting agencies throughout his many years in local government and has devoted his life to the service of others."

Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, said in a statement that Williams not only betrayed the residents of Los Angeles, but responding officers, and the integrity of the office itself, by fabricating a bomb threat.

Government officials are held to a heightened standard as we rely on them to safeguard the city," the statement read. "Im relieved that Mr. Williams has taken responsibility for his inexplicable actions.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN)  The former president of the La Vergne Lake Elementary Parent Teacher Organization has been indicted for stealing the organizations money following an investigation by the Tennessee Comptrollers Office.

A release from the comptroller said investigators determined former PTO President Valency Horton misappropriated PTO funds totaling at least $13,130.99 between April and July 2024.

The comptrollers office said Horton made unauthorized money transfers from the PTO to her personal Cash App account and used the funds to make personal purchases and allegedly pay individuals to whom she owed money.

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She also made two unauthorized ATM withdrawals and an over-the-counter cash withdrawal of PTO funds, the office said in a release. One of the ATM withdrawals was made inside an out-of-state casino.

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Per the comptrollers report, the Cash App transfers totaled $10,225, while the ATM and over-the-counter withdrawals totaled $2,905.99.

During an interview with investigators, Horton reportedly stated she used the PTO funds for her personal benefit, though she did pay some of it back. Despite paying back some of the organization money, the comptrollers office said she still owes $11,130.99 to the PTO.

The Rutherford County Grand Jury handed down an indictment for Horton charged her with one count of theft of property over $10,000, one count of violation of the Computer Crimes Act, and one count of fraudulent use of a credit or debit card.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

It is important that school support organizations, like PTOs, have more than one person approve transactions to help prevent fraud, Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower said. PTO officials should also regularly review and reconcile their bank statements to ensure that money is being spent properly. A copy of the bank statements should be included in the minutes of PTO meetings.

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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)  Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announced that Jack Montoucet, former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, has been indicted on federal charges.

A federal grand jury in Lafayette has returned an indictment charging Montoucet with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to the indictment, LDWF was an agency in Louisiana that received benefits under federal programs involving grants, contracts and other forms of assistance. While Secretary of the LDWF, Montoucet was the chief executive and empowered to enter contracts on LDWFs behalf. Dusty J. Guidry was a Commissioner on the LDWF Commission which was charged with the control and supervision of the wildlife of the State of Louisiana and operated as a policy-making and budgetary control board. It is alleged that Guidry was placed on the Commission by and would take actions as directed by Montoucet.

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The indictment alleged that Leonard C. Franques IV, a Louisiana resident owned DGL1, LLC, a business created to provide online educational courses to be used by LDWF and was registered with the State of Louisiana in May 2020. Franques also owned LWF, LLC, a Louisiana company registered in June 2020.

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It is alleged that from approximately May 2020 until June 2022, Montoucet knowingly and unlawfully conspired with Guidry and Franques, and others to accept and agree to accept kickbacks from Franques in return for being influenced in connection with awarding a state contract to DGL1.

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The indictment further alleged that Montoucet and Guidry used their official positions at LDWF to award a state contract to DGL1 and under the contract, DGL1 would provide online hunters education and boaters education courses and the education courses to resolve LDWF citations.

It is alleged that DGL1 would keep a portion of the revenue generated from providing those services and in exchange, Franques agreed to provide, and Montoucet and Guidry agreed to accept, kickbacks and other things of value. It is also alleged that as part of their conspiracy, Franques attempted to conceal the true source and nature of payments to Montoucet and Guidry.

According to the indictment, from around November 10, 2021, until June 10, 2022, LDWF received $454,174.14 from the LWF contract signed by Montoucet, of which $122,507.96 was held as a kickback for Montoucet, to be paid after he completed his term as LDWF Secretary. It further alleges that Montoucet, Guidry and Franques agreed that after Montoucets retirement from LDWF, they would hire Montoucet and pay his kickbacks as a purported signing bonus, in order to conceal the true nature of these funds.

If convicted, Montoucet faces a sentence of not more than 5 years in prison on the conspiracy count, and up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud and money laundering counts, as well as a fine of up to $1 million.

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The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The diversification of partnership between Azerbaijan and the Islamic Development Bank has been discussed, the Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on X, Trend reports.

It was a pleasure to meet with Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank Group Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser. We emphasized the successful results of the bank's joint activities with our country. We discussed diversification of partnership, implementation of projects related to building a sustainable infrastructure network and initiatives aimed at the development of the region," the publication reads.
Longtime gangster Ralph DeLeo, once the purported "street boss" of the Colombo crime family, plotted to "murder no fewer than three people who played roles in his most recent criminal conviction," federal prosecutors alleged in a new court filing.

DeLeo, 82, was released from prison a year ago under supervised release after he served time for racketeering.

He was arrested earlier this month. It was not clear why until the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston said in a court filing that DeLeo was "actively planning to kill two current and one former federal official, all of whom were involved in the federal criminal case resulting in DeLeo's 2012 conviction."

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According to the court filing, DeLeo was asking around for "personal identifying information, including home addresses and names of immediate family members, relating to the federal officials" which he referred to as his "retribution."

MORE: 5 men at large after escape from New Orleans jail, including 3 charged with murder

Federal agents said they recovered "hard copy packets" of personal information for the individuals along with "a burglary kit, marijuana, vials of steroids, and a handwritten note regarding silicone masks."

The burglary kit contained a pry-bar, mini crowbar, bolt cutters, and lock-picking tools, prosecutors said.

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The FBI said DeLeo was allegedly "actively communicating with known felons," including codefendants from the racketeering case that put him in prison.

DeLeo has a "long and violent criminal history" that federal prosecutors said began in the 1970s as an associate of the Patriarca family in Providence.

Prosecutors asked for his detention, arguing he is a danger.

"DeLeo's criminal history, which includes a conviction for murder, proves that he is more than capable of acting on his threats," prosecutors said. "DeLeo has been fixated on seeking revenge for years."

Former mafia 'street boss' allegedly plotted to kill feds, prosecutors say originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)  The former CEO of Palmetto Railways has been sentenced for conspiring to commit honest services fraud.

Jeffrey McWhorter, 63, of Mount Pleasant, was sentenced by US District Judge David C. Norton to five years probation, 12 months of home confinement, and electronic monitoring.

Evidence showed that McWhorter and a man named Kevin Newkirk, who worked for a Texas logistics company, agreed to accept payment from Tony Berenyi of Berenyi Construction should the construction company be awarded a construction bid for the company Newkirk worked for.

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McWhorter facilitated the relationship between Newkirk and Berenyi.

Through the bidding process, McWhorter, Newkirk, and Berenyi discussed the payment, and when the Texas Company awarded the contract to Berenyi Construction, payments began from Berenyi, the Justice Department said.

During the conspiracy, Berenyi wired about $420,000 to a bank account in Newkirks wifes name.

Newkirk paid McWhorter in cash, and evidence showed that McWhorter received about $136,500, which he never disclosed in the required filings to public officials.

At the sentencing, Judge Norton also ordered McWhorter to pay $75,198.02 in restitution and a $4,000 fine. In addition, he has to complete 300 hours of community service.

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Kevin Newkirk was also charged and sentenced to five years of probation in April.

The FBI Columbia field office and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy Bower is prosecuting it.

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LISBON, Ohio (WKBN)  A cyber tip led investigators to the home of a former substitute teacher in Columbiana County.

Read next: Another Valley grocery store closing next month

Authorities searched the Lisbon home of 42-year-old John McFarland on Wednesday after receiving tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

McFarland was flagged for sharing and uploading multiple videos depicting minors engaged in sexual conduct.

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During the execution of the search warrant, several images and videos were observed on McFarlands cellphone that revealed minors, some as young as toddlers, engaged in sexual acts, according to MVHTTF.

McFarland is charged with pandering obscenity to create/produce/publish materials for commercial exploitation, pandering obscenity/buy/procure/possess obscene material and having drug paraphernalia. The drug charge is in connection to a meth pipe found in the search.

Investigators say additional charges may be filed pending the full analysis of the digital devices seized.

According to Marie Williams, superintendent of the Columbiana County Educational Service Center, McFarland began working with the ESC at the start of the 2024-2025 school year as a paraprofessional. He was suspended and put on administrative leave on May 21.

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Williams released the following statement.

The individual was initially hired as a paraprofessional and served as part of a classroom team until November. In January 2025, he transitioned to a substitute paraeducator role and worked periodically in classrooms thereafter. He worked primarily in ESC unit classrooms staffed by ESC teachers and staff in Salem City Schools (Reilly Elementary), the ESC unit at Knox Elementary and the ESC Opportunity School. He also subbed once in Leetonia, a few times at Salem Southeast and once at Salem Buckeye. This individual completed all required background checks prior to employment. At no time was he left alone with students, as all of our classrooms are staffed with a licensed teacher and at least two support staff members. The individual has not subbed in a classroom since May 2nd and in learning of the allegations on May 21st, the individual was immediately suspended and placed on administrative leave. We take these allegations seriously and are fully cooperating with law enforcement as they conduct their investigation as well as working with our own legal counsel in next steps. The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority, and we remain committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment. As this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide further details at this time. Marie Williams, superintendent of Columbiana County Educational Service Center

McFarland is scheduled to be in court on May 27.

Kristen Hephner and Gerry Ricciutti contributed to this report.

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JOHNSTOWN, Pa.  Former U.S. Rep. Mark Critz will soon begin a new role in his lengthy public service career as executive director of the Johnstown Redevelopment Authority.

JRA board members Chairman Mark Pasquerilla, Vice Chairman Richard Truscello, Bruce Haselrig and Sherri Rae approved hiring Critz for the position during a regular monthly meeting Tuesday. Laura Huchel was absent from the meeting and vote as she was busy campaigning in her race for Johnstown mayor on Election Day.

When I saw this come up, I thought, You know, Im getting up in years, and this is a place where I can finish my career and do something really strong for my hometown,  said Critz, 63. Sometimes things  you want to call it providence or whatever  this happened. And I thought, Mark, this is for you. Get in there and do what you can for the city. 

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Critz currently works as the western regional director of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and executive director of the states Rural Development Council. He is scheduled to begin as JRAs director June 30.

I have a lot of obligations at the state for my bosses that Im intertwined and entangled in that we have to unwind over the next six weeks or so, Critz said.

Critz was selected to succeed former Executive Director Melissa Komar, who resigned effective April 4 to take a job in the private sector.

I think hes really qualified, Pasquerilla said. Besides being a congressman himself, he was (the late U.S. Rep. John) Murthas district director, which is a pretty big deal. His work for the state has been, I think, stellar. He has a lot of contacts in the state, so he kind of has that two lives.

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I think hes going to be a good addition. We had a great director with Melissa Komar, but I think hes fit for this job. Hes a Moxham resident and he wants to make a difference here in Johnstown. Im very pleased about it.

Along with Critzs hiring, the board promoted Finance Director Cheryl Labosky to the position of deputy executive director/finance director.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with Mark Critz in the next chapter of the authority, said Labosky, who has been with the JRA for 11 years. I appreciate the continued support of our partners and stakeholders as we move forward together. I look forward to working with Mark and our dedicated team.

Together, Critz, Labosky and other JRA members will continue ongoing efforts on numerous projects, including the regional sewer system and land bank.

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A few of the major initiatives were updated during Tuesdays meeting.

The board approved awarding a $1,271,070.24 contract to A. Liberoni Co. for the construction of a connector road for the Johnstown Urban Industrial Park that will be located in the Minersville neighborhood.

The authority also voted to accept a $200,000 state grant for environmental cleanup at the former Cambria-Rowe Business College building at 221 Central Ave. in Moxham.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A man, later identified as a Fort Bliss soldier by the 1st Armored Division, is dead after a motorcycle crash early Monday morning, May 19, on Spur 601, El Paso Police Department (EPPD) said in a news release.

Fort Bliss soldier dies after crash on Spur 601 in El Paso

EPPD said that shortly after 1:30 a.m. on Monday, officers responded to a single-vehicle crash involving a motorcycle on Spur 601.

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The preliminary information said that a motorcyclist was traveling west on Spur 601 at a high rate of speed near Global Reach Drive, EPPD said.

EPPD said that the motorcyclist died at the scene when officers arrived.

The Special Traffic Investigations unit was requested, and the preliminary investigation revealed that the motorcyclist failed to negotiate the curb in the roadway and struck the center concrete barrier, EPPD said.

As we previously reported, Fort Bliss said the motorcyclist who died in the crash has been identified as Spc. Austin Rhodes, 24, a Patriot fire control operator assigned to the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

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EPPD said failure to control speed on behalf of the motorcycle operator is a contributing factor to the crash. This is the 23rd traffic fatality, compared to 25 at the same time last year.

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Note: The video attached to this article is from WGNs June 2024 report on the attack and charges.

CHICAGO (WGN)  Four men were acquitted Wednesday in connection with an alleged assault and brawl at a Mount Greenwood restaurant last year.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Ursula Walowski rendered her ruling Wednesday, finding Andrew Fedyk of La Grange Park, Harry Kenny of Glen Ellyn, Frank Paris of River Forest, and John Powers IV of Oak Park not guilty.

The four men were charged last year with aggravated battery/public place, aggravated battery/great bodily harm and aggravated battery/victim 60+. Fedyk, Powers and Paris also faced felony charges.

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Prosecutors had said the men became violent after being asked to leave Barracos Ristorante in the 3000 block of West 111th Street, in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, after allegedly acting drunk and urinating on the bathroom floor.

Defense attorneys argued the bars bouncers were the aggressors.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP)  Freedom Credit Union has pledged $7,500 to Square Ones Back to Square One capital campaign, furthering its commitment to community development.

The donation will help support early childhood education in western Mass. and fund Square Ones new early learning and family support center in Springfields South End.

Healey administration awards affordable housing internet grants to western Mass. communities

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The planned 26,000-square-foot facility is being built on the same site where Square Ones original building stood before it was destroyed by a tornado in 2011. The new campus is scheduled to open next month.

This gift represents Freedom Credit Unions strong support for our mission and vision for the future of the families who live and work here, says Kristine Allard, Vice President of Development & Communication for Square One. We know that our new campus will play a vital role in positioning our regions young children for long-term success. We are so grateful to our friends at Freedom Credit Union and everyone who has supported our campaign.

Courtesy of Square One

Since launching the campaign in March 2023, Square One has raised more than $13 million toward the construction of its new facility. However, the organizations rapid growth has already created a new challenge: a need for more space.

To help address the space limitations, Balise Auto donated a nearby unoccupied building adjacent to the construction site. That structure requires an estimated $4 million in renovations, which will begin once construction of the new main campus is complete.

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We are proud to support the important work Square One does every day to help children and families in our community grow and thrive, said Freedom Credit Union President Glenn Welch. Their vision to effect meaningful change that results in more promising futures for children, families, and our community closely reflects our own cooperative spirit.

Square One has seen rising demand for its family support services, a reflection of its growing impact in the region. The expansion of facilities is a strategic move to ensure continued support for Springfield-area families through high-quality education, care, and comprehensive family resources.

The Back to Square One campaign continues to accept donations as it pushes forward with renovations and programming expansion.

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WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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Freeman Health System recently provided updates on three major projects underway in Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas. The projects are:

 A new 50-bed, $168 million hospital under construction on U.S. Highway 69 in Frontenac, Kansas.

 A $3.6 million Freeman Neosho Rehabilitation Center on the Freeman Neosho Hospital campus.

 Renovations to create a 10-bed general medical unit and 24-hour emergency department in the former Fort Scott, Kansas, hospital building.

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Southeast Kansas Hospital

In a statement Monday, Matt Fry, president and CEO of Freeman, said he has initiated a comprehensive feasibility study of the Southeast Kansas hospital to help strategically guide both development and long-term success of the hospital."

Freeman broke ground on the 55-acre project this spring.

The study will delve into all critical aspects of the $168 million hospital, including market dynamics of the region, consumer demand, construction cost validation and operational sustainability, Freeman said in a written release. The construction project is currently in the initial phase which includes site development, utilities and roadways. Engineers are completing the Phase 1 environmental assessment of the site in Frontenac and are now in the process of geotechnical investigations of the subterranean condition.

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Freeman said Fry has been assessing and strategically coordinating efforts" since joining Freeman two months ago.

He also said the study will best determine how to move forward in service to Southeast Kansas residents."

Freeman officials said Tuesday that they couldnt comment on the study beyond the information in their written statement.

Neosho Rehab center

Freeman Neosho Rehabilitation, 346 S. Wood St., is on track to open to the public in early September.

The main iron framing, sheet metal decking for the roof, sprinkler pipes and outer walls are installed or nearly completed. Concrete also has been poured for some of the buildings sidewalks.

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We should be close to being in the dry on the first week of June, said Joe Yust, Freeman Neoshos director of facilities management. In another month, the building will look a lot different.

Freeman officials broke ground on the 8,300-square-foot rehab center late last year.

This is something the Neosho community has needed for a very long time, and we are thrilled to be able to bring this service to our community, said Renee Denton, Freeman Hospital Neoshos chief operating officer, in a statement.

The $3.6 million project will expand services currently available in Neosho while offering advanced therapeutic tools and technologies, Denton said. Those tools and technologies include:

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 Physical therapy for rehabilitation from fractures, sprains and surgeries; management of chronic conditions such as arthritis, back pain and neurological disorders; improvement of mobility, balance and strength to enhance daily function.

 Occupational therapy to regain independence in daily activities after an injury or illness, modify environments to support patients ability to perform tasks, and speed recovery time.

 Speech therapy to treat speech disorders such as stuttering or articulation, address language delays, improve cognitive-communication skills in conditions such as stroke or brain injuries, and to provide swallow studies to identify problems with the pharynx and esophagus.

Fort Scott hospital

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Freeman officials said progress also is being made on a 10-bed medical unit and 24-hour emergency department at the citys former hospital, 401 Woodland Hills Blvd. A 2025 opening date is planned.

Most of the work is going on inside the former hospital, so the progress may not be readily visible to residents, said Denton, who also is overseeing the Fort Scott project.

The interior of the building was being upgraded to meet current building and safety codes and standards.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) requires that we open the facility according to current regulatory codes," Denton said. "Until we were able to begin the renovations, we were not able to lay eyes on every element that the state would require. Because of that, there are significant changes that need to occur to make certain that we update to the most current life-safety regulations. To be certain we address all elements to bring our leased area up to current code, we are finding that there are some improvements needed that have timelines not within our control.

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Freeman said the new hospital remains a critical need for Fort Scott. The community has been without a hospital since 2018, forcing local residents to seek medical treatment in communities 30 or more minutes away. Mercy closed its hospital in Fort Scott at the end of 2018 but maintained the emergency room and services for a short time.

I am pleased that, in my opinion, Freeman is doing everything that is controllable to bring Fort Scott an emergency room and hospital as soon as possible, Don Doherty, chairman of the board of directors of Freeman Fort Scott, said in a statement.

Along with the formation of the hospitals six-member board of directors, Freeman also held a job fair that resulted in the hiring of 39 employees to operate the new hospital once its up and running.
A French Navy official has laid out a broad plan for the countrys carrier air wing from up to 2045. While the plan likely highlights just one vision of the kinds of aircraft were likely to see aboard the French Navys carrier in the future, its notable in that it includes a significant drone component, alongside advanced crewed aircraft. France has a single nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, currently in operation, and is planning to build an even more capable flattop to replace it, around 2038.

The plan was presented in the form of a slide in a briefing by a French Navy official at the Combined Naval Event (CNE) that took place in Farnborough, England, this week. The event was conducted under Chatham House rules, meaning that information can be freely shared, but the identity of the speaker cannot be disclosed. The slide, seen below, was shared with TWZ by Navy Lookout, which provides independent naval news and analysis.

via Navy Lookout

The slide shows three different compositions for the French Navys carrier air wing, starting in 2038. Whether coincidental or not, this is around the time that the Charles de Gaulle should be replaced by the Porte-Avions de Nouvelle Generation, or PA-Ng, which translates to New Generation Aircraft Carrier. You can read more about this warship here.

Rendering of PA-Ng. Naval Group Naval Group

As of 2038, the air wing is still based around the two main fixed-wing types now in service aboard the Charles de Gaulle, the Rafale M multirole fighter and the E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. These are shown complemented by a rotary-wing drone, which appears to be the Airbus Helicopters VSR700, but it may also be intended to represent this kind of capability more generically.

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The VSR700 is in development for the French Navy, after flight tests of a demonstrator version from one of its FREMM frigates in 2023. The drone is being proposed for intelligence, surveillance, targeting, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) and anti-submarine warfare operations, but could also undertake logistics, especially valuable aboard an aircraft carrier, and other tasks.

The Airbus Helicopters VSR700 during trials from a FREMM frigate. Airbus

There are various other alternatives to the VSR700, as well, most notably Austrias Schiebel S-300 rotary-wing drone, which will likely compete with it for French Navy orders.

By 2038, the slide indicates that the French Navy will be operating the F5 version of the Rafale M, which will bring a host of new capabilities compared with the current F3 model.

Rafale M fighters aboard the aboard the Charles de Gaulle. Dassault Aviation COSMAO Cyril  cyrille@cosmao.fr

The F5 version of the Rafale, which will be in both land-based and carrier-compatible versions, is something we have discussed in the past.

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Standard F5 is planned to keep the Rafale in frontline service until around 2060. This latest iteration of the aircraft will focus on collaborative combat, as well as incorporating new-generation weapons, among them the ASN4G, the next-generation standoff nuclear weapon.

#ASN4G  is the planned nuclear-armed #hypersonic cruise #missile intended to replace the ASMP-A #supersonic nuclear missile currently in service. The missile will equip the F4 variant of the Rafale fighter as well as Future Combat Air System vehicles#ArmeeDelAir #FrenchAirForce pic.twitter.com/LdX3rRIJ1J          (@TheDeadDistrict) May 28, 2020

Other new weapons for Standard F5 are expected to include successors for the SCALP conventional cruise missile and the Exocet anti-ship missile, with a hypersonic design being examined for the latter requirement. Air-to-air munitions should include an upgraded Meteor beyond-visual-range missile.

Very significantly, the F5 version is also planned to be fielded alongside a new, French-developed uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV), of which more later.

The next configuration of the carrier air wing is for 2040, by which time two new types of drones are shown as being in service. These are described loosely as an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and an uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) on the slide and are illustrated with an MQ-9 and a Dassault nEUROn demonstrator, respectively.

The nEUROn demonstrator and a Rafale M fly past the Charles de Gaulle. Dassault Aviation

The F5 version of the Rafale M and the E-2D will also still be in service at this point.

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The UCAV, illustrated by the stealthy flying-wing nEUROn, may well be intended to represent the drone that France plans to introduce to work alongside the F5 Rafale, as well as independently. We already know this drone program will be headed up by Dassault Aviation and will draw upon the companys experience with the nEUROn.

The new UCAV has already been billed as being complementary to the Rafale and suited to collaborative combat. It will also have stealth characteristics, including an internal payload. The drone will feature autonomous control, with a human-in-the-loop (in the case of collaborative operations, the pilot in the cockpit of the Rafale).

According to Dassault, the UCAV will be highly versatile and designed to evolve in line with future threats. Its missions are expected to include suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD), in which the Rafale would benefit hugely from a low-observable loyal-wingman-type drone to operate in concert with the crewed fighter.

The nEUROn demonstrator drone. Dassault Aviation

As for the MQ-9, the land-based Reaper is already in French service, but its manufacturer, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), is busily pursuing ways of adapting MQ-9-series drones for aircraft carrier operations. The company has devised a wing-kit which turns the MQ-9B into a big deck ship-deployable drone. It has also demonstrated its Mojave, specifically developed with the ability to perform short takeoffs and landings, including from different aircraft carriers. The same capabilities found in the Mojave demonstrator have meanwhile been ported over into the Gray Eagle STOL  a design we have discussed in depth in the past.

The Gray Eagle STOL drone undertakes experimental operations from the South Korean amphibious assault ship Dokdo. ROKN

Should the French Navy be interested in fielding a member of the wider family of Q-1 lineage drones aboard its carrier, that would certainly be an option. A drone of this kind could also serve as a sea control/anti-submarine warfare platform, as well as take on other roles such as airborne early warning radar and a networking node truck. Meanwhile, in low-threat environments, it could even be used for reconnaissance and strike.

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The final carrier air wing configuration shown is for 2045, by which time, more significant developments will have changed the face of the aircraft on the deck of the French Navys carrier.

The spearhead of the 2045 carrier air wing is the navalized version of the Next Generation Fighter (NGF). This will be provided with its own air-launched Remote Carriers, a type of store that will increasingly blur the distinction between cruise missiles and drones, and which will deliver kinetic effects as well as carrying other types of payloads.

Concept artwork showing an NGF crewed fighter working with a collaborative team of Remote Carriers. MBDA

As TWZ wrote about in the past:

The requirement to have NGF  or a version of NGF  able to operate from French Navy aircraft carriers will bring additional challenges to the design, chiefly in the form of landing gear able to absorb deck landings, as well as catapult launch and arrester gear. The airframe would also have to be more robust for carrier operations, adding mass to the design, and that naval requirement would have to be accounted for in the wing and control surface design in order to allow for optimized carrier recovery. At the very least, this would necessitate a variant that is built for carrier operations, which would increase cost and timeline.

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It has also been reported that the NGF may be too large to be easily accommodated on the Charles de Gaulle. The new fighter is likely to weigh in the region of 33 tons, compared to around 27 tons for a fully loaded Rafale. A larger airframe could translate to considerable range, as well as the ability to carry a significant payload internally. However, with the new carrier planned to be available from around 2038, the navalized NGF likely wont have to embark on the Charles de Gaulle.

Concept artwork of the NGF crewed stealth fighter. Dassault Aviation

At the same time, the F5 version of the Rafale M and the E-2D will continue to serve alongside the NGF, at least for a while. The Rafale M could also be a potential launch platform for Remote Carriers.

The NGF is being developed as the centerpiece of the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), not to be confused with the U.K.-led effort of the same name. The pan-European FCAS will include uncrewed air vehicles as well as uncrewed effectors and the aforementioned Remote Carriers.

Perhaps most intriguingly, the uncrewed component for the 2045 carrier air wing now also includes the Airbus Wingman uncrewed concept aircraft, which was not previously known to be intended for carrier operations.

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The French Navy is clearly giving some thought to the potential of a fighter-like, stealthy drone within its carrier air wing, and as a capability to be introduced after a flying-wing-type UCAV.

The Wingman, unveiled by Airbus last summer, is also intended to fly collaborative missions alongside crewed fighters. It has been pitched as a low-cost solution, with a price tag equivalent to one-third that of a modern crewed fighter, that can be brought into production and fielded rapidly.

A full-scale model of the Airbus Wingman. Thomas Newdick Thomas Newdick

According to Airbus, the German Air Force has expressed a clear need for a drone of this kind that would be able to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters before the arrival in service of the pan-European FCAS.

As we noted at the time, its hard to envisage that Airbus could develop and build the Wingman solely to meet a German requirement, and interest in a carrier-based version from France could give the program a valuable boost, were that to become formalized.

A rendering of a STOL variant of the MQ-9B coming in for a landing. GA-ASI

Once again, it should be noted that this is very much a suggestion of possible carrier air wing configurations through to 2045 and very much not a program of record. It is, however, interesting to see that the French Navy is considering the possibilities of operating different types of drones aboard its carriers, including the fighter-like Wingman and some kind of development of the nEUROn, or equivalent, which could provide powerful strike and ISTAR capabilities, if pursued.

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The timeline also suggests that France is first looking to introduce a heavier, carrier-based, traditional stealthy UCAV with added collaborative capabilities, rather than a loyal wingman-type drone, first. It is likely that one reason for this is the need to combine the non-stealthy Rafale with a higher-end drone partner to remain relevant in highly contested combat environments in the future. Range is also likely an issue, with UCAV concepts generally possessing a combat radius in multiples of their manned fighter counterparts. This is key to the relevancy of the carrier going forward. Also worth noting is the fact that China also appears to be betting big on a similar concept, starting with carrier-based UCAVs, something that the U.S. Navy has passed over entirely.

With its increasingly unmanned carrier air wing, the French Navy is very much following broader trends in China, the United States, and elsewhere.

A land-based Rafale B flying alongside the nEUROn demonstrator. Dassault Aviation

In the past, the U.S. Navy has said it wants to have uncrewed platforms make up the majority of its future carrier air wings, with up to 60 percent of all aircraft on each flattop being pilotless in the coming decade or two. More recently, however, the Navy has talked about scaling back its ambitions for developing and fielding carrier-based Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), at least in terms of how quickly it might want to pursue them.

Instead, the U.S. Navy is putting more effort into its MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone and its supporting infrastructure. Meanwhile, although it is experimenting with the CCA concept, the Navy is allowing the other services, especially the U.S. Air Force, to prove this out in a full-operational service context.

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With that in mind, the French Navys apparent consideration of stealthy UCAVs as part of its future carrier air wing is especially notable. Again, it highlights a glaring gap in the U.S. combat aircraft space, one we have been pointing out in detail for many years. Undoubtedly, theres growing interest in stealthy UCAVs around the world, including for embarking on carriers. It will be interesting to see what direction the French Navy takes as it starts to assemble the air wing for its next-generation carrier.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com
LORIS, S.C. (WBTW)  Friends are mourning a 62-year-old woman who died Friday after a fire destroyed her home near Loris, and one of those friends is trying to find new homes for the victims cats.

Carol Triplette died in the blaze that destroyed her home along Highway 9 on Papas Bay Road. Horry County Fire Rescue initially said there were critical injuries in the fire, which happened at about 6:30 a.m.

Daren Watson met Triplette about 8 years ago, when Triplette started volunteering at Watsons animal sanctuary.

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Watson said even when they were doing messy work with the animals, Triplette made every moment fun.

She was easy to work with, Watson said. She sure didnt deserve that, not in a million years.

Watson told News13 that Triplette had a kind heart, and that she also struggled with addiction. She was a heavy smoker, used an oxygen tank for COPD, and just finished cancer treatment, according to Warson.

Sometimes, when someones really fun and bubbly, theres a lot of sadness behind that, Watson said. So it just kind of breaks your heart because she was such a good person.

The few things left in Triplettes home were a television, clothes, and her cats.

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The house just has this really heavy feel to it, Watson explained. By all the debris, you can see some of the struggles she had. The smell and the air is so thick in there.

Watson, founder of Whiskers Animal Rescue and Sanctuary in Loris, has been checking on Triplettes nearly 20 cats since the fire.

Some people were kind of giving her a hard time about not having them all fixed, Watson said. But honestly, she could barely take care of herself. Any time she had extra money, she spent it on them.

The animal sanctuary is raising money to treat Triplettes cats and find homes for the ones that are domesticated.

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Triplettes daughter Alice, who did not want to speak on camera, said her mom died with her dog, Charlie Girl. She said Triplette loved her dog more than anything.

The thing I think about the most is, those people that you know that are really happy and seem okaysometimes, theyre not, Watson said. So, pay attention and help those that you can.

Horry County Fire Rescue told News13 that the fire is still under investigation.

If you would like to donate to help Triplettes cats, click here.

* * *

Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.

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CLEVELAND (WJW)  Frontier Airlines on Thursday launched nonstop service from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), with new flights to Nashville International Airport (BNA) set to begin Friday.

Popular nonstop flight returns to Akron-Canton Airport

Each route will operate three times weekly.

To celebrate the new service, the airline is offering introductory fares as low as $49. Click here for the fine print.

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These new routes to Boston and Nashville are the latest in our growth at CLE, as we offer area consumers ultra-low fares to a wide variety of top destinations, said Josh Flyr, Frontiers vice president of network and operations design.

Florida man fatally shoots adult stepson after 9-year-old pulls gun from drawer: police

New Frontier Service from CLE:

Boston (BOS): Begins May 22 | 3x weekly | Fares from $59

Nashville (BNA): Begins May 23 | 3x weekly | Fares from $49

With new flights, Frontier has 22 total destinations from Cleveland.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
After two failed attempts to secure a plea deal in connection with the disappearance of Andy Tench, his mother says the Mecklenburg County District Attorneys Office recently told her they will likely offer the suspect, DShaun Robinson, virtually the same thing for a third time.

I flat out told them, we have no faith in them, no trust in them, Tenches mother, Tracie Blanton, said. They told me they intend to offer a plea for him to plead guilty to the same three charges.

PREVIOUS COVEAGE: State withdraws plea agreement for suspect in Belmont mans disappearance

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Currently, Robinson is facing a lengthy list of charges in connection with Tenchs death. His last plea deal offer would have come with 17 months in jail.

However, this time around, Blanton said the District Attorneys Office may go a different route, sentencing-wise.

Theyre going to leave it up to the judge, said Blanton.

Robinson admitted to meeting Tench at a bar in Dilworth before the two went to a hotel. He said Tench later died and that he dumped his body in a dumpster, stole his car, and used his credit cards.

Tenchs long-term friend, Christian Eidson, said he had asked him to go out with him that night.

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I wish that I had gone. I would have made sure that he came home, Eidson.

Eidson said the justice system has been more dedicated to a plea deal than getting justice for Tench.

I think there could have been more follow-ups to the investigation, said Eidson.

Blanton said learning about a possible third, similar plea deal for Robinson felt like a setback, but she is going to continue to advocate for her son.

Court records show Robinson will be back in court at the end of July.

VIDEO: State withdraws plea agreement for suspect in Belmont mans disappearance
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  Plans to create a new school district for the City of St. George were delayed after the East Baton Rouge Parish School System (EBRPSS) raised objections, prompting lawmakers to defer the bill.

Senate Bills 25 and 234, authored by Sen. Rick Edmonds and Rep. Emily Chenevert, seek to allow St. George to break away and form its own school district. The board said it doesnt oppose voters having a say. However, members worry that the current bills would put unfair burdens on the school system.

At the heart of the boards opposition is a $360 million unfunded liability for retiree health and life insurance benefits. The resolution states that SB 234 doesnt clearly explain how to manage this debt if the new district forms. This leaves EBRPSS with all the financial responsibility.

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The resolution also criticizes a part of SB 234. This part would let students from the new St. George district access EBR magnet programs forever. Board members say this would reduce chances for EBR students. Many magnet programs already have long waiting lists.

In the resolution, the board said this bill would lock in an unequal system and take control away from both districts. It passed during a special meeting Monday night.

On Tuesday, Edmonds asked the House Education Committee to temporarily defer consideration of SB 234.

SB 25, which passed 8-2 in committee, suggests a constitutional change to fund the new district. However, the board wants lawmakers to delay both bills until they amend SB 234 to address their concerns.

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The resolution tells the boards general counsel to send copies to all members of the East Baton Rouge legislative delegation as the bills go to debate in the House.

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A Waltham police cruiser was struck by another car Wednesday morning when it entered an intersection during a red light with its emergency lights flashing, according to the police department.

The crash happened at the intersection of Totten Pond Road and Wyman Street as the officer driving the cruiser was in the process of responding to an unrelated 911 call, Waltham police said in a press release. Preliminary reports indicate that the cruiser was traveling west on Totten Pond Road and came to a complete stop at a red light prior to entering the intersection with its emergency lights activated.

The other car involved in the crash was traveling south on Wyman Street and had a green light at the time of the crash, police said. The officer reported that he didnt see the other vehicle until it struck his cruiser.

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The driver of the other vehicle told investigators that she was driving 25 mph with no traffic in front of her prior to the crash, police said. She reported not seeing the cruiser until the last moment and attempting to break but ultimately being unable to avoid the collision.

No serious injuries were reported at the time of the crash, but both drivers were taken to a local hospital as a precaution, police said. The cruiser landed on its side following the collision.

The Waltham Police Crash Reconstruction Team is still investigating the crash, police said. It is unclear if any charges will be filed in connection to it or whether the officer involved will face discipline from his department.

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Read the original article on MassLive.
By Christian Kraemer and Maria Martinez

BANFF, Alberta (Reuters) -German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil on Thursday said he was optimistic that the Group of Seven advanced economies could agree a joint communique showing support for Ukraine, amid a rift between the U.S. and the rest of the G7 on the issue.

Sources earlier said it was unclear whether the delegations at G7 finance ministers' consultations in Canada could agree on joint language, with one European source saying that U.S. officials wanted to delete language describing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "illegal".

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"I am very positive that we will also reach a joint communique," Klingbeil said at a press conference in Banff, adding that if Russia is not prepared to enter into serious negotiations with Ukraine, "we will consider further sanctions."

The EU and Britain this week announced new sanctions against Russia without waiting for Washington to join them, a day after President Donald Trump's phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin brought about neither a ceasefire in Ukraine nor fresh U.S. sanctions.

European leaders have been lobbying intensely for the Trump administration to join them in imposing new sanctions if Russia rejected a ceasefire.

Klingbeil said that G7 finance ministers and their Ukrainian counterpart had concluded in a meeting that the conflict was "a brutal war" initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and that support for Ukraine continued unabated.

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"I am optimistic that in the end such formulations will also be included in the communique, but please wait for the exact wording, as I want to leave that to the Canadian presidency this afternoon," he said.

TRADE SOLUTIONS

Klingbeil earlier on Wednesday met United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for a bilateral conversation and the two agreed to meet again in Washington.

"We have always discussed forward, how we can take steps together to find solutions," Klingbeil said about the meeting, adding that Bessent's invitation was a good sign.

Klingbeil warned, however, that if no agreement can be found with the United States on tariffs, "then we can expect turbulence on the markets again very quickly."

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The Trump administration has imposed a 25% tariff on U.S. imports of steel, aluminium and cars, as well as a baseline 10% tariff on almost all countries, with additional "reciprocal" tariffs - making for a combined 20% in the EU's case - lined up if negotiations during a 90-day pause fail.

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer and Maria Martinez, editing by Kirsti Knolle and Friederike Heine; Editing by Conor Humphries)
Georgia U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock are demanding the Trump administration reopen parks along Lake Lanier that are said to have closed over budget cuts.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages Lake Lanier, confirmed to Channel 2 Action News on Tuesday that it is planning to close more than 20 lakeside parks due to government budget cuts.

On Wednesday, both senators released statements, calling the move reckless:

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The White House must take immediate action to reopen these beautiful parks at Lake Lanier for Georgia families. This is a direct and predictable result of the Administrations reckless and chaotic mismanagement, Sen. Ossoff wrote.

Lake Lanier is a favorite Memorial Day weekend destination for thousands of Georgia families, but because of this administrations reckless cuts, 20 parks at Lake Lanier are indefinitely closed days before the start of summer. Enough is enough with these reckless cuts. Georgia families deserve better, Sen. Warnock wrote.

Republican Rep. Rich McCormick posted on social media on Wednesday that not all of the planned recreation sites would be closing temporarily.

I spoke with the U.S. Army Corps today about the planned closures at Lake Lanier. I pushed hard for a better solution, and they listened. All boat ramps will remain open, and only 11 recreation sites will close temporarily, not the 21 originally planned.



I am grateful for the  Congressman Rich McCormick, MBA MD (@RepMcCormick) May 22, 2025

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Lake Lanier has 76 recreational areas. The US Army Corps of Engineers operates 37 parks and campgrounds, 10 marinas, and Lake Lanier Islands. It leases out 40 parks and campgrounds to local governments and other organizations.

The US Army Corps of Engineers had complained in the past about the rising costs of staffing and maintaining park recreational areas.

One boater told Channel 2s Tom Regan that with the new emphasis on cutting federal expenditures, it makes sense for the USACE to shift that responsibility and a financial burden to local governments.

With the cuts in the present administration, theyre probably going to leave the counties and states to take over a lot of these. I dont know how its going to work out in the long run, but I guess we will see, Greg Burke said.

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But Channel 2 Action News also learned on Wednesday that the park closures are coming to more areas than just Lake Lanier.

Areas along Allatoona Lake, the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, as well as a couple of lakes in North Georgia, will see parks and recreation areas being shut down by the USACE.
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  The right lane of traffic on I-75 N. in Dayton was blocked for a bit Thursday.

According to Montgomery County Regional Dispatch, a garbage truck caught fire around 6:52 a.m. on I-75 northbound near Needmore Road.

Photo by OHGO.

On scene, crews noted that flames were coming from the engine of the truck.

There are no indication of injuries at this time.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
WILKINSON COUNTY, Ga. (WJBF)  The GBI has arrested and charged 46-year-old Jamel Mikal Ashley of Danville, Georgia.

On May 12th, the Wilkinson County Sheriffs Office asked the GBI to investigate allegations of aggravated assault involving a Wilkinson County Middle School teacher and a student in Irwinton, GA.

Authorities say the investigation confirmed that while in a classroom and employed at a Wilkinson County Middle School, Ashley approached a student and held a pair of scissors to the students throat.

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Ashley was booked into the Wilkinson County Sheriffs Office Jail.

Hes charged with Aggravated Assault and Cruelty to Children.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF.
Uzbekistan records major uptick in trade with key international partners

Uzbekistan is continuing to expand its global trade relationships in 2025, with significant growth in trade volumes with key international partners. Data from the National Statistics Committee reveals that the country has made notable progress, particularly with China, Russia, and other major trading nations.

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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says it has finished looking into the deaths of twin brothers from Gwinnett County.

On March 8, hikers found Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis dead from gunshot wounds at the top of Bell Mountain in north Georgia.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Investigators initially ruled their deaths as a murder-suicide. They sent their bodies to the GBI lab for autopsies.

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The GBI has now confirmed that the injuries both teens received were self-inflicted.

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After their deaths, the twins family members spoke with Channel 2 Action News and said they did not believe the teens died in a murder-suicide.

Were just trying to figure out what happened. Were trying put pieces together to understand. How did they end out in the mountains? They dont hike out there. They have never been out there, said Samira Brawner, the twins aunt.

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A firefighter who responded to the scene, 43-year-old Scott Kerlin, was arrested and charged after being accused of taking photos of the scene and sharing them on social media.

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

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Drivers in Alpharetta waiting for a road-widening project to end are going to have to put up with construction for another year.

The City of Alpharetta said Wednesday that the Georgia Department of Transportations project to widen State Road 9/Main Street from Upper Hembree Road to Windward Parkway is now expected to be complete by 2026.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

GDOT began the road work in April 2021 and had planned to finish it by spring of last year.

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The city blamed the longer-than-expected construction on delays in utility work and design changes related to new development along the corridor.

RELATED STORY: Some Milton residents upset about loss of trees when GDOT widens Hwy 9

While this is not a City of Alpharetta project, we know it has a daily impact on our communityfrom commutes to business access," the city said.

Heres the expected timeline for the remainder of the project:

July: AT&T will complete utility relocation

Mid-August: Georgia Power will remove remaining utility poles

Mid-October: Street and pedestrian lights will be turned on in the south end of the project

March 2026: Median landscaping will be completed

April 2026: Main roadway paving and all sidewalks will be finished

May 2026: Lights will be turned on in the north end of the project

August 2026: Final paving on side roads will be complete

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The $50 million project widens the roadway from two to four lanes. It also adds turning lanes in key locations, a bike lane, a raised median, on-street parking, traffic signals and improved drainage.

GDOTs work also will make the pedestrian experience better, improving crosswalks, sidewalks, pedestrian lighting and signals, in additional to aesthetic improvements.

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Police violence had been captured on video before. But the video of George Floyds final nine minutes of life was different.

It captured Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, dying as Derick Chauvin, a White Minneapolis police officer, held him down with his knee on Floyd's neck. Video captured Floyd pleading for his mother, as onlookers were pleading for his life.

Usually homicides by police officers involve a firearm, with the incidents captured over in a matter of seconds, minutes at most, said Reggie Moore, the Medical College of Wisconsins director of violence prevention policy and engagement.

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This was a slow and methodical murder that would shake any caring individual to their core, Moore said. Thankfully, millions across the globe, from all walks of life, were not only shaken but inspired to take to the streets and demand change.

Reggie Moore, director of the Milwaukees Office of Violence Prevention in 2020, drove to Minneapolis after George Floyd was murdered to observe and provide support to that city's violence prevention efforts.

Chanting Floyds dying words, I cant breathe, and "Black Lives Matter," thousands took to the streets of Milwaukee, at one point closing a section of Interstate 43, encircling a law enforcement building in Racine and setting it on fire.

In Madison, long a liberal bastion for rallies, police began deploying tear gas, night-after-night, as crowds turned their anger to destruction, smashing windows and vandalizing businesses along State Street, tearing down two iconic statues on Capitol grounds and assaulting state Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee.

Signaling a need to maintain safety, control crowds and protect businesses from looting, more than 1,400 Wisconsin National Guard troops were deployed to Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha,

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The rallies in the United States were replicated overseas, with thousands marching in cities like London, Berlin and Toronto.

Not even the new, fast-spreading COVID-19 virus could keep people away from rallies. Millions took to the streets, masked, to decry racial injustices and hold Chauvin accountable.

These forces were colliding with a presidential campaign already underway: President Donald Trumps first administration saw protests as a need for police crackdowns. Presidential candidate Joe Biden reached out to Floyds family and said the moment was a call to social reckoning.

Biden won and soon signed executive orders aimed at advancing equity, civil rights and racial justice.

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Now, five years after Floyds death on May 25, 2020, Trump is back. A jackhammer was taken to the words "Black Lives Matter, removing the phrase on the boulevard leading to the White House. Under the Trump administration, diversity, equity and inclusion policies are systematically losing funding and are viewed as no longer relevant.

I ended all of the lawless, so-called diversity, equity and inclusion bullshit all across the entire federal government and the private sector, Trump said at an April 29 rally in Michigan that marked his 100th day in office.

The public is skeptical the period after Floyd created meaningful improvements for Black Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. In May, the organization released results of a survey that found 72% of respondents did not feel the focus on race after Floyd's killing led to improvements.

And those who did feel progress was made fear it could be lost.

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Those battles wont stay won, said William Sulton, a defense attorney and president of the American Civil Liberties Union Wisconsin. "You have to continue to talk about these issues because there can be a rollback, and thats what were experiencing, a major rollback in gains that were made in 2020."

Five years later, efforts after Floyd see resistance

Changes to police reforms have been swift during the first five months of Trumps second term.

Five days prior to the five-year anniversary of Floyds death the U.S. Department of Justice announced its plans to drop police-accountability agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, where Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police officers.

The move abandons Biden-era attempts to reshape law enforcement in cities with high-profile killings by officers.

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Trump has deleted a federal database of police misconduct incidents, overturned executive orders signed by Biden, and canceled funding for programs or agencies that existed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion.

In April, Trump issued an executive order directing the attorney general to use all legal remedies against state and local officials who engage in diversity, equity and inclusion policies in law enforcement, and he has done the same in "virtually all aspects of federal government.

Earlier this year, the president called DEI a tyranny on the federal government, public sector and military.

Our country will be woke no longer, Trump said during a joint address to Congress in March.

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The corporate sector has followed Trump's lead.

Wisconsin-based Kohl's Corp. dropped the term DEI from its annual report, replacing it with inclusion and belonging. Harley-Davidson, a Milwaukee-based company, also backed away from diversity initiatives.

Many in Trump's party support the changes.

The words diversity, equity and inclusion, they all sound good, but what results from that mentality? said state Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield. I wholeheartedly support merit-based promotions and hiring.

Tanya McLean is executive director of Leaders of Kenosha, a group that advocates for social and restorative justice and equal access to resources for Black residents of Kenosha and Wisconsin.

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Its been her experience that police are receptive to the idea of more diversity within the force. Police departments in Kenosha, Madison and Milwaukee became more diverse in the years since Floyd's murder, records show.

Although the Trump agenda calls for rollback, local governments have passed laws already that reduced negative police encounters, said Sulton, the state ACLU official.

Sulton said hes optimistic that DEI policies and policing reforms he advocates for will remain. That's because people are simply putting in the work.

Youre going to have swings from Democrats being in power to swings of Republicans being in power, which is why I think its important for people stay on the job every day, he said.

Terry Thompson, center, with Salt and Light Christian group from Oak Creek Assembly of God church, is joined by others as they take a knee, the opposite knee the Minneapolis officer used in the death of George Floyd, showing support against police brutality during a peaceful prayer protest at Washington Park in Milwaukee on May 31, 2020.

Police reforms come to pass in Wisconsin

The Floyd protests led to change across every sector, but no profession came under more scrutiny and change than law enforcement.

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Underscoring it all was the way police engaged with people of color, with Floyd's murder underscoring what many believed to be indicative of racial bias.

Defund the police became a common refrain, alongside "re-envision policing," as people advocated for funding to go to communities directly and for dollars to be funneled to things meant to prevent crime, rather than to police departments responding to it.

Policy changes soon followed.

Milwaukees Fire and Police Commission passed policies that tightened use-of-force, banned chokeholds and banned no-knock warrants.

Three months after Floyd was killed, police in Kenosha shot Jacob Blake, Black man, in the back as he got into a car. A neighbor caught the incident on video, which went viral. Blake's shooting, which left him paralyzed, reignited protests and led to body cameras being mandated for Kenosha police officers.

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In Madison, police adopted dozens of changes after undergoing an external review through University of Pennsylvania.

Fred Royal, a former president of the local NAACP, called the Fire and Police Commissions changes part of one of the most progressive use-of-force policies currently being employed or discussed when they occurred.

"All of these different processes got us to where we are now," said Milwaukee activist Vaun Mayes, who organized one of the first protests in the city in 2020. "Clearly we're not where we want to be completely."

A mural depicting activist Vaun Mayes, shown June 29, 2020, in Milwaukee, was put on the side of a building at 1400 North 14th Street. Mayes organized one of the first protests in the city in 2020.

At the state level, bills were passed that banned chokeholds in most instances, required reporting of no-knock warrants (a response to Breonna Taylors death in Louisville, Kentucky), and tracked use-of-force incidents.

Wisconsins legislative changes were in the middle for states that did make changes, said Brandon Garrett, a law professor at Duke University and director of its Wilson Center for Science and Justice.

The Wilson Center tracked police reform changes nationally in the years that followed Floyds death. He cited Colorado as a state that took more steps than Wisconsin by removing qualified immunity for police officers accused of wrongdoing.

You don't want to make policy because of one case and one incident, Garrett said. (But it was) a catalyst to reexamine some kind of policies that people had known for a long time weren't great.

Milwaukee sees pushback

While the emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion at the federal level didnt see real backlash until Trumps second term, the pushback came swiftly in Wisconsin, due in large part to GOP control of the Legislature.

Take the passage of Act 12 in 2023.

Milwaukee was on the brink of a fiscal crisis. Lawmakers agreed to help out the state's largest city, but the help came with stipulations: among those were DEI restrictions and policing requirements.

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said at the time the citys fiscal situation was effectively used to strip away DEI efforts made by the city.

The law prohibited Milwaukee from using tax money to fund any position for which the principal duties consist of promoting individuals or groups on the basis of their race, color, ancestry, national origin, or sexual orientation."

District 14 Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, left, listens to Mayor Cavalier Johnson deliver his budget address to the members of the Milwaukee Common Council, September 19, 2023 at Milwaukee City Hall. Wisconsin 2023 Act 12 offered increased funding for Milwaukee but came with stipulations: among those was DEI restrictions and policing requirements.

It also prohibited local governments in Wisconsin from using preferences in hiring or contracting.

"Milwaukee's fiscal cliff opened the door to Republican demands that would have never passed muster for me or at the city's Common Council," Johnson said in 2023. "No matter how loudly I said no, the steamroller of political reality moved forward."

When Wisconsin Act 12 passed, it came with hefty stipulations on policing in the city as well.

The Fire and Police Commission lost the power to create policy for the departments, with that responsibility moving to the chiefs of both departments. Act 12 also dictated the oversight commission have two members from lists provided by the police and firefighter unions.

The current executive director of the Fire and Police Commission previously told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the law's FPC provisions were passed in backlash to policy changes.

"Where the board diverged from what the Police Department and, more importantly, the police union wanted ... that's what led to the Act 12 changes," director Leon Todd said in late February.

The ACLUs Sulton said DEI and policy backtracking was a direct result of conservative backlash.

I think (Trump) and the Republicans, even before summer of 2020, really resisted and took steps to undo anything that would address past discrimination and current discrimination, he said.

More work to do

Changes to law enforcement policies have taken hold in Milwaukee. Nate Hamilton continues pushing for more.

Hamilton is the brother of Dontre Hamilton, whom Milwaukee police shot and killed in 2014 after they responded to a report of a sleeping man in a public park downtown. Police officers were fired, but ultimately not charged in the incident. It sparked years of activism for him and his family.

Hamilton now is chair of a city commission meant to offer community input on police reform. The group helped craft the the Milwaukee Police Department's community policing policy and is working with the department on updating it.

Hamilton is optimistic progress will continue, in part, because the department has improved the way it listens to the community under Police Chief Jeffrey Norman.

We just need to stay steady. We dont need to overwhelm the system, he said.

McLean, executive director of the advocacy group Leaders of Kenosha, said it seems as though the country is in an endless cycle of police killings that may not get a lot of attention but continue to happen.

She believes the best way forward is open communication with law enforcement and lawmakers.

"The powers that be need to be addressing the root causes of why and how we got here," she said. "That is most important and that work still needs to continue. Those conversations still need to be had.

Floyds murder a generational reminder

Dr. Christopher Ford, an emergency medicine doctor in Milwaukee, was doing his residency in Minneapolis when a police officer was found not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile.

Castile was killed by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb in 2016, four years before Floyd.

Castile, 32, was in the car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old son. Talk quickly circulated in the media regarding what he had done  was he intoxicated, how did he provoke the officer?

The questions about Castiles alcohol consumption were enough to make Ford, now 39, change his own behavior. He quit drinking.

He added it to the list of behaviors to alter when encountered by police  dont make any sudden movements, show your hands, if you have a weapon, have a permit  that his grandfather had taught his dad and both had taught him.

I cant have any wiggle room when I am out or that could happen to me, said Ford, who identifies as African American.

Alondra Garcia, a second grade MPS teacher wears a mask she made to remember George Floyd, killed by a Minneapolis police officer, during a protest at 26th and Center streets, May 29, 2020. Garcia said she had friends who have experienced police burtality and she wanted her students to know that she was standing for her brothers and sisters and that justice needs to be served.

For all that has changed since Floyd, and for all that has been rolled back, some things haven't changed at all.

Ford says he speaks to his two sons, ages 5 and 7, every day the same way his father and grandfather did to him. Unfortunately, that is the way it is, he said.

That's something that my kids are going to have to live with for the rest of their lives," Ford said. "The society that they grow up in sees them differently than mom and dad does."

David Clarey is a public safety reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dclarey@gannett.com.

Drake Bentley is a general assignment and breaking news reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at dbentley1@gannett.com.

Jessica Van Egeren is a general assignment reporter and assistant breaking news editor with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at jvanegeren@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Will changes driven by George Floyd's murder five years ago stay?
Sunday, May 25, marks five years since the killing of George Floyd.

In remembrance of his life and the response to his murder, Minnesota communities are coming together in celebration of the movement and mourning lives lost.

Here are some events:

Justice For George

The artist collective Memorialize the Movement is hosting its fifth annual Justice for George event that features art-making, large-scale mural exhibitions, music and dance performances over the course of five days. The theme of this years event is Radical Joy, which encourages community care, connections, and healing, while continuing to grieve, mourn, and fight for a better future for Black communities.

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Thursday, May 22, and Saturday, May 24, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Pillsbury House + Theater, 3501 Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis, the organization hosts a free reading of the one-act play, Kill Move Paradise. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner James Ijames (Fat Ham), explores the brotherhood of murdered black men who offer each other solace and reconciliation, as they prepare for ascension to paradise and their new roles as spiritual guardians and saints. An open discussion will follow the performance. Registration for the event is required.

Friday, May 23, from 6 to 10 p.m. at 3140 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis, the organization hosts Paint to Express Summer Kickback. The free event features grilled food and painters workshops, which are hosted monthly by the organization to provide the community with a safe space to express themselves creatively. Registration is required.

Sunday, May 25, from 12 to 8 p.m. at Phelps Field Park, 701 E. 39th St., Minneapolis, the organization hosts the Justice for George main event, which features live performances, muralists, a vendor fair and other opportunities for community connection.

Registration and/or free tickets are required for these events. For information, visit memorializethemovement.com.

Rise & Remember Festival

The fifth annual Rise & Remember Festival serves to remember George Floyd and those we have lost unjustly to the pervasive impacts of systemic racism, according to their website. The three-day festival will include a candlelight vigil, a Night of Honor and street festival.

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Friday, May 23, from 4:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. at Quincy Hall, 1325 Quincy St., Minneapolis, the Night to Remember gala, dinner and award ceremony will celebrate the contributions of the peoples work toward racial justice and feature live performances from comedian Hope Flood, DJ Sophia Eris, Maria Isa, Mr. Cheeks, The East Side Boyz and others. The dress code for the event is formal wear and sneakers. Tickets for the dinner and award ceremony, which begins at 4:30 p.m. cost $44.52. Tickets for the concert cost $81.88.

Saturday, May 24, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at George Floyd Square, 38th Street East and Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, the street festival will kick off for day one of the two-day weekend event. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., a self-care fair, aimed at providing opportunities for community members to experience integrative health practices, will feature wellness vendors and practitioners, along with free wellness services. From 6 to 7 p.m., rapper DEE-1 will host a performance at the square.

Sunday, May 25, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at George Floyd Square, the street festival will continue. From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Worldwide Outreach for Christ will lead a worship service. Then from 2 to 6 p.m., the self-care fair will continue. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Sounds of Blackness will perform a gospel concert and a candlelight vigil will follow from 8 to 9 p.m.

For tickets and additional information, visit riseandremember.org.

We Miss You, George Floyd

Saturday, May 24, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul, author Shannon Gibney and Ananya Dance Theatre host a reading of Gibneys picture book, We Miss You, George Floyd. The event will occur outdoors if weather permits and will include interactive crafts and a movement activity led by Ananya Dance Theatre. The event is free and attendees can RSVP at redballoonbookshop.com.

Ride to Remember

Related Articles

Sunday, May 25, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Venture Bikes Midtown,1000 Midtown Greenway, Minneapolis, Melanin in Motion hosts Slow Roll, Ride to Remember, a narrated biking event that will visit sites that were central to the community response to the murder of George Floyd. These sites include George Floyd Square, the Midtown Exchange building, Powderhorn Park, the former site of the 3rd Precinct police station and 3030 Nicollet Ave., where a Wells Fargo branch burned. A community meal and conversation will follow the bike ride from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. This event is free and bikes can be provided if needed, though they are limited. For tickets, search for Melanin in Motion at eventbrite.com.
GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD)  Georgetown County is planning an insightful and meaningful celebration to mark the nations 250th anniversary.

Georgetown Countys 250 Committee is looking to lead a celebration that includes more than a look at the nations past, but rather a chance to bring people from all walks of life together to inspire hope for the future.

The committee  under the statewide SC 250 Commission  is actively organizing events and building partnerships for the July 4 celebration; however, it is calling on county residents to add their voice and be part of the once-in-a-generation commemoration.

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This isnt just a history lesson  its a celebration of who we are, where weve come from, and where were going, said Ken Baeszler, Chairman of the Georgetown County 250 Executive Committee. Our country was founded on the idea that people from all backgrounds could come together to build something greater. Georgetown 250 is about capturing that spirit, and making sure every community has a voice in this story.

As part of the celebration, the committee is looking to tell stories from heroes of the Revolutionary War to the unsung heroes who helped shape the course of history.

Previous events included a symbolic tea dumping in Georgetown Harbor and the Francis Marion Living History Day, which brought Revolutionary War reenactors to historic Georgetown.

The committee is now developing new events aimed at highlighting African American contributions to the fight for independence.

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A lot of our early events attracted history buffs, said Baeszler. But we also want to bring in new voices  especially from communities that havent always been included in how we tell history.

This is a county-wide celebration, added Baeszler. We want people from Plantersville to Pawleys Island, from Andrews to Murrells Inlet  every community, every background  to see themselves in this moment.

The committee will begin meeting in various locations around Georgetown County to make its meetings and information more accessible to everyone.

New members and volunteers are welcome to join, and there is no fee. You can learn more and see meeting locations by visiting sc250georgetown.org.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.
A 19-year-old college student in Georgia, who was detained by immigration authorities after police pulled over the wrong car in a traffic stop, was granted bond on Wednesday.

Ximena Arias-Cristobal was held in a detention center under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in western Georgia while her lawyer and family fought for her release.

She was detained after she was pulled over by the Dalton Police Department on May 5 and accused of making an improper turn and driving without a proper license. A week later, all charges against her were dropped after the department said police had pulled over the wrong car.

Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, was arrested in Dalton, Ga., following a traffic stop. (City of Dalton via WXIA)

But ICE kept Arias-Cristobal in detention because the agency determined she was in the United States illegally. Arias-Cristobal was born in Mexico but has lived in the United States since she was 4 years old. The Dalton State Community College student did not qualify for protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) established in 2012 because she was brought to the U.S. after new applications were stopped, following lawsuits by Republican states trying to end the program.

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She now faces deportation proceedings.

On Wednesday, Arias-Cristobal was granted the minimal amount of bond possible under the law, $1,500, her lawyer Dustin Baxter said. The government did not appeal the judges bond order, according to Baxter.

The judge had reviewed Ximenas case in detail and determined that Ximena is in fact not a flight risk or a danger to the community in the least, he said in a statement. The family will pay the bond ASAP and Ximena will be home with her family tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

Arias-Cristobal was being held at the ICE Stewart Detention Center in rural Lumpkin, Georgia, about three and a half hours from where she lives.

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Her father, Jose Arias Tovar, had been held in the same detention center after he was pulled over in a separate traffic stop a couple of weeks earlier.

He was released on bond last week and told NBC News knowing he was released while his daughter remained in detention was the most difficult situation in my life.

I can say, my body walks away, but my heart stays there. Its very sad, he said in Spanish.

Arias Tovar said his daughter is a great person and a a strong worker, very good student. I can see a good future for her here in the United States.

I know a lot of people think bad things about us because we broke some immigration laws. I understand that. But when we come here, we fall in love. We love this country, he said. We are ready to build America together. Were just looking for one chance to stay here with my family, because we are good workers. We are not criminals.

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Ndaihita Cristobal, the mother of Arias-Cristobal, said she hasnt been sleeping well since her husband and daughter were detained by immigration authorities.

I was crying because in my house I felt a very, very strong loneliness, a sadness, she told NBC News in Spanish.

Every morning we would have breakfast together. But shes no longer with me, she said.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Wednesday that the facts of the case remain unchanged.

Both father and daughter were in this country illegally, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. The United States is offering aliens like this father and daughter $1,000 apiece and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Christina Broadway says she was at a funeral when security cameras captured a city worker walking around her property and entering her home. She says the employee was inside for about 20 minutes.

"I'm extremely furious, as a single woman. I don't understand why somebody would just walk straight into my home," Broadway told WSB-TV Channel 2 in a story published May 14. "I don't feel safe at home anymore at all."

But Marietta, Georgia, city officials say the employee had a right to be at the home and didnt break any policy or law.

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Here are the details behind the story, along with ways you can protect your property from unwanted visitors.

City worker's observations

According to a statement from city officials published by Channel 2, a city employee was in the area inspecting a separate site when he observed strong evidence of unpermitted illegal construction activity, including construction debris and workers carrying boards inside the property. The employee approached knowing that this property did not have any active building permits.

He proceeded to the front door, which was open, and spoke with the workers. The employee noticed additional evidence of unpermitted illegal construction. He observed structural building modifications, electrical, mechanical and plumbing work, as well as an expanded driveway, all of which require permits.

Channel 2 reports a construction worker who says he was there that day described a man entering the home and said he wasnt sure what was happening.

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The city employee asked to speak with the property owner, according to the citys statement, but the workers were unable to reach the owner by phone. The employee then posted a Stop Work Order notification on the front door before walking the construction site for further inspection of illegal construction activities.

Broadway indicated to Channel 2 the work being done to her home was cosmetic, which doesnt always require permits. She also acknowledged receiving a phone call during the funeral. Broadway, an attorney, claims shes reviewed the case law and city code, and doesnt believe he had the right to enter her home.

City officials say two reviews were conducted by police and the city, and the employee was found to have acted within his official capacity and did not violate any policy or law, as his actions were based on probable cause of unpermitted construction taking place.

The full statement from city officials can be read in Channel 2s story.

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Read more: You're probably already overpaying for this 1 'must-have' expense  and thanks to Trump's tariffs, your monthly bill could soar even higher. Here's how 2 minutes can protect your wallet right now

Protect your property

Generally, government employees are required to obtain a warrant or the express permission of the owner before entering a property.

For example, Marietta building code 7-4-2-040, under Right of Entry for building officials, states, if such [a] building or premises is occupied, he shall first present proper credentials and request entry. If such [a] building, structure or premises is unoccupied, he shall first make a reasonable effort to locate the owner or other persons having charge or control of such and request entry. If entry is refused, the building official shall have recourse to every remedy provided by law to secure entry.

The statement to Channel 2 says the property appeared vacant and unoccupied, and the employee identified himself to the workers inside. The workers called the owner with no response. The employee made reasonable effort to contact the property owner and proceeded to speak with the individuals present and responsible on the property.

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Broadway says plans to fight the allegations regarding her property.

In order to protect your own property from an unwelcome visitor, consider adding security measures.

For example, you could install smart locks in order to lock your doors from anywhere, or install cameras and video doorbells to monitor activity around your home. Perhaps even a door alarm.

If you have contractors in your home at any time, consider asking them to keep the doors locked as often as possible while they work.

What to read next

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
By Andreas Rinke and Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) -Europe needs to step "out of its comfort zone" and consider much tougher sanctions on Russia, such as bans on gas or uranium, or tapping into frozen Russian state assets, Thorsten Frei, the chief of staff of Germany's new chancellor, told Reuters.

The EU and Britain announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday over its invasion of Ukraine, zeroing in on Moscow's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers and financial firms that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions.

The next round of EU sanctions - currently being prepared - must be strong, including even some measures that might impact other EU states, Frei said in an interview at his new office in the chancellery.

"We must step out of our comfort zone and adopt measures that truly go beyond the status quo," the conservative politician said.

Asked if that meant European import bans on gas or uranium and tapping into frozen Russian state assets, Frei said: "These are exactly the kinds of measures that would really hurt Russia - and thus achieve the impact we actually intend with sanctions."

Frei also endorsed calls for sanctions on the Nord Stream gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who took office this month, said last week Germany and its allies would move to confiscate frozen Russian assets if legally possible. Discussions about sanctions on Russian energy are ongoing, Merz said.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to accept Europe's call for a ceasefire, however, the tone in Berlin seems to be hardening further.

"I strongly support going down this path because we have seen in the past that Russia essentially only accepts, acknowledges, and understands clear language."

'PLAYING FOR TIME'

Frei accused Putin of having no intention of seeking peace noting that even during peace talks last week with Ukraine in Istanbul Russia's attacks "continued unabated - they even intensified".

"He's playing for time," Frei said of the Russian leader.

Putin wants to create military facts on the ground, he added, and clearly expects to achieve his war aims militarily: "These are not exactly the best conditions for a quick peace."

Frei said he could not rule out the possibility that Germany might increase its military aid for Ukraine from 7 billion ($8 billion) in the draft budget for this year. He did not say by how much the aid might increase.

($1 = 0.8830 euros)

(Writing by Sarah MarshEditing by Gareth Jones)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. The delegation of Azerbaijani Railways CJSC (ADY), led by Deputy Chairman Arif Aghayev, is making a working visit to China, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Railways

As part of the visit, the company representatives got acquainted with the operations and infrastructure capabilities of the inland ports in the cities of Xian and Chengdu, as well as with modern logistics solutions implemented at these ports.

The delegation also held meetings with their authorities.

During the meetings, discussions focused on attracting cargo flows to the Middle Corridor, expanding logistics potential, and exploring prospects for bilateral cooperation.

Moreover, it was noted that Xian and Chengdu are major transportation and economic hubs in Western China, playing a key role in the development of trade and logistics links between China and Europe via the Middle Corridor.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed his condemnation on Thursday of the shooting dead of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington the previous evening.

"At the present time, we must assume that there was an anti-Semitic motive," Merz wrote on the X social media platform.

"I condemn this abhorrent act in the strongest terms," he wrote.

The two people shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington were a young couple identified by Israel's Foreign Ministry as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

Washington police said that the gunman chanted "free Palestine" after being taken into custody.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul expressed his shock on Thursday at the shooting dead of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington.

"Anti-Semitic violence can never be justified," Wadephul said.

He was "shocked at the dastardly murder" of the two employees, he wrote on X, adding that his thoughts were with the families of the victims and colleagues in the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

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The two victims were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum. According to Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, they were a young couple who were about to get engaged.

US police said the suspect has been arrested and that after the killings he allegedly chanted the slogan "free, free Palestine."
Germany's new justice minister came out in favour of considering legal action to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in remarks to the national daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung released on Thursday.

Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) said the AfD had to be taken seriously as "a possible threat to our democracy." She added: "This necessarily includes looking into banning the party."

Calls for the AfD to be banned have grown louder after Germany's domestic intelligence agency upgraded its assessment of the party from "suspected" to "confirmed right-wing extremist" at the beginning of this month, a move that comes with more surveillance power over the party.

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However, the intelligence agency has suspended the assessment pending the outcome of an application for an urgent injunction against the classification filed by the AfD.

Hubig told the conservative daily that a ban was the sharpest weapon that German democracy had at its disposal to defend itself against enemies and that it should not be used prematurely.

But if thorough examination revealed that the conditions were right it would be difficult to justify not making use of it, she added.

Hubig said that the new government, a coalition of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives and the SPD, would discuss the possibility of seeking a ban and come up with a joint response.

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Merz has said he is "very sceptical" that a ban should be pursued.

Both houses of parliament should also discuss the issue, Hubig said, noting that the constitution allowed either of them to launch proceedings before the constitutional court, as well as the government.

Germany's constitutional court has in the past set a high bar for banning a party.

Holding anti-constitutional views is considered insufficient to justify such a move. Instead, the party in question has to pursue these views aggressively, and achieving its anti-constitutional aims has to be at least theoretically possible.

The AfD was placed second in the February elections on 20.8% of the vote behind the conservative bloc on 28.5% and ahead of the SPD in third place on 16.4%.
BANFF, Canada (Reuters) -German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is optimistic about relations with Washington after his meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, he told journalists on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) ministerial meeting in Banff, Canada.

"I noticed the positive signals and believe we can build on them," Klingbeil, who also serves as vice chancellor in the new German government, said late on Wednesday.

Klingbeil said that both ministers had agreed to meet again in Washington, with Bessent inviting Klingbeil.

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Germany is worried about the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff regime on its export-focused economy, which has been mired in downturn for two years.

Bessent has been tasked with renegotiating the United States' trading relationships, with Klingbeil saying after his meeting with the U.S. treasury secretary that the task now was to find solutions.

The German minister also expressed confidence that the G7 finance ministers' meeting in the Canadian Rockies would deliver a joint communique.

It was clear from discussions that the G7 would continue to support Ukraine, Klingbeil said, adding: "That is also an important sign."

(Reporting by Christian Kraemer, Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Kirsti Knolle)
The chief of staff to Germanys new chancellor, Thorsten Frei, has called on Europe to step "out of our comfort zone" and impose tougher sanctions on Russia, such as banning gas and uranium imports and tapping into frozen Russian state assets.

Source: Thorsten Frei in an interview with Reuters, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Frei stated that the 18th package of sanctions against Russia, preparation for which has begun after the adoption of the 17th package on 20 May 2025, should be robust and even include measures that might impact other EU countries.

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"We must step out of our comfort zone and adopt measures that truly go beyond the status quo," he said.

When asked if this included banning Russian gas or uranium imports to Europe and tapping into frozen Russian state assets, Frei responded: "These are exactly the kinds of measures that would really hurt Russia  and thus achieve the impact we actually intend with sanctions."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin of lacking intent to seek peace, noting that during peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul last week, Russias attacks "continued unabated  they even intensified."

"He's playing for time," Frei said of Putin, adding that the Russian leader expects to achieve his military goals through force.

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Frei also noted that Germany cannot rule out increasing military assistance to Ukraine beyond the 7 billion [US$7.7 billion] allocated in this years draft budget.

Background

On 20 May 2025, the EU Council approved the 17th package of sanctions against Russia for its war against Ukraine, alongside separate sanctions for Russias use of chemical weapons against Ukraine.

The Council of the EU also detailed additional personal sanctions in response to Russias hybrid destabilising activities against EU countries and their partners.

These sanctions are part of a series of packages prepared for approval on 20 May.

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Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged to build Europe's strongest military for Germany.

Germany's shift in defense policy followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and NATO goals.

Experts highlighted challenges like underinvestment, recruitment, and political consensus.

Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, vowed last week that the country will build "the strongest conventional army in Europe."

It comes as Germany and others adapt to the drive for European countries to rapidly rearm in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022  but contrasts with recent decades when the country has preferred soft power over military strength.

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So, how feasible is it for Germany to be the continent's biggest military power?

"For now, the money is there, and Germans have deep pockets," Ulrich Kuhn, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Business Insider.

"What is missing is a general cross-party consensus on the issue, including the left wing of the governing Social Democrats, who are more skeptical of projecting military power," he said.

Last month, Germany announced that it was deploying troops to Lithuania on a long-term basisthe first long-term deployment of German soldiers to another country since World War II, another sign of its changing military approach.

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Kuhn added that the commitment to increase Germany's defense spending "can only be the beginning if the goal is really to position itself as Europe's defense champion."

"What the German arms industry needs are long-term contracts well into the 2030s and state subsidies to rapidly scale up production," he said.

As of May 2024, Germany's army, the Bundeswehr, had 180,215 active-duty personnel.

Jorn Fleck, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Europe Center, told BI that a targeted increase of the German armed forces to 200,000 had been delayed until 2031 "due to lackluster recruitment and an ageing force."

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But he said that Germany "has taken important initial steps to rebuild the German military into one of Europe's leading conventional forces."

Fleck cited a 100 billion special fund to modernize the military, announced in 2022, and constitutional changes to partially exempt defense spending from Germany's debt brake, which was imposed after the 2008 financial crisis and limits the deficit to just 0.35% of GDP. By contrast, the US deficit exceeded 6% last year.

But Fleck warned that Germany "will have to overcome two if not three decades of underinvestment in its armed forces."

"The resulting force reductions, readiness problems, capability gaps, and infrastructure challenges will take years to reverse," he added. "They will not be solved by money alone and will require sustained political will and leadership."

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One positive for Germany is its thriving defense industry, which includes major players like Rheinmetall and KNDS, along with medium-sized companies and innovative startups.

In 2024, Rheinmetall saw sales related to its defense business increase by 50% year-on-year.

Germany's defense industry strategy, focused on key technologies, greater economies of scale, and the potential of the European market, is a "positive step in the right direction," Fleck said, but he added that the country will "have to fundamentally reform its procurement agency and processes" to boost its defense industry.

He also said that advancing Germany's military capabilities will move the needle across Europe, given the country's political and economic weight on the continent.

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This has already been visible when it comes to the REARM initiative that opened the door for countries to spend more on defense, and the proposal for common EU borrowing to fund joint development and procurement.

"If Germany, Europe's reluctant hegemon with its fraught history, can get its act together on defense," Kuhn said. "So can others."

Read the original article on Business Insider
New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gave his support on Thursday to a higher spending target for the military, as pressure grows on NATO countries to increase their defence budgets.

Speaking during a visit to Lithuania, where he formally launched a new German brigade, Merz said the German government agreed with the new target, as previously outlined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Rutte had proposed that defence-related spending by members of the military alliance should reach 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP), with an additional 1.5% for military infrastructure.

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"From the perspective of the German government, these are two figures that we could get close to. They seem reasonable to us, they also seem achievable to us, at least in the specified timeframe up to 2032," Merz said.

On Tuesday, Merz's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius unveiled a roadmap for how to achieve the higher spending target.

On the sidelines of a meeting in Brussels, Pistorius outlined a plan for Germany to increase military expenditure as a ratio of GDP by 0.2 percentage points per year over a period of seven years up until 2032.

A new NATO spending target is set to be adopted at the NATO summit in the Dutch city of The Hague in June.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP)  Chancellor Friedrich Merz inaugurated a groundbreaking German brigade in Lithuania that is meant to help protect NATO's eastern flank and declared Thursday that the security of our Baltic allies is also our security as worries about Russian aggression persist.

He said Berlin's strengthening of its own military sends a signal to its allies to invest in security.

The stationing in Lithuania marks the first time that a German brigade is being based outside Germany on a long-term basis since World War II. This is a historic day, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said after meeting Merz. This is a day of trust, responsibility and action.

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German brigade to be at full strength in 2027

Germany has had troops in Lithuania  which borders Russia's Kaliningrad exclave and Moscow-allied Belarus  since 2017, as part of efforts to secure NATO's eastern fringe, but the new brigade deepens its engagement significantly.

An advance party started work on setting it up just over a year ago and expanded into an activation staff of about 250 people last fall. The 45 Armored Brigade is expected to be up to its full strength of about 5,000 by the end of 2027, with troops stationed at Rukla and Rudninkai.

Dozens of military helicopters roared over the central cathedral square in Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, as the inauguration wrapped up on a rainy Thursday afternoon, with hundreds of troops and spectators attending. Merz told the event that protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin.

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The deployment in Lithuania has been taking shape as Germany works to strengthen its military overall after years of neglect as NATO members scramble to increase defense spending, spurred by worries about further potential Russian aggression and pressure from Washington.

Beefing up the Bundeswehr

Merz said that, beyond the new brigade, Germany is investing massively in its own armed forces.

With this, we also want to send a signal to our allies: let us now invest with determination in our own security, he added. Together with our partners, we are determined to defend alliance territory against every  every  aggression. The security of our Baltic allies is also our security.

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Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to increase Germanys defense spending to the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product and announced the creation of a 100 billion-euro ($113-billion) special fund to modernize the Bundeswehr.

Germany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027. Even before it took office earlier this month, the new governing coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt.

Merz, the first chancellor to have served in the Bundeswehr himself, told parliament last week that the government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe.

Lithuania to spend more than 5% on defense

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Host Lithuania said in January that it would raise its defense spending to between 5% and 6% of GDP starting next year, from a bit over 3%. That made it the first NATO nation to vow to reach a 5% goal called for by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A plan is in the works for all allies to aim to spend 3.5% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2032, plus an extra 1.5% on potentially defense-related things like infrastructure  roads, bridges, airports and seaports.

Merz said in Lithuania that those figures seem sensible to us, they also seem reachable  at least in the time span until 2032 that has been stipulated.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier this week that the plan is to increase defense spending by 0.2 percentage points each year for five to seven years.

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Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine since taking office earlier this month.

We stand firmly by Ukraine, but we also stand together as Europeans as a whole  and, whenever possible, we play in a team with the U.S., he said.

___

Moulson reported from Berlin.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 22. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, during his official visit to Slovenia, met with Prime Minister Robert Golob to discuss expanding Uzbek-Slovenian cooperation, particularly in trade, economics, and investment, Trend reports via the presidential office of Uzbekistan.

The talks focused on increasing trade turnover to 500 million euros by enhancing mutual supplies of in-demand products. The "GSP+" preferential system and a newly signed agreement on standardization are expected to further boost trade growth.

A plan for developing industrial cooperation, with an emphasis on technological modernization, will be prepared. Leading Slovenian companies have shown interest in implementing projects in Uzbekistan in sectors such as electrical engineering, instrumentation, pharmaceuticals, green energy, and smart agriculture. A special industrial park for European companies, managed by "Inpark," has been proposed as a location for these projects.

In order to strengthen cooperation in the field of labor migration, the two sides agreed to establish a permanent expert group and prepare the necessary legal framework. In addition, the sides discussed the possibility of establishing direct air links and using the port of Koper to facilitate Uzbek exports to the European Union market.

To advance these initiatives, the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission is scheduled for July in Ljubljana. A comprehensive "roadmap" will also be developed by both governments to ensure the timely and efficient implementation of the agreements and memoranda signed.

Following the meeting, President Mirziyoyev invited Prime Minister Golob to visit Uzbekistan.
By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -Two global health groups that fund billions of dollars worth of critical medical aid - from childhood vaccines to malaria treatments - are in talks about merging some functions to help combat a financing crunch, their chief executives told Reuters.

The groups  the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the vaccine group Gavi  said they had been discussing working more efficiently together for several years, but a massive pull-back on government-funded aid budgets, led by the Trump administration, has given the talks more urgency.

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I think the crisis  and it is a crisis, what we're facing in global health right now  is an impetus to think hard about the shape and structure of the global health ecosystem, Peter Sands, chief executive of the Global Fund, told Reuters.

Gavi and the Global Fund set up a working group in autumn last year to work more closely together and explore merging some functions, joined by the World Bank's Global Financing Facility for women and girls. The group's work, which is ongoing, has not been previously reported.

The idea is not to bring these massive structures together, the idea is to work better at the country level to make life for countries easier, said Sania Nishtar, Gavi chief executive.

Sands and Nishtar spoke to Reuters during the World Health Organization's annual meeting in Geneva, at which budget cuts and efficiencies were high on the agenda.

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Nishtar gave an example of Gavi in Nigeria helping local health officials give children measles and rubella vaccines, while Global Fund supported them giving bed nets to their parents to help prevent malaria. Previously, the two groups might have had separate desks, supply chains, data, staff, logistics, and guidelines, and even warehouses. That should be done better, she said.

Working together on rolling out the malaria vaccine, led by Gavi, alongside other malaria tools like preventive drugs, which the Global Fund manages, had also prompted greater cooperation.

The Global Fund is trying to raise $18 billion for its work from 2027-2029, and Gavi is trying to raise $9 billion for 2026-2030.

Donors told Reuters that they are pushing for efficiencies as they consider how much to pledge to the groups, which have saved millions of lives since beginning work in the early 2000s.

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A Gavi spokesperson said it had started a voluntary departure scheme among its 650 staff and consultants and was working to streamline operations. The Global Fund has around 1,200 staff and declined to comment on potential cuts.

Advocates including Bill Gates, a major global health funder through his foundation, said he had been talking to governments about the essential role the two organisations play.

Being an advocate and making sure the money is well-spent, that is part of my role, he told Reuters earlier this month.

(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby, editing by Michele Gershberg and Elaine Hardcastle)
FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW)  Florence County Deputy Nathaniel Nate Ansay always had a smile, and he loved to fish.

Thats how those who knew the 24-year-old are remembering him following his death in an on-duty two-vehicle crash on Tuesday. Authorities said it happened at about 4:30 p.m. near Blackwells Farm Road west of Effingham on Olanta Highway when his SUV and another SUV collided while headed in opposite directions.

He was one that always, always, had a positive smile on his face, Sheriff TJ Joye said Wednesday. He had a personality, I mean, he was just a good wholesome person.

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Steve Drummond of Drummonds Quality Meats on Highway 301 knew Ansay well.

He always smiled as soon as he hit the door, Drummond said. He was smiling ready to talk fishing. He loved to fish.

Drummond said his employees told him Ansay had just left the store before the crash that took his life.

He would come in here, and we would always talk about fishing, talk about his boat or his tournaments, Drummond said. He just was a good kid, and would stop in here and get him some ribeyes or get him a little bit of lunch.

Social media tributes poured in from first responders across the Pee Dee and Grand Strand on Wednesday as word of his death spread, including from neighboring Darlington County.

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With heavy hearts, the Darlington County Sheriffs Office mourns alongside Florence County Sheriffs Office, who lost one of their deputies as they tragically passed in the line of duty, the sheriffs office also said on Facebook. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends, and fellow officers. Your service and bravery will never be forgotten. Please join us in praying for their family and fellow officers, as they grieve during this difficult time.

On Wednesday, officials placed a sheriffs office patrol vehicle outside the countys law enforcement center as a tribute to Ansay.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and other politicians offered their condolences.

Peggy and I are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Florence County Sheriffs Deputy Nate Ansay, McMaster said in a statement. We join countless others in praying for his family, the FCSO, and the entire Florence community during this difficult time.

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Ansay had been with the sheriffs office since October 2023 and graduated from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in March 2024.

Drummond said he hated to hear about what happened, especially because he has known Ansays family for a long time.

I really thought a lot of him and [I] hate [that] all this happened, Drummond said. Im gonna miss him coming by.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash was taken to a local hospital, but authorities have not released information about their condition. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

Funeral arrangements for Ansay remain incomplete. Count on News for updates.

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* * *

Eric Cooper is a multimedia journalist at News13. He joined the team in September 2024 and covers stories in the Pee Dee. He is a native of Cades in Williamsburg County and a proud graduate of Kingstree Senior High School and Benedict College. You can read more of his work here.

* * *

Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW.
After two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed on the streets of Washington, D.C., Wednesday night, Republican Representative Randy Fine responded by suggesting Gaza should be nuked.

Fine was asked on Fox News Thursday morning how the shooting would affect the ceasefire the U.S. has proposed to Hamas and Israel to end Israels 19-month bombardment of Gaza, resulting in the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. Fines response was to blame Muslim terror and compare Palestinians to the Nazis and imperial Japan during World War II.

The fact of the matter is the Palestinian cause is an evil one, Fine said. We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender. That needs to be the same here. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture, and it needs to be defeated.

In response to the horrific killing of Israeli embassy staff in Washington, a Republican Congressman went on Fox News and suggested Gaza be nuked" like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. pic.twitter.com/8S9XLcBV7j  Waleed Shahid  (@_waleedshahid) May 22, 2025

The bigoted answer from the freshman lawmaker is only the latest example of his prejudice toward Palestinians and Muslims. Last year, when Fine was running for a vacant Florida congressional seat, he threatened Muslim Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar by warning them on X that the Hebrew Hammer was coming and telling them to consider leaving before I get there. #BombsAway.

Fine has remarked in the past that we have a Muslim problem in America and that while many Muslims are not terrorists, they are the radicals, not the mainstream. At a minimum, Fine should be censured for his remarks, as Tlaib was censured for much less by House Republicans. But Fines GOP colleagues have engaged in similar bigotry against Palestinians, and several others have also called for nuking Gaza. Fine is unlikely to get even the slightest rebuke from any Republican leader, let alone President Trump, who endorsed him last year.


House Republicans managed to pass their draconian budget bill, which promises to make massive cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and food assistance, early Thursday morning by a narrow one-vote margin that was only possible due the deaths of three Democrats in this current Congress.

The latest Democrat to pass away was 75-year-old Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia, who died on Wednesday after battling esophageal cancer. In March, Representative Raul Grijalva of Arizona passed away at the age of 77 due to complications from cancer treatments. Representative Sylvester Turner of Texas, 70, a House freshman, died six days earlier. (Turner replaced Sheila Lee Jackson, who also died in office in July.)

Had any of these three Democrats, who all are from safe Democratic districts, taken their health into consideration and decided not to run in 2024, such an egregious bill would have failed to pass. Do Democrats have an age problem? The party has been reluctant to give younger rising stars more prominent leadership positions, mostly notably when Connolly, whose condition was publicly known, was chosen to be the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee over the much younger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

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In 2024, Democrats failed to connect with younger people and lost many of their votes, and this year, Americans of all ages have been urging the party to put up a vigorous fight against the Trump administrations attacks on the countrys institutions. Are older politicians in their seventies and eighties up for that battle?

The last eight members of Congress to have died in office were Democrats, with seven of them being over the age of 70 with significant health concerns. Six Democrats died in the last year alone. Democrats in Congress should decide whether they are physically and mentally up to the task of stopping the Republican effort to tear down Americas institutionsor make way for those who are.
Donald Trumps tax bill, which Republicans passed in the House of Representatives overnight on Thursday, will slash funding for Medicaid, food assistance, and Medicare to finance a new set of tax cuts for the rich. It also includes tax breaks for gun silencers.

In a speech at 4 a.m. on Thursday, as Republicans were pushing through their tax bill, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) took credit for the initial provision, which will eliminate a $200 excise tax on gun silencers. The lawmaker owns a gun shop worth millions of dollars.

My Democrat colleagues have asked: How did this get in the bill, what was the deal, and who asked for it, Clyde said. No deal. I believe the speaker, with the purest of motive, simply wanted to restore a constitutional right. Before his time ended, he added, And who asked? Me. I asked.

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The lawmaker posted on X Thursday that he had quietly secured additional tax breaks on silencers. The original bill text only removed the $200 transfer tax for suppressors. Now, the bill eliminates both the transfer and making tax for suppressors, as well as the registration, Clyde wrote, calling it a massive Second Amendment victory. (These changes appear in the managers amendment that Republicans released late Wednesday and passed Thursday.)

Clyde owns a gun shop, Clyde Armory, in Athens, Georgia, and the building it is housed in  which could best be described as a gun castle. (Take a look.)

The store, which lists silencers for sale on its website, was previously placed under an enhanced federal monitoring program, according to The New York Times, after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives found that more than 25 guns sold there had been used in crimes within three years of their purchase.

According to Clydes 2023 financial disclosure, the gun shop was worth between $5 million and $25 million. He valued the property as being worth between $1 million and $5 million. Clyde reported earning between $200,000 and $2 million in income in 2023 from the shop and property.

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Everytown for Gun Safety, the anti-gun violence advocacy group, slammed Republicans silencer tax breaks in a statement Thursday. Theres a reason silencers have been regulated for nearly a century: They make it much harder for law enforcement and bystanders to react quickly to gunshots, said the organizations president, John Feinblatt. In the name of gun industry profits, House Republicans are putting law enforcement and our communities at greater risk of being shot  all while gutting health care for millions of Americans.

Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was among the Democrats criticizing the silencer provision in recent days. I have no idea why we think its a good idea to repeal a tax on silencers when we are going to feed fewer children in our country as a result of this. Its a moral damn failure is what it is, she said Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Clyde introduced legislation, called the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act, to deregulate and eliminate the excise tax on silencers.

As an ardent defender of our Second Amendment liberties, Im working to remove all infringements on our God-given right to keep and bear arms, Clyde said in a press release at the time. By deregulating suppressors, eliminating the costly $200 tax stamp on these firearms, and avoiding additional taxation, my legislation offers a constitutional solution to increase Americans access to suppressors.

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Clyde was one of four late conservative holdouts on the Trump tax bill who demanded that the legislation do more to cut Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.

As a result of their efforts, the bill will phase in work Medicaid requirements sooner, by the end of 2026. That means the 10 million Americans who are expected to lose Medicaid coverage will lose their coverage sooner.

We are not cutting Medicare or Medicaid, Clyde said, falsely. We want to strengthen Medicaid by saying to those who can work all right, you need to work.

The poor may not have health insurance or food assistance once Republicans pass this bill, but at least they wont have to deal with the draconian tax, as Clyde put it Thursday morning, on gun silencers.

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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is writing letters to two dozen former senior Biden administration officials to appear before his committee to answer what they knew about former President Bidens health problems in light of allegations that White House officials deliberately kept his cognitive and physical decline a secret.

Weve written letters to more than two dozen top administration officials and weve requested interviews with them, he said. Its all the people you think, anybody who should have had frequent contact with the president.

Johnson said his staff is sending letters requesting testimony to former Vice President Kamala Harris, Cabinet officials such as former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Bidens former chief of staff Jeff Zients.

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Johnson said he would consider issuing subpoenas if his invitations are ignored.

Well first politely invite them, he said. Hopefully theyll come in and do an interview.

The Wisconsin senator is asking for former officials to answer some basic questions.

This doesnt have to be daylong type of interview or even half a day, he said. Give us an hour of your time, we have some basic questions we want to ask you.

They owe that to the American public, he said.

Johnson said hes not ruling out subpoenas if he gets stonewalled and noted that he does not need support from the top-raking Democrat on the subcommittee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), to issue them.

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Biden and former first lady Jill Biden have pushed back hard on reports that the former presidents inner circle covered up serious health problems during the second half of his four-year term.

Former President Biden told The View earlier this month he could have beaten Trump in November 2024 if he had stayed in the race.

He stepped aside after coming under tremendous pressure from Democratic lawmakers and donors not to run for a second term after turning in a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.

Biden insisted he had a bad, bad night in the debate but that it didnt reflect any serious cognitive or health issues.

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There is nothing to sustain that, he said.

Jill Biden said on the program that the people who wrote those books alleging serious mental lapses by the former president werent in the White House with us.

They didnt see how hard Joe worked every single day. Hed get up, hed put in a full day and then at night, Id be reading my book, and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings, working with staff, she said.

Questions of a possible cover-up of the true extent of former President Bidens health problems have been fueled this week by reporting in a new book by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axioss Alex Thompson that senior White House aides discussed the possibility that Biden would need a wheelchair if elected to a second term.

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The book, Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-up, and his Disastrous Choice to Run Again, also reports that Biden failed to recognize Hollywood star and major Democratic donor George Clooney when he arrived at a June 2024 fundraiser for the president.

Tapper and Thompson wrote that Biden appeared severely diminished, as if hed aged a decade since Clooney last saw him in December 2022.

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CLINTON, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) The Indiana Governor has directed all flags in Vermillion County to be flown at half-staff Friday to honor a mayors death.

This is to honor the death of Clinton, Indiana, Mayor Jack Gilfoy Jr., who passed away on May 17. Mayor Gilfoy Jr. was 75 years old at the time of his death. Flags are to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset.

Governor Braun also requested that businesses and residents of Vermillion County lower their flags as well.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com.
Standing with cranes and piers quieter than normal, Washington Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson announced he is signing on in support of a multi-state lawsuit against President Donald Trumps tariff policies.

Washington businesses are experiencing severe disruptions, including halting plans to hire or expand due to increased uncertainty, the brief Ferguson filed read.

Businesses have to tighten up, Ferguson said during a press conference Wednesday. They dont have the certainty on investments and employment.

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The local chapter of the port workers union, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 19, says casual workers  workers called upon to help fill in gaps in staffing to handle shipping traffic  have gone without work. The 175 casual workers support the 650 regular staff. ILWU president Mark Elverston says that with two piers closed and two open, people are going without work.

Theyre not working right now because we have no container volume, Elverston said.

Washington is the nations 9th highest exporter of goods, with about 160,000 jobs directly supported by the industry. When taking farming and other industries into account, regional economic development agencies estimate that 40% of jobs in the state rely on trade in some way.

The important factor of this Trump negotiation with tariffs is creating a manufacturing economy in the United States of America, Republican State Senator Phil Fortunato said. Sen. Fortunato sits on the states Business, Financial Services, Gaming, and Trade Committee and represents Pierce County communities.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson filed an amicus brief in support of a multistate lawsuit to block President Donald Trumps tariffs, saying they are unlawful and disproportionately harm Washington state.

Amicus curiae translates to friend of the court. According to the American Cornerstone Institute, it is a legal document filed by a third party, not directly involved in the lawsuit, who has a strong interest in the cases outcome. These briefs provide additional information, legal analysis, or perspectives to assist the court in making its decision.

Fergusons brief states:

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If allowed to remain in effect, the Presidents tariffs will continue to wreak havoc on Washington-based interests by disrupting established supply chains, forcing businesses and consumers to pay more for goods, equipment, and services, and interfering with the Governors ability to shape and implement a state budget and pursue state policy priorities amid the significant uncertainty, chaos, and adverse economic conditions caused by the tariffs.

He is leading a coalition of 24 public and private partners in opposition of the tariffs.

The multistate lawsuit, which Fergusons brief supports, asserts that the president does not have the authority to impose these steep tariffs without Congressional approval. It also challenges Trumps plan to raise tariffs on imports from 46 other trading partners, scheduled to go into effect July 9.

Ferguson argues that the economy, businesses, and consumers in Washington, which is the countrys ninth-largest state exporter of goods, will suffer unique and disproportionate harm from President Trumps reckless and unprecedented tariffs.

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Ferguson says that China, Canada and Mexico are three of Washingtons top trading partners. Together, these three countries account for nearly half of Washingtons imports. In 2024, Washington companies exported $12 billion in goods to China, $7.9 billion in goods to Canada and $4.3 billion in goods to Mexico.

Altogether, the illegal tariffs could cost Washington companies an estimated $18 to $21 billion. By comparison, last year Washington companies paid just $2 billion in total tariffs on all imports from all countries  meaning the new tariffs could increase the states tariff burden tenfold," Ferguson wrote.
Gov. Maura Healey said Massachusetts State Police are on high alert and keeping tabs on the nations capitol, where an investigation into the shooting deaths of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy is unfolding Thursday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar confirmed that Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple about to be engaged, were killed Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum in Washington D.C.

This undated handout photo provided by the embassy of Israel in the U.S. shows staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky, right, and U.S. citizen Sarah Milgrim. (Embassy of Israel in the U.S. via AP)

Police said that the suspected shooter, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, yelled, Free, free Palestine, after he was arrested.

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Rodriguez was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, authorities said.

In a statement, Healey denounced the brazen act violence and offered love and support to the Jewish community.

"Im horrified and outraged by the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside of an American Jewish Committee event in Washington D.C. last night. This was a senseless, hate-fueled act of violence, Healey said. There is no justification for antisemitism or violence  in our nations capital or anywhere else. My thoughts are with Yaron and Sarahs families, friends and colleagues, and Im sending love and support to the Jewish community. Im grateful to the first responders and law enforcement who responded quickly to the scene and are working in communities across the country to keep people safe.

Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton said there is no place in the world for antisemitic hate.

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Antisemitic terrorism has no place in the world. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim had their entire lives ahead of them, and they were murdered for being Jewish, Moulton said in a statement. This is why so many American Jews and Jews around the world live in fear with the rise of antisemitism, and they deserve our help and protection like all persecuted people. My heart is with their families, friends, embassy coworkers  and the entire Jewish community.

Law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

Healey noted that there is no known connection or any direct threat to Massachusetts and that the Commonwealth Fusion Center, the states primary intelligence function, briefed State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble on the developing situation.

Police in the Bay State remain in close collaboration with federal, state and local partners to monitor new information and ensure the safety of Massachusetts communities, Healey added.

State police encouraged the public to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious or out of the ordinary to law enforcement.

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To report suspicious activity or behaviors, call the Massachusetts State Police Fusion Center at 1-888-872-5458 or email fusion@pol.state.ma.us.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, May 22. The Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan engaged in productive discussions with Liu Zhanxiong, Deputy Chairman of ZTO Express Group, a leading Chinese logistics and e-commerce company, to explore investment opportunities in logistics sector, Trend reports.

During the meeting, Uzbek officials provided a comprehensive overview of the countrys favorable investment climate, highlighting tax and customs incentives available to foreign investors, as well as ongoing efforts to develop and modernize Uzbekistans logistics and distribution infrastructure.

The Chinese delegation expressed their appreciation for the large-scale reforms underway in Uzbekistan, noting the countrys positive business environment. ZTO Express representatives showed keen interest in exploring opportunities to advance logistics and automated distribution systems, with a particular focus on expanding e-commerce solutions at the regional level in Uzbekistan.

This meeting signifies the growing cooperation between Uzbekistan and China, further strengthening ties in the areas of logistics, technology, and regional trade. Meanwhile, trade turnover between Uzbekistan and China exceeded $13 billion last year, and both countries expressed confidence in achieving the ambitious goal of $20 billion set by their heads of state.
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order on safety after 10 Orleans Parish inmates escaped from a correctional facility.

Landry wants to implement transparency and accountability in criminal justice systems around the state.

Our criminal justice system is a three-legged bar stool. If one fails, the whole system collapses. This brings us to where we are todayNew Orleans willingly handed the jail keys to those leaders who vowed to keep criminals OUT of jail. Sadly, it worked, said Landry.

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However, the State will not sit idly by. We are taking immediate, decisive action to ensure that this never happens again. The people of Louisiana deserve not only transparency and accountability but also a justice system that is unyielding in its commitment to public safety, and our Executive Order demands it. Enough is enough.

The governors executive order includes:

The Inspector General oversees audits of case files

The Department of Corrections will review the Orleans Parish Correctional Facilities operations for compliance with jail standards

Department of Corrections inmates will relocate to state-operated facilities

The Louisiana Supreme Court would review the Orleans Criminal Court, and the Judiciary Commission is asked to assess judicial performance in high-crime parishes

Court clerks are asked to document continuance requests, and judges are asked to address unnecessary delays

The Metropolitan Crime Commission is asked to develop a system to track cases from arrest to conviction

Attorney General will lead the investigation, with full cooperation from state agencies

New-Orleans-jail-break-Executive-OrderDownload

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On May 16, ten inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility through a cell wall and scaled a perimeter wall. Five of the inmates were recaptured while the remaining five are still at large.

Justice Department ends investigation into Louisiana State Police

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This story was produced by Spotlight Delaware as part of a partnership with Delaware Online/The News Journal. For more about Spotlight Delaware, visit www.spotlightdelaware.org.

A brief remark from Gov. Matt Meyer two weeks ago about what he said was the need for (an) automated container port has reignited a backlash from the longshoremens union that last fall went on strike over that issue, among others.

The backlash adds to what have been months of tensions between the governor on one side and lawmakers and certain union officials on the other over how to carry out long-delayed plans to expand the Port of Wilmington through construction of a container facility in Edgemoor.

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During a meeting May 19 of a state board that oversees the Port of Wilmington, labor leader William Ashe Jr. referenced Meyers remarks before stating that Delaware needs a new container port, but not a fully automated one because that eliminates jobs.

We cant afford to have people going out saying to the public that youre going to build a fully automated terminal, Ashe said to the board of the Diamond State Port Corp.  a state-chartered entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington and directs its expansion.

Gov. Matt Meyer discusses a variety of issues with The News Journal during an interview on April 29, 2025.

In recent years, the use of autonomous or semi-autonomous technology at ports has become increasingly common in Asia and Europe, but less so in the United States  in part because of the opposition by unionized labor.

Ashes comments came in response to remarks Meyer made during a sit-down interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal earlier this month, when he said that automation and the need for (an) automated container port was recognized really a couple of decades ago in Delaware.

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During the interview, Meyer also said he brought a new perspective and new attitude that we need to get this new container port done. Meyer did not detail the ways in which his perspective differs, but did claim that there are people who arent too happy that I won the election.

Meyer became Delawares governor after a hard-fought and costly political campaign last year that featured much of the states Democratic establishment supporting his opponent  then-Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long.

Asked about Ashes comments on May 20, a spokesman for Meyer said the governor had never said that Edgemoor should be a fully automated port  contrasting full automation with modern automated innovations that still require workers.

The spokesman, Nick Merlino, also said that it was Ashe and another port labor leader who first told Meyer over a decade ago about a modernized container port that would create thousands of union jobs in the state of Delaware.

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Ashe declined to comment on Merlinos statement.

Officials from Enstructure, the private operating company at the publicly owned Port of Wilmington, did not respond to a request to comment for this story.

READ MORE: Gov. Matt Meyer talks about his first 100 days. What's been done, what's left to do

A yearslong fight

Debates over how or whether to automate, or use unmanned robots, for the Port of Wilmingtons operations go back to at least 2018 when Delaware struck a deal with Emirati-based Gulftainer to privatize the facility.

At the time, Gulftainer CEO Peter Richards insisted that the Port of Wilmington would need to automate in order to outperform its competitors along the Delaware River, according to a report then from the Delaware Business Times.

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In response at that time, Ashe publicly rejected automation at the facility, insisting instead that everything will be monitored by a worker.

In spring of 2023, Delaware officials ousted Gulftainer from the Port of Wilmington following years of mismanagement and millions of dollars of missed leased payments to the state. Enstructure took over the operations later that summer.

It is unclear today how the states new agreement with Enstructure guides the use of automated technology at the port. Its 50-year lease contract obtained by Spotlight Delaware requires the company only to hire all existing ILA employees at the time they took over the Port of Wilmington from Gulftainer.

A Dole ship sits docked at the Port of Wilmington on Sept. 23, 2024.

A two-page section regarding the development of the future Port of Edgemoor is almost entirely redacted.

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Enstructures registered lobbyist in Delaware, Patrick Allen, is also a longtime lobbyist for trade unions in the state. In February, Ashe told Spotlight Delaware that Allen is representing his union local, which is part of the International Longshoremens Association.

In March, the International Longshoremens Association finalized details of a new contract with shipping companies that largely prevents East Coast ports from using unmanned, autonomous off-loading equipment.

The new contract, which remains in effect until 2030, followed months of contentious negotiations in 2024 that included a three-day strike.

Edgemoors challenges

At the May 19 meeting of the Diamond State Port Corp. board, Enstructure officials revealed a construction timeline for the Edgemoor container terminal, saying they could complete the project by December 2028.

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That timeline is contingent on the state reacquiring a dredging permit that a federal judge invalidated last fall, following a legal challenge filed by competing port terminals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey owned by Holt Logistics.

In the federal case, U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney ruled in October that Corps of Engineers officials had acted arbitrarily and capriciously when issuing the approvals to the port corporation.

Specifically, he said, they dismissed maritime safety concerns posed by ships turning from the Delaware Rivers shipping lane to the Edgemoor port.

Last month, the container port project hit an additional snag after a Delaware judge ruled that a state boards decision to uphold another dredging permit failed to reflect a rational consideration of the evidence.

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The sharply worded opinion placed additional doubt and uncertainty around the ambitious $635 million port construction project.

Plans for the Edgemoor port call for a facility that could handle upward of 1.2 million containers, or roughly three times the capacity of the existing Port of Wilmington. If successful, it would become one of the 15 largest ports in North America.

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware governors comments about port automation spark labor rebuke
More than a dozen governments have condemned Israel after its forces fired in the direction of a diplomatic delegation near the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli army said its soldiers fired warning shots after the foreign diplomats, who included representatives of the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia and China, deviated from a previously agreed-on route.

[Israeli] soldiers operating in the area fired warning shots to distance them away, Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

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No one was injured in the incident.

Here are some of the reactions from political leaders to the incident:

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

The Israeli ambassador has been summoned to Global Affairs to see the minister and explain. We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. Its totally unacceptable, its some of many things that are totally unacceptable thats going on in the region.

China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning

We demand the launch of a full investigation so that similar incidents do not happen again.

UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Hamish Falconer

Todays events in Jenin are unacceptable. I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected. Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation, and those responsible should be held accountable.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin

I am deeply shocked and horrified that the [Israeli forces] today opened fire on a group of diplomats visiting the town of Jenin. Thankfully, nobody was killed or injured.

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I unreservedly condemn this aggressive, intimidatory and violent act. This is not and must never be a normal way to behave.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani

We ask the government of Israel to immediately clarify what happened. The threats against diplomats are unacceptable.

Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp

Diplomats should be able to do their work, and threatening them is unacceptable. I have called the Dutch representative in the Palestinian territories and our ambassador to Israel and am relieved that the delegation is unharmed. We condemn the shooting, have requested clarification from the Israeli authorities and are considering further steps.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot

A visit to Jenin, in which one of our diplomats was participating, was fired upon by Israeli soldiers. This is unacceptable. The Israeli ambassador will be summoned to explain. Full support to our agents on site and their remarkable work in trying conditions.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen

This is a very serious and condemnable incident. I have spoken with the Finnish diplomat who was present at the situation. We demand an explanation from Israel about the situation.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen

It is unacceptable that Israel has fired shots near foreign diplomats. It has no place anywhere and is completely unacceptable.

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The Danish head of mission in Ramallah was among the diplomats and is fortunately safe. In light of the seriousness of the situation, I have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Israeli ambassador so that we can get an official explanation.

Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot

I was shocked to learn that the Israeli army opened fire on 20 diplomats today, including a Belgian colleague. Fortunately, he is fine. These diplomats were on an official visit to Jenin, coordinated with the Israeli army, in a convoy of 20 clearly recognisable vehicles. Belgium is asking Israel for a convincing explanation.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide

I condemn the attacks by [the Israeli military] against a group of diplomats in Jenin today. Diplomatic and consular staff enjoy a special status under international law and must be protected. These actions constitute a clear violation of international law and are deeply unacceptable.

Portugals Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Portugal condemns the attack by the Israeli army on the diplomatic delegation in the Jenin refugee camp, West Bank. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs  expressed its solidarity with the Portuguese ambassador who was part of the delegation and will take the appropriate diplomatic measures.

Germanys Federal Foreign Office

The Federal Foreign Office strongly condemns this unprovoked fire. We can count ourselves lucky that nothing more serious occurred.

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The group was travelling in the West Bank in the course of its diplomatic work and in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli army. The role of diplomats as independent observers on the ground is indispensable and in no way represents a threat to Israeli security interests.

The Israeli government must immediately investigate the circumstances and respect the inviolability of diplomats.

Slovenias Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Slovenia joins EU partners in condemning the gunfire that threatened foreign diplomats at Jenin camp.

Such intimidation violates the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations and is utterly unacceptable. We expect a prompt, transparent Israeli investigation, full accountability and guarantees of safe, unhindered access for all diplomatic missions.

Jordans Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates

This is a clear violation of international law and international humanitarian law, and a crime that contravenes all diplomatic norms.

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The Ministrys official spokesperson, Ambassador Dr Sufyan Qudah, affirmed the kingdoms absolute rejection and strong condemnation of this targeting, which constitutes a violation of diplomatic agreements and norms, particularly the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which defines the procedures and controls governing diplomatic work and grants immunities to diplomatic missions.

Qatars Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The state of Qatar strongly condemns the Israeli occupation forces for opening fire on an international diplomatic delegation during its visit to the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and considered as a violation of international laws, conventions, and diplomatic norms.

Turkiyes Ministry of Foreign Affairs

We condemn in the strongest terms the opening of fire by Israeli soldiers on a group of diplomats, including an official from the Turkish Consulate General in Jerusalem, during their visit to the city of Jenin.

This attack, which endangered the lives of diplomats, is yet another demonstration of Israels systematic disregard for international law and human rights. The targeting of diplomats constitutes a grave threat not only to individual safety but also to the mutual respect and trust that form the foundation of inter-state relations.

Egypts Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Arab Republic of Egypt emphasises its absolute rejection of this incident, which violates all diplomatic norms, and calls upon the Israeli side to provide the necessary clarifications regarding the circumstances of this incident.

Uruguays Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the Israeli ambassador in Montevideo to clarify the incident.

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Uruguay urges the Israeli government to investigate this incident and take the necessary measures to ensure the protection and allow the operations of diplomatic personnel accredited to the State of Palestine.

Mexicos Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The Israeli military justified the action by stating that the diplomatic delegation had invaded an unauthorised area. However, there is no record of this occurring or of any officer approaching the delegation to verbally warn them in a timely manner.

What happened violates the provisions of Article 29 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which establishes the inviolability of diplomatic agents. All States Parties to the aforementioned Convention, including Israel, are obliged to respect it.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will request the Israeli embassy in Mexico to provide the clarifications warranted by the case.
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)  Today, Governor Jeff Landry signed an executive order mandating an aggressive response from multiple other state agencies. They are tasked with addressing the breach at the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility. Governor Landry has also issued an executive order implementing transparency in the Orleans Parish criminal justice system and the state.

Louisiana law enforcement agencies searching for Orleans Parish jail escapees

The executive order states that the Inspector General will oversee audits of case files while the Metropolitan Crime Commission develops a system for tracking cases. The DOC will review the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility operations for compliance, while DOC inmates will be relocated to state-run facilities.

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The order also indicates, the clerk of courts, document continuance requests, and judges are urged to address unnecessary delays. The Attorney General will also lead the investigation with full cooperation from state agencies.

Our criminal justice system deserves transparency and accountability. Today I am signing the executive orders that I promised at last Sundays press conference to start implementing the transparency and accountability in the Orleans Parish Criminal Justice System and elsewhere around this state. Today, we say enough is enough, Landy says.

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Governor Landry maintains that public safety is his priority as each inmate is recaptured.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  North Carolina Governor Josh Stein is the latest elected official to call for changes at the federal agency tasked with disaster response.

While Stein is not calling for FEMA to be abolished, he did send a handful of recommendations to a White House group tasked with reviewing how the agency operates.

President Donald Trump floated the idea of eliminating the agency back in January, and Western NC Congressman Chuck Edwards issued his own report on where FEMA needs to improve last month.

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Trumps firing of FEMA director unsettles GOP senators

More of the authority and responsibility needs to be passed on to the states, Edwards told Queen City News.

FEMA is still distributing funds to Helene ravaged areas in Western North Carolina. Records show $430 million was sent in March, and $433 million was estimated to be sent in April. The lowest months of funding were December ($109 million) and January ($95 million).

Steins recommendations include making repairs to infrastructure permanent rather than temporary, covering more of the costs for local governments instead of using reimbursements, and creating a common application to streamline the relief process for survivors.

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The FEMA Review Council met for the first time this week on Tuesday and must present a report and any recommended changes within the next six months.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY)  Earlier today, Governor Landry issued an executive order, mandating an immediate and aggressive response across multiple state agencies to address a major breach at the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility (OPCF).

With five escaped inmates still at large, the Louisiana governor wants to prioritize public safety.

Our criminal justice system is a three-legged bar stool. If one fails, the whole system collapses. This brings us to where we are todayNew Orleans willingly handed the jail keys to those leaders who vowed to keep criminals OUT of jail. Sadly, it worked, Landry said. However, the State will not sit idly by. We are taking immediate, decisive action to ensure that this never happens again. The people of Louisiana deserve not only transparency and accountability, but also a justice system that is unyielding in its commitment to public safetyand our Executive Order demands it. Enough is enough.

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The Governors Executive Order:

The Inspector General will oversee audits of case files

Department of Corrections (DOC) will review OPCF operations for compliance with jail standards.

All DOC inmates in OPCF will be relocated to state-run facilities.

The Louisiana Supreme Court is asked to continue reviewing the Orleans Criminal Court, and the Judiciary Commission is asked to assess judicial performance in high-crime parishes.

Court clerks are requested to document continuance requests, and judges are urged to address unnecessary delays.

The Metropolitan Crime Commission is requested to develop a system to track cases from arrest to conviction.

Lastly, the Attorney General will lead the investigation, with full cooperation from state agencies.

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Watch Governor Landry sign the Executive Order here.

Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLFY.com.
SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO)  Two of South Dakotas top state leaders are focusing their attention on the southern border this week.



Both Governor Larry Rhoden and Attorney General Marty Jackley flew to Texas and Arizona to tour the border along Mexico to discuss ways to stop illegal immigrants and drugs from coming into the U.S.

Governor Rhoden spent Tuesday visiting South Dakota National Guard troops in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The 109th Engineer Battalion is currently stationed at the border.

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Rhoden also took a tour of locations along the border, and attended a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol briefing.

The Texas Department of Public Safety also gave Rhoden an airboat tour of the Rio Grande.

Summer reading program returns to Sioux Falls libraries

In 2023, Rhoden was told this region caught as many as 4,000 illegal aliens crossing the border daily at just one location.

Attorney General Marty Jackley did similar tours in Arizona today and addressed the media afterwards.

The fentanyl and meth that has crossed this border has been devastating in Heartland and its been devastating to South Dakota communities and families, Jackley said.

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Jackley says he has authorized the South Dakota DCI to help federal authorities enforce federal immigration laws in the state with an emphasis on violent criminals and drug dealers.

He was joined by other Attorneys General, many of whom made similar announcements for their states.

It has been a breath of fresh air to see first hand the men and women in law enforcement, to be here with my colleagues state attorney generals and to see federal, state, and local authorities working together to make America safe again, Jackley said.

Governor Rhoden also sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and the Acting Director of ICE requesting permission to allow the South Dakota Highway Patrol to assist ICE in its immigration and customs enforcement.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  As students are getting ready to wrap up the school year, Governor Josh Shapiro is touring the state to spotlight the impact of education funding.

On Wednesday, that tour brought him to Scranton. The governor made his way to Isaac Tripp Elementary, highlighting how these investments in public education are starting to pay off for students, teachers, and families.

The visit to Isaac Tripp Elementary comes as Scranton celebrates a nearly $30,000,000 increase in state funding under Governor Shapiro, dollars now being used to restore programs, expand mental health support, and improve buildings district-wide

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These are our children, and they deserve nothing less, as the governor said, than a high quality future focused education that prepares them for those jobs and those careers that are coming at us in the future and thats why every dollar does count for us, so that we can make our students viable and productive members of a 21st century economy, Scranton School District Superintendent Doctor Erin Keating stated.

Dr. Keating says the district has brought back preschool, added social workers and counselors, and reinstated arts and technology in middle schools thanks to that state support.

Woman banned from gambling for leaving kids in car

When schools are properly funded adequately, administrators and directors like can make sure that students have the best opportunity to learn and to grow, and our teachers that have the resources they need to facilitate that growth, Scranton School Board President Ty Holmes said.

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Isaac Tripp is already showing growth. Math scores are up 7%, science scores up nearly 10%, and attendance is rising by 8%.

Scranton School District is indeed on the rise. I saw where it was years ago. I see where it is today, and it is because of so many people. This is an example of what is possible when we both work together and when we meet our constitutional obligation to our children, Governor Shapiro explained.

Governor Shapiro says whats happening in Scranton is exactly what his education budget is designed to do: create opportunity across every zip code.

Shapiro says hes pushing for another half a billion dollars in the next budget to keep this kind of momentum going across Pennsylvania.

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Columbia Universitys acting president has now faced a massive chorus of boos from this years graduating class for the second day in a row, receiving a particular wave of anger on Wednesday while noting the absence of Mahmoud Khalil  a student who would have graduated this week if federal immigration agents had not detained him for peacefully protesting on campus against Israels ongoing destruction of Gaza.

Upon stepping to the lectern Tuesday to deliver her graduation speech, acting President Claire Shipman was met with at least a full minute of boos and loud jeering.

Good morning, Class of 2025. I know that many of you feel some amount of frustration with me, and I know you feel it with the administration, Shipman said to more boos, captured in videos circulating social media.

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And I know that we have a strong, strong tradition of free speech at this university, she continued while gesturing to the students. And I am always open to feedback, which I am getting right now.

Columbia University Acting President Claire Shipman welcomed to Columbia College's graduation ceremony with sustained jeers and boos.



Minutes later, students break out in loud chants of "Free Mahmoud": pic.twitter.com/QJit91wydm  Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) May 20, 2025

Later in her Tuesday speech, the crowd began chanting Free Mahmoud, in reference to the Syrian-born Palestinian who was one of many students and faculty targeted by Columbia for their activism during last years nationwide protests against the U.S.-supported war in Gaza. The university faced particular backlash for violently responding to students by bringing New York police on campus to quell the demonstrations, which Khalil helped organize.

Columbia was again embroiled in controversy earlier this year when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Khalil  and, eventually, other foreign students around the U.S.  without charge for his pro-Palestinian activism. Instead of attending Wednesdays commencement celebration, the graduate student and legal permanent resident is now fighting detention and deportation from an ICE holding center in Louisiana. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner.

We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right, Shipman said during her commencement address on Wednesday to intensifying boos from the crowd. Let me also say that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil.

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Columbia was the first major university to cave to the Trump administrationin what critics have called an assault on academic freedom and free speech, implementing the administrations alarming policy recommendations while ICE agents continue to detain students.

One of those students is Mohsen Mahdawi, who was recently released after ICE detained him at his citizenship interview for protesting with Khalil at Columbia. Mahdawi attended graduation on Tuesday, donning his cap, gown and a Palestinian keffiyeh.

Mohsen Mahdawi holds a photo of Mahmoud Khalil while posing for a photo with demonstrators outside the gates of Columbia University after graduating, on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. Jake Offenhartz via Associated Press

I dont know how they will be able to face me. They let me down as a student, they let me down as a partner who is working on peacemaking and bridge-building, and they let me down as a Palestinian who grieves so many family members, Mahdawi told CBS News before Tuesdays ceremony began. So the message, I dont know what they will make out of it, but I am here. Im not going anywhere.

On the same day Shipman acknowledged Khalils absence, the activists legal team said that ICE denied him the right to a contact visit with his child, who was born while he was in detention. His wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, said she flew from New York to Louisiana with their newborn son, Deen, just so Khalil could meet and hold him for the first time.

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I am furious at the cruelty and inhumanity of this system that dares to call itself just, Abdalla said in a statement about the denial, which comes just weeks after ICE prevented Khalil from being physically present to support his wife during childbirth.

This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse, said Abdalla, who is a U.S. citizen. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs denied dignity, denied life. Our struggle is not isolated. This system is unjust, and we will fight until Mahmoud is home.
Photo: Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan

BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov has taken part in the Plenary Session and Roundtable of the Board of Governors of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Algiers and held meetings on cooperation, a source in the Ministry of Economy told Trend.

As part of the Annual Meeting of the IsDB Group in Algiers, a Plenary Session of the Board of Governors was held.

During the event, annual meetings of institutions within the IsDB Group were organized, and member countries were informed about the sustainable development plan for 20262035, covering efficient infrastructure, development of human capital and the private sector, food and water security, and trade integration.

A Roundtable of the IsDB Groups Board of Governors was also held within the framework of the Annual Meeting.

In his speech, Jabbarov highlighted the economic diversification measures implemented in Azerbaijan and the countrys strategic position as a transit hub.

The roundtable featured exchanges of views on proactive regulatory practices in member countries' business environments, sustainable development of regional trade, and the importance of strengthening joint cooperation.

During the meeting of the Minister with President of IsDB group Muhammad Suleiman Al Jasser, it was emphasized that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with the institutions belonging to IsDB group.

Ongoing reforms in Azerbaijan, private sector development, and the successful results of joint efforts with the bank were noted.

The sides discussed diversifying cooperation, implementing projects related to sustainable infrastructure, and initiatives aimed at regional development.

The meeting with Guineas Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ismael Nabe, provided information about the favorable business and investment environment in Azerbaijan.

Moreover, it was pointed out that macroeconomic stability and ongoing economic reforms have boosted the countrys non-oil economy and exports.

Furthermore, the parties discussed prospects for cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure, energy, efficient use of natural resources, and exchange of knowledge and experience.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT)  A Huffman High School senior who fell victim to gun violence is being remembered as his classmates celebrate graduation.

It was a bittersweet moment for Ronald Bennett Jr.s mother Brittney Hampton and Grandmother Sylvia Bennett-Stone.

We love her a lot: Father of missing Utah girl speaks after 2 out-of-state men charged in connection to her disappearance

It was sad. I mean because he was supposed to be there, but we were still proud, said Hampton.

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Huffman High Schools Class of 2025 sat, waiting to walk across the stage and receive their diplomas.

Every seat was taken except for one. Valedictorian, Jaeda Davis, acknowledged why in a speech.

Earlier this year we suffered a heartbreaking loss of a classmate to violence. A pain no one should have to carry especially not so young. I know for some it left an emptiness that words cant quite reach, so I want to encourage you all to honor our beloved classmate Ronald Bennett. said Davis.

Hampton and Bennett-Stone were among those in the crowd hearing Davis speech. They said they couldnt miss out on what was supposed to be his special day.

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For me, I could just see Ronald Jr. just there saying yeah, Im here anyway, and we just want to just highlight this day for him, said Bennett-Stone.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office said Ronald Bennett Jr. was shot and killed on 8th Terrace West just after midnight on February 1.

Birmingham Police announced the arrest of a 17-year-old suspect last week, but Bennetts family believes there may have been more people involved.

It was kind of like pulling a band aid off again. Your emotions just, everything just It raises more questions said Hampton.

Those questions continued to linger as they seek justice, saying this moment of accomplishment is bittersweet.

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We have to pull together to bring about safety so that other families dont have to go through this, because this is hard, said Bennett-Stone.

Ronalds mother said he had plans to become a wielder after graduation.

If you have any information regarding his case call crime stoppers at 205-254-7777. You can remain anonymous.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev, who was awarded the title of Hero of Russia for the occupation of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces.

Source: Russian Ministry of Defence on Telegram

Details: Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said that Mordvichev is an "experienced combat officer" who "fully revealed his talent as a military commander during a special military operation [as the Russians call the war against Ukraine  ed.]".

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Notably, in March 2022, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Mordvichev had been killed.

For reference: According to the Russian agency Interfax, prior to this appointment, Mordvichev commanded the Centre Group of Forces. It was officially reported that in February 2024, under his command, this group occupied Avdiivka.

Mordvichev was reportedly born on 14 January 1976 in Pavlodar (Kazakhstan). In 1997, he graduated from the Novosibirsk Higher Military Command School, and in 2006, from the General Military Academy of the Russian Armed Forces.

After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2016, he was appointed deputy corps commander. From 2017 to 2019, Mordvichev was chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Central Military District.

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From 2019 to 2021, he was chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 8th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District, commander of the 8th Army from 2021 to 2022, and deputy commander of the entire Southern Military District from 2022 to 2023.

In 2023, Mordvichev was appointed commander of the Central Military District.

Background:

On 15 May, it became known that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin had dismissed General Oleg Salyukov from his post as commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces and appointed him deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council.

Salyukov had commanded the Russian Ground Forces since May 2014.

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Representatives from nonprofit environmental, community and physicians groups and Oregon tribes rallied against House Bill 2410 on May 19, 2025. The bill would exempt Umatilla County from the states ban on new nuclear projects. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

A bill that would exempt Umatilla County from the statewide ban on new nuclear energy facilities has drawn the opposition of environmentalists, tribes, doctors and northeast Oregon community groups who showed up Monday at the Capitol in Salem to rally against it.

If passed, House Bill 2410 would allow the states Energy Facility Siting Council to approve development of a modular nuclear reactor in northeast Oregons Umatilla County. Oregon voters in 1980 approved a statewide ban on new nuclear development, barring the federal government creates a national repository for nuclear waste or voters decide to appeal. Neither has happened.

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The bills architects characterize it as allowing a demonstration project of modular nuclear that would operate on a microgrid and support community energy resilience. Small reactors have about one-third the generating capacity of a traditional reactor, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and can power individual neighborhoods, factories and facilities such as data centers that consume large amounts of energy.

Bill sponsor state Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, has touted it in hearings as a clean energy solution to growing power demand in the state. Levy declined an interview Monday, but she told the Capital Chronicle in an email that local residents and the state would benefit from reliable, carbon-free baseload power, job creation, and potential economic growth through new infrastructure investments.

At the broader level, small-scale nuclear would also contribute to Oregons clean energy goals, supporting a resilient and diversified energy mix across the state, she said.

Nuclear energy does not directly produce carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, and it can produce more energy with less fuel than any other individual source of existing power, according to MIT.

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But protesters Monday said they suspect House Bill 2410 is less about community energy resilience than powering Umatilla Countys booming data centers. The protesters said eastern Oregon lawmakers continue to treat the states northeast corner like an environmental sacrifice zone, noting that there is nowhere to safely store nuclear waste.

The bill passed 8-4 with recommendation in April from the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment, of which Levy is a vice-chair, to the Joint Ways & Means Committee. Another nuclear bill currently in the Ways & Means Committee, House Bill 2038, is also co-sponsored by Levy, and has drawn concerns from environmental and community groups as well as tribes. It would create a committee to study the benefits and risks of developing nuclear energy facilities in Oregon.

The Umatilla Basin is one of the most polluted places in Oregon, some of the worst groundwater pollution in the state, some of the worst industrial air pollution in the state, and it just keeps getting worse. Now were talking about adding radioactive waste on top of that? said Kaleb Lay, policy director at Oregon Rural Action, at the rally.

Representatives from nonprofit environmental groups Columbia Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club of Oregon and Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility also attended.

Data demand

Demand for power from the Umatilla Electric Cooperative, which supplies electricity to the region, has grown 556% in the last decade according to recent analysis by the nonprofit research organization Sightline Institute. Nearly all of that is from Amazon data centers in the county. Amazon and Microsoft are investing billions in small scale nuclear reactors to power their data centers, including those in eastern Oregon, and Microsoft CEO Bill Gates last year invested $1 billion into a nuclear power plant in Wyoming, operated by his new company TerraPower.

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Levy said it is an oversimplification to suggest data centers are the only or primary beneficiaries of modular nuclear reactors.

The reality is that all ratepayers benefit from a more stable, reliable, and carbon-free energy supply  especially as demand across sectors continues to rise, she said.

The bill has so far drawn 168 letters of testimony, about 75% of them in opposition to the bill. Many expressed concerns about where nuclear waste would end up and environmental concerns about uranium mining, especially on native land.

The bill would bar high-level radioactive waste from being stored at the demonstration project site after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission terminates the projects operating license, but it does not include details about where waste would eventually end up.

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Its supported by members of the Morrow and Umatilla county commissions.

Im very excited that someone else is willing to take on the experiment risk, and theyre close enough that we can, hopefully if it goes well, benefit from it, Morrow County Commissioner Jeff Wenholz recently told Elkhorn Media Group.

Across the river

Cathy Sampson-Kruse, 71, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, grew up in Umatilla County and went to high school in Echo. She said her family members that still live there do not support the bills.

We have to ask ourselves, really, who is this supply for? Sampson-Kruse said. And what is it really taking away from generations of children that do not have a say in this  just like were going to have generations of children that are going to deal with the Hanford debacle.

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The problem with where to put nuclear waste continues to plague the Hanford Site across the Columbia River north of Richland, Washington, where the Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are trying to figure out how to move 56 million gallons of radioactive sludge. The sludge is a byproduct of World War II-era plutonium production that still sits 80 years later in 177 underground tanks, some of which are leaking.

The agencies are hoping to move at least 2,000 gallons of that sludge via rail or truck through Oregon to facilities in Utah and Texas that can process it into a grout cement and dispose of it. The proposal doesnt yet detail a route, but critics have said it would most likely end up on major interstate highways through Oregon, or on a rail line through central Oregon along the Deschutes River, passing near areas like Bend and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is opposed to the plan as proposed by the agencies.

House Bill 2410 is not the first time state or federal governments have proposed sacrificing the health of the environment for industry when it comes to power in the Northwest, Sampson-Kruse said. She was a child when the Dalles Dam was constructed, flooding the Celilo Falls where Northwest tribes traditionally fished.

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Now, one of our most beloved natural foods, the salmon, is on the list for extinction. It constantly begs the question, how much more? Where do we draw the line? Sampson-Kruse said.

This article was first published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.
STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV)  A team of professors at Georgia Southern University (GSU) is launching four projects aimed at addressing Georgias opioid crisis, with a focus on rural communities.

The universitys Center for Addiction Recovery received nearly $800,000 in funding to support the projects.

When we think about addressing opiate use we think about the continuum of care, said Robert Bohler, assistant professor in the GSU College of Public Health.

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Bohler is among the faculty members leading the effort.

We think about prevention, harm-reduction, treatment and recovery, he said.

The initiative includes working with staff at 30 rural hospitals across Georgia. The goal is to expand knowledge about addiction treatment and to promote safe prescribing practices.

Substance use patterns are different, treatment access is different, recovery support resources are different in rural areas, Bohler said.

As part of the recovery-focused work, the team is training staff at local addiction recovery organizations and expanding support for students through the universitys collegiate recovery program.

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Early on rural areas were particularly hit hard by the opioid crisis because they experienced increased opioid prescribing compared to urban areas, Bohler said.

In addition, the research project will evaluate harm reduction strategies that aim to reduce risk for people struggling to stop opioid use.

Part of this funding is really aimed at innovative solutions, he said.

Bohler said he has been in communication with both city and county officials to help localize the projects impact. The work is set to begin this month and will continue over the next two years.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV.
GULF SHORES, Ala. (WKRG)  Gulf Shores, prepare for landing because commercial flights have officially landed at the Gulf Shores International Airport, and travel to the Alabama coast just got a whole lot easier.

Taco Bell employee arrested after spitting in womans food, according to Milton police

Allegiant Airlines Flight 1403 from Knoxville, Tennessee, celebrated with a water cannon welcome. It marks the first time in history that a commercial flight has landed in Gulf Shores.

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It was great, Todd Binkley, a passenger from Tennessee aboard the flight, said. This is a great welcome to a great place.

Its a really cool experience, Paisley Carroll, another passenger from Tennessee, said. I never done something like this.

The citys partnership with Allegiant Air will offer nonstop flights from Gulf Shores to eight different cities, meaning fewer road trips and more air travel for beach goers.

These direct flights from the Gulf Shores International Airport include:

Knoxville

Des Moines

Green Bay

St. Louis

Kansas City

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Cincinnati

Houston

For a lot of people, especially throughout the Midwest, theyve been coming here for years and theyve been driving here, Allegiant Air Vice President Kristen Schilling-Gonzales said. So to be able to offer this nonstop opportunity where you can save 12 hours in the car by just getting on a short plane ride, Id say thats fantastic.

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While some passengers aboard this flight said they were thrilled to be a part of this historic moment, others said they had no idea until they landed.

I didnt have any idea. I knew this was the first time Allegiant was flying to Gulf Shores, Binkley said. So when they sent us off out of Knoxville and we got here, we couldnt believe it, felt like celebrities getting off an airplane.

This flight might have made history, but officials with the airline told News 5 this is just the start of commercial flights coming in and out of Gulf Shores.

We announced the two new routes today, and I really hope that thats just the beginning of a long-term partnership, Schilling-Gonzales said. The more people who are flying, the more that we want to add routes.

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Robertsdale CBD store owner found not guilty of selling narcotics

One flight down with many more in this citys future.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRG News 5.
WASHINGTON  When House Republicans passed President Donald Trumps sweeping domestic policy package in the wee hours of Thursday, they didnt just approve giving trillions of dollars in tax cuts to rich people while kicking down millions of poor people.

They made it easier to get gun silencers. And quietly removed a weird provision about tanning beds. And expanded a ban on gender-affirming care. And, in a show of fealty to the president, they came up with a new name for tax-saving accounts that the government would seed with $1,000 for babies born in the next few years: Trump Accounts.

There was already a lot going on in the GOPs 1,100-page bill, which is actually called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But things got confusing late Wednesday when Republicans unveiled a 42-page amendment with all kinds of eleventh-hour changes. They released their new language as the House Rules Committee was entering its 20th hour of a hearing on the bill, and Democrats barely had time to make sense of all the changes.

Decisions in Washington dont just stay in Washington  they shape real lives. HuffPost is committed to reporting on how policies affect people across the country. Support journalism that connects the dots. Join our membership program today.

Theyre a lot clearer now. Here are some of the weird and last-minute things Republicans slipped into their bill, which is now headed to the Senate and already hitting a wall over there.

Making It Easier To Get Gun Silencers

Of course everyone should be able to buy a cheaper gun silencer, right? picture alliance via Getty Images

In order to win over the vote of Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, GOP leaders slipped language into the bill making it easier for people to buy gun silencers. Specifically, the bill eliminates a $200 firearm registration fee for silencers and removes a requirement that people have to register their silencers at all.

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During the late-night rules committee hearing, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) howled about this magical amendment suddenly being part of the bill. She noted the federal tax on gun silencers has been in place since 1934.

Its a brazen attempt to make it easier to commit violent crimes, said Scanlon as she unsuccessfully tried to strip it from the bill. I think this is sneaky. I think its a radical policy change with no explanation for why this longstanding federal policy should be overturned in the middle of the night.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the rules panel, ripped Republicans for slipping the unrelated gun provision into their tax bill.

Quite frankly, what is in this reconciliation bill, you know, does more to support assassins than it does American families, McGovern said.

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When a Republican on the committee laughed him off, the Massachusetts Democrat fired back, You know what? Talk to law enforcement. Talk to people who have been victims of gun violence. I know you think its funny, but I dont.

Keeping  And Then Axing  A Tax On Tanning Beds

Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) couldn't even bring himself to read aloud the tanning bed provision in the GOP's bill. via Associated Press

For some reason, Republicans initially included language in the bill to repeal a federal excise tax on indoor tanning services. But it appears they were shamed into taking it out at the last minute.

Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) flagged the provision in Wednesdays Rules Committee hearing and asked Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who was testifying before the committee, to read the line item out loud. He refused.

So that the American public knows what this bill does Would you please read page 901, line 20? Leger Fernandez asked Smith.

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I think itd be better if you read it, Smith replied.

Oh, he doesnt want to read it! Leger Fernandez said with a laugh. This is in their bill. They dont want to read a line from their own bill.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) eventually read the provision aloud: It says Section 11106: Repeal of excise tax on indoor tanning services.

Amid more laughs, Leger Fernandez contrasted the provision, which makes it easier to own a tanning bed, with the bills drastic cuts to Medicaid and food assistance. She took a shot at Trumps tanning habits and wondered aloud if he put that language into the bill.

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There are certain elected officials who appear to have a certain orange hue about them, she said. Maybe they want to make sure tanning beds get a little bit of special credit.

The tanning bed provision was mysteriously gone in the final bill.

A Provision To Let Trump Operate As A King

King Trump? Dear god, no. via Associated Press

The bill includes language that attempts to let Trump circumvent the nations courts and, essentially, serve as a king. Heres the alarming one-sentence provision buried in the bill:

??? U.S. House of Representatives

Translated, this provision would restrict the ability of the federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to enforce their decisions through contempt of court findings. It would apply to anyone, including Trump and members of his administration.

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This language comes at a time when Trump has been flouting an order by the Supreme Court to facilitate the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a legal U.S. resident who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador. The administration has also been ignoring orders from lower courts to stop deporting migrants without giving them due process.

It is a blatant power grab, Fred Wertheimer, president of the pro-democracy group Democracy 21, said in a statement.

This makes clearer that House Republicans are primarily focused on blocking contempt sanctions in the many current rulings that exist against Trump and his Administration, said Wertheimer. This provision is another step toward turning our democracy into an autocracy. It must be blocked by the Senate.

Expanding A Ban On Gender-Affirming Care

Republicans can't help themselves when it comes to punching down on the transgender community. via Associated Press

An eagle-eyed reporter first flagged a slight change in wording in the final bill that significantly expanded a ban on using Medicaid or CHIP funding for gender-affirming care. The GOP bill initially imposed this prohibition on minors, but its final language applies the ban to anyone relying on these programs.

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The House Republican budget bill passed this morning shows that anti-trans policies remain a top priority for both the party and the Trump administration, said Imara Jones, CEO of Trans Lash Media, an independent news organization that tells the stories of transgender people.

The fact that they are willing to ban federally funded health care for trans people of all ages  including adults on Medicaid and children enrolled in CHIP  shows that the goal all along has been to push trans people from public life, Jones said in a statement.

Creating Trump Accounts For New Babies (Really)

House Republicans want the government pay women to make more babies. But only American babies. via Associated Press

The GOP bill creates a new incentive for women to make more babies by paying them $1,000 for every American baby born over the next four years.

For babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 1, 2029, the federal government would deposit $1,000 into an account called a Trump account. That money would then be invested on their behalf in financial markets, and when the baby grows up, he or she can withdraw from their Trump Account for things like going to college or buying a house. The kids parents can also contribute to the account.

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The GOP decided this money would be deposited into something called a money account for growth and advancement account, or MAGA account. But that didnt seem to sufficiently suck up to Trump, so at the eleventh hour, they renamed these accounts after him.

Reversing Course On Selling Public Lands In Utah, Nevada

Look at this beautiful image from Zion National Park in Utah. Republicans wanted to sell this land off to private buyers for mining or whatever else they wanted to do with it. Bloomberg via Getty Images

In a rare win for people who care about the environment, Republicans removed language from the final bill that would have allowed for the sale of public lands in Nevada and Utah. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who served as Trumps interior secretary in his first term, had threatened to vote against the bill unless this language was stripped.

Environmental groups praised Zinke for his efforts, even if the overall bill is terrible.

The American people have spoken loud and clear - our public lands should not be for sale, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Clubs Lands Protection Program, said in a statement.

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Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle were right to throw this proposal in the trash can, but a bad bill is still a bad bill, he said. As written, Donald Trumps reconciliation package is a giveaway to corporate polluters that would make it easier for billionaires to drill, mine, and log the public lands that belong to all Americans, from the Arctic Refuge to the desert landscapes of the southwest.

Closing Up To One-Third Of Planned Parenthood Health Centers

Who could have guessed that Republicans want to make it much harder for women to have access to health care? Alex Wong via Getty Images

The final bill could result in the closure of as many as 200 Planned Parenthood health centers, or one-third of all these health centers nationwide.

These closures would come as a result of the bills new ban on gender-affirming care for all Medicaid patients and its provisions aimed at eliminating health plans that include abortion coverage from the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

The consequences of these health centers closing would be catastrophic, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood.

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If Congress passes its reconciliation bill as written, an estimated 200 Planned Parenthood health centers could close, leaving entire communities and regions without access to essential health care, Johnson said in a statement. Cancers will go undetected, birth control will be harder to get, and the public health infrastructure  already pushed to the brink  will break down.

Instead of actually helping their constituents, politicians want to stop them from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centers and impose their beliefs on everyone else, she said.

More Aggressive Work Requirements For Medicaid Recipients

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) celebrated pushing through Trump's signature bill, which would kick as many as 14 million people off of health care to pay for tax cuts for the rich. Kevin Dietsch via Getty Images

At the last minute, Republicans revised their bill to expedite the timeline for imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients.

After initially including language triggering these requirements at the start of 2029, the final bill moved up the date to the end of 2026.

As a result of the GOPs stricter work requirement for federal health and food programs, an estimated 14 million people may lose their health coverage, and 3 million households may go without food assistance.

Not Totally Screwing Federal Workers Out Of Retirement Benefits

A fired federal probationary worker holds a sign reading "Save the Civil Service" at a news conference about the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act on March 11, 2025, in Washington. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Republicans originally used their bill to change the formula for calculating federal employees earned benefits by basing it on a workers five top years of earnings, versus three years under current law.

But by the end, they kept the formula where it was. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) was among those who had pushed back on this change, saying it wasnt fair to do this to current federal workers, who have already been enduring chaos, stress and fear of losing their jobs for months thanks to the sloppy work of Elon Musk and his surrogates at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

Making changes to pensions and retirement benefits in the middle of someones employment is wrong, Turner said during a committee hearing on the bill last month.

Changing the rules, especially when someone has already been vested in their benefits, is wrong, he said. Employee benefits are not a gift, theyre earned.

A Random Perk For Purple Heart Recipients

A Purple Heart will save you from being penalized for getting a job. via Associated Press

If youre someone who received a Purple Heart during your military service and youre looking for more tax credits after your Social Security disability benefits were cut because you got a job, this bill has you covered.

The GOP bill would increase the amount of your Earned Income Tax Credit by the sum of your Social Security disability insurance benefits terminated as a result of you getting a job.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the status of a provision in the bill that would limit the ability of judges to hold people in contempt.
This years primaries on Tuesday brought the relative quiet of municipal elections compared to the hoopla of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

In Novembers general election, more than 110,000 people combined voted in Cambria and Somerset counties with races for president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Pennsylvania General Assembly and state row offices taking place.

This spring, with state judge, local government and area school board contests occurring, approximately 19,000 people voted in Cambria and 10,000 in Somerset.

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Honestly, it was pretty much what we had expected, Somerset County Director of Voter Registration and Elections Tina Pritts said.

Pritts said that despite the lower volume as far as the procedures that we do and the tasks that we have to complete, theyre all the same.

As far as the turnout, last year with the presidential obviously, there was a lot more information from the candidates being sent to the voters via television, via social media, via mail, compared to this year where you wont see that during a municipal election, Pritts said.

Approximately 24% of registered voters participated in Somerset.

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Cambrias turnout was just under 23%.

Nicole Burkhardt, Cambria County Election Offices new director, said that was about what I expected.

Cambria ballot errors

Cambria needed to address an issue in which Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania candidates Josh Prince and Matthew Wolford were listed in an incorrect order on some Republican Party ballots. More than 1,500 GOP primary ballots were returned, with the bulk of them being the ballots with errors, according to Burkhardt.

County officials knew which ballots were proper and which ones had the mistake.

The incorrect ballots were taken aside. Two-person bipartisan teams then remade new ballots  transferring information from incorrect ballots to ones that had Prince and Wolford listed in the proper spots  so they could be scanned.

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The goal is zero errors, Burkhardt said.

We did put in precautions and the precautions caught the errors. By catching them, even though there was a mistake, we were able to fix it and know exactly what we were doing ahead of time to fix it, which made things run so much smoother.
HAINES CITY, Fla. (WFLA)  The Haines City Police Departments second-in-command was arrested on Thursday.

Captain Gabe Garcia was arrested at the police station sometime before 10 a.m.

Davenport man fatally shoots adult stepson after 9-year-old pulls gun from drawer: police

The allegations involve his personal life, according to a spokesperson for the police department.

He was arrested by federal law enforcement.

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Authorities later confirmed his arrest was related to a federal investigation involving the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but did not provide specifics on the circumstances.

The City of Haines City and the Haines City Police Department are both angered and deeply disappointed by this development, a news release from the police department said.

Haines City Police Chief Jay Hopwood called Garcias conduct a betrayal of the badge and everything this department stands for.

Leadership in law enforcement carries a greater burden of responsibility, and when that trust is broken, it damages the profession and the community, the chief stated. We will not tolerate dishonor in our ranks and will continue holding ourselves to the highest standards of integrity and accountability.

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The U.S. Department of Justice sent out a release Thursday naming a Gabriel Garcia as one of 10 people indicted for defrauding the United States in a disability benefits fraud scheme. Authorities said Garcia, who was listed as a veteran and police officer fraudulently obtained a 100% disability rating. Officials have not yet confirmed if the two cases are connected.

Garcia is the second-in-command at the police department, which has no deputy police chief.

According to the citys website, Garcia has been with Haines City police since 2007.

This is a developing story. Stay up to date on the latest from News Channel 8 on-air and on the go with the free WFLA News Channel 8 mobile app.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
As Port-au-Prince plunged into darkness last week after someone sabotaged the countrys main power plant, Haitis main fuel suppliers warned that the entire economy could soon shut down due to an imminent risk of a complete paralysis of the petroleum sector.

The warning was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, and leaked after authorities failed to respond to the Association of Petroleum Professionals alarming cry for help. In the two-page letter, association president Randolph Rameau cited Haitis widespread gang violence, which according to the United Nations has shuttered more than 1,600 schools and displaced over 50,000 people over the past four months.

But industry insiders and individuals close to the associations five major oil companies say the extremely worrying situation is much more complicated. The industrys problem have been made worse by Washingtons recent counter-terrorism measures against the gangs, and by the gangs raising the extortion rates they charge for the use of roads they control.

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Theres the financial issue, the security problems, the international sanctions, said a businessman knowledgeable about the industry who asked for anonymity to discuss the sensitive issues driving the latest crisis in the oil distribution chain. Its hell; its really hellish.

READ MORE: Haiti gang leader Yonyon found guilty of kidnapping 16 U.S. missionaries

Earlier this month, the Trump administration designated Haitis major gangs as foreign and global terrorists, and warned that anyone providing material support risks being sanctioned and criminally charged. Unfazed by the threat, armed gangs have doubled the charges for the use of roads as they continue to set major businesses and homes ablaze.

In the aftermath of the designation, some fuel truck drivers have stopped working, fearing being labeled terrorists by Washington. Others, seeing competitors take their clients, have been forced to negotiate with gangs to keep food on their table and the country running.

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When a driver comes to you and say The gangs have increased the tolls to 50,000 gourdes [about $380] you have a choice. Pay him to deliver the gas or dont pay and paralyze the country, said an industry insider, noting drivers arent the only ones fearing sanctions. We have to make a choice: Do I support the gangs or keep the countrys economy running?

Under pressure

Even before the Trump administration designated the Viv Ansanm gang coalition, which controls up to 90% of the capital, and the Gran Grif gang in the Artibonite region as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, fuel suppliers in Haiti were already under pressure.

Armed gangs blocked the entrance to ports by digging trenches and putting up barricades. When the barriers failed to get them what they wanted, they hijacked and kidnapped fuel truck drivers and their cargo, and charged exorbitant ransoms. The instability repeatedly caused disruptions in the fuel supply chain as service stations in metropolitan Port-au-Prince and in the provinces ran low on supplies.

These poor guys are taking a huge risk with their life, said a supplier about the drivers. They are really doing a hard job, but they will be the first ones to be sanctioned.

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There are five major players in Haitis petroleum sector and all depend on others to transport fuel. About 80% of the trucks are owned by fuel distributors who provide their own transportation, while the other 20% are independent contractors affiliated with the oil companies, Rameau, the president of the Association of Petroleum Professionals, told the Miami Herald.

Allied forces

Haitis major gangs, which made their debut as an allied force last year, run various extortion rackets, which are used to buy illegal weapons and ammunition and pay their members, as well as trafficking in guns and drugs and kidnapping for ransom. They also charge bus drivers and passengers to use gang-controlled roads.

Finance Minister Alfred Metellus recently estimated that gangs were pulling in $60 million to $70 million annually just from extortions for the movement of cargo containers The money from fuel truck drivers are in addition to that.

There are roughly 100 trucks involved in the daily delivery of fuel. But while the Haitian government pays pays 11 gourdes per gallon in transport fees, the average cost to the sector works out to be about 45 gourdes, or 34 cents, executives say. The 34 gourdes deficit was already cutting into profit margins before gangs doubled their fees on May 2, the same day of the U.S. terrorist designation announcement.

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Today, the gangs fee for every truck entering the fuel terminal is 50,000 gourdes, one transporter said. If the fuel trucks are staying inside the terminal to load a barge headed to other regions of the country, they pay another 50,000 gourdes. If the truck exits and heads to the government port, the driver must pay 75,000 gourdes, about $570, which goes to just one gang that is stationed in front of the terminal. That gang alone is making close to $1 million per month, the transporter said.

Traveling outside the capital by road is even more costly. Drivers have to pay in some cases up to 600,000 gourdes, about $4,590, in tolls for Cap-Haitien, and up up 700,000 gourdes, or $5,352, to Hinche, in the Central Plateau, the Nouvelliste newspaper reported.

Sometimes a driver of a truck has to pay five different gangs, said the supplier, stressing the drivers, not the oil companies themselves, are making the payments to gangs.

Haiti, at least one oil company director believes, could be in a dangerously short supply of fuel in as little as 10 days.

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If it keeps on like this, the gangsters will win, one director said. The industry will be unable to keep on working under these conditions. The main concern is how we keep on operating in this context where the government doesnt do anything, the director said.

Strategic facilities unguarded

Securing strategic facilities like the seaports, airport, the electrical grid and major roads were pitched as key reasons for the need for an armed international mission in Haiti after armed gang members blocked the entrances to the Varreux seaport in 2021 and 2022. The blockades led to crippling fuel shortages and a humanitarian crisis as people struggled to find food and water.

But attacks by gangs against key government installations, including the main international airport, and the shutdown of the Peligre hydroelectric power plant in the Central Plateau last week show that the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support and Haitian police remain at the mercy of armed groups.

People function in Haiti today because they directly or indirectly accept what the gangs are demanding, the industry insider said, noting Haitians need clarity on what the U.S. terrorist designation means when it uses the term financing gangs.

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Washingtons use of the terrorist designation to clamp down on the spiraling gang crisis is intended to weaken gangs. But humanitarian aid groups and nongovernmental organizations fear it could inadvertently worsen the situation on the ground by impeding humanitarian assistance, strengthening gang governance and empowering broader criminal networks.

There is growing concern within the aid community that organizations could lose funding or face legal risks  including prosecution. Under the terrorist designation, the assistance they provide could now be classified as material support to terrorist groups, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime wrote in an analysis after the designation.

The U.S. State Department declined to answer specific questions Haitians about navigating the designation in which gangs extort payments.

The designations protect U.S. national security interests and our hemisphere. That means giving law enforcement additional tools to counter these violent criminal gangs terrorizing the Haitian people and the people supporting these gangs, a State Department spokesperson said. Those who knowingly fund these gangswhether they be in Haiti or elsewhere will be subject to criminal prosecution in the United States and they and their families risk losing the ability to travel to the United States.

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The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized report notes that U.S. policy provides for exemptions to mitigate against risks by allowing, for example, humanitarian activities to continue even with the designation. However, the State Department has not publicized this and has not provided any guidance for Haiti.

Youre putting people in a difficult situation without coming up with a solution, said a frustrated political leader. If you say youre going to [issue the designation] and youre coming in with 2,000 troops to get these gangs by next week or even in three months and you tell us to wait, well find a way to stay. But youre not offering a solution. Give us an idea, give us a time frame, tell us how long we have to suffer.

Haitian state in collapse

The government, the leader added, has collapsed completely and they are closing their eyes and their ears like they dont understand or they dont know it. Theyre not taking care of the problem.

The absence of leadership, several petroleum industry insiders say, fueled the letter to Fils-Aime after he and members of the Transitional Presidential Council failed to address their concerns.

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The current situation has reached a critical point, Rameau, the petroleum association presidential, said.

We cannot go on like this, because its costing more and more, and eating the margins, and the drivers are between a rock and a hard place, said the businessman close to the oil sector. They are saying, I just can take it anymore.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The third Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) meeting held in Algiers has become the largest in the Bank's history, Algerias Minister of Finance Abdelkrim Bouzred said during a press conference following the Annual Meetings of the IsDB in Algiers, Trend reports.

He noted the high level of activity and large number of participants at the IsDB Annual Meetings in Algiers.

The active program and number of participants are truly impressive, he mentioned.

The minister recalled that this is the third time Algeria has hosted the IsDB Annual Meetings.

The first meeting was held in 1990, and the second in 2001, he said.

He emphasized that this years gathering surpasses all previous ones in both scale and significance.

It can be said with confidence that the 2025 event has outshone all previous meetings held in Algiers, he added.



Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri and an officer have been placed on administrative leave as an investigation opens into alleged improprieties.

Altaheri, 42, has been the chief of the department for about a year after the city council selected him in January 2024. He and Officer David Adamczyk, hired in September 2024, are now on administrative leave, Hamtramck city manager Max Garbarino told the Free Press.

Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri was placed on administrative leave on May 21, 2025, the city manager said. The city council selected him as police chief in January 2024 and he started later that year.

"I can confirm that the chief of police and officer have been placed upon administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation," Garbarino said Wednesday, May 21.

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The city has opened an investigation into Altaheri and it has "also been sent to outside law enforcement," Garbarino said.

Garbarino did not comment further on the investigation, saying it's the city's policy "not to comment on personnel matters."

A memo from a city employee has been circulating among some officials alleging Altaheri acted improperly in several instances that may have broken the law. The memo's claims could not be immediately verified. Part of the memo mentions allegations that President Donald Trump's visit to Hamtramck in October was facilitated by a former Wayne County reserve officer who was trying to help get a presidential pardon for a wealthy acquaintance of the chief in New York City convicted of financial crimes. Before becoming the Hamtramck police chief, Altaheri was a leader in New York City's police department, the commanding officer of NYPD's Office of Equity and Inclusion.

More: Michigan State Police start investigation into two Hamtramck councilmen over residency

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Altaheri did not return a message seeking comment. Adamczyk could not be reached. Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib told the Free Press in a statement that Altaheri believes that the city placing him on leave is "a retaliatory action by the city manager for disciplining one of the police officers who is a close friend of the city manager."

"I and the city council members were not informed of the city managers decision prior to taking it," Ghalib said. "Police Chief (Altaheri) described it as a retaliatory action by the city manager for disciplining one of the police officers who is a close friend of the city manager. City manager (Garbarino) said there are some allegation against the Chief reported by that police officer, that need to be investigated, which the police Chief denies."

Ghalib added that "the city council will hold an emergency meeting soon to take some corrective actions and to address the issue."

Ghalib was picked by Trump in March to be ambassador to Kuwait. Trump and the Republican Party did extensive outreach in Hamtramck and Dearborn last year during the presidential campaign, gaining support among Arab American voters. Ghalib was in Washington D.C. a few weeks ago, taking part in training for future ambassadors; he has to be confirmed by the Senate to become ambassador.

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More: Nessel asks for special prosecutor in Hamtramck voter case due to anti-Muslim bias claims

Lt. Michael Shaw, the spokesman for Michigan State Police in metro Detroit, said that state police "dont have any investigations involving the Hamtramck Police Department."

The FBI Detroit office said in a statement: "As a matter of longstanding policy, the FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation. ... The fact that the FBI may have received a complaint from a citizen is not indicative of whether or not the FBI has an open investigation."

The investigation into Altaheri is the latest controversy in Hamtramck. Michigan State Police said earlier this month it has launched an investigation into the residencies of two city councilmen. The councilmen strongly deny the allegations. Some councilmen are also under investigation for alleged absentee ballot voter fraud.

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Ghalib said last year that Altaheri was picked because "we believed that he would be a great addition to our city, taking into consideration that he understands the culture of the community and he is bilingual (in English and Arabic), which would help improve communication with the community and build more trust."

Hamtramck has the highest percentage of immigrants among cities in Michigan.

Since becoming chief, Altaheri has done extensive outreach to the city's growing Yemeni American and Bangladeshi American communities, who have previously felt excluded from city government. He started the city's first citizens' police academy, which helped educate residents about how the police department operates and trains.

Contact Niraj Warikoo: nwarikoo@freepress.com or X @nwarikoo

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri placed on administrative leave
Last week, a court in Spains 31st biggest city issued Ryanair a 147 (124) fine. Small fry, for a multi-billion euro business, I know. But the ruling could have wide-reaching ramifications for both airlines and passengers, and could even spell the beginning of the end for hand luggage fees.

The court in Salamanca ordered Ryanair to reimburse a passenger for hand luggage charges paid over five flights between 2019 and 2024. The passenger travelled with a standard small suitcase that was larger than Ryanairs free hand luggage allowance, but small enough to take on board.

According to Ryanairs rules, the passenger was correctly charged to bring the case on the flight. But according to the Salamanca judge, hand luggage is an essential and indispensable element of air transport and, therefore, the airline was ordered to issue a refund plus interest and costs.

There are a number of different legal considerations in the mix here. In 2014, a European Union court said hand luggage must, in principle, be considered an indispensable element of passenger transport and that its carriage cannot, therefore, be subject to a price supplement.

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This is supported by Article 97 of Spains Air Navigation Law, which says airlines are obliged to transport not only the passenger, but also, and without charging anything for it, the objects and hand luggage that they carry with them.

But on the flip side, many airlines and Spains Airline Association says that charging for hand luggage is legal under EU law.

This 147 fine might seem quibbly and irrelevant to your summer holiday plans. But the Salamanca case sets a legal precedent that could spell more court cases for low-cost airlines, potentially even in the UK, and the ultimate end of hand luggage charges for passengers.

Spanish courts vs low-cost airlines

The Salamanca case is the latest chapter in an emerging war between Spanish lawmakers and low-cost airlines. In October 2024, Spains Ministry of Consumer Affairs fined five low-cost airlines a total of 179m (149m) for hidden fees. Ryanair faced the biggest fine of 108m (90m), while easyJet received a penalty of 29m (24m). Vueling, Volotea and Norwegian were also fined.

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The Salamanca case was backed by the Spanish consumer rights group, Facua, and marked their fifth success in battling Ryanair and Vueling over hand luggage fees. In a similar 2025 case in San Sebastian, Vueling were ordered to refund a passenger 11.

After the latest Salamanca case, lawyer Isaac Guijarro said it was a huge win for travellers everywhere. It shows Ryanair cant get away with treating passengers like walking ATMs.

The drip fees have, indeed, ramped up in recent years. In November 2018, Wizz and Ryanair began charging passengers to bring a large cabin bag on board. Only a laptop bag or small backpack, small enough to fit under a seat, could be carried on for free. EasyJet followed suit in December 2020. These days, low-cost airlines make the bulk of their profits from ancillary sales; in 2023, Ryanair made 4.2bn through things like luggage extras, seat selection and speedy boarding.

Some legacy airlines are at it, too. At least seven  United, Air Canada, Finnair, Sas, KM Malta Airlines, Latam and Avianca  now offer only a limited cabin bag allowance at their cheapest rate. But is a reversal now on the cards?

A legal precedent

While the add-on fee structure feels relatively entrenched in aviation, lawyers say this could change after the Salamanca ruling.

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Daniel Scognamiglio of the law firm Blake Morgan told The Telegraph: This will have consequences for all airlines flying to and from Spain and possibly other EU destinations as well.

It was a small claims process, so the authority of the judgment could be brought into question, but it does show how courts are likely to deal with this issue and the judgment is going to be persuasive.

The judgment is likely to cause further difficulties for an airline not being completely transparent in its charges. It is also likely that passengers in the UK and elsewhere may well challenge charges for taking hand luggage on board a flight, Scognamiglio added.

In the event that Ryanair and other low-cost airlines do end up scrapping their additional luggage fees, this would not necessarily be a huge win for all travellers. A clampdown on cabin luggage fees would almost certainly lead to return to higher base-line fares as airlines look to make up for lost revenue.

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So a loss, in fact, for air passengers who travel light or who usually just pay for a bigger bag in the hold. This, on top of Ryanairs impending fare rises announced this week, could make low-cost airlines feel less low-cost than before.

But thats all hypothetical for now, because Ryanair remains bullish. In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for Ryanair said: Ryanair allows each passenger to carry a generous (40 x 25 x 20 cm) personal bag on board as part of the basic air fare, with the option to add extra bags for an optional fee should they so wish.

This policy promotes both low fares and consumer choice, and is fully compliant with EU law, as upheld by several recent Spanish court rulings, including in Coruna, Segovia, Ontinyent, Seville, and Madrid.

Ryanair may be unwavering, but I suspect that Spanish air passengers, Facua and, who knows, maybe even some disgruntled, litigiously minded British holidaymakers, will be emboldened by what happened in Salamanca this month. The battle for the wheelie bag has only just begun.

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The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) has released a handbook to help law enforcement and local officials better respond to animal welfare complaints, according to an article in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

Puppy mill survivor Bella (OurQuadCities.com)

IDALS will host an informative webinar on the handbook Wednesday, May 28, to give an overview of the tool, which provides agency-specific, and species-specific, guidelines. Those interested in attending can register here.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said the departments animal health staff developed the handbook so that partners across the state have the tools to respond with IDALS to animal welfare complaints.

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The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is responsible for keeping animals in our state safe and healthy, and its a responsibility we take very seriously, Naig said in a statement.

Mindi Callison, of the animal advocacy group Bailing Out Benji, called the guidebook a phenomenal resource.

This is the most comprehensive handbook out there outside of the USDA, Callison said.

Callison said while the U.S. Department of Agriculture has a thick handbook, its geared towards licensees and inspectors. Callison said the plain language of the IDALS handbook will make it easier for law enforcement to step in without having to look through and interpret Iowa code.

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Officials who might respond to an animal welfare call have different roles. The USDA and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, control the licensing, inspection and outreach for any groups transporting, researching, exhibiting or dealing animals. The agency works to ensure these individuals meet standards set by the Animal Welfare Act.

Local law enforcement, including animal control groups and county attorneys may also be involved in animal welfare cases to respond to calls, determine the course of action and build animal abuse cases when applicable.

The handbook outlines how law enforcement should respond to and investigate an animal welfare complaint, which Callison said is an immediate resource that will allow authorities to respond to calls sooner.

Weve seen cases where law enforcement agencies were hesitant to step in because they didnt know how to handle the case  But this guidebook really lays it out for them, and it kind of shows them who to contact in different cases for support, Callison said.

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The handbook advises local authorities to plan in advance, by identifying facilities that could house animals in the event they need to be relocated, and building relationships with local partners and veterinarians.

Animal Rescue League of Iowa

It also encourages communities to build a response plan in the event of animal welfare complaints, to ensure a collaborative approach to safeguarding animal welfare.

Callison said she believes these community connections can also really help facilities to do better before it comes to a complaint and animal welfare investigation.

The handbook also serves as a quick reference guide for Iowa code related to animal welfare, including statutes on livestock, the mistreatment of animals, animals in commercial establishments and rescuing animals.

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Don McDowell, communications director for IDALS, said a lot of work went into developing the handbook.

We identified a significant need for this resource in working with and communicating with local law enforcement partners over the past few years  both larger urban counties and smaller rural counties, McDowell said in an email.

He said the guide emphasizes the importance of advanced planning for law enforcement officials, but is also meant to help county attorneys document the situation and build a strong animal neglect case.

For several years, Iowa has placed high on the list of states with the highest number of puppy mill violations. Puppy mills are facilities that breed puppies  usually in in inhumane conditions  and sell them.

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Part of the issue, which Callisons organization Bailing Out Benji has highlighted, is that federally licensed facilities do not have to follow the same standards as state-licensed facilities. Callison said the handbook helps to clarify the role each agency plays, regardless of where a facility is licensed, which she said will provide some clarity.

Legislators proposed a fix to this loophole as Callison called it, but the bill did not advance before the close of Iowas legislative session.

Bailing Out Benji is based in Iowa but works to expose animal cruelty situations across the country. Callison said she has not seen similar handbooks in other states but hopes the IDALS move will inspire other states to create similar guides.

This is a great move by the department, Callison said. Im shocked that our state has the most comprehensive handbook out there. Im excited to see how it changes whats going on in our state.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.
Have you received any phone calls about unpaid fines?

If yes, police say its a scam.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The Bellbrook Police Department said many residents have been recently contacted by either the Court or Bellbrook Police, according to a social media post.

TRENDING STORIES:

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The caller claims it is regarding unpaid fines or court costs.

If you receive a phone call demanding payment, hang up! It is a scam! the Bellbrook Police said on its Facebook page.

They stated that the department and Greene County courts will never call regarding unpaid fines or fees.

Bellbrook Police said you should never discuss bank information or personal data when unknown callers.

[SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
27,523 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others?

27,523 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others?
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)  The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino will be welcoming a country artist to the Anthem stage later this summer.

The Hard Rock has announced the upcoming performance of Ned LeDoux, who is set to perform inside Anthem on Friday, August 15.

Story continues below

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According to a press release, LeDouxs goal in music has always been to express himself. In the release, LeDoux said, Im just trying to write my own story, and Im a terrible pretender. I cant write a song that I have no relation with because people would figure that out quickly. Ill just stick to what I understand. One song he said he has a deep connection with is his song One Hand In The Riggin. LeDoux has been releasing solo music since 2017.

Tickets for the performance will go on sale on Friday, May 23, at 10 a.m.. You can purchase tickets online through the Hard Rock website or in person at the Rock Shop. You must be 21 years of age or older to attend a concert inside of the Anthem.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports.
LILLINGTON Harnett County Emergency Medical Services recently announced the launch of its Prehospital Whole Blood Program, becoming only the 17th agency in North Carolina to offer this life-saving intervention in the field.

The initiative aims to improve survival rates for patients experiencing severe blood loss by administering whole blood before hospital arrival. This initiative will officially launch in May, aligning with National Trauma Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about injury prevention and trauma care.

PROGRAM OVERVIEWThe Prehospital Whole Blood Transfusion Program equips Harnett County EMS supervisors and paramedics with low-titer type O-positive whole blood, which contains red blood cells, plasma, platelets and clotting factors. This comprehensive blood product has been shown to significantly enhance patient outcomes when administered promptly.

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Harnett County paramedics are trained to assess patients and administer whole blood transfusions in accordance with protocols established by Harnett County EMS Medical Direction, a release states.

KEY BENEFITS

 Improved Survival Rates: Prehospital Whole Blood has been shown to decrease in-hospital mortality from 29% to 7%.

 Reduced Mortality from Hemorrhagic Shock: With an 11% increase in mortality increase for each minute delay in blood administration, it is imperative that these patients receive the most appropriate treatment as early as possible.

 Enhanced Trauma Care: Providing whole blood in the prehospital setting has shown more effective resuscitation than traditional fluid methods, stabilizing patients before hospital transport.

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IMPLEMENTATION AND TRAINING

The program officially began May 16.

Paramedics will undergo comprehensive training, including hands-on simulations, clinical assessments and familiarization with the equipment and protocols to ensure the safe and effective administration of whole blood.
People walk through the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Credit - Michael CaseyAssociated Press

A federal judge has ordered a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump Administration from revoking Harvard Universitys certification to enroll international students.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs followed shortly after Harvard announced on Friday that it is suing the Trump Administration. The lawsuit came less than 24 hours after the Department of Homeland Security announced that the Administration had revoked the universitys certification to enrol international students.

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In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston on Friday, Harvard argued that the Administration's action violates the First Amendment.

It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the governments demands to control Harvards governance, curriculum, and the ideology of its faculty and students, the complaint reads.

Harvard went on to heavily criticize the Trump Administration, saying that the move to revoke the certification was "carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students lives."

It continues to detail the impact this could have on international students, and the education structure as a whole, at Harvard, saying that countless academic programs, research laboratories, clinics, and courses supported by Harvards international students have been thrown into disarray.

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The governments actions come just days before graduation. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard, the lawsuit reads.

This latest sequence of events mark a dramatic escalation of the Administrations battle with Harvard, as the Trump Administrations action on Thursday threatened to impact a significant portion of the universitys student body and a key source of its revenue.

Roughly 27% of Harvards student bodyabout 6,800 studentscome from outside the United States, a number that has grown steadily in the past decade, according to university enrollment data. Many of those students pay full tuition, contributing significantly to the universitys nearly $6 billion annual budget.

Read more: The Complicated History of Government Influence Over Universities

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The announcement from the Trump Administration stunned students, faculty, and higher education leaders across the country. In a statement to TIME on Thursday, a Harvard spokesperson described the move as unlawful and wrote that the University is fully committed to enrolling international students.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the Universityand this nationimmeasurably, said Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

In light of Harvard's lawsuit, here's what you should know about the Trump Administration action that prompted it:

What does the revocation mean?

The decision to revoke the certification, announced by the Department of Homeland Security in a letter delivered to the university and later shared publicly by Secretary Noem, immediately strips Harvard of its authorization under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). The revocation bars the university from admitting new international students and requires current foreign students to transfer to other institutions or face losing their legal status in the United States.

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I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard Universitys Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked, Noem wrote in the letter.

Why did the Administration revoke the certification?

In her letter, Noem cited Harvards failure to comply with requests for records, its use of diversity and inclusion policies, and its handling of pro-Palestinian protests on campus as the motivation for the Trump Administrations action.

Supporters of Palestine gather at Harvard University to protest against Israel's war in Gaza. Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP

The Trump Administration has claimed that Harvard refused to turn over documents that Homeland Security says are related to potential misconduct and other offenses by foreign students. Noem also accused the universitywithout offering evidenceof fostering an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, as well as alleged coordination with the Chinese Communist Party.

Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses, Noem wrote.

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The Administration's decision adds to a growing list of federal penalties levied against Harvard, including the loss of billions in federal research funding and recent threats to strip the university of its tax-exempt status. Earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services said it would terminate $60 million in grants to the university.

A White House spokesperson told TIME on Thursday that Harvard has turned their once-great institution into a hot-bed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators.

Read more: What to Know About the Universities That Have Had Their Funding Targeted by the Trump Administration

They have repeatedly failed to take action to address the widespread problems negatively impacting American students and now they must face the consequences of their actions, said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. Enrolling foreign students is a privilege, not a right.

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The battle between the Administration and Harvard comes as President Donald Trump has increasingly sought to assert control over elite universities, often framing his actions as part of a broader effort to eliminate what it characterizes as ideological bias and campus extremism. Critics, however, say the Administration is punishing academic institutions for political reasons and curbing the free exchange of ideas.

The Administration has separately moved to terminate the legal status of international students nationwide, including at Harvard. A federal judge on Thursday blocked it from doing so, ruling that the government cant arrest, incarcerate, or move students elsewhere based on their legal status until another case on the matter is resolved.

Write to Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com.
Groundbreaking and martyred gay politician Harvey Milk would have turned 95 today. He was assassinated 47 years ago, but he continues to inspire activists in the present day  including his nephew Stuart Milk.

He was my touchstone to my own authenticity, says Stuart, who was 17 when his uncle died and came out as gay shortly afterward. Stuart never discussed the possibility of being gay with Harvey, but his uncle gave him the message that differences are strength.

Today, Stuart is president of the Harvey Milk Foundation, which he and Anne Kronenberg, who managed Harveys 1977 campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, established in 2009. Kronenberg is on the foundations advisory board.

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The 1977 election was Harvey Milks third try for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, which is San Franciscos city council. He won, making him the first out gay person elected to public office in California, which observes his birthday as Harvey Milk Day, as do many municipalities. He was shot to death along with Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978, by a disgruntled former supervisor, Dan White.

It was his sad expectation that he would be assassinated, Stuart Milk says of his uncle. Having received several death threats, Harvey Milk prerecorded a message to be played if he were killed: If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.

San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk seen outside his camera shop after his 1977 election to the Board of Supervisors

Harvey Milk outside his camera shop after his 1977 election to the Board of Supervisors Bettmann Contributor/Getty Images

If Harvey were alive, Stuart says, hed most likely be teaching younger generations about LGBTQ+ history. Meanwhile, he inspired his nephew to make some of that history with the foundation, which works for LGBTQ+ rights globally. Stuart reflects on how much has changed since his uncles time  and how much hasnt.

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Were facing in many parts of the world a similar situation that my uncle had experienced, Stuart says, noting Hungarys ban on Pride parades and other crackdowns on the community. Additionally, there are oppressive efforts in Italy, Poland, some countries in Africa, and elsewhere. Transgender and nonbinary people are under constant attack in the U.S. and some European countries. We see a retraction of rights and forcing people back into the closet, he says.

But there has been important progress. I think hed be proud of the progress that weve made, Stuart says of his uncle. We now have marriage equality in Thailand, he points out, and in the U.S. and many other countries. Marriage equality was a game-changer because its a visibility thing, Stuart says.

Lies, myths, and innuendoes about transgender people can be sustained and can proliferate because of lack of visibility, he adds. Visibility is part of our battle and kind of the message that my uncle gave, Stuart says.

Stuart Milk with Nancy Pelosi and Judy Shepard

Stuart Milk with Nancy Pelosi (at left) and Judy Shepard Courtesy Harvey Milk Foundation

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The foundation holds educational events and works with activists around the world. Stuart Just came back from doing a history event in the U.K., speaking about LGBTQ+ history in schools  something some American states have banned  and that California, for instance, requires, and the foundation has helped schools in the state implement that mandate. Recently, he participated in a panel at the Munich Security Conference for the third year in a row.

His next trip is to Italy, where some really draconian laws are being proposed, he says, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is leading the nations first far-right government since World War II. Queer Italians are familiar with his uncle  the LGBTQ+ center in Verona is named for him, and theres a bust of him in Romes LGBTQ+ center. Stuart and the foundation are also working with activists in Hungary to fight the Pride ban; organizers want to hold a parade despite the ban.

Weve had great accomplishments, and then we move on, he says. Now the Baltic nations have progressed tremendously, including having an openly gay president [Edgars Rinkevics] in Latvia.

But the foundation wont go where it isnt wanted, Stuart Milk stresses. LGBTQ+ activists in repressive Russia arent eager to make waves right now. And its a struggle in Africa because usually brave individuals speak out for the community instead of groups, he says.

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Still, it will partner with those who are open. It did some work with the State Department during the Obama and Biden administrations and even joined in the first Trump administrations fight against criminalization of homosexuality in certain countries, Milk also hopes to continue that work with the current administration. Were having discussions, most at embassy level, but it feels a little frozen right now, he notes.

The second Trump administration has shown great hostility to trans people but  perhaps  less to gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, and there are at least seven out LGB officials in the administration, Milk says, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce. We hope these individuals find their voices, he says.

But, he adds, the foundation isnt backing away from supporting trans people. Harvey was forced out of the military for being gay, he points out, and now service members are being forced out for being trans. Even John McCain said he didnt see why trans people couldnt serve, Stuart notes.

Stuart Milk speaking at an event

Stuart Milk speaking at an event Courtesy Harvey Milk Foundation

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The story of his uncle, he says, resonates with people who are the most marginalized and diminished. Harvey Milk also recognized the importance of intersectionality before it was in vogue and was committed to working in coalition. He reached out to organized labor, Asian Americans, the Latine community, and more.

Our community members are members of every race, every religion, all genders, Stuart Milk says. When you attack immigrants, when you attack abortion rights, you are attacking our community.

To honor his uncle, he says, the top priority is to be visible if youre in a situation where its safe. Another way is to stand up to the bullies. We have everyday heroes who stand up to the bullies, Stuart says. When we stand up to the bullies, the bullies lose.

If you hear someone who says something homophobic, xenophobic, racist, confront themask if they know how offensive that is, he adds. LGBTQ+ equality is not just a liberal cause, he says: We need everyone, including those in the center, to stand up.

But Harvey Milk Day is also a day to celebrate, Stuart says: Its a day when people can celebrate what he dreamed of, what weve come to, and remind us that we still have more work to do.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) in Baku will serve as a critical platform for IsDB member countries and global partners to address urgent development challenges, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, which account for over half of the Banks membership, the Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank Group Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser said in an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of the IsDB Annual Meetings in Algiers.

He noted that the meetings will focus on mobilizing resources and enhancing collaboration to address climate shocks, infrastructure deficits, and human development needs.

Regional trade and integration will be a central theme, aligned with Azerbaijans aspirations. This includes advancing cross-border infrastructure, digital connectivity, trade facilitation, and support for SMEs through e-commerce platforms.

The meetings outcomes are expected to inform strategic directions that feed into the implementation of the IsDB Groups Ten-Year Strategic Framework (20262035), with regional integration as a key pillar, the IsDB Groups president said.

Al Jasser announced that the discussions will emphasize long-term structural transformation for resilience and sustainable development, particularly in the context of a volatile global economic environment.

Key thematic areas to be prioritized include economic diversification, digital transformation, energy transition, and regional cooperationareas where Azerbaijan plays a strategic role.

The Annual Meetings will also set the stage for operationalizing the new Strategic Framework, focusing not only on vision but also on practical means of implementation, follow-up, and partnerships that extend beyond Baku, he said.

New areas for deepening cooperation between Azerbaijan and the IsDB Group



Al Jasser recalled that IsDB launched the Country Engagement Framework for Azerbaijan in early 2024.

Under this Framework, we signed the first project to support food security as well as the development of Karabakh on the sidelines of COP29 in November 2024. We are in discussion with the country to support several new initiatives, including the development of regional Energy Corridors, the Alat Free Economic Zone, and potential irrigation projects in Karabakh, he said.

IsDB president noted that the Bank is also keen to partner with Azerbaijan to promote South-South Cooperation.

Recently, a Technical Assistance grant was signed between the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the IsDBInstitute to promote Islamic finance. Another Technical Assistanceagreement was signed recently to promote cooperation between Pakistan and Azerbaijan for the development of high-yielding cotton varieties, he said.

Tangible outcomes from 2025 Annual Meetings in Algiers



Al Jasser pointed out that these Annual Meetings are not merely a technical or formal event, but also a dynamic platform for concrete actions.

The meetings saw the adoption of the new strategic Framework, the signing of several agreements and partnerships, and the launch of financing and development initiatives targeting high-potential sectors. The meetings provided a rare opportunity for leaders, decision-makers, and stakeholders to gather in Algeria and discuss innovative solutions to the challenges of economic diversification in the Islamic world. Looking ahead, we are fully committed to advancing digital transformation, developing financial technology (Fintech), and investing in smart infrastructure to make our economies more efficient, sustainable, and inclusive, he said.

The IsDB president noted that the Bank will also move forward with the implementation of the adopted recommendations and the follow-up on declared commitments.

Additionally, we will assess the impact of the initiatives and develop a clear implementation roadmap in close collaboration with member countries, he said.

Al Jasser noted that over this week, the IsDB hosted numerous high-level meetings, the flagship Private Sector Forum and more

than 10 side events, featuring eminent thought leaders, academics, and development practitioners.

We welcomed more than 4000 participants, representing 89 countries and 70 institutions.

These interactions provided a vital platform for open dialogue, strategic partnerships, and innovative collaborationsboth public and private. I am pleased to announce the signing of more than 70 agreements totaling nearly US$ 5 billion, with 26 member countries and several regional institutions. These agreements cover critical sectors and reaffirm our determination to deliver concrete, high-impact development solutions, he said.

Banks next steps in implementing the insights and partnerships forged during the 2025 Meetings



Al Jasser noted that the Islamic Development Bank is committed to turning discussions into tangible actions that support global development goals.

This involves developing action plans that convert insights into concrete initiatives and development projects. The Bank will strengthen partnerships with member countries, private sector actors, and other development organizations to maximize the use of resources and expertise, he said.

The IsDB president pointed out that funding will be prioritized for key development sectors to ensure strategic and impactful resource allocation.

The Bank will engage actively with stakeholders to gather feedback and ensure that its initiatives are aligned with local needs and priorities. It will promote the exchange of knowledge and best practices among countries to foster innovation and enhance learning in development efforts.

The IsDB also aims to strengthen its monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track progress and assess the impact of its strategies and programs.

Finally, it will invest in capacity-building initiatives to empower countries with the skills and tools necessary for effective program implementation, he said.

Impact of economic diversification on long-term resilience and prosperity across member countries



Al Jasser noted that economic diversification is not merely an option; it is an urgent necessity for enhancing economic resilience and achieving shared prosperity.

By reducing reliance on natural resources, diversification helps stabilize economies against external shocks and opens new horizons for innovation, the digital economy, and service-oriented sectors. To truly realize this vision, we must actively explore new sectors, strengthen regional and global value chains, and create more inclusive economic opportunities in Algeria and across all member countries. Through strategic investment and collaboration, diversification becomes a catalyst for long-term, sustainable development, he said.

Islamic finance as a catalyst for inclusive growth, particularly in countries like Algeria



The IsDB president pointed out that Algeria has strong potential to use Islamic finance as a driver for inclusive economic growth, given its middle-income status, predominantly Muslim population, and a large informal economy exceeding 30% of GDP.

A robust Islamic finance sector in Algeria could help integrate underserved populations into the formal financial system, mobilize domestic savings, improve capital allocation, and diversify financial risks. Economists increasingly agree that the structure of the financial systemwhether bank-based or market-basedis less critical to growth than its effectiveness in financial intermediation. Evidence from the GCC and Malaysia shows that Islamic finance can be a catalyst for economic development. Algeria shares similar structural characteristics such as a hydrocarbon-based economy, a Muslim-majority population, and political stability, said Al Jasser.

He believes that if Algeria adopts a development path for Islamic finance similar to that of the GCC countries, it may achieve comparable economic benefits.

Islamic banking in Algeria could grow rapidly, as it would offer financial services to population segments that typically avoid conventional banking, thereby increasing financial inclusion and supporting faster economic growth, he said.



IsDB Groups efforts to ensure that youth and women are at the center of development strategies



Through the exchange of experiences and best practices, we can co-create practical, scalable solutions that unlock new opportunities, particularly for youth and women, who represent a vital force for innovation and social progress. These exchanges not only foster learning and collaboration across borders but also encourage inclusive policy design and the localization of successful models that have proven effective in other contexts.

Empowering women and youth is central to our development approach. We are committed to supporting comprehensive training programs, promoting entrepreneurship, and expanding access to finance and digital tools. By equipping women with the resources and skills they need to participate fully in the economy and by nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit of young people, we aim to build more inclusive and resilient societies, said Al Jasser.

The IsDB president noted that climate change, despite being one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, also presents a unique opportunity.

Rather than viewing it solely as a risk, we are determined to transform it into a driver of innovation and sustainable growth. Through strategic investments in renewable energy, green infrastructure, and climate-smart technologies, we can not only mitigate environmental threats but also create new green jobs, enhance energy security, and build climate-resilient economies across our member countries, he said.



IsDBs plans to harness innovation, digitalization, and fintech to drive future economic growth



As millions of young people enter the labor market in Algeria and across our member countries, the IsDB Group recognizes the urgency of creating inclusive, future-ready economies. We are committed to empowering youth by fostering entrepreneurship, expanding access to digital skills, and investing in the digital economy. This approach not only creates sustainable employment opportunities but also equips our societies with the tools to thrive in a rapidly changing global landscape, he said.

Al Jasser pointed out that innovation is a key enabler of resilience and competitiveness.

By promoting research, supporting start-ups, and encouraging technology adoption, we can unlock new sources of growth and improve the ability of our member countries to adapt to emerging global challenges, such as climate change, supply chain disruptions, and shifting labor markets. Moreover, digital transformation holds immense potential to improve the efficiency, accessibility, and transparency of public servicesfrom healthcare and education to social protection and financial inclusion. The IsDB Group is actively supporting investments in smart infrastructure, e-government platforms, and inclusive digital ecosystems, said the IsDB president.

He noted that financial technology (fintech), in particular, offers powerful tools to expand access to financial services for underserved communities, especially women and small businesses.

By leveraging fintech solutions, we aim to promote financial inclusion, enhance access to capital, and facilitate cross-border trade and investment. Looking ahead, our strategy integrates innovation and digitalization across all sectorswhether in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, or educationensuring that our member countries can harness technology not only for growth, but also for inclusive and sustainable development, Al Jasser concluded.
Harvey Weinstein gave his first interview in eight years to conservative podcaster Candace Owens on Tuesday, defending himself over a videoconference link from Rikers Island prison where the disgraced movie mogul is being held as he undergoes retrial for rape and sexual assault.

Wearing a dark suit and crisp white dress shirt, Weinstein reiterated his innocence to Owens, who has recently supported the Pulp Fiction producer as he fights multiple charges in a Manhattan courtroom for a second time.

I just wanted to say that Im not angry, but Im angry at the system, Weinstein said to kick off the 20-minute interview, an unusual move for an inmate in the middle of a criminal trial. You know, my situation was transactional, you know, looking back at it.

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He thanked the right-wing Owens (exited from Daily Wire for what the ADL has called antisemitic vitriol), who has said Weinstein (a major Democratic supporter in the past) is being railroaded in a cultural battle, for granting him the chance to speak  then launched into his defense. Weinstein admitted to rampant infidelity and trading his influence for sex, but maintained, as he has since the beginning of the #MeToo movement, that he never assaulted or raped anyone.

I just want to say something very clearly: I believe women should be heard, he said. But Im wrongfully convicted, you know what I mean?  Justice demands a clear, honest look at each case. And I am here for fairness and the truth.

Weinstein said he made mistakes that hurt his family and friends, but I did not commit these crimes. I swear that before God and the people watching now and on my family, Im wrongfully accused. But justice has to know the difference between what is immoral and what is illegal.

He also thanked Joe Rogan, who has recently begun to agree with Owens that Weinsteins accusers all had something to gain by sleeping with him, then jumping onboard when he was accused publicly.

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Evidence has to matter. Ive lost everything, you know what I mean. Ive lost everything a man can lose, but still the truth matters. Ive been condemned of crimes I did not commit. I understand why people want someone to blame, but I am telling the truth.

Weinstein says while Hollywood has fully abandoned him, the friends that stayed with me were my friends that I grew up with. The people that I knew before I was famous, before I had power. The people in my life who were steadfast all through my life were the ones who remain loyal.

Harvey bemoaned that the media has been obsessed with his relationship to Gwyneth Paltrow, admitting that he made a pass at her, but swearing he never touched her.

Its a complete fabrication, you know, about my relationship with Gwyneth, Weinstein said. You know, Im going to talk about it and just say that I had a meeting with her.  At the end of the meeting we had a glass of champagne. As I was walking out the door, I said to her, Id love you to give me a massage. And she went [dismissively], Yeah. And, you know, that was it. I didnt put my hand on her. I didnt touch her. I definitely made a pass, I guess. You know, you could call it that. But that was the sum total of that situation.

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Weinstein recounted the oft-told story of how Brad Pitt, her boyfriend at the time, called him: Brad, very manly, very cool, just said, Dont do that again. And that was that. Paltrow and Weinstein went on to make 11 movies together and turned into total friends.

And now I heard, you know, that she thought the relationship was abusive, Weinstein said. Theres pictures of her hugging me when I was sick, when I was sick and in the hospital and didnt think I was going to make it in 1999.  In her Academy Awards speech, she thanks me.

Watch the entire interview in the video above.

The post Harvey Weinstein Gives Candace Owens First Interview in 8 Years From Prison: Im Angry at the System | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  With Memorial Day weekend here, many residents and visitors are expected to head outdoors to enjoy Hawaiis scenic  and sometimes hazardous  natural areas.

Kapaa Bypass Road upgrades cause temporary closure

State officials are urging everyone to stay safe while exploring trails, beaches, and ocean spots over the holiday weekend.

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WakeUp2Days Chris Latronic went live from Kewalo Basin Park, where he spoke with Jason Redulla, enforcement chief for the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), about outdoor safety and what people should keep in mind before heading out.

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Redulla stressed the importance of preparation, awareness of surroundings, and following posted safety signs and regulations.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
BOSTON (WWLP)  The states highest official said that President Trumps border policies have had some positive impacts on Massachusetts.

Governor Maura Healey answered questions on President Trumps border control policies and said she thinks some policies are a good move.

Senate budget debate continues, adding $43.5M to bottom line

The governors tentative support for unspecified Trump border policies comes as the state announces it will be ending the use of hotels and motels as emergency shelters sometime this summer. The governors office did not respond to a 22News request for an official closure date.

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After an unrelated event on Tuesday, the governor explained that part of the reason hotel closures will be happening about six months ahead of schedule is President Trumps efforts to increase border control.

I think that some of what Donald Trump has done on the border makes a lot of sense, Healey said. The general move and recognition that there needed to be more control brought to the border is absolutely correct.

Unsurprisingly, the outspoken Trump opponent governor does not support all of the federal administrations border policies. While Healey refused to specify policies that she supports, she called out ICE operations and deportations as points of disapproval.

Nobody in this country should have ICE come into their home or into their place of work without due process rights, Healey said.

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The governor also called on former President Biden to tighten down the border when he was in office. Calling for federal action was a common refrain from her office as migrant shelters hit record numbers last summer.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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LAWRENCE (KSNT)  A former student of the University of Kansas is dead after a shooting near a museum in Washington D.C., Wednesday night.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky died in a shooting close by the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21. Milgrim and Lischinsky were a couple set to be engaged and part of the staff at the Israeli embassy in the nations capital.

Three disgraced Kansas priests named in new abuse reports

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Chabad at KU released a statement on Thursday, May 22, following the attack. The organization confirmed that Milgrim was a former student at the University of Kansas.

We are heartbroken to share the tragic loss of KU alumna and beloved KU Chabad community member Sarah Milgrim, who was murdered in a terrorist attack in Washington, D.C., alongside her beloved partner, Yaron Lischinsky. Sarah was a proud Jewhawk, a graduate of the University of Kansas, and an active, deeply loved member of our KU Jewish community. She joined us often for Shabbat dinners, holiday celebrations, and countless Jewish programs, always bringing her warm smile, gentle spirit, and deep passion for her Jewish heritage. Sarah was a shining light  kind, graceful, and deeply committed to peace, and the well-being of others. While we are still in shock and disbelief, we must not give in to panic or despair. We are the Jewish people  a collective affirmation of life. In the face of this darkness, we respond by adding light: with acts of kindness, mitzvot, and love. Let us honor the memories of Sarah and Yaron, and bring more goodness into the world  because thats what we Jews do. Now is the time to turn pain into purpose. Lets increase in unity, reach out to someone weve drifted from, and stand tall in our Jewish pride. Add a mitzvah in their memory, and let the world see that our response to hate is more life, more light, and more love. Chabad at KU social media statement.

Wamego Caterpillar facility changes ownership, hundreds of local jobs saved

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) reported that Milgrim was a native of Overland Park, Kansas and that she was committed to peacebuilding. She was pursuing graduate studies at American Universitys School of International Service.

We are heartbroken by the loss of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, beloved members of the AJC community, who were murdered last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., following AJCs annual Young Diplomats Reception. We mourn with their families, friends, and all who knew and loved them. May their memories be a blessing. AJC social media statement excerpt.

A photo of Sarah Milgrim.

A suspect in the shooting was taken into custody and reportedly acted alone. D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters the suspect allegedly approached a group of four people, pulled out a handgun and opened fire. The suspect allegedly yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was taken into custody, according to a report from The Associated Press.

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Parole decision reversed for man who killed Kansas state trooper

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By Wednesday afternoon Southern Californians had made it through the brunt of this week's heat wave with slightly lower temperatures on tap for Thursday and Friday.

Woodland Hills hit 95 degrees Wednesday, which was among the hottest temperatures recorded in Los Angeles County, but the mercury remained below levels necessary to topple heat records, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld.

The Weather Service's heat advisory for the Los Angeles area, which was expected to be in place through Thursday, expired at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

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Inland areas experienced more extreme heat this week, with Palm Springs hitting 104 degrees at 2 p.m. Wednesday and Blythe in eastern Riverside County reaching 102 degrees.

Los Angeles area temperatures are expected to remain above average Thursday  reaching the low 80s along the coast and into the 90s in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

By Friday, however, a low pressure system will sweep into the region, bringing with it the return of May gray and cooler temperatures, Schoenfeld said. That system will remain in effect over the weekend and into Monday, posing the possibility of overcast beach weather on Memorial Day, she said.

May gray is fueled by onshore breezes that push the layer of cool moist air that hangs above the Pacific Ocean further inland, creating persistent cloud cover.

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Read more: What causes the May gray that stubbornly blocks the sun for days in Southern California?

Another round of heat may be on the horizon starting by the middle of next week, but forecasters aren't yet certain how hot it will get, Schoenfeld said.

This week's blistering weather brought an elevated risk of fires in tall grass and brush areas across the region.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Fire Department rushed to halt the spread of a 4-acre brush fire in the Sepulveda Basin that left one person with minor burns and caused temporary disruptions to Metro bus service. The fire was reported shortly after noon near Victory and Balboa boulevards in Van Nuys and fire crews were able to stop the fire's advance by 2 p.m., according to LAFD.

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A heightened risk of brush fires will continue this week due to breezy onshore winds, with the strongest gusts predicted across the Antelope Valley and in mountain and foothill areas, Schoenfeld said.

Despite the wind, the region is not under a red flag alert since recent rains lowered the risk of widespread wildfires. However, as temperatures continue to climb through the summer, grasses and brush will dry out and become ideal wildfire fuel, Schoenfeld said.

"We do want people to start thinking about our next fire season," she said. "It's important the public start thinking about what they need to do to prepare their homes, their family, their go bags, learn evacuation routes and sign up to get emergency notifications."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO)  A helicopter rescued a Meade County rancher after what the sheriffs office called a serious accident involving a horse.

Mitchell Mayor asks city to consider prison

Witnesses saw the accident and called first responders immediately. Within minutes, a Life-Flight helicopter was dispatched, landing in a pasture to take the rancher to the hospital.

The family of the rancher shared photos of the rescue with the sheriffs office on Facebook.

Our community is well aware of the inherent hazards associated with our way of life, the Meade County Sheriffs office wrote in a Facebook post.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
A Kansas City police van sits outside a patrol station on Linwood Boulevard (Allison Kite/Missouri Independent).

At the end of February, during a public budget hearing, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas asked the police department whether it had requested enough money to manage lawsuit expenses.

Maj. Josh Heinen, from the Kansas City Police Department fiscal division, responded that the $3.5 million the department budgeted for legal settlements was a reasonable amount for this year.

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So the Kansas City Council voted to approve the departments $343 million budget, which set aside $3.5 million for settlements.

The council didnt know then that two months later, KCPD would announce two lawsuit settlements that were five times the amount the department budgeted for  totaling $18.1 million.

Lucas believes that KCPD leaders knew during the budget process that expenses of that size were possible but chose not to disclose them.

When councilmembers and city staff read about the settlements in the news, they were worried that KCPD would be back to ask for more money to cover that unexpected expense.

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But Capt. Jacob Becchina, a spokesman for KCPD, told The Beacon in an email that the department plans to pay the settlements out of its own general fund. It wont affect personnel, he said, but it could cut contracts and equipment for the next fiscal year.

Members of the City Council  including Lucas  are not happy that the $18.1 million expense was never disclosed when the city was laying out the $343 million police budget for this year.

It makes anyone whos sitting here in government-land say, What the hell are we doing here? Lucas told The Beacon.

How KCPD pays for lawsuit settlements

Unlike nearly every other major city in the United States, Kansas City does not have control over its own police department. Instead, the police are governed by a five-member Board of Police Commissioners, which includes the mayor of Kansas City and four people appointed by the governor.

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The City Council is required to give KCPD a quarter of its annual budget, which the department has near-exclusive authority to spend as it pleases. Lucas, who sits on the police board, and other top city leaders have unanswered questions about how that money gets spent.

KCPD maintains a Self-Retention General Subsidiary Fund that it uses to pay legal settlements when they come up. Money in that fund comes from a few sources. In this years budget, $2.5 million was allocated to that fund by the City Council. Another $1 million came from the state of Missouri.

Lucas has called on the state to contribute more for lawsuit settlements given the governors oversight of the police board. He called the current $1 million yearly contribution woefully inadequate.

The finer details of that lawsuit fund are tough to find. When The Beacon submitted a records request in 2022 to understand why that fund had $5.6 million in accounting inaccuracies over the previous 10 years, KCPD asked for $1,700 in research fees.

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On April 22, the department agreed to pay $4.1 million to the family of Cameron Lamb, a Black man shot to death in 2019 by a KCPD detective. One week later, the department announced that it would pay another $14 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Ricky Kidd, a man who was incarcerated for 23 years for a murder he did not commit.

This years $18.1 million in lawsuit settlements are far more than the $3.5 million in that fund. If the City Council had known the expenses were coming, Lucas argues, it could have helped KCPD plan around them.

But instead, the police board voted to approve a budget that would need to be revised.

That money will not be paid out all at once. The $14 million settlement with Kidd will be paid out over the next four years. If Kidds settlement is divided evenly, that puts this years bill at $3.5 million, plus another $4.1 million to the family of Lamb, totaling $7.6 million.

KCPD will not ask the City Council for more money  this time

When legal settlements exceed the money in its self-retention fund, KCPD has a couple options to make the payments.

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One option is for KCPD to ask the City Council to take money out of the citys budget to help pay for the settlements. Thats what KCPD has done in the past.

If they did that, said Assistant City Manager Melissa Kozakiewicz, then theyre coming before the council to say, Can you pay this amount? And the council then can say yes or no.

By way of comparison, this years estimated cost for the polices recent legal settlements approaches the $8.5 million that Kansas City spent to distribute 162,000 trash carts last year.

The other option is for KCPD to pay the settlement entirely out of its own budget. Thats the route that department is taking in this case.

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That means transferring money from other parts of the police budget, such as equipment, consulting fees or building repairs.

Council was never told that an $18.1 million expense could be coming

Many city officials expected KCPD to ask the City Council to cover most, if not all, of the $18.1 million legal bill stemming from the Lamb and Kidd settlements. It came as a surprise when they learned from The Beacon that wouldnt be the case.

City officials including Lucas and Councilman Johnathan Duncan have grown frustrated that KCPD does not treat the council or city staff as partners in navigating substantial budget decisions like recent lawsuit settlements.

KCPD plans to pull that money from the general fund, which totals $299 million for this fiscal year. Excluding personnel costs, which Becchina said will not be used for the settlements, there is only $23 million available in the general fund.

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Lucas said he was frustrated that KCPD leadership chose not to be forthcoming with city officials when they outlined their budget two months before the settlements were announced.

A lawyer himself, Lucas has taught courses on this subject at the University of Kansas Law School.

Hell, Ill go on the record as your lawyer expert on this, Lucas said. You dont settle a $14 million case in one day.

When cases like this are filed  in this case, several years ago  theres often a settlement demand from the start, he said. The defendant (in this case, KCPD) was probably told years ago that if they paid that sum, the plaintiff was willing to settle out of court.

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If Disney is facing a $1 billion dollar suit from the Trump administration, he said. No matter how valid it is or not, you put that in your list of things that could have some material impact on whats going on.

As the court date got closer, Lucas said, the lawyers  and leadership at the police department itself  would have been fully aware by February that a lawsuit settlement of this size was not only possible, but likely.

You dont have to speculate, he said, to at least know that there was someone in leadership, and perhaps many someones  knew that there was high potential that this would have an impact in this fiscal year.

Becchina, from KCPD, declined to make Chief Stacey Graves available to comment on this story.

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Duncan, who represents the 6th District in southwestern Kansas City on the City Council, said he learned about the police settlements the same way everyone else did  by reading it in the news.

The same goes for Kozakiewicz and other staff at City Hall, including the people in charge of the budget.

Whos actually being held accountable?

Over the past several years, Lucas has encouraged the other members of the police board to look into a liability insurance policy for the department.

That insurance, he said, would make the cost of litigation less burdensome for KCPD and City Hall.

The board has researched policies, but Lucas said that the department has cited a $5 million deductible as a reason not to obtain liability insurance. But in the past several years, Lucas said, police settlements have become more and more expensive, and the department has exceeded that amount.

This years $14 million settlement with Ricky Kidd was $1 million away from breaking the citys record for its most expensive lawsuit settlement ever.

If the police department had liability insurance, even with a $5 million deductible, it would have already saved Kansas City taxpayers millions of dollars this year.

In a statement, the Board of Police Commissioners wrote that the $14 million settlement with Ricky Kidd was a rational decision.

The Board of Police Commissioners of Kansas City, Missouri and Ricky Kidd have amicably resolved the ongoing litigation between Mr. Kidd and the Board for $14 million, payable over the next four fiscal years, the board said in the statement. The board resolved this litigation out of a desire to avoid the expense, uncertainty and risk of litigation, and the resolution of the matter is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing by anyone.

The statement went on to say that the board takes seriously its obligation to manage litigation in a way that serves not only the interests of the Kansas City Police Department, but, most importantly, those of the community it serves. This resolution is no different. Mr. Kidds lawsuit involved former personnel and events of nearly 30 years ago. The Department will take the benefit of the lessons learned throughout the course of this litigation and embed those lessons in its ongoing and continuous efforts to ensure Kansas Citians receive the highest level of police service. The board appreciates Mr. Kidds reasoned and sincere efforts in arriving at this resolution and wishes him and his family well.

Concerns with transparency

Duncan said the latest lawsuit settlement saga is emblematic of his long-standing frustrations with the police department.

The fact that we do not manage KCPD leaves us in an untenable position, he said, where we are liable for any mistakes they make or any lawsuits that arise due to their conduct or misconduct. And we have absolutely zero authority to actively look to correct their practices and procedures.

And the lack of transparency when these issues arise makes it even more difficult to find a path forward, he said.

I often feel like the city is held hostage by KCPD, he said, in terms of the fact that we are  not made an active partner  not for lack of trying  in how to curb future litigation.

Lucas said that the system of state control, where all of the police policies and procedures are set by an unelected board appointed by the governor, means the city is unable to hold KCPD accountable for the money that lawsuit settlements cost the taxpayers every year.

The biggest challenge with the police, he said, is a lack of accountability  not just to the taxpayers of Kansas City, but really their lack of accountability to anyone.

We settled the case with Cameron Lamb, right? he said. Whats changed? What is the new step that people take? Is there any new discussion? Is there any new thing about how you de-escalate? Is there anything on it at all? Regrettably, at least in terms of what becomes publicly known, there is not.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington  a young couple on the verge of becoming engaged  were fatally shot Wednesday evening while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, and the suspect yelled, Free, free Palestine after he was arrested, police said.

The attack was seen by officials in Israel and the U.S. as the latest in a growing wave of antisemitism as Israel ramps up its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and as food security experts have warned that Gaza risks falling into famine unless Israel's blockade ends.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said the man who was killed had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

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Here's what we know:

What happened?

The two victims, a man and a woman, were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum around 9:15 p.m. Wednesday when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The suspect was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, Free, free Palestine, Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.

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The violence occurred following the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum.

Who is the suspect?

The suspect has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

He was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI. The U.S. attorney in Washington will prosecute the case.

Who are the victims?

They were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American woman  a young couple about to be engaged.

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Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us, said Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the AJC, the advocacy organization whose event the couple attended before they were killed. Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

He described Milgrim, from Overland Park, Kansas, as warm and compassionate, committed to peace building and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations. And he said Lischinsky was a staff member of the embassys political department who focused on Middle East issues and who at the event told others that he was eager to return to Israel to be with his family for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

What is Israel's reaction?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said Thursday that he was shocked by the horrific, antisemitic shooting.

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We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel, he said in a statement.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

Witnesses to the attack

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said. Kalin said people came to the man's aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

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This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

Israel's new campaign in Gaza

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East. The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

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In the time since, Israels devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesnt differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gazas urban landscape. Aid groups ran out of food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million relies on communal kitchens whose supplies are nearly depleted.

___

The story has been updated to correct the suspects age to 31 from 30, based on updated information from law enforcement.






LeeLani Brooks, 9, was shot while rushing her siblings to safety in New Orleans

A stray bullet struck her in the head after gunfire erupted outside her home

She was declared brain dead and taken off life support days later







Louisiana authorities say a 9-year-old girl was shot and killed while rushing her younger siblings to safety as gunfire erupted near her house on May 12.

LeeLani Brooks, 9, was playing outside her home in New Orleans just before 2 p.m. when men nearby began shooting at each other, NOLA, WWL-TV and Fox 8 reported, citing police.

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LeeLani and her mother ran inside their home, but a stray bullet traveled through a window and hit LeeLani in the head as she ran to get her younger siblings to safety, the local outlets reported, citing authorities.

She was then rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was placed on life support and declared brain dead, NOLA reported. On May 16, her family made the decision to take her off life support and she died soon after.

New Orleans Police arrested 19-year-old Evan Rogers, who as of May 13 faced one count of attempted second-degree murder and one count of illegal use of weapons, the New Orleans Police Department said in a statement on that date.

It took a four-hour stand-off for U.S. Marshals to apprehend Rogers while he was allegedly hiding out in a hotel, New Orleans police said in the statement. Police have also arrested a second person but did not release that person's name or what charges they face.

GoFundMe

LeeLanis family members have set up a GoFundMe to cover her funeral costs.

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My baby Leelani was a sweet, vibrant, and fun 9-year-old child who loved and was loved by everyone around her, LeeLanis mother, Letisha Johnson wrote in the post. She was a leader and ensured all her younger family members were protected. Her smile is unforgettable, and her personality was infectious.

On May 20, LeeLanis family held a balloon release for the 9-year-old. Johnson was devastated about her daughters death and told Fox 8 that their family was still processing their grief.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

I just want everyone to remember my baby for who she was, Johnson said, adding that LeeLani loved doing her makeup, doing her nails, dancing, and was admired by her family members and friends.

Thats what we want the world to remember her as, a hero, someone who was so selfless at 9 years old, Mike Willis, a community activist, told the outlet.

Read the original article on People
SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC4)  Elementary school students across the Jordan School District received Buddy Benches this month, which were a gift from older students in the district.

The Buddy Bench is a place to help make new friends if you are lonely at recess. A group of seniors in the Jordan School District know first-hand how the benches work, so they designed and built benches for their younger friends in the district.

ABC4.com was at the party at Monte Vista Elementary School when the students received their gift. It was an assembly where the school was surprised with their new recess accessory.

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Somebody notices: Kindness classes taught at Utah State Correctional Facility boost community

A group of welding, construction management, and education students from the Jordan School Districts Academy of Technology and Careers teamed up to not just design the benches, but build them and then introduce them to the schools.

Makayla Bird is a senior at Mountain Ridge High School. She was part of the student group.

Makayla explained, We are focusing a lot on inclusion and not really focusing on the fact that bullying is bad; but really focusing on the positive reinforcement and really focusing on kids being kind to others.

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Makayla didnt build the 18 benches being distributed across the district, but she did work with classmates to make sure the benches didnt just support the students  she made sure they learned how to use them. That was the goal of the assembly.

Makayla continued, We did it all together, and we planned what we wanted. We knew we wanted to focus on things that were real problems within the schools, so we came and talked with the principals with the schools  so we knew what our targeted audience was needed.

This project was important for each of the students involved, not just because it was an important task, but because they know a Buddy Bench can work.

Makayla explained, A lot of the welding students had their own experience with buddy bench in elementary school and they saw the positive impact it had.

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Blair Jensen teaches the welding students. He was the one who got the idea going, but he said it was the students who made it happen.

Jensen said, It was designed by the students. It was built by the students. The prototype was made by my welding students, then came the teacher education students and construction management. Its three programs working on it together.

After the assembly, they installed the bench outside the school  a gift for the younger generation and a step forward for the older students in their futures.

Jensen explained, My focus is to getting them successful in a career and I think stuff like this having an impact in your community, thats crucial for being successful.

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If you know of Acts of Kindness in your community, we want to share their stories. Please email us at actsofkindness@abc4.com.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
ALGIERS, Algeria, May 22. The Islamic Development Bank Group is in discussion with Azerbaijan to support several new initiatives, Chairman of the Islamic Development Bank Group Dr. Muhammad Al Jasser said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

Al Jasser recalled that IsDB launched the Country Engagement Framework for Azerbaijan in early 2024.

Under this Framework, we signed the first project to support food security as well as the development of Karabakh on the sidelines of COP29 in November 2024. We are in discussion with the country to support several new initiatives, including the development of regional Energy Corridors, the Alat Free Economic Zone, and potential irrigation projects in Karabakh, he said.

IsDB president noted that the Bank is also keen to partner with Azerbaijan to promote South-South Cooperation.

Recently, a Technical Assistance grant was signed between the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and the IsDBInstitute to promote Islamic finance. Another Technical Assistanceagreement was signed recently to promote cooperation between Pakistan and Azerbaijan for the development of high-yielding cotton varieties, he said.
You've probably heard the one about the product that blows up in its creators' faces when they're trying to demonstrate how great it is.

Here's a ripped-from-the-headlines yarn about what happened when a big law firm used an AI bot product developed by Anthropic, its client, to help write an expert's testimony defending the client.

It didn't go well. Anthropic's chatbot, Claude, got the title and authors of one paper cited in the expert's statement wrong, and injected wording errors elsewhere. The errors were incorporated in the statement when it was filed in court in April.

I can't believe people haven't yet cottoned to the thought that AI-generated material is full of errors and fabrications, and therefore every citation in a filing needs to be confirmed.

Eugene Volokh, UCLA law school

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Those errors were enough to prompt the plaintiffs suing Anthropic  music publishers who allege that the AI firm is infringing their copyrights by feeding lyrics into Claude to "train" the bot  to ask the federal magistrate overseeing the case to throw out the expert's testimony in its entirety.

It may also become a black eye for the big law firm Latham & Watkins, which represents Anthropic and submitted the errant declaration.

Latham argues that the errors were inconsequential, amounting to an "honest citation mistake and not a fabrication." The firm's failure to notice the errors before the statement was filed is "an embarrassing and unintentional mistake," but it shouldn't be exploited to invalidate the expert's opinion, the firm told Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen of San Jose, who is managing the pretrial phase of the lawsuit. The plaintiffs, however, say the errors "fatally undermine the reliability" of the expert's declaration.

At a May 13 hearing conducted by phone, van Keulen herself expressed doubts.

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"There is a world of difference between a missed citation and a hallucination generated by AI, and everyone on this call knows that," she said, according to a transcript of the hearing cited by the plaintiffs. (Van Keulen hasn't yet ruled on whether to keep the expert's declaration in the record or whether to hit the law firm with sanctions.)

That's the issue confronting judges as courthouse filings peppered with serious errors and even outright fabrications  what AI experts term "hallucinations"  continue to be submitted in lawsuits.

A roster compiled by the French lawyer and data expert Damien Charlotin now numbers 99 cases from federal courts in two dozen states as well as from courts in Europe, Israel, Australia, Canada and South Africa.

That's almost certainly an undercount, Charlotin says. The number of cases in which AI-generated errors have gone undetected is incalculable, he says: "I can only cover cases where people got caught."

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Read more: Hiltzik: This artificial intelligence chatbot turns out to be a plagiarist  and an idiot

In nearly half the cases, the guilty parties are pro-se litigants  that is, people pursuing a case without a lawyer. Those litigants generally have been treated leniently by judges who recognize their inexperience; they seldom are fined, though their cases may be dismissed.

In most of the cases, however, the responsible parties were lawyers. Amazingly, in some 30 cases involving lawyers the AI-generated errors were discovered or were in documents filed as recently as this year, long after the tendency of AI bots to "hallucinate" became evident. That suggests that the problem is getting worse, not better.

"I can't believe people haven't yet cottoned to the thought that AI-generated material is full of errors and fabrications, and therefore every citation in a filing needs to be confirmed," says UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh.

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Judges have been making it clear that they have had it up to here with fabricated quotes, incorrect references to legal decisions and citations to nonexistent precedents generated by AI bots. Submitting a brief or other document without certifying the truth of its factual assertions, including citations to other cases or court decisions, is a violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which renders lawyers vulnerable to monetary sanctions or disciplinary actions.

Some courts have issued standing orders that the use of AI at any point in the preparation of a filing must be disclosed, along with a certification that every reference in the document has been verified. At least one federal judicial district has forbidden almost any use of AI.

The proliferation of faulty references in court filings also points to the most serious problem with the spread of AI bots into our daily lives: They can't be trusted. Long ago it became evident that when even the most sophisticated AI systems are flummoxed by a question or task, they fill in the blanks in their own knowledge by making things up.

Read more: Hiltzik: Artificial intelligence chatbots are spreading fast, but hype about them is spreading faster

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As other fields use AI bots to perform important tasks, the consequences can be dire. Many medical patients "can be led astray by hallucinations," a team of Stanford researchers wrote last year. Even the most advanced bots, they found, couldn't back up their medical assertions with solid sources 30% of the time.

It's fair to say that workers in almost any occupation can fall victim to weariness or inattention; but attorneys often deal with disputes with thousands or millions of dollars at stake, and they're expected to be especially rigorous about fact-checking formal submissions.

Some legal experts say there's a legitimate role for AI in the law  even to make decisions customarily left to judges. But lawyers can hardly be unaware of the pitfalls for their own profession in failing to monitor bots' outputs.

The very first sanctions case on Charlotin's list originated in June 2023  Mata vs. Avianca, a New York personal injury case that resulted in a $5,000 penalty for two lawyers who prepared and submitted a legal brief that was largely the product of the ChatGPT chatbot. The brief cited at least nine court decisions that were soon exposed as nonexistent. The case was widely publicized coast to coast.

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One would think fiascos like this would cure lawyers of their reliance on artificial intelligence chatbots to do their work for them. One would be wrong. Charlotin believes that the superficially authentic tone of AI bots' output may encourage overworked or inattentive lawyers to accept bogus citations without double-checking.

"AI is very good at looking good," he told me. Legal citations follow a standardized format, so "they're easy to mimic in fake citations," he says.

It may also be true that the sanctions in the earliest cases, which generally amounted to no more than a few thousand dollars, were insufficient to capture the bar's attention. But Volokh believes the financial consequences of filing bogus citations should pale next to the nonmonetary consequences.

"The main sanctions to each lawyer are the humiliation in front of the judge, in front of the client, in front of supervisors or partners..., possibly in front of opposing counsel, and, if the case hits the news, in front of prospective future clients, other lawyers, etc.," he told me. "Bad for business and bad for the ego."

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Charlotin's dataset makes for amusing reading  if mortifying for the lawyers involved. It's peopled by lawyers who appear to be totally oblivious to the technological world they live in.

The lawyer who prepared the hallucinatory ChatGPT filing in the Avianca case, Steven A. Schwartz, later testified that he was "operating under the false perception that this website could not possibly be fabricating cases on its own." When he began to suspect that the cases couldn't be found in legal databases because they were fake, he sought reassurance  from ChatGPT!

Read more: Hiltzik: Excited about AI and self-driving cars? A top roboticist is here to burst your bubble

"Is Varghese a real case?" he texted the bot. Yes, it's "a real case," the bot replied. Schwartz didn't respond to my request for comment.

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Other cases underscore the perils of placing one's trust in AI.

For example, last year Keith Ellison, the attorney general of Minnesota, hired Jeff Hancock, a communications professor at Stanford, to provide an expert opinion on the danger of AI-faked material in politics. Ellison was defending a state law that made the distribution of such material in political campaigns a crime; the law was challenged in a lawsuit as an infringement of free speech.

Hancock, a well-respected expert in the social harms of AI-generated deepfakes  photos, videos and recordings that seem to be the real thing but are convincingly fabricated  submitted a declaration that Ellison duly filed in court.

But Hancock's declaration included three hallucinated references apparently generated by ChatGPT, the AI bot he had consulted while writing it. One attributed to bogus authors an article he himself had written, but he didn't catch the mistake until it was pointed out by the plaintiffs.

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Laura M. Provinzino, the federal judge in the case, was struck by what she called "the irony" of the episode: "Professor Hancock, a credentialed expert on the dangers of AI and misinformation, has fallen victim to the siren call of relying too heavily on AI  in a case that revolves around the dangers of AI, no less."

That provoked her to anger. Hancock's fake citations, she wrote, "shatters his credibility with this Court." Noting that he had attested to the veracity of his declaration under penalty of perjury, she threw out his entire expert declaration and refused to allow Ellison to file a corrected version.

In a mea culpa statement to the court, Hancock explained that the errors might have crept into his declaration when he cut-and-pasted a note to himself. But he maintained that the points he made in his declaration were valid nevertheless. He didn't respond to my request for further comment.

On Feb. 6, Michael R. Wilner, a former federal magistrate serving as a special master in a California federal case against State Farm Insurance, hit the two law firms representing the plaintiff with $31,000 in sanctions for submitting a brief with "numerous false, inaccurate, and misleading legal citations and quotations."

In that case, a lawyer had prepared an outline of the brief for the associates assigned to write it. He had used an AI bot to help write the outline, but didn't warn the associates of the bot's role. Consequently, they treated the citations in the outline as genuine and didn't bother to double-check them.

As it happened, Wilner noted, "approximately nine of the 27 legal citations in the ten-page brief were incorrect in some way." He chose not to sanction the individual lawyers: "This was a collective debacle," he wrote.

Wilner added that when he read the brief, the citations almost persuaded him that the plaintiff's case was sound  until he looked up the cases and discovered they were bogus. "That's scary," he wrote. His monetary sanction for misusing AI appears to be the largest in a U.S. court ... so far.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Following a dramatic all-night session between lawmakers and days of negotiating, the House narrowly passed President Trumps domestic policy bill Thursday morning.

The bill passed by a razor-thin margin in a 215-214 vote, with all but two House Republicans supporting the massive budget package.

Last-minute concessions and a reportedly stern warning from the president appeared to win over the holdouts to save what he refers to as the big, beautiful bill, which would extend Trump-era tax cuts, boost the military, as well as end taxes on tips and overtime. It also includes deep cuts to Medicaid and food aid, and raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

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Democrats tried to stall the bill, but did not have enough votes.

DONT MISS: Trumps big tax bill has passed the House. Heres whats inside it

Pacific Northwest lawmakers largely condemned the bills passage, with U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) referring to it as a full-scale assault on Americans health and safety.

Typical Americans wont feel any economic benefit from this horrific bill, he added. Republicans are cutting taxes for murderers and gang members who buy gun silencers, but theyre leaving millions of poor kids behind. Theyre hiking Americans electricity bills and destroying our energy security for the benefit of Big Oil. Families who are barely getting by each month will be forced to subsidize the private school educations of the rich. Trump and Republicans arent even living up to their promise to eliminate taxes on tips since lifting income taxes doesnt do a lick of good for working class Americans who dont owe income taxes anyway.

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Police to parks: Portland city council approves $8 billion budget

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) spoke on the House floor ahead of the crucial vote, stressing that people will die, amid the largest Medicaid cut in history, as well as cuts to SNAP benefits.

This bill takes food from hungry children. SNAP helps more than 775,000 Oregonians, 50 percent of whom are children, to put food on their table. This bill would lead to a significant reduction in food benefits for families, she said. I tell you, billionaires can eat caviar in their mansions, on their yachts, and while launching celebrities in rockets on vanity tours of space, but everyday Americans will be left unsure about whether theyll have enough to feed their families.

U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) also weighed in after casting her no vote, stating that Republicans know of the bills unpopularity with the American people, but they dont care.

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At every turn, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have not only ignored our attempts at bipartisanship  they have actively avoided accountability and even convened a meeting in the dead of night to force through their shameful legislation, she noted. Republicans are hiding from the American people because they know these cuts are deeply unpopular. Yet they dont care. Families will starve and people will die as a result of the Republican tax scam  but the rich will get even richer.

Oregon lawmakers approve changes to bottle redemption law amid homelessness concerns

Also after casting a vote against the bill, U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez (D-Wash.) referred to the bill as wasteful, noting how cuts to the tip .1% of earners will explode our deficit.

It drives up costs for everyday Americans on energy, healthcare premiums, and out-of-pocket costs  all while gutting the consumer finance watchdog that helps them fight back when theyre ripped off, she said. It breaks the Presidents promise not to touch Medicaid  imposing new, difficult-to-navigate red tape and threatening the healthcare of roughly 21,000 people across Southwest Washington. It raids food programs that advance our national health, keep food on families tables, and support our farmers. Thats the real cost of handing out tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

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After the passage, Rep. Maxine Dexter called the bill a historic heist and a tax scam.

For two nights in a row, while Americans slept, Republicans rushed through a tax scam: a massive giveaway for billionaires paid for by cutting health care and food assistance from working families, she said. Its not policy, its a historic heist and a betrayal of working families. Every single House Republican who voted for this bill lacks the courage to stand up for their constituents.

Unchecked power: Oregon AG testifies against Trump tariffs

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), the only Republican member of Oregons delegation, told KOIN 6 News that the bill focuses on accountability, preventing fraud, waste and abuse of SNAP and Medicaid. He also argued it would create more jobs and production.

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The Medicaid program is indispensable for people who are ill, sick, old, the list goes on and thats what that programming is for, he said. And the idea is to preserve that program by not letting it fill up with people who are perfectly capable of working and perfectly able expect for some reason, they dont want to.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where some Republicans plan to push for changes.

Congressional leaders say they hope to get a final version to President Trumps desk by July 4.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT)  The historic J.W. Higgs House in Greenville is now under new ownership and protected by a permanent preservation easement.

After months of intensive searching and advocacy, Preservation North Carolinas Eastern Regional Director Maggie Gregg secured new stewards for the property: architect Kathryn Ross, who holds a minor in Historic Preservation, and Matt and Erin Skully, beloved owners of The Scullery restaurant in Greenville.

The landmark Queen Anne Revival residence was located between the East Carolina University campus and ECU Health Medical Center. It was constructed between 1902 and 1905 by Jacob W. Higgs.

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Once restored, the Higgs House will host community events, showcase regional art, and operate as a boutique bed and breakfast, creating a vibrant cultural hub in the heart of Greenville.

The house will also be reborn as The Higgs House Inn and Gathering Place, an adaptive reuse that honors the propertys architectural legacy and its colorful past, including its stint in the 1970s as The Gathering Place Restaurant.

In January 2024, the Greenville City Council approved plans to demolish the house. A 365-day demolition delay, issued by the Historic Preservation Commission in March, provided enough time for PNC to locate committed buyers with the resources and vision to rehabilitate the structure.

Through the use of a Preservation Easement, PNC has ensured that the homes architectural character will be protected in perpetuity.

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For more information, contact Preservation NC Regional Director Maggie Gregg at 919-832-3652 ext. 242, or at mgregg@presnc.org.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT.
Allred Pike, Jr., wore a red shirt with the image of Emily Pike emblazoned on its front. He spoke about his 14-year-old niece and how her brutal murder shook Indian Country and the state.

He had come to the Arizona Capitol May 21 to watch Gov. Katie Hobbs sign a measure that will establish "Turquoise Alerts" for missing Indigenous people. It's known as "Emily's Law," named in honor of slain San Carlos Apache teen Emily Pike.

"I'm conflicted," Pike said. "This bill is named after my niece, my niece who's not here no more." He said the event and the name of the law reminded all that Emily is gone.

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He joined other members of the Pike family, tribal and state leaders and members of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force for the bill signing.

"It's a good thing that an alert system is here for all of Indian Country," Pike said. "But the hard part is it's named after my brother's and Steff's daughter, and she's not here no more."

Steff Dosela was Emily Pike's mother, and Jensen Pike was her father. Dosela stood with Pike at the event but didn't speak. Jensen Pike is serving time in an Arizona prison for arson and criminal damage.

"While this bill was being considered in the state Legislature, we learned of the senseless murder of this beautiful, 14-year-old Emily, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe," Hobbs said. "No parent, no tribal community should lose their child, their young member to violence." Emily Pike would have turned 15 last week, the governor said. "She should have celebrated with friends and family."

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While the law won't bring Emily back, Hobbs said she and others hope the Turquoise Alert will prevent other such losses.

The alert, which Hobbs said would be implemented later this year, will issue missing person alerts for Native people up to age 65 after a law enforcement agency determines the person is missing.

Hobbs also announced that the state would add $25,000 from the Department of Public Safety anti-racketeering fund to two other rewards of $75,000 each offered by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and the FBI for information on Emily's case. DPS Director Jeffrey Glover said the last time DPS offered a reward was during the Freeway Shooter case in 2015.

Governor Katie Hobbs signs HB 2281 Emilys Law during a ceremonial bill signing in Phoenix on May 21, 2025. This law with the help of a Turquoise Alert system will allow law enforcement to respond quickly when individuals like Emily Pike go missing.

San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler said Emily Pike had fallen through the cracks. The teenager ran away from a Mesa group home in late January. Her body was found dismembered on a trail off U.S. Highway 60 near Globe, almost 100 miles away, on Feb. 14.

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"We need to change the term 'runaway' to the description 'missing,'" he said. "That heightens the response of everybody." Labeling a person as a runaway, Rambler said, gives them several days or weeks in the hopes that they will return instead of immediately searching for them.

An investigation by The Arizona Republic revealed a raft of miscommunications, overlapping jurisdictions and policies on how runaway youth are reported.

Missing children: How the death of an 11-year-old Navajo girl helped expand Amber Alerts to tribal lands

Legislators: 'We need more cooperation'

State Reps. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, and Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, spoke at the Capitol May 20, a day before Hobbs's signing ceremony.

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Martinez was lead sponsor on the Turquoise Alert bill, which lawmakers passed unanimously. She said the bill was the result of a bipartisan effort. State Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Tuba City, and fellow Democratic Reps. Mae Peshlakai, Myron Tsosie and Brian Garcia co-sponsored the bill establishing the Turquoise Alert.

Steff Dosela, Emily Pikes mother, center, attends a ceremonial bill signing for HB 2281 Emilys Law in Phoenix on May 21, 2025. This law with the help of a Turquoise Alert system will allow law enforcement to respond quickly when individuals like Emily Pike go missing.

"When we ran the bill in January, we did not know that Emily was missing," Martinez said. "Think about that. A little girl goes missing, and no Amber Alert was issued."

When Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis testified for the bill in January, legislators didn't know the girl was missing. "By the time the bill made it over to the Senate, we had realized that she had been missing for a month," Martinez said.

"It horrifies me to think of a mother, a father out there not even knowing that their little girl is missing."

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Much work is needed to protect women and children of the state of Arizona, she said.

"No one should be forgotten."

Lewis, named for his uncle who went missing more than 60 years ago, said the bill's fast passage and unanimous support reflect the serious need for such services.

"These, issues of safety, life and death of our very relatives are not partisan," he said. Lewis also thanked Martinez and other legislators for helping address the long-standing missing and murdered Indigenous person crisis.

Arizona joins at least five other states that have adopted similar alerts to rapidly publicize missing Indigenous persons.

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Hatathlie called for further discussions on the "missing links" with an eye to amending laws to cover kids beyond those who are wards of the court or under Department of Child Safety oversight.

"We want to have those agreements so we're there when our vulnerable community members need us and stepping up the resources that we have for our children," she said.

She agreed with Rambler that Emily Pike fell through the cracks of many systemic barriers. "That's where we need to have that conversation, so that we are not talking, having this similar conversation years down the road regarding our children," Hatathlie said.

Children in distress: Tribes seek foster care for kids in need, but strained resources lead some to group homes

Justice Department sends extra help

The legislators' call for more cooperation came on the heels of an annual surge in FBI agents and forensic resources to Indian Country.

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In April, the U.S. Justice Department initiated the third year of a multi-year initiative to address the MMIWP crisis. The FBI will rotate 60 people to field offices in 10 cities, including Phoenix and Albuquerque, for 90-day temporary duty assignments over six months. The operation also supports Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement agencies with the latest forensic evidence processing technology and analytical expertise to tackle hard MMIWP cases.

Amber Crotty, center, speaks during a ceremonial bill signing for HB 2281 Emilys Law in Phoenix on May 21, 2025. This law with the help of a Turquoise Alert system will allow law enforcement to respond quickly when individuals like Emily Pike go missing.

Several people at the ceremony asked what would happen once this year's surge is done. Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty talked about the need for significant changes to the Major Crimes Act, which gives federal courts and law enforcement jurisdiction over felony crimes like murder committed against a Native person by another Native person on tribal lands. She said such changes could help return tribes the right to pursue justice in their own courts instead of waiting to see if the federal government will step in to investigate or to prosecute the cases.

Jurisdictional issues like a non-Indian committing a major crime against a Native person and how far tribal courts can go to prosecute offenders have muddied the justice waters for decades.

Crotty said that, absent making long-requested revisions to the law that took tribal prosecutorial rights away, tribes want to know how many cases the FBI is taking on.

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"How many cases are they declining?" she asked. "How many of those cases they are communicating and are they respecting our tribal law enforcement instead of segregating (cases) and making decisions without this kind of input?"

But big questions about how to better serve justice in Indian Country and breaking down law enforcement silos wouldn't be answered this day. Instead, tribal and state law enforcement officials and leaders said they would continue working on intrastate communications and collaborations to help fill in the gaps that allowed Emily Pike to end up murdered on the side of the highway.

Allred Pike thanked legislators and tribal leaders for sponsoring and passing the law and help save lives for other missing and murdered Indigenous women and people.

"We thank you for keeping the memory of my niece alive," he said.

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"She was our daughter, our niece, our granddaughter, our cousin, our friend, and we're here to tell you that she mattered; her life mattered," Allred Pike said. The family understands that despite how hard it was to be in the spotlight, they must move forward, he said. "Emily's law is a step in the right direction."

Arizona Republic reporter Stacey Barchenger contributed to this story.

Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at debra.krol@azcentral.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @debkrol and on Bluesky at @debkrol.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hobbs signs Turquoise Alert bill named in honor of Emily Pike
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP)  The Holyoke Police Department is seeking the publics help in identifying a theft suspect.

Crews pause search for missing canoeist in Connecticut River

Police say that the man pictured below is a suspect in several package thefts throughout Holyoke.

Holyoke Police Department

If anyone has information on the identity of the suspect or his whereabouts, call 413-322-6940 and ask to speak with Captain Cruz.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP)  A Holyoke police officers successfully put out a small fire early Thursday morning.

Holyoke police ask for identity of package thief suspect

On Thursday at around 3:45 a.m., Holyoke Police Officer Luis Rivera was sent to a reported fire. When Officer Rivera arrived, he saw a hamper full of clothes fully on fire.

Officer Rivera went to grab his fire extinguisher from his police cruiser and was able to put out the fire. No injuries were reported. The Holyoke Fire Department arrived and are investigating the cause of the fire.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Inside, a destroyed home is black and stark, made of tarps and the remains of furniture. Just one look tells you everything: A disaster.

But it wasnt always like that. For two years, student and aspiring artist Stephanie Thomas and her boyfriend Chris called it home.

Then came April 11, 2025. It was around 10 p.m., and Stephanie was on the front porch.



I was hanging out some of my artwork to dry, she said.



Meanwhile, inside the home, Chris and several friends had just finished a meal.



Me and my friends, we were all in the kitchen having a good time, he said.

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The next thing I know, theres smoke pouring out of the vent.

Before the couple knew it, their home was being engulfed by a fast-growing fire.

I dont understand how there was so much smoke so fast, Stephanie said.

I tried to run back in to grab a fire extinguisher, but I couldnt even make it into the kitchen.

Then the Kansas City Fire Department showed up and got to work. The couple felt hopeful. However, that hope was quickly extinguished.



The next thing I know, they say theyre out of water, Chris said.

I look up and theyre like, Were out of water, and Im like, What?'



Firefighters often bring water with them in trucks referred to as water trucks, but that only lasts so long. Thats why your local fire hydrant is often the best solution. That is, if they work.

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For context, the closest fire hydrant to Stephanie and Chris home on N. Lydia Avenue was more than 500 feet away. But the fire crew found it lying on its side, broken.

So they tried another, farther away hydrant. But that didnt work either. As minutes ticked away, the fire grew.

Finally, the firefighters connected to a working hydrant at 38th and Wayne  more than

a thousand feet away from the burning home. And by then, it was too late to save it.

We were so close to reaching everything we wanted to do in life, Chris said.

He said the firefighters, too, were saddened and one even offered an apology.

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Chris said the firefighter told him they could have at least saved the couples belongings if the fire hydrant had been working.

When FOX4 asked for the fire incident report, we noticed something strange.

There was not a single mention of fire hydrants, much less the fact that they were broken fire hydrants. Instead, it said:



Pumper 06 entered the building through the basement door, located the fire in the basement of the residence, and successfully extinguished it.

Worse than that, a month after the fire, FOX4 found out that the first broken hydrant was still broken.

Why is this not fixed? Chris asked.

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He told FOX4 that he was surprised the problem hadnt been fixed. However, its not the first time something like this has happened in our area.

Last year, a long-broken hydrant hindered firefighters while battling a blaze at 42nd and Jackson.

In 2022, an unrepaired fire hydrant delayed firefighting efforts at a house fire in the Northland.

Also in 2022, a dry hydrant slowed fire crews from dousing a fire on 58th Street.

Despite all of this, Battalion Chief Michael Hopkins of the Kansas City Fire Department (KCFD) maintains that hydrant failure is not something that we encounter on a daily basis.

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He loosely estimates that out of about 26,000 hydrants in the city, approximately 99% of them work.

I would say for that particular incident, it was obviously an issue, Hopkins said.

In the large scale of things and the day-to-day operations and the amount of fires and calls that we run, its a smaller problem.

Hopkins also said the KCFD notified KC Water about the broken fire hydrants from the April fire at Stephanie and Chris home, since KC Water is responsible for most fire hydrant repairs.

The Problem Solvers discovered that the water department was notified about the first broken fire hydrant as early as December 2024.

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KC Water then logged it as a low priority.

It wasnt until May 2025, after the fire, after our interviews with Chris and Stephanie, that KC Water finally fixed that hydrant.

FOX4 asked KC Waters Water Director Kenneth Morgan about the delay.

The hydrant was scheduled to be replaced, he said.

The hydrant right adjacent to that resident was inoperable, but there was an adjacent hydrant in the area or vicinity that was operational and was able to be used to support the fire activity that took place. And so its not that there was virtually none.



Which brings us back to Chris and Stephanie, who are currently living with friends.

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We basically have the clothes on our back, she said.

But she is more concerned about the larger situation and the possible risk to other Kansas City homeowners.

Do what youre supposed to do before somebody else gets hurt, Stephanie said, urging the city to take action.

We were lucky enough all of us made it out of here alive, but that might not happen to the next people.

Previous Missouri law required annual testing of every fire hydrant in the community water system.

In August of 2024, the state hydrant inspection statute was changed to the looser requirement of having scheduled testing of every hydrant in the community water system.

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As of 2024, the KCFD performs a physical inspection of each hydrant annually that includes flushing and operability assessment. The fire department completed the following number of hydrant inspections from 2021 to 2024:

2021: 5,676 fire hydrant inspections

2022: 2,424 inspections

2023: 10,672 inspections

2024: 23,039 inspections

KC Water said it is currently on track to receive hydrant inspection results from all fire hydrants in 2025. FOX4 has not been able to independently verify this information.

Both KCFD and KC Water assured that 99% of hydrants in our area work.

In March though, FOX4 requested five years of city fire hydrant inspections.

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What followed from the city government was delay after delay, claims of confusion on their part, claims that there were no records of the inspections, and even having some of our records requests denied for no logical reason.

Finally, on Tuesday  more than two months after we first made our request  the city emailed us some hydrant data, but not enough to do our analysis.

However, FOX4 will continue to investigate and dig until we have an answer for you.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
MIDLAND, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) -The size of the oil rig, now at your fingertips.

Bringing modern technology to an aging industry, underground.

Were one of the first companies to bring in like real tech people with real development experience, said Richard Zamora, Chief operations Officer for Midland-based company A.I. Driller.

CLICK HERE to watch a yourbasin.com Exclusive from Energy Expert, Geoffrey Cann and his thoughts on oil-demand shift overseas.

In the heart of Midland, A.I. Driller has proudly called the Permian Basin home for the past three years.

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Founded in 2017, this locally owned technology company has grown steadily over nearly a decade, remaining grounded in its humble beginnings. ABC Big 2s Chris Talley spoke with the team behind A.I. Drillera company thats bringing cutting-edge technology to oil rigs across the Permian and beyond.

In the beginning, we couldnt even afford a buildingwe were basically working from home, said co-founder Zamora. Weve always kept that small-company, bootstrapped mentality.





One of the biggest hurdles? Earning the trust of the industry.

When people saw the term A.I., they either didnt believe it could work or didnt fully understand its applications in the industry, Zamora explained.

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After going commercial in 2021, A.I. Driller has expanded its footprint nationwide by 2025. Zamora describes the platform as an all-in-one software solution for drilling, completions, and productionhelping operators monitor and manage multiple rigs in real time, from anywhere in the world.

It took about two to two and a half years before it started getting easier to make people believe in the abilities of our software and really,alot of it spread through word of mouth from satisfied customers, said Zamora.

Most companies dont have the resources to hyperfocus on a single rig, he added. Our software lets them monitor 20 rigs from a single screenwhat used to take 20 people can now be done by one.

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A homeowner faces charges in the shooting and killing of a mother bear in the north Georgia mountains.

The Bent Tree Public Safety and Management said the homeowner has been charged by a Georgia Department of Natural Resources game warden.

Bent Tree has also cited him for violating its rules and regulations.

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Someone spotted the mother bears body on Oglethorpe Mountain Road on Friday and said there were two cubs near her.

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The cubs have been spotted since then, but not since Monday afternoon.

Bent Tree officials said a man who lives near the spot admitted that he shot the bear Thursday night.

The man said that the bear came to his house three times that night, hitting the glass on his door and aggravating his dogs.

The first time, he said he yelled and banged on the glass to scare the bear away. The second time, he turned his car alarm on.

During the bears third visit around 10 p.m., the man said he felt like he could not go to sleep safely and fired his gun from the side window of his house to scare the bear away.

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The man said the bear had been in his driveway near the porch and ran off.

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The Bent Tree Public Safety Department said an employee received a text from the man asking if he could shoot the bear.

The employee responded to not shoot it and to instead call public safety to scare the bear away.

The text messages were sent 45 minutes before the man said he shot the bear. The public safety department said it never got a call from him.

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The homeowner has not been identified.

Channel 2 Action News has reached out to the Georgia DNR to confirm the exact charges. A spokesman said the report will be available by the end of the week.

As for the cubs, Bent Tree officials have asked for neighbors to not search for them, but report any activity to them by calling 770-893-2628.

If you can get a video or picture from your vehicle or home without scaring them, please do so. We are focused on reports of one or two cubs. Our team continues to report information to the DNR and coordinate with them for the best resolution for the cubs. We will provide updates with any changes or new information, they said.

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DES MOINES, Iowa  Early on Wednesday morning tragedy struck the Easter Lake neighborhood as a family woke up to flames engulfing their entire house.

So when he was going up, he woke up the mother who died. He woke her up first, said Espy Vyizigiro, the daughter of the homeowner, Yotamu. Yotamus daughter Espy translated for her father when interviewed by WHO 13 News.

The fire was described to have started right after 3 a.m. by the Des Moines Fire Department, but the family was not aware of the flames until right before 4 a.m., leaving little time to react. One of the family members was downstairs in a wheelchair when he realized that the house was burning. The individual crawled up the stairs in order to warn the family.

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So, he was also going up the stairs coming to wake us up along with my mother who also came out with him, said Espy. And we dont know how my mother went back. We dont know what she went to look for. She went back without us having noticed and thats how she died.

Greenfield marks 1 year anniversary of deadly EF 4 tornado

The three victims were Ndayirorere Yuliana, 72, Yotamus wife and Espys mother; Shannnella Nshimillimana, 18, Yotamus daughter-in-law who was pregnant, and his niece Angela Peniel, who was 3-years-old. A GoFundMe has been set up for the family, as they were not able to get anything out of the burning home and are staying with other family members and friends.

The family was helped by neighbors and congregation members of the Holy Spirit Unity Church in Des Moines. Yotamu is a pastor there, and explained how his extended family, neighbors and congregation showed up to help them while the house was still burning.

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Yotamu has not had time to process the loss, describing himself as depressed in the wake of losing his wife, a pregnant daughter-in-law and his 3-year-old niece.



Neighbors helped in the rescue efforts, providing blankets for the escaped victims and water for first responders. One neighbor described the horror he woke up to.

When you visibly see people being brought out of the house and, you know, obviously theyre you know, theyre in body bags and you cant see them, but, you know. And it, it just, it goes to you. So, you just have to pray and, you know, just hope for the family, said Dan Claman, a neighbor who lives right across the street.

The Des Moines Police Department is working through the investigation, but looks to be able to rule out foul play. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

It looks to be that it burned really quickly and it looks like there was a handmade structure out back that may have been part of that. Thats that initial fire. So, those are where theyre focusing their efforts right now. Theyre just going to follow the evidence where they take them, said Sergeant Paul Parizek with the Des Moines Police Department.

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The one other family member who was taken to the hospital was described as being in stable condition by Sergeant Parizek.

Metro News:

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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 22. Germanys industrial company Grenzebach plans to construct a plant for the production of gypsum board and dry construction mixtures in Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan.

A preliminary agreement on the project was reached during negotiations in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, between the Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan, Omurbek Tekebayev, Member of Parliament Shaiyrbek Tashiev, and the leadership of Grenzebach.

According to the ministry, the plant is expected to be built in southern Kyrgyzstan, though the specific location has not yet been disclosed.

Grenzebach is a global leader in the development and supply of high-tech production lines for construction materials. The company is also a long-time partner of Germanys Knauf Group, one of the worlds largest producers of gypsum board and dry construction products.

The involvement of Grenzebach in the Kyrgyz project is expected to bring cutting-edge technologies and high-quality standards to the countrys construction materials industry.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Residents say homes in the Warwick Estates neighborhood have experienced recurring water main breaks.

One homeowner filled out an open records request and found nearly 800 main occurrences in surrounding areas over the last decade.

Were just all tired of it. Theres been so many of these, said Marlene Simpson.

SIMILAR: Neighborhood sees nearly a dozen water main breaks in 6 months

Simpson has lived in the Warwick Estates neighborhood for decades and says shes at her wits end with water main breaks.

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The first one was the south side of my driveway rather than the north. The second one was an indoor slab leak, the third one is another city water main break under the driveway, Simpson said.

The water main break under Simpsons driveway happened last Wednesday, but other neighbors say the water woes date back years.

Norman City Council approves Rock Creek phasing plan, includes contingencies

Weve talked to folks at the water trust, weve talked to our city council. Were more than anything trying to find out information and trying to work with the city to figure out what can we do looking forward to prevent it, Mark Falk said.

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John Broom is another concerned resident, saying, Its a mounting financial problem in many of these neighborhoods of Northwest Oklahoma City.

Broom took matters into his own hands, filling out an open records request with the City of Oklahoma City.

His findings show areas near North Memorial, South Britton, West Portland, and Hefner have seen a total of 791 main breaks since January 1, 2015.

Its a growing problem. Its just getting worse, said Broom.

The Oklahoma City Utilities Department said the main break under Simpsons driveway has been repaired.

Simpson was initially looking at six to eight weeks for repairs to be complete.

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However, a city worker called Simpson called late Wednesday afternoon, letting her know her driveway would be repaired sometime on Friday.

News 4 reached out to the City of Oklahoma City Utilities Department on Wednesday and they sent the following statement below:

We understand the concerns from residents in Warwick Estates and appreciate the opportunity to provide clarity about our water infrastructure and operations in that area. Utilities customers can rest assured we not only have a corrective action plan in place  we have a clear understanding of what needs to be done, where the challenges are and how to solve them. The necessary funding is in place, and we are actively executing this work. However, with more than 4,000 miles of water lines across the city, even a well-funded, strategic plan takes time to implement due to the logistical realities of replacing aging infrastructure at this scale. As mentioned previously to KFOR, each year a portion of our Utilities Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget is allocated to water line replacements. In the recent past, that budget has been roughly $10 million annually. However, moving into Fiscal Year 2026, which starts July 1, 2025, we are doubling that investment to approximately $20 million to accelerate our replacement plan. Based on the allocated budget, our engineering team evaluates line segments across Oklahoma Citys 600+ square miles using a data-driven approach that considers a variety of risk and performance factors. While over the past 10 years, weve responded to hundreds of main breaks, that is not uncommon for large (4k+ miles) water systems such as ours, especially considering the age of the underground infrastructure and highly corrosive soil within certain areas of the city. Currently, we have a project under design that will replace a portion of an 8-inch water main along Greenwick Drive. This type of targeted project helps improve reliability in specific locations, but broader replacements in other sections of the neighborhood are not included in our planned capital improvements for the next two fiscal years. We anticipate the next opportunity for additional scheduled work to occur around July 2027. In the meantime, our crews will continue to respond promptly to breaks and leaks to maintain service and minimize disruption. Some residents have expressed concern that our water main breaks may be causing slab leaks in homes. While we understand the frustration associated with any plumbing issues, it is highly unlikely that breaks in our public water mains are the source of slab leaks. These breaks typically occur in the street or public easements and are physically separated from private home plumbing systems. However, we do want to acknowledge that high water pressure inside a home can contribute to slab leaks, particularly in older plumbing systems. The water pressure in Oklahoma Citys distribution system is generally consistent as it leaves our treatment plants, but due to natural elevation changes across the city, pressure can fluctuate. Areas located at lower elevations, like parts of Warwick Estates, may experience higher pressure, in some cases exceeding 100 psi. Its important to note that this is within operational norms for municipal systems. According to Oklahoma plumbing code, homes are required to have pressure-reducing valves (PRVs) installed when incoming pressure exceeds a certain level. These devices are not installed by the water utility, as theyre part of the private plumbing system and help manage pressure inside the home to prevent damage and maintain safety. If a home does not currently have a functioning PRV, we recommend having a licensed plumber evaluate the system. We remain committed to addressing immediate repair needs and investing in long-term solutions that support safe, reliable service for our entire community. We are working with urgency, and we hope to soon provide a more comprehensive overview on our website to help explain our plans in greater detail. City of Oklahoma City Utilities Department

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Since 1992, the iconic blue Energy Star label has guided homeowners in search of energy-efficient appliances. Its become a symbol of cost savings and environmental responsibility, credited with saving consumers more than $500 billion in utility bills and preventing over 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

But now, that trusted label could soon disappear.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees the Energy Star program, has announced plans to shut it down, citing cost-cutting measures and shifting priorities. If the move goes forward, it could leave millions of homeowners without the familiar benchmark theyve relied on to compare everything from HVAC systems and refrigerators to washing machines and microwaves.

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So what does this mean for you if youre planning to upgrade your appliances, or just trying to save on your next energy bill? Heres what to know about the potential phase-out of Energy Star, whats replacing it (if anything), and how to shop smarter in the meantime.

What is Energy Star and how has it benefited homeowners?

Energy-efficient appliances have helped homeowners in two ways: reduced cost savings and increased resale value.

Energy Star-certified products use significantly less energy than standard models (sometimes up to 30% less), which can translate to hundreds of dollars in annual savings. These savings are especially noticeable in regions with extreme temperatures, where heating and cooling costs spikethink Minnesota winters or Southwest summers.

Homes equipped with energy-efficient upgrades also tend to sell for more. Studies have shown that energy-efficient homes can command a resale premium of up to 8% in some markets, as buyers increasingly prioritize lower operating costs and eco-friendly features.

How would the end of Energy Star impact homeowners?

If the Energy Star program is phased out, homeowners could face a new kind of uncertaintyone that hits both their wallets and their decision-making power.

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The biggest risk to homeowners is the lack of transparency around the appliances theyre investing in, says Dr. Naeem Turner-Bandele, founder and CEO of Latimer Enterprises, an energy solutions company.

Ive used Energy Star product certifications as a transparent and independent source of information, he says. Energy Star helps level the playing field where theres information asymmetry.

Without the blue label to rely on, homeowners may find it harder to identify truly energy-efficient appliances in a crowded market full of marketing claims and confusing specs.

Dr. Turner-Bandele also foresees potential consequences for household energy costs. While the short term may offer some stability, thanks to the number of existing certified products already on the market, that may not last.

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Existing products on the market are Energy Star certified, so it should be possible to mitigate the fallout and recommend energy-efficient products based on existing databases, he says.

But longer term, a lack of updated certification could erode consumer trust and increase inefficiencies.

If new products are not certified, there will be increased information asymmetry. As a result, renters and homeowners could end up paying more for less efficient products, simply because they dont have the information, Dr. Turner-Bandele warns.

The threat of rising energy costs

In 2023, the average U.S. household spent $1,760 on electricityand that number is expected to keep climbing. According to the Energy Information Administration, residential electricity costs are projected to rise 18% between 2022 and 2026.

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For many families, energy costs are already eating into monthly budgets. Without the guidance of the Energy Star label, choosing efficient appliances may become more difficult, and the wrong choice could lead to even higher utility bills over time.

The stakes are especially high in cities like Phoenix, where extreme heat drives electricity use far above the national average.

What can homeowners do to ensure energy efficiency of their homes?

The Energy Star label hasnt been retiredyet. So if youre currently shopping for new appliances, its still worth looking for the blue label. And while we await the phase-out of those appliances, homeowners should arm themselves with as much information as possible before making a purchase.

Dr. Turner-Bandele points to emerging options in the private sector.

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Some companies, like Enervee and Consumer Reports, have energy and performance rating systems, he says. Enervee, for example, has partnered with California and New York to provide a marketplace with products carrying its Enervee Score.

But Turner-Bandele cautions that these tools may not fully replace whats being lost.

The challenge Enervee and others will face is that their methodology isnt public, does not appear as rigorous as the EPAs third-party certification system, and lacks the same credibility as the EPA, he explains.

While not perfect, partnerships between states and companies like Enervee at least offer a path forwardgiving homeowners some level of independent assessment to guide energy-efficient purchases.

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HOMER GLEN, Ill. (WGN)  A Homer Glen man is accused of threatening an Illinois State Representative.

Steven Brady, 40, faces a felony charge in connection with an alleged threat against Illinois State Rep. Nicole La Ha on Friday, May 16. La Ha is an Illinois House of Representatives member, representing District 82.

Following an Illinois State Police probe, troopers arrested Brady without incident on Monday, May 19. Authorities did not disclose the nature of the threat or offer any additional details.

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Brady remains jailed in Will County Adult Detention Center. Police provided no booking photo.

Appointed to the Illinois House of Representatives District 82 by a Republican committee, La Ha is also a former Village of Homer Glen trustee.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
A homicide investigation is underway after a man died from multiple stab wounds behind Hood Commons at 4 Peabody Road Annex in Derry on Monday, the Attorney Generals Office said.

At 11:21 a.m. on Monday, Derry Police received a call for assistance outside a business at 4 Peabody Annex Road. Upon arrival, investigators reported finding an adult male, identified as Gui Lin, 41, suffering from multiple stab wounds.

Lin was transported to the Elliot Hospital in Manchester, where he was later pronounced dead.

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An autopsy conducted by Chief Medical Examiner Jennie V. Duval determined Lins cause of death was a stab wound to the chest with perforation of the heart, and the manner of his death was homicide.

Investigators are asking anyone in the community with information they believe may help in the investigation to contact the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit at mcu@dos.nh.gov. Tips and related information can also be provided anonymously by calling 603-MCU-TIPS.

This remains an active investigation, officials said.

Schools, including nearby Pinkerton Academy, took precautions for a short time Monday, halting any outdoor activities.
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At the risk of saying something massively controversial, Joe Biden was too old to run for president in 2024. This opinion was held by millions of Americans en masse during the lengthy preamble to the campaignunderstandable, given how the incumbent appeared pallid, doddering, and unsettlingly fragile in his duties as head of state. But, nonetheless, elected Democrats and Democrat-aligned media alike held on to the idea that this octogenarian had some gas left in the tank, so long as he could stand upright. The charade ended during the first presidential debatewhere a visibly mummified Biden claimed, among other things, to have defeated Medicarewhile Trump turned in an uncharacteristically subdued performance. It was officially Joever, and everyone knew it.

Since then, the presidents decline, and the (frankly, ongoing) cover-up by abetting aides and family members, has been one of the hottest stories in America. The minute-to-minute particularities of his enfeeblement have been covered with salacious glee, reaching an apogee this week with the release of Jake Tapper and Alex Thompsons book about the grim pantomiming going on behind the scenes during the final acts of Bidens presidency. This, combined with the disclosure that the 82-year-old is suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer, is bringing about a fitting end to one of the macabre sagas in American history.

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How has the liberal establishment responded to the crisis? By telling us, ad nauseum, how stupid they are.

I mean listen to these guys. Here is Beto ORourke solemnly telling Pod Save America that Democrats must admit that they fucked up, and made a terrible mistake. Here is Californias Rep. Ro Khanna with some contrition of his own, asserting that it was painfully obvious that Biden shouldnt have run again, and that he and his colleagues must acknowledge this truth to regain the trust of the American people. Sen. Chris Murphy told Politico that there was no doubt that the president suffered cognitive decline in office. Clearly, in retrospect, we should have done something different, he added. A similar attitude is pervading liberal media, especially CNN, which employs the tell-alls author. Van Jones is calling for a flat-out apology brigade from the party, conjuring images of a rowdy town hall chucking rotten tomatoes and beer bottles at, like, Amy Klobuchar.

Look, I understand this inclination. The Democratic Partys cultural status has rarely been worse, and the radioactive unpopularity of Bidenundergirded by his atrophying cognitionis a major element of that swoon. But you know what? As someone who never liked Biden all that much, and thought he was way too old to run for the presidency in 2020 (much less 2024!), allow me to say my piece: Isnt all of this self-flagellation a little much? Maybe even embarrassing? Of all the sentiments Id like to be hearing from Democrats right now, a reminder that they think themselves to be utterly useless has to be at the very bottom of the list.

To be clear, if there is any hope of all of us existing in a shared reality again, the acknowledgment that Biden was rapidly accelerating toward incompetence should become the orthodox stance taken by all elected Democratic officials. But that does not mean such a concession needs to be conjoined with this attitude of perpetual, institutionalized failure. The reasons for this are twofold. First, and most important, the idea that the public will reward this prostration with a raft of goodwill is completely bunk, and utterly out of sync with the rules of engagement as we understand them in 2025. (There is a reason Donald Trump never admits defeat!) I dont know how the Democrats can rehabilitate their image either, but an extremely needy apology campaignreinforcing their national character as a band of gullible morons most comfortable when theyre losing, afraid to do anything that could be considered bold until there are absolutely zero stakesis not the path forward. How much moral territory can possibly be ceded when huge portions of the United States government are controlled by former Fox News anchors and TV doctors? How have the Democrats suddenly become the party handcuffed by absolute fealty to a party leader? Especially when, if I remember correctly, Biden was unceremoniously booted from the ticket over the summer once his brain started leaking from his nose for all to see?

Second, if this is the great tentpole issue Democrats intend to brandish in 2028a suite of insurgent new candidates who boldly believe that Joe Biden was too oldthen we are completely screwed. Congratulations! Youre joining a consensus shared by everyone else in the United States. Do you have any other ideas for how you would like your party to be understood? Plans for a more humane health care system? A substantive effort to reduce the gargantuan cost of living? Or, I dont know, any signs of breaking with Israels psychotic Gaza offensive? You know, the many other things that made Biden, regardless of his age, an extremely unpopular president? If the party thinks the problems with its brand begin and end with the brittle timbre of an 82-year-olds voice, then it might never win a national election ever again.
Residents in Los Angeles Echo Park neighborhood are fed up with hordes of delivery drivers clogging up their residential street while waiting for orders from a ghost kitchen adjacent to their homes, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Echo Park Eats, a ghost kitchen that serves as a hub for app-based food delivery services, opened on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Douglas Street in 2023 and quickly became a problem for people living on the street.

The business, which rents space to 26 separate food vendors and is led by a co-founder of Uber Technologies, has 11 other kitchens in L.A. County, the outlet reported.

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Sandy Romero, a resident on Douglas Street, spoke to The Times and said the crush of delivery drivers, many of whom idle in the red zones and double park, are taking up the already precious little parking on the street.

Echo Park Eats seen in an undated Google Maps image. Echo Park Eats seen in an undated Google Maps image.

The first day that they opened business, it was chaotic, unorganized and its just such a nuisance now, she told the outlet.

Another resident told The Times that last summer, the mostly male delivery drivers would bring their own chairs and snacks while waiting for their orders under a shade tree in front of his home, often leaving trash behind.

Arrests made in alleged L.A. Armenian crime syndicate engaged in violent feud

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Eventually, he cut off the branches creating the shade and the drivers moved to another location on the street.

There is also the smell, some neighbors said.

Erika Torres, who has lived on the street for decades, told the outlet that shes not only tired of the crowds of delivery drivers, but also the ever-present smell of the ghost kitchens food in her home.

There have been, according to The Times, measures taken to fix the issue, like instituting permit parking on the street and sending out additional parking patrol officers, one of whom was reportedly the victim of an assault while trying to enforce the laws on the street.

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The business itself tried to limit parking on its lot to five minutes, but residents told the outlet that it only caused the drivers to idle on the street for longer or park their mopeds on the sidewalks.

One of the issues appears to be that Echo Park Eats is considered a catering business, permitting it to run its operation near the residential street.

Hugo-Soto Martinez, the L.A. City Councilmember who represents the district, acknowledged the serious problem in an interview with The Times and said hes actively working on several different approaches to help residents get their street back.

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A 32-year-old man was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after a crash Saturday night, May 17, in Horizon, according to the Horizon City Police Department.

Police say just after 10 p.m. that Saturday, officers responded to reports of a crash in the area of Darrington Road and Roslyn Drive in Horizon.

Officers were able to locate the driver, Chayan Favela, 32, who exhibited signs of intoxication, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

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Favela was transported to the El Paso County Detention Facility, where he was charged with DWI with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.15 or greater, under a $15,000 bond.

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HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW)  Horry County first responders teamed up Wednesday afternoon to rescue a person whose personal watercraft got stuck in a swampy area near the Intracoastal Waterway.

Horry County Fire Rescue was dispatched at 4:35 p.m. to the Intracoastal Waterway below the Highway 31 bridge in the Socastee area for a reported water-related rescue incident.

A personal watercraft had reportedly taken on water and was inoperable, forcing the operator into a swamp where they became stuck in the mud, HCFR said in a Facebook post.

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Boat crews from Fire Station 1 in Socastee worked with 911 dispatchers to locate and rescue the operator, HCFR said. They were evaluated for possible injuries but did not to go the hospital.

HCFR and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources worked together to remove the disabled watercraft.

* * *

Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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WASHINGTON  House Republican leaders are moving forward with trying to pass President Donald Trumps ambitious policy package, with a final vote as soon as the wee hours of Thursday.

Republicans released their final amendments to the massive tax cut proposal on Wednesday night, just ahead of the House Rules Committee wrapping up a nearly 22-hour hearing to hash out the final contours of the bill. Dozens of Democrats appeared before the committee to present hundreds of amendments of their own, dragging out the hearings process by hours. The GOP-led panel rejected all of their amendments.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the chair of the committee, said after the hearing that she expected the House to vote late Wednesday on the rule for the GOPs tax package and that there is a chance well do the bill tonight.

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House Republican leaders later alerted lawmakers to their schedule for the coming hours: begin debate on the bill around 2:15 a.m. Thursday, vote on final passage between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m., and plan to walk off the floor by 6 a.m.

Democrats were already thwarting the plan by 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, though. As soon as Republicans tried to begin House debate on the rule, Democrats forced a vote on adjourning the chamber, an effort to drag out the clock.

There isnt a final version of the bill, which is titled, One Big Beautiful Bill. The rules committee still has to roll the GOPs 11th-hour amendments into the previous 1,100-page legislation thats been circulated. Its also not clear what all of the GOPs last-minute changes are, or if the final proposal even has the votes to pass.

Part of the strategy by Republican leaders is to use the vote itself to pressure holdouts into caving and supporting the bill. The GOP can only afford to lose a handful of votes, and so far, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has said hell vote no, and some others, like Rep. Dave Schweikert (R-Ariz.), said as recently as Wednesday evening they werent on board with it.

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The legislation is consequential: It includes roughly $4 trillion in tax cuts for wealthy people and offsets some of those cuts by slashing federal health and nutrition programs by more than $1 trillion.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., and President Donald Trump arrive for a House Republican conference meeting, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Julia Demaree Nikhinson / Associated Press

Some of the GOPs last-minute additions to the bill started getting attention late Wednesday. During the rules committee hearing, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) howled about a magical amendment now being tied to the bill that would make it easier for people to buy gun silencers. Specifically, this provision eliminates a $200 firearm registration fee for silencers and also removes a requirement that people have to register their silencers at all.

The addition was a demand from Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus who had been waffling on whether to back the bill.

Scanlon called it a brazen attempt to make it easier to commit violent crime.

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House Republicans final package also will no longer include mandates to sell potentially hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands. Some other public land provisions, like advancing a mining road in Alaska, were also stripped from the bill.

This appears to be a win for Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who opposed these mandates. The Sierra Club celebrated this change to the bill, which it said is otherwise awful.

The American people have spoken loud and clear  our public lands should not be for sale, Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Clubs Lands Protection Program, said in a statement. Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle were right to throw this proposal in the trash can, but a bad bill is still a bad bill.

The Center for Western Priorities specifically thanked Zinke for helping to get this provision out of the final bill.

Clearly, selling off public lands is still a third rail for members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, said the groups deputy director, Aaron Weiss. Im grateful to our champions on both sides of the aisle, especially Representative Ryan Zinke, who fought against this misguided attack on our public lands.
House Republicans made substantial changes to the Medicaid portion of the GOP megabill in amendments unveiled Wednesday night, including accelerating work requirements and paying states not to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act.

The proposal will move up the start date of Medicaid work requirements from Jan. 1, 2029, to Dec. 31, 2026, in a concession to conservative hard-liners who have been pushing for deeper cuts to the program.

The work requirements included in the previous bill would yield nearly $280 billion in savings, according to congressional scorekeepers  the most of any policy under the House Energy and Commerce Committees jurisdiction. The new accelerated timeline could lead to additional savings of tens of billions of dollars but also result in even more people losing coverage. GOP moderates have not raised significant concerns about implementing them more quickly.

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The new bill does not include controversial changes hard-liners had pushed for that would alter the federal share of spending in the joint federal-state Medicaid program. Moderates had balked, arguing they would cut too deep into benefits, and House Speaker Mike Johnson had ruled out those changes.

But in other sops for conservatives, the revisions would expand the criteria for states that could lose a portion of their federal payments if they offer coverage to undocumented people. It also moves to bar coverage of gender-affirming care for adults under the program, not just minors as previously proposed.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a previous iteration of the bill could lead to 7.6 million people who had Medicaid going uninsured, and millions more from the the Affordable Care Act marketplace also losing coverage. Those coverage losses are expected to be higher with this new version. The Energy and Commerce portion of the bill has been estimated to save nearly a trillion dollars over a decade.

The new amendments would make another notable change to Medicaid - one that hard-liners hope would incentivize states to not to expand their programs under the ACA after the legislation goes into effect. The wonky measures would give states a financial incentive not to expand coverage to people with higher incomes than traditional enrollees, though still near the poverty line. The policy would make higher payments to providers like hospitals for uncompensated care.

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Hard-liners, particularly Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, pushed for the provision to be in the bill during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump Wednesday afternoon, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meeting. One senior GOP aide described the provision as a small Medicaid tweak that would give the hard-liners a reason to support the bill, along with several other minor changes.

Notably, they did not secure any further changes to the Medicaid state provider tax, which moderates had held firm against.

Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said in a brief interview Wednesday night he was happy with the meeting and that there were some good things from the White House.

Another Republican lawmaker said hard-liners would chiefly tout the accelerated Medicaid work requirements, the expansion change and a newly accelerated phase-out of clean-energy tax credits.

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In a major departure, the bill would fund cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers on Obamacares insurance exchanges.

The policy would offer subsidies to insurers that would, in turn, help reduce premiums and co-pays for patients. Trump ended this practice in his first administration, saying it constituted a bailout to the insurance industry. But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated at that time that ending the payments would cost hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade. Bringing the policy back could provide savings.

Rachael Bade contributed to this report.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 22. President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov has signed a law ratifying the agreement between the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) and the Cabinet of Ministers of Kyrgyzstan on the terms of the funds presence in the country, Trend reports via the presidential administration.

The agreement, originally signed in Bishkek on March 20, 2025, was approved by the parliament on April 16, 2025.

The document establishes favorable conditions for the EFSDs operations and representation in Kyrgyzstan. It also confirms the recognition of the Funds legal status, immunities, privileges, and benefits, including those extended to its personnel.

The EFSD is a regional financial institution with assets exceeding $9 billion, established in 2009. Its objectives include promoting economic and financial stability in member states and supporting their sustainable development.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
President Donald Trump is one step closer to seeing his Big, Beautiful Bill become a reality, but its not a complete celebration.

The sweeping trillion-dollar tax and spending bill passed the House by just one vote, 215-214, with two Republicans joining the Democrats in their opposition.

The vote in the overnight hours extends the presidents tax cuts passed in 2017 (when Trump was first president), provides more money for the military and border security but cuts hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps).

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A provision that slipped into the May 6 revision of the bill was what to do with about 450,000 acres of undeveloped land in Nevada and Utah, owned by the federal government.

Republicans were proposing selling that land to the respective state or private entities, possibly with the intent to build affordable housing. Nevada and Utah were singled out as the top two states, respectively, with the highest percentage of government-owned land.

On the campaign trail in August last year, Trump pledged to make housing more affordable, saying: Were going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who cant afford whats going on now.

America faces a housing shortage that will take more than seven years to fix at the current rate of construction, according to a report on the housing supply gap from the Realtor.com economic research team.

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Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Republican, led the effort to get the provision removed and was successful when it was axed late on Wednesday.

This was my San Juan Hill. I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isnt creating more land, said Zinke. Public access, sportsmanship, grazing, tourism  our entire Montanan way of life is connected to our public lands. I dont yield to pressure; I only yield to higher principle. There is a process to making sure that our lands are being used for the best benefit of the people.

The town of St. George, UT, is surrounded by untouched federal land. (Getty Images)

Future concerns

Zinke wasnt the only lawmaker concerned about the land sale. The change was supported by GOP Reps. Troy Downing of Montana and Mike Simpson of Idaho, and hundreds more House members on both sides of the aisle, according to a press release from Zinkes office.

The concerns were wide-ranging, including what might happen to the land if it were sold to private corporations, such as energy companies.

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The TRCP is encouraged to see provisions removed from the House budget reconciliation bill that would sell off public lands. Hunters and anglers stepped into the arena to make their voices heard, and members of Congress listenedthank you, said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Missoula, MT-based Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

The proposed land sales would open the door for developers to build affordable housing on U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land outside Las Vegas and Reno, and in Utah, around the tourist town of St. George, but there was no guarantee that would be the outcome.

In Nevada, the federal government manages most of states landover 85%. The state also has the largest special recreation permit.

The federal government has controlled much of the state of Utahs land dating to the 1800s, when Utah and other states were given up by Mexico as part of the treaty to end the war. Now, the BLM oversees nearly 23 acres.

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Public lands in Utah serve multiple purposes, Jonathan Malloy with the Utah Bureau of Land Management tells Realtor.com. Some areas support recreation and tourism; others are used for responsible resource development or infrastructure needs such as roads, pipelines, and transmission corridors.

The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, but GOP members have vowed to make changes.

Congressional leaders want to send a final bill to Trumps desk by July 4.

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May 22 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump's legislative agenda bill squeaked through the House Thursday after modifications were made to appease the GOP House member holdouts.

A 45-page amendment to the bill accepted in the House Rules Committee addressed the start date of Medicaid work requirements, which was moved from the first day of 2029 to the last day of 2026, and expanded the conditions for states that could lose some for their federal payments should they provide coverage for undocumented people.

The bill received a 215-214 final vote just before 7 a.m. EDT after it passed a procedural vote around 3 a.m. Thursday by four votes at 217-212. Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio were the only two Republicans who voted no in the final ballot, while House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., voted "present."

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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., spoke during a press conference held after the vote, and said that "Today the House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation," and that he and the GOP House members look forward to the Senate's "timely consideration" of the legislation, with hope of its arrival on Trump's desk to sign by July 4.

It is expected that Republicans in the Senate will not accept most of the policy conditions that were priorities for the House GOP sticklers.
A key House committee voted late Wednesday evening to advance President Donald Trumps legislative agenda to the House floor after marathon proceedings that lasted almost 22 hours, setting up a high-stakes vote in the chamber and a showdown between warring wings of the Republican conference.

The vote came after House Republicans released a package of major changes to the sweeping domestic policy bill earlier in the evening that reflect days of negotiations from GOP leaders in an effort to win over key holdouts.

House GOP leaders are racing to bring the bill to the floor for a full vote as soon as the early hours of Thursday morning. With a razor-thin margin, Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford a few defections if he wants to meet his ambitious Memorial Day deadline for sending the package to the Senate. To do so, he must balance competing demands from within the Republican conference.

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Johnson in recent hours has been holed up in meetings with various factions to finalize a deal that would win over both GOP hardliners, whove been threatening to block the sweeping tax and spending cuts bill, as well as centrist members who have been wary of some of the right-wings proposed changes to it.

The amendment to the package includes changes demanded by the warring wings of the conference, including speeding up work requirements for Medicaid to the end of 2026, from the start of 2029. The shift is expected to hike the number of people who become uninsured, as well as increase the bills cost savings.

It also tightens the definition of a qualified alien who is eligible for the program. And it creates a new incentive for the 10 states that have not already expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. Those states would be permitted under the measure to funnel larger supplemental payments to hospitals and other providers, giving the states an extra incentive not to expand Medicaid.

Plus, the amendment takes another swipe at the Affordable Care Act, adding a provision that would likely result in higher premiums and fewer enrollees.

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The language also formalizes one of Johnsons biggest deals this week: The so-called SALT cap. It would allow people to deduct state and local income taxes up to $40,000 for certain income groups. GOP leaders had initially proposed a cap of $30,000 but key New York, New Jersey and California Republicans had refused to support it.

Republicans also decided to phase out Biden-era energy tax credits sooner than planned. For instance, new projects must break ground within 60 days or be in service by the end of 2028 to qualify for the credits.

The amendment renames a new kind of child savings accounts from MAGA accounts to TRUMP accounts.

The change also strikes language that would allow the sale of federal lands in Nevada and Utah. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a former Trump Cabinet official, strongly opposed this.

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And the bill would now remove a tax on silencers, also known as firearm suppressors, as demanded by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNNs Tami Luhby, Manu Raju and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

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Among the more striking changes in American politics over the past half-century is the evolution of Medicaid into a third rail. House Republicans, as they rushed early Thursday morning to cut not quite $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next 10 years, were at best only dimly aware of this. Theyre in for a terrible shock.



Medicaids progress, from a stepchild program in 1965 that provided limited health care for the indigent, into todays much more ambitious and capacious program serving significantly more lower-income Americans, happened gradually. Medicaid once served a small and politically powerless constituency that conservatives could threaten to defund without much fear of reprisal. But today, Medicaid commands not merely a significant voting bloc, but a significant Republican voting bloc. Not many House Republicans wished to hear about that when they passed the budget reconciliation bill, 215214.

Until now, the third rail cliche (the metaphor being an electrified steel subway rail that kills any who touch it) was reserved exclusively for Social Security and Medicare. These two very expensive programs serve people age 65 and over, a cohort thats long been the most powerful constituency in American politics, thanks to elevated voter turnout (and is more numerous now as the baby boom ages). Exempting these two programs from budget cuts is not always good policy (Social Security benefits should be taxed more aggressively at high incomes), but since 1982, when Tip ONeill aide Kirk ODonnell first coined the third-rail metaphor, its been smart politics.

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Social Security and Medicare encompass 36 percent of all federal spending. Add in interest on the national debt that absolutely must be paid, and 47 percent of all federal spending is uncuttable. If the discussion is among Republicans (and it usually is), then defense spending, being sacrosanct, must also be exempted, taking 60 percent of all federal spending off the table.

You can see why Republicans are reluctant to grant Medicaid third-rail status. It constitutes 10 percent of all federal spending; protect Medicaid, and now youre excluding from spending cuts 70 percent of the total (actually a little more, because Republicans wont likely cut military pensions or veterans benefits either). Even with just 60 percent of spending off-limits, Republicans arent going to find anywhere near enough in cuts to pay for $4.6 trillion in tax cuts over the next 10 years. This weeks Freedom Caucus rebellion was about adding a teensy bit less to the current $1.9 trillion deficit by whacking Medicaid a little more. To characterize these rebels as fiscal conservatives is, as Ive noted, preposterous.

The main vehicle for the House GOPs Medicaid cuts is to require Medicaid recipients to get a job. Thats pretty ironic, because the program, as it was first implemented in 1966, required Medicaid recipients to be unemployed. Enrollment was almost entirely limited to people receiving Aid to Families With Dependent Children, the pre-1986 cash welfare program for jobless mothers. The federal programs cost-sharing with the states further limited enrollment because many states didnt want to pay up. As late as the mid-1970s, Medicaid still excluded about 40 percent of the nations poor, and enrollees struggled to find a doctor willing to accept Medicaid patients. That was fine by conservatives, who, according to Laura Katz Olson, a political scientist at Lehigh University, writing in her 2010 book The Politics of Medicaid, were assuming that the programs scope would be kept in check by its clients lowly status.

That calculus was wrong from the beginning because, unlike cash welfare, Medicaid distributed funds directly to nursing homes, hospitals, and physicians, all constituencies with political clout. From the start, Medicaid also provided nursing home care to middle-class elderly people who spent down their savings to qualify for subsidies. States warmed to the program as they figured out clever accounting tricks to shift more program costs to the federal government.

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Liberal members of Congressmost notably Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democratquietly extended Medicaid eligibility year after year. Waxman was aided, the Rutgers political scientist Frank J. Thompson writes in his 2012 book Medicaid Politics, by keen negotiating skills and an understanding of how to take advantage of budgetary rules, which through the 1980s did not oblige Waxman to show how much these expansions would cost. Colleen Grogan, a University of Chicago political scientist, calls this strategy Grow and Hide.

Much of the growth, however, was right out in the open. In 1997, a Childrens Health Insurance Programcreated as a sort of consolation prize after Hillarycare went down in flameswas appended to Medicaid. Passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 included a provision further expanding Medicaid eligibility, with the federal government picking up 90 percent of the cost. Despite initial partisan resistance by red states, today only 10 states continue to refuse the money. The price these 10 states pay for their principled resistance is more deaths among lower-income people. A recent paper by economists Angela Wyse of Dartmouth and Bruce D. Meyer of the University of Chicago (and reported by NPR) found that those states that chose to expand Medicaid saved 27,400 lives.

A program that had only four million enrollees in 1966, and 22 million in 1980, today has 71.3 million enrollees78.5 million if you include CHIP. Thats more than Medicare, which has 68.5 million enrollees. Let me say that again. More people are on Medicaid than on Medicare. And yes, most of these Medicaid enrollees64 percenthave jobs. (The rest mostly attend school, take care of a family member, or are disabled.)

In a March poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a 53 percent majority reported that either they or a family member had received Medicaid coverage; when close friends were added in, that rose to 65 percent. Seventy-seven percent reported a favorable opinion of Medicaid, including 64 percent of Republicans. Among Republicans, only 33 percent favored a federal decrease in Medicaid spending, against 67 percent who wanted the spending level to rise or stay the same. Medicaid, you gotta be careful, Steve Bannon warned in February. Because a lot of MAGAs are on Medicaid, Im telling you.

Nobody listened. Now Republicans are slashing away at at a program on which their political base has come to rely. If the bill clears the Senate in anything like its present form, these cuts will be extremely bad for America. But they will also be bad for those Republicans who signed their name to them.
As House Republicans prepare to investigate former President Joe Bidens health and mental fitness while in office, they are increasingly zeroing in on his use of a so-called autopen to sign certain pieces of legislation and executive orders.

Autopens have been used in the White House to generate signatures for decades, with Barack Obama being the first president to use it to sign legislation. But congressional Republicans  who are largely taking their cues from President Donald Trump  see the use of autopens as a key line of attack as they reopen a probe into Bidens mental acuity and his ability to do his job as president.

Were focused on the autopen, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told NBC News. Who was making the decisions? Who was authorizing his signature? Was it him?

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There is no official record of how often Biden used an autopen for official government business. The conservative Heritage Foundation released a study accusing the administration of using an autopen extensively, largely based on the timing of when Biden signed documents compared to when he was traveling.

The Department of Justices office of legal counsel issued a memo on the topic in 2005 that concluded that the practice was legal. A federal appeals court ruled as recently as 2024 that the the absence of a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur, when it relates to the use of a presidential autopen.

A former Biden White House official pushed back against Comers assertions and defended the former presidents autopen use.

Any accusation that President Biden was not making decisions is false. President Biden made the decisions about the pardons and the executive orders he issued, and the legislation he signed into law, the former official, who was not authorized to speak on Biden's behalf, told NBC News. It is a well-established and legal practice to use an autopen for a signature after he has made the decision. This clerical mechanism was sometimes used during his Administration as it was in other Administrations going back several decades.

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A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment.

House Republicans decision to move forward with a congressional investigation, which is still taking shape, comes in the wake of revelations in a new book about Bidens cognitive decline and the release of an audio of the former presidents transcribed interview with former special counsel Robert Hur as part of the investigation into his handling of classified documents.

The increased scrutiny also comes at a delicate moment, with Biden revealing over the weekend that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Yet Republicans are undeterred, and in some cases, only more convinced that the Biden White House was not truthful about the former presidents mental and physical health.

The House Oversight Committee, which will lead the investigative effort, is preparing to hand down a new round of subpoenas to a number of former Biden White House officials. Comer, who helped lead the House GOPs unsuccessful effort to impeach Biden last Congress over his familys business deals, has accused the officials of purposely shielding the then-president from the public eye.

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Comer said that the committee would be reaching out to people in and around Biden's orbit as part of its investigation as soon as this week. But it remains to be seen whether there will be any public hearings.

Ive always said you get more information in Oversight from depositions and interviews than you do public hearings.  Its a hard group to manage in public hearings, he told NBC News. No hearings ever produce much.

During the last Congress, Comers committee subpoenaed three key White House aides to testify about Bidens mental fitness: Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal and Ashley Williams. They also requested a transcribed interview with then-White House physician Dr. Kevin OConner. The Biden administration blocked all four from cooperating with the committee. But the panel is expected to approach that same group again.

Trump has attacked Bidens use of an autopen, most recently on Tuesday during a trip to the Capitol.

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Who was operating the autopen? This is a very serious thing, Trump told reporters ahead of a meeting with House Republicans. We had a president that didnt sign anything. He autopenned almost anything.

Trump then later escalated his attacks on social media, calling Bidens advisers treasonous thugs and accusing them, without evidence, of using the autopen to control the presidency.

Trump has claimed that if Biden used an autopen to sign pre-emptive pardons of the members of Congress, staffers and Department of Justice staff that investigated the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, they may be invalid.

While House Republicans and Trump appear to be aligned in their desire to investigate Bidens fitness to serve, there is some frustration brewing among congressional committees about how quickly the Trump administration is responding to some of their requests, according to multiple GOP congressional sources familiar with the matter.

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The House Oversight and Judiciary committees have long been pushing for the release of the Hur audio. But the audio was first made available through the media, first reported on by Axios on Friday, and is now publicly available.

We pushed the Hur tape issue all last Congress, all the way to contempt, said House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. But when asked by NBC News on Tuesday if his committee had received the audio, Jordan said: Not the actual physical tapes. But theyre out there.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Oklahoma House lawmakers, pictured Jan. 7, unanimously rejected rules that would have required public schools to collect immigration data from students and force teachers to take a naturalization test for certification. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY  With bipartisan support, House lawmakers on Wednesday sent a series of altered education rules to the governor that eliminate the requirements for public schools to collect proof of U.S. citizenship and for teachers to pass the U.S. Naturalization Test.

Lawmakers unanimously approved Senate Joint Resolution 22, which now heads to Gov. Kevin Stitt. The Republican has repeatedly vowed to block efforts by the state Department of Education to require schools to collect the immigration status of children.

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With the same measure, lawmakers also rejected a rule requiring all public school teachers to pass a written version of the U.S. Naturalization Test to earn or renew their certifications.

Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle, attempted to amend the measure to reinstate the controversial immigration rule, but it failed 75-12.

Under the rule backed by state Superintendent Ryan Walters, districts would have been required to report to the state the number of children unable to verify U.S. citizenship or legal residency. The Republican said it would help schools accurately provide the resources needed to serve those students, but also said he would turn over such information to federal immigration authorities if asked.

Jenkins said the amendment would have collected aggregate data, not any individual student names, and would help to better allocate funding throughout Oklahoma public schools.

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Opponents on both sides of the aisle said the rule was unenforceable. The numbers could still be traced to students and could create a strain on the public school system, they said. Schools already provide services to immigrant students without requiring proof of citizenship.

Rep. Gerrid Kendrix, R-Altus, said the immigration rule does not have statutory authority. Kendrix, the measures author, said the process is about ensuring the rules have statute backing them up, not about policy.

State agencies are supposed to create rules that expand on existing law relating to the policy. The Legislature and the governor then review every agencys rules and can accept or reject them. If approved, the rules have the force of law.

The same measure also passed the Senate unanimously.

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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors sort debris pulled from the bottom of Lake Lure in Rutherford County, North Carolina on April 14, 2025. Vegetative and man-made debris was washed into Lake Lure after Hurricane Helene devastated the region. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Michael Davis)

The House unanimously approved $464 million in new relief for western North Carolina on Thursday, swiftly sending a package that includes money for small business grants to the Senate.

The aid bill sets out $60 million for a long-requested grant program, allowing western businesses already saddled with loans to build back from damages. And it sends $50 million to local governments to help rebuild infrastructure.

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It comes in at about half of the level Gov. Josh Stein requested earlier this week, but earned broad bipartisan support as lawmakers push for investment in a disaster region that has seen a slow trickle of federal aid.

We didnt stop with looking at what needed to be funded, what might not have been funded before, said Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Macon). We took a deep dive into what had been funded, and was it on the mark? Was that money doing the job we intended for it to do?

Much of the money in the House package comes from NCInnovation, a private research nonprofit that Republicans have sought to claw back money from. And $65 million is clawed back from other programs deemed unsuccessful or unsatisfactory, redirected elsewhere for recovery.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle praised the bill during floor debate Thursday.

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Our people in certain places are still really hurting, said Rep. Eric Ager (D-Buncombe). This bills going to really help.

The business grants, Ager said, would keep businesses rolling and really help our economy not fall off a cliff.

Republicans have previously been hesitant to approve grants for businesses, wary of fraud and large companies taking advantage. They have instead opted for loans  a more fiscally conservative option, but one that many businesses have said they cannot afford to take on.

Budget writers solution was to require businesses to document revenue loss in order to receive a grant.

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I think if we have some standard that we can measure those things, our folks are much more comfortable with it, House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) said Wednesday evening. Were not the federal government, we cant print money like they did for [the Paycheck Protection Program].

Although the money for local governments to repair infrastructure was necessary, one Democrat said, those municipalities need further aid. Many governments are facing budget shortfalls due to lost tourism revenue in the fall busy season.

I hope that as we move forward, we can provide more flexible funds, said Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe).

Also included in the bill is $70 million to continue earning federal reimbursement, $30 million for private road and bridge repairs, $30 million for debris removal, and $25 million to repair destroyed schools.

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The regional airport infrastructure is also set to see improvements from a bundle of $25 million. Western North Carolinas mountainous terrain meant that almost all aid in the weeks after the storm came by air.

If the House package is approved by the Senate and signed into law, it would bring the legislatures total spending on Helene recovery to more than $1.8 billion.

But the bills immediate future is uncertain. The Senate has proposed allocating money for Helene within its budget proposal; the House has approached relief as a separate bill.

Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said his caucus was open to negotiating on Helene relief.

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Weve not had those conversations, Berger told reporters Thursday. Its clear that the House has taken a different approach on that. Well see if we can come to an agreement.

That may argue for us to actually include it in the budget, he added, of concerns that prolonged negotiations could delay storm relief. Because I think everybody wants that to go forward.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reached a deal with Republican House members from blue states who pushed for an increase in the SALT deduction cap in President Donald Trumps big, beautiful bill, allowing it to pass the House.

The Big Beautiful Bill that passed the House on Thursday would increase the SALT deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) led the charge in the House to get the SALT cap raised. Lawler said taxpayers in his district pay some of the highest property taxes in the country and should be able to deduct those from their federal taxes.

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Under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress capped the amount of state and local taxes (SALT) people could deduct from their federal returns.

Most Republicans said the SALT cap would save the government money. The Congressional Research Service estimated eliminating the SALT deduction cap would cost $120 billion next year.

Theyre saying, when you live in a big blue state, you pass less federal taxes than Texans, said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). When you have an unlimited deduction for state and local tax, what it does is it basically subsidizes the big, blue states.

Democrats, and blue state Republicans said a low SALT deduction cap essentially forces people to pay double taxes.

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States like New York, New Jersey, Illinois and California are donor states. We regularly send billions of dollars more to the federal government than we get back, said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the House Minority Leader.

President Donald Trump said the blue states are the only ones who want the cap raised.

This is an issue of double taxation, Lawler said. Its an issue of fairness.

The Congressional Research Service said the largest percentage of people who take the SALT deduction earn more than $199,999.

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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is convinced that the tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump wont raise prices even as several retailers have said they will.

Speaking to Axios at an event in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night, the former Wall Street CEO and billionaire said he believed the U.S. would make a number of trade deals by the middle of the summer.

Lutnick was asked how many of the U.S.s top 18 trading partners would have a deal by the time the pause in the widespread tariffs ends on July 8.

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"I think most countries, we'll have an idea of what we want to do with them, he said.

Lutnick has taken a leading role in the Trump White Houses attempt to redraw the rules of international trade, which has disrupted both global and U.S. economies. The back-and-forth tariff policy has led to significant uncertainty for businesses and consumers.

Trump has argued that the U.S. hasnt had a fair trading relationship with the rest of the world for decades, costing the U.S. jobs at home. However, the question surrounding the tariffs has recently been how theyll affect consumers.

After Lutnick rejected silly arguments that tariffs raise prices, Walmart announced that it would increase its prices because of the tariffs, with several other companies suggesting that they may follow suit.

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"The president has to stand strong, and you can't fix things in a day, and that's still going, but I would expect that prices in America will be unaffected, a defiant Lutnick told Axios.

A defiant Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, has claimed that Trumps tariffs wont raise prices for American consumers (AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, retail executives expect cost pressures to increase and consumers will feel more price rises by the end of June or early July.

After Walmart announced that it would raise prices, Trump lashed out at the company, telling them to eat the rising costs of tariffs without passing them on to consumers.

Walmart responded to the president earlier this week by saying, We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible, and we wont stop. Well keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can, given the reality of small retail margins.

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Trump revealed his tariff plan last month, which includes a 10 percent baseline tariff for most countries and further tariffs on a number of major trading partners. The president believes the tariffs will boost American manufacturing and bring in billions of dollars.

However, since his April announcement, the Trump administration has dropped its tariffs on China from 145 percent to 30 percent and has paused other tariffs for 90 days as the U.S. goes into deal-making mode.

Nike has also revealed that its set to raise prices on some of its shoes and apparel by between $2 and $10 in response to the tariffs. The increase in prices will impact products made overseas, specifically in Vietnam and China, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Hill.

We regularly evaluate our business and make pricing adjustments as part of our seasonal planning, a spokesperson for the company told the outlet.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  Four individuals have been arrested in connection with a viral video attack, according to Honolulu Police Department.

Man arrested in connection to Nanakuli attempted murder

HPD took to social media to announce that the arrests were made in the early evening hours of Wednesday, May 21.

How to protect your home, business from battery-related fires

Officials said those arrested include three juveniles, a 13-year-old male, a 14-year-old female and a 16-year-old female.

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Another 18-year-old female was arrested in connection to the incident.

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A video of the incident went viral on social media where HPD said a 21-year-old female victim was attacked in the Wahiawa area.

Hawaii students learn life-changing lessons from the dead

Leilehua High School released a letter to parents addressing the incident and are working with HPD and the families involved.

HPD said charges are pending.

If you witness a crime or are a victim of a crime, please report it immediately to HPD by calling 911, said Honolulu police in a social media post.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

This is a developing story. KHON2 will release more information as details are provided.

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Kyrgyzstan discloses funding for road projects in its Osh region

Photo: Cabinet of the Ministers of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan has opened the purse strings for essential road repairs in the Osh region, zeroing in on upgrading vital routes to grease the wheels of transportation and bolster local development. The plans are all about paving the way for smoother travels and building bridges to better safety and connectivity.

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ICE center photo from Getty Images.

A new poll finds that by a yawning margin, Americans believe people should get due process of law before being ejected from the United States  but advocates say theyve sometimes been denied it in Ohio.

President Donald Trump is clashing with the courts over what detainees are legally entitled to as Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounds up people it believes are undocumented and takes them overseas.

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A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ruled that eight migrants sent to the violence-torn country of South Sudan were not given a meaningful chance to contest the deportations on the grounds that they would be put in danger. Only one of the individuals is from South Sudan.

The administration deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador even though a court issued an order forbidding it. The U.S. Supreme Court has subsequently ruled that the administration cannot deport people without giving them due process.

Most people of all ages and partisan affiliations believe thats the proper course.

A poll released Tuesday by the Bullfinch Group and the National Immigration Forum gave respondents a brief definition of due process. Then they were asked whether they supported or opposed requiring due process before deporting people.

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Sixty-three percent said they supported doing so, 23% were opposed, and 14% were undecided. Thats a 40-point margin in favor of due process.

Democrats supported due process for people facing deportation by a 81-11 margin. Independents supported it by a 59-23 margin. For Republicans, it was 51-35.

In other words, the closest margin was 16 points.

The poll surveyed 1,200 adults between May 9 and 13.

Due process is essential to keeping American communities safe and immigration processes orderly, Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said in a written statement. This bedrock American value protects all of us.

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Even so, not all detainees have received due process in Ohio, said Lynn Tramonte, founder of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.

Last month, her group got an attorney for a man whod gotten a final order of deportation. The jail where the man was held wouldnt allow the attorney to visit the man on less than a weeks notice, Tramonte said.

All of a sudden, the night before the attorney visit, hes gone, she said. This was weeks before his scheduled deportation, so this is a clear indication that they wanted to get him out quickly because they knew he was getting a lawyer to fight his case.

Tramonte added, Its just not fair. The government has attorneys in every immigration case  in the courtroom  every single time. The immigrant deserves to have an attorney by their side, too.

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Tramonte didnt give the mans name or nationality to protect his identity.

Most Americans appear to agree that such treatment is unfair, and unwise.

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A poll also conducted by the Bullfinch Group and the National Immigration Forum in December found that Americans overwhelmingly think that deportations should focus on immigrants who commit violent crime, that the persecuted should be protected, and that families should be kept intact.

The Trump administrations continued harsh treatment of immigrants might be costing it in the court of public opinion.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in late April found that immigration remained Trumps strongest issue. Even so, more Americans disapproved of the job he was doing in that arena than approved  53% to 46%.

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There also appeared to be little appetite for Trump to take measures on immigration that are even more sweeping. Forty-eight percent of respondents said that Trump had gone too far on immigration, 32% said his approach had been about right and just 18% said he hadnt gone far enough.

Murray of the National Immigration Forum said people want the Trump administration to follow the law.

Americans do not want our immigration system to undermine the rule of law, she said. We look forward to working with leaders on approaches that uphold fairness and due process.

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Approaching two whales a few years ago, Rachel Cartwright and her research team noticed something strange. As the younger whale was caught in a fishing line, the adult of the pair started whipping his tail fluke against the water repeatedly.

Eventually, the smaller whale caught on and started thrashing her tail too. It was as if the adult was showing the juvenile what to do. And gradually the fishing line that she had become entangled in started to come away. The research assistants named her Taylor, because she was trying to shake it off, says Cartwright, lead researcher at The Keiki Kohola Project.

In a new study, Cartwright and a team of strandings specialists documented how a companion whale tries to help when an individual humpback whale gets entangled in fishing gear.

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In a separate instance, Cartwright was studying humpback reproduction when her team came across a trapped two-year-old whale. An adult whale swam slowly next to her, putting his pectoral fin gently on top of hers or laying with her, snout to snout, at the surface. At one point, he appeared to try to protect her from tiger sharks. He was swimming behind, flapping them off with his fluke," she says.

The second whale swam underneath, lifting the young female to the surface. It was quite clear that he wasn't attempting to mate with her, says Cartwright, as males position themselves on top during mating.

"To me, what's really interesting about this situation is that it's unrelated whales," she adds.

On the suggestion of NOAA entanglement expert and co-author Ed Lyman, the team contacted Hawaiian and Alaskan strandings networks to find out how often this happens. When they looked over the data, we realized that this behavior is more common than we thought, says Cartwright.

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Out of 414 accounts of entanglement from 2001 through 2023154 in Hawaii and 260 in Alaskacompanion whales responded in a helpful way 62 times.

Olaf Meynecke, a research fellow at Griffith University in Australia, who wasnt involved in the study, has also seen this in the South Pacific Ocean. His team was trying to disentangle a young whale with a float wrapped around its fins. Two other whales stayed close by.

One was beside the whale in trouble and another underneath. Meynecke felt like they were saying if youre not able to maintain buoyancy, and you start sinking, I will try and lift you up.

Meynecke has seen adults trying to help entangled calves, even if the mother is present. It can be four, five, six other adult whales who are clearly there because they want to support that distressed animal, he says. But, in the study, more than half of the 62 incidents were between adults, so its not just about looking after the young.

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Notably, this behavior between two adult humpback whales has been captured by a National Geographic crew filming Incredible Animal Journeys, too.

Why do whales protect other whales?

Looking through historical records, the researchers realized this behavior had been seen beforeparticularly during whaling, which was banned in most countries in 1986. When a victim was captured, other whales would come in and sit right beside them and stay with them while the capture happened, says Cartwright.

This put the responding whales at risk, so the behavior likely became less common. If you're the kind of whale that helps other whales, you're going to get taken, she says, so this trait would have become quite rare.

The behavior may be a form of affective empathy, says Anna Moscrop, head of science policy at Whale and Dolphin Conservation. An individual recognizes an emotional state such as distress, without experiencing the stimuli themselves.

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Cartwright thinks this might also be an example of behavioral plasticitythe whales are adapting to a changing world where entanglement is now a regular part of life.

Meynecke wonders whether the reason were seeing this more is not only because we've got more distressed whales in the ocean but also because technology like drones makes it easier to find and document these behaviors.

Keeping whales safe from gear

Entanglementin mooring lines, nets, crab pots, and other discarded fishing gearis an ever-growing threat. "Over 80 percent of whales will be entangled at some point in their lives, and up to 25 percent might be entangled every year but self-release," says Cartwright.

Seeing whales desperately trying to help each other is absolutely horrible, Meynecke says. These poor animals know exactly what's going on, and they just cannot do anything. It goes beyond just an individual. It's a highly stressful situation for a number of whales within the area who are communicating and trying to assist.

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Whats more, entanglementa major cause of whale mortalityis preventable.

The best way to protect marine mammals from fishing entanglements is to reduce the risk of contact between them and the gear, Moscrop adds. One way of doing this is using fishing gear that minimizes the lines left in the water, which drastically reduces the chances of entanglement and saves whales.

This is something we can all play a part in. There are choices we make as consumers, says Cartwright. There are lots of options to choose sustainably caught fish.

Watch more of the interaction between a whale and her "companion" on Incredible Animal Journeys, now streaming on Disney+.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  Oklahoma could have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars if Congress moves forward with plans to shift food stamp costs to states.

For the first time, the U.S. House is considering making states cover part of the cost of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP. States could be required to pay up to a 25% match.

In current numbers could be as high as $475 million total in cost shifted to the state at a time where, you know, our state does not have that money, said Chris Bernard, CEO of Hunger Free Oklahoma.

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Bernard believes the state would be forced to make cuts to the program.

We dont know if that means they would just cut entire categories of people off the program. We dont know if that means they just cut how much benefits are. Theres a lot of unknowns, but any of them is disaster. People are struggling with the levels we have of SNAP now, said Bernard.

He says 600,000 families rely on SNAP benefits every year in order to put food on the table and these proposed changes would hurt those families.

Way more people will be making decisions between keeping the lights on and putting food on the table. Youre talking about parents skipping meals or choosing not to take crucial medications for their health to make sure their kids can eat, said Bernard.

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Pressure would also be put on charitable organizations like food banks and pantries, which are already having a hard time meeting needs.

Local nonprofit offers help after grandmothers SNAP benefits are stolen

They are being forced to change rules of how often you can visit, they are being forced to maybe limit where they didnt limit before and if you add on top of that, its a recipe for disaster, said Bernard.

Bernard also adding that these cuts could cost the state more in the long run.

They lead to worse health outcomes, they lead to the investments weve made in education being completely pointless because hungry kids cant learn, said Bernard.

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Hunger Free Oklahoma says it could also have an impact on other areas too.

School meals because kids who are on SNAP automatically qualify for free or reduced lunch, it will also potentially impact Title I funding and federal dollars that flow to education that way, it will impact Medicaid eligibility, said Bernard.

Hunger Free Oklahoma encourages you to take action and tell those in Congress how you feel.

News 4 reached out to Oklahoma Human Services about the proposed cuts and was sent a statement:

Oklahoma Human Services is working with our federal partners to learn more about any potential effects on our programs. We will continue to communicate with partners and clients as we learn more. Oklahoma Human Services

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  Huntsville Police Department K-9 Diego assisted officers with arresting a wanted man accused of rape and sodomy.

On Thursday, May 15, members of the Huntsville Police Departments Anti-Crime Team were actively searching for Jertevian Travonte McReynolds, 26, of Huntsville.

According to police, McReynolds was wanted by the Madison County Sheriffs Office for the following felon charges:

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Rape first degree

Sodomy first degree

Enticing a child

He was also wanted out of Clarke County, Alabama for burglary-third degree.

HPD told News 19 that officers gathered information on the possible whereabouts of McReynolds which was in the 3900 block of Harwood Avenue.

While watching the area, officers saw McReynolds walk outside of a home and get into a vehicle. As police approached McReynolds and asked to him to step out of the vehicle, he started to run away from authorities.

HPD then deployed K-9 Diego who was able to apprehend McReynolds. The man was transported to a hospital for treatment of his injuries.

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He was later booked into the Madison County Jail on the following charges:

Four outstanding felony warrants (including Rape first, Sodomy first, Enticing a Child and Burglary third)

Possession of marijuana first degree

Attempting to elude police officer

Two misdemeanor failure to appear warrants

Huntsville Police Department K-9 Diego (Courtesy: Huntsville Police Department)

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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reported a new drone attack near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

Source: press service for IAEA

Details: The agencys team working at the plant heard a burst of gunfire. This coincided with a report of a drone strike on the roof of the training centre located outside the plants territory.

The Zaporizhzhia NPP stated there had been no casualties and the damage was minor. It is currently unclear whether the drone hit the building directly or crashed after being shot down in the air.

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The IAEA has requested to visit the scene of the strike but has not yet received permission. During the previous attack in April, inspectors were granted such access.

"These reported drone incidents are very concerning, as they could pose a direct threat to nuclear safety and security," said IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. "To put it simply: there are too many drones flying near nuclear sites, not just the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. It should stop immediately."

This is already the third attack on the Zaporizhzhia NPP training centre since the beginning of the year.

Background:

Construction of power transmission lines from the Zaporizhzhia NPP to other temporarily occupied territories is ongoing. A new power line was spotted in the Mariupol district, Donetsk Oblast.

For over a week now, the Zaporizhzhia NPP has been relying on a single power line to supply the electricity required to maintain essential nuclear safety functions.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  International Criminal Court prosecutors have urged judges to reject a request by Israel to scrap arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister while the court reconsiders its jurisdiction over Gaza and the West Bank.

In a 10-page written submission posted on the ICC website late Wednesday, prosecutors argue there is no basis to withdraw or vacate the pending warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

The warrants were issued in November, when judges found there was reason to believe Netanyahu and Gallant used starvation as a method of warfare by restricting humanitarian aid and intentionally targeted civilians in Israels campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Israeli officials strongly deny the accusations.

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The prosecution document was signed on behalf of prosecutor Karim Khan, who temporarily stepped down on Friday pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

The filing argues it is important for the underlying investigation to continue in the current situation where crimes are ongoing and escalating.

Last month, appeals judges ordered a pretrial panel to reconsider an Israeli challenge to the courts jurisdiction.

Israel argued in its application for the warrants to be withdrawn that the court doesnt have, and never had jurisdiction to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

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Israel is not a member of the court and contends the ICC has no authority to prosecute Israeli nations. The Hague-based institution, however, has accepted The State of Palestine as one of its 126 member nations.

ICC chief prosecutor Khan is currently on leave until the conclusion of an external probe into accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the courts independent watchdog.

Along with the warrants for the Israeli officials, the court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israels offensive in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn in February, after his death in an Israeli airstrike was confirmed.
Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a Brazilian mother of three arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Worcester this month, has a damaged shoulder and is not receiving any pain medication at the facility where she is currently detained, according to her lawyer.

Attorney Paul Toland told MassLive that Ferreira-De Oliveira is currently wearing a sling while she is presently detained at the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island.

Ferreira-De Oliveira is being held following her arrest on May 8 at Eureka Street in Worcester. Toland believes that her shoulder was damaged due to excessive force used by ICE agents who apprehended her that day. He is not aware of the extent of the damage to her shoulder.

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Wyatt Detention is a very depressing detention center, Toland said. With barbed wire everywhere. Shes not even getting pain medication in there for her pain.

The lawyer added that Ferreira-De Oliveira had been frequently moved to different cells at the facility, so she would not see or hear those expressing support for her outside of the detention center.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE and the Wyatt Detention Center did not respond immediately to requests for comments on Thursday.

Toland said he was assigned Ferreira-De Oliveiras case on Friday, May 16, and met with her for the first time face-to-face this week.

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The mother will likely remain in Rhode Island as her case will be held at the Boston Immigration Court, according to Toland. An individual hearing will be held for Ferreira-De Oliveira but a judge has not yet set a date, Toland told MassLive.

Typically if a person is detained though, their final individual hearing is heard within 1.5 to 2.5 months, Toland explained.

Ferreira-De Oliveira is also not in immediate danger of being deported, Toland added.

The lawyer told MassLive the case does not have a timeline as of yet and that he could not disclose any legal strategy.

Asylum claims

In a statement provided to Spectrum News 1, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Ferreira-De Oliveira entered the country illegally in August 2022, which led to ICE taking her into custody,

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Toland told MassLive, however, that the mother of three was paroled and allowed into the country by ICE as she pursued asylum.

Asylum is a form of protection that is granted to individuals fleeing their home country due to persecution or fear of persecution based on specific grounds such as race, religion, nationality or political opinion, according to the nonprofit organization the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

When someone is paroled into the United States, that means they are allowed to enter and stay in the U.S. temporarily even if they dont have a visa or formal admission, Toland explained. Its not a legal entry in the same way as someone who comes in on a visa or green card but it still allows a person to be here lawful for a specific period and purpose.

In the case of Ferreira-De Oliveira, Toland said that she pursued an asylum claim. Once that asylum claim was submitted to the immigration court, the mother was allowed to stay here indefinitely until the asylum application was approved or denied, the lawyer said.

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In order to become an asylee, an immigration judge would have to hear the merits of the case and make a determination to approve to deny the claim after an individual hearing, Toland said. You can only apply for asylum at a port of entry or while inside the country.

Toland said he would not further speak about Ferreira-De Oliveiras asylum claim due to privacy concerns.

In addition to the claims of illegal entry, ICE claims that the mother is a violent criminal illegal alien, according to a statement provided to WHDH.

She was arrested by local police for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery on a pregnant victim, according to the statement.

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Court records obtained by MassLive read that Ferreira-De Oliveira was suspected of using a phone-charging cable to strike a pregnant relative in February.

She initially appeared in court on Feb. 3, where she pleaded not guilty and paid $500 cash bail, according to court records. Her last court appearance was a pre-trial hearing on March 24.

Last Tuesday, Judge Zachary Hillman scheduled Ferreira-De Oliveiras trial date for July 18, according to court filings.

How the ICE arrest came to be

The sounds of screaming and chants echoed throughout Worcesters Eureka Street on the morning of May 8.

As ICE apprehended Ferreira-De Oliveira, more than 30 people, including District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj, demanded the agents not take her and show a warrant for the arrest.

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Worcester Police Officers were also at the scene, and they arrested Ferreira-De Oliveiras teenage daughter and now-disqualified Worcester School Committee candidate, Ashley Spring.

Augusta Clara Moura, Ferreira-De Oliveiras 21-year-old daughter and mother of a 3-month-old baby, said the arrest of her mother started after her partner honked at an undercover car with ICE agents.

Through Clara Mouras attorney, Andrew George Lattarulo, Clara Moura said that her partner, Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza, was arrested by federal agents the day before ICE took her mother.

Ferreira-De Souza, who is the father of the 3-month-old, had honked at a car that cut him off while he was driving to work, according to Clara Moura. The car turned out to be an undercover ICE vehicle and agents arrested him.

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He had committed no crime, according to Clara Moura.

Ferreira-De Souza is currently being held at the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Pine Prairie, Louisiana, according to ICEs Online Detainee Locator System (ODLS).

Lattarulo previously told MassLive he is providing legal representation for Clara Mouras partner.

A day after her partner was arrested, Clara Moura said ICE came to her home, telling her to return her partners car and sign immigration paperwork.

She said she left her house with her 17-year-old sister and her baby, intending to comply with the order.

Thats when ICE stopped my car and told me I was under arrest, Clara Moura said. Since I was with my baby, I called my mother to come take my son.

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When her mother arrived, ICE agents attempted and succeeded in arresting her.

Clara Moura claims that ICE agents also attempted to take her baby from her but they backed down due to protests from neighbors.

Lattarulo told MassLive last week that ICE threatened to arrest Clara Moura and her 17-year-old sister, an account that matches reporting from Rolling Stone Magazine, which said that Clara Moura and her sister were used as bait for ICE to arrest their mother.

Clara Moura, who saw her mother be apprehended by the agents that morning, launched a GoFundMe last week explaining the events that led up to her mothers arrest.

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Toland said he could not comment on the reporting from Rolling Stone magazine or Clara Mouras account.

Body camera footage, protests and policy

On May 16, Worcester officials released the body camera footage and 911 calls from the May 8 arrest following pressure from the public, including a rally during which residents accused Worcester officials of assisting ICE in arresting Ferreira-De Oliveira.

The footage and audio are taken from body cameras worn by officers Juan Vallejo, Patrick Hanlon and Shauna McGuirk.

In Officer Hanlons footage, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj is shown walking toward the officers and Ferreira-De Oliveira. Haxhiaj grabbed Ferreira-De Oliveiras arm and pleaded with the agents not to take her. Two of the ICE agents then proceeded to fling the councilor off Ferreira-De Oliveira.

As the agents moved to a gold Ford SUV, Haxhiaj then reached out for Ferreira-De Oliveira. Hanlon grabs her hands to pull her back and tells her to stop.

I cannot stop! Haxhiaj yelled at the officer.

Clara Moura, who is being held back by School Committee candidate Ashley Spring, reaches out to the vehicle and says no multiple times. Hanlon responds by saying that ICE will offer an explanation.

Haxhiaj and Spring yell that the agents will not explain, with Spring telling Hanlon that ICE does not have a judicial warrant.

At around 2 minutes and 25 seconds into the footage, an ICE officer says, We do not need a judicial warrant for this arrest.

Body camera footage from Hanlon and Officer Juan Vallejo showed Ferreira-De Oliveiras teenage daughter run up to the side of the SUVs front passenger door.

Police later claimed she tried to kick the door, but it is difficult to confirm this due to the shakiness of the cameras and the large police presence.

Vallejo and other officers surrounded the girl and moved her to the ground on the street.

During the arrest, an officer yells, Youre under arrest for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.

Police officers saw Spring push and shove other officers trying to arrest the daughter, according to a police report.

Officers also observed Ashley directly point at and spray an unknown liquid in a bottle at officers that were on duty attempting to conduct their job, the report read.

It turns out, however, that the unknown liquid was water.

At the 2:30 mark in the video, Vallejo approaches Spring and points his finger at her, listing charges for another officer: Disorderly, disturbance, and she sprayed me in the face with water.

As he moves away from her, the audio catches Spring saying, It was water.

Spring was charged on May 9 with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon  that being the unknown liquid  along with charges of assault and battery on a police officer, disorderly conduct and interfering with police officers.

Lt. Sean Murtha of the Worcester Police Department told MassLive on Saturday that he was not aware of the department dropping any of Springs charges despite police saying the liquid was water in the video.

The daughter, meanwhile, was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, according to the Worcester Police Department.

After her arrest, she was released from custody and is currently staying with family friends along with her 21-year-old sister, Augusta Clara Moura, Clara Mouras 3-month-old son and her other sister, who is also a minor.

In a statement on May 16, Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier announced that the Worcester Police Department is requesting that the court dismiss the case against Ferreira-De Oliveiras daughter.

Even though the department wishes to have the case against the daughter dismissed, Saucier noted, however, that it is important to emphasize that assaulting or interfering with law enforcement officers as they carry out their duties is never acceptable.

Additionally, City Manager Eric D. Batista issued an executive order on May 16 that establishes guidelines for local response and involvement in federal enforcement of immigration laws and operations, including investigations and civil detainments performed by ICE officers.

During his State of the City address on Wednesday, Batista spoke about the events of May 8 and acknowledged those who are pained by what happened.

I know that many of you listening tonight, and residents across Worcester are in pain after the events on Eureka Street on May 8, said Batista after he took the podium at the Jean McDonough Arts Centers BrickBox Theater. You are not alone in that pain.

Protesters interrupted Batistas speech, with one carrying a sign with a doctored image of Batista wearing an ICE vest and another playing audio from the arrest on repeat.

More Worcester Stories

Read the original article on MassLive.
NEW YORK  On the day he was to attend his commencement ceremony, federal immigration enforcement officials on Wednesday refused to let Mahmoud Khalil hold his newborn son at a Louisiana detention center, where the Columbia University graduate student remains facing deportation for his participation in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Khalils wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, made the 1,400-mile trip from New York City to Jena, La., in the hopes her husband could meet their son for the first time, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials refused the contact visit request, Khalils legal team told the Daily News.

Its been more than two months since Khalil was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security at his Columbia-owned apartment after returning home from an iftar dinner with Abdalla, who was then eight months pregnant.

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The government has not accused him of breaking the law. Instead, it has cited an obscure provision in a 73-year-old law that empowers the secretary of state to order someone deported if their beliefs oppose compelling foreign policy interests, which in Khalils case regards the governments position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Trump administration has framed support for Palestinians, which Khalils grandparents were, as antisemitic and supportive of Hamas, which the U.S. and other Western nations have designated a terrorist organization.

A day after he was taken into custody, agents transported Khalil to the South with breakneck speed, setting him up to appeal any court orders to some of the most conservative judges in the U.S. An immigration judge in April ordered him deported, which hes appealing. The student activists attorneys are separately defending him in a habeas corpus case in New Jersey challenging the lawfulness of his detention.

ICE has denied us even this most basic human right, Abdalla, who gave birth to the couples first child last month, said in a statement Wednesday. This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse. And I cannot ignore the echoes of this pain in the stories of Palestinian families, torn apart by Israeli military prisons and bombs, denied dignity, denied life.

Khalils representatives, in a statement, said that ICEs refusal stood in contrast to the agencys directives about preserving parental rights and encouraging contact visits. They noted family visits are allowed at the immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., where Khalils lawyers say he should be detained rather than in Louisiana.

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The government chose to arrest and detain Mahmoud thousands of miles away in the Louisiana detention gulags to punish him for his support for Palestinian human rights, and is doubling down on their retaliatory punishment by denying him the most elementary human contact with his wife and child, Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said.

Khalil, who completed his studies at Columbias School of International Affairs in December, would have accepted his diploma this week. Since Khalil was taken into custody, the Trump administration has sought to revoke the visas of thousands of international students across the country, not entirely successfully, in many cases citing students political beliefs.

Acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman was met with loud boos Wednesday during her commencement speech, in which she acknowledged those mourning Khalils absence. Khalil sought protection from Columbia in the days before he was taken into custody but was ignored, The News previously reported.

The Ivy League university has faced criticism for agreeing to substantial oversight demands from the Trump administration  like placing its Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies under supervision and banning masks on campus  after the government pulled $400 million of Columbias federal funding. Other universities, including Harvard, have vowed to fight the administration in court.

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During the protests, Khalil, 30, served as a negotiator between student protesters and Columbia administrators. He has vehemently pushed back on descriptions of his advocacy as bigoted or supportive of Hamas, and his lawyers have pointed to what he said publicly on the matter long before his arrest, like to CNN in April 2024, including that fighting hatred against Jews and advocating for Palestinians right to self-determination are intertwined and an integral part of the movement.

According to Reuters, citing figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, which is overseen by Hamas, more than 53,000 Palestinians, a third of them under 18, have been killed by Israeli military bombing in the 18-month war that began after Hamas members stormed Israels border and killed roughly 1,200 people, taking around 250 as hostages.

More than half a million people in the besieged region, which is about half the size of New York City, are facing potentially deadly catastrophic hunger as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government limits access to aid, according to the World Health Organization.

_____
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 22. President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov has signed a decree appointing Ruslan Mukambetov as the Minister of Defense of Kyrgyzstan, Trend reports via the presidential administration.

The appointment was made in accordance with the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan. As part of the decree, Mukambetov has also been released from his previously assigned duties.

Earlier, members of the parliament approved Mukambetov's candidacy for the position of Minister of Defense.

In 2021, he was appointed commander of the Southwestern Operational Command of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan. Later, in June 2023, he was named Deputy Minister of Defense while continuing to lead the Southwestern Operational Command, following a presidential decree.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
People walk past the headquarters of the U.S. Small Business Administration on March 24, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

All four Idaho Republican congressmen want the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, to move its Pacific Northwest regional office from Seattle to Idaho.

In March, SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced plans to relocate six of the agencys regional offices based in cities that do not comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The SBAs Region 10 Office, based in Seattle, covers four states: Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

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In a joint letter, U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, and U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher wrote, unlike other states served by the Seattle Office, Idaho has demonstrated a strong commitment to putting American citizens first. Our state has enacted a statewide ban on sanctuary cities, and the Idaho Congressional Delegation has repeatedly worked to prevent illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities from abusing federal funding.

The SBA is a federal government agency that helps small businesses get loans.

By relocating the regional office to Idaho, the SBA would ensure its services align with President Trumps priorities, directly benefitting law-abiding business owners, the Idaho congressmen continued.

The SBA has district offices across the U.S. Idahos counties are split between being managed by the Boise District and the Seattle District.

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idaho SBA letter

A copy of the letter that the four Idaho congressional lawmakers sent to Small Business Administration lead Kelly Loeffler.

This article was first published by the Idaho Capital Sun, part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
Dozens of people offered thoughts during a Wednesday public meeting about what the new innovation district in North Omaha should look like. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

OMAHA  Could North Omaha create its own version of Kansas Citys Keystone Innovation District? Or Indianapolis 16 Tech, or the RICE innovation hub in Atlanta, which focuses on building Black businesses?

The three campuses were spotlighted Wednesday as examples of entrepreneurial and tech-centric hubs akin to what could be built locally as the Omaha Inland Port Authority embarks on its newest mission: development of an innovation district, funded partly with $30 million in state funding.

Small groups generated ideas and goals for the innovation district poised to rise in Omahas Inland Port Authority boundaries. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

Nearly 100 people turned out for the public meeting that kicked off a six-month visioning process for the new district, which is to be developed within the boundaries of the port authoritys roughly 3,000 acres in North Omaha, near Eppley Airfield.

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Davielle Phillips, an Omaha architect who is vice chair of the port authority board, said the initiative got off to a good start, with more participation than anticipated at the meeting held at the Venue at Highlander Accelerator.

The board is also overseeing development of an industrial-focused business park funded by a separate $90 million state grant. That initiative, in contrast, was beset early on by criticism that the development team did not seek enough public engagement and input.

For the innovation district, the port authority board hired HR&A Advisors Inc. as a consultant that, along with partners Lamp Rynearson and Vireo, are to create a business plan model for the local innovation district. The consulting contract is for $546,000.

Music, block parties, housing

During the public meeting Wednesday, the consultant team presented demographic and other data about the North Omaha area and offered examples of other innovation districts. It also highlighted the health-focused EDGE District rising on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.

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Participants split into groups to discuss what theyd like such a district to look like and achieve. Several said theyd like housing to be a component, along with job training. Many said theyd want the campus to nurture and grow tech startups; draw young talent; raise the areas per capita income and have a multigenerational and multicultural flair.

A Wednesday meeting to gain input from community members helped kick off a six-month planning process. (Cindy Gonzalez/Nebraska Examiner)

One group said music should play a role, along with cultural events and block parties to build community.

Phillips said his goals for the meeting were met, including good attendance and engagement. He said he also wanted to clarify that the innovation district is separate from the long-discussed industrial business park, which was met with resistance from many area residents who worried the city might use the power of eminent domain to force acquisition. That option has been ruled out.

I want to let people know we heard them; we listened, Phillips said of the gathering.

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Other port authority board members attended, including mayoral chief of staff Tom Warren, as did North Omaha City Councilwoman-elect LaVonya Goodwin.

Tuesday, focus groups were invited to offer input. Next steps, Phillips and the consultant said, include a public meeting this summer to continue to build upon the ideas.

Spot, size yet to be determined

Still to be determined is the exact location of the innovation district within the port authority boundaries, along with its size, shape and character, Phillips said. He said the port authority board likely would seek bids for a developer to build out the district campus.

Both the innovation district and the industrial business park are to be anchors of the port authority and are seen as key to helping more private businesses produce jobs and economic development that benefits North Omaha area residents.

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Funds for both projects originally were approved by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Nebraska Economic Recovery Act of 2022, seeded with federal pandemic-related dollars, though the legislation and funding sources have since been updated.

A new innovation district is to be developed at a yet-undisclosed spot within the larger boundaries of the Omaha Inland Port Authority. The port authority boundaries are shown on this map. Planning for the innovation part of the district is in early stages. (Courtesy of City of Omaha)

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By Laurie Chen

BEIJING (Reuters) -It is "arrogant and ignorant" to call Taiwan a country and its future can only be decided by China's 1.4 billion people, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday in a rebuff to the democratically-governed island's foreign minister.

China views Taiwan as its own territory and says the island is one of its provinces with no right to be called a state. It has stepped up military and political pressure to assert those claims, including increasing the intensity of war games.

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Taiwan's Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Wednesday that China had no authority to decide whether Taiwan was a country because the island chooses its own government. He added that he would be happy to shake the hand of his Chinese opposite number, Wang Yi, in friendship.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Taiwan had never been a country.

"The relevant remarks only reveal that certain somebody's arrogance and ignorance, and they are naked provocations for Taiwan independence," she said.

"The future of Taiwan can only be decided by the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, including our Taiwan compatriots, and China will and must be reunified eventually, which is a historical trend that no force can stop."

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Taiwan's formal name is the Republic of China, the name of the government which in 1949 fled to the island after losing a bloody civil war with Mao Zedong's communists, who established the People's Republic of China. Taipei says Beijing has no right to speak for the island nor claim it as its own.

In a video released on Thursday by his office, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te told military officers that "precious" freedom and democracy must be guarded by strength and constant vigilance.

"Freedom and democracy are not gifts that fall from the sky; they are the fruits of the perseverance and sacrifice of generations of courageous people," he said, in footage filmed on Friday when Lai was visiting the armed forces in southern Taiwan.

Lai, who China describes as a "separatist", is this week marking one year since he took office. China has rebuffed repeated offers from him for talks.

(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
Illegal gambling arrests on Oahu increased last year as police continued to target game rooms and operators who promote illicit wagering and the collateral crime that comes with it.

The Honolulu Police Department made 115 arrests for gambling equipment violations in 2024, up from 92 in 2023, according to HPDs data dashboard. Officers also arrested 124 people for operating, promoting or assisting gambling in 2024, up from 109 arrests in 2023.

In 2022, HPD arrested 140 people for promoting gambling and 67 for possessing gambling equipment.

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As of May 16, Honolulu police have made 48 arrests for gambling equipment violations and 49 arrests for operating, promoting or assisting illegal gaming.

In response to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser inquiry about HPDs efforts to shutdown illegal gambling operations on Oahu, the police department declined comment.

On Tuesday officers from the Narcotics /Vice Divisions Gambling Detail, District 4 Crime Reduction Unit and Specialized Services Division executed a search warrant on an illegal game room at 527 Kipuka Place in Kailua, according to a social media post by HPD on Wednesday.

Seven gambling devices, along with cash, were seized during the operation. Two suspects were arrested for Promoting Gambling 2nd and Possession of a gambling device,  read the post.

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Hokulea Joseph Cho, 32, of Waianae, and Buoi Thi Nguyen, 65, were arrested at 6 :55 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of promoting gambling in the second degree and possession of a gambling device.

Both were released pending investigation at 8 :30 p.m. Tuesday night, according to HPDs booking log.

Criminals who operate illegal game rooms in Hawaii employ security staff and cashiers. Security is responsible for monitoring the entry and exit of patrons, often through the use of video surveillance systems.

The cashiers provide cash payouts to patrons who win on their wagers. Security staff and cashiers work in scheduled shifts. Illegal drug use is tolerated and dealers often target illegal game room patrons.

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Game rooms are often targeted for robberies because security staff, cashiers, and patrons will be less likely to call or cooperate with the police if they are robbed.

On May 13, Issachar Meafou, 38, after he was charged for shooting up a Kalihi game room April 17.

Meafou allegedly fired multiple gunshots at a group of men in a game room near Sunnys Mart in Kalihi before 4 a.m. April 17.

No one was hurt.

Meafou was charged April 27 with two counts of reckless endangering, place to keep pistol or revolver, being a felon in possession of a firearm and second-degree assault.

Three men are after they allegedly at gunpoint robbed an illegal gambling operation on Kawaiahao Street in August.

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and assets of other equipment that Honolulu police acquired in an illegal game room bust May 8 will go to the state.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney filed an administrative petition for asset forfeiture with the state Attorney Generals Office to forfeit the cash to the state as the proceeds of crime.

Over two weeks in late September and early October 2024, agents with Homeland Security Investigations delivered more than 60 notices to Oahu property owners to evict the operators of illegal game rooms or face criminal charges and asset forfeiture.

In July 2023, HSI delivered notices to property owners housing illegal game rooms that resulted in about 62 properties being cleaned up and the criminal activity moved out.

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On July 9, Gov. Josh Green signed Act 249 into law which broadens the scope of advancing gambling activity to include forms of material aid, such as maintaining equipment and managing financial operations.

It emphasizes the responsibility of landlords and property owners who may knowingly or unwittingly harbor illegal gambling operations.

Hawaii and Utah are the only two states that ban all forms of gambling.

Also in July, the Honolulu City Council started to set up a city-led gambling task force composed of HPD, the city departments of the Prosecuting Attorney, Planning and Permitting, Corporation Counsel, the Office of Council Services and the City Council to advise and assist the members on identifying and developing solutions.

Get involved To report illegal gambling, call the Narcotics /Vice 24-hour hotline at 808-723-3933 or fill out an online form at.
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (WMBD)  The state of Illinois announced on Wednesday that it awarded funding for a trail extension project in Bloomington.

Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation awarded $799,419 for the Constitution Trail Extension Project, according to information from IDOT.

The project will expand the Constitution Trail from Lafayette Street to Hamilton Road with a 10-foot-wide asphalt multi-use path.

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Groundbreaking for Constitution Trail expansion at Heartland College

The money for the project is part of $139.2 million that was awarded through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, which is meant to expand local travel options and enhance quality of life in communities across the state.

The Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program is a crucial part of Rebuild Illinois, helping make travel safer and more accessible in the communities that need it most, Pritzker said. Today, Im proud to announce the largest investment in the programs history, with more than $139 million going toward bike lanes, sidewalks, trails and other local improvements. This is just one part of the states larger effort to reverse decades of disinvestment and create more connected communities.

A total of 66 projects were approved through the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com.
Ill. (WTVO)  Illinois House members passed a bill that would allow mothers paid breaks to breastfeed.

Employers have been required to provide time to nursing mothers to breastfeed, but without pay.

The proposed amendments, sponsored by Illinois Senator Laura Fine (D-Glenview), were first read in Illinois General Assembly on January 22nd.

The Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act would be changed to require employers to provide 30 minutes of paid breaks to mothers who need to breastfeed or pump.

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When youre a new mom and youre tired, youre emotional and youre getting back to work, for me we did not have that break to take care of my child, Fine said.

These required breaks would not cut into any other required breaks.

Fine explained she wants to look out for succeeding generations by implementing these new requirements.

We want to make [it] easier and smoother for future generations, said Fine. Women causes are front and center cause were saying that this is what impacted us, how can we improve it for future generations.

Senator Doris Turner (D-Springfield) stands with Fine on these issues and has sponsored a bill of her own to introduce a plan to cover hypoallergenic formula under Medicaid if it has been prescribed by a physician.

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You can imagine the strain that would put on your budget, Turner said. We are ensuring that families get a fair chance at a healthy life regardless of their income.

The bill passed the House with an 82-27 vote. The proposal has already passed in the Senate with a 50-3 vote in favor of the change.

The bill will now head to Governor JB Pritzkers desk to be signed into law.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports.
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD)  Illinois Republicans are sounding the alarm about a proposed clean energy plan, saying it will only increase costs for you.

The goal of the Clean and Reliability Grid Affordability Act is to accelerate Illinois transition to renewable energy. It would upgrade the power grid and create a battery storage plan. Large data centers would also be required to supply their own energy.

Illinois is on the brink of an energy crisis, a crisis driven by bad policies from the Pritzker administration, said State Rep. Travis Weaver (R-Pekin).

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The Pritzker Power Plan is bad for job creators, bad for families, bad for taxpayers and ratepayers, said State Rep. Ryan Spain (R-Peoria).

Supporters like the Illinois Environmental Council said the bill will accelerate clean energy, boost reliability, and protect consumers from high energy bills. But Republicans said theyre not buying it.

You have to have an environment for economic growth. You cant offer incentives for data centers and then two years later, turn around and say, no, we want to penalize data centers. We require data centers to now bring their own power. And again, not just data centers, but all sorts of manufacturing opportunities that could be a lifeblood for a small town, providing hundreds of jobs throughout the state of Illinois, said Spain.

Energy intensive manufacturers can expect to experience as much as a $3 million rise in their energy costs without effects. This sends a clear message from the governor. Manufacturing companies are not welcome here, said Weaver.

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Republicans said the states energy challenges will result in an increase of 18-22% on your Ameren bill this summer. They said they need to pass a new energy plan, but not this one.

I think the timing is disastrous with what were facing for pricing increases throughout the summer. So we need to go back to the drawing board and think about how were actually going to get fixed, said Spain.

House Republicans have a full slate of proposals ready to right the ship as we enter the last few days of our legislative session. Lets remember bad policy brought us here. Only smart policy can get us out, added Weaver.

The legislative session ends May 31.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 22. Kyrgyzstans capital hosted a meeting of the Kyrgyz-Kazakh Business Council, where the two countries discussed major cooperation initiatives, including a long-anticipated highway between Almaty and Issyk-Kul, Trend reports via the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Kyrgyzstan.

This highway will offer a faster alternative to the current 485-kilometer route through Kordai and Bishkek. Three route options are under review  western, eastern, and direct. The road is expected to be toll-based. The most promising western route, through Uzynagash and Kechi-Kemin, is estimated at around $140150 million.

Plans for this road date back to 20042008. In 2021, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to fund a technical, financial, and economic assessment of the project.

During the business council, the Kazakh delegation also announced a plan to build a major International Transport and Logistics Complex (ITLC) near the Kyrgyz border. Located in the Alatau area, the complex will serve as a hub for storing, processing, and distributing goods for export. It will provide warehousing, packaging, production, legal, and financial services, along with support for import-export operations.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA)  Illinoisans could soon have access to emergency birth control straight from pharmacists  and no prescription would be needed from a doctor.

The Illinois Senate Executive Committee passed a bill to update the states Pharmacy Practice Act. This would let pharmacists in Illinois dispense the emergency contraceptive ulipristal acetate  more commonly known as Ella  and other non-hormonal options as a way to prevent pregnancy.

Illinois move to end time limit to prosecute human trafficking passes Senate Committee

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Legislative chair for the Illinois section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Dr. Michelle Brown said the pill works faster.

Ella is effective four more days after unprotected intercourse than Plan B, Brown said. It works better for patients with higher BMIs and is effective 95% of the time, compared with 89% for Plan B.

Ella works by delaying ovulation. Right now, Illinoisans can get Plan B over the counter, but to get Ella, a doctor has to prescribe it under the current law.

Sen. Rachel Ventura (D-Joliet), who took charge of the House bill in the Senate, said this would make it easier for people eligible to access emergency contraception when they need it.

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Women come in all shapes and sizes so it only stands to reason that medication should be tailored to them as needed, Ventura said. By allowing pharmacists to prescribe all types of contraceptives, including non-hormonal options, this bill aims to improve access so that every individual can make the best choice for birth control.

Bill banning searches of vehicles due to smell of raw cannabis passes Illinois House committee

Pharmacists can also provide other contraceptives, including Phexxi and Plan B, for people who prefer different hormonal contraception. Still, they would need a standing order from the states Public Health Director to give out Ella, similar to giving out flu shots.

The pharmacist will also be reimbursed 85% of what the doctor would pay for contraception services. To receive the payment, pharmacists must be enrolled in the states Medicaid system as ordering and referring providers.

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It passed the committee with seven votes in favor and three against. It has already passed the House and is now headed to the Senate floor for further debate.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
This article will update.

Editors note: This article contains descriptions of child abuse. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, call the Indiana Department of Child Services' Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All adults are mandated reporters in Indiana.

A woman who chose not to call 911 about her boyfriend choking his 5-year-old daughter because she thought he was "just playing" had videos on her phone of the girl being swung around with a noose, according to court documents.

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The morning of May 19, first responders found Zara Arnold cold, stiff and covered in bruises at her father's house in the 200 block of North Lasalle Street. Zachary Arnold, 41, was arrested on charges of murder and neglect of a dependent in connection with the little girl's death.

In an interview, Arnold admitted that he'd strangled her the night before after becoming enraged during an argument with his girlfriend, Andrea Lopez-Figueroa.

Lopez-Figueroa told police she'd left the home on May 18. Arnold wanted her to stay over that night to watch Zara, who was returning from a weekend at a family friend's house, but Lopez-Figueroa wanted to go home. She told him she "wanted to be single and needed to think," according to investigators.

That was the start of a prolonged argument that Arnold blamed for the extended attack on his daughter in a police interview.

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"It kept amping up and Zara was crying," detectives wrote.

Over several hours, Lopez-Figueroa watched on FaceTime calls as Arnold assaulted his daughter, police wrote.

She told him to stop when he held Zara down by her legs and choked her. She told him to stop when he picked Zara up by her throat. She told him to stop when he pulled the little girl by her hair. At no point did she call 911. Instead, she took screenshots of the assault.

She told investigators she didn't call for help because she was afraid of Arnold, even though Arnold had ordered her to call for help because he was going to kill Zara. Lopez-Figueroa thought they were "playing" at the time, according to investigators.

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She estimated that Arnold choked his daughter more than 10 times throughout their argument.

In the last call of the night, Lopez-Figueroa said she saw Zara motionless and bloodied. "It looked like she was breathing," she told investigators, according to court documents. At some point after that, she went to sleep.

Zara Arnold: Abuse allegations surfaced long before 5-year-old Indiana girl killed

When Arnold called Lopez-Figueroa back in the morning, he was doing compressions on Zara and pacing back and forth. At 11:07 a.m., as first responders examined the girl's lifeless body, Arnold texted Lopez-Figueroa that the little girl had died.

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She was soon picked up by police for questioning.

A forensic search of Lopez-Figueroa's phone corroborated her account of repeated FaceTime calls, texts and social media messages throughout May 18 and 19.

Multiple videos from Lopez-Figueroa's phone, some recorded as early as April 10, showed Arnold strangling Zara.

One of the videos from the night of May 18 shows Arnold swinging Zara around by a noose. He throws the girl over his shoulder and hangs her behind his back.

"Zara appears to still be alive in all of these videos," detectives wrote.

A warrant has been issued for Lopez-Figueroa's arrest on charges of assisting a criminal and failure to make a report. Arnold's initial hearing was early May 22. He was not given bond. Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said he will seek life without parole.

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"There was a lengthy period of time in which this child suffered incredible abuse," Mears said.

Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IMPD: Father used noose to swing, drag girl repeatedly before death
Only 25% of registered voters in Erie County cast their ballots in the primary election on Tuesday, but thousands of independent voters in the county were not among them.

Pennsylvania is one of 10 states in the country with a closed primary election system, meaning over a million independent and third-party voters arent allowed to vote in primary elections.

2025 Primary Election Results: Erie County

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One Erie County voter has switched her party affiliations throughout the years and recently registered as an independent, but when she showed up to vote on Tuesday, she was turned away.

They said, No, sorry, youre an independent, youre not allowed to vote today. Oh my gosh, I have such strong feelings about our community. I would love to participate in helping make these decisions. I dont know why Im getting alienated because Im not participating in the two-party system, said Vinni Sanfilippo, an independent voter from Millcreek Township.

Sanfilippo said shes extremely frustrated with the system, and just because she doesnt commit to a party doesnt mean she doesnt care about whats on the ballot.

Another party-affiliated voter agreed and said that independents should be able to exercise their right to vote in primaries.

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PA senator advocating for open primaries for independents

I think they should have the right to vote. They can vote in the main election, and the whole election is paid by everybody, so their voice should be heard, said Michael Sekerak, a party-affiliated voter.

However, some state lawmakers like Senator Dan Laughlin have been pushing to allow independents to vote in primary elections.

Unaffiliated voters are the fastest-growing segment of our electorate, and thats not by accidentboth parties bear some responsibility for alienating voters, and in places like Erie, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Philadelphia, many are choosing to register with a party they dont truly affiliate with just to have a voice in primary elections, which is why open primaries are essential to ensuring fair representation for all Pennsylvanians, said Laughlin, Pennsylvania State Senator.

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Laughlin is the prime sponsor of the proposed Senate Bill 400, which would allow non-affiliated voters to choose a party to vote with during the primaries.

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As of now, that bill has been referred to the Senate State Government Committee, awaiting a vote.

Ive never done anything to be ostracized like this, and it feels extremely frustrating as a real American citizen to be in this position right now, said Sanfilippo.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com.
The News

India launched a crackdown on dissent at home and a charm offensive abroad in an effort to push its narrative over a military showdown with Pakistan.

The standoff involving retaliatory aerial exchanges this month was the worst between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in years, triggered by the killing of dozens of tourists in Kashmir.

Domestically, India has ordered the suspension of 8,000 accounts on X, including journalists and media outlets, while police arrested an academic who criticized those who are mindlessly advocating for a war.

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New Delhi is also dispatching seven delegations made up of lawmakers, officials, and diplomats to 32 countries to press for greater criticism of Pakistan, which India accuses of supporting militancy in Kashmir.
WARREN COUNTY, Ind.  A Warren County man was sentenced to 52 years in prison following a child exploitation investigation.

Richard Lark, 36, of Pine Village, Indiana, was initially arrested in December 2024 on preliminary charges including Sexual Misconduct with a Minor (5 counts), Child Exploitation (1 count), and Possession of Child Pornography (3 counts). As the investigation progressed, detectives with the Indiana State Police uncovered additional evidence involving the same juvenile victim. This led to a broader case and a total of 23 charges being filed against Lark, a news release states.

On May 15, Lark pled guilty to all 23 counts pursuant to a plea agreement with the Warren County Prosecutors Office. He was sentenced to 52 years to be served in the Indiana Department of Correction.

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His charges include:

Count 1: Promotion of Sexual Trafficking of a Younger Child  Level 3 Felony

Counts 28: Sexual Misconduct with a Minor  Level 4 Felony

Counts 912: Child Exploitation  Level 5 Felony

Count 13: Child Solicitation  Level 5 Felony

Counts 1422: Possession of Child Pornography  Level 6 Felony

Count 23: Dissemination of Matter Harmful to Minors  Level 6 Felony

The Indiana State Police and the Warren County Prosecutors Office remain committed to investigating and prosecuting crimes against children.
Hoosiers in the U.S. House of Representatives voted along party lines for President Donald Trump's policy bill that narrowly passed the chamber early on May 22.

Indiana's seven Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, voted in favor of the bill while the state's two Democrats voted against it. The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate.

The proposal, which Trump and Republicans have referred to as the "big, beautiful bill," includes Trump campaign promises such as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime for workers, but it also includes major changes to border security, taxes and what Americans have access to Medicaid and food stamps.

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Indiana Republicans praised the bill for delivering on promises Trump and Republicans made during the 2024 election cycle. U.S. Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat representing the majority of Indianapolis, slammed the bill for cuts to Medicaid and food assistance that he said could hurt Hoosiers.

What's in Trump's big tax bill?: Here's what you need to know.

In a post on X following the vote, Spartz, Indiana's frequent wildcard Republican, said she voted for the bill, but that the legislation "still needs some work." In April, Spartz voted against a budget resolution that laid the framework for the May 22 vote over concerns it would increase the federal deficit.

I voted Yes to move this legislation forward, but this bill still needs some work. https://t.co/D8ikBnLC5p  Rep. Victoria Spartz (@RepSpartz) May 22, 2025

How Indiana representatives voted for Trump's bill

Frank Mrvan, Democrat, 1st Congressional District : Nay

Rudy Yakym, Republican, 2nd Congressional District : Yea

Marlin Stutzman, Republican, 3rd Congressional District : Yea

James Baird, Republican, 4th Congressional District : Yea

Victoria Spartz, Republican, 5th Congressional District : Yea

Jefferson Shreve, Republican, 6th Congressional District : Yea

Andre Carson, Democrat, 7th Congressional District : Nay

Mark Messmer, Republican, 8th Congressional District : Yea

Erin Houchin, Republican, 9th Congressional District: Yea

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USA TODAY contributed to this story.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter/X @CarloniBrittany.

Sign up for our free weekly politics newsletter, Checks & Balances, curated by IndyStar politics and government reporters.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Indiana U.S. representatives voted for Trump's tax bill
The nation's disaster response agency has been hit by staffing cuts and leadership changes.

The new acting chief, David Richardson, told staffers FEMA is ready for hurricane season.

Several employees told BI that morale is low, and Richardson's town hall meeting didn't help.

A week into his appointment, FEMA's new acting chief, David Richardson, held his first town hall for the agency's employees.

In the May 15 meeting, he outlined a planned overhaul of the nation's disaster response operations, dubbed "FEMA 2.0," and tried to reassure staff that the agency is "to a great degree ready" for the 2025 "disaster season," and made clear he plans to carry out President Donald Trump's agenda.

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His speech and answers to employee questions also included several folksy talking points: He used fruits to describe how the agency's responsibilities would be structured, made reference to his girlfriend's big red hair, and said he hadn't realized how big Texas is.

If his presentation, which was livestreamed and played on televisions at the embattled agency's headquarters, was meant to improve morale and boost confidence among the rank and file, it may have fallen short.

Two veteran staffers told Business Insider that they saw at least a dozen employees openly mocking Richardson  laughing while he was talking, jeering at the screen, and later circulating memes about him.

Like other federal employees, FEMA workers have been rattled by the Trump administration's staff cutbacks. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have called for the agency's eventual elimination.

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At the beginning of May, FEMA's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, lost his job after telling Congress he disagreed with the plan to eliminate the agency. His departure paved the way for Richardson to move from Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office to run the agency.

An emergency agency in flux

These big changes come during a critical period for FEMA. Tornadoes in Kentucky and Missouri left 28 people dead last week. Hurricane season on the Atlantic coast, a six-month sprint of emergencies for the agency, begins in June.

Several FEMA employees who are tasked with helping states prepare for and respond to emergencies ranging from earthquakes to wildfires and beyond told Business Insider they're worried about whether they'll have the resources and support to provide life-saving aid to states when crisis strikes.

The agency is pushing back on criticism.

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"Under Secretary Noem and Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is shifting from bloated, DC-centric dead weight to a lean, deployable disaster force that empowers state actors to provide relief for their citizens," a spokesperson for FEMA told Business Insider. "The old processes are being replaced because they failed Americans in real emergencies for decades."

Oranges, grapefruit, and fruit bowl memes

Richardson, a Marine veteran who attained the rank of lieutenant colonel, introduced himself to staff members on May 9, a day after his appointment, saying he would not tolerate those who resisted reforms.

"Obfuscation, delay, undermining. If you're one of those 20% of people and you think those tactics and techniques are going to help you, they will not, because I will run right over you," Richardson said at the May 9 meeting. "Don't get in my way... I know all the tricks."

In the town hall the following week, Richardson focused largely on conducting a "mission analysis" of FEMA's operations and aligning with Trump, according to a transcript based on leaked audio published by the independent news outlet Drop Site News. (Two current FEMA staffers confirmed to Business Insider that the Drop Site News transcription of the meeting was accurate.)

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Before taking questions from staff, Richardson said that FEMA has between 150 and 175 statutorily obligated tasks to conduct, and each one of those specified tasks "can be binned into categories," he said.

"And by bin them, I mean some of those, some of those tasks will be kind of orange-like tasks  and by orange, I mean the fruit orange, but they might be tangerines, they might be blood oranges, it just might be maybe a little bit of grapefruit," Richardson said. "All those will go in one bin."

A FEMA staff member told Business Insider that some staffers watching the livestream began laughing during the remarks about fruit.

Shortly after the meeting concluded, a meme of Richardson's face, looking surprised, and with a basket of fruit on his head, began circulating among FEMA employees. The meme, shared with Business Insider by a staffer, was styled to look like the "Shrek 2" movie poster, with the title "FEMA 2" in green letters with ogre ears. Another meme seen by Business Insider, which was styled as a bingo card for people listening to Richardson's remarks, included a bowl of fruit as one of its spaces.

'Texas is huge!'

During the Q&A portion of the session, a staff member asked about the plan for this hurricane season, whether the agency is appropriately staffed for emergency response, and the timeline for training staff to respond. Richardson said the agency is in a "transition period."

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The process, he said, is "not going to look entirely different of how we did in 2024, but it's not necessarily going to look like how we're going to do it in 2026."

He added that FEMA would begin creating a road map for states to do the bulk of their own emergency response going forward, sharing as much as 50% of costs with the federal government.

A FEMA spokesperson declined to comment on what costs individual states would be responsible for in an emergency and what support the federal government could be expected to provide.

Richardson said he hoped to model future responses after states with good emergency preparedness, using Texas and Florida as examples.

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"Some states are pretty good at this," Richardson said. "The other day I was chatting with my girlfriend  she's from Texas, she's got like, huge red hair, like she's from Texas."

He continued: "I said, how come it takes so long to drive 10 hours from Galveston to Amarillo? And she said, 'Well, you know, Texas is bigger than Spain.' I didn't know that. So I looked at the map. Texas is huge! I mean, if you put it in the middle of Europe, it takes up most of Europe up. However, they do disaster recovery very, very well, and so does Florida."

One FEMA employee told Business Insider that by the time Richardson mentioned his girlfriend, more than a dozen members of the livestream audience watching from their office had begun jeering loudly at the screen. Some staff members began walking around the office waving pencils in the air, mimicking the way Richardson had fidgeted with a writing utensil while speaking, the employee said.

"I've never seen people so mocking of an agency head," the employee said.

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It's unclear exactly how much of FEMA's staff has been cut since Trump took office; the most recent estimates from CNN put the total reduction of force at about 1,000 workers, or about 20% of FEMA's permanent full-time staff.

The US Government Accountability Office reported in 2023 that FEMA had an overall staffing gap of about 35%, or 6,200 employees, which had "affected its ability to achieve its mission."

A FEMA spokesperson told Business Insider that "under Secretary Noem's leadership, and the efforts of Acting Administrator Richardson, FEMA is fully activated in preparation for Hurricane Season."

The Trump administration has not made a public statement about a permanent nominee to lead FEMA.

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The spokesperson added that "complaints about morale, training, and planning come from the same internal class that resisted accountability for decades. This is just another example of a long line of internal leaks from people who clearly couldn't care less about Americans facing disaster and prefer to manufacture petty drama for their own self-aggrandizement."

In the town hall meeting, Richardson said his plan for the agency is to follow "the president's intent," which he described as limiting FEMA's activities to its "mission essential tasks."

One staff member said most FEMA employees are determined to carry out the agency's mission. "Those of us still remaining were either too committed to go anywhere, not eligible to take the resignation options, or so committed to the mission we do not care what he does," they said.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Photo: Administration of the President of Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, May 22. President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov and Hassan Al-Huwaizi, Chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, discussed investment cooperation between the countries, Trend reports via the administration of the president.

President Zhaparov expressed confidence that the Saudi delegation had established constructive contacts with Kyrgyz entrepreneurs during the second Kyrgyz-Saudi Business Council meeting held on May 21 in Bishkek.

He spoke about Kyrgyzstans ongoing reforms and major infrastructure initiatives, emphasizing efforts to create a favorable investment climate, including legislation protecting investor rights and supporting business development.

Zhaparov highlighted priority sectors for cooperation, such as energy, tourism, real estate, banking, logistics, digitalization, and agricultural exports.

In turn, Al-Huwaizi stated that Kyrgyzstan presents an attractive and largely untapped market with significant potential for investment. He reaffirmed Saudi Arabias interest in expanding cooperation and readiness to engage in joint projects across various sectors.
Officials in Florida want more resources to detain everyone they suspect is here illegally, regardless of whether the individual has a criminal background or even a removal warrant or deportation order. USA Today Florida Network's Antonio Fins, Ana Goni-Lessan and John Kennedy discuss. Also on deck, LGBTQ+ advocates in the state celebrate the lack of anti-gay legislation passed this year. And can Gov. Ron DeSantis convince the Legislature to cut back on Florida's property taxes?

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida law enforcement moves to exceed ICE in detainees
UnitedHealth, the largest healthcare insurer in the United States, reportedly went to extreme lengths to deny care to seniors and cut costs to pad out its profit margins.

As The Guardian reports, nurse practitioners say that UnitedHealth pressed them to change patients' status to "do not resuscitate"  even after those same patients had "clearly expressed a desire that all available treatments be used to keep them alive."

"Theyre pretending to make it look like its in the best interest of the member," one practitioner told the British newspaper. "But its really not."

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UnitedHealth also allegedly tried to prevent patients from transferring hospitals, risking their health further.

While the company has denied the allegations, the reporting paints an alarming picture of the state of healthcare in the United States, where insurance is treated much the same way as a tech company trying to maximize profits while cutting costs.

UnitedHealth already has a lengthy track record of finding creative ways to deny people healthcare coverage, including deploying an AI that automatically denied and overrode claims for elderly patients.

The company has attracted particular controversy after its CEO was murdered in December, in an apparent act of lethal anger at the injustices of a notoriously greedy and deficient system.

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The company has had a miserable year since then. Its shares have dropped almost 40 percent year to date, following a flood of damning reports.

Following The Guardian's reporting today, UnitedHealth's stock price slid by more than six percent.

The company has also been the subject of criminal and civil investigations into its practices, including medicare fraud, as Reuters reports.

Last week, UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty abruptly resigned, citing "personal reasons" and drawing even more scrutiny over the company's operations.

Whether the departure had anything to do with a continuous flood of bad press remains unclear. According to a whistleblower lawsuit cited by the Guardian, staffers at nursing homes were directly incentivized to leak sensitive resident records so that UnitedHealth sales teams could solicit their plans to them and their families.

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A patient who showed key symptoms of having suffered a stroke, for instance, was denied care by a remote and underqualified UnitedHealth employee, who suggested she was suffering from a less serious condition, according to UnitedHealth logs and records obtained by the newspaper. The delays caused by healthcare practitioners waiting to hear back from the insurer led to the patient's health deteriorating further.

Per The Guardian, there have been countless other instances like it.

In short, UnitedHealth seems far interested in cutting costs than ensuring people in senior homes stay healthy.

"How many of those people were further harmed because they never received the care that they needed?" former UnitedHealth nurse practitioner turned whistleblower Maxwell Ollivant told The Guardian. "When you just look at the percentage reductions in hospitalizations, it doesnt say anything about patient outcomes."

More on UnitedHealth: UnitedHealthcare Threatens Legal Action Against Doctor Who Says They Interrupted Her in the Middle of Surgery
Newly adopted international measures designed to protect sharks should help several species, but critics worry that one could be left behind.

Sharks are often captured as bycatch  unintentional catches in fishing nets  during tuna fishing expeditions, and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission made protecting the marine animals a focus, Mongabay reported.

An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Along with bycatch, millions are killed through finning, where people remove shark fins and put the animals back in the ocean to die.

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In its attempt to help, the IOTC included more species within shark-retention bans, restricted certain fishing gear, and enacted stronger reporting requirements for all caught sharks. The organization also ruled that all sharks brought to shore must have their fins naturally attached to their bodies to prove they were not finned.

Shortfin mako sharks, however, were not included in the full retention ban. Instead, boats will be allowed to keep the fish if they are already dead by the time they're brought into the boat. Certain fishing gear that's proven detrimental to makos will also continue to be allowed.

"Sharks won for the very first time at the IOTC, except the shortfin mako," Iris Ziegler of the German Foundation for Marine Conservation told Mongabay. "For shortfin mako, it was a disaster. We are overexploiting the species, and it may never recover."

Sharks are among the large predators that can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted each year by storing carbon in their bodies. They also feed on smaller, plant-eating fish, helping preserve some of the kelp and other marine plants that store carbon.

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Scientists have actually floated the possibility of introducing reef sharks, and other large predators, into certain environments to help meet carbon-removal targets within the Paris Agreement.

The IOTC also decided to later review a 2024 assessment that said yellowfin tuna are no longer being overfished. In particular, the group expressed skepticism about the data used within that assessment.

"We have significant concerns over the seemingly miraculous recovery of the stock, given the decade of unrelenting overfishing that preceded the IOTC's most recent yellowfin stock assessment," Jess Rattle of the Blue Marine Foundation told Mongabay. "It is essential that these issues are resolved and that the assessment is reviewed and revised accordingly."

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May 21The vote was 5-3 at Monday's City Council meeting when the administration recommended paying Venture Corporation $59,312 to pave the lines at eight intersections on 10th St. Assistant City Engineer Hitha Kadiyala said the contract will save time and money because the project is being added to other work Venture is doing.

The City Connecting Link Improvement Program (CCLIP) offers federal and state funds to cities for enhancing certain roads projects. The City has a CCLIP project starting on Tuesday, May 27, that includes pavement markings at 10th and Patton and Second and Main. Since Road Safe is already the sub-contractor through Venture Corporation for this work, the City requested a quote from them for additional pavement markings at other 10th Street intersections. Funding will come from the street repair budget.

Councilmembers raised several questions before voting to approve the recommendation. Councilman Cory Urban asked if there was a guarantee that the paint would last for a year or two, since City Administrator Logan Burns said, "The paint we have is not lasting." To answer Urban's question, there is no warranty.

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"We've tried three or four different manufacturers of paint and whatever Road Safe has," Burns said. "It seems to stick a little better, but it seems like a week or two after we put that down, it's already gone." He later singled out the intersection of 10th and Washington, where the paint lasted "two weeks, maybe."

Councilman Gary Parr asked if the City has explored what is used on Interstate highways and Mayor Cody Schmidt asked if Great Bend has called other cities to see what paint they use.

"Our traffic-control specialists are working on it," Kadiyala said. "We've changed the vendors, we changed the methods, and tried every approach." She said they have spent about a year trying to figure out a solution.

Kadiyala said Road Safe has to use state-certified paint for CCLIP projects. "We have that paint as well. ... The materials have changed so much lately that we're just trying to figure out what is going on at this point." However, doing nothing is not a good option, she said. She recommended doing the work now for safety and working on researching the paint issue as well.

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"It blows me away to pay if we can do it ourselves in-house," Urban said. The city will be painting other intersections this year.

Those voting "yes" to the painting contract were Kevyn Soupiset, Rickee Maddox, Alan Moeder, Jolene Biggs and Tina Mingenback. Those voting "no" were Urban, Parr and Davis Jimenez.

Councilman Parr contacted the Great Bend Tribune on Tuesday to comment on his vote.

"I'm not against painting the intersections," he said. "They absolutely need to be painted."

Parr said his "no" vote was based on the cost of the paint and the fact that it might only last two to three weeks. "This is almost $7,000 per intersection," he said. He was also concerned that there is no guarantee.

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"We're just throwing caution to the wind," he said, adding the city needs to check with other cities and get more data.

The intersections that are getting pavement markings are all on 10th St. They are located at Frey Street, Kansas Ave., Main, Washington, Harrison, Grant, Patton Road, and K-96. Markings include crosswalks, stop bars, single white lines, turn arrows and double yellow lines.
HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT)  An Eldorado man is facing sexual assault charges after alleged inappropriate contact with a student.

Illinois State Police state the Eldorado Police Department requested assistance from them in the case where 23-year-old Isaac Murray was ultimately charged with Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Abuse, Aggravated Kidnapping and Kidnapping.

Eldorado High School Superintendent Ryan Hobbs posted a statement on Facebook. The statement reads as follows:

The District values and recognizes the safety and well-being of our students as a top priority. Moreover, the District takes all matters related to student safety extremely seriously. The Employee has been arrested and detained. This is currently an ongoing criminal matter, and the district is cooperating with authorities. The District will continue to ensure that we provide a secure and supportive learning environment for all students. If you or your child have any concerns or information that you believe may be relevant, we encourage you to reach out to the local law enforcement or School District. Due to this being an ongoing criminal and personnel matter, the District may not disclose further information at this time. Ryan Hobbs

Superintendent

Eldorado CUSD 4

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa  An Iowa man has been accused of fatally neglecting a dog and dumping its body to hide the crime.

On April 28, a witness reported to the West Des Moines Police Department that a dog was locked in a crate covered in its own feces and appeared to be just skin and bones at an apartment in the 3900 block of Woodland Avenue. The witness also provided photos of the dog inside the crate to officers.

According to court documents, officers with the WDPD and an animal control officer visited the apartment to try and locate the dog, but the dogs owner, identified as 27-year-old Michael Alan Wakefield, demanded that they leave.

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The following day, officers and city staff arrived at the apartment to execute a search warrant and remove the dog. However, when the officers entered the apartment, court documents say that the dog was nowhere to be found. Court documents also noted that the crate the dog was seen locked in had been broken down and stored behind a TV, and that the area appeared to have been cleaned with a broom, which was found covered in feces next to the crate.

Man, officers shot in exchange of gunfire in eastern Iowa

According to court documents, Wakefield was not at the apartment when the search warrant was conducted, so an officer at the scene called Wakefield. During the phone call, court documents say that Wakefield told officers that the dog had been taken to a new family in another state. Wakefield again demanded that the officers get out of his apartment, and the officers and city staff left.

A second search warrant was conducted over a week later, on May 7, at Wakefields apartment. According to a criminal complaint, during the execution of this search warrant, Wakefield admitted to officers that the dog was dead and that he had dumped the dog in a wooded area near a ravine at Raccoon River Park to avoid prosecution.

Michael Wakefield.

The dogs body was found, and it was determined that the dog likely died because of poor treatment, poor nourishment, and abuse, court documents state.

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On Tuesday, Wakefield was arrested and charged with one count of animal neglect with serious injury or death. He was booked into the Polk County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 30.

Metro News:

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com.
(KCAU)  Iowa Senator Joni Ernst continues to ask the U.S. Air Force about the 185th Air Refueling Wings runway project.

During Wednesdays Senate Committee on armed services hearing, the senator brought up the runway upgrade project.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin said the design work for the project is 65% complete, which is pass the minimum 35% design stage for military construction, or MILCON, projects in order for them to be submitted for congress approval for funding.

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Id just like to know how many more times that I have to bring this up, in personal meetings, in my office, and in front of the committee to get a commitment to get the milcon done for this runway, said Senator Joni Ernst.

Youve got my commitment. I will continue to push on this. The design work is now limiting any of the obstacles on our path to actually do it, said is Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin.

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Ernst said the F16s were taken away from the 185th back in 2003, with the Air Forces commitment that when the unit got the KC135s, a runway would be built to support the aircrafts weight, but that hasnt happened yet.

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The rainbow flag of the gay pride movement and the flag of the United States. (Photo by Getty Images)

A Scott County man has reached an out-of-court settlement with the former employer he accused of firing him for wearing Christian-themed T-shirts to work in response to the companys endorsement of Pride Month.

In June 2024, Cosby Corey Cunningham sued Eaton Corp., a global power management company with a Davenport office, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, alleging violations of his civil rights.

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Cunningham, a self-described born-again, church-going Christian, was hired by Eaton in 2019 as a quality manager with responsibilities for product development related to military and aerospace activity.

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According to his lawsuit, Eaton initiated a Pride Month ceremony on June 2, 2023, by raising a pride flag in front of its main building and encouraging employees to wear specific colors in support of the effort. Management also sent out emails to the staff offering pride-themed T-shirts for workers to purchase, the lawsuit claims.

That day, Cunningham alleges, he began wearing T-shirts at work that displayed or referred to Bible verses. According to the lawsuit, he did this to express his sincerely held religious belief in Jesus Christ and the Bible.

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One shirt read, Pride goes before destruction, an arrogant spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18. Another shirt read, Taking back the rainbow. Genesis 9:13. A third read, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6.

Over the next eight weeks, Eaton managers allegedly held a series of meetings with Cunningham to express their concern that his actions were perceived by others as inflammatory and that they might violate company policy.

According to the lawsuit, management refused Cunninghams requests for a religious accommodation to wear the T-shirts, threatened him with dismissal, and sent him home on at least two occasions for refusing to stop wearing the shirts. On Aug. 23, 2023, the company fired Cunningham, the lawsuit alleges.

In his lawsuit, Cunningham stated that he believes homosexual conduct is sinful and that he had been called upon to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Doing so, he claimed, required him to share with others even those biblical teachings that are offensive to those who dont share such beliefs.

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In its response to those claims, lawyers for the Eaton Corp. argued Cunningham was not entitled to any damages because any actions taken by the company against him were legitimate and non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory, and were based on legitimate business reasons.

In his lawsuit, Cunningham was represented by Robert Anderson of Atlantic, an attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, a conservative organization that said it works to promote religious freedom and parental rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized the Pacific Justice Institute as an anti-LGBT hate group whose founder has compared legalized gay marriage to Hitler and the Nazis ascent in Germany.

Anderson said Thursday hes not at liberty to comment on the specifics of the settlement that was reached last month. Attorneys for the Eaton Corp. did not respond immediately to requests for comment on the matter.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - The United States would bear legal responsibility in the event of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, following a CNN report that Israel might be preparing strikes on Iran.

Iran and the U.S., Israel's closest ally, will hold a fifth round of nuclear talks on Friday in Rome amid deep disagreement over uranium enrichment in Iran, which Washington says could lead to developing nuclear bombs. Iran denies such intent.

Citing intelligence sources, CNN said on Tuesday it was not clear whether Israel had made a final decision on military action and that U.S. officials disagreed about whether the Israelis would ultimately decide to attack.

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Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime of Israel and will decisively respond to any threat or unlawful act by this regime, Araqchi said in a letter addressed to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Araqchi said Iran would view Washington as a participant in any such attack, and Tehran would have to adopt special measures to protect its nuclear sites and material if threats continued, and the International Atomic Energy Agency watchdog would be subsequently informed of such steps.

Although Araqchi did not specify what measures were being considered, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader said in April that Tehran could suspend cooperation with the IAEA or transfer enriched material to safe and undisclosed locations.

In a separate statement released on Thursday, Irans elite Revolutionary Guards warned Israel would receive a "devastating and decisive response" if it attacks Iran.

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"They are trying to frighten us with war but are miscalculating as they are unaware of the powerful popular and military support the Islamic Republic can muster in war conditions," Guards spokesperson Alimohammad Naini said.

A collapse of U.S.-Iran negotiations or a new nuclear deal that does not alleviate Israeli concerns about Iran developing nuclear weapons through enrichment could motivate Israeli strikes on its regional arch-foe, diplomats say.

Later on Thursday, Araqchi said in a televised interview that if the United States aims to end uranium enrichment then there will be no nuclear deal.

"They have said [U.S. officials]... that they do not believe in enrichment in Iran... and it has to stop completely, if this is their goal there will be no deal", Araqchi said in the interview carried by state TV.

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The Iranian foreign minister said the idea of a uranium enrichment consortium with the participation of other nations is not bad, but will not replace enrichment on Iranian soil.

On Tuesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said U.S. demands that Tehran stop refining uranium were "excessive and outrageous," and he voiced doubt over whether talks on a new nuclear deal would succeed.

Tehran maintains its nuclear energy programme is exclusively for civilian purposes.

Iran has the capability to build a nuclear weapon, but does not have the will to do so, Araqchi said.

Iran and Israel engaged in direct exchanges of fire last year, in April and October, raising the risk of regional conflict.

(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Elwely Elwelly, Dubai Newsroom; editing by Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington)
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  An Irondequoit man has been accused of pretending to be a physician to distribute drugs.

According to investigators, between August 2023 and April 2025, 27-year-old Kevin Whitman claimed to be a doctor and fraudulently used a DEA number belonging to Strong Memorial Hospital.

With that number, Whitman allegedly issued 177 prescriptions to nine people, with 173 of those prescriptions involving oxycodone. In total, investigators said Whitman issued 38,067 dosage units.

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Police searched Whitmans home and found a framed fake diploma, purporting to be from the University of Rochester Medical School.

Investigators revealed Whitman was not a licensed physician anywhere in the United States, did not possess a DEA Registration Number, never worked at Strong Memorial Hospital or graduated from UR, and confirmed he had no professional licenses to practice medicine or issue prescription drugs.

Whitman was arrested on Thursday and charged with distributing and dispensing a controlled substance, using a registration number issued to another person to obtain controlled substances, and obtaining controlled substances by fraud. He was released on conditions.

If convicted, Whitman could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

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The University of Rochester Medical Center released a statement Thursday, saying when staff found out Whitman was posing as a physician, they immediately clarified it wasnt true.

Mr. Whitman has never been a student at the University of Rochesters School of Medicine & Dentistry. He received no medical training here, is not a licensed physician in New York State and has never been employed by the University. Upon learning that Mr. Whitman was describing himself online as a physician at the University, we clarified that this was not true. We notified the Department of Health and Human Services that Mr. Whitman was falsely claiming to be a physician employed by Strong Memorial Hospital. We were not aware that Mr. Whitman had ever used a false Drug Enforcement Administration number for the purpose of obtaining prescription medications until the Department of Justice investigation that resulted in his recent arrest. The Universitys Department of Public Safety assisted with that confidential investigation. University of Rochester Medical Center

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DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, May 22. Tajikistan's mining sector was the central focus of discussions at the first-ever TajikistanUK Mining Industry Forum held in London, Trend reports via the Tajikistan's Ministry of Industry and New Technologies.

The event brought together officials from both governments, international investors, and executives from leading global and sector-specific companies.

The Tajik delegation, led by Minister of Industry and New Technologies Sherali Kabir, included senior figures such as Ilhomjon Oimahmadov. Head of the Main Department of Geology under the Government of Tajikistan, along with representatives from various public and private institutions.

The forum aimed to strengthen cooperation between Tajikistan and the UK in the mining industry by facilitating open dialogue and exploring opportunities for joint ventures. Participants discussed investment prospects in Tajikistans mining sector, the country's export potential, and the need to introduce advanced technologies into mining operations.

An exhibition accompanying the forum showcased a variety of domestic mining products as well as other Tajik export goods, reflecting the countrys production capabilities. Attendees received detailed briefings on Tajikistans mineral resources and investment climate.

Officials expressed hope that the forum would pave the way for deeper bilateral cooperation, greater foreign direct investment, and the modernization of Tajikistans mining industry.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
By James Mackenzie

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused unnamed European officials on Thursday of "toxic antisemitic incitement" he blamed for a hostile climate in which the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington took place.

Israel has faced a blizzard of criticism from Europe of late as it has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, where humanitarian groups have warned that an 11-week Israeli blockade on aid supplies has left the Palestinian enclave on the brink of famine.

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Saar did not name any countries or officials but said the climate of hostility towards Israel was behind the shooting of the embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday.

Saar, at a news conference in Jerusalem, said the attack was a direct outcome of "toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world" since Hamas militants' cross-border attack on Israel in October 2023.

"There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder," he said. "This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organisations, especially from Europe."

Saar declined to identify which leader or officials he had in mind. But his remarks came after increasingly tough words from Western allies of Israel including France and Britain, which joined Canada this week in warning of possible "concrete action" against Israel over its war in Gaza.

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U.S. officials said a suspect who chanted pro-Palestinian slogans was in custody. President Donald Trump and a wide range of European and other foreign leaders condemned the attack.

Saar said the "global atmosphere" against Israel had worsened sharply since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken as hostage back into Gaza.

Since then, Israel's air and ground campaign has killed over 53,000 Palestinians and laid waste to the densely populated territory, drawing mass protests across the world ranging from U.S. university campuses to the streets of European cities.

Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take action to prevent alleged acts of genocide in Gaza after a case brought by South Africa that stirred deep anger in Israel.

Saar said: "These libels about genocide, crimes against humanity and murdering babies pave the way exactly for such murders."

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; editing by Mark Heinrich)
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  The United Nations estimates as many as 14,000 babies in Gaza could die from starvation in the coming days.

Israel has been blocking most of the food aid from entering the war-torn area in its ongoing conflict with Hamas.

Was that a question or a statement?, President Donald Trump said in response to a reporters question Wednesday about whether he would urge Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza. This guy, he never changes.

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Democrats asked the same of Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a House committee hearing Wednesday over the U.S. State Departments budget.

Will you commit to getting a surge of aid into Gaza now?, asked U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.).

Well continue to urge them to do so and in fact, we expect more aid will begin to flow rapidly over the next few days into Gaza, Rubio said.

The first trucks carrying aid, including baby food, entered Gaza Monday after Israel held them up for nearly three months to pressure Hamas over a ceasefire deal.

It is only a drop in the ocean of what is actually needed, said Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. secretary-general spokesperson.

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U.N. officials warn the situation on the ground in Gaza remains complicated. This week, Israeli strikes not only killed hundreds of Palestinians but ruined food supplies and blocked others from being distributed.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Israels chief of staff, blames Hamas, saying his country would stop its new military offensive if the terror group agrees to a ceasefire.

World Food Programme officials said the ongoing war has criminalized food.

As we speak, a bag of wheat flour costs 500 U.S. dollars in Gaza, said Antoine Renard, the country director of the WFP in the Palestinian territories.

Rubio said thats why the U.S. is looking for reliable alternatives to the current aid distribution methods.

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Not wind up in the hands of Hamas, who then turns it around and sells it at exorbitant prices on the black market to enrich themselves after they feed themselves, Rubio said.

Experts warn most of Gazas two million residents are at high risk of famine.

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Jenin, West Bank  Several nations that have backed Israel during its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip voiced outrage Wednesday after Israeli troops fired what they called "warning shots" as foreign diplomats visited the occupied West Bank.



The Palestinian Authority, which partially administers the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory, accused Israeli troops of "deliberately" shooting at the delegation near the flashpoint city of Jenin. The Israeli military, already under pressure over its tactics in the Gaza war, said it regretted the "inconvenience."



AFP video from Jenin  a frequent target of Israeli military raids  showed the delegation and accompanying journalists running for cover as shots were heard on Wednesday.

A frame grab from AFPTV video shows members of a diplomatic delegation from the European Union and elsewhere reacting after shots were fired as they gathered at the eastern entrance of the Jenin camp, during a visit to the city of Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 21, 2025, amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive. / Credit: MOHAMMAD ATEEQ/AFPTV/AFP/Getty

A European diplomat said the envoys went to the area to see the destruction caused in the West Bank by Israeli military raids during the Gaza war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led, Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack.



The Israel Defense Forces said the diplomatic convoy had strayed from the approved route and entered a restricted zone, prompting troops to fire "warning shots" to steer the group away. The IDF added that no one was wounded and it expressed regret for the "inconvenience caused."



U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' spokesman called the incident "unacceptable."



"Diplomats who are doing their work should never be shot at, attacked in any way, shape or form. Their safety, their viability, must be respected at all times," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "These diplomats, including U.N. personnel, were fired at, warning shots or whatever... which is unacceptable."



Demands for explanation over Israel's "unacceptable" actions

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Several countries that had representatives in the group voiced outrage and demanded an investigation.



"We call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold those accountable who are responsible for any threats to diplomats' lives," said European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay summoned Israel's ambassadors or said they would raise the issue directly.



Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the incident "totally unacceptable" and pressed for an "immediate explanation."



Carney added that Canada's Foreign Minister Anita Anand has summoned Israel's ambassador to Ottawa.

Members of an international diplomatic delegation gather by a gate at the eastern entrance of the Jenin camp during a visit to the city of Jenin, May 21, 2025, amid an ongoing Israeli military offensive in the occupied West Bank. / Credit: MOHAMMAD MANSOUR/AFP/Getty

Egypt denounced the shooting as a breach of "all diplomatic norms," while Turkey demanded an immediate investigation.



Turkey's foreign ministry said: "This attack must be investigated without delay and the perpetrators must be held accountable."



Ahmad al-Deek, political adviser for the Palestinian foreign ministry who accompanied the delegation, condemned what he called a "reckless act by the Israeli army."



"It has given the diplomatic delegation an impression of the life the Palestinian people are living," he said.



Palestinian news agency Wafa reported the delegation included diplomats from more than 20 countries including Britain, China, Egypt, France, Japan, Jordan, Turkey and Russia.

Britain's minister for the Middle East and North Africa, Hamish Falconer, said Wednesday that he'd spoken directly with U.K. diplomats affected by the incident, and he called for an investigation.



"Today's events in Jenin are unacceptable. I have spoken to our diplomats who were affected," he said in a social media post. "Civilians must always be protected, and diplomats allowed to do their jobs. There must be a full investigation and those responsible should be held accountable."



"The Japanese government has protested to the Israeli side and requested an explanation and the prevention of a recurrence," government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said in Tokyo, confirming that diplomatic staff from the country had taken part in the delegation.



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Israel-Europe ties increasingly strained over Gaza, D.C. murders

The incident came as anger mounted over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Palestinians are scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation. A two-month Israeli aid blockade on Gaza was partially eased this week, but not enough to alleviate the hunger crisis facing the enclave's roughly 2 million inhabitants, according to the U.N. and humanitarian agencies.



Israel stepped up its military offensive over the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.



Israel has faced massive pressure, including from its allies, to halt its intensified offensive and allow aid into Gaza. European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday ordered a review of the EU cooperation accord with Israel.



Sweden said it would press the EU to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel and summoned the Israeli ambassador.



Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as "worrying and painful" and called for "the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid."

Palestinians, struggling with hunger due to an Israeli blockade, wait in line to receive hot meals distributed by charity organizations in Jabalia Refugee Camp, in Gaza City, Gaza, May 17, 2025. / Credit: Mahmoud ssa/Anadolu/Getty

Israel's ties with Europe were tested further on Thursday as Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar blamed what he called antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement "by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe," for the murder of two Israel Embassy staff members in Washington D.C. the previous night.

A suspect identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago was taken into custody, and heard shouting, "Free, free Palestine" as he was led away, after the attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum.



Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.



Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.



Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel ended a ceasefire and resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 53,655.

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Trump confronts South African president during White House meeting, repeats genocide claims

Watch: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem asked what habeas corpus is in Senate hearing

Watch: Rubio and Van Hollen get into testy exchange during Senate hearing
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he is "horrified" by the shooting outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington that left two young Israeli embassy staffers dead on Wednesday evening.

"Israeli representatives around the world are constantly exposed to heightened risk - especially in these times," Saar posted on social media.

"We are in close contact with American authorities. Israel will not surrender to terror."
Israel will step up security at its diplomatic missions around the world following the killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Thursday.

Netanyahu was "shocked" by the "horrific, anti-Semitic" shooting in the US capital, the statement read.

"We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel. The blood libels against Israel are costing us blood and must be fought relentlessly," he said in the statement.

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The two Israeli embassy staff members were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum. According to Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, they were a young couple who were about to get engaged.

US police said the suspect has been arrested. After his detention, he allegedly chanted the slogan "Free, free Palestine."
Israels ambassador to the United States cast the killing of two of his countrys staffers in Washington as part of the Jewish states multifront war in the Middle East against Iran and its proxies.

This is done in the name of a political agenda to eradicate the state of Israel, Yechiel Leiter told reporters, referring to reports that the alleged gunman Elias Rodriguez had shouted Free, free Palestine, as he was apprehended by the police.

The state of Israel is now fighting a war on seven fronts. This is the eighth front. The war to demonize, delegitimize and to eradicate the right of the state of Israel to exist, Leiter said.

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The Israeli ambassador spoke to the press on Thursday outside the Capital Jewish Museum where Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were shot dead on Wednesday evening as they left an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

Leiter described Lischinsky  who worked as a senior adviser in the political division of the embassy  as a principled human being, very unassuming, very intelligent, very accomplished.

Lischinsky, who was originally from Germany, had bought an engagement ring and planned to propose to Milgrim on a trip to Jerusalem next week.

Milgrim, originally from Kansas, worked in the embassys public diplomacy division.

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The attack in downtown Washington sent shockwaves throughout the capital and has been condemned by lawmakers and officials from across the political spectrum.

Leiter strongly pushed back against questions as to whether the brutal conduct of Israels war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, had affected antisemitism around the world.

Attacks on Jews and Muslims have surged in the United States in the wake of the attacks, according to rights groups.

Some 1,200 people  including Israelis and nationals of other countries  were killed in the attacks. Some 250 people were taken into Gaza as hostages. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing war in the coastal enclave.

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Antisemitism is on the rise not because of Israels responding but because of countries like France, Leiter said, referring to recent proposals by French officials to recognize a Palestinian state.

This is a contorted sense of morality. They should be ashamed of themselves and were going to oppose that in the area of diplomacy as well, he said.

Leiter, whose son was killed in 2023 while fighting in Gaza for the Israeli Defense Forces, said that the country had gone to great lengths to prevent collateral damage in its campaign.

Rights groups have documented multiple incidents of indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, including on civilian homes.

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What youd like us to do, perhaps, Mr. Macron, is to roll over and play dead, said Leiter, referring to the French President Emmanuel Macron.

Asked about what it would take for Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, Leiter said Hamas needed to release the remaining hostages, disarm and leave the strip.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of the alleged shooter in Wednesday's attack.
PARIS (AP)  A senior Israeli diplomat on Thursday defended his countrys military after soldiers fired warning shots near a delegation of European diplomats visiting the occupied West Bank, an incident France condemned as unacceptable and prompted it to summon Israels ambassador.

There was no actual danger, Assaf Moran, deputy chief of mission of the Israeli embassy in France, said in an interview with The Associated Press. It also was proven by the debriefing that the soldiers only shot a warning in the air in order for the delegation to step away, but there was not actual danger to the diplomats on the ground.

The diplomats, including at least one representative from France, came under fire Wednesday while visiting Jenin, a Palestinian city that has seen repeated Israeli military raids. The Israeli army said the visit had been authorized, but that soldiers opened fire when the delegation reportedly deviated from an agreed-upon route. No injuries were reported.

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France responded by summoning Israels ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in Paris.

French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the diplomats came under fire and described the incident as unjustifiable and unacceptable. He added that Israels ambassador was being summoned to explain himself about this extremely serious incident.

The confrontation underscores the growing tensions between Israel and Europe and comes amid rising concern for the safety of diplomats and Jewish communities abroad.

On Thursday, the French government issued separate orders to reinforce security around Jewish sites following the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.

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Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau called for a stepped-up presence of police and military personnel at synagogues, Jewish schools, cultural centers, and businesses across the country.

Though French authorities did not link the Jenin incident with the attack in D.C., the timing of both episodes added to diplomatic unease and triggered heightened vigilance across multiple sectors.

Jenin, located in the northern West Bank, has been the site of intensified Israeli operations targeting armed Palestinian groups. Israeli forces say these raids aim to dismantle militant infrastructure, but Palestinian officials and human rights groups accuse the army of disproportionate use of force and collective punishment.

European diplomats frequently visit volatile areas like Jenin to monitor conditions on the ground, meet with local leaders, and assess humanitarian needs. Wednesdays incident has raised new concerns about the safety of such missions  even when they are coordinated in advance.

Israel insists the delegation was not targeted.

___

AP writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.






The arrest of the suspect in the shooting of two Israeli Embassy aides was caught on camera on Wednesday, May 21

Elias Rodriguez repeatedly shouted "free Palestine" while being detained inside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

The 30-year-old was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky







The moment the suspect in the fatal shooting of Israeli Embassy aides Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky was arrested has been caught on camera.

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Eyewitness Katie Kalisher shared the footage of 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago being handcuffed and taken away by police officers with PEOPLE. In the clip, Rodriguez repeatedly shouts, Free, free Palestine.

The shooting took place outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, May 21, authorities have confirmed.

Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of D.C. Pamela Smith said in a press conference. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire, striking both of our decedents.

"After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security," Smith added.

Katie Kalisher Suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez is arrested and taken out of the Capital Jewish Museum Suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez is arrested and taken out of the Capital Jewish Museum

The suspect came over to where I was and we offered him water and he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a kufiya and says, I did it. I did this for Gaza,  eyewitness Kalisher shared on Good Morning America.

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Speaking with the BBC, Kalisher also explained that at first she heard gunshots outside the building and thought the man was seeking refuge from the violence outside.

We thought he needed shelter so he comes in, she shared.

Fellow eyewitness Yoni Kalin added, People were calming him down, giving him water, little did we know that he was someone who executed people in cold blood. He was the shooter. Once the police originally showed up, he was like, I did this. Im unarmed, pulls out a red kufiya and was like, I did this for Gaza. Free Palestine. 

Katie Kalisher Suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez is arrested and taken out of the Capital Jewish Museum Suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez is arrested and taken out of the Capital Jewish Museum

Rodriguez was detained by event security.

In the press conference, Smith confirmed that the weapon allegedly used in the attack was recovered where the suspect said he discarded it. Smith added, "He implied that he committed the offense."

Embassy of Israel to the USA/X Israeli Embassy aides Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were the victims of a shooting on May 21 Israeli Embassy aides Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were the victims of a shooting on May 21

Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, added during the press conference that the victims were about to get engaged before they were killed.

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"The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of 'Free Palestine' was a young couple about to be engaged," Leiter told reporters.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

"The young man purchased a ring this week, with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," he added. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center."

The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. did not immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information.



Read the original article on People
The fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., late Wednesday night drew an outpouring of grief as well as a global condemnation of antisemitic violence.

The victims, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, were attending a reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) on Wednesday night at the Capital Jewish Museum when they were shot and killed. The two were both staffers at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. and were expected to get engaged to be married within the week.

The shooter was apprehended at the scene, and police said he shouted free, free Palestine while being detained.

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American, Israeli and other foreign officials and members of the community connected to the AJC  diplomats, advocates and professionals working in foreign policy and conflict resolution  expressed outrage and devastation.

The attack also underscored the persistent threat facing Jewish and Israeli communities. Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. are at an all-time high, spiking after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel and Israels resulting war in the Gaza Strip.

Hours later, I am still shocked by this tragedy  and not shocked at all, Nathan Diament, executive director for public policy for the Orthodox Union, posted on the social platform X. The Orthodox Union is at the forefront of advocating for increased federal funds to secure houses of worship, in particular synagogues.

This is where incessant [and] unchecked antisemitism [and] the demonization of Israel leads; to the murder of innocents, the cutting off of a bright future.

What happened?

The shooting occurred shortly after 9 p.m. on May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in downtown Washington, D.C.

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Police named the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, and the FBI said early indications are that the shooting was a targeted act of violence.

D.C. officials, in a press conference Wednesday night, said there was no further, active threat after the alleged shooter was apprehended. They said the investigation was in its preliminary stages.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was also at the press conference. She said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro will prosecute the case. Bondi later said theres early indication the shooter acted alone.

This defendant, if charged, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, Bondi said.

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The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a communist political party active in protesting against what it views as Israeli genocide against Palestinians, said Rodriguez had a brief association with one branch of PSL that ended in 2017.

We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting, the group wrote in a post on X. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.

Who were the victims?

Lischinsky was born in Israel, moved with his family to Germany for several years and returned to Israel when he was 16, The New York Times reported. He served as a research assistant in the political department at the embassy, and friends and associates said he was a practicing Christian.

Milgrim, an American from Kansas, worked at the embassy and organized trips to Israel. Milgrims family is Jewish.

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The two were attending an event that brought together U.S. government officials, young diplomats serving in D.C., and professionals working in foreign policy and conflict resolution. The evening focused on addressing the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-Palestinian regional collaboration, according to participants of the event.

The brutal and tragic irony that such an event  motivated by humanitarian principles  was targeted for more violence is heartbreaking. We unequivocally condemn this attack, IsraAID, the organization that served as a keynote speaker at the event, said in a statement.

The two victims were memorialized by friends and colleagues.

Sarah, an American from Overland Park, Kansas, was warm and compassionate, committed to peacebuilding, and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement.

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Yaron always had a smile on his face and a welcoming presence.

Yaron was a valued colleague and friend to many at Hudson. He and Sarah, soon to be his fiancee, were dedicated professionals at the Israeli Embassy, the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, said in a statement.

U.S. officials, foreign governments, Jewish institutions call out antisemitism

President Trump condemned the attacks as being based on antisemitism.

Other U.S. officials and foreign governments were quick to label the violence as antisemitic, the outrage spanning the political spectrum from Vice President Vance to progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

As we await more details, we must be clear that hatred has no home here. Antisemitism is a threat to all we hold dear as a society. It must be confronted and rooted out everywhere, Ocasio-Cortez posted on X.

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United Kingdom Foreign Minister David Lammy condemned the appalling, antisemitic crime.

The German Embassy in Washington called it an antisemitic act of terror

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) pointed to anti-Israel protests, in particular on college campuses, as fueling acts of antisemitic violence.

Since October 7, antisemitism has surged across the country. On college campuses, in the streets, and across social media, antisemitism isnt just spreading  its being tolerated, normalized, and even celebrated. Its disgusting and completely unacceptable, he said in a statement.

Stuart E. Eizenstat, chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, described the shooting as an assault on the Jewish state and Jewish people.

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Inciteful antisemitic rhetoric is a growing and increasingly deadly danger to Jews and societies worldwide, he said in a statement. It must be forcibly and universally condemned. Our thoughts are with the victims families and colleagues at this time of great loss.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not label the violence as antisemitic, but he issued a condemnation.

Nothing can justify such a horrific act. I reiterate my consistent condemnation of attacks against diplomatic officials, he said in a statement on X.

I call for the perpetrator to be brought to justice. I extend my sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims and to the Government of Israel.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
The victims of a fatal shooting outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., have been identified as a young couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy and were on the verge of getting engaged.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, and referred to them both as embassy staff members. The Israeli Embassy said the pair were "in the prime of their lives."

"No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss," the embassy said in a statement on social media. "Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time."

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Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., told reporters the pair was a "beautiful couple," and said Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring "with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem." World leaders quickly condemned the slayings.

A candlelight vigil was held across from the White House on May 22, 2025, for shooting victims Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, Israeli Embassy staff members who were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. / Credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Sarah Lynn Milgrim

Milgrim, a 26-year-old American, was from Kansas. Her father, Robert Milgrim, said she started working for the embassy in November 2023 after earning a bachelor's degree at Kansas University and two master's degrees  one at American University in Washington, D.C., and the other at the United Nations for Peace University in Costa Rica. Her degrees focused on international studies and policy, he said, and she had been hired at the Israeli Embassy before the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead and touched off the war in Gaza.

"This is her first real job after finishing her six years of education," Robert Milgrim told CBS News.

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The Kansas University chapter of Hillel, the world's largest Jewish campus life organization, remembered Milgrim as a "beloved alum" whose "bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her." She served on the organization's board of directors, KU Hillel said.

Before working for the embassy, Milgrim spent several summers in Israel where she worked with "Palestinian and Israeli groups to bring them together," Robert Milgrim said. She made both Palestinian and Israeli friends on those trips, he said.

"She loves Israel and she loved everybody that lived in the Middle East," Robert Milgrim said.

Robert Milgrim said his daughter met Lischinsky while earning a master's degree at American University. The two started dating weeks after they met, and the family "loved" Lischinsky, her father said.

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He said the couple was flying to Israel on Sunday to meet Lischinsky's family in Jerusalem, adding that he was told Lischinsky had been planning to propose on the trip.

"We didn't know that he was going to propose then," Robert Milgrim said. "And the ambassador told us that he knew that he'd bought the ring and was going to present it to her in Jerusalem."

Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Robert Milgrim

Milgrim said on her LinkedIn page that her passion was "at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work," and said she was committed "to fostering understanding between different peoples."

"No matter who this was, it would have been sad and hard and difficult, but to have it be somebody who embodied a spirit of peace, of love, of curiosity, of understanding, makes it extra hard," her friend Sheila Katz told CBS News.

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"She gave her all to everything. She was loving and compassionate," Katz said.

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky, 30, was an Israeli and German dual national. He was born in the German city of Nuremberg, according to veteran Israeli diplomat Ron Prosor, who says he had Lischinsky as a master's student at Reichman University, a private university in Israel.

"He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause," Prosor said in a post on X. "He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide."

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Lischinsky moved to Israel when he was 16, according to his LinkedIn page, and was fluent in English, Hebrew and German.

Lore Herzog, who knew Lischinsky since 2018, said he "spoke fondly of growing up" in Bavaria, a region of southern Germany, and was "very much in love with his childhood home" there. He came from a large family, Herzog said.

"He loved them all dearly and spoke about them all the time," Herzog said.

Herzog remembered Lischinsky as a "very morally upright person with a very strong sense of justice." The two met while living in Jerusalem.

"Yaron was super cheerful and seemed to really love everything he did," said Herzog, who now lives in Amsterdam. "It was his dream to work in politics and international relations."

Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Robert Milgrim

On his LinkedIn profile, Lischinsky said he advocated for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding. He said that he was an "ardent believer" in deepening Israel's ties with the Arab world through the U.S.-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

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Suspect in custody

Elias Rodriguez has been named as a suspect in the shooting and is currently in custody, officials said. He was charged on Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. All are felonies, and the murder charges carry up to life in prison or the death sentence, if he is convicted.

Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, was initially "observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun," and shot Lischinsky and Milgrim, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said in a news briefing.

Rodriguez entered the Jewish Museum immediately after the shooting, and was arrested by museum security, Smith said. Witness video shows Rodriguez shouted "Free Palestine" while being arrested.

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Rodriguez had discarded the weapon used in the shooting, but told police where it was. It has since been recovered, Smith said.

Rodriguez also "chanted 'free, free Palestine,' while in custody," Smith said.

Metropolitan Police said Rodriguez didn't pop up on an initial search of crime databases and wasn't on the radar of law enforcement agencies. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city's police department and the FBI will be investigating the shooting.

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, May 22. At the invitation of President of Slovenia Natasa Pirc Musar, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has arrived in Ljubljana for an official visit, Trend reports.

Upon arrival at Joze Pucnik International Airport, President Mirziyoyev was welcomed with full honors by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tanja Fajon, alongside other high-ranking Slovenian officials. A ceremonial guard of honor was assembled, and the national flags of both countries were raised in recognition of the occasion.

As part of the visit, President Mirziyoyev is scheduled to hold high-level talks with President Natasa Pirc Musar, as well as meet with members of the Slovenian parliament and government. The agenda also includes participation in a joint UzbekistanSlovenia business forum.

The discussions are expected to focus on expanding trade and economic ties and launching joint ventures in sectors such as industry, pharmaceuticals, electrical engineering, green energy, and agriculture. Further cooperation in labor migration and the deepening of humanitarian and cultural exchanges will also be on the table.

Uzbekistan and Slovenia have previously announced an ambitious target to boost bilateral trade turnover to $500 million. In a significant step toward that goal, bilateral trade exceeded $175 million in 2024, with Uzbek exports to Slovenia surging by 25 percent compared to the previous year.

Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel
Credit: Reuters

Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer and other world leaders of siding with Hamas following the murder of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC.

The Israeli prime minister said Sir Keir, along with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, were on the wrong side of humanity.

In a televised statement addressing the shootings at the Capital Jewish Museum, Mr Netanyahu said that by condemning the war in Gaza, the leaders were supporting mass murderers, rapists, baby killers, and kidnappers.

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Embassy workers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim had just left a reception for diplomats on Wednesday night when a stranger armed with a handgun approached them and opened fire.

The alleged murderer in Washington DC told police I did it for Gaza and shouted free, free Palestine as he handed himself in.

Mr Netanyahus criticism follows a joint statement by the UK, France, and Canada that criticised Israel for expanding its ground operation in Gaza and preventing aid from entering the war-torn strip.

The Israeli leader said Hamas wanted to destroy Israel and that he could never understand how this simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.

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He said: I say to President Macron, Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Starmer, when mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers thank you, youre on the wrong side of justice.

Youre on the wrong side of humanity, and youre on the wrong side of history.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were set to get engaged, were killed in the attack

No10 declined to comment on Mr Netanyahus remarks but instead highlighted the Prime Ministers condemnation of Wednesdays attack.

The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder late afternoon on Thursday. He has also been charged with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

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The attack is being investigated as a hate crime and terrorism, Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney, said on Thursday night, adding that it was a death-penalty-eligible case.

Yaron Lischinsky worked in the embassys political department

Earlier this week, Sir Keir said he was horrified by Israels actions, saying that an utterly inadequate amount of aid had been let into Gaza.

The UK later announced a raft of sanctions against Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including those who featured in Louis Therouxs recent documentary, and suspended trade talks with Israel.

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said on Thursday that the world must hold to account irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to hatred against Jews and Israelis, whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence.

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Mr Chikli added that the leaders of France, Canada, and the UK had emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

Amichai Chikli, the Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said irresponsible leaders must be held to account - Omar Marques

Sir Keir has not responded to the Israeli criticism, but said on Thursday morning: I thoroughly condemn the anti-Semitic attack outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC.

A UK minister on Friday said that he did not recognise Mr Netanyahus criticism of the Prime Minister.

Luke Pollard, the Armed Forces minister, told Sky News: We condemn the killing of diplomats thoroughly. We want to see a proper investigation as we would do in all things to secure justice for those people who have been murdered in the States.

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But we also at the same time should not remove ourselves from the need to secure a lasting peace in Gaza.

Footage described by the FBI in a charging document revealed that the suspect passed the couple after they left the museum before shooting them in the back.

Sarah Milgrim, a Jewish American embassy employee, was named as the second victim

Rodriguez leaned over the couple and fired at them repeatedly after they dropped to the ground, the FBI said. Ms Milgrim attempted to crawl away before Rodriguez allegedly followed behind her and fired again. He is then accused of reloading his weapon and firing at Ms Milgrim as she sat up.

Following the shooting, the suspect was allowed into the nearby Capital Jewish Museum by security guards who initially thought he was a distraught bystander.

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Yoni Kalin, the events organiser, told Fox News: He was clearly in trauma, he was in shock. Some of the people at the event sat him down, brought him water, asked if he was okay, and he was like, Call the cops.

Minutes later, when officers arrived, Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

US Homeland Security cordon off the area after the shooting - REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Ms Kalin said: He grabbed a red keffiyeh out of his pocket and started a Free Palestine chant, Theres only one solution, Intifada revolution.

Pamela Smith, the chief of the Washington metropolitan police, said: Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offence.

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The suspect chanted, free, free Palestine while in custody.

Credit: Instagram/Katie Kalisher

The suspect is believed to have written a letter, which was made public an hour after the attack:

The letter states: Public opinion has shifted against the genocidal apartheid state, and the American government has simply shrugged.

Free Palestine, the letter concludes, according to Sky News.

People gather to light candles in a makeshift memorial to honour the victims - AP

Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US, described the victims as a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washingtons cultural centre.

The ambassador added: The young man [Yaron] purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

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Mr Netanyahu said he had ordered Israeli embassy security to be boosted around the world in response to the incident.

He added: The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone  he wanted to kill Jews. And as he was taken away, he chanted, Free Palestine! For these neo-Nazis, Free Palestine is just todays version of Heil Hitler.

A vigil was held for victims Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the White House - Getty Images

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: We are horrified by the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in DC, and the Prime Ministers thoughts are with the victims, their families and all staff at the embassy, for whom this is a very troubling time. Diplomats must always be allowed to do their jobs safely.

Anti-Semitism is an evil that we must stamp out wherever it appears. Now, as always, the Prime Minister stands in solidarity with the Jewish community in the UK and the Government has offered its support to the Israeli embassy in London.

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We continue to provide 18 million per year in funding for protective security measures for Jewish community sites in the UK.

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog has condemned the killing of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, describing the attack as a act of hatred and anti-Semitism.

"I am devastated by the scenes in Washington DC," Herzog wrote on social media platform X.

"This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy," he wrote.

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"We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the US," Herzog added.

"America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us."

The two Israeli embassy staffers were killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington late on Wednesday. A suspect is in custody.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often tried to paint himself as a close friend of United States President Donald Trump, but the relationship has rarely been as straightforward as the Israeli premier has portrayed it.

And recently, speculation across the Israeli media that the relationship between the two leaders, and by extension, their countries, has begun to unravel is becoming unavoidable.

Some idea of the gap was apparent in Trumps recent Middle East trip, which saw him visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates but not Israel, the state that has typically been the USs closest ally within the region.

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Likewise, US negotiations with two of Israels fiercest regional opponents, Iran and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have been taking place without any apparent input from Israel, a country that has always regarded itself as central to such matters. Lastly, against a growing chorus of international condemnation over Israels actions in Gaza, there was the decision of US Vice President JD Vance to cancel a planned visit to Israel for apparently logistical reasons.

Appearing on national television earlier this month, Israeli commentator Dana Fahn Luzon put it succinctly: Trump is signalling to Netanyahu, Honey, Ive had enough of you.

United States President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a joint press conference in Washington, DC, the US on February 4, 2025 [Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency]

Were seeing a total breakdown of everything that might be of benefit to Israel, Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera. America was once our closest ally; now we dont seem to have a seat at the table. This should be of concern to every single Israeli.

Many Israelis blame Netanyahu for this, Barak continued. He always presented Trump as somehow being in his pocket, and its pretty clear Trump didnt like that. Netanyahu crossed a line.

No better friend

While concern over a potential rift may be growing within Israel, prominent voices in the US administration are stressing the strength of their alliance.

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Last Sunday, President Trumps special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that, while the US was keen to avert what he called a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he didnt think there was any daylight between President Trumps position and Prime Minister Netanyahus position.

Police guard the entrance to Columbia University as protesters rally in support of detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 14, 2025, in New York City, the US [File: Jason DeCrow/AP]

Also doubling down on the USs commitment to Israel was White House National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt, who dismissed reports that the Trump administration was preparing to abandon Israel if it continues with its war on Gaza, telling Israeli media that Israel has had no better friend in its history than President Trump.

The Trump administration has also been active in shutting down criticism of Israels war on Gaza in public spheres and specifically on US college campuses.

Several international students have also been arrested and deported for their support of Palestine, including Rumeysa Ozturk, whose arrest as she was walking on a street in a Boston suburb for an opinion piece co-authored in a student newspaper was described by Human Rights Watch as chilling.

Protesters gather outside a federal court during a hearing with lawyers for Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkiye who was detained by US immigration authorities, April 3, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts, the US [File: Rodrique Ngowi/AP]

Spatting

Those policies have made it clear that the Trump administration sits firmly in Israels corner. And looking back at Trumps policies in his first presidential term, that is not surprising.

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Trump fulfilled many of the Israeli rights dreams in that term, between 2017 and 2021, including recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite its eastern half being occupied Palestinian territory, recognising the annexation of the Golan Heights, despite it being occupied Syrian territory, and pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.

But those actions are partly to blame for the bumpy relationship between Trump and Netanyahu, with the US president reportedly resentful of what he saw as a lack of gratitude for those pro-Israel policies.

Trump was also furious after Netanyahu congratulated former US President Joe Biden following his 2020 election victory over Trump, which the current president still disputes.

The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi [Benjamin] Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with.  Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake, Trump said in an interview in 2021.

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Nevertheless, in the build-up to the 2024 US election, Netanyahu and his allies actively courted candidate Trump, believing him to be the best means of fulfilling their agenda and continuing their war on Gaza, analysts said.

Netanyahu had really campaigned for Trump before the election, emphasising how bad Biden was, Yossi Mekelberg, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, said.

Now they dont know which way Trumps going to go because hes so contractual. Hes all about the win, Mekelberg added, referring to the series of victories the president claimed during his recent Gulf tour, adding, but theres no win in Palestine.

A protester holds a placard ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, outside the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 3, 2025 [File: Antonio Denti/Reuters]

Across the Israeli press and media, a consensus is taking hold that Trump has simply tired of trying to secure a win or an end to the war on Gaza that Netanyahu and his allies on the Israeli hard right have no interest in pursuing.

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Israeli Army Radio has even carried reports that Trump has blocked direct contact from Netanyahu over concerns that the Israeli prime minister may be trying to manipulate him.

Quoting an unnamed Israeli official, Yanir Cozin, a reporter with Israeli Army Radio, wrote on X: Theres nothing Trump hates more than being portrayed as a sucker and someone being played, so he decided to cut off contact.

Theres a sense in Israel that Trumps turned on Netanyahu, political analyst Nimrod Flaschenberg said from Tel Aviv. Supporters of Netanyahu are panicking, as they all previously thought that Trumps backing was unlimited.

What now?

A break in relations between Netanyahu and Trump might not mean an automatic break between Israel and the US, Flaschenberg cautioned, with all factions across the Israeli political spectrum speculating on what the future may hold under a realigned relationship with the US.

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US financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel has been a bedrock of both countries foreign policy for decades, Mekelberg said. Moreover, whatever Trumps current misgivings about his relationship with Netanyahu, support for Israel, while diminishing, remains hardwired into much of his Republican base, analysts and polls have noted, and particularly among Republican  and Democratic  donors.

US President Donald Trump has long been a strong supporter of Israel [File: Jim Watson/AFP]

Those opposed to Netanyahu and the war are hoping that the US may now apply a lasting ceasefire, Flaschenberg said, with reference to Israeli reliance upon US patronage. Thats not because of any great faith in Trump, but more the extent of their dismay in the current government.

However, equally present are those on the hard right, such as Israels Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who Mekelberg speculated may also hope to take advantage of whatever direction US policy towards Israel heads in.

Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and their backers could take advantage of American disinterest, depending upon what shape it takes, Mekelberg told Al Jazeera. If the US continues to provide weapons and diplomatic cover in the UN while letting [Israel] get on with it, then thats their dream, he said of Smotrich, who has reassured his backers that allowing minimal aid into the besieged enclave did not mean that Israel would stop destroying everything thats left of the Gaza Strip.

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However, where Netanyahu may figure in this is uncertain.

Accusations that the Israeli prime minister has become reliant upon the war to sustain the political coalition he needs to remain in office and avoid both a legal reckoning in his corruption trial, as well as a political reckoning over his governments failures ahead of the October 7, 2023 attack, are both widespread and longstanding.

I dont know if Netanyahu can come back from this, Barak said, still uncertain about whether the prime minister can demonstrate his survival skills once again. Theres a lot of talk about Netanyahu being at the end of his line. I dont know. Theyve been saying that for years, and hes still here. They were saying that when I was his aide, but I cant see any more magic tricks that are available to him.




Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed dozens of Palestinians since dawn, medical sources said, as limited supplies of humanitarian aid trickled into the Palestinian territory after Israel eased its total blockade.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 51 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 25 in Gaza City and northern areas of the Strip.

At least 10 people, including nine members of the same family, were killed in an Israeli attack that hit an area housing displaced people in the al-Baraka area of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

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Five people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Bakhit family home in the as-Saftawi area, in northwest Gaza, Wafa reported.

In Beit Lahiya on the northern edge of the enclave, a tank shell hit a medicine warehouse inside Al-Awda Hospital and set it ablaze, the health ministry said.

Rescue workers had been trying to extinguish the fires for hours, it added.

Tanks are stationed outside the hospital, medics say, effectively blocking access to the facility.

Aid groups collect supplies

The attacks come as aid groups collected humanitarian supplies carried by about 90 trucks that have entered Gaza since Israel began allowing limited goods in earlier this week, the United Nations said on Thursday.

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Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Humanitarian agency OCHA, said the trucks that entered carried medicine, wheat flour and nutrition supplies.

Aid groups face significant challenges distributing the aid because of insecurity, the risk of looting and coordination issues with Israeli authorities, Laerke added.

The Gaza Government Media Office said late on Wednesday that 87 aid trucks were allocated to international and local organisations to meet urgent humanitarian needs.

Al Jazeeras Tarek Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said the food trucks entered on Wednesday and successfully off-loaded at designated UN distribution centres.

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Since then, some bakeries have resumed operations, he said, citing Gazas media office.

This has been a significant logistical step forward, Abu Azzoum said, but noted that the supplies were still a trickle compared with the needs of the population in Gaza, where experts warn of a looming famine.





Due to security concerns, food aid has also not yet reached the northern part of Gaza, where thousands of civilians are also under siege, our correspondent said.

The question here remains whether Israel would allow an unconditional flow of aid to the Gaza Strip, he said, adding that the UN has been demanding at least 500 food trucks be allowed into the territory daily after more than 80 days of a complete blockade.

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On Wednesday, the UN said it was trying to get the desperately needed aid as quickly as possible into the hands of Palestinians amid delays because of fears of looting and Israeli military restrictions and strikes.

Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies after weeks of near-total isolation, with Israels blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages, and fears of a widespread famine.

According to the UN, half a million people, or one in five people in the Gaza Strip, are facing starvation while the entire population continues to face a critical risk of famine.

Pope Leo XIV described the situation in Gaza as worrying and painful and called for the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid.

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In recent days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel is days away from implementing a new aid system in Gaza that has come under heavy international criticism.

He said Israel later plans to create a sterile zone there, free of Hamas, where the population, which has repeatedly evacuated and relocated throughout the war, would be moved and receive supplies.

Gazas health ministry said at least 3,509 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18. At least 53,655 have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.
By Dedi Hayun, Emily Rose and Madeline Chambers

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -When Jerusalem resident Ziv Halsband woke up to news that two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington had been shot dead, the software developer came to a disturbing conclusion: Jews were not safe anywhere.

"We hope that (U.S. President Donald) Trump will continue to help us and protect us all, especially in the States. And we want to be sure that we can go all over the world with confidence," said Halsband, a tank officer during the Gaza war who was seriously wounded.

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The Israeli embassy staffers, a young couple about to be engaged, were killed by a lone gunman in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum about 1.3 miles (2 km) from the White House.

The single suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, chanted "Free Palestine, Free Palestine," after being taken into custody, Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said.

The attack came at a time when Israel is becoming increasingly isolated over its escalating military campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza, where it has cut off aid amid warnings of famine and reduced much of the enclave to rubble.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused unnamed European officials on Thursday of "toxic antisemitic incitement" that he blamed for a hostile climate in which the Washington killings took place.

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GAZA WAR

Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's ground and air offensive since then has displaced nearly all Gaza's 2.3 million residents and killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

The Washington shootings could generate sympathy for Israel from Western allies who have been piling pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease Israel's aid blockade on the war-ravaged territory.

"The murder of two members of the Israeli embassy near the Jewish Museum in Washington is an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity. Nothing can justify such violence," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

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"My thoughts go to their loved ones, their colleagues, and the State of Israel."

Felix Klein, the German government's commissioner for fighting antisemitism, said there was reason to fear the Washington shooting could inspire copycats "even on our own streets".

As a society, we should therefore remain alert, and security measures for Jewish institutions should also be strengthened in Germany," Klein told newspapers of the FUNKE Media Group.

France's interior minister sent a note to local authorities around the country saying that security should be reinforced at sites linked to the Jewish community, such as synagogues, and that such measures should be visible and dissuasive.

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A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government has offered its full support to the Israeli embassy in London.

"We obviously call on those restrictions (on aid for Gaza) to be lifted ... but that does not provide any excuse whatsoever for antisemitism or attacks of this kind," the spokesperson said.

Wednesday's shootings are also certain to further convulse debate in the U.S. and elsewhere over the war in Gaza, which has polarised steadfast supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Netanyahu said he was shocked at the "horrific antisemitic" murders which he said had taken place in an atmosphere of rising antisemitism and hostility to Israel. ""We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel," he said in a statement.

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SOCIAL MEDIA

The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were locally employed staff, the Israeli foreign ministry said. They were both trying to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, according to advocacy groups each belonged to.

Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. who was the target of a foiled assassination attempt by Iran during his service, said incitement on social media has changed the threat level during a difficult time of pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. university campuses.

"And honestly, we have to think as a country how we combat this incitement on social media, because it's a serious threat. And what this does is a systematic dehumanisation of the Jews, and we know what that leads to," he said.

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Some Israelis were especially concerned that the killings took place at the Jewish Museum.

"It's a Jewish museum, which means the hatred for Jews and the hatred for Israel both aligned. And it's sad - we should fight it," said Jerusalem resident Udi Tsemach.

Israeli Aviya Levi, 30, came to the conclusion that leaving Israel was too risky.

"I'm an Israeli and it makes me feel like I'm afraid. I'm afraid to go abroad. I'm afraid to. I don't know where we're going to come from. I have kids; it's just going to make me afraid."

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, John Irish in Paris and Elizabeth Piper in London; writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)
CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed Major General David Zini as the new head of the domestic intelligence service Shin Bet, his office said in a statement on Thursday.

The chief of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, announced his resignation in April, saying he would step down on June 15, six weeks after Netanyahu tried to oust him.

The Shin Bet, which handles counter-terrorism investigations, has been at the centre of a growing political battle pitting Netanyahu's right-wing coalition government against an array of critics ranging from members of the security establishment to families of hostages in Gaza.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Enas Alashray; Editing by Mark Porter)
ROME (AP)  Italys Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that two women can register as parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights can't be restricted to the biological mother alone in families with same-sex parents.

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city registrars to deprive children born to same sex-parents of recognition by both the biological mother and the woman who consented to the medically assisted pregnancy of her partner and assumed parental responsibilities.

Advocates for LGBTQ+ rejoiced at the ruling, saying it was a historic day for civil rights in Italy."

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At last what we have been saying all along is being recognized: boys and girls have the right to see both parents recognized, from birth, even when they are two mothers, Rainbow Families said in a statement.

The group said the ruling served as a reminder to politicians that constitutionally, it's no longer possible to continue pretending that we do not exist.

The association Pro Life and Family denounced the ruling as illogical and meant thousands of children born to same-sex parents were launched into an existential joke.

In recent years, some city registrars had begun to record only the name of the biological mother on birth certificates, and not the name of her partner. In order to have legal rights and responsibility over the child, the non-biological mother then had to adopt the child.

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A 2004 law had provided for such limited parental recognition. But thanks to an Interior Ministry circular in 2023, the restrictions were being enforced anew as part of the policy of the far-right-led government of Premier Giorgia Meloni to crack down on surrogacy and promote traditional family values.

The ruling doesn't address the legality of medically assisted procreation: Italy has strong restrictions on IVF and has had a ban on surrogacy since 2004. Last year, Italy expanded the ban to criminalize Italians who go abroad to have children through surrogacy.
MEYERSDALE, Pa.  Speakers at Wednesdays articulation agreement signing between Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Conemaugh Meyersdale Medical Center highlighted the importance of rural health care and need for hospitals in communities such as that.

A student that trains here will become a jack of all trades, said Dr. Ryan Smith, IUP proposed college of osteopathic medicine founding associate dean of clinical affairs. This is the epitome of rural medicine.

The signing was the 13th the university has collected toward accreditation for IUPs future medical school and third with a Conemaugh facility.

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When the osteopathic college is up and running in 2027, students in the program will have the option to complete their rotations at the rural facilities two years later.

Dr. Elizabeth Dunmore, Conemaugh CMO, said it is an amazing opportunity for those students to have access to these centers.

What a beautiful rural community this is, she said.

These are important initiatives and we are so honored to be part of it.

Dr. Kenneth Leslie, a Conemaugh physician, agreed sharing his own experience of finding his home in Meyersdale.

The Arizona native said he fell in love with the small Somerset County town and found a permanent place there while moonlighting for the hospital system.

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Leslie added that working in rural health care provides medical staff a fulfillment they dont get in large urban areas, and hes excited for the students to experience that.

He told the crowd gathered in the centers lobby that the rotations with IUP will not just provide an education to the students, but show them how to build relationships, explore unique challenges and better understand the desire to help people.

Leslie cherishes his time in Meyersdale and his opportunity to get to know people and provide continuing care for them, he said.

Attendees also heard from the centers registered nurse Supervisor Carl Deal and licensed practical nurse Dottie Paulman, who shared stories from the decades theyve worked in Meyersdale.

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They regaled the crowd with tales of the hospital predating the county 911 system, having to dispatch ambulances and police officers, their numerous responsibilities that range from patient care to medicine distribution and much more.

In a rural hospital, you wear many hats, Deal said, touting that as a benefit.

Because of the new partnership with IUP, Deal said he envisions a future for the hospital and the staff there being able to continue serving the communities that rely so heavily on it.

Dr. Miko Rose, founding dean of the proposed college of medicine, said she hopes the future trainees find the same sense of home those working in Meyersdale did, noting the power of community in these rural settings.

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Indiana University of Pennsylvanias Board of Trustees endorsed a proposed college of osteopathic medicine in 2022 to help address the statewide shortfall of physicians in rural medicine.

Theres already a ratio of 1,367 patients to one primary care provider, according to the United Health Foundation, and an anticipated shortage of more than 1,000 primary care providers in the state by 2030.

This year the university will begin renovation and construction of facilities for the health sciences and future medical school on campus with staff and faculty set to be hired in 2026.

Once approved and accredited, the college of medicine will be the sole program in the state at a public university.

For more information about the proposed school, visit www.iup.edu/proposedCOM.

Joshua Byers is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @Journo_Josh.
Editors Note: In the video above, Susan Rogers of Odessa Crime Stoppers explains how local law enforcement actively reviews cold cases. She addresses the challenges of decades-old investigations and the time involved in processing evidence and DNA with todays technology.

ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)  On a spring afternoon in 1977, three men were out hunting rattlesnakes in a remote patch of West Texas when they stumbled upon something far more unexpected than a serpent. Among the mesquite bushes, weeds, and caliche, they found a decomposing body, abandoned, beaten, and forgotten in the brush northeast of Odessa.

It would take weeks before authorities could even identify the young woman. But nearly five decades later, we know her name: Dorothy Marie Horton Garlington.

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She was just 19 years old.

She was known to many as Marie. She had only been in Odessa about six months and worked as a go-go dancer at the Kon Tiki Lounge off 14th and Grant. The last time anyone reported seeing her alive was around May 4, 1977, walking away from the club. She never made it home.

Clipping from newspaper article at the time shows sheriffs deputy examining the place where Garlingtons badly decomposed body was found. Dorothy Marie Garlington Image of the 14th and Grant area: The place once known as Kon Tiki Lounge A Newspaper article clipping

No Name, No One Looking

Dorothys body was found on May 22, 1977, in a field near Loop 338. 18 days after she was reportedly last seen. She had suffered massive trauma to her head, her jaw shattered, her skull crushed. A blood-covered rock was discovered near the body and is believed to have been the murder weapon. Her cause of death was from blunt force trauma to the head, according to the Medical Examiners reports.

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At the time, law enforcement had no way of knowing who she was. There were no missing person reports, no one waiting at a police station, no frantic phone calls from a family member. Days passed, and her body, which was badly decomposed, was ultimately buried under the name Jane Doe in an Odessa Cemetery.

More of The Big 2 Files: After 44 years and a dig through concrete, Judie Munguia is still missing

According to Ector County Sheriffs records from the time, she was wearing black shorts, one sandal, and costume jewelry rings. A white blouse was found nearby.

From the time she was found (May 22) until July 8, 1977, when deputies found her fingerprints in their files, Dorothys identity was a mystery.

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It was only by chance that a sheriffs investigator decided to sift through fingerprint records at the Odessa Police Department. A minor shoplifting arrest two months prior, Dorothy had stolen a $5 small set of cosmetics, which provided the only fingerprint matchShe was finally identified.

The investigator at the time went over to the Odessa Police Department and was going through some fingerprint files, just seeing if they could find anything, and he just stumbled upon these fingerprints from this case a few weeks earlier, Rogers said.

Who Was Dorothy Marie?

Dorothy Marie Garlington was born to Mr. Eston W. Horton and Mrs. Neida Gay Henry, who at the time reportedly lived in Nederland, Texas.

At just 19 years old, she had recently moved to Odessa, where she lived intermittently in local motels and worked in several bars under the name Marie. According to previous reports from that time, she had previously been married and divorced. Though she had few known local connections, she was still someones daughter, a young woman navigating early adulthood in a new city.

Her life, like so many who at the time came and went in oilfield towns, left behind only fragments: a fingerprint from a petty arrest, a white blouse found near her body, and scattered recollections from those who briefly crossed her path. But behind those pieces was a person. A young girl who never made it home.

A Quiet Case in a Loud Year

According to archived reports, Garlington had been working at several local clubs. Investigators interviewed bar staff and fellow performers, but few remembered her personally. Contemporary coverage reflected a notable lack of empathy. One bar manager, interviewed in 1978, focused more on Garlingtons appearance and popularity with customers than on who she was as a person. Few coworkers remembered her beyond her stage name, Marie, or the fact that she could dance. Yet the absence of personal recollection does not diminish the fact that she was a person, a person whose life and death mattered.

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Law enforcement interviewed numerous individuals during the initial investigation. I know a lot of people were talked to because of the type of work she did, said Susan Rogers of Crime Stoppers. She came across a lot of people There have been hundreds of hours of investigation on this case.

Reports had also shown that prior to her death, she had been in a relationship with a man that others described as physically abusive and who had previously threatened her life. But according to those same reports, he had been ruled out as a suspect for unspecified reasons.

When her identity was eventually confirmed weeks later, law enforcement notified her family. According to officials, her parents chose not to have her remains moved. Dorothy Marie Garlington remains buried in Odessa, in the same grave that was originally marked for a Jane Doe.

Shes still buried here in Odessa, Rogers said. Her family decided to leave her where she was.

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The case is now more than four decades old. Despite hundreds of hours of investigative work, no arrests were ever made.

One of Many in a Violent Era

Garlingtons death was part of a troubling pattern of unsolved cases in West Texas during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A 1978 Odessa American report listed eight violent deaths that remained unsolved, including another dancer, 26-year-old Eula Mae Kay Rogers Miller, who was found stabbed in her Odessa apartment in July 1970. Her murder, like Garlingtons, remains open.

While no known connection exists between the two women, both worked in the citys nightlife scene and were killed under violent, unresolved circumstances. Millers story will be featured in KMID/KPEJs July Cold Case Spotlight.

By the late 1970s, law enforcement agencies in the Permian Basin were battling a spike in crime. Overwhelmed departments struggled to keep pace with rapid population growth and an uptick in violent offenses. Sheriff Elton Faught acknowledged the burden, telling reporters in 1978, Investigations in cases like this are always continuing

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And Garlingtons case is one of them: still open, still active, and still surrounded by questions her family hopes one day to have answered.

Shes got family that really are still interested, Rogers said. Ive talked with her sister, who lives down in Houston they still have a lot of questions about what happened and why nobodys ever been arrested.

Garlingtons murder was also among the earliest in what would become a deadly pattern. Just a few years later, Odessa would earn national infamy as the city with the highest murder rate in the United States. In March 1982 alone, four people were killed within three weeks, their cases still unsolved more than 40 years later.

To learn more about how the wave of violence escalated, and the victims whose stories remain untold, read KMID/KPEJs special investigation: Oil boom & bloodshed: The 1982 murders that turned Odessa into Murder Town, USA

How To Help

Dorothy Marie Garlington was young. She was far from home. And though her time in Odessa was brief, her life mattered.

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More than 40 years have passed since she was found in a quiet field outside town, her name unknown, and her story nearly lost. But today, investigators are still searching for answers. Her case is still active. And her name is no longer forgotten.

Anyone with information about the 1977 murder of Dorothy Marie Garlington is urged to contact Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS or submit a tip anonymously through the P3 Tips app or on their website. Even the smallest detail could help close a case thats been open for decades and bring justice to a young woman who never got the chance to grow old.

A reward may be available for information that leads to an arrest or resolution in the case.

Gabriella Meza is a Journalist/Digital Reporter with ABC Big 2 News. This story is part of her monthly Cold Case Spotlight series in partnership with Odessa Crime Stoppers. If you or a loved one knows something regarding this case or others and would like to add something to an article, contact her at gmeza@kmid.tv. (Contact Odessa Crime Stoppers regarding case information.)

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Following the talks held in Ljubljana, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Prime Minister of Slovenia Robert Golob signed a joint statement, Trend reports.

A ceremony of exchanging bilateral agreements took place in their presence:

 on exemption of holders of diplomatic passports from visa requirements;

 on cooperation in education, science and culture;

 on cooperation in transport and logistics;

 on cooperation in the management of "smart" cities;

 on cooperation in standardization;

 on cooperation in water resources management;

 on cooperation in tourism.

It was also agreed to jointly study the possibilities of establishing direct flights between the two countries and using the infrastructure of the port of Koper to bring Uzbek goods to the EU market.

Mirziyoyev invited Prime Minister Robert Golob to visit Uzbekistan at a convenient time.
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa plans to visit Washington from Friday to Sunday for negotiations over U.S. tariffs, he said on Thursday.

Akazawa said details of the upcoming talks, including who will be attending from the U.S. side, have yet to be fixed.

"While continuing to demand firmly the U.S. reconsideration over the tariffs, I plan to tackle the talks candidly and constructively to achieve an agreement that is beneficial for both Japan and the United States as early as possible," Economic Revitalisation Minister Akazawa told reporters.

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TV Tokyo reported earlier on Thursday that Akazawa had a phone conversation with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent before Wednesday, where Bessent expressed reluctance to meet Akazawa this week, but agreed to hold talks next week.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Kiyoshi Takenaka and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, right, gives remarks after County Executive Marc Elrich endorsed Jawando to succeed him in the position next year. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

At-Large Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando (D) said Wednesday he will run to replace current County Executive Marc Elrich (D), who is term-limited and cannot run for a third term next year.

Elrich was on hand Wednesday night with at least 200 others for Jawandos announcement at Citizens and Culture in Silver Spring.

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People need to know youre going to fight. If they know youre going to fight, they respect you. They deal with you, Elrich said. Thats one of the things that I like about Will, and what I think he brings to this race is that kind of leadership.

The other thing is independence. You cannot elect the county executive who already has millions of dollars from developers, he said.

Other speakers included fellow Democratic County Councilmembers Laurie-Anne Sayles and Kristin Mink, and former The Real Housewives of Potomac cast member Candiace Dillard Bassett. Support also came from Prince Georges County States Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D), who is heavily favored in a June 3 special election for county executive there to fill out the term of former Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), who was elected to the U.S. Senate last fall.

It matters who you elect as executives in this capital region, said Braveboy, pointing to the challenges from the Trump administration for local governments. I cant think of a brighter, smarter, tougher person for Montgomery County than you. Were all about diversity, equity and inclusion. Were going to keep talking about it.

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Jawando, 42, was elected in 2018 to an at-large council seat from the county of 1 million people, the states largest. Hes an attorney whos worked in the U.S. Senate for then-Sen. Barack Obama and for former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. He was the first to announce a bid for the Democratic nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, but he withdrew in October 2023.

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On Wednesday, Jawando highlighted some of his priorities as county executive, such as supporting rent stabilization and affordable housing, continuing to invest in the public schools and supporting small businesses, which he said represent about 80% of county businesses.

He touched on the importance of diversity and the beautiful tapestry at the restaurant and throughout the county. He talked about his family, including his parents, a Nigerian father and white mother who moved to Montgomery from his mothers home state of Kansas in 1980.

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Besides Jawando walking on stage and his wife, Michele, giving rousing remarks, some of the biggest applause came when he mentioned potholes.

I promise to fix your potholes in your neighborhood. I know thats a problem, he said. When you have good streets, you have good commerce, and you have good safety. Its a good thing.

At least two other candidates have announced bids for county executive. Celeste Iroha, a registered medical assistant, was the first person to announce in March, according to Bethesda Today, while At-Large County Councilmember Evan Glass (D) said Wednesday he qualified to use the countys public financing option. Glass, who was the first openly LGBTQ+ member of the council when elected in 2018, would become the first as county executive, if elected.

County Councilmember Andrew Friedson (D) is expected to also enter the county executive race.

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Montgomery and Prince Georges arent the only counties getting new leaders. Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D) and Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) are both term limited and cannot seek a third term next year.

In Baltimore County, former state Sen. Kathy Klausmeier (D) was appointed replace County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. when he was elected to Congress last fall, but she is not expected to seek reelection next year. Baltimore County Councilman Pat Young (D), one of four Democrats eyeing the executives seat, announced Wednesday he will be the first candidate in the race to fund his campaign through public financing. The council approved the law in 2021 and funds will be available for disbursements next month for the 2026 election cycle.

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater (D), Harford County Executive Robert Cassilly (R) and Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano are all able to run for reelection next year.
Country music superstar Jelly Roll is currently in the middle of a major tour with Post Malone. However, during one of his tour stops, he took some time to pay a special visit and try to make a difference in the community.

On Tuesday, before his concert at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jelly Roll paid a visit to the Hennepin County Jail where he told the inmates there about how he turned his life around after spending time in and out of prison early in his life.

When I was 13 years old I caught my first criminal charge I would spend the next thirteen years in and out of the system, Jelly Roll told the inmates, according to a social media post from the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office

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Jelly Roll told the inmates that he got his GED in jail and never dreamed of getting out and becoming the country music superstar that he is today.

I didnt go home to become rich and famous," he said. "I just wanted to be the dad I didnt have."

Jelly Roll has often opened up about his past legal issues and recently shared his desire to speak and perform at penitentiaries across the country and share his story with the inmates.

I want to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be  to let them know that change is truly possible, Jelly Roll told the Tennessee Board of Parole last month according to the Associated Press. One of the reasons Im asking for your recommendation for this pardon is because Im looking to take my message of redemption through the power of music and faith through the rest of the world.

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That's exactly what Jelly Roll did on Tuesday, and he received a lot of praise for the move.

"Jelly Roll is a good guy he has help several people with his story," one person commented on the social media post.

"Proof that you don't have to let your past define your future," someone else added.

"I guarantee he changed some lives today. Awesome!" another person commented.

"It's amazing to see that he is continuing to pay it forward by sharing his story and his support. Too many rich and famous forget their pasts and pretend they are better than everyone else. JellyRoll is a great example of how to be a good man," a commenter wrote.

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"What a great guy, spending time, and telling his story. Giving hope too!" another person added.

Sheriff Dawanna Witt thanked Jelly Roll by giving him a commemorative key to the jail.

Jelly Roll Visited a Local Jail Before a Concert first appeared on Men's Journal on May 22, 2025
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A man charged with stalking Jennifer Aniston and crashing his car through the front gate of her home has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, but he demanded a second opinion at a court hearing Thursday.

Jimmy Wayne Carwyle a 48-year-old from Mississippi, appeared while in custody behind glass at a Hollywood courthouse that specializes in mental health cases. He had a long, gray beard and wore a thick, blue smock that jails use for suicide prevention.

A county-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated Carwyle found the defendant incompetent, Deputy Public Defender Robert Krauss told the judge as he stood near his client with glass separating them. But Krauss said Carwyle, as is his right, would like an evaluation from a different psychiatrist.

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Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maria Cavaluzzi ordered the reevaluation and set another hearing for May 29.

Krauss declined comment outside court, as did the prosecutor handling the case and an attorney observing the hearing on behalf of Aniston.

Prosecutors allege Carwyle had been harassing the Friends star with a flood of voicemail, email and social media messages for two years before driving his Chrysler PT Cruiser through the gate of her home in the wealthy Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles on May 5, causing major damage.

He pleaded not guilty to felony stalking and vandalism at his first court appearance, where a judge paused the criminal proceedings so he could undergo the psychological evaluation.

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Carwyle remains jailed, but he is under a judge's order not to contact or get near Aniston.

Authorities said Aniston was home at the time of the gate crash, but he did not come into contact with her. A security guard stopped him in her driveway until police arrived. No one was injured.

Carwyle also faces an aggravating circumstance of the threat of great bodily harm. If convicted, he could get up to three years in prison. If Carwyle is found incompetent again, the judge could order him to be sent to a state mental hospital for treatment and ongoing evaluation.

Other than asking for the protective order for Aniston, prosecutors have not given their position on Carwyle's competency status, and did not speak at Thursday's hearing.

Aniston became one of the biggest stars in television in her 10 years on NBC's Friends. She won an Emmy Award for best lead actress in a comedy for the role, and she has been nominated for nine more. She currently stars in The Morning Show on Apple TV+.
While Keir Starmers Government is deeply unpopular, a source of consolation has been that things are even worse for the Opposition. Polling by YouGov earlier this week had the Tories in fourth place, the first time that has happened since the final, shambling days of the May government in 2019. One projection from that data gave the Conservatives just 22 Westminster seats.

But the hole in which the Wests most enduringly successful party finds itself cant be detached from wider, systemic issues. In that same poll, Labour recorded just 22 percent of the popular vote. At the next general election, the share for the big two looks likely to hit a post-war low.

Yet while ongoing Conservative failure can be attributed to the rise of Reform, no similar rationalisation exists for Labour. True, the Greens have continued their slow and steady rise, but that doesnt account for the governing party falling to what would be their lowest vote share since 1918.

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Fundamentally, the electorate is disenchanted with the political process, and the old loyalties arent just eroding, but close to being vanquished. Reform getting over the line in Runcorn, despite Labours extraordinary advantage with data and postal votes, is a testament to that. The Cheshire constituency was Labours 16th safest.

All of which suggests that, rather than this being the nadir for Keir Starmer, things could deteriorate further. The Green Party is presently in the foothills of a leadership contest, with the populist Zack Polanski facing off against the Countryfile-coded Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns (both represent rural, formerly Conservative constituencies).

Each side has a pitch which is coherent, but it is Polanskis offer which should most concern Labour HQ. His view is that, as the Government moves to the Right, in order to retain a growing cohort of Reform-curious voters, the Greens can pick off seats in more liberal, metropolitan areas.

This isnt entirely speculative. The Greens came second in forty constituencies last July, all but one of which now have Labour MPs. These are all in major urban areas  from Sheffield Central and Liverpool Riverside, to Bristol North West and Manchester Gorton.

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Yet it is in London where the prize glitters brightest, with the Greens finishing second behind Labour in over two dozen seats. In theory, they could squeeze those areas much as Reform usurped Labour in places like Doncaster and Durham.

Just as the median Reform voter doesnt like Starmers historic europhilia, or his purported commitment to the liberal zeitgeist on issues like migration, the capitals electors dont support welfare cuts alongside massive increases to defence spending, nor Starmers increasingly belligerent rhetoric on multiculturalism.

While Ramsay and Chowns bid for co-leadership makes some sense, with both offering a continuity of recent success, Polanski would seem best placed to take advantage of that.

Then theres the seemingly perennial issue of a new Left party, referenced by Jeremy Corbyn in a speech he recently gave in Huddersfield. Speaking at a gathering of The Peoples Alliance for Change and Equality, a group of campaigners and independents in the Borough of Kirklees, including Iqbal Mohamed, the independent MP for Dewsbury and Batley, the former Labour leader was clear: by next years local elections  long before that I hope  were going to have something in place that is very clear and everyone will want to be part of and support.

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The fact that Corbyn uttered those words alongside Jamie Driscoll, who came second in last years North-east mayoral race, and Salma Yaqoob, a stalwart of Stop the War, indicates conversations are relatively advanced. Just weeks earlier, Corbyn spoke at Foyles alongside Andrew Feinstein. The latter stood as an independent in Keir Starmers constituency of Holborn and St Pancras last July, finishing second.

Other figures in the orbit of such a party, or even wider coalition, might include Leanne Mohammed, who almost overwhelmed Wes Streeting in Ilford last July, and Faiza Shaheen, who stood as an independent in Chingford. Any new Left formation could potentially draw on hundreds of figures like this: in contention to win locally, and at least substantial enough to cost Labour seats.

If you thought this months local elections were bad for the Conservatives, dont be surprised if something similar happens to Labour in twelve months. Not only will the Welsh Senedd be up for grabs, with Plaid Cymru and Reform set to make major gains at Cardiff, but authorities across urban England  including every council across Greater London  will be contested too. The circumstances could not be more favourable for parties and campaigners to Starmers Left.

The liberal media has subdued the conversation for months, not least because its their man in Number 10. But the simple truth is this: all that stands between Labour faring as badly as the Tories in the polls is whether the Left, and the Greens, can build a coordinated electoral alternative.

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RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J. (PIX11)  A 24-year-old man was arrested for allegedly intentionally causing a serious crash on the Bergen Turnpike on May 21, the Bergen County Prosecutor announced Thursday.

The incident happened before 9:41 a.m. in Ridgefield Park.

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Patrick J. McArdle of Ridgefield Park was charged with second-degree aggravated assault resulting in serious bodily injury.

McArdle was driving north on the Bergen Turnpike Wednesday morning when he crossed into the southbound lane and hit an oncoming Toyota Corolla, prosecutors say.

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McArdle and the driver of the Corolla, an 84-year-old, were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. McArdle remains hospitalized in police custody, prosecutors say.

Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here.

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The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany said his heart had been "torn apart" by the killing of two employees at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

Council president Josef Schuster told dpa on Thursday that his thoughts were with the families of the victims.

He said he had just returned from Israel, where representatives of Jewish organizations from around the world said they were witnessing the spread of hatred against Jews and Israel.

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Just one day later, this has been confirmed in the most tragic way, Schuster said. The rise in political and anti-Semitic violence, even in Western societies, is shocking and threatening.

Employees of Israeli missions are also particularly at risk in Germany, Schuster said.
Israeli Minister of Industry Nir Barkat leaves flowers May 22, 2025, at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Two Israeli Embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were gunned down Wednesday evening after an event at the museum by a man shouting slogans in support for Palestine. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

LAWRENCE  The leaders of a Jewish center at the University of Kansas joined a chorus of sorrow and outrage over the killing of alumna Sarah Milgrim and her partner Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Milgrim, 26, was shot and killed alongside Yaron Lischinsky, 30, at an American Jewish Committee event for young diplomats. A suspect who was taken into custody shortly after the shooting shouted free, free Palestine. Officials said the attack appeared to be targeted.

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Milgrim, a Kansas native and KU graduate, and Lischinsky had planned to leave Sunday to visit his family in Jerusalem, where he planned to give her an engagement ring.

Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Tiechtel, directors of Chabad Center for Jewish Life at KU, mourned their deaths. In a statement, they said Milgrim was a proud Jewhawk and an active, deeply loved member of our KU Jewish community.

She joined us often for Shabbat dinners, holiday celebrations, and countless Jewish programs, always bringing her warm smile, gentle spirit, and deep passion for her Jewish heritage, the Tiechtels said. She was not only a joy to be around but a true embodiment of grace, empathy, and purpose.

They said Milgrim had recently joined the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., to continue her mission of bringing light into a world that too often feels dark.

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Her life was a beacon of hope and humanity, they said. Her loss is a devastating blow to all who knew her and to the values she stood for.

Milgrims father, in an interview Thursday with KCUR, said she graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School and then from KU with a degree in environmental science. She earned masters degrees in international studies from American University in Washington, D.C., and international sustainable colonial development from the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. She had worked for an organization that connected young Israelis and Palestinians before joining the embassy.

The couple planned to leave Sunday for their trip to Israel. Her parents learned after her death that Lischinsky had purchased a wedding ring to give to her during the trip.

There just needs to be something done to make people realize that were many different people living in the U.S., but theres no reason to hate one another, Robert Milgrim said in the radio interview. This hate cannot divide us. We need to overcome it.

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KU chancellor Doug Girod said he had the honor of learning about Milgrim from members of the university community who knew her at KU and were aware of the meaningful life she had been living. He said their heartfelt remembrances offered a picture of a beautiful soul who, in true Jayhawk spirit, was inspired to improve the world around her.

Rabbi Stephanie Kramer of the Temple, Congregation Bnai Jehudah, in Overland Park, said Milgrim was a member of the congregation whose personal commitment was rooted in her unshakable identity.

Kramer urged the congregation to respond with unity instead of fear, and with resolve instead of silence.

Sarah grew up in our community. She celebrated with us, learned with us and inspired us with her integrity and purpose, Kramer said in a statement. She stood for something larger than herself and she paid the ultimate price for it.

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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly in a statement Thursday called for those responsible for this vicious crime to be brought to justice. Antisemitic violence is not theoretical, she said.

In my role as governor, I will continue to call out antisemitism and be active in pushing back against it, Kelly said. As Kansans, we value peace over violence, dialogue over destruction, and dignity for all people, regardless of faith or background.

Federal prosecutors charged Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, with first-degree murder, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi promised to secure the most severe possible punishment.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch said the couple were killed as they left an AJC event at the Capital Jewish Museum. He condemned the shocking act of violence

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While we wait for the conclusion of the police investigation  and urge all our friends and allies to do the same  it strongly appears that this was an attack motivated by hate against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. This senseless hate and violence must stop.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart grieves for the families of the young beloveds, whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer.

Kansas House Republicans in a statement said the evil rot of antisemitism has been allowed to fester far too long.

The poison of extremist ideologies that lead to this type of violence and are peddled by radicals has no place here, their statement said. And while it is most certainly not enough, we offer our heartfelt condolences to the victims families, friends, and the entire Jewish community and stand with you through the heartbreak of this horrific tragedy.

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Kansas Senate Republicans condemned the heinous attack on two Israeli diplomats.

Lets be clear  this is antisemitic and anti-American terrorism that cannot be tolerated, their statement said. This vile act underscores why we must continue to be vigilant in our fight against antisemitism at every turn and why this past session, we passed legislation to define antisemitism and declare any form of it will not be tolerated in Kansas.

The new law, which was inspired by pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, codifies an International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism that considers criticism of Israel to be antisemitic. The one-page bill declares antisemitism to be against public policy but contains no enforcement mechanism.

This act of terrorism underscores our need to continue to do more to ensure antisemitism has no place in our state, the Senate Republican leaders said. We stand with Israel, the Jewish community, and all who are impacted by this unfathomable atrocity.
Officials leading the Jewish museum where two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed called the killings a devastating attack on the community.

We are heartbroken by the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, and send our sincere condolences to their families and friends. May they, and all who grieve this devastating loss, be comforted by their communities, said Beatrice Gurwitz, the executive director of the Capital Jewish Museum, and the museums board of directors in a statement.

In an act of horrific antisemitic violence, a gunman attacked our beloved community. This tragedy is devastating, they said. Such acts of terror attempt to instill fear, silence voices, and erase historybut we refuse to let them succeed.

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Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot Wednesday evening outside the museum following an event inside. A 30-year-old male suspect from Chicago was detained after entering the museum.

The suspect yelled Free, free Palestine as he was taken into custody, police said. Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told reporters Lischinsky and Milgrim were about to be engaged.

The statement from Gurwitz and the board states that they are working to reopen the museum in the coming days with all necessary security measures in place so we can return to telling the story of Jewish Washington for thousands of visitors from around the world.

The Capital Jewish Museum was built to tell the centuries-old story of the greater Washington regions vibrant Jewish community, the statement reads. We are proud to tell these stories of Jewish life. In our work, we share Jewish stories in the service of building bridges and opening dialogue in our beautiful city.

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The attack has received widespread condemnation from around the country, from both sides of the political aisle, and the world. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who told him the United States would do what is necessary to ensure the perpetrator faces justice.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the shooting reflects an alarming rise in antisemitism seen since Hamass Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which launched the current Israel-Hamas war. The Anti-Defamation League reported last month that antisemitic incidents reached a record high in 2024.

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Hungarian author launches photo book offering intimate portrait of China

Xinhua) 08:54, May 22, 2025

Writer and publisher Andras Sandor Kocsis (R, Rear) speaks at a launch of his photo book titled China with a Hundred Faces in Budapest, Hungary, on May 21, 2025. The new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

BUDAPEST, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday.

Titled "China with a Hundred Faces," the book by writer and publisher Andras Sandor Kocsis was launched at a ceremony attended by prominent cultural and political figures, who hailed it as a valuable contribution to fostering mutual understanding between Hungary and China.

The event drew guests including former Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy and renowned literary translator Yu Zemin.

Kocsis, head of Kas Publishing, has long championed Chinese culture in Hungary. His publishing house has released nearly 40 China-related titles, including works by Nobel laureate Mo Yan and acclaimed author Su Tong. In recognition of his contributions, Kocsis received the Special Book Award of China in 2019.

At the launch, Kocsis shared that his connection to Chinese culture began in childhood. He said the book aims to give Hungarian readers an authentic and nuanced view of China.

"This book aims to be a bridge of mutual recognition and respect between cultures," he noted. He also recounted personal stories from his travels in China -- moments of kindness from strangers that left a lasting impact.

Yu, who has translated over 30 Hungarian literary works into Chinese, described China with a Hundred Faces as "more than a travelogue."

"This book is not just about sights, it's about the author's perspective and understanding," he said. "For readers curious about China, this work opens a window -- even a telescope -- to contemporary Chinese society."

Yu recalled traveling with Kocsis to Cuandixia, an ancient village near Beijing, and to Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. He emphasized that the book not only highlights China's cultural heritage but also reflects deeply personal narratives. "Kocsis gives us a lens through which we can view China -- and that lens is shaped by his own character and depth," he said.

Medgyessy underscored the role of cultural diplomacy. "Culture connects people, ways of thinking, and values," he said. "Books like this help Hungarians understand China better. We must not fear China -- we must know it. And through knowledge, cooperation becomes possible."

He also reflected on the strengthening of Hungary-China relations since his 2003 visit, which he called an "ice-breaking" moment in bilateral ties. "Regardless of political leadership, there has been a shared belief in the value of close China-Hungary ties," Medgyessy said.

A person browses through a photo book titled China with a Hundred Faces at a launch in Budapest, Hungary, on May 21, 2025. The new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

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Iran's NIORDC, Zamyad sign multimillion-dollar agreement

In November 2019, Iran raised gasoline prices while launching a major initiative to convert 1.46 million public transport vehicles to dual-fuel systems, aiming to reduce gasoline consumption. This project, with an investment of $114 million, is expected to save 12 million liters of gasoline daily and be completed within 14 months.

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Video of the March 2023 shooting outside of Joe Mixons home has emerged.

The footage shows a group of teenagers playing with NERF guns outside in the Cincinnati suburb.

In another angle, Mixon and his sisters boyfriend, Lamonte Brewer, are seen in the backyard with real guns in their hands.

Later, Brewer could be seen firing the gun, shooting a 16-year-old in the leg.

Newly released videos show the moments a Nerf War turned into a shooting outside of former Bengal Joe Mixons home in March of 2023. Fox19

In an interview with investigators, Mixon said he was holding a weapon because his sister told him there were people outside with guns.

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She runs in screaming, telling the kids to get into the room and lock the door, Mixon said, per FOX19 News in Cincinnati.

He added he was scared after recently receiving threats stemming from a recent arrest.

Then-Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon holds the Lamar Hunt trophy after the AFC championship NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022. AP

One of the videos shows Mixon and his sisters boyfriend, Lamonte Brewer, holding guns outside Mixons home in Anderson Township on Ayers Road on March 6, 2023. Fox19

At one point, I was getting a lot of death threats and getting a lot of bomb threats on my home.

The teenager, who suffered minor injuries, said he went into freak-out mode after bullets suddenly flew toward him.

I am running, feel something hit my foot. I hide behind a tree. Im crunched down. Im in a fetal position almost. I call my mom. Im like, Is the front door unlocked?' he said.

Newly released videos show the moments a Nerf War turned into a shooting outside of former Bengal Joe Mixons home in March of 2023. Fox19

Its really frantic at first. Im holding my foot because its hurt, and Im using words like shot and guns, and my brothers all like  its just very frantic, the teen added.

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In February, Brewer, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Mixon, who was with the Bengals at the time and now plays for the Texans, has not been charged in the case, but is being sued by the legal guardians of the teenager.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  A San Diego-based Navy sailor was cited and released Tuesday after allegedly making a false bomb threat aboard a Hawaiian Airlines flight bound for Honolulu.

Harbor Police arrested John Stea, 35, after he reportedly told a flight attendant that the passenger next to him had a bomb. The incident occurred on Hawaiian Airlines Flight 15, which was grounded at San Diego International Airport for hours while authorities searched the aircraft.

Cellphone video taken by passenger Debbie Danzig shows officers escorting Stea off the plane in handcuffs. Passengers remained on board during the initial investigation before eventually being asked to deplane as authorities, including officers in tactical gear and bomb-sniffing dogs, conducted a full search of the aircraft and luggage.

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It was absolutely silent on the airplane. Nobody was saying anything, Danzig said during an interview on FOX 5s morning show. We had no concerns  the airline handled it very well, everybody was extremely calm.

No explosives were found, and officials later confirmed the threat was a hoax. The flight, carrying nearly 300 passengers and crew members, departed for Hawaii roughly six hours later.

Stea is facing misdemeanor charges of making a false bomb threat and falsely reporting a security threat. Because the charges are misdemeanors, he was cited and released rather than booked into jail.

According to Navy officials, Stea is an Electronics Technician Second Class assigned to Maritime Expeditionary Security Group One, which focuses on anti-terrorism operations and military force protection. He has served in the Navy since May 2009 and has received several commendations, including the Good Conduct Medal.

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Stea lives in Coronado with his wife and two children. The U.S. Navy said it is reviewing the situation, and it is unclear how the charges might affect his military career.

The San Diego City Attorneys Office will determine whether to prosecute the case.

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JOHNSTOWN, Pa.  A line of carriers, including air giant American Airlines, made bids for the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airports next Essential Air Service contract.

But airport officials want to stick with the United Express carrier that lifted their service to new heights over the past three years.

In a vote Tuesday, the airport authority voted to send the U.S. Department of Transportation its formal recommendation that SkyWests United service to Chicago OHare International and Washington-Dulles continue through fall 2029.

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No-brainer

Just five years ago, SkyWest was the only airline bidding to provide jet service from Johnstown  and for more than 20 years prior, the airport only attracted bidders with eight-seat propeller aircraft.

This springs round of bids attracted offers from American, Air Wisconsin  which has historically flown under the American Eagle moniker  and SkyWest, which provides regional service under the United Express banner.

But even an offer from Texas- based American wasnt able to sway the authority from SkyWest.

American and Air Wisconsin were also proposing flights on 50-seat jets and the same number of weekly EAS flights.

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Years ago, we would have taken any one of those jet proposals, member Mike Parrish told airport authority colleagues, reflecting on how far the airports success has come.

But SkyWest remains the hands-down No. 1 choice, Parrish said. It was a no-brainer.

Not only are SkyWests Chicago and Washington destinations a major draw but the carrier also provides two extra weekly flights to Johnstown without subsidy.

The United Express carriers reliability and reputation has won over passengers year after year, with its 2025 totals through four months setting the airport up for a third straight year of record-breaking numbers.

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From Jan. 1 through April 30, a total of 11,413 people flew to or from Johnstown, figures show.

SkyWest has been an amazing partner, authority Chairman Tim McIlwain said, crediting the companys consistency and ongoing willingness to work with the authority. The community has embraced their jet service.

In Johnstown, SkyWest has also worked with the authority to modify flight schedules to cut down on OHare-originated delays.

Theyve also been a partner in ongoing aviation-related economic development projects  including efforts that could bring additional SkyWest aircraft to Johnstown for overnight repairs, the authority wrote in its letter to the U.S. DOT.

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SkyWests average subsidy request averages $5.9 million over the four-year span, making it the lowest qualified bidder, the board wrote.

Thats an important factor at a time the Trump administration has proposed reducing the Essential Air Service budget for 2026.

Future funding

Airport Manager Cory Cree said airport officials are confident it wont prevent them from receiving a new EAS contract for November.

Trumps administration, which earlier this year expressed support for the EAS program, proposed a 50% cut to the $590 million annual U.S. program in early May.

The program is funded by overflight fees collected from international carriers who use U.S. air space but dont land locally. Airline officials across the U.S. are monitoring whether any EAS funds are cut  and how the program could be amended in the future.

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The Essential Air Service program, founded to provide air service to rural areas, has been a target of Project 2025, but its historically had bipartisan support among the Congress and Senate in Washington, D.C.

Among the more than 170 Essential Air Service communities across the U.S., 86% are in rural districts served by Republicans as of 2024.

The Trump budget itself is still in the early committee phase, navigating scrutiny from members of both parties.

Cree said Tuesday that Johnstown airport staff have spoken with all three of the regions federal lawmakers  U.S. Rep, John Joyce and U.S. Sens. Dave McCormick and John Fetterman  about their ongoing efforts to expand airport development and air travel in Cambria County.

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All three, he said, expressed support for their development efforts and understand the importance of EAS to our community.

Joyce, R-Blair, has two Essential Air Service airports in his district and has backed airport efforts in recent years.

Varied proposals

Skywest was one of several carriers who pitched continuing flights to Washington-Dulles or Chicago, proposals show.

Air Wisconsin submitted offers for either 12 Chicago OHare International flights per week or a combination of OHare and Philadelphia International  at a nearly identical average subsidy request.

Airport officials cited concerns about the carriers limited baggage connection agreements, noting that travelers flying a combination of U.S. airlines would have to recheck bags before boarding Delta or United flights.

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Thats not the case with SkyWest, which has agreements with United, Delta, American and Alaska Airlines.

American Airlines offered service to Philadelphia at an average annual contract price of $6.1 million. It also proposed flights to a combination of Philadelphia and Charlotte Douglas International for a $7.2 million average annual subsidy  a cost $1.3 million a year above SkyWests proposal, the board wrote in its recommendation letter.

A onetime Johnstown carrier, Southern Airways, also submitted a proposal to offer flights to Pittsburgh International and Dulles airports.

Commuter airline Southern Airways Express offers flights on eight-seat propeller aircraft.

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The airline served Johnstown nearly a decade ago before the airport chose a different carrier, citing poor reliability and low passenger numbers.

In its letter, authority officials said they viewed the Southern proposal as unacceptable because it falls short of the EAS programs demonstrated reliability requirement.
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ST. GEORGE, Utah (ABC4)  Last week, a car crash in St. George led to two pedestrians being hit by a car while walking on the sidewalk. One of those pedestrians  a 92-year-old woman  has since died from her injuries.

ABC4.com spoke to Dallas Richardson  a family member of the two pedestrians, who were identified as his uncle, Darin, and his grandmother  about what the aftermath of the crash means for the family.

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Dallas remembered his grandmother as a very joyful, kind person who was willing to share advice with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He said that his uncle is doing better and has left the hospital.

Its going to take a while for him to heal, Dallas told ABC4.com. But, yeah, hes not in the hospital anymore and he can walk, which is good because at first he couldnt really move his arms or his legs when he was in the hospital after the accident.

PREVIOUSLY: New footage released of deadly St. George crash involving 92-year-old woman

Dallas said his uncle needed to get staples in his head, and that his uncle lost some feeling in his arms and legs after breaking a bone in his neck.

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Dallas said he was shocked after learning that his uncle and grandma had been hit by a car  and he said his family has bad luck with car crashes, as his father died after a car crash. He encouraged drivers and pedestrians to stay alert as best as they can.

Just ensure that the streets are safe for everybody, Dallas said. I feel like if everyone just worked together on that, you know, we can make that happen.

Dallas helped set up a GoFundMe* to help raise money for his grandmothers funeral costs, and to support the recovery of his uncle. Officials have not released any additional information about the crash.

*ABC4.com is not affiliated with the online fundraiser or the organizers behind it. While this fundraiser is designated as donation protected by GoFundMe, ABC4.com does not guarantee that any funds donated will be used for the person(s) named as beneficiaries of the fundraiser.

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Renisha Mall contributed to this report.

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NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MAY 15: Ras Baraka, Mayor of Newark, speaks after exiting the courthouse on May 15, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. Baraka appeared in federal court for a status conference on the Trump administration's charge that he trespassed last week at Delaney Hall, an ICE immigration detention center in Newark. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

A federal judge took federal prosecutors to task in astonishing fashion Wednesday over what he called the hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and their decision to drop his federal trespassing charge Monday, just 10 days after his arrest.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa told prosecutors that the swiftness of their decision to drop the charge suggests a worrying misstep by your office.

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An arrest, particularly of a public figure, is not a preliminary investigative tool. It is a severe action, carrying significant reputational and personal consequences, and it should only be undertaken after a thorough, dispassionate evaluation of credible evidence, Espinosa said to Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Demanovich, who was prosecuting Barakas case.

Espinosa said the governments rush to charge Baraka culminated in the embarrassing retraction of the charge  which he said suggests a failure to adequately investigate, to carefully gather facts, and to thoughtfully consider the implications of your actions before wielding your immense power.

He emphasized the legacy of high standards of prosecutorial ethics and professionalism from prior U.S. attorneys in New Jersey, adding that charges are brought only after considerate and exhaustive fact-gathering. He noted Demanovich himself acted appropriately, but the office must operate with a higher standard.

Let this incident serve as an inflection point and a reminder to uphold your solemn oath to the people of this district and to your client, justice itself, and ensure that every charge brought is a product of rigorous investigation and earned confidence in its merit, mirroring the exemplary conduct that has long defined your office, he said.

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Demanovich responded that the office had conducted a thorough review of the claims against Baraka, and he agreed that its the goal of his office to uphold justice.

Thursdays hearing, during which Espinosa formally dismissed the trespassing charge, capped a dramatic two-week period for Baraka, who is one of six Democrats running for governor this year (the primary is June 10).

Baraka was arrested May 9 while House members attempted to tour Delaney Hall, a recently reopened federal immigration detention center in Newark. Baraka had previously tried to gain entrance to the facility, which is engaged in a legal court battle with the city over whether the facilitys owner secured proper city permits to open.

Baraka has maintained that he was invited onto the property by federal agents, and arrested even after he complied with agents request for him to leave. He posted a video last week on social media showing a guard opening a gate to let him in.

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Though Demanovich told Espinosa during a hearing in the case last week that prosecutors had clear evidence Baraka was trespassing, the U.S. Attorneys Office revealed in a criminal complaint filed against Rep. LaMonica McIver Monday that a guard allowed Baraka onto the property because the guard thought Baraka was a member of Congress with the power to inspect the facility.

After Barakas arrest, acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said Baraka has willingly chosen to disregard the law and added, NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Habba, a personal attorney for President Donald Trump, attended last weeks court hearing in Barakas case.

Rahul Agarwal, an attorney for the mayor, said Wednesday if the matter had gone to trial, hes confident that the charges did not and would not survive scrutiny. Agarwal also said the dismissal of the charge doesnt erase the five hours Baraka was detained and the public scrutiny the mayor faced.

When Habba announced Monday that she agreed to drop Barakas trespassing charge, she also said she would be charging McIver with a crime. Prosecutors allege McIver assaulted two federal agents while trying to prevent Barakas arrest.

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McIver maintains the charges are politically motivated and said Tuesday she looks forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court.

After Wednesdays hearing, Baraka was heard on a microphone acknowledging the admonishment from the judge, according to the New Jersey Globe. Its not clear he knew he could be heard.

Jesus, he tore these people a new a**hole. Good grief, Baraka said.

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The Chagos deal was temporarily blocked at the 11th hour by the same judge who sentenced the Southport killer.

Mr Justice Goose oversaw the sentencing of Axel Rudakubana earlier this year, where he expressed frustration that he could not impose a whole life order.

The High Court judge put an interim stop on Sir Keir Starmer handing the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in the early hours of Thursday morning.

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But Mr Justice Chamberlain, another High Court judge, ruled later that the Government should not be stopped from signing the deal.

The Prime Minister had been set to attend a virtual signing ceremony with representatives from the Mauritian government on Thursday. The deal is expected to cost the UK taxpayer around 9 billion.

High-profile cases

Mr Justice Goose, 63, has overseen some of the most high-profile criminal cases in the country since his appointment to the High Court in October 2017.

In January, he handed down a minimum 52-year term to Rudakubana for the killing of Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Bebe King, six.

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During the sentencing, he had to order that the killer be removed from the dock as he repeatedly interrupted proceedings and shouted out.

Rudakubana was 17 at the time he carried out the fatal attack, so the judge said the law did not permit him to impose a whole life order.

Condemning his actions while passing sentence, he told Rudakubana he would likely never be released and spend the rest of his life in custody.

Other high-profile cases include the Wallasey pub shooting in Merseyside.

In July 2023, he jailed Connor Chapman for a minimum of 48 years for the 2022 Christmas Eve murder of Elle Edwards with a military grade submachine gun.

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Elsewhere, in another case which attracted much media attention, he sentenced four men for the murder of Ashley Dale, a woman who was killed in her own home by a gunman searching for her boyfriend.

Called to the bar 40 years ago

In his early years, Mr Justice Goose grew up in Sheffield and was educated in the city.

He completed a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Leeds before being called to the bar at Lincolns Inn in 1984.

The father of three served as a recorder from 1998 to 2013, while taking silk in 2002.

Between 2004 and 2013, he was head of chambers at Zenith Chambers and then served as a senior circuit judge and resident judge at Sheffield Combined Court Centre from 2013 to 2017.

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He was the honorary recorder of Sheffield for the same period and the Sentencing Council from 2014 to 2020.

After appointment as a High Court judge in 2017, he took the customary knighthood and has been the Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit since January 2022.

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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from firing thousands of workers at the Department of Education, ruling that the announced terminations were a thinly veiled effort to dismantle the entire department without congressional approval.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun rejected the administrations claim that the thousands of terminations announced in March were a bid for efficiency. In fact, they had deeply disrupted services for students, families and states, making processes less efficient, the judge said.

Joun said the massive reductions were more clearly aimed at carrying out President Donald Trumps campaign-trail promise to eliminate the department altogether  something the judge said would be illegal without congressional approval. Joun noted that Trump issued an executive order in March directing the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department.

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The record abundantly reveals that Defendants true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute, Joun, a Biden appointee, wrote in an 88-page opinion . The idea that Defendants actions are merely a reorganization is plainly not true.



In addition to blocking the firings, the judges order bars the Department of Education from transferring its functions to other agencies and from carrying out Trumps executive order to close the department altogether. Jouns order also requires the department to reinstate employees terminated since Trumps inauguration to restore the Department to the status quo such that it is able to carry out its statutory functions.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education attacked Joun as an unelected judge with a political axe to grind, calling the mass termination obviously lawful." The administration on Thursday took initial steps to appeal Joun's ruling.



This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families, spokesperson Madi Biedermann said.

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Jouns order is the latest bid by the courts to stave off some of the most extensive and abrupt efforts by the Trump administration to unilaterally slash and remake federal agencies. And its also the latest in a flurry of rulings aimed specifically at the Department of Education and its contractors, state-level affiliates and related programs.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman on Wednesday ordered the department to restore grant funding that had been awarded to the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit that receives federal funds to help schools further desegregation efforts dating back to the 1960s. The Trump administration slashed that program as part of its efforts to eliminate DEI programs.

Friedman, a Clinton appointee, also on Wednesday ruled against a nonprofit representing students and parents in a lawsuit challenging the departments moves to deplete or shutter its Office for Civil Rights.
Iran sees rise in non-oil exports to Turkmenistan

Iran's non-oil exports to Turkmenistan have seen an increase in both value and weight during the first month of the current Iranian year, with key sectors including agriculture, industry, and petrochemicals. Despite a slight overall decline in Iran's total non-oil exports, trade with Turkmenistan has shown positive growth in comparison to the previous year.

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A district judge on Thursday blocked President Trumps executive order calling for the closure of the Department of Education  as well as against the reduction in force that laid off half of the agencys workers.

The ruling is a blow to Trumps efforts to eliminate the department and the quick actions taken by Education Secretary Linda McMahon to make that campaign pledge a reality.

The plaintiffs have provided an in-depth look into how the massive reduction in staff has made it effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutorily mandated functions, District Judge Myong Joun said.

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Joun ordered the department to reinstate the hundreds of employees who were fired after Trump took office.

Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications for the Education Department, said the federal agency will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis.

Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people, Biedermann said.

President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind. This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families, she added.

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The ruling also stifles Trumps directive to move student loans and programs for students with disabilities outside the Department of Education.

McMahon has insisted the dismantling of the Education Department will follow the law.

The Trump administration is expected to file an appeal to the ruling as McMahon has insisted the dismantling of the Education Department will follow the law.

I think [Trump] was correct in saying that we were going to do everything legally. Thats what he has said to me from the very beginning, McMahon said during an appearance on Fox Newss Special Report with Bret Baier.

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In his ruling, Joun wrote the plaintiffs have demonstrated irreparable harm with school districts having delays in their federal funding and the layoffs resulted in the practical elimination of the essential offices in the Federal Student Aid office.

The Departments actions have directly impacted the FAFSA system and risk its functionality, he wrote.

The lawsuit was filed by the Somerville and Easthampton school districts in Massachusetts and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), along with other education groups.

Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administrations very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education. This decision is a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity, said Randi Weingarten, president of AFT.

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For America to build a brighter future, we must all take more responsibility, not less, for the success of our children, Weingarten added.

Only an act of Congress can definitively shut down the Education Department, but Trump and McMahon are seeking to reduce its size and scope as much as possible while also calling on lawmakers to eliminate it entirely.

Updated at 11:52 a.m. EDT

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May 21 (UPI) -- The Trump administration violated a previous court order when it deported at least six migrants to South Sudan without providing them an opportunity to challenge their removal to a country where they could be tortured, persecuted or killed, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The migrants were loaded onto a plane on Tuesday and flown to South Sudan less than 24 hours after receiving notice of their removal and without an opportunity to assert claims for protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

The U.S. State Department warns American against traveling to South Sudan due to "crime, kidnapping and armed conflict."

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Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District of Massachusetts issued his order Wednesday in a case filed in March challenging the Trump administration policy of sending migrants to a country that is not their own without prior notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest their removal on the basis of fear of persecution, torture or death.

Late Tuesday, in response to an emergency order filed by the migrants' attorneys seeking to prevent their clients' rushed removal, Murphy warned the Trump administration against deporting them and ordered it to maintain custody of the migrants if they had already left the United States.

In his ruling Wednesday, Murphy, an appointee of President Joe Biden, admonished the Trump administration over the deportations, stopping just short of accusing it of willfully ignoring his previous preliminary injunction.

"Defendants maintain that ambiguity in the phrase 'meaningful opportunity' precipitated this controversy. Indeed, when the Court issued the Preliminary Injunction, it declined to elaborate on what constitutes a 'meaningful opportunity,' preferring instead to let experience show through hard cases the finer points of what is required under the Due Process Clause," he wrote.

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"To be clear, this is not one of those hard cases."

The migrants were given less than 24 hours' notice of their removal, zero business hours' notice, language barriers were present, anda lack of information and attorneys' inability to access their clients confirm for the court that "no reasonable interpretation of the Court's Preliminary Injunction could endorse yesterday's events," he wrote.

To remedy violating the preliminary injunction, Murphy ordered the Trump administration to give each of the six migrants what is called a reasonable fear interview in private with legal counsel of their choosing.

The legal counsel must be commensurate with what they would have had access to in the United States and the migrant and their representative must be given at least 72 hours' notice of each scheduled interview.

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If the migrants' claim does not meet the Department of Homeland Securities' threshold of a "reasonable fear," they must be provided with at least 15 days to try to reopen immigration proceedings to challenge their removal, during which they must remain in DHS custody, the remedy order states

The DHS, the order continues, may choose to conduct the process in South Sudan or return them to the United States.

"The Court cautions Defendants that this remedy should not be construed as setting forth a course of conduct that would constitute compliance with the Preliminary Injunction, and the Court is not -- in ordering this remedy -- making any findings or conclusions that compliance with these processes before deportation would have satisfied the requirements of its Preliminary Injunction in the first instance," Murphy warned.

Because of the Trump administration's stance concerning the definition of "meaningful opportunity," Murphy stipulated that all removals of migrants to a third country must be preceded by written notice in the language of the non-citizen who is then given a minimum of 10 days to raise a claim under the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

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If the migrants' claim is not considered a "reasonable fear," they must be provided a minimum of 15 days to seek to reopen their immigration proceedings, he said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and DHS officials held a press conference Wednesday to attack Murphy, whom they accused of trying to "dictate the foreign policy and national security of America."

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin described him as an activist judge fighting the Trump administration to return criminals to the United States.

She said they had deported eight migrants with criminal records to a country she would not name due to "safety and operational security," despite ICE naming South Sudan in the title of the video uploaded to YouTube.

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She accused Murphy of "trying to force the United States to bring back these uniquely barbaric monsters who present a clear and present threat to the safety of the American people and American victims."

She also claimed that they were compliant with court orders.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  The man who was convicted in 2023 as a teenager of attempted murder from a shooting as two students drove away from Austin-East Magnet High School in 2021 is getting a new trial after a judge overturned his conviction.

On Wednesday, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Steven Sword overturned Ahmad Gatlins attempted murder convictions and ordered a new trial to be scheduled. Gatlins attorneys had filed a motion for the convictions to be acquitted or for a new trial, and the state did not oppose a new trial although prosecutors did still believe Gatlin was guilty, a court document stated.

$2,000 reward offered for information in 2023 West Knoxville fatal shooting

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In November 2023, Ahmad was one of three teens tried on charges of first-degree attempted murder, employing a firearm during a dangerous felony, and aggravated assault in connection to a January 2021 shooting. The victims in the case, Johnkelian John John Mathis, 17, and an unidentified female were driving away from Austin-East Magnet High School when they were shot at from another vehicle and forced to take shelter in a convenience store bathroom.

Gatlin was convicted on all counts in the case. The other two teens were not, with Rashan Jordan being found not guilty on all counts while the Jury could not reach a verdict for Deondre Davis. All three were under the age of 18 at the time of the shooting, but they were transferred from juvenile court to face trial as adults. At the time of the trial, Gatlin and Davis were 19 years old, and Jordan was 17 years old.

The new trial date was not set in the ruling, however, the document states that Gatlin would be remanded to the Knox County Sheriffs Office for his bond to be set by a successor judge, and the judge who presided over the initial case will no longer be presiding as a criminal court judge.

Teen charged in fatal 2024 Alcoa crash to be tried as adult

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Although they were not convicted in connection to the January 2021 shooting, both Davis and Jordan are serving life in prison after they were convicted in March 2023 of murdering Stanley Freeman Jr. in 2021.

Nearly seven months after the January 2021 shooting, Mathis was shot and killed in August 2021. As of May 22, 2025, the case remains unsolved.

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Content warning: this story includes discussion of self-harm and suicide. If you are in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

A judge in Florida just rejected a motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the chatbot startup Character.AI  and its closely tied benefactor, Google  caused the death by suicide of a 14-year-old user, clearing the way for the first-of-its-kind lawsuit to move forward in court.

The lawsuit, filed in October, claims that recklessly released Character.AI chatbots sexually and emotionally abused a teenage user, Sewell Setzer III, resulting in obsessive use of the platform, mental and emotional suffering, and ultimately his suicide in February 2024.

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In January, the defendants in the case  Character.AI, Google, and Character.AI cofounders Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas  filed a motion to dismiss the case mainly on First Amendment grounds, arguing that AI-generated chatbot outputs qualify as speech, and that "allegedly harmful speech, including speech allegedly resulting in suicide," is protected under the First Amendment.

But this argument didn't quite cut it, the judge ruled, at least not in this early stage. In her opinion, presiding US district judge Anne Conway said the companies failed to sufficiently show that AI-generated outputs produced by large language models (LLMs) are more than simply words  as opposed to speech, which hinges on intent.

The defendants "fail to articulate," Conway wrote in her ruling, "why words strung together by an LLM are speech."

The motion to dismiss did find some success, with Conway dismissing specific claims regarding the alleged "intentional infliction of emotional distress," or IIED. (It's difficult to prove IIED when the person who allegedly suffered it, in this case Setzer, is no longer alive.)

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Still, the ruling is a blow to the high-powered Silicon Valley defendants who had sought to have the suit tossed out entirely.

Significantly, Conway's opinion allows Megan Garcia, Setzer's mother and the plaintiff in the case, to sue Character.AI, Google, Shazeer, and de Freitas on product liability grounds. Garcia and her lawyers argue that Character.AI is a product, and that it was rolled out recklessly to the public, teens included, despite known and possibly destructive risks.

In the eyes of the law, tech companies generally prefer to see their creations as services, like electricity or the internet, rather than products, like cars or nonstick frying pans. Services can't be held accountable for product liability claims, including claims of negligence, but products can.

In a statement, Tech Justice Law Project director and founder Meetali Jain, who's co-counsel for Garcia alongside Social Media Victims Law Center founder Matt Bergman, celebrated the ruling as a win  not just for this particular case, but for tech policy advocates writ large.

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"With today's ruling, a federal judge recognizes a grieving mother's right to access the courts to hold powerful tech companies  and their developers  accountable for marketing a defective product that led to her child's death," said Jain.

"This historic ruling not only allows Megan Garcia to seek the justice her family deserves," Jain added, "but also sets a new precedent for legal accountability across the AI and tech ecosystem."

Character.AI was founded by Shazeer and de Freitas in 2021; the duo had worked together on AI projects at Google, and left together to launch their own chatbot startup. Google provided Character.AI with its essential Cloud infrastructure, and in 2024 raised eyebrows when it paid Character.AI $2.7 billion to license the chatbot firm's data  and bring its cofounders, as well as 30 other Character.AI staffers, into Google's fold. Shazeer, in particular, now holds a hugely influential position at Google DeepMind, where he serves as a VP and co-lead for Google's Gemini LLM.

Google did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publishing, but a spokesperson for the search giant told Reuters that Google and Character.AI are "entirely separate" and that Google "did not create, design, or manage" the Character.AI app "or any component part of it."

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In a statement, a spokesperson for Character.AI emphasized recent safety updates issued following the news of Garcia's lawsuit, and said it "looked forward" to its continued defense:

It's long been true that the law takes time to adapt to new technology, and AI is no different. In today's order, the court made clear that it was not ready to rule on all of Character.AI 's arguments at this stage and we look forward to continuing to defend the merits of the case.

We care deeply about the safety of our users and our goal is to provide a space that is engaging and safe. We have launched a number of safety features that aim to achieve that balance, including a separate version of our Large Language Model model for under-18 users, parental insights, filtered Characters, time spent notification, updated prominent disclaimers and more.

Additionally, we have a number of technical protections aimed at detecting and preventing conversations about self-harm on the platform; in certain cases, that includes surfacing a specific pop-up directing users to the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

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Any safety-focused changes, though, were made months after Setzer's death and after the eventual filing of the lawsuit, and can't apply to the court's ultimate decision in the case.

Meanwhile, journalists and researchers continue to find holes in the chatbot site's upxdated safety protocols. Weeks after news of the lawsuit was announced, for example, we continued to find chatbots expressly dedicated to self-harm, grooming and pedophilia, eating disorders, and mass violence. And a team of researchers, including psychologists at Stanford, recently found that using a Character.AI voice feature called "Character Calls" effectively nukes any semblance of guardrails  and determined that no kid under 18 should be using AI companions, including Character.AI.

More on Character.AI: Stanford Researchers Say No Kid Under 18 Should Be Using AI Chatbot Companions
A federal judge ripped into the Justice Department after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was hit with trespassing charges at an immigration detention center, only for the DOJ to reverse course days later and drop the charges.

The hasty arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, followed swiftly by the dismissal of these trespassing charges a mere 13 days later, suggests a worrying misstep by your office, Magistrate Judge Andre Espinosa told federal prosecutors during a Wednesday hearing.

Baraka was arrested earlier this month while attempting to visit a new ICE detention facility for immigrants and slapped with misdemeanor trespassing charges.

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The reality is this: I didnt do anything wrong, Baraka told his supporters after being released from custody.

The DOJ apparently agreed, and acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba said she would drop the charges against Baraka.

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka speaks to supporters and media after a court appearance in Newark, New Jersey, on May 15, 2025. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Espinosa granted Habbas request to dismiss the charges on Wednesday, but called the DOJs actions embarrassing.

The apparent rush in this case, culminating today in the embarrassing retraction of charges, suggests a failure to adequately investigate, Espinosa said. Your office must operate with a higher standard than that.

While charges against Baraka have been dropped, Habba has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) with assaulting two ICE agents during the May 9 clash outside the detention center. Federal prosecutors argue that McIver attempted to stop Barakas arrest by pushing and grabbing Homeland Security and ICE agents. McIver has denied the charges.

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I went to an ICE facility in my district to conduct oversight because that is my job and my lawful right as a member of Congress, McIver wrote in a fundraising email.

The charges against McIver carry a maximum sentence of up to eight years in prison, prosecutors said.
A federal judge blocked Donald Trumps latest escalation against foreigners in the U.S. on Thursday, a ruling that came just hours after the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would revoke Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in California barred the government from changing international students legal status until cases challenging previous visa revocations are resolved. He said that the governments actions had wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.

Whites ruling came on the heels of a DHS statement that said Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.

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DHS alleged that Harvard had created an unsafe campus by allowing anti-American pro-terrorist agitators on-site, and claimed without evidence that the university had collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier this week, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party launched an investigation into Harvards partnerships with organizations with alleged ties to the CCP.

This latest escalation follows a threat from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who threatened to revoke the privilege of enrolling foreign student visa holders unless the university turned over records on the illegal and violent activities of its students.

Despite the fact that Harvard had delivered some unspecified documentation to the Trump administration, Noem claimed that the university had failed to adhere to the law. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused, she said in a statement.

Here, the Trump administrations mounting campaigns against Harvard and international students go hand in hand. Last month, the Department of Justice was forced to back off of efforts to revoke student visas over minor legal infractions, after a staggering number of legal challenges. But the DOJ said that it would be developing a new policy to change F-1 visas to make it easier to remove foreign students.

At the same time, the Trump administration has moved to severely restrict the free speech of international students, who have been arrested by ICE for pro-Palestinian speech the government alleges interferes with its foreign policy interests.

This story has been updated.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone gave jurors in Karen Reads murder retrial an extended break from witness testimony for the Memorial Day weekend after she met individually with all 18 of them on Wednesday.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John OKeefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.

Day 20 of testimony was delayed Wednesday morning for about two hours after Cannone announced that an issue had come up that required her to speak to each juror and ordered everyone out of the courtroom.

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Cannone did not explain the issue, but after speaking to jurors, reminded them of the importance of not discussing the case with anyone or allowing anyone to try to discuss it with them.

The days testimony then began with Dr. Aizik Wolf, director of the Miami Neuroscience Center.

Wolf testified about reviewing photos of John OKeefe and his autopsy report. He described a classic blunt trauma injury and said he believes OKeefe struck his head on the ground.

My opinion is thats what caused this whole injury, Wolf said. The only way he could get this kind of an injury was to fall backward, hit the back of his head.

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When asked by special prosecutor Hank Brennan whether OKeefes injuries were consistent with being attacked with a bat or other object, Wolf said no, because OKeefe had a nondepressed skull fracture.

Wolf said OKeefe likely lost consciousness quickly but did not die immediately.

The fifth week of Reads second trial ended with Christina Hanley, a Massachusetts State Police crime lab chemist, describing her examination of a broken drinking glass and pieces of glass and plastic found near OKeefes body, bits of plastic recovered from his clothing, pieces of glass found on the bumper of Reads SUV and the vehicles broken taillight.

When Hanley was dismissed from the stand, Cannone informed the court that Reads retrial would be on hiatus until Tuesday, giving the jury Thursday, Friday, and Monday off.

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Cannone said the court could afford the extended break because proceedings were ahead of schedule.

Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into OKeefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that OKeefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

Get caught up with all of the latest in Karen Reads retrial.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)  A man who attacked and traumatized a family with a baby while they were at a San Francisco playground was convicted this week by jurors, prosecutors announced.

The jury found Jefferson Silva, 25, guilty of assault and making criminal threats. Silvas conviction stems from an incident that unfolded on April 29, 2024. That morning, a mother and father were walking with their baby at a playground near Hyde Street and Turk Street when Silva suddenly attacked the father, prosecutors said.

Silva also threatened the victims wife and baby. San Francisco Police Department Tenderloin Station officers arrived at the scene within minutes, and they rendered first-aid until an ambulance arrived.

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This assault left the victim hospitalized and his family traumatized, prosecutors wrote.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said, Families should expect to be able to go for a walk safely in every neighborhood in our city. The jurys verdict holds Mr. Silva accountable for his unacceptable conduct.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Samantha Zurcher.

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Editors note: The video aired on Dec. 16, 2024

NEW YORK (PIX11)  The woman accused of stowing away on a Delta Airlines flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to Paris was convicted by a jury, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York announced Thursday.

According to the complaint filed in court, Dali allegedly snuck through a special lane for airline employees at JFK, masked by a large flight crew on the night of Nov. 26, just before 8:30 p.m.

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Prosecutors said Dali was later able to bypass employees at the airline gate because they were busy helping other passengers and did not stop the woman for a ticket.

On the flight, Delta employees realized Dali had boarded without their consent and contacted French authorities to detain her, according to the complaint.

Law enforcement officials said Dali admitted to flying as a stowaway and intentionally looked for opportunities to bypass TSA.

After returning to the U.S., Dali was arrested in Buffalo in December 2024, after allegedly cutting off her ankle monitor and taking a bus to the Canadian border, sources said. She was stopped and detained.

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The guidelines for Dalis sentencing range from zero to six months in prison. Dali has already been in custody for over five months, according to officials. A sentencing date has not been set.

Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here.

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Irans Central Bank allocates funds for import operations

In the given timeframe, Iran's Central Bank opened the purse strings, pouring a hefty sum into the import of a smorgasbord of goods, from passenger cars to electronics and agricultural products, racking up billions of dollars in the process. The foreign currency needed for these imports is handed over by the Central Bank, following the exchange rate it has put on the table.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A violent rampage through a Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood left residents shaken, traumatized  and questioning the system meant to protect them.

Weeks later, the same man struck again in a neighboring county, this time leaving behind a trail of felony charges.

KCMO felon alleged to be drug dealer, dog-fighting leader charged

Many in the community are asking: What if he had been stopped the first time?

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He wanted to hurt somebody.

It started just before sunset on April 23 in Columbus Park, a neighborhood just northeast of downtown. What unfolded next felt like a scene from a movie  except this was all too real for the victims.

He was walking way too close. I asked if he needed something and he said no, Camille said, one of the victims.

Surveillance video and witness accounts confirm what happened next: Dalton Shows, bloodied and holding a bottle of whiskey, began a terrifying and erratic spree through the area.

He first targeted a gas station in the River Market, then tried to get into a cash register at Natures Own. Employees managed to push him out  they called 911. But no officer ever responded to their call.

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From there, he moved next door to Le Fou Frog, then spotted Sarah Reinhardt out walking her dog.

I kind of went into survival mode, Reinhardt told FOX4. I just did what I had to do.

Missing 81-year-old Overland Park womans vehicle located in south central Kansas

She ran to Vietnam Cafe for help.

This lady ran up the street into our restaurant and she looked very frantic and scared and she came up to one of us and say hey can you please call 911  someone chasing me  someone is following me, recalled Thu Pham, a server at the restaurant.

They called and police never responded to the Cafe.

Next, Camille became his target.

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He told me to turn around and come with him or he was going to smash my dogs head in, Camille recalled.

She ran to a neighbors door, desperate for help  but Shows caught up to her.

He came up behind me. He put his arms around my waist and told my neighbors I was with him  that I was crazy. He pulled me to the ground. He was trying to take me somewhere, she said.

Her neighbor  that she now calls her hero  punched Shows in the face, breaking her hand but managing to slow the attack until others could intervene.

Police eventually showed up. But what happened next left many in disbelief.

Two tickets and released that same night. No criminal charges. No follow-up, according to multiple victims.

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I knew he wanted to hurt somebody, and I knew he was going to do this again, Camille said.

And he did.

On Mothers Day, just two weeks later, Shows was arrested again  this time in Johnson County, Kansas.

He broke into multiple businesses, attacked people, and led officers on a high-speed chase.

This time, he was charged with five felonies. Hes currently in jail on a $50,000 bond, and if he posts it, hell be placed on house arrest.

We treat this pretty seriously, said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe. Making sure people are safe  that they can go to work without being terrorized or assaulted  those are the things that I think are important for our community.

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So why werent charges filed the first time?

Thats the question many are still asking. According to the Jackson County Prosecutors Office, they never received a referral for charges from the Kansas City Police Department.

KCPD tells FOX4 that officers were dispatched within two minutes and two reports were filed. But more than seven people say they called 911, and several victims say theyre still waiting to hear from a detective.

Youre supposed to be helping us, were the ones that cant do anything about it  we rely on you but for you to be like well send someone down but then never come is really frustrating, Thu Pham said.

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Beyond the legal questions, a deeper issue remains: trust.

See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri

Several neighbors told FOX4 they no longer feel safe and they feel as though if they call police nothing will happen.

I believe that if he had been arrested and kept on April 23rd, he would not have gone on his crime rampage in Overland Park on Mothers Day, Reinhardt said.

For now, Johnson County prosecutors say their investigation is ongoing  and more charges may still be coming.

But for many in Columbus Park, the damage is already done.

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RUSSELL COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW)  A Paradise man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for injuring his 5-month-old daughter in what prosecutors described as a violent act of child abuse.

James Z.T. Rhodes, 33, was sentenced to 41 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections following a guilty plea to felony child abuse, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach announced Wednesday. Russell County District Court Judge Levi Morris handed down the sentence.

Silver Alert search intensifies in Cowley County

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According to court records, Rhodes admitted to throwing the infant into her crib and striking her forehead with his open hand during a July 2024 incident that left the child with life-threatening injuries. The baby was transported to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita for emergency treatment.

Assistant Attorney General Nicole Southall, who prosecuted the case, said the sentence was a critical step in protecting the victim and preventing further harm.

Our job is to protect the most vulnerable, Southall said in a statement. Holding the abuser accountable before a homicide occurred is a fundamental step in our pursuit of justice for this child.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation led the investigation.

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TOPEKA, Kan. (KSNW)  A CIA spy, a blues-soaked city, and a ranchers final daysthese are just a few of the stories earning top literary honors in Kansas this year.

The State Library of Kansas has unveiled its 2025 Kansas Notable Books list, celebrating 15 standout titles that reflect the states history, culture, and imagination.

Selected from a longer list of 25 recommended books, this years honorees span memoirs, poetry, fantasy, and childrens literatureall written by Kansans or centered on Kansas life. Among the recognized works are In True Face by Jonna Mendez, chronicling a Kansas womans career in the CIA, and Wichita Blues by Patrick Joseph OConnor, which dives into the citys rich African American music heritage.

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Downtown Wichita plan seeks input

Authors will be celebrated at the Kansas Book Festival on Sept. 19 at Washburn University, where they will receive medals for their literary achievements.

The Kansas Notable Books program is a project of the Kansas Center for the Book, the state affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. The initiative is designed to celebrate Kansas storytelling and foster interest in reading and libraries across the state.

A full list of the 2025 Kansas Notable Books can be found below:

Coco, Snow! by Julie Mosiman Dress Me Like a Prizefighter by Catherine Strayhall From the Reservation to Washington: The Rise of Charles Curtis by Debra Goodrich In True Face: A womans Life in the CIA, Unmasked by Jonna Mendez Las Madres: Latinas in the Heartland Who Led Their Family to Success by Dennis Raphael Garcia The Last Rancher by Robert Rebein The Lies We Conjure by Sarah Henning No Bullet Got Me Yet: The Relentless Faith of Father Kapaun by John Stansifer Not the Worst Friend in the World by Anne Rellihan Outdoor Farm, Indoor Farm by Lindsay H. Metcalf Remnants of a Scarlet Flame by Cindy L. Sell The Rhino Keeper by Jillian Forsberg The Switch Point by A. D. Childers Treehouse Town by Gideon Sterer Wichita Blues: Music in the African American Community by Patrick Joseph OConnor

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For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

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TOPEKA (KSNT)  Democrats and Republicans are at odds with how President Donald Trumps big beautiful bill will impact Kansans as negotiations continue over the latest proposed federal spending bill.

Theres a lot featured in Trumps budget plan, ranging from tax cut extensions to border security, to significant changes in healthcare. Kansas Democrat Representative Sharice Davids said a non-partisan analysis shows the budget would strip healthcare from up to 13.7 million Americans. In the Sunflower State, that would cut KanCare benefits for more than 61,000 people.

Davids held a virtual press conference early on Wednesday, May 21 over the proposed cuts to Medicaid.

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That threatens the health coverage of children of seniors, of people with disabilities, of hard working Kansans who rely on Medicaid to live safe, healthy lives, Davids said.

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During the press conference, Kansans with loved ones that have intellectual disabilities spoke on how the cuts would impact their day to day routines.

Bryan is the oldest of our children, hes 49-years-old now, he has multiple disabilities, Mark Hink said. Medicaid is just totally essential to provide the mental and physical health and well-being for Bryan and others like him. Loss of funding in his case could result in loss of control of his diabetes, and loss of community support. It would place the burden of care on family members who can no longer provide that care.

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Davids argues the cuts wont just impact those on the healthcare program.

More rural hospital closures, fewer providers, drastically reduced access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, Davids said. This is all especially in our rural communities, where care is already hard to come by for so many people.

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That concern is echoed by the owner of a local assisted living care organization, Corey Craig.

My biggest fear in the case of more Medicaid cuts is that were going to marginalize a group that is already kind of marginalized, especially in rural areas, Craig said. Im here to advocate for at least keeping things the same, because we are trying our best out here to try to service our rural communities. It is more difficult to do so, and more Medicaid cuts would make that more difficult for us to service families like the Hink family.

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Davids also highlighted how the bill cuts Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, would raise energy costs for working families and adds trillions of dollars to the nations debt.

27 News reached out to the other three Republican Kansas congressional representatives for comment.

Its unfortunate that some of my Democrat colleagues continue to lie and fearmonger about what the One Big Beautiful Bill Act does. This proposal strengthens and preserves Medicaid for the populations it was intended forchildren, expectant mothers, parents with kids too young for school, individuals with disabilities, and the elderly. Every Medicaid dollar sent to people who are in the country illegally and to able-bodied adults without kids too young for school is a dollar taken from those who need it the most. House Republicans will continue to protect Medicaid by ensuring the program supports the Americans it was intended to uplift for generations to come. Representative Tracey Mann

I strongly believe we must strengthen Medicaid to protect benefits for the thousands of vulnerable Kansans who rely on it. Thats why we must focus benefits to vulnerable recipients instead of healthy adults who can work but dont or illegal aliens who receive benefits despite legal prohibitions. Kansas has safeguards in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, including the Office of Medicaid Inspector General and the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit that I oversaw for years as attorney general. Unfortunately, not every state is as careful with the taxpayer dollars that fund these vital services. That is why Congress needs to act now. Representative Derek Schmidt

Kansas Forest Service at risk of 80% funding loss, layoffs with proposed federal cuts

27 News will update this article if the other representatives reach out with their responses.

For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

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The U.S. presidents meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa Wednesday featured a clip cooked up by the White House falsely alleging white genocide in the post-apartheid nation. But when pressed as to why Donald Trump lied that thousands of white farmers had been murdered in South Africa, administration officials balked.

The president showed a video that he said showed more than 1,000 burial sites of White South Africans that he said were murdered, said NBC Newss Yamiche Alcindor, during a press briefing Thursday. We know that that was not true, and that the video wasnt true. So I wonder, why did the president choose to show that?

No, it is true that the video showed the crosses, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The video showed images of crosses in South Africa about white farmers who have been killed and politically persecuted because of the color of their skin, and those crosses are representing their lives and that they are now dead and their government did nothing about it.

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The clip in question showed a thin strip of highway from Newcastle and Normandein in South Africa. It was not a burial site as Trump had claimed, locals told the BBC Thursday. Instead, it was a temporary memorial to symbolically commemorate murdered farmers across the country. South Africa has 64 million people in it, but every year more than 26,000 people are murdered, making the countrys murder rate roughly nine times higher than that of the United States.

Studies indicate that the vast majority of murder victims in South Africa are Black or mixed-race men between the ages of 15 and 44 and that most of them are economically disadvantaged.

South Africa notoriously maintained its oppressive system of apartheid through the early 1990s, segregating Black South Africans from white residents and depriving them of civil and political power.

Despite that history, the worlds richest manand richest white Afrikaner, Elon Musk, has used his platform to push the narrative that South Africa oppresses white people, particularly white people of means, claiming that the nation unfairly restricts white citizens via racist laws. (Ramaphosa offered Musk a Starlink contract ahead of the head of states meeting with Trump, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, in spite of the fact that Musks business doesnt fit the parameters of South Africas Black Economic Empowerment laws.)

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Even white South Africans have protested that claims of a white genocide in their country are false.

Theres no sign of it, never has been. In fact, Whites are economically the strongest group in the country, Piet Croucamp, an academic at North-West University in South Africa, told CBS News. Sixty-four percent of all boardrooms in South Africa are still White. The average incomes of White South Africans are vastly higher than Black South Africans. They have better schools, they have better education, private health care. This is the land of milk and honey if youre white.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  A man from Kansas City, Missouri has been charged in a federal complaint for being a felon in possession of a firearm. However, court records reveal much more about the man.

Those records show that 50-year-old Vinol Wilson is a known supplier of MDMA, methamphetamine and cocaine. Records also show that Wilson has been the target of a dog-fighting investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Man living in Kansas City sentenced after illegally re-entering US

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However, in the affidavit filed, its alleged that on Tuesday, May 20, a search warrant was carried out at Wilsons residence in which investigators found a .556 caliber pistol with a round in the chamber and 29 more rounds in the magazine.

Wilson is prohibited from owning a gun after pleading guilty to a federal drug charge in Kansas in 2010. He was sentenced to 121 months in prison in that case.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
Three Cape Cod businessmen are finding out what kelp  seaweed to its friends  can do for them.

Richard Curtiss, Carl Douglass, and Jamie Bassett hope a 50-acre "plot" of ocean off Harding Beach in Chatham will yield enough to generate a lot of green.

The three men started Chatham Kelp in 2018, and while the business has had its ups and downs, the men believe they are onto something.

Writing for the news website Civil Eats in 2024, Alexandra Talty, a Pulitzer Center journalist, said one report estimated the value of the edible seaweed industry to be $1.87 billion in the U.S. Two million pounds of kelp were harvested from U.S. waters during the 2022-2023 season, and experts predict that number will grow.

Richard Curtiss, Jamie Bassett and Carl Douglass, left to right, founded Chatham Kelp in 2018. Their kelp farm is located off Chatham. So far, company has partnered with other companies to craft kelp-inspired products such as hot sauce, lip balm, soap, stout, hard seltzer and beard balm. The founders were photographed on May 12.

So far, Chatham Kelp has partnered with several companies to craft kelp-inspired products: Craic Sauce in Lowell (Kelpie hot sauce), Atlantic Soap Company in Falmouth (lip balm and soap), Hog Island Beer Company (Chatham Kelp Stout), and Little Bay Beard Supply Company (beard balm).

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And most recently, High Limb Cider in Plymouth came out with In the Weeds, a hard seltzer made with Chatham kelp and watermelon.

Were really excited about this one, Curtiss said in an interview on May 7. It tastes almost like a Jolly Rancher! Not too carbonated. A great summer drink.

Chatham Kelp began working with High Limb Cider about six months ago, Curtiss said. They plan to sell the hard seltzer in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Hampshire, Maine, and North and South Carolina. In the works are Texas, Colorado, California, and Florida.

Chatham Kelp has partnered with Hog Island Beer Company to create Chatham Kelp stout and with High Limb Cider in Plymouth for In the Weeds, a hard seltzer. Richard Curtiss, Carl Douglass, and Jamie Bassett founded Chatham Kelp in 2018. Their kelp farm is off Chatham. The photo taken May 12.

Farming kelp in Chatham

It took years to get permits from the town, state, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state Division of Marine Fisheries and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to grow sugar kelp in Chatham waters, Curtiss said. Finally, they received permits for 350 200-foot grow lines. The horizontal lines are anchored at each end, held up with buoys, and lie six to eight feet beneath the surface of the water.

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Kelp spores attached to those lines are provided by GreenWave, a nonprofit whose goals include supporting farmers, planting regenerative ocean crops for economic gain and climate resiliency.

Sugar kelp is a winter crop in the New England area. Lines are laid in November or December and harvested around April. Curtiss said they get about six to 10 pounds of kelp per foot. Kelp is dried in fields for agricultural products like fertilizer, and in greenhouses for food-grade products.

Kelp, generally, is used in salads, smoothies and chips. It can be made into textiles, packaging, biofuels, and fertilizer. Kelp absorbs carbon dioxide and removes nitrogen from the water columns, according to researchers. One company, Sway, makes packaging and outdoor gear out of seaweed. Another, Keel Labs, makes a bio-based fiber from seaweed for the textile industry.

Challenges exist

Unfortunately, kelp farming hasnt done particularly well on the Cape, according to Joshua Reitsma, a marine program specialist who holds a joint position with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension Service and WHOI Sea Grant. He's been researching kelp for the last seven years.

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Its been tough in Massachusetts, he said in a May 6 interview. Maine is doing better. We're trying to figure out why. Maine has cooler waters with nutrient-rich big tides. We have a lot of estuary type environments; they have a rocky shoreline.

But kelp has been found to remove excess nitrogen, and it is being studied for use on the Cape. Reitsma has been working with sites in Falmouth Harbor and Popponesset Bay in particular.

Kelp is a regenerative crop that sequesters carbon, reduces ocean acidification and could save our seas, according to Talty. She estimates that about $380 million has been invested in the industry since 2017.

Collaboration with local partners

Atlantic Soap Company owner Caroline Laye has been working with Chatham Kelp since 2020. Her Chatham Kelp Beauty Bar is made with a blend of dried, ground kelp, seaweed extract, a blend of oils and filtered sea water. The bar is one of her best sellers, she said in an interview May 9.

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People love it, she said. They like that it's from Chatham and that it's a great bar of soap.

Curtiss reached out to Jeremy Quaglia, owner of High Limb Cider, who was intrigued by the idea of making a beverage using kelp. The men decided to create a hard seltzer. After months of trial and error with kelp and watermelon puree, In the Weeds, was introduced. Quaglia is getting the word out about the new product through his distributors in seven states.

Brian Ruhlmann, owner of Craic Sauce in Lowell, created Kelpie hot sauce after a persuasive presentation by Bassett. Ruhlmann made a sauce using a mixture of sugar kelp and fermented peppers. This year he is tweaking the recipe by using different peppers and aging the product in a whiskey barrel. The sauce is being sold at outlets throughout the Cape, including Chatham Squire and Three Fins Coffee Roasters, he said in a May 9 interview.

"We're sitting tight on the expansion of our farm," Curtiss said. "We're waiting for the market to come."

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Denise Coffey writes about business, tourism and issues impacting the Capes residents and visitors. Contact her at dcoffey@capecodonline.com .

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Can kelp farming thrive on Cape Cod? Chatham Kelp is hanging in there
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker announcing that he will not seek a retrial of Christopher Schurr, a former Grand Rapids Police officer, in the death of Patrick Lyoya. May 22, 2025 | Screenshot from Kent County's YouTube Channel

GRAND RAPIDS  An ex-Grand Rapids police officer who fatally shot a Black motorist following a 2022 traffic stop will not face a retrial after a first proceeding ended in a mistrial earlier this month.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker announced Thursday that he didnt think another trial for Christopher Schurr, 34, would produce a new outcome.

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I did not arrive at (the decision) lightly, Becker said. Basically, what it boils down to is I dont think we reach a different verdict if I do do a retrial in this case.

Schurr was tried for second-degree murder for the shooting death of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya, a Congolese immigrant.

Former Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr seen on a courthouse monitor, as he stands trial on second-degree murder charges in the death of Patrick Lyoya. The case ended in a mistrial. May, 2, 2025 | Sarah Leach

Over the course of the six-day trial, the jury heard testimony from 22 witnesses, including several experts who gave conflicting testimony on whether Schurrs decision to use deadly force was justified.

The trial ended May 8 with jurors unable to reach a verdict after deliberating for nearly four days on whether to convict Schurr of second-degree murder, manslaughter or to acquit him.

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This is an extremely difficult decision, Becker said. I looked at everything: I looked at our case. I looked at the defense case. I looked at the arguments that were made. I looked at the jury selection process, because I think thats one of the biggest things that, going into this, we were thinking about getting a good jury. I even went over and watched more of the trial.

Becker said he spoke to jurors after the trial and said they were evenly split with four wanting to convict, four wanting to acquit and four undecided. As deliberations continued, the vote evolved to 10-2 in favor of acquittal, although Schurrs attorney, Matt Borgula, has said the it was 11-1 in favor of acquittal after his own discussions with jurors.

I thought we presented a good case. I presented everything I wanted. All the facts were out there that I had. Its not like I can change anything, Becker said.

Schurr pulled Lyoya over on April 4, 2022, for having a license plate that didnt match the car he was driving. When Lyoya couldnt produce a drivers license, Schurr attempted to place him under arrest, but the motorist ran. Schurr tackled Lyoya to the ground and attempted to use his Taser, but was too close and the motorist deflected the probes. The two then wrestled briefly over the device when the officer pulled out his handgun and fatally shot Lyoya in the back of the head.

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Schurr was fired from the Grand Rapids Police Department after he was charged in the shooting in June 2022.

Becker said Thursday he spoke with Lyoyas father, Peter Lyoya, after reaching the decision this week.

Obviously, hes very disappointed in that decision. I know there are many members of the community that are disappointed in the decision.

Peter Lyoya, the father of Patrick Lyoya, speaks to a crowd on the Michigan State Capitol steps, June 7, 2024. | Lucy Valeski

Attorney Ven Johnson, who represents the Lyoya family, issued a statement shortly after Beckers announcement Thursday.

The Lyoya family has not only lost Patrick, but now the hope that former officer Christopher Schurr will ever be held criminally accountable for taking Patricks life, the statement read. With todays decision, what was once a pause in justice has now become a permanent reality. This is not a verdict nor the outcome the Lyoya family sought.

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In December 2022, Lyoyas family filed a $100 million civil lawsuit in federal court against the city of Grand Rapids and Schurr. In August 2023, a judge dismissed the case against the city, but allowed the litigation to proceed against Schurr.

We will continue to stand with the Lyoya family in their pursuit of truth, accountability and justice for Patrick, and are awaiting our day in civil court, Johnson said.

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Sandra Anderson didnt think the storm would be too bad. When her grandchildren asked if the dogs should be brought in, Anderson demurred, saying theyd be fine. But later that night, an alert on her phone warned her of a tornado tearing through her hometown of London, Kentucky. Seconds later, it hit her neighborhood.

I hollered for my handicapped son to hit the hallway, Anderson said. Windows were exploding. There was such a horrifying howl before it hit.

Tornadoes are measured using whats called the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which ranks them on a scale of 1 to 5 according to their wind speed and potential for damage. The mile-wide twister that blew out Andersons windows and flattened entire neighborhoods traveled over 50 miles and clocked in at EF-4, making it a particularly violent one. Meanwhile, an EF-3 funnel cloud cut a 23-mile path through the St. Louis area.

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Both were part of a broader system that stretched from Missouri to Kentucky, spawning over 70 tornadoes that killed at least 28 people and leveled or damaged thousands of structures. Eastern Kentucky bore the brunt of the fury; 18 people died there. Seven more were killed in Missouri.

The storms come as President Donald Trumps administration makes deep cuts to the National Weather Service, or NWS, and its parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Together, the two agencies provide accurate and timely forecasts to meteorologists and others and play a key role in forecasting tornadoes and warning people of impending danger. Meteorologists and other experts warn that the administrations cuts to the agency could cost lives.

The NWS has lost 600 people through layoffs and retirements, according to The New York Times, leaving many local weather stations scrambling to cover shortfalls. The office in Jackson, Kentucky, for example, is 1 of 8 nationwide to abruptly end 24/7 forecasting after losing an overnight forecaster, and its now short about 31 percent of its staff. The Jackson office serves a large swath of eastern Kentucky, a rural region with patchy access to cell and internet that has been repeatedly battered by storms and floods over the past five years.

All of this comes as the private forecasting company AccuWeather warns that the United States is facing its worst tornado season in more than a decade.

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Even as the twister in eastern Kentucky passed, people began to speculate that NWS staffing cuts contributed to the death toll. Their suspicion stemmed from the tornado warnings upgrade to a Particularly Dangerous Situation, a designation reserved for particularly severe situations with an imminent threat to life and property. That warning, meant to convey the need to take cover immediately, came shortly before the tornado touched down at around 11:07 p.m., several officials told Grist.

Sandra Anderson and her three grandchildren, who survived the deadly tornado in eastern Kentucky, are seen sitting on their porch.

That designation, called a PDS, came after the popular YouTube forecaster Ryan Hall Yall, who is based in eastern Kentucky, urged everyone in the storms path to seek shelter around 10:45 p.m. Local television news meteorologists did so about the same time. We just have to hope were doing a good job of getting that message out there because otherwise nobody would know, Hall, who does not have formal meteorology training, told his audience around 10:54 p.m.

Although the NWS issued 90 alerts on May 16, including warnings about flash flooding and impending tornadoes, someone who identified himself as an NWS-trained weather spotter left a comment on Halls feed saying the agency issued the PDS only after he raised the issue. I called the NWS in Wilmington, Ohio, who relayed my report to the Jackson weather office, he posted. A couple minutes after that, it was upgraded to a PDS confirmed by weather spotters. Many commenters credited Hall with saving lives.

Neither Hall nor the commenter who identified himself as a weather spotter could be reached for comment. Chase Carson, a tourism commissioner in London, followed a forecasting livestream on Facebook as the storm developed. He spent the day after the twister volunteering at the citys emergency response center, responding to the crisis. You have people who had nicer homes but still didnt think that the tornado was going to hit their area because we didnt receive enough warning prior, he said. Just a lot of X, Y, and Zs that went wrong to keep us from being able to be prepared.

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The National Weather Service defended its handling of the storm and the timeliness of its warnings in Kentucky, telling Grist in a statement that its offices in Louisville, Jackson, and Paducah provided forecast information, timely warnings, and decision support in the days and hours leading up to the severe weather on May 16.

Information was conveyed to the public through multiple routine means, including official products, social media, and NOAA Weather Radio, as well as to partners through advance conference calls and webinars. As planned in advance, neighboring offices provided staffing support to the office in Jackson, Kentucky. Additionally, the Jackson office remained fully staffed through the duration of the event using surge staffing. Weather forecast offices in the central region continue to evaluate storm damage and other impacts from this tragic event.

Tom Fahy, the legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization, said the offices were fully staffed and that weather forecasting offices in multiple cities typically collaborate when extreme weather is expected. People make sacrifices, he said. You dont have the night off, you got to come to work. According to Fahy, thats part of the life of service NWS forecasters sign up for  which might intensify as offices lose staff.

People on the north side of St. Louis were equally suspicious of the NWS response after they did not hear warning sirens go off, even though the system had been tested the day before the tornado. However, the city runs that system and Mayor Cara Spencer blamed the problem on human failure because the municipal emergency management protocol was not exceptionally clear on who is to activate the system. To that end, the city tested the warning sirens again Tuesday and Wednesday, and Spencer issued an executive order placing the fire department in charge of activating the warning system.

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Aliya Lyons only knew to take shelter thanks to the St. Louis University emergency alert system. I didnt hear any sirens, she said. And that was a major failure on the citys part. Lives were lost. I cant say if it was entirely because of the sirens. But its really heartbreaking  elders may not have a cellphone, cellphones might be dead.

She worries that the situation will only get worse; the Trump administration has proposed cutting NOAAs budget by more than 25 percent. Even with the current National Weather Service, horrible things can happen  now is not the time to gut them. We should be making it more robust.

Fahy said the NWS and its union are collaborating to realign staff to meet a reduced service schedule. The expectation will be that stations will work together to fill in gaps as needed.

That may not do much to ease Bobby Days mind. He is the interim police chief in London and worked with city officials and first responders on emergency planning days before the tornado. Hes long counted on the NWS to do his job and is never without his NOAA weather radio. He still recalls a wild and destructive storm that hit London out of the blue on a clear night a few years ago. The agencys forecasts and warnings were essential in timing evacuations.

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Almost to the minute they said it was going to happen, it happened, he said.

NOAA and the National Weather Service may well continue to deliver that level of precision even as the Trump administration slashes its budget and staffing. But meteorologists and others who deal with extreme weather worry that the suspicion and speculation that followed the tornadoes will only mount, undermining confidence in the agencies even as they become more vital to public safety. This frustrates Jim Caldwell, a meteorologist at local station WYMT-TV, who worries people will turn away from reputable, if strained, resources in favor of social media personalities like Hall  although Caldwell did not specifically mention him by name. Some of them are good forecasters, he said, but others favor sensationalization to calm preparation in a bid to gain viewers or virality.

With the uprise of social media and these fake weather people out there in the weather world that are not real, he said, we need more assistance from the government to issue warnings, issue watches, and to make sure that these hype-casters are cut off because we need an official word.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Kentucky tornadoes spur mounting anxiety over weather service warning systems on May 22, 2025.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. I'm not interested in running again for the post of the head of state, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters upon returning from Hungary, Trend reports.

We want a new constitution not for ourselves, but for the country. I have no intention of being re-elected or putting forward my candidacy again. What matters to us is how our actions can enhance Turkiyes standing, he said.

The next presidential election in Turkiye is scheduled to take place no later than May 14, 2028.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  It's crunch time for the maker of Levi's and Wrangler jeans in Kenyas capital, Nairobi. Hundreds of sewing machines whir in a crowded, air-conditioned factory. On another floor, workers pack clothes destined for the U.S. market.

The fate of about 16,000 workers in the factory at the United Aryan export processing zone hangs in the balance. In September, a duty-free trade agreement between Kenya and the United States could expire under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA.

The factory's founder, Pankaj Bedi, said manufacturers would be unable to compete well in the U.S. market if the AGOA agreement is not renewed, due to the difficult business environment in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Without AGOA  meant to benefit African nations that meet certain U.S. expectations in areas including governance and human rights  many Kenyan goods would no longer have duty-free access to the U.S. market. And they would be exposed to the uncertainty of the Trump administrations global tariff campaign.

It's a concern across the continent. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking to journalists after his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, noted that AGOA is going to be further discussed ... it is top of mind for them as well in the U.S. administration.

Bedi said his business has benefited from 25 years of the AGOA agreement but will not survive if the deal is not extended again.

This time around, we are hoping that President Trump will pass it for a longer period, then a long-term strategy can come in play," he said. The longest extension has been for a decade.

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In making his pitch, Bedi said he believes that Africa offers the perfect alternative sourcing to Asia with its large and youthful workforce. Seventy percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa are under 30, according to the United Nations.

I think the real shift of supply chain will happen, and Africa is the last frontier. We cannot go to the moon and start manufacturing there," Bedi said.

Kenyas government would not comment on the deal or why it might be under threat.

Economist Wangari Muikia said the new U.S. tariffs reflect a shift towards reviving American manufacturing, consistent with Trumps priority to re-shore jobs, but warned that ending AGOA may strain diplomatic ties and weaken American soft power.

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African governments have promoted AGOA as a major job creation avenue.

In Kenya, AGOA has led to the creation of 66,000 jobs since the program began in 2000, according to government statistics published in 2024. Kenyas overall unemployment rate is 12.7%, but the rate among those under 35 is 67%  part of a wider issue for much of Africas booming young population.

In 2023, Kenyas total exports under AGOA including agricultural products, apparel and handicrafts were worth $510 million, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. United Aryan said it exports an average of 8 million jeans annually from Kenya to the U.S.

But some African governments and leaders have objected to AGOA's conditions. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni criticized the program after it was used in 2023 to pressure him on his stance on homosexuality.

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Kenyas former ambassador to the U.N., Martin Kimani, said in an interview with The Associated Press that he believes AGOAs unpredictability has not been good for the economy.

The real measure of a trade regime is its predictability and its integration into long-term production," he said. The tariffs and the programs upcoming expiration signal that AGOA is not a stable foundation for African industrial growth.

If Kenyas AGOA deal isnt extended, the country will need to look for alternative markets like the African Continental Free Trade Area to ensure jobs are not lost and manufacturers keep exporting goods, said economist James Shikwati, founder and director of The Inter Region Economic Network.

The continental free trade area has shortcomings that include underdeveloped infrastructure that makes it expensive to transport goods, mistrust that makes it hard for some countries to be fully open to trading with neighbors and a lack of strong institutions that can mediate trade disputes.

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Judging by the Trump administrations recent trade-related policies, every trade partner will need to reevaluate its engagement with the U.S., Shikwati added.

For those whose jobs could be affected, there is concern.

United Aryan employee Valdes Samora hopes to keep the sewing machines humming, and that livelihoods will not be lost after September.

The 59-year-old father of nine has been working at the company for two decades. His wife also works there. Workers are paid an average of $200 per month, in a country where the minimum wage is $115.

I never completed my education, but through this work I have been able to educate my children, he said.
Scott Kid Cudi Mescudi arrives for the Sean Combs sex-trafficking trial in New York City on Thursday. - Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Follow all our Sean Combs trial coverage

Kid Cudi gave his long-awaited testimony at Sean Combs sex trafficking and racketeering trial today, describing for jurors the menacing harassment Combs allegedly inflicted when he learned the rapper was dating Casandra Cassie Ventura.

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Cudi claimed Combs personally broke into his home in December 2011, and that the music moguls jealous rage culminated with a firebombing of Cudis Porsche outside his Hollywood Hills home in January 2012.

The rapper, actor, and producer, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, took the witness stand shortly before 11 a.m., with Combs looking straight ahead and avoiding any eye contact with the musician as he entered the packed courtroom.

Speaking to jurors during his nearly 90 minutes of testimony, Mescudi said his romance with Ventura started after she told him she and Combs had some problems and werent dating anymore. He said he was really confused when Ventura called him in a panic one morning in December 2011 to say Combs had discovered their relationship. She sounded really stressed on the phone, nervous, scared, he recalled. He went to pick her up and took her to the Sunset Marquis hotel. I just thought it

was safe and just wanted to put her somewhere where she was off the radar, he said.

The musician said he later spoke to one of Combs employees at the time, Capricorn Clark, by phone. She told him she was forced to go along with Combs and another man to Mescudis house, and they were inside the residence while she outside in a car, he said. She was very scared, sounded like she was on the verge of tears, he said of Clark. Mescudi said he started racing to the Hollywood Hills address and called Combs from his car. Motherfucker, are you in my house? he recalled repeatedly asking Combs.

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Im here, Combs allegedly replied. Im over here waiting for you.

According to Mescudi, Combs had fled by the time he arrived. Still, there were telltale signs someone had broken in. Holiday gifts from Chanel were opened and left in the kitchen. Mescudis dog was found locked in a bathroom, clearly traumatized by something, he said. Mescudi said after the incident, the dog was very jittery and kind of on edge all the time.

After he saw his dog, Mescudi called Combs again, he testified. I was looking for him. Because I wanted to confront him. I wanted to fight him, Mescudi told jurors. Once he gathered himself, he called police instead and made a report. He then traveled to Connecticut with Ventura for the holidays. Combs was texting him throughout the trip, Mescudi said, but he decided not to engage.

I told him, you know, specifically told him, You broke into my house. You messed with my dog. Like, I dont want to talk to you,' Mescudi testified.

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A couple of weeks later, Mescudis dog sitter called him to say his Porsche was on fire, he testified. Someone had sliced the cars convertible roof and dropped a Molotov cocktail inside, on the drivers side, he said.

What the fuck? he said of his reaction to the car bombing in his driveway. Jurors saw photos of the damaged sports car, with its red leather interior blackened from flames.

Mescudi said he reached out to Combs after that, because the situation was getting out of hand. He said the trio met at the Soho House in Los Angeles the next day. Combs was standing there, staring out the window with his hands behind his back, like a Marvel supervillain, Mescudi recalled, causing laughter in the courtroom.

At the meeting, Combs refused to acknowledge any connection to the car, Mescudi told the jury. He believed that Combs was lying, Mescudi testified. The musician said Ventura effectively ended their relationship, essentially ghosting him.

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For his part, Mescudi said he also wanted to give the relationship space. It was for my safety, for her safety, he testified, because I knew Sean Combs was violent. Under cross-examination, Mescudi admitted no one saw who torched the car and that he had no direct evidence Combs was involved. (Combs has pleaded not guilty to the five felony charges against him and denies any connection to the vehicle arson.)

After the jury left the room, U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian admonished defense lawyer Brian Steel for asking Mescudi about his sex life with Ventura. A prosecutor called the attempted questioning outrageous.

The line was crystal clear and  the line was crossed, the judge said. Is it going to happen again? the judge pressed. Steel said no.

On Thursday afternoon, Mescudi posted a video message saying people had been checking in on him leading up to his testimony, and he appreciated the support. Ive been seeing all the love and support, and I just wanna say, thank you so much, Mescudi said. It really means a lot to me, man. You guys are the best. I love yall. This is a stressful situation. Im glad its behind me. And yeah, I love yall, man. Big love.

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Last year, Rolling Stone obtained a Los Angeles City Fire Department report that confirmed Mescudi was the owner of a Porsche that was set on fire by an incendiary device on the morning of Jan. 9, 2012. The cause of the ignition was listed as intentional. The report did not mention any suspects. A fire official told Rolling Stone that the vehicle was not fully engulfed upon the departments arrival.

According to prosecutors, Combs volatile reaction to Venturas short-lived romance with Mescudi, was an example of the methods he used to control Ventura. Southern District of New York prosecutors allege that throughout a decade-long relationship, Combs coerced Ventura into participating in highly choreographed, days-long sexual encounters with male exotic dancers and escorts, which Combs dubbed freak-offs. Prosecutors allege Combs kept Ventura locked in the abusive dynamic through frequent physical beatings, threats to release explicit tapes of her, and control over her career.

In her own testimony, Ventura said she and Mescudi struck up their short-lived romance in late 2011 during a rough patch in her on-off relationship with Combs. She told jurors that Combs discovered the dalliance when he went through her phone during a freak-off and found emails where Ventura disclosed the relationship to Capricorn Clark.

Combs flew into a rage, Ventura testified. I just remember him putting like a wine bottle opener between his fingers and, like, lunging at me, she said. His eyes blacked out, super angry. And I just had to get out of there. Ventura fled the freak-off and returned to her hotel, using a burner phone to contact Mescudi, who picked her up, she said.

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Ventura attempted to lie low but said she ultimately went to see Combs. I just felt like the better [way] to resolve it in that moment was to go there and just speak to him, she said. But Combs was not in the mood to smooth things over, she said. He was irate, she explained. He was just so angry, and when I was in the room, he told me about videos that he had that he was going to release and how he was going to hurt Scott and I. She said the videos he was referring to were freak-off videos of me.

As she left Combs house, she was assaulted, Ventura said. Combs allegedly kicked her in the back, sending her flying to the ground, she said. Jurors saw photos of a large, purple bruise on her lower back.

As she was flying back to Connecticut for the holidays that year, she emailed her mother, Regina Ventura, and Capricorn Clark, on Dec. 23, 2011. Ventura testified that she wanted to memorialize Combs threats. The threats that have been made towards me by Sean Puffy Combs are that he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me, Ventura wrote from an email account under her alias Veronica Bang.

She claimed Combs threatened to release one [recording] on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after, and another one some time soon after that. She said Combs also threatened to have someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically, adding, He made a point that it wouldnt be by his hands; he actually said hed be out of the country when it happened.

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Due to the overwhelming situation, Ventura said she ended up breaking up with Mescudi a few days later, believing it would be safer for the both of them. I mean, Sean said to me, before I left L.A. that he was going to hurt the both of us, Ventura told the court. I, at least, took that in my mind, like, if I stay in this situation, we both will be hurt. If I dont, then no one will be.

Although she returned to Combs, Ventura testified that Combs was still fuming over Mescudi and continued to make threats. He mentioned that when we were out of the country, that Scotts car would be blown up, she said. He wanted [Mescudis] friends to be there to see it.

Combs also allegedly retaliated against Ventura by demanding money from her parents. Her mother, Regina Ventura, testified earlier this week that an angry Combs contacted her in an attempt to recoup money that he had spent on [Ventura] because he was angry that she had a relationship with Scott Mescudi. Regina said she took out a $20,000 home equity loan in order to wire the money to Combs because I was scared for my daughters safety.

After the lunch break on Thursday, prosecutors called celebrity makeup artist Mylah Morales to the stand. She told jurors her clientele included superstars Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez, and that she worked for Combs for years. Morales, who previously spoke out in The Fall of Diddy, the ID docuseries from Maxine Productions and Rolling Stone Films, then recalled an alleged attack on Ventura during the weekend of the 2010 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Morales said she was asleep in a room at a Beverly Hills hotel when Combs stormed in, demanding to know, Where the fuck is she? (In her prior testimony, Ventura told jurors that Combs beat her in the hotel bedroom because he was furious she attended a party at Princes Los Angeles home.)

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Morales recalled hearing Combs screaming at Ventura in an adjoining room. She said when Ventura finally emerged, she had knots on her head, a swollen eye and a fat lip. Morales testified that she packed up Venturas things and arranged for a doctor to examine Ventura privately at Morales home, to see if she had a concussion. Morales said the doctor also examined Venturas stomach and ribs, advising her to go to the emergency room.

I was afraid of Sean, Morales told the jury of why neither she nor Ventura reported the incident to authorities. I feared for my life.

Speaking in The Fall of Diddy, Morales added that, If we called the police, what would happen? Hes a very powerful person in the business, and he can do things that will make you go away. And many people are afraid of him till this day.

George Kaplan, a former assistant to Combs, also testified Thursday, telling jurors he witnessed Combs become violent with two women. He said in the first instance, Combs allegedly assaulted Ventura on a private jet in 2015. He recalled hearing a tremendous commotion and glass shattering, but he looked away, and no one got up to intervene, he testified. It shook me tremendously, he said.

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Isnt anybody seeing this? Ventura allegedly screamed, according to Kaplan. He said eventually, he looked back and saw Ventura lying on her back, using her legs to create space between her and Combs.

Kaplan said that another time, he saw an angry Combs hurling what looked like green apples at another girlfriend named Gina. He said Combs was throwing the apples hard, and that Gina was trying to shield herself with her arms. Later that night, Kaplan said he awoke to Gina screaming at members of Combs security team as she seemed to be trying to leave Combs Miami mansion.

Kaplan, who testified under immunity, said he resigned from his job because he felt bad about helping cover up the alleged assaults. I was unwilling to stand by the behavior, he told Combs chief of staff, describing his reason for quitting.

Also giving testimony earlier in the week was former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member Dawn Richard; exotic male dancer Sharay Hayes, a.k.a. The Punisher; Combs former personal assistant David James; and expert witness Dr. Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist.

Hughes testified Wednesday that many victims remain in relationships with intimate partner violence for a variety of reasons. She said perpetrators use a range of tactics to assert dominance and hold it, often interspersing abuse with kindness and love bombing. She said abusers use affection to build emotional attachment, which feeds into a powerful trauma bond.

Hughes said its also common for victims to minimize abuse and delay reporting it until they gain distance or receive psychological counseling. [Victims] dont remain because they want to be abused, she testified. Instead, they often feel love for their perpetrators, and hope for change, she testified.

This article was updated at Thursday, May 22 at 4:35 p.m. to include Kid Cudis social video message.

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NEW YORK  Kid Cudi took the witness stand at Sean Diddy Combs Manhattan sex trafficking trial Thursday, telling a jury about how his Hollywood Hills home was burgled and his Porsche was blown up in his driveway after the hip-hop mogul learned he was dating Casandra Cassie Ventura.

On the stand in Manhattan federal court, the Day n Nite rapper described receiving a late-night call from a worried Ventura, very scared, sounded like she was on the verge of tears, in December 2011 when Combs found out they were dating, prompting him to go and pick her up. Mescudi said he called Combs assistant, Capricorn Clark, who sounded distraught and said she was outside Mescudis house, where Combs and one of his associates were inside.

I called Sean Combs, Mescudi recalled. I will be very candid. I said, Uh, motherf-r, you in my house. And hes like, Wassup?

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Mescudi said Combs told him hed meet him at home and just wanted to talk. When he arrived, Combs was not there, but he discovered his security cameras had been positioned at a different angle, Christmas gifts had been opened, and his dog was locked in the bathroom.

Combs told Mescudi he would come and meet him, but Mescudi decided against it. He instead called the cops, telling the court, I thought about the reality of the situation, not knowing what I was walking myself into, so I decided to call the police.

In the ensuing weeks, he had some text communication with Combs, and Ventura went home to Connecticut, where Mescudi visited. Jurors saw images last week that her mother took on the trip of her with severe bruising after allegedly being beaten by Combs.

Not long after, in 2012, Mescudis frantic dog-sitter called him at 6:30 a.m. about his Porsche blowing up in front of his house.

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She told me my car was on fire, Mescudi recalled.

When he got home, the burnt-out car appeared to have been targeted with a Molotov cocktail, Mescudi said.

It looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, and thats where the Molotov cocktail was put in, he said as jurors were shown a photo.

Mescudi testified that Ventura, who hed known since 2008, had confided in him around Thanksgiving 2010 that she and Combs were having issues. Last week, Ventura testified that by 2011 she was being subjected to regular physical abuse by Combs, and he was coercing her into disturbing sexual encounters with strangers.

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She said Combs looked through her phone during one of the sordid sessions and found out she was talking to Mescudi, causing him to fly off the handle completely, take a wine bottle opener between his fingers, and lunge at her.

Ventura said when she met with an irate Combs after the incident, He told me about videos that he had that he was going to release, and how he was going to hurt Scott and I, Ventura testified. When I was leaving, I was more than ready to go. He, Sean, kicked me in my back on the way out. So I had just a big bruise on my back. I fell to the floor ... and then left.

Mescudi on Thursday said his and Venturas courtship didnt last long after the burglary, as he was concerned about his safety. After the car incident, he met with her and Combs to talk, where he said Combs looked like a Marvel supervillain and wanted a full rundown about their fling. He said Combs feigned confusion when confronted about his car and acted eerily relaxed.

It was very off-putting, Mescudi said. It was weird that he was so calm.

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The rapper said Combs would offer a half-apology years later when they ran into each other at a 2015 event, saying sorry for all that bulls--t. On cross-examination, he told defense attorney Brian Steel that Ventura told him about suffering physical abuse under Combs but not sexual abuse. Steel also asked if he was aware that DNA recovered at the scene of the car fire belonged to a woman, which he said he was not.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment, including counts of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting individuals for prostitution.

Hes accused of compulsively coercing women into depraved sexual performances with male escorts with help from a well-compensated network of high-ranking employees akin to a mob who resorted to sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice to facilitate his desires.

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May 22 (UPI) -- Rapper Kid Cudi will take the stand Thursday in the closed door federal sex-trafficking trial against Sean "Diddy" Combs in a big day for prosecutors.

The 41-year-old Grammy Award-winning rapper, whose birth name is Scott Mescudi, is expected to share details about his romantic past from more than 10 years ago with Combs' ex-partner, Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, particularly the allegations that Combs allegedly was behind the blowing up of Mescudi's car.

The trial began on May 5 at the U.S. District Court for Southern New York courthouse in Manhattan in a trial where cameras are prohibited.

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Combs is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and two counts of sex trafficking by force. He has pleaded not guilty and could be sentenced to up to life in prison if a jury finds him guilty on one or more charges.

On Tuesday, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was the first to open testimony in the trial during the morning hours as a handful of other witnesses took the stand, including a board-certified forensic and clinical psychologist and Ventura's mother.

Kid Cudi, a star witness for prosecutors, arrived at a federal court to testify in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex-trafficking trial in New York City on Thursday while smoking a cigarette. Combs has pleaded not guilty on five criminal counts on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

Ventura, in a 2023 civil lawsuit settled privately without Combs admitting any wrongdoing, alleged that Combs told her that he would blow of Mescudi's car.

"Around that time, Kid Cudi's car exploded in his driveway," court documents read, adding that Ventura was "terrified, as she began to fully comprehend what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had slighted him."

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Meanwhile, Ventura testified in court last week and said she kept a burner phone to hide her relationship with Cudi.

The prosecution will likely try to prove that Combs used his considerable influence and wealth to execute the bombing of Cudi's vehicle, according to a former federal prosecutor for New York's Southern District.

Calling Mescudi to the witness stand could help the prosecution if it can demonstrate Combs used his considerable financial and business resources to carry out the bombing, said Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York.

"The burden of proof is on the federal government, so they'll have to show this was part of the racketeering," Rachel Maimin, now a criminal defense attorney with Lowenstein Sandler LLP, told NBC.

"This may be a way of explaining how he used his business empire to further the prosecution's goal of proving the racketeering enterprise," she added.
In August 2009, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce attacked President Barack Obamas budding health care overhaul, declaring in a scathing television advertisement the legislation would raise taxes, balloon the deficit, and socialize medicine. Motivating the business lobbying groups aggressive opposition were concerns the eventual Affordable Care Act would stifle economic growth and threaten its members profitability.

Nearly 16 years later, the chamber is again at odds with a president and his prized agenda. But unlike the Obamacare hypothetical, Donald Trumps unilateral implementation of tariffs on foreign imports is doing demonstrable damage to economic growth and business profitability. Yet rather than publicly target the presidents trade policies, the group is relying on respectful lobbying to obtain relief for its members.

This strategy is a product of Trumps centrality to this process.

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While senior administration officials are involved and in regular contact with the business community, winning tariff exemptions requires appealing to Trump, personally. Picking a public fight with the president or running ads highlighting the fallacy of his deep faith in the efficacy of tariffs would risk an angry backlash and be counterproductive to lobbying efforts, the chamber has concluded.

I think weve been pretty critical in our disagreement with these tariffs and pretty clear and unambiguous about what we think the tariffs are going to do to the economy and to businesses and to consumers, Neil Bradley, the chambers executive vice president, chief policy officer and head of strategic advocacy, told The Dispatch in a telephone interview. The difficulty that I think everyone finds is howparticularly in this tariff process that is really unlike any other legislative or even regulatory processhow do you effectuate a change in course?

The chamber has answered that question in part by sending a letter to the Trump administration that aligns the organization with the presidents trade philosophy while tactfully requesting relief from tariffs on behalf of small businesses. The chamber supports many of the presidents policy goals, the letter reads. At the same time, we have heard from a historic number of small businesses who have made it clear: they need immediate relief.

More evidence of the chambers deference: The group declined to challenge the Trump administrations tariffs in court, although some businesses have taken legal action, arguing the president has misused the emergency trade authority Congress granted the executive branch decades ago. As CNBC reported, that decision stands in stark contrast to the more than 20 times the group sued President Joe Bidens administration.

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But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isnt alone.

Most major industry lobbying organizations in Washington, D.C., representing corporate America and businesses large and small, fear angering Trump with strident opposition to his trade agenda. So, while these groups are candid about the negative impact tariffs are having on the economy generally and businesses specifically, they have essentially put away the proverbial political stick wielded against previous presidents and have instead attempted to woo Trump with political carrots.

This conciliatory approach tends to focus on individual trade-related challenges, instead of on the presidents tariff philosophy more broadly. Sometimes groups like the chamber, or the National Association of Manufacturers or the Business Round Table, will appeal to Trumps vanity as a dealmaker; other times they will explain how the presidents most loyal supporters are suffering the most. This strategy has produced limited results, most notably a temporary easing of trade tensions with China.

But business advocates are convinced its the only viable game plan.

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This administration has a general philosophy that is pro-business, Craig Souser, a National Association of Manufacturers board member and chief executive officer of JLS Automation, a high-end manufacturer in York, Pennsylvania, told The Dispatch. Being combative can get you tossed out of meetings, can burn a relationship; and thats the last thing that you need.

JLS Automation employs roughly 135 people and designs and manufactures high-end robotics for the food industry from component pieces that are machined and fabricated in Europe and Canada (domestic-supplier alternatives dont exist.) Because of Trumps tariffs, the company has halved growth projections for the first two quarters of this year. The original, rosy growth figures were based on assumptions that the president would focus primarily on tax cuts and deregulation.

Profits have also taken a hit, of up to 10 percent: The company has been forced to at least partially eat the cost of the tariffs for component parts ordered before the implementation of higher import levies. Overall, JLS Automation has cut profit forecasts for 2025 and expects to do even worse than last yearunder a Democratic administration Souser describes as hostile to business. But as a practical matter, he still believes being on friendly terms with the Trump administration is the best strategy.

Im a strong believer that Donald Trump, while he may not at that moment even acknowledge that hes buying what youre saying, he may process it later and deal with it differently, Souser said. I dont want to get thrown out of the meeting because I want my point heard.

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Trump has been a fervent believer in tariffs as pro-growth economic tools for decades. He campaigned on plans to wield the levies aggressively to make foreign trade more fair for American companies and workers. But corporate executives and small business owners, and the advocacy groups that represent their interests in Washington, D.C., were nonetheless genuinely surprised by Trumps aggressive use of tariffs after being inaugurated in January, first against Canada and Mexico and then globally via his so-called Liberation Day announcement in April.

Under normal circumstances, the business community might fight backvigorously and vocally. And while fear of being penalized by Trump for speaking out is certainly a factor in the corporate, kid-glove approach to the administration, theres another, less discussed explanation. Amid the presidents caustic social media posts that grab all the headlines, his second-term administration has had a genial, open-door policy.

From Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on down the chain of command, business community lobbyists tell The Dispatch the Trump administration has been willing to listen to their complaints about the tariffs and at least discuss options for mitigating the economic fallout. Thats much better treatment than they experienced under Biden, whose administration they say ignored themeven more so than Obama.

This administration is perfectly willing to talk, said a former congressional Republican aide who works closely with the business community and requested anonymity to discuss Trump. Ive talked to a lot of people who say: You might not like what you hear but they are always willing to talk. Its much different from the Heisman they received from Biden.

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The open-door policy is why the pharmaceutical industry is cautiously optimistic negotiations will lead to mitigation of a Trump executive order attempting to use federal price controls to slash the cost of prescription drugs. A source familiar with the industrys thinking also emphasized that choosing not to go to war with Trump over this latest presidential directive does not equal appeasement.

The pharmaceutical industry has been supportive of some of the presidents deregulation and trade policies generally, not to mention new transparency guidelines he set for pharmacy benefit managers (firms that run prescription drug coverage services for insurers and other organizations) in an April 15 executive order. Trump also, so far, has largely excluded drugmakers from tariffs, with the exception being small levies that apply to imports from China.

Plus, the industry backs the administrations goal, as laid out in the otherwise worrisome executive order, to enable pharmaceutical manufacturers to increase the prices they charge for prescription drugs in countries that use government regulations to keep consumer prices low.

Thats the thing the media coverage has gotten wrongthat the business community must have their head in the sand or is just whistling past the graveyard because theyre not fighting back or criticizing the president, the pharmaceutical source said. Just because were not out beating our chest and screaming into a microphone like maybe the business community has in past engagements, doesnt mean theres not constructive dialogue and productive conversations at multiple receptor points in the administration.

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North Koreas newest warship was severely damaged during a recent launch ceremony, with leader Kim Jong Un, who witnessed the accident, saying it brought shame to the nations prestige and vowing to punish those found responsible, state media reported.

In a rare admission of failure, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said a malfunction in the launch mechanism caused the stern of the as-yet unnamed 5,000-ton destroyer to slide prematurely into the water on Wednesday, crushing parts of the hull and leaving the bow stranded on the shipway.

Kim called the launch failure a criminal act and blamed it on absolute carelessness and irresponsibility by multiple state institutions - including the Munitions Industry Department, Kim Chaek University of Technology and the central ship design bureau.

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Law enforcement have detained three people for legal investigation over the incident, including the chief engineer of the shipyard, state media KCNA reported Sunday, citing the group in charge of investigating the botched launch.

Satellite imagery showed the vessel lying on its side, the stern in the water, and the bow still on land. State media did not immediately release images of the accident.

Naval analysts said the damage incurred by a vessel in such a launch malfunction could be catastrophic.

This satellite image shows North Korea's second-newest destroyer in Chongjin shipyard, North Korea, on May 18, 2025, just days before it was damaged due to "serious accident during a launching ceremony - Maxar Technologies

If the ship does not move together, the stresses will tear the hull apart, Sal Mercogliano, a professor at Campbell University in North Carolina and a maritime expert, told CNN.

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Naval analyst Carl Schuster in Hawaii, after reviewing the KCNA account, said he thinks the stresses would warp the hull, induce cracks and (possibly) snap the keel depending on where the greatest stress falls.

The launch failure marks a setback for what analysts have viewed as North Koreas most ambitious naval modernization effort in decades.

The ship was to be the second major navy surface vessel revealed in quick succession by North Korea. In April, Kim unveiled the Choe Hyon, the countrys first newly constructed destroyer in decades, and declared his ambition of building more destroyers and various cruisers and frigates.

The Choe Hyon, described as a new generation warship, was presented with significant fanfare with state media saying it would strengthen naval readiness amid what Pyongyang calls rising threats from the United States and South Korea.

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Western defense analysts noted that the Choe Hyon marked a departure from the aging Soviet-era vessels that dominated the Korean Peoples Navy. While details remain scarce, satellite imagery and footage suggested the Choe Hyon could share design elements with similar Russian navy ships.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) spokesperson Lee Sung-joon said the vessel damaged on Wednesday was thought to be equipped like the Choe Hyon.

Wednesdays incident could cast doubt on the countrys ability to scale its navy. Kim said the damage would be addressed not only through technical repairs, but political accountability.

He ordered the destroyer to be restored before the late June plenary session of the ruling Workers Party, calling the matter one of national honor.

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KCNA reported Friday that the damage to the warship was less than North Koreas initial estimate, saying there were no holes in the hull, although it was scratched along the starboard side. It also said a certain amount of seawater flowed into the stern section.

Repairs could take about 10 days, the report said.

However, considering the potential degree of damage, analysts said that it would be nearly impossible to meet Kims late June deadline for repairs.

The ship will not be entering Korean Peoples Navy (KPN) service anytime soon and may ultimately prove to be a complete loss, experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote in their Beyond Parallel blog alongside satellite photos of the floundering vessel.

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Retired South Korean Adm. Kim Duk-ki told CNN that North Korea appeared to lack the necessary infrastructure  a dry dock  to launch a 5,000-ton destroyer, let alone recover and repair it.

A dry dock is a basin facility that can be filled with water to float a ship or drain out to build or repair one.

Satellite image shows North Korea's second-newest destroyer in Chongjin Shipyard, North Korea, on May 12, 2025, just days before it was damaged in a 'serious accident' during a launching ceremony. - Airbus

Dry dock is an expensive facility, and North Korea probably doesnt have one Its easy to repair a ship in a dry dock after draining water, but they dont have the facility, the retired admiral said, adding that restoration could take over four to five months.

South Korean lawmaker and defense analyst Yu Yong-weon said rushing the launch of the ship likely led to the problems encountered on Wednesday and warned hasty repairs could cause more problems down the line.

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Schuster said repairs, if possible, are more likely to take months, rather than weeks.

An accident investigation group has been formed, and senior officials may face censure at the upcoming Party Central Committee meeting, an account from KCNA reported.

North Koreas navy is often seen as the least developed branch of its military. The hastened pace of destroyer development has surprised some outside observers, raising questions about how much of the technology is functional versus symbolic.

Mercogliano, the US professor, said its unclear whether Pyongyangs new warships even have engines as state media has provided no images of them underway.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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A new North Korean warship was left lying on its side in the water after a failed launch saw its hull crushed.

Kim Jong-un, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-ton destroyer, declared the incident a criminal act caused by absolute carelessness and warned that it could not be tolerated.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the accident at the eastern port of Chongjin was caused by a loss of balance while the vessel was being launched.

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It left some sections of the warships bottom crushed and the bow was unable to exit the shipway, KCNA added.

South Koreas military said the stricken warship was lying sideways in the water after the failed launch.

The report did not mention whether there were any casualties.

Kim said the accident brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse and vowed to hold officials accountable for the irresponsible errors.

The North Korean leader said they would be dealt with at the plenary meeting of the Party Central Committee to be convened next month. He ordered for repairs on the warship to be completed before June.

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The rare public disclosure of the accident comes after Pyongyang unveiled another 5,000-ton destroyer-class vessel named Choe Hyon last month.

At the time, state media ran images of Kim attending a ceremony with his daughter Ju Ae, considered by many experts to be his likely successor.

Kim and his daughter stand in the bow of the destroyer Choe Hyon last month - AFP

North Korea claimed that the vessel was equipped with the most powerful weapons, and that it would enter into operation early next year.

Some analysts said the ship could be equipped with short-range tactical nuclear missiles.

In a report last week on preparations for the launch of the accident ship, US-based analysis website 38 North said it appeared that the ship would be side-launched from the quay, a method not previously observed in North Korea.

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The use of this launch method could be one of necessity, as the quay where the ship is being built does not have an incline, the 38 North report said.

Commercial satellite imagery of the shipyard the day before the launch showed the destroyer positioned on the quay with support vessels by its side.

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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  A Cessna Citation II (C550) twin-jet aircraft crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego on Thursday, igniting fires that damaged homes and several vehicles.

The crash occurred shortly before 4 a.m. in the Murphy Canyon area, near Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, during dense fog conditions that limited visibility. The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation.

GALLERY: Fiery plane crash leaves path of destruction in San Diego

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The aircraft, a Cessna 550 model, is a light business jet commonly used for private travel. It typically seats up to eight passengers and is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-4 engines. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the plane was built in 1985 and is registered to a company based in Alaska.

This Adobe Stock image shows a C550 aircraft, though its not the exact one that crashed in San Diego.

Based on FlightAware data, the planes flight path began at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey on Monday, with a stopover in Wichita, Kansas, before heading to San Diego shortly after 2:30 a.m. Central Standard Time. The plane never made it to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, instead going down in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood.

FAA officials have yet to confirm just how many people were onboard the plane, though all are presumed dead.

This isnt the first time a Cessna aircraft has gone down in the region. Back in 2021, a twin-engine C340 Cessna crashed in a Santee neighborhood, killing at least two people.

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As for now, residents and officials alike are awaiting answers as an investigation into the cause of Thursdays plane crash remains ongoing.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two staff members at the Israeli Embassy, were killed outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night, according to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar.

The young couple were not diplomats, but instead Lischinsky was a researcher in the political department of the Israeli Embassy, and Milgrim organized U.S. missions to Israel.

"The couple that was gunned down tonight were about to be engaged," Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the United States, said during the press conference. "The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing next week in Jerusalem."

PHOTO: Two members of the Israeli embassy staff -- a couple about to get engaged -- were gunned down outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday in what the FBI believes may be a targeted attack. (X / Embassy of Israel to the USA / @IsraelinUSA)

Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador in Germany and friend of Lischinsky, described the two victims as a "young couple with a bright future planning their life together."

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Here is what else we know about the young couple that was killed:

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky, who was born in Nuremberg, Germany, was a Christian, and a "true lover of Israel" who "chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause," Prosor said on X.

The son of a Jewish father and a Christian-Evangelist mother, Lischinsky left Germany and came to Israel with his brother when he was 16 years old, according to Ronen Shoval, the head of the Argaman Institute for Conservative Studies in Jerusalem -- where Lischinsky attended an advanced program. In his LinkedIn profile, Lischinsky wrote he had the "privilege of calling both Jerusalem and Nuremberg my home."

"He was a man of faith, he took his Christian faith seriously. He was asking the big questions of life, and saw himself as someone who wants to be part of the story of the Jewish people," Shoval told ABC News.

PHOTO: Tributes are left at the Capital Jewish Museum, near the site where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead, in Washington, May 22, 2025. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters)

During his work the past two years as a research assistant at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., Lischinsky was responsible for "keeping the department up to date on important events in the Middle East & North Africa, conducting research on topics of interest to our diplomatic staff, liaison with other diplomatic missions, maintaining relationships with the local think tank community and helping to organize delegation visits from various Israeli ministries," according to his LinkedIn profile.

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MORE: 2 Israeli embassy staffers killed in apparent 'targeted attack' in Washington, DC

He received a master's degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, and a bachelor's degree in international relations and Asian studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, his profile said. He was fluent in English, Hebrew and German.

Lischinsky also served in the Israel Defense Forces for three years, Prosor said

Prosor described Lischinsky as "bright, curious, [and] engaged" and said he "embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide."

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Shoval told ABC News that Lischinsky was "a mensch" and that he "searched for good and wanted to do good, and saw the good in Israel."

One of Lischinsky's friends, David Ross, told ABC affiliate KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri, that his death is "still something I am trying to come to terms with, probably will be for some time."

Sarah Lynn Milgrim

Milgrim worked in the embassy's department of public diplomacy for almost two years, beginning in November 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She described herself as a "dynamic professional," saying her passion lies "at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement and environmental work," her profile said. She was an American citizen, according to The Associated Press.

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Before her time at the embassy, she worked in Tel Aviv for Tech2Peace, which "provides high-tech and entrepreneurial training alongside conflict dialogue to young Palestinians and Israelis," according to its website.

Tech2Peace said in a statement on Thursday that Milgrim was a "devoted and active volunteer in our community" and was a "deeply curious person."

PHOTO: People attend a candlelight vigil at Lafayette Square across from the White House in Washington, May 22, 2025, following a shooting that left two people dead. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

"She brought people together with empathy and purpose, and her dedication to building a better future was evident in everything she did," the organization said. "Her voice and spirit will be profoundly missed."

Milgrim received two masters degrees -- one in international affairs from American University and another in natural resources and sustainable development from the University of Peace in Costa Rica -- and a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Kansas, according to her profile.

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KU Hillel, the University of Kansas' Jewish community, said Milgrim's friends described her as "the definition of the best person" and that she made "meaningful contributions that continue to resonate today."

"Sarah's bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her," the group said in a statement on Thursday.

Milgrim's close friend, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, struggled to hold back tears while speaking with ABC News on Thursday.

Mizrahi said the embassy staffer had dedicated her career to building bridges and bringing together the Israeli and Palestinian communities.

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"Sarah was just the kindest of people. She was completely devoted to fighting climate change and to working for peace. She had worked with Israelis and Palestinians on so many different issues to try and build bridges, and she worked so hard to solve the climate crisis. This is a heartbreaking tragedy for all of us," Mizrahi said.

Jacob Desett, a childhood friend of Milgrim, told KMBC the news of her death was "devastating" and that Milgrim was "good at everything she did."

"She cared so much for everybody. She wanted peace, she wanted to work toward a brighter future. No one deserves this, she and her partner definitely did not deserve this," Desett told KMBC.

ABC News' Dana Savir contributed to this report.

What we know about the 2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in DC shooting: 'Young couple with bright future' originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
"Breguet was to watchmaking what AI is to technology today." Master watchmaker and restorer Jean-Baptiste Viot, one of the foremost experts on Breguet, offers an illuminating perspective on the trajectory and legacy of the great horologist.

Youre a Paris-based watchmaker and restorer, responsible for the maintenance of the clocks and timepieces at the Chateau de Versailles, and one of the leading specialists on Breguet. How do you place Abraham-Louis Breguet in the context of his time, at the end of the 18th century?

Jean-Baptiste Viot: We dont know much about his apprenticeship. He was the son of an innkeeper who died prematurely. His mother remarried, and it was because of that remarriage that he entered the world of watchmakingotherwise, by the standards of the time, he should have become an innkeeper like his father.

Breguet rose rapidly in the field of horology. Its important to understand that, at the level he was working, it was considered high technology. In his day, Breguet was to watchmaking what AI is to modern technology. In his field, he stood on the same level as todays top engineers working on artificial intelligence, because chronometry was cutting-edge tech at the time.

Moreover, Breguet was extremely well-connected in the scientific and commercial circles of his era. He operated at a strategic level. He also had a sharp business sense. He understood how people used pocket watches in his time. He emphasized legibility while never losing sight of either aesthetics or functionality.



Breguet No. 5, by Abraham-Louis Breguet. All the aesthetic codes (dial, hands, guilloche sectors) are already present  Breguet

What does the Breguet name represent in contemporary watchmaking?

Theres undeniably a Breguet style, because he grasped the importance of the Lepine caliber revolution, but infused it with modernity and exceptional quality. Breguet never produced purely utilitarian watches, unlike Leroy, for instance. The notion of luxury was already present in Breguets work as early as the 18th century. He wasnt solely focused on the functional side of watchmaking, like Berthoud with his marine chronometers. Breguet understood the value of aesthetics. At the time, you could recognize a Breguet watch from across the roomeven without a signature. Thats still true today.

Contemporary Reference 7137  Breguet

What did the invention of the tourbillon change?

Breguet inventedor popularizedmany technical innovations. The tourbillon was one among others. It was universally hailed at the time as a major breakthrough. It was a brilliant invention, but highly complex and thus prohibitively expensive, which limited its adoption. It's similar to resonance watches or the sympathique clock: extraordinary ideas, but of limited practical use, and with astronomical costs. Nonetheless, they all contributed to Breguets reputation as an inventor.

Watch No. 1176 with Tourbillon by Abraham-Louis Breguet  Breguet

Which aspects of Breguets life do you find most interesting?

People often forget that Breguet helped popularize the lever escapementand that was revolutionary too. Before Breguet, escapements were still largely derived from clockmaking, and thus ill-suited for pocket watches.

How important are the Breguet archives, in your view?

They are unique. Breguet understood the importance of maintaining complete archives. They cover not only the technical aspects of his watches, but also the commercial sidewho bought them, and when. Then theres the third aspect: after-sales service. It shows who worked on what, and when, even after the piece was sold. The traceability is total.

Jean-Baptiste Viot, in his workshop in Les Lilas, Paris  Jean-Baptiste Viot

How do you see the future of Breguet in the coming years?

Aesthetically, one has to acknowledge how faithfully Breguets current production adheres to the original codes laid down by Abraham-Louisespecially in the case design, dials, and hands. But as a watchmaker, I believe it would be interesting to apply the same philosophy to the movement.

Today, a Breguet movement is unmistakably Swiss in its aesthetic. Thats not a bad thing. The Breguet brand has worked with Frederic Piguet, Lemania, Jaeger. Even Breguet himself understood, in his time, the value of Swiss know-how. Thats still true today.

Contemporary Reference 7137  Breguet

But the man spent the bulk of his career in Paris, and theres a very distinct Parisian aesthetic that could be explored further. We could emphasize movement simplicity, incorporate curves that arent always rigidly straight, and focus more on purity, symmetry, and coherence in the pursuit of balance. George Daniels understood this perfectly. He was, in fact, one of Breguets greatest heirs.


A suspect in the Wednesday fatal shootings of two members of the Israeli Embassy near the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., has been identified as a Chicago man who apparently has railed on social media against the ongoing bombing of Gaza by Israel.

Elias Rodriguez, 31, of the 4700 block of North Troy Street, was being held for questioning, authorities said Thursday. He was being interviewed early Thursday by D.C.s Metropolitan Police Department as well as the FBI, according to officials.

Authorities alleged he walked into the museum after the shooting, was detained by event security and began chanting, Free, free Palestine, officials said.

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Police on Thursday had blocked the street outside his apartment building in the Albany Park neighborhood on Chicagos Northwest Side. By 8:15 a.m., a stream of heavily armed men, the letters FBI inscribed on their backs, were seen leaving the brick, U-shaped apartment building, where one apartment window had signs in the window, including one reading Cease fire now. No more death.

Neighbors on the block were startled to open their doors to the sight of federal agents clogging the street. Thats terrifying, one woman said when told why they were outside her home.

Later in the morning, a man walked up to an officer and asked if he could get into his apartment in the building. He told a gaggle of reporters that he didnt know what was happening as he waited for the officer to escort him under the yellow tape stretched across the buildings front gate. When shown a photograph of the suspected shooter, the man shook his head and said quietly, so sad.

The investigation is being run by federal authorities in Washington, with significant assistance from the FBI Chicago field office and other Chicago-based federal agencies. The FBIs Washington field office put out a statement Thursday morning that FBI Chicago is conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in the Chicago area in relation to yesterdays tragic shooting in Washington, D.C.

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In a social media account attributed to the suspect, a lengthy manifesto was posted at 9 p.m. Wednesday titled Escalate for Gaza. Bring the War Home, which decried the killings of tens of thousands in Gaza, lamented how civil protests had failed to stop it, and debated the morality of armed demonstration.

The post ended with what appeared to be a reference to an action about to be taken. I am glad today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do, the post stated.

Rodriguez was also once linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation  a far-left group that regularly posts anti-Israel rhetoric on social media. End the genocide. Israel out of Gaza now, the group posted Wednesday  just hours before the D.C. shooting.

We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the DC shooting. Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL, the group said in an X post early Thursday.

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In an online bio for the site The History Makers, Rodriguez stated he was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago with a major in English. Hed worked as an oral history researcher since 2023, "cultivating biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community, the bio stated. He said he enjoys reading, writing, fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places.

The bio was removed from the site Thursday morning.

Most recently, Rodriguez had worked as an administrative assistant for the American Osteopathic Information Association, the organization confirmed Thursday. In a statement, leaders of the organizations sister group, the American Osteopathic Organization, offered their condolences to the victims families and said they were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime.

The association and its sister organization would cooperate with law enforcement investigators in any way it could, the statement continued.

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On Thursday morning, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement he was horrified to hear of the shooting and disclosed that a member of his staff had been attending the event.

While they are shaken up, they are thankfully safe, the governor said. Law enforcement has apprehended the suspected gunman, and although the investigation continues, make no mistake: This was an attack on the Jewish community.

Pritzker, who is Jewish, has pledged Illinois support for Israel while also seeking to distinguish Hamas militants from the Palestinian people, who he has said want peace in the region. But as someone who led the building of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Pritzker expressed how the shooting resonated with him and what trauma it has caused.

Young Jewish people and diplomats came together in a museum built to honor their shared history but then had to flee gun shots and witness the killing of a young couple, Pritzker said. Whether its gun violence or the rising tide of antisemitism, Americans of all backgrounds have an urgent obligation to stand for peace and reject bigotry in all its forms and in every way possible.

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It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an attorney who could comment on his behalf. A telephone number listed in public records was not answered.

Reaction to the shooting continued to pour in from elected officials Thursday.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a statement saying acts of antisemitism, hate and violence have no place in our nation.

I strongly condemn the antisemitic attack resulting in the murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky  two Israeli Embassy staff  at the Capital Jewish Museum last night in Washington D.C., the statement read. We send our deepest condolences and pray for the victims, families, colleagues and those who loved them.

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Debra Silverstein, the 50th Ward alderman who is the only Jewish member of the City Council, said she was deeply concerned to learn that the attacker came from Chicago.

She said she spoke with Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling and local police commanders, who told her there is no known threat to our local Jewish community.

However, out of an abundance of caution, the 24th District is increasing patrols and putting extra attention on our community, Silverstein wrote. I ask for law enforcement to investigate any ties to local extremist groups and to act swiftly to make sure the Jewish community in Chicago is kept safe.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said it was absolutely devastating to hear of the shooting. His colleague, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called the shooting absolutely horrifying.

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My heart goes out to the victims, their families and loved ones and the entire Jewish community in the wake of this inexcusable act of antisemitic violence, Duckworth said. Hate should never find safe harbor in America, and we should all be united in the fight against antisemitism.

Rodriguez was arrested at the scene where two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday evening.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

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Rodriguez was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

_____

(Chicago Tribune reporters Madeline Buckley and Caroline Kubzansky contributed to this report.)

_____
Two staff members at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. were fatally shot on Wednesday evening after leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.

The police report that the suspect chanted Free Palestine following his arrest. Prior to the shooting, bystanders had observed the suspect pacing outside the museum.

Who are the victims?

The police identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli man, and Sarah Milgrim, an American woman.

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The Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, told the media that Lischinsky had purchased a ring earler in the week, intending to propose to Milgrim, with whom he was in a romantic relationship.

Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us, said Ted Deutch, the chief executive of the American Jewish Committee, who hosted the event on Wednesday evening.

Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

Flowers and candles are pictured as law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. | Rod Lamkey

Milgrim and Lischinsky had been looking forward not only to their engagement, but to visiting Jerusalem in the near future to see Lischinskys family.

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The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement calling the shooting the terrible price of anti-Semitism and the wild incitement against the state of Israel.

My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman, whose lives were suddenly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer, he said, according to a translation.

Who is the suspect?

Police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago native, and believe that he acted alone. As of Thursday, he is in custody while the police comb his apartment and his previous writings, searching for motivation.

Witness Katie Kalisher, who attended the museum on Wednesday night, said Rodriguez entered the museum right after gunshots rang out, appearing distressed and asking that the police be called.

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Im like, so, do you like this museum? And hes like, kind of playing dumb with me. Hes like, oh, what kind of museum is this? And Im like its a Jewish museum. He asks Do you think that is why they did it? in reference to gunshots we had heard. And I was like, yeah maybe, I dont know but I dont think so, I hope not, Kalisher said.

And that is when he reaches into his bag and pulls out a kaffiyeh and says to me, I did it. I did this for Gaza. And then he starts shouting Free, Free Palestine! and the police show up and arrest him, Kalisher told Fox News.

Attorney General Pam Bondi talks with reporters as law enforcement work the scene after two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Thursday, May 22, 2025, in Washington. | Rod Lamkey

This event was about humanitarian aid, she added. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Rodriguez was most recently employed by the American Osteopathic Association, which has already released a statement expressing sorrow for the incident.

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Apart from the shooting, Rodriguez has not been publicly linked to any anti-Israel causes or organizations.

What happens next?

The shooting comes amid a rising tide of in American antisemitism. College administrators have been accused of discrimination towards Israeli or Jewish students. Since Hamas launched its war with Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, students have marched and rioted in support of Palestine.

The Anti-Defamation League reported there were over 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in the year following the Oct. 7 attacks, the highest ever recorded, and a 200% increase over the year prior.

American officials, including President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel, have promised to ensure that the shooter receives full justice and to combat surging antisemitism.

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These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! Trump posted to Truth Social.

Last nights act of terror has the full attention of the FBI. Targeted anti-Semitic violence is an attack on our core values and will be met with the full weight of federal law enforcement. The individual responsible will be held accountable, and the Bureau will continue pursuing  FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) May 22, 2025

Jeanine Pirro, the newly-appointed interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., will prosecute the case.
The suspect in the fatal shooting of 2 Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.

He was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. All are felonies, and the murder charges carry up to life in prison or the death penalty, if he is convicted.

Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed the victims  a couple about to become engaged, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S.  as they were leaving the museum, which is located in the heart of the U.S. capital. According to police and video from the scene, he shouted "free, free Palestine" as he was being taken into custody.

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Israel's foreign ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. Milgrim was an American who grew up in the Kansas City area, graduated from the University of Kansas and earned a master's degree at American University, her father said. Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog said Lischinsky was an Israeli citizen.

The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime and "an act of terrorism," and more charges could come, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. Authorities have said the attack was targeted.

What happened at the shooting scene

The suspect had been seen "pacing back and forth outside of the museum" before he approached a group of four people, "produced a handgun" and fatally shot the two victims, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said during a news conference.

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According to charging documents, video shows that after the suspect shot the couple, he walked closer to them and fired "several more times." A total of 21 rounds were fired from a 9 mm firearm.

"The suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered," Smith said.

Federal officials traced the weapon and say records show it was purchased by Rodriguez on March 6, 2020, in Illinois. The handgun was purchased legally, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

Once officers arrived at the museum, Rodriguez asked to speak with police and told them, "I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed," according to the charging documents. Rodriguez was then taken into custody.

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The suspect chanted "free, free Palestine" while he was being arrested, video showed.

"Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence," Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, said in a post on social media, adding that the suspect was being interviewed by D.C. police in conjunction with the FBI.

Leiter told reporters that the suspect had been inside the the event earlier in the evening, before being escorted out.

"He was inside the event, he walked around inside the event," Leiter said in remarks in Hebrew. "We're not sure exactly what he said while inside the event, but it was enough that he was escorted out of the event. He then went outside and waited for the Israelis to leave, and shot them. Three additional people were able to save themselves and get away."

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A woman who attended the event, Katie Kalisher, told CBS News that she encountered the alleged shooter right after hearing gunfire.

"Then this man comes in  but he was covered in rain and just looking really distressed and scared," Kalisher told "CBS Mornings." "We were comforting him because we thought that he was just somebody out in the street looking for a safe place to stay because he heard some gunshots."

She said she talked to him to try to help him relax. "I asked him, 'So, do you like the museum?' And he's kind of playing dumb with me," she said about the interaction. "He goes, 'Oh, what kind of museum is this?' I told him, 'It's a Jewish museum.' He asked, 'Do you think that's why they did this attack'  referring to the rounds that we heard."

She said she told him she didn't think so and asked if he was OK. Then, she said, "He reaches into his bag and pulls out a keffiyeh and says, 'I did it. I did it for Gaza.' And, just starts shouting, 'Free Palestine.'"

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What we know about the suspect's background

The suspect didn't appear in an initial search of crime databases and wasn't on law enforcements' radar, Metropolitan Police said.

The suspect was from Chicago, and a large law enforcement presence blocked off roads in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood Thursday morning as officers executed a search believed to be connected to the shooting, CBS News Chicago reported. The FBI confirmed their Chicago field office is conducting "court-authorized law enforcement activity" in that area.

CBS News Chicago Investigators reported that Rodriguez attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, graduating in spring of 2018 with a bachelor's degree in English.

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CBS News identified an X account belonging to the suspect. It has a history of posts about pro-Palestine activism, frustration with the media coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, inflammatory posts about Israel and discussion of violence for political gain.

People interviewed who knew Rodriguez told investigators that he had been known to be outraged and rattled by the 2023 killing of a 6-year-old boy, Wadee Alfayoumi, in Plainfield, Illinois. The family's landlord was later convicted of murder and hate crime charges for attacking the boy, which prosecutors said was motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate. Rodriguez has a photo of the boy in the window in his Chicago residence and was described to investigators by people who knew that Rodriquez felt a need for vengeance for Wadee's death. It is unclear if he knew the boy.

Rodriguez worked at the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Information Association, a nonprofit trade association.

"We were shocked and saddened to learn that an AOIA employee has been arrested as a suspect in this horrific crime," said the president and the CEO of the American Osteopathic Association, which represents more than 197,000 osteopathic physicians and osteopathic medical students.

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"Both the AOIA and AOA stand ready to cooperate with the investigation in any way we can," said the statement from AOA president Teresa Hubka and CEO Kathleen Creason. "As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence."

The suspect's LinkedIn account says he had worked for AOIA since July 2024 as an administrative specialist. Prior to that, he worked as an Oral History Researcher at The HistoryMakers, where, according to a now-removed biography page, he prepared "detailed research outlines and biographies of accomplished leaders in the African American community."

The police and the FBI were combing through the suspect's social media, and electronic devices belonging to the suspect have been seized, according to a law enforcement source.

Trump confronts South African president during White House meeting, repeats genocide claims

Trump takes questions during meeting with South African president

Rubio, Jayapal have fiery exchange about Afrikaner refugee's antisemitic tweet, student visas
Correction: There were 26,232 murders in South Africa last year, according to South African Police Service (SAPS) figures. A previous version of this story contained incorrect information.

President Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with baseless claims about mass murders of white South Africans, prompting the former freedom fighter to offer polite pushback.

The claims of a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers in the majority-Black nation prompted the Trump administration to offer expedited refugee status and U.S. citizenship to the group this year, a stark contrast to its treatment of most foreigners seeking to enter the country.

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Trump on Wednesday also showed Ramaphosa a nearly four-minute video that Afrikaner advocates say backs up their claims, though many of the clips were of Julius Malema, a populist figure ousted from the ruling African National Congress (ANC) years ago.

Its more than just a little movement  its a pretty big movement in South Africa, Trump said of Malemas Economic Freedom Fighters, who have long advocated for a redistribution of land after decades of apartheid unfairly benefited Afrikaners economically.

Trump highlighted violent language used by Malema during political rallies and suggested Ramaphosa should have him arrested.

Their land is being confiscated and, in many cases, theyre being killed, Trump said.

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Look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people, he continued, as he flipped through printed pages of news articles. Death. Death  white South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws.

Ramaphosa lightly pushed back on Trumps claims, suggesting that Melemas opinions were protected speech, and that criminality, while a problem in the country, was not disproportionally impacting white farmers.

Our government policy is completely, completely against what you were saying, even in the Parliament, he said. Theyre a small minority party which is allowed to exist, in terms of our constitution.

Controversial push to right past wrongs

Afrikaners are a white, predominantly Dutch ethnic group and make up less than 7 percent of South Africas total population. They ruled the country from 1948 to 1994, when Nelson Mandela led the ANC to power.

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Ramaphosa was a top deputy to Mandela until becoming a successful businessman and trade union leader; he returned to government with his election as president in 2018.

South Africas Parliament passed a law in January aimed at rectifying the results of past racial discriminatory laws or practices, including apartheid and European colonialism. Its currently being challenged in court, and no land has been seized under it to date.

But that hasnt stopped opponents of the effort, such as Elon Musk, who was in the Oval Office for Wednesdays meeting, from warning that wealthy white people are under mortal threat. The billionaire has blasted the land law on social media and said his company Starlink cant operate in his home country because of the Black Economic Empowerment rules.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that South Africas government plans to offer Musk a workaround of the Black-ownership requirements to allow the internet provider to operate in the country.

Violence on farms and claims of genocide

The United Nations recognized genocide as a crime under international law in the 1940s, following the Holocaust. According to the U.N., the phrase refers to killings and threats made with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

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The South Africa situation has not been recognized as such by any legal body, and theres scant evidence of the current governments policies contributing to acts of political violence toward any particular group.

There were 26,232 murders last year, according to South African Police Service (SAPS) figures. During one recent three-month span, 1 percent of those murders were on farms. The stats arent broken down by race.

The White House video also showed footage of more than 1,000 crosses erected along a South African roadway, which Trump referred to as burial sites, saying each one represented a white farmer who was murdered.

The Witkruis Monument is not a cemetery but was built as a memorial to victims of farm attacks in South Africa. Crosses have been added since 2004. Historically, attacks on farms have targeted both Black and white owners.

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Musk had previously shared a video of the crosses on his social media platform X, sharing the comments of an original post that falsely claimed the crosses were all memorializing white farmers.

Its horrible, Trump said Wednesday. Ive never seen anything like it.

The narrative around Afrikaner farmers also fits with the broader grievances of Trump and Vice President Vance, who often characterize efforts to address past racist policies, such as diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in America, as unfair attacks on white people.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated that all parties are committed to implementing a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine as quickly as possible.

Source: Peskov in a comment to Russian media

Quote: "This process is fairly labour-intensive. It involves work on individual names. Given the scale of the 1,000-for-1,000 exchange, it will take some time. The work is progressing swiftly."

Background

Zelenskyy previously announced that the possibility of a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap had been discussed with Russia. Ukraine also raised the issue of the release of political prisoners and journalists.

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), has said he is confident that the 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange with Russia will happen next week.

Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of DIU, said on 16 May that Ukraine had begun reviewing the lists of POWs who are to be brought back to Ukraine as part of the swap.

The agreement on the simultaneous release and exchange of 1,000 POWs on each side was reached by the Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul on 16 May.

On 17 May, the Security Service of Ukraine began preparations for the implementation of the prisoner swap agreement.

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Ukraine is requesting the EU begin financially supporting its armed forces starting in 2026, pitching the idea as a practical way to strengthen Europe's collective defense and share the cost of containing Russian aggression, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said on May 22.

The EU hasn't so far directly funded Ukraine's military, but member states provide weapons and other assistance through national programs and broader EU support packages.

Marchenko said Kyiv is proposing a new model: European partners would help fund the Ukrainian military, and in return, Ukraine would be further integrated into the continent's defense system.

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"I am convinced that this decision has a number of strategic advantages for Ukraine, including maintaining financial stability in 2026 and beyond," Marchenko said in a statement following meetings with G7 finance leaders in Canada.

"And for the EU  protection from potential Russian aggression. After all, the Ukrainian army has all the experience necessary for this."

Under the proposal, the cost of supporting Ukraine's military would represent only a small fraction of the EU's combined GDP, Marchenko said, and could be shared among countries willing to participate. These contributions could count toward NATO defense spending targets.

"Over the past three years, Ukraine has received more than $133 billion in international financial aid," he said. "This support enabled the government to preserve macro-financial stability during full-scale war, ensure salary payments to teachers, doctors, and public servants, and continue pensions and social support for the most vulnerable."

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"The financial system still faces challenges, which makes continued external support absolutely critical," the minister said.

With war still raging and Russia showing no signs of backing down, Marchenko argued that relying solely on building up national armies across Europe could take years and require enormous resources.

U.S. President Donald Trump proposed a full ceasefire in March. Ukraine immediately agreed, and the plan was supported by European leaders.

Russia has consistently refused, culminating in a phone call on May 19 between Trump and President Vladimir Putin, during which Putin once again rejected the proposal and instead demanded a "memorandum regarding a potential future peace treaty."

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On May 16, Russia initiated peace talks in Istanbul but sent only a low-level delegation led by Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky and reiterated demands that Kyiv cede Crimea and four eastern regions. President Putin and Lavrov were both absent.

Recently, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov virtually confirmed Moscow has no interest in negotiations or a ceasefire, saying on May 21 that "we don't want this anymore."

Read also: Why Washington failed to end the Russo-Ukrainian War

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LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Immigration policy and its effect on La Vergne are set to be discussed Wednesday evening at a town hall meeting with the La Vergne Police Department.

According to La Vergne Police Chief Christopher Moews, LVPD had no involvement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In fact, ICE officials have not even told the department about their operations in La Vergne.

Authorities seeking info about deadly shooting on I-24 in Rutherford County

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Moews said LVPD is required by law to assist ICE if the agency requests it. However, Metro Nashville Police Department officials told News 2 that theyre not legally required to help ICE.

One of our officers actually saw a THP squad pull an individual over, and then there was an unmarked SUV nearby. Our officer simply pulled into the gas station lot, checked, they gave him a thumbs up, and he drove out, Moews said. He literally was on our computer automated dispatch record for less than a minute being out on that traffic stop, and that turned out to be one of these initiatives that were being done in conjunction with ICE in the city of La Vergne.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

In terms of notifying LVPD about ICE activity, Moews told News 2 neither he nor the department received a courtesy call. He has spoken with federal authorities about being notified prior to any operations.

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The town hall meeting with LVPD is set to take place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 21 in the La Vergne Community Church at 375 Old Nashville Highway.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
A councillor has been thrown out of the Labour Party over allegations that he sexually harassed a teenager.

Keith Jones, who sits on Cardiff council, was originally suspended in 2022 after a formal complaint was made to the party about his behaviour.

It is understood he was alleged to have inappropriately touched a then-17-year-old party member at a social event in Liverpool in 2016.

Mr Jones was expelled from the party on Monday following the conclusion of a three-year investigation by the Labour Partys Independent Complaints Board. The board was reportedly satisfied that the conduct alleged did occur.

Allegation blocked council appointment

A Labour spokesman said: Action will always be taken if party members or elected representatives are found to have breached the high standards the Labour Party expects of them. All complaints are investigated thoroughly, in line with our rules and procedures.

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An official complaint was only made about the incident in May 2022, when Huw Thomas, the council leader, announced that Mr Jones would be appointed to his cabinet.

As a result of the complaint, Mr Joness party membership was administratively suspended and he was not appointed to the cabinet.

No further details of the allegations have ever been released by the party.

Party warned of legal consequences

Following his expulsion, Mr Jones, who has sat on the council since 2012, will represent the Llanrumney ward as an independent councillor.

He told the BBC: The Labour Party have instructed me that there will be legal consequences if I discuss anything to do with this matter with the media or anyone else.

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He has been approached for further comment by The Telegraph.

Mr Jones was previously suspended from the party a decade ago after inappropriately messaging female party members. He was sacked from a previous job as a teacher in 2010 for tampering with GCSE coursework.

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The Office for National Statistics has just released another set of figures proving what we already knew  Labours tough posturing on immigration is nothing more than empty words. 2024s net immigration figures are still running at a historical high of 431,000. Its clear Labour have no plans to end this population explosion.



Since 2022, net migration has hit over 2.5 million. In just a few years, the Tories let a population the size of West Yorkshire into Great Britain. Let that sink in. Now might be a good time to reflect on what mass immigration has done for us.



The UK simply cannot cope with this level of immigration  our housing market, healthcare system, and prison infrastructure are all buckling under the strain. The UK now has one of the worst hospital bed shortages of all OECD and European countries



Prison capacity is overwhelmed, with facilities in England and Wales at 98 per cent capacity. Recent analysis shows that the overall imprisonment rate of foreign nationals is 27 per cent higher than for British citizens.



At the start of the pandemic, the NHS backlog for consultant led elective care was at 4.6 million. Now, that number stands strong at 7.46 million.



We cannot progress and grow as a country if mass immigration continues to cost the British taxpayer 14 billion a year.



Just 30 years ago, around 7 per cent of our workforce was foreign born. Today that number stands at over 21 per cent.



In the 90s, cheap foreign labour accounted for 20 per cent of the low skilled job market, that figure has now ballooned to 60 per cent. Instead of training our own people, the government has opted to instead endanger British jobs and lower the overall pay.



Of the 1.1 million visas issued in the UK in 2024 only 22 per cent went on to apply for work and contribute to our economy.



Clearly, this is not in our best interests, but it is exactly what establishment leaders like Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer have been pushing for. Both of them have publicly endorsed no limits on visas and a pathway for increased citizenship. Yet, as the statistics show, this has proven to be a nightmare for the country.



While the population has been exploding, the economy hasnt. Since Q4 of 2022, GDP per capita has fallen in six of the last eight quarters. 90 per cent of new jobs have now gone to foreign born workers, the vast majority of which are on low wages.



The population explosion has placed massive strain on our economy, our public services, and our housing market. No other party is treating this with the urgency that it demands. This is nothing less than a national emergency.



This hasnt just damaged our national infrastructure and economy but it has also harmed our society and community cohesion, more than ever people are feeling like strangers in their own community.

The sense of betrayal around the country is palpable and it will only deepen until the mass immigration experiment that has been perpetuated by Labour and the Conservatives is finally stopped once and for all.



Only Reform is taking this seriously, and are truly aware of the dangers of letting in anyone who shows up on our doorstep.



Upon assuming office, we will freeze net migration, appoint a Minister for Deportations, ensuring that the deportation of foreign criminals is carried out efficiently and humanely. We will leave the ECHR.



The time has come to put this crisis at the top of the agenda. That is what the British people demand, and it is clearer than ever that only Reform will deliver it.

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The hitman waited in the traffic. This wasnt the first time: he  or one of his accomplices  had done so on previous days, and he knew that every morning, around 7 a.m., Ximena Guzman would stop her car at that exact spot on the busy Tlalpan thoroughfare, near the Moderna neighborhood, to pick up her colleague Jose Munoz. The two would then head from the Miguel Hidalgo borough to their jobs at the top of Mexico City politics, as members of the inner circle of Mayor Clara Brugada. Guzman, as the mayors personal secretary; Munoz, as an advisor.

On Tuesday, Guzman, 42, was waiting for Munoz, 52, parked on the side of the road, inside her car. The hitman was hovering around, less than a meter away, playing at being distracted. It is impossible for Guzman not to have seen him: he spent several seconds in her field of vision, in front of the windshield, calmly, brazenly, and even pretended to hail a cab as part of his act. Munoz arrived shortly after, got into the vehicle, and it was then the gunman chose to draw a nine millimeter handgun and empty the 12 bullets in the magazine at them.

Four bullets were embedded in Munozs body, twice as many ended up in Guzman. Cause of death: Most likely a gunshot wound to the skull and thorax, announced the capitals prosecutor, Bertha Alcalde Lujan, on Wednesday, after the autopsies had been performed but with the forensic report still pending. The hitman fled the crime scene on a black motorcycle, which he abandoned a short distance away. There, with the help of at least three other accomplices who assisted with logistics and driving, according to Mexico City Chief of Police Pablo Vazquez, they used a blue car to travel to the Iztacalco borough. From there, they fled in a third vehicle, a gray pickup truck, leaving the city limits to the east and disappearing into the State of Mexico.

Security forces at the scene in Mexico City. Monica Gonzalez Islas

Guzman and Munoz were executed by a gang of professional assassins. The weapon they used was clean: analysis of the shell casings found at the scene revealed it had not been used in previous crimes. They had been staking out their morning meeting place for days. They wore gloves, which prevented forensic investigators from finding fingerprints on the motorcycle or the two cars. They switched vehicles twice to cover their tracks. Furthermore, they used stolen cars with the license plates changed to make them difficult to identify. The police are trying to determine whether these were used in other attacks.

They didnt threaten their victims beforehand; they took care to leave as few clues as possible. Behind them, only the traces of the three vehicles and items of clothing remained, which forensic investigators are racing to analyze in an attempt to find DNA samples, a task that has so far proven unsuccessful. The crime was a direct attack with a significant degree of planning, Lujan said, dispelling any doubt by emphatically stating that those who carried it out had prior experience and that it necessarily required an investment of considerable human, logistical, and material resources.

The modus operandi, the extreme caution of the hitmen, and their hasty escape have made it impossible for the police to identify any clear suspects. At least, they have made it impossible for them to reach beyond the walls of the Prosecutors Office and the Secretariat of Citizen Security. The identity of the perpetrators of the double homicide is unknown, let alone the masterminds behind the attack. Authorities are focusing their efforts in these critical hours on finding the four hitmen, hoping that through them they may also be able to find those who ordered the murders. As the investigation progresses, we will gain more clarity about the motive and the context in which this unfortunate event occurred, Vazquez stated.

For the moment, the police have not ruled out any line of investigation, indicating that no significant progress has been made in any of its aspects. All [avenues] will be exhausted, Vazquez stated, acknowledging that they still do not have solid hypotheses regarding the reason for the crime or those responsible. They have not even ruled out femicide  by protocol, any murder of a woman is investigated preventively as such. The Mexico City police chief also reported that they are working closely with the prosecutors offices in the states surrounding the capital and all security institutions, in a case that President Claudia Sheinbaum has given the highest priority.

Experts examine a car linked to the crime. Rogelio Morales (CUARTOSCURO)

The high-profile political crime has stunned the capitals authorities, who were caught off guard by the double homicide. Our souls ache, Brugada summarized in a brief statement on social media. Above all, because of the underlying message behind the murders: neither Guzman nor Munoz were media personalities, but their closeness to the mayor from her years as alderman of Iztapalapa, the most populous borough  and one of the most insecure  in Mexico City, raises the question of whether the crime is a symbolic attack on the head of city government. And, if so, why?

Among the few certainties, authorities have pointed out that there is no evidence to suggest the attackers knew the details of Mayor Brugadas personal agenda. Nor is there any evidence that they individually monitored Guzman and Munoz in the days leading up to the crime. There is only evidence that someone was at the crime scene a few days earlier, possibly carrying out surveillance work there, which indicates prior knowledge of the routine, but not necessarily that they were followed over the days, Vazquez explained.

Cautiously, neither Lujan nor Vazquez offered much information in their first press conference. Vazquez, however, emphasized, perhaps as a timid insinuation, that in recent weeks they have made highly significant arrests of leaders of criminal cells operating in the city and the metropolitan area that have reduced the levels of violence and high-impact crimes in the city.

Identifying the perpetrators and masterminds in the coming days will be key. So far, the greatest progress in the investigation has come from monitoring C5 security cameras throughout the city, which the special police operation used to trace the hitmens escape route.

Bertha Alcalde Lujan and Pablo Vazquez Camacho in Mexico City. Emiliano Molina

Despite everything, Vazquez attempted to send a message of hope: I want to be very emphatic: no form of violence will defeat Mexico City, neither its people nor its institutions. On the Tlalpan highway, two bodies in an abandoned car on the shoulder, four bullet holes in the windshield, eight nine-millimeter shell casings on the asphalt, many unanswered questions, and a city shaken by a new political crime.

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Labours planning reforms pose a threat to the New Forest, campaigners have warned.

The Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) accused the Government of being on an ideological war footing against the nations environmental spaces.

They also claimed that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill going through Parliament, which overrides existing habitat and nature protections, breaks Labours manifesto promises to protect and restore the natural environment.

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The Office for Environmental Protection recently warned that the Bill represents a regression in environmental law and would remove safeguards for nature.

The Governments own assessment of the Bill also found little evidence that green protections were a blocker to development.

The Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB said irreplaceable habitats such as chalk streams and ancient woodland, species such as hazel dormice and otters and areas such as the New Forest and Peak District Moors would no longer be as strongly protected from development.

The groups said they had been calling for a series of amendments to tone down what they saw as the most damaging aspects of the Bill, but that the Government had failed to listen to their concerns or consider their constructive solutions.

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Now they want to see ministers remove part of the nature recovery section entirely, which they say replaces environmental protections with a weaker substitute.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill was introduced in March and comes as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, argue that current nature rules have gone too far, often citing the 100 million HS2 bat tunnel.

Craig Bennett, the chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said: Before the general election, Labour promised to restore nature.

Under a year later, the Chancellor is leading an ideological charge against the natural world despite it being the very foundation of the economy, society and peoples health. Promises have been broken, and millions of people have been betrayed.

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Mr Bennett said the Bill in its current form fundamentally undermines the Governments commitment to protect nature, describing proposals on nature recovery as a Trojan horse and a misnomer.

He also said the organisation was appalled that the suggestions it had put forward to ministers had all been spurned.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill risks overriding existing habitat and nature protections - RichardALock

The organisations also published research on Thursday arguing that nature does not block economic growth.

It found that bats and great crested newts, protected species often cited in arguments for removing planning barriers, were a factor in 3 per cent of planning appeal decisions.

Alongside the paper, a Savanta survey commissioned by The Wildlife Trusts suggests that less than a third (32 per cent) of the British public feel the Government has kept its promises to improve access to nature, promote biodiversity and protect wildlife.

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The poll also found 26 per cent of the 2,035 respondents believe the Government is taking the nature crisis seriously enough, while 25 per cent said they would back building developments in their area even if they harmed the local environment.

In the firing line

Beccy Speight, the RSPB chief executive, said the organisation had engaged in good faith with the Government for months, but that the current draft legislation would rip the heart out of environmental protections and risks sending nature further into free-fall.

The fate of our most important places for nature and the laws that protect them are all in the firing line, she said. That cannot be allowed to stand.

The evidence clearly shows nature isnt a blocker to growth. The Government has identified the wrong obstacle to the problem its trying to overcome, and that has led it to the wrong solutions.

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A Government spokesman said: We completely reject these claims. The Government has inherited a failing system that has delayed new homes and infrastructure while doing nothing for natures recovery, and we are determined to fix this through our Plan for Change.

Thats why our Planning and Infrastructure Bill will deliver a win-win for the economy and nature by unblocking building and economic growth, and delivering meaningful environmental improvements.

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EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WCIA)  A new partnership is taking place between a Mattoon college and a business development center to provide a new space in Effingham.

During its May meeting, the Lake Land College Board of Trustees approved a partnership with the Illinois Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Eastern Illinois University. In this agreement, the college will provide space in the new Effingham Technology Center for the SBDC to provide its services throughout the community.

Virginia man arrested in Effingham, accused of business burglaries, lighting car on fire

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The SBDC is hosted by the Eastern Illinois University Lumpkin College of Business & Technology and provides free, in-person advising and affordable training to support local start-ups and small businesses with planning, funding and marketing.

This center is grant-funded on the state level by the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and federally by the Small Business Administration (SBA). The EIU SBDC serves eight counties throughout the state and is one of the numerous SBDCs helping small businesses across the country.

All together, these organizations support one million business owners nationwide every year. By partnering with Lake Land and leasing space in the Effingham Technology Center, the EIU SBC is aiming to expand its reach going forward.

We pursued an SBDC and this newer satellite center for Effingham County to support business and economic development of the region, said Austin Cheney, Dean of the Lumpkin College of Business & Technology. Im thrilled with the partnership formed and grateful to Lake Land College for providing space in the beautiful, newly renovated Effingham Technology Center!

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City of Champaign could help renovation of downtown building

The Effingham Technology Center is a 100,000-square-foot building that was acquired by Lake Land in 2023 with the goal of expanding educational programs and college class offerings near Effingham. The available space in the facility provides a new opportunity for the school to build partnerships with local organizations.

Under this new agreement, Lake Land will lease the space at no cost to the SBDC in the Effingham center. The SBDC is one of three Lake Land College partners hosting operations in this center. It also houses the operations of Patterson Companies as well as the Creating Opportunities for Regional Employment (CORE) Academy.

One of the priorities outlined in our strategic plan is to leverage partnerships just like this to support the local workforce, said Lake Land College President Josh Bullock. Were excited to work with a wonderful organization like the SBDC that shares our commitment to strengthening our communities.

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Additional information on the Small Business Development Center can be seen on the Eastern Illinois University website.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will scale back on the number of recreational sites at Lake Lanier that will be temporarily closed.

Channel 2 Action News first told you on Tuesday about the plans to close more than 20 lakeside parks due to the USACEs current staffing levels.

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Rep. Rich McCormick represents the Georgia 7th Congressional District, which includes Lake Lanier. In a statement released late Wednesday night, McCormick said the U.S. Army Corps will now only close 11 sites.

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I spoke with the U.S. Army Corps today about the planned closures at Lake Lanier. I pushed hard for a better solution, and they listened. All boat ramps will remain open, and only 11 recreation sites will close temporarily, not the 21 originally planned. I am grateful for the partnership of local leaders like Senator Greg Dolezal in advocating for our community, McCormick said.

Georgia US Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock released the following statements about the closures, calling out cuts from the Trump administration.

Lake Lanier is a favorite Memorial Day weekend destination for thousands of Georgia families, but because of this administrations reckless cuts, 20 parks at Lake Lanier are indefinitely closed days before the start of summer. Enough is enough with these reckless cuts. Georgia families deserve better, Warnock said.

The White House must take immediate action to reopen these beautiful parks at Lake Lanier for Georgia families. This is a direct and predictable result of the Administrations reckless and chaotic mismanagement, Ossoff said.

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Lake Lanier has 76 recreational areas.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates 37 parks and campgrounds, 10 marinas and Lake Lanier Islands. It leases out 40 parks and campgrounds to local governments and other organizations.

Its unclear which 11 sites will be closed.

RELATED STORIES:

The USACE launched a new website on Thursday where you can see the current status for a recreational area, campground, boat ramp or beaches operated by the agency.

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You can click here to access it.

Public safety and service quality continue to be our highest priorities. As we manage available resources, some sites may experience reduced operations or temporary closures. These difficult decisions are based on our ability to ensure visitors have a safe and consistent experience, Stephen L. Hill, USACE director of Operations and Regulatory Programs, said.

These decisions are not made lightly because we understand the importance of USACE recreation areas to the public and their vacation plans, especially during the summer season, he added.

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LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)  A Lancaster County school district teacher was removed from campus grounds amid an investigation into an alleged indecent assault.

State Police out of Lancaster said Tuesday they are investigating an allegation against an unnamed Solanco School District teacher who allegedly touched a 13-year-old girls butt.

The district sent a statement to Swift Middle School parents saying they removed the person involved and notified law enforcement once the district was made aware of the incident, which was reported Monday morning to State Police.

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As soon as we became aware of the situation, we contacted law enforcement and removed the individual from the school setting while the investigation moves forward, the statement reads. We know that hearing news like this is upsetting. Please be assured that your childs safety and well-being are always our highest priorities. We are treating this matter with the seriousness it deserves and are fully cooperating with law enforcement to support a thorough investigation.

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State Police have not announced any charges in the investigation at this time.

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Swift Middle School has around 330 students and is one of two middle schools in the Solanco School District.

This is a developing story. Stay with abc27 News as more information becomes available

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EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Las Cruces Public Schools will celebrate its graduates with commencement ceremonies this week at the New Mexico State University (NMSU) Pan American Center, 1810 E. University Ave.

The schedule is as follows, according to LCPS:

Thursday, May 22:

9 a.m.  Arrowhead Park Early College High School

6 p.m.  Centennial High School

Friday, May 23

9 a.m.  Rio Grande Preparatory Institute

6 p.m.  Organ Mountain High School

Saturday, May 24

9 a.m.  Las Cruces High School

6 p.m.  Mayfield High School

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LCPS said guests are encouraged to plan and arrive early, as ceremonies will begin promptly at the scheduled times. Guests should use the northeast and southeast entrances to the Pan American Center.

Graduates must arrive at least one hour before their ceremony for lineup and seating, LCPS said.

All commencement ceremonies will be here.

LCPS said live graduation interpretations will be available for families. To access them, scan the attached QR code and select your preferred language and dialect. Refer to the QR code during the commencement ceremony to listen to the interpretation.

For more information, visit www.lcps.net.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)  You can find works of sculptor Timothy Schmalz all around downtown Youngstown. Wednesday, a new one was dedicated on the property of the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.

Schmalzs newest sculpture is a depiction of the Last Supper. It sits behind the Basilica at the corner of Watt and East Wood Streets.

Bishop David Bonner presided over the dedication attended by 80 people under a tent in the pouring rain. Noticably missing on the sculpture are the 12 apostles  though 12 seats surround the table. Schmalz said that was intentional.

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Showing that we have to become involved in our lives, in our spirituality. We cant just sit back and be passive observers, Schmalz said.

Schmalz lives in the Toronto area of Canada and said what he loves about public artwork like the Last Supper is that its always out there sending a message and is always turned on, so to speak.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
The Trump administration revoked Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. The Department of Homeland Security said the university allowed anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to assault Jewish students on campus and claimed without evidence that Harvard is coordinating with the Chinese communist party.

In a separate court case, District Judge Jeffrey S. White in Oakland blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations is pending. The order bars the government from arresting or incarcerating the plaintiffs and similarly situated students, transferring any of them outside the jurisdiction of their residence, imposing any adverse legal effect on students, and reversing the reinstatement of the legal status until the case is resolved.

Here's the latest:

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Georgetown scholar recalls terror and mockery of due process in immigration jail

One of the lowest moments of Badar Khan Suris two months in federal custody was being crammed onto an airplane with hundreds of other shackled prisoners.

The Trump administration was trying to deport the Georgetown University scholar over statements he made against Israels war effort in Gaza. The guards wouldnt say where they were headed, but the Indian national was convinced it was out of the United States.

Then Khan Suri had to use the planes bathroom. He said the guards refused to unshackle his wrists.

They said, No, you have to use it like this or do it in your trousers, Khan Suri recalled of the trip, taking him to a Louisiana detention center. They were behaving as if we were animals.

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Khan Suri, 41, was released on bond last week as his lawsuit against the U.S.s deportation case continues.

 Read more about Khan Suris account in an interview with AP

Trumps Harvard visa threat could wipe out several of the schools sports teams

Some teams would be virtually wiped out by the administrations decision that would make the Ivy League school with the nations largest athletic program ineligible for international student visas.

Seven of the eight rowers on the mens heavyweight crew team that just won the Eastern Sprints title and is headed to the national championships list international hometowns on the schools website.

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Mick Thompson, the leading scorer last season, and Jack Bar, who was a captain, are among a handful of Canadians on the mens hockey roster.

Ten of the 13 members of the mens squash team and more than half for womens soccer and golf also list foreign hometowns.

Sportico reported last month that 21% of the players on the rosters of Harvard 42 varsity teams for 2024-25  or 196 out of 919 athletes  had international hometowns. The site noted that some could be U.S. citizens or green card holders who wouldnt need an international visa.

 Read more about Harvard sports and the visa threat

A look at the deportees on plane that headed for South Sudan from US

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The foreign men convicted of crimes who were placed on a deportation flight headed for the chaotic nation of South Sudan were originally from countries as far away as Mexico and Vietnam. They lived in various places from California to Iowa, Nebraska to Florida, with one serving a sentence of nearly 30 years.

They were accused and convicted of crimes including murder, rape, robbery and assault.

Despite their criminal records, a federal judge says the White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries, adding that the eight men were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could endanger them.

Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston ordered a new set of interviews with them, either back in the U.S. or abroad. Administration officials accused activist judges of advocating for the release of dangerous criminals.

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 Read more about the men who were on the flight

Mahmoud Khalil permitted to hold newborn son for the first time despite government objections

Detained Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was allowed to hold his 1-month-old son for the first time after a judge blocked the administrations efforts to keep them separated by a plexiglass barrier.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident and Columbia University graduate who has been detained in a Louisiana jail since March, was the first person arrested under the presidents promised crackdown on pro-Palestinian protester. He is one of the few still in custody as his case winds its way through immigration and federal court.

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Federal authorities have not accused him of a crime but have sought to deport him on the basis that his prominent role in the protests may have undermined U.S. foreign policy interests.

The question of whether Khalil would be permitted to hold his newborn sparked days of legal fighting. His attorneys argued that he is being subjected to political retaliation.

On Wednesday night a judge allowed the meeting to go forward the next morning, Khalils attorneys said.

 Read more about Khalils encounter with his baby son

FTC dismisses lawsuit against PepsiCo that was filed by Biden-era FTC

The Republican-controlled Federal Trade Commission voted to dismiss a lawsuit against PepsiCo that the previous commission filed in the waning days of the previous administration.

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The lawsuit, filed in January, alleged that PepsiCo was giving unfair price advantages to Walmart at the expense of other vendors and consumers. The complaint relied on a rarely enforced act that it said prohibits companies from using promotional incentive payments to favor large customers over smaller ones.

When the lawsuit was filed, Democrat Lina Khan was the FTCs chairwoman, and she was joined in support of the lawsuit by Democratic Commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. Republican Commissioners Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak dissented.

A few days after it was filed, President Donald Trump took office and Khan resigned. Trump fired Bedoya and Slaughter in March; they have sued, saying their removal was illegal.

Ferguson, who is now chairman, said Thursday that the lawsuit was a dubious partisan stunt and FTC staff have more important work.

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FDA panel is split on updates to COVID shots as questions loom for fall vaccinations

Government advisers were split Thursday on whether drugmakers need to update their COVID-19 vaccines for next season, a decision overshadowed by confusion over a new Trump administration policy that may limit who can get the shots.

The Food and Drug Administrations outside experts have met annually since the launch of the first COVID-19 vaccines to discuss tweaking their recipes to stay ahead of the virus. The challenge is trying to gauge how the virus might evolve before fall vaccinations begin.

We all want to make the perfect choice, and thats probably not possible, FDAs Jerry Weir told the panel of outside experts.

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Some of the panelists voiced support for a switch to a newer coronavirus subtype named LP.8.1. Its currently the dominant version and part of the same family that circulated last year  known as the JN.1 branch of the virus family tree.

 Read more about the vaccines

Awkward ending to Trumps health event

The president wrapped up by speaking at length about his effort to lower prescription drug prices  an odd choice, given that many of the people in the room oppose pharmaceutical drugs and what they see as their excessive prescription.

The East Room crowd, which earlier had applauded repeatedly as Trump and members of his administration congratulated themselves on health policy, offered only tepid responses  and soon stopped clapping entirely  as Trump continued to talk about drug prices.

Toward the back, where many attendees were families with young children, some parents even began talking among themselves while he was still speaking.

Everyone did, however, rise to give the president a standing ovation when the event finally wrapped up.

New SSA Commissioner says he had to Google his new job. The agency says he was joking

On a Wednesday phone call to introduce himself to agency managers, Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said he had to Google the role of Social Security Commissioner when he was offered the position by the Trump administration. The comment was confirmed by two individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting.

A spokesperson for Social Security said via email that Bisignano was poking fun at himself so everyone in the room felt comfortable having an open conversation about improving service.

Commissioner Bisignano brings a valuable and much-needed outside perspective to the Social Security Administration, Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman said in an email to AP. Bisignanos proven success in the financial services industry uniquely positions him to lead the Trump Administrations commonsense efforts to modernize the agency and improve its efficiency.

The SSA is undergoing massive changes and staffing cuts ushered. Roughly 72.5 million people, including retirees and children, receive Social Security benefits.

Bisignano is a former Wall Street executive and previously served as chairman of Fiserv, a payments and financial services tech firm.

 Fatima Hussein

Supreme Court declines to reinstate independent agency board members fired by Trump

The high court declined to reinstate independent agency board members fired by the president.

The courts action essentially extended an order Chief Justice John Roberts issued in April that had the effect of removing two board members whom Trump fired from agencies that deal with labor issues, including one with a key role for federal workers as the president aims to drastically downsize the workforce.

Neither agency has enough appointed members to take final actions on issues before them, as Trump has not sought to appoint replacements.

The decision Thursday keeps on hold an appellate ruling that had temporarily reinstated Gwynne Wilcox to the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris to the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The courts three liberal justices dissented.

US to impose sanctions on Sudan for chemical weapons use

The Trump administration says it will impose the sanctions after determining that Sudan has used chemical weapons in violation of international treaties during its civil war in 2024.

The State Department said Thursday that the sanctions would take effect next month and include restrictions on U.S. exports to Sudan and on access to U.S. government lines of credit.

The United States calls on the government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the department said in a statement. The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation.

The State Department informed Congress of the determination, and lawmakers will have 15 days to consider it. Barring objections, the department said, the sanctions will take effect on or around June 6.

Trumps $600 million war chest: How he plans to wield his power in the midterms and beyond

Between a barrage of executive orders, foreign trips and norm-shattering proclamations, Donald Trump has also been busy raking in cash.

The president has amassed a war chest of at least $600 million in political donations heading into the midterm elections, according to three people familiar with the matter. Its an unprecedented sum in modern politics, particularly for a lame-duck president who is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running again.

President Donald Trump smiles as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump is keeping an aggressive fundraising schedule with the ultimate goal of raising $1 billion or more to back his agenda and hold the House and Senate next November, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share internal details of the fundraising efforts.

The preoccupation with fundraising might seem highly unusual for a president who was notably averse to dialing for dollars when he first ran. But according to people familiar with his thinking, it makes perfect sense: By amassing money, Trump amasses power.

 Read more about Trumps $1 billion fundraising goal

Trump praises MAHA report

Trump, at an event at the White House with Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, applauded the findings of the MAHA report Thursday.

They really are alarming, Trump said.

The much-anticipated Make America Healthy Again report calls for increased scrutiny of the childhood vaccine schedule, a review of the pesticides sprayed on American crops and a description of the nations children as overmedicated and undernourished.

While it does not have the force of a law or official policy, the 69-page report will be used over the next 100 days for the MAHA commission to fashion a plan that can be implemented during the remainder of Trumps term, Kennedy said in a call with reporters. He refused to provide details about who authored the report.

Lawmakers ask major hotel chains not to use the term Taiwan, China

A pair of Republican lawmakers have asked major hotel chains to stop using the term Taiwan, China on their websites, seven years after the U.S. hotel chain Marriott had its website shut down in China over its listing Taiwan as a country.

Now, CEOs of Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt hotels are being asked that they correct course and follow the U.S. policy on Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims to be part of Chinese territory.

The U.S. takes no side on the islands sovereignty but opposes any forced takeover of the island.

In a letter, Rep. John Moolenaar and Sen. Marsha Blackburn raised concerns that the U.S. hotel chains now label the island as Taiwan, China and said such labeling contradicts longstanding U.S. policy and lends false legitimacy to the Chinese Communist Partys claims over Taiwan.

White House says judges ruling could jeopardize U.S. relations overseas

The White House says a federal judge who rebuked the Trump administration over a series of deportations is menacing U.S. relationships overseas.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the comments of federal Judge Brian Murphy, who said Wednesday that the Trump administration violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to South Sudan.

Murphy said eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object to their deportation.

Leavitt said Thursday that Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks as a result.

She said the judges comments were also threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world though she refused to discuss what other third countries might have agreed to accept U.S. deportation flights.

Federal judge blocks immigration authorities from revoking international students legal status

A judge in California has blocked the Trump administration from terminating the legal status of international students nationwide while a court case challenging previous terminations plays out.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White on Thursday barred the government from reversing the students legal status, arresting or transferring them until the case is resolved. They could still be arrested in cases like violent crimes.

White said the governments actions wreaked havoc not only on the lives of Plaintiffs here but on similarly situated F-1 nonimmigrants across the United States and continues do so.

Trump administration says thousands of international students enrolled at Harvard must transfer or leave the US

The Trump administration revoked Harvard Universitys ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of current students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.

The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, saying Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to assault Jewish students on campus. Without offering evidence, it also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese communist party.

This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status, the agency said in a statement.

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.

Republican tax bill guts clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago in climate law

The big tax breaks package passed by House Republicans early Thursday would gut clean energy tax credits that Democrats approved three years ago while supporting increased mining, drilling and other traditional energy production.

The bill, which now heads to the Senate, repeals or phases out more quickly clean energy tax credits passed in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act during former President Joe Bidens term. Bidens climate law has been considered monumental for the clean energy transition, but the House bill effectively renders moot much of the laws incentives for renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

Clean energy advocates said the bill walks back the largest government investment in clean energy in history.

Netanyahu links shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers to antisemitism and Oct. 7 attacks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the shooting of two of his countrys embassy staff in Washington, D.C. was a horrific act of antisemitic violence.

Yaron and Sarah werent the victims of a random crime, Netanyahu said. The terrorist who cruelly gunned them down did so for one reason and one reason alone -- he wanted to kill Jews.

In a video released by his office Thursday, speaking in English, he said the two staffers were planning to get engaged during a trip to Jerusalem next week.

Netanyahu said the suspect shouted Free Palestine as he was taken away, drawing a direct line between the shooting and the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. This is exactly the same chant we heard on October 7th.

Netanyahu concluded the video by saying, I especially want to thank President Trump and the American people for their forthright stand with Israel and with the Jewish people.

Leavitt says Trump signs every legal document

In response to questions about former President Joe Bidens use of the autopen to sign some documents, Leavitt said that Trump signs any document that has legal implications.

He signs pretty much every document that is needed for the presidents signature, with the exception of maybe some letters to children, she said.

But one of Trumps most controversial acts, invoking the 18th-centruy wartime Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants, was something that Trump later claimed he didnt sign.

I dont know when it was signed, because I didnt sign it, Trump told reporters in March.

Trump and Netanyahu discuss Israel embassy staffer shooting and Iran

The two leaders spoke by phone on Thursday following Wednesday evenings shooting that killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Washington reception.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the two leaders also discussed a potential deal with Iran to stem its rapidly advancing nuclear program. Trump is expected to dispatch special envoy Steve Witkoff to Italy for talks later this week with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.

Leavitt said Trump believes the talks moving along in the right direction.

Trump administration files motion to end protections for immigrant children in federal custody

The Trump administration filed a motion on Thursday to end a policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, in a move that likely will be challenged by advocates.

The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family and detained by the U.S. Border Patrol can be kept in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions.

The Flores settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight.

This is the second time the federal government under Trump has attempted to end the policy. In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

White House condemns judge who said US violated court order

Leavitt used her press briefing to attack by name the federal judge who ruled that the White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries, calling Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston a liberal activist and accusing the jurist of threatening U.S. diplomatic relationships.

Judge Brian Murphy is not the secretary of State. He is not the secretary of defense or the commander in chief. He is a district court judge in Massachusetts. He cannot control the foreign policy or the national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd, Leavitt said.

Trump to attend Group of 7 Summit next month

The president will take part in a gathering in Calgary, Canada, from June 15 to June 17 with leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Trump is saddened and outraged by the shooting deaths of two Israeli embassy staffers

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump had spoken to Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice will prosecute the alleged gunman to the fullest extent of the law.

Leavitt said hatred has no place in the United States of America under Trump.

She said the entire White House staff was praying for the victims friends and families at this unimaginable time.

The first ladys new audiobook is in her own voice  but she didnt narrate it

Instead, Melania Trump said Thursday, she used artificial intelligence to generate a replica of her voice reading her memoir, Melania.

The 7-hour-long voiced read was created with technology from ElevenLabs, a startup that has helped other people mimic their own voices when medical issues rob them of their speech.

The companys technology also was used to make the audio behind AI robocalls imitating former President Joe Biden that misled voters during the 2024 election.

The first ladys embrace of AI for her book comes as her husband has said he wants to limit regulations on the technology that could hinder innovation. The president and first lady also recently signed the Take It Down Act, a measure that imposes penalties for online sexual exploitation, including through AI deepfakes.

Hundreds of state lawmakers urge Congressional leaders to keep hands off Planned Parenthood funding

As House Republicans passed their multitrillion-dollar budget bill overnight, 562 state lawmakers signed a letter to Congressional leadership urging them not to prohibit Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood and calling the organization an integral and irreplaceable part of the health care system.

Defunding Planned Parenthood blocks patients from getting the care they need and increases health care costs for everyone, the letter said.

Anti-abortion groups have long taken aim at Planned Parenthoods Medicaid funding through a mounting initiative called Defund Planned Parenthood.

The federal Hyde Amendment already restricts government funding for most abortions, and less than 5% of the services Planned Parenthood provides are abortions, according to the organizations 2023 annual report. Contraceptive services and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections make up the vast majority of its medical care. It also performs more cancer screening and prevention procedures than abortions, according to the report.

Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff to lead US delegation to next round of nuclear talks with Iran

Thats according to an American official familiar with the matter who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss an upcoming private diplomatic meeting.

Witkoff and the State Departments director of policy planning Michael Anton will attend Fridays talks in Rome that had been announced earlier by Omans foreign minister whose country has been mediating the talks, the official said.

The talks, which will be the fifth round of direct and indirect discussions, are expected to be held at the Omani embassy in the Italian capital.

 Matthew Lee

The US government will no longer make cents

The U.S. Mint has made its final order of penny blanks and plans to stop making the coin when those run out, a Treasury official confirmed Thursday.

The move is expected to produce an immediate annual savings of $56 million in reduced material costs, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview the news.

In February, President Trump announced he ordered his administration to cease production of the 1-cent coin.

Advocates for ditching the penny cite its high production cost  currently almost 4 cents per penny, according to the U.S. Mint  and limited utility. Fans of the penny cite its usefulness in charity drives and relative bargain in production costs compared with the nickel, which costs almost 14 cents to mint.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

 Fatima Hussein

Nonprofits sue Justice Department over canceled criminal justice and victims group grants

The five organizations that had grants terminated by the U.S. Department of Justice in April are suing the department and Attorney General Pam Bondi calling the cancellations unconstitutional and asking that the money be reinstated.

The lawsuit filed late Wednesday by the Vera Institute of Justice, the Center for Children & Youth Justice, Chinese for Affirmative Action, FORCE Detroit and Health Resources in Action, asks a federal judge to vacate the midstream grant cancellations.

They ask the court to award class status to the awardees for the more than 360 grants initially worth $820 million that were canceled last month, naming both the Office of Justice Programs and its acting agency head as additional defendants.
Twenty-five law enforcement leaders from across the country are urging the New Hampshire House of Representatives to reject a Senate-passed bill that would grant gunmaker SIG Sauer immunity from liability regarding a P320 pistol thats been the topic of hundreds of lawsuits.

Concord lawyer and former Supreme Court Justice Chuck Douglas is representing the group after he had originally launched a federal class-action suit alleging that the pistol didnt function properly.

Granting any community immunity is a pretty rare occurrence because the net result of it is to close the courthouse door, Douglas said.

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A federal judge denied the class-action suit and instructed Douglas to file individual cases against the gun manufacturer.

To date, there have been 82 such cases brought in the Granite State over the P320, Douglas said.

At issue is the P320s lack of a mechanical safety on many versions. Plaintiffs have claimed that without a safety, the pistol has a tendency to fire on its own. SIG Sauer has contended that the lack of a safety is a known feature of the P320 and that user error is responsible for the shootings.

The legislation exempts gunmakers from liability for the absence or presence of a safety or other features.

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In an op-ed provided to the Union Leader, law enforcement officials contend the pistol has been mired in controversy since its introduction in 2014. The signers included police officials from 14 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

The suits alleged that after a misfiring problem was discovered, SIG Sauer changed the pistols supplied in a Department of Defense contract for the military but continued selling what the suit claimed were defective guns for months until a national gun retailer notified the national media.

In conclusion, we urge lawmakers to reject proposals that seek to grant immunity based on a single manufacturers request and based on a single gun  the P320 pistol  that has placed law enforcement officers and the general public at risk and unnecessarily harmed many, the police officials said.

By opposing immunity for SIG Sauer, we in law enforcement uphold our duty to protect and serve, both on the streets and in our communities.

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Proposal emerged without public hearing

Robert Zimmerman was the lead lawyer who sued SIG Sauer and won a judgment in Pennsylvania.

SIG Sauer should focus on changing the defective design of its P320. Instead, SIG Sauer is paying lobbyists to change New Hampshire law to deprive local, state and federal law enforcement officers and private gun owners from having their day in court and to hold SIG Sauer accountable for their serious injuries, Zimmerman said in a statement.

Injured law enforcement officers are the ones most disproportionately harmed by SIG Sauers attempt to change the law to give itself immunity; that is simply un-American.

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The state Senate earlier this month approved the measure on a 16-8 party-line vote, with all Republicans in support and all Democrats against it.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill Gannon, R-Sandown, said the immunity was limited to optional features of the weapon and would not prevent a lawsuit over any guns manufacturing defect.

Gannons amendment specifically exempts gunmakers from liability claims over the absence or presence of items such as a magazine disconnect mechanism, a loaded chamber indicator, authorized user recognition (such as fingerprint) technology or an external mechanical safety.

You loaded the weapon. It must have some kind of warning that it has been loaded or the company could be sued  does that make any sense? asked Sen. Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, who is a criminal defense lawyer.

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Gannon brought the proposal before the full Senate as a floor amendment that never had a public hearing.

The change was added to a popular House-passed bill (HB 551) that would eliminate a license needed to sell handguns.

Whats Next: The House of Representatives will consider in the coming week or so whether to agree with the amendment, reject it and seek a conference committee to resolve differences with the Senate or kill the bill outright.

Prospects: Hard to tell. The House has a very strong contingent of pro-gun-rights legislators but in the past has been loath to support other legislation to grant sweeping immunity from liability for other industries.

klandrigan@unionleader.com
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  Police agencies from across Western New York came together Wednesday evening for an annual memorial service, which aims to honor fallen law enforcement officers and show respect for their families.

Community members, police officers and family members gathered at St. Joseph Cathedral located on Franklin Street.

The ceremony, organized by Lieutenant Rob Mercurio of the Buffalo Police Department, began with the presentation of colors, followed by prayers and speeches from several local leaders.

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Family members of those who lives were taken too soon were greeted by a line of current officers saluting them to pay respects.

Those officers, those lives, those families, those surviving families, are never forgotten, Mercurio said. The officers that went into work one day and didnt return home to their families, its tragic. Its incumbent on us to continue on and remember them.

Officers from eight counties in Western New York were present at the ceremony.

Father Sean Paul Flemming said the yearly event is a moment where the community can come together as one.

I see a family of faith that forms. We may not all share the same beliefs or go to the same churches, but on this day, were here simply as Gods children, Flemming said. Were here to support each other in our loss. Were here to support and praise our men and women, our officers, who go out on the job every day.

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Following the event was a social gathering, where family members, local leaders, and law enforcement were able to chat with each other. Mercurio said its what he looks forward to the most each and every year.

Its all for those moments afterwards where we get to take a breath, he said. Just share whats going on in our lives and whats going on in their lives and how we can support each other in the future.

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Trina Catterson joined the News 4 team in 2024. She previously worked at WETM-TV in Elmira, a sister station of WIVB. See more of her work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo.
Would you be willing to let Kim Kardashian fight to get you out of jail? Or handle your divorce settlement? What if she had to go to the police station in the middle of the night to get you released on a minor charge? While the question may sound disconcerting, its not far from the truth. Kardashian, 44, has officially graduated in law after six years of study under a legal apprenticeship program with a law firm in California. If she passes the Bar examination, she will officially be able to practice law in that state.

Known as a businesswoman but above all as a reality TV star thanks to the family show that bears her name, and as a pioneer of exposing the miseries and grandeurs of the rich and famous, Kardashian shared news of her achievement through her familys social media channels. And of course, she did it in a peculiar way: by showing scenes from her unusual graduation ceremony, where she was alone with just a couple of classmates in the backyard of her house. It was her younger sister, Khloe, who uploaded half a dozen videos on her Instagram account where Kim is seen listening to speeches from some of her mentors and putting on her graduation cap. I am so proud of Kim, Khloe said later in a video. I am so proud of Kim. I just left her celebration lunch for graduating from law school. I mean, I cannot believe this is years and years in the making.

Two of her mentors present at the private ceremony said that Kardashians journey has been one of the most inspiring ever. Six years ago, Kim Kardashian walked into this program with nothing but a fierce desire to fight for justice. No law school lectures, no ivory tower shortcuts, just determination, said one. During this program, Kim has dedicated 18 hours a week, 48 weeks a year for six straight years. Thats 5,148 hours of legal study. Thats time she carved out while raising four children, running businesses, filming television shows and showing up in courtrooms to advocate for others. And then Khloe spoke: And still fabulous.

Despite the sweltering temperatures of nearly 86F in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Kardashian wore a gray wool sweater, a dark skirt and black tights, along with towering white heels. The next of her mentors continued her praise, stating that Kim has fought to reunite families and bring national attention to the most complex aspects of our national legal system. Social rights activist and CNN host Van Jones also spoke at the graduation, thanking the businesswoman for her efforts.

Kim Kardashian and Donald J. Trump at the White House, at an event to give second chances to formerly incarcerated citizens, in June 2019. Jabin Botsford (Getty Images)

It was just over six years ago that Kardashian publicly revealed she was studying to become a lawyer. It happened almost by chanceor perhaps not, given the always carefully curated narratives of the Kardashians livesduring an interview with Vogue magazine. While interviewing her at her home, reporters came across a series of law books. She then explained that she had begun a legal apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco and was aiming to earn her law degree in 2022.

However, with the Covid-19 pandemic and her many occupations, that time has expanded to just over six years. Kardashian hasnt studied at a traditional university; her busy social, work, family, and business schedulewhich has led to her amassing a fortune of $1.7 billion, according to Forbeshasnt allowed it. Instead, she opted for a program available in California called the Law Office Study Program (LOSP), which allows participants to earn a degree and take the bar exam.

In 2021, Kanye Wests ex-wife managed to pass the so-called Baby Bar  proving the completion of the first year of study for students taking unaccredited law classes which she had failed three times, including once after contracting Covid. This was the first of the two required exams to become a practicing lawyer. The second one is the Bar proper, with around 200 questions on half a dozen topics, lasting two days, and costing between $700 and $1,000. In the state of California, its especially difficult, and only 54% of applicants manage to pass it.

Kardashians passion for legal matters goes back to her own father, the late Robert Kardashian, a lawyer who defended O.J. Simpson in his famous trial in the mid-1990s. She herself said in the interview with Vogue six years ago that she was also influenced by his defense of a woman named Alice Marie Johnson. After interceding on her behalf with Donald Trump in May 2018, Kardashian secured a pardon from the president. Johnson, then 63, had been sentenced to life in prison and had spent more than 20 years behind bars for a non-violent drug offense. That same year, in September, she campaigned to pardon another woman, Chris Young, also sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for murdering a man who had paid her to have sex with her when she was 16. Once again, she won a pardon. In recent years, she has spoken out and called for sentence reviews for dozens of prisoners, including the high-profile Menendez brothers.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)  The Richmond County Sheriffs Office responded to the 2500 block of Lumpkin Road in reference to a deadly shooting on Wednesday, May 21.

According to police, one male was located at the scene with at least one gunshot wound. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at 8:20 p.m.

He has since been identified as 26-year-old Jaquavious Watkins. An autopsy has been scheduled.

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The sheriffs office Criminal Investigation Division were also on the scene, investigating the apparent homicide.

No further information has been provided at this time.

This is a developing story.

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ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- This week, many students across West Texas will be graduating from high school. While it is a time to celebrate, many officials are reminding students to celebrate responsibly.

Officers with multiple agencies will patrol the street to keep kids from underage drinking. Officials are also offering an alternative called Project Graduation. It will be held at Urban Air, and it is meant to keep students safe.

We have staff members, especially Clara Pride, who worked very hard to put this together for our youth, Sara Hinshaw, Basin Lighthouse Director, said. We are here, we all worry because we care about our youth. We want our youth to grow up and be successful. So, she works super hard to provide this party. She gets out in the community, cause again we want a safe place for our kids to go.

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Project graduation is organized by Basin Lighthouse, a non-profit that specializes in drug and alcohol abuse. But it isnt the only organization working to make a difference this graduation season.

The agency in Ector County is coming together, and we focus on preventing alcohol parties for juveniles right after graduation night for the safety of the students, LT. Chancey Westfall at Ector County Police Department said. Historically, in the past, there have been times where students go to these parties, get intoxicated, drive, and we end up losing students that are just now starting their gulf journey in life.

In Odessa, parents can be criminally charged if caught hosting parties for underage kids. Where alcohol is being served.

2,000-dollar fines regarding that social host ordinance. Thats a pretty significant fine, and we havent written an enormous amount of those, but we have written those, Chief Michael Gerke said. Those have been issued, and we will do it again. I hate to say that because if people put us in that position, they force us in that corner, it will happen. So again, thats why we are here today, because of the safety of the young people and asking the parents and adults to be responsible.

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Basin Lighthouse says that in this area, 13 percent of seniors are getting alcohol at parties. Officials say the community can help by sending tips and talking to Crime Stoppers about any known grad parties that might be serving alcohol.

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Malik Shabazz representing Black Lawyers for Justice, second from left, leads a rally May 20 in Annapolis demanding the Maryland General Assembly override a veto by Gov. Wes Moore (D) of the Reparations Commission bill. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

Gov. Wes Moores veto of the Maryland Reparations Commission bill came as a shock to lawmakers here, but they are confident they can override the veto, making it little more than a temporary setback for the initiative.

Were not done in getting this bill into a law. That is the ultimately goal, no matter what hurdles are in front of us, said Del. Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County), who sponsored a House version of the measure and helped pass Senate Bill 587, sponsored by Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Prince Georges).

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For advocates around the country, however, the shock is still being felt. They worry about what the bills troubles in Maryland  a state with a Black governor, a Black attorney general, a Black House Speaker, a Democratic super-majority and a powerful Legislative Black Caucus  portend for any efforts that might develop in their own states.

Gov. Moore needs to realize that hes not only impacting Maryland, but hes impacting South Carolina and many other states with the veto, said South Carolina state Rep. John King, a Democrat from the Rock Hill area of the state.

The Maryland bill called for the creation of a commission that would assess specific federal, state and local policies from 1877 to 1965, the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, that led to economic disparities based on race, including housing, segregation and discrimination, redlining, restrictive covenants, and tax policies.

The all-volunteer commission would also have examined how public and private institutions may have benefited from those policies, and would then recommend appropriate reparations, which could include statements of apology, monetary compensation, social service assistance, business incentives or child care costs. Unlike previous years, when reparations bills had price tags of $1 million or more, the bill passed this year drew heavily on volunteers and existing resources, and was expected to cost $54,500 in its first year.

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In his veto letter, Moore praised the work and the intentions of those behind the bill, but said now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve. He cited a number of studies over the past 25 years on the legacy of slavery, and promised that his legislative agenda next year would include a package of proposals to address the barriers that have walled off Black families in Maryland from work, wages and wealth for generations.

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Those justifications appeared to be lost on many advocates, however, who called the veto everything from shocking to a betrayal.

King expressed his disappointment on his Facebook page Monday, when he called on his states Democratic Party to rescind an invitation to Moore, who is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the partys annual Blue Palmetto Dinner on May 30 in South Carolina. Tickets start at $150 for the dinner, which has featured potential presidential candidates in the past, like U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who headlined last years dinner with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).

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I will still support [the] governor, if he decided to run for president, said King, who spent summers in Maryland where his mother grew up in the Baltimore area. But in light of the reparations veto, I dont think the timing is right for him to come to South Carolina, he said in an interview Tuesday.

South Carolina Democratic Party officials did not respond to requests for comment, but as recently as Wednesday the party was sending out email appeals urging people to buy tickets for the dinner and the chance to hear from Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

Kings colleague, Rep. Annie McDaniel, a Democrat from Fairfield, said she also disagrees with Moores veto.

Im not saying whether the governors right or wrong. Im just saying that the way he chose to handle this is not good, McDaniel said in an interview Tuesday. Its not good for the plight that African Americans are on now in this state.

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But McDaniel, who chairs the states Legislative Black Caucus, also said Moore should attend the Blue Palmetto Dinner and explain himself. She said she would also like to see an invitation extended to Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery), the chair of the Maryland Legislative Black Caucus.

I think that would be an awesome opportunity, McDaniel said. I dont want the conversation to be one-sided. I believe in fairness. I just think that having her [Wilkins] in the room and having him [Moore] in the room at the same time will give us an opportunity to hear both sides.

Wilkins declined to comment Tuesday. A spokesperson for the governors office also declined to comment.

Reparations now

Moores veto Friday was announced hours after he spoke at commencement for the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, one of the states four historically Black colleges and universities, and the day before an unrelated reparations rally in Washington, D.C.

The governors decision has sparked some conversation on online broadcasts and among civil rights organizations. David Johns, CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, called the governors decision in a statement Tuesday a betrayal of generational efforts to pursue truth, healing, and repair.

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As the first Black governor of Maryland, Gov. Moore had an opportunity to lead with moral clarity, political courage, and historical awareness, Johns said in a statement Tuesday. Instead, his decision represents a dangerous step backward in the long and necessary march toward racial justice.

Outside the State House on Tuesday, as the governor was inside for the last bill-signing of the year, a small group of protesters stood on Lawyers Mall, holding signs and chanting: What do we want? Reparations! When do we want it? Now! The rally was led by Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Black Lawyers for Justice, who said the legislature should override Moores veto.

Clearly, the governors not for reparations, Shabazz said to reporters. And clearly, hes looking to cut off a study and calculation of an assessment of the damages of what has been done to the people and the constituents of his own state, and thats unacceptable.

But Linda Lee Tarver, with the Black conservative organization Project 21, said Wednesday that reparations arent the answer to help Black communities.

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Tarver, who runs a political consulting business in Lansing, Michigan, agreed with Moores veto message that studies have been, and continue to be, done by other organizations. She referenced her own groups policy recommendations, which include election integrity, reducing harmful environmental justice agenda, making health care more market oriented and protecting science, technology, engineering and math instruction from the poison of equity activists.

She said she was surprised at the apparent disconnect between Moore and the Legislative Black Caucus, which had endorsed the reparations bill.

I believe that Gov. Wes Moore got caught in pretending to care for reparations, and then his pen was required, and he punted, Tarver said. Its shameful. Just say up front you dont believe in it.

Disconnect or not, McCaskill said the debate is healthy  and the debate will continue as the commission moves forward, as she believes it will.

I am excited to hear that its on folks minds, in opposition or proponents for it, she said. This commission is important to hear from all Marylanders because it will eventually affect every Marylander.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Oregon lawmakers are pushing back on the potential closure of two birth centers in rural parts of the state.

In a letter sent on Wednesday, Oregons Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Val Hoyle urged Samaritan Health Services new President and CEO Marty Cahill to save maternity services at its Lebanon and Lincoln City hospitals.

Portland City Council races against time to approve budget amid $93M shortfall

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While a spokesperson said the healthcare systems board of directors has yet to make a decision on whether the birth centers will close, members of the Oregon Nurses Association have revealed the facilities are on the chopping block.

KOIN 6 previously reported that expecting patients at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital would be left with the companys only other Linn County maternity center in Albany, and Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital would have to travel almost 30 miles to its nearest hospital in Newport.

This would lead to a maternity care desert for these communities, according to the recent letter from Oregon legislators.

We are aware of the economic challenges that are squeezing the finances of labor and delivery units across Oregon, Merkley, Wyden and Hoyle wrote. Low volumes of births, workforce shortages, and challenging reimbursement rates make it difficult for rural hospitals to continue offering birthing services. However, we have also seen the negative impacts of labor and delivery unit closures on Oregon mothers and families. It will require innovative approaches, community engagement, and a commitment from Samaritan Health to preserve access to safe maternal health care.

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Similarly, Legacy Health shuttered its Mt. Hood Medical Center in mid-March 2023  but the Oregon Health Authority rejected the companys request to close the Gresham facility almost two weeks later.

Trumps tariffs wreak havoc in Washington, Gov. Ferguson says in new court filing

The state agency argued that Legacys plans to divert patients to Randall Childrens Hospital, nearly 17 miles away, failed to sufficiently meet the needs of its patients and their community. The birth center reopened that June.

Oregon legislators and nurses are now pushing Samaritan Health to pursue other solutions for its maternity services.

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Cryptocurrency miners and data centers have found a home in Texas because of abundant, cheap electricity.

However, as CCN reported, newly proposed legislation could create stricter standards to limit these activities because they are raising utility rates for households.

What are cryptocurrency mining regulations?

Cryptocurrency regulations focus on energy consumption, tax considerations, and environmental impacts. Multiple states have laws to manage the energy demand of crypto mining and to protect miners from regulations that might otherwise treat them like data centers.

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Regulations develop frameworks for the cryptocurrency industry and can help prevent legal issues like money laundering and fraud.

Why are cryptocurrency regulations important?

Lawmakers in Texas have suggested new regulations on cryptocurrency mining out of concern for residents' energy bill costs.

Mining consumes vast amounts of energy, and Texas has been able to supply that energy through natural gas, wind turbines, and other sources. Major mining operations have built enormous facilities in Texas because of dynamic pricing schemes that offer discounted rates and the opportunity to sell unused power back to the grid.

However, these activities have contributed to strain on the Texas grid.

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Proponents of the Texas bill say that large mining operations now require more oversight to stabilize the energy grid. A big reason for this is that while crypto miners generate tens of millions of dollars monthly, ordinary Texas citizens are seeing their utility bills rise.

"I think we need to rise to the challenge of getting the needed generation onto the grid," said bill sponsor Senator Charles Schwertner, per the Texas Tribune. "But there is eventually a prioritization that could be discussed, and obviously Texans  their families, their homes, their businesses  are the most important individuals, the most important clients for electricity."

How laws can help keep energy affordable

Laws like the proposed Senate Bill 6 (SB6) in Texas have the potential to keep utility costs affordable for homeowners while ensuring crypto operations are accountable for their energy usage.

Electricity used to power mining and AI data centers affects energy prices for people completely unaffiliated with those industries.

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To keep energy affordable in Texas and worldwide, it is crucial to invest in renewable energy, promote energy conservation, and improve energy efficiency.

These goals can be achieved by developing clean energy infrastructure, implementing policies that reward clean energy adoption, and embracing smart grid technologies to minimize energy waste.

Meanwhile, greener digital currencies and eco-friendly blockchains can help reduce excessive energy consumption.

With energy demands growing rapidly due to advancing technology, it is important to balance profits with climate sustainability and people's livelihoods in our communities.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Kevin Stitt Wednesday to stop the names of Oklahomans receiving a private school tax credit from being included on a publicly available list of tax credit recipients. Students, parents and educators are pictured gathering at Oklahoma's state Capitol to celebrate the "success" of the program on March 12. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice)

OKLAHOMA CITY  In an effort to protect family privacy, Oklahoma lawmakers fast-tracked a bill to the governor on Wednesday that will no longer allow the public to view the names of Oklahomans who received a controversial private school tax credit.

If signed into law by Gov. Kevin Stitt, Senate Bill 684 would also remove individual names that were recently published to an existing state database of recipients of many tax credits. It listed those who received a share of hundreds of millions of state dollars allocated to the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program.

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House Democrats opposing the measure said it doesnt align with how other tax credit program recipients are treated and will create a lack of accountability on where tax dollars are spent and who receives them.

The voucher-like program offers a refundable income tax credit of up to $7,500 to families who attend eligible private schools in the state. When creating the program, lawmakers gave priority to families earning $150,000 or less, and promised it would help lower-income students have the ability to attend private schools. A recent report showed over 46% of participants made over $150,000.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said the bill is about protecting the privacy of children and families. The publicly posted information does not list any childrens names or schools, just the taxpaying adult who applied for and received the funds and how much they received.

And while it does not list the names of students, it absolutely is to expose the students via their parents about the fact that they receive tax credits, he said.

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The measure also requires participating private schools to be accredited by March 2027.

Democrats argued that the tax credit program has benefited high-income families, not underprivileged children. A recent analysis of the recipients by Oklahoma Watch found less than 3,000 of recipients had attended public school the year prior to the credit and only 9% were families that qualify for income-based public assistance programs.

The recipients of other tax credit programs are publicly available online because thats how tax credits in Oklahoma work, said Rep. Ellen Pogemiller, D-Oklahoma City.

Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, said as a taxpayer he would feel uncomfortable not knowing where his tax dollars were going and who they were really benefitting.

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He said he was bothered by dismissive answers from the bill author to questions from other lawmakers on the House floor, specifically responses saying that questions werent specific to the bill language.

It behooves us, I think, to acknowledge that everything that we vote on is done in context, he said. And if I had a nickel for every time I have to talk about this issue, we could fund the voucher program, I think.

While most of the debate and discussion focused on the privacy aspects of the tax credit program, the bill also would give priority consideration for the credit to those who received it the prior year.

First priority would go to families with income below $150,000 and second to any others who received the credit the prior year, regardless of income.

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The Senate unanimously approved the measure Wednesday morning, while the House voted 68-23 to approve the measure Wednesday afternoon.

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LEA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE)  The prison in Hobbs will be shutting down next month, leaving more than 200 employees out of a job.

The New Mexico Corrections Department says it will stop using the Lea County Correctional Facility by June 30 after its private owner, The GEO Group, decided to not renew its contract with the county.

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The company offered to sell the prison to the state for $240 million dollars, later reducing the offer to $175 million, but the state turned them down.

Approximately 1,000 inmates will be transferred to other prisons in New Mexico.

More information about the transition, including resources for families, can be found here.

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)  The Syracuse Common Council will probably override all 45 budget amendment vetoes issued by Mayor Ben Walsh, the bodys presiding president tells NewsChannel 9.

President Pro-Tempore Pat Hogan says I dont think so, when asked if theres any hope the mayors requested spending plan gets restored.

We certainly did our due diligence through the whole budget process, said Councilor Hogan. My councilors are pretty set as far as, like, deciding on how were going to go forward and I think well probably overrule every one of his vetoes.

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The council is poised to vote as soon as it legally can: its next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday.

Hogans admission likely ends any hope Mayor Ben Walsh had at restoring the budget initially proposed that was slashed by the Common Council.

Mayor Ben Walsh formally proposed his $348 million budget to the Common Council on April 9. On May 8, without warning to the mayor, the council made $16 million in spending cuts in the form of 82 amendments to line items.

On May 19, Mayor Walsh formally objected to 45 of those amendments, asking the council to restore $13 million worth of spending.

Walsh said he was hoping to compromise by not vetoing all 82 amendments, instead asking to fully fund the police, fire, and codes departments.

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Hogan reiterated Wednesday that while hes cutting how much city departments can spend, hes not telling them what kinds of programs or people to cut within their reduced budgets.

Hogan said it was up to Syracuse Police Chief Joe Cecile whether to keep funding gunshot-detecting technology or hire another round of police academy graduates as new officers.

Mayor Walsh said hes frustrated the council cut the citys ability to raise revenue.

Its up to the administration, its up to the departments, said Hogan. We have to be cognizant of what programs they decide to get rid of. Programs that actually generate revenue, we probably shouldnt.

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When asked if that means Hogan will restore the spending cut intended to hire people to administer new enforcement of drivers speeding in school zones or passing stopped school buses using camera surveillance, he again said it wasnt up to him.

Im not running a city department, Hogan said.

Hogan is running for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of Syracuse against fellow Common Councilor Chol Majok and Ben Walsh-appointed Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens. Walsh has accused Hogans cuts of being politically motivated.

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Mammography has become one of the most important tools for early cancer detection, but it may fall short for a certain group of women: those with dense breast tissue  a characteristic that can obscure tumors on mammographic images

There is ongoing debate in the scientific community about how best to address a critical gap in breast cancer screening  cases where conventional mammography falls short. Women with dense breast tissue often escape detection, as their fibroglandular tissue can obscure tumors on mammograms. But questions remain: Which supplemental test is most effective? And which subgroup of women with dense breasts should receive it?

A pioneering clinical trial has now added new data to the discussion. Published Wednesday in The Lancet, the study compared the performance of three complementary imaging tests and found that two contrast-enhanced techniques were more effective than ultrasound when used alongside mammography. However, the research did not evaluate key clinical outcomes, such as whether these methods reduce cancer mortality or the long-term risks of overdiagnosis  so the debate continues.

Breast density is unrelated to breast size. Instead, it refers to the proportion of fibrous and glandular tissue compared to fat. This characteristic is invisible to the naked eye and must be assessed through a mammogram, where fat appears black and dense tissue appears white. The challenge is that tumors also appear white, and in dense breasts, the abundance of fibrous tissue can mask cancerous lesions.

Experts note that women with high breast density face two distinct risks: they are up to four times more likely to develop breast cancer, and their tumors are more likely to go undetected until later stages.

While mammography has a general sensitivity of 85% to 90%, that figure can drop to 60% in women with dense breasts, says Marina Alvarez, a breast imaging specialist with the Spanish Society of Medical Radiology (SERAM). That decline in detection is a key limitation in screening programs, as roughly 10% of women undergoing early detection tests fall into the dense breast category.

How to address these technical limitations remains an open question within the scientific community. There is no clear consensus on how to manage women with dense breast tissue, and the benefits of complementary imaging techniques are still under debate.

In practice, Alvarez explains, there are two scenarios: In diagnosis, in a breast unit and with women with a history of cancer or at higher risk, we usually follow up the studies with ultrasound. But when it comes to screening, there are no recommendations for complementary tests. There is a lot of debate.

Theres also a lot at stake. Because of this lack of sensitivity, cancer can go undetected, says Alvarez, who is also director of the Radiodiagnosis and Breast Cancer Unit at the Reina Sofia University Hospital in Cordoba. And theres a higher risk of interval cancer [which is detected between screenings] or of detecting it in more advanced stages. But to make these decisions, we need a lot of evidence and assurance that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Contrast techniques are more effective

The British study published in The Lancet adds a new layer of evidence to the ongoing scientific debate. This pioneering trial compared three complementary imaging techniques in more than 9,000 women who had normal mammograms but dense breast tissue. Specifically, the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of abbreviated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), contrast-enhanced mammography, and ultrasound.

The first two use intravenous contrast [substances injected to help better view the area] and are functional tests, explains Alvarez. They provide morphological information about the breast and also functional information because they measure tumor hypervascularization [the blood vessels that supply the cancer]. MRI doesnt involve radiation, but mammography does. Ultrasound, on the other hand, also doesnt involve radiation, but its a test that only provides morphological information.

Each technique comes with its own advantages and limitations. The most sensitive test, according to radiologist Alvarez, is abbreviated MRIa shorter version of the traditional scanbut it is expensive, slow, and not widely available.

The ultrasound method used in the study (ABUS) is more accessible, cheaper, almost harmless, and available in almost all hospitals, but its also slow, says Alvarez. Contrast mammography has solved many of the problems we were missing: its faster, easier to interpret, and better accepted and tolerated by the patient. Some people may be allergic to iodinated contrast, but this is rare, the doctor notes.

Beyond the pros and cons of each approach, the study found that contrast-enhanced techniques detect 17 additional cancers per 1,000 screenings  compared to just four additional cases per 1,000 when using ultrasound.

According to the study, These results demonstrate that supplemental imaging can be delivered in a screening programme to women with dense breast tissue. The small size of the additional cancers found shows that the tools are effective in early detection

The trial showed detection rates of 17.4 cases per 1,000 screenings with MRI, 4.2 with ultrasound, and 19.2 with contrast-enhanced mammography. What this study tells us is that functional testing outperforms ultrasound, which fares less well as a screening technique, says Alvarez. But that doesnt mean its useless in other contexts: ultrasound plays a fundamental role in diagnostic imaging in breast units.

The research, however, does not answer several crucial questions concerning early cancer detection programs. The authors of the paper note: The main limitation of this study is that screening benefit, notably breast cancer specific mortality reduction, and longer-term harm, such as overdiagnosis [the identification of cancer cases through screening that would not have led to symptoms or posed a threat to the patients health], cannot be measured in this trial.

Aureli Torne, vice president of the Catalan Gynecology Society of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia, argues that the results of this research are consistent with previous studies and add evidence to reach a consensus.

Its of great interest because all the techniques detect cases that digital mammography hadnt detected, says Torne. And the tumors found were in their early stages. Settling the debate is difficult, but this will lead to the need for new studies to demonstrate cost-effectiveness, the impact on mortality, and whether it leads to more overdiagnosis.

Artificial intelligence

Alvarez is not surprised by the data from this study, in which she did not participate. But its an interesting study that sheds light and will help inform decision-making, she agrees.

She also highlights another detail from the research: nearly 38,000 women were invited to participate in the trial, but over 28,000 declined. The complementary test was offered to them after a normal mammogram, and few are willing to undergo an additional test, she explains. This tells us that we need to work more on raising awareness and providing women with information about what a dense breast means and what the additional test provides.

The scientific debate, however, remains open. Alvarez points out that several key questions are still unresolved: One, which this study addresses, is which test is better. But another important issue is knowing which women will benefit the most, and how we best identify this group.

Regarding this issue, Alvarez points out that strategies already exist using artificial intelligence to assess a womans breast cancer risk: Its more efficient software because it studies the architecture and texture of the breast, not just the density, she explains.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo.  An inmate in the Leavenworth County Jail, has been sentenced after attorneys say he attacked multiple correctional officers.

Tyrell Clark, 37, was sentenced on Wednesday afternoon to 10-years in prison following the 2024 attack.

Kansas City man attacks multiple women, released, then strikes again

Court records say on June 30, 2024, multiple correctional officers attempted to get Clark to return a lunch tray from his cell after he did not comply with orders from an initial officer.

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Later, officers attempted to deploy a pepper-ball gun after Clark continued to ignore orders made by the officers. However, Clark was able to block the gun with his lunch tray before throwing urine on the officers, according to court documents.

An officer then entered Clarks cell where an altercation between the two then took place.

Clark hit the officer over the head with his lunch tray, punched the officer, and placed him in a chokehold before another officer used his Taser on Clark.

Man arrested after high-speed chase ends in crash in Platte County, sheriffs office says

Acts of violence against our law enforcement and correctional officers are serious and unacceptable, said Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson. There must be consequences when they are targeted.

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The 10-year sentence will run consecutively to Clarks prior sentences.

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Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has denounced a wave of Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon, calling on the international community to pressure Israel to respect a ceasefire reached in November with Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Lebanons official National News Agency (NNA) said on Thursday that the Israeli military struck a building in Toul, a town in the Nabatieh governorate. The army had earlier warned residents to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah.

Lebanese media outlets also reported Israeli bombardment in the towns of Soujod, Touline, Sawanna and the Rihan Mountain  all in the countrys south.

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In a statement, Salams office said the Israeli attacks come at a dangerous time, just days before municipal elections in Lebanons southern districts on Saturday.

The contests are expected to be dominated by Hezbollah and its allies, and there have been growing concerns about the safety of voters, especially in border towns, amid the continued Israeli occupation of parts of southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Salam stresses that these violations will not thwart the states commitment to holding the elections and protecting Lebanon and the Lebanese, his office said in its statement.

People and civil defence members gather near the site of the Israeli strike in Toul, May 22 [Ali Hankir/Reuters]

As part of the November ceasefire agreement, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of that demarcation line.

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For its part, Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon but it has kept troops in parts of south Lebanon. It argues it must maintain a presence there for strategic reasons.

The truce was based on a UN Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in southern Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.

On Thursday, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one fighter in the southern Lebanon town of Rab el-Thalathine.

Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the Israeli armys claim.

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Separately, a shepherd was injured in a different Israeli attack nearby, the NNA reported.

The Israeli military said its forces also struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons in the Bekaa Valley in northeastern Lebanon.

The NNA described Israels attacks as some of the heaviest since the ceasefire went into effect.




The following story was written by Nathan Prewett and published in the Trussville Tribune.

LEEDS, Ala. (TRIBUNE)  A local girl scout has created a media-based exhibit at the Leeds Historical Society Museum, honoring local veterans and preserving their stories for future generations.

Aubry Mabery, a member of the Leeds Area Girl Scout Troop 30234, partnered with the Leeds Historical Society for the project as part of her efforts to earn a Girl Scout Gold Awardthe highest honor in Girl Scouting.

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The new exhibit features digitized portraits and stories of veterans from Leeds as well as an interactive scavenger hunt for students and families visiting the museum.

I wanted to preserve the stories of those who have indirectly inspired me, Mabery said. This has also been a growing experience that helped me to understand my goals and aspirations.

Mabery has had a longstanding relationship with the Leeds Historical Society Museum, located at the historic J.W. Bass House.

For her Silver Award, she inventoried many of the museums artifacts and created a digital archive stored on the societys cloud-based system.

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The people Ive worked with have been so kind and understanding. Theyve shown me how historians can respect the history that inspires us and preserve the cornerstones of our past in order to inspire our future, Mabery added.

She has also used her platform as Miss Leeds Fire Prevention to raise awareness about the damage that fire and smoke can cause to historical buildings and museum artifacts, advocating for installing smoke and fire detectors in historic structures throughout Leeds to prevent their destruction.

We are proud to support Aubrys inspiring project, said Leeds Historical Society President Randy Ray. She embodies the values of both the Girl Scouts and the Historical Societya commitment to learning, leadership, and the preservation of our shared history.

A special presentation of the exhibit is scheduled for Sunday, May 25, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Leeds Historical Museum located on 1129 Montevallo Road SW and will be part of the Leeds Historical Societys Memorial Day Weekend programming.

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Nathan Prewett can be reached at nthomasp6@gmail.com.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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A two-alarm fire tore through Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, early Tuesday morning, rendering the well-known seafood restaurant a total loss, fire officials said.

Firefighters were sent to the restaurant at 629 Succotash Road around 3:44 a.m. on Tuesday. When they arrived eight minutes later, they found heavy fire coming from the rear of the building and the second floor, Union Fire District Chief Steven Pinch wrote in a statement.

No one was inside the building when the fire broke out, Pinch said.

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Firefighters spent about 90 minutes battling the fire before knocking it down, with strong winds accelerating the flames and complicating the firefighting effort, Pinch said.

Pinch praised the efforts of firefighters, saying they did a remarkable job stopping the flames as quickly as they did.

Our firefighters did a tremendous job, in extreme heat and wind conditions in a difficult building, Chief Pinch said. It was a pretty stubborn fire. ... We had a lot of things working against us, but they did a great job overcoming those obstacles.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation. While the building remains standing, Pinch said it could well be a total loss.

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The structural problems are significant, he said, calling the oyster bar a fixture in the town.

Most people in the community know someone who works there. It has a big impact on the towns economy. Its tough imagining the summer going on without having the oyster bar open, Pinch said in the statement. We feel bad for the owners and all the employees who are now out of work. Hopefully, they rebuild and are even better when they reopen.

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Idaho state Rep. Steven Miller, R-Fairfield, looks through protective glass into a hot room while touring facilities at Idaho National Laboratory in southern Idaho. (Photo courtesy of the Idaho National Laboratory)

IDAHO FALLS  Members of the Idaho Legislatures budget committee toured Idaho National Laboratory research facilities Wednesday as the lab is in the process of building its first new nuclear reactors in 50 years.

Some of INLs top officials told the Idaho Legislatures Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee they expected the next four years to usher in a new nuclear renaissance that INL will be at the center of.

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Its really intended to get INL back into the role of building and operating new reactors on site and supply chains that need to be exercised, getting us back into design and then ultimately building them and operating them, INL Deputy Director Todd Combs said.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC for short, is a powerful legislative committee that sets all of the budgets for every state agency and department.

JFACs tour included stops at Idaho National Laboratorys Research and Education Campus located in Idaho Falls as well as the Hot Fuel Examination Facility and the Sample Preparation Laboratory located at the Materials and Fuels Complex.

Members of the Idaho Legislatures Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee and their staff pose for a photo outside of DOME at Idaho National Laboratorys Materials and Fuels Complex on May 21. (Photo courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory)

The Materials and Fuels Complex is part of a vast 890 square-mile research complex located in the desert west of Idaho Falls that is often referred to simply as the site.

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INL currently operates four nuclear reactors and is considered the countrys leading nuclear energy research and development national laboratory.

Idaho National Laboratory more than nuclear energy, fuels research hub

But Combs told JFAC members INL does a lot more than nuclear energy and fuels research.

INL researchers and staff also focus on cyber security, electric vehicle infrastructure, artificial intelligence, or AI, homeland security and defense.

INL has built armor for the Abrams tanks and conducted research into vulnerabilities in the electric grid and how to combat those vulnerabilities.

INL teams have conducted research on electric vehicle infrastructure like charging stations and built the system that powered the Mars Perseverance rover.

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One might ask, how does this align currently with what the Trump administration is trying to accomplish? Combs said. And if you look at executive orders like Unleashing American Energy, and if you look at Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright), his initial memo, and everything hes been talking about since he took over as secretary of energy, we fall right in line with what theyre trying to accomplish.

INL celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, and Combs told legislators the lab is growing and ramping up research and operations. Since 2017, INL has grown from about 3,750 employees to 6,500 employees today.

Since what is now known as INL was founded in 1949, 52 reactors have been built and demonstrated on the site, Combs said.

INL currently operates four nuclear reactors, but the lab is in the process of building its first new reactors in 50 years.

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Weve got a number of projects right now over the next decade that are coming online as well that are going to be reactors, 53 and 54 and beyond, Combs said.

INL made headlines last month when state officials and Department of Energy officials announced a waiver to a 1995 nuclear waste settlement agreement that allows for the shipment of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho for research at INL. A waiver was necessary because the 1995 settlement agreement called for limiting new shipments of spent nuclear fuel into Idaho and removing certain types of spent nuclear fuel in order to prevent the state from becoming a dumping ground for the nations spent nuclear fuel.

Tour allows legislators to get closer look at research facilities located in eastern Idaho

Although the Idaho Legislature adjourned the 2025 legislative session on April 4 and is not in session now, JFAC regularly conducts interim meetings to keep an eye on the state budget and learn about how different agencies and organizations spend the money that JFAC approves in the budget every year.

Ive never been out there (to INLs site), Sen. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, said. Born and raised in Idaho. You would think I would have (visited before), but no. I loved it, and it was fascinating. The thing that really grabbed me was they did so much more than just the nuclear energy. I had no idea about the tanks and all that kind of stuff theyre doing, and the AI. Its just cutting-edge scientific stuff going on out there.

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Its good, I think, for the whole JFAC bench to get a chance to see that and to see weve been involved in buying buildings (that INL uses), Grow added. The state is involved in this, even though we tend to think that its a federal (facility).

A clear highlight for several JFAC members was entering a hot room at the Sample Preparation Laboratory that is under construction at the site. There isnt yet any nuclear material in the hot room because it is under construction. But once nuclear materials enter the facility, the public wont be able to enter the hot room that JFAC members entered Wednesday.

Legislators did not vote on any bills or budgets during the three-day interim meeting tour.

The tour kicked off Monday at College of Eastern Idaho, where two health care officials told legislators that Idahos near total abortion ban has caused OB-GYNs and other medical professionals to leave the state.



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JFAC members may conduct a fall interim tour this year as well, although a legislative staffer told the Idaho Capital Sun on Wednesday that plans are not finalized.

The next regular session of the Idaho Legislature is scheduled to begin in January.

Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as a JFAC co-chair with Grow, said the entire three-day spring tour was valuable.

Horman said the tour gave legislators who normally work out of the Idaho State Capitol in Boise a rare opportunity to get a closer look at important facilities and programs located in eastern Idaho that they might not have otherwise seen.

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I was so proud to see the way our community here welcomes legislators from across the state, and wanted to share with us the great things theyre doing to help the citizens of Idaho, Horman said.

An Idaho Capital Sun reporter participated in the entirety of Wednesdays tour of INL facilities, and the reporter agreed not to take any photos, in accordance with INLs photo policy. Instead, an INL photographer documented the JFAC tour.

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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  A Southwest Florida mother is outraged after encountering the man who a judge said stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her disabled people.

I told Kienan that was Leo, and Leo had his pennies because Kienan likes his little pennies, and he sticks them into jars, said Rebekah Bowman, Kienans mom. He has no idea. he has no idea what is going on.

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The Pinellas County businessman accused of taking more than $120 million dollars from the disabled remains a free man.

A federal bankruptcy judge has repeatedly ordered Leo Govoni to produce key documents on his assets, but Govoni failed to do so again on Wednesday.

Govoni continues to face fines of $5,000 a day plus attorney fees until he complies.

Govoni failed to do so, so that meter is still running.

Inside the Federal Courthouse, Govoni faced Kienan Bowman, 27, and his mom Rebekah. Nearly a million dollars was siphoned out of his special needs trust, and in a moment that stunned everyone, Govoni hugged Rebekah and said, its not what it seems.

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Couple says they lost medication money to scandalized St. Pete nonprofit

Govoni walked out of federal court on Wednesday afternoon as a free man again.



Investigative Reporter Brittany Muller asked Govoni, Mr. Govoni, are you surprised youre still a free man? He did not respond.



He needs to realize that these families are not free that he took the money from, theyre not, Rebekah Bowman said. He gets to walk free and the rest of us still have to struggle.



She said as a single mom, its a daily struggle to care for her son. Kienan Bowman had a vaccine injury at 18 months old.

It caused him to have a severe seizure disorder, Rebekah Bowman said.



Rebekah Bowman said her son received a settlement through the vaccine injury compensation program. The initial payment was $800,000, plus monthly annuity payments.

That money was set up in a trust in 2004 at Govonis now-bankrupt St. Petersburg non-profit, the Center for Special Needs Trust Administration. Thats when Bowman first met Govoni.



He promised that he would take care of the money and help it grow, and he told me that there was no one that could take care of my son like I do, and then I shouldnt have to worry about the money, Rebekah Bowman said.



Five months ago, Judge Roberta Colton found Govoni liable for over $120 million taken from the Center.

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Leo Govoni remains a free man, despite failing to honor federal judges orders

Investigative Reporter Brittany Muller asked Govoni, What would you say to Rebakah and Kienan standing right there and all the other victims who dont have any other money to take care of them?

Govoni had nothing to say, but it was this moment that left Rebekah Bowman speechless.



Leo Govoni gave me a hug after court and told me its not what it seems, she said.



The money Kienan Bowman received was supposed to help take care of him for the rest of his life.



Investigative Reporter Brittany Muller asked Govoni, do you feel good about what youve done with your clients money?

Before court, I asked Leo if he remembers me and he said, yes and then he proceeded to kind of talk to Kienan and ask Kienan about his backpack and try to show that hes this gentle person. Where is that gentle person in court? questioned Bowman.



The judge ordered Govoni to produce financial records for himself and his businesses, but attorneys seeking to recover the missing money said its like pulling teeth to get him to turn over court-ordered documents that he previously agreed to doing. During Wednesdays hearing, those attorneys said they received some documents from Govonis previous attorneys with Trenam Law, who withdrew from counsel months ago.

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Colton previously found Govoni in contempt and gave him three weeks before she gives her final judgment.

Were working on the documents, yes, and I think theyll be substantial documents provided, said Attorney Buddy Ford, representing Govoni.



A Pinellas County Judge entered a $90 million judgment against 23 Govoni-owned businesses on Tuesday, including Big Storm Brewing. This gave attorneys power to continue collection efforts against these entities to recover Coltons $120 million judgment.

Former Big Storm Brewery employee gives insight on controversy surrounding business

Investigative Reporter Brittany Muller asked Govoni, Do you believe the judge is getting tired and will put you in jail?



While Kienan Bowman doesnt understand the severity of his situation, his mom said its taken a toll on his health.



Last year, I wasnt even sure that he was going to live much longer, Bowman said.

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Attorneys said Govoni has sold off $5 million in real estate since November 21, 2021. When asked where that money is, Govoni claims to not know.

Colton also approved the sale of a real estate property owned by one of Govonis entities, Big Storm Real Estate LLC, in Punta Gorda. This is in an effort to recover missing funds. The address is listed as 610 Charlotte Street and appears to be a commercial warehouse building.

Govoni will be back in court on June 12 when the federal bankruptcy judge will make her final judgment. At that point, if shes displeased, she could make a recommendation to the district court for criminal charges.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
To the editor: Columnist Jonah Goldberg discusses President Biden's health without any licensed medical expertise. He only has a political viewpoint to promote ( History alone should have made more reporters skeptical about Bidens health, May 20).

Conversely, that same day The Times published a very good explanation of Bidens illness and treatment options, which quotes reputable medical experts ( 6 doctors on Bidens cancer diagnosis, how it may have arisen and his treatment options, May 20). One of those is Dr. Sunil Patel, a urologic oncologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After a thorough explanation of Bidens condition, he says, I dont think anyone can blame anyone in terms of was this caught too late or anything like that. This happens not too infrequently. The rest of the article supports that analysis.

Peggy Jo Abraham, Santa Monica

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..

To the editor: Yes, we should be paying closer attention to the health of our aging representatives. Clearly, Biden's health was failing, as his performance in the debate showed.

But, more to the point, we need strictly enforced term limits for all people who are elected to office. The founding fathers never meant for elective office to be a lifetime occupation. You were supposed to "serve your country" and then return to private life, whatever that might be. Now, senators and representatives seemingly do whatever they have to in order to remain in office.

To implement and maintain term limits would require the people affected by the legislation to actually vote for something that could take away their lofted positions. Regrettably, this would be unlikely to ever happen.

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Aging has no reliable timetable. I speak from experience about that. But all people in charge of serving the citizens of our country should be concerned with the future of our nation, not the future of their livelihood. Term limits would be a major step in the right direction.

Peter Marquard, Northridge

..

To the editor: Having read a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere on the deliberate underplaying or actual hiding of presidents illnesses, including such presidents as Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, Ive heard much less about Ronald Reagan's mental decline in his last years ( Its not just Biden. Theres a history of presidential health cover-ups, May 21). The Teflon seems to still be working.

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The reflections on presidential health conditions seem to me to be primarily focused on Democratic presidents. Possibly just a coincidence? It seems a lot of the coverage is too little, too late and somewhat a financial boon to Jake Tapper's book. A pity that our current president has historically been less transparent about his own health.

George Corey, Pasadena

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
To the editor: Ashli Babbitt was part of a group of traitors whose attempt to overthrow a legitimately elected government is connected to the deaths of five federal law enforcement officers. Now the felon President Trump is agreeing to give Babbitts family $5 million ( Trump administration agrees to pay nearly $5 million to settle suit over Ashli Babbitt shooting in Capitol, May 20). Really? Just curious, how much money is the administration planning on sending to the family of Thomas Matthew Crooks? After all, his assassination attempt resulted in the deaths of only two people.

Im disgusted beyond words that my tax money is being used to reward the families of those who engaged in treason against the U.S.

Ronald O. Richards, Los Angeles

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..

To the editor: If President Trump believes an insurrectionist deserves compensation, he should personally write the check. Descendants of enslaved Africans have a more compelling argument for reparations than Jan. 6 rioters, and they are still waiting. This is a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars if the goal is government efficiency.

June Thompson, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: The barrage against truth in our current bizarro world continues with the abysmal news of a pending settlement in the Babbitt matter. How to combat this? My method is to quietly state facts, indisputable, about what actually happened: On Jan. 6, a terrible, violent insurrection occurred, unsuccessfully attempting to steal my vote. Babbitt was an active participant. The officer who shot her was cleared of any wrongdoing by the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Columbia and by the Capitol Police.

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Now, an opinion: Remember the tasteless old legal joke about the boy who killed his parents asking for mercy because hes an orphan? Im not laughing now. Babbitts family doesnt deserve a cent.

Mark Diniakos, Thousand Oaks

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LOWVILLE, N.Y. (WWTI)  The Lewis County Pride Committee will be hosting the 6th Annual Lewis County Pride Picnic on Sunday, June 1, from noon to 3 p.m. at the Lewis County Fairgrounds Pavilion.

The community is welcome to the free event, which marks the beginning of LGBTQ Pride Month in Northern New York. A community resource fair, free hot dogs from Stewarts, food trucks, bingo, raffles, a DJ, and an arts and crafts fair are all planned by the Committee this year.

They are hosting a mini-pride float competition this year. For a chance to win a $100 gift card, they are encouraging people to make their own small Pride float. Floats can be made by teams, must be 2 feet by 3 feet OR less, and can be pulled or carried!

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Additionally, the committee will be collecting non-perishable food items and personal hygiene goods for the June 4 food drive organized by the United Way of Northern New York.

The Lewis County Pride Committee has worked really hard to celebrate the 6th year of this event we have local food trucks, dessert from the CopperCakery, Bingo with prizes and music from Tunes 92.5 and 104.5 FM, says Hilary Avallone, the LGBT Program Manager for The Q Center at ACR Health. This event is always very heartwarming. This small town shows up and supports their LGBTQ friends and families, and you can always feel the love.

The Q Center at ACR Health, in addition to NRCIL, NNY Pride, Planned Parenthood of the North County NY and The Volunteer Transportation Center, are sponsoring this years event. Local LGBTQ communities, allies and supporters are invited to join in on the June 1.

For more information, you can reach out to Lewis County Pride on Facebook or via email at lewcopride@gmail.com.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  Advocates took to the Statehouse last week to speak out against anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in Ohios budget proposal, like a measure requiring public libraries to limit access to LGBTQ+ books.

The Ohio Senate Education Committee welcomed school district leaders, librarians, parents, students and other residents on May 14 for a wide-ranging hearing on the education funding within House Bill 96, legislation meant to outline Ohios budget for the next two years. Watch a previous NBC4 report on the budget proposal in the video player above.

The more than 5,000-page bill covers a myriad of topics, and includes the following amendments that leading advocacy organizations said would harm the states LGBTQ+ community:

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Codify state policy recognizing two sexes, male and female, and that these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.

Require public libraries to place material related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in a portion of the public library that is not primarily open to the view of the persons under the age of 18.

Bar funding to youth homeless shelters that promote or affirm social gender transition.

Ohio congressman introduces bill to study Trump Derangement Syndrome

These amendments are not only discriminatory, but they are also detrimental to the welfare of thousands of LGBTQ+ Ohioans, and legislates harm against some of the most vulnerable members of our society, said Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio.

Steward condemned the provision to defund certain homeless shelters as a direct assault on the safety and well-being of Ohios youth, citing a 16-year-old student who was recently kicked out of their home in Troy for being transgender. It was only when the student found refuge in a Dayton youth shelter that offered LGBTQ+ services that they began to feel safe, Steward said.

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Stripping away funding from such shelter would leave countless young people without the support they desperately need, the executive director argued, noting that a report from the Williams Institute at UCLA found 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ+.

Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, denounced the measure to recognize two sexes, claiming the language is factually incorrect, contradicts medical, psychological, and legal understanding of sex and gender, and denies the reality of trans, nonbinary and intersex Ohioans.

The language of this proposed budget rejects their lived experiences and reality. For many trans and intersex Ohioans, legal and medical transition is life-saving, said Adkison. Attempts to erase or deny these rights through budgetary language would almost certainly invite legal challenge, costing Ohio taxpayers both financially and morally.

Ohio bill would cap junk fees on tickets for concerts, sporting events

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Adkison cited the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society, which recognize that sex and gender exist on a spectrum. The executive director also noted Bostock v. Clayton County, a 2020 Supreme Court case that said sex discrimination includes LGBTQ+ people.

Ohio House legislators have long argued the sex provision is need given its accepted science that there are two genders. In April, Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said, This simply ends the discussion in the state of Ohio which I think most voters, most citizens of Ohio agree with, and it also prevents us from having months and months and weeks of arguments.

Cookie Dixon, a trans Ohioan, testified against requiring public libraries to limit access to LGBTQ+ materials, and said such books were a pivotal part of their self discovery.

Restricting these resources hurts queer children who were in the same place I was; I had no sense of self and was ready to completely give up before I began exploring my gender identity, said Dixon. This also continues to perpetuate the harmful idea that queer people are obscene, something to be hidden from the eyes of children, a thinly veiled attempt at pushing us back out of the sight of the public as our mere existence continues to be illegalized.

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How Ohio lawmakers want to make schools safer

Sharon Hawkes, a former librarian and head of Right to Read Ohio, submitted testimony that the mandate would force libraries to remove any mention of LGBTQ+ people, and many child and teen biographies, literary fiction, romance, history, and age-appropriate sex education. Hawkes said a similar Idaho law forced at least one library to close to children because it didnt have the resources and space to isolate adult materials away from the childrens section.

This mandate would be very costly, forcing librarians to sift through their collections to find these books and perhaps remove taxpayer-funded books, said Hawkes. It is also hurtful, telling certain minority communities that they should not be read about.

H.B. 96 will continue to be debated in Ohio Senate hearings open for public testimony.

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The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended restricting the use of the first vaccine developed against chikungunya  an infectious disease transmitted by mosquitoes in tropical areas that causes, among other symptoms, severe joint pain that lasts for several months or even years  in people aged over 65. The measure comes after at least 17 serious adverse events, two of them fatal, were reported in people over 62 years of age who had received the single dose of Ixchiq, the drugs brand name.

This vaccine uses a weakened version of the chikungunya virus, genetically modified to produce the bodys immune response without causing the disease. Although the investigation is ongoing and a causal relationship between the vaccination and the events has not yet been confirmed, the EMA highlights in a document dated March 2 that the vaccine strain of the chikungunya virus was detected in the bodily fluids of the two deceased individuals.

They are an 84-year-old man who developed encephalitis  a rare complication of chikungunya  and a 77-year-old man with Parkinsons disease. The EMA, which approved the vaccine a year ago, notes in its initial communications that these safety concerns may be related to the underrepresentation of people over 65 in clinical trials.

As the studies primarily included people under 65, and the vast majority of serious cases have been in people of that age or older, the EMAs Pharmacovigilance Committee temporarily recommends restricting the use of the vaccine in this latter group, as it is not considered safe for now.

The European Commission has requested that the EMA issue an opinion on the matter by September 30, 2025, a spokesperson for the agency responded in writing to EL PAIS. He noted that while the research is ongoing, the use of the vaccine in people 65 and older is contraindicated. In the United States, the FDA has decided to adopt the same measure, but has lowered the age limit to 60.

The EMA spokesperson reports that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) was of the opinion [following the trial results and prior to the drugs approval] that the population included in the safety studies was well distributed (with 346 participants aged 65 and over vaccinated out of a total of 4,643 adults) and no major safety concerns were identified.

The percentage of those over 65 was 7.5%, a much lower proportion than the approximately 20% this age group represents in the EU population. The vaccine, produced by Valneva  which had not responded to questions from EL PAIS by press timeis currently available in France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium, among other countries, as well as the United States and Canada, although not yet in Spain.

In recent months, the drug has begun to be used in areas with chikungunya outbreaks and among travelers visiting them. One of these is the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, where authorities launched a vaccination campaign last January, specifically targeting those over 65. In total, according to provisional EMA data from late April, more than 40,000 people have received the dose worldwide: 19,000 of them in the United States, 12,000 in France  more than half in Reunion  and 6,000 in Canada.

Rosa Lopez Gigosos, a member of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV), believes that the detected cases may constitute an adverse effect of the vaccine not observed in the trials. According to this expert, live attenuated virus vaccines generally produce more adverse reactions than those that use fractions of the pathogens, such as some of their proteins.

These reactions are usually minor, like a mild fever, and short-lived. The yellow fever vaccine, for example, is also an attenuated virus and has been used since 1930 with very good results, although its use is also restricted in those over 60, she adds.

In any case, Lopez Gigosos continues, in older people and those with underlying pathologies, it is generally more convenient to use other types of vaccines, such as protein vaccines, although these tend to produce less potent or shorter-lasting immune responses.

Three months ago, the EMA approved a second protein-based chikungunya vaccine. Its name is Vimkunya and it was developed by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic.

The limited participation of certain groups  women, the elderly, certain ethnic groups, patients with certain conditions  in clinical trials has been a recurring issue debated in medicine for decades. Its a very important issue because it cant be guaranteed that a drug will have the same safety and efficacy results observed in trials if its then used in a population group not included or underrepresented in them, explains Alberto Borobia, head of the Clinical Research and Clinical Trials Unit (UICEC) at La Paz Hospital (Madrid).

Borobia emphasizes that this isnt the only prejudice underrepresented groups suffer in clinical trials. For some pathologies, such as cancer, clinical trials are the last therapeutic step patients can take when they have exhausted all approved options. Here we are talking about an underserved population, because they dont have access to trials due to certain conditions. A clear example in Spain is the population living in rural areas.

La Paz Hospital is leading a European project called READI (Research in Europe and Inclusion of Diversity). This project, comprised of 73 organizations from 18 countries, aims to improve the inclusion of underrepresented groups in clinical trials, such as the elderly, ethnic minorities, residents of rural areas, the blind, or citizens with low sociocultural backgrounds, according to documentation published by the Madrid regional government.

Women are another group historically underrepresented in trials, even in diseases like Alzheimers, where they have a higher incidence. This was recently revealed by a joint study by the Barcelonaeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), a research center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, and the Womens Brain Foundation.

The question we asked ourselves was: Why is there a lower presence of women? says Anna Brugulat, a neuropsychologist at the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, postdoctoral researcher, and leader of the study. The answer, Borobia agrees, is multifactorial and influenced by both historical inertia  the presence of men has traditionally been dominant in trials  and structural factors.

Some are associated with gender, such as family responsibilities, which lead some women not to participate due to lack of time and support. Others are due to the characteristics of the trial. Since the Alzheimers trials require a lumbar puncture, some women refuse it because they associate it with negative experiences with epidurals during childbirth, explains this expert.

Miquel Serra, a researcher at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) specializing in Health Economics, and his team have extensively investigated the problem caused by the use of cancer drugs in patient profiles not included in clinical trials. The root cause is often the design of the trials themselves, which is something pharmaceutical companies do and can sometimes influence the results by selecting patients who are more likely to achieve good results more quickly, he explains.

In the case of cancer, he adds, this may involve very strict inclusion criteria, applicable only to younger patients without other pathologies, who will be better able to withstand the toxicity of certain oncological therapies, which in turn will allow for better indicators that will favor their approval.

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MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)  A Lowcountry grandfather proves that you are only as old as you feel.

Landon Thorne, 82, was given the title of Southern New Hampshire Universitys eldest graduate, a title that brought his fellow graduates to their feet for a standing ovation during a recent commencement ceremony for the college.

Thorne earned his bachelors degree in 1965. Now, graduating at 82, Thorne says hes never stopped learning and hopes to show his grandchildren the importance of lifelong learning.

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107-year-old man receives Iowa high school diploma 93 years later

I think to get my original college transfer, they had to go down into a cave and fight the bats to find my transcript, joked Thorne.

In the decades between his degrees, Thorne served our country.

I went to college at 18 after high school, and I went to Yale University as a young kid, and then when I graduated, I graduated in the same month of the highest draft calls for Vietnam. So, you know, in those times, we had to make decisions about what we were going to do and so, I figured I wasnt going to go to Canada, I wasnt going to get married and have 12 kids or something like that and I wasnt that good a student at that time to go on to get a lot of advanced degrees, shared Thorne.

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As a veteran, volunteer pilot, and dedicated conservationist, Thornes most recent adventure included working towards his masters degree online in locations across the world, including Africa.

Thorne explained, One day all the power goes out right before I have to make a submission and it turns out a head of elephants knocked down some power poles and so, you know, thats I say, oh my God, Im going to be late, I going to be late, but luckily somebodys got the power back on and the elephants were shooed away.

Thorne says hes always had an interest in writing, which inspired him to return to college.

I got exactly what I wanted. I got three years of really professional training, and so I sort of consider myself actually a writer, lo and behold, said Thorne.

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Now with his Master of Fine Arts in writing, Thorne hopes to publish the novel he wrote.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.
May 21LIMA  The City of Lima is set to cut the ribbon on the Lima Community Aquatic Park next month.

The pools will not yet be open, but at 10 a.m. Friday, June 27, residents can come to the park to see the completed structures and take tours through the grounds at 1005 E. Elm St.

"The park will not be open for swimming at that time," Mayor Sharetta Smith said at her weekly press conference Wednesday. "This gives everyone an opportunity to see the facility, and there will also be tours conducted. We will do a reveal of a wonderful piece of art that was commissioned by some local artists."

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The city originally shot for an opening earlier this spring, but it is still waiting on the construction to finish and for the state to complete inspections.

"I know we make it look easy, but there are a lot of things that have to happen," Public Works Director Amy Harpster said. "We have to have the Ohio Department of Health check the facility before we have permission to open, and we just want to make sure it's ready."

The city needs a certificate of occupancy before it can let anyone swim in the pools, among other things.

"We want to make sure the lifeguards are in place, and we want to make sure we have permission from the health department as far as the pools and the chemicals that go with them," Harpster said. "We want to make sure it's ready, that way we're not opening and then closing. We want to be open for good."

The mayor said the city is shooting for an early-July opening, but there is no definitive date set.

Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.

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May 21LIMA  A newly opened cannabis dispensary in Lima is looking forward to supporting local initiatives and educational efforts around safe cannabis use.

Curaleaf Cannabis Dispensary opened its new Lima location, 2151 Elida Road, on May 16. It's a leading international provider of consumer cannabis products such as Briq all-in-one vapes, Grassroots flower, Find items, edibles and more.

Curaleaf Lima is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. The location offers a drive-thru for express order pickups.

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Customers must sign in and show they're 21 or older with an ID at the front desk before entry. Once entered, the customer can communicate with staff or access a kiosk to find more about what Curaleaf Lima offers.

A wave of momentum was just one of many reasons Lima stood out to Curaleaf when seeking a third location in the Buckeye State.

"Due to its growing community, strategic geography within northwest Ohio and the opportunity to increase access to safe, regulated cannabis products for customers," said Steven Delich, regional vice president of retail, via email.

Curaleaf Lima is also looking to break the stigma around cannabis and cannabis products.

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"For too long, outdated views have overshadowed what cannabis truly is today," Delich said, "whether it's a source of relaxation, creativity, connection, wellness or to simply feel good."

The location will bring more than cannabis to the community.

"It brings jobs, tax revenue and community engagement," Delich said.

Curaleaf Lima staff members are excited to meet and educate customers no matter where they are on their cannabis journey.

"Our focus is on educating the community, delivering a welcoming retail experience and ensuring our menu offers something for everyone," Delich said. "Whether they're experiencing cannabis for the first time or long-term medical patients."

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Building strong partnerships with the community and an evolution of product mixes based on customer feedback are just two long-term focused goals for the dispensary.

"We want this location to become a regional destination for education and high-quality cannabis," Delich said.

Curaleaf Lima's grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce is slated for 11:15 a.m. Friday, May 23.

To celebrate the grand opening, the dispensary is offering 35 percent off RiveraCreek products, 25 percent off Gron or 3 for $50, 30 percent off storewide for patients, 20 percent for veterans, 25 percent off Select Find, Jams, Grassroots and Plant Precision products and buy-one-get-one for $1 Stiq vapes, according to signage inside the store.

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The dispensary also sells merchandise items such as hats, jackets, pullovers and T-shirts.

As of Dec. 7, 2023, adults 21 and over can legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis in plant form or up to 15 grams in extract form, according to flowhub.

The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy licenses and regulates medical marijuana dispensaries.

Reach Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351

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LINCOLN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA)  Two days after tornadoes hit Northwest Arkansas, families like the Reeds in Lincoln are still looking for answers to whats next for their destroyed homes.

My kids were raised here, and so theyre going to be sad because theres a lot of memories, said Elaine Reed, whose lived in Lincoln since 1964 when she was in high school.

Reed said she and her husband moved into their current home fifty years ago, where they have raised their family. On May 19th, Reed said she raised her kids under the same roof that rested in her trees and her neighbors yard two days later.

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I got into the closet under a stairwell because its in the center of the house, and I knew it was the strongest, safest place, said Reed. And so, I heard the noise, and the house was shaking. And then I heard the popping sound.

The family dog, Pancake, would not go in the closet with her, Reed said, and her husband was hours away, leaving Reed alone as the tornado moved closer.

Actually, I was on the phone with my brother because I said, dont hang up. Dont hang up,  said Reed.

3-year-old rescued from raging waterfall; anonymous hero comes forward

According to Reed, when she emerged from the closet, the whole house had changed.

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Then rain started hitting me on the top of the head, because I knew the whole top of the house was gone, said Reed.

Since the devastation on May 19, a tight-knit community of family and friends has rallied around the Reeds, helping clear the wreckage of what was once their home. Robert Reed said he has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support during this difficult time.

The Reeds shared that while the next steps hinge on an inspection by their insurance company, contractors have already told them the home is beyond repair.

In the meantime, the family is staying in temporary housing provided by their insurance provider.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  If youre planning a trip to Hawaii, youll likely hear more than just the sound of crashing waves and strumming ukulele. Youll hear words that carry the voice of a place older than the United States itself.

This voice, Olelo Hawaii, the Native Hawaiian language, is still spoken by many; and its words live in the names of streets, businesses and even in the way locals greet each other.

Hawaii students learn life-changing lessons from the dead

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Hawaii is more than a vacation spot. It is a place with deep roots, living culture and a complex history. Knowing some basic Olelo Hawaii terms isnt just about sounding polite. Its a way of showing respect to the people and land that host you.

How to protect your home, business from battery-related fires

Before you head to the islands, take time to learn and understand these important words. It might help you connect more deeply with the place youre visiting and with the people who call it home.

Diamond Head closures next month for rockfall mitigation

Aloha is more than hello or goodbye

Most visitors learn aloha right away, but many miss its deeper meaning. Yes, aloha can mean hello or goodbye. But at its heart, it means love, compassion and a shared breath.

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Its a way of life, not just a word. Youll hear it everywhere from store clerks to strangers passing by but try to understand it as a reminder to treat others with kindness (lokomaikai) and respect (hoihi).

Aina is more than just land

In Hawaii, aina refers to land but not in the way most tourists might think. It doesnt just mean dirt or soil. It means the living earth, the place that feeds and holds people.

For Native Hawaiians, the aina is sacred. Its seen as an ancestor and provider. When you treat the land with care, by staying on marked trails or picking up your trash, youre showing respect for this relationship. A common phrase is malama aina (take care of the land).

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Malama means take care

This word appears on signs across Hawaii. Malama aina means to care for the land. Malama i ke kai means to care for the sea. This sense of stewardship is part of life in the islands.

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Visitors are asked to join in. Take only pictures. Leave only footprints. Think of malama as a daily action, not just an idea.

Kuleana is both a right and a duty

Kuleana can be a tricky word to translate. It means responsibility, but it also means a personal sense of duty. Someones kuleana might be to protect a family tradition or care for a part of the land.

When you visit Hawaii, your kuleana is to be thoughtful. Follow local rules. Dont trespass. Stay aware. Being a respectful visitor is part of your kuleana.

Ohana goes beyond family

The word ohana is often translated as family; but it reaches beyond parents, siblings or cousins. Ohana includes friends, neighbors and even community members who support one another.

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The idea is rooted in connection. Its why you might hear someone call a close friend my auntie or uncle. Thats not just kindness. Its part of the culture.

Kamaaina is not just a discount

You might see signs for a kamaaina rate at hotels or restaurants. Kamaaina means child of the land; and its often used to describe long-time residents, not just Native Hawaiians.

While the discounts dont apply to visitors, the word itself reflects how deeply connected people are to where they live. Hawaii isnt just a place to visit. Its home to many.

Earthquake off Kau Coast bears no tsunami threat

Mahalo needs to be used with sincerity

It means thank you. Simple enough. But in Hawaii, mahalo carries weight. Its more than just about saying thanks when someone hands you a drink. Its about recognizing the value of what was given  time, energy or kindness.

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Say it with meaning. If someone helps you, offers directions or shares something with you, let your mahalo be more than a habit.

Wai is the water that holds life

Water is essential anywhere, but in Hawaii, wai is life. Freshwater sources are limited and often sacred. Many place names include wai  Waikiki, Wailuku, Waimea, and it show how important water has always been.

Be mindful of how you use it. Dont waste. Dont pollute. Clean water is a resource to protect, not just enjoy.

Holoholo is the spirit of wandering

You might hear someone say theyre going holoholo. That doesnt mean they have a plan. It means theyre going out, maybe for a drive, a walk, or even a little fishing.

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The word carries a sense of wandering with joy. If you take a holoholo day during your trip, let yourself go slow. Let it be about the journey rather than just the destination or another item on your list.

Hoolaulea reminds us to celebrate

Hawaii isnt only about nature. Its also about community and celebration. A hoolaulea is a gathering, a festival, a joyful moment.

You might stumble upon one during your visit where you experience live music, dancing, food and people enjoying each others company. If you do, stop and take it in. These moments reflect the heart of life in Hawaii.

Ono is more than just delicious

Youll often hear the word ono to describe food in Hawaii. It means delicious, tasty or really good. But ono is more than a compliment. It reflects the deep connection between food, culture and joy in Hawaii.

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When someone shares a meal and says its ono, theyre sharing flavor, tradition, family recipes and memories of togetherness. Whether its poke, laulau or shave ice, ono reminds us that food is a celebration.

The Hawaii Tourism Authority has a list of Olelo Hawaii words to help our visitors get by and become a part of the experience.

Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii hosts annual fundraiser Great Futures Day

Aina: Land, earth; especially Hawaiian ancestral land.

Akamai: Smart, clever, intelligent.

Aloha: Love, affection; greeting, salutation; Hello! Goodbye!

Hale: House, building.

Haole: A non-Native Hawaiian, especially those of Caucasian ancestry.

Hapa: Part, half; a reference to those of mixed ancestry.

Hele: To go, come, walk; to move.

Hoolaulea: Celebration.

Holoholo: To travel around for enjoyment; also used as a reference for fishing.

Honu: Turtle.

Hula: The dance of Hawaii.

Imu: An underground oven, as often seen at luau.

Kamaaina: Native-born; acquainted, familiar; commonly refers to a long-time Hawaii resident.

Kane: Plural males. Singular is kane.

Keiki: Child.

Koa: Warrior; a native tree with wood used to build canoes and other items.

Kokua: Help, aid, assistance, relief.

Kuleana: Responsibility; privilege; a traditional land holdings of Native Hawaiians.

Kumu: Teacher.

Kupuna: Grandparents, ancestors; elderly.

Laulima: Cooperation.

Lei: Flowers, leaves, shells or feathers that are strung and/or entwined; given as a symbol of affection.

Luau: Hawaiian feast; edible young leaves of the taro plant.

Mahalo: Thanks, gratitude, respect.

Mahu: Various Pacific Island cultures refer to individuals who embody both male and female traits and/or masculine and feminine characteristics. This cultural identity is historically significant and promotes acceptance of diverse gender expressions within the community. These individuals are often respected as caretakers and healers and reflects a unique understanding of gender and sex that differs from Western norms.

Maikai: Excellent.

Makai: Toward the sea/ocean.

Makana: A gift, present.

Malama: To take care of, preserve, protect, maintain.

Mano: Shark.

Mauka: Toward the mountains.

Moana: Ocean.

Nalu: Wave, surf.

Nani: Beautiful, pretty.

Nui  Big, large, great, or important.

Ohana: Family, kin group, relative.

Ono: Delicious, tasty, savory; to relish, crave.

Pali: Cliff, a steep hill or slope.

Paniolo: Hawaiian cowboy.

Pau: Finished, ended, all done.

Wahine: plural female. Singular is wahine.

Wai: Water, usually fresh water.

Understanding is better than repeating

Its one thing to repeat a word you hear. Its another to take the time to learn what it means and why it matters. Many Olelo Hawaii words carry stories.

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They reflect values, ways of thinking and relationships to the land and people. If you mispronounce something, most locals wont judge you. But making an effort matters.

As travel to Hawaii grows and as more visitors arrive  some without understanding the place theyve come to  the importance of cultural respect grows, too.

You can click here for a full list of words to know.

Get news on the go with KHON 2GO, KHONs morning podcast, every morning at 8

Knowing these words wont make you local. They wont earn you a kamaaina rate. But they may help you travel with more heart.

That kind of travel leaves a better mark. And thats something worth remembering.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
By Andreas Rinke and Sabine Siebold

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Germany and its NATO partners are prepared to defend every inch of the alliance's territory, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday at a military ceremony in Vilnius to mark the establishment of a German brigade in Lithuania.

The thousands-strong brigade on NATO's eastern flank is part of European efforts to strengthen the region's defences in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump on allies to invest more in their own security.

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"Anyone who challenges NATO must know that we are prepared. Anyone who threatens an ally must know that the entire alliance will jointly defend every inch of NATO territory," Merz told delegates at a roll call for the new 45 Armoured Brigade.

"Protecting Vilnius is protecting Berlin," he added, telling a crowd of cheering onlookers waving paper flags for the two nations that Lithuanians could count on Germany.

Merz was joined at the ceremony by his Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, as well as Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, who said Russia and Belarus had conducted military exercises on his country's border.

The three Baltic states, linked to NATO's main territory only by a narrow corridor known as the Suwalki Gap, are considered one of the regions most vulnerable to a Russian assault.

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The German brigade will be headquartered in Rudninkai, near the capital Vilnius.

Some 400 German military staff personnel have already moved to Lithuania to set up the brigade, which will comprise 4,800 troops and 2,000 vehicles, including dozens of tanks, when it will be fully operational by the end of 2027.

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Merz said Russia was a threat to European peace and order, through its war in Ukraine and its hybrid attacks across Europe, including espionage, sabotage and cyber-attacks.

Germany is aware of its own responsibility, Merz said, promising to modernise the Bundeswehr, Germany's long-neglected army, a pledge his predecessor Olaf Scholz also made after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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"Our goal is to provide in future all financial means necessary for the Bundeswehr to become Europe's strongest conventional army," Merz said.

Since 2017, Germany has led a multi-national battle group in Lithuania, one of four such combat units set up by NATO in the Baltic states and Poland to bolster its eastern flank following Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.

As part of Germany's pledge to modernise its armed forces, the country in March loosened its constitutional debt brake to fund a surge in defence spending.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also backed Trump's demand to hike NATO's defence spending to 5% of GDP.

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NATO estimates indicate that Germany's defence spending was 2.12% of GDP last year, up from 1.19% in 2014.

Lithuania, which is expected to spend more than 3% of its GDP on defence this year, has announced plans to hike defence spending to over 5% of GDP from next year, partly to pay for the construction of the base for the incoming German troops, estimated at over 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

($1 = 0.8840 euros)

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sabine Siebold, Writing by Rachel MoreEditing by Madeline Chambers and Barbara Lewis)
Israeli tanks and drones attacked a hospital in northern Gaza overnight, igniting fires and causing extensive damage, Palestinian hospital officials said on Thursday. Videos taken by a health official at Al-Awda Hospital show walls blown away and thick black smoke billowing wreckage.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating adjacent to Al-Awda Hospital and had allowed emergency workers to come try to put out a fire at the hospital, but said only that, The circumstances of the fire are still under review.

Pressure from close allies is mounting on Israel following a nearly three-month blockade of supplies into Gaza that led to famine warnings. Even the United States, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis. U.N. agencies say Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza make it difficult to retrieve and distribute the aid. As a result, little of it has so far reached those in need.

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The U.N. says aid has been collected from only about 90 trucks  out of a total of nearly 200 that have entered Gaza since Israel ended its nearly three-month blockade this week.

The shipments from yesterday is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of of Gazas 2.1 million people, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Gazas Heath Ministry said Thursday morning that more than 100 people had been killed across the Gaza Strip and around 250 wounded over the past 24 hours. It was not immediately clear if there were fatalities at Al-Awda Hospital.

Here's the latest:

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Israel says it has intercepted missile fired from Yemen

Early Friday, sirens sounded in parts of Israel as its military said it detected a missile launch by Yemens Houthi rebels targeting the country.

The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile as booms could be heard in Jerusalem.

The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, but it can take hours or even days for the rebels to acknowledge their assaults.

Lebanese prime minister condemns latest Israeli strikes

The wave of airstrikes came two days before municipal elections are slated to take place in southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israels attacks will not deter the state from its commitment to the electoral process, and called for more international pressure to make Israel stop bombing his country.

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Israel carries out widespread strikes in Lebanon

Israel carried out strikes on multiple areas in southern Lebanon on Thursday, some far from the border, Lebanons state-run National News Agency reported.

It described the strikes as the most violent in some areas since a ceasefire deal ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November. Residents of northern Israel also reported hearing loud explosions from across the border.

The Israeli army issued a warning ahead of one strike that destroyed a building in the town of Toul, which it described as facilities belonging to the terrorist Hezbollah. Video of the strike's aftermath showed fire and a massive cloud of smoke rising over an area packed with multi-story apartment buildings. Strikes in other areas were carried out without warning.

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There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has struck Lebanon almost every day since the ceasefire. Lebanon says those strikes are in violation of the deal, while Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah to prevent it from re-arming.

Netanyahu names a new head of security agency after pushing to oust the previous chief

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced Thursday his decision to appoint Major General David Zini as the next head of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service.

Zini is a former army commando and has held a number of top positions in the Israeli military. Netanyahu's office said that in March 2023 Zini prepared a report warning about the dangers of a surprise attack on Israeli forces along the Gaza border.

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Earlier this year Netanyahu moved to fire the agency's current chief, Ronen Bar, blaming his agency for failures in the lead-up to Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israels Supreme Court froze Bar's firing after multiple legal challenges against it, however Bar has since said he will resign in June.

Trump and Netanyahu discuss embassy staffers' shooting and Iran nuclear deal

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone on Thursday about the shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside a Washington reception, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

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Leavitt said the two leaders also discussed a potential deal with Iran to stem its rapidly advancing nuclear program. Trump is expected to dispatch special envoy Steve Witkoff to Italy for talks later this week with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi.

Leavitt said Trump believes the talks are moving along in the right direction.

UN says Palestinians stole food from aid trucks in Gaza

U.N. officials on Thursday said that a small number of trucks carrying flour on Wednesday were intercepted by residents and their contents were stolen.

As far as I know, this was not a criminal act with armed men, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a briefing.

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He added that the episode only reflects the very high level of anxiety that people in Gaza are feeling, not knowing when the next humanitarian delivery will take place.

Over the last several months, Israel has accused Hamas of siphoning off aid and using it to fund its military activities, without providing evidence. The U.N. has said that there are mechanisms in place that prevent any significant diversion of aid.

Israel says no food shortage in Gaza even as UN says the trickle of aid is nowhere near sufficient

The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to Gaza, COGAT, said Thursday that the United Nations is currently allowed to bring in nutrition products, some food ingredients and medical supplies.

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According to our current assessment, there is no food shortage in Gaza at this time, COGAT said in a statement on X.

The U.N. says aid has been collected from only about 90 trucks  out of a total of nearly 200 that have entered Gaza since Israel ended its nearly three-month blockade this week.

The shipments from yesterday is limited in quantity and nowhere near sufficient to meet the scale and scope of of Gazas 2.1 million people," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The U.N. has said that around 600 trucks entered during a recent ceasefire, which was the amount necessary to meet people's basic needs.

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Former Israeli leader says only pressure from Trump can end the war in Gaza

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Thursday that the only international leader with enough power to make Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stop the war in Gaza is U.S. President Donald Trump.

If at some point the president of the United States, President Trump, will take part and perhaps will summon the Israeli prime minister and say to him in no unclear terms that enough is enough  that may be very useful, said Olmert, an open critic of Israels war in Gaza.

I am against the expansion of the military operations in Gaza, I think that they bring us close to crimes because if there is no purpose and there is not a possible outcome that is worth the cost, then why should we continue? he said during an interview in his Tel Aviv office.

Olmert said he understands why the EU and countries like Britain, Canada and France sent strong warnings to Israel this week, including threatening sanctions, but believes that ultimately a dressing down from Trump would stop Netanyahu from continuing the war.

Hospitals have special protection under the rules of war. Why are they in the crosshairs in Gaza?

In the Israel-Hamas war, hospitals in the combat zone of hollowed-out northern Gaza have increasingly ended up in the crosshairs. They have also become flashpoints for warring narratives.

Israel claims that Hamas locates military assets under hospitals and other sensitive sites like schools and mosques, and that its fighters use hospitals as shields. Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of mounting an all-out attack on Gaza's health infrastructure to punish the population and force a surrender.

International humanitarian law lends hospitals special protections during war. But hospitals can lose their protections if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, the International Committee of the Red Cross says.

 Read more about Gaza's hospitals

Israeli tank fire heavily damages a hospital in northern Gaza, Palestinian health officials say

Israeli tanks fired on Al-Awda Hospital in the Tel al-Zaatar area of northern Gaza on Thursday, igniting fires and causing extensive damage to the facility, according to hospital officials.

Hospital director Mohamed Salha told The Associated Press about the horror that ensued overnight as Israeli forces bombed the third floor and used quadcopters, tanks, and drones to shoot at the hospitals fuel tanks and units storing medication.

There were no immediate details about fatalities.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating adjacent to Al-Awda Hospital and had allowed emergency workers to come try to put out a fire at the hospital, but said only that, The circumstances of the fire are still under review.

Israeli forces also targeted the hospitals water tanks and set fire to outpatient clinics, according to Raafat Ali al-Majdalawi, director of the Al-Awda Health and Community Association.

Al-Awda was one of the only two surviving medical facilities in north Gaza. The Indonesian Hospital was also encircled and came under fire this week. Some people among the 130 hospital staff and volunteers were injured, he said, but didnt provide specific figures.

Video taken by Salha shows a damaged hospital building, with one room on an upper floor left exposed after its walls were blown away. Thick black smoke billows from the rubble and wreckage within the hospital complex, where fires spread through some parts.

Salha said that Gazas emergency service, the Civil Defense agency, spent three hours trying to contain the fires and failed.

As soldiers killed his colleagues, a Palestinian medic survived by pleading in Hebrew Dont shoot! Im Israeli

According to the head of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the medic Asaad al-Nsasrah has not spoken with the media since Israeli soldiers killed 15 emergency responders in southern Gaza on March 23.

Words in Hebrew could be heard in the final moments of a video of the killings that was subsequently found and made public.

"The soldiers were so close to have a dialogue with somebody. And that somebody was Assad, said Younis al-Khatib, the Red Crescent chief. What Assad said in Hebrew: Dont shoot. I am Israeli. And soldiers got a bit confused.

The Israeli military declined to comment.

You know why he said that? His mother is Israeli. Assads mother is Israeli  Palestinian Arab Israeli from Bir Saba, al-Khatib said, referring to the Arabic name for the city of Beersheba in southern Israel.

Al-Khatib spoke on Thursday to reporters in Geneva at the headquarters of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Israeli troops bulldozed over the bodies along with their mangled vehicles, burying them in a mass grave, according to the U.N. The surviving medic was detained by Israel for over a month and released back to Gaza.

___

Food insecurity and malnutrition are driving up pregnancy complications in Gaza, the UN says

Health facilities in Gaza have reported that over 12% of pregnancies resulted in miscarriages during the first four months of this year, said Nestor Owomunhangi, representative of the United Nations Population Fund, told The Associated Press on Thursday. In the same period, there were 10% premature births and low-birth weight recorded, he said.

There are over 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, he said.

Only a ceasefire would allow aid groups to deliver lifesaving supplies and material into Gaza at a scale that prevents further deterioration in malnutrition and starvation, Owomunhangi said.

During his visit to Gaza earlier this month, desperation was palpable, hunger and malnutrition visible everywhere, he said. The worst has already arrived in Gaza.

After aid started trickling into Gaza Thursday, Owamunhangi said:  By the time it gets to the weakest of the weakest, that will be days.

___

France summons Israels ambassador to protest soldiers shooting near foreign diplomats in the West Bank

Israels ambassador to Paris was being summoned to the French Foreign Ministry on Thursday afternoon after Israeli soldiers fired warning shots at a delegation of diplomats the previous day.

The diplomats, including one from France, came under fire Wednesday while visiting Jenin, a city in the Israel-occupied West Bank. The Israeli military said the visit had been approved but the soldiers fired warning shots when the delegation deviated from an approved route.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said the shots put diplomats in danger and were unjustifiable and unacceptable. The Israeli ambassador was summoned to explain himself about this extremely serious incident, the French Foreign Ministry said.

___

Bakery in Gaza resumes operations for the first time in over a month

The bakery, in the central Gaza Strip, was baking bread again Thursday after Israel eased its blockade to allow some aid into the Palestinian territory.

Vladimir Jovcev of the U.N.s World Food Program said it was definitely not enough, but we hope that the borders will remain open and we will be able to bring in more aid.

Israel imposed a blockade on all imports, including food, medicine and shelter, at the beginning of March, shortly before ending a ceasefire with Hamas.

It announced an easing of the blockade this week and has allowed around 200 trucks to enter since Monday. But U.N. agencies say Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza make it difficult to retrieve and distribute the aid. As a result, little of it has so far reached those in need. Around 600 trucks entered per day during the ceasefire.

___

Japan protests to Israel over West Bank warning shots

Japans Foreign Ministry says it has made a severe protest to Israel over its militarys firing of warning shots at a diplomatic delegation including Japanese diplomats that was visiting a refugee camp in the Israel-occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Takehiro Funakoshi summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Japan, Gilad Cohen, to request a full explanation and preventive measures. Fukakoshi told Gilad the incident was deeply regrettable and should not have happened."

Funakoshi also reiterated Japans strong concern over Israels attempted reoccupation of the Gaza Strip and the expansion of military operations, urging it to allow a full and immediate resumption of aid into Gaza, the foreign ministry said.

Funakoshi also offered his condolences on the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, stating that terrorism is not tolerated anywhere in the world.

___

France boosts security around Jewish sites

The French government has instructed police and military officials to put visible and dissuasive security in place around Jewish sites after the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington D.C.

The instructions were issued Thursday by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau and published by his ministry. The minister said security should be reinforced around Jewish sites including synagogues, schools, shops, media and cultural events following Wednesday's shooting.

___

Macron reaches out to Israeli president after Washington shootings

French President Emmanuel Macron says he has reached out to his Israeli counterpart in the wake of the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, in what the French leader called an anti-Semitic attack.

To President @Isaac_Herzog, I extended our thoughts to the families and loved ones of the victims, Macron posted on X.

___

Yemens Iran-backed Houthi rebels fire two missiles at Israel

The missiles were fired hours apart on Thursday, each time setting off nationwide air raid sirens.

The Israeli military said it intercepted both missiles, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. An Associated Press reporter heard a loud explosion in central Israel that might have been caused by an interceptor.

Israeli police said they were searching the Jerusalem area for debris.

The Houthis have launched repeated missile attacks targeting Israel as well as international shipping in the Red Sea, portraying it as a response to Israels offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Most of the targeted ships had no relation to Israel or the conflict.

The United States halted a punishing bombing campaign against the Houthis earlier this month, saying the rebels had pledged to stop attacking ships. That agreement did not include attacks on Israel.

___

France, EU condemn shooting outside Jewish museum in Washington

Frances foreign minister says the killing of two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday is an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity.

In a post in English on X, the minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said: Nothing can justify such violence. My thoughts go to their loved ones, their colleagues, and the State of Israel.

The European Unions top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said: There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism."
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  A Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office deputy was arrested by agents with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) on March 22, 2025.

Cedric Brignac, 42, was charged with operating a vessel while impaired.

According to an incident report, agents were patrolling Lake Maurepas in Livingston Parish when they received complaints of illegal night hunting. Around 7 p.m., agents saw a vessel operated by Brignac traveling at a near standstill speed. After agents checked on Brignac and the passengers from a distance to make sure their boat was operating properly, they parted ways.

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Minutes after the encounter, LDWF agents heard a boat quickly approaching a No Wake Zone near them. As the boat approached, they learned it was Brignacs boat.

Brignac appeared confused as to why the agents were exiting the No Wake Zone. The agents reported their boat was too tall to pass under the bridge, but suggested Brignac continue through the area.

According to authorities, Brignac later showed signs of disorientation as he nearly crashed into a wooden boatway barrier and had slurred speech.

The incident report states that Brignacs boat was close enough to the agents that they could smell the odor of alcohol coming from Brignacs direction. The agents also saw beer cans scattered throughout the boat.

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Agents decided to conduct a boating safety check, which partly requires presenting life jackets and a fire extinguisher. While LDWF searched for the life jackets, Brignac struggled to keep his balance.

At one point, agents asked Brignac if he had been drinking. He responded with, Yeah, about four Natural Lights.

Caregiver accused of punching, slapping and sitting on man at group home in Baton Rouge

Agents took Brignac to the shore to conduct several more field tests. As he walked, he continued to sway and had a strong odor of alcohol.

Brignac was taken to the Killian Police Department before being taken to the Livingston Parish Courthouse.

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Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard released the following statement about the LDWF investigation.

The off-duty incident was self-reported by Brignac (Training Division), Ard said. The matter was turned over to the District Attorneys Office for processing, just as all other cases are. Disciplinary action by this department will be decided and administered at the conclusion of the DAs proceedings.

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)  This week is National Emergency Services week, or E.M.S Week, and its a time to show gratitude towards first responders and paramedics who provide life-saving care every day.

Wednesday, to extend that gratitude, Union Health, Terre Haute Regional Hospital and area EMS personnel attended the E.M.S. Week Annual Cook Out at Union Hospital.

Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun was also in attendance to proclaim May 18 through May 24 as E.M.S Week.

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They need to know they are recognized, theyre really good. Ive been a paramedic for 25 years, this is not an easy job. Its a lot of work and you do a lot of stuff, and they need to know they are appreciated, and thats what we are trying to do If youre in E.M.S. or public service, you dont do it for those things, but its nice to know people care. Its nice to know that people have your back and appreciate you, said Barry Nicoson, System Manager for E.M.S. and Emergency Preparedness.

Officials said EMS Week is also a chance to educate the public about E.M.S. and the essential services they provide.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)  The Providence Farm Collective (PFC) in Orchard Park filed an appeal last Thursday of a grant termination by the federal government, where it cited concerns of discriminatory practices associated with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The grant is for the collectives Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program and Incubator Farm Program, which provides farmland access, education, market access, shared equipment and resources to farmers.

The grant funding, which is $750,000 and is in its second year, helps refugee, immigrant and Black farmers establish their footing in agriculture.

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The award termination letter indicates no factual findings or basis for the allegation that Providence Farm Collective has incorrectly or inappropriately used the grant funds, Executive Director Kristin Heltman-Weiss said in the appeal. Nor are there any facts presented in the letter which support a determination that Providence Farm Collectives grant under BFRDP no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities.

PFC runs 30 farms and supports more than 200 farmers, grows over 100,000 pounds of produce per year and provides food for over 14,000 Western New Yorkers. Leaders of the collective said earlier this month that the loss of funding threatens those operations.

The United States Department of Agriculture previously said that the grant was pulled because the programs it supported allegedly violated federal civil rights laws.

Heltman-Weiss said the collectives program is the opposite of exclusion, saying every ethnic background, every culture, every skin color, is seen in the collective.

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Katie Skoog joined the News 4 team in April 2024. She is a graduate from the University at Buffalo. You can view more of her work here.

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Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.

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There are some everyday human behaviors that seem simple, yet inexplicable. One of them is what scientists call gargalesis, which the rest of us know as tickling. These are the behaviors that provoke an involuntary and uncontrollable fit of laughter, even when you dont want to. From Aristotle to Charles Darwin, people have pondered the physical and cognitive mechanisms triggered by tickling. However, despite its triviality, science has yet to fully understand it.

Its unknown why certain areas of the body are more sensitive to tickling than others. Or why some people enjoy being tickled while others hate it. Its also not fully understood why people cant tickle themselves. In short, the primary function of tickling in humans, as in other primate species, remains a mystery.

Konstantina Kilteni is a researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behavior in the Netherlands, and for years she has been working on experiments that analyze how the human brain distinguishes between self-generated and external touch. And although I hate being tickled, she admits, she is obsessed with her study.

There are many implications in the study of tickling that we dont usually consider, Kilteni explains to EL PAIS. The scientist points out that the study of tickling can contribute both to sensorimotor neuroscience in infants and to the understanding of touch perception in people with schizophrenia. Tickling is a useful model for studying the complex interaction between movement, sensation, and social context, with implications in many areas of science, she adds.

In this spirit, the scientist published a review on May 21 in the journal Science Advances in which she poses five fundamental questions about tickling that neuroscience still has to unravel, and for which there is no definitive answer, although scientists are now a little closer.

Why are some areas of the body more sensitive?

The soles of the feet and armpits are often the weakest spots for tickling, as has been shown in tests on children and older adults. The most intuitive answer to this question is usually physiological. That is, we think we are more ticklish in regions with greater sensitivity to touch or pain. However, this is not the case. The soles of the feet and armpits are not the areas with the highest density of cutaneous sensory receptors, those that detect stimuli on the skin.

Thats why some alternative theories have been proposed over the years. Specifically, it has been suggested that the areas most sensitive to tickling are the most vulnerable in hand-to-hand combat, Kilteni points out. Therefore, tickling would be an evolutionary reflex for survival. This hypothesis, however, has been questioned because there are more vulnerable areas during combat, such as the arms, which are not particularly sensitive to tickling.

It was Darwin who proposed that tickling is related to atypical contact. He suggested that our armpits are not usually touched, which explains why unexpected contact there is often perceived as tickling, the researcher notes. With the soles of the feet, the theory works the other way around: since they are accustomed to constant, hard contact with the ground, subtle stimulation with the toes is what causes the tickling. Kilteni isnt entirely convinced: This explanation could be quite simplistic.

Why do we laugh even when we dont enjoy being tickled?

Socrates described the sensations produced by tickling as ambiguous: with elements of both pleasure and pain. Experiments on infants confirmed this idea, as they oscillated between positive and negative states: both seeking contact and avoiding it. This is the duality produced by tickling, which was even used as a method of torture during World War II.

Figures from an experimental study with 84 people show that the reality is pretty even. One-third of people find tickling pleasurable (some even include it in their sexual behavior), another third are indifferent, and the last third explicitly stated they dont enjoy it.

Now, why does it always provoke laughter? As a social behavior, laughter can communicate different emotions and have different connotations, ranging from happiness and joy to even embarrassment and aggression, writes Kilteni.

Some studies have analyzed the different parameters and acoustic properties of tickled laughter and compared them with those of joyful laughter. And it turns out they are different kinds of laughter. The joy of tickling could be a primitive response, a reflex rather than enjoyment, the researcher suggests.

Why cant we tickle ourselves?

On this point, science has no doubt: tickling cannot be self-induced. Whats not entirely clear are the reasons. Darwin proposed that the element of surprise plays a fundamental role. You cant tickle yourself because you know in advance when and where you will experience contact, Kilteni summarizes.

The simple  and most widely accepted  explanation is that, to save resources, the brain can predict and suppress self-generated sensations. This is why the perception of the touches we inflict on ourselves is attenuated. The author insists that further studies are needed to fully confirm this hypothesis.

Why are some people more sensitive?

Answering this question using the rigor of the scientific method is particularly complex. The studies that have been conducted are difficult to evaluate because each participant perceives the tickling differently. We still dont know if this is due to physiological causes or personality traits, Kilteni points out.

Understanding these differences is one of the main challenges for tickling researchers, as tactile experiences depend not only on receptors in the skin, but also on a unique and complex combination of factors, ranging from genetics and physiology to more transient psychological and cognitive states. In other words, its a lottery of individual factors that is very difficult to unravel. These factors include everything from skin stiffness to how neurons respond.

Its also assumed that children are generally more sensitive to tickling than adults. This could be explained from an evolutionary perspective: greater sensitivity could help children develop laughter and, subsequently, their sense of humor in adulthood.

Although the differences between tickling in children and adults could also be explained by childrens greater thrill-seeking, rather than tickling itself. Another dead end for neuroscience.

What is the evolutionary function of tickling?

Some scientists argue that tickling played a crucial role for our ape ancestors and early humans. Others believe its a byproduct of other tactile perceptions and doesnt actually have any evolutionary advantage or disadvantage; its simply there. It could be a social activity, a play mechanism, or have affective and bonding aspects, Kilteni explains.

Those who defend the first idea point out that tickling was fundamental in teaching young individuals to prepare for hand-to-hand combat and awakening the instinct for self-defense to protect vulnerable areas of the body. But they also believe in a social theory: tickling is a playful behavior that serves to foster bonds between couples, friends, and family members. Critics argue that if tickling were a social gesture, it would be paradoxical for people to instinctively recoil from a startled response to tickling, as most often happens.

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May 22Local Republican leaders continued to support the reelection campaign of state Rep. Rodney Creech, R-West Alexandria, in November despite having knowledge of a criminal investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.

Creech has denied the allegation against him. A special prosecutor in October 2024 opted not to charge the lawmaker  whose district includes Preble and parts of Montgomery and Butler counties  but noted that he found Creech's behavior to be "concerning and suspicious."

As part of the investigation, state Rep. Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp. was interviewed by state investigators in February 2024. The interview revolved around a conversation the two had in which Plummer found Creech to be making light of the allegations he was facing from a teenage minor female.

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"So, to me, that's disgusting and uncalled for," Plummer told state investigators. "I'm not sure if it's a total criminal element here, but it's uncalled for. I mean, as a father myself, I think it's just appalling. Those are the statements he made directly to me."

Plummer, who chairs the Montgomery County Republican Party, still included Creech on his party's slate endorsement card months after his cooperation with state investigators. Creech won with 77% of the vote. Before that, Creech ran unopposed in the March 2024 primary.

Creech, having noted that Plummer might be a potential opponent in a 2026 Republican primary to replace term-limited Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, has chalked up the ordeal as a "political hit job."

"He wants to say this is all political. Well, it's not political and that's a very good reason to show people it's not political, because I included him on the slate card and that's my decision as a party chairman," Plummer said when this outlet asked him to explain why the party still supported Creech but not Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Mike Foley, who is facing criminal charges.

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"I could have kept (Creech) off, but, you know, I decided to put him on. I did keep Mike Foley off because he did have a nine-count indictment," Plummer said.

Creech has since threatened legal actions against Plummer, who said he received directive from Creech's attorney to maintain all his communications in case of a lawsuit.

When the criminal investigation became public this month, Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman said he had asked Creech to resign from the Ohio House. Huffman used his power to remove Creech from all of his committees.

While Plummer had no position in House leadership when he participated in the investigation, today he's third-in-command under Huffman.

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Huffman says he only learned about the Creech investigation and Plummer's role in it when the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation informed him they were about to release it to the media  the Dayton Daily News had requested a copy of it using Ohio public records laws.

'Failure of leadership'

Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Mohamed Al-Hamdani frames the delay of any political sanctions against Creech as a "failure of leadership."

"The allegations against Rodney Creech are deeply disturbing," Hamdani told this news outlet. "What is equally disturbing is that some leaders within the Republican Party have known about these allegations for over a year and chose to remain silent."

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"Ohioans deserve leaders who will do what's right, who will protect our children, and who will hold their fellow lawmakers accountable for their actions," Al-Hamdani said, calling for Creech to resign.

Other prominent Republicans with at least some knowledge of the allegations include Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. Yost's office oversees BCI and shared the investigation with Huffman only after it was about to become public.

Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson and Prosecutor Martin Votel had some knowledge of the allegations in 2023. The alleged victim's stepfather contacted Simpson in July 2023.

Simpson says the alleged victim's stepfather  an Ohio police chief  reached out to him to ask if the chief was required to report possible inappropriate behavior involving Creech he learned about through a family discussion.

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Simpson says he took the issue to Votel, who advised them that it didn't have to be reported. Simpson says he didn't open an investigation or make any documentation of what he was told, and doesn't remember what specific information he was told about the allegations.

Votel has not returned requests for comment on why he reportedly advised the sheriff and police chief the allegation did not need to be reported for criminal investigation, despite the stepfather being a mandated reporter.

Votel donated $100 to Creech's campaign in September 2024. Votel was elected in November as a Preble County Common Pleas Court judge.

The state got involved in the investigation on Nov. 8, 2023 after Simpson and Votel recused themselves from the case after it was brought to them after being reported in Montgomery County in September.

Another local Republican who would have known about the allegation and investigation is Preble County Recorder Jeanne Creech, who is the state lawmakers' wife.
UPDATE: THURSDAY 5/22/2025 11:52 a.m.

The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) provided an update on the fight that happened at Mountain Vista School, causing a lockdown.

CSPD said a little before 11 a.m., police were called to Mountain Vista School for a physical disturbance. According to police, several families had issues outside of the school, and a fight involving around six to eight people broke out during a graduation ceremony.

Mountain Vista School was placed on lockdown briefly while officers got the scene under control. CSPD said some minor injuries were reported, and police believe everyone involved has been accounted for.

Courtesy: FOX21 News Chief Photojournalist Dez Rowe

Courtesy: FOX21 News Chief Photojournalist Dez Rowe

At this time, no charges have been announced. The lockdown was lifted, and students were released to their parents.

ORIGINAL STORY: Mountain Vista School under lockdown for alleged fight

THURSDAY 5/22/2025 11:34 a.m.

(COLORADO SPRINGS)  The Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) tells FOX21 News that a fight between parents has placed the school on lockdown while authorities investigate.

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On Thursday, May 22, at around 11:20 a.m. FOX21 received information from CSPD that said a physical disturbance happened at Mountain Vista School in Southeast Colorado Springs. CSPD told FOX21 News it appeared some parents got into a fight of some sort. At the time, CSPD does not believe weapons were involved, but the school is on lockdown.

FOX21 News is working to get more information and will update this article as we learn more.

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Travelers flying out of Bostons Logan International Airport on Thursday are being urged to keep an eye on their flight status because a nasty noreaster ahead of Memorial Day weekend could cause cancellations and delays.

As of 9 p.m. Thursday, there were 66 cancellations and 442 delays at Logan, according to FlightAware. Fifty-nine of the cancellations were impacting Cape Air and 97 of the delays were related to JetBlue.

The noreaster was expected to peak during the afternoon and persist into the evening hours, bringing torrential rain, wind gusts up to 50 mph, and coastal flooding.

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As the noreaster ramped up, cancellations and delays climbed.

Experts encourage travelers to monitor their flight information before heading to the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration anticipated Thursday as the busiest day to fly over the holiday weekend.

For more on the forecast, visit the Boston 25 Weather page.

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Once in office, Lombardo warmed to policies that could diversify Nevadas one-trick pony economy, even as he opposed the federal spending measures enacted during the Biden administration that made the initiatives possible. (Photo: Richard Bednarski/Nevada Current)

Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo is one of only a few Republican governors who didnt sign a letter sent to Donald Trump offering heaping praise and united support of Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill.

House Republicans early Thursday passed their version the massive budget reconciliation bill that would slash Medicaid, food assistance and other programs while extending 2017 tax cuts and increasing spending on immigration enforcement.

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The Republican Governors Association announced 20 governors around the country signed onto a letter May 20 offering strong support for the bill.

Lombardo didnt respond to requests for comment on why he didnt sign the letter.

Republican governors from Florida, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Vermont also didnt sign the letter.

In the letter, governors assured Trump the landmark piece of legislation embodies your powerful vision to bring about the next great American revival.

It truly delivers on the bold promises all Republicans made to the American people to restore the security, prosperity, and fiscal sanity for our nation, they wrote.

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The governors praised the proposed significant increase in spending on deportation and $150 billion in new money for defense and national security.

The governors declined to mention the significant cuts being proposed in the bill, including reducing food aid by $267 billion over 10 years and Medicaid spending $700 billion Nor did they note that the Congressional Budget Office projects Trumps tax cuts will add $3.8 trillion to the national debt over a decade.

Trumps budget request also proposed $33 billion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which social services providers and local officials warn would devastate Nevada.

Lombardo has expressed reservations about some of policies that are now featured in the Trump budget bill, including deportations and Medicaid cuts.
Topping the Friday, May 16, return of indictments by the Laurel County Grand Jury was a London man indicted on 10 counts, including vehicular homicide.

Timothy A. Wells, 60, of Osborne Cemetery Road, has been indicted on charges which stem from a June 2024 crash that resulted in one death and several injuries.

According to the indictment, Wells was under the influence of intoxicants while driving a Ford pickup westbound on KY 192 on June 30, 2024, when he caused a fatal crash that resulted in the death of Phyllis Hale, 56. Gary Hale was a passenger in Ms. Hales Nissan minivan alongside a five-year-old and an eight-year-old. In addition to vehicular homicide, Wells is charged with three counts of first-degree assault for injuries caused to the passengers.

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Counts five through nine charge Wells with first-degree wanton endangerment. Each of the counts relate to a GMC Acadia which Wells also reportedly collided with. Five victims are listed in that crash  including Hailee Hubbard, Dylan Baker, and three children.

Finally, the last count charges Wells with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of intoxicants  a first offense.

The crash was investigated by the London Police Department.

Wells bond is set at $50,000 cash at this time. He will return to Laurel Circuit Court Wednesday, July 16, at 9 a.m. for a status hearing.

An indictment is an accusation only and does not imply guilt or innocence. A person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK)  A 19-year-old has been arrested in Longview after allegedly robbing a business on Tuesday evening.

Hawkins mayor arrested for tampering with government records

Officers from the Longview Police Department arrived at the 1500 block of Pine Tree Road after receiving reports of a robbery. Officers learned that the suspect had demanded cash from the clerk and the suspect was believed armed with a deadly weapon, according to officials.

Mugshot of Bryson Lewis, courtesy of the Gregg County Sheriffs Office

The suspect was identified as 19-year-old Bryson Lewis from Longview, who was subsequently arrested on Wednesday. Lewis was charged with aggravated robbery and is being held on a $90,000 bond.

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CORBIN, Ky. (FOX 56)  Crews with the Corbin Fire Department were called to a home on Steele Street near Fifth Street early Thursday morning to reports of a large fire.

Authorities said that early evidence suggested the occupant of the home is an avid gun enthusiast. Loud booms stretching as far as Knox County were reported, likely due to the number of guns in the home, according to Corbin police.

Lt. Tyler Tye said ammunition found throughout the home fueled the explosions.

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They had multiple large, locked-up, fireproof safes, and they were obviously still locked up when we made entry into the garage, he explained.

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Tye said the fire spread to the house next door.

And then was starting to burn up the side and, did end up catching fire in the roof and attic and the ceiling, he said.

Tye said a man was found dead outside the home.

Officials in Whitley County identified the man as Deron Steele, 65. His cause of death has not been revealed.

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We were told that the homeowner of the initial structure was inside. We did a lot of searches and couldnt find anything, so we ended up doing just a perimeter search of the property is off instead of ended up a few behind the tree with a possible gunshot wound, he added.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

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Supporters of Mahmoud Khalil rally outside the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., on March 28, 2025. (Reena Rose Sibayan for New Jersey Monitor)

The federal judge overseeing the case of a Columbia University student activist held at a Louisiana immigration detention center has deferred to the private prison company managing the facility in determining certain rules for her court.

The questioned standards come into play as Mahmoud Khalil faces his next court hearing Thursday morning at the LaSalle Detention Center in Jena, when his attorneys say theyll file a motion to throw out the case against him for egregious government misconduct, namely that Khalil was arrested without a warrant. Theyll also argue that Khalil is at risk of harm by Israel anywhere in the world and thus cannot be removed to Syria or Algeria.

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The hearing is the first since one of Khalils attorneys, Nora Ahmed with the American Civil Liberties Union, was prevented from bringing her laptop computer into the courtroom on the grounds of the LaSalle Detention Center for an April 11 hearing. Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said Khalils attorneys must abide by policies set by the facilitys operator, the GEO Group. Ahmed was prevented from having her electronics with her, despite attorneys for the federal government being allowed to have their computers.

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Comans ruling gives the Trump administration an unfair advantage in the case, Ahmed said in an interview with the Illuminator.

It facially goes to show how biased the hearing was from the get-go  that this attorney was denied all of the access to electronics that the government had, Ahmed said.

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Khalil has been held at the Lasalle Detention Center since March 8, when federal authorities took him from his Columbia University apartment building in New York City. Although hes a legal U.S. resident, ICE officials said they had a warrant to revoke Khalils student visa. Hes the first person President Donald Trump sought to deport from the U.S. for his involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Motion sought formal order

Over two months after being taken into federal custody, Khalil has yet to be charged with a crime. At his April 11 hearing, Comans ruled him deportable in light of a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that Khalils activities at Columbia could have adverse foreign policy consequences.

According to a motion filed April 28, Ahmed was prevented from bringing her laptop and phone into that hearing, despite DOJ policy explicitly allowing counsel to have electronics. Ahmed said she had already been given permission to take her electronics inside by the ICE facilitys warden, GEO Group employee Shad Rice. GEO Group personnel handle security for the facility, including the secured area between the facilitys entrance and the courtroom doors.

Unable to bring her computer into the courtroom, Ahmed worked with a notebook and pen instead.

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Judge Comans refusal to let Ahmed retrieve her computer is in direct violation of the Department of Justices policy, according to the April 29 motion. The policy states that attorneys in proceedings before [Executive Office for Immigration Review] will be permitted to use electronic devices in EOIR courtrooms.

After the hearing, according to the motion, Rice told Ahmed that the Judge appeared to contradict herself by blaming him and the GEO Group for Ahmed not being allowed to bring her laptop into the courtroom.

Jason Burke, administrator for the LaSalle Immigration Court, told the Illuminator that Justice Department rules do indeed allow Ahmed to bring her laptop to court proceedings, but they got to get to EOIR space first. which we dont control when were in a detention center.

The GEO Group declined to answer questions regarding the matter.

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In light of the confusion on April 11, the April 28 motion asked the court to ensure that Khalils counsel at upcoming hearings could bring their electronics into chambers.

Comans ruled May 9 that the motion was moot, writing that should an attorney elect to appear in person, they are subject to the detention facilitys rules.

Homero Lopez, director of Immigration Services and Legal Advocacy in New Orleans, was startled when he learned of the judges order, which he described as bullst. Lopez previously had a similar issue in 2022 at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in the Acadia Parish town of Basile. It was resolved when ICE Field Office Director Melissa Harper clarified with Basile management that laptops will be permitted, per emails Lopez provided to Illuminator.

Lopez said it was particularly surprising to have that issue at the Jena center, where, unlike other Louisiana ICE centers, the detention area and courtroom have separate entrances.

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Ive never had to once ask anybody for additional permission to bring electronics into court at Jena, nor has any other attorney he knows, Lopez said. Comans should have directed ICE to get GEO Group to abide by federal policy  not defer to the company  he added.

The judges failure to do so is another way to discourage people from taking on cases at that facility, Lopez said.

Supporters of Mahmoud Khalil rally outside the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., on March 28, 2025. (Reena Rose Sibayan for New Jersey Monitor)

Unequal footing for ICE detainees

Khalils lawyers argue that the unequal access highlights a lack of transparency around immigration proceedings, and the hurdles the GEO Group and the federal justice present that affect a detainees legal proceedings. In a briefing for reporters Wednesday, co-counsel Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at City University of New York, described Comans as an immigration judge whos not an independent judge, whos really a DOJ functionary.

Khalils counsel decried this lack of transparency in a second motion, also filed April 28. The motion requested that, due to enormous public interest in Khalils case, Comans allow virtual or telephonic access for her proceedings.

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During the April 11 hearing, Ahmed had asked permission to read out a statement about public access  a request Comans refused.

Ahmeds quashed statement was a plea for Comans to ensure broader access to the hearing, noting that what transpires today  determining who is allowed to stay on American soil and who must leave it  will have reverberations for years to come. As such, we ask this court to accommodate those intent on observing these proceedings.

Instead, GEO Group security allowed less than two dozen people to enter the facility, leaving supporters and members of the news media to wait outside, some of whom had traveled from as far as New York.

Zach Kopkin, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in New Orleans, was among those denied access. He told Illuminator that it felt really important that Jewish folks be in that room and that we fight back with the truth, which is that a ton of Jews are also critical of the Israeli governments war crimes and genocide.

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Comans also called the second motion moot, noting simply that immigration hearings are generally open to the public, although certain exceptions apply. Khalils team still has an outstanding request to the judge for an overflow room.

Khalil hopes to hold month-old son

New allegations against the GEO Group of violating federal policy in Khalils case were levied Wednesday. The LaSalle facility has refused to allow Khalil to hold his newborn son, who was born while hes been in federal custody, citing security concerns. This comes despite ICE directives and federal policies which explicitly encourage contact between detained parents and children.

Khalil filed a request Wednesday with a federal court to order ICE to allow him a contact visit with his month-old son by the end of the day. The federal court accepted the argument and Khalils counsel say theyre working out details of the visit. Khalils wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, traveled over 1,000 miles with their child so Khalil could hold him for the first time.

According to emails within the filing, the GEO Groups facility administrator said its procedures allow for non-contact visits only through a secure window.

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ICE policy notes that contact visits may be facilitated at all ICE detention facilities.

Khalils lawyers argue the GEO Groups refusal of contact is part of the punitive nature of his detention and transfer from its New Jersey facility, where family contact visits are provided daily and parents are allowed to hold their children.

Judge Comans will also decide whether Dr. Abdalla is permitted to hold their infant while attending proceedings Thursday.

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Persons imprisoned in Louisiana through unconstitutional split-jury verdicts still wont have an avenue to challenge their convictions following a state Senate vote Wednesday.

Republicans in the chamber overwhelmingly rejected a bill from Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, to allow people convicted by non-unanimous juries before 2018 to petition for their cases to be reviewed. The proposal failed on a 9-26 vote despite having the support of the Louisiana Republican Party and GOP Congressman Clay Higgins, whos long campaigned on a tough-on-crime platform.

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Louisiana and Oregon were the last two states to allow split-jury verdicts in the prosecution of violent felonies. Voters in Louisiana amended the state constitution in 2018 to eliminate non-unanimous juries, though it didnt apply to such convictions before the change.

In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled split-jury convictions were unconstitutional, but justices didnt determine whether their ruling would apply retroactively to older cases in Louisiana and Oregon. While the Oregon Supreme Court decided those incarcerated under old non-unanimous verdicts could seek remedy, the Louisiana Supreme Court did not.

We have an opportunity right now in Louisiana to remove this stain, because right now we are the only ones who are wearing it, Duplessis told senators before the vote.

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The Louisiana District Attorneys Association constituted the most significant opposition to the bill. Duplessis said he worked with the group to address some of its concerns, but senators against the measure said it would be difficult for prosecutors to retry cases that, in some cases, would be decades old.

You have to acknowledge the practical impossibility of retrying a case 10, 15, 20 years later, Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, said. Evidence is destroyed, witnesses have died, witnesses have moved.

Seabaugh, whos an attorney, told Duplessis that if he supported the possibility of new trials for persons who were convicted on 10-2 jury verdicts, he should also be in favor of letting district attorneys retry cases where defendants were acquitted on 10-2 verdicts. Such a scenario would constitute double jeopardy, a principle protected by the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime.

Ahead of the final vote, Duplessis read from a letter of support for his bill from Higgins, in which the 3rd Congressional District representative urged the swift passage of the measure.

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You could not have told me in my 42 years on this earth that I would have a letter from Congressman Clay Higgins supporting a bill that I brought, Duplessis said. Im not sharing that for laughs. Im sharing that to show you the gravity of this moment. This is serious.

The Promise of Justice Initiative has been at the forefront of attempts to have Louisiana give persons incarcerated on split-jury verdicts a chance at new trials. In a statewide poll the group conducted earlier this month, almost two-thirds of the more than 1,000 respondents said they supported judicial relief for those convicted by non-unanimous juries.

Before the final vote, Duplessis mentioned the results of the poll to senators, and two-thirds of them rejected his bill.

The history of split-jury verdicts goes back to the Jim Crow era, when states passed laws to silence the voice of newly enfranchised Black citizens who were allowed to serve as jurors for the first time. Louisiana approved its split-jury law in 1889

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It was a New Orleans case that led the U.S. Supreme Court to declare split-jury verdicts unconstitutional five years ago. Lawyers for Evangelisto Ramos challenged his second-degree murder conviction of a New Orleans woman that resulted in a life sentence. In a 6-3 ruling, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing the majority opinion, the court found that the 6th Amendment requires an unanimous guilty verdict in criminal cases.

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This report was updated to include the accurate name of the Promise of Justice Initiative.
The life of Ukrainian lawyer Andrii Portnov in Madrid was short and ended with the five bullets in the back that he received Wednesday at the gates of his childrens school in the Spanish capital. Portnov wielded significant influence in Ukraine, where he was an advisor to the former anti-European and pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych. He settled in a mansion in the luxury residential area of La Moraleja with his family after leaving Kyiv in June 2022, when he was 48 years old. That is, he crossed the border four months after the Russian invasion began, and when theoretically there were already travel restrictions in place for men of military age under martial law.

In interviews he gave to the media afterwards, he justified his hasty departure as a father of a large family. He has four young children with his wife, Anastasia Valyaeva, who was also linked to the former Ukrainian government.

Andrii Portnov at press conference in Kyiv, October 31, 2013. Stringer (REUTERS)

Little is known at the moment about Portnovs life and his links in Madrid, where detectives are now following the trail of the assassins who presumably arrived on a motorcycle, shot him at point-blank range, and then fled in the groves of the Casa de Campo park, a former royal hunting estate. However, Ukrainian investigators and journalists from the RadioFreeEurope corporation, who have followed his movements closely, point out that Petrov carried out some striking financial and property movements from Madrid. For example, a few months ago, he went to a notarys office in the capital to register a mansion he owned on the outskirts of Kyiv, in Kozyn, on the banks of the Dnipro River, valued at $2.8 million, in the name of his children. The same sources point out that he could have been trying to hide real estate or avoid its confiscation in the event of sanctions or criminal prosecution.

In the face of escalating tensions and on the eve of Russias full-scale invasion, in December 2021, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Portnov, including a ban on entry to the U.S. and the freezing of all his financial assets in U.S. banks. Portnov was also included in the list of persons affected by the so-called Magnitsky Act, passed in the United States, which prosecutes foreigners accused of large-scale corruption and human rights violations. But, curiously, his daughters went to the American School of Madrid, in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcon, where he himself took them daily.

Portnov has for years maintained an open battle with his detractors in Ukraine, initiating court proceedings against journalists and those who have attacked him for his closeness to the Russian government and his anti-European ideas, and who linked him to repressive actions in that sense. However, he won all the lawsuits. Those court victories also gave him a reputation for exerting a strong influence over the judiciary in Ukraine. Until 2014, Portnov was responsible for the judiciary in Yanukovychs government.

After the Euromaidan protests at the end of 2013, with serious riots in Kyivs Independence Square against the strengthening of ties with Russia vis-a-vis European alliances, Portnov began also to set up in Moscow, where he accumulated significant property assets.

The murder of the Ukrainian lawyer in Madrid is surrounded by a mesh of political influence, money and power. Late on Wednesday, the police were engaged in a delicate investigation, but the motivations behind the crime were still far from clear.

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Just days before their lives were cut short by gunfire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Israeli Embassy staffer Yaron Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring that he intended to give to his girlfriend and colleague, Sarah Milgrim.

He never got the chance.

Instead, the couple died together Wednesday night when a gunman shot and killed them as they were leaving a Young Diplomats reception at the museum organized by the American Jewish Committee.

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Lischinsky, 30, had planned to propose to Milgrim, 26, next week in Jerusalem, said the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter. Lischinsky had planned to spend the Jewish holiday of Shavuot with his family in Israel, the AJC said in a statement.

Their deaths prompted an outpouring of grief in Israel and in Overland Park, Kansas, where Milgrim was from, according to the AJC.

Milgrim, who was Jewish, graduated from the University of Kansas in the spring of 2021 with a bachelor of arts degree in environmental studies and a minor in anthropology, the university confirmed. She earned her masters degree in international affairs from American University.

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"She was thrilled" when she got the job at the Israeli Embassy, her father, Robert Milgrim, told NBC News on Thursday. "I couldn't have been prouder."

Fighting back tears, the grieving dad said he feared his daughter and Lischinsky might be in danger when he began getting news alerts on his phone about a fatal shooting in Washington. He said that when his wife, Nancy, opened a locator app on her cellphone  and realized their daughter was at the museum  his heart sank.

"Shortly after that, the Israeli ambassador "called us on my wife's phone," he said.

Robert Milgrim said it was Leiter who told them Lischinsky had bought the ring and was planning the pop the question.

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"Best of times, worst of times," he said.

Earlier, the AJC called Milgrim "warm and compassionate, committed to peacebuilding and passionate about sustainability and people-to-people relations."

A budding diplomat, Milgrim was also "a beloved member of the AJC-Mimouna Michael Sachs Fellowship for Emerging Leaders community, where she joined other American, Israeli, French, and Moroccan leaders focused on advancing relations in the Middle East and North Africa," according to the AJC.

Aaron Kaplowitz, president of the United States-Israel Business Alliance, said he met Milgrim on a trip to Morocco in September.

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"Bringing people together, especially Jews and Muslims, was something very important to her," he said. "I think it spoke a lot to her values."

Lischinsky held a German passport, a German diplomatic source confirmed to NBC News. On his LinkedIn page, he wrote that he was 16 when he emigrated from the German city of Nuremberg to Israel. He was a 2021 graduate of Hebrew University, having earned a bachelors degree in international relations and Asian studies.

Ron Prosor, Israels ambassador to Germany, wrote on X that Lischinsky was Christian. The New York Times reported he was the son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother.

He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause, Prosor posted. He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide.

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Lischinsky was a member of the embassy's political department and focused on Middle East issues, according to the AJC.

"Yaron always had a smile on his face and a welcoming presence," its statement added.

Meanwhile, police continued to question shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez, a Chicagoan who was heard yelling "Free, free Palestine" after he was arrested.

The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of Free Palestine is a young couple about to be engaged, Leiter said at a late-night news conference. The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.

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The couple met over a year ago when they first started working at the embassy.

"Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were killed more than 18 months after Hamas militants' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and Israels bombing campaign and ground invasion on Gaza in response.

Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took hundreds more hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israels counteroffensive has killed more than 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

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That retaliation has sparked worldwide protests against Israel and massive demonstrations on many U.S. college campuses, coupled with a rise of antisemitism.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The case of a mother jailed for a social media post about the Southport attacks has been raised with the White House.

Lucy Connolly, a former childminder and the wife of a Conservative councillor, was jailed for 31 months in October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.

Three Court of Appeal judges threw out the 42-year-olds application on Tuesday morning, meaning she will not be released before August.

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In an extraordinary step, her arrest has now been raised with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, The Telegraph understands.

It is the latest case to be raised with officials in Washington, who are increasingly concerned about freedom of expression in Britain.

Lucys case hs now been raised with Marco Rubio - John McDonnell/Getty Images

Charlie Kirk, a Maga influencer and ally of Donald Trump said Lucy Connollys case proved free speech in the UK was dead.

He told the Oxford Union on Tuesday: As of today, Lucy Connolly is going to jail for two-and-a-half years in this country for a social media post that she apologised for and deleted That is not a free speech battle at all.

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You should be allowed to say outrageous things. You should be allowed to say contrarian things. Free speech is a birthright that you gave us, and you guys decided not to codify it and now its  poof!  it is basically gone.

Speaking to GB News, Mr Kirk said he would raise Connollys case with the Trump administration, adding: Im going to bring this up to Marco Rubio [the US secretary of state]. Im going to send him a text.

The case has now been brought to the attention of Mr Rubio, the Telegraph can confirm.

Last July, hours after Axel Rudakubana went on a knife rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, murdering three little girls, Connolly went on social media platform X to express her outrage.

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She posted: Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f---ing hotels full of the b------s for all I care, while youre at it, take the treacherous government politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what these [Southport] families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.

Connolly deleted the post less than four hours later by which point it had been viewed 310,000 times.

She was arrested on Aug 6 following widespread riots across the country over the stabbing attack.

Sir Keir Starmer, thrown on the defensive - Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Police officers who searched her devices found other posts she had written. In one message, she joked that she would play the mental health card if arrested.

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Connolly, who has no previous convictions, also sent another tweet commenting on a sword attack, which read: I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.

The Court of Appeal judges said they did not accept that the original 31-month sentence was manifestly excessive.

The judges also said they did not accept that Connolly had entered her guilty plea without fully understanding what it entailed.

Michael Shellenberger, an American author and CBR chair of politics, censorship and free speech at Austin University, said the case was a barbarity.

We still think of the Brits as also caring a lot about free speech, he said.

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But it still comes as a shock to see these kinds of barbarities practiced by the people that we tend to think of as the most civilised on Earth.

The intervention comes as Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, has been forced to defend Britains record of free speech which has become a point of tension with Trump administration officials.

During a firebrand speech at the Munich security conference, JD Vance, the vice-president claimed free speech in Britain and across Europe was in retreat.

In a highly unusual step earlier this year, the US state department issued a statement saying it was concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom in relation to the case of an anti-abortion campaigner.

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It said it was monitoring the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: Here to talk if you want.

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Now and again, judges make decisions so egregious that they inflame a nation inured to the selective callousness of authority.

So it is with the latest ruling on Lucy Connolly, whose continued incarceration for a hasty tweet is so manifestly cruel and unnecessary that a crowdfunding campaign to help her rebuild her life when she is eventually released has raised more than 120,000.

A common theme in many dreadful decisions emanating from the European Convention on Human Rights is Article 8: the right to family life. Thanks to the notorious protections it affords, some of the most disgusting members of society have avoided jail or deportation after bleating about their human rights.

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In the eyes of far too many judges, the entitlements enshrined in this section of the convention are so sweeping and unconditional that they trump almost every other consideration. In their slavish attention to the clause, courts have upheld umpteen ridiculous appeals.

Facing deportation? Just say your son has food sensitivities and needs to eat British chicken nuggets. No children? No worries. Just talk about a beloved pet. Just last week, it emerged that an Iranian criminal who has been dodging deportation since 2009 will be allowed to remain in the UK because kicking him out would affect his bond with his toddler.

A judge sympathised with some fatuous argument about hair cuts.

Such cases enrage voters, but whats good for the goose is good for the gander. So what about Lucy Connollys human rights? Does her relationship with her 12-year-old daughter somehow matter less than the relationship between faceless foreign criminals (their identities always protected by the courts) and their offspring? If judges dont care about Connollys distraught child, theres her sick husband, for whom she acts as a carer, and the little ones she used to look after as a childminder. Do they not count? The liberal Left  so frothingly indignant about a single deleted tweet that had zero demonstrable impact  are shamefully silent on all this.

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Perhaps more important in this case is Article 10 of the convention, on free speech. Standing in a supermarket aisle yesterday, our robotic Prime Minister posed as a champion of this much threatened freedom. His facial expression was as absent as his grasp of the outcry over the Connolly case. As a human rights lawyer, he will know all about the section of the convention that enshrines the liberty to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority.

Yes, it comes with limitations, but had Connolly been better represented, she might well have cited this in her defence.

In her notorious post, the mother of one called for mass deportation now, a perfectly respectable take on our immigration crisis. It is what followed the tweet  a suggestion that setting fire to migrant hotels would be a reasonable public reaction to (false) rumours that the Southport killer was an illegal migrant  that landed her in jail. It is surely obvious that she was expressing a daft and unpleasant opinion, rather than literally encouraging arson. Importantly, there is not a shred of evidence that a single person so much as struck a match after reading her message  still less armed themselves with firelighters and gasoline.

In any case, had anyone interpreted her rush of blood to the head as an order, that would surely be on them? The criminalisation of incitement to violence  which has some place in a civilised society  ought not to absolve any perpetrators of responsibility for their own actions. Even five-year-olds know that you dont get away with kicking Jamie on the basis that Johnny told you to give him a thump.

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Like others who abhor Connollys monstrous 31-month jail term, I am tired of having to acknowledge that she was very foolish and that her words were nasty. Keep saying this we must, or the same baying mob that sought to dismiss last summers riots as the work of far-Right thugs will shriek that her supporters condone racism and incitement to violence.

We emphatically do not.

We are simply sickened that career criminals, illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers have all the human rights in the world  whereas distressed young mothers, who briefly allowed their emotions to get the better of them, do not.

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Lyons Road column ignores concerns raised by new DMV

[Palm Beach Post Editorial Writer] Douglas Lyons recent column defending the construction of a new DMV facility in the Agricultural Reserve misses the mark on several key concerns raised by the Lyons Road Coalition, a group of seven Lyons Road communities, that have united in opposition to this project.

First, the notion that Lyons Road is already gone ignores the lived reality of those who endured nearly eight years of disruptive road construction, intended to improve access and safety for existing neighborhoods. Now, as traffic remains a daily struggle, the proposed DMV will only worsen an already untenable situation. Second, this is not about knee-jerk opposition or "NIMBYism". Residents moved to the Ag Reserve seeking a lifestyle rooted in rural character, agricultural preservation and open space  values protected by county policy and the Ag Reserve Master Plan. A 23,000-square-foot government facility in the heart of this area betrays those principles and institutes a high-traffic commercial use in the middle of the Ag Reserve and next to residential communities.

Third, the column fails to acknowledge that there is no demonstrated need for a DMV of this scale in this location. Investing millions into duplicative infrastructure in a sensitive, low-density area defies both fiscal and planning logic. Nor did Mr. Lyons address the fact that Palm Beach County has a number of vacant parcels and Civic Pods, in the area, anyone of which [Palm Beach County Tax Collector] Anne Gannon could have selected without disrupting the local community.

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New DMV concerns: Tax collector plans to build new service center west of Delray without a public hearing

Palm Beach County residents deserve government services  but not at the expense of safety, traffic flow and the integrity of one of the countys last remaining agricultural areas. Ms. Gannon may have the legal authority to proceed without public input, but that does not make this the right decision. The Lyons Road Coalition will continue to take the necessary steps to maintain our quality of life for this small section of the Agricultural Reserve.

Neil Schiller is a land use attorney in Palm Beach County, and member of the Lyons Road Coalition.

A new tax collector service center in the Ag Reserve has prompted concern and outrage about growth, development and traffic.

Where's the DEI in playing with dolls?

Children may only be allotted three dolls each this Christmas due to increased U.S. tariffs on China. Why then are boys not considered in the doll allotment? When boys become fathers in Florida they are automatically awarded 50-50 custody/ time-sharing with their children, whether they are prepared or desirous of parenthood. So boys will also need some parental preparation with dolls. Are only girl dolls available from Amazon; GI Joes dont count?

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In the 1970s when my children were little, there was the Joey toddler doll, the grandchild of Archie Bunker. Joey was anatomically correct, as assigned at birth. Maybe it is safer to give all children books for the holidays. But they will have to be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis for proper content.

Sheila Jaffe, Boca Raton

Join the Conversation: The Palm Beach Post is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. Email us at letters@pbpost.com. Letters are subject to editing, must not exceed 200 words and must include your name, address and a daytime phone number to confirm the letter is for publication. We only publish names and cities with the letters.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Column ignores concerns raised by building new DMV | Letters
MACHESNEY PARK, Ill. (WTVO)  Homeowners in Machesney Park are petitioning for the village board to create an ordinance that allows them to have backyard chickens.

The board first brought this item to a vote back in 2013, where it did not pass. Back then, the board raised concerns for attracting predators like coyotes to residential neighborhoods.

Residents brought this issue to the boards attention again in 2018, when the members chose not to have it as an agenda item, and instead classified chickens as agricultural animals, permitting them only on agricultural-zoned land of at least 15 acres in size.

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Now, 37-year-resident of Machesney Park Tiffney Hammond is bringing the item back to the boards attention by creating an online petition for residents to sign. Hammon said she is hoping this brings backyard chickens into conversation again at the village.

There seems to be a lot of people that have that same mindset where they just want to have a few chickens in their backyards to be able to have eggs, Hammond said. The waste management perspective is really important as well. It definitely reduces that.

Hammond met Amy Ekberg online. Ekberg moved from Machesney Park to Poplar Grove three years ago for many reasons, one of which she said was for the opportunity to have a coop in her yard.

I thought, Oh, cool, well have chickens in our new community, and we can have them,' Ekberg said. I did not realize that was not an ordinance, so what I did was I emailed every board member.

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Ekbergs persistence at board meetings led to the new ordinance allowing backyard chickens in Poplar Grove, and she said shes hoping she can help Hammond do the same in Machesney.

The number one issue that people have is the smell, Ekberg said. Will they bother neighbors with noise? As you can hear, theyre very quiet.

Machesney Park Planning and Zoning Manager Carrie Houston said as of now, the board is not considering adding this item to an agenda.

Theyre concerned about the upkeep of the chicken coops and chicken runs, Houston said.

Ekberg said she is working with Hammond to continue pushing for change in the village.

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They just had an election, Ekberg said. Theres new people on the board. This is the time to hopefully jump on that bandwagon and get the opinion of the newer people and try to move it forward.

Hammond said her petition has 500 signatures so far. Both Hammond and Houston said they encourage residents to reach out to the board of trustees, as they ultimately have the final say.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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As the Republicans poorly named One Big Beautiful Bill Act came together, members of the House Freedom Caucus made one thing perfectly clear: They did not like this legislation.

The more the evidence showed that the GOPs reconciliation package would add trillions of dollars to the national debt and would fail to include the kind of structural changes to Medicaid that the far-right wanted, the more Freedom Caucus members told party leaders they were prepared to reject the bill.

How would House Speaker Mike Johnson overcome their opposition, which threatened to derail the entire effort? In part by offering some changes to placate the factions members and in part by waiting for the Freedom Caucus to do what its done repeatedly in recent months: cave under pressure.

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As the dust settles on the early-morning vote, the grand total of House Freedom Caucus members who voted against the bill they claimed to hate was ... zero.

Two GOP members  Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio  voted against the package, but Massie isnt a part of the far-right contingent and Davidson was kicked out of the group last summer. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, the Freedom Caucus current chairman who repeatedly railed against the bill in recent days, voted present in a rather pitiful display.

But as striking as it was to see the Freedom Caucus fall in line, just as important was the familiarity of the circumstances.

In January, House Freedom Caucus members said they were prepared to derail Johnsons bid for a second term with the gavel, and then they caved.

In March, House Freedom Caucus members said they were opposed to a stopgap spending measure (known as a continuing resolution, or CR) needed to prevent a shutdown, and then they caved.

In April, House Freedom Caucus members slammed their partys budget resolution, and then caved.

In May, House Freedom Caucus members railed against their partys reconciliation package, and then they caved.

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As a recent Washington Post analysis summarized:

Each threat from leaders of the House Freedom Caucus ended with the same result: capitulation. After caving on each round of threats, these far-right conservatives vowed that the next time would be different  if their demands were not met precisely as they sought. This collection of several dozen Republicans, after a decade of rabble-rousing that helped push aside three other speakers, has yet to fully buck Johnson ... on any major initiative this year.

That was published in early April. Several weeks later, its still accurate.

In recent years, the Freedom Caucus managed to earn a reputation as unrelenting hardliners who rejected compromises, were indifferent to party leaders pleas, and who had no qualms about derailing GOP proposals they deemed insufficiently conservative. They quickly became a painful thorn in the side of several House Republican speakers.

As a recent NBC News report explained, They didnt fear government shutdowns; they welcomed them. Their signature move was to collectively withhold votes unless House GOP leaders met their demands. Before this year, most members of the conservative crew had never supported a stopgap spending bill or debt ceiling increase in their entire House careers.

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But in 2025, the uncontrollable pit bulls have become obedient lapdogs.

In one especially memorable instance, Freedom Caucus Chair Harris said he was so opposed to his partys budget resolution that Donald Trump shouldnt even bother calling him to twist his arm. The president, the Maryland Republican said in April, should spend time with people whose minds he might change. Hes just not going to change my mind. Around the same time, Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas called the proposal a joke written by legislators who couldnt pass a math test.

Two days later, Harris and Roy voted for the bill theyd vowed to oppose.

Its at least possible that in coming weeks and months, Freedom Caucus members will eventually find a bill that they consider unacceptable; but for now, were dealing with an unmistakable legislative dynamic in which the far-right faction talks a good game, right up until Trump tells them what to do  at which point the lapdogs roll over.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
In early April, the State Department encouraged employees to report allegations of anti-Christian bias within the agency, and soon after, the Department of Veterans Affairs took the same step. The developments were largely overlooked, but they were early indications of a larger effort.

A couple of weeks later, for example, Attorney General Pam Bondi convened a meeting of a task force charged with eradicating anti-Christian bias within federal agencies. The Washington Post reported at the time, [E]ven before the groups inaugural meeting, critics have assailed its mission as a bald attempt by government to elevate one faith over others and to rewrite recent history under the guise of protecting religious freedoms.

The critics obviously had a point. After all, the attorney general and her colleagues didnt say they were focused on perceived anti-religion bias within the government; they focused only on perceived anti-Christian bias within the government. The Trumps task force clearly had a faith-specific focus.

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Among those joining Bondi for the inaugural meeting of the group was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who, it turns out, held a related event one month later. The New York Times reported:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagons auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader. The event, billed as the Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service, was standing room only and ran for about 30 minutes, with Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Mr. Hegseths church in Tennessee, as the main speaker.

This was not a one-time gathering: The Times report added that the beleaguered Pentagon chief said that he wants these prayer services to become monthly events.

Hegseth and his allies will likely argue that his Christian Prayer & Worship Service shouldnt be seen as controversial because hes an American citizen with the same First Amendment rights as everyone else. If you and I can host and/or attend prayer services, why cant he?

The answer is simple: Context matters. If Hegseth led a Christian prayer service on his own time in a house of worship, that would be no ones business but his own. The Pentagon, however, doesnt belong to Hegseth  it belongs to all of us. When he, as a public official, commandeers it for a faith-specific event, its easy to make the case that this was an inappropriate use of government resources.

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Similarly, Hegseth and his allies are likely to argue that attendance was voluntary, so no one was coerced into attending the event. But the details matter on this front, too: The Times report added that the Cabinet secretary encouraged the uniformed military personnel and civilian employees there to tell their co-workers about it.

The message hardly seemed subtle: Pentagon officials were notified that their boss was poised to lead a midday Christian prayer service  on the premises  and department personnel were invited.

Imagine being a Jewish service member, for example, hoping to stay on the secretarys good side, and perhaps even looking for an upcoming promotion, and the pressure that person felt when told about Hegseths invitation.

As for Potteiger, the pastor of Hegseths church in Tennessee, the Times quoted the reverends Trump-specific comments at the Pentagon.

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In his sermon, the pastor said, We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointed  for President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land. And we pray that you would continue to protect him, bless him, give him great wisdom. ... We pray that you would surround him with faithful counselors who fear your name and love your precepts.

For those concerned about the administration and the emergence of Christian nationalism, this was a step in an unsettling direction.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
LINTON, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)  A local organization that strives to spread generosity is holding an annual event next month.

Madis Hope Foundation was created in memory of Madi Moore who passed away after battling cancer. Tera Orman is Madis mother and the owner of the Linton Beauty College. She said the foundation creates personalized backpacks from donations of funds for children who are sick. The goal is to inspire hope.

Hopefully well be able to raise a lot of money this year to help several kids in our community and abroad that are battling sickness and well be able to help ease their burdens, said Orman.

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Madis Day of Hope helps bring awareness to the foundation. The event takes place June 7 from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Humphreys Park in Linton. This years event is carnival-themed and will feature vendors, live music, games and a fundraiser for the foundation. Entrance is free.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com.
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT)  Madisonville Community College (MCC) has recognized someone as the 2025 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award.

MCC says Tanya Bowman received her award during the colleges Spring Commencement Ceremony on May 9. A Hopkins County native, Bowman began her journey of service by volunteering at the Door of Hope Pregnancy Care Center, where she advanced to leadership roles and helped secure a $1 million federal grant. She eventually established the Plans 4U Youth Foundation in 2009, an organization she continues to lead to this day.

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MCC says after earning her degree in criminal justice, Bowman joined the Hopkins County Circuit Clerks Office in 2011. In 2018, she made history by becoming the first African American elected to a countywide office in Hopkins County and the first in Kentucky elected as a Circuit Court Clerk. Her achievements have been recognized nationwide, earning honors such as the Whitney M. Young Community Improvement Award, the Harriet Tubman Icon Award, and the Madisonville Lions Clubs 2023 Woman of the Year.

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Tanya represents the best of MCC  grit, focus and a desire to be of service to others. We are honored to recognize her for her accomplishments and thank her for her continued support of the college, said Dr. Cindy Kelley, President of Madisonville Community College.

Officials say beyond her professional work, Bowman has served the community as a Youth Pastor, jail chaplain and speaker at educational and civic events across Kentucky. She currently serves in leadership roles on multiple boards and committees. Bowman is the mother of six children, several godchildren and a grandmother to seven.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
The Supreme Courts recent ruling, which lifted the temporary ban imposed by a federal judge in California to protect 350,000 Venezuelans with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) while the trial over the programs elimination proceeds, has left thousands of migrants who fled Nicolas Maduros regime at risk of deportation.

The community is still digesting the news, which initially affects a third of the entire diaspora in the country, but could reach more than half if next July  as expected  the benefit is not renewed for the 250,000 Venezuelans who received TPS in 2021.

Adelys Ferro, director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, who has been leading the legal and moral defense of Venezuelans since Donald Trump returned to the White House, spoke by phone with EL PAIS about the consequences of the court ruling and the actions she and other diasporas will take from now on, amid fears this could mark the beginning of the end of TPS in the United States.

Question. In a social media post, you said that among all the bad things happening, this was the least bad. What did you mean by that?

Answer. The Supreme Court could have ruled that the California federal judge (Edward Chen) lacked jurisdiction to rule on the continuation of TPS or override Secretary [Kristi] Noems order. Had this occurred, it would have ended the possibility of the trial continuing. The problem is that the beneficiaries are left without protection until this entire legal process is completed.

Adelys Ferro in Doral, Florida, on February 3, 2025. Miami Herald (TNS)

Q. So right now the 350,000 affected Venezuelans are vulnerable to deportation.

A. Im going to answer this question as an activist, but lawyers would agree with me. As long as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website isnt updated, people will continue to have status, but the change will come at any moment (in fact, the update occurred Wednesday night). We need information, but what we fear is that thousands of people will be left without legal status and, with it, without work permits and without drivers licenses. We dont know if they will be sent a notice to leave the country, as already happened with the migrants who had humanitarian parole. We are waiting, but if someone were detained, they cannot be deported overnight; they will be able to fight their case in immigration court.

Q. You say the legal battle will continue in court. When might the final decision come?

A. The trial is ongoing, and were very hopeful of winning, but it could take months or years. Im not going to lie. Once we get the final verdict, there will be an appeals period, and the case could return to the Supreme Court. Thats why we filed the emergency motion in the federal court in California, so that the beneficiaries would be protected until a final decision was made, but sadly, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration.

Q. What actions will you take from now on?

A. We are coordinating with allied organizations and diasporas. We are going to apply pressure on the legislative front because Congress could change this, although it is quite difficult due to the composition of the House (with a Republican majority), but that doesnt mean we will stop trying. We are going to make a lot of noise in Washington, and we will use all the tools the Constitution gives us to defend our people. What is being done to Venezuelans is a great injustice.

Adelys Ferro in an image from her social media. RR.SS.

Q. Miami-Dades Democratic Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Dorals independent Mayor Christi Fraga spoke out against the decision.

A. Mayor Fraga expressed her concern, and we appreciate it, but she did so after signing an agreement with ICE to coordinate efforts and detain immigrants. Considering that 40% of that citys residents are Venezuelan, we will be the most harmed by her decision. For her part, Mayor Levine has been more consistent and has given us unconditional support. She has shown herself completely in favor of immigrants because we are a fundamental part of the city, especially Venezuelans. In any case, this is not a time for words. What hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan families are suffering cannot be fixed with statements; it can only be corrected with real actions and support. We know that the Trump administration will not respond to any of these requests, even those coming from within its own party, but we need them to demystify the matrix of opinion that has been created against us.

Q. What do you think the fate of TPS for the rest of the migrant communities will be?

A. This opens the door to something truly devastating: the elimination of TPS for all countries. Without a doubt, the other 16 countries with Temporary Protected Status need to join the fight because thats whats coming.

Q. What is your recommendation for the thousands of families who already have roots in the country and cannot return to Venezuela due to political persecution?

A. The struggle continues. Everyone who doesnt have other legal statuses should seek out an immigration lawyer to explore their options. Some may be able to apply for asylum, but each case is different. They need to seek advice.

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An immigration judge in Louisiana on Thursday denied a request to terminate Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalils deportation proceedings after his attorneys argued that he was arrested illegally and without a warrant over two months ago.

Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and lawful permanent resident who played a central role in negotiations on behalf of pro-Palestinian student protesters last year, has been in immigration custody since March. He has been detained indefinitely as an immigration judge previously upheld the Trump administrations decision to deport Khalil and a federal district judge has blocked his immediate removal from the country.

During the Thursday hearing, Judge Jamee Comans denied a government motion that would have prevented Khalil from raising an asylum claim, according to Khalils attorneys. Comans also denied motions by Khalils attorneys to postpone the hearing to a later date and to subpoena witnesses.

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After witnesses provided testimony and Khalil took the stand in his own defense, the lengthy hearing ended Thursday evening without a ruling from the judge.

Comans asked lawyers to submit written closing arguments by June 2. The judge then intends to rule on whether Khalil can be deported from the US and if hes entitled to any form of relief that would enable him to remain in the country, said Ramzi Kassem, an attorney for Khalil.

Khalil does not expect any due process from these immigration proceedings, his attorneys told CNN Thursday night.

The immigration judge is not an independent judge. Shes an employee of the Department of Justice. She serves at the pleasure of the President. Shes subject to political pressure by the government, Kassem said.

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Just before the immigration court hearing, the Syrian-born Palestinian refugee got to hold his newborn for the first time Thursday at the Louisiana detention center where he has been held, his attorneys told CNN.

Khalil, who hasnt been charged with a crime, is one of several foreign nationals the Trump administration has accused of posing a national security threat due to alleged ties to terrorist organizations  a claim his attorneys strongly dispute.

His attorneys on Thursday argued the government has engaged in egregious misconduct. The lawyers have challenged the legality of Khalils warrantless arrest and say he was targeted for his pro-Palestinian views.

Its an attempt, an unsuccessful attempt at that, to silence people who speak up in defense of Palestinian human rights, Kassem said. The government has presented no evidence in support of its baseless rhetoric.

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In response to CNNs request for comment on the hearing, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: Mahmoud Kahlil should use the CBP Home app to self-deport.

As other students are released, Khalils case drags on

Khalil was the first arrestee in the Trump administrations immigration crackdown targeting student activism. While the White House has backed off the cancellation of hundreds of student visas, Khalil missed the birth of his first son and his Columbia graduation due to his detainment.

Khalils detention has sparked protests across the country from supporters who believe his detention is a flagrant violation of core American values, including the protection of free speech.

In the 75 days since his arrest, at least three other international college students have been released from detention after weeks of legal action by their attorneys.

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Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi and Badar Khan Suri  all targeted for deportation by the Trump administration - challenged the legality of their detentions with flurries of motions and legal briefs in federal district courts. In every case, judges agreed to release them while their immigration court cases play out.

Khalils case, in contrast, has dragged on for months as a federal district court in New Jersey and an administrative immigration court in Jena, Louisiana, consider next steps.

This court has exhibited a worrying lack of independence and fairness towards the important questions regarding the unlawful detention and removal of Mr. Khalil, Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and one of Khalils attorneys, told CNN on Wednesday.

The governments strategy seems focused on delaying Khalils habeas proceedings, a basic legal process meant to play out in federal court in which a judge has the power to order his release, Khalils legal team said Wednesday.

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At the same time, the government is working to speed up proceedings of an immigration court within the Department of Justice where judges have limited independence, Khalils attorneys said.

Students are seen April 14 on the campus of Columbia University in New York. - Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images

There has been no reason that theyre rushing so fast except to try to get this case over before the federal court judge can do anything. Its been truly obvious, said Marc Van Der Hout, another lawyer for Khalil.

Khalils plight came up Wednesday during a commencement speech by acting Columbia President Claire Shipman, who was booed by graduates as she walked onto the stage.

I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate Mahmoud Khalil, Shipman said.

Decisive immigration hearing

During Thursdays immigration hearing, Khalils attorneys renewed their motion to terminate the deportation proceedings, arguing there has been egregious government misconduct, including with Khalils unlawful arrest without a warrant. The judge denied the motion.

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The renewed motion to terminate the case included new video evidence his lawyers say contradicts the governments claim that officers did not need a warrant for Khalils arrest because they believed he was a flight risk.

The footage shows Khalil made no apparent attempt to flee and did not refuse to cooperate with immigration officers who arrested him in the lobby of his building  a claim Justice Department attorneys have made in court. CNN exclusively reported on the never-before-seen video of the arrest this week.

We have now caught the government in three direct lies, some of them to the court, Van Der Hout said. CNN has reached out to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Khalils legal team also filed hundreds of pages of new evidence against his removal. The filings, obtained and reviewed by CNN, include declarations from Khalils professors and classmates  including Jewish students and academics  attest to his character, as well as expert declarations that Khalil is likely to be a target of a foreign government or be subject to dangerous persecution if he is deported from the US.

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Were going to get through as much testimony as we can in the morning, and were feeling quite confident that the evidence shows there is a likelihood that Mahmoud would be subjected to egregious harm, Johnny Sinodis, an immigration attorney for Khalil, told reporters Wednesday.

Khalils legal team has filed an application for asylum to prevent his removal. Justice Department attorneys have signaled their intention to block the application, citing concerns Khalil is a national security threat.

Khalils attorneys say they likely will appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals. Separately, a restraining order issued by a federal judge in New Jersey would prevent his removal until the federal case is resolved.

The Trump administration has relied on a rarely used portion of US immigration law to argue Khalil should be deported because his presence in the United States threatens the administrations foreign policy goal of combatting antisemitism.

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An immigration judge in April ruled Khalil could be deported after the government argued his presence posed potentially serious foreign policy consequences. His attorneys argue the governments evidence is insufficient and based solely on a letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that does not allege criminal activity. They contend Khalil is being targeted for his political speech, a First Amendment violation.

Judge intervenes after immigration officials denied contact visit with wife and newborn son

Khalils legal team and Abdalla earlier this week had been denied permission from ICE officials in Jena, Louisiana, for a contact visit with Khalil, his wife and their newborn son before Thursdays hearing. Officials cited a blanket policy against contact visits, his attorneys said.

After flying over a thousand miles to Louisiana with our newborn son, his very first flight, all so his father could finally hold him in his arms, ICE has denied us even this most basic human right, Abdalla said in a statement. This is not just heartless. It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse.

A federal district judge in New Jersey ordered immigration authorities to allow an in-person meeting before 10:30 a.m. CT Thursday among Khalil, his lawyers and his wife. The order does not require the facility to allow Khalils newborn son to attend, although a letter from his attorney said their wish for the meeting was so that he can hold his newborn child for the first time. The detention facility allowed the infant to be admitted, Khalils attorneys said.

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The facility and its officials may take reasonably necessary security measures, US District Judge Michael Farbiarz wrote in his order.

Khalil visited in person with his son, along with his US citizen wife and without attorneys.

This was Mr. Khalils first chance at holding his newborn child, who was born a month ago. And its really sad that we had to go to court to get that, Kassem told CNNs Boris Sanchez Thursday afternoon . Im sure that it was a bittersweet momentbecause they remain apart.

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May 21AUGUSTA  Health care providers who prescribe abortion pills may soon be able to remove their names from prescription labels  a move advocates say is necessary to protect providers' personal safety amid the heated political climate over abortion access.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, is aimed at protecting health care providers who say they have been threatened and harassed for facilitating abortions.

The bill narrowly cleared the House on a 74-71 vote Tuesday, with four members absent. It passed in the Senate, 19-13, without debate on Wednesday.

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Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, was unable to vote in the House because of her censure. But Libby, an abortion opponent, will be allowed to vote when the bill comes back, after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the House to restore her voting and speaking rights while her lawsuit is pending.

Additional votes in each chamber are needed before the bill can be sent to Gov. Janet Mills, who has not yet taken a position but has been supportive throughout her term of efforts to expand abortion access in the state and protect providers.

Cluchey said LD 538 came at the request of health care providers who have been harassed and stalked at work and at home after their personal information was posted online. She said her proposal is a "simple but essential bill" that would allow health care providers to list their clinics, rather than their names, on prescriptions for abortion pills such as mifepristone, misoprostol and their generic alternatives.

"This request comes directly from providers who are concerned for their own safety and the safety of their families," she said. "These health care providers have faced harassment through phone calls, text messages and online threats. Their personal information has been shared publicly to incite violence. They have been stalked, targeted with bomb threats and harassed in their homes."

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Opponents, however, argued that listing the prescribers' names is a way to ensure accountability and transparency in case someone is hurt by side effects of a prescription. Some wondered whether the proposal would cause clinics to be targeted.

While conceding the drugs could also be used to treat other conditions, Rep. Marygrace Caroline Cimino, R-Bridgton, said the main use is for abortions, especially in states that have strict limits or bans on abortions, and where patients rely on prescriptions from health care providers in other states that allow abortions and provide physicians with legal protections under so-called shield laws.

Cimino said the bill is aimed at protecting health care providers in Maine, which enacted a shield law last session, from being prosecuted in other states if they prescribe the drugs to out-of-state patients.

"The purpose of this bill is clear  to protect doctors from criminal prosecution when prescribing these (drugs) to patients in other states where abortion is restricted," Cimino said. "This bill provides an additional shield to doctors who willingly defy the laws of other states where abortion access is limited."

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Cimino said eight states have enacted similar laws since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned abortion protections under Roe v. Wade that had existed for five decades. New York passed a similar bill this year days after a New York physician was charged with prescribing abortion pills to a pregnant girl in Louisiana.

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May 21Maine's congressional delegation is urging the Commerce Department to reverse its freeze of nearly $35 million in grant funding intended to expand digital access for low-income and rural Mainers.

In a letter sent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and acting Administrator Adam Cassady Wednesday evening, the delegation noted that Maine is among the most rural states in the country, leaving its residents particularly vulnerable.

"Maine is especially affected by this decision, which will have an outsized impact on Maine families, small businesses and communities. The programs created by the grants would ensure access across Maine to the necessary technology and skills to participate in the digital economy," states the letter signed by Reps. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, and Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Sens. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Angus King, an independent.

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The letter comes about two weeks after President Donald Trump said his administration would terminate the Digital Equity Act, which allocated more than $2 billion to help states and territories develop and implement plans to expand internet access. The act was included in the bipartisan infrastructure law, which former President Joe Biden signed in 2021.

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Trump announced his intention in a post on his Truth Social platform May 8, in which he called the act "totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL" and charged that it is "RACIST and ILLEGAL."

The next day, the administration formally notified the Maine Connectivity Authority of the terminations. The authority, established in 2021, is the state office tasked with expanding broadband access and infrastructure throughout the state.

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Maine had already been approved for three different grants: $10 million to help expand internet and technology access throughout the state, including through a device donation program; $13.8 million to provide digital skills training, technical support and telehealth access; and $11 million that would offer tech and skills training to municipal governments, device programs and business support programs.

"This funding would serve more than 40,000 Mainers throughout the state who continue to face significant challenges in securing and maintaining internet connectivity," the delegation wrote. "This funding is essential in our state, where more than half of older residents, small businesses, veterans, low-income households, tribal communities and students are in rural areas."

Spokespeople for the Commerce Department did not return emails Wednesday night asking how its leadership responded to the letter.

Golden, Pingree, Collins and King all criticized the cut when it was first announced.

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In concluding this week's letter, they called Maine's allocated funding "a smart investment."

"Terminating these funds will increase the difficulties for individuals and families to use the internet to improve their lives and fully participate in an increasingly digital world," they wrote.

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Ben Jones, director of legal and policy initiatives for Lives in the Balance and former attorney for Disability Rights Maine, has been working with restraint and seclusion data for years. He testified at the State House on May 9, 2025, against legislation that would relax the rules around these controversial practices. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar / Maine Morning Star)

Maine students have been restrained and secluded more than 22,000 times a year in some years. But the real number of times educators put students in holds, move them against their will and shut them alone in small rooms is likely much higher.

Restraint and seclusion are widely condemned practices that create lasting trauma for students, their families and the educators involved. Thats why every use is supposed to be documented and reported to the state. But over the past decade, only 24 out of more than 250 private schools and public districts in Maine have consistently reported their numbers.

May 21: Restraint and seclusion are only supposed to be used on students in emergency situations. Accounts from families and educators show how districts interpretation of state law vary widely and how traumatic the experiences can be.

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May 22: State data reveals only a fraction of Maines schools and districts are consistently reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion in violation of state law. Even with the underreporting, Maine schools are relying on these practices thousands of times per year.

May 23: How one district worked with researchers to change its approach to student behavior and significantly reduced the use of restraint and seclusion

Maine law mandates annual reporting to the Maine Department of Education, however the department did not say whether there was any penalty for failing to report.

Maine law mandates annual reporting to the Maine Department of Education. However, according to Bear Shea, the departments restraint and seclusion specialist, Maine DOE has not been given statutory authority or mechanisms to enforce compliance.

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Rather, the department seems to operate under the assumption that a districts lack of reporting means schools didnt restrain or seclude any students that year.

It is possible that if a school district does not have any incidents of restraint and seclusion in a school year, they will not report any data, said Chloe Teboe, the department spokesperson, when asked about the dozens of districts that arent reporting every year, according to publicly available state data. The Maine DOE can only act on the data that is shared by school districts, as required by statute.

Atlee Reilly, managing attorney for the advocacy organization Disability Rights Maine, said its beyond unlikely that districts failing to report have not used restraint or seclusion.

Overall, reporting to the DOE has fallen off in recent years, Reilly told lawmakers on May 9 during discussion of a proposed bill that aims to relax the rules on restraint and seclusion. Many of the states largest districts and schools that historically reported frequent use of restraint and seclusion have stopped sharing their numbers in recent years, according to statewide data.

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I know that some schools that have historically reported high numbers of restraints havent reported, Reilly said. So does that mean that they, all of a sudden, are not restraining or secluding youth? I think probably not.

At least one school not reporting high use to state

A closer look at the Bangor Regional Program, a school for students with disabilities, reveals how restraint and seclusion practices can go unreported for years.

Bangor Public Schools is responsible for reporting its own numbers, as well as the data for the Bangor Regional Program, which serves students from several area districts. The state database includes numbers from the regional program for one of the past 10 years, after a 2019 investigation found the school had been restraining and secluding students thousands of times each year from 2015 to 2018, more than almost any other school in the state.

During the 2019-20 school year, the regional program used 261 restraints and 325 seclusions on 33 individual students. Internal data provided by Bangor schools to Maine Morning Star in response to a records request shows that in the following years, the program continued using these practices. In 2021-22, the school reported 419 total uses of restraint and seclusion. In 2022-23, use dropped to 187, and in 2023-24, increased to 281.

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None of these incidents were reported to the state, according to publicly available state data.

Though Bangor Public Schools reports its data every year, when asked why the regional programs numbers were not shared with the state, spokesperson Ray Phinney said he didnt know and couldnt find out due to recent changes in district leadership.

The superintendent who oversaw the submission of this is no longer with us, he said.

The DOE did not respond directly to questions about this schools lack of reporting, but the spokesperson said the department reports any data received from school districts and does not make a practice of not publishing it.

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Ben Jones, director of legal and policy initiatives for Lives in the Balance, a Maine-based nonprofit that works with schools to reduce restraint and seclusion, said its important for the department to explain what happens when schools like the regional program collect data but dont report it to the state.

We still dont have a true sense of the scope of using these dangerous practices, so this, to me, points the spotlight back at reporting and collecting, he said. So what more is DOE doing to ensure the completeness of the data, the completeness of this picture?

Few districts regularly report data

This underreporting casts doubt on the apparent progress Maine has made in relying less on these practices in the wake of a 2021 law, which specified restraint and seclusion should only be used in emergency situations.

The law was intended to reduce the use of emergency behavioral interventions that are known to be traumatic  particularly for students with disabilities, who are disproportionately affected.

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Its very difficult to tell if the numbers went down or up after the law change because of underreporting, Jones said.

In the 2022-23 school year, Maine schools reported 44% fewer incidents of restraint and seclusion in schools than it did four years earlier. But only 140 of Maines 300-plus school administrative units submitted their data for that school year. In 2018-19, that number was 213.

I don't want anyone to think that people in schools are just wanting to put hands on kids. Because it's traumatic, it's not good. However, there are times, when for the safety of an individual student or others around that individual, it becomes necessary to restrain or seclude.

 MSAD 6 Superintendent Clay Gleason

Only 24 districts have submitted restraint and seclusion data every year for the last decade, a Maine Morning Star analysis found.

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Together, they represent fewer than one-quarter of Maines roughly 170,000 K-12 students. Only two of the states 10 largest districts, Bangor and Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 6 in the Buxton area, are among them.

In the 2018-19 school year, MSAD 6 staff reported restraining students 150 times and placing them in rooms by themselves 256 times.

By 2022-23, MSAD 6s use of those tactics, especially seclusions, had dropped considerably. District staff that year reported restraining students 100 times and placing them in seclusion rooms 132 times.

That districts reliance on restraint and seclusion roughly matches the trend statewide over that period. Across Maine, use of restraint and seclusion peaked in the 2018-19 year at more than 22,000 reported uses, according to the available state data. After passage of the 2021 law restricting their use to instances when a students behavior poses an imminent danger of serious injury, overall incidents fell to just under 12,600 in the 2022-23 school year  a 44% drop.

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I dont want anyone to think that people in schools are just wanting to put hands on kids. Because its traumatic, its not good, said MSAD 6 Superintendent Clay Gleason. However, there are times, when for the safety of an individual student or others around that individual, it becomes necessary to restrain or seclude.

Numbers still high despite underreporting

Despite inconsistent reporting, its clear many Maine districts still rely on these practices thousands of times a year. In 2021, data reported directly by schools to the federal government showed that Maine ranked first and second in restraining and secluding students, respectively, per capita. According to an analysis of the most recent national numbers, the state fell to third and fourth per capita.

These are still extremely high numbers, said Jones with Lives in the Balance. Each one of these is a kid being grabbed or put into a closet, and then theres probably more of it going on based on what we know.

The number of reported restraints and seclusions vary widely from district to district, noted Alan Cobo-Lewis, director of the Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies and associate professor of Psychology at the University of Maine.

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Some districts have reported zero incidents for many years, and others like those in the Buxton-area, report large numbers. But whether theyre model programs, or whether theyre just not reporting their restraints, I dont think that you can know that without actually visiting schools, Cobo-Lewis said.

I have advocated for a while for the department to visit the schools that had high rates and also visit the schools that had zero, he said.

While the federal government collects this data from districts, there is no federal oversight, and every state has different laws about restraint and seclusion. Some members of Congress have proposed a federal ban on school use of restraint and seclusion, with the most recent legislation introduced in 2023.

The proposal currently before Maine lawmakers would allow districts to move students against their will without reporting it as a restraint and would allow educators more flexibility in determining when they use these practices by decreasing the level of danger posed by a students behavior from serious physical injury to just injury.

Both Jones and Reilly of Disability Rights Maine worry that if the bill passes, schools will no longer have to report incidents where staff move students against their will into classrooms and quiet rooms. That would mean the statewide data on the number of restraints could drop.

What were going to do is take a whole class of stuff  like the physical management of students that I think most people would look at and say, that childs being restrained  and say its no longer restraint, Reilly said.

He added, It doesnt mean that people are going to be putting their hands on kids less.

From 2014 to 2023, school units reported 55 serious bodily injuries to students and 594 to staff members related to the use of a restraint or seclusion, according to publicly available data. In recent years, the number of students injured while being restrained and secluded has increased, with 22 of those 55 instances reported in the 2022-23 school year, all reported by Biddeford Schools. The southern coastal district did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Most years, the vast majority of districts reported zero injuries.

MSAD 6 in Buxton is one of the only districts that has reported staff and student injuries to the department every year, but Gleason said he did not recall any serious incidents, and did not know what criteria was used by staff who filled out forms.

There are minor injuries that happen to both staff and students, sometimes with somebody getting a little rug burn or bumping into a desk or something, he said, explaining the typical ways staff or students might get injured during a restraint or seclusion.

But I dont know if its a standard kind of thing across districts and how they report it, or if its like an internal measure, he added.

According to state law, school units would not report injuries that do not meet the definition of serious physical injury, according to Shea, the departments restraint and seclusion specialist. But in practice, I have talked with many schools and there is a wide range of ways that [school administrative units] choose to report injuries with some tending to report even more minor injuries, he said.

While the department collects injury data, there is no statewide policy about what districts should do in response to student or staff injuries.

Majority of reports from schools for students with disabilities

When public school districts determine they cant adequately serve a student with disabilities, some of them are referred to special purpose private schools. Although these schools still receive public funding, Jones said the programs are often insulated from scrutiny.

Having sat through dozens of those placement meetings, Jones said the students parents and advocates are hoping that a move would increase support for the child, but thats not always the case.

Pointing to the high number of reported incidents, Jones said these schools can often be hotbeds for the inappropriate use of restraint and seclusion.

Over the past decade, Maines special purpose private schools have accounted for roughly 57% of all uses of restraint and seclusion in the state each year, going up to almost 70% in 2019-20, when the state saw the most incidents in a decade.

Though the data from these schools havent been consistently included in the states annual data, students with disabilities in Maine and nationwide are much more likely to be subject to these practices.

Maines special purpose private schools served roughly 850 students in 2022-23 but accounted for 58% of all 7,975 restraints in the state, according to a Maine Morning Star analysis. That same year, they also accounted for about 47% of all seclusions in Maine: 2,154 of 4,618 incidents.

The Margaret Murphy Centers for Children, a special purpose private school with campuses in Auburn, Lewiston, Saco and Turner, has topped the states list for seclusion every year since 2014-15; it has also restrained students more than any other school every year since 2017-18, state data shows.

The centers used these practices more than 11,000 times on just 108 students in 2019-20, according to the state data from 2023.

There is no state law restricting an educator from using these practices repeatedly on a particular child. And unless a parent complains and requests a district try a new approach, there is no statewide process for addressing the frequency of incidents.

Margaret Murphy Senior Director Michelle Hathaway attributed those numbers to the severity of the student populations needs. The school exclusively serves children and young adults (up to age 22) with significant behavioral and developmental challenges, many of whom are referred to the school specifically because of the intensity or dangerousness of their behaviors, she said.

They sometimes display aggression  including attempts to hit, choke, or rip out hair  that can pose serious safety risks to themselves or others.

Hathaway wrote in an email that restraints are only used as a last resort but argued the law leaves room for interpretation and that ambiguity means some schools may over-document and over-report.

For example, she said a staff member holding a 3-year-olds hand to prevent them from running into a parking lot could technically, under current law, be considered a restraint.

But repeatedly using restraint and seclusion on a small number of students should be a red flag that something is not working, Jones said.

Of course emergency situations will arise, but after the first few uses of restraint or seclusion, we are no longer talking about emergencies, he said. We are talking about predictable behavior that can be planned for, trained for.

The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalisms National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being.

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MADISON  Republicans in Congress are pursuing major cuts to Medicaid that could cause tens of thousands of Wisconsin's poorest residents to lose BadgerCare Plus coverage.

The U.S. House passed a Republican bill early on May 22 that would slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, part of broader spending reductions to help pay for President Donald Trump's priorities on tax cuts and border security.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which plans to make changes.

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While far-right House Republicans pushed for even deeper cuts to Medicaid, more moderate GOP members sought to protect the bulk of the program. Some provisions that would have made significant structural changes to Medicaid never made it into the bill.

For months, Democrats have been warning of Republican plans to slash Medicaid, saying it will throw millions of Americans off their health coverage.

Republicans have cast their efforts as refocusing the program on the most vulnerable and rooting out waste and fraud.

Here's what you need to know.

What is Medicaid?

Medicaid is a joint program run by states and the federal government that primarily covers medical care for people in poverty.

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Each state runs its program, though they are subject to federal rules. Eligibility and benefits vary from state to state for that reason.

Medicaid also offers some benefits that Medicare, the health insurance program that covers people 65 and older, does not, such as nursing home care and personal care services.

People who use Medicaid typically don't pay for covered medical expenses, but could still owe co-payments for some services, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website says.

What programs fall under Medicaid in Wisconsin?

The largest Medicaid program in Wisconsin is BadgerCare Plus, which covers nearly 900,000 people, about half of them children. Most adults on BadgerCare Plus make less than the poverty level, or $15,650 for an individual.

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BadgerCare Plus also covers people during pregnancy and the postpartum period who have incomes less than three times the poverty level.

The program covers things like checkups, immunizations, prenatal care, and other doctor visits. In addition, the program covers hospital care, prescription drugs, rehabilitation services, lab visits and X-rays, and vision care, like glasses.

Other Medicaid programs include Family Care and IRIS, which cover long-term care  including adult day care and personal care workers  for people with disabilities and frail seniors. Those programs help people who may struggle with getting out of bed, dressing, feeding themselves or showering live as independently as possible in their own homes and communities.

Another is the Katie Beckett program, which covers medical and long-term care for children with disabilities.

How many people use it, and how much does it cost?

In Wisconsin, about one in five residents is enrolled in a Medicaid program.

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Together, the programs in Wisconsin cost more than $12 billion to run each year. Federal taxpayers pick up more than half of Wisconsin's Medicaid expenses. For most Medicaid services, for every 40 cents in state dollars spent, the federal government pays 60 cents.

Medicaid is funded by state and federal tax dollars. In Wisconsin, it is also funded to a lesser degree by revenue from taxes on hospitals and nursing homes, rebates from drug makers and other sources.

What's going on federally with the program?

The exact changes to Medicaid planned by Republicans on Capitol Hill remain up in the air as the party irons out internal disagreements over its tax and budget megabill that President Donald Trump is pushing Republicans to pass. While the House passed its version of Trump's budget bill this week, the Senate is likely to change it.

Under the bill passed by the House, however, able-bodied adults without dependents would be required to show that they are working, doing community service or participating in an educational program for at least 80 hours a month.

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The work requirements affect Wisconsin, the District of Columbia and the 40 states that have adopted Medicaid expansion, according to the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The changes would go into effect by the end of 2026, a timeline that was sped up after some House conservatives pushed for the requirements to go into effect sooner. The bill originally called for work requirements to start in 2029.

If passed, the measures would present recipients with more barriers to remaining covered and could result in millions of Americans losing coverage. Under the original bill, the House GOP's Medicaid provisions are expected to reduce spending by $625 billion but cause 7.6 million people to be uninsured by 2034, according to preliminary estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Those numbers, though, could change after Republicans moved up the work requirement timetable.

Republicans have also discussed whether to change how the federal government and states share costs for Medicaid, though Speaker Mike Johnson recently said he was ruling out such changes.

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Some far-right House Republicans pushed for even deeper cuts to Medicaid, but Trump warned them not to touch Medicaid further and urged them to get behind Republican House leadership and back the bill.

More: Ron Johnson says Republican budget doesn't cut enough spending, wants Medicaid on the table

Previous proposals to cap federal Medicaid funding at a per-person limit, which would have had more devastating consequences on Wisconsin's Medicaid program, never made it into the House bill.

How could the changes impact Wisconsin?

If the House bill ultimately becomes law, tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients in Wisconsin could lose coverage.

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The biggest impact would come from work requirements included in the bill.

In Wisconsin, the work requirements would apply to childless adults under 65 on BadgerCare Plus, with exemptions for people with disabilities, substance use disorder and "complex medical conditions."

In April, before the House bill was unveiled, Wisconsin health officials estimated about 52,000 childless adults would be at high risk of losing their eligibility for Medicaid under potential work requirements. That number is likely higher under the House bill, since its work requirements would apply to a wider age range of people than Wisconsin officials guessed.

Democrats on a joint Congressional committee estimated as many as 147,000 Wisconsinites could lose Medicaid coverage by 2034.

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Questions remain about how the exemptions would be implemented. It likely would vary from state to state how officials would flag people for exemptions, said Robin Rudowitz, vice president at KFF, a nonprofit health research institute, and director of KFF's Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

The bill also would limit how states raise money for their Medicaid programs through what are called "provider taxes," or taxes on hospitals and nursing homes.

Like other states, Wisconsin uses its provider tax revenue to draw down extra matching dollars from the federal government. It pays the money back to hospitals and nursing homes to supplement the reimbursements they receive for care provided to Medicaid patients.

Under the GOP legislation, the state would be prohibited from implementing any new provider taxes on hospitals and nursing homes or increasing existing tax rates on those providers, said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health policy and data at KFF.

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That could lead to "tough choices" for states, Rudowitz said.

"Faced with less access to federal dollars, states might make decisions about making other restrictions to their Medicaid programs that could include eliminating optional benefits," she said.

While some states rely heavily on provider taxes, Wisconsin only uses that revenue for a small percentage of its Medicaid expenses.

Eric Borgerding, president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association, a trade group, said the GOP budget bill will have severe and unfair consequences for Wisconsin health care, arguing its changes to Medicaid would hurt Wisconsinites.

In a Wisconsin State Journal column, Borgerding said Wisconsin, which has not expanded Medicaid, is already among states that receive the least federal support for the program.

He noted Wisconsin hospitals receive a low reimbursement rate for Medicaid and said the bill would likely lower that reimbursement rate.

Adequate and fair Medicaid funding is a critical component of sustaining many services that only Wisconsins nonprofit hospitals step up to deliver. But in the effort to find health care spending cuts in Washington, D.C., Congress is forcing Wisconsin to bear an unequal share, Borgerding wrote.

Our congressional delegation must work now to remedy these glaring inequities that unfairly punish our state, he wrote

What about those Medicaid expansions we hear about all the time?

Gov. Tony Evers again proposed an expansion of Medicaid in his most recent budget proposal earlier this year, as he has in past budget cycles.

In his proposal, Evers wanted to expand coverage to another 95,800 low-income residents, according to DHS, by expanding eligibility to people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty threshold. DHS estimated that Evers' proposal would save the state about $1.9 billion over the next two years.

Most of that savings would be in one-time bonus payments worth around $1.3 billion that the state would receive from the federal government over two years, under a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act meant to give hold-out states an incentive to fully expand Medicaid.

A provision in the House bill would sunset those one-time bonus payments at the end of the year.

Wisconsin is one of only 10 states that has not opted to fully expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

In 2014, the state partially expanded Medicaid by covering childless adults making less than the poverty level. But the state stopped short of expanding to the level that would qualify it for extra federal money available through the Affordable Care Act, making Wisconsin the only state in the country to take that route.

Republicans, who control the state Legislature, are unlikely to approve a full expansion in this year's budget.

Republicans have indicated some support for a measure that would allow mothers to remain on Medicaid for one year after giving birth to their new baby.

The state Senate voted to approve the measure in April, but the bill may face pushback in the Assembly, as Speaker Robin Vos has indicated he does not believe more people need to be on Medicaid in Wisconsin.

In April, after the Senate vote, he said he would likely not support the measure, but left open the idea that it could be called for a vote on the floor.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X @SchulteLaura.

Sarah Volpenhein can be reached at svolpenhei@gannett.com or 414-607-2159. Follow her on X @SarahVolp.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Big changes could be coming to BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid. What to know
A 27-year-old man from San Bernardino County has been arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of a man and a woman earlier this week.

The circumstances surrounding the violence are limited, but according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department, the incident unfolded on May 20 just before 7 p.m.

Deputies responded to the 18800 block of Madrone Street in Hesperia where they found a 60-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman lying in the driveway of a home suffering from gunshot wounds.

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The male victim, identified as Carlos Gonzales, was declared dead at the scene, while the female victim was rushed to the hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries, officials said.

Authorities said they identified Hesperia resident Christian Armstrong as the suspect in the fatal shootings.

Hordes of food delivery drivers wreaking havoc on L.A. neighborhood

Deputies with the Victor Valley station located Armstrong in Apple Valley and took him into custody, the release stated.

Detectives with SBSDs Specialized Investigations Division, Homicide Detail, have assumed the case.

Authorities did not provide a possible motive for the incident, nor was any information provided on the relationship between the man, woman and the suspect.

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The female victims identity is pending notification of next of kin.

Anyone with information about this incident is urged to contact SBSD Det. Eric Rebollar with the Specialized Investigations Division at 909-890-4904. Those wishing to remain anonymous can contact the WeTip Hotline at 800-78CRIME or leave tips online at www.wetip.com.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Man accused of killing 2 staff members of Israeli Embassy in DC charged with murder of foreign officials, other crimes.
VANDERBURGH COUNTY, Ind. (WEHT)  It was just before 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon when neighbors on North Saint Joseph Avenue say the quietness of their street was disrupted by a sudden blast.

The whole front of her is redshes screaming, says the 911 caller.

Gas leak evacuates building on east side of Evansville

There was a loud explosion, and theres a lady running around in the backyard screaming. There was like a haze near the garage, but theres no smoke, says the 911 Caller.

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The caller was asked to speak directly to the injured woman if she could.

If youre not comfortable, its okay, says the 911 operator.

Okay. Yeah.theres some illegal stuff going on, says the 911 caller.

Deputies and fire crews arrived on scene to find a 32-year-old woman suffering from serious burns in visible distress.

Her boyfriend , 40-year-old Zachary Simmons , was arrested and a young child was removed from the home by the Department of Child Services.

Documents say the injured woman screamed the hand sanitizer blew up before being airlifted to a burn center for emergency treatment, Deputies say it looked like hand sanitizer was used to ignite cardboard for a backyard campfire.

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The bomb squad, and Indiana State Fire Marshal shut down the street for hours.

Deputies encountered some what we would categorize as suspicious items inside the home. We backed out immediately, and then cordoned off an area and attempted to get everyone in the area evacuated. Most residents complied until we could make sure the scene was safe, says Sheriff Noah Robinson of the Vanderburgh County Sheriffs Office.



A search warrant lead to the discovery of marijuana, methamphetamine and smoking pipes. Officials say the items were in reach of a child living in the home, as well as rotten food items covered in mold.

A suspicious device was found, but later ruled not a threat.

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Nearby responders discovered a partially burned blue tote, still warm to the touch, filled with a dirt-like substance. A melted chemical container and a rubber hose were also found in the area.



Homegrown meth kind of lost its appeal and heyday in the late 2000s. Evansville still does have a severe meth problem, but [it] typically comes from the south of the border or other places. I dont know it to be the case in this instance, but we are seeing some signs of suspicious items, says Sheriff Robinson.

Authorities say no explosives or drug producing materials were located at the scene, but the investigation into what caused the explosion is still ongoing

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
A Farmington man was arrested Tuesday after police say he made online threats against Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and then showed up at Salt Lake City Hall after being questioned about it.

Jason Guy Rogers, 44, was arrested for investigation of electronic communication harassment and stalking, per a jail report. He was booked into the Davis County Jail but has since been released, according to jail records.

The mayors office is monitoring the situation and appreciates the swift and professional investigation by the Salt Lake City and Farmington police departments, Andrew Wittenberg, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Mayors Office, said in a statement to KSL.com.

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The investigation began shortly after May 6, when Mendenhall proposed three new city flag designs to bypass a new state law that directs which types of flags government entities can fly. The new flags use the sego lily from the primary city flag on new flags representing the LGBTQ communities and Juneteenth celebrations.

Members of the Salt Lake City Council quickly adopted the measure, codifying the change on the eve of HB77 going into law, which would have otherwise barred the city from flying all three flags.

Salt Lake City police began a coordinated investigation with the Salt Lake County District Attorneys Office, Farmington Police Department, Davis County District Attorneys Office and Statewide Information and Analysis Center after coming across alleged threats made against Mendenhall, said Brent Weisberg, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Police Department.

The posts, which were first made on the social media platform X on May 9, were sent by an account traced back to Rogers, Farmington police wrote in an affidavit.

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When you see her and her family, end them immediately. Utah will rise up, one of the posts read, along with a blood drop and a face with crossed-out eyes emojis. Other posts also referenced threats, police wrote in the report.

While the mayor last posted on X in December, police said she still has direct access to see messages on the account. The police report says a Farmington officer contacted Rogers on Tuesday, and Rogers said he did make comments about being upset over the changing of the flag proposal.

However, he denied making any comments that would indicate he threatened anybody. He told me he believed his account must have been hacked when those specific comments were made, the report states.

An hour later, the account linked to Rogers responded time for action to another post from the mayors account, the report states. Farmington police said that they were informed a truck identified as Rogers vehicle through a license plate-reader system had pulled up to the mayors place of work. The driver attempted to enter the building through its locked side doors before trying to enter through the main entrance.

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Security personnel made eye contact with (the man) from inside; (he) turned around and walked to his truck. He then drove from the area, the report stated.

The Salt Lake City Mayors Office confirmed to KSL.com that the man was spotted by Salt Lake City police and by city security staff, both of whom are stationed at the Salt Lake City-County Building. Officials said the incident occurred before the Salt Lake City Council convened Tuesday afternoon for meetings often attended by the mayor.

Salt Lake Citys Violent Criminal Apprehension Team located Rogers and arrested him shortly after, Weisberg said. He was transferred to Farmington police, who booked him into Davis County Jail.

Were grateful to our officers, detectives, victim advocates and law enforcement partners for their support and collaboration as this case developed, he said in a statement, adding that the incident remains under investigation.

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Wittenberg said the mayors office will not release any additional information about the case out of respect for the investigative and judicial processes.

It wasnt immediately clear if Rogers had obtained legal representation.
LEBANON, Tenn. (WKRN)  Officers with the Lebanon Police Department are investigating after gunshots were reported near a Lebanon Housing Authority property.

According to the LPD, officers responded to Upton Heights Tuesday night after receiving multiple calls from citizens regarding gunshots. When they arrived, the discovered a man lying in front of the Lebanon Housing Authority office with a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

CRIME TRACKER | Read the latest crime-related reports from across Middle Tennessee

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Officers rendered aid to the man until other first responders arrived on the scene before he was transported to a nearby hospital in serious condition. At the same time, officers and a deputy with the Wilson County Sheriffs Office detained a suspect at the scene, according to LPD.

Through their investigation, Lebanon detectives arrested and charged a 26-year-old Lebanon man with aggravated assault.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Further details were not immediately released. The investigation remains ongoing, per LPD.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
The Trump administration revoked Harvard Universitys authority to admit new international students on Thursday. The decision, which also threatens the visa status of current students studying there under special visas, marks an escalation in the U.S. governments attacks against the prestigious educational institution  the oldest in the country  which has already faced significant funding freezes since the Republicans return to the White House due to its refusal to comply with his ideological demands.

The news was first reported by The New York Times and later confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Its Secretary, Kristi Noem, sent a letter shared on X (formerly Twitter), warning academic authorities of the immediate revocation of Harvard Universitys Student Exchange Program. This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status, a DHS press release clarified afterward.

Students, faculty and members of the Harvard University community rally, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. Charles Krupa (AP)

Harvard, which has stood up to Trumps attacks, responded on Thursday to the administrations revocation, calling the action unlawful. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably, a spokesperson said in another statement.

It is expected that Harvards authorities will challenge the decision in court. Last month, the university also went to court to oppose the governments attempts to curtail its academic freedom.

The measure  affecting around 6,800 people, approximately 27% of the student body  is part of the ongoing standoff between Harvard and DHS. The department requested confidential information from the university about its foreign students, claiming many of them are agitators.

The DHS release also claimed that Harvards leadership has facilitated, and engaged in coordinated activity with the Chinese Communist Party, including hosting and training members of a Chinese Communist Party paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide.

Protest inside the university campus. Nicholas Pfosi (REUTERS)

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, said Secretary Noem. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.

This latest conflict dates back to mid-April, when Noem threatened Harvard with this measure if the university did not agree to share relevant information about all students in the U.S. on student visas who had been involved in known illegal or dangerous activities.

A 72-hour deadline

On Thursday, Noem warned that in order to regain the authority to enrol exchange students, the university must submit the information demanded by DHS within 72 hours. This includes video or audio recordings that could help identify individuals who participated in protests on Harvards campus in Cambridge, the city adjacent to Boston.

The Trump administration previously detained, revoked visas, and ordered the expulsion of several international students for participating in pro-Palestinian protests on campuses nationwide last academic year.

One week ago, the White House announced a cut of $450 million in federal grants to Harvard from eight agencies. This decision came nearly a month after another $2.2 billion funding freeze imposed by the U.S. government.

Trump accompanied the $2.2 billion funding freeze announced on April 15 with a threat to revoke Harvards tax-exempt status, citing the universitys refusal  unlike Columbia University  to comply with his administrations demands to address alleged antisemitism on campus. Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST! the U.S. president wrote in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Harvard President Alan Garber responded at the time in a message to the university community, arguing that the White Houses demands jeopardized academic freedom. [The administration] makes clear that the intention is not to work with us to address antisemitism in a cooperative and constructive manner, Garber wrote on Harvards website. Although some of the demands outlined by the government are aimed at combating antisemitism, the majority represent direct governmental regulation of the intellectual conditions at Harvard.

Beyond these financial threats, Harvard is also facing other fronts in the Trump administrations offensive. The university is accused of possible civil rights violations in its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, and of alleged discrimination by the prestigious Harvard Law Review. According to the administration, the student-run journal selects its authors and content based on so-called woke motivations  an ongoing fixation of Trumpism.

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Man arrested after teen shot, killed in Greensboro on Tillman Avenue, police say

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP)  A man was arrested on Wednesday in connection to the shooting death of a teen in 2023, according to a Greensboro Police Department news release.

Zaire Kymon Williams, 21, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Williams was wanted by the GPDs homicide unit detectives for his role in the homicide of 17-year-old Albert Sawbo Diabe, Jr.

Diabe was found shot on the night of Sept. 3, 2023, in the 2200 block of Tillman Avenue in Greensboro and taken to a hospital.

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He died in the early morning hours of Sept. 4, 2023.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP.
A Gary man avoided prison in a plea deal for a drunken head-on crash on a highway ramp.

John Blackwell III, 30, formerly of Hobart, pleaded guilty in March to causing serious bodily injury when operating a vehicle, a Level 5 felony.

Judge Natalie Bokota sentenced him Wednesday to two years in the Lake County Community Corrections program, one year on probation and ordered him to pay $40,000 in restitution.

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Blackwell was driving on the ramp for some time in the wrong direction, Deputy Prosecutor Lindsay Lanham said Wednesday. At the time, he was on bond for an operating while intoxicated case in Hobart city court.

The woman was left injured, losing her job and apartment after the crash, lawyers said.

Defense lawyer Russell Brown said his client had made tremendous progress over time and had no ankle monitor violations.

Blackwell apologized in court and said he understood the gravity of what happened, but couldnt be summed up by one bad decision.

Bokota told Blackwell, a waiter, that probation could help him get a better-paying job.

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Indiana State Police responded at 3:39 a.m. Feb. 13, 2023 for a head-on crash at I-65 north on the I-80/94 east exit ramp.

Blackwell was driving the wrong way on the exit ramp, according to the affidavit.

His Dodge Dart hit a black Impala that got rear-ended by a red Nissan Sentra.

The woman in an Impala said she was on the ramp to I-80/94 when she saw a pair of headlights coming straight at her. She swerved right and the other car followed her and slammed head-on into her.

The woman was taken to the hospital, then a Chicago hospital with a fractured leg and two fractured ankles. She also had a bruised chest, lungs and a chest hematoma, or bleeding.

The man in the Sentra was not hurt.

mcolias@post-trib.com
BROWNWOOD, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  A man convicted of burglary of a habitation in Brown County has been sentenced to life in prison.

After a contested hearing, Israel Cintron-Rivera was sentenced to life imprisonment and will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years.

A district attorney presented evidence that Cintron-Rivera violated his probation, issued in 2023, both within and outside of the jail. He committed another burglary offense while on probation and then several assaults while in the Brown County Jail.

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Cintron-Rivera argues that his mental health issues justified his actions. However, documents indicate that he did not attend counseling as required by the terms of his probation. Additionally, a district attorney presented evidence that Cintron-Rivera had planned these attacks on officers and jailers.

If Cintron-Rivera is released on patrol, he must register as a lifetime sex offender.

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ST. LOUIS  A man arrested in north St. Louis for allegedly violating curfew and stealing copper wire appeared in court on Wednesday.

According to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Departments probable cause statement, the theft happened in the overnight hours on Tuesday, May 20, at the intersection of Lambdin and East Labadie avenues, in the citys Greater Ville neighborhood.

Officers responded to reports of a suspicious person cutting wire at the intersection. One officer at the scene said he arrived to find Kevin L. Howard, 62, with tools in his hands and tampering with a downed power line.

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Police said Howard told the officers that Ameren Missouri allowed him to scrap the wire. Police contacted an Ameren representative, who confirmed the utility company does not allow citizens to tamper with or scrap any downed wires. Howard was then taken into custody.

The St. Louis Circuit Attorneys Office charged Howard with stealing  $750 or more and first-degree property damage. Howard was released Wednesday on personal recognizance. He was ordered to appear in court on Friday, June 20, for a hearing.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH)  A man who was charged for his role in a 2024 mass shooting in the Short North was sentenced Tuesday to community control.

Michael Duane Wright Jr. pleaded guilty to charges of tampering with evidence and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, according to court records.

The charges were in connection with a June 2024 shooting in the Short North that injured 10 people. Wright was arrested by U.S. Marshals about a month later. Watch previous coverage in the player above.

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Police identify man killed by officer in northeast Columbus

Wright was sentenced to 36 months of community control on each charge. The sentences will run concurrently. He would be eligible for a reduced sentence after 24 months.

Wright must also complete cognitive behavioral programming, behavioral health assessments, submit to random urine screens, and must not be charged with any new crimes or be convicted of another crime.

If Wright violates the community control, he would face prison time.

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ST. LOUIS  A man was taken into custody early Thursday morning after ending up in the Mississippi River following an overnight police chase in north St. Louis.

According to the St. Louis County Police Department, the pursuit began around 1:30 a.m. on eastbound I-70 near the Blanchette Bridge in Earth City, involving a suspect in a Chevy S-10 pickup truck.

The pursuit began after officers attempted to pull over the pickup truck, but the vehicle instead took off. According to police, the chase went over the Chain of Rocks Bridge into Illinois and came back over the bridge back to Missouri.

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According to police, when the suspect came back around to the bridge after reentering Missouri, the suspect reportedly got out of the pickup truck and either fell or jumped off the bridge into the Mississippi River.

There was a large police presence on the scene as authorities had completely shut down the Chain of Rocks Bridge while searching for the suspect. The St. Louis Fire Department used boats for the search, according to police, before authorities eventually located the suspect at a water treatment plant in Riverview.

The suspect was taken into custody and transported to a nearby hospital, suffering from non-life-threatening injuries. According to police, no officers were injured during the pursuit.

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Video footage shows a man, identified as Ashiq Hussein, 53, falling from a fire rescue ladder as he was trying to escape from a burning apartment building in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In a statement to PEOPLE, the FDNY said it began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Hussein's death

Family and friends remembered Hussein as a hard-working immigrant and father from Pakistan







A man fell to his death after a rescue ladder reportedly retracted as he was evacuating from an apartment building in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Sunset Park.

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In an email to PEOPLE, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said authorities received a call around 7 a.m., local time, on Monday, May 19, about a fire at a mixed-use building on 3902 9th Ave.

The blaze occurred on the second floor of the building and was under control by fire crews about an hour later, said the FDNY.

The New York Daily News and the New York Post shared video footage from the scene that shows the man trying to evacuate from his apartment on the building's third floor through an FDNY ladder.

The man, later identified by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) as Ashiq Hussein, 53, reportedly placed his left foot on the ladders top rung when it unexpectedly retracted, sending him to fall first on the awning of a bodega and then on the sidewalk.

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The NYPD told PEOPLE in an email that Hussein was taken to Maimonides Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

The citys medical examiner said Hussein died as a result of blunt-force injuries to his head and torso following the fall, per the Daily News.

According to the newspaper, family and friends remembered Hussein as an immigrant in Pakistan who worked as a taxi driver to help pay for his children's education back in his homeland.

He just wanted them to be successful and be able to contribute toward not just their own family but also toward humanity in some way, a friend of Hussein told the Daily News. He was an awesome dad  Its a loss that I dont think anyone is going to get over any time soon.

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Hussein was living in the apartment with two other roommates. He was expecting his wife, his three daughters and his son to join him in New York after years of separation, said the friend, who chose to remain anonymous.

The FDNY provided a statement to PEOPLE about Husseins death, writing: We are aware of an incident that took place at an all-hands fire in Brooklyn earlier this week. As is standard practice, we began a proactive investigation of the facts and circumstances. surrounding the tragic death of a civilian immediately, inclusive of our Fire Marshals, Fire Operations, and our Division of Safety.

The NYPD said that two other people were treated on scene for smoke inhalation and a firefighter sustained a leg injury but was in stable condition. They added that the fire marshal will determine the cause of the fire and the investigation is active and ongoing.

Meanwhile, the fire ladder involved in the incident was taken out of service.

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An engaged couple died just hours apart in separate car crashes in Louisiana on Friday, May 16

Police responded to Alexus Lee's single-vehicle collision in East Baton Rouge Parish just after 2:00 a.m, and later responded to John "JR" Collins' single-vehicle collision in East Feliciana Parish shortly before 3:45 a.m.

Collins was on his way to the crash scene of his fiancee when his car struck a tree, according to a local media report







A husband and wife to-be have died just hours apart after being involved in separate car collisions.

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According to local media outlet WAFB, 25-year-old Alexus Lee and 35-year-old John JR Collins had just bought a new house and were set to tie the knot in February 2026 before they died overnight on Friday, May 16, in Louisiana.

In a news release shared by the Louisiana State Police, released May 16, officials confirmed that they attended to two separate fatal crashes on LA 67 in two different parishes.

They added that Lees crash took place in East Baton Rouge Parish, with police responding to the single-vehicle crash at Lemon Road just after 2:00 a.m.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Lee was driving a 2013 Toyota Highlander north on LA 67, the release read. For reasons still under investigation, the Toyota exited the roadway to the left, struck a culvert, and overturned.

They added, Lee was unrestrained, sustained fatal injuries, and was pronounced deceased on the scene. Impairment is unknown; however, a routine toxicology sample was collected for analysis.

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WAFB reported that Collins was driving to the crash scene of his fiancee when he lost control of his vehicle. The outlet also reported that the couple were parents to a 4-year-old son called Gabriel.

According to the police release, Collins was involved in a single-vehicle crash at Idlewild Road in East Feliciana Parish, with authorities responding to the scene shortly before 3:45 a.m.

The preliminary investigation revealed that Collins was traveling south on LA 67 at a high rate of speed in a 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, police said. "As a result, the vehicle failed to negotiate a right-hand curve, exited the roadway to the left, and struck a tree.

Collins was unrestrained and was ejected from the vehicle, they added. He sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced deceased on the scene. Impairment is not suspected; however, a toxicology sample was obtained and will be submitted for analysis. Both crashes remain under investigation.

Loved ones of the couple have shared how they'll miss Collins and Lee.

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"I love them and Im gonna miss both of them and Im gonna find the strength to go ahead, Collins' father, Arthur, told WAFB.

His mother, Sandra, added, "He loved Alexus as well as everybody else who knew her. To know her was to love her."

Sandra also revealed that the couple's son Gabriel understands that his parents have died.

He understands what happened, and hes just having a little problem comprehending that we cant talk to them," she said. "We cant see them, but he understands that they are asleep and are with God."

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Alexus' sister Dominque went on to say, "I know they left here knowing their child is in good hands for sure."

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In a statement on Facebook, Lee's employer, East Feliciana Public Schools, paid tribute to the teacher.

"It is with great sadness we inform you that Ms. Alexus Lee, 2017 graduate of East Feliciana High School and teacher at East Feliciana STEAM Academy, passed away this morning," the post read. "Please join us in wrapping Ms. Lees family in prayer and love during this difficult time."



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BROOKFIELD, Ohio (WKBN)  A Brookfield man is facing an animal cruelty-related charge after a dog was found in poor condition wandering in the township.

Police say Ronald Walton was given a summons on a misdemeanor charge of prohibitions concerning companion animals. This after a dog, now named Lucille, was found roaming on Albright McKay Road on Tuesday.

Healthy Hearts and Paws Project Jason Cooke says Lucille was infested with fleas, had infected hematomas on its ears, and a large mass on its stomach.

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According to a police report, Walton told officers that the dog escaped from a pen at the back of his home. The officer said the pen had empty water and food bowls in it, but Walton said that the dog lived indoors and only went outside to use the bathroom, according to the police report.

Walton also took issue with the characterization of the dog being in very poor condition, saying that she scratches herself a lot, the report stated.

When asked if Walton took the dog to a veterinarian for treatment, he said that he had not, the reports stated. Walton said he had the dog for about six years and that she was a stray when he found her.

The more people that get charged, the more stories that are written, the more people might think twice about doing something like this. Times are changing. I can see it. I know theres a lot of people that are upset with whats going on with our dogs and cats in Trumbull County, said Cooke said.

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Police say Walton is scheduled to appear in Trumbull County Eastern District Court on May 27.

Patty Coller contributed to this report.

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The Lee County Sheriffs Office is warning the community more child victims of sexual abuse may be out there after a man was booked on sex crimes charges.

James Cortez Moss was booked Tuesday, the sheriffs office said.

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Hes been charged with aggravated sodomy - commit sodomy with force of a child under 10, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and two counts of rape and incest, officials said.

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The charges are related to sex crimes Moss allegedly committed in November 2022 and April of this year.

Lee County Sheriffs Office Special Victims Unit is continuing its investigation.

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The special victims unit is urging people to contact them at 229-759-6034 if they know someone affected or if they have any information on the case.

Your voice matters, and your report could help bring justice and prevent further harm, the Lee County Sheriffs Office said.

Officials in Lee County said details in the case are limited at this time because of the ongoing investigation.

Dougherty County Sheriffs Office assisted with Mosss arrest, Lee County authorities said.

Lee County is just north of Albany in southern Georgia.

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A man looks on at the site where, according to the DHS Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Two staff members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were shot and killed Wednesday night near a Jewish museum in Washington, according to a message posted by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on the social media platform X. The alleged shooter, who was arrested, shouted Free Palestine upon capture, according to local police chief Pamela Smith. The two victims  identified by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26  were a couple about to be engaged to be married.

Authorities are investigating the murder in the heart of the U.S. capital as a possible hate crime. On Thursday morning, the Israeli government blamed the attack on toxic antisemitic incitement, which it argued was spreading worldwide. This is what happens when world leaders surrender to the Palestinian terrorist propaganda, said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in reference to the growing criticism of Israels war in Gaza.

In the Palestinian enclave, over 53,000 civilians  mostly women and children  have died in a year and a half under Israeli bombings, and due to a food crisis caused by the Israeli governments refusal to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip for more than two and a half months.

There is a direct line connecting antisemitic and anti-Israel incitement to this murder, said Saar at a press conference in Jerusalem, according to Reuters. This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and organizations, especially from Europe.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, the two Israeli Embassy workers in Washington killed on Wednesday night. EFE

Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice, Kristi Noem shared on X on Wednesday night.

Tal Naim, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy, shared a photo of the couple with the message: Just this morning we were still laughing together by the coffee corner  and now, all that remains is a picture. Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and former judge Jeanine Pirro, now serving as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, appeared at a late-night press conference alongside Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser; Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith; and Dan Bongino, deputy director in charge of the FBIs Washington field office, among other officials. The shooting occurred around 9:00 p.m.

Preliminary investigations indicate that both victims were leaving an event organized by the American Jewish Committee for diplomatic staff and Jewish professionals aged 22 to 45 at the Capital Jewish Museum. This museum, officially named the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, is located near the local FBI office at 500 3rd Street NW, in the heart of Washington. The area surrounding the shooting was cordoned off and placed under heavy police presence.

We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, who is now in custody, said Smith. Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun, and opened fire, striking both of our decedents. After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum, and was detained by event security.

The alleged attacker identified where he had discarded the weapon, which was recovered, and appeared to acknowledge committing the crime, according to police. The suspect chanted Free, free Palestine while in custody. The suspect has been tentatively identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, Illinois, Smith added.

Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence, said Bongino in a message on X. Our FBI team is fully engaged and we will get you answers as soon as we can, without compromising additional leads.

Israels ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, also spoke at the press conference. The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem, said Leiter. The ambassador added that he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump, who promised to fight antisemitism in the United States.

We are a resilient people, the people of Israel are resilient people, and the people of the United States of America are resilient people, said Leiter. Together we wont be afraid, together well stand, and were going to overcome moral depravity of people who think theyre going to achieve political gains through murder.

Following the killings, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that security at embassies will be strengthened.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter speak to law enforcement officials at the site. Jonathan Ernst (REUTERS)

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was also in contact with Trump. At the press conference, she stated: We will follow the facts, we will follow the law, and this defendant charged will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

Israeli President Isaac Herzog posted on X that he was devastated by the events. This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, he wrote. We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the U.S. America and Israel will stand united in defense of our people and our shared values. Terror and hate will not break us.

Danny Danon, Israels ambassador to the United Nations, also posted on social media: The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.

Police officers investigate at the scene of a shooting in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night. WILL OLIVER (EFE)

Since the Hamas attacks in 2023, Israels devastating retaliatory campaign in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 53,500 people  mostly women and children  according to Palestinian authorities. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territorys roughly two million residents, triggered a food crisis, and leveled vast areas of Gazas urban landscape. Wednesdays shooting in Washington comes as Israel launches a new ground offensive in the enclave, with the war fueling tensions across the Middle East.

Israels latest ground operation and its blockade on humanitarian aid distribution have drawn increasing criticism from European countries and contributed to a cooling of relations between the United States and Israel.

Widespread condemnation

On Thursday, European leaders unanimously condemned the Washington shooting, describing it as an act of antisemitism. Kaja Kallas, the EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said she was shocked. There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism. I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel, she said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the attack an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity, while his German counterpart, Johann Wadephul, argued that nothing can justify antisemitic violence. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said authorities were working to confirm whether one of the victims was a German citizen. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy condemned the appalling, antisemitic crime.

Scenes of terror and violence to be strongly condemned. antisemitism born of hatred against Jews must be stopped, the horrors of the past can never return, said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. Spains Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares issued a strong condemnation of the killings, stressing that nothing justifies antisemitism and this barbaric act.

Governments from the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Ukraine, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Latvia, and India issued similar statements of condemnation.

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A Lee County man faces a June 9 jury trial for felony larceny and conspiracy charges.

Tracy Stephen Gautier, 52, of 1633 Stonegate Lane, northwest of the Carolina Trace Country Club, was arrested Feb. 20, 2023. He sometimes spells his middle name as Steven, according to eCourts.

The charges stem from late 2022.

Gautier allegedly stole $10,000 worth of lumber, drywall and other items from Lowes in Sanford and allegedly conspired with Donene Noce to do so.

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Gautier, who has a lengthy criminal record, was released on a $15,000 unsecured bond.

He also faces pending charges in Alamance County for five felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense and five misdemeanor counts of failure to work after being paid stemming from Nov. 19, 2021.

He faces pending charges in Lee County for obtaining property by false pretense stemming from Dec. 15, 2022 when he allegedly received $4,000 in payment from Garner Concrete for a job he did not complete.

He faces pending charges in Moore County for three counts of attempt to obtain property by false pretense, one felony count of conspiracy and three misdemeanors counts of failure to work after being paid stemming from Feb. 15, 2023.

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Gautier pleaded guilty to at least four felonies of obtaining property by false pretense stemming from 2012 and 2013, according to eCourts.

He was sentenced on Aug. 4, 2015 to 10 to 21 months in the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction with credit for four months in jail. He was given supervised probation for three years.

Gautier also was order to pay a civil judgment of $89,878 to Coastal Finance Co. as part of his sentence.

Prior to sentencing, Gautier had nine previous points in his criminal record, according to eCourts.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office is asking for help locating 44-year-old Robert Fowler. BCSO says Fowler failed to register as a sex offender.

APD arrests 2 men accused of trading guns and drugs for bait car

Fowler was convicted of indecency with a child and is not complying with New Mexicos sex offender registration laws. Fowler now has a warrant out for his arrest. His last known address 604 Chama St. SE, according to BCSO. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to alert BCSO. You can download the tip411 app, anonymously submit a tip by texting BCSO+ to 847411 or through the Submit a Tip tab on BCSOs website.

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Man hired to shoot New Mexico lawmakers homes sentenced to 15 years in prison

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  One of the men who shot up Democratic leaders homes more than two years ago, stood in court Wednesday and apologized before a judge sentenced him to fifteen years in prison.

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Demetrio Trujillo is one of the men who helped failed statehouse candidate, Soloman Pena, orchestrate the attacks in 2022 and 2023. On Wednesday, some of the elected officials who were victims of the attacks were present in the courtroom, sharing how the incident still affects them.

Albuquerques Chief of Police Harold Medina said it is the worst political crime the city has ever seen. It was a direct hit towards democracy, said APD Chief Harold Medina.

After Solomon Pena lost his bid running on the Republican ticket for state representative in 2022, he led a series of shootings targeting democratic political figures. Demetrio Trujillo was one of the men Pena recruited, along with his son, Jose Louise Trujillo.

The four victims over five weeks included Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, then incoming Speaker of the House Javier Martinez, then Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie OMalley, and State Senator Linda Lopez. All four had their homes peppered with bullets.

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Chief Medina said it left the community in fear. It was shocking just to think that during our political process, during our election process, that something like this could happen as a result of somebody losing an election, said Chief Medina.

In federal court, Demetrio Trujillos attorney went before the judge saying his client has always been remorseful. Trujillo gave an emotional statement, apologizing to the victims, saying once he heard bullets had struck a childs room, it opened his eyes to the situation and prompted him to confess. Trujillo added hes not a monster or a killer. Trujillo closed his statement saying it was a bad decision he made because he loved his son.

Im glad that the individual stated that he was sorry and that he wishes that he hadnt done this, but its sad that it takes the fact that youre in federal court on the verge of being sentenced, said Chief Medina.

Senator Linda Lopez told the courtroom how her familys lives were forever changed, saying they cant enjoy fireworks and get nervous when someone walks by their home. Diana Martinez, the wife of Speaker Martinez, teared up when giving her statement, saying although she doesnt excuse what he did, she does forgive him.

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They showed compassion, and they showed understanding and forgiveness, and it was a great day for us in Albuquerque, said Chief Medina.

Demetrio Trujillo faced up to life in prison, but was sentenced to fifteen years. Trujillos son, Jose Louise Trujillo, also pled guilty but has yet to be sentenced.

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HUTCHINSON, Kan. (KSNW)  Authorities have identified the person found dead following a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on Tuesday, along with the cause of the fire.

Around 8 a.m., the Hutchinson Fire Department and the Hutchinson Police Department responded to a commercial structure fire report at 4th Avenue and Bonebrake.

Upon arrival, police saw smoke coming from the building. Firefighters found one of the eight storage units filled with smoke. After forcing entry into several compartments, they discovered four units on fire and began extinguishing the flames. During their efforts, they found a body.

Police and fire units respond to a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Hutch Post) Police and fire units respond to a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Hutch Post) Police and fire units respond to a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Hutch Post) Police and fire units respond to a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Hutch Post) Police and fire units respond to a fire at a Hutchinson storage business on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy Hutch Post)

On Wednesday, the Hutchinson Fire Department identified the victim as Bret Fallis of Hutchinson. His exact cause of death has not yet been released.

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Investigators determined the fire was caused by the improper disposal of smoking materials, which ignited combustible items in the unit where Fallis was found.

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A Lakewood man is accused of shooting his father and brother inside a Gig Harbor-area home before setting the house on fire.

Luis Miguel Huitron Campos, 25, has been charged with two counts of first-degree aggravated murder and first-degree arson. He is accused of fatally shooting Oliverio Huitron-Rosalez, 64, and Alejandro Huitron Campos, 31, in the head.

A plea of not guilty was entered on the defendants behalf during his arraignment Wednesday. Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Barbara McInvaille set bail at $5 million.

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Deputy prosecuting Dalton Smith said the alleged murders were close-range executions and argues the fire was set to cover the deaths.

Luis Huitron Campos, 25, is arraigned for two counts of first-degree murder and first-degree arson, at Pierce County Superior Court, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Tacoma. He is accused of killing his father, Oliverio Huitron-Rosalez, 64, and brother, Alejandro Huitron Campos, 31.

Details from charging documents

Deputies were dispatched at 8 p.m. to the 15600 block of 14th Avenue Northwest for a house fire. The home was engulfed in flames, and firefighters dragged out an unconscious man. The man, identified as Huitron-Rosalez, had been shot in the back of the head, according to charging documents. The medical examiner also determined that he was alive during the fire due to the carbon monoxide in his blood. He also suffered burns to the back of his body.

Documents show that Alejandro Huitron Campos was found dead at the home from a gunshot wound to the head.

The fire originated in the back of two bedrooms, documents show. The fire marshal indicated to a detective that the fire intentionally set.

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During a search of the home, a shell casing was found and also blood stains, documents show. There was a gas can and lighter that appeared to have been used to start the fire.

Documents show that a relative had been trying to get in touch with the defendant but he had not been answering. That same relative said a day later that he tried to call the defendant, but he declined to talk and said he would call back later. He also allegedly did not contact detectives when they reached out to him about his brother and father.

Detectives learned the defendant has a concealed-pistol license issued in December 2024, and he also purchased a Heckler and Koch 9 mm pistol that same month, documents show. Results from the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab later showed the shell casing and a bullet from the homicides were most likely fired from a Heckler and Koch pistol.

Documents show that Huitron-Rosalezs brother spoke to detectives and said that the defendant did not show up for the memorial, and one family member told him that he had disappeared. Detectives also learned from the brother that Huitron-Rosalez had a mansion in Mexico and was constantly investing his money.

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During the investigation, records reviewed by a specialist said the defendants cell phone allegedly showed he was near the Gig Harbor-area home when the fire was reported, documents show.

Huitron-Rosalezs financial records showed that he had requested a withdrawal of $100,000 from his retirement savings plan, according to charging documents. A family member said it was likely used to pay off construction costs.

Detectives learned the defendant recently applied for unemployment, documents show. He also made a first payment of $4,500 on a Hummer vehicle in cash, documents show.

Luis Miguel Huitron Campos does not have any known criminal convictions, records show.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  After pleading guilty to illegally re-entering the United States and possession of a firearm by an illegal alien, one man living in Kansas City has been sentenced to prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office says.

Court records say that 33-year-old Jehu Jaziel Carranza-Rangel was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison without parole. The sentence also includes three years of supervised release.

KCPD looking for fugitive wanted for 2024 double homicide

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Records also show that Carranza-Rangel had been removed from the country four different times in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. He returned sometime after the latest removal and was found living in Kansas City after being arrested in July of 2024.

In his guilty plea in November of 2024, Carranza-Rangel reportedly admitted to knowing that he did not have permission to enter or remain in the US and that he knew he was prohibited from possessing a firearm.

Carranza-Rangel has a prior conviction for possessing a firearm in Kansas from 2020.

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A man has been arrested in North Wales on suspicion of leaking unreleased Hollywood films online.

The 47-year-old suspect is being investigated over alleged copyright offences at his home in Penmaenmawr, near Conwy, on April 29 by officers from the police intellectual property crime unit (PIPCU) at City of London Police.

He is suspected to have obtained thousands of films, television series and songs without the necessary licence or permissions from copyright owners and then distributed them through a file-sharing torrent site, according to police.

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The content included two recent Hollywood films that were leaked before their official release dates, the force said.

Officers shut down the site and seized two laptops and several hard drives for further examination. A quantity of discs were also seized.

The arrest came after an investigation by the intellectual property crime unit and the Motion Picture Association. The man has since been released under investigation, City of London Police said.

A crime that hurts the creative industries

Det Con Jason Theobald, of the intellectual property crime unit, said: This operation serves as a warning to anyone thinking of uploading copyrighted material to pirate sites.

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This is a crime that diverts funds away from the creative industries, money that not only supports artists, but thousands of technical and support staff working in this sector.

Its estimated that this type of criminal activity contributes to around 86,000 job losses each year alone. PIPCU is committed to working with partners, nationally and internationally, to take action against those involved.

Karyn Temple, a senior executive vice president and global general counsel for the Motion Picture Association, said: This operation stands as a powerful testament to the impact of close collaboration between law enforcement, the creative sector and industry partners.

We commend PIPCU for their leadership and dedication  their unique role in tackling intellectual property crime is essential in todays digital age. Together, we are delivering meaningful results in the fight against piracy.

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As technology continues to evolve, so do the threats to creative content. This decisive enforcement action reinforces the message that piracy is not a victimless crime  it damages creators, disrupts legitimate businesses, and endangers consumers.

We are proud to stand with PIPCU and our partners to protect creative industries and ensure audiences around the world can enjoy stories in a safe, legal and secure way.

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Even at the height of relaxation and revelry during a holiday, a certain level of decency is expected - but is urinating into a glass at a bar on a cruise ship crossing a line?

A court in Germany recently ruled in favour of a man who found he had been unfairly treated by cruise staff who cut short his holiday when they found him getting into a splash of trouble.

Crew say guests saw him urinating into a glass which he then left on the table. Later, a crew member confirmed the smell of urine when clearing the table.

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The man denied peeing into the glass, and a court in the western German city of Dusseldorf awarded the man not only a partial refund of his travel expenses but also compensation for losing out on a full holiday.

The incident in question involved the man sitting at a bar on the ship with two fellow travellers. According to the crew's account, other guests observed him urinating into a glass and placing it on the table.

Three days after the bar incident, the three men were denied re-entry to the ship following a trip on land. The captain had banned them from the ship and told them to book their own flights home. The man subsequently sued the cruise line over the termination of the travel contract  and won.

The court awarded the man a refund of the remaining travel price for the unused days, amounting to just over 4,300 ($4,850), as well as reimbursement for the return flight costs and taxi fare to the airport, totalling nearly 1,600 ($1,800).

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Additionally, the court ruled that the man, who had booked the trip for himself and the two other men, was entitled to compensation for lost holiday time amounting to nearly 3,100 ($3,100).

But what if crew were right and the man really did urinate into the glass?

The court ruled that this doesn't matter. Even if the allegation was true, the incident did not constitute such a serious breach of the travel contract as to justify immediate termination without prior warning, the court said.

The court admitted that urinating into a glass in a public area of the ship could be considered disturbing and inappropriate. However, it did not amount to violent, discriminatory or abusive behaviour that, under the cruise line's terms and conditions, would warrant removal from the ship. At the very least, a warning should have been issued beforehand.

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Other factors also played a role in the court's decision. For instance, the removal order was issued three days after the incident, despite the ship having already docked at another port in the meantime.

Additionally, the two other men were also ordered to leave, even though witness statements indicated they had merely been present and "smirked" during the incident.
MONTROSE COUNTY, Colo. (KREX)  A Colorado man pleaded guilty to starting one of the biggest wildfires in Colorado last year while attempting to cremate his dog, Rocket.

Brent Garber, 64. pleaded guilty to one count of attempted arson, court records show. His initial charges were second and fourth-degree arson and second-degree trespassing.

The wildfire started on Aug. 1, 2024, just north of Nucla, burning over 7,200 acres of private and national forest land. The fire caused over $200,000 in damages and completely destroyed two properties, according to the arrest affidavit.

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A day after the fire originally started, law enforcement found a rock near the entrance inscribed with Oct 2017 July 2024. ROCKET DOG. REST IN PEACE BUDDY.

A witness told authorities he saw Garber the day the wildfire began. He said Garber was distraught, telling him Rocket was euthanized due to attacking someone.

Garber said he tried cremating the dog after placing him in a pit, loading it with wood and lighting it on fire. He then threw a fly spray can in the hole but the fire blew the can out of the pit and lit a tree ablaze.

He couldnt get the fire under control, so he jumped on his four-wheeler and left. Garber told the witness the fire was accidental.

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Garbers sentence hearing will be July 11.

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TOKYO - Japan's National Police Agency said Thursday it will review rules to switch driver's licenses from other countries to Japanese ones following a recent series of accidents by foreign drivers.

The agency plans to require those seeking to switch to a Japanese driver's license to submit a copy of their residence certificate in Japan as a standard requirement while also considering increasing the number of questions on the knowledge test.

Under current rules, short-term visitors in Japan can obtain Japanese licenses by listing hotels or other accommodations as their address.

While both knowledge and driving skill checks are currently required, examinees can pass the knowledge test by answering seven out of ten questions correctly, with about 90 percent passing, a rate some lawmakers have criticized as "too easy."

Japanese citizens who live abroad will not be required to show residence certificates to convert their foreign licenses but must provide other proof of residence while in the country.

"Accidents have been increasing among foreigners who obtained licenses under the (current conversion) system," Yoshinobu Kusunoki, commissioner general of the National Police Agency, said at a press conference. "We will draw up a revised plan and take the necessary steps."

According to the agency, the number of conversions from foreign licenses to Japanese ones has been growing recently, rising by about 12,000 to 60,010 cases in 2023 from a year earlier.

On Sunday, two Chinese men were arrested over an alleged hit-and-run that injured four elementary school boys near Tokyo last week. The driver was suspected to have been under the influence of alcohol at the time.

A Peruvian man was also arrested Monday after he allegedly drove his car the wrong way on an expressway in central Japan, collided with multiple vehicles and injured four women.

Both drivers had Japanese licenses converted from foreign licenses, according to investigative sources, and held certificates of residence, according to the National Police Agency.

"There have been cases where a license was issued during a two-night, three-day stay," Itsunori Onodera, policy chief of the Liberal Democratic Party, said at a party meeting Wednesday, adding that "serious incidents threatening the safety and security of people living in Japan are happening."

"We will consider (measures) by working closely with relevant ministries and agencies," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press conference.

Related coverage:

Japan mulls expanding industries eligible for foreign skilled workers

FEATURE: Visa overstayers in Japan face stigma of criminality

24% of Japan traffic lights aging, further raising safety fears
May 21A man charged with stabbing an 8-year-old girl's neck at a popular Albuquerque pizza restaurant pleaded not guilty this week to child abuse and other felony charges.

Prosecutors allege that Nichalas San Souci, 24, struck the girl in the head with a beer bottle on April 25, then placed something against her neck, causing her to bleed profusely and requiring her to get 19 stitches.

San Souci told the child's father that he attacked the girl because she "got in my way," police said in a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

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San Souci was indicted in 2nd Judicial District Court on felony charges of child abuse resulting in great bodily harm, aggravated battery and aggravated assault.

A restaurant patron stopped the attack by smashing a tray over the man's head and helping the girl's father subdue the attacker, the complaint said. San Souci did not know the girl, prosecutors said.

The random nature of the attack on a young child at a Saggio's restaurant at Central and Cornell SE alarmed Judge Cindy Leos, who ordered San Souci held in custody while awaiting trial.

Leos wrote in a May 1 order that San Souci "poses a significant danger to the community" and found him "likely to engage in violent, random behavior against innocent individuals, including young children."

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San Souci's attorney, Graham Dumas, said his client pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday and that the case remains in the early stages.

Albuquerque police were dispatched to Saggio's near the University of New Mexico, where they found the girl with "blood smeared on her face, neck, shirt and hands," the complaint said. A woman was applying pressure to the girl's neck and blood-soaked towels were scattered on a table nearby, it said.

The girl was transported to UNM Hospital, where she received stitches and was released, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office said.

An officer viewed restaurant security video that showed San Souci "take a bottle and smash it over the head" of the girl, the complaint said.

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The attack occurred during a family outing as the girl and her parents were waiting for their food.

The child's mother told police she took her daughter to look at a fountain at the restaurant when a man approached and sat behind the girl. When the child began screaming in pain, the mother turned around and saw the man holding the girl from behind "and had her by the throat," the complaint said. The girl "yelled out" but didn't lose consciousness.

The girl's father told police he heard his wife yelling "stop! stop!" and saw another patron strike the attacker in the head with a tray, causing him to fall over, the complaint said. The father said he and the second man punched and kicked the attacker, who fled the restaurant.

Police later arrested San Souci outside the restaurant and witnesses identified him as the girl's attacker, the complaint said. Police patted him down and found a knife.
WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  A D.C. man was sentenced to prison for shooting at two people who officials say were out celebrating their anniversary in the Columbia Heights neighborhood just over two years ago.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office (USAO) of D.C., 49-year-old Adrian Lee shot a couple after an accident on April 18, 2023.

The USAO said that the victims were driving home after celebrating their anniversary at a restaurant in D.C. when Lees wife sideswiped their car.

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Shooting in Navy Yard leaves 1 dead, DC police say

Evidence showed that Lee walked to the scene of the accident and gave the victim an expired insurance card. The victim called their insurance company, but then Lee became agitated because it was taking too long and told his wife to drive away. He also left the scene of the accident on foot.

The victims tried to follow him to get valid insurance and vehicle information, but the USAO said that he ran from the victims car.

The victims found a police officer, who instructed them to return to where the accident took place to make a police report. They started to do so, but as they turned down Gresham Place, NW, they saw Lee, who lived there.

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The USAO said that Lee got a gun from his house and ran towards them. He pointed the gun at one victim before shooting the other in the torso.

Lee and his wife then fled to Florida, the USAO said in a statement.

DC police arrest Maryland man in U Street shooting that injured 3

A jury found Lee guilty of aggravated assault while armed, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with significant bodily injury while armed and unlawful possession of a firearm (prior conviction) on Sept. 24, 2024.

On May 21, Lee was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WRBL)  A Montgomery man who was present during a campus shooting at Tuskegee University has been sentenced in federal court.

Jaquez Kevon Myrick, 25, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for possession of a firearm equipped with a machine gun conversion device, officials say.

Myrick pleaded guilty to possession of the device on January 29, 2025.

According to court records, on November 10, 2024, law enforcement officers responded to reports of a mass shooting in a parking lot on the campus of Tuskegee University. Upon arrival, officers found a large crowd and heard gunfire in the area. Officers observed Myrick moving through the parking lot with a firearm in his hand and detained him.

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Agents determined that the handgun Myrick had was equipped with a machine gun conversion device, also known as a switch, which can turn a semi-automatic firearm into a fully automatic weapon.

LaTavion Johnson, 18, was killed, and 16 others were injured in the shooting that happened during the universitys homecoming weekend in 2024.

This case is yet another example of the danger posed by illegal machine gun conversion devices, said Acting U.S. Attorney Davidson. These devices turn handguns into weapons of war, with no place on our streets or campuses. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to keep our communities safe and hold offenders accountable.

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A man in prison for murder was sentenced to a little more than an additional year on Wednesday for assaulting another person with a makeshift weapon while the two were imprisoned at a federal correctional facility in Connecticut.

Jonathan Cruz-Carmona, 34, faced sentencing in federal court in New Haven where he was handed down a term of 12 months and a day in prison, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Connecticut. Federal officials said he assaulted an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury on Dec. 18, 2023.

According to authorities, Cruz-Carmona used a weapon fashioned from a broken pencil and two razor blades. The attack led to the inmate suffering wounds to their chin and neck. The injury was not considered life-threatening, officials said.

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On June 3, 2024, Cruz-Carmona pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon.

Federal authorities said the assault occurred as he was serving a 200-month prison term in connection with the killing of a rival drug dealer in Rochester, New York in September 2016. In that case, Cruz-Carmona reportedly saw the man selling drugs in an area where he had told him not to, maintaining that it was his territory, according to federal officials.

At the direction of another person, Cruz-Carmona shot the man several times as he was sitting in a car, killing him, according to authorities. He faced sentencing in that case after pleading guilty to murder with a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking crime.

The sentence handed down on Wednesday will run consecutive to the murder term.
WEST VILLAGE, Manhattan (PIX11)  A man was stabbed with scissors while he was taking photos in the West Village on May 5, according to the NYPD.

Police said it happened on Varick Street around 4:20 p.m. The 36-year-old victim was approached by the suspect, a woman, who started arguing with him, according to authorities.

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Police said the woman is accused of punching the victim in the shoulder before pulling out a pair of scissors. The victim was then stabbed in the back, according to authorities.

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Police said the woman, last seen wearing black shoes, a black jacket and a black bag, fled the scene into the Houston Street subway station.

The victim suffered minor injuries and refused medical attention, according to authorities.

Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

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WASHINGTON (DC News Now)  D.C. police said a man was hospitalized Thursday morning after he was shot in Southeast.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) told DC News Now that the shooting happened around 7:20 a.m. in the 300 block of Atlantic Street.

Once on the scene, officers found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.

Two Israeli embassy staff members shot, killed outside DC Jewish museum

MPD noted that the man was conscious and breathing, and was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The suspect was wearing a white jacket and blue jeans. The white jacket has a black line across the back of it.

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Anyone with information about what led up to the shooting is asked to call 202-727-9099 or text MPD at 50411.

Check DCNewsNow.com for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android.

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[Watch in the player above: What happens when you call 911?]

AKRON, Ohio (WJW)  A man Akron police identified as a suspect in a shooting outside a party center that injured two people has turned himself in, police said Wednesday.

The shooting happened on Saturday, May 3, at Royal Palace, 134 E. Tallmadge Ave., according to a previous news release from the police department.

Bond set at $2 million as Aliza Shermans alleged killer appears in court: I-Team

Bikash Tamang, 36, surrendered to Akron police on Saturday, May 24, according to a Wednesday news release from the department.

Bikash Tamang (Akron Police Department)

He is facing charges of felonious assault, improperly discharging firearm at or into a habitation and improper handling of firearms, police said.

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Tamang is being held at the Summit County jail.

Police were called to the party center just before 1 a.m. on May 3 for a report of an unwanted person. Security personnel had asked the man to leave, but he refused, according to the release.

After officers arrived on scene and began talking with the man, a vehicle pulled out of the parking lot and someone inside, believed to be Tamang, fired several times into a crowd gathered outside.

Father says man allegedly tried abducting his son; Medina police search for suspect

A 19-year-old was shot, and officers applied a tourniquet to his leg, before he was transported to a hospital, according to police. Another person later arrived at another local hospital with injuries believed to be related to the shooting.

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Officers recovered multiple rifle rounds at the scene, according to the release.

The shooting at Royal [Palace] is another reminder of how gun violence threatens the safety of our community, Akron police Lt. Michael Murphy is quoted in a previous news release.

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IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI)  A student support aide contracted with Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student, according to the San Diego County Sheriffs Office.

Authorities were first notified of the incident on Monday, when they received a call from the school to investigate allegations of one of their aides having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Details about the allegations were not disclosed, but the sheriffs office said detectives found probable cause to suspect that the aide, identified as 31-year-old Lisette Ortega, had sexually abused a student.

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Per the sheriffs office, Ortega was not an employee of Mar Vista High School, rather RO Healthcare, a third-party contractor used by the school to administer student support services.

The 31-year-old was arrested and booked into Las Colinas Detention Center in Santee Wednesday afternoon. She faces five felony charges, including unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and arranging a meeting with a minor to commit a lewd act.

In a statement, the Sweetwater Union High School District said it was aware of the investigation and is cooperating with law enforcement.

We are committed to providing the necessary support to our community during this time, the statement continued.

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FOX 5/KUSI also reached out to RO Healthcare for comment on the arrest:

At Ro Health, safety is our top priority. It is our privilege to serve the medically fragile population, and we are committed to doing so with the highest degree of care. As such, we take these allegations extremely seriously. We are doing everything we can to investigate the issue and to respond appropriately.

We hold student safety as paramount to our mission. Ro Health has a Joint Commission approved employee screening process. In addition to validating competency, we conduct thorough background checks, including DOJ and FBI fingerprint clearance.

An investigation into the incident remains ongoing. Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact the sheriffs Sexual Assault Unit at 858-285-6112  858-868-3200 for after hours  or to leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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JERUSALEM/TOKYO - Israel's military said Wednesday that troops fired warning shots at a group of diplomats from multiple countries including Japan in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said Thursday it had lodged a protest with Israel, expressing its "regret" and calling for an explanation and measures to ensure similar acts do not recur. No injuries were reported in the incident in the city of Jenin.

The Israeli troops claimed the shots were fired after the diplomats, who were visiting the city to assess the humanitarian situation, entered a restricted area. The military also said it regrets what happened and will report the findings of its investigation to each nation.

The group consisted of diplomats from over 30 countries including China, India and others.

The militant group Hamas, which rules the other Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, is believed to have a base in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin.

Related coverage:

Military spending in 2024 rises unprecedented 9.4% to $2.72 trillion

Japan begins accepting Palestinians wounded in Gaza for treatment

Japan to accept 2 from Gaza for medical treatment amid Israel attacks
Martina McBride urged Congress to support the NO FAKES Act to help protect artists from certain AI advancements on Wednesday.

The country music star testified on Capitol Hill, saying that AI deepfakes were just terrifying and asking for help defending musicians, actors and other artists from becoming victims to the latest tech.

AI technology is amazing and can be used for so many wonderful purposes, McBride said. But like all great technologies, it can also be abused, in this case by stealing peoples voices and likenesses to scare and defraud families, manipulate the images of young girls in ways that are shocking to say the least, impersonate government officials or make phony recordings posing as artists like me.

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She added: Im pleading with you to give me the tools to stop that kind of betrayal. [The NO FAKES Act could] set America on the right course to develop the worlds best AI while preserving the sacred qualities that make our country so special: authenticity, integrity, humanity and our endlessly inspiring spirit  I urge you to pass this bill now.

The NO FAKES Act seeks to provide federal protections for artists voice, likeness and image being used in AI-generated deepfakes. It also looks to hold platforms that knowingly feature these deepfakes liable. The act also plans to create a federal right of publicity that does not expire at death but rather continues under a persons heir for no more than 70 years following death.

It provides a remedy to victims of invasive harms that go beyond the intimate images addressed by that legislation, protecting artists like Martina from non-consensual deepfakes and voice clones that breach the trust she has built with millions of fans, Mitch Glazier, CEO of Recording Industry Association of America, also said in hearing testimony. [It] empowers individuals to have unlawful deepfakes removed as soon as a platform is able without requiring anyone to hire lawyers or go to court.

The testimony in support of the NO FAKES Act comes on the heels of the Human Artistry Campaigns open letter advocating for responsible AI use that was signed by over 400 entertainers back in March. Among the names were LeAnn Rimes, Bette Midler, Missy Elliott, Scarlett Johansson and Sean Astin.

The post Martina McBride Urges Congress to Protect Artists From Terrifying AI Tech, Says Deepfakes Are a Betrayal appeared first on TheWrap.
A Randolph couple has agreed to plead guilty to charges related to allegations that they ran a Ponzi scheme in which dozens of people were conned out of a total of more than $3.2 million, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorneys Office announced Wednesday.

Milendophe Duperier, 33, and Vanessa Joseph, 26, have agreed to plead guilty to one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorneys office said in a press release.

In a Ponzi scheme, fraudsters solicit money from individuals with false promises of investing it in a particular venture that will generate high returns with little or no risk, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Instead, the fraudsters use money from new investors to pay old ones while pocketing some of the funds.

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In the case of Duperier and Joseph, Duperier posed as an investment advisor, soliciting money from individuals and advising them that their funds would be invested in the securities markets, while Joseph pretended to be his business partner, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. Between early 2018 and December 2022, the couple is alleged to have defrauded dozens of investors by instead using the money to pay for personal expenses such as luxury cars, mortgage debts and credit card payments.

Duperier and Joseph covered their tracks by using funds from new investors and small business loans to pay back purported returns to existing investors, the U.S. Attorneys office said. Duperier is also accused of making false statements and excuses to investors  some of whom entrusted him with their life savings  to explain why he had not made promised interest payments or could not return their original investment.

The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense  whichever is greater. The couples plea hearings have yet to be scheduled.

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Read the original article on MassLive.
Editor's note: The story was updated with additional information reported by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Russian air defense systems shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight on May 22, including 35 intercepted over Moscow Oblast, the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that all the drones were flying toward the Russian capital.

Due to the drone attack, all four Moscow airports  Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky  as well as airports in Tambov and Vladimir were temporarily closed.

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Other Ukrainian drones were also shot down over the Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod, Tula, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Smolensk and Bryansk oblasts, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Tula Oblast Governor Dmitry Milyaev said one of the drones crashed into the roof of an apartment building in Tula. The attack also damaged other residential and non-residential buildings, he said.

Russian authorities haven't reported any other damage or reported any casualties.

Later on May 22, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 485 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the past three days, from May 20 to May 22, including 63 over Moscow Oblast.

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Kyiv hasn't commented on the attacks. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the reports.

Ukraine regularly launches drone attacks against Russian military and industrial facilities in the rear to undermine Russia's ability to wage its all-out war.

Moscow and surrounding regions have faced a growing number of Ukrainian drone incursions in recent weeks.

A day before on May 21, Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Bolkhov semiconductor plant in Oryol Oblast, which produces parts for Sukhoi warplanes and Iskander and Kinzhal missiles, Ukraine's General Staff claimed.

Read also: 47th Brigade battalion commanders resignation puts Ukraines military leadership under new scrutiny

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RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN)  A teenage college student from Massachusetts will plead guilty in the 2024 data breach that potentially exposed millions of North Carolina teachers, students, and parents personal information, North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said Wednesday.

The nationwide cybersecurity breach involving the PowerSchool Information System happened in December 2024.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Wake County Public School System affected by data breach

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The U.S. Department of Justice charged 19-year-old Matthew Lane with hacking the system and being responsible for the breach. He entered a plea deal with the federal government on Tuesday, according to Jackson.

Jackson said Lane will plead guilty to cyber extortion conspiracy, cyber extortion, unauthorized access to protected computers, and aggravated identity.

This hacker compromised the personal data of millions of people in our state and Im glad to see he is being brought to justice, Jackson said in a statement. I thank the prosecutors for the U.S. Department of Justice for their work to track this criminal down. My office will continue its investigation into PowerSchools role in this event.

According to Jackson, students and staff affected by the data breach have until July 31 to enroll in free identity protection and credit monitoring. For more information about setting up a free security freeze, click here.

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US President Donald Trumps whirlwind visit last week to the Middle East saw a wave of AI dealmaking that could reshape the global technology landscape.

On May 12, Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund announced the establishment of AI startup Humain. US companies Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm also announced deals to supply chips and partner on AI infrastructure with Humain.

The Trump administration also announced that it would rescind and replace the AI Diffusion rule, a Biden-era regulation capping sales of the most advanced chips that was set to take effect on May 15.

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On the final leg of the tour, the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that they will partner to build a data center complex in Abu Dhabi with 5-gigawatts of capacity  the largest data center cluster outside of the US, according to the Commerce Department. By comparison, the current global market capacity of data centers is approximately 59 gigawatts  according to Goldman Sachs.

The Trump administration said that it also secured Saudi and UAE investment for data centers located in the US.

In Abu Dhabi, Trump said that the countries had agreed to create a path for the UAE to buy some of the worlds most advanced AI semiconductors from American companies.

The deals, and new partnerships, could reshape the global AI landscape in myriad ways, according to officials and experts.

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Were still waiting for the full details to emerge, but the scale of some of these announced projects is massive, says Sam Winter-Levy, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, whose focus is technology and international affairs.

Trump attends a business meeting and roundtable at Qasr Al Watan, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, May 16, 2025. - Altaf Qadri/AP

A game-changer for the global AI race

In recent years, Beijing and Washington have been vying for supremacy in AI technology that could confer the winner advantages in economic productivity, scientific breakthroughs and national security.

Trumps AI czar David Sacks said in a post on X that the deals are a game-changer in the global AI race that will help to cement American technology as the global standard  before our competitors can catch up.

Some experts agree that working with the Middle East will fill gaps in current US capabilities. AI models require vast amounts of computing power, commonly referred to simply as compute, to train and run. That requires huge amounts of energy.

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We have a huge problem when it comes to fueling our own data center infrastructure in the US, Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think-tank in Washington-DC, tells CNN.

Men use their phones during the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. - Brian Snyder/Reuters

Growing demand for energy to power data centers has strained parts of the US grid. Although some say the issue can be resolved domestically, others say partnering with the oil-rich Gulf is a wise strategic bet.

Theres not really an immediate [domestic] solution, Soliman adds, You need to invest heavily in energy infrastructure, and that takes capital, land, a lot of resources, and time.

But some are concerned about how the flow of chips to the Gulf will be controlled. On May 19, leading Democrats warned in a letter that the deals  without any clear and enforceable protections to stop this sensitive technology from falling into Chinas hands  present an immediate national security threat.

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If chips are given directly to Saudi and Emirati companies, without the right safeguards, it could present national security risks, and the nations could employ them for tasks like autonomous weapons research and development, says Winter-Levy.

In another possible scenario, in which the data centers might be controlled and operated by US tech companies, he says the risks are more limited.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia both have ambitious plans to build AI industries to prepare their economies for a post-oil future.

US authorities say that not working with the Gulf could have increased the risks of a Gulf-China AI alliance. The chip technology of companies like Huawei is quickly advancing. If we reject them, we will drive them into Chinas arms, said Sacks X post.

US President Donald Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and others listen during a Saudi-US investment forum at the King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center on May 13, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. - Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Advancing Gulf AI ambitions

While much is still unknown, one thing is clear: The Gulfs role in the global AI landscape is growing.

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This could well see the emergence of the Gulf as the third-biggest power in the AI competition, says Winter-Levy. If the countries use the chips to train their own frontier models, the Gulf could move closer to competing with the US on the technology.

He adds that current talent constraints might hold the region back from competing with current AI leaders US and China.

Experts say the deals mark a new era in US-Gulf relations. This is going to be a pivotal moment for the way the US-Gulf relationship is defined, says Soliman. Its no longer about crude; its mostly about compute.

In the Democrats letter, they urged the administration to make sure American technology prioritizes the buildout of this critical industry here at home, not abroad.

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But if a situation emerges in the future where a significant amount of US computing power is in the region, said Winter-Levy, it could give Gulf governments some significant degree of leverage, both over US tech companies but also over US foreign policy more generally.

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BAKERFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  Mayor Karen Goh of Bakersfield joined other California big city mayors at the capitol to request $2 billion out of the state budget to address the homelessness crisis.

This ask comes in the middle of the states 12 billion dollar shortfall.

Governor Newsoms office responded to the mayors request, stating We have already invested $27 billion and Local government needs to step up and do their job.

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Mayor Robert Restaino wants Niagara Falls city lawmakers to support a written offer of just over $4 million for the nearly 10 acres of land owned by Niagara Falls Redevelopment, where he wants to build a proposed arena and events campus with an estimated price tag of at least $150 million.

Restainos request was added to a revised council agenda was released via email to lawmakers and members of the media just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. The item notes list the recommended offer as $4.029 million and note that it is based on appraisal value obtained through its special counsel. The resolution notes that previous council action authorized the city to pursue the acquisition of about 9.8 acres of NFRs land located off John B. Daly Boulevard at the intersection of 10th and Falls streets.

The offer, if accepted by a council majority, would be introduced into ongoing court proceedings as part of the administrations bid to use its power of eminent domain to ensure adequate recreational and park facilities and remove urban blight.

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The request for approval of the initial offer comes less than a week after Restaino admitted that his office is in receipt of a draft version of an arena feasibility study commissioned by the city with $150,000 from New York State and National Grid. Restaino told the Niagara Gazette last week that the study has not yet been finalized and would be shared with various project stakeholders once it is completed. He refused to say whether the study endorsed building Centennial Park.

Council Chairman Jim Perry said Wednesday that he has not seen the feasibility study himself, although he is aware that the mayor has a version of it. He said he planned to discuss it with Restaino in more detail today.

The mayor plans on (discussing it) with the entities that paid for it prior to releasing it to the council and then the public, Perry said.

Perry did not respond when asked if he was comfortable supporting the offer to buy NFRs land without knowing whats in the Centennial Park feasibility study first.

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Councilman Donta Myles, a vocal opponent of Restainos arena plan, said by asking for approval to make an offer on NFRs land before disclosing whats in the feasibility study, the mayor is putting the cart before the horse. He said any of his colleagues who supported such a move would be doing the same.

We dont have a feasibility study to tell us whether we should even have this park or so-called park or pie-in-the-sky park here in the city in the first place, Myles said. This whole idea has been nothing more than an idea and its a bad idea. Not only is it a bad idea, its not something thats going to progress our city. It will cost the city more than it will actually benefit us as a municipality.

The offer, as presented on the council agenda, references 9.8 acres of NFRs property, which would reflect the full amount of land the city initially sought to take from the company for Centennial Park.

The administration, through the citys private attorneys from the law firm Hodgson Russ, recently contended in court that half of the property  roughly 5 acres  is actually still owned by the city. The argument is based on the idea that the company failed to secure proper state permission to acquire the land years ago when it was still used as 10th Street Park. NFR has denied the citys contention.

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NFR insists its consultants have determined that the same exact 10 acres must be the starting point for the first phase of its proposed $1.5 billion data center, which the company publicly announced in 2022 with its partner in the project, the Toronto firm Urbacon. The companies claim the first building would be part of a larger nine-building complex to be developed on part of the 140 acres of land NFR owns to the east of Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino.

Restainos administration, in documents filed in 2022 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, estimated it would cost $10 million for land acquisition, which would be about $1 million per acre.

Data center advocates, including the Niagara Reporter, have suggested that the site, due to its proximity to the old Niagara Splash Park property across John B. Daly Boulevard, has a true value closer to $20 million.

NFR and its partners previously sought $75 million for the Splash Park site, which was forcibly acquired by the state using its power of eminent domain to support the development of Seneca Niagara Casino. In a 2010 decision, former Niagara County State Supreme Court Justice Richard Kloch determined the Splash Park land had a final value of $17.17 million, or about $1 million per acre.

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Myles said hell be asking during todays council meeting whether the city still intends to buy all of NFRs 10 acres or only the 5 acres Restaino says the city doesnt own yet.

You are talking about $4 million for this land, for 10 acres, and you just claimed in court as if it was such a big victory that the city already owns 5 acres of that land, so why are we putting a price to pay on 10 acres? Myles said. If you already claim that the city owns 5 acres of land, shouldnt that price be cut in half? There are a lot of unanswered questions.

The council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. today in council chambers at Niagara Falls City Hall, 745 Main St.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM)  Primary Election turnout was low in Harrisburgs Mayor race, which incumbent Mayor Wanda Williams won by less than 100 votes. A major theme of the race was rebuilding the fire-damaged Broad Street Market, something Williams faced criticism for not completing faster.

Williams says lots of development progressed and renovations were made during her term, but work still needs to be done at the market. She expects construction to start in the fall.

Less than 24 hours after Williams narrowly beat City Treasurer Dan Miller in the mayor race, a $500,000 state grant for the Broad Street Market repairs was celebrated. The market has until June 2026 to use it on repairs in its stone building.

Courtesy of Dustin Weese Broad Street Market is pictured on Monday in downtown Harrisburg Broad Street Market is pictured on Monday in downtown Harrisburg on Thursday, September 14, 2017. Governor Shapiro Visits the Site of the Broad Street Market Fire Governor Shapiro Visits the Site of the Broad Street Market Fire Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese Courtesy of Dustin Weese

There have been years of deferred maintenance and we have roof leaks when it rains and we dont have great insulation, we dont have air conditioning, so were going to be able to really modernize the amenities to put us on par with many other markets in the state, says Broad Street Market Chair Eric Hagarty

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The funding comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Agricultures Fresh Food Financing Initiative.

We took a hard look at what markets do, they bring people together to bring people together for food, and this was a really important sort of consideration, says Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. We can send a lot of assistance now, but does it bring people together? Youre building the capacity of a community. Are you extending the reach of food for people to have limited transportation? All of that comes together in this Broad Street Market, so its broad in its name, but also in its mission.

Redding says the funds could help the market earn money as they work towards rebuilding the brick building that burned during the 2023 fire, while Williams was mayor.

People have to understand, we didnt have the money to do the things that we needed to do and we couldnt do any borrowing, Mayor Williams says. Were still under Act 47.

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Williams says she is proud of the accomplishments of her first term and is confident shell win the general election.

The biggest accomplishment is I paid off the debt, I have balanced the budget for three years with no tax increase, Williams says.

Williams also touted infrastructure improvements made during her first term.

We started on 29th Street and the portion inclusive with the 81 bridge, Williams says. Weve been able to pave 56th Street. Weve taken down over 30 homes that were blighted.

There were 251 write in votes in the Republican mayoral race with no candidate on the ballot. Dan Miller may have gotten enough to run as a Republican in the fall, but he declined an interview today. He or any other candidate needs a minimum of 100 write-ins to get on the ballot.

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The general election is November 4, 2025.

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McCrispy Strips are now on the menu at McDonald's, and the fast-food giant will be giving them away on Saturday, May 24.

But there's a catch: You have to enter via social media.

So how can you get your hands on some free McCrispy Strips? Here's what you need to know to enter.

How to enter McCrispy Strips giveaway on Instagram

The chicken strips and their dipping sauces dropped in early May, according to McDonald's X account. Meanwhile, the company continues to be coy about the return of another chicken item, Snack Wraps, teasing on social media that the fan favorite would return before October 2025 but refusing to give any more specifics, yet.

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Nation's Restaurant News (NRN) reports that McDonald's is giving away 1,000 virtual gift cards for free McCrispy Strips on May 24.

To enter, fans must post an Instagram story with #DipforMcCrispyStripsGiveaway and tag @GoFooji. The marketing company Fooji specializes in brand engagement and customer experience, according to its website.

my fave dipping utensil is here. and its chicken. McCrispy Strips and dip are out now. pic.twitter.com/O927fG0amP  McDonald's (@McDonalds) May 5, 2025

All about McDonald's McCrispy Strips

According to McDonald's Menu, McCrispy Strips include three or four pieces of chicken with black pepper breading and a dipping sauce. The restaurant recommends the Creamy Chili dip specifically developed for the McCrispy Strips, but other dips include barbecue, a spicy buffalo sauce, and more.

How many calories are McCrispy Strips?

A three-piece McCrispy is 350 calories, while four pieces are 460. The Creamy Chili sauce is 110 calories.

How much are McCrispy Strips?

A Burger Beast food reviewer purchased the three-piece set for $4.99 and the four-piece for $5.99. However, prices will vary by market.

McDonald's menu item comeback: Snack Wraps to return by October

McDonald's has been coy about revealing when its fan-favorite Snack Wraps will return. The chain's latest clue dropped on social media was "0x.14.2025," hinting that the wraps would return before October at the latest.

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McDonald's Snack Wrap debuted in 2006, USA TODAY reports, before being discontinued in 2016. Some restaurants continued to serve it until 2020. That's when it was removed from the menu to simplify McDonald's offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Food Network.

The basic Snack Wrap is a chicken breast with lettuce, cheese and sauce wrapped in a flour tortilla, per Food Network.

How many McDonald's locations are in Ohio?

There are 613 McDonald's restaurants in Ohio, according to the web scraping tool ScrapeHero. Only California, Texas, Florida and Illinois have more locations than Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: McDonald's to give away McCrispy Strips May 24. How to get free food
TOKYO - This year's Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, starting next week, is highlighting tales of diversity and dystopia amid the backdrop of a fractured post-pandemic world.

With the theme "creative active generative," organizers said they hope the two-week festival from Wednesday will be a "catalyst" to spark new relationships between audiences and films, and creators and businesses.

The festival, founded by Japanese actor Tetsuya Bessho in 1999, is the only international short film festival in Asia featuring five competitions whose winners will receive a prize of 600,000 yen ($4,200) each and are eligible for the following year's Academy Awards.

This year's films include French production "Find The Boy," in which a group of friends lay one of their own -- Charly, a young transgender man -- to rest. As they pay their respects, Charly's brother Victor remembers him differently, under a different name.

In a special program exploring the relationship between artificial intelligence and filmmaking, German film "Transformation" follows the story of beings known as Drakzuls, who in the distant future are in search of a new home after their planet has been destroyed.

In "One Day I Will Hug You," a joint Swedish, Qatari and Palestinian production, a father returns to Gaza after 10 years in Norway, before which he spent 20 years in Israeli prisons. He shows his emotionally distant daughter, Mai, letters he wrote to her while he was incarcerated.

Taking place in hybrid form with both online and in-person screenings at several venues in Tokyo through June 11, the festival will showcase about 250 films selected from 4,592 submissions in 108 different countries and regions.

This year will see the debut of the "Horror and Suspense" category, which features short films by 11 Japanese directors who are in the running for a 500,000 yen cash prize.

Other features include Japanese film "Nigemizu" by Akiko Isobe, in which a woman's plot to murder her house guest is interrupted when the prospective victim arrives too early, and "Marion," produced by Hollywood actor Cate Blanchett, which follows the story of France's only female bull-jumper.

Some films are already available to watch online until June 30.

Related coverage:

Japanese action choreographer wins prize at Hong Kong Film Awards

Shanghai to open Harry Potter theme park in 2027

Ghibli Park to exhibit anime director Hayao Miyazaki's beloved car
May 21Flathead County health officials confirmed Wednesday a case of measles in a county resident who recently traveled outside of the area.

There is not yet a clear indication of the exact point of exposure, officials said in a May 21 press release. The individual, an adult whose vaccination status remains unknown, is isolating at home, according to the Flathead City-County Health Department.

"Our staff swiftly conducted the investigation upon receiving notification from the state and were able to quickly identify close contacts to prevent further spread. Staff are diligently working with local health care providers to remain in communication. We appreciate their partnership," said county Health Officer Jennifer Rankosky in a statement.

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Measles is a highly contagious and infectious disease that is spread primarily through the air. Droplets, often transmitted through coughing, sneezing and talking, can linger in the air for up to two hours. It can also spread through touching contaminated surfaces.

The disease typically begins with a fever, cough, runny house, red eyes and white spots inside the cheeks. A red rash often appears two weeks after exposure.

Health officials recommend anyone suffering measles symptoms contact their health care provider immediately. A medical provider can explain how to get care without exposing others to the illness.

Those experiencing measles should stay home and turn away visitors until the disease is either ruled out or the patient is no longer contagious, health officials said.

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Montana saw its first case of measles since 1990 this year, according to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The case was first reported in Gallatin County.

In March, Flathead County health experts stated they were preparing for a potential measles outbreak after the disease began spreading in Texas.

"If you are unvaccinated and you live in the Flathead, well our herd in the Flathead is not immune," said Logan Health pediatrician Dr. Ken Graham in March.

Herd immunity is reached when enough people are immune to a virus to hinder its spread.

For measles, herd immunity is reached when roughly 94% of people are protected against the virus.

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About 86% of Montana's two-year-olds have at least one dose of MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella, according to the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. That is slightly lower than the national average of 90%.

But the level of protection in Flathead County is unknown.

While death rates have been falling worldwide as more children receive the measles vaccine, the virus still kills more than 200,000 people a year, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or kheston@dailyinterlake.com.
LUBBOCK  When Kelly Johnson Pirtle was counting down the days to her due date last year, she pictured her future as a new mom. She thought of family visits, friends becoming her village, and a healthy child.

She never considered that she might have to shield her newborn son John from a once-eradicated disease.

You want your kids to grow up in a world thats healthy and moving forward, Johnson said. Thats not true during the first few months of his life. It makes me sad.

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Pirtle is one of many new parents in Lubbock who are growing more anxious as the measles outbreak, and vaccine skepticism, spreads. And Lubbock parents arent the only ones terrified of their young children contracting the contagious virus. From January to April 30, 7,107 babies have received a dose of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine early, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Its the states highest number in the last six years. It could be even higher since the data only includes children whose parents opted into submitting their information to the state.

The outbreak has ballooned to 722 cases in Texas since it began in January. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the measles outbreak is now the largest single outbreak since the U.S. declared the disease eliminated 25 years ago. Nine new cases were reported Friday, the lowest number since February. However, health officials cant consider an outbreak over until theres been a 42-day period without a new case.

As the outbreak spreads beyond West Texas, skepticism about the vaccine has intensified, including at a national level. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known vaccine skeptic, has spread misinformation about the vaccine. Earlier this month, Kennedy ordered federal health agencies to research new treatments for measles. Public health officials have said two doses of the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles.

Kelly Johnson Pirtle is one of many new parents in Lubbock who are growing more anxious as the measles outbreak, and vaccine skepticism, spreads. Credit: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune

However, a lot of time stands between those two doses and a sense of security for new parents. Doctors recommend that children get their first dose of the MMR vaccine when they are 12 months old. The timeline is shorter  just six months  for children in areas with an outbreak.

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That is the case in Lubbock, about 87 miles northeast of Gaines County where the outbreak started and more than 400 cases have been confirmed. There have been 53 confirmed cases in Lubbock County. Lubbock, with a population of 267,000, is the largest city in the South Plains and serves as a medical hub for the region. Due to a dearth of rural hospitals and physicians, people from all over the region flock to Lubbock for health care.

It has left the city and its residents to figure out how to protect themselves when so much of the outbreak is out of their control. Some new parents in Lubbock have reverted to COVID-era precautions  limited contact with people outside the home and avoiding crowded places. On social media groups, women ask other moms how young babies infected with measles fared, and share details on vaccine clinics. Others share locations where cases have been reported for other parents to avoid.

And at this point, they arent just battling the outbreak. They are also battling the consequences of a growing distrust about the vaccine, including school and child care centers closing as cases pop up.

A 2024 KFF study found that exemption rates have gone up nationwide. The amount of kindergartners in the U.S. who were exempted from at least one required vaccine increased to 3.3%. Since 2018, the requests to the Texas Department of State Health Services for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024.

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In Lubbock County, 92% of kindergarteners reported being vaccinated against measles in the 2023-2024 school year, about 2 percentage points lower than the state average, according to latest state data.

Dr. Peter Hotez, Texas reigning infectious disease expert and physician, said the situation unraveling with vaccine hesitancy is part of the medical freedom movement.

Its a bit of phony propaganda, Hotez said. The only freedom being restricted is the freedom of parents who have to worry about bringing their infant to the store.

For Pirtle and her husband, Adam, being cautious is the best way they can keep John safe until he gets the first dose. The parents found out their 3-month-old will need open heart surgery at the end of May. The surgery has a high success rate, but if John gets an infection before then, it would have to be postponed.

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Even a recent trip to a friends baby celebration was cut short because the Pirtles feared the red patch on Johns cheek was measles; it turned out to be baby acne.

Vaccines have always been a team effort, Adam Pirtle said. Like with herd immunity, were all part of the herd. Then all of a sudden, people decide not to play on the team. That hurts everyone.

Kelly Johnson Pirtle swaddles John at their home in Lubbock. Pirtles family has reverted to COVID-era precautions until its safe to have their son vaccinated. Credit: Annie Rice for The Texas Tribune

Kyle Rable, the father of a 10-week-old in Lubbock, said he and his wife have also had to think carefully about where they take their son. They dont take him grocery shopping or let strangers near him. They try to only take him out for outdoor events.

Measles wasnt on our radar. We were more worried about the cold and RSV, Rable said. Were kind of counting down to when we can go get him that shot.

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Rable and his wife both work, so their son will start attending child care at the end of this month. They have been listening for any word on if the care center they want to go to has cases pop up.

We cant really not have him at day care, Rable said. Were hoping everyone keeps up on their childs vaccines to keep our child safe.

Research has shown that measles is a potentially deadly infection where 20% of kids end up being hospitalized. The measles can cause pneumonia, brain inflammation, and permanent neurologic injury along with other long-term complications.

Hotez said babies cant get the vaccine sooner than six months old because they have maternal antibodies that may affect the vaccines effectiveness.

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He said the MMR vaccine is one of the safest, most effective vaccines. However, he doesnt see the measles outbreak slowing down, as it has spread to low-vaccinated, conservative regions across the U.S. Great Plains.

The worry I have is if this goes on for months and months, eventually we get to the point where weve lost our measles elimination status, Hotez said.

First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 1315 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Oscar Franklin Smith became the first man in five years to be executed in Tennessee on Thursday, and News 2s Tori Gessner was selected to witness it.

Smith was convicted of the 1989 murders of his estranged wife, Judy, and her two teenage sons, Chad and Jason, in Nashville.

The only hiccup during the execution was things got underway later than scheduled on Thursday, May 22 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution.

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The seven media witnesses were seated in the room where they would watch Smith be put to death 15 minutes behind schedule, at 10:16 a.m. Only permitted to have a pen and notebook issued by the Tennessee Department of Correction, journalists vigorously took notes of the sights and sounds they witnessed.

Oscar Smith executed in Tennessee Thursday

While the curtains to the death chamber were closed, Smiths spiritual advisor could be heard reading scriptures from the Bible. At 10:32 a.m., the curtains opened.

Smith could be seen lying on a table horizontally, wearing a yellow gown with a white sheet covering his lower body. He was strapped down, his hands were covered and secured with a beige wrap, and an IV was coming out of his right arm.

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Its unclear when the pentobarbital, the single drug Tennessee selected in its new death penalty protocol, was injected. During he entire process, Smiths spiritual advisor prayed as two men dressed in black suits, also in the death chamber, watched.

One man asked Smith if he had any last words. Smith replied, Yes.

Tennessees new death penalty protocol: Whats different

His statement lasted multiple minutes and was critical of Gov. Bill Lee for not doing the right thing and stopping his execution.

Too many innocent people are being killed, Smith said. If [he] aint got no balls to do the right thing, quit being governor and walk awayour justice system is brokeThats what experts are for. The working man doesnt have that knowledgemore men are waiting to die at Riverbendneed a governor to know what his duties areget a backbonein the future.

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Ill see you someday, Smith told his spiritual advisor, who continued to pray.

I didnt kill her, Smith whispered.

At one point, his spiritual advisor mentioned the two teenage victims, Chad and Jason, by name.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Smith never appeared to show any signs of distress and never made any sudden movements. His execution looked similar to someone falling asleep.

At 10:40 a.m., a blue-gloved hand popped out from a hole the wall behind Smith, and a rock was placed on the ledge.

At 10:44 a.m., it was difficult to tell if Smiths stomach was still rising and falling.

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The curtains closed at 10:45 a.m. An officials voice came over the loud speaker and announced Smiths time of death was 10:47 a.m.

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BRISTOL, Va. (WJHL)  City leaders discussed community concerns regarding the former Bristol, Virginia landfill at an open house on Wednesday.

At the meeting, city leaders explained how the landfill situation is different than in 2023; however, more work needs to be completed.

MORE: Virginia approves $26.5M for Bristol landfill remediation; local advocacy organizations respond

Landfill engineer Craig Benson said the biggest concern has been the emission of odor.

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What weve done is manage the sources of those in the pathways by which they [odors] escape, so that the community does not have that burden anymore, Benson said.

Benson said the odor has gotten better, but its not perfect.

We still have things to work on fortunately, were at a very different place than we were a few years ago, than where we were in 2023, Benson said.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
Megan Thee Stallion - Credit: JC Olivera/Variety via Getty Images

Megan Thee Stallions lawyers have released a new report detailing how there is no new evidence that would exonerate Troy Lanez, despite that rappers legal team (and fans) demanding his release.

The 31-page document, spearheaded by Megans lawyer, Alex Spiro and obtained by Rolling Stone, dismantles the unsworn rumors being spread as fact in relation to the 2020 shooting, as well as the claims of a new witness who said Megans former best friend, Kelsey Harris, was the shooter.

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Despite Mr. Lanez being convicted at trial by overwhelming evidence (that included his own admission of his guilt), he and his team  flanked by any ignorant person they can find  have pushed whatever misleading narrative they can, Spiro said.

One by one, their misleading statements unravel and all that is left is the simple truth: he was convicted by overwhelming evidence and those who seek to traumatize the victim of the crime should be called out as foolish bullies.

The report dismissed the claims that Ring camera footage from the night of the shooting could help exonerate Lanez, noting that the Ring video was already introduced as evidence during the trial. Additionally, and most damning, Megans lawyers reiterated that DNA evidence on the firearm in question revealed that there was a 90 percent chance that the shooter was male.

In a TikTok post, Megan responded to the new evidence claims by Lanezs attorneys. At what point are yall gonna stop making me have to re live being shot BY TORY !?, she wrote. At what point are Tory and yall FANS gonna stop lying ? SZA also voiced her support for Megan on social media.

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Earlier this month, Lanez was hospitalized after being stabbed by another inmate at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi. During a news conference following the incident, his legal team claimed they had a new witness who stepped forward to say that Megans former best friend, Kelsey Harris, was the shooter.

Spiro dismissed the new witness claim in a statement previously sent to Rolling Stone. Tory Lanez was tried and convicted by a jury of his peers and his case was properly adjudicated through the court system, said Spiro. This is not a political matter  this is a case of a violent assault that was resolved in the court of law.

Lanez is serving a 10-year prison sentence after he was convicted in December 2022 of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in both feet on July 12, 2020.

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Italys highest court ruled on Thursday that two women can register as the parents of a child on a birth certificate, saying recognition of parental rights cannot be restricted to the biological mother in families with same-sex parents.

The ruling was hailed as historic by opposition parties in Italy and a blow to Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister and a self-declared Christian mother.

The hard-Right leader, whose government told city halls to stop automatically registering both parents in same-sex couples, has railed against the LGBT lobby and said she would defend traditional family values in the majority-Catholic country.

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The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for city registers to deprive children born to same sex-parents of recognition by both the biological mother and the woman who consented to the medically assisted pregnancy and assumed parental responsibilities.

It ruled as discriminatory the failure to recognise both mothers on birth certificates, a decision which effectively becomes law, lawyer Michele Giarratano told AFP news agency.

In recent years, some city registrars had begun to record only the name of the biological mother on birth certificates, and not the name of her partner.

In order to have legal rights and responsibility over the child, the non-biological mother then had to adopt the child.

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A 2004 law had provided for such limited parental recognition and encouraged by several court rulings, mayors have in recent years been registering both biological and non-biological parents on birth certificates.

But in 2023, Ms Melonis interior minister ordered town halls to stop transcribing certificates of children born abroad through surrogacy.

In response, prosecutors across Italy began contesting birth certificates of children born abroad or in Italy to same-sex parents  whether through surrogacy or by other means.

Non-biological mothers risked losing access to their children if their partner died or the relationship broke down, as well as suffering day-to-day stresses such as not being able to take their child to a doctor without the other parents permission.

A historic decision

The Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that refusing to recognise women who assume parental responsibility for the child their partner carries does not guarantee the best interests of the minor and violates several articles in the constitution.

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That included the childs right to a continuous relationship with each parent and with relatives from each parents branch of the family, it said.

This is a historic decision, said Mr Giarratano, from Padua in north-east Italy.

He represents 15 children in Padua, where an instruction by prosecutors to retroactively remove non-biological mothers from birth certificates turned the city into a symbol of the fight for same-sex parents rights.

Elly Schlein, right, secretary of the Italian Democratic Party, is a supporter of the ruling - Yara Nardi/Reuters

Elly Schlein, head of the biggest opposition party, the centre-Left Democratic Party, said the ruling was a heavy political defeat for a hard-Right coalition government which has used rainbow families as a political target.

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Mother Soldatini, 48, said it cannot just be the legal system which recognises these children have a right to a family, politicians must now take the necessary step to protect the rights of all children with same-sex parents.

I will only uncork the champagne when all those families with two dads can toast with me, she said. Now is not the time to settle.

Activists have warned of an erosion of civil rights since Ms Meloni took office in 2022, including the extension last year of the countrys ban on surrogacy to couples who seek it abroad  a law which affects gay fathers in particular.

On Thursday, a court in Pesaro in northern Italy ruled in favour of the adoption of a child by his non-biological father, despite the child being conceived abroad via surrogacy.

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British police have charged a member of acclaimed Irish hip-hop group Kneecap with a terrorism offense for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a Kentish Town Forum concert in London on 21 November 2024.

The Metropolitan Police force said Liam Og O hAnnaidh, 27, was charged under the Terrorism Act with displaying a flag in support a proscribed organization.

The force said the musician - whose stage name is Mo Chara, and whom police referred to by the English spelling of his name, Liam OHanna - is due in court on 18 June.

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Earlier this month, police said Kneecap was being investigated by counterterror detectives after videos emerged allegedly showing the band shouting up Hamas, up Hezbollah and calling on people to kill Tory MPs.

After the police investigation was announced, Kneecap said it had never supported Hamas or Hezbollah, and accused establishment figures of taking comments out of context to manufacture moral hysteria.

They doubled down on this stance today, as the band responded to Mo Chara's terror offence charge, calling it a "carnival of distraction."

Pointing out the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Kneecap said of the British establishment: They profit from genocide, they use an anti-terror law against us for displaying a flag thrown on stage. A charge not serious enough to even warrant their crown court, instead a court that doesnt have a jury.

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Whats the objective?, the group continued. To restrict our ability to travel. To prevent us speaking to young people across the world. To silence voices of compassion. To prosecute artists who dare speak out. Instead of defending innocent people, or the principles of international law they claim to uphold, the powerful in Britain have abetted slaughter and famine in Gaza, just as they did in Ireland for centuries. Then, like now, they claim justification.

The trio went on to say that the IDF units they arm and fly spy plane missions for are the real terrorists, the whole world can see it, and concluded: We stand proudly with the people. You stand complicit with the war criminals. We are on the right side of history. You are not. We will fight you in your court. We will win. Free Palestine.

Rich Peppiatt, Naoise o Caireallain, DJ Provai and Mo Chara of Kneecap at British Independent Film Awards - Sunday 8 Dec. 2024 - AP Photo

The Belfast trio has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland through their music and their award-winning biographical film Kneecap  which was one of our favourite movies of 2024.

Check out our interview with Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt, who spoke to Euronews Culture about how the status of the Irish language remains a contested political issue in a society still split between British unionist and Irish nationalist communities.

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"We live in a world where increasingly the hegemony of English is making people more monolingual," Peppiatt told Euronews Culture. "And that doesn't enrich us as a humanity because once a language is gone, it's gone forever. There's no way of getting it back. It's almost like destroying the environment. You can't suddenly go, Oh, can we just rewind this? Once the language is gone, there's no one left to pass it on. It's done. And we lose then a sense of who we are, our history and our culture. I think where the band Kneecap are really important in that conversation is that there is no economic value to speaking Irish." Read on here.

Kneecap director speaks to Euronews Culture - Euronews Culture

Police said they are still investigating footage from another Kneecap concert in November 2023.

Indeed, another source of controversy is footage from a gig where one band member allegedly says: The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.

This provoked condemnation from the daughter of the late Conservative MP David Amess, who was murdered in 2021.

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Kneecap denied promoting violence against MPs and apologised to the family of Amess. They called the controversy a coordinated smear campaign against their efforts in exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Many have shared their support for Kneecap and the freedom of expression  including musicians Massive Attack, Brian Eno, Tom Morello, Pulp and Fontaines D.C., who all signed an open letter to protect freedom of expression.

Kneecap on stage - 2024 - AP Photo

Several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled as a result of the controversy, especially in Germany where Kneecap were scheduled to play in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. Some British lawmakers have called on organizers of next month's Glastonbury Festival to scrap a planned performance.

Kneecap were dropped from the Eden Project line-up but are still due to headline Wide Awake Festival in south London this Friday.
President Trump for the second time used a meeting with a major foreign leader to cater to his own base on Wednesday.

This time it was South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who Trump used as a foil, just as he and Vice President Vance had hammered on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in late February.

The Ramaphosa meeting was not quite so stormy as the confrontation with Zelensky, which made instant global headlines. But it had plenty of tension. And it appeared just as much of a preplanned ambush, especially when Trump asked for the lights in the Oval Office to be lowered so he could show a video of incendiary remarks from South African politicians.

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Trump referred to the speeches as coming from officials, a term that could be taken to imply the speakers were members of Ramaphosas government. They are not, as both the South African president and his agriculture minister, who was also present, sought to make clear.

Still, Trump seemed undeterred by those points, continuing to insist that the situation in South Africa is akin to an anti-white apartheid and that people who kill white farmers enjoy de facto immunity.

Ramaphosa and his colleagues tried as best as they could to push back on those assertions without getting into a Zelensky-style, flat-out argument with the U.S. president. They acknowledged that high levels of violence are a problem in South Africa but countered suggestions that there was a government-endorsed white genocide, a claim that has become popular on the U.S. online right in particular.

The Associated Press characterized any claim of systematic killings of white farmers in South Africa as baseless. South African crime statistics for 2024 indicate that less than 1 percent of nationwide murders were on farms.

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Trump has taken particular exception to the recent passage of a law that enables expropriation of land. But the law is subject to judicial review, and Ramaphosa countered Trump by emphasizing that the U.S. federal government also enjoys a right to take over private property under eminent domain.

Still, the broader political reality is that Trump used the meeting with the South African president to amplify a narrative that he has pushed domestically.

In general terms, his framing is that, whatever racial injustices existed in the past, it is white people who now face unfair discrimination, in part because of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Trump appears to believe that institutions that endorse DEI goals are guilty of reverse racism.

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The idea that white farmers  feel theyre going to die in South Africa  another claim made by the president on Wednesday  dovetails neatly with that argument.

In the same way, the meeting with Zelensky in late February seemed designed to cast the Ukrainian president as an ingrate and to lay the groundwork for a withdrawal, or at least significant reduction, of U.S. aid as Kyiv tries to rebuff the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

Whether such moves work, from a domestic political perspective, is a whole other question.

As with so much else in relation to Trump, the episodes may simply break down along the usual deeply polarized lines.

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There will, to be sure, be plenty of members of Trumps base who will see the presidents treatment of Ramaphosa as justified, and who will fully endorse his related attacks on the media for purportedly not wanting to cover the story of contemporary South Africa through the same lens as he himself sees it.

But there will be others who recoil from the apparent attempt to humiliate a Black South African president by appealing to white American racial grievance.

This mirrors the division that emerged following the Zelensky showdown, where the MAGA base applauded the excoriation of the Ukrainian president while liberals  and traditional conservatives who remain deeply skeptical of Russian President Vladimir Putin  cringed.

The stakes may not be quite so high in the case of South Africa. But the nations politics do at least have salience in the American news agenda because of the Trump administrations decision to recently admit a group of Afrikaners  white South Africans, primarily farmers and their families  as refugees.

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That decision drew accusations of racism from liberal commentators, who contrasted Trumps apparent generosity to the Afrikaners with his outright suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program by executive order on his first day back in office

There are other contentious elements to the U.S.-South Africa relationship, too, including South Africas case at the International Court of Justice, alleging genocide by Israel in its assault on Gaza. Trump, uncharacteristically, responded in a relatively mild fashion to a question from a reporter on that topic as Ramaphosa sat beside him on Wednesday.

The treatment of Ramaphosa, like that of Zelensky, will surely give foreign leaders who have been in Trumps sights some pause for thought if they get their White House invites in due course.

For the moment, however, the South African president emerged relatively unscathed even as Trump sought to use the encounter as aggressively as possible.

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The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
Fourteen flyboys, young men in their 20s and late teens  some married, others just out of high school  along with their hopes and dreams died three days before Christmas 1943 in likely the deadliest air crash in Palm Beach County.

A final adieu was never broadcast far and wide, and their story hardly ever told until a Palm Beach Post reporter learned what happened 70 years later. They came to be known as The Forgotten 14.

It was smack in the middle of the most destructive war mankind has ever known. The 14 servicemen loaded onto a bomber in the wee hours of Dec. 22, 1943 to travel to a secret destination from Morrison Field, which later became Palm Beach International Airport.

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They flew in a bomber, the 24H. A previous model had had problems lifting off the runway.

One of the servicemen, Bert Sauls, called his family ahead of the flight, worried: "We'll never make it. We're overloaded."

Read the Post reporter's full story: The Forgotten 14: A story never told

Landing in a cow pasture, the fuel tanks were full and burst into flames

They cleared the end of the runway and then clipped the tops of three or four Australian pines about three-quarters of a mile from there. Engine parts were found at the base of those trees.

The plane bounced off the ground and came down in a cow pasture. Then the full fuel tanks burst into flames.

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Onlookers, many awoken by the sound of the crash, raced to the site. They said they couldn't get past the "sheet of flames." They did manage to rescue two survivors  Artillery Gunner Howard Sewell and navigator Radames E. Caceres.

Sewell told an officer from his hospital bed that the engines had no problems; they were "purring like a kitten."

Within 36 hours of the crash, he and Caceres were gone.

Telegram from the commander of Morrison Field informing the wife of Douglas Dauphin, one of The 14, of his death.

Who were the flyboys who lost their lives?

Samuel Dean, pilot of The Fourteen, and wife Louise.

The oldest of the 14 was pilot Samuel Gerald Dean, of Helena, Montana at age 27. He met his wife, Louise, not long before he signed up, which was about a month after Pearl Harbor  Dec. 7, 1941. She followed him from base to base and was pregnant when he died. Sam Jr. would be born about two months after the crash.

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2. Dean's co-pilot was Edward Joseph Wolbers of Loveland, Ohio. He died days shy of age 27, a Christmas baby.

Edward Wolbers

"He was a wonderful person," his sister-in-law Dorothy Wolbers said in 2014.

Wreckage of the B24H that crashed near Morrison Field, now PBIA, on Dec. 22, 1943. (U.S. Air Force archives)

3. Caceres, like Dean, enlisted about a month after Pearl Harbor. The 21-year-old single man hailed from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico.

Radames E. Caceres

4. Bombardier Douglas Laurent Dauphin, 22, of St. Claire Shores, Michigan descended from French Canadians. He was the only one of six brothers who didn't make it back. He and Henrietta had been married three months.

Douglas Dauphin

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5. The only Floridian was master gunner Sauls, 20, who came from Mango, a little settlement east of Tampa.

Bert Sauls

"My dad was a Christian, and he wanted to fight for his country," daughter Sylvia Diane Sauls Waugh said in 2014.

Sauls's second daughter, Linda Louise, would be born two months after he died.

Kenneth Markle

6. Staff Sgt. Kenneth N. Markle, 25, the radio operator, was another one from New York  Middletown in the Hudson Valley region.

Brothers Louis (left to right), Julius, Milton and Maurice Karp. Louis, one of The 14, died Dec. 22, 1943. Julius was shot down over Germany and believed killed but survived and was a POW. Milton was too young for the war. Maurice was sent home after his mother told former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt she'd already lost two sons.

7. Artillery gunner Louis Karp, 25, another staff sergeant, had been a clerk in the Bronx when he enlisted on Nov. 14, 1942. He is buried in Queens in Mount Lebanon Cemetery.

James Henderson

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8. James Henry "Jim" Henderson, 21, a second artillery gunner, had already lost his cousin Pete to noncombat injuries when he enlisted in October 1942. He was single and a civilian truck driver.

Vincent Schmoker

9. Douglas Vincent Schmoker, 20, another artillery gunner, also signed up in October 1942 and was single. He'd had two years of high school.

Howard Sewell

10. Sewell, one of the initial survivors of the crash, had turned 19 two weeks before the crash. He hailed from Erie, Pennsylvania and had a girlfriend.

George Durrett

11. George M. "Pud" Durrett, due to turn 23 three weeks later, was one of four brothers to join the military. Durrett of West Point, Mississippi was the only one to die.

Robert Watson

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12. Robert H. Watson, 22, of Fresno, California, attended Fresno State College for one semester in 1939. He had a brother in the Navy.

Harold Richards of Elmwood, Nebraska, one of The 14, and wife, Verna Faye Miller Richards.

13. Harold Edwin Richards, 25, from Elmwood, Nebraska, worked for Nabisco when he enlisted more than a year before Pearl Harbor. In December 1942, he was transferred to the Army Air Corps. He'd married Verna Faye Miller on March 15.

James Fore

14. James Dixon "Big Jim" Fore, 22, from Whiteville, North Carolina, was the first in his family to graduate from West Point. Two days after graduation, he married his wife, Theo.

A Palm Beach Post reporter tells their story 70 years later

They didn't get the send-off they deserved until now-retired Post staff writer and historian Eliot Kleinberg happened upon their story.

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Kleinberg, who wrote the Post-Times history column for decades, was corresponding with the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency in Alabama when a researcher told him they had a number of files about Morrison Field.

Day after day, fat envelopes began to arrive.

Many were reports of minor plane mishaps.

Eliot Kleinberg

"Then I came across one that stopped me cold," he said. "It listed 14 names. In the column for injuries, each box read, 'F'  Fatal. Fatal, fatal, fatal.  Fourteen times."

He thought he knew everything important that had happened in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast during World War II. But not this.

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"I stood up and walked right into the Post library and pulled out the microfilm roll for December 1943," he said. "And there it was. A small article. Five paragraphs. The next day, two paragraphs. Then nothing."

Grave of second navigator, 2nd Lt. Radames E. Caceres, 21, one of The Fourteen at Cabo Rojo Cemetery in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico

Kleinberg had months  in time for Memorial Day 2014  to tell their story, including finding photos to show all of their faces. He did.

He tracked down and called relatives.

"Many were touched, and a little confused, that I was writing this seven decades later," Kleinberg said. "I told them simply that the first time around, we hadnt."

Holly Baltz, who has a passion for history, is The Palm Beach Post's investigations editor. You can reach her at hbaltz@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: For Memorial Day, remembering 14 World War II flyboys who died in PBC
BEIJING - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has censured officials over a "serious accident" that occurred during a launch ceremony for a new destroyer on Wednesday, describing it as an intolerable "criminal act," according to the country's state-run media.

In the incident at the Chongjin Shipyard, the 5,000-ton destroyer lost balance while on a flatcar, crushing some lower sections and preventing it from leaving the shipway, the official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday.

Kim said the accident caused by "absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility" led "the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment," KCNA reported.

The leader warned the "irresponsible errors" of those responsible would have to be dealt with at a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, to be convened in late June, and ordered the ship's restoration before then as well as an investigation into the matter.

He stressed the immediate repair of the destroyer was "not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state."

According to the South Korean military, the destroyer remains partially capsized.

In late April, Kim attended a ceremony for the launch of another new 5,000-ton destroyer at a shipyard in the western port city of Nampho and lauded the event as a "breakthrough in modernization" of the navy.

The multipurpose warship Choe Hyon, named after an anti-Japanese revolutionary fighter, is equipped with systems to launch supersonic cruise missiles and tactical ballistic missiles. Kim said it will be deployed by the navy sometime next year, according to KCNA.

Related coverage:

North Korea's Kim guides missile test for nuclear counterattack

North Korea fires multiple ballistic missiles, no damage reported

North Korea test-fires new destroyer's weapons system
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS)  Mental health advocates met at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing Wednesday in hopes of highlighting the needs of patients for critical infrastructure, long-term hospital beds, and emergency resources to help with the overall improvement of behavioral health.

Its hard to see patients, particularly the pediatric patients, but also adults and all patients that come through here that are not able to get that kind of care they need in the long-term in the community through the additional behavioral health beds, said Chief Medical Officer of UM Health Sparrow Dr. Chandu Vemuri.

(WLNS)

State lawmakers and local health officials say Michigan currently ranks 46th in the nation in behavioral health resources, offering five psychiatric beds per 100,000 people.

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Thats countless families waiting on what can be life-saving care.. In an emergency situation, every second, staff member, and room availability matters, said State Representative Angela Witwer.

(WLNS)

Officials say the lack of resources has overwhelmed emergency departments, creating another hurdle between patients and quality health services.

Last year, for over 18 months, we collected data from our hospitals and health systems that told us that on any given day, there are more than 155 patients that are stuck in emergency departments across the state that are looking for behavioral health services, said Lauren Lapine, Senior Director of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. And honestly, thats a pretty conservative estimate.

(WLNS)

Medicaid beneficiaries are among the most impacted, with one in every three Medicaid patients waiting more than two days in emergency departments for care, according to health officials.

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The patients that are Medicaid beneficiaries in state law have to work with a local community mental health agency, and that adds an additional layer of complexity for patients, Lapine said.

Health care officials say policy changes and key investments in critical treatment options are still needed to improve behavioral health services.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the Israeli government to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach the suffering population in the Gaza Strip without delay.

"We are very concerned about the situation in the Gaza Strip and also about the intensification of the military operations there by the Israeli army, more than concerned," Merz said during a visit to the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

He said that there is ongoing communication with the Israeli government, and the foreign ministers of both countries have recently spoken on the phone several times.

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"We are particularly urging that humanitarian aid finally reaches the Gaza Strip without delay and also reaches the people there, because as we hear from the United Nations, a real famine is now truly threatening in the Gaza Strip," said Merz.

Israel lifted a nearly three-month blockade on humanitarian aid on Sunday - however, some of the trucks allowed into the sealed-off coastal area remained for days within the Gaza Strip near the border crossing, as the route proposed for them was too dangerous according to the UN.

"Truckloads of life-saving aid [are] finally on [the] move again," UN emergency relief chief Tom Fletcher wrote on Thursday morning on X.

Merz said: "Comprehensive and truly sustainable help is needed now to ensure that the population there does not continue to suffer."
The reinforcement of NATO's eastern flank with German troops in Lithuania would help defend the military alliance against "any aggression," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday.

Speaking during a visit to Vilnius to officially launch a new German armoured brigade, Merz said that Russian actions threatened the security of Ukraine, but also the security of Europe and the Euro-Atlantic area.

"The security situation here in the Baltic States remains very tense," said Merz alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

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"We are deploying this brigade to protect NATO's entire eastern flank," said Merz. It would "defend the Alliance's territory against any aggression."

Nauseda called Merz's visit a "powerful signal."

The German army is breaking new ground with the permanent stationing of a unit abroad. Previous deployments have been temporary. The move comes in response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Democrats are warning an unusually chaotic and expensive primary season in 2026 could hamper their efforts to retake the House.

Interviews with more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and strategists reflect a growing anxiety that next years primaries may be more combative and complicated than ever before  as waves of candidates frustrated with the GOP-controlled Washington and the Democratic Partys response to President Donald Trump crowd into primaries.

An increasing number of them are urging House campaign leaders to intervene to stop messy primaries from siphoning off valuable resources that they argued would be better deployed in the general election.

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They may get their wish.

House Majority PAC, the super PAC closely aligned with Democratic House leadership, said in a statement that it is not ruling anything out on whether to wade into both Democratic and Republican House primaries next year, doing whatever it takes to flip the House. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement if it see[s] a need to get involved in a Democratic primary to win back the House, then we will.

Democrats are feeling newly energized about their chances to take back the House next year. As the House GOP gears up to push through a megabill extending many of the tax cuts Democrats had used in their 2018 midterm message, theyre ready to deploy the same playbook to attack Trumps domestic agenda. They've seen increased candidate recruitment and the party overperform on redder turf in recent special elections. But the surge in candidates and potential spikes in donations could be too much of a good thing for Democrats if theres an expensive, messy pileup in competitive districts before they even face a Republican.

Its prompted private debate and concerns among Democratic lawmakers who are weighing their strategies for flipping the House back. And increased action  and spending  in safe-seat districts could also complicate their strategy, Democrats said.

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Theres going to be so many crowded primaries, so many people stepping up against Trump, and then so many different players throwing around real money in these primaries, said Ian Russell, a Democratic consultant who served as the DCCC political director in 2014 and 2016. But that creates some tension between all the energy coming out of these primaries and the party trying to shape desired matchups.

Yes, its going to be chaos, Russell said.

Democrats have meddled in their own House primaries before  either in direct endorsements and spending or behind-the-scenes maneuvering. But some are calling for the party to be even more aggressive in shaping the outcome of primary campaigns next year.

I think we need to start looking at how we can coalesce and consolidate behind a strong candidate in the primary, said Rep. Derek Tran, a California Democrat who narrowly advanced through his states top-two primary system in his 2024 run. I understand other people feel differently, but  I would have been able to win by bigger margins if the DCCC, anyone in leadership, chose to play in primaries.

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Doug Herman, a California-based Democratic strategist, said party leadership damn well better be intervening in its own primaries and, in fact, should be doing more of it.

Their urgency stems from an explosion of spending from outside groups to shape the primary landscape and a huge number of candidates eager to retake the House. Back in 2018, the last time Democrats had a shot at regaining control of the House, nearly $26 million poured into primaries from outside groups. By 2022, that figure ballooned to nearly $100 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Elections Commission filings.

That surge in cash has been primarily driven by cryptocurrency-backed super PACs, like FairShake, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, which formed its own super PAC, United Democracy Project, in 2021. The AIPAC-aligned super PAC and crypto-backed groups largely kept their primary spending on safe-seat districts for both Democrats and Republicans in 2022 and 2024. But its not clear whether that will hold in 2026.

Everything is on the table, said Josh Vlastos, a spokesperson for FairShake PAC.

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In a statement, Patrick Dorton, a spokesperson for United Democracy Project, said the group is looking at both Republican and Democratic opportunities to expand the pro-Israel bipartisan majority in Congress and anticipates being highly-involved in a number of races opposing anti-Israel incumbents, defending pro-Israel Members of Congress against anti-Israel challengers, and in open seats where there is a detractor of the US-Israel relationship.

But theyre not the only players. EMILYs List, the Democratic Majority for Israel, Working Families Party, Justice Democrats, VoteVets, J Street Action, 314 Action Fund, Congressional Hispanic Caucuses BOLD PAC and many others dropped at least $1 million, if not much more, into primaries over the last few cycles.

I think spending [from outside groups] will continue to increase [in 2026], but the number of open seats, the number of retirements we get, that could determine whether the spending gets super-charged, said Dan Sena, who served as the executive director of the DCCC in 2018.

And there are new groups, too. Leaders We Deserve, the super PAC co-founded by Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, has committed to dropping $20 million on safe-seat blue districts, hoping to take out what he calls asleep-at-the-wheel incumbents.

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Democrats might look beyond their own primaries, too. Democratic money has gone towards boosting GOP candidatesperceived to be weaker in a general election in the past. Last cycle, for example, now-Sen. Adam Schiff boosted GOP candidates to glide to victory in a general election, rather than face a one-on-one battle against another Democrat. In the 2022 cycle, Democrats elevated an election-denying GOP primary candidate who bested then-Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) in the primary.

House Majority PAC is leaving that door open again. But a DCCC spokesperson, in another statement, said it does not get involved in Republican primaries."

But it is the Democratic side where strategists and lawmakers said they hope the party will focus. Those calling for more interventions from party leadership ticked through several hotspots. Atop most lists is California, where the states top-two primary system makes it possible for two Republicans to block a Democratic candidate from making it to the general election if the field is splintered. Several Democrats flagged Californias 22nd and 40th Districts, a pair of battleground seats held by Republican Reps. David Valado and Young Kim, as two examples where they could see a fragmented Democratic vote due to high candidate interest.

We want to make sure we don't have super crowded fields split all the votes and then end up with two Republicans, said Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.). We obviously don't want to get boxed out.

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Democratic leaders could also step in when repeat candidates try again, while other first-time candidates are also entering the race. Democrats are already breathing easier in Michigan, where Carl Marlinga opted against a third run in a swing district in the Detroit suburbs despite some early moves towards one, opting instead to endorse a new candidate.

To me, those races where weve had retreads are the fire alarms for national Democrats because voters already told us what the score is, said one Democratic consultant, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. Thats where national Democrats have to be aggressive.

The DCCC did just that last year, when it added then-state Rep. Janelle Bynum to its Red to Blue list over Jamie McLeod-Skinner, an attorney and the 2022 Democratic nominee who lost that fall.

To give ourselves the best shot, we need our best candidates running the toughest races, said Bynum, who ultimately won her primary and the general election contest in 2024. That'll take an all hands on deck approach  from the DCCC to national ideological groups to state and local groups  to ensure we uplift those candidates in the primary and get the job done in the general."

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Another district where this could present a challenge is Colorados 8th District, where former Rep. Yadira Caraveo, who lost to Rep. Gabe Evans in 2024, has announced another run. The Colorado Sun reported earlier this month that her aides said they were mistreated by Caraveo and that she appeared to attempt suicide in situations witnessed by staffers, though shes stressed that she regretted her treatment of staff and was getting care.

If you dont get involved, you run the risk of limiting the number of seats in the general, but at the same time, they have to be wary of the backlash, said a Colorado-based Democratic consultant.

Jessica Piper contributed to this report.
UPDATE: On Thursday, May 22, NM 28 north and southbound lanes at Mile Marker 26, San Pablo, has been reopened, according to the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  A portion of New Mexico Highway 28 is closed after a two-vehicle crash involving a semitruck on Wednesday afternoon, May 21, according to Dona Ana County.

Just before 11:30 a.m. on May 21, Dona Ana County Sheriffs Office and fire crews responded to the crash at the intersection of NM 28 and Carver Road in San Pablo, roughly five miles outside of Las Cruces.

Photo of the two-vehicle crash near Las Cruces. Photo courtesy of Dona Ana County.

According to Dona Ana County, a semi truck was involved in the crash that was carrying sulfuric acid, which is deemed a hazardous material.

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The sulfuric acid was spilled onto the roadway following the crash and resulted in the roadway being closed to traffic, and power was shut off in the area, according to Dona Ana County.

Two people were hurt with minor injuries, Dona Ana County said.

NM 28 is closed in both directions at Mile Marker 26, San Pablo, the County said.

In addition, officials are asking residents to stay away from the area. Local businesses and schools have been notified of the incident and are requested to shelter in place, according to Dona Ana County.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.
Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael "Mike" Cavanagh has died at 84, the court's administration announced in a statement Wednesday, May 21.

Cavanagh is tied with former Justice James Campbell as Michigan's longest-serving justice ever. He served on the bench from 1983 to 2014, and he was the court's chief justice from 1991 to 1995. Campbell spent 32 years on the high court in the 1800s.

My dad and I were very close, and I feel so fortunate to have learned so much from a leader who dedicated his life to public service," current Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh, Michael Cavanagh's daughter, said a statement. "Though, Mike Cavanagh was much more than a dedicated public servant, much more than a great judge and justice, and much more than a tremendous father, husband, and grandpa. He embodied what it means to be a compassionate, thoughtful, and loving human being."

Then-Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh is pictured in his office in Lansing in 2014.

Michael Cavanagh had a decades-long career in Michigan's justice system. According to the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, after he obtained a juris doctorate from the University of Detroit (now University of Detroit Mercy) in 1966, Cavanagh launched his legal career as a research attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals. The next year, he became legal counsel for the city of Lansing, where he stayed until moving to private practice in 1969.

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His tenure as a judge began in 1972 when he was elected to the then-recently created 54-A District Court in Lansing, before winning election to the state Court of Appeals in 1975.

If you count the eight years Michael Cavanagh spent on the Michigan Court of Appeals, no judge in the state's history has ever spent longer than him as an appellate judge, as his career spanned nearly 40 years.

By the time he had retired from the court, he had heard more than 2,000 cases, former Chief Justice Bridget McCormack said when Michael Cavanagh's official portrait was unveiled in 2016. Mike Cavanagh wrote 277 dissenting opinions, 120 majority opinions, 95 concurring opinions and 65 unanimous opinions in his tenure on the high court.

In a 2014 interview with the Detroit Free Press, Michael Cavanagh said he would've sought another eight-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court if it were not for the state law prohibiting judges from being elected to the bench after they turn 70.

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"I might say it's bad public policy," he said. "Some people probably aren't fit to serve before they hit 70, but a great number have, I think, a lot to continue to contribute after that age. So I think it would have to be determined on an individual basis."

The Free Press, in that article, noted Michael Cavanagh's opinion in the 1983 People v. Coles case, which clarified the authority for appellate courts to review sentences handed down by trial courts.

Michael Cavanagh, during his time as chief justice, was also instrumental in establishing the state's Tribal Court Forum in 1992. The forum was significant in starting greater cooperation between Michigan's state courts and the tribal courts overseen by the state's federally recognized Native American tribes.

Upon his retirement from the high court, Michael Cavanagh joined the Alane & Chartier law firm in Lansing, a firm started by two of his former clerks, Natalie Alane and Mary Chartier.

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Michael Cavanagh was born in Detroit in 1940. He graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1958 and attended the University of Detroit, where he obtained both a bachelor's degree and a juris doctorate.

He was the brother of late Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanagh, who was mayor for two terms from 1962 to 1970.

Information on Michael Cavanagh's funeral arrangements and the date of his passing were not immediately available.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael Cavanagh dies at 84
Coronation Street and Doctor Who actor Michael McStay, who had an on-screen career spanning over 60 years, has died at the age of 92.

His death on Sunday (11 May) was confirmed by a representative. He is survived by his wife, actor Jennifer Clulow, and their two sons Darius and Paul.

McStay died from heart failure, but went at peace in his sleep after lunch with his sons, a statement from the actors spokesperson said.

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It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Michael McStay, an actor of the highest standing and talented writer, whose career across stage, screen and radio spanned over six decades, it read.

A prolific actor for several decades, McStay found fame in the ITV detective series No Hiding Place and went on to appear in films, including Peter Yates 1967 thriller Robbery, as well as featuring in the BBCs Doctor Who series as zoologist Derek Moberley in 1976.

McStay made his final on-screen performance in Coronation Street when he took over the character of Alan Hoyle from John Woodvine in 2011. He also wrote multiple plays for BBC Radio 4 and the 1984 ITV comedy Pull the Other One, starring Michael Elphick, Susan Tracy and Lila Kaye.

During his lengthy career, McStay spent time in France, where he starred in thirteen episodes of the series Le Mari de L'Ambassadeur for Koba films. The actor studied Drama, French and Philosophy at Bristol University then spent two years of National Service as an officer in Cyprus, during the Cyprus Emergency in the Fifties, before returning home to embark on his on-screen pursuits.

Coronation Street actor Michael McStay has died aged 92 his representatives have confirmed (Facebook)

McStay married Clulow (The Avengers, Keeping Up Appearances, No Hiding Place) in 1967 and was known among his family and friends for his sense of humour. Despite his loyal fan base, the actor became more private in his later years and rarely made public appearances.

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Speaking on Toby Hadokes Happy Times and Places podcast in 2024, McStay said he never regretted not getting the role of James Bond over his decades-long career because he had a loving family instead, which he wouldnt swap for all the success in the world.

Fan were quick to express their sadness on social media following the announcement of McStays death. Absolutely adored him in Corrie as Alan Hoyle in the John Stape storyline, one person wrote. Both him and the late Jean Fergusson were brilliant in the basement episode.
Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers), chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments on May 21, 2025 | Kyle Davidson

As Michigan Republicans continue to take a magnifying glass to economic development spending, the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments invited James Hohman of the free-market Mackinac Center for Public Policy to offer his analysis of the states Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund.

Hohman, who serves as the Mackinac Centers director of Fiscal Policy, walked committee members through a collection of several projects through the states critical industries program, comparing the number of jobs promised with the jobs delivered.

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As he broke down each agreement, Hohman repeatedly noted that these deals were structured to deliver short-term payoffs for companies, and were not tied to job creation, with many deals tying the bulk of their funding requirements to a companys capital expenditures, or money a company spends to buy, maintain or improve their assets.

James Hohman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments on May 21, discussing flaws with the states Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund. | Kyle Davidson

Additionally, not all deals move forward, with Hohman pointing to a $100.8 million dollar deal with Ford made in 2022 as an example.

Hohman urged lawmakers and members of the public to bring more skepticism to these deals, noting they often fail to deliver on their promises.

Theres a massive difference between what gets announced and what actually happens when it comes to living up to expectations, Hohman said.

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A lot of them wind up with no jobs at all. Some of them do meet [or] exceed expectations, but when you look at the rhetoric behind the deals, when theyre getting made, theres rarely even an acknowledgement that deals might not deliver on their pledges, Hohman said.

If companies fail to create the jobs they promised, the state has to wait years before it can ask for its money back, Hohman said. If they eliminate jobs after the deal concludes, the state has no way of getting its money back, he said.

Additionally when asked about the level of transparency offered into these deals, Hohman said they were meeting the minimum standard of transparency, publishing an annual report on how much money was offered, how much the company received and whether they created the jobs that were announced. However, the reports schedule leaves the status of most current projects unknown, while sometimes forcing people to wait 18 months to learn an agreement didnt move forward.

Overall the state has allocated $1.46 billion in taxpayer funds to create 14,779 jobs, Hohman said. While lawmakers clearly had ambitious plans for the program, those goals have not panned out, he said.

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And while the companies receiving this funding will likely create jobs to fill the buildings theyve built using state funding, the number of jobs they create will depend on an uncertain future, Hohman said.

My major takeaway for you is that if youre going to continue operating the critical industry program, more of the deal needs to be based on actual job creation. When you have deals that consistently fall apart, that fail to deliver, you should not be paying them until they finally do the things theyre obligated or that lawmakers expect them to do, Hohman said.

This would not require a change to the law, Hohman said, only a change in expectations for lawmakers, asking them not to approve projects based on capital expenditures rather than job creation.

State Rep. Laurie Pohustky (D-Livonia) calls for accurate criticism of Michigans Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve (SOAR) Fund during a May 21 meeting of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Corporate Subsidies and State Investments. | Kyle Davidson

While there are a number of areas where the Mackinac Center believes these dollars could better benefit residents, Hohman offered his support for House Republicans road funding plan, which draws the bulk of its funding by reallocating or eliminating funding set aside for economic development, including $500 million set for automatic deposits into the SOAR fund.

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Despite the issues with the program, State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky (D-Livonia) raised repeated concerns about ensuring criticism of the program was accurate. While some press releases may be disingenuous in promising to deliver jobs, SOAR funding that is allocated for site readiness should not be expected to create jobs.

You cant put 2,000 jobs in a site that is not ready for 2,000 jobs, Pohutsky said.

While the SOAR program is not the best use of the states money, there are enough flaws that are not based around promises made in press releases, she said.

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Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township), chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, announcing plan for a resolution to hold Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in contempt. On the left is Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and on his right is Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin), chair of the House Election Integrity Committee. May 22. 2025 | Photo by Ben Solis

Updated at 6:15 p.m.

Three key Michigan House Republicans on Thursday said they will request a resolution to hold Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in contempt for bucking a subpoena request for unredacted election training manuals.

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Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Township), chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, announced the plan at a news conference with Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Township), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Rachelle Smit (R-Martin), chair of the House Election Integrity Committee.

The move could result in litigation against the department, presumably with a request for the court to order Benson to hand over the information.

In a statement to Michigan Advance, the Department of State said their concerns for safety of election information were valid given the fact that the House gave DeBoyer authority to disclose confidential information to anyone he chooses at his discretion.

Smit, when she was the minority vice chair of the House Elections Committee, requested access to the Bureau of Elections e-learning portal, which holds education and training materials for the states local clerks.

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When she became chair of the now-renamed Election Integrity Committee, Smit brought the matter to DeBoyers oversight committee, which then issued a subpoena to the Michigan Department of State for any materials that had not already been provided to DeBoyer by May 13.

The department said multiple times that it was working to fulfill Smits and DeBoyers individual requests, but the department was wary of releasing the materials without review or redaction for security reasons.

On Thursday, Bollin, DeBoyer and Smit called foul on that position and said enough was enough.

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[Our] olive branch was that we said  well give you until 11 a.m. today to sit down and have an opportunity to discuss some of the items that they believe are privileged or protected items, DeBoyer said. Whether we agree or disagree with the theory, we believe in professionalism. So we did that, and the response to us, essentially in a letter that was returned to us this morning, said now theyre not providing us with anything further with regard to that.



That included declining the offer to sit down and hash it out, DeBoyer said.

Thats a pretty disappointing thing, he said. After all, the Legislature is the body that determines how elections are run, the time, the manner, the place, the laws by which they are implemented. [Smit] has not only the right but the duty in that role to request the information that is used to train local clerks with regard to how they administer elections.

That said, in the letter sent Thursday the department did agree to sit down for a meeting with House legal counsel, but indicated that it would like to have an independent third-party mediator present to resolve questions about disclosing confidential information. It also questioned the scope and purpose of the committees inquiry.

The Committees generalized purpose of investigating how every election law is implemented by DOS is so broad as to emit no purpose. But even if that purpose were assumed to be legitimate, the Committee has made no effort to explain why the sensitive information is pertinent to or necessary for its investigation, the letter said.

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A spokesperson for the department said it would have additional comment on the issue later.

2025.05.22 FINAL Pattwell House 2025 Subpoenas

But, given the perception that the House was being stonewalled, DeBoyer said House Republicans had no choice but to ask the full chamber to support a resolution holding Benson in contempt.

The next steps could include litigation.

I think thats a strong possibility, but what a sad day for Michigan, DeBoyer said. I happened to be a local clerk, as well, in 2020 when [Benson] told local clerks to not worry about signature verification on returned absentee ballots.  This is a continual problem, and the fact that we have to perhaps go to court is a shame for the people of the state of Michigan.

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Smit, who also served a clerk prior to serving in the Legislature, said she could not fathom the security risks cited by Benson and the department as reasons to not release the documents or to spend excess time redacting and reviewing them.

it just makes us [ask]: What is it that the Department of State is hiding [in] the training materials? If there is such sensitive and protected information, then why cant Secretary of State Benson explain to us what that is and sit down? Smit questioned. I have been asking to have this since November 7, 2024. It is nearly seven months. We are still here without the information.

Bollin, also a former clerk, said many of these documents are available on the secretary of states website under the election administrator tab. She wondered what was so secretive about the e-learning portal as opposed to that front-facing information.

The cadre of representatives was asked if it appeared as though Benson was trying to run out the clock on the request. DeBoyer said he didnt want to speculate on her thinking, but said that has been a tactic hes seen play out in Lansing before.

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Bollin added that the people of Michigan deserved transparency and confidence in their elections, and that Bensons unwillingness to comply with requests from the Republican-controlled House did not instill confidence.

DeBoyer went a step further and called Bensons action lawless.

Benson is one of several names in the race to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Her campaign has stumbled a bit out of the gate, with the pending contempt resolution adding to headaches over the disastrous rollout of the Michigan Transparency Network campaign finance system and the Department of Attorney General finding her in violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act for holding her announcement event in the lobby of the building that houses her department.

This story was updated to reflect that Rep. Smit had been asking for the requested material since 2024, not 2023.
LANGKAWI, Malaysia, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday urged cooperation among Asian nations to address global uncertainties and focus on safeguarding the well-being of the world.

The 100-year-old former leader, who first launched the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) over 30 years ago, visited the 17th edition of the exhibition here. He noted the development of technologies and advancements in the defense sector on display, especially the growth of the Malaysian defense industry.

"I think Asian countries must work together, but we must remember we are members of the whole world," he told Xinhua following his tour of the exhibition. "We must focus on our commitment to the well-being of the world."

"Also, there are many more Malaysian companies where before there were none. Malaysian companies are also involved in exhibiting their products, especially for the military. The new technologies (on display) are fantastic. I mean, they can see things which before were too far away, but now we can track ships and everything sailing in the (distant) sea," he said.

LIMA is a biennial event in Malaysia, first launched by Mahathir in 1991. It has grown into a major arms and technology expo, drawing hundreds of companies and showcasing various defense and aerospace technologies.

Separately, Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said Malaysia is working to strengthen border security, particularly along its long coastline, which covers the critically important maritime trade route along the Malacca Straits. He emphasized the need to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, piracy, smuggling and marine pollution.

"True economic prosperity cannot be achieved without security at sea... Disruptions in supply chains, shifting geopolitics, and emerging security threats further emphasize the need for a strong and coordinated maritime defense posture. Malaysia will continue to enhance its naval and maritime enforcement capabilities to protect our national interests," he said Wednesday at the Malaysia Maritime Conference, which runs concurrently with LIMA.

Among the measures are the adoption of new advanced surveillance technologies, including the deployment of autonomous unmanned vehicles, the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis and maritime threat monitoring, and the securing of the underwater cable network, both within Malaysia's waters and through cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the region's waters. 
State Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia) speaks on the Michigan House floor. May 1, 2025. | Kyle Davidson

Rep. Angela Rigas, chair of the Michigan House Oversight Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Government, released a scathing statement Wednesday evening blasting Attorney General Dana Nessel over continued delays in producing requested documents related to the Flint water criminal prosecutions.

Nessels office delivered numerous documents to Rigass office on Wednesday, but the representative said it was not at all what she requested.

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Dana Nessels office sent us an incomplete, incoherent mess of documents on a password-protected flash drive like they were bringing us the Holy Grail, Rigas said.

Rigas had requested documents related to the legal battles that ensued during Nessels term and in the aftermath of Flints water supply being contaminated in 2014. The contamination occurred due to a switch of the water supply without proper lead contamination prevention.

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Former Attorney General Bill Schuette began an investigation and prosecution, the latter of which began in 2016. Schuette charged a city of Flint employee and two employees with what was then known as the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality [now known as the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy].

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Nessel became attorney general in 2018 and scuttled Schuettes investigation and prosecution to begin anew in 2021. She formed a Flint water prosecution team led by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and former Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud while Nessel spearheaded the civil litigation side, which resulted in a mammoth settlement.

The criminal cases resulted in charges against former Governor Rick Snyder and several members of his administration, but those charges were later dismissed after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the prosecutorial team had used a one-man grand jury process to indict them without at first holding a preliminary examination that would have given the defendants a chance to poke holes in the attorney generals presentation of probable cause.

Justices of the high court ruled the process as unconstitutional, and the charges were dismissed shortly thereafter.

Rigas (R-Caledonia) as the chair of the House Oversight subcommittee, requested records from Nessel on March 12 with a deadline of March 25 to give the subcommittee various documents. The request included a comprehensive itemized list of all billable hours, legal fees and associated costs incurred during Nessels tenure as attorney general, including personnel time, outside counsel and expert witnesses; a breakdown of all state funds allocated and expended on these cases; copies of contracts and invoices or memorandums of understanding with third parties retained by her office; and a summary of reimbursements, settlements or cost recoveries tied to the cases.

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Nessel requested an eight-week extension, which Rigas granted, with a deadline of Tuesday.

Rigas in a news release issued Wednesday evening said the attorney generals staff brought a password protected flash drive to Rigas office, which was also shared with some members of the Lansing Capitol press corps. Nessels office also shared a copy of a letter sent to Rigas office on Tuesday indicating that the document haul was just one half of those requested by Rigas and that the other portion would be delivered to the representative on or before June 17.

Rigas said that the flash drive contained a mass array of unrelated documents that were never requested, mostly from [former Attorney General] Bill Schuettes tenure. The documents delivered to Rigas mostly contained contracts with attorneys and appointed special counsel Todd Flood and various invoices from Floods office.

Needless to say, Rigas was unhappy with what was turned over to her office.

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[Nessel] and her office have consistently failed to meet deadline after deadline, and its unacceptable, Rigas said. She has failed to follow simple directions and comply with what has so clearly been requested. There will be no more extensions. No more games. This ends now.

A request for comment was sent to the Attorney Generals office, but has yet to be returned.
Microsoft (MSFT) has reportedly implemented internal email filters that restrict messages containing terms such as Palestine, Gaza, and genocide. The move, which Microsoft described as part of an effort to limit mass, non-work-related messages, has sparked accusations of censorship and bias  particularly amid rising employee protests over the companys contracts with the Israeli government.

Employee activist group No Azure for Apartheid (NOAA) posted Microsofts email restrictions on social media, saying people were being blocked from sending messages related to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

NOAA has organized around Microsofts role in providing Azure cloud services, including AI tools, to Israeli government entities, which the group says could be used in military operations. Microsoft has maintained that internal and external reviews have found no evidence that its tools have been used to harm civilians in Gaza.

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Microsoft confirmed to The Verge that it implemented restrictions to limit politically focused emails.

In a statement provided to Quartz, a Microsoft spokesperson said, Sending unsolicited email to large numbers of employees at work is not appropriate. We have an established forum for employees who have opted into a variety of issues for this reason. Over the past couple of days, a number of emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.

Employees have previously said that pro-Ukraine or DEI-related mass emails were allowed, while their pro-Palestine messages were blocked.

Microsoft has operated an R&D center in Israel since 1991 (the companys first such center outside the U.S.) and is a major investor in Israels startup and cybersecurity ecosystem.

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The controversy around Microsofts ties to Israels government further escalated this week during the Microsoft Build developer conference when employees disrupted addresses by company leadership in order to protest Microsofts policies and contracts.

One employee, Joe Lopez, was terminated after disrupting CEO Satya Nadella during a keynote and sending an email to employees where he said he had to take action because of the silence of top brass on the companys links to the Israeli government. Lopez accused the company of a bold-faced lie about how Azure is being used in Gaza.

This isnt Microsofts first clash with employees over its government contracts. In recent months, over 1,500 workers have signed an open letter demanding the company end ties with Israeli defense agencies, echoing similar movements at Google (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN).

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Microsoft employees discovered that company emails containing words like Palestine and Gaza were being blocked following protests against the companys ties to the Israeli government. Protest group No Azure for Apartheid has accused the company of censorship and retaliation.

Microsoft employees discovered that the company is blocking emails that contain words like Palestine, Gaza, and Genocide after a series of protesters disputed the companys flagship Build event.

The protest group No Azure for Apartheid publicized the email restrictions via a social media post. The company confirmed to The Verge that it had implemented some changes to reduce politically focused emails within the company.

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In a statement shared with Fortune a spokesperson for Microsoft said: Sending unsolicited email to large numbers of employees at work is not appropriate. We have an established forum for employees who have opted into a variety of issues for this reason. Over the past couple of days, a number of emails have been sent to tens of thousands of employees across the company and we have taken measures to try and reduce those emails to those that have not opted in.

No Azure for Apartheid called the development: Yet another chapter in a long tale of Microsofts intimidation, retaliation, repression, and censorship culture.

Tensions have been riding high within the company after a series of protesters, including at least one former Microsoft worker, disrupted the companys Build event to oppose the companys contracts with the Israeli government.

Microsoft fired one of the protesters, Joe Lopez, after he disrupted CEO Satya Nadellas keynote and sent a mass email to employees. In the email, Lopez said his actions had been prompted by the silence of company leadership following previous protests over the companys links to the Israeli government.

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In a separate incident, Microsofts head of security for AI, Neta Haiby, accidentally revealed private messages about Walmarts use of Microsofts AI tools after protesters interrupted her talk.

Haiby accidentally switched the screen she was sharing to display internal messages about Walmarts upcoming use of Microsofts AI.

In one of the Teams messages, a Walmart AI engineer was quoted as saying: Microsoft is WAY ahead of Google with AI security. We are excited to go down this path with you.

Responding to the recent protests, a spokesperson for Microsoft previously told Fortune: The safety and well-being of our employees, customers, and community remain our top priority. We support the right to peaceful assembly and ask that it be exercised respectfully.

Protests at Microsoft

Microsoft has faced similar protests before. Just last month, ex-employees disrupted its 50th-anniversary event, denouncing the companys AI chief, Mustafa Suleyman, as a war profiteer.

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Last year, the company also dismissed two employees who organized a vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza, citing breaches of internal company policies as the cause.

Microsoft has continually denied that its technology is used by the Israeli military to harm Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Earlier this month, the company published the results of an internal review that found no evidence of Microsofts Azure or AI technologies being used to harm people.

Protesters have rejected the review, however, criticizing its scope. Microsoft acknowledged in the review that it didnt have visibility into how customers use our software on their own servers or other devices.

In his email to employees, Lopez accused Microsofts leaders of telling lies about Azures use in Gaza.

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Those of us who have been paying attention know that this is a bold-faced lie. Every byte of data that is stored on the cloud (much of it likely containing data obtained by illegal mass surveillance) can and will be used as justification to level cities and exterminate Palestinians, Lopez wrote.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
May 21A student at Jimmy Carter Middle School was arrested Tuesday after bringing a loaded gun to the West Side school, marking the 14th gun recovered at an Albuquerque Public Schools campus this school year, according to the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office.

The 13-year-old male student was charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon on school property and booked into the Bernalillo County juvenile detention center, according to a social media post by the DA's office. The boy is awaiting a hearing to determine if he will remain behind bars until trial.

"Kids are treating these guns like trophies, and somehow they look at them as a trophy," District Attorney Sam Bregman said in a phone interview. "This whole glorification of guns is becoming really out of hand when it comes to young people in New Mexico."

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The student could be facing "expulsion and potential prosecution," according to a letter from school Principal Michelle Velasquez that was sent to parents and shared with the Journal.

"It is imperative that all members of our community remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities. Every reported threat, no matter how seemingly insignificant, will be treated with utmost seriousness. We are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our students and staff," Velasquez wrote.

School administrators acted within two minutes of finding out the student had a gun, and district police arrested the student, according to APS spokesperson Martin Salazar.

Both the school district and the DA's office say the motive for why the student brought the gun to school is unclear.
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  A Middle Tennessee man has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison in connection with a fraudulent million-dollar investment scheme.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Middle District of Middle Tennessee, 52-year-old Gregory Michael Vogel also known as Gregory Michael Schneider of Hendersonville and Gallatin pleaded guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering for the fraudulent scheme.

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We are committed to unraveling intricate financial transactions and money laundering schemes where individuals attempt to conceal the original source of their money, Special Agent in Charge Donald Trey Eakins, Charlotte Field Office, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, said. Our special agents will continue to use their financial expertise to find and investigate allegations of investor fraud schemes alongside our law enforcement partners.

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Court documents revealed that between April 2015 and May 2019, Vogel allegedly devised a scheme to defraud victims he had solicited to invest money with his company in a foreign currency exchange. Vogel claimed that the business would generate substantial revenue.

Vogel allegedly made false representations about the investments, his management of the foreign currency exchange website and the ownership structure of the website.

Our office will continue to vigorously pursue fraud and prosecute fraudsters like Vogel in order to vindicate the victims of their schemes, acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire said. Prison sentences like this one send a clear message to fraudsters: we will not tolerate those who pray on victims to steal their money. We will find you, we will stop you, and we will hold you accountable.

He had also been sued by previous investors for a different investment offering, the U.S. Attorneys Office said, and Vogel had been permanently enjoined from soliciting or providing business investments or business advice in the future.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

Ultimately, Vogel is subject to a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $1,177,540 for the first eight counts and a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $120,000. Additionally, Vogel will be on supervised release for three years and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
(WFRV)  With Memorial Day weekend on the horizon and plenty of people ready to go out and about to celebrate the holiday, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is urging ATV/UTV riders to follow safe practices.

According to a release, 40 people died in ATV/UTV crashes statewide in 2024, most of whom were not wearing helmets.

Appleton Police Department partnering with Herrling Clark Law Firm to giveaway bike helmets

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All occupants, including an ATV or UTV operator, should wear a helmet approved by the Department of Transportation. Seatbelts should also be worn if available, specifically in a UTV.

We know that speed and reckless operation are among the top contributing factors to crashes each year, Lieutenant Jacob Holsclaw, DNR off-highway vehicle administrator, said. Those crashes could be prevented with responsible operation and education.

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive collects 150,000+ pounds of food for area pantries

As with any vehicle, residents are urged to be fully sober while operating an ATV or UTV. Additionally, it is crucial to travel in known areas, follow signs and let somebody not riding with you know where you are going and when you expect to be back.

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Safety regulations and classes can be found on the DNRs website.

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The state GOP convention on Saturday cracked a faction of the Utah Republican Party that had held firm for more than a decade.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee  the partys favorite product of the caucus system since his 2010 upset  took the stage to endorse his longtime friend, Rob Axson, for reelection as GOP chair.

Im here, not to tell you how to vote, but to ask for your help, Lee told the 2,600 delegates in attendance. I cant think of anyone who has done more to mobilize and unify our delegate base.

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By the time he stepped down Lee had become, in the minds of at least a few of the most fervent grassroots activists, a player in what they consider to be the states establishment machine.

State delegates cheer after Phil Lyman concluded his remarks in his candidate speech for chair of the Utah Republican Party during the Utah Republican Partys state organizing convention held at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 17, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

How Lee, one of the most consistently conservative lawmakers in Congress, could be viewed as an enemy by part of the GOP base came down to his repeated support for opponents of former state lawmaker Phil Lyman.

Over the course of a year, Lymans unsuccessful bid for governor, noted for its unsubstantiated allegations of corruption and its historic write-in results, drew the zealous devotion of many of the partys most engaged members.

In that race, too, Lee endorsed the incumbent, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, to the disappointment of Lyman, who began reposting messages on X calling for Lee to lose in a primary. (Lyman later said this was a mistake by his campaign staff.)

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But it was Lees appearance at the convention that proved the tipping point for some of Lymans most loyal defenders, who were, until then, also counted among Lees most outspoken advocates.

Is Lee the establishment?

In the hours and days following the convention, the most common posts on X referencing the senator were those criticizing him for his endorsement of Axson  who defeated Lyman with 52.4% of the vote.

I absolutely believe Mike Lee should be primaried, said Sophie Anderson, a state delegate from Davis County and one of Lymans most dedicated volunteers.

Anderson said she is a member of dozens of group chats with fellow party activists where there is a sizable number of people who feel the same way about Lee as she does.

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While Anderson believes that Lee started out in Congress committed to reflecting the party grassroots, she said that over time the pressures of the establishment have made Lee part of the establishment.

But much of Utahs Republican Party would say that Lees 14 years in the Senate show the opposite.

Few lawmakers have put up greater barriers to government spending increases, pushed harder against taxpayer funded abortions and pressured leadership more to follow proper budget processes than Lee.

There is no daylight between Lee and the most conservative wing of the Utah Republican Party, despite some hurt feelings caused by the GOP leadership race, according to Lees chief strategist, Dan Hauser.

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Lee remains friends with most of Lymans closest supporters, Hauser said, even as some of the inner circle of Lymans campaign have come out on social media to call Lee the establishment  a claim Hauser considers laughable.

If the most conservative senator in the nation  who wants to starve off the special interest groups that (the Department of Government Efficiency) found guilty of $100s of billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse, while also trying to shrink the size and scope of the government  is now establishment, then God bless America and the strong future that is coming," Hauser said.

Phil Lyman, a former state lawmaker, talks with state delegates during the Utah Republican Partys state organizing convention held at the UCCU Center in Orem on Saturday, May 17, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

Will Lee get a conservative primary challenge?

Regardless of how small or large the faction is of Lees newfound critics, their reaction to the convention reveals something about the trajectory of conservative politics in the state, said Jason Perry, director of the University of Utahs Hinckley Institute of Politics.

There appears to be a shift within the MAGA movement itself, which may be overrepresented on social media, that judges candidates by an evolving definition of what it means to be anti-establishment instead of their conservative track record, according to Perry.

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No one really looks at Mike Lee and thinks that he has not been a leader in the conservative space, Perry said. But to some of those Lyman supporters, that is not enough.

Spencer Stokes, president of lobbying firm Stokes Strategies and Lees former chief of staff, said he has never seen a senator make themselves more available to delegates than Lee.

For example, throughout his tenure, Lee has never changed his personal phone number and he has remained more consistent in his ideological stances than most politicians, Stokes said, calling Lee the most principled elected official that Ive seen in my lifetime.

He is anything but an establishment candidate, Stokes said. If you say that, you somewhat lose your credibility in the social media world youre in, because I dont think theres anybody in the state of Utah that would call Mike Lee an establishment candidate.

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Stokes doubts that Lee will face a legitimate challenge from his right in 2028 because it would be nearly impossible to find a conservative more dedicated to their cause than Mike Lee. But that doesnt mean someone wont challenge Lee from what Stokes called the fringe."

Is the reaction to Lee real?

While social media algorithms often exaggerate extreme viewpoints, Mitt Romneys former chief of staff Matt Waldrip said not to underestimate the ability of pro-Lyman delegates to shape the state GOP.

The active party members do have influence on what happens in the party around the state, and everyone capitulates to them in one way or another, Waldrip said. So it actually does matter that you have these people that are torn up about this.

And Waldrip doesnt see the criticisms of Lee as stemming purely from anger over his endorsement of Lymans opponents. It is true that with the rise of President Donald Trump officials like Lee have become something of an establishment, Waldrip said, and there are real ways in which Lee has strayed from the priorities of the GOP base.

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Unlike with past massive spending packages, Waldrip pointed out, Lee has remained relatively quiet on the big, beautiful bill making its way through Congress which could increase the federal debt by $4-7 trillion over the next decade.

Lee previously made a name for himself arguing that Congress had ceded too much power to the executive branch, Waldrip said. But Lee has not come out in opposition to Trumps flurry of executive orders, including his actions on tariffs, which Lee introduced a bill in 2021 to prevent.

But for one conservative influencer in Utah, the entire debate around Lee is evidence that the conservative movement in Utah seems to be falling apart at the seams.

Following the convention, Eric Moutsos, who posts prolifically about what he proudly calls conspiracy theories, said that despite having some disagreements with Lee, Lyman and other prominent conservatives, he will never attack them publicly.

Does this mean I will necessarily vote for any of them in certain races? It does not, Moutsos said, adding, To me real conservatism also means being smart enough not to go after people who share the majority of your values and beliefs.
SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG)  A Milton, Florida man has been sentenced for an aggravated battery incident that occurred in March 2024.

MCPSS teacher arrested after 4-year-old hospitalized: MCSO

According to a news release from the office of First Judicial Circuit of Florida State Attorney Ginger Madden, Circuit Judge Edward Nickinson III sentenced Aaron Eichman to 15 years in state prison for aggravated battery.

Aaron Eichman. (Santa Rosa County Jail View)

The release said that on March 23, 2024, Eichman knocked a man to the ground and kicked and punched him while on the ground. Eichman also struck the victim with a weapon and threatened him and a second victim.

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According to the release, the victims escaped to a safe location and reported the incident to law enforcement.

A jury convicted Eichman on April 3 of aggravated battery and two counts of assault. He was also found to be a prison releasee reoffender and a habitual felony offender, according to state attorney officials.

Eichman had served 22.3 months in state prison after being convicted of domestic battery by strangulation and felony battery. He was released on Oct. 22, 2022.

Morgan Wallens Sand In My Boots music festival: crime drops, travel breaks records

Assistant State Attorney Patrick King prosecuted the case, and the Santa Rosa County Sheriffs Office led the investigation.

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A Milwaukee police officer crashed an unmarked squad car into a van on the city's north side May 21, leading to injuries for a teenage driver and two officers.

The Milwaukee Police Department said the crash occurred at about 3:20 p.m. at the rain-soaked intersection of North 27th and West Locust streets.

The van was making a left turn when police collided with it, according to the department, which caused the van to flip on its side.

A Milwaukee police officer crashed an unmarked squad car into a van on May 21.

The 17-year-old driver of the van was transported to a hospital with nonfatal injuries, police said.

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Two officers in the squad car, ages 34 and 32, were also transported to a hospital with nonfatal injuries, according to police.

The department said no other injuries were reported.

More: National Avenue reconstruction in Milwaukee begins in 2026 with fewer lanes, curb extensions

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee police officer crashes unmarked squad car into van
JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday expressed deep shock and outrage over the killing of two employees at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., in what he described as an "antisemitic attack."

According to a statement of the Prime Minister's office, Netanyahu held a phone conversation with Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who briefed him on the details of the incident. The prime minister extended his support to the ambassador and staff members at the embassy.

Two staff members from the Israeli Embassy in the United States were killed in a shooting Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said.

"We are witnessing the horrific consequences of antisemitism and incitement against the State of Israel," Netanyahu said in the statement. "Blood libels come at a bloody cost and must be combated with full force. My heart goes out to the families of the young victims, whose lives were tragically cut short."

The prime minister added that he had instructed Israeli security authorities to increase protective measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide. 
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Overland Park police announced on Wednesday that a vehicle has been located in south central Kansas that belongs to an 81-year-old woman who has been missing for a week.

On Saturday, May 17, a Silver Alert was issued for Jerry McConnell, an at-risk woman who reportedly disappeared while driving to her Overland Park home from Harrisonville, Missouri, on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 14.

The Overland Park Police Department (OPPD) has issued a Silver Alert for a missing 81-year-old woman, identified as Jerry McConnell, who has not been seen for three days. The Honda Accord of 81-year-old Jerry McConnell, an Overland Park woman who disappeared on May 14, 2025.

McConnell was driving a grey 2009 Honda Accord with Texas license plate RFP836. On Wednesday, police said the vehicle was located by the Cowley County Sheriffs Office unoccupied. Deputies are currently searching the area.

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She is believed to have been spotted on Thursday, May 15, near Severy, Kansas  a small town located about 155 miles (or 2.5 hours) southwest of Overland Park.

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Police ask that if you or anyone you know sees McConnell, please contact OPPD at (913) 895-6300.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Several days after a child was reported missing at Billy Dunlop Park, Clarksville officials announced his body has been recovered.

The Clarksville Police Department responded to Billy Dunlop Park just after 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, to help Clarksville Fire Rescue and Montgomery County EMS with a water rescue. A father reported his 12-year-old son went missing after he was last seen in the river.

Dive teams suspended their operations Sunday night, but efforts continued on Monday, May 19, with assistance from search and rescue dogs.

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PREVIOUS: Water rescue to continue at Billy Dunlop Park in Clarksville

The next day, Clarksville Fire Rescue announced it had to suspend on-water recovery operations along the West Fork of the Red River at Billy Dunlop Park, citing weather conditions and safety concerns, rapidly rising water levels and dangerously strong currents, have forced us to redirect our efforts from the water to bank patrols and when conditions allow, water patrols with available watercraft.

Fire officials added CPD, the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department, the Clarksville mayors office, the Montgomery County EMS dive team, the Stewart County dive team, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Waterdogs dive team, and Cumberland K9 Search and Recovery were instrumental in the efforts.

(Courtesy: City of Clarksville) (Courtesy: City of Clarksville) (Courtesy: City of Clarksville) (Courtesy: City of Clarksville)

Clarksville Fire Rescue posted at 10:10 a.m. on Thursday, May 22, that on-water search/recovery efforts would resume along the West Fork of the Red River.

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However, just a couple hours later, officials announced the 12-year-old boys body had been recovered at approximately 10:24 a.m., less than a mile downstream from the original search area. The childs family has been notified.

READ MORE | Latest headlines from Clarksville and Montgomery County

Billy Dunlop Park and Robert Clark Park will stay closed until further notice.

No additional details have been released about the deadly incident.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
CHICAGO (WGN)Chicago police are asking the public to be on the lookout for two brothers who were last spotted in the citys West Pullman neighborhood.

The department says the brothers have been missing for days.

According to police, Jashaun Gibson was last seen on Sunday, May 11, at 11600 S. Wentworth Ave. Police described the 15-year-old as 4 feet 8 inches tall and 100 pounds. Jashaun also has brown eyes and black hair.

(L to R): 15-year-old Jashaun Gibson and 12-year-old Julez Gibson. (Photo: CPD)

Police add that Jashauns 12-year-old brother Julez is also missing. His last sighting occurred on Saturday, May 17, at 11600 S. Wentworth Ave. Police describe Julez as 4 feet 5 inches tall, 160 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair.

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CPD suspects the brothers are together.

Jashaun may be wearing a grey and black shirt, red shorts, and black Croc shoes. Julez may be wearing a black hoodie with white wording, black pants, and purple Croc shoes.

LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland

Anyone with information on their siblings whereabouts should call Area Two SVU detectives at (312) 747-8274 or call 911.

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UPDATE: Police in Huntley say the missing teens have been located safely. Authorities said the investigation is still pending and that no additional information would be released at this time.

Police did not disclose an update on the unidentified male the teens were believed to be in company with, however.

_____________________

HUNTLEY, Ill. (WGN)  Police sought help locating two girls who were reported missing by their family members.

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Huntley Police Detectives said that after identifying the teens may be traveling to Chicago, they acquired video evidence capturing the pair arriving at Ogilvie Transportation Center at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

According to police, the missing teens apparently dyed their hair and attempted to change their appearance before boarding the train.

Missing brothers, ages 15 and 12, last spotted in West Pullman, CPD says

Police said neither teen had a cell phone that was known to their family.

They have been in communication with friends but will not disclose their location, and they may have left our area, police stated.

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Anyone with information on the male subjects identity should call Huntley police at (847) 515-5311 or 911.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV.
Update: An adult male reported missing has been located safe. According to Miami Valley Hospital, he had been discharged.

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  The Dayton Police Department is asking the public for help in locating an adult reported missing.

The department issued an alert about a man who was reportedly last seen on May 21.

The man is reported missing from Miami Valley Hospital and was last seen at approximately 11:51 p.m. He was seen wearing plaid pajama bottoms and a dark colored T-shirt.

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The individual is described as being 59, 140 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. He is 21 years of age.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the department at 937-333-2677 or Crime Stoppers at 937-222-STOP. Tips can also be left online.

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A kayaker who went missing in the Monocacy River was found dead Tuesday evening after a seven-day search, according to a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Natural Resources Police officers, with the assistance of the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue, recovered the body of 34-year-old Sean Michael Chilson in the Monocacy River in the area of the Biggs Ford Road bridge at around 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to DNR spokesperson Hunter Dortenzo.

Chilsons body was recovered via boat, Dortenzo said.

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Chilson, from Thurmont, went missing while kayaking on the Monocacy River on May 14.

Chilson entered the river in a kayak at Links Bridge between 11 a.m. and noon, according to Sarah Campbell, a spokesperson for the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services.

The search for Chilson started shortly after noon on Wednesday when he did not appear at a point downstream where people on land expected him, Campbell said.

The people connected to Chilson reported him missing.

The search for Chilson was conducted by several agencies, including the Frederick County Sheriffs Office, the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services and Maryland Natural Resources Police, Dortenzo previously said.

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Emergency personnel used drones and boats to search the river, eventually finding Chilsons kayak between Biggs Ford Road and Md. 26 the same day Chilson went missing, Dortenzo said.

The investigation remains ongoing, however search efforts have concluded upon recovery, Dortenzo wrote in a message to The Frederick News-Post late Tuesday night.

Dortenzo said Chilsons body will be taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy.
Pheobe Bishop, Queensland Police

BUNDABERG, Australia (WJW)  People dont vanish. Thats the message from police in Queensland as they search for 17-year-old Pheobe Bishop.

The teen went missing a week ago after being dropped off near Bundaberg Airport.

Great sadness: Man killed in crash while driving to scene of fiancees fatal crash, leaving behind 4-year-old son

Bishop was last seen at about 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 15, on Airport Drive in Bundaberg, according to police. Authorities said she had a flight booked to Brisbane and then to Western Australia to visit a friend but never entered the airport terminal.

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In a Thursday update, Queensland police said two locations have now been declared crime scenes as part of the investigation: a property in Gin Gin where the teen lived and a grey Hyundai ix35 with Queensland registration 414EW3.

Currently, no one is in custody in relation to this investigation, however police continue to speak to people who know Pheobe, a press release stated.

Florida man fatally shoots adult stepson after 9-year-old pulls gun from drawer: police

Authorities are treating the case with urgency and continue to appeal for public assistance.

You may have the small piece of information that leads use to finding Pheobe, Detective Acting Inspector Ryan Thompson said at a press conference. People dont vanish  someone knows something.

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In the days following missing camper Tiffany Slaton's rescue from the Sierra National Forest, what began as a heartwarming tale of a woman surviving against all odds has been tinged by a chorus of online skeptics questioning the hiker and her family.

While many have praised the tenacity of the 28-year-old Georgia woman, others have expressed doubts about the veracity of her shocking survival story and have criticized her family's fundraising motives.

Slaton had set out for a three-day camping trip in the Huntington Lake area on April 20 but wound up surviving three weeks in the wilderness  eating wild leeks and boiling snow melt for potable water  before she was found on May 14 in a cabin near Lake Edison, she said during a Friday news conference.

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Slaton said she became lost after she fell off a cliff and was unable to return to the main road due to an avalanche. After the tumble she was unconscious for two hours. When she woke, she splinted one of her legs and popped her other knee back into place.

She proceeded to journey many miles while seeking civilization, overcoming 13 snowstorms and two landslides, she said. Along the way, she lost her electric bike, tent, two sleeping bags and phone.

Read more: Missing camper 'miraculously' found alive after surviving weeks in snowy High Sierra

After she was rescued, medics determined she was dehydrated, but otherwise in good condition, according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office.

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After the news conference, comments questioning her story began streaming onto the Fresno County Sheriff Office's social media, news articles about the rescue and a Reddit post dedicated to discussing "odd details" in her story.

"Im glad to see that other people dont believe this story. So many things dont add up, I hope this office investigates fully since resources were used," a person wrote on the sheriff's office's Facebook. "Its embarrassing to think people believe someone fell off a cliff, survived 2 hours unconscious (guess she was timing it), popped her knee back into place, and traveled 20 miles after splinting her leg."

Slaton has not spoken with the media since the news conference. Her mother, Fredrina Slaton, declined an interview request from The Times on her behalf.

On Monday, her parents shut down donations to their GoFundMe page, which had raised more than $23,500, citing "negative feedback that has arose from these events."

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"It has taken a lot to endure the attacks and attention asking for help has brought us," Fredrina Slaton wrote on GoFundMe.

Slaton's parents reported their daughter missing on April 29 after not hearing from her for nine days. They launched the fundraiser on May 7 and continued to accept donations after she was found, citing the need to cover travel expenses to California.

"At this time, we aren't taking any interviews," Fredrina Slaton told the Times in a Wednesday statement. "We are focusing on Tiffany's health and well being."

Bobby Slaton, Tiffany's father, has defended his daughter's survival tale, writing on GoFundMe, "Believe it or not, we even thank those who have questioned the merit of the events  That is what makes miracles so unbelievable."

Tiffany Slaton smiles after her rescue in Fresno County. (Fresno County Sheriff)

Experienced Sierra mountain guide Howie Schwartz said he doesn't doubt Slaton was lost in the wilderness, but said there is lot that doesn't make sense about her story.

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"It doesn't seem like a story you can really wrap your head around," Schwartz told The Times. "Falling off a cliff, having to splint her leg. You don't splint your leg unless your leg is broken and if your leg is broken, you're not walking miles on it."

Schwartz was guiding a five-day ski trip in the Mono Recesses in the Sierra while Slaton was missing and saw helicopters searching for her. He confirmed that there were still late-season snowstorms passing through the region, but noted that Huntington and Edison lakes' elevation is low enough that precipitation likely came down as rain.

Another detail many internet sleuths have fixated on is Slaton's experience with her phone. She said she was unable to contact 911, but got GPS information for a Starbucks location.

"I eventually got mad at my GPS and decided to ask, 'Well, where is the nearest Starbucks?" she said at the news conference. "It was like, 'Oh, well, we can answer that question. It's 18 miles from here.'"

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Tony Botti, a spokesperson for the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, said that the department does not yet have a clear understanding of all aspects of Slaton's survival story  such as the exact route she traveled while missing, or how her phone could not contact 911 but directed her to a Starbucks.

"We can only work with the information she told us because there are no other independent witnesses," Botti said in a statement to The Times. "If there are inaccuracies or embellishments, we really cant do anything about it."

The department is still investigating Slaton's journey and has found tracks lining up with her path, but has not recovered any of her missing belongings, Botti said.

Some people have accused Slaton of seeking attention with her story, pointing to her comment during the news conference that she was interested in going on the survival show "Alone" in which participants are left in the wilderness with only a backpack.

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"Option 1: shes mentally ill and needs help. Option 2: She greatly embellished the story to cover her horrendous disregard for common sense Option 3: A contrived story looking for a book deal and [Go]FundMe revenue," one person wrote on Reddit. "Anyone who knows the area would agree."

Some critics have lambasted her for failing to bring a satellite contact device  which allows people to send messages in areas without cell service  arguing she wasted law enforcement resources in the search for her.

Botti defended Slaton, saying that the woman didnt report herself missing and "there is no evidence to show she knew we were searching for her."

Fresno County Sheriff John Zanoni called Slaton's journey "an incredible story of perseverance, determination and survival" saying it is "something that you may see on TV that they would make movies about."

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The Sheriff's Office began searching for Slaton after her parents reported her missing and, thanks to tips from the public, learned she had last been seen at Huntington Lake on April 20.

The Sheriffs Search and Rescue team scoured nearly 600 square miles of the High Sierra looking for Slaton from May 6 to 10. Vehicles were unable to make it through Kaiser Pass because of heavy snow blocking the road, but helicopters were used to scout above Mono Hot Springs and around Lake Edison, where Slaton was ultimately found.

The Sheriff's Office announced that the missing hiker was "miraculously found alive" on May 14 at Vermilion Valley Resort, which is more than 20 miles from where she was last seen. Resort owner Christopher Gutierrez found Slaton inside a cabin when he went to check-in on the condition of his resort in advance of reopening for the summer season.

Gutierrez commended Slaton's wilderness skills during a news conference last week, saying he was awed by how she endured a blizzard and foraged for survival.

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"She has stories, she could write a book," he said. "It's just unbelievable."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV)  Camping on certain public property will soon be outlawed in Mississippi.

House Bill 1203 was co-authored by State Rep. Kevin Felsher (R-District 117). It defines public property as sidewalks, streets and alleys.

There were a lot of complaints about someone setting up a tent, obstructing a sidewalk, or setting up a tent in a park for days at a time, said Felsher.

Magee mayor wont seek re-election due to health concerns

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Stewpot Community Services Executive Director Jill Buckley said shes unsure what will happen when the bill becomes law.

What I hope happens is that we will all discover as a result of this, the enforcement of this bill, where the gaps are, and then come together as a community to try to figure out how to fill those gaps, she said.

Those who violate the law will face a fine up to $50 or jail time. The law will go into effect on July 1.

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This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Dong performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

The astronaut trio -- Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie -- worked for about eight hours and completed the task at 4:49 p.m. (Beijing Time), assisted by a team on Earth.

Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui, tasked with conducting spacewalk operations, exited through the node cabin of the Tianhe core module. This marked the first time that astronauts had exited via the node cabin since the space station transitioned into its application and development phase.

The astronauts installed a debris protection device at its designated location. The device had been previously deployed outside through the cargo airlock and temporarily positioned by the robotic arm.

Also, external equipment was inspected and maintained. They have since returned to the core module safely, according to the CMSA. 

This video screenshot taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Dong leaving China's orbiting space station for extravehicular activities. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Zhongrui performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Dong performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Zhongrui performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Dong performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)

This screen image captured at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on May 22, 2025 shows Shenzhou-20 astronaut Chen Dong performing extravehicular activities outside China's orbiting space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station completed their mission's first series of extravehicular activities on Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. (Xinhua/Li Yanchen)
CARTHAGE, Mo.  The need for more daycare space has been an ongoing challenge in Missouri, one that may get some extra attention moving forward.

Lack of child care providers continues to be a crisis in Missouri

We want to be the best that we can be for our parents and our families and our kids, said Kelley Renfro, Kidz Club Owner.

Making for busy days at the Kidz Club daycare in Carthage, where there are 45 little ones.

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As far as I know, there are wait lists everywhere, and always have been. And our, like I said, were full capacity, and our wait list is very long, said Renfro.

Kelley Renfro opened her daycare less than a year ago. It filled up fast, but that doesnt make it an easy business to be in.

Staffing has been challenging just because we in childcare work long hours, but we only make minimum wage and have raises here there, but we dont want to have to charge the parents a lot of money, said Renfro.

Kelley and other daycares could be getting some help.

The proposed Missouri state budget for 2026 includes about 120 million dollars in subsidies and grants to help start new child care operations, and make existing ones stronger & more cost-effective.

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Advocacy group Kids Win Missouri says this will quote significantly strengthen child care infrastructure and affordability across the state.

Child care in the more business sense, is different today, and its expensive, and so the question of providing child care, thats both quality and affordable, is not an easy. So weve made some nicely provisions to help, said MO Rep. Lane Roberts, R.

The current budget includes a $500 increase to the child tax credit.

Thats now on the Governors desk awaiting final approval of the spending plan.

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(Getty Images).

Medicaid is not just a safety net  its a lifeline for more than 1.2 million Missouri residents, nearly 20% of our states population.

It ensures access to basic healthcare for low-income individuals and families who would otherwise go without. But Medicaid does more than support individuals; it is a vital public health tool that strengthens entire communities.

In Missouri, Medicaid plays a particularly critical role for women and children. Over 40% of women who give birth in the state are covered by Medicaid during pregnancy, and consequently, about 40% of children are utilizing this program. It also provides healthcare to more than 500,000 children.

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And yet, despite this extensive coverage, Missouri ranks 44th in the nation for maternal mortality rates.

During my time working on a maternal-fetal medicine ward, I witnessed firsthand how fragile and inconsistent healthcare access can be for pregnant patients. Many women came in with undiagnosed, unmanaged conditions like high blood pressureproblems that could have been treated early with regular care. But for many, pregnancy is the only time they qualify for Medicaid and thus the only time they see a doctor.

When Medicaid coverage ends postpartum, so does their access to care. These untreated conditions worsen over time, making subsequent pregnancies more dangerous. Missouris extension to cover Medicaid postpartum for 12 months is an incredible step towards creating healthier mothers, healthier pregnancies, and ultimately healthier children.

This issue extends beyond pregnancy. Preventable conditions like diabetes and hypertension often go undiagnosed and untreated due to lack of access to routine care. As a result, emergency rooms are flooded with patients seeking non-emergency care  like prescription refills  that should be handled by primary care providers. This misuse of emergency care drives up healthcare costs, increases ER wait times, burns out physicians, and frustrates patients.

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Medicaid is not just importantits essential. Without it, millions would lose access to the care they need, leading to worse health outcomes and skyrocketing costs across the system. And yet, Missouri ranks dead last in state health spending, contributing just $7 per person in state funds and $92 per person when including federal support. Now, with federal Medicaid funding facing potential cuts, Missouri stands at a crossroads.

Will our lawmakers act to protect and expand Medicaid access, or will they allow more than a million Missourians to fall through the cracks? The health and future of our state depend on their funding.
PART 1

WEBB CITY, Mo.  A group of aggressive motorcycle riders puts a Webb City couple through an experience they say theyll never forget.

I didnt think it would go that far, but it did, said Webb City resident and business owner, Terry Quarles.

What started as a quiet evening for Terry Quarles, quickly became something he and his girlfriend, Kristy will never forget.

It was traumatizing, it was terrifying, just an absolute nightmare, said Kristy Winter.

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On October 25, 2024, the couple was driving home from dinner, when they found themselves surrounded by 15-to-20 motorcycles driving erratically on North Range Line Road.

They were riding wheelies and going through lights, said Winter.

I rolled my window down and told them, You need to straighten your driving up. Its ridiculous, said Quarles.

There were some words exchanged about, they need to calm their driving down and it went downhill from there very quickly, said Winter.

Thats when the group of riders began to target the couple, and the truck Terry was driving.

Fearing for their safety and the possibility of a collision, Kristy began recording the incident. It was also captured on one of the motorcyclists helmet-cam and was later posted on social media.

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The further we got into Webb City, the closer they started getting to us. They surrounded us on both sides of the truck, said Winter.

They started throwing things at the truck, kicking the mirrors and smacking the mirrors, kicking the taillights, the headlights, the fenders, the doors, said Quarles.

Thats when I told him, Im calling the cops, said Winter.

While Kristy was on the phone with 911, the bikers turned into the parking lot of Whataburger in Webb City. Knowing there was damage to his vehicle, Terry pulled in right behind them.

After beating on a vehicle, you know, youre thinking, Im at least going to have a talk with these boys, you know, and it went south quick. As soon as I stepped out, I knew I was in trouble, said Quarles.

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Five or six of them jumped me and were kicking me. Broke two ribs, a concussion, both black eyes, said Quarles.

Meanwhile, Kristy was still on the phone with 9-1-1.

Im like, hes out of the truck, then Im like, they have him down on the ground and theyre beating him, and she goes, where? and I said, Webb City Whataburger, said Winter.

I hung up and then I turned the camera on, thinking, okay, now I want to record who these people are in case charges can be filed against them, said Winter.

Seconds before officers arrived, the bikers were gone, leaving behind a parking lot littered with pieces of Terrys truck and blood from the attack.

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But the group of riders also left a digital trail of their alleged crimes.

Between everybody, friends and family, we pulled up all this stuff on Facebook, because it was on Facebook. It was on their Facebook, said Quarles.

Terry says the videos helped his family identify at least two of those involved. Similar videos have also been posted on social media, showing large groups of motorcycles blocking intersections and wreaking havoc on Joplin roads.

In Terrys case, that video evidence was then handed over to the Webb City Police Department. Months after the assault, investigators sent the case to the Jasper County Prosecutors Office.

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Its been going on seven months now, and the prosecuting attorney in Joplin hasnt done a thing, said Quarles.

PART 2

WEBB CITY, Mo.  Last October, Terry Quarles and his girlfriend, Kristy Winter, found themselves in the middle of a dangerous situation on North Range Line Road.

During the couples drive home, their truck was surrounded by a group of 15-to-20 motorcycles driving erratically.

They were riding wheelies and going through lights. It was unsafe for everybody involved, said Winter.

I rolled my window down and told them, You need to straighten your driving up. Its ridiculous, said Quarles.

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It went downhill from there very quickly, said Winter.

The group of riders appeared to target the couple, and, in the video, you can see them attack their truck.

After several miles, the bikers turned into the parking lot of Webb Citys Whataburger.

Terry, looking for answers, pulled in right behind them. Almost immediately, he was met with violence.

Terry says it didnt take long to find video evidence police could use to bring charges against the men who took turns punching and kicking him.

Terrys injuries include two broken ribs, a concussion, and two black eyes.

Between everybody, friends and family, we pulled up all this stuff on Facebook, because it was on Facebook. It was on their Facebook, said Quarles.

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The evidence he collected was handed over to the Webb City Police Department.

In February, the case was handed over to the Jasper County Prosecutors Office.

Its been going on seven months now and the prosecuting attorney in Joplin hasnt done a thing, said Quarles.

Prosecuting Attorney, Theresa Kenney says her office is actively working on the case.

When youre the victim of the crime, it does seem to take too long, but this isnt the only case that law enforcement is working on, and its not the only case my office is working on. So, I understand the frustration: Whats taking so long, why cant I get an answer? But what we try to tell people is wed rather get it right than get it fast, said Kenney.

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We realize that law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys have other cases, but maybe something could be done in a little more timely fashion. At least open the doors of communication better, said Winter.

One thing that we probably can do better, maybe in cases where there is going to be delay, that we do a better job of reaching out to them earlier to explain the process, said Kenney.

Kenney says in cases like Terrys, a victim advocate can be beneficial.

Unfortunately, people are victimized every single day, and they deserve to have someone designated to them and them alone, not someone that has to do anything else, aside from knowing that this is a person they can speak to and they can reach out to, and that is their primary role, said victim advocacy professional, Kayla McQuigg.

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Kenny declined to comment on possible charges against Terrys attackers, citing the ongoing investigation.

Without getting into any specifics, if and when we feel like we have sufficient information to move forward, then yes, well file the case, said Kenney.

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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, top right, joined other Democratic governors in Michigan and Kansas to decry the proposed Medicaid cuts. (Screenshot from DGA Zoom call)

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday called on Congress to halt its effort to cut Medicaid, joining a handful of other Democratic governors to decry the cuts as a giveaway to the ultra-wealthy on the backs of the working poor.

As Lujan Grisham noted in the call with the Democratic Governors of America, 840,000 New Mexicans are on Medicaid, which is more than 40% of the state. Thats the highest per capita rate of Medicaid coverage in the country, according to recent estimates.

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In addition to people losing their healthcare, she predicted the cuts would spell the closure of several hundred hospitals nationwide. In New Mexico, which already faces healthcare shortages particularly in rural areas, that will result in less access to care, she said.

That means youre driving not one hour or two hours for care, she said. It means that youre likely driving four or five hours for care.

According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, more than 10 million people would lose Medicaid coverage by 2030 under the current version of the spending bill making its way through Congress.

The bill also would impose work requirements for those receiving Medicaid. The other Democratic governors on the call, including Jared Polis of Colorado, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Laura Kelly of Kansas, had slightly different takes on what the work requirements could mean.

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Polis, for example, said the American people would be fortunate if Medicaid work requirements emerged as the worst thing to come out of Congress, so long as states had flexibility in how to administer it.

Lujan Grisham spoke up after Polis comment, saying that Medicaid work requirements are tried, not true, and would ultimately impose a heavy administrative burden on states without spurring an increase in employment.

You have many working poor people on minimum wage in any of our states, whether thats a state minimum wage or the federal wage, its not enough to afford health insurance, she said. This notion that youve got all these folks who arent working, who willingly choose that, is also a false narrative.

The governors expressed alarm at the proposed cuts, and said their states cant afford them. A recent state estimate said New Mexico received nearly $9 billion for Medicaid in 2024. Thats equal to more than 80% of the states newly passed, record operational budget of $10.8 billion.

We want every American to understand what this really means, and not let Congress off the hook in the dark of night to cut a backroom deal with this president on the backs of working American families, on the backs of New Mexico working families, Lujan Grisham said. Lets tell Congress what we think of these outrageous cuts to basic necessities for everyday, hardworking families.
LOUISIANA (KTAL/KMSS) A mother is urgently seeking help to find her missing daughter, who struggles with several mental disorders.

Lakeisha Broussard says that her adult daughter, Madison Joubert, disappeared between May 18 and 19, and she has been unable to contact her since.

Broussard says that Madison is severely schizophrenic and bipolar and has not been taking her medication, which may have affected her mental state.

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Anyone with information about Madisons whereabouts is encouraged to contact the St. Landry Parish police at 337-948-6516.

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The family of a 15-month-old in Arizona said she was bitten twice by a rattlesnake while walking outside of her home with her mother, Jacquelyn Reed

Cara Reed's mom told NBC affiliate KPNX her daughter needed 30 vials of antivenom after the bite

The toddler's foot initially blackened and her oxygen levels dropped, but Jacquelyn said Cara is now able to wiggle her toes and no longer needs a breathing tube







An Arizona 15-month old is recovering in the hospital after her family says she was bitten twice by a rattlesnake.

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Jacquelyn Reed told NBC affiliate KPNX that she and her daughter Cara were walking at their home near Florence, Arizona when the little girl was bitten. Reed said she walked away for ten seconds to throw out some trash, then heard her daughter crying.

"[Cara] had four puncture wounds on the top of her foot, in the little window of her little jelly shoe, and behind her, to her left was a snake coiled up," Reed told KPNX. I was terrified.

She drove her daughter to the emergency room, after which Cara was eventually airlifted to Phoenix Childrens Hospital for her injuries. Reed said Cara has needed 30 vials of antivenom treatment and had to be intubated.

Her mom said it was "difficult" to see her daughter's "complications" from the bite. The toddlers foot initially blackened and her oxygen levels dropped to just 25%, but her mother told KPNX that Cara is now able to wiggle her toes and she no longer needs a breathing tube.

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[Cara's] the angel of the family, Reed told KPNX. Obviously, I hope that we can get full function back, that she can be back to her normal, happy, cute, adorable self.

According to KPNX, Reed isn't sure if her daughter's foot will regain its full function. However, she said that if she hadn't acted quickly after the bite, she doesn't know if her daughter would have survived.



Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

A GoFundMe to help cover Caras recovery costs has already raised more than $7,000.

"She is a strong little girl and fighting so hard," the GoFundMe description reads. "She has a whole community of people that love her."

Read the original article on People
The shocking moment a New York woman matter-of-factly admitted to suffocating and burning her infant son in an Albany park nearly 30 years ago was captured on newly released footage, according to a report.

DNA testing on the childs remains led investigators to Keri Mazzuca, 52, who was interviewed last year over the death of Baby Moses  a child found wrapped in a towel and burned at the foot of a statue of Moses in Albanys Washington Park in 1997, News10 reported.

The technology, which Mazzuca submitted a sample for, was the same used to nab accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann and Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo, according to the outlet.

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After being shown a gruesome photo of the newborns charred remains, Mazzuca made an admission with seemingly casual indifference, footage released by the Albany County District Attorneys Office showed.

The moment Mazzuca is shown the image of the burned Baby Moses. The Albany County District Attorney's Office

I did it, Mazzuca calmly states to the officer, before attempting to justify her heinous act when she was in her mid-twenties.

I got pregnant. I had the baby. I gave birth in my bathtub; the baby died. I didnt know how to get rid of it, she claimed to officers  still not appearing to break into any semblance of emotional response.

Mazzuca denied burning Baby Moses, claiming that the child had died in the bathtub during childbirth and that she placed the corpse in a bag and handed it to a random person at the park, video showed.

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Detectives told Mazzuca that an autopsy found Baby Moses had not died of natural causes and her story was not adding up, News10 reported.

I didnt know what to do. I set the baby on fire, Mazzuca admitted calmly, while adjusting the hem of her skirt. It was dead.

Mazzuca pleaded guilty earlier this year and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Albany County Sheriff

I suffocated the child, she said, claiming to officers that the child was not alive when she lit him on fire.

Mazzuca pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in February and was sentenced to 25 years in prison last month, News10 reported.

Baby Moses was found on Sept. 7, 1997, in a blue towel  burned to death near a box of wooden matches, according to the Doe Network.

The child has a headstone in Graceland Cemetery that reads, Moses Washington. Citizen of Albany. Child of God.
May 21SANTA FE  While the first votes in New Mexico's open contest for governor won't be cast for nearly a year, the money race is already in full swing.

Democrat Sam Bregman recently announced he had raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions in the five weeks since launching his campaign on April 10.

His Democratic primary rival, former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, said she has received nearly $3.7 million in donations since announcing her campaign in mid-February.

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The hefty early fundraising hauls indicate next year's gubernatorial race will, as expected, be an expensive one, following on the heels of the 2022 race between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Mark Ronchetti.

In that year's race, Lujan Grisham spent roughly $13 million on her successful re-election campaign, while Ronchetti spent more than $9 million. Those figures do not include hefty spending on the race by outside groups.

Bregman, who is currently the Bernalillo County district attorney, said his fundraising figure shows he has built momentum in the race.

"For too long, the status quo has left too many behind," he said in a statement. "Now, people across the state are stepping up because they're ready for change."

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The $1 million-plus in contributions does not include any personal loans from Bregman to his campaign or any contributions from his son Alex Bregman, an All-Star third baseman with the Boston Red Sox, said Bregman campaign spokeswoman Joanie Griffin.

She also said the Bregman campaign has about $850,000 in its account, with some spending on digital advertising.

For her part, Haaland said her campaign has received contributions from roughly 51,000 people, with an average donation of about $72 per donor.

Her campaign had a balance of about $1.7 million in its account as of last month, according to a report filed with Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver's office.

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"We're running a grassroots campaign to fight for hardworking New Mexicans," Haaland said in a statement. "This campaign is going to be funded by the people, and that's the way it should be."

Bregman and Haaland will soon be joined in the Democratic primary race by former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima, who plans to launch his campaign officially next week after previously setting up an exploratory committee. Lt. Gov. Howie Morales is also considering entering the race.

On the Republican side, Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull confirmed his plans to run for governor last month after reporting more than $200,000 in campaign contributions. He's expected to announce his campaign formally next month.

Cannabis entrepreneur and former state Cabinet secretary Duke Rodriguez is also weighing a GOP bid for governor, with a final decision expected by this summer. Other candidates could also join the race in the coming months.

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New Mexico's 2026 race for governor is an open contest, since Lujan Grisham is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

The state's primary election is scheduled for June 2026, with the general election then set for Nov. 3.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation celebrated 33 years of hosting the Monroe County Environthon on Thursday.

The environmental education competition brings high school students from various districts across Monroe County together to compete in five topics that test their environmental knowledge. Topics include wildlife, forestry, aquatics, soil, and a current issue that is selected at a national level. This years current issue is Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Stewardship in a Canopy of Change.

The event was held at Ellison Park and attended by 19 teams of five coming from Brighton High School, Brockport High School, Eastridge High School, Greece Arcadia High School, The Harley School, and Honeoye Falls-Lima High School.

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Red pine scale: NYS DEC seeks publics help to spot and report

The winner of Wednesdays competition will advance to represent Monroe County at the New York State competition held at SUNY Cortland on May 28. The state competition winner will then compete in the National Environthon held in July at Mount Royal University in Canada.

Organizers say the event is meant to encourage students to use their knowledge, critical thinking skills, and surroundings that they will apply to presentations for the competition. The experience is said to prepare students for future careers relating to the environment and cultivate an appreciation for each environmental topic.

Additional information about the Monroe County Environthon and the work of Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation can be found on their website.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -A monument to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin erected in Moscow's metro is stirring debate, with some Russians welcoming it as a historical tribute, but others saying it's a mistake to commemorate someone who presided over so much suffering.

The life-size wall sculpture in Moscow's Taganskaya metro station depicts Stalin standing on Moscow's Red Square surrounded by a crowd of Soviet citizens looking at him in admiration, and is a recreation of a monument that was unveiled in the same station in 1950, three years before Stalin died.

The Moscow metro said that the original monument to Stalin had been "lost" in 1966 when the Taganskaya metro station hosting it had been reconfigured.

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Nearly 700,000 people were executed in Stalin's 1937-38 Great Terror amid show trials and purges of his real and perceived enemies. Many other Soviet citizens were sent to the Gulag, a grim network of prison camps, spread across the world's largest country.

The Moscow metro said in a statement that the new version of the monument, which was presented to the public on May 15, was one of its "gifts" to passengers to mark the 90th anniversary of the sprawling, ornate and famously efficient transport system.

The work's original title, "Gratitude of the People to the Leader and Commander, was dedicated to Stalin's role in delivering victory for the Soviet Union in World War Two, the 80th anniversary of which Russia marked with pomp this year.

"This man (Stalin), he created a lot," said Yevgeny Ivanov, a Moscow resident, who had come to look at the new monument on Wednesday.

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"He has something to be proud of. And it is not for us to tear it down. A man did something - we must respect what he did."

Kirill Frolov, another resident of the capital, said he accepted that Stalin's record was mixed and that you couldn't call him "good."

But he said that Stalin's role as a victor in World War Two and his successful industrialisation of the Soviet Union meant he had achieved real results and deserved to be remembered.

"This man did more for our country than anyone else. That's why I think that this (the new monument) is good and there should be more... Because the generation of, say, the 2000s and later, they don't really understand at all who this is."

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Others condemned the monument.

The Moscow branch of the liberal Yabloko party issued a formal protest against what it called the return of a monument to "a tyrant and a dictator" and demanded that the Moscow metro focus on commemorating the victims of Stalin's repressions instead.

"The return of symbols of Stalinism to Moscow is spitting in the face of history and an act of mockery against the descendants of the repressed," Yabloko said in a statement.

Unidentified individuals initially left two signs at the monument containing quotes from Russian President Vladimir Putin and former president Dmitry Medvedev which were critical of Stalin. They were later removed.

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DE-STALINISATION

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin for his brutality and crimes in 1956 and images of Stalin would later be systematically removed as part of a de-Stalinisation campaign. In recent years, some monuments to Stalin have begun to reappear in some places though his legacy remains deeply divisive.

Alexander Zinoviev, a researcher and expert on Soviet architecture, said he felt the new monument and the period it evoked had some parallels with the current mood inside Russia at a time when it is locked in a standoff with the West over the war in Ukraine.

"It is the same self-isolation, it is the same conservative ideology and reliance on our own strength," he said.

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"And this theme with Stalin, with his aesthetics...that we need to trust our leader and be happy and not criticise those in power, it is very in tune with our time."

(Reporting by Moscow newsroomWriting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said on Thursday it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel, triggering air raid sirens across central Israel, including Tel Aviv, and sending millions of residents to shelters overnight.

"A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the military said in a statement, adding that sirens were activated "in accordance with protocol."

The missile, launched before dawn, also prompted sirens at Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main international gateway. Landings were temporarily halted, and several inbound flights were delayed in the air, the Israeli Ynet news site reported.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said no injuries were reported.

Houthi forces in Yemen have pledged to cease attacks on U.S. vessels but have continued launching missiles toward Israel, citing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where a 19-month Israeli offensive killed more than 53,000 people, according to figures from Gaza health authorities.

Israel has conducted a series of retaliatory airstrikes in Yemen, including a strike earlier in May on the capital, Sanaa, which damaged the country's main international airport and killed several people. 
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday approved several bills with Frederick County sponsors as part of his last scheduled bill signing ceremony of 2025.

The local bills signed on Tuesday included measures to decriminalize the spread of HIV, study the availability of in-home nurse visits for newborns and require advance notice before medical records can be destroyed.

The push to repeal a Maryland law making it a crime to "knowingly transfer or attempt to transfer" HIV to another person began more than a decade ago, District 3 Del. Kris Fair (D) said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

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Advocates have long argued that the law contributes to stigma, which can discourage people from disclosing their HIV status to others and seeking testing or treatment for the virus.

Supporters of the repeal effort have also argued that Maryland already has laws on the books that can be used to prosecute people who intentionally expose others to pathogens, such as reckless endangerment.

A bill to repeal the law was first introduced in 2013 by then-Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam. Fair picked up the mantle when he was a freshman delegate in 2023 and has continued to sponsor the measure each year since.

The version of the bill that was signed into law on Tuesday, HB39, is named for Carlton R. Smith, an HIV/AIDS activist from Baltimore who died in 2024.

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In addition to being a state delegate, Fair is the executive director of The Frederick Center  a local LGBTQ+ community center and advocacy group that offers specific programming for people living with HIV.

"I credit the HIV community for teaching me about this issue, of which I knew nothing about," Fair said. "They spent a lot of time helping me understand the unique challenges that they experience day in and day out, because they never know what simple interaction could lead to a criminal charge."

Historically, Maryland's HIV statute has been used to prosecute people for actions that pose little to no risk of transmitting the virus, such as spitting or kissing another person.

"They no longer have to feel the weight of, 'will that cause me to be arrested today,'" Fair said.

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SB156 and HB297, two cross-filed bills which Moore also signed into law on Tuesday, evolved out of a proposal from Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater (D).

The bills were sponsored by District 3 Del. Ken Kerr (D) in the House of Delegates and District 3 Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D) in the Senate.

Fitzwater initially asked the county's state delegation to propose a statewide expansion of Family Connects Frederick County, which provides a free home visit with a nurse to families with a newborn baby delivered at Frederick Health Hospital.

In an interview on Tuesday, Lewis Young said that state budgetary challenges this session discouraged the Maryland General Assembly from passing the bills as proposed due to the cost of implementation.

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To keep the Family Connects program going in Frederick County alone would have cost at least $1 million, Lewis Young said, and a statewide implementation would have likely cost over $5 million.

The bills signed by Moore on Tuesday will instead establish a work group on universal nurse home visiting services in the state.

The work group will be tasked with compiling data on existing services, identifying gaps in service and making recommendations to the state legislature by the end of 2025.

Other local bills signed into law by Moore on Tuesday include:

 SB854, sponsored by Lewis Young: alters the scope of practice for midwives, including when midwives must transfer care of a patient to a physician

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 HB1510, sponsored by Del. Jesse Pippy (R-4): requires medical offices to notify patients about the destruction of their records. Pippy previously said the bill was inspired by the case of former Frederick pediatrician Ernesto Torres, who was recently convicted of sexually abusing a minor patient.

 HB297, sponsored by Kerr: repeals a sunset provision for funding of the State-Based Young Adult Health Insurance Subsidies Pilot Program

 HB507, sponsored by Kerr: clarifies prohibited provisions in Maryland state contracts

 HB508, sponsored by Kerr: requires state contractors to procure certain janitorial products packaged or repackaged by Blind Industries and Services of Maryland

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 SB740, sponsored by Sen. William Folden (R-4): authorizes health care facilities to screen patients for being a military service member, veteran, or family member of a service member or veteran

 HB1131, sponsored by Del. Chris Tomlinson (R-5): establishes a grant program to assist counties with training paramedics to administer buprenorphine, a drug that can treat opioid use disorder

 HB1244, sponsored by Del. Michele Guyton (D-Baltimore County): establishes a council to advise the Developmental Disabilities Administration on the Medicaid waiver programs it operates. Lewis Young was the sponsor of the bill's Senate cross-file, which did not pass.

Most of the bills that became law this year take effect on Oct. 1. Bills related to budget and taxation take effect on July 1, the first day of fiscal year 2026.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger discusses her plans to address health care access and affordability at Mechanicsville Drug Store on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury)

While Abigail Spanbergers former congressional colleagues stayed up late Tuesday night debating proposed cuts to Medicaid in a jumbo GOP bill to reduce federal spending, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee outlined her health care-focused plans if she becomes Virginias next governor Wednesday morning at a local independent pharmacy in Mechanicsville.

Standing in Mechanicsville Drug Store, a family-owned business thats nearly 70 years old, Spanberger drove home her legislative priorities to lower prescription drug costs and close rural health care gaps in the state.

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Its essential that we be able to strengthen access to health care, improve affordability, and recognize that for so many Virginians, theyre one medical event away from really substantial ruin, Spanberger said. But for so many, (health care cost) is just one more worry that keeps them up at night.

Speaking near the counter where prescriptions are filled in the back of the store, Spanberger said threats to health care coverage spurred her to run for Congress in 2018. During President Donald Trumps first term in 2017, members of Congress tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That federal legislation made it possible for states like Virginia to expand their Medicaid program to encompass more people who fall through health coverage gaps.

With a similar sense of medical coverage uncertainty now pervading the nations capital, Spanberger said she wants to protect access to care here at home.

As we see challenges coming out of Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, as governor, I will focus on what can be done here in Virginia, Spanberger said.

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She also plans to create a statewide hospital price transparency comparison tool to help people better weigh their options for treatments and drugs, uphold consumer protection laws and direct the next attorney general to identify and crack down on scams that may fraudulently enroll people in unnecessary coverage, Spanberger said.

Virginias safety net providers, like free clinics and community health centers, can also count on Spanbergers support if she ascends to the governorship, she said. Virignias free clinics have for years requested more funding from the state legislature to stay afloat and serve the most vulnerable populations, especially under- or uninsured people and rural patients who live further from hospitals. She also laid out her intention to work with Virginias hub of medical manufacturing companies to increase the production of generic drugs that more people would be able to afford.

One thing Spanbergers plans didnt include is a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. A bipartisan proposal to create an independent board of medical and health experts tasked with analyzing data to set payment limits on drug prices within state-sponsored health plans has failed multiple years in a row in Virginias legislature. After clearing the legislature this year, the measure was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in late March.

While PDABs have gained traction in several states in recent years, they have not been without skepticism  particularly as other states boards, like Marylands, have taken years to set up and have not yet fully yielded the savings theyve promised.

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Spanberger is also cautious and said Wednesday she would keep an eye on the proposal but stopped short of endorsing it.

I want to make sure that whatever we might implement in the future will be a best practice based on the successes or challenges that other states have faced, she said.

A new law that will take effect next year also aims to boost drug affordability, and has Spanbergers stamp of approval.

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers introduced the Save Local Pharmacies Act this year, which outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin approved.

Once implemented, the law will eliminate health-run-plan pharmacy benefit managers in Medicaid and establish a single state-contracted one  a move supporters say would improve accountability, lower costs and help independent pharmacies stay afloat. The proposal drew support from both independent pharmacy owners and workers in chain pharmacies during the 2025 legislative session.

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Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, who is among several Democratic candidates that will face off in a primary next month for the lieutenant governor nomination, said that he is proud that (Spanberger) agrees this is the type of strong action we need to help Virginians.

Rouse had been the chief patron of the PBM reform bill and worked closely with colleagues to pass it.

A spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is the Republican nominee for governor, did not immediately return calls Wednesday when asked for more details about Earle-Sears health care policy stances and thoughts on federal Medicaid debates.

Her campaign website does not spell out concrete health care plans, but more broadly points to a goal of reducing the cost of living.

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She will scour the government books to cut wasteful government spending and job-killing regulations because taxpayers know how to spend their money and run their businesses better than government, Earle-Sears website reads.

Hanover County resident Ann, who declined to share her last name, listens to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger at Mechanicsville Drug Store on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury)

Hanover County resident Ann, who declined to share her last name and identified herself as a Republican voter, was skeptical of what Spanberger had to say during her pharmacy visit on Wednesday.

Ann said she doesnt know enough about the pharmacy benefit manager proposal Spanberger is backing but another health care issue is a priority for her going into this years state elections: abortion.

While she isnt sure what week of pregnancy she would like to see abortion restricted, she thinks current law and the in-progress constitutional amendment to enshrine broader reproductive rights goes too far.

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I dont want it to be completely banned, but there do have to be restrictions, she said. When you abort and murder a live baby, that is something very sinister.

Current abortion law allows the procedure for any reason until about 26 weeks, with exceptions for the rare instance where people have later abortions  typically related to medical emergencies. Virginia Republicans and President Trump have for years incorrectly stated that Virginia Democrats support infanticide, which is illegal.

Spanberger has voiced her support for abortion access repeatedly, tweeting on the second anniversary of the Supreme Courts dismantling of federal abortion protections that Virginians are worried about the future of abortion access  but they are also deeply worried about extreme politicians attacking IVF and contraception. As Virginias next Governor, I will defend our fundamental rights.

Earle-Sears has decried abortion, speaking against the procedure as a keynote speaker at this years March for Life rally and literally marking her disapproval of an in-progress constitutional amendment protecting reproductive health care access, including abortion. In her duty as lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears has to sign passed legislation, and as the reproductive rights measure cleared the legislature this year, she signed it with a note that she was morally opposed because she didnt feel it protected the child.

Republicans had sought to insert an amendment into the measure that would further outline existing state and federal law concerning live births. Democrats, who control the House and Senate currently, rejected the idea because its already on the books. The proposed constitutional amendment must pass the legislature again next year before appearing on statewide ballots.

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Ann, the Hanover Republican, knows that partisan control of the House of Delegates and the political position of the incoming governor will be pivotal in shaping the future of Virginias abortion laws. Its why she has her eye on all of them.

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Texass measles outbreak has grown to more than 700 cases since January, requiring the hospitalization of 92 people and leading to the deaths of two unvaccinated children.

But, according to new data, more parents are taking a critical step to protect their youngest kids.

According to Truveta, a health care data and analytics company, 20% of Texas children younger than 2 years old who got a measles vaccine received their measles vaccine early to help prevent the disease.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention usually recommends children get their measles vaccines starting at 1 year old, but amid the measles outbreak, the CDC said in March that children can get their measles vaccines starting at 6 months old.

Truveta found that the percentage of children getting vaccinated starting at 6 months old in March and April 2025 markedly increased from 2019, when the U.S. had a measles outbreak with a total of 1,261 cases.

Nina Masters, the senior applied research scientist at Truveta, told HuffPost that this data is good news.

This means that parents are trying to protect their kids early, she said.

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Texas has seen its worst measles outbreak in nearly 30 years. Measles, a viral respiratory illness, is one of the most contagious diseases, and a vaccine is the best protection against it, according to the CDC.

But Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services, has been at the forefront of spreading conspiracy theories about vaccines for years. After an unvaccinated 8-year-old Texas girl died of measles last month, Kennedy attended her funeral and then conceded that the combined measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the disease, though he continues to push alternative treatments and describe vaccination as an individual choice.

Katherine Wells, director of public health for Lubbock, Texas health department, did not respond to HuffPosts request for information, but she told NBC News in February that the citys health department has been vaccinating children from families who didnt believe in vaccines before.

People are more and more nervous, Wells told NBC News. Weve vaccinated multiple kids that have never been vaccinated before, some from families that didnt believe in vaccines.

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Truvetas data only included children who received care from a health care professional at least three times in their first year of life. But Texas measles outbreak has largely affected the unvaccinated, like the Mennonites, an Anabaptist Christian group whose members are typically underimmunized.

We do know that because we imposed some criteria that children [should] be seeing a provider three times in the first year of life, this does reflect a population that is seeking health care, Masters said. So if individuals who are not vaccinating their children are also not seeking health care, we wouldnt expect those people to be included in the study.

Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania, told ABC News in March that the Mennonites who live in Seminole, Texas, in the western part of the state  also known as Low German Mennonites  came from Mexico, where, from the 1920s to the 1980s, they were mostly isolated.

My point is, the so-called Low German Mennonites from Mexico, now in west Texas, dont have that minimum baseline of mid-20th century vaccine acceptance that we see among Old Order Mennonites and Amish in the U.S. because the folks in Seminole missed the whole mid-century immunization push, as they werent in the U.S. at that time, Nolt told ABC News.

Related...
DES MOINES, Iowa  In less than three years on Ingersoll Avenue, Big Grove Brewery has already developed a reputation as a very generous neighbor.

I almost walked right down the street and shook somebodys hand! said Amy Landrigan, the executive director of The Beacon  a nearby charity dedicated to helping women in crisis.

On Wednesday, Big Grove made The Beacon one of two recipients of its annual Big Grove for Good grants.

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First of all, its right in our backyard in the Sherman Hill neighborhood, said Lindsey Rawson-Van Wyk, Big Groves community coordinator at its Des Moines location. We can literally walk there, they can walk to us, so that felt like a great way to support literally our neighbors.

Selected from a pool of applicants, The Beacon and Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice each got $8,000 checks from the newly formed Big Grove For Good foundation.

The Beacon says that money will go a long way.

Greenfield resident uncertain about rebuilding after tornado

It costs $26 a day at a minimum to provide services to the women at The Beacon, Landrigan said, so that $8,000 divided by 26, we can provide for that many women for that many days this year. Thats just huge for us.

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As a woman who originally came to The Beacon as a client, Marlena Hemphill can attest to all the good this money can do.

When youre in that situation where life is coming down hard on you and you dont know which way to turn, she said, it just feels amazing to know that youre supported by people who dont even know you.

Rawson-Van Wyk says this annual event has become one of her favorite parts of her job.

Making those phone calls each year to the recipients honestly still brings tears to my eyes, she smiled. Even though were in our third year of doing it.

Big Grove is a brewery  and some of the women at The Beacon are struggling with sobriety and substance abuse. Landrigan says Big Grove made a special effort to bridge the gap.

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Theyve created a line of mocktails, she said. That may not sound like a big deal, but we knew they had us in mind and we really appreciated that.

Big Grove has written grants to seven Des Moines non-profits so far, with all of the money coming straight off their bottom line. Its an effort that has not gone unnoticed.

They dont just want to be another bar and another restaurant, said Landrigan. They want to truly invest in their neighborhood.

Metro News:

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com.
A survey of Black women in metro Detroit during the years since the COVID-19 pandemic found more than half of respondents reported experiencing an eviction in their lifetime.

A research paper published May 14 by native Detroiter Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson sheds new light on the scale of evictions among Black women. As Sealy-Jefferson, a social epidemiologist, was researching the impact of evictions, mass incarceration, stress and tax foreclosures on preterm births among Black women, she was frustrated: she knew Black mothers were more likely to be evicted from their homes than other groups but there was no data to illustrate the scope of the problem  and what it does to them.

She decided to do something about it.

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In September 2020, Sealy-Jefferson embarked on a five-year project, studying the link between evictions among Black women and health outcomes. She surveyed 1,428 Black women from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, conducted focus groups with about 90 participants and interviewed 55 Black women who experienced an illegal eviction.

Now, the numbers and stories are in and, as she puts it: "I grossly underestimated the horror."

More: Detroit Public Library to host free estate planning workshops at local branches

Here are some key takeaways from the survey:

More than half of the participants said they'd been evicted. Of those evictions, nearly half were reportedly illegal, meaning they happened outside the courts. Participants self-reported evictions.

A quarter of participants said they were evicted during childhood.

Forty percent reported facing housing discrimination (participants were asked if they had ever been discriminated against or treated unfairly when they were trying to buy or rent)

Childhood and court-ordered and illegal eviction during adulthood were associated with a 12% to 17% "higher risk of poor self-rated health," which is how participants rated their own physical health. Meanwhile, childhood eviction and experiencing illegal eviction in adulthood was linked with a 34% to 37% "higher risk of worse relative self-rated health," which is participants' physical health compared with most people their age.

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A reporter with the Free Press and BridgeDetroit spoke with Sealy-Jefferson, the study's lead author and an associate professor of social epidemiology at the Ohio State University College of Public Health. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Detroit-based social epidemiologist Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson surveyed Black women across metro Detroit to study how many had experienced evictions and what it does to their health.

QUESTION: Can you tell me why you conducted this study and why you decided to pursue the topic?

ANSWER: The housing crisis has been a problem for decades, so this is not only our problem, but this was our mother's problem, and likewise, it's going to be our daughter's problem if we don't do something about it.  I convened a group of Black women leaders  local, national and international leaders  on this community advisory board, and I also organized Black women from my community to share their stories for action. We need the data, because without the data, we can't have solutions. We can't have conversations about solutions to a problem that doesn't exist. And this definitely exists. I know a lot of people who have been evicted. Most Black women know people who have been evicted, it's very common, but the link between having this experience and health at the population level is something that hasn't been documented.

You posed two questions in your research: What is the magnitude and severity of residential evictions among reproductive age Black women from metro Detroit and are evictions associated with poor health. What did you find?

We found that eviction is extremely common. Court ordered evictions are common and illegal evictions are equally common, among reproductive age Black women. We're able to document empirically that having these eviction experiences across the lifetime  so during childhood and during adulthood  is associated with worse self-rated health among Black women, and that hasn't been shown before, and this suggests that these eviction experiences may account for some of the other inequities that we see at the population level, in terms of health of Black mothers, Black families and Black communities.

Was there a finding that surprised you, and, if so, why?

This study is not limited to low-income Black women. It's not limited to renters. It's not limited to just city of Detroit residents.  I knew it was high, but it sort of took my breath away that 25% experienced an eviction during childhood, 60% had high ACES (adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, losing a parent or bullying).

What do you hope comes of this study? What solutions would you like to see address some of the issues that you identified?

We really have to have very clear understanding about root cause intervention. This housing crisis is not going to be fixed with individual-level solutions, because the problem is a structural problem, so we need structural solutions. We need society-level solutions to the problem, because it's not about individual behavior. The conversation has to include reparations  federal government funded reparations for the descendants of African chattel slavery, like that is part of the root cause solution. We also need enforcement of the existing housing laws that protect tenants, because landlords are violating people's civil and human rights in broad daylight, and there's no consequences for them because nobody's checking.  We need policy change. We need enforcement of the existing policies. We need intervention studies. We need more research.  We need our elected officials to pay attention to this data and work with community on what solutions to these problems are.

What's next?

This is the first study. We have a lot of data, we have a lot of numbers and we have a lot of stories that we really are going to be, in the coming months, disseminating.

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 I will continue to work with the community advisory board and the community, the participants and the interested parties in the community to decide, what do we do with this data? What is next? What's the most pressing question that we can answer with this data that will help you to advocate for yourself, that'll help you to understand what's happening in your community?

What are the short and long term impacts of evictions?

Without the human right to stable, safe and affordable housing, it really jeopardizes your ability to do all of the things that you need to do in order to have a good life, a good healthy life and a productive life. It's very rare that you'd be able to do all of the things you need to do if you don't have the basic foundation, which is stable, safe and affordable housing.

Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @NushratR.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Survey sheds light on evictions among Black women in metro Detroit
VERMONT (ABC22/FOX44)  Motorists heading down Interstate 91 for Memorial Day weekend will want to be on the lookout for more than just the right exit.

Three weeks ago, hundreds of protesters gathered in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to demonstrate against the policies of the Trump administration, as an extension of overpass protests that began to gain traction earlier this year. From 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. this Friday, May 23, local groups under the banner of the Indivisible Project plan on taking to the streets once again.

Showery finish to the work week; Another wet Saturday

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The local affiliated groups organizing the protests include Defend Democracy Indivisible, Brattleboro Indivisible, and Rise Up Western Mass Indivisible. I-91 overpasses as far north as U.S. Route 302 (Exit 17) in Newbury have protests planned, as well as at least six overpasses further south in Brattleboro and Putney in Windham County.

Organizers have told protesters to avoid parking in the lots of local businesses, and to stay out of the right-of-way of traffic. Another group affiliated with Indivisible is organizing a roadside protest in South Burlington off Shelburne Road.

Indivisible was formed in 2016 in response to the election of Donald Trump. It calls itself a movement taking regular, iterative, and increasingly complex actions to resist the GOPs agenda, elect local champions, and fight for progressive policies.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44.
More Texas parents are opting to vaccinate their babies early against measles, nearly a 4.5-fold increase so far this year compared to 2019, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

From January through April, 7,107 children between the ages of 6 months and 11 months were vaccinated for measles, which is typically reserved for infants about to travel internationally or living in a measles outbreak area. Otherwise, doctors usually administer the first dose of the vaccine when they turn 1 year old.

For the same period in 2019, only 1,591 children between 6 months old and 11 months old were vaccinated for measles.

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Researchers and public health officials attribute the rise to more awareness and the availability of the earlier vaccination option in a region where there have already been two deaths attributed to measles. They say parents are more fearful now.

The increase comes as the state battles a measles outbreak in West Texas, where 722 cases have been reported, most of them involving children. It is the largest outbreak since 2000..

It does show that parents really are scared, and that parents don't want to wait, said Nina Masters, a senior applied research scientist at Truveta, a Washington-based company that is studying Texas vaccination data. They don't want to wait 12 months to get their child vaccinated. They want to wait six months and one day, and they want to do it as soon as they can.

And, since state data only reflects vaccine information parents voluntarily give to them, the number of babies receiving the vaccine early is probably higher. Masters company estimates an 11-fold increase in the number of early measles vaccine shots in Texas between 2019 and 2025, according to a study released this week.

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The Truveta study found that in March and April of this year, 20% of all first measles vaccine doses given to 2-year-olds and younger were in babies who were 6 months old to 11 months old.

This is a really big jump, Masters said.

Increased vaccine uptake is among the reasons local health officials have seen the number of new measles cases drop in recent days. Last week, only nine new cases were reported, the lowest number over a 7-day period since February. Other factors contributing to the slowdown include natural immunity, quick identification of cases by providers and public health workers, and more infected people staying home because of better measles awareness, officials say.

The hazy data on vaccinations

Texas vaccine data typically comes with caveats because it is anything but complete.

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Even Truvetas vaccine data doesnt reflect statewide totals since they only access medical records kept by five major health systems in Texas: AdvanetHealth in Central Texas; Baylor Scott & White in Central Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth area; Providence, which operates in El Paso Lubbock and Waco; and Memorial Hermann and CommonSpirit, both in Houston. Together, they represent 90 hospitals and associated ambulatory/outpatient clinics.

Most states automatically record every immunization given unless the patient decides to opt out of the reporting.

Of the 64 immunization registries operating in the United States, 43 have immunization records of all patients unless that patient specifically opts out.

But Texas is in the minority. Patients, or their parents, if they are a minor, have their vaccination data automatically excluded from the states immunization registry unless they specifically opt in.

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So its not clear what percentage of Texans are included in the states immunization data.

You would have to know the total number of people vaccinated to produce the percentage of vaccinated people who have opted into the registry, said Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services. We dont know the total number of people who have been vaccinated.

Spreading the vaccine message

The states childhood vaccine schedule includes two measles-mumps-rubella shots by age six with the first administered once a child reaches their first birthday. Even if a child receives their shot early, doctors recommend they still follow the vaccine schedule and receive two more doses.

Because children younger than one have less developed immune systems, the zero or earlier dose offers enough protection to cover the child, but not enough to offer lifelong protection, said Katherine Wells, Lubbocks health director.

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Wells said if she had a 6-month-old child, she would have them vaccinated with an earlier dose.

For the past few months, Texas health officials have asked parents to consider this earlier dose if they plan to travel or live in the outbreak area or plan to travel internationally.

West Texas public health officials have posted flyers throughout the region and held press conferences and vaccination clinics to encourage more people to vaccinate against measles, which is the most effective way to prevent infection. Pediatricians in West Texas have been emailing and texting patients to let them know they can vaccinate children earlier than 12 months old.

Lubbock, where 53 measles cases have been reported, is 75 miles from Gaines County, where the measles outbreak began in late January. Wells said Wednesday her department has distributed 500 more measles doses than they normally do this year, mostly to children. She said pediatricians in the area are responsible for about another 2,500 more than normal and private physicians have administered most of the early doses to babies.

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Measles, once considered eliminated from the United States, is highly contagious and can cause rash and flu-like symptoms but it has more serious complications like brain inflammation and pneumonia and can cause death. In Texas, two school-age girls have died from measles so far.

I think this does really remind us and help normalize that even though we're in a climate of increased vaccine hesitancy and conversations about changing vaccine policies and vaccine access, the majority of parents still believe in vaccination and vaccinate their children, Masters said.

First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 1315 in Austin. Get your tickets today!

Correction, May 23, 2025 at 11:11 a.m. : An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the strength of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine dose given to babies. It is the same dose give to older children.
Lorena, Tx (FOX 44)  In observance of Memorial Day, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation has fully paid the mortgage on the Lorena home of fallen USMC Gunnery Sergeant John Frys family.

The announcement of the gift noted that Gunnery Sergeant Frys dedication to service began as a high school senior when he witnessed his older brothers Marine Corps boot camp graduation. Inspired, he enlisted in 1995 and became an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

He was killed on March 8, 2006, while attempting to disarm a bomb in Iraqs Anbar province.

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He is survived by his wife and high school sweetheart, Malia, and their three children: Kathryn, Gideon, and C.L.

Following his passing, Malia spearheaded the creation of the Fry Scholarship, which expanded the G.I. Bill to provide education benefits for the children of all fallen service members.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundations Gold Star Family Home Program honors the legacy of those who died while serving their country by providing surviving spouses and young children with mortgage-free homes or paying off their mortgages.

Education and his children being able to go to college was so important to John, said Malia, who added, My children, who are all in college or have graduated, are his legacy and honor him every day.

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This Memorial Day, we remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in service to our country, said Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO Frank Siller. By lifting the burden of a mortgage from Gunnery Sergeant John Frys family, we send a strong messagehis sacrifice will never be forgotten.

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ESCAMBIA COUNTY, Fla. (WKRG)  Escambia County Mosquito Patrol will conduct fogging missions starting Wednesday, May 21, to fight the pest population.

UPDATE: No foul play suspected in death of woman at Pensacola Publix

In Commission Districts 1 and 5, operations will occur between the hours of 6 and 9:30 p.m., according to a county news release. The operations exact schedule depends on weather conditions.

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According to the countys website, mosquitoes can be a public health issue. They can carry serious diseases such as encephalitis, yellow fever, dengue, malaria, and Zika.

Pre-application and post-application surveillance are monitored to determine where fogging is needed, the release said.

Methods used to determine fogging-needed areas are dry ice-baited traps, landing rate counts, and service requests from the public.

Massive bull shark caught outside mouth of Mobile Bay

To request service, contact 850-937-2188 or email mosquitocontrol@myescambia.com.

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Guests take photos at Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, Nov. 4, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Jianan)

ZHENGZHOU, May 22 (Xinhua) -- As dusk settled over the rooftops of a Tang-Dynasty-style pavilion, a fleet of glowing drones ascended into the darkening sky, their synchronized flight tracing luminous patterns above curved eaves and cobblestone streets. The past and future met midair in this manner in a city known for its 4,000 years of history.

This city is Luoyang, a former capital of 13 dynasties in Chinese history and now a vibrant cultural landmark and manufacturing hub in central China's Henan Province.

"If you wish to know the rise and fall of past and present, just look at Luoyang," remarked Sima Guang, a renowned Chinese historian of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), noting that the evolution of the city itself reads like a living chronicle of Chinese history.

Today, Luoyang is reintroducing its rich legacy to the world by blending timeless heritage with cutting-edge technology, and fueling growth in its high-end manufacturing sector through innovation.

Nowhere is this fusion of history and innovation more evident than at the Longmen Grottoes, an over 1,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site which is home to one of the world's largest collections of stone carvings and Buddhist sculptures.

In recent years, China has made remarkable strides in preserving and revitalizing its cave temples through structural reinforcement, environmental improvements and digital conservation.

The Longmen Grottoes have led the way, launching a series of pioneering digital restoration projects. Using ground-penetrating radar, infrared imaging and 3D scanning technologies, researchers successfully completed major restoration work on Fengxian Temple, one of the site's most iconic landmarks, revitalizing this remarkable feat of sculpture via high-tech craftsmanship.

"We have been building a 'digital archive' since 2005 to protect the ancient Buddhist cave art using advanced technologies," said Gao Junping, director of the information and documentation center of Longmen Grottoes Research Institute.

"In the past, traditional methods such as mold casting and rubbings could cause damage to the artifacts," Gao said. "Now, with technologies like 3D printing, we can replicate relics without harm, which not only preserves the originals but also enhances our conservation and research efforts."

But preservation is only part of the story. Bringing ancient art "to life" has become another central mission. By building 3D databases, innovating exhibition methods and expanding digital tourism experiences, Luoyang is making its cultural wonders more accessible than ever.

On the Cloud Longmen WeChat mini-program, for example, users can explore landmarks like Yuwang Pool, Qianxi Temple and Binyang Cave virtually -- all from the comfort of their homes.

Benefiting from its rich historical legacy and driven by innovative cultural tourism practices, Luoyang is positioning itself well for a bright future in culture-tourism integration. The city is steadily advancing the high-quality development of its cultural tourism sector, aiming to turn it into a pillar industry and a source of public well-being.

In 2024, Luoyang received a total of 153 million tourist visits, generating 120.86 billion yuan (about 16.8 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue, up 13.48 percent and 16.02 percent year on year, respectively.

Tourists visit Lijingmen scenic spot in Luoyang City, central China's Henan Province, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Li Weichao/Xinhua)

While Luoyang's ancient treasures draw global tourists, its modern identity is equally defined by industrial innovation. The same innovative spirit that preserves millennia-old grottoes now powers factories and labs, driving high-end manufacturing.

Long associated with "firsts" in New China's industrial history, from the first automobile gearbox bearing to the first tracked tractor, Luoyang has enriched its legacy through industrial renewal.

Luoyang Bearing Group Co., Ltd., formerly a factory established during China's inaugural five-year plan period (1953-1957), is among the notable trendsetters.

The company consistently leads the industry in terms of R&D investment. It houses China's first nationally certified enterprise technology center and the only national key lab in the bearing sector. With comprehensive research and testing platforms, the company maintains a commanding position in bearing design, manufacturing and quality control.

"Bearings may look simple, but the precision required is measured in microns," said Wang Xinying, chairman of the group. "Our bearings can reach speeds of up to 120,000 revolutions per minute and are now used in major technologies like large-scale wind turbines -- strengthening our leadership in the industry."

In October 2024, the group launched a "dark factory," renowned for its minimal reliance on human labor and lighting. This fully automated smart plant is dedicated to producing bearings for offshore wind turbines.

Today, high-end bearings account for 70 percent of the company's output value. Its wind turbine main bearings now enjoy an over 40-percent share of the domestic market, while its tunnel boring machine bearings have ended China's reliance on imports of such bearings.

"Advancing modern manufacturing toward high-end, intelligent and green development is our unwavering goal," Wang added. 
Some 200 people gathered Wednesday night at a heartbreaking vigil for the young sailors who died or were injured on the Mexican Navy ship Cuauhtemoc after its crash into the Brooklyn Bridge.

The solemn crowd  including Mexican and New York City officials, Mayor Adams among them  gathered in the pouring rain on the Brooklyn side of the iconic bridge to honor those lost in the crash. A mariachi band sang Mexican folk songs, and portraits of America Yamilet Sanchez, 20, and Adal Jair Marcos, 23, were plastered on metal barricades along with the U.S. and Mexican flags.

I understand the circle of life. But when I look at the faces of these young people, these young people who lost their lives in the military service thats important to their country, I dont have the logic, Adams said. I dont have the words, but all I do know in moments like this, you trust God.

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As Adams arrived at the vigil, he bowed his head in front of each of the fallen sailors portraits, then placed a bundle of white flowers in front of each portrait.

These are moments when you realize how precious life is, and Im here today because the people of Mexico that live in this city have showed us how much you love your home country, and you love your adopted country, America, Adams said.

The bodies of Sanchez and Jair Marcos have been repatriated to Mexico, where a vigil for Sanchez was held.

We are grieving with the world and our brothers in Mexico, said Bronx native Fabian Aguilar, 56, a dancer with Ballet Folklorico Mexicano de Nueva York, who attended the vigil. We are very sad over this tragedy. We stand in the rain and mourn because we are all brothers.

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Madelin Martinez, 16, of Brooklyn said the vigil was really touching.

It came out of the blue, they were gone in minutes, Martinez said. They were too young to die and they were not with their families. It was so important that they were here. With everything going on and [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], they represented our culture and now they are gone.

According to the FDNY, at least 19 of those aboard were treated for injuries, with 11 initially listed in critical condition.

Most of the crew that was aboard Cuauhtemoc  including some who were initially treated for injuries  were safely back in Mexico by Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

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Following an interagency meeting, discussions were held by the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Transportation Safety Board, the ships contractors and City Hall representatives focusing on the repair efforts on the ship, the crews welfare and tow logistics, according to city Emergency Management spokesman Aries Dela Cruz.

The Coast Guard continues to support the vessel and crew of the ARM Cuauhtemoc. The U.S. Navy is coordinating shoreside housing while repairs proceed. All injured crew have been discharged from the hospital and are now safely back in Mexico, Dela Cruz said. Final plans for repairing the impacted masts are being prepared for submission to the Coast Guard. A tow plan for the vessel is also in development for [Coast Guard] review. An underwater hull survey is anticipated for Saturday.

Repairs are currently underway on the ship as officials wrapped up their damage assessment on Tuesday with marine surveyors and contractors accessing the vessel. The Cuauhtemoc hasnt sustained any damage to the hull, which would allow it to be moved from Pier 37, on Manhattans Lower East Side, with tugboat assistance. The National Transportation Safety Board is also checking if there are any data recorders holding pivotal evidence of how the crash occurred.

The training ship is expected to be towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it will be dry-docked as the investigation continues, Emergency Management officials said Tuesday. With wind and rain halting the process of towing the ship, the Cuauhtemoc is expected to move to a dry dock facility by Sunday.

The two fatalities occurred when the ships masts crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday night. Multiple crew members aloft in the masts were left dangling in the air by their safety harnesses after the East River crash, but no one ended up in the water.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP)  Grabbing her daughter's feeble arm, Asmaa al-Arja pulls a shirt over the 2-year-old's protruding ribs and swollen belly. The child lies on a hospital bed, heaving, then wails uncontrollably, throwing her arms around her own shoulders as if to console herself.

This isn't the first time Mayar has been in a Gaza hospital battling malnutrition, yet this 17-day stint is the longest. She has celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that means she can't eat gluten and requires special food. But there's little left for her to eat in the embattled enclave after 19 months of war and Israel's punishing blockade, and she can't digest what's available.

She needs diapers, soy milk and she needs special food. This is not available because of border closures. If it's available, it is expensive, I cant afford it, her mother said as she sat next to Mayar at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

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Mayar is among the more than 9,000 children who have been treated for malnutrition this year, according to the U.N. childrens agency, and food security experts say tens of thousands of cases are expected in the coming year.

Experts also warn the territory could plunge into famine if Israel doesnt stop its military campaign and fully lift its blockade  but the World Health Organization said last week that people are already starving.

Everywhere you look, people are hungry. ... They point their fingers to their mouths showing that (they) need something to eat, said Nestor Owomuhangi, the representative of the United Nations Population Fund for the Palestinian territories. The worst has already arrived in Gaza.

Israel eases blockade but little aid reaches Palestinians

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For more than two months, Israel has banned all food, medicine and other goods from entering the territory that is home to some 2 million Palestinians, as it carries out waves of airstrikes and ground operations. Palestinians in Gaza rely almost entirely on outside aid to survive because Israel's offensive has destroyed almost all the territory's food production capabilities.

After weeks of insisting Gaza had enough food, Israel relented in the face of international pressure and began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into the territory this week  including some carrying baby food.

Children are already dying from malnutrition and there are more babies in Gaza now who will be in mortal danger if they dont get fast access to the nutrition supplies needed to save their lives, said Tess Ingram of the U.N. childrens agency.

But U.N. agencies say the amount is woefully insufficient, compared to around 600 trucks a day that entered during a recent ceasefire and that are necessary to meet basic needs. And they have struggled to retrieve the aid and distribute it, blaming complicated Israeli military procedures and the breakdown of law and order inside the territory.

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On Wednesday, a U.N. official said more than a dozen trucks arrived at warehouses in central Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. That appeared to be the first aid to actually reach a distribution point since the blockade was lifted.

Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid, without providing evidence, and plans to roll out a new aid distribution system within days. U.N. agencies and aid groups say the new system would fall far short of mounting needs, force much of the population to flee again in order to be closer to distribution sites, and violate humanitarian principles by forcing people to move to receive the aid rather than delivering it based on need to where people live.

On top of not being able to find or afford the food that Mayar needs, her mother said chronic diarrhea linked to celiac disease has kept the child in and out of hospital all year. The toddler  whose two pigtails are brittle, a sign of malnutrition  weighs 7 kilograms (15 pounds), according to doctors. That's about half what healthy girl her age should.

But its getting harder to help her as supplies like baby formula are disappearing, say health staff.

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Hospitals are hanging by a thread, dealing with mass casualties from Israeli strikes. Packed hospital feeding centers are overwhelmed with patients.

We have nothing at Nasser Hospital," said Dr. Ahmed al-Farrah, who said his emergency center for malnourished children is at full capacity. Supplies are running out, people are living off scraps, and the situation is catastrophic for babies and pregnant women, he said.

Everything watered down to make it last

In the feeding center of the hospital, malnourished mothers console their hungry children  some so frail their spines jut out of their skin, their legs swollen from lack food.

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The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises, has warned that there could be some 71,000 cases of malnourished children between now and March. In addition, nearly 17,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need treatment for acute malnutrition in the coming months.

Mai Namleh and her 18-month-old son, who live in a tent, are both malnourished. She wanted to wean him off of breastmilk because she barely has any, but she has so little else to give him.

She gives him heavily watered-down formula to ration it, and sometimes offers him starch to quiet his hunger screams. I try to pass it for milk to stop him screaming, she said of the formula.

An aid group gave her around 30 packets of nutritional supplements, but they ran out in two days as she shared them with family and friends, she said.

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In another tent, Nouf al-Arja says she paid a fortune for a hard-to-find kilogram (about 2 pounds) of red lentils. The family cooks it with a lot of water so it lasts, unsure what they will eat next. The mother of four has lost 23 kilograms (50 pounds) and struggles to focus, saying she constantly feels dizzy.

Both she and her 3-year-old daughter are malnourished, doctors said. She's worried her baby boy, born four months earlier and massively underweight, will suffer the same fate as she struggles to breastfeed.

I keep looking for (infant food) .... so I can feed him. There is nothing," she said.

___

El Deeb reported from Beirut and Mednick from Tel Aviv, Israel.

___

Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
MIDLAND, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- The Midland Police Department and CrimeStoppers are asking for the communitys help in identifying a theft suspect.

On May 10, at approximately 11:18 a.m., a female subject went to the United Supermarket located at 3317 N Midland Dr. She selected several items valued at $347.73 and exited the business without paying for the items.

Do you recognize her? Anyone with information about her identity or whereabouts is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 432-694-TIPS and reference Midland PD Case #250511020. If your tip is the first one that leads to an arrest, you will be eligible for a cash reward. No caller ID is ever used, and you will remain anonymous.

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SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn.  Memphis Shelby County Schools wants us to pay more than $7,000 to see public records that show how your taxpayer money is being spent.

This all started when the owner of a local security company was going through a recertification process to prove shes a woman and minority owned business. The portal she logs on to complete that process lists her previous contracts.

She scanned over it and noticed her company was listed as a subcontractor on Memphis Shelby County Schools contract with a bus company called First Student.

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Woman says MSCS paid another company $34k for work she never did

Weve never spoken with First Student. We were never utilized by First Student. First Student never called us, Certified Defenders of America owner Kim Watkins said in an interview in March.

Despite her never providing services to the bus company, the portal claimed MSCS cut First Student a check for $34,779 for her services in July 2023.

How can we be added as a subcontractor without being contacted first? Without signing a contract with First Student? she stated.

The district called it all an error. The bus company added in a statement they explored using the security company, but didnt move forward.

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In a joint statement, they both assured, A total payment to First Student in the amount of $34,779.92 for the month of July 2023 was partially distributed to a number of approved subcontractors, none of which was Certified Defenders of America.

We wanted to know more.

WREG Investigators filed an open records request asking for all of the payments MSCS made to First Student and its subcontractors since 2021, when the district entered into a contract with First Student.

Two months later, MSCS sent us a response that the custodian of records will need additional time to process this request, and it will cost us.

They want to charge $37 an hour for 4 hours a day for 5 days a week for approximately 8 to 10 weeks or longer.

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It will cost approximately $7,363 to see those records.

They noted the first hour is free, but labor costs are subject to increase. That means it could cost more than $7,363 to see those public records.

So if we want to see the payments MSCS made using your taxpayer money to the company that has one of the largest contracts with the district, we will have to pay big bucks.

Former MATA CEO traveled across the globe on taxpayer money

We asked the district why the record retrieval is so labor-intensive, but did not hear back.

Nearly a week later, a day after a WREG Investigators story detailing the costs of record retrieval aired, MSCS sent a spreadsheet of the disbursement we had asked for. MSCS noted that 5,214 items were reflected in the spreadsheet.

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Also, state lawmakers signed off on a $6 million dollar forensic audit set to start this summer. Its aimed at uncovering how taxpayer dollars are being spent.

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BOSTON (WPRI)  The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA) is asking for the publics assistance finding the owner of an emaciated dog that was found on the side of the highway earlier this week.

The young Poodle-mix, named Willie, was brought to Nevins Farm on Monday by a driver who saw him on Route 495 in Lawrence.

Willie was matted and emaciated when he was brought in, MSPCA Law Enforcement Director Chris Schindler said. He was initially examined by a clinic veterinarian in Methuen, and it was immediately clear that he needed advanced treatment.

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Willie was then rushed to the MSPCAs Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, where hes receiving around-the-clock care. His prognosis is not yet clear, according to the MSPCA.

Angell veterinarians found him to be emaciated and extremely dehydrated, Schindler said. He also appeared to have neurological problems, which were hoping is related to those other issues.

Right now, were focused on trying to help this poor dog recover and also learn how he came to be in the condition hes in, he continued.

(Story continues below.)

Willie was emaciated when he came to Nevins Farm on May 19. (Courtesy: MSPCA-Angell) Willie could barely move when he was brought to Nevins Farm on May 19. (Courtesy: MSPCA-Angell) Willie requires around-the-clock care at Angells ICU. (Courtesy: MSPCA-Angell) Willie receiving treatment at Angells ICU on May 21. (Courtesy: MSPCA-Angell)

Schindler said veterinarians have also discovered that Willie likely has pneumonia.

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His care team says Willie sometimes responds like a sick dog would in normal circumstances, but hes often very quiet and dull, which isnt normal, Schindler explained. Its still early days, though, so were in wait and see mode.

Schindler is asking anyone who may have information on Willies owner or history is urged to contact the MSPCA Law Enforcement Department by calling (617) 522-6008 or (800) 628-5808. Tips can also be submitted anonymously online.

These cases are challenging because were starting from scratch, Schindler said. Thats why we really need the communitys help here to learn how this poor pup got into the condition he was in when he came to us.

The MSPCA is covering the cost of Willies medical care through the Pet Care Assistance fund. Anyone who wishes to make a donation toward Willies care can do so by clicking here.

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Cases like this  with days of intensive care needed  are extremely expensive, so we need support now more than ever, Schindler said.

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By now, most of us should be vaguely aware that artificial intelligence is hungry for power.

Even if you don't know the exact numbers, the charge that "AI is bad for the environment" is well-documented, bubbling from sources ranging from mainstream press to pop-science YouTube channels to tech trade media.

Still, the AI industry as we know it today is young. Though startups and big tech firms have been plugging away on large language models (LLMs) since the 2010s, the release of consumer generative AI in late 2022 brought about a huge increase in AI adoption, leading to an unprecedented "AI boom."

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In under three years, AI has come to dominate global tech spending in ways researchers are just starting to quantify. In 2024, for example, AI companies nabbed 45 percent of all US venture capital tech investments, up from only nine percent in 2022. Medium-term, big-name consultant firms like McKinsey expect AI infrastructure spending to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2030; compare this to just $450 billion in 2022.

That being the case, research on AI's climate and environmental impacts can seem vague and scattered, as analysts race to establish concrete environmental trends in the extraordinary explosion of the AI industry.

A new survey by MIT Technology Review is trying to change that. The authors spoke to two dozen AI experts working to uncover the tech's climate impact, combed "hundreds of pages" of data and reports, and probed the top developers of LLM tools in order to provide a "comprehensive look" at the industry's impact.

"Ultimately, we found that the common understanding of AIs energy consumption is full of holes," the authors wrote. That led them to start small, looking at the energy use of a single LLM query.

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Beginning with text-based LLMs, they found that model size directly predicted energy demand, as bigger LLMs use more chips  and therefore more energy  to process questions. While smaller models like Meta's Llama 3.1 8B used roughly 57 joules per response (or 114 joules when the authors factored for cooling power and other energy needs), larger units needed 3,353 joules (or 6,706), or in MIT Tech's point of reference, enough to run a microwave for eight seconds.

Image-generating AI models, like Stable Diffusion 3 Medium, needed 1,141 joules (or 2,282) on average to spit out a standard 1024 x 1024 pixel image  the type that are rapidly strangling the internet. Doubling the quality of the image likewise doubles the energy use to 4,402 joules, worth over five seconds of microwave warming time, still less than the largest language bot.

Video generation is where the sparks really start flying. The lowest-quality AI video software, a nine-month old version of Code Carbon, took an eye-watering 109,000 joules to spew out a low-quality, 8fps film  "more like a GIF than a video," the authors noted.

Better models use a lot more. With a recent update, that same tool takes 3.4 million joules to spit out a five-second, 16fps video, equivalent to running a microwave for over an hour.

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Whether any of those numbers amount to a lot or a little is open to debate. Running the microwave for a few seconds isn't much, but if everybody starts doing so hundreds of times a day  or in the case of video, for hours at a time  it'll make a huge impact in the world's power consumption. And of course, the AI industry is currently trending toward models that use more power, not less.

Zooming out, the MIT Tech survey also highlights some concerning trends.

One is the overall rise in power use correlating to the rise of AI. While data center power use remained mostly steady across the US between 2005 and 2017, their power consumption doubled by 2023, our first full year with mass-market AI.

As of 2024, 4.4 percent of all energy consumed in the US went toward data centers. Meanwhile, data centers' carbon intensity  the amount of iceberg-melting exhaust spewed relative to energy used  became 48 percent higher than the US average.

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All that said, the MIT authors have a few caveats.

First, we can't look under the hood at closed-source AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, and most of the leading AI titans have declined to join in on good-faith climate mapping initiatives like AI Energy Score. Until that changes, any attempt to map such a company's climate impact is a stab in the dark at best.

In addition, the survey's writers note that data centers are not inherently bad for the environment. "If all data centers were hooked up to solar panels and ran only when the Sun was shining, the world would be talking a lot less about AIs energy consumption," they wrote. But unfortunately, "that's not the case."

In countries like the US, the energy grid used to power data centers is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, and surging demand for immediate energy are only making that worse. For example, the authors point to Elon Musk's xAI data center outside of Memphis, which is is using 35 methane gas generators to keep its chips humming, rather than wait for approval to draw from the civilian power grid.

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Unless the industry is made to adopt strategies to mitigate AI's climate impact  like those outlined in the Paris AI Action Declaration  this will just be the beginning of a devastating rise in climate-altering emissions.

More on AI: New Law Would Ban All AI Regulation for a Decade
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  Coming up with a definitive amount of money the state has to spend is often a moving target, but lawmakers feel theyve come as close to a fiscal outlook as possible during a Revenue Estimating Conference at the State Capitol Wednesday.

The commissioners and members met with economists who told them the estimate from December has increased slightly. That increase amounts to about $130 million more for the $12 billion general fund. Secretary of Revenue Richard Nelson appeared pleased with the forecast so far.

Its about a hundred million, thats just kind of an adjustment based on how the collections are coming out, its not that significant when youre looking at a $12 billion (general) fund, but at the end of the day its moving in the right direction, I think with the sweeping changes you dont want to see it fall off, but youll continue to see positive growth going forward, said Nelson.

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But lawmakers at the conference were told the new tax code adopted last year during a special legislative session is still being analyzed. So the numbers could swing one way or another in the coming months.

Right now, we are in the very early beginnings of this change in the tax code, and therefore my position is still kind of wait and see, weve had about three months of collections, said Louisiana Chief Economist Manfred Dix.

Some conference members were interested in how the forecast would be impacted by a national recession. Economists said that was not part of the calculations for the states revenue estimate.

What is a recession and is the US in one?

Latest News

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, Putnam County Sheriffs Office and St. Johns County Sheriffs Office are searching by land, sea and sky for Jeremiah Beck, the man Action News Jax first told you was reported missing Wednesday night in the St. Johns River by Palatkas Memorial Bridge.

The FWC has been searching for Beck since he was reported missing by friends at around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

They told Putnam County deputies theyd seen him fall off his boat while trying to get to his kayak.

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The Putnam County Sheriffs Office said in a post to Facebook that the kayak was found empty after less than two hours of the initial search

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<

The FWC has since searched for hours using Becks boat as a center point to try and find him, hopefully, nearby.

Were going to continue this as a search and rescue until proven otherwise. And were using all the assets at our disposal, said Chad Weber, public information officer of FWCs northeast division.

The FWC says its using drones, a helicopter, boats with sonar and a dive team to search underwater. Theyre going up and down the river and beyond the bridge to see if he possibly swam to shore.

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The agency tells Action News Jax it found Becks phone and personal belongings on the shore not long after starting the search last night.

Were going to try to rule out everything until we eventually locate this individual, Weber said.

Becks family wished not to speak with Action News Jax while the search is still going on, but says they will be waiting alongside law enforcement until he is found.

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KABUL, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The spokesman of the Afghan interim government Zabihullah Mujahid has strongly condemned the attack on a school bus in Pakistan on Wednesday, state-run Bakhtar news agency reported on Thursday.

"The attack on the school bus in Khuzdar area of Balouchistan, which killed and injured a number of children, is not justifiable and we condemn it in the strongest terms," the media outlet quoted Mujahid as saying.

Five people, including three students, were killed and several others were injured when terrorists attacked a school bus in Khuzdar district of Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday, according to the Pakistani military.

Mujahid also noted that the Afghan interim government will not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against any country. 






The Israeli aide who was shot dead alongside his girlfriend outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. was planning to propose, officials said

"The young man purchased a ring this week, with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. told reporters at a press conference on May 21

Police confirmed that a suspect  Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago  had been taken into custody







The murdered Israeli aide who was fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. was planning to propose to his girlfriend, who was also killed in the shooting.

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On Wednesday, May 21, at approximately 9:08 p.m. local time, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) responded to multiple calls of a shooting in the area of 3rd Street and F Street Northwest, Chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israeli Embassy in the U.S. have since confirmed on X that victims Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked for the embassy, had been shot dead in the attack. Smith also confirmed during Wednesday's press conference that a suspect  Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago  had been taken into custody.

While speaking to reporters, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., Yechiel Leiter, said that the victims were planning to get engaged before they were killed.

ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty A man draped in the Israeli flag outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22, 2025 A man draped in the Israeli flag outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22, 2025

"The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of 'Free Palestine' was a young couple about to be engaged," Leiter said on Wednesday.

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"The young man purchased a ring this week, with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem," he added. "They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington's cultural center."

ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Authorities outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22, 2025 Authorities outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 22, 2025

Tal Naim, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, was among the many who paid tribute to the victims on social media.

"Yaron and Sarah, Words cannot begin to describe the heartbreak and sorrow. Just this morning, we were still laughing together by the coffee corner  and now, all that remains is a picture," Naim posted to X on Wednesday.

"Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss ," she added, referencing the planned proposal.

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"We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington  Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. May their memory be a blessing," the Israeli Foreign Ministry posted on X.

"We embrace the grieving families during this painful time and will continue to support them always," they continued.

Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via AP Authorities outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 21, 2025 Authorities outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on May 21, 2025

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During Wednesday's press conference, Smith said that "the suspect chanted 'Free, Free Palestine' while in custody."



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Smith alleged that Rodriguez "approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire, striking both of our decedents" before entering the museum and being "detained by event security."

Following the shooting, President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

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Elon Musks pledge to step back from campaign spending  if he means it  is rippling across the nations political landscape.

Some Republicans are worried that they might be losing their whale. Some Democrats fear they are losing their foil.

It matters because Musk injected an unprecedented level of spending into the presidential race and could do the same in Novembers Virginia governors race and around the country in the midterms.

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That was suddenly put in doubt Tuesday, when the Tesla CEO told an interviewer that hes backing away from political spending after shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to help Donald Trump win the presidency last year.

Taking his toys and going home, said Steve Bannon, a Trump ally who has verbally sparred with Musk.

Musk, the worlds richest man with a net worth estimated at more than $420 billion, announced that he will do a lot less political spending, a surprise reversal of his promise to continue to play a major role influencing U.S. elections. Its a significant turnaround from the days after Trumps win in November, when Musk posted on social media that he would keep grinding away at election funding and play a significant role in primaries.



Musks group, America PAC, spent nearly $20 million aiming to boost Republicans in swing House districts. He also joined Trump regularly on the campaign trail last year and offered cash giveaways  including $1 million prizes to a few voters. He eventually spent more than $260 million on the 2024 election cycle and even contributed to two Florida special elections this year.

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But Musks political capital seems to have faded after he and groups he backed  America PAC and Building Americas Future  contributed more than $19 million to support Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel, a Republican who lost by 10 percentage points. The public face of the Department of Government Efficiencys massive overhaul of the federal workforce, Musk earned the ire of many Americans. His car company Tesla faced financial headwinds, and Musk said hed refocus his efforts on the flailing company along with his other businesses.

In Virginia, Republicans were expecting Musk would want to make his mark, given thats where the most competitive statewide races are taking place this year. Some are still holding out hope that will happen: GOP gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears faces a major cash disadvantage against Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

Whether or not Musk actually stops contributing is still an open question. Asked about Musks decision to withdraw as a GOP donor, one Virginia Republican, granted anonymity to speak freely, said: Eh, well see.

In Pennsylvania this year, Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for Supreme Court races, where three justices are up for retention in November. It could bring a repeat of the Wisconsin election: Democrats and Republicans started discussing whether Musk would play a role in the races, withthe Philadelphia Inquirer reporting that one Democratic candidate, Justices Kevin Dougherty, warned that Elon Musk has already invested $1 million, though that couldn't be verified yet through campaign reports.

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Democrats especially dont expect the tech billionaire to fully withdraw from political spending, and they expect him to funnel contributions legally through non-public, dark money means.

"I believe he will start moving his money in the background, through nonprofits," said Pat Dennis, president of American Bridge, a major Democratic super PAC. "It'll be a lot more of that now."

Dennis also argued that Musk stepping away publicly may help Democrats narrow their focus back on congressional Republicans for cutting federal programs and that Musk had initially served as a "shield" for them when he was the de facto head of DOGE.

A spokesperson for America PAC declined to comment on what Musks announcement meant for the group.

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Even some Republicans are unsure exactly what Musks announcement will mean for the future.

I believe he means it right now. But every election is unique, said Republican consultant Josh Novotney. So he may be motivated to be active again in the future.

Even if Musk greatly reduces his amount of campaign spending, several lawmakers on Wednesday said they appreciated what Musk had done for the party.

Sen. Ted Cruz said Musk made an extraordinary difference in the 2024 race. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said he texted Musk Tuesday to say how thankful he was for what hed done.

He's worked hard. He wasn't involved in politics and he jumped all in because he saw an opportunity to make a change, Mullin said. Now he's going back to his life. I don't blame him. In fact, I commend him.

Elena Schneider and Jessica Piper contributed to this story.


Elon Musks announcement earlier this week that he intends to limit his political spending has reportedly left both Republicans and Democrats seething.

According to Politico, the GOP is concerned about the impact a sudden withdrawal of campaign funding from the worlds richest man will have on upcoming election races, while the other side of the aisle will miss having Musk as a target of public ire.

The Tesla, SpaceX, and X boss told the Bloomberg-hosted Qatar Economic Forum on Tuesday that he is planning to rein in his political ambitions and do a lot less in the future.

Elon Musk waves as he joins Donald Trump for a state dinner in Doha, Qatar on May 14 2025 (AP)

I think Ive done enough. If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason, Musk explained.

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The billionaire donated at least $288m to Donald Trumps campaign war chest last year and has since led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE has fired thousands of federal workers and cut millions of dollars in funding to U.S. projects and initiatives to reduce excess expenditures, waste, and fraud.

He also plowed at least $18m into the race in a failed attempt to elect a new justice to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in March, backing conservative circuit judge Brad Schimel to beat moderate rival Susan Crawford.

This failure, despite Musks cash injection and cheese-hatted personal appearances, suggested that his influence could already be beginning to wane.

Elon Musk campaigning on behalf of Brad Schimel in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on March 30 2025 (Reuters)

Republicans had nevertheless hoped he would continue to invest in competitive contests, notably Novembers Supreme Court race in Pennsylvania or the Virginia gubernatorial election, in which Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger is currently outspending GOP candidate Winsome Earle-Sears.

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It remains to be seen whether Musk really will turn off the tap, a step the highly critical Trump ally Steve Bannon has characterised as taking his toys and going home.

I believe he means it right now. But every election is unique, Republican political consultant Josh Novotney told Politico. So he may be motivated to be active again in the future.

GOP senators Ted Cruz and Markwayne Mullin have rushed to praise the billionaire for his extraordinary contribution to the 2024 campaign in case he felt his generosity had gone underappreciated.

For Democrats, Musk has been a focal point for criticism of the Trump administration. Everyone from Joe Biden to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders has denounced him as an unelected oligarch whose money has bought him too much unchecked power at the heart of the U.S. government and sparked myriad conflicts of interest concerns.

Elon Musk sporting a DOGE T-shirt at the White House on March 9 2025 (AP)

The latest of these saw 42 members of the party write to the Pentagons inspector general this week to sound the alarm over SpaceXs potentially lucrative involvement in Trumps new Golden Dome anti-missile defense system.

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The opposition likewise remains sceptical that Musk is really going away for good, whatever he says publicly about recommitting himself to Tesla. The electric car brand has been badly wounded by its political stunts, suffering a violent public backlash and a 71 percent crash in its first-quarter profits.

I believe he will start moving his money in the background, through nonprofits, said Pat Dennis, president of the American Bridge Democratic super PAC. Itll be a lot more of that now.
New Jersey's would-be governors said competition, more oversight, and price transparency could pull the State Health Benefits Program out of a death spiral. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Riven by years of municipal departures, soaring premiums, and surging prescription drug use, the local government part of the State Health Benefits Program is on a path to complete collapse, and New Jerseys gubernatorial hopefuls differ on how to fix it.

The plan, which in January provided health coverage to 56.2% of the states local government employers and has repeatedly seen double-digit premium hikes in recent years, faces even sharper increases and will collapse absent wholesale changes to benefits, entry and exit rules, and governance, the Treasury warned in a report released Tuesday.

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Plans that provide coverage to local government face cumulative premium increases set to exceed 60% over the next four years and will likely collapse as more towns, authorities, and counties flee, the Treasury said. That collapse could leave towns with small or sickly workforces facing high rates in the private market.

Because premiums under the local part of the State Health Benefits Program are paid largely by local revenue like property taxes  whether through withholdings from local government workers salaries or directly from public coffers  spiking premiums stand to raise tax burdens at the local level.

There are 11 candidates running in the June 10 gubernatorial primaries (Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, cant run for a third term this fall). They presented disparate paths on how to control escalating costs under the states public health plans, with some favoring increased competition, new drug pricing rules, or thinner plan requirements.

We need more competition, said former radio host Bill Spadea and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, both Republicans.

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On top of boosting competition, Republican candidates want to lower the number of public plans coverage requirements as a method of controlling costs.

From left, Republican gubernatorial hopefuls Bill Spadea, Jack Ciattarelli, and Jon Bramnick at a debate hosted by the New Jersey Globe in Newark on May 20, 2025. (Courtesy of the New Jersey Globe)

Murphy in late 2023 signed a law to allow the states public health plans to have more than one third-party administrator.

Aetna has since joined Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey in administering the states self-funded public health benefits, but its entry was not expected to generate savings in the current fiscal year, with benefits unclear for out years, according to budget documents.

Its not clear any other New Jersey insurers have the capacity to administer health benefits across the breadth of state. Aetna and Horizon were the only two bidders for contracts to administer the public health plans, a Treasury spokesperson said.

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Spadea and Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Union) suggested reducing plan coverage requirements, allowing the state to offer cheaper, less fulsome coverage in a bid to lower premiums.

Right now, we have insurance policies that mandate a whole bunch of different services. I want to bring in companies that have options where you can choose policies that have less mandated requirements than we require in New Jersey, Bramnick said.

In its report, the Treasury listed high-cost health care services among the primary driver of cost increases, alongside surging use of expensive medications, especially new weight loss drugs.

Its not clear what services candidates would seek to limit or whether their plans would include a winnowing of existing health care plans. Treasurys report notes that most local government workers remain on older plans with generous benefits and high costs.

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Most candidates provided answers on how to control escalating costs in public worker health plans before the release of the Tuesday report that warned the plan had entered a death spiral. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and teachers union chief Sean Spiller  all Democrats  provided responses after its publication.

From left, Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls Steve Sweeney, Ras Baraka, Steve Fulop, Sean Spiller, Mikie Sherrill, and Josh Gottheimer. (Courtesy of New Jersey Globe/ON New Jersey)

Democrats proposed solutions were more varied than their Republican counterparts. Some, like Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, backed increased competition, though Fulop also wants limits on hospital mergers.

You have an increase in costs for New Jersey because you have this hospital monopoly as well, which has put a stranglehold on doctors, Fulop said. I think that Trenton needs to be more aggressive in not allowing that consolidation within hospitals or them acquiring medical practices downstream.

Others favored boosting oversight of plan spending, targeting certain insurance middlemen, or broader changes like those the school workers public health plan saw in 2020.

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Gottheimer and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11) both suggested increased plan oversight, her through audits of the State Health Benefits Program and him through compliance reviews. The two also said they want greater regulation of pharmacy benefit managers, third-party firms that negotiate prescription prices on behalf of insurance providers and have been blamed for rising prescription drug prices.

Theyve driven up pharmaceutical costs up to 10 times, Sherrill said.

Baraka backed reference-based pricing, which would tie prices for some services or drugs to those charged by Medicare. He also supports shifting some regulatory authority over the public plans to the Department of Banking and Insurance.

We need reference-based pricing to bring costs down and increase transparency in this state and we need to lay the foundation for a true public option  one that prioritizes people, not profit, the mayor said.

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Treasurys report partly blames the structure of plan design committees for rising costs within the State Health Benefits Program, saying those bodies, whose membership is split evenly between management and labor, had entrenched the status quo of expensive benefits. Ceding some authority to Treasury could lower costs, the report says.

At present, only the committees or the Legislature can change plan designs by, for example, changing copay levels, shifting reimbursement rates, or eliminating specific insurance plans within the program. The State Health Benefits Commission and its schools counterpart set premium levels.

Spiller and former state Sen. Steve Sweeney highlighted past reforms to state plans, including the 2020 changes that moved most school workers enrolled in the School Employee Health Benefits Program to cheaper public plans. They also suggested reverse auction rules that see pharmacy benefit managers bid each other down for state contracts.

When I did the reverse auction on pharmaceuticals, it saved half a billion dollars a year, so thats one of the lower-hanging fruits, Sweeney said. The other one is sitting down with the unions to see where we can negotiate and reduce healthcare costs like we did with the (New Jersey Education Association).

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The 2020 changes, which came when Spiller was the teachers unions vice president, succeeded in providing some relief to public school plans, but Treasurys report warns the dynamics that sent the local part of the State Health Benefits Program into a death spiral could do the same for the school workers plan.

Multiple Democrats, including Gottheimer and Baraka, said they want more transparency over hospital pricing, while Spiller blamed hospitals political heft for public plans present distress.

Weve seen it where we can make changes to some of the plans structures. They refuse to do it. Over and over, they refuse, he said. And let me tell you, I am sure it is because the biggest donors in New Jersey politics are the hospitals, the insurance companies, their brokers, all the other folks. We never get the change we need.

Dana DiFilippo and Sophie Nieto-Munoz contributed.

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A longtime firefighter in Nahant was arraigned on a slew of charges, including four counts of rape, earlier this week, the Essex County District Attorneys office told Boston 25 News Thursday.

He was charged with four counts of rape, two counts of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, two counts of assault and battery, one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and one count of intimidating a witness during his arraignment in Salem Superior Court, the DAs office told Boston 25 News.

Pappalardo, who currently holds the rank of lieutenant, has served as a firefighter in the town since 2004, Nahant Town Administrator Antonio Barletta said.

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Pappalardo has been placed on administrative leave with pay in accordance with the fire departments collective bargaining agreement with the town.

This may change to unpaid leave pending the outcome of a dangerousness hearing expected later this week, as well as an agency review of the matter, Town Administrator Antonio Barletta said.

Pappalardo received the Medal of Valor during the 33rd Annual Firefighter of the Year Award in November 2022.

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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Two Kenyan men charged with facilitating the 2019 attack on a luxury hotel complex that left 21 people dead were found guilty on Thursday and will be sentenced next month.

Judge Diana Kavedza, while sitting a court in Kenyas capital, Nairobi, ruled that the prosecution had proved that Hussein Mohamed Abdille Ali and Mohamed Abdi Ali sent money and helped acquire fake identification documents for the militants who died during the DusitD2 hotel complex attack.

Al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred six years after 67 people were killed at Nairobis Westgate Shopping Mall and four years after 147 students died at Garissa University in the north of the country.

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Based in neighboring Somalia, Al-Shabab have vowed retribution against Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight it since 2011, and continue to stage attacks in Somalia and Kenya.

Kenyan authorities said all five attackers died during the Dusit attack.

The prosecution presented 45 witnesses during the trial.

On Thursday, the judge ordered a probation report to be prepared within 21 days and set sentencing for June 19.

A third suspect, Mire Abdulahi, who had been charged alongside the two men had earlier pleaded guilty and was sentenced.

Foreign nationals, including an American and a Briton, were among those killed in the 2019 attack.

____

Follow APs Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
May 21---- Societal attitudes and the care provided to those with mental illness have come a long ways since Sue Abderholden took on her role as executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota in 2001.

She's fighting now to keep those gains, and to continue moving forward, as she prepares to retire from her role as

director at the end of October.

Abderholden was the featured speaker for the annual Mental Health Awareness March in Montevideo on Saturday, but she had to leave the community in a hurry.

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She told her audience that she was on her way to the State Capitol to speak for legislation affecting mental health care as the clock was ticking down to the Monday end of the legislative session.

Legislative leaders and the governor have said that a special session will take place.

Abderholden said Saturday that she also had recently visited Washington, D.C. There she spoke to members of Minnesota's congressional delegation about federal legislation that also has significant implications for mental health care.

"Twenty-five years ago, people really didn't talk about mental illness," Abderholden told an audience of more than 40 people gathered in a log cabin shelter in Smith Park on the cold, blustery day.

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"Now, tons of people are talking about it. ... They really have broken down that barrier," she said.

While people like to use the word "stigma" when speaking about mental health, Abderholden said it is really about "discrimination." Many with mental illness are afraid to share that information in fear it will be used against them, such as in denying them a promotion or raise at work, she explained.

There are lots of discriminatory policies yet in place, she said. There remains much work to do.

"People say the mental health system isn't broken. The reality is, it was never built," she said.

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Those working in mental health are finding what works and building on that, she said.

One of the most important achievements has been the extension of Medicaid to pay for mental illness care, Abderholden said. Medicaid, called

in Minnesota, is a health care program for people with low income.

Just a few decades ago, Medicaid provided no coverage for mental illness care. Care was funded through grants to counties. If a county ran out of the money, "you got nothing," said Abderholden.

is administered by states and funded jointly by states and the federal government.

Proposed changes to Medicaid funding is what led Abderholden to Washington, D.C. She said the changes under consideration would adversely affect those needing care for mental illness.

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Young people ages 18 to 26  typically when serious mental illness emerges  would be among those harmed by a proposed work requirement for Medicaid, she said. If they are not able to work 80 hours in a month, they would need to be certified by the Social Security Administration as disabled in order to receive Medicaid benefits.

Someone newly diagnosed with schizophrenia is probably not going to be able to work 80 hours in a month, she said. But certifying someone as disabled is counterproductive by keeping them from returning to the workforce.

"We want them to work. We know work is helpful," she said.

Newly diagnosed people could be without Medicaid funding  and consequently without the care they need  for a long time, according to Abderholden. The process to become certified as disabled can often take three to four years, she said.

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There's usually an eight-month wait to learn the outcome of a first application for disability certification. Seventy percent of first-time applications are denied, according to Abderholden.

Among other changes, she noted that federal lawmakers want to require Medicaid recipients to make a co-payment for prescriptions.

According to a report from

the new GOP proposal would require Medicaid enrollees making poverty-level wages or higher to pay copayments of as much as $35 per health care service.

Are people making less than $20,000 going to pay $35 for a prescription, or $25 for a therapy session as part of the copayment requirement, she asked her audience on Saturday.

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"Not when you are making $20,000 a year or less," she answered. "Copayment doesn't mean they use health care more efficiently. It means they don't use health care. It is a barrier."

Her hurried trip to St. Paul on Saturday involved speaking up for funding for a 50-bed facility at the Anoka Regional Treatment Center, and for increasing reimbursement rates for mental health providers.

She also called out changes in the health and human services legislation in St. Paul that she supports. There is legislation to purchase vehicles for crisis teams to transport patients, in place of relying on law enforcement squad cars.

She also favors recent legislation assuring that residential providers receive training and that the use of the term "emotional disturbances" would end.

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She urged those present to contact their state elected representatives and to "keep up the good fight."

The health and human services budget bill is among the items on the agenda for a special legislative session.

The Mental Health Awareness March in Montevideo began in 2015 with a handful of supporters, and has been growing each year since, according to Rita Beito, organizer with Woodland Centers, a multi-county provider of mental health and substance use therapy and programs. Last year, with warmer temperatures, more than 80 people joined the march, she said.

The event included a balloon launch and a walk around Smith Park as part of the effort to bring awareness to mental illness.

Minnesota State Correspondent Mary Murphy contributed to this story.
There will be a heavy police presence in downtown Naperville throughout the summer after two large group gatherings over the weekend yielded numerous citations and two arrests, authorities say.

Well be there to protect everybodys right to assemble and have a great night or day or whatever it is  lawfully, Naperville Police Chief Jason Arres said. Its when people start to become unlawful that we arent going to have a tolerance for that.

Friday night, Naperville officers responded to a gathering of as many as 200 teens and young adults in areas of the citys downtown, police said in a Facebook post.

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Police were aware of the gathering ahead of time after seeing it advertised on social media and nearly 20 officers were assigned ahead of time to patrol the area, Arres said. While it was advertised to start at 4 p.m., activity didnt pick up until after 8 or 8:30 p.m. and everything started to bubble up after 9 p.m., he said.

When disruptive behavior started, police began issuing citations, Arres said. Officers observed people flashing hand signals at police, some of which appeared to be gang signs, and groups blocked sidewalks and interrupted traffic flow, he said.

In all, about 20 citations were issues, according to Arres. A 15-year-old girl from Aurora was charged with three felony counts of aggravated battery to a police officer and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, littering and obstruction, police said.

The situation started with an alleged incident of littering but devolved into her allegedly putting her hands on an officer, Arres said.

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The second gathering took place Saturday night.

Arres described it as a street takeover, with more than 100 people congregating in a parking lot on the northeast side of the city. There were numerous, numerous vehicles doing burnouts and doughnuts around the lot, he said, and people setting off fireworks.

Police were not aware of Saturdays gathering ahead of time but coordinated a large police response to that area after being notified just after midnight, Arres said. Officers issued nearly 20 traffic tickets for multiple city ordinance violations, he said.

Raymond Howard Zegers, 20, of McHenry, was arrested Sunday after an investigation allegedly connected him to several crimes committed during the meet-up, police said. Zegers was charged with reckless driving, reckless conduct, criminal damage to property and mob action.

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No weapons were observed at either gathering, according to the police chief.

Gatherings like those from over the weekend arent new. Several police officers were dispatched to downtown Naperville in August 2023 to break up a large gathering of about 150 people.

The gatherings also are not unique to Naperville.

So-called teen takeovers have become commonplace in Chicagos downtown in neighborhoods over the past few years.

Arres emphasized that Naperville police will have zero tolerance for unlawfulness, he said.

We want people of all ages to have a great time and enjoy all the amenities that our downtown has to offer, he said. But if youre going to come down and create issues and problems, you will be held accountable. That word will get out that Naperville is enforcing all the laws as we are tasked to do.

The Chicago Tribunes Rebecca Johnson contributed.

tkenny@chicagotribune.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  Grace Diaz, a Nashville native, went to college in Oregon and got a job in city planning. After deciding a desk job wasnt for her, she joined the Navy. She went to Officer Candidate School where she learned what she needed to know to be ready for her future career.

So, its a 13-week-long course up in Newport, Rhode Island, and it starts off very heavy on physical training, getting indoctrinated into the Navy, learning how to properly address people, learning how to pretty much just be in the Navy, Diaz said.

With Army Veteran parents, Diaz knew she was making the right call, even if her parents were hesitant.

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It really took them a minute to really know that, oh, Im going to be gone for a while. Im going to be out doing a lot of things, out in the ocean, but theyre actually really happy. They love seeing me graduate, they loved having me home in Nashville, where I go to hang out with them for a while, and then theyre going to come visit me on my ship in Spain soon, so thatll be great.

Tour the Captains Import Cabin aboard the USS George H. W. Bush

Once she finished Officer Candidate School, before commissioning, Diaz came back to South Nashville and helped the Navy recruiting office. The office is located near the Nashville Zoo, and being so close to Belmont, she decided to start recruiting college students and post-graduates who didnt know what they wanted to do next. Diaz related to these people because she had a similar story.

Now that Diaz is in Basic Divisions Officer Course (BDOC), she is doing simulators to become the OOD, Officer of the Deck, onboard a ship.

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Currently, she does navigation simulators for a couple of hours, but soon shell do them four to six hours a day to be prepared for life at sea.

I plan to show up to my ship extremely confident and being up on the bridge and giving directions, and making decisions about the safe navigation of the ship, and being in these simulations for hours every day is going to prepare me for that.

To see more from Shelbys naval journey, check out the News 2 special report Shelby Goes to Sea.

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CHEYENNE  Local leaders hope that newly completed renovations to the historic Cheyenne Depot will bring in more local residents and encourage tourists to spend more time downtown.

The project was completed only a few months after being approved in September, and was celebrated with a ribbon cutting on the newly updated pedestrian patio on May 13.

These renovations will help ensure the Depot continues to meet modern needs while retaining its importance as a major historic building in Cheyenne, said Jason Sanchez, Community Recreation and Events director.

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Sanchez and his team were major contributors to this project, and have handled several other beautification projects in town. He noted that most buildings experience wear and tear over time, later requiring repairs.

By focusing on restoring original features and repairing attractive features, he hopes more people will use the building.

This is a national treasure here, Sanchez said. ... With the support of the taxpayers, to get ($1.4 million) to do this renovation, it was exciting to be able to bring something kind of back to life.

The project, approved by City Council in September 2024, was allocated funding from sixth-penny sales tax funds earmarked for projects in downtown Cheyenne. The sixth-penny tax is approved by voters, with the funds allocated to specific projects.

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Mayor Patrick Collins noted in his speech before the ribbon cutting that the voters who saw value in refurbishing downtown made this project possible.

We have a beautiful downtown, we have beautiful bones, Collins said. But we have curbs and gutters that needed work, we had garbage cans that needed to be worked on. We had this beautiful building that needed to be refreshed, and (voters) saw that vision.

The $1.4 million project updated the patio on the southwest side of the depot, adding brick pavers, shade structures, tables, benches and an ornamental fence replacing the older chain link fence that used to separate the patio from the rail yard.

Renovations have also been made to the first-floor restrooms, the main lobby doors were repaired or replaced, and the kitchen has been updated to accommodate catering or concessions.

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One of the major changes is the new ornamental fence that should provide security to the patio while allowing visitors to observe the rail yard.

With people sitting out back, I didnt want them looking through a chain link fence anymore or barbed wire, so we put this ornamental fence up, Sanchez said. Its a tourist destination. Were a few feet away from a rail yard, and not many people can boast that. Its a cool amenity for Cheyenne, and I think itll boost our tourism dollars.

The depot is designated a National Historic Landmark due to its status as a former Union Pacific train station. Its construction began in 1886, and after it was built, the Depot served as the main passenger station for Cheyenne.

The depots role in the history of the transcontinental railroad, transportation in the West and the influence of the Union Pacific Railroad make it a prime tourist destination.

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In the 1990s, after passenger service ended at the depot, the Union Pacific donated the building to the city of Cheyenne. After a decade or so of renovations, the Cheyenne Depot became a focal point in downtown Cheyenne and was declared a National Historic Landmark.

We have people that come to Cheyenne, and they know about rail heritage, Collins said. ... I think people want to come out here on this patio to watch the trains. And it wasnt a very hospitable place. Now, you look around, and its gorgeous.
BAGHDAD, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Two Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in an airstrike in the central Iraqi province of Salahuddin, the Iraqi military said on Thursday.

Acting on intelligence, Iraqi forces conducted the airstrike on Tuesday, targeting an IS hideout in the mountainous area of Balkana in the northeastern part of the province, according to a statement from the Security Media Cell, a media outlet affiliated with the Iraqi Joint Operations Command.

A joint force of army and intelligence personnel was dispatched to search the bombed area and found, by Thursday morning, the bodies of two militants, along with weapons, mobile phones, and other logistical supplies, the statement said.

It added that the search operation for IS militants and the intelligence monitoring process are still ongoing in the area.

While Iraq declared victory over IS in 2017, remnants of the group continue to carry out attacks against security forces and civilians in urban areas, deserts, and remote regions. 
Gov. Katie Hobbs participates in a bill signing ceremony for House Bill 2281 ion May 21, 2025. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror

Surrounded by the flags of Arizonas 22 Tribal Nations, Indigenous leaders, advocates, and officials gathered with Gov. Katie Hobbs on May 21 to witness the ceremonial signing of a long-awaited law.

 We are here because the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people demands our full attention and collaboration, Hobbs said. It demands action and it demands solutions.

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Hobbs officially signed House Bill 2281, the Turquoise Alert System bill, into law on May 13, establishing a new system to issue state-wide alerts for missing Indigenous or endangered persons using the federally authorized Emergency Alert System.

The alert applies to anyone younger than 65 who does not meet criteria for an Amber or Silver Alert. An Amber Alert is activated when a minor is abducted, and a Silver Alert is for when a person over the age of 65 or who has a cognitive or developmental disability goes missing.

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If a person who is 18 or older goes missing in Arizona, a public alert of their disappearance is not available nor required. Thats a hurdle that many Indigenous families are familiar with. The Department of Public Safety will oversee the new alert system.

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Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said that the new alert system closes jurisdictional and age-related gaps, which will help better serve Indigenous people who go missing or could be in danger.

The language provides for collaboration between Tribal, state and local police, and as we know from the success of the Amber Alert system, the sooner law enforcement and the public are alerted to potential danger, the stronger the likelihood that endangered individuals can return home safely, he said.

Lewis collaborated with Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, who sponsored the bill, which passed through the legislature with unanimous support.

 I applaud all of the members of the legislature for their support for this bill and for taking this important step to addressing this longstanding, missing and murdered Indigenous crisis that continues throughout our state, Lewis said.

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Arizona is the fifth state to implement a missing and endangered Indigenous persons alert system. The other states are California, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico.

The bill is known as Emilys Law in honor of 14-year-old Emily Pike, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe who went missing and was later found dead earlier this year.

 Every year, tens of thousands of people go missing who fall outside the criteria for an amber or silver alert, Hobbs said. Emily Pike was one of those people. Her life and her story mattered.

Hobbs announced that the state is contributing $25,000 to the San Carlos Apache Tribes reward for information on Emily Pikes murder. Hobbs said the contribution comes after meeting with San Carlos Apache tribal leaders and asking them how the state could help support the investigation. The total award is now $175,000.

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 I urge anyone with information to contact the Gila County Sheriffs Office or the FBI, Hobbs said, adding that Emily Pike would have turned 15 on May 15.

She should have celebrated with her friends and family. Her family deserves this justice, she added. And in her honor, I am proud to sign Emilys Law to establish the Turquoise Alert in Arizona.

Lewis said the law will not bring Emily Pike back, but he hopes that Emilys Law will prevent another Indigenous relative, child, or teen from suffering the same fate.

 With the implementation of the Turquoise Alert System along with the Amber Alert System and Silver Alert System, together, we can collectively all work together to protect our children, our elders, our most vulnerable, our tribal members, and act quickly to bring them to safety, he added.

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Emily Pikes mother, sister, and uncle, Allred Pike Jr., attended the signing. Her uncle spoke on behalf of the family, expressing that he is conflicted about the name, Emilys Law, because his niece is no longer here.

 She was murdered. She was dismembered. She was tossed to the side of the road like she didnt matter, he said. She was our daughter, our niece, our granddaughter, our cousin, our friend, and were here to tell you that she mattered, her life mattered.

Allred Pike said that it was hard to be at the signing, but the family understands that Emilys Law is a step in the right direction to move forward.

We just dont want this to happen to anyone else out there and to make sure that this law helps save lives for other missing and murdered Indigenous women, he added.

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The new Turquoise Alert System will operate in parallel with the Missing and Endangered Person alert code, a national alert code adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in the fall of 2024. The national code is being established in Arizona and is expected to be launched by the summer.

DPS will establish the Turquoise Alert System, a quick response system designed to issue and coordinate alerts following the report of a missing Indigenous or endangered person.

The alert would only be issued at the request of a law enforcement agency investigating a missing person report.

DPS would approve and issue the alert, but for it to be issued, the missing person must be an Indigenous or non-Indigenous endangered person under the age of 65.

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Due to state work on implementing the FCCs new alert code for the last year, Hobbs said that the Turquoise Alert System can be implemented immediately when the law goes into effect, 90 days after the close of the legislative session.

The Turquoise Alert will be ready by the end of this summer, and Im so glad that we are able to come together in a bipartisan way to pass common-sense legislation that will increase public safety, Hobbs said.

More than 10,600 Indigenous people were reported missing in the U.S. in 2023, roughly 3,300 of whom were 18 or older, according to the FBI.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System reported that more than 23,700 missing persons cases were in the database at the end of 2023, and 255 of those were for Indigenous people.

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In 2021, Arizona was ranked as having the third-largest number of unresolved cases of missing Indigenous people in the country, according to NamUs. Currently, there are 93 cases of missing Indigenous people in the NamUs database for Arizona.

The Urban Indian Health Institute reported that Arizona also has the third-largest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the country.

Their study reported 506 known cases in 71 urban areas across the country, 54 of which were in Arizona, including 31 in Tucson.

There is still no comprehensive database that provides accurate numbers or data related to missing and murdered Indigenous peoples across the country. Without a centralized system among the thousands of federal, state, and tribal entities, the information available remains limited.

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When examining the numbers, its important to note that Indigenous people make up only about 6% of Arizonas population.

The state has three major metropolitan areas, all home to large Indigenous populations. Each of Arizonas 22 tribal nations has many tribal members living on their tribal lands.

The recommendation for a missing endangered persons alert in Arizona was first made in 2022 by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls ad hoc committee and has continued as a recommendation by the task force.

Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Coal Mine Mesa, said getting Emilys Law signed is a milestone, but that advocacy work will continue.

Hatathlie, a member of the Navajo Nation and advocate for MMIP, said there have been discussions regarding jurisdictional issues, training requests and educational needs to address MMIP, but the work must be done collaboratively.

We need to stop working in silos, she added. We need to come together and have these difficult conversations because every single day, we have another missing person.

Rep. Myron Tsosie, D-Chinle, who is also from the Navajo Nation, said that Emilys Law brings some relief for Indigenous peoples and their families who have fought to have their voices heard.

Our voices are being heard, he said. This brings some relief to our tribal communities, not only here in Arizona, but across the country.

Tsosie said the fight for MMIP must continue and the community must help raise awareness.

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UPDATE: This storys headline has been updated for clarity.
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  With the NATO Parliamentary Assembly set to begin Thursday, downtown is getting ready for international arrivals.

Security measures are in full swing downtown, with metal fences and barricades alongside a heavy law enforcement presence. Over the next few days, anyone who is going into the restricted zone must be pre-approved by NATO security.

What is the NATO Village?

According to city officials, there are hundreds of visitors expected to be in attendance this weekend, including dignitaries, observers, and members of the media from across the world.

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The Dayton Police Department is helping facilitate security throughout the locked down parts of the city. Crews are still working to put up enclosures and other gates to section off this area.

Inside the NATO Village security zone in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) State troopers inside of the NATO Village security zone (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Inside the NATO Village security zone in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Inside the NATO Village security zone in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Inside the NATO Village security zone in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Inside the NATO Village security zone in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Peace mural in downtown Dayton (Photo by Joe Gurnig/WDTN) Concrete barriers are in place downtown in anticipation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 2025 Spring Session. (Chelcie Hinders) Security fencing is being erected in downtown Dayton, Ohio, in anticipation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 2025 Spring Session. (Chelcie Hinders) Security fencing is being erected in downtown Dayton, Ohio, in anticipation of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 2025 Spring Session. (Chelcie Hinders)

People living in this area told 2 NEWS that they have been notified by law enforcement that many will not be able to park their cars in front of their homes. Some have been directed to park in other areas like the Oregon District.

There will reportedly be hundreds of officers from various law enforcement agencies across the state who will be assisting for the event.

Local residents are encouraged to avoid the impacted roads downtown over the next several days because you will not be allowed through without security clearance.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
This week, Dayton will host the NATO Spring Parliamentary Assembly, which aligns with the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.

Over 1,000 diplomats, staff, journalists, and guests from dozens of countries are expected to attend the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meetings from May 22 to 26.

According to the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau, this is the first time NATO has come to the US since 2003, "coming at a precarious time for US-international relations."

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But what is NATO, and why is it in Dayton? Here's everything to know.

What is the NATO Parliamentary Assembly?

The assembly was created in 1955 to link the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with the parliaments of NATOs 32 member nations.

NATOs Parliamentary Assembly is held twice annually, per the Dayton Daily News. Sessions occur in the spring and the fall, bringing NATO members and partner legislators together for a series of debates and reports.

The news site adds that this week, the alliance will discuss key issues and policy recommendations on its defense and security agenda, including discussions related to the war in Ukraine.

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This will be the first time the U.S. has hosted the assembly since Orlando did in 2003.

Leaders of the Balkan factions initial the agreement they reached on Nov. 21, 1995, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. From left: President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic; President of Bosnia-Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic; and President of Croatia Franjo Tudjman.

What does NATO stand for?

NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Why is NATO coming to Dayton?

Republican Congressman Mike Turner has been working for more than three years to bring the NATO Parliamentary Assembly to Dayton to align with the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.

Turner, 65, was mayor of Dayton in 1995 when the Dayton Peace Accords were reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, bringing an end to the Bosnian War. Hes been in Congress for 23 years, including 16 years as an appointee to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Where will the NATO assembly be held in Dayton? What is the NATO village?

According to the event's website, the NATO sessions and plenary will be held at various venues in the NATO village in downtown Dayton, including the Schuster Center, Victoria Theatre, and CareSource headquarters. Traffic will be restricted, and pedestrian access will be limited.

Employees with ARX Perimeters set up barricades and fencing in downtown Dayton on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in preparation for NATO Parliamentary Assembly's four-day meeting starting Thursday.

Will there be protests at the NATO assembly in Dayton?

The city of Dayton and its partners are preparing for potential protests.

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On the first night of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in Montreal in November 2024, protests turned violent with people throwing objects at police, lighting vehicles on fire, and breaking windows, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The state has allocated $3 million for security expenses, including anti-scaling fencing and concrete barriers, drones, and radios.

Is NATO open to the public?

The event's website states that only credentialed individuals are allowed to access the NATO Village and assembly sessions.

How many people will be in Dayton for NATO?

Roughly 300 parliament members from the 32 NATO countries will be in Dayton for the spring session. Their families and staff, U.S. officials, and guest speakers have also been invited to join. The total number of attendees is predicted to be around 1,000.

How much did it cost to bring NATO to Ohio?

State Representative Desiree Tims (D-Dayton) announced in March that $4.3 million has been allocated for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, including $2.8 million in reimbursement costs to the city of Dayton for policing, fire, public works, and equipment expenses.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What is NATO? Why is it in Dayton? Everything to know


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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerted customers of a recall of more than a dozen Nature Mills US Inc. powder mixes.

The company issued the recall after it discovered that several of its products contained undisclosed allergens, like milk, wheat, and sesame.

Find a full list of impacted products below.

Powdered flavor and soup mixes are an easy way to add some punch to an otherwise plain dish. However, some of the products manufactured by the Texas-based company Nature Mills US Inc. are being recalled due to undisclosed allergens, which pose a serious risk for those with certain allergies.

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The Nature Mills products were sold nationwide to customers who shopped on the brands website and included a variety of products, like rice mixes, soups, spice mixes and powders, porridge mix, and papads and vadam. According to a statement shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the recall came after a routine inspection revealed that the products contained undisclosed allergens, including wheat, milk, and sesame. These items were sold between Dec. 1, 2023 and May 10, 2025, and include some of the following product descriptions and UPC codes:

Nature Mills Idly Chili Powder, UPC: 1 95993 07455 5

Nature Mills Sesame Rice Mix, UPC 689394708435

Nature Mills Dal Garlic Rice Mix, UPC 689394708428

Nature Mills Moringa Rice Mix, UPC 689394708442

Nature Mills Curry Leaf Rice Mix, UPC 689394708336

Nature Mills Avarampoo Soup, UPC 689394708374

Nature Mills Wonderberry Soup, UPC 195993074562

If you have food allergies and believe you have an impacted product, do not eat it. To get a complete list of the recalled items, including their UPC codes and best-by dates, visit the FDA website.

While there is no risk to the general public, those who are allergic to the undeclared ingredients are directed to check their packages to see if they own any of the items included in the recall. Those customers are advised to discontinue using the items at once and contact the company for a full refund or replacement product. Nature Mills can be reached via email at info@naturemills.com or by phone at 1-833-628-8736, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

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Fortunately, no illnesses have been reported as of the time of publication. However, those who are allergic to wheat, milk, and sesame are at an increased risk of experiencing a reaction to these items. For those with serious allergies, that reaction may be severe, and the Mayo Clinic says symptoms of an allergic reaction may include shortness of breath, itching or tingling in the mouth, hives, swelling of the face and throat, stomach pain and discomfort, and dizziness or lightheadedness that may lead to fainting.

In more extreme cases, a person could experience anaphylaxis, which can be life-threatening. Call 911 to get immediate treatment.

If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms after consuming these products, it's important to contact your healthcare provider immediately.

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The Navy this month undertook two groundbreaking weapons systems tests, which were followed by an announcement for a planned Future Unmanned Surface Vessel Industry Day in June to to accelerate the development and procurement of future USVs.

The Navys Strategic Systems Programs on May 2 conducted the first sea-based cold-gas launch approach of its Conventional Prompt Strike, or CPS, hypersonic missile.

Unlike in hot launch methods, in which the projectile motor ignites in the launch silo before flying towards its target, the cold-gas technique sees the missile launch first before the first stage of ignition.

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This method, according to the Navy, will become the standard for launching hypersonic missiles from ships at sea.

The cold-gas approach allows the Navy to eject the missile from the platform and achieve a safe distance above the ship prior to first stage ignition, said Vice Adm. Johnny Wolfe, director of Strategic Systems Programs.

The test of the CPS missile was followed by the first-ever launch of a Solid Fuel Integral Rocket Ramjet (SFIRR) from an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division.

The unmanned vehicle launch test also tested live firing control on a BQM-34 target vehicle, demonstrating maneuverability, control and long-range accuracy.

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This successful integration validates key aspects of our design and moves us closer to delivering an advanced propulsion system that will provide warfighters with greater range and speed, said Abbey Horning, product director of NAWCWDs Advanced Concepts, Prototyping and Experimentation office, in a release. Were not just revisiting an old idea; were refining and modernizing it to fit todays mission,

With the Navy seeking to strengthen its existing fleet with the inclusion of unmanned vessels, it is scheduled to host an industry day in Washington on June 17 for the Future Unmanned Surface Vessel Program.
CHESAPEAKE  The Navy is asking Chesapeake residents who live within a mile of the Northwest Annex to reach out and have their drinking water wells sampled for certain long-lasting synthetic chemicals.

The testing is for for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS  a combination of thousands of different chemicals that have been commonly used in household and industrial products for decades, particularly due to stain- and water-repellent qualities.

The chemicals tend to stick around for a long time. So the Navy and Department of Defense have developed policies to address past releases of PFAS at its installations nationwide.

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At the Northwest Annex, the previous use of firefighting foam for testing, training, firefighting and other activities resulted in PFAS being present in the groundwater there, prompting the need to sample nearby drinking water wells located in the direction the groundwater flows away from the Northwest Annex.

The Northwest Annex includes various support services for the Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Marine Corps Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection and NATO. It also operates the largest small-arms range facilities in Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.

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In 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency released new regulations and standards for PFAS in drinking water as part of the Safe Water Drinking Act. Also in 2024, the DOD published plans about ongoing PFAS cleanups, with priority to address private drinking water wells with the highest levels from military activities.

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Exposure to certain levels of PFAS has been linked to various cancers, including prostate, kidney and testicular. It could also decrease fertility, cause developmental effects in children and weaken the immune system.

The Navy tested homes near Northwest Annex in 2019, and none met the levels that called for remediation, according to the Environmental Restoration Program. But now armed with new standards, the Navy is again testing homes within a mile-stretch along the Northwest River and near the Virginia state line, including those examined in 2019. The Navy already has determined one home tested in 2019 reached a level that calls for an enduring solution.

The Navy has offered similar testing for residents near St. Juliens Creek Annex in Chesapeake.

Appointments can be made and eligibility can be determined by calling 833-692-6639. More information can be found here.

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Preliminary sample results are expected within 30 days of collection. The Navy will follow up with property owners and address next steps if needed, which could involve an enduring solution like the installation of a drinking water treatment system if levels are detected above 70 parts per trillion.

Natalie Anderson, 757-732-1133, natalie.anderson@virginiamedia.com
State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha listens to State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil kneeling at her desk. March 12, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN  An uneasy compromise that became the Education Committee package bill died on the Nebraska statehouse floor Wednesday, in part because the quest to infuse more religion into public schools failed.

A cross-section of committee members tried to get a group of loosely related education proposals out of committee and onto the floor for a month.

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The combined bill was viewed as a bipartisan deal involving several groups, including the conservative chair of the committee and the states largest teachers union, to marry a proposal that would allow K-12 students to be excused during the school day for off-site religious instruction and coursework to a bill from State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha that would help schools find more long-term substitutes so teachers could take paid time off around significant life events.

Some who backed the deal have said that parents can already sign out their kids for any reason and that they do not see it as a state endorsement of religion. Other lawmakers have expressed that it would open the door for other religious-themed bills.

Floor debate tense

The floor debate was like many of the tense executive sessions on the package. The deal blew up on the floor after State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha successfully removed Central Citys State Sen. Loren Lippincotts Legislative Bill 550, a release time proposal, killing the whole package.

State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City, center. Jan. 15, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

While the original deal is dead  lawmakers involved in negotiations let lawmakers skip over the bill. Their aim: to bring back a cleaner version of LB 306  mainly some clean-up language sought by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil to address change terms and provisions in state law relating to higher education in the sessions final days while giving lawmakers an opportunity to attach their proposals to it individually and let the full Legislature vote on each.

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I think in any normal course of a session, a bill like LB 550 would be seen as a radical piece of legislation, Hunt said.

Hunt was the sole vote against the package in committee. Conrad, on the committee vote, was present not voting. Hunt said they were not part of any negotiations.

The Wednesday vote to remove Lippincotts proposal was bipartisan, 25-9. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about the logistical challenges of letting students leave, including how often students would miss classes. Some wondered whether it might blur the line between church and state. The Lippincott bill was part of a national lobbying effort by a Christian education organization with ties to the populist right, LifeWise Academy. Lippincott confirmed in previous reporting that his bill is modeled after other states release time legislation.

Jesse Vohwinkel, LifeWise Academys Vice President of Growth, testified in favor of Lippincotts bill during its public hearing in February. The company was mentioned multiple times during the debate.

Some GOP dissent

In recent weeks, some legislative Republicans have privately told the Examiner that Lippincotts bill could go a step too far for them. The vote indicates the climb some social conservatives backing religious bills face.

State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha, center, shakes hands with State Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus on the first day of the 2025 legislative session, her first as a lawmaker. Jan. 8, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

I find that it has a high potential of being very discriminatory against other faiths, State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said during the debate.

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After the Lippincott proposal was removed from the package, state Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings attempted to remove Spiveys bill from the package. It failed by a 22-16 vote, needing 25 votes. Then, after the failed motion to remove Spiveys bill, some Republicans on the committee said Democrats had broken the deal. Education Committee Chair State Sen. Murman and other Republicans tanked the package.

We had an agreement in the Education Committee, Murman said. All of us on the committee had to compromise a little bit  the compromise is no longer in effect.

Democrats on the committee said Murmans approach requiring LB 550 in the package had caused the tension. The final nail came in an 8-29 vote, with the Legislature failing to adopt the committee package as an amendment to the bill, LB 306, killing Spiveys priority bill and other parts of the package.

The Spivey bill sought to give teachers up to three weeks of paid leave to deal with significant life events. The bill would have paid for this leave using a new payroll fee on teacher salaries to cover the costs of paying long-term substitutes while the teachers are out. The fee would also help pay for special education teacher recruitment and retention.

NSEA frustration

The Nebraska State Education Association, one of the brokers of the package, saw the deal blow up as Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, was behind the glass watching lawmakers. He said the union was disappointed with the outcome.

Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, leads a news conference highlighting 2025 priorities for teachers statewide. Jan. 28, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Were disappointed with the vote. Only 8% of educators feel the Legislature takes them into account when they craft education policy, Royers said. Tonights vote is indicative of why they feel that way. We fully intend to come back next session and get a bill to the Governors desk.

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But the union may not need to wait long if the late compromise between Murman and other lawmakers who want to revive a backup plan comes to fruition. Speaker John Arch said he would bring the base of LB 306 back during the last few days of the session.

The impromptu compromise came after Omaha State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh threatened to grind the Legislature to a halt over the packages death.

This is awful when we cant pass the committee priority package bill because the committee chairman wont even vote for his own committee amendment, Cavanaugh said. This session is an abomination.

Lippincott told the Examiner that hes considering attempting to propose his amended version of LB 550. However, he said he was thinking about it realistically, as a majority of senators have already rejected his proposal.

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Murman said the remaining proposals that were part of the package would likely get votes as separate amendments.

Making laws is like making sausage; you hope it sticks together, Murman said. It didnt.

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Net migration halved last year after a Tory crackdown on overseas worker and student visas, official figures show.

The number of people coming to live in the UK minus the number emigrating fell from 860,000 in the year ending 2023 to 431,000 in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The near 50 per cent fall followed restrictions introduced at the start of 2024 by the Conservatives to bar foreign workers and students from bringing their dependents and higher salary thresholds for migrants seeking skilled jobs in the UK.

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The latest decrease is the largest numerical drop for any 12-month period and the ONS said the decline has been driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK.

The 431,000  equivalent to a city the size of Bristol  is, however, still 200,000 more than the pre-Brexit years when it fluctuated between 200,000 to 250,000.

It coincided with separate Home Office figures showing a record 109,000 migrants claimed asylum in the year to March.

However, the data also revealed there were 6,000 fewer asylum seekers in hotels and 22 per cent increase in enforced returns of illegal migrants and foreign criminals.

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Sir Keir Starmer unveiled plans this month to reduce net migration further including requiring foreign skilled workers to be graduates, a ban on recruiting care workers from overseas and higher English language requirements for migrants.

The prime minister warned Britain risks becoming an island of strangers without better integration and that he wanted net migration to have fallen significantly by the next general election but he refused to set a cap or a target.

Sir Keir was also accused of undermining the immigration crackdown with his EU re-set agreement this week, under which thousands of young Europeans are set to come to the UK to live and work under a youth mobility scheme.

Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, said: This huge drop in net migration  dropping by 430,000, or halving  is a big step in the right direction. This is thanks to measures put in place by the last Conservative government.

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But the numbers are still far too high and need to go down a lot further. That is why we need a binding annual immigration cap, set by Parliament  at much, much lower levels.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: The 300,000 drop in net migration since the election is important and welcome after the figures quadrupled to nearly a million in the last Parliament.

Our Immigration White Paper sets out radical reforms to further reduce net migration. These figures show a big increase in returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign national offenders, record levels of illegal working penalties, and the asylum backlog and hotel use coming down.

We are going even further by introducing new counter terrorism style powers to boost our border security and smash the people smuggling gangs responsible for their vile trade.

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The 429,000 fall in net migration is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic. While it stood at 184,000 in the year ending December 2019, it decreased to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020 after a year of lockdowns and travel restrictions.

The latest figures show that long-term immigration fell below one million for the first time in three years, dropping from 1,326,000 in 2023 to 948,000 in the year ending December 2024.

Emigration rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year, largely driven by students who came to the UK after the pandemic leaving the country.

The fall in immigration was driven by a sharp drop in non-EU nationals coming to the UK for work, which fell by 108,000 or 49 per cent in the year ending December 2024. People coming on student visas declined by 17 per cent in the same period.

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There were larger falls in dependents coming to the UK, with study dependents down by 86 per cent, amounting to 105,000 people and work dependents dropping by 35 per cent, representing 81,000 people.

Meanwhile, emigration levels were similar for non-EU nationals and EU nationals.

Non-EU nationals accounted for 43 per cent, or 222,000 of those leaving the UK, while EU nationals made up 42 per cent of people moving from the country, accounting for 218,000 people.

Some 77,000 British nationals emigrated, making up the other 15 per cent.

Mary Gregory, Director of population statistics at the ONS, said: Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants. This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.

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There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.

A record 109,000 migrants claimed asylum in the year to March, 17 per cent up on 2023/24 and the highest since comparable records began in 2001, according to Home Office data.

Migrants crossing the Channel accounted for just under a third of the claims but more than a third came from foreign nationals who had come to the UK other work, student or visitor visas.

The Home Secretary is proposing restrictions on students and workers from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, which have high rates of visa applicants who go on to claim asylum once in the UK.

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The figures showed claims from Pakistanis jumped nearly 60 per cent from 7,000 to 11,000 in the year to March, putting them at the top of the nationality league table.

Fewer than half of asylum claims were granted, down from 61 per cent to 47.8 per cent in the current year while the backlog also fell from 118,000 to 109,500.

The number of asylum seekers in hotels fell to 32,345 in the year ending March 2025, down from 38,079. This is the lowest figure since June 2024, just before Labour won the election, when it was 29,585. This is also down from the 56,042 peak recorded in September 2023.

Enforced returns of illegal migrants and foreign offenders were up 22 per cent compared to last year, hitting 8,590. This is the highest number since 2018.

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However, enforced returns are still down on the annual average of 12,900 recorded in the 2010s.

In the first quarter of 2025, 482 small boat arrivals were deported  either voluntarily or enforced, representing just seven per cent of arrivals over the same period.

Only 5,254 Channel migrants have been returned since the first small boats reached UK shores in 2018, accounting for just 3.2 per cent of the 164,000 arrivals.

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An anecdote, to begin.

In 2023, I was sentenced in Canada by the Ontario College of Psychologists and Behavioural Analysts to an unspecified period of professional re-education for what has been deemed my unprofessional conduct. If I refused to comply, then the college indicated its duty to revoke my professional licence as a clinical psychologist.

I said that I would comply, although insisting  despite the colleges entreaty  that I would make every detail of that re-education painfully public.

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Part of my unprofessionalism was apparently illustrated in the submission of the entire transcript by a random complainant to said college of a conversation I had with Joe Rogan on his podcast, accompanied by the allegation that I had stepped out of my lane as a psychologist.

How? By daring to share my opinion that the economic models purporting to indicate catastrophic future danger caused by the apparently impending climate change apocalypse were false and unreliable and by implying something that requires the further analysis this column offers: that there are non-scientific, indeed psychological, reasons that such models were and are generated and promoted in the first place.

The complainant had never received any professional services from me, let it be noted. Furthermore, the re-education has never been scheduled, despite my agreement to submit to the process, and their publicly stated decision to proceed, because the college appears unable to find anyone at all anywhere willing to act as said re-educator.

Why am I telling you this? First, because the anecdote provides evidence for the genuine social and psychological danger in speaking out against the pretensions of the mad green mob; and second, because the claims that climate change terror is scientifically justified have to be enforced by entrenched propagandistic bureaucratic inquisitors rather than proved scientifically and assessed through genuine discussion in the public arena.

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And with that, on to the real show.

Why might a psychologist be qualified to discuss issues of climate change, anyway? It isnt as if my opinion on psychological matters is appropriate, say, when it comes to the validity of Einsteins equations describing general relativity. It is therefore clearly the case that there are issues in the scientific realm that my education and ability should make me cautious in assessing as a professional, speaking in the public domain.

But there are important  nay, crucial  differences between the mathematics of advanced physics and the doomsaying climate apocalypse narrative. The former has had the validity of its claims demonstrated by passing every crucial test of prediction for a century; the latter has failed continually when put to the test  so much so that global warming turned suddenly into climate change sometimes in the last decade or so because the former phraseology proved untenable both conceptually and practically.

Science Museum

Here is the crucial question: is the climate apocalypse narrative just a scientific theory? Or is it instead a system of belief, unmoored from the objective world, with essentially psychological factors playing the primary role in its initial formulation, current maintenance and widespread dissemination? If the former, then Im out of my wheelhouse as a commentator, and deserve, arguably, to be called on it. If the latter, however, then I am in my true element, as a psychologist, trained in the analysis of belief  and, more importantly, ethically bound as such to indicate falsehood in conceptualisation where I see it.

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And, with regard to that distinction: I have come to conclude, after much detailed consideration (informed by my professional training and experience as researcher and clinician), that the climate doomsayers are possessed by an ideology much more akin to a psychogenic epidemic than they are purveyors of any information remotely scientific.

Might I point out, as well: even if Im wrong (and Im not) such a suggestion from a credible psychologist is at least worthy of evaluation as an alternative explanation for our current cultural, political, economic and psychological predicament.

The scientific claim is that the evidence for cataclysmic climate change is undeniable. The counterclaim, psychologically, is that those who make such a statement are acting out the dictates of a set of ideas that are not scientific, but much more something akin to an ideological or even religious movement, unrecognised though that may be to the holders of the doctrine.

The historical origins of climate doomism

Why might this counterclaim be credible? Lets analyse the situation historically, first, to give us some sense of how the climate change ideas came about. Such analysis sheds substantive light on the motivation for holding and promoting  even insisting upon the validity of  such ideas.

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In the late nineteenth century, Thomas Huxley, the prominent Victorian scientist (Darwins famous bulldog, and grandfather of the famous author and psychedelic pioneer Aldous Huxley), was commissioned to investigate the sustainability of commercial fisheries. Huxley argued that oceanic resources were essentially inexhaustible. He believed that human activities could never scale to the point where fish populations might be affected in the vast waters of the world. This idea of natural inexhaustibility, driven by the context and scientific understanding of the time, maintained influence over public perception for many decades.

It wasnt until the mid-twentieth century that environmental awareness began to shift seismically in the opposite direction. The publication of Rachel Carsons Silent Spring in 1962 was one notable watershed moment in that shift. Carsons work highlighted the allegedly detrimental systemic effects of pesticides, challenging Huxleys presumption that the natural world was large enough to remain immune to human activity.

The environmental movement galvanised by that book experienced another major motivational boost when Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich published The Population Bomb in 1968. Ehrlichs writing emphasised overpopulation as a threat to global well-being, in the specific form of resource depletion and the broader form of general environmental degradation.

His work directly influenced the so-called Club of Rome, which published The Limits to Growth in 1972. That work further associated environmental catastrophe with population growth and economic expansion, insisting that unchecked growth would inevitably produce a panoply of severe societal and environmental crises.

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All this work was predicated on the Malthusian presumption that human populations could be modelled as exemplars of simpler biological organisms, and that we were destined to exhaust the intrinsically limited range of so-called natural resources provided to us in the biosphere. This simple biological modelling completely ignored the fact that human beings are unique in their ability to innovate  to radically transform not only the availability of any given natural resource but to produce revolutions in the very idea of what constitutes such a resource.

Thomas Malthus, best known for his theories on population growth - Hulton Archive

Examples of the latter? The shift from whale oil to petroleum at the end of the nineteenth century; the green revolution that has enabled us to feed billions of new people; our ability to make complex computational machines from the same chemicals that make up sand.

In case it has to be said (and it does): the imprisoned bacteria that meet their Malthusian fate after they consume all available resources in their artificially limited petri dish are simply not characterised by the same ability. In consequence, they do not serve in any way as a valid let alone self-evidently true scientific model for the destiny of the human species.

The modern green movement emerged from precisely these over-simplistic biological-model precursors  but not only these. The revolutionary progressives soon noted the fortunate confluence between the essentially anti-industrial ethos of the Malthusian environmentalists and the anti-capitalist doctrines favoured by those on the far-Left. This meant the emergence of the alliance between the greens and the progressives that we see dominating one pole of the spectrum of political discourse today  this despite the fact that all the predictions of both Ehrlich and the Club of Rome failed to come true in the timeframes they themselves deemed relevant.

A psychological thirst fulfilled

Thats not all on the psychological front, with regard to the climate catastrophe narrative. Its not only that the green movement emerged in the unholy alliance between the Malthusian biologists, seized by a notion of the relationship between human beings and the environment, and the radical Leftists who were stridently anti-capitalist (even anti-liberal). Its also that those who purport to adopt the green/Leftist position can advance their reputations in the political environment, by positioning themselves, essentially, as farsighted advocates of the broad ecosystem  even the survival of the planet and by gaining false and unearned social status and credibility in consequence.

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Worse yet: its that those in the political arena who are willing or even eager to use force and compulsion to control others and advance their own narrowly self-centred personal agendas (electoral success; public acclaim; narcissistic self-aggrandisement) can point to the hypothetical fact of impending climate apocalypse to justify the imposition of any and all economic, political, financial and personal restrictions in the name of saving the planet. The man who is currently Prime Minister of Canada, former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, says it so well himself. Does he actually understand the implications of his words?

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney - Adrian Wyld

Our goal has been to put in place the information, tools and markets so that every financial decision takes climate change into account  to create a financial system in which a companys contributions to climate change and climate solution are fundamental determinants of its value.

There is arguably no more totalitarian claim possible than that every financial decision must be made subordinate to the decisions of the purveyors of the climate change catastrophe. Why do they make this insistence? Because they are valid defenders of Mother Earth, or because it enables them to justify every decision they make, including those that are clearly and absolutely in their own self-interest? Given the cost (Carney estimates a minimum of two trillion dollars in the next few decades merely from Canadians) shouldnt a perspicacious observer be at least somewhat suspicious in such a regard?

But who can argue with any preventative environmental measures, when the planet itself is held to be at stake  and when the personal cost can be catastrophic (part of forcing every financial decision, apparently including whether to keep your job, to be governed by climate concerns). But it remains absolutely necessary to note the possibility that such claims of catastrophe can be used by the power-mad to sow fear, even terror, and to capitalise on the opportunity to seize the reins of power in consequence of such manipulation.

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Heres a psychological truism: tyrants manipulate with fear and compulsion. If a leader insists that the situation has become so dire that he or she should be given special power, the suspicion should immediately arise: is the emergency real, or dreadfully convenient for the proclaimer? Given the vagaries of human nature, a cautious and wise observer should presume: without certain evidence for the former, the latter should be assumed.

So theres apparently plenty of reason for a psychologist to be concerned, and to let that concern be known, regardless of cost.

The danger of net zero: dirtier energy

Lets consider, for a moment, the actual situation at hand with regard to the climate and the hypothetical apocalypse.

First, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change itself  the gold standard body for promoting the apocalypse narrative  has admitted itself that there is currently no strong evidence of dangerous climate change in 25 out of the 34 of its own markers.

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Furthermore, the IPCC determined that high confidence in dangerous change only existed for 3/34 categories, and the panel had to change the definition of such confidence drastically from scientific norms to even manage that. They decided that an 8/10 chance that the evidence was valid was sufficient, when the time-tested scientific standard for such judgement has been set across disciplines at 19/20. There is simply no excuse for this. No paper with such reduced criteria for significance would be published in any respectable scientific journal.

And that is by no means all. Germany has arguably advanced farther down the green/Leftist net zero road than any other once-developed country. The consequence? Much more expensive, much less reliable energy, and rapid de-industrialisation. Much more reliance on the Russians and other authoritarian fossil-fuel rich states. Did that at least result in an improvement in net CO2 production, per unit of energy produced? Quite the contrary: not only is energy less available and more costly in Deutschland  it is dirtier. Germany completed its nuclear power phaseout in April 2023 (why, if CO2 production is the cardinal problem?), shutting down its last three reactors, which had provided low-carbon electricity (about 6 per cent of the power mix in 2022).

To compensate, coal-fired generation, particularly lignite (brown coal), has remained a significant part of the energy mix. In 2022, coal accounted for one-third of electricity production, up from previous years due to the energy crisis triggered by Russias invasion of Ukraine. This is only one example of counterproductive movement on the carbon front in that country. Similar outcomes are evidenced in other countries that have moved in the same direction, not least in the UK. Thus, not only did the green revolution, motivated by the climate apocalypse narrative, fail, it failed by its own standards: a failure that is very much certain to accelerate, as desperation sets in on the environmentalist/Leftist front, and the proclivity to use emergency force correspondingly mounts.

Plant life renaissance

Shall we also point out another even more annoying skeleton in the closet? Plant life is apparently thriving, on planet Earth, in a manner unparalleled in human memory.

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According to no less a source than Nasa (despite its stated commitment to the progressive/environmental narrative), our globe has greened substantially, in direct consequence of increased CO2 levels in the last decades (whether that CO2 is of human origin or not). An international team of 32 authors from 24 institutions in eight countries determined that one quarter to one half of Earths vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years. This represents an increase in leaves on plants equivalent in area to two times the continental US.

Read those last two lines again and think for a moment: how dire and immediate would the climate apocalypse actually have to be for such changes to be anything but the best of all possible environmental news?

Note as well that much of this greening has occurred in the semi-arid areas that the climate apocalypse predictors assumed would transform into desert. Why? Because plants can grow in drier areas when there is more available CO2. They can afford to shrink the size of their respiratory openings, which allows them to grow with less water. Even those who believe the evidence of increasing climate-change induced aridity indicate that the effect on plants is likely to be minimal because of increased CO2 production. Furthermore, it appears that plants are perhaps up to one-third more efficient in their uptake of carbon dioxide than previously estimated  a finding that is perhaps unsurprising to anyone who considers how fast plants grow, say, in the spring, and how much variability there is in that growth over a few mere months. Why in the world wouldnt plants mop up excess plant fertiliser (in the form of atmospheric CO2) when it becomes more easily available? Sometimes being a scientist means not refusing to see the absolutely obvious, ideological pre-commitments be damned.

It is also the case, by the way, that crop yields worldwide have improved, rather than declined, in the face of all this excess CO2 pollution providing even more evidence that the promised apocalypse will be very long in coming, at least with regard to agricultural production. Finally, we might note that every advance on the progressive green front in the West in terms of remediation of CO2 output (and there is little evidence of any success whatsoever on that front) has been swamped absolutely and disproportionately by increased output by China and India  countries that might talk a good green game but put their money where their true mouths are.

A perspicacious and pragmatic observer would also note, on the more specifically political front, that the Americans, seeing the writing on the wall, have decided to abandon the Paris Accords, a climate-apocalypse based set of international agreements. In the UK, the leader of the once pro-net zero Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, has admitted that the once-touted 2050 deadline is impossible, although she has fallen short of the complete disavowal of the doctrine that has become necessary. In other areas of the world  Canada, for example  advocates of the net zero policy still arguably appear to have the upper hand, as they do in the aforementioned Germany and in many places in Western Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Not too late to save the future

Its clearly high time for all that nonsense to come to a stop, as the Americans, who lead the world in wealth, have clearly realised. That is true in no small part because the reasons for the net zero agenda seem to me neither scientific nor economic. They are, in a word, at least in part psychological. Promoting the radical green Leftist agenda provides the promoters, scientific, political, and economic, with unearned social and moral status, enabling them to put themselves forward without effort or genuine sacrifice as guardians of the planet. Aggrandised falsely in this manner, they are more able to fulfil their own narcissistic desires, putting themselves forward as heroes of the environment on the world stage, capitulating to or capitalising on the wilful blindness of their political audience, while appealing so carelessly and dangerously to the destructive anti-capitalist/anti-industrialist envy and moralising of the revolutionary progressive Left.

Why is this a problem, worthy of serious and immediate note? Because the remedies that are touted, in consequence of this psychological situation, are staggeringly expensive; because they will decimate the poor, worldwide, both in the West and in the developing world; because such policies will produce consequences that are detrimental not only economically and politically (given the authoritarian agenda that does and must accompany the net zero agenda) but environmentally  as the record of the greenest of current governments indicates clearly.

Its time for the true motivation of the net zero zealots to be revealed  not least by psychologists, worthy of the name. The climate panic is the work of a cabal of narcissistic worshippers of fear and force, cloaking themselves in the sheeps clothing of planetary guardians. It is dreadfully and terribly expensive and stunningly detrimental to the poor who are the hypothetical targets of the ideological largesse of the Left. It will render the West poor enough to make its very survival as free and abundant unlikely, while simultaneously emboldening the tyrants of China, who care nothing for the idiot posturing of the narcissistic political elite of Europe, North America and the Commonwealth. It will deprive us of the abundance that so much careful work has made possible. It will severely limit the prosperity of our children and grandchildren and the opportunity that would otherwise be before them. It will do all that, by all indications, while simultaneously worsening environmental conditions  as it has in Germany.

Why would we do something so shockingly counterproductive? We return, once again, to psychology: because our leaders can present themselves as morally superior in consequence of their hypocritical and false worship of Mother Nature; because we are inclined to believe such claims, so what we can collectively participate in that false pride by following their lead; because we can all cloak our envy in relationship to the unequal proceeds of the free market system in the guise of environmental activism and fiddle while Rome (or LA) literally burns.

So says the disgraced and unprofessional psychologist, standing outside of his wheelhouse. Evaluate the situation for yourselves.

Before your children pay for all of this. With their future.

Jordan B. Peterson is professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order.

You can watch The Telegraphs most recent interview with Jordan Peterson via this link.

More from Jordan Peterson exclusively for The Telegraph:

- Eco-extremists are leading the world towards despair, poverty, and starvation

- We are sacrificing our children on the altar of a brutal, far-Left ideology

- Trans activism is sexist and delusional

- Why I love Great Britain

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(KRON)  A Nicaraguan man has been charged with assaulting a deportation officer with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a facility in San Jose. The U.S. Department of Justice, citing a criminal complaint said that Francisco De-Jesus Morales, 25, of Nicaragua, assaulted the officer at an ICE facility on May 2.

The incident occurred when the officer who was assaulted and two others attempted to take Morales into custody pursuant to a warrant for his removal and deportation from the United States. Morales, according to the DOJ, physically resisted arrest and attempted to flee from the officers.

OpenAI acquires Jony Ive io startup in reported $6.5 billion deal

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This resulted in a struggle and injuries to Morales and the officers. All three officers, along with Morales, received treatment for injuries sustained during the altercation.

The officers injuries, according to DOJ, included bruising, scrapes, an ankle stress fracture/strain, a chest contusion, and a groin injury. Morales is charged with forcibly assaulting one of the deportation officers, causing significant groin bruising.

He remains in ICE custody pending removal pursuant to his deportation order. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for one count of assault on a federal officer inflicting bodily injury.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- From 2023 to date, Chinese police have filed and investigated 89,000 wildlife-related criminal cases, arresting 97,000 individuals suspected of relevant criminal offences, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

The MPS said that public security authorities have launched in-depth investigations into and cracked down on criminal activities endangering wild animals, dismantling a number of underground industrial chains that illegally hunt, catch, transport and sell wild animals.

During their campaign against illegal hunting, public security authorities have filed and investigated 1,497 criminal cases, apprehending 4,105 criminal suspects.

Chinese police have also participated in a joint law enforcement mission launched by Interpol, during which 63 cross-border cases involving wildlife were resolved, the MPS said.

Thursday marked this year's International Day for Biological Diversity, which took on the themes of harmony with nature and sustainable development. 
Confidence is growing that a more active than average Atlantic hurricane season is about to begin in just over a week. NOAA is now forecasting a 6-in-10 chance of an above-average hurricane season.

By The Numbers: NOAA expects 13 to 19 storms to form in 2025, six to 10 of which will become hurricanes and three to five of which will reach Category 3 status or stronger, according to the outlook released Thursday.

These ranges are on the high side of the 30-year average for both hurricanes and storms. The range for the number of hurricanes is slightly shy of 2024's total of 11.

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NOAA's outlook is consistent, but on the low side of other outlooks issued recently by The Weather Company and by Colorado State University's tropical forecast team.

This outlook was delivered from Gretna, Louisiana, to acknowledge the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina coming up in August.

Ken Graham, the director of the National Weather Service, also acknowledged that there have been tremendous improvements in forecasts since Katrina. The five-day track forecast is now as accurate as the three-day outlook when Katrina was in the Gulf in 2005.

Since Katrina, improvements in technology and forecasting have led to a cost avoidance of at least $60 billion, according to a study out of the University of Miami, and cited by Graham.

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NOAA intends to improve rapid intensification forecasts by 5-7% this season using one of its key hurricane models. This is important to gain an estimate of damage for landfalling hurricanes. Every Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the continental US was a tropical storm or less three days prior, according to Graham.

(MORE: For even more granular weather data tracking in your area, view your 15-minute details forecast in our Premium Pro experience.)

Graham noted there are still challenges ahead of us. There remains a strong focus on the number of hurricanes rather than the impacts from them. He noted that the fatalities from rip currents have outnumbered the deaths from storm surge in recent years. Hurricanes Helene and Milton last year highlighted that impacts can vary well away from the cone of uncertainty and well inland after the storm is no longer a hurricane.

To combat these challenges, NOAA will produce a rip current forecast for the entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts this season. They're also going to include wind alerts on their forecast cone of uncertainty operationally this season.

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A new high-definition satellite will also watch over the Atlantic Basin this hurricane season. NOAA, in partnership with the University of Miami, will also be deploying new aircraft drones and underwater gliders to fill data gaps, advance our knowledge of hurricanes and improve forecast accuracy. NOAA's Hurricane Hunters will also be equipped with a new radar that will collect information on winds and ocean waves from their P3 aircraft.

NOAA will also be upgrading its atmospheric/ocean buoy array with better instruments and better placement to monitor the El Nino - Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Factors Dictating How This Season Will Go: Unlike past seasons, this season has offsetting signals for the amount of activity well see. Hedging toward more active, warmer-than-average water temperatures is expected and wind shear is likely to be weaker.

Climate scientists are expecting us to hang onto ENSO-neutral conditions through the peak of hurricane season in September, but La Nina is more likely as we head into the cooler months and the end of hurricane season. La Nina conditions typically allow more storms to sustain themselves, while its counterpart, El Nino, increases wind shear over the Caribbean and knocks down the activity there.

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Prepare every season: Regardless of what seasonal outlooks say, you should be prepared for every hurricane season.

Even quieter hurricane seasons can include one destructive hurricane landfall, or for that matter, an inland remnant with flooding rain and high winds. For those affected, that would not be a "quiet" season.

If youre along the East or Gulf coasts, the time to develop your hurricane safety plan is now, not when a storm is just days away. Information about hurricane preparedness can be found here.

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM:

- The Hurricane Wind Scale: What It Means, And What It Doesn't

- Pacific Hurricane Season Has Already Begun

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- Tropical Refresh: Terms You Should Know This Season

Jonathan Belles has been a digital meteorologist for weather.com for 9 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en espanol. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting another above normal hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean for 2025.

Ken Graham, director of NOAAs National Weather Service, said theres a 60% chance of an above-average season and a 30% chance of a near-normal season. There could be 13 to 19 tropical storms, with six to 10 hurricanes, according to NOAAs forecast. Of those hurricanes, three to five could be major storms  Category 3 or above.

In recent weeks, other weather entities such as Accuweather and Colorado State University released similar season forecasts. They predicted a handful of major storms and at least a dozen tropical storms impacting the Atlantic basin.

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Graham said the main contributor of the prediction is higher sea-surface temperature, which acts as fuel for storms. Forecasters also are seeing less wind shear, which typically dampens storms, and Graham said the African monsoons will create a conducive environment for an active season. He also said it just takes one storm to damage a community, so early preparation and awareness could save lives.

The strongest hurricanes are the ones that developed the fastest, Graham said. Every Category 5 storm thats ever hit this country was a tropical storm or less three days prior.

In recent weeks, local NWS offices have faced cuts to their staff. In Kentucky, more than a dozen people died after a round of severe weather moved through the Midwest, and some point to low weather service staffing as a potential cause. There is no meteorologist supervisor at any of the three Kentucky offices  Jackson, Paducah and Louisville.

Instead, there are acting meteorologists in charge who often have multiple job duties. NOAA officials told The Lexington Herald-Leader that neighboring offices provided staffing support during the storms.

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Laura Grimm, acting administrator for NOAA, would not comment on cuts to specific offices, but said public safety is a top priority for the NOAA and the Department of Commerce. Graham said the cuts to local offices would not make forecasting hurricanes go backwards compared with years past.

Protecting human lives and property is our top priority, Grimm said. We are fully staffed at the National Hurricane Center, and we definitely are ready to go.

In addition to the forecast, NOAA leaders discussed improved forecasting tools that will be used this season. Traditionally, meteorologists have had trouble telling audiences that impacts may be seen outside of the cone, or the potential track of a storms eye. Now, NOAA has produced a visual that includes outlying affects for those not in the direct path. These include storm surge or rip currents, which historically have contributed to a large number of fatalities.

NOAAS hurricane analysis forecast system, or HAFS, has undergone an upgrade that is expected to further improve tracking a forecast, which is critical for evacuation efforts. The upgraded model is expected to improve forecasts of rapid intensification. NOAA researchers will also continue to enhance HAFS this season by testing a new multi-storm model. The new model will be capable of zooming in on multiple tropical cyclones to better understand how the energy of these storms impact each other.

Were seeing that tropical storms, even hundreds or thousands of miles away, can influence each other, Grimm said.

Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  NOAA is predicting another above average hurricane season.

This season has a 60% chance of being above average, according to NOAAs 2025 forecast.

Hurricane season is just days away. Are you prepared?

In an average season, there are 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major storms (Category 3 and higher). NOAA is forecasting between 13 and 19 named storms, 6-10 hurricanes and 3-5 major hurricanes this year.

NOAA joins Colorado State University researchers in predicting an active season.

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Using models based on decades of climate trends, CSU researchers predicted the Atlantic basin will see 17 named storms, nine of those being hurricanes. Four of those hurricanes are predicted to be Category 3, 4, or 5, otherwise known as major hurricanes.

In my 30 years at the National Weather Service, weve never had more advanced models and warning systems in place to monitor the weather, NOAAs National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said in a statement. This outlook is a call to action: be prepared. Take proactive steps now to make a plan and gather supplies to ensure youre ready before a storm threatens.

Especially warm ocean temperatures are expected to fuel these storms. NOAAs decision was influenced by ENSO-neutral conditions, forecasts for weak wind shear, and the potential for higher activity from the West African Monsoon, a primary starting point for Atlantic hurricanes.

Here are the names of the storms we could see in 2025:

Andrea Humberto Olga Barry Imelda Pablo Chantal Jerry Rebekah Dexter Karen Sebastien Erin Lorenzo Tanya Fernand Melissa Van Gabrielle Nestor Wendy

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
As Pierce Countys largest school district has been implementing a series of cuts to tackle its $30 million budget deficit, teachers, staff and parents have said the cuts will disproportionately affect the districts most vulnerable students and employees.

Tacoma Public Schools last week announced that it cut several programs and scores of staff positions, choosing not to renew contracts for 105 provisional employees and implementing changes that directly impacted 118 education-support professionals and 30 office professionals. The district has attributed its looming deficit for the 2025-2026 school year to insufficient funding from the state Legislature  Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law lawmakers final $78 billion operating budget on Tuesday.

The district has said that staff salaries and benefits account for 85% of the districts general budget and that the state has only covered 65% of those costs. Beginning and top salaries for teachers at Tacoma Public Schools rank number one out of the top 10 school districts in the state and among 12 neighboring districts, Tacoma Public Schools reported.

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These choices are not a reflection of the job our staff does, the district said of the staff cuts on its website. We value them and the incredible work they do, so much so that they are the highest paid teachers among the 10 largest school districts in the state.

Foss High School is visible on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Tacoma. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com

Critics say administrative positions should go first

Staff, teachers and parents in the district have said that the district cut education-support staff and early-career teachers on provisional contracts before making sufficient cuts to six-figure salaries at the district level.

Cuts from the district  which it has said it will continue to implement through June 13  include the elimination of services like its peer inclusion program. Melissa Roach, a peer-inclusion educator at Stanley Elementary School, said the program was designed to help young students with special needs learn how to be around other students in a classroom setting, with the goal of eventually being able to transition to a general education classroom.

Education support professional, also known as an ESP, is the umbrella term for employees at the district who have jobs that range from nurses to bus monitors. Several ESPs who have been impacted by the staffing and program cuts are also referred to as paraeducators, staff who help relieve teachers of various classroom tasks by working with students who have special needs in different capacities.

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Roach, who is also the vice president of the union that represents ESPs, is currently without an assignment for the next academic year given the elimination of her program. Shes been displaced, meaning she will join a pool of several other displaced ESPs to be first in line for the next ESP job openings in the 2025-2026 academic year. As the district reorganizes its ESP staff, some are likely to return as ESPs in different positions, Roach said.

By her estimates, about 60% of those staff will likely be able to go back to working full time.

[The district] like to tout their giant graduation rates and how well all their kids are doing, Roach told The News Tribune. But that happens because there are supports in place  that they put in place, wonderful programs  that theyve decided to take away. Nobody wins.

Jeremy Cragin, a building rep for the Tacoma Education Association, said the cuts also have impacted teachers who are classified as provisional certificated staff, meaning they have a teaching or educational staff associate certificate from the state but have served at the district for less than three years.

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At Jennie Reed Elementary, our entire kindergarten is first- and second-year teachers. Theyre outstanding teachers, amazing teachers, people that Tacoma Public Schools should want to keep and incentivize to keep, Cragin told The News Tribune. Now theyre going to have to go look for work elsewhere, sadly, because theyre being cut.

Cragin criticized the district for choosing to make the cuts, saying it should have reduced administrator salaries first. He cited a retreat that several district staff members attended in 2024 that cost the district nearly $9,000  double the cost that Tacoma Public Schools originally reported to the public.

Its really eyebrow raising that they would make that choice rather than start trimming off the top, he said.

ESP compensation ranges from as low as about $26 per hour to as high as $54 per hour, according to the unions collective bargaining agreement, depending on the amount of time an employee has been with the district, educational background and position. District officials like Superintendent Josh Garcia have in contrast made above $300,000 per year in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to public data.

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Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Kathryn McCarthy said the district has eliminated 69 administrative positions as it has contended with an ongoing budget deficit: 22 positions in 2023, 38 in 2024 and nine in 2025. Exempt staff at the district level also did not receive salary step increases for the current academic year, McCarthy told The News Tribune in a statement.

A worn Tacoma Public Schools ID is held by Kari Madden, president of Tacoma Federation of Education Support Professionals, the union that represents ESPs, as she stands near Foss High School, where Madden currently works, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, in Tacoma. Liesbeth Powers/Liesbeth Powers / lpowers@thenewstribune.com

Most vulnerable kids will be hurt worst

Kari Madden is president of the Tacoma Federation for Education Support Professionals and has worked for the district for 18 years. Madden said shes never seen this level of staff cuts from the district. Madden is a special education program paraeducator at Foss High School and said the loss of so many support staff for special needs students at Tacoma Public Schools comes as many ESPs are noticing higher rates of aggressive behavior.

Support from paraeducators is crucial in that we already get hurt as it is, and when you are taking away a lot of the student support thats there, Im worried that other students are going to get hurt, she told The News Tribune.

Jamie Damazio, president of Jennie Reed Elementary Schools Parent Teacher Association, said the districts cuts will result in overworked teachers and will exacerbate the existing teacher shortage.

I am fed up with people so far removed from the actual schools making decisions like they are crossing line items off on a spreadsheet, she wrote to The News Tribune in an email. Its disheartening that every time there are cuts, it always starts with the people who will be impacted the worst.
NOLAN COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC)  Nolan County is offering a $750 cash reward for information leading to the arrest of a wanted fugitive.

Robert Anthony Velasquez is wanted in Nolan County for several outstanding felony warrants.

Anyone who has information on Velasquezs possible whereabouts is asked to contact Nolan County Crime Stoppers at (325)235-8477.

Good information could lead to a $750 cash reward and all tips are guaranteed anonymous.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark.  The term role model is defined as a person looked to by others as an example to be imitated. That definition certainly fits Officer Tommy Norman.

It also fits Kayden, a senior at North Little Rock High School, whose known Officer Norman since she was 4 years old.

Normans Neighborhood: Mother of 9 kids thankful to have Officer Norman in the community

Kayden will graduate on May 27 and will be attending the University of Texas at Austin, where she will major in biology.

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Never forget North Little Rock, central Arkansas, because these kids are still going to need you when youre gone, Officer Norman said.

Kayden has touched hundreds of kids lives with her non-profit called Mad Science Lab.

Mad Science Lab is aimed at encouraging excitement for kids to learn about STEM and literacy, something Kayden had as a kid

A lot of the children there didnt have that same excitement and joy, Kayden said, and she wanted to change that.

This mission, taken on by Kayden, started with just trying to rack up some volunteer hours at the library to graduate with honors. All she needed was 75 hours, but now she has about 300, she said.

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Normans Neighborhood: Celebrating Mothers Day with Officer Normans mom

While volunteering and spearheading her impact on the youth, Kayden says she tries to channel her inner Officer Norman by connecting personally with the kids who attend her program.

I always feel like Officer Norman is going to personally get to know you, Kayden said.

As Kayden continues to leave an impact, Officer Norman says it feels almost like the passing of the torch.

Kayden has many more years of public service than I do, Officer Norman said.

All it takes is for someone to have a really big heart and you have a big heart, Officer Norman told Kayden.

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Normans Neighborhood: 4 siblings form Officer Normans All-Star Crew

Norman says seeing Kayden form into a young lady whos uplifting the younger generation to create a better tomorrow is a surreal feeling.

It makes me realize that I did something right, Norman said.

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North Carolina House Republicans unveiled their version of a new state budget this week, and while it included some improvements over the Senate version  a somewhat slower approach to cutting taxes, slightly better salaries for new teachers  the plan swings and misses by proposing to slash 3,000 state government jobs.

The authors of the plan say most of the positions are vacant anyway, but of course, thats something thats mostly attributable to lousy pay, benefits, and working conditions.

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As Charles Owens  a health care technician at the Cherry Hospital psychiatric facility in Goldsboro  explained at a Raleigh press conference, the states mental health facilities are already down hundreds of essential positions.

And that reality presents a big daily safety problem for him and the other workers who remain. The same is true for guards and other employees throughout the states prison system.

The bottom line: North Carolina is a big and fast growing state that needs more state employees to provide essential public services  not fewer. State lawmakers need to wake up to this reality.

For NC Newsline, Im Rob Schofield.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong chairs a North Dakota Industrial Commission meeting on May 22, 2025, at the North Dakota Capitol in Bismarck. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)

Gov. Kelly Armstrong announced Thursday that he accidentally vetoed part of a bill that set aside $35 million for a state housing development fund.

Senate Bill 2014 is the budget for the North Dakota Industrial Commission. On Monday, Armstrong announced two line-item vetoes for the bill. His office said a staff markup error led to the unintentional veto of $25 million for housing projects and programs and $10 million to combat homelessness.

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Staff from the governors office met with Legislative Council Thursday to discuss options for correcting the error.

If necessary, we will call the Legislature back to ensure the appropriate funding is delivered, but we hope to avoid the expense of a special session. This was an honest mistake, and we will fix it, Armstrong said in a Thursday statement.

According to his veto message, Armstrong had intended to veto a $150,000 one-time grant for a Native American-focused organization to fund a homelessness liaison position. The veto markup also crossed some surrounding language, axing the full $35 million appropriation in the section.

During a Thursday meeting of the Industrial Commission, which Armstrong chairs, he emphasized his full-throated endorsement of the Housing Incentive Fund, which supports the construction of affordable housing.

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We are talking to whoever, everybody we can  Legislative Council, lawmakers, everybody  to figure out if there is a legal way we can solve this without calling them back into a special session and costing taxpayer dollars, Armstrong said. However, if that is the only alternative, that would be exactly what I will be doing.

Legislative Council staff will advise on options to fix the error, but it will be up to the governor and legislative leaders to decide how to proceed, said Legislative Council Director John Bjornson. At this point, a special session is the only obvious legal remedy, he said.

I think we all want the easy solution, but sometimes the easy solution has consequences down the line that you need to consider, Bjornson said.

Legislators have six days remaining of the 80-day legislative limit. If the governor calls them back into session, it would not count against that limit.

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Bjornson estimated it would take about a half day for lawmakers to consider overriding the governors veto. But there is no mechanism for lawmakers to consider overriding part of a veto, he said.

Lawmakers could also consider a standalone bill that restores the $35 million in funding. But Legislative Council estimates it typically takes three days to pass a bill.

A special session is estimated to cost $65,000 a day, Bjornson said.

Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said lawmakers are still looking into how to proceed.

Were just going to do the research first and pick the best course of action, Hogue said.

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Dave Flohr, executive director of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, said during the Industrial Commission meeting that once the state sorts out the issue with the funding, the agency plans to set aside $5 million for single-family home projects and $20 million for multi-family housing.

This story was updated to add comments from Gov. Armstrong, David Hogue and Dave Flohr.

This markup of Senate Bill 2014 shows $35 million in funding for a housing program crossed out, but Gov. Kelly Armstrongs veto message did not indicate he meant to veto that funding.

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SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korea fired multiple unidentified cruise missiles on Thursday morning, South Korea's defence ministry said.

The intelligence authorities of Seoul and Washington were analysing the details, the ministry added.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
Chinese State Councilor Shen Yiqin attends the opening ceremony of the fourth China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair and delivers a speech in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

NINGBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Shen Yiqin on Thursday said China will continue to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), hailing China-CEEC cooperation as a model of trans-regional multilateral cooperation.

China will continue to increase its imports from CEECs, expand bilateral trade, and strive to achieve more cooperation outcomes in such fields as the high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road, Shen said when addressing the opening ceremony of the fourth China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Mutually beneficial cooperation between China and CEECs has become a model of trans-regional multilateral cooperation, as bilateral trade, investment and interconnectivity are ever-growing, according to Shen.

Shen said that China -- dedicated to building an open global economy -- is willing to work with all countries around the world, including CEECs, to uphold the multilateral trading system, maintain the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and safeguard the international environment to enable open cooperation.

The expo will run until May 25. 
A new North Korean naval destroyer had part of its hull smashed after a disastrous launch.

State media wrote that the ship's stern slid off a ramp too early, causing the vessel to become stuck.

Kim Jong Un, who watched, slammed the mishap as a "criminal act" and censured the officials involved.

A new North Korean naval destroyer was badly damaged during a botched shipyard launch that caused part of its hull to be "crushed," Pyongyang state media reported.

The Korean Central News Agency reported on Thursday morning local time that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, was attending the ceremony at the Chongjin shipyard when the "serious accident" occurred.

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Blaming "inexperienced command and operational carelessness," KCNA wrote that the stern of the 5,000-ton ship started sliding down a ramp too early and that a flatcar meant to support its weight didn't move with the vessel.

The report said this caused the ship to lose balance, leaving "some sections of the warship's bottom crushed" while the rest of the ship was stuck.

According to KCNA, Kim blasted the disastrous launch, saying it was "out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated."

He also called the launch a "serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility, and unscientific empiricism," state media wrote.

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It reported that Kim censured the officials responsible for the ship and its launch, including the country's munitions department and ship designers, and said their mistakes would be "dealt with" at a party meeting next month.

The North Korean leader was further cited as saying that the mishap "brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment."

The failed launch is a blow to Kim's military agenda, given his emphasis over the past two years on building up North Korea's maritime forces.

"A new historic time is coming before our naval forces," Kim said during a 2023 speech, declaring North Korea would focus on capabilities for projecting naval power beyond its own waters.

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The same year, Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile submarine, the Hero Kim Kun Ok, which is a redesigned Soviet model equipped to fire cruise missiles.

Last month, North Korea launched the largest warship it had ever built, a 5,000-ton "multipurpose" destroyer, which it said was a new class of armed vessel.

That was at Nampo, a different shipyard. But its tonnage could indicate that the vessel that failed to launch on Wednesday was in the same class. State media didn't provide further details about the damaged ship at Chongjin.

In March, North Korea said it was also building its first nuclear-powered submarine.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  North Korea's second naval destroyer was damaged in a failed launch this week, state media reported Thursday, sparking fury from leader Kim Jong Un, who wants bigger warships to deal with what he calls escalating U.S.-led threats against his country.

It's not common for North Korea to acknowledge military-related setbacks, but observers say the disclosure of the failed ship launch suggests that Kim is serious about his naval advancement program and confident of ultimately achieving that objective.

During a launching event at the northeastern port of Chongjin on Wednesday, the newly built 5,000-ton-class destroyer became unbalanced and was punctured in its bottom sections after a transport cradle on the stern section slid off first and became stuck, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

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KCNA didn't provide details on what caused the problem, the severity of the damage or whether anyone was injured.

According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism." Kim called for a ruling Workers Party meeting slated for late June to address their irresponsible errors."

The destroyers are North Korea's most advanced warships

It's a shameful thing. But the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it's speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build" a greater navy, said Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seouls Hanyang University.

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Moon suspected the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren't yet familiar with such a large warship and were rushed to put it in the water.

The damaged vessel was likely the same class as the countrys first destroyer unveiled last month, which experts assessed as North Korea's largest and most advanced warship to date. Kim called the first vessel, named Choe Hyon  a famed Korean guerilla fighter during the Japanese colonial period  a significant asset for advancing his goal of expanding the militarys operational range and nuclear strike capabilities.

State media described that ship as designed to carry weapons systems including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles. Kim said the ship was expected to enter active duty early next year and later supervised test-firings of missiles from the warship.

Satellite photos show the partially submerged destroyer

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Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the damaged vessel was likely equipped with similar systems and remains toppled over in the sea. Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC seen by The Associated Press appeared to show the vessel rolled onto its side, positioned diagonally from the dock, with most of its hull submerged and draped in blue covers.

Earlier commercial satellite images indicated that the country was building its second destroyer at a shipyard in Chongjin.

Beyond Parallel, a website run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said the satellite imagery of Chongjins Hambuk shipyard on May 12 showed that a second vessel in the Choe Hyon-class of guided missile destroyers was under construction.

A report by the North Korea-focused 38 North website assessed last week that the destroyer in Chongjin was being prepared to be launched sideways from the quay, a method that has been rarely used in North Korea. The report said the previous destroyer launched at the western shipyard of Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.

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South Korean officials and experts say the Choe Hyon destroyer was likely built with Russian assistance as the two countries' military partnerships are booming. While North Koreas naval forces are considered far inferior to those of its rivals, analysts say the destroyer with nuclear-capable missiles and an advanced radar system would still enhance the North's offensive and defensive capabilities.

Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the United States and South Korea, which have been expanding joint military exercises in response to the Norths advancing nuclear program. He says the acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine would be his next big step in strengthening the North Korean navy.

Hours after releasing the report on the damaged destroyer, North Korea test-fired multiple cruise missiles from an area about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Chongjin, according to South Korea's military. The launches were a continuation of a streak of weapons-testing activities by North Korea in recent years. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launches were being analyzed by South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.
By Jack Kim and Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) -A major accident occurred on Wednesday during the launch of a new North Korean warship while Kim Jong Un was attending the event, with the isolated state's leader calling it a "criminal act" that could not be tolerated, state media KCNA reported.

Kim, who witnessed the failed launch of the 5,000-ton destroyer, excoriated the accident as caused by "carelessness" that tarnished national dignity, and ordered the ship restored before a ruling party meeting in June, KCNA said on Thursday.

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The report did not say whether there were any casualties.

The accident happened when the destroyer was being eased into the water in a so-called side launch, a manoeuvre that was risky for a ship that size given the technical and financial challenges the North faced, military analysts said.

The mishap likely occurred in front of a large crowd at the northeastern port of Chongjin, increasing the public humiliation for Kim, they said.

KCNA said the incident was caused by a loss of balance while the vessel was being launched and sections of the bottom of the warship were crushed, but did not give more details of damage sustained.

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"Kim Jong Un made stern assessment saying that it was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism ... and could not be tolerated," KCNA reported.

The accident "brought the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse", Kim said, adding an immediate restoration of the destroyer was "not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state."

South Korea's military said the ship was now lying on its side in the water.

The North fired multiple cruise missiles from an area south of the port around the time the accident was reported, Seoul's military said.

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"DEEPLY HUMILIATING"

The rare public disclosure of an accident follows a report of the launch of another destroyer of a similar size in April, also attended by Kim, at the west coast shipyard of Nampho.

North Korea has previously experienced accidents such as a satellite launch failure and apartment building collapse that have been subsequently used to promote the role of the leadership in correcting the problems.

The 5,000-ton destroyers launched by North Korea this year are the country's largest warships yet, part of leader Kim's push to upgrade its naval power with vessels capable of carrying and launching dozens of missiles.

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In a report last week on preparations for the latest launch, U.S.-based 38 North said it appeared the ship would be side-launched from the quay.

Such a method has not been previously observed in launching warships in North Korea, but it was likely chosen because the shipyard did not have enough space or an incline to direct the vessel's stern first into the water, military analysts said.

The North also lacked floating or dry docks that are common in advanced shipbuilding states, with a stern launch normally requiring more sophisticated equipment, retired South Korean submarine commander Choi Il said.

"Pushing from the side is the most basic, simplest and cheapest" if done right, he said.

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Yang Wuk, an Asan Institute for Policy Studies military expert, said the botched launch of the country's largest warship was embarrassing for the country.

"The fact that this kind of accident occurred and became public would be deeply humiliating for North Korea," Yang said.

Commercial satellite imagery of the shipyard the day before the launch showed the destroyer positioned on the quay with support vessels by its side and its missile tube magazines exposed.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Jack Kim, Josh Smith, Hyunsu Yim, Ju-min Park, Daewoung Kim; Editing by Ed Davies, Stephen Coates and Saad Sayeed)
North Koreas newly-built warship suffered damage during its launch ceremony on May 21, prompting outrage from the country's leader Kim Jong Un, North Korean state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

According to the agency, a malfunction in the launch mechanism caused the stern of the 5,000-ton destroyer to slide into the water too early, while the rest of the ship remained stuck.

Damage to the bottom of the ship threw it off balance, and the bow failed to move, resulting in "a serious accident."

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Kim condemned the failed launch as a "criminal act" and placed blame on several state institutions, accusing relevant officials of "irresponsibility" which "could not be tolerated."

He reportedly described the vessel's restoration as "a political issue directly tied to the prestige of the state."

The incident was attributed to "inexperienced command and operational carelessness," KCNA said.

The news came amid North Koreas focus on upgrading its conventional military alongside its nuclear and missile capabilities.

The incident is expected to be reviewed at the June plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea. According to KCNA, the recovery of the ship was ordered to be completed by then.

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In recent weeks, Kim has also overseen the launch of a new naval destroyer and observed tests of new drone systems.

South Korean and U.S. officials believe that Pyongyang, Moscow's ally in its full-scale war against Ukraine, may be receiving technical and military assistance from Russia.

Read also: What happens to all the guns in Ukraine post-war?

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NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (KCAU)  Wednesday night, members of the North Sioux City community gathered to learn more about how the federal disaster relief funding will work.

The meeting took place at city hall, where city officials and the South Dakota Governors Office of Economic Development talked to a room of residents about long-term recovery funds.

The state is set to get more than $15 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It comes from the Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery Program.

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The funds are for the severe weather that hit South Dakota in 2024.

2 air conditioning units stolen from Siouxland Habitat for Humanity project

Some of the regulations in order to use the money include having at least 70% of the funds go toward projects directly impacting low-and-moderate income persons.

When you look at this program in totality, I think there are a lot of regulations with it as with all grant money, but we want to try and be able to utilize this money within the regulations but be able to allow our city to leverage other assets, said North Sioux City City Administrator Jeff Dooley.

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State officials say the money can be used for long-term recovery projects.

Residents were able to talk with South Dakota authorities in-person about what the funds would mean for their community.

Tuition increases proposed for all 3 Iowa universities

Lets figure out a way to make it so that we all benefit. We want to be here and establish a good relationship to get to know you. We hope you get to know us a little bit, and we understand that this has been a difficult time for you, so we want to try to be good partners as we move forward, said Governors Office of Economic Development Deputy Commissioner Joe Fiala.

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The South Dakota Governors Office of Economic Development is working on putting together and finalizing an action plan to be sent to HUD officials.

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)  The Northwest Area Education Agencys Board of Directors unanimously approved the contract for new Chief Administrator Seth Piro.

Members voted on the contract during its meeting on Monday. Officials said Piros recommended salary is $200,000.

Two college graduates are back teaching in their hometown of Sioux City

The contract starts on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2027. Piro will get 20 days of vacation along with insurance, sick leave, and other benefits.

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The board picked Piro for the position earlier this month. He will replace Dr. Dan Cox, who will be resigning from his role on June 30.

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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW)  The Missouri Department of Transportation has announced scrub seal work and dates along different Northwest Missouri routes.

On Wednesday, May 21 and Thursday, May 22, Route 36 east of I-29 to the St. Joseph city limits (near Craig Parkway) will see scrub seal work during the daytime.

Crews will narrow the roadway to one lane with flaggers guiding motorists through the area.

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MoDOT also announced other upcoming scrub seal projects, which will occur overnight.

* May 27-29: Route 169 (Loop 29) in Buchanan County from Route FF to Interstate 29

* May 30-31: Missouri Route 6 from I-29 to Route 169

* June 1-3: Eastbound Route 36 from 12th Street in St. Joseph to I-29

* June 4-5: Westbound Route 36 from I-29 to 12th Street in St. Joseph

All work is weather permitting and could be rescheduled.

Project schedule updates are also provided on MoDOT's Traveler Information Map.
May 21Adrian Rodriguez and Alexandra Becerra Nieto are close friends but staunch competitors in the race for valedictorian and salutatorian at New Tech Odessa.

Rodriguez, 18, won out for valedictorian but salutatorian Becerra Nieto, also 18, gave him a run for his money.

Rodriguez is heading for Yale University and double major in neuroscience and psychology, either pre-med or pre-law.

Becerra Nieto is going to University of Texas at Austin and plans to major in neuroscience and minor in psychology for pre-med.

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Rodriguez said he is aiming toward going into neurosurgery or becoming a neurologist. He is also considering starting his own business or a law firm eventually.

Becerra Nieto said she would love to go to medical school to become a neurologist, but not a neurosurgeon. She would also like to be an author of possibly science fiction books.

Competition has existed between the two since middle school.

"We went to middle school together, and I was always second to him. Coming into high school, I really wanted to beat him and get first, but I couldn't, because he's crazy smart, super intelligent," Becerra Nieto said. "There were times where we did knock heads because we would prioritize our grades over our friendship. But then we realized becoming friends and nurturing our friendship is more important than getting high GPAs. But he eventually beat me. He is valedictorian. ... But I've learned a lot from him, and I would even go as far to say that he's one of my role models."

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If it weren't for Rodriguez, she said she would not be going to UT.

"A lot of the choices I made, I modeled them after his," Becerra Nieto said.

Rodriguez said the battle between them was good for both of them.

He added that competition is important to have.

"It forces you to really push yourself. And also, I think it's really important that you realize with competition that you're not supposed to bring others down, either. It's also about helping your friends, uplift them, no matter the circumstances, whether it's neck-and-neck with GPA. But I think it's really important that you have competition to grow," Rodriguez said.

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However, he said there was never a point where he thought Becerra Nieto would overtake him.

They both hope to stay in touch when they are in college.

"We're in the same field, so I'm sure we'll be helping each other," Rodriguez said.

As for graduation, Rodriguez said it's surreal to think it's so close. People say that high school flies by and it's the truth, he said.

"Last week, I was a freshman, and now I'm graduating in two weeks," Rodriguez said in a May 7 interview. "I've always wanted to go far and leave, but now that it's very close. It's made me really ... reminisce, and I guess kind of be sad that it's already over and that I'm already going on."

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At the beginning of the year, Becerra Nieto said she was counting down until graduation.

"But now that we've come to the final stretch ... I wish I could go back and cherish every day more and hang out with my friends more, because it is true. It does fly by super-duper fast," she said.

"When I was a freshman, I remember the seniors telling us it's going to fly by; cherish every moment, every memory, and I didn't take them seriously, because four years seems like a long time, but it is true," Becerra Nieto added.

NTO graduation is at 7 p.m. May 21 at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center.

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Rodriguez said the project-based learning at NTO helped him grow socially and learn teamwork. Working in groups helped him learn to ask for help from others and not do it all by himself, which he said is really important.

"If it wasn't for NTO, I wouldn't have become as social as I am, because I was forced to talk to people, because I sat with them and (was) put in groups. It really helped me break out of my shell," Rodriguez said.

Becerra Nieto said it was the same for her.

"I'm a very stubborn person ... I like to do things by myself in certain ways, and being at New Tech with our project-based learning, it taught me to not be as stubborn and to (see) ... the beauty of working with other people and how we can foster new ideas and get different perspectives on a project that I would have never even been able to realize if I wasn't forced to work with other people," she added.

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Becerra Nieto said all the teachers at NTO are really wonderful.

"They're all great. I feel blessed to have such amazing teachers. That's another thing I love our teachers here, every single one of them. There's not one bad teacher here. They're all amazing," she added.

For younger kids who want to make the top 10 or top 2, Rodriguez said start as early as possible and get ahead in everything you can. The most important thing is to be ambitious.

"I think if you really want to be number one, then you have to believe in yourself for that. You have to shoot for it. Don't ever think a dream or a goal is too big. If you want something that large, you go for it. Don't ever underestimate what you can do," Rodriguez said.

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Becerra Nieto agreed that if you really want something and you work hard for it, you'll get it.

"I also believe in the power of surrounding yourself with the right people, so make sure hanging around the right group of friends and talking to mentors and people who will help you along the way and I guess, just work hard. It's all just hard work," she added.

Both had been on the academic decathlon team since they were freshmen and participated in Teen Court.

Rodriguez used to be involved in action shooting with rifles and pistols and they were both National Honor Society members.

Becerra Nieto was secretary.

They were also both in a band called the Working Title Band.

"It just stuck because we never came up with another name," Rodriguez said.
The NYPD will be bulking up patrols at synagogues, yeshivas and other Jewish institutions around the five boroughs in the wake of a shooting outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., that left two Israeli Embassy staff members dead  a murderous attack Mayor Adams called a senseless act of violence that would leave a scar, officials said Thursday.

While there is no known nexus to NYC, in response to last nights horrific attack in D.C. targeting Jews and Israelis, the NYPD is increasing its presence at religious sites and cultural institutions with high visibility patrols, heavy weapons teams and counterterrorism officers, the NYPD said in a statement on X early Thursday.

Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. on Wednesday evening when they were shot to death by a gunman who yelled, Free, free Palestine! after he was arrested, police said.

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Lischinsky was a research assistant and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel. She also had close ties to New York City, according to Josh Kramer, a director at AJC New York, which is affiliated with the group that hosted the D.C. event.

[She] will be remembered as being warm, compassionate, a wonderful listener and a devoted partner, said Kramer, as he denounced the violence, along with Mayor Adams, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other city agency heads, at the Center for Jewish History on W. 16th St. Thursday afternoon.

Lischinsky, Milgrims boyfriend, was a bit more reserved, but always had a smile on his face and proudly told friends that he planned to propose to Milgrim on their next trip to Israel.

Kramer and Adams believe Wednesdays violence stemmed from the anti-Israel views that have been expressed repeatedly on city streets and on college campuses since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War on Oct. 7, 2023.

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We cannot separate the violence from the dangerous rhetoric that fuels hate and conspiracies against Jews, Kramer said. What happened to this young couple leaving a Jewish event last night was anti-Semitism, full stop.

Adams said that displays of anti-Semitism in New York City are constant.

[This] is what we mean when we say anti-Semitic propaganda masquerades as activism, the mayor said. We have heard so many people claim these protests arent anti-Semitic, theyre just anti-Israel. We cannot color-code hatred.

We must call this hate wherever we see it, without fear, without determination, he said. That is how we turn the tide, by not being silent and making sure we have the proper law enforcement procedures that are in place.

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Other city leaders standing with Adams and Kramer included Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker, Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol and Rev. Al Sharpton.

The D.C. gunman approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, then walked into the museum after the deadly violence and was detained by event security, Smith said.

The stunning attack prompted Israeli missions across the globe to beef up their security. The shooting comes as Israel has launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally.

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The Rev. Sharpton hoped that leaders of all faiths would stand with New York Citys Jews during this time of violence.

The fact is, you cannot be a civil rights activist or leader if youre only for your own civil rights, he said. We may not agree on politics, but we must agree that we will not let hate and violence take anyone. If this had happened at an affair [at] Schomburg Library [in Harlem] and it was two young Blacks, I would have expected to see Jewish leadership stand with us.

With News Wire Services
This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the opening ceremony of the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

NINGBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

A total of 1,028 domestic companies are also attending the event, showcasing local distinctive industries and competitive consumer goods. The event also attracts more than 3,000 overseas buyers from 72 countries and regions. Tentative import deals worth over 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars) are expected to be reached with CEEC partners during the event, according to the organizers.

In addition to traditional consumer goods, the expo also showcases vanguard digital and intelligent technologies, serving as a broad platform for presenting innovative breakthroughs in categories such as aircraft, VR devices, medical equipment and humanoid robots.

"The expo is a gateway for our products to reach international markets, and we plan to establish headquarters in CEEC to further explore and expand our presence in the region," said Fan Rui, founder of Aoxue Ruishi Technology Co., Ltd., who brought his company's extended reality (XR) glasses to the event.

Co-hosted by the Zhejiang provincial government and China's Ministry of Commerce, the expo, initiated in 2019, has played an important role in increasing exports of CEEC products to the Chinese market, and cementing mutual understanding on cooperation between China and CEEC countries.

Data from China's commerce ministry showed that in 2024, China's trade with CEEC increased by 6.3 percent year over year, reaching a record high of 142.3 billion U.S. dollars. 

A Polish merchant promotes his cheese to visitors during the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Guests attend the opening ceremony of the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Foreign guests interact with a humanoid robot during the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

People visit the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

People visit the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22. 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

People queue up to visit the Digital and Smart Manufacturing of CEEC exhibition area of the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22. 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

Dancers from Slovakia perform during the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

Visitors enjoy performance from Bulgaria during the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)

Serbian merchants promote their fruit wine at the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)

People visit the fashion area of the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 22, 2025. With over 8,000 featured products on display, from traditional goods like wines and cheese to cutting-edge varieties like VR glasses, the 4th China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair unveiled its curtain on Thursday, unleashing vast cooperation potential between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC).

The expo, running from Thursday to Sunday in Ningbo, has attracted 435 enterprises from 14 CEEC countries and nine other countries, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy. (Xinhua/Jiang Han)
OCEANSIDE, Calif.  Oceanside City Council approved the communitys appeal of a controversial warehouse project in a 3-to-2 vote.

After nearly three years of debate, the Eddie Jones Warehouse project will not be able to move forward.

We have been fighting this for 32 months, said Gene ONeal.

Weve gathered almost 6,000 signatures, we rallied, weve done everything, said Ken McCallick.

In February, the planning commission unanimously approved the manufacturing and distribution facility that would include four buildings totaling nearly 500-thousand square feet off Benet Road near Highway 76.

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The commission reduced the number of truck bays to 34, from the 114 originally planned. On Wednesday night, the community was ready to appeal that decision at city council.

We are concerned that thats still too many. That zoning is no more than six heavy trucks on the premises at one time, said Carol McConnell.

Developer RPG had applied for a conditional use permit to allow for larger use of the 32-acre site and made significant changes to the project.

We reduced the truck bays by 70%, reduced the square footage of the building, the original design was for one primary structure. Its now been reconfigured into four structures for multi-tenant use, not Amazon as some have feared, explained Arlene Tendick, community engagement director for RPG.

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Before council made its decision, they heard hours of public comment and presentations largely echoing the consistent concerns of traffic and pollution.

While some supported the project, as it promised to bring in an estimated 510 permanent jobs and roughly 1,400 temporary construction jobs.

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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)  Reports said police Wednesday found a semiautomatic handgun and over $1,000 cash while serving a search warrant investigating drug activity at a South Side home.

Arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a third-degree felony, and two fifth-degree felony counts of possession of drugs was Dawan Williams, 39.

He is presently in the Mahoning County jail and is expected to be arraigned Friday in municipal court.

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Reports said when officers showed up about 4:40 p.m. at his 1370 Powersdale Ave. home and knocked, he looked out a window and instead of opening the door, ran to the back door, where he was caught and taken into custody.

Inside the house, police reported finding fentanyl, cocaine, $1,052 cash in a jar and a .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Williams is not allowed to have a gun because of a 2017 conviction in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a drug charge.

At the jail, corrections officers found an additional $212 on Williams while he was booked, and they turned that money over to police, reports said.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
The wolf population in Washington state has been on the rise since 2008 after being hunted to near extinction around the 1930s. However, in 2024, their numbers declined for the first time, per the Oregon Capital Chronicle. While hope for protecting these beautiful creatures remains, conservationists are scrambling to find answers to this concerning population drop.

What's happening?

Nearly 100 years ago, gray wolves in Washington state were considered a menace to local communities. Ranchers hunted them to protect livestock, and a government-sponsored program was even created to control them. The population eventually dropped close to zero.

However, the species was listed as endangered in 1980, earning it protected status on both the state and federal levels. A recovery plan was soon formed to save the population. In 2008, the first breeding wolf pack was documented in Washington, and numbers steadily rose to 254 wolves in 42 packs in 2023. However, in 2024, those numbers dipped to 230 wolves in 43 packs.

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"It's infuriating to see this dramatic decline in both the wolf population and successful breeding pairs, but it's not shocking given the significant uptick in wolf killings over the past several years," senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, Amaroq Weiss, said.

Some of those killings were considered legal hunting, while several others were illegal poaching. Those incidents are currently under investigation.

Why is protecting wolves important?

It's true that wolves attack livestock and threaten the livelihoods of local ranchers. It's fair to say these ranchers have a legitimate gripe with the creatures. However, in the grand scheme, it's crucial to protect wolf populations, not just because they're beautiful and deserving of life, but because they're critical to the local ecosystem.

Without wolves as natural predators, elk, deer, and other herbivores overgraze local vegetation. This leads to a lack of food for these populations, which can lead them to travel elsewhere and disrupt the ecosystem further. Overpopulation of these creatures can also cause the spread of disease.

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Even other carnivores and scavengers lose out when wolf populations decline. These creatures are sustained through harsh weather months by feeding on the carcasses that wolves leave behind.

What's being done about the decline in the Washington wolf population?

While this decline was the first in 16 years, it's still a concerning development. Conservationists are doing what they can to find answers and reverse course.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $10,000 reward for information about two dead wolves discovered in December 2024.

The Fish and Wildlife Commission chose to maintain the "endangered" listing for the gray wolf just last year, per the Oregon Capital Chronicle. This was a fortunate development considering the results of the 2024 report.

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CALHOUN COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT)  Cleanup is underway after severe thunderstorms moved through Calhoun County Tuesday night, bringing down trees and taking out power poles.

While Calhoun County EMA Director Myles Chamblee said there was little structural damage, CBS 42 spoke with a family whose home in Ohatchee suffered extensive damage.

Clyde and Patty Shuler are in the process of replacing the roof on the house theyve called home for three decades.

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The family believes the wind was the culprit, destroying most of their roof.

Patty Shulers brother, Bill Holloway, who also lives in the house, said he urged everyone to leave after receiving a weather alert on his phone late last night.

I told them, We gotta get outta here, so we got out of here real quick, he explained.

Twisted metal and other debris now litter the grass in front of their home as the family works to replace their roof.

Burned, empty home owned by Bessemer city councilor a concern for the community

Holloway, who used to live in Florida, told us hes grateful they left when they did.

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Oh man, let me tell you, I thank God, he said. I come from Miami. Ive been through hurricanes, nothing like this. This is devastating to me. Ive never seen anything like it, not the whole roof coming off your house.

Road closure in Calhoun County following severe weather damage

Downed trees and power poles resulted in road closures along Mudd Street between Francis Mill Road and Boiling Springs Road and Parkwood Drive in the Blue Mountain area, according to Calhoun County Engineer Rodney McCain.

I would caution everyone that there is still debris so be cautious when youre traveling, McCain said.

After Coosa Valley Electric Cooperative restored power to customers in Ohatchee, crews began working to try and bring back internet service:

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We have two 144-count cables that come through here, and these guys are putting the fiber optic back up now that the powers been restored, and they had to set new poles and everything, said Jeff Cagle, who works as a fiber optics splicer.

Calhoun County engineer Rodney McCain said he expects all roads to be passable by Wednesday evening.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42.
FREMONT  After a brief mix-up, the fisherman who rescued the infant in the May 18 Norfolk Southern pedestrian-train incident has been found.

I did that because God put me there," said Jon Cooper of his rescue of 16-month-old Arti Kar, whose three family members died attempting to cross the Miles Newton Bridge. "It was the most horrific thing and its not about me. I did what I did and I hope that someone else would do the same."

Earlier rumors mistakenly identified Tyson Kieffer as the rescuer, but Cooper didn't mind and gave Tyson a lot of credit.

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He was courageous. If I wasnt there already, Im sure he would have done it. He was there in the water to assist me, and that cant be lessened, Cooper said. He performed admirably. He was coming to do the right thing and deserves a lot of credit.

Cooper has seen cell phone footage showing the boys assistance.

It was Sunday at 6:10 p.m. and Cooper hit the Sandusky River right after work. Hes from rural Sandusky County and an avid fisherman.

I was fishing, just enjoying myself. It was me and another guy in the water. There are a lot of trains that go by, and this train was just blaring its horn," Cooper said. "I thought the engineer was messing with me, but something was off. Then I saw something fall off the bridge, just from the corner of my eye.

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Fremont pedestrian-train incident: Divers find body of 5-year-old girl

Cooper has assisted various emergency services at the City of Fremont by going over video footage to figure out what happened.

Three days later, hes still distraught, but has his faith to rely on.

I was told there was nothing I could do to help the other family members, Cooper said, referring to the childs mother and grandmother, who were hit by the train. Five-year-old Intisar Mi was likely found trapped underwater right where she hit the river.

Jon Cooper is the angler who rescued the infant in the May 18 Norfolk-Southern pedestrian-train incident in Fremont, Ohio.

So, there was a splash and two African American men sprinted down to get the baby and the adults. Almost instantly they were yelling to me that theres a baby out there, Cooper said. The men were from Mansfield, but he never got their names. They worked as spotters, directing him from the shore.

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He had to go another 30 feet into the channel.

Cooper is 6-foot-4-inches and the river bottom is not flat. Its filled with rocks and holes that can be 12 feet deep. He found himself jumping from point to point as his waders filled with water.

Below Miles Newton Bridge: Rescue workers find 5-year-old's body in Sandusky River

Divers swim the Sandusky River the morning of May 19, looking for a missing 5-year-old child after a train-pedestrian accident on the Fremont trestle bridge on May 18.

Then, he found Arti Kar in the river.

After getting her, and she was face down, as I was halfway back to the shore it occurred to me to resuscitate her, Cooper said. I gave her three deep breaths. It was really hard. I was also pounding on her back. It was the greatest moment when she started breathing again. Ive never been so happy to be thrown up on. Thank God shes so young. She will never remember.

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The 17-year-old son of one of the two men from Mansfield took the girl and Cooper headed back into the water.

I went back for the women. I told him to keep her warm," Cooper said. "I really commend him. I have no idea who he is. He knows who he is. His parents should be proud."

At that point, several family members made it to the river. They didnt speak English, but they helped pull the women from the water. Fremont police then arrived.

It was like the cavalry showed up. I did it because it was the right thing to do. I want to give credit to all the first responders," Cooper said. "I want to give a shout out and let you know how fast the response was. They were all professional and calm. I was really, really, impressed by them."

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Cooper is asking for privacy and doesn't want a reward or recognition. The City of Fremont has agreed to take calls for him.

The family was from Fort Wayne, Indiana, visiting Fremont for a fishing trip:

Intisar Mi, born May 5, 2020 (deceased)

Arti Kar, born March 1, 2024 (critical care, hospitalized)

O Ny Zar, born June 13, 1990 (deceased)

Ram Masan, born July 3, 1974 (deceased)

The train collision happened at 6:55 p.m. on Sunday, May 18. O Ny Zar and Ram Masan were declared dead Sunday night, while Intisar Mi's body was not found and recovered until Monday afternoon, May 19.

rlapointe@gannett.com

419-332-2674

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Fisherman rescued infant from river after Ohio train tragedy
OKALOOSA COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB)  Okaloosa County commissioners recently recognized a group of scouts from Scouting American Troop 544 for helping locate a missing child.

Commission Chair Paul Mixon presented the scouts with a proclamation for their quick action in finding a missing 11-year-old autistic boy.

The scouts were meeting near Ferry Park in Fort Walton Beach on April 7, when police informed them about the missing boy.

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They separated into search teams and found the boy hiding in some bushes at the park during sundown with the temperature dropping.

They were able to reassure the child and keep him calm until law enforcement arrived.

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A resolution rejecting state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters' proposal to track immigrant students and their families is on its way to the governor's desk.

Senate Joint Resolution 22, which covers proposed education policies, passed without opposition on the House floor on Wednesday, May 21, but not before a long debate about whether to amend the resolution to green light Walters' immigration-check rule. The resolution now awaits the approval of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has been a staunch critic of the proposal.

Collecting 6-, 7-, 8-year-old kids addresses and immigration status in the state of Oklahoma, thats not a public safety issue, Stitt said in February. Lets go after the bad guys, the people that are committing crimes, and lets not terrorize and make our kids not show up at school.

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The proposed rule from the Oklahoma State Department of Education, which is led by Walters, would have required schools to seek information about the immigration status of students and their parents during enrollment. Another proposed rule by that agency thats in line for rejection is one that would require Oklahoma teachers to take the U.S. Naturalization Test to renew their teaching license.

Attempts to revive Walters' immigration rule were rejected multiple times by lawmakers in recent weeks. On Monday, Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Coyle, introduced an amendment to do so in the House Administrative Rules Committee, and it failed on a 10-3 vote. On Wednesday, Jenkins tried again, proposing a similar amendment on the House floor. It was ultimately tabled by a 75-12 vote. The House immediately then voted 90-0 to approve the resolution.

Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, also tried to revive the rule on the Senate floor earlier in May, but his proposed amendments were tabled.

More: Attempt to revive Ryan Walters' immigration-check rule in Oklahoma schools fails

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Walters, during a news conference at the Capitol on Friday, accused the Legislature and the governor of not being transparent about the issue.

It's incredibly disappointing that we see the Senate not provide that type of transparency for taxpayers, Walters said. Let's just be real clear. Our rule says that we are going to account for how many taxpayer dollars, how much goes towards illegal immigrants in our schools.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OK lawmakers reject Ryan Walters' proposal to track immigrant students
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Oklahoma District Attorneys Association (ODAA) prosecutors are launching Safe Kids, Safe Summer as a seasonal initiative protecting Oklahoma children as the summer begins.

According to ODDA, the initiative falls under its umbrella of Year of the Child 2025 awareness campaign highlighting risks children face during summer months and share safety reminders with parents, caregivers, and communities.

Every child deserves a safe summer, said District Attorney Jack Thorp, president of the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association. Weve seen firsthand the kinds of harm that can happen when no ones watchinga child left in a hot car, a teen who took a counterfeit pill, or a kid who met someone dangerous online. Awareness can make the difference.

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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wins 2024-2025 NBA MVP, third Thunder player to win the award

Summer brings increased risk in several areas:

Fentanyl and counterfeit pills posing dangers to teens

Heat-related incidents, including children left in vehicles

Online exploitation and increased screen time

Distracted and impaired driving

Reduced supervision leading to injury or neglect

Safe Kids, Safe Summer is a yearlong awareness initiative focusing its message on protecting Oklahoma children through social media and conversations with community partners, says ODAA.

Prosecutors have a unique perspective on what can go wrongand what couldve prevented it, said Thorp. This effort is about sharing that perspective and supporting the work already happening in our communities.

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For more information click here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma is making more controversial changes to its public school curriculum, including teaching debunked information about the 2020 presidential election.



Several additions to the newly updated Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies are facing public scrutiny, including a directive for high school students to learn disproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen from Donald Trump by the Democratic Party  a theory the president himself has frequently promoted.



According to the guidelines, high school students should be able to identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of bellwether county trends.



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Trumps claims of election fraud have been refuted multiple times by election officials, cybersecurity experts and even members of his own administration. Then-Attorney General William Barr said in December 2020 that U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. had investigated, but had not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.



The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency echoed that sentiment in their November 2020 statement: "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty American voting booths

To revise Oklahomas curriculum, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters  a strong Trump supporter  sought help from other MAGA devotees like Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager.

The Heritage Foundation was behind Project 2025, and PragerU is a right-wing media organization accused of publishing false or misleading information about climate change, slavery, racism, immigration, LGBTQ+ issues and more.

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Related: Christopher Columbus Says Slavery Was Better than Getting Killed in PragerU Videos Approved for Florida Students

"After months of Democrats and the teachers unions lying and attacking, the most unapologetically conservative, pro-America social studies standards in the nation are moving forward," Walters wrote in a post on X on April 29.

"For nearly a year, we engaged in a thoughtful, transparent process to deliver standards that teach students factual history, including the realities of the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the threat posed by Communist China," he continued, referencing conspiracy theories that are not supported by facts.

We now have the best History Standards in America.



- Pro American

- Fact-based

- More content than ever

We are teaching our kids to love America while the Left & the radical Teachers Union groups want to teach our kids to HATE America and be ashamed of who they are. pic.twitter.com/IPbtW9GYPW  Ryan Walters (@RyanWalters_) May 22, 2025

Walters' admitted conservative bias is evident in other areas of the high school curriculum. In the section about Trumps first administration, the president is praised for the successful avoidance of new wars. President George W. Bushs curriculum includes the study of examples of heroism and efforts to combat terrorism in the wake of 9/11.



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Meanwhile, President Barack Obamas section begins with a focus on the conservative Tea Party movement. In the section about the Affordable Care Act, the standards merely ask students to spotlight challenges to its enactment.



The new standards also say that students must identify the source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab. The lab leak is part of many popular conspiracy theories about the pandemic, however, most scientists believe that the virus originated in humans through contact with an infected animal, like SARS, MERS, and other pandemics throughout history.



The revised guidelines are the latest attempt by Walters to make conservative values and Christianity the standard in Oklahoma's public schools. In June 2024, he ordered that the Bible, including the Ten Commandments, be taught in classrooms from grades 5 through 12.

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In 2025, he's declared that the states public schools will soon have a Bible in every classroom  despite Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt dismissing his $3 million request to pay for the religious texts.



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The Legislature can put the money there or not. We're going to have a Bible in every classroom this fall. So that's going to happen. So we're doing that. We've been very straightforward on how we're doing that, he said in a May 16 press conference, without providing specifics.



Read the original article on People
By Xinhua writer Li Jun

BAGHDAD, May 22 (Xinhua) -- As the first morning light cuts through the lingering mist over the Tigris River, Haider, a villager in southern Iraq's Maysan Province, walks into the kitchen as he does every day. With a gentle turn of the gas stove knob, a blue flame leaps to life.

"This blue flame is like a genie from Aladdin's lamp and reignites our hope," Haider says, pouring water into a tea kettle. "Cooking is much easier now, and there's no more fear of frequent blackouts in the summer heat."

For tens of thousands of Iraqi families like Haider's, daily life has quietly but profoundly changed, thanks to the Halfaya Gas Processing Plant (GPP), a billion-dollar megaproject invested in by PetroChina Halfaya and undertaken by China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation (CPECC).

Despite abundant reserves of oil and gas, Iraq has long lacked the capacity to refine its oil and process its gas. Decades of conflict and underinvestment left the country reliant on costly gas and electricity imports, especially from neighboring Iran.

That reliance became a liability this March, when the United States rescinded Iraq's waiver to purchase electricity from Iran as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran. Washington also pressured Baghdad to halt its imports of Iranian natural gas, leaving the government scrambling for alternative sources.

In this climate of urgency, the Halfaya GPP came online at just the right moment.

Since its launch in June last year, the facility has become more than a piece of industrial infrastructure -- it's a symbol of resilience, cooperation and a cleaner energy future for Iraq.

As Iraq's first large-scale integrated oil and gas processing project, it processes approximately 3 billion cubic meters of associated gas annually, a by-product from oilfields that was previously flared off, wasting valuable energy and polluting the air.

Today, this associated gas is captured, processed and transformed into a usable source of fuel -- around 2.25 billion cubic meters of purified natural gas per year, which could generate 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. That is power enough for approximately 4 million Iraqi homes -- a lifeline in a country that has struggled for years with rolling blackouts and energy shortages.

Beyond electricity, the plant helps to diversify Iraq's energy economy. It produces around 860,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) each year, which is distributed by tanker trucks throughout Maysan and other provinces. It also yields about 900,000 tonnes of C5+ light hydrocarbons and 15,000 tonnes of industrial-grade sulfur annually.

"Iraq used to flare off the associated gas all day and night in the past," recalled Zainab, a local engineer at the plant. "It felt like we were throwing our future into the sky. But things have changed since the completion of the GPP. Trucks now line up to carry the LPG to nearby towns and provinces. That gas is no longer wasted. It has become a golden resource."

The project could help bolster Iraq's green credentials and align with global standards.

"This project is not just an engineering achievement," said Jiang Feng, general manager of the CPECC Middle East branch. "It's a model of sustainable development. We brought not only world-class Chinese technology, but also a vision of long-term environmental responsibility."

Jiang took pride in how the captured energy is being turned into products that power homes, support industries, and improve people's lives, while also reducing huge quantities of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide every year.

At the project's inauguration last June, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani personally turned the startup valve, hailing it as a model of Iraq-China cooperation.

Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani stated at the ceremony, "The opening of the plant represents a significant addition to the energy industry by utilizing associated gas, rather than burning it, and converting it into useful energy."

But the Chinese company's efforts go beyond that. The Halfaya oilfield sits near the Hawizeh Marshes, a UNESCO-protected wetland vital to regional biodiversity.

"Over the past 15 years, PetroChina has always adhered to the concept of green development in the Halfaya oilfield. We monitor the water, soil, air and biodiversity of the Hawizeh Marshes regularly," said Fang Jiazhong, president of PetroChina Halfaya.

"Our goal is to ensure that our presence strengthens the ecosystem, not harms it," he stressed.

"Chinese companies are setting an example here," said Zainab, pointing to the migratory birds sweeping across the sky near the plant. "Their respect for the environment is not just impressive. It's essential for our future."

As night falls, the lights of the Halfaya GPP glow against the backdrop of the village homes it helps power. To the villagers, that glow from energy reclaimed from waste, illuminates a future secured by friendship and self-sufficiency.

"Thanks to this plant, we don't just have gas," says Haider, smiling as he pours another glass of tea. "We have dignity." 
(WJET/WFXP)  One man was arrested after a fight allegedly turned violent, sending another man to the hospital for multiple stab wounds.

On Sunday, May 18, around 4:30 a.m., Meadville City Dispatch was informed about a stabbing from Crawfound County 911.

Meadville teen being charged as adult for alleged stabbing

According to police, 23-year-old Michael Conrad and his girlfriend were walking from a local bar to a party hosted on Shippen Street. On their way to the party, Conrad allegedly got into an altercation with an unnamed victim.

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The police report stated that both Conrad and the victim were throwing punches during the fight, but Conrad escalated things by pulling out a knife. Multiple witnesses reported hearing him say, I will stab you.

Meadville police arrest man for allegedly masturbating at public pool

The fight eventually ended when the victim fled, holding a wound on his chest.

Conrad was arrested shortly after the incident, and video footage showed that his girlfriend was actively trying to de-escalate the situation and prevent the fight from breaking out.

The victim was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Pittsburgh to treat multiple stab wounds, including one on his neck, next to his carotid artery.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS)  A Montana Republicans threat to vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill ultimately spelled the demise of a Nevada congressmans attempt to sell off public lands in Clark County, Northern Nevada and Utah.

U.S. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) infuriated conservation advocates and Nevada Democrats with his amendment, tacked onto the multitrillion-dollar tax breaks package in a late-night session last week. But the amendment died as Republicans determined they couldnt risk bringing the bill to a vote without Montana Congressman Ryan Zinkes vote. The bill passed early Thursday by a 215-214 vote.

It wouldnt have been that close, but two Republicans missed the vote. According to a report by The Hill, New York Republican Andrew Garbarino fell asleep in the back, no kidding, and Arizona Republican David Schweikert arrived after the vote had closed. Another Republican voted present.

Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., waves on stage with Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., before President Joe Biden speaks about the economy, Tuesday March 19, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Im happy that my Republican colleagues, led by Rep. Zinke, acknowledged that it would wrongfully change the way federal lands are managed, U.S. Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) said in a statement Wednesday night. They stood their ground, and we were able to stop the unprecedented Amodei proposal.

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Lees office said land marked for sale in Amodeis proposal lined up with the public land that Utah has been targeting for its Lake Powell Pipeline, which would send water to St. George and other Utah communities.

If this land were sold and the pipeline were built, it could divert 28 billion gallons of water each year from Lake Powell and the Colorado River to communities in southern Utah, away from Nevada and the other Basin states, according to a news release.

This is a huge win for Nevadas and the Southwests water security, Lee said.

For decades, federal law has ensured that proceeds from land sales in Southern Nevada stay in Nevada, reinvested in projects for parks and recreation, and also partially allocated to the Southern Nevada Water Authority. That all happens through the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA).

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Amodeis amendment would have sent these proceeds to the federal government to subsidize tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus also fought against Amodeis proposal, offering her own amendment to reverse that plan.

In an interview Wednesday night with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Amodei expressed frustration. You might have played checkers for a week, but the chess game starts now, Amodei said. That report indicated more than 65,000 acres in Clark County would have been sold.

Zinke was appointed Secretary of the Interior at the start of President Donald Trumps first term, but left less than two years later amid ethics investigations.

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Sierra Club leaders declared a win.

This is proof that when people fight for the things and places they love, they win, Olivia Tanager, director of the Sierra Club Toiyabe Chapter, said in a statement.

Nevadans stood up, raised hell, and made it crystal clear: our public lands are not for sale. Let this be the dawn of a new day in Nevada and across the country, and let us all say once and for all: no land sales at the expense of communities today, not tomorrow, not ever, Tanager said.

Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said, We hope that Zinkes move sends a strong message to lawmakers of all stripes: We can never break the public trust and the Colorado River for billionaire tax breaks.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS.
May 21---- One person was injured early Wednesday morning in a house fire in northwest Willmar.

The occupant of the house was already at the hospital for treatment of burn injuries around 1 a.m. when the

was en route to the scene, according to a news release from Willmar Fire Chief/Fire Marshal Frank Hanson. It was reported fire was was visible in several windows.

Upon arrival to the 600 block of Seventh Street Northwest, it was confirmed that all occupants were out of the house. Firefighters conducted an aggressive exterior attack on the fire, according to Hanson. They did not go into the house to fight the fire, due to extremely unsafe conditions.

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The fire was contained to the structure of the house. The building and its contents sustained heavy fire, water and smoke damage.

The injured occupant was treated and released from CentraCare  Rice Memorial Hospital. No emergency personnel were injured, according to the news release.

Spicer and Kandiyohi fire departments were called to assist due to a need for more manpower, according to Hanson. The Minnesota State Fire Marshal Division was requested to assist with the investigation, including determining the cause.

The Willmar Police Department and CentraCare Emergency Medical Services also assisted at the scene
One of the two employees at the Israeli embassy in Washington who was killed on Wednesday had German nationality, German diplomatic sources said.

The male victim had a German passport, the sources told dpa on Thursday.

The German-Israeli Society (DIG) in Berlin said that the man had partly grown up in the southern state of Bavaria and spoke fluent German.

He was a founding member of a related youth forum, which focussed on bringing together young people from Germany and Israel, the DIG said.

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In 2022, he took up a position at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

The president of the DIG, Volker Beck, said the embassy employee was remembered as an "open-minded, intelligent and deeply committed person whose interest in German-Israeli relations and ways to achieve peaceful coexistence in the Middle East radiated to his entire environment."

The man was one of two people who were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum. Israeli officials described the man and woman as a young couple about to get engaged.

A suspect has been detained. He is said to have chanted the pro-Palestinian slogan "free Palestine" after he was taken into custody.






Alisa Perales is just 11 years old and about to earn two associate degrees

Her dad, Rafael, left his full-time job a decade ago to help her focus on her academics when he realized she was "innately brilliant"

The years of homeschooling have paid off, the family says: "Its just cool," Alisa says







This week, Alisa Perales will graduate from Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, Calif., with associate degrees in both math and multiple sciences. She's planning to study at University of California, Irvine, starting this fall and major in computer science.

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She's also 11 years old. Honestly, she thinks the whole thing is pretty neat.

Its really exciting for me that Im actually graduating at 11 with two degrees, Alisa Perales tells PEOPLE. Its just cool.

Alisas single dad, 51-year-old Rafael Perales, decided to shelve his law practice and homeschool his daughter full-time starting when she was only a year old. (The family was able to rely on a relatively modest inheritance after Rafael's parents died, which he says allowed them to purchase some land and generate income that way.)

Alisa is innately brilliant. She's sharp. Everybody's noticed that she was born with a little something extra," he says.

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Still, "she wasn't born knowing calculus, she wasn't born knowing [trigonometry]," Rafael tells PEOPLE. Getting from there to here  a college graduate at close to half the age of most students  was "constant work.



Courtesy Rafael Perales Rafael (left) and Alisa Perales Rafael (left) and Alisa Perales

They started with the the ABCs and singing songs. By 2, Alisa was reading chapter books.

It's just been step by step," her father says. "There's been no miracles. Everything has been step by step by step."

When I first started doing it, people were like, 'Wow, you're going to stop being a lawyer to homeschool a 1-year-old?' " Rafael says. "They thought it was a big mistake. They didn't think that was really the way to go."

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But he was sure it was "the right decision from the start," he says. "And looking back now, 10 years later, I have zero regrets. It has been a joy. It has been a privilege and an honor teaching her.

At their home in San Bernadino, Calif., the Peraleses initially studied from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. six days a week.

We didnt take any summer breaks, we didnt take any winter breaks, Rafael says. Instead, in the summer, the pair took educational field trips to places such as the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone. (They did, though, pause for holidays like the Fourth of July, Christmas and their birthdays.)

When Alisa turned 4, they decided to take Wednesdays off from studying and make a weekly trip to Disneyland.

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She was doing so well, I wanted to keep rewarding her and have her look forward to every week as something new and a lot of fun that's coming up, Rafael says. That was really my strategy, just to make it a heck of a lot of fun.



KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source/Youtube

By the time Alisa was 5, her dad was teaching her algebra. Then they moved on to geometry.

When she was 8 years old, Alisa got to the point where, her father says, he couldnt teach her the math she wanted to learn  not because he didn't want her to learn but because "I don't know how to do calculus. I don't really know how to do trigonometry, he says.

So when most kids were enrolling in third grade, Alisa was enrolled in community college, as a special student, in spring 2023.

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It was the first time she was ever in any kind of a public classroom [and] I thought she might be a little intimidated," Rafael says. "But no, I think she really looked forward to having other people around in class and get to actually experience what it's like having someone besides dad up in the front of the room teaching everybody."

He continues: "It was like on TV, or in the movies to her. She had no problems. I did not hear even one time and not even once did she come to me and say, 'I feel uncomfortable,' or, 'Nobody is being nice to me' or anything like that.



Courtesy Rafael Perales Alisa Perales Alisa Perales

During Alisa's classes, Rafael waited nearby on campus.

There's a lot more students in our classroom. I'm used to me and my dad sitting at the desk. It's just many more people," Alisa says. "Also  just way older than me, of course.

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While she liked her math, physics and music classes, she says, in general I like learning new things."

On Friday, May 23, she will become the community college's youngest grad, earning two associate degrees, one in math and one in multiple sciences. Her dad notes that if she stayed just one more semester, she would have earned two more degrees, in computer science and in physics.

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Were not done yet, Rafael says.

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Alisa is interested in 3D animation, artificial intelligence and space exploration (she says she would like to help Elon Musk colonize Mars or live on the Moon).



She wants to go into space, Rafael says, joking that "she wants to drag me out there, too."



Read the original article on People
A crew of 10, many sporting bright orange National Day Laborer Organizing Network T-shirts, funneled out of a Mexican restaurant on the edge of the Eaton burn scar.

Four months  to the day  after winds smashed a tree into a car next to NDLONs Pasadena Community Job Center and soot blanketed the neighborhood, a University of Illinois Chicago professor, NDLON staff and volunteers sorted into cars under the midday sun and began discreetly traveling every road in fire-stricken Altadena.

They watched nearly 250 crews  working long hours (for good pay), many under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers  remove the toxic debris covering the landscape in the wake of the fire.

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Of the over 1,000 workers they surveyed in the burn area on May 7 and 9, only a quarter wore gloves, a fifth wore a protective mask, and a mere tenth donned full Tyvek suits, as required by Californias fire cleanup safety regulations , the groups report, released Thursday, found.

For Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director and co-founder of NDLON, the results arent surprising.

NDLON  a Pasadena-based, national network of day laborer organizations, focused on improving the lives of day laborers, migrant and low-wage workers  has been responding to post-disaster worker safety issues for decades. Alvarado couldnt help but remember the laborers he and NDLON supported during the cleanup following 9/11 over 20 years ago.

Those workers are no longer alive. They died of cancer, he said. These are workers Id known for decades  their sons, their cousins.

Smoke rises from the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center after hijacked planes crashed into the towers, Sept. 11, 2001, in New York. (Richard Drew / Associated Press)

As Alvarado watches a new generation of laborers get to work in the aftermath of the L.A. fires, his call to action is simple: I just dont want to see people dying.

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"We are committed to protecting all workers, regardless of immigration status," a California Department of Industrial Relations spokesperson said in a statement to The Times.

The Department of Industrial Relations houses the Cal/OSHA program, which is responsible for enforcing worker safety requirements.

"Our outreach services participated in numerous events to ensure safety information is clear, accessible, and widely shared across impacted communities," the spokesperson said. "Our enforcement team has also been actively providing compliance assistance. To date this team has provided nearly 500 site visits to educate both employers and employees."

In a statement to The Times, the Army Corps said it mandates every corps employee and contractor to wear proper PPE.

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"USACEs number one priority is public health and safety  of our employees and contractors, and of the survivors and the community," the corps said. "No workers are ever allowed on USACE sites without proper PPE."

Yet NDLON has seen lax PPE use time and time again following disasters. Since 2001, NDLON has dispatched to countless hurricanes, floods and fires to support what the organization calls the second responders  the workers who wade through the rubble and rebuild communities after the devastation. Eaton was no different.

We always respond around the country to floods, fires, no matter where it is, said Cal Soto, workers rights director for NDLON, who helped survey workers in the burn area. For the Eaton fire, we just happen to be literally in the shadow of it.

When wildfires push into developed areas like Altadena, they chew through not just trees but also residents cars, plastics, batteries and household goods such as detergents and paint thinners, releasing hosts of toxic chemicals.

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They include heavy metals such as lead and mercury, capable of damaging the nervous system and kidneys, as well as arsenic and nickel, known carcinogens. Organic materials like wood and oil that dont fully burn can leave polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons  or PAHs  which can harm the immune system and cause sickness in the short term and cancer in the long term.

Read more: The L.A. wildfires left lead and other toxic material in the soil of burn zones. Here are their health risks

Their primary opportunities to enter the body are through the inhalation of toxic air or through ingestion, after collecting on the hands of a person who then touches their face or uses their hands to eat. They can also, to a lesser extent, absorb directly through the skin.

Masks and disposable head-to-toe coverall suits act as a barrier against the dangerous contaminants.

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The responsibility to ensure workers are using those protective barriers on the job ultimately falls on the employer, said Soto.

However, the breakdown of the safety standards can happen anywhere in the chain: The states OSHA division can fail to communicate rules to companies and enforce them. Employers can fail to educate their employees or provide the correct PPE. Workers themselves  despite it all  can choose to remove their PPE on long, hot days where a plastic suit and heavy duty mask feel suffocating.

Sometimes its uncomfortable to wear all of that crap  particularly when its hot," said Alvarado, who was a day laborer before founding NDLON. "Sometimes you feel like youre suffocated.

NDLON and its Pasadena Community Job Center, within hours of the Eaton fire, became a hub for the communitys response. Its volunteers handed out PPE, food and donations to workers and community members. By the end of January, it had hundreds of helping hands clearing Pasadenas parks and streets of debris to assist overwhelmed city employees.

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At the same time, day labor, construction and environmental remediation workers quickly rushed into the burn zone along with the donations, media attention and celebrities. Like clockwork, so did the labor safety violations.

How to keep a worker safe

In a dimly lit Pasadena church in late January, dozens of day laborers watched as Carlos Castillo played the role of an impatient boss, barking directions at three workers standing before them.

Hurry up, Castillo told them in Spanish, handing out boxes of protective suits and masks. One woman, standing in front of the room, fumbled with the straps of a respirator.

Debora Gonzalez, health and safety director NDLON, eyed the day laborer's efforts before asking the crowd: What is our friend missing?

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Gloves! someone called out.

Debora Gonzalez, middle, teaches fire cleanup workers safety training such as proper fitting and use of a respirator and proper wearing of protective clothing for cleaning disaster sites through the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Pasadena on Jan. 31. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Gonzalez and other volunteers called on the crowd, who quickly pointed out more problems with the equipment that the three workers had hastily donned. One had a mask that wasnt sufficient for toxic cleanup; Gonzalez also pointed out that his beard would allow dust to infiltrate.

Castillo, a volunteer trainer and president of the D.C.-based immigrant worker-support nonprofit Trabajadores Unidos de Washington D.C., reminded them that when they are cleaning up an area after a wildfire, there could be a range of noxious chemicals in the ash. Gonzalez said she wanted them to be prepared.

Tomorrow well practice again, she told them.

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NDLON set up the free trainings for any day laborers interested in supporting fire recovery after some laborers began picking up work cleaning homes contaminated with smoke and ash near the fire zones.

Employers are supposed to provide protective equipment to workers and train them on how to use it, but many times employers want to move quickly. They just want to get the job done and get the job done as quickly as possible, said Nadia Marin-Molina, NDLON co-executive director. Unfortunately, workers health goes by the wayside.

As NDLON worked to educate day laborers, another group of workers moved in: The Army Corps of Engineers contractors and private debris removal crews. Alvarado quickly noticed that many of the corps' workers were not wearing the required PPE.

Never one to let the Day Laborer in NDLONs name limit his compassion, Alvarado reached out to a longtime collaborator, Nik Theodore , a University of Illinois Chicago professor who studies labor standards enforcement, to do something about it.

Neglected in the burn zone

A week later, Juan Pablo Orjuela, a labor justice organizer with NDLON, made sure the air was recirculating in the car as the team drove through the burn zone, surveying workers for the NDLON and University of Illinois Chicago report in early May. He watched an AllTrails map documenting their progress  theyd drive until they had traced every street in northeast Altadena.

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Read more: When FEMA failed to test soil for toxic substances after the L.A. fires, The Times had it done. The results were alarming

Orjuela spotted an Army Corps crew working on a home and pulled the car to the curb. Eight workers  no gloves, no Tyvek suit, he said.

Nestor Alvarenga, a day laborer and volunteer with NDLON, sat in the back, tediously recording the number of workers, how many were wearing protective equipment and the sites address into a spreadsheet on an iPad with a beefy black case.

The Army Corps said it requires all workers on-site to wear a hard hat, safety glasses and reflective vests. Workers in the ash footprint must also wear Tyvek suits, gloves and a respirator, the corps said.

One worker walked up to the car; Orjuela slowly lowered the window.

Do you guys need anything? the worker asked.

No, were OK, Orjuela said, well get out of your way.

Debora Gonzalez, left, teaches fire cleanup workers safety training such as proper fitting and use of a respirator and proper wearing of protective clothing for cleaning disaster sites through the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Pasadena on Jan. 31. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Orjuela rolled up the window and pulled away. I dont really have to tell anybody what Im doing, he said. Im not being antagonistic, but you know  Im just not saying anything to anybody.

Theodore and NDLON hope the window survey, spanning 240 job sites with more than 1,000 total workers, can raise awareness for safety and health concerns in the burn areas, help educate workers, and put pressure on the government to more strictly enforce compliance.

This was no small sample by any means, Theodore said. This was an attempt to be as comprehensive as possible and the patterns were clear.

For Soto, the results are a clear sign that, first and foremost, employers are not upholding their responsibility to ensure their workers' safety.

Its the responsibility of the employer, he said. I want to be clear that we have that expectation  that demand  always.

Yet the window survey found even job sites where the PPE requirements are explicitly listed by the employer on a poster at the site, usage was still low. The reality, NDLON organizers said, is that the state must step in to help enforce the rules.

I understand that the disaster was colossal, and I never expected the government to have the infrastructure to respond immediately, said Alvarado, but at this point, making sure workers have PPE, thats a basic thing that the government should be doing.

Former Times staff writer Emily Alpert Reyes contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Christa Pike, the only woman in Tennessee sentenced to death, has been adapting to increased levels of socialization after being removed from de facto solitary confinement last year, according to her attorneys.

Pike, 49, was convicted and sentenced for the brutal killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville in 1995.

While Pike's previous attempts to challenge her death sentence have been unsuccessful, her attorneys said they will pursue other legal avenues to avoid her execution. Pike has not yet filed for clemency.

Christa Pike was moved out of 'solitary confinement' in 2024

In Tennessee, those sentenced to death are kept in areas of prison separate from others. While men are grouped with other men sentenced to death, Pike had lived in de facto solitary confinement at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville for more than 25 years, her attorneys argued.

Christa Pike, the only woman on Tennessee's death row, was convicted in the 1995 torture death of fellow Knoxville Job Corps student Colleen Slemmer, 19.

Pike's attorneys secured a settlement with state officials on Sept. 16 to allow Pike more privileges and "increasing interaction with others."

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Attorneys Kelly Gleason and Randy Spivey said in an emailed statement that Pike "is adapting to her new terms of incarceration."

"After nearly three decades of solitary confinement, Christa enjoys being able to work and share some meals with a small group of women," the statement read. "However, she is still very isolated as the only woman on death row in Tennessee."

Courts have denied Pike's challenge to her sentence

The Tennessee Supreme Court on Sept. 12 ruled it would not hear Pike's case challenging her death sentence, which hinged on the claim that she was too young at the time of the crime to be fairly sentenced to be executed and also that she was suffering from the effects of severe childhood abuse.

If Pike is put to death, she would be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years. The governor generally does not review clemency petitions until after a person's execution date has been set, according to Pike's attorneys.

Facts of Christa Pike's case

In January 1995, Pike, with her then-boyfriend Tadaryl Shipp and friend Shadolla Peterson, brutally killed and tortured 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.

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Pike, age 18 at the time of the crime, and Slemmer were both students at the Knoxville Job Corps, a program for low-income youth, and Pike had felt Slemmer was flirting with Shipp.

The group of teenagers lured Slemmer into a remote area of the University of Tennessee agricultural campus. The killing involved a lengthy beating and torture.

Peterson pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and received a six-year probationary sentence, while Shipp was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life.

Shipp goes up for parole January 2026.

This story was updated to correct the date Shipp goes up for parole.

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Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What to know about Christa Pike, Tennessee's only woman on death row
The News

OpenAI plans to build a massive artificial intelligence data center in Abu Dhabi, the companys first large-scale project outside the US.

The project, in partnership with United Arab Emirates firm G42, is set to become one of the most powerful AI computing clusters, reaching a capacity of 1 gigawatt.

The US and UAE are deepening their AI partnership: US President Donald Trump recently agreed to give the UAE expanded access to advanced AI chips, and has championed the data center plans as a way to develop an edge over China in the Middle East.

But some US officials worry about what they see as an offshoring of American AI capabilities, and a lack of security guarantees to limit Beijings access to the chips.
May 21Law enforcement, city officials and prevention agencies encouraged parents  and students  to celebrate graduation weekend and the rest of the summer safely during a news conference Wednesday the Odessa Police Department.

Project Graduation, a safe, substance-free celebration held on graduation night, is one way of doing that. It will be held this year for Permian and Odessa high schools at Urban Air. It's designed to keep seniors off the roads and away from risky environments, according to information from Project Graduation Chair Clara Pride.

Mayor Cal Hendrick appeared on video to congratulate the 2025 graduates on a job well done.

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Sara Hinshaw, director of prevention programs at Basin Lighthouse, formerly Permian Basin regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, said they encourage people not to have underage drinking parties. The organization helped the city enact a social host ordinance in 2017 to help local law enforcement.

The reason for the ordinance is that "we care about our youth," Hinshaw said.

"We need to be protecting our youth. We need to help out law enforcement by not providing these underage drinking parties. Let's provide sober parties. We encourage them all to go to Project Graduation. It's a party for our seniors. It's an all-night party. It's at Urban Air this year so this is where we encourage our seniors to go," Hinshaw said.

Ector County ISD Police Lt. Chancey Westfall, who is over west side operations and training, extended congratulations to all graduates.

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"But what we want to also focus on is the dangers of graduation night, when students choose to go out to these parties, consume alcohol and then drive. The last thing that we want to deal with, anyone in this room that works law enforcement, any parent, anyone in our community, is ... the death of one of our kids because they made a poor choice the night of graduation," Westfall said.

"We have a lot of places that you can go. Specifically Project Graduation is a wonderful program that's been going on for many years. We encourage our students to go to Project Graduation, because that is going to be a safe place to then go and enjoy and celebrate. That is only one night, though," Westfall said.

He added that he would like to encourage everyone to avoid alcohol parties over the summer as well.

"I cannot express how heartbreaking it is to lose someone that's just now starting their adult journey in life. To our other students, to our parents, I would like to discourage you from hosting an alcohol party where one of these kids could get intoxicated and get hurt. If you have information or receive information concerning an alcohol party that's going to be hosted in the next few weeks, I would strongly encourage you to reach out to the Odessa Crime Stoppers. You can leave an anonymous tip, and we can have officers that can go and investigate that to prevent that party from turning into something deadly," Westfall said. "If you're not comfortable making the phone call, there's also the P3 app, the tip app, online. You can submit a tip there. We please encourage you to reach out if you have that information, because you could save a life," he added.

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Odessa Police Chief Mike Gerke said everyone remembers their graduations and wants to see their children and grandchildren graduate and move on to live a productive life. With several different agencies represented, Gerke said you can see the dedication from law enforcement to help make that happen.

"Parents, please make sure that your children are safe, make sure your children make better decisions, make wise decisions, so that they can have those happy, fulfilling lives. That's what's important to us. (The) number one goal of Odessa Police Department is protection of life. That's what this is about today. It's not about making arrests, it's not about writing citations. It's about our young people being safe and having a joyful time at graduation," Gerke said.

Council Member At-Large Craig Stoker echoed many of the sentiments Wednesday.

"This is a great opportunity for our graduating seniors to have a safe place to celebrate and really just an opportunity to gather together and not have opportunities to get in trouble," Stoker said. "There was not such an emphasis on providing spaces like this when I graduated so I applaud the efforts of those putting this on."

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Westfall noted that the mission of the ECISD Police Department is always the safety of the students.

"Even though these kids are graduating, they're still ours. They came up through our school, and our officers build a relationship there. It's like a family, especially for our officers that had these kids in middle school and watched them grow up. It is a very much something we take a lot of pride in. It's very personal for us to go protect our students," Westfall said.

The best way to prevent something from happening is talking to your students or your children, interacting with them and talking about concerns.

"A lot of people leave things unsaid. When things are unsaid and you don't speak to your children about them, curiosity will get the better of them, and they will go seek out these things based on peer pressure. The best tool to fight peer pressure is education. Teach your kids what to avoid and not go to these parties. If you receive information or you believe that you're going to have students that are going to host a party, I would like to push out there that you should reach out to the Crime Stoppers Odessa program, call them, give them the information. We can go and investigate it. It's all anonymous. If you're not comfortable using the phone, P3 apps; you can download that app online. You can submit it anonymously, and for the students that are listening to this, if you get information on this party, those tips pay cash. If you give us a tip, it solves one of those parties that we get to go out and bust. It prevents a kid from getting hurt. We pay them. I want you all to keep that in mind that that is a big incentive for our students is going to be those tips and that program," Westfall said.

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Gerke said graduation is something near and dear to the OPD's heart because they want young people to be safe and enjoy graduation.

"I think a lot of people mischaracterize this as, hey, we're out there trying to bust up parties and take kids to jail and write tickets, and that's absolutely not it, because over the last few years, we've actually seen a decline in the number of tips we get for this, which means it's working. The whole idea behind this is to keep those graduates that have just passed one of the major milestones of life safe. That's all we really want, and that's our main focus at the Odessa Police Department, is that protection of life and sanctity of life," Gerke said.

He added that this is a great effort that brings the community together.

Gerke said social host ordinance fines can be up to $2,000.

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"That's a pretty significant fine. We haven't written an enormous amount of those, but we have written those. Those have been issued, and we'll do it again. ... We're not blind. We understand that we can't prevent juveniles from drinking alcohol constantly, but we can, we can surely try to diminish the number of times that happens, and focus on the safety involved with that," Gerke said.

Although a large focus of Operation Graduation is alcohol, drugs are also a concern.

"Any type of thing that's going to that it's going to cause harm because you think about these parties and there's overdoses; there are overdoses on narcotics; there are overdoses on alcohol. ... We also are concerned about drinking and driving, or using drugs and driving. Those things cause harm for society, also," Gerke added.

According to information from Basin Lighthouse, formerly the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse:

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 12 percent of seniors in this region get their alcohol at parties most of the time compared to the 9 percent state average.

 When surveyed, 87.8 percent of seniors in this region reported that they have drunk five or more alcoholic drinks in a two-hour span in the last month.

 Two metropolitan statistical areas in Region 9 (Odessa and Midland) account for No. 1 and 2 in most alcohol-related driving fatalities in Texas.

 The Teen Court of Odessa handles approximately 30 to 40 cases annually involving minors cited for alcohol violations. Repeat offenders face judicial proceedings and citations can have lasting impacts on their records.

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 Alcohol-to-Go concerns: A study highlighted that nearly 70 percent of alcohol-to-go orders in the area lacked proper ID verification, raising concerns about increased access for underage individuals.

 Youth who drink before age 15 are four times more likely to face alcohol dependence or misuse as adults.

 Furnishing alcohol to someone under 21 can lead to a $4,000 fine and up to a year in jail. Selling alcohol to a minor is a Class A misdemeanor, which can bring a $4,000 fine and a year in jail.
Imagine waking up tomorrow and your phone has no signal. Your smart home isnt working. Your Ring camera is offline. You get in your car, but your GPS wont route. Worse, every traffic light in town is out. Intersections are a mess of blaring horns and confusion. Sirens echo in the distance. You drive to an ATM, hoping to grab some cash. The screen flickers, then goes black. Its not just your neighborhood. Its not just your state. The entire nation has gone dark.

This scenario is digital darkness, caused by Chinas off-switch for America. It is the penultimate step in Chinas strategy to defeat America before gunning for global control.

So-called assassins maces play a central role in Chinas plan to become the worlds sole superpower by 2049. Of the many known assassins maces, four demand immediate attention:

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1) Tactical Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Weapons: China develops tactical EMP weapons that can disable entire regions by targeting civilian infrastructure America relies on to function. These compact pulse generators can hover above unprotected data centers, destroying electronics inside with pinpoint electromagnetic blasts. Several dozen well-coordinated EMP strikes could wipe out cloud infrastructure, disrupting Americas power, transportation, communications and financial systems nationwide.

2) Deep Sea Fiber Cuts: Over 95 percent of global internet traffic travels through undersea fiber cables. China recently unveiled deep-sea cable cutters capable of severing cables at extreme depths. Recent disruptions near Taiwan and the Baltic Sea suggest these tools are already in use. Cutting a few lines disrupts global communications instantly and fractures U.S. military coordination.

3) Anti-Satellite Weapons: As America stockpiles low earth orbit satellites, China expands its anti-satellite arsenal to include missiles, parasitic satellites and lasers designed to disable or destroy orbital assets. In March 2025, the U.S. Space Force reported that Chinese satellites performed aggressive dogfighting maneuvers in orbit. This capability allows China to carry out precise strikes designed to trigger the dreaded Kessler Cascade, a chain reaction of satellite collisions capable of destroying all low earth orbit satellites within days, crippling internet, communications and surveillance systems.

4) Cyber Attacks: Chinas cyber weapons are the most deeply embedded assassins mace. Just this week, U.S. investigators uncovered rogue communication devices hidden in Chinese-made solar inverters and batteries. Such undocumented components can bypass firewalls, allowing China to remotely monitor, destabilize and disable critical infrastructure. Chinese-made chips, routers and switches embedded throughout U.S. networks contain dormant firmware that, upon activation, could place critical U.S. infrastructure under Chinese Communist Party command.

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The Chinese armys blended domains philosophy strips traditional boundaries between war and peace. An omnipresent battlefield erases any line between military and civilian enterprise. The doctrine is described in Unrestricted Warfare, the 1999 book in which Chinese military leaders promote the use of psychological, technological and informational attacks to undermine and subsequently overwhelm America.

Under this approach, China targets power grids, satellites, telecom networks and data centers to exploit a critical U.S. vulnerability: when building digital infrastructure, we tend to optimize for return on investment, which inversely correlates to premium cost and time to market. As a result, most of our digital infrastructure  including hyper-scaler data centers where we house the cloud, fiber switches and internet service provider networks  arent designed to withstand deliberate, coordinated attacks. Chinese strategists studied weaknesses in our civilian infrastructure closely, then carefully designed their maces for maximum leverage.

China is ready to deploy its maces when the moment of Shi arrives  the point at which they will proceed to the next step in their stated goal to become the worlds only superpower. Meanwhile, Americas digital infrastructure remains dangerously exposed.

Congress must make digital resilience a national security imperative to strengthen Americas most vulnerable systems through immediate, coordinated actions:

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Adopt blended domains as a first principle by treating civilian infrastructure as part of national defense, requiring military-grade protection and coordination with the Department of Defense. Fund efforts to harden Americas digital backbone through diversified transmission pathways, physical hardening, electromagnetic shielding and distributed data systems. Reallocate Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program non-deployment funds to protect critical infrastructure from targeted attacks. Increase Space Force funding to enhance orbital defense capabilities while fast-tracking procurement from innovators like SpaceX, Astranis and Impulse Space. Invest in nimble, tech-forward defense startups like Anduril, Shield AI, Saronic and Onebrief to accelerate the development of resilient systems that will keep America online. Integrate FCC spectrum resilience efforts into broader defense planning to safeguard U.S. terrestrial and orbital communications.

With strategic action, we can and must ensure America is ready for any road ahead.

Jase Wilson works on utility infrastructure innovation at Ready.net, a company dedicated to strengthening Americas digital backbone.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Chinese Vice President Han Zheng addresses the opening ceremony of the Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit 2025 in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Thursday called for joint efforts to promote transformation in global trade and investment in an era featuring digital and smart technologies.

Han made the remarks while addressing the opening ceremony of the Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit 2025 in Beijing.

The widespread application of new industries and technologies, including the digital economy and artificial intelligence, is transforming the global trade and investment landscape, presenting great development opportunities, Han said.

He called for expanding the innovative application of digital and intelligent technologies to spur global economic recovery and development. Efforts should also be made to advance openness and cooperation, promote mutual benefit, uphold fairness and inclusiveness, and bridge the digital and intelligent divides, to create better conditions for international trade and investment cooperation, he added.

Han also stressed the necessity of ensuring stable and unimpeded global industrial and supply chains by leveraging digital and intelligent technologies.

China is committed to expanding high-standard opening up and promoting high-quality development, providing vast opportunities for businesses worldwide, he said.

Hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, the Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit was first held in 2022.

The summit this year focuses on the theme of embracing the era of digital and smart technologies and working together towards common development. Over 800 people, including heads of foreign government departments, international organizations, foreign business associations and global trade promotion bodies, as well as representatives of Chinese and overseas enterprises, attended the summit. 

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng addresses the opening ceremony of the Global Trade and Investment Promotion Summit 2025 in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)
Recent National Assessment of Educational Progress scores reveal concerning trends for Latino students. While some student groups showed modest improvements in 2024, Hispanic eighth-graders experienced declines across core subjects  dropping 5 points in reading and 3 points in mathematics since 2022. The declines reflect widening disparities between higher- and lower-performing students of all backgrounds.

More than two-thirds of lower-performing students come from historically disadvantaged populations, such as English language learners. With English learners projected to make up 25% of students by 2025  and 76.4% of those being Spanish speakers  its time to remove the barriers hindering Latino students.

A key factor holding back Latino students academically is that educators rarely mirror the demographics of schools. When Latino students have teachers with the same background, these teachers reflect the same culture as students, creating an environment for students to have their identity affirmed. Research links exposure to minority teachers to improvements in attendance and achievement.

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Latino students now represent 29% of pre-K to 12 students across the U.S., yet only 9% of teachers identify as such. At the same time, teacher candidates of color encounter obstacles to entering and staying in the classroom.

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Four critical areas need to be addressed to strengthen the Latino educator pipeline: financial support, strategic recruitment, professional networks and culturally responsive practices.

First, financial support must be enhanced at crucial points in educators careers. Competitive salaries that allow for a middle-class lifestyle  combined with loan forgiveness programs, scholarships and performance bonuses  can make teaching more attractive as a career path for Latino educators.

Second, Latino educator recruitment requires strategic workforce development approaches similar to those used in other fields. For example, the Tulare County Office of Education in California has been administering the Teacher Residency for Rural Education Project since 2019, preparing single-subject teachers who focus on STEM and English to meet the needs of local rural school districts.

We strive to mirror the student population of the schools we serve and implement grow-your-own programs for preparing local talent as educators in our communities, explained Marvin Lopez, executive director of the Tulare County Office of Education. All schools in partner districts have a higher population of socioeconomically disadvantaged, Hispanic/Latino and English learners than the state overall. On average, 68.2% of learners qualify for free/reduced lunch rates, 49.2% are Hispanic/Latino and 15% English learners.

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Research conducted by the Wheelock Education Policy Center on behalf of MassINC in partnership with Latinos for Education recommended a similar initiative in Massachusetts. The study found that while Massachusetts doubled the number of teachers of color hired from 2012 to 2022, students of color increased at a faster rate, leading to a larger gap in representation.

According to the report, a homegrown strategy to close gaps in college access and success could have considerable impact. The researchers also noted that if new hires reflected student demographics, by the end of the decade, the percentage of teachers of color would double  from 10% today to about 23% by 2030.

Related

In Los Angeles, a Teacher Residency Program Creates Bilingual Teachers

Third, robust support systems and professional networks for Latino educators are essential for their success and longevity in the profession. Only 57% of Hispanic teacher candidates pass the Praxis exam even after multiple attempts, while 75% of white candidates ultimately pass. Supporting test preparation for Latino teacher candidates can make a big difference in addressing this hurdle.

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A 2024 research partnership between ETS, Study.com and TEACH demonstrated significant improvements in exam pass rates through test prep. The study showed that, with sufficient support, teacher candidates from historically marginalized backgrounds experienced meaningful increases in pass rates. This focus on certification support represents one step toward building a more representative teacher workforce.

Supporting professional growth is also essential. Latinos for Educations Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship offers one solution, giving Latino education leaders culturally responsive professional development to envision long-term careers in education rather than temporary positions. Theres always room for more organizations to help keep these vital teachers in classrooms.

These support systems should provide opportunities for leadership advancement, professional development and mentorship connections that understand the unique challenges Latino educators face when navigating school systems.

Fourth, promoting culturally responsive practices that reflect student communities helps retain Latino teachers and improves educational outcomes. Its not just schools and administration that must address this challenge. Family and community support are vital to expanding the Latino educator pipeline.

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One huge asset in this populations favor: Nine out of 10 Latino parents see high-quality public schools as instrumental to their childs success, according to a Latinos for Education survey of Houston-area parents.

The same Houston survey uncovered strong support for more teachers who can bridge language and cultural divides. A striking 80% of Latino parents said they would become more involved if more Spanish-fluent educators were present. And teachers see similar value in family support: A Study.com survey of 700 teachers found that 87% believe increased parent and family engagement is the most impactful way to close student learning gaps.

Schools that incorporate culturally responsive curriculum and ensure staff composition reflects student demographics create environments where Latino educators feel valued rather than isolated. These practices also benefit students directly by exposing them to varied perspectives and teaching approaches.

The declining academic scores of Latino students require urgent action. Increasing Latino teacher representation offers a powerful long-term solution. When students see educators who share their cultural background and experiences, achievement gaps begin to close.

Financial support enhancement, strategic recruitment, robust support networks and culturally responsive practices will strengthen the Latino educator pipeline. As more Latino teachers serve as mirrors for Latino students, academic outcomes can improve, creating better learning environments for all students.
Svante Myrick recently attacked President Trumps work for religious freedom, as well as our organizations work on judicial nominations at the American Family Association Actions Center for Judicial Renewal.

Our standard for evaluating future federal judges is simple: we seek judges with the best long-term, demonstrable record of commitment to the constitutional role of judges, which is to decide cases according to the original meaning of the Constitution and legislative texts, and to never legislate from the bench.

When evaluating judges under this standard, we research prospects records in a number of key areas, including their worldview. It is this worldview research that seems to draw the most opposition from the anti-religious Left.

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Some seem bothered that we prefer judges who respect the Constitution and the God of our Declaration of Independence. Moreover, we prefer judges who have a relationship with Jesus because the teachings of Christ, among other things, lead judges to be fair to all persons, religious and non-religious.

Some on the Left seem to believe that our preference violates the Constitution. It does not, and it must be noted that there is a major distinction between a religious preference and a religious test. The Constitution expressly prohibits religious tests but allows religious preferences. The prohibition of a religious test still allows every citizen, whether Christian, non-Christian, or otherwise, to prefer a president, political leaders, and federal judges who share his or her worldview. In fact, the first Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Jay, was himself a Christian and believed that Americans should prefer Christians for their rulers.

Our Constitution allows citizens of every religious conviction to vote and participate. However, that does not mean that all religious convictions equally contributed to our American form of government. Justice Joseph Story, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 34 years, was a Harvard law professor, and authored the authoritative Commentaries on the Constitution, explained the historical fact that [t]here never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.

Story also explained the importance of religion in our public life: [I]t yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape. Finally, he made it clear that Christianity played a formative role in our government. Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship, he wrote. Any attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.

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The United States Supreme Court has gone even further in explaining the unique role Christianity has played in our founding. In the 1892 Church of the Holy Trinity case, the high court documented Americas religious history and concluded that this is a religious nation, [w]e are a Christian people, and this is a Christian nation.

However, the Court explained that our nations relationship with Christianity still allows liberty of conscience for all citizens: Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law.  Not Christianity with an established church  but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men.

In conclusion, it must be said that the Constitution protects persons of all religious views and allows their participation in public life. But not all religions equally influenced our Constitution and our governmental structure. Christianity holds a unique position in our nation, and for that, we should be thankful, because it is those distinctly Christian principles that provide us with a government and judges who protect those with whom we disagree.

Phillip Jauregui is senior counsel at AFA Actions Center for Judicial Renewal . He is an expert in constitutional law, judicial policy, and non-profit coalition building. He worked in the judicial branch as a law clerk and also served in the executive branch as an assistant legal advisor.

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The death of influencer Emilie Kisers 3-year-old son is a tragedy. Due to his mothers significant fame on TikTok, its also a national story. What it isnt is an excuse to shame a grieving parent, and yet the ordeal has quickly become another example of the way parasocial relationships on social media can discourage empathy and lead to cruel online mobs, even in the aftermath of a terrible accident.

Last Sunday, the Chandler Police Department in Arizona reported that Kisers son Trigg had succumbed to his injuries six days after being discovered unresponsive in the familys swimming pool. An investigation is ongoing, according to local police. The heartbreaking news shocked fans of the 26-year-old Kiser, who has built a sizable brand with videos featuring Trigg, her husband, Brady Kiser, and their younger son, Theodore, who was born in March. Many of the influencers 3.8 million TikTok followers flooded her comments sections with condolences over the unthinkable loss. But many others have opted to blame the Kisers, spread conspiracy theories about Triggs death and even suggest the parents deserved it.

Much of the criticism seems to stem from the belief that (as seen in videos), the Kisers didnt have a fence around their pool. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends parents install fences to prevent unsupervised pool access, and for good reason. More than 900 kids fatally drown each year, per the CDC, making drowning the No. 1 cause of death in children between the ages of 1 and 4. Why did Emilie protect her new furniture with gates and not the pool? one TikToker asked, referring to an older video of Kisers, while another accused Kiser of not putting up a fence because it wasnt aesthetically pleasing.

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Other commenters blamed the Kisers for not noticing Trigg had wandered into the pool, despite the fact that, per the CDC, drowning can occur in as quickly as 20 seconds and in as little as just 2 inches of water.

To be clear, none of these online critics actually know what happened. The Kisers have not yet spoken publicly about their sons death, and Arizona police released a statement sharing their sympathies and noting they wont be releasing any new details about the incident out of respect for the grieving family.

Still, the virtual blame game continues.

Fame breeds familiarity  even if its fake. Through thousands of intimate videos, fans have witnessed the stars family interact and grow, making Triggs death feel personal to many fans. As such, they may feel like they deserve an explanation. They are wrong.

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The heartbreak is understandable, but the quickness to condemn Kiser and make unfounded accusations is not. Celebrities are not immune from tragedy, heartbreak or feeling hurt by what people say about them on social media. Im sure shes got enough in her bank account to retire her, one TikToker posted about Kiser, for instance, as if retiring would fix this kind of unspeakable loss. A particularly gross strain of commentary suggests Kiser may even be trying to exploit her sons death for more attention.

Pool safety is an incredibly important topic, and one that should be discussed openly and frankly among parents. Too many children die in swimming pools every year; at least some of those deaths may be preventable. Yet, this current social media pile on is not helpful, serving no purpose other than to shame and guilt a grieving family. Kisers fame does not make her any less human, and any relationship fans share with her  and with influencers more generally  should be filled with kindness and grace, not cruelty and judgment.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Since President Trump entered office in January of 2025, our border security has increased, the flow of illegal drugs has dropped dramatically, and illegal border crossings have plummeted to levels not seen in modern history. The success of the Trump administrations leadership at our borders cannot be underestimated. Now, Congress must do its job to enshrine into law the work of President Trump.

House Republicans are working to fund President Trumps successful border security agenda. I am proud that the Committee on Homeland Security recently advanced recommendations for the budget reconciliation process to fund important border security priorities, including adequate personnel funding, wall construction and investments in technology.

During the Biden border crisis, I visited the Southwest border several times with my Republican colleagues to see the chaos firsthand. We heard directly from Border Patrol agents about the resources they needed to gain control of our borders.

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Now, as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, we are working closely with the Trump administration to fund border security in the House budget reconciliation process. President Trump has listened to the needs of the frontline law enforcement officers who were long ignored by the Biden administration. Congressional Republicans are united in ensuring Border Patrol agents voices are heard and they have the resources they need to fulfill their important mission and keep Americans safe.

The Biden-Harris border crisis has finally come to an end, though we will be working to undo the consequences for years. Illegal crossings at the Southwest border in March plummeted 95 percent from the previous March. However, the success at our borders wont last if we dont provide the necessary resources to help Customs and Border Protection (CBP) fulfill its mission.

Physical barriers play a critical role in ensuring that our borders are secure. Completed sections of the border wall have been a proven, effective tool for Border Patrol agents to prevent illegal crossings. Thats why the proposal advanced by committee Republicans allocated $46.5 billion to fund over 700 new miles of border wall and invest in the continued modernization of the border barrier system.

Another important component of the committees recommendations is upgrading the facilities for the U.S. Border Patrol. Many facilities are in remote areas, with deteriorating structures, limited space, outdated technology and insufficient capacity to support current staffing levels. Investing in physical infrastructure is not just about modernization, its about mission effectiveness, safety and demonstrating commitment from Congress to those who risk their lives to secure our borders.

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While ensuring our frontline personnel have the proper facilities is critical, we must also make certain that the CBP is adequately staffed. The Biden-Harris administration destroyed Border Patrol agents morale and increased attrition throughout CBP by failing to enforce the law. Now that President Trump has returned them to their frontline border security mission, our committee has proposed funding to add thousands of new agents and CBP officers, bolster recruitment and training efforts, and fund retention bonuses.

As CBP personnel on the frontlines work to clean up the worst border crisis in American history, Congress must make strategic investments to procure cutting-edge border security technology. As technology that protects our officers and serves as a force multiplier continues to evolve, our proposed funding invests in advanced surveillance technology along the Southwest, Northern and Maritime borders. This technology is essential to maintaining situational awareness, closing critical security gaps, and enhancing the safety of frontline personnel and our communities.

This funding is vital to ensuring President Trump can keep his most important promise to the American people: securing the border.

Michael Guest represents Mississippis 3rd District and serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security as the chairman of the Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee.

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The recently concluded Utah Republican Organizing Convention results offer an interesting insight into what may happen in the near future. We offer our perspectives.

Current GOP chair Rob Axson prevailed over his opponent, former state representative Phil Lyman 52%-48%. This was more than just a contest to see who would be the next chairman. This election was influenced by external forces and signaled direction for the states majority party. What does Axsons reelection mean?

COWLEY: President Trump and Sen. Mike Lee are the darlings of delegates, and their endorsements tipped the scales in this contest. It wasnt Lees endorsement of Axson that I found more notable from the convention. It was his urging that the Legislature repeal SB54, which allowed candidates to bypass the convention process. Both Axson and Lyman campaigned on eliminating the signature path, but were split on who has the authority to implement the change.

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Trumps policies may be popular with delegates, but many MAGA Republicans side-eye the usurpation of the 22nd Amendment regarding a third presidential term. Delegates narrowly voted down a resolution to oppose and condemn any measure or action that would allow the president to serve more than two terms. With one faction of delegates opposing a third Trump term, juxtaposed with another faction donning Trump 2028 hats, the upcoming presidential election will be interesting, to say the least.

Delegates clear penchant for Trump and Lee is the antithesis of their sentiment toward Gov. Spencer Cox. Nobody can blame the governor for not attending this years convention after the delegates crass behavior last year. Disagreeing with a politician is one thing, but boos and jeers for our states highest office holder is unbecoming of our party and Utah as a whole.

PIGNANELLI: What we have in our power is gratitude. It can be culturally contagious. Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review

Various conditions can plague successful people and prevent them from enjoying their achievements. Something similar is affecting the local GOP. Republicans control the congressional delegation, over two-thirds of the state Legislature, all the statewide offices, most county governments, etc. Utah is continually honored for a well-managed government and strong economy. Thus, activists should have spent Saturday morning congratulating themselves, thanking voters, and re-electing Axson by acclamation.

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Instead, they engaged once again in this silly fight over minutia, which blemishes positive messaging to the general public. The closeness of the race defies reason because Axson is a solid chairman.

Without strong Democratic opposition to focus their energies, Republican delegates are instead chewing on other party members.

Although delegates deferred a decision on the proposed resolution to the party constitution revoking membership of candidates seeking nomination through signatures, its still a major issue for the partys activists. Where is this issue heading into the next legislative session and beyond?

COWLEY: Lets examine why delegates support only one path to party nomination. Some believe delegates are more engaged and better informed for candidate vetting. As a former delegate, I can fully endorse that statement. Others say the convention is harder to manipulate and produces more conservative candidates. Since the passage of SB54, I havent observed Republican candidates becoming less conservative, and both processes yield creative campaign tactics - caucus stacking and coordinated, paid signature gathering. Convention-only arguments seem to be rooted in protectionism while signature gathering favors wealthy candidates. Neither path is without its shortcomings.

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As candidates, legislators conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Signature gathering is costly, but its an insurance policy. Convention-only can be expensive without any guarantee of making it to the Primary. As policymakers, legislators are divided on the best approach for candidate selection.

PIGNANELLI: Delegates comprise less than 1% of Republican voters. But they want control over the nominating process restored. Because they are more engaged than the average citizen, their activism cannot be dismissed.

But on the other side of the conundrum is the fact that, should the Legislature eliminate the signature gathering process, many events would be triggered. A referendum, an initiative, and a restricting of resources to the party will likely occur should delegates regain control of the nominating process.

Whats likely to happen? The existing passive-aggressive strategy will continue. Many elected Republican officials will grumble about the signature gathering process, praise legislation that reverses it, but ensure the bill fades away in the last days of the session. This will keep the peace. Such is practical politics.

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Congressional deliberations surrounding the recent tax bill imply a split between MAGA and mainstream Republicans. Is this happening in Utah?

COWLEY: Congressional holdouts are conservative hardliners. They like the big beautiful budget bill but feel it doesnt go far enough to reduce the deficit. Moodys downgrading of the U.S. credit rating fuels these concerns. Comparable budget hawks also serve in Utahs Legislature, but because of our constitutionally mandated balanced budget, similar dynamics dont arise.

PIGNANELLI: The Utah delegation has perfected the ability of throwing red meat to the activists but working behind the scenes to ensure a working relationship with the president, his team and their colleagues. Similar dynamics occur in the Legislature, in which local MAGA lawmakers receive attention but the necessary work (budgets, appropriations, infrastructure, economic features, etc.) are always a priority.

Republican Renae Cowley is a political consultant, lobbyist, social media influencer, and professional rodeo athlete. Email: capitolcowgirl@gmail.com. Frank Pignanelli is a Salt Lake attorney, lobbyist, and political adviser who served as a Democrat in the Utah State Legislature. Email: frankp@xmission.com.
This month, House Republicans advanced legislation that has the potential to dramatically expand education options for American families.

The House Ways and Means Committee has approved a bill that would establish a $5 billion tax credit to create education scholarships and expand the allowable uses of funds saved in 529 accounts, giving families more options to pay for education costs. But Congress should consider ways to reform other federal education funding programs, to better align with the growing movement in states across the country to expand parental choice in education.

At the state level, Texas recently became the latest to offer parents direct control of their childs K-12 schooling through education savings accounts (ESAs). The new program will offer $10,000 to students to pay for private school tuition, tutoring and other education costs. More than half of Americas children will live in states with private school choice.

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These states innovative approaches to funding education should inform new federal reforms to use funding provided through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) for 529 accounts, allowing disadvantaged parents to choose the right K-12 learning environment for their children.

Until now, 529 accounts have mostly benefited the wealthiest families. As of 2013, more than 80 percent of the funds held in 529 accounts were owned by the richest 20 percent of American households. Like Roth IRAs, investment gains in 529s are not subject to federal or state taxation.

While 529s are still largely the province of the wealthy, state-funded ESA programs are giving lower-income families access to new education options beyond public schools. For example, the legislation in Texas to establish education savings accounts prioritizes lower-income families and children with disabilities to receive available funds first.

Congress needs to replicate what innovative states have done and use ESEA dollars to fund 529s for low-income families. The result would be a one-two punch for educational opportunity and parental choice. Congress should reform the $18.4 billion Title I program, which provides funds to public schools serving lower-income children, into a direct deposit program to benefit low-income children. This alone could put $1,000 into every low-income childs 529 account. Eligible parents in the 18 states (including Texas) with ESAs could use state and federally funded accounts to pay for educational choice.

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There is already a growing movement at the state level to help lower-income families save for education expenses. Most states with income taxes provide a tax benefit for contributions to 529 accounts. Eight states now offer state tax deductions or credits to encourage employers to fund employees education savings accounts. In addition, more than 80 initiatives across the country provide direct deposits into childrens 529 accounts to help families begin saving.

Evidence suggests these programs benefit working families. Researchers studied a pilot program in Oklahoma that put $1,000 seed investments into childrens 529 accounts; the study found that children and their parents receiving seed investments experienced financial, social and emotional benefits. And while ESAs are relatively new and have not yet been the focus of empirical research, they have proven overwhelmingly popular with parents. The number of children using ESAs has increased from 63,000 in 2023 to 489,000 in 2025. Broadly, decades of research evaluations have revealed generally positive results from private school choice programs, including increasing educational attainment.

President Trump has rallied behind a new template for educational policy based on empowering every parent in America  to send their child to public, private, charter, or faith-school of their choice. But closing the Department of Education and sending federal educational dollars to the states, while both laudable in their own right, is ultimately not the same as universal school choice. In progressive states, there remain too many powerful, entrenched special interests against increased educational choice, such as teachers unions and their political allies in elected office and the administrative state.

Thus, true universal choice will happen only if the federal government empowers working families  not anti-school-choice politicians and state bureaucrats  to save and invest for their childrens future.

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Dan Lips is a senior fellow with the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP). Michael Toth is a resident fellow at FREOPP and a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin Civitas Institute.

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Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg told Fox News journalist Dana Perino a few weeks ago that Russias not winning this war. Russia has not made any major advances in the last year and a half.

But you would not know that based upon President Trumps Monday phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Threats of economic sanctions and resumption of military aid to Ukraine fell by the wayside.

Trumps post on X following his two-hour phone call with Putin should have come as no surprise. Days prior to the conversation, a senior European diplomat told the Financial Times, Putin is doing just enough to convince Trump that he is engaged in this effort to find peace in Ukraine, while also doing as much as possible to make sure it goes nowhere. And Trump is falling for it.

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And he did fall for it  again. Putin adhered to the teachings of Sun Tzu  know your enemy. He embraced the bromance. The call went so well for Putin that a senior Russian official said the two leaders seemed to not want to say goodbye. Trump and his Art of the Deal mentality, coupled with his narcissistic ego, was made to order for the former KGB agent.

The minerals deal signed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in April apparently was not enough to quench the appetite for the Don of the Donbas.

Trump, unfortunately, is stuck on transactional economic outcomes rather than security for his NATO allies and Ukraine. In the X statement, he highlighted that, Russia wants to do large-scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic bloodbath is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth.

European leaders were reported as shocked, dismayed that the U.S. president appears unwilling to put pressure on the Kremlin leader. It is also evident that European leaders are not ready to put pressure on Trump either  or prepared to go it alone. They seem content to sit on the sidelines wringing their hands waiting for the U.S. to broker an outcome.

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European leaders have no shortage of good ideas. They just lack the intestinal fortitude to implement them on their own without U.S. backing. It is time for them to take the bull by the horns.

Mondays phone call changed nothing as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had already met in Istanbul for 90 minutes where they discussed the possibility of a ceasefire as well as follow-on meetings.

But Putin got what he wanted  more time, and friction between the U.S. and their NATO allies. What he tells Trump one-on-one is not the message his negotiators convey. Zelensky  and his European allies  remain in the way. Creating separation between the U.S. and NATO is Putins strategy.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov quickly downplayed any expectations of a quick agreement, saying ending the Ukraine war would require rather painstaking and, perhaps, prolonged work.

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Putin still has not agreed to Trumps original 30-day ceasefire proposal, nor has the Kremlins ceasefire conditions changed. In fact, they have escalated: Russian negotiators threatened to seize northeastern Ukraines Kharkiv and Sumy regions  in addition to the five regions it has already annexed  if Moscows demands were not met.

Bloomberg put it succinctly: Putin is convinced that by the end of the year the Russian Armed Forces will be able to break through the Ukrainian defenses and completely capture four regions.

Once again, Putin is writing checks his army cannot cash. But Trump seems unwilling to stamp them for insufficient funds.

Mass and meat assaults alone cannot win wars  at least not in the 21th century. Russian casualties are rapidly approaching the one million mark. Last weekend the Kremlin lost another 3,080 soldiers for a total of 976,780 to date. That contributed to the recent firing of Russian Chief of Land Forces, Col. Gen. Oleg Salyukov.

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When defeated on the battlefields of Ukraine, Putin returns to the three tactics that yield immediate results: targeting Ukrainian civilians with ballistic missiles and drones, making nuclear threats, and diverting attention elsewhere.

This is why, on Sunday evening, the Kremlin launched its biggest drone attack on Ukraine since the beginning of the war. Ukraines air force said Russia launched 273 drones targeting civilians in the central Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in the east.

According to Ukraine intelligence, Russia announced its intent to conduct a training and combat launch of an RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile to demonstratively pressure and intimidate Ukraine, and also EU and NATO member states.

Then last week, reports circulated that Russian troops were massing along the border with Finland.

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Russian demands in Istanbul were unacceptable. They will likely remain unacceptable even if both sides take up Pope Leo XIVs offer to hold negotiations at the Vatican. None of the conditions for ceasefire that Russia will present to Ukraine will change.

Instead of chasing economic deals, Trump should have told Putin that the West is done playing Russian games  that effective immediately, the U.S. and NATO are implementing Sky Shield and resuming shipments of ammunition, weapons, and intelligence to Ukraine.

Now, European leaders must make that decision alone.

Putin is not interested in a ceasefire or peace deal; rather, as his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: Russia will accept nothing less than total victory over Ukraine.

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His presidential aide, Vladimir Medinsky, echoed that message in Istanbul, Russia is prepared to fight forever.

For Putin, peace is achieved only when Ukraine stops resisting. No ceasefire or peace deal will change that  look no further than Chechnya for proof.

The sooner Team Trump comes to that realization  the better.

As former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on CBS News Face the Nation, My own view, having dealt with him and having spent most of my life working on Russia and the Soviet Union, is Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire  And as my old mentor, Zbigniew Brzezinski once said, without Ukraine, there can be no Russian Empire.

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Trump is running out of excuses for Putin.

Ukraine can still defeat Russia, but Europe is in desperate need of a Winston Churchill right now. Images of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk seated around a table waiting on a Trump phone call, will not persuade Putin to abandon his efforts.

Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.

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A version of this essay originally appeared on Robert Pondiscios SubStack.

Earlier this month, I was flattered to be invited to a conference at Marquette University Law School, sparked by an article Id written making the case that education reform has misfired by prioritizing testing, measurement, accountability, and other structural reforms instead of trying to improve classroom practice.

A highlight of the convening was the final panel of the day, featuring four teachers and administrators who acknowledged that many of the challenges I citedpoor preparation, chronic problems with student behavior and classroom management, and the overwhelming demands placed on teacherswere real and concerning. But they pushed back politely on my assertion that we have made teaching too hard for mere mortals. I was particularly struck by remarks from Taylor Thompson, an earnest and winningly dedicated first-year fourth-grade teacher from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

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[Teaching is] not an impossible task. Its demanding. Its hard. Each day is not rainbows and singing and dancing, she said, but its not impossible if you are a collaborative person, work with your peers, and you have a community of coworkers and principals who dont allow you to silo into your own rooms and do your own thing. It can be a very, very empowering job.

Thompson brought with her materials from the Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum; having worked on CKLAs launch during my time at the Core Knowledge Foundation, I was heartened that it contributed to her success. That said, I couldnt help but wonder if her first-year experience would be differentif shed even have had the time and energy to come to Marquette at allhad she not been given CKLA but an empty plan book, and expected to spend 10, 20, or more hours a week scouring Google, Share My Lesson, or Teachers Pay Teachers for lesson plans and materials?

When it was my turn to respond, I told the audience that what theyd just heard didnt contradict my argument; it amplified it. I suggested to my hosts that what we really needed was one more panel: earnest, well-intended people who wanted to teach but grew overwhelmed and walked away from their classrooms. Their absence from the conversationnot a flaw of Marquettes thoughtful event but a field-wide oversightlimits our ability to address the issues driving nearly half of teachers to quit within five years. Those stories are legion.

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After leaving the classroom, I worked briefly at an outfit called Prep for Prep under Ed Boland, who later left the organization to teach in a New York City public high school armed with little more than idealism. His 2016 memoir, The Battle for Room 314, described the relentless student misbehavior, homophobic slurs, and physical fights he endured. He wasnt a minimally prepared Teach For America corps member or, like me, the product of an alt cert teacher prep program. He had two years of graduate school and six months of student teaching that he described as a mix of folk wisdom, psycho-jargon, wishful thinking, and out-and-out bullshit.

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After one freakishly difficult year, Boland returned to his old job. I had taken courses in lesson planning, evaluation, psychology, and research. Next to nothing was said about what a first-year teacher most needs to know: how to control a classroom, he wrote.

NPRs All Things Considered not long ago ran a story about Liz Stepansky, the daughter of two school teachers who wanted to follow in their footsteps, thinking teaching would be a path to a stable, meaningful life. But when she took a job teaching at a South Carolina middle school, she found that she had no idea what she was in for. Her middle school students dialed 911, threw balloons filled with bleach and ink in hallways and constantly pulled the fire alarm.



Id go home and sometimes Id spend an hour grading papers. And then Id go back the next day and do it all over again, she told NPR. I remember my paycheck being $800 and something every two weeks. She transferred to another school, faced similar frustrations and threw in the towel. Shes now a speech pathologist.

Its not hard to find stories of earnest, well-intended people who want to teach but find the job untenable. But I cant recall hearing from a single one at any of the education and policy conferences Ive attended over the last twenty years.

Inattention to abandoned careers and disappointed hopes allow false and misleading narratives to gain traction. Last summer, I was invited to give testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Senator Bernie Sanders was proposing a $60,000 minimum teacher salary to address teacher shortages. By all means, pay teachers more, I testified. But dont harbor any illusions that doing so will solve the problem.

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Higher pay doesnt fix shoddy preparation, unruly classrooms, or the ever-escalating burdens we pile on teachers plates as we treat schools as not just academic spaces but something akin to the social service agencies of last resort. We are asking teachers to do too many things to do any of them well at any salary, I said.

Teachings aspirational nature attracts optimists, but crushing demands betray them. A RAND study I cited in my Senate testimony found 99% of elementary teachers create their own materials, stealing time from honing their craft and working more closely with children and their parents. A 2024 Pew survey showed only 36% of teachers feel adequately resourced; a 2022 NEA poll revealed nearly half plan to quit due to poor school climate. These are systemic failures, not personal ones.

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Teaching is among our most optimistic and aspirational professions, drawing idealists who believe education can transform lives. But celebrating only the successesteachers who beat the odds, schools that defy demographicsdistorts our vision. As I quipped at Marquette, its like watching Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs and concluding, See? It can be done!

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And it canif youre Aaron Judge.

Other fields learn from failuremedicine from misdiagnoses, aviation from crashes. I urged Marquettes audience to imagine a panel of teachers who quitnot to shame them, but to learn. What broke their optimism? What tools were missing? Thompsons success shows whats possible with support. But for every Thompson, countless idealists leave because they were overmatched, felt unprepared or betrayed by poor training or simply couldnt manage chaos.

A few days later, Alan Borsuk, who organized and moderated the event at Marquette, told me about a conversation hed had with a school administrator who was in attendance who disagreed with the notion that teachers who leave are failures. She said one of the best teachers they have whose students have done well for year after year is leaving after this year, Alan said. That teacher, she insisted, was not a failure.

Exactly! That teacher didnt fail. We failed that teacher.

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Education reform must weigh frustration alongside triumph. We need convenings where former teachers speak without judgment: their failures and frustration studied, not stigmatized.

Theres no magic wand that will make the job easy or friction-free, but when you connect with students and go home feeling successful, theres no job that compares to being a classroom teacher. You feel on top of the world. Its immensely satisfying work.

The question ed reformers and policymakers need to ask now is what can we do to make more teachers feel successful and their jobs more doable.
SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA)  Spartanburg County Council passed an ordinance Monday night that imposes fines on breeders operating without a license.

County council member, Monier Abusaft, said that residents with the breeders license are permitted to own more than 25 animals. If one does not have the license, it is now a misdemeanor to own more than 25 dogs.

People in violation of the ordinance will be fined up to $250.

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Many thanks to all of you here, particularly who have been a voice for the voiceless, a woman said.

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While some animal advocates in the county were happy, others expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the ordinance.

[This] does nothing to stop puppy mills, because they would never get a license, a man said. There are other ways to do that. It just punishes hobby and preservation breeders who take care of their animals.

Additionally, dogs and cats cant be sold on the side of the road, at fairs or on public property. Anyone selling animals in a prohibited space could be fined up to $500.

The ordinance in its entirety can be found below.

Spartanburg_County_Council_Agenda_May-19-2025-with-backupDownload

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OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE)  The Oak Ridge National Laboratory was established in 1943.

We are a Department of Energy laboratory that is stewarded by a part of the Department of energy called the Office of Science,' Stephen Streiffer, director of ORNL, said. We do everything from fundamental materials research all the way through applied research of nuclear reactors.

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Streiffer believes something that makes this laboratory different is the support it receives from East Tennessee.

Between the work that we do here at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the cleanup work thats done by environmental management part of the department of energy and the national security mission at Y-12, Streiffer said, the Department of Energy spends about $10 billion a year here at this local area.

ORNL employs around 7,000 people. Streiffer tells 6 News that one in every five employees at ORNL has a degree from the University of Tennessee system.

Getting to those kids early, helping them understand what a career in science and technology is actually like and actually supporting the school system in this area is crucially important for us to build a workforce, Streiffer said.

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ORNL is known for its innovation, as it is a world leader in high performance computing.

The work that we do on computing has for several decades led the world in fielding the worlds largest, fastest computers and thats really enabled the revolution we see of artificial intelligence right now, and the lab of course is moving in that direction as well, Streiffer said.

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As school systems here in East Tennessee invest more in science programs, Streiffer believes there is a job for everyone from science to human resources, finance, and even business administration just to name a few.

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One of things I really love about the national lab complex is, given the work that we do, every staff member that we have here is really working towards the mission of the laboratory, Streiffer said.

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CAIRO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Egypt welcomed on Thursday what it described as a notable shift in the positions of major international actors regarding the crisis in the Gaza Strip, especially their full rejection of the ongoing Israeli violations and excessive use of military force against civilians.

In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry praised the positive positions taken by a number of countries participating in the EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, as well as the important steps by several countries in recognizing the State of Palestine.

"These steps reflect a global consensus and deserve support from the international community for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, who have long been deprived of them under decades of occupation," the statement said.

The position represents a nucleus for a broader international movement to "correct course" and end the ongoing Israeli violations against Gaza, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said, adding that respect for international law is essential for restoring the credibility of the global system.

Egypt reaffirmed its continued efforts to address the prolonged Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the occupation of Palestinian territories, and the denial of Palestinian rights, calling for the implementation of the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state, based on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, said the statement.

Israel ended a two-month ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza on March 18 and resumed deadly air and ground assaults.

The renewed Israeli attacks have killed 3,613 Palestinians and injured 10,156 others so far, bringing the total death toll in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to 53,762, with 122,197 wounded, Gaza's health authorities said Thursday.

Egypt, a key peace mediator and major provider of humanitarian aid to Gaza, has been working alongside Qatar to help restore a ceasefire in the enclave. 
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  A late Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting Wednesday afternoon saw board members pick up where they left off when it came to vocal pushback over approving their own minutes.

The minutes in question were tied to board meetings in January and February. Minutes in connection to a board meeting in April were approved.

During the April meeting, board member Ryan Deatherage raised concerns about the validity of the February minutes. The minutes showed Deatherage had made a motion to approve social studies standards that were passed. Deatherage was the only no vote, but the digital recording of the meeting has been deleted from the Oklahoma State Department of Educations social media account.

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Other board members also complained about a lack of context in the transcription of the meeting about who was saying what.

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Issues with the January meeting minutes, raised by new board members, centered around the fact that they were not present to verify that what the minutes said occurred was accurate. Both the January and February minutes were tabled until the May meeting, held on Wednesday.

Wednesdays meeting saw concerns about Januarys minutes revisited first, with new board members saying they still didnt feel comfortable approving them since they didnt attend the meeting. Legal counsel for the board said that they could file the minutes without approving them, but that urgency was needed to comply with open meetings laws.

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Board members ultimately voted to file them without approval.

The minutes surrounding the February meeting took up the majority of the conversation on that item, starting with board member Mike Tinney raising concerns about approving them since they could come up in court.

Until theres some resolution there, my motion is just to table those minutes, said Tinney.

Board member Chris Van Denhende declined to get into a thorough debate about the minutes due to the lawsuit.

I dont think, given the pending lawsuit, it would be appropriate to have those discussions, said Van Denhende.

The February minutes were also questioned again by Deatherage, saying that the minutes had not been corrected in the binder packets the board receives. The boards executive secretary said she did make the correction, but that it was not present in the packets the board had in front of them.

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We need to see the drafts in plenty of time so we dont have this issue again, said Van Denhende, who noted there was just too much confusion on the topic.

Tinney made a motion to table the February minutes again, with the intention of revisiting them when the updated correction is redistributed to the board with proper time and notice to review the change.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters was the only no vote on Tinneys motion.

Walters declined to take questions after the board meeting.

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SEMINOLE COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR)  An Oklahoma man accused of sexually assaulting children for decades is now in jail.

62-year-old Terry Blankinship is accused of sexually abusing children going back decades.

It was in 2023 when the Tecumseh Police Department requested help from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation on this case.

Even though weve only had this case for a couple of years as were continuing to try to seek those victims, said Hunter McKee with OSBI.

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Court documents reveal some of the victims were as young as three years old when they were first abused at Blakinships Tecumseh home.

We believe that there are several other people who were victimized by this 62-year-old man. This stems from the decades of the 1980s, 1990s and then, of course, most recently from 2007 to 2011, said McKee.

OBN agents rescue children, arrest human trafficking suspect

Court documents say the victims tried to report the abuse to the Department of Human Services years prior.

One victim reportedly told investigators that Blakinship threatened the victims and told them if they told anyone they would never see their family again.

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We located and arrested Mr. Blankinship in Seminole County, said McKee.

McKee said the bureau believes there are additional victims and the Pottawatomie County District Attorneys office is going to review possible additional charges.

This investigation does not stop and we need to do what we can to do everything in our power to help these victims, said McKee.

Any victims of Blakinship are asked to reach out to the OSBI tip line by calling 1-800-522-8017 or emailing tips@osbi.ok.gov.

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The state of Tennessee has executed Oscar Franklin Smith, sentenced to death for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife Judith Robirds Smith and her two teenage sons, Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett, in Nashville.

Smith, 75, was killed by a fatal dose of the drug pentobarbital injected into his veins at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. May 22.

In a lengthy final statement, Smith spoke out against the governor and the justice system.

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"Somebody needs to tell the governor the justice system doesn't work," he said in part, according to a media witness to the execution.

The victims' family thanked law enforcement, investigators and the judicial system at a news conference after Smith was executed.

"The pain of losing Judy, Chad and Jason is something that we will continue to carry," Terri Osborne, a sister of Robirds Smith, said. "These are memories and wounds that will never fully heal."

Smith's execution marks a return to capital punishment in Tennessee after the governor instituted a moratorium on the state's most severe penalty. It had been five years since a Tennessee prisoner died by execution and six years since the state killed someone by lethal injection.

Robirds family prays for support for domestic violence victims

After the execution, the family of the victims spoke about the danger of domestic violence.

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Through our heartbreak we are reminded of the devastating consequences of domestic violence, Osborne said. For those who may be living in fear or in the grip of abuse please know that you are not alone."

Osborne said she hopes the case is a call action to those in abusive or violent relationships to leave their abuser, while acknowledging "it is an incredibly hard thing to leave a spouse who is abusing.

"We also pray for more resources and support will be made available to those who need that helping hand," Osborne said.

Robirds Smith's brother Mike Robirds concluded their statement by saying, "No one should have to live in fear like our sister did, and no family should have to endure a loss like ours."

Smith sentenced to death for 1989 triple murder in Nashville

Smith was born in Ohio in 1950, one of seven children. His family later moved to Robertson County.

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He met Judith Lynn Robirds, a waitress at a Waffle House, and the couple married in 1985. They had two children together and separated in June 1989.

On Oct. 2, 1989, Robirds Smith, 35, and her sons from a previous marriage, 16-year-old Chad Burnett and 13-year-old Jason Burnett, were found dead in their home on Lutie Court in Nashville's Woodbine neighborhood. Smith, 39 years old and working as a machinist, was arrested a month later.

Prosecutors say he shot his estranged wife in the neck then stabbed her several times. He shot her eldest son in the left eye and then in the upper chest and left torso. His younger brother was stabbed in the neck and abdomen.

After Jason called 911 the night of Oct. 1, police came to the residence on Lutie Court but found nothing unusual outside and left. The victims' bodies were discovered 15 hours later by Judith Robirds Smith's 8-year-old nephew.

The caskets of Judith Robirds Smith and her two teenage sons, Chad and Jason, are at the gravesite for burial at the Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery Oct. 6, 1989.

Co-workers said Smith threatened to kill his wife on at least 12 occasions between June and August 1989. Smith told one he threatened to kill the boys because he said she treated them better than the twin children the couple shared. The twins were age 3 at the time of the triple murder.

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Smith also had two children from his first marriage.

Smith always said he was innocent and testified in his defense during his trial. Media witnesses to the execution reported that while the lethal chemicals were flowing into his arm, Smith twice said, "I didn't kill her."

In 2022, Smith raised the issue to a court that an unknown persons DNA was found on an awl, an icepick-like tool believed to be one of the murder weapons.

There was, however, plenty of evidence that linked him to the crime. That included the fact his car was seen at the victim's home the night of the crime and the fact Chad Burnett called out, "Frank, no! God help me," on the 911 call. Franklin is Smith's middle name.

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Judges found the DNA evidence was not strong enough to reopen his case.

Witnesses describe Smith's final moments

In his final moments, Smith's spiritual adviser was heard praying and singing the hymn "I'll Fly Away" before the curtain covering the window to the execution chamber was opened at 10:32 a.m. to the seven media witnesses, including one reporter from The Tennessean.

Smith had two IV lines in his right arm. When asked to give his final words, he spoke for 3 minutes, according to media witnesses.

As the pentobarbital flowed into him through the IV lines, he spoke with his spiritual adviser. By 10:38 a.m., he struggled to speak and then stopped speaking altogether, a media witness reported.

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Smith did not make any sudden jerks or movements as he was killed, the witnesses reported. His stomach was rising and falling slowly, and one media witness reported it looked like he fell asleep.

Smith's execution first to use new protocol

Gov. Bill Lee, who denied Smith's clemency request May 20, had stepped in at the 11th hour to stop Smith's lethal injection years before. With less than an hour before he was to die April 21, 2022, Lee granted Smith a temporary reprieve due to concerns over the preparation of the lethal injection drugs.

It was later revealed the Tennessee Department of Correction had failed to test the drugs in previous executions for endotoxins, a step in its own protocol. It finalized a new protocol in late 2024 that granted substantial discretion to prison officials and changed the lethal agent to pentobarbital.

Smith, ahead of this execution, declined to select whether to die by lethal injection or electrocution. Lethal injection is the default method.

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At the time of his death, Smith was involved in a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court with eight other men on death row over the supposed "torturous" effects of pentobarbital, the Tennessee Department of Corrections past failures to follow its own protocols, and secrecy over how the state procured the drugs it used to kill Smith. The Biden administration in January abandoned pentobarbital for use in its executions due to concerns of "unnecessary pain and suffering."

Smith's attorney Amy Harwell, speaking after the execution, explained Smith will not receive an autopsy because of religious beliefs. Smith said in court records he was a Christian.

"We will never know for sure whether he experienced the torture of pulmonary edema while Tennessee took his life," Harwell said. "We do know, however, from the dozens of autopsies that have been performed on those executed by pentobarbital, that this execution method causes excruciating pain and suffering. Our state should stop poisoning people to death in this cruel manner."

Harwell said she will remember him for his "cantankerous, curmudgeonly brand of kindness, as well as his skill with leather crafts."

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"He was a hard worker who took pride in his work both in the free world and on death row," she said.

Smith was the 19th person executed in the U.S. this year. A total of 36 were scheduled for 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Dozens protest death penalty outside prison

Around 40 protesters gathered in a grassy field outside the prison at 9:30 the morning of the execution. Protesters were barred from bringing in their phones, a policy prison officials had never before implemented, according to longtime death penalty activist Kevin Riggs. Some wore shirts that read: STOP EXECUTIONS NOW!

Others participated in an online vigil for the three victims and Smith in the hour before his execution.

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My heart is with these prisoners; I do not believe in state-mandated murder, said Franklin resident Pam Reed. It doesnt come necessarily from my religious beliefs; it comes from my heart.

Riggs, who serves as a spiritual advisor to some on death row, said he last spoke with Smith two weeks ago. He said Smith seemed at peace with what would happen.

Riggs, who has long protested capital punishment, said he hopes to see change eventually.

There is no justice in the death penalty, it doesnt make anyone safer, he said. The world is not going to be magically safer at 10:30 today (after Smith is executed).

Charlie Barton, who drove from Knoxville to protest outside the prison, said the death penalty goes against his beliefs as a Christian.

No one is beyond redemption, he said. Every life is precious.

David Bass came with a special, woven leather Bible cover that Smith hand made for him.

The cover has Bass name with a set of praying hands.

Bass said got to know Smith by attending weekly events at the prison.

Im here for Oscar and all the men in there for solidarity, he said.

Witness of crime supports execution

The media and some onlookers watch the Metro police work the scene on Lutie Court in Nashville Oct. 2, 1989, where a Woodbine waitress, Judith Robirds Smith, and her two teenage sons, Chad and Jason, were found shot and stabbed to death.

William Floyd Burgess, 72, was one of two people standing in support of the execution the morning of May 22. Burgess said he was on the scene the day of the murders after a neighbor asked him to check the home. It was awful, he said.

Burgess said he believes Smiths time on death row has been a waste of taxpayer money. I dont want to see nobody die, but if they done it, they got to, he said.

Smith spent last two weeks in isolation

Ahead of his execution, Smith was without legal recourse to pursue his claims of innocence again. His attorneys condemned his execution moving forward before a judge reviewed the current execution protocol and also felt concern over the unknown DNA.

If it's your life on the line, it is just not something somebody can take in  that the courts just don't care," Harwell said in an interview six days before his execution.

Under the new protocol, Smith spent the last two weeks of his life in an isolated unit of the prison, an extended period compared to earlier years. He was visited by his attorneys and spiritual adviser during that time.

Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.

(This story was updated to add a video.)

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Oscar Franklin Smith, 75, dies in first Tennessee execution since 2020
Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson can be provocative. He once wrote that slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races. Hes said that sodomy is worse than slavery; abortion, hes written, is as great an evil as slavery due to what he sees as its ability to spark a civil war. He told me last year that he regards the American state as the biggest blasphemer of them all.

But beneath the provocations is a vision of a remade  and Christianized  America: One in which the government aggressively promotes and enact the preferences of the evangelical right.

Now, months into the second Trump administration, Wilson sees a unique opportunity. Last year, as TPM first reported, he shared a stage with now-OMB Director Russ Vought. Wilson told TPM this week that he recently met with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth while delivering a sermon at Hegseths Tennessee church. A video of the sermon appears to show the two shaking hands and talking. Asked about the meeting, which has not previously been reported, a Pentagon spokesperson told TPM that Hegseth is an admirer of the pastor.

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Wilson believes that he has key allies atop and throughout the American government, and, like many before him, is trying to secure access and influence to advance his ideas. To do that, Wilson is seeking to expand his religious empire  already capacious  into the capital. Hes launching a new church in Washington this summer.

At the same time, the Trump administration has begun to take actions that appear to benefit Wilson and his movement. On Tuesday, the DOJ civil rights division sued an Idaho town for denying a land use permit to Wilsons church. Hegseth held a prayer service in the Pentagon on Wednesday where he praised President Trump as an instrument of God while standing alongside his own, Nashville-based pastor, who is himself a longtime member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), the movement that Wilson founded.

The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told TPM when asked about Wilsons claim that he had met Hegseth earlier this month. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilsons writings and teachings.

Friends in high places

Hobnobbing with powerful conservatives isnt necessarily anything new for Wilson. His September 2023 speech alongside Vought took place on Capitol Hill in the basement of the Senates Dirksen Office building. It was dedicated to making the Christian Case for Immigration Restriction, and was delivered as part of the Theology of American Statecraft series.

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Wilson spoke with TPM this week about his plans to plant a church in D.C., which were first reported by Mother Jones. The church, he said, would serve as a hub for his brand of evangelicalism: pastors from Wilsons Moscow, Idaho-based network would use fundraised money to fly in to D.C. and preach to the congregation. Other pastors from Wilsons network, CREC, will also fly in from across the country, Wilson said.

He envisions this as part of a strategy to spread his beliefs within the government. The Trump administration is full of evangelicals, he said, meaning that theyre what Wilson described as culturally engaged: using their position to advocate for policies that many conservative evangelicals support.

We think that cultural engagement needs a theological foundation, and were gonna be seeking to provide that, Wilson told TPM.

Wilson told TPM that he met with Hegseth earlier this month during a sermon he delivered at Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a church outside of Nashville, Tennessee that Hegseth attends.

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Pilgrim Hill is small, and new: it opened in 2021, and counts itself among Wilsons burgeoning CREC umbrella of churches. For Wilson, the D.C. church, CREC, and high-level connections to Hegseth and Vought are part of an expanding counter-cultural kingdom: theres a podcast platform, a college, a network of schools that offer classical education, and a publisher that recently printed a book that was much-debated within the online Christian right, The Case for Christian Nationalism. That book rails against the gynocracy, legal gay marriage, and the end of limits on immigration by national origin. It calls for a measured and theocratic caesarism.

By all accounts, Hegseth is an enthusiastic member of the community that Wilson has helped forge. He once said that he would be willing to pay for his kids to attend Wilsons college  New St. Andrews  but not Harvard. (The list of schools hed be happy for his children to attend also included Liberty University; Hegseth said that he kept a running list on his iPhone.)

Wilson told TPM that he had been visiting Pilgrim Hill for a conference that the church put on in early May. He portrayed the meeting with Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, as a happenstance.

I was invited to preach there, which I did, and it happened that the Hegseths were back in Nashville that Sunday, and they came to church, he told TPM. He said that they had a brief, amiable, happy conversation. Hegseth thanked him for his work, Wilson said.

Storming the beaches

Julie Ingersoll, a professor at the University of North Florida who has studied Wilson and the movement, told TPM that CREC requires its members to pass a theological grilling before joining. That means a check to make sure that lay members agree with CRECs stated beliefs, which include opposing female combat troops and believing that homosexuality is sinful. Senators grilled Hegseth during this confirmation hearing over his statements on a podcast last year, during which he clarified that he was straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.

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I dont think you can be a member of these churches and disagree on these positions, Ingersoll said.

Wilson denied to TPM that he would use the D.C. church for partisan ends, saying that he intended to found it to represent Christ, not Trump.

Still, Wilson sees the initiative as a huge opportunity. Hes visibly excited about it. He titled a blog post announcing it a mission to Babylon, and proposed a few biblical metaphors for the D.C. church project. One was rebuilding the walls of a ruined Jerusalem; another was rebuilding the walls of Christendom. Another was somewhat more aggressive: perhaps the task is more like an effort to bring Babylon into the New Jerusalem.

During the sermon he gave at Pilgrim Hill, Hegseths church, Wilson toyed with another metaphor. This time, it was far more martial, and had to do with Joshua leading the chosen people to conquer Canaan.

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There, he asked the audience to consider a phrase they might see on posters sold at Christian bookstores: I will never leave thee or forsake thee.

The phrase, Wilson mused, is typically emblazoned next to a picture of a basket of kittens. But he cautioned the crowd that the implications dont concern cats so much as they do spiritual warfare: the phrase comes from the portion of the Hebrew bible that deals with the invasion of Canaan.

What that poster ought to be is a panoramic view of Normandy beach, with amphibious craft about ready to hit the beach, He said. I will never leave you or forsake you. Thats the context. You are going into conflict.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM)  Over 280 firearms were collected last weekend during the Gun Buy Back event hosted by the El Paso County Sheriffs Office, in partnership with the Office of County Commissioner Jackie Butler and the County Attorneys Office.

This event provided residents with a safe and anonymous opportunity to turn unwanted or unused firearms, helping to reduce the number of guns in circulation and enhance community safety, EPCSO said.

EPCSO said that 276 working firearms and eight non-operational firearms were collected.

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This event showed the power of community partnership, Sheriff Oscar Ugarte said. Every firearm turned in is one less risk in our homes and on our streets. I want to thank Commissioner Jackie Butler, County Attorney Christina Sanchez, SISD Police, and the dedicated administrative staff at the SAC for their critical support in making this event safe, organized, and effective.

With more than 270 firearms turned in, our third Gun Buy Back event successfully contributed to our efforts to reduce gun violence and protect our kids and families, County Commissioner Jackie Butler, Precinct 1, said. It is through community participation like this that we make meaningful progress in ensuring the safety of every resident. Im grateful to everyone who took part and to our partners for their support in making this event possible.

This weekends gun buyback event was a clear demonstration of our communitys commitment to safety, County Attorney Christina Sanchez said. Each firearm turned in represents a proactive step toward preventing harm and protecting lives. We are proud to have provided residents with a safe and anonymous way to make their homes and neighborhoods safer.

EPCSO said this initiative marks a continued commitment from El Paso County officials to provide innovative, community-based solutions to address gun violence.

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The owner of a Fort Worth burger restaurant is recovering after he was assaulted inside his business, according to a statement from his family.

Carlos Rodriguez was attacked at the Fuego Burger restaurant, at 4400 Benbrook Highway in west Fort Worth, on May 13, according to a police report.

Rodriguez will be away from the restaurant for two to three months until his doctors give him the all-clear to return to work, his family said in a statement shared on social media.

Carlos Rodriguez adds some spices to grilling burgers at Fuego Burger at the restaurants former Rendon location in this archive photo.

Rodriguez wife, Christie, and their son will keep the restaurant running in his absence, they said.

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While we may not be operating at our usual pace, please know every meal is still prepared with love and dedication, the familys statement says.

Nehemiah Green, 24, of DeSoto, has been arrested and faces a charge of assault causing bodily injury in the case, according to the police report.

Fuego Burger was a finalist in a past Star-Telegram Burger Battle contest for its signature sandwich, a green chile cheeseburger with crispy cheddar jack cheese.

Fort Worth police did not immediately provide more details about the incident Wednesday afternoon.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  The owner of a pet supply store in Lincoln City was convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old volunteer multiple times in 2023, the Lincoln County District Attorneys Office announced Wednesday.

Daniel Stuebgen, 54, owner of Happy Trails Feed & Tack, was found guilty of several charges earlier this month, including three counts of second-degree rape, two counts of second-degree sodomy, four counts of first-degree sex abuse.

After a five-day trial, the jury determined that there were five separate instances of abuse of a preteen who volunteered at Happy Trails Feed & Tack.

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The Lincoln County District Attorneys Office would like to thank the Lincoln City Police Department and the Childrens Advocacy Center for their excellent work and perseverance in helping this child receive justice, said DA Jenna Wallace.

Stuebgen is scheduled to be sentenced on June 3.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the "Pam Rock Act" on May 21, 2025. (Photo via Rep. Judson Sapp's X account)

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law Wednesday bringing harsher penalties and restrictions for owners of dogs that severely injure or kill people.

The bill, known as the Pam Rock Act, honors a mail carrier who was mauled to death by five dogs in Putnam County in 2022. Starting July 1, owners of dogs that have attacked humans, severely injured or killed pets, or menacingly chased people will have to carry liability insurance of at least $100,000.

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This legislation is not just a policy change; its a proclamation to every Floridian that their safety matters, Green Cove Springs Republican Rep. Judson Sapp, who introduced HB 593, said in a press release. Pamelas tragic death was a preventable loss, and with this act, we aim to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.

Additionally, owners of such dogs must present current certificates of rabies vaccinations, have an enclosure with warning signs, microchip, and spay or neuter the dog.

Animal control gains authority to confiscate dogs pending investigations of incidents and humanely euthanize dogs deemed dangerous that are surrendered.

Owners who dont comply could face fines of up to $1,000 per violation.

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If a dog that has already been classified as dangerous severely injures or kills a person, the owner commits a felony of the second degree. However, for dogs that havent been officially deemed dangerous, owners would still face first-degree misdemeanors if they showed disregard for their dogs behavior.

Rocks family and the family of Michael Millett, an eight-year-old boy from Volusia County who was killed by a dog in January, attended the bill signing ceremony, according to the press release from Sapps office.

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PRAGUE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic will end checks on transporters at the border with Slovakia from midnight on Thursday, the country's Ministry of Agriculture has announced.

The checks were introduced about two months ago due to concerns over foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

"Vehicles over 3.5 tons driving from Slovakia will be able to use any border crossing to enter the Czech Republic again without the need for disinfection. Random road checks on the Czech territory will continue to be carried out," the ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, testing of milk and monitoring of wild animals in border areas will continue. Preventive measures on livestock farms also remain in place, the ministry said.

There is currently no indication that the FMD situation is worsening, the ministry added, with the latest outbreaks confirmed on April 17 in Hungary and on April 4 in Slovakia.

In response, the Czech Republic has gradually relaxed its emergency veterinary measures. Last week, it lifted a ban on imports of susceptible animals from Hungary and Slovakia.

FMD primarily affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. Symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, excessive salivation, and blisters on the mouth and feet.

FMD outbreaks first appeared in Germany this year, then in Hungary and Slovakia. The disease was last detected in the Czech Republic in 1975. 
Oxford High School. | Photo by Anna Gustafson

A federal judge has dismissed a group of lawsuits filed on behalf of victims in the 2021 attack at Oxford High School following a ruling that determined employees were not negligent in Michigans deadliest campus shooting.

The decision was expected after a ruling in March by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel which determined that there was insufficient evidence that two school employees of Oxford Public Schools acted in such a way as to increase the immediate risk of danger leading up to the 15-year-old student opening fire on his classmates.

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U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith dismissed the lawsuits Tuesday with prejudice, meaning they cant be refiled.

The lawsuits asserted that Shawn Hopkins, then a counselor at the school, and Nicholas Ejak, dean of students at the time, acted recklessly in the hours leading up to the shooting, showing indifference towards the impending danger that worsened the risk of tragedy.

But the judicial panel ruled that Hopkins and Ejak displayed the opposite of callous indifference towards concerning behaviors by the shooter and concluded their actions were geared towards mitigating risk.

The shooter, who killed four fellow students  Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Justin Shilling, 17, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17  was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December of 2023.

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The parents of the shooter were sentenced to 10-15 years in prison in April 2024 on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for their role in the killings.

James Crumbley (left) and Jennifer Crumbley (right) sit for sentencing in Oakland County on April 9, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

The lawsuits stated that on the morning of the shooting, Ejak and Hopkins had been alerted that the shooter had drawn pictures of guns and bloody bodies, and had written concerning messages on a math worksheet.

The teen was promptly removed from class and Hopkins called his parents in for a meeting, where they declined to take him home for the day and Hopkins informed them that if they didnt get their son into counseling within 48 hours, he would call Child Protective Services.

The judicial panel said that while the lawsuits contended the school was placed at greater risk because the warning had been made in front of the shooter, the actions instead showcase a concerted effort to mitigate risk by getting Child Protective Services involved.

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One related lawsuit Another lawsuit that remains active was filed by Molly Darnell, an Oxford teacher who stood face-to-face with the shooter and survived. Darnell, who filed her lawsuit nearly two years after the original set which were dismissed, also alleges school officials saw clear and repeated warning signs that the shooter posed a threat to the school community and repeatedly disregarded the violence that was to come.

Molly Darnell, the Oxford High school teacher who was shot in the November 30 2021 shooting at the school speaks at a news conference announcing a commissions gun violence prevention findings on June 11, 2024. (Photo: Anna Liz Nichols)

When asked for comment, Oxford Community Schools Executive Director of Communications Christine Smith sent Michigan Advance the following statement:

We are aware of the federal courts decision and understand that it may bring a range of emotions for our community. As always, our focus is on our students, staff, families, and the Oxford community as we are dedicated to fostering a safe, compassionate, and supportive environment for all. We remain deeply committed to supporting all who were impacted by this tragedy and want to remind our community that mental health resources and support are available for anyone who needs them at oxfordschools.org/support, Smith said.

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A convicted paedophile has pleaded guilty to flying a drone over a primary school.

Jeremy Bird, 47, has been accused of using the lightweight aircraft to watch the young children.

A court heard that on one occasion, Bird caused one pupil to run and cry as he used the device to follow them.

Bird accepted a charge of recklessly or negligently causing or permitting an aircraft to endanger a person or property at Salisbury magistrates court.

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But, he said that he didnt have any control over it and is only pleading guilty because he did not have the appropriate qualification to fly the aircraft.

Bird flew the drone over the Pembroke Park Primary School and Nursery in Salisbury - Google

Elizabeth Valera, for the Crown Prosecution Service, told magistrates the charge related to the use of a drone over Pembroke Park Primary School in Salisbury.

She said: The Crown say hes flying them over primary school children to watch the children. He accepts hes flying them [but said in interviews] that he didnt have control over it.

Theres one video where a child is actually followed, and theyre running and crying while he follows them with a drone.

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Ms Valera told the panel that he had previously tried to engage primary school children in conversations outside of the school.

Paul Jones, defending, said: The charge is recklessly flying that drone  that does not relate to the question of taking images of children.

He accepts recklessly flying the equipment because he does not have the appropriate qualification to do so.

Previous relevant convictions

At a hearing in Winchester Crown Court, Bird also pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs. These included category A images, which are the most serious kind.

Kellie Enever, prosecuting, reminded the judge that Bird does have previous relevant convictions, albeit back in 2011.

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A previous hearing last month was told Bird was known to have a persistent manner of trying to engage children in conversations outside schools and taking pictures of them.

Bird will be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on July 18.

He was granted bail until then on the condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 18 and that he does not enter any school grounds.

Bird was handed a community order in 2011 after he was caught with indecent images.

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Islamabad, Pakistan  As Pakistan sought to defend itself against Indian missiles and drones launched at its military bases and cities in early May, it relied on an unlikely combination of assets: Chinese missiles and air defence; Chinese and United States fighter jets; and US diplomacy.

The missiles, air defence and jets helped Pakistan thwart any devastating hits on its airbases and claim it had brought down multiple Indian fighter planes  an assertion that India has neither confirmed nor denied.

The diplomacy sealed a ceasefire that Pakistan has publicly welcomed and thanked the Donald Trump administration for.

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Yet, as the US has in recent years increasingly picked India over Pakistan as its principal South Asian partner, Pakistan this week worked to reassure China that Beijing remained its most coveted ally.

Pakistans Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who also serves as foreign minister, visited Beijing earlier this week, meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on May 20 in the first high-profile overseas visit by a Pakistani leader since the ceasefire.

According to a statement from the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides discussed the fallout of the brief but intense conflict with India, the ceasefire, and Islamabads criticism of New Delhis actions.

During the meeting with Wang, Dar highlighted Indias unilateral and illegal decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), a six-decade water-sharing agreement. India halted the accord following the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 26 people dead. Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan-based armed groups, an allegation Islamabad denies.

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Wang, meanwhile, welcomed the ceasefire, describing it as serving the fundamental and long-term interests of both sides [India and Pakistan] while promoting regional peace.

Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, held in-depth consultations with the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, today in Beijing. Both sides exchanged views on evolving situation in South Asia, future trajectory of Pakistan-China pic.twitter.com/mL03ljzyFr  Ministry of Foreign Affairs  Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) May 20, 2025

Getting Wang on board was critical for Pakistan, say analysts.

Power struggle in South Asia

With South Asia sitting on a tinderbox during the recent Pakistan-India standoff, a larger geopolitical contest loomed in the background.

Pakistan, once a key US ally, has shifted decisively into Chinas orbit, relying on its northwestern neighbour heavily for economic and military support.

Meanwhile, India, long known for its non-alignment policy, has leaned closer to the US in recent years as part of a strategy to counter Chinas rising influence.

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Shahid Ali, an assistant professor of international relations at Lahore College for Women University, who specialises in Pakistan-China relations, said the timing and optics of Dars visit were significant.

While Pakistan hoped to get Chinas full diplomatic support for its conflict with India, especially regarding the suspension of the IWT, the visit also provided Dar a good opportunity to apprise China about US-led ceasefire dynamics, also reassuring them of Pakistans longstanding all-weather strategic partnership, Ali told Al Jazeera.

Erum Ashraf, a UK-based scholar focused on Pakistan-China ties and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)  a $62bn mega project launched a decade ago  echoed this view.

She said the meeting allowed China to better understand what promises Pakistan may have made to the US and President Trump, who helped mediate the ceasefire.

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The Chinese must be concerned how Pakistan managed to gain President Trumps support to talk of ceasefire and to even offer to resolve the matter of Kashmir between both countries. The Chinese worry how US influence in their back yard could impact their interest in the region, she told Al Jazeera.

CPEC remains a cornerstone

Pakistans former ambassador to China, Masood Khalid, called Beijing a logical first stop for Islamabads efforts to use diplomacy to push its narrative about the crisis with India in the aftermath of the ceasefire.

He noted that beyond the recent India-Pakistan military confrontation, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor remained a key pillar of bilateral cooperation.

The foreign minister may apprise the Chinese side of the security steps which Pakistan has taken for Chinese nationals protection, Khalid told Al Jazeera.

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Indeed, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang prodded both countries to work together to create an upgraded version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

CPEC, launched in 2015 under then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the elder brother of current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has been hailed as a game-changer for Pakistan.

It is a key component of Chinas ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a huge network of roads, bridges and ports spread across nearly 100 countries that Beijing hopes will recreate the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking Europe and Asia.

However, CPEC has faced repeated delays, especially in Balochistan, where its crown jewel, the Gwadar Port, is located.

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Separatist groups in Balochistan, Pakistans largest but poorest province, have long waged an armed rebellion against the state and have repeatedly hit Chinese personnel and installations, accusing them of benefitting from the provinces vast natural resources.

According to Pakistani government figures, nearly 20,000 Chinese nationals live in the country. At least 20 have been killed since 2021 in various attacks in different parts of Pakistan.

While Pakistans Foreign Ministry did not mention it explicitly, the Chinese statement quoted Dar as saying his country would make every effort to ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan.

Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said the safety of Chinese nationals remains Beijings topmost concern.

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Even as the crisis with India heightened, the presence of a large number of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, in some ways, compelled Beijing to seek swift crisis de-escalation, he told Al Jazeera.

Chinas high-wire act

Between April 22, when the Pahalgam attack occurred, and May 7, when India struck targets inside Pakistani territory, a global diplomatic effort was quietly under way to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations.

During this period, the US initially showed little interest in direct involvement while China, initially, also was slow to get involved.

China, which has a historically tense relationship with Delhi that suffered further after their troops clashed in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh in 2020, eventually urged restraint from both sides.

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However, many observers felt Chinas position was seen as lacking neutrality due to its closeness with Pakistan.

Faisal said China is likely to maintain its current high-wire act, acknowledging Pakistans security concerns while continuing to call for calm on both sides.

He added that while the US was the lead mediator for the ceasefire, Beijing double-tapped Washington by calling both Islamabad and New Delhi to dial down tensions.

A lesson Beijing learned is that its current restrained public posturing opened up diplomatic space to engage with interlocutors in both Islamabad and New Delhi, despite the fact that the latter views its role with scepticism, he said.

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Ashraf, the UK-based academic, said India did not view China as a neutral umpire in its disputes with Pakistan  even though New Delhi and Beijing have in recent months tried to reset their ties, pulling troops back from contested border points and ramping up diplomatic efforts to calm tensions.

India and China have only recently achieved a breakthrough in their strained border relations, which perhaps helps to explain Chinas initial hands off behaviour with Pakistan after Pahalgam, she said.

But ultimately, she said, China needs to balance a tightrope: It doesnt want to upset relations with India, but it also needs to help Pakistan enough that it doesnt collapse in the face of Indias attacks.

Thats a balance China managed to strike successfully in early May. With Dars visit to Beijing, say analysts, Pakistan  which also benefitted from US diplomatic intervention  tried to repay the favour.
At least 29 children and elderly people have died from starvation-related deaths in the Gaza Strip in recent days, the Palestinian health minister says, warning that thousands more are at risk as limited aid begins trickling into the bombarded enclave.

Majed Abu Ramadan told reporters on Thursday that earlier comments by the United Nations aid chief to the BBC that 14,000 babies could die without desperately needed food aid were very realistic, but could be an underestimation.

Israel has allowed limited deliveries of humanitarian assistance into Gaza amid a wave of international condemnation of its 11-week total blockade on the territory, which spurred warnings of mass famine.

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But UN officials have said the aid entering Gaza is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of the population in the war-torn enclave.

About 90 truckloads of aid entered Gaza on Thursday, but Abu Ramadan said most of what was allowed in was limited to flour for bakeries.

The UNs World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday afternoon that a handful of bakeries in Gaza are baking bread again after receiving limited supplies overnight.

This is a critical first step  but assistance must be scaled up. More essential food is needed to push back the risk of famine. Bread alone is not enough for people to survive, the agency said in a post on X.





The president of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Younis al-Khatib, had earlier said many Palestinians had yet to receive any supplies so far. No civilian has received anything yet, al-Khatib told reporters.

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He said most of the aid trucks are still at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis, in southern Gaza.

As limited deliveries enter the Strip, the Israeli military has continued to launch attacks across the enclave, with medical sources telling Al Jazeera that at least 51 Palestinians have been killed since dawn on Thursday.

At least 53,655 Palestinians have been killed and more than 121,000 others injured since Israels war on Gaza began in October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee also announced new forced evacuation orders for Palestinians in Jabalia and Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. He said in a post on X that the army will significantly expand its military activity in the area.

Drop in the ocean

Reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, Al Jazeeras Tareq Abu Azzoum said that while Palestinians have welcomed the influx of aid, it is a drop in the ocean compared with the populations needs.

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Five hundred aid trucks are needed on a daily basis in order to avert the current food crisis in the territory, Abu Azzoum explained.

Still, Gaza resident Ahmed Abed al-Daym said the aid trucks were a positive sign amid dire conditions.

Our homes are empty  there is no bread, and our children are going hungry, he told Al Jazeera.

In many households, bread has completely disappeared. What people urgently need is a steady and sufficient flow of flour and other essentials. Unfortunately, the limited aid that has entered so far falls far short of meeting our needs.





Another resident, Reem Zidiah, said that due to the mass starvation that Gaza is enduring, no one is safe in the besieged enclave.

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All of us here in Gaza, we dont think about tomorrow because we dont know what will happen tomorrow  whether were going to live or die, Zidiah told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Action Against Hunger teams on the ground in southern Gaza warned that there was less than a seven-days supply of food to prevent acute malnutrition in children.

Natalia Anguera, the humanitarian groups head of Middle East operations, said flour has come in and some bakeries in the south have resumed operations.

However, she stressed that specific nutritional supplies reserves for children under five are about to run out.
At least 50 people have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Wednesday night, the Hamas-controlled civil defence agency reported.

The Israeli military issued a directive to residents in the north of the region to leave their homes, as its troops were operating with massive force in Beit Lahia, the Jabaliya refugee camp and other residential areas between the region's northern border and Gaza City.

It said that terrorist organizations in the areas were developing "terrorist activities" in these areas. The message was broadcast in Arabic in text messages to mobile phones and via X.

The Israeli military had issued similar messages to residents of neighbouring areas on Wednesday.
A picture of George Floyd sits in front of the Hennepin Courthouse on March 8 in downtown Minneapolis where former police officer Derek Chauvin is standing trial. Photo by Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer.

It was just a matter of time before the prospect of President Donald Trump pardoning Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin for violating George Floyds civil rights became a reality.

When White House reporters asked him in March about pardoning Chauvin, President Trump replied, No, I have not heard about that.

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Thats hard to believe, since right around that time Ben Shapiro led a conservative chorus of commentators and politicians raising a hue and cry on that very thing, egged on by Trump henchman Elon Musk.

As investigative reporter Radley Balko pointed out for MSNBC, Shapiro once said Chauvin should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and should go to jail and that everyone should be on the same side of this.

But that was then.

Despite a trial in which nearly all the defenses theories were heard and rejected by a jury of Chauvins peers, and despite Chauvin pleading guilty to his federal crimes, Shapiro and his ilk have changed their tune.

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Chauvins conviction, Shapiro writes, represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics. The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.

Terrible wrong? We all saw Chauvin impassively kneeling on Floyds neck while Floyd pleaded, I cant breathe.

Now we can be sure Trump has heard about it, and were all waiting, bracing for some middle-of-the-night bathroom tweet. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now in on it: I strongly support Derek Chauvin being pardoned and released from prison, George Floyd died of a drug overdose.

Yes, Floyd was on drugs. But lets recall the words of Dr. Martin Tobin at trial. He is one of the worlds foremost pulmonologists, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject and testified in a criminal trial for the first time, refusing his usual expert witness fee. Then-Reformer reporter Deena covered his testimony:

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Basically on the left side of his lung, it was almost to the effect as if a surgeon had gone in and removed the lung  not quite, but along those lines  so there was virtually very little opportunity for him to be able to get any air to move into the left side of his chest, Tobin said.

So he was going to be totally dependent on what hed be able to do with the right side.

But Floyds ability to expand his chest was also impaired on the right side, Tobin said. Floyds respiration rate had been 22 breaths per minute, a normal rate, which Tobin said was extremely significant because if fentanyl caused his respiration to go down, youd expect it to drop to about 10.

Tobin said he could mark the moment the life went out of Floyd: 8:25:16 p.m. The officers continued to hold him down on the street for another three minutes.

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In short, what killed Floyd was Chauvins disregard for human life.

Chauvins lawyers argued their client was denied a fair trial in 2021 due to pretrial publicity and concerns about violence in the event of an acquittal. True, there was plenty publicity. And there were quite reasonable concerns about violence ensuing if Chauvin walked.

None of that altered the medical examiners findings. He testified during the trial that his cause of death finding hadnt changed since he filled out Floyds death certificate in June 2020: He blamed cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual restraint and neck compression.

I would still classify it as a homicide today, he testified.

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Not that the facts faze Greene or the rest of the MAGA mob presently riding to Chauvins rescue in the media.

You can bet they have Trumps ear.

But think of the irony: Just about the first thing he did after taking his hand off the Bible on Inauguration Day was grant clemency to rioters for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, handing a literal get-out-jail-free card to upwards of 1,500 charged, including 15 ring leaders and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. This despite that roughly 140 police officers were injured during the attack, more than a dozen hospitalized.

Trump held forth: This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.

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Falling from the south end of a northbound bull, what the proclamation did was sign off on wanton, wholesale criminal activity. You want to know from injustice perpetrated? Ask the families, relatives and friends of those cops who were cut down doing their duty to uphold the law. For that matter, ask the injured cops about all those law breakers being let off the hook.

And in Trumps make-believe world, the fact that Chauvin pled guilty in the federal case wont matter.

A reminder: By pleading guilty, Chauvin agreed in open court that he willfully depriv(ed) Mr. Floyd of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in Mr. Floyds bodily injury and death  and acted willfully and in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to Mr. Floyds life, as the Department of Justice press release said at the time. And, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to willfully depriving a then-14-year-old child of his constitutional right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, resulting in the childs bodily injury related to a separate 2017 incident.

Federal conviction overturned, Chauvin would thankfully still be incarcerated, transferred to the Minnesota Department of Corrections to serve out the remainder of his sentence on state charges.

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But lets not forget the Minnesota Board of Pardons, which no longer requires a unanimous vote among the three members: the governor, attorney general and chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

If Republicans get their act together, they could conceivably win the governor and attorney general races. And then they would face intense pressure to commute Chauvins sentence.

Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette and other political and law enforcement figures are said to be bracing for the Trump pardon. This is, to say the least, prudent.

In response to Floyds murder, May 2020 saw days of protest  but also hell-raising  that damaged more than 1,300 buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in property destruction. Plus, payouts to victims of police brutality. And a pile of police disability claims.

A pardon would mean all the bracing in the world wont keep all hell from breaking loose all over again.
May 21A pre-K graduation in Odessa on Wednesday ended with one parent in handcuffs.

On Wednesday morning during a Bilingual prekindergarten end-of-year program at Murry Fly Elementary, one parent sat on the steps of the cafeteria where the children were to perform instead of the chairs set up for the audience.

When asked to move, the parent began to cuss at the principal and refused to move. When asked to leave by the principal and a campus officer the parent refused, a statement from Ector County ISD detailed.

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The principal relented and allowed the parent to remain for the program. At the conclusion of the program the parent became combative again, was asked to leave but refused. The parent charged at the school principal but was stopped by a police officer, a news release from the district stated.

The parent then hit the police officer and, after being taken into custody, kicked an officer. The parent was arrested for multiple charges: Criminal Trespass a Class B Misdemeanor, Resisting Arrest a Class A Misdemeanor, and Assault of a Peace Officer a State Jail Felony.

The news release stated: "This incident is regrettable; however, safety and order are priorities when large crowds of visitors come to our schools for these kinds of events. Foul language and physically striking others will not be tolerated."
DENVER (KDVR)  Theres growing concern about children interacting with social chatbots powered by artificial intelligence.

Attorney General Phil Weiser issued a consumer alert warning parents of the dangers of social AI chatbots. It comes in response to the growing number of reports of childrens interactions leading to risky behavior, including online companionship and self-harm.

Fictional fiction: A newspapers summer book list recommends nonexistent books. Blame AI

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AI is everywhere in music, in video and film, said Jackson Willhoit, a graduate of East High School. We have ChatGPT and things we can look up and use them off of a browser.

Willhoit is no stranger to AI-powered chatbots.

It really gives this illusion. Its almost like youre talking to a person and you know I think when you spend enough time with that, you can kind of get lost in that kind of illusion, he said.

Its that illusion that prompted Weiser to issue the warning to parents.

Everyone is susceptible to this, especially when we become complacent, when we doom scroll when we go on and on and on social media. It becomes a lot harder to be aware of these things, said Jackson House, a graduate of East High School.

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Nikhil Krishnaswamy is a technical expert who works as an assistant professor of computer science at Colorado State University. He explained what AI-powered chatbots are.

Industry leaders urge Senate to protect against AI deepfakes with No Fakes Act

Really, they are machines that are capable of having extended conversations with you, said Krishnaswamy. So, even though they are not actually thinking, theres no person behind the machine typing responses to you. The way that they behave creates the impression they actually have thoughts that can reason. That maybe even they have feelings, and so people will tend to develop attachments to these.

Thats what experts are concerned about when it comes to children and teens.

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When we have particularly minors interacting with these machines  you know, you dont know what the machine is going to say, said Krishnaswamy. You also dont know how a minor is going to react to that.

Experts warn AI chatbots can generate disturbing content, including violence, explicit sexuality, self-harm and eating disorders.

Parents need to be understanding this is how the machine works and need to be able to talk to their children about that, said Krishnaswamy. They also need to be aware of the general content they may be exposed to when interacting with these AI systems.

President Trump signs Take It Down Act, addressing nonconsensual deepfakes. What is it?

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The Attorney Generals Office is offering the following tips to parents to help them familiarize themselves with social AI chatbots.

Social AI chatbot interactions can turn age-inappropriate even with innocuous prompts. Disturbing content may include violence, explicit sexuality, self-harm, and eating disorders.

Engaging with social AI chatbots can be addictive. The chatbots often mimic human emotions and can be manipulative.

Social AI chatbots can generate inaccurate and biased information, which should be examined carefully and critically.

Information shared with social AI chatbots may be shared with the platforms developers to train the AI, raising privacy concerns.

Parents should talk to their kids about their online experiences, including which online platforms they use and why. Monitor their usage and adhere to age restrictions. Use available parental controls, including internet filters. Be active in their online activities and supervise their tech use.

Teach children that social AI chatbots are not human; they are only designed to seem human. Learn about the benefits and risks. Dont wait to talk to your kids about safe and responsible use of social AI chatbots and other AI tools

If you believe social AI chatbot companies are violating the law should file a complaint with the Colorado Attorney Generals Office.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver.
PLATTSBURGH  Nurses at the University of Vermont Health Network  Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital are demanding safer staffing levels.

At a speak out in front of the hospital Tuesday, several members of the New York State Nurses Association and healthcare professionals at CVPH said in April, management unilaterally lowered safe staffing standards in four medical-surgical units, placing patient care at risk.

NYSNA members demanded that CVPH listen to its frontline staff and invest in hiring and retaining more nurses for safe staffing instead of trying to lower standards to avoid accountability.

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Us nurses are doing the work of many positions, Jordan Sunderland, a nurse at CVPH since 2017, said.

We are attending to every need the best we can, but it is discouraging, and the burnout is affecting us all. We have raised our concerns many times, and now we are faced with an answer that is an increase of patient ratios to nurses.

Samantha Kalman, a nurse in CVPHs emergency room, said the hospitals new patient to staff ratio is 5-1 and sometimes even 6-1. She said it had been 4-1 up until a month ago.

NYSNA said when the hospital lowered safe staffing standards, they did so in violation of the state staffing law and NYSNA members contract, and without consulting frontline staff.

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Kalman said management needs to listen to the nurses because they know whats best for patient care.

Far too often, patients and families remain in our ER for sometimes hours or days. We speak up and advocate as much as our role allows, but too often, I leave the hospital feeling like I didnt have enough time to do everything I needed, or give patients the time they deserve, she said.

We bring our concerns to management and we arent heard. Changes to staffing are being made unilaterally, without thinking about whats best for patient care. We are doing the work to make this place better for our patients, but it is hard when nothing changes and management leaves us unsupported.

We need management to take patient care seriously and hire more nurses instead of trying to cut corners wherever possible.

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Kalman said if they get an increase in staff, there would be less wait times, better patient care and more time with a healthcare provider.

Youre not feeling like rushing in and out. You feel like youre valued and you matter. I feel like we are giving that (now), but we can be better, for sure.

They may not think that that one extra patient takes a lot from us, but it does, Vicki Davis-Courson, a 20-year nurse at CVPH, added.

That is more to assess, and its more doctors calls, and its more trying to get what we need for our patients. Short staffing us is not the answer. Accountability is on their part to staff the hospital, and thats why they change the ratios, because they dont want to take accountability.

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CVPH joined the University of Vermont Health Network in 2017 and currently serves patients in northern New York state, Vermont, and into Canada.

It is one of only seven hospitals in the North Country providing maternity care.

Davis-Courson said being a part of the network has caused many of the problems they are facing now.

UVM seems to not understand that we are a different state. We are New York State. We have different regulations than them, she said.

So when they dictate to us what we can and cannot do, it may not necessarily be the best.

In a statement Tuesday, Michelle LeBeau, president of the University of Vermont Health Network  Alice Hyde Medical Center (AHMC) and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) addressed the speak out and concerns of the nurses.

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As a rural community hospital, we are always evolving  adjusting to the constantly changing demands of our industry and the needs of our community, LeBeau said.

We respect the right of our teams represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) to share their views as we focus on delivering the care our community deserves. We look forward to working together to provide the care that continues to meet our communitys needs  now and in the future.

NYSNA said negotiations to improve the situation are ongoing and the union plans to meet with hospital officials next Wednesday.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)  A patient neglect charge was dismissed last week following a womans no-contest plea to a reduced charge.

Robin Urichko was found guilty of obstructing official business last Tuesday before the case was set to go to trial this week in Youngstown Municipal Court. Court records state that Urichko had to pay a fine in the case.

Charges against Urichko had been filed in September 2023 through the Ohio Attorney Generals Office.

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According to an affidavit filed in Youngstown Municipal Court, the investigation started after a complaint from the Youngstown Police Department on Oct. 15, 2021, involving a nursing facility on Canfield Road.

The affidavit says Urichko, who worked as a registered nurse at the facility, failed to treat or document a residents lice infestation after being informed about it on multiple occasions.

Gerry Ricciutti contributed to this report.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
This photo taken on May 13, 2025 shows a product displayed in the exhibition hall at the headquarters of BYD Company Limited in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Huang Shuo)

SHENZHEN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- In south China's Shenzhen, people from across the country are often seen lining up to visit the headquarters of BYD Company Limited. As the world's top-selling new energy vehicle (NEV) manufacturer in 2024, BYD not only displays its impressive electric vehicles but also offers a glimpse into its "enigmatic" cultural elements.

Many of its car models incorporate traditional Chinese elements. Some bear distinctively Chinese names such as "Han" and "Tang," which are inspired by the two glorious ancient Chinese dynasties. One of the company's sub-brand logos is inspired by the ancient oracle bone script character for "electricity."

"We don't change these features when selling overseas, because they are Chinese-made cars. Buyers also appreciate them as they bring with them the charm of Eastern civilization," said a BYD representative.

BYD was founded in 1994. In 2022, the company's operating revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time. Last year, the company sold over 4.27 million NEVs.

"Within the company, there has been an unwavering belief from the chairman to employees that to improve global ecology and benefit humanity, we must embrace green energy. This belief aligns with China's philosophy of harmony between man and nature," he said.

A visitor at the headquarters shared a similar sentiment, telling Xinhua that in China, it's common for several generations to live together. When traveling, elderly family members often prefer to sit in the back seat, and BYD's newly launched business vehicle thoughtfully caters to this aspect of Chinese family values, she said.

An "engineer culture" is also a hallmark of BYD. As the representative put it, it means "focusing on solving real problems based on real-world situations." Such a culture is further enriched through broad interaction and exchange with diverse segments of society, drawing inspiration from a wide range of sources.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu himself is an engineer. To address urban traffic congestion, he envisioned a new energy-based rail system called "SkyShuttle," which costs much less than building a subway system and is already operating in several cities.

The company currently employs more than 120,000 research and development (R&D) personnel and holds over 59,000 patent applications, mastering a number of core technologies across the NEV industrial chain. The new generation of its independently developed "blade battery" can ensure a driving range of 1,000 kilometers and boasts strong fire resistance.

Previously, BYD had invited 11 Chinese science fiction writers to its headquarters to brainstorm with engineers. The result of that experience, a sci-fi short story collection titled "The Dream Builders," was published earlier this month. It envisions the future of human transportation.

"The spirit of the engineer is like the divine spark of creation in science fiction. As a sci-fi writer, I feel privileged to witness this transformative force," said sci-fi author Wanxiangfengnian.

"We saw that BYD's team is young, vibrant, and full of upward momentum. They have R&D in their blood, and the perseverance they've shown over time is incredibly touching," said Ji Shaoting, head of the sci-fi agency Future Affairs Administration.

"This is the secret behind the success of China's smart manufacturing," she said. 
PBS chief Paula Kerger on Wednesday said President Donald Trumps push to defund public broadcasters would spell the end for a number of local news stations.

Kerger, in an interview with Katie Couric, lamented that there are stations that will go off the air in rural areas if the president is successful, without projecting a specific number of PBS member stations that would cease to operate.

I think well figure out a way, through digital, to make sure there is some PBS content, Kerger said. But there wont be anyone in the community creating local content. There wont be a place for people to come together.

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She added: Once broadcast licenses are gone, theyre gone. Its a finite commodity. The stations would likely be sold and thatll be the end.

Trump signed an executive order on May 1 calling for the end of taxpayer subsidization of PBS and NPR, via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options, the order said. Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.

The president has also called NPR and PBS radical left monsters that Republicans must defund in recent social media posts.

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Whether Trump achieves his goal is to be determined, however. Congress has already allocated $535 million for public broadcasters this fiscal year, and he is facing a lawsuit from CPB over a related issue  his decision to fire three of its board members.

You can watch Kergers full interview with Couric below; her comments mentioned above are made around the 37-minute mark.

The post PBS Chief Says Trump Defunding Will Have Permanent Local Impact: Stations Would Likely Be Sold, and Thatll Be the End | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
PBS has furloughed 25% of its PBS Kids staff after the U.S. Department of Education abruptly ended a key grant program thats funded educational childrens television for over 30 years.

Current reported that the move was announced by PBS President Paula Kerger during her keynote speech at the 2025 PBS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, just days after the Department pulled the plug on the Ready To Learn grant program for 202025. That decision halted federal funding to PBS and 44 local public media stations midcycle.

Weve been forced to furlough really talented members of our staff at PBS as we figure out how to continue to advance the PBS Kids service, Kerger said. We are going to keep fighting.

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The Ready To Learn initiative has historically supported the creation of educational programming aimed at underserved children and families. Its unexpected termination now threatens the production of beloved PBS Kids shows and the jobs behind themincluding freelance writers and producers whose contracts rely on episodic production orders.

A PBS spokesperson confirmed the scale of the layoffs, citing the funding loss as a critical blow to the networks ability to deliver high-quality, accessible content. This decision removes a critical resource that for over 30 years has enabled us to create high-quality, educational PBS Kids content while opening up worlds of possibilities for millions of children across the country.

The Writers Guild of America East called the cuts an attack on children and families and urged Congress to fully restore federal funding for public childrens programming. "Our children deserve no less," the union said in a statement.

Other grantees, including Minnesota-based TPT, have also cut staff as a result. TPT had received $4.6 million in Ready To Learn funds for the current grant cycle to support its animated series Skillsville.

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While PBS Kids remains a staple in homes across America, its futureat least in its current formnow hangs in the balance.

Related: FAA Makes Official Announcement on Newark Liberty International Airport
Pacific Coast Highway, which has been largely off-limits to all but residents, first responders and cleanup crews since the Jan. 7 Palisades Fire, will reopen to all traffic at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Gov. Gavin Newsom had previously announced that the roadway between Malibu and Santa Monica would be reopened by the end of May. Newsom hailed the Friday reopening as a major step forward in the fire-recovery effort.

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In California, we get stuff done, period, Newsom said in a statement. Were opening the PCH back up early, with more lanes before Angelenos hit the road this Memorial Day. We are able to do this thanks to the tireless work of hundreds of construction and road crews and with help from our partners at the Army Corps of Engineers.

Motorists on the highway are likely to still encounter a heavy security presence as authorities continue to restrict access into the Palisades Fire burn area. Mayor Karen Bass has instructed the Los Angeles Police Department to step up deployment of officers in the area, including staffing checkpoints around the clock. According to the mayors office, the number of checkpoints in the fire area will increase from five to 16 to restrict Palisades access to residents, business owners, employees and contractors.

A 25 mph speed limit will also remain in effect on PCH.

As far as the ocean water quality goes, public officials and experts say it should be safe, but point out that there are no health standards for bathing safety related to some of the chemicals that ran off into the ocean during the fires.

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In a recent survey, Heal the Bay gave the waters off Malibu Surfrider north of the fire zone an A, while two beaches south  Topanga State Beach and Castlerock Beach  Ds.

Army Corps of Engineers crews have been prioritizing efforts to clear fire-damaged properties along PCH to hasten the reopening of the route, according to the governors office.

In other recovery-related news, June 1 marks the final day for local residents to obtain a fire debris removal permit from the city. For those who opted out of the Army Corps process, all fire debris are required to be removed by June 30.

Motorists were advised to use caution while driving on PCH due to the continued presence of debris-clearance crews and other first responders. Drivers should anticipate significant delays on the popular route due to speed restrictions and traffic volumes.

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City News Service contributed to this report.

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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  A woman walking in a crosswalk was hit and killed by a vehicle Wednesday in the Encanto neighborhood.

The crash occurred around 9:43 a.m. at Imperial Avenue and 63rd St., according to the San Diego Police Department.

Authorities say the 50-year-old woman was crossing the aforementioned location going southbound in the crosswalk when a 2018 Nissan Kick traveling westbound on Imperial Avenue struck the pedestrian.

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Mar Vista High School aide arrested for suspected sexual assault of student

The woman was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the Nissan, a 49-year-old woman, was not hurt.

The 49-year-old woman is suspected of failing to stop for a red traffic signal, police said.

Detectives determined alcohol was not a factor in the collision.

Anyone with information about the crash is encouraged to call the listed command handling the investigation or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

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LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Pennsylvania State Police are searching for a driver who drove onto a Lancaster County farmers field and destroyed newly planted corn.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, troopers are investigating a case of agricultural vandalism that occurred on May 21 at 1 p.m. Troopers say an unknown white truck with a loud exhaust system drove onto the farm field off Beaver Valley Pike in Strasburg Township, damaging newly planted corn.

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The incident resulted in approximately $400 worth of damage, troopers said.

Anyone with information regarding the identity of the driver is encouraged to contact the Pennsylvania State Police Lancaster.

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A Nigerian drug trafficker duped a pair of pensioners into carrying six kilograms of methamphetamine, concealed in chocolate truffles, into the UK.

Tonny Iheoma Ezeh, 51, recruited two unsuspecting German men as drug mules for his plan to smuggle the shipment into Hong Kong via London.

An 80-year-old and a 67-year-old were promised millions of euros if they travelled to Mexico and picked up the bags of Elvan chocolate truffles. There, they signed fake paperwork, oblivious to what the sweets really contained.

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Ezeh tasked the pair with giving the chocolate as gifts to hosts in Hong Kong, where they would receive their payment.

The plot was foiled when Border Force officers stopped the men at Heathrow airport in October last year before they could catch their connecting flights.

When inspected at Heathrow airport, the bags of Elvan chocolate truffles contained methamphetamines - CHP

Both were initially charged with smuggling class A drugs. These charges were dropped once investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) established that the pair had been tricked by Ezeh.

Ezeh was arrested when he flew into the UK on Dec 23. On May 13, he pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to smuggling class A drugs and was jailed for nine years and three months on Wednesday.

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The court heard how Ezeh was a member of a West African crime group responsible for transporting Class A drugs internationally via air passenger courier and fast parcels. He ran the operation from his base in Mexico, where he organised drug shipments with other Nigerian contacts based internationally.

Elderly and vulnerable couriers were singled out and recruited via email finance scams.

Extremely callous criminal

Peter Jones, the NCA operations manager, said: Tonny Ezeh is an extremely callous criminal. He and his crime group singled out and took advantage of elderly, vulnerable victims. He didnt care at all about the trauma the men would experience when stopped, arrested and remanded in a foreign land.

If an offer is too good to be true, it very likely is, and we urge anyone who is approached and asked to transport goods to think very carefully.

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The NCA and partners at home and abroad continue to fight the threat of class A drugs entering the UK.

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The Defense Department has approved 1,115 more active duty troops to deploy to the U.S. southwestern border, adding to the militarys increased role in supporting immigration control under the second Trump administration.

The units will primarily assist with engineering, logistics and construction missions  from medical care to clearing roads.

There are currently just under 8,000 active duty troops at the border, an increase of around 6,500 since the start of the administration, according to a spokesperson for the militarys task force overseeing the mission.

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While they havent deployed yet, the additional 1,100 would bring the military close to the 10,000 total that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved for the border mission earlier this year.

Under Hegseths time in office, the military has taken on an expansive role in supporting immigration controls, a top priority of President Donald Trump. The Pentagon has sent surveillance planes, warships, helicopters and even a brigade of armored Stryker vehicles to assist in the mission.

The administration has also declared two narrow strips of land stretching hundreds of miles along the border to now be military bases, allowing active duty troops to detain any migrants who cross into the territory for trespassing on Defense Department land.

Redesignating the territory is a workaround for laws that prohibit the military from domestic law enforcement, only permitted otherwise if the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

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A federal judge has dismissed charges against 100 such migrants charged with trespassing in New Mexico, ruling that they didnt have enough warning to know they were entering land that was now technically a military base.

Hegseth has pledged that the U.S. will achieve 100% operational control of the border, though he hasnt explained what exactly that standard means even as unlawful crossings have plummeted in recent months.

Democrats in Congress have criticized the mission, calling it a waste of military resources and a risk to the armed forces readiness to fight.
In an exclusive interview from federal prison, where he is currently serving a 15-year sentence for what prosecutors called one of the most significant leaks of U.S. national defense secrets, Jack Teixeira spoke out for the first time since his arrest more than two years ago -- telling ABC News he doesn't feel he betrayed his country and would commit the same acts again if he had the chance to do things over.

The 23-year-old said he is also appealing to President Donald Trump for a pardon in what he called a "politicized" case under the Biden administration.

"My intent was to educate the United States populist people about what was going on. It was not to harm the United States or the country because I love my nation. I'm a patriot," Teixeira told ABC News over the phone from a medium security federal correctional institution in Virginia. "It was by no means meant to harm my country, but I did believe that I needed to educate the people about what was going on because I believe they were being lied to."

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Watch "Good Morning America" at 7 a.m. ET for more from the interview with Jack Teixeira and his mother, Dawn Dufault.

He said he believes that mission was accomplished "to a significant degree."

"I don't feel that I betrayed my country at all, just the opposite," he said. "I believe that I educated a lot of the people who have been kept in the dark and who were being lied to about this concerning all of the things that had been going on."

PHOTO: This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the suspect, national guardsman Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Prosecutors say that while serving as a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, Teixeira abused his top-secret clearance and accessed and posted images of hundreds of classified documents, including ones related to troop movements in Ukraine and details of the Chinese spy balloons, on the gaming platform Discord. Another document shared included "discussing a plot by a foreign adversary to target United States forces abroad," according to the indictment.

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The FBI said his actions created "exceptionally grave and long-lasting damage to the national security of the United States," while then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira "endangered our country's national security and that of our allies" when he repeatedly shared classified national defense information online "in an attempt to impress anonymous friends on the internet."

Teixeira pleaded guilty last year to six federal counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.

MORE: Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years on federal charges

He also pleaded guilty to a military charge of obstructing justice during a military court-martial this year, avoiding any additional confinement and receiving a dishonorable discharge as part of his plea agreement.

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Following the sentencing in the federal case, Joshua Levy, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said Teixeira "abused his position of trust" and put himself above his country when he exploited his top-secret clearance and "made the deliberate choice" for over a year to access hundreds of classified documents and share them on Discord. This "significant sentence sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top-secret clearance," Levy said.

Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the sentence is a "stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information: betray that trust, and you will be held accountable."

'I still believe in my actions'

As he serves his federal sentence, Teixeira maintains no one was harmed by his actions. He said his apology in a statement during his sentencing in federal court was meant for his family and friends and how this has impacted them.

"I still believe in my actions," he said.

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Teixeira said he believes his case was politicized and that he doesn't deserve 15 years behind bars.

"I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn't get as bad of a treatment as I did," he said. "But my case was specifically politicized by the Biden administration."

"I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example," he continued.

PHOTO: Suspected classified document leaker and U.S National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, is taken into custody by FBI agents in North Dighton, Mass., April 13, 2023. (WCVB)

While serving as an information technology specialist, Teixeira used a secure workstation at his Massachusetts base to conduct hundreds of searches for classified documents related to national defense information that were unrelated to his duties, prosecutors said.

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Asked why he disregarded his training and leaked classified information, Teixeira said, "I believe that a lot of people and a lot of different people would determine what secrets should be kept, and I'm not entirely sure how fair that was. Because at least from what I had witnessed and what I have exposed, a lot of these things should have been shown to the American people and not kept secret from them. So I had a little bit of a disagreement with some of those policies, I guess you could say."

Despite warnings from his superiors to stop conducting "deep dives" into classified intelligence information, he "purposefully and repeatedly removed classified information and documents containing NDI without authorization," prosecutors said.

Pressed on why he continued to access information outside the scope of his duties despite being told to stop, Teixeira claimed he was encouraged to do the "exact opposite to those directives" and to "do our due diligence and look at what we're supporting and why we're support it and what's going on."

"I felt like at the time when I was being admonished for following a directive that I was given by a superior, so it was just a clash of things that I believed was contradictory," he said.

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MORE: Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to obstructing justice at court-martial

Teixeira didn't go into specifics, but said he believed there were "lies" being propagated about what was going on concerning the "tactical and strategic aspect" of the Russia-Ukraine war and the U.S. assistance to Ukraine.

"A lot of the things that the administration at the time was saying was wrong, it was misleading, it was outright false, or it was skewed, and essentially just, I wanted people to know exactly what was going on so that no one could say, 'Well, it was like this because the history book or the history textbook said it was,''' he said. "I just wanted to show an unvarnished take on everything that was going on."

Despite the 15-year sentence, he said he wouldn't change what he did.

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"I've tortured myself over and over and over again about what would happen if I didn't do this, or what would happen if this and that. And in reality, it doesn't really matter," he said. "I still do believe that, yes, I would have done it again."

Teixeira said his lawyers are working on trying to get a pardon petition through to Trump, and that he believes he will be pardoned.

"I think they'll look at someone like me as a supporter and someone who really used what I thought was going to be my last vote in county jail for Trump during 2024. And I just, I believe that indeed he will," he said.

An attorney for Teixeira filed an application for a pardon on Wednesday. Such a request is typically submitted after a federal sentence has been completed, though his application notes that he is seeking a full pardon rather than only a commutation of his sentence. Ultimately, it will be up to the Trump administration to approve or deny his petition.

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Teixeira appealed to Trump to "please give me back to my family, to reunite with my family with my rights as an American and with my freedom."

Teixeira's mother speaks out for 1st time, too

Teixeira's mother, Dawn Dufault, also appealed to Trump in her first interview since her son's arrest in April 2023, saying she thought his prosecution was "malicious" and the case "sensationalized."

"He didn't do it to harm the country," Dufault told ABC News in an exclusive interview in Boston. "They told the public that they were going to make an example out of Jack."

She said she wants Trump to look into the case and "look at how my son was treated."

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"If he agrees that it was unfair treatment, give him a pardon," she said.

Dufault reflected on her son's arrest, saying, "It was a complete surprise to me."

"That morning, the New York Times reporters came down my driveway asking to see him. That was the first inkling I had that anything was awry," she said. "We had been watching on the news, the stories, they were trying to find this person leaking documents. No idea. And that was April 13, that this all kind of kicked off. At that time, they had asked, they said that they were going to run an article naming him as the leaker. I still didn't believe it. It was unbelievable to me."

PHOTO: Dawn Dufault, right, mother of Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, departs federal court, March 4, 2024, in Boston. (Steven Senne/AP)

Dufault said she still has questions about why her son did what he did, but she doesn't believe him to be a threat.

She said she believed her son was "compelled to tell the truth" and made the choice to share the classified documents with friends on Discord. She added that Teixeira was also recently diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, and has obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she said she thinks may also have been a factor in his actions.

"I think that that also played into his compulsion to go against his oath that he took to the government," she said. "I feel like part of it was possibly uncontrollable because of what we now know is autism."

Dufault said Teixeira comes from a military family, and they are concerned about national security in the wake of the leak.

"How has it improved? Could this happen again? Is anybody looking at that? Does anybody care? It was focused heavily on Jack's character versus what actually happened, how it happened, and what could be done to improve the security of our national secrets," she said. "We love this country. We love the government. We're not conspiracy theorists. But I feel like more needs to be done to look into what happened."

An Air Force Inspector General investigation found that individuals in Teixeira's unit "failed to take proper action after becoming aware of his intelligence-seeking activities" but that there was no evidence that members of his supervisory chain were aware of the unauthorized disclosures. Fifteen individuals received disciplinary and other administrative actions for "dereliction in the performance of duties," and the Department of the Air Force said it implemented several reforms to improve the protection of classified and sensitive information.

Dufault described her son as a "good kid" who has changed since his arrest, becoming more self-aware and appreciative of his family.

"I think he needs a second chance," she said. "I think he's still destined for something great. I always have, and I still feel that way."

Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira speaks out from prison for 1st time: Exclusive originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD)  A South Peoria man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years behind bars in connection with a traffic stop last year that led to the discovery of drugs and a gun.

Erik Alexander, 58, was sentenced in Peoria County Circuit Court on the single count of armed violence. Circuit Judge Steve Kouri also imposed an 18-month term of supervised release, a form of parole.

Man arrested for gun and drug charges after allegedly fleeing police

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He will get credit for nearly 18 months already served. He is also eligible for day-for-day good-time credit in prison if he behaves and follows the rules.

The Jan. 4, 2024, traffic stop started near the intersection of Grinnell and Stanley streets at approximately 1:04 a.m. A deputy with the Peoria County Sheriffs Office attempted to stop him for a traffic violation, but Alexander did not stop and drove off until he crashed into a parked car on Hayes Street, according to court records.

Deputies located a plastic baggie with cocaine on his person, a loaded magazine in the car, and then a .40-caliber pistol in the street along the route he had driven, according to court records.

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PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD)  A legal wrinkle led to a one-week delay for a Peoria teen accused in connection with a deadly shooting.

David Gast, first assistant States Attorney, asked for  and both the defense attorney and the judge agreed  a one-week delay to examine a 2017 Illinois Supreme Court decision that could dramatically affect the sentencing of Jared Williams.

At issue is what charge 19-year-old Williams was found guilty of after a trial in early April. A jury found him guilty of second-degree murder instead of the more serious charge of first-degree murder as sought by prosecutors.

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Second-degree murder typically occurs when a person believed they had to use deadly force, but that belief was unreasonable. In such cases, self-defense is a common argument.

But because he was 17 at the time of the Aug. 23, 2023, fatal shooting outside of the Laramie Liquors store on the border of South Peoria and Peoria County, he was considered a juvenile.

The case was automatically transferred to adult court on that charge, but Williams attorney, Bryan J McIntyre, argues not so fast. Rather, he said, prosecutors should have filed a motion within 10 days of the verdict to retransfer the case.

Thats because second-degree murder isnt an automatic transfer and as such, he maintains, his client should be sentenced under juvenile rules which would limit any sentence until his 21st birthday.

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He cited a 2017 Illinois Supreme Court case which he said had a similar fact pattern.

Kouri said he also needed time to look into that case law and set a June 6 hearing.

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BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- No booze, no banquets, no bouquets. China has barred alcohol, luxury dishes, and cigarettes from official meals, part of a sweeping crackdown on extravagance in public life. Government cars must forgo flashy upgrades, and meeting rooms must be free of ornamental plants and fancy backdrops.

The new rules, set out in the newly revised Regulations on Practicing Thrift and Opposing Waste in Party and Government Organs, are the latest effort by China's top leadership to rein in official perks and promote restraint.

First introduced in 2013 as a follow-up to the Party's landmark eight-point rules, an initiative launched in late 2012 to curb official misconduct and restore public trust, austerity guidelines were reaffirmed this May amid a broader campaign to reinforce discipline and compliance across the Party's 100 million members.

These updated guidelines set out more detailed rules than ever before for Party and government officials -- targeting public funds, official travel, receptions, vehicle use, meetings, and office space.

Extravagant banquets and heavy drinking were once fixtures of official life in China, customs so entrenched that phrases like "no banquet is complete without alcohol" and "business is done over drinks" became part of the vernacular. But such excesses, long resented by the public, have since increasingly come under scrutiny.

As part of a renewed push for ensuring discipline, China has now imposed a sweeping ban on alcohol at official receptions, while cigarettes and luxury dishes are also off the table.

Analysts said the ban is unlikely to meaningfully affect the industry of baijiu, a fiery Chinese liquor once a staple at government banquets.

Xiao Zhuqing, an industry expert, noted that since the rollout of the Party's eight-point rules just over a decade ago, government-related consumption of baijiu has shrunk considerably. Today, official purchases account for less than 5 percent of the market, limiting the new regulation's impact on the sector.

Excessive drinking not only erodes the image of government officials but can also end in tragedy. In a recent case that drew national attention, a county-level official in central China's Henan Province died after consuming alcohol at a midday banquet during a training seminar in March. Nine other officials present at this banquet were later disciplined, demoted, or dismissed.

Under the new rules, officials on domestic trips are barred from accepting cash gifts, souvenirs, or local specialties. For overseas trips, private jet travel is off-limits, while officials are no longer allowed to add extra stops or extend their stays abroad without prior authorization.

Officials are also barred from using public cars for private errands or claiming personal vehicle expenses from public funds. These new rules call for government fleets to prioritize new energy vehicles, part of a wider push to reduce emissions.

Party and government bodies are under orders to trim back meetings to only what is essential. Gone are the days of lavish conference setups -- this means no floral arrangements and no elaborate staging. Holding official gatherings at scenic resorts is strictly forbidden.

The new rules have received largely positive feedback online. Wang Xuming, a scholar and retired official from the Ministry of Education, praised them as "detailed and pragmatic" on microblogging site Weibo.

Grassroots officials have also voiced their support. Some have long borne the health costs of official banquets, such as fatty liver and high blood pressure, widely seen as occupational hazards in a work culture where "drinking twice a day felt like part of the job."

As part of its austerity drive, China's central government has been steadily trimming its public expenses on official receptions, vehicles, and overseas travel for years.

The 2025 budget includes 6.12 billion yuan (about 851.7 million U.S. dollars) for such expenses, down 322 million yuan from last year. Reception spending alone is capped at 302 million yuan, 13 million less than in 2024.

The savings from reduced official spending, according to the regulations, will be redirected toward development priorities and public welfare.

As China continues its campaign against official extravagance, the once-routine perks of public office, including opulent banquets and taxpayer-funded junkets, have quietly receded.

The government's austerity push is rippling through society at large. Frugality has begun to replace excess as a social value. Restaurants are downsizing portions -- and it has become common for diners to take leftovers home.

This culture shift extends to major life events. Costly wedding and funeral banquets, once seen as obligatory displays of status, are giving way to simpler, more modest affairs, reflecting a broader embrace of restraint inspired from the top down. 






Kate Middleton and Prince William faced off in a naval-themed competition during a royal visit to Scotland this week

The royal couple competed aboard the HMS Glasgow after Princess Kate officially christened the new ship

While Kate technically bested her husband, the unexpected final moments of the competition left the couple cracking up











Kate Middleton and Prince William arent a couple who shy away from some friendly competition.

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The Prince and Princess of Wales  or the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, as they are known in Scotland  teamed up to attend the official naming ceremony of the HMS Glasgow on Thursday, May 22.



As sponsor of the ship, Princess Kate pressed a button to christen the warship in the traditional manner: by breaking a bottle of whisky on the hull. The liquor was an exclusive single malt made by Clydeside Distillery. Each bottle sold will contribute a donation to one of Kates patronage charities, Place2Be, which supports childrens mental health in the Glasgow area.

May God bless her and all who sail on her, the princess declared in a short speech.

Following the ceremony, William, 42, and Kate, 43, boarded the ship and met with apprentices from BAE Systems, who were responsible for delivering the vessel, the first of eight Type 26 anti-submarine frigates to be built in Glasgow.

Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Kate Middleton at the HMS Glasgow in Scotland on May 22, 2025 Kate Middleton at the HMS Glasgow in Scotland on May 22, 2025

Onboard, the royal couple faced off in a pipe-building competition. Kate got off to a quick start, while William spent more time chatting, later claiming he didnt know it was a race.

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The royal mom of three  Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis  credited her pipe-building ability to years of experience playing with childrens toys, and Princess Kate seemed to have bested her husband in the faceoff. However, as seen in a video shared by Sky News' Rhiannon Mills, just as she was being declared the winner, one of Kates pieces collapsed.

Princess Kate tried to keep a straight face as she tried to catch the falling piece before cracking up, while her husband laughed from across the table.

Perfectly timed, William teased his wife.

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Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Prince William and Kate Middleton face off in a pipe-building competition about the HMS Glasgow on May 22, 2025 Prince William and Kate Middleton face off in a pipe-building competition about the HMS Glasgow on May 22, 2025

Prince William and Princess Kate are known to occasionally go head-to-head during joint royal outings, whether they're making cocktails, facing off in a sailing race or rolling dough balls at a bakery.

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During a 2023 appearance on The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast  hosted by Mike Tindall, who is married to William's cousin Zara  they poked fun at Kate's personality when it comes to contests.

"I'm not going to say you're uber competitive," Mike said before pausing to give a nod, indicating that she really was.

Princess Kate replied coyly, "I'm not competitive at all."

"I've seen her play beer pong!" Mike said.



Andrew Parsons / Kensington Palace Kate Middleton visits the HMS Glasgow on May 22, 2025 Kate Middleton visits the HMS Glasgow on May 22, 2025

Another spontaneous moment came during the outing in Scotland when a fan called out to the couple. As seen in a video shared on Instagram, a well-wisher shouted out to Princess Kate, "You're beautiful," before adding, "You too, William!"

Prince William had a quick quip that made the crowd giggle in response: "You don't have to say that. Don't worry."



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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian service at the Pentagon on Wednesday  an event one former Defense Department lawyer called incredibly problematic.

Hegseths prayer meeting in the auditorium during work hours appeared to be a first for a Pentagon chief, Reuters wrote.

This is precisely where I need to be, and I think exactly where we need to be as a nation, at this moment, Hegseth said, per The New York Times. In prayer, on bended knee recognizing the providence of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.

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Hegseth said the meeting was voluntary and could become a monthly event, The Times noted. But critics questioned the legality of it.

A brochure titled Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service featured the seal of the Department of Defense, suggesting that Hegseth and the government sponsored it, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham, now a law professor, told CNN. That could be a breach of the First Amendments ban on the government promoting a religion.

I think its sponsorship in the true sense of the word, outside of funding  hes advocating for this, he is putting his weight of the official Office of the Secretary of Defense behind a particular religious event and inviting someone to the Pentagon to conduct it, she said, noting the appearance by Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Hegseths church in Tennessee. Thats wrong.

A former Pentagon lawyer who left the job last month told CNN the gathering was incredibly problematic.

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Noting the First Amendments establishment cause barring government from endorsing a religion, the attorney said, Having a broadcast event is obviously an endorsement even if they dont officially say, this is a Pentagon event.

The service appears to be bolstering the Trump administrations efforts to connect government with evangelical Christianity.

The president got a shoutout from the pastor.

We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointed  for President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land, Potteiger said, per the Times. And we pray that you would continue to protect him, bless him, give him great wisdom.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's prayer service got pushback from some legal experts. JIM WATSON via Getty Images

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  The City of Salem plans to investigate the impact of forever chemicals at the Salem-Willamette Valley Airport.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs, were found in the soil at a development site at the south end of the property in an area where the Salem Fire Department has done firefighting foam testing.

Footwear company Keen moves manufacturing facility out of Portland

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City officials want to determine whether the chemicals could be harmful to firefighting staff who train there.

The Environmental Protection Agency says PFAs have been linked to harmful health effects in people and animals.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
MANILA/BEIJING (Reuters) -China and the Philippines traded accusations on Thursday following a confrontation between two of their vessels in contested waters of the South China Sea, the latest incident in a long-running maritime standoff in the strategic waterway.

The Philippines' fisheries bureau said the lives of a civilian crew were put at risk when the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons and sideswiped a vessel as it conducted marine research around a disputed South China Sea reef.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources condemned what it said was the "aggressive interference" of the Chinese Coast Guard against the Datu Sanday and a second ship in Wednesday's incident, saying its vessels had not previously been subjected to water cannons in the area.

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The Chinese Coast Guard said two Philippine vessels had illegally entered waters near Subi Reef and Sandy Cay and organised personnel to land on Sandy Cay.

The Coast Guard responded with what it described as professional and lawful control measures and went ashore to verify and handle the situation, it said in a statement.

A collision occurred after one of the Philippine vessels ignored multiple warnings and approached a Chinese vessel dangerously, the Coast Guard said, placing full responsibility for the incident on the Philippine side.

The Chinese statement did not mention any use of water cannons.

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The U.S. ambassador to Manila, MaryKay Carlson described China's actions as aggressive and, in a post on X, said they "recklessly endangered lives and threaten regional stability."

Sandy Cay is close to Thitu Island, the largest and most strategically important of the nine features the Philippines occupies in the Spratly archipelago, where China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also have a presence.

Last month, China said its Coast Guard had landed on Sandy Cay as part of operations to exercise its sovereignty. The Philippines has denied Beijing has seized control of the disputed reef.

China claims sovereignty over nearly all the South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

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A 2016 ruling by an international arbitral tribunal found Beijing's sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.

(Reporting by Mikhail Flores, Karen Lema and Beijing newsroom; Editing by John Mair and Timothy Heritage)
MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Philippine officials on Thursday condemned the Chinese coast guard for using what they say was a powerful water cannon to target one of two Philippine fishing boats conducting marine research in the disputed South China Sea.

The Bureau of Fisheries in Manila said the incident took place on Wednesday near one of three sandbars called Sandy Cay and caused damage to one of the fishing vessels and endangered its crew members.

The Chinese coast guards aggressive interference happened as the two Philippine vessels were conducting "routine marine scientific research in the barren white sandbars that lie between the Philippine-occupied Thitu island and a Chinese-built island base called Subi Reef, according to the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries in Manila.

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Officials said a Filipino scientific team were in Sandy Cay to collect sand samples from the sandbars.

A larger Chinese coast guard ship water cannoned and sideswiped" one of the vessels twice, "resulting in some damage to the latters port bow and smokestack and putting at risk lives of its civilian personnel onboard, the Philippine officials said.

They said the incident "occurred within the territorial sea of the Philippines off Thitu island, which Filipinos call Pagasa, Tagalog for hope.

Chinas coast guard blamed the Philippines for the collision, saying the vessels entered the waters illegally without Chinas permission and landed personnel on Sandy Cay, it said, using the Chinese name Tiexian Reef for the sandbars.

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It said the vessels ignored warnings from the Chinese side and came dangerously close to the Chinese ship, which it said was conducting normal law enforcement operations.

The Chinese coast guard landed on the reef to check on the activity, a statement said. It did not mention the use of a water cannon.

The Philippines actions seriously violated Chinas territorial sovereignty ... and undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea, the Chinese statement said.

China has claimed that it has sovereignty rights over virtually the entire South China Sea and has vowed to defend its territories at all cost.

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The territorial conflicts are also a delicate fault line in the regional rivalry between China and the United States, which lays no claims to the busy sea passage but has backed smaller states like the Philippines as they confront Beijings growing aggression in the offshore region.

U.S. Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson said the Chinese coast guard's aggressive actions against a lawful civilian mission near Sandy Cay recklessly endangered lives and threaten regional stability.

We stand with our Philippine allies in support of international law and a free and open Indo-Pacific, Carlson said in a post on X.

China and the Philippines have had confrontations over Sandy Cay, which is called Pag-asa Cays by Filipinos.

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In January, the Chinese coast guard and a naval helicopter drove away a group of Philippines fisheries ships that were attempting to conduct a scientific survey around Sandy Cay.

Last month, a Chinese state-owned newspaper posted exclusive photos of coast guard officers on Sandy Cay, including one of them holding up a Chinese flag. Three days later, a joint Philippines coast guard, navy and maritime police team headed to the three sandbars and posed for a photo holding up their national flag.

Both the former Biden and current Trump administrations have warned that the U.S. is obligated to defend the Philippines under a Mutual Defense Treaty if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.

China has warned the U.S. not to meddle in what it calls a purely Asian conflict.

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The long-unresolved territorial disputes are expected to be high on the agenda when leaders and top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country regional bloc, hold an annual summit starting this weekend in Malaysia.

ASEAN member states Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam are involved in the territorial disputes, along with China and Taiwan. China and the ASEAN have been negotiating a nonaggression code of conduct to prevent the conflicts from degenerating into a larger armed conflict and both sides hope they could conclude the talks next year.

___

Associated Press journalist Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.
By Karen Lema

MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr sought the resignation of all his cabinet secretaries on Thursday, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term.

The order came after the president's allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the May 12 polls, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028.

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"He's talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it's the best he can do at this time," said Ederson Tapia, public administration professor at the University of Makati.

Candidates aligned with Marcos' estranged vice president, Sara Duterte, outperformed expectations in the midterms, which many saw as a proxy battle between Marcos and the Duterte camps.

"This is not business as usual," Marcos said in a statement.

"The people have spoken, and they expect results - not politics, not excuses. We hear them, and we will act," he said.

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With less than three years in office left, Marcos is under pressure to deliver results and groom a successor capable of fending off any potential run by the popular Duterte in the 2028 presidential election.

"He should project strength lest he becomes a non-factor toward 2028 and even now," Tapia said.

While the cabinet secretaries have been asked to resign, Marcos' office clarified they will hold office until replacements are named so that government operations are not interrupted.

"Those who have delivered and continue to deliver will be recognised. But we cannot afford to be complacent. The time for comfort zones is over," the president said.

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Marcos has faced a steep decline in public support this year, with surveys by Pulse Asia showing his approval rating with voters dropping to 25% in March from 42% in February.

In stark contrast, Duterte enjoyed a significantly higher approval rating of 59% in March, the last poll Pulse Asia published before the midterms.

Sentiment towards the government has soured due in part to a perceived failure to control inflation, a top concern of Filipino households, even though it has been back within the central bank's 2% to 4% target range since August.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Additional reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by John Mair)
Marlene Warren opened her door in May 1990 to a woman dressed as a clown, who fatally shot her in the fact. Her husband's second wife pleaded guilty.
By Heather Schlitz

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dr. Mike Lemmon's pigs, each valued between $2,500 and $5,000, were supposed to be on a plane bound for Hangzhou, China, from St. Louis in April, whered they spend the flight snoring, play fighting and snacking on oats and husked corn before taking up residence at Chinese hog farms.

Instead, many went to a local Indiana slaughterhouse for less than $200 each after the Chinese buyer canceled the order within a week of China implementing retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. in April.

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China is one of the biggest importers of American breeding pigs and other livestock genetic material such as cattle semen. These lucrative niche export markets had been growing, but dried up since U.S. President Donald Trump started a trade war with Beijing.

U.S. farmers and exporters said the dispute has already cost them millions of dollars and jeopardized prized trade relationships that took years to develop.

Though Washington and Beijing agreed to pause tariffs last week, exporters said Trump's unpredictable trade policy has caused their companies long-term damage and could encourage China and other major buyers to turn to foreign rivals like Denmark.

"We've got brand damage now. There's not a week that goes by without clients asking whats happening with the U.S.," said Tony Clayton, owner of Clayton Agri-Marketing, a Missouri-based livestock exporting company.

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"I dont know how we can put this back together. This is long-term damage," he said.

White House spokesperson Kush Desai said the administration was "working around the clock to secure billions of dollars in even more opportunities with our other trading partners."

Some farmers raise pigs specifically for breeding, a niche business within the $37 billion U.S. hog industry. Farmers pay top dollar for these specialty pigs, which have favorable genetics to produce lots of healthy piglets that can eventually be processed into tasty, high-quality pork.

Lemmon, an Indiana veterinarian and farm owner, has been selling pigs worldwide for over 30 years. He said he spent more than a year working on the $2.4 million sale of the pedigreed pigs to China. He noted they were carefully bred for good health, litter size and high fat content that leads to richly marbled, tender meat when cooked.

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"It's devastating when it happens," Lemmon said, referencing the sale he lost.

He said he plans to stay in the breeding business, and is working to rekindle the deal with his Chinese buyer during the tariff pause.

Roughly half of the worlds pigs live on Chinese farms. The country has purchased large quantities of breeding pigs from the U.S. since an outbreak of African swine fever, a virus with a near-total fatality rate, wiped out millions of the countrys hogs in 2018.

Shipping livestock is lucrative but time-consuming. Shippers must personally fly with the animals or hire an on-board attendant who can make the rounds to keep their pricey passengers well-hydrated and comfortable during a long flight. When not working, the attendants chat with the flight crew or sometimes lie in sleeping bags next to the animals in the chilly cargo bay, exporters and farmers said.

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China has also been the biggest importer of semen from U.S. dairy cows, known for producing large amounts of protein-rich milk. But Not one unit of semen is going to China right now, Jay Weiker, president of the National Association of Animal Breeders, said, noting China had been importing one-quarter of all U.S. cattle semen, which they use to artificially inseminate their dairy cows.

The Chinese milk industry began importing large amounts of cattle semen to improve the genetics of domestic dairy cows after a deadly scandal over contaminated milk in 2008, Weiker said. At least six children in China died and nearly 300,000 fell ill after a Chinese manufacturer added melamine, a dangerous chemical, to milk powder to make the protein levels appear higher.

Brittany Scott, owner of SMART Reproduction Services, a sheep and goat genetics company, said several foreign customers had also pulled out of deals. This left many vials of semen sitting in her Arkansas facility, frozen in tanks of liquid nitrogen and waiting for buyers. They are eager to do their jobs, Scott said of her male goats and sheep. They understand the assignment and they do really well.

However, the work of selling their product has proven harder after Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, and China retaliated.

The lost sales have been "a punch in the gut, Scott said.

(Reporting by Heather Schlitz. Editing by Emily Schmall and Tom Polansek; Editing by David Gregorio)
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen sits in his office in the Nebraska State Capitol. April 29, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

LINCOLN  Gov. Jim Pillen announced late Wednesday that he intended to line-item veto $14.5 million in general fund appropriations from Nebraskas legislatively approved budget for the next two years, aiming 83% of his reductions at the Nebraska Supreme Court.

However, the Legislature said the vetoed bills were not properly filed by a midnight deadline Wednesday and that all vetoes were void pending further determination regarding the constitutionality of the present circumstances.

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In his veto letter returning Legislative Bill 261, the general spending budget bill, and LB 264, a bill allocating various state cash funds, Pillen thanked lawmakers for closing a major projected budget deficit for the next two years while making investments in education, developmental disability support and national security.

He sought to veto four items he said were necessary to honor our commitment to fiscal restraint, and that the small number of objections reflects the depth of fiscal conservatism in the budget.

It is critical that we continue to treat nickels like manhole covers, and I urge you to sustain four additional reductions to improve our fiscal position, Pillen wrote.

Even with the vetoes, the Legislature would still finish the budget with a positive balance of $1.1 million, because Pillens approach would have reduced spending instead of using as much money from the rainy day cash reserve fund. His approach reduced by about $14.5 million a transfer from the cash reserves. The lawmaker-approved state budget calls for transferring $147 million from cash reserves to help close a half-billion-dollar projected budget deficit.

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The final balance includes $1.55 million in anticipated spending to raise judges salaries by 1.5% in each of the next two years, via LB 513. Pillens office has said those salaries are already competitive nationally. His staff has declined to say whether he would veto the raises if passed.

Specific vetoes

Three of Pillens four line-item vetoes were to the states general fund, Nebraskas main pocketbook that will cover a total of $11 billion in spending through June 2027:

$11.99 million reduction of an increase to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

$2 million cut from public health departments, zeroing out COVID-19 pandemic-era increases because the pandemic is over and spending must be shrunk to pre-pandemic size.

$511,972 from the State Fire Marshal for salary and health insurance premium increases because he argues the agency has sufficient funding already.

State Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney meets with his staff on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature. March 26, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

The fourth veto sought to prevent an $18 million diversion of cash funds for Lake McConaughy recreational upgrades. Pillen said the project scope has changed over many years, and further discussion is needed about how local casino revenue could support road improvements.

Every branch must contribute

For the Judicial Branch, Pillen pushed to have the Legislature limit spending growth to 0.625% in fiscal year 2025-26 (a $4.16 million smaller bump) and 1.25% growth in fiscal year 2026-27 (a $7.83 million smaller bump). Pillen said those percentage increases are the same as were afforded to the University of Nebraska.

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Pillen said the Legislature approved bumps of 2.7% in the first fiscal year and 4.8% in the second year. He said court spending had grown by 36% over the past five years and blamed Supreme Court administrative leadership for not taking necessary steps to reduce spending.

In his original budget proposal, Pillen sought to keep the Supreme Court flat at $232.82 million. He proposed cutting the universitys budget by 2%, down to $676.99 million in general funds.

Every branch of government must contribute to balancing our state budget, Pillen said.

In contrast, Pillen said the budget included no growth for the Governors Office budget, as Pillen requested, and less than 1% spending growth for the Legislature.

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In a last-ditch effort last week, State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue successfully preserved $3 million of a then-$5 million proposed cut to the Supreme Court, which court officials said could jeopardize certain problem-solving courts or other court services. Holdcroft said he was disappointed in the larger cut.

Nebraska State Court Administrator Corey Steel. Feb. 23, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Problem-solving courts are intensive court programs bringing individuals and families together with one-on-one interactions with judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, law enforcement, court officials and more, often to help Nebraskans receive intervention or avoid imprisonment.

This includes Adult Drug and DUI Courts, Veterans Treatment Courts, Reentry Courts, Juvenile Drug Courts, Young Adult Courts, Mental Health Courts and Family Treatment Courts.

Cuts would end vital court services

Corey Steel, state court administrator for Nebraska, said in a memo to lawmakers Thursday, before the veto constitutionality was challenged, that the funding reduction would lead to the elimination of:

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A DUI Problem-Solving Court in Lancaster County.

A Mental Health Problem-Solving Court in Sarpy County.

A Veterans Treatment Court in Sarpy County.

A Drug Court in Platte County.

All transition living reimbursements for adults on probation, post-release supervision or for those leaving problem-solving courts.

Non-statutory services for juveniles on probation and a reduction in the reimbursement of many vital placements.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen sits in his office in the Nebraska State Capitol. To his right is Daisy, a chocolate lab in Pillens family. April 29, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke, whom Pillen elevated to the top role last fall, also pleaded with the Legislature to increase the courts budget. He listed a litany of items in his first State of the Judiciary address in January, in part because while the Legislature had increased the number of services the courts provide but had not always directed new funds specifically for those services.

Funke said existing dollars would soon run out, telling lawmakers that court officials have done what you have asked.

It is essential that the Judicial Branch receive adequate funding for the next biennium to sustain the progress we have made, Funke said.

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Those funds would be exhausted at the end of the next biennium, Steel confirmed, and impact the sustainability of services such as judicial and guardian or conservator training.

Steel attributed spending increases largely to legislative action responding to more Nebraskans in the judicial system, particularly high-need, high-risk individuals who require supervision. He said employees in all branches of government also received funding for salary increases.

Justice Jeffrey Funke, center, is officially named the next chief justice of Nebraskas Supreme Court on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Steel said the Judicial Branch has also returned more than $30 million in unspent funds over the last six years, while, unlike other agencies, the court cant increase fees to offset any reductions.

I urge the Legislature to override the governors veto and again ensure these vital services, that save state and counties dollars by reducing incarceration, increasing community safety and rebuilding the lives of individuals and families, Steel wrote.

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State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, a defense attorney, said the 2025 session has seen a systematic wind back of funding for essential services and those to make Nebraska better. He said cutting Supreme Court funding would hurt veterans, those struggling with mental health and other public safety initiatives.

If you actually want to make Nebraska safer, youd be funding those programs, Dungan said.

Property tax relief failure

State Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont, a former longtime firefighter, said he was concerned that the veto of the Fire Marshal could possibly impact training for volunteer firefighters or in maintaining current services, which go toward keeping Nebraskans safe.

Pillen also used his veto letter to voice disappointment in the failure of LB 170 on Monday to provide additional property tax relief and mirror the success in 2024 of decreasing property taxes statewide, the first time in 26 years. It was an exception to two earlier years of nearly $300 million increases in property taxes that came largely because the state increased spending to take on the portion of property taxes that would have been paid to community colleges.

State Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont. April 8, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Multiple senators said the vetoes appeared targeted at specific lawmakers, such as freshman State Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney, who represents Ogallala and Lake McConaughy. Strommen was one of seven Republicans who opposed the latest property tax proposal.

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The Legislatures failure this session means Nebraskans will not enjoy a repeat of this success, Pillen said.

Strommen said he was surprised and a little confused at the veto of Lake McConaughy funding. He said he would continue fighting for his western Nebraska constituents and hopes to override the veto.

State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, the Appropriations Committee chair, had no immediate comment on the vetoes.

Pillens letter did not acknowledge that LB 170 largely mirrored the same doomed special session approach from last fall on property tax relief  a session called at Pillens request.

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The Pillen proposal in that session, too, tried to raise sales taxes and shift or use the revenue to offset property taxes. Pillen is 0-3 for such proposals. He pledged to hold property taxes flat this year and has said that without a shadow of a doubt, he and allies would find additional property tax relief this year.

The budget the Legislature passed will direct $57 million for more property tax credits and about $11 million for homestead exemption increases. There is no similar takeover of a taxing authority like the community colleges.

Some opponents of Pillens cuts to public health departments said they would impact new and essential services and that local communities might choose to fill the hole using property taxes. State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha said it was particularly damaging as measles continues to spread.

Pillen said that as stewards of the publics resources, lawmakers must prioritize needs over wants and be conservative in good times as well as during fiscally challenging times.

Reducing spending is hard work, but Nebraskans expect us to exercise common sense and discretion in achieving a balanced, fair and operative budget, Pillen wrote. Together we can reduce government growth, invest in our kids, provide tax relief to hardworking Nebraskans and remain true to our conservative values to make sure our state is the greatest state in the union to live, work and raise a family.

The Appropriations Committee was set to meet Thursday afternoon for a first crack at which of the vetoes, if any, to try and override. Doing so would require at least 30 votes. However, upon the veto questions being raised, the meeting was promptly canceled.

Editors note: This story has been revised to reflect that Pillens vetoed budget bills may not have been filed in time to be accepted.

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An autopsy has confirmed 39-year-old Margaret Jasmins death was a homicide and that she died from multiple injures from a sharp object Sunday in Plaistow, according to the New Hampshire Attorney Generals Office.

Jasmin was found lying on the floor dead by Plaistow Police officers who responded to a 911 call at a home on Old County Road at 6:13 a.m. An arrest warrant was issued Sunday night for her spouse, Reya Jasmin, 36.

Reya Jasmin was found partially responsive and appeared to be suffering from several injuries when police arrived. She was taken to an out-of-state hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

A child was also in the home when police arrived, but was not injured.

Reya Jasmin is facing one count of second-degree murder for recklessly causing Margaret Jasmins death, officials said.
GENEVA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and other members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have spoken out against the U.S. tariffs in Geneva, calling for collective efforts to strengthen the multilateral trading system.

On Wednesday, the EU delegation launched an agenda on the fragmentation of global trade caused by tariffs at a meeting of the General Council, the WTO's highest-level decision-making body. The delegation asserted that all WTO members are severely affected by the U.S. tariffs and some non-transparent U.S. policies, which are "generating enormous uncertainty in the system and economic costs across the globe, reinforcing the fragmentation of global trade."

The EU delegation said the U.S. approach of addressing macroeconomic imbalances within its territory through microeconomic trade tools like tariffs is the wrong solution.

On the same day, Singapore and Switzerland initiated another agenda on behalf of dozens of WTO members to discuss how to support the rules-based multilateral trading system.

They said in a statement that since its establishment in 1995, the WTO has played an important role in providing a predictable, transparent, non-discriminatory, and open global trading system. They called for strengthened solidarity and cooperation, bold and collective action, and profound WTO reforms to effectively respond to the challenges facing global trade.

China stated that the U.S. "reciprocal tariffs" have severely undermined the multilateral trading system, impacted the global economy, and harmed the interests of developing countries. China called for actions to effectively address the impact of unilateralism and protectionism through upholding and strengthening the WTO's core values and fundamental principles.

Meanwhile, WTO members should work together to advance the restructuring of global trade, rebuild disrupted industrial and supply chains through openness and cooperation, and reduce trade barriers in a spirit of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, China stated.

China supports enhancing transparency in trade policies and advancing WTO reform, stressing that any bilateral arrangements must comply with WTO rules and principles and not undermine the interests of other members.

During the Wednesday meeting, about ten representatives, including those from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan and Brazil, voiced criticism of the U.S. tariff measures on behalf of over 100 WTO members.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on the United States to engage in constructive dialogue with the parties concerned. 
A private jet flying in dense fog crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday morning, killing at least three and sparking intense flames that scorched several homes, mangled dozens of vehicles and forced almost 100 people to evacuate.

The only people known to have died in the crash were aboard the aircraft, which appeared to have struck power lines before crashing into a home, according to federal officials.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Thursday afternoon that six people were on board the plane. At an earlier news conference, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said he did not believe any occupants of the aircraft survived.

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A spokesperson for Sound Talent Group, a San Diego County-based music agency, confirmed to The Times that the company had lost three employees in the crash, including Dave Shapiro, the group's co-founder. The other employees were not named.

Daniel Williams, former drummer for metal band the Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band later posted a tribute to Williams on its Instagram page with the caption, "No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever." A representative for the band referred an Associated Press reporter to the social post when asked about Williams' death.

Sound Talent Group said in a statement, "We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by todays tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time."

The Cessna 550 jet, which can accommodate up to 10 people, was registered to Daviator, a company based in Homer, Alaska, according to FAA records. The company's registered agent, Shapiro, is a certified flight instructor and airline transport pilot.

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The business jet crashed into a military housing community in the Murphy Canyon area just before 4 a.m. Thursday, according to Eddy. Officials have yet to say exactly how many aircraft occupants perished, but did confirm that no residents were killed in the crash.

Crews arrived on scene to find multiple homes and cars on fire," Eddy said at a news conference. Firefighters were able to quell the flames, but at least 10 homes were severely damaged, he said, and a block of vehicles were left completely mangled  at least a dozen, according to video from the scene.

Read more: Victims of San Diego plane crash: Music industry figures, Devil Wears Prada drummer, a photographer

At least eight residents suffered minor injuries, Eddy said. One was taken to the hospital, while the others were treated at a nearby evacuation center.

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Theres plane everywhere," Eddy said, calling the scene a "gigantic debris field."

The smell of jet fuel and burnt wood was overwhelming in Murphy Canyon, even blocks away from the crash and hours later. One single-family home had a massive, charred hole on one side, while nearby cars were almost completely flattened.

But the damage throughout the neighborhood was sporadic.

On one side of the street, a home had been scorched. But just across the way, the lot appeared untouched.

Nearby, what had been a parked sedan was now burned beyond recognition  the hood and all four doors blown open. On another section of the road that appeared damage-free, the rear of a Honda Accord was completely melted by the flames, its metal dripping into a puddle on the ground.

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A young resident riding his scooter through the neighborhood seemed puzzled by the scattered damage: How did it go from there to there? he asked himself.

Another resident described the impact of the plane as being like an earthquake. He said he heard a loud boom, and when he stepped outside, he saw the plane and the surrounding fire and wreckage.

I cant quite put words to describe what this scene looked like, jet fuel going down the street, everything on fire all at once," said San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl. "It was pretty horrific."

City Councilmember Raul Campillo, who represents the neighborhood, said he met some of the military families who evacuated in exceptionally challenging conditions, with help from one another and first responders.

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I heard stories ... about military families helping military families out of their homes, jumping out of windows, avoiding fire," Campillo said. We know there was many miracles and many heroic actions."

Wahl said almost 100 people had been displaced by the crash and the area remained closed for continued investigations and cleanup. An evacuation center was set up at Hancock Elementary School.

Multiple people who spoke to The Times described the community as close-knit because of residents' shared military ties. One man who evacuated from Sample Street with his three young children said he feels like his neighbors are all family, even if he doesnt know everyone in the development.

Residents told The Times that officials had not given them a timeline of when they could return to their homes.

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The private plane took off from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey around 11:15 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday and stopped for just under an hour in Wichita, Kan., according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. It was headed for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, a general aviation airport owned by the city of San Diego and located less than three miles from the crash site.

Shortly after 3:40 a.m. Thursday, the pilot announced on the radio that the plane was three miles away from landing on Runway 28, according to a recording from LiveATC.net. The pilot did not signal any problem with the aircraft and did not issue a distress call in the recordings reviewed by The Times.

Read more: Offshore oil operation near Santa Barbara resumes production after 10 years

The crash was reported at 3:47 a.m.

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The National Transportation Safety Board had arrived by Thursday afternoon to investigate, along with the FAA.

Eliott Simpson, a senior aviation accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, didn't comment on possible causes of the crash but confirmed the plane first hit power lines and was damaged about two miles from where it later crashed into a home. He said the jet was flying in very poor weather conditions."

Dense fog had rolled into the area around the time the plane was approaching the airport. Visibility was at half a mile at 3:55 a.m. and had dropped to a quarter of a mile just after 4 a.m. in the area around Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which is just a few miles north of the crash site, according to the National Weather Service.

"We had a marine layer that was deep enough that the clouds got into some of the valleys this morning," said Adam Roser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. "This one kind of crept in from the ocean into the valley and led to some of those foggy conditions."

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Experts say investigators are probably scrutinizing several aspects of the flight in their effort to determine what caused the crash, including weather conditions, potential pilot fatigue and whether the planes navigational aids were working.

There is never one hazard that becomes a causal factor in an aircraft accident like this, said Thomas Anthony, director of the Aviation Safety and Security Program at USC. Its always a combination of multiple hazards.

The executive airports control tower was not staffed at the time the flight was approaching, so the separation from other aircraft would have been handled by Southern California Approach Control, Anthony said. He downplayed what issues the lack of staffing might have caused, given that flights routinely take off and land during overnight hours when the tower is closed. At this point, the weather and time are probably the key factors in the investigation, Anthony said.

If youre leaving from Teterboro and then landing in Wichita for gas, the question is, how long have the pilots been awake? Anthony said. Its a crucial issue because one of the human factors that reduces the safety margins is fatigue. Fatigue erodes our decision-making capability, and it also makes us less likely to communicate or communicate well.

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"There is also, at 3:47 a.m., a sort of self-induced pressure to make it work or to get to where you want to go, he added.

Given the lower visibility near the airport, experts say the pilot was probably operating under Instrument Flight Rules in which pilots adhere to specific regulations that allow them to navigate and control the aircraft using instruments in low-visibility conditions. A pilot taking off under Instrument Flight Rules is perfectly safe as long as the airplane is qualified for it and the pilot is qualified for it, said Robert L. Ditchey, a former Navy pilot and an aviation consultant. Its done every day all over the world."



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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PLATTSBURGH  Work on the Plattsburgh Barracks Veterans Park is expected to kick off later this year.

Last Veterans Day, the City of Plattsburgh and members of the Plattsburghs Disabled American Veterans chapter were presented with a $125,000 Dormitory Authority of New York or DASNY grant by Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake) to improve the Plattsburgh Barracks Veterans Park, which is located on the former Air Force Base where the North Country Honor Flight ceremonies take place.

It is so important to honor our local veterans for all their sacrifices, and this park is one way to not only recognize their dedication and service, but also to celebrate Plattsburghs military history, Jones said. Members of the DAV and the City of Plattsburgh work diligently to maintain and preserve this park, and I am honored to help them in their mission.

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With the state funding, the city and members of the DAV plan to make renovations to the park, including improving the sidewalks and installing new lights.

Were going to redo the lights and do a lot of the groundwork there, Mayor Wendell Hughes said recently.

Im hoping, if we can get it done by, in between the second and third (Honor) flight, would be amazing so we can have it for the second half  but again, Im not promising that.

The first flight of the year took place May 17. The next three will fly out of Plattsburgh on June 28, Sept. 6, and Oct. 4.

According to a recent city resolution, the DASNY grant budget did not include funding for professional services to oversee the project and compile engineered design specifications before it goes out to bid for construction, so the city had to hire someone for these services.

At their May 15 meeting, city councilors awarded a $2,500 Professional Service Agreement to Barton & Loguidice, which will now include providing oversight for the implementation of the DASNY grant. The council approved the resolution unanimously.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Seasons 52, a longtime Country Club Plaza restaurant, permanently closed earlier this week.

There are plenty of other vacant stores around the shopping district, which has some wondering whats next for the historic property.

KCPD looking for fugitive wanted for 2024 double homicide

This is a tradition, and its been here forever, so hopefully we can restore that, said Country Club Plaza visitor Denise Dixon.

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A spokesperson for Seasons 52 told FOX4 in a statement.

Closing this restaurant is a difficult business decision, and one that we made carefully and thoughtfully, particularly because it impacts our team members and guests.

They said that all team members will have the opportunity to relocate to one of the other Darden restaurants in the area.

I was kind of shocked, because its been around for a bit. So that makes me kind of sad. But I like change, so Im excited to see what well go in that location, said Nicole Brinkman, who works at a store in the Plaza.

So whats next for the Plaza?

A spokesperson for the Country Club Plaza told FOX4 in part, We are proud of the behind-the-scenes progress being made and are committed to these necessary improvements that will support our long-term vision for the Plaza.

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3 tornadoes hit Henry, Benton, St. Clair counties in Missouri: NWS preliminary report

Visitors have some of their own ideas about what theyd like to see added to the shopping district.

A locally owned art co-op with local artists and things that you could go home and say this is a unique piece from someone who lived in Kansas City, thats what I would look for, said Plaza visitor Diane Rodwell. You dont see the specialty shops. You dont see a lot of the uniqueness that used to be the Plaza.

I would love to see another grocery store here. There used to be one back in the day. For residents living on the Plaza, a grocery store would benefit everyone, Brinkman said. I do appreciate the security thats been going around on the Plaza since the new owner took over, so thats a good thing.

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Denise Dixon frequents the plaza and says bringing on armed security guards was a step in the right direction.

Like Burberry, they were here for years and then they left but I think with the new security system that they have set up now its going to attract more people back to the plaza because they are going to begin to feel safe and I think that was the number one concern was safety, Nixon said. So Im just optimistic and I hope things work out.

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Here is the full statement from a spokesperson for the Country Club Plaza:

Country Club Plaza is focused on shaping a stronger future with plans to enhance the property and overall experience for our visitors. We are disappointed to see Seasons 52 leave the historic property, but as we progress, we realize that it may be a natural transition time for some tenants. We are proud of the behind-the-scenes progress being made and are committed to these necessary improvements that will support our long-term vision for the Plaza.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
PLEVNA, Kan. (KSNW)  A historic building in Plevna is at risk of demolition following a tornado that swept through Reno County overnight on May 18. The storm caused extensive damage to the towns former schoolhouse, which currently serves as Plevnas community center.

The 120-year-old red brick building, constructed in 1902, lost its roof during the storm. It also sustained damage to its windows and to the nearby city office. Town officials estimate that replacing the roof alone could cost up to $80,000.

Assessing the damage after tornado hits Plevna

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The city of Plevna, with a population of fewer than 100 residents, does not carry insurance on its municipal buildings. Many residents are also facing property damage at their own homes, leaving limited local resources to fund repairs to public structures.

The schoolhouse, originally part of the Plevna school district established in 1881, is considered a local landmark and has served as a gathering space for decades. Without financial assistance, officials say the building may need to be torn down due to safety concerns and the extent of the damage.

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to help cover repair costs. Donations can be made through the official GoFundMe page.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
May 21Portland police arrested 18 pro-Palestinian protesters who allegedly blocked the intersection of Commercial and Pearl streets near the U.S. Custom House on Wednesday afternoon.

Those arrested are charged with obstructing a public way, the Portland Police Department said on social media, adding that more details would be made available Thursday morning "after all of the booking is completed."

Photos posted to social media show what appeared to be a crowd of a few dozen gathered on the street corner and in the road.

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Some waved Palestinian flags, while others held signs that charged "Gaza is starving" and called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be imprisoned.

The crowd had mostly dispersed by 5:15 p.m., when a handful of police vehicles  and one marked as belonging to the Department of Homeland Security  were still parked along Pearl Street with their lights flashing.

The demonstration came after two of the last remaining hospitals in Gaza had been forced to cease operations, as the Israeli army conducts a renewed offensive on the territory, The Associated Press reported.

The U.N. charged Wednesday that it has not been able to distribute aid shipments, and officials have warned that Gaza is on the verge of famine. Netanyahu announced on the same day that Israel will implement a new aid distribution system in the coming days, the AP reported.

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The Atlanta Police Department has the mother of an abandoned 3-year-old boy in custody.

On Thursday morning, police said they went to a home on Belfort Road in southeast Atlanta in reference to calls about an abandoned child.

When officers got to the scene, they found a child they say looked to have been suffering from malnutrition and with minor scratches and lacerations.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

APD told Channel 2s Tyisha Fernandes they arrested the mother. When Channel 2 Action News arrived at the house, Fernandes saw the mother in the backseat of a police car.

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Speaking to Fernandes, neighbor Tony Birdsong said hed come home last night and it was ambulances and police and everything out there. Evidently the kid just walked away fromsomebody was supposed to be watching him, his mother is working at night and my neighbors was outside and everyone was outside, so thats pretty much the extent of what I know."

Channel 2 Action News also saw police take a man into custody.

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Police said Grady EMS units responded to the scene Thursday morning to assess the child, who was then transported to Childrens Healthcare of Atlantas Hughes Spalding Hospital for treatment.

APD said officers canvassed the area and knocked on doors trying to find the childs guardians but were unsuccessful.

The departments Special Victims Unit also responded to the scene and the Georgia Department of Family & Child Services was notified of the childs location and condition.

In an afternoon update, APD identified the mother as Lakisha Holmes.

Holmes and the childs stepfather Andre Roundtree, were both charged with second degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct. All of their charges are felonies.

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Police said Holmes was taken to the Fulton County Jail while Roundtree was taken to Grady Detention after becoming combative with officers during his arrest.

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Atlanta police released new video of a person of interest in the murder of a Georgia Tech student at The Connector Apartments on Spring Street.

Police said the victim, Akash Banerjee, was arguing with the person right before the shooting.

Were at a point where we believe this is a targeted act, Commander Andrew Smith with Atlanta Homicide Unit said at a news conference Wednesday.

Banerjee died Tuesday after being shot in the head at around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

A video that police released at the news conference shows the man they are now searching for, walking the hallway with a gun.

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We do know that he entered in well before the victim arrived, Smith said.

Channel 2s Eryn Rogers spoke with Fangting Xu, who was on campus at the time of the shooting, but lives on the same floor as the victim did.

She said she ran into police when she was trying to get back to her apartment.

He said there was an active crime. I didnt realize it was a shooting, she said.

Xu said it happened steps away from her door.

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Police said there is no threat to students like Xu and she said shes not worried about her safety either.

Rogers spoke with several other students who live in the building. They said they now have 24-hour security and have to show their key card all the time and that wasnt the case before the shooting.

Police are continuing to ask anyone who has information about the shooting to call Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477).

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The search continues for a 17-year-old girl after she disappeared after being dropped off near an airport in Australia on Thursday, May 15

Pheobe Bishop had been due to catch a flight in Bundaberg, Queensland, but failed to check in, police said

Officers have confirmed they're investigating two active crime scenes and have asked anybody with information to come forward







Police have asked the public for help in finding a missing 17-year-old girl, a week after she disappeared after being dropped off near an airport in Australia.

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Pheobe Bishop has not been seen or heard from since being taken to Airport Drive in Bundaberg in Queensland on Thursday, May 15 at around 8:30 a.m. local time, Queensland Police said in a Monday, May 19 news release.

Queensland Police Detective Acting Inspector, Ryan Thompson, previously said Pheobe had been dropped off at Airport Drive by "associates" but didn't enter the terminal building, per the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which noted that Bundaberg Airport is approximately 4.5 hours north of Brisbane.

"She had a flight booked to Brisbane and then on to WA [Western Australia] to visit a friend," the officer said, according to the outlet.

Queensland Police Pheobe Bishop Pheobe Bishop

In an update posted by Queensland Police on Thursday, May 22, seven days after the missing teen was last seen, officers said they were "continuing to process two crime scenes" amid the ongoing search.

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"A property in Gin Gin and a grey Hyundai ix35 are active crime scenes," the release stated. "Currently, no one is in custody in relation to this investigation however police continue to speak to people who know Pheobe."

"Police are continuing to appeal to the public for dashcam and CCTV footage of the grey Hyundai ix35 with Queensland registration 414EW3 near the Airport Drive and Samuels Road area in Bundaberg and also the Gin Gin area on May 15," police added.

Per a Wednesday, May 21 police post, Pheobe had been living in the Gin Gin property that's been declared a crime scene prior to her disappearance.

Detective Thompson said she'd been living there a while, stating, "It is not a direct family member that she resides with ... I believe there were currently two people that she was living with," the ABC reported.

9 News Australia/Youtube Police have said the property Pheobe Bishop had been living in has been declared a crime scene Police have said the property Pheobe Bishop had been living in has been declared a crime scene

Urging anybody with information to come forward, the officer added, per Thursday's news release, You may have the small piece of information that leads us to finding Pheobe."

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People dont vanish  someone knows something and were urging anyone with information to contact police immediately, Thompson insisted.

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"Police and family hold concerns for her welfare as her disappearance is out of character," police said in the previous news release on Monday. "The girl is described as approximately 180cm [around 5 feet, 9 inches], with a pale complexion, long dyed red hair, and hazel eyes."

Queensland Police Police have released an image of the car they've said is an active crime scene Police have released an image of the car they've said is an active crime scene

Pheobe's mother, Kylie Johnson, has been sharing updates on Facebook, writing in her latest that the family's "heartache and pain is raw and real."

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"If you knew Pheobe, you would know that she is free-spirited and loves hard! She is loyal to the core and cutthroat. She would never leave her family without contact," she insisted in a previous post.



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Police in Coon Rapids have fatally shot a man while responding to a domestic incident on Wednesday.

A statement from Coon Rapids Police Department states the man, who was allegedly wielding a knife, died at Mercy Hospital after being shot by an officer at a home on the 300 block of 111th Avenue just after noon.

Police say they had been called to the home by a woman reporting she had been cut with a knife.

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When "multiple officers" responded to the scene, they made "contact with the suspect from outside a home" and "attempted to deescalate the situation."

They heard a woman screaming, and she then fled the home along with a second man, who was also inside the property.

The suspect "refused to leave the home and was holding a knife." police claim, and after he refused to drop the weapon, an officer fired a 40 mm "less lethal round."

The suspect "retreated further into the home," with officers entering to arrest him. He was still armed with a knife, with a second officer firing a less lethal round.

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Coon Rapids PD describes the next sequences of events as follows: "When the suspect moved toward police, a third officer discharged a firearm striking the suspect. As the suspect attempted to get up, a fourth officer discharged a taser."

Medical aid was provided to the man, who was then taken to Mercy Hospital, where he later died.

The officers involved have been placed on standard administrative leave. Body cameras were active and captured the incident.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is investigating.

Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcements latest version of events, and may be subject to change.
Beirut, May 22 (Xinhua) - Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed on Thursday to end the presence and operation of weapons held by Palestinian factions outside the control of the Lebanese state, including within Palestinian refugee camps.

The meeting between the two leaders, followed by an expanded security meeting between Lebanese and Palestinian delegations, focused on ongoing efforts to reinforce stability and security in Lebanon and to ensure respect for Lebanese state sovereignty over all its territory, including the refugee camps, said a statement issued by Lebanon's official National News Agency.

The statement noted that both leaders affirmed that Palestinians in Lebanon are considered guests and are committed to the decisions of the Lebanese state, while also reaffirming rejection of permanent settlement and commitment to the right of return.

Salam and Abbas agreed to form a joint executive committee to oversee the implementation of these understandings.

The Salam government had already committed to limiting arms possession in Lebanon to the state alone. Meanwhile, Lebanon's Supreme Defense Council had recently warned Hamas against engaging in actions that compromise national security.

It came after investigations revealed that Hamas operatives violated the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel by launching rockets from southern Lebanon toward Israel on March 22 and 28. Following these incidents, the Lebanese army announced it had received from Hamas three Palestinians suspected of involvement in the rocket attacks.

As of Dec. 31, 2023, around 493,201 Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations in Lebanon, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. A 2017 joint Lebanese-Palestinian census estimated the number of Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon at approximately 174,422, residing in 12 camps and 156 gatherings across the country.

Salam and Abbas also stressed the need to end the Israeli offensive on Gaza and reject the displacement of the Palestinian people from their land.

Abbas arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday on a three-day official visit -- his first to Beirut since 2017. 
Some Fayette County neighbors say they are not looking forward to the annual Rick Ross Car and Bike Show clogging their roads and people parking illegally in their communities.

But police say this year, they will be cracking down on that type of behavior.

Police from the City of South Fulton and the Fayette County Sheriffs Office came together for a news conference on Wednesday, where they said they have a plan in place to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

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Some neighbors say that they still expect the event to bring them more headaches.

Channel 2s Tom Jones asked homeowner Leonard Younginer if the event is disruptive to his nearby subdivision.

Yes, Younginer emphatically said.

Younginer told Jones that he is very disappointed that the event is returning for another year.

Because of the getting in and out, he said.

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Neighbors say traffic is so bad during the event, they have a hard time leaving and returning home.

Not to mention people illegally parking in their neighborhood and loitering.

Bad behavior during this event wont be tolerated, City of South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows said.

Police discussed their efforts on Wednesday to crack down on lawbreakers and work to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Well be deploying almost 150 police officers to ensure that traffic congestion is at a minimum, Meadows said.

He said 20 tow truck companies will be on hand to haul away cars parked illegally. Officers will also be placed at the entrance of nearby subdivisions.

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So those officers will be able to help them out, Chief Deputy Anthony Rhodes with the Fayette County Sheriffs Office said.

A spokesman for Rick Ross said neighbors will also get placards to place in their cars that will allow them to pass freely and not be rerouted.

Younginer said he isnt impressed with any of the plans, including having to keep placards in his car.

Thats Gestapo-type stuff, to give you a placard to get into your own house, Younginer said

He said the answer is to move the event to somewhere more appropriate.

Like the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Younginer suggested.

Police arent allowing any traffic into the event at Rick Ross mansion on Highway 279.

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Patrons will have to catch one of 50 shuttle buses from off-site parking lots to get to the event. Some 4,000 to 6,000 people are expected to attend.

Police said they will have drones in the sky and cameras watching to make sure everyone is on their best behavior.

Officers are asking people to call 404-730-7109 if they observe any issues related to parking, traffic, or public safety.

They say their response team will be on standby to address any issues.

The car and bike show will be held on June 7.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he cannot confirm reports that US President Donald Trump told European leaders  in a conversation after his phone call with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin  that Putin does not want peace because he feels he is winning.

Source: Onet, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The prime minister had been asked about reports that Trump told the European leaders that Putin is not ready to end the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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"I cannot confirm this report. But I can confirm that the situation is difficult because there is not even a hint of goodwill on the Russian side to end the fighting as soon as possible and start honest peace talks. Both President Trump and our European quartet have formulated a very clear condition: an unconditional ceasefire, i.e. before the start of negotiations, so that people stop dying," Tusk said.

It should be noted that Tusk did not take part in the telephone conversation with Trump following his call with Putin.

"The Russians, on the other hand, have adopted their classic tactic: dragging things out and pulling various strings to avoid committing to a ceasefire and serious peace talks. The situation is complicated; I would not say critical, but it has been complicated from the very beginning," Tusk added.

Background:

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US President Donald Trump said in a social media post after his conversation with Vladimir Putin on 19 May that Ukraine and Russia would "immediately" begin negotiations on a ceasefire.

In his post, the US president made no mention of the administration's demand for an unconditional ceasefire, which Putin has openly rejected, or potential sanctions if Moscow refuses to make concessions.

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MEMPHIS, Tenn.  Tennessee Representative Justin J. Pearson says he has concerns about Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris recent remarks about xAI.

Pearson said Mayor Harisss statement  I currently dont have any reason to have any concerns (about xAI) is disturbing.

xAI has been using 15 gas-powered turbines to provide electricity to power its Colossus supercomputer in southwest Memphis on a temporary basis for the past several months.

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Last month, Pearson led a protest against the xAI turbines in Memphis. On May 9, he called out Director Dr. Michelle Taylor of the Shelby County Health Department and Mayor Harris, demanding answers.

Pearson calls out Health Department, Mayor Harris over xAI

xAI is demobilizing turbines in Shelby County and has no plans to site any turbines at its Tulane location. The company continues to evaluate various power solutions for its Memphis facilities while working within all applicable regulatory frameworks, the Greater Memphis Chamber stated earlier this month.

The Health Department released a statement two weeks ago, saying in part, The Shelby County Health Department is currently reviewing the air permit application submitted by xAI for a synthetic minor source under the state regulations and the Clean Air Act.

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Pearson said the following in a statement:

Mayor Lee doesnt seem to be listening and it seems he doesnt care to understand the lived experiences of those most directly impacted by corporate polluters. His dismissive comments suggest he has not read the research, considered the science, or engaged with experts who have found that xAIs illegal operations have likely pumped 17.2 million tons of Formaldehyde and more nitrogen oxides into the air over the past year than the Memphis International Airport. His failure to act signals that he does not see how allowing xAI to disregard the Clean Air Act and local air pollution law, putting profit over people, is problematic, even though he supervises the Director of the Shelby County Health Department. As Shelby County Mayor, Mr. Harris does not have the luxury of only caring about his friends, family, and the business community. His role demands that he lead with strength, wisdom, and compassion for all residents. I regard his refusalor inabilityto lead on this issue as not only a betrayal of public trust, but also a glaring display of incompetence and a commitment to maintaining the status quo. Group claims xAI plans turbines at new site; Chamber says no

Pearson says he expects the mayor to be concerned about xAI, an unpermitted gas plant in Shelby County.

Our county has received an F or D in air quality during his tenure. Shelby County is a pollution hotspot and holds the shameful title of Asthma Capital of the U.S. More adults and children are hospitalized in Shelby County due to respiratory illnesses than all of the other 94 counties in Tennessee, said Rep. Pearson.

We will continue to fight to prevent xAI and other corporations from polluting our lungs, said Rep. Pearson. And, we will hold our elected officials accountable to the people they were elected to servenot to the billionaires who profit at our expense.

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Pearson says he reached out to Mayor Harris several times and has not received a response.

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WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL)  If you had to grade Downtown Wichita Falls on an A-F scale, what would you give it?

In my opinion, I think its a C,' Wichita Falls Councilor At-Large Austin Cobb said during Tuesdays regular session meeting.

TxDOT partners with law enforcement for Click it or Ticket campaign

The comment comes as city staff provide an update and discussion on the 2018 Downtown Master Plan.

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Its a plan that hasnt been touched since 2018.

The C grade is probably correct, Duchess and Mimi co-owner, Roberta Richardson, said.

That is very generous of the councilman, Pinnacle Orthopedics Founder, Amber Schacter, said.

Though both differ on the homework grade, the two business owners agree that downtown needs more work.

Richardson said the past three and a half years in downtown have been a great experience. But shes about beautification. Adding more planters and signage could attract the foot traffic she seeks.

We need to make it more retail-friendly because we love downtown, Richardson said. It really has beautiful areas, but I think making it a bit more retail-friendly is the key.

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Schacter is on the opposite side of Richardson.

Its a poor investment as it stands right now to put a business downtown, Schacter said.

The former Karat Bistro owner is calling for some type of incentives to grow downtown. She said other North Texas downtowns have grown while Wichita Falls has dipped.

For Wichita Falls not to follow suit, and to blame it on the economy, I dont believe thats true, Schacter said. Truly treat downtown as a place of economic development and put our money where our mouth is, as were planning for [next years budgeting].

Cobb knows that if downtown is going to be successful, investment is needed.

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We need to incentivize some of these businesses to kind of help redo these buildings, Cobb said. The real core of economic development, I think, weve lost a little bit. Weve had some restaurants and stuff close, but I want downtown to be a vibrant part of our community.

Downtown business leaders push for stronger investment to build a stronger downtown.

Its unclear when the council could revisit its master plan and update it. Businesses and Cobb said theres plenty of opportunity to grow downtown.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Texomashomepage.com.
ST. LANDRY PARISH, La. (KLFY)  Its amazing what a trip to the courthouse will get you, because come to find out, the Pope, Robert Francis Prevost has a family history right in St. Landry Parish that dates all the way back to 1792.

I was informed by Mr. Jagneaux, the Clerk here, that maybe we should check and see specifically because they were tying two names that are very associated here with the parish, which was the Baquie family and the Lemelle family, said St. Landry Parish Archivist Larry Caillier Jr.

Callier says he has researched the Popes family lineage to create a chart that shows exactly where his connection to the parish begins. He says the Popes grandmother, Louise Baquie, came from a long-established Louisiana Creole family. The further back you look, the more St. Landry parish history you find.

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The Lemelle family was one of the wealthiest Creoles of color families in St. Landry Parish.

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I wanted to find out if we could go back even further than that and find some records. And interestingly enough, St. Landry Parish, at one point in time was known as Post de Opelousas. explained Callier. That military post shows in a census that in 1792 you had a Louis Lemelle who had married a Celeste Olympe De Grand Pre, that listed Louis Lemelle as a free man of color. That was at the Post at that point in time. So, we can actually trace the Popes lineage all the way back to this area, going all the way back to 1792.

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As the Popes lineage is traced back to the parish, Caillier says he hopes to also meet family members still in the parish to uncover even more stories.

Its never a one-way process, said Caillier. Whenever youre doing genealogical research, generally, it takes an entire community or family of individuals to all kind of do their part because not everything was recorded in documentation. So, you end up having to use family word of mouth in hopes that you still have family members that say, oh, I remember Great-Grandma Baquie, or I remember my nanny. That was it. That information is priceless.

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What is the secret of Pope Leos popularity? In less than a month, he seems to have brought something fresh to this most ancient of offices. He has reminded us that the timeless is always timely.

In other words, you do not have to be woke to be relevant. Might other churches, in particular the Church of England, follow his example? Catholics ought not to lecture other denominations; heaven knows, there are more than enough motes and beams to go round.

But Leo XIV does teach us a useful lesson about Christian ministry in the 21st century. The key to contemporary evangelism is not to tell people what they want to hear, still less to imitate the high priests of the secular world, but to speak with the voice of Jesus to Pontius Pilate: To this end was I born, for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.

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No sooner had Leo been elected than he gave notice to the Caesars of our time. His clear-eyed support for martyred Ukraine (in contrast to Franciss equivocation) was demonstrated by giving Zelensky priority over Trumps delegation in a private audience after his Inauguration Mass last Sunday.

No less urgent is a new policy on China, where the Communist Party is appointing new state bishops without consultation. Leo knows that if he abrogates the disgraceful concordat agreed by Cardinal Parolin under Pope Francis, Xi Jinping is ruthless enough to incarcerate Chinese Catholics en masse, as he has already done to their episcopate and to the Muslim Uyghurs. But St John Paul II showed how to handle one-party states and Leo has already echoed the Polish Popes signature message: Be not afraid.

The BBC and others who take the obsolescence of a 2,000-year-old institution as axiomatic have been claiming that the new Pope will be continuity Francis. Leo is an Augustinian friar who, having spent much of his life in Peru, will be no less zealous on behalf of the poor than the Argentinian Jesuit. His choice of name reminds us that the option for the poor goes back to Leo XIIIs social teaching and ultimately, of course, to the Sermon on the Mount.

Yet Leo is cast in a different mould from Francis. As a mathematician, a canon lawyer and an intellectual, he believes in resolving disputes, not reopening them. He has fully absorbed the legacy of Benedict XVI, whose recognition as a Doctor of the Church he will doubtless champion. In one of his first homilies, he quoted Benedict: God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful.

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For Leo, the mystery and beauty of the Catholic liturgy are integral to faith. That includes both forms of the Latin Mass and the various rites of the Eastern Churches. Anglicans should likewise treasure the Book of Common Prayer.

Leos inauguration Mass opened with the Sistine choir chanting the Laudes Regiae, the royal acclamations whose origins go back to Roman antiquity. The refrain  Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! (Christ conquers! Christ reigns! Christ commands!)  proclaims the ultimate triumph of Christ.

Leo XIV exudes American confidence. His promises to be a long, significant and surprising pontificate. The Leonine revolution has only just begun.

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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  The Trust for Public Land released is 2025 ParkScore Index on Tuesday, ranking Portland among the top 10 cities in the nation with the best parks.

The Trust for Public Land  a nonprofit that aims to create parks and protect public land  ranked park systems in the 100 most populous cities in the United States, noting the index is considered the gold standard for park evaluation.

For a third year in a row, Portland ranked among the top 10 cities on the list  claiming ninth for 2025. This also matches Portlands score for 2024.

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Portland City Council moves $2 million in City budget from police to parks

Portlands ParkScore ranking was boosted by especially high scores for park access and park investment. Eighty-nine percent of Portland residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, well above the national ParkScore average of 76 percent, Trust for Public Land said.

The organization continued, Portland also remains among the national park investment leaders, spending $274 per person on its park system, more than double the national ParkScore average of $133. The city also outperformed on ParkScores park acreage and park amenities rating factors.

The ParkScore ranking named Washington DC first on the list for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Irvine, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Cincinnati, Ohio and St, Paul, Minnesota.

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Rounding out the top 10 list: San Francisco, California; Arlington, Virginia; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon and Denver, Colorado.

Parks bring people together and deliver enormous physical and mental health benefits for visitors, Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of Trust for Public Land, said.

At a time when so much in our nation seems fractured or polarized, parks may be the last ideology-free zones, where everyone can come together, form meaningful relationships, and enjoy a few hours of peace and relaxation, Hauser added. At Trust for Public Land, we will continue to work with park departments and leaders at all levels of government to realize the full community-building potential for parks.

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LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)  A local post office will be dedicated to a Lebanon City Police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty years ago.

The Post office building at 101 South 8th Street in Lebanon will be known as the Lieutenant William D. Lebo Post Office Building.

The dedication ceremony is slated for 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, located at 735 Cumberland Street.

Lt. Lebo was one of multiple officers who were responding to a domestic call in the 1100 block of Forest Street in Lebanon on March 31, 2022. Lebo was killed during an exchange of gunfire.

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Lt. Lebo was close to retirement and had served on the department for 40 years.

His death marked the first one for Lebanon Police since 1903, and he was the third line-of-duty death for the department.

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Former President Joe Biden signed a bill into law in 2024 that was introduced by Congressman Dan Meuser (PA-09) and called for the dedication.

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BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB)  The first day of hurricane season is just over a week away. Officials are taking lessons learned from Hurricane Michael to help residents protect their homes, families, and businesses.

Whether youve lived in Bay County your entire life or youre new to the area, you can never be too prepared.

Everybody thinks they know hurricanes, but as we all know, the last big one was in 2018. So, everybody kind of needs to be reminded what to do, Hutt Insurance Agency President Trey Hutt said. If you get too close to June 1st, everybody gets a little nervous, and you hit the news cycle. But then, as you get into the meat of hurricane season later into August, September, October, things are awfully busy, and you dont want to wait until theres a hurricane in the box to start making a plan.

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The Bay County Chamber of Commerce wants to help, hosting a hurricane preparedness seminar.

Multi-agency effort assist in structure fire in DeFuniak Springs

The first seminar last year was so popular, the chamber hosted a second just a few days after.

This years event will be on Friday, June 6th, at FSU Panama City. Its a one-stop shop for hurricane readiness.

Theres the predictive forecast, the type of coverage of insurance that you should have. Many people during Hurricane Michael didnt know how important coverage is. They will learn about how to be prepared. Theyll learn about evacuation procedures and what to do to prepare before, during, and after the storm, Bay County Chamber of Commerce Director of Foundation Lisa Moore said.

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Local law enforcement and emergency services officials will be providing safety tips.

This year will also feature vendors that help residents prepare for and recover from natural disasters.

The event is open to the entire community.

You must be pre-registered to attend the seminar. For more information, click here.

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VIENTIANE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A trade and tourism promotion fair kicked off in southern Laos' Sekong province on Wednesday, showcasing products from Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The event, which lasts until Sunday, features a range of activities, including seminars on trade, investment, and tourism to boost economic development. It also includes cultural exchanges among ethnic groups from southern Laos, the local Pasaxon newspaper reported on Thursday.

Fashion items, household products, and clothing were presented at 47 booths at the fair. Innovative products such as electric vehicles were on display. 
A collection of artifacts linked with President Abraham Lincoln, including the blood-stained leather gloves he worn the night of his assassination, have been sold at an auction in the United States for $7.9 million (6.9 million).

A total of 144 items up for sale to pay off the remainder of a two decade old $8 million (7 million) debt that the Lincoln Presidential Foundation used to buy a one-of-a-kind cluster of Lincoln artifacts from a California collector.

The gloves proved to be the most popular item, fetching $1.52 million (1.35 million) including the premium. One of two handkerchiefs Lincoln had with him on April 14, 1865, the night he was shot, went for $826,000 (731,000).

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln, which was signed by him and taken by Alexander Hesler, on display at Freeman's | Hindman in West Loop, Chicago - AP Photo/Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times

A Wanted poster featuring photos of three suspects in the assassination conspiracy, led by John Wilkes Booth, sold for $762,500 (674,72 million), far higher than the top estimated price of $120,000 (106 million).

A page that shows the earliest known example of Abraham Lincoln's handwriting - AP Photo/Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times

The earliest known sample of the 16th president's handwriting, from a notebook in 1824, fetched $521,200 (461,140).

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In 2012 a controversy arose over what had been the crown jewel of the group  a stovepipe hat, appraised at $6 million, that Lincoln was said to have given as a gift to a southern Illinois supporter.

That story came under intense scrutiny, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, resulting in a 2019 study that found there was no evidence the hat belonged to Lincoln. It was not part of Wednesdays auction.

The foundation purchased a 1,540-item assemblage in 2007 from Louise Taper for the fledgling Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005 in the city where he established a law practice and lived while serving in the Illinois Legislature and briefly in Congress.

The artifacts were supposed to give the library and museum, which was rich in Lincoln-related manuscripts, a boost in what it lacked - the curiosities that attract tourists.

But fundraising was slow, forcing the sale of non-Lincoln portions of the collection and threats by the foundation to sell more before it finally extended the loan.
EFFINGHAM, Ill. (WCIA)  On Tuesday, police in Effingham were called to a car set on fire in the Walmart parking lot at the corner of Ramey Street and Ford Avenue. They said a Virginia man has been charged in connection, but they dont think he started or stopped there.

Their investigation has connected him to the vehicle fire and two other incidents. But there are still a lot of questions left unanswered.

For all this to happen at the same time, what we believe to be all by the same person, is pretty unusual, said Effingham Police Deputy Chief Kurt Davis.

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Hes talking about three different incidents that happened around 10 p.m. Tuesday night.

We received a call that a subject was busting windows out at one of the local banks, the Land of Lincoln Credit Union, Davis said.

Effingham Police believe the subject broke into the building through the front door and damaged the ATM outside the building, then kept going.

We received a report that there was a car on fire in an adjacent parking lot, which is the Walmart parking lot here in Effingham, Davis said. And then shortly thereafter that, this was all in a matter of a few seconds, they advised that he was going over to the Verizon store there and busted out the front door of it and actually entered into the building.

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The fire left a burn mark in the parking lot. The credit union is temporarily closed because of the damage. Verizon stayed open.

Two men accused of robbing Jacksonville spa facing federal charges

Davis said an officer was already very close to the area and responded in about a minute. They arrested 38-year-old Patrick Gaylen of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

The subject was not even from the State of Illinois. Davis said. To our knowledge, were not aware of any connection to the local area or any people in our area or in our community.

Davis said that despite rumors at this point, they dont have a concrete motive for why he hit these specific businesses.

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I know that there was some speculation that his car was disabled upon arriving here, and we dont know if that was his motive to try and break into the ATM to get money, Davis said.

Gaylen has been charged with four crimes, two of those being Class 2 felonies. Hes currently being held without bond. His first appearance in court will be Thursday. As for the businesses that were damaged, Davis says theyre not sure how much repairs will cost.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP)  The Dine Springfield Restaurant Week is around the corner and local businesses are getting ready to showcase their menus to the public.



Nearly 25 restaurants are already signed up to participate, many of them creating special menus just for the occasion. On Wednesday, the media got to sample foods from Bridge22 in the Marriott Hotel, the Student Prince, White Lion Brewing Company, Boricua Bites, Costa in MGM Springfield, as well as Panjabi Tadka.

Springfields X intersection construction project begins

It drives visitors here. I spoke to someone earlier today and they were like We get so many new people that come to my restaurant during restaurant week, so its great, its great for local business in that way, Springfield Business Improvement District Marketing Director Samantha Savoie told 22News.

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From German and Italian to Indian and Mediterranean, and also BBQ and American, there is a restaurant for everyone, even a vegan option. It is free for restaurants in Springfield to sign up! Dine Springfield Restaurant Week begins June 6th and ends on the 15th.

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The last will and testament of Prince Harry and Prince William's uncle Lord Fellowes, who died last year, has been revealed

He left the majority of his fortune to his wife, the elder sister of the late Princess Diana, and also contributed to a few charitable organizations

Both Prince Harry and Prince William attended a memorial service for Lord Fellowes last year, but they avoided each other amid their rift







The will and testament of Prince Harry and Prince William's late uncle Lord Fellowes revealed who will inherit his fortune.

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Robert Fellowes, the brother-in-law of the late Princess Diana, died in July 2024 at the age of 82, and his will stated that his wife  Baroness Fellowes, previously known as Lady Jane Spencer  would receive the bulk of his $2 million net worth, Hello! magazine reports. She would also inherit the income from his estate, but he requested that the income also support his wider family.

In the will, made in June 2012, he also left charitable donations to Tapping House Hospice, the Rhodes Trust, St. Mary's Church and the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. Fellowes was a graduate of Eton College, where his nephews Prince William and Prince Harry also attended during their teen years.

Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty; Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty

Fellowes married Princess Diana's elder sister in 1978. However, his ties to the royal family are also linked to his career  he began working for Queen Elizabeth in 1977, starting as an assistant private secretary before being promoted to deputy private secretary in 1986 and later private secretary in 1990.

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images Sir Robert Fellowes attends a service at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 2014 in London Sir Robert Fellowes attends a service at Westminster Abbey on November 20, 2014 in London

Prince Harry, 40, and Prince William, 42, were both present at their uncle's memorial service in August, with the Duke of Sussex traveling back to the U.K. from his California home to attend. However, the brothers reportedly avoided each other amid their ongoing rift, sitting separately at the event held at St. Mary's Church in Norfolk.

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William and Harry were both there, but we never saw them speak to each other, and they were keeping their distance," an attendee said, according to The Sun.

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Yui Mok - WPA Pool/Getty Images Prince William and Prince Harry attend an event honoring Princess Diana on July 1, 2021 Prince William and Prince Harry attend an event honoring Princess Diana on July 1, 2021

Prince Harry recently lost a legal bid to reinstate his state-funded police protection, telling the BBC in a candid interview after the ruling that his security concerns prevent him and his family from visiting the U.K.

"The only time that I've come back to the U.K. is sadly for funerals or court cases, with the odd charitable function where I can in between that. I've put myself at risk for that, but I will continue on with a life of public service, so I will always support the charities and the people that mean so much to me," the Duke of Sussex said.

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"I can't see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point. And the things that they're going to miss is, well, everything," he continued. "I love my country. I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done. I miss the U.K., I miss parts of the U.K. Of course I do. And I think that it's really quite sad that I won't be able to show my children my homeland."

Read the original article on People
As King Charles health becomes more serious, royal fans just received an update on another royal family members inheritance that will be split between Prince Harry and Prince William.

The will and testament for Harry and Williams late uncle, Lord Fellowes, was made public and it revealed which of the brothers will inherit his fortune. Lord Fellowesthe brother-in-law of Harry and Williams late mother, Princess Dianadied in July 2024. According to a copy of his will obtained by Hello!, his wife, Baroness Fellowes (previously known as Lady Jane Spencer), will receive the majority of his $2 million net worth. While Baroness Fellowes will also inherit the income of his estate, Lord Fellowes requested in his will that that income would also support his Prince Harry and Prince William and other wider family members.

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Related: A full timeline of Prince Williams affair rumors with Rose Hanbury

The will, which was created in 2012, also left donations to several charities including Tapping House Hospice, the Rhodes Trust, St. Marys Church, and the Provost and Fellows of Eton College, where Fellowes, along with William and Harry, all attended. Fellowes married Lady Jane Spencer, the elder sister of Princess Diana, in 1978. However, he had been linked to the royal family before then. In 1977, he started working for Queen Elizabeth II as an assistant private secretary before he was promoted to deputy private secretary in 1986 and a private secretary in 1990.

Despite their feud, both Prince Harry and Prince William attended Fellowes memorial service in August 2024, with Harry traveling from his home in Montecito, Californiawhere he lives with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two kids, Archie and Lilibettothe United Kingdom to attend. While both Harry and William were at the service, they avoided each other and sat separately at St. Marys Church in Norfolk.

William and Harry were both there, but we never saw them speak to each other, and they were keeping their distance, an attendee told The Sun. Harry recently referenced his uncles funeral in his legal bid to reinstate his state-funded police, which he lost.

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The only time that Ive come back to the U.K. is sadly for funerals or court cases, with the odd charitable function where I can in between that. Ive put myself at risk for that, but I will continue on with a life of public service, so I will always support the charities and the people that mean so much to me, Harry said during the trial, claiming that security concerns prevent him and his family from visiting the United Kingdom.

Prince William, Prince Harry

He continued, I cant see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point. And the things that theyre going to miss is, well, everything, he continued. I love my country. I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done. I miss the U.K., I miss parts of the U.K. Of course I do. And I think that its really quite sad that I wont be able to show my children my homeland.

The update to what Harry and William are inheriting from Fellowes also comes amid updates to their father King Charles cancer diagnosis. In May 2025, a source told News Nation Now that Charles health is still declining, which may force him and Harry to reconcile before its too late.

Charles is indeed a sick man, and he does have cancer, the source said. He also refused chemotherapy and decided on a less invasive treatment. While Harry and his dad arent speaking, Harry would be aware of all of this via back channels.

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Despite the update, the source slammed Harry for telling the BBC after his security case that he didnt know how much more time he would have to reconcile with his father. I dont know how much longer my father [King Charles] has to live, he said in an interview with the BBC. Unforgivable; health matters are sacrosanct. You do NOT mention health, ever, New Nation Nows source said in response.

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Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg is expecting her second child

The princess and her husband, Nicolas Bagory, welcomed their first child, daughter Victoire, in May 2024

The following month, Alexandra's father set in motion his plan to abdicate and pass the grand duchy to her eldest brother, Prince Guillaume







Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg and her husband, Nicolas Bagory, are expecting their second child.



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Alexandras parents, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, shared the happy news in a statement released on Instagram.



"Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess have the great pleasure of announcing that Princess Alexandra and Mister Nicolas Bagory are expecting their second child," the statement read.



Adding the child is expected in the fall, they continued, The Grand Duke, Grand Duchess and members of both families join in the joy of their children.

Alexandra, 34, is the fourth child and only daughter of Luxembourgs ruling couple. She and Bagory, 36, married in April 2023, with a civil ceremony in the Town Hall of Luxembourg City on April 22 and a private religious ceremony one week later at Saint Trophyme Church in Bormes-les-Mimosas, Var, France.

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The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Victoire, on May 14, 2024.



"The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess have the great joy to announce the birth of their granddaughter Victoire, first child of their daughter Alexandra and their son-in-law Nicolas, born this Tuesday, May 14 in Paris," the court said in a statement. The mother and child are doing well.

The following month, Princess Alexandras father announced a shake-up in the royal family, announcing his plans to appoint her eldest brother, Prince Guillaume, as his Lieutenant-Representative, or regent. He made his plans for abdication official on Dec. 23, announcing that he would pass the duchy to his eldest son on Oct. 3, 2025, after 25 years in power.



The move later this year will shift Princess Alexandra up one in the line of succession. She is currently eighth in line for the duchy, with Victoire ninth and her expectant child to be tenth.



Read the original article on People
May 22 (UPI) -- Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg is having her second child with husband Nicolas Bagory, her parents announced Thursday.

"Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess have the great pleasure of announcing that Princess Alexandra and Mister Nicolas Bagory are expecting their second child," an Instagram post reads.

"Birth is scheduled for fall," the post continues. "The Grand Duke, Grand Duchess and members of both families join in the joy of their children."

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The new addition to the family will join the couple's first born, Victoire, who arrived May 14, 2024.

Alexandra's parents, Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa also welcomed their granddaughter, with a social media post in 2024.

The couple tied the knot in 2023.
Credit: YouTube/CBS 8 San Diego

A Christian rock drummer is feared to have died in a plane crash that killed six people in San Diego.

Daniel Williams, formerly of the band The Devil Wears Prada, posted photos of himself at the controls of the Cessna 550 on Wednesday night, hours before it ploughed into a military neighbourhood, striking at least one home and setting others on fire.

Music agent Dave Shapiro and two of his employees were killed in the early hours of Thursday, according to his company, Sound Talent Group. While Mr Williams is believed to have been on board, the group did not name him as deceased.

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Authorities confirmed six people died when the plane crashed at around 3.45am amid foggy conditions, but are yet to confirm how many were onboard the plane.

The pilot and passengers were fatally injured. There were no ground fatalities or serious injuries, said Dan Baker, a senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is leading an investigation into the incident.

Dan Eddy, the San Diego assistant fire department chief, said the Cessna could carry between eight and 10 passengers.

Mr Baker said investigators had found that the plane crashed into power lines two miles from Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.

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A system meant to brief pilots on weather conditions was inoperative at the time of the crash due to an unrelated power surge, and lights meant to guide the approach to the airports runway were also not working, Mr Baker said.

Air traffic control at a US Marine air station in the city of Miramar, four miles from the crash, told the pilot that the area had low wind speeds and visibility of half a mile, Mr Baker said.

The NTSB did not state the cause of the crash.

Daniel Williams is believed to have been on board the plane when it crashed

The plane crash caused 15 houses to set alight.

We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends, a spokesman for STG said in a statement to Billboard.

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Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by todays tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.

Mr Williams, whose death has not been confirmed officially, wrote on Instagram that he was flying back with Mr Shapiro, under whose name the plane was registered.

Mr Williams posted a photo on his Instagram story showing him at the controls of the aircraft

He posted a series of images on his social media account of the plane at Teterboro airport in New Jersey before it continued its journey to San Diego, where he lived.

Two photos show him at the controls of the aircraft, with the captions: Hey you look at me Im the (co)pilot now, and Here we goooooo.

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His former band, The Devil Wears Prada, then on Thursday night posted a tribute on Instagram with a picture of Mr Williams.

Terrance Coughlin, a music executive, also paid tribute to the planes men on social media.

Some of my very first shows were booked through Dave, he said.

I had a handful of shows with Daniel, always a pleasure to see him play. Gone way too soon.

Mr Shapiro has a pilots licence, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr Shapiro also owned a flight school called Velocity Aviation and a record label, Velocity Records, according to his LinkedIn page.

Sound Talent Group has represented artists including Hanson, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton.

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Around 100 people, some of whom suffered minor injuries, have been evacuated from several streets in the vicinity of the crash site, which is a military housing neighbourhood.

The small private plane crashed in a military housing neighbourhood in southern California

Footage shows flames ripping through vehicles and homes in the area alongside a mass of debris, burnt-out cars and the side of a house destroyed by the flames.

One of the wings of the aircraft appeared to have broken off.

Mr Eddy said: There are multiple cars engulfed, we have jet fuel all over the place. We have hazmat on scene, and we asked for more resources. We are also working with the military.

He added: The main goal moving forward is to ensure all those houses are cleared and no one is inside. Then we will move in the middle where the plane crashed near the cars and search them, then search the plane.

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Mr Eddy confirmed that there was a direct hit to multiple homes in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood and said there was a gigantic debris field surrounding the site.

A photo from the scene shows a partially collapsed house with a wall caved in and rafters exposed and blackened.

A wing appeared to have broken off the aircraft

A house burnt in the incident - Gregory Bull

It was so foggy when the private plane crashed you could barely see in front of you, Mr Eddy said.

The pilot did not issue a distress call or signal any problems with the aircraft, and announced around 3:40am that the plane was roughly three miles from the runway, according to a recording from LiveATC.net.

He said it was very foggy at the time the private plane crashed. You could barely see in front of you, he added.

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Mr Eddy said the crash scene looks like something from a movie and responders were still searching for the pilot and other souls on board the aircraft.

Vehicles destroyed in the fire - Mike Blake

The Federal Aviation Administration said the number of people on board is unknown. The Cessna 550 Citation II aircraft has a capacity for about six to eight passengers, plus two pilots.

The plane, which is registered to a company in Alaska, took off from Teterboro airport in New York on Wednesday night, stopped in Kansas to refuel before setting off for San Diego a short time later.

It was scheduled to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport two minutes after the crash occurred.

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Scott Wahl, San Diegos chief of police, sent his heartfelt condolences to the families impacted by the crash.

Mr Wahl said more than 50 police officers had arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash and began evacuating the 100 or so residents displaced by the incident.

The wreckage on fire

More than 50 police officers arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash - Gregory Bull

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday morning, he said: I cant quite put words to describe what this scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see.

For the police officers and firefighters to run in there, start trying to evacuate people out of the way, and doing anything and everything they could to try to save somebodys life is really heroic.

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Todd Gloria, the mayor of San Diego, said the crash was a tragedy and our hearts are with those who are impacted.

He added: Our city will be supporting these families who are impacted here. Theyre a part of the military community that makes up our city, the proud partners of our community, and we will support them for as long as it takes.

Several vehicles and homes were set on fire - Gregory Bull

Christopher Moore, who lives one street over from the crash site, said he and his wife were woken up by a loud bang and saw smoke when they looked out the window.

They grabbed their two young children and ran out of the house. On their way out of the neighbourhood they saw a car engulfed in flames.

It was definitely horrifying for sure, but sometimes youve just got to drop your head and get to safety, Mr Moore said.

Police rescued three husky puppies from one of the buildings as they went door-to-door to evacuate residents.

Dogs are transported from the scene by emergency workers - Mike Blake

The San Diego Police Department said it was responding to the crash and urged members of the public to avoid the area. Writing on X, police told anyone who smelled jet fuel or finds debris to call the police.

The incident is the latest in a series of US aircraft crashes in recent months, making 2025 the deadliest year for aviation disasters since 2001, according to Telegraph analysis.

In January, an American Airlines jet collided with a military helicopter as it approached Dulles airport near Washington, DC, killing the 67 people aboard both aircraft.

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Vice President JD Vance on Monday denounced John Roberts recent comments about the role of the judiciary, accusing the Supreme Court chief justice of echoing a profoundly wrong sentiment, while asserting that the courts need to be deferential to President Donald Trump.

Roberts, earlier this month, spoke about the importance of judicial independence in the face of relentless attacks on judges.

In the Constitution, the judiciary is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president, Roberts explained.

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Its job is to, obviously, decide cases but in the course of that check the excesses of Congress or of the executive, and that does require a degree of independence, he continued.

Vance shared his strong disagreement with that assessment.

I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment, Vance said during an interview with The New York Times Interesting Times podcast recorded during his trip to Rome.

Thats one-half of his job, he added. The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people theyre not allowed to have what they voted for. Thats where we are right now.

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Vance claimed he was making a philosophical point while suggesting that the courts are standing in the way of enacting the Trump legislative agenda.

I think that you are seeing, and I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people, he added.

The vice president also defended the administrations use of the Alien Enemies Act to ramp up deportations despite the legal setbacks its faced.

In a 7-2 decision Friday, the Supreme Court denounced how the administration has been using the 18th century wartime law to quickly remove Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants with little to no due process.

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But Vance said the courts ought to be somewhat deferential to Trump, especially on this issue.

In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the peoples elected president of the United States, he added.

Vances comments come as the Trump administration has come under fire for ignoring court rulings and undermining the rule of law. A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday accused the Department of Homeland Security of unquestionably violating a court order when it quietly flew eight migrants to South Sudan.

A federal judge also blasted the Justice Department after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was charged with trespassing at an immigration detention center, only for the DOJ to drop the charges a few days later.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History has wrapped up a pilot program that gives students a deeper understanding of nuclear science and New Mexicos role in the Atomic age. Mission Fission brought in 300 eighth-grade students from three different schools within Albuquerque Public Schools.

Your New Mexico summer camping guide 2025

The goal was to give students an interactive experience in various STEM fields, from exploring scientific principles to social studies applications and even role-playing as reporters covering significant historical events. So far, the pilot program has been hugely successful. Weve had great feedback from students. Students seem to be enjoying the program and also being able to express and demonstrate some of the learning that theyve had through the experience here at the museum, said Gabriuel Nemiroff, Director of Education, National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

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The museum said the pilot program was a huge success and hopes it becomes part of the APS curriculum, which would bring in 4,500 students each year. While the Sandia Foundation provided funding for this pilot program, future funding remains the biggest obstacle for Mission Fission.

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MINSK, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The China-Belarus all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership has seen high-level development and fruitful cooperation in various fields, said Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while visiting Belarus from Wednesday to Thursday.

During the visit, Liu met Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, held talks with First Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Nikolai Snopkov, and co-chaired the sixth meeting of the Chinese-Belarusian Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation.

Conveying Chinese President Xi Jinping's warm greetings to Lukashenko, Liu said that under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, the all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Belarus has maintained high-level development and yielded abundant fruits of cooperation in various fields.

China stands ready to work with Belarus to implement the important consensus reached by the heads of state, firmly support each other on issues concerning core interests, promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and deliver greater benefits to the peoples of both countries, Liu said.

Lukashenko asked Liu to extend his sincere greetings to Xi and praised the Belarus-China relationship as a model of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Belarus firmly upholds the one-China principle, opposes the political maneuvering of the COVID-19 origin tracing, looks to work with China to implement major Belt and Road projects, develop new quality productive forces, and support each other's development and revitalization, Lukashenko said.

The two sides reaffirmed their commitments to firmly safeguarding the outcomes of World War II and international fairness and justice, opposing hegemonic bullying and unilateral sanctions, jointly implementing the three global initiatives, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

China and Belarus held the sixth meeting of the Chinese-Belarusian Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation on Wednesday to exchange views and make arrangements for cooperation in key areas such as economy and trade, science and technology, security, education, culture, customs inspection and quarantine, and industry.

The two sides signed a memorandum of the meeting and cooperation documents on the digital economy and science and technology, and agreed to establish a subcommittee on industrial cooperation.

Liu also inspected bilateral cooperation projects, including the China-Belarus Industrial Park. 
Utah Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy tries to reason with an unruly crowd during a town hall event at the University of Utah on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch)

This story has been updated.

Utah Rep. Celeste Maloys proposal to sell off nearly 11,500 acres of public land in southwestern Utah was shot down this week after receiving bipartisan pushback in Congress.

The proposal, which identified parcels owned by the Bureau of Land Management to sell to Washington and Beaver counties, the Washington County Water Conservancy District and the city of St. George, was included by Maloy as part of Congress budget package.

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But on Wednesday evening, Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who previously said selling public lands is a line he would not cross, rallied support from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strip Maloys proposal from the budget bill during a House Rules Committee meeting.

I worked hard with my colleagues in the House and locally elected officials to make sure that the one big, beautiful bill represented the unique needs of Utahns, Maloy said in a statement Thursday. My lands amendment would have delivered critical relief to fast-growing communities in my district.

However, Maloy acknowledged it was removed from the reconciliation package, which she voted for.

I still supported the bill, because it delivers a strong economy that will benefit Utah and the country as a whole, she said. I will continue to fight for Utahns to responsibly manage federal lands that currently landlock our communities and hinder economic growth.

Maloy, in an earlier statement, said the land would help the southwest corner of the state expand water, transportation and housing infrastructure, as the region deals with rapid population growth. St. George was eying an airport expansion; the Washington County Water Conservancy District had plans to build a new reservoir; Washington County was looking to widen some existing roads.

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In a statement, St. George city leaders thanked Maloy for working on the amendment, and they plan to have more talks with lawmakers on the issue.

We were disappointed that some groups falsely presented this amendment as if it were a land grab, city leaders said. In actuality, the amendment was intended to protect existing critical infrastructure or future critical infrastructure that would be built on already disturbed public lands. Only approximately nine acres would have been used for attainable housing, at a spot adjacent to a future cemetery and an existing residential subdivision.

The Washington County Water Conservancy District issued a similar statement, telling Utah News Dispatch it respects Congress decision to remove Maloys amendment.

We appreciate Congresswoman Maloys efforts to facilitate the availability of federal lands for exchange in a manner that would benefit the water district, the statement reads. The water district remains committed to securing the necessary federal lands in Washington County for critical water infrastructure projects through established, traditional processes.

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Maloys amendment identified a total of 70 parcels to be sold in Utah. The proposal had a far greater impact on Nevada, with Republican Rep. Mark Amodei earmarking nearly 450,000 acres for disposal in his state.

The proposal received broad criticism from environmental groups and public land advocates, who said the bill lacked language mandating what the land would be used for. They argued there was nothing stopping the governments from purchasing the land, then using it for something other than the originally stated purpose. And some of the land abutted rivers and popular recreation areas, including Zion National Park, prompting concerns over access and environmental harm.

The proposal also had its critics in Congress, on both sides of the isle, including Zinke, who called it his San Juan Hill, referring to a famous Spanish-American War battle.

I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isnt creating more land, Zinke said in a news release on Wednesday.

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Environmental groups celebrated the decision, issuing a flurry of statements and reactions.

Travis Hammill, the Washington D.C. director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Maloy is the latest in a long list of politicians with the bad idea to try and sell off public lands.

The through line of those failed efforts is this: love of public lands transcends geography and political party. Americans dont want to see these lands sold off and time and time again have risen up to make their voices heard, Hammill said.

Kyle Roerink executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said Zinkes move to tank the disposal sends a strong message to lawmakers of all stripes: We can never break the public trust and the Colorado River for billionaire tax breaks.

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Others noted the bipartisan opposition to the amendment, including Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity, who called the attempt appalling and Gilded Age-level stuff.

Republicans public lands fire sale was so greedy even their own caucus wouldnt support it, Donnelly said in an emailed statement. I hope people remember it the next time Republicans try to pretend they care about public lands.

According to the amendments text, about 70 parcels were identified to be sold off to four entities, at market value. Consider:

Washington County would have been allowed to purchase 23 parcels covering about 6,492 acres.

The Washington County Water Conservancy District would have been allowed to purchase 22 parcels amounting to about 4,375 acres.

St. George would have been allowed to purchase 23 parcels amounting to about 520 acres.

Beaver County would have been allowed to purchase three parcels amounting to roughly 62 acres.

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The amendment was a small part of what President Donald Trump has called the big, beautiful bill that has been in the works for months. The bill extends Trumps 2017 tax law, cuts steps out of the energy permitting process, increases defense and border security spending, and makes substantial changes to Medicaid.

The bill cleared the House early Thursday and is headed to the Senate.

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Editors note: This article contains descriptions of child abuse. If you suspect a child is being abused or neglected, call the Indiana Department of Child Services' Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. The hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All adults are mandated reporters in Indiana.

Anybody who has had contact with Zara Arnold, the 5-year-old girl brutally killed after years of alleged abuse, will be looked into, said Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears.

Zachary Arnold, the girl's 41-year-old father, is charged with murder in her death. After Arnold's initial court hearing May 22, 2025, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears was pointed about what was coming in the case.

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"I cannot stress enough, this certainly is not the end of the investigation," said Mears, adding Zara "suffered incredible abuse" and "torture."

Mears is seeking life without parole for Arnold. His girlfriend, Andrea Lopez-Figueroa, is also facing charges as police say she witnessed the abuse but failed to call 911.

"Certainly anticipate that more serious charges are going to be filed against additional individuals," Mears said. "We are evaluating the conduct of everybody who came in contact with this child."

Whether members of Indiana's Department of Child Services, which was alerted several times to possible abuse, will be part of that investigation remains to be seen.

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"We cannot comment on the particulars of a pending investigation," said Michael Leffler with the Marion County Prosecutor's Office when asked about that possibility.

Court documents in the case against Arnold reveal a timeline of DCS involvement before Zara was found dead inside a home on May 19. Arnold initially said she fell down the stairs, but later admitted to choking her.

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears and Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Chief Chris Bailey speak Thursday, May 22, 2025, with media after the initial hearing of Zachary Arnold.

A timeline of DCS incidents recorded

Nov. 16, 2020: There was an allegation of physical abuse of 9-month-old Zara involving bruises and scratches on her abdomen after time spent with Zachary Arnold. DCS found the claims substantiated.

April 5, 2023: There was an allegation of physical abuse of 3-year-old Zara, including bruises, after time spent with Arnold. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

May 7, 2023: There was an allegation of physical abuse of 3-year-old Zara, including bruises resembling fingers on her legs after time spent with Arnold. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

May 20, 2023: There was an allegation of physical abuse of 3-year-old Zara, including bruises, after time spent with Arnold. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

June 27, 2023: There was an allegation of physical abuse of 3-year-old Zara, including Arnold grabbing Zara hard and holding her by her crotch area. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

July 11, 2023: There was an allegation of neglect, sexual abuse, and physical abuse of 4-year-old Zara, including marks on her throat and body. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

March 31, 2025: There was an allegation of neglect of 5-year-old Zara, including Arnold doing drugs in front of her and slapping her. DCS found the claims unsubstantiated.

New evidence revealed a noose was used to swing Zara around

According to court documents, detectives found new evidence of abuse on a phone belonging to Lopez-Figueroa.

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One video includes a FaceTime recording where Arnold has a noose around Zaras neck and swings her body around. Other videos depict him throwing the 5-year-old over his shoulder and letting her body hang behind his back while the noose is around her neck. She appears to still be alive in all of these videos, according to court records.

A warrant was issued for Lopez-Figueroa's arrest on charges of assisting a criminal and failure to make a report. Arnold's initial hearing was early May 22. He was not given a bond.

The prosecution is seeking a sentence of life without parole for Arnold.

Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON. Ryan Murphy contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 'Everybody' being investigated in Indiana girl's brutal killing, prosecutor says
GRAND RAPIDS  A west Michigan prosecutor has decided not to retry former Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr in the 2022 shooting death of Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese immigrant, after a mistrial was declared earlier this month on a second-degree murder charge.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker announced May 22, after reviewing the case, he was not convinced he could obtain a conviction from a jury had the case proceeded to another trial.

"There is nothing factually I believe I could do differently which could impact the case for a different outcome," Becker said in a prepared statement provided to the news media.

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Becker said Schurr will not be tried on any other or lesser charges. Schurr's case will be dismissed.

Schurr, 34, was originally charged with one count of second-degree murder stemming from the April 2022 shooting of Lyoya. Schurr shot Lyoya in the back of the head after tackling him after Lyoya tried to flee a traffic stop in southeast Grand Rapids.

Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker speaks with the news media on May 22, 2025, at the county building in Grand Rapids, Mich. Becker said he would not retry ex-Grand Rapids Police Officer Christopher Schurr, who was previously charged with second-degree murder, stemming from the 2022 shooting death of Patrick Lyoya. A mistrial was declared in that trial.

Ven Johnson, an attorney representing the Lyoya family in a separate, civil case against Schurr, said the family expressed deep disappointment at Becker's decision.

The Lyoya family has not only lost Patrick, but now the hope that former officer Christopher Schurr will ever be held criminally accountable for taking Patricks life," Johnson said in a statement. "With todays decision, what was once a pause in justice has now become a permanent reality. This is not a verdict nor the outcome the Lyoya family sought."

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Schurr's lead defense attorney, Matt Borgula, of Grand Rapids, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment.

Robert Womack, a Kent County commissioner who has called for policing policy changes, said the Lyoya family is definitely broken by the decision.

They were very, very hurt, and still trying to understand the American justice system, Womack told reporters following Beckers announcement. They dont see any excuse ... for the person who shot their son in the back of the head to be walking free, but were going to continue to work with them on the healing process.

Becker originally charged Schurr in June 2022, leading to the former officer's dismissal from the Grand Rapids Police Department.

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Schurrs attorneys had argued the former officer was acting in self-defense, after Lyoya attempted to grab Schurrs Taser during the physical struggle that ensued after Schurr chased Lyoya. Prosecutors had argued Schurr used excessive force.

Earlier this month, a Kent County jury deliberated for close to 20 hours before telling Circuit Judge Christina Mims they were unable to reach a verdict, prompting Mims to declare a mistrial May 8. Jurors heard about five and a half days of argument and testimony in the trial. The jury was able to see footage of the shooting played numerous times, and from different angles, from the moment Schurr exited his patrol car to the moments after he shot Lyoya. Jurors also heard from a series of witnesses, the bulk of whom were qualified as policing experts, but also from eyewitnesses, investigators, police officers who responded to the scene of the shooting and Schurr himself.

The media room display shows Christopher Schurr taking the stand to testify in 17th Circuit Court on Friday, May 2, 2025, in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Becker told reporters that the jury was split 10-2, with the majority of jurors favoring acquittal. He said he had no second thoughts about the decision to charge Schurr.

"I put the best case I could forward when I tried this case," Becker said. "I did the best I could. I did everything I could. The jury couldn't reach a verdict. I still stand by the decision."

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Much of the testimony focused on the Taser  defense lawyers argued Lyoya had gained possession of it from Schurr. Once Schurr believed Lyoya had control of the Taser, he was within his rights to use deadly force and shoot Lyoya, policing experts called by the defense testified. The prosecution focused large parts of its case around Schurrs training with the Grand Rapids Police Department (GRPD), where he had joined as a recruit in 2015. Policing expert witnesses called by the prosecution said Schurr acted improperly by chasing Lyoya on foot after he tried to flee the traffic stop.

After the mistrial was declared, some protesters in Grand Rapids called on Becker to retry the case.

Later on May 22, a few dozen demonstrators gathered downtown to protest Becker's decision not to pursue a retrial. Speakers, including Womack, urged the crowd to continue pressuring elected officials in Grand Rapids and beyond to enact policy changes for law enforcement.

Lyoya's death, and the subsequent release of footage of the shooting to the public, sparked protests in Grand Rapids in 2022, when demonstrators called for increased police accountability. After the shooting, the Grand Rapids Police Department instituted policies including de-escalation training and emphasizing the sanctity of life.

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This story was updated with additional information.

Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecutor: No retrial for ex-police officer Schurr in death of Lyoya
VANDERBURGH COUNTY, Ind. (WEHT)  Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers says a recent law signed by President Donald Trump underscores what she calls a growing issue  child exploitation.

Washington politicians from both sides applaud as President Trump and the first lady sign the Take It Down Act.

It prohibits people from knowingly publishing authentic and AI-generated explicit media of others without their consent, which includes AI media depicting children.

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So horrible what takes place, said President Trump. This would be the first-ever federal law to combat the distribution of explicit imaginary posted without the subjects consent.

These arent actual real depictions of real people, said Prosecutor Moers. Whats happening here is that theyre taking real peoples photos and then turning them into sexually explicit content. I think this law signed by the president just underscores the importance of the use of the internet to exploit children.

Prosecutor Moers believes a federal law like this only strengthens the Indiana child exploitation laws already in place. In Indiana, people accused of child exploitation and solicitation can be charged with a level four felony and staring down 2 to 12 years of jail time.

This federal law comes as Prosecutor Moers as sexual exploitation and crimes against children in general is growing.

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After talking with Prosecutor Moers, she unveiled statistics from the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, headed by state police. In 2024, the law enforcement was made aware of 18,000 crimes against children. Nearly a tenth of that number were reported in the last month.

Prosecutor Moers believes legislators taking this seriously will make more parents aware of what could happen to their kids. She recommends parents to monitor their childrens digital activity and talk with them about, what she calls, dangers of putting their faces on the internet.

Ultimately, Prosecutor Moers encourages anyone who suspects child exploitation happening at home and in our neighborhoods to contact the police.

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NEWTON, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  Prosecutors in Catawba County will seek the death penalty against 75-year-old Terrell Eugene Giddens, the man accused of fatally shooting a father in front of the victims three young children during a disturbing road-rage incident last fall.

In a courtroom on Tuesday, Giddens was once again denied bond as he faces charges of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. The charges stem from an October 12, 2024, shooting that authorities said unfolded in a Lake Norman subdivision.

Witnesses reported that after a confrontation between Giddens and 40-year-old Jeffrey Michael Guida, both men exited their vehicles. What followed was a burst of gunfire, first at Guida himself, and then multiple rounds allegedly fired into the vehicle where Guidas children, ages 13, 11, and just 2 years old, sat inside. Thankfully, the children were not physically injured.

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Citing the particularly heinous and cruel nature of the crime and the presence of multiple child witnesses, authorities confirmed the state will pursue the harshest penalty available under North Carolina law: death.

North Carolina law allows capital punishment for first-degree murder cases involving aggravating factors, including the risk to others and especially vulnerable victims.

Giddens remains in the Catawba County Detention Facility without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for October 13, 2025.

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Mosquito bites are irritating at best and vectors for disease at worst.

Depending on what country you are in, they can transmit malaria, dengue fever, West Nile, yellow fever and Zika, among other maladies.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

As global temperatures rise, mosquito season is getting longer in many parts of the United States. And, some people are magnets for mosquitoes. (It may be because of how you smell.)

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The good news is that there are a range of insect repellents and essential oils that you can spread or spray on your skin - and some are more effective than others. The Washington Post asked mosquito experts about the best ways to prevent bites - and whether things like citronella candles help at all. Heres what they said.

What is the most effective mosquito repellent?

Mosquito experts say the gold standard for preventing bug bites is DEET, a synthetic repellent developed 80 years ago to help the U.S. Army keep mosquitoes away. Despite reassurance from experts about its safety, some people arent comfortable spraying DEET on themselves, on their children or while pregnant. (DEET can be found in some of the most common bug sprays on the market. Check the label.)

In the 1980s and 90s, there were reports of adverse health effects in children and adults after they ingested or repeatedly used DEET. But subsequent studies have found that DEET presents little to no risk when used as instructed.

If you use this stuff as the directions say, your risk is minuscule of anything negative happening to you, and weve been using this thing for a long time, said Jeffrey R. Bloomquist, a retired professor formerly at the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers DEET to be safe and effective even for those who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents use DEET sparingly on children younger than 2 years old.

What if Im not comfortable using DEET?

The EPA has a list of active ingredients that have been found to be safe and effective as skin-applied insect repellents. Look for products that have an EPA registration number on the label.

Picaridin, another synthetic repellent registered by the Environmental Protection Agency, has been found to be as effective - or even more effective - at repelling mosquitoes as the same concentration of DEET.

And, experts say picaridin doesnt have the oily feeling or odor some brands of DEET can have.

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Those who arent comfortable applying DEET directly to their skin can spray it on their clothing instead, particularly the cuffs of long-sleeved shirts and pants, said Chris Adigun, a board-certified dermatologist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Just note that the repellent should not be applied under clothing, and it can damage some plastics and synthetic materials.

For those who want a naturally-derived bug repellent, the EPA has registered products with oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE). But, the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend oil of lemon eucalyptus for children younger than 3.

How long do repellents last?

EPA-registered repellents will state how long a product will last on the label, said Scott Carroll, president of Carroll-Loye Biological Research, an insect-repellent testing laboratory. And, he said those are the result of carefully conducted science.

The registered ones have data behind them that are backing them up, Carroll said.

Do essential oils repel mosquitoes?

There is some evidence that certain essential oils can protect against mosquitoes. But there isnt enough research regarding how long these last and how the products stack up against EPA-registered repellents.

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In one study, researchers tested 20 essential oils against both ticks and mosquitoes and found that clove oil was the most effective against mosquito bites, with a complete protection time of nearly two hours, while cinnamon oil protected for about 80 minutes.

There is repellency in certain essential oils, said Whitney Qualls, the assistant director of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in St. Augustine, Florida. But the total protection time an essential oil provides can vary from product to product and even within the same product when companies source from different suppliers, Qualls said.

If you are in an area where you have mosquito-borne disease transmission and that is your concern, you should wear a repellent that has an EPA-registered active ingredient, Qualls said.

For the essential oil experiments, the researchers mixed one part essential oil with nine parts lotion and applied the repellent directly to the skin. But many store-bought products typically use about a 5 percent (or less) concentration of essential oils, said Immo Hansen, senior author of the study and a professor of biology at New Mexico State University who studies disease vectors.

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These small concentrations may not be as effective.

Check with your physician or your childrens pediatrician before using products containing essential oils. And dont try to make your own repellent.

Certain oils may not be safe for frequent and long-term use on skin, Carroll said.

Its important that essential oils not be regarded strictly as benign, he said. They wont be for all individuals.

What about ultrasonic or other devices?

Wearable ultrasonic devices are rarely successful at repelling mosquitoes, according to Daniel Markowski, technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association.

Bug zappers are exceptionally good at electrocuting bugs - but not mosquitoes.

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Markowski said the more effective devices rely on a repellent. Anyone can buy whats known as a spatial repellent, which releases a vapor containing a compound like metofluthrin, for example. But, Markowski said unless that vaporized repellent encompasses your entire body, theyre just going to bite you on the leg versus the hand.

A simple fan could ward off mosquitoes, Makowski said. But, the fan has to be on a pretty high setting to push away mosquitoes that are flying against the wind. And, if youve got a fan that thats strong, youre getting blown in the face, he said.

And while some studies suggest that citronella candles may help a little, they are not as effective as other methods for warding off mosquitoes. One study found a citronella candle had no effect on the insects.

If youre one of those individuals mosquitoes absolutely love - theyre always going to find you out in the field - then you probably need a little bit stronger repellent, Markowski said.

What else can I do to prevent mosquito bites?

Make sure all window screens in your home are in good shape and have a proper seal. Conduct perimeter checks outside your home to make sure theres no standing water, debris or empty containers that could serve as homes for mosquitoes.

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Try to limit outdoor activities during dawn and dusk - when mosquitoes are most active. When youre outside, cover up. Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants to protect against mosquitoes, ticks and other insects. Mosquito nets are also a good option to protect babies - just drape them over the stroller, for instance.

When should I be concerned about a mosquito bite?

When a mosquito bites, people often have a localized reaction, with redness and potential swelling, said Marc Siegel, a professor of medicine at George Washington Universitys School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The mark from a mosquito bite is the skins reaction to the cocktail of proteins and enzymes in the insects saliva - including an anesthetic to keep the host from feeling any pain and an anticoagulant to keep the blood flowing. If the bug bite doesnt go away or gets worse after two to three days, contact your doctor, Siegel said.

West Nile virus is the most widespread mosquito-borne virus in the United States, Siegel said. Most people infected who are infected arent even aware they have it and experience no symptoms. About 1 in 5 people with West Nile virus develop a fever, headache, body aches or a rash, among other symptoms, according to the CDC. But Siegel said were seeing more cases of other equally concerning infections, such as Dengue fever, among U.S. travelers who became infected abroad.

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People who experience flu-like symptoms after a mosquito bite should contact their physician.

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ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP)  Mongolia's 10-month-old coalition government appeared to be breaking up as protests calling on the prime minister to resign entered their ninth day.

The leaders of the three governing parties were meeting Thursday to review their coalition agreement, one day after the largest one  the Mongolian People's Party  decided to eject the second largest from the coalition.

The People's Party accused the Democratic Party of breaching the agreement after some of its younger lawmakers backed calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai.

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Democratic Party leader Gantumur Luvsannyam, who is the deputy prime minister, said that the views of those legislators were not the party's position.

I never signed anything saying I would gag my members. I know my partys temperament, he said.

The fate of the prime minister was unclear ahead of a parliament session on Friday. Oyun-Erdene has held the post for four years and survived previous calls to step down.

The ongoing protests were sparked by reports of lavish spending by the prime minister's son. For the mostly young protesters, the reports brought to a head long-simmering complaints about government corruption involving officials and their families.

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Ariunbileg Oyunbilegt, a 45-year-old mother of three, said she had been at the demonstrations from the start, largely out of disgust at the displays of wealth among the well connected, particularly the prime minister's son.

The promises by the prime minister to fight corruption are false and empty, she said.

Another protester, Purevnamgil Batsaikhan, said he was also motivated by the graft among the ruling class, and felt the political system was due for changes to prevent malfeasance.

The prime minister has been in office for six years, but nothing has changed, said Purevnamgil, 26, adding that protesters were mainly young and not affiliated with any political party.

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Thursday's protest appeared to go off without violence, with many participants expressing their views on an open microphone.

Mongolia is a landlocked resource-rich nation of 3.5 million  half of whom live in the capital  that is squeezed between China and Russia. A communist state during the Cold War, it transformed into a democracy after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The protesters say the country's mineral riches have benefited business interests and the wealthy, while many Mongolians still live in poverty.

The coalition government was formed after an election setback for the People's Party's last June that reduced its majority to 68 seats in the 126-member parliament. The Democratic Party holds 42 seats and the third coalition member, the HUN party, has eight.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI)  Following a controversial move by some city councilors to raise the Palestinian flag this month, Mayor Brett Smiley plans to issue an executive order that would create a flag policy at Providence City Hall.

Smiley said he first learned about the City Councils request to raise the Palestinian flag as he was returning from a weeklong trip to Israel.

The mayor said last week that while he would not have flown the flag himself, he approved the councils request because Providence is and will remain an inclusive and welcoming city that supports diverse opinions and voices.

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RELATED: Palestinian flag raised outside Providence City Hall

Smiley told 12 News on Wednesday that he was surprised to learn the city did not already have a flag policy on the books.

It just had never been an issue before. It had never come up, Smiley said. We will be issuing a flag policy and that will hopefully clarify requests and circumstances like this in the future and hopefully avoid any future conflicts.

The mayors approval of last Fridays flag-raising received backlash, while some city councilors raised concerns with City Council President Rachel Miller for making the request on behalf of the council without consulting all of its members first.

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Theres 15 councilmembers here and we all have a voice and we should be able to make decisions because it certainly doesnt appear that we at all have been asked, Councilman James Taylor said at last Thursdays council meeting.

The ceremony, led by Miller and Councilor Miguel Sanchez, led to a large rally and counterprotest outside City Hall last Friday. Dozens gathered on Dorrance Street waving both Palestinian and Israeli flags.

RELATED: Palestinian flag-raising at Providence City Hall divides councilors

Providence City Council spokesperson Marc Boyd told Target 12 that there are also early conversations about a flag policy among councilors, but nothing official has been drafted yet.

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Boyd said the city raises many flags throughout the year, including the Dominican, Irish, Italian, Armenian, and Israeli flags. He said the Palestinian flag-raising followed the same process, which included approval from the mayor.

Boyd said the City Council has never voted on a flag-raising, but noted that individual councilors have advocated for flag-raisings and other cultural events to the mayor.

The events of last week did raise questions about the protocol for approving flag-raising requests, since there has never been a formal policy in place, leaving it open to discretion, Boyd said. Any new process would not require a full Council vote for every routine flag-raising, and under any process that the Council President would support, the Palestinian-American community would still have been able to raise their flag last week.

Smiley said he would not be looking to limit flags to just the American or Rhode Island flags.

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Every city and town in Rhode Island  we all have a tradition of raising certain flags, and its almost always done without controversy, and its usually done in a way that helps celebrate a culture, Smiley said. What I am looking for is to deny the opportunity for one person to raise a flag that is divisive and not healthy for our community.

The mayor said hes looking at other policies around the state and region for guidance, in addition to studying a recent Supreme Court ruling.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in May 2022 that the city of Boston violated free speech rights when the city refused to fly a Christian flag outside City Hall. The city ended up paying $2.1 million to settle the legal case.

It is a concern of ours to make sure that we dont find ourselves in an unnecessary lawsuit, Smiley said. We want to respect free speech rights, but we also understand that government is allowed to set policies around things like this, but we have to have a policy so that it doesnt appear to be arbitrary.

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The mayor said hes looking to issue his executive order sometime in the next two weeks.

The next flag that is currently scheduled to be raised at City Hall is the Pride flag, according to Smiley.

Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI)  Mayor Brett Smiley said his second trip to Israel was very meaningful, as it was his first visit to the country since converting to Judaism last summer.

The mayor returned to Providence last Wednesday after spending a week in the country with a group from the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island earlier this month.

There was a lot that I gained in terms of understanding and context for the current situation. But it was personally deeply moving for me, Smiley told 12 News on Wednesday.

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The mayor also explained what it was like to have to take shelter amid alarms warning of an airstrike.

Everywhere you go right now, every time you check into a hotel or go out to eat, you see very clear signs for where the closest shelter is, Smiley said. That alone is jarring, to recognize that theres millions of people for whom thats how they live their daily lives.

The mayor said that on the last night of his trip, the group was sitting down for dinner in Tel Aviv when they were alerted that they would have to move.

One of our guides came in and said, In a couple of minutes were going to stand up. Were going to walk outside, were going to take a left, and then youre going to take the first left into a parking garage,' Smiley recalled. And right as she finished speaking, we could hear the sirens go off.

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RELATED: Palestinian flag-raising at Providence City Hall divides councilors

Smiley said it was a very real way to experience and empathize with the situation.

This is a condition that no one should have to live with, whether its in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine or any other war-torn portion of the world, Smiley said. So, it helped to provide a little bit of empathy for me and also a little gratitude to get to live in this country every day.

The trip brewed controversy among some groups, like the Rhode Island chapter of the Jewish Voice for Peace, who protested outside of the mayors Hope Street home the day after he returned from his trip.

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NEXT: Should Providence City Hall have a flag policy? Mayor Smiley thinks so

Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook.

Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts.

Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app.

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Providence City Hall is pictured in the city's downtown. Providence officials say their fiscal 2026 budget depends on a proposed 7.5% property tax levy increase now under consideration at the State House. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)

A proposal to let Providence exceed Rhode Islands tax levy cap cleared a Rhode Island House of Representatives committee Tuesday, moving the city one step closer to the 7.5% increase city officials are seeking in total tax revenue for fiscal year 2026.

The House Committee on Municipal Government and Housing voted to move bill H6162, led by Rep. Rebecca Kislak and three other Providence Democrats, to the House floor. The bill authorizes the capital city to exceed Rhode Islands 4% property tax levy cap. The levy comprises owner-occupied and non-owner-occupied residential properties, commercial properties, tangible properties and natural growth, or increase in value, of real estate.

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But not everyone was on board. Five committee members voted against the bills passage  a third of the 15-member committee.

Kislak predicted as much. I dont know that its going to be unanimous on committee, she said in a conversation Tuesday in the House chamber before committee meetings began.

Providence Democratic Reps. David Morales and Jose Batista have previously expressed their deep dissatisfaction with the bill and voted to block its passage. Rep. Cherie Cruz, a progressive Pawtucket Democrat, and two Republicans, Rep. Richard Fascia of Johnston and Rep. Robert Quattrocchi of Scituate, resisted the bills alongside Morales and Batista.

The only Providence delegate to vote in support of the bill in committee was Democratic Rep. Raymond Hull. Anthony DeSimone, another Providence Democrat, was absent for the vote Tuesday.

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Kislaks bill would allow an increase up to 8% over the previous year. Mayor Brett Smiley and the Providence City Council have shared their plans to increase by 7.5% the total tax levy for the upcoming fiscal year to help the city weather a court-mandated public school funding settlement from November 2024.

Smiley said in April that the next years budget hinges almost entirely on the tax levy hike. The citys budgeting process is set to end in June, ahead of the new fiscal years start on July 1, and the City Council will need to review and revise the current spending plan if the levy hike falls through.

But the Senate Committee on Finance has yet to schedule a hearing on Sen. Sam Zuriers companion legislation S1041, as of Thursday. The Providence Democrat introduced the bill on May 9.

I was not able to gain any cosponsors from the PVD Senate delegation, Zurier wrote in a Wednesday night email. I expect the Finance Committee to hear the bill in the next couple of weeks. I am optimistic about its chances, but there is still uncertainty.

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The mayors office is staying calm, said spokesperson Josh Estrella in an email Wednesday. We do not have any concerns  we expect the bill to be heard within the next couple of weeks, he wrote.

Estrella called the bill critically important to the city in order to avoid cuts to city services. He noted that similar measures have passed recently for Middletown, Warren, and New Shoreham.

Helen Anthony, chair of the City Councils Committee on Finance, shared that view in an email Tuesday.

Without action by the General Assembly, the mayors budget cannot move forward, Anthony wrote. Thats why the city council passed a one-year exemption to the 4% levy increase cap.

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Kislak said she expects House passage. When a mayor and a unanimous City Council request something of the General Assembly, we should give it to them, she said before the committee vote Tuesday.

A number of Providence legislators, residents and landlords feel the tax increase will disproportionately affect both owners and occupants of smaller, multifamily homes. Critics like Morales and Batisita have argued the city has not fully explored other revenue sources, such as Providences industrial waterfront or its myriad of tax-exempt nonprofits both big and small.

While Smileys proposal would actually lower direct tax rates for fiscal year 2026, the sharp increase in Providence real estate pricing during a recent evaluation means that most properties citywide would see increases in their tax bills regardless. Single-family and condo homeowners could see a 4% tax increase. Multifamily homes with between two and five units, owner-occupied or not, could face hikes up to 16%.

In her email message, Anthony underlined that the budget process has not yet concluded.

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The City Council is doing our job of vetting the proposed budget in detail, but the city needs flexibility, she wrote. I urge the General Assembly to pass this exemption and to work with us in the months and years ahead to find creative, fair and balanced ways for our states cities to raise revenue without overburdening residents.

Council spokesperson Marc Boyd said in an email Thursday that the City Council will hold a second public hearing on the budget on Monday, June 9, at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Residents can also discuss their concerns with their wards elected councilor during regularly scheduled ward meetings, Boyd said.

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A sign that reads "Free Palestine" is seen at a demonstration for Palestine, in Athens, Greece, on May 21, 2025. Thousands of people took to the streets of Athens, Greece, on Wednesday to protest Israel's latest military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing blockade. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people took to the streets of Athens, Greece, on Wednesday to protest Israel's latest military offensive in the Gaza Strip and the worsening humanitarian crisis resulting from the ongoing blockade.

According to police estimates, more than 3,000 people took part in the protest. Demonstrators chanted anti-war slogans, waved Palestinian flags, and held banners reading "Solidarity - Palestine Will Be Free" and "Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity," the latter referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for whom the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands, has issued an arrest warrant.

The protest, held outside the Greek Parliament, was organized by the Palestinian Community in Greece and supported by left-wing political parties and labor unions. Participants called for "an immediate end to the bloodshed and the starving of children."

"I can't stand by and watch all this atrocity," said Aspasia, a 41-year-old private sector employee, to Xinhua.

"As humans, we can only do one thing: be present. We came here to show our support for the people," added George, a 20-year-old worker.

Earlier in the day, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis spoke by phone with Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

According to a statement from the Greek Foreign Ministry, Gerapetritis reiterated Greece's call for an immediate ceasefire and unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid. 
The Trump administration has dramatically cut staff at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As a result, Great Lakes scientists can't protect people and animals from toxic algal blooms.

What's happening?

As ProPublica reported, federal funding cuts are weakening environmental protections in the Great Lakes. The remaining staff members at the lab protecting the lakes now can't purchase equipment to process water samples or operate buoys to prevent toxic algae exposure.

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The lab's boat and buoy operations will likely be limited or interrupted, creating gaps in algal bloom monitoring. Halting this monitoring will affect drinking water supplies, recreational waterways, and millions of people who depend upon the Great Lakes for water.

"The basic scientific supplies that we use to provide the local communities with information on algal bloom toxicity  our purchasing of them is being restricted based on the limitations currently being put in by the administration," said Bret Collier, who oversaw the federal scientists that run the Great Lakes harmful algal bloom program, per ProPublica.

Gregory Dick, director of the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan said, "This has massive impacts on coastal communities."

Why are algal bloom protections important?

The Great Lakes are the world's largest surface freshwater system and a crucial source of water for millions of people.

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Algal blooms have worsened in the lakes because of human activities such as wastewater treatment and farming. These activities introduce excess nitrogen and phosphorus into the water, causing algae to grow at rates the ecosystem can't handle.

Meanwhile, rising global temperatures create ideal conditions for toxic algal blooms to thrive.

Algal bloom monitoring is crucial to preventing health problems and to avoiding spending billions of dollars to remedy toxic waterways. Government funding for this work is necessary to safeguard public health, preserve local ecosystems, and protect aquatic life essential to the food chain.

Should the government be allowed to restrict how much water we use? Definitely Only during major droughts No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

Without such protections in place, people can suffer from many severe conditions, including neurological disorders and lung infections.

How can I protect myself from algal blooms?

Municipal water authorities in Great Lakes states have written letters in support of the lab and emphasized the need for its continued work on algal bloom protection. Advocates are speaking out about the necessity for funding for algal bloom monitoring and the health risks that result without it.

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Individuals can protect themselves by checking local health advisories before using or touching any natural body of water. If you see bluish-green algae in the water or notice an unpleasant smell, it's best to avoid it and contact your local health department to request that it be tested.

Where algal blooms are visible, avoid swimming, paddling, or drinking the water. Keep pets away from algal blooms, and thoroughly wash anything that touches them.

Being cautious and informed about algal blooms can help you stay safe while enjoying the outdoors, especially while government monitoring capabilities remain uncertain.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
From left, Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, and commissioners William Luther, Jamie Clemmer and Bilenda Harris-Ritter. (Photo by Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate)

The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday authorized election integrity reviews for Pulaski and Izard counties.

The board also voted unanimously to decertify all three members of an unnamed countys election commission after hearing the results of its staffs investigation of complaints about the 2024 general election. The board doesnt name counties when levying sanctions until the affected county and individuals have an opportunity to respond and either accept or challenge the proposed sanctions.

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State law allows the board to conduct election integrity reviews in the odd-numbered years following an election. The board can choose the counties randomly or by a two-thirds vote if it has received information a substantial violation of election or voter registration laws has occurred.

The board issued a letter of reprimand earlier this month to Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth over violations of state election law during early voting last year. A deputy clerk changed the street addresses of 132 voters in a precinct file without authorization, according to the SBEC letter. Other clerks office employees caught the changes two days later but not before four voters had cast the wrong ballots. The employee resigned shortly after the incident, the letter says.

Unauthorized changes to voter records are considered a felony under A.C.A. 7-1-104, and the SBEC referred the matter to the Pulaski County prosecutor and the attorney generals Election Integrity Unit.

The SBEC also issued a letter of warning to the Pulaski County clerk for failing to prevent unauthorized changes to voter records.

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The election integrity reviews approved by the state board Wednesday will seek to identify errors and any evidence of fraud in voter registration records and absentee voting documents as well as verify the accuracy and integrity of election results, according to ACA 7-4-124.

No specific mention was made about the reason Izard County will be the subject of an election integrity review, but the board voted at its December meeting to refer complaints from election monitors to SBEC staff for investigation.

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Decertification of election officials

Separate votes by the seven-member SBEC mean the chairman of the unnamed countys election commission wont be able to work in an official election role for 14 years and the other two commissioners for eight years.

Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, leads a meeting in Little Rock on July 15, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)

SBEC Director Chris Madison said it would be up to the respective county political party committees to appoint new members to the election commission if the sanctions are accepted. County election commissions are composed of three members, two from the majority political party and one from the minority party.

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County election officials were the subject of six complaints to the state board, including two that referred to a hostile environment created by the election commission chair and poll supervisors toward poll watchers.

The allegations included hostility and [an] overall lack of professionalism in dealing with poll watchers and a failure by the chair and poll supervisors to recognize the rights and responsibilities of the poll watchers, thereby preventing the poll watchers from performing their duties, SBEC legal counsel Waylan Cooper said.

Cooper said the investigation found evidence supporting the allegations, including an incident when the county commission chairman called sheriffs deputies to remove a poll watcher after the poll supervisor tried to prevent the watcher from sitting in a chair that allowed a full view of the voting process. The chairman also raised his voice while telling poll watchers they were being ejected from the location, intimidating at least one potential watcher from participating further, Cooper said.

The hostility toward poll watchers later spread to another voting site in the same city on Election Day, Cooper said, when a disagreement between the poll supervisor and a poll watcher led to the supervisors husband, who was also a poll worker, verbally accosting the watcher with profanity and telling the watcher to leave.

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The backstory is that theres two political factions in this community, and the election officials are on one side of a local issue and the poll watchers on the other, Madison told the board.

Madison made a similar remark about Izard County during the boards December meeting: [Izard County] has a city that has two very engaged factions, and Hatfields and McCoys kind of comes to mind.

Commissioner Sharon Brooks, State Board of Election Commissoners (SBEC website)

They have to be professional and adult enough to put aside that they dont like the people who are poll watchers and allow them to do their jobs, SBEC member Sharon Brooks said. The law requires it and their training demands it, and theyre not doing that, she said.

The board voted unanimously to decertify the supervisor and her husband for four years. Madison noted that the couple has since moved to another county and Clemmers motion applies statewide.

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Regarding the allegations against the county commission chairman, SBEC member Bilenda Harris-Ritter said, I think its unconscionable that the chair of the election commission is behaving like this  and encouraging other officials to behave like this.

Harris-Ritter offered the motion to decertify the commission chair for seven two-year federal election cycles, the maximum the state board can impose.

Madison said the action was appropriate to help solve some problems up there. The SBEC staff will be intimately involved in the countys election processes going forward, he said.

The board voted separately to decertify the other two members of that countys election commission over a complaint that the commission didnt deliver provisional ballots to the clerk and secretary of state until a week after the deadline. Unlike in many Arkansas counties, the clerk there is not the election coordinator; another member of the election commission is the coordinator.

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In another case, the board voted to decertify an election commissioner in a different county for 14 years over his failure to show up on time to open a polling place at the start of early voting. Board members in support of decertification noted similar issues had happened in previous years.

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Russian forces are working to establish a buffer zone along the country's border with Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, following his return from the Kursk region in southern Russia.

The decision to establish the zone had been taken, Putin said by video link during a government meeting. He did not stipulate where the buffer zone would lie or how large it would be.

"Our forces are currently engaged in solving this task, hostile firing points are being actively suppressed, and the work is ongoing," he said.

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Putin also issued instructions for a comprehensive reconstruction programme to be worked out for southern Russian regions affected by the war, including Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk. The regions have been damaged by Ukrainian drones and artillery fire.

Putin stated previously that the Kursk region had been cleared of Ukrainian troops following their incursion in August. He visited the region earlier this week.

He accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of lying when he said Ukrainian forces were still holding parts of Kursk and Belgorod.

Waves of Ukrainian drones disrupt air traffic in Moscow

Earlier, Russian authorities said that Ukraine had bombarded Moscow airspace with hundreds of combat drones since Tuesday evening, though 485 were intercepted.

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The unmanned aircraft were keeping the capital and its surrounding area on edge. Russia's Defence Ministry said an especially high number of drones was shot down in the Moscow region but also in the areas to its south.

The military figures could not be independently verified but suggest almost continuous Ukrainian attacks. Despite the large number of deployed drones, the reported damage on the ground was minimal.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported throughout the afternoon that drones heading towards the capital had been shot down.

Flights at Moscow's airports were repeatedly suspended overnight, according to Russias aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya. Temporary take-off and landing restrictions have become routine amid ongoing drone threats.

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About three dozen flights were delayed, the authority said. In the afternoon Rosaviatsiya again imposed restrictions on several regional airports.

In the Russian region of Bryansk, one person was killed and another injured in a Ukrainian drone attack, according to Governor Alexander Bogomaz. Andrei Klychkov, governor of the Oryol region south of Moscow, wrote on Telegram about "massive drone attacks." Mobile internet was reportedly shut down.

One person killed in Russian attack in Kherson region

Meanwhile, Russian forces launched their own wave of attacks on Ukraine. An 85-year-old woman was killed in the Kherson region during Russian shelling, according to military Governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

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The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia deployed an Iskander-M missile and a total of 128 drones and decoys overnight. Of those, 112 drones were intercepted. The regions of Dnipro, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv were among those targeted.

Ukraine has been fending off Russias full-scale invasion for over three years, with support from Western allies. As part of its defence strategy, it strikes military and infrastructure targets inside Russia.

However, the scale of Ukrainian operations remains limited compared to the widespread destruction inflicted by Russias war.
Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has informed his government officials via video link that a decision has been made to create a "security buffer zone" along the border with Ukraine.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS

Quote from Putin: "I have already said that a decision has been made to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border [with Ukraine  ed.]."

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Details: He said that Russian armed forces are currently working on this task.

Putin did not specify where exactly the Russians would be creating the "buffer zone".

Background:

On 26 April, Putin received a report that the last settlement in Russias Kursk Oblast, Gornal, had been "liberated from the Ukrainian Armed Forces".

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the claims made by Russian senior representatives about the alleged end of hostilities in Russias Kursk Oblast were untrue.

On 21 May, Russian state-run news agencies claimed that Putin had supposedly visited Russias Kursk Oblast.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on May 22 that he ordered the military to begin creating a "security buffer zone" along the border with Ukraine, Russian state media outlets reported.

The comments come a day after Putin made his first known visit to Russia's Kursk Oblast, a border region where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion last summer. While the Kremlin claims to have fully liberated the territory, Ukraine says operations are ongoing in Kursk.

"I have already said that a decision has been made to create the necessary security buffer zone along the border," Putin said in a video conference with government officials.

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"Our armed forces are currently solving this problem."

Putin said the zone would be along the border of Kursk, Bryansk, and Belgorod oblasts.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responded to the statement later in the day, saying Putin's remarks are further evidence that Russia is not meaningfully interested in peace.

"I remind the world that Putin's statements about the 'buffer zone' come amid active efforts to achieve a full, durable ceasefire, stop the killing, and advance peace," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.

"These new aggressive claims clearly reject peace efforts and show that Putin has been and remains the only reason the killing continues. He needs to face more pressure to end this war."

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi echoed these sentiments, calling Russia an "obstacle to peace efforts" and suggesting that any future "buffer zone" be confined to Russian territory.

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"These words prove clearly that it is Putin, it is Russia that is an obstacle to peace efforts now and it is they who need to be pressured in all forms to force Russia and Putin to peace and to a full long-term ceasefire," he said in a comment to multiple Ukrainian news outlets.

"And as for the 'buffer zones,' there can be a 'buffer zone' on the territory of Russia, which is why Ukraine has been conducting an operation there since last year."

Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, marking the first large-scale invasion of Russian territory by foreign forces since World War II. While a Russian counteroffensive  supported by North Korean military personnel  recaptured most of the Ukrainian-occupied land in spring 2025, Ukrainian troops continue to carry out missions across the border.

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on May 21 that while conditions in the region remain difficult, Ukrainian forces are holding their positions and inflicting losses on Russian troops.

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The Kursk operation successfully thwarted Russia's plans to establish a "buffer zone" in Sumy Oblast in northeastern Ukraine, Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said in November 2024.

Putin's latest comments regarding a buffer zone comes as Russia has once again rejected U.S. and European proposals for a complete ceasefire in the war against Ukraine. Putin did not agree to the terms in a May 19 phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump and the Kremlin has doubled down on its maximalist demands.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed on May 21 that Russia has no interest in pursuing a ceasefire: "(W)e dont want this anymore," he said.

Read also: Editorial: Russia just said it doesnt want peace. This is what you need to do

Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the town of Kurchatov in the Kursk region, which was recently partially occupied by Ukrainian forces, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

It was the Russian leader's first trip to the region since a Ukrainian incursion last year.

Putin met with regional governor Alexander Khinshtein, volunteer organizations and local officials on Tuesday evening. He pledged continued support from Moscow for rebuilding efforts, particularly for housing damaged in the conflict, the Kremlin said.

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The president also visited a unit at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant Number 2, which is currently under construction.

Last August, Ukrainian troops launched a surprise offensive into the Kursk region and held a small swathe of territory for several months. Russia's military declared the region "completely liberated" in late April.

Zelensky denies Russia has fully retaken Kursk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, rejected those claims on Wednesday, saying Ukrainian units were still operating in the Kursk and Belgorod regions to defend the north-eastern Ukrainian cities of Sumy and Kharkiv.

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Military observers in Ukraine also said Kiev's forces still held several square kilometres in the Kursk region.

Zelensky added that Russian forces were continuing to launch attacks along the eastern front, with the fiercest fighting centred around the contested city of Pokrovsk.

Ukraine's general staff said Russian forces had launched 104 attacks across the front lines on Wednesday, including 43 around Pokrovsk.

In his statement, Zelensky also said preparations were ongoing for a prisoner exchange agreed with Russia last week in Istanbul. Both sides plan to release 1,000 prisoners each.

Sumy region under fire

The Ukrainian region of Sumy, which sits just across the border from Kursk, has been under sustained Russian bombardment for months.

Industrial facilities and power lines were damaged by overnight drone attacks, Governor Oleh Hryhorov said on Wednesday, and part of the regional capital is without power.

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Separately, Ukrainian authorities said that six soldiers were killed and more than 10 others wounded in a Russian missile strike on a military training ground in Sumy.

The National Guard of Ukraine announced the casualties on Facebook, adding that investigations have been launched.

Russia's Defence Ministry on Tuesday evening released drone footage purporting to show a missile strike on a Ukrainian unit near the town of Shostka. According to Moscow, the attack was carried out using an Iskander ballistic missile and killed up to 70 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed an ammunition depot and military equipment.

Ukrainian members of parliament indirectly confirmed the strike shortly after the video was released, though they did not provide casualty figures.

Ukrainian drones disrupt Moscow air traffic

Ukrainian drones disrupted air traffic in the Russian capital Moscow throughout Wednesday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on Telegram.

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Sobyanin posted repeatedly that one or more enemy drones had been shot down on the outskirts of the metropolis. By the evening, the number had risen to more than 27 intercepted drones, although these figures could not be independently verified.

Due to the danger in the air, the aviation authority Rosaviatsiya had to repeatedly stop take-offs and landings at Moscow's airports. Russia's largest airport, Sheremetyevo, as well as Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports were particularly affected.

The aircraft tracker Flightradar24 showed that many planes bound for Moscow were taking detours or flying in holding patterns.

Russia has been waging a full-scale war against Ukraine for more than three years. Ukraine is defending itself and trying to bring the war back to the aggressor's country. However, the damage caused by Ukrainian drones is much smaller than the devastation caused by Russian drones and missiles in Ukraine.
The U.S. has officially accepted the government of Qatars gift of a 747 jetliner, and the Air Force will now begin working to rapidly upgrade the aircraft so that it can be used as a new Air Force One for President Donald Trump.

The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, according to The New York Times. The Department of Defense will work to ensure proper security measures and functional-mission requirements are considered for an aircraft used to transport the president of the United States.

The plane is estimated to be worth around $200 million and will require extensive work before it is secure enough to carry the president.

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Qatars gift has drawn concern from members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, who worry that Qatar may be trying to improperly influence Trump, or that the plane itself might have listening devices, per The New York Times.

Turning the plane into Air Force One

The Department of Defense now has to work to ensure the jet fulfills proper security measures and functional-mission requirements, Parnell said, according to The New York Times.

The Air Force has been asked to modify the plane quickly and now has to figure out how to do that.

Any civilian aircraft will take significant modifications to do so, Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, said on Tuesday during Senate testimony, per The New York Times. Based on the secretarys direction, we are postured and were off looking at that right now, what its going to take for that particular aircraft.

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According to CNBC, experts say it could cost over $1 billion and take years to finish the necessary modifications for the Qatari plane to carry the president.

For the past few years, Boeing has been working to convert two 747s into the next Air Force Ones, following a deal struck during Trumps first presidential term. The project is currently years behind schedule and it is unknown if the planes will be ready before the end of Trumps second term.

The president has been frustrated with how long those planes are taking and officials have said he was considering alternatives. Boeings a little late, unfortunately, Trump said Wednesday, according to CNBC.

In order to carry the president, the aircraft has to protect against physical threats such as missiles or the effects of nuclear weapons, and it also needs to be retrofitted against counterintelligence and surveillance risks, according to USA Today.

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The plan to turn the Qatari jet into an Air Force One has drawn concern from members of Congress, who worry that the work will be done too fast and so sufficient security measures will not be built in.

If President Trump insists on converting this plane to a hardened Air Force One before 2029, I worry about the pressures you may be under to cut corners on operational security, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said as Meink was testifying, according to The New York Times.

So far, there isnt an estimate of when the work on the Qatari plane could be finished, but the White House has said the president wants it done soon, possibly by the end of the year.

We will make sure that we do whats necessary to ensure security of the aircraft, Meink said at the Senate hearing. I will be quite clear and discuss that with the secretary up to the president if necessary if we feel theres any threats that we are unable to address.
HONOLULU (KHON2)  In the ahupuaa of Honolulu, which lies in the moku of Kona here on Oahu, stands a busy roadway named in honor of the wife to the King. We are speaking of Queen St.

On August 30, 1850, the first 35 streets throughout Honolulu received their official names.

King St, one of the oldest roads in Honolulu

While some streets no longer exist due to either development or absorption by another, some still remain.

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Queen Street was named in honor of Queen Kalama, wife to King Kamehameha III who the was monarch at the time.

It was the progressive newspaper Sandwich Island Gazette that proposed the name Queen St.

Prior to this name, this roadway was called Sea Street as it once ran closer to the ocean, where much of the area has since been filled in.

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Queen Kalama once owned the lands which are now covered by piers and what is now known as Irwin Memorial Park.

She was one of many Queen Consorts of Hawaii aside from the Kingdoms only ruling Queen.

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King Kamehameha I, the father of the Hawaiian Kingdom, had many wives, but Queen Kaahumanu was his favorite.

King Kamehameha II, named Liholiho, was noted to have 5 wives with his favorite being Queen Kamamalu, who both died in London.

Queen Kalama was wife of King Kamehameha III, and Queen Emma was the wife to King Kamehameha IV.

The following ruling monarchs, King Kamehameha V and King William Charles Lunalilo, failed to marry.

Check out more news from around Hawaii

Queen Kapiolani was the wife of King David Kalakaua, whose sister was his successor and last ruling monarch, Queen Liliuokalani.

Did you know? Now you do!

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2.
May 21The Maine Turnpike Authority expects rainy weather to reduce Memorial Day weekend traffic on the toll highway by 2.5% this year.

"Just under 1 million vehicles are anticipated to travel the Maine Turnpike from Friday through Monday," said spokesperson Erin Courtney. "Stormy weather forecasted for Friday will likely keep folks away for the first part of the weekend."

Even with a slight dip, Friday will still be the busiest day, Courtney said, with the heaviest volume northbound from 3-7 p.m.

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Saturday will be busiest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in both directions. Monday will be busiest southbound from noon to 7 p.m.

Despite the stormy weather, Miles the Moose, the turnpike's mascot, will greet travelers at the Kennebunk northbound plaza from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

The turnpike, which runs from Kittery to Augusta and is part of Interstate 95, was designated a Gold Star Memorial Highway in 1965, honoring military members who died in service and their families. Signs along the highway reflect this designation.

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JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday issued an urgent call for residents in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate ahead of an expected intensification of its military offensive.

The evacuation order covered the towns of Beit Lahia and Jabalia, the Jabalia refugee camp, and northern neighborhoods of Gaza City, areas that Israel has already carried out heavy airstrikes in recent days, killing scores and forcing the local population to flee for the third time or more.

"The IDF will significantly expand its military operations in your areas," said Avichay Adraee, a spokesman for the IDF, in a post on X, claiming that militants were operating in the targeted zones.

"The areas you are in are considered dangerous combat zones... For your safety, evacuate immediately to the south," he said.

Israel has rejected international calls to halt the war and reach a hostage release deal with Hamas. On Saturday, it launched Operation Gideon's Chariots, significantly escalating its 19-month offensive.

Israeli officials said the aim is to defeat Hamas and secure the return of 58 hostages held in Gaza. The operation includes seizing control of the entire Gaza Strip, maintaining military control over the territory, and displacing the population to the south, according to Israeli sources.

The Palestinian death toll has reached 53,655 since October 2023, according to the Gaza health authorities. 
A series of rain systems that arrived in Minnesota this week dumped more than 4 inches of precipitation, likely bringing an end to drought and abnormally dry conditions in parts of the state.

Heavy rain storms that arrived on Monday evening was followed by consistent, moderate rain on Tuesday, and then drizzle and spotty showers on Wednesday.

The highest amount recorded as of Thursday morning was in Delano, where 4.46 inches of rain fell. The highest amount in the Twin Cities was a whopping 3.87 inches of rain recorded in St. Paul.

Here's a look at the final totals since Monday, courtesy of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS).

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4.46 inches  Delano

4.01 inches  Henderson

3.87 inches  St. Paul

3.73 inches  Alexandria

3.67 inches  Kasota

3.62 inches  Howard Lake

3.61 inches  Plymouth

3.60 inches  Dassel

3.58 inches  Norwood Young America

3.57 inches  Mankato, Circle Pines

3.54 inches  Chaska

3.52 inches  Glencoe

3.50 inches  Lakeville

3.48 inches  Paynesville

3.45 inches  Anoka, St. Peter

3.43 inches  Hutchinson

3.42 inches  Andover

3.40 inches  Coon Rapids, Watertown

3.38 inches  Willmar, Roseville

3.36 inches  Nowthen, Montgomery, Woodbury

3.35 inches  Eagle Lake, Lonsdale, Montrose

3.34 inches  Winsted

3.33 inches  Arlington

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3.32 inches  Maple Lake

3.30 inches  Lester Prairie

3.28 inches  Brooklyn Park, Glencoe, Otsego

3.27 inches  Mounds View

3.26 inches  Blaine, Miltona

3.25 inches  New Prague

3.24 inches  Minneapolis, Plato

Other notable totals:

Minneapolis  3.24 inches

Edina  2.86 inches

Stillwater  2.84 inches

Rochester  2.30 inches

St. Cloud  2.23 inches

MSP Airport  2.16 inches (as of 1 a.m. Weds)

Brainerd  1.95 inches

Albert Lea  1.85 inches

Click here for more totals
While growing up in rural Minnesota, Ramsey County Commissioner Tara Jebens-Singh had a classmate die by suicide at age 13. In college, she knew a student who was asked to leave school because he was struggling  and then took his life.

Unfortunately, moments after returning home, he accessed a family gun, she said.

For those struggling with suicidal ideation, creating distance and time between them and a weapon is critical, said Jebens-Singh, who joined other county leaders Wednesday at Shoreview Library to remind residents who have firearms in their homes of the message: Safe gun storage saves lives.

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Gun locks are not just a tool for gun safety, she said. They are a lifesaving step that provides precious time that can make all the difference. Those moments can give a caregiver time to check on the children in the back room, or an individual in crisis time to reach out for help and rethink their options.

Ramsey County began its Gun Safety Initiative in 2016 as a partnership between the county attorneys office, sheriffs office and public health, with the goal of educating families about the importance of safe gun storage by providing access to free gun locks at libraries, community centers and other sites across the county. Nearly 10,000 gun locks have been given out.

With kids about to be spending more time at home while on summer break, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said, now is a critical time to speak out about how we can prevent the tragedies that occur around gun violence in our community.

Choi noted last weeks case in St. Anthony, when a 3-year-old boy was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head after he reportedly got hold of a gun inside a car and accidentally discharged it.

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The boys condition is improving and it looks as though he is going to survive, St. Anthony Police Chief Jeff Spiess said Wednesday. Hes been communicative, and has been sitting up.

The childs mother was in the car when the boy got hold of a gun belonging to her friend, who was outside of the car, Spiess said. Investigators continue to review video and digital evidence, he said.

Grim statistics

Nearly every day in the U.S., a child gains access to a loaded firearm and unintentionally shoots themself or someone else. In half of unintentional shootings by children, they shoot themselves and in more than 90 percent of the remaining cases, the victim is another child, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Households that lock both guns and ammunition are associated with an 85% risk reduction for unintentional gun injury among children compared to those that locked neither, according to the Manhattan, N.Y.-based nonprofit.

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A gun lock can be the difference between life or death if a child accidentally gets hold of a gun, or if an unsecured firearm is easily accessible to a teen experiencing a mental health crisis, said Amy Caron, director of St. Paul-Ramsey County Public Health.

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Health reported preliminary data showing the number of Minnesota suicides in 2024  813  was the same as in 2023, ending a 20-year upward trend. It marks two years of suicides below the state high of 860 deaths in 2022.

While these preliminary numbers show the suicides rates per 100,000 residents holding steady, the overall upward trend over the last 20 years is concerning, Caron said.

Firearm injuries made up 51 percent of suicide deaths last year, a higher percentage than in recent years.

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These grim statistics are why gun locks and safely secured firearms are an important part of the work to prevent suicides, accidental deaths and injuries and gun violence, Caron said.

The Gun Safety Initiative is critical in helping prevent suicides, said Sue Abderholden, executive director of NAMI Minnesota (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

If you own a gun, please use a gun lock. Please use safe storage practices, she said.

She said it is important for people to know about a law went into effect last year in Minnesota called an Extreme Risk Protection Order (called red flag laws in other states), which are temporary court orders that remove guns from people who are suicidal or who may hurt others.

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There are two types of ERPOs: emergency and long-term. If a judicial officer grants an emergency ERPO, it goes into effect right away and lasts 14 days. A long-term ERPO, which can only be granted after a hearing, lasts between six months and one year.

Abderholden said people also need to know about the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which connects someone with a trained counselor 24/7 by calling or texting 988.

Were also lucky that in Minnesota, we have mobile mental health crisis teams serving all ages, she said. These are tools that we can use to prevent suicide. Please use them.

FYI

Information about pick-up sites for free gun locks can be found at bit.ly/RamseyCogunlocks.

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Editors note: This story has been updated with information from Randolph County Schools Superintendent Shawn Dilly.

ELKINS, W.Va. (WBOY)  The Randolph County Board of Education met Tuesday night, where it voted through several changes to its policy. Superintendent Shawn Dilly said that a majority of the changes were simply to update the code and make it compliant with West Virginia law, but one change in particular stood out.

One of the changes amended Section 16 of the countys Policy Manual, specifically the section that mentions controversial issues. Under the highlighted changes to the policy, which were written by independent policy service provider Neola, was one that said:

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The Board, Superintendent, or principal may prohibit a public school classroom teacher from responding to student inquiries or answering questions from students about scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.

Transgender athlete qualifies for West Virginia State Track Meet

At the bottom of that document, the policy cites Section 18-5-41a of the West Virginia Code as the reason behind the change. The code also outlines how teachers should handle the discussion of certain scientific theories and stems from Senate Bill 280 in 2024, which was passed into law. However, that bill and the code it created state the exact opposite of what Randolph Countys new policy does, saying:

No public school board, school superintendent, or school principal may prohibit a public school classroom teacher from responding to student inquiries or answering questions from students about scientific theories of how the universe and/or life came to exist.

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12 News reached out to Superintendent Shawn Dilly who said that the policys language was inaccurate and will be corrected.

You are correct that the policys language is inaccurate. To fix this, we will work with our policy provider to correct the language, since we do not draft these edits at the local level. We also rely on their legal review process to ensure alignment with federal and state laws. I will also return the policy to the board at our next regular meeting to approve the correction, Dilly told 12 News.

We want to ensure that our policies align with the federal and state laws governing education, Dilly continued.

Other changes put through Tuesday night included ones that outlined proper teacher-student ratios in classrooms, suicide prevention, self-harm and eating disorder prevention and a plan for if a student goes into cardiac arrest.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.
By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Rapper Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi testified on Thursday at Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial that the hip-hop mogul broke into his home in 2011 after discovering Mescudi was dating his on-and-off girlfriend Casandra Ventura.

The incident is one of a number of violent and threatening acts that prosecutors allege that Combs undertook during a 20-year scheme to coerce women, including Ventura, to take part in drug-fueled sex parties known as "Freak Offs" and prevent them from leaving his orbit.

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Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs' lawyers have acknowledged he has a history of drug abuse and domestic violence, but argue that the women who took part in Freak Offs did so consensually.

Testifying as a prosecution witness, Mescudi told the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in Manhattan federal court that Ventura called him early one morning in December 2011 and told him Combs had found out about their relationship and asked Mescudi to pick her up.

Mescudi, wearing a leather jacket over a white shirt and blue jeans in court, said Ventura sounded nervous and scared, and warned him that she had given Combs his Hollywood Hills address.

Mescudi, known for hit songs "Day 'N' Nite" and "Memories," said one of Ventura's associates then told him that Combs was in his home. After dropping off Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel, Mescudi said he drove toward his home.

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On the way, Mescudi testified, he called Combs.

"I said, motherfucker, you in my house?" Mescudi testified.

Mescudi said Combs sounded calm and told him he wanted to talk.

When he arrived at his house, Mescudi said no one else was there. He said gifts that he bought for his family were opened and his dog was locked in a bathroom. He said he reported a break-in to the police.

Under cross-examination by Combs' lawyer Brian Steel, Mescudi acknowledged that he had left his door unlocked and that there was no damage to his home or furniture.

"I'm not belittling, but the only things that were displayed differently is there were some Christmas presents that were unwrapped?" Steel said.

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'THAT WAS MY GIRL'

Ventura, known professionally as Cassie, testified on May 14 that Combs threatened to release sex tapes of her and have someone hurt both her and Mescudi after discovering they were seeing each other.

Mescudi testified that he and Ventura ended their relationship shortly after the break-in. He told jurors that he learned in January 2012 from his dog's babysitter that his car had caught fire in his driveway.

Mescudi testified that the day after the car fire, he met with Combs at the Soho House hotel in Los Angeles.

Mescudi said Combs told him at the meeting, "We were homies, you know that was my girl." Mescudi said Ventura had told him she and Combs had broken up.

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Mescudi said he asked Combs about his car, and Combs told him he did not know what he was talking about.

Asked by prosecutor Emily Johnson how he understood that comment, Mescudi said, "He was lying."

Mescudi told Steel during cross-examination that no witness ever said Combs was near his property at the time and said he never learned about any fingerprint or DNA evidence police collected from the car.

Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs turned artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars, elevating hip-hop in American culture and becoming a billionaire in the process.

He has been held in federal lockup in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Howard Goller and Noeleen Walder)






On Monday, April 21, police responded to a possible domestic disturbance that was later classified as a burglary at rapper Rod Wave's home in Milton, Ga

The rapper was not initially listed as a suspect, but arrest warrants were later obtained for his possible connection to the burglary. He then turned himself in to the Fulton County Sheriffs Office on Tuesday, May 20

His lawyer told PEOPLE there was "no truth" to the charges and claims his client was "a victim of a burglary and committed no crimes"







Rapper Rod Wave is facing 14 charges in connection with a burglary at his Georgia home.

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The 26-year-old rapper, whose real name is Rodarius Green, voluntarily surrendered himself to the Fulton County Sheriffs Office in Georgia on Tuesday, May 20, and was released on bond. He faced warrants from a Monday, April 21, police report in Milton, Ga., according to the Associated Press.

His charges include aggravated assault, conspiracy to commit a felony, pointing or aiming gun or pistol, simple assault, two counts of reckless conduct, two counts of criminal damage to property, two counts of willful obstruction of law enforcement officers, two counts of tampering with evidence and two counts of possession of firearm or knife during commission of or attempt to commit certain felonies.

Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Rod Wave on September 15, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky. Rod Wave on September 15, 2021 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Officers reportedly responded to a 911 report of a possible domestic disturbance at Greens Milton home when a neighbor saw a woman crying, and heard yelling and screaming.

In the initial police report, officers found a gold Mercedes SUV had multiple bullet holes in it, and a black Rolls-Royce vehicle had a single bullet hole, the report said, per the Associated Press.

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His girlfriend told the authorities that she returned to the home, which appeared to have been burglarized. Officers allegedly discovered a black handgun, a broken window and a hammer in a bush next to the houses swimming pool. In the basement, we found a large safe that had been dragged across the floor, opened, and emptied, an officer wrote in the report, per the Associated Press.

Authorities did not list any suspects who might have broken in, emptied the safe, or shot the vehicles in the initial report. However, officers later obtained arrest warrants for Green.

Prince Williams/Wireimage Rod Wave on November 11, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rod Wave on November 11, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

There is no truth to these charges, the rappers lawyer, Drew Findling, said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Rod Green was a victim of a burglary and committed no crimes, Findling continued. How he was even charged as a result of this situation is incomprehensible. This will absolutely be resolved favorably to Mr. Green.

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

The Last Lap rapper was also charged with domestic battery in 2020, but the charge was dismissed in 2022, per the Associated Press. The case was later deemed not suitable for prosecution.

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An ex-girlfriend accused him of entering her home in the Orlando area and choking her while their two children were in another room, according to an arrest warrant. She told investigators that the rapper accused her of seeing other men while they were broken up.



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If you are staring at a dark spot under your fingernail, you may want to see a dermatologist. It could be a form of melanoma.

It is rare, and its scary that its rare, because a lot of people would not think to check their nails, said Lauren Koltcz, whom the Cleveland Clinic featured after doctors operated to cut out a malignancy under her fingernail as well as surrounding tissue to remove any remaining cancer cells.

Subungual melanoma, which appears under fingernails and toenails, is a rare but serious form of skin cancer that typically isnt caused by sun exposure. It usually appears as a dark line or discoloration under the nail. This type of melanoma affects people of all races, ethnicities and ages. If caught early and the melanoma is just in the upper layer of the skin, the prognosis is better and treatment is less invasive.

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Koltcz said she initially attributed the brown mark on her nail to a vitamin deficiency and dismissed it. Now she is grateful she saw a doctor and caught her melanoma early enough to be surgically removed.

Subungel is a type of acral lentiginous melanoma that develops in non-sun-exposed body areas, such as the palms and soles. Its more rare, but its also potentially more aggressive, said Dr. Paul Benedetto, a dermatologist and Mohs surgeon with the Cleveland Clinic Florida.

Its not entirely clear if this form of melanoma is inherently more aggressive or diagnosed at later stages, he said. No one is really looking for them or clear on the signs they are seeing.

Benedetto has several patients who arrive in his Coral Springs office each year with melanoma under their finger or toenails. He also has cases of acral lentiginous melanoma, noting that on the feet or hands, even a small brown dot can be skin cancer.

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Thats why you need a full skin check from head to toe in your birthday suit, he said.

On Mothers Day, Amanda Mcclements posted on Instagram about her mothers similar experience with a discoloration under her thumbnail that looked like she had slammed it in a door. The spot turned out to be subungual melanoma. She since has undergone a partial amputation, lymphadenectomy and continued immunotherapy, according to the post.

I wish Id known the signs of this cancer sooner so Im sharing in hopes of spreading awareness, Mcclements wrote.

Dermatologists say regular screening is important to help prevent and detect all types of melanoma and skin cancer.

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Miami Cancer Institutes Skin Cancer Clinic can do a whole-body scan with the Vectra 3D, a machine that takes detailed images and creates a body map to allow experts to study and monitor lesions and other skin abnormalities and accurately assess changes over time. The Vectra can also take close-up dermoscopy photos of suspicious lesions for even more detailed monitoring and for detecting skin cancer at an early stage.

Generally, insurance does not cover the cost of Vectra 3D imaging, which runs about $595. Recent legislative efforts in Florida to require insurers to pay for annual skin cancer checks failed.

Hidden forever chemicals in wrist bands

Fitness buffs love their smartwatches and regularly wear them to workout. However, new research has found that the wristbands on smartwatches and fitness trackers might expose wearers to the harmful forever chemicals known as PFAS.

Some bands are made with fluoroelastomer, a synthetic rubber known for its resistance to sweat. New University of Notre Dame research found the forever chemical perfluorohexanoic acid, or PFHxA, in 22 fitness bands and smartwatches made with fluoroelastomer. Separate recent research suggests that PFAS may be absorbed by the skin and increase the risk of cancer. Researchers discovered that pricier bands over $30 actually had higher levels of fluorine, which indicates the presence of PFAS. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit dedicated to improving human health, suggests wearing silicone bands instead, avoiding watch bands made with fluoroelastomers, limiting wear time, and supporting national efforts to push for safer alternatives to PFAS in products.

Possible cure for long COVID

Dr. Nancy Klimas at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, is searching for a cure for long COVID, a condition with as many as 200 symptoms. She hopes to enroll as many as 100 people in a multi-year study at NSU to test whether the monoclonal antibody sipavibart could be a treatment. Sipavibart is a long-acting monoclonal antibody treatment that has been used to prevent COVID-19 in immunocompromised individuals.

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Like many multi-symptom, post-viral conditions, long COVID is incredibly complicated and thus little understood, said Klimas, director of the Institute for Neuro-lmmune Medicine at NSU. Finding a treatment will be life-changing for patients suffering from the myriad symptoms of long COVID.

Long COVID refers to the ongoing health problems that some people experience after they have been infected with COVID-19. These symptoms last at least three months after the initial infection and range from muscle aches and joint pain to brain fog and fatigue. It is estimated that about 65 million people worldwide are affected by long COVID.

The health impacts of the disease can be debilitating, said Dr. John Reed, CEO of Schmidt Initiative for Long Covid, which is funding the trial.

Klimas and her team will divide patients into two evenly split groups to receive infusions of either a placebo or sipavibart. They will evaluate participants every three months, checking for improvement in their symptoms. They also will create a repository of blood and other specimens from participants for further study. At this time, there are no FDA-approved drugs to treat long COVID.

Do you like your nurse? Donate in his or her honor

While hospitals nationwide struggle with nurse shortages, Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale is onboarding 50 graduate nurse hires a year through its 12-month Intensive Residency Program. In 2024, the nurse residency program at Holy Cross achieved accreditation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, signaling it meets high standards for education and patient care. The accreditation helps us attract great candidates, said Crystal Caruthers, nurse resident development manager.

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Caruthers said the residency programs low turnover rate of 4% and competitive admissions process prove its success. For each cohort, we routinely see more than 180 applicants for 15 positions, she said. Most are from Florida. Holy Cross typically has three cohorts of nurses in the residency program per year.

Patients who have a standout nurse at Holy Cross Health now have a way to show their appreciation.

Through a new initiative called Healing Heroes, patients who want to honor their nurses (or other medical staff) can do so with a donation of any monetary amount. Each Healing Hero gets a special pin and a personal note of gratitude acknowledging the difference theyve made in the lives of those they serve.

Some of the most powerful moments in healthcare happen quietly, at the bedside or during a simple conversation, said Laura Denoux, vice president and chief development officer at Holy Cross Health. The Healing Heroes program shines a light on those moments and gives patients a way to turn their appreciation into something enduring.

Florida Study reveals who is at risk for OCD

Are you at risk of developing obsessive-compulsive disorder? In the largest-ever study into genetics, Florida researchers have identified ways to predict who has a higher chance of getting the psychiatric disorder. Their research may help guide better ways to treat OCD.

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Previous studies have shown that OCD can run in families, but on completion of this new study, UF researchers know much more about the disorder that affects about 3 million Americans

Dr. Carol Mathews, chair of the UF College of Medicines Department of Psychiatry, co-led the study, which involved over 200 investigators worldwide and accumulated more than 20 years of sample collection.

When we started early in my career, we were looking for genes that cause OCD. We thought back then that it would be one or two, said Mathews, director of UFs Center for OCD, Anxiety & Related Disorders. Over time, weve come to realize that OCD is not a disease of a single gene or specific brain region, but rather its a disease of circuits and hundreds of genes, which together contribute to the development of the disorder.

Matthews said researchers identified 30 regions of the genome and 25 genes within those regions that are likely the cause of OCD. These findings are important, she said, because with no cure for OCD, understanding the patterns of gene expression in specific brain regions could help scientists eventually develop new drugs or improve current therapies.

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Ultimately, genetic studies such as this one may be useful in scouring newly available drug databases for possible ways to repurpose existing drugs formulated for similar targets, she said.

Lung Association has money to spend in Florida

Broward residents raised over $440,000 to support the American Lung Association at the 29th annual Las Olas Wine and Food Festival on April 25. The proceeds help the American Lung Association serve nearly 3.3 million Floridians living with lung disease, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer.

In Florida, the American Lung Association funds four Airways Clinical Research Centers dedicated to asthma and COPD research; it funds several multi-year research grants for Florida-based researchers; it has educational webinars and support groups, like the Better Breathers Club; and it sponsors a South Florida Community Connections Speaker Series that recently focused on the future of lung cancer clinical trials.
Angela Rayners pensions tax plot would threaten an exodus of NHS doctors, experts have warned.

The Deputy Prime Minister suggested in an official memo that the lifetime cap on pension savings  previously set at 1.073m  should be reintroduced under Labour.

The document, seen by The Telegraph, estimated that as much as 800m could be raised by the reintroduction of the so-called lifetime allowance (LTA). It was one of eight tax raids proposed by Ms Rayner ahead of the Spring Statement in March.

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Pension savers paid tax bills of as much as 55pc on savings over the limit before it was abolished in April 2024 over fears that it was forcing doctors to retire early, worsening the NHS crisis.

Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said: The plan to bring back the pensions lifetime allowance was a tax raid on aspiration, and deeply concerning for hard-working savers who were planning responsibly for their retirement.

The Conservatives scrapped the lifetime allowance to encourage aspiration and remove a punitive tax on those who had done the right thing  worked hard and saved.

Medical unions and pension experts said that changes to how much can be saved into a pension would cause chaos for doctors.

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Dr Vishal Sharma, chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) pension committee, said: Bringing back the LTA would be disastrous for the NHS and its ability to retain our most experienced doctors.

Last summer, we asked more than 5,000 doctors what they would do if the LTA were reintroduced, and two-thirds said they would retire earlier than planned, with over 10pc saying they would retire immediately.

At a time when the NHS is under huge amounts of pressure, with waiting lists remaining at near-record levels, the Government should be doing all it can to keep its most senior doctors  not considering ways to drive them away.

Sir Steve Webb, former pensions minister and partner at consultancy LCP, said: The abolition of the LTA was one of very few examples in the recent past where the tax system has been made simpler.

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The rules around the LTA had become incredibly complex, and there was evidence that for some people, especially senior public servants such as NHS doctors, were starting to make decisions about whether or not to retire largely on the basis of the LTA limit.

Bringing it back would be a backwards step and would create real complexity.

Sir Steve added: Action would also be needed to avoid negative effects on doctors and others, but any carve out for people in particular jobs would be more complex still.

There are simpler ways of raising tax on those who are more wealthy rather than going back to a lifetime limit on pension saving.

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Tom Selby, of AJ Bell, said the move would threaten a wave of early retirements.

He said: It would also cause a storm of protest in the public sector, including among doctors in the NHS, who would find their generous defined benefit pensions once again being exposed to tax charges, potentially resulting in a whole new wave of early retirements.

Between 2006 and 2023, the LTA set a limit on how much a single person could save into a pension pot. Originally 1.5m, it rose to a high of 1.8m before dropping to 1.073m between 2020 and 2024.

It was scrapped by former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt during the last government, and was formally abolished in April 2024.

Pension savings above the LTA would be subject to a tax charge, which led some savers, including doctors saving into an NHS pension, to receive unexpected tax bills.

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John Ralfe, a pensions consultant, said: The acid test for any tax pensions change is: How would it affect NHS consultants? The political need to continue cutting NHS waiting lists means any change  including reintroducing the LTA  which could prompt doctors to retire early or cut their hours is a non-starter.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has an effective right of veto over UK pensions policy.

Labour had looked to reintroduce the cap in the run-up to last years election, but quietly dropped the plans after warnings about how complicated it would be to reinstate.

Claire Trott, head of advice at St. Jamess Place, said: Achieving this change required hundred pages of initial legislation, followed by numerous corrections via statutory instruments, all of which took considerable time and effort to implement.

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Whats now being proposed appears to be an additional tax charge  on top of income tax  for funds exceeding the former LTA, or a similar threshold. That simply isnt achievable under the current regime, which only tests tax-free payments.

Ms Trott said that applying any new limit to payments made since April 2024 would require an overhaul of the system  and that providers had already moved away from the LTA framework.

She said: It wouldnt be a quick fix. Even the current government has acknowledged that the abolition of the LTA was poorly handled, which was rushed through before they came into power, and further tinkering could create additional confusion and disruption for savers.

Sir Keir Starmer has come under heavy criticism over policies introduced since Labour took power last July.

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The Prime Minister on Wednesday announced an about-turn on his decision to scrap universal winter fuel payments. Sir Keir told the Commons that he had ordered changes so that more pensioners would be able to claim the payments in the near future.

A Treasury spokesman said: We dont comment on leaks.

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May 21GRAND FORKS  The Community Violence Intervention Center's recently retired director of grants management has received national recognition.

Julie Christianson was granted a "Lifetime Achievement Award" as part of the 2025 Purple Ribbon Awards, presented by

DomesticShelters.org,

an online hub for domestic violence survivors and those who support them, according to a press release issued by CVIC.

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"I am so honored to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award and recognized for the passion and commitment I have for ending interpersonal violence," Christianson said in the release. "Working alongside so many others who share that passion made those dreams and accomplishments come to fruition."

She first became involved with CVIC more than 20 years ago; her efforts led to a significant increase in funding support for the local nonprofit, by way of grant programming and management, the release said.

"We are a stronger agency  and better people  because of Julie's presence over the past two decades," CVIC President and CEO Coiya Tompkins Inman said. "We are deeply grateful for the passion and commitment she brought to advancing our mission."

Christianson is one of two CVIC nominees to be honored through the 2025 Purple Ribbon Awards. The second is Gate City Bank, which was recognized as "Business Partner of the Year."

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Since 2019, the bank has funded and otherwise supported the

Green Dot Greater Grand Forks program,

a violence prevention initiative that aims to empower bystanders to safely intervene during potentially harmful scenarios, the release said.

The Green Dot program reaches the community through education and awareness events, with a mission to permanently reduce incidents of violence and empower residents to proactively engage in healthy relationships, according to the release.

"This partnership that we have is such a gift," said Becky Mindeman, CVIC board member and Gate City Bank senior vice president of northeastern North Dakota. "The opportunity that we have to support such a tremendous need in our community really is more rewarding than I could possibly put into words. We are grateful to be a part of such a remarkable vision to end interpersonal violence."

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This is the third year in a row that CVIC-nominated partners have been recognized with Purple Ribbon Awards. In 2024, the Rydell Angels on Wheels Program was recognized as "Business Partner of the Year," in 2023, former Rep. Mark Sanford, R-Grand Forks, was

recognized as an "Outstanding Legislative Partner."

The Purple Ribbon Awards are hosted annually by DomesticShelters.org and Alliance for HOPE International. This year's awardees will be recognized during a virtual ceremony Thursday, May 22, where select winners will be eligible to receive grants from a $30,000 funding pool, the release said.
Over just three days, parts of eastern Australia have been inundated with at least a months worth of rain, leading to record flooding that has now left at least four people dead. The latest victim was a man in his 70s whose body was found in a car in floodwater Friday near Coffs Harbour, a police statement said. The car had run off the road. Officials said at least one person remained missing Friday as the rain finally started to ease.

A flood emergency was declared north of Sydney in New South Wales state. The flooding there exceeds local records set in 1921 and 1929. More than 600 people have been rescued and officials said many of those rescues happened after people attempted to drive through floodwaters.

(MORE: Drone Reveals Tornado's Aftermath In Missouri)

On Wednesday evening, officials shared that over three days, some neighborhoods got over a foot of rain and one area got more than 2 feet, breaking a 60-year record. Harrowing scenes showed helicopters rescuing people trapped in flooded homes.

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The body of a 63-year-old man was recovered from a flooded house in Moto in New South Wales on Wednesday afternoon, according to Fire and Rescue Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell.

The body of a man in his 30s was recovered from floodwaters near Rosewood early Thursday, a police statement said. He had disappeared while attempting to drive through a flooded intersection on Wednesday night.

A 60-year-old woman was found dead on Thursday after her SUV became trapped in floodwaters near Brooklana on Wednesday night. The SUV was found earlier Thursday, police said.

(MORE: Man Narrowly Avoids Falling Tree That Splits Home In Two)

A 49-year-old man remains missing after walking near a flooded road at Nymboida on Wednesday night.

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The Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, urged people to heed evacuation warnings and not wait until it was too late. Despite more than 2,500 emergency workers on the job, Minns said: "The number of houses that have been inundated and the number of communities that have been isolated far exceed the amount of boats, the amount of helicopters, the amount of trucks that any government could provide."

At least 14 evacuation centers were opened across the region and Reuters reports more than 100 schools were closed Thursday, while thousands of properties remained without power.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
GRINNELL, Kan. (KSNW)  Recovery is just beginning in Grinnell after an EF-3 tornado struck the town. Community leaders say financial donations will be key.

Equity Bank stayed open the day after the tornado tore through the west side of town. The chaos of the disaster left some missing their debit cards or bank information, and withdrawals still needed to be made.

On Monday, the City of Grinnell, with the help of its local branch, set up a disaster relief fund. Donations made out to the City of Grinnell can be deposited at any Equity Bank and will be redirected to recovery efforts.

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With city staff either helping with cleanup or affected themselves, the bank stepped in to fill the gap.

Grinnells a small town to start with, right? And were going to need to focus on rebuilding. If somebody is underinsured, or whatever the need may be, we want to have the funds available to help those people out. Its a small, tight-knit community, said Levi Getz, president of the western Kansas region of Equity Bank.

The relief fund will primarily support rebuilding once debris is cleared.

Warnings saved lives in Grinnell tornado, rated an EF-3

Volunteers are helping recover belongings from the wreckage, and debris removal is already well underway. Two days in, much of the smaller debris has been cleared, thanks to more than 1,000 volunteers.

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As crews sift through what remains of homes, they collect personal itemsphotos, toys, booksand place them on a lost-and-found table at the Veterans of Foreign Wars building, now a volunteer hub.

Volunteer Linda Wolf says the stacks of recovered photos can be an emotional sight for tornado victims.

Scattered memories, she called them. People come in and find loved ones pictures that they thought they had lost, and now they still have them, she said.

She says the most difficult things theyve recovered so far have been multiple tombstones from Grinnells cemeteries.

How to help

Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas

Catholic Charities USA has provided a $25,000 grant, which will go directly toward helping the Grinnell community recover and rebuild. Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas suggests these ways to help:

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Make a financial donation by clicking here. The donations will help families meet specific challenges as they rebuild their lives.

Donate items at the Catholic Charities offices in Hays, Salina and Manhattan. Items needed are: Work gloves & heavy-duty trash bags Flashlights & batteries Dust masks Storage tubs and boxes Cleaning supplies Laundry detergent, toilet paper & paper towels Furniture & household essentials Towels and hygiene items Visa, Walmart, or gas gift cards

Volunteer by checking in at the Grinnell VFW.

Victims can seek assistance from Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas by calling 785-625-2644, emailing communications@ccnks.org, or by clicking here and filling out a form.

Gove County Community Foundation

The foundation has created the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fund to provide immediate help and long-term support for the tornado victims. Click here to donate.

Grinnell VFW

The Grinnell VFW is asking for monetary donations to help replace all of their destroyed grave markers. If you are willing to donate, you are asked to send your donation through the mail:

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Grinnell VFW Aux. #2864

C/O Carol Rietcheck, Aux. President

6658 W. Road 1505

Grinnell, KS 67738

Memo: Grave markers

Tune into KSN News at 10 for continuing coverage with Payton Steiner.

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MOSCOW, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia have pledged closer exchanges and cooperation in various fields at the subnational level through two major mechanisms with fresh impetus.

On Tuesday, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attended a chairpersons' meeting in Moscow of the China-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Cooperation and Development of Northeast China and the Far East and Baikal Region of Russia, together with Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District Yury Trutnev.

On Wednesday in Kazan, Zhang attended the fifth meeting of the council of cooperation between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Volga Federal District, together with Igor Komarov, the Russian presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District.

During the meetings, Zhang said the Chinese side is willing to work with the Russian side to build on the robust momentum and progress made in the cooperation within the Northeast-Far East and Yangtze-Volga frameworks under the strategic guidance of Chinese and Russian leaders.

He called for joint efforts to fully implement the important consensus reached between the heads of state of the two countries, enhance cooperation mechanisms, strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, transportation and agriculture, and foster partnership in cross-border e-commerce, digital economy and green development.

Zhang stressed the need to further boost cultural, educational and tourism exchanges to inject fresh vitality into subnational cooperation.

During the meetings, the Russian side commended the achievements made in the subnational cooperation with the Chinese side, and pledged stronger commitment to expanding exchanges and cooperation and pushing the Far East-Northeast and Volga-Yangtze cooperation to yield more fruitful outcomes, so as to make greater contribution to the development of Russia-China relations.

While in Kazan, Zhang also held talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, attended the China-Russia Yangtze-Volga university alliance forum and visited the Kazan IT Park. 
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  A man is dead and another sustained injury after a firearm discharged in Harrison Township Thursday morning.

According to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center, crews were dispatched to the 2200 block of Martin Avenue around 12:06 a.m. on report of the shooting.

On scene, our 2 NEWS photographer noted the presence of forensic services.

The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office confirmed that deputies from the Harrison Township Road Patrol located two adult males suffering from apparent gunshot wounds at the residence.

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Deputies initiated life-saving measures at the scene, but one of those individuals was pronounced deceased after arriving at the hospital.

The man was identified by the Montgomery County Coroners Office as Louis Christman, 48.

The other male suffered non-life-threatening injuries and is receiving treatment.

A search warrant was later obtained for the residence ahead of an initial investigation by detectives from the sheriffs office and forensic services.

Crews found that the two males were at the residence, allegedly cleaning a firearm, before it discharged. A single projectile struck both of them.

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The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office Special Investigations Unit is continuing to investigate.

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The Israeli government is to withdraw its entire negotiating team from talks in Doha aimed at a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported on Thursday.

High-level members of the team had been recalled to Israel on Tuesday, with only members of the working-level team remaining in the Qatari capital, according to information from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

The families of the hostages still held in Gaza expressed strong criticism of the move.

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Points of conflict between the parties include that the Palestinian militant organization Hamas is demanding the end to hostilities in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages.

Israel will only agree to this if Hamas lays down its arms and its leadership leaves the Gaza Strip. Hamas has rejected these demands.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday maneuvered to avoid a direct clash with the Senate parliamentarian over whether the Congressional Review Act can be used to overturn Californias electric vehicle (EV) mandate.

Thune did so by setting up an elaborate series of procedural votes to allow the Senate to settle the controversial question.

Thune brought to the floor a joint resolution sponsored by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) to disapprove of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations rule on safety standards for hydrogen vehicles. That bill will serve as a vehicle to expand the reach of the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

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With the procedural move, Thune threw a last-minute curveball at Democrats, who had expected him to first bring to the floor Capitos other joint resolution, which has already passed the House, to repeal Californias EV waivers that prohibit the sale of new gas-powered light-duty vehicles by 2035 under the review act.

Democrats were planning to use the parliamentarians ruling that the EV waivers did not constitute rulemaking under the law to try to defeat the resolution.

But instead, Thune decided to move first to the Capito resolution on hydrogen vehicle standards to pose several questions directly to the Senate that would take the question of whether the EV waivers are eligible for CRA review out of the parliamentarians hands.

He did so because some Senate Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), were uncomfortable about the prospect of flat-out overruling the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.

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One GOP senator praised Thune for finding an elegant solution to what could have been a thorny political problem.

Thune argued the Senate had to weigh in because it was a novel procedural question.

I believe that when the Senate is facing a novel situation like this one with disagreement among its members, it is appropriate for the Senate to speak as a body to the question, he said on the floor.

He noted that the Senate voted last year on the question of whether a resolution that came to the floor qualified for fast-track treatment under the War Powers Act.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, argued on the floor that the procedural shell game couldnt obscure what he called a blatant end-run around the parliamentarians earlier ruling that Californias EV waivers do not qualify as a rulemaking eligible for review under the CRA.

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He accused Republicans of going nuclear by breaking established Senate precedent.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) then stood up on the Senate floor to argue that Republicans were twisting the facts to claim that its a novel question to ask whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers constitute a rulemaking that could be overturned by congressional resolution.

The facts at heart here are quite simple. The waiver at issue is not a rule and was never a rule. Thirty years of precedent and practice at EPA and in this body prove that, he said.

Thune and other Senate Republicans, however, argued that it should be a matter for the Senate, not the parliamentarian to decide.

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Republican procedural experts say that it was common practice decades ago to refer difficult procedural questions to the Senate to decide as a body, instead of relying on the parliamentarian for advice.

First Thune raised a point of order that points of order are in order under the Congressional Review Act to allow the Senate to vote on the question of whether the waivers provided by the EPA are eligible for disapproval under the CRA.

Schumer made a motion to table Thunes point of order, but it failed on a 46-52 vote.

Then Schumer appealed the ruling by the Senates presiding chair, who happened to be Capito, submitting the question of whether points of order are allowed under the CRA.

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That appeal was expected to also fail on a party-line vote.

A Senate Republican source familiar with Thunes strategy said he will then offer a point of order to make the resolution disapproving of Californias EV mandate eligible for fast-track consideration in the Senate.

It is expected to pass.

Once thats done, Senate Republicans are expected to pass Capitos resolution to overturn the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations rule for hydrogen vehicles.

Then Thune will hold a vote on Capitos second CRA resolution, the disapproval required to repeal Californias EV waivers affecting gas-powered vehicles.

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Democrats wont have an opportunity to ask the parliamentarian to rule that the resolution is not eligible for fast-track treatment under the CRA because the Senate will have already decided that matter by voting on the point of order raised on the hydrogen vehicle-related resolution.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that the elaborate floor moves wont change voters minds that the Senate ignored the parliamentarian to help the fossil fuel industry.

Blumenthal said Republicans wanted to avoid a vote on directly overruling the parliamentarian, but he declared it fails to give them anything more than a false fig leaf.

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WASHINGTON  Senate Republicans are considering a proposal to hand lawmakers the power to appoint the leaders of key legislative branch agencies after the Trump administration abruptly fired top officials in the Library of Congress and U.S. Copyright Office without congressional approval.

I think what were going to have to do with some of these organizations  like the Library of Congress, (the Government Accountability Office)  is have Congress appoint the head to make it crystal clear that these are congressional entities, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters on Wednesday.

No legislation has been filed on the issue, but the suggestion comes in response to President Donald Trump unilaterally firing Carla Hayden as the librarian of Congress and Shira Perlmutter, head of the copyright office, earlier this month. Although those positions must be approved by the Senate, the president has the authority to nominate, and remove, individuals.

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Haydens removal took several lawmakers by surprise as she was the first female and first Black American to hold the top library position. The timing of her firing was also considered unusual as her term was set to expire next year.

However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision, claiming there were quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in the pursuit of DEI and putting inappropriate books in the library for children.

Trump has since named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as the acting librarian of Congress.

Other Republicans have suggested interest in reining in those powers, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., telling reporters last week there should be consultation to clarify congressional authority around certain agencies.

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There are equities that both Article One and Article Two branches have when it comes to the Library of Congress, and it might suggest that in future, we may need to delineate those more clearly, Thune said.

The proposals also come as lawmakers have looked at ways to limit the Department of Government Efficiencys ability to gain access to certain government entities as part of its efforts to root out waste, fraud and abuse. For example, DOGE officials have sought to gain access to the GAO, which Collins has described as an organization that serves and responds to Congress.

I do not think its appropriate for DOGE to be trying to reorganize it or enter it in any way, she said.

Its not the first time lawmakers have sought more authority over presidential-appointed positions.

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For example, Democrats spearheaded efforts to establish congressional oversight for the architect of the Capitol under the Biden administration. Now, Congress should do the same for entities such as the Library of Congress, some lawmakers say.

Just like we changed the rules with the architect of the Capitol, we should change them here, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who authored the Biden-era bill, said.
The Scene

Wary of the political fallout from cutting Medicaid, and searching for savings they can defend to voters, Republicans pushing for passage of President Donald Trumps big, beautiful megabill have picked a familiar target: undocumented people in blue states.

The current version of the GOP bill would reduce federal Medicaid payments to states with health plans that cover immigrants who lack legal status. Instead of paying for 90% of expanded Medicaid coverage, the government would pay just 80%. Some states, if hit by the penalty, have trigger laws that would require them to drop the expanded coverage altogether.

That idea, along with a plan to add work requirements for Medicaid recipients, is projected to eliminate health insurance coverage for millions of people in ways that Republicans are comfortable defending. It comes as some blue-state governors seek to cap the number of noncitizens who can access local health care plans, angering fellow Democrats.

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One-point-four million illegal immigrants are receiving Medicaid coverage today, which takes away funding from the disabled, senior citizens, and pregnant women, Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., said during one of the megabills markups this week.

In a conservative TV interview, swing-seat Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., suggested without citing examples that people who truly deserved Medicaid  thats people with disabilities, thats kids, thats pregnant women  were being cut in line by illegal immigrants.

Democrats have responded by arguing that the GOP is manufacturing baseless distractions from the negative effects of its party-line proposal.

Whats interesting is that Republicans have tried to make this a talking point, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Semafor, when asked about that part of the bill.

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As far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of people who are going to be hurt by their efforts to take away Medicaid, and as a result will lose their health care, are American citizens, he added.







The View From Democratic Governors

Noncitizens are restricted in their ability to access Medicaid, a fact that Democrats bring up to refute Trump and Republicans. But many states offer noncitizens access to their health care programs; funding for those efforts is already under threat in blue states.

In less than two months, Illinois will end its Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, launched during the Biden administration, citing its higher-than-expected costs. It was a bitter pill for Gov. JB Pritzker, who told Semafor on a recent trip to DC that if I could afford to do it, I would have a basic level of health care for undocumented people.

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We have undocumented people whove been in the state for 10, 20, 30 years, and theyre paying taxes, holding down jobs, good neighbors, no criminal record, Pritzker told Semafor. In fact, theyve been good, law-abiding residents of the state. And when they get sick, it costs all of us money. So if we can prevent them from getting sick, thats better.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged his Democratic legislative supermajority to cap noncitizen enrollment in his states Medicaid program, despite his own ambitions for universal health care.

I dont want to be in this position, Newsom said, fending off criticism from his own party. A similar story played out in Minnesota, where Gov. Tim Walz agreed to remove noncitizens from MinnesotaCare this year to meet Republican demands and close a budget gap.

Im not going to sugarcoat how difficult this was, Walz told reporters at a press conference, as Democrats who opposed the change, outside the room, shouted: Dont kill immigrants!







The View From Democrats in Congress

Confident of their own Medicaid messaging, and of the unpopularity of any Republican cuts, Democrats said that their GOP colleagues were simply lying about undocumented people accessing the system.

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Democratic lawmakers pushed back by pointing out how the GOP plan would affect US citizens and eligible legal immigrants: coverage losses, as their states are forced to do more with less.

Lets be very clear: No federal Medicaid dollars are going to provide health care to individuals who are undocumented, House Democratic Conference Chair Pete Aguilar,D-Calif. told Semafor on Tuesday.

Some states, including Washington and the state of California, have chosen to provide health care to everyone  because, mind you, people will get health care, Aguilar added. Our state leaders have said we would prefer you have health care than you show up to an emergency room.

During a Congressional Progressive Caucus rally with anti-poverty groups on Wednesday to oppose the GOP bill, caucus chair Rep. Greg Casar told Semafor that Republicans were lying to cover up an unpopular plan.

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They know that these are the biggest Medicaid cuts in history, and that virtually everybody on Medicaid either works, or is a senior with a disability, or is a child, said the Texas Democrat  whose state never expanded Medicaid under Obamacare, and would not take the same hit as California or Minnesota if the funding cuts passed.







Davids view

The failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act eight years ago looms over every move Republicans make on Medicaid. They do want to reduce the number of people who get health insurance from the government. But they are more careful now in picking the people wholl lose out, and they are very confident about a political strategy that portrays Democrats as siding with immigrants.

Doing that sets up a distinction that the Trump-era GOP always enjoys: a nationalist America First party, versus a party with a more global, more charitable view of who deserves help.

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When Texas bussed migrants to Chicago, New York, and Boston, Democrats struggled to contain public anger that local resources were going to noncitizens. When Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden on the 2024 ticket, the Trump campaign attacked her co-sponsorship of the 2017 Medicare for All bill, which would have made noncitizens eligible for coverage.

Kamala wants struggling seniors to pay more Social Security taxes, while she gives Medicare and Social Security to illegals, claimed one ad, with footage of people walking through a border crossing. That will doom Social Security.

Democrats are not directly giving any of those benefits to illegals, at the state or federal levels. But they also see upsides in the fight now raging over the GOP megabill: They see a clear-cut case of a bill that would pull people off Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for the rich.

In fact, Democrats think that combining those two policies is a mistake Republicans were more careful to avoid in 2017.

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If the big, beautiful bill becomes law, Democrats will face a messier conflict, seen in blue states that have scaled back coverage.

To keep the current House GOP bills expanded Medicaid funding  a piece of the ACA that Republicans will have preserved  they would need to take health care away from noncitizens, even though that risks costing the government more money in the end.

Notable
WASHINGTON  Republicans stripped language to sell off about 11,000 acres of public lands in Utah to help pay for President Donald Trumps massive tax package in a last-minute alteration to the budget framework released on Wednesday night.

The change was revealed in Republicans managers amendment, a procedural tool to make key changes to provisions in the bill before it reaches the floor. The amendment was negotiated among rank-and-file Republicans, House GOP leaders, and Trump himself over the last few weeks in order to get all corners of the party on board to advance the presidents agenda.

In the managers amendment that was published just after 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Republican leaders removed language from the budget resolution to greenlight public land sales in Utah and Nevada totaling more than 211,000 acres across the two states.

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The original amendment was led by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, who drafted the provision upon request from officials in Washington and Beaver counties, who wouldve facilitated the sale.

Washington County and Beaver County are landlocked and growing quickly but cannot function because of endless red tape on federal lands, Maloy told the Deseret News earlier this month. At their request, I introduced an amendment to convey, at fair market value, targeted land  land needed by local governments for infrastructure.

About 63% of Utahs land is owned by the federal government, the most of any state in the country aside from Nevada. The lands that would have been sold make up only a third of one percent of federal lands in the state, according to Maloy.

Maloy told the Deseret News she was informed the language would be stripped from the final bill before it was released.

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The proposal was met with pushback from some Republicans who have historically opposed public land sales, such as Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., the co-chairman of the newly created Public Lands Caucus.

Theres a lot of frustration down in the West. I understand that, Zinke said in response to the amendment earlier this month. But I prefer the management scheme. And I give an example as a hotel  if you dont like the management of a hotel, dont sell the hotel. Change the management. Thats where I sit on that position.
Republicans narrowly passed Donald Trumps sweeping budget reconciliation bill through the House Wednesday night, including a last-minute provision that would not require gun owners to register the purchase of silencers.

Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde had already ensured the elimination of a $200 transfer tax on gun silencers. But during negotiations Wednesday, he was able to add another provision altogether removing silencers from the regulatory purview of the National Firearms Act, which imposes taxes on the manufacture, distribution, and import of weapons, according to Politico.

The last-minute addition would strike another $200 tax on the manufacture of gun silencers. But by removing silencers from the purview of the National Firearms Act, lawmakers said that the change also had eliminated the NFAs registration requirement with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives.

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The question I have is, this was not in the bill that we were marking up. So, whose vote was bought with this provision that silencers will no longer need to be registered with the ATF or subject to background check purchasers? asked Colorado Representative Joe Neguse on the House floor Wednesday night.

What member was on the fence about this bill, and then went to Republican leadership and said, I know youre eliminating the tax on silencers but if you can just eliminate all regulation on silencers, I will vote for this bill?

Georgia Representative Austin Scott claimed that silencers exception from ATF registry did not mean that purchasers would not be subject to background checks. Scott, who argued in support of the provision, seemed confused about what it was actually about. He said it was about suppressors, rather than silencersbut that was incorrect.

When a person attempts to buy a firearm, they must complete an ATF form, and the seller then relays information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation website. The NICS staff then performs a check to see whether the buyer has a criminal record or is in any way ineligible to purchase the firearm.

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If the purchaser is not required to fill out a form with the ATF to purchase a silencer, its not clear how a background check would still be completed.

Quite frankly, what is in the reconciliation bill does more to support assassins than it does American families, said Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern.

There was some laughter in the hall.

Yeah, well you know what? Talk to law enforcement, talk to people who have been victims of gun violence, McGovern continued. I know you think its funny, but I dont.
PHNOM PENH, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The National Assembly of Cambodia on Thursday began its fourth plenary session of the seventh legislature after a three-month recess.

Some 105 lawmakers took part in the session, chaired by National Assembly President Khuon Sudary.

King Norodom Sihamoni sent a royal message to mark the opening session, appreciating the National Assembly's active performance during the recess and acknowledging its significant contribution to peace, social order, economic growth, and inclusive development.

He commended the lawmakers for engaging with constituencies, addressing challenges, and improving the livelihoods of the people.

The monarch also praised the National Assembly's diplomatic efforts, including bilateral meetings and participation in international gatherings, for elevating Cambodia's prestige on the global stage and showcasing its critical role in promoting peace, development, and prosperity in the region and beyond.

"I would like to express appreciation for the collaboration between the legislative and executive branches in advancing the national development strategy, promoting regional and global economic integration, and ensuring sustainable growth, particularly in agro-industry, technology, tourism, and rural development," Sihamoni said.

He also commended the royal government led by Prime Minister Hun Manet for maintaining national security and social order, ensuring harmony among citizens, while social and economic activities have thrived across all sectors despite increasingly complex regional and global challenges, including natural disasters and climate change.

The National Assembly comprises 125 lawmakers, including 120 from the ruling Cambodian People's Party and five from the royalist Funcinpec Party.

During the recess, the lawmakers visited their constituents in order to hear and resolve their problems. 
The U.S. social safety net would be jolted if the budget bill backed by President Donald Trump and passed Thursday by the House of Representatives becomes law.

It would impose work requirements for low-income adults to receive Medicaid health insurance and increase them for food assistance as well as cut funding for services like birth control to the nations biggest abortion provider.

Supporters of the bill say the moves will save money, root out waste and encourage personal responsibility.

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A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over a decade.

The measure, which also includes tax cuts, passed the House by one vote and could have provisions reworked again as it heads to the Senate.

Here's a look at the potential impact.

Work would be required for most people to get Medicaid health insurance

Starting next year, many able-bodied Medicaid enrollees under 65 would be required to show that they work, volunteer or go to school in exchange for the health insurance coverage.

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Some people who receive Medicaid were worried Thursday that they could see their coverage end, even if it is not immediately clear whether they might be covered by an exception.

Raquel Vasquez, a former cook who is battling two types of cancer and has diabetes, said she believes she could be affected because she has not been able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits. I cannot even afford this life now because of my disabilities," said the 41-year-old Bakersfield, California, resident. "But my country wont even help me.

About 92% of people enrolled in Medicaid are already working, caregiving, attending school or disabled. That leaves about 8% of 71 million adult enrollees who would need to meet the new requirement. An estimated 5 million people are likely to lose coverage altogether, according to previous estimates of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office.

Only Arkansas has had a work requirement that kicks people off for noncompliance. More than 18,000 lost coverage after it kicked in 2018, and the program was later blocked by federal courts.

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The people of Arkansas are generous and we want to help those who cannot help themselves, but we have no interest in helping those who are unwilling to help themselves, said Arkansas Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, a Republican. Im glad the federal government is starting to align with our thinking.

Work requirement could hit harder in rural areas

Increased eligibility checks and red tape related to work requirements may result in some people wrongly getting booted off, said Eduardo Conrado, the president of Ascension, a health care system that operates hospitals across 10 states.

That could spell trouble for rural hospitals, in particular, who will see their small pool of patients go from paying for their emergency care with Medicaid coverage to not paying anything at all. Hospitals could have to eat their costs.

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Adding work requirements is not just a policy change, its a shift away from the purpose of the program, Conrado said of the rule.

That is also a concern for Sandy Heller, of Marion, Massachusetts.

Her 37-year-old son, Craig, has Down syndrome and other complicated medical needs.

She worries the changes would make it harder for hospitals in out-of-the-way places like hers to stay afloat and offer the services he could need.

If they dont, he would have to travel about 90 minutes for care.

It could mean life and death for my son if he needed that medical care, Heller said.

More people would be required to have jobs to receive food assistance

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, already requires work for some of its roughly 42 million recipients. Adults ages 18-54 who are physically and mentally able and dont have dependents must work, volunteer or participate in training programs for at least 80 hours a month, or else be limited to just three months of benefits in a three-year period.

The legislation passed by the House would raise the work requirement to age 65 and also extend it to parents without children younger than age 7. The bill also would limit the ability to waive work requirements in areas with high unemployment rates.

The combination of those changes could put 6 million adults at risk of losing SNAP benefits, according to the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Like work requirements for Medicaid, those for SNAP tend to cause a decrease in participation without increasing employment, according to an April report by the Brookings Institutions Hamilton Project.

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States that cover immigrants lacking legal status would lose federal funds

Under the bill, the federal government would punish states that use their own state dollars to provide Medicaid-covered services to immigrants lacking legal status or to provide subsidies to help them buy health insurance.

Some states that provide that sort of coverage extend it only to children.

Those states would see federal funding for the Medicaid expansion population  typically low-income adults  drop from 90% to 80%.

That could mean states pull back that Medicaid coverage to avoid the federal penalty, said Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown Universitys Center for Children and Families.

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KFF said the provision could affect 14 states that cover children regardless of their immigration status.

This month the Democratic governor of one of them  California's Gavin Newsom  announced a plan to freeze new enrollments of adults in state-funded health care for immigrants who do not have legal status as a budget-balancing measure.

The bill could curtail abortion access by barring money for Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood says a provision barring it from receiving Medicaid funds could lead to about one-third of its health centers closing.

The group said about 200 centers are at risk  most of them in states where abortion is legal. In those states, the number of Planned Parenthood centers could be cut in half.

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Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion provider, also offers other health services, including birth control and cancer screening.

Federal money was already barred from paying for abortion, but state Medicaid funds in some states now cover it.

Were in a fight for survival  not just for Planned Parenthood, but for the ability of everyone to get high-quality, non-judgmental health care, Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America celebrated the provision, saying Congress took a big step toward stopping taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry.

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Health services for transgender people would be cut

Medicaid would stop covering gender-affirming care for people of all ages in 2027 under one provision.

Further, coverage of the treatments could not be required on insurance plans sold through the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

Trump has targeted transgender people, who make up around 1% of the U.S. population, since returning to office, including declaring that the U.S. wont spend taxpayer money on gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19. The care includes puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries.

The bill would expand that to all ages, at least when it comes to Medicaid.

Some states already block the coverage, and some require it. Its unclear how much Medicaid has spent on providing gender-affirming care, which has only been recently added to some coverage plans in some states.

___

Associated Press reporters Devna Bose in Jackson, Mississippi; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Amanda Seitz in Washington; and Leah Willingham in Boston contributed to this article.
GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW)  Emotions were running high during a public meeting in Garfield Heights on Wednesday night about a bar with a troubled history.

The first person to address city officials was Monica Briggs, who urged them to close the Showcase Bar and Grille on Turney Road.

The issue is personal for Briggs. Her son, Ronnie Briggs Sr., was co-owner of the Showcase and was murdered in September 2022 by a man who was denied entrance to the bar.

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It should have been closed. It shouldnt have been open then. Are we going to have more people die at this place before anything is done? Thats how I feel, she told the audience. My son was in the process then of removing himself that January, but he didnt make it past September.

Fraud investigation into Venezuelan man accused of posing as teen at Ohio high school is tip of the iceberg, says police chief

During the meeting that was at times heated, city officials heard from concerned and angry homeowners about how a string of violent incidents in and around the showcase have made them fear for the safety of their families.

Its time to do something officially strong. I mean, we need to take action on them. Somebody is going to die, somebody else is going to die, somebody inside their home might die. My house has been shot up, said Joe Burrier, who owns a home down the street from the Showcase.

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The final straw for many residents came just after 2 a.m. on Saturday when Garfield Heights police found a man outside the bar who had been shot multiple times.

The chief prosecutor in Garfield Heights told the audience the investigation of the latest shooting at the bar continues and that the city has started the process to shut down the Showcase as a nuisance.

But it is something that takes a lot of time and very specific facts and it can be challenging at times to accomplish the result that we want, said Prosecutor Edward Fadel.

Local humane agents give health update on puppy that was brutally stabbed

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One of the owners of the bar, Lamarr Davis Sr., stood outside of the meeting and said he was there to listen to what residents and city officials had to say.

As for Briggs, she told city officials she will not stop her crusade until the doors on the Showcase are padlocked.

Anything I can do, you have my support, 100%, she said as the audience applauded.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW.
CHEYENNE  Wednesday morning, a group of residents made their way along a portion of Capitol Avenue to analyze the accessibility of the area for disabled people as Cheyenne prepares for its busiest downtown pedestrian season.

The event  called a walk audit  was organized by the Mayors Council for People with Disabilities and AARP to gather data on the accessibility of one of Cheyennes most popular areas for pedestrian traffic.

Patti Riesland, chairwoman for the MCPD, said gathering this human experience data is important to identify the needs in the community and seek funding for necessary updates.

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This is a project to bring awareness for people of all abilities to be able to have access to all amenities, she said.

Following the walk audit, MCPD will compile its findings and submit the master results and comments on the condition of the area to the city engineers office. She said this data is useful in attaining grant funding for pedestrian development grants.

This is Capitol Avenue. This should be pristine, she said. In the summertime, it's just flooded with tourists, and they're walking two and three abreast, and they're walking in groups, and these conditions can pose a really serious trip hazard.

The walk audit covered both sides of the sidewalk on Capitol Avenue between 19th and 24th streets.

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As the attendees made their way down the sidewalk, they made notes on a document about hazards they noticed. Items on the checklist included whether the sidewalks were smooth and consistent, free of obstacles or have curb cut ramps. It also allowed participants to make notes about the street and pedestrian crossing signals, such as whether there is signage alerting drivers to pedestrians and whether there are push-to-walk" mechanisms at each intersection.

The section of Capitol Avenue analyzed in this walk audit did not have push-to-walk" mechanisms, which concerned participant Amy Simpson. Additionally, she said that adding chirp mechanisms would enhance accessibility for visually impaired people.

I think there just needs to be more attention paid to what those barriers are for disabled people, whether it's somebody with a cane or someone in a wheelchair, she said. So, I think that this is an excellent exercise to get a better idea of where we can do better.

While there were some cracks and uneven sidewalks in this section of street, the primary concern of some participants was not the condition of the sidewalk.

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For Simpson, who is in a wheelchair, it is the lack of handicap parking in the area.

Youve got churches along here that people are trying to get to for the regular services or funerals, or you've got city buildings, important city buildings, like the courthouse and the driver's license division, the county clerk, the jail, all that kind of stuff, she said. Trying to park there for handicapped is difficult at best.

Attendee Jose Saldana, who is also in a wheelchair, said his primary concern was entrance accessibility to buildings downtown, particularly older buildings. He said he is pretty active and likes to visit downtown on his days off, so he knows the accessibility conditions in the area pretty well.

Saldana said the main pedestrian areas, like Capitol Avenue and Lincolnway, are maintained fairly well, but some of the sidewalks on the outskirts of downtown are nearly inaccessible or nonexistent in some areas. He said he wanted to attend the walk audit in the hopes that his voice will be heard, and it will help make a change for himself and others.

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Tom Gallagher, a member of the MCPD, moved to Cheyenne within the past year, and said he has noticed that crosswalk signals are often not programmed with enough time for a person with a mobility disability to make it across the street before traffic resumes.

Riesland said this can also pose more safety issues when people are speeding in town and people in wheelchairs may not be as visible to most drivers as a standing person.

The community Gallagher came from in Texas did not have walk audit programs like this, he said, and he added he is glad he is able to contribute to hopefully make a change.

The event was also attended by city, state and AARP staff, including Cheyenne Traffic Engineer Rick Amen.

We welcome the opportunity to work with the Mayors Council for People with Disabilities and AARP, because they present a unique perspective which can be incorporated as part of the plan to attract new business and property owners for the continued revitalization of Cheyenne, Amen said in a statement.
PINE BLUFF, Ark.  Once the cultural heartbeat of Pine Bluff, the historic Saenger Theatre is poised for a long-awaited revival, thanks to the vision and dedication of consultant Kathy Majewski.

Since January, Majewski has spearheaded the effort to breathe new life into the nearly century-old theatre, aiming to transform it from a forgotten relic into a centerpiece of downtown revitalization.

Pine Bluff program restores homes to restore lives and communities

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Built in 1924, the Saenger Theatre began its life as a vaudeville house, hosting legendary acts from the Orpheum Circuit, the Ziegfeld Follies and performers like Will Rogers, John Philip Sousa and even the famous illusionist Harry Blackstone. At the time, it wasnt just a theatre  it was a destination.

This was an incredible theatre, Majewski says. Houdini made a horse disappear on this stage.

But like many grand theatres across America, the Saengers golden age faded. The arrival of talkies in the late 1920s began the shift from live performance to film. By the early 1950s, the theatre was converted into a movie house. The ornate chandeliers came down, the box seating was eliminated, and the gold leaf that once adorned the Egyptian Temple-style interior was painted over in black to better suit the filmgoing experience. The theatres grandeur was slowly erased, Majewski said.

Despite these changes, the Saenger survived until the early 1970s, but when the rise of suburban malls pulled life away from downtown, its run came to a halt and for more than 50 years, the theatre has stood mostly vacant, but not forgotten.

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Bentons Victory Theater untouched for 70 years; a time capsule rediscovered

Now, Majewski is leading a movement to restore the Saenger not only as a cultural venue but also as a catalyst for community and economic renewal.

When you see an abandoned building for 50 years, you still see the incredible bone structure that this theatre has, she said. Nothing that cant be fixed.

Restoring the Saenger is no small task, and Majewski has already assembled a team to take on the challenge.

One key partner is renowned theatre architect Paul Siemborski, who has worked on numerous historic restorations across the country.

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His initial assessment of the theatre when touring: Oh my gosh, according to Majewski. But before design work can begin, the theatre must undergo a 3D scan  a necessity since no original blueprints can be found.

Cost estimates are not yet finalized, but comparisons offer some insight. The Perot Theatre in Texarkana was restored in the 1970s for $2.5 million, and Pensacolas Saenger Theatre restoration cost $5 million at the time.

Still, Majewski insists, dont scrimp on it. Get it back to its glory.

Over the years the City of Pine Bluff has shown support for her vision  recently contributing $47,000 to address a severe roof leak. With the building now dry and stable, the next phase can begin, eventually. However, the bulk of the fundraising lies ahead, and Majewski is calling on supporters from Arkansas and beyond.

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For Majewski the Saenger Theatre restoration is more than a preservation project  its a revival of downtown Pine Bluff.

Once these theatres open, they become a nucleus for activity, Majewski said. Restaurants, boutiques, bars  people see activity, and they invest. It never, never fails.

Majewskis connection to the Saenger is deeply personal. As a child, she danced on its stage and remembers the awe of being in such a majestic space.

Theres an incredible energy to this theatre, she recalls. Stars who visited could feel it  Van Johnson said it reminded him of his vaudeville days.

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Today, that same sense of wonder strikes young visitors, many of whom have never encountered such architecture, Majewski said.

They just sit on the stage in awe, she says. An auditorium doesnt have the same effect.

The Saenger remains one of only two Egyptian Temple-style theatres in the country. Its original seating capacity of 1,750 makes it ideal for major touring productions, including Broadway shows, Majewski said. Though some renovations may reduce that number slightly, the theatres potential as a live performance venue remains strong.

Saline County Courthouse begins three-phase revitalization to preserve the historical landmark

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The theatre even retains its original footlights and orchestra pit  rare finds that connect the past with the future. Siemborskis challenge will be to modernize the theatre for todays audiences while preserving its intimate charm and historic features, Majewski said.

Majewskis passion is clear, and her message is urgent: If you were in Egypt and saw a pyramid, would you say, What do we need this for? This is not just a historical building for the community  its for everyone. When you come in, it transforms you into another world.

The restoration effort is being coordinated through the Old Town Theatre Centre, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations can be sent directly to the Simmons Bank in Pine Bluff, earmarked for the Saenger Restoration.

As Majewski continues her mission, she invites all who believe in the power of the arts, history and community to join her cause.

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It would be a crime to let this theatre go, Majewski said. Once theyre gone, theyre gone.

For Pine Bluff, the Saenger Theatre isnt just a building  its a beacon; and Majewski says with the right support, it will shine again.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLRT - FOX16.com.
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  Nearly seven years ago, a young mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time; Adriaunna Jackson was shot and killed after leaving a club, but police never found who fired the fatal shots.

Miami Valley Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for information on who pulled the trigger.

Four days after Adriaunnas 21st birthday, her life was cut short. On July 6, 2018, multiple police cruisers rushed to West Siebenthaler Avenue and North Main Street after reports of gunfire just before 4 a.m. Dayton Police determined a dark colored Chevrolet Impala pulled up to a white Pontiac Grand Prix at the intersection and opened fire on the vehicle. Inside the white Pontiac Grand Prix riddled with bullet holes was 21-year-old Adriaunna. She was taken to Miami Valley Hospital where she died.

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Two other people were in the car. One was not hurt. The other was shot but survived.

Nearly seven years later, the case is still open. Dayton Police Detective Angela Woody is working to close it.

The more time that passes always creates a bigger challenge for law enforcement to get a case solved. But there is always the opportunity that there could be information out there that we missed or we didnt get and maybe someones circumstances have changed, states Detective Woody.

Dayton Police say the shooting stemmed from some kind of argument at a club in Harrison Township, which was less than two miles away from the crime scene.

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There had been a fight the night before at Club Plush. The belief is that somehow, that fight led to this shooting incident, details Detective Woody.

Hoping for witnesses to come forward and fill in some of the missing information, Miami Valley Crime Stoppers is offering a $10,000 reward leading to an arrest and conviction.

Her family still wants answers, and no ones been held accountable, states Detective Woody.

If you have any information, report it to Crime Stoppers at 937-222-7867. You will remain anonymous.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
Uber and Lyft decals are seen on a car in the pickup area at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Rideshare drivers and labor advocates across the country are urging state and local leaders to require rideshare companies to provide benefits for drivers. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Murphy Smith says he was unemployed for four years because of medical issues before becoming a rideshare driver in Eugene, Oregon.

Driving allows him to work without triggering his severe asthma, Smith, 47, says. But without a set minimum wage, he says he works 12 to 16 hours a day to support himself.

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Smith, whos part of the rideshare drivers advocacy group Drivers Union Oregon, hopes pending legislation will help bring drivers like him a livable wage.

There are a lot of people here in the Eugene area that dont own a car, and once the buses or the public transportation shuts down, were who they call, Smith said. So we are an essential part of the workforce here.

Advocates across several states say theyve increased their activism recently because Uber and Lyft are pushing back harder than ever, as more cities and states pass laws requiring minimum pay and benefit requirements.

The rideshare industry is not as heavily regulated as independent taxi drivers or taxi companies, which are subject to rules on permitting, background checks, vehicle inspections and more, depending on the state or locality.

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Rideshare drivers and labor advocates across the country are urging state and local leaders to require rideshare companies to provide benefits for drivers, including paid sick leave, minimum wages and workers compensation.

The companies have argued that establishing minimum wages for rideshare drivers would raise the price of rides for customers. Uber and Lyft are working to prevent some states from passing rideshare legislation through public campaigns and lobbying.

Oregon Democratic state Sen. Kayse Jama, who sponsored the bill pending in his state, said drivers told him last summer that their accounts were being deactivated without notice. Even drivers who were highly rated were locked out of their accounts, unable to earn any money, he said.

A lot of those folks are mainly immigrants and refugees, so they dont drive Uber as a side hustle or side gig, Jama said. This is their livelihood. This is how they feed their families. So, they brought the issue to my attention.

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Their stories inspired Jama to introduce legislation that would set a minimum wage for Oregon drivers, require a just cause for deactivation  or lockouts  of driver accounts, establish sick leave accrual, increase fare transparency, and create a new driver resource center. Neighboring Washington has a similar model, which was enacted in 2022.

Uber has opposed the Oregon bill, saying that the company needs more time to work with the state on drafting the measure. Uber spokesperson Zahid Arab, testifying against the bill, said the legislation would make rideshare dramatically more expensive for Oregon riders, reduce access to affordable transportation options, and lead to fewer flexible earning opportunities for drivers.

A lot of those folks are mainly immigrants and refugees, so they don't drive Uber as a side hustle or side gig. This is their livelihood. This is how they feed their families.

 Oregon Democratic state Sen. Kayse Jama

Jama said that he and his team have been negotiating with Uber and Lyft since the beginning of the legislative session, but theres more work to do.

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At the end of the day, we want a bill thats equitable to both the parties but also ensures that the drivers are getting the relief that they desperately need, Jama said.

Lockouts are not exclusive to drivers in Oregon. Drivers in New York City first reported last summer periods of time when they could not access Uber or Lyft. The companies were limiting the number of active drivers in response to the citys minimum wage rules.

Uber came to an agreement with New York City last July to reduce the lockouts, but drivers using Lyft were still seeing account deactivations months later.

Uber and Lyft did not respond to Stateline requests for comment.

New laws proliferate

Generally, rideshare drivers are paid a base fare for each trip, with additional money for the time and distance traveled. In some cities, drivers can also see the amount of money theyll earn before accepting a ride. Passengers can choose to tip drivers, too.

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But every location has different rates. For instance, the minimum pay rates for drivers in Washington state have increased to $1.34 per mile and $0.39 per minute, with a trip minimum of $3.45 per trip, according to the states labor department. In Seattle, the pay rates are even higher.

In places without set rules, drivers are subject to rates that depend on the location and availability of rides. These earnings are reduced by driver expenses, including gas, car maintenance and more.

In 2019, the nations first minimum wage pay rate for rideshare drivers went into effect in New York City. The minimum pay rates for time and mileage amount to drivers earning $17.22 an hour after expenses. It was a significant win for advocates in the city who had campaigned for better pay for years. New York later established minimum pay rates for drivers across the state.

Seattle in 2020 became the second city to require minimum wages for rideshare drivers.

In 2023, Minneapolis city leaders were also considering an ordinance that would increase driver pay, but Uber and Lyft threatened to leave the city entirely if it were to pass.

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As part of a 2024 statewide deal after a long battle between Minnesota lawmakers and the rideshare companies, the pay rates for drivers rose to $1.28 per mile and 31 cents per minute on average for time spent driving passengers. As part of the deal, cities were banned from passing their own regulations on wages.

California, Massachusetts and Washington also have passed legislation to set minimum wages and rates for rideshare drivers over the past five years.

Massachusetts reached an agreement with Uber last year that guaranteed minimum earnings of $32.50 per hour to start, a portable health insurance benefit fund established last month and multilingual chat support coming later this year.

Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Washington also require rideshare companies to give drivers paid sick leave, workers compensation, paid family and medical leave, and other benefits.

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In contrast, a California appeals court ruled in 2023 that transportation network companies could treat drivers as independent contractors, meaning they are not entitled to benefits in the state. The ruling upheld a voter-approved law.

Lawmakers in Connecticut and Wisconsin introduced legislation this year that would give rideshare drivers better pay transparency, as well as accident and sickness insurance coverage.

Earlier this year, Uber also sued Colorado over a law that requires the company to provide pay disclosures for drivers, arguing that the law violates Ubers free speech rights. The law requires transportation network companies to disclose to drivers the total amount a passenger paid for a trip, how much is given to the driver and how much the passenger tipped.

Washington state compromises

For more than eight years, Ahmed Mahamud has been driving for Uber and Lyft to support his family in Seattle.

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Driving for the rideshare companies is his full-time job, he said, and business in Seattle is good.

I love it, said Mahamud, 51. Youre helping people when they have a need. So, this isnt just a job. Its a win-win job. Youre helping your community, and at the same time you are paying the bills.

But he lacks the same benefits as a salaried job. So he joined Drivers Union and is pushing for better pay, benefits and protections for drivers.

We are not yet finished fighting against these companies because there are still things missing, he said. So, every single day, we are still fighting.

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In the absence of state and federal regulations, rideshare companies have too much power over the drivers they employ, said Drivers Union spokesperson Anna Minard. Drivers in Washington began to organize when they realized Uber and Lyft were changing how much money drivers would earn without letting them know, she said.

To drivers, this seemed like an avenue for a lot of exploitation, Minard said. So, drivers organized from the get-go and tried various ways to get some rights enshrined in the law [in Washington]. Even though its contract work, people felt like they should be able to join together and fight for better pay and benefits and safety.

In 2023, a year after rideshare drivers won minimum wage and other benefits, Washington lawmakers passed legislation that made it the first state to give drivers paid family and medical leave. Uber and Lyft supported the new benefits.

These coordinated pieces of legislation reflect a true compromise between state lawmakers, labor leaders and transportation network companies to afford drivers historic new benefits while protecting the independence and flexibility they say they want, an Uber spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire at the time.

And last year, after Massachusetts drivers won new benefits that are rolling out over 2025, Tony West, Ubers chief legal officer, said in a statement, We hope to engage other policymakers, drivers, advocates and stakeholders around the world to forge similar solutions.

Advocates with Drivers Union helped pass a law this year in Washington that requires rideshare companies to be more transparent about which cars are eligible for special ride options, which are offered to passengers for higher fees.

In addition to the standard UberX ride, the app offers UberXL for larger groups, Uber Comfort for newer cars with extra legroom and other options that generally cost more.

The legislation, which was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson earlier this month, came after hundreds of drivers saw advertisements from Uber telling them to buy more expensive cars to get more pay on rides, Mahamud said. But in a year, many of those cars would become ineligible once newer cars are introduced to the market, leaving drivers with expensive car notes without the benefit of higher rates to cover it.

The drivers really came together and said, This is just unfair, Mahamud said. Yesterday were told to buy these cars, and then before we can pay the car off, were taken out of the product class which was supposed to pay for it.

The law also requires rideshare companies to provide drivers with a record of their trip receipts.

Drivers and advocates are going to keep fighting for their rights, said Nicole Moore, the president of Rideshare Drivers United, a driver-run organization of more than 20,000 drivers in California. Moore is a part-time driver in the Los Angeles area, and she usually works Fridays and Saturdays.

They [rideshare companies] think that to be an employee in America means you have to work full time, and it has to be a scheduled five-day workweek, Moore said. Now, we as Americans have all these misconceptions about what employment rights and labor rights could actually mean for everyone.

Stateline reporter Madyson Fitzgerald can be reached at mfitzgerald@stateline.org.

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A man stands by the scene where two Israeli embassy staff were fatally shot on May 21, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Credit - Alex WroblewskiGetty Images

Cases of antisemitism and hate crimes towards Jewish Americans have surged in recent years, particularly since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that in the three months following the start of the war, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. skyrocketed by 361%. And the impact continues to be felt.

According to the State of Antisemitism in America 2024 report, published in February 2025, 33% of American Jews said they have been the personal target of antisemitism, in-person or virtually, at least once over the past year. Meanwhile, 56% of American Jews said they altered their behavior out of fear of antisemitism in 2024. A notable increase from 46% in 2023 and 38% in 2022.

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Mark Oppenheimer, a professor of practice at Washington University and editor of Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera, says there has been a "sharp rise" in incidents of violence towards Jewish Americans.

Most incidents of antisemitism are not incidents of physical violence. However, we shouldn't be surprised that in a climate where all kinds of hatred and harassment are being normalized, eventually it spills over into deadly violence. Its horrifying, he says.

One such case of deadly violence being linked to antisemitism is the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, May 21. Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a couple expected to soon be engaged, were leaving the Capital Jewish Museum, after attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, when they were fatally shot.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested Elias Rodriguez at the scene. One witness told CNN that she heard Rodriguez say I did it for Gaza and Free Palestine. On Thursday, Rodrigueza 31-year-old from Chicagowas charged with first-degree murder and other crimes. Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., called it a death penalty-eligible case during a press conference.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were employees of the Israeli embassy. IsraelinUSA/XGetty Images

U.S. and global politicians have condemned the killing and denounced antisemitic violence.

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President Donald Trump said: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen!

Secretary of State Marco Rubio referred to the shootings as a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence and said make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.

Read More: Trump Condemns Killing of Two Israeli Embassy Staff in D.C. as U.S. and Global Lawmakers Denounce Antisemitic Violence

In September 2024, FBI data showed that anti-Jewish hate crimes had increased by 63% since 2023. Despite Jewish Americans making up just 2% of the U.S. population, reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crimes made up 15% of all reported hate crimes in 2023 and 68% of all reported religion-based hate crimes.

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Talking to TIME, experts highlighted three key areas they say have contributed to the rise in antisemitism in the U.S.

The detrimental impact of social media

The rise of reported antisemitic incidents in the U.S. has followed a wider trend. According to ADL, surveys show that anti-Jewish sentiments are at an all-time high globally. A report published in January 2025 found that 46% of the world's adult population harbors deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, equating to an estimated 2.2 billion people worldwide.

In a reversal of previous trends, younger Americans are showing higher rates of endorsing anti-Jewish tropes. In 2024, ADL surveyed that younger Americans were more likely to endorse anti-Jewish tropes, with the highest rate among millennials. Baby boomers had the lowest rate regarding this type of endorsement.

The rise of antisemitism among younger Americans coincides with the rise of antisemitic hate speech being shared on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, which tend to be more popular among younger age groups.

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Oppenheimer says that there has been a decline of historical knowledge regarding humanities, Judaism, and the State of Israel, with people instead getting their information from social media.

Some students turn to TikTok or Instagram influencers for their understanding of a really complex geopolitical situation. That doesnt make the students bad people, but it means that we have, as teachers, failed them, he says.

Popular figures on social media, such as musician Kanye Ye Westwho currently has over 33 million followers on Xhave repeatedly shared antisemitic views on their platforms. Elsewhere, U.S. podcast host Joe Rogan has come under fire for having Darryl Cooperwho has been referred to as "a Holocaust denier"on his show.

It's increasingly acceptable to talk about Jews in broadly stereotypical terms, as Joe Rogan does, as Kanye West does, as Trump has, claims Oppenheimer.

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Some Jewish senators have accused Trump of exploiting antisemitism to target U.S. universities, making reference to his threats to defund certain schools following pro-Palestinian campus protests. In April 2025, five Jewish Democratic senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, accused the Trump Administration of using a real crisis as a pretext to attack people and institutions who do not agree with you.

Pro-Palestinian protestors are pictured in discussions with pro-Israel demonstrators at rallies in Washington, D.C., on July 25, 2024. Mostafa BassimGetty Images

A wider issue with education

According to Echoes and Reflections, an organization aimed at supporting Holocaust education in the U.S., as of 2025, only 29 states mandate Holocaust education.

Oppenheimer believes that instead of addressing education on the Holocaust, American society instead needs to focus on improving education on wider Jewish, and other religious, studies.

I think that Holocaust education is a poor substitute for a broad humanistic education. I do wish that people knew more about world religions, and about the lives of Jewsand the State of Israeltoday," he says

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Continuing to offer mediocre or even good lesson plans about the 1940s is not going to make people more thoughtful thinkers about todays politics, he argues. People have to understand others. Plenty of people accept the reality of the Holocaust, and then still think all sorts of terrible things about contemporary Jews.

Oppenheimer suggests that more funding needs to be allocated to humanity studies in education. Cambridge University found that in 2024, only $69 million out of $54 billion worth of federal government funds towards research in U.S. higher education goes to the humanities.

If more funding was allocated to these areas of education, Oppenheimer says, wed actually be able to educate more students.

Read More: 3 Lessons About Anti-Semitism We Should Learn From the Pittsburgh Synagogue Attack

Political violence is on the rise

The rise in U.S. antisemitism is not an isolated trend. A look at the recent history of political violence in America is a major cause for concern.

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In October 2024, Reuters found that since the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021, there have been at least 300 cases of political violence, the biggest increase in the U.S. since the 1970s. Over the past year, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro saw his home set on fire in an arson attack and Elon Musk's Tesla company has seen multiple attacks on its showrooms since he started to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Most notably, Trump survived an assassination attempt during his election campaign in July 2024, with a bullet grazing his ear.

Read More: A Stark Look at the Recent History of Political Violence in America

President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, escaping with an injury to his ear on July 13, 2024. Rebecca Droke - Getty Images

Another alarming incident in 2022 saw the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi subjected to an attack from a man who broke into their home and bludgeoned him with a hammer.

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Pamela Nadell, an author and director of the Jewish Studies program at the American University in D.C., says that antisemitism and political violence are both part of the same problem.

Ive had lots of conversations about what is the solution?" she says. The Biden Administration issued a national strategy to combat antisemitism, but not much of it got implemented.

Read More: Former Israeli Prime Minister Says Countrys Action in Gaza is Close to a War Crime

Nadell argues that antisemitism is on the rise, in part, due to critiques on Israel that have steered off-course. There are so many moments where legitimate criticism of Israel and its conduct of the war has crossed the line into antisemitism when one uses classic antisemitic tropes, she says.

Equating Jews to Nazis has just exacerbated this, opening the path for a man to decide hes just going to shoot two people leaving an event, who he believes are Jews.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
NARRAGANSETT, R.I. (WPRI)  The Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA) is investigating after more than a dozen dogs escaped a car in a Narragansett shopping plaza Wednesday.

RISPCA President Wayne Kezirian told 12 News a man and woman were traveling from New York to Maine with 17 Belgian Malinois dogs split between two vehicles.

Kezirian said his understanding is that the man, who had 14 of the dogs in his car, had pulled into the Point Judith Road parking lot to stop them from fighting.

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It was an absolutely untenable and difficult situation, Kezirian explained. These are large dogs and it was a small SUV. This person was literally covered in dogs.

The woman, who Kezirian said was driving in a separate car with the other three dogs, had much better control of the ones in her vehicle.

Kezirian said he was told by officers who were called to investigate that the 14 dogs had escaped the mans vehicle, with some of them running into the nearby Marshalls & HomeGoods store.

Cait Sincerny was shopping at the store with her 3-year-old son when she noticed the dogs running back and forth.

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It was chaotic at first, she recalled. Everyone was just shocked at what they were seeing.

Sincerny told 12 News she scooped her son up into her arms once the dogs entered the store.

They looked very emaciated, she said. You could tell they were hungry and looking for food  they also looked very afraid with their tails between their legs.

Kezirian said the dogs were already back inside the vehicle with the man by the time he pulled up.

Whats remarkable to me is that these dogs got out of that car  and the person transporting them was able to round them up and get them back in, Kezirian said.

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It was evident that this was an unsafe situation, and that these dogs were underfed, he continued.

(Courtesy: RISPCA)

(Courtesy: RISPCA)

Kezirian said officers followed the driver to a nearby little league field so the dogs could be removed from the vehicle one by one in an enclosed space.

As soon as the door was cracked, the dogs bolted out of the car, he recalled.

Kezirian said the dogs immediately began attacking a younger puppy in the middle of the field and needed to be pepper sprayed in order to be safely separated.

This dog was literally being mauled by a pack of other dogs, he said.

Kezirian said the RISPCA has three of the dogs, including the injured puppy, while the South Kingstown Animal Shelter took in six. He said that, since the man cooperated, he was allowed to take five of the dogs back to New York.

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It was a lesser of two evils situation, Kezirian explained. The ones we allowed him to keep were dogs that we would not be able to safely care for and adopt out, and he seemed to have them under control.

The woman claimed to have separate ownership of the three dogs in her vehicle and was allowed to keep them, he added.

No charges are being filed against the man at this time. However, Kezirian said he may face charges in the future if he refuses to cooperate with the investigation.

Kezirian said the puppy is being treated by RISPCA veterinarians for several bite wounds. He added that another dog suffered an open gash wound and was brought to a veterinarian by South Kingstown Animal Control.

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TJX, the parent company of Marshalls & HomeGoods, declined to comment on the situation.

The RISPCA is preparing the dogs for adoption and is seeking donations to assist with their care. Anyone who wants to donate can do so online, and those interested in fostering can contact the RISPCA for instructions on how to apply.

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Writer and publisher Andras Sandor Kocsis (R, Rear) speaks at a launch of his photo book titled China with a Hundred Faces in Budapest, Hungary, on May 21, 2025. The new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)

BUDAPEST, May 21 (Xinhua) -- A new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday.

Titled "China with a Hundred Faces," the book by writer and publisher Andras Sandor Kocsis was launched at a ceremony attended by prominent cultural and political figures, who hailed it as a valuable contribution to fostering mutual understanding between Hungary and China.

The event drew guests including former Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy and renowned literary translator Yu Zemin.

Kocsis, head of Kas Publishing, has long championed Chinese culture in Hungary. His publishing house has released nearly 40 China-related titles, including works by Nobel laureate Mo Yan and acclaimed author Su Tong. In recognition of his contributions, Kocsis received the Special Book Award of China in 2019.

At the launch, Kocsis shared that his connection to Chinese culture began in childhood. He said the book aims to give Hungarian readers an authentic and nuanced view of China.

"This book aims to be a bridge of mutual recognition and respect between cultures," he noted. He also recounted personal stories from his travels in China -- moments of kindness from strangers that left a lasting impact.

Yu, who has translated over 30 Hungarian literary works into Chinese, described China with a Hundred Faces as "more than a travelogue."

"This book is not just about sights, it's about the author's perspective and understanding," he said. "For readers curious about China, this work opens a window -- even a telescope -- to contemporary Chinese society."

Yu recalled traveling with Kocsis to Cuandixia, an ancient village near Beijing, and to Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius. He emphasized that the book not only highlights China's cultural heritage but also reflects deeply personal narratives. "Kocsis gives us a lens through which we can view China -- and that lens is shaped by his own character and depth," he said.

Medgyessy underscored the role of cultural diplomacy. "Culture connects people, ways of thinking, and values," he said. "Books like this help Hungarians understand China better. We must not fear China -- we must know it. And through knowledge, cooperation becomes possible."

He also reflected on the strengthening of Hungary-China relations since his 2003 visit, which he called an "ice-breaking" moment in bilateral ties. "Regardless of political leadership, there has been a shared belief in the value of close China-Hungary ties," Medgyessy said. 

A person browses through a photo book titled China with a Hundred Faces at a launch in Budapest, Hungary, on May 21, 2025. The new photo album showcasing contemporary China through the eyes of a Hungarian author was unveiled in Budapest on Wednesday. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua)
A judge handed down the maximum 10.5-year sentence to a Gary man Thursday for burning a Griffith womans overdosed body in a Gary abandoned building.

Emmit Yarbrough, 58, pleaded guilty in March to arson, a Level 4 felony, and abuse of a corpse, a Level 6 felony. He said he would appeal.

Judge Natalie Bokota said he was genuinely remorseful for his actions, but noted that Deborah Leslies family didnt have a chance for a dignified funeral.

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This is a robbery case, she said.

Leslie, 30, was found Sept. 23, 2022, in a torched-out house on the 5300 block of W. 8th Avenue in Gary. She was last seen alive on camera at a Hammond Motel 6.

Yarbrough and his late co-defendant Heather Richardson were the last people seen with her. Richardson died of a drug overdose in January 2024.

Leslies parents Maggie and David outlined their grief, describing their daughter as a faithful Christian. They noted Deborahs twin sister recently gave birth to a baby. Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Brandewie later said she asked for her sisters picture while in labor.

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I just used to love life, Maggie said. Now its like I can barely even walk out the door.

Deborah had gone to rehab nearly 10 times, she said.

David said he was left with several unanswered questions: Did Yarbrough know her? Did he try to help her? Did he let her die?

The family had tried to search for her at the Motel 6. David previously told the Post-Tribune he may have missed them taking her concealed body out in a wheelchair by 30 minutes.

Griffith Police Det. Jacob Schoon testified, saying police matched a phone number linked to Yarbrough to the timeline and at the abandoned building. Police estimated Yarbrough may have taken Leslies car to Indianapolis. It was not recovered.

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On cross-examination, he told defense lawyer Susan Severtson that there were no automated traffic pictures of her car to Indianapolis. His cell phone investigation was done before Heather Richardson was identified as a co-defendant.

Brandewie argued Yarbrough wanted to avoid consequences after Leslie died. He asked for the maximum sentence under the plea.

Severtson said the case was one of the most difficult she had faced in recent years. Leslie was friends with Richardson. All three were there to do drugs, the lawyer said.

Leslie died of a drug overdose  Yarbrough didnt kill her, medical records showed. There wasnt a plan to dispose of her body, it was a helter-skelter decision, she said. She asked for 2.5 years in prison.

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I didnt know your daughter, Yarbrough told Leslies family.

He alleged that the trio was there at the motel to have sex and do drugs.

Richardson woke him up, saying Leslie was overdosing. Richardson didnt want to call 911, because she had a warrant. Yarbrough said he was on probation.

I panicked, he said, tearful during his comments.

Court and prison records show Yarbrough was convicted for voluntary manslaughter for shooting dead Thomas Karins on Dec. 31, 1981, in Gary. Newspaper clippings indicate Yarbrough was 14. Karins was a construction company executive.

In exchange for his plea in the arson, Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Bradewie agreed not to file a habitual offender enhancement, which would have added 5-20 years. Prosecutors dropped all other lower-level charges.

mcolias@post-trib.com
May 21ST. PAUL  A Rochester man was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday in federal court.

Jon Michael Ask was arrested in July 2023 for possessing more than 30,000 fentanyl pills. He was indicted on Feb. 8, 2024, and faced seven counts relating to conspiracy, possession and intent to distribute cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Ask pleaded guilty to one count of a lesser offense of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and cocaine in January. According to the plea agreement, Ask admitted that he conspired with "numerous others to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and quantities of cocaine" from the spring of 2023 through Sept. 11, 2023.

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In July 2023, law enforcement seized approximately 7 pounds of fentanyl pills from a package in Ask's driveway after he exited his vehicle. He previously traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, where he mailed two packages to Rochester.

Before the sentencing hearing, Ask's attorneys requested that the judge sentence Ask to four years in prison, a lesser amount than the presumptive sentence of 57-71 months, or about five to six years in prison.

His attorneys said Ask has a "uniquely low recidivism risk," noting that this case is his first encounter with the justice system.

"There is even more reason to believe that Mr. Ask's conduct during 2023 are not going to be repeated," the defense wrote. "The offense was fueled by massive amounts of money that Mr. Ask no longer has and an unresolved grief that Mr. Ask is slowly, painfully, working his way through. Mr. Ask is not a typical drug defendant, and there is no reason to believe that he will ever be a defendant again."

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The state requested that the judge sentence Ask to the presumptive sentence.

"His conduct was highly bizarre given that the defendant was apparently law-abiding for the first four decades of his life," the prosecution wrote. "The case is mitigated by the defendant's substance abuse issues, which surely played a role in his misconduct."

U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud ordered Ask to serve a 60-month prison sentence followed by four years on supervised release. Ask was remanded to the U.S. Marshal after the hearing, according to court documents.

In exchange for his plea, the remaining charges were dismissed.
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP)  A top Romanian court on Thursday validated the results of Romanias presidential election rerun, shortly after rejecting a request to annul the results by the hard-right candidate who decisively lost the race to his pro-European Union opponent.

After deliberations on Thursday, Romanias Constitutional Court unanimously rejected the annulment request, filed on Tuesday by George Simion, in which he alleged that foreign interference and coordinated manipulation affected the vote.

The Court then validated the results and held a short ceremony attended by the elected President Nicusor Dan, the Bucharest mayor who won the tense runoff, beating Simion with 53.6% of the vote, a margin of more than 829,000 votes.

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I want to thank the Romanian people who turned out in great numbers for the May elections and, in doing so, gave legitimacy to the new president, 55-year-old Dan, a mathematician and former civic activist, said at the court during the ceremony.

A new chapter is beginning in Romanias recent and contemporary history. I want to assure Romanian citizens that I understand the responsibility of the mandate they have entrusted to me, he said. There will be many challenges, and I hope that we will successfully overcome all of them.

Simion, the 38-year-old leader of the hard-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians, had conceded defeat after losing in the runoff to Dan, but later contested the results. The court said its decision on Thursday is final.

In his request to annul the election, Simion claimed he had irrefutable evidence that France, Moldova and other actors meddled in the ballot, but did not present any evidence. He also alleged that deceased people had participated in the vote, and that he requested it be canceled on the same grounds as the courts decision last year.

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After the court rejected his annulment request, Simion said in a post on Facebook that the Court has continued the coup!

We have no choice but to fight!, his post read. I call on you to stand with me, today and in the coming weeks!

Election rerun held after previous vote annulled

Sundays tense vote was held months after the same court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu led the first round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.

The Court's unprecedented decision last year to cancel the election plunged EU and NATO member Romania into its worst political crisis in decades, compounded by a string of crises such as the war in neighboring Ukraine and a significant budget deficit.

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Dan is expected to be officially sworn in next week, after which he must also contend with deep societal divisions laid bare by the vote, revealing a country where endemic corruption, inequality and an erosion of trust in traditional institutions and parties have fueled a broad rejection of the political establishment.

"Romanian society has shown wisdom, and I am convinced that in the period ahead, it will continue to push for the positive change that Romania needs, Dan added Thursday. "I will fight for the strengthening of state institutions ... I will also fight for the countrys economic prosperity, I will be a partner to the business environment, and I will be a guarantor of civil liberties."

Dan will also face the challenge of nominating a prime minister who can garner the support necessary to form a government  a tall order in a country where strong anti-establishment sentiment led to the emergence of figures like Georgescu and Simion.

Simion capitalized on the furor over last year's annulment and, after coming fourth in the canceled race, allied with Georgescu, who was banned in March from running in the election redo. In the first-round vote on May 4 in the rerun, Simion won a landslide in a field of 11 candidates to enter the runoff.

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Allegations of election fraud in rerun

Hours after voting opened on Friday for Romanians abroad, Simion accused the government of neighboring Moldova of election fraud, which both Moldovan and Romanian authorities rejected.

In comment to The Associated Press on Sunday, he reiterated claims that people were being illegally transported to voting stations in Moldova, allegedly affecting 80,000 votes.

More than half a million Moldovans hold Romanian citizenship, and about 158,000 people voted at polling stations set up in Moldova in the second round. Many more dual citizens would also have cast ballots in other countries.

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As a member of the EU and one of the easternmost members of the NATO military alliance, Romania plays a pivotal role in Western security infrastructure  especially since Russias full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.

Many observers saw Sundays vote as crucial to maintaining Romanias place within the network of Western alliances  especially amid fears that the Trump administration is reconsidering its security commitments to the United States European partners.
Romanian nationals admit bank fraud in St. Louis via ATM skimmers

ST. LOUIS  Two Romanian nationals appeared in federal court on Wednesday and admitted installing ATM skimmers at several banks across the St. Louis area to commit bank fraud.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, Mihai Vlaicu, 48, and Mihai Florin Marinescu, 37 pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.

A third member of their cohort, Laurentiu Miguel Ivan, 33, pleaded guilty in March to the same charge. Two co-defendants, Nelu Nae, 37, and Venera Isabelle Dumitru, 28, pleaded guilty to the same charge in April. A sixth person, Ianus Nita, 53, is still at large.

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Prosecutors said all six were involved in a conspiracy to install skimming devices on bank ATMs to steal customer account data and PINs that they then used, or attempted to use, that information to withdraw money from those accounts in order to defraud financial institutions.

Law enforcement said the group was using an Airbnb in St. Louis County as a base of operations. Police searched the residence in summer 2024 and found a laptop computer containing hundreds of videos of customers entering their PINs while using an ATM that had been outfitted with a skimmer. Police also discovered skimming devices, a large amount of cash, and several gift cards.

Ivan will be sentenced on June 25, Dumitru will be sentenced on July 10, Nae on July 23, and Marinescu and Vlaicu on August 20, respectively. They each face up to 30 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine.

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Romania's Constitutional Court on May 22 unanimously rejected an application by defeated presidential candidate George Simion to annul the election results, the court announced in a statement.

Days before, Simion, leader of Romania's far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), appealed the results despite conceding defeat to pro-EU candidate Nicusor Dan on May 18. He asked to annul the Romanian presidential elections due to "external interferences by state and non-state actors."

Simion cited a post from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, who claimed a "Western European government" asked the company to restrict "conservative voices in Romania."

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The court rejected Simion's application as "unfounded."

Dan, the mayor of Bucharest, secured 53.6% of the vote in the runoff, defeating Simion's 46.4%, according to Romania's electoral authority.

"The massive vote on May 18 shows that Romanians believe in change and are calling for the reform of institutions that have disappointed them," Dan said after the court approved the results.

Romania's previous presidential election, held in November 2024, was annulled by the Constitutional Court following evidence of foreign manipulation, including pro-Russian disinformation campaigns.

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That vote was won by populist candidate Calin Georgescu, who openly promoted conspiracy theories and described Ukraine as a "fictional state."

Bucharest has played a critical role in Ukraine's defense, signing a bilateral security pact with Kyiv, facilitating grain exports, and providing key air defense systems.

Dan has pledged to continue Romania's support for Ukraine, strengthen ties with the EU, and uphold democratic institutions. President Volodymyr Zelensky invited him to Ukraine for talks, noting the "nearest opportunities for us to meet."

Read also: Why Washington failed to end the Russo-Ukrainian War

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LEANDER, Texas (KXAN) An arrest was made after a Rouse High School student-teacher, Darian Rogers, was accused of having an improper relationship with a student, according to a letter from the Rouse High School principal.

KXAN has reached out to Rogers attorney. We will update this if a statement is received.

Leander Independent School District was informed that officials received a report of an inappropriate relationship involving the student and student-teacher on April 9.

Darian Rogers (Photo: Williamson County Jail)

Rogers was not a LISD or Rouse High School employee, the letter said.

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According to the school, Rogers had briefly completed student-teacher hours on our campus early this spring.

The incident did not occur at the school, and Rogers was immediately removed from campus once the district was made aware of the situation, the school confirmed.

We want to be clear: the alleged misconduct did not occur at the school, during school hours, or at any school-sponsored event, Rouse High School emphasized in the letter.

The district administration promptly notified both Rogers university program and the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The organizations cooperated with law enforcement throughout the investigation.

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Following the investigation, the Leander Police Department issued an arrest warrant, and charges were filed against Rogers.

Officials said it addressed the incident because Rouse High School was mentioned in the police report.

We hold all individuals working with our students to high standards of conduct and accountability, the letter said.

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BETHEL, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44)  Vermont State Police said they arrived at a house on Main Street in Bethel Tuesday evening on reports of a trespasser, but found a more serious violation.

Derek W. Noble, 42, of Royalton, was found to have active warrants for possession of fentanyl and methamphetamine from out of state. Police searched Noble upon arrest and said they found a controlled substance on his person.

Derek W. Noble, 32, is facing charges of drug possession. (Courtesy: VSP)

Noble was in court on Wednesday afternoon and taken to the Southern State Correctional Facility.

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The News

The Trump administration will not be extending Chevrons Biden-era license to export Venezuelan oil  a decision that contradicted a days-old announcement from Trumps special envoy Ric Grenell.

The May 27 expiration of the companys export license, confirmed late Wednesday night by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came after Grenell said publicly that Trump planned to grant an additional extension beyond the initial one that was given in late March.

President Trump authorized that extension if we were able to get some progress, if we were able to build some confidence, Grenell said earlier this week on Steve Bannons And we were able to do that today, so that extension will be granted.

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But the president, juggling the return of a hostage from Venezuela and his big, beautiful bill vote in the House, hadnt yet made a formal decision on whether to grant another extension, a source familiar with the situation told Semafor. Trump and Rubio spoke last night and decided against the extension, according to a White House official, after Grenells comments, alongside media reports, thrust the topic prematurely into the spotlight.

The decision follows an earlier loss for Grenell on US-Venezuela policy, when Semafor first reported in March that Rubio had taken the reins of negotiations on deportation flights to the country.

The White House and the Secretary of State knew very well when the deadline was to make a decision on this issue, the White House official told Semafor. The President and the Secretary of State were the only two people to make this decision.

Grenell and a spokesperson at the Kennedy Center, where Grenell serves as president, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The White House official noted that Wednesday nights announcement is in line with Trumps long-standing actions to hold the Maduro regime responsible for their atrocities in Venezuela. The official added that Trump is unwilling to embolden this socialist and corrupt regime.

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Grenell has been instrumental in bringing back US hostages from Venezuela: In January he brought back six Americans, and this week he flew back from Antigua with an additional wrongfully detained US citizen.

But the presidents special envoy has at times given conflicting information regarding Venezuela. In March, he said the country had agreed to resume deportation flights, but a senior administration official told Semafor at the time that the promise had not yet materialized in full.

It was around that time that Rubio was asked to bring order to deportation flight talks with Venezuela, the official added.

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May 22PROPHETSTOWN  A two-vehicle crash in rural Prophetstown on Wednesday afternoon left one man dead and another injured, according to a news release from the Whiteside County Sheriff's Office.

Benjamin Weidel, 39, of Prophetstown was killed in the crash, according to the release.

The sheriff's office received an iPhone crash detection alert about 4:35 p.m. pinpointing the location at the intersection of Perkins and Mill roads.

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An initial investigation determined that a black 2007 Ford sedan, driven by 40-year-old Jacob Penaflor, also of Prophetstown, was heading south on Perkins Road when it failed to stop at a stop sign at the Mill Road intersection, according to the release. The Ford collided with a black 2024 Chevrolet Crossover driven by Weidel, traveling east on Mill Road.

The impact caused Penaflor's Ford to roll multiple times, with Penaflor suffering injuries that were not life-threatening. He was taken to get treatment.

The Whiteside County Coroner's Office, Illinois State Police, the Prophetstown Police Department and several area fire and EMS departments assisted at the scene.

The crash remains under investigation by the Whiteside County Sheriff's Office Traffic Crash Reconstruction Unit.
Russian forces attacked Ukraine with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, 128 Shahed loitering munitions and various types of decoy drones on the night of 21-22 May.

Source: Ukrainian Air Force Command

Details: As of 11:00, Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 112 Russian Shahed-type drones and other UAVs in the east, north, south and centre of the country.

Ukrainian forces destroyed 74 drones with air defence systems, while 38 drones disappeared from radar/were suppressed by electronic warfare (causing no adverse effects).

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The Russians launched the Iskander-M ballistic missile from the Russian city of Taganrog. In addition, the drones were launched from the Russian cities of Millerovo, Kursk, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and temporarily occupied Crimea.

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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (L) receives Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Baabda Palace, Lebanon, on May 21, 2025.(Xinhua/Bilal Jawich)

BEIRUT, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met here on Wednesday with his visiting Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas, discussing bilateral relations, regional developments, and international issues of mutual concern.

According to a statement issued following the talks, the two leaders highlighted the "brotherly" relationship between their two countries, stressing shared commitment to deepening cooperation on various levels.

Addressing the ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, both sides condemned what they described as "the continued Israeli aggression" that has resulted in "unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe," urging the international community to take immediate action to halt the violence and ensure full protection for civilians.

The two leaders also denounced repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty and called on international actors -- especially the United States and France -- to pressure Israel into implementing a ceasefire agreement reached under their mediation in November 2024.

The statement also announced the formation of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee tasked with monitoring living conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

They pledged to enhance coordination to maintain stability within and around the camps, jointly preventing them from becoming "safe havens for radical groups."

On top of that, both sides reaffirmed the principle of exclusive state control over arms in Lebanon and shared the belief that "the era of weapons out of state control in Lebanon" is over. 
Russian air defenses reportedly intercepted more than 150 Ukrainian drones over several regions, including areas near the capital, in what appears to be one of the largest such aerial assaults, Russia's Defense Ministry said on May 22.

For at least two days in a row, Ukraine has launched massive waves of drones deep into Russian territory. Between the evening of May 20 and the morning of May 22, Russia claims to have shot down 485 drones on its territory.

According to the Russian military, 159 drones were destroyed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Moscow time on May 22. The ministry said Ukrainian drones were intercepted across multiple central and western regions, including Moscow, where 22 drones were reportedly shot down. The surrounding regions of Kursk, Oryol, Tula, and others also came under attack, with dozens of drones intercepted in each area.

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The ministry described the drones as fixed-wing, aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles. The Kyiv Independent couldn't independently verify the claims. Ukrainian authorities have not commented.

The reported wave of drone activity follows a broader trend that has intensified in recent months. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Moscow and its surrounding regions.

While few drones appear to have reached the capital itself, their mere approach has already forced widespread disruption. Since the beginning of the year, Russian airports have been temporarily shut down at least 217 times due to drone threats.

Recently, Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Bolkhov semiconductor plant in Oryol Oblast, which produces parts for Sukhoi warplanes and Iskander and Kinzhal missiles. The facility provides components to at least 19 Russian factories engaged in manufacturing Sukhoi fighter jets as well as Iskander and Kinzhal ballistic missiles.

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In April President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine is ramping up drone production to the "maximum."

Read also: Ukraines new drone strategy  cripple Moscows airports, make Russian population pay

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Russian attacks against Ukraine killed two people and injured 27 others over the past day, regional authorities said on May 22.

Ukrainian forces downed 74 out of the 128 drones, including Shahed-type attack drones, and an Iskander-M ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported.

Thirty-eight drones disappeared from radars without causing any damage, according to the statement. Drones that disappear from radars before reaching their targets are usually decoys. Russia launches them alongside real drones to overwhelm Ukraine's air defense.

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Eight people were injured in Kostiantynivka and Berestok in Donetsk Oblast, Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

A Russian guided aerial bomb attack on a residential building in Kupiansk-Vuzlozyi in Kharkiv Oblast killed a man and injured two women, aged 66 and 70, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

The aftermath of a Russian attack on Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi in Kharkiv Oblast on May 22, 2025. (Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office)

Two other women, aged 44 and 73, suffered injuries in the city of Kupiansk. A 39-year-old man was injured as a result of a Russian attack on the village of Hrushivka.

A Russian attack near Vasylivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast injured a 55-year-old woman and two 50-year-old men, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

In Kherson Oblast, Russian forces targeted 35 settlements, including the regional center of Kherson. Eleven people were injured, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported.

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An 85-year-old woman was killed by Russian shelling early in the morning of May 22, he said.

Read also: 47th Brigade battalion commanders resignation puts Ukraines military leadership under new scrutiny

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Four residents of Kherson Oblast were injured in Russian attacks on the morning of 22 May.

Source: Kherson Oblast Military Administration on Telegram

Details: At around 08:00, the Russians attacked the settlement of Komyshany with drones. A 52-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman were hit by the Russian strike and suffered blast injuries and concussion.

At around 11:00, the Russians shelled the settlement of Osokorivka, injuring a 26-year-old man who was in the street. He was taken to hospital suffering from a blast injury and shrapnel wounds to his leg.

At noon, Russian troops struck Kherson with a drone. A 68-year-old woman suffered a blast injury and shrapnel wounds to her leg.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  Hackers working for Russian military intelligence targeted Western technology and logistics companies involved in shipping assistance to Ukraine, the U.S. National Security Agency said.

The hackers were trying to obtain details about the type of assistance entering Ukraine and, as part of the effort, sought access to the feeds of internet-connected cameras near Ukrainian border crossings, according to the NSA's report on the cyberattack, which was issued late Wednesday.

The cyber campaign sought to penetrate defense, transportation and logistics companies in several Western countries, including the U.S., as well as ports, airports and rail systems. The report didnt specify which types of aid Russia was surveilling, but Ukraines allies have contributed significant amounts of military and humanitarian assistance since the war began.

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More than 10,000 internet-connected cameras were targeted, including private devices and public traffic cameras near critical transportation points, such as ports, rail hubs or border crossings. Most were in Ukraine, though some were in Romania, Poland and other eastern or central European countries.

Officials did not disclose details about the hackers' success or how long they remained unnoticed. The activity detailed in the report began in 2022, the same year that Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia is expected to continue its efforts to spy on aid shipments, and companies involved in aid logistics or shipments should be on guard, according to the report, which was issued jointly by the NSA, the FBI and security agencies in several allied nations.

To defend against and mitigate these threats, at-risk entities should anticipate targeting, the NSA said.

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Authorities linked the activity to a Russian military intelligence unit dubbed Fancy Bear that is well known for its past campaigns targeting the U.S. and its allies.

The hackers used a variety of tactics to gain access, including spearphishing, which involves sending authentic-looking messages to a potential victim that contain links to harmful software or requests for sensitive information.

The Russian team also exploited security vulnerabilities in computer devices used at small and in-home offices, networks that often lack the security measures found in larger systems.

The hackers didn't use particularly innovative techniques, according to Grant Geyer, chief strategy officer at the cybersecurity company Claroty. Nevertheless, the sprawling yet carefully orchestrated effort gives the Russians a granular understanding of the aid sent to Ukraine, he said.

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They have done detailed targeting across the entire supply chain to understand what equipment is moving, when and how  whether its by aircraft, ship or rail, Geyer said.

Russia could use the information it obtained to hone its war planning, Geyer said, or to plot further cyber or physical attacks on the supply chain to Ukraine.

Last fall, U.S. intelligence officials issued a public bulletin directing American defense companies and suppliers to increase security precautions following several acts of sabotage in Europe that officials have blamed on Russia.

The Russian Embassy in Washington didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
(FOX40.COM)  The Sacramento Police Department said officers arrested a driver who was tied to a homicide on May 14 in Sacramento.

 Video above: Man in critical condition after shooting

SPD said when officers arrived around 8:30 p.m. at the scene of the shooting, they found one man in critical condition who was suffering from one gunshot wound.

Rayno Nel becomes first South African to win Worlds Strongest Man

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The Sacramento County Sheriffs Office said that its deputies made an attempt to help stop the suspected vehicle, but the driver failed to yield and led authorities on a pursuit.

SPD stated that the victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Sacramento police said the driver, identified as Xavier Barron, 23, of Sacramento, was taken into custody two days later on May 16.

SPD said Barron has been booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on homicide-related charges.

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(FOX40.COM)  The Sacramento Police Department obtained a homicide arrest warrant for a 23-year-old, Kenneth Wade, from Citrus Heights on Monday after a woman was found dead in a home back in April.

 Video above: How to report a public safety threat

Wade was located and taken into custody in Cincinnati. He is set to be scheduled in Sacramento, where he will be booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, SPD stated.

Rayno Nel becomes first South African to win Worlds Strongest Man

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According to SPD, officers were called to an apartment on April 14 at around 7 p.m. in the 3300 block of West Street for dead body.

SPD said, This arrest highlights the critical role of collaboration with our law enforcement partners.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4)  After several days of meetings, intense negotiations and last-minute changes, House Republicans passed the big, beautiful bill. The bill extends tax cuts enacted by President Donald Trump in 2017, boosts border funding and deportation and imposes Medicaid reforms, among many other provisions.

What did not make it into the final version of the bill passed by the House? A proposal that would allow the sale of federal public lands in southern Utah.

Utah taxpayers may take a hit if 2017 cuts expire

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The proposal was first put forward by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy (District 2). It would have allowed for thousands of acres of public lands  including 11,000 acres between Washington County, Beaver County, and Nevada  to be considered for affordable housing projects. Maloy told ABC4.com at the time, the provision to sell public lands was necessary for Washington and Beaver Counties as they could not function due to endless red tape on federal lands.

The parcels of land included in the bill would have included thousands of acres near Zion National Park, the Santa Clara River Reserve and the Red Mountain Wilderness.

Utah man arrested for allegedly stalking, harassing Salt Lake mayor over pride-themed city flag designs

However, after countless negotiations, the proposal was removed from the budget reconciliation bill.

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Rep. Maloy released the following statement after the House passed the bill:

I worked hard with my colleagues in the House and locally elected officials to make sure that the one big, beautiful bill represented the unique needs of Utahns. My lands amendment would have delivered critical relief to fast-growing communities in my district. Ultimately, it was removed from the reconciliation package. I still supported the bill, because it delivers a strong economy that will benefit Utah and the country as a whole. I will continue to fight for Utahns to responsibly manage federal lands that currently landlock our communities and hinder economic growth. Representative Celeste Maloy (UT-R)

Cities like St. George told ABC4 they supported the measure and wanted to use certain parcels for the citys growing needs, such as building more water infrastructure, expanding its airport, and providing affordable housing.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), a nonprofit organization focused on defending Utahs red rock wilderness, celebrated the update as a win.

As we hoped would be the case, Rep. Maloys stunt failed. Shes just the latest in a long list of politicians with the bad idea to try and sell off public lands, said Travis Hammill, DC Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The through line of those failed efforts is this: love of public lands transcends geography and political party. Americans dont want to see these lands sold off and time and time again have risen up to make their voices heard.

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Trumps Big Beautiful Bill still has a way to go, however. It will now head to the U.S. Senate, where The Hill reports lawmakers are eyeing several changes, including watering down some Medicaid changes and making some tax provisions permanent.

Latest headlines:

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The Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market has become one of the largest in the nation since it debuted in 1992.

More than 250,000 shoppers attended last years summer market, exploring produce and other items from over than 300 vendors who came from 16 Utah counties to sell their products at Pioneer Park, according to the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, which oversees the weekly event.

The city now wants it to become more than just a seasonal event at the park.

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Salt Lake City leaders unveiled plans for a new public market building to help the park become a year-round home for the market and other events. The city has also tentatively reached a memorandum of understanding with the Downtown Alliance to potentially create a new public-private partnership to manage future park operations, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced Thursday.

A future where Pioneer Park is utilized to its full potential is a future where Salt Lakers feel more connected to each other, to the outdoors and to our community, she said in a statement. This partnership with the Downtown Alliance builds on decades of success with the Farmers Market and opens the door to that aspiration.

The announcement comes as the downtown park is due for a major overhaul. Salt Lake City plans to break ground on its Pioneer Park Vision Plan this fall, an $18.4 million project that seeks to drastically overhaul the park, which draws large crowds when the market is open but is often empty at other times. On average, fewer than 170 people visited the park every day last year, per the city.

A new playground, plaza, pavilion and ranger station, new pickleball courts and a fenced off-leash dog area and natural habitat section are among planned features for the park through the separate project led by the citys public lands division. The city also shared renderings of a new art piece to be installed next year earlier this month.

A rendering of what Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City will look after a project that is expected to begin later year. | Salt Lake City Department of Parks and Public Lands

A year-round market could be another feature, but the building would also host a mix of public and private events when the market isnt open, according to the Downtown Alliance. It would replace its current winter market location at the Gateway.

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The downtown business nonprofit added that it would like to add elements like lawn games, cafe seating, a beverage bar and public bathrooms at the facility. The buildings design and other elements are still subject to Salt Lake City Council approval. Construction is tentatively expected to begin as early as 2026.

City officials say they will conduct feasibility assessments this year as the proposal goes through a public process.

Visitors walk during the reopening of the Salt Lake City Farmers Market at Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City on June 3, 2023. | Ryan Sun, Deseret News

The downtown market not only brings crowds to the park, but also its become a phenomenal economic tool, resulting in $11 million in annual direct-to-consumer sales, Dee Brewer, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, reported to the City Council earlier this year. It could also help turn one of the citys lowest-rated parks around, he added on Thursday.

Pioneer Park has endured a bad reputation for decades. We know we can change the chemistry of the park. We have done it every summer Saturday for 34 years with the Downtown Farmers Market, he said.

This years market returns to the park on June 7. It will continue on most Saturdays through Oct. 25.
San Diego mayor releases statement on deadly plane crash

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)  San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria offered condolences and commended first responders following a plane crash early Thursday morning into a Navy housing complex in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, part of the larger Murphy Canyon area.

The aircraft, a Cessna Citation II (C550) twin-jet, went down shortly before 4 a.m., igniting fires that damaged multiple homes and vehicles. While the identities and number of those on board have not yet been confirmed, the crash has prompted a multi-agency emergency response and a federal investigation.

GALLERY: Fiery plane crash leaves path of destruction in San Diego

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Mayor Gloria issued a statement later Thursday morning addressing the tragedy, as seen below:

On behalf of our city, I extend my condolences to the families and loved ones of those aboard the plane.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, San Diego Police Department, Cal Fire and military police for their swift, coordinated response that quickly evacuated residents, extinguished fires, and secured the area to ensure this tragedy was not compounded.

San Diego will support the Navy as they assist the residents affected by this tragedy.

The crash occurred near Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, the intended destination of the flight, which was coming from the Midwest. According to early FAA data, the plane was registered to a private company in Alaska.

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Officials say dense fog in the area may have been a contributing factor, with visibility reportedly under two miles at the time of impact.

Emergency crews from multiple agencies, including local fire departments, Cal Fire and military personnel, responded quickly to contain the fires and evacuate residents from the affected Navy housing complex. So far, no injuries among residents have been reported, though damage to property is extensive.

A temporary evacuation and resource center has been established at Miller Elementary School for those displaced.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are leading the investigation.

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This story was reported by MassLive and its news partner, El Planeta.

Read the story in Spanish at El Planeta.

Rumors whipped through Revere as police responded to a car crash on Shirley Avenue earlier this year.

Was the law enforcement presence an immigration enforcement raid, one woman asked as she stopped into Chocolaffee, a nearby cafe. Unsure and anxious, the woman detoured a mile in the opposite direction on her way to work that day, Diana Cardona, who owns the business with her sister Angelica, said.

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The mood among immigrants in neighboring Chelsea is no less restless.

Children huddle after school in Tanairi Garcias cafe, Aloe Natural, agonizing in hushed voices over rumors that immigration agents were spotted in neighborhoods where their parents work or live. Some duck into the bathroom and leave in tears, Garcia, a Chelsea city councilor, said.

Four months into the second Trump administration, fear pervades immigrant communities, shared alike by people without documentation and those with protected status, work or student visas, and other paperwork allowing them to reside in the United States.

While some cities, including Chelsea, have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants, pledging not to participate in federal immigration enforcement, such promises do not lift the dread of deportation from their residents shoulders.

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The fear does not end at the boundary of the city, said state Sen. Sal DiDomenico, a Democrat representing Chelsea and nearby communities.

Nor are immigrants the only ones on edge.

Chelsea is one of several Massachusetts cities in the crosshairs of the federal government as it moves to pull any federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, cuts that would affect services and city projects benefiting citizens and immigrants alike.

For Chelsea, that penalty could be steep, according to a lawsuit the city filed to protect its funding stream.

The city received $14.5 million directly from the federal government last fiscal year and anticipates receiving $8.5 million this year, it said. The municipal budget is $245 million, more than half of which goes to the schools.

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Of Chelseas 38,000 residents, 45% are foreign-born  the largest portion of any city in Massachusetts  and 70% speak a language besides English at home. More than one in five residents lives below the poverty line. In the densely populated working-class community just north of Boston, every dollar matters.

Similar anxieties reverberate through Revere, Chelseas neighbor to the northeast, where roughly 43% of its 58,000 residents were born outside the U.S.

Though not declared a sanctuary city nor under the direct microscope of the federal government, Revere still risks the loss of some federal dollars. And its undocumented residents have the same shadow hanging over their heads as President Donald Trump looks to cash in on a campaign pledge of nationwide mass deportations.

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It doesnt matter the city, the fear is the same, said Angelica Cardona, of Revere, who arrived in the United States undocumented in 1993, but today is an U.S. citizen.

A fragile financial position

In Chelsea, authorities say the sanctuary policy allows all people to feel comfortable interacting with police and city officials in emergencies, health episodes and even mundane issues. If residents, undocumented immigrants included, feel that calling police and coming forward to provide information wont lead to their deportation, that makes the city safer, advocates for sanctuary city policies argue.

Chelsea has a moral responsibility to protect and provide for all its residents, regardless of immigration status, Garcia says.

Why should they fear to take their child to school? she asked.

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Still, she worries for her community if the sanctuary policy costs Chelsea its federal assistance.

Some funding cuts will hit the Chelsea Police Department, which the city said in legal filings regularly receives federal money for equipment such as bulletproof vests. Other cuts will drain resources from programs for drug treatment and enforcement, or supporting crime victims and witnesses.

A downtown revitalization project, the largest in decades, is at risk of losing a $2 million federal grant. More than $4 million from a federal program to inject funding into low-income school districts could disappear as well.

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Were already an overcrowded city, Garcia said. Our classrooms will be more crowded and lose money.

Read more: Boston prepares for fight after Trump signs order threatening sanctuary cities

Yet if asked to approve Chelseas sanctuary city policy today, she would still vote in support, knowing what it could mean for the citys future.

Everything has a domino effect, good and bad, she said, adding, With or without the federal grants, I think as a community, we will make it work.

Todd Taylor, a Chelsea city councilor, is not as confident. He thinks the citys lawsuit against the federal government over funding cuts paints a giant target on Chelseas back.

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Taylor has long opposed the citys sanctuary city designation. He sympathizes with immigrants, like his wife and mother, who arrived in the U.S. seeking freedom and opportunity, he said in a statement after the city filed the lawsuit. The country has always needed immigration, he said, but in an orderly, measured system that doesnt risk unprecedented costs for our state and city budgets.

We are already facing a fragile financial position, Taylor said. We should not risk our ability to protect our residents, pave our roads and educate our children just to make a political statement.

No city is immune to funding cuts

Cities without sanctuary policies are also not immune from the vast cuts to federal spending.

Early last month, the Trump administration yanked $106 million in pandemic-era education funding from more than 20 Massachusetts school districts, Revere among them, that they had until next year to spend.

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Revere risks losing more than $4.6 million, a hefty portion of which the city planned to spend on air quality improvements in school buildings, City Councilor Juan Pablo Jaramillo said.

Theres no reason that the city should be targeted, he said. Its not about immigrants, documented or otherwise.

Thats without us being even a sanctuary city, he added.

The city could suffer in other ways as well. The Trump administrations mass deportation push could upend years of work by city officials to build trust with undocumented residents, injecting a wariness of public institutions into the community that will be difficult to unroot, Jaramillo said.

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People will stop calling the police, he fears. Folks who may be sick and maybe need attention  may not go to the hospital.

Theres not going to be a single locality in this country that will not suffer in the services that theyll provide because of the distrust that this administration, this federal administration, has placed on working-class communities like Revere, he said.

In 2000, at age 7, Jaramillo came to the U.S. from Colombia with his parents, lacking legal status to live in the country.

Today, they are U.S. citizens. But once, while Jaramillo was growing up, he recalled, their home in Revere was robbed while the family was out. When they returned home to find the place ransacked, Jaramillo pressed his parents to call the police. He did not grasp at the time why they refused.

The real fear came from feeling unsafe from the public safety apparatus, he said. Who do you go to when someone breaks into your house?

If undocumented residents come to fear authorities, he worries what it could mean for any city, sanctuary or not. In five years, when the U.S. seeks an accurate count of people living in the country through the next Census, undocumented immigrants need to trust that speaking with a Census worker will not lead to their deportation, Jaramillo said.

If they dont, cities could end up with far fewer firefighters, police officers and funding than their populations demand.

Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe Jr. declined an interview request for this story. So did Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez.

Long tradition of immigration

Both Chelsea and Revere have long histories as landing grounds for new immigrants seeking a better life in the United States.

Chris Giannino, a Revere city councilor and retired police officer, said his family arrived in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, Revere was welcoming a wave of Italian immigrants. Different ethnic groups arrived over the years  Irish, European Jews, Cambodians and Laotians, North Africans and Latinos, Giannino said.

Today, Revere remains a diverse city. When the holidays roll around, Giannino said his street comes alive with the different sights, sounds and tastes of his neighbors cultures.

Revere has always been a gateway for different communities to come here, he said.

So has Chelsea, said Gladys Vega, head of the Chelsea social services organization La Colaborativa and Garcias aunt.

Chelsea has always been a city that welcomed immigrants  Polish, Italian, German, Jewish  and now Latinos, she said. Weve always been a small city that opened its doors to newcomers.

One of them is Lesly, a young mother who arrived in the U.S two years ago without documentation. To her, Chelsea certainly feels safer than Guatemala, where gang members threatened to kill her and her son over a conflict with the boys father, she said.

When Lesly, whose full name is being withheld to protect her identity, needed to call the Chelsea Police to report a threat to her safety, the officer she met spoke Spanish. He didnt ask about her immigration status, but explained her rights as an immigrant and helped her file a report. When she felt afraid to leave home, the department offered to drive by and keep watch for trouble.

The trust with police provides residents protection, Lesly said in Spanish to a bilingual reporter, no matter their immigration status.

The Chelsea Police Department focuses on developing partnerships and trust through community policing that encourage all residents, regardless of status, to feel safe reporting crimes, seeking assistance, and engaging with our department, Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton wrote in an emailed statement. We are proud of the positive relationships weve built across our diverse community, which are rooted in trust, transparency and a shared commitment to public safety.

Sanctuary or not, all cities bound by law

Sanctuary city or not, all towns and cities in Massachusetts are bound by legal precedent that prevents full coordination between local police and federal immigration authorities. The Supreme Judicial Court, the states high court, held in 2017 that police cannot detain someone based solely on a request of the federal government, absent a judicial warrant.

Like other sanctuary cities, Chelsea Police policy also bars officers from asking about a persons immigration status. Unless there is a threat to public safety, the department does not concern itself with immigration issues.

Some people have a mistaken perception that in sanctuary cities, criminals can find safe harbor from prosecution, Vega said.

Thats a myth, she said.

Living in a sanctuary city does not provide a shield of immunity from the jurisdiction of the federal government, numerous ICE arrests in Chelsea, Somerville, Boston and other sanctuary communities show.

As in other sanctuary cities, the Chelsea Police do not interfere with immigration-related arrests carried out by the federal government. Nor does city policy prevent the department from collaborating with federal officials on pressing public safety matters, such as investigations into drug trafficking or violent crime.

If theres a criminal, we want them out of our community just like anyone else, Vega said. Sanctuary city never meant protecting those who break the law. We just want safe communities.

In January, Fox News broadcast clips of a series of ICE raids that began outside a Chelsea Market Basket. The operation focused on people who posed a threat to public safety, an ICE spokesperson said. Yet while sweeping one apartment, agents happened upon a man whom they had not targeted, but who was in the U.S. illegally. They took him into custody as well.

The arrests cast a severe chill over Chelsea and neighboring communities, the city said in its lawsuit targeting the federal funding cuts, as everyday residents feared going to work, school, church  even the local Market Basket.

It kind of makes me sad that they feel that way. They feel targeted, Angelica Cardona said. Most undocumented immigrants are just regular working people trying to make it day by day.

More stories on immigration

Read the original article on MassLive.
YANGON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar hosted the 59th ASEAN Senior Transport Officials Meeting and the 4th ASEAN-United States Senior Transport Officials Meeting in Yangon on Wednesday, state-owned daily The Mirror reported on Thursday.

At the opening, Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Transport and Communications U Aung Kyaw Tun said he was pleased with the progress of transport cooperation in the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region, the report said.

He emphasized the importance of working together to achieve ASEAN's goals of regional connectivity, promoting long-term development and resilience.

Myanmar is working in line with priority programs under the National Transport Master Plan to develop its multimodal transport infrastructure, he said, adding that the country is also focusing on environmental protection, sustainable development, resilience and digital transformation.

Key discussions at the meeting included the signing of the ASEAN-New Zealand air services agreement, drafting a roadmap for electric vehicle implementation across ASEAN, developing a strategy for ship waste management, and finalizing the ASEAN transport cooperation framework for the 2026-2030 period.

The deputy minister expressed confidence that the meetings would bring meaningful outcomes.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from ASEAN member states, the ASEAN Secretariat and dialogue partners.

The meetings will continue until Friday, according to the report. 
Our time together was much like any other Monday night visit, with the exceptions that the air felt heavier and people sighed a lot.

There were seven visitors meeting with four of the men housed in Unit 2 of the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville. It's where Tennessee houses its inmates who've been sentenced to death.

We discussed the usual things with Larry: What did you eat last? How are you sleeping? Have you spoken with your sister? Larry inquires about our children by name and asks how Im enjoying being a new grandma. We made some jokes (gallows humor at its finest) and sang a few lines of Walking in Memphis."

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When the subject turned to Oscar Franklin Smith, whose conviction for the murder of his estranged wife and her two sons from a previous marriage landed him in Unit 2, the playing stopped.

Oscar Franklin Smith was convicted and sentenced to death for the fatal shooting of his estranged wife, Judith Robirds Smith, and her sons Chad Burnett and Jason Burnett in Nashville in 1989.

My friend Larry has been on Death Row since 1983 and has grown accustomed to saying goodbye. I have not. Even though my husband and I have been visiting Larry for 15 years and have stood vigil eight times as the state of Tennessee carried out its most vicious penalty.

This time was noticeably different. Larrys face fell hard when I said Oscars name. I asked how I could best be present for him and the tears pooled. The men on Unit 2 are a family. Kind of like the island of misfit toys, except they know how to shoot craps and are viscerally aware of their mortality.

Oscar had been moved to isolation, and Larry couldnt wrap his head around it. In full transparency: I couldnt either.

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Opinion: Instead of funding executions, Tennessee should support victims of violence

So I listened as he struggled to explain his feelings of loss. For the first time since Ive known him, he couldnt find the right words. Really, what words apply here? Protocol? Cruel and unusual? Thoughts and prayers?

We sat with our grief and sipped water out of Styrofoam cups. Larry remarked he wished his had a splash of gin. I concurred.

The downpour came to a stop outside and the time for our visit was over; we lingered as long as we could and said our goodbyes. Then we left the pod and made our way slowly across the yard. It was gray out and we walked quietly until someone noticed a brightly lit window with Oscar on the other side.

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Oscar! we all yelled without thinking. We waived our arms, trying to get his attention, trying to let him know he was not alone. But his back was turned to us, and he wouldn't have been able to hear our voices through the thick glass anyway.

Then, in a moment, grace happened. The Corrections Officer escorting us stepped off our concrete path, scurried across the wet grass and knocked hard on Oscars window.

Opinion: Restarting executions in TN amounts to subjecting death row prisoners to torture

Oscar! she said. You have friends here to see you!

Oscar turned to face us and came to the window, smiling slightly. We signed I love you in sign language and mouthed words of comfort. We may have had 30 seconds, at most, before a voice on the walkie-talkie demanded our prompt return.

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The last image I have of Oscar is with his head against the glass signing I love you." Many opinions have been espoused, and will continue to be in the aftermath of Oscar's execution on the morning of May 22.

But this much I know: Oscar Smith was a person worthy of being seen and worthy of being shown love, and there is an angel working at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution who made sure that happened.

Bethany Roberts Mann

Bethany Roberts Mann was born in prison and is a mother of four and grandmother to one. She lives intentionally every day to break the cycle of poverty one life at a time and recently founded a non-profit called Child Arise, TN, which advocates for and works to advance the children of the incarcerated. Bethany has been visiting the men on death row for 15 years.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee execution of Oscar Smith showed we need mercy | Opinion
CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD)  State transportation officials will hold a drop-in style meeting Thursday to highlight proposed highway safety improvements along Folly Road.

The project is looking to address pedestrian crossing safety, a more uniform traffic flow, reduced conflict points, and improvements aimed at reducing crashes.

South Carolina Department of Transportation officials said the project includes a stretch of SC 171 (Folly Road) from Old Folly Beach Road to SC 700 (Maybank Highway).

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SCDOT representatives will be available at the meeting to share details and discuss the proposed project with members of the community. There will not be a formal presentation.

Thursday nights meeting is scheduled from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at Camp Road Middle School (1825 Camp Road). You can learn more by visiting the project website.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2.
AUSTIN (KXAN)  There is big change coming to Austin ISD as the district is beginning the process to close and consolidate schools.

The district said the move comes after six years without an increase in school funding from the state, as well as declining enrollment.

There were 74,645 students in Austin ISD in the 2021-22 school year and in the 2023-24 school year there were 73,707.

AISD said they have about 25,000 empty seats in schools across the district.

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In December 2024, KXAN highlighted the struggles the district would be facing as they looked to make cuts after announcing a more than $110 million deficit.

Its going to be a process to figure out where those cuts come from, said AISD Trustee Lynn Boswell, in December. At a time when we need more we are making due with less.

Facing budget deficit, Austin ISD board approves tax rate election

Now, the district is working on consolidating schools to save money.

It really is a difficult but necessary next step to avoid any harmful budget cuts to campuses, said Raechel French, director of planning for AISD.

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AISD says after schools are identified for consolidation in mid-fall 2025, consolidations couls start as early as the 2026-27 school year

How will the district decide which schools will close and be consolidated?

The district said they are building a transparent decision-making tool that reflects community values and priorities. Some of the factors will be based on enrollment at the schools.

We have some campuses that are very over enrolled and some that are very under enrolled, said French.

AISD plans hiring, spending freeze as budget deficit hits $110M

KXAN asked if schools like Dobie, Webb and Burnet middle schools, which have continued to make failing grades, could close even after the district said they would not.

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Every school is on the table at this point, said French.

Will high performing schools be excluded from closures?

According to the districts FAQs page they said: We are analyzing our entire district looking for opportunities to consolidate schools. While accountability ratings will be a factor we consider, a high accountability rating does not mean that a school would not be considered as part of a consolidation plan.

AISD said they are currently gathering data and information from parents, staff and community members to understand their values and priorities. You can take the survey here.

The feedback we are looking for is not if we close schools, it is really how we can go about doing better than we have tried doing it before, because we recognize we didnt do it in the best way in the past and we werent as transparent, said French.

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The district said they anticipate a detailed plan outlining school consolidations and transition plans by mid fall, 2025.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
The last day of the 2025-2026 school year has arrived for students in 16 Florida counties, who will bid farewell to their teachers and classrooms either May 22 or May 23.

Most counties will keep students in school until next week, with the school year ending sometime during the week following the Memorial Day holiday.

Students in seven counties will stay in school until early June.

For counties where school is still in session, all students will be off for the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, May 26.

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Meanwhile, a state law that required later start times for middle and high school students beginning in the 2026-2027 school year may not happen.

Last day of school coming May 22-May 23 for Florida students in 16 counties

Columbia: May 23 last day of school

Escambia: May 23 last day of school

Gadsden: May 23 last day of school

Hamilton: May 23 last day of school

Hardee: May 23 last day of school

Highlands: May 23 last day of school

Jackson: May 23 last day of school

Jefferson: May 23 last day of school

Lafayette: May 23 last day of school

Leon: May 23 last day of school

Madison: May 22 last day of school

Suwannee: May 23 last day of school

Taylor: May 29 last day of school

Union: May 23 last day of school

Wakulla: May 23 last day of school

Washington: May 23 last day of school

When is the last day of school in Florida? See the full list by county

Alachua: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 3 last day of school

Baker: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Bay: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Bradford: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Brevard: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Broward: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 5 last day of school

Calhoun: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Charlotte: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Citrus: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Clay: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Collier: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Columbia: May 23 last day of school

DeSoto: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Dixie: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 2 last day of school

Duval: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Escambia: May 23 last day of school

Flagler: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Franklin: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Gadsden: May 23 last day of school

Gilchrist: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Glades: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Gulf: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Hamilton: May 23 last day of school

Hardee: May 23 last day of school

Hendry: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Hernando: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Highlands: May 23 last day of school

Hillsborough: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Holmes: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Indian River: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Jackson: May 23 last day of school

Jefferson: May 23 last day of school

Lafayette: May 23 last day of school

Lake: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Lee: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 3 last day of school

Leon: May 23 last day of school

Levy: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Liberty: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Madison: May 22 last day of school

Manatee: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Martin: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Miami-Dade: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 5 last day of school

Monroe: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Nassau: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Okaloosa: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Okeechobee: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Orange: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Osceola: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Palm Beach: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Pasco: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Pinellas: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Polk: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Putnam: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Santa Rosa: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Sarasota: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 29 last day of school

Seminole: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

St. Johns: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

St. Lucie: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 2 last day of school

Sumter: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. June 3 last day of school

Suwannee: May 23 last day of school

Taylor: May 29 last day of school

Union: May 23 last day of school

Volusia: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 28 last day of school

Wakulla: May 23 last day of school

Walton: Closed May 26 for Memorial Day. May 30 last day of school

Washington: May 23 last day of school

When will middle and high schools start later in Florida?

In 2023, a law was passed in Florida that said high schools could not start earlier than 8:30 a.m. and middle schools could not start earlier than 8 a.m. The law is supposed to take effect in the 2026-2027 school year.

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That new law is now coming under fire and may not happen. "Overwhelming" feedback from school districts revealed that implementing the change could cost the districts big to buy new buses and hire more, already-hard-to-find bus drivers.

Senate Bill 296, which will go before Gov. Ron DeSantis for his signature, provides an exemption from the required change to later school start times if the local school board or district submits a report to the state by June 1, 2026 with the following information:

Current school start times of schools in the district

Documentation of strategies considered to implement later start times for middle and high schools

Description of the impacts of implementing later start times.

What the "unintended consequences" of implementing the later start times would be.

SB 296 passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate.

Read SB 296 in its entirety

How many federal holidays are there in 2025?

in 2025, there are 12 instead of the usual 11 federal holidays, although two  Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day  fell on the same day.

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Here are 2025 federal holidays:

Jan. 1: New Year's Day

Jan. 20: Inauguration Day; Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Feb. 17: Washington's Birthday. Many state and local governments designation it as Presidents Day.

May 26: Memorial Day

June 19: Juneteenth

July 4: Independence Day

Sept. 1: Labor Day

Oct. 13: Columbus Day

Nov. 11: Veterans Day

Nov. 27: Thanksgiving Day

Dec. 25: Christmas Day

Florida state holidays for 2025

The Florida Department of Management Services lists the following days observed as paid holidays by state agencies:

 See list of 2025 Florida, federal holidays, including new one for Sunshine State

Jan. 1, Wednesday: New Year's Day

Jan. 20, Monday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

May 26, Monday: Memorial Day

July 4, Friday: Independence Day

Sept. 1, Monday: Labor Day

Nov. 11, Tuesday: Veterans Day

Nov. 27, Thursday: Thanksgiving

Nov. 28: Friday after Thanksgiving

Dec. 25, Thursday: Christmas Day

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: When is the last day of school in Florida? See list by county
HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH)  The Hartford City Council voted to approve the $626 million budget for the 2026 fiscal year on Wednesday.

The Hartford City Council had discussions regarding increased funding for Hartford Public Schools.

While the majority of the council voted against a $10 million dollar increase, this left Councilman Josh Michtom and John Gale concerned.

I dont understand how you can see the state that our system of education is in and you can look at those numbers, have over a month to look it over, say you are committed to education or our children and turn the screws on them, said Michtom.

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Educators, advocates rally at state Capitol for increased education funding

Funding for Hartford Public Schools has also become a top concern among parents and teachers.

This comes after hundreds of teachers lost their jobs.

Our Board of Education unfortunately has eliminated 194 teaching positions, so the fact that we were unable as a council to come up with the ability to help the board is unfortunate, said Gale.

Thomas J. Clarke II, the assistant majority leader, said the citys Board of Education members need to meet with the council to go over issues within the schools.

Never has the Board of Education come before us and work with the city council to address some of these educational issues ever, said Clarke. Only time Ive seen them come is when they are presenting the budget.

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He said Hartford Public Schools needs to tackle fiscal issues, including consolidating schools.

This budget meeting comes a day after Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam announced an additional $3 million in funding to sustain programs for students.

Those programs include the districts dental clinic, the ReadyCT career pipeline program, Opportunity Youth Academy and programming supported by Catholic Charities.

The mayor said the city did not have an additional $10 million in funding to put towards education.

He said that would require the city to fire police officers, slash health benefits to all city employees including teachers and firefighters and cause a tax hike.

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I am really proud in tough times to pass a budget without increased taxes on Hartford residents, said Arulampalam.

The city said it will continue to invest into its schools to meet the needs of students.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com.
Last year a prestigious scientific journal invited me and a colleague, Professor Anton van der Merwe of Oxford University, to prepare a scholarly paper summarising the evidence that Covid began with a laboratory accident in Wuhan.

We did so, writing a 5,000-word paper with 91 references. The journal summarily rejected it.

We revised it and tried another journal: same result. And again: ditto.

None of the reasons given by the peer reviewers made much sense  some were simply false. It is unfair to speculate on where the virus has arisen unless there is solid evidence  currently, there is none, wrote one editor.

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Yet paper after paper rejecting a lab leak or exploring the flimsy evidence for a seafood-market origin of the virus has sailed through peer review and into prestigious journals. It was clear that their objection to our paper was political: peer reviewers just did not want to see the hypothesis in print because that would admit there was a debate.

Peer review, supposedly the gold standard of scientific respectability, is increasingly a fraud. On the one hand it takes the form of pal review in which scientists usher their chums papers into print with barely a glance, let alone a request to see the underlying data.

That way all sorts of fakes and mistakes get published unchecked. About a third of all biomedical papers later prove impossible to replicate.

On the other hand, peer review takes the form of gatekeeping, in which scientists make sure that others papers never see the light of day. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow, wrote Phil Jones in an email that later leaked, referring to climate-sceptic papers, even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!

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Yet 10 years after that climategate episode, exactly the same peer-review tricks to enforce orthodox dogma were employed in Covid. So peer rejection is no guarantee of untruth.

Part of the problem is anonymity. Peer reviewers get to keep their identities secret, but the authors of papers dont. That is a recipe for vindictive behaviour.

By keeping heretics out of the literature, the dogmatists can then claim that there is no dissent and a consensus has formed.

That this is a circular argument usually passes gullible journalists by. And they waive the need for peer review when the conclusion of a paper suits their politics. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used to boast that it only considered peer-reviewed papers  until it was caught citing sources from activist press releases.

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Grant applications too are filtered by biased peer reviewers. Heretics who challenge dogmas, on the causes of stomach ulcers, Alzheimers or climate change, have all been denied funding by the high priests of consensus. With narrowing sources of scientific funding, how is the next Darwin, Einstein or Crick ever going to challenge conventional wisdom? Science, said the physicist Richard Feynman, is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Peer review is a fairly recent invention. Watson and Cricks discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953 was never peer reviewed.

The system should be replaced by a much simpler procedure: post-publication review. Scientists can publish papers online and let lots of readers pick them apart. Thats what we have done with ours.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Though Alcatraz is known as one of the most notorious jails and iconic landmarks in U.S. history, its location may soon be a thing of the past.

What's happening?

Because of rising global temperatures and melting ice sheets in the Arctic, California's coast could experience massive sea level rise in the near future. According to a report by the California Legislature's Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor, the Pacific Ocean could rise by around half a foot by 2030 and around seven feet by 2100.

"Periodic events like storms and high tides will produce even higher water levels and increase the risk of flooding," the report reads. "Rising seas will also erode coastal cliffs, dunes, and beaches, which will affect shorefront structures and recreation."

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Specifically, areas such as Alcatraz face a significant threat in the San Francisco Bay. The island's shoreline is susceptible to increased erosion and flooding, which could impact buildings and ecosystems. Scientists and conservationists have been working to monitor and mitigate these effects through 3D mapping and other strategies.

Why is the erosion of Alcatraz important?

After 29 years of operation, the federal penitentiary at Alcatraz closed in 1963 because of high operational costs. President Donald Trump has recently said he wants to see it reopened, but since then, the island has not only become an in-demand attraction for over a million tourists a year, but it is home to a variety of wildlife as well.

Alcatraz has developed into a haven, particularly for birds, because of its isolation and unique habitat. It's a popular spot for viewing colonial nesting of birds such as cormorants, gulls, night herons, and egrets.

However, rising sea levels have led to the potential of habitat loss for many of these birds. "There are portions of the island that are eroding, and with this pinpoint in time we'll be able to do future scans and see what has changed and what parts of the island has had more impacts than others," Golden Gate National Recreation Area archeologist Peter Gavette told CBS News.

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"Sea level rise is something we should be worried about, the impacts that we will have on our coastal communities," Gavette added.

What's being done about rising sea levels?

In order to better forecast the impacts of sea level rise at Alcatraz, scientists have deployed 3D mapping of the island in order to evaluate which locations are most at risk of erosion.

Pete Kelsey, owner of VCTO Labs and a member of the 3D mapping team, says that the technology has become a useful tool to raise awareness of the dangers of sea level rise. "We know what's coming," Kelsey told CBS. "So, the 3D map is not only immersive and engaging but it pertains to the broader conversation about sea level rise."

Besides increasing the threat of sea level rise, rising global temperatures have also brought more frequent and severe extreme weather events to communities all around the world. The installation of solar panels, paired with a battery system, can make your home more resilient to extended power outages while also bringing your cost of energy down to near $0. EnergySage provides a free service that makes it easy to compare quotes from vetted local installers and save you up to $10,000 on a solar installation.

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As glaciers and sea ice melt, coastal communities around the world are contending with challenges associated with rising sea levels.

In Hampton Roads, Virginia, the sea level has risen by over an inch in the past five years. If the water continues to rise at this rate, the area could see anywhere from 1.5 to 3 feet of sea level rise in the span between 1992 and 2050.

What's happening?

Nearby Norfolk, Virginia, might be seen as an interesting indicator for rising waters on the East Coast. Recently, it has experienced a yearly sea level rise of about 0.25 inches.

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"We are accelerating at a high rate compared to a lot of the rest of the country, but that rate hasn't been changing," Molly Mitchell, a professor at the College of William & Mary, told local public radio station WHRO.

While that consistent quarter of an inch per year may seem small, it has many in the state worried. Rising sea levels, meanwhile, are just one of the many concerns that coastal cities are facing.

"You hear about sea level changes that are kind of a global rate, but what's happening at any given place is a combination of a lot of different factors," Mitchell said.

Factors like subsidence  or a gradual sinking of the land  and shifting tectonic plates can exacerbate how quickly city structures might drop as sea levels rise. All of these issues can result from glacial melting, and for areas with a lot of low and flat land, flooding can be particularly dangerous.

Why are rising sea levels concerning?

Coastal communities around the world are aiming to adapt to sea level rise and sinking lands while grappling with their effects. With climate change supercharging hurricanes in vulnerable regions, residents are coping with damage from floods and surges just as local leaders are hoping to launch infrastructure projects that might protect them from the next storm.

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The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the deadliest and costliest on record. Facing the loss of human life as well as property destruction can make it both more challenging and more critical to solve a crisis that promises to hit the same neighborhoods  and hard  again and again.

Extreme weather events are part of life on Earth. However, human-caused climate change has increased their frequency and severity. Burning dirty energy sources produces the heat-trapping pollution that increases temperatures and upends weather systems, burdening coastal communities in particular and often disproportionately impacting marginalized populations.

Do you feel safe drinking the tap water where you live? Always Most of the time Not usually Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.

What can be done about rising sea levels?

The city of Norfolk is currently pursuing a multi-year $2.6 billion project to build surge barriers, floodwalls, and levees. Other municipalities are considering the same. A number have seen federal funding cuts so far this year, but some are looking to state and local resources to keep these efforts on track.

Meanwhile, municipalities and individuals are looking for strategies to reduce their reliance on dirty energy sources while strengthening energy systems against storm-caused outages. One option that can address both is installing solar panels.

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Coupling solar panels with a battery system can help improve your home's resilience to extreme weather by making power available even when the rest of the grid is knocked out. Leveraging solar systems can also bring energy costs down to or near $0. EnergySage provides a free service to those interested in solar that compares quotes from vetted local installers and can make it possible to save up to $10,000 on installations.

As rising sea levels, sinking lands, and tectonic shifts pose chaos, residents might feel empowered by taking control of their energy access. Communities can also come together to coordinate safety plans in advance of storms, ensuring they'll be able to share information and resources afterward. And supporting pro-environment policies can help to ensure cities and towns can fund the infrastructure projects they need to survive.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.




PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  One person is dead after officials say two vehicles crashed into the driver of a scooter just north of Vancouver on Wednesday night.

Just before 9:30 p.m., Clark County Sheriffs deputies responded to reports of a crash near NW 78th Road and 78th Street.

Vancouver to implement paid street parking downtown on weekends

On arrival, officials said they found the driver of a scooter had been hit by two motor vehicles and died from their injuries.

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Both drivers stayed at the scene and are cooperating with the investigation, deputies say.

No further information, including the identity of the scooter driver, has been released at this time.

This is a developing story. Stay with KOIN 6 News for updates.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
BANGKOK, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Supreme Administrative Court on Thursday ordered former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to pay 10.03 billion baht (306 million U.S. dollars) in damages over the rice-pledging scheme that occurred under her administration over a decade ago.

The ruling upheld the Ministry of Finance's appeal against a lower-court decision but reduced the compensation from the originally sought 35.7 billion baht (about 1.08 billion dollars), according to local media reports.

The court held Yingluck liable for financial losses related to her role as prime minister and chair of the National Rice Policy Committee, citing her negligence in failing to prevent corruption within the rice program.

The court found that the scheme, intended to support farmers by purchasing rice at above-market prices, led to significant market distortions and financial damage.

The former prime minister fled Thailand in 2017 before a court hearing concerning a separate case related to the rice scheme. She was found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced in absentia to five years in prison. 
The News

The US Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a bid to use taxpayer money to fund an religious charter school in Oklahoma.

The court, which was split 4-4 with one justice recused, left in place an earlier ruling that the plan was unconstitutional.

A win in this case for the schools would expand the use of public funding for religious schools, which critics have argued blurs the separation of church and state.

The lack of a majority opinion leaves open the broader question of whether the First Amendment allows states to fund religious charter schools, likely meaning that proponents of religious charter schools will simply try again, Vox wrote: Legal experts pointed to the courts recent expansion of the role of religion in public life as an indication that it could rule decisively in the future.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 9, 2024. The court on Thursday deadlocked on a lawsuit that sought to overturn the Oklahoma Supreme Court's denial of a publicly funded Catholic charter school. (Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

This story originally appeared on Oklahoma Voice.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma  A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an Oklahoma ruling that struck down the nations first religious charter school.

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The Court announced Thursday it voted 4-4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. It did not disclose how each justice voted, nor did it issue written opinions.

The tied vote affirmed last years Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that the concept of a publicly funded Catholic charter school is unconstitutional.

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The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa sought to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to offer a government-funded online education to students in all parts of the state. St. Isidore would have taught Catholic doctrine and operated according to church teachings.

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The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted in 2023 to approve opening the school. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, calling the school unconstitutional and a threat to religious liberty.

Both the school and the statewide board appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case and heard oral arguments April 30.

The Board of Directors for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, along with Tulsa Bishop David Konderla, second left, and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, third left, meet June 28 at the Diocese of Tulsas Chancery Office. (Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

Attorneys representing St. Isidore and the statewide board contend charter schools are not truly public schools but rather private entities contracting with the state, who therefore should be free to adopt a religion. Excluding faith-based groups from charter school funding is religious discrimination, they said.

In light of the Courts decision, St. Isidores Board of Directors said it will continue exploring other options to deliver a virtual Catholic education for all in Oklahoma.

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Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the board stated. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Courts decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.

During oral arguments in Washington, D.C., the Court appeared to be divided on the case. Liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson made their doubts clear on St. Isidore while some of the conservative majority, particularly Justice Brett Kavanaugh, signaled support.

Drummond has long contended the Catholic charter school would create a slippery slope toward taxpayers having to fund schools of any religious faith, including belief systems Oklahomans might find objectionable.

The Supreme Courts decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding, Drummond said in a statement Thursday.

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The Statewide Charter School Board, which dropped the word virtual from its name in the year since it appealed the case, issued a statement pledging its commitment to all students and the rule of law.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said a Catholic charter school would violate the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitution. (Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice)

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board respects the Courts authority and appreciates its willingness to hear complex and deeply significant legal questions, the boards statement reads. The split decision of the court affirms this was indeed a complicated matter with a wide spectrum of views on the appropriate relationship between education, public funding, and religious institutions in our state and country.

While the attorney general led the legal fight against the school, other Republican leaders in the state, including Gov. Kevin Stitt, advocated for giving religious groups access to charter school funds.

Stitt said the matter is far from a settled issue.

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This 4-4 tie is a non-decision, Stitt said in a statement Thursday. Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie.

Barrett is a former faculty member of the University of Notre Dame Law School, which aided Catholic officials case for the school. She did not participate in the decision to consider the Oklahoma appeal nor did she hear oral arguments.

The Courts deadlock could impact a separate lawsuit challenging St. Isidore in Oklahoma County District Court. That case has been on hold while the Supreme Court appeal was ongoing.

A coalition of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education advocates filed the lawsuit in 2023 while represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other national legal organizations.

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They contend St. Isidore would discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and employees, fail to adequately serve children with disabilities and unlawfully teach religious indoctrination.

Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court building April 30 in Washington, D.C., after listening to oral arguments over a Catholic charter school seeking to open in Oklahoma. (Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

Oklahoma City Archdiocese officials said students of all backgrounds and beliefs would have been welcome at St. Isidore. The school promised in its charter contract that it would abide by non-discrimination laws and other state regulations to the extent that Catholic doctrine permitted.

Americans United is discussing next steps for the Oklahoma County case with the plaintiffs and co-counsel, spokesperson Liz Hayes said.

A religious charter school would be an abject violation of religious freedom, said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United.

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The Supreme Courts stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state, Laser said. Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

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The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on an Oklahoma case over a religious charter school. The tied vote allows the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against the school to stand. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

OKLAHOMA CITY  A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an Oklahoma ruling that struck down the nations first religious charter school.

The Court announced Thursday it voted 4-4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. It did not disclose how each justice voted, nor did it issue written opinions.

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The tied vote affirmed last years Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that the concept of a publicly funded Catholic charter school is unconstitutional.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa sought to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to offer a government-funded online education to students in all parts of the state. St. Isidore would have taught Catholic doctrine and operated according to church teachings.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted in 2023 to approve opening the school. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, calling the school unconstitutional and a threat to religious liberty.

Both the school and the statewide board appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case and heard oral arguments April 30.

The Board of Directors for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, along with Tulsa Bishop David Konderla, second left, and Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, third left, meet June 28 at the Diocese of Tulsas Chancery Office. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

Attorneys representing St. Isidore and the statewide board contend charter schools are not truly public schools but rather private entities contracting with the state, who therefore should be free to adopt a religion. Excluding faith-based groups from charter school funding is religious discrimination, they said.

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In light of the Courts decision, St. Isidores Board of Directors said it will continue exploring other options to deliver a virtual Catholic education for all in Oklahoma.

Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the board stated. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Courts decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.

During oral arguments in Washington, D.C., the Court appeared to be divided on the case. Liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson made their doubts clear on St. Isidore while some of the conservative majority, particularly Justice Brett Kavanaugh, signaled support.

Drummond has long contended the Catholic charter school would create a slippery slope toward taxpayers having to fund schools of any religious faith, including belief systems Oklahomans might find objectionable.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said a Catholic charter school would violate the Oklahoma and U.S. Constitution. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice)

The Supreme Courts decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding, Drummond said in a statement Thursday.

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The Statewide Charter School Board, which dropped the word virtual from its name in the year since it appealed the case, issued a statement pledging its commitment to all students and the rule of law.

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board respects the Courts authority and appreciates its willingness to hear complex and deeply significant legal questions, the boards statement reads. The split decision of the court affirms this was indeed a complicated matter with a wide spectrum of views on the appropriate relationship between education, public funding, and religious institutions in our state and country.

While the attorney general led the legal fight against the school, other Republican leaders in the state, including Gov. Kevin Stitt, advocated for giving religious groups access to charter school funds.

Stitt said the matter is far from a settled issue.

Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court building April 30 in Washington, D.C., after listening to oral arguments over a Catholic charter school seeking to open in Oklahoma. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

This 4-4 tie is a non-decision, Stitt said in a statement Thursday. Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie.

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Barrett is a former faculty member of the University of Notre Dame Law School, which aided Catholic officials case for the school. She did not participate in the decision to consider the Oklahoma appeal nor did she hear oral arguments.

The Courts deadlock could impact a separate lawsuit challenging St. Isidore in Oklahoma County District Court. That case has been on hold while the Supreme Court appeal was ongoing.

A coalition of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education advocates filed the lawsuit in 2023 while represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other national legal organizations.

They contend St. Isidore would discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and employees, fail to adequately serve children with disabilities and unlawfully teach religious indoctrination.

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Oklahoma City Archdiocese officials said students of all backgrounds and beliefs would have been welcome at St. Isidore. The school promised in its charter contract that it would abide by non-discrimination laws and other state regulations to the extent that Catholic doctrine permitted.

Americans United is discussing next steps for the Oklahoma County case with the plaintiffs and co-counsel, spokesperson Liz Hayes said.

A religious charter school would be an abject violation of religious freedom, said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United.

The Supreme Courts stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state, Laser said. Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students.

Advertisement Advertisement

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Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

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A January 2025 view of the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

An employee in the state Bureau of Information and Technology has been promoted to commissioner of the bureau, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden announced Thursday.

Mark Wixon serves as the director of agency application support with the bureau. He previously worked at Black Hills Energy for 28 years before working with the state.

Mark Wixon was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Technology by South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden. (Courtesy of South Dakota Governors Office)

Rhoden said in a news release he believes Wixon will provide meaningful, strategic insight to the position.

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The bureau manages information and technology-related needs in state government, such as operating the states data center, providing cybersecurity training and awareness, and offering support services to other agencies. The bureau also includes South Dakota Public Broadcasting. The bureaus annual budget is $88 million, and it has 390.5 full-time equivalent positions.

Wixon joined the bureau last year.

My career in IT has been driven by the philosophy that innovative technology solutions can drive positive outcomes and enhance business performance, Wixon said in the news release. I look forward to continuing this mission and achieving great results for the agencies which serve this great state.

South Dakotas former BIT commissioner Madhu Gottumukkala left recently to serve as the deputy director of U.S. Homeland Securitys Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, under former South Dakota governor and current Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

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UPDATE: The father of a missing kayaker on the St. Johns River identified the man as 43-year-old Jeremiah Beck.

Drones were flying in the air early Thursday morning over the St. Johns River near the location where Beck went missing Wednesday.

Authorities began searching for him at about 5:30 p.m. near the Memorial Bridge in Palatka. Search efforts were paused around 11 p.m. and are expected to resume Thursday morning.

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Authorities have found the kayak and were expected to continue searching for the man when theres daylight.

Jeremiah Beck, 43, has been been identified as the missing kayaker last seen in the St. Johns River.

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The search is being conducted by Florida Fish and Wildlife and Putnam County Sheriffs Office who are using dive teams, sonar, drones and helicopter.

Putnam County Sheriffs Office posted on social media Wednesday that they began receiving calls at about 5:30 p.m. from people saying that a man may have fallen out of his kayak.

Crews were able to locate the kayak but are still searching for the man, the post states.

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A man accused of stabbing one person and knocking another unconscious in downtown Seattle has been charged with two counts of assault, according to charging documents filed Wednesday in King County Superior Court.

Prosecutors charged Michael Ray Tyler, 41, with first-degree assault and second-degree assault for an incident that occurred around 8 p.m. on May 18 at Occidental Park near 117 South Washington Street.

According to police and court documents, Tyler was drinking with several people in the park when he allegedly punched a man so hard that he lost consciousness.

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When another man approached Tyler to ask why he did it, Tyler reportedly pulled out a knife and stabbed him.

That man suffered a stab wound to the chest and another to the back.

The blade broke off and was left lodged in his back, according to Seattle police.

Both victims were taken to Harborview Medical Center, where they remained hospitalized the following day.

Multiple witnesses told officers they saw the stabbing.

About an hour later, dispatchers received a report that the suspect had returned to Occidental Park.

Officers found Tyler nearby and detained him.

When officers searched Tyler, they found parts of a broken knife handle in his pockets.

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The blade recovered from the back of one of the victims matched the handle found on Tyler, police said.

Tyler declined to acknowledge his Miranda rights and did not speak with officers. He was booked into the King County Jail.

Prosecutors are seeking $500,000 bail, citing the violent nature of the attack and Tylers criminal history, which includes felony convictions in Texas for aggravated robbery and assault, and a 2023 felony conviction in Nevada for possession of a stolen vehicle.

He also has several prior misdemeanor convictions dating back to 2005.
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo.  A student from Seckman High School, located in Imperial, Missouri, was hit by a school bus on Wednesday.

Jeff Krutzsch, the principal at the school, released a message to families and staff members in relation to the incident.

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During dismissal this afternoon, a student was struck by a school bus as the bus was leaving campus, Krutzsch wrote. Emergency services arrived at the scene shortly after and provided care to the student and subsequently transported the student off campus to receive medical attention.

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The family of the student has been informed, as well as relatives of those who were on the school bus. Those who were on the school bus sustained no injuries, according to officials.

While no students aboard the bus were injured, it is possible that your student witnessed this incident and will want to discuss it with you, Krutzsch wrote.

An investigation into the event is underway with police and the Fox C-6 transportation department.

The well-being and safety of our students and staff is always our top priority, Krutzsch wrote.

The principal concluded the email, saying that counselors will be available at the school for those affected by the incident.

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FOX 2 has yet to learn about the students condition.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
ECTOR COUNTY, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- The Ector County Sheriffs Office has arrested a second person in connection with a fire that destroyed a church earlier this month. Jeran Loschiavo, 31, has been charged with Arson of a Place of Assembly or Worship, Burglary of a Building, Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity, and Theft of Property.

According to ECSO, around 3:40 am on May 9, deputies responded to a structure fire at Second Chance Fellowship Church, located at 812 W Hillmont Road. Once the fire was extinguished by the Odessa Fire Department, investigators realized that the fire had been set intentionally by unknown suspects who also burglarized the church.

Members of the congregation said the fire caused heavy damage to the recently renovated church and that repairs would come with a hefty price tag.

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Im surprised that something like this would happen, but all things attain to Gods glory, so well come back from this stronger. To whoever was involved in thiswere instructed to forgive, said one member of the congregation who visited the church after the fire to begin cleaning up the mess left behind.

While congregants attended the clean-up, investigators with ECSO got to work and obtained security video from cameras at the church and from surrounding business and identified a truck involved in the crime as one belonging to Loschiavo.

Another suspect, a known friend of Locshiavo, was identified as John McClellan. McClellan was arrested days after the fire on an unrelated crime and investigators said when they questioned him about the fire, he initially said someone had stolen Loschiavos truck and that he and his friend were innocent of the crime. Later, McClellan reportedly admitted to stealing more than $15,000 in sound equipment and splitting the profits with Loschiavo.

Investigators said the two, along with a third suspect who has not yet been arrested, used gasoline and matches to set fire to a closet containing the hard drive for the security equipment in an effort to destroy evidence.

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Loschiavo was arrested on a warrant early in the morning on May 22; his bond has not yet been set. Much like his co-defendant, jail records showed that Loschiavo has a lengthy arrest record dating back to 2011; hes been charged multiple times for theft, drug possession, evading arrest, forgery, aggravated robbery, and more.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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By Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump turned down the lights in the Oval Office on Wednesday and made South African President Cyril Ramaphosa the target of his latest geopolitical ambush of a foreign leader in front of television cameras.

In an extraordinary scene clearly orchestrated by the White House for maximum effect and reminiscent of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit in February, Trump confronted Ramaphosa with false claims of genocide against South African whites, including allegations of mass killings and land seizures.

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It was another display of Trump's apparent readiness to use the Oval Office, historically reserved as a place of honor for foreign dignitaries, to embarrass visitors from less-powerful nations or hold their feet to the fire on matters he is fixated upon.

Trump's unprecedented use of the presidential setting for such displays could prompt foreign leaders to think twice about accepting his invitations and risk public humiliation, a reluctance that could make it harder to cement ties with friends and partners that are also being courted by archrival China.

Patrick Gaspard, a former U.S. ambassador to South Africa under President Barack Obama, said Trump had turned the meeting with Ramaphosa into a "shameful spectacle" and "savaged him with some fake snuff film and violent rhetoric."

"Engaging on Trumps terms never goes well for anyone," Gaspard, now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress think-tank in Washington, wrote in a post on X.

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The Oval Office meeting had been billed as a chance to reset strained relations between the U.S. and South Africa, especially after Trump's imposition of tariffs, and to defuse escalating tensions over his unfounded accusations of "white genocide" and offer to resettle white minority Afrikaners.

After a cordial start to the meeting, Trump, a former reality TV star, ordered the lights dimmed and showed a video and printed articles purporting to be evidence that white South Africans are being persecuted.

Ramaphosa, clearly prepared to counter Trump's accusations but unlikely to have expected the political theater, was attentive and composed as he sought to refute what was presented by his host, but he stopped short of directly challenging or criticizing a U.S. president with a reputation for being thin-skinned.

Im sorry I dont have a plane to give you, Ramaphosa quipped with a smile, referring to the luxury jetliner Qatar has offered Trump as a replacement for Air Force One.

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His spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told South African broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that "you could see President Ramaphosa was being provoked."

"You could see he was having his eye pulled, and he did not fall for the trap," Magwenya said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request on whether the meeting was set up to put Ramaphosa in the hot seat and whether that might discourage other foreign leaders from such visits.

Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, said that while the televised portion of the meeting was a circus, "it never crossed the line into anger or vitriol, so it didn't go off the cliff."

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ZELENSKIY-TRUMP SHOUTING MATCH

That mood stood in sharp contrast to Trump's meeting just months ago with Zelenskiy, which devolved into a shouting match involving both the president and Vice President JD Vance.

Zelenskiy, much like Ramaphosa, was there to try to heal a rift in relations and in Ukraine's case maintain U.S. military assistance to Kyiv in the war against Russia's invading forces.

But the meeting quickly went off the rails, with Trump accusing Zelenskiy of being disrespectful and gambling with a potential World War Three, and Vance charging that the Ukrainian leader had not shown enough appreciation for U.S. support.

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The contentious nature of the meeting sent shockwaves through the NATO alliance backing Ukraine's fight against Russia.

There may have been less at stake in Trump's meeting on Wednesday with Ramaphosa, but South Africa is a major political and economic player in Africa that counts China as its biggest trading partner, with the U.S. coming in second.

South Africa, which endured centuries of harsh discrimination against Black people during colonialism and apartheid before becoming a multi-party democracy in 1994 under Nelson Mandela, rejects Trump's allegations.

Trumps confrontation appeared tailored for parts of his political base, particularly the far-right and white nationalist segments that have long pushed the narrative of a white genocide in South Africa.

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By showcasing unverified claims of violence against white farmers and framing land reform as racial persecution, Trump tapped talking points popular in U.S. right-wing extremist circles.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has canceled aid, expelled South Africa's ambassador and resettled some white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims Pretoria says are baseless. The program has been divisive as Trump has been largely blocking refugee admissions from the rest of the world.

A new South African land reform law, aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid, allows for expropriations without compensation when in the public interest, for example if land is lying fallow. No such expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court.

If anybody doubts that the Zelenskiy incident was not completely stage managed by the White House, I think the scales should fall from their eyes," British foreign affairs commentator Tim Marshall told Times Radio in London.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom, Daphne Psaledakis; additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)
JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered the return of the Israeli delegation from Doha, a senior Israeli official confirmed to Xinhua, describing it as "an impasse" in the negotiations with Hamas over a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Israel had recalled its senior negotiation team on Tuesday for consultations after a week of indirect talks, and now the remaining working-level team still in Doha will also return.

Hamas, in a statement on Tuesday, accused the Israeli government of derailing the talks, saying the low-level Israeli team left in Doha had no mandate to finalize an agreement. The group accused Netanyahu of "misleading world public opinion and pretending to participate in the negotiation process," claiming no substantive negotiations had taken place since Saturday.

Citing an Israeli diplomatic source, Israel's state-owned Kan TV reported that the talks broke down over a key disagreement -- Israel insisted on a deal involving a temporary truce in return to the release of only some hostages, while Hamas demanded international guarantees, primarily from the United States, that Israel would not resume fighting, in exchange for the release of all hostages.

"The sides failed to bridge the gaps, despite pressure from Washington," the diplomat said.

In January, Hamas released 33 Israeli hostages under the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal, as well as five Thai nationals who were not part of the agreement. In March, Israel refused to advance to the second phase of the deal after a two-month ceasefire, resuming its military offensive.

Since then, Israel has rejected international calls to halt the war and allow humanitarian aid into the besieged enclave, where United Nations experts warn famine is spreading.

On Saturday, Israel launched Operation Gideon's Chariots, marking a significant escalation in its 19-month offensive.

Israeli officials say the goal is to defeat Hamas and return 58 hostages still held in Gaza. The operation includes seizing the entire Gaza Strip, maintaining military control over the territory, and pushing the population southward, according to Israeli sources.

The Palestinian death toll has reached 53,762 since the war began, according to the Gaza health authorities' update on Thursday. 
Law enforcement agencies across the country are ramping up security after two people were killed Wednesday outside of Washingtons Israeli Embassy.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were gunned down by a male suspect after leaving the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats Reception.

While there is no known nexus to NYC, in response to last nights horrific attack in DC targeting Jews & Israelis, the NYPD is increasing its presence at religious sites & cultural institutions with high visibility patrols, heavy weapons teams, and counterterrorism officers, the New York Police Department said in a Thursday statement on X.

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Other agencies said they would follow suit.

Due to the horrific targeted act of hate and violence in Washington D.C., we are taking immediate steps to enhance security throughout Miami-Dade County. This means increased patrols around places of worship and cultural institutions, including synagogues, mosques and Jewish schools, the Miami-Dade Sheriffs Office said in a Thursday post on X.

We urge the public to stay alert and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately. My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected, and rest assured we will do everything in our power to keep our community safe, it concluded.

Chicagos police department said it would specifically hone in on protecting synagogues and the Middle Eastern countrys consulate building.

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We are continuing to monitor the situation in Washington, D.C. The Chicago Police Department currently has a special attention on the Israeli consulate and places of worship, a spokesperson told News Nation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also said the countrys forces would increase global security operations.

We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against the Jewish state are rising in blood  and they must be fought to the bitter end, Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.

My heart breaks for the families of the beloved young man and woman, who were brutally murdered by a despicable anti-Semitic terrorist. I have instructed security officials to strengthen protection arrangements for Israeli missions around the world, and to raise the level of security for all state envoys, he added.

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After the shooting, the suspect proceeded to walk into the museum and was then apprehended. After he was in custody, he shouted, Free, free Palestine, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

Smith said the suspect was in custody and posed no further threat to the community.

Yechiel Leiter, Israeli ambassador to the U.S., told reporters that the victims were a young couple about to get engaged. Lischinsky had purchased a ring and planned to propose in Jerusalem next week, Leiter added.

Updated at 11:43 a.m. EDT

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET)  A year long bitter battle between unionized county workers and the board of supervisors may soon be nearing an end.

The SEIU local 521 union represents over 5,000 workers who were threatening a two-day strike in June, forcing the county back to the bargaining table. The jobs represented by the union include social workers, animal control, behavioral health workers, addiction services, road maintenance and more.

RELATED: SEIU 24-hour strike puts most Kern County services at a standstill

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The union is getting an across the board 6% salary increase, a one time $1,500 cash payout for all SEIU employees, Equity adjustments for 28 roles totaling $3 million, enhanced tool and uniform allowances and a new personal holiday.



Negotiations started in May of last year when the most recent contract ended. Union workers pleaded with supervisors and organized marches.

In November, the county made its best and final offer to the unionoffering a 6% wage hike over two years, and renegotiating a hike in year three. The union demanded a hire increase. The county rejected that demand, saying it doesnt have the money in its general fund to support it.

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Members said the county could do more, and membership rejected the countys last-best offer by 83%. Union members organized one day strike on March 5 temporarily shutting down a wide array of county services. But, with that threatened two-day strike looming in June, the county and union reached an agreement Wednesday.



Heres whats next: Union membership must vote to accept the offer, and to ratify the contract.

Both the union and the county have declined to comment on the new contract as it has not yet been ratified by union members.

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The Capitol Center for the Arts in downtown Concord on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin)

Another effort to prevent New Hampshires State Council on the Arts from being eliminated during the state budgeting process has fallen short.

New Hampshire state senators have spent the last few weeks working through the state budget. After the Senate Ways and Means Committee projected that state revenues  which have been lagging in recent years  would rebound faster than House predictions, the Senate Finance Committee has been identifying cuts made by the House that the Senate can undo. The committee recommendations so far include reversing a 3% cut to Medicaid reimbursement rates and restoring funding for developmental disability services.

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However, on Wednesday, the committee didnt do the same for the State Council on the Arts, which the House eliminated in its version of the budget. The Senate Finance Committee voted, 5-3, not to recommend restoring the council during a work session Wednesday. Gov. Kelly Ayotte had included funding of roughly $1.7 million over two years for the council in her budget proposal. The council was also set to receive an additional $2 million in federal funds.

Sen. Cindy Rosenwald, a Nashua Democrat and one of the three dissenting votes on the Finance Committee, pushed for the arts council to be restored Wednesday, saying, the arts help drive the economy.

Sen. David Watters, a Dover Democrat, said the arts are so deeply woven into the fabric of the state and always have been and (are) something that helps define our identity.

It supports traditional arts programs, it supports the thriving arts community all around the state, Watters said. I think we should at least restore it to the governors level.

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Republicans on the committee disagreed.

I do think the Council of the Arts is important, Sanborton Republican Sen. Tim Lang said. But in this tough budget cycle where were balancing the needs versus the wants, a $3 million add is probably not appropriate for a want.

Lang proposed an amendment that establishes a state fund that can accept donations. The council would become a volunteer council, and the state would appropriate $1 to the fund, a procedure mechanism to create it. He noted that many other councils in the state are voluntary.

So the council could go out and get corporate sponsors and donations, Lang said. Theyll be able to use those donations to get federal matching grants, and itd allow them to at least continue in some way, shape, or form their mission and their goal.

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Watters pushed back against the amendment. He said if the state is not putting money toward it, the arts cant complete its mission.

If theres no funding, theres no arts council, Watters said. Lets face it.

The committee voted, 5-3, to approve Langs amendment.

The Council on the Arts could still be restored if an amendment is introduced to the budget when the full Senate votes on it in June. If the Council on the Arts isnt restored, New Hampshire would become the only U.S. state not to have such a council, according to the National Endowment for the Arts website. New Hampshires State Council on the Arts receives federal support from the Endowment for the Arts.

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Hearing the news Wednesday, Ayotte told reporters she was disappointed in the Senate Finance Committees recommendation. Her budget proposal, which projected state revenues would be higher than both the House and Senate estimates, pared down funding for the council but did not eliminate it entirely.

Ive been very clear: I do support the arts, Ayotte said. I think its really part of the culture of our state, but as we think about our travel and tourism and attracting people to New Hampshire, the arts are a part of our economic development as well.
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumers (D-N.Y.) bill that takes aim at President Trumps deal with Qatar to accept a luxury jet as a gift to serve as the next Air Force One.

Schumer attempted to pass the measure, which would essentially bar the use of a foreign-owned aircraft as the presidential aircraft, via unanimous consent.

This gift is outrageous, Schumer said on the floor, calling it the largest foreign bribe in modern history. It is bribery in broad daylight.  This is about ensuring our national security and about not wasting taxpayer dollars on an utterly senseless deal.

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Donald Trump accepting this gift reeks of corruption and naked self-enrichment, Schumer added, calling on the GOP to support it.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) blocked the effort.

Specifically, the Presidential Airlift Security Act would prohibit taxpayer funds from being used to retrofit any such plane as the presidential aircraft.

The move marked the latest attempt by Democrats to combat the potential arrangement, which would see the jet  valued at $400 million  transferred to the Department of Defense and be retrofitted over the coming months and years to serve as the next Air Force One. The Pentagon officially accepted the jet Wednesday.

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Following Trumps term, it would be transferred to his presidential library.

The gift has prompted an outcry from Democrats, who view it as blatant corruption.

However, Senate Republicans have not rushed to Trumps side to back him on the issue. A number of members have aired complaints centered on safety and security, especially given Qatars past support for Hamas and the appearance of a quid pro quo.

Others also are confused by the need for this move, given the extensive cost to retrofit the aircraft in order to fly as Air Force One and then fly for a limited amount of time before it would be transferred to Trumps library.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has begun meeting privately with Senate Republicans who are threatening to derail President Trumps big, beautiful bill over what they fear could be substantial cuts to Medicaid.

Senate GOP sources say theres a group of five to seven Republican senators who are concerned about the Medicaid reforms included in the House budget reconciliation package, which Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants to pass by Memorial Day.

Some of these GOP senators are threatening to oppose the House bill if it limits states ability to receive more federal Medicaid funding through health care provider taxes and if it requires more working-class people to pay more into the program.

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Theres probably five, six, seven of us who, if you do anything that cuts into benefits, youre going to have a real problem. The leader is aware of that, said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on internal deliberations.

Thune has already begun whipping his Senate GOP colleagues to support the 1,116-page House bill, beginning the process even before it passed early Thursday morning.

Republican lawmakers say Thune is listening to his colleagues concerns about the bill, which mainly revolve around the Medicaid provisions.

Thune and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) met with a group of senators from rural states, which could be severely impacted by reductions in federal Medicaid funding to states, at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.

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The group included Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) and Jon Husted (R-Ohio), all staunch Trump supporters who have kept a low public profile on the subject of Medicaid so far.

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who warned colleagues in a floor speech earlier this year that he would not support Medicaid reforms that threatened rural hospitals, also attended the meeting.

Republicans came out of the meeting saying they would decline comment on the House bill until it comes over to the Senate.

Yeah, probably going to hold tight on commenting on that right now, Budd told The Hill.

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Thune has also met with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), an outspoken critic of Medicaid cuts, in a one-on-one meeting earlier this week. The point of the meeting was for Thune to gain a better understanding of Hawleys position on Medicaid, according to a source familiar with the discussion.

A group of Senate Republicans, including Hawley, who has raised concerns about the Medicaid cost-sharing and health care provider tax reform provisions, is expected to push for changes to the House bill.

But that could threaten the delicate political balance the Speaker is trying to put together to get it out of the House.

Johnson told senators during a lunch meeting Tuesday that they need to be mindful about not shattering the fragile coalition hes trying to put together in the House by insisting on big changes once the legislation reaches the Senate.

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When it comes over here, I think he would like to see as little change to the product as possible because they cobbled together a very delicate balance over there, Thune told reporters Wednesday, referring to Johnsons hope that senators only make a few light changes to the bill.

But Thune acknowledged GOP senators will insist on changes.

The Senate will have its imprint on it. But were coordinating with them, and the committees are working closely together, he said.

Thune has a 53-seat majority and can only afford three defections from his ranks and still pass the massive budget reconciliation bill, which would extend the expiring 2017 tax cuts, provide roughly $150 billion for immigration enforcement and border security and $150 billion in new funding for the Pentagon.

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He is expected to lose one Republican vote right off the bat, because Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has said he will not vote for the bill if it includes a multitrillion-dollar increase in the federal debt ceiling.

Paul is demanding steep cuts to federal spending in exchange for increasing the governments borrowing authority.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the Senate GOPs leading moderate voices, have both raised deep concerns about the prospect of cutting Medicaid benefits.

Collins told The Hill on Wednesday that she is open to supporting new work requirements House Republicans drafted for Medicaid, but she warned that other provisions, such as the crackdown on the use of health care provider taxes to increase federal Medicaid funding to the states, could hurt rural hospitals in Maine.

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Im sure it will be looked at carefully, and I understand that its still being negotiated, she said of the Medicaid reforms in the House bill.

I looked at the work requirements, which seemed to me to be carefully drawn, she added, noting the House-drafted work requirements for Medicaid wouldnt apply to people who are going to school or engaged in cost-sharing.

Asked about the health care provider tax reforms and expanded cost-sharing, Collins said: Were still trying to figure out what the provider tax reforms are, but Im very worried about our rural hospitals in Maine.

Moran laid down a marker with his leadership last month when he announced on the Senate floor that he would not support any Medicaid reforms that threatened the fragile finances of rural hospitals.

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I want to make certain that my colleagues know my view [on] the value of making certain we do no harm to those in desperate need of health care in Kansas and across the country, Moran said at the time.

The big fight Speaker Johnson had with Republicans from New York, New Jersey and California over lifting the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions is less of an issue in the Senate.

Republican senators told Johnson at Tuesdays meeting that they would give him room to cut a deal with New York Rep. Mike Lawler (R) and other blue-state Republicans on raising the SALT cap, according to a senator who attended the meeting.

Thune told reporters that he wont face any similar demands from GOP senators on SALT.

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Its not an issue in the Senate. Its not an issue for us, he said.

Johnson announced Wednesday morning that he reached an agreement with Republican holdouts to raise the cap on SALT deductions from $10,000 to $40,000 for the next 10 years.

The higher cap would phase out for annual incomes above $500,000.

Updated at 6:54 a.m. EDT

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A data center underconstruction in Utah. Utility and interconnection officials have cited power-hungry data centers as a major cause of growing demand for electricity. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

A Senate panel approved another series of bills meant to reduce the impact of electricity prices that are set to soar on June 1.

The bills, which cleared the Senate Environment and Energy Committee in divided votes Thursday, would raise data centers share of electricity costs, boost construction of energy storage, and create an automatic approval process for residential solar projects, among other things.

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Environmental groups hailed the data center legislation, which would create a separate rate-setting process within the Board of Public Utilities for data centers with maximum monthly demands of at least 100 megawatts, forcing them to pay for increases in energy costs as a result of data center load.

This bill would not only provide an incentive for data centers to drive consumption down, but it would also protect ratepayers from shouldering the unfair burden of the cost, said Jay Weisbond, a policy assistant for the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

It would also require rates for data centers to include cost recoveries for transmission or distribution infrastructure needed for their operation. The separate rate-setting process contemplated in the bill would take effect one year after its passage.

Utility and interconnection officials have cited power-hungry data centers as a major cause of the growing demand for electricity.

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Electricity prices are spiking as demand that had been largely level for decades surges, and New Jerseys in-state generation has faced stumbles as offshore wind projects set to deliver thousands of megawatts fail or are blocked by federal regulatory authorities.

Republicans have blamed Gov. Phil Murphys wind-heavy renewable energy agenda and the shuttering of existing fossil plants for auction-driven price spikes set to arrive June 1, while Democrats have sought to lay the increases at the feat of PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for New Jersey and 12 other states. Assembly Democrats are particularly anxious about rising utility bills, as all 80 Assembly seats are on the ballot this year (Democrats hold a majority in the chamber).

Separate legislation would require quarterly reporting on data centers energy and water usage.

Business groups opposed both bills, warning they would push data centers into other states, including those on the same grid as New Jersey,

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We cant entice data centers to locate in New Jersey if were going to continually be putting roadblocks in the way or making it more expensive or problematic to develop here in New Jersey, said Ray Cantor, deputy chief government affairs officer for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Murphy and legislators have sought to encourage AI development in New Jersey, including through tax credits, hailing it in July 2024 as a transformative industry that will change lives and grow our economy.

The state would be better served by boosting electricity supply than by targeting large energy users, Cantor said, adding that manufacturing plants and even hospitals could run similar loads.

Though some suggested expansions, witnesses were broadly supportive of a bill requiring the Board of Public Utilities to procure and incent large-scale energy storage projects, which store energy produced at times of low demand to ease strains on production when demand is high.

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Storage projects could start operating in the short term and would more quickly affect prices than other types of generation, they said.

It doesnt have to wait in line for PJM Interconnection, which we know takes years. It can be interconnected locally. It can be permitted locally, so its the fastest way to build, said Lyle Rawlings, CEO of Advanced Solar Projects Inc. These projects, were not talking about 2029 or 2030, were talking about 2026 that these can be brought online.

Separate legislation would require the Department of Community Affairs to create an online permitting platform to algorithmically approve residential solar projects. Municipalities could use the platform or set up their own automated solar approval system.

Supporters saw it as another method of quickly standing up new energy supply.

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Local solar can be a critical tool in meeting our energy needs, but only if we let it. While large-scale solar projects are important, they are often facing multi-year delays in the PJM interconnection queue. Local solar, on the other hand, can be rapidly deployed, said Elowyn Corby, mid-Atlantic regional director of the Vote Solar Action Fund.

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Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, prepares to open the Alaska Senate's floor session on Friday, May 2, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

After 22 years in the Alaska Senate, Senate President Gary Stevens is retiring.

Stevens decision has been discussed in the Alaska Capitol for more than a year, but on Tuesday, it became official as Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes became the first person to announce that she will run for Stevens seat.

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I certainly will endorse Louise any way I can to help her out, Stevens said on Wednesday. She should be a really fine senator. Shes had a lot of experience in the House, and I think shed do a great job, and Id be glad to help her out in any way I can.

Stutes filed a letter of intent with the Alaska Public Offices Commission shortly after the Alaska Legislature adjourned its regular session for the year.

Legislators are forbidden from campaigning during the session, and the day after the first year of the legislative session typically marks the informal opening of the candidate filing period.

Campaigning typically doesnt begin in earnest until after the second year of the legislative session.

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Stutes early start may be a foreshadowing of things to come in the district: Stevens has represented the area covering Kodiak and the southern Kenai Peninsula since being appointed to the seat in 2003, making next years election a generational shift for the district.

Stutes said on Wednesday that fundraising doesnt come naturally to her, so I thought that Id better get a jump start on it. You cant get a jump start on it until you file your letter.

Stutes said she doesnt know whether there will be many candidates in the race.

Each of Alaskas Senate districts includes two House districts. Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, represents the other half of Stevens district and hasnt filed a letter of intent for next years elections. She did not return a phone call seeking comment on Wednesday afternoon.

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Stutes noted that her husband, commercial fisherman Stormy Stutes, grew up in Anchor Point, and they still have family members who live in Vances district, so she has connections to that part of Alaska.

This isnt the first time that Stevens has said he will retire, but its certain this time.

Im 83 now. Ill be 85 when I retire, and I think thats just enough, he said by phone. I have other plans, things I want to do. I wrote a play about Ted Stevens that was successful in Anchorage; I want to do another one. Im a bit of a painter, and I want to go on and do painting and writing and concentrate on those things, as well as spend time with my grandkids.

Stutes said shes been interested in running to replace Stevens since that first possible retirement.

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Im really lucky. Gary and I get along really well.  Hes been wonderful to work with. Ill really miss him, of course, because we have such a great working relationship, she said.

Voters elected Stutes to replace longtime Kodiak lawmaker Alan Austerman in 2014 and reelected her five times since then. She has governed as a moderate Republican, frequently joining the Houses predominantly Democratic coalition and once served a term as speaker of the House.

Im like every legislator. I really feel like Im helping my district and Alaskans. Right or wrong, I feel like Ive been able to make a difference with the Marine Highway System. I believe Ive been able to help bring fisheries to the forefront, Stutes said. When I first got elected years ago, I told Stormy that the one thing I want to do is take fisheries from the back burner and put them on the front burner. And I think that Ive been somewhat successful in moving it forward.

The Alaska Senate is currently controlled by a 14-person bipartisan coalition that includes nine Democrats and five Republicans. Three of those Republicans are up for reelection next year, and all are in potential swing districts.

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Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, said they will run for office again. Stevens is the third.

Among the coalitions Democrats, Sens. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, and Loki Tobin, D-Anchorage, both confirmed that they will run for reelection.

Sens. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, and Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, have not yet filed letters of intent. Hoffman has been in the Legislature since 1987 and in the Senate since 1991, making him the longest-serving legislator in state history.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, said on Wednesday that he hasnt yet decided whether he will run for reelection.

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Sens. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, and Rob Myers, R-North Pole, also face reelection next year. Neither returned a text message seeking comment on Wednesday.

Among incumbent members of the state House, Reps. Maxine Dibert, D-Anchorage, Carolyn Hall, D-Anchorage, and Donna Mears, D-Anchorage, have all filed letters of intent for reelection.

Former Rep. Cliff Groh, D-Anchorage, announced that he will again seek to challenge Rep. David Nelson, R-Anchorage, in 2026. Nelson had been elected in 2020, lost to Groh in 2022 and defeated Groh in 2024.Through Wednesday afternoon, Groh was the only nonincumbent to file with the Public Offices Commission.

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WASHINGTON  Senate Republicans pushed forward with a simple-majority vote late Wednesday to undo an electric vehicle mandate set by California, which Democrats and the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said should be subject to the 60-vote filibuster rule.

The vote of 51-46 to proceed against objections turns a battle over clean energy policy into a high-stakes clash over the fate of the 60-vote filibuster rule, with consequences for the future of the Senate.

The vote bypassed the filibuster, which can be done in limited circumstances. Democrats had warned that if Republicans proceed in defiance of the Senate parliamentarian, who has sided with the GAO in the dispute, theyd be setting a precedent to nuke the legislative filibuster and turn the Senate into a majority-vote body.

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Republicans just overruled the Parliamentarian, violated the plain text of the Congressional Review Act, changed the Clean Air Act, and broke the filibuster, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said in a statement after the vote. Make no mistake, Democrats will not forget this, and Republicans will rue the day.

In a warning to Republicans, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters before the vote, What goes around comes around.

The unusual clash has created tension in both parties. Democrats campaigned last year on scrapping the filibuster to pass major bills if they won, while Senate Republicans vowed to protect the 60-vote rule, even after they captured the White House and control of Congress last fall.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., insisted that he isnt trying to end the filibuster and that the move applies only to a narrow and particular case. He has argued that the parliamentarian is wrong to defer to the GAO on this question, saying that under the Congressional Review Act, the resolution is subject to a simple-majority threshold to repeal regulations.

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Democrats are attempting to derail a repeal by throwing a tantrum over a supposed procedural problem. The California waivers are not rules, Democrats claim, and thus the Congressional Review Act cannot be used to repeal them, Thune said, referring to the Biden administration's move to permit California to enact the rules. I think we need to act to ensure that this intrusion into the Congressional Review Act process doesnt become a habit and that the Senate doesnt end up transferring its decision-making power on CRA resolutions to the Government Accountability Office.

Thune said the issue is not about destroying Senate procedure or any other hysterical claim the Democrats are making.

As Republicans have warned Democrats in the past, breaking precedent in the Senate has a way of boomeranging on the party that starts it.

Democrats say ignoring the in-house referee in this case would open the door for future majorities to do the same on other issues.

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In a new memo to colleagues, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., argued that the move would be the first time in Senate history that a majority overruled the Parliamentarian to pass a bill by a majority vote, bypassing a filibuster.

The vote puts Republican senators on the spot, as many of them have vowed not only to protect the filibuster but also to abide by the parliamentarian's rulings.

If something is directly presented to the parliamentarian by way of a parliamentary inquiry, she answers one way and then you have an effort to override that, thats a concern, right? Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told NBC News, noting that she supports undoing the EV mandate in California but does not support overruling the parliamentarian.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she plans to support the resolution to undo the EV mandate, despite her history of supporting the filibuster rule.

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Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, has said he would oppose any effort to overrule the parliamentarian in the budget reconciliation package. But he said hes fine with the decision to proceed to undoing the California mandate.

I walked through it a lot, spent a lot of time on it, Curtis said. Count me in the camp that just has been very thoughtful to make sure that what were doing doesnt set a precedent that were not happy with.

If Republican leaders structure the process so members vote against the GAO decision without directly going after the parliamentarian, that is a distinction without a difference, Democrats say.

Thats nonsense, said Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. There have been dozens of times where Republicans have gotten opinions from the GAO. This is just their way of trying to put a favorable spin on breaking their word. Leader Thune in his inaugural speech as majority leader said he would not overturn the parliamentarian. The parliamentarian has ruled. He is now advocating overturning the parliamentarian. And theres just no way to put a positive gloss on that.

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Asked whether she worries that the vote would open the door for Democrats to try to eliminate the filibuster, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said: Well, they already tried that.

When Democrats had full control in 2021 and 2022, they tried to pierce the legislative filibuster to pass a federal voting rights law  but were stymied by internal opposition. They also faced pressure from liberals to ignore the parliamentarian to raise the minimum wage in their party-line bill, but they declined for fear of the precedent it would set.

Now, some Democrats say the GOP move would strengthen their case to smash the filibuster in the future.

The silver lining here is that Republicans would be overruling the parliamentarian by majority vote, which is one step closer to nuking the legislative filibuster, said Adam Jentleson, a former longtime Senate Democratic aide who wrote a book criticizing the filibuster. Democrats wont like the policy outcome here, but theres nothing they can do to stop it, so they might as well pocket the procedural marker and use it when they are back in power to pass their agenda on majority-rule votes.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
Landmark legislation that would rewrite the tax code and levy steep cuts to programs providing healthcare and food stamps to the poor passed the House early Thursday, a development that was celebrated by President Trump despite the bill facing an uncertain future among Senate Republicans.

The measure, titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, would boost funding for border security and the Defense Department, eliminate taxes on tips and overtime, provide a new tax deduction to seniors and renew the 2017 tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration. To pay for those new funding commitments, the bill proposes eliminating green energy tax benefits passed under President Biden, as well as an estimated $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Even still, the bill would add so much money to the debt that Congress may be forced to execute cuts across the board, including hundreds of billions to Medicare, in a process known as sequestration, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

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The House vote fell along party lines. By opposing the bill, the Trump administration said that Democrats were supporting the largest tax increase on middle-class Americans in decades, a reference to the upcoming expiration of Trumps 2017 tax cuts at the end of the year.

Democrats, on the other hand, have accused Republicans of voting for the deepest cuts to healthcare in modern times. By creating new barriers to Medicaid coverage through the introduction of work requirements, as well as increasing premiums under the Affordable Care Act, the CBO and other nonpartisan organizations estimate up to 14 million Americans could lose their insurance coverage.

Those drastic changes to the healthcare landscape have given pause to several Republican senators.

Read more: Medicaid rule proposal may deal a blow to California

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Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has said she is very wary of cutting Medicaid. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he cant support substantial cuts to Medicaid benefits. And after the vote on Thursday, Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said that material changes should be expected to the House bill.

We need to go back through that bill with a fine-tooth comb and make it better, Marshall said in an interview with the conservative cable channel Newsmax. I think theres opportunities in Medicaid to make that bill better, to make sure that we strengthen it, that we preserve it for those who need it most.

Any Senate rollback of cuts to the Medicaid program could face resistance from the House Freedom Caucus during the reconciliation process. Members of that group, which proclaims a commitment to fiscal conservatism, have called for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid program.

Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, voted present early Thursday morning, preserving negotiating leverage as the bill makes its way across Capitol Hill.

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I voted to move the bill along in the process for the president, Harris wrote on social media. There is still a lot of work to be done in deficit reduction and ending waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program.

The vote came hours after Trump met with GOP holdouts at the White House. As late as Wednesday afternoon, before meeting with the president, several of those lawmakers were casting doubt on the prospects of the bills passage this week, ahead of a Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was dismissive of the Freedom Caucus on Thursday, telling CNN that the cuts they are pushing for would barely make a dent in the national debt.

You had your chance, Graham said to the caucus. Some of these cuts are not real. We're talking about over a decade  you know, if you do $1.5 trillion, that's like a percent and a half. So lets don't get high on our horse here that we've somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending, because we didnt.

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Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota also mocked the caucus, calling it "rich" for its members to lecture Senate Republicans on fiscal conservatism, "and end up with not that conservative a bill." The CBO estimates the House legislation would result in a $3.8-trillion increase to the deficit.

Read more: 'MAHA moms,' psilocybin therapy, anti-vaxxers: L.A.'s wellness movement's path to the White House

If passed, the new work requirements to Medicaid would kick in at the end of 2026, right after the midterm elections. Green energy tax credits would phase out for any project that is not already under construction 60 days after the law comes into force.

The cap on the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, will increase to $40,000 from $10,000, phasing out for individuals and households making more than $500,000. And while the president campaigned on a promise to eliminate taxes on Social Security, a parliamentary rule precluded Republicans from including a full cut. Instead, the bill proposes an enhanced tax deduction for senior citizens of up to $4,000.

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On his social media platform, Trump wrote that the bill is "arguably the most significant piece of Legislation that will ever be signed in the History of our Country!"

"There is no time to waste," he added. Johnson, the speaker, has set a goal of sending the bill to the president's desk by Independence Day.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the presidents team was suiting up for negotiations with the Senate now that the bill has passed the House. We will see how it goes, she said.

The One Big Beautiful Bill is named the One Big Beautiful Bill for a reason, because it is a one big beautiful bill that encompasses just about everything this president could want for the American public. It delivers on so many of his core campaign promises. So surely we want to see those campaign promises signed into law, Leavitt said. Hes expecting them to get busy on this bill and send it to his desk as soon as possible.

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The two House Republicans who voted against the bill, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio, should face primary challenges for their defiance of the presidents directive, Leavitt added.

Whats the alternative, I would ask those members of Congress. Did they want to see a tax hike? Did they want to see our country go bankrupt? Thats the alternative by them trying to vote no, she said. "The president believes that the Republican Party needs to be unified.

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JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military announced that a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted by the country's aerial defense system on Thursday, marking the second missile attack by Houthi forces on Israel within the same day.

The missile, launched around noon, triggered air raid sirens in the Jerusalem area, several settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the Dead Sea region, Israeli police said.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service reported that no injuries were sustained.

"A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted," the military said in a statement, adding that sirens were activated "in accordance with protocol."

Overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, the military also intercepted another missile launched from Yemen toward Israel.

Houthi forces in Yemen have pledged to cease attacks on U.S. vessels but have continued firing missiles at Israel, citing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The ongoing Israeli offensive, which began 19 months ago, has resulted in the deaths of more than 53,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

Israel has conducted a series of retaliatory airstrikes in Yemen, including one in May on the capital, Sanaa, which damaged the main international airport and left several people dead. 
Following reports from CNN and other news outlets, Senator Maggie Hassan is demanding information about how Spotify is handling phony podcasts promoting potentially illegal online pharmacies.

Spotify said last week that it had removed dozens of podcasts identified by CNN that blatantly promoted the online pharmacies purportedly selling drugs such as Adderall and Oxycontin, in some cases without a prescription. Business Insider also reported that it had flagged 200 podcasts that Spotify subsequently removed.

The fake podcasts  which had showed up among the top suggestions in searches for drug names  violated Spotifys rules and threatened to direct users to spammy and potentially illegal websites.

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US law prohibits buying controlled substances online without a prescription. Parents, experts and lawmakers have urged tech giants to do more to prevent the sale of counterfeit or illicit drugs to young people through their platforms, after multiple teens have died of overdoses from pills bought online.

Now Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat and the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, wants answers about how these fake podcasts proliferated on Spotify and what the company is doing to stop it from happening again In a letter sent Thursday, Hassan urged Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to take action to prevent fake podcasts that facilitate the illicit sale of drugs.

Far too many parents have experienced the unimaginable pain of losing their child to an accidental overdose, Hassan told CNN in an exclusive statement ahead of the letters release. Spotify has a responsibility to significantly ramp up its efforts to stop criminals from using the platform to facilitate deadly drug sales to anyone, especially teens.

The letter asks Spotify to provide details about the content it has taken down; how many users interacted with the drug sales podcasts before they were removed; whether the company earned any revenue from the podcasts; and whether Spotify works with law enforcement when it discovers illegal content. It also asks what moderation tools and practices the company has implemented to identify drug-related content and whether it will be making any updates considering the recent reports.

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Hassan has asked Spotify to respond by June 12.

In a statement to CNN last week, a Spotify spokesperson said: We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service. In response to Hassans letter, the company reiterated that statement, and a spokesperson added that such content also exists on other platforms and that the company has earned no revenue from the phony podcasts.

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Tyler Moore was one of many seniors who wondered if they'd be able to graduate when a quarter of the staff at Haskell Indian Nations University was laid off because of federal cuts earlier this year

The student leader, who was able to graduate earlier this month, helped organize protests in Lawrence, Kan. and the state capital after the layoffs

Moore, who plans on becoming a professor of Native history, says the university recently celebrated its 140th anniversary  and "will absolutely be here for another 140 years"







In mid-February, senior Tyler Moore visited his photography professor, Robert Hicks Jr., in his office. The space, located at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., was usually covered with papers and cameras.

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But that day, Hicks was packing his belongings into boxes. Moore had heard a rumor that school employees were being laid off as the result of an executive order from the Trump administration. The 22-year-old  who had been elected as the Haskell Brave, a top leadership position in the student body  wanted to offer his support.

I'm here for you if you need anything, Moore remembers telling his professor. He left to speak to another student, but when he returned, Hicks was gone.

His entire studio room is empty, Moore, who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, tells PEOPLE. I'm like, this does not feel right. This is just terrible.

In May, Moore graduated with a degree in Indigenous and American Indian Studies, but for days after the mass layoff  part of the Trump administration's plans to cut federal funding and the federal workforce  he worried that his four years of study wouldnt end with a diploma.

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I didn't know if we were going to continue onward, says Moore, who, at the time, had just hours of credits left before he was set to earn his bachelors degree.

De'Ara Dosela and Aiyanna Tanyan Students protest at the Kansas state capital Students protest at the Kansas state capital

The exit of 30-some employees  which prompted a group of tribal nations and students to file a lawsuit in federal court  also left other seniors reeling. Some students even left the school entirely, according to people familiar with the situation. The president of the university and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs requests for comment.

By early April, the school was allowed to reinstate employees as part of a judges order in response to federal workforce cuts, though some did not return, according to The Hechinger Report. But the school was in chaos for two weeks after the initial firings as students navigated new instructors, or no instructors at all, and struggled to catch up with their course work.

It was a moment that too closely echoed Haskells past struggles with the U.S. government. Just one of two federally run colleges for Native people, Haskell has some of the worst outcomes in the country. Its the same location where the U.S. installed a boarding school to assimilate Native children more than 140 years ago and where at least 103 people are buried, The New York Times reported.

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The school has navigated underfunding and broken promises from the U.S. ever since. But it also provides a sense of community for the indigenous students who attend.

Angel Ahtone Elizarraras, student government president at the university, tells PEOPLE she chose to attend Haskell because she knew she "wouldn't feel like an outsider" there. She says the university is a space where she can pray and speak in her language without judgment.

For Moore, Haskell provides a sense of unity. He says when the school comes under attack, it attacks that sense of cultural identity as well.

The senior, who is Cherokee on his mothers side, had learned of his peoples resiliency and history of resistance from his grandfather. So, during that time of uncertainty, when students looked to the Haskell Brave and other leaders like Elizarraras for guidance, they responded.

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A week after the initial cuts happened, Moore helped organize protests at the state capitol, Topeka, and in downtown Lawrence.

At the protest in Topeka, Moore arrived with about 25 fellow students. We did round dances as well on the state capitol grounds, healing round dances, he says. At the end of the protests, in which students shouted Hands off Haskell! their voices were gone.

De'Ara Dosela and Aiyanna Tanyan A protest sign reading "Culture erasure is not progress!" A protest sign reading "Culture erasure is not progress!"

I am so proud of my Haskell community throughout all this, says Moore, whose own grandfather got "fired up" and is proud of what the students accomplished. They just showed up and showed out every single time.

When he graduated on Friday, May 9, Moore was also saying goodbye to his title of Haskell Brave. He plans on getting his masters degree in indigenous studies at Kansas University, and dreams of becoming a professor and teaching Native history to other Native scholars.

De'Ara Dosela and Aiyanna Tanyan A group of protestors following the federal cuts A group of protestors following the federal cuts

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Meanwhile, hes celebrating that his school is continuing on. After recently marking Haskells 140th anniversary, Moore says hes encouraged by the students willing to speak out and protest.

We will absolutely be here for another 140 years, he says. We're going to outlast any piece of executive paper that they throw at us."



Read the original article on People
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)  Sioux City West High School students walked the halls of other schools in their caps and gowns as they inspire the districts youngest students during the annual Senior Walk Day.

The students were recognized for their achievements and success. They walked the halls of Loess Hills Computer Programming School as part of a final farewell tour before graduation next week. One student from west high told KCAU that being a part of this tradition is a great way to inspire the children.

Blue Lake water levels suffering from dry conditions

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They just look up to us as heroes. You know, you want to think of it like its a big deal, but to them, to see us and such accomplishing, you know, uniform or outfit that they want to aspire to be us, said Chance Riley, a Sioux City West High student.

This senior tradition creates an inspiration that has sprung as high school students think about their future educations.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports.
May 21OGDENSBURG  A defamation lawsuit against the city of Ogdensburg, its former mayor and city manager, has finally been settled.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2022 in state Supreme Court, was brought forth by Gerald Mack, a retired firefighter. City officials said that a $30,000 settlement was reached with Mack, which he confirmed on Wednesday.

Mack said that he considers the ordeal to be over, but declined further comment. The city and Mack have been going back and forth on a settlement since February.

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"I'm glad it's over," Mack said.

Mack's lawsuit alleged that former City Manager Stephen P. Jellie and Mayor Jeffrey M. Skelly made defamatory comments about Mack after he was charged in relation to the November 2021 tire slashings at the mayor's home.

In May 2022, Mack had charges of fourth-degree stalking and fourth-degree criminal mischief, both misdemeanors, dismissed in Lisbon Town Court due to lack of evidence. Skelly was later charged with two counts of providing false written statements to an Ogdensburg detective.

The defamation lawsuit states that Skelly "did make defamatory statements against the plaintiff, Gerald Mack" and that his "false and defamatory statements" appear on WWNY-TV broadcasts and website on or about Nov. 10, 2021.

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Jellie allegedly defamed Mack by indicating that he "has had multiple episodes of unruly behavior and now culminating in what appears to be a serious act of vandalism and stalking of the City of Ogdensburg," according to court documents.

The complaint alleged that the city is liable for the "acts and omissions committed by the defendants, Stephen Jellie and Jeffrey Skelly, by operation of the law."

The lawsuit claimed that Mack has sustained economic damages, including legal expenses and lost earnings potential, as a result of "libelous and slanderous" statements made by Skelly and Jellie.
AUSTIN (KXAN)  The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission approved more than $6.8 million in grants Thursday for trail construction and maintenance projects, and a few Central Texas counties received funding.

Travis County

TPWD approved $300,000 for the Austin Parks and Recreation Department. This funding is expected to create the Onion Creek Greenbelt trailhead and trail expansion.

TPWD said the project included the construction of a .6-mile trail, parking area and utilities, as well as revegetation in the area following construction.

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The Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center received $59,348, which TPWD said would be used to renovate the 431-feet of trail, as well as fund the construction of 176-feet of natural surface trail, including a boardwalk renovation and improved fencing, interpretive signage and benches.

The department said BikeTexas also got $75,000 for the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference, which focuses on creating and maintaining Texas trails.

Hays County

The San Marcos Aquatic Research Center, which is under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, received $57,427. The funding is expected to be used for the rehabilitation of interior trails, with improvements to include:

Renovation of a 1.75-mile trail

Construction of a .56-mile trail, including: a gravel turnpike, parking improvements and signage



Bexar County

Universal City received $220,800, which would fund phase two of the Cibolo Creek Recreational Trail, according to TPWD.

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The department said the project would include constructing a 1.23-mile cement-stabilized base trail, as well as wayfinding signage.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Health officials in New Jersey have issued a warning to anyone who attended the Shakira concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford on May 15 after an individual was found to have been infected with the measles potentially exposing tens of thousands of concertgoers.

On Tuesday, the New Jersey Department of Health issued a statement warning anyone who was at the stadium between 7:30 p.m. on May 15 and 1:00 a.m. on May 16 may have been exposed to measles.

"The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) is alerting residents about potential exposures associated with a newly identified case of measles in a non-NJ resident who attended a concert in NJ while infectious. Individuals  especially parents, guardians, health care providers, and caregivers  are urged to be aware of the symptoms of this highly contagious virus and to ensure they are up to date with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shots," the New Jersey Department of Health said in a statement.

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"Measles symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose, watery red eyes, and a rash that usually appears between three and five days after symptoms begin. The rash usually begins as flat red spots that appear on the face at the hairline and spread downward to the neck, torso, arms, legs, and feet. Measles can also cause serious complications, such as pneumonia and encephalitis (swelling of the brain), and can lead to miscarriage in pregnant people, premature birth, or a low-birth-weight baby."

The NJDOH warns that the highly contagious virus spreads easily through the air when someone coughs or sneezes, adding that it can remain in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves the area.

Those who have not been fully vaccinated or have not had measles in the past are at most risk, the NJDOH warns, adding that the best way to protect yourself from measles, mumps, and rubella is by taking the MMR vaccine.
On Tuesday, Labour looked as though it might pull itself together. Aware that paying Mauritius while simultaneously cutting the winter fuel allowance was what political strategists call bad optics, it had put the surrender of the British Indian Ocean Territory on hold.

The Mauritian government had given it plenty of excuses, constantly demanding more cash to take on a territory over which it had never exercised sovereignty, and for which it had already been paid a tidy sum in exchange for renouncing its claim. Might Labour come to its senses and scrap the whole deal?

In the event, Sir Keir Starmer could not bring himself to question the supremacy of international lawyers. Rather than cancelling the Chagos surrender, he cancelled the attempt to trim our unaffordable benefits system. Taxpayers are being rinsed twice over.

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Commentators struggle to explain Labours determination to hand the Chagos archipelago to a country more than 1,300 miles away. Mauritius will now be free to fish in the archipelagos protected waters, to build resorts on the outer atolls, to lease other islands in the chain to unfriendly powers.

Incredibly, Starmer agreed to hand over tens of billions of pounds into the bargain, surely the most needless and humiliating capitulation since  well, since Monday, when he agreed to pay the EU for the privilege of giving it control over British regulations.

What puzzled commentators miss, I think, is the almost religious power that the movement known as decolonise has over human rights KCs like Starmer  especially when linked to appeals to international law.

Wokesters dislike flags with Union Jacks in the corner. Their decolonise imperative trumps strategic concerns (Mauritius revived its claims in earnest only when China became interested); economic concerns (why pay for the privilege of surrendering territory?); political concerns (every Labour tax rise will now be howled down as money for Mauritius); and legal concerns (Britain only accepted the jurisdiction of the international court on the basis that it had no jurisdiction over disputes with other Commonwealth states).

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For the Doughty Street/Matrix Chambers nexus that appears to run Labour, framing is everything. Here, in their minds, was a quarrel between a colonial power and a former colony, between a largely white population and a largely non-white one, between a rich country and a poor, between virtuous human rights lawyers and dyspeptic retired colonels.

But that framing is false. It ignores the truly wronged party, namely the indigenous Chagossians, removed from the archipelago by the then Labour Government in the late 1960s to make room for the air base on Diego Garcia.

The largest concentration of Chagossians is in Crawley, in what used to be my Euro-constituency. They were a diverse bunch, with lots of views about what they ultimately wanted. But one thing united almost all of them: they did not want to be Mauritians. Several had come to Britain via Mauritius, where they complained of racism and discrimination.

The surrender deal spurred them into holding protests around the country. I spoke to more than 500 at a rally in Hackney  by far the largest assembly of Chagossians I have seen in one place. There were protests outside Parliament and the Foreign Office. Indeed, the signing was held up by a last-minute legal challenge from Bertrice Pompe, who was removed from Diego Garcia when she was six, and who argued that being handed over to Mauritius was a breach of her and her communitys rights.

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All to no avail, alas. For the student activists who run our country, withdrawing from British territory is all that matters. Shame on them. And shame on us for letting them get away with it.

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CAIRNBROOK  The May 13 flooding will close another Somerset County bridge.

And Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Wednesday his office will support an effort to help flood-battered Somerset County residents and businesses acquire Small Business Association aid.

Committed to helping

Shapiros support is another crucial step into acquiring multiple funding resources, emergency officials said Wednesday.

For county residents impacted by the May 13 flood to receive low interest repair loans, Shapiro made a formal request to the U.S. Small Business Administration for the final clearance to make financial aid available.

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The flooding in southwestern Pennsylvania has been devastating, and the Shapiro administration has been on the ground providing support every day since the storm struck. said Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Director Randy Padfield.

Members of Padfields staff have been conducting assessments in eight Somerset County communities that declared disasters as a precursor to the possibility of additional state support. Thats included visits to Meyersdale, Garrett and Elk Lick Township, among others.

'Never seen it this bad': As Garrett strives to ease flood woes, council's own property among hard-hit areas

For flood-battered Garrett Borough, one of the hardest-hit areas was the borough government's own backyard. The storm last week turned Garrett Community Park into a lake and the borough's office into a downstream drain.

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The Shapiro administration remains committed to helping Pennsylvanians recover and rebuild stronger than before, which is why we are working to secure federal low-interest loans as a tool to ensure homeowners and business owners have the support they need and can recoup unforeseen losses, Padfield added.

If approved, qualified renters, homeowners, private nonprofits and businesses within disaster declared areas could receive up to $500,000 in low-interest loans for residential repair and replacement. Loans up to $100,000 are possible for homeowners and renters to replace or repair personal property.

Businesses could receive larger loans  up to $2 million  to cover disaster losses not fully covered by insurance.

Somerset County commissioners outline disaster recovery fund plan, make $10,000 donation

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The Somerset County commissioners will rely on an advisory board and eight flood-damaged communities to decide how a new disaster recovery fund is spent, they said Tuesday.

Somerset County Emergency Management officials estimated earlier this week that at least six businesses reported first-floor flood damage in the southern part of the county.

Somerset County EMA Director Joel Landis said his office was awaiting updates on a decision.

County-owned bridge closed

The deteriorating Shade Township bridge was already in line for replacement in the coming years, but last weeks storm fast-tracked its closure, the countys EADS Group Engineer Andy Fedorko said.

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An area resident reported concerns about the span, which carries Whispering Pines Road over Dark Shade Creek, he said.

A follow-up inspection showed one of the bridges stone mansonary abutments further deteriorated from storm flooding, damaging mortar and causing additional material to break loose, he said.

It made a bad problem worse on a bridge that previous saw its weight limit decreased to 3 tons due to preexisting concerns, Fedorko said.

PHOTO GALLERY | 'We can't do it alone': Garrett hopes for help as state teams survey flood-hit areas in precursor to possible aid

Don Hostetler's family bar survived Prohibition and generations of change in Garrett. On Monday, Hostetler was trying to figure out how Dub's Bar and Grill will survive four feet of floodwater from Buffalo Creek.

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Rockingham is one of several county bridges that have been closed over the past two years due to maintenance needs  most of which are set for repair or replacement projects.

Its also one of at least three local bridges  county, state or township  that are now out of service due to damage inflicted by May 13 flooding. Further south, an emergency action plan is underway to build a temporary bridge in Boynton to enable U.S. Route 219 traffic to continue through the corridor.

Design work for a new bridge at the Rockingham site was already in progress, and Fedorko said construction could start in fall 2026.

Detours for the closure will be minimal, he said.

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Resource support

A pop-up emergency resource center announced Monday for Somerset County will include a list of state agencies able to answer questions  and potentially provide support for flood-hit residents.

Flood relief resource center planned in Meyersdale

Somerset County is planning a one-stop shop to connect residents of hard-hit communities with flood relief resources.

The resource center will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at Meyersdale Volunteer Fire Department, 202 Main St., Meyersdale.

Landis and county emergency management staff organized the resource center to make it easier for Somerset County residents to get support, regardless of their post-flooding issues.

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Padfield said state agencies are joining the three-day event, recognizing its a crucial time for many people.

Some of the resources provided by organizations staffing the resource center can help with replacing vital documents such as birth certificates and drivers licenses, checking insurance coverage for damages, trauma/crisis response and mental health resources, state officials said.

Others can provide benefits and disabilities support, tax assistance, tips on how to avoid scams, and other recovery information.

Key county agencies will be on hand to provide our residents with access to needed programs and services during this critical period of recovery, Somerset County President Commissioner Brian Fochtman said. We are pleased to work in partnership with the commonwealth to ensure they receive all of the help they need.

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PHOTO GALLERY | Somerset County residents reeling as floodwaters recede; officials document damage to provide aid

Fueled by a full day of intense rain, the rapidly rising Casselman River filled Mark Smith's Mount Davis Road auto shop and nearby homes. Officials toured hard-hit areas Wednesday, going from property to property to document damage.

Pennsylvanias departments of Aging, Agriculture and Health, Environmental Protection, Human Services and Transportation are attending.

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department and Office of Attorney General also will have representatives at the center.
Students and teachers at Isaac Tripp Elementary School lined a hallway to welcome Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Wednesday.

They shook pompoms, held signs and swayed miniature flags as the governor greeted and high-fived them. Shortly after, the lucky first-grade class of Julie Zaleski filed politely into the gymnasium and sat criss-cross applesauce on the floor to one side of the room, beneficiaries of a historic $2 billion increase in K-12 public education funding by the Shapiro administration.

Shapiro took to the podium, flanked by book shelves loaded with library books, a globe and a stuffed mouse.

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Gov. Josh Shapiro jokes with students at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Gov. Josh Shapiro looks ahead as he visits with students through a hallway at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks in the gymnasium of Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Gov. Josh Shapiro greets students at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Students wait for Gov. Josh Shapiro to make his way through a hallway at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Gov. Josh Shapiro greets students at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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State Rep. Jim Haddock greets students in the gymnasium of Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton during a visit from Gov. Josh Shapiro Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Gov. Josh Shapiro jokes with students at Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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Shapiro touted a year of improved education and resources for students across the region, bolstered by the largest year-over-year increase to education funding in the commonwealths history, and elaborated on the success of the funding.

The reason why we are here today is because weve been able to come together, Democrat and Republican alike, and do something really, really historical, for public education here in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Shapiro said.

State Reps. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp., Kyle Mullins, D-112, Blakely, and Jim Haddock, D-118, Pittston Twp., gathered to one side. Scranton School District Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D., Scranton School Board President Ty Holmes and acting Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education Carrie Rowe stood on the other side. Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti sat among a group of local leaders and lookers on in a pattern of padded folding chairs.

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Shapiro described a scenario where, a decade ago, the state cut $1 billion in funding from the education system.

We hit a speed bump and were forced to go back, Shapiro said.

He outlined how, though Gov. Tom Wolfs administration worked to do damage control, schools were still severely underfunded.

We knew that the standard wasnt being met, across Northeastern Pennsylvania, or across this commonwealth, Shapiro explained, adding that, when he served as the attorney general of Pennsylvania, he wrote a legal brief explaining the system needed to be corrected, because it was unconstitutional. Shortly after Shapiro took office, Pennsylvania courts ruled the school funding system at that time to be unconstitutional.

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Instead of pointing fingers at somebody else, we all agreed, Democrat and Republican, to get around the table and work to address this crisis in public education that we were facing, Shapiro said. We didnt want to shortchange these students. We wanted to be able to invest in them again and make sure that every child has an opportunity for success in life. And so we worked together, and we made historic investments.

Shapiro pointed to Isaac Tripp Elementary School as an example of what is possible when bipartisan efforts maintain the constitutional obligation to children and schools.

This wasnt just about writing a check to the school district, Shapiro said, adding that as a result of the work, problems have been solved, highlighting the commonwealths universal free breakfast provided in schools to all students, because, no child should have to learn on an empty belly.

He outlined other improvements, such as growth to the after-school program, access to pre-K, increased funding for special education, including more counselors and special education support in schools, upgrades and improvements, and an increase in the number of teachers hired, thanks in part to a $10,000 stipend reimbursement for educators learning costs.

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For so many years, the number of teachers have been declining in Pennsylvania. Were reversing that trend, Shapiro said. For the first time in years, its growing.

Keating described Scranton as a city that is long steeped in a proud history and a promising future, and highlighting the diversity of the student body of 9,300, accentuating how additional funding has improved the education of the students, 80% of whom qualify as economically disadvantaged.

She expressed excitement to be bringing back preschool, addressing mental health needs, adding art, music, physical education, STEM opportunities, new fire alarm systems, upgrading all exterior doors, adding interior cameras, completion of construction to West Scranton Intermediate School, and more with the educational funding increase.

They arent just extras, Keating said, addressing some of the benefits funding has provided for the district. Theyre vital components of well-rounded education that create those experiences and interests for kids to grow from high school and beyond.

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Kosierowski thanked Shapiro for prioritizing education, citing how her experience as a nurse allows her the ability to see the benefits positive measures taken while children are young has on their overall and ongoing health and lives.

Im really proud of what we do here in the state and with funding that we have, Kosierowski said, citing safe classrooms, nutritional provisions and mental health supports, and reiterated that $11 billion is aimed at K-12 education funding, with a $2 billion increase during the Shapiro administration, and $200 million more dollars to benefit mental health needs, among other improvements.

This is what progress looks like, Kosierowski added, and here in Scranton, we are seeing it firsthand.
BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang will pay an official visit to Indonesia from May 24 to 26 at the invitation of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, the Chinese foreign ministry announced on Thursday.

Li will also attend the ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)-GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council)-China Summit in Kuala Lumpur from May 26 to 28 at the invitation of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia, ASEAN's rotating chair, said the ministry.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry, told a daily news briefing on Thursday that the China-Indonesia relations, with a history of 75 years, have developed steadily with fruitful results achieved through practical cooperation. Last year, the two heads of state reached important consensus on building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future with regional and global influence, elevating bilateral relations to a new level.

Li's schedule in Indonesia will include talks and meetings with Indonesian leaders, including President Prabowo, during which they will engage in in-depth discussions on deepening high-level and all-round strategic cooperation. Li will also attend activities of local business community, Mao said.

She said China hopes to carry forward the traditional friendship with Indonesia, deepen solidarity and cooperation, continuously consolidate cooperation in the "five pillars" of politics, economy, people-to-people and cultural exchanges, maritime affairs and security.

It is hoped that the two countries, along their respective modernization paths, will constantly enrich the connotation of the China-Indonesia community with a shared future, and make greater contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region and beyond, she added.

On the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit to be held for the first time, Mao said that both ASEAN and GCC countries are emerging economies in Asia, important members of the Global South, and important partners in the Belt and Road cooperation.

China supports Malaysia, ASEAN's rotating chair, in proposing to hold the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit, she said.

Under the current international and regional circumstances, it is of great significance for the three parties to jointly discuss plans for solidarity, cooperation, development and prosperity, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation across regions, she said.

China looks forward to expanding practical cooperation with ASEAN and GCC countries in various fields, leveraging complementary advantages and achieving win-win results, jointly safeguarding the multilateral trading system and defending the common interests of the Global South, Mao said. 
Not all heroes wear capes; sometimes, they have drones. That was certainly the case in Florida when a man named Andrew Smith used his tech to help save a teenage girl who was drowning at the popular Pensacola Beach. According to 7 News Miami, Smith had agreed to a last minute fishing trip on the beach. He wasnt really thrilled to be there, but not ten minutes later it would feel like divine intervention.

He was sitting on the beach when a teen girl approached his group asking if anyone could swim. I said no I absolutely could not swim, and she was running and screaming and nobody could swim, Smith recalled to 7 News. Her friend was getting sucked more and more out, and I looked down at the drone and I was like, well, the drone can swim but I cant.

Despite strong winds Smith was able to pilot his drone, which he typically uses to hunt for sharks, to the girl who was caught in a riptide. She had been trying to stay afloat for more than five minutes by the time Smith was able to maneuver his drone, which had two flotation devices attached, and reach where the girl was struggling to keep her head above the water.

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Once the flotation devices reached her, the teen was able to hold onto the floats until emergency rescue services arrived five minutes later. The time probably saved her life. The EMS said she wouldnt have made it, the cops and the lifeguards, Smith said.

The girls father called Smith a guardian angel, and the teen was sent home with a clean bill of health. Smith encouraged other beachgoers to pay attention to Pensacola Beachs flag system, which uses different colored flags to indicate swimming conditions in the gulf. If you now feel the overwhelming urge to know what that system is, you can learn all about it right here.
GREENE COUNTY, Mo.  A Missouri man has been indicted for murder, four years after the body of a missing Willard man was discovered in Bois DArc.

The victim, Russell Long, was first reported missing on April 6, 2021.

His remains were found two months later by highway department workers in a rural area of Bois DArc.

Autopsy results revealed he died from a shotgun wound to the chest.

The remains were identified on June 8, 2021, and the investigation remained quiet until this week.

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The victims uncle, Bruce Long, is now charged with second-degree murder.

Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott stated that DNA evidence was crucial in leading investigators to the suspect. We had to wait for science and DNA to be able to move this case forward, Sheriff Arnott told Ozarks First. And thats exactly what its done. Were pleased with the results and that well let the judge and or jury make a decision.

The suspect was recently apprehended in Iowa and has since been transferred to the Greene County Jail.

Watch Ozarks Firsts interview with Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott to learn more about the evidence gathered that lead to Bruce Longs indictment.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  A man was injured after deputies say he was shot overnight in a Raleigh neighborhood.

The Shelby County Sheriffs Office says they responded to a shooting call at a home in the 4500 block of Northwood Hills Drive in north Shelby County just before 1 a.m.

Shooting reported at East Memphis hotel parking lot

(Photo provided by: SCSO) (Photo provided by: SCSO)

One man was found suffering from injuries and taken to Regional One Hospital in non-critical condition.

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Deputies say one suspect has been detained.

This is still an ongoing investigation.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
MEMPHIS, Tenn.  One person was injured after a shooting at an East Memphis hotel on Wednesday night, police confirm.

Officers say they were called to the Four Points by Sheraton Memphis East on 5877 Poplar Avenue regarding a shooting in the parking lot just before 10 p.m.

Clayborn Temple fire ruled arson; person sought

According to preliminary information, police say the shooting was accidental and self-inflicted.

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No other injuries were reported.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com.
Thanks to a weak front sliding across Central Florida, Thursday will be a bit cooler than prior days.

Temperatures will be in the mid-80s to low-90s, according to NWS Melbourne.

Showers and lightning storms return, primarily near Lake Kissimmee to Melbourne.

An isolated stronger storm could have frequent lightning strikes, wind gusts up to 55 mph and coin-sized hail.

Storm risks are highest from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., according to NWS Melbourne.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)Mayor Tom Arceneaux proposed, and the city council approved a new ordinance on squatting, which went into effect in April 2025. The mayor said, I am pleased with the way that this is working, and I think it has in fact given police a new tool to help with people who are in houses where they dont have a right to belong.

Shreveport police have begun enforcing it with Operation Blue. They have arrested over a dozen squatters. Police say some of the crimes committed by squatters have included unauthorized entry, burglary, trespassing, property damage, theft, drug activity, and even armed threats.

Caddo Commissioner John-Paul Young says the city needs to aggressively go after the owners of blighted property. Blighted properties are handouts for squatters. He told us, Owning a blighted property has been a crime in Shreveport for twenty-one years. Its long past time the mayor kept his main campaign promises to restore our neighborhoods to safety and livability by enforcing this law against absent owners.

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Young says he is talking about ordinance 58-207 (Penalty for maintaining blight), which is a criminal misdemeanor punishable by a five-hundred-dollar fine or thirty days in jail per day until the issue is corrected.

In response, the mayor said, Im not going to debate Commissioner Young in the media. I think there are lots of tools that have, and were looking at all those tools to see what are the most effective tools for enforcement.

If you suspect squatters on a property, you can contact Shreveport Police through the Port City 311 App or call them at 318-673-6950.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)  Memorial Day weekend is upon us  And many plan to hit the road and take to the sky as they head to their destinations.

41st Annual Mudbug Madness set to return to Shreveport Memorial Day Weekend

AAA estimates that about 45.1 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this Memorial Day weekend, the most travelers for the holiday since 2005.

87 to 89% of those will be traveling for Memorial Day or traveling in their cars, and its a new record number, said AAA spokesperson Don Redman

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AAA says road trips are booming thanks to lower gas prices.

Its a good sign that people feel confident in their own personal economies were looking at gasoline prices in Louisiana, about 40 cents a gallon cheaper than this time last year, said AAA spokesperson Don Redman

What is Memorial Day and how has it evolved from its Civil War origins?

The Shreveport regional airport is also gearing up for large crowds this weekend.

Memorial Day weekend is the official kick-off of the summer travel season, and this weekend is going to be busy. New nonstop flights to Nashville start Thursday, and nonstop flights to Destin start Friday. Were also seeing multiple flights on American, Delta, and United are sold out, and others are nearing capacity, said Business and Development Manager Mark Crawford.

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As the holiday inches closer, Shreveport police are preparing for heavy foot and vehicle traffic with big events like Mudbug Madness. As always, they remind everyone not to drink and drive.

Well be taking great measures to secure that area, said Shreveport Police Public Information Officer Cpl. Chris Bordelon. The Shreveport police department DWI enforcement unit is the most effective and has arrested more individuals than any other unit in the state of Louisiana.

If your plans include time on the water, Bordelon says SPD will be patrolling there as well.

Our officers will be out there enforcing all of the laws that go with Cross Lake and Cross Lake boating, said Cpl. Chris Bordelon.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
Sig Sauers controversial 6.8x51mm XM7 service rifle has now received a formal standard type classification, with the official designation changing to M7. This is a vote of confidence for the weapon weeks after an Army captain publicly criticized the rifle as potentially unsafe, ineffective, and overly expensive, claims that the service and Sig Sauer subsequently vehemently rebutted. You can read more about that in our deep dive here.

Along with the M7, Sig Sauers XM250 light machine gun (now designated the M250) achieved Type Classification-Standard status, the Army announced yesterday. The service described this as a major program milestone for the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program, which includes both guns, as well as the XM157 computerized optic and the accompanying family of 6.8x51mm ammunition. This new status means the weapons meet the Armys stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment, per the Army.

A soldier aims a Sig Sauer M7 rifle. (U.S. Army)

This milestone reflects our commitment to delivering cutting-edge capabilities that give our Soldiers the tactical advantage and lethality required on the battlefield, said Col. Jason Bohannon, Project Manager Soldier Lethality. We remain focused on equipping our force with the most reliable and effective tools to ensure mission success.

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The new classification for these weapons ensures that they are acceptable for Army use prior to spending procurement funds at the Full-Rate Production Decision Review, Alton E. Stewart, an Army spokesman, told TWZ Wednesday afternoon. It satisfies DoD requirement to designate when a system is approved for service use.

Army combat experiences from the Global War on Terror, especially operations in Afghanistan, where reports often emerged of U.S. forces being outranged, helped drive the core requirement for guns firing larger rounds that offer greater range and terminal ballistic performance. Concerns about improving adversary body armor were also a factor. The M7 and the M250, respectively, are set to replace a significant portion of the M4A1 carbines and M249 Squad Automatic Weapons (SAW) now in Army service. Both the M4A1 and M249 are chambered to fire the 5.56x45mm cartridge.

A US Army Ranger fires an M250 light machine gun. (U.S. Army)

As we previously explained, the M7 is a 6.8x51mm version of Sig Sauers increasingly popular MCX Spear family of rifles. Though Sigs MCX family is a separate development, the core design is derived from the AR-15/M16 pattern family of rifles, and upper receivers from certain versions of the former can be directly paired with lower receivers from the latter with the help of an adapter. The overall configurations of guns in both families are very similar, as are the basic ergonomics and control arrangements.

MCX rifles notably use a gas piston operating mechanism rather than the direct impingement method found on AR-15/M16 types. Direct impingement (DI) involves propellant gases directly blowing into the main action to cycle it, which can more quickly lead to fouling on key components without regular cleaning. Piston systems that keep gas away from a guns internal works can offer improved overall reliability in certain circumstances, although they tend to be heavier than their DI counterparts.

The Armys new designation of these weapons wont affect how they are being fielded, Stewart told us, but it serves to further rebut a scathing critique by Army Capt. Braden Trent. He presented his findings, which come from an unclassified student thesis, at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C., on April 29. The Army infantry officer did his work while attending the Expeditionary Warfare School, part of the Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.

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What is now designated the M7 has suffered from serious reliability and other issues, including having cartridge cases ripped apart by the internal pressure of the system, excessive barrel wear, and regular breakages of key components, Trent stated. He claimed that these problems, together with a host of other factors, including the weight and recoil of the rifle, make the gun unfit for its intended purpose.

Trent said he observed and/or learned of several other serious technical issues after being given the chance to interview over 150 soldiers, maintainers, and leaders, as well as inspect a sample set of 23 XM7 rifles, all from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. The brigades 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment was the first operational Army unit to begin receiving XM7s and the rest of the NGSW family of systems.

A member of the US Army seen with what was previously designed the XM7 rifle. (U.S. Army)

In an interview with TWZ on the symposiums show floor, Sig Sauer vociferously pushed back on Trents assertions.

I believe that Captain Trent had some shortcomings and difficulties in understanding the totality of the NGSW program and some significant blind spots into the progress that the NGSW program has made over the last lets call it 24 months, Jason St. John, senior director of strategic products for the Defense Strategies Group at Sig Sauer, told us. By him not having any clarity on any of the engineering change proposal efforts, and understanding of the 101st [Airborne Divisions] fielding efforts, the actual pacing of the program  and really the ongoing product improvement efforts that the program office and Sig Sauer are doing in concert with each other, really clouded his perspective, and I believe his opinions that he represented. There are significant misrepresentations and holes in those statements [that he made].

A soldier from the 10th Mountain Division firing an M7 with a suppressor at a range. (U.S. Army)

In 2022, the Army awarded Sig Sauer a 10-year, $20.4 million initial production contract to produce M7s and M250s, following a 27-month evaluation of three competing weapon systems. By that point, more than 500 soldiers, Marines, and special operators had conducted a combined 20,000 hours of testing as part of the NGSW program, according to the Army.

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As of last year, the Army said its acquisition objectives included the purchase of 111,428 M7s and 13,334 M250s.

Its an exciting day for everyone involved, whether that is Sig Sauer, the U.S. Army as a whole, and especially the soldiers, who can have confidence that they are being equipped to enhance their mission success and truly possess tactical superiority in their small arms, St. John told us Wednesday afternoon in an email.

There is the possibility that other branches of the U.S. military could adopt the M7 in the future. At Modern Day Marine in April, the service noted that it had just recently completed an evaluation of the NGSW family of systems and had begun processing the results to determine what, if any, steps forward will be taken. For now, the primary arm of the Marines remains the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR), which is, in turn, a variant of the HK416. The HK416 is a gas-piston derivative of the AR-15/M16 series.

It is unclear whether or how the Armys type classification decision might affect the Marines plans. We have reached out to the Corps and will update this story with any pertinent information provided.

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The Army is now continuing to move ahead with its plans to field what are now designated the M7 rifle and M250 light machine gun.

Update: 8:53 AM May 23 

The Marine Corps responded to our question about how the Armys new designation could affect its plans.

The Marine Corps is tracking the Armys decision to designate Type Classification-Standard status for the M7 (previously XM-7). The Marine Corps is analyzing the results of the Operational Assessment and will continue through the summer to gather all relevant data, including this authorization, across the Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, Facilities, and Policy (DOTMLPF-P) spectrum to inform a Service decision in FY 2026.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com
A captive-bred green peafowl is seen at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

KUNMING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Four green peafowl chicks were recently hatched naturally in a wild training base in southwest China's Yunnan Province, marking the first successful natural breeding of the captive-bred species in a simulated wild environment and major progress in the country's rewilding efforts for the rare birds.

The young birds were discovered in mid-May via camera surveillance at the training base located at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali.

The base was co-founded by the nature reserve, the Kunming Institute of Zoology (KIZ) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Yunnan Forest Nature Center (YFNC), with a focus on wild training of captive-bred green peafowls.

Currently, 11 birds are receiving wild training at the base.

Thursday marks International Day for Biological Diversity.

Yang Jiawei, an official at the reserve, said captive-bred green peafowls are trained in simulated wild conditions to master survival skills like foraging, predator avoidance and reproduction before they are released into the wild.

"Naturally hatched chicks adapt better in the wild, increasing the release success rates," Yang said.

He added that, in the next step, the base will assess the peafowls' survival skills and release those qualified into the wild with trackers for monitoring, providing technical support for China's conservation efforts.

Lu Lin, who is in charge of wildlife rescue and breeding at the YFNC, said that in 2024, the center in the provincial capital Kunming successfully bred 48 chicks, with the hatching rate surging to 73.85 percent, up from 15 percent three years prior.

As of Thursday, 12 chicks have hatched from 68 eggs laid this year, with more expected soon. The entire hatching process will be completed within two months.

The green peafowl, China's only native peafowl species, is classified as "endangered" on the IUCN Red List, with a higher extinction risk than giant pandas.

With the continuous ecological conservation efforts in China, endangered wild animal species, including the green peafowl, have seen a rise in their populations.

In Yunnan, multiple nature reserves have been established in green peafowl habitats, with 48.1 million yuan (about 6.7 million U.S. dollars) spent on conservation projects like population monitoring and habitat improvement as of 2024, said Li Peng, an official in charge of wildlife protection from the provincial forestry and grassland bureau.

Thanks to these efforts, the population of wild green peafowls has risen from less than 500 in 2016 to about 850 today. 

An aerial drone photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A captive-bred green peafowl is seen at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Green peafowl chicks are seen at the Yunnan Forest Nature Center in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A staff member of Yunnan Forest Nature Center checks the condition of a green peafowl chick, who is about to break out of the shell, in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A panoramic drone photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Staff members set an infrared camera at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A staff member of Yunnan Forest Nature Center feeds green peafowls in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Staff members feed green peafowls with a drawer-shaped trough at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A staff member of Yunnan Forest Nature Center changes food and water for green peafowl chicks in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A green peafowl chick is seen at the Yunnan Forest Nature Center in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Green peafowl chicks are seen at the Yunnan Forest Nature Center in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A captive-bred green peafowl is seen at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A staff member of Yunnan Forest Nature Center checks the condition of a green peafowl chick in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

A staff member of Yunnan Forest Nature Center checks the condition of green peafowl chicks in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Green peafowls are seen at the Yunnan Forest Nature Center in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)

Staff members check the condition of green peafowls released into the wild via a monitoring system at the Weishan Qinghua green peafowl provincial nature reserve in the Bai Autonomous Prefecture of Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Zhao Peiran)

Green peafowl chicks are seen at the Yunnan Forest Nature Center in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, May 19, 2025.(Xinhua/Hu Chao)
In the current state of uncertainty, marked by rising costs and proposed federal budget cuts, many of our local social services face an existential crisis. Your support of the organizations providing these essential services is more necessary than ever.

As a nonprofit and philanthropy advisor and the interim CEO of The Lords Place, I see firsthand the grave impact that a decrease in federal funding could have at our local level.

The shutdown of key agencies and funding cuts to Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human services, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Department of Justice (to name a few) threaten not only federal aid, but also the state and local partnerships on which nonprofit agencies in our community depend. It is important to note that federal grants are a key component of the budget for every state and local governmentfunding a wide range of public services and infrastructure. Florida is currently relying on $37.9 billion in federal funds for its fiscal year 2024-25 budget of $116.5 billion. Palm Beach County receives significant federal funding for various programs, including education, transportation, housing, and other social services.

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The loss of federal, state, and local funding would have a two-fold impact on The Lords Place: a significant disruption in cash flow and operating reserves; and increased housing insecurity and an increased demand for our wrap-around services that help end local homelessness.

As The Lords Place risks losing one-third of its $16.5 million budget that is essential to successfully serving our most vulnerable neighbors, the board and staff are prudently planning. We are evaluating our operations and how we stretch every dollar donated to keep our doors open and our mission fulfilled and alive. We are turning to private donors and our community at large to help us mitigate the impact of these potential cuts. We are also preparing for the increased demand for services that will come if other agencies shut down due to a loss of funding.

In honor of Dory Faxons 50th birthday and in memory of her late father, family and friends raised $97,173 to build Dorys Place, a pavilion at The Lord's Place that serves as a spot for retreats and gatherings for the 50 residents of its William H. Mann Place for Men.

Now, more than ever, agencies like The Lords Place need your help.

Now is also the time to speak up. Congress makes the ultimate decision about the federal budget. Reach out to our elected officials by phone, email, or mail to illustrate the catastrophic impact that would be felt in our local communities if they move forward with the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026.

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Together, lets continue to foster the greater good and wellbeing of all as we care for the disadvantaged and vulnerable among us. Your (financial support and) voice may be the difference needed to provide life-saving services to those most in need.

Kerry Diaz, interim CEO of The Lords Place

Kerry Diaz is interim CEO of The Lords Place and a nonprofit/philanthropy advisor.

Join the Conversation: The Palm Beach Post is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. Email us at letters@pbpost.com. Letters are subject to editing, must not exceed 200 words and must include your name, address and a daytime phone number to confirm the letter is for publication. We only publish names and cities with the letters.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Federal funding cuts are endangering local agencies like us | Opinion
The saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has dragged on long enough, and complicatedly enough, to render a number of past films about him, if not obsolete, clear period pieces. Documentaries like Alex Gibneys 2013 We Steal Secrets and Laura Poitras 2016 Risk, both produced during the Obama era, are informed by a very different political climate from the one were in now  while neither could have anticipated how the Australian editor and activists legal difficulties would escalate in the years to come. (Bill Condons technothriller-styled 2013 Assange biopic The Fifth Estate, meanwhile, felt premature from the get-go.) With Assange finally freed last year after 12 years of confinement or outright imprisonment in the U.K., the time feels right for an expansive catch-up on the whole knotty affair: Enter Eugene Jareckis plainly presented but detail-packed documentary The Six Billion Dollar Man, which premiered at Cannes (with Assange himself present) in the festivals Special Screenings program.

Beginning with the founding of initially modest startup WikiLeaks in the mid-2000s and the swift impact of its uncompromising journalism in media and political spheres alike, the film progresses in mostly linear fashion through attempts by various national administrations to stymie and silence Assange, and concludes with his 2024 return to Australia after five years in a high-security British prison, following a successful plea deal with U.S. prosecutors. There hasnt been another running news narrative quite like Assanges, in which secondary players range from Donald Trump to Pamela Anderson to a sociopathic teen hacker from Iceland: Theres potential here for grandstanding, but Jarecki tells this tall true story with the same probing, drily enraged authority he brought to his 2005 military-industrial complex doc Why We Fight or 2012s drug-war study The House I Live In.

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As a work of journalism itself, The Six Billion Dollar Man is a methodical assemblage of known facts rather than a revelatory investigation  though it may be an eye-opener to younger viewers who were less tuned into the news 15 years ago, and have become accustomed to a far more crowded and factionalized online media landscape than the one that gave rise to WikiLeaks in the first place. Formally, its meat-and-potatoes nonfiction filmmaking, alternating archival footage  including, most interestingly, claustrophobic video from Assanges seven-year asylum in Ecuadors cramped London embassy  with talking-head contributions from an ensemble of Assanges associates, peers and journalistic descendants. The most offbeat stylistic imposition here is a series of tonally loaded chapter headings that begin with a Star Wars theme (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back) before the conceit is oddly dropped two entries in. (Return of the Jedi would be a tough one to shoehorn into the subject at hand, admittedly; The Phantom Menace less so.)

Among the interviewees is cultural commentator Naomi Klein, who explains how WikiLeaks grew out of an early, more idealistic incarnation of the internet, prior to the rise of social media, in which its primary purpose was to make information available to all, for free. Many of the sites early journalistic coups  notably the damning Collateral Murder video showing civilians and Reuters journalists being killed in U.S. airstrikes on Bagdad in 2007  made waves by exposing unjust or corrupt acts by those in power. Yet the fallout from such scoops often shifted to shooting the messenger instead, as the U.S. government in particular sought to paint Assange as a criminal for refusing to overlook their errors in judgment. When weve been lied to, would we rather not know? asks famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, in championing Assanges work.

Snowden frames the question rhetorically, though as the film reaches the Trump era of fake news and bad-faith far-right propaganda, Jarecki grimly concludes that many people prefer a lie they can agree with to the truth. Its that cultural turn in the weather that hastened and worsened Assanges downfall, triggered by a pair of rape charges in Sweden  into which the alleged victims admit they felt railroaded by police. It was Assanges very real concerns about being extradited to the U.S., however, that saw him improbably seek refuge in the aforementioned Ecuadorian embassy. Ecuadors offer of asylum to Assange, too, is subject to changing cultural tides: The films title refers to the amount offered in 2019 by the Trump administration to a new, more allyship-inclined Ecuadorian government to give him up.

Cue five years incarceration instead, much of it solitary, in the U.K.s notoriously punishing Belmarsh prison  where, insists UN human rights expert Nils Melzer, he was subjected to sustained psychological torture, and emerged as a frailer, more anxiety-ridden man for the experience. (Perhaps this is partly the reason for Assanges own limited first-hand presence in Jareckis film.) Fighting his corner all the while is dogged Australian human rights lawyer Jen Robinson and Stella Moris, another loyal member of his legal team, who eventually became Assanges wife, and mother to two of his children.

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Their personally colored interviews lend a more intimate dimension to a film that often, not inaccurately, presents Assange as a larger-than-life cause celebre  an emblem of straightforward truth-telling principles at a time when AI, political spin and stubborn bigotry are allowing many media consumers to choose their own reality. We have given up on the idea that facts matter, sighs Klein, while Assange closes The Six Billion Dollar Man with an admission of the compromise that finally got the U.S. government off his case: Im not here because the system worked, Im here because I pled guilty to journalism.

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ALBANY, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY)  Six local communities were awarded a combined $7 million from the Restore New York Communities initiative on Thursday, according to an announcement from Governor Kathy Hochul.

Governor Hochul announced on Thursday, May 22, that 50 projects  including five in the Mohawk Valley  will share over $50 million to encourage community revitalization. The initiative helps revitalization efforts by reducing blight, growing local housing, and increasing local tax bases by putting properties back on the tax roll.

Revitalizing and rehabilitating vacant and blighted areas of our communities for housing or development is vital to make downtowns thrive, Governor Hochul said in a statement. Restore New York helps our municipalities plan for the future by catalyzing economic growth and supporting housing, businesses and cultural spaces. We are further unlocking the potential of these sites and communities across New York.

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The City of Rome received $3.5 million from the initiative on a Special Project designation. This designation is given to projects that, if left undeveloped, would cause severe economic injury or would hinder the economic growth of the community.

The city of Romes money would be used to rehabilitate two buildings  one on South Madison Street and the former Rome Cable Building on Henry Street  that were damaged in the July 2024 tornadoes. One of the buildings would be redeveloped for mixed use, and would include first-floor commercial event space. The other  according to the Governors office  will be renovated to become the largest available industrial space in the [Utica-Rome area].

Other recipients of the programs money include the City of Oneida, which received $1 million to partially demolish and rehabilitate two buildings on Madison Street. The buildings will receive a shared elevator and stairwell, which visitors can use to travel freely between each other. New spaces will be added on the upper floors of both buildings, and will include 15 units suitable for living or commercial use.

The Village of Boonville received $1 million of their own to renovate three buildings  all on Main Street  that were all involved in a fire in 2020. The village plans to make the buildings into a sporting goods store, an artisinal meat market and a boutique gift shop. The buildings will also house ten one- and two-bedroom residential units.

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The Village of Cooperstown received $1 million to demolish the former site of the villages cheese factory, which has sat dormant since the company moved to another location in the village. After demolition, the village intends to build a three-story apartment building, housing approximately 50 units. The building will include on-site parking and several apartment amenities.

The Village of Herkimer also received $1 million to rehabilitate the former Masonic Temple on North Main Street. The village intends to turn the property into a commercial hub for several business uses, including the Mohawk Valleys only certified kitchen to support food-based enterprises. The money will also be used to resolve safety and aesthetic concerns around the village.

The Village of Richfield Springs received just under $500,000 to rehabilitate one building on Main Street. Once finished, the building will become an inn with guest rooms, an event center, and feature the villages newly re-established mineral spas. The fourth floor of the building will also include one apartment, and perform several much-needed repairs to the property  including repairing the roof.

Under Governor Hochuls leadership, New York State is building for the future by supporting projects that advance statewide priorities like increasing housing and revitalizing communities, Empire State Development CEO Hope Knight said in a statement. Through the Restore New York Communities Initiative, we are working together with municipalities to remove blight and generate new investments to promote sustainable economic growth.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WUTR/WFXV - CNYhomepage.com.
Congress has approved a resolution rejecting a waiver granted to California by former President Joe Biden's administration that would have allowed that state and possibly others to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars, trucks and sport-utility vehicles by 2035.

But the fight over whether Congress' decision to do so  or President Donald Trump's efforts to stop California in its effort to block the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines as a means of reducing greenhouse gases  is legal, is just beginning.

"We intend to sue the Trump administration," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a news conference on May 22. "This is unprecedented."

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Earlier in the day, the U.S. Senate voted 51-44 in favor of a resolution already passed in the House to turn back the Biden administration waiver granted to California by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about a month before Biden left office this January. That waiver allows the state to move ahead with a program requiring an increasing share of new cars, trucks and SUVs sold to be zero emission or otherwise penalize automakers.

Both congressional chambers passed the resolution after Trump's new EPA head, Lee Zeldin, asked for a legislative review under a law  the Congressional Review Act, or CRA  that allows the House and Senate to reject some agency-finalized rules within 60 business days of their being notified.

The Senate vote was largely along party lines with Republicans in favor of rejecting the waiver and Democrats against doing so. The one exception was Democratic U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, who voted in favor of the resolution and against the waiver, saying she was doing so because she has "a special responsibility to stand up for the more than 1 million Michiganders whose livelihoods depend on the U.S. auto industry."

Noting that several other states are also allowed to follow California's greenhouse gas waivers under amendments to the Clean Air Act, Slotkin, who was elected last year, said she has to acknowledge market forces and the reality facing the auto industry. "As of today, not a single one of these states is anywhere near complying with Californias requirements (for sales of zero-emission vehicles) and some are even reversing course. That means car manufacturers, including the Detroit Three, will be forced to eventually stop the sale of gas-powered cars in these states or pay competitors, particularly Tesla, for credits to remain compliant."

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Automakers, through the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a Washington trade group, had argued that the California waiver and a ban on gasoline-powered new cars was not realistic in the given time frame and have long advocated for a single national standard over a patchwork of rules. Slotkin's Senate colleague from Michigan, Democrat Gary Peters, who is stepping down at the end of the current term, voted against the resolution and for the waiver.

About 23% of California's market was electric vehicles last year. The state's program calls for that to be 35% for model year 2026 vehicles and 68% by the end of the decade, despite a slowdown in sales of EVs nationally, though the resolution by Congress leaves in doubt what happens next to those targets.

Zeldin put out a statement saying the resolution, once signed by Trump, "not only prevents California from implementing their attempt at EV mandate actions but ensures that they can never do something similar again. Bonta, noting that California has had dozens of waivers approved under the Clean Air Act regulations, said the state would sue over the "unlawful and unprecedented" use of the 29-year-old CRA to upend this one.

Bonta said Trump was using the CRA unlawfully to "penalize" California.

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With Republicans in the majority in both legislative chambers and only a simple majority required to pass a resolution overturning a rule under the CRA (rather than a 60-vote supermajority needed for most votes in the Senate), there was little doubt the resolution would pass. But there remained clear questions as to whether California's waiver, granted under provisions in the Clean Air Act, was ever intended to be subject to review under the CRA.

More: Dodge plans gas-powered Charger but will cut cheaper electric variant

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had previously found that the waivers granted to California and the other states under the Clean Air Act provisions weren't reviewable under the CRA.

Neither the Senate nor the House ended up accepting that interpretation from the GAO, however, leaving in question whether the resolution, which is certain to be signed by Trump, will meet scrutiny in the courts once California and its Air Resources Board, files suit. This spring, after the House passed the resolution, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said, "Our vehicles program helps clean the air for all Californians, and well continue defending it."

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Newsom said at the news conference on May 22 that pollution, which California has been fighting for years even before the Clean Air Act was passed, is "an act of theft against our kids and grandkids."

Trump and his Republican allies have been aggressively attempting to eliminate efforts to promote the sale of electric vehicles or restrict the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines, despite transportation sources being one of the leading contributors of greenhouse gases, which cause climate change.

Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, a national environmental group, said the Senate vote was one to "increase asthma, lung cancer and cardiac deaths" as well as a "reward (to) Big Oil and Big Auto corporations at the expense of everyday peoples health and their wallets.

More: Former state House Speaker Joe Tate, of Detroit, jumps into US Senate race

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John Bozzella, president and CEO for the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, disagreed, saying, "The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable. Automakers warned federal and state policymakers that reaching these EV sales targets would take a miracle, especially in the coming years when the mandates get exponentially tougher."

By the way, the problem really isnt California," Bozzella added. "Its the 11 states that adopted Californias rules without the same level of readiness for EV sales requirements of this magnitude."

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on X @tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Slotkin joins Senate GOP in rejecting Calif. ban of gas-powered cars
A quiet and leafy street in Isleworth, west London, doesnt immediately spring to mind as the obvious place to find a control centre for an international people-smuggling enterprise. But in a taxpayer-funded home shared with his wife and child, thats where Ahmed Ebid helped mastermind at least seven crossings over perilous waters around Europe, involving thousands of people and resulting in at least two deaths.

Tell them guys anyone caught with a phone will be killed, threw in the sea [sic], Ebid told one of his associates when discussing arrangements for bringing migrants by boat from north Africa to Europe on one of the dangerous illegal crossings. His threat indicates the level of compassion he had for those whose passage he was helping to assist.

It was one of multiple crossings that Ebid played a part in arranging from his flat in west London. He didnt know that on this occasion, his conversation was being recorded.

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Surveillance officers from Britains National Crime Agency (NCA) were on his trail by then. Law enforcement was closing in and Ebid, 42, who had entered the UK illegally himself on a small boat, would soon be caught. But not before he had helped smuggle thousands of desperate migrants into Italian waters as part of a network of criminals making millions from the perilous scheme.

Ebid played a part in several crossings but Britains National Crime Agency had been tracking him - UNPIXS

This week, he was jailed for 25 years for masterminding the smuggling of thousands of people across the Mediterranean into Europe. He had held, said Judge Adam Hiddleston, a significant managerial role within an organised crime group.

The treatment of the migrants, on his orders and in his name, was horrifying, said Judge Hiddleston. They were simply a commodity to you, he told Ebid. You talked of them in terms of units, not as people, referring to them as cartons.

It is believed that Ebid, an Egyptian, crossed the Channel with his wife and child when he came to Britain in October 2022. He moved into an address on Church Road, Isleworth. It was this unlikely base where he worked with people-smuggling networks in north Africa to organise transport across a stretch of water almost 3,000 miles away. But having previously worked as a fisherman in the Mediterranean, Ebid had what a prosecutor later described as intimate knowledge of those waters, allowing him to assist with the illegal scheme even by phone from a long distance away.

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He apparently knew how it should be done, not only telling an associate that migrants must not carry phones on the boats but also advising on how much drinking water the passengers would require during the crossings.

He had been in the UK for only a few weeks when he started assisting in the illegal journeys of other migrants across the Mediterranean.

More than 640 of them were rescued by Italian authorities after attempting to cross the sea from Libya in a wooden boat in October 2022. The vessel was taken into port in Sicily and two bodies were recovered.

In December that year, 265 migrants who had departed from Benghazi in Libya in a 65ft fishing boat were found adrift in the Mediterranean and rescued by the Italian coastguard.

The vessel used by Ahmed Ebid and his associates. Ebids intimate knowledge of the Mediterranean waters allowed him to assist with the crossings remotely - UNPIXS

The following April, two further search-and-rescue operations were mounted after distress calls were made to the Italian coastguard. In both cases, boats were found with more than 600 migrants on board.

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There is evidence that between 2022 and 2023, Ebid was involved in at least seven separate crossings, carrying a total of almost 3,800 people into Italian waters. Some of them eventually made their way to Britain.

He played a part in moving and accommodating migrants before their journey by sea, and in dealing with paperwork, he would later admit.

He was also in regular phone contact with associates on the boats as they made the crossings, prosecutor Freddy Hookway told a judge at Southwark Crown Court in March. Ebid, he said, appeared to be providing assistance in real time.

In an effort to go below the radar, he spoke in code about fishing and referred to the boats as cars. The NCA described them more accurately as death traps.

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At least some of the migrants who paid to make these crossings had started their journey in Egypt, according to Italian media reports. From there they travelled to the Libyan coast, their departure point for Italy.

Working from home in Britain, Ebid managed the logistics and communications required for the crossings, including the transfer of the migrants from Egypt, Il Giornale reported. He is said to have played a vital role in the smuggling operation.

It was a risky business but a highly lucrative one. Each migrant was charged about 3,200 on average, netting more than 12 million in total for the criminals involved. Ebid was said to have claimed he made 15,000 (almost 12,650) for his part in it. Prosecutors believe the true sum was far higher, with Ebid describing it as a living.

It apparently wasnt his first involvement in criminal activity. He reportedly had a previous conviction in Italy in 2017 for attempting to import more than a ton of cannabis.

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On the afternoon of June 21 2023, NCA officers swooped in London. Dressed in a white T-shirt, grey shorts and sunglasses, Ebid was arrested in the street in Hounslow on suspicion of assisting unlawful immigration. He was charged last year with people-smuggling offences as part of an international investigation into the organised crime network that was moving migrants into Europe. The probe also involved Italian prosecutors, coastguard and the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian law enforcement agency.

Credit: National Crime Agency

Investigators had bugged Ebids home. When they seized a phone from him after his arrest, they found images of boats, conversations about the possible purchase of vessels, videos of migrants making the journey and screenshots detailing money transfers.

They also found a notebook Ebid had with pages of co-ordinates showing a route from north Africa to the southern coast of Italy.

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In October 2023, he pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to assist illegal immigration. But he claimed he was merely a low-ranking member of the network.

Prosecutors disputed this. He was a key figure, they argued. One who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats, as Jacque Beer, the NCAs regional head of investigation, put it.

The NCA said Ebid preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats - National Crime Agency/via REUTERS

Ebids case highlights the international nature of the problem of criminal networks cashing in by orchestrating hazardous small-boat crossings for migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. The trafficking of people from the Libyan coast to Italy has been going on for many years, despite various crackdowns designed to prevent the journeys.

A European Commission report after a mission to Libya at the end of 2004 found that about 15,000 migrants had tried to reach the Italian coast illegally by crossing the Mediterranean. Almost 2,000 had died during the journey.

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In 2010, Italy and Libya reached an agreement to try to curb irregular immigration, and the numbers attempting the crossing declined. But that wasnt the end of it.

In 2023, an estimated 212,000 migrants and refugees attempted to cross the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia to Europe, according to a report by the United Nations Refugee Agency and the International Organisation for Migration  a 52 per cent increase compared with 2022. More than 3,105 perished or went missing at sea while trying to make the journey in 2023, compared with 2,500 the previous year. However, the real number of dead and missing along these routes is believed to be higher, as many incidents go unreported or undetected, said the report.

The nature of the business run by figures such as Ebid is one that not only breaches immigration laws but endangers lives for financial gain, as Tim Burton, the special prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, noted this week. In Ebids case, he showed a complete disregard for the safety of thousands of people, whose lives were put at serious risk, said Burton.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer came to power last year with a promise to smash the gangs responsible for people smuggling, and welcomed the jailing of Ebid. In reality, smashing the gangs isnt all that easy, as the ringleaders tend to base themselves overseas.

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Smashing Ebids operation is a start. The challenge will be in tracking down and bringing to justice others like him out there.

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A small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday, setting multiple cars and homes on fire and sparking a massive search mission for survivors.

A Cessna 550 with an unknown number of people on board crashed while headed to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport around 3:47 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The crash, which occurred during foggy weather, prompted a stretch of homes within the neighborhood to be evacuated.

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We have jet fuel all over the place, Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said during a news conference. Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now.

According to Eddy, there was a direct hit to multiple homes in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood, which is a military housing neighborhood, according to NBC San Diego.

This is a developing story...

With Associated Press contributions.
Music talent agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams were among those killed when a small private plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday.

Shapiro, 42, was the owner of music agency Sound Talent Group, which represented bands like Hanson and Sum 41. Williams, 39, was the former drummer of metal band The Devil Wears Prada.

They were among six people on board the small Cessna 550 when it abruptly came down into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood around 3:47 a.m. There are not believed to be any survivors and eight people on the ground were also injured when the plane crashed.

The plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood in the early hours of Thursday (AP)

All six people on board are believed to have been killed (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

The aircraft appeared to have destroyed at least one home, leaving it charred and collapsed. About 10 to 15 homes and half a dozen vehicles also suffered damage, and it took first responders several hours to extinguish the flames.

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When asked where the plane debris spread, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy noted it was everywhere and there was a very large debris field.

The disaster, which occurred during particularly foggy weather, prompted the evacuation of a stretch of homes within the neighborhood, which mainly serves military service members.

The crash let a steady stream of jet fuel running down the street and caused multiple cars to catch fire, Eddy said. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said close to 100 people were displaced due to the sheer amount of jet fuel spilled and overall destruction. Authorities said they hoped people would be able to return to their homes by Thursday evening.

Music agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams (R) were among the victims (Sound Talent Group /Instagram)

It was also not immediately known what led to the crash, though the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a clipped power line in the area that the plane may have struck.

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The flight had been coming from the Midwest, authorities said. According to the flight tracking site Flight Aware, the plane was supposed to arrive at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive airport in San Diego at 3:47 a.m., coming in from the small Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kansas.

Officials at the Kansas airport said it was there making a fueling stop. The flight originated Wednesday night in Teterboro, New Jersey, according to Flight Aware.

Hours after the disaster, chunks of metal from the aircraft remained littered across the street, with no clear body of the plane visible. The fiery aftermath, with cars up in flames and thick plumes of gray smoke rising from the neighborhood, left locals in shock.

Investigators are trying to establish what happened (AFP/Getty)

Shapiro, the first person identified among the deceased, was an avid pilot with over a decade of experience flying. It was not immediately clear if he was flying the plane or if he was a passenger. He was also known around the music industry as a daredevil, according to the Billboard report.

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We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends, a spokesperson for Sound Talent Group told Billboard. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by todays tragedy. Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time.

From BASE jumping to aerobatic flying, Helicopters to twin engines, flight instructing to furthering his own education, doesnt matter to Dave as long as he gets to be in the sky, his aviation website reads.

Shapiro, who worked with bands including Sum 41 and Pierce the Veil, was also a staunch supporter of independent music. He launched his own agency in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Anderson.

A home was hit and eight people on the ground injured (Getty)

Williams had posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page."No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.

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The home that was struck when the plane hit was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed.

Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.

My wife was screaming, and she's like, There's a fire, McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told KGTV. When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit.

The couple grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape. The plane also hit both of the couple's vehicles, which burned.

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It put my truck into our living room, McCarty said. Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.

At least 100 residents were evacuated (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a whooshing sound and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.

One of the family's cars was completely disintegrated, and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.

I definitely do feel blessed, because we've been spared, she said.

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At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.

We have jet fuel all over the place, Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said. Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that you could barely see in front of you.

With Associated Press contributions.
By Christian Martinez

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -At least two people were killed and eight others injured on Thursday when a small plane crashed in a San Diego neighborhood where military families lived, damaging houses and vehicles.

The crash occurred around 3:45 a.m. local time (1045 GMT) in a military housing complex in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, local officials said. The crash site is a little more than 2 miles east of Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.

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It was unclear how many people were onboard the plane when it crashed. Police said they believed no one on the ground was killed but could not immediately confirm that.

We had a plane that had come through this neighborhood, taking out one home, San Diego Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference in front of a damaged home.

When fire crews arrived on scene, they found one home and multiple vehicles on fire, Eddy said.

The San Diego Police Department reported two people were confirmed dead and eight others were injured, as of 11 a.m. Thursday.

Only one person with minor injuries was transported to a hospital as of Thursday morning, Eddy said.

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About 100 people were evacuated from homes in the neighborhood as of late Thursday morning.

The plane was identified as a Cessna 550 by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane, whose route originated in the Midwest, was bound for San Diego, Eddy said.

The tract where the crash occurred is managed by Liberty Military Housing, officials said.

We are actively working with all military families affected, specifically within this region, because they may be out of their homes for a while, said Captain Bob Heely, commanding officer of Naval Base San Diego.

Heely said he was working with Liberty Military Housing and the Red Cross to provide temporary housing to the affected families.

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As you can see, the damage behind us is incredibly significant, was life-threatening, and thank God nobody on the ground was killed, Raul Campillo, a member of the San Diego City Council, said at a news conference near the crash site.

The crash will be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

(Reporting by Christain Martinez in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty and Diane Craft)
Visitors watch Bianlian performance, or face-changing, a part of the Sichuan opera, during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. The fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

CHONGQING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade kicked off in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Thursday, with on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars).

The event invited Thailand as the guest country of honor, Sichuan Province as the permanent guest province, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as a newly added guest city.

The fair attracted over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions, including 56 central state-owned enterprises, 47 Fortune Global 500 companies, 93 multinational corporations, and 286 leading private firms.

According to the organizing committee, manufacturing and modern service industries accounted for over 75 percent of the total contracted projects, spanning sectors such as aerospace, advanced materials, energy, and smart equipment. 

Visitors look at an unmanned aerial vehicle during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. The fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

People visit the pavilion of Thailand, the guest country of honor, during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. The fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

Visitors taste Chongqing hotpot during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. The fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

A merchant from South Korea (1st R) introduces his products to visitors during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

Visitors learn about Sirius, an intelligent four-legged robot, during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

A foreign merchant promotes his products to a visitor during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows an exhibition board of the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Visitors experience a new energy vehicle during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows a signing ceremony of major projects during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

A carpet merchant from Afghanistan introduces his products during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Chen Cheng)

Visitors inquire about cultural and creative products during the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the opening ceremony of the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

Guests attend the opening ceremony of the 7th Western China International Fair for Investment and Trade in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, May 22, 2025. With on-site project agreements exceeding 200 billion yuan (about 27.8 billion U.S. dollars), the fair kicked off in Chongqing on Thursday, attracting over 1,300 enterprises from 39 countries and regions. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)
Details about a flight that was filled with smoke have been revealed.

A Delta flight taking off the Atlanta Hartsfield/Jackson International Airport in Georgia reported smoke filling the cabin and cockpit on Feb. 24 around 8:48 a.m. local time, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

During the incident, the lead flight attendant was unable to clearly see past the first row of seats and the pilots wore oxygen masks, the NTSB said.

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PEOPLE reached out to Delta Air Lines for additional information, but did not immediately hear back.

Multiple flight attendants in the cabin saw smoke during takeoff with one stating that smoke emanated from a door while another saw it "coming out of all the vents," per the report.

Smoke was also seen near the back of the cockpit.

Getty Images Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

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The flight attendants tried to contact the pilots, but did not get a response. The pilots said they were focused on flying the plane and communicating the emergency to air traffic control. According to the first officer, he attempted to reach the cabin crew using a headset. He said he was able to hear the crew, but they did not seem to be able to hear him.

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The flight attendants told passengers to remain calm during this time.

The lead flight attendant "recalled that the smoke was very thick, and that he was unable to see past the first row of seats," per the NTSB.

The pilots reportedly wore oxygen masks in the cockpit for safety.

When the lead flight attendant began to unlock the cockpit door, he heard the first officer say via an interophone that they were returning to the airport. The lead worker shared the information with the crew and passengers.

The pilots then got a low oil pressure alarm for the right engine, and ultimately shut down the engine while performing a procedure.

Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Delta Airlines plane Delta Airlines plane

Once they landed, airport rescue and firefighting vehicles reported to the plane. When the pilots opened the flight deck door, they "noticed a 'tremendous' amount of smoke in the cabin and the captain immediately ordered an evacuation," the NTSB wrote.

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Passengers were evacuated using multiple emergency exits. There were 99 people on board. Two passengers were injured during the evacuation.

A post-incident examination found "no oil visible in the sight glass of the right engine oil reservoir, indicating the quantity was at or near zero."

The incident is still under investigation.

Read the original article on People
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  A ride paying tribute to our countrys fallen heroes is preparing for its final ride.

The 25th Smoky Mountain Thunder Memorial Ride will take place on May 25 at the Sevier County courthouse. Ron Giddis started the event after looking for a way to pay tribute to fallen military personnel for Memorial Day weekend.

I couldnt find what I thought was it, so a friend of mine told me, Well, you know what to do about that. So 25 years ago, we started one of our own that pays tribute to fallen military, particularly those killed in combat, said Giddis.

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The opening ceremony starts at 10 a.m., but people are welcome to come early for breakfast. The ceremony will include an appearance by a bald eagle, placing a wreath at the Veterans Monument, and taps. The ride begins at 11 a.m. and will go 65 miles to Grainger County for the closing ceremony.

We dont have a voice Residents want answers as pipeline construction disrupts Sevier County community

Once all the riders have reached the Veterans Overlook on Clinch Mountain, the closing ceremony will begin. Another wreath will be placed, and a 21-gun salute, followed by Taps, will conclude the event.

Throughout the years, thousands of people have joined in the event, and it is one of the largest motorcycle ride events in East Tennessee on Memorial Day Weekend. The organizers hope this year can be their biggest in honor of their final ride.

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East Tennessee soldiers, sailors and Marines killed while on active duty with the United States military

Anyone is welcome to join this free event, and those who do not wish to ride are welcome to watch from the road. For more information, visit facebook.com/SmokyMountainThunderMemorialRide.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WATE 6 On Your Side.
Washingtons Jewish cultural and religious centers are emphasizing the need for security following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers  but say they will not be cowed by acts of violence.

The killing of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were shot dead outside of the Capital Jewish Museum after an event at the venue on Wednesday night, sent shock waves through Jewish communities around the world.

But mixed in with the shock of Wednesday nights tragedy was also a sense of inevitability, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington CEO Gil Preuss said.

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Part of this is like people knew that something horrific like this was eventually going to happen after other instances of antisemitic violence in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California in recent years, Preuss said.

Wednesdays shooting follows other recent attacks that have been condemned as antisemitic violence, including the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, being set ablaze last month. But for the Jewish community in Washington, Wednesdays killings hit closer to home.

The attack was deeply personal to the local community, Preuss said, as the young couple was involved in numerous D.C.-wide activities. Milgrim, in particular, was heavily embedded in D.C. life, after graduating with a masters in international affairs from American University in 2023.

Community members are reeling from the loss of their friends and contending with the disbelief that something like this happened in our own community, and to people who we know, Preuss said.

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He added that sometimes he feels people dont take seriously safety concerns raised by the Jewish community, despite the pattern of antisemitic attacks. Concerns about the rise of rhetoric like globalized intifada, Preuss said, are often brushed off as just language.

But what we saw last night was an enactment of globalized intifada, of people attacking the Jewish community  people who were leaving an event that was about bridge-building and peace and how do we solve problems in the Middle East, he said, noting that the museum hosting the event is also currently showing an exhibit spotlighting the local LGBTQ+ community in D.C.

The shooting comes amid heightened tensions following the Hamas terror attack on Israel in October 2023. Backlash has grown in the U.S. and globally against Israels intensifying military campaign in Gaza, and many Jewish advocacy organizations simultaneously warn of rising antisemitism.

Elias Rodriguez, who was tentatively identified by law enforcement as the suspect, chanted free, free Palestine, while in custody, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith said during a press briefing Wednesday.

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Preuss said D.C. officials "dramatically increased security" around the city's Jewish organizations Thursday morning, and called for increased vigilance, though he noted that upping security practices "doesn't guarantee that it won't happen."

"We do need to look at physical security and how to put all the precautions in place to make sure that someone who's thinking about committing a horrendous act thinks twice," he said. "The second thing is training of people to keep their eyes out to be aware of a suspicious person, to report things, to know what to do and how to react."

The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on if there are broader plans to bolster security for Jewish institutions in the city.

There have been other high-profile attacks on American Jews. Just last month, a suspect set the official residence for Shapiro, the Pennsylvania governor and one of the most prominent Jewish American politicians, ablaze while he and his family were inside. The suspect said Shapiro needs to know that he will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.

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The Washington Hebrew Congregation, a hub of Jewish spiritual life in the capital, said in a statement that Wednesdays shooting was a tragic reminder of the importance of consistently reassessing the security policies and protocols we have in place and evaluating whether there are changes we can make to enhance our security posture.

The congregation, which said it had just created a director of safety and security position last year in response to rising reports of antisemitism nationwide, also noted that the threats we face today are the same threats we faced yesterday before last nights horrific shooting and the same threats we will continue to face into the future.

Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, called the shooting a senseless act of political violence on Fox News Thursday morning.

It was clearly a shooting simply because they were Jewish and because they were Israeli, Halber said, adding that despite the violence, the Jewish community cannot and will not and doesnt want to put themselves in a sealed bubble, but will instead continue to live proud, strong Jewish lives openly and publicly.

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But that determination is not without the need for heightened security protections.

What is needed right now is for the federal government to step up and to not haggle and pass a large bill providing billions of dollars to institutions that are at threat, to increase security hiring and widen protections around Jewish cultural and religious centers, Halber said.
Carol Chapin's son joins a protest in Madison to oppose cuts to the Medicaid program. (Photo courtesy of Carol Chapin)

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives and Wisconsins Republican members  U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, Derrick Van Orden, Glenn Grothman, Scott Fitzgerald, Tony Wied and Tom Tiffany  are supporting a budget that would slash federal Medicaid funding by $790 billion, according to the latest Congressional Budget Office estimate.

For my family, this isnt just a number on a budget sheet somewhere in Washington. For us, it is deeply personal. These cuts have the potential to devastate our lives.

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My son Liam lives with a developmental disability. Thanks to Medicaid  and more specifically, a category known as Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)  hes able to live independently in his own apartment. He receives support each day to help him manage meals, take his medications, and safely get to his two part-time jobs using paratransit.

He volunteers at a local food pantry. He makes art. He participates in community programs for people with disabilities. He takes community college courses and continuing education classes, and his goal is an associates degree in architectural technology. Hes proud to call Madisons Eastmoreland neighborhood home.

All of this is possible because of Medicaid. But the Home and Community-Based Services that make his life possible are considered optional under federal Medicaid law. Theyre on the chopping block if Congress moves forward with the proposed cuts.

If the federal government cuts its share of Medicaid funding, our state will face a painful decision. We will either use more state dollars to fill the gap, or make cuts  fewer people covered, fewer services, lower provider pay. For Liam and others, that means less support, fewer community programs and a greater risk of institutionalization.

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Even with Medicaid, it took our family years to find a supportive care agency with an opening. These services are already stretched to the limit. Some Republican members of Congress are advocating for hard caps on Medicaid costs which would further degrade these essential programs.

Medicaid is not just an insurance program. It is the infrastructure that makes independent living possible for people with disabilities. And it is already under strain. Here in Wisconsin, some disability advocacy organizations have gone months without federal funding due to administrative budget cuts. The signs are all around us: The safety net is fraying.

If Congress ultimately cuts federal Medicaid spending, we will witness the unraveling of vital support systems: most critically, Home and Community-Based Services. For thousands of people like Liam, this would mean being forced from their homes, with many facing the possibility of institutionalization.

Keeping people in their homes has been a bipartisan issue for decades. Home and Community-Based Services are both significantly cheaper and more empowering for our community-members with disabilities.

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I urge our elected officials  especially those who have said they want to protect the vulnerable  to stop these irresponsible cuts to Medicaid. Liams life, and the lives of so many others in Wisconsin, depend on it.

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Antisemitic violence struck at the heart of the nations capital on Wednesday evening when an assailant shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.



Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC, embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen said in a statement. We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israels representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.



Officials said there was no ongoing threat to public safety and that a suspect had been arrested.



American Jewish Committee (AJC) can confirm that we hosted an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. this evening, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.



President Donald Trump said in a statement, These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.



D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said that a man and woman were killed in the incident. Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the two victims were a young couple and embassy employees who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem  the man purchased a ring earlier this week.



Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately.



Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.



JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJCs DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, also told JI the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water.



Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.



After Siegel said that, she said the man started screaming, I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza, and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red Keffiyeh. She said that an officer, who had already arrived, detained the man and took him outside. She said that she subsequently saw security footage of Rodriguez shooting the female and identified the shooter as the same individual. Kalin said that some attendees stayed for several hours at the museum into the night to be debriefed by police.



A short video obtained by JI showed an individual in the lobby of the museum chanting Free, free Palestine being detained by police and removed from the building.



A video obtained by Jewish Insider shows the suspected shooter, identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, in the lobby of the Capital Jewish Museum chanting free, free Palestine as he is detained by police and removed from the building.



Full story: https://t.co/ZGZBj9agQxpic.twitter.com/zZUbTvovFm Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) May 22, 2025 Smith said in a press conference that the suspect, Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, opened fire on a group of four outside the museum, and then entered the building and was detained by event security. Smith said that Rodriguez, once in custody, implied that he carried out the shooting and chanted free, free Palestine.



Smith said Rodriguez had been pacing outside the event before the altercation.



Leiter said that he had spoken to President Donald Trump, who vowed that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel.



Well stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear, Leiter said.



Smith said that police would coordinate with local Jewish organizations to ensure sufficient security. She said police had not received any intelligence warning of the attack.



Mayor Muriel Bowser said, we will not tolerate antisemitism, and said the city would continue to assist Jewish organizations with security grants.



FBI officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi and interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro joined the response alongside D.C. police.



We are a resilient people. The people of Israel are a resilient people. The people of the United States of America are a resilient people. Together, we wont be afraid. Together we will stand and overcome moral depravity of people who think theyre going to achieve political gains through murder, Leiter said.



According to an invitation to the event viewed by JI, the event planned to discuss efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Gaza.



Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, described the shooting as a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.



House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told JI, Ive been informed of the tragic shooting that occurred outside of the Capitol Jewish Museum tonight in Washington D.C. We are monitoring the situation as more details become known and lifting up the victims families in our prayers.



Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a post, This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.



Richard Priem, the CEO of the Community Security Service, told eJewishPhilanthropy that there are still so many unknowns about the shooting, namely if it was a sophisticated attack specifically targeting Israeli Embassy staff or an attack more generally against the Jewish event itself. In any case, the organization called for increased situational awareness at Jewish institutions going forward, particularly ahead of Shabbat.



Anytime theres an attack, certain people get activated and think, Nows the time, Priem said. But we dont know yet if there might be a direct correlated threat.



eJewishPhilanthropys Judah Ari Gross contributed reporting




The winner of South Koreas upcoming presidential election will be faced with the task of uniting a country riven by political acrimony since the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who sparked national outrage after declaring martial law in December.

But first, they will have to contend with President Trumps tariffs.

On Wednesday, U.S. and South Korean trade officials kicked off a new round of negotiations aimed at reaching a deal by July 8, when Trumps 90-day reprieve for his liberation day tariffs expires. South Korea faces a 25% reciprocal tariff rate as well as product-specific duties of 25% for steel, aluminum and automobiles  all of which are major exports.

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With the election scheduled for June 3, carrying these talks to the finish line will be the first and most pressing agenda item for South Koreas next president.

Read more: Trumps auto tariffs reignite concerns about GMs future in South Korea

For now, officials from the two countries have agreed to expand the talks beyond tariffs rates to include broader topics such as currency exchange rates and economic security  a reflection of Trumps desire for a sweeping realignment of the U.S.South Korea relationship that he has described as one-stop shopping.

But there are likely to be further complications.

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Trump, who has long griped that South Korea does not pay enough for the upkeep of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country, has expressed a desire to fold defense cost-sharing into the current talks. Writing on his social media site last month, he said that he had discussed payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea with then-acting President Han Duck-soo.

But with Trump having once claimed he would get Seoul to pay $10 billion a year , the topic has been highly sensitive in South Korea, fueling calls for the countrys nuclear self-armament on grounds that the U.S. can no longer be relied upon for military support. There are also concerns in the country that a package deal favored by Trump may not work out to Seouls advantage.

Heres what to know about what South Koreas three leading presidential candidates have said about tariffs and the U.S.-South Korea relationship under Trump.

Lee Jae-myung, a candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, holds a news conference in January. (Chung Sung-Jun / Associated Press)

Lee Jae-myung

The former leader of South Koreas liberal Democratic Party, Lee, 61, is the front-runner in the race, having led by as many as 20 percentage points.

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During Trumps first term, Lee, then the mayor of Seongnam, cautioned against what he called overly submissive attitudes in the face of demands that South Korea should pay more for the presence of the U.S. military.

Giving up whatever is demanded of us will only lead to us losing everything, he said. We need to boldly assert our position.

Read more: A court ruling roils South Koreas presidential election

Lee echoed those sentiments in a presidential debate Sunday, criticizing Han, the former acting president, for reportedly signaling his willingness to renegotiate the latest defense cost-sharing deal between Seoul and Washington.

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Under what is known as the Special Measures Agreement, the U.S. has covered 40% to 50% of the total costs of keeping troops in South Korea, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Under the latest version, which was signed under the outgoing Biden administration and will last from 2026 to 2030, Seouls annual contribution in the first year will be $1.19 billion, an 8.3% increase from 2025.

A U.S. soldier walks at the Panmunjom border village in Paju, South Korea. President Trump has long complained that South Korea does not pay enough for the upkeep of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in the country. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

Lee, who is running on a platform of pragmatic diplomacy, has also stressed the need to balance South Koreas relationship with the U.S. against those with regional neighbors such as Russia or China.

The U.S.-South Korea alliance is important, and we need to expand and develop that in the future  from a security alliance into an economic alliance and a comprehensive alliance, he said Sunday. But that does not mean we can rely exclusively on the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

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While describing Trumps tariffs as the campaign of a madman, Lee has also indicated a willingness to discuss a package deal that spans Trumps Alaska natural gas pipeline project, the defense cost issue and cooperation in shipbuilding.

Lee's camp has said that if elected, he will begin his term by seeking an extension of Trumps 90-day grace period for the tariffs.

Read more: Will South Koreas sensitive country designation impair cooperation with the U.S.?

If we win the election we will need time to closely examine the issues at the center of the trade relationship with the U.S. as well as any progress made on the tariff negotiations and come up with alternatives, an official from Lees camp told the South Korean newspaper Donga Ilbo last week.

South Korea's People Power Party's presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo campaigns Tuesday in Seoul. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

Kim Moon-soo

A distant second in the polls, Kim, 73, served as labor minister under the impeached Yoon and is the conservative People Power Partys nominee.

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Staying true to the South Korean rights self-identification as the staunchly pro-U.S. political camp, Kim has accused Lee of seeking to curry favor with China at the expense of the U.S.-South Korea relationship.

Your comments in the past would be considered appalling from the perspective of the U.S., he told Lee at the debate Sunday.

Participants march to the headquarters of the People Power Party in Seoul during a December 2024 rally to demand South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

Unlike Lee, who has warned against rushing into a trade deal in favor of a slower and more strategic approach, Kim has said that he would immediately set up a U.S.-South Korea summit to ink a deal before July 8, if he is elected president.

I will make sure that tariffs against South Korea are either removed or the lowest out of any country in the world, he said at a recent rally.

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To this end, Kim has cast himself as the candidate with the greatest chance of winning over Trump.

During his partys primary debates in April, when asked by the moderator whether he would wear a MAGA hat if Trump requested it during any tariff negotiations, Kim responded: I would do even more, I would even wear a jumper if he asked.

The most important thing in negotiating with President Trump is trust, he said Sunday. Only when both sides can trust each other can the U.S.-South Korea alliance be strengthened, and I am the one who has the most favorable and trusting relationship with President Trump.

A currency trader works at the foreign exchange dealing room of KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul last month. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

On defense cost-sharing, Kim has struck a noticeably more acquiescent tone than Lee: At a meeting Monday of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, he said that he would be willing to accept a hike in Seouls contribution.

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The global order and trade environment is rapidly changing. In order to overcome these crises, it is critical that we strengthen positive cooperation and the U.S.-South Korea alliance, he said. I will establish common ground between the two countries through comprehensive negotiations and find a win-win solution for both.

Lee Jun-seok, the presidential candidate of the New Reform Party, center, runs to attend a campaign event Saturday in Seoul. (Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press)

Lee Jun-seok

Polling around 10%, the 40-year old candidate from the conservative Reform Party faces long odds for the presidency.

Still, he has emphatically rejected repeated calls to form a unity ticket, presenting himself as the younger, shrewder and less doctrine-driven alternative to what he has criticized as the old-hat conservatism of those such as Kim.

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At the debate Sunday, Lee Jun-seok called for careful calculation in navigating the U.S.-South Korea relationship under Trump, while emphasizing the need to demonstrate that South Korea is not just a trading partner but also an important strategic ally to Washington.

Read more: They didnt know they were citizens. Now they are expected to serve in the South Korean military

Yet when it comes to tariffs, he has also openly called Trumps bluff.

I think we have to bet on the fact that Trump will eventually find that its difficult to maintain this situation, he said on a YouTube political talk show last month, citing the economic pressures that tariffs against China will create for Trumps heartland supporters.

What Trump is advancing isnt sustainable. My view is that, its likely that Trump will admit defeat as soon as within the next six months.



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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
PARSONS, Kan.  A man wanted in connection to an overdose death in Parsons is now in custody in Louisiana.

Authorities say Benjamin Queen, 41, of Oswego, was arrested in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, last week on a fugitive warrant for distribution of a controlled substance causing death.

Benjamin Queen, 41, of Oswego

Back in November, Parsons police responded to the 500 block of North 14th Street, where they found Stormy Watson, 33, dead in her bedroom.

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An autopsy later revealed Watson died from drug intoxication involving fentanyl and meth. Parsons police say Queen was Watsons fentanyl supplier and gave her the drugs that killed her.

In Labette County, hes been charged with distribution of controlled substance causing death, drug distribution, and using a communication device to commit a drug crime. Authorities say Queen could also face additional drug charges in Louisiana.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com.
Officials in Orange County are touting the use of new technology that helps first responders locate stranded people.

What3words is a global addressing system that divides the entire world into three 1010 feet squares and assigns each of them a unique three-word name.

For example, upon entering Hollywood Sign into the search field, the exact square representing it has the code: incomes.amount.formed.

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In a media release, the Orange County Sheriffs Department stated that they deployed the technology on May 10, when they were contacted to assist in locating a missing mountain biker in the hills north of Yorba Linda who did not have much water and took a wrong turn.

LAX-bound flight from Hawaii diverted after potential security concern found in lavatory

The informant advised authorities that the biker, a 71-year-old man, may have been experiencing heat exhaustion due to extreme weather conditions, the sheriffs department added.

Resources, including a motor deputy on a dual-sport motor vehicle and an airship, were dispatched to look for the man; however, he was not located, even though the motor deputy traveled more than six miles along a trail during the search efforts.

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Hearing the original call for service, the departments Real Time Operations Center used a new application, Prepared911, to assist in the search. The app utilizes technology that can send live video calls to a cell phone, and once a call is answered, the tech provides authorities with an accurate GPS location, the sheriffs department stated.

The Orange County Sheriffs Departments Real Time Operations Center. (KTLA)

Even though there was an intermittent signal loss, RTOC was able to push a video call to the bikers cell phone activating What 3 Words and providing an accurate GPS location, OCSD said of the May 10 rescue. TROC shared the information with the Orange County Fire Authoritys rescue crews, who responded and rescued the biker.

The biker, Jay Doyle, said the technology got him out of a dire situation compounded by the fact that he had run out of water.

I honestly knew I was in trouble, but I didnt realize how much trouble I was in, Doyle, a Westminster resident, told KTLA.

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OCSD Research Analyst Sarah Shirvany broke the technology down further to KTLA 5 Orange County Bureau Chief Chip Yost.

A screenshot of the area where a stranded biker was located thanks to the help of what3words technology.

At the time I launched Prepared911, I sent a link to [the bikers] phone, and the link basically states: This is the Orange County Sheriffs Department and were requesting to link into your phone, Shirvany said. Once the caller hits the link, it gives us permission to get a live feed [from] their phone.

Click here for more information on Prepared911 and here for more information on what3words.

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Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Jamie Dimon, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase, in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China welcomes U.S.-funded enterprises to continuously deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China, and to continue contributing to the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said on Thursday.

He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Jamie Dimon, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase.

He said that the economic and trade talks between China and the United States have seen substantive progress, creating conditions for the two countries to continue their economic and trade cooperation.

China is making efforts to build a unified national market and form a new development paradigm, and will continue to expand its high-level opening-up to the outside world, He said.

Speaking positively of the results of the U.S.-China economic and trade talks, Dimon said JPMorgan Chase will continue to deepen its engagement in China's capital market, and better serve multinational companies in conducting business in China and Chinese companies in developing overseas. 
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Federal regulators have given SpaceX the green light for another test flight of Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever constructed, after two explosive mishaps earlier this year rained debris near islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic oceans.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said Thursday that SpaceX can move forward with its next launch attempt while an investigation into the vehicles most recent failure, during which it exploded near the Bahamas, is ongoing, the agency confirmed to CNN.

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Regulators decided to allow the company to move forward with another test mission, referred to as Flight 9, after determining that SpaceX has met all of the rigorous safety, environmental and other licensing requirements.

The update from the FAA comes after the agency issued a launch license on May 15 for the upcoming test flight.

That license approval was a significant milestone and win for SpaceX because it marked the final step in a long-awaited approval process. The company had for years sought to expand the maximum number of launches it can carry out annually from its facilities in South Texas  home to Starship manufacturing and operations facilities.

The FAA approved license modifications for the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission, the FAA said in a May 15 statement. The approval includes final action allowing SpaceX to increase Starship operations from five up to 25 per year at Boca Chica, Texas.

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At the time, the FAA also noted that it would expand the size of the hazard zones  or keep-out areas for aircraft  that will be locked down during the next Starship flight.

The agency said it made the change in response to the two prior mishaps, Flight 7 in January and Flight 8 in March, which signaled a greater probability of failure in the FAAs calculations.

SpaceX for the first time also intends to attempt to reuse a Super Heavy rocket booster on Flight 9. Super Heavy is the largest piece of the Starship launch system and consists of a 232-foot (71-meter) steel cylinder, fuel tanks, and all 33 rocket engines that give the initial burst of thrust at liftoff.

SpaceX has so far safely recovered three Super Heavy boosters after launch with the goal of refurbishing and reusing the rocket parts to drive down costs.

Expanding hazard areas

The FAA said it would expand the size of the Starship hazard area  which is intended to keep aircraft and other vehicles out of the launch systems flight path  from 885 nautical miles (1,018 miles) mapped out in earlier documents to 1,600 nautical miles (1,841 miles) for the Flight 9 test launch.

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The expanded keep-out zone is expected to affect as many as 175 flights, with an expected average delay time of 40 minutes, according to the FAA. The agency estimates such delays cost travelers about $50 per hour and cost passenger airlines as much as $100.80 per minute, or $6,048.00 per hour per delayed flight.

To minimize disruption, the document states, the launch window has been scheduled outside peak transit periods.

SpaceX has not yet publicly announced a target launch time for Flight 9.

Falling debris risks

The FAA also maps out debris response areas where it believes pieces of the vehicle might land if it explodes midflight.

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SpaceX said after both the Flight 7 and Flight 8 mishaps that debris mostly stayed within such areas.

But in January, pieces of the failed Starship vehicle from Flight 7 notably wound up strewn across the islands of Turks and Caicos. There was also one report of property damage: A piece of debris struck a car on the island of South Caicos, the FAA confirmed at the time.

Turks and Caicos resident Morgan May Luker took this photo of SpaceX Starship debris on the north end of the island of Providenciales, an area called Wheeland, on January 19. - Morgan May Luker

Debris from the failed March test flight also landed near the Bahamas.

The FAA is in close contact and collaboration with the United Kingdom, Turks & Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba as the agency continues to monitor SpaceXs compliance with all public safety and other regulatory requirements, the agency said in a Thursday statement.

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SpaceX is required to update its Flight Safety Analysis to account for all outcomes of previously flown flights including mishap events and to calculate and establish hazards areas, the statement reads.

There have been no reports of injuries related to Starships prior mishaps.

In a January statement to CNN, the FAA said that it requires SpaceX to map out hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million.

Starship and the big picture

While the company has faced backlash for its recent test flight failures and over CEO Elon Musks ties to the current presidential administration, the Starship vehicles eventual success is considered crucial to NASAs goals.

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The space agency has already agreed to pay SpaceX up to $4 billion to carry astronauts down to the lunar surface on as many as two moon landing missions slated for later this decade.

SpaceXs partnership with NASA could also expand if the agency decides to do away with its own Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, as the Trump administration has suggested. The SLS has long elicited criticism due to its price tag, which could be between $2 billion and $4 billion per launch, according to a 2023 government accountability report.

NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop the rocket is pictured as it sat on the mobile launcher at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead of the Artemis I mission on August 26, 2022. - Eric Bordelon/NASA

The White Houses preliminary budget document, which was issued May 2, recommended doing away with the SLS rocket after three flights.

Phasing out the SLS rocket would likely leave Starship as the only option for getting astronauts into deep space  whether to the moon or Mars, which is the destination of choice for Musk and Jared Isaacman, a Musk confidant who Trump tapped to lead NASA. (The space agency is still awaiting the Senates final confirmation for Isaacmans nomination.)

Starships future

SpaceX has long advertised Starship as offering game-changing affordability for its size.

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Musk has said the price per test flight has been about $50 million to $100 million. The prototypes flown so far, however, have only traveled on a suborbital trajectory, and they have not been equipped with some features that will be necessary for crewed missions, such as life support systems.

SpaceX must also hash out how to refuel the vehicle as it sits in orbit around Earth, a procedure that will be necessary for journeys that travel deeper into space.

Starships development process has sparked controversy in part because the company is employing an engineering approach it refers to as rapid iterative development.

A SpaceX Starship exploded just off the Texas coast after launching for a flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20, 2023. - Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

The philosophy emphasizes launching relatively cheap prototypes during the development process, aiming to quickly pinpoint and fix design issues. The method stands in contrast to the one NASA embraced for SLS, for example, which focused on extensive ground testing that all but guarantees success on the first launch attempt.

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Because of its unique development approach, SpaceX has been known to embrace fiery mishaps, while emphasizing that even failed test flights help engineers improve Starships design  perhaps quicker and more cheaply than if the company employed alternative engineering approaches.

With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, the company has frequently said in statements issued after Starship flight failures.

Such rapid and frequent testing, however, has led to high-profile, explosive failures throughout the companys history that have long served as a rallying cry for detractors.

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  A special prosecutor has been assigned to the case of Michael Tapscott, the former Geneva police officer accused of selling drugs on duty.

Ontario County DA James Ritts announced that his opponent in this years election, Ontario County Attorney Jason MacBride, exchanged texts with Tapscott. It was alleged that MacBride was seeking Tapscott and the Geneva Police Departments endorsement for DA.

The texts, according to Ritts, happened over several months before Tapscott was arrested.

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Ritts said that, in light of these accusations, the DAs Office will seek a special prosecutor from outside Ontario County to ensure all defendants are brought to justice without impropriety.

Although I am disappointed there is a need for a Special Prosecutor in this case, prosecutorial ethics require me to take this action, Ritts said in a statement.

MacBride released a statement Thursday evening, saying there should be no disappointment in recusing oneself from this situation.

I have known Officer Tapscott for many years, and have worked on a number of high profile cases where he was instrumental in bringing justice to victims. When I announced my candidacy for District Attorney, Officer Tapscott, and countless other law enforcement members messaged me to welcome my decision. I am proud to have earned the endorsement of the Geneva Police Dept. PBA as well as the endorsement of the Ontario County Sheriffs Office PBAs. There should be no disappointment in recusing oneself from this situation. In fact, recusal was the ethical responsibility that should have occurred immediately after Ritts learned of the arrest not weeks or months later. Officer Tapscott is undoubtedly involved in a number of ongoing cases pending with Mr. Ritts Office and he owes it to the public to show no favoritism or retribution to an accused. Despite the lengthy delay, I am glad Mr. Ritts finally decided to do the right thing and have an impartial and competent District Attorney handle Officer Tapscotts matter. Statement from Jason MacBride

The Ontario District Attorneys Office declined to provide any further comment and directed us to the Wayne County District Attorneys Office. District Attorney Christine Callanan has confirmed she has been assigned to be the special prosecutor and declined further comment due to the pending investigation.

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Tapscott, a former D.A.R.E. officer, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly selling drugs to someone at a local business in Geneva while in uniform and operating a police car. Investigators said they found evidence that Tapscott provided a form of Adderall.

Tapscott was charged with fifth-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance and official misconduct. He was arraigned and released on his own recognizance.

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By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A split U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation's first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involving religious rights in American education.

With conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, the 4-4 ruling left intact a lower court's decision that blocked the establishment of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Oklahoma's top court found that the proposed school would violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment limits on government involvement in religion.

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Barrett's decision not to participate in the case left eight justices rather than the full slate of nine to decide the outcome. Barrett did not publicly explain her recusal but she is a former professor at Notre Dame Law School, which represents the school's organizers.

When the Supreme Court is evenly divided, the lower court's decision stands. The justices, as is typical in the rare instances when they deadlock, did not provide a rationale for their action in the unsigned ruling.

The outcome was hailed by advocates for the separation of church and state, who viewed the proposed school as a violation of the First Amendment's "establishment clause," which restricts government officials from establishing or endorsing any particular religion or promoting religion over nonreligion.

Advocates for the establishment of religious charter schools expressed disappointment but suggested their broader legal effort was far from over. The issue of forming such schools could return to the court in the future to be heard by all its members.

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The Supreme Court while under the leadership of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts has recognized broader religious rights in a series of rulings in recent years, often siding with Christian claimants.

Set up as alternatives to traditional public schools, charter schools typically operate under private management and often feature small class sizes, innovative teaching styles or a particular academic focus. Charter schools are considered public schools under Oklahoma law and draw funding from the state government.

St. Isidore, planned as a joint effort by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Diocese of Tulsa, sought to offer virtual learning from kindergarten through high school. Its plan to integrate religion into its curriculum stood to make it the first U.S. religious charter school.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, meaning Barrett's absence may have been key to the outcome in the case.

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During April 30 arguments in the case, divisions between the three liberal justices and the conservative justices who participated were laid bare as they explored the tensions between the First Amendment's two religion clauses. In addition to the "establishment clause," the "free exercise" clause protects the right to practice one's religion freely, without government interference.

On balance, the five conservative justices who heard the case signaled sympathy during the arguments toward the proposed school, though Roberts struck a note of ambivalence, posing tough questions to lawyers on both sides.

Roberts told James Campbell, a lawyer for the state's charter school board, that Supreme Court religious liberty rulings in recent years involved limited state benefits such as playground improvements, tuition and tax credits.

"This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement," Roberts said.

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St. Isidore's legal defeat surprised some court watchers.

"For Christians to lose before the Roberts Court is practically unheard of," said University of Miami School of Law professor Caroline Mala Corbin, who specializes in law and religion. "Although strictly speaking, it was 4-4."

'A RESOUNDING VICTORY'

Oklahoma's Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond sued in October 2023 to block St. Isidore in a legal action filed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Drummond called Thursday's decision "a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding."

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Republican Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt backed the proposed school, as did Republican President Donald Trump's administration. White House spokesman Harrison Fields called Thursday's decision unfortunate and underscored the administration's support for religious liberty.

Opponents have said religious charter schools would force taxpayers to support religious indoctrination. Establishing them also could undermine nondiscrimination principles, they argued, because religious charter schools might seek to bar employees and even students who do not adhere to doctrinal teachings.

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of the advocacy group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said Thursday's outcome "safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state."

The Oklahoma charter school board in 2023 voted 3-2 to approve St. Isidore.

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Oklahoma's top court in a 6-2 ruling last year blocked the school. It classified St. Isidore as a "governmental entity" that would act as "a surrogate of the state." St. Isidore, that court wrote, would "require students to spend time in religious instruction and activities, as well as permit state spending in direct support of the religious curriculum and activities within St. Isidore - all in violation of the establishment clause." The First Amendment generally constrains the government but not private entities.

School organizers argued that St. Isidore is a private organization, not an arm of the government, and that Oklahoma's refusal to allow the school because it is religious is discrimination under the free exercise clause.

"The U.S. Supreme Court has been clear that when the government creates programs and invites groups to participate, it can't single out religious groups for exclusion, and we will continue our work to protect this vital freedom for parents and students," Campbell, who is chief legal counsel at the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom and represented the school board, said on Thursday.

In 2022, the court sided with two Christian families in their challenge to Maine's tuition-assistance program that had excluded private religious schools. In 2020, it endorsed Montana tax credits that helped pay for students to attend private religious schools, siding with three mothers of Christian school students.

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In 2017, the court ruled for Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Missouri, declaring that churches and other religious entities cannot be flatly denied public aid based on their religious status.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Will Dunham)
Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The ex-president's office made the announcement over the weekend, but stated that the form of cancer Biden has is hormone-sensitive, allowing it to be managed and treated.

The diagnosis comes after Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race due to concerns regarding his age, health and cognitive abilities.

On Wednesday, Biden's spokesperson revealed that he had not been screened for prostate cancer since 2014 - several years before his presidency and apparently not once during it.

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The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men over the age of 70 not take the common PSA test for prostate cancer. The organization advises against such testing for the elderly due to false positives and overtreatment for low-risk forms fo the disease.

Other organizations advise patients over a certain age to consult with their doctor before making a decision on treatment.

The Wall Street Journal reported that it's unclear whether the lack of screenings for prostate cancer was a decision by Biden or from his team and representatives.

Joe Bidens last prostate-cancer screening was in 2014, indicating that he wasnt screened for the cancer during his four years as president https://t.co/nqZkuc6xLo  The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 21, 2025

President Trump has continuously received screenings for prostate cancer despite being only four years younger than Biden at 78 years old. Biden would have been the sitting vice president at the time of his last test, working under Barack Obama in his second term as president.

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Trump and other critics of Biden and the Democratic party criticized Biden for an apparent decline in his mental and cognitive abilities during his campaign for president.

The comments continued until Biden made the decision to leave the race, ending a bid for re-election and opening the door for Vice President Kamala Harris to emerge as the Democratic nominee.

The move to Harris was ultimately ineffective, as Trump was able to win on election night and begin his second presidency with sweeping executive orders and massive change after taking office in January.

Trump and other Republicans taunted Biden for his comments on his health during the election cycle, but the president offered kinder words this week.

"Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Bidens recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery," he said on social media.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (WDTN)  The Springfield Police Division has new information after three homicides occurred within the span of a week.

During a press conference Wednesday, police shared information on all three cases, with the latest happening just Tuesday.

18-year-old killed in Springfield shooting

Theres no connection between any of the three of them, said SPD Sgt. James Byron. Its just an unfortunate series of events that have all happened at the same time. They shouldnt happen at all.

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Police say with community support, theyve been able to arrest two people in relation to these shootings.

Be vigilant in surroundings: If you see something, say something, said Byron. Again, weve made arrests in two of these cases. Our intention is to make an arrest in the third.

Springfield recovering from 2 homicides this week; victims IDd

Springfield PD says they have arrested Aryah Mobley in connection to the shooting death of 18-year-old Brian Hinshaw on Tuesday, May 20 on South Lowry Street.

Investigation determined Mobley and Hinshaw knew each other and were attempting to break into a home for a burglary. Hinshaw was shot and killed by the homeowner, and now Mobley is facing several charges.

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Elijah Thomas was arrested in relation to a shooting on Buckeye Street, where Randy Graham Jr. was found shot and killed during a party in the early morning hours of May 14.

Thomas faces multiple charges including murder.

Not even 24 hours later, there was another incident on South Limestone Street and East Euclid Avenue after a driver crashed his car into a house before he died on scene from a gunshot wound.

That person was identified as DaMeko Taborn, but no one has been arrested in that shooting.

Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliot shared a statement with 2 NEWS, saying in part, Despite the recent federal decision to cut CVIPI funding, our commitment to the people has never been stronger.

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Byron agreed with the sentiment, saying the department is committed to looking for justice for these victims and their families.

We do what we can for these victims and for their families, said Byron. And we just hope that the community helps support that.

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ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis County man admitted to stealing more than $153,000 in government benefits by concealing the death of a family member for over a decade.

Alphonso Dixon, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government money in a federal court hearing Wednesday.

Dixons relative died on Dec. 31, 2008, but her death was not reported to the Social Security Administration until at least 2021. Her Social Security benefits continued to be deposited into a bank account for several years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Investigators say Dixon accessed the account and spent the funds, including at least one COVID-related stimulus payment on April 7, 2021, as well as pension benefits from the City of St. Louis Employees Retirement System.

In total, Dixon took $115,392 in Social Security benefits, the $1,400 stimulus payment and $36,000 in pension funds. Dixon reportedly used that money for his own benefit.

Dixon is scheduled to be sentenced on August 21. He could be sentenced up to 10 years in prison and fined up to $250,000.

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STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now)  An FBI agent who fatally shot a man in Stafford County will not face criminal charges, according to the Stafford County Sheriffs Office.

However, since the incident, victims have come forward, saying he previously brandished his firearm in separate encounters.

The shooting happened on Feb. 28 when deputies responded to Stratford Place for a disturbance. Deputies say they received reports of an off-road motorcyclist recklessly driving in the area.

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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Stafford deputies: Off-duty federal officer discharges gun, killing 61-year-old man during incident

An off-duty FBI agent had confronted the motorcyclist, who fled the scene but returned shortly after with family members.

Deputies conducted a traffic stop, and the family members refused to listen to the deputies demands. A physical altercation broke out between the family members, deputies, and the off-duty FBI agent who was still there.

A resident who saw what was happening came to help the deputies.

During the altercation, the off-duty FBI agent discharged his gun, and it hit the resident in the chest.

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The resident, Harold Chamberlain, Jr., 61, was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

SCSO said there wasnt enough evidence to proceed with criminal charges against the off-duty FBI agent, identified as Benjamin Spinale, 43, for fatally shooting Chamberlain.

Three car crash in Stafford County leaves eight hurt; charges pending, police say

However, while the investigation was going on, several victims came forward and said Spinale had allegedly brandished his firearm at them recently while he was off-duty in the neighborhood.

As a result, Spinale was charged with four counts of brandishing a firearm. His hearing will be scheduled for June.

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A Hughson resident who embezzled money from Oakdale nonprofit organizations will be sentenced to a prison term of 10 years and four months, Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero announced Wednesday.

Lana Casey, 63, entered an agreement in which she pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts involving grand theft, tax evasion and money laundering, according to a news release. She also admitted to an aggravated white-collar crime enhancement that involved planning and sophistication.

The Hughson resident fraudulently obtained $214,456 from nonprofit organizations that worked with Oak Valley District Hospital in Oakdale. The news release says Casey was a signer of the nonprofit organizations checking accounts.

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The news release stated that its alleged that after Casey took the nonprofit organizations money, she also took money from trusts associated with Carolyn W. Reynolds.

Casey will be sentenced June 13 and taken to San Joaquin County to face additional charges related to embezzlement and theft.

In September 2024, Casey was indicted by the Stanislaus County Grand Jury on 79 felony counts. A forensic audit done by the California Franchise Tax Board determined that she had $1.45 million in unreported income from 2018 to 2021, with $1.21 million of that being embezzled. This was the largest white-collar indictment pursued by the county DAs Office.

The case was investigated by Stanislaus County District Attorneys Bureau of Investigation, California Franchise Tax Board, Oakdale Police Department and San Joaquin County District Attorneys Bureau of Investigation.

This case is an unfortunate reminder that there are people who obtain a position of trust within an organization for the purpose of stealing the precious donations made by a generous community, Laugero said in a statement. To embezzle these funds for personal gain is the ultimate betrayal of that position of trust, and the severity of the consequences in this case demonstrate the seriousness of this crime.
Sir Keir Starmers deal to give away the Chagos Islands will cost the UK up to 30 billion.

On Thursday, the Prime Minister was accused of lying to the public as he announced the agreement to give the Indian Ocean island chain to Mauritius and rent back a key military base.

He claimed that the deal would cost 101 million annually, amounting to 3.4 billion over 99 years.

However, the true cost will probably exceed 30 billion in cash terms because of rising inflation and additional schemes to fund development projects in Mauritius.

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The UK will also be obliged to give notice if it plans to launch an attack from the Diego Garcia military base under the deal, which critics opposed because of security concerns over the close ties between Mauritius, China and Russia.

Unveiling the agreement on Thursday afternoon after a failed last-ditch attempt by campaigners to block it at the High Court, Sir Keir insisted the deal was value for money because it operates on slightly less than the running cost of an aircraft carrier minus the aircraft.

Speaking at the Northwood military headquarters in north-west London alongside John Healey, the Defence Secretary, he said: Now, given the significance of this facility  both the geography and the capability  you can see, as measured against an aircraft carriers running cost, that this is very good value for money.

However, the Conservatives and Reform UK accused Sir Keir of misleading the public. Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: Labour are lying to British taxpayers with their made-up numbers and dodgy accounting, and the true reality of these costs is frightening for all to see.

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We are now bound by treaty to both pay for the indignity of the surrender, and to line Mauritiuss own coffers  and the true cost of this surrender tax to the British public now seems set to top an eye-watering 30 billion.

Sir Keir provoked further fury when he accused the Conservatives of being in the same column as Russia, China and Iran, whom he said had opposed the deal. Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, described the comment as shameful.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs were also aghast at the cost, which was announced amid a major rebellion over Sir Keirs planned 5 billion welfare cuts and refusal to increase the two-child cap on benefits.

One Labour MP said Downing Street had deliberately published the treaty on the last day before a 10-day parliamentary recess to reduce scrutiny and minimise backlash from MPs.

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Britain has agreed to pay rent on Diego Garcia for the next 99 years and contribute more than 1 billion in development funding.

Sir Keir said on Thursday that the average annual cost of the deal would be 101 million. This figure over 99 years would equate to 10 billion  however, the Prime Minister claimed that the total net cost over a century would be just 3.4 billion.

He said this was because the Government had performed calculations on the payments that factor in the value society attaches to present as opposed to future consumption and an estimated rate of inflation over time.

However, The Telegraphs analysis shows the cash-terms cost is likely to be about 30 billion. This figure includes a century of lease payments, most of which will be increased in line with inflation, plus two schemes to support native people of the Chagos Islands and pay for infrastructure in Mauritius, which is experiencing a budget crisis.

The cost of the Chagos deal

Sir Keir claimed that, if Britain had not agreed to give the islands away, it would have been weeks before Mauritius began a successful legal challenge that would have endangered Diego Garcia, the joint UK-US military base.

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Ownership of the Chagos Islands, known officially as the British Indian Ocean Territory, has long been disputed in the international courts, and the US government has been keen to resolve the issue to protect its assets in the Indian Ocean.

The Defence Secretary said the UK had acted to protect the base, which he described as a launchpad to defeat terrorists that was under legal threat.

Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Healey said: Were we to do nothing, within a matter of weeks our ability to patrol the waters around the base would be compromised.

And if a deal were negotiated with an adversary, they could have exploited the situation by conducting covert operations, setting up outposts on surrounding islands and disrupting crucial communications systems on the base.

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Under the terms of the deal the UK must notify Mauritius if it plans to use Diego Garcia, which has previously been employed to conduct bombing runs into the Middle East, to launch an armed attack on any third state. It must also give Mauritian companies priority when awarding contracts related to the maintenance of the base.

Richard Tice, the Reform deputy leader, tore up the governments deal outside the High Court

Mr Healey was later met with an angry reaction from both Labour and Conservative MPs in the Commons.

Peter Lamb, the Labour MP for Crawley, where many Chagossians live, attacked the Government, saying: Can I ask what I should tell my Chagossian constituents when they ask the moral basis upon which the UK is once again ignoring their right to self-determination while we fight for it in Ukraine for the Ukrainians?

Under the agreement, the UK is also obliged to be mindful of the need to complete the process of decolonisation of Mauritius, even though the islands have never been part of the East African countrys territory.

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Paul Berenger, the deputy prime minister of Mauritius, used a speech welcoming the deal to describe the UK as a colonial power.

We are living a historic moment, he said. We are not only regaining our sovereignty. What we have achieved is that those who had taken our sovereignty are now recognising our sovereignty. The colonial power therefore had to recognise our sovereignty and return it to us in its entirety.

Campaigners Bertrice Pompe, left and Bernadette Dugasse brought legal action against the Chagos deal - Lucy North/PA Wire

The deal was signed on Thursday afternoon, hours later than planned, after a last-minute legal challenge was rushed to the High Court. Bertrice Pompe, who was born on the Chagos Islands, claimed the pact was a breach of her human rights and at 2.25am on Thursday won an injunction pausing the deal.

But her request to pause the signing of the treaty and begin a judicial review was blocked by a judge when she returned to court on Thursday morning.

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It comes days after Sir Keirs reset with Brussels, in which he agreed to subject the UK to European rules and signed a 12-year deal for EU fishermen to access British waters.

This deal serves the UKs interests

By John Healey

For more than 50 years, the UKs military base on Diego Garcia has been a launchpad to defeat terrorists, seek out and deter threats to our nation and protect our economic security.

There is one simple, inescapable fact  families across Britain are made safer by the activities of this base.

Our national security rests on securing a deal that serves the UKs interests. A deal that retains operational sovereignty of this base. To surrender it now  amid rising threats to Britains national security  would be unthinkable.

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That is why the Government has successfully negotiated a deal that means we can operate the base as we have done for the next 99 years and beyond.

Many of the key activities on Diego Garcia are rightly conducted in secrecy, and will always remain so. But it is widely acknowledged, by our allies and adversaries, that its location gives Britain and our allies a crucial strategic military advantage across the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East.

Copy of 0410 Chagos Islands map

The continued operation of this base is also vital to maintaining a strong relationship with America, our closest security ally. Its airfield and deep-water port support a wide range of air and naval operations, including the safe berth of nuclear-powered submarines.

And the base allows for the rapid deployment of UK and US armed forces to the Middle East, east Africa and south Asia.

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It is from Diego Garcia where we monitor the use of nuclear weapons across the globe. The base also supports the Global Positioning System, which everyone from astronauts to motorists, to our UK military, relies on to navigate. It also acts as a staging post for humanitarian aid and disaster relief missions in the region.

Diego Garcia strengthens Britains economic security  the economic security for families across our country.

More than a third of the worlds bulk cargo traffic and two thirds of global oil shipments is transported over the Indian Ocean. The base enables us to protect vital shipping routes, keeping the prices of food and energy down here at home.

Despite holding 11 rounds of talks with the Mauritian government, the previous Conservative government failed to secure the future of the base.

Now yesterdays champions have become todays critics. Anyone who would argue to abandon this deal would abandon the base. With the base in jeopardy, no action was no option when we came into Government.

Sitting on our hands was not an option. Were we to do nothing, within a matter of weeks our ability to patrol the waters around the base would be compromised. And if a deal were negotiated with an adversary, they could have exploited the situation by conducting covert operations, setting up outposts on surrounding islands and disrupting crucial communications systems on the base. This would deeply damage the security of the UK and our allies.

Agreeing this deal now  on our terms  means that the UK retains full control over Diego Garcia. It means control over movement of all persons and goods, control over all communication and electronic systems, and freedom to conduct any armed operations from the island  just as we have been able to do for the past 50 years.

And, crucially, it means nothing can be built within a strengthened, 24-nautical-mile buffer zone without Britains say so. A strict ban will be imposed on foreign security forces operating on the outer islands. Thats why our closest allies support this deal and why President Donald Trump described it as very long term and very strong.

As the world becomes more dangerous, Diego Garcia military base becomes more important. This Government will never compromise on our national security. We will always act to protect the British people. A steadfast commitment to our national security is the foundation of this Governments Plan for Change. And with this deal, we have made Britain more secure at home and stronger abroad.

John Healey is the Defence Secretary

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Sir Keir Starmer has secured his legacy. For as long as British history is taught, his shameful surrender of the Chagos Islands will go down as this nations foreign policy nadir.

The Prime Minister has negotiated a deal which cedes sovereign territory, hands over billions of pounds of taxpayer money, and appears to have been struck more out of an obsession with being seen to uphold even the most spurious interpretations of international law than for the benefit of Britain.

The legal justification for the surrender is paper thin. A non-binding opinion from an international court necessitated no action on the part of the British state, particularly when one of the judges involved in the decision was a former Chinese government official who proceeded to give backing to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That Britains strategic foes should seek to use international institutions to place pressure on this country is understandable; that the Prime Minister should fall for such a trap is unforgivable.



If the legal case is flimsy, the strategic case is weaker still. The national security concerns are understood to have been proposed by Sir Keirs friend Philippe Sands, who represented Mauritius, and were described by an official who worked on the deal as an attempt to find a rationale.

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At a time when the public finances are under severe pressure, with the Chancellor likely to impose further tax rises on the population in the Autumn budget, to sign away not only the islands but a cash payment alongside them is beyond comprehension. It is an act of political and strategic vandalism that will live on in memories long after this wretched Government has passed.

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BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The China Coast Guard (CCG) on Thursday slammed the Philippines' illegal activities around China's Zhubi Jiao and Tiexian Jiao, calling such acts a violation of China's territorial sovereignty, and urging the Philippines to cease such infringements immediately.

Without approval from the Chinese government, two Philippine official ships illegally entered waters off China's Zhubi Jiao and Tiexian Jiao on Wednesday, with some personnel unlawfully landing on Tiexian Jiao, according to Liu Dejun, the CCG spokesperson.

CCG enforcement personnel have taken measures against the ships, landing on the reef to deal with the situation in a professional, standard, reasonable and legal manner, Liu said.

However, one of the Philippine ships, ignoring multiple serious warnings from the Chinese side, dangerously approached a CCG ship conducting its duties, causing a bump between the two vessels. The Philippine side is fully responsible for the incident, Liu said.

Liu stated that China holds indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Qundao and the adjacent waters, adding that the Philippines' actions have severely infringed upon China's territorial sovereignty, violated the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, and undermined peace and stability in the region.

"We urge the Philippine side to immediately cease such violations. The CCG will continue its law enforcement activities to legally safeguard China's sovereignty and rights in waters under the country's jurisdiction," Liu said. 
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE)  Wednesday night, there was a call for a change in the way that youth crime is addressed in the state. The event, held by Justice 4 Youth, is a collaborative that helps kids in the justice system or who are at risk.

Man hired to shoot New Mexico lawmakers homes sentenced to 15 years in prison

After the recent shocking video from the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, showing two young kids handling a loaded gun, local leaders, including Bernalillo County Commissioner Adrian Barboa and state Senator Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque), are calling for more compassion for kids who have committed crimes.

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They say the problem of juvenile crime is not something we can arrest our way out ofAnd called out politicians campaigning on the issue. These are our kids. These are our families. For them to blame them is absolutely intolerable. If you dont have a solution, get out of the way. These politicians who are working to convince the public that lame old approaches and policies that only deal with crimes after theyre committed, who does this serve? said Barboa.

The speakers called for more mental health programs for kids. For more information on the collaborative, click this link.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos.
The Waukesha County District Attorney's Office, struggling through what it considers a critical staffing shortage, has at least caught the ears of eight state legislative leaders.

Wisconsin State Assembly representatives whose districts include Waukesha County submitted a budget amendment motion on May 20 that proposes funding for the addition of 10 more Waukesha County assistant district attorney positions  a measure they say addresses a core Republican concern about public safety.

The effort at least targets a concern county officials have recently addressed about the lack of funding for state-mandated services.

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In April, Waukesha County District Attorney Lesli Boese focused on her own 16-attorney department. In a loosely orchestrated public campaign, including media interviews, she spelled out the difficulties her staff has faced as caseloads have grown and the number of prosecutors to work on them has not.

"It's just become a crisis," Boese said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in April. "I've got prosecutors who I think are kind of getting burned out by the hours. At some point, you can't do more with less."

Eight state legislators from county comment on need for more attorneys

Individually, the eight legislators  State Reps. Scott Allen, Barbara Dittrich, Cindi Duchow, Dan Knodl, Dave Maxey, Adam Neylon, Jim Piwowarczyk and Chuck Wichgers  essentially concurred in statements issued May 20. In a news release, they noted that the budget proposal addresses rising caseloads and criminal justice efficiency.

"Public safety is the primary function of government," Allen, of District 82, said in a statement. "We cannot keep our community safe if our justice system does not have enough staff to do the work."

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Neylon, whose District 15 office issued the news release, noted the caseload backlog threatens a fundamental right to "timely justice" for victims and defendants alike.

"The justice system in Waukesha County is under immense strain, with a growing backlog of unresolved cases," Neylon, of Pewaukee, said. "Without immediate investment in staffing, our courts cannot ensure a fair and swift judicial process. Its time to give Waukesha Countys justice system the tools it needs to serve our community."

District 97 Rep. Duchow, R-Town of Delafield, echoed earlier data called out by Boese, who noted that Waukesha County had the second fewest prosecutors per capita in the state, based on 2024 figures. (Using two different metrics, Boese said her office is short between 10.6 to 24.7 attorneys.)

"The Waukesha Countys DA office has been and continues to be understaffed and overwhelmed," Duchow said. "Were not talking about a few vacant positions, or having a few extra cases to manage."

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Legislators also echoed concerns by county officials about the impact of residents from outside the county on the local criminal caseload. You can read the statements from all eight legislative leaders here.

Budget motions go into pool of proposals as budget process begins

Strictly speaking, the proposal for more district attorney funding isn't tied to existing legislation. Rather, it's part of a collection of ideas, in the form of budget motions, that will take shape in the coming weeks as the state fully forms its budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

In a brief phone interview, Allen noted that the Assembly's Joint Finance Committee "has only taken a couple of actions so far," meaning the process is barely underway to create a 2025-2027 budget. Whether the district attorney staffing issue will gain the support of that committee depends on numerous factors as funding prospects are debated. The district attorney proposal will fall under the state Department of Justice budget, Allen said.

Ideally, the budget process would conclude prior to the start of the new fiscal year, he said. Otherwise, under Wisconsin law, the government would continue to operate under funding established in the current fiscal year.

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As such, additional funding for the Waukesha County District Attorney's Office would have to come from the new fiscal year budget.

Waukesha County has pushed for more financial help

The funding proposal is tied to a broader effort by the county officials to gain additional financial assistance from the state for mandated services. Those services include law enforcement and prosecutorial positions that county officials say are threatened by their own budget.

County officials, whose own budget crisis was publicized in 2024 as they considered a local sales tax to raise new revenue, had indicated in recent months that they hoped to gain legislative support for more state funding. That push became more pronounced after the county abandoned an ordinance proposal that would have put a county sales tax in place on July 1, 2025.

But the district attorney proposal represented a more focused effort, citing what officials called an unworkable situation that threatens public safety.

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In a May 21 statement, Boese thanked area legislators for hearing her message, noting that funding for county attorney positions doesn't only fall short in Waukesha County. "The lack of funding for prosecutors in Wisconsin has hit a crises level," she said.

Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Legislators seek funding for Waukesha County District Attorney jobs
UPDATE 9:45 a.m.: State police said Carl Shirley was found and is safe.

_____________

Initial coverage:

Pennsylvania State Police are asking for help finding a 91-year-old man missing from Indiana County.

Carl Shirley was last seen in the area of 100 White Station Road in Conemaugh Township on Wednesday around 10 a.m. He was wearing a tan zip-up jacket, flannel shirt, khaki pants and black shoes.

Shirley is described as 6 feet tall and 200 pounds with gray hair and brown eyes.

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He drives a gray 2011 Buick LeSabre with Pennsylvania license plate HTJ5454.

Police believe he may be at special risk of harm or injury, or may be confused.

Anyone with information on Shirley is asked to contact police immediately by calling 911 or by calling the state police at 724-357-1960.

Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.

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As schools let out and temperatures rise, electric bicycles and scooters are becoming a more common sight. Over the last several years, local and state laws regarding micro-mobility have changed with safety in mind.

Its important to keep safety and legal rights and responsibilities in mind before heading out on a motor-powered bicycle or scooter.

What is an e-bike?

According to Illinois law, low-speed electric bicycles  commonly known as e-bikes  must have fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts.

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The law, defined in 2018 under Senate Bill 0396, separates e-bikes into three classes based on speed and motor function.

* Class 1 e-bikes provide assistance only when the rider is pedaling. The motor stops working once the bicycle reaches 20 miles per hour.

* Class 2 e-bikes can be powered without pedaling but also cut off at 20 mph. These e-bikes are designed so that the motor stops working when brakes are applied.

* Class 3 e-bikes, the fastest of the three, provide riders assistance up to 28 mph but only while pedaling. Riders must be at least 16 years old, though younger passengers are permitted. These bikes must also be equipped with a speedometer and a label indicating class, wattage, and top assisted speed.

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Riding laws

E-bikes are treated much like traditional bicycles according to state law. They may be used on streets, highways, and bicycle lanes, and may not be ridden on sidewalks.

As outlined in Illinois Rules of the Road 2025, e-bike riders  just like bicyclists  are expected to obey traffic signals, ride with the flow of traffic, and yield where appropriate.

Other types of transportation

In addition to the rise in electric bicycles, the warmer months often bring increased use of scooters and mo-peds, some of which fall under separate legal categories with different requirements.

Electric scooters

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Under Illinois law, low-speed electric scooters are defined as devices that:

* weigh less than 100 pounds

* have two or three wheels, handlebars, a floorboard designed for standing

* are powered by both an electric motor and human propulsion.

These scooters are limited to a top speed of 10 mph and do not require a drivers license, but riders must be at least 18 years old.

Low-speed scooters are prohibited from highways with speed limits over 35 mph and must be equipped with a front headlight visible from 500 feet and a red rear reflector or taillight visible from 100 to 600 feet.

Gas-powered scooters

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Gas-powered scooters and mopeds have stricter classifications.

If a scooter has an engine smaller than 150cc, it is considered a motor-driven cycle, requiring a Class L motorcycle license.

For engines 150cc or greater, the operator must hold a Class M license, the same as for motorcycles.

Mo-peds with engines under 50cc and no manual gear shifting may be operated with a standard drivers license. All must be properly titled and registered with the state.

Safety remains a primary concern with scooters, and riders are urged to follow all traffic laws, use hand signals, and wear helmets, even in areas where helmet use is not legally required.

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Safety Concerns

Justin Varvel, Chief of Police for Westville Police Department, issued a letter on May 14 to parents in his community to warn them about the risks associated with minors riding e-bikes.

The main issues we are seeing is children not stopping at intersections with stop signs or traffic signals, not yielding to pedestrians or vehicles with the right of way, or operating in a reckless manner. We have also received a few reports of children operating an E-bike or electric scooter on Route 1, Varvel said.

By educating our parents and children about basic bicycle safety, rules of the road, and existing laws in regard to bicycles, e-bikes, and electric scooters, I believe we can make this happen and avoid the unthinkable, Varvel said.

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Risk of injury

Inexperience and speed are key contributors to injuries. Electric scooters and higher-class e-bikes can reach speeds of up to 28 mph. When minors ride them, they may not be aware of how much time or effort it takes to come to a full and complete stop.

Falls, collisions with pedestrians, and crashes with motor vehicles are increasingly common, particularly when riders forgo helmets or ride on sidewalks where use is prohibited.

Operators who do not understand traffic rules, like middle-schools kids and teens, are also at greater risk.

Fire risks

One of the primary risks associated with electric mobility devices comes from the lithium-ion batteries that power them.

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When improperly charged, stored, or damaged, these batteries can overheat and ignite.

Its important to be mindful when charging devices indoors, especially overnight or near flammable materials.

Only chargers approved by the manufacturer should be used, and devices should never be left charging unsupervised or in hot environments like garages or sheds.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has advised that all electric micro-mobility devices be certified by nationally recognized testing laboratories (such as UL Solutions or ETL) to ensure battery safety and reliability. Consumers are encouraged to verify these certifications before purchase.

With increased access to these devices during the summer, families are reminded that safety gear, proper usage, and awareness of local ordinances are essential to preventing serious injury or fire.
When ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith usually goes on a long-winded rant, it's about a trending topic in the world of sports. That wasn't the case during a recent appearance on NewsNation.

Smith has appeared on NewsNation's "Cuomo" a plethora of times over the past year. Some fans believe he's soft-launching his career as a politician. After all, he's considering a run for United States president in 2028.

"Here's the reality: People, literally people, have walked up to me, including my own pastor, for crying out loud, who has said to me, 'You don't know what God has planned for you. At least show the respect to the people who believe in you, who respect you, who believe that you can make a difference in this country, to leave the door open for any possibilities some to three years down the line.' And that's what I've decided to do," Smith said.

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Smith's future in politics is unclear at this time. What we do know, however, is that he's not on great terms with CNN host Jake Tapper.

Tapper released a new book titled "Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." It details the mental decline of Joe Biden during his term as president.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - FEBRUARY 08: Sports television personality Stephen A. Smith is seen on Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LVIII at the Mandalay Bay Convention Centeron February 08, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)Rob Carr/Getty Images

Unsurprisingly, Tapper has received a lot of criticism for his book about Biden. While on NewsNation, Smith said that Tapper deserves any backlash heading his way.

"But why did, why did he deserve it? Here is why. You got the video of him talking to Lara Trump and how  how condescending he was to her, etc. And Im certainly not here to throw shade on him; I dont play that game," Smith said, via The Hill. "Im just talking about the facts. They are what they are, and we see it.

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"And so its about how you were acting towards people who had the audacity to be opposite and express some level of dissent to what you were saying, and what you were reporting on, and what your network was reporting on. Its not the fact that you were just wrong. It was the defiance and the condescending approach that you had, a dismissive approach that you had towards others."

Tapper would probably agree with Smith's assessment.

"I think some of the criticism is fair, to be honest," Tapper told CNN. "Of me, certainly. Im not going to speak for anybody else, but knowing then what I know now, I look back at my coverage during the Biden years  and I did cover some of these issues, but not enough. I look back on it with humility."

We'll see if Tapper fires back at the ESPN personality in the coming days.

Related: President Trump Makes His Opinion On Stephen A. Smith Clear

Stephen A. Smith Not Happy With Popular CNN Anchor's Behavior first appeared on The Spun on May 22, 2025
Stephen A. Smith has been a Democrat for most of his life, admitting that if he were to run for office in 2028 - perhaps for President of the United States - it would likely be on the left side of the aisle.

However, in recent days, Smith has admitted that maybe he should cross over party lines. Smith, 57, admitted that he's not as hardcore of a Democrat as some might think. In fact, Smith admitted that he might even be changing political parties when it comes to who he is voting for.

The New York native admitted that while he voted for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in November of 2024, he's second guessing his decision.

Stephen A. Smith on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome.Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Smith is now thinking that he should've voted for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.

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The popular ESPN personality says that he's more of a centrist than anything these days.

Smith has not held back on the Democratic Party, either, labeling them as pathetic and blaming them for Trumps America.

I didnt vote for Trump, Smith admitted on his podcast this week. It doesnt mean I ignored the good he could potentially do. I just had questions as to whether or not I believed he would do it or would he be on a revenge tour, engaging in the kind of behavior that distracts him from doing the best job he could possibly doNow Trump has an opportunity to show me that he aint gonna lean far right, that hes gonna be somewhat of a centrist.

Smith said that he doesn't want to box himself in anymore. He might vote Republican or he might vote Democrat. Smith can admit that there are good things on the other side of the political aisle in 2025.

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I can look at them and say, You know something? You got a good point. Youre right. And Im gonna rethink this. And Im gonna move in a different direction, Smith said of his willingness to accept different views and opinions. When have we heard a president do that?

Stephen A. Smith prior to the Phoenix Suns against the Milwaukee Bucks in game three of the 2021 NBA Finals.Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Smith believes that if he did run for office, it would essentially be as a moderate, rather than a Democrat or a Republican.

Stephen A. Smith Refuses To Apologize For Changing Political Parties first appeared on The Spun on May 22, 2025
(FOX40.COM)  The Stockton Police Department is asking for the communitys help in identifying a store robbery suspect who threatened employees with a gun on March 21.

Video Above: What to do if you witness a crime

SPD said the man entered a business around 5 a.m. in the 1200 block of W March Lane.

The suspect allegedly pulled out a handgun when he approached the register. pointed it at the cashier and demanded property.

(IMAGE: Stockton Police Department)

According to police, the suspect left the store on a black bicycle.

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Stockton Police search for store robbery suspect

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Stockton Crime Stoppers at 209-946-0600.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News.
(Photo by Pete Saloutos/Getty Images)

The past couple months have been a rollercoaster ride at the Port of Seattle.

In response to President Donald Trumps tariff whipsaw, international cargo imports spiked in March and April as shippers tried to get ahead of anticipated tariffs.

Traffic through the ports of Seattle and Tacoma dropped significantly in recent weeks, but forecasts now predict a rebound. Shippers are trying to rush goods after the United States agreed to lower import taxes on China from 145% to 30% for a 90-day truce, according to Seattle port commissioner Ryan Calkins. Businesses fear what could come after those 90 days.

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The presidents on-again, off-again relationship with tariffs is not the optimal way to operate a port facility, Calkins said Wednesday. We really want a steady stream, rather than peaks and valleys.

The instability means inconsistent work for local longshoremen, truckers and warehouse workers. And its left businesses struggling to plan.

Youre planting seeds now in the spring, for harvest in the fall. And if you dont know exactly whether youll be able to sell your soybeans to China or your corn to Southeast Asia, what does that mean for how you plant now? Calkins said. And unfortunately, I think it means that a lot of businesses are choosing to be conservative, and the knock-on impacts of that mean a drag on our economy.

This uncertainty led Washington leaders, including Gov. Bob Ferguson, the mayors of Seattle and Spokane, state legislators, union officials and business groups, to call on judges to block the presidents tariffs.

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Last month, a dozen states filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York in a bid to stop the tariffs. The lawsuit, in which Washington is not a plaintiff, argues Trump has circumvented the congressional power to set trade policy outlined in the U.S. Constitution in setting tariffs.

The White House has said persistent trade deficits necessitated the tariffs.

The states argued their case in court Wednesday. The day before, the Washington officials tried to show the three judges overseeing the case the harms Trumps tariffs have wrought on the state.

Washington is the ninth-largest exporter in the country, according to the states brief filed by pro-bono attorneys from the Seattle law firm Corr Cronin. Last year, Washington exported $57.8 billion in goods, making up over 7% of the states gross domestic product. Retaliatory tariffs other countries have instituted in response to Trumps actions hurt the competitiveness of Washingtons products and threatens trade relationships, officials say.

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The three countries Trump has singled out  China, Canada and Mexico  account for nearly half of Washingtons imports.

At a press conference Wednesday at the Port of Seattle, Ferguson used the example of North Cascades Builders Supply to emphasize how tariffs are impacting Washington businesses. The Okanogan County-based company imports windows from Canada, but uncertainty from tariffs has cost the business $250,000 in lost projects, the governor said.

Gov. Bob Ferguson slams President Donald Trumps tariffs in a press conference alongside union leaders, lawyers, elected officials and others at the Port of Seattle on Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard)

These reckless, erratic and illegal tariffs have thrown the global economy into chaos, Ferguson said. American working people and consumers, including Washingtonians, are paying the price.

Fergusons comments came the day after he signed billions of dollars in new and increased taxes, including on businesses, to address a major budget shortfall.

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Washington companies last year paid $2 billion in tariffs on imports. Trumps tariffs could cost 10 times that, according to the states amicus brief.

Ferguson said history will judge Congress for its inaction to stop what he sees as the presidents abuse of power.

Im a governor, not a member of Congress, thank God, he said.

Vehicle purchases are one area where consumers will see rising prices due to tariffs, even if cars are manufactured domestically, a national policy expert told a state panel Wednesday.

All vehicles are going to get more expensive, regardless of where it is finally assembled, said Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, in a presentation to the Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council. Panel members come from 10 state agencies leading the states efforts to transition to electric vehicles.

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U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, has filed bipartisan legislation looking to flex the legislative branchs muscles on tariffs. The bill would require the president to notify Congress of the imposition or increase in a tariff within 48 hours. The notice must explain the rationale and analyze potential impacts to the countrys businesses and consumers.

Within 60 days, Congress would have to pass a joint resolution approving the new tariff, or it would expire. Congress could also end tariffs at any time via resolution.

The proposal, known as the Trade Review Act of 2025, has very little chance of success in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield contributed to this report.

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ANNISTON  Severe storms swept through Calhoun County on Tuesday night, leaving a trail of damage across Blue Mountain and Anniston, toppling trees, damaging homes and vehicles, and knocking out power to thousands of residents.

In Blue Mountain, Pastor Seth Murphy of the Servants of Jesus Church and Shelter on McCoy Avenue recounted Tuesday nights harrowing experience.

We were just sleeping, and my little girl came in and said, Dad, there's a tornado, Murphy said. I set up on the side of the bed, and I started to see the power flickering. All of a sudden, the front door blew open.

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Murphy described hearing a roar as the storm passed. I just told my little girl, Get down over there, under the bed, between the bed and the wall, and by the time she got there and closed the door, it was pretty much over with at that point.

The church's van and gazebo were destroyed, and the building sustained some damage. Not everything's damaged bad, but it is what it is, Murphy said. Thank God that nothing severely, severely happened.

Elsewhere in Blue Mountain, trees fell on houses and vehicles, and streets were left littered with debris. In Anniston, a large tree was downed on Noble Street, blocking the road, and homes on McClellan Boulevard suffered storm damage.

As of Wednesday morning, approximately 4,200 Alabama Power customers in the Anniston area remained without electricity. The utility reported 88 separate outage incidents still being addressed.

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Thirty dedicated lineworker crews are working throughout the city and greater Calhoun County, with ongoing damage assessments. According to Alabama Power, most outages are expected to be resolved by midnight Wednesday.

Residents are urged to avoid downed power lines, report hazards, and exercise caution during cleanup and recovery.
By early evening, we will see an uptick in showers and thunderstorms to the north. This activity will track to the southeast into portions of Central and Eastern Kansas tonight.

There is a Marginal Risk outlined for the path of a stronger storm or two capable of higher winds and hail.

This disturbance should exit before dawn on Thursday. Lows tonight will be chilliest to the northwest in the lower 40s and milder to the southeast in the 50s.

Thursday will be dry and offer up a break before a more active stretch for the holiday weekend. Highs will be slightly cooler yet comfortable in the 70s. Some to the south will get into the 80s.

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On Friday, a few showers will be possible. We will need to watch any activity coming out of Eastern Colorado and if it can hold itself together once it crosses the state line and tracks East over Kansas.

Friday night into early Saturday morning, showers and storms will blossom further.

Some could be stronger for hail and high winds. These storms could also be efficient rain producers and drop a healthy amount of moisture in a short time.

The atmosphere will continue to stay active with rain and storms on Saturday and Sunday.

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The threat for hail and higher winds will need to be watched in any stronger storm.

The chance for rain will drop on Memorial Day.

Temperatures will be coolest over northern Kansas and milder across the southern half of the state late in the weekend, trending below average for this time of year.

After Memorial Day, it looks like we get into a pattern of frequent and daily storm chances rolling out of Eastern Colorado into Western Kansas. These storms could turn into beneficial complexes of rain and thunder. Good news for our drought with consistent moisture in the mix.

KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman:

Wichita:

Tonight: Partly cloudy. 20% chance of showers and storms. Lo: 55 Wind: NE 5-15

Tomorrow: Partly cloudy, breezy. Hi: 78 Wind: NE 10-20

Tomorrow Night: Partly cloudy. Lo: 52 Wind: NE/E 5-15

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Wichita Weekly

Fri: Hi: 72 Lo: 60 Partly to mostly cloudy, windy. 50% chance of showers and storms.

Sat: Hi: 79 Lo: 62 Mostly cloudy, windy. 30% chance of showers and storms.

Sun: Hi: 73 Lo: 54 Mostly cloudy, windy. 30% chance of showers and storms.

Mon: Hi: 69 Lo: 50 Mostly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of showers and storms.

Tue: Hi: 73 Lo: 52 Partly cloudy, breezy.

Wed: Hi: 74 Lo: 56 Partly cloudy, breezy.

Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang met with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp in Beijing on Thursday.

As two important world economies, China and the Netherlands enjoy an open and pragmatic partnership, said Ding, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Ding said China is willing to continue the momentum of friendly exchanges with the Netherlands, accommodate each other's legitimate concerns, strengthen practical cooperation in key areas, and jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system and the international economic and trade order and maintain the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains.

It is hoped that the Netherlands will continue to play a constructive role and make greater contributions to the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations, he added.

Veldkamp said that the current international situation is full of challenges, and it is particularly important for the Netherlands and China to enhance dialogue and cooperation.

The Netherlands regards China as an important partner and is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the country, and work together to address challenges and safeguard free trade, he added. 
A young stray dog who fended off a pack of coyotes in the front yard of a Brea home has found a forever home after he was brought to an Orange County Animal Care shelter.

The dog, whose 45-minute battle with at least five coyotes was captured in a now-viral video, has been given the name Duke, and officials say he was receiving training at the Tustin animal shelter.

The 1-year-old German shepherd/lab mix is described as a healthy, happy dog that officials said before his adoption could be an ideal companion and, of course, a good guard dog.

Duke, a 1-year-old shepherd mix who made national headlines after he fended off a pack of coyotes in Brea on May 6, 2025. (OC Animal Care)

Duke is a shy but friendly boy who loves hanging out with other dogs. Once he warms up, he enjoys doing zoomies, playing in the pool, and engaging with his handlers. Duke likes going on walks, receiving pets, and sitting for treats, his former adoption listing read.

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Dog badly burned in Eaton Fire looking for home as recovery continues

Video shared on OC Animal Cares website showed Duke doing just that, playing with a smaller dog and splashing in a child pool at the animal shelter.

Its a far cry from the first video in which he appeared that made national headlines.

Security footage shared with KTLA on Wednesday showed the moment Duke was circled by a pack of coyotes outside the home of Steve and Melissa Shatynski in the early hours of May 6.

Duke can be seen standing his ground and giving chase when the coyotes approach, but also retreating as necessary.

Video from a Ring security camera shows the brave dog fending off a pack of coyotes in front of a home in Brea on May 6, 2025. (Steve Shatynski)

Wildlife expert Rebecca Dmytryk, director of Humane Wildlife Control, said the interaction captured in the home security footage was a prime example of canine communication in action.

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In the video, the dog is submissive going as far as [tucking] its tail and even sitting, Dmytryk said in an email to KTLA. This showed respect to the coyotes that were messaging it to stay away and to back down. It complied and the coyotes responded, leaving it alone.

Dmytryk said the wild animals were displaying coyote civility, which involves messaging that includes an arched back, mouth agape or snapping in the air, which seems to be shown in the video. In some cases, the coyote warnings can lead to a bite if a dog, unlike Duke, doesnt respect their request.

This was not predatory in nature, the coyote expert said. A lot of people think coyotes prey on dogs, and they do not. Coyotes are not cannibals. They will, however, attempt to communicate with dogs on serious matters such as protecting a food resource or protecting their family, their pups.

Officials say its currently breeding season in coyote world, and from March to May adult coyotes and their pups are out burrowing and looking for food sources like trash or small animals.

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Conflicts with dogs, especially large ones like Duke, are something most coyotes would rather avoid.

A coyote seen roaming in Southern California. (KTLA)

He knew how to protect himself, and fight them off and kind of back into a corner against that little area there where the dogs were racing and one kept going around, and he was able to fight them off unbelievably, Melissa Shatynski said of the dog whose bravery made him an overnight sensation.

Officials from OC Animal Care say the video of Duke vs. the coyotes is a good reminder for pet owners to take extra precautions to protect their domesticated animals from wild ones.

Animal control officers advise residents not to leave pets unattended, particularly overnight or around dawn when coyotes are most active.

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For more information about reducing human-coyote conflicts, visit the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA.
STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)  A local cafeteria worker could be fired after shes accused of taping the mouths of school students. The Stroudsburg Area School District says its employee is responsible for neglecting children in this and other instances in past years.

Stroudsburg School District board directors provided a notice of termination to Hamilton Elementary School lunch monitor Dorothy Lanza.

The notice indicates Lanza did not meet an acceptable standard of care in protecting students safety.

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On the agenda at a school board meeting in the cafeteria of Stroudsburg High School was the declaration of termination of lunch monitor Dorothy Lanza.

Theres no joy in this. Theres no fun in this, but we did what we needed to do, and when the health and safety of a student are at risk, it rises to a different level, Stroudsburg Area Superintendent Doctor Cosmos Curry stated.

Governor Shapiro spotlights impact of education funding

According to Dr. Curry, the confidential personnel matters could not be discussed publicly.

But according to the termination notice in April, two professional staff members reported that several students were picked up from lunch one day with blue painters tape over their mouths.

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Lanza is accused of doing the taping.

School officials say adults and students reported hearing Lanza say the tape was intended for silencing students.

The school says her behavior was abusive toward students. Lanza responded that it was a joke.

One teacher even reported that Lanza stated the students are too loud, need their mouths taped shut, and Its the only thing that works with some kids.

If she accepts the termination and goes her way, I wish her the best and hope she seeks some kind of help, Stroudsburg resident Darren Frable said.

Frable has two kids at Hamilton Elementary.

Travel expert weighs in as Newark airport caps flights

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28/22 News first spoke with Frable in April when the school released a statement to first-grade parents initially addressing the situation.

According to the notice of termination, there were several items in Lanzas annual evaluation with the district administration beginning in 2021 that noted neglectful performance toward children.

I hope she just walks away from this school district because this is not what Stoudsburg School District needs, Frable added.

Dr. Curry says making sure families know their childrens safety isnt at risk is a priority in his school district.

It is really important to us that we honor and reinforce that trust on a day-to-day basis, Dr. Curry explained.

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Lanza can either agree with the notice of termination or file an appeal with the union within 10 days.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PAhomepage.com.
Its been a bumpy ride for student loan borrowers over the last five years. The first Trump administration paused federal student loan payments in 2020 when the pandemic arrived and shocked the world economy. After the 2020 election, President Joe Biden repeatedly extended the pause, but borrowers received a series of conflicting messages as officials repeatedly warned repayment was about to resume, only for the pause to extend again.

Biden simultaneously pledged that broad debt cancellation was imminent. His administration secured more than $180 billion in student loan forgiveness, but the more expansive plans for debt cancellation relied on shaky executive authority, and legal challenges quickly stymied the efforts.

The pauses effectively ended last Octoberrepayment technically resumed in October 2023, but Biden waived collection enforcement for 12 more monthsand in April, the Trump administration announced that debt collection for borrowers in default would resume on May 5. The music has finally stopped for the loan leeway, but after years of mixed signals, payment plan changes, and legal limbo, many borrowers arent looking for their chairs. Millions of borrowers are already in default and millions more are now in late-stage delinquency, meaning a wave of new defaults could hit as soon as next month.

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The Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement last month announcing the restart of debt collection. More than 42 million people currently have loans that total $1.6 trillion in student debt. More than 5 million borrowers are currently in default prior to the pandemic pause. They already hadnt made a payment in more than 270 days before the pause. Another 4 million are delinquentbehind in payments by three to six monthsand fast approaching the point of default, according to the Department of Education (DOE).

Compared to before the pauses began, the federal student loan portfolio is in dire straits, according to data from loan servicers and credit reporting agencies. In February 2020, 60 percent of borrowers covered by Nelnet, the largest student-loan servicer, were making payments. In February 2025, the number was 38 percent. An analysis released earlier this month from the credit bureau TransUnion found that in February 2025, 20 percent of borrowers were in delinquency, nearly double February 2020 levels.

Newly delinquent borrowers have already begun to feel the consequences even before the restart of debt collection, experiencing hits to their credit scores as their missed payments are reported to credit bureaus. Many individuals were unaware that repayments had been unpaused. In one case reported by the Wall Street Journal, a borrower saw a nearly 300-point drop in his credit score after a technical issue caused a suspension in automatic payments on his $11,000 student loan balance and resulted in delinquency. Many borrowers who become delinquent could face problems buying a home or a car after their credit scores drop.

Before the pandemic, student loan delinquency was largely concentrated among borrowers who had credit scores too low to qualify for most home or auto loans. But data from the New York Federal Reserve released earlier this month revealed that nearly half of the new delinquencies since credit reporting resumed involved borrowers with better credit. 2.4 million of the newly delinquent had scores above 620 and many would have qualified for new auto, mortgage, and credit cards before these delinquencies were reported, the New York Fed noted in an article accompanying the release. These borrowers saw substantial declines in their credit standing in the first quarter and will now face steeper borrowing costs or denial for new credit.

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Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who researches student loan policy, told The Dispatch hes worried about the volume of defaults that could hit in the next two months once delinquent borrowers hit the 270-day mark following the end of the grace period last October. Thats when we could start seeing some really serious consequences, he said. People who are still missing payments by then will fall into default, and the Treasury Department will begin debt collection efforts, which include taking money out of tax refunds and Social Security benefits. The DOEs Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) will also begin seizing up to 15 percent of defaulted borrowers wagesa process known as administrative wage garnishmentlater this summer.

Policy analysts and some former officials fault the extended pause and the Biden administrations mixed messaging around student loan forgiveness for the elevated delinquency and defaults. Borrowers really felt a lot of whiplash over the last five years or so, Cooper said. There was just stunningly inconsistent messaging from the federal government. He criticized the crying-wolf pattern the administration fell into whenever a pause extension came close to expiring. The DOE would signal repayments were about to resume only for another extension to be granted; it issued a total of eight extensions.

Cooper argued this pattern continued with the 12-month grace period after payments resumed in October 2023. If the Biden administration had really had a comprehensive plan to re-engage borrowers, and inform them that payments were going to resume again, try and get them transitioned into repayment plans, that on-ramp could have been very useful, he said. But the Biden administration, to be quite frank, really didnt do very much, because they were still hoping to get their loan forgiveness plan through, and that was their main strategy.

Colleen Campbell, the executive director of the FSA loan portfolio management office until she resigned in March, also criticized the Biden administrations lack of communication with borrowers.  [T]he Biden administration could have done a WHOLE LOT more to make delinquent borrowers aware of their status and options, requiring servicers to notify borrowers whose delinquencies have been reset or sending those emails from FSA, Campbell wrote last month. They also could have done more outreach to defaulted borrowers to inform them that consequences of being in default would come back at some point, and that those consequences are required by law and can be devastating.

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In recent weeks, the Education Department has tried to increase communication about the borrowers renewed repayment obligations. The agency has also reached out to colleges and universities for help in informing their alumni that they need to start payments again or face the consequences of default. But at this late stage, a large number of defaults may be baked in. Theres some things that the administration can do on the margins, Cooper said, but I do worry that a lot of borrowers are simply going to roll up to default, and theres not much we can do to head that off at this point.

Even engaged borrowers face logistical and administrative hurdles in resuming payment as a result of the extended pause. Many have lost contact with the companies that service their loans. If youve ever had a mortgage, you know, sometimes they get sold and sent to another [company], then you have to figure out the new customer interface and log into their website and create an ID, Beth Akers, an economist and former staffer on the Bush administrations Council of Economic Advisers, told The Dispatch. The same thing will have happened to a tremendous number of borrowers because of the shift in which servicers the government is using now relative to five years ago. Some borrowers say the calls from loan servicers attempting to get in contact about repayment have been flagged as spam and their emails were buried in junk folders.

Those who are in contact with their loan servicers are also facing long wait times on the phone when trying to sort out issues or errors with their payment plans. Millions of borrowers restarting payments all at oncesomething the system was not set up forhas swamped companies.

Theres also a backlog of nearly 2 million borrower applications for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which tie repayments to a borrowers income level. The Biden administration halted processing of IDR applications as court challenges to its expanded payment and forgiveness programs played out. Resolving the backlog likely wont be helped by the Trump administrations decision to cut half of all DOE staff. The FSAthe office responsible for federal student loan and aid programswas gutted, and DOE officials who have recently resigned predict the agency will struggle to administer its programs.

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Theres a population of borrowers out there who are trying to get onto IDR plans, but are struggling to, because of administrative issues and the ongoing litigation around those plans, Tristan Stein, associate director for higher education at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told The Dispatch. Millions of borrowers remain in limbo as cases challenging the Biden administrations Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) payment plan continue. When the courts enjoined SAVE last summer, the approximately 8 million borrowers who enrolled in the plan were placed in forbearance.

Sooner or later, SAVE is almost certainly headed for the dumpster. The Trump administration could have initiated rulemaking to undo the program just as the Biden administration created it. But congressional Republicans likely wanted to keep the program alive long enough for them to count the spending savings from ending SAVE as part of their calculations for the reconciliation package, which is set to also include large tax cuts.

More changes could be coming as GOP lawmakers eye a major overhaul of the federal student loan system. Congress huge reconciliation bill includes a House proposal that would pare payment programs down to two plans, a standard option and an income-based repayment option. It would also cut back on the amount of debt borrowers can take on, including entirely eliminating the Graduate PLUS program, which allowed for effectively uncapped borrowing towards graduate and professional degree programs. And significantly, the proposed legislation establishes loan risk sharing, with colleges and universities being responsible for bearing some of the costs for students who default on loans.

It is a serious proposal that seeks to, on the one hand, reduce the cost of IDR and on the other hand, address some of the historic challenges weve seen with IDR plans, Stein said of the House reform package. He added that Congress taking back its legislative role in improving federal loan programs would help address uncertainty introduced by executive action, such as Bidens forgiveness plans. This is where long-standing, more-permanent solutions from the legislature would be helpful for putting all this on a much more stable foundation and making the whole thing much more navigable for borrowers, he said.

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But the reconciliation process is far from over, and any future legislative changes wont affect the wave of defaults that could hit in just over a month. The consequences really are coming back with a vengeance right now, Cooper said. Im not sure that has really sunk in among borrowers, that this time is for real.

Read more at The Dispatch

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  A study by Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester links a common ingredient found in food and made by the body to the growth of myeloid cancers like leukemia.

The research team, headed by Jeevisha Bajaj, PhD, discovered that taurine is made by certain normal cells in the bone marrow, which is where myeloid cancers start and grow. Because leukemia cells cannot produce taurine on their own, they depend on other genes to obtain it and transport it to the cancer cells.

Researchers at the Wilmot Cancer Institute and University of Rochester stopped leukemia growth in mice and human cells by using genetic methods to block taurine from entering cancer cells.

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Researchers indicate that studies reveal scientists are closer to discovering new methods to treat leukemia, a highly aggressive blood cancer.

We are very excited about these studies because they demonstrate that targeting uptake by myeloid leukemia cells may be a possible new avenue for treatment of these aggressive diseases, Bajaj said in a May release published by the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Researchers discovered that when leukemia cells absorb taurine, it enhances the breakdown of glucose for energy, which supports cancer growth. Earlier studies did not indicate that taurine could be involved in cancer.

Where is taurine commonly found in foods?

Researchers noted that taurine is an amino acid not required by the body, naturally present in bone marrow, brain, heart, and muscles. It is also found in foods like meat, fish, eggs, and in energy drinks and protein powders used by cancer patients.

Whats next for the research of taurine?

Before this study, one research article attributed by the University of Rochester suggested that taurine supplements might help some gastric cancer patients by enhancing their immune system.

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A Wilmot oncologist states that researchers still need to understand how leukemia cells are reprogrammed to gain energy and resist treatment.

Since taurine is a common ingredient in energy drinks and is often provided as a supplement to mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy, our work suggests that it may be of interest to carefully consider the benefits of supplemental taurine in leukemia patients, the Wilmot team said.

Bajaj said future studies should investigate levels of taurine in people with leukemia.

Our current data suggest that it would be helpful to develop stable and effective ways to block taurine from entering leukemia cells, she said.

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A new study has found that increasing renewable energy may not necessarily reduce fossil fuel production in the United States. Published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, the study found no correlation between the production of fossil fuels and renewable energy, suggesting that producing more renewable energy does not automatically mean that fossil fuel production will decline.

Ryan Thombs, the author of the study, analyzed data spanning 1997 to 2020 from the 33 American states that produce fossil fuels. Thombs, however, found that more than 96% of the variation in fossil fuel production trends across the states depended on factors such as available deposits in each state.

According to Thombs, additional policies may be required if the United States is to lower its reliance on fossil fuels, with the ongoing myth that ramping up renewable energy investments naturally leads to less fossil fuel production debunked.

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"Policies could include ones that directly limit fossil fuel production through carbon taxes, setting production caps on fossil fuels and keeping fossil fuel reserves in the ground," he said. "Future research could consider other geographical contexts to see if the findings from this study are generalizable elsewhere and should also consider the effectiveness of specific policies that have been implemented."

According to the United Nations, fossil fuels account for almost 90% of carbon dioxide emissions and more than 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewable energy fossil fuels is frequently touted as the best way to mitigate climate change.

Thombs might have a valid point.

Related: Oil Giant Rosneft Buys Russias Biggest Rare Earths Deposit



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Favorable policies in Europe have accelerated the transition to renewable energy, with fossil fuels gradually phasing out fossil fuel power generation. In 2022, Europe suffered its biggest energy crisis, with the weaponization of natural gas supplies by Russia aggravating its energy security, leading to a massive spike in gas prices. Consequently, the European Commission launched the REPowerEU Plan in a bid to produce more clean energy, diversify energy supplies and phase out Russian fossil fuel imports.

The implementation of the REPowerEU Plan has been a success, allowing the continent to drastically phase down Russian fossil fuel imports and diversify supplies. Europe has cut Russian gas from 45% of total imports before the invasion to just 15% currently. Meanwhile, Europe has ramped up LNG imports from the United States to ~100 billion cubic feet per month, up less than 50 billion cubic feet per month before the invasion.

But heres the kicker: Fossil fuels are losing their place in Europes energy mix. Last year, renewables accounted for 48% of the EU power generation mix, with nuclear coming in second at 24%. Meanwhile, Oil and Gas contributed a combined 28%--their lowest share ever. Nuclear remains Europes single leading power source; however, wind power now leads over natural gas while Europes solar generation surpassed coal for the first time ever in 2024.

Not surprisingly, Europe is now enjoying cleaner air, with greenhouse gas emissions dropping 13% Y/Y in 2024.

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This trend actually predates Russia's war in Ukraine, with wind and solar gradually pushing coal to the margins, including forcing natural gas into a structural decline, since the enactment of the European Green Deal in 2019. However, Russias war has only added momentum to Europes green energy transition.

The European Union has also implemented several measures to significantly cut the permit-granting process for clean energy projects. Some of these include designating specific regions as "Renewable Energy Acceleration Areas" thus allowing for simplified and faster permitting procedures for solar and wind power projects and facilitating power purchase agreements. across the bloc.

That said, Europe is highly unlikely to ditch natural gas and fossil fuels any time soon. European natural gas futures have been rallying again, climbing towards the highest level in over six weeks, driven by supply concerns. Previously, Europes gas prices declined on optimism around a potential Ukraine peace deal. Unfortunately, little progress has been made on that front, with a two-hour call between Trump and Putin failing to deliver anything.

Russia has repeatedly refused an immediate cease-fire despite both sides agreeing to resume talks, cutting the likelihood of Russian gas returning to Europe. Further, gas flows from Norway are projected to tighten further due to maintenance work at the Kollsnes gas plant. Meanwhile, whereas LNG cargoes are increasingly being diverted from Asia due to weakening demand, new uncontracted buyers such as Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines are emerging, boosting overall global LNG demand.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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New Yorks Suffolk County has agreed to end a 14-year court battle and shell out $18 million to former inmates who said they were forced to live in filthy jail cells alongside rats and roaches for over a decade.

The class-action lawsuit accused officials of turning a blind eye to horrifying living conditions at the Riverhead and Yaphank lockups  and now taxpayers are footing the bill.

The deal, quietly filed in court, grants payouts to anyone jailed in the county since 2009, with the 20 original plaintiffs pocketing $20,000 each.

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Inmates who were locked up in the newer Yaphank facility after 2013, however, were excluded.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, center, said that an $18 million settlement over conditions at the county jail actually saved taxpayers millions. Dennis A. Clark

This settlement provides much-needed relief to the many incarcerated New Yorkers who have been subject to inhumane and unconstitutional conditions at the Suffolk County jails, Gabriella Larios, staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

It also means that the countys long-standing indifference to this manufactured crisis will finally come to an end, she added.

The settlement also requires Suffolk County to implement a series of sweeping reforms aimed at cleaning up conditions inside its two jail complexes.

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As a part of the agreement, the county will be required to appoint an employee dedicated to addressing environmental health concerns at both facilities for at least the next three years, and must also provide cleaning and sanitation training to staff and inmates working in housing units and kitchen areas.

The settlement relates to living conditions at the Riverhead and Yaphank lockups. Doug Kuntz

Inmates will also be guaranteed access to personal cleaning supplies and protective gear like masks and gloves, as well as clean mattresses and blankets.

In addition, the jails must bring their outdated ventilation systems up to standard and address any plumbing, rust and mold problems.

Suffolk County officials must also implement a full pest control program and pay for an independent expert, approved by both the county and the plaintiffs attorneys, to conduct annual assessments of the jails for the next three years.

Inmates had said they were subjected to inhumane living conditions. New York Post

The lawsuit was first filed back in May 2011 by former Suffolk inmate, Rickey Lynch and 19 others from the Riverhead jail, who claimed their constitutional rights were being violated by the inhumane and dangerous living conditions.

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According to the suit, those conditions included ongoing exposure to human waste, mold, rust, vermin, freezing temperatures, and inadequate access to clean drinking water.

Attorneys from the Manhattan-based firm Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, and the New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation later joined the case  which was eventually expanded into a class-action suit on behalf of 163 plaintiffs who had filed individual complaints about conditions inside the jails.

Michael Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine, said in a statement that the lawsuit stemmed from the prior administration and had the potential to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions.

Jail officials must address the pest problem, bring ventilation systems up to date and more. New York Post

Through the excellent work of our county attorneys staff, we have drastically reduced the liability facing the county, he said.

Martino noted that Suffolk remains committed to improving its jail conditions and will pay roughly $5 million toward the settlement, with the remaining amount covered by various insurance policies.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield (right) and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (left) hosted a town hall in Portland April 10, 2025. The two states attorneys general are among 23 Democratic attorneys general nationwide who have sued the federal government more than a dozen times in the first three months of Trump's second term. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

President Donald Trump is misusing a 1977 law and falsely claiming an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States to justify costly tariffs on nearly all imported goods, lawyers representing Oregon and 11 other states told judges on Wednesday.

Brian Simmonds Marshall, a senior assistant attorney general at the Oregon Department of Justice, argued Trumps tariffs should be stopped to three federal judges at the Court of International Trade in New York City as part of the case State of Oregon et al v. Donald J. Trump et al.

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Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and 11 other Democratic attorneys general filed that case  against Trump, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its leader, Kristi Noem, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and its leader, Peter Flores  on April 23. No decision in the case was made Wednesday. Rayfield at a news conference after the hearing said that judges had fast-tracked the case and are moving quickly.

We anticipate that theyre going to continue going down that road, he said.

Lawyers for Trump and the federal agencies insinuated that they would appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if things did not go their way at the international trade court.

Oregon and the other attorneys general  from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont  are challenging four of Trumps executive orders since April that have added fluctuating tariffs on most imports from China, Mexico and Canada and a 10% tariff on most all other goods imported from other countries to the U.S.

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Trump has said the tariffs will address the threat of fentanyl getting into the country and the U.S.s trade deficit. The attorneys general have said Congress, not the president, has the sole authority to set tariff policy.

In court on Wednesday, Marshall argued both that Trump is acting outside his authority and that a trade imbalance is not the unusual and extraordinary threat Congress envisioned when it passed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in 1977, which gives the president broad latitude on financial regulation and foreign policy in the event of a national emergency.

There is no relationship between the problem the administration is trying to confront and the tariffs imposed, he told the judges. By Trumps logic, he added, so long as the president wants to impose a tariff, he can do it for any reason, so long as he says its an unusual and extraordinary threat.

Declaring an emergency

The judges seemed to agree with Marshall, questioning Brett Shumate, a lawyer from the U.S. Department of Justice, about why both Mexico and Canada have tariffs if nearly all the fentanyl smuggled into the U.S. comes from the Mexico-U.S. border.

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The judges referred to U.S. Customs and Protection data that found about 97% of fentanyl was intercepted at the countrys southwest border  mostly carried by American citizens coming through legal ports of entry  and less than 1% was seized at the northern border.

The presidents executive orders have imposed tariffs equally against both countries. Does that seeming disparity affect our analysis? one judge asked.

Shumate gave a meandering response.

What the president explained is that Mexican cartels have come to the northern border into Canada, and that is a threat, the expanding of the fentanyl operation in Canada, and the amount of fentanyl that comes across the northern border every year killing nine-and-a-half million Americans, Shumate said. The president didnt want that problem to spiral out of control and come to the same level of a crisis that we have had at the southern (border).

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Arguments that a trade deficit could equate to a national security emergency are also confounding to the attorneys general, Rayfield told reporters.

Australia has had a trade deficit for more than 50 years. The United Kingdom has run a trade deficit for 40 years. These are fairly normal in economies that are focused on services, like ours is, he said.

Shumate argued to the judges that courts do not have the power to decide whether the president is right in declaring an emergency or whether the presidents response to the emergency is correct.

Its not the role of the court to second-guess whether the president has chosen the right means or adequately explained himself, he said.

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Under the emergency economic powers act, Shumate said, Trump has broad leeway to address emergencies, with options ranging from investigating to cutting off goods from coming into the country. Rayfield said the argument that the courts have no role to play in checking the power of a presidents use of the emergency economic powers act should enrage people.

If you take them at their word, he could declare an emergency for anything, right? And that would be unreviewable, Rayfield said.

Judge Jane Restani summed up the argument from Trumps lawyers as: Nothing is so crazy or unrelated that it could be stopped by the courts. Anything is allowed. Any declaration of emergency based on some crazy thing, any remedy, as crazy as it could be, its all okay because the courts cant do anything.

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SULLIVAN, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)  A packed crowd in a quiet and anxious Sullivan County courtroom listened as a judge read guilty verdicts against William Ray Grimes shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

Co-defendant testifies against murder suspect

Grimes was charged with murdering 85-year-old retired farmer Lowell Badger in December 2012 and burglarizing his rural Sullivan County home.

William Grimes leaving Sullivan Co. Courthouse after guilty verdicts

The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for roughly 2 hours before finding Grimes guilty of murder, burglary, and conspiracy to commit burglary. The jury also found Grimes guilty of an enhanced charge of using a gun to commit the murder. That means hell get additional time on whats already expected to be a lengthy prison sentence.

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After the verdict was read, Badgers daughter, Linda Sturgeon, began to cry. Its been a long 12 1/2 years for the close-knit Badger family. His children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and others filled a good part of the courtroom daily during the eight-day trial.

Closing arguments in murder trial against Grimes

The conviction has also been a long time coming for investigators. It took more than a decade for Indiana State Police, with the help of the Sullivan County Sheriffs Department, to put the pieces of this case together. Thats because there was no DNA evidence or fingerprints linking anyone to the crime, and the murder weapon was never found.

Murder victim Lowell Badger

In the end, it was witness testimony that played a big role at the trial. Witnesses, including Grimes former jailmates, family, and friends, testified that at various times over the years, Grimes told them he had committed the murder. Testimony revealed Grimes went to Badgers house to rob it and did not expect Badger to be home.

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Mom attempts to give murder suspect an alibi

Grimes was interviewed by the Indiana State Police 16 times.

Grimes will be sentenced on June 13 at 1 p.m.

Two other men are charged in this case. William Grimes brother, Arthur Grimes, awaits trial, and so does Richard Taft, who testified against William Grimes for a reduced sentence.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com.
SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage)  Schools are preparing to let out for summer break, but for some that means the end of guaranteed meals. This means more families leaning on food banks for support. Sarah Eckel is with the Concho Valley Regional Food Bank and said the summertime is when they see a decrease in donations leaving their inventory scarce for these families.

In the fall we have a surge of community support which we again are so appreciative for, but we definitely see that drop off during the summer months, Eckel said.

She says that many families in the Concho Valley experience increasing everyday costs which leave them struggling to feed everyone.

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We all know that during the summer months those energy bills skyrocket, so it is just a lot of pressure on our families during the summer months. We at the food bank feel that and see that and we get a lot of families coming in asking for support, Eckel said.

One way the food bank offers support to families while school is out is by continuing a program that currently feeds 1,400 kids across the Concho Valley during the school year into the summer months. Eckel said if the food bank received the amount of support in the summer as they receive in the fall and winter, they will be able to expand their resources to reach more families in need.

When our neighbors here in the Concho Valley are helping us support these summer feeding programs, then we can grow our ability to serve more families, Eckel said.

The Concho Valley Regional Food Bank anticipates an increase in demand this summer compared to previous summers due to unstable food prices. Eckel encourages the community to remember that hunger is persistent year-round and to visit their website to learn more about how you can help.

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Click here to visit The Concho Valley Regional Foodbank Website.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The populations of rare and endangered wild species steadily increased in China as the country's biodiversity conservation efforts continued to produce notable results, official data showed Thursday.

More than 200 species of rare and endangered wild animals across the country have shown population recovery, while over 100 endangered plant species have been brought under emergency protection, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

The total number of overwintering waterbirds recorded in China reached nearly 5.06 million last year, a record high since nationwide monitoring began, the administration said. 
The days of revenge travel are over. After years of being cooped up at home, travelers rushed into the world with a vengeance, sparking a major travel boom from 2022 to 2024. But years of rising prices and a slew of new tariff threats have cast uncertainty over the economy.

A summer vacation survey by Bankrate in March found that only 53% of Americans said they planned to take a vacation this summer  about the same as last year but a drop from 2023, when 63% planned to take a vacation. Of those forgoing travel this year, 65% cited cost as the main factor; and of those opting to travel, almost a third said they plan to take on debt to do so.

But not everyone feels equally squeezed. A Deloitte survey conducted in early April found that even after President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcement a few days earlier, estimated travel budgets for the summer on average remained 13% above similar estimates for last summer. Through its surveys over the last few years, Deloitte has identified a trend: High-income Americans have made up an increasing share of those planning summer travel. Nearly half of respondents who said they planned to travel this summer made over $100,000, up from 35% in 2023.

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To cater to the growing share of high spenders, the luxury segment of the travel industry is outpacing every other segment. As the middle class cuts back on travel spending, many high-earners are still going all out for their summer vacation.

Over the past year, more and more middle-income Americans have decided to stay home or pivot their plans to save money. Las Vegas, which largely caters to middle-class travelers, has seen a major drop-off. Mark Wayman, the owner of an executive recruiter company with knowledge of the Las Vegas market, says bookings in Sin City this year through September are "the worst I've ever seen."

Some of the anxiety is new, with uncertainty over how tariffs might affect prices and the broader economy. But even before then was the compounding effect of years of price increases. Multiple travelers told me that they have noticed that hotels and flights now include fewer services bundled into their price tags. Southwest Airlines, for instance, recently made headlines in March by changing its long-standing policy of allowing flyers two free checked bags. As a result, people are feeling like their dollar can't go as far.

Reycie Gallardo, a 39-year-old IT project manager in Los Angeles, says that these kinds of changes really shrink the scope of what you can do when you travel. A few years ago, he and his wife might have taken a long weekend as an opportunity to fly to a national park and stay for a few days. Now they'll drive somewhere close, like Santa Barbara or San Diego, and not even stay the night.

We're actually increasing divergence between the bottom and the top of the short-term rental market.

Makarand Mody, an associate professor of hospitality marketing at the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, has noticed others making the same decision. Nearly a quarter of survey respondents in April told Deloitte that high prices had prompted them to drive rather than fly in the past year. Deloitte also found that lower-income travelers have driven up demand for more affordable accommodations in the past few years, including RVs, bed & breakfasts, and camping.

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Talon Windwalker, a 56-year-old grief counselor in Janesville, Wisconsin, has been making a similar compromise. When planning his trip to South Carolina, the travel enthusiast's 50th state to visit, earlier this year, driving was a clear way to save on costs. But "you make a lot of sacrifices" in the tradeoff, Windwalker says. Driving requires much more planning, and the long days at the wheel can be difficult. "I was gone for a week, but four days of those were just driving to get there and back," he says.

Home-swap platforms like HomeExchange and Kindred have also been seeing huge swells in popularity. Advertised as more affordable, community-oriented alternatives to hotels or short-term rentals, these platforms help members arrange stays at each other's homes. HomeExchange says it facilitated 43% more house swaps in 2024 than in 2023 and finalized 47% more exchanges in January 2025 than the same time last year. Kindred, which launched in 2021, a factor that could account for some of its growth, reported more than 500% more nights swapped in 2024 compared with 2023.

And yet, companies like airlines, hotels, and home rentals are still seeing "some pretty healthy bottom lines," Mody says.

For one, because prices have been steadily rising, companies can still grow their revenue even if demand falters. But also, wealthy people are getting wealthier while maintaining a strong appetite for travel, he says. A recent analysis from Moody's estimated that the top 10% of households had come to account for half of all consumer spending. As high-income Americans travel and spend more, it can offset pullbacks by lower- and middle-income segments of the population that are seeing prices stretch too high for comfort.

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This is evident in the booming luxury travel market. The American Hotel & Lodging Association's latest report said the luxury category of accommodations experienced the fastest rate of growth in terms of new construction in 2024. Bram Gallagher, the director of economics and forecasting at AirDNA, an analytics firm that tracks the short-term-rental market, says that demand for stays priced over $1,000 a night has more than doubled since 2019, and bookings in the $1,000 to $1,499 range were up nearly 15% year-over-year in 2024.

Travel for the highest income groups isn't slowing down.

Not only is demand for luxury accommodations going up, but prices are too. "We're actually increasing divergence between the bottom and the top of the short-term rental market," Gallagher says. AirDNA data shows that more expensive listings are increasing in price faster than less expensive listings. From February 2024 to February 2025, the average price of "luxury" listings (the most expensive 20% of all listings) increased by more than 5%, whereas the price of "budget" listings (the least expensive 20%) fell by about half a percentage point. Analyses have found that recent growth in the short-term rental market has largely been driven by luxury listings, adds Gallagher.

Roy Madhok, a senior vice president of revenue and distribution at Highgate, a real estate investment and hospitality management company, says that while travel in the budget and middle range is tapering, there's no sign yet that the same applies to luxury travel. As far as he can tell, travel for the highest income groups isn't slowing down.

The growing divergence between budget and luxury travel is leaving a massive middle ground of people who just can't afford how steep prices are getting. While that could mean many of us are left scraping together vacations from a combination of airline miles and staying with friends, there are signs this stark divide might not last forever. Some companies are already starting to tap into this market and win back cash-strapped middle-income travelers.

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Madhok sees the adjustment as a kind of "re-normalization" for the travel industry. The recent travel boom wasn't necessarily normal or sustainable, he says. Now, demand seems to be finding a more stable balance. After years of steep price increases in Vegas restaurants, hotels, and shows, for instance, Wayman says that "prices are already becoming more affordable." And if demand continues to stay this low, prices will continue to drop in tandem.

Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics supports Madhok's theory of renormalization. According to the Bureau's consumer price index, the cost of airfare this year so far is about on par with airfare last year, which is in line with 2019 prices. Hotels are slightly cheaper this year than last year, though still higher than pre-2020. "After the vibrant rebound in post-pandemic demand, the US hotel industry has been navigating a period of stagnation," reads the recent AHLA report, "signaling a shift toward normalization in travel patterns."

Despite middle- and lower-income travelers feeling priced out of certain options, it's clear that they still have an appetite for travel, Mody says. "There's a really tremendous opportunity" for hotels and other brands to beef up their midscale offerings, he adds. Hotels have started realizing that "this is where people want to be from a price perspective," Mody says, and so creating options for people to travel within that more affordable range will be really important. Over the past year, companies like Hyatt, Hilton, and Marriott have announced plans for new hotel brands aimed at those middle-tier travelers.

Will that be enough to narrow the travel wealth disparity? Probably not, Mody says. After all, the travel economy is a reflection of the greater economy, and wealth inequality is still a growing concern. Despite ongoing economic uncertainties, the most luxurious travel experiences are still growing ever further out of reach for the majority of travelers.

Hannah Seo is a Korean-Canadian journalist based in Brooklyn, New York, who writes about health, climate, and social science.

Read the original article on Business Insider
'Supper's Ready:' Inside the Bloody Feud Between L.A.'s Rival Armenian Mob Factions originally appeared on L.A. Mag.

A violent blood feud between underworld Armenian crime family factions has led to murder, kidnapping and other racketeering acts in a struggle for control of the San Fernando Valley, federal prosecutors said as they announced the arrests of more than a dozen reputed mobsters Courtesy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

A violent feud between Armenian underworld factions for control over criminal enterprises in the San Fernando Valley has led to murder, kidnapping, and targeted heists, federal prosecutors said this week as they announced more than a dozen arrests that include two reputed bosses, or "avtoritet," in Los Angeles who have been engaged in a bloody battle for power.



The targets rounded up Tuesday in a series of heavily-armed raids by ICE agents in Florida and Southern California are charged in five federal complaints with a series of crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession and thefts estimated to be in millions of dollars related to online retailer shipments. Law enforcement officials seized approximately $100,000 in cash, three armored vehicles, and 14 firearms during the action-movie style operation.

Heavily-armed raids in California and Florida by ICE and other law enforcement agencies led to the arrest of two rival reputed Armenian underworld bosses who have allegedly been engaged in a ongoing blood feud for control of criminal enterprises in the San Fernando ValleyCourtesy U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Two reputed underworld bosses, or avtoritet, which loosely translates to "thief in law," prosecutors say, were arrested in the coordinated sweeps. One, Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch, California is now charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering. His arch rival, Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, California, was also captured and charged with kidnapping after a sweeping investigation codenamed "Supper's Ready" by federal officials



Since 2022, the two local leaders within the organization, also known as avtoritet, which in Russian means authority, allegedly have engaged in a power struggle for control in their territory, which, federal prosecutor say, have turned the Valley into a war zone resulting in "multiple murder attempts and a kidnapping."



Artuni, an avtoritet, better known in underworld circles by his moniker "Rubo Fish," is charged with ordering the attempted murder of Amiryan during the summer of 2023. In retaliation, Amiryan, also an avtoritet whose nickname is "Aro," allegedly conspired with members of his own criminal organization to kidnap and torture one of Artunis associates in June 2023.



This transnational criminal organization operated with the structure and brutality of an international cartel, inflicting significant harm on public safety and causing substantial damage to legitimate commerce and supply chains, said ICE Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles acting Deputy Special Agent in Charge Dwayne Angebrandt.

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According to affidavits filed with the criminal complaints, "Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization, has made Los Angeles County a center of U.S. operations," agents wrote.



Court records indicate that Artuni's Enterprise, as prosecutors reference it, has gotten the upper hand by allegedly ripping off Amazon for $83 million in an elaborate scheme during which his crew "enrolled with Amazon as carriers, contracted for trucking routes, and then, while transporting the goods, diverged from the route and stole all or part of the shipment," prosecutors say.



The Artuni Enterprise also ran a credit card bust-out scheme in which they charged various credit cards to a sham business, then drained the business account before the credit card companies could collect the to-be disputed funds. Strangely, prosecutors note, Artuni is a "self-reported Iranian citizenship but suspectedly, was actually Armenian who commanded over a small army and an actual armory in the Valley."



On the other side, Amirya, who was "the target in multiple shooting incidents," prosecutors say, allegedly kidnapped and tortured a soldier for Artuni and was "present at the scene," which is an indicator of "his importance in the community, and his willingness to commit violent crimes to benefit and protect his standing and the standing of the Amiryan Organized Crime Group."

Los Angeles is home to the largest diaspora of Armenian immigrants in the country, making the city a natural refuge for a small criminal faction. The FBI says gaining power and leadership in Armenian Organized Crime takes a combination of respect, seniority, and a birth certificate "either in Armenia or a former Soviet country." Unlike a "gogh," which is a crime boss, or made man sanctioned by Russian Mafia figures, an avtoritet is viewed as a man of respect in the Armenian community while also operating independently from Russian overlords, according to court records.



"In Los Angeles County, avtoritet commonly operated independently and led their own organized crime groups thereby wielding an incredible amount of power over Armenian criminal organizations, including Armenian Organized Crime, the Armenian criminal street gang Armenian Power, and non-member Armenians who committed crimes," federal prosecutors say.



In the 234-page indictment unsealed this week - filled with details of terrifying home invasions during which victims were shot dead as they slept, inhuman acts of torture, and drive-by assassination attempts - details also emerged of the labyrinthine white collar crimes the Armenian mob is infamous for. Sometimes they even used members of the Mexican Mafia to carry out specific hits, according to the indictment and flew drones over the homes of targets in the minutes before shots rang out.



In one brazen attack Burbank police followed a blood trail from a gang member covered in 13 tattoos to a bedroom where the wife of a purported Armenian mobster was wrapped in a blanket, bleeding. When an officer asked who shot her she responded, "I can't talk."

A kidnapping victim who was brutally beaten was also uncooperative with police who tracked him to a North Hollywood home using his cell phone location. He insisted that his attackers were "innocent" and that "God" was in charge of his fate. He lived, but his kidnapping is now among the dozens of violent incidents listed in the indictment.



After years of gathering intelligence in Operation Supper's Ready, federal authorities began the takedown on Tuesday with multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles and Burbank Police departments. Our commitment to public safety is strengthened through collaboration, said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. By working hand-in-hand with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, we are united in our mission to identify, apprehend, and bring violent criminals to justice. Together, we are sending a clear message: violence will not be tolerated in our communities.



His police chief counterpart in Burbank, Rafael Quintero, said his cops put "hundreds of hour," in the case. And this week's arrests, United States Attorney Bill Essayli, who oversees California's Central District said, should put organized crime members on notice. Let todays enforcement action be a warning to criminals: Our communities are not your playground to engage in violence and thuggery.

This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on May 21, 2025, where it first appeared.
May 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court decided Thursday that the state of Oklahoma will not be permitted to create the first-ever religious public charter school with a deadlocked decision only a sentence in length.

The judges ended up in a 4-4 tie as Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.

The decision, without a majority, sets no precedent and therefore leaves the question of legality in regard to whether religious schools can take part in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs unanswered.

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It also means that the previous decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that denied a proposal by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa to launch an online Catholic school that would have been funded by taxpayers still stands.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in June of 2024 that "Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school. As such, a charterschool must be nonsectarian."

The St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, created by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa in 2023, had said that as state funding for charter schools is generally made available to qualified organizations, the state could not discriminate based on religion.

"A ruling that Oklahoma's charter-school law unconstitutionally discriminates against religion would upend the federal [Charter Schools Program] and charter-school laws nationwide, sowing chaos and confusion for millions of charter-school students," the state Supreme Court said in its ruling.

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Justice Barrett did not publicly explain her recusal, but it could be related to her ties to Notre Dame Law School, whose religious liberty clinic represents St Isidore.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond responded to the Supreme Court's decision in an X post Thursday.

"The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma. I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty," Drummond said.

Gentner's reference to "radical Islamic schools" is a callback to his statement made in June of 2024 when the state Supreme Court made its ruling, when he said that "by preventing the State from sponsoring any religion at all," it would assure Oklahomans " that our tax dollars will not fund the teachings of Sharia Law or even Satanism."
A plan to create a first-of-its-kind religious charter school in Oklahoma wont move forward after the Supreme Court came to a 4-4 tie in one of the most closely watched cases of the current term.

The justices released an unsigned opinion on Thursday noting that the court was equally divided.

Only eight justices took part in oral arguments and the ruling since Justice Amy Coney Barrett had recused herself.

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In the case of a tie in front of the Supreme Court, the lower court ruling remains in place.

Last June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the proposed charter school, called St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, and the charter school board that approved it, determining that allowing a school that openly promotes religion to be publicly funded would violate both the Constitution and state law.

First Amendment tension

The religious charter school lawsuit tested the limits of  and relationship between  the First Amendments religion clauses, which prohibit government interference with religious exercise and establishment of a state religion.

Opponents of St. Isidore said using public funding to create and run the school would violate the establishment clause, while its supporters said bans on religious charter schools violate free exercise rights.

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Until recently, the schools opponents generally would have been understood to have an upper hand in the battle, since, throughout the 20th century, the Supreme Court raised concerns about public money going to religious institutions and religious instruction being offered in public schools.

But in a series of cases from the past decade, the Supreme Court shifted its focus away from avoiding church-state entanglement and onto avoiding religious discrimination. The decisions said faith groups cant be excluded from government funding programs simply for being religious.

St. Isidores supporters picked up that refrain in the religious charter school case, arguing that Oklahoma cant ban religious schools from taking part in its charter school program.

The Catholic school had the support of the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board and top state officials, but not Oklahomas Republican attorney general, Gentner Drummond, who filed a lawsuit to block St. Isidore from being formed.

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Drummond said St. Isidore would essentially be a public school in the eyes of the law and, therefore, could not be allowed to promote Catholic teachings throughout the school day, as it planned to do.

Drummond won in front of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, but then the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Religious charter school arguments

During oral arguments on April 30, the Supreme Court appeared closely divided over whether to clear the way for the formation of a religious charter school.

They wrestled with whether or not St. Isidore should be seen as a public school and if the recent rulings on state funding for religious organizations should apply to the charter school context, as the Deseret News previously reported.

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Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to be the most likely candidate to join the courts three liberals during oral arguments, while Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito made it pretty clear that they supported the school.

Since Thursdays opinion is unsigned, the justices ultimate votes in the case are unknown.

Moving forward

Thursdays ruling is not expected to resolve broader religious freedom battles over funding and education.

Since the courts decision is specific to the Oklahoma lawsuit, stakeholders in other states could come to the Supreme Court in the future with their own plans to establish religious charter schools.

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Those hypothetical future cases would likely be easier for the schools supporters to win, since Barrett, who is part of the courts conservative majority, would be unlikely to recuse herself.

Although she did not explain her recusal from this terms case, its broadly assumed that she felt too close to the situation in Oklahoma since it was tied to the University of Notre Dame, where she used to work.

Reactions to the Supreme Court ruling

Faith groups, religious freedom organizations and legal experts released statements Thursday on the Supreme Courts ruling in the religious charter school case.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt

This 4-4 tie is a non-decision. Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie, Stitt said in a news release. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination.

Cecilia Wang, national legal director of the ACLU

Requiring states to allow religious public schools would dismantle religious freedom and public education as we know it, Wang said in a statement. Today, a core American constitutional value remains in place: Public schools must remain secular and welcome all students, regardless of faith.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction

Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of 19th century religious bigotry is wrong, Walters said in a statement. As state superintendent, I will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or otherwise.

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance

Religious charter schools are a clear violation of our nations commitment to religious freedom for all, which is guaranteed by the separation of church and state, he said in a statement. Todays victory at the U.S. Supreme Court is a victory for every student, every parent, and every American taxpayers religious freedom in this country. All Americans are free to practice their faith when we uphold the constitution and avoid government entanglement with religion.

Fish Stark, executive director of the American Humanist Association

Todays decision is cause for celebration: the constitutional principle of church-state separation and its guarantee of a secular public education remains the law of the land, Stark said in a statement. Due to the nature of this decision, we expect our opponents to continue pursuing this radical legal theory. While the opposition recalibrates, we will use this time wisely to organize and mobilize our community to ensure this important victory stands.

The Supreme Court has not yet announced when it will next release rulings.
WASHINGTON  Oklahoma will not be able to launch the nation's first religious public charter school after the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 Thursday in a major case on the separation of church and state.

The decision by the evenly divided court means a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that said the proposal to launch St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School violates both the federal Constitution and state law remains in place. St. Isidore would have operated online statewide with a remit to promote the Catholic faith.

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Paul Coakley, the archbishop of Oklahoma City, and David Konderla, the bishop of Tulsa, said in a joint statement that they are "exploring other options" to provide an online education statewide.

"Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School," they added.

As there was no majority, the court did not issue a detailed written decision, and the case sets no nationwide precedent on the contentious legal question of whether religious schools must be able to participate in taxpayer-funded state charter school programs.

A key factor in the outcome was that conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who would have been the deciding vote, did not participate in the case. She did not explain why, but it is most likely because of her ties with Notre Dame Law School. The law school's Religious Liberty Clinic represents the school.

The Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in Oklahoma City, the largest Catholic church in Oklahoma. (Nick Oxford for NBC News)

The one-page decision did not say how each justice voted. During oral arguments last month, most of the court's conservatives indicated support for the school while liberals expressed concern. At least one conservative is likely to have sided with the liberals, most likely Chief Justice John Roberts.

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The court, with Barrett on board, is likely to be asked to weigh in on the issue in future cases, though none are likely to reach the justices imminently.

The Oklahoma case was a victory for state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who challenged a state board's approval of the school and found himself on the opposite side of fellow Republicans in the state who backed the idea.

Drummond, who is running for governor, said in a statement that the decision was a resounding victory for religious liberty that would ensure that taxpayer money would not go toward radical Islamic schools," as well as the Catholic school at issue in the case.

Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which challenged the school's approval in a separate case, also welcomed Thursday's decision.

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"We will continue our efforts to protect inclusive public education. We call on this nation to recommit to church-state separation before this safeguard of democracy and freedom is further attacked," she said in a statement.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt described the decision on X as a "non-decision" that did not resolve the issue.

"This is far from a settled issue," wrote Stitt, a Republican. "We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination.

The case highlights tensions within the Constitution's First Amendment; one provision, the Establishment Clause, prohibits state endorsement of religion or preference for one religion over another, while another, the Free Exercise Clause, bars religious discrimination.

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The Oklahoma Supreme Court had cited the state's interest in steering clear of Establishment Clause violations as a reason not to allow the proposal, submitted by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, to move forward.

The state approved the proposal for St. Isidore in June 2023 despite concerns about its religious nature, prompting Drummond to sue.

The U.S. Supreme Court, when Barrett is participating, has a 6-3 conservative majority that often backs religious rights. In recent years, it has repeatedly strengthened the Free Exercise Clause in cases brought by conservative religious liberty activists, sometimes at the expense of the Establishment Clause. Some conservatives have long complained that the common understanding that the Establishment Clause requires strict separation of church and state is incorrect.

Lawyers representing the school and the Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board sought to portray the dispute as similar to a series of recent rulings in which the court said that under the Free Exercise Clause, states cannot bar religious groups from government programs that are open to everyone else.

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During the oral argument, Roberts pushed back, indicating that he saw the schools case as different from the previous decisions.

Those cases, he said, involved fairly discrete state involvement compared with Oklahomas charter school program.

This does strike me as a much more comprehensive involvement, he added.

The push for religious public charter schools dovetails with the school choice movement, which supports parents using taxpayer funds to send their children to private school. Public school advocates see both efforts as broad assaults on traditional public schools.

A key question left unresolved in the Oklahoma case is whether charter schools are indistinguishable from public schools, which factors in to whether they have religious rights and can bring free exercise claims in the first place.

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Currently, all 47 states that allow charter schools consider them to be public schools and bar religious schools from participating in their programs. As was raised during oral arguments, there is also a federal program with funds for charter schools that prevents money from going to sectarian schools.

With no other states close to approving religious charter schools, said Stephanie Barclay, an expert on religious liberty at Georgetown Law School, there are no cases pending that raise the precise issue as the Oklahoma dispute.

But she highlighted a case from Maine that raises questions about the extent to which religious schools can be barred from receiving government funding through tuition assistance, which the Supreme Court may have a chance to hear relatively soon if it wishes to further strengthen the Free Exercise Clause.

"That's a more likely next step the court could take," she said.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday against allowing Oklahomas first religious public charter school, in a case that has significant implications for religion in public life.

The court ruled 4-4in Oklahoma State Charter School Board v. Drummond, after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. The unsigned ruling offered no opinion on the merits, saying only that Justice Barrett took no part in the decision.

The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court, the ruling read in full.

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The case, which education advocates worried would pave the way for further erosion of the separation between church and state, was brought by a right-wing legal fund, which petitioned the high court to take it up after the Oklahoma supreme court stopped a Catholic church from receiving taxpayer funds to establish a religiously affiliated school. Todays decision will keep the lower courts ruling barring the school funding in place.

However, it is not a permanent ruling  because the decision is a tie it simply affirms the lower court decision, the ruling is precedent only in the state of Oklahoma, meaning a case on this same topic could return to the Supreme Court at another time.

In 2023, the Oklahoma State Charter School Board approved an application for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, a public charter Catholic school for kindergarten through 12th grade. But before the school could begin enrolling students, Oklahomas Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the state Supreme Court to intervene. The court ruled 8-1 that the school could not be established as it would violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

Under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school, the court said in its opinion. As such, a charter school must be nonsectarian.

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Charter schools are publicly available but privately run schools that are available for parents to choose from in nearly every state. Unlike public schools, charters have more discretion over staff and curriculum, and sometimes place more focus on certain educational goals such as language or performing arts. They also, unlike public schools, have leeway on rejecting students for space reasons. But they are still subject to federal and state oversight and are prohibited from charging tuition.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing legal organization that has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case. They argued that the state was violating the Catholic churchs religious freedom by not allowing it to participate in the states school charter program.

It has long been understood that under the separation of church and state included under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, state-funded public schools cannot have a religious affiliation. In Engel v. Vitale, a 1962 landmark ruling, the Supreme Court said that prayer in public school was unconstitutional, paving the way for similar rulings about religion in the classroom.

Though the high court ruled against the plaintiffs, it has, in recent years, been friendly to claims of religious freedom from plaintiffs. During oral arguments in April, some of the conservative justices appeared to support the idea of publicly funded religious schools. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito both signaled that a religious public school would be legal because no one would be required to send their children there; its just another option.

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No ones compelled to go, Kavanaugh said. You have a choice to go to the traditional public school, or you can go to a charter school of your choice that you can obtain admittance to, or you can go to a private school.

The ruling is a setback for the conservatives who are trying to force Christianity into public schools. Oklahoma has been at the forefront of the movement: A state lawmaker in the GOP-controlled legislature has introduced a bill to require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments  following in the footsteps of Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri, which also have similar measures.

Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma state superintendent of schools, attempted to mandate that every single public school in the state use the Bible in the classroom. Hes currently being sued over the proposed requirement.

Related...
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR)  The Supreme Court affirms the Oklahoma Supreme Courts decision to block a religious public charter school.

The vote was a four-to-four tie with one justice recusing themself. Only eight of the nine justices took part in the case.

Oklahoma AG calling on OK Supreme Court to put an end to what would be the nations first state-funded religious school

According to the Associated Press, the outcome keeps in place an Oklahoma court decision that invalidated a vote by a state charter school board to approve the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would have been the nations first religious charter school. But it leaves the issue unresolved nationally.

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Officials say the issue could return to the high court in the future, with the prospect that all nine justices could participate.

Its dangerous: Mixed reaction follows OK Supreme Court religious charter school ruling

This 4-4 tie is a non-decision. Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie. This is far from a settled issue. We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination. said Governor Kevin Stitt regarding the decision.

The Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee also responded Thursday.

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Today, were celebrating a huge victory for students, taxpayers, religious people, and democracy. The Supreme Courts decision upholds the Oklahoma Supreme Courts ruling that taxpayer funding of a religious public school is unconstitutional. The parents of OKPLAC were proud to be the original plaintiff in this case and we are thrilled with this long-awaited outcome. said OKPLAC Chairwoman Misty Bradley.

The Supreme Courts decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding. This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children. I have always maintained that we must faithfully uphold the Constitution, even when it requires us to make difficult decisions. I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values, and defending religious libertyregardless of how difficult the battle may be. Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma Attorney General

Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of

19th century religious bigotry is wrong, said Superintendent Walters. As state superintendent, I

will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight

until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or

otherwise.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
With Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused, an eight-justice Supreme Court split 4-4 on an appeal seeking to approve the country's first public religious charter school. The tie keeps an Oklahoma state court ruling against the school in place, resulting in a rare non-win for such a religious claim at the high court, but perhaps only a temporary one given the Trump appointee's absence.

While technically considered an opinion, Thursday's high court action didn't contain any explanation, only noting the stalemate and Barrett's recusal. It said: "The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court. JUSTICE BARRETT took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases." The judgment refers to the state court ruling against the school.

The opinion didn't list the justices' votes, but the tie suggests that one of the Republican appointees sided with the court's three Democratic appointees. The issue could come back to the justices in a future case in which Barrett isn't recused.

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Oklahomas Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, signaled that possibility after Thursday's split. He said that the issue is far from settled and predicted therell be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie in favor of a religious school.

Notably, it was Oklahomas Republican attorney general who argued that drastic consequences would follow if the justices approved the nations first public religious charter school. In a brief to the high court, Gentner Drummond said doing so would eliminate critical funding and create chaos and confusion for thousands of charter schools and millions of schoolchildren nationwide.

But St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, and the state charter board that wanted to approve it, pointed to First Amendment protections that the justices have cited to side with religious claims in recent years. And though charter schools are publicly funded and Oklahoma law prevents sectarian control of public schools, they argued that prohibition shouldnt apply to St. Isidore because its a private entity and not a public school.

Yet, Oklahomas Supreme Court ruled that, under state law, charter schools are public schools that must be nonsectarian. The state court noted that St. Isidore would evangelize the Catholic faith as part of its state-sponsored curriculum, which, the court said, would violate Oklahoma law and the state and federal constitutions.

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The Trump administration backed the school.

Barrett didn't explain why she recused. But the fact that she did so meant that the school needed at least five votes to win at the eight-member court. Because the state court had ruled against the school, Thursday's tie effectively upheld the state court ruling.

At the April 30 hearing, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another Trump appointee, raised the concern of treating religion as second-class. He told a lawyer for the state that when you have a program thats open to all comers except religion, no, we cant do that, we can do everything else, that seems like rank discrimination against religion, and thats the concern that I think you need to deal with here.

Raising a different concern, Obama appointee Sonia Sotomayor told a lawyer backing the school that [w]hat youre saying is the [First Amendments] Free Exercise Clause trumps the essence of the Establishment Clause because the essence of the Establishment Clause was were not going to pay religious leaders to teach their religion. That was, is, and has always been the essence.

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In a statement Thursday, the Oklahoma attorney general said the Supreme Court result means the state wont have to fund radical Islamic schools, and he said hell continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty.

With Thursday's tie at the Supreme Court, the status quo remains for now, and the spotlight will be on Barrett if another case comes to the justices trying to alter it.

Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in the Trump administrations legal cases.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com






A Minnesota woman has filed a lawsuit that alleges her surgeon removed her kidney, and not her spleen, in 2022, leaving her with significant health issues

According to the lawsuit documents, Wendy Rappaport now has stage 5 kidney disease caused by the removal of her kidney, and requires dialysis

"This should have never happened," Rappaport's attorney told PEOPLE in a statment







A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that her surgeon removed a kidney instead of her spleen, leaving her on regular dialysis for advanced kidney disease.

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Wendy Rappaport was scheduled for spleen removal surgery at Minneapolis' Abbott Northwestern Hospital, which is operated by the Allina Health System, on March 28, 2022, according to the lawsuit documents obtained by PEOPLE which noted she had a spleen abscess or rupture.

However, the lawsuit alleges that instead of removing her spleen, Dr. Devon Callahan removed Rappaport's healthy left kidney.

A post-operative CT scan showed that Rappaport's "left kidney was removed instead of her spleen, and that remaining spleen tissue was still present along with infection, the lawsuit alleges, adding that in his post operative note, Defendant Callahan documents that he removed an intact spleen during the surgery.

Getty Stock image of a surgeon operating on a patient Stock image of a surgeon operating on a patient

Allina Health tells PEOPLE in an emailed statement: Allina Health is aware of the lawsuit and has had the case reviewed by medical experts. While we will not discuss details of a patients care due to privacy laws, the court filings dont accurately reflect the full picture of the patients condition, or the life-saving medical care provided. We intend to vigorously defend, in court, the care that was provided.

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Rappaport's attorney Aaron Lawrence tells PEOPLE "the wrong organ was removed," sharing in an emailed statement, "Where were the checks and balances here? We hope that Allina takes responsibility for what was completely unnecessary and totally avoidable. This should have never happened.

PEOPLE has reached out to Dr. Callahan, who now works at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, for comment.

Rappaport, who is in her 80s, remained hospitalized for two months following the surgery, the lawsuit alleges, saying she was diagnosed with splenic abscess, left nephrectomy (left kidney removal), respiratory failure, left pleural effusion, and diastolic heart failure.

Getty Stock image of an operating room Stock image of an operating room

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

She is now living with stage 5 kidney disease as a direct result of the removal of her left kidney, the lawsuit alleges, and needs regular dialysis.

Callahan caused permanent, irreversible personal injury  an acute kidney injury and permanently impairing her renal function, the lawsuit alleges.



Read the original article on People
Geng Shuang, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the UN, speaks during the third Laoshan International Tea Festival at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Third Laoshan International Tea Festival was held Wednesday at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York to mark 2025 International Tea Day.

"A tiny tea leaf can drive economic growth and uplift people's livelihoods," said Geng Shuang, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the UN, adding that tea can offer a smart solution for the harmonious co-existence between humanity and nature and is "a perfect interpretation of the ecological civilization concept."

"A tiny tea leaf can also serve as a messenger of peace between civilizations," said Geng.

"The promotion and development of tea cultivation, tea economy, and tea culture represent a best practice in implementing the Global Development Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. It is also a proven path toward mutual learning and shared prosperity among countries," he said.

Osama Mahmoud Abdel Khalek Mahmoud, Egypt's UN ambassador, and Bjorg Sandkjaer, UN assistant secretary-general for policy coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, shared similar perspectives that the tea industry promotes economic growth, creates jobs and income, helps implement multiple sustainable development goals, and serves as an important channel for connecting people of all countries and promoting cultural exchanges.

Nearly 200 participants, including diplomats and officials from the UN Secretariat, attended the festival, which featured tea art performances, traditional dances and music, and an exhibition themed "China's Poverty Alleviation Model: A Case Study of Malipo County." 

Egypt's UN ambassador Osama Mahmoud Abdel Khalek Mahmoud speaks during the third Laoshan International Tea Festival at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)

Guests attend the third Laoshan International Tea Festival at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)

Guests attend the third Laoshan International Tea Festival at the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Winston Zhou/Xinhua)
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP)  A retired teacher from Springfield Public Schools was surprised with a reunion on The Jennifer Hudson Show after over 50 years of teaching, where she was reunited with a former student.

Throughout many years of education, there is always that one teacher you often remember as making a difference. Sheree Nolley, a now-retired teacher from Springfield Public Schools, was in for a surprise as she was being featured during a segment on The Jennifer Hudson Show, a national talk show in its third season.

In a news release sent to 22News from Springfield Public Schools Spokesperson Azell Cavaan, Brightwood Principal Danielle Delgado worked closely with the shows producers to bring the surprise to life.

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The Jennifer Hudson Show has a tradition called the spirit tunnel, where it hypes up guests before they take the stage. At Brightwood Elementary School in Springfield, Principal Delgado incorporated the spirit tunnel to cheer on students and bring positive energy.

Jennifer Hudson hosts Remarkable Women for Hollywood experience

Last Thursday, on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Principal Delgado shared a video with the audience thanking Hudson for bringing joy and inspiring the students and staff at the school. In the audience, you can see the camera focus on former teacher Sheree Nolley, as the school in Springfield, Massachusetts, is mentioned.

Principal Delgado said that she was inspired by a member of the audience, Sheree Nolley. Thats when Sheree was emotionally surprised to be featured on the show. Sheree retired in 2020 after 50 years of teaching. After the coronavirus pandemic, Sheree came back to teach due to the shortage.

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Sherees first class she taught was in 1976, she was shown a picture featuring Olga Cordero, her former Kindergarten student. Sheree talked about teaching Olga and receiving a letter from her, over 40 years later. Thats when she was told Olga was there on the show for a surprise reunion.

In the video segment, Olga shares how Sheree changed her life, turning a language barrier into a superpower. It has had over 16,000 views so far. To watch the 8-minute segment, visit The Jennifer Hudson Show on YouTube.

Reuniting with a former student after 50 years was powerful. That one moment affirmed a lifetime of purpose and reminded me that what we pour into our students today shapes their tomorrow, said Sheree.

The segment is more than a reunion, I think it captured for the audience just how far love, learning, and community can carry us as students and beyond, said Principal Delgado.

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En Vogue was also on the show, watch the four step through the spirit tunnel before they sing their hit song Hold On.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  A suspect is in custody after a deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., that left two Israeli embassy employees dead.

Police are calling this a targeted and tragic attack thats shaken Washington and sparked global reaction.

Two Israeli embassy employees, a couple identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, by embassy officials.

The young couple was about to be engaged, said Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter.

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Police say they have a suspect in custody.

He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun, and opened fire, striking both of our decedents, said DC Police Chief Pamela Smith.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and the FBI both say the threat to the community is over and that the suspect is believed to have acted alone.

We will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city, said Bowser.

Authorities are investigating possible hate crime or terrorism motivations.

This defendant, the charged, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers paused the budget debate to honor the victims.

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And ask respectfully, my colleagues, to have a moment of silence for these two people that were murdered by someone for political purposes, said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.).

Israels ambassador to the U.S. says he spoke with President Trump last night.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live.
A suspect is in custody after two staff members of Israel's embassy in Washington, D.C., were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum last night, police said. NBC News Correspondents Ken Dilanian and Tom Winter have the latest reporting. Former Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under the Obama administration Joel Rubin join Ana Cabrera to share their reactions.
A suspect is in custody after two staff members of Israels embassy in Washington, D.C., were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night, police said.

The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, shouted Free, free Palestine before being arrested, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said. He has been charged with first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.

Israels foreign ministry identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26. Yechiel Leiter, Israels ambassador to the United States, said during a news conference following the shooting that they were a couple and were about to get engaged.

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Words cannot begin to describe the heartbreak and sorrow, Tal Naim, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy, said in a post on X on Thursday, adding, Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. (@IsraelinUSA / X)

The police chief said Rodriguez, 31, implied he had committed the shooting and told authorities in custody where he had discarded the weapon. There is no ongoing threat to public safety, officials said.

The victims had been leaving the museum, which is located roughly half a mile from the U.S. Capitol, when they were gunned down around 9 p.m. ET, Leiter said. The American Jewish Committee had been hosting an event at the museum for young Jewish professionals. IsraAID, an Israeli-based aid group, said the event focused in part on bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional collaboration.

Steve Jensen, assistant director in charge of the FBIs Washington field office, said his team was working to identify whether the shooting may have been hate-motivated or possibly an act of terrorism, NBC News reported.

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Targeted anti-Semitic violence is an attack on our core values and will be met with the full weight of federal law enforcement, FBI Director Kash Patel wrote Thursday in a statement posted to X that described the shooting as an act of terror.

The individuals responsible will be held accountable, and the Bureau will continue pursuing every lead until justice is served, he wrote.

The fatal shooting occurred amid the ongoing Israeli war in Gaza, launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in Israel by Hamas militants that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200 people. Israels ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more 53,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

President Donald Trump is saddened and outraged over the deadly attack, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing on Thursday. Everyone here at the White House is praying for the victims friends and families during this unimaginable time, she added.

What we know about the victims

Lischinsky had worked for the Israeli Embassy as a research assistant on Middle East and North African affairs since 2022, according to his LinkedIn page. He wrote on that page that he emigrated from Germany to Israel at the age of 16.

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Ron Prosor, Israels ambassador to Germany, described Lischinsky as a Christian and a true lover of Israel who dedicated his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause. The New York Times reported he was the son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother.

Israeli Minister of Industry Nir Barkat leaves flowers at the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday in Washington. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)

Milgrim, who was Jewish, indicated on her LinkedIn page that she had worked for the embassys Department of Public Diplomacy since 2023. She was previously involved with Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, where she worked on a study exploring the role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process, she wrote on LinkedIn.

My passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work, Milgrim, a Kansas native, wrote on her page.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were scheduled to travel to Jerusalem this weekend, where she was set to meet his family there for the first time, her father, Robert Milgrim, told the Times. Her parents learned after her death that Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring ahead of the trip.

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The ironic part is that we were worried for our daughters safety in Israel, Robert Milgrim told the Times. But she was murdered three days before going.

What we know about the suspect

According to a complaint filed by the FBI, which was unsealed on Thursday, Rodriguez told police at the scene, I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza. He later told police he had purchased a ticket to the event at the museum three hours prior to its start.

The complaint states that Rodriguez expressed admiration for the actions of an individual who self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., on February 25, 2024, as a form of protest intended to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

During his initial court appearance Thursday evening, Rodriguez waived his right to a detention hearing, meaning he will be held without bond as he awaits his trial. During his appearance, the judge informed him that he faces the possibility of the death penalty. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 18.

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Multiple armed officers wearing clothing with FBI lettering were seen heading inside an address in Chicago thats tied to the suspect on Thursday morning, NBC News reported.

Sarah Marinuzzi, who was at the museum with friends at the time of the shooting, told MSNBCs Ana Cabrera on Thursday that she interacted with the suspect after the attack. She described hearing gunshots near the museums entrance before a clearly distressed man ran inside the building.

We kind of assumed this man ... was a witness to the crime, so everyones trying to help him and calm him down, she said, adding that the man encouraged everyone to call the police.

He was inside the museum for about 10 to 15 minutes with us, Marinuzzi continued. Once a police officer entered the building, she said the man began shouting I did it! and Free Palestine!

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She said he then pulled out a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf worn by Arab communities that has been a symbol of Palestinian nationalism for decades. He was then handcuffed and removed from the building, Marinuzzi said.

Rodriguez was an employee at the American Osteopathic Information Association, the group and the American Osteopathic Association said in a joint statement. As a physician organization dedicated to protecting the health and sanctity of human life, we believe in the rights of all persons to live safely without fear of violence, the organization said.

Read the full complaint below:

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
WASHINGTON (AP)  Suspect in killing of 2 Israeli Embassy staffers told police: 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,' records say.
German authorities have arrested a man suspected of being a member of Yemen's Houthi militia, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

The suspect, a Yemeni national who was taken into custody in the southern town of Dachau, just outside Munich, is believed to have joined the group in Yemen in 2022, undergoing military training and ideological instructions.

According to Germany's top law enforcement agency, he joined fighting in Yemen's Marib province in early 2023.

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Prosecutors accuse the suspect of having been a member of a terrorist organization abroad as an adolescent. Under German criminal law, anyone aged between 18 and 21 at the time of the offence is classified as an adolescent.

The accused, only named as Hussein H. in line with Germany's strict privacy laws, was remanded in custody after being brought before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany's highest court of civil and criminal jurisdiction.

Federal prosecutors, who are also based in Karlsruhe, said the declared aim of the Houthis is "to strengthen and expand their position of power in Yemen and to destroy Israel."

The Iran-backed rebel group, which controls large parts of war-torn Yemen, has been firing missiles at Israel since the beginning of the latest Gaza war in what it says is a show of solidarity with Palestinian extremist movement Hamas, another Iranian proxy group.

The Houthis have also been attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Credit: Instagram/Katie Kalisher

The terror suspect accused of killing two Israeli embassy staff flaunted his support for Hamas online and attended Black Lives Matter protests.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, was arrested after allegedly shooting Israeli embassy staff members Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left a reception for diplomats near Washingtons Jewish museum on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Mr Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first degree murder. He was also charged with murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm, and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

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According to an FBI affidavit, Mr Rodriguez was captured on security cameras shortly after 9pm on Wednesday walking past the two victims, before turning round and shooting at them while their backs were turned.

When they collapsed to the ground, he is said to have leant over them and continued to fire.

Mr Rodriguez seemingly reloaded his gun as Ms Milgrim attempted to crawl away and sat up, before shooting at her several times and jogging away, the affidavit continues.

Mr Rodriguez then entered the museum and was detained by security staff as witnesses rushed to help the victims, police said.

Footage of his arrest showed him chanting free, free Palestine as he was taken away by an officer.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were killed as they left a reception for diplomats in Washington DC

Social media posts, which appear to have been made by the alleged gunman, have revealed the extent of his obsession with the terrorist group Hamas and his thirst for violence.

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On New Years Day, an account believed to belong to Mr Rodriguez posted: Happy New Year, Death To Israel.

In another alarming message published around a week after the assassination attempt of Donald Trump in July last year, Mr Rodriguez shared an image that read: I agree with the public opinion that says to kill him!

Another post suggested he supported the bombing of the New York Times newsroom.

Progressive tweeps, as much as I love delving into the days discourse, can we PLEASE save the idealistic and high-minded debate over the morality of sending a truck bomb into the offices of The New York Times until *AFTER* we send a truck bomb into the office, the post read.

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The accounts profile picture features an avatar wearing a medical face mask.

The FBI said it was investigating social media posts made by Rodriguez.

Make no mistake, this attack was targeted anti-Semitic violence, and it wont be tolerated, Steven Jensen, assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office said.

We are also executing search warrants for his electronic devices, reviewing his social media accounts and all of his internet postings. Regarding some internet postings, we are aware of some writings that are purported to have been authored by this subject. Were actively investigating to determine both the authorship and the attribution of these writings, if they belong to this subject or not.

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After the shooting, Mr Rodriguez fled into the Capital Jewish Museum and was detained.

Amid the chaos, he is said to have been allowed into the museum by security guards who assumed he was a distraught bystander.

Minutes later, when officers arrived, Mr Rodriguez allegedly admitted to carrying out the shooting.

Authorities work at the scene of the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum - Anadolu

From Chicago, the suspected gunman was once linked to the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a far-Left group that regularly posts anti-Israel rhetoric on social media and spearheaded Black Lives Matter protests.

Mr Rodriguez participated in a 2017 Black Lives Matter protest outside the home of Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago at the time, according to a now-deleted article on the groups Liberation news outlet seen by the New York Post.

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Before the killing, he once worked as an oral history researcher at the History Makers, a non-profit that documents the stories of unsung African Americans, an online CV shows.



Amichai Chikli, Israeli diaspora affairs minister, said the world must hold to account the irresponsible leaders in the West who give backing to hatred against Jews and Israelis, whether through appeasement, double standards, or silence.



Mr Chikli said: French president Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Canadian prime minister Mark Carney have all, in different ways, emboldened the forces of terror through their failure to draw moral red lines. This cowardice has a price  and that price is paid in Jewish blood.

Jeanine Pirro, interim US attorney for the District of Washington, pledged to prosecute the alleged gunman with the full force of the law.

This is a horrific crime, and these crimes are not going to be tolerated by me and by this office. A young couple, at the beginning of their lifes journey about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag, she said.

Let me also say that violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero.

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MAGNA, Utah (ABC4)  A 45-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after police reportedly uncovered a suspected drug laboratory in Magna.

Thomas Vu is facing charges of operation of a clandestine laboratory after SWAT executed a search warrant at Vus house, police say.

According to court documents, officers found 43 grams of a crystallize substance consistent with meth. Police also found glassware, beakers, and chemical liquids in the garage of the house.

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Remains of Utah woman found a mile away from where her original remains were discovered last year

Documents show the Drug Enforcement Agency lab team also responded to the scene. Agents tested the lab equipment at the house. Items tested positive for eutylone, or bath salts, and ketamine.

The West Jordan Street Crimes Unit had been investigating Vu to be involved in distributing various controlled substances for several weeks prior to executing the search warrant.

Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Latest headlines:

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Before Speaker Mike Johnson could get his first real stretch of sleep in three days, the House GOPs painstakingly drafted big, beautiful bill was running into resistance in the Senate.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski railed against the bills work requirements for Medicaid. Sen. Mike Rounds said the spectrum auction plan  championed by President Donald Trump  has got to come out. Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not embrace the New York House Republicans big tax deduction win.

And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri  who has been one of the Senates most vocal critics of the Houses Medicaid plans is eying another big change as well. He wants a more robust child tax credit than the $2,500 included in the House bill: It needs to be higher.

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Then theres the gang of Senate fiscal hawks vowing to cut far deeper to federal programs than even the hardliner House Freedom Caucus.

Somebodys got to be the dad that says, I know yall want to go to Disney World, but we cant afford it. I guess Im going to be that guy, said GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who dismissed House Republicans $1.5 trillion in spending cuts as too miniscule.

House GOP leaders just spent months mollifying dozens of holdouts from the hardliner and moderate camps to support a final bill, steering it through their slim margins. Now, its Thunes turn. Thune and his leadership team will now begin the messy work of drafting a compromise bill that can pass their own staunchly divided conference, with few votes to lose.

And hell have to hope the House will accept it.

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Thunes math will be almost as complicated: Already, GOP Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to oppose the bill if it raises the debt limit  something Trump has demanded. And his more moderate senators, like Murkowski, are raising alarm bells at certain Medicaid provisions.

We are going to write our own bill, Thune told reporters Thursday, noting that the House gave them a good product to work with. Asked about the issue of Northeastern Republicans red line for costly tax breaks over the local levies they face, for instance, Thune said: The House had to make a deal. But our members want to be heard on it and I assume well have something to say.

Like in the House, one of the biggest sticking points will involve Medicaid, the low-income health program that enrolls more than 71 million people. Republicans have been eager to rein in spending on the program since Democrats 2010 health care law dramatically increased federal spending on the program. But the Senate GOP, like in the House, is deeply divided about how far to go.

There are provisions in there that are very, very, very challenging, if not impossible, for us to implement, Murkowski said of the House GOPs plans to boot able-bodied adults off Medicaid if they dont fulfill certain work requirements by December 2026.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on May 21 in Washington, DC. - John McDonnell/Getty Images

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another potential Senate swing vote, said she is open to work requirements for able-bodied individuals as long as they are carefully drafted.

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I have said and made clear that I do not want to take away Medicaid benefits, Collins said, adding that she will be closely reviewing the House GOP bill.

But other Senate Republicans suggested they will seek even bigger cuts to programs like Medicaid to pass the bill.

Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN that he thinks the Senate will add more spending cut opportunities and a little more aggressive approach to reforms for programs like Medicaid. He singled out one policy  limiting states ability to levy taxes on health care providers, known as the Medicaid provider tax  that was too controversial to pass the House.

At some point, we have to send the bill back to them and theyll have a binary decision to make. And it will be, Is a yes vote in passage better than if it doesnt pass? I hope thats the way theyll look at it, he said.

Senate hardliners ready to weigh in

As the House GOP delivered its bill across the Capitol, the hardline House Freedom Caucus warned their Senate counterparts not to water down their $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.

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But some of the Senates own budget hawks were blunt that they didnt think the House GOPs changes went far enough.

You had your chance. Theres some of these cuts that are not real, and were talking about over a decade, you know, if you do a trillion and a half, thats like a percent and a half, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the GOP budget chairman. So, lets dont get higher on our horse here that weve somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending, because we didnt.

Johnson, the Wisconsin senator who often backchannels with the Freedom Caucus, made clear he plans to force his party into a bigger discussion on spending cuts. And he said there are four other Republicans who are on the same page with seeking those spending cuts  enough to scuttle the bill if they vote against it.

Ive been focusing on spending, spending, spending, spending. They were focusing on tax cuts, which, I mean, thats fun to do, right? I mean, everybody loves tax cuts, Johnson said.

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Rounds told CNN that while the House has had the opportunity to make changes, once the Senate weighs in on it, I think well have a different opinion about what the bill looks like. And Rounds has his own red line for the House bill  removing the House GOPs policy to allow spectrum auction to help raise funds for the bill.

We can negotiate about a lot of other things, except for spectrum, which has got to come out, he said, adding that there are a number of us that cant support the bill without that change.

Were a long ways from the finish line, Rounds said of the coming weeks and months.

CNNs Ted Barrett, Jenna Monnin and Casey Riddle contributed to this report.

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Trees are more important than ever to Tacomans health, shielding us from historic heat waves and filtering pollution. So it was a step in the right direction when Tacomas city council passed a resolution May 13 that aims to protect and grow the citys tree canopy while still promoting housing development.

I applaud the city for considering trees while grappling with Tacomas growing housing affordability crisis, and for expanding this approach beyond the Home in Tacoma plan, where the idea originated.

But for Tacoma to grow its tree canopy, we have to have a conversation about which tree species to prioritize.

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To be clear, Tacomas urban forestry program has lots of helpful information on how to pick a good tree. It has a list of trees its approved or banned for planting in rights of way, and tolerance of extremes is a factor in vetting those trees. And it provides funding to the Tacoma Tree Foundation, which has multiple programs to help residents pick the right tree for a specific location.

The problem we all face is that the climate is changing, and some trees that have done well in the Tacoma area historically are less suited to surviving in the future. Regions around the world are tackling this issue by searching for trees that will survive in the climate they expect to live in 20 to 30 years on, when trees planted today have grown to maturity.

Sydney, for example, has identified an Australian city closer to the equator with trees that might do well in the Sydney of 2050. The research informs which trees the city puts on its recommended tree list. Scientists in London have traveled to the steppes of Romania to find tree species that tolerate the drier springs expected to become commonplace in the UK (and that are threatening its namesake tree, the London Plane).

Closer to home, Portland has reconsidered its tree list in light of which plants might have more staying power in a changing climate. Tacoma has much of the information we need to focus on climate resilient trees, too. Boosting that knowledge would fix what I see as a gap between what the city knows about trees and what it highlights to the public.

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The citys urban forestry program has access to guidance on which trees can tolerate a wide range of extremes, from heat waves to freezes, and from drought to flood. The city also partners with the Tacoma Tree Foundation to train tree stewards and present free workshops to give people tools for picking good trees. That means there are avenues for getting the message out.

But Tacoma also leaves developers who are required to plant trees to research for themselves which plants from its list are suited to a particular site. Whether they do it is up to them. And the city doesnt put the need to pick trees that can weather the extremes of climate change front and center.

A community conversation

Its also important for the public to get invested in this issue. We can contribute to a resilient urban forest by getting involved in the tree programs already available and sharing what we learn with our neighbors. If you plant a tree using the citys tree coupons or the Grit City street tree program, you can also access city-funded programs to learn how to pick a good tree for your site, and how to get a young tree get established in its vulnerable early years.

This conversation also needs to acknowledge the unfortunate downside inherent to shifting toward new species. Cities that look for climate resilient trees will need to de-emphasize some beloved native species. Sadly, we can already see that thats necessary in Tacoma.

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Mature native trees here already show signs of major distress, brought on by cycles of increasingly dry springs and hot summers. Skeletal evergreens haunt the region from roadsides, and maples display partially dead crowns.

Thats depressing to look at, but the city cant save established trees in public rights of way with watering. Those areas represent 26% of the citys surface. The cost of watering mature trees deeply in that much space would be astronomical. That just makes it even more important to choose trees that will survive the temperatures and moisture levels climate change will bring.

A home for our neighbors native species

Theres also hope for natives. Firstly, tree experts can identify areas where native trees still thrive (typically parks or other areas with ready access to water), and prioritize maintaining those plants. Secondly, we can become a home to our close neighbors native plants that are threatened in nearby regions.

One research effort in Washington examines this exact approach. A multi-city program in Tacoma, Seattle and Renton is growing saplings to see which location might be an ideal home for western redcedars grown from seeds collected in Oregon. Redcedars are culturally significant for indigenous tribes throughout the region, and cultivars from drier parts of Oregon may now do better here.

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If we cant regularly plant or maintain all of our native species, we can still help other species survive. And those survivors will help us, too. In addition to providing shade, trees cool the air around them by letting off water vapor. Unlike traditional air conditioning (which we will also need more of), trees dont put more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

We cant let climate change kill trees when we need them the most. But thats exactly what could happen if we arent strategic about planting and preservation efforts.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp in Beijing on Thursday.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that China is willing to enhance communication with the Netherlands, deepen practical cooperation and strengthen multilateral collaboration, thereby making new contributions to the development of China-EU relations, the recovery of the world economy and the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

Wang said China has introduced a number of new opening-up measures and welcomes the Netherlands to seize opportunities. He expressed the hope that the Dutch side will provide a just, fair and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises.

Veldkamp said the Dutch side adheres to the one-China policy, and is willing to work with China to enhance high-level exchanges, deepen practical cooperation and uphold multilateralism.

He said the relationship between Europe and China is of vital importance, and the Netherlands is willing to make active efforts to enhance EU-China relations.

Following a comprehensive and in-depth exchange of views, the two sides reached six points of consensus.

Both sides agreed to maintain close exchanges and deepen practical cooperation in such fields as economy and trade, science and technology, agriculture and water conservancy.

They agreed to maintain close communication concerning cooperation in multiple fields, including semiconductor technology, via existing channels.

They reaffirmed support for multilateralism, pledged to adhere to free trade and the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, and promised to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in areas such as climate adaptation and green transformation.

Both sides reaffirmed the goal of jointly promoting the realization of equal rights for all, especially women and girls, which requires significant actions on a global scale. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Caspar Veldkamp in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)
Liu Jia-yen had been living in Taiwan for more than two decades when she received notice that she was suddenly at risk of being deported.

In April, the National Immigration Agency told Liu, a 51-year-old Chinese immigrant, she had three months to provide evidence that she gave up her household registration  an official record of residence that grants benefits such as healthcare and education  in Guangxi, China. If she couldnt find the right documents, shed have to leave.

Liu thought shed submitted the files long ago and called her 26-year-old daughter, Ariel Ko, in tears.

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Ko, who was born and raised in Taiwan, called the immigration agency dozens of times over the next few days, unable to reach an operator. Meanwhile in China, Lius 80-year-old grandfather began visiting his local police station in search of old records, and her brother scoured his government contacts for anyone who could help.

Taiwanese military cadets holding Taiwan flags pose for selfies after attending the New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony outside the Presidential Palace in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 1. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned that no one can prevent China's reunification with Taiwan. (Daniel Ceng / Anadolu via Getty Images)

There are tens of thousands of Chinese-born people in Taiwan, which has been increasing scrutiny of them over the past year, citing concerns about infiltration and espionage. The immigration agency says the vast majority of Chinese living in Taiwan have filed the appropriate paperwork showing that they have canceled household registration in China, but about 12,000 people are facing a scramble  similar to Lius  for documents.

"I understand that the government has its policies, and we can respect that, Ko said. But what makes us upset is that were just ordinary citizens. If you're going to ask us to do something this difficult, have you considered things from our perspective?"

China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force, stepping up simulated attacks in recent years. Beijing has taken a particularly harsh stance against President Lai Ching-te, whom Chinese officials have called a dangerous separatist because he has promoted Taiwanese independence.

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Read more: Trumps tariffs reshaped manufacturing in Asia. This time, the ramifications are even broader

Concerns about spying in Taiwan and China date back to the Chinese civil war, after which the defeated Chinese Nationalist Party, or the Kuomintang, fled to Taiwan in 1949. Eventually, tensions began to ease as the two governments slowly resumed dialogue and cooperation over the next several decades. But in recent years, both China and Taiwan have been taking unprecedented actions in the name of national security.

Last year, China said it would ratchet up the punishment for advocates of Taiwanese independence, including imposing the death penalty. Lai, who took office a year ago and has called China a foreign hostile force, has proposed reinstating military trials for some espionage cases, criminalizing expressions of loyalty to China within the armed forces and tightening oversight of people traveling between China and Taiwan.

In March, three members of the Taiwanese presidential security team were convicted of spying for China. Taiwan also deported three Chinese immigrants for voicing their support online for unification through military action. Taiwans National Immigration Agency said this is the first time that spouses of Taiwanese citizens have had their residency revoked for such reasons. More than 140,000 Chinese immigrants hold residency in Taiwan because they are married to Taiwanese citizens.

Chinese influencer YAYA (Liu Zhenya) with a white hat and members of a NGO assisting her case hold a news conference, as she complies with Taiwan's order to leave Taiwan after her residency was revoked for posting videos advocating "One China" and "Unification with China by Force" at Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan, on March 25, 2025. (Daniel Ceng / Anadolu via Getty Images)

Taiwans Mainland Affairs Council said the records requirement has existed since 2004, and the recent notices were sent to ensure that those who want to stay in Taiwan can do so. But critics say that the sudden enforcement is unfair.

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Its like our government has been asleep, like Sleeping Beauty, for 21 years. And now, all of a sudden, it wakes up and demands that Chinese spouses whove been living in Taiwan for so many years provide an important document from two decades ago, said Chang Chi-kai, an opposition party legislator who is urging the administration to give Chinese spouses and their children more time.

After the public backlash, Taiwan announced additional exemptions for individuals with extenuating circumstances such as financial hardship, medical needs or safety concerns about traveling to China to search for records.

Read more: Is Taiwan the happiest place in Asia?

In Taiwan, people born in China are subject to different immigration laws than other nationalities. Milo Hsieh, founder of the consulting firm Safe Spaces in Taipei, says that distinction makes them more susceptible to discriminatory legal treatment, particularly in times of extreme political polarization.

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It resembles what Im observing in the U.S. right now in Trumps immigration crackdown, particularly on international students, said Hsieh, referring to the hundreds of student protesters who have had their visas revoked. They are deliberately targeting this class of individuals that are associated with a national security threat.

Some frustrated residents say the bureaucratic bind is emblematic of long-standing discrimination.

Ko, who was born and raised in Taiwan, still remembers how her classmates used to tease her for having a mother from China, and would tell her to go back to the mainland. On social media, some were sympathetic to her mothers struggle, while others told her to "save your fake tears," or "if you want to be Taiwanese then follow our rules."

Taiwans government has said that, according to its own polls conducted in March, more than 70% of respondents in Taiwan want officials to more thoroughly investigate whether Chinese immigrants here still hold residency or household registration in China, especially those who work in the military or public sector.

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office in July 2022, Tsai Ing-wen, president at the time, is seen through glass on board a ship during military exercises. (Shioro Lee / Associated Press)

If China decides to start a war, then Taiwan needs to determine what to do in that situation, said Fan Hsin-yu, an associate professor at National Taiwan University who specializes in immigration law. First, it has to clarify who belongs to which side, who is the enemy, and who is one of us. Thats why this process is something they feel must be finalized soon.

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Fan said legal experts are divided on whether the government is justified in its recent documentation demands. She added that the measures may even be counterproductive, since China could simply issue certification to its spies or collaborators, while those who support Taiwanese sovereignty could put themselves at risk by going to China, or otherwise be forced to leave.

The issue is not about legality, it's about whether this is a smart move, she said.

Chang Chih-yuan moved to Taichung, a city in central Taiwan, at age 4 and served in Taiwans military. He needs to secure documents to remain here but said he feels uneasy about providing all of his personal information  including his household registration history, physical ID card and travel permit  to the police station in Guangdong, China, where his family once lived.

Ultimately, he decided that he didnt have much choice. His Chinese mother had received the immigration notice in April, and after many sleepless nights, she decided to take a month off from her cleaning job to obtain the certificate. When Chang, 34, inquired about his own paperwork, the immigration agency told him he would probably get a similar notice later this year.

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It just made me feel like Im still not considered a real Taiwanese person, he said.

A man walks past a hoisted Taiwanese flag at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on Oct. 15, 2024. The day before, China insisted it would never renounce the "use of force" to take control of Taiwan, after ending a day of military drills around the island. (I-Hwa Cheng / AFP via Getty Images)

Another resident who immigrated from China as a child said he has been considering emigrating to Singapore since he received his notice. His father traveled to Chinas Fujian province to seek household documentation on his behalf, but he still worries that his mainland roots could put his status at risk again in the future.

The situation now feels like they assume if you were born in China, youre an ally of the Chinese Communist Party and you have to prove your innocence," the 33-year-old said, requesting anonymity for fear that speaking publicly could affect his case. I feel like Ive been completely betrayed by my country.

Times staff writer Yang and special correspondent Wu reported from Taipei, Taiwan.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
EL CAJON, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI)  El Cajon was one of the only cities in San Diego County that saw an increase in its homeless population in the latest point-in-time count as the region at large saw a decrease from last year.

The data, which was released earlier this week, showed the number of people experiencing homelessness in El Cajon rose from 800 in 2024 to 1,039. Of those, 344 were unsheltered  up from 283 people living on the citys streets last year.

While experts have criticized point-in-time counts as flawed for undercounting homeless populations, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells is refuting the citys numbers as being too high.

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Homelessness down 7% in San Diego County, point-in-time count finds

I wouldnt be shocked if our numbers went up a little bit because of some of the activity thats happened with the county putting homeless people in our hotels, but I didnt expect it to go up 28%, said Wells.

The mayor claims a safe parking site operated by the county was counted within El Cajons numbers, inflating it  a purported error disputed by the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, who oversees the point-in-time count.

Because of how hard we work on homelessness, the fact that we spend more money per capita on homelessness than any other city in the county, we want those numbers to be accurate, Wells said.

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What exactly drove El Cajons homeless population to surge while other parts of the region saw decreases is unclear.

Down in South Bay, Chula Vista saw a 6% decrease in its homeless population. Mayor John McCann is crediting this change to recent actions, like its strict homeless encampment ban, the closing of Harborside Park, success of its outreach team and expansion of supportive housing.

A common thread between the two mayors perspectives: They want to see the county shoulder more responsibility in addressing the regions homelessness crisis.

I hope that the county will take back their responsibility, McCann said. Unfortunately cities have had to take the ball.

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This is a systemic problem, he continued. We know that one size does not fit all for homelessness, and we need to make sure that were putting together programs like the ones we have [in Chula Vista], that actually get homeless of the streets and are not just there to enable them to be homeless.

FOX 5/KUSIs Danielle Dawson contributed to this report.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News.
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA)  Law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel trained together this week in a high-intensity active shooter drill, working to improve response times and save lives in increasingly common mass casualty events.

The joint training, known as Active Shooter Hostile Event Response, or ASHE, aims to get EMS into scenes faster to provide life-saving care alongside law enforcement, rather than waiting until a room is cleared.

Gun malfunction stopped mass-casualty event during Las Vegas gym shooting: police

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What we know is that if you train the way youre going to work, when the real thing happens, it becomes second nature, said Logan Lane, director of public safety at Tallahassee State College.

Lane said the traditional model of EMS waiting for a scene to be secured before entering cost valuable time.

Past history, EMS with Fire Rescue had to wait until the room was cleared so imagine how much time was lost, director of training operations at the University of Miami, Al Brotons said.

The approach is already proving effective. First responders in Tallahassee used ASHE training when a gunman opened fire at Florida State University last month.

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Our young officers today are more likely to respond to one of these than in the past, Lane said. We have to prepare them. Its constantly evolving. After Florida State or Uvalde, we go in and incorporate what weve learned.

In Ybor City, the training brought together agencies from across the region, including the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office. The simulated scenarios emphasized fast, coordinated action in chaotic environments.

Unfortunately, these types of incidents are becoming too prevalent in our society, Lane said.

Officials said the goal is clear: when seconds count, seamless coordination between EMS and law enforcement can make the difference between life and death.

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Sorry, kids, especially those high school and college students who have or are about to graduate. The adults are really messing up your world.

Your futures are being threatened by a Trump administration that is attacking universities, trying to get young people to forgo college for factory jobs, making it harder to get and repay student loans, unleashing unregulated artificial intelligence and enacting potentially ruinous tariffs.

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Its no wonder that members of Generation Z, people born between about 1997 and 2010, disapprove of Trumps economic policies more widely than any other age group, according to a recent national poll.

Trumps chaotic tariffs are about to nick Michigans economy and could lead to an even more serious plunge. A new University of Michigan state economic forecast predicts tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum will destroy 13,000 jobs over the next several years.

Michigan is expected to see virtually no job growth in the final nine months of this year before modest growth returns next year, according to the forecast.

The best prospects for new grads and other job seekers are likely to be in noncyclical industries, including private education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government, according to the U-M forecast.

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Ninety-five percent of Michigans job growth over the next three years is expected to come from noncyclical industries. But proposed deep budget cuts by Trump and the Republicans in education and health care could kill jobs in those areas, too.

Tariffs are expected to hit the manufacturing sector, particularly autos, the hardest.

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Sales of General Motors, Ford and Stellantis vehicles are expected to fall by 200,000 vehicles this year as tariffs boost the average vehicle price by 13.2%, or $6,200, according to a U-M forecast summary presented at last weeks state revenue estimating conference.

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U-M economists say their forecast is very uncertain because of Trumps chaotic tariff implementation and the complexity of assessing the effects of the tariffs.

But Michigans dependence on the auto industry could lead to hundreds of thousands of lost jobs in a national recession, based on past downturns. And thats something economists are increasingly concerned about as companies begin to raise tariffs.

Trump is worried, too. The president blew a gasket after Wal-Mart said it will have to pass some its tariff costs to customers, demanding the retail giant eat the tariffs. (Funny, Trump has previously insisted that other countries, not U.S. businesses, pay the tariffs.)

Michigans economy, because of its heavy reliance on manufacturing and agriculture, is considered to be one of the most vulnerable to the negative effects of tariffs.

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Trump and his accomplices see it all differently. They view tariffs as a cudgel to force auto companies and other manufacturers to bring back their plants from foreign countries, reshoring hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said last month that the great jobs of the future would be skilled trades positions in auto plants repairing robots and keeping the air conditioning working. These jobs pay between $70,000 and $90,000, he said.

Lutnick made the wildly inflated claim that there are 4,000 to 5,000 of these jobs in a single auto plant. The typical auto plant has fewer than 3,000 workers in total.

This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here, he said.

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Really? That sounds like a 1960s employment model to me.

Its hard to say what the new employment model will be, thanks to the rapid implementation of artificial intelligence.

There are all sorts of predictions about which jobs will be eliminated by AI and which ones will survive. Some experts believe AI could create tens of millions of new jobs involved with implementing this new technology.

The scariest forecast came from Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who recently told The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon he thinks humans will no longer be needed for most things within 10 years.

Democratic and Republican policymakers for years have been pushing skilled trades as an alternative to costly four-year degrees. That effort is accelerating in the belief that these jobs are the least likely to be eliminated by AI.

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If would love to be welder, electrician or plumber, I say go for it. Youll likely find a good-paying job.

But its a mistake to dismiss the societal and economic value of having a lot of people with four-year degrees at a time when critical thinking skills, broad knowledge and having a sense of social responsibility are more important than ever.

Thats why some experts are saying that a much-maligned liberal arts education might be just the ticket to prospering in an AI-driven world.

My instinct is that no one really knows how jobs and careers are going to change and how fast, Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., an Ann Arbor think tank that promotes a more prosperous state, told me.

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So I think the most valuable career success skills are not going to be occupation-specific, but more generalist skillsliberal arts-based, Glazer said.

I suspect Glazers view of the future of work will prove more accurate than Lutnicks. I hope for the sake of young people soon to enter the workforce that its not Gates.
The markets are sharing a collective  if temporarily  sigh of relief as China and the United States reached a 90-day tariff deal. What cannot be avoided, however, is the underbelly of Chinas relations with the U.S. and other advanced economies  namely, the unrelenting pursuit of sensitive data and technologies.

Press coverage of TikTok might lead some to think that the platforms capabilities and Chinese ownership pose a singular challenge to regulators and law enforcement officials in the United States, Europe and other democracies seized with concerns about protecting privacy, personal data and ultimately, their nations security.

The reality is that Chinas premeditated path toward legally and illegally seeking and gaining access to Americans personal data began more than a decade ago when the PRC hacked and gained access to the Office of Personal Managements (OPM) database related to security clearances, exfiltrating the sensitive personal data of more than 20 million U.S. citizens approved for access to classified government material. The PRCs purpose in seizing the data of current and former U.S. officials does not require much imagination.

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Since then, Chinas methods have become more sophisticated and largely focused on commercial approaches leveraging the growing digital environment. Also, the vast distribution of software and hardware supply chains over the past 20 years, especially to China, have further facilitated the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) aims. Globalization ironically has been the grand enabler of President Xis vision to dominate the world economically and militarily on a foundation of stolen knowledge.

Technologies upon which the consumer market relies offer optimal access to sensitive personal data. Consider the payment systems in U.S. stores, where point-of-sale terminals made by PAX Technology, a Chinese company, have become widely used by banks and across the retail sector. In October 2021, the FBI raided PAXs U.S. offices following reports of unexplained network activity and concerns about potential data vulnerabilities. A U.S. Treasury Department investigation later confirmed that PAX was sending encrypted data to unknown third-parties.

Its not just financial information that is of interest to China. Access to Americans DNA through companies that are focused on health care and identifying ancestry appear even more ominous in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But setting individual data-rich companies aside, Chinese entities have also secured stakes in U.S. and allied cloud infrastructure platforms, raising questions about who ultimately controls or can gain access to sensitive enterprise and government data.

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The challenge facing the U.S. and allied governments is how to protect systems, citizens, infrastructure and industries from Chinas multi-front assaults. There are multiple approaches currently being used and new ones to be considered.

Imposing fines, such as the $600 million one imposed in May on TikTok by the Irish Data Protection Commission following claims that the app unlawfully transferred residents data to China without protection from government surveillance, is one method. Another is regulation on specific transactions. Interagency bodies such as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) can effectively block a transaction involving Chinese entities acquiring U.S. companies with sensitive data.

The Executive Branch together with Congress are poised to continuously update the varied regulatory and legal regimes that touch on these matters. In addition to CFIUS and Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) authorities, there are Defense Department supply chain regulations focused on software and hardware supply chain security, integrity and resilience. These efforts are being expanded beyond the Pentagon to the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, and Transportation, to cover critical non-defense-related data and infrastructure.

Market-based incentives  such as tax credits, loan guarantees, and preferential procurement approaches can effectively support domestic and allied alternatives to Chinese technologies. Fostering more opportunities and inducements for American innovation can help reduce dependence on foreign suppliers especially from risky countries.

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But what about the Chinese companies that are already operating with impunity in the United States? Or corporate structures and state-directed investment funds that funnel money through seemingly non-Chinese-owned entities?

It may be timely to establish an interagency council concentrating on identifying high-risk threats, identifying gaps and coordinating mitigation strategies, thereby building on agencies work already underway. One option may be to consider means by which additional transparency requirements related to personnel and technology sources could be required  not only in relation to U.S. government contracts  but for non-Five Eyes foreign-influenced tech firms operating in the United States in critical infrastructure, data services, health care, and financial technology. To reinforce such an endeavor, America should deepen cooperation with its NATO allies and Indo-Pacific partners and collaborate in securing procurement pathways, as well as developing trusted platforms. Finally, focus is critical  assessing where China could gain a dangerous advantage and how best to leverage limited government resources.

The mission is vital. Not only do Americans deserve to know who controls the systems that collect and store their data, where that information might ultimately go, and for what purposes, they deserve to be protected from our adversaries malign actions. Safeguarding data is not enough. Across the board, from the hardware in our weapons systems to the software in our payment systems, the time to smartly reduce our exposure is now. Failing to do so wont just cost us economically  it may one day cost us militarily. And by then, the price may be far higher than we are able to pay.

Mira Ricardel is a non-executive board director of Titomic and served as under secretary of commerce for the Bureau of Industry and Security from August 2017- April 2018 and then as deputy National Security Advisor April-November 2018. She was a vice president at the Boeing Company from 2006-2015.
(NewsNation)  As tariffs continue to impact major shopping giants like Target and Walmart, small businesses across the U.S. are feeling the effects as well. Busy Baby CEO Beth Benike joined NewsNation Now to talk about how its becoming harder to run her operations.

The problem is, we are too small, said Benike. Manufacturing in the U.S. is very expensive, and in order for the business model to work for the U.S. manufacturers, they need to manufacture things in large volumes. As a startup and very small company, we dont make enough units to make it worth their time to work with us.

Benike, an Army veteran, started Busy Baby to give parents products that are within reach and off the ground for their children. All those products were being made in China because no one in the U.S. would make them for her. But things changed for Benike quickly once President Trump took office and implemented tariffs on dozens of countries earlier this month.

Home Depot says it doesnt expect to boost prices because of tariffs

So we never expected 145 tariffs, and its been out there for a long time, she said. We started a GoFundMe to try and raise money, and unfortunately, we didnt get anywhere near the goal. The goal was $230,000, I would have had to pay. Ive never paid a tariff prior to this in the five years of importing products.

Benike added that her business did raise enough money to support to bring in the products that were being kept in China, but there is still the challenge of getting the products on a ship and getting them to the United States. And with the demand high, her costs have doubled.

So I need to get this product here, because if I dont have it, I cant sell it, acknowledged Benike. I cant pay my bills or my employees.

With the current tariffs in place, Benike says she is parallel planning, building out an international distribution strategy and selling products in bundles.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
Self-described moderates in the GOP are rallying behind a policy favored by centrists of both parties and which economists consider a major tax cut for Americas merely wealthy professionals. At the same time, President Donald Trump, who is now attempting to push through the bill as is, appears to have flipped on the issue multiple times.

In the current GOP budget bill, expected to go to a floor vote as soon as this week, GOP moderates appear to have successfully tacked on a major increase to the State and Local Tax Deduction cap, a policy that allows households to deduct their state and local taxes on their federal tax filings.

As it stands, the SALT deduction cap is set at $10,000. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., now says that hes reached a deal with a group of Republicans hailing from New York, New Jersey and California to raise the SALT deduction cap to $40,000.

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The issue of raising the SALT cap has long been a hobby horse for both Republicans and many Democrats from the three states, with proponents of the policy, like Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., claiming that its an affordability issue in their districts.

We want to be able to provide real tax relief to middle-class and working-class families, Lawler told News 12 Westchester.

Democrats like Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., have also championed the issue, with Suozzi saying at a press conference Wednesday that he supports eliminating the SALT cap as a way of encouraging wealthy New Yorkers to stay in the state instead of leaving to lower tax states like Florida. He also said he supports raising the top marginal federal tax rate alongside any change to SALT to prevent the change from being a tax break for the wealthy.

The current version of the GOP bill contains no such provision to recoup tax revenue lost through an increased SALT deduction cap.

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Trump has met with congressional Republicans to pressure them to accept the current form of the bill, a pivot from his campaign promise of "restoring the SALT deduction." Earlier this week, Trump slammed the changes to SALT saying, "The biggest beneficiary, if we do that, are governors from New York, Illinois and California." In Trump's first term, he and the Republicans oversaw the lowering of the SALT cap to $10,000, which at the time was considered a slight against states like New York, California and other Democratic states where taxpayers disproportionately take advantage of the SALT deduction.

The problem for members from both parties, however, is that the policy has almost nothing to do with middle-class and working-class families, but everything to do with some of the highest-income households in the United States.

Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said in an interview with Salon that for the vast majority of tax filers, even in states with higher tax rates like New York and California, the SALT deduction doesnt do them any good.

The main reason the SALT deduction doesnt matter for most filers in these states, Gleckman said, is that few households have enough yearly income for raising the cap to have much or any impact on the taxes that they will have to pay.

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Remember that many states have essentially a flat income tax, so it doesn't make a lot of difference if you're making $100,000 a year or making a million dollars a year, you're paying essentially the same state income tax rate. Think about the number of people who are paying $30,000 or more in [state or local] taxes. It's just not a lot of people, Gleckman said.

An analysis of various proposals for raising the SALT cap performed by Gleckman and the Tax Policy Center earlier this year divided up American households by income to calculate who stood to benefit the most from raising the SALT cap. The analysis, which used raising the SALT cap to $20,000 for the purposes of the analysis, found that the policy would overwhelmingly benefit the top 20% of households by income.

The analysis also found that Americans in the bottom 60% of households by income would see little to no changes in their taxes paid, while Americans in the fourth quintile of income would see a modest decrease in federal taxes paid. In real terms, this means households making $200,000 or less a year would see basically no change in their after-tax income.

Meanwhile, households making between $430,000 and $1 million a year, which represent the top 95% to 99% of earners, would see a substantial tax cut, and collect around 90% of the benefit of an increase in the SALT cap.

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Members of this group arent members of the super-wealthy; Gleckman referred to them as the merely wealthy. Gleckman said that people should think about professionals like partners at law firms, doctors or very successful business owners as being representative of this group.

To be clear, the proposal percolating in Congress goes beyond the $20,000 cap used in the model, with Congress apparently on track to pass a $40,000 cap, increasing by 1% every year for ten years. Politico also reports that Republicans are looking to limit the new cap to households making below $500,000 a year, though how exactly this would work remains unclear.

Michael Madowtiz, an economist at the Roosevelt Institute, pointed out that in order to even take advantage of the SALT deduction, people need to be in a situation where itemizing their returns makes sense, which isnt the case for most American households.

Madowtiz said that, although you could imagine situations where there are households with two working parents in high-cost-of-living areas like Manhattan, where they might be able to take advantage of a higher SALT cap while not being considered wealthy for their area, though he said that this is deeply stretching the definition of middle class. He also noted that these members of the professional class in urban areas were exactly the people Republicans were trying to stick it to in 2017, when they imposed the $10,000 SALT cap.

For most families, SALT is irrelevant because the sales taxes they pay aren't even eligible for a SALT deduction," Madowitz added, "so you have to be in pretty rarified air before this is even about you.
TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (ABC4)  A Taylorsville man was taken into custody earlier this week, accused of destroying countless items of property belonging to his landlord, making threats towards him during religious rituals, and vandalizing a church belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Addie Marble Hurst, 25, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail, where he faces one count of third-degree felony criminal mischief as well as misdemeanor counts of threat of violence and reckless burning.

Remains of Utah woman found a mile away from where her original remains were discovered last year

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According to court documents, Taylorsville Police were called out to a dispute between Hurst and his landlord at a home near 3200 West and Tysonbrook Court. Hurst, who had been renting a basement in the home, was allegedly damaging several items, including cameras, walls, lights, glassware and more.

The landlord told police Hurst had also been engaging in religious ritualism, in which he stabbed him in proxy and made threats toward him.

BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff named in sexual assault lawsuit

When police arrived, Hurst had allegedly left the scene but reportedly turned the next day, performing more rituals and damaging more property. Taylorsville Police responded and attempted to make contact, though he allegedly refused to speak with officers or cooperate.

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Addie began throwing glass items at the front door and inside the residence, further damaging them and other property items, court documents report. Eventually, Addie was talked out of the home and taken into custody.

Police said they found the home to be in a complete disarray, with several items destroyed. During an interview with police, Hurst allegedly admitted to being upset with his landlord, blaming him for a recent commitment to a hospital.

The Taylorsville Police Department reported that Hurst appeared to be impaired, and he had allegedly admitted to using marijuana. Officers say he also demonstrated signs of meth abuse, including paranoia and hallucinations among other symptoms.

Further investigation also reportedly identified Hurst as a suspect in a May 20 report of a church that had its windows broken.

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Court records show Hurst has been ordered to be held without bail, pending a pretrial hearing.

Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Latest headlines:

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
PEKIN, Ill. (WMBD)  A man accused of killing two others last month will next appear in court in late July to allow time for a mental health exam.

Memphis Rue appeared in Tazewell County Circuit Court for a brief hearing Thursday morning. He entered pleas of not guilty and a July 28 hearing was scheduled.

Rue, 21, is charged with murder in connection with the April 24, shooting deaths of Chase Rhodes, 21, of Pekin and Dawson Reese, 21, of rural Pekin.

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Last month during a detention hearing, Rues attorneys asked he be examined by a mental health professional to see if he was fit to stand trial. That exam and the report that follows has not yet been completed.

Rue remains an inmate at the county jail as his attorneys last month did not contest prosecutors request to hold Rue pending the outcome of his case.

First-degree murder charges filed in South Pekin double shooting

According to a probable cause statement filed last month, deputies with the Tazewell County Sheriffs Office were called to a house in the 11300 block of Illinois Route 29 on a report of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Reeses father who had a gun pointed at Rue.

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The father said all three were good friends and were hanging out in the basement that night and he dozed off on the couch in the living room. He woke to hear gunshots and Rue allegedly yelling theyre dead! He went downstairs and saw Rue with a gun. He took it from him and held him in the kitchen at gunpoint until the police arrived.

The allegations state, the autopsy results, showed Rhodes and Dawson Reese died of gunshot wounds.

If convicted, each charge carries a minimum of 20 years in prison and maximum of 60 years behind bars. Its possible that a 25-year automatic tack-on could be imposed on the base range. If hes convicted of both murders, he faces life in prison.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com.
Rescuers evacuate residents due to heavy rainfall in Taoyuan County, central China's Hunan Province, May 22, 2025. Heavy rainfall battered parts of central China's Hunan Province starting Wednesday evening, causing waterlogging and prompting the evacuation of local residents. Hunan's provincial meteorological observatory upgraded the rainstorm alert to the orange level on Thursday morning. (Xinhua)

CHANGSHA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rainfall battered parts of central China's Hunan Province starting Wednesday evening, causing waterlogging and prompting the evacuation of local residents.

Torrential downpours hit Zhangjiajie and Changde cities in Hunan, and extremely heavy rainfall was reported in parts of Cili County of Zhangjiajie and Taoyuan County of Changde, which led to waterlogging.

In Shejiaping Town, Taoyuan County, sustained heavy rainfall led to waterlogging by early morning on Thursday. Local authorities organized the evacuation of residents in at-risk zones.

Hunan's provincial meteorological observatory upgraded the rainstorm alert to the orange level on Thursday morning. China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue. 

People are evacuated due to heavy rainfall in Qijiaping Town of Yuanling County, central China's Hunan Province, May 22, 2025. Heavy rainfall battered parts of central China's Hunan Province starting Wednesday evening, causing waterlogging and prompting the evacuation of local residents.

Hunan's provincial meteorological observatory upgraded the rainstorm alert to the orange level on Thursday morning. (Xinhua)
AUSTIN (KXAN)  On Tuesday, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez received the American Jail Association Conferences highest honor  the Francis R. Dick Ford Distinguished Service Award.

The award recognizes professional excellence in the field of local corrections.

Travis Co. corrections officers train to better handle inmates with mental health issues

Travis County said Hernandez has shown her dedication for 43 years:

Sheriff Sally Hernandez and her husband, Ted (Courtesy: Kristen Dark/Travis County Sheriffs Office)

1981: Hernandez began her career as a night dispatcher in Llano, Texas.

1988: Hernandez moved to Austin and served as a deputy with the Travis County Constable Precinct 3 Office.

1992: Hernandez was hired as a sergeant investigator for the Travis County District Attorneys Office.

2005: Hernandez advanced to Chief of Investigations.

2016: Hernandez ran for the office of Travis County Sheriff

2017: Hernandez was elected Sheriff and took office.

2025: Hernandez nears the end of her second term as Travis County Sheriff.

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She passionately believes no one can handle complex challenges alone and immediately focused her attention on strategic partnerships. In her two terms as sheriff, she has established partnerships with various organizations, leveraging their expertise to multiply positive impacts, said the county in its nomination for Hernandez.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
A public school teacher talks with students as the school year winds down in New York City. States are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages and are trying several tactics to woo educators, including changing teacher training and licensing requirements. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

As another school year ends, superintendents across the United States are staring down an autumn staffing crisis, with 1 in 8 teaching positions either vacant or filled by an underqualified educator.

States that are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages have spent millions to lure replacements and retain veterans with hiring bonuses and bumps in salaries. But hiring gaps remain, so some states also are trying another tactic: changing their standards.

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The changes in teacher training and licensing come amid widespread turmoil in public schools: Tax revenue is being siphoned toward private school vouchers in many states; some classrooms are being scrutinized for banned books, displays or teaching lessons that trip into diversity, equity and inclusion territory; and students who went through pandemic-era shutdowns are struggling both with sitting still and with learning the material.

Some surveys show that fewer than a fifth of teachers are happy in their jobs.

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now, said Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

COVID exacerbated things, and teachers are caught in the middle of political battles  over curriculum, book bans, even personal attacks, he said. Its not a healthy work environment, and that drives people away.

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Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now.

 Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education

Last year, Illinois enacted a law allowing teacher candidates to begin student teaching before passing content-area exams. It was an effort to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups, the measures sponsor said.

A bill under consideration this year would give more districts discretion over whether to factor pupils test scores into teacher evaluations, a break from a 15-year-old mandate.

In New Jersey, a new law formally removes the Praxis Core exam  traditionally used as an entry-level screening tool for aspiring teachers  from certification requirements.

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And in Nevada  one of the states hit hardest by teacher shortages  a bill would streamline licensure for incoming educators. The bill would allow teachers credentialed in other states to begin working in Nevada classrooms while awaiting formal approval.

It also would remove extra steps for teachers switching grade levels and would waive application fees for recent substitute teachers.

Linda Darling-Hammond, founding president and chief knowledge officer of the Learning Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said teacher shortages hit hardest in schools serving low-income students and students of color, where instability often leads to larger class sizes, canceled courses or a revolving door of substitute teachers.

When you walk into a school facing shortages, you see instability, she said. Students may be taught by people who dont know what to do, who leave quickly, and who often rely more on discipline than engagement.

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The root cause? Teacher attrition.

Nine out of 10 vacancies every year are because of attrition  and two-thirds of that is not retirement, Darling-Hammond said. Support in the beginning matters. Teachers who come in and get a mentor stay longer. If youre just thrown in to sink or swim, the odds of leaving are much greater.

States have long struggled to attract teachers, and credentialing changes arent unusual. But some education advocates fear long-term repercussions.

Melissa Tooley, director of K-12 educator quality at the left-leaning think tank New America, said most states now offer alternative and fast-track teacher certification pathways, many of which allow candidates to start teaching with little or no pedagogical training in how to teach.

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Were churning through people who might have potential, but were not setting them up for success, she said. A lot of what states are doing is short term. Its about filling seats, not necessarily building a sustainable or high-quality workforce.

More than 40 states require aspiring teachers to take the costly Praxis Subject test for the subject they want to teach, which some experts argue excludes strong candidates and duplicates other assessments.

You were excluding people who might be good teachers but didnt do well on that specific test, said Rutgers Gitomer, who has researched the tests effects on recruitment.

However, he added, dropping tests doesnt necessarily help.

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Several states  Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Wisconsin  have dropped a licensure requirement known as edTPA since 2022, but theres little evidence the move has helped ease teacher shortages, Gitomer said. (The acronym stands for Educative Teacher Performance Assessment and involves a portfolio that includes testing and videos of classroom performance.)

The state eliminated edTPA but didnt replace it with a specific alternative, he said.

Instead, it gave full discretion back to individual institutions to develop or adopt their own performance assessments, he said. When we talked to institutions, it became pretty clear they didnt think removing edTPA would be a major driver in addressing the shortage  and they havent seen evidence that it has been.

How best to credential

Tooley said state credentialing systems must navigate a delicate balance: ensuring there are enough teachers, maintaining instructional quality and increasing workforce diversity.

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Theres this triangle  three pieces that need to be in place  and I think there are real tensions when it comes to how states are designing their certification policies, she said.

And Gitomer described a fragmented national landscape, where some states are tightening teacher entry standards while others are dramatically loosening them  even allowing non-degreed individuals to teach.

Some states are trying to raise standards; others are relaxing them to the point where you may not even need a college degree, he said.

Indiana now requires all pre-K through grade 6 and special education teachers to complete 80 hours of training on the science of reading, a method that includes phonics, and pass an exam by 2027. State Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican, has proposed cutting the requirement in half, calling it an excessive burden with little actual benefit in a news release.

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In Texas, a bill aims to reduce the use of uncertified teachers by the 2029-30 school year. The legislation would set a gradual cap on the percentage of uncertified teachers districts can employ in core curriculum classes  starting at 20% in 2026-27 and decreasing to 5% in 2029-30.

According to the Texas Education Agency, 31% of new hires in 2024-25 lacked a state teaching certificate or permit.

Yet some states stand out for how theyre changing their requirements, Tooley said.

She pointed to Washington, which has designed a recruitment strategy encouraging paraprofessionals, often known as teachers aides, to become classroom teachers. Also known as paraeducators, theyre a group with classroom experience, community ties and higher retention likelihood.

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There, school districts are required to offer foundational training  ranging from 14 to 28 hours  directly to paraeducators.

In West Virginia, a new law now allows districts to count full-time behavior interventionists working in one or two classrooms toward meeting the required number of aides or paraprofessionals in K-3 classrooms.

Tooley noted that Pennsylvania and Alabama are experimenting with menu-style licensing flexibility  allowing candidates to demonstrate qualification through various combinations of GPA and test scores, rather than rigid cutoffs.

These are people already in schools, often from the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds as students, Tooley said. Theyre more likely to succeed and to stay.

Low pay

A 2024 national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that public school teachers are increasingly reporting declines in mental health, job satisfaction and classroom stability. Seventy percent of teachers recommended student mental health interventions, and nearly half said schools lack enough counselors, psychologists and social workers.

As mental well-being has worsened, the share of public school teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has also declined by 2 percentage points from the previous year, to 18%, according to the survey, which was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on behalf of Merrimack College.

While teacher wellness supports remain limited, educators say improvements in pay and student discipline are the most needed changes.

To entice passionate but burned out educators from leaving the workforce, several states have raised minimum teacher pay. Arkansas boosted salaries to $50,000 statewide, and South Carolina raised starting pay to $47,000. South Dakota enacted a $45,000 minimum with yearly increases, and penalties for districts that fail to comply by 2026. Connecticut advanced a bill setting a $63,450 salary floor, while Indiana and others are eyeing further increases.

At the federal level, the proposed American Teacher Act seeks to establish a national $60,000 minimum salary for teachers at a qualifying school to boost recruitment and retention across the country. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, remains in committee.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

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A public school teacher talks with students as the school year winds down in New York City. States are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages and are trying several tactics to woo educators, including changing teacher training and licensing requirements. (Michael Loccisano | Getty Images)

As another school year ends, superintendents across the United States are staring down an autumn staffing crisis, with 1 in 8 teaching positions either vacant or filled by an underqualified educator.

States that are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages have spent millions to lure replacements and retain veterans with hiring bonuses and bumps in salaries. But hiring gaps remain, so some states also are trying another tactic: changing their standards.

Advertisement Advertisement

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The changes in teacher training and licensing come amid widespread turmoil in public schools: Tax revenue is being siphoned toward private school vouchers in many states; some classrooms are being scrutinized for banned books, displays or teaching lessons that trip into diversity, equity and inclusion territory; and students who went through pandemic-era shutdowns are struggling both with sitting still and with learning the material.

Some surveys show that fewer than a fifth of teachers are happy in their jobs.

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now, said Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

COVID exacerbated things, and teachers are caught in the middle of political battles  over curriculum, book bans, even personal attacks, he said. Its not a healthy work environment, and that drives people away.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now.

 Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education

Last year, Illinois enacted a law allowing teacher candidates to begin student teaching before passing content-area exams. It was an effort to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups, the measures sponsor said.

A bill under consideration this year would give more districts discretion over whether to factor pupils test scores into teacher evaluations, a break from a 15-year-old mandate.

In New Jersey, a new law formally removes the Praxis Core exam  traditionally used as an entry-level screening tool for aspiring teachers  from certification requirements.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

And in Nevada  one of the states hit hardest by teacher shortages  a bill would streamline licensure for incoming educators. The bill would allow teachers credentialed in other states to begin working in Nevada classrooms while awaiting formal approval.

It also would remove extra steps for teachers switching grade levels and would waive application fees for recent substitute teachers.

Linda Darling-Hammond, founding president and chief knowledge officer of the Learning Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said teacher shortages hit hardest in schools serving low-income students and students of color, where instability often leads to larger class sizes, canceled courses or a revolving door of substitute teachers.

When you walk into a school facing shortages, you see instability, she said. Students may be taught by people who dont know what to do, who leave quickly, and who often rely more on discipline than engagement.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

The root cause? Teacher attrition.

Nine out of 10 vacancies every year are because of attrition  and two-thirds of that is not retirement, Darling-Hammond said. Support in the beginning matters. Teachers who come in and get a mentor stay longer. If youre just thrown in to sink or swim, the odds of leaving are much greater.

States have long struggled to attract teachers, and credentialing changes arent unusual. But some education advocates fear long-term repercussions.

Melissa Tooley, director of K-12 educator quality at the left-leaning think tank New America, said most states now offer alternative and fast-track teacher certification pathways, many of which allow candidates to start teaching with little or no pedagogical training in how to teach.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Were churning through people who might have potential, but were not setting them up for success, she said. A lot of what states are doing is short term. Its about filling seats, not necessarily building a sustainable or high-quality workforce.

More than 40 states require aspiring teachers to take the costly Praxis Subject test for the subject they want to teach, which some experts argue excludes strong candidates and duplicates other assessments.

You were excluding people who might be good teachers but didnt do well on that specific test, said Rutgers Gitomer, who has researched the tests effects on recruitment.

However, he added, dropping tests doesnt necessarily help.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Several states  Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Wisconsin  have dropped a licensure requirement known as edTPA since 2022, but theres little evidence the move has helped ease teacher shortages, Gitomer said. (The acronym stands for Educative Teacher Performance Assessment and involves a portfolio that includes testing and videos of classroom performance.)

The state eliminated edTPA but didnt replace it with a specific alternative, he said.

Instead, it gave full discretion back to individual institutions to develop or adopt their own performance assessments, he said. When we talked to institutions, it became pretty clear they didnt think removing edTPA would be a major driver in addressing the shortage  and they havent seen evidence that it has been.

How best to credential

Tooley said state credentialing systems must navigate a delicate balance: ensuring there are enough teachers, maintaining instructional quality and increasing workforce diversity.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Theres this triangle  three pieces that need to be in place  and I think there are real tensions when it comes to how states are designing their certification policies, she said.

And Gitomer described a fragmented national landscape, where some states are tightening teacher entry standards while others are dramatically loosening them  even allowing non-degreed individuals to teach.

Some states are trying to raise standards; others are relaxing them to the point where you may not even need a college degree, he said.

Indiana now requires all pre-K through grade 6 and special education teachers to complete 80 hours of training on the science of reading, a method that includes phonics, and pass an exam by 2027. State Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican, has proposed cutting the requirement in half, calling it an excessive burden with little actual benefit in a news release.

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In Texas, a bill aims to reduce the use of uncertified teachers by the 2029-30 school year. The legislation would set a gradual cap on the percentage of uncertified teachers districts can employ in core curriculum classes  starting at 20% in 2026-27 and decreasing to 5% in 2029-30.

According to the Texas Education Agency, 31% of new hires in 2024-25 lacked a state teaching certificate or permit.

Yet some states stand out for how theyre changing their requirements, Tooley said.

She pointed to Washington, which has designed a recruitment strategy encouraging paraprofessionals, often known as teachers aides, to become classroom teachers. Also known as paraeducators, theyre a group with classroom experience, community ties and higher retention likelihood.

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There, school districts are required to offer foundational training  ranging from 14 to 28 hours  directly to paraeducators.

In West Virginia, a new law now allows districts to count full-time behavior interventionists working in one or two classrooms toward meeting the required number of aides or paraprofessionals in K-3 classrooms.

Tooley noted that Pennsylvania and Alabama are experimenting with menu-style licensing flexibility  allowing candidates to demonstrate qualification through various combinations of GPA and test scores, rather than rigid cutoffs.

These are people already in schools, often from the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds as students, Tooley said. Theyre more likely to succeed and to stay.

Low pay

A 2024 national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that public school teachers are increasingly reporting declines in mental health, job satisfaction and classroom stability. Seventy percent of teachers recommended student mental health interventions, and nearly half said schools lack enough counselors, psychologists and social workers.

As mental well-being has worsened, the share of public school teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has also declined by 2 percentage points from the previous year, to 18%, according to the survey, which was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on behalf of Merrimack College.

While teacher wellness supports remain limited, educators say improvements in pay and student discipline are the most needed changes.

To entice passionate but burned out educators from leaving the workforce, several states have raised minimum teacher pay. Arkansas boosted salaries to $50,000 statewide, and South Carolina raised starting pay to $47,000 this year, giving it a boost to $48,500 next school year. South Dakota enacted a $45,000 minimum with yearly increases, and penalties for districts that fail to comply by 2026. Connecticut advanced a bill setting a $63,450 salary floor, while Indiana and others are eyeing further increases.

At the federal level, the proposed American Teacher Act seeks to establish a national $60,000 minimum salary for teachers at a qualifying school to boost recruitment and retention across the country. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, remains in committee.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
A public school teacher talks with students as the school year winds down in New York City. States are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages and are trying several tactics to woo educators, including changing teacher training and licensing requirements. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

As another school year ends, superintendents across the United States are staring down an autumn staffing crisis, with 1 in 8 teaching positions either vacant or filled by an underqualified educator.

States that are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages have spent millions to lure replacements and retain veterans with hiring bonuses and bumps in salaries. But hiring gaps remain, so some states also are trying another tactic: changing their standards.

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The changes in teacher training and licensing come amid widespread turmoil in public schools: Tax revenue is being siphoned toward private school vouchers in many states; some classrooms are being scrutinized for banned books, displays or teaching lessons that trip into diversity, equity and inclusion territory; and students who went through pandemic-era shutdowns are struggling both with sitting still and with learning the material.

Some surveys show that fewer than a fifth of teachers are happy in their jobs.

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now, said Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

COVID exacerbated things, and teachers are caught in the middle of political battles  over curriculum, book bans, even personal attacks, he said. Its not a healthy work environment, and that drives people away.

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Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now.

 Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education

Last year, Illinois enacted a law allowing teacher candidates to begin student teaching before passing content-area exams. It was an effort to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups, the measures sponsor said.

SC education changes

The following proposals involving K-12 public schools became law in 2025:

 Excused school absences, signed into law April 28. It requires school districts to excuse students for attending certain extracurricular events.

 K-12 scholarships for private tuition, signed May 7. It provides $7,500 scholarships for up to 10,000 students in 2025-26.

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 Educator Assistance Act, also signed May 7. Its changes include providing teachers dedicated planning time, more information on and flexibility with their contract, and the ability to count district training toward the 120 hours of continuing education credits needed to renew their teaching certificate every five years.

 Work experience credit, signed May 12. It allows people who change careers and become newly certified teachers to count prior years of work experience toward their paycheck.

 Noncertified teacher pilot program, also signed May 12. It allows schools to fill up to 10% of its teaching slots with noncertified teachers who have at least five years of relevant work experience. The five-year pilot program sunsets June 30, 2030.

 An approved change thats not yet law: The state budget will boost the minimum pay for teachers by $1,500 statewide across all experience levels. The floor for first-year teachers will be $48,500 in the coming school year.

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A bill under consideration this year would give more districts discretion over whether to factor pupils test scores into teacher evaluations, a break from a 15-year-old mandate.

In New Jersey, a new law formally removes the Praxis Core exam  traditionally used as an entry-level screening tool for aspiring teachers  from certification requirements.

And in Nevada  one of the states hit hardest by teacher shortages  a bill would streamline licensure for incoming educators. The bill would allow teachers credentialed in other states to begin working in Nevada classrooms while awaiting formal approval.

It also would remove extra steps for teachers switching grade levels and would waive application fees for recent substitute teachers.

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Linda Darling-Hammond, founding president and chief knowledge officer of the Learning Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said teacher shortages hit hardest in schools serving low-income students and students of color, where instability often leads to larger class sizes, canceled courses or a revolving door of substitute teachers.

When you walk into a school facing shortages, you see instability, she said. Students may be taught by people who dont know what to do, who leave quickly, and who often rely more on discipline than engagement.

The root cause? Teacher attrition.

Nine out of 10 vacancies every year are because of attrition  and two-thirds of that is not retirement, Darling-Hammond said. Support in the beginning matters. Teachers who come in and get a mentor stay longer. If youre just thrown in to sink or swim, the odds of leaving are much greater.

Advertisement Advertisement

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States have long struggled to attract teachers, and credentialing changes arent unusual. But some education advocates fear long-term repercussions.

Melissa Tooley, director of K-12 educator quality at the left-leaning think tank New America, said most states now offer alternative and fast-track teacher certification pathways, many of which allow candidates to start teaching with little or no pedagogical training in how to teach.

Were churning through people who might have potential, but were not setting them up for success, she said. A lot of what states are doing is short term. Its about filling seats, not necessarily building a sustainable or high-quality workforce.

More than 40 states require aspiring teachers to take the costly Praxis Subject test for the subject they want to teach, which some experts argue excludes strong candidates and duplicates other assessments.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

You were excluding people who might be good teachers but didnt do well on that specific test, said Rutgers Gitomer, who has researched the tests effects on recruitment.

However, he added, dropping tests doesnt necessarily help.

Several states  Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Wisconsin  have dropped a licensure requirement known as edTPA since 2022, but theres little evidence the move has helped ease teacher shortages, Gitomer said. (The acronym stands for Educative Teacher Performance Assessment and involves a portfolio that includes testing and videos of classroom performance.)

The state eliminated edTPA but didnt replace it with a specific alternative, he said.

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Instead, it gave full discretion back to individual institutions to develop or adopt their own performance assessments, he said. When we talked to institutions, it became pretty clear they didnt think removing edTPA would be a major driver in addressing the shortage  and they havent seen evidence that it has been.

How best to credential

Tooley said state credentialing systems must navigate a delicate balance: ensuring there are enough teachers, maintaining instructional quality and increasing workforce diversity.

Theres this triangle  three pieces that need to be in place  and I think there are real tensions when it comes to how states are designing their certification policies, she said.

And Gitomer described a fragmented national landscape, where some states are tightening teacher entry standards while others are dramatically loosening them  even allowing non-degreed individuals to teach.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Some states are trying to raise standards; others are relaxing them to the point where you may not even need a college degree, he said.

Indiana now requires all pre-K through grade 6 and special education teachers to complete 80 hours of training on the science of reading, a method that includes phonics, and pass an exam by 2027. State Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican, has proposed cutting the requirement in half, calling it an excessive burden with little actual benefit in a news release.

In Texas, a bill aims to reduce the use of uncertified teachers by the 2029-30 school year. The legislation would set a gradual cap on the percentage of uncertified teachers districts can employ in core curriculum classes  starting at 20% in 2026-27 and decreasing to 5% in 2029-30.

According to the Texas Education Agency, 31% of new hires in 2024-25 lacked a state teaching certificate or permit.

A South Carolina law signed by Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this month is testing the idea, starting smaller. It will newly allow districts to fill up to 10% of its teaching slots with noncertified instructors who have at least five years of relevant work experience in their subject. A proposal that died last year wouldve allowed up to a quarter of teachers to be noncertified.

Yet some states stand out for how theyre changing their requirements, Tooley said.

She pointed to Washington, which has designed a recruitment strategy encouraging paraprofessionals, often known as teachers aides, to become classroom teachers. Also known as paraeducators, theyre a group with classroom experience, community ties and higher retention likelihood.

There, school districts are required to offer foundational training  ranging from 14 to 28 hours  directly to paraeducators.

In West Virginia, a new law now allows districts to count full-time behavior interventionists working in one or two classrooms toward meeting the required number of aides or paraprofessionals in K-3 classrooms.

Tooley noted that Pennsylvania and Alabama are experimenting with menu-style licensing flexibility  allowing candidates to demonstrate qualification through various combinations of GPA and test scores, rather than rigid cutoffs.

These are people already in schools, often from the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds as students, Tooley said. Theyre more likely to succeed and to stay.

Low pay

A 2024 national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that public school teachers are increasingly reporting declines in mental health, job satisfaction and classroom stability. Seventy percent of teachers recommended student mental health interventions, and nearly half said schools lack enough counselors, psychologists and social workers.

As mental well-being has worsened, the share of public school teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has also declined by 2 percentage points from the previous year, to 18%, according to the survey, which was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on behalf of Merrimack College.

While teacher wellness supports remain limited, educators say improvements in pay and student discipline are the most needed changes.

To entice passionate but burned out educators from leaving the workforce, several states have raised minimum teacher pay. Arkansas boosted salaries to $50,000 statewide.

In South Carolina, the state-set minimum salaries for all teachers will increase by $1,500 in the coming school year. That will boost the floor for first-year teachers to $48,500, representing a 72% increase in teachers starting pay since 2017. McMaster has set a goal of raising that floor to $50,000 next year.

South Dakota enacted a $45,000 minimum with yearly increases, and penalties for districts that fail to comply by 2026. Connecticut advanced a bill setting a $63,450 salary floor, while Indiana and others are eyeing further increases.

At the federal level, the proposed American Teacher Act seeks to establish a national $60,000 minimum salary for teachers at a qualifying school to boost recruitment and retention across the country. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, remains in committee.

SC Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.

Like the SC Daily Gazette, Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.
A public school teacher talks with students as the school year winds down in New York City. States are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages and are trying several tactics to woo educators, including changing teacher training and licensing requirements. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

This story originally appeared on Stateline.

As another school year ends, superintendents across the United States are staring down an autumn staffing crisis, with 1 in 8 teaching positions either vacant or filled by an underqualified educator.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

States that are struggling with post-pandemic teacher shortages have spent millions to lure replacements and retain veterans with hiring bonuses and bumps in salaries. But hiring gaps remain, so some states also are trying another tactic: changing their standards.

The changes in teacher training and licensing come amid widespread turmoil in public schools: Tax revenue is being siphoned toward private school vouchers in many states; some classrooms are being scrutinized for banned books, displays or teaching lessons that trip into diversity, equity and inclusion territory; and students who went through pandemic-era shutdowns are struggling both with sitting still and with learning the material.

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Some surveys show that fewer than a fifth of teachers are happy in their jobs.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now, said Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

COVID exacerbated things, and teachers are caught in the middle of political battles  over curriculum, book bans, even personal attacks, he said. Its not a healthy work environment, and that drives people away.

Teaching is not seen as an attractive profession right now.

 Drew Gitomer, an expert on teaching assessment at Rutgers Graduate School of Education

Last year, Illinois enacted a law allowing teacher candidates to begin student teaching before passing content-area exams. It was an effort to reduce barriers for underrepresented groups, the measures sponsor said.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

A bill under consideration this year would give more districts discretion over whether to factor pupils test scores into teacher evaluations, a break from a 15-year-old mandate.

In New Jersey, a new law formally removes the Praxis Core exam  traditionally used as an entry-level screening tool for aspiring teachers  from certification requirements.

And in Nevada  one of the states hit hardest by teacher shortages  a bill would streamline licensure for incoming educators. The bill would allow teachers credentialed in other states to begin working in Nevada classrooms while awaiting formal approval.

It also would remove extra steps for teachers switching grade levels and would waive application fees for recent substitute teachers.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Linda Darling-Hammond, founding president and chief knowledge officer of the Learning Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said teacher shortages hit hardest in schools serving low-income students and students of color, where instability often leads to larger class sizes, canceled courses or a revolving door of substitute teachers.

When you walk into a school facing shortages, you see instability, she said. Students may be taught by people who dont know what to do, who leave quickly, and who often rely more on discipline than engagement.

The root cause? Teacher attrition.

Nine out of 10 vacancies every year are because of attrition  and two-thirds of that is not retirement, Darling-Hammond said. Support in the beginning matters. Teachers who come in and get a mentor stay longer. If youre just thrown in to sink or swim, the odds of leaving are much greater.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

States have long struggled to attract teachers, and credentialing changes arent unusual. But some education advocates fear long-term repercussions.

Melissa Tooley, director of K-12 educator quality at the left-leaning think tank New America, said most states now offer alternative and fast-track teacher certification pathways, many of which allow candidates to start teaching with little or no pedagogical training in how to teach.

Were churning through people who might have potential, but were not setting them up for success, she said. A lot of what states are doing is short term. Its about filling seats, not necessarily building a sustainable or high-quality workforce.

More than 40 states require aspiring teachers to take the costly Praxis Subject test for the subject they want to teach, which some experts argue excludes strong candidates and duplicates other assessments.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

You were excluding people who might be good teachers but didnt do well on that specific test, said Rutgers Gitomer, who has researched the tests effects on recruitment.

However, he added, dropping tests doesnt necessarily help.

Several states  Georgia, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Wisconsin  have dropped a licensure requirement known as edTPA since 2022, but theres little evidence the move has helped ease teacher shortages, Gitomer said. (The acronym stands for Educative Teacher Performance Assessment and involves a portfolio that includes testing and videos of classroom performance.)

The state eliminated edTPA but didnt replace it with a specific alternative, he said.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Instead, it gave full discretion back to individual institutions to develop or adopt their own performance assessments, he said. When we talked to institutions, it became pretty clear they didnt think removing edTPA would be a major driver in addressing the shortage  and they havent seen evidence that it has been.

How best to credential

Tooley said state credentialing systems must navigate a delicate balance: ensuring there are enough teachers, maintaining instructional quality and increasing workforce diversity.

Theres this triangle  three pieces that need to be in place  and I think there are real tensions when it comes to how states are designing their certification policies, she said.

And Gitomer described a fragmented national landscape, where some states are tightening teacher entry standards while others are dramatically loosening them  even allowing non-degreed individuals to teach.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Some states are trying to raise standards; others are relaxing them to the point where you may not even need a college degree, he said.

Indiana now requires all pre-K through grade 6 and special education teachers to complete 80 hours of training on the science of reading, a method that includes phonics, and pass an exam by 2027. State Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican, has proposed cutting the requirement in half, calling it an excessive burden with little actual benefit in a news release.

In Texas, a bill aims to reduce the use of uncertified teachers by the 2029-30 school year. The legislation would set a gradual cap on the percentage of uncertified teachers districts can employ in core curriculum classes  starting at 20% in 2026-27 and decreasing to 5% in 2029-30.

According to the Texas Education Agency, 31% of new hires in 2024-25 lacked a state teaching certificate or permit.

Advertisement Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Yet some states stand out for how theyre changing their requirements, Tooley said.

She pointed to Washington, which has designed a recruitment strategy encouraging paraprofessionals, often known as teachers aides, to become classroom teachers. Also known as paraeducators, theyre a group with classroom experience, community ties and higher retention likelihood.

There, school districts are required to offer foundational training  ranging from 14 to 28 hours  directly to paraeducators.

In West Virginia, a new law now allows districts to count full-time behavior interventionists working in one or two classrooms toward meeting the required number of aides or paraprofessionals in K-3 classrooms.

Tooley noted that Pennsylvania and Alabama are experimenting with menu-style licensing flexibility  allowing candidates to demonstrate qualification through various combinations of GPA and test scores, rather than rigid cutoffs.

These are people already in schools, often from the same cultural or linguistic backgrounds as students, Tooley said. Theyre more likely to succeed and to stay.

Low pay

A 2024 national survey by the EdWeek Research Center found that public school teachers are increasingly reporting declines in mental health, job satisfaction and classroom stability. Seventy percent of teachers recommended student mental health interventions, and nearly half said schools lack enough counselors, psychologists and social workers.

As mental well-being has worsened, the share of public school teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has also declined by 2 percentage points from the previous year, to 18%, according to the survey, which was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center on behalf of Merrimack College.

While teacher wellness supports remain limited, educators say improvements in pay and student discipline are the most needed changes.

To entice passionate but burned out educators from leaving the workforce, several states have raised minimum teacher pay. Arkansas boosted salaries to $50,000 statewide, and South Carolina raised starting pay to $47,000. South Dakota enacted a $45,000 minimum with yearly increases, and penalties for districts that fail to comply by 2026. Connecticut advanced a bill setting a $63,450 salary floor, while Indiana and others are eyeing further increases.

At the federal level, the proposed American Teacher Act seeks to establish a national $60,000 minimum salary for teachers at a qualifying school to boost recruitment and retention across the country. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Florida Democrat, remains in committee.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
The State of Ohio is spending millions of dollars to protect our community during the Spring 2025 NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

The event starts on Thursday and runs through Memorial Day in downtown Dayton.

According to data News Center 7 got from the Downtown Dayton Partnership, on average, downtown has 180,317 visitors per week. The Downtown Dayton Partnership says that number includes residents, employees, and visitors and says it defines downtown Dayton as a 0.5-mile radius from 6 N. Main Street.

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The News Center 7 I-Teams lead investigative reporter, John Bedell, looked into security measures, the public money price tag and talked to some of the people impacted by the changes people will notice downtown put in place for the NATO event.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Earlier this month, we talked to Lewis Roberts in the middle of one of his regular walks through downtown. His normal route takes him through RiverScape MetroPark.

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Its good to keep this old body moving, Roberts said with a laugh.

On that same day, we met Jessica Nenn, a downtown resident, sitting on a park swing enjoying RiverScape  and the view along the banks of the Great Miami River on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Its beautiful, Nenn said. Its peaceful in the evening time after work.

Beginning today, enjoying RiverScape wont be possible for a few days. The park will be contained within a secure perimeter, part of the security measures for the NATO event.

People will notice things like barriers and fencing around the border of the NATO village. Its a roughly 16-square-block area of downtown Dayton with restricted access and increased security.

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We know theres a lot of opportunists who will come here that necessarily arent coming for positive reasons, and we have to keep everyone safe, Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein told the I-Team.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is providing state troopers to help the Dayton Police Department with security.

That way, Dayton officers can handle their normal daily patrols across the community while also having to focus on the NATO event for several days.

The security plan, which is being funded by the state, largely depends on a large number of (state troopers) coming from (the) Ohio State (Highway) Patrol who will come in and work NATO village for us and do the security at the other ancillary sites along with Dayton PD, Dickstein said. So we will still have full coverage of the rest of the city  for our policing, for our fire, for public works. So were pleased about that.

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In an interview with the I-Team about state aid for the NATO event, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said, I dont want to talk about the numbers (of state troopers), but were going to put whatever number of people in there that are necessary.

Event planners have told the I-Team that NATO does not reimburse host cities for expenses related to the event.

But $2 million from the federal government will help support holding the NATO assembly.

Additionally, the Ohio Controlling Board approved releasing $4.3 million through the Ohio Department of Public Safety to help the City of Dayton and Montgomery County with costs associated with safety and security for the event.

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$2.8 million of that will go to the City of Dayton to reimburse costs incurred for policing, fire, public works, and equipment expenses.

$1.3 million to provide security for the event went to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

And $100,000 each went to Montgomery County and the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA) for county and state emergency operations center activation costs.

Federal, state, county, and local leaders have spent months planning for the event.

From the beginning, it was always framed as the federal money would go towards the program, along with business sponsorships  our local business community is really stepping up and sponsoring a lot of the programming activities, Dickstein said. And the state would take care of the security.

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Aside from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Gov. DeWine told the I-Team the Ohio National Guard will be involved.

Weve got the highway patrol, DeWine said. They have air assets, they have ground assets, of course, intelligence units. So theyre going to all be involved. We also have the National Guard. The National Guard, again, has other expertise in different areas. We probably wont go into the details. They have specialized expertise, and theyre going to be very much involved.

During the interview with the governor, Bedell asked DeWine what he thought when he first learned the NATO event was coming to Dayton.

Well, I think it was great news, and this is a big event, DeWine said. We like to have big events in Dayton. But its also a security issue. And so as the governor, thats one of the things I first started thinking about. I think about youve got people from dozens and dozens of countries, important people, coming to one place, coming to Dayton. So, you know, that was my first thought: how are we going to handle that? The security.

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The I-Team asked Dickstein that same question. Oh, I thought it was an exciting opportunity, she said. Its not every day that somebody comes to us and says, hey, Daytons going to get a chance to be on the international stage and have an international spotlight. Of course, there are a lot of questions and a lot of, oh, OK, and what does it entail? And when is it happening? And what do we have? You know, all that preparation. But it ultimately is a great opportunity for Dayton.

Dickstein said later in that interview with the I-Team: Its important that this event go well for Ohio, too. I mean, Ohio is under the international spotlight. So we are very pleased and excited for the partnership with the state, and we couldnt have done this event without it.

In all, Gov. DeWine told the News Center 7 I-Team, seven or eight different state agencies, different departments will be involved in securing the event.

The NATO village closures will interrupt downtown life in spots, like the hustle and bustle of a pizza shop.

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Wednesday is the start of a six-day break at Flying Pizza at the corner of First and Main Streets.

I guess we get a vacation, Tony Graci, with Flying Pizza in downtown Dayton, said. If theres no foot traffic, if customers cant come in to pick up their pizzas, thats tough. So, we dont really want to be in here for that time.

Flying Pizza isnt the only business within the NATO village to close during the NATO event.

Right across the street, Hotel Ardent and Bistecca will be closed to the public during the event.

A spokesperson who said they handle public relations for the hotel and restaurant told the I-Team in an emailed statement:

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In support of the upcoming NATO Parliamentary Assembly, which will take place in Dayton from May 22 to 26, and in coordination with relevant authorities and security measures, Hotel Ardent and Bistecca will be temporarily closed to the public during this period. We view Daytons selection as host for this important international gathering as a positive and exciting opportunity for the city and region. While this temporary closure may affect public access, we are proud to play a part in supporting a secure and successful event.

People who enjoy visiting and live in downtown Dayton will have to navigate the road closures and extra security measures for a few days as officials work to protect the event and our community.

It shouldnt bother you to find a new route, Roberts said. It shouldnt take you long. You know, Dayton is not that large.

Nenn, whose downtown apartment is within the NATO village boundary, said, As citizens who live here, well just have to try to make it work.

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The GOP renamed "MAGA accounts" to "Trump accounts."

If approved, $1,000 will go to any baby born between 2024 and 2028.

Sen. Ted Cruz  the person who came up with the idea  says he doesn't mind the Trumpified name.

First, they were called "MAGA accounts." Now, they're "Trump accounts."

As part of their "One Big Beautiful Bill," Republicans on Capitol Hill want to establish new investment accounts for American children. Under the plan, babies born after January 31, 2024 and before January 1, 2029  essentially, the last three years of President Donald Trump's term  will receive $1,000 for the account from the federal government.

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The original name was an acronym for "Money Account for Growth and Advancement"  the same initials as Trump's political movement. In a last-minute change before the House passed their version of the "Big Beautiful Bill" on Thursday, "MAGA" was replaced with "Trump."

While the president stands to get the credit, it was Sen. Ted Cruz's idea to create "Invest America" accounts. The Texas Republican says he doesn't mind.

"What I care is that they remain in there," Cruz told BI, referring to the provision's inclusion in the larger bill. "I think it doesn't matter what they're called. What it matters is what they do."

In terms of political branding, it's further than other recent presidents have gone. President Joe Biden, for instance, chose not to sign COVID-19 stimulus checks like Trump did  though he later said it was "stupid" not to do so.

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Other government-backed programs have taken on the name of their creators. The Affordable Care Act, championed by President Barack Obama, is commonly known as "Obamacare," though that was initially a Republican epithet. And Sens. William Roth and Claiborne Pell have also found their names written into the tax code.

"That is not unusual," Cruz said. "You have things like Roth IRAs that were named after Senator Roth. You have things like Pell Grants that were named after Senator Pell. You have things like Obamacare that were named after President Obama."

It's unclear exactly why the accounts were named after Trump, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Cruz had pitched the idea as a way to give kids a stake in the free market from an early age, allowing them to potentially reap financial benefits down the line while making them less likely to support socialism.

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"It enables every newborn child in America to experience the enormous benefits of compounded growth, and to accumulate significant resources with the passage of time," Cruz said. "It creates a generation of new capitalists."

According to the bill, individuals with "Trump accounts" will be able to use the savings for things like higher education and first-time home purchases starting at age 18.

Money taken out of the account for those purposes will be taxed as long-term capital gains, while money withdrawn for other purposes is taxed as regular income.

Read the original article on Business Insider
SANDUSKY, Ohio (WJW)  The FOX 8 I-Team has learned a teen boy is now facing charges after three girls said he assaulted them while they were waiting in line for a ride at Cedar Point this past weekend.

Sandusky police reports said the victims, a 13-year-old and two 14-year-olds, told officers the boy struck them in the back of the head after he cut in front of them as they were waiting in line for a roller coaster ride.

Police said the boy was at the amusement park with a group from his school.

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Woman hospitalized after fiery car explosion in Euclid

Before police questioned him, school officials called his mother and his mother would not allow officers to talk to the boy about the matter.

The boy was charged with three counts of assault.

Examining Perrysburg Schools identity fraud case through a legal lens

This type of behavior is not acceptable, said Sandusky Lt. Chris Denny. Acts of violence are not going to be tolerated from us or Cedar Point. The safety and well being of the guests are a top priority of the Sandusky Police Department.

Police said the three girls were injured and were taken for treatment.

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The boy was released and is expected in Erie County Juvenile Court soon to face the charges.

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CHARLOTTE (QUEEN CITY NEWS)  A federal judge in Florida has rejected arguments made by an artificial intelligence company that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment, at least for now.

The developers behind Character.AI are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the companys chatbots pushed a teenage boy to kill himself. Chief Legal Analyst Khalif Rhodes explains the lawsuit and legal challenges.

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Three Florida teenagers face serious charges after allegedly kidnapping a Las Vegas man at gunpoint and stealing $4 million in cryptocurrency and digital assets, according to KTSM 9 News.

Belal Ashraf and Austin Fletcher, both 16, along with a third unidentified teen, are accused of orchestrating the scheme after the man hosted a crypto-related event in downtown Las Vegas last November.

When he returned to his apartment after the event, the teens allegedly ambushed him, forced him into a vehicle, drove him 70 miles to a remote area in the Mojave Desert, placed a towel over his head and threatened his life while demanding passwords to his accounts.

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[The victim] was told if he complied, he would live to see another day, and if he did not comply, they had his dad and would kill him, police documents state.

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The man was left stranded in the desert. He walked five miles to a gas station and called for help.

Surveillance footage and a vehicle stop in Mississippi later helped investigators link the suspects to the crime.

Victim stranded in desert, police identify suspects on video

Law enforcement matched a gun linked to one teens family with images from social media, revealing that all three teens were connected with the same Florida high school.

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Authorities charged Ashraf and Fletcher as adults with kidnapping, robbery and extortion.

Fletchers bail is set at $4 million, while Ashraf awaits release under electronic monitoring. KTSM 9 News reports that the third suspect may have left the country. The FBI is assisting with the investigation.

Read more: You're probably already overpaying for this 1 'must-have' expense  and thanks to Trump's tariffs, your monthly bill could soar even higher. Here's how 2 minutes can protect your wallet right now

The suspects are accused of stealing millions in cryptocurrency and NFTs from the victims accounts.

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The $4-million heist in Las Vegas underscores a stark reality: holding large amounts of cryptocurrency can make you a target for violent criminals.

Crypto theft on the rise

Digital assets like bitcoins are designed for fast and anonymous transfers. That means theyre hard to trace if stolen.

And unlike money in a traditional bank, most crypto holdings are not federally insured  leaving victims with limited recourse to recover their digital assets if stolen.

Storing cryptocurrency private keys offline in a physical device, or cold wallet  as opposed to online in a device with an internet connection  can reduce the risk of cryptocurrency theft.

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But even that cold storage option is not foolproof. Unless backups are carefully stored, a lost or damaged cold wallet can result in catastrophic loss.

Moreover, a thief can steal a cold wallet, or force a user to hand over passwords.

According to the FTC, Americans lost over $12.5 billion to crypto-related fraud in 2024. As digital assets become mainstream, experts warn that casual investors and high-net-worth holders are vulnerable.

Some exchanges have begun rolling out stronger authentication and wallet recovery tools. For now, users shoulder much of the responsibility.

Experts recommend enabling multi-factor authentication and storing recovery keys in multiple secure locations.

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As this case shows, theft doesnt always happen behind a keyboard in the world of digital currency. Sometimes, its face-to-face, and at gunpoint  where the physical and psychological risks are of greater concern than cryptocurrency losses.

What to read next

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
People visit the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province, May 20, 2025. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows stone axes displayed at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

People visit the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province, May 20, 2025. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows a clay pot with engraved patterns displayed at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows potteries displayed at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows a zun, a type of Chinese ritual ceramic wine vessel with a vase-like form, displayed at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

A staff member restores cultural relics at an archaeology workstation of the Dawenkou site in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province, May 20, 2025. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Chen Shuo)

An aerial drone photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows the Dawen River (upper L), Dawenkou Site Museum (upper R) and the core area of the Dawenkou site in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Chen Shuo)

This photo taken on May 20, 2025 shows a pottery pot displayed at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)

People look at a piece of cultural relics through multimedia demonstration at the Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an, east China's Shandong Province, May 20, 2025. The 2,600-square-meter Dawenkou Site Museum in Tai'an shows the origin, development, connotation and importance of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 B.C.-2600 B.C.), a culture of the late Neolithic Age, to the public through relics display, scene restoration and multimedia demonstration, etc. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  As members of Project Prison Resets task force consider where to recommend building a new mens prison in South Dakota, two city of Sioux Falls officials are making clear where they dont want the penitentiarys replacement to go.

Mayor-Paul-TenHaken-05.09.2025Download

A letter dated May 6 from the office of Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken was received May 9 by the governors office in Pierre. The letter, which is signed by TenHaken and Sioux Falls Police Chief Jon Thum, addresses six different proposed locations for a new mens prison in the state. It asks the task force to look at the long-term well-being of the communities that support our state.

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Report: New law will add to more prison needs

TenHaken and Thum oppose two proposed locations within Sioux Falls city limits: land to the immediate southwest of the intersection between Interstate 90 and Interstate 29 as well as the former Citibank campus in north Sioux Falls. Theyre similarly opposed to two other locations which are nearly within Sioux Falls city limits: one at the intersection of 259th Street and Marion Road and another south of Interstate 90 to the west of the city.

In the letter, the mayor and police chief write that locations close to Foundation Park, the corridor of Cliff Avenue and 60th Street and the intersection of I-29 and I-90 are areas of significant strategic importancenot simply for Sioux Falls, but for the state as a whole.

Thum and TenHaken say these spots impact investment, commerce and visibility for the whole state. Putting a prison in one of those four locations, they write, would constrain these advantages and limit the contributions Sioux Falls is able to make.

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Two proposed locations for the new prison do, however, have TenHaken and Thums approval. One is in the Worthing, S.D. area south of Sioux Falls on Highway 18, and the other is the familiar site in Lincoln County between Harrisburg and Canton where a bill in Pierre failed to receive enough votes to appropriate money to build a prison. Nevertheless, it remains an option for the project.

KELOLAND News reached out Wednesday to the mayors office as well as the Sioux Falls Police Department for interviews with TenHaken and Thum, but neither were made available. Project Prison Resets next meeting is scheduled for June 3 in Pierre.

Another letter, from the Sioux Falls Development Foundation dated May 9, was also sent to the governors office.

doc00283320250509144900Download

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Members of Project Prison Reset are also considering information from a study completed by consultant Arrington Watkins that points to an even bigger need. Work group members told KELOLAND News the state will need to review incarceration policies to find ways to reduce incarceration and recidivism numbers in the state.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WATE)  Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation on Wednesday to ban Glock switches, making Tennessee the 27th state in the nation to do so.

The legislation was sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and passed with bipartisan support.

Machinegun Conversion Devices or switches are aftermarket gun accessories that make semi-automatic handguns or rifles fire like fully automatic weapons.

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What are Glock switches?

The Tennessee chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action praised the new law in statements released on Wednesday.

Todays victory speaks volumes to the bipartisan progress that we canand mustmake together to prevent gun violence in Tennessee, said Linda McFadyen-Ketchum, a volunteer with the Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action. Banning Glock switches is just common sense  these devices turn everyday guns into illegal machine guns, and they have no place in our communities. This win is a meaningful step toward making Tennessee safer for everyone.

According to a release from the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety, Tennessee has the 11th-highest rate of gun deaths and the 8th-highest rate of gun homicide in the U.S.

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Banning Glock switches is bad news for criminals who want to inflict maximum damage with a single pull of the trigger, and lifesaving news for law enforcement and the communities theyre charged with protecting, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. We applaud Tennessee lawmakers for forging a bipartisan response to the threat of Glock switches, and urge them to keep working together on common-sense solutions to gun violence.

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May 21TERRA ALTA  Members of the Terra Alta City Council met Tuesday evening to discuss the 2025-26 fiscal year budget and levies after failing to send its spending plan to the state this year.

During the monthly meeting, Mayor Dan Hauger shared there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

"Late in the day today [Tuesday ], we had some correspondence back-and-forth with the state, " Hauger said. "What we have to do is hurry up and prepare the budget and then submit that budget to the state. Then what [the state ] is going to do is take it to their law office and see what they can do to work something out to help us."

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Hauger added the state had provided documentation to help the city rebuild the 2025-26 budget.

There are possible consequences for turning the budget in late, however those consequences are still unknown at this time, Hauger noted.

The loss of the levy funds will heavily impact the library, the mayor said.

"The levy money would impact the library more than any other entity in the town, " he said. "And that would be crucialso if we can save it, we certainly want to."

Hayden Erwin, director of communications for the West Virginia State Auditor's Office, said Wednesday that current law prohibits the auditor from approving a levy rate after May 1.

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"If a municipality fails to file a valid budget, it may be unable to collect property taxes for that fiscal year, " he said. "While our office provides technical assistance, responsibility for compliance lies with local officials."

Erwin added some of the consequences could include the exclusion of the municipality from county tax rolls.

The auditor's office has never seen a municipality fail to meet all deadlines, Erwin said.

"To our knowledge, we have never had a municipality miss every deadline, though we continue offering our support as things progress, " he said.

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Cross Kisner, an associate accountant at Dorinda Kisner CPA, told the council the failure to submit a budget to the state will result in a loss in levy funds.

The state "indicated that this will result in an estimated loss of approximately $210, 000 due to the forfeiture of both the regular levy and the excess levy, " Kisner said. "This outcome raised a broader concern regarding the town's future eligibility for levy revenue."

Kisner added the levy rate will be reduced proportionately, to where the levy can produce no more than 101 % of the previous year's projected property tax revenues.

"No matter what percentage you take of zero, it will always be zero, " Kisner said.

During the public comments portion of the meeting, former recorder Josh Dodge shared his displeasure with the current council's oversight in the failure to submit the 2025-26 budget.
Supporters of legislation that would have effectively banned the sale of "puppy mill" dogs and cats have admitted defeat as the 140-day legislative session hurtles toward final adjournment June 2.

The twin pieces of legislation, House Bill 3458 by North Texas Republican state Rep. Jared Patterson and Senate Bill 1652 by South Texas Democratic Sen. Judith Zaffirini, were among scores of proposals that enjoyed bipartisan support but did not move quickly enough to meet key deadlines.

More than 30 dogs were found underweight, sick or injured in 2016-2017 at Pamela Baldwin's kennel in Missouri. State inspectors found a basset hound with eyes completely covered with a pus-like mucoid discharge; records showed the licensee was aware that the dog had an eye disorder, yet she had not been providing any recent treatment.

The measures would have ended the retail sale of puppies and kittens in pet stores across Texas, cutting off a key supply line for out-of-state puppy mills that profit from inhumane breeding practices.

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Failing to pass the Ethical Pet Sales Bill signals that cruelty and consumer fraud will be allowed to continue in Texas unchecked, said Shelby Bobosky, executive director of the Texas Humane Legislation Network. "Texas can and must do better."

Several large cities, including Austin, San Antonio and Houston, have ordinances governing the sale of puppies and kittens within their boundaries. Two years ago, legislation stalled that would have imposed pet store regulations statewide.

Instead, state lawmakers passed a measure that curtailed local governmental entities from enacting a wide range of regulatory ordinances, including those aimed at pet stores. The law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, did not strike down pet store ordinances already on the books, but prevented other local governments from imposing similar measures.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas bill to ban pet store 'puppy mill' sales is doomed: supporters
(The Texas Tribune)  The House voted 129-6 on Wednesday to preliminarily approve a bill to clarify Texas near-total abortion ban, after it passed the Senate unanimously last month. Despite wide bipartisan support for the bill, some conservative lawmakers raised concerns about whether this would create a loophole allowing doctors to rubber stamp otherwise prohibited abortions.

Bill sponsor Rep. Charlie Geren, a Republican from Fort Worth, stressed that this was not a choice bill, but rather an attempt to ensure the existing limits of the law are clear, consistent, fair and understandable.

We do not want women to die from medical emergencies during their pregnancy, Geren said. We dont want womens lives to be destroyed because their bodies have been seriously impaired.

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Texas banned all abortions three years ago, with a narrow exception that allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy only to save a pregnant patients life. Immediately, doctors and legal experts warned that this exception was too narrow and vaguely written, and the penalties too severe, to ensure that women could get life-saving care.

That has proven true in many cases. Dozens of women have come forward with stories of medically necessary abortions delayed or denied, and at least three women have died as a result of these laws. Faced with these stories, Republican lawmakers have conceded that the language of the law might need some clearing up.

Senate Bill 31, also called the Life of the Mother Act, does not expand the exceptions or restore abortion access. It instead aims to clarify when a doctor can terminate a pregnancy under the existing exceptions by aligning language among the states abortion laws, codifying court rulings and requiring education for doctors and lawyers on the nuances of the law.

The bill was tightly negotiated among lobbyists for doctors and hospitals, anti-abortion groups and Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, who authored the bill, and Geren.

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These groups dont always see eye to eye, Geren said. But in this case, they worked together to ensure pregnant women with pregnancy complications get appropriate and timely care.

Clarification, or promoting abortion?

In the Senate, Republicans threw their support behind the bill, while Democrats pushed back on its narrowness, noting that Texas law still does not allow abortions in cases of rape, incest or lethal fetal anomalies.

The folks who are working on this fix are, from my perspective, the folks who have created the problem, said Houston Sen. Molly Cook. Over the past four years, weve watched women suffer and die, and this bill is the confirmation that we all agree that something is broken in Texas.

In the House, however, the bill faced headwinds from the right, as conservative Republicans rallied to the idea that this bill would allow doctors to resume elective abortions. Rep. Brent Money, a Greenville Republican, said he believed the laws were clear as written but there had been malicious interpretations by pro-abortion doctors.

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People that want to promote abortion have tried to make it murky what our current law is, Money said. And so my question is to you, is this law written to ensure that malicious actors wont be able to find loopholes to allow abortions that would not be allowed under our current law?

Geren touted his own perfect record of voting for every anti-abortion measure thats come before the House in his long career, and assured Money and his fellow conservatives that this was not an end-run around the laws.

We are in no way promoting abortion on this, Geren said, adding later that if a doctor were to abuse this clarification, they could face 99 years in prison and they would deserve it.

Many anti-abortion Republican women rallied to Gerens side, including Rep. Shelby Slawson, a Stephenville Republican who carried the bill in 2021 that led to Texas banning nearly all abortions. She framed this bill as just codifying the Legislatures original intent to protect the lives of pregnant women. They took the mic to offer up examples of times doctors should be allowed to terminate a pregnancy  in cases of cancer diagnoses, kidney failure, premature membrane rupture, ectopic pregnancies.

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But still, some Republicans were not appeased. Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Deer Park lawyer who has been involved in some of the states most contentious abortion litigation, asked Geren if more or less babies will die as a result of this bill. Geren conceded that by affirming that doctors can perform abortions to save a womans life, it was possible more babies would die, although he noted that many women were traveling out-of-state to get the same medical care they were denied in Texas.

Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican, said he was alarmed to hear Gerens comments, and said it was the height of irresponsibility to tinker with these pro-life protections that have already saved countless lives.

Some doctors groups, including the Texas chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have criticized the bill for not going far enough to protect doctors and the patients they treat. Others say these changes will be sufficient to free doctors to perform medically necessary abortions without fear of lengthy prison sentences and massive fines.

At the end of the day, our hope is that political differences can be set aside, because at the heart of this is a pregnant mother whose health and safety are on the line, Texas Hospital Association president John Hawkins said in a statement. Hospitals and doctors need to be able to act on the medical facts and merits in front of them, without fear of prosecution. We sincerely believe this will have an immediate and positive impact, helping us provide life-saving care to our patients.

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Despite the back-and-forth between Republican factions over the bill, it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with just six Republicans, including Harrison, voting no. Ten Republicans, including Cain and Money, declined to vote on the measure.

The House also preliminarily approved Senate Bill 33 on Wednesday, which prohibits a city or county from using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion-related expenses. The bill is aimed at Austin and San Antonio, where city officials have allocated budget dollars to support abortion funds that help pay for people to travel to abortion clinics out-of-state. Despite efforts from Democrats to kill the bill on procedural grounds, it passed 89-57.

Disclosure: Texas Hospital Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at www.texastribune.org. The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

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TEXAS (KMID/KPEJ) The Texas House of Representatives voted to approve a bill preliminarily that will fully ban any consumable hemp products that contain THC.

The approval comes days after the debate between the Texas House and Senate on which version of Senate Bill 3 would make it to the governors desk. Members of the House had to address whether or not the state would remove products with THC or heavily regulate them.

State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, laid out his bill Wednesday night, which would have banned synthetic THC, like Delta 8, and edibles and snacks that contain THC. However, it would legalize drinks with less than 0.3% THC. The bill would also not allow stores that sell these products to be near schools.

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Some members who are veterans raised questions about the veteran population that uses THC products to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Currently the state has the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), which gives some people access to low-THC products to treat certain conditions, but there are complaints it is not expansive enough.

King passed a bill to expand TCUP, HB 46, but doubts were raised on the House floor that it may not be approved in the Senate.

As debate and questions were thrown on the House floor about TCUP, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted on social media, I am in full support of expanding the TCUP. We will expand licenses and have satellite locations for the first time for prescribed products from doctors for our veterans and those.

Recently our Paxton Graf visited with a local and statewide operator to discuss how this bill would affect them if passed. You can view that story here.

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AUSTIN (Nexstar)  The Texas House of Representatives approved a bill that will fully ban any consumable hemp products that contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that gives its consumer a high. It is one of the last hurdles before the bill is sent to the governors desk for signature.

Most of the debate happened on Wednesday night, but State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, offered an amendment to address the criminal penalty related to this bill before members officially passed the ban out of the lower chamber on Thursday.

Before Moodys amendment, anyone convicted of possession of a consumable hemp product containing any other cannabinoid besides CBD or CBG would be issued a Class A misdemeanor, the most serious type of misdemeanor which carries jail time and a fine.

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Moody offered an amendment that lowered the penalty for the first two offenses to a Class C misdemeanor, which could be deferred with community service. Any offense after that would be a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up 180 days in jail and a fine between $250 and $2,000.

The enforcement of this needs to be stair-stepped. Arresting someone right out for something they bought at the corner store just a few months ago before this went into effect is really not the right way to stair-step in, Moody said while laying out his amendment.

A person convicted of possession of intoxicating hemp would also have their drivers license suspended 30 days on the first offense, 60 days on the second offense, and 180 days on the third offense. The amendment passed 107-30.

On Wednesday night, the members of the House had to address whether the state would remove products with THC or heavily regulate them, making sure they are not packaged in a way to entice children.

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State Rep. Ken King, R- Canadian, laid out his bill Wednesday night which would have banned synthetic THC, like Delta 8, and edibles and snacks that contain THC. However, it would legalize drinks with less than 0.3% THC, which is the federal limit, but would require strict testing to make sure manufacturers are not going over that limit.

The bill would also not allow stores that sell these products to be near schools, a concern for Republicans like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has called for the complete ban of THC products. State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, offered an amendment do just that. Oliverson said his bill is not banning hemp, which can be used for agricultural purposes, but is actually banning high.

Some members who are veterans raised questions about the veteran population that uses THC products to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. Currently the state has the Texas Compassionate Use Program, or TCUP, which gives some people access to low-THC products to treat certain conditions, but there are complaints it is not expansive enough. Oliversons amendment would not impact the products used in the TCUP.

King passed a bill to expand TCUP, HB 46, but doubts were raised on the House floor that it may not be approved in the Senate. As debate and questions were thrown on the House floor about TCUP, Lt. Gov. Patrick posted on social media, I am in full support of expanding the TCUP. We will expand licenses and have satellite locations for the first time for prescribed products from doctors for our veterans and those in need.

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The House ended up going with Oliversons version of the bill in an 83-56 vote.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.
Texas lawmakers have passed a ban on nonmedical sales of THC, the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis, sending the measure to Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

If it gets you high, it is not legal anymore state Rep. Tom Oliverson (R), who sponsored the House bill, told The Dallas Morning News.

In passing the ban, Texas joins a wide array of states, including Colorado, Iowa, Arizona, Hawaii and Alaska, that have banned or restricted intoxicating forms of hemp, or the compounds derived from it.

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It comes alongside a push by Texas Republicans to significantly expand the states medical marijuana program.

Under the new ban, possession of hemp products now carries a dramatically stricter penalty than possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) had threatened to hold up the states ability to pass a budget if the House didnt pass S.B. 3, the companion legislation in the Senate.

We cannot in good conscience leave Austin without banning THC, Patrick said in a video posted on Monday.

Ive been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol  10 years as your lieutenant governor. Ive never been more passionate about anything, he added.

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If signed into law, the bill would represent a minor earthquake for the states economy, the Texas Tribune reported.

A study funded by the Texas hemp industry found that the hemp business generates more than $5 billion in revenue and employs more than 53,000 workers, at an average of about $40,000 per year.

The Texas Hemp Business Council, which had fought for security measures such as age verification and child-resistant packaging instead of a ban, vowed to sue over the bill, which it said dismantles the legal hemp industry.

Since 2019, Texas has been at the forefront of a national experiment in back-door cannabis legalization, after the Legislature passed a bill legalizing consumable hemp, as opposed to the industrial variety used for fiber.

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That bill followed the 2018 passage of the Farm Bill by the all-Republican caucus. The language of that bill inadvertently laid the foundation for cannabis legalization across the country  provided it was called hemp, rather than marijuana, which is still illegal in Texas for nonmedical use.

The law, however, created no guardrails, regulation or safety testing for the new industry that sprung up  something exacerbated by the Food and Drug Administrations refusal to meaningfully regulate hemp-based foods and beverages.

Six years later, with pre-rolled joints and THC-infused drinks available at sleek dispensaries and run-down gas stations in the state, many conservative legislators now view that loophole as a mistake.

What began in 2019 as a bipartisan effort to support Texas agriculture has since been hijacked by a cottage industry of unregulated THC sellers, Oliverson said, per the Texas Tribune.

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For medical marijuana providers in Texas and elsewhere, the hemp industry is a wild-west competitor  not subject to the strict safety testing, sales limits or security controls that govern legal marijuana.

As such, many of the states that preceded Texas in banning hemp  like Alaska, California and Colorado  have tightly regulated legal recreational and medical marijuana programs, for whom the hemp industry is a wild-west competitor.

Texass small medical cannabis industry has supported of restrictions on hemp, which its leaders say threaten to drive them out of business  and that corner of the industry stands to win big this session.

In addition to a ban on its gray-market competitors, new legislation likely to pass this session would widen the number of covered conditions that can be treated with marijuana in Texas, and create licenses for nearly a dozen new dispensaries across the state.

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But unlike in Colorado or California, recreational users in Texas will be largely out of luck  or will turn to the black market, state Democrats argued.

While bill opponents acknowledged the problem of an unregulated industry, they argued that the solution was to make sure the widespread demand for THC was met safely.

Bans dont work, said Dallas-area state Rep. Rafael Anchia, (D). Well return to a completely unregulated black market where these products will find their way to young people today. If anybodys to blame about the state of affairs, its us, in underregulating this marketplace.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
SANAA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi group said in a statement on Thursday that it had launched a missile attack toward Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, which was reportedly intercepted by Israeli defense systems earlier in the day, and launched another missile attack toward Israel at noon.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea claimed the missile attack before dawn in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli TV Channel 13 reported that a missile launched from Yemen before dawn was intercepted.

Meanwhile, Sarea also claimed two other drone attacks, with one targeting a "vital target" in Tel Aviv and the other at a "vital target" in Haifa. Sarea didn't elaborate further nor provide any evidence of the alleged drone attacks, while Israeli defense forces didn't comment.

Sarea said the group would launch more attacks against Israel if the offensive and blockade against the Gaza Strip continue.

As soon as Sarea finished reading the statement, the Israeli defense forces reported a projectile (missile) fired from Yemen at noon on X. It was the second Houthi missile attack in a few hours on Thursday.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, warned earlier this week that all international airlines and shipping companies should avoid heading to Ben Gurion Airport and the Haifa port until Israel stops its offensive against the Palestinian people of Gaza. 
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV)  A Texas man pled guilty to wire fraud in connection to the purchase of a truck from a Jackson automobile dealership.

According to court documents, Mario Martinez Smiley, of Fort Worth, fraudulently obtained a 2023 Ford Shelby F-150 from a dealership by representing himself to be another individual and using someone elses credit card number to make a $5,000 down payment on the truck. The truck was valued at $130,850.

Deputies investigate man beaten, stripped over racial slur at Mississippi club

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The U.S. Attorneys Office said Smiley was recruited by an individual in Texas to pick up vehicles in exchange for $1,000 each. He induced a salesperson from the dealership to meet him in Ruston, Louisiana, where he took possession of the truck after posing for a photograph with it.

Smiley was indicted by a federal grand jury on February 4, 2025. He guilty to wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 27, 2025. Smiley faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Mario Martinez Smiley (Courtesy: Madison Co. Detention Center)

The United States Secret Service and the Mississippi Attorney Generals Office are investigating the case through their partnership in the Cyber Fraud Task Force.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV.
Texas cities will be banned from using taxpayer dollars to fund out-of-state abortion travel under a bill that the Legislature sent to the governor Thursday.

Senate Bill 33, authored by Republican state Sen. Donna Campbell of New Braunfels, builds on a 2019 law that prohibits public entities from contracting with abortion care providers such as Planned Parenthood, including for services unrelated to pregnancy termination. The Texas House passed the measure with an 87-58 vote, with two Democratic members joining their GOP colleagues to approve the bill. The Senate passed the measure with a 22-9 vote in April.

The proposal is all but certain to affect Austin, whose City Council allocated $400,000 to provide logistical support, such as lodging and travel expenses, to residents who terminate their pregnancies outside of Texas.

Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, asks questions during the debate of SB 33, which would ban cities and other public entities from funding out-of-state abortion travel, at the Capitol on Wednesday May 21, 2025.

The bills House sponsor, state Rep. Candy Noble, R-Lucas, said the legislation will ensure public money isn't "spent on an activity that is illegal in Texas."

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"Our goal, always, in this room, is to have our laws followed when we pass them," Noble said on the House floor. "We dont want to be litigious, but when a city decides to clearly circumvent the intent of a law passed by the Texas Legislature, its time for us to get stern."

Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who led the city's effort to fund abortion travel, called the measure an attack on local control.

"This law sends a clear message that Austinites dont deserve the freedom to make personal medical decisions or the right to (enact) policies shaped by our values," Fuentes said in a statement. "Its shameful, its wrong, and only deepens the reproductive health crisis Texans are already facing.

SB 33 would authorize not only the state's attorney general but also any Texas resident to sue cities and other public entities that violate the law. If a lawsuit succeeds, the plaintiff would be entitled to seek declaratory relief, injunctive relief, court costs and attorney's fees from the defendant.

Texas Senator Donna Campbell speaks to witnesses during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Senate Bill 22 at the Texas Capitol on Monday, March 31, 2025.

Once signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, the bill would go into effect in September.

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Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Austin last year over its allocation of funds for abortion travel, citing an existing statute. The suit remains unresolved.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Legislature passes bill to ban Austins abortion travel fund






Authorities say George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, was found dead in his Todd Mission home on Wednesday, May 21

Earlier this month, a judge ordered the festival be sold following a failed $60 million deal

Coulam founded the Texas Renaissance Festival in 1974







George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, has reportedly been found dead at his home.

Law enforcement officials said the Todd Mission Police Department (TMPD) responded to Coulams home on Wednesday, May 21, where the 87-year-old Ren Fair founder was found and pronounced dead, according to The Houston Chronicle.

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Coulams body was found around 9 a.m. local time, CBS affiliate KHOU and NBC affiliate KPRC-TV reported.

The Texas Renaissance Festival confirmed Coulams death in a post on its Facebook page.

We are deeply saddened by the loss of George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, the post read. For more than 50 years, he built a community that has become a cherished tradition for generations of performers, staff, and guests.

At this time, we ask for respect and privacy for Mr. Coulams family and the extended Texas Renaissance Festival family as they grieve, it continued.

Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty George Coulam in October 2019 George Coulam in October 2019

The cause of Coulams death is under investigation. The TMPD said there is no suspected danger to the public, according to the Chronicle.

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Todd Mission Mayor Steve Mensing and Police Chief Ryan Rutledge did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.

Known to many as King George, Coulam founded the Ren Fest in 1974, according to KHOU and KPRC-TV.

Earlier this month, a Grimes County judge ordered the festival be sold following a lawsuit, KHOU reported.

The judge also awarded $22 million in damages plus $1 million in legal fees to the plaintiffs, RW Lands, Texas Stargate and Royal Campground.

The judgment was made following the failure of a $60 million deal, according to KPRC-TV.

Anthony Laporte, attorney for Meril Rivard, who owns the companies involved in the lawsuit, said his client was reeling from the news of Coulams death, per the Chronicle. He called Coulams death a sad loss.

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Obviously, my client is saddened by the loss of George, Laporte said. (Meril Rivard) liked George, he got to know George.

Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via Getty George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, walks by the mausoleum where he plan to be buried outside his home Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Todd Mission. George Coulam, founder of the Texas Renaissance Festival, walks by the mausoleum where he plan to be buried outside his home Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019, in Todd Mission.

Rivard said in a statement to the Chronicle that he and his family were shocked by the news.

Our thoughts go out to his loved ones, he stated. Like everyone else who loves the Texas Renaissance Festival, we remain committed to ensuring that the festival lives on, and we are working steadfastly to make that happen.

Laporte said the process to complete the transaction for the festival is expected to move forward. He added, We have a firm belief and commitment in Ren Fest 2025.

Never miss a story  sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

The Texas Renaissance Festival typically takes place in October, and lasts for six weeks, according to KHOU.

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Some former festival employees previously sued Coulam for sexual harassment and alleged they were wrongfully terminated from their jobs, per the Chronicle. Settlements were reached in June 2019 and June 2021.

Additionally, Coulam was the first mayor of Todd Mission since it was incorporated in 1982, until Mensing was elected earlier this month, according to CBS affiliate KBTX-TV.

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. (WFLA)  Two masked men who were caught pulling on car door handles early Tuesday morning have been connected to nearly two dozen previously reported burglaries, the Polk County Sheriffs Office said.

The suspects, Joshua Mahase, 18, and Julian Cortez, 19, along with a third unidentified suspect, were spotted by someone in the area of Pickerel Court in Kissimmee, who reported the suspicious activity to deputies.

Arrest made in deadly Lakeland convenience store shooting

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Home surveillance video showed the suspects wearing dark clothing, ski masks, and gloves as they tried to open the door handles of a black Chevrolet truck, the sheriffs office said. One of the suspects also appeared to be carrying a red tool bag.

They left the area in a white Nissan Maxima, which Polk County deputies later found making a right turn off Lake Marion Creek Road onto Marigold Avenue.

Authorities stopped the vehicle and detained Mahase and Cortez. The sheriffs office was still working to identify the third suspect as of Wednesday.

Joshua Mahase, 18, (left) and Julian Cortez, 19 (right) (Credit: Polk County Sheriffs Office)

Investigators said they found several clothing items inside the Nissan Maxima that matched what the suspects were seen wearing earlier that morning, including masks and leather gloves.

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Also inside the vehicle were multiple drivers licenses, passports, and debit and credit cards that authorities said did not belong to either Mahase or Cortez.

According to the sheriffs office, Mahase admitted to targeting unlocked vehicles, and provided detectives with details on several additional burglaries that had previously been reported in Polk County.

Detectives said they were able to link the suspects to at least 20 burglaries over a six-week time span, and they were charged accordingly. They also face drug charges for marijuana deputies said they found in their car.

The charges against them include the following:

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Possession of cannabis

Possession of drug paraphernalia

Maintaining a vehicle for drug use

Possession of stolen IDs (nine counts)

Grand theft  firearm

Conspiracy to commit fraud (10 counts)

Conspiracy to commit grand theft

Fraudulent use of credit/debit card (three counts)

Possession of burglary tools (20 counts)

Petit theft (19 counts)

Unlawful possession of personal ID (five or more)

Armed burglary conveyance

Conspiracy to commit burglary conveyance (20 counts)

Burglary unoccupied unarmed conveyance (19 counts)

Thanks to the citizen who saw something, and said something, we were able to quickly respond and stop these brazen thieves and their criminal enterprise, said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. For over a month theyve been victimizing citizens who are sleeping peacefully in the northeast area of our county, breaking into their cars and stealing their stuff. And now theyre facing very serious felonies. This is also a great reminder to you all to lock your car doors.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.
A record number of travelers will have to brave the bad weather this Memorial Day holiday weekend as rains looks set to drench much of the U.S.

Some 45.1 million people were set to take to the skies, roads and other transportation modes from Thursday to Monday, according to AAA.

Travelers will also have to contend with cooler temperatures and storms across central and eastern U.S., according to forecasters.

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"The second half of the Memorial Day weekend looks to be mainly dry but quite cool," AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said. "Watch those flowers and veggies, as there could be a frost in parts of Pennsylvania and upstate New York by Sunday morning, if clouds break and the breeze diminishes."

A record 45.1 million Americans are expected to travel over Memorial Day weekend. But, much of the U.S. will be soaked by thunderstorms (AFP via Getty Images)

Following a rare May noreaster and a rainy start to the month, more showers are expected for the Big Apple and the Northeast from Friday to Saturday.

Down the eastern seaboard, families heading to Disney World, Orlando, may need to pack their rain coats.

"Brief but drenching sea breeze thunderstorms are possible over the Florida Peninsula and will generally drift from east to west on a daily basis," Pastelok said.

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While much of the Southeast will be quiet, the likelihood of thunderstorms increases for the Gulf, Tennessee Valley, and Plains states, AccuWeather said. Thunderstorms are also expected around Memphis and Kansas City.

Rain could soak large swathes of the U.S. this Memorial Day weekend. (AccuWeather)

"Fronts bobbing back and forth with mini storm systems moving along will kick off showers and thunderstorms, including severe weather over the Plains," Pastelok said. "Episodes of steady rain are possible farther north from the north-central Plains and farther to the east into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys where the soil is more moist."

The rain will help to east drought conditions in some parched areas, but people camping on oversaturated grounds could see the risk of possibly dangerous flash flooding. Some locations in the central states could see up to 10 inches of rainfall.

Even farther west, thunderstorms could develop as far as the Rockies and New Mexico, and the Northwest will not be totally dry.

New York City was feeling the effects of a rare noreaster on Thursday. The Northeast will see another storm this weekend (Getty Images)

However, its going to be warm along the West Coast. Temperatures in the interior Northwest are expected to reach the 80s on Sunday and Monday. The Southwest will be even hotter.

"Temperatures should surpass 100 in the deserts each day, while highs well into the 90s are in store for the central and southern part of the interior valley of California," Pastelok said.
The three front-runners for the GOP nomination for governor backed smaller budgets, the death penalty, and harsher penalties for juvenile partygoers. (Illustration by Alex Cochran for New Jersey Monitor)

The final GOP debate of the gubernatorial primary season was Tuesday night in Newark, with the three front-runners  state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, and radio talk show host Bill Spadea  on the stage. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

Energy

The audience was rowdy, much more so than the larger crowd that attended the five-person Democratic debate on Sunday. Not sure if audience members met up to pregame or whether Republican voters are just more rambunctious, but it sure got loud.

Attacks

The Dem debate was light on one-on-one attacks. Ciattarelli and Spadea did not hold back, with Ciattarelli hitting Spadea for never winning elective office and Spadea attacking both his chief rivals for being insiders. Bramnick, who got in a few jabs of his own, often appeared like a peacemaking dad to two brawling children. Lets stay with the substance, and in the general election none of this is going to help us. Lets concentrate on the Democratic policies that have put our state in a situation where were unaffordable, energy costs are off the charts, and of course were closing prisons as opposed to putting people in prisons, he said.

Trump

President Trump loomed large, naturally, especially his endorsement of Ciattarelli over Spadea, who got this issue out of the way from the start, saying in his opening statement, The president endorsed a poll, a poll that was conducted and paid for by Jacks campaign. The president did not endorse a plan. The president did not endorse a set of principles. Bramnick, who has been a Trump critic for years, was not in the running for the presidents nod, which he noted with a quip: I did not get the endorsement from Donald Trump. I waited up late at night  no phone call.

Death penalty

All three candidates came out in favor of restoring the death penalty, which was abolished in 2007, during a discussion of the Newark 14-year-old accused of killing Newark Police Sgt. Joseph Azcona in March. After Ciattarelli said he would make sure the teen gets prosecuted as an adult, Spadea said he supports the death penalty for all cop killers. Ciattarelli said he supports the death penalty for serial killers, mass murderers, and terrorists. Bramnick, who voted against getting rid of capital punishment when he was in the Assembly, said it should be in place for certain instances, like for people who murder and rape children. So I have a voting record on that, not a radio record, he said, taking a swipe at Spadea.

Tax cuts

Bramnick doesnt think much of Democratic governor hopeful Rep. Josh Gottheimers pledge to cut property taxes by 15%. Im going to put Josh on my tax reduction team, Bramnick said. He can serve with Houdini and other people who make stuff up, right? Look, Josh keeps saying that and Ive been serving the Legislature and as the leader for 10 years  hes talking nuts.

Pronouns

Boy, Republicans do not like pronouns. Spadea and Ciattarelli mentioned pronouns four times last night, with Ciattarelli saying about Democrats, They worry about pronouns, I worry about property taxes (two pronouns in that sentence, by the way) and Spadea saying several times that schools and colleges are too focused on pronouns and propaganda.

Pop-up parties

All three candidates came out strongly in favor of punishing juveniles who show up in large masses on boardwalks because of pop-up parties advertised on social media. Local authorities have griped that they cant handle so many teens hanging out in one place at a time, and Spadea said kids should be punished. There are local laws that are being violated in terms of the number of people that are gathering outside. Weve handcuffed our police officers so, A, I believe we need to start charging 14-year-olds as adults, he said. A wild response to large mobs of kids showing up and hanging out at beaches and boardwalks, some of our states most popular tourist destinations. Ciattarelli pledged, Were not going to have flash mobs on our Jersey Shore when Im governor.

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Bramnick, meanwhile, said, I would give no leeway whatsoever to rioting anywhere, especially on the sacred ground of the Jersey Shore. Ah, yes, sacred. Exactly the word I think of when Im stepping over someone puking on the boardwalk outside Martells on a Friday night in July.

Budget

Gov. Phil Murphys budget proposal for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is $58.1 billion. The Republican candidates to succeed Murphy have all said they think theres too much spending now  but how much do they think a state budget should be? Moderator David Wildstein of New Jersey Globe asked this question, and Bramnick sorta answered by saying hed get rid of pork projects that he said have added $5 billion to the budget over the last seven years, while Spadea said the budget should be about $46 billion. Ciattarelli noted that budgets under Murphys predecessors included billions less in spending, though he did not specify what he thought the budget should be. Jacks going to have to check with his lobbyist before hell give you a specific answer on what hell actually cut, Spadea said.

A missing candidate

There are two more candidates who will be on the June 10 GOP primary ballot: Burlington County contractor Justin Barbera and former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac. Neither of them raised enough money to receive matching funds from the state for their campaign, so they were barred from appearing at last nights debate. Kranjac held counter-programming in the form of a tele-town hall with Clinton-era GOP hero Newt Gingrich. Barbera showed up last night and was escorted out by police after he verbally tussled with debate organizers (he wanted to be featured in the post-debate press conference). I deserve to be up there, he said. Youre whats wrong with this state.

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SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage)  The San Angelo Pachyderm Club held a meeting on May 21 and heard from the Chief Appraiser about over three thousand protesters against the appraisals.

We are diligently working through them, said Tyler Johnson of the Tom Green County Pachyderm Club. We do informals with probably over half of the people that file a protest that ask for an informal.

Johnson continues that property owners can request informals and meet with the staff at the appraisal district to discuss the property and come to a mutual conclusion.

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May 21 was the deadline for Tom Green County Property Owners to protest tax appraisals for the 2025 year.

We encourage everybody to protest every year so that not only they understand their value, but also they understand the process better for the property tax appraisal process, Johnson said.

Pachyderm members meet once a month for lunch.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com.
Three new court appointed special advocates were sworn in this week by the District Judge Keli Aiken. Lori Barber of Quinlan, Michaela Gabler of Greenville and Michelle Davidson of Caddo Mills were officially welcomed as advocates for children in the countys foster care system.

The new CASA volunteers completed a 30-hour training course to prepare them for their role in supporting children placed into foster care. The swearing-in ceremony was attended by CASA for Hunt County staff, including executive director Lori Cope, advocate supervisor Misty Cottle, program director Rebecca Prather and advocate supervisor/new case coordinator Tracee Wagnon.

For those interested in becoming a CASA volunteer, the next training course begins in late June. Visit the CASA for Hunt County website at https://casaforhuntcounty.org/ or email casa@casaforhuntcounty.org for more information.
DAYTON, Ohio (AP)  Representatives of NATO -aligned nations will gather starting Thursday in the Ohio city where an end to the three-year Bosnian war was brokered three decades ago, unpacking the lessons of the Dayton Peace Accords for navigating global conflicts.

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, a transatlantic forum of about 300 parliamentarians from the organization's 32 member nations, arrives in Dayton for their five-day meeting at a time when the Trump administration has cast doubt over whether the U.S. would defend NATO allies in Europe without them committing larger percentages of their budgets to defense spending.

It is the first time since 2003 that the event has been held in the United States.

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Organizers are framing the 30th anniversary of the 1995 accords  negotiated at Dayton's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and signed in Paris later that year  as a celebration of peace and the power of diplomacy.

The NATO Village in the heart of downtown Dayton is festooned with flags of NATO nations, and a host of cultural activities have been planned alongside formal parliamentary proceedings, including art and history exhibits and a series of free lectures open to the public. A Concert for Peace, featuring musicians from symphonies in both Dayton and Sarajevo, will be performed on May 29.

There's an excitement in the air, said Chris Kershner, president and CEO of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, not only for our community, but for everybody whos working on it. So everybody is truly excited ... They know they're part of history happening right here.

Natalie Hudson, a political science professor and executive director of the Human Rights Center at the University of Dayton, said hosting the deal that ended the horrific violence, weaponized rape and ethnic cleansing that had marked the long-running conflict between Bosnia, Serbia and to a lesser extent Croatia in the early 1990s helped shape the city's character.

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Dayton and Daytonians were very aware at the time of what was happening at Wright-Patt Air Force Base, she said. There were prayer vigils. Sarajevo became a sister city to Dayton, and quite a bit of a connection was made. And that idea of Dayton being a city of peace really settled in, and we take great pride in that here in the city.

That spirit led to the establishment of The International Peace Museum in the city, perhaps the only museum of its kind in the U.S., she said.

Hudson is among a host of speakers who will participate in The Dayton Dialogue: Conversations about Peace and Security in the Balkans, four days of panel discussions to be held at the University of Dayton's Roger Glass Center for the Arts in tandem with the assembly.

Also planned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords is the Think Freedom project, an installation that combined art, history and community engagement. The Old Montgomery County Courthouse will host an exhibit called Dayton Around the World, featuring artifacts and stories celebrating the city's history, which includes being home to the aviation-pioneering Wright brothers.

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Gatherings of this magnitude also require security planning. Demonstrators on many sides of the issues could show up to picket or march. The city has spent over $700,000 to rent the fencing and barricades to place around the NATO Village and summit venue downtown, which are closed to the public through Sunday.

Kershner said plans are in place to ensure safety.

Daytons well prepared to host events like this, he said. We have a great Dayton Police Department. Weve worked very closely with Ohio State Highway Patrol, with Homeland Security, with other law enforcement agencies to make sure that everybodys going to be safe, secure, and well-protected.

Republican Rep. Mike Turner, head of the U.S. parliamentary delegation, represents Dayton in Congress. He is scheduled to join other dignitaries to kick off the event Thursday afternoon.






Much of the roof of the Fengyang Drum Tower crumbled around 6:30 p.m. local time on May 19

The tower itself is a relatively new renovation, but the structures base dates back to 1375 in the Ming Dynasty

No casualties were reported, and the site is closed for now







Tourists were sent running from a popular tourist site in China after tiles on a historic building's roof unexpectedly fell roughly two stories to the ground.



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The roof of the Fengyang Drum Tower, built during the Ming Dynasty in 1375, collapsed as hundreds of its tiles slid down, followed by a large plume of debris dust, according to video footage. Falling debris nearly hit some visitors, eyewitnesses told BBC, though a Fengyang County Culture and Tourism Bureau statement confirmed there were no injuries as a result.



The tile falling lasted for a minute or two, a witness told Yangcheng Evening News, a state-sanctioned newspaper.



Authorities directed tourists and bystanders away from the area as they secured the scene. Fengyang county officials said an investigation is in progress, per BBC.



Fengyang Drum Tower is closed for the time being as repairs begin, the outlet reported.



Newsflare Tiles falling off the roof of a 600-year-old tower Tiles falling off the roof of a 600-year-old tower

The tower most recently underwent repairs to address minor damage to the roof, per CNN. The tower itself is not from the Ming Dynasty, only the base; the tower sustained the bulk of damages through the years, and was largely rebuilt in 1995.



Newsflare Tiles falling off the roof of a 600-year-old tower Tiles falling off the roof of a 600-year-old tower

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The drum tower in Fengyang is one of the largest still standing throughout China, the outlet reported. Such structures often marked the center of a village and served as a signal tower.



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Press Release

May 22, 2025 Senator Bong Go continues oversight on implementation of Universal Health Care Law, warns against shortchanging public health Senator Christopher "Bong" Go renewed his call for the proper and full implementation of the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law, condemning what he described as a morally questionable move by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to return billions in unused funds to the National Treasury despite the program's glaring underfunding. "'Yun ang concern ko rito. Bakit mo ibabalik 'yung pondo e ang layu-layo pa nga ng full implementation ng Universal Health Care, 'di ba? Ang layo pa," Senator Go emphasized during an interview on May 19. The senator has been consistent in raising this issue. As early as July 19, 2024, Senator Go began publicly criticizing the management of PhilHealth funds, warning of the detrimental effects of the existence and return of "excess" funds to the National Treasury to healthcare services. He labeled the fund transfers as legally questionable and morally wrong. "So ang laking bagay po nung bilyon na ibinalik po sa National Treasury kasi according to PhilHealth ay excess funds nila. Kalokohan 'yon. Legally, maybe lusot na 'yon. But morally... dahil ang dami pong mga kababayan natin ang kailangan ng tulong pampagamot, mayroon nga riyan sa Cavite tapos mayroon nga riyan sa Cebu ang buntis ayaw nang magpa-ospital, namatay 'yung mag-ina sa sidewalk dahil takot sa babayaran sa ospital," he recalled. Senator Go warned that fiscal restraint should not come at the cost of public health and welfare. "'Yun ang importante rito. 'Wag tayong magtitipid kung buhay at kalusugan ang pinaguusapan. Sa PhilHealth, 'wag tayong magtitipid kasi pera ng taumbayan 'yan. At tututukan ko po 'yan bilang inyong senador." His advocacy also bore fruit in PhilHealth's policy reforms. After numerous appeals from Senator Go, PhilHealth officially committed to implementing a range of reforms designed to expand coverage and reduce financial barriers for the poor and marginalized. One of the most significant developments was the repeal of the Single Period of Confinement (SPC) policy. Senator Go also flagged the inequitable 24-hour confinement rule, which had excluded emergency outpatient cases from benefits--another barrier now removed. In a major step forward, PhilHealth lifted the 45-day annual limit on hospitalizations for members and their dependents. This change ensures continued coverage for those suffering from prolonged or life-threatening illnesses, a move long pushed by Senator Go and other advocates for inclusive healthcare. Additionally, PhilHealth has begun increasing case rates across various conditions to ease the burden of out-of-pocket expenses. Specific benefit packages for common illnesses such as urinary tract infection, influenza, and acute gastroenteritis have been adjusted accordingly. A known health reforms crusader and Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Go underscored his role in pushing these changes forward through sustained legislative and oversight work. "Nagkaroon na tayo ng 13 hearings sa Senado kasama na 'yung health emergency allowances ng mga health workers," he noted. The issue over the returned funds is also pending before the Supreme Court. "Actually, 'yung sa case sa Supreme Court antayin na lang po natin kung ano 'yung desisyon nila roon sa excess funds na ibinalik. Hoping na pagdating ng panahon madesisyunan kaagad 'yon... dahil kulang pa naman talaga ang pondo pa sa UHC natin," Senator Go said. With regard to the new dynamics and composition of the Senate, Go reiterated that his focus would remain on his advocacies and in bringing services closer to the people. "Hindi ko pa po masasabi sa ngayon dahil mayroon naman pong kanya-kanyang pag-iisip o desisyon ang mga senador kung nasa majority ka o nasa minority ka," he explained. "Pero pagdating sa dulo n'yan ang boto po ay... we vote according to our conscience naman po kung saka-sakaling may batas na isusulong. Ako noong mga nakaraang taon hindi n'yo naman po ako naging problema. Basta makakatulong na mga batas, interes ng karamihan po. Interes ng bayan, interes ng Pilipino. 'Yan po ang guiding principles ko parati sa aking pagdedesisyon." Senator Go intends to push for a new wave of health-related bills in the upcoming Congress, reaffirming his commitment to accessible and compassionate public service. Among the measures he plans to prioritize are the proposed Philippine Health Card and amendments to the Universal Health Care (UHC) Act aimed at lowering premium contributions and expanding coverage for more Filipinos. He also seeks to institutionalize the Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program to ensure its continuity and efficiency, especially for the poor. Recognizing the urgent need for mental health support among the youth, he continues to propose the establishment of Mental Health Offices in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) nationwide.
Syrian energy sector's chief Mohammed al-Bashir (R) and Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar shake hands after signing an agreement in Damascus, Syria, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Syria and Turkiye signed a cooperation agreement on Thursday to enhance energy collaboration, including electricity and gas transfers, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The agreement was signed in Damascus by Syrian energy sector's chief Mohammed al-Bashir and visiting Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar.

Speaking at a joint press conference, al-Bashir said the two sides were finalizing procedures to complete the 400-kilovolt transmission line that would link the Turkish and Syrian power grids.

"We expect the electricity connection between Syria and Turkiye to be operational by the end of the year," al-Bashir said.

Bayraktar announced that Turkiye will provide Syria with six million cubic meters of natural gas per day and supply 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

He said that Syria had been focusing on rebuilding efforts since December last year and energy had been a top priority. 

Syrian energy sector's chief Mohammed al-Bashir (R) and Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar sign an agreement in Damascus, Syria, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

Syrian energy sector's chief Mohammed al-Bashir (R) and Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar attend a joint press conference in Damascus, Syria, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)
By Panu Wongcha-um, Danial Azhar and Devjyot Ghoshal

BANGKOK/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Separate talks with Myanmar's junta leader and his key rivals have borne fruit, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, setting the stage for the first time for direct contact between two sides embroiled in a protracted and devastating civil war.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing flew into the Thai capital Bangkok for a closed-door meeting with Anwar last month and, a day later, the Malaysian leader held online talks with the shadow National Unity Government (NUG).

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The NUG includes remnants of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi deposed in the 2021 coup orchestrated by Min Aung Hlaing.

Both sides were aware of the engagement, two sources with direct knowledge said, underscoring the willingness of Min Aung Hlaing to engage in peace efforts despite branding the government-in-exile as "terrorist".

"We do engage separately, but I think it's time for them to talk," Anwar told reporters in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya on Wednesday. "I mean, the people in Myanmar have to decide for themselves."

A junta spokesman did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.

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Nay Phone Latt, a spokesman for the NUG, said the shadow government would be open to talks with the military if it agreed to six conditions.

These include forming a new federal democratic union under a new constitution with no role for the military in politics and the creation of a transitional justice framework.

"If Myanmar's military agrees to that, we will have a dialogue with military authorities regarding the termination of the coup and peaceful transition of power," he told Reuters.

It's unlikely that Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country for most of its post-independence history, will accept those conditions.

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But Anwar's initiative, launched on behalf of the Southeast Asian regional bloc ASEAN that he currently chairs, marks the first time the military regime appears amenable to a dialogue since Myanmar was plunged into turmoil by the February 2021 coup.

The violence has killed thousands, displaced over 3.5 million people and decimated the economy of the Southeast Asian nation.

An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has wrested chunks of territory from the junta, driving it out of border areas and increasingly hemming the territory it controls into the central lowlands.

Malaysian officials have begun outreach to some armed groups in Myanmar, a diplomatic source said, without providing further details.

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GROUNDWORK FOR PEACE PROCESS

In Bangkok, Anwar publicly focused on securing a ceasefire extension to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid following a March 28 earthquake that killed more than 3,800 people, mostly in central Myanmar.

But the leader also utilised the opening to attempt to lay the groundwork for a broader peace process, according to four people aware of the discussions.

His initiative is slated to dominate the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur next week, with dedicated talks among bloc members focused on the conflict ahead of the gathering.

Anwar described his push as "the first serious attempt at engagement" by the bloc.

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"We have to move beyond that," he said on Wednesday.

ASEAN has been calling for a cessation of violence since the 2021 coup, pushing a peace plan known "Five Point Consensus" that has made little progress and barred Myanmar's ruling generals from the bloc's summits.

Backroom work for the Bangkok talks had started before the earthquake, three sources said, but the disaster provided an opportunity for Anwar to directly engage on humanitarian issues with Min Aung Hlaing, who has been shunned for nearly four years by successive ASEAN chairmen.

"The humanitarian exercise is important in itself, but to achieve it, we need a ceasefire. And a temporary ceasefire will in turn open up possible future pathways towards peace and reconciliation," George Yeo, a former Singaporean foreign minister who is currently an adviser to Anwar, told Reuters.

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ELECTION PLANS

The NUG had initially opposed the Anwar-Min Aung Hlaing talks in Bangkok, urging "utmost caution" for any unilateral engagement with the junta chief.

Since the Bangkok talks, the junta has announced extensions to a ceasefire initially agreed upon to support humanitarian relief following the quake - but it still kept up a deadly military campaign, including in areas devastated by the earthquake.

ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn this week declined to comment on the military's continued offensive, saying it was unclear who had violated the ceasefire.

In the short term, the regional bloc needs to push the warring sides in Myanmar to respect the ceasefire.

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"If everyone respects the ceasefire and sees the vital importance of humanitarian assistance, it could be a beginning point to bring the various sides for talks," commented veteran diplomat and former Thai vice minister for foreign affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow.

The renewed move to intensify dialogue in Myanmar also comes amid a junta plan to hold a general election in December, an exercise derided by its critic as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.

ASEAN had earlier said that the junta should prioritise making peace, instead of holding an election.

"Dialogue is important for the election, without it there is no legitimacy," Sihasak said.

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"We have to be realistic enough to see that an election is not the end of the conflict."

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Devjyot Ghoshal in BANGKOK and Danial Azhar in KUALA LUMPUR; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP)  Thursday is the start of the Memorial Day holiday travel period, and AAA predicts that a record number of travelers will hit the roads.

Traffic is expected to pick up around 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. AAA projects over 45 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over this holiday weekend, thats an increase of 1.4 million travelers from last year. Of those 45 million people, over 39 million will travel by car, and with Boston as one of the top ten destinations for holiday travelers, we can expect the Mass Pike here to get pretty busy.

The best time to travel is in the morning each day, and the worst travel times will be in the afternoon through the evening. Friday looks like itll be the worst day to drive. AAA recommends getting out before 11 a.m. that day.

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Massachusetts cemetery honors veterans ahead of Memorial Day

On Monday, the holiday itself should be okay before 2 p.m., but the worst time to travel will be between 4 and 7 p.m., so plan your drive home from wherever youll be accordingly. Mondays weather may make travel more difficult.

Before you head out, make sure your windshield wipers are working properly and that your tires have enough tread. Take it slow on wet roads, leave plenty of space between you and the car in front of you, and always have your headlights on even if its light out.

Know that with Thursdays weather, things will likely be moving at a slower pace, so stay patient and understand everyone is trying to get to their holiday destinations safely.

TSA says theyre expecting to screen about 18 million people across the country this weekend, and theyre reminding passengers to pack smart, making sure your carry-ons comply with all guidelines.

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Theyre also reminding passengers to have their real ID or other acceptable form, and leave extra time to get through security. While things were moving at Bradley International Airport Thursday morning, they say thousands of air travelers will pass through this week.

Here at Bradley airport, from yesterday to next Wednesday, were expecting a little more than 71,000 people will depart the airport, and were ready to handle the influx, said Brian Spyros, Public Information Officer at Bradley International Airport.

Local News Headlines

WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
Heres a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 22, according to the Tribunes archives.

Is an important event missing from this date? Email us.

Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago)

High temperature: 94 degrees (1925)

Low temperature: 36 degrees (2006)

Precipitation: 1.62 inches (1983)

Snowfall: Trace (2011)

1849: Abraham Lincoln of Springfield received Patent No. 6469, which was a device for buoying vessels over shoals. Though the item was not manufactured, Lincoln is still the only United States president to hold a patent.

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1855: A tornado  widely regarded to be the first documented to occur within the present-day city limits of Chicago  actually occurred in Des Plaines. According to the National Weather Service, confusion over the place name Jefferson likely led to the location error for what the Tribune called a terrific tornado.

1881: The Tribune printed the entire text  15 pages without photos or illustrations  of the newly revised, plain-English version of the New Testament.

1962: Continental Airlines Flight 11, en route from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, crashed in Centerville, Iowa, after a bomb apparently brought onboard by a passenger exploded, killing all 45 occupants of the Boeing 707.

Federal authorities determined passenger Thomas G. Doty, of Merriam, Kansas, had lit sticks of dynamite that he purchased at a hardware store inside a trash bin within the planes lavatory, then returned to his seat.

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Doty, who was traveling with another woman who wasnt his pregnant wife, was described by investigators as an unsuccessful salesman, a drifter, and a playboy who had affairs with other women. He had filed for bankruptcy, was facing an armed robbery charge, checked out books about explosives from a library and had taken out life and travel insurance policies totaling $300,000 just prior to the flight.

1969: Despite a 14-hour mediation attempt by Mayor Richard J. Daley, Chicago Public Schools teachers went on strike  for the first time in the citys history. There was a belief, however, the strike would be brief. (It lasted two days.)

102 days on strike: Take a look back at Chicagos 11 teacher strikes since 1969

The major provisions of the contract were: 1.) No layoffs of teachers or other personnel in September 1969; 2.) No cutbacks in summer school programs; 3.) No decreases in educational programming; 4.) Implementation of all items agreed to previously; 5.) Certification for full-time basis substitute teachers with three years of satisfactory service; 6.) No agreement on other salary adjustments; and 7.) Salary increases of $100 per month for teachers and 7.5% for civil service workers effective in September 1969. Among the teachers demands were better support from the Illinois Board of Education to obtain state funds, as well as smaller class sizes and no staffing cuts.

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2003: Regenstein African Journey opened at Lincoln Park Zoo. Constructed in the space formerly known as the large mammal habitat, the space made visitors feel they were immersed in the animals habitats. Gone were railings and extra spacing that separated human from beast.

By stepping into a curved glass exhibit lit by a dim, red light, zoogoers experienced nocturnal behavior of Madagascar hissing cockroaches and heard their hiss from speakers nearby. Howie, a pygmy hippo, could be seen through a sheet of glass as he bounded underwater in slow motion. And, the outdoor exhibits allowed African wild dogs to chase each other in the absence of concrete pens.

Want more vintage Chicago?

Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicagos past.

Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com
SPRINGFIELD  Amid uncertainty over consent decrees covering police departments across the country, Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers said policy shifts in Washington mean little to him.

Akers said he will push ahead with reforms the department has already instituted over the past three years after entering into an agreement with the Department of Justice in 2022. That followed a searing DOJ critique in 2020 of the departments former narcotics units excessive use of force.

President Donald J. Trump in April issued an order to strengthen and unleash Americas law enforcement, with a directive that the U.S. Attorney General review all federal consent decrees and modify, rescind or conclude the agreements.

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As recently as Wednesday, the Trump administration announced the end of consent decrees in Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky  two hotspots of racial unrest after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop in 2020 and the killing of Breonna Taylor during a botched execution of a search warrant in Kentucky.

The Justice Department in the final weeks of the previous administration reached consent decree agreements with Minneapolis and Louisville, but the settlements had yet to be approved by a judge.

The administration also announced the scrapping of consent decrees in Memphis; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Trenton, New Jersey; and Mount Vernon, New York, as well as a case against the Louisiana State Police.

Outside of local news coverage, Springfields consent decree hasnt gotten a mention in widespread media coverage of the issue.

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Akers said he will continue to pursue reforms in police practice spelled out in the agreement.

The message Id like to convey to those in the community who believe Oh, now Springfields going to get off the hook is that were not off the hook for anything, said Akers, who took the post in early 2024 as the departments first Black leader.

Were just going to be going the way were going. I think its made the department a better place, he said of changes in policy and practice under the federal settlement.

The agreement has focused heavily on use-of-force policies, training, oversight measures, improving community relations and other benchmarks.

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Part of the agreement requires a compliance monitor, a role filled by Kathleen OToole, a former Boston Police commissioner and Secretary of Public Safety, plus a federal magistrate judge assigned to decide whether the city is in compliance.

A Springfield native and 40-year veteran of the police force, Akers said he has not heard anything about the future of the consent decree from the DOJ, nor is he concerned about it.

Whether this ends in a year, or a week, were just going to keep doing what were doing, Akers said, adding that his priorities are the health of the department and the community it serves.

Not just certain sectors of the city either. All residents in all communities, he said.

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A spokesperson for the DOJ in Boston has been tight-lipped about the status of Springfields consent decree.

Were reviewing the executive order and will have no further comment at this time, Christina Dilorio-Sterling said previously.

She did not respond to a question from The Republican on Wednesday about the latest announcement by the Trump administration.

Staff departures from the U.S. Attorneys office suggest the federal involvement is changing. Four assistant U.S. attorneys have withdrawn their appearances over the past four months, according to the federal court docket.

Media representatives for the DOJ in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for comment.

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An investigation during Trumps first term preceded the announcement of the consent decree under the Biden administration.

Akers said that while hes keeping his eyes on the prize for the department, and is not focused on the DOJ, he wouldnt mind if the decree went away.

Naturally no leader of a police department wants to be under a consent decree. Its a stigma I walked into, he said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Read the original article on MassLive.
May 22 (UPI) -- American defense contractor L3 Technologies Inc. will pay tens of millions of dollars in fines to settle allegations that one of its divisions, Communications System West, submitted false business info to U.S. military and other federal agencies, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.

L3, doing business in Utah, agreed to pay $62 million to the U.S. government to settle scores of allegations that Communications System West had violated multiple provisions in federal law by "knowingly" making false claims, according to a settlement agreement.

"Taking advantage of the resources that support the armed forces of the United States and other government agencies will not be tolerated," said Utah's Acting U.S. Attorney Felice John Viti.

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At the end of 2018, L3 Technologies and Harris Corp. announced its merger that created the country's sixth largest defense contractor.

U.S. officials say L3 company leaders knowingly made false statements and submitted other claims for "dozens" of government contract proposals by not accurately disclosing L3's current and complete set of cost and pricing data for communication devices sold to a number of departments and agencies, including the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.

Viti said his office will continue to work and partner with law enforcement agencies to investigate and "hold accountable individuals and contractors who defraud the government."

L3 produces communications equipment designed to operate unmanned vehicles, retrieve data and other visuals for U.S. military ops and intelligence, DOJ added.

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The Justice Department contends that the practice went on from October 2006 to at least February 2014.

It said L3 Tech allegedly violated provisions in the 1863 False Claims Act, amended in 1986 under the Reagan administration, and the 1962 Truth In Negotiations Act which requires a federal contractor to provide the most current and accurate facts to government regulators by the time there's an agreement, which could "reasonably be expected to affect price negotiations significantly."

"Investigating companies that defraud the Army is crucial to maintaining the trust of the American public and upholding the integrity of government contracting," said Special Agent in Charge Olga Morales of the U.S. Army's CID southwest field office.

In 2020, L3Harris Technologies was selected to design and manufacture a next-gen aerial device in a nearly $500 million contract, and the company started the year with a $28 million DOD contract to update Greek F-16 jets. The year prior, L3 was on the receiving end for more than $37 million to produce U.S. Navy precision aiming lasers and $73 million to repair U.S. Navy submarine issues in 2019.

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OSI Special Agent Jeffery Herrin said the $62 million settlement underscored the "commitment" the Air Force Office of Special Investigations has to protect national security and "ensuring the integrity of Department of Defense acquisitions."

"L3's defective pricing in contract proposals for critical systems like ROVER, VORTEX and SIR erodes public trust," he continued, saying with "robust" law enforcement alliances that "law and order" will be upheld in the U.S. defense industry.
The city of St. Louis is witnessing the consequences of President Donald Trumps attacks on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in real time. And to be expected, its the citys Black residents and other vulnerable groups who are suffering the most.

After a tornado ripped through St. Louis this past weekend, all eyes were on the federal government to see exactly how... and when, they would respond. Although FEMA finally began assessing the damages on Wednesday (May 21), according to STLPR, the government agency drew criticism over its delayed arrival.

On Monday (May 19), Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe and St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer pleaded for the president to send FEMA to their city. On the local level, every organization, community member, elected official, has been on point. What we need right now is federal assistance, Spencer told MSNBC. This is what the federal government is for.

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The process of getting FEMA on the ground isnt as simple as snapping your fingers. First, local officials have to send a formal request, which then must be approved by the president. This process can take days to weeks to occur, but as history has shown us, if FEMA help is delayed, local residents will pay the ultimate price.

Remembering Hurricane Katrina

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. In the aftermath of the disaster which killed 1,800 people in 2005, FEMA was criticized for their delayed response. A Congressional report even found there was a complete breakdown in communications that paralyzed command and control and made situational awareness murky at best between the federal agency and local officials. This led to families without food, electricity and water and residents stuck in flood water with no help.

Even at the Louisiana Superdome, a shortage of supplies quickly devastated the New Orleans community. Of the victims, 51 percent were Black, according to the American Medical Association. Twenty years later, another city with a significant Black population is suffering a similar fate.

Black Families in St. Louis Left Alone

In St. Louis, a city with a 43.1 percent Black population, Black residents began recovering from the tornado alone. And after reports that emergency sirens and alerts never went off, people were left unprepared. Were sweeping up the ashes again, rapper and activist Antoine White said of his hometown. Were dealing with disasters every day, in the aftermath of Ferguson. Were dealing with poverty on an everyday basis, lead-tainted water, and violence.

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This comes months after Trump vowed to eradicate FEMA altogether. I think were going to recommend that FEMA go away, the president said during a January visit to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. Trump has even gone as far as to halt funds to help Americans nationwide through FEMA and even ending a program which prepares for natural disasters like flooding and fires, according to the Associated Press.

Despite the federal agency lagging, several celebrities have expressed their sympathies and even offered to assist financially. Native St. Louis rapper Sexyy Red tweeted, I have major plans to help us out I got us period... Let me know what yal need so I can help out for now #PrayForStLouis #STLStrong.

For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
ST. LOUIS  The City of St. Louis tested tornado sirens again Wednesday after Mayor Cara Spencer said Tuesdays test revealed systemic failures.

The sirens went off around the city as part of the latest test. Residents took notice as they were outside continuing to clean up from Fridays storm.

This is going to take some time to repair, Pastor Donnie Moore, St. Samuel Temple, said.

Moore was out mowing the churchs lawn when the storm hit.

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There was no sense of urgency except for that fact that it may rain and mess up my hair, he said.

With no siren to warn him on Friday, Moore narrowly made it inside the church.

Went inside and I had an opportunity to lock one of two locks before the wind was pulling the door out of my hand, he said.

Donate here: Help support St. Louis storm victims

Mayor Spencer said the tornado sirens never went off because the City Emergency Management Agency staff were not in the office to activate them when the storms hit.

We knew there was weather coming. We shouldve been at the button, she said.

CEMA Commissioner Sarah Russell is now on paid leave as the city investigates. The mayor released audio of a phone call Russell made to the St. Louis Fire Department during the storm.

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Okay. You got the sirens? Russell said.

Yes maam, someone answered.

But at no point was an order clearly stated to turn on the sirens.

I listened to the recording. It is my takeaway that the direction was not clear, Spencer said.

Even if the button had been pushed at the fire department, it is unclear if it would have worked.

Mayor Spencer said Tuesdays siren test revealed systemic failures, which included the button at the fire department not working. She also said some sirens were damaged in the storm.

I do have hope, and I have confidence that we, as a unified city, are going to fix the systemic issues one-by-one and we are going to make our emergency response work for this community and we are going to respond to this calamity to address the needs of our community, Spencer said.

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There are 60 sirens through the city that were installed in 1999. Both CEMA and the fire department have a button to activate the sirens, but up until now, it has always been CEMAs responsibility to sound the alarm.

Through executive order Tuesday, Mayor Spencer has now handed that responsibility over to the fire department. The sirens will now to be activated from an office that will be staffed at all times.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.
In the hard-hit town of London, Kentucky, residents are still digging through rubble after a devastating tornado outbreak killed 19 people and injured at least 10 more nearly a week ago. The National Weather Service has confirmed the deadly tornado that impacted parts of Pulaski and Laurel counties was an EF4 and was nearly a mile wide. Maximum wind speeds during the tornado reached 170 miles per hour.

Entire neighborhoods were flattened, and the damage stretches for miles across Laurel, Pulaski and Russell counties. But, amid the destruction, incredible stories of survival are emerging-stories of families who clung to each other and crawled through debris to find loved ones still alive.

Paul and Gail Cline each lost an arm as they clung to each other when an EF4 tornado shredded their home. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

Gail and Paul Cline, both in their 60s, were holding one another in their bedroom when the EF4 tornado struck their Laurel County home. As the wind tore through their house, it ripped them apart-along with their arms. Both lost an arm in the storm.

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"They were in this bedroom, and you can see where stuff came through," their niece, Brandy Bowman told Lex18. "This is where they were and the neighbor came, he heard them screaming for help. So he came to help them. He pulled them out into the hallway there."

The Cline's home, which has been in the family for generations, was shredded.

What's left of the Cline's home in London, Kentucky after an EF4 tornado on May 16. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

The Cline's home in London, Kentucky after an EF4 tornado on May 16. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

The Cline's home in London, Kentucky after an EF4 tornado on May 16. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

"The doctors said they lost opposite arms because they were holding each other," Bowman said.

"My aunt and uncle lost everything in the recent tornadoes in London, Ky," niece Taylor Baker wrote on GoFundMe. "They both lost an arm and my aunt is still on life support. Their home and vehicles and everything they've worked for is gone. They are two of the best people you could ever find. My aunt's daughter also has stage 4 cancer so they were already battling that before this hit. They need all the help and prayers they can get."

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Paul is recovering but struggling with memory loss related to dementia while Gail remains on life support. Their home, vehicles and belongings are gone. Their dog Sadie was later found waiting in the damaged bedroom.

Click here support Gail and Paul Cline on GoFundMe.

'I thought he was dead': Kentucky mother rescues toddler from tornado rubble

Jace, Tara and Parker Hollifield. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

For Tara Hollifield, the tornado hit without warning. A widespread internet outage meant she never received the tornado alert. "You see it on the news and on social media, but you don't ever think it would happen to you or your family," Hollifield told 10News in Tennessee.

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When she heard the roar of the storm heading directly for her home, she rushed to find her 2-year-old son, Parker-but the tornado got to him first. "It flew me up into the air, and when I landed, I immediately got up and went to look for him," she said.

Miraculously, she found him buried in debris-alive. "The first thing I remember is when I got down, I really thought my son was dead," she said. Parker survived with only minor injuries. Hollifield has since returned to the wreckage to salvage what she can: a few toys, baby clothes and an ultrasound photo.

"All of my neighbors that are around me are gone. It's tough," she said. "But I'm thankful to be alive. It's a miracle to God that I'm standing here right now, for me and him both."

The Hollifield home after an EF4 tornado ripped through Kentucky on May 16. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

An aerial perspective of the Hollifield property after an EF4 tornado ripped through Kentucky on May 16. (Photo credit: GoFundMe)

Parker will turn two on May 30 and is doing OK after the storm. His mother has scratches and bruises and told the New York Post she plans to be more weather aware going forward.

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A GoFundMe has been set up to help them rebuild: Help the Hollifield Family.

The tornado tore through the Sunshine Hills neighborhood in the city of London just after midnight on May 17. Homes were shredded, power lines downed and entire communities left in shock. AccuWeather experts say the multiday severe weather outbreak caused an estimated $9 billion to $11 billion in total damage and economic loss.

Volunteers and emergency crews are still working around the clock to clear debris, distribute aid and support displaced families. Despite the devastation, neighbors continue to show up for one another.

Click here for more information on how you can help the Laurel County, Kentucky, community recover.
A tea artist demonstrates tea brewing at "Tea for Harmony: YAJI 2025 China-Sri Lanka Cultural Gala" held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Gayan Sameera/Xinhua)

COLOMBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The "Tea for Harmony: YAJI 2025 China-Sri Lanka Cultural Gala" was held in Colombo from May 20 to May 21.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya emphasized the historical and cultural richness of Chinese and Sri Lankan tea traditions in her remarks at the event on Wednesday.

"Chinese and Sri Lankan tea cultures are rich and diverse, with historical and deep cultural significance," Amarasuriya said, underscoring the unique global reputation of Sri Lankan tea, commonly known as Ceylon Tea, for its distinctive flavor, aroma, and color.

She also noted the importance of the Chinese market, now among the top five destinations for Sri Lankan tea exports.

Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong on Wednesday described tea as a powerful cultural bridge fostering deeper mutual understanding and friendship between China and Sri Lanka.

"Tea is not only a commodity but also a bridge connecting hearts," he said, calling for expanded collaboration between China and Sri Lanka under the Belt and Road Initiative.

The ambassador emphasized opportunities in technological innovation and market expansion within the tea sector, envisioning greater global recognition for Ceylon black tea and broader appreciation for Chinese tea traditions.

The gala also featured vibrant cultural performances by Chinese and Sri Lankan artists, including traditional Tibetan dances of the Reba and Guozhuang alongside a memorable Biwang solo, and Sri Lankan tea picking dances.

Ajith Dharmawardena, president of the Sri Lanka-China Buddhist Friendship Association, said cultural exchange plays an important role in fostering spiritual resonance and mutual understanding between the people of the two countries.

Dharmawardena said the gala provided a valuable chance for Sri Lankans to experience Tibetan culture firsthand, deepening the connection between the two peoples. 
(NewsNation)  The father of imprisoned rapper Tory Lanez, who was convicted in the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion, says his son is being transferred to another facility after being stabbed 14 times in prison.

He is being moved right now as we speak, and we have concerns, Sonstar Peterson said Wednesday on NewsNations CUOMO. He has just been discharged not many days ago from the hospital, and he was discharged with 14 stab wounds.

Peterson said prison officials are moving his son as part of standard protocol following the attack, which collapsed Lanezs lungs. He said that his son was the victim in the prison incident and never provoked the attack.

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Tory Lanez team claims it proves he didnt shoot Megan Thee Stallion

He is someone who is liked. Hes not someone who is a troublemaker, Peterson said, adding that correctional officers told him they were surprised Lanez was involved in any incident.

Tory Lanez team claims video proves he didnt shoot Megan Thee Stallion

The transfer comes as a sworn affidavit has emerged that could undermine the prosecutions case. A bodyguard, who was hired to accompany witness Kelsey Harris during the trial, claims he overheard Harris confess to firing the gun herself.

According to the affidavit, Harris told her boyfriend she shot the gun three times in the air before Lanez ran up to her, grabbed her arm, pushed it down, and she fired twice more into the ground.

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The guard claims he overheard Harris saying to her boyfriend, How can I not tell on myself? and How am I protected if I tell certain things?

Megan Thee Stallion shooting: Rep. Luna says she has new evidence

Lanezs team says the Nest camera audio footage captures what sounds like three gunshots, followed by a pause, then two more shots, corroborating the bodyguards testimony.

Lanez was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion after a party at Kylie Jenners Hollywood Hills home in July 2020. The conviction was based largely on testimony from Megan Thee Stallion and Harris, as well as DNA evidence.

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However, the DNA evidence showed only a 0.01% chance that genetic material on the weapon belonged to Lanez, with multiple other peoples DNA found on the gun.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has separately called for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to pardon Lanez, citing what she calls new evidence proving his innocence.

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Coastal towns along the South Shore of Massachusetts are bracing for flooding and wind damage from Thursdays rare springtime noreaster.

Boats still remained in Scituate Harbor on Thursday morning, ready to face the storm head-on. The town did recommend that boat owners tie them down.

Across town, crews have been out preparing and making sure things like catch basins are clear. They know the mix of heavy rain and high tides could cause for a mess.

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Expected wind gusts up to 50 mph could drive water way up onto beaches and pull plenty of fresh sand back into the Atlantic.

Local business owners are concerned about the impact flooding have on their stores.

I put out some flowers out this week to make it look really nice back here, but now Im concerned with the wind and things like that," Frank Qualtieri of Roccos Barber Shop said.

Scituate Town Manager Jim Boudreau added, Good news is, its not really the beach season yet, so we dont have a lot of beach equipment out.

Homeowners have been warned to prepare for strong surf and the potential for power outages.

For more on the forecast, visit the Boston 25 Weather page.

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BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN)  Anyone attempting to visit the Boardman Township website Thursday likely encountered some issues. But township administrators say a fix is coming soon.

Any residents attempting to visit the township for any reason, be it to search for zoning information, local government contacts or even to get in touch with the street department, is currently greeted with a GoDaddy page offering up the chance to buy the domain.

Township Administrator Jason Loree said the issue occurred when they noticed an abnormal website on their bill, and when trying to cancel that website, they lost access to their legitimate site as well.

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Theyre currently working with GoDaddy to recover the name. Loree said he expects the site to be back up in the next 24 hours.

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Hours after an aircraft slammed into a San Diego neighborhood Thursday, the smell of jet fuel remained thick in the air as investigators scoured the area for clues to uncover what caused the plane to crash, killing multiple people.

The business jet first hit a power line, then careened into homes in a San Diego military housing community just before 4 a.m. Thursday, authorities said. The debris field is at least a quarter mile long across the residential street, where jet fuel rained down, igniting several cars and damaging others as far as several blocks away from the main crash site.

Hours later, the sun rose over the charred ruins of a home badly damaged from the plane, which gouged a hole in the side of the house and collapsed its roof onto a car below.

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Before crashing into the neighborhood, the aircraft hit power lines about two miles from nearby Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, according to Eliott Simpson, a senior aviation accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is investigating the crash.

There are fragments of the aircraft under the power lines, Simpson told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Visibility at a nearby airport was down to half a mile with low cloud ceilings around the time of the crash, weather observation data shows.

Six people were on board the aircraft, according to an update from the Federal Aviation Administration. San Diego Police have confirmed at least two deaths  and San Diego Fire Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said it seemed unlikely any passengers could have survived the crash.

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Music agency Sound Talent Group said that three of its employees, including co-founder Dave Shapiro, died in the crash, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The agency did not name the two other employees who died.

CNN has reached out to Sound Talent Group for more information.

We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Dave Shapiro and his two colleagues, a spokesperson for the National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), a trade organization that represents independent talent agencies and managers across the country, told CNN in a statement.

Music booking agent David Shapiro was among those killed in the crash, the Associated Press reported. - Dave Shapiro/Instagram

Dave was a visionary in the music industry and a founding partner of Sound Talent Group, the statement said.

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Shapiro, who has a pilots license, is listed as the planes owner, according to the Associated Press and records from the FAA.

The home directly impacted by the plane had been occupied at the time of the crash, but neighbors helped the family evacuate, Eddy said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

For me its a little bit of a miracle, he said. I do know neighbors helped them get out and thats the beauty of what I love in this neighborhood too, Eddy added, military looking out for one another.

Scott Wahl, San Diego Police Chief, said he was still struggling to describe the scene his crews encountered when they arrived early Thursday morning.

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I cant quite put words to describe what this scene looked like but with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see, he said during the press conference.

Authorities work the scene where a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting several homes on fire and forcing evacuations along several blocks early Thursday. - Gregory Bull/AP

Several cars ignited after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood early Thursday. - Gregory Bull/AP

Why did a reliable airplane go down?

The aircraft, a Cessna 550 airplane often called a Citation, crashed near Montgomery Executive Airport around 3:45 a.m. Thursday, the San Diego Fire Department told CNN. The private jet is commonly used for business travel and can carry eight to ten people.

Departing from Teterboro, New Jersey, Wednesday night at about 11:15 p.m., the plane made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before crashing, according to Simpson.

The NTSB will be spending Thursday and Friday on scene documenting the crash site, and plans to recover the airplane to a secure location on Saturday, Simpson said. This aircraft likely has a flight data recorder and possibly a cockpit voice recorder, he said.

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A preliminary report will be published on the NTSB website in about two weeks and a final report will be released in about 12-18 months.

CNN aviation safety analyst David Soucie said hes concerned because the Cessna Citation airplanes are generally considered one of the most reliable airplanes.

Although hes awaiting FAA investigation findings  including whether fog could have played a role  Soucie said the presence of jet fuel on the ground would seem to indicate that the plane did not run out of gas.

He cautioned it could also take some time to determine how many people were onboard the aircraft.

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It is really difficult, considering the level of damage, I dont want to get too morose about it, to actually identify how many people are on the aircraft, he said. So it may take a little while considering the damage to the airplane.

Jet fuel took out every single car

More than 10 homes were affected by the crash, Eddy said at the conference. As the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car, he said.

Video captured by a neighborhood resident who asked to remain anonymous shows flames engulfing vehicles lining both sides of the street shortly after the crash, as their car alarms blared.

The resident told CNN they were awakened by a loud boom and their house began shaking. The man ran outside to see the whole street ablaze and grabbed a hose to begin spraying down his yard, he said, then he decided to evacuate the area.

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He told CNN he also helped police knock on his neighbors doors so they could evacuate.

Captain Robert Heely, Commanding Officer of Naval Base San Diego, said the neighborhood is one of the largest military housing units in the world.

Certainly we have a lot of military families that are impacted, Heely said, before adding his condolences to the families of those on board the plane.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria vowed the city will continue to support those affected.

They are part of a military community that makes up our city  proud partners of our community  and we will support them for as long as it takes to make sure that we get back to good here, he said.

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The San Diego Humane Society has taken in at least 12 pets affected by Thursdays crash, including multiple dogs whose fur was doused in jet fuel.

A post on X shows the humane societys medical team donned hazmat suits to decontaminate and wash off the animals.

Tracking the planes final moments

The pilot of the plane asked air traffic controllers about the weather at Montgomery Gibbs Field when the plane was descending at 9,000 feet, but the automated weather system at the airport was not working, air traffic control recordings show.

The Montgomery ASOS is out of service, the controller told the pilot. The National Weather Service says the Automated Surface Observing System at the airport, which provides weather updates every minute, 24/7, stopped working a little more than a day before the crash.

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I just want to see what Im in for here, the pilot told a controller in audio recorded by LiveATC.net.

Ive got the Miramar automated weather, the controller said on the radio and provided him the conditions from the Marine Corps Airfield  about 3 miles away: Visibility of a half mile and a cloud ceiling of 200 feet.

All right, that doesnt sound great, but well give it a go, the pilot responded.

An alternative airport had a little bit better but not much, conditions, the controller said. The pilot noted it was not a great option either, since there were higher minimum weather requirements to land there.

Weather minimums indicate permissible weather conditions for flight operations, dictating the required visibility, cloud clearance, and other weather factors that pilots must adhere to for safe flight.

A short time later the pilot announced on the radio the plane was 3 miles away from a planned landing on Montgomery-Gibbs runway 28, according to the audio recording.

There was no sign of a problem or emergency declared.

The airport has a control tower, but it is not staffed in the overnight hours, so pilots announce their intentions to any other pilots listening on the common traffic advisory frequency.

The Citation, according to FAA records, was built in 1985.

CNNs Derek Van Dam, Monica Garrett, Alexandra Skores, Alaa Elassar , Taylor Galgano and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.

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Lawmakers and activists gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court on Wednesday to commemorate the 100th birthday of the late LGBTQ rights pioneer Frank Kameny. The building was shrouded in scaffolding  a work in progress  and the words EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW were barely visible through a haze of mesh.

More than 60 years earlier, decision-makers in the same courthouse denied Kamenys request to challenge his termination from the Army Map Service, which had fired him in 1957 because of his sexual orientation.

American gay rights activist Jack Nichols, front center, followed by Frank Kameny and Lilli Vincenz, protest outside the White House on Armed Forces Day on May 29, 1965. (Bettmann Archive via Getty Images file)

For most, if they had the courage to petition the high court in the first place, that denial wouldve been the end of it. For Kameny, it ignited a storied career that would take him from picketing with fewer than a dozen people outside the White House in 1965 to shaking the hand of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office in 2009.

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Kamenys decades of activism changed the lives of countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Americans, but even so, todays LGBTQ advocates fear his name is being lost to history.

Were the only minority community worldwide thats not taught its history at home, public school or religious institution, said one of the organizers of Wednesdays event, Malcolm Lazin, the founder and executive director of Equality Forum. Its hugely important that people recognize Frank Kameny as the founder of the movement.  We would not be where we are today without Frank Kameny.

After having fought for the United States in World War II, Kameny earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics at Harvard University in 1956. That took him once again to the Army, this time in its Map Service, where he would build astronomy maps to guide U.S. missiles. But when the Civil Service Commission discovered a previous arrest for lewd conduct, he was asked whether he was a homosexual and then fired under President Dwight D. Eisenhowers Executive Order 10450, which listed sexual perversion as grounds for revoking a security clearance. It was 1957, and Kameny, then just 32, would never work for the U.S. government again.

Frank really saw the injustice of it, said Randy Wicker, 87, a lifelong activist and friend of Kamenys. He believed in the promise of fair and equal in American society.

Frank Kameny, left with Randy Wicker and Jim Owles in 1971. (Kay Tobin / New York Public Library)

After he lost two federal court battles, Kameny filed his petition with the nations highest court despite having no legal experience. In his petition, he did something revolutionary: He didnt deny he was gay; instead, he challenged long-held social beliefs that there was something inherently wrong with same-sex attraction.

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Petitioner asserts, flatly, unequivocally, and absolutely uncompromisingly, that homosexuality  is not only not immoral, Kameny wrote, but that, for those choosing voluntarily to engage in homosexual acts, such acts are moral in a real and positive sense, and are good, right, and desirable, socially and personally.

Even though his petition was denied, it would be the defining moment of Kamenys life. The focus and surgical exactitude that qualified him to guide a missile through the stars would from then on be applied to guiding an unwilling society to the idea that gay Americans were, in every way, deserving of equal rights and respect under the law.

Frank Kameny didnt necessarily set out to be an activist, said Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff in the Supreme Courts 2015 landmark same-sex marriage ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges. Frank Kameny saw injustice. He was experiencing unfair treatment, and he reached that point where he was no longer willing to accept it, and he took action, and it was a scary thing for him to do to start these, these marches in public, to demand equality and fairness.

From pickets to pride marches

In 1961, the year the high court rejected his petition, Kameny and fellow activist Jack Nichols founded the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations in the country.

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At a time when homosexual acts were punished by law and homophobia was the norm, Kameny proclaimed his identity in the streets, even in front of the White House and other government buildings.

He also persuaded other gays and lesbians to picket along with him and demand equal rights. That culminated in the Annual Reminder demonstrations outside Philadelphias Independence Hall, which started in 1965 and continued until 1969. Kameny enforced a strict dress code for participants at the demonstrations to create an air of respectability.

It was 100 degrees, 100 literally; it was July the Fourth. Boiling hot, Wicker said. Frank insisted we all wear coats and ties and that women all wear dresses and we act as ordinary Americans.

Longtime LGBTQ activist Martha Shelley, who also participated in the pickets, similarly loathed the dress code: I hated having to put on a dress or skirt and march around with these pre-printed picket signs and be respectable, she recalled.





Lilli Vincenz and Martha Shelley protest outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall in 1969. (Lesbian Herstory Archives / NYPL Collection)

Frank Kameny, center, marches with members of the Mattachine Society of Washington in New York's 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day march. (Kay Tobin / New York Public Library)

In a 1969 letter, Kameny defended the policy: As I have pointed out before, if a hippie dressed as such, and a man in a suit, shirt, and tie get up before an average audience and present the same identical message, the suited man will be listened to and his message accepted by far more people than in the case of the hippie. That is NOT as it should be, but it is as it IS.

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Even after activists voted in 1970 to replace the Annual Reminder pickets with a demonstration in New York City that would eventually become the annual NYC Pride march, Kameny showed up  notably, not in a suit and tie  to join the procession.

In that march up Sixth Avenue for the first Christopher Street Liberation Day  I was moved to a feeling of pride, exhilaration, and accomplishment, a feeling that this crowd of five thousand was a direct lineal descendent of our ten frightened people in front of the White House five years ago! Kameny said in an interview for the 1975 book The Gay Crusaders, by Wicker and fellow activist Kay Tobin.

Taking on the American Psychiatric Association

Kameny knew the nascent gay movement would stand or fall on the issue of whether homosexuality was treated as a curable illness. That would require convincing the entire medical establishment  and challenging gay peoples own perceptions of themselves.

Charles Kaiser, author of the queer history book The Gay Metropolis, said during the early days of Kamenys activism that the medical profession is as unanimous about homosexuality as it is about cancer.

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In other words, if you have it, you have to get rid of it, Kaiser added.

When the American Psychiatric Association first published the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly referred to as the DSM, in 1952, homosexuality was listed among its disorders  and it would stay that way for more than two decades. So-called treatments included chemical castration, lobotomy and electroshock therapy.

Barbara Gittings, Frank Kameny and John Fryer (Dr. H. Anonymous) at the American Psychiatric Associations 1972 national convention in Dallas. (Kay Tobin / New York Public Library)

Homosexualitys status as a mental disorder was the consensus of the medical community at the time and what many gays and lesbians believed about themselves. For Kameny, the entire movement rested on first dispelling that myth.

IF society calls homosexuality a sickness (and it does), Kameny wrote in 1962 to Mattachine New Yorks Dick Leitsch, then the entire validity of our entire position, of our demands for equality, of everything for which we stand rests upon our responding to that sickness with a denial.

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But so entrenched was the myth that even a decade later, only one gay psychiatrist was willing to join Kameny and his collaborator, Barbara Gittings, on a panel at the 1972 American Psychiatric Associations annual convention. Even then, the psychiatrist  known then as Dr. Henry Anonymous but later revealed to be Dr. John Fryer  insisted on wearing a mask to say the words I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist.

By the following year, after years of work by Kameny, Gittings and others, the American Psychiatric Association would remove homosexuality from its list of disorders.

We all have to emulate Franks fearlessness and determination to make sure that scientific truth triumphs over all kinds of bigotry, especially religious bigotry, Kaiser said, He made the science more powerful than the prejudice in his own lifetime, and we all have to go on fighting to do that.

A witness to LGBTQ history

Before he died in 2011 at age 86, Kameny got to witness many of the seeds he planted bloom. Multiple states and his home municipality, Washington, would legalize same-sex marriage; he would stand alongside Obama in the Oval Office in 2009 as he signed a memo extending benefits to same-sex partners of executive branch employees; and, as a combat veteran, he would be in the room when Obama relegated the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy to the history books.

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He was so thrilled that [Obama and Vice President Joe Biden] knew him by name when he entered, Wicker said. They apologized to him for having been excluded from working for the government.

President Barack Obama hands a pen to Frank Kameny during a signing ceremony for a presidential memorandum that provides some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal government employees in the Oval Office on June 17, 2009. (Aude Guerrucci / Bloomberg via Getty Images file)

But according to Wicker, Kameny would grapple for the rest of his life with that initial injustice  so much that he would never allow himself to let down his guard.

He was a very sad person, because his situation turned him into a fanatic. When I visited him down in Washington, he listened to The 700 Club every morning, Wicker said, referring to the evangelical talk show then hosted by the virulently anti-gay televangelist Pat Robertson.

When he asked Kameny why he would listen to those crazy people, Wicker recalled, Kameny said: Well, you got to know what the enemys saying and doing.

Understanding where weve been

As in Kamenys time, thousands of federal workers are being fired or pushed out because of perceived conflicts of ideology. Transgender service members are also being expelled from the military, regardless of the merits of their service.

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Frank Kameny fought a courageous battle with the federal government to secure the respect, dignity, and equality that every LGBTQ American deserves, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told NBC News in a statement. Frank didnt live to realize our dream of full equal rights for LGBTQ Americans, but its our responsibility to pick up the mantle in this fight as we honor his legacy as a pioneer for gay equality.

Jim Obergefell pickets outside the Supreme Court on May 21, what would have been Frank Kameny's 100th birthday. (Evan Brechtel)

The America that radicalized Kameny is, in some ways, not so different from the America where beneficiaries of his work  the first out gay U.S. senator (Baldwin), a plaintiff in a landmark Supreme Court case (Obergefell) and nearly 100 LGBTQ rights activists  honored him Wednesday.

A web page celebrating Kamenys residence on the National Register of Historical Places was quietly erased from the National Park Service website this year. Reached for comment, the Park Service said it was implementing President Donald Trumps executive order targeting gender ideology extremism. More than a decade after his death, Kamenys work is still being erased from the government through executive order.

When any of our history is erased or denied, Obergefell said, the whole entire nation suffers, because the only way we can actually become a more perfect union is by understanding where weve been.

Jim Obergefell on the steps of the Supreme Court surrounded by youth activists bussed from Pennsylvania and New York. (Evan Brechtel)

Kameny was no lawyer, yet he took on the Supreme Court. He was no psychiatrist, but he helped revolutionize the way the medical community viewed homosexuality. And he wasnt initially an activist. He was a fired scientist who saw injustice, and that was enough to sustain him for 65 years of frustration and progress.

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The power comes from the people, Shelley said of Kamenys work and legacy. Change comes from the bottom. It always has.

After Wednesdays event, organizers announced that city officials in Philadelphia and Washington had declared May 21 Frank Kameny Day in their cities.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
A man has been arrested after a train travelling from Manchester to Cardiff hit a tractors trailer on a level crossing.

The Transport for Wales (TfW) train travelling near Leominster, Herefordshire, was not derailed but two passengers were injured, according to British Transport Police.

The force added that a 32-year-old man from nearby Bromyard had been arrested on suspicion of endangering safety on the railway.

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Officers were called to the level crossing north of Leominster at 10.40am on Thursday.

The Manchester-to-Cardiff train was not derailed, but investigations have been launched - SWNS

West Midlands Ambulance Service said one man was airlifted to Hereford County Hospital and a woman was taken to the facility by road.

Fifteen further patients who were passengers on the train were assessed, and all were discharged at the scene. Nobody from the tractor required assessment, an ambulance service spokesman said.

West Mercia Police and fire crews also attended the scene. There were 66 people on the train, it was reported.

Disruption was expected until the end of the day, National Rail said, with direct trains between the two cities cancelled.

Emergency services attend the crash scene in Herefordshire - Joseph Walshe/SWNS

A TfW spokesman said: The 8.30am Manchester Piccadilly-Cardiff Central service has hit an obstruction at a crossing between Ludlow and Leominster so all services on the Marches line are on stop.

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Ticket acceptance is in place with Northern, Avanti, GWR and CrossCountry. Replacement road transport is being put in place.

BTP said inquiries into the lead-up to the incident are ongoing.

Train passengers are transferred to alternative transport after the crash - Joseph Walshe/SWNS

A spokesman for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch said: [We have] sent a team of inspectors to Leominster in Herefordshire who are at the site of a collision between a passenger train and an agricultural trailer at a user-worked level crossing.

Our inspectors will gather evidence as part of the process of conducting a preliminary examination and a decision on whether an investigation will be launched will be taken in the coming days.

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A Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: Crews from Hereford, Malvern, Redditch, Wyre Forest, Leintwardine, Tenbury Wells and Leominster were called to an incident with a train, consisting of five carriages and carrying 66 people, in collision with an agricultural trailer unit near Orleton.

There is no fire and the train was not derailed, but there will be disruption to the line.

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(WBRE/WYOU)  A new announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday afternoon: The FAA says it is reducing the number of flights arriving and departing from Newark Airport. Its all because of air traffic control issues and ongoing construction.

The new maximum number of takeoffs and landings will be capped at 56 per hour. Thats 28 arrivals and 28 departures.

It could be adjusted depending on conditions.

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This follows a string of incidents at the airport that have caused serious concerns. Including one where controllers lost radio and radar contact with planes for 90 seconds.

The decision comes after weeks of cancellations and delays due to air traffic controller shortages and runway construction. 28/22 News Reporter Amelia Sack spoke with travel experts in northeastern Pennsylvania to see what you can expect while traveling.

This announcement comes just before the start of summer, when many people will be flying and passengers will feel the effects. Cuts to flights are coming to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey just before Memorial Day weekend.

State police announce holiday DUI checkpoints

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A spokesperson from the FAA says the goal is to make traveling easier for people after flight delays due to construction, staffing challenges, and recent equipment issues.

One local travel agency says they are already seeing the effects.

We had a group in San Antonio, Texas, for the last couple days. They came in yesterday, and little snafu with their flight, but what we did is we redirected them. Instead of a direct flight to Newark, we actually just had a little bit of a layover in another city for about an hour and half, Allen Kline with Travelworld stated.

Kline says the good news is these cancellations are mainly impacting flights within the US.

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We are getting a ton of calls, almost a half a dozen calls a day, and really, its really just affecting domestic travel. So, everything were doing internationally, we really havent seen any effects at all, Kline continued.

Experts say if youre planning to fly out of Newark or any airport, you should download the app of whichever airline you are using because it will have the most up-to-date flight information.

That actually has the most up-to-date information, more before Google gets it, or sometimes faster than some of the teleprompters or the screens in the airport, Kline added.

Another good tip to keep in mind: have a backup plan, and give yourself enough time to get where you need to be.

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If you have a layover, you wanna maybe sometimes have more than an hour or two between the layover, just in case your first flight is running a little late, if that flight lands late, you wanna make sure you have enough time to get on your next flight, Kline said.

These changes will impact many airlines at Newark and are expected to last well into October.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  Next Monday is Memorial Day, a popular travel holiday for many people. But thats not the only consideration when it comes to planning a trip.

Sam Foust and his family are flying to Las Vegas.

Sioux Falls prepares for $25M loss with property tax reform

We didnt want to drive that far. And flying was just faster. And Sioux Falls has a good airport, so its easy to just come down here and fly out of. And tickets werent that expensive, said Sam Foust, a traveler headed to Las Vegas.

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But the price of gas is a hot topic for many, especially when choosing what mode of transportation to use.

I think maybe if the gas prices were like substantially lower, that would have warranted us to consider driving, but its just not really worth the cost of the gas, said Foust.

Other travelers take a different route and road trip to their destination.

I dont know if we thought about gas prices specifically, but just, you know, how much it would be to fly versus gas, said Katie Thorpe, whos on a road trip with her family to Yellowstone.

For Thorpe and her family, another factor came into play. Sightseeing along the way was a big part of the decision to drive.

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We thought it would be fun because were going past all of these different, like, national parks, to visit those along the way, said Thorpe.

Could Trumps reconciliation bill impact SNAP benefits?

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PIKE COUNTY, Ky. (FOX 56)  Four weeks after Amber Spradlins murder case was transferred from Floyd County to Pike County, a trial date has been set, along with some requirements set for those wanting to make their voices heard outside the courtroom.

Court documents show that Special Judge Eddy Coleman signed an order granting Michael McKinney IIIs motion for a speedy trial, with a date set to begin proceedings at 9 a.m. on Dec. 1 at the Pike County Judicial Center.

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A pretrial conference has been set for July 24. The prosecution and defense have through July 15 to appoint their experts in the case.

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In the trial date order, Judge Coleman wrote that no demonstrations for any parties or interest groups would be allowed within 25 feet of the Pike Circuit Courtroom. Demonstrators also wont be allowed to disrupt the trial in any way, such as encouraging passing drivers to honk their horns.

Security guards at the judicial center will also not allow anyone wearing clothes that show support for any parties involved in the case.

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Has anyone seen Elon Musk these days? Whats he been up to? Because Musk (really, his money) was part of the reason Donald Trump won the presidency. In the run up to the election, the South African billionaire donated close to $300 million to the Republican presidential campaign.

For this, it seems like Trump gave Musk carte blanche to recreate the U.S. Government in his (extremely scary) image. But now...? We arent hearing much about Musk as we head into the summer. So, lets look into it.

When President Trump took office, one of the first things he did was create the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) and placed Musk in charge of it. With this newfound power, Musk went on a rampage.

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He terminated over 100,000 government employees by either forcing them to take buyouts or outright firing them. He is responsible for ending contracts for programs related to climate change, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, environmental protection, international aid, and science research.

Musk was so active and visible in the Presidents first few months in office, that it inspired TIME to put him behind the Resolute Desk on the cover of one of its magazines.

Just a few months ago, it seemed like Musk was everywhere. He gave a huge speech when Trump was inaugurated. (And did what still feels like a Nazi salute.) He had his kid playing in the Oval Office while talking to the media. He gave interview after interview to the media. But now he is nowhere to be seen.

It seems like my man just dropped off the face of the Earth. No one seems to know what happened to him. But it is clear whats going on.

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In Wisconsin, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, a long-time judge on the states Supreme Court, retired opening the door for an election. Susan Crawford, a liberal, faced off against Brad Schimel, a conservative.

This would have not been a notable race, but Musk took an interest in the race because he wanted to turn this liberal leaning court into a conservative one. So he sunk millions into the campaign for the conservative thinking he could influence the outcome of the election.

He did not. Well, on second thought, he did. Just not the way Musk wanted.

Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)

Voters found Musks attempt to buy the election distasteful. Those who opposed him mounted a campaign entitled People Vs. Musk and defeated the candidate he supported by 10 percentage points. If you think Kamala Harris got mollywhopped by Trump, then this would be the political equivalent of what Homey the Clown used to do on In Living Color.

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After that, Musk got quiet. He was not talking to the media anymore. He was not trying to influence elections like he once was. Now, seven weeks after that embarrassing defeat, he has announced that he will step away from political spending. Saying, Ive done enough.

Good riddance. Dude can kick rocks. One less white nationalist leaning billionaire to worry about.

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SYDNEY, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A new Australian study has revealed that it's not the amount of gas in a galaxy, but where that gas is located, that determines whether new stars form.

The Western Australia-based International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) said in a release on Wednesday that using the powerful Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, astronomers studied gas in around 1,000 galaxies as part of the WALLABY survey.

Previous surveys were limited to mapping gas in only a few hundred galaxies, but the WALLABY survey has mapped the atomic hydrogen gas in a significantly larger sample of galaxies, the release said.

The key ingredient in star formation is atomic hydrogen gas. The team discovered that galaxies forming stars tend to have gas concentrated in the same regions where stars are being born, according to an ICRAR study published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

Thanks to high-resolution observations from telescopes like ASKAP, operated by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, at the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia, researchers were able to pinpoint the location and density of atomic gas in more galaxies than ever before, the release said.

Lead author Seona Lee, a PhD student at the University of Western Australia's ICRAR node, said the findings offer fresh insight into how gas gives rise to new stars. "It was very exciting to see a correlation between star formation and where the atomic hydrogen gas is located."

ICRAR's professor Barbara Catinella, who co-leads the WALLABY survey, explained that location matters, which is like baking a cake. "While different cakes require different amounts of flour, to bake a cake properly, you focus on the flour that's in the bowl, not the unused flour left in the package."

The findings suggest that future studies into galaxy growth should focus not just on how much gas is present, but where it's concentrated.

The ICRAR is an equal joint venture between Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, with funding support from the state government. 
MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG)  A man was critically injured Thursday morning after the truck he was in crashed head-on with a dump truck on Three Notch Road, according to the Theodore Dawes Fire Rescue Department.

Mobile County DA catches up on backlog of cases, says new law wont impact office

After the crash, the dump truck ended on its side, and the driver of the truck had to be removed from it.

WKRG/Akievia McFarland

Cleanup crews are coming in to clean diesel and engine oil from the road.

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The crash happened at the intersection of Three Notch Road and Emerald Drive.

The woman who was driving the dump truck is okay.

MCPSS teacher arrested after 4-year-old hospitalized: MCSO

TDFR is assisting the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

This story is developing. News 5 will update this article as more information becomes available.

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BECKLEY, WV (WVNS)  A local care agency was awarded grant funding which will help them to continue serving the southern West Virginia area.



The Truist West Virginia Foundation awarded Hospice of Southern West Virginia $15,000 in grant funding. The funding will go toward the general operation of the organization, which operates out of Cranberry Drive in Beckley.

Truist of Southern West Virginia Market President, Jordan Wooldridge told 59News that the working relationship with Hospice of Southern WV has been ongoing, and that the Truist staff members feel lucky and excited to continue supporting the organization in its local endeavors.



The Truist West Virginia Foundation exists to support non-profit organizations within West Virginia, he said. [Hospice is] a wonderful organization and they bless our community every day with the services that they provide.



Wooldridge said that non-profit organizations operating in West Virginia can apply at the Truist West Virginia Foundation to receive funding for their efforts in their own communities.

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The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvards ability to enroll international students amid an ongoing standoff between the government and the Ivy League school.

Harvard has refused to adhere to a set of demands issued by the Trump administrations Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism that included sweeping reforms to whom the university can hire and admit, and subjecting the ideology of faculty members to an audit approved by the government.

In response, the government cut over $2 billion in federal research funding, leading to a lawsuit by Harvard to recoup the money.

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The abrupt termination of Harvards Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is a major escalation in a dispute that could have severe financial consequences for Harvard, which enrolls nearly 6,800 international students out of a student body of 24,596. Current international students at Harvard will need to transfer or lose their legal status.

The move was first reported by The New York Times, and subsequently confirmed in a tweet from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country, Noem wrote.

Noem accused Harvard of fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party in a separate statement.

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In a statement, Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton called the governments action "unlawful."

"We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security said the sanction was the result of a demand that Harvard provide information about the criminality and misconduct of foreign students.

Harvard provided some information on international students to the department on April 30. But Noem said in a letter to Harvard on Thursday that the information was insufficient and subsequent attempts to get more from the school did not satisfy the government.

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If Harvard wants to regain its ability to enroll international students for the fall semester, the letter stated, the school must provide in the next 72 hours all records and audio and video files that involve dangerous, threatening or illegal activity by an international student enrolled within the past five years.

Harvard also must turn over all audio and video footage of protest activity from the past five years involving international students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Noem wrote.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
The Trump administration has deported two Cubans convicted of serious crimes to an African nation, after Cuba refused to take them back.

The Department of Homeland Security said Enrique Arias-Hierro and Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Quinones were on a deportation flight from Texas that was carrying some of the most barbaric, violent individuals illegally in the United States, said Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of DHS.

No country on earth wanted to accept them because their crimes are so uniquely monstrous and barbaric, she added.

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Statements by DHS and the White House do not say where the migrants were sent nor when they were deported, but lawyers for the eight men on the flight believed their plane was headed to South Sudan on Tuesday. The New York Times reported the plane was in Djibout in eastern Africa.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston ordered the administration to maintain custody of those migrants sent to Africa because he was considering whether the Tuesday flight violated his earlier order barring deportations of migrants to third countries without giving them a chance to challenge their removal. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy found the flight had violated his orders.

It is unclear if the men will be given an opportunity to contest their removal to a third country.

According to DHS, Arias-Hierro had been convicted of homicide, armed robbery, false impersonation of an official, kidnapping and robbery. He was arrested on May 2 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rodriguez-Quinones, who was arrested on April 30, had been convicted of attempted first degree murder, battery, larceny and drug trafficking, among other crimes.

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Both men were about to be released after serving long sentences when ICE detained them, a Trump administration official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly told the Miami Herald. The source said administration officials asked the Cuban government to take them back but Cuba refused, arguing the men had left the island too young and they didnt know what to do with them. Cuban officials were notified that the migrants would be sent to Africa, the source said.

Under a still standing migration deal struck with the Obama administration, the Cuban government agreed to take deported Cubans who had arrived at the United States after January 2017, though it has regularly refused accepting those who had committed crimes in the United States. But the Cuban government only agreed to take migrants who have entered the United States earlier than that date on a case by case basis.

The Florida Department of Corrections did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions from the Herald about its communications with ICE in regards to the two men.

Arias-Hierro, 46, has previous addresses in Miami and Homestead, and all of his Florida criminal charges have been in Miami-Dade County, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

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Records provided by the Miami-Dade State Attorneys office show that Arias-Hierro had been arrested in three different robberies in 1997, including one where the victim was pistol whipped after the gun misfired twice. He was convicted in 1999 on multiple charges, including armed robbery and attempted murder.

Arias-Hierro has spent three stints in state prison dating back to 1999, most recently serving a sentence from February 2024 until earlier this month, when he was arrested by ICE.

Rodriguez-Quinones has lived in DeLand and Orange City in Central Florida but has been arrested twice in Miami-Dade. He has served three prison sentences in Florida, according to state records. According to the FDLE, he has used different identities and has two different birth dates listed in state records, one suggesting he is 53 and the other suggesting he is 58.

He had also been serving a Florida prison sentence when he was arrested by ICE on April 30. Court records show he was convicted of attempted first-degree murder with a weapon for slashing the face, neck and head of a man after a night of drinking in Orlando in 2019. The victims injuries were severe enough that had it not been for a deputys quick action, he would not have survived, according to a report from an Orange County detective.

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While detectives were still investigating that case, Rodriguez-Quinones was arrested two weeks later in Volusia County after detectives executed a search warrant related to drugs at his home in Orange City. Deputies found a rifle, ammunition, marijuana and cannabis oil, cash and miscellaneous drug paraphernalia. They also seized 26 roosters belonging to Rodriguez-Quinones, who said he sold them for $200 to $400 each for use in cockfighting and relied on them as his main source of income.

He was subsequently charged with six felonies and two misdemeanors. His total bond was $76,000, according to a previous Volusia County Sheriff press release. He was arrested on the attempted murder charge from Orange County while he was out on bond in the Volusia County case.
The Trump administration is halting Harvard Universitys eligibility to enroll international students  the latest move in the growing pressure campaign for the university to align itself with the administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem notified the university on Thursday that their certification for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program is revoked, following an extensive records request from the Department of Homeland Security that Noem alleges Harvard has not complied with. The certification program is what allows institutions to enroll foreign students.

This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, Noem wrote in a statement on X. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.

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Thousands of international students and scholars are now in limbo as Noem says they must transfer out of the university to maintain their visa statuses since Harvard is ineligible to enroll anyone with an F- or J- nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year.

International students make up about 27 percent of Harvards total enrollment with more than 6,700 international students enrolled at the university as of fall 2024.

A Harvard spokesperson called the move unlawful and emphasized that the institution is committed to maintaining its ability to host international students and scholars.

We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community, the spokesperson said in a statement. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

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The ban marks an escalation of the Trump administrations attacks on Harvard and higher education institutions across the country, which have manifested in investigations and thousands of foreign visa revocations for students accused of being pro-Hamas.

"This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together," Noem told Fox News shortly after the announcement, saying that DHS will "absolutely" consider similar moves against other universities.

"Get your act together because we are coming to make sure that these programs, that you are facilitating an environment where students can learn, where they are safe and that they are not discriminated against based on their race or religion," Noem told Fox's Martha MacCallum.

The administrations antisemitism task force slapped Harvard with a lengthy list of demands that Harvard quickly rejected  setting off a back and forth that has cost Harvard billions of dollars as the Trump administration has amped up pressure for Harvard to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion guidances in its hiring and admissions, and crack down on student protestors.

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The Trump administration rescinded more than $2.65 billion in federal funding from the school in April, the president has suggested he will yank the universitys tax-exempt status and the Education Department is probing the universitys foreign funding. Harvard is suing the administration to challenge the decision to cut off money from the institution.

It's possible that Harvard may launch another court battle against the administration to maintain their foreign student enrollment.

"Tell them to bring it," Noem said on Fox about the possibility of a legal challenge.

In April, the Department of Homeland Security threatened to revoke Harvards ability to enroll international students. The action stems from Noems letter that ordered the university to submit records on what she says is illegal and violent activities from international students by April 30, or Harvard would suffer the immediate loss of its SEVP certification, according to a DHS press release.

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Harvard Executive Vice President Meredith Weenickat the time said they responded to DHS to provide information required by law and that any withdrawal by DHS of Harvards certification would be involuntary.

In our response, the University reiterated our steadfast commitment to sponsor the visas that facilitate our international students study at Harvard, Weenick wrote in an April statement. Additionally, we made clear that Harvard does not seek to withdraw from SEVP.

But Thursdays letter said the university failed to comply with the reporting requirements. In order to regain its SEVP certification, Harvard officials must agree to send over several records about these students within 72 hours.

DHS is seeking all records from Harvard about illegal, dangerous or violent activity on or off campus by a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years. The agency also wants records about any deprivation or rights or threats these students have made to other students or university personnel, disciplinary records and all audio and video footage of protests involving these students in the last five years.

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A DHS press release Thursday said the universitys leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment. The agency also alleged that many of them are foreign students.
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One of the key predecessors of the modern Republican Party was the Know Nothing Party, so called because of its secrecy. When asked about the organization, members would reputedly reply, I know nothing.

The Donald Trumpera GOP shares some things with its 19th-century ancestor: populist politics, xenophobia, and staunch opposition to immigration. And like their forebears, many current Republican officials profess to know nothing. But whether they are also equivocating or simply unaware is not clear.

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Yesterday on Capitol Hill, Senator Dick Durbin quizzed Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on cuts to research on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, reading off a list of terminated employees and grants.

I do not know about any cuts to ALS research, and Im happy to Kennedy started.

I just read them to you! a frustrated Durbin interrupted.

I will have to go and talk to Jay Bhattacharya, Kennedy said, referring to the head of the National Institutes of Health. If Kennedy wasnt selected for his medical expertiseI dont think people should be taking medical advice from me, he said last weekand he also doesnt have the administrative capacity to track whats going on in his department, one wonders why Kennedy is leading HHS.

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In a different Senate hearing yesterday, on the confirmation of former Representative Billy Long to lead the IRS, Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the nominee whether its legal for the president to direct the IRS to revoke an organizations nonprofit status. Warren said shed raised the question with Long during a meeting three weeks ago, at which time Long had said he needed to consult with lawyers. Now Warren wanted to circle back. Yet even with time to check and the statutes language in front of him, Long deflected: Im not able to answer the question. (Somehow, this was not the most cringe exchange in Longs hearing.)

Later in the day, in Boston, Justice Department lawyers were struggling to answer questions from federal judge Brian E. Murphy, who hurriedly convened a hearing after claims by lawyers that the administration put several people, including a Vietnamese man, aboard a plane for deportation to war-ravaged South Sudan, in possible defiance of a judicial order.

Where is the plane? Murphy asked, according to The New York Times.

Im told that that information is classified, and I am told that the final destination is also classified, a DOJ lawyer said. Murphy wanted to know under what authority the government was classifying the flights location. The attorney repliedyou guessed itI dont have the answer to that. (The plane landed in Djibouti this morning, according to the Times. Murphy said today that the flight unquestionably violated his order.)

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Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in yet another Senate hearing, might have been better off pleading ignorance. Instead, she confidently and incorrectly told Senator Maggie Hassan that habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country. Though she thought she knew, she didnt know either.

In their unawareness, these officials are taking their lead from the president. Trump once promised, I alone can fix it, but now he has a different message: I have no idea.

Is the administration deporting people to Libya? I dont know. Youll have to ask Homeland Security.

Why did Trump choose Casey Means to be surgeon general, even though she didnt finish her medical residency? Bobby [Kennedy] really thought she was great. I dont know her.

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Why did Trumps Truth Social account post an image of him dressed as the pope, ahead of the conclave? Thats not me that did it. I have no idea where it came frommaybe it was AI. But I know nothing about it.

Had Trump been briefed on U.S. soldiers missing during an exercise in Lithuania? No, I havent.

Would Trump direct his administration to provide any evidence that the graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was snatched off the street by plainclothes ICE officers, was connected to Hamas? Ill look into it, but Im not aware of the particular event. (Ultimately, the DOJ failed to produce any convincing evidence, and a judge ordered Ozturks release.)

Why did Trump sign a proclamation authorizing his administrations use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants? I dont know when it was signed, because I didnt sign it. Other people handled it. (Trump did, in fact, sign it.)

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Given this pattern, its little surprise that when NBCs Kristen Welker asked Trump, Dont you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? he had a less-than-reassuring answer: I dont know.

Some of this disengagement stems from Trumps tendency to approach the presidency not as an executive but rather as a pundit. Hed prefer to watch from the sidelines and comment than actually get into the messy work of governance. Like a witness conspicuously unable to recall things, Trump and his aides may also sometimes find it easier to claim they dont know whats happening than to accept responsibility.

Trumps first administration was dysfunctional and ineffective, in part because of Trumps detachment and inattention. So far, his second term has been much more effective. Because Trump doesnt appear to have experienced any radical transformation, thats more likely a factor of the people who are now working in his administrationthough not, apparently, Kennedy or Noem.

Trump and his allies have questioned who was really in charge from 2021 to 2025 if President Joe Biden was struggling to manage the presidency. The presidents professed unawareness of whats going on inside his administration raises the same question about his White House. Who, exactly, does know whats going on?

Related:

Here are three new stories from The Atlantic:

Todays News

President Donald Trump, who met with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, confronted Ramaphosa about the treatment of white Afrikaners in the country. The Trump administration formally accepted a Boeing 747 jet gifted by the government of Qatar. The European Union and Britain announced new sanctions on Russia yesterday, a day after Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a call to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Evening Read

Americas Johnson & Johnson Problem

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By Adam M. Lowenstein

For generations, J&J was best known for Johnsons Baby Powder, a product that the company promoted as a symbol of its trustworthiness. The association of the Johnsons name with both the mother infant bond and mothers touch as she uses the baby products is known as Johnson & Johnsons Golden Egg, a 2008 company presentation asserted. This association is one of the companys most precious assets. In No More Tears, Harris argues that the halo from this Golden Egg helped obscure a different side of Johnson & Johnson: a sprawling conglomerate that has acted brazenly, sometimes even illegally, in the pursuit of profit.

Read the full article.

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Believe it or not. Manvir Singhs new book, Shamanism: The Timeless Religion, explores how visionary healers became a fixture of contemporary American culture and politics.

Read. Skin a Rabbit, a short story by Honor Jones:

A whoop and a stampedethe boys were running by. They must have spotted Biddy.

Play our daily crossword.

Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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Article originally published at The Atlantic
It's becoming increasingly apparent that billionaire Elon Musk wasn't some great mastermind, puppeting president Donald Trump from the shadows.

In reality, the mercurial CEO has become a surprisingly reviled fixture on Capitol Hill, getting into screaming matches and frequently losing his composure, while also making "annoying" jokes and being ridiculed by the public.

The walls started coming down earlier this year, when Musk lost his temper with Trump's treasury secretary Scott Bessent, shouting obscenities at him in the halls of the West Wing, as The Atlantic reports. The pair were fighting over who would get to pick the incoming leader of the Internal Revenue Service, highlighting tensions over how an unelected official  whose job was nominally to oversee the gutting of federal agencies  was looking to shoehorn himself into even more impactful decisions that directly affected his own wealth and business interests.

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As Musk's chaotic and destructive time at the White House comes to an end, the billionaire has found himself more isolated than ever after burning bridge after bridge. His slashing of budgets has encountered major headwinds, with cabinet members blocking many of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency's moves.

He has attracted copious amounts of bad press, from performing Nazi salutes at Trump's inauguration celebration earlier this year, to being accused of handing his businesses cushy government contracts in seemingly astronomical conflicts of interest.

In a childishly standoffish appearance at Bloomberg's Qatar Economic Forum this week, he lashed out at the interviewer, visibly struggling to coherently talk about what DOGE actually achieved  besides potentially costing the government more than it saves.

But at long last, endless months of sparring and making himself unpopular in Washington, DC, are seemingly coming to a close.

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"I think I've done enough," he said during the interview. "Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," he added. "I don't currently see a reason."

However, it's unlikely his reportedly grating presence will be missed in the West Wing.

"Hes finished, done, gone," an anonymous GOP official told Politico this week. "He polls terrible. People hate him."

"The public supported the effort to end wasteful Washington spending, but they did not support the way that it was done," GOP pollster Frank Luntz added. "His mission to cut the waste from Washington was certainly helpful, but the language he used wasnt."

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"We kicked him out of town," American Federation of Government Employees general counsel Rushab Sanghvi told The Atlantic. "If he had stayed in the shadows and done his stuff, who knows how bad it would have been? But no one likes the guy."

Last month, Rolling Stone reported on Musk's transformation into a laughing stock, with staffers nicknaming him "crazy Uncle Elon."

"I have been in the same room with Elon, and he always tries to be funny," a senior Trump administration official told the magazine. "And hes not funny. Like, at all."

"I keep using the word annoying; a lot of people who have to deal with him do," the source added. "But the word doesnt do the situation justice."

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Musk's desperate attempts to turn the federal government into a poorly run, profit-maximizing Silicon Valley startup that "moves fast and breaks things" have had little to show.

"How many people were fired because they didnt send in their three things a week or whatever the fuck it was?" one Trump advisor told The Atlantic, referring to Musk's ultimately pointless request to have each government staffer send an email listing their accomplishments each week. "I think that everyone is ready to move on from this part of the administration."

Even Musk appears to be aware that DOGE has been a dismal failure, telling reporters earlier this month that "we haven't been as effective as I'd like."

"So its, like, its not easy. This is  this is a way to make a lot of enemies and not that many friends," he added.

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Musk's presence, particularly during cabinet meetings, quickly became a punchline, as he adorned himself with ridiculous hats that read things like "Gulf of America."

It was hard to take him seriously, with Musk putting on his best class clown impression by donning two hats at a time in April.

"Well, Mr. President, you know they say I wear a lot of hats!" Musk told Trump at the time. "Its true, even my hat has a hat."

The line prompted only subdued laughter.

More on Musk: Elon Musk Gets Rattled by Hard Questions He Can't Answer, Calls Interviewer an "NPC" While Giving One-Word NPC-Like Responses Himself
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Rome on Friday for a new round of talks with an Iranian delegation over Tehran's nuclear program, a source briefed on the matter said on Thursday.

At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Thursday in the aftermath of the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington late on Wednesday.

Trump believes negotiations with Iran are "moving in the right direction," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in providing details of the Trump-Netanyahu call.

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The Rome talks will be the fifth such round of U.S.-Iranian discussions.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Witkoff will be joined by a top State Department official, Michael Anton, who represented the United States at a prior session with Iran.

"Discussions are expected to be both direct and indirect, as in previous rounds," the source said.

Witkoff said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that any deal between the United States and Iran must include an agreement not to enrich uranium, a comment that drew criticism from Tehran.

While Witkoff was reiterating Trump's position about uranium enrichment, Iran's response was evidence that the two sides have a long way to go to reach any agreement over Iran's nuclear program.

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said U.S. demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium are "excessive and outrageous," state media reported on Tuesday, voicing doubts whether talks on a new nuclear deal will succeed.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Sandra Maler)
PYONGYANG, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A "serious accident" occurred during the launching ceremony of a newly-built destroyer of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday morning.

The accident was a "criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism," said Kim Jong Un, top leader of the DPRK, who was watching the ceremony at the scene.

He ordered that the restoration of the destroyer be completed "unconditionally" before the June Plenary Meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, said the report. 
More Americans oppose President Donald Trump's new tax plan than support it, according to an Economist/YouGov poll.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the mega-legislation, dubbed the "Big Beautiful Bill," on May 22 by a narrow margin. Trump has pushed for the bill, which includes several of his campaign promises, like no tax on tips or overtime wages.

But 43% of respondents in the Economist/YouGov poll released May 20 oppose the budget plan, compared to 36% who support it and 21% who didn't have an opinion.

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The survey also found more people disapprove of Trump's job performance by a margin of eight percentage points. Here is what to know:

Dig a little deeper. Social Security is a big topic in Trumps Big Beautiful Bill'

Economist/YouGov poll covers Qatar plane, other Trump news

The Economist/YouGov poll surveyed 1,710 U.S. adult citizens from May 16-19. The margin of error on the survey was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

The polling on the budget plan was slightly better than opinions in his first presidency, when his 2017 budget proposal was more opposed at 44% compared to 27%, according to YouGov.

The survey also asked about the plane the Defense Department has accepted from Qatar to be used as the new Air Force One. Fifty-one percent of respondents think it is a bad idea, compared to 29% who think it is a good idea. Also, 52% think Trump is using his office for personal gain, compared to 35% who do not, the poll results found.

What is President Donald Trump's approval rating?

RealClearPolitics Poll Average shows the gap between Americans who approve of Trump's job and those who disapprove is mostly narrowing from about his 100-day mark, with his net approval rating becoming less negative.

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As of Jan. 27, Trump received a +6.2 percentage point approval rating, but as of March 13, it flipped to slightly negative, the RealClearPolitics graphics shows, and widened over the following weeks until becoming the most negative on April 29 at -7.2 percentage points. His average approval rating as of May 22, according to RealClearPolitics, is -1.7 percentage points.

A historical analysis by Gallup shows Trump's approval ratings in April in his first years in office  both as the 45th and 47th presidents  are lower than any other modern president at the same time in their administrations.

Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Poll: Trump has negative approval rating, views on Big Beautiful Bill
The House Rules Committee holds a hearing on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at the U.S. Capitol on May 21, 2025. Credit - Anna MoneymakerGetty Images

A key House committee voted to advance President Donald Trumps sweeping tax and spending bill late Wednesday evening, clearing a major hurdle after days of internal Republican infighting and setting the stage for a floor vote in the full House early Thursday.

The breakthrough came after frenzied, late-night negotiations that yielded just enough concessions to bring key GOP holdouts on the House Rules Committee back on board, despite deep divisions over the bills cost and proposed changes to Medicaid. In the end, all but one Republican voted the bill out of committeeRep. Chip Roy of Texas, who skipped the voteending the committees debate that began about 22 hours earlier.

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Im convinced were going to pass this bill tonight, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the committee vote, signaling that he plans to bring it to the floor overnight. It may have one or two nos, you never can be certain, he said, but added: I think were going to get this job done, and were going to do it by Memorial Day.

Around 2:30 a.m. early Thursday, the Speaker moved one step closer to that goal when the House passed a procedural resolution by 217-212 to set up the floor vote on the reconciliation bill. In a sign of likely eventual passage of the bill, only one RepublicanRep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has vocally opposed Trumps megabilljoined Democrats in opposing the resolution, while two Republicans, Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona and Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida, did not vote.

Were not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonightwere putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg, Massie addressed the floor during debate on the procedural resolution. If something is beautiful, you dont do it after midnight.

Clearing the Rules Committee and passing the procedural resolution mark a major win for Trump, who has been lobbying aggressively for the Congress to pass his One Big, Beautiful Bill to cement a host of conservative priorities central to his second-term agenda. Trump had grown increasingly impatient with Republican holdouts, labeling some of them as "grandstanders" who should leave the party.

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The White House and Republican leaders ultimately decided to revise the bill late Wednesday to address concerns from members of the House Freedom Caucus, who were demanding faster, larger spending cuts and energy tax-credit phaseouts. Trump had invited Speaker Johnson and key holdouts to meet at the White House to bridge their differences. Several of those holdouts emerged from that meeting saying it helped them get on the same page as Trump.

A review of the amendments shows that the revised bill would accelerate new Medicaid work requirements to December 2026; end many tax credits for wind energy, solar energy, and battery storage by 2028; nix a tax on gun silencers; formally lock in a $40,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction; and provide $12 billion in funding to reimburse states for assisting with border security since January 2021.

The bill now heads for a vote in the full House, where Speaker Johnson is operating under very tight margins: House Republicans have one of the thinnest majorities in history at 220-212, meaning Johnson can only afford to lose three members of his caucus if all Democrats are opposed.

Trump and congressional leaders have set July 4 as the deadline for final approval of the legislation, with the Speaker insisting the House must pass the bill before Memorial Day, which is Monday. Some of the holdouts had taken issue with the timeline, saying they wont be rushed into a deal without concessions.

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Trumps legislation, at more than 1,100 pages, would permanently extend his 2017 tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year while introducing new policies like tax exemptions for tips and overtime wages. It also boosts spending on defense and border security, while reducing spending on Medicaid and food stamps. The measure would also roll back green energy tax credits from the Biden Administration, including the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit incentive.

Nonpartisan research groups studying the proposal have estimated that it would add more than $2.5 trillion to the federal debt over the next ten years. A senior White House official refuted those projections to TIME, claiming that the legislation would actually reduce the nations debt by generating an additional $2.6 trillion in revenue over the next ten years through increased economic growth.

Some hardline conservatives were previously not convinced the legislation cuts spending enough, complaining that the bill should halt clean-energy tax breaks sooner than proposed, and that new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients should start earlier than 2029.

Democrats have warned that the measure would force millions of low-income Americans off Medicaid and food assistance programs, to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. The structure of this bill is such that low- and middle-income households bear the brunt, while the wealthy reap significant benefits, says Daniel Hornung, the former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council under President Joe Biden.

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An analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Tuesday shows that the wealthiest households are expected to gain from the bill, while the lowest-income households would lose out on resources because of the spending cuts. A separate CBO report estimated that the proposed changes to Medicaid could leave 7.6 million Americans without insurance.

President Trump promised to lower the high cost of living in America. He has failed, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement on Wednesday. Costs arent going down, they are going up. The GOP Tax Scam will make life more expensive for everyday Americans and its his toxic legislation that represents the ultimate betrayal.

With reporting by Chad de Guzman.

Write to Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com.
By Nate Raymond and Ted Hesson

BOSTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students on Thursday, and is forcing current foreign students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status, while also threatening to expand the crackdown to other colleges.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the department to terminate Harvard University's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification effective for the 2025-2026 school year, the department said in a statement.

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Noem accused the university of "fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party."

Harvard said the move by the Trump administration - which affects thousands of students - was illegal and amounted to retaliation.

The decision marked a significant escalation of the Trump administration's campaign against the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump's most prominent institutional targets. The move came after Harvard refused to provide information that Noem demanded about some foreign student visa holders at Harvard, the department said.

Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in the 2024-2025 school year, amounting to 27% of its total enrollment, according to university statistics.

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In 2022, Chinese nationals were the biggest group of foreign students at 1,016, university figures showed. After that were students from Canada, India, South Korea, Britain, Germany, Australia, Singapore and Japan.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments," Noem said in a statement.

In a letter to the university, Noem gave Harvard "the opportunity" to regain its certification by turning over within 72 hours a raft of records about foreign students, including any video or audio of their protest activity in the past five years.

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Harvard called the government's action "unlawful" and said it was "fully committed" to educating foreign students.

"This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission," the university said in a statement.

Congressional Democrats denounced the revocation, with U.S. Representative Jaime Raskin calling it an "intolerable attack on Harvard's independence and academic freedom" and saying it was government retaliation for Harvard's previous resistance to Trump.

Trump has already frozen some $3 billion in federal grants to Harvard in recent weeks, leading the university to sue to restore the funding.

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In a separate lawsuit related to Trump's efforts to terminate the legal status of hundreds of foreign students across the U.S., a federal judge ruled on Thursday that the administration could not end their status without following proper regulatory procedures. It was not immediately clear how that ruling would affect the action against Harvard.

During an interview with Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum," Noem was asked if she was considering similar moves at other universities, including Columbia University in New York.

"Absolutely, we are," Noem said. "This should be a warning to every other university to get your act together."

TRUMP TARGETS UNIVERSITIES

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Trump, a Republican, took office in January pledging a wide-ranging immigration crackdown. His administration has tried to revoke student visas and green cards of foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

He has undertaken an extraordinary effort to revamp private colleges and schools across the U.S., claiming they foster anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" ideologies. He has criticized Harvard for hiring prominent Democrats for teaching or leadership positions.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Monday that it was terminating a further $60 million in federal grants to Harvard because it failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination.

In a legal complaint filed earlier this month, Harvard said it was committed to combating antisemitism and had taken steps to ensure its campus is safe and welcoming to Jewish and Israeli students.

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration advocacy group, said the action against Harvard's student visa program "needlessly punishes thousands of innocent students."

"None of them have done anything wrong, they're just collateral damage to Trump," he said on the social media site Bluesky.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Ted Hesson in Washington; Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Ryan Patrick Jones, Jasper Ward and Ann Saphir; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Diane Craft and Cynthia Osterman)
Donald Trumps administration is blocking Harvard University from enrolling international students and is forcing currently enrolled foreign students to leave the university or risk losing their legal status in the country.

Thursdays announcement accelerates the administrations pressure campaign against the nations oldest school in an escalating effort to bend institutions to the presidents ideologically driven demands.

The Trump administration is blocking international students from attending Harvard  and forcing them to transfer to other schools or leave the country  following the presidents ongoing ideological war with higher education (Reuters)

The Trump administration previously warned that the universitys federal funding was at risk if it did not comply with the presidents efforts to eliminate diversity programs, cooperate with immigration enforcement, dissolve pro-Palestine demonstrations and submit to a viewpoint diversity audit.

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The Department of Homeland Security claims Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the university of fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.

Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused, she said in a statement. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

Roughly 6,800 international students attended Harvard this year, making up more than a quarter of the universitys student body.

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A spokesman for the university called the move unlawful.

We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university  and this nation  immeasurably, according to a statement from media relations director Jason Newton. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission.

Thursdays announcement arrived as a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal status for international students nationwide while a legal challenge is ongoing.

The order from California District Judge Jeffrey White blocks the government from arresting or jailing students over their legal status after the administration wreaked havoc" on the lives of hundreds of foreign students studying in the United States.

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White, who was nominated by George W. Bush, issued a nationwide injunction following a lawsuit from a group of students whose legal statuses were abruptly terminated by immigration officials earlier this year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he has proudly terminated hundreds of student visas.

Pro-Palestinian protests at Harvard (AFP/Getty)

In March, Columbia University in New York agreed to an unprecedented set of demands from the Trump administration  largely in an effort to combat pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israels ongoing war in Gaza  in an attempt to claw back roughly $400 million in federal funding that the Trump administration pulled from the school.

Dozens of other universities were warned they could similarly lose hundreds of millions federal funding if they didnt fall in line with the presidents vision of campus civil rights, which has categorized all participants in pro-Palestine protests, which included scores of Jewish student leaders, as antisemitic Hamas sympathizers.

The administration then threatened to pull $9 billion from Harvard, the nations oldest and wealthiest university.

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Harvard then filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump was simultaneously exploiting and ignoring federal law and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination at federally funded institutions.

Threats like these are an existential gun to the head for a university, according to the complaint. They overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech.

Harvard president Alan Garber and university lawyers also said the school would not agree to the demands.

No government  regardless of which party is in power  should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue, Garber wrote.
Im an addiction and emergency medicine physician in southern Arizona, a region highly politicized by the war on drugs. Both my home and the hospital where I work are less than 100 miles from Mexico, and one of our fire departments serves a city split in two by the border wall. Although I love the ways in which the cultural milieu of the borderlands enriches our community  the school mariachi bands, colorful adobe houses in the barrios, saguaro cactus in a surprisingly verdant desert, some of the best bicycle infrastructure in the country, and even the most delicious food  Tucson was the first UNESCO city of gastronomy in the U.S.  we still have our challenges.

Although Arizona doesnt have the highest rates of opioid overdose in the country, our rates arent the lowest, either: we are slightly above average. Nearly one in four Arizonans rely on Medicaid for their health insurance, and these rates are even higher in the rural communities along the border. Based on the Trump administrations frequent visits to the borderlands and promises to help us, one might be optimistic that proposed policies would reduce overdoses and improve health outcomes.

Unfortunately, the administration is also threatening to drastically cut the very programs that actually reduce overdose deaths, both here in the borderlands and across the country at large. If staff and funding are slashed  from Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and perhaps even Medicaid  so too will the most effective tools we have to prevent fatal overdose: naloxone and medications for addiction treatment.

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Instead of focusing on evidence-based health approaches to save lives, the Trump administration is enacting punitive policies: arresting immigrants, militarizing the border, implementing tariffs against Mexico, and building more walls. During his inaugural address, President Trump promised to deport millions and millions of criminal aliens, and he has since mandated quotas for arrests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to his America First Priorities, his administration will take bold action to secure our border by building the wall and deploying the Armed Forces.

In April, Trump signed an executive order to impose tariffs upon Mexico and signed a memorandum authorizing the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to the Southern border. Currently, the administration is seeking bidders for a contract to extend the border wall between Nogales and Naco, Arizona. But without also stymying the demand for drugs, none of these supply-side approaches will work  we know this from past mistakes. Even worse, these policies will cause senseless harm in our communities.

Although the current scapegoat is Mexican people, this isnt the first time our country has used drugs as an excuse to target minoritized populations. When an economic downturn hit San Francisco in the 1870s, white people blamed Chinese immigrants for stealing their jobs and began to villainize opium, a substance associated with the Chinese community. Many whites even believed that the Chinese community was trying to hook them on opium in order to undermine American society. And so, the city criminalized it, passing our countrys first anti-drug law.

In the early 20th century South, the target became the Black community. Although influential whites such as Sigmund Freud and the former surgeon general of the U.S. Army had publicly lauded the benefits of cocaine, many believed that the drug would cause Black men to become oblivious of their prescribed bounds and attack white society. Some police departments at that time so believed that cocaine made African Americans impervious to standard bullets that they actually increased the caliber of their revolvers, an erroneous idea that still has reverberations today.

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During the 1930s reefer madness era, officials rebranded cannabis with the Spanish name marijuana to link it to Mexican immigrants, beginning a propaganda campaign to associate its use to depravity and crime. Within a few years, cannabis was criminalized, and the mandatory sentences mandated by the Boggs Act ensured that people arrested for possession faced a minimum of two to ten years of incarceration. Although whites and people of color use drugs at the same rates, mandatory sentencing unfairly targets communities of color and is one of the greatest contributors of mass incarceration.

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And, perhaps most notoriously, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set mandatory minimums that were one hundred times greater for crack cocaine, associated with Black users, than for powder cocaine, associated with white users. Crack is just a more concentrated formulation of cocaine  the drug is otherwise the same. Enforcement became the primary way to fight the war on drugs, with over one million arrests for simple drug possession each year. As a result, one out of every five people behind bars now lives in the United States. Not only that, but incarceration actually increases someone's risk for a fatal overdose: drugs are present, effective treatment is rare, and people very often relapse as soon as they are released. Although we have certainly tried to arrest our way out of our countrys drug problems, it has never worked. It never will.

And thats partly because addiction is not a crime but a treatable, chronic disease defined primarily by continued use despite the harms. And thus, increasing the severity of punishments  such as those mandated through the HALT Fentanyl Act or fentanyl homicide laws  doesnt get people to stop using. Nor will arresting undocumented immigrants or sending them to prisons in El Salvador. Instead, we have to remove someones desire to use via medical treatments; in the economic terms of supply-and-demand, we have to reduce their demand for fentanyl.

Although it sounds simple to fix our countrys overdose crisis by removing the supply, it's not so straightforward. In the middle of the 20th century, some politicians thought that we could forever end heroin overdoses by buying (and destroying) all of the opium in Burma, now known as Myanmar. But whenever one region decreased their heroin production, operations just shifted elsewhere. During the 1990s, prescription opioids replaced heroin as the main driver of fatal overdoses, and many thought we could end addiction by forcing doctors to prescribe less painkillers. And although we did drastically decrease our opioid prescriptions, a wave of illicit heroin rose to fill the demand. And when law enforcement cracked down on heroin, dealers then switched to fentanyl, a highly potent, synthetic opioid that is much easier to produce (and transport) than heroin, a crop that requires adequate land and good weather.

As one Mexican cartel operative told the New York Times in March, Demand will never end, the product is still being consumed. Addiction means demand never ends. With the right ingredients, fentanyl can be synthesized almost anywhere, even domestically  in tiny kitchens or rudimentary mountain labs  and that as long as Americans want fentanyl, it will get made, even if it requires increasing violence to do so.

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Luckily, we do have a very effective way to prevent people from dying  naloxone and overdose prevention centers. And to reduce the demand for illicit drugs we have addiction treatment. The FDA has approved three medications to treat opioid use disorder: methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. Not only do these medications keep people alive by preventing fatal overdoses, but they also reduce the transmission of hepatitis C and HIV. In fact, these medications are some of the most effective treatments we have for any chronic disease, more so than those that many Americans take daily for conditions such as coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes and obesity. Unfortunately, less than one in five people with opioid use disorder receive these life-saving medications, and proposed funding cuts threaten to reduce this figure even further.

Here in Southern Arizona, Trumps policies will directly weaken many of our most effective tools in the fight against the opioid crisis. When the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states in March, a program for pregnant women with substance use and unstable housing was immediately shuttered in Tucson. At the University of Arizona, our addiction medicine fellowship receives funding from a federal program that is slated to be cut. If we lose our addiction medicine fellowship, we will lose our addiction physicians at the university hospitals  and hundreds of patients every year will miss out on life-saving treatment. Across the state, a naloxone distribution program has been largely funded through a SAMHSA grant that is now at risk of termination.

Although it is less obvious the ways in which general federal and staffing cuts will affect addiction treatment on the ground, I am worried that my patients will still be negatively affected. Many health departments rely heavily on federal funding, as do non-profits like Cochise Harm Reduction, which directly help people who use drugs along the U.S.-Mexico border. With every cut, such organizations might experience reduced prioritization, program disruption, and overall dilution of services.

Similarly, the Trump administration has talked about cutting Medicaid spending. In the borderland counties of Southern Arizona in which I live and work, 30% to 41% of the population rely on Medicaid for their insurance coverage, and it is estimated that nearly 90% of medical treatment for fentanyl addiction across the country is provided by Medicaid. If that were to go away, they would risk losing coverage for their addiction treatment.

But no matter which of these proposed changes are actually passed, they will all end with the same result: more lives lost from fentanyl and overdose. If the administration actually cared about borderland communities and reducing fatal overdoses as much as they claimed, they would be prioritizing harm reduction and treatment in Arizona, not dismantling it. Instead of repeating the past mistakes of punitive policies  arrests, militarization, walls aimed at reducing supply  we would bolster existing health approaches to reduce demand and save lives. But perhaps saving lives was never the real goal.
During a contentious meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, President Donald Trump offered a barrage of videos and images as so-called proof of white genocide in South Africa.

But at least one image Trump was referencing on Wednesday was not even from South Africa.

As Agence France-Presse first reported, an image Trump pointed to while citing violence against white farmers in South Africa was actually a depiction of femicide. The photo showed Red Cross workers carrying the body bags of women whod been raped and burned alive in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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The image, which was featured on the site American Thinker, was included in a larger blog post that raised concerns about South Africas land expropriation law, though the photo is not related to that policy in any way. The picture, as the caption indicates, is a screengrab from a video posted by the Indian outlet WION, which utilized Reuters footage.

Trump had pointed to the photo while rifling through multiple articles, which he said were evidence of death and violence that white South Africans were eager to flee.

Look, heres burial sites all over the place, he said in reference to the photo. These are all white farmers that are being buried.

Ramaphosa, meanwhile, has firmly dismissed Trumps genocide claims as part of a false narrative. South African officials have emphasized that theres scant evidence that white farmers have faced more violence than Black farmers in the country, and Ramaphosa noted in February that no land has been confiscated from anyone as the result of a new 2024 law.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
US President Donald Trump condemned the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staff outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday evening, calling it a "horrible" act of anti-Semitism.

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen!" the president said.

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Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said a man and a woman were killed. She said a suspect was arrested and a weapon recovered.

"The suspect chanted 'free, free Palestine' while in custody," she added.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were employees of the Israeli embassy. Credit - IsraelinUSA/XGetty Images

Two Israeli embassy staff were killed in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

The victims have been named as Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26. The couple were leaving an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee when they were fatally shot. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) arrested Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old man from Chicago, at the scene. On Thursday, Rodriguez was charged with first-degree murder and other crimes. Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., called it a death penalty-eligible case during a press conference.

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Witness Paige Siegel told CNN that she heard Rodriguez say I did it for Gaza and Free Palestine.

In a statement shared via social media on Thursday morning, the Israel Foreign Ministry said: We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in WashingtonYaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim. May their memory be a blessing. We embrace the grieving families during this painful time and will continue to support them always.

According to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., the two victims were a couple about to be engaged.

Read More: The Rise of Antisemitism and Political Violence in the U.S.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he is "heartbroken" for the families of the victims and that he has "instructed security officials to strengthen protection arrangements for Israeli missions around the world, and to raise the level of security for all state envoys."

Trump, pictured here in the White House on May 12, 2025, has condemned the killing of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, D.C. Andrew HarnikGetty Images

President Donald Trump condemned the killings via a post on TruthSocial and sent his condolences to the families of the victims.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! he said. Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA.

There continues to be an outpouring of condolences and reactions from U.S. and global politicians:

U.S. politicians react

Secretary of State Marco Rubio

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C. Our prayers are with their loved ones," Marco Rubio said in a post on X.

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This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the murder of two staff members from the Embassy of Israel in Washington, DC. Our prayers are with their loved ones.



This was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and  Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 22, 2025

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee remarked upon the "horrific act of terror that the people of Israel are waking up to this morning," and said he had been in contact with Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Mayor of Washington, D.C. Muriel Bowser

Muriel Bowser addressed the shootings in a press conference, sending her condolences to the families of the victims.

There is no active threat in our community. What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people... We will not tolerate this violence or this hate in our city, she said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi

Pam Bondi said in a press briefing after the shooting that government agencies will be doing everything in [their] power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight, our Jewish community.

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We will follow the facts, we will follow the law, and this defendant charged will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, she added.

Former President Joe Biden

Joe Biden took to social media to share his condolences and denounce "antisemitic violence."

"Jill and I are horrified and saddened by the deadly shooting outside of the Capital Jewish Museum last night that claimed the lives of two young people, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim," he said. "Antisemitic violence and hate have no place in our communities. We are praying for Yaron and Sarahs families and loved ones."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Chuck Schumer said in a statement on X that he was closely monitoring the shooting in D.C.

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This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society. Im praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families, he said.

Im closely monitoring the shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum tonight in DC.



This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.



Im praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their  Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 22, 2025

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem

Kristi Noem said that the embassy staff were senselessly killed and that authorities are actively investigating and working to get more information to share.

Vowing to bring the person responsible to justice, she added: Please pray for the families of the victims. We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.

Sen. Scott Wiener of California

In a TV interview with news channel Kron 4, State Sen. Scott Weiner, a Democrat, said: This is absolutely terrifying I mourn these two individuals that have been murdered. Wiener also said that Jewish Americans face a high number of hate and religious-based crimes in the U.S.

Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey

In a statement on X, Sen. Andy Kim of the Democratic Party said that the attack must be strongly condemned.

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Having worked in diplomacy and in embassies abroad before, I am further disgusted by the targeting of embassy personnel on American soil, he said. My heart goes out to the families of the victims, the Israeli embassy staff, the American Jewish Committee who hosted the event, and others who were present.

FBI agents cordon off the scene outside the Capital Jewish Museum following a shooting that left two people dead, in Washington, D.C, in the early hours of May 22, 2025. Alex WroblewskiGetty Images

Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware

Sen. Chris Coon, a Democrat, said that he was horrified to hear about the shooting.

This is a disgusting act of antisemitic violence that advances no cause but violence and destruction, he said.

Im horrified to hear of the killing of two Israeli diplomats just blocks from our Capitol tonight at an event celebrating Washingtons Jewish community. This is a disgusting act of anti-Semitic violence that advances no cause but violence and destruction.  Senator Chris Coons (@ChrisCoons) May 22, 2025

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, said that he was appalled by the vile attack.

This is a horrific act of violence and antisemitism and the perpetrator must be brought to justice, he said.

Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania

Republican Sen. Dave McCormick called the truly horrific attack a disgusting act of antisemitic violence in the heart of the nations capital.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries

In an official statement, Hakeem Jeffries said that he was horrified by the incident. It is clear that too many of our Jewish brothers and sisters legitimately fear for their safety in this country simply as a result of their faith, he said. America will stand firmly with the Jewish community during this great hour of need.

International reactions

E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas

Kaja Kallas said she was shocked by the fatal shooting of the embassy officials.

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There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism, she said. I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel.

Shocked by the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC.



There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism.



I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel.  Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) May 22, 2025

Italys Minister of Foreign affairs Antonio Tajani

Antonio Tajani said in a statement on X: I stand with the State of Israel for the tragic murder of two young employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. Scenes of terror and violence to be strongly condemned.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz

Friedrich Merz said that he was shocked by the incident, adding that his thoughts were with the victims' families. At this stage we must assume an antisemitic motive. I condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms, he said.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer condemned the attack and reaffirmed his support for the Jewish community.

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Antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears, he said. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and, as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

I thoroughly condemn the antisemitic attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC.



Antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears.



My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and, as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish  Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) May 22, 2025

Frances Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot

Jean-Noel Barrot called the shootings an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity and said that nothing can justify such violence.

Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin

Irelands Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheal Martin strongly condemned the attack. My deepest sympathies go to the family and friends of the couple, and the Israeli people, he said via social media. There can be absolutely no place for violence or hate.

Contact us at letters@time.com.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR)  A diplomatic meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took a tense turn at the White House Wednesday, as Trump accused the South African government of enabling violence against white farmers, a claim the South African delegation strongly denied.

During the Oval Office exchange, Trump reportedly played a video of a South African opposition leader calling for violence, using it to support his assertion that white South Africans are being targeted.

These are all white farmers being buried, Trump said, adding that hes welcoming thousands of white South African refugees to the U.S. because they feel theyre going to be dead real soon.

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Ramaphosa pushed back firmly against the claims.

Our government policy is completely against what hes saying, he said.

Ramaphosa brought a delegation of South African government officials, labor leaders, and even personal acquaintances of Trump to support his position. The group argued that the countrys high crime rate affects all citizens, not just white farmers.

We need your help to stop this awful killing, but its across the board, said one South African businessman.

Help us deal with all this criminality, Ramaphosa added.

Despite the pushback, the White Houses official X account stood by Trumps comments during the meeting, posting: President Trump always brings the receipts.

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Trump later appeared to soften his stance, suggesting he might reconsider labeling the violence as genocide. Ramaphosa, invoking the legacy of Nelson Mandela, emphasized a desire to build mutual understanding and strengthen trade ties.

We are essentially here to reset the relationship with the United States, he said.

The meeting comes at a challenging time for U.S.-South Africa relations, as the African nation grapples with increased U.S. tariffs and a significant reduction in humanitarian aid following the gutting of USAID.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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The evening that Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, Netanyahu land rejoiced. The news anchors on Channel 14, Israels equivalent of Fox News, toasted Trumps victory live on air. Yinon Magal, the ultranationalist host of Israels premier right-wing talk show, led his audience in a round of celebratory singing while Trumps face grinned on the screen behind them. Benjamin Netanyahu himself congratulated Trump on historys greatest comeback. The Israeli leader and his allies seemed certain that Trumps return to the White House heralded unconditional backing for their most fevered fantasies.

They were wrong. Last Friday, Trump wrapped up his tour of the Middle East, where he made deals and hobnobbed with Americas top allies in the regionexcept one. Israel was not invited to the party and was barely acknowledged in the foreign-policy address that the president delivered in Saudi Arabia. The snub followed more substantive slights. In recent weeks, Trump has surprised Netanyahu by announcing new nuclear negotiations with Iran, halting Americas campaign against the Houthis despite the terrorist group continuing to fire missiles at Israel, and going behind Israels back to secure the release of the American Israeli hostage Edan Alexander from Gaza. Theres a great sense of unease here, Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview last week.

None of this should have been unexpected. Trump is famously mercurial and transactional, loyal only to his own self-interest. In his first term, as an unexpected outsider president, he needed international legitimacy and wins, and Israel gave him both in the form of the Abraham Accords. This time, Trump no longer needs legitimacy, and Israels war in Gaza is getting in the way of other potential regional wins, such as expanding the accords. In addition, the previous Trump administrations Israel policy was significantly shaped by staff, and that staff has changed markedly with the introduction of an isolationist faction that seeks to extricate America from international commitments. Netanyahu put all of his chips on Trump nonethelessa wager that now threatens to cost the Israeli prime minister the remnants of his legacy.

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The legend of Benjamin Netanyahu was built on two myths. The first was that Netanyahu was the ultimate guarantor of Israeli security, a far-sighted hawk who, for all his faults, could be relied on to keep Israelis safe. For years, when asked how hed like to be remembered, Netanyahu routinely responded, As the protector of Israel, both in Hebrew and English. The Jewish nation has never excelled at foreseeing danger, the prime minister told a talk show in 2014. We were surprised again and againand the last time was the most awful one. That wont happen under my leadership. After Hamas inflicted the worst day of Jewish death since the Holocaust, Netanyahus pose as Mr. Security was exposed as a self-flattering falsehood. But he still had one other myth to cling to: his reputation as a geopolitical genius.

[Yair Rosenberg: Trump sides with the Israeli people against Netanyahu]

In 2019, Netanyahus reelection campaign festooned Israel with giant posters, each depicting the prime minister shaking hands with one of three world leaders: Indias Narendra Modi, Russias Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump. The banners were captioned with the words Another League. Unlike his small-time Israeli rivals, the placards implied, Netanyahu was a savvy statesman who punched above his weight on the international stage, thanks to his unaccented English oratory and ability to inveigle the worlds most powerful people.

Israelis might not like him or trust him, Netanyahus argument went, but they needed him. This line of thinking was so potent that it convinced not just Israelis, but some of Israels Arab neighbors, who believed Netanyahu to be the gateway to influence in Washington. One incentive for Arab leaders to normalize ties with Israel, as with the Abraham Accords, was their belief that they could gain Trumps favor by linking up with his apparent ally.

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Most of those campaign posters have not aged well. In the days following the October 7 attack, Putin made multiple public statements on the Gaza conflict, none of which explicitly condemned Hamas. Russia has since voted against Israel repeatedly at the United Nations. Netanyahus image could have survived this hit if Trump hadnt dealt him a more serious and unexpected blow in recent weeks. The president has cut the Israelis out of regional decision making and reportedly kiboshed a plan to strike Irans nuclear facilities. Though Trump has not compelled Israel to halt its war in Gaza as yet, he has begun pressing Netanyahu to provide humanitarian aid and conclude the conflict.

By revealing Netanyahu to be a bit player, rather than an elite operator, Trump has not just put the Israeli leader in his place. He has exploded Netanyahus carefully cultivated political personaan act as damaging to Netanyahus standing as the Hamas attack on October 7. Worse than making Netanyahu look foolish, Trump has made him look irrelevant. He is not Trumps partner, but rather his mark. In Israeli parlance, the prime minister is a freiera sucker.

The third-rate pro-government propagandists on Channel 14 might not have seen this coming, but Netanyahu should have. His dark worldview is premised on the pessimistic presumption that the world will turn on the Jews if given the chance, which is why the Israeli leader has long prized hard power over diplomatic understandings. Even if Trump wasnt such an unreliable figure, trusting him should have gone against all of Netanyahus instincts.

[Yair Rosenberg: The end of Netanyahu]

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He should have realized that in a competition for the affections of a strongman like Trump, Israel had little to offer. We cant invest a trillion dollars in the American economy, noted Oren, the former Israeli ambassador, but there are some other people in this neighborhood who can. Not only does Israel not have spare luxury jets lying around to fob off on the American president, but the country took nine years to retrofit and launch its own version of Air Force One, and the process was a national fiasco.

So long as Netanyahu refuses to go along with any of Trumps grand diplomatic initiatives, which might require him to end the Gaza war or entertain some semblance of Palestinian statehood, Israel has nothing to give Trump other than symbolic trinkets. But instead of recognizing the precariousness of his position, Netanyahu abandoned his characteristic caution, put his faith in Trump without a fallback, and is now left with nowhere else to turn.

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli was once said by his biographer to be a master at disguising retreat as advancea passage that Richard Nixon underlined in his copy of the book. Like those men, Netanyahu is the consummate survivor, and he may yet manage to spin his latest predicament to his benefit. To write off the Israeli leader would be foolish, especially with new elections not required until late 2026.

But the body blows to Netanyahus reputation should not be underestimated. His current coalition received just 48.4 percent of the vote in the last election and has been polling underwater since before October 7. More than 70 percent of Israelis want their prime minister to resign. Voters sometimes fall for myths, but eventually, like children, they outgrow them.

Article originally published at The Atlantic
GENEVA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong has called for international solidarity and mutual support to forge a healthy world.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call on Tuesday when delivering a speech at a high-level welcome ceremony of the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Five years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping called on all countries to join hands in building a global community of health for all at the 73rd World Health Assembly, Liu said. China has firmly honored this commitment with concrete actions as the international community widely recognizes China's role in and contributions to combating the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

Noting that global public health security is now facing significant challenges under the impact of unilateralism and power politics, Liu emphasized that China has always put people and their lives first, implemented a health-first strategy, actively participated in global health governance, and promoted the building of a global community of health for all.

The international community should uphold multilateralism, firmly support the World Health Organization (WHO) in playing its leading and coordinating role in global public health governance, uphold fairness and equity, and firmly support the legitimate demands of developing countries in areas such as public health arrangements, vaccine distribution and technology transfer, he said.

The international community should also uphold openness and innovation and seize the historic opportunities brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation to deepen cooperation in health innovation, Liu added.

As the WHO's highest decision-making body, the WHA is attended by heads of state or government, high-profile representatives from over 100 countries, and leaders of international organizations. 
The Trump administration told Harvard University on Thursday it no longer would be allowed to enroll international students, a significant escalation in President Trumps war against the university.

Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ordered Harvard to be taken off the Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

Along with not allowing new foreign students, the DHS said the thousands of current foreign-born students at Harvard must transfer or lose their legal status.

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This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus, Noem said. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments.

Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.

International students made up 27 percent of Harvards student body in the 2024-25 academic year, with nearly 7,000 enrolled. Such students typically pay more to their universities than those from the U.S. and contribute billions of dollars to the American economy.

The governments action is unlawful. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvards ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University  and this nation  immeasurably, a spokesperson for the school said.

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We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvards academic and research mission, they added.

The New York Times was the first to report the news. One person familiar with the discussions told the Times that Harvard likely will mount a legal challenge to the move.

The university and the DHS have reportedly been battling for days over records requests regarding information about Harvards international students and their visas.

The Trump administration has launched a multi-front pressure campaign against Harvard after the university refused to bow to its demands for changes to its admissions and hiring policies, as well as getting rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

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The Trump administration and Harvard are already locked into a legal battle after the federal government pulled almost $3 billion in funding.

Noems announcement ramps up not only Trumps fight with Harvard but also his broader crackdown on international students.

The administration has arrested numerous foreign students and faculty in the past three months, seeking to have them deported.

Many of the high-profile cases were against individuals who have supported Palestine publicly on their campuses, with the White House arguing they post a threat to the foreign policy of the United States.

Students have been arrested off the streets and during naturalization interviews, with several quickly transferred to a federal detention center in Louisiana, sometimes thousands of miles away from home.

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A judge ruled on Thursday to stop the federal government from terminating the legal status of international students across the country, arresting the individuals or transferring them outside the jurisdiction of residence.

Updated at 2:57 p.m. EDT

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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More than half of the 220 holders who attended the black-tie event are likely based outside the United States, according to blockchain analysis.

A company controlled by the Trump family and a second firm together hold 80% of the remaining supply of $TRUMP coins, and have so far earned $320.19 million in fees, including at least $1.35 million after the dinner announcement, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

These top holders enjoyed a private VIP reception with Trump, and the four largest investors also received a limited edition Trump Tourbillon watch that sells for $100,000.

In total, investors spent an estimated $148 million on the $TRUMP meme coin to secure their seats at the dinner, with the top-25 holders spending more than $111 million, according to crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital.

In a video posted on social media by a meme coin contest dinner guest, Trump told the crowd, "I always put the country way ahead of the business...You become president of the United States, and you want to see people thrive and succeed. The Biden Administration persecuted crypto innovators and we're bringing them back into the USA where they belong."

Sun declined to comment but posted on X that he is "grateful for the invitation." The SEC declined to comment.

On Wednesday, Sun also posted a video of himself visiting the Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex. In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission paused its 2023 fraud case against Sun, citing public interest.

Among those in attendance was China-born crypto entrepreneur and billionaire Justin Sun, who posted a video of himself, underscored by triumphant music, entering the ballroom and dressed in a tux. Sun won first place in the dinner contest with his $18.5 million wallet, and is also the largest publicly known investor and an adviser to World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's crypto platform, which has made them hundreds of millions of dollars.

As guests filed into the event, and President Trump arrived by Marine One helicopter, more than a hundred protesters at the Trump National Golf Club crowded along the edge of the parking lot along the street. Signs included, America is not for sale, stop crypto corruption," and release the guest list."

STERLING, Virginia (Reuters) -Buyers of President Donald Trump s meme coin converged from around the globe on Thursday for an exclusive dinner at his private country club, overlooking the Potomac River, just outside the nations capital.

Story Continues

In response to criticisms about Trump using his office to enrich himself from the meme coin, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday: "All of the president's assets are in a blind trust, which is managed by his children. And I would argue, one of the many reasons that the American people re-elected this president back to this office is because he was a very successful businessman before giving it up to publicly serve our country."

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

Vincent Liu, chief investment officer of Taiwan-based crypto market maker Kronos Research, said he had hopes of networking with other top holders and even possibly meeting the president.

"That kind of access is rare, and it represents how digital assets are entering the mainstream."

PRIVATE COCKTAIL RECEPTION

Sheldon Zia, founder of the Cayman Islands-based crypto exchange BitMart, posted on X prior to the event that, as a top-25 holder, he was heading to not just the dinner but also to a private VIP cocktail reception before the dinner and a private VIP tour the following day.

An initial announcement said the 25 VIPsthe majority of their identities so far unknownwould tour the White House.

That detail has since been deleted from the $TRUMP meme website (www.gettrumpmemes.com).

There are also domestic Trump supporters such as Vincent Deriu, a 27-year-old New York consultant who said he already owns "many" Trump-branded watches, "a few pairs of" Trump sneakers, and "more than 50" Trump NFTs. Deriu joined the dinner on Thursday for $116,000.

Trump spent an hour at the event, where meme coin holders were served an organic field green salad, filet mignon, pan-seared halibut, garlic mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley, followed by a warm lava cake, according to a photo of the gold-lettered menu posted to social media.

Senior Democratic members of the House and Senate held a press conference earlier Thursday to highlight what they describe as Trumps corrupt crypto practices and to push for legislation that would ban such activities.

"Donald Trumps dinner is an orgy of corruption," said Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy noted the anonymity of attendees. "Reportedly, theres going to be a guy there tonight called Ogle," Murphy said. "Thats it. Thats all we know about this guy. He wears a mask all the time."

When reached for comment by Reuters, Ogle, a crypto security specialist, said that he uses a pseudonym and appears in video interviews with his face obscured by a bandana and sunglasses to protect himself because of safety concerns related to his pro bono work, in which he says he has helped victims of crypto criminals recover more than half a billion dollars. Ogle said Murphy's accusations were "misplaced." "My motive for attending this dinner is very straightforward," said Ogle, who also serves as an advisor to Trump's cryptocurrency platform, World Liberty Financial. "I'm curious by nature, I believe it will be an historic moment, and I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to go." Ogle came in at number 22 in the contest, and holds a total of $3.6 million worth of the $TRUMP coin.

Democratic lawmakers have introduced a flurry of bills aimed at ending the ability of presidents and members of Congress to own or oversee businesses that issue or promote crypto products.

Given that Republicans have majority control of both the U.S. House and Senate, the Democratic Party has limited ability to pass legislation and call for public hearings or formal investigations.

Of all of the Trump familys cascade of new crypto ventures  which now include a crypto exchange, a stablecoin, a bitcoin mining operation and digital asset ETFs  the meme coin has sparked particularly strident criticism from Democratic lawmakers and government watchdog groups, who have decried it as "a race to the bottom for presidential grifting."

Now, even some Trump allies are starting to weigh in, with Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, a robust and staunch crypto industry advocate, saying the dinner gives her "pause."

Since the $TRUMP meme coin launched in January, the profits have favored big investors: more than 60 large wallets have profited close to $1.5 billion, with $48 million in profits occurring after Trump posted about the contest on social media, according to reviews by Inca Digital and crypto analytics tracker Bubblemaps, as of May 8.

Meanwhile, about 600,000 other smaller wallets have lost $3.87 billion so far, with $117 million of the losses occurring after the dinner announcement.

The event was capped off with an after-party, called "Meme The Night," thrown by a Singapore-based meme-coin engagement company called MemeCore.

MemeCore's co-founder, who goes by the name Ice, traversed the planet to attend the dinner after spending more than $16 million to come in second place.

(Additional reporting by Tom Wilson in London; Editing by Tom Lasseter, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Diane Craft)
President Donald Trump just unveiled details on the Golden Dome  a futuristic missile defense program that will bring U.S. weapons to space at a cost of $175 billion.

Trump said Tuesday he had plans to finish the dome before the end of his term in 2029. The Golden Dome is intended to include ground- and space-based defense systems that can detect and intercept missiles before and during launch, while they are in the air, and just before they hit their target.

Trump expressed hope that by 2029 the Golden Dome will be able to intercept missiles even if they are launched from space.

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Gen. Michael Guetlein, who is the vice chief of American space operations, will oversee the construction of the Golden Dome. Lockheed Martin won the contract last year to build the interceptor missiles, though it is unconfirmed if any other contracts have been awarded.

The Golden Dome signals the fulfillment of an American dream

Though Golden Dome may be a new moniker, Trump did not invent its concept on his own. Space-based missile defense has lingered in the dreams of American presidents since the Cold War, when then-President Ronald Reagan announced intentions to build a similar defense system.

I know this is a formidable task, one that may not be accomplished before the end of this century, said Reagan in 1983. It will take years, probably decades of effort on many fronts.

The Cold War ended before Reagan could finish construction on his defense system. Since then, the American military has labored on ground-based interception programs (via U.S. Patriot missiles) and interceptor missiles developed specifically to quash intercontinental warheads.

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Technology may have not yet advanced enough to reliably intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles, even with the Golden Dome  though Trumps timeline will require that the Department of Defense come up with technology that experts predict is still at least a decade away. For example, hypersonic missile interceptors are not expected to be functional until the 2030s.

Will the Golden Dome make America safer?

The Trump administration, which has been heavily involved in the peace processes in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war and the short-lived India-Pakistan war, is convinced of the necessity of the Golden Dome.

Within the last four decades, our adversaries have developed more advanced and lethal long-range weapons than ever before, including ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles capable of striking the homeland with either conventional or nuclear warheads, wrote Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a public statement on Tuesday. (The Golden Dome) represents a historic investment in American security and fulfills our duty to protect the homeland first and foremost.

But the Golden Dome could be working against American safety, as it has triggered alarm from American enemies  specifically, from China and Russia. Beijing expressed displeasure with the Tuesday announcement, saying the Golden Dome heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race and undermines international security.

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Moscow has also reached out to Trump to discuss the program. On Tuesday, Trump said he had not yet answered the call, but planned to do so at the right time.

Beijing and Moscow have also released a joint statement condemning the Golden Dome as deeply destabilizing and turning space into an arena for armed confrontation. American defense reports indicate that both countries have reinvested in their weaponry programs, specifically to exploit flaws in American defenses.

However, China and Russia have allegedly already placed offensive weapons in space.

Paying for the Golden Dome

Trump has projected a $175 billion cost over the next two-and-a-half to three years and said he is confident that Congress will fully fund the Golden Dome, calling the process easy.

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Its amazing how easy this one is to fund, he said. Some funding is tough and some is easy. When we say were going to save everyones lives in a crazy world, it seems to be very easy to get.

However, $175 billion is just the construction cost. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Golden Dome could cost taxpayers as much as $831 billion over the next 20 years.
Updated at 2:18 p.m. ET on May 22, 2025

For years, President Donald Trump has bragged that he, and only he, could bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Ill have that done in 24 hours, he said repeatedly during his most recent presidential campaign. Once back in the White House, he told advisers to plan for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the hope of creating a made-for-TV spectacle during which he could formally announce a resolution to the war, two administration officials and an outside adviser told me.

But plans are now shifting, those officials said. (I agreed not to name them so that they could discuss internal deliberations.) Trump still wants to establish closer ties with Putin, and the White House will likely revisit the possibility of a meeting before long. But officials now expect that any such summit wont involve negotiations to end the fighting.

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After months of pushing for a cease-fire deal, the United States is preparing to take a step back from peace talks. Trump made this change in strategy clear after holding calls this week with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and suggesting that he will no longer work to personally broker an agreement between the two leaders. Europe is on its own. And Russia has been handed a win, at least temporarily escaping consequences from the United States while it continues to pursue its aggression.

I think somethings going to happen, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, seemingly still hoping for an agreement. But, he added, if it doesnt, I just back away, and theyre going to have to keep going. This was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation.

[Read: Trumps basic misunderstanding about the war in Ukraine]

Perhaps this outcome was inevitable. Trump has long been deferential to Putin, skeptical of Europe, and steadfast in his belief that American foreign policy should prioritize business and trade. He has frequently affirmed Russias narrative about the warthat Ukraine provoked the conflictand repeatedly demanded Ukrainian concessions for peace while asking little of Putin. His flashes of frustration with his Russian counterpart have been rare and brief. A few weeks ago, after meeting with Zelensky at Pope Franciss funeral, Trump threatened new sanctions on Russia; as he put it then, Putins decision to ignore U.S. calls for a 30-day cease-fire revealed that he might not want to stop the war and has to be dealt with differently. But to this point, no new sanctions have been levied.

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When Putin proposed a meeting with Zelensky in Istanbul last week, Trump hoped that cease-fire talks were on the verge of a breakthrough, one of the administration officials I spoke with said. Zelensky traveled to Turkey, and Trump, already in the region for the first foreign trip of his new term, signaled that he would be willing to join if the Russian leader went as well. Instead, Putin blew off the meeting and sent a low-level delegation. Did the fact that Ukrainian and Russian officials met for the first time since the early stages of the war represent a degree of progress? Yes. But nothing of note came from the meeting, and Russias demands remain extreme. Trump privately felt stung that Putin declined the chance to meet, the outside adviser, who spoke with the president after the Istanbul meeting, told me.

Trump has grown weary and frustrated with both sides of the conflict, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday, after the president had held his calls with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. Trump spent two hours on the phone with Putin in a conversation that both the White House and the Kremlin described as warm. Later that day, Trump declared on Truth Social that Putin had agreed to immediately start direct negotiations with Ukraine toward a cease-fire and a broader deal to end the war. Setting aside the fact that direct talks had already started in Turkey, Trump, by not insisting that Russia accept Americas 30-day cease-fire proposal, was giving Putin just what he wanted: permission for negotiations to move ahead more slowly. The sluggish pace will allow Russia to continue to inflict damage on Ukraine and win more territory, potentially strengthening Moscows position for future negotiations.

Vladimir Putin wants to keep the war going, Jake Sullivan, who was President Joe Bidens national security adviser, told me. He thinks that terrorizing cities will weaken their morale, and he thinks eventually their lines will crack and hell make substantially more progress on the ground. Sullivan said that by agreeing to talks with Ukraineeven in vague, toothless termsPutin had done enough to placate Trump for now. He wants to keep the war going but, on the other hand, keep Trump from flipping on him. And so his gambit wins.

[Read: Trump weighs his options against Putin]

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Kylie Newbold, Trumps National Security Council spokesperson, told me in a statement: This is a war we inheritedit is Bidens war. There was no plan or strategy to bring the conflict and killing to an end, but now under President Trump the two sides are agreeing to the first direct talks in three years. This is an important step forward.

In his Truth Social post, Trump suggested that the United States was stepping back from the talks because Ukraine and Russia know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of. Hours earlier, Vice President J. D. Vance had similarly declared the conflict not our war, saying, Were going to try to end it, but if we cant end it, were eventually going to say: You know what? That was worth a try, but were not doing any more. Trump added Monday that he wanted the Vatican, rather than the U.S., to host negotiations.

Zelensky might welcome divine intervention, but the potential lack of U.S. involvement alarmed him. On X, he insisted that the negotiation process must involve both American and European representatives at the appropriate level.

According to the Kremlins readout of Putins call with Trump, the Russian leader touted to Trump the possibility of significant American-Russian business deals. Trump seemed enthusiastic in his Truth Social post. Russia wants to do largescale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic bloodbath is over, and I agree. There is a tremendous opportunity for Russia to create massive amounts of jobs and wealth. Its potential is UNLIMITED, he wrote. The outside adviser and a third administration official I spoke with both told me that one of Trumps primary motivations for ending the conflict is that he wants to normalize relations with Moscow and negotiate a trade deal involving Russias rare-earth minerals.

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The U.S. is continuing to share intelligence with Ukraine and to send some aid there. (The administration briefly paused both after Trumps heated Oval Office meeting with Zelensky in February, leading to Russian gains in the war.) As long as the spigot remains open, many experts believe, Ukraine can hold off Moscows advances on the battlefield. And Washington might yet impose more penalties on Moscow. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has broken with Trump by proposing tough sanctions against Russiaas well as secondary sanctions against other nations that do business with Moscowif Putin does not commit to peace talks. The measure now has the support of a bipartisan group of nearly 80 senatorsa veto-proof majority, as Senator Richard Blumenthal, the first co-sponsor of the bill, pointed out to me. Its no secret that Donald Trump is mercurial on the subject of Ukraine. Hes in again and out again in his attempts to make a deal. Hes being played by Putin, Blumenthal said.

[Phillips Payson OBrien: Heads, Ukraine loses. Tails, Russia wins.]

With Trump stepping away from the peace negotiations, Europe will bear more of the responsibility for supplying Ukraine with weapons and guaranteeing its future security. The continent has rallied around Ukraine since the war began, but European militaries cannot match the ability of the United States to fortify Kyiv. A U.S. withdrawal would likely lead to more Russian gains. It would also provide further evidence of the Trump administrations skepticism toward Europe. Trump has repeatedly feuded with European leaders over issues of trade and defense spending.

Zelensky, who has more aggressively courted Trump after their disastrous Oval Office meeting, admitted this week that he did not know whether the United States would join with European nations in stepping up sanctions against Russia, as the bloc did on Tuesday.

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We need to know who we can count on, and who we cant. A support package from Europe is coming, and it will be a strong one, he told reporters the day before the European Union levied the new penalties against Moscow. As for the package from the United Statesthats a different story.

This article originally misstated that Ukrainian and Russian officials had not met since Russias invasion. In fact, they met in the early stages of the war.

Article originally published at The Atlantic
A highly anticipated White House report about in vitro fertilization (IVF) and infertility that could make sweeping recommendations on making the procedure more accessible is now in the hands of President Trump and may be released soon.

Representatives from IVF advocacy groups, for-profit clinics, and conservative think tanks have been meeting regularly with administration officials since February, when Trump signed an executive order calling for a menu of recommendations to improve IVF access.

The White House said the report was delivered to the president Monday, and he is reviewing it.

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The Domestic Policy Council has worked closely with external stakeholder groups over the past 90 days to deliver on President Trumps executive order to formulate a plan on expanding IVF access for American families, administration spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement to The Hill.

This is a key priority for President Trump, and the Domestic Policy Council (DPC) has completed its recommendations, Desai added.

The White House didnt offer details about the contents of the report or when it will be released.

But industry representatives and fertility doctors who participated in meetings with the White House said they came away feeling optimistic about what the report could recommend. Senior administration officials  including White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Vince Haley, head of the DPC  seemed engaged, they said, and well-versed on fertility issues.

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Some of the ideas presented included mandating Tricare insurance to cover IVF for military members and declaring IVF an essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), so all ACA exchange plans must cover it.

Some of the actions can be done with an executive order, while others may need congressional intervention.

I would say, if anything, I was encouraged by the meeting. Sometimes you walk into these meetings and people on the other side have a preconceived idea what they want, but that didnt seem to be the case, said TJ Farnsworth, president of the Fertility Providers Alliance.

Farnsworth said he met with White House officials in March.

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Kaylen Silverberg, a fertility clinic doctor from Texas and chair of the advisory board of Americans for IVF, said hes been in regular contact with officials about how best to expand access to IVF.

At every single level, at every single conversation, Ive been floored by how serious they all are and by how well-informed they are, Silverberg said. I had very objective high-level [discussions] drilling down to low-level in-the-weeds questions.

Americans for IVF is a conservative group that promotes expanded access to IVF as a pro-family and pro-life issue.

I am optimistic, highly optimistic, that this administration is taking this issue more seriously than any other administration Ive been in contact with, Silverberg said.

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Trumps executive order called for a report with recommendations to protect access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment.

The average cost for one cycle of IVF is about $15,000, and many patients require multiple cycles before a successful pregnancy is achieved.

Trump vowed during the 2024 presidential campaign that he would ensure IVF treatments would be covered by the government or that the government would require insurance companies to cover it. Such a move would almost certainly drive up health insurance costs.

IVF became a campaign issue after a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos should be considered as children and therefore discarding them is criminal. The ruling temporarily halted IVF services for many patients in Alabama.

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Trump and other Republicans quickly distanced themselves from the ruling and talked about their support for IVF. Though Republicans hadnt directly opposed IVF access, Democrats tried to tie the issue to abortion.

But his executive order did not make any policy recommendations or endorsements. Thats tempering expectations for what could come from the proposal.

I think [the order] created a lot of buzz and excitement, Farnsworth said. But theres not any certainty in what was said, except that its asking for proposals. And where those proposals go, its hard to know.

Still, he added that even if the report recommends incremental change, it would move IVF policy forward.

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Its really encouraging that there is a U.S. president thats even talking about this, Farnsworth said.

Infertility remains a common problem among Americans, and many insurance companies or employers dont cover the costs.

Yet other conservative groups that have the ear of the White House are less supportive of broad IVF coverage mandates. The Heritage Foundation, for instance, wants tighter regulation of the IVF industry and a focus on restorative reproductive medicine.

The idea is to treat the root cause of infertility directly, rather than try to circumvent it with a medical intervention like IVF. Assisted reproductive technology should be a last resort, the group says.

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Anti-abortion Christians also oppose IVF because they view embryos as humans, a position that has put many Republicans in a bind, given IVF clinics regularly dispose of unused embryos.

Silverberg said he understands the White House has been soliciting many opinions, but he hopes the report will reflect medical perspectives. However, two of the primary advocacy groups representing medical providers and patients said they were not involved in the process.

Over the last 10 years, we have led efforts in the states that have led to improved coverage for 60 million people, but for some reason, this White House doesnt want to talk to us, said Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Tipton said his organization reached out to White House officials through emails and letters but never heard back.

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Another group, Resolve: The National Infertility Association, also was not involved in the report, the groups CEO Barbara Collura said.

There are so many ways that this could go. It could be that the White House decides to study this more. It could be that the White House finds a small sector of coverage that they want to work on and thats it, she said.

Look, I have the Presidents promise on the campaign trail, we have the executive order, and thats all I have to go on right now.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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On January 25, as the sun rose over a glistening Lake Victoria, hundreds of recovering heroin addicts dutifully arrived at a treatment clinic on the outskirts of the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

They had each come to receive a small cup of methadone, the synthetic opioid used to treat withdrawal symptoms and keep former addicts functioning and stable.

But on this day, despite some patients having visited for years, the staff at the clinic could not help. A sweeping stop-work order had come from Donald Trump and Elon Musk, putting an immediate end to all United States funded assistance programmes. The recovering addicts were turned away one by one, and left to face their demons and the bone-deep ache of heroin withdrawal alone.

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The clinic was the only one of its kind in Kampala, and over the next several weeks, 200 people overdosed and three people died, said Twaibu Wamala, founder and executive director of the Uganda Harm Reduction Network. Many more of the clinics patients relapsed, returning to foetid shacks hidden in Kampalas slums and descending into the addiction they had spent months  sometimes years  trying to escape.

The funding freeze, which came without warning, had caused widespread and unnecessary suffering, said Mr Wamala. There had been an element of cruelty to it, he added. Mr Musk and other wealthy people in the US administration had let others die because you can.

Solomon holds a photograph of his son, Moses, who died after a drug relapse - Sophie Neiman

The Telegraph spoke to the parents of the three young addicts who died in Uganda after the stop-work order was issued and their treatment was withdrawn.

We saw it as a miracle, said Solomon, the father of one of the addicts, of the methadone programme. He asked to speak under pseudonym to avoid repercussions in a country where drug use is still highly stigmatised.

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But when Trump came and stopped it, we started to look at Trump  and the Americans who voted for him  as bad people, he added.

Two of his sons were addicted to heroin. By the time the clinic was shut down, theyd been clean for four years. He even moved closer to the facility so he could easily drive them to appointments and check in with the staff himself.

I befriend my children. Besides being their parent, I am their friend, he said.

When the treatment centre abruptly shut its doors, Solomon was away for work. He received word that Moses, his youngest son, was in withdrawal and violently ill.

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Solomon rushed home, but he was too late. Moses had returned to a ghetto in desperation, starting taking drugs again, and died. He was 21-years-old.

Doctors told Solomon that his son had died after a blood clot blocked oxygen flow to his brain.

While difficult to diagnose, Moses death could have been caused by the stress of reintroducing drugs to his weakened system, or contaminants within those drugs causing a stroke, said Shayla Schlossenberg, head of drug services at Release UK.

Ivan George Serayange is one of hundreds of patients who overdosed when a US aid review froze funding to a Uganda methadone clinic - Sophie Neiman

Another man interviewed by The Telegraph said his son was beaten to death after the clinic was closed. He assumes the boy was caught trying to steal money for drugs.

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A mother said her son was found dead in a drug den in Kampala following the closure of the treatment centre. His body was taken to a public hospital before she could claim it and was buried in a mass grave.

One of the patients cut off from treatment was Ivan George Serayange, who worked as a driver for the United States Embassy until a friend introduced him to heroin in 2014. Then addiction took hold. He lost his job. He lost his home. He lost contact with his family.

It turns all your life around, Mr Serayange explained. From righteous to wrong.

Heroin feels like you are saving your life. Youre giving yourself another six hours ahead, he said, referring to the length of time a heroin high typically lasts. After the six hours, it feels like you are dying.

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Mr Serayange had been clean for a little more than a year when the methadone clinic shut down.

Staying at his mothers house, he promised himself he would never use again. Two of his children cared for him, running their fingers down his back as he trembled and sweated. He found strength by listening to Mariah Careys 1992 hit Hero on repeat.

But by day four of withdrawals, he needed something  anything  to stop the throb of cravings. He returned to the ghettos he frequented at the peak of his addiction, stealing money from his mother as he left her house. He took any drug he could get his hands on.

Twaibu Wamala is founder of the Uganda Harm Reduction Network, which supports recovering addicts - Sophie Neiman

Mr Serayange awoke in the hospital 32 hours later with an intravenous drip in his arm. He was lucky to have survived the overdose.

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There is little he can recall of the specifics of his symptoms, but he does remember a feeling of shame at having fallen into drug use again.

The doctors and nurses looked down their noses at him like a pathetic sight, he said.

Then, in February, the clinic opened its doors again after almost three weeks.

The bulk of its funding came from the US Centre for Disease Control, under the Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), so it was subject to a waiver during a ninety-day review of United States foreign funding.

Mr Serayange was in disbelief when he heard the clinic had reopened.

I thought it was just a dream, he said. He went there immediately and slept outside in the grass until dew wet his clothes. He was determined to be the first in line for methadone.

Kampala city as seen from a ghetto where addicts go to look for heroin - Sophie Neiman

The US funding review was extended until May 19, giving the clinic a lifeline, but so far no announcement has been made, leaving its staff and patients in limbo.

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CDC budgets have already been significantly cut, and hundreds of employees fired on the orders of Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency.

Mr Wamala fears the centre could be forced to close again at any moment, disrupting care for vulnerable patients who badly need consistency.

We havent had any communication from the US administration or our support partner, he said. We are waiting to see the next steps but, for now, [we are] working as always.

A former addict himself, Mr Wamala knows just how important consistent treatment is.

You cant be promising people services this month, and next month there are no services. This is lifetime treatment.

I have no hope of getting better again

Since 2020, Mr Wamalas UHRN network has provided at least 700 people with medically assisted treatment to curb heroin addiction, and hundreds more with HIV/Aids prevention support.

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While the clinic operates out of a Ugandan government hospital, Mr Wamala estimates that about 70 per cent of the funding for its harm reduction and drug treatment programmes comes from the CDC.

Against the backdrop of this widespread disruption to funding, drugs are evolving and new threats are emerging.

We are in maybe one of the most dangerous times in terms of the current changes in the illicit drug market, where we have new synthetic opiates emerging and spreading in various parts of the world, said Mx Schlossenberg, of Release UK.

That means it is also a particularly bad time to stop investing in methadone treatments.

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The amount of risk people will be at today navigating the illicit opiate market is so much higher than it was 10 years ago, they added.

The Telegraph met six men on the dirt floor of a heroin den, sitting on a ripped mattress. The ground was littered with matches and scorched foil, the air thick with acrid smoke. The only light came through holes in the walls.

One of the men, Geoffrey Mutebi, says that methadone treatment had helped him achieve sobriety. But now I have no hope of getting better again. He lights a pipe to smoke, its flame dancing off the hollows of his face.

Even with the clinic open, Mr Mutebi will not return to treatment because he fears it could be shut just as quickly  it is better not to waste time. Solomons surviving son agrees.

Sometimes Solomon imagines himself in the room with the US president.

Id tell Trump: You are a killer and not a healer, he said. Id look him straight in the eyes, and tell him: I lost my son Moses because of you.

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President Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, after two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

The suspect walked into the museum, where he was apprehended, and yelled, Free, free Palestine once he was arrested, police officials said. The two victims have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim.

They had a productive discussion. They discussed many things, including of course the tragic shooting that took place here in Washington, D.C., last night, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

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Leavitt also noted that Trump is saddened and outraged by the shooting and spoke about the young couple at the White House daily press briefing, citing that the embassy referred them as a star couple.

The evil of antisemitism must be irradicated from our society, Leavitt said, adding that Attorney General Pam Bondi told her Thursday morning that the perpetrator will be prosecuted.

Trump during the call with Netanyahu expressed deep sorrow over the shocking murder in Washington of two Israeli embassy employees, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, of blessed memory, according to a readout from the prime ministers office.

The Prime Minister thanked President Trump for the efforts he and his administration are making to combat antisemitism in the United States, it continued.

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The two leaders also discussed Iran ahead of the nuclear talks with the U.S. in Rome over the weekend, Leavitt said.

Trump earlier Thursday condemned the shooting, saying the suspects actions were based obviously on antisemitism and calling for an end to hatred and radicalism.

Bondi, who was on the scene Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, also spoke with Netanyahu following the incident, the Israeli leader said. According to Netanyahus office, she conveyed to him that Trump is involved in managing the event, and that the US will bring the murderer to justice.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on social platform X that the subject is in custody and was interviewed last night. He added in a separate post that the penalties against the shooter will be harsh as we tighten up this investigation and run down any additional leads.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
May 21President Donald J. Trump wants to build a new, state-of-the-art missile defense system to protect the United States, a plan that Rep. Elise M. Stefanik seems to hope will include a missile defense system on Fort Drum.

On Tuesday, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled an estimated $175 billion, three-year project that they called the "Golden Dome," likening the project to Israel's large-scale missile defense system the "Iron Dome."

The plan is preliminary and may involve cooperation with Canada, Trump said Wednesday. The plan would rely on a network of sensors and spotters on Earth and in low orbit, and a network of space-based missile interceptors. Trump seemed to compare it to the "Star Wars" space-based laser defense system outlined but never achieved under President Ronald Reagan.

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There's $25 billion budgeted for it in the GOP appropriations bill being pushed in the House, the "One Big Beautiful Bill," as Trump dubbed it, to pay for the initial planning and setup for the project.

In a statement issued late Tuesday, Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, said she backs the Golden Dome initiative and seemed to indicate she's hoping the system will have at least some basis on Fort Drum in Jefferson County, at the western edge of her district.

"President Trump's announcement of the Golden Dome represents decisive action and fearless vision to ensure America's defense future," she said. "As a staunch and longtime advocate for a robust strategic missile defense system, and Fort Drum, New York's critical role within it, I'm thrilled to work alongside the President in Congress to execute this transformative program."

But it's not clear what role, if any, Fort Drum would play in a completed Golden Dome system. For years, Stefanik has pushed to include language requiring the Department of Defense build a missile defense system for the east coast and do so at Fort Drum. Despite multiple defense funding bills including explicit language that the DOD move forward with plans for the Fort Drum site, officials have only spent a fraction of the authorized funding and have kept all plans unspecific as to location.

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While the DOD did issue a report a few years ago identifying Fort Drum as the best place to build a missile defense system, the report wasn't overwhelmingly supportive of that decision and left the door open for DOD to select a new site in the future. And the department has moved slowly on the entire east coast defense project, pointing to the fact that the missile defense systems in California and Alaska generally cover the routes for potential intercontinental missile attacks on the U.S.

Experts have long questioned the effectiveness of missile defense systems, especially as the United States would implement one. The missiles launched at the U.S. would have to go through low orbit to reach the continent, a very different scenario than the smaller, land-to-land missiles that the Israeli Iron Dome program is skilled at defending against. American missile defense systems have historically been easy to fool in tests.

Still, Trump and advocates for the program remain confident, and the project got another high-profile backer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose office said on Wednesday that the Canadian government was engaged in active discussions on joining the Golden Dome program or a similar missile defense system.

Trump on Tuesday said he planned to bring Canada into negotiations, but noted the Canadians would have to pay for the program.

"We'll be talking to them," Trump said. "They want to have protection also, so as usual we help Canada."
DAKAR, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his Mauritanian counterpart Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani on Thursday visited the platform of the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) offshore gas project, located 10 km off the coasts of both countries, the Senegalese presidency announced.

This joint visit marks "a major step in energy cooperation" between Mauritania and Senegal, according to a joint statement.

It also celebrates "two historic milestones recently achieved -- the start of gas production in January 2025 and the first export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in April 2025, thereby officially integrating both nations into the exclusive group of LNG-exporting countries," the statement said.

The GTA project, developed by BP and its partners Kosmos Energy, PETROSEN, and SMH, is described as "one of the most ambitious liquefied natural gas projects in Africa, featuring some of the continent's deepest underwater infrastructure."

"The initial phase of the GTA project will produce around 2.4 million tonnes of LNG per year, aimed at supplying the international market while meeting the growing energy needs of both countries," the statement noted.

Recognized as a "national strategic project" by both governments, the GTA also aims to "contribute to the development of local content, particularly through the training of national technicians for integration into the offshore oil and gas industry," it added. 
Mount Taylor viewed from Laguna Pueblo in an undated photo. As President Trump seeks to fast-track uranium mines in the Southwest, experts said a robust state review processwill stand in the way. (Photo by Jack Delano via Library of Congress website)

Recent federal activity suggests the Trump administration has two long-stalled uranium mines near New Mexicos Mount Taylor on its radar.

Earlier this month, a federal infrastructure agency included Roca Honda and La Jara Mesa uranium mines on a new list of 20 projects nationally that advance the Presidents directive to take immediate action to facilitate domestic production of Americas vast mineral resources, according to a statement from the council.

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Then last week, the U.S. Interior Department announced that a proposed uranium mine in Utah would be subject to only a 14-day federal review period, shortening what is commonly a years-long process.

Source New Mexico spoke with state officials, outside experts and longtime anti-uranium advocates about what defense New Mexico will have against the federal governments efforts to restart uranium mining here for the first time in 50 years. While experts said hard-fought cultural protections are unlikely to present much of an obstacle, they expressed confidence that state regulations will hold up against federal encroachment.

I think that the realities weigh against the administrations ignorant and uninformed policies that suggest to the public that these kinds of projects will happen overnight, said Christopher Shuey, a public health researcher closely monitoring uranium developments here. They wont.

Holding the line

Private companies have sought to develop the La Jara Mesa and Roca Honda mines for more than a decade, though interest heated up with Trumps executive order seeking to boost domestic energy production. Soon after, Cibola National Forest leaders named both mines priority projects, and then uranium company Energy Fuels then struck a controversial deal with the Navajo Nation that would allow it to transport ore from Roca Honda across the reservation. Meanwhile, Laramide Resources indicated on its state permitting application a desire to expedite the next step of its La Jara Mesa project.

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DJ Ennis, program manager for the states Mining Act Reclamation Program, confirmed to Source NM theres been a renewed interest from uranium mining companies seeking to break ground in New Mexico.

But even if the federal government tries to fast-track mining here, Ennis said the state will take its time and fully review both mine proposals, which it is empowered to do under the 1993 New Mexico Mining Act, and in lieu of a federal law.

The feds are going to do what the feds are going to do, Ennis told Source. It does affect us, in that it would be good if the state and the feds were on the same pace and page of permitting. But if that is not the case, the default then becomes the states permitting process, and we have a robust permitting process.

At the federal level, new uranium mines are subject to environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which Trumps recent orders have accelerated. But that has no bearing on the states ongoing review, Ennis said.

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If it came down to it, Ennis said, the state could issue daily fines and potentially even deploy state police officers to stop uranium extraction at the Roca Honda or La Jara Mesa sites if the companies did so without a state permit.

So if Trump were to order a truncated federal review of the La Jara Mesa mine like he did the Velvet-Wood mine in Utah last week, and then the Forest Service issued a rushed environmental impact statement that selected its preferred alternative of extracting uranium, and then company proceeded to break ground, the state would step in and stop it, Ennis said.

Im not sure what that looks like, if it involves state police to enforce the order or courts, Ennis said. But it is a state law that we are enforcing.

Eric Jantz, attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the states permit review should offer the public some reassurance that nothing will happen immediately. He also suggested that his organization would consider suing if the federal government sought to fast-track New Mexico uranium mines.

I suspect that if the Forest Service either ignores its obligations under NEPA because of this executive order or its own regulations, that litigation will probably ensue, he said.

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Thats because, Jantz said, he sees little basis for an energy emergency that Trump claims is the reason to fast-track the mines.

If theres one thing to impart, its that this whole notion of premising expedited environmental reviews on some sort of emergency is preposterous, he said. No emergency exists, and theres no reason why the usual environmental reviews cant continue.

What will TCP designation mean?

While experts and observers expressed confidence in the states capacity to hold off a federal push to expedite mining, they said it remains unclear whether efforts by local Indigenous tribes and pueblos to protect Mount Taylor as a cultural and religious site will add another layer of protection.

In 2007, as several mining companies moved forward with plans to extract uranium from the Mount Taylor area, five tribes made the unusual step of sharing stories about their ancestral and spiritual connections to the mountain.

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That rare disclosure of tribal creation myths marked an early milestone in a multi-year battle to create a 400,000-acre Traditional Cultural Property, drawing a line around Mount Taylor recognized by the state of New Mexico. Among other things, the designation aimed to give Indigenous people a voice in opposing uranium or other mining interests. After mining companies sued in 2009, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that the designation should stay intact.

Since then, the pueblos have maintained opposition, with the All Pueblo Council of Governors in December issuing a resolution to state regulators that Mount Taylor, known by various traditional names is a sacred landscape, central to the cultural identity, traditional practices, and religious activities of numerous Pueblos and other tribal nations.

Even though the Navajo Nation agreed to let uranium eventually be transported from Roca Honda across the reservation, it has also long opposed any new mines in the Mount Taylor area, Stephen Etsitty, the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency director, said recently.

Designation of Mount Taylor as a traditional cultural property has yet to emerge as an issue in the state permitting process, Ennis said. The designation requires federal and state parties to consult with tribes, but a collision awaits between private mining interests and cultural protections, Ennis said.

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The intersection of those two is a difficult question to answer, he said. I dont know that well know until we get to the end of the process.

Shuey, who has advocated against the mines since 2009 as a researcher with the Southwest Research and Information Center, said the recent federal fast-tracking prompted him and colleagues to review what the TCP designation actually meant for protecting Mount Taylor.

Weve been asking this question for the last several weeks, he said. My understanding is that the impact of the TCP would be more of a, Pay attention to this site from the standpoint of cultural resources, and make provisions to mitigate any types of impact to cultural resources type of thing.

Even without an outright ban on mining or around the TCP, Shuey said, he expects greenlighting the mines to take years, during which time opponents will watchdog the process.

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A lot of these folks have lived through the 80 years of the uranium legacy. Theyve learned across generations of the impacts of mining, he said. And so I think theres a lot of not only institutional memory but institutional knowhow of evaluating mining proposals and offering intelligent and compelling comments and testimonies.

He likes their odds against a Trump administration that seems to not be particularly interested in understanding or knowing the impacts of mining, he said, but instead has a weird, visceral notion that we just need more of these minerals for a variety of purposes, and were going to go get them.
Mount Taylor viewed from Laguna Pueblo in an undated photo. As President Trump seeks to fast-track uranium mines in the Southwest, experts said a robust state review processwill stand in the way. (Photo by Jack Delano via Library of Congress website)

Recent federal activity suggests the Trump administration has two long-stalled uranium mines near New Mexicos Mount Taylor on its radar.

Earlier this month, a federal infrastructure agency included Roca Honda and La Jara Mesa uranium mines on a new list of 20 projects nationally that advance the Presidents directive to take immediate action to facilitate domestic production of Americas vast mineral resources, according to a statement from the council.

Advertisement Advertisement

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Then last week, the U.S. Interior Department announced that a proposed uranium mine in Utah would be subject to only a 14-day federal review period, shortening what is commonly a years-long process.

Source New Mexico spoke with state officials, outside experts and longtime anti-uranium advocates about what defense New Mexico will have against the federal governments efforts to restart uranium mining here for the first time in 50 years. While experts said hard-fought cultural protections are unlikely to present much of an obstacle, they expressed confidence that state regulations will hold up against federal encroachment.

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I think that the realities weigh against the administrations ignorant and uninformed policies that suggest to the public that these kinds of projects will happen overnight, said Christopher Shuey, a public health researcher closely monitoring uranium developments here. They wont.

Holding the line

Private companies have sought to develop the La Jara Mesa and Roca Honda mines for more than a decade, though interest heated up with Trumps executive order seeking to boost domestic energy production. Soon after, Cibola National Forest leaders named both mines priority projects, and then uranium company Energy Fuels then struck a controversial deal with the Navajo Nation that would allow it to transport ore from Roca Honda across the reservation. Meanwhile, Laramide Resources indicated on its state permitting application a desire to expedite the next step of its La Jara Mesa project.

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DJ Ennis, program manager for the states Mining Act Reclamation Program, confirmed to Source NM theres been a renewed interest from uranium mining companies seeking to break ground in New Mexico.

But even if the federal government tries to fast-track mining here, Ennis said the state will take its time and fully review both mine proposals, which it is empowered to do under the 1993 New Mexico Mining Act, and in lieu of a federal law.

The feds are going to do what the feds are going to do, Ennis told Source. It does affect us, in that it would be good if the state and the feds were on the same pace and page of permitting. But if that is not the case, the default then becomes the states permitting process, and we have a robust permitting process.

At the federal level, new uranium mines are subject to environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which Trumps recent orders have accelerated. But that has no bearing on the states ongoing review, Ennis said.

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If it came down to it, Ennis said, the state could issue daily fines and potentially even deploy state police officers to stop uranium extraction at the Roca Honda or La Jara Mesa sites if the companies did so without a state permit.

So if Trump were to order a truncated federal review of the La Jara Mesa mine like he did the Velvet-Wood mine in Utah last week, and then the Forest Service issued a rushed environmental impact statement that selected its preferred alternative of extracting uranium, and then company proceeded to break ground, the state would step in and stop it, Ennis said.

Im not sure what that looks like, if it involves state police to enforce the order or courts, Ennis said. But it is a state law that we are enforcing.

Eric Jantz, attorney with the New Mexico Environmental Law Center, said the states permit review should offer the public some reassurance that nothing will happen immediately. He also suggested that his organization would consider suing if the federal government sought to fast-track New Mexico uranium mines.

I suspect that if the Forest Service either ignores its obligations under NEPA because of this executive order or its own regulations, that litigation will probably ensue, he said.

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Thats because, Jantz said, he sees little basis for an energy emergency that Trump claims is the reason to fast-track the mines.

If theres one thing to impart, its that this whole notion of premising expedited environmental reviews on some sort of emergency is preposterous, he said. No emergency exists, and theres no reason why the usual environmental reviews cant continue.

What will TCP designation mean?

While experts and observers expressed confidence in the states capacity to hold off a federal push to expedite mining, they said it remains unclear whether efforts by local Indigenous tribes and pueblos to protect Mount Taylor as a cultural and religious site will add another layer of protection.

In 2007, as several mining companies moved forward with plans to extract uranium from the Mount Taylor area, five tribes made the unusual step of sharing stories about their ancestral and spiritual connections to the mountain.

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That rare disclosure of tribal creation myths marked an early milestone in a multi-year battle to create a 400,000-acre Traditional Cultural Property, drawing a line around Mount Taylor recognized by the state of New Mexico. Among other things, the designation aimed to give Indigenous people a voice in opposing uranium or other mining interests. After mining companies sued in 2009, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled in 2014 that the designation should stay intact.

Since then, the pueblos have maintained opposition, with the All Pueblo Council of Governors in December issuing a resolution to state regulators that Mount Taylor, known by various traditional names is a sacred landscape, central to the cultural identity, traditional practices, and religious activities of numerous Pueblos and other tribal nations.

Even though the Navajo Nation agreed to let uranium eventually be transported from Roca Honda across the reservation, it has also long opposed any new mines in the Mount Taylor area, Stephen Etsitty, the Navajo Environmental Protection Agency director, said recently.

Designation of Mount Taylor as a traditional cultural property has yet to emerge as an issue in the state permitting process, Ennis said. The designation requires federal and state parties to consult with tribes, but a collision awaits between private mining interests and cultural protections, Ennis said.

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The intersection of those two is a difficult question to answer, he said. I dont know that well know until we get to the end of the process.

Shuey, who has advocated against the mines since 2009 as a researcher with the Southwest Research and Information Center, said the recent federal fast-tracking prompted him and colleagues to review what the TCP designation actually meant for protecting Mount Taylor.

Weve been asking this question for the last several weeks, he said. My understanding is that the impact of the TCP would be more of a, Pay attention to this site from the standpoint of cultural resources, and make provisions to mitigate any types of impact to cultural resources type of thing.

Even without an outright ban on mining or around the TCP, Shuey said, he expects greenlighting the mines to take years, during which time opponents will watchdog the process.

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A lot of these folks have lived through the 80 years of the uranium legacy. Theyve learned across generations of the impacts of mining, he said. And so I think theres a lot of not only institutional memory but institutional knowhow of evaluating mining proposals and offering intelligent and compelling comments and testimonies.

He likes their odds against a Trump administration that seems to not be particularly interested in understanding or knowing the impacts of mining, he said, but instead has a weird, visceral notion that we just need more of these minerals for a variety of purposes, and were going to go get them.

Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com.

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US President Donald Trump, during a phone call with European leaders on Monday 19 May, has acknowledged that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not ready to end the war in Ukraine as he believes he is winning.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, citing three people familiar with the details of the conversation

Quote: "The acknowledgment was what European leaders had long believed about Putin  but it was the first time they were hearing it from Trump. It also ran counter to what Trump has often said publicly, that he believes Putin genuinely wants peace."

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Details: Despite this, Trump has not agreed to the demands of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to increase pressure on Russia.

Ahead of a two-hour conversation with Putin on Sunday 18 May, Trump held a call with European leaders during which he said he might impose sanctions if Russia refused a ceasefire.

However, he had again changed his position by Monday and was no longer prepared to take such action.

"This isn't my war. We got ourselves entangled in something we shouldn't have been involved in," Trump told journalists after speaking with Putin.

Quote from the WSJ: "While the effort ultimately didnt succeed in getting Trump to do that through additional sanctions, Europeans saw some upside to the outcome. The process had helped clarify for everyone, including Trump, where Putin stood: He is unwilling to halt the war at this stage. And for the Europeans, it helped underscore that it was now largely up to them to support Ukraine. Europeans don't believe the Trump administration will stop US weapons exports as long as Europe or Ukraine pays for them."

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Details: Trump announced during a separate Sunday call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he would send Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg to upcoming talks at the Vatican. Trump raised the possibility of imposing sanctions on Russia's energy and financial sectors in the same Sunday call.

However, the following day he showed less enthusiasm for US involvement in the process.

European leaders insisted during the conversation that the outcome of any talks at the Vatican must be an unconditional ceasefire. But Trump again held back, stating that he did not like the word "unconditional". He noted that he had never used the term, although in fact he did use it in a post on his Truth Social on 8 May, when he called for a 30-day ceasefire.

Background:

Trump refused to join the European Union's sanctions pressure on Russia after a conversation with Putin. Instead, he expressed an intention to focus on economic cooperation with Moscow, which could lead to a rift within NATO  something Putin has been seeking to create for more than two decades.

Rubio declined to label Putin a war criminal during a hearing of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives.

Politico reported that Trump's administration had opposed the inclusion of a pledge of continued support for Kyiv and a reference to the illegality of Russia's war against Ukraine in an upcoming G7 statement.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he sees no signs of a quick end to Russia's war against Ukraine.

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President Donald Trump raged against antisemitism and hatred after two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead on Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

The victims, a man and a woman, were exiting an event at the museum when the shooting occurred, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference. A single suspect, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, is in custody, she added. The suspect chanted free, free Palestine, while in custody, Smith continued.

Trump took to Truth Social early Thursday morning, writing: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!

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Details of the shooting were still being investigated overnight, but Smith said the suspect was believed to have acted alone.

Prior to the shooting, the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun, and opened fire, striking both of our decedents, she told reporters.

The suspect entered the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, according to Smith. Once handcuffed, he disclosed the location of a weapon, which has been recovered by police, she added.

She said police do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the community.

Trump reacted to the shooting in a statement, writing,

The victims were a couple, Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told the press conference. He said the man had bought a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his partner next week in Jerusalem.

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We are a resilient people, Leiter said. The people of Israel are resilient people. The people of the United States of America are resilient people. Together, we wont be afraid. Together well stand and were going to overcome moral depravity of people who think that theyre going to achieve political gains through murder.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told the press conference the suspect will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I am on the scene of the horrible shooting outside the Washington, DC Capital Jewish Museum with @USAttyPirro, Bondi had written on X. Praying for the victims of this violence as we work to learn more.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter visited the site where two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead. / Jonathan Ernst / REUTERS

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy, said in a statement on X that two staff members were shot at close range while attending a Jewish event at the museum.

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Two witnesses, Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher, told the Associated Press they were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and saw a man come inside appearing distressed. Kalin said the man was initially offered water and aid by people who did not realize he was the suspect.

This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin told AP. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

The museum said in a statement it was deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence.

We are deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening. Our condolences and heartfelt sympathies go to the victims and their families. pic.twitter.com/OpsvKRVRpM  Capital Jewish Museum (@CapJewishMuseum) May 22, 2025

The incident comes amid a renewed Israeli offensive in warn-torn Gaza this week, prompting rebukes from several Western allies. France, Britain and Canada called Israels renewed campaign and withholding of humanitarian aid egregious.
A federal judge has blocked President Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon from carrying out an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Boston issued a preliminary injunction stopping the Trump administration from carrying out the presidents March executive order to dismantle the agency.

Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making, Trump said at the time. Everybody knows its right. The Democrats know its right, and I hope theyre going to vote for it because ultimately it may come before them.

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Joun disagreed, stating that the executive order painted a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for Americas most vulnerable student populations.

The record abundantly reveals that defendants true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute, Joun wrote, condemning the administration for trying to abolish a department without approval from Congress.

Joun also called for the reinstatement of employees who were fired from the department by the Department of Government Efficiency. Restore the department to the status quo, he wrote in his ruling.

Trump has yet to comment on the decision.


In May 2025, four months after his term ended, the office of former U.S. President Joe Biden announced he was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer. Skeptics, including President Donald Trump, questioned the timing of the announcement, suggesting it was improbable the cancer was not diagnosed earlier, while Biden was in office, but hidden from the public.

A Biden spokesperson claimed he was most recently tested for prostate cancer in 2014, when he was 71 or 72 and still vice president.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force suggests doctors not test men over 70, given the risks associated with cancer treatment and the likelihood an individual of that age will die from other competing factors before prostate cancer ends his life. Similarly, the American Cancer Society suggests doctors not test men with a life expectancy of less than 10 years for prostate cancer.

Given the aggressive nature of Biden's cancer (9 out of 10 on the Gleason scale), it's not implausible that malignant cells developed more recently and metastasized at a faster rate, though it's impossible to assess the details of Biden's case without publicly available test records.

Given the dearth of actual evidence to date, it's also impossible to ascertain whether Biden's prostate cancer was diagnosed earlier than was claimed and was kept from the public.

Four months after former U.S. President Joe Biden left the White House in January 2025, his office announced he had received a diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer. Immediately, social media users (archived, archived, archived) and public detractors, including President Donald Trump, suggested Biden received a diagnosis while in office and hid it from the American public. Dozens of Snopes readers also inquired as to the timing of Biden's diagnosis.

A X post says,

(X user @quay_dr)

Biden's disclosure of his diagnosis came around the time a book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson published, titled, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." In it, the authors claimed Biden's office attempted to hide the extent of Biden's "serious decline."

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In a news conference on May 19, Trump further suggested Biden may have hidden test results from the public. "I think it's very sad, actually. I'm surprised that the public wasn't notified a long time ago because to get to Stage 9 [sic], that's a long time," Trump said. At minute 3:00, he added, "Somebody is not telling the facts." (For the record, there is no such thing as "Stage 9 cancer"; Biden received a Stage 4 diagnosis.)

Biden's office rebutted these allegations on May 20. Chris Meagher, a Biden spokesperson, said in a statement that Biden's last prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test took place in 2014, when Biden was 71 or 72 years old, meaning Biden did not receive a diagnosis while serving as president. We reached out to Biden's office seeking confirmation and will update this story if we receive a response.

Certain questions persist. For example, given the importance of the president's health, why didn't Biden's medical team regularly screen him for one of the most common types of cancer among older men? Why wasn't it caught earlier? Below, we break down what we know about the timing of Biden's diagnosis, how quickly Biden's cancer could have spread, and whether law requires U.S. presidents to disclose information about their health to the American public.

Why didn't Biden's medical team catch the cancer earlier?

The cancer had already spread to the former president's bones at the time his illness was announced, meaning the disease was aggressive and likely incurable at that point. Biden's detractors claimed he should have received regular screenings for prostate cancer, which is the second most common form of cancer in American men next to skin cancer (which Biden has also received treatment for in the past). The truth is a little more complicated.

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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the most common risk factor for prostate cancer is age. "The older a man is, the greater the chance of getting prostate cancer," its website reads. The American Cancer Society posits that "most prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65."

Biden received testing after he reported "increasing urinary symptoms." If he hadn't shown physical symptoms, it's unlikely he would have undergone PSA testing or caught the cancer.

So then why would the U.S. president  who turned 82 in November 2024 and was the oldest serving U.S. president in history  have skipped this test for more than a decade as he got older?

There are a number of factors that can contribute to older individuals not undergoing PSA tests. Biopsies following a positive PSA test can be harmful and lead to bleeding, infection, etc., and only 25% of patients who have biopsies following elevated PSA levels actually have prostate cancer. Treatment (such as radiation) for a positive biopsy result is also significantly taxing on the body, especially for an older individual, and can lead to a number of harms, including a 50% risk of long-term sexual erectile dysfunction and up to a one in six chance of long-term irritable bowel symptoms, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF, or Task Force). The Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts, according to its website.

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Additionally, the government-backed Task Force  which The New York Times, CDC and others cited  recommends against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer in "men 70 years and older." This is because, while the risk of prostate cancer peaks above age 75, according to the CDC, there is a competing risk of other causes of death and life expectancy is, on the whole, not higher than the typical time it would take for the cancer to physically affect an individual.

The reasoning the Task Force gave in 2018 is as follows:

PSA-based screening for prostate cancer leads to the diagnosis of prostate cancer in some men whose cancer would never have become symptomatic during their lifetime. Treatment of these men results in harms and provides them with no benefit. This is known as overdiagnosis, and follow-up of large randomized trials suggests that 20% to 50% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer through screening may be overdiagnosed.3 Overdiagnosis rates would be expected to increase with age and to be highest in men 70 years and older because older men have high risk of death from competing causes.

Not all doctors agree with this suggestion, especially as the life expectancy ceiling continues to rise. The American Cancer Society suggests that doctors not test individuals with a life expectancy of less than 10 years for prostate cancer. It does not specify an exact age.

"[Biden] could be receiving the best medical care that we have to offer as a nation and not be screened for prostate cancer," Dr. Michael Morris, a Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist who specializes in treating prostate cancer, told USA Today in a story on May 20, 2025. "Excellent care means not under-testing. It also means not over-testing."

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In 2019, Biden received a diagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a nonthreatening overgrowth of prostate cells common in older men. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, BPH does not increase the risk of prostate cancer.

Despite the risks associated with biopsies and treatment, many individuals do choose to undergo testing anyway. A number of factors can influence this decision, including genetic predisposition, resources available or out of an abundance of caution. Former presidents have published their PSA results, given that their health is a matter of national interest. Trump, who is 78, has received regular PSA screenings. His last report, published in April 2025, shows his PSA level was normal. Former President Barack Obama also published his PSA test results while in office.

At what rate does prostate cancer develop?

The X post displayed above  which had accumulated more than 5.6 million views as of this writing  claimed that "for even with the most aggressive form, it is a 5-7 year journey without treatment before it becomes metastatic." (Metastatic means that the cancer has spread from the primary site to other places in the body.)

Biden scored a level 9 out of 10 on the Gleason scale, which means that the prostate cancer cells look very different from healthy cells, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The higher the score, the more aggressive and lethal the cancer.

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Prostate cancer cells develop at different rates. While it is true that prostate cancer can develop very slowly  so slowly that an individual is more likely to die from another cause before the cancer cells metastasize  that is not always the case. "Most high-grade prostate cancers are also born that way and will behave aggressively," Dr. Marc B. Garnick, a prostate cancer specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said in a story for Harvard Health Publishing.

The X post claimed that "it would be malpractice for this patient to show up and be first diagnosed with metastatic disease in May 2025." However, based on the medical considerations enumerated above, such a late diagnosis does not necessarily indicate malpractice.

Does law require US presidents to report health conditions?

U.S. law does not require presidents to disclose details regarding their health to the public, though it is not uncommon to do so. Multiple U.S. presidents throughout history have kept details of their personal health from the public, including former President Woodrow Wilson, who hid the results of a stroke from the public from 1919 through the end of his presidency in 1921, and former President John F. Kennedy, who hid multiple diseases, including Addison's disease, from the public to maintain his youthful image.

Alleged signs of Biden's mental and physical decline were a constant source of criticism during his administration, particularly after he announced his run for reelection. Biden refused to take a cognitive test throughout his presidency, and after a debate performance in which his voice trailed off mid-response more than once, then-Vice President Harris took over the campaign.

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In the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, Harris made her medical information public in an effort to draw attention to Trump's refusal to do so, according to Reuters.

In sum 

A Biden spokesperson claimed the former president's most recent test for prostate cancer took place in 2014, when he was 71 or 72. Although the risk of prostate cancer increases with age, the American Cancer Society suggests doctors not test men with a life expectancy of less than 10 years for prostate cancer, given the harms associated with treatment and the likelihood that an individual over a certain age is prone to die from other competing factors before prostate cancer poses a serious risk to their life.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force more specifically suggests that men over the age of 70 skip testing altogether. Given the aggressiveness of Biden's cancer, it's possible the cancerous cells developed more recently and metastasized at a faster rate, but it's impossible to know the details without publicly available test records. U.S. law doesn't require presidents to disclose details regarding their health to the public, though it is not uncommon to do so. Biden's health in particular, as the oldest serving president in U.S. history, drew extra scrutiny.

Sources:

Alltucker, Ken. 'Biden Has an Aggressive Form of Prostate Cancer. Should It Have Been Caught Earlier?' USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2025/05/20/why-bidens-cancer-wasnt-caught-earlier-psa/83722037007/. Accessed 22 May 2025.

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American Cancer Society Recommendations for Prostate Cancer Early Detection. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/prostate-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/acs-recommendations.html. Accessed 22 May 2025.

'Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)'. Canadian Cancer Society, Feb. 2021, https://cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-types/prostate/what-is-prostate-cancer/benign-prostatic-hyperplasia.

'Biden's Disastrous Debate Performance Offers Lessons for Harris and Warnings for Trump'. AP News, 7 Sept. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-debate-d62e8e7281fff34be8925adc9b4e6dc2.

Cancer Facts for Men | Common Cancers in Men. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/risk-prevention/understanding-cancer-risk/cancer-facts/cancer-facts-for-men.html. Accessed 22 May 2025.

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CDC. 'Prostate Cancer Risk Factors'. Prostate Cancer, 27 Aug. 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/prostate-cancer/risk-factors/index.html.

Dai, Xiaoyu, et al. 'Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and the Risk of Prostate Cancer and Bladder Cancer'. Medicine, vol. 95, no. 18, May 2016, p. e3493. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000003493.

Desk, NPR Washington. 'Biden's Team Refutes Trump's Suggestion That Biden Hid His Cancer Diagnosis'. NPR, 20 May 2025. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5403887/trump-biden-cancer.

Desk, Washington. 'Biden Had Skin Cancer Removed from Chest during His Physical, White House Says'. NPR, 3 Mar. 2023. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2023/03/03/1161049252/biden-skin-cancer.

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'Fact Check: Misinformation after Biden's Cancer Diagnosis  DW  05/20/2025'. Dw.Com, https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-misinformation-after-bidens-cancer-diagnosis/a-72605716. Accessed 22 May 2025.

Grubb, Robert L., et al. 'Prostate Cancer Screening in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial: Update on Findings from the Initial Four Rounds of Screening in a Randomized Trial'. BJU International, vol. 102, no. 11, Dec. 2008, pp. 152430. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-410X.2008.08214.x.

Healthy Men Over 75: Don't Stop PSA Screening. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/2016/12/healthy-men-over-75-dont-stop-psa-screening. Accessed 22 May 2025.

Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Metastatic. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/metastatic.

Mason, Jeff, and Jeff Mason. 'Harris Releases Medical Report, Drawing Contrast with Trump'. Reuters, 12 Oct. 2024. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harris-release-medical-report-drawing-contrast-with-trump-2024-10-12/.

Mistry, Sandeep, et al. 'Who's Too Old to Screen? Prostate Cancer in Elderly Men'. Canadian Urological Association Journal, vol. 3, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 20510. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.5489/cuaj.1071.

Pager, Tyler. 'Biden Did Not Get Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Before Last Week, Spokesman Says'. The New York Times, 20 Mar. 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/biden-prostate-cancer-psa-test.html.

Pendick, Daniel. 'Prostate Cancer Lives as It Is Born: Slow-Growing and Benign or Fast-Growing and Dangerous'. Harvard Health, 14 Aug. 2013, https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/prostate-cancer-lives-as-it-is-born-slow-growing-and-benign-or-fast-growing-and-dangerous-201308146604.

Rackley, Fay. 'What Does Biden's Cancer Diagnosis Mean?' Boston University, 21 May 2025, https://www.bu.edu/articles/2025/what-does-bidens-cancer-diagnosis-mean/.

'Read the Report on President Trump's Annual Physical Exam'. The New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/13/us/1.html.

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Tapper, Jake, and Alex Thompson. Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. Random House, 2025.

Treisman, Rachel. 'How Treatable Is Prostate Cancer? A Doctor Reacts to Biden's Diagnosis'. NPR, 19 May 2025. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/05/19/nx-s1-5403446/biden-metastatic-prostate-cancer-diagnosis-survival-rate.

'Trump Allies Shift from Well-Wishes to Suggesting Biden Hid His Cancer Diagnosis'. NBC News, 19 May 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/trump-allies-suggest-biden-hid-cancer-diagnosis-rcna207659.

'Until What Age Should You Be Screened for Prostate Cancer?' Keck Medicine of USC, https://www.keckmedicine.org/blog/until-what-age-should-you-be-screened-for-prostate-cancer/. Accessed 22 May 2025.

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'What's a Gleason Score?' Cleveland Clinic, https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/22087-gleason-score. Accessed 22 May 2025.

- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA_D5dXFgu0. Accessed 22 May 2025.
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When President Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 people convicted of crimes related to the violent Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, he used the power of the presidency to protect convicted criminals whom he incited to stop the certification of his electoral defeat in 2020 and the peaceful transfer of power.

Recently, in a blunt and ham-fisted attempt to again undermine the rule of law, he used his social media bullhorn to call for the release of Tina Peters. The former Colorado county clerk was last year convicted of crimes committed in 2021 in order to facilitate unauthorized access to Colorados voting system.

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This may be regarded as simply another instance of Trumps immoral support for those who tried to help him steal an election. But the scheme Peters was involved into improperly access voting systems and make unauthorized copies of sensitive voting system softwarehas serious, ongoing implications for election security.

The Colorado plot was just one of several severe voting system security breaches that were carried out by Trump allies following the 2020 election. In Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, operatives hired by Trump-allied attorney Sidney Powell accessed voting systems and, in multiple instances, took copies of the software that records votes, counts votes, and reports vote totals. The voting software was then shared with a network of Trump loyalists, like in Peters scheme in Colorado.

Unlike in Colorado, no criminal investigation was ever initiated in Pennsylvania. In Georgia, despite overwhelming video and documentary evidence of the unlawful voting system security breaches, neither the Trump-supporting local prosecutor or state attorney general brought any charges. Only Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sought to hold anyone accountable for the Georgia software heists. She charged computer theft, computer trespass, and computer invasion of privacy in the Georgia RICO case, successfully obtaining a guilty plea for the charges stemming from the software breaches from Powell and another accomplice before the case fell apart for unrelated reasons. In Michigan, criminal trials are pending for only three individuals, though more were implicated.

What is important here is how this returns to Trump. More than three years ago evidence surfaced showing that the breaches in Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania were all coordinated and financed by Powell. Records also indicate that many of the same people were involved in all the plots, including in Colorado, and that copies of the software were shared across state lines, suggesting a broad, coordinated, multistate effort that could implicate federal crimes.

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Instead of investigating, the feckless Merrick Garland Department of Justice and FBI ignored it. So when Trump returned to office, there had been no federal investigation to determine what happened to the voting system software, how far it was shared, and where it is now. That same software is still in use in many states across the country, counting votes.

Having copies of the proprietary voting system software could allow a bad actor to study it for weaknesses and develop ways to tamper with vote counts, with minimal physical access. And thats exactly what some of those involved have done. Matt DePerno, who is currently awaiting criminal trial in Michigan on charges associated with unauthorized voting system access, reportedly told an audience that he had a lab where he could manipulate vote counts with ease. Jeff Lenberg, a computer technologist implicated in the breaches in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia, made a video demonstrating how to compromise vote totals with software allegedly obtained in the breaches.

The spotty and limited state-level criminal probes have focused only on the actual access to voting machines. There has been no evidence of any investigation aimed at tracking and recovering the misappropriated voting software, and no known effort to mitigate the increased risks caused by the distribution of proprietary software into the wild.

With extraordinary yet predictable self-interest, the voting equipment vendors pointedly ignored the unauthorized appropriation, copying, and distribution of their proprietary intellectual property. Presumably to avoid exposing or amplifying existing election system security problems, no legal actions were brought by the vendors against those involved in taking and sharing the software. Similarly, state election officials confined their criticisms to the actual act of accessing the systems, heedlessly ignoring risks associated with the well-known and documented fact that the voting software was taken and shared by partisan actors.

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In other words, this is the largest known breach of election system security in the U.S., ever, and its been effectively swept under the rug.

Trumps interest in Peters status renews questions about his knowledge of breaches. Testimony from the House Jan. 6 committee revealed that at the infamous unhinged meeting in the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, Trump was told by Rudy Giuliani that there were plans to gain access to voting systems and software. But it wasnt probed further by the committee or the DOJ.

Americans committed to democracy and voting rights are rightly fighting Trumps assault on elections and voting access. We cant afford to continue to ignore the voting system breaches, or forget that when Trump speaks on behalf of someone like Peters, he may very well have something more sinister in mind.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Washington Governor Bob Ferguson filed a court brief on Tuesday in support of a multi-state lawsuit challenging President Trumps tariffs.

Unchecked power: Oregon AG testifies against Trump tariffs

In Fergusons amicus, or friend of the court, brief, the governor claimed that tariffs imposed by Trump are damaging the states economy, causing wide-ranging, significant and disproportionate harm in Washington state  one of the most trade-dependent states in the country.

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If allowed to remain in effect, the Presidents tariffs will continue to wreak havoc on Washington-based interests by disrupting established supply chains, forcing businesses and consumers to pay more for goods, equipment, and services, and interfering with the Governors ability to shape and implement a state budget and pursue state policy priorities amid the significant uncertainty, chaos, and adverse economic conditions caused by the tariffs, Fergusons brief says.

DONT MISS: Oregon attorney general seeks court order to pause Trumps tariffs amid lawsuit

Ferguson explained that Trump imposed tariffs on virtually every nation around the world, including a 145% tariff on most products from China  which has temporarily decreased to 30%  along with a 25% tariff on products from Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on most goods from the rest of the world.

Ferguson filed the brief in support of a multi-state lawsuit led by Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield. The lawsuit is joined by a handful of other states  including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont. Washington state is not part of the suit.

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The lawsuit challenges tariffs imposed by President Trump under four executive orders and argues that Congress has the power to impose tariffs, not the president, citing Article I of the Constitution, which grants Congress Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.

Esquire names 2 new Oregon hotels among the best in the world

While Trumps executive orders claim he has the power to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Ferguson says that law only applies in emergencies with an unusual and extraordinary threat from abroad and does not explicitly give the president the authority to impose tariffs.

Ferguson is joined in the brief by Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti, 10 Democratic state legislators, the mayors of Seattle and Spokane, five labor unions and the Washington Economic Development Association.

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Our coalition is ensuring the voices of Washingtons workers and businesses are heard, Gov. Ferguson said. Our economy faces significant harms because of the presidents chaotic and illegal approach to tariffs. We must all stand up for hardworking businesses, workers and consumers.

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The Attorney Generals Office noted it appointed attorneys Steven Fogg and Kathryn Joy of Corr Cronin LLP as special assistant attorneys general to handle the brief pro bono, at no cost the state.

IAM District 751 supports this amicus brief and believes that tariffs should be used in a strategic and purposeful way to support and preserve our industries, our workers, and the communities we live in, said Jon Holden, IAM District 751 President and Directing Business Representative. These actions should be well thought out and guided by decisions that the U.S. Congress, after careful consideration, has determined to be most appropriate.

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Suzanne Dale Estey, the executive director of the Washington Economic Development Association, added, When our organization, the Washington Economic Development Association  which represents about 200 economic development organizations across the state  was asked to join in stating our position against the federal tariffs implemented and proposed in recent months, we didnt hesitate.

Completely ghosted us: PNW customers detail financial losses, unfinished jobs tied to local contractor

We had been hearing alarming concerns about the federal tariff proposals from economic developers who had been hearing from their local businesses, large and small. They were initially concerned about all of the uncertainty and turmoil that had been created and the impact on their operations, supply chains and growth strategies. More recently, we are now facing very real and very deep economic impacts, serious challenges for supply chains, job layoffs and potential revenue losses in the billions of dollars  and the overall drastic threats to Washington States economic competitiveness caused by federal tariffs. Our organization and our position on this issue is not partisan  it is about jobs  jobs which support families, and jobs which support communities, Dale Estey said.

According to Ferguson, the economy, businesses and consumers in Washington  which is the ninth-largest state exporter of goods  will suffer unique and disproportionate harm from President Trumps reckless and unprecedented tariffs, noting, China, Canada and Mexico are the states top trading partners and make up nearly half of Washingtons imports.

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According to Fergusons office, Washington businesses exported $12 billion in products to China, $7.9 billion in goods to Canada and $4.3 billion in goods to Mexico in 2024.

Federal judge rules Oregon ballot measure for cannabis industry unions is unconstitutional

In total, Washington companies shipped more than $57 billion in goods to the world in 2024, with nearly $120 billion in exports and imports traveling through Washington state ports last year, the governors office said.

The tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on Canada, China, and Mexico in March 2025 alone were projected to add $4 billion in costs to Washington state imports from those countries, Fergusons office said in a press release Wednesday.

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Altogether, the illegal tariffs could cost Washington companies an estimated $18 to $21 billion. By comparison, last year Washington companies paid just $2 billion in total tariffs on all imports from all countries  meaning the new tariffs could increase the states tariff burden tenfold, Fergusons office added, noting tariffs have led some businesses in the state to halt hiring and stop expansion plans while raising prices on everything from electricity transmission and new homes to coffee and childrens toys.

Trumps Liberation Day tariffs shook global financial markets and led many economists to downgrade the outlook for U.S. economic growth, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.  So far, though, the tariffs appear to have had little impact on the worlds largest economy.

Meanwhile, in a court appearance on Wednesday for the multi-state suit led by Oregon, the Assistant U.S. Attorney General representing the Trump administration, Brett Shumate, argued that only Congress, and not the courts, can determine the political question if the presidents rationale for declaring an emergency to impose tariffs complies with the law, AP reports, noting That argument led Judge Jane Restani to ask if courts were helpless to block the presidents emergency declarations no matter how crazy they were.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
President Donald Trump owes his Washington comeback to a patchwork coalition of billionaires who gather in the gilded halls of Mar-a-Lago, middle-class suburbanites fretting about their 401(k)s and working class voters toiling in casinos and steel mills.

But the numbers inside Trumps big beautiful bill are showing that for all the nods the GOP has made to its new populist base, its biggest policy swing remains weighted toward helping higher earners and businesses pay fewer taxes.

The domestic policy package under consideration in the House contains a handful of populist concessions like increases to the child tax credit, the establishment of $1,000 MAGA savings accounts for kids and carveouts for taxes on tips that Trump promised during the campaign.

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But it remains reflective of the GOPs heritage as a party that banks on boosting the economy by lowering rates at the top. The top 10 percent of American earners would see an increase in their bottom line  representing 65 percent of the bills value  while the lowest 10 percent would see a net loss of resources, according to analyses by the Congressional Budget Office and the Penn Wharton Budget Model .

The mix reflects the tension in the GOP over keeping old guard Republicans, business interests and Wall Street donors happy  with tax cuts the president boasted on Tuesday that were bigger than what was achieved under President Ronald Reagan  even as Trump challenges other elements of party orthodoxy with his tariffs and calls for price controls.

Trumps recent flirtation with a tax hike on the wealthy, from which he ultimately backed down, illustrates that dynamic.

The Wall Street types that still have a seat at the table in the Republican Party were like, Holy shit, absolutely not, said one Republican with ties to both the Hill and the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly about those dynamics.

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Their reaction, this Republican said, was a clear sign that the party is still not ideologically ready to embrace Trumpism even if its popular with voters.

On fiscal issues, youre trying to turn an aircraft carrier, the person added.

The White House has been sensitive to the optics as it navigates the realities of the GOP Congress and an increasingly working-class voting base that was promised a bigger share of the economic spoils. The administration is already painting the legislation as a victory for those voters  even as its cuts to Medicaid spending could result in 8 million low-income Americans losing their health insurance.

It is this schizophrenia of where the Republican Party is now that is making putting together this package so difficult, said Adam Michel, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute.

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Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, defended the legislation in a statement that said the bill carries out the American peoples agenda with such measures as eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and helping to secure the border.

But no faction is completely satisfied. Traditional conservatives, despite the bills emphasis on extending the 2017 tax cuts, wanted deeper tax reductions. Fiscal hawks were even more frustrated, threatening as of Wednesday night to torpedo the bill, which they argued does not go far enough in cutting Medicaid spending and would increase the deficit.

Trump, for all his promises to balance the budget, has never made it a priority.

Many in the caucus have been torn between two personas  die-hard Trump supporters and die-hard fiscal hawks  as they navigate the still-changing GOP.

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There's no doubt that there's these competing visions within our party right now about where we should be going economically, said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence and legislative affairs director during Trumps first term. The president does not mind the push and pull of different policies. It gives him more latitude, and I dont think hes doctrinaire on these issues, so I dont think he minds that.

Short is among those in the GOP arguing that the Republican Party risks over-interpreting the support they have received from blue-collar workers as an endorsement of more populist policies. They argue the attraction of these voters to Trump is personality, not policy and worry that Trump and others were even entertaining a tax hike for the wealthy.

Even putting the tax debate aside, many of Trumps recent actions and statements would have been anathema to the GOP of old. Earlier this month, he signed an executive order that could lead to price controls on pharmaceutical drugs , and over the weekend, he told Walmart that they needed to eat the tariffs after the company threatened to raise prices as a result of the sweeping levies he has imposed on U.S. trading partners.

There has been an attempt by some Republicans to appeal to the blue collar voters that Trump uniquely wins over, Short said. And I just have always felt like the economic message, I think, is misplaced.

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Still, some Republicans are starting to argue that the party has an obligation to more fundamentally shift its economic policy as its voters change, and were heartened that Trump has at least started to shift some of his rhetoric.

Thats a sign of how far the Overton window has shifted on some of this stuff, which is positive, said Chris Griswold, policy director at American Compass, a think tank with ties to Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that is championing economic populism from the right.

But, he added, its clearly not shifted all the way.

There was little internal debate over extending the 2017 tax cuts, especially after the recent economic turmoil that followed Trumps tariffs on China and other nations. And a recent survey by Trump pollster John McLaughlin for the anti-tax Club for Growth in nearly three dozen swing Congressional districts represented by Republicans found that two-thirds of respondents believe boosting taxes will hurt the economy.

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Outside of the Beltway, I don't see that tension. We're for tax cuts, were for a growing economy and so are a lot of independents and Democrats, McLaughlin said. You wont have the growing economy you need to win the election next year.

That may be true. But many Republicans are starting to think beyond the midterms, to life after Trump. And they worry the partys identity crisis will grow as they try to keep together a coalition that is increasingly at odds on economic issues.

I was talking to some conservative policy wonks and I said, Well, what is the conservative position on the bill? And then I was like, Wait, what does it even mean to be a conservative right now? said a former Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about dynamics within the party. Theres just no conservative policy. Its entirely being rewritten for the political win because thats where the movement is right now because of Trump.
Brandon Rogers fielded calls from as far away as Australia as his community strained to recover from the worst natural disaster ever to hit his slice of western North Carolina. Texts poured in by the hundreds. The influx kept the Haywood County commissioner and his staff busy as they coordinated an unimaginable humanitarian recovery.

The messages were distractions. Worse, actually: They were the budding flowers of misinformation, seeds that were planted just days after Hurricane Helene killed scores of people, destroyed entire towns and set western North Carolina on an uncertain, unwieldy path to rebuilding.

The hollers of western North Carolina are rather insular, with strong community ties owed in some equal measures to its mountainous geography, poor infrastructure and deep well of history. The storm hitting a place like that produced a greatest hits list of conspiracies: The Federal Emergency Management Agency wanted to push people off their land to access lithium deposits; then-President Joe Biden directed the storm to the Republican-heavy area; FEMA assistance was a loan that needed to be repaid at usurious rates.



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Rogers received a death threat over the countys recovery efforts. An email chain letter claiming 28 babies froze to death in FEMA tents appeared in his inbox. Angry citizens from outside the county poured into a commission meeting demanding answers for tragedies that never occurred.

It was just people watching this stuff that believed it, said Rogers, who is a Republican. I'd be upset, too, if it's true. But it wasn't true.

The misinformation deterred countless people from seeking federal assistance, according to Rogers and other local officials, legal aid groups and community nonprofits interviewed by POLITICO over the nearly eight months since Helene ravaged a slice of Appalachia that had never before given a Category 4 hurricane any thought.

At one point this winter, just 15 percent of eligible North Carolina households had applied for FEMA assistance. While the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor data shows those numbers have improved, major gaps remain: Of the 6,930 people who are eligible for housing assistance because insurance or charities did not cover costs, more than 3,700 people  53 percent  are not pursuing available federal aid.

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Disaster experts cautioned against comparing recoveries because they are all unique, but noted that people who refuse federal help often undermine a regions rebound. That is playing out in North Carolina, where thousands of people have foregone assistance that could pay for basic needs, rebuild nearly 1,000 destroyed and 74,000 damaged homes, and put communities mourning the 107 lives lost across the state back together.

There was one prominent person seizing on the misinformation for his own purposes: Donald Trump. As a candidate, Trump leveled the baseless accusation that the Biden administration was diverting FEMA assistance from North Carolina to house illegal immigrants. He claimed $1 billion of FEMA spending was stolen for migrants. He said all FEMA had to offer people in North Carolina was $750, which was not true.

The allegations spurred anger toward Biden, but FEMAs statistics show no significant uptick in aid since Trumps inauguration. As of April 22, the agency had given nearly $432 million of assistance to 158,600 households in North Carolina, $100 million of which came under Trump, FEMA said in a statement. FEMA also obligated nearly $459 million in public assistance to repair infrastructure in North Carolina, including $138 million under Trump.

Meanwhile, Trumps FEMA has halted $10 billion in disaster relief funds intended to help people across the country, cut off housing assistance for thousands of Helene survivors and ended a policy of fully reimbursing the state of North Carolina for debris removal.

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Now, in further evidence of how political attacks can create a reality of their own, Trump officials are using FEMAs struggles in western North Carolina as a rationale to dismantle the agency.

I think were going to recommend that FEMA go away, Trump said during a January visit to Asheville to survey the damage shortly after taking office.



At a congressional hearing on May 6, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who oversees FEMA, called the agency a failure and reiterated that Trump believes FEMA as it exists today should be eliminated. Trump fired then-acting FEMA chief Cameron Hamilton on May 8, just one day after Hamilton told a House committee the agency should not be abolished. His replacement, David Richardson, warned staff: I will run right over you.

Staff reductions, programmatic cuts and leadership changes at FEMA have raised questions about the preparedness of the nations premier disaster response agency. Its performance will be closely watched as the nation readies for the Atlantic hurricane season, which federal forecasters will preview Thursday.



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Neither the White House nor FEMA responded to questions about Trumps past claims about FEMAs Helene efforts. DHS also did not respond to requests for comment.

As to the presidents plans for FEMA, a White House official said the federal government will focus on truly catastrophic disasters while continuing to provide assistance for search-and-rescue missions after devastating events. But the official said state and local governments often remain an impediment to their own communitys resilience, and that Trumps policies aim to prod them into more proactive posture.

States must have adequate emergency management staff, adoption and enforcement of modern building codes, responsible planning and strategic investment to reduce future risk, the official said, saying states must have their own commonsense policies that prioritize preparedness over politics, disaster reserve funds to handle what should be routine emergencies, pre-negotiated mutual aid and contingency contracts that speed up recovery, and above all, an appetite to own the problem.

Whatever the policy merits of Trumps disaster-relief plans, they feel like a bait and switch to some people struggling to recover from Helene: After blaming Biden for faltering relief efforts, Trump has seemed more focused on trashing FEMA than boosting the recovery in North Carolina.

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Travis Gresham of Canton, a town 20 miles west of Asheville, accuses Trump of setting FEMA up to fail. The presidents conspiracy-laced campaign attacks convinced her neighbors to shun the agency, which has delayed reconstruction of a private road and bridge, Gresham said. The surrounding community fell into the false claims like Biden pushed a button to send the hurricane to western North Carolina, that FEMA is merely a tool of the Democratic Party, and that the agency wanted to clear the land for lithium mining. Her neighbors believe everything Trump says because they view him as a golden god, Gresham said.

He knew what he was doing, said Gresham, who often votes for Democratic candidates. He was setting the stage for what his agenda was: That FEMA is a joke. Its not a good system, but I dont think theres a plan to fix it or overhaul it and make it better. I think its a plan to eliminate it.

If you take the boots off the ground here the people are not going to try to get the help. The help will be over, Gresham added. I dont think we will ever recover here. Not fully.

Immediately after Helene struck, candidate Trump made clear that disaster relief was a federal responsibility and that blame for recovery failures rested with Biden.

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They sacrificed Americans to an Open Border, and now, they have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South, he posted Sept. 30 on Truth Social. Under this Administration, Americans always come last, because we have leaders who have no idea how to lead!

His criticisms found a receptive audience in western North Carolina, the regions residents said. Theres a deep mistrust of the federal government in those rural communities. Locals draw pride from self-sufficiency, maintaining generational ties to the land. Its also nearly devoid of local news outlets, making it the type of environment where anti-government conspiracy theories flourish.

Appalachia is much more of a mirror of America than we're willing to fully embrace or realize, said Ryan Eller, executive director of Appalachia Funders Network, a philanthropy that invests in the region. We're kind of a canary in a coal mine if we continue to have this degradation of local press, of trust, and allow the response infrastructure for storms not to meet the moment that we're in where these storms are so frequent and destructive.

Trump visited western North Carolina four days after his inauguration, just weeks after Vice President JD Vance toured the region during the presidential transition. It was at that January appearance when Trump first suggested that FEMA should be abolished.

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Many officials in western North Carolina agree that FEMA needs changing. Even longtime FEMA officials acknowledge that the agencys rules can be cumbersome, especially for people under duress after a catastrophe. Local aid workers familiar with the way FEMA operates said people often mistakenly fail to appeal FEMA denials of assistance, which are routine enough to be more of a feature of the system than a bug. The money comes too slowly, as some people interviewed for this article are still waiting on federal dollars to rebuild after Tropical Storm Fred hit the area in 2021.

But those complaints have been overshadowed by the numerous unwieldy conspiracies that sprouted in Helenes aftermath  that FEMA never arrived, that it stole supplies, that it took property, that it ran out of money because it spent it on assisting migrants, former FEMA officials, aid workers and community organizers said.

Politicians in red pockets of the country  which absorb far more FEMA assistance than heavily Democratic areas  are walking a fine line. They want FEMA to remain on the ground. But as they decry misinformation and call for reforms, they stop short of blaming Trump for amplifying the very misinformation that now threatens the agencys future. They do not want to offend Trump or his supporters, but now face the challenge of balancing partisan anger with local needs to preserve some semblance of the agency theyve loudly criticized.

I think he's correct in calling out the fact that they failed us, state Rep. Mark Pless, a Republican, said of Trump. It doesn't give credibility to the stories and the lies that are being spread. Just because he said FEMA failed us does not make these stories credible.



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Before the misinformation came clear, accurate information from the National Weather Service: Helene would soon bring catastrophic flooding, property damage and death to western North Carolina.

The weather service is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nations primary climate and weather research service. Its a public-safety agency that informs people of imminent storms. Its meteorologists work in field offices around the country, developing relationships with mayors, local emergency managers and often TV weather people  who are among the most trusted local celebrities, according to polling.

The warnings from the National Weather Service office covering western North Carolina proved prescient. Its first post on the social media site X at 12:16 p.m. Sept. 24 stated, Tropical Storm #Helene has now formed & will impact us later this week. It is a very large storm & we can expect VERY heavy rainfall & gusty winds. Less than six hours later, the agency said its confidence of significant flood threats beginning Sept. 26 continued to increase, with potential to be an extremely rare event.

Successive posts noted severe flash flooding, strong winds and power outages were likely. On Sept. 25  one day before Helene hit the Florida panhandle  the weather service predicted between 10 and 15 inches of total rainfall and put the area under a tropical storm warning. North Carolina would meet Helene within 36 hours, the meteorologists cautioned.



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Helene arrived Sept. 27. The strongest gusts measured up to 105 mph in the southern Appalachian Mountains, according to NOAAs National Hurricane Center. Rainfall between 20 and 31 inches, dropping at rates of 2 to 3 inches per hour, flooded the regions rocky crags. Most of the storms 34 flash-flood emergencies occurred in western North Carolina.

The National Hurricane Center now counts Helene as the most devastating natural disaster in western North Carolinas history, killing 107 people, destroying 822,000 acres of timber land, demolishing or damaging tens of thousands of homes.

Helene even forced the temporary closure of NOAAs National Centers for Environmental Information, the Asheville office that produces an annual report of U.S. natural disasters causing $1 billion in damage. (Trump canceled that report and ceased updating its public database this month, citing evolving priorities, statutory mandates, and staffing changes.) Just about everyone at the office knows someone who lost their home or a loved one in the storm, NCEI physical scientist Jared Rennie said. Even with an incredibly accurate NWS forecast that gave people days to evacuate, scores of North Carolinians perished.

I have meteorologist survivors guilt, he said. It hurts. Even to this day.

Rennie was aware that skepticism of climate change had bred distrust of the federal government in this corner of North Carolina, a mountainous area of rural villages surrounding the city of Asheville, which is noted for its literary past. While affluent Asheville itself is politically liberal, the surrounding area is among the poorest and most conservative in the state. The two hardest hit neighboring counties  Avery and Haywood  voted 76.4 and 61.6 percent for Trump in 2016, 75.8 and 62.5 percent in 2020 and 75.7 and 61.8 percent in 2024, respectively.

Rennie sometimes speaks about climate science to rural audiences, and has seen the distrust up close, even as catastrophic storms made the risk to average people more vivid: A collective of researchers using advanced computer models said climate change had made Helene wetter and windier, dramatically increasing the risk to western North Carolina.

But the type of misinformation targeting the federal government that Rennie witnessed after Hurricane Helene differed from the climate skepticism hes battled in the past. Community members complained that FEMA was absent when Rennie said he himself had witnessed FEMA officials on the ground. Some of the criticism may have gained credibility from the amount of time it took for FEMA to navigate dangerous terrain and reach far-flung homes. Roads and bridges were destroyed, swallowed by crested rivers or sawed in half by fallen boulders. Entire towns like Swannanoa and Chimney Rock were wiped out. Internet and cellular phone service evaporated. People felt they were on their own.

Disinformation can spread like wildfire, Rennie said. My personal opinion is that created that whole rift of, Oh, FEMA is the bad guy.

The most pernicious rumor was that Helene survivors could only get $750, a misreading of federal policy. That was the amount that survivors could get under a new FEMA policy introduced in March 2024 to give them immediate cash in addition to other available assistance. It was the first hurricane season with that new funding, which FEMA believed would help build confidence in the agency. But Trump spread the misinformation that $750 was all that FEMA would offer North Carolina residents.



What's happened there is very bad. They're offering them $750 to people whose homes have been washed away, Trump said at an Oct. 5 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, eliciting a round of boos from the crowd. And yet we send tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of. They're offering them $750. They've been destroyed. These people have been destroyed.

Trumps megaphone became difficult to overcome.

It was very hard to get past that message that $750 isnt the only assistance available, said Alicia Edwards, disaster relief project director with Legal Aid for North Carolina, which offers free legal services to low-income residents. It was surprising. I wasnt prepared for that.

Unlike Florida, Texas and other coastal areas more prone to hurricanes and accustomed to working with FEMA, western North Carolina had never experienced this level of destruction  or had as much of an occasion to contend with FEMAs bureaucracy. Elderly and less tech-savvy residents struggled to navigate it. Many people gave up when they hit common FEMA obstacles, such as providing specific documentation, Edwards and other local aid workers said.

Other survivors came to believe falsehoods that FEMA assistance was a government loan. In more sinister versions, FEMA would take children or property if people could not repay those fictitious loans. Scores of residents chose to live in tents on their property to ward off FEMA, said Rogers, the Haywood County commissioner.

There were claims that ranged from ridiculous to the tin-foil-hat variety: That FEMA was never there at all or that its officials were absconding with peoples personal supplies and tents, according to residents, aid workers and a review of internet rumors.



Even months after the storm, the perception that FEMA worked against the interests of reeling North Carolina communities lingers.

Bobby Minor is a 71-year-old man who lived in the Asheville area before moving 140 miles to the east to Advance, which was not directly affected by the hurricane. In an effort to help his former neighbors, he and his wife brought and delivered basic goods on several trips to the areas since Helene hit. He said in an interview that under the Biden administration, FEMA had purposely stinted on aid to the conservative mountainous region, claiming that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers first appeared one week after Trumps January visit. (In fact, the Army Corps said it arrived in the state Sept. 26 to establish operational support for FEMA and arrived in western North Carolina by Sept. 29.)

Most people say, We havent even seen them, Minor said of FEMA. Sounds like that is almost by design.

As those perceptions of being left behind quickly swelled into anti-FEMA sentiment, politicians seized on the opportunity to capitalize on the growing distrust of government officials at every level of government, local officials said.

In Haywood County, commissioner Terry Ramey joined a YouTube channel run by Tennessee-based influencer John Ward, which was the source of many false claims. On the channel, Ramey asserted that the county itself had blocked temporary shelter for Helene survivors. The countys four other commissioners and Pless, the countys state representative, rebuked Ramey. Neither Ward nor Ramey responded to requests for comment.

Ive sat back there and Ive kind of vibrated while Ive watched this show  and this is a show. And there are a lot of people sitting in this room that need to go home, Pless said at the meeting. Terry, this is to you: You can sit there all day long, and you can say you aint started nothing. Everybody knows its a lie. The bad part is is these people are going to turn on you the second that you dont do something they want to do.

Inflamed by the anti-government sentiments, several citizen groups interfered with FEMAs delivery of humanitarian-relief supplies when they continued their own supply runs out of the Hickory, Lincolnton and Statesville airports even after the state asked them to stand down, said Mark Bumgarner, executive director of Catawba County United Way. He said those groups of citizens hoped to throttle FEMAs operations because they did not believe its aid would reach local people.

This got a bit tricky for us as politicians who were involved with these groups at the airports, Bumgarner wrote in an email. Dont get me wrong, the citizen groups provided a much-needed service the first couple of days before FEMA could fully mobilize. But in the developing FEMA involvement, I was shocked they were feeding misinformation to folks looking to donate.

It didnt help that Trump utilized fear to politicize the disaster, said Amber Dixon, director of community health initiatives at the Boone, North Carolina-based Western Youth Network.

Ill be there shortly, but dont like the reports that Im getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas, Trump wrote Sept. 30 on Truth Social. That same day, he said on Fox News that, Theyre being treated very badly in the Republican areas.  Theyre not getting water, theyre not getting anything.

Dixon said she worried that politicization would prolong the areas recovery by dissuading people from pursuing help  fears that have since come to pass.

If you look at the number of FEMA applications versus the number of impacted households, there's a huge discrepancy, she said just days before Trumps January inauguration. It's a numbers game. If you continually tell someone that you don't need something, then that resource will, by default, go away.



Donella Pressley has heard it all.

If you didnt see them you had your blinders on, because they were here, Pressley said of FEMA.

The 50-year-old Canton resident has zero reason to defend FEMA. Shes spent several frustrating years working with the agency trying to rebuild a home destroyed by Tropical Storm Fred in 2021. Since that time, Pressley and her two children have bounced between staying with friends and in hotels. Last year, FEMA finally began disbursing money. The money stopped when Trump took over  FEMA ceased paying hotel bills for thousands of North Carolinians this winter.

Pressley said FEMA needs simplifying and fixing, sure. But that doesnt start with getting rid of it, she said. It works for some. It may not be working for everyone. But I dont see disasters stopping.

Even some FEMA critics at Helenes ground zero, which was 30 minutes east of Pressleys home, said they need the agencys help. Congressional Republicans also said they dont want FEMA to disappear from the scene entirely. Yet the misinformation that swirled around FEMA after Helene has further politicized the agency, shaking its foundation as the nations premier first responders to climate-fueled disasters.



FEMA shouldn't really be subject to political debates or even the tides that shift from ideological pole to pole, said Eller, of the Appalachia Funders Network. I don't think disasters are partisan, and so the recovery shouldn't be either. And I just think that FEMA needs stable, sufficient funding to operate at the scale of today's climate reality and the demands of our communities.

Now, western North Carolina continues to suffer, but it is unclear how much longer FEMA officials will remain on the ground.

Ending FEMAs role in long-term recovery would remove from western North Carolina the scores of officials assisting people like Pressley in processing forms for housing assistance from earlier disasters. Officials would have to end or cut back on efforts to help communities plan early for ways to rebuild bridges and roads, restore power grids and clear debris.

The changes are already happening. On March 29, FEMA pulled out of its North Carolina disaster recovery centers without explanation. In April, it stopped providing 100 percent reimbursement for state recovery expenses, leaving North Carolina to figure out how it will pay for the rest of its work.

Trumps FEMA has closed the spigot on other funds, too. It halted disbursement from $10 billion of disaster relief programs to assess whether those funds flow to illegal immigrants  an evolution of the misinformation that Trump himself spouted on the campaign trail.



A FEMA retreat would hurt North Carolinians struggling to recover from Helene, said Max Gibbons, director of pro bono services with Pisgah Legal Services. He acknowledged many hiccups in FEMAs cumbersome process, but insisted that state and local governments cannot fill the void.

We see that every single day where FEMA is their one source of recovery, Gibbons said of his clients, many of whom have endured generations of family poverty. Without the federal funding it would be difficult for the state to meet the need.

Those needs will grow. Climate change has intensified and made events like Helene more frequent  some of the FEMA officials deployed to North Carolina were in Florida just days before to respond to Hurricane Milton. More people now live in areas vulnerable to disasters like hurricanes, floods and wildfires than ever before. Last year, the U.S. experienced 27 disasters totaling $1 billion in damage. It was the second-highest number of such events in one year, behind only the 28 in 2023.

Trumps FEMA is cutting programs that would blunt the effects of those storms, said Michael Coen, who was FEMA chief of staff in the Obama and Biden administrations. In April, FEMA canceled billions of dollars in funding for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program that started in Trumps first term, steering funding away from projects designed to reduce damage before disasters strike. Coen noted Trump also took an unprecedented step by withholding hazard mitigation grant funding in an April disaster declaration for Virginia, a largely routine measure that unlocks money to safeguard infrastructure from future disasters.

Efforts to buy flooded homes from residents seeking to move on from vulnerable properties may also fall victim to Trumps cuts, Coen added. Congress increased that funding with $3.5 billion in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, but much of it remains unspent. The rumors of FEMA taking North Carolina property against peoples will damage the programs reputation.

On top of that, seasoned FEMA leaders are expected to be pushed out or laid off amid the massive cuts and reorganization, said a former senior FEMA official who was granted anonymity to avoid retribution. That could leave the agency unprepared for the hurricane season that begins June 1.

Some past leaders believe FEMA has been stretched too thin by increasingly frequent disasters and needs to be streamlined, with some of its functions passed off to other federal agencies.

Brock Long, who ran FEMA in the first Trump administration, told a climate tech conference in Washington last month that the agency has become a dumping ground for all the nations complex problems, ranging from dealing with unhoused populations to restoring power grids. He said states and private insurers need to shoulder more of the load. But he said the federal government should maintain a role.

Its a relatively misunderstood agency with great intentions, he said at the April event.

Many simply want speedier responses to disasters that pile up one on top of the other. They want less bureaucracy to get money for rebuilding.

We had folks here that were literally boots on the ground the morning after the storm, Rogers said of FEMA. Unless theyve got the open checkbook at that moment its like, What are you doing?

Rogers intimately understands the many levels of frustration in the response, but he has also seen what ills can come of government skepticism. He stared them in the face at a three-plus hour Dec. 2, 2024, commission meeting, where he responded to accusations about FEMA and the county. He ticked off a long list of responses to conspiracies about the county and FEMA: There has been zero kids took out of a tent, a camper, anything because of this flood situation and we do not want to seize anybodys property, among others.

Rogers lamented how misinformation besieged and complicated the recovery. How it infiltrated his neighbors minds and conversations. How it all could contribute to dismantling FEMA  which, for all its faults, is still in the thick of it, trying to get Haywood County back on its feet.

I would like to see them engage with the system, Rogers said of his constituents in an interview. I want them to get the help that they deserve.



CORRECTION: A previous version of this report misstated Donella Pressley's name.
MANILA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos has called for the courtesy resignations of cabinet secretaries, after the poor showing of the administration candidates in the May 12 mid-term elections, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said Thursday.

According to the PCO, the reshuffle "is aimed at giving the president the elbow room to evaluate the performance of each department and determine who will continue to serve in line with his administration's re-calibrated priorities."

"This step marks a clear transition from the early phase of governance to a more focused and performance-driven approach," said the PCO.

The PCO assured the public that government services will remain "uninterrupted" during this transition.

Marcos was elected president in 2022 and has three more years to finish his six-year single term in 2028.

In the recently concluded elections, only six senatorial candidates backed by Marcos made it to the senate, a performance that fell short of expectations. 
President Donald Trump met with Pope Leo XIV's Florida brother Louis Prevost at the White House on May 20, after praising Prevost to reporters at the Capitol earlier in the day, calling him a "major MAGA fan."

Trump told reporters he likes the pope and both of his brothers, but spotlighted the eldest brother, Navy veteran and Port Charlotte resident Louis Prevost.

"I like the new pope and I like the pope's brother. You know, one of the pope's brothers  actually both of them  but one in particular is a major MAGA fan. Did you know that? He lives in Florida," Trump said.

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"And I look forward to getting him to the White House. I want to shake his hand, I want to give him a big hug."

Later that day, the White House visit happened. Louis Prevost and his wife Deborah met with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office.

"Great meeting between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and @Pontifexs brother, Louis Prevost and his wife Deborah," Special Assistant to the President and Communications Advisor Margo Martin posted on X, along with a photo of the meeting.

Louis Prevost excited and happy about brother Pope Leo XVI's papacy

The Prevost brothers  Louis, John and Robert (Pope Leo XIV)  grew up in Chicago in a traditional Catholic family.

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Louis Prevost said his youngest brother Robert wanted to "play priest" when he was 6 and set his sights on the priesthood as a freshman in high school. Their parents, neighbors and even strangers told Robert, "You're going to be pope someday," he said.

Robert Prevost's election as Pope Leo XIV left Louis Prevost excited, happy, mind blown and a little worried about how the papacy would impact their relationship.

I just freaked out and said Its Rob, OMG. I was up, dressed, out, just going nuts, he told WBBH.

We can only hope that we can maintain that closeness, and we don't do anything to embarrass him, he said.

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Louis Prevost attended Pope Leo's inaugural mass at the Vatican on May 18. The brothers shared a hug after the service.

Pope Leo's Florida brother Louis Prevost is a MAGA, Trump supporter

Trump told reporters Louis Prevost is a "major MAGA fan."

In an interview with Piers Morgan, Louis Prevost said, "I dont want to create waves that dont need to be there because Im a MAGA type and I have my beliefs, he said. I dont need to create heat for him. Hes going to have enough to handle as it is without the press going the popes brother says this. He doesnt need that.

Asked about his reposts of controversial social media memes, including one calling Nancy Pelosi a drunk (expletive), and how they might affect the pope, Louis Prevost said he will "tone it down."

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"He knows I am who I am," he said of the pope. "He's well aware of my position. He knows I'm probably not going to change and I don't think I will, other than to, just like you say, tone it down."

Contributing: Melissa Perez-Carrillo, Herald-Tribune, Ashley Ferrer, USA TODAY Network-Florida

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Trump meets Pope Leo's Florida brother Louis Prevost at White House
Low-cost, low-profit drugs are particularly vulnerable to getting discontinued in the U.S. if Trump does pharmaceutical tariffs. Eric Thayer via Getty Images

We use pharmaceutical drugs every day to heal infections, treat cancers and relieve pain. But if President Donald Trump has his way, these largely foreign-made drugs would be targeted with tariffs, potentially causing unexpected shortages and making your doctors visit look much different in the future, experts say.



Erin Fox, a drug shortages expert at University of Utah Health, said a major tariff could cause companies to discontinue production of low-cost, low-margin drugs like the ingredients in epidurals, as one example. She said patients could end up receiving alternative medicines because the hospital has a shortage of certain pharmaceutical drugs.



Maybe everybody doesnt get an epidural, she said. We may be going back in time there.

HuffPost is here to uncover the real impact of Trumps administration on everyday lives. Support journalism that holds power accountable. Join our membership program today.

So far, pharmaceutical drugs have been one of the few exceptions from Trumps ongoing trade war against the world. They were left out of Trumps Liberation Day announcement in April to impose exorbitant levies on imports from foreign nations. But this reprieve may not be for much longer.



Since taking office again, Trump has repeatedly said that he believes using tariffs on pharmaceuticals can pressure drugmakers to move their manufacturing back to the U.S.



Were going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals, Trump said in April at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner, and earlier this year, he said he would impose a tariff of at least 25% on pharmaceuticals.



In April, the Department of Commerce also announced an investigation into the national security implications of pharmaceutical imports, which could set the stage for justifying tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs as a solution.



The reason why its particularly relevant is that the [Trump] administration has used it to also do steel tariffs, said Marta E. Wosinska, a senior fellow on health policy at the Brookings Institution.



It is not yet clear when that national security investigation will end, and if and how tariffs on pharmaceuticals will be implemented. But U.S. pharmacists are already stockpiling the most common drugs for that possibility.



Because the supply chain for medications is not transparent, Fox said, its not exactly clear which drugs would be impacted by tariffs the most. But if an extreme pharmaceutical tariff does happen, heres which types of drugs could be most at risk of disappearing for people in need.

A Variety Of Cheap Pain Medications

Most over-the-counter pain medication you get in the U.S. comes from China. You wouldnt notice drug disappearances right away because of stockpiles. If tariffs went into effect on June 1, Fox said you could realistically notice some shortages by Halloween and Christmas.



The first thing that would happen is you would just have way fewer choices, Fox said. Right now, if you go to a drugstore, you can buy ibuprofen in multiple forms, as a liquid or as a tablet from different store brands. I think its very realistic that that would shrink, she said.

Generic Cheap Drugs Like Morphine

Most prescriptions in the U.S. are for generic drugs, and many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in those drugs are sourced from overseas.



Generic injectable drugs that hospitals use every day, like lidocaine and morphine, are basic drugs that are cheap to produce, and they would be vulnerable to getting discontinued under a major tariff because companies would pivot to making more profitable drugs, Fox said.



What my fear is and what I anticipate is that we will see ... six to eight months out, were going to see companies start to discontinue these very basic but very essential drugs, because they just cant absorb those added costs, Fox said.



Generic drugs have low profit margins and unless they can increase the price, the drug is going to be completely unprofitable, and theyll want to get out of the U.S. market, Wosinska said.

Cancer Drugs

There are zero requirements from the government to force any company to make any drug, no matter how life-saving it is, Fox said.



Cancer drugs, I would say, are the ones that I worry about the most of getting impacted by major pharmaceutical tariffs, Wosinska said, noting that they could lead to hospital shortages. You get admitted to a hospital, go for your cancer treatment, and the doctor tells you, Sorry, we dont have that, Wosinska said as one scenario.

These drugs already face supply issues. In 2023, there were shortages of Cisplatin, a critical chemotherapy drug, driven by manufacturing quality problems in an Indian facility. The facility had 50% of the market share for the drug, highlighting how one problem in the supply chain can cause ripple effects.



That 2023 supply disruption was due to quality issues. But if Trump enacted widespread pharmaceutical tariffs, this kind of shortage would be due to money.



Most cancer drugs have to be administered by a physician, and many are covered under the U.S. governments 340B safety-net program, which allows qualified hospitals and other health care providers to buy certain outpatient medications at steeply discounted prices from manufacturers. This program is meant to increase access to outpatient medications.



But it could also make cancer drugs unprofitable for manufacturers to continue making under 20-25% tariffs. Manufacturers in this scenario, if they sell to a 340B hospital, would have to eat 90% of the tariff, Wosinska said.



If their margins are really low, theyre just going to say, Were out of here, she continued. Cancer drugs in particular have really high exposure to 340B  it could be more than half their market. The higher the tariffs are, the more likely this kind of market exit will happen, she said.

Will A 25% Pharmaceutical Tariff Even Help Trump Achieve His Goals?

Not in the near future, Fox said, noting it takes at least three years to build a medication factory in the U.S. because they involve complicated Food and Drug Administration regulations and inspections.

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There have been tariff success stories, though. Hospital-administered drugs usually come in a vial that you need a syringe to use, and most of those syringes are made in China. Wosinska cited how tariffs on Chinese syringes pushed U.S. facilities to reopen during COVID and have ensured we have a domestic supply of a critical product. But that worked because factories already had the capacity to produce that product.



Another way that tariffs arent all bad: Wosinska said a China-only tariff could be helpful at incentivizing other nations like India to stop relying on Chinese active pharmaceutical ingredients. That would, in turn, helps the U.S. since it buys a lot of products from India. But a widespread tariff that includes India would exacerbate the risk of generic drug shortages and incentivize India to purchase from cheaper Chinese sources, Wosinska has argued.



For now, Trump continues to defend his tariff trade policy as a legendary achievement. If he ends up setting a 25% tariff on all foreign-made pharmaceuticals, it will certainly be memorable. But losing access to preferred or necessary medical treatments because of drug shortages is not a future we would want to remember.



We dont want to see products discontinued that we need, and it could be a reality, Fox said. This winter, when you have a cold, that medicine that youre looking for, it may not be on the shelf.

Related...
By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Friday appealed a federal judge's block on mass layoffs by federal agencies, a key piece of the Republican president's plans to downsize the government.

In an order late on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston barred agencies from mass layoffs pending the outcome of a lawsuit by unions, nonprofits and municipalities, saying Trump needed permission from Congress before reorganizing federal agencies.

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The Trump administration appealed the decision to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the court to pause Illston's ruling pending the outcome of the appeal, saying it "rests on a fundamentally flawed understanding of the separation of powers."

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said Congress has granted the president the authority to implement mass layoffs and called Illston's decision "extreme judicial overreach."

"The President must retain the ability to manage the Executive Branch, including implementing reductions in force when necessary, as has been the practice for nearly 150 years," Fields said in a statement.

The decision was the latest instance of a federal judge checking an aggressive push by Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk to drastically shrink or eliminate many federal agencies, make it easier to fire government workers and strip them of the ability to join unions.

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On May 9, Illston blocked about 20 agencies from making mass layoffs for two weeks and ordered the reinstatement of workers who had lost their jobs.

In Thursday's order, she largely continued the relief provided in the temporary restraining order.

"The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch," wrote Illston, an appointee of then-President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

Illston said her order "shall not limit federal agency defendants from presenting reorganization proposals for legislative approval or engaging in their own internal planning activities" without direction from the White House.

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The administration had asked the Supreme Court to pause Illston's May 9 ruling, saying she improperly infringed on Trump's constitutional powers to control the executive branch. It withdrew that request on Friday in light of the newer ruling.

'WHAT TO CUT'

Federal agencies have broad authority to implement large-scale layoffs, government lawyer Andrew Bernie said at a hearing on Thursday.

He said an executive order issued by Trump had merely asked agencies to determine what cuts could be made without calling for any concrete actions such as layoffs or office closures that plaintiffs could sue over at this point.

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"Those decisions will be disclosed when they are made, and when they are made, the plaintiffs can challenge them. Indeed, the plaintiffs have challenged individual decisions, Bernie said, citing pending lawsuits over cuts at the departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.

Danielle Leonard, who represented the plaintiffs, said directives from Trump and other White House officials made clear that agencies had little say in whether to gut their workforces.

"They are saying what to cut, when to cut, where to cut, and all theyre asking the agencies to do is come forward with a plan," she said.

The case involves the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Treasury, Commerce, State and Veterans Affairs, among others.

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Trump has urged agencies to eliminate duplicative roles, unnecessary management layers, and non-critical jobs while automating routine tasks, closing regional offices and cutting back on outside contractors.

About 260,000 federal workers, most of whom have taken buyouts, have left or will leave by the end of September. Several agencies have been earmarked for deep cuts, such as more than 80,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs and 10,000 at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Dozens of lawsuits have challenged the administration's efforts, and Illston's ruling earlier this month was the broadest yet of its kind.

An appeals court has paused another judge's March ruling requiring agencies to reinstate nearly 25,000 probationary employees, who typically have been in their current roles for less than a year or two.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Clarence Fernandez, Nia Williams and Diane Craft)
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump sought to win over working-class voters in key swing states with a promise to exempt tips and overtime pay from federal income taxes.

Now, Congress is inching closer to making that promise a reality, despite some concerns about how the moves would contribute to the deficit and potentially disrupt the labor market.

Both measures still face multiple hurdles. House leadership was working throughout the night Wednesday to rally its members to pass a budget bill Thursday morning that includes a tax exemption for tips and overtime before the legislation heads to the Senate. A separate bill that would exempt tips, but not overtime, from federal income taxes unanimously passed the Senate this week and will now need to be taken up by the House.

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The tax breaks, which Trump first floated on the campaign trail, have generated a rare coalition of support stretching across typical partisan divides, with unions, including the Teamsters, and industry groups, like the National Restaurant Association, advocating for the tax exemptions along with some Democrats. At the same time, conservative-leaning think tanks and economists have raised concerns over how the exemptions would contribute to the deficit and potentially affect the job market by rewarding some workers over others.

When Trump first raised the idea of ending taxes on tips, several influential Republicans told NBC News they were skeptical of it, citing rising national debt and questioning whether it would be fair to earners who dont make tips.

But now, with Trump in the White House, the tax exemptions would offer congressional Republicans a selling point to working-class voters in a broader budget bill that's also stocked with benefits for companies and higher-income households. Eliminating taxes on tips has broad support from the public, with around 75% of voters across party lines supporting the move, according to an Ipsos poll last year.

The working class has left the Democrats and come over to the Republican Party, especially with Trump, thats who he appeals to  so it feeds the constituency of a lot of our members, and frankly, its just really a good idea, said Sarah Chamberlain, head of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a moderate Republican group. I realize some of the Freedom Caucus guys dont like this, but we can find money in other areas to save in order to help the working man and woman.

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While Democrats have largely supported the exemptions, with Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., helping advance the bill in the Senate, the party still plans to highlight cuts elsewhere in the Republican budget that could hurt the same workers benefiting from the tax cuts, like reductions to Medicaid and food stamps.

"The hypocrisy comes because Republicans are giving a tax cut to tipped workers while decimating Medicaid," said Martha McKenna, a Democratic strategist. "They are giving tipped workers a small break and then punching them in the face with these health care cuts."

The numbers on tipped workers and overtime

While some workers would see significant increases in their after-tax income, the wider impact on the economy would be relatively limited, economists said. Tipped workers make up about 2.5% of the workforce, and about 12% of hourly workers clock some overtime each year, according to an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab.

As many as 40% of tipped workers already dont make enough money to have to pay federal income tax on any of their earnings, the Yale Budget Lab found.

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This is really a narrow segment of the labor force that is going to see any benefit at all from this  but that does limit its cost, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab, who was chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Biden administration. I think a big reason why Congress is embracing it is because this is one of the lower-cost ideas, and its a very high-profile win. You can say that you are helping low-wage workers, even if its not that many workers.

The tax exemption would apply only to federal income tax, so workers would still have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on their income, along with any state or local taxes.

Both tax exemptions are structured as deductions that workers would claim when they filed their taxes the following year. That means employers would still withhold money for tax payments on tips or overtime through their regular paychecks, but the income would be deductible from their final tax bills when they filed their annual taxes.

The overtime exemptions could benefit workers in a variety of fields, like manufacturing, mining, construction and public safety. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which said its members are often required to work dozens of hours of overtime a month because of staffing shortages, is among the unions supporting the measure.

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Fire fighters already work 53 hours a week before even qualifying for overtime pay. Thats 35% more hours a week than the average worker. The proposal to eliminate taxes on overtime would bring meaningful relief to fire fighters, helping them keep more of what they earn while working long hours to keep their communities safe, Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in a statement.

Limitations and budgetary costs

The House and Senate bills include some limits on tip exemptions that would make it more difficult for employers to try to manipulate the system  for example, making it harder to shift hourly or salaried workers to tip-based compensation. It would also exclude higher-income earners making more than $160,000, and it would limit the amount of tips that could be deducted from a yearly tax return to $25,000.

I think the worst-case scenario from a budgetary cost perspective has been averted, at least on that provision, by limiting it to traditionally tipped industries and excluding highly compensated employees, said Alex Muresianu, a senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, a group that advocates for tax policy reforms. This limits the potential of behavioral change to introduce tipping to more occupations, and that could have really blown the budget.

But the measures would still come at a cost to the federal budget. The exemption for overtime in the House budget bill would result in $124 billion in lost tax revenue compared with current policy, and the tax break on tips would reduce tax collections by $40 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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Under the current legislation, the tax breaks would expire in 2028  which would create political pressure to extend them amid that year's presidential election. The impact on the deficit could go even higher if the exemptions were extended beyond then, which would be likely given the political challenge of raising taxes on workers who had been benefiting from the cuts, said Brett Loper, executive vice president of policy for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which advocates for reducing the national debt.

Youre making it more challenging for a more limited base to raise revenue, and from our perspective, the gaping hole that you have between revenues and spending, and the political appetite to keep the revenues low and the spending high, is creating sustained deficits, said Loper, who has worked for Republicans in Congress and the White House. Youre accelerating the amount of our national debt, which we think is going to have severe long-term economic consequences.

Opponents have also argued that the exemptions would distribute the tax burden unfairly, with a worker who is paid an hourly wage, like a janitor, having a higher tax bill than a bartender working at the same restaurant  disadvantaging one group of workers over another for no clear reason. It could also shift the demand for tipped jobs and those with overtime, creating shortages of workers in other areas.

Reducing taxes on overtime could also lead more employees to be willing to work overtime, which could mean fewer jobs overall in the labor market in certain sectors if employers are able to get additional hours out of their existing workers.

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Workers get a tax benefit, but over time, employers are going to pay a little bit less than they otherwise would have in wages to these workers, Tedeschi said. With tips, it's shifting the burden of compensation from the restaurant or the employer to the customer. With overtime, thats going to let those employers pay a little bit less in base salary or base wages to those employees.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
White grievance and straight up racism are the animating features of Trumpism. Donald Trumps rise and rule cant be understood without accepting that reality.

Thats why it was utterly predictable that the president would use Wednesdays White House meeting with South Africas president to aggressively push the fiction that white farmers are the victims of a genocide being carried out by Black South Africans.

Weve had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries, too, from people, said Trump, who showed the South African president a video clip of a fringe leader there calling for white-owned land to be given to Black residents. They say theres a lot of bad things going on in Africa. And thats what were going to be discussing today.

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The video included what Trump described as the burial sites of over a thousand murdered white South Africans. None of it was true. Not the burial sites, which The New York Times reported was for a funeral procession for a single white couple that was killed. And not the genocide, which no credible agency has confirmed.

The genocide is a lie of breathtaking scope, one no president briefed by the worlds most sophisticated intelligence communities could espouse without understanding that he was lying.

Trump, however, misses no opportunity to take up the mantle of the aggrieved white man, who somehow believes himself to be at imminent risk of losing status and power. Despite being born to extraordinary wealth and privilege, Trump embraces that sense of victimhood, that belief that others - namely, Black people - are given unfair advantages and still complain about their lot.

This was the future president on NBCs Meet the Press 1989: A well-educated Black has a tremendous advantage over a well-educated white in terms of the job market. If I were starting off today, I would love to be a well-educated Black because I really do believe they have an actual advantage today.

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Why wouldnt a man who embraces that lunacy NOT want to return to an earlier time in America when white men dominated everything everywhere and had no reason to sweat any Black, well-educated or not? Most political movements are forward-looking, but Trumps is a sepia-shrouded look back to when white men were omnipotent and America was great.

The crowds who packed venues to hear candidate Trump speak didnt do so in spite of that mindset. They did so because of it. And Trump, a truly gifted avatar, understands that pleasing his masses - and himself - means pointing out all of the instances when a white man was denied his due or made to feel bad for flexing his power.

So Trump makes a show of firing the Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and replacing him with a white man. Trump launches a sustained assault on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, believing they are a threat to white male dominance. His administration withdraws from reform agreements its predecessor made with police departments in Louisville and Minneapolis, both of which were the site of high-profile instances of Black people being killed by law enforcement. (No weak-kneed reform is needed if a police department routinely abuses the Black people its supposed to protect! White men can flex; its for others to fear.)

There are horrific scenes of mass violence actually taking place in this world. Trump reached for a fictional one in South Africa because it fits with the story he and many other white men tell themselves, one that has them as vulnerable victims. After all, if the focus is on that fiction, there would be no need, no justification, for programs and policies that lift up, protect and advance other people.

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Military-connected travelers should be able to board domestic flights simply by showing their military ID, as Transportation Security Administration officers are trained to accept them in lieu of a REAL ID, a TSA spokesman said.

As of May 7, individuals must show a REAL ID, or acceptable alternative, to board domestic commercial flights, visit military installations and access certain federal facilities. REAL ID drivers licenses are identified by a star in the upper right-hand corner. DOD ID cards, including those issued to dependents, are among the forms of identification listed on the TSA website as acceptable alternatives to the REAL ID.

Still, some travelers told Military Times their military IDs have been rejected at U.S. airports. The issue has come up with military retirees, particularly those with old-style ID cards featuring an INDEF, or indefinite expiration date.

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One Air Force retiree said his retiree ID card wasnt accepted when he tried it out while flying to Virginia on May 10. The card has an INDEF expiration date.

Our officers are trained to accept military IDs at our security checkpoints, TSA spokesman Dave Fitz told Military Times. In the unlikely event that an officer would not accept a military ID, the passenger should ask to speak to a supervisor.

Although the TSA page detailing the list of acceptable identification doesnt specifically mention retired military IDs, Fitz said, U.S. Department of Defense IDs, to include IDs for active and retired military, are acceptable forms of ID, even if they do not have an expiration date.

Military-connected passengers may also use any of the other acceptable IDs listed, Fitz noted. Among other options listed on the TSA site are U.S. passports, Veteran Health Identification Cards (VHIC), state-issued Enhanced Drivers Licenses (EDL) and Enhanced IDs (EID).

Replacing old-style military IDs

Meanwhile, policies for accessing military bases for those who already have military or DOD-issued credentials, such as military retirees, dependents and surviving spouses, have not changed.

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But those with an old-style ID card should be aware that while they will still be able to access military bases with that ID, its uncertain for how long. These IDs are blue, pink or tan DD Form 2, DD Form 1173, DD Form 1173-1 or DD Form 2785.

More than 5 million military family members, retirees are getting new ID cards

The Defense Department is working to replace these IDs with the NextGen ID. Officials advise getting the NextGen ID now to avoid any problems with installation access. For more information about the NextGen ID and how to replace it, visit this Defense Finance and Accounting Service page.

DOD hasnt yet announced the deadline for the replacements. DOD previously said the transition to NextGen ID is expected to be completed by January 2026 for the 5 million non-CAC holders, primarily retirees and military family members.
It's mating season for turtles, and as a protected species they deserve the respect the designation gives. And sometimes they need help across the road.

Zack LeClair, shift lead at Wild Heart Ranch, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organization, said if a turtle is crossing the road, take it to the other side in the direction it was going. The ranch is located north of Claremore near Foyil.

"If you take them back to the way they came from, they will just turn around and go back," LeClair said.

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Dan Hardt, husband of the director of the ranch and head volunteer, said turtles carry salmonella in their bodies and spread it everywhere they go.

"Sometimes even gonorrhea, the same type that humans contract, and are also filled with other bacterias, and people should wash their hands after helping one cross the road," Hardt said.

Hardt said the study from a "very prestigious university" stating a turtle can't be moved outside of a mile of where it was found is not true.

"What they did for that study is they took a bunch of turtles from Alabama, took them to the high-plains desert in Colorado and watched them wander until they died," Hardt said. "You take the turtles out of the swamps of Alabama, of course they are going to wander and die, because they are looking for water and grass."

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By Oklahoma law, if a turtle is found that needs to be moved and is within the city limits of a town, the animal must be taken at least three miles outside city limits to be released, Hardt said. If found outside city limits, it can be helped across the road.

"Once you touch it, it has to be removed three miles outside of town; that is Oklahoma wildlife law, not mine," Hardt said. "Technically and legally if you touch that animal, you have the responsibility to do what the law states, and it states it has to be released no closer than three miles outside of the city limits."

Legally, a turtle can't be helped across the road if inside city limits, but outside city limits, they can, Hardt said.

Most common turtles in Oklahoma are red-eared sliders, which are invasive but protected; and box turtles and painted box turtles, which are both also protected.

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"It's usually said they stick to a one-mile radius of where they are born, but I've learned that's not necessarily true," LeClair said. "They do move pretty slowly, but they tend to travel as they go and stick to water sources. But usually they will stick to that one-mile from where they are born."

If an injured turtle is found, LeClair said, bring it to a rehabber, since they are protected in Oklahoma. He said there are some rehabbers in the area around Tahlequah but no rehabilitation facility.

"We do a number of tests on them and make sure they pass the bubble test  which is to ensure their lungs aren't punctured," LeClair said. "Their shells have nerves on them. So if you run your fingers along their shell, they can feel that and a lot of turtles enjoy a toothbrush scrubbing its shell."

When the shell is injured and they've passed the bubble test, the wound is flushed with betadine or chlorhexidine, and if no bubbles come out, they patch it with moldable plastic.

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"We patch with this sticky plastic stuff that holds the cracks together and paint it to match their shells so they are still hidden from predators, and when the shell grows together, it just pops off," LeClair said.

Though protected, there are provisions to hunt them year-round, provided no more than six turtles of each species are taken in a day, and they aren't shot in a federal reservoir. Land turtles may not be sold, according to the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The taking of the western chicken turtle, northern map turtle or alligator snapping turtle is prohibited, states the ODWC website.

"No aquatic turtles may be sold or purchased without the proper commercial turtle harvester or buyer's license and apply to the noncommercial harvest of turtles," states the ODWC site. "Separate regulations govern the commercial harvest of turtles."

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Hardt said an injured turtle, even if a minor shell break and there is blood, cannot be released back out into the wild.

"Bring it to a rehabber or a veterinarian, because flies will get inside the shell and maggots will eat it from the inside out," Hardt said.

All animals are helped at the ranch, whether invasive or not  even feral pigs.

"We don't consider ourselves environmentalists but wildlife conservationists, and it's less of an issue of whether it's invasive  like right now I'm feeding European starlings, and they are an invasive species in Oklahoma. We don't believe that any animal deserves to die," LeClair said. "Our big motto is 'We all suffer the same.' We don't really look at them and say, 'You don't belong here,' we just help whoever needs help."
ABU DHABI, May 22 (Xinhua) -- A consortium of global technology firms launched the "Stargate Emirates" project in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, an initiative aimed at significantly boosting the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

The project brings together UAE-based G42, OpenAI, Oracle, Nvidia, Cisco, and SoftBank Group, according to the Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Stargate Emirates will establish an AI infrastructure cluster in Abu Dhabi with an initial capacity of 1 gigawatt, forming the core of the newly established UAE-U.S. AI Campus. The broader campus is designed to expand to 5 gigawatts.

G42 will oversee the construction of the infrastructure, while OpenAI and Oracle will manage its operations. Cisco will provide zero-trust security systems and AI-supportive network infrastructure. Nvidia will supply its cutting-edge Grace Blackwell GB200 systems, and SoftBank will support development and deployment.

The project is expected to be operational with an initial 200-megawatt cluster by 2026. Its goal is to deliver high-performance computing capabilities, reduce data processing times, and meet growing global AI demands.

"Stargate Emirates" is slated to serve as a foundation for AI innovation and support the UAE's long-term national development and economic growth.

The launch follows the recent inauguration of the UAE-U.S. AI Campus in Abu Dhabi by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and U.S. President Donald Trump. 
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN)  The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) became the first utility in the U.S. to apply for a permit to build the first modular nuclear reactor.

A modular nuclear reactor is smaller in size and can be built more easily, faster, and cheaper than traditional reactors.

The TVA announced this week that it submitted the first permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a small, modular nuclear reactor.

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This is huge. Very exciting for the TVA, our region, and the nation, Scott Fiedler, a spokesperson for the TVA said.

Read the latest from the TN State Capitol Newsroom

The TVA hopes to build the reactor along the Clinch River in Oak Ridge.

The permit application process took around three years, according to the TVA. It comes as Gov. Bill Lee pushes to make Tennessee a hub for nuclear energy.

Nuclear energy has a lot of benefits, Fiedler said. Number one, uranium. Its mined here in the United States and we have plenty of it. Two, very safe. Safe technology, we know a lot about it, highly regulated, and finally, its extremely reliable and cheap. We want abundant, low-cost power to fuel American jobs, and nuclear is the way to go.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority has already applied for an $800 million federal grant to help fund the project. Fiedler told News 2 nuclear energy will be the backbone of the power grid and drive the economy.

Electricity, unlike any other commodity, gold, oil, its truly now the building block of the economy, Fiedler said. It will power our prosperity and drive American jobs, not only here in Tennessee, but if we can export this technology, it will drive a cleaner world, and all of that starts here in Tennessee.

 Read todays top stories on wkrn.com

The NRC will review permit applications for two years. Then, there will be a six-month public comment period. The TVA can begin site preparations and non-nuclear construction as early as Jan. 2026.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2.
West Palm Beach has barred a private boat rental club from operating on the citys downtown waterfront and required a water-recreation company to end some services after a warning that their activities violated state rules.

JetRide, a club that lets members use boats at locations across Florida, was told to end operations at the citys docks in March. Visit Palm Beach, which offers boat tours and kayak and paddleboard rentals, was required to remove a floating dock and had to stop its rentals.

Both moves were prompted by a warning from the state that the business waterfront activities violated rules for use of docks in the Intracoastal Waterway, city records show.

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The city operates its downtown docks, which extend into state-owned submerged lands in the Intracoastal, through a leasing agreement with the state, which requires it to abide by state regulations.

Last year an inspection by the state Department of Environmental Protection found that Visit Palm Beach and JetRide had installed their own floating docks alongside the city docks, in violation of state rules, records show.

In addition, a city attorney said JetRides operations violated a provision of the citys lease with the state that requires all dock space be available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis.

JetRide is a private membership-only boat service whose occupation of the City docks prevented use by the general public on a first-come basis, Deputy City Attorney Nancy Urcheck wrote to a JetRide representative in April. The City cannot allow a private members-only boating club to occupy and operate from the City docks.

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An executive at Visit Palm Beach, which leases space on the waterfront from the city, told The Palm Beach Post that it had to remove its floating docks and other equipment. As a result, Visit Palm Beach stopped renting many watercraft it used to provide to customers along the waterfront.

Boats sit at JetRide's dock on West Palm Beach's downtown waterfront in May 2024.

We had to remove our floating docks and everything except our one catamaran, Hakuna Matata, Leigh Bennett, Visit Palm Beachs director of business development, said via email. Our other catamaran, jet skis, kayaks and paddleboards are no longer available from downtown. Without the floating docks, it's too dangerous.

A February consent-order agreement with the DEP required the city to pay a $5,000 fine, remove all unauthorized structures and vessels and install signs making clear that the docks are available to the public on a first come, first served basis.

A DEP spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

JetRide: 'We bring life to the waterfront'

JetRides ban from the waterfront prompted complaints from employees and customers, who filed into a city commission meeting this month to ask for the company to be reinstated.

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We bring life to the waterfront, said Travis Zielasko, the companys founder. Were asking for the opportunity to continue serving the community we came from.

The company is aimed at people interested in boating but who dont have the financial means or space to own and maintain their own boats. Members pay a monthly membership fee and are able to use the companys boats for daily outings.

JetRide, which formed in 2017 in West Palm Beach, said in a message to the city that it has approximately 500 members in the citys downtown and another 1,500 in Palm Beach County.

JetRide boats sit on a dock on West Palm Beach's downtown waterfront in this undated photo.

The company said in a statement that it wants city officials to work with the company and the state on an arrangement that would let it continue to operate on the docks. Shutting down the companys operations, it said, denies hundreds of city residents an easy and affordable way to take boats on the water.

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Were proud of what weve built here, Zielasko said in a statement. All were asking for is a meeting  to sit down, talk and figure out a way to continue giving people access to boating in West Palm Beach.

Sitima Fowler, president of the West Palm Beach Downtown Neighborhood Association, said she and many other downtown residents used and enjoyed the companys service. She said she was surprised it was being banned so suddenly after operating downtown for years.

We are so sad that weve lost the only boat rental amenity we had on the waterfront, she said. It doesnt make sense to us at all. JetRide has been in business for a long time here. I know weve been members for over three years. All of a sudden they cant do business here?

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: JetRide, Visit Palm Beach restricted on West Palm Beach waterfront
KANSAS CITY, Mo.  Murder charges have been filed after a teenager was killed in a shooting earlier this month outside a gas station in south Kansas City, the Jackson County prosecutors office announced Thursday.

KVontaye Redmond, 23, and Lamont Buchanan, 19, are each charged with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in Jackson County Circuit Court in connection with the May 10 shooting.

Overland Park woman among victims shot near DC Jewish museum

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Sixteen-year-old Matim Nunley died after he was shot outside the Shell station at 8435 E. 63rd St.

According to charging documents unsealed this week, video that Kansas City police obtained from the gas station showed Buchanan grabbing Nunley by the jacket and pointing a gun at him. Redmond pulled a gun out as well, court records stated, as Buchanan confronted the teen.

The teen tried to back away and retrieve a gun but dropped it as Buchanan fired at him, according to charging documents.

Prosecutors allege that Buchanan picked up the victims gun and both Buchanan and Redmond ran away.

Kansas City man attacks multiple women, released, then strikes again

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Redmond was stopped and detained for questioning shortly after the shooting that day. Buchanan was arrested at a later date.

Both are being held in the Jackson County jail. Buchanan is being held without bond, and bond for Redmond has been set at $100,000. Bond hearings are set for May 27 and May 28, respectively.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU)  Summer is swiftly approaching, which means seniors are gearing up to take on college. After finishing college, youd expect to find a career someplace else, but two locals are finding themselves back at where their journeys began, and this time, theyre the teachers.

We are so ridiculously blessed and lucky and happy and fortunate to have a bunch of kids who have graduated from Mrs. Bryces Education Pathway, and then theyve gone on to college, and now, theyre right back in our district being teachers, and with a teacher shortage, not only in the district, but in the area and nationally. This is a crucial component to what we do here at the Career Academy. said Eric Kilburn, Sioux City Career Academy principal.

Andy Markowski, who will be the new kindergarten teacher at Bryant Elementary, said finding his passion for teaching was all from the career academy.

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It really opened my eyes because I was still kind of exploring what I wanted to do. There were a bunch of pathways. I was thinking about, and I took a couple of classes here, and it just kind of opened my eyes, and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, explained Andy Markowski.

Ellie Nava will be a science teacher at East Middle School. Nava said shes always wanted to help people but didnt know where to start at first.

Story continues below

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I found that being able to teach science was like that perfect mixture of the two things I love, which is helping people and also spreading science and spreading knowledge about the natural world, stated Ellie Nava.

Nava questioned if the Sioux City School District would be the right place for her.

I found myself wondering whether this is the place for me since I had been here for so many years, but the more Im here, the more I feel like I fit, said Nava

After hard work, both Markowsky and Nava said they are excited for this new journey.

I am eager to take on the responsibility, and I feel like I can definitely see those avenues where I want to kind of make a change or really get hands on to make sure that I can benefit where Im going, said Nava

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Im excited to get started. It was nerve wracking at first because Im graduating a whole year early, so getting started at such an early age compared to some of these other teachers who have gone to school for four years, but I feel like Im ready said Markowsky.

Both Markowski and Nava will begin teaching this upcoming school year.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports.
A soon-to-be-engaged Israeli couple were shot dead after attending an event inside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday night.

Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Sarah Milgram were identified as the two victims who were gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum, the Embassy of Israel to the U.S. wrote on X Thursday morning.

The young couple, who both worked at the Israeli embassy in the capital, were described as being in the prime of their lives, with their deaths leaving colleagues heartbroken and devastated.

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Lischinsky had planned to propose to Milgrim during an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, Yechiel Leiter, Israels Ambassador to the U.S., said before the victims were publicly identified. Lischinsky, who moved to the U.S. from Tel Aviv in November 2023, had bought the ring this week, Leiter added.

Elias Rodriguez, 30, was identified as the suspected gunman who police say opened fire on a group of four with a handgun outside the museum in the area of 3rd and F Street NW.

(X/@IsraelinUSA)

Shots rang out at about 9.15 p.m. when the group had left the American Jewish Committees ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were unconscious and not breathing when first responders arrived at the scene, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a press conference.

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Video footage shows Rodriguez repeatedly chanted free, free Palestine as police removed him from the museum in handcuffs.

Witnesses say that he could be seen walking around outside the museum in the moments leading up to the shooting. After opening fire, the gunman walked into the museum, where security detained him. The videos, taken by witnesses, show that he did not appear to resist arrest.

Authorities believe that Rodriguez acted alone. He had no prior criminal record and was not previously known to law enforcement.

We dont see anything in his background that would have put him on our radar at this time, Smith said.

Video footage shows the moment that suspected gunman Elias Rodriguez was arrested by DC police (Yoni River Kalin)

The attack sent shockwaves around the world and prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security.

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Israeli and U.S. officials have deemed the attack as part of a rising tide of antisemitism, intensifying amid Israels escalating offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Mike Herzog earlier told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy, and the man was Israeli.

Leiter said that President Donald Trump had been in contact with him and promised to do everything [to] fight and end antisemitism.

For his part, the president posted on Truth Social hours after the shooting: These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.

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Deputy Director of the FBI Dan Bongino confirmed that federal agents are questioning Rodriguez.

Assistant Director of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Steve Jensen, said that an investigation into the homicides will look into ties to potential terrorism and if the attack was a hate crime. Jensen denounced the shooting as heinous.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro will be prosecuting the case.

A man draped in the Israeli flag as as Metropolitan Police officers secure the area outside the Capital Jewish Museum (AFP/Getty)

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, Free Palestine, Kalin said.

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This event was about humanitarian aid, Kalin said. How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel? How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital  lands Israel captured in the 1967 war. However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Editors Note: Find the latest coverage of the Capital Jewish Museum shooting here.

Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled Free Palestine! while being arrested in Washington, DC, Wednesday night, authorities said.

The slain staffers, who the Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs named as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were a couple who officials say were soon to be engaged.

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The two were attending an event for young professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. At around 9 p.m. outside the museum, they were approached by a gunman who opened fire and killed them, officials said.

The suspect, whom DC police identified as 31-year-old Chicago native Elias Rodriguez, pretended to be a bystander after the shooting, an eyewitness told CNN.

When police arrived, the man turned himself in and shouted Free, Free Palestine while being handcuffed. He is currently in custody, according to authorities. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said the man implied that he committed the offense.

The shooting, which took place in the heart of the Hill, has shaken the Jewish community at a time of heightened global tensions, as US-led attempts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas remain unsuccessful and fighting in Gaza continues.

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Tensions are also high across US college campuses where hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested amid polarized debates over the right to protest Israels military actions and accusations of antisemitism.

Well be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight our Jewish community, US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters late Wednesday.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA, President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.

Rodriguez is being interviewed by the DC Metropolitan Police and FBIs Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said on X.

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Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence, Bongino said.

Ted Deutch, the CEO of the AJC, described the shooting an unspeaking act of violence.

At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families, he said.

Suspect was seen pacing outside museum before shooting

Police Chief Smith said Rodriguez was allegedly seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four and shooting two of them with a handgun.

The 31-year-old later retreated inside the museum, where he was eventually detained, according to Smith.

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According to Sara Marinuzzi, an eyewitness who spoke with CNN, the suspect pretended to be a witness once inside the building and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming responsibility for the attack.

Police officers work at the site of the shooting. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Another witness, Paige Siegel, told CNN she heard Rodriguez say, I did it for Gaza, and Free Palestine.

Rodriguez, who was taken into custody on Wednesday night told officers, I did this, according to eyewitness Yoni Kalin.

Kalin was at the museum attending the same event organized by the AJC when he heard shots rang out. At first I didnt recognize them as gunshots, he told CNN over the phone.

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Moments later, a man entered the museum appearing to be a witness, according to Kalin. He recalled the man sitting in the museum but not interacting with many people present at the event. Ten minutes later, when police entered the building, the man appeared to confess to shooting, telling officers, I did this, I did this for Palestine, according to Kalin.

Its horrible, Kalin said. I just didnt realize he was the perpetrator.

Kalin added that between the shooting and the arrest, Rodriguez appeared shaken up. People approached the suspect to offer him water and check if he was okay, he said.

Kalin said around 50 people attended the event, which was organized to discuss how multi-faith organizations can work together to bring humanitarian aid to war-torn regions such as Gaza. He added that over 30 staffers from various embassies attended the event.

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Im still in shock, Kalin told CNN. I just hope we learn from this and just recognize that violence and terrorism doesnt get us where we need to be he added.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US Attorney General Pam Bondi visit the site of the shooting. - Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The couple were in the prime of their lives

When officers arrived on the scene minutes after the shooting, they found one adult male and one adult female unconscious and not breathing, Smith told reporters late Wednesday. Both victims succumbed to their injuries, she said.

We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a post on X in the early hours of Thursday.

We embrace the grieving families during this painful time and will continue to support them always, the post read.

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Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, Yechiel Leiter, Israels ambassador to the United States, also said in a social media post Thursday. The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss. Leiter earlier shared with reporters that the couple was about to be engaged.

A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple, he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, expressed his condolences to the families of the young couple.

My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman, whose lives were suddenly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer, Netanyahu said.

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This story has been updated with additional details and the age of the suspect has been updated after police revised the number originally provided.

CNNs Kaitlan Collins, Oren Liebermann, Jennifer Hansler, Kaanita Iyer and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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Two Israeli embassy staff were killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Wednesday.

"We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims," she wrote on X.

"We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice."

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said there was no active threat following the incident.

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"What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city and in our country and I want to be clear, we will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city," she told a press conference.

"We will not tolerate any acts of terrorism."

Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said a man and a woman were killed in the shooting.

A suspect had been arrested and a weapon had been recovered, Smith said.

"The suspect chanted 'free, free Palestine' while in custody," she said.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the fatal shooting was "a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism."

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"Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line," he wrote on X.

"We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world."

The shooting occurred as Israel's army recently launched a major offensive in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, where around 2 million Palestinians live.

Israel's actions in the region are facing increasing international criticism, including from close allies.

The conflict in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militant organization Hamas and other extremists invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage. Israel responded with a massive attack, which has since killed more than 53,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The figures do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
CAIRO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a phone conversation on Thursday to discuss regional developments, with a particular focus on the ongoing situation in the Gaza Strip.

During the call, Sisi reviewed the situation in Gaza and Egypt's efforts -- undertaken in cooperation with Qatar and the United States -- to secure a ceasefire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.

Sisi reiterated Egypt's firm opposition to any attempts to displace Palestinians or undermine the Palestinian cause. He also emphasized the importance of translating current international support for the Arab-Islamic initiative to reconstruct Gaza into concrete, actionable measures once a ceasefire is achieved.

He further expressed appreciation for Britain's positive stance on the Palestinian issue and the situation in Gaza. Both leaders agreed to maintain coordination on regional and international developments.

The call came two days after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the suspension of trade talks with Israel in response to its blockade of Gaza.

On Monday, Britain, France, and Canada jointly stated that "if Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid," they will take further concrete action. 
A young couple that worked at the Israeli embassy was shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday evening by a gunman who allegedly chanted "free Palestine" while being arrested, local and federal law enforcement authorities said.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the killings as anti-Semitic hate crimes. "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the leader was "shocked" by the "horrific, anti-Semitic" shooting and announced that security was being increased at its diplomatic missions around the world.

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"We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and wild incitement against Israel. The blood libels against Israel are costing us blood and must be fought relentlessly," that statement said.

Washington police chief Pamela Smith named the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.

She said that he had been seen pacing back and forth outside the Capital Jewish Museum, in central Washington, before opening fire and killing a man and a woman.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Israeli leaders said the victims worked at the Israeli embassy.

According to Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, they were a young couple who were about to get engaged. The man had apparently bought a ring and planned to propose to his girlfriend in Jerusalem the following week.

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The American Jewish Committee (AJC), an advocacy group, was hosting its annual Young Diplomats reception at the museum on Wednesday night.

"We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue," the group said in a statement. "At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families."

Whether the suspected shooter knew the two or what connection he might have to them is unclear.

According to Washington police, the perpetrator approached a group of four people and then opened fire. After the shooting, he entered the museum, where he was arrested by private security guards and chanted "free, free Palestine."

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The FBI said it is investigating the case as a possible hate crime.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the US, said: "This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society. Im praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families."

The shooting occurred after Israel's military recently launched a major offensive in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, where around 2 million Palestinians live.

Israel's actions in the region are facing increasing international criticism, including from close allies.

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The conflict in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militant organization Hamas and other terrorists invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage.

Israel responded with a massive attack, which has since killed more than 53,000 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The figures do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
The News

Two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC, by a man who reportedly shouted Free, free Palestine.

A suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was arrested following the fatal attack, which the US ambassador to Israel called a horrific act of terror.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both called the killings antisemitic, and Netanyahu said that security would be stepped up at embassies around the world.

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Rodriguez apparently entered the museum after the shooting and handed himself in to police.

The museums director had said previously that Jewish institutions in the US are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents [and] a climate of antisemitism.
Two staff members at the Israeli Embassy were shot and killed Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum by an assailant who police say shouted free, free Palestine after he was arrested.

The attack outside an event at the Jewish Museum in Washington drew widespread condemnation, including from President Donald Trump.

These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!, Trump wrote on Truth Social early Thursday. Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL! Vice President JD Vance also condemned the killings Thursday, saying he is "praying for their families and all of our friends at the Israeli Embassy."

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said federal authorities were investigating the attack.

Pamela A. Smith, chief of police for the DC Metropolitan Police Department, said in a press conference that a single suspect approached a group of four people exiting the museum and fired his handgun, striking two of them. He then entered the museum, where he was detained by event security. The suspect, tentatively identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, chanted free, free Palestine, while in custody, she said.

The two victims in the shooting were identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim by the state of Israels X account, adding that both were staff members to the embassy in Washington. Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said at a news conference that the couple was about to be engaged.

The American Jewish Committee, which was hosting an event for young diplomats at the museum, said Milgrim was an American from Overland Park, Kansas, who was an active member of the organization's young professionals division. Lischinsky had also attended several AJC events in the past.

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Sarah and Yaron were stolen from us, Ted Deutch, the CEO of AJC and a former member of Congress from Florida, said in a Thursday morning statement. Moments before they were murdered, they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying an event with colleagues and friends. We are in shock and heartbroken as we attempt to process this immense tragedy.

Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that she and Jeanine Pirro, the newly minted interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., had arrived on the scene shortly after the D.C. police department relayed word of the shooting publicly.

I spoke to the president of the United States multiple times tonight, Bondi said at the press conference. On behalf of the president, his prayers are with all of us, all of the Jewish community, everyone in Washington, D.C., state, local and federal agencies and our great U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, who will be prosecuting this case.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. They had a "productive discussion" that included the tragic shooting in D.C., Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing.

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Danny Danon, Israels ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.

Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line, Danon wrote in a post on X. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.

This isnt the first time in recent weeks that an act of violence has rocked the countrys Jewish community.

In April, a suspect set fire to the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro while the governor and his family were inside. The alleged arsonist later said Shapiro needs to know that he will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.'

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This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, one of the most prominent American Jews in the federal government. Im praying for those who were killed, all those affected, and their families.

Ali Bianco contributed to this report.
Two staff members of Israels embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot dead outside the district's Capital Jewish Museum, officials said, in what Israels ambassador to the United Nations called a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (WCIA)  Two men who were arrested last week in connection to an armed robbery in Jacksonville are now facing federal charges for not just that robbery, but two others they are accused of committing in the month prior.

WCIA reported last week that Titus Alexander and Mitchell Smith were arrested in Jacksonville after they allegedly robbed a business. Jacksonville Police added that both were classified as serial robbers, but did not go into detail about their history.

Now, federal prosecutors are revealing new details about the duo and the charges they are facing.

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Decatur father pleads guilty to threatening daughters schoolmates

They said that in the month prior to the Jacksonville robbery, Alexander and Smith robbed two spas in Peoria County  one in Dunlap on April 22 and another in Peoria on April 25. The ATF got involved in the investigation, and its agents were present in Jacksonville on May 17 when the duo robbed Summer Spa and were caught.

Both men are now facing charges of conspiracy to commit robbery and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime. They are in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

If convicted, Alexander and Smith face up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery and at least seven more years for possession of a gun during a violent crime  the sentences would be served consecutively.

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The investigation into the robberies was performed by the ATF, Illinois State Police, Peoria Police Department, Peoria County Sheriffs Office and Jacksonville Police Department, among other agencies.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)  The Livingston Parish Sheriffs Office arrested two men believed to be connected to separate overdose deaths.

In the first case, LPSO deputies were called to a report of an unresponsive male on Heritage Drive on Jan. 31, 2024. Upon arrival, deputies found the male, who was later identified as William Beeson, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

During the investigation, drugs were found on the scene, and the crime lab determined that the drugs were a mixture of fentanyl and heroin. Detectives discovered a transaction between the victim and 38-year-old Randolph Howard. Deputies said Howard has a history of drug-related arrests in Livingston Parish.

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Randolph was charged with second-degree homicide and is currently booked in the Livingston Parish Detention Center on unrelated charges.

Livingston Parish deputy arrested, accused of driving boat while intoxicated

In the second case, deputies responded to a medical assist in Denham Springs on Aug. 30, 2024. When they arrived at the scene, the patient was identified as Randy Foster. Authorities said Foster was taken to a local hospital but later died. The toxicology report revealed that Fosters cause of death was a mixture of fentanyl and cocaine.

As part of the investigation, detectives learned that the victim and suspect, 46-year-old Randall Rilo Johnson, were in communication about the drugs. An arrest warrant was filed for Johnson on charges of second-degree murder. He was booked into the Livingston Parish Detention Center.

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Both cases are still ongoing.

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From left, parents Jessica Seawright and Brooke Wampole talk with Sen. Tammy Baldwin about their concerns over the impact of Medicaid cuts on families with children such as theirs who have disabilities. (Screenshot/Zoom)

As members of Congress continue to debate the Republican budget reconciliation bill that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, Jessica Seawright ponders what that could mean for her young son.

Seawright is a social worker in Southeast Wisconsin. Shes also the mother of a 9-year-old boy with complex medical needs resulting from a genetic condition.

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She and her husband  a college professor  have medical coverage through work, but with her sons condition, which includes cerebral palsy, their health plans could never cover the degree of care he requires.

Medicaid has made the difference, Seawright said Wednesday. Its helped through the Katie Beckett program, which enables children with disabilities to have Medicaid coverage while living at home instead of being in an institution; the Medicaid childrens long-term support coverage; and Medicaid support that public schools receive to cover certain services that students with disabilities require.

Her son has been able to thrive living with her and her husband, Seawright said  but worry clouds the future.

We look toward his adulthood, knowing that disability and aging programs that would support him staying in the community  where we, our family and our community, know he belongs  are being dismantled and defunded, Seawright said. Forcing us and others like us into medical bankruptcy is not a solution.

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Seawright was one of two parents who said Wednesday that their lives and their childrens lives could be profoundly upended by the Medicaid reductions that are included in the budget reconciliation proposal.

They spoke during a webinar conducted by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), who has been an outspoken critic of the budget bills Medicaid cuts.

Our neighbors, our friends and our colleagues at work who rely on Medicaid and are scared, really scared, Baldwin said. She cited estimates produced by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee that with cuts to Medicaid as well as to the Affordable Care Act, the legislation could reduce health care for nearly 14 million Americans, including almost 230,000 Wisconsin residents.

The money saved, she added, would be used to extend and expand tax cuts enacted in 2017, during the first Trump administration. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has said the tax cuts primarily favor the wealthy and corporations.

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Its giveaways for their wealthy friends at the cost of Americans health and lives, Baldwin said. Thats the deal.

Baldwin said the choice that U.S. House Republicans made to advance the bill in committee in the early hours of Wednesday morning was a sign that Republicans know what theyre doing is deeply unpopular.

She dismissed claims that the objective of the bills authors was to address waste, fraud or abuse in Medicaid and other safety net programs.

I would be happy to come to the table to write a bill that truly gets at fraud and abuse, Baldwin said. We want that out of Medicaid. We want that out of Medicare. But that is not what this bill does. This bill terminates health care for Wisconsin families.

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Besides being a mother of a child who has been helped by Medicaids programs, Seawright has experienced Medicaid through two other lenses.

When she and her sister were growing up, their mother was relying on Medicaid for the familys health care. That helped give the family stability so that her mom could go to community college, become a medical assistant and get full-time work in health care with insurance through her employer, Seawright said.

In her own job as a social worker, she added, some of the clients she works with have Medicaid.

Both her childhood experience and her role as a mental health provider have made her critical of proposals to cut Medicaid, Seawright said  especially one to add work requirements as a condition for adults considered able-bodied to enroll in Medicaid.

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Creating more barriers for people to access the care they need  individuals losing their primary care providers and their specialists, from my perspective, is just a cruel response that is steeped in distrust of those of us who are doing the work day to day, Seawright said.

Also on the webinar was Brooke Wampole, who lives in northern Wisconsin. She and her husband have a 4-year-old son who was found to have long delays in his development.

About two years ago he was screened and qualified for services and therapies covered by Medicaid programs for children with disabilities, and over time, his clinicians helped him first to exist, to self-regulate, to see the world around him and not find it to be a threat, Wampole said.

The familys regular health insurance could never cover the cost those treatments required.  Medicaid programs have been absolutely instrumental in our lives.

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In the last year, her son has begun speaking one-syllable words. My favorites or Mommy and Dada, Wampole said, then added with a smile, however, he is pretty partial to talking about trapezoids. And raisins.

The thought of losing Medicaid coverage is terrifying, Wampole said  both because of the loss of services for her son, but also because of its impact on other families.

I worry what our world looks like without Medicaid, Wampole said. Other families, they could be way worse off  and cutting Medicaid could hurt them even more than my family. I dont want to be part of a system that contributes to that.

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY)  The Morgantown Area Partnership partnered with two local businesses to hold grand opening ceremonies for them Wednesday afternoon.

Both businesses were restaurants, those being Fish Frenzy and Picasso Pizza and Pasta, both on University Avenue.

Fish Frenzy (3109 University Ave E)

Fish Frenzy Owner Said Elazaly told 12 News that this Morgantown location is his third in the state of West Virginia. Elazaly came to this area from Greenbrier County, opening both of his previous locations in Beckley and Princeton.

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I just [came] here like last year with my son, said Elazaly. I figured out like we need something [to do] here in Morgantown. So, I just opened like 10 days now and I tried to do something better for everyone.

The restaurant offers six different kinds of fish, including catfish, cod, flounder, salmon, sea bass and tilapia, with jumbo shrimp and baby shrimp on the menu as well. However, Elazaly stated that Fish Frenzy also has offerings for those who dont eat seafood, such as burgers, chicken gizzards, chicken liver, chicken wings and Philly cheesesteaks.

Elazaly stated that when he first came to the Star City/Morgantown area, he noticed that there wasnt a lot of seafood in the area. However, he came to the area with his son, whom he describes as a major lover of seafood.

He likes seafood, all the time, and they [had a] hard time, said Elazaly. Sometimes, like I [would] have to travel to my home and make some food and [then] come back here. Until I found that location, so I wanna do that over herehelp everyone.

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Elazay told 12 News that he first began making seafood back in 2009, with his first restaurant located in Alexandria, Louisiana. He told 12 News that he remained in that area for about three years before moving to West Virginia, in an attempt to bring something similar to the Mountain State.

Restaurant Road Trip: The HoneyBee Stand

After moving to West Virginia, Elazaly noticed that seafood didnt appear to be as popular in the area, prompting him to open up an Italian restaurant. This restaurant (Alfredos Pizza in Rainelle) was flooded out in 2022, which prompted Elazaly to open up the first Fish Frenzy in Beckley.

For me, I live in the water. Im the fisherman, said Elazaly. When I was [a] kid, I worked [like a] fisherman, so I like seafood. Sometimes, I eat it six days a week.

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Elazaly told 12 News that regarding the food he serves at Fish Frenzy, he tries to get the best quality that he can. I tried to do something like everybody can like it over here, he added.

Picasso Pizza and Pasta (1370 University Ave)

We are thrilled to be a part of [the] Morgantown community, said Picasso Pizza and Pasta Co-Owner Murat Aykul. We believe [] we are serving great food here, and we so love to be here.

Aykul held a soft opening for his restaurant alongside his wife back in March. However, they wanted to hold an official grand opening to introduce themselves formally to the community in Morgantown.

We knew Morgantown was one of the fastest-growing towns in West Virginia, said Aykul. So we [chose] Morgantown and its a great community, thats why we are here.

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Picasso Pizza and Pasta offers a wide variety of cuisine to choose from, including different types of pasta, pizza, salads and sandwiches. Aykul told 12 News that all of the pizza dough and bread for the sandwiches are made fresh, as well as the different sauces that he uses.

Aykul stated that he has nearly 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry, adding that he owns restaurants in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. He added that he previously owned another Picasso Pizza and Pasta in Pittsburgh, which he opened about 20 years ago before eventually selling it over to new management.

According to Aykul, the establishment won an award before for having the best pizza in the Pittsburgh area. He added that him and his wife are thankful to the local community for supporting Picasso Pizza and Pasta, and for believing in them.

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UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher on Thursday warned of the unraveling of the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law in armed conflict.

Some parties to conflict have committed flagrant violations of the rules of war. Some have justified immense civilian harm through permissive interpretations of the law -- loosely defining who is a lawful target, what constitutes a military objective, or what level of civilian harm is "proportional," he said.

The first-ever withdrawal from a humanitarian disarmament treaty -- and more announced since -- has propagated the dangerous and outdated idea that exceptional threats and military necessity can outweigh international humanitarian law. Some states consider the law selectively, depending on the parties concerned or the interests at stake, he told a Security Council open debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict.

All this undermines the very purpose of the rules of war: to limit human suffering in armed conflict. All this jeopardizes the protection of architecture that took decades to build, he warned.

Last year, the United Nations recorded more than 36,000 civilian deaths in 14 armed conflicts. The real number is much higher. The number of people forcibly displaced reached new highs of over 122 million. Reports of enforced disappearance, torture, inhumane treatment, and other trauma were widespread. Sexual violence was rampant. The United Nations verified some 4,500 cases last year, 93 percent of victims were women and girls, he said.

Conflict-driven hunger reached alarming levels. Health care was under attack. Violence, bureaucratic and administrative measures and other factors continued to hinder humanitarian access. The year 2024 was also the deadliest on record for humanitarians. Over 360 aid workers were killed, including at least 200 in Gaza and at least 54 in Sudan -- mostly national staff, said Fletcher.

Those trying to report on the plight of civilians were also harmed. According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 53 journalists were killed in armed conflict last year, a sharp increase from the previous years. The most striking example is in Gaza, where international journalists are still prevented from entering, and where local journalists have been killed in alarming numbers, he said.

He called on all parties to armed conflict to respect international humanitarian law, and all states to ensure respect for it.

"The measures required to protect civilians are longstanding and time-tested. They require strict adherence to international law and the adoption of good-faith policies and practices to enhance protection," he said.

He also called for an end to impunity, saying justice must not be selective, must remain independent and not be politicized.

"The scaffolding built last century to protect us from inhumanity is crumbling. Those who will die as a result need us to act," said Fletcher, calling on the Security Council and all UN member states to summon greater political will and courage to turn this tide. 
A pair of St. Paul parks will be renamed to reflect their sacred significance to the Dakota people.

The City Council on Wednesday voted to change the names of Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and Indian Mounds Regional Park to Waka Tipi and Wicahapi, respectively. Taken from the Dakota language, Waka Tipi translates to dwelling place of the sacred, while Wicahapi means cemetery.

During a news conference before the vote, Mayor Melvin Carter voiced his support for the new names, which were recommended by Minnesotas Tribal Historic Preservation Offices and endorsed by the St. Paul Parks and Recreation Commission.

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These names are not just words, Carter said. Theyre acts of remembrance and resistance, honoring the Dakota peoples enduring presence and spiritual connection to this land. This action today is not about rewriting history, its about acknowledging that the land we stand on has always had Dakota names, Dakota meaning and Dakota caretakers.

Cultural landscape

The two adjoining sites will exist as a newly designated cultural landscape called Imnizaska, which is a Dakota phrase meaning white cliffs and has long been used by Dakota speakers to refer to the area that is now St. Paul.

The citys Parks and Recreation department, which will install updated signage at the sites in coming months, has been working with the Native-led nonprofit Waka Tipi Awanyankapi for several years to redesign its programming at the two parks to better reflect their spiritual significance in Dakota culture.

Maggie Lorenz, executive director of Waka Tipi Awanyankapi, said Wednesday that renaming the sites builds on the work that generations of Dakota people have done  to hold onto our culture, to preserve our history and to advocate for our sacred places.

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Last October, the city announced a co-management agreement for the 27-acre Waka Tipi area with Lorenzs organization, whose 7,500-square-foot Waka Tipi Center will house an exhibit hall, classrooms, ceremonial spaces and other facilities dedicated to preserving Dakota culture when it opens in the fall.

Formerly named for the late U.S. Rep. Bruce Vento, an ardent environmentalist who helped spearhead the transformation of what was a polluted former rail yard into green space, the nature sanctuary is home to Waka Tipi cave, which is revered in Dakota culture as an ancient gathering place for Native American nations.

Ventos widow, Susan Vento, was consulted as part of the renaming process, according to city officials. Susan Vento did not return a message seeking comment.

Carter said he believes the new name honors Bruce Ventos legacy, adding that the congressman, who died in 2000, was a supporter of tribal sovereignty, a supporter of treaty rights, and a champion for our environment.

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The name of the trail system that begins at Waka Tipi will remain the Bruce Vento Regional Trail.

Six burial mounds

The former Mounds Park, located on the bluffs overlooking Waka Tipi, contains six Native American burial mounds  the only such mounds known to exist within the urban Twin Cities.

Estimated to be up to 2,400 years old, the mounds are among the oldest human-made structures in Minnesota and are venerated by Dakota, Ho-Chunk and Ioway people as a burial place of their ancestors.

The citys parks department in recent years has updated its signage around the mounds to educate visitors on its long history as a cemetery and to encourage them to treat it as such.

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Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who spoke alongside Carter and Lorenz before Wednesdays council vote, said renaming the sites acknowledges that Dakota and Native people have always been here, are still here, and will remain here into the future.

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Russian forces carried out an artillery strike on the city of Kostiantynivka and attacked the settlement of Raihorodok in Donetsk Oblast with a Lancet kamikaze drone on 22 May, killing two women aged 54 and 51 and injuring two others.

Source: Donetsk Oblast Prosecutors Office on Telegram

Details: Russian troops shelled Kostiantynivka with artillery at approximately 07:30. A 54-year-old woman was killed by a direct hit on a residential building. Her daughter, 27, sustained a blast injury, an open head wound, and injuries to her head, neck and legs.

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At 10:35, a Lancet kamikaze drone struck near a shop in Raihorodok in the Kramatorsk district. A 51-year-old woman working at a kiosk was killed instantly, and a 39-year-old woman selling goods at the market was taken to hospital after sustaining shrapnel wounds and a blast injury.

Law enforcement officers are documenting the consequences of the attacks as evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian Federation against civilians.

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Two fired employees who received a combined $800,000 in legal settlements from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority had accused the agency's chief executive of hiring cronies for top jobs, attempting to destroy records and being extremely inebriated at an out-of-state conference, according to records released Wednesday.

Emily Vaughn Henry, a deputy chief information officer, said in a May 2024 settlement demand letter that she was fired after voicing multiple complaints about Va Lecia Adams Kellum, the top executive at the homeless agency, also known as LAHSA.

Kristina Dixon, formerly the agency's chief financial officer, characterized her termination last year as part of a "witch hunt." In her demand letter, sent to LAHSA in June 2024, her lawyer accused Adams Kellum of "hiring inexperienced key staff in critical positions simply because she worked with them before at her prior job."

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LAHSA officials "strenuously denied the allegations" contained in the two demand letters, saying in a statement that the agency "made a business decision to resolve these matters with advice of outside counsel."

Adams Kellum, in an interview Wednesday, defended the staffers who were hired during her tenure, describing them as "highly qualified." She declined to provide specifics on the two termination cases, instead offering a broader assessment of her management decisions.

"I came to LAHSA to try to make it better, and not to make excuses, and to put it on a path to improvement," she said. "Hard decisions had to be made. Changes had to be pursued."

Vaughn Henry's lawyer made an opening request last year for a $3.5 million settlement, saying a financial resolution would help the agency avoid "long, costly litigation." That same attorney made an initial offer for Dixon to receive $1.5 million.

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"There is already a high level of public and media interest in the recent terminations at LAHSA, and a public lawsuit will undoubtedly have far-reaching repercussions for many City and County officials," the two letters state.

LAHSA's board resolved the claims in March, agreeing to pay $450,000 to Dixon and $350,000 to Vaughn Henry. LAHSA paid $200,000 of the settlement, with insurance covering the remainder.

The settlement demand letters, and the settlement amounts, were first reported on by LAist, but with key details redacted. Under continued pressure from the public radio outlet, LAHSA released more complete versions of the demand letters on Wednesday with far fewer redactions.

Among the newly unredacted claims, Vaughn Henry alleged that Adams Kellum tried without success to delete two emails sent to her by Mayor Karen Bass. Vaughn Henry also alleged that Adams Kellum, while attending a conference in Washington, D.C., became "extremely inebriated and got a 'lap dance' from a female consultant that she had just hired to do work for LAHSA."

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LAHSA, in a statement, said that no complaint was filed related to the issue of improper behavior in Washington, D.C. Adams Kellum, during her interview, said the claims were not true.

"I did not do that," she said. "And that's not the way I carry myself as a professional."

The release of the letters comes at a tumultuous time for LAHSA. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted last month to pull more than $300 million from the agency, following damaging audits of its financial oversight. Days later, Adams Kellum announced she would resign from her post, offering to remain for 120 days.

Now, with her departure imminent, Adams Kellum has had to contend with allegations from staffers who were fired from the agency more than a year ago.

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Vaughn Henry, the former LAHSA data management expert, accused Adams Kellum of asking her in October 2023 to delete two emails that Bass had sent to her from her personal email account. Vaughn Henry said she refused and told Adams Kellum that the agency had a seven-year retention policy on all emails.

"Vaughn Henry believes [Adams] Kellum ultimately terminated her in retaliation for refusing to violate the retention policy and delete Mayor Bass' email," the claim states.

Dixon, in her demand letter, said Adams Kellum hired unqualified "cronies" to high-level positions, including seven staffers from St. Joseph Center, the Venice-based homeless services agency Adams Kellum led until 2022. The salaries for the new hires ranged from $180,000 to $220,000, creating "budget deficits for an already tight agency budget," the letter states.

Dixon said her decision to challenge Adams Kellum's hiring practices made her a target for "adverse treatment and retaliation"  and ultimately her termination, the letter said.

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Adams Kellum said that she asked for four of her colleagues from St. Joseph to come with her to LAHSA when she was recruited by the agency in 2022. That agreement was approved by LAHSA's board, she said.

"I knew when I was coming to LAHSA that we had a big job ahead," she said. "And I did not believe I had enough time to do it alone without a team that could help us be successful."

Adams Kellum also said she did not request the deletion of any messages from the mayor.

Clara Karger, a Bass spokesperson, said in an email that the mayor has "no knowledge" of the LAHSA staffer's deletion allegation.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, voted against a House bill extending federal tax cuts and slashing billions of dollars in Medicaid spending. Davids hosted a news conference Wednesday on Medicaid with Patty and Mark Hink of Lenexa, clockwise from lower left; Corey Craig, chief executive officer of Monarch Hospice & Palliative Care; and Overland Park resident Samantha Armistead. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Davids' livestream)

TOPEKA  The Kansas congressional delegation split along party lines on the narrowly passed U.S. House budget bill delivering tax breaks endorsed by President Donald Trump while stripping health care and food assistance from lower-income families.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat who serves the 3rd District in the Kansas City area, said Congress and Trump should be focused on making life more affordable for families rather than lining pockets of billionaires and big corporations with more than $1 trillion in tax giveaways.

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I support responsible government spending. We should be cracking down on things like waste and fraud and abuse, Davids said. This budget is not just out of touch. Its dangerous, irresponsible and means higher costs for hardworking Kansans.

Specifically, Davids said the House Republican budget package would sever health coverage to 16,000 people in her congressional district by altering the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. She said a decline in the reach of Medicaid dollars would echo through communities and erode quality of life, especially in rural areas of the state where half of hospitals were at risk of shutting down.

A provision in the House bill would drop an estimated 8,000 households in her district from emergency food assistance, Davids said.

People shouldnt have to choose between putting food on the table and seeing a doctor, the congresswoman said. Folks shouldnt have to drive hours just to get basic care because their local hospital shut down.

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GOP applauds vote

The bill sent to the U.S. Senate had backing of Republican U.S. Reps. Tracey Mann of the 1st District running from Dodge City to Lawrence, Derek Schmidt of the eastern Kansas 2nd District and Ron Estes of the 4th District encircling Wichita. On Thursday, the legislation passed 215-214.

Trump and GOP House leadership struggled to appease conservative holdouts who sought to pair tax cuts with deeper spending reductions along with investments in border security and the military. Democrats objected to reductions for energy, education and food assistance programs as well as Medicaid.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the deal could add $2.3 trillion to the national debt in the next decade.

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Estes said the one big, beautiful bill, which combined 11 different pieces of legislation, was significant because it would extend tax cuts initiated during Trumps first term as president. The legislation addressed wasteful federal spending and poured money into border security, he said.

Its a bill that meets the mandate provided to this Congress by the American people last November, Estes said. Its a bill for the American people, and my friends on the left have only empty talking points to try and paint this legislation as something that its not.

Estes said it was wrong for a cast of deceivers to dupe Americans by promoting the extension of the law as a tax giveaway for millionaires and billionaires, which it isnt. He said Americans earning $30,000 to $80,000 annually would pay 15% less in federal taxes in 2027. Thats nearly double the percentage reduction for individuals earning more than $1 million per year, he said.

This bill is not perfect. No legislation is, Schmidt said. There is much more to do to get our country back on track. However, it goes a long way toward cleaning up the unsustainable big-government mess made by the prior administration and its enablers.

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Mann said the package invested $60 billion to expand crop insurance for farmers, supported trade promotion programs in response to the agricultural trade deficit and cut $295 billion in wasteful and fraudulent spending within the agriculture budget.

He said the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, would be reformed to make certain able-bodied adults were working or volunteering to qualify for food aid.

On November 5, 2024, 77 million Americans gave Washington, D.C., a mandate to get our country back on track, Mann said. I am hopeful the Senate will move quickly to get this bill over the finish line and look forward to President Trump signing it into law.

Personal perspectives

During a news conference Wednesday hosted by Davids, Kansans explained how they would be impacted by the bills reduction in Medicaid funding by an estimated $625 billion during the next decade.

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Lenexa residents Mark and Patty Hink, parents of 49-year-old son Brian with intellectual disabilities, epilepsy and diabetes, said Medicaid was essential to providing him around-the-clock care due to the threat of seizures. Services provided Brian under Medicaid were a lifeline to the community, Mark Hink said.

Otherwise, these disabled adults would be homebound with parents who are aging and cant provide the level of care that is needed, he said.

Corey Craig, chief executive officer of Monarch Hospice & Palliative Care, said he was anxious reductions to federal spending on Medicaid would marginalize a group that is already kind of marginalized, especially in rural communities.

Im here to advocate for, at least at the minimum, keeping things the same because we are doing our best out here to try to service our rural communities, he said. They do deserve care, just like anyone else.

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Samantha Armistead, an Overland Park resident, has an adult sibling with intellectual disabilities enrolled in Kansas Medicaid program. He receives funding for adult day services that allow him to engage in meaningful work and interact with people in the community.

Connor currently lives with our parents, and this arrangement works well for now, Armistead said. However, our parents are getting older. We know this arrangement is not sustainable long term. He deserves the opportunity to live a meaningful life with dignity and connection. Im heartbroken, terrified and angry that many of our representatives in D.C. are working to deny basic care for our most vulnerable populations.
The lengthy suit over the 2021 state law punishing social media companies for deplatforming conservatives will continue, a U.S. judge ruled on May 22, 2025. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

A federal judge has denied Floridas motion to dismiss a lawsuit against a 2021 law punishing social media platforms for alleged censorship of conservatives.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida issued an order Thursday denying the states motions to toss the suit brought by two trade associations representing social media giants and to compel those companies to turn over information about their internal policies.

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The order came weeks after Hinkle held a hearing in Tallahassee in which he said hes still perplexed about what the Legislature meant to accomplish by trying to limit social media content moderation. Hinkle wrote that neither the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit nor the U.S. Supreme Court had questioned the plaintiffs standing to sue Florida.

NetChoice and co-plaintiff Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) argue that the law violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague. The two groups represent a number of the biggest social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, Apple, and Pinterest.

Once again, a judge has confirmed the importance of the First Amendment, rejecting Floridas attempts to evade review of its unconstitutional statute, wrote Stephanie Joyce, director of CCIAs Litigation Center, in a press release Thursday. This law tries to force websites to speak as the state commands, which strikes at the heart of free discourse and democracy. We now move forward with demonstrating why this law must be struck down.

Hinkle is revisiting the case after the countrys highest court punted it back to the Eleventh Circuit because the justices found that the appellate court had not conducted a proper analysis of the groups First Amendment challenges, which in turn sent the case back to Hinkle.

Trumps banishment

The law the Legislature passed following then-former President Donald Trumps banishment from social media platforms after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol prohibits deplatforming any candidate for statewide political office. Additionally, SB 7072 granted the Florida Election Commission authority to fine platforms with gross revenues of more than $100 million or more than 100 million monthly users $250,000 per day for banning statewide candidates and $25,000 per day for candidates for other offices.

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In his order Thursday, Hinkle wrote that provisions in the law, such as one banning platforms from placing candidates posts or posts about them in a less prominent position, would give candidates a statutory right to flood users feeds.

The defendants have not attempted to explain what these provisions really mean or how they would be applied. Nor have the defendants offered any theory under which a state can preclude this kind of curating without violating the First Amendment, Hinkle wrote.

Still, Hinkle, who originally issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, leaned toward a belief that provisions of the law are unconstitutional as applied to some of the companies rather than considering the law unconstitutional on its face. He used that reasoning to deny the states motion to force the plaintiffs to turn over more information about specific companies.

The plaintiffs facial challenge to SB 7072, and perhaps even to its various provisions viewed in isolation, is likely to fail  and the disputed discovery, if allowed, would almost surely make no difference, Hinkle wrote.

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Whats in a name?

In most cases, simply replying a lot would suffice. But in the case of an annual event held at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a name represents more than I could ever have known.

Since 2012, U-M Dearborn's annual Black Celebratory has been held on the last Thursday of April, a few days ahead of the universitys commencement ceremony. This event is the highlight of my year, and as a U-M Dearborn alum, Ive had the privilege to either host or co-host the Black Celebratory each year since its inception.

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The Black Celebratory is unique and sacred, and it accomplishes three things: 1) Recognizes and celebrates the academic success of African American students, 2) Provides an opportunity for campus faculty, staff, family and friends to honor graduating seniors. 3) Serves as a reunion-like reminder that upholding black excellence is a collective responsibility.

Minutes after the program is over, especially in the early years, Ill often be asked by students parents why I want to host or be part of this event every year. I smile, and tell them the simple answer: Its fun, and its not about me, its about the students.

As host or co-host, its my job to read each students name and accomplishments with enthusiasm  and this comes easily and naturally to me, simply because of what each name represents.

Many students also add notes about their academic accomplishments, post-graduation plans, or details about their lives. The students each make their way down the illustrious red carpet, then onto the stage where they are greeted by a faculty member from the African and African American Studies department and given an authentic Kente stole, made in Ghana, that officially becomes part of their graduation attire.

Students at University of Michigan-Dearborn at the 2025 Black Celebratory.

More from Freep Opinion: DEI isn't about hiring quotas. It's about opportunity.

High standards, hardworking students

U-M Dearborn has the same high academic standards as the Ann Arbor campus, but it attracts a different student body. Students at U-M Dearborn may be making their families proud by being the first to graduate college. Others are nontraditional students who began their education, and then returned years later to finish and receive their degrees. Or they may be working professionals seeking degrees to advance career or personal goals.

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As a commuter campus, its a good fit for students who are juggling life and college. Many, if not all, of the graduates worked and went to school while maintaining academic scholarships, their standing on the deans list and other academic honors, and participated in clubs or other campus groups. Some accomplished this in addition to being husbands, wives, mothers and fathers.

In the early years of the event, the students being recognized were primarily receiving undergraduate degrees. But, over the years, those receiving their masters and doctoral degrees have participated in the celebratory. I have had the honor to read their names, too, totaling well over 500 individuals since 2012.

Black excellence, indeed.

More from Freep Opinion: Detroit principal teaches students about character, opportunity  and college

The show must go on

But this year was extra special. Theres the underlying current of diversity, equity and inclusion being challenged by the current presidential administration. In fact, in weeks prior to the Black Celebratory, the University of Michigan announced the closure of its DEI office, leaving students faculty, staff and alums, including myself, stunned. Monies absorbed within DEI efforts were shifted to the Go Blue Guarantee and the Wolverine Pathways program to help low-income students.

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I was momentarily concerned about the effects this DEI decision might have on programming such as the Black Celebratory. But the university raised no objections to holding the Black Celebratory, and, as the saying goes, the show must go on.

Everyone involved with the event remains committed to celebrating the students who worked so hard to get to this moment. We decided to let the value of the celebratory speak for itself, woven, like Kente, in the words and speeches of students and guest speakers that night.

And Id argue the event could not have been timed more perfectly to honor the 10-year anniversary of the unexpected passing of the professor whose brainchild it was.

'Lift as you climb'

During this years celebratory, the video of Dr. Ahmad Rahman, a professor of African and African American studies, was played. The video showed Rahman at the first-ever Black Celebratory in April 2012, giving a speech to explain the significance of Kente. He encouraged graduating seniors to remain tight like Kente, and that all of us should lift as we climb. Timely advice then, and certainly timely advice now.

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The celebratory has proven its worth and importance on its own. All I literally must do each year is show up, ready to celebrate and honor the latest group of African American students to cross the stage at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

I opened this years celebratory with this African proverb: The river may dry up, but she keeps her name.

Changing circumstances and challenges are inevitable, but a name and its meaning never change  and that alone will always be worth celebrating.

Leah Olajide is the newsletter editor for the Detroit Free Press and a university lecturer. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters and we may publish it online and in print.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: U-M Dearborn's Black Celebratory recognizes achievement | Opinion
The U.S. Marshals-led Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST) arrested a man wanted for murder in Preble County, according to a spokesperson from the U.S. Marshals Service.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

The Dayton division of the task force found 26-year-old Francisco Vallejo-Arevalo in Camden, Preble County, on Wednesday afternoon.

They arrested him as he was leaving a business in the 7000 block of Main Street with new clothes.

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The spokesperson said Vallejo-Arevalo was wanted by the Columbus Police Department for a homicide that occurred on May 18.

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Vallejo-Arevalo reportedly left the Columbus area after the homicide.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Vallejo-Arevalo is not a United States citizen and was in Ohio illegally, according to the spokesperson.

Vellejo-Arevalo remains in custody at the Preble County Jail.

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The U.S. Marshals in Southern Ohio and ICE work together daily to locate and apprehend violent fugitives in our community. This arrest is the result of the daily sharing of resources and information with all our task force partners. We will continue to support ICE in their immigration enforcement efforts by locating and arresting those in the country illegally who are wanted for violent crimes, United States Marshal Michael Black said.

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PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB)  The U.S. Postal Service is investing $40 billion nationwide to improve letter and package delivery.

The Panama City Sorting and Delivery Center has received upgraded equipment and is receiving new mail trucks.

Panama City letter carriers travel 111 routes to deliver mail to residents and businesses. The trucks are durable; theyve been around since 1987.

But theyre no longer ideal for the job. They dont have air conditioning, visibility is restricted, and there are accessibility challenges. So, the postal service is replacing the fleet.

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The Panama City Sorting and Delivery Center has 11 new vehicles already in operation.

Letter carriers are now in Next Generation Delivery Vehicles with blind spot monitors, 360-degree cameras, air conditioning, and collision sensors.

They have more space for packages, enhancing the employee experience and increasing their speed of delivery.

Sunnys Beach Access: New ADA accessible beach access unveiled in PCB

You go from having a truck that you couldnt handle all the packages you had, or you didnt have room for them. To a vehicle where I personally can walk inside it now and I dont have to be hunched over, United States Postal Service Acting Postmaster Reagan Ochanda said.

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Inside the Sorting and Delivery Center, theyve added a Small Delivery Unit Sorter. Clerks were manually sorting 160 packages an hour. Now, they can sort 4,300 an hour.

Its a massive undertaking that goes from the clerks who come in in the morning, the carriers will go out, and it all just comes full circle when the customers get their packages and the mail that theyre expecting for the day, Ochanda said.

The postmaster said they deliver packages the same day they receive them.

We still deliver everything we get in, and we are still delivering Amazon, Ochanda added.

Theyve grown from 25 employees in 2023 to 250 currently.

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Its a manpower driven company. So without the employees, theres no way we can get the job done, Ochanda said.

The Postal Service is in year four of its 10-year investment plan to improve service speed, reliability, and affordability.

Panama City will continue replacing its older mail trucks over the next five years.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com.
The Trump administration is quietly negotiating a high-stakes deal with the Nicolas Maduro regime to allow Chevron to continue exporting Venezuelan oil to the U.S. in exchange for Caracas accepting the return of thousands of Venezuelan migrants likely to lose their legal status in the coming weeks, sources in Washington and Caracas familiar with the talks told the Miami Herald.

While much of the conversations have focused around the potential extension of a U.S. license to allow Chevron to continue operating in Venezuela, Maduro is seeking significant political and economic concessions, the sources said.

And while accounts differ on how close the parties are to finalizing an agreement, there is consensus that President Donald Trumps special envoy, Richard Grenell, has been leading behind-the-scenes discussions with key figures in the Maduro government.

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A Caracas-based source told the Herald that under the current terms being considered, Maduro would remain in power and grant broad oil and mining concessions to U.S. companies, including Chevron. The oil giant, which holds significant assets in Venezuela, has been constrained by U.S. sanctions that have prevented full development of its holdings.

In return, Maduro is seeking to be removed from the U.S. Treasury sanctions list and to have drug-trafficking charges against him in the U.S. dropped. Both Maduro and his second in command, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, are under U.S. indictments for allegedly leading the Los Soles drug cartel.

While those demands have long been a top priority for Maduro, legal experts questioned how the Trump administration could influence the Justice Department of Justice to drop federal charges against sitting heads of state.

What Maduro wants is a deal similar to the one recently granted to Syria, where longstanding sanctions were lifted in exchange for cooperation with U.S. regional goals, a Caracas-based source said.

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A U.S. source with knowledge of the conversations, who asked not to be named to speak about the sensitive matter, put the U.S. position in a more colorful way: They argue that Maduro can become a pro-American dictator, akin to Trujillo or Somoza, instead of the communist narco-dictator that he is.

On May 13, Trump made a surprise announcement at the start of an Arabian Gulf tour, revealing that the U.S. would lift decades-old sanctions on Syria  an unexpected shift in foreign policy that could serve as a precedent for the Venezuela talks.

But the oil-for-migrants proposal would likely face push back from U.S. Reps. Mario-Diaz-Balart, Maria Elvira Salazar and Carlos Gimenez, the three Cuban American members of Congress from Miami, who successfully lobbied Trump to get rid of the licenses to companies exploiting Venezuelan oil. The U.S. source with knowledge of the conversations says the three could use their votes in Congress on the White Houses budget, which Trump has designated the Big Beautiful Bill, to press the issue.

You have the three Cuban American members of Congress that could tank his Big Beautiful Bill if he reverses it, as he had promised to them he would end the licenses, the U.S. source said.

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Asked by Venezuelan journalist Carla Angola if the three would be successful in preventing the extension of Chevrons license, Salazar said: Of course we will, we are members of Congress. President Trump promised to reverse Biden policies and he is doing it. We cant sell out democratic principles over four dollars.

In March, the Trump administration revoked Chevrons license, issued during the Biden presidency, and ordered the company to wind down operations by the end of May. That 2022 license had enabled Chevron to produce and export oil despite broader U.S. sanctions on the socialist regime.

Central to U.S. interests in the negotiations is securing a commitment from Maduro to accept the return of potentially hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants. While Maduro has recently allowed an estimated 5,000 deportees to return from the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, a recent Supreme Court ruling that permits the Trump administration to rescind Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans could result in the possible deportation of hundreds of thousands.

Speculation about the talks intensified after Grenell secured the release of U.S. Air Force veteran Joseph St. Clair from a Venezuelan prison on Tuesday. The release reportedly coincides with a potential two-month extension of Chevrons operating license in Venezuela, which is set to expire on May 27.

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Neither the White House nor the State Department has officially commented, but Bloomberg and Reuters have reported that Grenells talks included the license extensiona move viewed as a diplomatic gesture to facilitate further engagement.

On Wednesday, Grenell, Trumps special envoy, did not return a Miami Herald request for comment.

On Tuesday, Grenell claimed in an interview with former White House strategist Steve Bannon that Trump would authorize an extension to a license allowing Chevron to sell Venezuelan oil to the United States, if we were able to get some progress, if we were able to build some confidence. We were able to do that today so that extension would will be granted.

But the U.S. source said the State Department has not made such a decision.

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The push to normalize relations with Venezuela is reportedly backed by powerful players in the oil lobby, including Florida businessman Harry Sargeant and conservative activist Laura Loomer, who have publicly campaigned in favor of lifting sanctions on Venezuelas oil sector.

On social media, Loomer claimed Trump had already agreed to extend Chevrons license and attributed the decision to Grenell. However, she warned that the proposal is facing internal resistance, particularly from Cuban American lawmakers and State Department officials, including Special Envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone.

Some officials are letting personal biases cloud their judgment on what is best for Americas energy independence, Loomer wrote on X, emphasizing that failing to extend Chevrons license could cede important ground to China.

Venezuela holds the largest proven oil reserves in the worldover 300 billion barrelsalongside enormous deposits of gold, coltan, bauxite, diamonds, and nickel. Why would we want China to benefit from those resources instead of the United States? Its insanity, she said.

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On Wednesday, in another post on X, Loomer took Miamis three Cuban Republicans to task for threatening to vote against Trumps budget if extends the licenses for Chevron for another 60 days.

If this is true, she wrote, it will prove that the bias of these reps ... because they would rather have a Hispanic tit for tat over Maduro instead of safeguarding energy resources from going to the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party.

Chevrons Venezuelan operations  currently averaging about 220,000 barrels per dayaccount for roughly 24% of the South American countrys current output. The company is seen as crucial to helping Venezuelas crippled oil industry recover, especially as the state-owned oil giant, Petroleos de Venezuela, PDVSA, continues to struggle.

Maduros government has attempted to downplay the potential impact of Chevron having to leave Venezuela, but the consequences could be significant. Other international firms affected by U.S. sanctions include Spains Repsol, Italys Eni, and Indias Reliance Industries. While these are not U.S. entities, continuing their operations without a renewed license could expose them to secondary sanctions.

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Venezuelas oil production had plunged to about 400,000 barrels per day by 2020down from 3.2 million in the late 1990s before Hugo Chavezs socialist reforms. Today, foreign oil companies are responsible for generating nearly half of the countrys output, a critical revenue stream for Maduros regime.

Antonio De La Cruz, director of the Washington-based think tank Inter American Trends, estimates foreign oil revenues contribute $700 million to $800 million per month to Maduros government.

That money helps fund the militarys loyalty and the security apparatus that suppresses dissent, De La Cruz said. But most importantly for Maduro, its clean money that can be used to launder illicit profits.
Press Release

May 22, 2025 Legarda urges PH to be proactive in disaster risk management Senator Loren Legarda challenged the status quo in disaster risk reduction, calling on people to be more proactive in mitigating risks related to climate change. "We are at a crossroads where climate change and disasters threaten our very existence. Typhoons ravage communities, droughts cripple livelihoods, and data reveals alarming trends," Legarda said during her keynote address at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) on Thursday, May 22. "The scorching heat is a sign that our planet is in distress," she added. Legarda led the ceremonial launch and signing of a Memorandum of Agreement for the Sustainable Leadership Learning for Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction (SLL-CDRR) Scholarship Program, in coordination with the Climate Change Commission and the AIM. The program aims to produce a group of competent climate and disaster resilience leaders, equipping them with skills to transform policy into action, as well as data into concrete solutions. It will be implemented by the CCC, in partnership with AIM, under the Executive Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management (EMDRCM) program and Master of Science in Data Science (MSDS) program. For 2026, a total of 26 scholars will be supported by the program, initiated and supported by Legarda. "Laws alone are not enough. We need you: planners, data scientists, advocates. We need you, the scholars who will bring resilience to the barangays, the data scientists who will turn analytics into action, the indigenous leaders who will bridge tradition and innovation," asserted the four-term senator. "The pandemic taught us that a crisis accelerates understanding. We will not return to normal. Normal was the problem. Instead, let's build a Philippines that thrives--a nation of climate champions." Legarda, a trailblazer in climate legislation, has championed landmark laws and spearheaded the adoption of international agreements. Among the pieces of legislation she passed are the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, the Clean Air Act, the Climate Change Act, the People's Survival Fund Act, the Green Jobs Act, and the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act. She also shepherded in the Senate the country's ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, and the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Legarda has also been recognized by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction as a UNDRR Global Champion for Resilience, a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global 500 Laureate, and an ASEAN Biodiversity Hero, among other honors. Legarda: Disaster risk management, aksyunan Hinamon ni Senator Loren Legarda ang publiko na maging proactive sa disaster risk reduction upang mabawasan pa ang sakuna dulot ng climate change. "We are at a crossroads where climate change and disasters threaten our very existence. Typhoons ravage communities, droughts cripple livelihoods, and data reveals alarming trends," talumpati ni Legarda sa Asian Institute of Management (AIM) noong Huwebes, Mayo 22. "The scorching heat is a sign that our planet is in distress." Pinangunahan ni Legarda ang paglulunsad at pagpirma ng isang memorandum of agreement para sa Sustainable Leadership Learning for Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction (SLL-CDRR) Scholarship Program. Itinatag ang programa sa pakikipagtulungan sa Climate Change Commission (CCC) at AIM. Target ng SLL-CDRR na magkaroon ng matinong lider na kayang tumugon sa climate disasters, pati na ang paglalatag ng kaalaman upang maging epektibo ang pagresponde rito. Ito ay ipatutupad ng CCC katuwang ang AIM, sa ilalim ng Executive Master in Disaster Risk and Crisis Management (EMDRCM) program at Master of Science in Data Science (MSDS) program. Magkakaroon ng 26 na iskolar para sa 2026 sa ilalim ng programang isunulong at sinusuportahan ni Legarda. "Laws alone are not enough. We need you: planners, data scientists, advocates. We need you, the scholars who will bring resilience to the barangays, the data scientists who will turn analytics into action, the indigenous leaders who will bridge tradition and innovation," a four-term senator. "The pandemic taught us that crisis accelerates understanding. We will not return to normal. Normal was the problem. Instead, let's build a Philippines that thrives--a nation of climate champions." Pinangunahan ni Legarda ang pagpasa sa ilang mahahalagang batas, pati na ilang kasunduan. Kabilang dito ay ang Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, Clean Air Act, Climate Change Act, People's Survival Fund Act, Green Jobs Act, at Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act. Nanguna rin siya sa pagratipika ng Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, pati na ng Paris Agreement.
LOS ANGELES, May 22 (Xinhua) -- What U.S. President Donald Trump told European leaders after his two-hour phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin has triggered controversy.

Three days after the high-stake talks for Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing senior European officials familiar with the conversation, that Trump told European leaders that Putin "isn't ready to end the Ukraine war because he thinks he is winning."

The White House denied this account immediately. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said that Trump "did say he believes Putin is winning the war, but he never said 'Putin isn't ready to end the war'."

During the call, Trump said several times that "he believes Putin wants peace and wants the war to be over," Leavitt noted.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also dismissed the WSJ report, saying Russia was only aware of what was said during the phone call between the two leaders on Monday.

"Look, we know what Trump told Putin. We don't know what Trump told the Europeans after that phone call. We know the official statement by President Trump," Peskov said.

According to Trump, the afterward call's participants included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The controversy came as European officials accused Trump of handing Putin a win after their phone call since he suggested abandoning being a mediator in ending the war and refused to impose fresh sanctions on Russia.

"Several European officials said the message they took from the call was that they should not expect the United States to join them any time soon in piling additional financial pressure onto Mr. Putin," The New York Times said in a analysis published Thursday.

"The disagreement between the Americans and the Europeans over support for Ukraine will likely come to a head over two nearly back-to-back summits: the Group of 7 in Canada in mid-June and the NATO summit a week later in The Hague," the report added. 
Website screenshot of World Liberty Financial, the Trump family cryptocurrency company. This month an investment firm connected to the Abu Dhabi royal family announced it was using the WLF's USD1 stablecoin to make a $2 billion investment in a crypto exchange.

Neither Catherine Cortez Masto nor Jacky Rosen were in the U.S. Senate when the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was passed a quarter century ago.

But both were in Nevada when Las Vegas was an epicenter for the wildly irresponsible mortgage backed derivatives market that did so much to cause the Great Recession that hit Nevada harder and longer than any other state.

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The Commodity Futures Modernization Act is what deregulated and hence led to the explosion  and then implosion  of the derivatives market.

Which is to say of all the U.S. senators, the two from Nevada should be especially wary of approving weak federal regulations that promote the growth of exotic financial instruments because an industry told them to.

And yet here we go again.

Stable genius

Early this week, Cortez Masto and Rosen were among 16 Senate Democrats voting with all the Republicans to advance the GENIUS Act, a Trump-endorsed gift to the cryptocurrency industry. Crypto-folk are eager to see the bill enacted in the current Congress because they fear Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House in next years midterm elections, the industrys window of opportunity will close, and the legislation will never make it to Trumps desk.

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(The industry may be underestimating congressional Democratic inclination to curry favor with, or at least try not to upset, extremely deep-pocketed industry political action committees, but I digress).

The legislation will promote the growth of a particular strain of cryptocurrency, stablecoin, by accelerating its integration with the U.S. financial system, while exempting it from regulatory requirements and consumer protections administered by (whats left of) the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier this month, all the Senate Democrats, joined by two Republicans, temporarily blocked the legislation. At the time, Democrats cited the bills failure to rein in the ongoing and unprecedented level of White House corruption made possible by Donald Trump and his familys entry into the cryptocurrency industry, including stablecoin, enabling billionaires, dictators, and unsavory characters worldwide to enrich Trump in exchange for favors right there on their phones.

Yet the slightly revised version of the legislation Cortez Masto, Rosen and 14 other Senate Democrats accepted Monday does nothingnothingto rein in the Presidents crypto corruption, said Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a floor speech rallying a majority of her fellow Democrats to vote against the legislation.

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This is not the first time Congress listened to the financial industry and created a weak regulatory regime for a new, innovative financial product, Warren warned her colleagues. Weve seen this story before, and we know how it ends.

Warren, whose sharp critique of policies that led to the Great Recession heightened her national profile in the late aughts, reminded the senators of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act which passed during the last year of the Clinton Administration.

At that time people said surely some kind of regulatory framework was better than nothing, Warren noted, so Congress created a weak set of rules that was loaded with loopholes  just as the industry wanted. The result was a disaster: derivatives moved from the edge of the financial system to the center of it.

Now we are back, doing the same thing yet again, Warren said.

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As if underscoring Warrens point  that people are yet again saying somethings better than nothing  Cortez Masto said in a statement provided by her office Wednesday that Congress needs to do more to regulate cryptocurrencies and the GENIUS Act is the first step to ensure stablecoins issued in the United States are not used to scam or defraud people or facilitate illicit finance, while also providing regulatory clarity our domestic industry needs to innovate here at home.

Similarly, Rosens office provided a statement Wednesday saying cryptocurrency is an emerging industry that is in urgent need of regulation and Rosen voted to advance bipartisan legislation to open the door for regulating cryptocurrency. This bill is not the only action Congress should take on crypto regulation, but it is an important step to protect consumers and support Americas innovation.

Both statements from Nevadas senators echo the industry narrative, also fully embraced by Trump, that stablecoin and other variations of crypto are a vital innovation that must be promoted in the name of the national interest.

And both statements, again echoing the industry narrative, fail to clearly explain why that is.

All hype, no pulp

Cryptocurrency is undoubtedly a growth industry. But as it increasingly integrates into the financial system, one signature characteristic it brings along is extreme volatility. (Related note: Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange, became the first exchange to be added to the S&P 500 this week, so theres a good chance crypto is now in your retirement fund.)

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In addition to volatility  and of course crypto bros, who will be convening in Las Vegas next week for the Super Bowl of crypto  cryptocurrency is also famous for money laundering and fraud schemes. (On considerably rarer occasions it also serves its long ago originally advertised use, as a legitimate alternative form of payment for a product or a service.)

But far and away its largest use is as just another speculative investment, like, oh, orange juice futures, except with no correlation to anything that exists in the material world; for breakfast, nobody orders a glass of fresh squeezed hype.

When members of Congress talk about innovation and, as Rosen put it, an emerging industry, they are implying there is some magical but practical and immensely useful economic function only crypto can do.

Meanwhile, the wider world awaits clearly articulated instruction on what indispensable (yet legal) thing crypto can do that oldy timey money cant, and why it isnt doing it already.

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To be fair, there is one function that, while not new or unique  every industry does it  is something the crypto industry has proven it can do uniquely well: Raise money to spend against candidates that dont support the industrys agenda.

As many of you will recall, the cryptocurrency industrys PAC raised more money during the 2024 election cycle than any other industry in the U.S.

A common critique is that congressional Democratic support for the cryptocurrency industrys political and regulatory agenda, which is also Trumps agenda, is driven not by a vision of crypto playing a beneficial role in the economy and making the world a better place, but fear of the industrys campaign spending.

Cortez Masto and Rosen were asked to respond to that critique. In their statements provided by their offices, the request was ignored.

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The GENIUS Act still needs to survive another Senate vote. Cortez Masto and Rosen are obviously voting for it. Maybe they think theres no way playing laissez faire footsy with investment erotica could upend the entire financial system and crash the economy yet again, let alone so soon. What are the odds?

Maybe theyre right.

But that still leaves another disturbing matter, a more generic concern that isnt crypto-specific.

People who didnt vote for Trump (a majority of voters and a supermajority of the population) have been wondering if and when Democrats might start standing up to him in an effective way. Democrats have sworn repeatedly they will do that, but have also lamented that they have been presented precious few opportunities to actually thwart Trump because Republicans control all the things.

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The GENIUS Act needs to pass the Senate with 60 votes. Its an outstanding chance for Democrats to block a Trump/Republican agenda item that most Senate Democrats think is not in the nations best interest.

But some Senate Democrats are going to vote for it and give Trump the win anyway. That includes both senators from Nevada, who more than any other U.S. senators should know better.
Note: This story has been edited to clarify that Natalie Hudson is not from Dayton.

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is in town, and a local professor will be speaking directly to the international delegates.

Natalie Hudson is a professor at the University of Dayton, focusing on global politics and international law. She also teaches courses in womens rights and human rights advocacy.

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GALLERY: NATO security preparations underway

Hudson says just a few months ago, NATO officials reached out to her, asking if she could speak during one of their sessions this coming Saturday.

It was very exciting, I got an invitation in March, and the invitation was to speak at the democracy and security committee meeting, and their discussion of the women and peace security agenda, said Hudson.

Hudson plans to speak on the inclusion of women in the peacemaking and peace building process, saying that to have perspectives from both men and women is essential.

The work that I do is not an ideology, its not a feel good theory, its actually supported by evidence that when women are involved we do it better, said Hudson. Its a research area that Im very passionate about, and its one that NATO stands to lead on and has been a leader on in recent years.

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Hudson also wants to focus on how women are treated in armed conflicts, pointing to data as recent as the Russia-Ukraine War.

We know that women and girls experience conflict differently than men and are vulnerable in different sorts of ways, particularly around sexual and gender-based violence, said Hudson.

She also plans on speaking on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths announcement to cut Americas Women, Peace and Security agenda.

Peace and Security agenda is backed by lots of research, that shows when women are involved in conflict resolution, conflict prevention and the protection of civilians, that we are smarter, safer and stronger, both as a military alliance, and also in terms of just general political stability and the promotion of democracy around the world, said Hudson.

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Hudsons session will not be open to the public, but if you are looking to interact with NATO delegates, the University of Dayton is hosting public forums this week at the Roger Glass Center.

Tickets are free, but they are also limited. Click here to learn more.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
The United Kingdom has exposed a cyber campaign orchestrated by Russian military intelligence (GRU) targeting Western logistics and technology organizations involved in delivering foreign assistance to Ukraine, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NSCS) announced on May 21.

According to a release by the NSCS, GRU Unit 26165, also known as APT 28, has been working to penetrate secure networks in the defence, IT, maritime, airports, ports and air traffic management systems across NATO countries, in an attempt to disrupt the logistics deliveries to Ukraine.

Russian hacker groups have engaged in various forms of cyber warfare throughout the full-scale war, including cyberattacks against Ukraine, hacks of civilian infrastructure in Europe, and interference in foreign elections.

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Since 2022, the GRU unit, has been using different tactics, including credential guessing, spear-phishing, and exploiting Microsoft Exchange mailbox permissions, to get access into various secure networks linked to delivering support for Ukraine.

The Russian military intelligence unit would also target internet-connected cameras at Ukrainian border crossings and near military installations, the NCSC said.

"This malicious campaign by Russias military intelligence service presents a serious risk to targeted organisations, including those involved in the delivery of assistance to Ukraine," NCSC Director of Operations Paul Chichester said in a statement.

The unit, also known as 'Fancy Bear,' has previously caught the eye of other NATO allies.

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On April 29, the French Foreign Ministry accused the unit of escalating cyberattacks against French ministries. France has brought charges against the GRU's APT28 unit  also known as 'Fancy Bear'  based in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia.

No information was publicly provided as to whether the unit was able to obtain classified information, or what specific organizations were impacted by the breaches.

NATO allies the United States, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France and the Netherlands assisted the U.K. in exposing the cyber campaign, the NSCS said.

Read also: Ukraine war latest: Russian semiconductor plant making missile, jet parts hit in Ukrainian attack, military says





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The United Kingdom has called on the G7 countries to agree to lower the price cap on Russian oil, saying that this step is necessary to increase pressure on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: "Pressure on Russias war machine is needed now more than ever," the UK Treasury said in a statement. "Putin has failed to engage in good faith with proposals from Zelenskyy to meet directly and attempts to broker a ceasefire from his illegal and brutal war".

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The G7 countries  the UK, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan  are looking for ways to tighten the current price cap to limit Moscow's ability to finance the war.

The threshold is currently set at US$60 per barrel. Under the rules, Western companies can only insure and transport Russian oil if it is sold below that level.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said that "an ambition to move quickly in lowering the US$60 price cap on Russian crude oil at this opportune time". She also called on G7 partners to unite in their efforts to achieve "a just and lasting peace".

In response to Western restrictions, particularly price caps and embargoes by the US and EU, Russia has created a shadow fleet of tankers, often operating with unknown owners and insurers, which supplies oil to new markets, mainly in Asia. This has allowed Russia to partially circumvent the sanctions.

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Background:

Ukraine has proposed that the EU increase pressure on Russia by lowering the cap on Russian oil to US$30 per barrel.

The EU will propose to the G7 that the current cap (US$60 per barrel) on Russian oil transported by sea be lowered. According to Reuters, the European Union will propose US$50 per barrel.

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LONDON (AP)  Britain signed an agreement Thursday to hand sovereignty over the contested Chagos Islands to Mauritius, a move the government says ensures the future of a U.S.-U.K. military base that is vital to British security.

The Indian Ocean archipelago is home to a strategically important naval and bomber base on the largest of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Under the agreement, the U.K. will pay Mauritius an average of 101 million pounds ($136 million) a year to lease back the base for at least 99 years.

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Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that base, operated by U.S. forces, is crucial for British counterterrorism and intelligence and is right at the foundation of our safety and security at home.

By agreeing to this deal now on our terms, were securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century, helping to keep us safe for generations to come," Starmer told reporters at a U.K. military headquarters in Northwood, near London.

Critics of the deal, which must be approved by Parliament, argue that giving up the islands, which have been British territory for two centuries, puts them at risk of interference by foreign powers such as Russia or China.

Conservative defense spokesman James Cartlidge called the deal a total, abject surrender of our territory and a fundamental betrayal of the U.K. national interest.

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The agreement was struck in the face of opposition from some of the islands' original residents, who were expelled decades ago to make way for the base.

The agreement was due to be signed by Starmer and Mauritian leader Navin Ramgoolam at a virtual ceremony on Thursday morning. But signing was delayed for several hours after a U.K. judge imposed a last-minute injunction blocking the transfer at the behest of two Chagossian campaigners. The injunction was later lifted by another judge.

Displaced islanders have fought unsuccessfully in U.K. courts for years for the right to go home. Chagos-born Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, who brought the latest legal challenge, fear it will become even harder to return to their birthplace once Mauritius takes control.

The deal establishes a trust fund to benefit the Chagossians and says Mauritius is free to implement a program of resettlement on the islands, other than Diego Garcia. But it does not require the residents to be resettled.

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Pompe said it was "a very sad day, but vowed to continue fighting.

The rights we are asking for now, we have been fighting for for 60 years," she said outside the High Court. "Mauritius is not going to give that to us.

One of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands have been under U.K. control since 1814. Britain split the islands away from Mauritius, a former British colony, in 1965, three years before Mauritius gained independence.

Britain evicted as many as 2,000 people from the islands in the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. military could build the Diego Garcia base, which has supported U.S. operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. It has facilities to accommodate nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers and large airplanes, and plays a key role in U.S. intelligence-gathering.

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Mauritius has long contested Britains claim to the archipelago, and the United Nations and its top court have urged Britain to return the Chagos to Mauritius, around 2,100 kilometers (1,250 miles) southwest of the islands.

In a non-binding 2019 opinion, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.K. had unlawfully carved up Mauritius when it agreed to end colonial rule in the late 1960s.

Starmer said that "we had to act now because the base was under threat.

He said Mauritius is likely to have taken Britain to court within weeks and the U.K. had no realistic prospect of success.

Britain's defense ministry said the deal includes strong protections, including a 24-mile (39 kilometer) exclusion zone around Diego Garcia, a U.K. veto over development on the wider islands and a ban on foreign security forces on the islands.

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Negotiations on handing the islands to Mauritius began in 2022 under the previous Conservative government and resumed after Starmer's Labour Party was elected in July.

A draft agreement was struck in October, but was delayed by a change of government in Mauritius and quarrels over how much the U.K. should pay to lease the base.

Britain also paused to consult Presient Donald Trump's administration after the change of government in Washington.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the agreement, saying it secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the Diego Garcia base, a critical asset for regional and global security. 

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.
The British government has finalised a deal to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius after a court-ordered injunction briefly delayed the signing, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, Starmer said the deal is absolutely vital for our defence and intelligence, and therefore, for the safety and security of the British people.

The multibillion-dollar agreement will allow the United Kingdom to retain control of the strategically important US-UK airbase on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.

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The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, Starmer said.

By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, were securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century, he added.

The signing comes just hours after a High Court judge early on Thursday imposed an injunction postponing Starmers virtual signing ceremony with Mauritian representatives.

Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the injunction following a hearing later in the day, clearing the way for the UK to sign the deal.

The courts injunction was in response to a claim by two Chagossian women representing the islands original residents, who were evicted decades ago to make way for the airbase.

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Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, both British citizens, said they feared it would become even harder to return once Mauritius takes control of the islands.

High Court judge Julian Goose had blocked the UK government from taking any conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations to hand over the territory to a foreign government.





Following the injunctions removal, Pompe said it was a very sad day and vowed to continue fighting. We do not want to hand over our rights to Mauritius. We are not Mauritians, she said outside the High Court.

The rights we are asking for now, we have been fighting for for 60 years, Pompe said, adding, Mauritius is not going to give that to us.

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Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who had questioned the deal when he took office for the second time last November, said in a televised broadcast on Thursday that it symbolised the completion of the total process of decolonisation.

Its total recognition of our sovereignty on the Chagos, including Diego Garcia, said Ramgoolam, speaking in the local Creole language.

US welcomes historic accord

The UK, which has controlled the area since 1814, separated the Chagos Islands in 1965 from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.

In the early 1970s, the government evicted about 1,500 residents to Mauritius and Seychelles to make way for the Diego Garcia airbase on the largest island.

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In October, the government announced a draft agreement to hand the islands to Mauritius and allow the UK and the US to continue using the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.

US President Donald Trumps administration, which was consulted on the deal, gave its approval. However, finalising the agreement was delayed by a change in government in Mauritius and reported last-minute negotiations over costs.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the signing of the historic accord on Thursday.

We commend both the United Kingdom and Mauritius for their leadership, vision, and commitment to ensure that Diego Garcia remains fully operational for the duration of this agreement, Rubio said in a statement.

We look forward to working closely with both governments to strengthen our collaboration in support of regional peace and stability.
By Muvija M and Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain signed a deal on Thursday to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, after a London judge overturned a last-minute injunction and cleared the way for an agreement the government says is vital to protect the nation's security.

The multibillion-dollar deal will allow Britain to retain control of the strategically important U.S.-UK air base on Diego Garcia, the largest island of the archipelago in the Indian Ocean, under a 99-year lease.

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The signing went ahead after a carefully choreographed ceremony was postponed when lawyers representing a British national born in the Chagos Islands were granted an interim injunction at the High Court in the early hours of Thursday.

Judge Martin Chamberlain then lifted that injunction following a hearing, saying Britain's interests would be "substantially prejudiced" if the injunction were to continue.

The government, which has been criticised by opposition parties for pursuing a deal they say is overly costly and would play into the hands of China, has long said the agreement is essential to secure the future of Diego Garcia.

"The strategic location of this base is of the utmost significance to Britain, from deploying aircraft to defeat terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan to anticipating threats in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific," Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a news conference.

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"By agreeing to this deal now, on our terms, we're securing strong protections, including from malign influence, that will allow the base to operate well into the next century."

The signing ends months of wrangling over the deal, the details of which were first announced in October, after the then-Mauritian leader Pravind Jugnauth was replaced by Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, who raised concerns about it.

It was further delayed after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump in January, with London wanting to give the new administration time to examine the details of the plan. In February, Trump indicated his backing for the deal.

LATEST LEGAL CHALLENGE

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The injunction was the latest legal challenge to the deal in the last two decades brought by members of the wider Chagossian diaspora, many of whom ended up in Britain after being forcibly removed from the archipelago more than 50 years ago.

It was granted following action by Bertrice Pompe, a British national who was born in Diego Garcia and has criticised the deal for excluding Chagossians.

James Eadie, the government's lawyer, said the delay was damaging to British interests and "there is jeopardy to our international relations ... (including with) our most important security and intelligence partner, the U.S."

It is one less headache for Starmer, who is under fire from his own governing Labour Party for implementing welfare cuts to try to better balance Britain's books.

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But Starmer's political opponents were again critical of the accord, arguing it was both costly and by ceding sovereignty, China could further deepen its ties with Mauritius, benefiting Beijing's influence in the Indian Ocean.

"Labour's Chagos Surrender Deal is bad for our defence and security interests, bad for British taxpayers and bad for British Chagossians," Conservative Party foreign affairs spokeswoman Priti Patel said on X.

The financial component of the deal includes 3 billion pounds to be paid by Britain to Mauritius over the 99-year term of the agreement, with an option for a 50-year extension and Britain maintaining the right of first refusal thereafter.

The base's capabilities are extensive and strategically crucial. Recent operations launched from Diego Garcia include bombing strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024-2025, humanitarian aid deployments to Gaza and, further back, attacks on Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Afghanistan in 2001.

(Reporting by Muvija M, Michael Holden and Sam Tobin in London and Mike Stone in Washington; editing by William Schomberg, Elizabeth Piper, Hugh Lawson, William James and Mark Heinrich)
It's Ukraine's turn to adopt an unusual battle tactic from Russia: motorcycle assaults.

One unit has formed its first motorcycle attack company for storming Russian positions quickly.

It said its troops have trained "hundreds of hours" to shoot assault rifles from off-road bikes.

As the battle with drones continues, motorcycles have become a rising star in Ukraine's war.

The Ukrainian military's 425th separate assault regiment, nicknamed "Skala," announced on Tuesday that it had officially formed the country's first motorcycle attack company.

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"As a result, we now have a modern 'cavalry' whose main task is to rapidly break through to enemy positions, conduct assault operations, and quickly shift the direction of attack," it said on its Telegram channel.

The motorbike assault company appears to run a paired configuration with one driver and one gunman. 425th Separate Assault Regiment/Screenshot

The use of motorcycles to carry troops into battle is well-documented in Ukraine. Since early last year, Russian troops have been increasingly seen riding on light vehicles such as ATVs and motorbikes as both a means of transport and a way to attack Ukrainian positions rapidly.

Their rise is largely viewed as a direct consequence of drone warfare, since armored vehicles are often vulnerable to exploding drones on Ukraine's flat terrain.

While motorbikes leave the rider more exposed, they're faster, nimbler, and smaller, which makes them better able to evade attacks from small drones.

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"Russia's increased use of motorcycles is an adaptation in response to pervasive Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian armored vehicles and the unsustainable armored vehicle losses that Russian forces suffered in late 2023 and 2024," the Institute for the Study of War wrote in early May.

Ukraine's troops initially balked at the attack method, which the Russians used in suicide assaults to wear down Ukrainian defenses and munitions.

But the 425th's announcement on Tuesday means that some Ukrainians are now adopting the same tactic.

In its statement, the 425th said its motorbike-riding troops had trained for "hundreds of hours" to shoot while on the move. The statement did not indicate whether the unit has started fighting or when its motorcycle troops will hit the front lines.

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The 425th released a video of about two dozen soldiers riding tandem on off-road motorbikes, with each pair involving one driver and an infantryman wielding an assault rifle.

"The goal is to ride in, strike quickly at enemy positions, dismount, storm in, secure a foothold, and complete the mission successfully," a Ukrainian soldier says in the video.

Deploying motorbikes in a direct assault is an unusual tactic for modern war, where such vehicles are typically used for reconnaissance or infiltration. US special forces, for example, have used commercial bikes to navigate difficult terrain or traverse deserts in the Middle East.

Ukrainian troops in the company said motorbikes offer them a swifter way to attack Russian positions, improving their safety. 425th Separate Assault Regiment/Screenshot

But in Ukraine, the number of motorbikes sighted on the front lines has grown dramatically. In April, Ukrainian troops said they repelled a Russian assault on Pokrovsk that involved over 100 motorcycles.

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Several Russian motorized attacks last month were also reported to be comprised wholly of motorcycles and civilian vehicles. The latter have been increasingly appearing in the warzone, with Moscow's troops often sighted traveling in sedans and tractors at the rear  a likely sign of strain on Russian logistics and resources.

Analysts from the ISW said in late April that it's likely Russia will start further incorporating motorcycles into its tactics for future attacks.

Lt. Col. Pavlo Shamshyn, spokesperson of Ukraine's ground forces in Kharkiv, told local media that week that Kyiv believed the same.

"Our intelligence records the fact that in training centers on the territory of the Russian Federation and in the units themselves, active training of motorcycle drivers is taking place, and all this indicates that the assault operations of spring-summer 2025 will be carried out on motorcycles," Shamshyn told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne.

Read the original article on Business Insider
CAPE TOWN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- To mark the International Day for Biological Diversity, South African Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Dion George on Thursday urged all citizens to play their part in restoring and protecting the planet's biodiversity.

"South Africa joins the global community in celebrating this important day under the theme Harmony with Nature and Sustainable Development, which highlights the essential connection between biodiversity and the Sustainable Development Goals," said George. "We stress the urgency of accelerating efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, which is essential for achieving the SDGs."

He also announced that South Africa's Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment is hosting the National Biodiversity Offset Conference this week in Gauteng Province.

The conference, held from Wednesday to Thursday, is hosted in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program, supported by the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the South African National Parks.

According to him, the national biodiversity conference brings together government officials, environmental experts, private sector leaders, and civil society to explore how biodiversity offsetting can support sustainable development while protecting the country's rich and diverse ecosystems.

Building on the outcomes of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity held in Colombia last year, this year's campaign highlights the critical connection between the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the minister noted.

"As a department, it is important for us to reflect on the synergies and alignment between our local biodiversity strategy and action plans with the objectives of this year's International Day of Biological Diversity, which include enhancing public awareness of the fundamental importance of biodiversity to all life on Earth and address socio-economic complexities such as poverty and inequality," George said.

The International Day for Biodiversity is observed annually on May 22 to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. 
Ukraine is set to pitch a larger number of recommendations to the European Union next week as to how the bloc can continue to ramp up economic pressure on Moscow through sanctions, Reuters reported on May 21.

The additional recommendations penned in the white paper come as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to refuse to adopt additional sanctions on Russia  even as Moscow continues to refuse to accept a 30-day ceasefire.

The New York Times reported on May 20, citing a White House official, that Trump refuses to impose sanctions on Russia as it may hinder future business and trade opportunities with Moscow.

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Trump previously said the U.S. would join partners in imposing "further sanctions" if Russia does not agree to an unconditional ceasefire. Despite numerous threats, Trump has never followed through on imposing additional sanctions against Russia.

"Today, in practice, Washington has ceased participation in nearly all intergovernmental platforms focused on sanctions and export control," the white paper read, according to Reuters. "On the contrary, it should catalyse the EU to assume a leading role in this domain."

Reuters reported that Ukraine will propose to the EU that the bloc speed up the seizure of frozen Russian assets to provide to Kyiv. The additional proposed sanctions would also target foreign companies that assist Russia through the use of technology, and "the introduction of secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian oil".

The proposal from Kyiv comes as EU members ponder the implementation of an 18th sanctions package against Russia.

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Speaking to reporters in Brussels on May 20, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said that harsher sanctions must be imposed as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to reject a 30-day ceasefire proposal. Budrys further called on the EU to target Russia's energy, liquid natural gas (LNG), oil, and nuclear fuel exports as well as financial institutions.

President Volodymyr Zelensky echoed similar points in his evening address on May 20, calling for the EU to to apply additional sanctions on "Russian oil, the tanker fleet, all their energy infrastructure that finances the war, all their banks, all financial schemes, and Russias military industry."

In its pitch to the EU next week, Kyiv will also encourage the EU to make decisions on future sanctions through a majority vote, not unanimous decision.

In previous decisions, Hungary and Slovakia have attempted to block sanctions packages, citing their skepticism around support for Ukraine.

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Politico reported on May 20 that the EU is shifting its focus away from providing development aid toward strategic goals like enforcing sanctions against Russia and building defense partnerships, with resources being redirected to match those priorities.

Read also: EU to downsize diplomatic service, prioritize Russia sanctions enforcement, POLITICO reports

Read also: Trump refusing to adopt sanctions against Russia as it would affect business opportunities with Moscow, NYT reports





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Ukraine has proposed that its Western partners contribute to funding the Ukrainian Armed Forces and integrate them into Europes collective defence system.

Source: Ukraines Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko, following his trip to Canada for a meeting of the G7 finance ministers

Details: Marchenko stated that the key topic raised with partners was how to cover Ukraines financial needs in 2026. He confirmed that Ukraine is currently in talks about integrating its military capabilities into Europes defence system.

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He said such a move would have several strategic benefits for Ukraine, particularly helping maintain financial stability in 2026 and beyond, and for the EU  protecting it from potential Russian aggression, since Ukraines military has extensive relevant experience.

Quote: "The cost of supporting Ukraines Armed Forces for Europes security would amount to a small share of the EUs GDP," Marchenko noted.

More details: The minister added that this share of GDP could be distributed among countries willing to join the initiative and counted towards their defence spending obligations under NATO.

Quote: "Given the military risks, Europe is already exploring ways to strengthen its defence, including by increasing the number of military personnel. But building such capacity would take years and considerable resources. Integrating Ukraines Armed Forces is an effective solution with economic advantages for partner countries."

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Ukraine has submitted a list of POWs to the Russians for a prisoner swap in a thousand-for-thousand format.

Source: Andrii Yusov, Deputy Head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War and spokesperson for Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine; Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency TASS, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

Details: Peskov also confirmed that Russia had received the list of prisoners of war.

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Earlier, Peskov stated that all parties are interested in carrying out a thousand-for-thousand exchange as quickly as possible.

Background:

On 16 May 2025, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement in Istanbul on the simultaneous release and exchange of 1,000 POWs on each side.

On 16 May, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, said that Ukraine had begun reviewing the lists of POWs who are to be brought back to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap with Russia in the thousand-for-thousand format.

On 22 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting on preparations for a potential prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia in the thousand-for-thousand format. He stated that Ukraine is currently examining the list of individuals submitted by the Russian side.

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Mass Ukrainian drone strike targets Moscow, Russia claims, multiple airports closed

9 Ukrainian children rescued from Russian-occupied territories, President's Office says

Trump tells European leaders Putin doesnt want peace because he believes Russia winning war in Ukraine, WSJ reports

Kyiv proposes EU partners help directly fund Ukrainian military under new model

Russia says 159 Ukrainian drones shot down in less than a day

Russian air defense systems shot down 105 Ukrainian drones overnight on May 22, including 35 intercepted over Moscow Oblast, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that all the drones were flying toward the Russian capital.

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Due to the drone attack, all four Moscow airports  Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky  as well as airports in Tambov and Vladimir were temporarily closed.

Other Ukrainian drones were also shot down over the Oryol, Kursk, Belgorod, Tula, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Smolensk, and Bryansk oblasts, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Tula Oblast Governor Dmitry Milyaev said one of the drones crashed into the roof of an apartment building in Tula. The attack also damaged other residential and non-residential buildings, he said.

Russian authorities haven't reported any other damage or reported any casualties.

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Later on May 22, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 485 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the past three days, from May 20 to May 22, including 63 over Moscow Oblast.

Kyiv hasn't commented on the attacks. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the reports.

Read also: Ukraines new drone strategy  cripple Moscows airports, make Russian population pay

9 Ukrainian children rescued from Russian-occupied territories, President's Office says

Ukraine has brought nine more children from Russian-occupied territories to Ukrainian-controlled areas, Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak said on May 22.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has identified over 19,500 children who have been forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or occupied territories. So far, only around 1,300 of them have been safely brought to Ukrainian government-controlled territory.

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Among the rescued children is a girl whose life was in danger due to the lack of adequate medical care in the occupied territories, and a boy who, along with his mother, was locked in a basement by Russian forces while his father was tortured in a nearby room, Yermak said.

Others include two sisters who didn't leave their home for nearly three years because of constant shelling and the presence of Russian tanks, and a teenage girl who was cut off from online schooling due to communication blockades imposed by Russian forces.

"These children lived through horrors," Yermak said in a statement. "We are fulfilling the president's task: to bring all children back home."

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Trump tells European leaders Putin doesnt want peace because he believes Russia winning war in Ukraine, WSJ reports

U.S. President Donald Trump told European leaders this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready for peace in Ukraine because he believes he is winning the war, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 22, citing three undisclosed sources.

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Trump's reported statement marked the first time he acknowledged to European leaders what they and Kyiv have long maintained  the Kremlin has no intention of ending its full-scale war against Ukraine.

The conversation on May 19 reportedly included President Volodymyr Zelensky, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Antonio Costa.

Earlier the same day, Trump held a phone call with Putin, days after largely inconclusive negotiations in Istanbul, where Russia sent a delegation of low-level officials.

European leaders on the call reportedly seemed "surprised" that Trump was "relatively content" with what he heard from Putin, Axios reported on May 20.

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Read also: Why Washington failed to end the Russo-Ukrainian War

Kyiv proposes EU partners help directly fund Ukrainian military under new model

Ukraine is requesting the EU begin financially supporting its armed forces starting in 2026, pitching the idea as a practical way to strengthen Europe's collective defense and share the cost of containing Russian aggression, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko said on May 22.

The EU hasn't so far directly funded Ukraine's military, but member states provide weapons and other assistance through national programs and broader EU support packages.

Marchenko said Kyiv is proposing a new model: European partners would help fund the Ukrainian military, and in return, Ukraine would be further integrated into the continent's defense system.

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"I am convinced that this decision has a number of strategic advantages for Ukraine, including maintaining financial stability in 2026 and beyond," Marchenko said in a statement following meetings with G7 finance leaders in Canada.

"And for the EU  protection from potential Russian aggression. After all, the Ukrainian army has all the experience necessary for this."

Under the proposal, the cost of supporting Ukraine's military would represent only a small fraction of the EU's combined GDP, Marchenko said, and could be shared among countries willing to participate. These contributions could count toward NATO defense spending targets.

Russia says 159 Ukrainian drones shot down in less than a day

Russian air defenses reportedly intercepted more than 150 Ukrainian drones over several regions, including areas near the capital, in what appears to be one of the largest such aerial assaults, Russia's Defense Ministry said on May 22.

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For at least two days in a row, Ukraine has launched massive waves of drones deep into Russian territory. Between the evening of May 20 and the morning of May 22, Russia claims to have shot down 485 drones on its territory.

According to the Russian military, 159 drones were destroyed between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Moscow time on May 22. The ministry said Ukrainian drones were intercepted across multiple central and western regions, including Moscow, where 22 drones were reportedly shot down. The surrounding regions of Kursk, Oryol, Tula, and others also came under attack, with dozens of drones intercepted in each area.

The ministry described the drones as fixed-wing, aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles. The Kyiv Independent couldn't independently verify the claims. Ukrainian authorities have not commented.

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Hundreds of Ukrainian kamikaze drones have flown towards Moscow in recent weeks.

None appear to have even reached the Russian capital, yet the effect on the city  and the wider country  has been hugely significant.

Ukrainian drones have forced at least 217 temporary airport closures across Russia since Jan. 1, independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe reported on May 14, citing data from Russia's state aviation agency Rosaviatsia.

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The figure already surpasses the combined total for all of 2023 and 2024, underscoring Kyiv's growing ability to put pressure on Russia, even in areas far from the border with Ukraine.

According to Serhii Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Defense Army's Southern Division, the surge in disruptions reflects a strategic shift in Ukraine's drone campaign.

"Moscow is the biggest aviation hub in the Russian Federation  flights go everywhere, not only across Russia, but worldwide," he told the Kyiv Independent.

"This is about the potential disintegration of Russian regions and the weakening of internal control."

Surge in drones targeting Moscow

Three nights of Ukrainian drone raids before Russia's Victory Day on May 9 forced Rosaviatsia to order temporary flight restrictions that disrupted travel plans for at least 60,000 passengers, according to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.

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Just shy of two weeks of calm have been followed by another wave. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 485 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the past three days, from May 20 to May 22, including 63 over Moscow Oblast.

Overnight on May 23 the attacks continued, with Moscow's Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports forced to suspend operations due to six drones that were "flying toward Moscow," the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, claimed.

"Aviation is not a cheap industry, and losses are incurred  by airports, by airlines  and it also has a psychological effect on passengers and cargo clients."

"The priority direction is clear  Moscow and the surrounding regions," Bratchuk said.

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Bratchuk highlights that due to Russia's vast geography, air travel is essential for maintaining connectivity, and disruptions in aviation could increase the risk of regional disintegration and public unrest.

Passengers wait for taxis at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 14, 2023. (Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP via Getty Images)

"These disruptions are not accidental. They are part of a pressure campaign against logistics, air defense systems, and public morale," he said.

"The Russian population has to pay for this war. Sleeping in tents at the airport is not the highest price, but it does affect morale."

Bratchuk also claims there is an economic cost to Russia in having to constantly close its airports.

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"Aviation is not a cheap industry, and losses are incurred by airports, by airlines  but it also has a psychological effect on passengers and cargo clients," he said.

The economic damage

But experts who spoke to the Kyiv Independent said the immediate economic costs for Russia likely remain manageable, suggesting the campaign's primary objective is not to disrupt the economy.

"The economic impact is visible at the level of individual airlines... but the losses are minor," Sergei Aleksashenko, a U.S.-based Russian economist, said.

Fellow economist Andrei Movchan was even more skeptical of the financial impact of the campaign

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"I don't think there are any economic considerations at all," he said.

While the economic fallout may be limited for now, Ukraine's drone campaign is also intended to serve a military purpose beyond financial disruption, Bratchuk said, saying the tactic also forces Russian air defense systems into a constant state of alert.

"Even the smallest aerial target must trigger a full air defense response," Bratchuk said. "That's how the system works  for us, for Russia, and for any country."

Russian President Vladimir Putin at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, Russia, on Aug. 1, 2024, in this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik. (Kirill Zykov / Pool / AFP via Getty Images)

Russia's layered defense network is already under visible strain from Ukraine's now years-long campaign targeting Russian oil production in an attempt to deprive the Kremlin of money to fund its full-scale invasion, as well as military targets like ammunition dumps.

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Targeting Moscow and the surrounding oblast with increasing numbers of drones could spread Russias air defenses even thinner.

With Russia's air defense units forced to react to every aerial threat, Kyiv appears to be testing the limits of the Kremlin's ability to protect its own territory  a tactic that could lay the groundwork for future strikes with greater precision and deeper penetration.

"Maybe this is one element that would enable our combat drones to strike more effectively at military targets," Bratchuk said. "As for military targets, strikes will continue to hit military-industrial sites in Russia.

That's the only strategy. But the priorities now are somewhat different," Bratchuk concluded.

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Read also: We dont want this anymore  Lavrov confirms Russia has no interest in Ukraine ceasefire

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Read also: Editorial: Russia just said it doesnt want peace. This is what you need to do

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has stated that he held a phone call on Thursday 22 May with Anita Anand, the newly appointed Canadas foreign minister.

Source: Sybiha on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda

Details: Sybiha said the conversation with his Canadian counterpart focused primarily on "diplomatic efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace for Ukraine".

Quote: "We discussed the need for additional pressure and sanctions against Russia, which continues to reject a ceasefire and stall the peace process."

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More details: Sybiha also listed possible measures to increase pressure on Russia  from restrictions on its energy sector to the imposition of additional sanctions on Russias banking system, including the central bank.

In addition, the minister invited Anand to visit Ukraine "at a convenient time".

Background:

Anita Anand was appointed Canadas foreign minister in Prime Minister Mark Carneys government on 13 May. She previously headed the Ministry of Defence.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held his first meeting with Canadas new Prime Minister Carney in Rome, Italy.

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Ukrainian defense manufacturers have issued a public letter to President Volodymyr Zelensky, urging him to lift export restrictions on domestically produced military-grade equipment, particularly drones, to help the sector grow and integrate better into Europe's security architecture.

The open letter, signed by leading representatives of Ukraine's defense-industrial sector, highlights the strategic potential of the country's homegrown military technologies, from drones to electronic warfare systems, and calls for decisive political action to authorize the controlled export of surplus weaponry to allied nations.

"It is time to demonstrate that Ukraine is capable of being not only a party that receives international support, but also a full-fledged partner that exports security through cooperation, technology, and its own experience," the letter reads.

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Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine's defense sector  and its drone industry in particular  has exploded. More than 200 drone companies have emerged, many producing cheap, adaptable systems that have reshaped modern warfare. Industry leaders have previously said many smaller firms are burning through capital with no lifeline in sight.

Under the current laws, drones and other dual-use military goods require a permit from the State Export Service. But drone producers earlier told the Kyiv Independent that those waivers are nearly impossible to obtain  even for companies the government cannot afford to contract. The system, they say, blocks access to global markets just as foreign demand is surging.

"As Europe grapples with transatlantic uncertainty and armed conflicts escalate worldwide, our strategic partners are actively seeking to strengthen their defense capabilities through innovative and affordable technological solutions," the letter reads.

"And here, Ukraine holds a unique advantage. Our defense industry  evolving under constant battlefield conditions  is already producing the technologies the world is looking for."

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Kateryna Mykhalko, executive director of Tech Force in UA, told the Kyiv Independent in May 2024 that Ukraine manufactures a lot of drones, but "not all of them can be used in the army."

"Export is one way to ensure that companies do not go bankrupt, develop their R&D, and perhaps in the future the military will need their products," she said.

Ukraine's defense industry was capable of producing up to $20 billion in equipment in 2024, but the government could fund only half, then-Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin Minister said in May of last year.

Read also: Ukraines drone companies face death, migration, or global acquisition amid defense spending squeeze

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The Varta 2 specialised armoured vehicle has passed all required tests, completed the certification process and is approved for supply to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Source: Ukrainian Armor, Ukraine's largest private arms manufacturer

Details: The companys Chief Executive, Vladyslav Belbas, stated that Ukrainian Armor is ready to launch mass production of the Varta 2. He highlighted the significant demand for vehicles of this class on the front line.

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"Since the prototypes unveiling, we have received numerous requests from the military regarding the Varta 2, indicating a strong need for armoured vehicles of this class at the front.

In addition to speed and mobility, essential in modern warfare, the Varta 2 offers a high level of protection. Its payload capacity allows integration of the Sich combat module, providing unprecedented firepower for its class, enabling infantry support and the destruction of enemy armoured vehicles," Belbas noted.

He added that the company has certified various modifications of the Varta 2, including those equipped with a turret and the Sich combat module.

Background

Ukrainian Armor presented the Varta 2 armoured wheeled combat vehicle at the MSPO 2024 International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce (Poland). Developed in just six months, the vehicle features a modern fire suppression system and enhanced mine protection.

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Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman. (Photo by Emily Condon/Capital News Service)

Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman, a longtime player on the state political scene, announced Wednesday night that he plans to resign effective June 13.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) intends to nominate Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) to replace Ulman when the state Democratic Central Committee next meets at its regularly scheduled meeting late next month  shortly after the state party holds its annual fundraising gala June 12 in Baltimore County.

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The partys first vice chair, Charlene Dukes, does not intend to seek the top job but will remain in her current post.

Ulman, a former Howard County executive, has told top Democrats that he wants to return full time to his development consulting company, Margrave Strategies, which is involved in several high-profile economic development projects across the state. He has served as state party chair since November 2023

Ulman announced his intention to resign in a Zoom call Wednesday evening with county chairs, before sharing it during a meeting with the state partys trustees  an advisory group of top donors.

I am grateful to Ken for his willingness to lead us through an intense and demanding election, Moore said in a statement.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D). (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

If Pittman is elected state chair  and he is unlikely to be the only candidate for the position next month  he too would split his time between his full-time gig as county executive and the state party post. Moore called Pittman the right leader for this moment.

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Pittman is termed out of office in December 2026 and has been pondering his next political move. Heading the state party would enable him to stay in the political arena  though he has also been mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed veteran U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) whenever Hoyer decides to end his 60-year political career.

With an all-out assault on our state and our values underway from Washington, D.C., I know Steuart Pittman will put his experience and his moral clarity to work to defend our state, fight back against the Trump administration, and ensure Democrats win elections, Moores statement said

Ulman and Pittman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

The state party in the 2026 election cycle will be preoccupied with reelecting Moore  who could face a tough race, especially if former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) runs again  and other statewide elected officials, who should be on firmer political ground.

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Party leaders are also determined to field a strong challenger against the states lone Republican member of Congress, Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st); Jake Day, the secretary at Marylands Department of Housing and Community Development, is actively exploring a bid.

Ulmans looming departure from the Maryland Democratic Party ends a short-lived reentry into the state political fray. Ulman, 51, was considered a rising political star after four years on the Howard County Council and eight years as county executive. He was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014, losing in an upset to a Republican ticket headed by Hogan

Ulman launched his development firm shortly after that election and, before becoming state chair, worked on the fringes of politics, using his contacts to firm up development projects.

As state chair, Ulman helped now-U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D) win her first term in 2024, kept the Democrats 7-1 advantage in the states congressional delegation, helped defeat several conservative school board candidates throughout the state, and raised more than $5.5 million for the state party.

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Pittman was a political novice when he ran for Anne Arundel executive in 2018, when better-known Democrats chose to skip the race. He ousted Republican incumbent Steve Schuh in an upset.

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A former community organizer in Chicago, where he met a young Barack Obama, and in Des Moines, Iowa, he has proven to be an unconventional politician but has also been an effective messenger on policy and big-picture political matters.

The state party is having its annual gala on June 12 at Martins West, a catering hall that regularly hosts political events. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who, like Moore, is a potential presidential candidate in 2028, is the featured speaker.

Hoyers annual bull roast is scheduled for the next night in Mitchellville. Attendees may be looking for clues as to whether the congressman, who turns 86 the next day, will decide to seek a 23rd full term in 2026.
NAIROBI, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) on Thursday warned that refugees in Kenya face heightened hunger risks as critical funding shortfalls force the agency to reduce food aid to its lowest levels.

The WFP said it urgently requires 44 million U.S. dollars to provide full rations and restore cash assistance for 720,000 refugees through August. Without additional funds, in-kind food rations will be cut to just 28 percent of daily needs in June, and all cash assistance will be suspended.

WFP's Deputy Country Director in Kenya Bai Mankay Sankoh said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that the agency's operations supporting refugees in Kenya are under immense strain.

"Less support will force refugees to make heartbreaking choices -- parting with essential belongings, withdrawing children from school, or even a return to home countries despite the dangers," Sankoh said. "Food assistance is a vital safety net, and we remain committed to doing all we can to support refugees who are trying to rebuild their lives in safety."

The number of refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya has surged by more than 70 percent over the past five years, rising from around 500,000 to 843,000, as conflict and climate shocks continue to drive displacement from neighboring countries such as Somalia and South Sudan, the WFP said.

The UN agency said it had previously adjusted rations in line with funding constraints, with the latest reduction in February providing only 40 percent of the recommended 2,100 kcal per person per day. 
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield testified before a federal court in New York on Wednesday, arguing against President Trumps tariffs.

Twelve states, including Oregon, are suing the Trump administration, saying the president is overstepping his authority and harming Americans in the process.

Trumps tariffs wreak havoc in Washington, Gov. Ferguson says in new court filing

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This is one of the nearly two dozen lawsuits against the administration that Rayfield is part of.

Rayfield claims the president is misusing a law called The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which is meant to address unusual and extraordinary economic threats.

Rayfield filed a preliminary injunction, asking the court to bar federal agencies from imposing the global tariffs.

A Yale University analysis estimates the tariffs could cost the average US household an extra $3,800 per year as retailers raise prices in response.

If Trump had imposed the Tea Act, hed call it strategic beverage policy. But it still wouldve sparked a revolution. Executive power run wild is un-American  then, and now, Rayfield said. Then, it was Parliament. Now, its the President. Unchecked power. Same problem, different harbor.

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The US Justice Department says the lawsuit should be dismissed, because the states have not proven actual harm.

Trump has imposed 10% across-the-board tariffs on all imports, and higher tariffs on China. Theres currently a 90-day pause on all retaliatory tariffs.

We think the court understands the stakes, not just for Oregon, but for every state affected by these overreaching tariffs. Were optimistic the court will recognize that the President cannot tax the American people without their representatives in Congress having a say, Rayfield said.

The court is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks.

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SEIU Wisconsin and UnityPoint Health-Meriter hospital will meet May 29 to resume contract talks covering 950 nurses. But the hospital management and the union have given conflicting accounts about plans for earlier negotiations. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

SEIU Wisconsin and Meriter hospital management confirmed Wednesday plans to meet on Thursday, May 29 to resume negotiation on a new contract covering about 950 nurses.

Talks ended Monday without an agreement, and the union said it would go forward on Tuesday, May 27, with a five-day strike.

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On Wednesday, however, the two parties gave contradictory accounts of the conclusion of their talks and the prospect of further negotiations before the walkout begins.

In Meriters initial statement on Tuesday after the strike was announced, the hospital reported that a bargaining session was scheduled for Monday, May 26.

In a statement Wednesday, however, the union bargaining committee said they had never scheduled talks for that day.

UnityPoint Health-Meriter issued an updated statement Wednesday asserting that SEIU Wisconsin notified Meriter on Tuesday that they are no longer available to meet on May 26 and are now offering May 29 as their first available date to resume negotiations.

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The management statement quoted Meriters vice president of human resources Shana Wuebben: SEIU Wisconsin has declined the bargaining session previously set for Monday, May 26 and has rescheduled bargaining sessions to Thursday, May 29 near the end of the 5-day strike period, Wuebben said.

The bargaining committee flatly disputed the characterization that the Monday date had been agreed to.

There was no agreement between the parties to meet on Monday May 26, the committees statement said.

In the hospitals statement, Wuebben said, Meriter is listening. We have made great strides in our proposals and tentative agreements to date. And we are ready to continue bargaining.

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The union, however, charged that management  not the union  was responsible for ending the talks Monday.

At our last bargaining session on Monday May 19, the union bargaining committee offered to stay as late as needed to reach an agreement, the bargaining committee statement said.

The union was clear that management needed to make movement on our core priorities  priorities we have been crystal clear about since Day 1  in order to avoid a strike, the committee said. Instead of engaging in discussions about our priority issues, management chose to end the bargaining session.

Wuebben reiterated that Meriters management negotiators are ready to return to the bargaining table at any time.

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The union statement said bargaining team members are also ready to return to the table, but said they would need to see evidence that management was willing to move on their issues relating to staffing ratios, stronger hospital security and compensation.

The union bargaining team has consistently made themselves available to meet with Meriter management, and we will continue to do so, the union statement said. If Meriter management would commit to make meaningful movement on our priority issues before the strike, we would consider scheduling a meeting with them before Tuesday May 27.

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A United Airlines flight headed to Los Angeles from Hawaii was diverted Tuesday after a "potential security concern" was found in the plane bathroom, according to the airline.

United Airlines 1169 departed from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu around 9:40 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. But about an hour and a half after taking off, the plane turned back to the Honolulu airport, according to flight tracking data from FlightAware.

Police searched the Boeing 777 plane, which had about 339 passengers and 10 crewmembers, after the aircraft landed, according to an airline spokesperson. The representative declined to say what, if anything, was discovered on the plane.

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The Federal Aviation Administration didn't respond to a request for comment.

A traveler told Hawaii News Now that they waited about four hours on the tarmac after the plane returned to Hawaii while law enforcement and dogs screened each passenger.

"Later I found out through the airport security manager that someone had written on the bathroom mirror that there was a bomb on the plane, passenger Kouhei Massey told the outlet.

A United Airlines spokesperson told The Times that the airline is "rebooking customers on another flight to Los Angeles that departs later this evening."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
May 21NEW GLOUCESTER  Once a small college struggling with declining enrollment, Unity Environmental University is bringing in astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson as its commencement speaker to help graduate its largest-ever class this Friday.

The president of Unity Environmental University, formerly Unity College, says the school has evolved in response to the challenges of higher education and its 10,000-person student body is now mostly online.

"Our purpose at Unity is to offer quality environmental science and sustainability-based degrees, for everything from traditional students to working adults, so they can make an impact where they are," President Melik Peter Khoury said in an interview Wednesday at the school's new campus at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester. "But anything else is basically a construct."

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Unity is now the second-largest university in the state based on enrollment, behind only the flagship public University of Maine with 12,000 students as of this fall. On Friday, more than 1,000 students will graduate with bachelor's and master's degrees in environmental fields; about 200 are expected to walk in-person at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, joined by more than 1,000 guests.

Tyson, the famed astrophysicist and science communicator, is just the latest in a line of notable commencement speakers: Khoury said primatologist Jane Goodall and the zookeeper TV star Steve Irwin have both given the address in the past.

"With this invitation from Unity Environmental University, I am reminded that some institutions of higher learning have taken the shepherding of our precious Earth seriously enough to embed it into everything they preach and everything they teach," Tyson said in an announcement from the university.

TRANCENDING TRADITION

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More than a decade ago, Khoury said, Unity's board of trustees took a look at the college's problem of declining enrollment, which was below 600 students in 2012. Their conclusion was that environmental science degrees were in demand, but often too expensive or exclusive for most of the students interested in them.

"I was brought in to try to figure out, how do we transform the institution to really become a little bit more accessible," Khoury said. "So our mission transcends tradition."

The school began experimenting in 2016 with institutional changes, like adding hybrid programs and graduate degrees. Then, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Khoury said, the university made the decision to close its residential undergraduate college in 2020.

The school relocated administrative operations to Pineland Farms, where it offers in-person classes to about 200 students, and put its 225-acre campus in Unity up for sale in 2023. The institution changed its name that same year.

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Now, the vast majority of students, 800 graduate students and 9,200 undergrads, complete their degrees online. Rather than studying in semesters, the academic year is divided into eight terms, which Khoury said helps with retention and graduation rates, because students don't fall far behind when they need to take time off.

Angelica De Hoyos and Javier Montanez, a married couple from southern New Jersey, are both graduating with a master's of professional science in environmental geographic information science on Friday.

De Hoyos is a surveyor with the Army Corp of Engineers, and Montanez is a supervisor at the Atlantic City International Airport who got his bachelor's degree at Unity. They also have two kids, a 10-year-old and 6-year-old. When they decided to go to grad school, they said Unity's flexible and remote programs made sense.

"With two full time jobs, barely having time to actually spend with the kids in the afternoon and evening, we decided that distance learning was the best fit for us," De Hoyos said.

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Montanez is hoping the degree will open the door to new professional opportunities that allow him to use his passion for the environment, and De Hoyos said she was motivated by her constant desire to learn and her industry's move toward using more GIS technology.

She also wanted to show her kids that at any point in life, they can chase a new goal. When they drive eight hours to Maine to walk across the stage at Merrill Auditorium Friday, it will be their second time ever visiting the state.

NON-TRADITIONAL CHANGES

Khoury said Unity's transition hasn't been without difficulty and has involved trial and error. Many alumni and former faculty criticized the decision to eliminate the traditional campus.

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But while small residential environmental colleges like Green Mountain College in Vermont and Northland College in Wisconsin have shuttered in recent years, he said Unity has a graduating class this year that's larger than the school's entire population was when he first started in 2016.

He believes American higher education is still stuck on a vision of college as an experience that involves four years of full-time commitment and living on campus. But he said that just doesn't match the reality of who wants degrees: often it's adult students with full-time jobs, sometimes with children. The average age of a current Unity student is 29.

"Are we confounding an American coming-of-age experience with the need for for education?" Khoury said. "I think we need to uncouple those two, and we need to look at one for what it is, which is: How do we want to transition our young adults into adulthood? And then we need to look at the other one as: How do we get people educated, no matter where they are in life?"

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BANGKOK (AP)  A retired high-ranking officer in Myanmars military was shot dead by a self-proclaimed urban guerrilla group on Thursday near his home in the countrys biggest city, marking the latest assassination attributed to militants opposed to army rule.

The former army officer, Cho Tun Aung, was shot by a man at around 9 a.m. while he was standing in front of his home in Yangon's Mayangon township, a member of the local administration said.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release information.

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A militant group calling itself the Golden Valley Warriors claimed responsibility for the attack on Cho Tun Aung, who also had previously served as Myanmars ambassador to Cambodia.

The Golden Valley Warriors said in a statement released on their Facebook page that Cho Tun Aung, whose rank it gave as major general, was serving as a lecturer who gave lessons about internal security and counterterrorism, as well as international relations, to military officers at the National Defense College in the capital, Napyitaw.

The group also said that Cho Tun Aung was a member of Myanmars War Veterans Organization, which has been organizing units of army-affiliated militias to help fight against pro-democracy fighters and ethnic minority guerrillas.

The group said that he was targeted because he was giving lessons that contributed to the militarys daily inhumane atrocities in Myanmars civil war. Myanmar was plunged into nationwide armed conflict after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

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Cho Tun Aung is the latest victim of a series of assassinations since the takeover, targeting especially high-ranking active or retired military officers. Senior civil servants and local officials have also been attacked, in addition to business cronies of the military and people believed to be informers or collaborators with the army.

A few months after the army took power, Thein Aung, the chief finance officer of Myanmars military-linked Mytel Telecommunications Co., and a retired major from the army, was fatally shot by three men in front of his home in Yangon, but no clear claims of responsibility were made.

In September 2022, Brig. Gen. Ohn Thwin, who had also served as Myanmars ambassador to Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa, was shot dead at his Yangon home.

Militants have carried out acts of sabotage as well as targeted killings. However, the countryside, rather than major cities, has carried the brunt of destructive fighting.
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday 4-0 to finalize rules barring Chinese labs deemed risks to U.S. national security from testing electronic devices such as smartphones, cameras and computers for use in the United States.

All electronics used in the United States must go through the FCC's equipment authorization process before they can be imported.

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The FCC says about 75% of all electronics are tested in labs located inside China.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington said on Thursday it opposes the United States "over-stretching the concept of national security, using national apparatus and long-arm jurisdiction to bring down Chinese companies. We oppose turning trade and technological issues into political weapons."

The FCC said it had found that many currently recognized labs potentially have deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party, including some connected to Chinese state-owned-enterprises or the Chinese military. These labs have tested thousands of devices bound for the U.S. market over the last several years, the agency added.

"These labs provide a gateway into the U.S. telecommunications infrastructure," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said on Thursday. "It is not hard to imagine that an unreliable lab one beholden to a foreign adversary  could sign off on insecure gear entering the U.S. market."

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The FCC in November 2022 banned approvals of new telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE, as well as telecom and video surveillance equipment from Hytera Communications Corp, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co.

The order bans testing by labs in China subject to control or direction from companies on the FCC's "Covered List" that deems specific communications equipment and services as a threat to U.S. national security. Under the rules, the FCC will withdraw its recognition of labs if it determines they are tied to a prohibited company.

The agency is also seeking comment on a separate proposal to expand the testing prohibition to all labs in China and other foreign adversaries.

In addition, the FCC voted on Thursday to advance a proposal to require entities with significant ties to China or other foreign adversaries to disclose all licenses and authorizations from the FCC.

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In March, the FCC said it is investigating nine Chinese companies, including Huawei, Hikvision China Mobile and China Telecom to determine if they are seeking to evade U.S. restrictions.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Rod Nickel and Sonali Paul)
Two Chinese logistics firms based in New York and California have been barred from using the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) over allegations that they perpetuated a years-long counterfeit postage scheme.

On May 15, the U.S. filed a civil complaint in a Brooklyn federal court alleging that YDH Express, Inc. and YDH Intl Inc., which are based in Queens, N.Y. and Los Angeles, Calif., along with their owner, Yizhao Harvey Hou, conspired and committed mail fraud by shipping thousands of parcels hailing from China using their own fake USPS postage labels.

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Joseph Nocella, Jr., a United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Edward Gallashaw, Acting Inspector in Charge for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), announced Wednesday that a temporary restraining order will bar both firms from utilizing the postal service. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorneys Office, the companies would regularly receive packages from their customers in China and send them to customers through USPS.

The U.S. complaint seeks injunctive relief under the Anti-Fraud Injunction Act, and it also seeks to provide relief to USPS, which suffered financial losses due to the long-running illegal operation. One day after the suit was filed, U.S. District Court Judge Natasha C. Merle served the defendants with a temporary restraining order.

The Postal Service provides essential services to Americans, and we will not tolerate attempts by unscrupulous overseas businesses using fake postage to unlawfully deprive USPS of revenue it is entitled to, Nocella said this week. My Office is working diligently with our partners at the United States Postal Inspection Service to stop this ongoing fraud against the Postal Service.

Nocella said the USPIS and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rooted out the fraudulent activity.

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Gallashaw said that Hou allegedly cared only about making a profit at the expense of the USPS. The government agencies worked together to identify him and unearth the bogus postage operation.

Postal Inspectors will use all of our resources to put an end to the use of counterfeit postage and hold accountable all who seek to defraud the USPS. We will fulfill our mission to strengthen the American publics trust in the U.S. Mail, he added.

The complaint detailed a scam wherein the defendants conspired to shipand did sendthousands of parcels that bore fake USPS labels, which they received from their customers located in China. They are charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud, along with violations of the False Claims Act (FCA), which will allow the government to pursue treble damages and penalties or three times the monetary damage caused by the firms through the scheme.

The temporary restraining order said that there is probable cause to believe that defendants are still engaged in the ongoing commission of mail fraud, and are still engaged in the ongoing conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and that without an order barring the defendants from usting the postal service, USPS would suffer irreparable harm.
By Mike Spector, David Shepardson and Allison Lampert

(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department should take Boeing to trial in a criminal fraud case stemming from two fatal 737 MAX crashes and reject a tentative deal to allow the planemaker to avoid prosecution, a lawyer for some of the victims' families said.

Lawyer Paul Cassell said in a letter to the Justice Department on Thursday seen by Reuters that allowing Boeing to evade a trial or guilty plea would be a miscarriage of justice.

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"In this case any further concessions to Boeing would be utterly inappropriate. This case is the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history, as found by Judge OConnor," Cassell wrote, referring to U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor.

Cassell added that the government's proposal would effectively allow Boeing to become its own probation officer by allowing it to avoid an independent monitor and instead hire its own compliance consultant.

The department outlined the tentative deal Friday and said Saturday victims' families would have until Thursday to file written objections.

The agreement would forestall a June 23 trial the planemaker faces on a fraud charge it misled the Federal Aviation Administration about a crucial flight control system on the 737 MAX, its best-selling jet.

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The agreement would allow Boeing to avoid being branded a convicted felon.

Boeing declined to comment and the Justice Department did not immediately comment.

Boeing agreed in July to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge after the two fatal 737 MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, spanning 2018 and 2019, and to pay a fine of up to $487.2 million.

Cassell noted Thursday that then Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun signed the 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.

"Given Boeings 'confession' to all of the relevant facts of the crime -- signed by its CEO -- the risk of an acquittal at trial is essentially 0%," Cassell wrote.

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The Justice Department told families Friday that Boeing would be asked to pay an additional $444.5 million into a crash victims fund divided evenly per crash victim, lawyers for the families said, on top of $500 million Boeing paid in 2021.

Boeing has faced enhanced scrutiny from the FAA since January 2024, when a new MAX 9 missing four key bolts suffered a mid-air emergency losing a door plug. The FAA has capped production at 38 planes per month.

(Reporting by Mike Spector and David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter and Franklin Paul)
By Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States said on Thursday it would impose sanctions on Sudan after determining that its government used chemical weapons in 2024 during the army's conflict with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, a charge the army denied.

Measures against Sudan will include limits on U.S. exports and U.S. government lines of credit and will take effect around June 6, after Congress was notified on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

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"The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to cease all chemical weapons use and uphold its obligations under the CWC," Bruce said, referring to the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty banning the use of such weapons.

In a statement, Sudan rejected the move, and described the allegations as false.

"This interference, which lacks any moral or legal basis, deprives Washington of what is left of its credibility and closes the door to any influence in Sudan," government spokesperson Khalid al-Eisir said on Friday.

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 from a power struggle between the army and the RSF, unleashing waves of ethnic violence, creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis and plunging several areas into famine. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about 13 million displaced.

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Washington in January imposed sanctions on army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, accusing him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict.

The U.S. has also determined members of the RSF and allied militias committed genocide and imposed sanctions on some of the group's leadership, including RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The New York Times reported in January, citing four senior U.S. officials, that the Sudanese army had used chemical weapons at least twice during the conflict, deploying the weapons in remote areas of the country.

Two officials briefed on the matter said the chemical weapons appeared to use chlorine gas, which can cause lasting damage to human tissue, the New York Times reported at the time.

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Bruce's statement said the U.S. had formally determined on April 24 under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 that the government of Sudan used chemical weapons last year, but did not specify what weapons were used, precisely when or where.

"The United States remains fully committed to hold to account those responsible for contributing to chemical weapons proliferation," Bruce said.

The intention here is to distract from the recent campaign in Congress against the UAE," a Sudanese diplomatic source said.

The source said the U.S. could have gone to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to investigate the claims and neglected to do so.

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Sudan's government is aligned with the army.

It cut diplomatic relations with the UAE this month, saying the Gulf power was aiding the RSF with supplies of advanced weaponry in the devastating conflict that broke out following disagreements over the integration of the two forces.

The UAE has denied the allegations and says it supports humanitarian and peace efforts.

U.S. congressional Democrats sought last Thursday to block arms sales to the United Arab Emirates over its alleged involvement in the war.

Sudan said this week that the United Arab Emirates was responsible for an attack on Port Sudan this month, accusing the Gulf state for the first time of direct military intervention in the war.

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The UAE denied the allegations in a statement and said it condemned the attack.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Daphne Psaledakis and Caitlin Webber; Additional reporting by Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo; Editing by Jasper Ward, Bill Berkrot and Daniel Wallis)
JUBA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations said on Thursday that it has allocated 10 million U.S. dollars to support life-saving humanitarian assistance for over 270,000 people in South Sudan.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the funds from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will target communities in six high-risk counties.

"These areas have been severely affected by overlapping crises, leaving families in critical need of immediate humanitarian support," the OCHA said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

About 7.7 million people are projected to face high levels of acute food insecurity between April and July, according to the OCHA. It said about 63,000 people are expected to experience the most severe level of food insecurity.

"This timely and much-needed CERF funding will contribute toward mitigating acute vulnerabilities and protection risks through coordinated interventions led by United Nations agencies and their partners in South Sudan," said Anita Kiki Gbeho, UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan.

The OCHA said more than 130,000 people have been displaced since the escalation of conflict in Upper Nile State in March, including thousands who have reportedly crossed into Ethiopia.

It said the ongoing rainy season is expected to bring heavy flooding to areas already affected in previous years, noting that that country continues to face its most severe cholera outbreak on record, with 60,530 cases and 1,247 deaths reported nationwide as of May 18.

Gbeho said the CERF funding will help ensure the affected people receive food, cash assistance, seeds, tools, fishing kits, shelter, non-food items, water, sanitation and hygiene supplies, as well as health, nutrition and protection services. 
The U.S. has launched a partnership with Italian authorities in order to renew efforts to recover the remains of American soldiers who went missing during World War II.

In a post on social media, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) said that the new pact reflects values shared between the two nations.

This will formalize & facilitate our efforts to search for & recover Americans missing from WWII throughout Italy & it reflects values shared between our countries, the DPAA said.

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The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Rome on Tuesday by Luigi La Rocca, the head of Italy's Department for Heritage Protection, and Kelly McKeague, the director of DPAA.

"The right to research and remember those dead during the war is now combined with the protection of the archaeological heritage for which the Ministry of Culture is responsible," Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said on Tuesday, CBS reported.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Rome on Tuesday by Luigi La Rocca (left), the head of Italy's Department for Heritage Protection, and Kelly McKeague (right), the director of DPAA (Embassy of the United States of America to Italy)

Giuli said the agreement was a further step in "our decade-long cooperation with the U.S. agency for prisoners of war and missing in action, as a tribute to those who sacrificed their lives to contribute to our freedom."

The recovery of the remains will be facilitated in compliance with archaeological regulations, according to Italys Ministry of Culture.

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Around 72,000 American service members still remain unaccounted for from the war around the world, according to DPAA. Though the exact number that died in Italy is difficult to know, the peninsula was the site of multiple battles from 1943 to 1945, after America entered the fight.

Since efforts were renewed in the 1970s, the remains of nearly 1,000 Americans who died in World War II have been identified.

Earlier this year, the remains of a soldier who went missing in action during an aquatic operation in Italy, were recovered.

U.S. Army Pfc. Robert L. Bryant, 23, was assigned to Company B, in the 4th Ranger Battalion, as part of a group known as Darby's Rangers, according to the DPAA. The battalion was trained by Colonel William Darby, and was active in areas including Italy, northern Africa and the Middle East.
Of all things to lose track of, billion-dollar weapons of mass destruction should be high on the list. At least thats something common sense would have you believe. Despite the level of international security that could be at risk, the lost funds, and the pure insanity of losing something so important, Uncle Sam has done just that. Multiple times over.

Take a look at these stranger-than-fiction instances of lost nuclear missiles and the stories of how they fell off the governments radar. Not once, not twice, but six times, nuclear missiles were misfired or misplaced. In fact, it took so many times, it was given an official name, Broken Arrow, with the first instance dating back to 1950.

The first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945, and just eight years later, the first nuclear bomb went missing. When a B-47 bomber was in a mid-air collision off the coast of Georgia, it had been carrying a 7,600-pound Mark 15 hydrogen thermonuclear bomb. With an explosive yield of 3.8 megatons (thats 190 times more powerful than the Fat Man bomb), it held some serious impact ability.

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The plane survived with minimal damage, though the pilot was worried the Mark 15 would eject on its own. To keep this from happening, the pilot jettisoned the bomb into the water, near Tybee Island.

More than 100 Navy members spent two months looking for the bomb, even using sonar technology to search in the water. However, it was never found. Due to this snafu, the Air Force told the public the plutonium warhead had been removed prior to its drop. However, in 1994, documents from a 1966 Congressional testimony refuted that and said the Mark 15 was still intact with its nuclear capabilities.

In 1965, a Douglas A-4E Skyhawk from the Navy crashed into the Western Pacific with a nuclear bomb in tow. Neither it nor the planes pilot was ever recovered despite extensive searches. The event took place 68 miles from Japan during a training incident. At one time, it was speculated that there were two bombs on the aircraft, while other sources say the plane was absent from ammunition. However, the U.S. came clean in 1989, when the DoD admitted it was a one-megaton H Bomb, causing backlash from Japan when they learned of the fall within their territory.

Another thermonuclear bomb went missing in 1966 when it was dispersed from a military aircraft. Three of the fallen bombs were recovered, while the fourth sunk to the bottom of the sea near Spain. It contained a massive 1.1 megatonne warhead and was viewed by a local fisherman who watched it drop from the sky and into the ocean. Though it too was searched for, military members were not able to recover the bomb.

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Then in 1968, the USS Scorpion, a Navy submarine, imploded with its crew and two Mark 45 torpedoes on board. After the submarine failed to arrive at its intended destination, a search was enacted, locating the submarines wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean. Though the reason for its implosion was not determined, the two nuclear weapons were located, still intact. Scientific data shows that the uranium and plutonium cores were likely corroded and remained within the casings or vessel itself, as the outside sediment showed no signs of the material.

In total, 32 Broken Arrow incidents have been reported. In addition to the lost bombs, accidental detonations or other incidents are included in that number. These are only the ones that have been admitted, which is an interesting fact considering some of the above incidents werent corroborated until decades after the fact.

The ocean losses are somewhat easier to swallow. Though the danger is no less present, there are miles and miles of seafloor to search, with additional factors like currents, changes in depth, and the inability to see whats below.

It serves as a good reminder that we dont always know what Uncle Sam is up to or what its missions may be. Thats why its often unlikely that military spouses know what their member is up to, and why they take any instructions with a grain of salt, knowing it could change at any moment.

Surprisingly, this loss of six nuclear bombs is considered a good track record in comparison with other countries, and the number of nuclear weapons that have been produced by the U.S.
By Alexandra Alper

(Reuters) - A powerful U.S. national security panel on Wednesday submitted a recommendation to President Donald Trump on Nippon Steel's fraught $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, a person familiar with the matter said, without providing further detail on its contents.

The submission complies with an executive order signed by Trump last month, which tasked the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. with outlining whether any measures proposed by the companies assuage the national security risks previously identified by the committee.

Reuters could not learn the content of the committee's recommendation.

Trump will now have 15 days to decide the fate of the transaction, although the timeline could slip.

The companies and the Treasury Department, which leads CFIUS, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Following a previous CFIUS-led review, former President Joe Biden blocked the deal in January on national security grounds.

The companies sued, arguing they did not receive a fair review process. The Biden White House rejected that view.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Nippon Steel has floated plans to invest $14 billion in U.S. Steel's operations including up to $4 billion in a new steel mill if the Trump administration green lights its merger bid, in response to requests from the government for more investment.

The April directive asks for a statement describing the position of each agency that is a member of CFIUS as well as the reasons behind it.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper; editing by Costas Pitas and Sonali Paul)
By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. government scientists forecast an above-normal 2025 hurricane season on Thursday, and said big staffing and budget cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would not hinder its ability to forecast devastating storms and warn the public.

The Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1 and is forecast to produce three to five major hurricanes with sustained winds of at least 111 miles (179 km) per hour, according to the U.S. National Weather Service, which is overseen by NOAA.

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The weather service forecast 13 to 19 named tropical storms with winds of at least 39 mph, of which six to 10 are forecast to become hurricanes with winds of 74 mph or higher.

"Warmer sea surface temperatures are probably the major contributor to this," NWS director Ken Graham said at a news conference.

Between 1991 and 2020, there were an average of 14.4 named tropical storms annually in the Atlantic, including on average 3.2 major hurricanes among 7.2 hurricanes.

Graham, along with officials from NOAA, said recent staff cuts made by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, would not hamper hurricane response.

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Nearly 900 employees, more than 7%, of NOAA's workforce have been cut, leading to protests across the United States.

"We had some folks go, but we're going to make sure that we have everything that we have on the front lines. Every warning's going to go out," Graham said.

Critics of the cuts have raised concerns that the NWS would be unable to launch weather balloons and monitor local conditions ahead of storms that affect regions of the country involved in agriculture and energy production like the Midwest and U.S. Gulf Coast.

Graham said the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami is fully staffed and emphasized that the weather service does not rely on single methods like weather balloons in the upper atmosphere to forecast tropical storms.

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He said the agency also uses data and photographs from satellites, ground observations and hurricane hunter aircraft, which fly through storms to create highly reliable models of their future progress.

"The hurricane hunters are also ready to go, both at NOAA and the Air Force. That information we get from the hurricane hunters is crucial to the hurricane forecast," Graham said, adding that using those aircraft increased the accuracy of storm track and intensity forecasts by 10-20%.

No representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were present at Thursday's briefing. In the past, FEMA has participated in hurricane forecast briefings as a way to assure the public about the federal government's hurricane preparedness.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Deanne Criswell, a FEMA administrator under former President Joe Biden, said participating in the briefings was an important way to show partnership between agencies.

"It gave us an opportunity to talk about our readiness posture," she said.

Academic and private weather forecasters have also issued forecasts for an above-normal hurricane season, which continues through November 30.

Colorado State University meteorologists said in early April the 2025 hurricane season across the Atlantic basin will be above average, with 17 named tropical storms, including nine hurricanes, of which four are predicted to be major.

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In late March, AccuWeather called for between three and five major hurricanes out of seven to 10 hurricanes from 13 to 18 named tropical storms this year.

The 2024 hurricane season was one of the costliest on record. There were five major hurricanes, out of a total of 11 hurricanes from 18 named storms.

The deaths of 427 people were attributed to 2024's storms and losses totaled $130 billion.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Nia Williams)
By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to bar California's landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 that has been adopted by 11 other states representing a third of the U.S. auto market.

The vote sends to President Donald Trump the measure to repeal a waiver granted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Joe Biden in December, allowing California to mandate at least 80% of vehicles be electric vehicles by 2035.

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The vote is a win for General Motors, Toyota and other automakers that heavily lobbied against the rules and a blow to California and environmental groups that say the requirements are essential to ensuring cleaner vehicles and cutting pollution.

California first announced a plan in 2020 to require that by 2035 at least 80% of new cars sold be electric and up to 20% plug-in hybrid models.

"This Senate vote is illegal," California Governor Gavin Newsom said, adding the Senate action would cost California taxpayers an estimated $45 billion in additional health care costs. "Were going to fight this unconstitutional attack on California in court."

Since 1970, California has received more than 100 waivers under the Clean Air Act.

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Senate Republicans rejected the advice of the parliamentarian in moving forward. In March, the Government Accountability Office said the waivers cannot be repealed under the Congressional Review Act, which only requires a majority of the U.S. Senate.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing GM, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Stellantis and others, praised the vote.

"The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable," the group's CEO, John Bozzella, said. "In reality, meeting the mandates would require diverting finite capital from the EV transition to purchase compliance credits from Tesla."

Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen denounced the vote. "While our Republican leaders may try to put the horse back in the barn when it comes to electric vehicles, the world has already shifted under their feet," she said.

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Tesla did not immediately comment. GM praised the vote, saying it would "align emissions standards with todays market realities."

The Senate separately voted Thursday to rescind the EPA's 2023 approval of California's plans to require a rising number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and to bar California's low-NOx, or low-nitrogen oxide, regulation for heavy-duty highway and off-road vehicles and engines.

These are the latest actions in recent months taking aim at electric vehicles.

A separate bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday would end a $7,500 tax credit for new EVs, impose a new $250 annual fee on EVs for road repair costs and repeal vehicle emissions rules designed to prod automakers into building more EVs. It would also phase out EV battery production tax credits in 2028.

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If upheld by the courts, rescinding California's rules will make it easier for automakers to delay or cancel some EV production. Automakers had warned in the coming months they might have been forced to limit gas-powered vehicles in some states.

California's rules require 35% of light-duty vehicles in the 2026 model year to be zero-emission models. Automakers say it is impossible for them to meet that figure given current EV sales, which are 10% or lower in some states adopting the rules. Vermont and Maryland have delayed compliance.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Kalea Hall; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
What would have been the nation's first publicly funded religious charter school will not be allowed to open in Oklahoma.

The U.S. Supreme Court halted efforts to open the school in a 4-4 ruling handed down Thursday, May 22. The tie vote means an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocking St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School from receiving taxpayer money will remain in place.

Oklahoma's top legal official hailed the ruling as a victory in the growing fight to keep church and state separate. Supporters of the school, however, vowed to keep pushing the issue of religion in public schools. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said he believed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who did not take part in Thursday's ruling, would cast a critical swing vote in a similar case in the future.

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"This is far from a settled issue," Stitt said. "We are going to keep fighting for parents rights to instill their values in their children and against religious discrimination."

The nation's highest court did not issue a written decision explaining its ruling and did not disclose how justices voted. The case was closely watched around the nation because of the potential that it would allow taxpayer money to start flowing to religiously-run schools.

Lawyer Mike McKinley, of Dechert LLP representing St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, speaks with Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt in front of the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of oral arguments in St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond and Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board v. Drummond in Washington, D.C. on April 30.

St. Isidore would have been operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa. While charter schools, by law, are public schools, St. Isidores supporters had argued the opposite  that charter schools should be viewed as a private entity and not as a state actor.

In a statement, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley and Tulsa Bishop David Konderla expressed disappointment in the ruling and that it was "without explanation." They said they would explore other options for offering a virtual Catholic education.

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"We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma," they said. "And we stand committed to parental choice in education, providing equal opportunity to all who seek options when deciding what is best for their children."

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who oversaw the state's case against the school, called the decision "a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding."

This ruling ensures that Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children," said Drummond, a Republican who is running for governor in 2026.

The decision came less than a month after the case was argued before the Supreme Court, with both sides casting themselves as defenders of religious liberty. The April 30 hearing lasted more than two hours. While Barrett didn't say why she was not taking part in the case, she is close friends with a Notre Dame Law School professor who was an early legal adviser to the Catholic Church in Oklahoma.

How did each Supreme Court justice vote? Oral arguments may provide a clue

It's common in a 4-4 case for U.S. Supreme Court justices to issue a one-line ruling, as they did Thursday, and to not disclose how each justice voted, said Sarah Konsky, the director of the Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. But clues can be found from the oral arguments in the case, she said, and in previous opinions written by the justices on similar issues.

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During the oral arguments, she said, the court's three liberal justices  Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor  appeared to support the Oklahoma Supreme Court's ruling.

"The oral argument was an active one," Konsky said. "Reading the tea leaves, from the questions alone, (Clarence) Thomas and (Samuel) Alito and probably (Neil) Gorsuch and (Brett) Kavanaugh were leaning toward reversal (of the state ruling). Chief Justice (John) Roberts was harder to read in the arguments. He asked tough and thoughtful questions on both sides of the case. That would support the theory (he) was the fourth vote."

Konsky said she thought the issues raised in the St. Isidore case "could make their way back up to the Supreme Court in quick order."

Demonstrators rallied outside the Supreme Court on April 30 as justices heard oral arguments in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, a case that could have opened the door to the nation's first charter school. The Supreme Court issued a split ruling that upholds a state court decision to block the school from opening.

The case stemmed from a state board's October 2023 decision to approve St. Isidore. After the vote, Drummond sued, claiming such an agreement was unconstitutional. He personally argued the case during an Oklahoma Supreme Court hearing in April 2024.

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That court ruled in June 2024 the state boards contract with St. Isidore must be rescinded, saying it violated both state and federal law and was unconstitutional. Both St. Isidore and the Statewide Charter School Board appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which accepted, and combined, the cases into one.

Rebecca Wilkinson, the executive director of the Statewide Charter School Board, said Thursday that the board respected the court's split decision, adding that it affirmed the case was "a complicated matter with a wide spectrum of views on the appropriate relationship between education, public funding, and religious institutions in our state and country."

"The Statewide Charter School Board remains committed to upholding our constitutional responsibilities and the highest standards of transparency and excellence," Wilkinson said. "We will move forward in that vein, ensuring our policies and practices reflect both the rule of law and commitment to all students."

Republican state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters is a member of the Statewide Charter School Board by nature of his elected position, though he rarely attends the board's meetings. He is a vocal proponent for infusing Christian teachings into public schools and issued a mandate directing schools to teach from the Bible. He decried the Supreme Court ruling.

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Allowing the exclusion of religious schools from our charter school program in the name of 19th century religious bigotry is wrong, Walters said. As state superintendent, I will always stand with parents and families in opposition to religious discrimination and fight until all children in Oklahoma are free to choose the school that serves them best, religious or otherwise.

Rachel Laser, the president and chief executive officer of Americans United for Separation of Church and State  a group that represented Oklahoma taxpayers in another legal case against St. Isidore, filed in Oklahoma County District Court  said the decision upholds the separation of church and state.

"St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which planned to discriminate against students, families and staff and indoctrinate students into one religion, cannot operate as a public charter school," Laser said. "A religious public school would be an abject violation of religious freedom."

The Oklahoma County lawsuit, filed by the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee, had been put on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the other St. Isidore case. The committee's chairwoman said members of the group were thrilled with the court's decision.

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Today, were celebrating a huge victory for students, taxpayers, religious people and democracy," said the committee's chairwoman, Misty Bradley.

House Assistant Democratic Leader Melissa Provenzano, of Tulsa, echoed Drummond's sentiment, saying she was glad constitutional principles had prevailed.

"Today, we are reassured that religious teaching, no matter the denomination or belief, remains in the rightful hands of parents and guardians, and not on the shoulders of Oklahoma taxpayers, Provenzano said.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Supreme Court blocks Oklahoma religious charter school in tie vote
The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on an Oklahoma case over a religious charter school. The tied vote allows the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling against the school to stand. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)

This story first appeared on Oklahoma Voice.

OKLAHOMA CITY  A deadlocked U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an Oklahoma ruling that struck down the nations first religious charter school.

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The Court announced Thursday it voted 4-4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused. It did not disclose how each justice voted, nor did it issue written opinions.

The tied vote affirmed last years Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that the concept of a publicly funded Catholic charter school is unconstitutional.

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa sought to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to offer a government-funded online education to students in all parts of the state. St. Isidore would have taught Catholic doctrine and operated according to church teachings.

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board voted in 2023 to approve opening the school. Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, calling the school unconstitutional and a threat to religious liberty.

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Both the school and the statewide board appealed the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up the case and heard oral arguments April 30.

Attorneys representing St. Isidore and the statewide board contend charter schools are not truly public schools but rather private entities contracting with the state, who therefore should be free to adopt a religion. Excluding faith-based groups from charter school funding is religious discrimination, they said.

In light of the courts decision, St. Isidores Board of Directors said it will continue exploring other options to deliver a virtual Catholic education for all in Oklahoma.

Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the board stated. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Courts decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.

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During oral arguments in Washington, D.C., the Court appeared to be divided on the case. Liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson made their doubts clear on St. Isidore while some of the conservative majority, particularly Justice Brett Kavanaugh, signaled support.

Drummond has long contended the Catholic charter school would create a slippery slope toward taxpayers having to fund schools of any religious faith, including belief systems Oklahomans might find objectionable.

The Supreme Courts decision represents a resounding victory for religious liberty and for the foundational principles that have guided our nation since its founding, Drummond said in a statement Thursday.

The Statewide Charter School Board, which dropped the word virtual from its name in the year since it appealed the case, issued a statement pledging its commitment to all students and the rule of law.

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The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board respects the Courts authority and appreciates its willingness to hear complex and deeply significant legal questions, the boards statement reads. The split decision of the court affirms this was indeed a complicated matter with a wide spectrum of views on the appropriate relationship between education, public funding, and religious institutions in our state and country.

While the attorney general led the legal fight against the school, other Republican leaders in the state, including Gov. Kevin Stitt, advocated for giving religious groups access to charter school funds.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court building April 30 in Washington, D.C., after listening to oral arguments over a Catholic charter school seeking to open in his state. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)

Stitt said the matter is far from a settled issue.

This 4-4 tie is a non-decision, Stitt said in a statement Thursday. Now were in overtime. There will be another case just like this one and Justice Barrett will break the tie.

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Barrett is a former faculty member of the University of Notre Dame Law School, which aided Catholic officials case for the school. She did not participate in the decision to consider the Oklahoma appeal nor did she hear oral arguments.

The courts deadlock could impact a separate lawsuit challenging St. Isidore in Oklahoma County District Court. That case has been on hold while the Supreme Court appeal was ongoing.

A coalition of Oklahoma parents, faith leaders and education advocates filed the lawsuit in 2023 while represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other national legal organizations.

They contend St. Isidore would discriminate against LGBTQ+ students and employees, fail to adequately serve children with disabilities and unlawfully teach religious indoctrination.

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Oklahoma City Archdiocese officials said students of all backgrounds and beliefs would have been welcome at St. Isidore. The school promised in its charter contract that it would abide by nondiscrimination laws and other state regulations to the extent that Catholic doctrine permitted.

Americans United is discussing next steps for the Oklahoma County case with the plaintiffs and co-counsel, spokesperson Liz Hayes said.

A religious charter school would be an abject violation of religious freedom, said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United.

The Supreme Courts stalemate safeguards public education and upholds the separation of church and state, Laser said. Charter schools are public schools that must be secular and serve all students.

Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization.

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PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP)  The civil war in Myanmar, maritime disputes in the South China Sea and U.S. tariff hikes will top the agenda of a two-day Southeast Asian summit next week, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said.

The meeting in Malaysia, the current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on Monday will be followed by a summit on Tuesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The GCC already has strong links with the U.S. and wants to be close to China too, Anwar said. We want to have that synergy to enhance trade investments, more effective collaboration, Anwar said in a media briefing late Wednesday.

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ASEAN countries, many which rely on exports to the U.S., have been hit by U.S. tariffs ranging from 10% to 49%. U.S. President Donald Trump last month announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs, prompting countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam to swiftly begin trade negotiations with Washington.

Anwar said the U.S. has promised to review Malaysia's case sympathetically. He said ASEAN is also working together to see how it can negotiate with the U.S. as a bloc. At the same time, he said that ASEAN must build its economic resilience by deepening links with other partners such as China, India and the European Union.

Anwar said the U.S.-China rivalry would not split the bloc as the region continues to engage both superpowers. He also downplayed territorial disputes between ASEAN members and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety, and Myanmar's conflict since the 2021 military takeover.

Anwar met last month with Myanmar military chief Gen. Ming Aung Hlaing in Bangkok and held virtual talks with the opposition National Unity Government. Even though the talks were focused on humanitarian aid following a devastating earthquake in March that killed more than 3,700 people, Anwar said he hopes they could eventually push a peace process forward.

Min Aung Hlaing has been barred from attending ASEAN meetings after the military refused to comply with ASEANs peace plan, which includes delivery of humanitarian aid and negotiations. Opponents and critics of the military government say aid is not freely allowed into areas not under the armys control, and accuse the army of violating its self-declared ceasefire with dozens of airstrikes.
KHARTOUM, May 22 (Xinhua) - The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced on Thursday the discovery of mass graves containing the remains of 465 individuals in the Al-Salha area, south of Omdurman city, just two days after declaring Khartoum State cleared of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) presence.

"During recent clearing operations in southern Omdurman, the armed forces uncovered mass graves and also found civilians and retired members of the regular forces who had been detained by the militia and held inside a school in the Salha area, where they were used as human shields under inhumane conditions," the SAF said in a statement on its Facebook page.

"A total of 648 civilians had been detained, of whom 465 died as a result of neglect, including the lack of food, medical care, and essential medicine. The deceased were buried in mass graves, some containing more than 27 bodies," the statement added.

Meanwhile, the SAF also shared videos on its Facebook page showing detainees held inside a school in Al-Salha, along with footage of mass graves found on the school grounds.

A doctor, who was among the detainees, stated, "The total number of detainees was approximately 648, and a significant number of them died due to a lack of food, medicine, and the spread of diseases such as cholera."

On May 20, the Sudanese army announced the full liberation of Khartoum State after regaining control of the last remaining RSF strongholds in the western and southern parts of Omdurman.

In late March, the RSF stated that it had repositioned its forces to the southern and western areas of Omdurman, particularly in the Al-Salha and the villages of Al-Jamoiya, following its withdrawal from most areas of Khartoum State.

Al-Salha and the surrounding villages of Al-Jamoiya later became the scene of intense clashes between the Sudanese army and RSF forces. Volunteers and human rights activists have accused the RSF of committing serious violations against civilians in southwestern Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city.

Sudan has been engulfed in a brutal conflict between the SAF and the RSF since April 2023. The war has killed tens of thousands and forced millions to flee their homes, both within Sudan and across its borders. 
HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT)  The University of Southern Indiana has selected a new Vice President for Student Affairs.

School officials announced Dr. Abeer Mustafa will take over on June 23.

Officials state Mustafa will provide intellectual and administrative leadership, guiding the Universitys Student Affairs services and programs plus university-wide initiatives.

She has most recently served as Senior Advisor to the Chancellor at the University of Tennessee Southern with officials praising her over two decades of experience advancing student success, enrollment management and strategic planning. Past roles listed include Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga and Executive Director at California State University, Chico.

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I am deeply honored to be chosen to join USI and become part of this vibrant community committed to academic excellence and student engagement, Mustafa said. My vision is to develop the divisions organizational priorities to drive toward the measurable outcomes that propagate institutional effectiveness and the central goal of student success. My goal is to collaborate across campus to remove barriers, strengthen engagement, and ensure every student has the resources, encouragement and opportunities needed to succeed both inside and outside the classroom.

Dr. Mustafa brings a wealth of knowledge to the University and will serve us well as Vice President for Student Affairs, said USI President Steve Bridges. Her extensive background in student affairs, combined with her genuine passion for supporting students and fostering divergent ideas, aligns perfectly with USIs mission and values. Im confident her leadership will make a lasting, positive impact on our students and the entire campus community.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4)  A Farmington man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly threatening the mayor of Salt Lake City over pride-themed changes to the citys flags to circumvent a recent ban on certain flags on government property.

Jason Guy Rogers, 44, was arrested on one count of electronic communication harassment, a class B misdemeanor; and one count of stalking, a class A misdemeanor. He is accused of threatening Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall on social media and physically showing up at her place of work.

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On May 6, the Salt Lake City Council voted unanimously to approve new designs for the city flag to help everyone feel they belong. According to arrest documents, Rogers posted on social media several times on May 9  a few days after the flags were approved by the council  and made comments in reference to the proposal.

PREVIOUSLY  SLC council unanimously pass Pride, Juneteenth themed city flags ahead of state flag ban

While Mayor Mendenhall was not named as the victim in the affidavit of probable cause, documents say the suspect reportedly commented on the victims elected official page, with one comment saying the following: When you see a mendenhall. End there life immediately.

Another comment reportedly read, When you see her and her family end them immediately. Utah will rise up, documents said. ABC4.com reached out to the mayors office to learn more about the situation, and received the following statement:

The mayors office is monitoring the situation and appreciates the swift and professional investigation by the Salt Lake City and Farmington police departments. Out of respect for the investigative and judicial processes, we are unable to release any additional information at this time. Andrew Wittenberg, spokesperson for Mayor Mendenhalls office

The Salt Lake City Police Department was notified of the comments and determined that the account belonged to Rogers, who lives in Farmington. The investigation was then turned over to Farmington police.

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The arresting officer made contact with Rogers on May 20 and questioned him about his comments on social media. The suspect allegedly admitted to making comments about the changing flags but denied making any comments that would indicate he threatened anybody, documents said.

He told me he believed his account must have been hacked when those specific comments were made, the officer wrote in the affidavit.

After speaking with officers on May 20, Rogers allegedly posted more comments on social media and said, Time for action. About an hour after making that comment, documents say Rogers had shown up at the victims place of work.

Security personnel observed [Rogers] pull his truck into the parking lot and then approach the building on foot, documents said. [He] then walks around the building with his phone out.

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Documents say Rogers attempted to enter the building through some side doors that were locked. He was reportedly about to enter the building through the front but then made eye contact with security personnel, who were aware of his comments and were on the look out.

After making eye contact with security, Rogers then drove away from the building.

Officials said he made death threats to the victim and showed actions and behavior to back up his threats. Rogers was booked into the Davis County Jail on the aforementioned charges.

Background

The Salt Lake City Council approved the new designs on May 6  one day before H.B. 77, called Flag Display Amendments, went into effect. The bill prohibits certain flags from being displayed in schools and on government property.

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The bills sponsor previously said on social media that the bill would ban Pride flags [] from schools. Other political flags are also not allowed, but country, state, city, and military flags are among the approved designs.

In response, the Salt Lake City Council proposed and unanimously approved new designs for the city flag to accurately reflect the values of the City and its residents. The flags will be flown alongside the Utah and United States flags, and the citys original flag design is still in effect.

In all three flags, the sego lily in the upper corner of these designs is the Citys most recognized emblem, clearly identifying that each flag is representative of Salt Lake City specifically, Mendenhalls office said on May 6.

An image showing the Sego Lily flag for Salt Lake City (top left) and three new designs that were unanimously approved by the city council on May 6, 2025. (Courtesy: Office of Mayor Erin Mendenhall)

The new designs are called the Sego Celebration Flag to represent the history of Juneteenth, the Sego Belonging Flag to represent the citys LGBTQIA+ residents, and the Sego Visibility Flag to represent transgender people.

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While the state has restricted which flags public buildings can fly, Im glad we can still uphold our communitys values within the law, Salt Lake City Council Chair Chris Wharton previously said.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN)  A man from Utah was seriously injured earlier this week after jumping 90 feet from the top of Abiqua Falls near Scotts Mills, according to authorities.

The Marion County Sheriffs Office says dispatchers received two text-to-911 messages asking for help for an injured person who had jumped from the top of the falls just after 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Silverton Fire crews were the first to arrive on the scene, where they immediately requested extra support from other agencies, including the sheriffs search and rescue team and the Salem Fire Rope Team, according to the sheriffs office.

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Colbert reacts to Portland Bangers mascot  and can we blame him?

The person who had jumped, identified only as a 22-year-old man from Utah, had been seriously injured in a very remote area.

Officials say the man was eventually extracted from the steep and heavily wooded area, and was eventually taken to a LifeFlight helicopter via an ATV and then airlifted to a local trauma center.

The mans condition is currently unclear. No other details were immediately available.

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KOIN Morning Digest

This incident serves as an important reminder to exercise caution in wilderness areas: always have a plan, know your limits, and avoid taking unnecessary risks, officials with MCSO said in a post on Facebook.

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The hike to Abiqua Falls is considered moderately challenging, according to OregonHikers.org.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com.
MURRAY, Utah (ABC4)  Linda Peterson was 29 years old  and five-and-a-half months pregnant  when she went missing from Utah in 1978. Police are still looking for answers.

The Murray Police Department posted on social media Tuesday, asking the public for additional information. Linda was last seen on Sept. 16, 1978, and was a nurse at the University of Utah. She lived in Murray and went to church, according to the post.

Remains of Utah woman found a mile away from where her original remains were discovered last year

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Murray PD is asking the public to share any memory or information you may have and said that even the smallest detail could help find Linda. Police posted photos of the missing woman, along with a series of questions and statements phrased as if Linda were saying them.

Ive been missing for 47 years and Murray Police are trying to bring me home, but they need your help, the post reads.

Who is Linda Peterson?

An undated photo of Linda Peterson, 29, who has been missing from Murray, Utah, since 1978. (Courtesy: Murray Police Department)

An undated photo of Linda Peterson, 29, who has been missing from Murray, Utah, since 1978. (Courtesy: Murray Police Department)

An undated photo of Linda Peterson, 29, who has been missing from Murray, Utah, since 1978. (Courtesy: Murray Police Department)

An undated photo of Linda Peterson, 29, who has been missing from Murray, Utah, since 1978. (Courtesy: Murray Police Department)

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An undated photo of Linda Peterson, 29, who has been missing from Murray, Utah, since 1978. (Courtesy: Murray Police Department)

According to the Utah Department of Public Safety, Linda was first reported missing by her husband, William Peterson, who told police that his wife had left home with friends in a station wagon.

William said Linda was heading to Kentucky to meet with some other friends, but he became worried when he didnt hear from Linda, according to the DPS.

Linda is described as being 58 tall, weighing 130 pounds, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), she was last seen wearing an orange maternity top and blue jeans.

According to NamUs, Linda reportedly stopped by her husbands place of work to tell him she was heading to Kentucky. She would now be 76 years old.

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Linda has no known direct family members, the DPS said.

Anyone with information or memories has been asked to call 801-264-2673 or email Detective Gruendell at kgruendell@murray.utah.gov.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.
The May 19 shootings that killed two University of Wisconsin-Platteville students put campus gun policies back in the spotlight about a decade after lawmakers considered a bill loosening restrictions.

Wilgus Hall assistant resident director Kelsie Martin, 22, of Beloit, was pronounced dead at UW Hospital, with a preliminary autopsy showing she died from a gunshot wound, the university said. Hallie Helms, also 22, of Baraboo, lived in Wilgus Hall and died a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the dorm.

UW-Platteville Chancellor Tammy Evetovich said the shooting was a "targeted and isolated" incident. The university police department is leading the investigation into the apparent murder-suicide. Officials have declined to release additional details, including potential motive and the type of gun used.

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Here's what to know about guns on Wisconsin college campuses:

Wisconsin is a concealed carry state, though guns generally aren't allowed on UW campuses

Wisconsin became the 49th state to legalize the concealed carry of firearms and other weapons in 2011. The law, however, allows the states public universities to ban guns by posting signs at the entrance of each campus building saying firearms are prohibited.

The current UW System administrative code reads, a person is prohibited from carrying, possessing, or using any dangerous weapon on university lands or in university buildings or facilities except with the written approval of the chief administrative officer or for law enforcement purposes."

UW-Platteville has not granted any exceptions, university spokesperson Christine Bellport said.

Are guns allowed anywhere at UW-Platteville?

The UW-Platteville Police Department offers students secure storage of sporting and hunting goods, including rifles, shotguns, handguns, bows, paintball guns or other legal weapons.

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Bellport said 23 students used the secure storage in the spring 2025 semester. Neither Martin nor Helms were among the 23 students.

The university policy also allows guns in vehicles that are driven or parked in a parking facility in connection with a special event.

Was the gun involved in the UW-Platteville shooting registered?

No, there is no gun registry in Wisconsin. Concealed carry gun holders must have licenses, but these records are not considered public.

State lawmakers introduced bills regarding concealed-carry weapons on UW campuses

A decade ago, shortly after a gunman killed nine people at an Oregon community college, debate surged around whether concealed-carry weapons should be allowed on UW campuses.

Republican lawmakers introduced a bill in 2015 that would have allowed UW students and faculty to carry concealed guns inside public university and college buildings. The bill's author, then-Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, said it was not in response to the Oregon shooting and had been in the works for months in response to rising violence near the UW-Milwaukee campus, which UWM officials disputed.

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Kremer said the law banning concealed weapons inside campus buildings puts students at greater risk of becoming crime victims because they walk unarmed to and from class in the early morning or late evening, "often through high-crime areas."

The UW-Madison Police Department opposed the bill, saying that allowing guns in a Camp Randall Stadium filled with 80,000 fans would pose a major security issue.

Kremer's bill died in committee. In the same legislative session, a Democratic lawmaker introduced a bill that was essentially the mirror opposite of the GOP version. It also died without a hearing.

Kelly Meyerhofer covers higher education in Wisconsin. Contact her at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com or 414-223-5168. Follow her on X (Twitter) at @KellyMeyerhofer.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Platteville shooting puts gun policies back in the spotlight
VERMILION COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA)  Population is dropping for most of Central Illinois, and one county hit the hardest is giving insights into why.

Between 2020 and 2024  Shelby, Christian, Macon, and Sangamon counties saw losses ranging from 1% to upwards of 3%.

Danville Police looking for missing 14-year-old girl

Vermilion County has lost about 4.2% of their population over that time frame. Its the biggest drop among countys in Central Illinois.

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Of course its not a good trend and it is alarming. said Mike Marron, CEO of Vermilion Advantage.

Its trends that you see frequently across rural America, and particularly in rural Illinois, and its a trend that we need to work to reverse, Marron added.

Census data showed a four year drop from 2020 to 2024. Among those in the red: Sangamon County dropping about 1%, Shelby and Christian County down around 2%, and Macon County losing 3%. But the largest drop of the bunch came from Vermilion County, which lost 4.2% of its population during the four year span.

When people move out, theres fewer taxpayers, so thats the first challenge, Marron said. But then, the availability of workforce is a challenge that we face. We have some good employers that really struggle to get well-qualified people.

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Georgetown father mourns daughter, victim of apparent murder-suicide

Ed Butler is a Danville alderman.

We have so many people they came in here from other cities and they come and go, Butler said.

He said thats because of a lack of things keeping people in areas like Danville.

Nothing here in Danville, and so we as a city are trying to get the powers to bring more things here in Danville so that we can get the people back here in Danville, Butler added,

Marron said planning initiatives currently underway are the key to the future and reversing this trend. This includes blight demolition programs throughout the county and the investments in downtown Danville.

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We really need to create that environment thats going to attract people to come to our community because it is a wonderful community, Marron said. But we do have some work to do to make it more attractive.

Of the counties listed, one that saw an increase was Champaign. The city saw growth of about 2.9% during the same time frame.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com.
MINEVILLE  Approximately 60 Veterans, family members and friends gathered around Keith Meros front yard to witness the raising of a flag pole and stars and stripes to honor the Veterans service during and after his enlistment, May 17.

According to Meros bio submitted for North Country Honor Flight in 2022, he served in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 1992 in the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations.

With the 2nd Combat Army Regiment, Keith realized if trouble started this group would be the first to respond, the bio read. When they were not in the field, they increased their training to be fully prepared. Keith was assigned to the Prisoner of War Team working with Military Personnel and Interrogators. As the first in battle, the Team policed all foot soldiers near the tanks. In constant contact with the commander, their mission was to capture the enemy. Some enemy soldiers laid down their weapons and those who continued to fight lost their lives. The Team processed 2,000 enemies with a sad casualty loss of one Team member.

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This is dedicated to your service to see that all of those who served under you returned home, Ceremony emcee Danny Kaifetz said.

The flagpole was then erected and Mero had the honor of raising the first flag.

Mero responded to the honor being bestowed to him by saying, I love you all, every one of you. Thank you.

Keiths youngest son, John, spoke lovingly and with great respect for his father.

I remember the places we traveled and the things we saw, John said.

Keith persuaded his sons not to follow in his footsteps.

I realized it was not all good, and you wanted to spare me the sacrifices, John said.

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John related the many things his father did for the community such as drive Veterans to the VA for services and initiating the Hometown Heroes banner program for Moriah.

Mero had also been a member of the Veterans of the North Motorcycle Association. On one occasion when the group was called upon to show support for a Veteran, he indicated he was not feeling too well, but went anyway. Two days later he had open heart surgery.

Keiths dedication towards others was reinforced by former Moriah Town Supervisor Tom Scozzafava. Keith came to my office and told me they planned on having 50 to 75 banners for Hometown Heroes. All we had to do was put up the brackets and hang them. Well, we have about 400; the most of any town in Essex County.

At the conclusion, Mero received commendations from Essex County and Adjacent General of NY State Major General Raymond F. Shields. This included the Medal of Merit, a state-level military award presented for exceptionally meritorious service or for heroism by military personnel or Veterans.

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In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson gave, in part, the following speech which was recited at the ceremony for Mero. We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. and yet, though silent, it speaks to us. speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it.

The American Heroes Flagpole Association, founded by Danny Kaifetz, himself a U.S. Marine Veteran, is based in Owls Head, NY. They award hand-crafted 25 foot Northern red oak flagpoles to combat wounded, combat disabled and combat decorated Veterans throughout the Northeast at no cost.

On his website Kaifetz said, These donations and the accompanying ceremonies, the honor so long overlooked for so many who sacrificed greatly for our freedom, have led to the most rewarding moments of my career.

According to Kaifetz, I am now finally in a position to refocus the purpose of my work and my goals in life. With a small group of outstanding officers and other veterans we have created the American Heroes Foundation with one purpose only, to honor great American heroes for their service and sacrifice.

For those interested in submitting the name of a deserving Veteran, donating, or to order a flagpole go to: info@AmericanHeroesFlagpoles.com.
NAIROBI, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Thursday called for more inclusive and context-sensitive financing of the agriculture system in Africa to boost food production amid climate change effects.

Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya's prime cabinet secretary and cabinet secretary for foreign and diaspora affairs, said the current financing architecture remains misaligned with the vast potential of the agriculture sector.

"We must shift from reactive, transactional approaches to bold, transformational ones that unlock land, labor, and local knowledge as part of a unified strategy for sustainable growth," Mudavadi said at the Financing Agri-Food Systems Sustainably summit in Kenya's capital Nairobi.

He observed that Africa should explore green bonds for climate-smart agriculture, diaspora bonds for rural infrastructure, Islamic finance for faith-aligned investments, and blockchain-enabled traceability to improve creditworthiness.

Mudavadi called for coordination among ministries, development partners, and private sector actors to align resources with national and regional priorities.

The Kenyan official asked the continent to support the African Continental Free Trade Area, adding that it is a strategic lever that provides a framework to harmonize standards, facilitate cross-border finance, and unlock regional agricultural corridors.

According to Mudavadi, Kenya is not simply treating agriculture as a sector but as a platform for shared prosperity.

The country is "de-risking rural finance through credit guarantee schemes, scaling e-voucher systems to reach remote farmers, and co-investing in value-addition hubs across maize, dairy, horticulture, and fisheries," he added. 
Seattle police have arrested a man who stabbed another in the University District Wednesday afternoon.

SPD officers responded to an apartment in the U-District just after 4 p.m. When they arrived, an 18-year-old man reportedly came downstairs with a stab wound to the neck.

According to SPD, what occurred remains in dispute by the parties involved. Witness told police that a 32-year-old man stabbed the 18-year-old victim in the back of his neck, in an acquaintances apartment.

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Officers were able to get the name and description of the suspect, and the victim was taken to Harborview Medical Center via AMR in stable condition.

SPD began searching for the suspect, and over an hour later, a University of Washington Police Department unit spotted the suspect and kept him in sight while SPD units responded, taking the suspect into custody.

The suspect was booked into King County Jail for investigation of assault. The SPD Homicide and Assault Unit will determine what led up to the stabbing.
May 21The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee completed a takeover of the Community Library Network Tuesday when its preferred candidate won a fifth seat on the board of trustees.

Victoria Bauman beat Michelle Lippert with 57% of the vote.

The seat was open after Trustee Tony Ambrosetti, who was appointed to fill a vacancy late last year, declined to run for a full term. Although Ambrosetti had conservative views aligned with the board majority, he was not officially endorsed by the KCRCC because he wasn't elected.

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Now, all five members of the board that oversees six libraries in Kootenai County outside of Coeur d'Alene, as well as Pinehurst Library in Shoshone County, were endorsed by the KCRCC's influential "rating and vetting" process. The result is an inverse of voters' recent backlash sweep against KCRCC candidates for the North Idaho College board in November.

Library trustees are nonpartisan positions. Terms last six years.

Bauman ran in support of the library board's recent actions restricting access to materials it considers "harmful to minors" under Idaho's Children's School and Library Protection Act that passed in 2024. Library staff plan to open a room storing a "mature content collection" for adult access only at the Post Falls Library.

Lippert, a former longtime Post Falls school board trustee, was endorsed by the Library Alliance of North Idaho. She ran on concerns about board overreach interfering with parents' rights.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
The United States and Vietnam have concluded a second round of trade negotiations according to Vietnams trade ministry, which noted significant progress being made in talks scheduled from May 19-22 in Washington.

In a statement on Thursday, the trade body said that both sides engaged in substantive discussions on all agenda items outlined ahead of the session. Vietnam faces one of the highest tariff impositions announced by president Trumps administration in April, at 46 percent.

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Nguyen Hong Dien, minister of industry and trade in Vietnam met with Ambassador and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to review the outcomes of the second round and identify key issues. According to a statement from the ministry on Thursday, discussions will continue at the end of June.

The 90-day pause on the proposed 46-percent tariffs ends on July 8.

Hong Dien spoke about the intent to foster a balanced and sustainable economic and trade relationship with the U.S., for the benefit of both countries peoples and businesses, while Ambassador Greer praised Vietnams goodwill and efforts to address US concerns and expressed a desire to continue technical-level and ministerial-level exchanges to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

According to the office of the U.S. Trade representative, the trade deficit of Vietnam with the U.S. was $123.5 billion in 2024, with the U.S. importing goods worth $136.6 billion in 2024, as against exporting goods worth $13.1 billion to Vietnam.

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Meanwhile, the industry in Vietnam has been gathering at several forums over the past few weeks to get a handle on what the 46 percent tariff levied against Vietnam could mean for the industry. Vietnam exported apparel worth $44 billion in 2024, with an approximate 38 percent of this to the U.S, an increase of 12.33 percent over the previous year according to the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS).

At a forum organized by Cascale in Ho Chi Minh City on May 14-15, Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile & Apparel Association (VITAS) mirrored the feeling that appeared to be reverberating through the 600 industry professionals present. None of us can go alonecollaboration is the only way. When brands, manufacturers, organizations and governments come together and share responsibility, any goal can be achieved, he said in his keynote address.

The point was amplified through the event.

The Cascale Forum in Ho Chi Minh City reminds us that while policy can shift and stall, manufacturers have a great opportunity to lead. Our ongoing mandate is to ensure that this progress isnt slowed by uncertaintybut accelerated through collaboration, Andrew Martin, executive vice president, Cascale, said in a session.

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Cascale, a global nonprofit alliance formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, empowers collaboration to drive equitable and restorative business practices in the consumer goods industry, and owns and develops the Higg Index, which is available on Worldly, a comprehensive sustainability data and insights platform.

Sharing their thoughts, and in urgent discussions that often skirted around the looming tariffs were manufacturers, leading brands, service providers, and supply chain partners. Other important issues including decarbonization, regulatory changes, facility improvements, responsible contracting and worker rights were also discussed.

Vietnamese manufacturers attending the event told Sourcing Journal about their fears that global brands would pressure them to shoulder the costs of tariff impacts, while underlining the need to protect workers as the apparel industry in Vietnam employs more than three million people. Discussions about how this situation should be handled were also ongoing. As Lindsay Wright, director of communications and strategic partnerships, Better Buying, Cascale observed: Manufacturers are clear: Global brands should not use tariffs as an excuse to roll back on their responsible business commitments. If they do, the consumer goods industry will have to pick up the pieces later.

Massimiliano Tropeano, garment, trade and sustainability expert at GIZ-EuroCham Cambodia, noted that while tariffs focused on reshaping physical trade flows, the real story is much more complex.

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The complexity of a topic like tariff trade cannot be simplified, however, the base number on which the trade imbalance have been calculated are intrinsically wrong. Take the iPhone. Designed in California, yesbut manufactured in China. This shows up as Chinas export numbers, not Americas. And its not just hardware. Software giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet sell digital products and services globallybut often book the revenue through offshore entities in low-tax jurisdictions like Ireland or the Netherlands.The kicker to all of this is that ironically the above is adding to the very trade imbalance that U.S. tariffs aimed to correct.

As we move forward in a world of digital globalization, maybe its time to rethink how we measure economic power, national competitiveness, and fair trade, he said.

Important points to note for manufacturers included the focus on managing regulations as well as sustainability and environmental concerns.

In the Asia-Pacific region, regulation is fast becoming strategy, Cascales Martin emphasized. We are increasingly seeing many countries stepping up with more progressive policies. To support this, Cascale advocates for clear, consistent guidance that manufacturers can actually use. Were actively engaging across all three regions to push for global and regional frameworks that are practical, aligned, and grounded in manufacturers realities.

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Our shared mission is driving positive impact across the largest engaged supply chain network in the industry, said Adele Stafford, chief growth officer at Worldly at the event. She spoke about the growing momentum on the platform: Over 20,000 Higg Facility Environmental Modules (FEMs) have already been completed in 2025, with each supplier sharing data with an average of four brands, improving efficiency.

While economists are calling for increased self reliance, manufacturers are also looking at ways to speed past the possible deadline on July 8. The HCM City Association of Garments, Textiles, Embroidery and Knitting has called for ramping up production to increase shipments before the tariff increases kick in.

Theres only so much we can do to sidestep this huge tariff, a manufacturer said, asking not to be named. Meanwhile, were just counting on negotiations turning this new avalanche around.
HANOI (Reuters) -The United States and Vietnam have concluded a second round of trade negotiations on tariffs and agreed to continue the talks to address unresolved issues, Vietnam's trade ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

The second round of talks took place in Washington on May 19-22 involving Vietnam's Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien and the U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the Vietnamese ministry said on its website showing pictures of meetings.

"At the end of the negotiation round, Vietnam and the United States made positive progress, identifying groups of issues on which consensus was close, and groups of issues that needed further discussion to reach consensus in the coming time," the statement said, without elaborating.

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It noted that talks will need to continue in early June.

The U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment outside of U.S. business hours.

Vietnam heavily relies on exports to the United States and faces one of the highest "reciprocal" tariff rates set by the White House at 46%.

Those duties have been paused globally by Washington until July.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Martin Petty and Sonali Paul)
Little is known about Indiana's protocols for using pentobarbital, a drug used by Department of Correction officials to carry out two recent state executions. (Getty Images)

Questions remain about Benjamin Ritchies early Tuesday execution after his attorneys reported seeing sudden, unexpected movement during the lethal injection process.

But no members of the media were permitted to witness the execution, meaning there was no independent observation or account of what happened.

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Defense attorney Steve Schutte, who viewed the execution, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle immediately after that he saw Ritchie lift his head and shoulders violently from the gurney shortly after the process began. Two others in Ritchies witness room gave similar descriptions.

Dr. Jonathan Groner, emeritus clinical professor of surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine (Photo courtesy Nationwide Childrens Hospital)

Dr. Jonathan Groner, an emeritus clinical professor of surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine who has written extensively on the death penalty, said thats not what is supposed to happen when the execution drug, pentobarbital, is used to induce death.

Clearly, this was botched, Groner told the Capital Chronicle, based on the limited accounts provided by Ritchies counsel. It should be really, really effective  really fast. No one should move  Its just lights out, go to sleep, no reaction, no coughing, no nothing. They just dont move.

Indianas Department of Correction (DOC) released few details about the execution.

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When asked whether the pentobarbital used in Ritchies case worked properly, DOC spokesperson Annie Goeller told the Capital Chronicle that what Ritchies lawyers described is not an accurate description of the circumstances, and she maintained that the execution was completed according to protocol.

Capital Chronicle Senior Reporter Casey Smith attended Joseph Corcorans execution in December and did not observe any sudden movements by the inmate while blinds for a one-way window into the execution chamber were open.

Corcoran, strapped to a gurney, initially appeared awake with his eyes blinking. After a brief movement of his left hand and fingers several minutes later, he did not move again.

There is no standard definition of what constitutes a botched execution.

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The Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. that tracks state and federal executions, points to a 2014 book published by Amherst College professor Austin Sarat, which classifies botched executions as those in which there is a breakdown in, or departure from, the protocol for a particular method of execution.

It should be really, really effective  really fast. No one should move  Its just lights out, go to sleep, no reaction, no coughing, no nothing. They just dont move.

 Dr. Jonathan Groner, an emeritus clinical professor of surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine

Sarat adds that botched executions are those involving unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner.

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The absence of news media, however, means the public must depend on the conflicting reports from Ritchies lawyers and state officials to determine what, if anything, went wrong during the execution. No other witnesses have spoken publicly about what they saw.

Killing people is horrific, and it is the most extreme form of state power, said Gerry Lanosga, professor of journalism at Indiana University and board member for the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. But the only way we would know whether something goes wrong would be to have independent witnesses there who observe and can ensure that the process is carried out appropriately.

A botched execution?

Tuesday mornings death sentence was carried out nearly 25 years after Ritchie shot and killed Beech Grove law enforcement officer William Toney. The condemned man had been on death row since his conviction in 2002.

Capital punishments were put on hold for 15 years in Indiana until state officials announced last year that theyd acquired pentobarbital to resume executions. The one-drug method is a departure from the states protocol used since 1995, involving a series of three chemicals.

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Ritchie was Indianas second execution in six months.

Capital Chronicle reporting revealed the state paid $900,000 for execution drugs, but officials wont say how much was purchased or if any remains after the two executions. Officials also have refused to provide information on expiration dates, storage or other details.

Lethal injection requires execution workers to administer drugs intravenously to the prisoner to stop their heart. It has become the most commonly used execution method across the country  but its also the method with the most recorded botches, or mistakes.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, previously told the Capital Chronicle that many of the documented botched executions in recent years have occurred because the drugs being used had expired, were contaminated, or they were administered incorrectly.

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The Death Penalty Information Center describes at least two botched executions that have occurred in Indiana.

In October 1985, it took 17 minutes to execute William Vandiver. Still breathing after the first application of 2,300 volts, four more bursts of electricity were fired into him before he was pronounced dead, according to media reports from that time. The Indiana Department of Correction admitted the execution did not go according to plan.

Tommie Smith, who died by lethal injection in July 1996, also had a prolonged execution, according to the DPIC. Because of unusually small veins, it took more than an hour after the execution team began sticking needles into his body for Smith to be pronounced dead. After multiple attempts, the lethal drugs were finally injected into Smith 49 minutes after the process began. It took another 20 minutes before he was pronounced dead.

Experts and researchers generally review official documents and witness reports to confirm execution details, like whether there was evidence that a prisoner made visible or audible expressions of pain; if the inmate was still conscious after a drug was administered; or whether execution workers struggled to find a prisoners veins.

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Schutte said Ritchies sudden, violent body movement occurred a few minutes after the witness room blinds opened. He could not hear Ritchie when it happened, nor could he see if Ritchies eyes were opened or closed. Schutte also was unable to see the reactions, if any, of anyone present in the execution chamber with Ritchie.

Indiana State Prison Warden Ron Neal said during court proceedings last week that DOCs extensive planning and training requires DOC staff to practice the process at least once each week ahead of a scheduled execution.

An intravenous line is inserted into a live (volunteer) every time a training is held, Neal said, and the condemned inmate undergoes a medical evaluation and weekly assessments of their veins for IV access.

Witnesses did not have visibility into the execution chamber when Ritchies IVs were placed. DOC officials did not indicate if any issues arose during insertion.

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Groner described pentobarbital as a potent drug that, when properly administered, should quickly render a person unconscious without any movement.

Pentobarbital is a fast-acting barbiturate approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for specific medical uses in humans and animals. Its commonly used as a short-term sedative to treat insomnia, as a pre-anesthetic before surgery, and as an emergency treatment for severe seizure conditions. The FDA has also approved the drug for use in animal euthanasia.

It is not approved for use in executions or for causing death in humans; such use is considered off-label.

Groner highlighted two potential issues that could have occurred during Ritchies execution: the quality of the drugs, and the placement of intravenous lines.

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The doctor raised concerns about the unknown age and storage conditions of the pentobarbital obtained by DOC. Its also unclear how many doses of the drug were administered.

He additionally noted that improperly placed IVs could cause pain and delay the drugs effectiveness.

If the drug gets under the skin instead of in the vein, it can definitely burn, Groner said.

He stressed that a thorough autopsy could provide crucial insights into what, if anything, went wrong during the execution.

Indiana does not require an autopsy to be performed after an execution, though. Lawyers said they were unsure if Ritchies family would pay to have one done.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently withdrew its own one-drug execution protocol because of what former Attorney General Merrick Garland called significant uncertainty about whether executions using pentobarbital caused unnecessary pain and suffering.

Garlands decision followed a multi-year review and report by the DOJ into the federal execution protocol. The report details some of the ways that using pentobarbital in an execution can cause unnecessary pain and suffering, including the risk of flash pulmonary edema  a condition in which fluid floods the lungs  and extreme pain at the injection site.

No guaranteed public access

The Capital Chronicle confirmed Ritchie had four witnesses present at the execution, which included two of his attorneys, Schutte and Mark Koselke, as well as a litigation specialist. The fourth individual, a woman, was not identified. The fifth witness spot was left unfilled.

The Capital Chronicle made numerous requests to be placed on Ritchies personal witness list but was denied.

A federal judge on Friday rejected a request by the Capital Chronicle and four other news outlets to pause a state law and DOC policy barring independent media witnesses.

Gerry Lanosga, professor of journalism at Indiana University and board member for the Indiana Coalition for Open Government (Photo courtesy Indiana Universitys Media School)

News reporters are granted access to a designated area outside of the Indiana State Prison but are not permitted to directly witness the states actions  unless invited by the condemned to fill one of the five spots.

Lanosga stressed that media presence at executions is critical for public accountability and warned against relying solely on accounts from officials or those who side with either the victim or the condemned.

I want a proxy there to tell me what happened, he said. Those official accounts are a poor substitute. I dont want the regime telling me what happened. I dont think we want, as citizens, a private system of justice. We want justice to be publicly carried out, and this is important for citizens, on behalf of citizens, to have witnesses there.

He said there are innumerable instances in both contemporary and historic times in which official accounts about government acts small and large were later determined to be either vague, missing information, exaggerated, somehow distorted.

Lanosga maintained, too, that limited media access to executions is part of a larger, troubling trend of decreased public access to government actions.

Citizens are being asked to just accept things that are being done with little access to witnessing how those things are being done, he said.

Although executions are gruesome and many people might prefer not to know details, Lanosga said the public interest should supersede individual discomfort. Journalists, he emphasized, ought to be present on behalf of the public.

Its really important that journalists are present to bear witness to this exercise of power, he continued. I think the state wants us to look away from the idea of the death penalty. And maybe to a certain extent, people want to look away and not witness the death penalty being enacted, but I think its incumbent upon citizens, if they endorse this action  perhaps especially if they endorse this action by a state government  to acknowledge that it takes place, and to look at it.

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KANSAS CITY, Kan.  A military family from Wyandotte County says theyre experiencing grief they never could have imagined.

U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Gonzalez died last weekend at a family function in California. Hed served five years at Fort Leavenworth as a medic. While military leaders at the Leavenworth County base plan his funeral services, the Department of Homeland Security wont admit Sgt. Gonzalezs father into the U.S. from Mexico to attend the funeral.

Man living in Kansas City sentenced after illegally re-entering US

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Four members of the Gonzalez family, who hail from Wyandotte County, served in the U.S. military. The family says their father, Carlos Gonzalez, wont be permitted access to the United States due to the White Houses current restrictions on immigration.

Carlos Gonzalez left the U.S. 13 years ago to relocate to Durango, Mexico, according to his children.

Im trying to be patient, Manuel Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

Manuel Gonzalez and his sister, Julieta Ojeda, are two of Carlos Gonzalezs five children. Gonzalez said he reached out to U.S. Congressman Derek Schmidt, who represents Leavenworth County.

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The family was told they could apply for a non-immigrant visa, or they could visit the U.S.-Mexico border to show military credentials and request an exception. However, nothing could be guaranteed.

All I can say is, have empathy. Imagine if you lost a brother or son who leaves behind a wife, Gonzalez said.

Theres an honest-to-God tragedy here to be settled, and its most important right now to get him here, Ojeda said.

The Gonzalez children mentioned that since their father left for Mexico, he once attempted to illegally cross the border after being denied a VISA. The Department of Homeland Security wont answer questions about cases like this.

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Organizers, FIFA looking for volunteers ahead of Kansas City World Cup

A spokesperson for Rep. Schmidts office sent a statement, indicating their staff was working with the family, but it didnt mention what could be next.

Were only asking for an exception, especially in cases like ours, similar to ours, where the government touts America first, and Americans first and service members first, and now, were being told no. Absolutely not, Ojeda said.

Leaders at Fort Leavenworth told the Gonzalez family they intend to hold this funeral on base, but as for their father, theyre required to cooperate with immigration laws. Manuel Gonzalez says hes going to the Mexico border outside El Paso, Texas on a Wednesday evening flight, in an attempt to plead his fathers case.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports.
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT)- Visit Dubois County releases its first-ever Spanish version of its visitors guide for 2025.

Organization cancels festival over fears of immigration enforcement

Officials with the organization say the publication represents a significant step toward inclusivity and accessibility in local tourism and community engagement. Visit Dubois County worked alongside the Association of Latin Americans in Southern Indiana (ALASI) to translate the original English edition of the guide into Spanish.

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Free copies of the guide are available at the Dubois County Visitors Center in Jasper as well as the ALASI office in Huntingburg. A digital version of the guide can also be found on the Visit Dubois County website.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW).
(U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo.)  Volunteers are invited to join Air Force Academy staff in placing more than 1,600 American flags on veteran graves at the Academy Cemetery on Friday, May 23 ahead of Memorial Day.

According to the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA), flags are placed annually to honor the service and sacrifice of veterans on Memorial Day. The Air Force Academy maintains the only active cemetery in the Air Force, with one medal of honor recipient buried there.

Volunteers are not required to RSVP, and there are no uniform requirements for veterans. Flags will be provided by Academy staff.

Volunteers place American flags on veteran graves at the U.S. Air Force Academy cemetery (2024) Courtesy: FOX21 News Volunteers place American flags on veteran graves at the U.S. Air Force Academy cemetery (2024) Courtesy: FOX21 News Volunteers place American flags on veteran graves at the U.S. Air Force Academy cemetery (2024) Courtesy: FOX21 News Volunteers place American flags on veteran graves at the U.S. Air Force Academy cemetery (2024) Courtesy: FOX21 News Volunteers place American flags on veteran graves at the U.S. Air Force Academy cemetery (2024) Courtesy: FOX21 News

In the event of inclement weather, there will not be an alternate date and Academy staff will place flags as soon as conditions permit.

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If you do not have a DoD ID card, you will need to register for base access. You can do so by scanning the QR code below.

USAFA Cemetery Access QR code

Volunteers are asked to arrive before 9:45 a.m. and meet at the Memorial Wall. The cemetery is located at 3026 Parade Loop Road, U.S. Air Force Academy, CO, 80840.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD)  The community came together at Grand Rapids Veterans Home Cemetery Wednesday afternoon to honor those who served our country.

The annual event brought out dozens of volunteers, veterans and scouts to plant over 5,000 flags next to gravesites of veterans buried at the cemetery. Its located on Monroe Avenue NE, next to Michigan Veteran Homes.

James Redford, the events keynote speaker and a Navy veteran, told News 8 that he still gets emotional every year he attends the event.

Scouts of America and other volunteers place flags on gravesites at Grand Rapids Veterans Home Cemetery. (May 21, 2025)

Its very emotional, its heartwarming, he said. These are inspiring heroes of a republic who rest here and we get to honor them tonight, its a privilege.

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Police officers killed in the line of duty remembered at Grand Rapids service

For Barry Graham, it was a similar feeling. Graham is an Air Force veteran and came to the event with his grandson, who is a Boy Scout. He told News 8 he was proud to see the large turnout.

Its very good to see this event with so many people on a rainy day to plant flags in honor of those who, most of them died for their country so that we could still be here and as free as we can get, he said.

Among the volunteers were Scouts of America, and the attendees spanned generations.

As leaders in scouting, we pass that knowledge down to our scouts from our littlest kindergarten Lion Scout all the way up to our Eagle Scouts and beyond. We want them to know what our veterans did for us, said Kim Korff, district chair for the Eagle Spirit District of Scouting America.

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Shawn Lowing with Troupe 345 of Scouting America told News 8 that citizenship and service are a part of the scouting cores. He said he is happy to see the younger generations learning the importance of honoring veterans.

It warms my heart seeing them grow up to be good citizens, he said.

The cemetery has about 5,400 gravesites and spans over 12 acres. Through Memorial Day, the flags will lay next to each gravestone to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

I ask that the lord gives me the strength and courage that these women and men that served our country did, Redford said. I hope when my day comes, I get to live here too.

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The event concluded with a final salute and a performance of taps.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com.
NEWPORT, R.I. (WPRI)  Operation Stand Down Rhode Island had to move quickly to prepare its annual Boots on the Ground for Heroes Memorial at Fort Adams State Park Wednesday ahead of schedule.

OSDRI Executive Director Erik Wallin told 12 News Thursdays impending storm threw a wrench into their usual preparation timeline.

This looks like a real doozy of a storm, he said. We got as many volunteers as we could out.

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WEATHER ALERT: Heavy rain, strong wind expected Thursday

Wallin said more than 200 volunteers have worked tirelessly over the last couple of days to set up the memorial, which pays tribute to more than 7,000 servicemembers who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The display is nearly complete, according to Wallin, with volunteers planning to put on the final touches before it opens to the public.

The memorial consists of thousands of pairs of combat boots line up in a large grid. Each one is adorned with an American flag and the name of a servicemember killed in action during the post-9/11 Global War on Terror.

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Wallin explained that volunteers have been tying each of the boots down to the ground to prevent them from blowing over in the wind.

Were here at Fort Adams, which is right on the coast, Wallin said. A ton of wind comes in here from all different directions at every time of the day.

Hopefully this will weather the storm thats coming, he continued, referring to the memorial.

Wallin said not setting up the display simply wasnt an option.

Weve had situations where it has rained so much that, when we go to pick up these boots, we were dumping water out of them, Wallin said. We had the National Guard at one point put them all in their armory to try and dry them out.

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You just never know what weather youre going to get in New England on Memorial Day weekend, he added.

Wallin said volunteers will monitor the memorial throughout the storm Thursday to ensure that it stays in place.

The display will be open to the public starting Friday at 9 a.m. It will be available for viewing from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Sunday, and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Memorial Day itself.

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Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono (R) and Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh attend a joint press statement in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 21, 2025. TO GO WITH "Indonesia strengthens trade ties with Mongolia " (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

JAKARTA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and Mongolia have agreed to strengthen their trade ties during a bilateral meeting attended by Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono and his Mongolian counterpart Battsetseg Batmunkh at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in Central Jakarta.

According to Sugiono, trade growth between Indonesia and Mongolia increased by 74 percent last year.

During the meeting, the two sides emphasized the importance of facilitating closer relations between the two countries' chambers of commerce to explore untapped business potential.

"We also exchanged information and insights on the regional and global situation, and how we can navigate those situations," said Sugiono.

The meeting also prepared both countries for the celebration of 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries next year.

Sugiono noted that the diplomatic relations established for seven decades demonstrate the enduring friendship between the two countries since their early independence days.

As a concrete step to strengthen bilateral relations, Sugiono and Battsetseg signed a memorandum of understanding on political consultation, which aims to encourage regular dialogue and deepen understanding of the common interests of the two countries in dealing with regional and global issues. 

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Sugiono (3rd L) meets with Mongolian Foreign Minister Battsetseg Batmunkh (3rd R) in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 21, 2025. TO GO WITH "Indonesia strengthens trade ties with Mongolia " (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)
In an effort to improve school safety, Volusia County Schools is deploying a new artificial intelligence platform for detecting guns.

The new software is called ZeroEyes. It will work by layering onto the schools current digital cameras. If a gun is detected, the video will be fed back to the companys operations center, which is staffed by military and law enforcement veterans.

The county says this will add another critical layer of protection.

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Our goal is to be a trailblazer for school safety in Florida, Volusia County Schools Superintendent Carmen Balgobin said in a news release. After seeing the Daytona Beach Police Departments success with ZeroEyes, we conducted a thorough evaluation of the technology. We began piloting it in a few of our schools and quickly recognized the critical value it provides. We want our students to focus on learning, building friendships, and preparing for their futures, rather than worrying about their safety.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ)  Voter turnout in Cambria and Somerset counties fell below 25% during Tuesdays primary election, a sharp contrast to the high participation seen during last Novembers general election.

According to our media partners at The Tribune-Democrat, just under 19,000 voters cast ballots in Cambria County, and about 10,000 voted in Somerset County. With municipal, school board and judicial races on the ballot, both counties saw only a fraction of the turnout recorded during the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Cambria County saw approximately 23% of its registered voters participate, while Somerset County recorded a turnout of about 24%.

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Election officials say the low turnout aligned with expectations for a non-presidential election year.

In November, more than 110,000 voters from both counties participated in the general election, which included high-profile races for president, U.S. Senate, Congress and state offices.

Get the latest news, weather forecasts and sports stories delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for our newsletters.

Despite the drop in voter activity, county officials noted that the workload for staff remained consistent with past elections.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC)  Taxpayers across Rochester and the Finger Lakes cast their votes for their school districts budgets Tuesday night.

One of the most anticipated proposal items for many districts, was whether or not to add electric buses to their fleets.

Five local districts included a proposition for electric buses on their voting ballots. Hilton, Spencerport, and Churchville-Chili all had their asks denied. Webster and Canandaigua were two of the schools that had theirs approved, though it was a very tight race in Webster.

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The Webster School District passed proposition two, for the approval of purchasing one electric bus, by just 122 votes.

Some residents, like James Evans, support the idea.

I support it because I think its time for all of us to at least dabble our toes in the green energy realm, says Webster resident James Evans. I just believe that climate change is real, its time somebody tries something to address it, and this could be a way to potentially meet in the middle.

Others, are against the purchase of the new buses.

I think their rushing the issue, said Bill Schwappacher. I do think we should have an evolution to electrical buses, but just making it so fast on the public, and the cost upfront is enormous.

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New York State has recently implemented a mandate that will require all school districts to begin purchasing electric buses after 2027. Because of this, Webster Assistant Superintendent Brian Freeman says the process is far from over.

We have 180 buses in our fleet, says Brian Freeman, the assistant superintendent at Webster Central School District. So well have to buy more than one to meet the New York State requirements. So what does that look like in 2027-28 when we have to buy 20 buses to start the conversion?

Many other schools are taking different approaches from Webster. Over in Greece, the district decided to purchase 35 gas-powered buses, pushing back when they will need to purchase new electric buses.

At Churchville-Chili, their electric bus proposition was much more aggressive than Websters, as they asked for 10 buses to get approved, worth roughly $3,000,000. That proposition would get denied.

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Freeman spoke on why Webster submitted just one bus in their proposition.

A ten-bus proposition at our quoted price is over $5,000,000, explains Freeman. That carries some sticker shock, and that doesnt give us the best information on how people truly feel about this conversion.

In order for districts to comply with the state mandates, they are required to have a fully electric fleet by 2035.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44)  An act that aims to rein in commercial health care costs passed one of the Vermont legislatures two chambers Wednesday  but it still has a ways to go before becoming law.

Senate Bill 126 (S. 126) moves towards reference-based pricing for commercial health plans. Reference-based means that employers would have the chance to set prices for specific health care services, instead of needing to negotiate with insurance companies. However, if a provider is unhappy with the price set by an employer, they would bill the patient for the remainder.

Hassan, Noem lock horns over habeas corpus

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The bill was passed 99-38 with the support of nearly all Democrats and Progressive legislators and a minority of Republicans. While it passed the Vermont Senate in a previous form in March, it will be reconsidered with new amendments added by the House before having an opportunity to go to the governors desk.

Read the full text of the bill hereDownload

The bill requires all hospitals in Vermont to submit to the Board the number of employees of the hospital whose duties are primarily administrative in nature, as concerns have been raised about how much of hospital budgets goes towards paying people other than physicians, nurses, and others who directly provide medical care.

Champlain Place emergency shelter celebrates renovation

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One other provision of the bill requires a hospital to provide 90 days notice before it eliminates any existing services for budget-related reasons. The bill adds many new reporting requirements with an eye towards keeping down costs, though independent state representative Laura Sibilia said shes keeping an eye on especially their potential impact on rural and critical access hospitals like Grace Cottage. She nevertheless supported the bill in its vote Wednesday.

Speaker of the Vermont House Jill Krowinski said about the motivation for the bill, Patients and health care providers are counting on a plan that outlines a path to stability, greater access to care, and at a cost that Vermonters can afford.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44.
May 21GRAFTON, N.D.  In a statement, Walsh County Sheriff Ron Jurgens said there is a possible path forward for the county jail, which was the subject of a

failed referendum vote

earlier in the month.

The referendum had two measures, meant to help fund the construction of a new jail and sheriff's office. While the measure for an increase to the county's general fund levy failed, a 0.75% sales tax passed. This could be used to fund the project, Jurgens said.

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"We are fairly confident we can still utilize the sales tax revenue as long as it's for the stated purpose of constructing a jail and/or sheriff's office," he said. "Our state's attorney is researching this more deeply to be fully certain."

The sheriff's office will be meeting with The Samuels Group, the construction company involved in the jail project, next week after official canvassing results of the referendum votes are in. The two groups will discuss what options, if any, they have with the funds available to them, Jurgens said.

The jail project has been a conversation for the past five years for the county to find what the best solution to dealing with the aging facility would be. The plan for a new jail and sheriff's office was chosen and the referendum made. Members of the county, including Jurgens and Sid Samuels from The Samuels Group, held multiple

informational meetings

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about the state of the jail, outlining issues in available beds, storage, leaks, heating, cooling, plumbing and other areas. Jurgens, Walsh County Commission Chair Kristi Brintnell and District Court Judge Barbara Whelan all said the jail could close within a year if nothing is done to improve its conditions.

During a recent meeting with the Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong said he is in talks with Walsh County about the jail.

"We'll be in contact with them and figuring out if there are ways in which we can help," he said.
GRINNELL, Kan. (KSNW)  The tornado that tore through the western Kansas town of Grinnell has been officially rated an EF-3 by the National Weather Service. A damage survey team, including meteorologist and forensic engineer Tim Marshall, conducted the assessment alongside staff from the NWS office in Goodland.

Everybody knew the tornado was coming and that they sought shelter, and nobody was killed in Grinnell  that was a very good thing, Marshall said.

EF-3 tornadoes hit Kiowa, Pratt, Stafford and Reno counties

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Marshall said residents had several forms of warning before the tornado struck. Different kinds of warnings  some knew from friends and neighbors that the tornado was on its way. Others said that there was a fire engine going up and down the streets with the sirens going, he said.

The EF-3 rating was based on damage to 15 to 20 homes, specifically those with the most severe destruction.

EF-3 would be where the roof has gone and some exterior walls are gone, so that all you have is the interior part of the house left, Marshall explained.

He described a tight-knit community that acted quickly to protect each other and begin recovery.

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People were waiting for the insurance adjusters to show up so they could immediately begin cleanup. In fact, cleanup was rapidly underway when I was there, he said.

According to Marshall, the tornado followed a classic Kansas pattern.

It was a pretty wide tornado south of the interstate. And then as it got closer to the town, it narrowed up, you know, like a cylinder, and then roped out just north of town.

Grinnell, with a population under 300, avoided fatalities thanks to early warnings and a swift community response.

How to help

Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas

Catholic Charities USA has provided a $25,000 grant, which will go directly toward helping the Grinnell community recover and rebuild. Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas suggests these ways to help:

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Make a financial donation by clicking here. The donations will help families meet specific challenges as they rebuild their lives.

Donate items at the Catholic Charities offices in Hays, Salina and Manhattan. Items needed are: Work gloves & heavy-duty trash bags Flashlights & batteries Dust masks Storage tubs and boxes Cleaning supplies Laundry detergent, toilet paper & paper towels Furniture & household essentials Towels and hygiene items Visa, Walmart, or gas gift cards

Volunteer by checking in at the Grinnell VFW.

Victims can seek assistance from Catholic Charities of Northern Kansas by calling 785-625-2644, emailing communications@ccnks.org, or by clicking here and filling out a form.

Gove County Community Foundation

The foundation has created the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fund to provide immediate help and long-term support for the tornado victims. Click here to donate.

Grinnell VFW

The Grinnell VFW is asking for monetary donations to help replace all of their destroyed grave markers. If you are willing to donate, you are asked to send your donation through the mail:

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Grinnell VFW Aux. #2864

C/O Carol Rietcheck, Aux. President

6658 W. Road 1505

Grinnell, KS 67738

Memo: Grave markers

For more Kansas news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news by downloading our mobile app and signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track 3 Weather app by clicking here. To watch our shows live on our website, click here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN)  A Warren man who admitted to setting a fire in his apartment learned his punishment Wednesday.

Lonnie Culver was sentenced to three years of high-risk community control with the first 30 days in jail.

Culvers attorney, Irene Makridis, pleaded with the court after he apologized for setting a fire in his apartment back in September.

You are not seeing Lonnie at his best but incarceration will do nothing for Lonnie, Makridis said. As he said, he has expressed complete remorse to Karen, his landlady, and her daughter. He feels horrible for what happened.

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Culver previously pleaded guilty to an arson charge in connection with the fire Culver himself had to be rescued from. It was at the four-plex on the corner of McMyler Street and Ohio Avenue in Warren. At the time, Fire Chief Ken Nussle said Culver admitted to setting a pillow on fire.

I have no intention to minimize what Lonnie did. The seriousness of his offense is understood by him and by all of us, Makridis said.

Judge Cynthia Westcott Rice sentenced Culver to three years of high-risk community control with the first 30 days behind bars in the Trumbull County Jail.

I understand that you have some mental health issues and you need to take medication. Well, you better stay on the medication because Im looking at these offenses  you come back before me, you mess up, Im going to ship you, do you understand that? Judge Westcott Rice said.

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Culver was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution and will be required to register as an arson offender for life.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
Raipur, Chhattisgarh  Indian security forces have launched an all-out war against Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh state, as the federal government aims to wipe out long-running armed rebellions in the mineral-rich tribal region of the country.

The Karrigatta hills forest, which straddles across Chhattisgarh and Telangana states, has turned into a warzone with more than 10,000 Indian soldiers deployed in the anti-Maoist operation  dubbed Operation Zero or Kagar.

The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs both the state as well as the central government, has drastically escalated security operations, killing at least 201 Maoist rebels, also known as Naxals, this year.

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At least 27 rebels were killed on May 21, including the leader of the Maoists. In the past 16 months, more than 400 alleged Maoist rebels have been killed in Chhattisgarh state, home to a sizable population of Adivasis (meaning original inhabitants or Indigenous people).

But activists are alarmed: They say many of those killed are innocent Adivasis. And campaigners and opposition leaders are urging the government to cease fire and hold talks with Maoist rebels to find a solution to the decades-old issue.

More than 11,000 civilians and security forces have been killed in clashes involving Maoist fighters between 2000 and 2024, according to official figures. Security forces have killed at least 6,160 Maoist fighters during the same period, according to police and Maoist figures.

So, will the governments hardline approach help bring peace, or will it further alienate the Adivasis, who are already one of the most marginalised groups in the country?





Who are the Maoists, and why are they fighting against the Indian state?

The armed rebellion in India originated in a 1967 rural uprising in the small town of Naxalbari, located in West Bengal state. The word Naxal comes from the towns name.

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Led by communist leaders Kanu Sanyal, Charu Majumdar, and Jungle Santal, the armed uprising called for addressing the issues of landlessness and exploitation of the rural poor by landlords.

The three leaders founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) on April 22, 1969, to wage armed rebellion against the Indian state. They believed that their demands were not going to be met by the prevailing democratic set-up.

The Naxal rebels were also inspired by the revolutionary ideology of the Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Modelled on the Chinese communist partys approach to capturing the state, they waged a violent rebellion against the Indian security forces in mineral-rich central and eastern India for decades. The West Bengal government, led by Congress leader Siddhartha Shankar Ray, launched a fierce campaign to suppress the Naxalite uprising.

I once again assure the countrymen that India is sure to be Naxal-free by 31 March 2026 by Amit Shah, home minister

Sanyal, one of the founding leaders of the movement, told this reporter in 2010 that by 1973, at least 32,000 Naxalites or sympathisers had been jailed across India.

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Many were killed in fake encounters. And when the Emergency was declared in June 1975, it was clear- the sun had almost set on the Naxalite movement, he said. He died in 2010, aged 78, apparently by suicide in Siliguri.

Over the years, the CPI(ML) splintered into multiple parties, more than 20 of which still exist. The main CPI(ML) itself gave up armed struggle, expressed faith in the Indian Constitution and began participating in electoral politics. Currently, it is a legally recognised political organisation with several legislators.

Meanwhile, in 1980, one of the splinters, the Communist Party of India (MarxistLeninist) Peoples War, was founded by Kondapalli Seetharamayya and Kolluri Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh.

Another major breakaway faction, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), had a base in Bihar and West Bengal states. In September 2004, the MCC and CPI(ML) Peoples War merged, resulting in the formation of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the largest armed Maoist organisation in India today.

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The organisations most recent general secretary, Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraj, was killed by security forces on May 21 in Bastar, Chhattisgarh  the last stronghold of Maoists.

Kanu Sanyal looks on at his home at Hatighisha village near Siliguri, West Bengal, March 21, 2005 [Tamal Roy/AP Photo]

Has the BJP intensified the campaign against Maoists?

The BJP-run Chhattisgarh state government has adopted a more aggressive stance against Maoists compared with the previous government led by the Congress party.

At least 141 Maoists were killed between 2020 and 2023, when the Congress party was in power, but after the BJP came to power, security forces claimed to have killed 223 alleged Maoists in 2024 alone, according to government figures.

For the past 15 months, our security personnel have been strongly fighting the Naxals, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai told Al Jazeera.

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This action is part of the broader efforts, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, to make India free from Naxalism. This is a decisive phase, and we are advancing rapidly in that direction, he said.

The security forces have currently surrounded suspected Maoist hideouts in Karigatta Hills, with the armys helicopters assisting in the operation, according to authorities.

Whether its the Maoists or the DRG, the one who kills is tribal and the one who dies is also tribal by Former Member of Parliament Arvind Netam

On May 14, Indias Home Minister Amit Shah announced the killing of 31 fighters in the Karrigatta Hills.

I once again assure the countrymen that India is sure to be Naxal-free by 31 March 2026, Shah reiterated in his post on X.

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Overall, nearly 66,000 security personnel spanning a range of paramilitary and special forces have been deployed in Chhattisgarh.

India has deployed tens of thousands of forces, including specially trained commandos, in its fight against Maoists [File: Kamal Kishore/Reuters]

The latest operation, which involves more than 10,000 soldiers, centres around the mineral-rich Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, which spans 38,932 square kilometres (15,032sq miles)  an area nearly the size of the US state of Kentucky.

The government has set up approximately 320 security camps in Bastar alone  home to three million people. The number of personnel at each security camp fluctuates depending on the requirement: It can be as low as 150 personnel and rise up to 1,200. They include security forces, as well as technical staff.

Security camps are often equipped with surveillance and communication equipment to assist in the operation against the rebels. The 20,000-strong local police force is also helping in the operations in Bastar.

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The use of cutting-edge technology, such as advanced drones equipped with high-definition cameras and thermal imaging sensors, has helped security forces monitor Maoist activity in the regions dense forests.

However, local villagers allege that security forces have carried out aerial bombings in various parts of Bastar using large drones. Maoist groups have also accused the forces of conducting air strikes.

Security forces have consistently denied these allegations.

Shah, the home minister, has made frequent visits to Chhattisgarh, even spending nights with security forces in Bastar.

But the federal government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who preceded Modi in Indias top executive office, had also taken a tough stance against Naxals.

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Singh even called Naxalism the greatest internal security threat to India, and his government launched a major crackdown in 2009 under what it called Operation Green Hunt to quash the armed rebellion. Amid allegations of human rights violations, Indian security forces managed to reduce the terrain controlled by the Maoists.

In the 2000s, Naxals controlled nearly one-third of Indias mineral-rich tribal areas, known euphemistically as the Red Corridor, straddling the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Odisha, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, among others. But the number of districts where Maoists wield significant influence had declined from 126 in 2013 to just 38 by April last year.

Maoists are watched by villagers as they ready their weapons, while taking part in a training camp in a forested area of Bijapur district in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh on July 8, 2012 [Noah Seelam/AFP]

Are security forces carrying out extrajudicial killings against Adivasis?

As the government claims success in its military offensive, human rights groups such as the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) accuse the security forces of carrying out fake encounters or extrajudicial killings.

A large-scale military campaign is being carried out under the pretext of eliminating Maoists, Junas Tirkey, the president of the PUCL in Chhattisgarh state, said.

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Since 2024, violence, human rights violations, and militarisation have increased sharply in Bastar. Innocent tribals are being killed in fake encounters, he told Al Jazeera.

Since 2024, violence, human rights violations, and militarisation have increased sharply in Bastar. Innocent tribals are being killed in fake encounters by Junas Tirkey, president of the PUCL in Chhattisgarh

The PUCL has identified at least 11 incidents as fake encounters over the past one and a half years.

On March 25, police claimed it had killed Maoist rebels Sudhakar alias Sudhir, Pandru Atra, and Mannu Barsa in Bordga village, Bijapur, about 160km (100 miles) east of Bastar.

But villagers allege the polices version is false. They claim that the police surrounded the village at night, took 17 people away, released seven, shot three, and took the remaining seven with them.

The government has denied the allegations, but no independent investigation has been conducted in this case. The regular magisterial inquiry, which is carried out after so-called encounters, is not considered credible by rights groups and tribal communities as it is largely based on the police version of events.

Its true that Sudhakar was a Maoist and came to visit someone in the village. But the police captured Sudhakar, my brother and others alive, took them away, and later shot them, falsely declaring it an encounter, the brother of Mannu Barsa, Manesh Barsa, told Al Jazeera.

Inspector general of police of Bastar region, Pattilingam Sundarraj, disagreed with these allegations. He claimed that Maoists often pressure locals to fabricate accusations against the police following encounters.

However, multiple so-called encounters in Bastar have been proven fake in the past, and in most cases, justice has evaded victims.

Even if they are eliminated from Bastar, Maoism is an ideology that cannot be defeated through violence alone by Former DGP Vishwaranjan

Out of thousands of so-called encounters in Bastar in the last 25 years, only two have faced judicial inquiry. On June 28, 2012, 17 Adivasis, including six minors, were killed in Sarkeguda village in Bijapur district. On May 17, 2013, four minors were among eight Adivasis killed in Edasmeta village in the same district.

The inquiries led by High Court judges found all victims to be innocent. The reports were released in 2022 during the previous Congress rule, though no police cases have been registered against any personnel to date.

Even peaceful protests against mining projects and the militarisation of the region have been met with harsh crackdowns.

The Moolvasi Bachao Manch (MBM), led by Adivasis, was banned last year for opposing development and resisting security forces.

Dozens of Adivasi youth associated with MBM have been arrested since 2021.

Why is the recruitment of former Maoists in government forces criticised?

The recruitment of Adivasis, many of them former Maoists, in recent years by the authorities seems to have turned the tide in favour of the government.

The then-BJP state government started to incorporate Adivasis, particularly former Maoists, in the District Reserve Guard (DRG) force in 2008 with the aim of using them in anti-Maoist operations. The idea: Former Maoists are better at navigating dense jungle terrain and know about Maoist hideouts.

But past records have raised concerns. Adivasis enlisted as Special Police Officers (SPOs), as they were called, have been accused of rights violations.

In 2005, the state government ruled by the Congress government launched a campaign against Maoists called Salwa Judum (meaning peace march in the local Gondi language). Salwa Judum members were armed and were later designated as SPOs and paid 1,500 rupees/month ($17/month).

On one hand, the government itself had proposed dialogue with the Maoists. But now, that same government has turned Bastar into a warzone by Soni Sori, Adivasi activist

But Salwa Judum members faced accusations of rape, arson, torture and murder. In 2011, the Supreme Court declared Salwa Judum illegal and slammed the state for arming civilians. Subsequently, many SPOs were absorbed into the DRG.

DRG personnel have also been accused of rights abuses, but such cases have rarely been investigated.

Campaigners have also questioned the policy of using surrendered Maoists in combat instead of rehabilitating them.

The manner in which SPOs were incorporated into the DRG is disturbing. It shows how tribal youth involved in violence were again handed guns under the pretext of rehabilitation, lawyer and human rights activist Priyanka Shukla told Al Jazeera.

Former Member of Parliament Arvind Netam believes Bastar is in a state of civil war. In a situation like this, he says, its the tribals who suffer the most.

Whether its the Maoists or the DRG, the one who kills is tribal and the one who dies is also tribal, Netam, a tribal leader, told Al Jazeera.

Campaigners have argued that Chhattisgarhs new rehabilitation policy, which promises bounties and cash rewards, incentivises people to turn on each other for money, often with allegations that may be legally untenable.

Why has the government resisted calls for a ceasefire?

Interestingly, while the government has intensified its offensive, it has also continued to offer peace talks to Maoists.

We still reiterate, Maoists should come forward for dialogue after laying down their arms. Our doors for talks within the framework of the Indian Constitution are always open, Chhattisgarhs Home Minister Vijay Sharma told local media last week.

The Maoists, however, insist on a ceasefire and withdrawal of paramilitary forces as conditions for talks. They argue that peace talks and military operations cannot run simultaneously.

In a statement, CPI (Maoist) spokesperson Abhay said, The right to life guaranteed by the Indian Constitution is being crushed by the government itself  On one hand, our party is trying to initiate unconditional dialogue, and on the other hand, ongoing killings of Maoists and tribals render the peace process meaningless.

Activists have raised concerns regarding the plight of Adivasi communities.

Soni Sori, an Adivasi social activist from Bastar, believes the government must take the initiative for peace talks.

On one hand, the government itself had proposed dialogue with the Maoists. But now, that same government has turned Bastar into a warzone, Sori told Al Jazeera.

Given the way these operations are being conducted, the government should halt them, foster an environment conducive to dialogue, and take meaningful steps toward initiating peace talks.

Human rights activists, academics and students have been targeted after being dubbed Naxal sympathisers. A 90 percent disabled professor from Delhi University, GN Saibaba was jailed for backing Maoists. Last October, he died months after being acquitted by the countrys top court after a decade of incarceration.

But state Chief Minister Sai says there will be no leniency in this matter. Naxal eradication is not just a campaign but a mission to secure Bastar and Chhattisgarhs future, he said.

Is Maoist support declining?

In 2011, then-Director General of Police of Chhattisgarh Vishwaranjan estimated approximately 10,000 armed Maoists and 40,000 militia members in the Bastar region. Accurate numbers are hard to determine.

The rebels were able to carry out deadly attacks against the security forces. In 2010, they killed 76 paramilitary troops in a forest ambush in Chhattisgarh. Three years later, dozens of people, including the Congress leader who founded the Salwa Judum, were killed in a rebel ambush.

Current Bastar IGP Sundarraj P estimates about 1,000 armed Maoists remain, along with 15,000 affiliated individuals.

Internal Maoist reports acknowledge declining recruitment, smaller units, and ammunition shortages. Of the 40 central committee and politburo members, only 18 remain free  the rest are either dead or arrested.

Meanwhile, security forces have expanded, built new camps, and improved intelligence and training, while Maoists base areas are shrinking.

While our government is running an anti-Naxal campaign, we are also actively working on development projects by Vishnu Deo Sai, chief minister of Chhattisgarh

Former DGP Vishwaranjan says Maoists are weakened in Chhattisgarh, but they have expanded into neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.

Even if they are eliminated from Bastar, Maoism is an ideology that cannot be defeated through violence alone, he told Al Jazeera.

As long as we build a society on economic inequality, the ideology may resurface in a new form.

Defending his governments policies, Chief Minister Sai said that security and development go hand in hand.

While our government is running an anti-Naxal campaign, we are also actively working on development projects, he said.

Is the real fight over iron ore?

Naxals have invoked the exploitation of natural resources, particularly through mining leases issued to global corporations, and the displacement of local communities, as their reasons for picking up guns in mineral-rich areas of the country. Thousands of Adivasis have been displaced and their local environments severely damaged due to mining activities.

Of the 51 mineral leases in Bastar, 36 are held by private firms, including global steel major ArcelorMittal.

Former MLA and tribal leader Manish Kunjam echoes a similar sentiment, arguing, The real issue is iron ore.

According to the Indian government, 19 percent of the countrys iron ore reserves are in Chhattisgarh, mainly in Bastar.

Chhattisgarh accounts for 18 percent of Indias railway freight revenue, largely from mineral transport  and this is growing.

Kunjam explained that when the corporations Tata and Essar began their projects in 2005 to mine iron ore, the state launched Salwa Judum, evacuating 644 villages under the pretext of Maoist fear. At least 350,000 people were displaced. However, strong tribal resistance forced the companies to withdraw.

Learning from that failure, the government has now set up security camps in mining zones, preparing for renewed extraction, he said.

Without village council approval, mining cannot proceed. If tribals protest, they will be labelled as Maoists or sympathisers and dealt with accordingly.

A closer look at his claims reveals that most camps are indeed in areas where mining has begun or is about to. In Bastars mining belt, there is one soldier for every nine tribals. Many of these camps are funded by mining companies.

But Chief Minister Sai believes that the mineral resources in tribal areas should be utilised.

The idea of generating revenue at the cost of tribal lives is dangerous and unconstitutional by Sushil Anand Shukla, opposition Congress party spokesperson

The lives of tribals will change with the beginning of mining and industrial activities, he said. He boasted that Chhattisgarh ranks second among mineral-producing states [after Odisha], earning approximately 14.19 billion rupees ($1.71bn) last year.

This year, the state has allocated 48 major mineral blocks to private companies in the state.

But mass poverty and lack of basic health facilities expose the governments claims.

Netam, the tribal leader, pointed out that the state has an infant mortality rate of nearly 38 per 1,000 live births, compared to the national infant mortality rate of 28 per 1,000 live births.

In Bastar, he said, poverty is 80 percent.

The opposition Congress spokesperson Sushil Anand Shukla claimed that under the guise of mining, preparations were under way to completely displace tribals from Bastar.

Today, Bastar stands on the brink of war, and its answers cannot be found by looking to the past. The government must stop surrendering to corporate houses and mining companies at the cost of evicting tribals, Sushil Anand Shukla says.

The idea of generating revenue at the cost of tribal lives is dangerous and unconstitutional, he told Al Jazeera.




WASHINGTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL)  A Washington County, Tennessee man was arrested and charged with various child sex crimes, including child rape and sexual expoltion of a minor, on May 14.

The Washington County, Tennessee Sheriffs Office announced Thursday that Brian Anthony Privette, 39, was arrested on a presentment warrant.

Jury finds Hitchcock brothers guilty of murdering father

Privette was charged with the following:

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Rape of a child (three counts)

Aggravated sexual battery

Especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor

Sexual exploitation of a minor (two counts)

Rape

Court documents obtained by News Channel 11 report that the presentment was filed on May 5, and that Privette committed the crimes between June 2018 and October 2024.

As of Thursday, Privette is being held on a $100,000 bond at the Washington County Detention Center.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather.
JAKARTA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government is preparing a large-scale salt pond project in Rote Ndao, East Nusa Tenggara province, as the country targets self-sufficiency in salt production by 2027.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Sakti Wahyu Trenggono said on Thursday that Rote has a lake area of approximately 10,000 hectares, which is estimated to produce up to 5 million tons of salt.

"The area is considered to have great potential, including the existence of a lake that will be used as salt production land based on bay water," Trenggono said at his office in Jakarta, as quoted by local media.

According to data from Statistics Indonesia, the country imported 2.8 million tons of salt in 2023, valued at 1.35 trillion rupiahs (82.6 million U.S. dollars).

The imports were necessary because local salt production, only around 2.5 million tons, was insufficient to meet domestic demand. Data from Indonesia's Ministry of Industry shows that the country's total salt requirement for both industrial and consumer use reached 4.9 million tons.

Despite current challenges, Trenggono remains optimistic that the project will strengthen the national salt industry. 
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY)  After Tornado Watches were issued for parts of north central West Virginia Wednesday afternoon, the National Weather Service issued a brief Tornado Warning for the eastern part of Preston County, which StormTracker 12 Chief Meteorologist Justin Kiefer caught live on air right as it happened.

You can see part of his forecast from 12 News at 6 on May 21 in the player above.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN)  A press conference on Thursday marked the beginning on the 2025 NATO Assembly this weekend.

U.S. Rep. Mike Turner and Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims are among the officials who spoke this afternoon as the NATO Parliamentary Assembly 2025 Spring Session began.

Why is NATO coming to Dayton?

Officials shared a few words with the media and shared what topics the NATO delegates will be discussing during their stay in Dayton.

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Delegates will be involved in numerous events throughout the week, with 500 participants discussing topics such as defense spending, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.

While its been 30 years since delegates have been to Dayton, this is the first Parliamentary Assembly on U.S. soil since 2003 when delegates visited Florida. City leaders are excited to celebrate and showcase the Miami Valley.

But discussions will also surround countries increasing their defense spending, with tensions rising between Russia and NATO. Leaders want to be ready for anything, including ending the war in Ukraine.

Watch the full press conference in the video player below.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV)  Local law enforcement has confirmed the arrests of those accused of involvement in an alleged drug trafficking ring that was running out of a City of Syracuse apartment building.

The Onondaga County District Attorneys Office and Syracuse Police are calling the operation the 205 Crew, who are accused of running a drug business out of Parkside Commons building 2119.

According to Syracuse Police, a lengthy months-long investigation led to the execution of two search warrants at apartments 205 and 207, as well as the indictment warrants of five people who were charged with enterprise corruption and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the 3rd degree.

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Discovered by law enforcement during the search were over three pounds of cocaine, 21 grams of Fentanyl, a large sum of US currency, which is believed to be about $80,000, one loaded ghost gun, walkie talkies, many cellphones, and drug paraphernalia.

Courtesy: Syracuse Police Department

Courtesy: Syracuse Police Department

30-year-old Jean Carlos Calderon, 31-year-old Jesus Berrios-Ortiz, 25-year-old Julio Franco-Osorio, 42-year-old Jorge Lacen-Pizarro, and 33-year-old Victor Medina-Parilla were all arrested and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 1st degree, criminal possession of a controlled substance in the 3rd degree, criminal possession of a substance in the 7th degree.

Additionally, Franci-Osorio was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the 3rd degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the 2nd degree.

We will not stand for a community where two and six-year-olds will have to worry about whether or not they will be overdosed by fentanyl in this community, said Onondaga Countys Senior Assistant District Attorney, Alphonse Williams.

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ADA Williams explained that it is believed that the 205 Crew mimics the likes of a real day-to-day business. He said they allege that each person has a role  there is security, managerial, patrols, sales, inventory, and so on. Security was disabled so that customers could go in and out of the building during their hours of business.

The suspects have had their fingerprints taken since their arrest, but some are considered to have ties to Puerto Rico and may be operating under different aliases.

There is new ownership for Parkside Commons, which has been made aware of the ongoing issues within the building. Law enforcement said they have a line of communication with the owners.

Those arrested are all currently lodged at the justice center.

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You can watch the full stream in the video player above.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO)  A jury has convicted Gokoh Frank Brown, 29, from Watertown, of one count of Aggravated Sexual Abuse by Force and one count of Sexual Abuse of a Minor, following a two-day jury trial in federal district court in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

The verdict was returned on Thursday, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Mitchell Mayor asks city to consider prison

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The charges carry a maximum penalty of life in federal prison and/or a $250,000 fine, and up to a

lifetime term of supervised release.

Brown was indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2024.

From January 2023 to August 2023, Brown sexually assaulted a 1213-year-old girl while living in

Red Iron Housing on the Lake Traverse Reservation. Brown was 26-27 years old at the time.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Law Enforcement, and the DCI.

A sentencing date has been set for August 18, 2025.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com.
UPDATE: FAYETTEVILLE, Ark (KNWA/KFTA)  Multiple tornadoes touched down on the evening of May 19, 2025. We now have 14 confirmed tornadoes in our weather coverage in Eastern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas.

Heres the latest from the Tulsa National Weather Service damage survey. Additional tornado paths will be added as more areas are surveyed.

Aerial View from Pilot Brady Brooks:

These are the tornadoes in chronological order:

(Tornado #1) Gore Tornado:

START LOCATION: 4 MILES W OF WEBBERS FALLS, OK END LOCATION: 4 MILES WSW BOX, OK, SEQUOYAH CO.

This tornado developed near the intersection of the N 4390 Road and the E 1035 Road, and moved east-northeast destroying outbuildings, snapping or uprooting trees, and blowing over a center pivot irrigation system before crossing the Arkansas River. It continued to move east- northeast across the north side of Gore uprooting trees, snapping large tree limbs, and damaging outbuildings until it dissipated north of the E 1000 Road and east of the S 4469 Road. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KSRX WSR-88D.

(Tornado #2) Bunch Tornado:

START LOCATION: 4 MILES SSE COOKSON, OK, CHEROKEE CO. END LOCATION: 5 MILES NNE BUNCH, OK, ADAIR CO.

This tornado developed south of the 920 Road, where numerous trees were snapped and uprooted, a couple homes were damaged, an outbuilding was destroyed, and power poles were snapped. The tornado moved northeast snapping and uprooting numerous trees and snapping

large tree limbs as it moved through rugged terrain into Adair County. It dissipated east of the N 4660 Road, south of the Stilwell City Lake. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KSRX

WSR-88D.

(Tornado #3) Tenkiller Tornado:

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START LOCATION: 3 Miles North of Cookson / Cherokee County / OK END LOCATION: 5 Miles WSW of Marietta / Adair County / OK

This tornado apparently developed over Lake Tenkiller southwest of Cherokee Landing State Park, and moved northeast. It snapped and uprooted numerous trees at the Park, then crossed Highway 82 and Highway 100, where trees were uprooted. The tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees when it crossed the S Welling Road and the S 600 Road. Trees continued to be uprooted as it approached the Adair County line along the S 610 Road, and then along the 4610 Road in Adair County. The tornado dissipated after crossing the 834 Road, where trees were uprooted.

(Tornado #4) Stilwell Tornado:

START LOCATION: 6 MILES NNE OF BUNCH, OK, ADAIR CO. END LOCATION: 3 MILES NW MORROW, AR, WASH. CO.

This tornado developed just west of Stilwell City Lake. It moved east-northeast toward Blanch, and then northeast across the west and north sides of Stilwell. The tornado moved across Fairfield and then turned east-northeast before crossing into Arkansas and dissipating near Dutch Mills. The tornado uprooted many trees and snapped others. It damaged homes, destroyed outbuildings, and knocked down power poles. A tornadic debris signature was noted from the KSRX WSR-88D.

(Tornado #5) Snake Mountain Tornado:

START LOCATION: 4 MILES EAST BARON, OK, ADAIR CO. END LOCATION: CLYDE, AR, WASHINGTON CO.

This tornado developed over inaccessible terrain west of Snake Mountain, just west of state line where a tornadic debris signature was indicated by the KSRX WSR-88D.

The tornado moved east-northeast and then turned to the southeast crossing Salem Springs Road, Highway 59, Bush Valley Road, and then moved along Highway 45 for a time before dissipating east of Clyde. Trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped along the path.

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Arkansas sees 206 tornado warnings so far in 2025; 2nd in nation

(Tornadoes #6 & #7) Lincoln Tornadoes:

START LOCATION: 1 MILE SSW OF LINCOLN, AR, WASH. CO. END LOCATION: 3 MILES SE WALNUT GROVE, AR, WASH. CO.

Lincoln tornado #1 developed along W. South Street and moved across the south side of Lincoln. It moved east-northeast until it crossed County Road 438, then moved east. The tornado crossed Hogeye Road, turning northeast before dissipating east of Highway 285.

The tornado damaged homes, several severely, uprooted or snapped numerous trees, snapped power poles, and destroyed outbuildings. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KSRX WSR-88D.

START LOCATION: 1 MILE SSW OF LINCOLN, AR, WASH. CO. END LOCATION: 3 MILES SE WALNUT GROVE, AR, WASH. CO.

Lincoln tornado #2 touched down during tornado #1 was in progress and developed north of Highway 62, and moved east for a short time. A tornadic debris signature was noted for two minutes from the KSRX WSR-88D. The tornado uprooted trees.

See Lincoln Tornado Developing from our PGTelco WeatherBug Camera

(Tornado #8) Shady Point Tornado:

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START LOCATION: 5 MILES WSW SHADY POINT, OK END LOCATION: 4 MILES S SCULLYVILLE, OK, LE FLORE CO.

This tornado developed near Calhoun and moved northeast across Calhoun Road and Roy Monks Road, where trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado uprooted numerous trees and snapped numerous tree limbs as it crossed Latham Road, Highway 59, and Waterfield Street. The tornado continued to move northeast and

likely dissipated west of County Road 1240. The survey team attempted to access areas east of Highway 59 where the tornado likely tracked, but all available roads into those areas were severely flooded by the Poteau River, thus the path east of Waterfield Street is estimated

based on the continuation of a tornadic debris signature and tight velocity couplet from the KSRX WSR-88D.

(Tornado #9) Greenland Tornado:

START LOCATION: 1 MILE SSW OF LINCOLN, AR, WASH. CO. END LOCATION: 3 MILES SE WALNUT GROVE, AR, WASH. CO.

The tornado initially touched down along SW Campbell Road, just west of I-49, snapping and uprooting numerous trees. It tracked northeast across I-49, where it severely damaged a metal building, before veering east across the southern edge of Drake Field.

Continuing east-northeast, the tornado crossed Highway 16 and eventually dissipated near Combs Bell Road. Along its path, it caused widespread destruction, snapping trees and power poles, damaging industrial buildings, homes, and businesses, and leveling several outbuildings.

A clear tornadic debris signature was detected by the KSRX WSR-88D radar, confirming the storms intensity.

See Greenland Tornado in this Video Compilation Below

(Tornado #10) Pocola, OK to Central City, AR Tornado:

START LOCATION: 2 MILES NNW CAMERON, OK, LE FLORE CO. END LOCATION: 1 ESE CENTRAL CITY, AR, SEBASTIAN CO.

This tornado developed south of Williams Road and west of Green Road, where a few trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped. It moved northeast and crossed Poker Bend Road, where a tree was blown down and large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado continued

northeast across Highway 112, then turned more east as it crossed into Arkansas west of Bonanza.

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The tornado was weak between Highway 112, across the north side of Bonanza, to just west of Highway 71, with mostly small trees uprooted and large tree limbs snapped in that

segment of the path. It strengthened as it approached Highway 71, where trees were uprooted or snapped. The tornado then moved across Fort Chaffee, where 40 buildings were damaged, and trees were snapped or uprooted, and then turned east-northeast, dissipating before

crossing Highway 22. It produced a tornadic debris signature from the KSRX WSR-88D.

(Tornado #11 & #12) Huntsville and Bohannan Tornado:

Huntsville Start Location: 4 Miles SSE Hindsville / Madison County / AR Huntsville End Location: 1 Miles SSW Marble / Madison County / AR Bohannan Start Location: 4 Miles SSE Hindsville / Madison County / AR Bohannan End Location: 3 Miles W Huntsville / Madison County / AR

Huntsville tornado information: This tornado developed just east of CR 7505, along CR 7500 where trees were uprooted and large tree limbs were snapped. The tornado moved northeast, then turned to the east-southeast along CR 7755. After crossing CR 7855, the tornado moved east across the north side of Huntsville, and continued moving just south of Highway 412 until it dissipated after crossing CR 2315. The tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees, and destroyed outbuildings.

Bohannan tornado information: This tornado developed near Bohannon, west of CR 7645 and moved east-northeast across CR 7510 and CR 7855. It snapped and uprooted numerous trees, and destroyed outbuildings.

(Tornado #13 & #14) Dryfork and Osage Tornado:

Dryfork Start Location: 1 Mile N Marble / Carroll County / AR Dryfork End Location: 2 Miles E Dryfork / Carroll County / AR Osage Start Location: 1 Mile SSW Osage / Carroll County / AR Osage End Location: 3 Miles NE Osage / Carroll County / AR

Dryfork tornado information: This tornado developed north of Highway 412, just east of the Carroll County line and moved east toward Dryfork. The tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees.

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Osage tornado information: This tornado developed along and just west of Highway 103, south

of Osage. It moved northeast across Highway 412, and dissipated after crossing County Road 905. The tornado snapped and uprooted numerous trees, and damaged outbuildings.

14 total tornadoes surveyed in our weather coverage area so far. The Tulsa NWS continues to survey additional possible tornado paths, and plan to visit Huntsville in the near future.

The best way to stay updated when theres a severe weather threat is to download YOUR Weather Authority App.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.
May 21The National Weather Service is working Wednesday to confirm how many tornadoes touched down in north Alabama on Tuesday night with multiple supercells moving through the area, a meteorologist said.

Becca Darish, meteorologist at the NWS Huntsville office, said they are particularly interested in Limestone County and the damage south of Athens in the Tanner area.

While area media reports two were injured in Colbert County, Darish said she isn't aware of any injuries in Limestone, Morgan or Lawrence counties.

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Decatur had a tornado warning at about 7 p.m., but Darish said there wasn't a touch down and the storm tracked into southeast Limestone County and then into Madison County.

Darish said north Alabama will finally get a sunny end of the week, although there's a chance of rain on Thursday. Starting today, temperatures should be in the low 80s through Saturday, with lows at night in the 50s.

"It should be very nice and beautiful with light winds and sun," she said.

 bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432
Two individuals were fatally shot Wednesday outside the Capital Jewish Museum after attending the American Jewish Committees annual Young Diplomats Reception.

Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were both staffers with the Israeli Embassy. Lischinsky was purportedly preparing to propose to Milgrim in Jerusalem in the coming weeks.

Both advocates for international service and the U.S.-Israeli relationship, they were well known by the Israeli-American political community in the city.

Sarah Milgrim

Milgrim, 26, worked in the Israeli Embassys Department of Public Diplomacy after being hired in November 2023, according to her LinkedIn.

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Prior to joining the staff, the United States Institute of Peace granted her a certificate in Religious Engagement in Peacebuilding and Skills for Effective Negotiations.

Milgrim was a world traveler who studied conflict on the ground in countries across the globe. She received a masters degree from American University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas.

In 2020, she joined the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on a trip to Mumbai, India, to learn how social, economic and political systems stratify social welfare by visiting several social service agencies.

Milgrim was slated to travel to Jerusalem next week, where Lischinsky planned to propose to her.

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Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives, the Israeli Embassy said in a statement following her death.

The entire embassy staff [is] heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss, it added.

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky, 30, served as a political analyst for the Israel Foreign Ministry at the Embassy of Israel, according to his LinkedIn.

He openly supported aid disbursement to residents in Gaza amid the conflict while championing Israeli efforts to bring an end to Hamas. Lischinsky served as a soldier in the Israeli military for three years before taking up research positions based in Israel.

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This week @IsraelinUSA marked Israels 77th Independence Day, a day filled with deep personal and national meaning, Lischinsky wrote in a celebratory social media post in early May.

On Independence Day, we celebrate the miracle of the Jewish people returning to their ancestral homeland after 2000 years, he added.

Lischinsky obtained his bachelors degree in international relations and Asian studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in addition to a masters degree from Reichman University in government, diplomacy and strategy.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
PORT ALLEN, La. (Louisiana First)  A multimillion-dollar school shakeup is underway in Port Allen.

West Baton Rouge School Board members hosting a groundbreaking, for an effort they say will provide much need upgrades to students in the area.

Shovels in hand, school leaders are breaking ground on a project theyre very excited about.

West Baton Rouge Schools Superintendent Chandler Smith said Cohn Elementary will transform into Cohn Intermediate School.

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Another part of the plan is taking place on the other side of town, finding a new purpose for Port Allen Middle School.

Both Cohn and Port Allen Middle each have about 200 students in each school. So, combining our resources onto one campus better efficiently uses our resources we have as a school system, said Smith. With this transition, we are also opening the doors for Port Allen Middle School to be reimagined as an Early College Academy, giving our high school students unprecedented access to college-level opportunities right here at home. Together, these changes reflect a forward-thinking vision, one that meets our students where they are, and takes them where they dream to go, Smith mentioned.

Smith says this will allow students to earn up to an associates degree while still in high school.



We cant wait for this to get started this summer, Cohn is a special project for us, he said.



The Cohn campus should be ready in about a year, and the Early College Academy is supposed to open in 2027.

The school system recommended combining the two campuses because of low enrollment.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News.
TOPEKA (KSNT)  The final days of business have arrived for a west Topeka craft supply store.

27 News checked in with staff at the JOANN store in Topeka, located at 1133 Southwest Wanamaker Road, on Wednesday, May 21. A store employee confirmed the last day of business for the location will come on Saturday, May 24.

Wamego Caterpillar facility changes ownership, hundreds of local jobs saved

JOANN announced it would be shuttering all of its stores in Kansas in February this year. Its stores are currently holding going-out-of-business sales with many store items being offered at reduced prices.

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The fabric and craft retailer filed for bankruptcy in January 2025, announcing that 500 of its stores would close nationwide. The company later extended the closures to include nearly 800 locations across the country.

You can visit the JOANN website by clicking here.

Topeka fashion store to shut down soon, what to know

For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here.

Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News.
Speaker of Pakistan's national assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq speaks during a ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

ISLAMABAD, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Speaker of Pakistan's national assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said Wednesday that the relationship between Pakistan and China is "stronger than ever."

Speaking at a ceremony held at the Silk Road Culture Center in Islamabad to commemorate 74 years of diplomatic relations, Sadiq lauded the "unshakeable strategic trust and mutual respect" that define the Pakistan-China relationship, describing their all-weather partnership as a cornerstone of regional peace, stability, and development.

"Our bond with China has not only endured but has grown stronger with each passing decade," he said. "Today, this friendship is more robust, more relevant, and more forward-looking than ever before."

Sadiq highlighted the transformational impact of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

He said the multi-billion-dollar corridor has modernized Pakistan's energy and infrastructure sectors, while increasing regional connectivity and attracting growing interest from Central Asian and Eastern European countries.

In his address, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong reaffirmed China's firm commitment to advancing the strategic partnership.

"Our ironclad friendship has only deepened amid global uncertainties," he said, adding that the CPEC has entered a new stage of high-quality development, with an emphasis on innovation, green growth, and people's livelihoods.

The ambassador noted that China has remained Pakistan's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years, adding that the full-year opening of the Khunjerab Pass and the inauguration of New Gwadar International Airport are expected to further enhance bilateral trade and regional integration.

The ceremony also featured cultural performances and a traditional tea ceremony under the theme "Tea for Harmony," highlighting centuries-old civilizational exchanges and shared values between the two nations.

"Tea embodies simplicity, peace, and inclusiveness -- ideals we both cherish," Jiang said.

Both sides pledged to deepen people-to-people exchanges and enhance coordination at multilateral platforms such as the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. 

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong speaks during a ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)

A woman serves Chinese tea to a Pakistani guest during a ceremony marking the 74th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY)  Search trends show the most sought-after states to move to so far in 2025, and West Virginia has been a popular choice.

According to a report from U.S. News & World Report, West Virginia is ranked 7th in states with the highest migration interest based on total internet searches in the first part of 2025.

The report states that many enjoy West Virginia because it, along with other mountain states, has a more relaxed lifestyle and lower cost of living. It also notes that West Virginia offers everything from hiking to white-water rafting for things to do.

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Fish for free without a license at West Virginias Free Fishing Days

West Virginia has previously been ranked as the most affordable state for many things, and the cheapest state to retire in. Another study found that there was more interest in moving into West Virginia than moving out.

Other sought-after states include South Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, North Carolina, Maine, Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi for other reasons such as coastal views, mild weather, history and more. You can view the whole study here.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.
Graduating seniors from Westlake High School paid homage to their former schools, Thunder Ridge and Saratoga Shores elementary schools on Wednesday afternoon.

The walkthrough event honored the high school seniors as well as the graduating sixth graders from the elementary school. Students had the chance to walk through the hallways of the elementary schools to the applause of teachers, younger students and family members. The afternoon was magical for the seniors, sixth graders and elementary school kids in awe of the grads.

The event brought many emotions to the surface for students and family members alike.

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Its cool because they are seeing their future, and we are seeing our past.  It is bittersweet between leaving and being the face of the future, said Westlake graduate Ryan Sanderson.

The walkthrough is intended to inspire the elementary school students to continue working hard in school and push toward their goals. Each class took the chance to cheer on the seniors in the hallways and look toward their future.

It means a lot to me. I was lucky enough to do all six years at this school. This is where I met all these people, where I did so much school, said graduate Kara Phifer. Its definitely a lot of nostalgia.  I feel excited for the next chapter of my life but also happy to look back on the past.

The walkthrough followed the sixth-grade graduation. The hallways were packed with students, family and faculty. Parading down the halls, the graduates saw their old teachers and classrooms and reminisced on how far they had come.

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Walkthroughs are a growing trend for graduating seniors, especially in Utah. Students, faculty and staff all love the opportunity to provide positive role models and be a part of something bigger than themselves.

School is hard, and I think the sixth graders will feel it next year. So, I hope they see us and hope to be able to get where we are, Phifer shared.
A Frontier Airlines flight from Orlando ran into serious trouble while landing in Puerto Rico.

The NTSB says a wheel broke off the nose gear, hit the wing and then got sucked into the engine.

Officials said the incident happened last month.

Despite the damage, the pilot safely landed the plane with help from air traffic controllers.

The cause of the damage is still under investigation.

Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Activists and fans of two Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo are outraged after the two animals were transferred to a new home in the middle of the night.

Billy, 40, and Tina, 59  who have been at the facility for many years  vanished on Wednesday, after being pictured with shackles around their legs over the weekend.

The pairs transfer to the Tulsa Zoo, in Oklahoma, has triggered controversy and lawsuits. A judge at the L.A. Superior Court last week denied a temporary restraining order that would have halted the move.

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"It's just really too bad, and there's a lot of broken hearts right now," Judie Mancuso, the founder and president of Social Compassion in Legislation, told ABC7. "We knew it was coming, with the shackles on them.

Activists and fans of two Asian elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo have been left outraged after the two animals were transferred to a new home in the middle of the night. The pairs transfer to the Tulsa Zoo, in Oklahoma, has triggered controversy and lawsuits (Getty Images)

The outlet reported that aerial observers flying over Billy and Tinas enclosure on Tuesday were unable to see either animal. ABC7 contacted both the L.A. Zoo and Mayor Karen Bass office, but received no response.

The L.A. Zoo confirmed on Wednesday, however, that the elephants had arrived safely in Tulsa, where they will have more space, and other animals for them to interact with.

Their new habitat totals 17 acres, including two barns, recently renovated and expanded yards, and a ten-acre wooded preserve that is part of a federally protected wetland not open to public viewing.

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The recently completed renovations also include a newly constructed 36,650-square-foot state-of-the-art elephant barn.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Billy and Tina were transported together by truck in separate ventilated containers on a drive that took around 24 hours in total. The L.A. Zoo said that the drive had taken place overnight in hopes of optimal temperatures for the elephants and minimal traffic, but did not provide further details.

The L.A. Zoo confirmed on Wednesday that the elephants had arrived safely in Tulsa, where they will have more space, and other animals for them to interact with. Their new habitat totals 17 acres, including two barns, recently renovated and expanded yards, and a ten-acre wooded preserve that is part of a Federally protected wetland not open to public viewing (Getty Images)

The cost of moving the animals will be split between the two zoos, with L.A. paying $44,000.

The zoos website, which includes an FAQ section about the move, states that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums requires accredited zoos to maintain a herd of at least three elephants, due to their nature as social animals.

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Following the loss of two older elephants, Jewel in 2023 and Shaunzi last year, the L.A. Zoo acknowledged that it no longer met that standard. And the facility is currently unable to increase the size of its Asian elephant population.

"Visitors to the L.A. Zoo have enjoyed watching and learning from Billy and Tina for years," a spokesperson for the zoo said in a previous statement shared with ABC7.

"The difficult decision to relocate them was made in consultation with, and on the recommendation of, experts from around the country affiliated with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the statement added.

"Ultimately, this decision, as is the case with all animal care decisions at the L.A. Zoo, is driven by the unwavering commitment to the health and wellbeing of the animals."
(NewsNation)  Residents of Conyers, Georgia, want answers as to why the Environmental Protection Agency did not conduct further testing after a chemical plant fire in the town eight months ago.

Others said they want the EPA held accountable because they believe the agency failed to warn them of potential toxins.

On September 29, 2024, a fire broke out at the BioLab chemical plant that left Conyers covered in a blanket of toxic smoke. Resident Cheryl Garcia said she knew it was serious.

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My husband came out to do something on the porch, and he came back and his eyes were burning and his throat was burning really badly, Garcia said.

Wildfire smoke exposure is harming pregnant patients: Study

At the time of the fire, 17,000 residents evacuated from the area, while others were told to shelter in place. The EPA said the soot and ash were not dangerous in any way and that the dangerous compounds were detected well below concern levels. Independent testing done afterward, however, says otherwise.

Scott Smith, an independent disaster testing expert who also worked in East Palestine, Ohio, said products of incomplete combustion, dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the same chemicals found in East Palestine, were also found in Conyers. They are confirmed to be carcinogens.

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Since the fire, Garcia has been diagnosed with vocal cord dysphonia. Garcia now takes multiple medications every day to manage her condition.

Garcias attorney, Mindy Bish, places the blame on the EPA.

They should have known that chlorine gas was extremely deadly to humans, Bish said.

Daniel Blackman, a former EPA administrator for the region, said ongoing testing should have happened the moment soot and ash from the fire hit the ground, especially as the fire was still burning as well. He said his successors could have handled the situation better.

Universities struggle to keep cancer research afloat amid Trump funding cuts

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Blackman added he believes that the EPA did not effectively communicate the risks to residents of Conyers and that the acting administrator did not take the lead.

People walk around with so many questions for which they can get no answers, and really, what they want is the straight talk. Just tell me the truth, Bish said.

Garcia said the ordeal has been emotionally devastating.

I just feel lost, confused and afraid, Garcia said. I cant trust anybody.

The EPA released a statement, saying it did do independent testing and that it deferred to the Rockdale County Fire Department to handle the BioLab fire.

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Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation.
Gov. Spencer Cox got a crash course as an electrician Wednesday: wiring a light fixture, bending a metal conduit and watching a hot dog be fried with 120 volts of electricity during a tour of a West Jordan apprenticeship training facility.

Dozens of students laughed when the governor said a series of trigonometry equations written on the whiteboard are why he went to law school, and they applauded as he flipped a switch, successfully illuminating a light bulb he wired.

Cox was accompanied by U.S. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, a Trump administration official who was in the state to promote the presidents push to expand opportunities in high-skilled trades and learn from programs already in place in Utah. President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month directing three top cabinet officials to reach at least 1 million apprenticeships nationwide.

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This is coming from the president himself, Sonderling told KSL.com after the tour of the Utah Electrical Training Alliance facility. The reason I wanted to come out here is to actually see how an apprenticeship program is working in a very highly skilled trade area. And, you know, its an honor to be here with the governor, because Utah is doing it right, both from the state perspective in legislation that has been passed, or might be passed, but also in encouraging these type of jobs and encouraging students to look at apprenticeships in these amazing state-of-the-art facilities here.

Seeing a facility like this allows me ... when I go back to D.C., when I travel the country, to show the rest of the country how its being done, he added.

Cox has long been focused on creating opportunities for education and employment outside of the traditional higher education  he promoted a skills-first hiring initiative during his first term to expand work opportunities for those without college degrees  and said Wednesday its important to combat a stigma that has surrounded trade jobs historically.

When I ask parents, Whats your kid doing after high school? and theyre kind of embarrassed to tell me that they might be going into a trade or a technical course, the governor said. And I always tell them: Please do not be embarrassed about that. You should be shouting that from the rooftops. Yeah, its cool (if) your kid gets into Harvard. Its also cool that theyre here.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith E. Sonderling installs a light switch while visiting Utah Electrical Training Alliance in West Jordan on Wednesday. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Cox also touted investments from the Utah Legislature in career and technical education, totaling about $65 million to establish so-called catalyst centers for K-12 students. He told the group the state is invested in growing programs like the one that serves some 800 apprentices in West Jordan.

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The demand for electricians, especially, is just going to skyrocket over the next 10 years, the governor said. So, youve chosen very wisely, and were lucky that youre here and grateful for your examples.

This is what President Trump sees as the future in the American workforce, Sonderling told one classroom. All of you are leading by example, are making great stories for me, the governor, to take it back as we look to implement these programs across the United States.

Cox said he wants the Legislature to continue to invest in apprenticeship opportunities and hopes more people will consider trades as an alternative to traditional four-year degrees.

We need to convince more and more people this is great for them and its what they want to do, he said. Theyre just kids who have a knack for this kind of stuff, and kind of forcing them into a bachelors degree isnt great for them either. So, lets find these other opportunities, and lets do a better job of promoting that.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (at bottom), joined Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (top left) and New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham (top right) on a virtual press call organized by the Democratic Governors Association to discuss the effects of Medicaid cuts. May 21, 2025 | Screenshot

Michigans Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday evening that the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives budget bill  which passed Thursday morning  would have disastrous consequences for 2.6 million Michiganders.

The dire message came during a virtual press call organized by the Democratic Governors Association on Wednesday. Whitmer was joined by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

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The call was meant to highlight the potentially damaging effects of making deep cuts to Medicaid, which has been a part of ongoing negotiations among Republican appropriators in the U.S. House of Representatives. Each member of Michigans Republican congressional delegation voted for the bill, while the Democratic members of the delegation voted against it.

Whitmer said that among the 2.6 million Michiganders who could lose access to their coverage if the cuts go through, nearly one million were children.

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Theyre our neighbors. Theyre people who are battling cancer, veterans who served our country, who are disabled, the family next door, and the GOP is rushing to terminate Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans as fast as possible, Whitmer said. They dont want us to see all that is contained in that bill, and blasting through these cuts is going to hurt those who can least afford care, and wont do anything to lower our health care costs. In fact, theyll rise for everyone.

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Whitmer said the Republican U.S. House budget currently in the works would make some of the largest cuts to Medicaid in the countrys history. She added that the cuts would cause providers to close their doors, a potential lack of available rural health care and a reduction in the quality of medical service in Michigan  on top of the possibility of terminated coverage for children and post-partum women.

Make no mistake, families in Michigan and all across the country are going to feel the effects of this bill in our day-to-day lives, Whitmer said. Im talking to Michiganders every day. Im hearing their stories.  We should be working across the aisle to make health care better and easier to afford, kind of like weve done here in Michigan.

Whitmer touted the bipartisan effort to enact the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid to more than a million people. Last year, the state also codified portions of the Affordable Care Act into Michigan.

We wanted to protect Michiganders with pre-existing conditions and let kids stay on their parents insurance until theyre 26, and we wanted to guarantee essential services and insurance plans, she said.

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If Republicans in Congress truly wanted to see improvements in health costs and help for more families to get coverage, Whitmer said she was all for it and was willing to work with them. But thats not what the budget bill does, she noted.

It does the opposite, Whitmer said. Families in my state and all across the country are going to pay the price for it, and thats why were together, united, fighting for the people in our country and our ability to get health care.

Whitmer was asked about U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), one of the front runners on the Michigan Republican side of the 2026 gubernatorial race to replace her. James voted to move the bill out of committee and voted for the bill on Thursday. The congressman has been steadfast in his belief that the bill and its cuts to Medicaid would help reduce fraud, waste and abuse.

Michigans governor was asked if voters from her state were willing to accept that argument.

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Whitmer said that she worked with Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder to expand the states Medicaid program when she was the Michigan Senate minority leader before running for governor herself. She said Snyder, a self-professed nerd for details, understood the math involved and what it meant to have access to these types of programs.

It motivated him to work across the aisle. Almost a million people in Michigan got health care because of that work, Whitmer said. It is shocking to me that we are in this moment where if there was one [Republican] congressperson with a backbone from each of our four states, they could single handedly stop this from happening by working together.

In that vein, she called on James to stand up to his caucus and be a hero.

He says he wants my job. Well, you know what? I guarantee he doesnt want it if hes throwing 700,000 people off of health care in the state, running hospitals into the ground, Whitmer said. He could be a hero here.  Michiganders expect and want leaders who are going to put their interests first. And so this talking point about fraud, were all against fraud; 100 percent of us are against fraud, and we know theres always more ways that we can help find some savings and make government work better. But thats not what this bill is all about. This bill is about terminating healthcare for Americans in order to pay for a tax break for the ultra wealthy.
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If you have children under four, I dont need to explain who Ms. Rachel is to you. If toddlers could break down Maslows hierarchy of needs, they would most certainly include a GoGo Squeez pouch, taking things out of cabinets, and watching the YouTube star and childrens educator on repeat.

With her signature pink headband, denim overalls, and sing-songy voice, a woman once described as a toddler whisperer seems the least likely candidate to become a lightning rod for controversy, or even the subject of discourse beyond a tired mom asking out loud, to nobody in particular, Another 20 minutes of screen time is fine if its educational, right?

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Yet nobody seems to draw as much ire or praise these days as Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso. Depending on who youre talking to (and which headlines you read), your opinion on the former preschool music teacher has somehow become a shorthand for your entire worldview.

So, how did we get here? Why is everyonewhether they have little kids or notso obsessed with talking about Ms. Rachel right now? Lets break it down in the latest TL;DR.

Give Me the TL;DR

Accurso has been making headlines recently for her outspoken support of children affected by the war in Gaza. Just this week, she posted a video of herself singing toddler favorite Hop Little Bunnies with Rahaf, a 3-year-old double amputee who lost her legs in an airstrike. Over footage of Rahaf bounging happily along to the song, Accurso wrote that she would do everything she can to help Rahaf and children everywhere whose human rights are being violated and thanked the Palestine Childrens Relief Fund for their efforts.

Thank you to everyone who sees Rahaf like you see your own child and is speaking out for her and children like her, she continued. I love you, sweet Rahaf.

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While many have praised Accursos advocacy for children in Gaza, and for using her platform to shine a light on humanitarian efforts there, others have accused her of treating Palestinian children with more sympathy than Israeli ones and even outright antisemitism.

I need more. Whats the background here?

If youre not caught up on the Ms. Rachel lore, heres a brief history: Accurso started her YouTube channel after realizing there was a lack of media for children, like her son, who had a delay in speech development. She used techniques from speech therapists and early childhood experts to create Songs for Littles, a series where she sings nursery rhymes, teaches sign language for words like more and thank you, and introduces phonics, colors, shapes, and other skills that might help prepare little kids for preschool and kindergarten. A billion or so views later, the mother of two now has over 14 million subscribers, a major Netflix licensing deal, and a line of toys available at major retailers like Target and Walmart.

While her videos always speak to children and are focused on education, Accursos social media posts are more for parents and caregivers. Among the parenting tips and heartwarming videos are posts about more serious topics, like postpartum depression and universal childcare.

And with success has come some controversies, of course. Conservatives have criticized Accurso and called for a Ms. Rachel boycott over videos that featured a nonbinary costar who uses they/them pronouns as well as a post on TikTok that wished viewers a happy Pride Month.

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The biggest divide, however, has been around her posts about children suffering due to the war in Gaza. In May 2024, Accurso raised over $50,000 for Save the Children through making Cameo videos. In her post announcing the fundraising campaign, she said all proceeds would help children in many war-torn parts of the worldincluding Gaza. Critics flooded her feed, asking why she didnt mention raising money for Israeli children affected by Hamas deadly October 7 attack.

A few days later, Accurso posted a tearful video in which she reiterated that she cares deeply for all children. Palestinian children, Israeli children, children in the USMuslim, Jewish, Christian childrenall children, in every country, she wrote in the caption. Not one is excluded. To do a fundraiser for children who are currently starvingwho have no food or waterwho are being killedis human.

Since then, Accurso has continued to post support for both Palestinian and Israeli children and doubled down on her view that it shouldnt be controversial to want to help children in distress, regardless of their background.

Still, last month, the organization Stop Antisemitism accused her of spreading Hamas propaganda, claimed she only posted about Israeli children because of backlash, and questioned whether or not she was being funded for her post. Accurso told the New York Times, This accusation is not only absurd, its patently false.

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She did not dispute that she has posted more frequently about Gazan children, but said, The painful reality is that Palestinian children in Gaza have been killed by the thousands and continue to be killed, maimed, and starved right now. The idea that caring about one group of children prevents us from caring about another group of children is false.

The reason I post about Israeli children is because I care deeply about them, she continued. The accusation that I would be doing it for any other reason is outrageous and wrong.

Has Ms. Rachel responded to all of this?

Oh yes, multiple times. In addition to the aforementioned New York Times interview and social media posts, Accurso spoke with journalist Mehdi Hasan for his independent publication Zeteo. Its sad that people try to make it controversial when you speak out for children that are facing immeasurable suffering, she said. The idea that caring for a group of children in an emergency situation means you dont care about other children is false.

Why should I care?

Theres no denying that Ms. Rachel has clout. So whenever she shares her opinion on something, especially if its as divisive as the war in Gaza, people will pay attention. And somebody as influential as she is with children, in particular, will always be treated with more scrutiny for better or for worse.

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Its natural to want the people your child looks up to be aligned with your own moral code. We cant guarantee that their teachers (or even their own grandparents) vote the same way we do, as much as we might want to. The one thing we do have some control over is the media they consume. So yeah, who Ms. Rachel is to youa hero, a villain, or something in betweenprobably will inform how much Icky Sticky Bubble Gum youll be listening to in the future.

Ive been blessed to get this platform, Accurso told Hasan. And kids feel that I care about them all deeply, and thats why I have the platform. Because they feel it through the screen, because its genuine.

Originally Appeared on Glamour

More Parenting
VIENTIANE, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Lao state-owned Electricite du Laos (EDL) is working to enhance electricity operations, strengthen coordination between central and local levels, and improve overall efficiency and effectiveness.

Refining the electricity pricing structure, strengthening coordination between central and local levels, and developing detailed, actionable work plans are key priorities for improving efficiency, Socio-Economic News on Thursday quoted EDL Chairman Akhomdeth Vongsay as saying during a meeting with key officials in Xaysomboun province on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the delegation listened to a report outlining recent achievements, including improvements in grid management, customer service, energy loss reduction, debt collection, and overall system stability. The report also highlighted ongoing efforts to ensure transparency and public understanding.

Provincial officials also presented future plans aimed at enhancing system efficiency, reliability, and sustainability. These include investments in infrastructure, digital system management, workforce development, and the promotion of energy efficiency. 
Sen. Renee Erickson listens at a hearing on March 31, 2025, at the Kansas Statehouse. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

The Kansas Open Records Act makes clear demands of state and local government.

This vital law requires timely release of public records within three business days of receiving a request. If officials cant fulfill that timeline, theyre required to explain why, in detail.

The Kansas Senate Committee on Government Efficiency claims to be working for the good of all by ferreting out waste and bloat in state government. Perhaps it should start with itself, or at least with chairwoman Renee Erickson, R-Wichita. She led the effort to stonewall news media requests for public recommendations submitted to COGE through its online portal. Kansas Reflector requested the records from her on Feb. 25. They werent released until April 9  more than six weeks later.

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By that time, our reporter Anna Kaminski had already examined a leaked copy of public feedback.

That batch of public comments suggested why Erickson pushed the public release until after the legislative session ended. Kansans blasted the committee with messages calling for Medicaid expansion, legalized cannabis and tolerance for LGBTQ+ youths. They show, in short, how anti-government narratives miss the mark in Kansas, where right-wing ideologues have poisoned the well of state government for years.

On Wednesday, Kansas Reflector editor in chief Sherman Smith submitted a complaint to the state Attorney Generals Office about this delay. Ericksons committee did not respond to our request in a timely manner, and the broader public suffered because crucial information was hidden. COGE members could access the messages in mid-March, but their constituents could not. We believe that government officials should be held responsible for delay and obfuscation.

We heard attempts to justify the delays at a COGE meeting May 13. There were just so many messages. We had to screen them all. We didnt delete anything.

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Gordon Self, a legislative staff member, opined: Once the KORA requests were received and a response was made, there was a review of the records, all 2,000, to determine if any of the records did contain information. After a thorough review, there were some identified that did have some sensitive information in them.

Erickson harumphed: At the end of the day, there are none that have been deleted, there are none that are not available for review. But as was said, we wanted to make sure that we were not including information that was not appropriate for such a situation.

Forgive me for rolling my eyes. These self-satisfied excuses dont add up.

None of the messages reviewed by Kansas Reflector staff appear to include sensitive information that the government had to shield from prying eyes. As noted earlier, a tranche of unredacted submissions was leaked to us in late March. We have compared the two versions. Theres no there there.

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In one message, for instance, Statehouse staff omitted a profane phrase. That didnt protect anyones personal or private information.

In another case, the same suggestion was apparently submitted in two categories. The messages mention Senate President Ty Mastersons lucrative side hustle at Wichita Stare University, where he earns more than $150,000 a year as director of GoCreate, a Koch Collaborative. In one of them, Mastersons name has been redacted, along with that of the author. In the other, neither Masterson nor the author has been redacted.

Only a few dozen of the thousand-plus messages saw any redactions at all.

Perhaps Statehouse staff dont have the slightest idea what theyre doing. Perhaps they made a few random edits to the messages to justify the month-plus delay. Neither option should fill Kansans with confidence in their legislators or the work of COGE.

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Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the COGE web portal includes the warning that Portal submissions are public records that are subject to the Kansas Open Records Act. Those sending in feedback have to check a box next to that warning. Why even bother to do that if youre going to screen the material afterward?

Like other public records conflicts, this runs the risk of sounding petty. So what, I can hear some readers ask. You got the information anyway. Why fuss?

My answer remains the same as when I wrote about Emporia State Universitys unconscionable response in turning over information to Kansas Reflector. This information belongs to everyone. Lawmakers dont get to pass a law and then arbitrarily decide whether to follow it. If they expect town and county governments to follow KORA, if they expect other state agencies to follow KORA, they can damn well follow it themselves.

Thats what justice and fair play demands. Thats what their fellow Kansans deserve. And its what were going to do, no matter Ericksons sanctimonious claptrap.

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The full complaint follows:

COGE kora complaint

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
On Monday, May 26, millions of people around the United States will be observing Memorial Day and honoring members of the military who have fallen in the line of duty, protecting the country and our way of life. Americans will attend ceremonies, lay flowers at gravesites and mourn.

Some of them will be wearing red flowers on their lapels. You may also see people wearing them on Friday, May 23, for National Poppy Day. Why?

It started during World War I.

Where did the red poppies come from?

According to the American Legion, red poppies bloomed brightly across France and Belgium during WWI, something scientists attributed to the soil enriched with lime from rubble left over from the battles.

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The sight of colorful red flowers sprouting among and around rows of white crosses of fallen soldiers in Flanders prompted Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada's First Brigade Artillery who had just buried his friend and fellow soldier, to write a poem to speak for the fallen and issue a call to action for the living.

The poem was printed in the British magazine "Punch" in 1915 and captured the attention of the British Commonwealth. It "became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War," according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and was read at memorial ceremonies.

The red poppy became known as the "Flower of Remembrance" in the allied countries America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and became a symbol of the "war to end all wars" and its human cost.

What was the World War I poem about red poppies?

In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly. / Scarce heard amid the guns below.

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We are the dead. Short days ago / We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow / Loved, and were loved, and now we lie / In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: / To you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high. / If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields.

Why are red poppies distributed and worn?

Red 'Buddy Poppies' are distributed to honor veterans, with proceeds going to benefit the Veterans of Foreign Wars Veterans Assistance Programs.

Anna E. Guerin of France and Moina Michael of Georgia both were touched by the poem and worked to create and sell artificial poppies, also known as "remembrance poppies," to help widows and orphans who were left homeless and destitute by the war.

Michael campaigned to make the silk poppy a national symbol of remembrance, selling them to raise money for veterans and their families. Guerin traveled to the United States to create an American version of a French veterans' organization, which used the poppy as its symbol.

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The two women promoted the sale of artificial poppies to raise money for veterans, widows, orphans, bonds, and charities helping veterans such as the Red Cross. The National American Legion adopted the poppy in 1920 and made it their official flower in 1924. The Veterans of Foreign Wars helped the women when they ran into distribution problems, established the red poppy as its own official memorial flower and created the VFW Buddy Poppy, named after the factory where they were assembled.

Over 100 years later, red poppies from both the VFW and the American Legion still are handed out on veteran recognition days such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day and National Poppy Day.

When is National Poppy Day?

National Poppy Day is observed the Friday before Memorial Day. This year, that's May 23, 2025.

Each year, members of the American Legion distribute poppies with a request that the person receiving it donates to support the future of veterans, active-duty military personnel and their families with medical and financial needs.

What's the difference between the VFW and the American Legion poppies?

A man holds a poppy distributed by the American Legion.

Both organizations use the poppies to raise money for veterans' needs and to provide income for the veterans assembling them.

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In 1920, the American Legion Auxillary successfully lobbied for National Poppy Day. The ALA distributes millions of crepe poppies annually in exchange for donations that go directly to assist disabled and hospitalized veterans in local communities. ALA poppies have a black center.

When the VFW began distributing them, they created their own and called it a Buddy Poppy. Veterans are paid to make them and donations from the program provide financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs and partially support the VFW National Home. Theirs has a green center.

Other countries also adopted the red poppy as their official symbol of remembrance, largely due to Guerin's efforts.

What do red poppies represent?

A man accepts a poppy from a Navy veteran after making a donation.

The red poppy is seen by many as a lasting tribute to all those who served their country and sacrificed their lives for its freedom.

When do people wear the red poppies?

The poppies are distributed on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, although they're more commonly worn for Memorial Day in the United States.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: What is National Poppy Day? Flowers honor the fallen for Memorial Day
In the early 19th century, one of the founding fathers of modern war studies, the Prussian general and military historian Carl von Clausewitz, commented on the Napoleonic Wars: "The conqueror is always peace-loving; he would much prefer to march into our state calmly."

This remains an observation that applies to most military aggressions.

Yet, Clausewitz's basic idea was ignored by most Europeans in their interpretation of Moscow's behaviour after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014.

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Much of European diplomacy and commentary until 2022 instead built on the assumption that the Kremlin's public insistence on the peacefulness of its intentions towards Kyiv implies that one can and should negotiate and moderate Russian aims and behaviour in Ukraine.

This inapt premise ignored that Russian President Vladimir Putin merely preferred Ukraine's non-violent takeover to an uncertain future military campaign against Kyiv. When, eleven years ago, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea and covertly invaded eastern Ukraine, the war as such had no benefits for Putin and his entourage.

Instead, a hybrid subversion of Ukraine by Russian agents and proxy forces, rather than a violent occupation of most of the Ukrainian lands by tens of thousands of regular Russian troops, was the preferred method.

During the last three years, however, the role of Russia's - now full-scale - military invasion of Ukraine for Putin's regime has changed. One the one side, the war itself has acquired a stabilizing function for the Russian political system that relies on an increasingly extremist ideology, militarized economy and mobilized society. On the other side, most European politicians, diplomats and experts now have fewer illusions about Putin's putative love for peace than they had a decade ago.

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In contrast, the hitherto largely adequate perception of Moscow's strategy in Washington has been replaced, since January 2025, by an escapist approach to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Read also: Its all a farce  Ukrainian soldiers on Russias smokescreen peace talks in Istanbul

The degree of the new U.S. administration's political naivety, moral indifference and diplomatic dilettantism, during its first four months in office, has been astonishing. Even in view of the aberrations during Trump's first presidency of 2017-2021, the inadequacy of the last months' statements and actions by the White House regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War has triggered shockwaves in Europe and elsewhere.

One suspects that not only strategic infantilism, but also political respect and even personal sympathy, in the Trump administration, for Putin, have been driving the recent zigzags of the U.S.

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Four months of American shuttle diplomacy and mediation attempts have achieved only little. The results of this week's two-hour conversation between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump have also been meagre. To be sure, the two presidents spoke, after their telephone talk, of success.

Yet, there are no tangible outcomes of the intense trilateral negotiations between Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv, and of the direct interactions between the U.S. and Russian presidents.

Putin made it clear that there would not be any ceasefire soon.

Russian imperialism will not be neutralized by negotiations, compromises, or concessions.

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Trump announced that there should be direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, as if the two countries had not been negotiating with each other, in different formats, for more than eleven years already.

In his comment about Monday's phone call, Putin, in fact, engaged in a trolling of Ukraine, the U.S., and the entire West in two ways.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking with students at the Sirius Education Center for Talented Children in Sirius, Russia, on May 19, 2025. (Contributor / Getty Images)

First, the term that Russia has recently introduced and Putin used to label the primary aim to be achieved in upcoming negotiations is "memorandum." Everybody familiar with the history of post-Soviet Russo-Ukrainian relations will know that there exists already a historic security-related "memorandum" signed by Moscow and Kyiv (as well as Washington and London) at Hungary's capital more than 30 years ago.

In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Moscow guaranteed, in exchange for Kyiv's agreement to hand over all of its nuclear warheads to Russia, that it would not attack Ukraine. Washington and London too assured Kyiv that they respect the Ukrainian borders and sovereignty.

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After Moscow has been demonstratively trampling the letter and spirit of the Budapest Memorandum for eleven years, the Kremlin is now offering to sign another Russo-Ukrainian "memorandum."

Second, Putin did not exclude, after speaking to Trump, that future negotiations with Kyiv may lead to a truce. Yet, the Russian president added that, "if appropriate agreements are reached," a "possible ceasefire" would only be "for a certain period of time." Even if the negotiations are successful, the armistice will be merely temporary.

That caveat by Putin is an apt admission: The Russian war economy and population's military mobilization are now so far advanced that they cannot be easily stopped. Moscow is not any longer able to abruptly discontinue warfighting. What would happen to Russia's hundreds of thousands of enlisted soldiers, large-scale weapons production, and routine bellicose as well as intense Ukrainophobic campaigns in many spheres of Russian social life (education, media, culture etc.), if there is suddenly a permanent peace?

These and similar signals from Moscow allow only one conclusion: To end the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia needs to experience a humiliating defeat on the battlefield.

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The lesson from the past is, moreover, that Russian military failures have triggered domestic liberalization, such as the Great Reforms after the Crimean War of 1854-1856, or the introduction of semi-constitutionalism following the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

One of the determinants of Glasnost and Perestroika was the disastrous failure of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-1989.

Russian imperialism will not be neutralized by negotiations, compromises, or concessions. Instead, such approaches only promote further foreign adventurism in Moscow and military escalation along Russia's borders. The Kremlin will one day end Russia's expansionist wars as well as genocidal terror against civilians in Ukraine and elsewhere. Yet for that to happen, the Russian people first need to start believing that such behaviour cannot lead to victory, may trigger internal collapse, and will be resolutely punished.

Editors Note: The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

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Read also: There we go again  For war-weary Europe, Trump-Putin call yet another signal to wake up

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At least 40 hippopotamuses have been found dead in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo due to anthrax poisoning.

What's happening?

According to a park spokesperson, the dead hippos were discovered along the Ishasha River and its banks. USA Today confirmed that between 40 and 50 hippopotamuses died suddenly.

"Unfortunately, this has happened before, and it's to do with when the rains come at this time of year," said a park spokesperson per USA Today.

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Anthrax is a serious bacterial disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, a pathogen that lives in soil. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that wild and domestic animals can become infected when they breathe in, eat, or drink spores in contaminated environments, especially after heavy rains disturb the soil.

Why does it matter?

Virunga is Africa's oldest national park and one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. It's also home to many threatened species, and the hippo population there is already on the brink. There were nearly 30,000 hippos in the 1970s. Today, fewer than 1,200 remain due to poaching, habitat loss, and climate-linked pressures.

Hippos are critical to the ecosystems they inhabit. Their grazing patterns and movement help shape river systems and support a variety of other life, from birds to fish to local vegetation. Losing large numbers of them at once could throw the region's fragile ecological balance even further out of sync.

The loss of hippos at Virunga isn't just a wildlife crisis; it also puts local livelihoods at risk. Hippos are a key part of the park's appeal to ecotourists, whose visits support jobs and income in surrounding communities. Their decline, paired with the spread of anthrax, threatens both economic stability and public health in the region.

What's being done about it?

Park teams are removing infected animal carcasses and working with the Ugandan Wildlife Authority and Congolese health authorities to warn nearby communities about health risks.

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Individuals can help by donating to wildlife protection efforts, sharing trusted information to raise awareness, and supporting sustainable ecotourism. Reducing demand for wildlife products and advocating for conservation funding also helps protect vulnerable species and the communities that live alongside them.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
WILSON, N.C. (WNCT)  Navy Veteran Mick Rankin was invited by the Wilson County Committee on Patriotism to give an annual Memorial Day address.

The annual program is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 26, in front of the Wilson County Courthouse, located on 115 Nash St. The ceremony usually lasts an hour and includes patriotic music, speeches, and flag ceremonies. The public will be welcome to attend.

If it rains, the event will be moved to the City Council chambers, Wilson City Hall, 112 Goldsboro St. E.

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The Memorial Day service will also include music from Sherry Danzy from St. Pauls Church of Christ, flag ceremonies involving the Junior ROTCs of Beddingfield, Hunt and Fike high schools, a welcome by Wilson Mayor Carlton Stevens, a POW/MIA service, placing of a wreath in honor of the countys war dead, and prayers by James A. Faison, the committees chaplain. The event will then conclude with a 21-gun salute and the playing of Taps.

After the event is over, participants are invited to enjoy a free hotdog lunch. Tickets will be given out at the event.

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A winning $100,000 lottery ticket was sold at a Cumberland Farms gas station in Massachusetts on Wednesday.

The $100,000 grand prize was from the daily Mass Cash drawing. The winning numbers for the May 21 drawing were 19, 20, 22, 23 and 31.

A ticket that matched all five numbers was sold at a Cumberland Farms gas station in Dalton.

Overall, at least 498 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Wednesday, including 18 in Springfield, 18 in Worcester and 45 in Boston.

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The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.

The two largest lottery prizes won so far in 2025 were each worth $15 million. One of the prizes was from a winning Diamond Deluxe scratch ticket sold in Holyoke, and the other was from a 300X scratch ticket sold on Cape Cod.

Massachusetts State Lottery

Read the original article on MassLive.
JANESVILLE, Wis. (WFRV)  A 30-year-old man is facing serious charges after allegedly hitting two people on motorized bikes with his vehicle in what investigators believe was an intentional act.

The incident happened just after midnight on May 12 near Pine Tree Plaza at 2900 Deerfield Drive in Janesville. Officers responded to a hit-and-run crash where two individuals on motorized bikes were struck by a vehicle.

Sex offender in Wisconsin arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting child under 13

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One of the riders suffered significant injuries and was transported to a nearby hospital. The driver fled the scene, but the suspect vehicle was later located.

Wisconsin bank robbery suspect arrested in northern Illinois after officers spot vehicle in Chicagoland area

Following an investigation, authorities determined that the crash appeared to be deliberate. On Wednesday, Kade D. Larson of Janesville was arrested and booked on two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and one count of hit-and-run causing great bodily harm.

No further information has been released at this time.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
RUSSELLVILLE, Ala. (WHNT)  Ahead of News 19s telethon benefiting Make-A-Wish Alabama, we want to introduce you to just a few of the 78 children in North Alabama who are Wish Kids.

They cant wait to see their wishes get granted, but it takes donations to make it happen. One of those children waiting for her wish is MaKya.

The eight-year-old is always on the move.

Shes playing softball, she does baton, and she does the cheerleading clinics in school, Mom ReShanga Baker said.

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When shes not doing extracurriculars, her family said she is always getting into something at home. She loves playing outside too.

Not only is she a young athlete, but she excels in school. Her favorite subject is Math.

After class, after-school activities, and homework, its time for bed. Before she sleeps, however, she must be hooked up to her TPN machine for a nine-hour run. Its connected through a central line in her chest.

Its like a catheter. It gives her nutrients she doesnt get by mouth with her small intestine, ReShanga said. Her digestive system is different from ours.

MaKya was born with only 10% of her small intestine. ReShanga said before she was born, doctors believed she had a cyst. When she entered the world, ReShanga said she was immediately flown to Huntsville Hospital for emergency treatment. She didnt get to meet her daughter until two days later.

[Doctors] say she had, basically, something like gangrene. They went in and cut out the part. She was lying in the incubator with the tubes and stuff on her, ReShanga said.

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She didnt leave the hospital for five months. Now, MaKya has braved more surgeries than shes had years of life.

Shes probably had about 10 or 12 in total, ReShanga said.

MaKya goes to her local doctor every month for checkups, then travels for an in-depth look at Childrens a couple of times a year. MaKya said she doesnt mind the check-ups.

Only when I have to go into surgeries, Im scared, MaKya said.

ReShanga said as long as her daughters central line stays in tip-top shape, there may not need to be any more surgeries.

There was a silver lining when she had her last operation, though: MaKya discovered a love of Disney movies, especially Moana.

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After the operation, when she was five, ReShanga was connected with Make-A-Wish Alabama. MaKya said she wanted to go to Disney World.

She was so excited. She was just yelling and jumping, ReShanga said. To see her have a good time and enjoy herself. I think thats what Im looking forward to.

MaKya is bringing her older sister, her mom, and her stepdad with her on her trip. She cant wait to run through the parks and ride as many rides as she can.

If youre interested in helping Make-A-Wish Alabama grant wishes like MaKyas, you can donate to News 19s Wishes Cant Wait telethon right now! Click here.

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WILLIAMSBRIDGE, The Bronx (PIX11)  Police are searching for the two suspects accused of attacking an 89-year-old woman waiting for a bus in the Bronx on Monday.

Police said it happened near 211th Street and White Plains Road around noon. The woman got into an argument with one of the suspects, who allegedly slapped her in the face, according to authorities.

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Police said the other suspect allegedly shoved the woman to the ground, causing serious injuries.

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The woman was taken to a local hospital by EMS in critical condition, according to authorities.

Police said one suspect boarded the MTA bus while the other fled on foot.

The first suspect is a woman last seen wearing a black shirt, black jacket and blue jeans, according to authorities. Police described the second suspect as a man wearing a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt, dark pants and red sneakers.

Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).

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Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.

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SUVA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Fiji plans to launch a Safe City Project to enhance public safety and security through advanced surveillance technology and network infrastructure.

Under this initiative, Telecom Fiji will deliver high-speed fibre connectivity and CCTV infrastructure spanning the Suva-Nausori corridor.

All video feeds will be terminated and monitored at the Fiji Police Command Centre in the country's capital, Suva, according to local media on Thursday.

The project's successful implementation across Suva to Nausori will pave the way for its replication in other regions around Fiji, setting the foundation for a nationally integrated safety network.

Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu said this is a critical development in modern policing, aligned with the organizational intent of maximizing the use of technology.

"With real-time monitoring and broader coverage, we will be better equipped to respond to incidents, deter criminal activity, and keep our people safe," Tudravu said. 
A woman accused of spitting on Washingtons former top federal prosecutor was arrested Thursday on an assault charge, according to court filings.

Emily Gabriella Sommer, 32, is charged with one federal count of assaulting, resisting or impeding a government official after she allegedly spit on former interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin when he was still in the post.

The spitting incident occurred on May 8  the same day President Trump withdrew Martins nomination to formally assume the role of U.S. attorney  while the acting prosecutor was conducting an interview with a Newsmax reporter outside his office.

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After identifying Martin, Sommer approached him and spit on his left shoulder, according to a deputy U.S. marshals affidavit. While walking away, she swore and called him a disgusting man before shouting, My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served, the affidavit said.

Interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host whom Trump tapped as Martins replacement, announced the arrest in a press release Thursday. She assumed the role after Martin failed to earn key support in the Senate, dooming his confirmation.

Martin announced his resignation last week and said that Trump had reassigned him to two different Justice Department roles: pardon attorney and director of the Weaponization Working Group, established earlier this year to root out alleged weaponization of the justice system.

His stint as D.C.s top prosecutor was short but controversial. As interim U.S. attorney, he oversaw the firings and reassignments of prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack cases and threatened prosecution against Democrats and critics of billionaire Elon Musk.

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According to the deputy U.S. marshal, Sommer later took credit for spitting on Martin in social media posts. Online records do not yet show a lawyer for her.

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WASHINGTON (AP)  A woman accused of spitting on the top federal prosecutor for the nation's capital was arrested Thursday on a federal assault charge, court records show.

Then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Jr. was being interviewed on video by a Newsmax reporter on a sidewalk outside his office on May 8 when Emily Gabriella Sommer approached him and spit on his left shoulder, a deputy U.S. Marshal's affidavit says.

Video captured Sommer swearing at Martin, calling him a disgusting man and yelling, "My name is Emily Gabriella Sommer, and you are served, before walking away, the affidavit says.

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The encounter occurred on the same day that President Donald Trump pulled Martin's nomination to remain U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on a more permanent basis.

Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro replaced Martin, who faced bipartisan opposition in the Senate after a turbulent stint in the nations largest U.S. Attorneys office. A key Republican senator said he could not support Martin for the job due to his defense of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol more than four years ago. Martin roiled the office with a series of unorthodox moves, such as firing and demoting subordinates who worked on politically sensitive cases.

Sommer later took credit for the spitting incident in a message replying to a social media post by Martin, according to the deputy.

Sommer, 32, was arrested in Washington, D.C., on a complaint charging her with assaulting, resisting or impeding a government official. The charge carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison. Pirros name  not Martins  is on the signature block for a court filing in Sommers case.

A federal magistrate judge ordered Sommer released from custody after her initial court appearance, which she repeatedly disrupted with outbursts. U.S. Marshals Service deputies led her into the courtroom in handcuffs and shackles. Deputies picked her up and carried her out of the courtroom after one of her interruptions prompted the magistrate to suspend the hearing. Sommer later apologized to the magistrate for her courtroom conduct.
ALTOONA, Pa. (WTAJ)  A Claysburg woman who was arrested earlier this week has been charged again, this time accused of taking a womans car to go to Walmart and Arkansas, court documents show.

Daisy Ann Thomas, 18 (Blair County Prison)

Daisy Ann Thomas, 18, has been charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, theft and receiving stolen property. The charges come just days after she was placed in Blair County Prison for allegedly having drugs and a gun during an Altoona traffic stop.

According to the criminal complaint, Greenfield Township police responded to a home in Clayburg when the owner of the car had to call to report it stolen. Upon arrival, the victim claimed Thomas walked into her house around 5:30 a.m. May 7, and asked to use the bathroom. The woman obliged, however, Thomas allegedly walked back into a bedroom where someone was sleeping.

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Troopers: 18-year-old found with drugs to sell, loaded gun in Altoona

The person told police he was half asleep when Thomas asked for the car keys and he handed them over, charging documents show.

The victim alleged that Thomas made multiple statements to her that included going to Walmart to buy her sister a birthday present, going to Altoona, going to Arkansas, and some statement about how she was abducted. It should be noted that the affidavit does not specify if Thomas was talking about herself or her sister being abducted.

According to the complaint, the victim waited to see if Thomas was going to return with her car and she ultimately had to call and report it stolen.

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On Jan. 20, Thomas was pulled over in another vehicle in the city of Altoona. According to the original story (found here), she was allegedly driving with drugs and a handgun in a vehicle that was registered to someone else. She was charged and later arrested May 19. The latest charges of theft were filed May 21. She was arraigned May 22.

Thomas bail was set at $20,000 on Thursday, on top of the $30,000 for her previous arrest.

Her first preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 27.

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A woman was arrested in connection with a retail fraud scheme that targeted stores across Ventura County.

On April 8, detectives with the Ventura County Sheriffs Department received tips that a suspect, Shante Monique Allen, 32, of New York, had allegedly committed return fraud at an Ulta Beauty store in Moorpark.

Investigators said Allen is a repeat offender with a history of fraud in New York. The scheme she reportedly concocted involved stealing products from local stores and then returning the items to those same stores to collect money.

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Through that scheme, Allen was reportedly responsible for at least $35,000 worth of merchandise loss in New York, authorities said.

An investigation by SoCal detectives revealed that Allen and an unidentified male suspect had reportedly committed at least six return fraud incidents in Ventura County.

On May 14, Allen was located in Winnetka, where she was taken into custody. During a search of her vehicle, authorities found a collection of stolen items taken from Ulta and Home Goods stores.

The woman was arrested for grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime and the use of false documents.

An arraignment hearing is scheduled on May 29. A warrant was also submitted for the unidentified male suspect who assisted Allen in the fraud scheme.

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The task force is comprised of detectives from various agencies within Ventura County with the primary mission of combating organized retail theft, vehicle/vehicle parts theft and cargo theft, which impact our businesses, citizens, and communities here in Ventura County, the sheriffs department said. The task force aims to provide a safe environment for everyone while working hand in hand with retailers, law enforcement agencies and the public to identify, locate and arrest the criminals involved in these types of crimes.

Anyone with information regarding organized retail theft, vehicle/vehicle parts theft or cargo theft is encouraged to call the Ventura County Organized Retail Theft Task Force at 805-383-8703.

Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org.

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A federal jury has convicted Svetlana Dali of stowing away on a Delta flight to Paris last November after passing through security in a lane reserved for crewmembers and bypassing gate agents by blending in with boarding passengers.

Dali had been charged with a federal stowaway count for boarding an overnight Delta flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Nov. 26, 2024, and traveling to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France without having a ticket. She had pleaded not guilty.

A Brooklyn federal jury found her guilty on Thursday.

PHOTO: Booking photo for Svetlana Dali who was arrested for the second time this month on Dec. 16. 2024, after she cut off her ankle monitor and tried to sneak into Canada, Dec. 15, 2024, law enforcement sources told ABC News. (Niagara County Sheriff's Office)

Dali, a Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who most recently lived in Philadelphia, took the witness stand during the brief trial. She admitted she did not have a boarding pass when she walked onto the flight.

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Instead, she said she walked through to "where the people were boarding the flights and then I just walked into the airplane."

MORE: 'Very unusual and disconcerting': New videos show accused stowaway boarding Delta flight from New York to Paris

Dali said she stayed in the bathroom "almost the duration of the flight, almost from the beginning to the end."

The judge did not set a sentencing date. Her sentencing guidelines range is zero to six months in prison. She has already been in custody for more than five months.

PHOTO: In this still from video, Svetlana Dali is seen walking past the gate attendants at the rear of a large group of people. Dali, who is faced away from the camera, is wearing a gray hoodie and carries both a green backpack and black bag. (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey)

In a video obtained by ABC News, Dali can be seen walking up to gate B38 at Terminal 4 while other passengers have their boarding passes and passports checked for the Paris flight. After gate attendants assisted a separate group of customers and ushered them toward the jet bridge, Dali followed immediately behind, the video shows.

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Dali was ultimately spotted by Delta employees before the plane landed in France, according to the FBI complaint. The complaint stated that Dali was unable to provide a boarding pass and that once the plane landed, French law enforcement would not allow her to pass the customs area.

MORE: Accused Delta stowaway had prior airport security breaches, feds say

Officials attempted to send Dali back to the United States on another flight shortly after, but Dali was removed from the plane after insisting against her return.

She was eventually brought back to New York to face charges. During an interview with the FBI upon her return, Dali reportedly admitted to flying as a stowaway and stated she did not have a plane ticket and that she intentionally evaded TSA security officials and Delta employees so she could travel without buying one, according to the complaint.

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After being released from custody in early December 2024, Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and traveled to Buffalo, where she tried unsuccessfully to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada on a bus on Dec. 16, 2024. She has been in custody since.

In the wake of the JFK incident, a Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said that a review had been conducted and as a result, "additional security measures are now in place."

"TSA's security measures are always evolving to ensure this type of incident does not happen again," the spokesperson said.

Woman found guilty of stowing away on Delta flight from New York to Paris originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
(FOX40.COM)  Stanislaus County District Attorney Jeff Laugero announced that Lana Casey entered a plea to 12 felony counts involving grand theft, money laundering, and tax evasion.

 Video above: How to report a public safety threat

SCDA stated the 63-year-old from Hughson also admitted to an aggravated white collar crime enhancement that her crimes involved planning and sophistication. She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13 to serve a 10-year and four-month prison term.

Authorities said after sentencing, she will be transported to San Joaquin County, where she is facing additional charges related to embezzlement and theft.

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In September of 2024, Casey was indicted by a Stanislaus County Grand Jury on 79 felony counts, according to SCDA. She was then arrested shortly after the jury returned the indictment.

Sacramento homicide suspect arrested in pursuit

This was the largest white-collar criminal Indictment ever sought by the Stanislaus County District Attorneys Office, officials said.

This conviction is related to her fraudulently obtaining over $214,000 from a non-profit organization that served the Oak Valley District in Oakdale, said SCDA.

Nonprofit organizations are often the target of fraud and theft, said District Attorney Jeff Laugero. This case is an unfortunate reminder that there are people who obtain a position of trust within an organization for the purpose of stealing the precious donations made by a generous community.

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SCDA stated that she started to draft herself and others checks from those accounts that belonged to the non-profit organization.

To embezzle these funds for personal gain is the ultimate betrayal of that position of trust, and the severity of the consequences in this case demonstrates the seriousness of this crime, said Laugero.

Authorities said they believe it has been alleged that after taking the money from the non-profits, Casey went on to take money from trusts associated with Carolyn W. Reynolds in San Joaquin County.

According to SCDA, a forensic audit by the California Franchise Tax Board determined that Casey had $1.453 million in income that was unreported from 2018 to 2021. It had been determined that around $1.211 million of that income was embezzled.

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Casey has not filed any state income tax returns for those years, but under the state and federal law, individuals must pay taxes on earnings, whether lawfully or unlawfully obtained, stated SCDA.

This case was investigated by the SCDA Bureau of Investigation, Oakdale Police Department, California Franchise Tax Board, and the San Joaquin County District Attorneys Bureau of Investigation, according to SCDA. The Deputy District Attorney, Travis Colby, prosecuted this case on behalf of the People.

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A woman has been shot after failing to stop her car outside the CIA headquarters in Virginia, according to reports.

Security guards at the Langley compound fired shots at the driver outside the agencys building in McLean, Virginia, early on Thursday morning, CBS reported.

The woman was allegedly shot in the upper body and taken to a nearby medical facility to undergo treatment.

The shooting is non-fatal, police told MSNBC, and a CIA investigation is under way.

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Fairfax County police responded to the incident at around 4am, providing assistance to CIA officers and coordinating traffic control, authorities told MSNBC.

It is the second incident at the CIA headquarters in recent months, after a man pulled a handgun on himself outside the building in March.

The man pointed the gun at his head and had to be talked down by police in a barricade incident that lasted several hours, according to ABC.

A CIA spokesman said: There was a security incident that law enforcement responded to outside CIA headquarters.

The intelligence agency said in an X post that the main gate at CIAs Langley compound was closed and directed employees to seek alternate routes.

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The shooting incident came after two Israeli Embassy staffers were killed by a lone gunman in downtown Washington, on Wednesday night. There was no indication the incidents were related.

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Three days after she confronted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting a Brazilian mother of three on Eureka Street, District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj recorded some of her best fundraising numbers for her re-election campaign.

A deposit report recorded May 11, posted on the Office of Campaign and Political Finance of Massachusettss website, finds that Haxhiajs campaign deposited $3,691 in total donations  about three times what she had brought in the entire previous month. Donations ranged as low as $5 to as high as $250, the report reads.

From April 1 to April 30, Haxhiaj only raised $1,161.00. Her best fundraising month in 2025 was February, when she raised $4,799.00.

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The nearly $4,000 in donations comes three days after she and other members of her district confronted ICE for their arrest of Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira as well as local Worcester police at the scene.

Kevin Ksen, Haxhiajs campaign manager, told MassLive he wasnt sure whether a majority of the donations were made before or after the events on Eureka Street. He told MassLive that the last time the campaign sent a fundraising email out was on May 7.

On May 8, a Facebook post by Worcester resident Chrissi Bates expressing support for Haxhiaj received 13 shares.

Thank you for your bravery & service during the Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in today, Etel! Bates writes.

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Another Worcester resident, Yenni Desroches, posted a Donate To Haxhiaj link on Facebook on May 11, encouraging others to donate to the councilor on Mothers Day.

Its unclear how many people used the donation link shared by Desroches or Bates to donate to Haxhiaj.

In body camera footage released by the Worcester Police Department on May 16, Haxhiaj can be seen yelling at ICE officers not to take Ferreira-De Oliveria, and telling them she had a right to be at the scene to help her constituents.

Haxhiaj also confronted members of the Worcester Police Department who arrived at the scene and arrested Ferreira-De Oliverias daughter and now disqualified school committee candidate, Ashley Spring.

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Officer Juan Vallejo, whose body camera footage and audio were released to the public by the department, was one of the officers responsible for arresting the daughter.

In the footage, Haxhiaj walks up to Vallejo and tells him, shes my constituent!

People who are under arrest are under arrest, Vallejo replied.

She is not, she hasnt done anything, Haxhiaj replied. Let her go, shes traumatized. Why are you holding her? Let her go.

Well, you can go to the station when she gets her bail, OK? Vallejo said.

Shes done nothing, why are you arresting her? Haxhiaj yelled back.

Vallejo then grabs Haxhiajs shoulders and arms to move her back, telling her to back away before turning her around. The councilor asked other officers, Are you threatening me?

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Back away, get your hands off of us, Vallejo told her before he stepped away, as another officer can be heard saying to Vallejo, Jesus, Juan.

The New England Police Benevolent Association Local 911 and the International Brotherhood of Police Officers Local 504 released two statements on May 9 and May 10, respectively, both blasting Haxhiaj for physically interfering and physically assaulting Worcester police officers.

We stand with our fellow Worcester Police Patrol Officers Union Local 911 and demand an ethics investigation into the egregious actions and behavior of Councilor Haxhiaj, the letter from Local 504 reads.

Jose Rivera, who is running against Haxhiaj in the November election, said he was disappointed with his opponent.

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In the video I heard the councilor say her job as a city councilor is to protect her constituent, Rivera said in a statement on Facebook. That is not a city councilors job. City councilors are not public safety officials and it is certainly not their job to interfere with an ICE arrest, whether they believe it was legal or not.

Supporters of Haxhiaj, however, said the councilors actions were a display of leadership.

Shoutout to Etel Haxhiaj who showed REAL leadership and bravery, Lindiana Flores Semidei of Worcester wrote on Facebook, May 8. No family should be ripped apart like this.

City Councilor-at-Large and Council Vice Chair Khrystian King said in a statement on May 11 that even if people disagree with her response, Haxhiaj rose to the moment.

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She acted urgently to defend a fellow mother, a woman in crisis, a young teen girl, and constituents she was elected to serve, King wrote. In doing so, she stood up against a system that has too often trampled due process and constitutional rightsespecially under the Trump administration. Thats not grandstanding. Thats moral leadership.

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Read the original article on MassLive.
World leaders reacted Thursday morning to the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., as the Israeli government blamed the attack on "antisemitic incitement" by other countries, "especially from Europe."

Washington's chief of police said the suspect in the attack, identified as a Chicago man, shouted "free, free Palestine," as he was taken into custody.

The victims were identified as a young couple, Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.

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"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA," President Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social platform. "Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!"

First lady Melania Trump, in a statement posted on X, urged Americans to "reflect on our identity and our collective future."

"At the core of the United States Constitution are the principles of tolerance, unity and religious freedom. Today, I urge Americans to reflect on our identity and our collective future. We must remain steadfast in our commitment to upholding the dignity of every individual," her statement reads. "The tragic murders of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky in our nation's capital serve as a stark reminder of the need for moral clarity and firm action. Let us come together in both grief and determination to confront hatred and to uphold the ideals that define our nation. We Are One."

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she was "shocked by the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC."

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"There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or antisemitism. I extend my condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Israel," Kallas said in a statement posted on social media.

The Israeli Embassy posted a photo of the two victims of the shooting outside the Jewish Capital Museum in Washington, D.C. on the night of May 21, 2025. Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were employees at the embassy. / Credit: IsraelinUSA/X/Anadolu/Getty

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on social media, "Nothing can justify antisemitic violence." He said his thoughts were with the Israeli embassy and the families of those killed in "the insidious murder."

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on social media that "the murder of two members of the Israeli embassy near the Jewish Museum in Washington is an abhorrent act of antisemitic barbarity. Nothing can justify such violence."

Barrot said his "thoughts go to their loved ones, their colleagues, and the State of Israel."

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"I thoroughly condemn the antisemitic attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC," U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a social media post. "Antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and, as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community."

In a televised statement, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar blamed the attack on "toxic, antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since October 7th."

A bystander prays near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C., May 21, 2025, after two Israeli Embassy staff members were fatally shot after attending an event at the museum earlier in the evening. / Credit: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post/Getty

Sa'ar said this "incitement," which he called "modern blood libel," had been coming from "leaders and officials of many countries and organizations, especially from Europe."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media: "We are witnessing the horrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against the Jewish state cost in blood  and must be fought to the bitter end."

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France's foreign ministry rejected Sa'ar's implication that European nations' bear blame for the attack in Washington, with spokesman Christophe Lemoine calling the remarks "completely outrageous and completely unjustified."

"France has condemned, France condemns and France will continue to condemn, always and unequivocally, any act of anti-Semitism," Lemoine was quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

European leaders have been increasingly outspoken in condemning Israel's monthslong blockade of humanitarian food and medical aid entering Gaza  which international groups said put the entire population of the Palestinian territory at risk of starvation. Israel did allow a limited number of trucks carrying food and other supplies to enter Gaza this week following intense international pressure, including from the United States.

The war in Gaza began after Hamas, a U.S. and Israeli-designated terrorist group, attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages.

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The Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza says more than 53,600 Palestinians, mainly women and children, have been killed by Israel in Gaza since.

Netanyahu said Thursday that security would be increased at Israeli embassies around the world in response to the shooting.

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World leaders on Thursday condemned the fatal Washington shooting of a young couple working at the Israeli embassy, as Israel's foreign minister said anti-Israel rhetoric by some in Europe is partly to blame.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were killed as they exited the Capital Jewish Museum from a Jewish function for young diplomats on Wednesday evening. Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to Washington, said they were about to get engaged.

The suspect approached a group of four people and then opened fire, police said. After the shooting, he entered the museum, where he was arrested by private security guards and chanted "Free, free Palestine," as can be seen on a video.

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Washington police chief Pamela Smith named the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago.

Whether the suspected shooter knew the two or what connection he might have to them is unclear.

FBI director speaks of 'act of terror'

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Kash Patel, described the fatal shooting as an "act of terror."

"Last night's act of terror has the full attention of the FBI. Targeted anti-Semitic violence is an attack on our core values and will be met with the full weight of federal law enforcement. The individual responsible will be held accountable, and the Bureau will continue pursuing," Patel wrote on the platform X on Thursday.

One victim was German dual citizen

Lischinsky had a German passport, diplomatic sources told dpa.

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The German-Israeli Society (DIG) in Berlin said that he had partly grown up in the southern state of Bavaria and spoke fluent German.

He was a founding member of a related youth forum, which focussed on bringing together young people from Germany and Israel, the DIG said.

On a LinkedIn page with his name it stated: "Having made Aliyah from Germany at the age of 16, I have the privilege of calling both Jerusalem and Nuremberg my home." Aliyah is when Jews living in the diaspora move to Israel.

In 2022, he took up a position at the Israeli embassy in Washington.

The president of the DIG, Volker Beck, said the embassy employee was remembered as an "open-minded, intelligent and deeply committed person whose interest in German-Israeli relations and ways to achieve peaceful coexistence in the Middle East radiated to his entire environment."

EU, UK, Germany condemn shootings

Condemnation of the killings came from European Union top diplomat Kaja Kallas, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump.

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"There is and should be no place in our societies for hatred, extremism, or anti-Semitism," Kallas said, adding she was "shocked by the shooting of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC."

"These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

"We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and wild incitement against Israel. The blood libels against Israel are costing us blood and must be fought relentlessly," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

Israel partly blames some in Europe

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that European leaders bear some responsibility for the killings.

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"There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement - to this murder," Saar said at a press conference in Jerusalem.

"This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe." He did not name specific countries or organizations.

Saar said leading politicians around the world believe the narratives of terrorist organizations such as the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, including claims that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's military consistently has said that it is operating in the Gaza Strip in accordance with international law. However, human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have accused Israel of war crimes.

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"Hamas started the war on October 7, is solely responsible for the war's continuation, and is solely responsible for the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike," Saar said.

Shooting comes days after Israeli military offensive

The shooting occurred after Israel's military recently launched a major air and ground offensive in the sealed-off Gaza Strip, where around 2 million Palestinians live.

Israel's actions in the region are facing increasing international criticism, including from close allies.

The conflict in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian extremists invaded Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostage.

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Israel responded with a massive military operation, which has since killed more than 53,000 in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority. The figures do not distinguish between civilian and militant casualties.
KABUL, May 22 (Xinhu8a) -- Kabul Municipality has started construction of the first ever flyover bridge in Kabul city to reduce traffic mess in Afghanistan's national capital, spokesman of the body Nematullah Barikzai said.

"At a cost of 1.5 billion afghani (around 21.5 million U.S. dollars) the construction of the flyover would be completed within two years," the state-run Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) quoted Barikzai on Thursday as saying.

Kabul, a city with a population of some 6 million has been facing variety of problems including traffic jam on congested roads, power shortage, daily loud shedding and water scarcity. 
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS)  The Womens Philanthropy Network (WPN) voted to award two $60,000 grants to Volunteers for Youth Justice (VYJ) and Volunteers of America North Louisiana (VOANLA).

Members pool 20% of their annual dues each year into an endowment fund, now valued at over $600,000, that awards grants to nonprofits in Caddo Parish that aim to improve school readiness and student success. Since its creation, WPN has awarded over $1.7 million to educational initiatives in the community.

VYJ was awarded a $60,000 grant for its School Based Resource Center.

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VYJs School Based program is a trauma-informed, relationship-based program designed to provide on-campus support for at-risk students struggling with educational challenges, particularly those related to truancy and trauma, a press release stated. Rooted in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) principles, the program focuses on building resilience, strengthening emotional regulation, and restoring a sense of safety for students who have experienced adversity.

Volunteers for Youth Justice named beneficiary of Artport 2025

VOANLAs $60,000 grant was awarded for its Broadmoor STEM Academy Communities in Schools (CIS) and The Lighthouse (LH), serving K-12 students in Caddo Parish.

The program removes barriers to academic success, the release stated. Broadmoor is one of six locations with both CIS and LH co-located on campus. This grant will provide continued, sustaining program support for the CIS and LH programs at the Broadmoor STEM Academy. Without the need to transport LightHouse students after the school day, VOANLA can seamlessly transition into afternoon and evening programming and activities, bolstering its impact on these students.

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For more information about the WPN, go to cfnla.org/wpn.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com.
WRIGHTSTOWN, Wis. (WFRV)  A new chapter in the Wrightstown Community School District changes once again as its new Superintendent has been suspended.

Superintendent Ron Saari has been with the Wrightstown Community School District since January, following the interim Superintendent Andy Spaces retirement after multiple allegations.

Saari has since taken over the role but is now, at least temporarily, out.

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Appleton Area School District students given opportunity for direct admission to Lawrence University

In the wake of Saaris suspension, Wrightstowns School Board President Rayn Warner released the following statement:

The Wrightstown Board of Education met in closed session with legal counsel to discuss concerns of Mr. Saaris performance and the Board of Education has decided to place Mr. Saari on administrative leave pending the completion of its review. Wrightstown School Board President Rayn Warner

No additional information was provided. Local 5 will continue to follow this story and provide updates when new details are released.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.
A Minnesota woman in her 80s is now living with stage 5 kidney disease after a surgeon allegedly removed her kidney during what was supposed to be a routine spleen removal procedure, according to a recently filed lawsuit.

Wendy Rappaport of Plymouth, Minnesota, went to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in March 2022 for treatment of a spleen condition. However, the surgery took an unexpected turn when the surgeon removed her left kidney instead of her spleen, the court documents filed on May 16 claimed.

"The wrong organ was removed," Rappaport's attorney Aaron Lawrence told ABC News.

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"This never should have happened. We hope that Allina takes responsibility for this negligence instead of blaming the victim," he said, referring to the Minneapolis-based Allina Health System, of which Abbott Northwestern is a part.

PHOTO: Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. (Google Maps Street View)

According to the lawsuit, Rappaport was admitted to the hospital on March 24, 2022, for concerns about a possible spleen abscess or rupture. After undergoing initial tests and consulting with doctors, she was scheduled for spleen removal surgery on March 28, 2022.

The lawsuit alleged that Dr. Devon Callahan performed the surgery and instead of removing the spleen, the surgeon removed Rappaport's healthy left kidney. The legal documents also claimed that the doctor's post-operative note indicated he had removed an intact spleen.

ABC News reached out to Callahan for comment but has not yet received a response.

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The lawsuit stated that Rappaport remained hospitalized for nearly two months until May 25, 2022.

Rappaport's post-procedure diagnoses included "splenic abscess, left nephrectomy (left kidney removal), respiratory failure, left pleural effusion, and diastolic heart failure," the court documents stated.

She has since been diagnosed with stage 5 chronic kidney disease, for which she now requires regular dialysis treatment, according to the court documents.

Chronic kidney disease is diagnosed in stages, 1-5. Stage 5 is one of the most advanced stages, at which point the kidneys are close to failure or have completely failed, according to the Cleveland Clinic. After this point, those affected may require dialysis or kidney transplant -- at which point they would enter what is termed "end stage" kidney disease.

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Rappaport is suing Callahan and Allina Health for the alleged medical mistake.

"While we will not discuss details of a patient's care due to privacy laws, the court filings don't accurately reflect the full picture of the patient's condition, or the life-saving medical care provided," Allina Health said in a statement to ABC News. "We intend to vigorously defend, in court, the care that was provided."

MORE: Biden's cancer diagnosis may change conversation about his mental acuity: ANALYSIS

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages exceeding $50,000 -- though Rappaport's legal team noted that this figure is just a procedural requirement under Minnesota law, and the actual amount sought will be higher.

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"We are seeking fair compensation that exceeds $50,000," Lawrence explained, clarifying that Minnesota court rules prevent them from specifying the exact amount in their initial complaint.

'Wrong organ was removed': Surgeon faces lawsuit over alleged kidney removal error originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
BERLIN (AP)  A Yemeni man accused of joining the Houthi rebels in his homeland and briefly fighting for the group was arrested in Germany on Thursday, prosecutors said.

The suspect, identified only as Hussein H. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Dachau, near Munich. Federal prosecutors said he is accused of being a member of a foreign terror organization as a youth.

He allegedly joined the Houthi movement in October 2022 and underwent ideological training, followed by three months of military training. In early 2023, he briefly fought for the group in Yemen's Marib region, prosecutors said.

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A judge ordered the man kept in custody pending a possible indictment. Prosecutors didn't specify when he came to Germany.

The Houthis have launched repeated missile attacks targeting Israel as well as international shipping in the Red Sea, portraying it as a response to Israels offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
LONG ISLAND (PIX11)  Students and teachers at a New York high school may have been exposed to tuberculosis, a spokesperson for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services confirmed Wednesday.

Sachem High School notified some students and teachers last Thursday that they may have been exposed to an active case of tuberculosis. An unidentified student has been confirmed to have the disease, officials said.

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The investigation is ongoing, one official said. Suffolk County is in close contact with the school district. We have offered testing to those who were identified as having close and prolonged contact with the individual.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, also known as TB, is a contagious bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs. TB germs can enter the air when a person with active TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, speaks, or sings. Depending on the setting, these germs can linger in the air for several hours, according to the CDC.

Active symptoms of tuberculosis include:

Cough

Coughing up blood or mucus

Chest pain

Pain with breathing or coughing

Fever

Chills

Night sweats

Weight loss

Not wanting to eat

Tiredness

Not feeling well in general

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For more information on tuberculosis, click here.

Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.
Visit just about any downtown on a weekend and you will likely happen upon a farmers market. Or, you might grab lunch from a food truck outside a local brewpub or winery.

Very likely, there is a community-shared kitchen or food entrepreneur incubator initiative behind the scenes to support this growing foodie ecosystem.

As rural America gains younger residents, and grows more diverse and increasingly digitally connected, these dynamics are driving a renaissance in craft foods.

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One food entrepreneur incubator, Hope & Main Kitchen, operates out of a school that sat vacant for over 10 years in the small Rhode Island town of Warren. Its business incubation program, with over 300 graduates to date, gives food and beverage entrepreneurs a way to test, scale and develop their products before investing in their own facilities. Its markets also give entrepreneurs a place to test their products on the public and buyers for stores, while providing the community with local goods.

Food has been central to culture, community and social connections for millennia. But food channels, social media food influencers and craft brews have paved the way for a renaissance of regional beverage and food industry startups across America.

In my work in agriculture economics, I see connections between this boom in food and agriculture innovation and the inflow of young residents who are helping revitalize rural America and reinvigorate its Main Streets.

Why entrepreneurs are embracing rural life

An analysis of 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data found that more people have been moving to small towns and rural counties in recent years, and that the bulk of that population growth is driven by 25- to 44-year-olds.

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This represents a stark contrast to the 2000s, when 90% of the growth for younger demographics was concentrated in the largest metro areas.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work options it created, along with rising housing prices, were catalysts for the change, but other interesting dynamics may also be at play.

One is social connectedness. Sociologists have long believed that the community fabric of rural America contributes to economic efficiency, productive business activity, growth of communities and population health.

Maps show that rural areas of the U.S. with higher social capital  those with strong networks and relationships among residents  are some of the strongest draws for younger households today.

Another important dynamic for both rural communities and their new young residents is entrepreneurship, including food entrepreneurship.

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Rural food startups may be leveraging the social capital aligned with the legacy of agriculture in rural America, resulting in a renewed interest in craft and local foods. This includes a renaissance in foods made with local ingredients or linked to regional cultures and tastes.

According to data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, U.S. local sales of edible farm products increased 33% from 2017 to 2022, reaching $14.2 billion.

The new AgriCulture

A 2020 study I was involved in, led by agriculture economist Sarah Low, found a positive relationship between the availability of farm-based local and organic foods and complementary food startups. The study termed this new dynamic AgriCulture.

We found a tendency for these dynamics to occur in areas with higher natural amenities, such as hiking trails and streams, along with transportation and broadband infrastructure attractive to digital natives.

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The same dynamic drawing young people to the outdoors offers digital natives a way to experience far-reaching regions of the country and, in some cases, move there.

A thriving food and beverage scene can be a pull for those who want to live in a vibrant community, or the new settlers and their diverse tastes may be what get food entrepreneurs started. Many urban necessities, such as shopping, can be done online, but eating and food shopping are local daily necessities.

Governments can help rural food havens thrive

When my colleagues and I talk to community leaders interested in attracting new industries and young families, or who seek to build community through revitalized downtowns and public spaces, the topic of food commonly arises.

We encourage them to think about ways they can help draw food entrepreneurs: Can they increase local growers and producers access to food markets? Would creating shared kitchens help support food trucks and small businesses? Does their area have a local advantage, such as a seashore, hiking trails or cultural heritage, that they can market in connection with local food?

The farm store at Harley Farm Goat Dairy in Pescadero, Calif., draws people headed for hiking trails or the coast in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

Several federal, state and local economic development programs are framing strategies to bolster any momentum occurring at the crossroads of rural, social connections, resiliency, food and entrepreneurship.

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For example, a recent study from a collaboration of shared kitchen experts found that there were over 600 shared-use food facilities across the U.S. in 2020, and over 20% were in rural areas. In a survey of owners, the report found that 50% of respondents identified assisting early-growth businesses as their primary goal.

The USDA Regional Food Business Centers, one of which I am fortunate to co-lead, have been bolstering the networking and technical assistance to support these types of rural food economy efforts.

Many rural counties are still facing shrinking workforces, commonly because of lagging legacy industries with declining employment, such as mining. However, recent data and studies suggest that in rural areas with strong social capital, community support and outdoor opportunities, younger populations are growing, and their food interests are helping boost rural economies.

Dawn Thilmany receives funding from the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Development Administration, and Colorado state agencies focused on agriculture, economic development and food systems.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN)  City police officer Joe Moran doesnt like seeing things fall through the cracks.

He knows, sometimes, it cant be helped but when he noticed that the grave markers of officers who lost their lives in the line of duty were falling apart, he decided to do something about it.

Moran, with help from Detective Sgt. Dave Sweeney and a civilian employee, Clerk Laura Cruickshank, spearheaded an effort to have new markers placed on the graves of all 12 officers who lost their lives in the line of duty  from 1891 with the death of Patrolman William Freed to 2003 and the death of Patrolman Michael Hartzell.

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The 12 markers are spread across six local cemeteries  Belmont Park, Calvary, and Oak Hill in Youngstown; Resurrection Cemetery in Austintown; Lake Park in Boardman; and Hubbard Union Cemetery.

Lt. Frank Rutherford, who is in charge of the dayshift for the Patrol Division, first alerted Moran to the condition of the markers.

Moran, who has been an officer for 25 years and now patrols an East Side beat on dayshift, said one of the markers was found at a flea market.

When looking for something to replace them that would be more permanent and would stand up to the elements for a long time, he turned to Chip Kovach of City Machine Technologies, a manufacturing business based in the city.

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The markers made by CMT are duplicates of the originals but with improved all-weather material that should be able to withstand the change of seasons in Youngstown  where sometimes all seasons can be experienced within a 24-hour period  for years to come.

They came out really well, Moran said.

Kovach, whose company has worked with police on other projects, said he was given an original marker that he estimated was 100 years old made out of cast iron.

Having a design to work with, he used materials he said are similar to those used in outdoor advertising signs and signs at national parks that are designed to hold up in all kinds of weather.

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He cut the signs himself, he said, at home. The time and materials were donated to the police.

They should hold up pretty well, Kovach said.

Cruickshank was in charge of research. She called the local cemeteries to make sure the graves were there and to get their exact locations.

She also used internet searches to help find them, Cruickshank said.

Sweeney and Cruickshank then went to each grave to place a new marker on them.

They did the work late last fall but wanted to wait until this month, when Police Memorial Week is held, to unveil them.

The department will join other departments in a memorial service at 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel to honor local officers from the Mahoning Valley who have died in the line of duty.

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Moran said he understands how the markers may have deteriorated over the years because no one regularly checked on them, but with 165 officers dying in the line of duty last year, he said he wants to make sure they are not forgotten.

Sometimes things go by the wayside, but these guys need to be remembered for their sacrifices and what they did for their community, Moran said.

Kovach said he was glad to help out but added he hopes his help is not needed again.

I dont want to have to make any more, he said.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com.
New Zealand has abandoned its pursuit of net zero by revoking a ban on drilling for oil and gas.

The countrys government confirmed the shift in its latest budget this week, which unveiled plans to invest NZ$200m (90m) in new offshore gas fields.

The reversal marks an end to a policy announced by Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister, in 2018. She claimed at the time that the world has moved on from fossil fuels.

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Her attempted ban has since been replicated in Britain by Ed Miliband, the Climate Secretary, who halted all new North Sea drilling after Labour triumphed in last years election.

However, Nicola Willis, New Zealands finance minister, has consigned Ms Arderns policy to history by announcing plans to expand offshore gas fields.

Nicola Willis, New Zealands finance minister, has announced plans to expand offshore gas fields - Lucy Craymer/Reuters

In particular, she is seeking to attract international oil and gas companies with a taxpayer-backed subsidy of NZ$200m (88m).

It comes after New Zealands planned shift to renewables backfired, generating higher prices and raising the risk of blackouts.

Shane Jones, the countrys resources minister, said Ms Arderns ban had been a disaster.

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He said: We are feeling the pain of constrained supply. The Government is not prepared to sit on the sidelines and watch our industrial and manufacturing dwindle because of energy security concerns.

We are focused on growing the New Zealand economy, creating jobs and increasing prosperity and resilience. Natural gas will continue to be critical in delivering secure and affordable energy for New Zealanders for at least the next 20 years.

The decision to reverse the ban followed three years of rising energy prices that left 110,000 households unable to warm their homes, according to Consumer NZ, a non-profit advocate.

Transpower, the equivalent of the UKs National Grid, also previously warned that the nation was at high risk of blackouts because renewables were not producing enough power during cold spells.

New Zealands natural gas

Ms Arderns move came despite geologists discovering billions of cubic metres of natural gas in the seabeds around New Zealand.

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Sean Rush, a UK barrister who now runs the Sean Rush Energy and Infrastructure Law consultancy in Wellington, New Zealand, said: Finally, the New Zealand government grew a spine and recognised that climate change is not an existential threat  but an economy without fossil fuels is.

The UK Government should take notice of what happens when exploration is stifled. Investment flees, gas-dependent businesses close and electricity prices soar. It is an economy-killing climate policy that is the existential threat to modern economies.

Natural gas has been produced commercially in New Zealands Taranaki region since 1959 and there are now six main areas, three offshore and three onshore. About 30pc is used for electricity generation, which is why declining output led to rising power prices.

Much of the rest is used to make the petrochemicals and fertilisers used widely in domestic farming, meaning gas shortages also impact agriculture.

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The legislation to rescind Arderns ban on drilling is expected to pass into law next month, opening the way to new drilling applications.

Policymakers hope it will ease gas shortages across the country, as production last year fell to its lowest level since 1983, according to consultancy Argus.

John Carnegie, of Energy Resources Aotearoa, an industry trade body, said: This has wide implications for New Zealands industrial sector and regional economy.

Gas underpins everything from electricity generation to food processing, and declining reserves have already placed pressure on everyone from major exporters to small domestic manufacturers. We hope this move will help stem the decline.

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Such warnings are echoed by energy experts in the UK, where more than 75pc of total energy consumed still comes from oil and gas.

Less than half of those supplies now come from UK waters, where output is in rapid decline following Mr Milibands ban on new drilling.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held a meeting on preparations for a potential prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia in the thousand-for-thousand format. He has stated that Ukraine is currently examining the list of individuals submitted by the Russian side.

Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter)

Quote: "I held a meeting on the preparation for an exchange. The agreement to release 1,000 of our people from Russian captivity was perhaps the only tangible result of the meeting in Turkiye. We are working to ensure that this result is achieved.

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Reports were presented on contacts with the Russians. Ukraines Minister of Defence, Rustem Umierov, is overseeing the organisation of the process and the implementation of the agreement

We are clarifying the details for each individual included on the lists submitted by the Russian side."

Details: Zelenskyy said that the exchange process involves Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, the Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and the team of the Presidents Office.

He added that "returning all of our people from Russian captivity is one of Ukraines key objectives".

Background:

Zelenskyy previously stated that the possibility of a prisoner swap in the thousand-for-thousand format had been discussed with Russia. Ukraine also raised the issue of releasing political prisoners and journalists.

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU), expressed confidence that a prisoner exchange in the thousand-for-thousand format with Russia would occur next week.

On 16 May, Vadym Skibitskyi, Deputy Head of DIU, said that Ukraine had begun reviewing the lists of POWs who are to be brought back to Ukraine as part of a prisoner swap with Russia in the thousand-for-thousand format.

On 16 May 2025, the delegations of Ukraine and Russia reached an agreement in Istanbul on the simultaneous release and exchange of 1,000 POWs on each side.

On 17 May, the Security Service of Ukraine began preparations for the implementation of the agreement on the exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine in the thousand-for-thousand format.

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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reported on a conversation with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, who recently attended the military parade in Moscow.

Source: Zelenskyy on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda

Details: The president said that the conversation focused on European integration and bilateral cooperation.

Quote: "I spoke with Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic. We discussed current issues  our European integration and bilateral cooperation.

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In particular, we talked about collaboration within the Ukraine  Southeast Europe format. We will continue developing it to further increase its effectiveness. We agreed on a schedule and to stay in contact."

Background:

Vucic was one of two European leaders who attended the 9 May parade in Moscow this year, despite warnings from the EU.

Following his visit to Moscow, Vucic stated that Serbia remains committed to its EU accession plan and wants to accelerate the process.

Russia is a historical Orthodox ally of Serbia and a key supplier of natural gas, with Gazprom and Gazpromneft holding ownership in Serbias oil company NIS. Moscow also supports Belgrade in its opposition to Kosovos independence. However, Serbia has consistently refused to join EU sanctions against Russia.

Vucic has previously expressed confidence that Serbias European path would not be affected by his visit to Moscow.

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ISTANBUL, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police have detained 272 suspected drug dealers here, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Thursday.

In a statement posted on his social media account on X, Yerlikaya said the operation targeted street-level dealers -- individuals who sell drugs in neighborhoods and on the streets.

He noted that the police spent four months preparing for the operation. During this period, several districts in Istanbul were placed under intense surveillance, with collected intelligence meticulously analyzed before the raids.

Turkiye, located at the crossroads of Asia and Europe, has long struggled with international drug trafficking. Turkish security forces regularly conduct operations to combat drug abuse and smuggling. 
The state is closing two Boone County thoroughfares in June that will complicate commutes in Dover and Zionsville.

U.S. 421 will be closed north of Zionsville for work on a bridge over Eagle Creek. The closure is expected to last through early August but depends on cooperation from the weather.

The official detour follows U.S. 421 to Ind. 32 to U.S. 31 to Interstate 465 and returning to U.S. 421, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced.

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Ind. 75 will be closed for work on a bridge over Wolf Creek south of Thorntown and between County Roads 500 N. and 400 N.

INDOT is waiting to start until Western Boone Schools let out for the summer to minimize conflicts with local motorists and buses.

Work is expected to last through mid-August. Classes resume Aug. 6.

The official detour around the closure follows Ind. 47 to U.S. 52 to Interstate 65 to Ind. 39 to Interstate 74 and back to Ind. 75.

But local traffic is expected to use C.R. 650 N. to circumvent the work, Boone County Highway Department Director Nick Parr told Boone County Commissioners earlier this week.

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INDOT invites commissioners to choose an unofficial detour for local traffic and will pay to mitigate damage done to that route during construction.

Commissioners chose C.R. 650 N. Parr said the state will pay for chemicals to be sprayed onto the gravel to mitigate dust for homeowners who are unused to more than 100 cars per day along their quiet road.

Reduced speed limit

In other road news, homeowners along C.R. 375 N. between Witt Road and Ind. 39 have complained to Parr about traffic associated with the Eli Lilly construction project to the west.

A study found that speeding is not a great problem there, but the traffic volume is significantly increased, especially compared to the period before the project.

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Commissioners reduced the speed limit from 40 to 35 miles per hour on Witt Road north of the work site after construction began. The section of Witt Road from Lilly to Ind. 47 is a main route for Lilly employee and construction vehicles.

Lilly paid to install two electronic speed monitoring signs that display vehicles speeds to motorists in real time on N. Witt Road.

Commissioners in June will consider reducing the speed limit on C.R. 375 N. between Witt Road and Ind. 39 from 40 to 35 mph and accepting a gift from Lilly of two more electronic signs for that road. The two signs will cost about $18,000, which will all be paid by Lilly and not from tax money, Parr said.

That stretch of road is also a main route for Lillys construction traffic.
Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani trashed Barack Obama as pretty damn evil in a series of resurfaced tweets where he questioned the former presidents liberal cred and accused him of lying.

Whats up w/ working for the bad man aka @EdMarkey? Mamdani asked a friend in one unearthed tweet from June 2013, tagging the Massachusetts Democratic senator who was then serving in the House of Representatives.

How you gonna do me like that?

Socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani criticized former President Obama on X back in 2013 as evil, a liar and insufficiently progressive. Robert Miller

Mamdani, who was a college student at the time, linked a story bashing Markey for hawkish foreign policy.

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Hasnt Obama shown that the lesser evil is still pretty damn evil? Mamdani tailed.

How to improve if [the] criteria is just better than rep. crackpot?'

Mamandi, who is now serving in the state Assembly, is polling a far second in a crowded Democratic Party primary field behind former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in what has largely become a two-person race.

Mamdani, who is now 33, also took aim at Obama in a June 2, 2013 tweet, referencing Edward Snowden who moved to Russia in 2013 after leaking classified National Security Agency documents showing the US had engaged in a massive surveillance program.

I cant trust quotes from @BarackObama, not since his continued lying in the face of Snowdens #NSA revelations, the tweet said.

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Mamdani also questioned Obama and former Mayor Bill de Blasios progressive bona fides.

Multiple tweets revealed the mayoral candidate took several shots at Obama, including one tweet that reads, I cant trust quotes from @BarackObama, not since his continued lying in the face of Snowdens #NSA revelations. X/@ZohranKMamdani

@BarackObama, @BilldeBlasio, dont you gotta just love what passes for progressive in the U.S.?, he posted on Jan. 12, 2014.

A Gallup poll of past presidents from January of this year showed Obama with a staggering 96% approval rating among Democrats nationwide.

The recycled anti-Obama comments come as Mamdani has struck an alliance with the first black speaker of the City Council, Adrienne Adams.

Earlier this week, Mamdani urged supporters to donate to Adrienne Adams campaign for mayor, as part of a strategy to chip away at Cuomos support.

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His campaign and the DSA also are executing a strategy to make inroads with older, non-white, outer borough working class voters  voters who likely hold Obama in high regard.

A Gallup poll of past presidents earlier this year revealed that Obama has a staggering 96% approval rating nationwide among current Democrats. Getty Images

One prominent pro-Cuomo black faith leader ripped Mamdanis criticism of Obama.

For Zohran Mamdani to call former President Obama evil is a disgraceful attack on the dignity and legacy of our nations First Black president, said Rev. Patrick Young, pastor of First Baptist Church of Corona in East Elmhurst, Queens.

As a leader in the faith community, Im appalled that a candidate seeking to lead this diverse city would resort to such offensive rhetoric which divides and not unifies, Young added.

Mamdani also questioned the progressive credibility of ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio. Paul Martinka

I believe Mr. Mamdani should apologize as well as give clarity to such inflammatory remarks immediately.

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The Mamdani campaign said digging through the candidates old tweets from his college years shows his rivals fear his campaign surge.

This campaigns grassroots momentum has our opponents so desperate that theyre looking through the tweets of a 21-year-old, said Mamdani campaign spokesman Andrew Epstein.

Zohran was proud to volunteer on Barack Obamas campaign for president.

Now hes laser-focused on delivering a more affordable city for every New Yorker.
New building will allow La Casa Hogar to expand its services to immigrants
NINGBO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian saffron and Croatian tuna were granted Chinese market access on Thursday, adding to the list of imported agricultural and food products from Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) for Chinese consumers.

Import access was approved for these products during the fourth China-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair, which opened on Thursday in Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province.

According to data released by China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) on the same day, a total of 126 types of agricultural and food products from CEECs have been granted access to China.

China has streamlined its approval processes and enhanced its customs clearance efficiency in recent years, allowing CEEC delicacies such as Polish amber beer and Latvian canned fish to enter the Chinese market more easily.

Against the backdrop of a complex international landscape, China-CEEC cooperation is providing greater certainty and vitality to the world economy, according to GAC deputy chief Zhao Zenglian.

China's expansion of agricultural imports has bolstered bilateral trade. Customs data shows that China-CEEC trade totaled 142.27 billion U.S. dollars in 2024 -- up 6.3 percent year on year and outpacing China's overall import-export growth by 2.5 percentage points. 
ATHENS, May 22 (Xinhua) - Authorities on the Greek island of Crete were on high alert after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted the area on Thursday, although no injuries or serious material damage have been reported so far, the Fire Service said.

However, sections of the provincial road network have been closed due to minor landslides, while parts of old houses have collapsed in the port city of Heraklion. Teams of experts are assessing the safety of the buildings, local officials told the Greek national broadcaster ERT.

The epicenter of the tremor, which was felt as far away as Athens, was located about 60 km off the coast of the Lasithi region at a depth of approximately 37 km, according to the National Observatory of Athens.

A series of aftershocks followed, with Greek seismologists calling for caution and calm. "Only a few aftershocks are expected, and not a larger quake," Thanasis Ganas, research director at the National Observatory of Athens, told ERT.

"There is no connection between this tremor and the recent earthquakes in Santorini (north of Crete in the Aegean Sea)," said Efthymios Lekkas, president of Greece's Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization.

In January and February of this year, nearly 20,000 tremors, measuring up to 5.1 magnitude, hit the sea off the volcanic Santorini island. This rare phenomenon did not cause any casualties or major damage. 
SOFIA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The Bulgarian minister of justice called for a society-wide drive to tackle online crimes against children after a recent report revealed 70,000 alerts for online crimes against children in 2024.

At a roundtable discussion on protecting children from online violence on Thursday, Georgi Georgiev emphasized that such crimes represent a huge challenge, and society had to be involved to tackle it.

Citing the report that the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center (SIC) has reviewed and referred to the relevant authorities, Georgiev said: "This work shows that the challenge is much bigger than it seems to us."

He said the public should have been made aware of this issue because there is no measure in the penal code or any new law to fix the problem, and prevention is necessary.

"Let's talk more about the role of the family, the school, the environment, because the justice system only specifically intervenes when the antisocial act is a fact," he underlined. "We need to think about the reasons."

He also urged a strong and decisive response from law enforcement since the public expects a reaction when alerts are made.

According to Vladimir Dimitrov, head of the Cybercrime Directorate at Bulgaria's General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, who also attended the roundtable organized by the SIC, Bulgaria's specialized unit for combating crimes against children in cyberspace has doubled its staff within the last two years.

The staff at this unit uses specialized software to identify Bulgarian IP addresses that are copying and distributing child sexual exploitation materials in cyberspace. Almost every week, his colleagues travel around Bulgaria to arrest people who download and distribute these materials, Dimitrov said, although it is impossible to catch everyone involved in such activities. 
Panumat Kwandees artwork, the 27th Semmelweis sculpture worldwide to be created with the support of Semmelweis University, was unveiled at a ceremony on the campus of the Faculty of Medical Science at Naresuan University in Thailand.

At the ceremony, Dr. Bela Merkely, Rector of Semmelweis University, lauded the legacy of Ignac Semmelweis. The event was one of the highlights of the university delegations visit to Thailand, during which a memorandum of understanding was signed with Mahidol University, and negotiations conducted with Naresuan University centered on deepening professional relations.



As rector of Semmelweis University, I feel particularly honored to be here representing the university that was named after one of the worlds most famous physicians. The artwork just unveiled is already the 27th Semmelweis sculpture in the world that was created with the support of Semmelweis University.



This also shows that all over the world, across borders, Semmelweiss discovery and the lessons of his lifes work connect people who have dedicated their lives to the worlds most beautiful profession, medical and health sciences, said Dr. Bela Merkely in his welcome address.



The rector noted that the artist behind the newly inaugurated sculpture, Panumat Kwandee, had previously depicted another prominent Hungarian: He had designed the bust of the eminent naturalist John Xantus, which was inaugurated in Bangkoks Suan Phlu Park in 2024.



Dr. Bela Merkely pointed out that the Hungarian university had taken on the name of Ignac Semmelweis in 1969, on its 200th anniversary. Since then, they had been working not only to preserve the legacy of Semmelweis and the predecessors, but also to extend it.



There is no surgery today that does not begin with Semmelweiss handwashing regimen. Nevertheless, Ignac Semmelweiss life was full of hardship: His discovery that lack of proper handwashing was the cause of puerperal fever was rejected by the medical community of his day. But Semmelweis persisted in his conviction because he knew that science proved him right.



This is what his story teaches us: Never to be content with merely doing our duty, always to try to do more and do our work even better. And when problems arise, we should not avoid them but try to solve them, the rector emphasized.



Semmelweis University is now the best higher education institution in Hungary and the Central and Eastern European region, listed among the worlds top 300 in Times Higher Educations 2025 World University Rankings.



Sarintip Tantanee, President of the University of Naresuan, called it an honor that the sculpture of Ignac Semmelweis, whose revolutionary discovery had saved the lives of millions, was erected on the campus of the Faculty of Medical Science, symbolizing the close cooperation between the two institutions. Semmelweis University owes thanks to Dr. Sandor Sipos, Ambassador of Hungary to Thailand, for his support in the project.



The ceremony was held as part of the Semmelweis University delegations visit to Thailand, led by the universitys rector.



The visit aimed to enhance the international reputation of Semmelweis University and its namesake, as well as to further strengthen Hungarian-Thai relations and the scientific and educational cooperation between the two universities.



During their three-day stay, the delegation visited Mahidol and Naresuan Universities, where Dr. Bela Merkely gave several presentations about Semmelweis University and the advancement of his narrower discipline, cardiology in Hungary.



At Mahidol University, a memorandum of understanding between the two universities was signed, while at Naresuan University, following the sculpture inauguration ceremony, the university leaders and members of the Hungarian delegation discussed further opportunities for cooperation.



As part of the inter-institutional meetings, the highly acclaimed biopic about Ignac Semmelweis was also screened on both campuses for students and faculty to learn about Semmelweiss discovery of the cause and prevention of puerperal fever.



Naresuan University, a public university in northern Thailand, was founded in 1990 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of King Naresuans accession to the throne.



Almost 20,000 students attend its 16 faculties.



A delegation from the university paid a visit to Budapest in 2016, where they were welcomed by then Vice-Rector Dr. Bela Merkely. In 2021, four students from Naresuan University received their academic qualification from Semmelweis.



To mark the 200th birth anniversary of Ignac Semmelweis in 2018, Semmelweis University decided to donate sculptures depicting one of the worlds most famous physicians, the savior of mothers, to various medical schools outside Hungary.



Several Semmelweis sculptures can be seen in Hungary, including one in the courtyard of the Ulloi Street building of the university bearing his name in Budapest, as well as ones in the cities of Miskolc and Kiskunhalas.



Thanks to the initiative, there are now sculptures of Ignac Semmelweis on four continents in cities such as Tokyo, Los Angeles, Tehran, and Vienna. Prior to Thailand, Ignac Semmelweis had been commemorated in a similar way in Perugia, Italy, at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of Queen Mary University of London, and at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Semmelweis University will unveil the next sculpture in Florence in June.



Image credit: Naresuan University, Mahidol University



More:

semmelweis.hu
Hungarys tax regime stands out in the region with a unique model combining business-friendly corporate tax rates with extra-high levies on consumption, according to the latest tax guide by consultant Forvis Mazars, which covered 22 European and three Central Asian countries in its annual report.

Hungary has the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe at 9%, but its 27% standard VAT rate is the highest in the EU, placing a significant portion of the tax burden on consumers.



The tax wedge for single, childless workers is 41%, above the 38% average in the region, but the rate drops to 23% for families with three children, the second lowest in the region.



Hungarys tax model, based on low corporate taxes but high levies on consumption, contrasts sharply with more balanced systems in countries such as Austria or Germany.



Hungary is ranked at the forefront of tax digitalisation in the region thanks to the launch of real-time invoice reporting (eVAT), the online cash registers and the Ekaer system, which tracks and monitors shipments within the country.



These measures helped reduce the VAT gap to one of the lowest in Europe, the study found.



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The 75th anniversary of Budapest's Liszt Ferenc International Airport was celebrated at an event at the Academy of Music.

Addressing the event, National Economy Minister Marton Nagy said the state's repurchase of the airport, in 2024, would support the government's policy of economic neutrality. He added that the period of time to recoup the purchase price had "decreased significantly" from the sixteen and a half years calculated at the time of the transaction as the airport was overperforming in a number of respects.



Passenger traffic at Liszt Ferenc reached a record 17.6 million in 2024, climbing around 20pc from a year earlier. Cargo turnover jumped 50pc to 300,000 tonnes.



Nagy acknowledged the results of the work of Vinci Airports, the state of Hungary's partner in the repurchase, in managing Liszt Ferenc. He said the cooperation between Liszt Ferenc operator Budapest Airport and Vinci Airports could add destinations to the timetable, including transatlantic ones.



Nicolas Notebaert, the president of Vinci Airports, highlighted the importance of the company's partnership with the state of Hungary and said it paved the way for their shared success.



Budapest Airport's new logo was unveiled at the event.



When the airport's purchase agreement was signed, market experts calculated that the purchase would pay for itself in 16.5 years. Now it seems that time is significantly shorter, as the airport has exceeded previous expectations in several respects, the minister emphasised.



Nagy explained that the airport broke all previous records, welcoming 17.6 million passengers in 2024, which exceeded the 2023 figure by about 20 percent. The growth has continued this year and will continue, he stated.



The airport also closed the first quarter of this year with a historic high, with the monthly passenger number rising to over 1.5 million in April. There are 200 flights operating in the summer season, to about 130 destinations.



He also noted that seventy-five years ago, on May 7 in 1950, Budapest's international airport was opened to the traveling public.



Source:

MTI  Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.



Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all the key narratives within the media landscape.



XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com

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Over three days almost a hundred cultural and musical programs await visitors here, plus as a fresh addition 'Tolkien Days' will also be organised at this year's festival - you can see a video below about what happened last year.

The new Tolkien Days series is compiled jointly with the Hungarian Tolkien Society. Programs bringing the world of the author of The Lord of the Rings to life will be held in the courtyard of the Amazon House and the park of the Festetics Castle, and there will also be a costume parade.



Deputy Mayor Gusztav Kendeh-Kirchknopf indicated that this time the Keszthely Fest programs will not only focus on the Main Square, but will also include the entire pedestrian street, where there will once again be a jazz stage and street musicians will entertain visitors.



Plus the pedestrian street, "a kind of cultural and tourist axis" of the festival, will also be an opportunity for local communities to introduce themselves, he added.



Kinga Timea Stadler, director of the Goldmark Karoly Cultural Center, explained that they will address all generations with these series of events, which will be one of the most colorful festivals around Lake Balaton this summer.



Well-known local performers playing at the fest include KFT, Marot Viki and Nova Kultur Zenekar, Nemazalany X Sofi, Dj Yamina, Malek Andrea and Majsai Gabor.



Katalin Major, deputy director of the cultural center, talked about how they " turn down the volume" a bit in the Goldmark Courtyard , and more in-depth conversations will also take place here, for example with Zoltan Czutor and Livius Varga.



They also take care of culinary delights, with classic dishes, street food, but also vegan and gluten-free delicacies on offer.



In addition, wines are given a prominent role at the festival, thanks to the attendance of wineries from throughout the country.



Gergely Toth, Mayor of Keszthely, spoke at the program's press conference on Wednesday about the program's largest budget, although they can only manage with two-thirds of last year's costs this year.



The festival will be realized from its own resources, 65-70 million forints, because it was not possible to obtain funding from a tender this year, he added.



This year it is organised by the Goldmark Karoly Cultural Center, and will take place between July 4 and 6 - you can see a video below about what happened last year.



More:

keszthelyfest.hu
New Delhi: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, known for his powerful performances, recently hogged attention for his movie 'Main Actor Nahin Hoon' (I Am Not an Actor). After making waves at the New York Indian Film Festival, the film will now be screened at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute  a place that has shaped generations of performers.

'Main Actor Nahin Hoon' revolves around a retired banker-turned-aspiring actorplayed by Nawazuddin Siddiquiwho connects virtually with a professional actor for acting lessons. The film will be screened exclusively for current students and alumni of the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute on June 24.

Following the screening, there will be an intimate conversation with Siddiqui and writer-director Aditya Kripalani. We are so excited about this. It is a film about acting, so for it to go to a prestigious establishment like this is a huge honour, says Kripalani. Siddiqui, trained in method acting, will also conduct a special masterclass on his process and the various interpretations of the craft. As artistes, we feel bankers have it easy... I want to debunk these labels, adds Kripalani, challenging narrow perceptions of professions and identity.

Nawazuddin Siddiquis recent film Costao received critical acclaim, further cementing his reputation as a powerhouse performer. The actor has several exciting projects lined up and is currently shooting for them. He will next be seen in Maddock Films horror-comedy Thama, alongside Rashmika Mandanna and Ayushmann Khurrana. Fans eagerly await more of his legendary performances on screen.
New Delhi: A research institute has been named after an Indian for the first time in the United States. And that Indian is none other than Dr Achyuta Samanta  a noted humanitarian, an educationist and a social reformer from Odisha.

The City University of New York (CUNY) launched the Achyuta Samanta India Initiate CUNY Crest Institute on May 20. Leaders, dignitaries and academics from across the United States attended the event.

This was a proud moment not only for Dr Samanta but for all Odisha and the KIIT-KISS family worldwide. The institute will offer American students a window into India, especially into Odishas tribal heritage art and culture.

It will also study Dr Samantas lifelong work in transforming tribal education and empowering the underprivileged. But the honour did not stop there.

The CUNY, at the same time, awarded its highest recognition, the Presidential Medal, to Dr Samanta. This rare award is reserved for individuals who make a global impact. Dr

Samanta earned it for his extraordinary work in social service and reform and education.

He has helped more than 80,000 tribal children access education, opportunity and dignity through KIIT and KISS.

The idea for this US-based institute came earlier. Dr Milton Santiago, president of Bronx Community College under CUNY, had visited KIIT and KISS in Bhubaneswar. Moved by what he saw, he proposed naming a research institute after Dr Samanta. The CUNY boad approved it unanimously.

Addressing at the inauguration ceremony, Dr Santiago said, The Achyuta Samanta India Initiative will help American students understand Indias tribal communities and their rich culture. It will also introduce them to one of the worlds most impactful educational models.

Dr Samanta was the guest of honour at the event. He expressed deep gratitude. He said it was a proud moment for him as an Odia and Indian. He added that the institute is not just a personal honour but also a recognition for Odisha, KIIT and KISS.

He hoped the new centre would lead to more research into Odishas art, literature andhis social work.

CUNY is one of the oldest and largest public university system in the United States, with 25 colleges and more than 300,000 students from 122 countries.

With the establishment of the Achyuta Samanta India Initiative, CUNY now also carries a piece of Odishas spirit and the legacy of a man who changed thousands of lives.

(The article is from brand desk. User discretion is advised.)
MOSCOW, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Russian forces are working on establishing a security buffer zone along the country's border with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"The enemy's firing positions are being actively suppressed, and work is ongoing," Putin said at a government meeting, referring to the buffer zone.

The Russian president noted the necessity to begin restoration work in the border regions of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk and demine the areas where fighting previously took place.

Putin visited the Kursk region on Tuesday, where the Ukrainian army launched an offensive in August 2024. On April 26, Putin announced that Russia had regained full control of the region. 
Kerala DHSE Result 2025: Kerala Pareeksha Bhavan is ready to announce the Class 12 (Plus Two) results for 2025 today, May 22, at 3 PM through a press conference. The exams were conducted from March 3 to March 26. To view their results, students will need to enter their registration number, password, and date of birth as mentioned on the admit card. To pass the board exams, students must score a minimum of 35% in each subject and overall. To view their Kerala Plus Two Results 2025, students must enter their registration number, password, and date of birth as listed on their admit card. Once released, the scorecards will be available on the official websites:

 pareekshabhavan.kerala.gov.in

 dhsekerala.gov.in

 keralaresults.nic.in

 result.kite.kerala.gov.in

Kerala DHSE Result 2025: Heres how to check via SMS

Step 1: Open the SMS application on your phone.

Step 2: Type KERALA12 followed by your roll number or registration number, with a space in between.

Step 3: Send the message to 56263.

Step 4: Once results are announced, you will receive your Kerala Plus Two scorecard via SMS.

Kerala DHSE Result 2025: Heres how to check via Digilocker

Step 1: Go to digilocker.gov.in or open the DigiLocker app.

Step 2: Click on the Sign Up button to create a new account.

Step 3: If you're already registered, log in using your credentials.

Step 4: Search for Kerala Board Class 12 HSC Result 2025 in the search bar.

Step 5: Enter your Class 12 roll number, date of birth, and other required details, then click Get Document.

Step 6: Your Kerala Board Class 12 HSC Result 2025 will appear on the screen.

Step 7: Download and save a copy of your result for future reference.

In the previous year, the Science stream recorded an overall pass percentage of 84.84%, while Commerce stood at 76.11%, and Arts or Humanities at 67.09%. A total of 39,242 Class 12 students secured an A+ in all subjects, showing an increase from 33,215 students in 2023 who achieved the same distinction. In last years HSE Class 12 results, Ernakulam recorded the highest pass percentage among all districts, while Wayanad had the lowest student pass rate.

Students who fail in one or two subjects in the Kerala Class 12 board exams will have the chance to improve their scores by appearing for supplementary exams. They can also choose to apply for re-evaluation of their answer scripts.
Indian Civil Service Exam: Today, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is one of the most prestigious government job exams in India. Not only this, it's one of the toughest exams in the world as well. While thousands of students take this exam every year, do you know who was the first Indian to become a civil servant? It was Satyendranath Tagore who cleared the then Indian Civil Service (ICS) exam (currently UPSC Civil Services) in 1863. Notably, Satyendranath Tagore was the elder brother of Noble laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Satyendranath Tagore was born on June 1, 1842 in West Bengal's Kolkata. Tagore had achieved what many Indians considered impossible during the then-British rule. With his immense knowledge and passion for the country, Tagore not only achieved the unthinkable but also became an inspiration for others.

Notably, when Satyendranath Tagore was 21 years old, he visited London to take the ICS exam which was designed by Englishmen to favour British candidates. Despite the exam being tough and discriminatory towards Indians, Tagore cleared it proving that Indians could compete at any level, even in odd circumstances. Tagore returned to India in 1864 and served in the Bombay Presidency, working in places like Satara, Ahmedabad, and Pune.

Since he was the only Indian officer among British civil servants who held senior positions in the administrations, Tagore faced racial discrimination and cultural isolation. However, he remained determined to hold fellow Indians and uplift their lives.

Satyendranath was more than just a civil servant; he was a poet, writer, composer, and social reformer. He was actively involved in the Brahmo Samaj, a movement that opposed caste discrimination and promoted women's empowerment. Additionally, he played a significant role in introducing modern fashion for Bengali women, as his wife, Jnanadanandini Devi, popularized the Parsi-style saree.

Tagore did not remain confined to the civil services work and went on to translate significant literary works, including his father's autobiography, and brought Persian poetry and Western literature to Bengali readers. he fused Indian and Western cultural elements in both his music and writing. He familiarized Bengali audiences with the works of Shakespeare and Byron, while also creating patriotic songs that fostered a sense of national pride. His contributions played a crucial role in shaping contemporary Indian thought and had a lasting impact on his brother, Rabindranath Tagore.
SSC GD Constable Result 2025: Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is expected to release the SSC GD Constable 2025 examination results soon. All the candidates who have appeared for the SSC GD examination will be able to check their results from the official website, i.e. ssc.gov.in. Candidates will find the links of merit list and category-wise cut-off marks in the result PDF, no details are required to check the result.

The SSC GD Constable exam is a national-level recruitment exam which is a Computer Based Exam (CBE) and is conducted in various centres across India. This year, the Staff Selection Commission has increased the vacancies to 53,690 posts. The examination was held from 4th February, 2025 to 25th February, 2025 and then the provisional answer key was released on 4th March, 2025.

SSC GD Constable Result 2025: Steps to Download the Result PDF

Step 1: Go to the official SSC website- ssc.gov.in.

Step 2: You will see the tab of Result on the homepage, open it.

Step 3: Find the section of Constable-GD in the exam exam category.

Step 4: Now click on the SSC GD Constable Exam Result 2025 link.

Step 5: The SSC GD Constable result PDF will appear on your screen.

Step 6: PDF will contain the roll numbers of the candidates who have qualified the exam, find your name.

Step 7: Save and download the PDF for future use.

SSC GD Constable exam is conducted in the three stages for the selection, first stage is the written exam, second stage is Physical efficiency Test (PET)/ physical standard test (PST), and the last stage is a medical examination. Only the candidates who will clear this written test will be qualified for the next rounds. All the candidates are advised to keep checking the official website for all the important updates.
Mumbai: After "Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning" Hollywood star Tom Cruise has joined forces with Academy Award winner director Alejandro G. Inarritu for his next. During Cannes 2025, 'The Revenant' maker told The Hollywood Reporter that his next with Cruise has been tentatively named "Judy".

He added that they have already concluded the shoot for the drama in London. Talking about the film, Inarritu said, All I can say is it is a brutal, wild comedy of catastrophic proportions. Its insane." The director revealed he is aware that this film is not something the audience expects from him and Cruise's combo.

"Its scary and funny, and beautiful. I know comedy is not what people expect from me, or Tom, and making this film was terrifying for me, but I dont like to repeat myself, and every film should scare you a little," he added. Back in February 2024, one of Cruise's representatives confirmed that he had joined forces with Inarritu.

Aside from Cruise, the project is also likely to star German actress Sandra Huller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Emma DArcy, Sophie Wilde, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman. Meanwhile, Cruise was recently in London to attend the premiere of "Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning."

Made under the direction of Christopher McQuarrie, the eighth and final installment in the "Mission: Impossible" series has Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett reprising their roles from the franchise. However, this time, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, and Tramell Tillman have also joined the cast of the drama.

Screened at Cannes on May 14, "Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning" is scheduled for a theatrical release in the United States on May 23. The film reached the Indian audience six days early on May 17.
As the 2026 Kerala Assembly Elections approaches, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has launched a massive public outreach programme to reconnect with people and address their expectations, aiming to retain power in the state. The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF is all set to contest the battle against the Congress-led UDF, banking on Vijayan's image as the leader who will continue as Chief Minister.

The LDF has placed Vijayan, Keralas first chief minister to win consecutive terms, as the face of its campaign once again with a that Vijayans leadership and development agenda will go forward if re-elected in the state.

To mark the fourth anniversary of his second term, the 79-year-old CM is touring all 14 districts of Kerala. During these visits, he will meet citizens from different communities and professions, listening to their concerns of the people and highlighting his government's achievements.

With less than a year left for an election, from professionals in Thiruvananthapuram to SC/ST community members in Palakkad and cultural figures in Thrissur, Vijayan is trying to reach every section of society.

The LDF is strongly pushing the narrative that Kerala has changed significantly since 2016, the year Vijayan first took over the office, calling it the era of Nava Kerala (New Kerala).

Major projects including the widening of national highways, the GAIL pipeline and the Edamon-Kochi power transmission line are being showcased as key achievements.

The recent inauguration of the Rs 8,800-crore Vizhinjam Seaport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also highlighted by Vijayan as proof of turning Keralas long-pending dreams into reality.

Despite facing criticism in his first term over allegations like the gold smuggling case, Vijayans second term has remained relatively controversy-free. Within the CPI(M), he continues to hold strong influence, with the party already confirming that he will lead the 2026 election campaign.

As the countdown to the polls begins, the LDF is countuously working towards the development record in Vijayans second term to meet public expectations and aim for a historic third term in office.
India on Thursday said that relations between the two countries are built on the basis of sensitivities to each other's concerns and added that Turkey must urge Pakistan to end support to cross-border terrorism. It said that Pakistan has harboured terrorism for decades. The remark came days after Turkey backed Pakistan unconditionally against India in the wake of Operation Sindoor which targeted terror sites in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir. Pakistan used Turkish drones to attack Indian cities but they were nuetralises by the Indian air defence system.

"We expect Turkey to strongly urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades. Relations are built on the basis of sensitivities to each others concerns," said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.

Speaking on the matter of suspension of the security clearance of Turkish firm Celebi Airport Services, Jaiswal said that the decision was taken by Civil Aviation Security and the Turkish Embassy has been informed about the same.

"Celebi matter has been discussed with the Turkish Embassy here. But I understand that this particular decision was taken by the Civil Aviation Security," said Jaiswal.

India has recently suspended the security license of Turkish firm Celebi, which has been handling airport operations on a section of the Delhi Airport, citing national security. The decision came after Turkey openly declared support for Pakistan in conflict with India.

Celebi Aviation has challenged the move in the Delhi High Court claiming that the majority of the staffers here are Indians and it's ready to replace Turkish employees. It also denied any political links or affiliation saying that its majority of stake is majority-owned by international institutional investors.

Celebi has also challenged the termination of Mumbai airport contract in the Bombay High Court. The revocation of security clearance by the Centre has led to termination of its contracts with Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) which operates Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in the city. The lawsuits have been filed by Celebi Nas Airport Services India.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (UP ATS) has arrested Tufail, son of Maqsood Alam, from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi on charges of allegedly spying for Pakistan.

The arrest was made following credible intelligence indicating his involvement in spying for Pakistan and sharing sensitive information related to India's internal security.

According to ATS, Tufail was found to be in contact with multiple individuals based in Pakistan. Upon surveillance by the ATS, it was revealed that He used to share videos of Maulana Shah Rizvi, leader of Pakistan's banned terrorist organisation, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, in WhatsApp groups.

UP ATS arrests one Tufail s/o Maqsood Alam from Varanasi, on charges of spying for Pakistan. He was sharing important information about India's internal security with Pakistan.



On developing this intelligence, ATS Field Unit Varanasi confirmed that Tufail was in contact with pic.twitter.com/cw18siTAeI  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

The Anti-Terrorism Squad also informed that he shared messages calling for 'Ghazwa-e-Hind', the revenge of Babri Masjid and implementing Shariat in India.

Earlier, UP ATS arrested Shahzad from UP's Moradabad on charges of allegedly spying for Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI. He is a resident of Rampur. Shahzad had been visiting Pakistan for several years and was involved in smuggling cosmetics, clothes, spices, and other goods across the India-Pakistan border under the guise of trade.

According to the UP ATS, Shahzad maintained close ties with ISI agents and provided them with confidential information related to Indias security. He allegedly facilitated the travel of people from Rampur and other parts of Uttar Pradesh to Pakistan to work for ISI under the guise of smuggling. Notably, the visas for these individuals were arranged by the ISI itself.
After Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left the country in 2024, interim leader Mohammad Yunus tightened their grip on Bangladeshs political scene. Army Chief General Waqar Uz Zaman, who reportedly ensured Hasinas safe exit, has become a prominent critic of Yunus, intensifying tensions amid rising radical influence and delayed elections.

Tensions between General Zaman and Yunus have escalated since the latter ordered the release of radical and terror-linked prisoners. In March, General Zaman warned of a potential major terror attack due to the unchecked presence of extremists. A month later, he opposed the proposed Rakhine Corridor project with Myanmar. Recently, he demanded early elections to protect democracy, a direct challenge to Yunus.

In today's DNA, Rahul Sinha, Managing Editor of Zee News analysed the ongoing political situation in Bangladesh and the face-off between Army Chief and Mohammad Yunus.

Watch Today's Full Episode:

Despite multiple promises, elections have yet to be held. Yunus's advisors first hinted at a January 2025 date, but no official announcement followed. Instead, student leaders linked to Yunus launched a new partyNCPwhich has failed to gain significant public support.

According to a February 2025 opinion poll, Khaleda Zias BNP led with 17 per cent support, Jamaat-linked parties followed at 12 per cent, Hasinas Awami League held 6 per cent, while NCP received a mere 2.1 per cent.

Even in exile, Sheikh Hasina remains more popular than Yunuss proxies, and Khaleda Zias return has further challenged Yunus's grip.
Pahalgam Terror Attack: One month after the Pahalgam terror attack, India has launched a strong response destroying nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), killing six terrorists in Kashmir, and arresting over 100 individuals under the Public Safety Act (PSA). A massive search operation, extending from mountains to towns and cities, has been launched to apprehend the attackers who are still in hiding.

After terrorists killed unarmed tourists and a local on April 22nd in the Baisaran valley of Pahalgam, India adopted an offensive posture, punishing Pakistan for its vital role in the attack. Indias response, Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7th, targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, aiming to dismantle networks linked to the attack. The operation involved precision missile strikes and was described as a significant escalation in Indias counter-terrorism strategy. Not only that, India delivered a fitting reply to Pakistan's aggression by destroying many vital installations, including major air bases. A ceasefire was later agreed upon on May 10th, but India maintains economic sanctions, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, which impacts Pakistans agriculture. India also sent a loud and clear message that any future terror attack would be treated as an act of war.

To commemorate this significant victory, the BJP today organized a Tiranga Shikara Rally at Dal Lake in Srinagar to honour the Indian Armed Forces for Operation Sindoor and pay tribute to the tourists and locals killed in the Pahalgam Attack. BJP leaders carried National Flags in a massive Shikara rally on the world-famous Dal Lake. The BJP leaders called Operation Sindoor a major success and stated that this is not the old India.

Dr. Darakshana Andrabi, Chairperson of the Waqf Board and spokesperson, stated, "Operation Sindoor was conducted successfully. Operation Sindoor was launched by Prime Minister Modi against Pakistan from where terrorists were sent here. India has proved its 'Vishva Guru' status, and terrorism will not be tolerated at all."

#WATCH | J&K: Tourist footfall in Pahalgam remains extremely low even after a month of #PahalgamTerroristAttack. Tourist attractions, hotels, and streets appear deserted. pic.twitter.com/8DsFhGFTgq  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

Over the past month, security forces have launched massive anti-terror operations in Kashmir, targeting both active terrorists and sleeper cells. Six terrorists have been killed, over 100 overground workers (OGWs) have been arrested under the Public Safety Act, and dozens of properties belonging to terrorists and their supporters have been attached.

A massive hunt is also underway for the Pahalgam attackers. Agencies have released posters offering a 20 lakh reward for information on three Pakistani terrorists believed to be behind the attack, with the search for perpetrators ongoing. The attack was carried out by terrorists from The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Jammu and Kashmir is grappling with the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack in the once bustling tourist hotspot, which has since become a ghost city. The Baisaran meadow attack has deeply affected Kashmir's tourism. Tourism, a vital contributor to Jammu and Kashmirs economy (estimated at 10,000 crore annually), has seen widespread cancellations, with advance bookings plummeting after 50 tourist sites were closed post-attack.

The downfall in tourism has led to the closure of shops selling Pashmina shawls, saffron, and souvenirs, significantly impacting the region's economy. An estimate suggests that the tourism industry has suffered approximately two thousand crore rupees in losses this month.

Now, tourist businesses across India, along with Kashmir tourist traders, have launched a campaign called "Chalo Kashmir," with around 2,400 travel member companies aiming to restore Jammu and Kashmir's tourism industry. Travel agents across the country state that their motive is to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

Tariq Ghani, President of the Chamber of Commerce, said, "'Kashmir Chalo' will not only promote Kashmir tourism but will also offer a 50 per cent discount on hotels, houseboats, and guesthouses during the peak season to attract people again. The 'Chalo Kashmir' campaign has been started, and I would like to inform you that on May 27th, 28th, and 29th, we are conducting a familiarization tour in which travel partners from across the country are coming to support this campaign."

Locals in the Valley have reported an uneasy calm across the Valley since the Pahalgam attack. With no tourists, places like Gulmarg, Pahalgam, and Sonmarg have started resembling ghost towns.

Manzoor Pakhtoon, President of the Houseboat Association, said, "It's a great initiative, and some of the top associations and travel agents have taken the initiative to run this campaign, 'Chalo Kashmir.' These travel companies have memberships in lakhs around the country, with main members in Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata. They have always helped Kashmir tourism to revive. It's a great message from all of them."

Despite the challenges, the people of Kashmir and the government are continuously focusing on the revival of tourism.
Kerala Lottery Results Thursday 22-05-2025 LIVE: The Kerala Lottery Department, on behalf of the Keralan government, announces the "Karunya KN-573" Lucky Draw Result today Karunya KN-573, May 22, 2025. The draw will be held at Gorky Bhavan near Bakery Junction in Thiruvananthapuram. The Kerala Lottery Result 2025 for "Karunya KN-573" will feature 12 series, with changes in series possible each week. A total of 108 lakh tickets are available for purchase weekly. The ticket prices may vary. Check the Karunya KN-573 results right here to see if youre the first-place winner of 80 Lakhs. Stay tuned to this website for the live update of Kerala Lottery Karunya KN-573 results today.

Kerala Lottery Result 22-05-2025 May: FULL LIST OF WINNING NUMBERS FOR KARUNYA PLUS KN-573 Draw

LUCKY TICKET NUMBER FOR 1ST PRIZE OF RS 1 Crore IS: PG 307617

LUCKY TICKET NUMBER FOR 2ND PRIZE OF RS 50 LAKHS IS: PA 659784

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 3RD PRIZE OF RS 5 LAKHS ARE:

1) PA 394569

2) PB 244083

3) PC 518815

4) PD 540400

5) PE 192895

6) PF 409257

7) PG 670393

8) PH 811932

9) PJ 768370

10) PK 239251

11) PL 552780

12) PM 565731



LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR CONSOLATION PRIZE OF RS 5000 ARE:

PA 307617

PB 307617

PC 307617

PD 307617

PE 307617

PF 307617

PH 307617

PJ 307617

PK 307617

PL 307617

PM 307617

(For The Tickets Ending with The Following Numbers below)

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 4TH PRIZE OF RS 5,000 ARE: 0156 0398 1956 2588 2658 2799 3902 3921 4104 4255 4579 5416 5654 5855 7169 7478 7740 8037

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 5TH PRIZE OF RS 1000 ARE: 0252 0273 0651 0891 1130 1648 1661 1759 2032 3677 3842 4165 4550 5617 5743 5786 6208 6628 6873 7681 8066 8732 8985 9009 9086 9135 9307 9531 9921 9991

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 6TH PRIZE OF RS 500 ARE: 0146 0184 0582 0589 0607 0636 0706 0748 0828 0835 0910 0994 1360 1507 1619 1905 1913 2037 2083 2552 2583 2817 2836 2966 3007 3081 3091 3129 3208 3215 3260 3301 3378 3383 3515 3558 3562 3597 3664 3717 3985 4041 4092 4177 4370 4438 4557 4666 4734 4926 5066 5101 5279 5288 5321 5476 5480 5625 5856 5932 6173 6223 6266 6332 6402 6450 6506 6525 6789 6915 7244 7351 7406 7591 7926 8098 8103 8196 8229 8295 8503 8543 8658 8716 8926 9016 9097 9161 9215 9376 9424 9549 9558 9745 9762 9805 9811 9839 9870 9907 9919 9950

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 7TH PRIZE OF RS 100 ARE: 0000 0113 0163 0169 0256 0306 0327 0366 0372 0385 0407 0411 0497 0506 0526 0852 0858 0966 0980 1075 1080 1098 1141 1211 1240 1326 1447 1474 1504 1641 1646 1687 1810 1834 1878 1881 1922 2081 2087 2157 2209 2230 2379 2400 2479 2525 2542 2620 2625 2682 2685 2704 2897 2990 3019 3102 3145 3182 3189 3220 3304 3385 3484 3537 3573 3578 3619 3687 3735 3897 3930 4013 4059 4112 4149 4216 4219 4561 4563 4629 4649 4675 4682 4713 4761 4820 4896 4953 4994 5018 5068 5095 5149 5160 5183 5187 5197 5214 5296 5309 5384 5496 5540 5584 5630 5646 5777 5781 5936 5948 5960 5963 5993 5998 6009 6057 6109 6131 6151 6182 6196 6206 6217 6315 6388 6486 6567 6572 6575 6668 6728 6731 6783 6842 6865 6884 6894 6954 6989 7007 7049 7059 7077 7087 7100 7109 7130 7132 7193 7235 7263 7287 7349 7367 7370 7388 7416 7434 7542 7556 7608 7612 7615 7639 7655 7702 7711 7734 7737 7820 7871 7941 8075 8213 8226 8271 8356 8387 8446 8456 8555 8613 8617 8660 8680 8729 8741 8858 8863 8938 9014 9027 9070 9133 9163 9184 9207 9281 9284 9287 9293 9320 9388 9393 9487 9518 9519 9568 9577 9660 9717 9730 9843 9909 9947 9952

LUCKY TICKET NUMBERS FOR 8TH PRIZE OF RS 50 ARE:0004 0015 0095 0133 0135 0145 0151 0259 0277 0391 0397 0601 0609 0676 0682 0794 0873 0877 0918 1048 1094 1167 1269 1311 1386 1408 1425 1541 1560 1584 1657 1822 1851 1909 1911 1921 1993 2033 2086 2099 2105 2140 2162 2172 2176 2183 2185 2284 2291 2303 2327 2395 2399 2441 2468 2501 2582 2619 2660 2747 2778 2861 2868 2934 2947 2986 3004 3035 3040 3106 3154 3227 3236 3302 3322 3382 3415 3430 3435 3512 3548 3639 3697 3832 3838 3879 3900 3912 4022 4079 4122 4201 4364 4377 4410 4448 4497 4515 4593 4656 4823 4880 4930 4954 4966 5013 5057 5140 5185 5192 5200 5222 5250 5341 5348 5419 5464 5517 5567 5636 5659 5701 5759 5771 5810 5858 5862 5890 5892 5901 5903 5925 5988 5996 6003 6013 6059 6112 6115 6127 6219 6242 6305 6379 6401 6456 6529 6533 6583 6596 6621 6734 6803 6816 6825 6836 6870 6889 6916 6928 6939 6948 6950 6965 6984 7015 7079 7084 7117 7176 7232 7267 7325 7417 7584 7600 7606 7665 7679 7692 7800 7834 7857 7895 7900 7902 7979 7981 8022 8147 8161 8233 8296 8371 8423 8440 8450 8452 8492 8513 8652 8736 8840 8854 8856 8903 8904 8913 8942 8963 8964 8974 9000 9012 9040 9043 9069 9275 9277 9282 9306 9310 9394 9418 9426 9430 9437 9595 9620 9623 9624 9636 9697 9704 9739 9865 9875 9941 9966 9985

KERALA LOTTERY RESULT TODAY 22-05-2025 May: KARUNYA PLUS KN-573 LOTTERY PRIZE DETAILS

1st Prize: Rs 80 Lakhs

2nd Prize: Rs. 10 lakhs

3rd Prize: Rs. 1 Lakh

4th Prize: Rs. 5,000

5th Prize: Rs. 1,000

6th Prize: Rs. 500

7th Prize: Rs. 100

Consolation Prize: Rs. 8,000

(NOTE: Lottery can be addictive and should be played responsibly. The data provided on this page is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as advice or encouragement. Zee News does not promote lottery in anyway.)
This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows a police car at the site where two Israeli embassy employees were killed in Washington D.C., the United States. Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Two staff members from the Israeli Embassy in the United States were killed in a shooting Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., according to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

"We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share," Noem said in a post on social platform X.

The shooting occurred near the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum, known as the Capital Jewish Museum, according to media reports.

Police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois. During an online press briefing, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said that the suspect shouted "Free Palestine" as he was taken into custody.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yeshiel (Michael) Leite said at a press conference that the victims were a couple who had been preparing to get engaged. Embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen confirmed that the two were shot at close range while attending a museum event.

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, said in a statement that his organization was hosting an event at the museum that evening.

Cohen said Israeli officials had "full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States."

"Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line," Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a post on X. "We are confident that the U.S. authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act."

In response, U.S. President Donald Trump called for an end to the "horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism" in a post on social platform Truth Social. 

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the site where two Israeli embassy employees were killed in Washington D.C., the United States. Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the site where two Israeli embassy employees were killed in Washington D.C., the United States. Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)

This photo taken on May 22, 2025 shows the site where two Israeli embassy employees were killed in Washington D.C., the United States. Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong)
New Delhi: The Indian Navy on May 21 brought back a vessel to its fleet that once lost to time. The hand-made one-of-a-kind wooden ship, INSV Kaundinya, is no ordinary vessel. It is a tribute to Kaundinya  one of Indias earliest known ocean voyager. As legend suggests, he was a merchant who discovered a kingdom 2,000 years ego in Southeast Asia.

The story starts along Mekong Delta  todays southern Vietnam. The ship of Kaundinya that was carrying Indian merchants came under attack by pirates. He was forced to beach the ship; and when he did it, he was surrounded by a group led by a warrior queen  Soma.

The incident witnessed a dramatic twist wherein Soma fell in love with the brave mariner and tied knots with him. They together established the kingdom of Funan, which is considered to be the first in Southeast Asia.

Centuries later, the Navy is perhaps reviving Kaundinyas legacy. The newly manufactured ship is the masterpiece of the old craftsmanship. Built using 1,500-year-old techniques, the vessel has been made without using a single nail.

The artisans from Kerala have stitched its wooden planks together with coconut fibre, natural resin and coir rope. Like the ship once did when Indian traders sailed across the Indian Ocean to travel to Mesopotamia, Bahrain and Oman, etec., its square cotton sails catch the wind.

Talking to The Indian Express, the man behing the revival, Sanjeev Sanyal, who is a member in the prime ministers economic advisory council, described Kaundinya as the first Indian mariner we knew by name to have changed history.

Though Indian trade through sea routes is as old as the Bronze Age, the names of only a few voyages survive. Preserved in Southeast Asian sources, Kaundinyas name is an exception.

Since there are no records of drawing of his ship, hence this vessel has been designed as per a 5th century painting found in the Ajanta caves that are one among the earliest visual clues of what ancient ships may have looked like. For additional inputs, foreign travellers account and ancient scripture such as Yuktikalpataru have been relied upon.

The vessel is full of symbolism. Its sails feature the sun and the mythical two-headed eagle once used by the Kadamba dynasty  Gandabherunda. A mythical creature  Simha Yali  adorn the ships bow. It even carries a Harappan-style stone anchor.

INSV Kaundinya has neither engine nor radar. Using square sails and steering oars, it runs only on wind power. The Navy will soon train a 15-member crew to master this lost art of sailing.

Part of grand cultural project of shipbuilders from Goa-based Hodi Innovations, the Ministry of Culture and the Indian Navy, the ship is slated to sail to Oman in late 2025 to retrace the ancient trade routes, which were one used by Indian merchants.

Speaking on the launching ceremony of the vessel, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat termed it a resurgence of Indias maritime glory. India, with this ship, is not trying to revive only a boat, it is reviving a forgotten sea-borne legacy, a skill and a story.
New Delhi: Pakistan lies that it is a victim of terrorism and does not sponsor extremism in India stood exposed this week when reports emerged on Saturday, revealing that the Pakistan Army personnel along with top Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) commanders made unsettling visit to the Line of Control (LoC).

The New York Times report claimed that the military officials from across the border were spotted in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with LeT terrorists. They allegedly scoped out new routes for sending jihadists into Indian territory.

The development has raised eyebrows, with security experts linking it to the rise in underground tunnel networks built to bypass traditional border security. The Army and the Border Security Force (BSF) are investigating the report of hidden tunnels extending beneath the LoC  possibly designed to ferry terrorists and even soldiers unnoticed.

If the report is true, this tactic is not new but the frequency of such inputs are rising. A Hindustan Times Report in April hinted that such operations could be a part of larger military strategies. With a disturbing number of tunnels discovered over the past few years in regions such as Kathua and Sambha, the potential for another wave of infiltration is undeniable.

These tunnels are not only used for terrorists, ex-servicemen from Pakistan are allegedly positioned near the border to facilitate their operations and act as first responders in case of conflict.

The timing of these revelations could not be more critical. Just days after the deadly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistani terror infrastructures on May 7. The operation targeted nine terrorists hideouts linked to the Hizbul Mujahideen, the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Pakistan swiftly retaliated the attack and began cross-border shelling. It attempted missile and drone attacks. But India responded with force, damaging Pakistans radar infrastructure and airbases  signalling a serious escalation.

The military action led both nations to a fragile ceasefire on May 10. With new tunnelling activities emerging, the peace may be short-lived. The question arises  how long can this fragile truce hold, what is lurking beneath the surface at the LoC?

With tensions already at a boiling point, these tunnels could become the next big flashpoint in the India-Pakistan conflict.
New Delhi: The sky was lit up and thunderous bursts were heard every now and then on the night of May 9-10. It was not joyous firecrackers bursts. Pakistani missiles, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) swarmed towards Indian territory in what is described as one of the biggest aerial attacks in recent times. But they failed to made it through.

Why? India had its eyes in the sky wide open and locked on.

Although the ground was silent, yet there was a roar in the sky  the Armys advanced early warning radar system. This long-range radar, sitting tall and alert, scanned aerial threats far beyond the borders. It detected every flying threat before it could strike and cause damage.

This is the most modern radar today. It searched every UAV, aircraft and drone long before they could reach us, said an officer of the Indian Army, proudly standing before a giant machine.

But its job is just early search and detection. Without wasting even a second, it sent the location of the enemy to a fire control system. It was now time for action. Based on the inputs, the radar-guided precision weapon systems opened fire. As a result, enemy targets were neutralised mid-air. None got through.

And the strike rate? It could be 101 percent, but never less, said the soldier.

Pakistans attempt to strike India cost it dearly. Its air defence was jammed, and aerials assets were destroyed. They suffered heavy losses. Their hostilities measurably failed to earn them anything, he claimed, with his head high and chest thumping.

In the centre of Indias defence was Akashteer  the countrys fully automated command and control system. It joins radars from both the Armi and the Air Force into one powerful unit. During Operation Sindoor, it was the brain behind every move.

When a wave of drones came at us, Akashteer identified them instantly. Declaring them hostile, it ordered the nearest weapon to detro them. All were taken down, ensuring that not a single one survives, he said.

Talking about its origin, the officer said, This is made in India and works beautifully.

Apart from Akashteer, upgraded L-70 Air Defence Gun also played a key role. It tracked and locked on to fast-moving targets. As they entered our range, e fired. And this is how, we neautralised all drones launched by the enemy, he added.

These defence system did not only work properly, they made a history. Indias indigenous radar and weapons network successfully intercepted every incoming aircraft and drone during the full-scale Pakistani offensive.

The message: If Pakistan dares, India is ready again with its eyes in the sky, fire in the air and total control on the ground.
Pahalgam Terror Attack: May 22 marks one month since the brutal terror attack in Pahalgam, the security forces continue to hunt for the five terrorists responsible for the killings. Notably, the terrorists killed 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22 and fled from the spot. Two weeks later on May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor eliminating nine terror targets in Pakistan and Occupied Kashmir, as people termed it justice for the Pahalgam victims, but those responsible for carrying out the attacks remain on the loose.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been looking for leads and clues to trace the terrorists. The NIA and Jammu and Kashmir Police have got multiple leads in the past but the majority of them proved to be either misleading or false. The NIA continues to question witnesses and examine technical data collected so far.

The security agencies have released sketches of at least three terrorists while announcing a reward of Rs 20 lakh each. However, there seems to be little headway so far. According to an Indian Express report, the NIA has so far questioned 150 locals and continues to examine digital evidence.

Following the attack, the J&K police launched a major crackdown, rounding up hundreds of individuals, including overground workers (OGWs).

Significantly, security forces have broadened their search operations beyond Pahalgam, now covering most of the South Kashmir forests. Security agencies had initially tracked some of the attackers' digital footprints and even managed to intercept their communications. However, it seems the attackers have since gone offline, likely fearing detection.

Meanwhile, in a major success for security forces, six terrorists were killed in two separate operations in Kelar, Shopian and Tral conducted by the Indian Army in coordination with Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

VK Birdi, Inspector General of Police for Kashmir Zone, said, "In the wake of heightened terror activities in Kashmir Valley, all the security forces deployed here reviewed their strategies. Following this review, there was an intensified focus on operations....We are committed to finishing the terror ecosystem in Kashmir Valley."
New Delhi: Following Pakistans ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) on the intervening night of May 7-8, the Indian armed forces launched a counter offensive with full force and obliterated multiple forward posts across the border within just 10 minutes. The strike was part of Operation Sindoor that took place after the neighbours unprovoked aggression and deadly April 22 Pahalgam terror attacks  which killed 26 innocent civilians.

A fierce exchange of fire took place that night as Pakistan initiated a shelling campaign and targeting civilian areas. The violation drew a swift and no-holds-barred response from Indian forces.

When Pakistan violated the ceasefire, we immediately analysed the fire patterns and retaliated with precision. We used Medium Machine Guns (MMGs) to destroy their bunker and launch pads that inflicted heavy casualties on the other side. This was a swift and devastating reply, a soldier told ANI in an interview.

He further said that Pakistan attempted to escalate the situation by deploying drones into Indian territory. They tried using drones but were ill-equipped to handle them. We took them out in no time and crippled their operation, he said.

An Army lieutenant further detailed the situation and recalled the precise moments leading up to the retaliation.

Around 1:30 to 2:00 am (minutes after India struck terrorist infrastructures at nine location deep inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), Pakistan began provoked shelling. They targeted our civilians and made the biggest mistake. Our battalion was ready. In less than 10 minutes, we launched indiscriminate strikes on their forward positions and launch pads. We wiped out their posts. Our fire was on target, while their shelling either missed or hit civilian areas. We completely destroyed their positions, he said.

An Army caption, in another firsthand account, explained intensity of the operation. We fought face-to-face with direct fire. Our mortars gave us additional support. We hit them hard with Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) and destroyed their key military posts. At least 10-12 Pakistan posts in the Poonch region were completely neautralised. Once they failed to hit our military installations, they shifted focus to civilian targets. We also destroyed their ammunition storage in the process, he said.

As the situation intensified, Indian forces held strong along the tense border and maintained high morale despite continued threats. The fencing along the LoC remained tightly secured and troops remained on high alert to thwart any further incursions.

The counter response was not only a defensive move but part of larger and strategic response under Operation Sindoor  which India launched on May 7. The operation was a direct consequence of the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terror attack, which destroyed nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In return, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling and attempted drone strikes. However, India escalated its offensive and targeted crucial Pakistani military infrastructure  including the Rahim Yar Khan airbase and Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi. Following Indias aggressive stance, Islamabad approached New Delhi with the proposal of ceasefire and both sides agreed to de-escalate tensions by May 10.

The 10-minute operation is being described as a forceful and precise strike, which sent a clear message to Pakistan about Indias readiness to protect its citizens and borders at all costs.
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday urged Bangladesh to expedite the nationality verification process to facilitate the deportation of a large number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India who are required to be sent back. Addressing a weekly media briefing, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that people who are staying in India illegally, whether they happen to be Bangladeshi nationals or any other, will be dealt with as per law.

"We have a large number of Bangladeshi nationals in India who are required to be deported. We have asked the Bangladeshi side to verify the nationality. We have a pending list of more than 2360 cases of people required to be deported. Many of them have completed the jail process. In many cases, the nationality verification process has been pending since 2020," said Jaiswal.

Illegal migrants enter India without valid travel documents in a clandestine, and surreptitious manner, thus making it extremely difficult for the authorities to have a correct estimate of such people residing in the country. Earlier this month, at least five Bangladeshi citizens were arrested and later pushed back by security personnel in Assam's South Salmara district on the charges of illegal infiltration.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that the Bangladeshi infiltration has spiked up in the last few months due to the collapse of the textile industry in the neighbouring country, leaving many people jobless there. "So far, we have arrested around 1,000 Bangladeshi people in the last few months. They were pushed back immediately after their arrest," Sarma stated while highlighting that the economy of Bangladesh has collapsed due to growing unrest.

Additionally, in a significant crackdown on illegal immigration, Delhi Police detained six Bangladeshi women from different parts of the national capital this month and busted a sprawling network involved in trafficking people from the neighbouring country into India. Authorities confirmed that the detained women were residing in India without valid documentation and will be deported.

Last month, in one of the largest crackdowns on illegal immigration in Gujarat, the state police arrested more than 1,000 Bangladeshi nationals in a single day. Acting under the guidance of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and the leadership of Minister of State for Home Affairs Harsh Sanghavi, Ahmedabad Police detained 890 individuals while Surat Police arrested 134 illegal immigrants.

Bangladeshi media recently reported that India's Border Security Force (BSF) pushed around 300 people, including Rohingyas, into Bangladesh between May 7 and May 9 through remote points along the border. The report further stated that following this, the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry wrote a letter to India raising concern over people being pushed into the country.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday assured India that both countries will tackle terrorism together as the strong bilateral relationship extends beyond trade and culture, also encompassing security and strategic issues.

UAE's Minister of Tolerance and Co-Existence Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi - Chairman of the Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of Federal National Council - besides several other senior Emirati parliamentarians expressed full solidarity with India as a high-level all-party delegation from India led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde called on them in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

As the delegation highlighted the perpetration of cross-border terrorism and efforts to cause social disharmony in India by Pakistan, Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan conveyed his deep condolences on the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attacks and said, "India and UAE will tackle terrorism together. The UAE will always stand by India."

The delegation then held substantive discussions with Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee of Federal National Council, underscoring the precise, measured, and non-escalatory nature of Operation Sindoor against the barbaric terrorist attack on the tourists in Kashmir on April 22.

According to the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi, during the meeting, Nuaimi stressed, "India-UAE relationship is beyond trade and culture, and encompasses security and strategic issues. Terrorism is against the whole of humanity and the international community must act now."

The UAE is the first stop of the broader four-nation diplomatic outreach for the delegation which also comprises other Members of Parliament, including Bansuri Swaraj, ET Mohmd Basheer, Atul Garg, Sasmit Patra, Manan Kumar Mishra, Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia and former Ambassador Sujan Chinoy.

Soon after their arrival in the country, the delegation held meetings with the UAE leadership and media to brief on the significance of Operation Sindoor and reaffirm India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism.

The delegation also held discussions with Jamal Al Kaabi, Director General, National Media Office and addressed concerns over misinformation campaigns emanating from Pakistan. They presented factual evidence to counter the disinformation and exposed Pakistan's propaganda machinery.

Shinde, as the leader of the delegation, gave an interview to UAE's leading newspaper, The National, drawing the complete timeline of India's long battle against cross-border terrorism and setting of new normal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against cross-border terrorism with Operation Sindoor.

The delegation's day concluded with an interaction with the Indian community based in the UAE recognising their vital contributions and reaffirming India's commitment to its diaspora. The delegation addressed and commended the diaspora for upholding the values of tolerance, pluralism, and unity, and for resisting divisive efforts aimed at destabilising India's social fabric.

On Friday, the delegation is scheduled to participate in closed-door strategic dialogues with leading think tanks and thought leaders based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The UAE was among the first countries to issue a statement categorically condemning the Pahalgam terrorist attack. UAE leaders, President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan personally conveyed their condolences to PM Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar over phone calls.
The Supreme Court on Thursday suspended all the current investigations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into suspected financial improprieties at Tamil Nadu's state-owned liquor distribution outlet, the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC).

A bench of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice A.G. Masih also issued a notice to ED, along with severely criticising the agency for what it had termed an overreach in recent cases. "Your ED has been crossing all limits, Mr. Raju," the bench said to Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju, who was representing the ED.

The court was considering a Special Leave Petition (SLP) by TASMAC against an April 23 order of the Madras High Court which had rejected three writ petitions presented by the state and the corporation. The petitions sought to invalidate as illegal the ED's search and seizure operation at TASMAC's Chennai office from March 6 to 8, 2025, in respect of a money laundering case.

Throughout the proceedings, the Supreme Court bench questioned the jurisdictional basis of the ED's actions, specifically its move to initiate proceedings against a government-owned corporation. "How can you register a case against a corporation? You may register against individuals, but how against a corporation?" the court questioned.

The judges also observed the lack of a well-defined predicate offencea statutory requirement for a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). "Where is the predicate offence?" asked the bench sharply.

ASG Raju replied that the predicate offence had a multi-crore money laundering nexus and that due process was followed by the ED. Nevertheless, the bench reiterated its alarms regarding the widening powers of the agency and means.

Senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for TASMAC and its officers, complained against ED for invading privacy and legal procedures by cloning mobile phones and confiscating personal phones in the absence of proper authority. "There is something called privacy," Rohatgi emphasised. Sibal also asked the court to refrain from allowing the agency to use any information obtained from the confiscated devices.

The Supreme Court's move follows weeks after it had previously declined to consider a plea by the Tamil Nadu government for the transfer of the case from the Madras High Court. At that time, the High Court had censured the state for "insulting" the judiciary and practicing "forum shopping."

The case is now scheduled to be heard further, with the ED needing to file its response to the notice served by the court.
Abu Dhabi: In a positive outcome of Indias diplomatic global outreach post Operation Sindoor, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a powerful message, declared it would never side with nations  which shelter terrorists. It is a direct snub to Pakistan.

The statement came following an all-party Indian parliamentary delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde exposed Pakistans long-standing terror agenda while meeting UAEs top leadership.

During the meeting with Jamal Mohammed Obaid Al Kaabi, director-general of the UAEs National Media Office, the Indian delegation highlighted how Pakistan has repeatedly targeted India through orchestrated terror attacks from the 26/11 Mumbai massacre to the recent Pahalgam tragedy.

Shinde told ANI that Kaabi was firm in condemning terrorism and made it clear that the UAE wont stand with terror organisations or a country which shelters terrorists.

They knew about Mumbai, Pathankot, Pulwama. They did not need an explanation. Innocents were killed in Pahalgam too. Their message was simple  the UAE can never stand with such terrorist organisations or any nation that harbours them, Shinde said.

The strong message was echoed in meetings with Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, chairman of the defence committee and minister of tolerance, Sheikh Nahayan.

We had a very fruitful meeting. The UAE gave a clear-cut message: they are standing with India, shoulder to shoulder, in the fight against terrorism, Shinde said.

He further highlighted the importance of UAEs support and called it symbolic and crucial. Just like India, the UAE is a diverse country. Their support for minorities and the peaceful coexistence they maintain makes their stand even more significant, he said.

Shinde said that the UAEs alignment with India sends a strong regional message. They made it clear  terrorism cannot be allowed to grow under the garb of religion. Their ministers were crystal clear in their stand. This support matters for both nations and our shared neighbourhood.

He added that terrorism today is not just Indias problem, it is an attack on global humanity.

UAE is the first to condemn the attack on India. This is not just about India anymore. It is about global peace and about humanity. And today, the world is watching who stands where, he concluded.
New Delhi: In a shocking incident, a woman attempted to trespass at Salman Khan's Galaxy Apartments in Mumbai. She is currently being questioned for a security breach at the actor's residence. A case has been filed, and further investigation is underway.

According to police officials, the woman allegedly attempted to illegally enter the actors residence. Authorities are verifying her identity and place of origin. It has not yet been confirmed whether she is a local resident or has traveled from another city, as reported by news agency ANI.

Mumbai | A woman attempting to trespass into Actor Salman Khan's residence at Galaxy apartments arrested by the Police. The Police are questioning the woman: Mumbai Police  ANI (@ANI) May 22, 2025

Salman Khan's Firing Case

Last year in April, gunshots were also fired outside Superstar's galaxy apartments in bandra, Mumbai. According to several media , it was reported that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang is alleged to be behind the attack as the gangster's brother, Anmol Bishnoi, claimed responsibility for the shooting incident via a Facebook post. After the shocking incident, Salman's security was upgraded. He was upgraded to Y+ security after the firing incident.

Later in July, Salman Khan also recorded his statement in connection to the house firing case when he claimed that the Lawrence Bishnoi gang was trying to kill him.

Salman Khan told Mumbai Crime Branch, In his statement the superstar said, ''I heard a cracker-like sound. Then, at around 4.55 am, the police bodyguard said that two people on a bike had fired from a weapon at the Galaxy Apartments first-floor balcony. There had been attempts to hurt me and my family prior to this as well. I have learnt that Lawrence Bishnoi has taken responsibility for the attack from social media. So, I believe that it is the Lawrence Bishnoi gang who have carried out the firing on my balcony.''

Earlier in March this year, During the promotion of his movie 'Sikander' Salman opened up on facing death threats from Lawrence Bishnoi over the killing of blackbuck in Jaipur. He further added that he is not afraid of the threats, and has left it to God to look after him and safety.

In an candid interaction Salman Khan said, ''Bhagwan, Allah sab unpar hai. Jitni umar likhi hai, utni likhi hai. Bas yahi hai. Kabhi kabhi itne logon ko saath mein leke chalna padta hai, bas wohi problem ho jaati hai. ''

The jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi wants to avenge the alleged hunting of the black buck by the superstar in the 1990s while filming 'Hum Saath Saath Hai' in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The Bishnoi community considers blackbucks to be sacred, and the actor's alleged involvement has enraged the gangster, who has revenge on his mind.

While more details are awaited, this has surely raised concerns about Salman Khan's security, who has also been getting death threats for a long time now.
This photo shows bananas for sale at a Walmart store in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. The price of bananas, imported from Costa Rica, has risen to 54 cents per pound. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)

by Julia Pierrepont III, Gao Shan

LOS ANGELES, May 21 (Xinhua) -- As usual, there were crowds of shoppers at the Walmart Super Center in Burbank on Monday, waiting to stock up on supersized food packages and household supplies from America's largest retailer, where prices are usually lower than at smaller stores. Cheerful decorations and piles of alluring merchandise usually put shoppers in an upbeat mood.

But there was an unusual cloud of unease over shoppers at Walmart amid rising distress over U.S. President Donald Trump's scuffle with retailers over tariffs, along with concerns that tariffs imposed on imports to the country would drive up commodity prices and hit American consumers right in the wallet.

It is clear that Walmart's price-sensitive shoppers are about to experience more direct consequences of tariffs.

Mary Duchant, a rehab counselor from North Hollywood, told Xinhua, "Trump doesn't have to worry about prices going up, but ordinary people like me sure do."

"The biggest price increases are still coming," said Hamad H., from Burbank. "Already, I've had to cut back on the amount of food and supplies I can afford for my family. How much worse is it going to get unless wiser heads prevail?"

As the largest U.S. retailer, Walmart has attempted to absorb some of the tariff increases but warned last week that customers may soon feel the effects of the Trump administration's new tariff hikes, with price increases on some items likely to start this month.

"These price hikes are a nightmare for our family," Brenda and Greg S. from Van Nuys told Xinhua, as they pushed a brimming stroller through Walmart's megastore with two of their kids, aged five and seven.

"We've got three kids under the age of eight, and they need new clothes and decent meals. When costs go up so much, are we supposed to tell one of our kids they just have to go hungry this week?" Brenda added, with genuine concern.

"I don't agree with the tariffs, because it affects everybody. I live off my social security, and I can buy less and less every time on everything," a retired man who gave his name as Octavio told Xinhua, noting "everything is so expensive now."

"Who is paying those tariffs? It's you and me," echoed another shopper, Antonio.

Retail margins in general are slim, making it difficult for large chains to fully shield shoppers from the Trump tariffs.

While over two-thirds of Walmart's merchandise is U.S.-sourced, critical product categories like electronics and toys still heavily depend on Chinese imports. In addition, tariffs on imports from Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru are expected to raise prices on items such as coffee, avocados, flowers and healthy produce.

"We have not seen price increases at this magnitude, in the speed in which they're coming at us before, and so it makes for a challenging environment," Walmart CFO John David Rainey said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

But Trump sought to counter those warnings, instead blaming retailers and foreign exporters for cost increases.

"Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Saturday.

Walmart's leadership pushed back subtly, noting that they aim to keep prices low but cannot absorb all the additional costs.

"We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible, and we won't stop," the company said in a statement to NBC News. "We'll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins."

Other retailers such as Target and Home Depot are observing closely. Walmart's actions could set a precedent, as competitors may follow suit in raising prices now that a major player has signaled that it's unavoidable.

For Walmart and others, navigating the Trump administration's unpredictable economic policies while maintaining customer loyalty will prove to be a challenging task -- one that is closely watched by investors, customers and politicians alike.

"These tariffs have got to stop. They hurt everybody, they hurt our economy and don't help America the way Trump claims they do," Jacques P, a Los Angeles resident, told Xinhua. "My bills are skyrocketing. How does that help me? " 

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a lead-acid automotive battery at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a Chinese-made monkey toy at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a Chinese-made monkey toy at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a LEGO toy at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows near-empty shelves at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

Customers shop at a Walmart store in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, May 20, 2025. (Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

Shopping carts are seen in front of a Walmart store in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, May 20, 2025. (Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

A customer shops at a Walmart store in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, May 20, 2025.(Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a lead-acid automotive battery at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows empty shelves at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025.(Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

A customer shops at a Walmart store in Los Angeles County, California, the United States, May 20, 2025. (Photo by Qiu Chen/Xinhua)

This photo shows shelves displaying bicycles at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

Customers shop at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. TO GO WITH "Feature: U.S. Walmart shoppers feeling tariff pinch" (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a Chinese-made air mattress at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. TO GO WITH "Feature: U.S. Walmart shoppers feeling tariff pinch" (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

This photo shows a price-tracking mobile app interface displaying the price change of a Chinese-made monkey toy at a Walmart store in San Leandro, California, the United States, May 21, 2025. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)
Kolkata: Actress Kajol has expressed deep respect for India's armed forces in the wake of Operation Sindoor, the country's recent counter-terror campaign launched in response to the 'barbaric' Pahalgam attack.

While speaking on the issue, the 'Do Patti' star said, "I respect the armed forces and I thank them for all of their service to the country."

Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7, came as a direct response to a tragic terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam region, which claimed 26 lives.

The mission is being hailed as a strong assertion of India's zero-tolerance policy against terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at a public rally in Bikaner on Thursday, strongly articulated the government's stance post-Operation Sindoor.

In a striking metaphor, he said, "There is no blood flowing in Modi's veins, but hot Sindoor." The Prime Minister emphasised that every act of terror would come at a significant cost to Pakistan, militarily and economically.

"Pakistan has forgotten that now Modi, the servant of Bharat Mata, stands with his head held high. Modi's mind remains calm, but his blood burns with resolve," he declared, adding, "There will be no trade, no dialogue. If there is any talk, it will only concern Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK)."

Modi also noted that Operation Sindoor represents more than retaliation; it symbolises a strategic and moral evolution in India's counter-terror policy.

"This is not a game of revenge; it is a new form of justice. This is the fierce avatar of a resolute India," he said, adding, "Earlier we struck inside their home; now we strike them head-on. This is the face of new India."

He further said that the Indian armed forces were given complete autonomy during the operation, leading to coordinated action that forced Pakistan to "bend to its knees."

The Prime Minister claimed that the perpetrators who once threatened India are now either reduced to rubble or hiding in fear.

In a significant geopolitical development, Modi reiterated India's move to suspend the Indus Water Treaty following the Pahalgam attack, stressing that "Pakistan will not receive even a drop of water from India's share if it continues its support of terrorism."
New Delhi: In recent years, Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) have become a popular way for individuals to invest in mutual funds. SIPs allow investors to contribute small, manageable amounts each month. SIPs compared to other investment options, often offer higher returns over the long term, helping investors accumulate a substantial corpus over time.

Did you know there are different types of SIPs? Choosing the right one for you can help avoid losses and make your investment more effective. Many people start investing without knowing thisso dont make the same mistake. Take a look at the slides below to learn about the different Types of SIPs.

Regular SIP

A Regular SIP is a great option if saving money feels tough. Here, you invest a set amount on a fixed date each month. This steady approach helps you build a good amount over time. The best part? You can start with just Rs 500.

Flexible SIP

This SIP is perfect for people with irregular income, like freelancers, self-employed workers, or small business owners. You can invest more when you earn more and less when you earn less. It lets you adjust your investment amount based on how much you make.

Step-Up SIP

Step-Up SIP is ideal for salaried people whose income grows each year, or business owners with increasing profits. With this plan, you gradually raise your investment amount over timesay by 10 per cent every year. This helps you build a bigger fund in the long run and keeps up with rising costs. Its especially helpful for big goals like buying a house, funding your kids education, or saving for retirement.

SIP with Insurance

If you want to save money and also protect your family, this SIP is a great choice. It combines investment with insurance benefits so you dont have to pay a separate insurance premium. If the investor passes away during the SIP period, the nominee gets the insurance amount.

Trigger SIP

Trigger SIP is designed for investors who understand the stock markets ups and downs and are comfortable taking some risks. You set rules ahead of time, like investing or withdrawing money when the market hits a certain level. It works like an alert, helping you buy or sell at the right moment. There are different trigger types, such as index-level, fixed-date, return-based, and profit-booking triggers.
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North Korea said Thursday a "serious accident" occurred the previous day during a ceremony to launch a new warship, with its leader Kim Jong-un calling it a "criminal act" that could not be tolerated.

The accident took place Wednesday at a shipyard in the eastern port city of Chongjin during a ceremony to launch a newly built 5,000-tonne destroyer, attended by the North's leader, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Citing "inexperience in command and operational carelessness" in the course of the launch, North Korea said a "serious accident" occurred as the launch slide of the stern departed first and was stranded while the flatcar failed to move in parallel.

Some sections of the warship's bottom were "crushed," destroying the balance of the warship, and the bow couldn't leave the shipway, it reported.

After watching the whole course of the accident, Kim said, "It was a serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility and could not be tolerated," according to the KCNA.

He ordered the restoration of the warship to be "completed unconditionally" before a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) set for June and gave an important instruction related to an investigation into the accident.

"The immediate restoration of the destroyer is not merely a practical issue but a political issue directly related to the authority of the state," Kim said.

The political bureau of the WPK decided to convene the 12th plenary meeting of the party's central committee in late June to review the first-half performance and policies for the second half, the KCNA said in a separate dispatch.

The North did not disclose photos related to the latest accident.

Considering that Kim called for the restoration to take place before the June party meeting, a unification ministry official said the scope of the damage is likely not large and appears to be recoverable.

"By using the expression 'absolute carelessness,' (Kim) could have aimed at shoring up internal discipline through a stern reprimand," the official said, noting the accident was reported on the front page of the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun.

South Korea's military said the North appears to have failed in using a side launching technique.

"South Korea and US intelligence authorities had been tracking and monitoring the movement of a large-sized warship at the North's Chongjin port," Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told a regular press briefing.

"We assess (the warship's) side launching failed," Lee said, adding the destroyer remains partially capsized on the sea.

The latest accident came as the North has been ramping up efforts to modernise its naval capabilities, conducting a firing test on a newly built 5,000-tonne destroyer just days after its launch, Yonhap news agency reported.

Last month, North Korea unveiled the new multipurpose destroyer named the Choe Hyon. It said the warship is equipped with supersonic strategic cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missiles, and other strike means.
Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot and killed on Wednesday evening near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., according to US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The incident occurred just steps away from the FBI's Washington field office, sparking concerns of a targeted attack. Details remain limited, but authorities confirmed that the shooting took place outside the museum premises.

Kristi Noem confirmed the deaths in an X (formerly Twitter) post, sending condolences and emphasising the gravity of the situation.

Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share. Please pray for the families of the victims.



We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.  Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 22, 2025

Attorney General Pam Bondi was said to have been present at the scene with former judge and current U.S. Attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro. Law enforcement officials have not spoken about a potential motive yet, though a press conference was scheduled later tonight.

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, denounced the shooting as a "depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism."

We are confident that the U.S. authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act, Danon said in a statement on X. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives  everywhere in the world.

Local authorities and federal agencies are jointly conducting an investigation into the attack. Security has been tightened around the embassy and other nearby Jewish facilities in the capital.

This is a breaking story. Further information will be added as and when it comes to hand.
OTTAWA, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces' warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.

Anand confirmed that four of Canada's personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots.

Anand wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada's Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada's team is safe.

"I have asked my officials to summon Israel's Ambassador to convey Canada's serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability," Anand wrote.

Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.

Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza. 
WASHINGTON, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Two Israeli embassy employees were killed late Wednesday near a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

"Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington D.C.," she said in a post on the social platform X.

Media reports said the two were shot dead. Noem added that they are "investigating and working to get more information to share."

Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), confirmed that the AJC was hosting an event at the museum that evening.

At least one of the victims was transported to a nearby hospital in critical condition before succumbing to their injuries.

Police are currently questioning a person of interest in connection with the incident. 
Accenture CEO Julie Sweet has a plaque in her home that says, If your dreams dont scare you, theyre not big enough. I look at it every day when I think about where I need to take our company, and where I need to continue to learn as a company, she said at the Fortune Most Powerful Women conference in Riyadh.

Accentures chair and CEO, Julie Sweet, has shared the motto she repeats to herself when she feels like shes bitten off more than she can chew in her career.

My own inspiration is a plaque on my wall that says, if your dreams dont scare you, theyre not big enough, the CEO revealed at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Riyadh. And I used that when I was trying to become CEO of Accenture.

Ambitiously reaching for the things that scare her has worked out well for Sweets career. Before joining $199 billion market-cap tech giant Accenture in 2010 as general counsel, she spent a decade as partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore. In 2019, she became Accentures first female CEO and took on the role of chair in 2021.

Today, the 57-year-old attorney turned CEO ranks second on Fortunes Most Powerful Women list, which was just released today. She is among just 5% of Fortune Global 500 companies helmed by a woman leaderand none of those have more employees than Accentures 800,000-plus.

Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still finds herself looking back at that motivational plaque at her home daily.

I look at it every day when I think about where I need to take our company, and where I need to continue to learn as a company, Sweet concluded. So I hope for all of you that your dreams scare you, because that means youre going to make the impact that I know you can.

Go for the dreams that scare youbut dont ignore any skills gaps

Its not enough to just shoot for the scary stars. Sweet revealed that her promotion to CEO required a hard look at the gaps in her skill set. Having climbed the corporate rankings in law, she had to seriously brush up on her tech knowledge before stepping up at the tech powerhouse.

When I joined Accenture in 2010 as the general counsel, I didnt know what a CIO [chief information officer] was, Sweet said on stage. I come from a law firm. We didnt have such a thing. We didnt use technology. Im old enough to remember when we didnt have the internet.

Today, she says leadersno matter their background or current industrycant do the top job with deeply understanding technology, not as plumbing, but because AI is going to change everything in the front line.
We believe Forward Air has limited opportunity as a standalone public company  with its level of debt, remaining independent will likely mean additional dilution for the Companys equity holders.

Each of the targeted directors was on the Board in August 2023 when it decided to pursue the Omni Logistics LLC (Omni) acquisition and bears responsibility for the disastrous deal, which was criticized by shareholders and independent onlookers because it burdened the Company with substantial debt, presented operational and integration challenges, and strained customer relations, the Ancora presentation said.

The underperformance required the company to modify its credit agreement earlier this year to avoid breaching a debt covenant of 4.5 times leverage set for later this year.

On a combined basis, Forward and Omni had pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $593 million (inclusive of $125 million in expected deal synergies) for the 12-month period ended June 30, 2023  the last period prior to the 2023 deal announcement. (Forward closed the first quarter with last-12-months adjusted EBITDA of just $313 million.)

Forward closed the 2025 first quarter at a 5.3 times net debt leverage ratio, an improvement from 5.5 times at the end of the year but significantly higher than the sub-2 times projected for 2025 when the deal was announced.

The Omni acquisition was structured through a series of transactions to preclude a vote by shareholders as required by Tennessee law. It was funded with $1.85 billion of debt and gave Omnis private equity backers control over a 38% voting bloc and four board seats. (Some shareholders have taken issue with the entrenchment nature of the deal, as the voting bloc is required to vote in favor of board-chosen directors at elections.)

Shares of Greeneville, Tennessee-based Forward Air ( NASDAQ: FWRD ) closed Tuesday at just $18.04, a far cry from the $110 closing price the stock held prior to the August 2023 merger announcement with Omni.

The activist investor first penned a letter to shareholders two weeks ago calling for the removal of Chairman George Mayes and directors Javier Polit and Laurie Tucker. It said the three will be forced to resign it they dont garner 50.1% of the vote at the June 11 annual meeting.

Ancora Holdings Group provided a detailed presentation late Tuesday outlining why Forward Air shareholders should vote out three unfit legacy directors it blames for the companys disastrous acquisition of Omni Logistics and efforts to stall the companys current sale process.

Story Continues

Ancora says board now focused on self-preservation

Ancora said Forwards board has been slow-walking a strategic review that was announced at the beginning of the year despite months of pressure from investors to explore selling the company or consider other options.

Since reactively announcing a strategic alternatives process five months ago to avoid another proxy contest, the Board appears to have made little progress toward achieving a sale, the presentation said. Our diligence indicates that non-disclosure agreements have only recently been distributed to interested parties  a necessary first step  despite the fact that Forward Air has had multiple private equity firms in its shareholder base over the last year.

Ancora also accused Forwards board of further entrenchment maneuvers by changing its stance on Tennessee M&A law governing engagement with interested shareholders, or those holding 10% or more of the voting power.

After choosing to opt out of the Tennessee Business Combination Act for years, the Board suddenly chose not to opt out in 2024  just a week after a private equity firm [Clearlake Capital Group] reported a 13.8% stake in Forward Air  without disclosing why.

Forward is currently precluded under Tennessee law from engaging with interested shareholders for a five-year period.

However, Forward has asked shareholders to approve a reincorporation in Delaware to make it easier to sell the company. (Delaware has similar restrictions for interested shareholders, but the ownership threshold is 15%.)

Ancora said the move is simply an effort to paper over the Boards past actions and that the board has not disclosed why it determined not to opt out of the Tennessee Business Combination Act, after consistently opting out in previous years.





If truly necessary, the belated Delaware reincorporation plan is further evidence that the Board continues to be two steps behind and is not working proactively to maximize value for shareholders, Ancora said. These directors only take action when their backs are against the wall.

Ancora also said the company isnt improving governance practices as part of the move to Delaware, pointing to the boards restriction on shareholder actions without unanimous written consent and a new clause that narrows the window for calling special meetings.

Changes at Forward not enough to appease investors

Forward has made moves following the January 2024 closing of the Omni acquisition. It replaced the deals architect and former CEO Tom Schmitt, among other C-suite changes.

The 12-person board has also seen turnover. Forward CEO Shawn Stewart is the only employee on the board. The remaining seats are held by independent directors. Seven of those were appointed after the merger, three of whom were designated by Omni. Other board members have either resigned or decided not to stand for reelection. (A recent proxy filing from Forward calls for the board to be reset at 11 members.)

Stewart joined Forward a year ago, after the company was forced to close on the deal. He previously served as a unit head at Ceva Logistics and has added former colleagues to Forwards roster. The new leadership group, however, hasnt formally communicated a go-to-market strategy.

In addition to net debt leverage stepping slightly lower in the first quarter, the companys liquidity position improved modestly.

The company has worked to improve the freight mix at its legacy expedited less-than-truckload unit. Corrective pricing actions wrapped up in early February, and the business is focused on winning heavier shipments, which often carry better margins.

Forward reported a 10.4% adjusted EBITDA margin in the unit in the first quarter, which was 380 basis points better sequentially and outperformed normal seasonal trends.

Ancora called out the units declining EBITDA and depressed margins since the deal was announced. On a trailing 12-month basis, EBITDA has nearly been cut in half to $106 million and the EBITDA margin is off roughly 400 bps to 9.7%.

Whats Forward Air worth?

Ancora pointed to several opportunities for the legacy intermediary to freight forwarders and cargo airlines. It said the company now has direct access to sell to shippers and should be able to better leverage its more than 250 terminals and 40 bonded warehouses.

It also estimates that the companys yields are 32% below market despite offering an expedited, premium service. That in part explains the falloff in its expedited LTL operating ratio (inverse of operating margin), which was 93.9% last year (93.7% in the first quarter). It said the right leadership team with the right strategy could move ORs back to the low 80s like they were in 2011 to 2013.

By utilizing the Companys network, leveraging new shipping partners, effectively pricing its premium offerings and densifying the network on a recapitalized balance sheet, potential suitors have an opportunity to [generate] more than 2.5x operating income [growth] at modest assumed [revenue] growth rates and historical operating ratio levels.

Ancora provided takeout scenarios ranging from 31% to 148% upside to Forwards recent share price based on EBITDA multiples ranging from nine times to 12 times, respectively.

We have continued to share our view with the Board and management that the best risk-adjusted outcome for all shareholders is a sale of the Company, Ancora said. But Forward Air appears to be running down the clock, reducing the chance of achieving a value-maximizing sale  and increasing the risk of further value destruction should a sale not materialize.

This isnt Ancoras first activist interest in Forward Air. In 2021, it was successful with a plan to improve freight mix, redirect capital allocation and change the boards composition.

Ancora currently holds a 4% stake in Forward Air.

The Board and management team are entirely focused on taking deliberate actions to maximize shareholder value, a spokesperson with Forward Air told FreightWaves. The Board is actively engaged in leading the strategic review process, which, as we noted, is underway, and the continued oversight of our transformation strategy. We firmly believe that all of our directors are vital to these efforts.

More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden:

The post Activist investor pushes Forward Air to execute value-maximizing sale appeared first on FreightWaves.
Apex Group, a financial services provider with more than $3 trillion in assets under administration, said on Tuesday it had acquired a majority stake in Tokeny, a Luxembourg-based firm that helps institutions tokenize real-world assets (RWA) on public blockchains.

According to the deal, Apex expects to take full ownership of Tokeny over the next three years, after first investing in the company in late 2023, Apex said in a press release. The companies did not disclose the terms of the acquisition in the press release, and a spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.

The acquisition comes as more traditional financial firms are looking at tokenization as the next frontier in capital markets, using blockchain technology for moving assets like bonds, funds and other securities.

For institutional investors, the process promises simpler cross-border transactions, faster settlement and new liquidity channels. Tokenized assets could be a $18 trillion market by 2033, a report from BCG and Ripple last month projected.

"Tokenization is a foundational shift in how assets will be managed, distributed, and accessed," Apex founder and CEO Peter Hughes said in a statement. "Our strengthened partnership with Tokeny is key to delivering on our vision to be the infrastructure provider in the digital era of finance."

Tokenys infrastructure has already been used to tokenize over $32 billion in assets, supporting the full life cycle of tokenized securities  from issuance to transfer to compliance  and is best known for establishing ERC-3643, a widely used standard for compliant digital asset transfers, the press release said.

Apex said Tokenys team and tools will be brought in-house, and it aims to offer clients a turnkey infrastructure for blockchain-based finance, layering smart contracts and decentralized protocols on top of its traditional services.

Read more: Ripple, BCG Project $18.9T Tokenized Asset Market by 2033
On May 20, BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman maintained a Buy rating on Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and kept the price target the same at $30. The reiteration comes after the company recently announced entering into an exclusive licensing agreement with 3SBio, a leading Chinese biopharmaceutical company.

BMO Capital Maintains a Buy Rating on Pfizer (PFE)

A medical technician wearing protective gloves and a mask mixing a biopharmaceutical solution.

The agreement entails the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of SSGJ-707, which is a bispecific antibody targeting PD-1 and VEGF. The drug is currently under clinical trials in China for treating non-small cell lung cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, and gynecological tumors. As per the preliminary data, the candidate has shown promising results and safety data. As per the agreement, Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) has secured exclusive global rights to manufacture and commercialize SSGJ-707 around the world, excluding China.

Seigerman, in his note, regarded this agreement as a significant move to expand the company's oncology portfolio and leverage its collaborations to enhance its strategic edge. However, he also acknowledged the high cost of this agreement. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) will pay 3SBio $1.25 billion upfront, with total development milestone payments reaching up to $4.8 billion. Additionally, 3SBio will receive tiered double-digit royalties on sales if the drug is approved.

Moreover, Seigerman highlighted that Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is currently undervalued in comparison to its United States peers and has gained a strategic advantage through transformative acquisitions. The analyst highlighted the companys operational efficiency, conservative revenue guidance for 2025, and potential clinical developments in areas such as oncology and obesity being the major reasons for optimism.

While we acknowledge the potential of PFE as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than PFE and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 11 Most Promising New Technology Stocks According to Analysts and 12 Best Growth Stocks to Buy and Hold for the Long Term.

Disclosure: None
BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombian state-run oil company Ecopetrol said on Tuesday it agreed to buy 10 wind and solar energy project development companies from Norway's Statkraft.

Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa said the portfolio of projects could total up to 1.3 gigawatts in capacity, but did not disclose the value of the transaction.

The deal will mark Statkraft's exit from Colombia, local representative Jose Castellanos said.

Statkraft bought the assets last year as part of its takeover of energy developer Enerfin, but were immediately marked for divestment, together with units in Canada, Australia and the U.S., with the latter sold already.

In a separate statement, Statkraft said it expected the Colombian sale to be completed during the third quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals.

Statkraft, which is owned by the Norwegian state and is a major European renewable energy producer, is also looking to sell assets in India, Croatia and the Netherlands.

Its projects in Colombia span the La Guajira, Sucre, Cordoba, Caldas and Magdalena departments. One is operational, some are expected to begin operations in 2026 and 2027, while others have no defined start date.

Ecopetrol said in March that it expected to raise up to $2 billion in additional debt this year to finance investments.

In April, it signed an agreement with AES Colombia to acquire 49% of the Jemeiwaa Ka'I wind energy cluster in La Guajira. It is also in the process of acquiring a wind energy project from Italy's Enel.

(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; additional reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Writing by Natalia Siniawski; editing by Brendan O'Boyle, Sarah Morland and Leslie Adler)
Its a new era for Nordstrom Inc. and the Nordstrom family.

Brothers Erik and Pete Nordstrom and their cousin Jamie, along with El Puerto de Liverpool, finalized their $6.25 billion, all-cash acquisition of the department store chain on Tuesday.

More from WWD

With the completion of the transaction, which was expected, the Nordstroms now have a 50.1 percent controlling stake in the company, and Liverpool has a 49.9 percent stake. Nordstrom is based in Seattle, and Liverpool is based in the Santa Fe section of Mexico City.

In addition, Erik and Pete became co-chief executive officers, and the companys stock will stop trading and be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Erik Nordstrom was the sole CEO before, and Pete was president and chief brand officer. Jamie Nordstrom continues as chief merchandising officer.

Erik Nordstrom

The deal, at $24.25 per share, represents a premium of about 42 percent to the companys unaffected closing stock price on March 18, 2024, the last trading day before media speculation about a deal.

Shareholders of the company will also be paid cash dividends of 25 cents per share and 14.62 cents per share, reflecting the special cash dividend and a stub period quarterly dividend. A majority of the shareholders approved the deal last week during a virtual meeting.

The completion of this transaction is an important milestone in our nearly 125-year history, Erik Nordstrom said in a statement. As we embark on this new chapter, we remain focused on what matters most  providing outstanding service, offering the best merchandise, and ultimately, helping our customers feel good and look their best. Were grateful to our teams for their hard work on behalf of our business and our customers, and we look forward to building on Nordstroms strong foundation to reach even greater heights.

Since our founding, Nordstroms commitment to our customers has been at the heart of everything we do, Pete Nordstrom said. Were excited to enter this next phase of the companys evolution with the many customers and employees who have been an instrumental part of our story.

Pete Nordstrom podcasting in the Nordstrom studio.

To help pull off the deal, the Nordstroms borrowed $450 million from a $1.2 billion asset-backed loan. The deal was also funded by equity from the Nordstrom family and Liverpool, cash from Liverpool, and Nordstroms cash reserves. Nordstrom already had $2.7 billion in debt.
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and David French

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Phillips 66 and activist investor Elliott Investment Management each won two seats on the oil refiner's board at an annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, capping one of the biggest corporate boardroom battles of the year.

The preliminary tally, confirmed by both sides, followed months of increasingly bitter finger-pointing between the two sides, with Elliott pushing for asset sales and an improvement in performance and Phillips 66 saying its strategy is working and that shareholders would benefit.

By effectively splitting the vote, shareholders are signaling to Elliott and Phillips 66 that they want some change but not the kind of sweeping transformation the hedge fund was calling for, analysts said on Wednesday. Elliott was trying to have four of its nominated directors elected to the board to fill the four seats that were up for election this year.

"Today's vote sends a clear message: Shareholders demand meaningful change at Phillips 66," Elliott said in a statement confirming that Sigmund Cornelius and Michael Heim had been elected to oil refiner's board.

They will serve on the board instead of long-serving Phillips 66 director John Lowe and Howard Ungerleider, who had been a new director candidate for the company. Veteran director Robert Pease, who was initially put on the board with Elliott's blessing, and Nigel Hearne were elected from the firm's slate.

"This vote reflects a belief in our integrated strategy and a recognition that our early results do not yet reflect the full potential of our plan or the value inherent in this business," Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier said in a statement.

Phillips 66 shares were down 5.8% in mid-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Elliott, as part of its argument for actions to boost Phillips 66's share price, had advocated exploring the sale or spin off of its midstream business and other asset divestments, to focus on the company's refining operations.

Oil refining margins hit multi-year lows last year, and while they recovered somewhat in the early part of 2025, this backdrop helped support Phillips 66 management's insistence that a break-up of the company would not be viable.

Analysts said shareholders ultimately will benefit from the addition of four new directors who bring industry experience and knowledge about the company's business.

The results show Elliott received no support from any of the large index funds that often control such corporate votes, according to two sources.
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter.

A federal judge dismissed Yotta Technologies lawsuit alleging its former banking partner, Evolve Bank & Trust, had stolen and misappropriated millions of dollars in customer funds.

Yotta alleged in September that Evolve had utterly failed in its most basic duty to its customers, many of whom lost access to  some temporarily, some still  a cumulative $100 million-plus.

But Judge Trina Thompson of the District Court of Northern California dismissed Yottas lawsuit against Evolve on May 15, writing that the fintech did not sufficiently plead the who, what, when, where, and how of the alleged mismanagement by Evolve and its middleware partner Synapse, which filed for bankruptcy in April 2024.

Thompson ordered Yotta to provide more details in an amended complaint by June 2.

"We are pleased that the judge granted our motion to dismiss," an Evolve spokesman said via email. "We have maintained from the beginning that the claims lacked merit, and we are gratified that the Court agreed."

Yotta intends to file an amended complaint by the deadline and remain[s] committed to pursuing this case," Yotta CEO Adam Moelis told Banking Dive.

In addition, we will continue to do everything we can to help depositors get their funds back in full, Moelis said.

Evolve filed its motion to dismiss the lawsuit in December, alleging that Yottas lawsuit treats Synapse and Evolve as the same entity, without specifying what each party did. Synapse is a non-party who is immune from suit given it is in bankruptcy proceedings, Evolve noted.

These are more than just technical violations, Evolve contended in its motion to dismiss. They are carefully crafted allegations to (a) avoid the reality that Evolve  as Yotta admits  was merely responsible for providing banking services, whereas Synapse was responsible for the reporting of these transactions and balances to Yotta end users; and (b) maintain a suit against Evolve because Synapse is immune from suit because it is in bankruptcy.

More information on Synapses role in the misappropriation of customer funds is ordered in Yottas amended complaint, as is more information on allegations that Evolve conspired to commit fraud, according to the dismissal document.

Evolve, Synapse and Yotta have traded barbs throughout the last year, blaming parties other than themselves for the scandal that broke out after Synapses bankruptcy filing.
By Mohamed Ezz and Marwa Rashad

CAIRO/LONDON (Reuters) -Egypt is in talks with energy firms and trading houses to buy 40-60 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid a worsening energy crunch ahead of peak summer demand, three sources aware of the matter told Reuters.

The country faces spending up to $3 billion at current prices to secure the LNG, squeezing government coffers already under strain to keep the lights on amid falling gas production and a cost of living crisis.

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President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday directed the government to "preemptively take whatever needs necessary to ensure stable electricity flow," according to a statement.

"The government is now in talks to import at least 40 LNG cargoes and around 1 million tons of fuel oil," an industry source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

"Gas was the primary focus, given the more flexible payment options available compared to fuel oil, though the latter remains under consideration if LNG prices are unfavourable," the source added.

In the past two years, Egypt endured rolling blackouts as natural gas supply fell short of demand. Egypt's own gas output in February hit its lowest level in nine years.

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The world's most populous Arab country returned to being a net importer of gas last year, buying dozens of cargoes and abandoning plans to become a supplier to Europe as its production tumbled.

Egypts hard currency crunch has delayed payments to international oil firms, curbing exploration and slowing oil and gas output.

The country could now need up to 60 LNG cargoes to cover its 2025 needs, a second trading source said, adding over the long term that could rise as high as 150 cargoes.

It is in talks with Qatar, Algeria, Saudi Aramco, and major global trading houses, the sources said.

Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum, Qatar Energy, Saudi Aramco and the Algerian Ministry of Energy and Mining did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

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Egypt has bought 1.84 million tons (mt) of LNG this year, data from S&P Global Commodity Insights shows. That's almost 75% of its total for 2024.

ISRAELI GAS

An additional problem has been lower supply from Israel's offshore Leviathan field which has been blamed on scheduled maintenance. That has forced Egypt to halt or reduce gas supplies to several fertilizer factories for at least 15 days.

"My factory has come to a complete stop since Saturday. Others are working on partial capacity," the head of a fertilizers factory told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity.

A prolonged halt could hit exports of fertilisers, a key source of foreign currency.

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Egypt relies heavily on imported Israeli gas, which accounts for 40-60% of its total imported supply and about 15-20% of its consumption, JODI data shows.

Yet it faces the prospect of paying more for it, as two other industry sources told Reuters that Israel wants to raise its exported gas prices by 25%.

Prices for Israeli gas are linked to oil prices which have fallen, while prices of LNG are linked to other benchmarks such as the Japan Korea Marker (JKM) in Asia, gas prices at the Dutch TTF gas hub in Europe, or Henry Hub in the U.S.

"Israel wants higher prices, because now they are so low at about $6/mmBtu (million British thermal units) at today's Brent prices, while LNG price is closer to $14/mmBtu. Israel was satisfied when the price was around $7.50 mmBtu," one of the sources said.

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A spokesperson for the Israeli energy ministry told Reuters that prices in the gas sector are determined through business negotiations between companies.

"The Government of Israel is not a party to this negotiation process. This is a business matter," she said.

Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Mohamed Ezz in Cairo and Marwa Rashad in London; editing by Kirsten Donovan and Jason Neely)
New deal with ASEAN to lift free trade

09:32, May 22, 2025 By ZHONG NAN ( China Daily

An aerial drone photo taken on April 30, 2025 shows a cargo ship berthing at a container dock of Qingdao Port in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The expected implementation of the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement later this year will send a strong signal to the world in support of free trade and open cooperation, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.

Commerce and trade ministers from China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations jointly announced on Tuesday the official conclusion of talks for this upgraded free trade deal via an online meeting, said the ministry in a statement.

China and the 10 ASEAN member states will expedite their respective domestic administrative and legislative procedures and work toward formally signing the upgraded protocol by the end of this year, said the statement.

At a time when global trade is facing major challenges, the successful conclusion of negotiations between the two sides reflects the broader trend toward openness and cooperation. It underscores the resilience of free trade and brings greater certainty to both regional and global economic landscapes, said the MOC.

China and ASEAN launched negotiations for the upgraded trade deal in 2022. The two sides jointly declared the substantial conclusion of the negotiations in Vientiane, Laos, in October 2024.Following this development, both sides accelerated consultations on the remaining provisions of the upgraded protocol and the chapter on the digital economy.

Huo Jianguo, a researcher at the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, said this move sends a strong message against unilateralism and protectionism, reaffirming both sides' commitment to free trade and open cooperation.

By jointly advancing supply chain resilience and connectivity, the upgraded agreement offers a powerful response to external attempts at "decoupling" and supply chain disruptions, while promoting greater synergy across regional industrial and supply networks, said Huo.

Version 3.0 covers nine areas, encompassing both existing fields under the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement and emerging sectors with significant potential for cooperation, including the digital economy, green economy, supply chain connectivity, trade facilitation, and economic and technical cooperation, the ministry added.

Building on the foundations of the existing China-ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, these advancements significantly expand mutually beneficial cooperation in emerging sectors, enhance alignment in standards and regulations, and promote trade facilitation and inclusive development, said Cai Hongbo, director of the Free Trade Zone Research Center at Beijing Normal University.

The upgrade marks a pioneering step toward deeper regional economic integration and reinforces ongoing collaboration between China and ASEAN across industrial and supply chains, said Cai.

In the first four months, ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner, with total trade between the two sides reaching 2.38 trillion yuan ($329.62 billion), up 9.2 percent year-on-year, accounting for 16.8 percent of China's total foreign trade value, said the General Administration of Customs.

Zhejiang Sharbo Electric Appliance Co Ltd, a Ningbo, Zhejiang province-based household appliances manufacturer, welcomed the conclusion of the version 3.0 negotiations as an encouraging development, according to information provided by Ningbo Customs.

"In the past, our exports were primarily focused on traditional markets like Europe and the United States. However, with rising risks of tariff barriers, we have been actively exploring emerging markets. Our air conditioners have already gained a foothold in ASEAN markets such as Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia," said Gao Feiji, the company's foreign trade director.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, holds talks with Dunyagozel Gulmanova, chairperson of the National Assembly (Mejlis) of Turkmenistan, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Zhao Leji held talks with Dunyagozel Gulmanova, chairperson of the National Assembly (Mejlis) of Turkmenistan, in Beijing on Thursday.

Zhao, chairman of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said that in January 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov jointly announced the elevation of bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

In October of the same year, President Xi held friendly exchanges with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, chairman of the People's Council of Turkmenistan, who came to China to attend the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, drawing a new blueprint for cooperation in various fields between the two countries, Zhao added.

He also said that China is willing to work with Turkmenistan to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen cooperation in various fields, and continuously enrich the connotation of bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.

China highly appreciates Turkmenistan's firm support for China's position on the Taiwan question and issues related to Xinjiang and human rights, Zhao said, adding that China will, as always, firmly support Turkmenistan in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty and security, and support Turkmenistan in pursuing a permanent neutrality policy and following a development path that suits its national conditions.

China is willing to work with Turkmenistan to strengthen the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative with Turkmenistan's development strategy to revive the Great Silk Road, explore new measures to deepen cooperation concerning connectivity and agriculture, and expand cooperation in terms of culture, tourism and education, Zhao stated.

He called on the two sides to jointly promote the implementation of the three major global initiatives proposed by President Xi, safeguard the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core, and practice true multilateralism.

He further said that the legislative bodies of China and Turkmenistan have always maintained friendly exchanges, and the NPC of China is willing to join hands with the National Assembly of Turkmenistan, strengthen friendly exchanges at multiple levels among legislative bodies, deepen exchanges of experience in legislation, supervision and governance, and create a favorable legal environment for practical cooperation between the two countries.

Gulmanova, meanwhile, said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership has achieved vigorous development in various fields including politics, economy, diplomacy and culture.

The National Assembly of Turkmenistan is willing to deepen friendly exchanges with the NPC of China, and enhance communication among special committees, youth and women parliamentarians and representatives, Gulmanova added. 

Zhao Leji, chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, holds talks with Dunyagozel Gulmanova, chairperson of the National Assembly (Mejlis) of Turkmenistan, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)
Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is a Virginia-based tobacco giant that is navigating through a shifting landscape as cigarette consumption continues to decline across North America. This industry trend has taken a toll on the companys shipment volumes. Its core smokeable products segment saw domestic cigarette shipments fall by 13.7% year-over-year in Q1 2025, largely due to the rise of illicit e-vapor alternatives. Even its cigar shipments were down 2.9%.

This High-Yield Dividend King is Worth a Closer Look

However, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) is not passively watching its traditional business erode. The 2023 acquisition of NJOY reflects a deliberate push into the smoke-free nicotine category. While still a small piece of the companys portfolio, NJOY consumables showed promise, with Q1 shipment volumes up nearly 24% to 13.5 million units.

This evolving landscape naturally raises questions about dividend sustainabilitya top concern for income-focused investors. Encouragingly, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO) trailing twelve-month free cash flow stood at $4.38 billion, with operating cash flow reaching $8.6 billion. These figures suggest the company is well-positioned to maintain its dividend, provided the underlying business remains stable.

Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)'s dividend history is notably strong. With 59 dividend hikes over the past 55 years, the company is a Dividend King, and its track record signals long-term reliability. Its 2024 dividend increase aligned with its mid-single-digit annual dividend growth target through 2028. A payout ratio of 60% appears reasonable, even amid operational challenges. In the latest quarter alone, Altria returned $1.7 billion to shareholders through dividends, underlining its commitment to income investors.

Despite facing headwinds, Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO)'s strong cash flow, resilient margins, and attractive 7% dividend yield offer reassurance. In todays uncertain market environment, where investors are increasingly shifting from speculative tech plays to income-generating and fundamentally solid businesses, Altria stands out as a compelling candidate for dividend-focused portfolios. The stock has surged by over 14% since the start of 2025, outperforming the broader market by a wider margin.

While we acknowledge the potential of MO as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued dividend stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued dividend stock that is more promising than MO but that trades at 10 times its earnings and grows its earnings at double digit rates annually, check out our report about the dirt cheap dividend stock.
We recently published a list of Jim Cramers Recent Thoughts on These 15 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-B) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.

On Monday, Mad Money host Jim Cramer addressed the markets reaction to the recent U.S. debt downgrade by Moodys.

Stories like the US debt downgrade story from Friday, they are classic Stories that scare people out of very fine stocks that could otherwise make them rich. And sure enough, when Moodys downgraded the debt of the United States on Friday, the last of the three big rating agencies to do so, the market opened hideously as the get out now crowd took action. They fled. Then the market rebounded.

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Put These 12 Stocks Under the Spotlight and 15 Stocks on Jim Cramers Radar.

Cramer warned that such panic is not a one-off. He mentioned that there will be many other get out now calls issued ahead. He said that the warnings often come from sources who either do not fully grasp the situation or are motivated by less transparent reasons. In his view, some are simply uninformed, while others may be experienced short sellers using fear as a tactic to move markets in their favor.

Even if the issues these fear-driven stories point to do materialize, Cramer believes they are manageable. He called out the overuse of the term stagflation, often wielded by bearish commentators to provoke anxiety. He acknowledged how difficult it can be to resist the persuasive nature of such arguments. Still, he encouraged investors to stay the course as he added, Youll have to stick with me and well sit through this.

Let me give you the bottom line: The crucial thing that we in the media can do, and I say this as someone who talks to more individual veterans than almost anyone in the universe, and certainly more than anyone in the media, is simply cool it with the fear mongering and cut off guests who advocate it. A little history and some constructive thought would go a lot further if your goal is not to inflame, but to inform.

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on May 19. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkeys database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletters strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
We recently published a list of Jim Cramers Recent Thoughts on These 15 Stocks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (NYSE:EW) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed recently.

On Monday, Mad Money host Jim Cramer addressed the markets reaction to the recent U.S. debt downgrade by Moodys.

Stories like the US debt downgrade story from Friday, they are classic Stories that scare people out of very fine stocks that could otherwise make them rich. And sure enough, when Moodys downgraded the debt of the United States on Friday, the last of the three big rating agencies to do so, the market opened hideously as the get out now crowd took action. They fled. Then the market rebounded.

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Put These 12 Stocks Under the Spotlight and 15 Stocks on Jim Cramers Radar.

Cramer warned that such panic is not a one-off. He mentioned that there will be many other get out now calls issued ahead. He said that the warnings often come from sources who either do not fully grasp the situation or are motivated by less transparent reasons. In his view, some are simply uninformed, while others may be experienced short sellers using fear as a tactic to move markets in their favor.

Even if the issues these fear-driven stories point to do materialize, Cramer believes they are manageable. He called out the overuse of the term stagflation, often wielded by bearish commentators to provoke anxiety. He acknowledged how difficult it can be to resist the persuasive nature of such arguments. Still, he encouraged investors to stay the course as he added, Youll have to stick with me and well sit through this.

Let me give you the bottom line: The crucial thing that we in the media can do, and I say this as someone who talks to more individual veterans than almost anyone in the universe, and certainly more than anyone in the media, is simply cool it with the fear mongering and cut off guests who advocate it. A little history and some constructive thought would go a lot further if your goal is not to inflame, but to inform.

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 15 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on May 19. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkeys database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletters strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Time has run out for some US trade partners looking to make deals ahead of President Trump's July 9 deadline for tariffs to snap back to higher levels.

Letters will start going out to countries on Friday to notify them of the tariff rates they will face on exports to the US, Trump told reporters, to go into effect on Aug. 1. The first 10 or 12 letters sent out will be followed by similar batches.

By the ninth theyll be fully covered, Trump said in reference to the deadline, per Bloomberg. Theyll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs.

The Trump team has so far been focused on hammering out trade deals, though it has succeeded in nailing only three pacts so far.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said around 100 partners would likely see a minimum "reciprocal" rate of 10% come next week, adding that he expects a "flurry" of deals to materialize before the deadline.

Here is where things stand with various partners:

China : The US has eased export restrictions on China for chip design software and ethane, a sign that trade tensions are calming between the two countries after they agreed in May to a framework to move toward a larger trade deal. Software firms like Synopsys (SNPS) and Cadence (CDNS) said they will now sell their chip design tools to Chinese customers again. The US also removed limits on ethane exports to China that it had set just weeks ago.

Vietnam: Trump on Wednesday said he had reached a trade deal with Vietnam, one that will see the country's imports face a 20% tariff  lower than the 46% he had threatened in April. He also said Vietnamese goods would face a higher 40% tariff "on any transshipping"  when goods shipped from Vietnam originate from another country, like China. Many US goods will see no duty upon import to Vietnam.

Japan: Trump earlier this week said negotiations with Japan had soured, saying he would force Japan to accept higher tariffs of "30%, 35%, or whatever the number is that we determine." Notably, that proposal is higher than the 24% "Liberation Day" level. "Theyre very tough. You have to understand, theyre very spoiled," he said.
By Kamal Choudhury and Puyaan Singh

(Reuters) -Medical device maker Medtronic said on Wednesday it plans to separate its diabetes business, which houses its insulin pumps and other wearable devices, into a stand-alone company and forecast 2026 adjusted profit below estimates.

The unit has been struggling over the last few years following regulatory concerns over quality management and cybersecurity issues related to its certain devices. But it has since returned to growth.

"It's ready to be a standalone company," Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha told Reuters in an interview.

"The diabetes business is in a really good spot right now, six quarters in a row (of) double digit growth and a really robust product pipeline... but as you go forward, the investment needs (to) continue, and it needs more focus" Martha said.

The new entity, headquartered in California, will be led by the current head of Medtronic's diabetes unit, Que Dallara.

Dallara told Reuters she is confident in the company's durable growth due to a consistent "major product launch every year."

Medtronic expects the separation of its diabetes business to be immediately profitable and improve margins, as diabetes devices require unique commercial and manufacturing strategies.

The company plans to spin off the unit with an initial public offering (IPO) of less than 20% followed by a split-off of the remaining 80%. The spin-off is expected to be complete within the next 18 months.

Separately, Medtronic forecast its fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings per share in the range of $5.50 to $5.60, below Wall Street estimates of $5.83, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The company said its forecast depends on whether US-China tariffs return to higher rates or remain at current lower rates after a 90-day pause.

Medtronic expects a tariff hit of about $200 to $350 million in 2026 on its cost of goods sold, after mitigation efforts.

CFO Thierry Pieton told Reuters Medtronic plans to implement cost-saving measures to offset tariff impacts, and will seek exemptions due to the humanitarian nature of products.

Medtronic also expects high single-digit EPS growth in fiscal 2027.

Medtronic shares were down 1% in afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy, Kamal Choudhury and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Shailesh Kuber)
Release Date: May 21, 2025

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Positive Points

Panoro Energy ASA (PESAF) reported revenue of $19 million and EBDA of $15 million, in line with guidance.

The company achieved a 300% reserve replacement ratio, marking a 22% year-on-year increase in reserves.

Panoro Energy ASA (PESAF) has a strong balance sheet with $50 million in cash against gross debt following a $150 million bond issue.

The company announced an $80 million cash distribution as a return of paid-in capital, alongside completing a 100 million kroner share buyback program.

Positive developments in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, including a significant discovery in the Borin area with 25 million barrels recoverable.

Negative Points

The first quarter had a light crude lifting schedule, impacting immediate revenue realization.

Production in Equatorial Guinea was below internal budget expectations, indicating operational challenges.

The company faces high cash tax payments, particularly noted in the first quarter for Equatorial Guinea.

CapEx guidance for 2025 has been slightly increased due to additional drilling activities, indicating higher expenditure.

The timeline for first oil from the Borin discovery is still a few years out, delaying potential revenue from this asset.

Q & A Highlights

Q: Can you provide more details on the 1212 million 2C resources in Equatorial Guinea and the most important opportunities there? A: Richard Morton, Technical Director, explained that the block EG 23 in Equatorial Guinea is an exciting prospect with several oil and gas discoveries. The focus is on collecting data, confirming the size of these discoveries, and evaluating development possibilities. The discoveries are quantified by the EG government, and the company is working on integrating these into their reserves for future development.

Q: Can you quantify the cost-saving opportunities in Gabon with the new operatorship? A: Jon Hamilton, CEO, stated that while immediate dollar-per-barrel impacts may not be significant this year, the integration of operations by BW Energy is expected to yield synergies and efficiencies in the future. This includes better timing of maintenance and staffing logistics, which should positively impact costs in the coming years.

Q: Why was the cash tax excluding profit sharing high in Q1 compared to last year? A: Jon Hamilton, CEO, clarified that the high cash tax in Q1 was due to a significant tax payment for Equatorial Guinea for the year 2023, which was made in the first quarter of 2025.
(This story has been refiled to expand the company name of Rio Tinto in the headline)

By Melanie Burton, Clara Denina

MELBOURNE/LONDON (Reuters) -As Rio Tinto searches for a new CEO, the miner will cast a wide net due to a very short list of possible internal candidates, sources said, in contrast with laser-focused succession planning at its main rival BHP.

Rio, the world's largest iron ore miner, took investors by surprise on Thursday when the company announced CEO Jakob Stausholm will step down later this year once a successor is appointed. It gave no reason for the move.

One source familiar with the matter said the board had held meetings on the succession in recent months with the help of executive recruitment firm MWM Consulting, vetting internal candidates including Bold Baatar, Simon Trott and Jerome Pecresse, while looking for external leaders too.

"The next generation of big mining leaders will have to be more aggressive than the last. There's less copper around and they will have to take bigger risks to get it," said one person who consults for top executive appointments in the industry.

Both mining giants are in the midst of changing CEO at a critical juncture as the hunt for copper is crucial due to demand for use in multiple technologies including artificial intelligence and the clean energy transition.

A febrile atmosphere characterised 2024 as diversified miners failed in pulling off big ticket M&A - something both companies might hope to succeed in with new leadership. Among Rio's internal suite of candidates, Singapore-based Baatar, Rio's chief commercial officer, has found some strong support.

"We believe Baatar's communication, portfolio knowledge and problem-solving skills (as showcased during his role at Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia and Simandou mine in Guinea) would prove key in leading Rio," RBC analysts said in a note.

The Mongolian has worked in leadership positions in Rio's marine, iron ore sales and marketing divisions. He joined the Executive Committee in 2016, running the Energy & Minerals product group, before heading its copper division.

Head of iron ore Trott, a more than 20-year veteran at Rio, has brought to market its biggest new iron ore mine in more than a decade, in Australia, and is building out a huge programme of replacement tonnes.

But he has faced pushback from investors because the quality of ore in Rio's exports has dropped during his tenure and has also fallen short of production targets.

OUTSIDE CONTENDERS

Pecresse was appointed head of the aluminium division in October 2023, joining the company from General Electric (GE) Renewable Energy. He worked at Alstom and Imerys prior to that, and is seen internally as a very sharp, but understated leader. His wife is French politician Valerie Pecresse.
Start early and take advantage of compound growth is the mantra of almost every financial adviser.

That's why the new savings account for children included in the legislation dubbed the "One, Big, Beautiful Bill," with a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the federal government, is truly beautiful to the investment community.

The "proposal reflects a growing consensus: investing early in every childs future is a smart and necessary step," said Marisa Calderon, president and chief executive of Prosperity Now, a national nonprofit organization focused on expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities in the United States.

How would the new savings accounts work?

Originally called the Money Account for Growth and Advancement, or MAGA Account, but changed Wednesday night by the House to the Trump Account, would create a federally funded savings account with a $1,000 deposit for children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Jan. 1, 2029.

Parents also could contribute up to $5,000 annually to the tax-deferred account to be invested in a diversified fund that tracks a U.S.-stock index. Qualified withdrawals, including for education expenses or credentials, a down payment on a first home or as capital to start a small business, are taxed at the long-term capital-gains rate.

There are no income requirements and everyone is eligible, as long as the child is a U.S. citizen, and both parents have Social Security numbers.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who proposed the savings account initiative, has said for those who don't own any stocks or bonds, these accounts will give everyone a stake.

How does this help Americans?

By saving early, the invested money has time to grow.

"Research shows that lasting change comes from scale," Calderon said. "Deposits must grow over time and be available when they matter most, such as paying for college, starting a business, or buying a first home."

After 25 years, $1,000 invested in the S&P 500 would grow to approximately $10,835, for example. The average stock market return is about 10% per yearfor nearly the last century, as measured by the S&P 500 index.

Are these types of savings accounts new?

The Trump account isn't a new idea, but it's a new move for the federal government if it passes into law. The enormous tax bill still needs approval from the Senate, which may demand changes before passage.

Vanessa Moreno, 24, changes the diapers of her two-month-old baby Makayla at Prototypes residential treatment program in Pomona, California, March 26, 2013. Prototypes is part of the Second Chance Women's Re-entry Court program, one of the first in the U.S. to focus on women. It offers a cost-saving alternative to prison for women who plead guilty to non-violent crimes and volunteer for treatment. Of the 297 women who have been through the court since 2007, 100 have graduated, and only 35 have been returned to state prison. Picture taken March 26, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson (UNITED STATES - Tags: SOCIETY CRIME LAW TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

About seven years ago, Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) proposed a savings account dubbed baby bonds, with $1,000 seed money for newborns based on family income, with potentially larger initial deposits for lower-income families. The proposal never gained bipartisan traction and died.
Sharon Leite is embarking on a second tour of duty at The Vitamin Shoppe.

Kingswood Capital Management and Performance Investment Partners, the private equity firms that just bought The Vitamin Shoppe, announced Leites return to the retailer as its chief executive officer on Tuesday. Leite served as The Vitamin Shoppes CEO from 2018 to 2023, but left to become CEO of Ideal Image, a chain of med spas, and later CEO of Omni Retail Enterprises, the parent company of brands operating e-commerce including Bodybuilding.com, Pier 1 Imports and DressBarn.com.

More from WWD

The new owners indicated that the rest of the executive leadership team at The Vitamin Shoppe  which includes the president of the company Muriel Gonzalez  remains in place. The private equity firms bought The Vitamin Shoppe from the Franchise Group Inc. for an undisclosed price. The deal was completed this month.

With the invaluable support of our partners at Kingswood and PIP  leaders in building brands and driving growth in omnichannel retail  we are primed for an exciting new era of expansion, Leite said in a statement. I look forward to collaborating with the board, the management team, vendor partners and our dedicated health enthusiasts as we build a world-class health and wellness platform that delivers an unparalleled experience to our customers.

Sharon Leite

The partners said they will be investing in a variety of brand-building strategies, including further supporting the health enthusiasts in running The Vitamin Shoppe stores, enhancing the companys digital marketing and e-commerce capabilities, innovating the private brand portfolio, and working with existing and emerging third-party brands to be the best distribution partner in the market.

During her first tour, Leite launched a new, more modern and easier to shop store format, accelerated the digital side of the business, expanded private label offerings, grew third-party brand partnerships and the Healthy Awards loyalty program, and initiated international expansion with Vietnam.

She is succeeding Lee Wright as CEO.

Its unusual for a CEO to leave a retailer and then come back years later, though the late Myron Ullman 3rd had two stints as CEO of JCPenney, and Howard Schultz had two stints as CEO at Starbucks. Also, Bob Iger is currently in his second tour of duty as CEO of Disney.
A fintech company called Slash offers business banking accounts tailored to the needs of specific kinds of entrepreneurs.

Most Read from Fast Company



Slash provides business checking accounts with funds held at FDIC-insured banks, detailed spending analytics dashboards, free or low-cost wire and ACH transfers, easy access to lending options, and unlimited virtual cards. These cards can be configured with specific spending limits, merchants, and merchant categories to prevent unauthorized or erroneous employee purchases. That control, along with metadata from Slashs integrations with popular accounting platforms, makes it easier for bookkeepers to classify transactions.

The company also offers a range of add-ons built for particular industriessomething like an app store for bankingdesigned to address the unique pain points of different types of businesses.

The insight behind Slash is the work that an accountant [does] at a construction company, or a marketing agency, or a property manager looks very, very different from one another, says CEO Victor Cardenas.

Marketing agencies, for example, often take money from clients to spend on platforms like Google and Facebook. Traditionally, they would use a single business checking account and rely on internal systems to track how much was received, how much had been spent, and when to request more funds.

With Slash, agencies can create virtual accounts for each client, allowing both parties to see the remaining balance. They can even trigger automatic billing for more marketing fundsplus the agency feewhen the balance runs low. The approach is popular: Slash reports that more than 1% of global ad spending on Facebook is conducted using a Slash card.

We basically make it much easier for agencies to put their accounts receivable on autopilot, Cardenas says.

Other industries have their own challenges. Contractors in fields like plumbing or HVAC often give technicians credit cards for fueling up, but want to prevent personal purchaseseven inside gas stations. Slash enables businesses to restrict cards to fuel purchases only and ties each transaction to a specific driver or vehicle.

We can make it so an owner can basically say, I want this card to only be able to be used to buy gas at the pump and not inside of the station, Cardenas says. And then we get data at the time of clearing of the transaction around the actual fuel grade, what the kind of fuel was, and were able to pass that on and show that to our customers.
Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty Images)

The worlds largest EV battery maker just shook the global financing stage with its IPO in Hong Kong. CATL, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd., saw its shares surge 16% on Tuesday, raising $4.6 billion in the worlds largest public offering so far this year.

CATL is already listed on Chinas Shenzhen Stock Exchange and has a market valuation surpassing 1 trillion yuan (about $138.7 billion), but its Hong Kong debut is a bold statement about the companys financial strength and global ambitions.

The companys decision to dual-list is seen as part of CATLs larger strategy to tap into international capital and elevate its global reach amid increasing competition from other battery manufacturers such as LG Energy Solution and Panasonic.

The battery maker supplies some of the worlds biggest automakers  including Tesla (TSLA), Volkswagen (VWAGY), Ford (F), Toyota (TM), and Mercedes-Benz (MBGYY)  and accounts for more than one-third of all EV batteries sold worldwide. The company has solidified its role at the heart of the EV revolution, powering everything from electric sedans to trucks and buses.

In the first quarter of 2025, CATL reported a 30% increase in net profit, driven by the continued surge in global demand for electric vehicles and energy storage solutions.

With the demand for EVs exploding globally, CATL is playing a critical role in the transition to a more sustainable automotive industry. But despite its credentials, CATLs IPO came amid increasing geopolitical tensions.

The company has faced challenges linked to its Chinese roots, including trade barriers from the U.S.-China trade war, auto tariffs, and fears of a slowdown in Chinas economy. Tensions escalated to the point where, in January, the U.S. Department of Defense added CATL to a list of companies allegedly tied to the Chinese military  a claim CATL vehemently denies, calling it a false designation.

As a result of the tensions, CATL banned U.S. onshore investors from its Hong Kong stock sale.

Meanwhile, last month, CATL reaffirmed its position as the leading battery supplier in the rapidly growing EV market. The company revealed that its working on a game-changing battery that promises to be lighter, more affordable, faster to recharge, and more resilient to cold temperatures  all while delivering greater driving range.

In its quest to remain at the forefront of EV innovation, CATL is also expanding its global footprint.

With more than 100,000 employees and 13 production plants worldwide, the company continues to scale operations to meet surging demand for electric vehicles. It also has six research and development centers around the globe.
UCG / Getty Images Aside from EVs, Tesla represents a hard-to-evaluate portfolio of "startups," Morgan Stanley said





Key Takeaways

Tesla's valuation is as difficult as ever for investors to judge, Morgan Stanley analysts said.

Many investors conceptualize Tesla as an electric vehicle company, while much of its valuation is tied to software, energy storage, and robotics, the bank said Monday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview Tuesday that he is committed to leading the company for at least the next five years.







Its harder than ever for Tesla (TSLA) investors to justify the stocks sky-high share price, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote to clients this week, and suggested thats likely to get worse before it improves.

Tesla's valuation "problem" Morgan Stanley sees is that many investors conceptualize Tesla solely as an electric vehicle company. Looking at that activity alone, the bank said it values Teslas core auto business at $75 per sharewell below the stock's level around $345 in recent trading.

But stopping at Teslas car business is akin to valuing Amazon as solely an online retailer or Apple as a seller of glowing rectangles and earbuds, the analysts said.

Putting EVs aside, the Elon Musk-led company represents a tough-to-evaluate portfolio of "startups that includes autonomous driving technology, energy storage, artificial intelligence, and humanoid robotics as potential growth catalysts.

That makes a firm valuation tough for investors to pin down, as "the majority of the company's current $1.1 trillion market cap is based on businesses that have either poor disclosure, no disclosure, or that have yet to be launched into the commercial market at all, Morgan Stanley said.

How Morgan Stanley Arrived at Its Bullish Target

The bank has a bullish target of $410, which it breaks down into five buckets: $75 a share for the EV business, $160 for in-car software services, $90 for robotaxis, $67 for energy storage, and $17 for Tesla as a third-party supplier to other companies. It does not currently include a valuation for Tesla Optimus, the humanoid robot division, which the bank said ultimately could serve an even larger addressable market than its EVs do.

Morgan Stanley's target is almost a 20% premium over Teslas closing price Monday and far more bullish than the consensus target of about $296 among analysts tracked by Visible Alpha.

Meanwhile, Musk said in an interview Tuesday that he is committed to remaining Teslas CEO for at least the next five years. Musk told attendees of the Qatar Economic Forum said that he is currently spending just about one to two days per week on his work with the Trump administration's cost-cutting efforts, following up on a promise he made during Tesla's earnings call last month to spend more time with the EV maker.



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Turkmenistan's government has been enacting reforms to tackle fundamental issues related to cotton forced labour and to bolster the autonomy of workers and farmers, as well as facilitate independent oversight and reporting.

However, a new report published by the Cotton Campaign's partners, Turkmen.News and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, which conducted independent civil society monitoring of Turkmenistan's 2024 cotton harvest, suggests forced labour still exists.

The report titled "Turkmenistan Cotton: State-Imposed Forced Labor In The 2024 Harvest And Links To Global Supply Chains" claims coercive labour practices remain extensive and systematic despite early efforts to curtail forced labour, including refraining from drafting doctors and teachers in certain areas and raising picking rates to promote voluntary labour.

The report indicates continued mobilisation or extortion of public sector employees by authorities and institution leaders to participate in cotton picking or finance substitute labourers.

It also highlights governmental interference with International Labour Organization (ILO) monitoring activities during the harvest and retaliatory measures against Ruslan Myatiev, director of Turkmen.News.

Cotton Campaign coalition senior coordinator Raluca Dumitrescu said: It is positive that the Turkmen government has taken some preliminary measures to reduce forced labour in the harvest, after a decade of sustained independent monitoring and reporting, advocacy, and campaigning by Turkmen NGOs operating from exile and international labour and business groups.

However, dismantling the forced labour system requires not just changes to mobilisation of pickers, but also reforms that emphasise fundamental human and labour rights. The Turkmen government must stop punishing activists who speak out about abuses in the cotton sector and should take concrete steps to empower workers and farmers.

While some regions did not witness the mobilisation or extortion of doctors and teachers during the 2024 harvest, a trend noted in the previous year's harvest, the Turkmen government's commitment to completely abolishing forced labour remains uncertain.

The state continued to compel or extort employees from various public institutions, including educational, healthcare, cultural, and utility organisations.

The government neither publicly denounced forced labour nor held accountable officials who engaged in such practices, according to the Cotton Campaign.

Furthermore, although ILO observers were permitted to monitor the harvest, authorities restricted their access to certain state employees and influenced others to deny any forced mobilisation.
Key Points

President Trump called for building a $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense system Tuesday.

L3Harris was specifically named as one likely participant in the program.

Investors rushed to buy L3Harris stock at the market open Wednesday.

10 stocks we like better than L3Harris Technologies 

Defense stock L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) is getting some positive attention on Wall Street today, after President Trump announced plans yesterday to spend $175 billion to build a Golden Dome missile shield over the United States.

Shares of the defense contractor surged nearly 5% at the open, and remain up 1.3% as of 10:15 a.m. ET.

Image source: Getty Images.

What is the Golden Dome?

"Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world," promised the president, while predicting the missile defense system will be operational within three years, and within his current term of office.

"We have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system," added the president, and allocated $25 billion to begin construction within the new "Big, Beautiful Bill" -- the president's budget proposal for fiscal year 2026.

Why Golden Dome could be good news for L3Harris stock

Commenting on Trump's announcement, J.P. Morgan analyst Seth Seifman observed that "LHX got a shout-out" at the press conference, although "many [other] contractors [will also] participate" in it. Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Palantir, and RTX Corp were all named as potential beneficiaries of Golden Dome, along with private space and defense companies SpaceX and Anduril.

The analyst noted that L3Harris recently completed a $125 million expansion of its satellite manufacturing facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and has been a repeat winner of contracts to build tracking layer satellites for the Space Force's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture missile detection and tracking system, which is presumed to be part of Golden Dome.

"Another avenue for LHX to participate is with rocket motors for interceptors," added J.P., giving L3Harris yet another route to profit under Trump's Golden Dome.

Should you invest $1,000 in L3Harris Technologies right now?

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The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and L3Harris Technologies wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Government entities increased their holdings of Strategy (MSTR), a bitcoin BTC proxy, in the first quarter according to new data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), investment bank Standard Chartered (STAN) said in a research report on Tuesday.

In some cases "MSTR holdings by government entities reflect a desire to gain bitcoin exposure where local regulators do not allow direct BTC holdings," wrote Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.

Strategy, which pioneered the bitcoin treasury model where corporates hold the crypto on their balance sheet as a reserve asset, currently holds 576,230 BTC worth around $59 billion at current market prices.

The bank noted that both Norway's Government Pension Fund and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) increased their Strategy holdings by the equivalent of 700 bitcoin in the first quarter.

The South Korean National Pension Service and the Korea Investment Corporation expanded their holdings by a combined 700 BTC equivalent, the report said.

U.S. state retirement funds, including California, New York and North Carolina, together added to their holdings the equivalent of 1,000 bitcoin, the bank said.

AP Funds in Sweden and Landesbank in Liechtenstein grew their MSTR holdings marginally, the bank noted.

France's Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC) and the Saudi Central Bank both added a small position in MSTR for the first time, Standard Chartered said.

Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) direct holding data was "disappointing" overall in the first quarter, the report added.

The bank said the most recent 13F data supports its central thesis that bitcoin will reach $500,000 before President Trump leaves office as the cryptocurrency attracts a wider range of institutional buyers.

Read more: Strategy Expands Bitcoin Holdings With Latest Multi-Million Dollar Purchase
A Wall Street Journal article citing sources with knowledge of the situation claims that Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is getting ready to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the upcoming weeks. After turning down several out-of-court restructuring proposals, the semiconductor manufacturer is moving forward with a court-supervised process backed by the majority of its creditors. Following the news, the firms shares fell more than 57% in extended trade.

Wolfspeed Gets Ready for Bankruptcy Filing Amid Growing Financial Crisis

A worker assembling metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) on a conveyer belt.

A U.S. manufacturer of silicon carbide power chips, Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) has been under increasing financial strain as a result of weak demand in the automotive and industrial sectors and continued tariff uncertainties. Earlier this month, the business expressed significant concerns about its ability to continue operations and published a weak revenue outlook.

Currently, Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) projects $850 million in revenue in 2026, which is significantly less than the $958.7 million anticipated by consensus analysts. These events highlight how serious its liquidity situation is, as the business finds it difficult to control its debt load in the face of deteriorating economic circumstances. The stock has declined by over 88% in the past 12 months.

While we acknowledge the potential of WOLF to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than WOLF and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: Nike Restructures the Technology Division, Laying Off Some Employees and Alphabets Waymo has Secured Approval to Expand its Driverless Ride-Hailing Service to San Jose.
(Reuters) -Semiconductor supplier Wolfspeed (WOLF) is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks, as it struggles to address its debt pile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Shares of the company fell over 57% in extended trading.

Wolfspeed has been grappling with sluggish demand in industrial and automotive markets and tariff-induced uncertainty.

The company is looking to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy that would have the support of a majority of its creditors, after rejecting several out-of-court debt restructuring proposals from creditors, the report said.

Wolfspeed declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

The company, which manufactures chips using silicon carbide, raised going-concern doubts and forecast weaker-than-expected annual revenue earlier this month.

The company expects revenue of $850 million in 2026, below analysts' estimate of $958.7 million.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
CFOTO / Future Publishing via Getty Images The Wall Street Journal noted that the silicone carbide chipmaker has turned down several plans by creditors to restructure its debt.





Key Takeaways

Wolfspeed reportedly is considering filing for bankruptcy within weeks as it struggles with mounting debt.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the silicone carbide chipmaker has turned down several plans by creditors to restructure its debt.

The news sent Wolfspeed shares to an all-time low.







Wolfspeed (WOLF) shares cratered Wednesday, a day after a report that the struggling silicone carbide chip manufacturer would be filing for bankruptcy "within weeks."

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday afternoon that after the company rejected several proposals by creditors to restructure its debt, Wolfspeed was looking at a plan to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a way that's acceptable to a majority of debtholders.

The company has been under financial pressure for months, and that was exacerbated in March when outgoing executive chair Tom Warner warned Wolfspeed may lose out on $750 million in grants and $1 billion in tax credits it had been expecting under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. In addition, this month the company posted disappointing results and added two board members to assist in dealing with the debt.

Investopedia has reached out to Wolfspeed for comment but has not received a response.

The news sent Wolfspeed shares to an all-time low Wednesday morning, and they're now trading at less than $1 each.



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Almost every time Tug Coker steps off the stage at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts  where he stars in To Kill A Mockingbird  hes greeted by someone he hasnt seen in almost 30 years.

Honestly, its been a blast, he said. Its just a thrill to be back in Fredericksburg and see people from all parts of my life, high-school teachers or people I worked with at Red Lobster, people I grew up with. Its getting back in touch with some of your ghosts in such a fun way.

Coker graduated from Stafford High School in 1996, then made his way from Broadway to L.A. Film and TV credits for the 47-year-old include roles on The Office and How I Met Your Mother, Ballers, NCIS and Law & Order: SVU.

Before he attempted to climb inside the skin of Atticus Finch in Riversides production, the closest performance to his hometown was the Studio Theatre in Washington. That was after hed earned a masters degree from the American Repertory Theater at Harvard University, and Coker was surprised that so many people from the Stafford area made their way north to see him.

But thats paled in comparison to the nightly shows at Riverside. Even though the Fredericksburg area has blown up since his days as an Indian at Stafford Senior High School, I still think of it as a small-town existence, he said.

And thats one of several things hes enjoying about the play, which is based more on Harper Lees book than Aaron Sorkins Broadway adaption.

Set in Maycomb, Alabama, in 1935, To Kill A Mockingbird takes the audience back to simpler times when children played outside in the summer and acted out made-up stories. The peaceful facade begins to crack when a young Black man is accused of raping a white woman and continues to erode when Finch defends the man in a trial.

Patrick AHearn, the producing artistic director at Riverside, had been working for several years to get the legal rights to perform the play. He knew exactly who he wanted as the lead.

I dont think theres anybody more perfect to play this role, AHearn said about Coker.

The two met about 15 years ago. Cokers parents, retired orthodontist John and Linda Coker, are active in the community and performing arts, and John serves on Riversides board of trustees. Theyve always supported AHearn, he said, and they asked him to sing at their daughters wedding.

Thats when AHearn and Tug Coker met and talked about the way were sort of in the same worlds, AHearn said. They discussed having Coker perform at Riverside, but schedules were packed, then some years later, Coker said he liked the idea of leading a master class there, sharing insights about the business.

Then, the production rights became available for To Kill A Mockingbird.

The light bulb went off and I said, Tug Coker, AHearn said.

There was no audition, no casting calls. AHearn wasnt looking for someone to impersonate Gregory Peck, who won an Oscar for his performance in the 1962 film. But hed already sized up Coker and knew that he fit the bill with his 6-foot-5-inch frame and dignified manner.

Hes really extraordinary in the role, AHearn said. I think Atticus Finch is the everyman and Tug speaks to that. He reminds me of like a Jimmy Stewart, likeable, charming, and this character is right up his alley.

Coker and his wife, Kathryn, who live in California, also have three sons, ages 4, 6 and 9. (Coker is staying in Fredericksburg with his parents until the kids finish the school year, then the family will stay in the area another month.)

AHearn has seen the way nurturing comes easily to Coker as he works with the young actors in the cast.

Its a nice natural fit to be talking about empathy and understanding with them, because I do that every day in my own life with my own kids, Coker said.

Grayson Lewis, who plays Jem Finch, is on the same school track as Coker. Grayson went to Falmouth Elementary School, currently attends Gayle Middle School and will go to Stafford High School.

The quality of acting is fantastic, Coker said about the child actors as well as other cast members who hail from the mid-Atlantic region. The production is as good as anywhere else Ive worked, and Ive been to Broadway. Im really happy to play a small part in shining a light on Riverside.

Asked if performing in front of hometown crowds and people whove known him since he was a boy made him nervous, Coker said hes been a working actor for a long time as well as a writer and producer. Those experiences help.

Its less anxiety and more excitement and pride to show them what Ive been doing, he said.

Plus, hes been there, done that in terms of feeling pressure from people in the audience. In 2012, he played Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird, who also happened to be his childhood idol, in the Broadway play, Magic/Bird. It was about the rivalry and friendship between Bird and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers.

On opening night, both Hall of Famers came to the performance.

Ill never be more nervous than that, he said, even when he recites the immortal line that its a sin to kill a mockingbird because they only sing and bring joy.

To Kill A Mockingbird runs through June 22 at Riverside Center for the Performing Arts. More information is available at https://www.riversidedt.com.
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced this month it will hear appeals in four cases, including one that questions the level of detail a convicted defendant must provide when asserting the existence of DNA evidence that could exonerate him.
Many of downtown Denvers streets are designated for one-way traffic. But their future could eventually go in a different direction.

City planners have been looking into converting several downtown streets to allow cars to drive both ways, according to preliminary findings for downtown's master plan shown at a public meeting on Tuesday.

The hope is it could help slow down traffic, encourage more economic activity and reflect how downtown is becoming more residential, leaders behind the Downtown Area Plan told The Denver Gazette.

Denver has been working on updating its Downtown Area Plan, a master document meant to shape policies and developments in the city center for the next 20 years.

Officials presented some of the proposed solutions theyre considering to improve the area, including converting one-way streets, at a final public meeting.

During the presentation, a map showed the city is considering converting one-way streets, such as Tremont Place and Welton, Champa, Arapahoe, Larimer and Blake streets. On the outskirts of downtown, the map shows Speer Boulevard, which is undergoing its own reconfiguration plan), Broadway and Lincoln Street should also be considered for conversion into a two-way street.

The plan recommends turning Broadway into a two-way transit greenway to connect Upper Downtown with the Golden Triangle neighborhood with major bike additions, extending transit like Metroride or the 16th Street shuttle, and growing a more robust tree canopy.

The plan seeks to push forward an idea that city officials have discussed and to start drawing fat lines on the map of where to begin, said Andrew Iltis, Downtown Denver Partnerships vice president of planning and community impact and co-leader of the plan.

We know that there's a lot of circulation that's happening as people look for parking or other things, Iltis said.

And with the 16th Street, formally 16th Street Mall, where theres no vehicle traffic, it means drivers may have to drive an additional block to get on a street that gets to their destination.

When you have a one-way grid, you end up sometimes circling for two or three blocks to try to find where you want to get to, he said.

How one-way streets in downtowns are evolving

When people moved out to the suburbs after World War II, one-way streets became incredibly prevalent in downtowns in the U.S., as cities worked to get downtown employees in and out as fast as possible.

These streets were designed to act as downtowns' highways.

But as one-way streets took over during a time when downtowns became less residential, cities have reconsidered their use, as downtowns push to become residential again.

Denver leaders have been advocating to transform the Central Business District into a "Central Neighborhood District."

As downtown struggles with high office vacancies, leaders hope encouraging residential development could make the area less dependent on the office market.

Most of our neighborhoods, local streets, are two-way. And they work really well on that grid, said David Gaspers, Denvers principal city planner. If we want to think of downtown as a neighborhood, we need to start treating it as such.

The final downtown plan wouldnt require conversions to happen, but it would have a policy statement saying the city should look into it.

Denvers Department of Transportation & Infrastructure will have to lead the approach and conduct a formal study to see how it would affect the traffic network, he added, because you can't do one-off street conversions without thinking about the impacts to all the other streets around it.

DOTI currently has nothing in design, Nancy Kuhn, a spokesperson for the agency, said in an email.

At present, any reference to converting streets from one way to two way would be considered a recommendation requiring additional analysis from a feasibility standpoint, she said.

Converting one-way streets into two-way streets has grown as a way to help economically revitalize city centers, according to a 2022 report on converting downtowns one-way streets published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

Proponents of converting one-way streets say they're not safer for pedestrians and offer a false sense of security to street crossers, the 2022 report said, while two-way traffic slows cars down and encourages people to look both ways before crossing the road.

Theres also a debate that two-way traffic is a better boon to businesses, as shopfronts will get better visibility from drivers coming from both directions.

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Two-way traffic actually is better for business access and actually can make it a more multimodal street that's friendlier for pedestrians, Gaspers said.

While DOTI hasnt begun looking into downtown yet, it recently conducted a study on the East avenues that connect City Park to downtown and suggested looking into converting East 13th and 14th avenues between Broadway and Yosemite Street, and East 16th Avenue between Detroit Street and Colorado Boulevard, and East 17th between Colorado Boulevard and Yosemite Street.

There are several concerns of converting streets in general, according to DOTI's report released in December. It mentioned research on conversions is limited and theres mixed results on whether they reduce crashes or cause more.

The safety effects of two-way conversion are unclear: two-way streets introduce more conflict points, create potential for head-on crashes, and can be more complex for pedestrians to cross, the East Avenues Safety Study stated.

The cost of converting the East avenues could be high, the study found, totaling more than $5 million to meet DOTIs standards.

The downtown plan doesn't look into how much converting streets would cost, but the plans leaders said it would be a phased approach, rather than all at once. Conversions though would require doing it in batches, since downtowns one-way street network is done in pairs.

Reexamining downtown's unique grid

Its not only the one-way streets that could see change within the next 20 years. Downtowns entire uniquely-angled grid is also being reevaluated.

The 45-degree street grid is considered a pain point for downtown accessibility, according to the plan, as it creates awkward and confusing intersections on the edges of downtown and cuts off downtown from surrounding neighborhoods.

The Downtown Area Plan is spearheaded by Denver Community Planning and Development and the Downtown Denver Partnership, with the assistance of urban planning and design consultancy firm Sasaki.

The yearlong community-engagement process to create the city centers guiding document is near the tail end, as city planners said they plan to release a draft this summer before it goes in front of City Council for approval.

At the meeting, they presented several solutions for downtown including establishing separate corridors prioritizing either pedestrians or transit, adding more green spaces like parks, and continuing the push to make Upper Downtown into a more residential neighborhood.

The Downtown Area Plan proposes turning Wynkoop, Larimer, Arapahoe, 21st Street, Broadway, Speer Boulevard and parts of Welton Street near Five Points neighborhood into pedestrian-centered streets.

The plan proposes creating a box around the city center of transit-focused streets, such as Market Street, Park Avenue, Welton Street and Speer Boulevard.

Some of these pedestrian corridors could look like expanding sidewalks, like 16th Street did to create more outdoor spaces for businesses, Iltis said.

It's really nice to have some sort of an amenity, whether that's a tree lawn or maybe it's used for bike parking or more additional cafe seating to have that separation from vehicular traffic, he explained.

Transit areas could look like consolidating bus routes and making popular transit areas more recognizable for downtown visitors, Iltis said, so they can go to one of the corridors and know one of the routes will take them to another part of downtown.

As part of the push to accommodate the shifting demographics planned for Upper Downtown and plans to develop the areas around Broadway and Arapahoe Square, city planners are also recommending to reimagine Welton Street  in the parts where there are several surface parking lots  as a commercial corridor to serve residents, businesses and transit riders.

It's an area that is already delivering a lot of residential growth, the city planners said.

Overall, not all the one-way streets suggested in the plan may be converted.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials recommends reexamining one-way streets by either converting them into two-way streets or keeping them one-way but condensing the traffic and using the wider streets for designated bus, transit or bike lanes.

Denvers city planners are taking a similar approach.

While they are looking at converting some streets to go two-ways, there may not be enough space to allow both two-way traffic and a better experience for pedestrians with more retail space, tree shade or even street parking.

There are one-way streets that also can be pedestrian corridors, too, Iltis said. They don't all have to go two way.

Either way, downtown and city leaders are now looking in both directions.
A Colorado leader in improving school safety has been selected for Academy D-20s Board of Education.

The board unanimously voted to appoint Susan Payne during a special meeting Monday. She will fill the vacancy left by former board President Aaron Salt, who submitted his resignation in March.

Payne is the founder and former executive director of Safe2Tell, a statewide nonprofit prevention initiative developed in response to the Columbine High School shooting.

She also served as a detective and public information officer for the Colorado Springs Police Department. She served as executive director of safety security and emergency management for Cheyenne Mountain D-12 from 2019 to 2022.

Payne is currently a school safety and prevention associate with University of Colorado Boulder and has helped multiple states establish intelligence-gathering and information-sharing initiatives to focus on violence prevention and early intervention.

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As the founder of Safe2Tell and a 28-year law enforcement veteran, Susan brings a wealth of experience in school safety, said D-20 Board President Amy Shandy in a statement.

A lifelong Colorado Springs resident and former D-20 parent, her deep community ties and expertise will be invaluable as we strive to advance Academy District 20s mission."

The other finalists interviewed at the meeting were Edward Waldrep, Katherine Czukas and Jeremy Beckman.

During her interview, Payne said she decided to pursue the board vacancy because of her personal history in Colorado Springs and passion for improving its schools.

The safer our schools are and the higher achieving that our children are, the better our community will be, she told board members.

We want to see them be successful, I want to see them learn at their highest level and I just want to kind of give back to my community and felt that this might be a way that I could provide some opportunity to help lead District 20 into the next few years.

Payne will take her oath of office in the board room at the D-20 Education and Administration Center on June 2. Her first official board meeting will be June 12.
A man accused of following a woman and her two children into a Fountain parking lot and firing multiple shots into their vehicle in April has been arrested.

The suspect has been identified as Clinton Padgett, 45.

On April 10, a woman called the Fountain Police Department to report a road-rage incident. She said a man in a vehicle had followed her into a retail store parking lot in the 11300 block of Jimmy Camp Road, and fired multiple shots at her vehicle.

Police found several bullets had struck the headrests where the children were sitting, narrowly missing them.

On May 20, Padgett was taken into custody with the assistance of the Department of Corrections Fugitive Parole Unit and booked into El Paso County jail on suspicion of three counts of attempted murder, possession of a weapon by a previous offender and illegal discharge of a firearm among other alleged crimes.

Jail records show that Padgett is still in custody, on a parole hold. His next court date is May 28.
DENVER  A woman who pleaded guilty in a hate crime "hoax" that made headlines during the 2023 Colorado Springs mayoral runoff election testified Wednesday that she was "only following instructions" from her alleged co-conspirators.

Co-defendants Derrick Bernard Jr., 35, and Ashley Blackcloud, 40, listened to Deanna West, 38, tell her side of the story for nearly four hours as they continued to fight their charges in trial. West pleaded guilty in March and told the courtroom she wanted to "tell the truth" ahead of her sentencing in September.

In November, the U.S. Attorneys Office for Colorado announced that a federal grand jury indicted the three for maliciously conveying false information about a threat made by means of fire to draw support for the eventual mayoral race winner, Yemi Mobolade, who is Colorado Springs first elected Black mayor.

The indictment alleged the crew staged a hate crime by defacing one of Mobolades campaign signs with a racial slur and placing a small burning cross in front in the early hours of April 23, 2023. Videos and photographs of the incident were sent in a mass email to media outlets along the Front Range, calling the act disgusting, and indicating Mobolades opponent, Wayne Williams, who is White, could be to blame because he was pushing hard to win (the) candidacy.

West testified she met Bernard, who she referred to as "Phoenixx Ugrilla," in fall 2022. Coming from Texas, West said she had no other place to live and ended up living and working at the radio station Bernard ran. West served as the operations director for the station, Family Flavors The Slide World Broadcasting Network, or The Slide.

Before she arrived in Colorado, West worked with the Department of Public Safety in Austin, Texas, most recently as a fingerprint analyst. West testified that Bernard was always a little worried, saying he sometimes thought she could be a spy working against him because of her career history.

In the early hours of April 23, 2023, West testified she was woken by Bernard to "handle some business." West said she didn't ask any questions at the time for fear Bernard would "cut her off" if she didn't "follow instructions."

West was told to bring her cellphone, which had no service and was dependent on Wi-Fi to function. West testified she was instructed to drive Bernard's vehicle and follow him and Blackcloud. Video surveillance introduced by the prosecution on Wednesday shows the two cars near the intersection where the "hoax" was staged around 2:37 a.m.

Once the crew reached a parking lot, West said Bernard told her to grab a "bundle of something" that was wrapped in a black blanket from the trunk. Once she grabbed the bundle, she followed Blackcloud while Bernard stayed in the car.

The surveillance video depicts West carrying the bundle across the parking lot at 3:02 a.m.

West said she got separated from Blackcloud at one point, and by the time she reached the staging area, the campaign sign was already defaced with the cross built and placed in front of it. Blackcloud allegedly told West to "have her phone ready." West testified that she believed her phone was used to record the incident because it had no service and would be difficult to track.

West said Blackcloud then lit the twine on the cross on fire using a lighter borrowed from West. During cross-examination, West testified she never saw Blackcloud use lighter fluid, despite a can of it recovered from inside her residence and gasoline residue found on her clothes.

West testified she acted as an "assistant" in staging the "hoax," taking directions from Bernard and Blackcloud, whom she called Trinity. During opening arguments, Bernard's attorney Tyrone Glover claimed Bernard was not at the scene and had no part in planning the incident.

Surveillance video shows the cross going up in flames around 3:20 a.m. The fire appeared to last about 20 seconds.

After the flames burned out, West said she returned to the radio station and went to sleep, unaware of what plans the other two had for the video and photograph taken on her phone.

Later that day, West testified she went to Bernard's office and questioned him about his plans. Bernard allegedly told her they were going to use the photograph and video to "gain traction in the media."

Not wanting the mass email to be sent using the radio station's Wi-Fi, West testified she and Blackcloud drove to a nearby Walmart to draft the email that went out to many local and state media outlets.

The pair conducted some research on hate crimes before Blackcloud spent 20 minutes drafting the email on West's phone, she testified. West said the address that the email came from was fictitious and created solely for that email.

The email contained several errors, including using the word "jesters" instead of "gestures." The prosecution grilled West on the false narratives in the email, including the section where the email alleged Williams may be to blame. West said that was a lie and was only said because Williams was White and running against Mobolade.

Mobolade testified on Tuesday that Williams reached out to him shortly after the news broke to ask if he was doing OK.

After the email was sent and West and Blackcloud drove back to the station, West said Bernard told her not to check for responses to the email on the radio station's network. When West returned to the Walmart the following day to check, there was one response to the email from a Fox31 television reporter asking if they could use the video for broadcast. West responded, giving full permission but asking to remain anonymous.

Over the next few days, the three reposted articles about the "hoax." A screenshot of one of West's posts shown in court Wednesday read "This is completely uncalled for ... I'm disgusted at this." When pressed, West testified the words reflected her true feelings about the "hoax."

On May 25, 2023, Bernard instructed West to "Do what I say frfr" and asked her to go pick up Blackcloud, who had been contacted by law enforcement regarding the hoax.

Two months later, West testified she quit the radio station  which was facing eviction over finances  and soon cut ties with Bernard and Blackcloud.

West admitted that she expected Mobolade to be upset, because "as a Black person" she understood what message the burning cross sent.

During cross-examination, Glover questioned West about the details of her plea agreement. If West had not pleaded guilty, she could be looking at more than a decade behind bars. With her testimony in the trial and admission of guilt, West is expected to receive probation but testified that she was never promised anything by authorities.

Glover went over the three interviews West had with the FBI in which denied involvement and tried to falsely blame the investor in the radio station. West admitted to the lies during the prosecution's questioning and when pressed by the defense. She said she understood the consequences of lying on the stand, which could include jail time.

When questioned by Blackcloud's attorney Britt Morton Cobb, West said she always knew the "hoax" was a political stunt and was not meant to cause harm to Mobolade. Despite her lies to federal authorities, West maintained her stance on the intent.

Mobolade and his wife, Abbey Mobolade, testified earlier this week, often with tears in their eyes. Both said that the incident "felt real to them."

Wednesday saw several more testimony from FBI officials. Christopher Iber went over the metadata he extracted from the photograph and video of the "hoax" and how he was able to determine the height of the suspects from surveillance videos.

Cellular analyst Maureen Gibson discussed how looking into cellphone tower "pings" aided in the investigation and led to the arrest of the three named in the indictment.

Bernard is serving life in prison without chance of parole after he was convicted of ordering the 2019 murder in Colorado Springs of William Underwood, who went by the rapper name FYL Jackk.

Aee Shawn Mathews, 26, the accused triggerman, was acquitted of killing Underwood, but found guilty of conspiracy to commit the killing in a trial last month.

Ahead of the hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Regina M. Rodriguez ruled the prosecution can only inquire about Bernard's criminal history if he decides to testify. However, no details about the specifics of the crimes can be discussed, only that he has a felony conviction that comes with a sentencing range of over 10 years.

Testimony will resume Thursday morning, with the prosecution expected to rest its case and defense attorneys expected to begin theirs. Closing arguments are expected Thursday afternoon, Rodriguez said.
Colorado Springs police arrested a man Tuesday after allegedly attempting to ram police vehicles in an escape attempt in a stolen truck, according to an online blotter entry.

Police said an officer identified a stolen gold Ford F-250 in the Fountain, where the driver fled north from pursuit into Colorado Springs. The truck was later found near The Citadel mall after allegedly being involved in a hit-and-run crash.

Detectives then saw the suspect, identified as 36-year-old Michael Rempel, changing the appearance of the truck, according to police. They saw Rempel park the truck in an alley in the 1300 block of North El Paso Street.

A Tactical Enforcement Unit responded, performing a "Contact Block" on the truck, said police. Rempel attempted to accelerate out of the block, but fled on foot when he was not successful.

Rempel was taken into custody and is being held at the El Paso County jail. Police said he had a history of motor vehicle theft and was out on bond for two theft cases. He was arrested on suspicion of motor vehicle theft, felony eluding, obstruction, felony criminal mischief and possession of methamphetamine.
Sally C. Pipes is President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is The World's Medicine Chest: How America Achieved Pharmaceutical Supremacy -- and How to Keep It (Encounter 2025). Follow her on X @sallypipes.
Colorado's political world is in as close to a lull as it's likely to get this cycle  six months past the 2024 general election, days after the end of this year's regular legislative session, and with just over a year to go until voters begin casting primary ballots.
Sculptures created as part of a collaboration with the University of Northern Iowa's Public Art Incubator and the college's sculpture department were installed outside the Clear Lake Arts Center last Tuesday despite the rain.

"It was soggy, but it was very exciting watching everybody install their projects and installing my own project," said Madelyn Otdoerfer from Strawberry Point, a junior at UNI who plans to be an art educator.

Nine artists, including current and former UNI students as well as a few professors, were chosen to make the sculptures. Most of them were installed Tuesday, while a few will be installed at a later date.

The pieces will remain up all summer and possibly through April if the sculptors want.

Students in the Public Art Incubator program engage with professional artists in the production of commissioned public art projects. Students assist professional artists in all aspects of the creation of artworks for public spaces.

Otdoerfer said her sculpture instructor at UNI, Dan Perry, gave her the opportunity to design a sculpture to enter into the CLAC competition.

"It really stood out to me because I have never done anything like this before and I thought it could be a real challenge," Otdoerfer said.

When her work was chosen for the CLAC show, she said she saw it as a lesson for her future students that "your art can be out in the public, seen by the public, and even you as a student can get your art out into the world."

Otdoerfer's sculpture is titled, "Cultivating Connections: The Heart of Iowas Learning." It consists of three cubes stacked on top of each other similar to children's building blocks.

The base cube, which has corn and cattle pictured on it, represents how the state supports agriculture. The middle cube represents education. The top cube has a globe on it, "so that kind of connects the whole thing together" because Iowa and Iowa's educators contribute to a lot to the world by shipping ag products and traveling around the world to educate others, Otdoerfer said.

Amelia Blue Gotera, Cedar Falls, who graduated from UNI last year with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture, created "Being Liquid." The 6-foot-tall sculpture depicts a pair of blue legs emerging from a blue puddle.

"I think about with that work about being a woman of color and growing up in the Midwest in a community where a lot of times you are the only person of color in the room, and you become comfortable or at least become skilled at morphing yourself and becoming liquid in order to fit into spaces that weren't built for you," Gotera said.

She added that the sculpture is about "these figures being liquid not so they can fit into a space but being liquid by their own choosing. They are in a moment by themselves, witnessing them being liquid in a way that's about them expanding or relaxing."

Gotera learned to fabricate public art with the Public Art Incubator while attending UNI. Now that she is a professional artist, she has hired the incubator for one of her own projects that she is doing this summer.

"It's a cool program because of that cyclical nature of the work and being able to help each other and teach each other," she said.

For a lot of the student artists, Tuesday was their first sculpture installation.

"It's a big moment when you put your work into the ground and then walk away after putting blood, sweat and tears into it," Gotera said. "I'm really proud of them."

The other sculptures on display or that will be on display soon at the CLAC are:

"Samara," by Tim Jorgensen.

"The Fountain," by Haeley Wolter.

"August," by Tommy Riefe.

"Relief, Release," by Josie Schauls.

"Musician's Clockwork #3," by Alex Miller.

"20 Years Later: What Happened Here?" by Annastacia Iverson.

"Crows Nest," by Dan Perry.
Western Montanas U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke was key in removing a provision of the 1,100-page domestic policy and tax cut bill Wednesday, narrowly passed by the U.S. House of Representatives early Thursday morning, that would have allowed for the sale of around 500,000 acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada.

For more than two weeks after the amendment was added into the bill in the House Natural Resources Committee by Republicans from the two states, conservation groups, land advocates and several Western representatives themselves have worked to get the portion of the bill struck, led in part by Montanas federal delegation, made up entirely of Republicans.

Zinke was part of "continual negotiations" during that time, his office said, which led to the provision being removed in an amendment late Wednesday in the House Rules Committee before the bill went to the full chamber and passed 215-214, with all Democrats and two Republicans  Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio  opposed.

"I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isnt creating more land," Zinke said in a statement. "Public access, sportsmanship, grazing, tourism  our entire Montanan way of life is connected to our public lands. I don't yield to pressure; I only yield to higher principle. There is a process to making sure that our lands are being used for the best benefit of the people."

Zinke thanked House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, for listening to concerns from Montanans about the provision and "working with me to get this done." He also singled out eastern Montanas U.S. Rep. Troy Downing as being key to the effort.

"I am pleased that the final bill reflected my efforts to keep the Bull Mountains Mine operational and to remove a provision authorizing the sale of public lands," Downing said in a statement. "Our work is not done, but Republicans will not rest until this once-in-a-generation legislation is signed by the president."

Several Montana- and western-based public lands advocacy groups lauded Zinke's work to remove the public lands sale provision from the bill.

"These places belong to the American people, and we're glad Rep. Zinke and the rest of Montana's delegation led the way in stopping our public lands from being fenced off and handed over to corporate interests," Emily Cleveland, the senior program director at Wild Montana, said in a statement.

"I'm proud and grateful that Congressman Zinke has the gumption to stand up for his constituents," said Ryan Callaghan, a Montanan and the Director of Conservation at MeatEater. "The Congressman is showing the type of leadership we need right now. Huge thank you from all of us public landowners."

Some of the same groups that lauded Zinke's efforts still remain opposed to the overall package, saying other changes surrounding mineral extraction royalties and conservation efforts for the Bureau of Land Management would be "destructive" toward their goals for public lands.

An analysis from renewable energy policy group Energy Innovation found power prices could increase by 50% over the next decade under the bill, that energy prices would spike and that efforts to increase renewable energy storage capacity would diminish.

"Unfortunately, even without selling off public lands outright, this budget reconciliation proposal remains the most extreme legislative attack on public lands in our nations history," said Lydia Weiss, the senior director for government relations for the Wilderness Society.

Zinke and Downing both voted to advance the measure to the Senate on Thursday. They said they supported other facets of the "One Big, Beautiful Bill," like money going toward the border wall and immigration enforcement, cutting taxes for most Americans  albeit cuts that are more beneficial for higher earners, according to the Congressional Budget Office  and making cuts to Medicaid and the SNAP program that helps feed low-income families. Zinke called the effort to trim the latter two programs one that will make them "stronger."

With the bill headed to the Senate for consideration, Montana's U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy are likely to support it, according to statements provided to the Montana State News Bureau by their offices on Wednesday.

In an interview on Fox Business, Daines brushed aside estimates from the Congressional Budget Office that said the bill would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion and that the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts would benefit the wealthiest Americans and be detrimental to the poorest.

He said senators have "some ideas" to tweak the bill but compared Johnson to Moses "pulling off miracles here, splitting the Red Sea," indicating there isn't a broad divide between the GOP in each chamber. A spokesperson for Daines' office said he also opposed the public lands provision and would "take a close look" at proposed funding cuts to ensure critical programs and services for Montanans are not interrupted.

Jack OBrien, a spokesperson for Sheehy, offered a similar statement.

"Since day one, Senator Sheehy has been clear that he stands with President Trump, will work to deliver on his America First agenda that the overwhelming majority of Montanans voted for in November, ensure the critical resources and services Montanans rely on are protected, and most importantly, make sure Montana comes first," OBrien said.

Some of the same conservation groups that praised the public lands sale provisions removal from the bill said they will continue to pressure the senators to pull out portions tied to public lands and the environment they see as harmful for the future.

"Theres still a lot of work to do," said Montana Conservation Voters Executive Director Whitney Tawney in a statement. "Now the bill is headed to the Senate, we urge Montanas senators to push back against policies that threaten energy affordability, reliability, and jobs. Montanans want smart solutions that keep energy costs low and support responsible development across the state."
Finnish telecoms equipment vendor Nokia has trialled its 5G technology in a defence scenario during Joint Viking 2025, a multinational military exercise in Norway above the Arctic Circle.

During the exercise, Nokia says it worked alongside industry partners to deploy Nokia 5G AirScale radios and 5G Standalone Core, enhancing tactical communications.

According to Nokia, throughout the trial, Nokias 5G technology enabled field personnel from multiple nations with advanced defence applications, enhancing situational awareness and facilitating seamless cooperation across military units.

Nokia says its 5G communications platform gave military personnel access to real-time battlefield intelligence, facilitating faster decision-making.

"The Joint Viking command and control leadership leveraged this data to improve situational awareness, streamline operations, and enhance both safety and efficiency throughout the exercise," Nokia says.

Joint Viking 2025, which took place in March this year, included more than 10,000 soldiers from Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, US, UK, The Netherlands, and Norway.

The exercise, which takes place every two years, aims to enhance military cooperation, support protection of NATO's northern flank and test Norway's ability to receive allied reinforcements.

Norwegian energy and telecom group Lyse and Nokia have entered into a strategic agreement to enhance tactical communication solutions for Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, collaborates with Norways mobile operators as key service partners.

We collaborate with the industry to develop innovative defence solutions based on commercial technologies, said Kennet Nomeland, Radio Architect and Norway's Ministry of Defence liaison for 5G COMPAD program.

"A prime example is advanced software functionality, which enables Nokias 5G systems to operate in GNSS-denied environments, along with their next-generation radio equipment, engineered for reduced size, weight, and power.

"Nokias 5G technology was instrumental in the success of the Joint Viking exercise, enhancing the Norwegian Armed Forces' readiness for complex joint operations in challenging conditions."
Smartphone chipset maker Qualcomm and Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi have extended their current 15 years partnership with the signing of a new multi-year agreement.

Xiaomi, primarily known for its smartphones, also manufactures lifestyle products, and IoT devices, for which Qualcomm sees as a new potential market.

Under the agreement, Xiaomi will continue to power its premium end smartphones with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-series platforms for multiple generations of products, with volume increasing in each year of the agreement.

In addition, Xiaomi will be one of the first vendors to adopt the next-generation premium Snapdragon 8-series to be announced later this year, in China and globally.

"Qualcomm Technologies has always been one of Xiaomis most trusted and vital partners, supporting our journey from a startup to a global technology leader, said Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi.

"We look forward to continuing the next 15 years of our collaboration and leveraging Qualcomms cutting-edge Snapdragon platforms and technologies to deliver even more innovative and high-quality products to our customers worldwide."

The new agreement will also see Qualcomm expand its premium chips platform into new areas of Xiaomi products other than smartphones, and the companies intend to work together to drive advancements in on-device AI, across all edge devices.

"We look forward to expanding our work together in automotive, smart home products, wearables, AR/VR glasses, tablets, and more, said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Together, we have consistently delivered exceptional products that have set the pace of innovation in smartphones globally.

We value the relationship we have built resulting from 15 years of close collaboration and are excited to continue this journey for many years to come, with Snapdragon platforms powering Xiaomis premium smartphones."
Who would have thought that in just two years, cross-border payments will reach an estimated $250 trillion annually [1] . For context, it was $150 trillion in 2017, so an increase of $100 trillion in just 10 years.

There are three main reasons the cross-border payments market is experiencing such growth. Firstly, it is fuelled by a surge in international travel post Covid-19. Secondly, online shopping and global e-commerce platforms are booming as consumers continue to look online for products and, thirdly, remittances - money sent by people working overseas to their home countries.

To better understand the behaviour of consumers and their cross-border habits, Visa Direct has produced its 2025 Global Cross-Border Consumer Habits  a survey of 6,500 consumers from 13 countries and territories, including Australia.

Visa Direct estimates that a staggering 771 million people made cross-border transactions between June 2023 and June 2024. The survey found 30% make weekly cross-border ecommerce purchases, 45% send or receive remittances monthly and 66% travel overseas annually.

Despite the many options currently available, 67% of those surveyed would prefer more options. This is especially important to consumers in the Philippines (88%) and Mexico (82%) but less so in countries such as Sweden (53%), United Kingdom (53%), and France (52%). Australia was at 59%.

Gen Zers (84%) were most likely to make a cross-border transaction compared with 68% of Baby Boomers.

The report says the industry is at a critical stage with traditional cross-border payment methods being slow, expensive and lacking transparency. There is no need for that to be the case anymore.

It predicts competition will ramp up as banks and fintechs take the opportunity to be consumers favourite cross-border payment method.

Interestingly, the report showed that consumers dont have a favourite way to pay. They are using an average of four out of seven different methods (digital payment services, credit or debit cards, P2P services, bank or wire transfers, online money transfer services, prepaid travel cards or money orders), with only 16% using a default payment method.

Most of us form habits to make routine decision-making easier and quicker, but we found that for cross-border payments this hasnt yet happened, the report found. Although 66% of consumers want to form habits, 71% want more guidance and education to better understand the best option. It seems no single provider offers what

consumers need for cross-border payments, despite almost 80% using a traditional bank.

One thing consumers are clear on is they want a cross-border payment provider that is secure and trustworthy. 90% expect stringent fraud and security measures to be in place, with 75% of Gen Z having halted cross-border payments due to security concerns.

When choosing a cross-border payment solution consumers said security (63%) was their main priority followed by trust (51%), reliability (49%) and fees (49%). Across all the different types of cross-border transactions, security is consistently the top priority across all regions, and among those engaging in travel (63%), ecommerce (62%), and remittance (59%) transactions.

The report said that about two in three consumers say the fear of fraud has stopped them from using a cross-border payment option. A higher percentage of Gen Z and Millennials, 76% and 71% respectively, have stopped a transaction on suspicion of fraud compared to Baby Boomers at 52%. Historically, older generations have built trust in their traditional bank, whereas younger generations are more casual in their choice of cross-border payment provider, some of which may be newer market entrants and therefore haven't built up that trust.

The fintechs and banks that use secure payment platforms (like Visa) can offer consumers the payment experience they want, with reassurance already built in.

Breaking down the three main areas of growth following increased consumer cross-border habits also found some compelling behaviour.

Ecommerce

Visa Direct estimates about 589 million people made cross-border ecommerce transactions in the past year with 72% of these purchases being physical products on online retailers such as Amazon and eBay.

Interestingly there are considerable variations between countries with, for example, 94% of Mexican consumers making Ecommerce cross-border purchases compared to just 58% in Denmark. 80% of Australian consumers made a purchase which is just ahead of the French at 76% and Canadians and Americans at 75%. Just over half (51%) of consumers used a credit or debit card with digital payment services at 36%.

Financial institutions may be surprised to learn that only 51% of consumers will use their credit or debit card. There is still scope for other payment methods being used, including a significant 36% using digital payment services, followed by wire transfers and P2P services being often used as well.

Travel

The report found that two in three consumers surveyed have travelled overseas in the past year, with 62% saying they used a credit or debit card to book their trip, making it the most used payment method. Most respondents use the same method to pay for trip costs as they do for booking the trip. This is likely because cards are widely accepted and offer instant currency conversion and fraud protection.

The biggest travellers were those from Singapore (86%) and the UAE (84%). Australians were towards the lower end with 54% having travelled in the past year, just ahead of the US at 53%.

Remittance

Four in 10 of those surveyed have sent or received remittances in the past 12 months, with bank or wire transfers being the most common payment method. Its not surprising that countries with a high migrant workforce such as the UAE and the Philippines rank the highest in sending or receiving remittances, at 87% and 74%, respectively. Australia was at 37% just behind the US at 44%. 14% are sending or receiving a remittance at least weekly.

The report said there was a huge opportunity for banks and fintechs in this space as consumers have no loyalty (66% were actively looking for a to-to provider) and 77% were using multiple providers to get what they needed.

What consumers want is more choice, clearer information, and a solution they can trust to be secure and reliable. Whoever cracks this has the chance to attract and retain a significant share of customers cross-border payments, the report said.

Choosing who to make a cross-border payment with can be overwhelming for consumers. So, when 71% say that they would like more guidance to better understand when and how to use different payment options, its a clear call for banks and fintechs to offer this: guidance from a trusted source is missing in the market.

Lastly, it is also worth noting that 66% said that when they find a payment option that works they will stick with it  and even more so in Australia with the figure at 77%.

This is where banks and fintechs can step up to be the provider of choice for secure cross-border transactions that consumers want. One that provides guidance, security, and a seamless, reliable service wherever they are paying to and from in the world.

Cross-border payments. Bank of England (2023, January 31) https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payment-and-settlement/cross-border-payments
Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, has announced its strategic collaboration with LogicMonitor, a leading SaaS-based hybrid observability platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI). By combining Infosys AIOps Insights, part of Infosys Cobalt cloud offering, with LogicMonitor's Edwin AI, the collaboration seeks to enhance the observability of IT operations, improving performance, reliability and customer experience across complex systems.

Together, these offerings of Infosys and LogicMonitor aim to reduce problem diagnosis and resolution time by up to 30%, minimise redundant alerts by up to 70% and provide comprehensive visibility across IT environments. They also deliver persona-based insights, improving forecasting and empowering proactive IT resolutions and business decisions.

Michael Tarbet, global vice president, MSP and channel, LogicMonitor, said, "As enterprises navigate increasingly complex IT environments that span on-premises, multi-cloud, and critical devices, the need for a unified, hybrid observability platform powered by AI has never been greater. Through our collaboration with Infosys, we aim to address these challenges and deliver transformative observability solutions to global enterprises. By integrating LogicMonitor's Edwin AI with Infosys' AIOps Insights, we are helping enterprises achieve operational excellence, reduce costs, and ensure IT resilience."

Patrick Atkins, director, IT operations, Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc, said, "We are pleased with the progress we are making with the LogicMonitor platform. By increasing proactive issue detection capabilities and noise reduction by 40 per cent, we have minimised downtime and improved overall operational efficiency, directly impacting business continuity and performance. Infosys' commitment to driving these improvements is instrumental in strengthening our IT ecosystem, and we look forward to further advancements that support our journey toward operational excellence and sustained stability."

Anant Adya, executive vice president and service offering head, Infosys, said, "We are proud to collaborate with LogicMonitor to redefine the observability landscape. With our expertise in AI-driven insights and proven methodologies leveraging Infosys Cobalt, this alliance helps our customers make informed business decisions while unlocking innovation across the ecosystem. Together, we are equipping enterprises with the tools they need to stay ahead in an increasingly complex IT environment."

About LogicMonitor

LogicMonitor offers hybrid observability powered by AI. The company's SaaS-based platform, LM Envision, enables observability across on-prem and multi-cloud environments. A Visionary on the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability, LogicMonitor provides IT and business teams operational visibility and predictability across their technologies and applications to focus less on troubleshooting and more on delivering extraordinary employee and customer experiences. For more information, visit www.logicmonitor.com and our blog, or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and YouTube.

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 300,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses and communities. We enable clients in more than 56 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organisation where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.
GUEST OPINION: In forex trading, milliseconds can mean the difference between a profitable trade and a missed opportunity. As the global markets move faster and competition intensifies, serious traders are turning to purpose-built hosting environments to gain a technological edge.

Among the most impactful upgrades is the transition to low-latency VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting  a solution designed specifically for minimizing delays in order execution.

One provider that's gained attention among professional and retail traders alike is NYCServers Forex VPS. Built to serve latency-sensitive strategies, their infrastructure places trading servers within financial-grade data centers like LD4 (London), NY4 (New York), and TY3 (Tokyo)  offering traders direct connectivity to leading broker platforms.

But why does latency matter so much in forex? And how exactly does a well-configured VPS improve trading outcomes?

The Latency Factor in Forex Trading

Latency, in this context, refers to the time it takes for a trading command (like opening or closing a position) to travel from your terminal to your brokers server and back. While home internet setups can introduce delays ranging from 50 to 150 milliseconds or more, a low-latency VPS positioned near your broker's data centre can reduce this round-trip time to less than 2 milliseconds.

For discretionary traders, this speed can help ensure that market orders execute at the expected price, especially during volatile news events. For algorithmic traders and scalpers, the benefit is even more significant. Automated strategies often rely on executing trades in tight windows where a delay of even a few milliseconds could result in price slippage, failed fills, or missed entries altogether.

Why Retail Traders Are Moving to VPS Hosting

Retail traders have historically relied on personal devices and home networks to manage trades. But as algorithmic strategies have become more accessible  and brokers have begun to offer ultra-tight spreads and faster feeds  the infrastructure gap between amateur and professional traders has narrowed. A reliable VPS effectively levels the playing field.

With services like NYCServers Forex VPS, traders can launch a ready-to-trade server preloaded with MetaTrader 4 or 5, cTrader, or other platforms  all within a few clicks. This not only eliminates common issues like local device crashes or power outages but also enables 24/7 uptime for EAs and trade copiers, ensuring execution even when the trader is offline.

Broker Proximity and Direct Connectivity

Another key advantage of low-latency VPS hosting lies in its geographic and network-level proximity to major broker servers. Most institutional-grade forex brokers host their trading infrastructure in a small number of data centers  notably Equinixs LD4 in London, NY4 in New Jersey, and TY3 in Tokyo.

By deploying VPS instances inside these same facilities or on peering networks with direct cross-connects, services like NYCServers Forex VPS can offer average execution times of less than 1 millisecond to brokers like IC Markets, Axi, Eightcap, and others. This setup drastically reduces the chances of slippage and improves order fill accuracy.

The Infrastructure Behind Low-Latency Trading

Not all VPS providers are created equal. While many hosting companies offer generic VPS plans, trading-specific services like NYCServers build infrastructure optimised for the forex ecosystem. Their use of high-frequency trading-grade CPUs, NVMe SSD storage, and low-oversubscription resource allocation ensures consistent performance even during peak market hours.

Some platforms also offer advanced tools such as latency monitoring dashboards, broker ping tests, and integrated support for MT4/MT5 recovery bots. This transparency and trader-focused tooling gives users more control over their strategy's performance environment  something traditional web hosts rarely provide.

Cost vs. Performance Trade-Offs

Some traders hesitate to invest in a VPS, viewing it as an unnecessary expense. But when put in the context of trading performance, the return on investment is often clear. A single avoided slippage event or improved EA entry point can offset the monthly cost of a VPS. For traders operating at scale or using capital-sensitive strategies, the gains in consistency, speed, and reliability can significantly impact long-term profitability.

In fact, some brokers have begun subsidising VPS hosting for high-volume clients  a recognition of how crucial infrastructure has become in achieving favourable execution conditions.

The Future of Infrastructure-Driven Trading

As the forex landscape continues to evolve, execution infrastructure will only grow in importance. With the rise of latency arbitrage, smart order routing, and increasingly complex algorithmic strategies, having a fast, stable, and broker-optimised VPS isnt just an advantage  its becoming a requirement.

For traders who take performance seriously, aligning their infrastructure with their trading goals is one of the highest-leverage decisions they can make. Whether it's for eliminating downtime, reducing slippage, or enabling around-the-clock automation, low-latency hosting offers a clear path to more efficient execution.

And as more brokers and fintech platforms embrace this model, solutions like NYCServers Forex VPS will likely play a central role in powering the next generation of trading setups.
GUEST OPINION: Imagine stepping into a classroom where students design prosthetic limbs, build custom drones, and prototype solutions to global water shortagesall before earning their diploma. This isnt a science fiction future. Its now. And its becoming the new normal.

Weve long treated the future like something distant and out of reach. A horizon we hope to arrive at if we wait patiently or work hard enough. But thats the old script. In reality, the future doesnt show upit gets built. Line by line, layer by layer, with minds that question what is and dare to imagine what could be.

Todays most significant tech innovations arent accidental breakthroughs. Theyre the result of deliberate experimentation, open collaboration, and a reshaping of how we think about education, work, and innovation. And one of the clearest signs of this shift? The rise of hands-on technologies like 3D printing in learning environments once defined by textbooks and theory. This isnt just about cool gadgets or niche disciplines. Its about an entire generation learning not to find the future, but to engineer it.

The Limits We Inherited

For decades, education followed a blueprint: memorise, test, repeat. Creativity was a luxury, reserved for art classes and extracurriculars. Engineering students sat through theory-heavy lectures with little real-world context, while future designers were rarely exposed to the mechanics behind their tools. We told students to think outside the box, then handed them a very rigid one.

But that framework is cracking. It no longer holds up against the pace of change or the type of innovation industries demand. The days when theory alone could prepare someone for a role in advanced manufacturing or tech-driven industries are over.

Across leading universities and forward-thinking institutions, a new model is taking shape. One where hands-on design labs replace standard classrooms, and projects arent just hypotheticaltheyre built, tested, and refined using machines previously reserved for R&D departments and production floors. Students now graduate having created real-world solutions, not just studied them. Theyre learning to iterate like engineers and think like entrepreneurs.

One of the most transformative tools in this evolution? Additive manufacturingmore commonly known as 3D printing. Once a niche process used by high-tech industries, its now entering middle schools, universities, and maker spaces across the globe. Students arent just learning about concepts like tolerances or product testingtheyre printing and holding them in their hands.

At the centre of this shift is the growth of industrial 3d printing. Once siloed within aerospace and medical manufacturing, these advanced systems are becoming more accessible, empowering students to think on a larger scale and prototype for real-world applications. Its no longer about what if? Its about why not?

Shifting from Knowledge to Capability

This shift isnt just about machines or curriculum changes. It reflects a deeper cultural reframe: the move from consumption to creation. Instead of asking students to memorise answers, were challenging them to design new questions.

Whats emerging is an innovation-first mindsetone where education doesnt end at understanding; it begins at application. Tech labs on campuses are no longer just places for extra credittheyre the heartbeat of next-gen thinking. With access to professional-grade software and rapid prototyping tools, students are inventing sustainable housing models, creating custom prosthetics for underserved communities, and even building parts for NASA competitions.

These aren't isolated stories. Theyre becoming the norm. Were witnessing a cross-disciplinary fusion where engineers study design thinking, and artists explore digital fabrication. Its breaking down silos and replacing the traditional career path with a far more flexible, adaptive trajectory.

And it goes beyond engineering. Business students now collaborate with coders and designers to pitch market-ready tech products. Future healthcare professionals train with 3D-printed organs. Architecture students use additive manufacturing to reimagine disaster relief structures. Its not just about skills anymoreits about systems thinking, creative problem-solving, and agile execution.

Because the true power of tech innovations isnt in the toolsits in the hands that wield them. And the next generation is proving that, given the chance, theyll rewire every sector they enter.

The Hidden Infrastructure: A Broader View

Heres a truth that often goes unnoticed: the future isnt just shaped by the inventorsits also powered by the builders behind the scenes.

For every new piece of hardware on the market, there are thousands of lines of code, systems engineers, cybersecurity specialists, and IT pros who ensure those innovations actually function in the real world. As 3D printing and other hands-on technologies become more integrated into education and industry, so too does the need for a robust technological backbone.

Thats where smart, strategic learning paths come in. Programs designed to create not just engineers, but also the architects of our digital infrastructure. For those drawn to this world of behind-the-scenes innovation, todays best IT degree programs offer more than theorythey teach the systems thinking, cybersecurity awareness, and adaptive skills that power modern innovation.

Whether its managing networks for smart factories, securing supply chains for additive manufacturing, or creating the software that drives automation, IT professionals are the connective tissue of the future were building. And that future needs more of them.

Build Whats Next

The idea that the future will take care of itself was never true. And clinging to that belief holds us back. The most exciting opportunities today arent being handed outtheyre being engineered by people who question limits and build toward possibilities.

From classrooms filled with 3D printers to career paths that blur the lines between disciplines, the next chapter isnt being written by chance. Its being builtdeliberately, creatively, and with relentless curiosity.

So the next time you hear someone say the future is coming, ask a better question: What are we doing to build it?

Because its not enough to dream of whats next. We have the tools. We have the minds. Now we engineer.
Craig Searle, director, consulting and professional services (Pacific) and global leader of cyber advisory, Trustwave, said, This report couldnt come at a more critical time for Australian hospitality operators. Cybercriminals now operate like businesses. They collaborate, specialise, and focus on return on investment. We have seen ransomware groups, like Akira and Conti affiliates, target Australian hospitality brands by exploiting third-party vendors and stolen credentials. Recent incidents involving TFE Hotels and the Fullerton Hotel Sydney show how attackers can cause widespread disruption when systems lack visibility, monitoring, or real-time response.

Compared to global trends, Australias regulatory framework emphasises stricter penalties for privacy violations and expanded oversight of third-party vendors, yet the sector remains a prime target for ransomware groups with hospitality environments creating ideal conditions for attackers. Hospitality teams focus on delivering quick, seamless guest experiences, which can lead to gaps in security awareness. Cybercriminals exploit that mindset using fake booking messages, vendor impersonation, or urgent requests to get around defences.

The hospitality sector, long focused on digital transformation to enhance guest experiences, now faces a rapidly evolving threat landscape. The new report uncovers how threat actors are leveraging advanced tactics, cooperative fraud schemes, and underground marketplaces to target hotels, restaurants, and casinos.

Key findings include:

Professionalisation and collaboration among threat actors: cybercriminals are mirroring legitimate industry practices, sharing knowledge, and coordinating attacks through dark web forums, encrypted messaging channels, and private marketplaces.



Deep access and system manipulation: once inside hospitality networks, attackers can manipulate property management systems, payment platforms, and guest communications, enabling sophisticated fraud, data theft, and operational disruption.



Fraudulent booking platforms and dark web travel agencies: SpiderLabs research exposes illicit booking services and travel agencies on the dark web, offering discounted stays and services using stolen payment credentials and compromised loyalty accounts.



Casino and restaurant fraud: the report details how attackers exploit point-of-sale (POS) systems and property management platforms to orchestrate chargeback scams and build entire illicit casino operations.



Actionable security recommendations: the report provides practical guidance for hospitality businesses to strengthen defences, detect fraud, and mitigate risk across digital and physical operations.

Craig Searle said, The hospitality industrys cybersecurity posture is approaching an inflexion point. Businesses are increasingly having to balance cost pressures in a challenging economical environment, while balancing technological innovation with escalating threats. Australias regulatory reforms, including heightened penalties and critical infrastructure protections, provide a framework for resilience, yet enforcement gaps will remain. These enforcement gaps pose the risk of legitimising poor behaviours from a cybersecurity perspective since there is little disincentive otherwise.

From an attackers perspective ransomware attacks continue to represent the best value-for-money strategy and so it is expected they will continue to grow in frequency over time. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve at a rapid rate the breadth of delivery channels, such as email, SMS, and social media, for the initial compromise attempt is expected to increase as well as the reliability and believability of that content when delivered. Ultimately, this will increase the likelihood of successful attacks against Australian hospitality businesses unless further investment is made in improving preventative capabilities such as managed detection and response, email protection, and employee awareness training.

Kory Daniels, CISO, Trustwave, said, The hospitality industrys rapid digital transformation has created new opportunities for both innovation and exploitation. Our latest threat report demonstrates that cybercriminals aren't just keeping pace with that transformation, but surpassing it by collaborating and industrialising their operations. Trustwave is committed to helping hospitality organisations stay ahead of these threats with actionable intelligence and world-class security solutions.



Trustwave SpiderLabs 2025 research series on the hospitality vertical includes:

To access this years research, please click here for the full hospitality series.

About Trustwave

Trustwave is a globally recognised cybersecurity leader that reduces cyber risk and fortifies organisations against disruptive and damaging cyber threats.
Companies plan to embrace automation to streamline processes, increase efficiency, and help bridge the skills divide to combat the talent shortage in the current labour market. Positively, workers dont see automation as a threat, but as an opportunity to upskill and enhance their career prospects.

Why employers plan to automate in 2025

When asked about the impact of automation on their teams, the overwhelming majority (84%) of employers plan to either reskill or upskill their workforce to adapt to automation (49%) or hire new staff who already hold artificial intelligence (AI) or automation skills (35%). Around two in five employers (39%) plan to review their workforce as they introduce automation, which may lead to some roles being phased out due to changes in the nature and scope of work.

Employers are focused on building a future-ready workforce, and successful adaptation, by both organisations and employees, is key to making that happen. Organisations that invest in developing their teams skills to navigate automation and digital transformation are best positioned to stay competitive. For professionals in roles centred on manual tasks, such as data entry, scheduling, or document processing should prioritise upskilling to futureproof their career and increase their market value, says Gorton.

Only 4% of employers have no immediate plans to automate processes while 13% of employers are considering automation but have not finalised their plans.

When asked about their reasons to automate, employers were largely driven by the productivity and efficiency benefits that automation could bring.

Reasons to automate processes in 2025 % of employers who intend to do so

Increase efficiency and/or productivity 55%

Bridge the gap of skilled professionals not being available in the labour market 46%

Save costs 44%

Shift more resources to strategic initiatives 43%

Reduce human error 39%

Independent survey commissioned by Robert Half among 500 employers in Australia.

Unlike the perception, automation is not just about cutting costs, Gorton says. It's about optimising resources, reducing errors, and freeing up employees to focus on more strategic and fulfilling work. Embracing automation allows companies to create a more efficient and productive work environment, while also providing opportunities for employees to develop new skills and advance their careers.

Why workers are optimistic about automation

When employees were asked what impact they think automation would have on their job and career prospects, they were overwhelmingly positive.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of workers state that automation would have a positive impact, as it would create greater demand for their skills and improve their career outlook. About a quarter (26%) believe automation would have no impact on their job or career prospects. Only 11% of workers say automation would negatively impact their career because it could make their role and skills obsolete.

Workers also expressed a willingness to adapt to the introduction of automated processes. When asked what they would do if their job became partially automated, and their employer asked them to change roles and learn new skills, 60% of workers would participate in training to reskill into a new role with their current employer. However, 14% of workers would look for a different role with their current employer, while 19% of workers would look for a new job at a different employer.

Employees today are willing to join their employer on the journey to automation, Gorton says. The key takeaway for businesses is to proactively invest in reskilling and upskilling initiatives to ensure their workforce is equipped to thrive in an automated future. Not only will this provide employers with the skilled workers it needs but those that invest in their employees development and provide opportunities for reskilling will also be rewarded with a loyal and engaged workforce.
[Provisional translation]

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On May 21, 2025, Prime Minister Ishiba held a summit meeting with H.E. Mr. Santiago PENA PALACIOS, President of the Republic of Paraguay, at the Prime Ministers Office.Following a salute and guard of honor ceremony, the two leaders held a summit meeting, which was followed by a document signing and exchange ceremony and a joint press occasion. The day concluded with a working dinner.
[Provisional translation]

On May 22, commencing at 4:05 p.m. Mr. ISHIBA Shigeru, Prime Minister of Japan, held a meeting with H.E. Dr. Tamas Sulyok, President of Hungary, who is visiting Japan to participate in the National Day Event of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, for approximately 45 minutes.

At the outset, Prime Minister Ishiba welcomed President Sulyoks visit to Japan on the occasion of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Prime Minister Ishiba also expressed his intention to strengthen coordination with Hungry to maintain and strengthen the free and open international order based on the rule of law.

In response, President Sulyok stated that he would like to continue to strengthen cooperation in various fields to further develop the friendly relations between the two countries, which have continued for 156 years, mentioning that the Consulate of Hungary in Osaka was established.

In addition, Prime Minister Ishiba and President Sulyok exchanged views on the current situation and policies of both countries towards declining birthrate and regional revitalization.
(Photo by Takahiro Takiguchi)



Every year, thousands of hikers make the grueling trek for a view unlike any other atop Japans iconic Mt. Fuji. This year, however, hikers will have to pay a higher admission fee to hit the trails of this majestic UNESCO site.

Starting with this years hiking season (July through September), Fujis four main trails (Subashiri, Gotemba and Fujinomiya Trails in Shizuoka Pref. and Yoshida Trail in Yamanashi Pref.) will require a 4,000-yen admission fee per hiker and restrict overnight hiking by closing entry between 2 p.m. and 3 a.m. In addition, Yamanashi will also continue to impose a daily 4,000-hiker limit.

The admission fee and restrictions come as both prefectures aim to limit congestion and environmental impact on the mountain, officials said.

(Photo by Yosuke Tsuji)

(Photo by Yosuke Tsuji)

(Photo by Yosuke Tsuji)

(Photo by Takahiro Takiguchi)



Last year, only Yamanashi had a 2,000-yen admission fee, a daily limit on hikers, and a gate to restrict overnight hikers.

According to Japans National Environment Ministry, Yamanashis restrictions on the Yoshida Trail decreased the number of climbers from 221,322 in 2023 to 204,316 in 2024. Due to the success, Shizuoka decided to follow suit this year, but without a daily limit on climbers.

If you plan to challenge yourself to climbing this 3,367-meter-tall goliath, make sure to prepare in advance and follow local rules and manners.

For more information, visit https://fujisan-climb.jp/en/for-every-climber.html or call the Mt. Fuji World Heritage Divisions at 054-221-3746 (Shizuoka Pref.) or 055-223-1315 (Yamanashi Pref).
A week after a proposed law seeking to limit future increases to Nebraska's minimum wage failed to clear the final hurdle in the Legislature, lawmakers took a rare vote Thursday to give the bill a second chance.

But that second chance is unlikely to come until next year.

After lawmakers voted Thursday to reconsider last week's failed final vote on Lincoln Sen. Jane Raybould's bill, Speaker John Arch of La Vista, who sets the Legislature's agenda, said he would not schedule the bill's second-chance vote in the remaining days of this year's legislative session.

"I think it's a matter of fairness," Arch told reporters Thursday morning at the Capitol, pointing to nearly a dozen other priority bills that won't be considered this year with only six working days left in the 90-day session.

"I mean, (we're) just flat out of time," he said. "They haven't even had one round of votes, let alone two rounds of votes. And so I think in fairness to those that have not been able to get on the floor, it's not appropriate to bring a bill back for a (second) vote."

Arch's decision to leave Raybould's bill (LB259) off the agenda for the remainder of the session means the bill won't be rescheduled for debate until January.

Raybould could still feasibly seek to attach the bill to another as an amendment yet this year, a route that she acknowledged Thursday she is considering.

But for now, the bill appears to be on hold until 2026  thanks largely to last week's blundered final-round vote in which Raybould's bill failed because one supporter, Sen. Tony Sorrentino of Elkhorn, wasn't in the room when lawmakers cast their votes.

Arch's decision marks a temporary win for progressive lawmakers who had for months fought against Raybould's measure, which would limit future cost-of-living increases to Nebraska's minimum wage that voters initiated in 2022 when they backed a ballot measure to gradually raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour next January and with a cost-of-living each year after.

Raybould's proposal would replace those cost-of-living increases with a 1.75% annual bump each year beginning in 2027. The bill (LB258) would also allow businesses to pay children younger than 16 less than the minimum wage.

The 1.75% annual raise would increase Nebraska's minimum wage by 26 to 30 cents annually for its first eight years in effect. Under the bill, the state's minimum wage would surpass $16 an hour in 2031 and breach $17 per hour in 2035.

The proposed law seemed set to sail to Gov. Jim Pillen's desk last week with the exact number of votes  33 out of Nebraska's 49 lawmakers  that it needed to alter the voter-approved minimum wage law.

Instead, Democratic opponents of the measure realized Sorrentino wasn't in the room and forced a vote far sooner than supporters had expected, seizing on Sorrentino's absence and halting the bill.

Sorrentino told the Journal Star last week he had been out of the building for a meeting at the time, but numerous lobbyists reported seeing him in the Capitol moments prior to the vote. Amid debate Thursday, Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt accused Sorrentino of being in the building's cafeteria when he missed the vote.

As it became clear last week the bill would fail, Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln, a Republican supporter of Raybould's bill, voted against the bill so he could file a reconsider motion in a move that was initially thought to violate the Legislature's rules.

But Arch and legislative staff combed the body's rulebook and archives this week and found that the rules don't explicitly prevent bills that fail on final reading from being reconsidered  though it hasn't happened since 1984.

Amid debate Thursday, opponents of the measure accused Raybould, a Democrat who co-owns the parent company of Russ's Market and Super Saver, and her Republican allies of bending, if not breaking, the Legislature's rules to revive the bill based on scant precedent in a move they called "shameful."

"Proponents of this measure lost fair and square, and now they want a do-over because you are arrogant and you couldn't be bothered to be in the chamber to listen to debate and cast your vote," Hunt said, referring to Sorrentino, who did not speak during debate Thursday.

Raybould and the bill's supporters, though, pushed back against those criticisms.

"Just because the rules aren't exactly clear on this reconsider vote doesn't mean we can't reconsider it," Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair said. "I think it's totally within our purview."

Ballard, the lawmaker who filed the reconsider motion that lawmakers approved Thursday, called it "the right thing to do."

Lawmakers voted largely along party lines to approve the reconsideration motion on a 33-16 vote. Raybould joined 32 Republicans in support of the motion, while Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont was the only conservative to vote against it.

Still, Arch's refusal to schedule a second final-round vote for the bill this year marks at least a temporary win for progressives, who had argued LB258 undermines the will of Nebraska voters, nearly 60% of whom voted to enact the minimum wage increases in 2022.

But Raybould, who argued that the bill strikes a balance between the voters' will and the needs of struggling small businesses, didn't rule out the bill's revival in the waning days of this year's session.

"We're looking at all kinds of options  within the rules," she said.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed the states $11.1 billion biennial budget into law Wednesday night with vetoes to four line items, but those objections may not stand after his staff returned the bill to the wrong office.

The governors office did not deliver the marked-up budget bills to the Legislature as required by the Nebraska State Constitution, instead dropping them off at the Secretary of State's office just ahead of the deadline.

With no vetoed bills in its possession on Thursday, the Legislature adjourned for a long holiday weekend with a balanced budget and no immediate plans to attempt any overrides in the waning days of the session.

The Legislature was not in receipt of the actual bills with those line-item vetoes until this morning, Speaker John Arch announced just before adjournment, which we believe is outside of the constitutional five-day deadline for receipt of gubernatorial vetoes.

As such, we do not believe we can accept these vetoes, the speaker added.

The stunning conclusion at the end of Day 84 began as a slow burn Thursday morning.

Gubernatorial vetoes are typically read aloud to state senators as soon as they are received by the clerk of the Legislature.

That did not happen as expected when the Legislature convened Thursday morning, despite Pillens office emailing the veto letter to senators and media at about 11:20 p.m. Wednesday night.

As morning became afternoon and the Legislature had nearly completed the work outlined on its agenda, Pillens veto message still had not been read, leaving many in the Capitol puzzled.

Arch and Clerk Brandon Metzler were noticeably absent for long stretches of floor debate Thursday. When asked about the situation early in the afternoon, the La Vista lawmaker responded plainly: Were still working through it.

Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, the chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said he was aware the budget vetoes may have been delivered too late, but indicated he was also awaiting more news.

According to a letter from Clerk of the Legislature Brandon Metzler, the two budget bills  LB261, the main appropriations bill, and LB264, the bill transferring funds from the cash reserve  were passed by the Legislature and delivered to Pillen on May 15.

Pillen signed the bills on May 21 with his line-item vetoes, but they were delivered to the Secretary of States office before 5 p.m.

On May 22, 2025, at 12:01 a.m., the signed bills were in the possession of the Secretary of State, Metzlers letter states.

Staff members from Pillens office retrieved the bills Thursday morning and delivered them  signed by Pillen with a stamp of receipt dated May 21, 2025, from the Secretary of States office  to the Legislature.

In light of the aforementioned considerations, the Legislature is hereby remitting these bills to the Governors Office pending further determination regarding the constitutionality of the present circumstances, Metzlers letter concludes.

A spokeswoman for Pillen, who was in Washington, D.C. at an event with President Donald Trump on Thursday, said the governor signed LB261 and LB264 shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and handed them off to the Secretary of State  which serves as the repository for bills that pass the Legislature.

Following past practice, the governor's office also made copies of the parts of the budget bills that were vetoed and delivered them to the clerk's office on Wednesday evening, communications director Laura Strimple said.

"Through this process, the Governor clearly took the legally required steps to exercise his veto authority by surrendering physical possession and the power to approve or reject the bills," Strimple said in a statement Thursday evening.

While the copies of the line-items were in possession of the clerk's office, the actual bills themselves remained with the Secretary of State's office overnight until governor's staff dropped them off Thursday morning.

The governor's office said the Legislature had created an "impasse" over not taking up the veto overrides and indicated it was consulting with Attorney General Mike Hilgers "and other outside counsel" on its next steps.

Several members of the Legislature, including registered Republicans in the officially nonpartisan unicameral body, breathed a sigh of relief at not having to muster 30 votes to override Pillens line-item vetoes.

Clements struck a more measured tone, indicating there still could be a challenge made to determine whether or not the constitutional process was followed.

Well have to wait and see if theres other determinations that come forward, Clements said, but at this time, Im not taking any action differently than what was read in the letter.

In the letter outlining the items in the budget he intended to cut, Pillen chided the Legislature for failing to pass a bill (LB170) earlier this week that would have added roughly $100 million more to the states property tax relief fund.

LB170 would have levied a sales tax on pop and other sugary drinks, ended the sales tax exemption on 18 services like pool cleaning, pet grooming, and piano lessons, and raised taxes on nicotine products, but the omnibus spending bill failed to gather enough votes to evade a filibuster.

Fortunately, due to our hard work controlling spending, property tax increases will be minimal due to our enhancement of existing property tax relief programs within the budget, Pillen wrote. The Legislature has missed an opportunity; however, to do more, and I will continue to work to deliver the tax relief Nebraskans deserve.

The four items Pillen had indicated he wanted to strike from the states spending plan were necessary to honor our commitment to fiscal restraint.

The largest reduction targeted an $18 million appropriation of cash funds for recreational upgrades at Lake McConaughy in Keith County.

Pillen said the scope of the project continues to shift and deserves further discussion, including about whether or not revenues generated through a new casino set to open near Ogallala should be used.

Sen. Paul Strommen of Sidney, whose District 47 includes Lake McConaughy and Keith County, who earlier on Thursday anticipated having to try and whip up votes to reinsert the lake project into the budget, shared in the relief that was no longer necessary.

I think everybody in Keith County is happy about that, he said.

The second-largest reduction would have come from an appropriation to the Nebraska Supreme Court, lowering its funding by $4.1 million this year and $7.8 million next year.

The governor said the reductions would have brought the states court system in line with the 0625% and 1.25% increase granted to the University of Nebraska over the next two years.

"Every branch of government must contribute to balancing our budget," Pillen said. "By comparison, my office was held flat, and the Legislature was held to less than 1% growth, but the Judicial Branch was approved a 2.7% increase in the first year of the biennium and a 4.8% increase in the second year."

Pillen said spending by the courts has grown by 36% over the past five years.

The vetoes also include $168,903 this year and $343,069 next year from the State Fire Marshal's salary and health insurance premium increases. Pillen said the agency has "sufficient funding" to accommodate the increases in its current budget.

A $1 million general fund appropriation to the state's public health departments for each of the next two years was also included in Pillens veto letter. The $1 million was put into the budget by the Appropriations Committee after Pillen had initially reduced funding to the public health departments by $4.5 million.

"The purpose of this line-item veto is simple: the COVID-19 pandemic is over, and the government public health apparatus that grew to address it must be shrunk to its pre-pandemic size," Pillen said.

In the closing to his letter, the governor urged the Legislature to exercise common sense in upholding his vetoes as the session comes to a close, but whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.
(Image: WikiCommons)



Air Busan will resume operations at Ulsan Airport on July 11, marking its return after a three-year, four-month hiatus since its withdrawal in March 2022.

The carrier will restart its UlsanJeju route with two round-trip flights daily.

This move comes as part of the conditions imposed by the Fair Trade Commission following the finalized merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines in December 2023. Air Busan will operate at 90% of its 2019 seat capacity on the route and is expected to maintain service for the next 10 years.

Flights will begin with BX8301 departing Ulsan at 11:20 a.m. on July 11. Tickets go on sale starting May 21 at 9:00 a.m.

Ulsan to Jeju: BX8301 (11:2012:35), BX8305 (18:1019:20)

Jeju to Ulsan: BX8300 (09:2010:30), BX8304 (16:2017:30)

With Air Busans return, Ulsan Airport will operate a total of seven round-trip flights daily, including three to Gimpo and four to Jeju, shared among Air Busan, Korean Air, and Jin Air.
(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Planning a trip to Korea? Just remember one name: Trip.PASS. From the moment you arrive at the airport and take public transportation, everything you needpayments, taxi hailing, ID verification, tax refunds, and discounts at major attractionscan be handled with a single card. Trip.PASS is an all-in-one prepaid card that you can easily top up with your phone, making your travel simple and stress-free.

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(Visit Korea)



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All-in-one Card, Trip.PASS

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Trip.PASS is an all-in-one rechargeable prepaid card for international travelers visiting Korea. Your passport and smartphone are all you need to register and use its benefits! While there are various cards for foreigners in Korea, Trip.PASS, developed by LORDSYSTEM, is truly another level. It goes beyond a simple transit card, offering innovative features as a mobile passport-based financial and tourism platform. You can use it for payments, public transport, taxi hailing, mobile ID verification, and mobile tax refunds. Plus, enjoy discounts at popular tourist destinations frequented by international visitors.

What makes Trip.PASS so special?

Unlike other foreigner-only cards that offer a single function like transportation or payments, Trip.PASS is your reliable travel companion for every step of your journey in Korea. Heres what sets Trip.PASS apart with next-level features:

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Mobile Passport Feature The Trip.PASS app takes the hassle out of carryingand possibly losingyour physical passport. Register your passport in the app to generate a QR code-based mobile passport, which allows you to easily verify your identity at duty-free shops and claim tax refunds.

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Transit Card Feature The Trip.PASS card functions as a transit card for foreigners, compatible with all major transportation in Korea, including subways, buses, taxis, and KTX. It can be easily topped up using international credit cards, at convenience stores, or kiosks. Once your passport is linked, age-based fares are automatically applied.

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Taxi Hailing Service Mobility apps in Korea often require complicated sign-up processes for foreigners. The Trip.PASS app integrates the i.M taxi hailing service, allowing you to call a taxi instantly without any additional registration or verification.

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



Exclusive Spending Limit in Korea While most anonymous prepaid cards limited in maximum deposit in the range of 500,000-1,000,000 won, Trip.PASS, however, offers a spending limit of up to 2,000,000 wonthe only card in Korea that doesthanks to its user-authenticated debit card system. You can use it anywhere in Korea that accepts card payments, with no need to carry or switch between multiple cards.

(Credit: LORDSYSTEM)



User-Friendly Features Trip.PASS is designed with traveler convenience in mind, offering a range of user-friendly services:

 Check your spending and transit history in real time through the app.

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Quick Comparison

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* This column was last updated in May 2025, and therefore information may differ from what is presented here. We advise you to check for updates before visiting.

COPYRIGHTS KOREA TOURISM ORGANIZATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED www.visitkorea.or.kr
China releases plan to protect rivers, lakes

Xinhua) 09:45, May 22, 2025

BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China has unveiled an action plan to protect and create beautiful rivers and lakes from 2025 to 2027, with a focus on improving the quality of aquatic ecosystems.

The plan, jointly released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other government organs on Wednesday, set the goals of achieving notable progress in creating beautiful rivers and lakes by 2030 and completing the initiative by 2035.

The plan aims to promote targeted, science-based, and lawful pollution control, coordinate the management of water resources, aquatic environments, and water ecologies, and build an integrated ecological governance system across upstream and downstream areas in key river basins to improve the health of aquatic ecosystems.

A total of 2,573 water bodies have been included in the national list for protecting and creating beautiful rivers and lakes, covering major river trunks, key tributaries, and important lakes and reservoirs with critical ecological functions, fragile environments, or significant public interest.

The plan outlines 19 specific measures, focusing on consolidating and deepening water environment management, guaranteeing basic ecological water use, and comprehensively advancing protection and construction efforts.

(Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun)
Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations yesterday [Macau time] that the countrys leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations.

Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmothers religious beliefs, fled the North during the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the General Assembly that three of her friends were executed  two for watching South Korean TV dramas.

At the high-level meeting of the 193-member world body, the two women, both now living in South Korea, described the plight of North Koreans who U.N. special investigator Elizabeth Salmon said have been living in absolute isolation since the pandemic began in early 2020.

Thousands of North Koreans have fled the country since the late 1990s, but the numbers have dwindled drastically in recent years.

Salmon said North Koreas closure of its borders worsened an already dire human rights situation, with new laws enacted since 2020 and stricter punishments, including the death penalty and public executions.

In another rights issue, she said, the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine has raised concerns about the poor human rights conditions of its soldiers while in service, and the governments widespread exploitation of its own people.

The Norths extreme militarization enables it to keep the population under surveillance and it exploits the work force through a state-controlled system that finances its expanding nuclear program and military ventures, Salmon said.

North Koreas U.N. Ambassador Kim Song called the allegations that his country violates human rights a burlesque of intrigue and fabrication and insisted that tens of millions of North Koreans enjoy human rights under the countrys socialist system. He accused the West of being the bigger violator, through racial discrimination, human trafficking and sexual slavery.

But the two defectors and human rights defenders detailed numerous abuses.

Kim, who said her father died of starvation, told U.N. diplomats that after making it to China across the Tumen River the first time, she, her mother and sister were sold for the equivalent of less than $300 to a Chinese man. Three years later, they were arrested and sent back to the North. In 2002, they escaped again across the river.

Kang, who was banished to the countryside as a 5-year-old because of her grandmothers religious beliefs, said she became the owner of a 10-meter wooden fishing boat and escaped on it in October 2023 with her mother and aunt.

She said she was lucky to have access to information about the outside world and to have been given a USB with South Korean TV dramas, which she said she found so refreshing and more credible than North Korea state propaganda, though she knew being caught could mean death.

Three of my friends were executed, two of them in public for distributing South Korean dramas, Kang said. One of them was only 19 years old.  It was as if they were guilty of heinous crimes.

She expressed hope that her speech would awaken the North Korean people and help them to point in the direction of freedom.

Kim accused North Korea of sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine without them knowing where they were going and using them as cannon fodder to make money.

This is a new and unacceptable form of human trafficking, she said.

Kim called for the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, to be investigated and held accountable by the International Criminal Court.

Addressing the worlds nations, she said: Silence is complicity. Stand firm against the regimes systematic atrocities.

Sean Chung, head of Han Voice, who spoke on behalf of a global coalition of 28 civil society organizations, called on China and all other countries to end forced repatriations to North Korea.

He called on U.N. member nations to urge the Security Council to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and to impose and enforce sanctions on every official and entity credibly found to be responsible for North Koreas atrocity crimes. EDITH M. LEDERER, UNITED NATIONS, MDT/AP
Lawmaker Cheung Kin Chung is calling on Macau to expand its relations with foreign countries and regions, following the expectations shared by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the Central Committee and the State Council.

In a spoken inquiry delivered at the Legislative Assembly earlier this week, Cheung highlighted Xias expectations, noting that Macaus openness and cooperation with the whole world remain a historical trend.

At the same time, the lawmaker noted that the the mutual benefits that can arise from such relationships continue to be of interest to local people.

Therefore, we should continue to broaden our openness to the outside world and embrace the world, expand the international friends circle, and support Macau to play its important role as a bridge in the opening up of the country [China] to the outside world, and make more efforts to integrate and serve for the sake of a good national situation, he said. RM
Lawmaker Nick Lei, referencing findings from last years Macau Mental Health Survey, which revealed that 27% of respondents experienced depression and 19% faced anxiety disorders, has urged the authorities to promptly launch a 24-hour online psychological counseling platform and hotline.

His written inquiry was submitted to the government in response to the recent increase in suicides and attempted suicides in Macau.

When it comes to residents lives, we cannot assess the severity of the situation based solely on data. The primary causes of suicide are linked to gambling or financial issues, mental illness, and chronic or physical diseases.

This matter concerns not only the mental and psychological health of residents but also the policies of the government across various sectors, which cannot be overlooked, he stated.

Lei acknowledged that mental health efforts in Macau still face significant challenges. He urged the government to take proactive measures, such as increasing the number of professional personnel, optimizing service networks, and raising public awareness through effective publicity, to comprehensively improve residents mental health.

Additionally, he emphasized that it is essential to strengthen the support system and encourage more individuals in need to actively seek help, thereby reducing the occurrence of tragedies.

With survey results indicating that over half of respondents experiencing emotional distress did not seek professional help due to busy lifestyles or a belief in their ability to cope on their own, Lei questioned the authorities about what measures are being taken to encourage those affected to actively seek support.

Additionally, Lei requested the government to clarify whether it plans to conduct a detailed assessment that combines suicide data, services, personnel, and service models.

He also sought an explanation of the mental health assessment indicators included in the Healthy Macao Blueprint, which address the formulation and updating of mental health policies and plans.
The Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) attended Web Summit Rio 2025 recently to explore the possibility of bringing the global technology conference to Macau, according to an official statement.

The 2025 edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, attracted over 34,000 attendees, including tech founders, investors, and executives.

This years summit focused on emerging tech trends such as AI, fintech, smart cities, and Web3 with global implications  some of which hold particular relevance for Macaus push toward economic diversification, smart city development, and digital transformation.

During the summit, IPIM representatives met with Web Summit co-founder Paddy Cosgrave, who recalled the positive impression Macau made during the F.ounders event in 2018.

Macaus world-class infrastructure for hosting MICE events and its strategic location within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area make it an ideal venue, Cosgrave said.

Following these discussions, the organizers expressed interest in conducting site inspections in Macau to further explore hosting possibilities.

Founded in Dublin in 2009, the Web Summit is currently held in Europe, Qatar, Rio de Janeiro, and Vancouver. The organizers plan to launch the first Asian edition in 2026, aiming to expand their global reach. NS
A Chinese mainland spokesperson called Taiwan leader Lai Ching-tes proposal of cross-Strait dialogue on equal terms a hypocritical gesture attempting to revive dialogue based on his new two states theory, Xinhua repoted.

Only by recognizing the fact that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China will cross-Strait dialogue and consultation have a basis to resume, said Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, when commenting on a speech made by Lai and his media interviews late Tuesday.

Lais recent remarks repeated his separatist stance and underlined his desire to achieve his aims by force and with the support of external actors, Chen said.

Lai has hyped the so-called mainland threat, incited cross-Strait confrontation and advanced economic decoupling measures, Chen added.

Only by ceasing separatist provocations can cross-Strait relations improve, and only through enhanced exchanges and cooperation can tension across the Strait ease, Chen said.

He reiterated that nothing Lai does can alter the fact that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, nor can it hinder the historical trend toward national reunification.

The spokesperson reaffirmed the mainlands commitment to upholding the one-China principle and the 1992 Consensus, and opposing all forms of separatist activities and external interference.

On the basis of the one-China principle, we are willing to engage with all political parties, groups and individuals in Taiwan to discuss political issues between the two sides and other matters related to advancing the process of national reunification, he said, as cited by Xinhua.

The Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te said Tuesday that trade tensions between the United States and Taiwan are just frictions between friends in a show of optimism as tariff negotiations are underway with Washington, according to an Associated Press dispatch.

In a speech marking his first year at the helm and focusing on Taiwans strategies to defuse the effects of U.S. tariffs and military threats from China, Lai struck an accommodating tone despite the tariff pressure. MDT/Agencies
The Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) recently hosted the Macao Tourism+MICE Product Updates Seminar & Travel Mart in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The event aimed to promote and showcase the latest destination attractions and MICE resources to Indonesian tourism operators, facilitating exchanges between the travel trade from both sides to expand Macaus reach into Southeast Asia and international visitor markets.

During the session, a representative from the Indonesian Travel Agents Association (ASTINDO) presented an overview of Macaus latest tourism developments, followed by presentations from the Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) and the six integrated resort enterprises on local MICE trends and tourism services.

MGTO stated that through in-person networking, the office aims to offer the travel trade from Macau and Indonesia the opportunity to design new tourism products, deepen collaboration, and explore business opportunities together, as part of the offices endeavor to tap into the market potential of Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

They also noted the intention to transform Macau into a travel destination, which includes the previously announced measure of creating a Muslim-friendly environment and attracting Muslim and international visitors to Macau.

Visitor statistics from January to April this year indicate that Indonesia ranks as Macaus sixth-largest visitor market and third-largest international visitor market.

MGTO aims to capitalize on the air-, sea-, and land-transport network to step up a diversity of promotions. Among them, the office has established a large-scale Macau Pavilion to promote the Macau destination at the ASTINDO Travel Fair in recent years, aiming to attract Southeast Asian visitors and expand international markets.

This year, MGTO continues to roll out several promotional initiatives targeting the Southeast Asian market through online and offline channels, trade familiarization visits, and international travel fairs.

Following the ones staged in the Middle East and Japan earlier this year, MGTO is reportedly planning more promotional events in Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and other parts of the world.
* Rents on the rise

 Economist predicts continued growth in residential rents

* Retail | Sales drop significantly in first quarter

* Tourism | Visitor arrivals up 19% in April, same-day visitors up 30%

* Authorities disclosed the detailed schedule for the 15th National Games, which will take place in November across the GBA

* MGTO organizes a Tourism+MICE promotion in Indonesia

* North Korean defectors urge the UN to hold Kim accountable for rights abuses

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Thursday, May 22, 2025  edition no. 4722
President Donald Trump has announced the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defense program  a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the first time will put U.S. weapons in space.

Speaking yesterday [Macau time] from the Oval Office, Trump said he expects the system will be fully operational before the end of my term, which ends in 2029, and have the capability of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from space.

Its likelier that the complex system may have some initial capability by that point, a U.S. official familiar with the program said.

Trump, seated next to a poster showing the continental U.S. painted gold and with artistic depictions of missile interceptions, also announced that Gen. Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, will be responsible for overseeing Golden Domes progress.

Golden Dome is envisioned to include ground- and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack: detecting and destroying them before a launch, intercepting them in their earliest stage of flight, stopping them midcourse in the air, or halting them in the final minutes as they descend toward a target.

For the last several months, Pentagon planners have been developing options  which the U.S. official described as medium, high and extra high choices, based on their cost  that include space-based interceptors. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail plans that have not been made public.

The difference in the three versions is largely based on how many satellites and sensors  and for the first time, space-based interceptors  would be purchased.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated this month that just the space-based components of the Golden Dome could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years. Trump has requested an initial $25 billion for the program in his proposed tax break bill now moving through Congress.

The Pentagon has warned for years that the newest missiles developed by China and Russia are so advanced that updated countermeasures are necessary. Golden Domes added satellites and interceptors  where the bulk of the programs cost is  would be focused on stopping those advanced missiles early on or in the middle of their flight.

The space-based weapons envisioned for Golden Dome represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations, Gen. Chance Saltzman, head of the U.S. Space Force, told lawmakers at a hearing Tuesday.

China and Russia have put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical U.S. satellites, which can make the U.S. vulnerable to attack.

Last year, the U.S. said Russia was developing a space-based nuclear weapon that could loiter in space for long durations, then release a burst that would take out satellites around it.

Trump said Tuesday that he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Golden Dome program, but at the right time, we will, he told reporters at the White House.

In a joint statement earlier this month, China and Russia called the Golden Dome idea deeply destabilizing in nature, warning it would turn outer space into an environment for placing weapons and an arena for armed confrontation.

There is no money for the project yet, and Golden Dome overall is still in the conceptual stage, newly confirmed Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told senators during a hearing Tuesday.

While the president picked the concept he wanted, the Pentagon is still developing the requirements that Golden Dome will need to meet  which is not the way new systems are normally developed.

The Pentagon and U.S. Northern Command are still drafting what is known as an initial capabilities document, the U.S. official said. That is how Northern Command, which is responsible for homeland defense, identifies what it will need the system to do.

The U.S. already has many missile defense capabilities, such as the Patriot missile batteries that the U.S. has provided to Ukraine to defend against incoming missiles as well as an array of satellites in orbit to detect missile launches. Some of those existing systems will be incorporated into Golden Dome.

Trump directed the Pentagon to pursue the space-based interceptors in an executive order during the first week of his presidency. TARA COPP, WASHINGTON, MDT/AP
Ryan Milton, who opened The Feiring in Stoughton on Dec. 31, is a former high school science teacher with a distinguished history of working in Madison kitchens.

He considers Peppino Gargano of the former Peppinos in Downtown Madison his mentor.

Peppino says, Ryan, my boy, never, ever, ever open a restaurant. He said, Ryan, youre too smart. Then he said, But if you do open a restaurant, make sure you own the building. And that was sage advice.

The reason Milton followed his dream and opened The Feiring, he said, was because he was able to buy the building that was Laz Bistro for 17 years, and hes poured everything he has into it.

The Feiring isnt just a great place to eat an early dinner before a show at the Stoughton Opera House a few yards away, its also worth the 20-mile drive from Madison on a night when you have no other agenda.

I cant decide between ... almost everything, said my friend, as we looked over the menu.

Do decide on the bruschetta ($10), which was more like beautifully presented pizza hors doeuvres, super crisp on the bottom, with flavorful San Marzano tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, Parmigiano Reggiano, basil oil and a balsamic drizzle.

Milton said that was something from his Peppinos days, though it wasnt on the menu. We would just make that on the fly for people. I forget why, per se... and every time we did it, everyone loved it.

The spring salad ($9) was an impressive pile of mixed greens with beets, candied pecans and plenty of goat cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette. The salad also had salt, which was a nice touch. The menu described roasted beets and these tasted pickled, which detracted slightly. Milton told me that the beets come from nearby Vitruvian Farms in McFarland and arent exactly pickled, but are instead braised in a sherry vinegar.

We had no quibbles about the short rib ($23) which was fantastic, with tender, lean, flavorful meat served over excellent mashed potatoes in a delicious red-wine pan sauce. Milton said the meat is marinated overnight and cooked in the oven for five hours. Roasted carrots and parsnips sealed the deal. I want more parsnips in my life.

The pan-roasted chicken breast ($20) was another standout, with juicy chicken in a marsala mushroom sauce, fantastic green beans and those same superb mashed potatoes. It was a lot of food with all of the elements in perfect harmony. I was particularly fond of the oyster mushrooms, also from Vitruvian Farms.

The Norwegian salmon ($21) was underwhelming, with roasted potatoes that didnt appeal because of their vinegar preparation. Grilled zucchini helped redeem the dish. Like the other entrees, it was beautifully presented.

I appreciated how the shrimp and grits ($14/$17) comes in two sizes. The smaller one had three perfectly grilled gulf shrimp on top of cheesy grits. The shrimp were remarkably good, while the grits werent particularly cheesy, and the menu described oven-dried tomatoes that werent apparent.

Less successful was the bucatini pasta ($17) sauteed in extra virgin olive oil, with balsamic vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, a few toasted pine nuts, arugula and Parmigiano Reggiano. Vinegar was unfortunately what stood out most and made me realize that every criticism Ive had of The Feiring has to do with dishes that have too much vinegar, and I happen to generally like vinegar.

There was nothing to criticize about the creme brulee ($8) for dessert. It was perfect.

The Indeed pistachio cream ale ($5) from Minneapolis was fun to try  once. When I asked our waiter about it, he said its as if you soaked pistachios in Spotted Cow. The pistachio flavor was subtle but distinctive. It came in a cold can with an accompanying chilled pint glass, which was a nice touch.

The smoky eye cocktail ($9) was notable for the smokiness of the mezcal. It went down easy with grapefruit juice, simple syrup, a splash of dry champagne, and mint.

A glass of homemade lemonade ($4) was wonderfully tart.

My friend asked our waiter how to pronounce The Feiring, and then I heard him answering that same question at a nearby table.

Milton said it can be pronounced fear-ing, fare-ing or fire-ing. It means celebration in Norwegian, but the food isnt Norwegian. Milton said he isnt sure how to describe it, but American eclectic works.

Milton, 47, shares cheffing duties with Ethan Kumm, who has worked at Reunion restaurant in Spring Green and Seven Acre Dairy Company in Paoli.

Besides Peppinos, Milton cooked downstairs at the Memorial Union and at a number of restaurants that no longer exist, including Wild Iris Cafe, the Opera House and Harvest.

Milton, a divorced father of four, lives in DeForest, but lived in Stoughton for about 15 years and said hed always loved the small building that was Laz Bistro.

By buying it, he guarantees that the year and a half he spent remodeling the space with a small group of friends wont be in vain. His best friend, Andy Watson, who owns Sprouting Acres, a produce and pizza farm just outside Cambridge, where Milton gets some of his vegetables, first noticed that the building was for sale and helped with the renovations.

The resulting space is clean and modern and looks like many of Madisons most celebrated newer restaurants.

No matter the occasion, or how you pronounce it, eating at The Feiring feels like a celebration.

Diner's scorecard Restaurant: The Feiring Location: 419 E. Main St., Stoughton Phone: 608-873-3808 Website: thefeiring.com Hours: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Kitchen opens at 4:30 Prices: Appetizers $7 and $10, burger $15, mussels $15 and $19, salad $9, entrees $14 to $23 Reservations: Yes Noise level: Medium Credit cards: Yes Accessibility: Technically, no. One step into the restaurant. Staff can help lift. Bathrooms not fully ADA compliant. Outdoor dining: No Delivery: No Online ordering: No Drinks: Full bar Gluten-free: Most of menu Vegetarian offerings: A number of items. Can also accommodate vegans Kids menu: Can accommodate. Many kid-friendly items Parking: Street parking, and free nearby lot Service: Excellent Bottom line: A cross between a special-occasion restaurant and an everyday restaurant with many menu items that will keep you coming back.
Seven weeks after a 20-year-old Chicago man disappeared into the depths of the Wisconsin River, his parents are still waiting to bring him home.

Francesco di Filippo has been missing since a boat carrying him, his cousin, and his grandfather, Luis di Filippo, flipped over near Wisconsin Dells, south of the Kilbourn Dam, on April 3. Francesco's cousin was able to swim to shore. Luis di Filippo, 75, was found dead two days later at the bottom of the river south of where the boat capsized.

More than 100 people have searched for the missing man, according to Christopher Zuelke, the father of Francesco di Filippo's girlfriend, Shay Zuelke. He said that those volunteers, along with cadaver dogs and tools needed to search the river, have allowed the search to remain active the entire time since the incident.

"It's disappointing because all these amazing volunteers have come out and we get our hopes up," di Filippo's mother, Lina Schultz, said. "But at the end of the day, there's kind of no results."

The Wisconsin Dells Police Department, which has led authorities' search, last released a statement regarding the situation on April 16. That day, search crews covered roughly 17 miles of the river between Rivers Edge Resort in Wisconsin Dells to the bridge under Interstate 39 in Portage.

Department Chief Nicholas Brinker has not responded to requests this week for an immediate update on search efforts.

Schultz, whose father died in the incident, came up to the Wisconsin Dells area on Sunday in another search effort for her son.

When she has started to lose hope that her son will be found, Schultz said, authorities and volunteers conducting the search revive her spirit.

"We're constantly getting calls from volunteers," she said. "It's stressful because I have to return to some kind of normalcy."

"We all think he is in the water," she said. "When you have the best of the best come out and people searching daily and there is nothing, it starts to play with my head."

Brian Schultz, di Filippo's father, said he's at a loss for words: "Not knowing where he is at is killing us."

Among the search volunteers has been Bruce's Legacy, a drowning search and recovery nonprofit, which has visited the Wisconsin River twice to search for di Filippo, according to organization director and diving instructor Keith Cormican.

The nonprofit is named after Cormican's brother who drowned in 1995 on a canoeing trip near Black River Falls.

Along with diving, Bruce's Legacy has used boats, sonars and remote-operated vehicles to help search the river. The group was scheduled to search for di Filippo again on Sunday but did not because of high water levels.

Additionally, "this two days of rain is definitely going to mess things up," Cormican said.

Having lots of people searching, particularly on such an extensive body of water and with a significant amount of time having gone by, he said, is the best chance of finding di Filippo.

Brian Schultz said some areas of the Wisconsin River south of where the boat capsized have been identified as "points of interest" by cadaver dogs during a May 10 search that he participated in.

"We have met a ton of people from Wisconsin who have been like family to us and have been out there (on the river) with us," he said, and some of the volunteers have become "lifelong friends."

Most of the Wisconsin River area between Wisconsin Dells and Portage has been searched, according to Zuelke, di Filippo's girlfriend's father.

"It has completely blown all of us away how amazing everybody is up there (in Wisconsin) and what they have done and offered to help us with," he said. "Above and beyond what I could have even asked for."
Asean Summit 2025: What motorists need to know about phased closures set for PLUS highways May 23-26 and 28

KUALA LUMPUR, May 22  Several key routes on PLUS-operated highways will be closed in stages from May 23 to 26 and May 28 in conjunction with the Asean Summit 2025, PLUS Malaysia Berhad announced today.

The move follows a recent statement by the Royal Malaysia Polices Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (JSPT), which outlined road closures to facilitate the smooth movement of summit delegates.

Among the affected stretches are:

KLIA to Putrajaya (via the ELITE Highway)

Subang to Jalan Duta (New Klang Valley Expressway  NKVE)

Sungai Buloh to Jalan Duta (North-South Expressway)

These closures will take place in stages from 7am on May 23 to 26, and again from 8am on May 28.

PLUS said it will take necessary steps to ensure smooth highway operations during the closures and will provide full cooperation to traffic authorities managing the affected areas.

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Motorists, especially those travelling to or from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and TUDM Subang, are advised to plan their journeys ahead of time to avoid delays.

Drivers are also urged to follow the instructions of traffic personnel and to consider using alternative routes where possible to minimise congestion.

For real-time traffic updates, road users can check:

JSPT/PDRM social media channels

The PLUS app

X (formerly Twitter) @PLUSTrafik

Electronic message boards (VMS) along the highways

PLUS also recommends using navigation tools like Google Maps or Waze for better trip planning during the affected period.
For a year and a half, the western imperialists have not only been defending Israel's right to massacre, starve and ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza  they have been selling them the weapons to do it. Now, all of a sudden, theyre criticising the intolerable suffering that Israel is causing. Does this mean that the imperialists have gained a conscience?

Certainly not. At a time when Netanyahu is escalating the genocide and explicitly declaring that Israel plans to conquer the territory and expel the Palestinians, what these blood-soaked hypocrites fear are the revolutionary implications of being associated with yet more horror. The consequences in the Middle East and beyond of Netanyahus policy  of recklessly dragging out the war to cling on to power  are forcing even Trump to look for other points of support in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Trump and Putin have continued to haggle over the fate of Ukraine. In the western media, Putin has been depicted as a stubborn obstacle to peace. In reality, it is Zelensky and the Europeans who have resisted the negotiation of an end to the war, for they refuse to concede what is becoming apparent to all: that Ukraine has lost.

Finally, in Pakistan-occupied Gigit Baltistan, leaders of the Awami Action Committee  including several members of the Pakistani section of the Revolutionary Communist International  have been scandalously arrested. In response to this brazen attack, which is an attempt to behead a growing mass movement against the Pakistani regime, the Revolutionary Communist International have launched an international campaign demanding that these political prisoners be set free.

To explain where these events are leading the world, Jorge Martin and Hamid Alizadeh from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met for another episode of Against the Stream, the weekly current affairs podcast of the RCI.

This episode premiered on YouTube. Tune in every Thursday at 6pm London time, or catch up on Spotify or Apple Music.
At a Tuesday press conference in Old Fort, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable announced the recipients of its Rebuilding and Recovery Micro-Grant Program, an effort to aid the restoration of outdoor recreation after Hurricane Helene.

One of the recipients is in McDowell County. Camp Grier will receive a $10,000 grant from the program. It will be used for the construction of a new parking lot for better access to trails around Old Fort.

Each of the selected grantees plays a role in restoring the trails, access points and outdoor infrastructure, according to the organization. In total, 189 grantees applied for grants between $1,000 to 10,000 requesting more than $1.75 million. The grants are made possible through funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and The VF Foundation, the philanthropic arm of VF Corp., the parent company of brands including The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Smartwool and Altra, according to a news release from the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable.

Outdoor recreation is at the heart of so many communities in these areas, driving local economics, supporting public health, and serving as a source of resilience, said Cassie Elrod, program and administrative director of Outdoor Recreation Roundtable. These communities were hit hard by Hurricane Helene, and we are proud to stand with the local leaders and volunteers on the ground who are restoring the spaces that connect people to nature and provide economic opportunity.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable hosted a workshop at McDowell Technical Community Colleges Workforce Education Center in Old Fort. It was led by ORR Vice President of Programs Chris Perkins for community and business leaders.

The press conference was held later Tuesday at Curtis Creek in the Pisgah National Forest. It took place next to the ruins of a bridge that used to span the creek but was washed away by the floodwaters from Hurricane Helene.

At the press conference, the grants were announced for outdoor recreation projects in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.

Christina Redman, partnership and event coordinator at Camp Grier, said work has already started on the new parking lot.

It is called the Allison Trailhead and it is on Mill Creek Road/Old 70 just past the entrance to Camp Grier on the left, she said. The $10,000 awarded (Tuesday) will allow us to complete this project. While this lot began as an opportunity to provide access to the Gateway Trails, while the bridge over Curtis Creek is being repaired it will continue to be a valuable asset for outdoor recreation in Old Fort.

She said the new lot will provide more parking for popular trails on the west side of the Old Fort Trail system such as Kitsuma and Bernard. The project was made possible through a partnership with Camp Grier/G5 Trail Collective and a private land owner, Dan Allison, who was willing to allow trail users to park on his property.

On behalf of the McDowell Chamber of Commerce, wed like to extend our gratitude to the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable and their partners for this award, said Kim Effler, president of the McDowell Chamber of Commerce in a news release. The outdoor recreation business sector continues to grow in Old Fort and McDowell County and this award will ensure that our businesses can continue to rely on recreation users coming to the region as they work to recover from Hurricane Helene.

The importance of these recovery efforts is underscored by recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which shows that outdoor recreation is a major economic driver. In North Carolina, $16.2 billion is generated by outdoor recreation.

Along with the grant for Camp Grier, the other North Carolina rebuilding and recovery micro-grant recipients are:

Keep Ashe Beautiful in Ashe County. It has been concentrating on cleaning trash and debris from the most traveled routes along the New River in Ashe County. These segments of the river are heavily relied upon and support local outfitters renting canoes, kayaks and tubes for recreational purposes.

Carolina Climbers Coalition, which employs trail stewards and leverages community volunteer power to clear fallen trees, rebuild trails, and restore safe access to the Pace Cliffs Trail in Polk County, the Chimney Rock Village Boulders Trails in Rutherford County and the Pumpkintown Trail in Pickens County, South Carolina.

The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable is the nations leading coalition of outdoor recreation associations representing the more than 110,000 outdoor businesses in recreation and the full spectrum of outdoor-related activities.
The first confirmed cases of Mpox, also known as monkeypox, a virus, are occurring in Togo. In the capital, Lome, three casestwo involving women and one involving a manhave been verified.

To stop the spread of this infectious disease, Togolese Health authorities have acted swiftly.

The Togolese Government formally declared the discovery of its first Mpox case on May 16, 2025. The press release states that the case involves a 22-year-old woman who lives in the Greater Lome area and is presently receiving treatment in an infectious disease department.

Faced with this initial alert, the Togolese Ministry of Health implemented a patient isolation system to prevent transmission. Two new cases have since been confirmed. In total, they were in contact with more than 55 people, explains Professor Anoumou Dagnran, coordinator of the response committee. According to him, three-quarters of the patients developed skin lesions, particularly on the palms of their hands.

The government has stepped up public awareness campaigns, early warning systems, and epidemiological surveillance to fight this infectious virus. The Ministry of Health educates the public about what to do in the event of symptoms and stresses the value of preventive measures. In a press release, it stated, The Government is counting on everyones civic-mindedness and vigilance.
The Somali Government said on Wednesday, May 21 that during counterterrorism operations in the Hiran and Lower Shabelle regions, Somali security forces killed 45 al-Shabaab terrorists, including the groups foreman who has been responsible for mortar attacks in Mogadishu since 2023.

From Tuesday afternoon to early Wednesday, six airstrikes were conducted in the El-Hareeri area of the Hiran region, killing 45 Khawarij fighters, including both leaders and militiamen, according to a statement from the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).

According to Ahmed Mohamud, a regional security official who spoke to Anadolu via phone, the intelligence services attacked a hiding place for the group and its top operatives using unmanned aerial vehicles. Among those killed in the operations was the top leader of al-Shabaab, who has been behind mortar attacks in Mogadishu since 2023, according to NISA. He was slain during a prearranged operation in the Lower Shabelle region, close to Sabib.

Insecurity has long been a problem in Somalia, with the biggest threats coming from the terrorist organizations ISIS (Daesh) and al-Shabaab. For more than 16 years, al-Shabaab has been engaged in combat with the Somali government, regularly attacking military personnel and government officials.
Slovakia has joined the momentum in favor of Moroccos autonomy plan becoming the 23rd EU state to back the Kingdoms initiative aiming to find a lasting political solution to the artificial territorial conflict.

Slovakia recognizes the Moroccan initiative, presented to the United Nations Secretary-General on April 11, 2007, as a basis for a final solution under the auspices of the United Nations, reads a joint Moroccan-Slovak statement, issued following talks between Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita and his Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar on Thursday in Rabat.

Slovakia welcomes Moroccos serious and credible efforts to advance the political process and backs a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable solution, in line with the UN charter and relevant Security Council resolutions, reads the joint statement.

The two countries agreed to step up cooperation at the economic, cultural and parliamentary levels.

In terms of the economy in particular, they agreed to explore cooperation opportunities in the fields of renewable energy, the automotive industries, agriculture and tourism, as well as investment promotion, it said.

They also agreed to support each other for their respective candidature to the United Nations Security Council for the term 2028-2029, expressing their commitment to work closely and to coordinate their actions in favour of the maintenance of international peace and security.
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Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

On the last day of patient care at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Marquette, Michigan, a port town on the shore of Lake Superior, dozens of people crowded into the parking lot and alley, holding pink homemade signs that read "Thank You!" and "Forever Grateful."

"Oh my god," physician assistant Anna Rink gasped, as she and three other Planned Parenthood employees finally walked outside. The crowd whooped and cheered. Then Rink addressed the gathering.

"Thank you for trusting us with your care," Rink called out, her voice quavering. "And I'm not stopping here. I'm only going to make it better. I promise. I'm going to find a way."

"We're not done!" someone called out. "We're not giving up!"

But Planned Parenthood of Michigan is giving up on four of its health centers in the state, citing financial challenges. That includes Marquette, the only clinic that provided abortion in the vast, sparsely populated Upper Peninsula. For the roughly 1,100 patients who visit the clinic each year for anything from cancer screenings to contraceptive implants, the next-closest Planned Parenthood will now be a nearly five-hour drive south.

It's part of a growing trend: At least 17 clinics closed last year in states where abortion remains legal, and another 17 have closed in just the first five months of this year, according to data gathered by ineedana.com. That includes states that have become abortion destinations, like Illinois, and those where voters have enshrined broad reproductive rights into the state constitution, like Michigan.

Experts say the closures indicate that financial and operational challenges, rather than future legal bans, may be the biggest threats to abortion access in states whose laws still protect it.

"These states that we have touted as being really the best kind of versions of our vision for reproductive justice, they too struggle with problems," said Erin Grant, a co-executive director of the Abortion Care Network, a national membership organization for independent clinics.

"It's gotten more expensive to provide care, it's gotten more dangerous to provide care, and it's just gotten, frankly, harder to provide care, when you're expected to be in the clinic and then on the statehouse steps, and also speaking to your representatives and trying to find somebody who will fix your roof or paint your walls who's not going to insert their opinion about health care rights."

But some abortion rights supporters question whether leaders are prioritizing patient care for the most vulnerable populations. Planned Parenthood of Michigan isn't cutting executive pay, even as it reduces staff by 10% and shuts down brick-and-mortar clinics in areas already facing health care shortages.

"I wish I had been in the room so I could have fought for us, and I could have fought for our community," said Viktoria Koskenoja, an emergency medicine physician in the Upper Peninsula, who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette. "I just have to hope that they did the math of trying to hurt as few people as possible, and that's how they made their decision. And we just weren't part of the group that was going to be saved."

Why Now?

If a clinic could survive the fall of Roe v. Wade, "you would think that resilience could carry you forward," said Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation.

But clinic operators say they face new financial strain, including rising costs, limited reimbursement rates, and growing demand for telehealth services. They're also bracing for the Trump administration to again exclude them from Title X, the federal funding for low- and no-cost family planning services, as the previous Trump administration did in 2019.

PPMI says the cuts are painful but necessary for the organization's long-term sustainability. The clinics being closed are "our smallest health centers," said Sarah Wallett, PPMI's chief medical operating officer.

And while the thousands of patients those clinics served each year are important, she said, the clinics' small size made them "the most difficult to operate." The clinics being closed offered medication abortion, which is available in Michigan up until 11 weeks of pregnancy, but not procedural abortion.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois (a state that's become a post-Roe v. Wade abortion destination) shuttered four clinics in March, pointing to a "financial shortfall." Planned Parenthood of Greater New York is now selling its only Manhattan clinic, after closing four clinics last summer due to "compounding financial and political challenges." And Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, where courts have blocked a near-total abortion ban and abortion is currently legal until 18 weeks of pregnancy, announced it closed two centers as of May 2.

Earlier this spring, the Trump administration began temporarily freezing funds to many clinics, including all Title X providers in California, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and Utah, according to a KFF analysis.

While the current Title X freeze doesn't yet include Planned Parenthood of Michigan, PPMI's chief advocacy officer, Ashlea Phenicie, said it would amount to a loss of about $5.4 million annually, or 16% of its budget.

But Planned Parenthood of Michigan didn't close clinics the last time the Trump administration froze its Title X funding. Its leader said that's because the funding was stopped for only about two years, from 2019 until 2021, when the Biden administration restored it. "Now we're faced with a longer period of time that we will be forced out of Title X, as opposed to the first administration," said PPMI president and CEO Paula Thornton Greear.

And at the same time, the rise of telehealth abortion has put "new pressures in the older-school brick-and-mortar facilities," said Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor who maps brick-and-mortar clinics across the U.S. that provide abortion.

Until a few years ago, doctors could prescribe abortion pills only in person. Those restrictions were lifted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was the Dobbs decision in 2022 that really "accelerated expansions in telehealth," Myers said, "because it drew all this attention to models of providing abortion services."

Suddenly, new online providers entered the field, advertising virtual consultations and pills shipped directly to your home. And plenty of patients who still have access to a brick-and-mortar clinic prefer that option. "Put more simply, it's gotta change their business model," she said.

Balancing cost and care

Historically, about 28% of PPMI's patients receive Medicaid benefits, according to Phenicie. And, like many states, Michigan's Medicaid program doesn't cover abortion, leaving those patients to either pay out-of-pocket or rely on help from abortion funds, several of which have also been struggling financially.

"When patients can't afford care, that means that they might not be showing up to clinics," said Fonteno of the National Abortion Federation, which had to cut its monthly budget nearly in half last year, from covering up to 50% of an eligible patient's costs to 30%.

"So seeing a sort of decline in patient volume, and then associated revenue, is definitely something that we've seen."

Meanwhile, more clinics and abortion funds say patients have delayed care because of those rising costs. According to a small November-December 2024 survey of providers and funds conducted by ineedana.com, "85% of clinics reported seeing an increase of clients delaying care due to lack of funding." One abortion fund said the number of patients who had to delay care until their second trimester had "grown by over 60%."

Even when non-abortion services like birth control and cervical cancer screenings are covered by insurance, clinics aren't always reimbursed for the full cost, Thornton Greear said.

"The reality is that insurance reimbursement rates across the board are low," she said. "It's been that way for a while. When you start looking at the costs to run a health care organization, from supply costs, etc., when you layer on these funding impacts, it creates a chasm that's impossible to fill."

Yet, unlike some independent clinics that have had to close, Planned Parenthood's national federation brings in hundreds of millions of dollars a year, the majority of which is spent on policy and legal efforts rather than state-level medical services. The organization and some of its state affiliates have also battled allegations of mismanagement, as well as complaints about staffing and patient care problems.

Planned Parenthood of Michigan staffers in five clinics unionized last year, with some citing management problems and workplace and patient care conditions.

Asked whether Planned Parenthood's national funding structure needs to change, PPMI CEO Thornton Greear said, "I think that it needs to be looked at, and what they're able to do. And I know that that is actively happening."

The gaps that telehealth can't fill

When the Marquette clinic's closure was announced, dozens of patients voiced their concerns in Google reviews, with several saying the clinic had "saved my life," and describing how they'd been helped after an assault, or been able to get low-cost care when they couldn't afford other options.

Planned Parenthood of Michigan responded to most comments with the same statement and pointed patients to telehealth in the clinic's absence:

"Please know that closing health centers wasn't a choice that was made lightly, but one forced upon us by the escalating attacks against sexual and reproductive health providers like Planned Parenthood. We are doing everything we can to protect as much access to care as possible. We know you're sad and angrywe are, too.

"We know that telehealth cannot bridge every gap; however, the majority of the services PPMI provides will remain available via the Virtual Health Center and PP Direct, including medication abortion, birth control, HIV services, UTI treatment, emergency contraception, gender-affirming care, and yeast infection treatment."

PPMI's virtual health center is already its most popular clinic, according to the organization, serving more than 10,000 patients a year. And PPMI plans to expand virtual appointments by 40%, including weekend and evening hours.

"For some rural communities, having access to telehealth has made significant changes in their health," said Wallett, PPMI's chief medical operating officer. "In telehealth, I can have an appointment in my car during lunch. I don't have to take extra time off. I don't have to drive there. I don't have to find childcare."

Yet even as the number of clinics has dropped nationally, about 80% of clinician-provided abortions are still done by brick-and-mortar clinics, according to the most recent #WeCount report, which looked at 2024 data from April to June.

And Hannah Harriman, a Marquette County Health Department nurse who previously spent 12 years working for Planned Parenthood of Marquette, is skeptical of any suggestion that telehealth can replace a rural brick-and-mortar clinic. "I say that those people have never spent any time in the U.P.," she said, referring to the Upper Peninsula.

Some areas are "dark zones" for cell coverage, she said. And some residents "have to drive to McDonald's to use their Wi-Fi. There are places here that don't even have internet coverage. I mean, you can't get it."

Telehealth has its advantages, said Koskenoja, the emergency medicine physician who previously worked for Planned Parenthood in Marquette, "but for a lot of health problems, it's just not a safe or realistic way to take care of people."

She recently had a patient in the emergency room who was having a complication from a gynecological surgery. "She needed to see a gynecologist, and I called the local OB office," Koskenoja said.

"They told me they have 30 or 40 new referrals a month," and simply don't have enough clinicians to see all those patients. "So adding in the burden of all the patients that were being seen at Planned Parenthood is going to be impossible."

Koskenoja, Harriman, and other local health care providers have been strategizing privately to figure out what to do next to help people access everything from Pap smears to IUDs. The local health department can provide Title X family planning services 1 days a week, but that won't be enough, Harriman said. And there are a few private "providers in town that offer medication abortion to their patients onlyvery, very quietly," she said. But that won't help patients who don't have good insurance or are stuck on waitlists.

"It's going to be a patchwork of trying to fill in those gaps," Koskenoja said. "But we lost a very functional system for delivering this care to patients. And now, we're just having to make it up as we go."

2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Study participants tasted meals in which the spiciness level was controlled by carefully varying the ratio of hot versus sweet paprika added to the dishes to vary the heat while keeping chili flavor constant. Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn State. Creative Commons

Throwing a little heat on your meal might be an effective strategy for cutting back on calories, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

Scientists at the university's Sensory Evaluation Center examined how increasing "oral burn" the spicy taste from ingredients like chili pepperaffects how much food people consume during a meal. The findings, available online in the journal Food Quality and Preference, suggest that making the meal slightly spicier led participants to eat less, consuming fewer calories.

"We know from previous studies that when people slow down, they eat significantly less," said Paige Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher and lead author on the study who earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2023.

"We suspected that making a meal spicier might slow people down. We thought, let's test, under controlled experimental conditions in the lab, if adding a small amount of spice, but not so much that the meal is inedible, will make people eat slower and therefore eat less."

The researchers found that increasing spiciness slightly using dried chili pepper slowed down eating and reduced the amount of food and energy consumed at a meal, all without negatively affecting the palatability of the dish.

"This points to added chilies as a potential strategy for reducing the risk of energy overconsumption," said John Hayes, Penn State professor of food science and corresponding author on the paper. "While portion control wasn't the explicit goal of this study, our results suggest this might work. Next time you're looking to eat a little less, try adding a blast of chilies, as it may slow you down and help you eat less."

The team conducted three related experiments in a total of 130 adults who were served one of two lunch mealsbeef chili or chicken tikka masalain one of two versions: mild or spicy. The spiciness level was controlled by carefully varying the ratio of hot versus sweet paprika added to the dishes to vary the heat while keeping chili flavor constant.

The researchers then recorded participants on high-definition video while they ate their meals to monitor their eating behaviors. From the videos, Hayes' team measured the amount of food and water consumed, meal duration, eating speed of grams per minute, bite rate, bite size, and collected ratings on appetite, liking and spiciness before and after the meal.

"Formulating the recipes took a long time for the chicken tikka," Cunningham said. "It took so many rounds of testing that my lab mates were sick of it. But science is about trial and error. I'd make a recipe, see how far I could push the spiciness, and we'd taste it. We did that until we reached a level where palatability was matched even when spiciness increased."

The study suggests the reduction in intake is driven by changes in oral processing behaviors, she explained. Specifically, participants ate the spicier meals more slowly. She explained that a slower eating rate often means food is in the mouth longer, which can help signal fullness and lead to eating less. Other studies that slow eating rate by manipulating texture have shown similar effects, she said.

"What's critical here is that the reduction in intake occurred without negatively impacting how much participants liked the food," Hayes said.

He added that water intake didn't differ significantly between spicy and mild meals, suggesting that one seemingly obvious explanation, that people drank more water and filled up faster, was not the primary reason people ate less.

"This is why we need to do empirical studies of behavior, because what you might intuitively expect is often not the case," he said.

Hayes also noted that appetite ratings made before and after the meals were similar, suggesting participants still felt full after the spicy meal, despite eating less of it. Looking ahead, the team is now focused on understanding how oral burn can impact other eating behaviors, like snacking.

Isaiah Smith, a Penn State undergraduate from West Chester, also contributed to this work as part of an Undergraduate Research Internship Program from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium.

More information: Paige M. Cunningham et al, Increasing the spiciness of a lunch meal influences oral processing behaviors and decreases food and energy intake, Food Quality and Preference (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105566 Journal information: Food Quality and Preference
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China has promised to give $500 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) over the next five years, positioning itself to become the group's top donor.

The pledge comes as the United States plans to leave the international organization, The Washington Post reported.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Guozhong announced the donation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva earlier this week. He said the money would help support global health and fight "unilateralism."

"The world is now facing the impacts of unilateralism and power politics, bringing major challenges to global health security," Liu said. "China strongly believes that only with solidarity and mutual assistance can we create a healthy world together."

President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO earlier this year, criticizing the organization for its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from political influence of WHO member states.

His administration has also moved away from other international agreements, such as the Paris climate accord.

Some experts see China as stepping in to fill the leadership gap left by Trump as he pursues his "America first" agenda.

"The Trump administration's attacks on and contempt for international governance have offered new opportunities for Chinese diplomacy," Zhao Minghao, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, explained to The Post.

At the World Health Assembly meeting, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized WHO as being "moribund" and "mired in bureaucratic bloat," The Post added in its report.

Meanwhile, China has worked to boost its image by increasing support for other international groups.

It has become the largest contributor of U.N. peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the Security Council, and it continues to invest in green energy worldwide, The Post said.

What's more, analysts say China is using this influence to shape global rules in its favor. Zhao noted that the country leads the world in electric car and battery production and is investing heavily in climate change.

China has also used its power to block Taiwan's membership in the World Health Assembly for the last nine years.

China's growing role in WHO may also help deflect criticism over its handling of the COVID pandemic, which began in the city of Wuhan.

"It's astonishing that a country like U.S. that announced its departure from the WHO would attack another country that is expanding its investment in the organization," a spokesman for the Chinese delegation in Geneva said.

More information: Learn more about the role of the World Health Organization.

 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Credit: RDNE Stock project from Pexels

A new study led by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute highlights the significant impact of living in disadvantaged neighborhoods on the onset of menopause. The research followed 691 women from pregnancy to midlife and found that those residing in highly vulnerable neighborhoods, particularly within 10 years of perimenopause onset, experienced menopause approximately two years earlier than those in less vulnerable areas.

The study, "Neighborhood Vulnerability and Age of Natural Menopause and Menopause Symptoms Among Midlife Women," was published in JAMA Network Open.

Women experiencing more intense menopausal symptoms have demonstrated lower quality of life and cognitive performance. Additionally, women who undergo menopause at an earlier age face a higher risk of developing long-term health issues; specifically, a one-year decrease in menopause age is linked to 23% higher risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, and mortality. At present, there are significant gaps in understanding how neighborhood contexts may affect reproductive aging in midlife women.

"Identifying risk factors for earlier menopause is important for public health, potentially informing strategies to reduce the potential for adverse outcomes. Our research indicates that living in less vulnerable neighborhoods may be a key factor in preventing earlier menopause and reducing future disease risk," said Izzuddin Aris, Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Population Medicine at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and senior author of the study.

The study included nearly 700 women from Project Viva, a prospective cohort in eastern Massachusetts, followed from April 1999 to August 2021. Researchers used geocoded residential addresses to assess neighborhood vulnerability and its effects on menopause onset and symptoms.

The Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) was used to measure neighborhood disadvantage, considering factors such as socioeconomic status, household composition, and racial and ethnic minority status.

Study findings showed women who resided in neighborhoods with very high (vs. very low) vulnerability exhibited higher risk of earlier natural menopause onset (by approximately two years), driven primarily by socioeconomic status and household composition. No associations with menopause symptom severity were observed.

The findings underscore the necessity of addressing neighborhood contexts to level reproductive health outcomes across populations.

"As certain characteristics of disadvantaged neighborhoods, such as limited access to social and economic resources, can be modified through community-led initiatives or policies implemented at the local and federal levels, future research is warranted to investigate whether such strategies could alleviate the association between neighborhood disadvantage and early menopause," added Aris.

More information: Neighborhood Vulnerability and Age of Natural Menopause and Menopause Symptoms Among Midlife Women, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.12075 Journal information: JAMA Network Open
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered Pfizer and Moderna to expand their warning labels on COVID-19 vaccines.

The updated warnings highlight a rare risk of heart inflammation in teen boys and young men, CBS News reported.

The warning applies to males ages 16 to 25 and is based on new data from FDA safety monitoring and a 2023 study.

This includes both Pfizer's Comirnaty and Moderna's Spikevax vaccines.

The updated label will note that "the highest estimated incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis was in males 16 through 25 years of age."

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, while pericarditis is inflammation of the lining around the heart.

For every million doses in 16- to 25-year-old males, there were 38 cases of these heart conditions, the warning adds. For all people under 65, the rate was about 8 cases per million doses, CBS News reported.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says most of these cases happen soon after the shot and tend to improve quickly.

The FDA's new warning also says that heart MRI scans in affected people usually showed signs of "improvement over time in most people."

"It is not known if these heart MRI findings might predict long-term heart effects of myocarditis," the FDA said. "Studies are underway to find out if there are long-term heart effects in people who have had myocarditis after receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine."

Both vaccine makers have 30 days to respond to the FDA's letter.

Neither company has made a public statement yet, CBS News said.

The FDA made the letters public just before a U.S. Senate hearing on "how health officials downplayed and hid myocarditis and other adverse events associated with the COVID-19 vaccines."

FDA spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement that transparency is key.

"Americans deserve radical transparency around the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines and the FDA is delivering on their promise to do just that," the statement said. "Moderna and Pfizer should take steps to ensure that individuals are aware of COVID vaccine-related adverse events resulting in myocarditis and pericarditis."

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID vaccines.

 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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Credit: Brett Sayles from Pexels

The death of a loved one is never easy. But survivors who've lost someone in the armed services experience it in ways others do not.

"Military grief is experienced publicly and also very personally," said Bonnie Carroll, president and founder of the nonprofit group Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS.

"For families, there is a tremendous amount of tradition and honor around the military loss," from how survivors are informed of a death to how they are presented the folded flag at the funeral, said Carroll, whose husband, Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, died in an Army plane crash in Alaska along with seven other soldiers in 1992.

"We have words that we use: 'gave one's life in service to one's country,' or 'made the ultimate sacrifice,'" said Carroll. And there are special dayssuch as Memorial Daythat bring such feelings front and center.

It adds complexity to the already-tangled grief process, experts say.

"People tend to think of grief as sadness or depression, but it really is different," said Dr. Stephen Cozza, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.

Cozza, a retired Army colonel who has done extensive research on bereavement among military families, said that when we lose a person who is close to us, the essential way we think, feel and engage the world all gets ripped out of us.

"It's like part of us is also lost," he said.

He called grief an "emotional, cognitive and biological response" to bereavement. Cognitively, it can lead people to become scattered and confused. Biologically, grief may lead to immunological changes and cardiovascular issues, including raising the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Emotionally, "it can be very messy," said Dr. Meredith Charney, a licensed clinical psychologist in Portland, Maine, who has studied grief. It can include yearning and longing, emotional pain and withdrawal from others, said Charney, who works both with MaineHealth and Psychology Specialists of Maine. She described grief as "the form that love takes when someone we love dies."

What's unique about military grief

In the military, Cozza said, deaths are usually "sudden, unexpected and very often can also involve some kind of violence." That includes people who died because of combat, accidents or suicide, the latter of which affects veterans at higher levels than the general population.

Unexpected deaths tend to provoke more challenging grief responses, Cozza said, "largely because people are just unprepared for them." The suddenness can lead to "a profound sense of disbelief" or feelings of being disoriented or disconnected from the world.

Military deaths often involve a young person, Cozza said. "So that can feel unnatural in that those deaths are untimely and unexpected."

Most military deaths involve men, Cozza said, so survivors often are young widows and children. They commonly are living on military installations far from extended family members they could lean on for support. Similarly, parents of someone who died in the military are likely to be far from the place where their child died.

The nature of military life can add to the shock, said Carroll, a veteran of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. A spouse might go from enjoying being the partner of a high-ranking commanding officer to having to vacate their home on a military base to make room for the next occupant. A child might be issued a new military ID card that changes their very identity from "active duty" to "survivor."

Surrounded by ceremony

The ceremonial aspect of a military death can be a source of support or an additional burden, depending on the survivor's attitude, Charney said. "It is possible that someone could find solace in not grieving alone, that other people care." Others might want more privacy and feel "they didn't necessarily ask for this kind of attention."

News of a death may come in the form of a knock on the door and not a call from a hospital, Carroll said. "That moment of notification is, for the family, a trauma memory."

Pride and pain can overlap, she said. "The public may see a military hero. The family grieves a whole human being with dreams and laughter and love. And the intersection of public recognition and private heartbreak creates this complex emotional reality."

Even the nature of a holiday meant to honor their loved ones, such as Memorial Day, can stir emotions, in the same way Mother's Day might affect someone who has lost a mother or an anniversary would affect someone grieving a spouse, Charney said.

But, she said, while loss can be "so painful," it's important for the bereaved to know that many things can help, and even in the depths of grief, "there's a lot of reasons to still feel hopeful."

Taking care of the bereaved

For those not directly affected, reaching out to support survivors is important, grief experts say.

"Sometimes people have a hard time asking for help," Charney said. "So if you haven't heard from that person, it doesn't mean they don't need you." Memorial Day might be an especially good time to say, "I'm thinking of you, I'm thinking of your loved one, and you're not alone."

Practical aidsuch as bringing food or offering to drive children around"can be tremendously helpful," Cozza said. For a grieving person, it can be vital to know "that you have other people in your life that are coming to assist you, to be with you, to mourn with you."

As time goes by, acquaintances can back away from the bereaved, but families may need continued support for an extended period, he said. Well-meaning friends might be afraid to discuss a loss for fear of stirring up sadness, but Cozza said they should remember that for the grieving, the sense of loss doesn't go away, even after it decreases in intensity. "In the first days and months after the death, it's the first thing that they think about in the morning. They may think about it all day."

Friends should say the name of the person who died, he said. "It can be helpful to share a loving memory" of how that person affected you. Such remembrances keep the person's memory alive "in ways that I think are important," Cozza said.

Avoid dictating to a person how they should feel, using cliches about why bad things happen, explaining things to them in ways that worsen their pain, or telling them they need to "move on."

Support needs to be done in a sensitive way that addresses what the survivors truly want, Cozza said, so don't make assumptions about their needs. Instead, ask them what they would like.

The mix of emotions will vary by circumstance and individual, he said. Survivors of someone who died by suicide might be focused on what they feel they could have done to prevent the death. A combat death might give a sense of pride at their loved one's sacrificeor anger at a leadership decision that sent them into harm's way.

Attitudes and needs can differ even within a family. A parent who encouraged their child to serve might end up in conflict with one who was opposed to that service, Cozza said.

Survivors can help themselves by being patient with the process, Cozza said. He encourages people "to both allow themselves to be in grief while finding ways to take breaks from it." That means giving yourself permission to step away from it when you're able, with the understanding that you'll also need to engage with the pain when it shows up. "Grief has its own rhythm and can suddenly and powerfully affect us. Sometimes it just comes and lands on you without warning."

Grief-specific treatments can help, as does seeking support from others, experts said. "People do better when they're not grieving alone," Charney said.

Drawing on others

Carroll discovered the value of being surrounded by understanding peers after she lost her husband, who was commander of the Alaska Army National Guard.

In the months that followed, she gathered with some of the other wives whose husbands had been killed in the same plane crash. After a memorial service, they met for coffee and began sharing experiences. That turned into lunch, which turned into dinner, which lasted late into the evening.

"It was the opportunity to speak honestly, raw and real, without judgment." That was the birth of TAPS, which now helps thousands of survivors each year.

A key part of that aid is pairing new survivors with peer mentors. Among them is Noah Velazquez of Homestead, Florida. His older brother, Navy Petty Officer Third Class Joel Daniel Velazquez, was a submariner.

"He was a great brother," Noah recalled. "He was a great person," energetic and "always willing to help anyone he could."

After Joel died by suicide in 2017, Carroll and TAPS contacted Noah and his family to offer help.

"In the beginning, they pretty much provided me with everything I needed," he said. "They provided me with a shoulder to cry on when I wasn't having the best days," plus pamphlets, phone numbers and access to other people who had shared the experience of losing a sibling.

Knowing that someone shares your experience "makes it easier to talk to them, because they understand that loss," Noah said.

The family also drew strength and even inspiration from talking to Joel's former shipmates at military ceremonies that honored him. "We got to hear stories about him while he was stationedthings that we didn't know," Noah said.

One of those stories was about his selflessness. Joel had lent $150 to a shipmate in need without expecting it back. Later, Noah's father and uncle went out to eat together and found $150 on the ground, with a pin from a uniform. The family took it as "a sign, essentially that he was still watching over us," Noah said.

There is no clear path to getting through grief, Cozza said. "We've come to understand it's really like finding your way through a maze, or untangling wires."

Carroll said grief is a "lifelong journey" for people who have lost loved ones in the military. "For the families of the fallenand for meevery day is Memorial Day. We carry their memory, their sacrifice and our love for them in everything we do every single day."
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Ciera Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of advertising and public relations, does much of her research on the impacts of social media. Her latest research suggests that autonomy-supportive messaging is the most effective in short-form videos for recruiting participants to clinical trials. Credit: Liz McCue | University Communication and Marketing

Clinical trials are a crucial step in medical research, and without adequate numbers of participants, treatments can be delayed or prevented from reaching the health care market.

But recruiting participants for clinical trials is challenging for a variety of reasonstime constraints, hesitation about safety and lack of awareness are just a few.

Social media, especially short-form videos, has emerged as a potent tool to expand knowledge of and recruitment to clinical trials, and new research from the University of NebraskaLincoln's Ciera Kirkpatrick suggests there is a formula for impactful messaging that can reduce negative emotions and improve attitudes toward participation.

"Only about 5% of Americans have been in a clinical trial, so that's super low," Kirkpatrick, assistant professor of advertising and public relations, said. "A lot of researchers are using social media to recruit people to their studies, which makes sense, because it's accessible, easy to use and affordable.

"We wanted to conduct this study to look at some of the different ways in which social media can correctly be used to improve attitudes and intentions related to clinical trials."

In the study, published in Health Communication, Kirkpatrick and her co-authors recreated 18 videos by scientists recruiting for clinical trials and put those videos to a survey audience of more than 600.

She found that overall, videos that contained autonomy-supportive messagesor those that gave a sense of agency or control to the viewerwere most effective, being rated as more worthy of engagement, generating more favorable attitudes about and intention for participation in clinical trials.

"I think a lot of people think about clinical trials as something that we should be doing in order for science to advance, but communicating about it in a way that it's still optional is key here," Kirkpatrick said. "Messages that respect the viewers' autonomy and this feeling of being able to make a choice themselves is better than trying to pressure them into doing something just because it's something we need people to do."

When autonomy-supportive messages were mixed with an exemplar, or personal story, participants reported the lowest psychological reactance, or negative emotion, and the best attitudes toward clinical trial participation. Videos without autonomy-supportive messages, but with an exemplar, resulted in higher negative emotions and fewer favorable attitudes.

"When we are hearing the story of another participant, it's more interesting, it's more engaging and it increases our attention to the overall message itself," Kirkpatrick said. "For the messages that just use generic statistical information, it's not as interesting.

"The autonomy messaging is easy for health professionals on TikTok or other social media sites to be able to do. Tweaking how they frame clinical trials can make a big difference in terms of how people perceive the message and perceive clinical trials and participation opportunities."

Kirkpatrick said the finding that autonomy-supportive messaging also increased engagement is especially helpful, since engagement is important to social media algorithms.

"The autonomy support increased their likelihood of wanting to engage with the videos, which is really important within a social media context," she said. "The more likes and shares and comments something gets, then the more people are going to see it, which could be helpful in terms of getting more people to become familiar with clinical trials and interested in participating."

More information: Ciera E. Kirkpatrick et al, "I Respect Whatever Decision You Make!" How Autonomy Support and Exemplars in Short-Form Videos Influence Clinical Trial Recruitment, Health Communication (2025). DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2025.2496745
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After a first heart attack, medication improves survival rates even in patients over 90 years old. Credit: Canadian Journal of Cardiology / Wong et al.

Researchers have found that prescribing guideline-directed medical treatment (GDMT), regardless of the number of medications, can improve survival rates in patients 90 years of age and older following their first heart attack, with the greatest benefit observed in patients who received all four recommended post-acute myocardial infarction (AMI) therapies.

These include beta-blockers, antiplatelets, lipid-lowering drugs, and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors. The findings of the article, published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, can guide future clinical approaches to managing first-onset AMI in nonagenarians and centenarians.

Life expectancy has been steadily increasing over time. In 2021, there were more than 861,000 Canadians who were aged 85 and older, an age group that is rapidly increasing in developed countries around the world. Since age is an independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, there is a growing need for guidance in the management of this elderly population.

The lead investigator of the article "Guideline-directed Medical Therapy in Nonagenarians and Centenarians ( 90 Years Old) After First-onset Myocardial Infarctiona National Registry Study," Ching-Hui Sia, MBBS, Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and Department of Cardiology, National University Heart Center Singapore, says, "As clinicians, we are often hesitant to prescribe GDMT for nonagenarians and centenarians presenting with AMI.

"This reluctance is driven by concerns over polypharmacy, high comorbidity burden, frailty, and the risk of adverse drug reactions, such as postural hypotension, which can lead to falls. We sought to clarify, in real-world clinical practice, whether prescribing more medications to this age group might actually be associated with worse survival outcomes."

The researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using Singapore's National Myocardial Infarction Registry, including 3,264 patients aged 90 years and above who experienced a non-ST elevation myocardial infarction between 2007 and 2020. They compared survival among groups stratified by the number of GDMTs prescribed at discharge (0, 12, 3, or 4). The analysis demonstrated that prescribing any number of GDMTs was associated with improved survival, with the greatest benefit observed in patients who received all four recommended therapies.

This is the largest study to date evaluating post-myocardial infarction (MI) outcomes in patients aged 90 and above using data from a national registry in a high-performing, well-resourced health care system. The timely and important findings offer real-world evidence that can help inform more confident prescribing practices for very elderly patients.

Co-author of the accompanying editorial, "Medical Management for Patients 90 Years Old and Up After Acute Coronary SyndromeNever Too Old," Karen B. Ho, MD, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Mazankowski Heart Institute, Edmonton, notes, "Despite the significant attention given to the adverse effects of polypharmacy, underprescription in the elderly is an increasingly recognized and important problem.

"The appropriate acute coronary syndrome (ACS) management in this age group is challenging owing to a lack of evidence and concerns regarding the tolerability and safety of medications. The current study encouragingly suggests that GDMT after ACS is associated with improved survival in this very advanced age group, and the more complete the therapy, the better. Therefore, in the absence of contraindications, clinicians should not withhold GDMT on the basis of age alone."

The editorial's co-author Michelle M. Graham, MD, Division or Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Mazankowski Heart Institute, Edmonton, adds, "At the heart of the discussion is to consider what older adults value. In this study, the primary outcome was all-cause mortality. However, for patients of very advanced age, quality of life may be as or more important as their quantity of life. Avoiding repeat emergency room visits and rehospitalizations and maintaining independence may be bigger priorities.

"It is important to consider how additional medications can help elderly patients achieve their goals of care. Future research on the management of cardiovascular disease in older adults should emphasize the effects of guideline-directed medical therapy on patient-important outcomes, such as functional and cognitive capacity and days out of hospital."

Dr. Sia concludes, "Our findings suggest that physicians should carefully assess any decision to not manage a patient aggressively with GDMT unless there is a well-founded reason. Advanced age alone does not appear to be an adequate reason to withhold the prescription of GDMTs. Of course, the benefits of GDMTs must always be weighed against the potential risks when prescribing them to nonagenarians and centenarians in order to achieve the best therapeutic outcomes."

More information: Hon Jen Wong et al, Guideline-directed Medical Therapy in Nonagenarians and Centenarians ( 90 Years Old) After First-onset Myocardial Infarctiona National Registry Study, Canadian Journal of Cardiology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cjca.2025.01.031 Karen B. Ho et al, Medical Management for Patients 90 Years Old and Up After Acute Coronary SyndromeNever Too Old, Canadian Journal of Cardiology (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cjca.2025.03.013 Journal information: Canadian Journal of Cardiology
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Google Trends topical analysis from January 2017 to January 2023 for search terms "loneliness," "social isolation," and "social distancing." Note the spike in popularity of search terms in March 2020. The y-axis represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time, with 100 as the highest popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. A 0 indicates there was not enough data for this term. Credit: BMC Public Health (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-025-21554-5

Research confirms that social isolation and loneliness significantly impact health and mortality, even if not listed on death certificates. BYU psychology and neuroscience professor, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, has published extensively on the topic, including a landmark 2010 meta-analysis and a 2023 framework on assessment and treatment.

She also served as lead scientist on the 2023 Surgeon General Advisory and is advising the World Health Organization on an upcoming report that addresses the pressing health threat of loneliness and isolation and a global agenda on social connection.

Social connection is now a legitimate health factor, but Holt-Lunstad and doctoral student, Andrew Proctor, recently published two studies showing that most of usthe general population and medical providersstill don't think social connection affects physical health. And even the professionals who recognize the importance report that they don't have time or tools to help patients address social concerns.

Proctor, who authored a study recently published in BMC Public Health, explained that before the study, they had been watching how the pandemic was influencing internet searches around the topics of isolation and loneliness.

"I have a marketing background, so I thought that maybe the public perception had changed since COVID. Social distancing, isolation and loneliness were huge buzzwords on the internet as seen through Google Trends and BuzzSumo (an online trend analyzer). Everything around these search terms was super viral during that time, and so we wondered if perceptions about social connection had changed," said Proctor.

With loneliness and isolation trending on the internet, the researchers set up a study. In a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, as well as samples from the U.K. and Australia, they surveyed 2,392 people about their perceptions of health risks associated with isolation and loneliness. The data showed that, despite the pandemic and other campaigns, people still underestimate the importance of social connection for physical health. And the underestimation exists equally among the lonely and the socially connected.

"The study identified blind spots in medical care," said Proctor. "Social connection is like a vital sign. What if we didn't care about high blood pressure? Or what if we never knew smoking was bad for us? Social connection is like a key vital sign. We just don't tend to recognize it."

In a closely connected study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Holt-Lunstad and Proctor, along with co-authors from top research medical centers, surveyed 681 health care providers (primarily doctors) about perceptions of health risks associated with poor social connection. Similar to the general population from the first study, health care providers underestimated social connection as a medically relevant health factor.

The researchers gleaned some unexpected insights due to an unintentional time lag in data collection in the second study.

"We completed the data collection at two different time points because we were waiting for institutional approvals. Our first cohort was health care providers through the University of Utah Health System. Slightly later, we had a second major cohort of University of California San Francisco (UCSF) physicians," said Holt-Lunstad. "What was interesting is that the perceived importance of social factors was a bit higher among the UCSF group."

The authors attribute the higher awareness at UCSF to the University's Social Interventions Research and Evaluation Network as well as the publication of the 2023 Surgeon General's Advisory, which came out just before the second cohort was surveyed. This suggests that social initiatives as well as institutional support make a difference in the perceived importance of social connection.

"What I hope is that these studies can spur recognition that there is a body of evidence showing social connection as medically relevant," said Holt-Lunstad. "Together these papers make a really compelling case that not only does the general public underestimate this, but so do health care providers who should know this information."

"Awareness can make a difference," says Holt-Lunstad. "It's the first step, but awareness isn't enough."

The research brings to light the need for education and strategies for health care providers as well as the need for a revised K-12 health care curriculum and public health campaigns. Future research includes how to address perceived barriers to integrated medical treatment and actionable strategies such as "social prescribing."

More information: Andrew Scot Proctor et al, Blind spots in health perception: the underestimated role of social connection for health outcomes, BMC Public Health (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12889-025-21554-5 Julianne HoltLunstad et al, Healthcare providers' perceived importance and barriers to addressing social connection in medical settings, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1111/nyas.15295 Journal information: BMC Public Health
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted interim bail to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, who was arrested over his social media posts on Operation Sindoor, even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took suo motu cognisance of his arrest, citing possible violation of his human rights.

The arrest of prof Mahmudabad, following two first information reports (FIRs) filed by the Haryana police, has sparked widespread concern, with the NHRC now demanding a detailed report from the Haryana director general of police (DGP). The human rights body says the circumstances surrounding the arrest 'prima facie' suggest that the liberty and human rights of the professor may have been violated.

In a post on Facebook, prof Mahmudabad had commented on Indias cross-border retaliation against Pakistan, dubbed Operation Sindoor, following the Pahalgam terror attack. While he endorsed Indias message to Pakistan over terrorism, he simultaneously criticised what he called the mindless glorification of war, urged for empathy over civilian casualties, and questioned the silence of right-wing supporters on issues like mob lynching and arbitrary demolitions.

The comments triggered two separate FIRs  one based on a complaint by Yogesh Jatheri citing provisions such as promoting hatred, endangering national integrity and culpable homicide under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The second FIR followed a complaint by Haryana womens commission chairperson Renu Bhatia, accusing prof Mahmudabad of insulting women officers and promoting communal disharmony.

On 18 May 2025, prof Mahmudabad was arrested in Delhi and remanded for two days of police custody. However, a local court denied the police's request for extended remand and sent him to judicial custody instead.

The Supreme Court, hearing his plea against the arrest, ordered his interim release on bail but refused to stay the investigation. It also directed the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) comprising three IPS officers, none from Haryana or Delhi, to ensure impartiality. The SIT will be headed by an Inspector General-rank officer and must include a woman officer of SP rank.

The petitioner is restrained from posting further comments or delivering speeches on the issue pending investigation, the court ruled, while also directing prof Mahmudabad to surrender his passport.

During the hearing, the bench observed that while prof Mahmudabads post appeared anti-war, the language used could be interpreted in multiple ways. The bona fide part can be subject matter of investigation, the Court noted, adding that only those well-versed in such language should evaluate its implications.

Meanwhile, NHRC, citing media reports, says the matter involves deeper questions of civil liberties and the right to free speech. It emphasised that the case deserved urgent attention and accountability, especially from state authorities.

Prof Mahmudabad has maintained that his comments were misinterpreted and misrepresented. In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter), he said the allegations against him were a distortion of his actual views, which advocated peace and accountability on all sides.

The controversy around prof Mahmudabad's arrest has once again ignited a debate around academic freedom, social media speech, and the limits of dissent in democratic discourse.

NHRCs intervention and the Supreme Courts decision to grant bail while ordering an independent SIT suggest that the matter is now under intense institutional scrutiny.
In a signification development, the Supreme Court on Thursday slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for its raids at the headquarters of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) and stayed the action by the central agency in the money laundering case initiated by it in connection with the matter.

The bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said the ED was crossing all limits and acting in violation of the Constitution by initiating action against a government body.

The top court issued notice to ED on Tamil Nadu government's petition against the Madras High Court order which had allowed the ED probe to proceed in the alleged Rs 1,000 crore scam in TASMAC.

"How can this offence be against the corporation? A criminal matter against the corporation. Your Enforcement Directorate is crossing all limits," CJI Gavai remarked.

The Court granted a stay on the proceedings while asking the agency to explain what the predicate offence was.

"Stay on the proceeding. When there are FIRs against officers why is ED coming here? Where is the predicate offence?? ED put an affidavit," the Court said.

ED is violating the Constitution, the Bench added.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for ED, said he will file a response.

The case concerns raids conducted by the ED from March 6 to March 8 at the TASMAC's headquarters on allegations that TASMAC officials had been engaging in overpricing of liquor bottles, tender manipulation and bribery, leading to financial irregularities of over 1,000 crores.

The ED suspected money laundering based on allegations contained in around 41-46 first information reports (FIRs) registered by the State government or the TASMAC against TASMAC officials over years.

The DMK-led State government and the TASMAC has, however, accused the ED of an overreach of its powers and termed the March raids illegal.

They proceeded to challenge the legality of the ED's raids before the Madras High Court, which dismissed the plea. The matter then reached the top court today.
With a vote expected this week in the U.S. House of Representatives on President Donald Trumps proposed tax and immigration package, pressure has been mounting on Montanas two Congressmen from various sides of the political spectrum over whether to support the measure.

The proposal is expected to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, a major priority for most of the Republican caucus, to the tune of about $5 trillion by cutting millions from other programs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP).

Other cuts seek to pay for the administrations burgeoning immigration agenda, and the proposal seeks to loosen some public land ownership and mineral extraction laws. Over the past week, organizations, state lawmakers and other Montana officials have been pressing U.S. Reps. Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing over how they will vote on the package.

Trump pressured House Republicans Tuesday to support the bill in the face of some saying it doesnt do enough to cut spending, while others are held up on certain facets of the broad proposal. But in recent days, both Zinke and Downing have indicated general support for the bill, albeit with some contingencies they say could lead them to vote no if those are crossed. The administration released a statement Wednesday, published by Punchbowl News, saying it would be "the ultimate betrayal" for Republicans not to pass the bill.

Im really excited about this policy. Im excited about my colleagues here. Im excited about the great work that weve done to get this tax relief  because the path to prosperity is access to capital, and the best capital to have access to is your own, Downing said in a news conference this week.

Zinke, in an interview with The Hill over the weekend, said now is the time to take action toward cutting the national debt and reducing spending in the Medicaid and Medicare programs, but said at the time he was unsure if the bill was ready to pass the chamber.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and 19 other Republican governors sent a letter to Trump on Tuesday saying they stood in strong support of the budget package, which the Republicans are calling the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.

Congress must act to fully and permanently implement your America First agenda for which over 77 million Americans voted. Thankfully, your One, Big, Beautiful Bill would accomplish this, the letter says, adding that the governors believe it would help secure the border, unleash domestic energy production, add to military security and provide Americans with tax cuts and more funding to deport people in the country illegally.

We agree with you; Republicans must UNIFY around this unprecedented piece of conservative legislation, the letter says.  We stand by your side and will support you in any way to ensure this necessary piece of legislation is enacted.

Gianforte is the vice chair of the Republican Governors Association and held a news conference during this years legislative session saying it was imperative to extend Trumps 2017 tax cuts and claiming a failure to do so would cause a nationwide $4.5 trillion tax hike.

Extending the Trump tax cuts would add an estimated $2.2 trillion to the national debt, the largest part of the sweeping package. The plan also spends about $1.3 trillion, according to federal estimates, to increase the standard deduction for taxpayers, and another $800 billion to add $500 per child to the child tax credit payout.

The bill also includes a section to allow for more public land leasing for drilling, mining and logging operations and cutting mineral extraction royalty rates, while an amendment added earlier this month would allow the sale of some public lands in Utah and Nevada.

Zinke, who earlier this month helped form a bipartisan Public Lands Caucus, has been opposed specifically to selling off large swaths of public land, and he said in The Hill interview earlier this week he was skeptical any land sales would put a dent in the national debt and opposed to making such a move without a public process. He also told E&E News on Monday he would try to strip that language out before the House Rules Committee met on the bill, a meeting which started early Wednesday.

Theres a process behind it. This breaks the process. So I havent changed my opinion at all, he told the news outlet.

Downing said in a statement to the Montana State News Bureau he is "fiercely opposed to the sale of public lands and am advocating against the inclusion of provisions in the final bill to do so."

The measure would also put another $147 billion toward finishing Trumps wall on the southern border and includes two other Trump priorities of removing taxes on overtime pay and tips.

It attempts to pay for some of that spending by raising the state and local tax cap to $30,000, mainly a benefit to people in states with higher taxes like New York and California and a sticking point for Republicans from those states.

Cuts to the SNAP program that helps feed lower-income families are also included by passing some of the costs of the program on to states. The plan would also cut Medicaid spending by nearly $700 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released Tuesday, and implement requirements that a person be working, going to school or performing community service that would go into effect in 2029.

The proposal also would prevent Medicaid dollars from being used at Planned Parenthood, which the organization and Democrats said would prevent people utilizing the federal health care program from getting birth control, STI screenings and cancer screenings. Forty-seven Montana Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday sent a letter to all four members of Montanas delegation urging them not to support that facet of the proposal.

Led by Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers and House Minority Leader Katie Sullivan, the two top Democrats in Montana, the letter says any defunding of Planned Parenthood would be catastrophic in the Treasure State.

No other provider would be able to fill the gap left by Planned Parenthood and making cuts to Medicaid would put rural hospitals and medical centers in jeopardy, the lawmakers wrote. Defunding Planned Parenthood and taking away affordable care through any action against Medicaid during the reconciliation process would deny thousands of Montanans access to essential and lifesaving health care, and it would make health care more expensive for Montanans to cover the costs of overwhelming Montanas already strained health care landscape.

Big Sky 55+, an organization representing older Montanans, this week also circulated an editorial column by its board vice chair Jon Ellingson urging the delegation not to support the package because it pays for tax cuts for higher earners while reducing spending on Medicaid and SNAP.

An analysis of most of the bill released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the bill would add $3.8 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, primarily due to the tax cuts. It also found that state spending would increase by $78 billion nationwide due to taking on more responsibilities in the Medicaid and SNAP programs.

The analysis found that on average, Americans would see an increase in government resources from the package. But it says that the poorest households would see a reduction in resources, while the highest-earning households would see increases.

The changes would not be evenly distributed among households, the analysis says.

Downing said he was pleased that part of the package will "allow for the Bull Mountains Mine to remain operational" and overall praised the bill.

"Republicans' Big Beautiful Bill will prevent a 26% tax hike on Montanans, unleash American mining and energy, strengthen key programs that Montanans rely on, and deliver relief for farmers, ranchers, and small businesses, in a fiscally responsible manner," he said in a written statement.

Zinke's office did not answer emailed questions posed by the Montana State News Bureau on Wednesday about the package by press time.

Should the measure pass the House  a vote is expected sometime this week  it would still have to earn the support of the Senate. Montanas two GOP U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy both indicated in recent days they would support the bill as part of supporting Trumps agenda.

Jack OBrien, a spokesperson for Sheehy, told the Montana State News Bureau as much in a statement Wednesday.

Since day one, Senator Sheehy has been clear that he stands with President Trump, will work to deliver on his America First agenda that the overwhelming majority of Montanans voted for in November, ensure the critical resources and services Montanans rely on are protected, and most importantly, make sure Montana comes first, OBrien said.

Gabby Wiggins, a spokesperson for Daines, noted that the No Tax on Tips bill passed the Senate this week and said Daines was working to ensure it is included in the broader package. She said he has and always will be against the sale of public lands.

Senator Daines will take a close look at any proposed funding cuts to ensure that critical programs and services for Montanans such as Job Corps are uninterrupted as President Trump works to reduce waste in the federal government, Wiggins added.
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro has launched a scathing attack on the governments proposal to channel pension funds into infrastructure development, saying the move places workers savings at serious risk for minimal returns.

Speaking during a public forum in his constituency, Nyoro criticized the plan to invest National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions in infrastructure projects, calling it another scandal in the making.

The NSSF kitty should be invested in a project with optimal returns. Infrastructure is not one of them and in my opinion, this is a bad financial decision.

Nyoro questioned the financial logic behind investing pension money in infrastructure.

If infrastructure development was such a lucrative sector, all the private sectors would have invested there because of the high returns, he added.

The former chair of the parliamentary budget committee accused the Kenya Kwanza administration of turning to pension funds after exhausting traditional borrowing avenues. He asserted that the government has borrowed so heavily that it has run out of room to seek new loans.

Government Too Lazy to Revive Economy

Nyoro didnt hold back in his criticism, accusing the administration of lacking the creativity needed to jump-start the economy. He claimed the government is looking for an easy way outat the expense of civil servants hard-earned money, which will have far-reaching consequences on the countrys financial stability.

Civil servants money should not be used in such a manner. The government has the responsibility of creating a conducive environment for economic growth so that it can generate more revenue, he added.

He further claimed the government has borrowed heavily through securitisation schemes without proper parliamentary oversight. According to Nyoro, the state has already borrowed Ksh175 billion via the fuel levy fund without Parliaments approval.

The government will pay double the amount which is further adding to the financial burden that the country already has, he warned.

Nyoro urged the government to adopt prudent fiscal management and slow down on borrowing. The government must exercise prudent use of public resources and go slow on borrowing to avoid getting deeper into debts because it might take such a long time to recover, he said.

The lawmaker at the same time opined that the government should leverage the countrys assets to generate money instead of borrowing.
The ongoing renovations at State House Nairobi continue to stir national debate, but top government officials and legislators insist the facelift is necessary to maintain Kenyas dignity, security, and international standing.

Alego Usonga MP and Budget Committee Chair, Sam Atandi, has backed the refurbishment, describing the current works as long overdue. Speaking at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), Atandi recalled his first visit to the presidential residence during former President Uhuru Kenyattas era, calling the facility filthy and unfit for a nation of Kenyas stature.

State House is an old house. If youve ever been there, youd realise it was in a deplorable state. During my first visit, I found the place filthy, he said Tuesday.

We cant run a country where the Office of the President is in such a condition, especially when were hosting guests, he added.

Atandi emphasized that the renovations go beyond aesthetics and are about modernizing a facility that hosts high-level international delegations.

Renovation Costs and Progress

According to documents submitted to the National Assemblys Administration and Internal Security Committee, as of September 2024, the State House project had consumed Ksh775 million out of the allocated Ksh1.77 billion, indicating a 44% completion rate.

The revelations triggered scrutiny over the projects cost, but government officials were quick to defend the investment.

RELATED  Kenyan Architects Deeply Concerned Over The Mutilation of State House

State House Comptroller Katoo Ole Metito defended the expenditure, explaining that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Department of Defence (DoD) are jointly funding and overseeing the project due to its sensitive nature.

This is a security facility that attracts security budgets, Metito said, stressing that the upgrades are essential for ensuring both structural stability and tight security.

Treasury CS: It Was Leaking

Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi also weighed in, stating that years of neglect had left the residence with leaking roofs and a decaying structure.

It had reached a point where State House was leaking, Mbadi said. One can question the extent of the renovation, but you cannot question whether we needed a facelift of the facility. This is where we host all the international delegations.

He emphasized that restoring the facility was not optional, especially given its symbolic and diplomatic significance.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are pursuing critical leads into the suspicious death of Fr. John Maina, a priest at Igwamiti Parish in Nyahururu. Early findings suggest the attack may have been linked to a donation he allegedly received from former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

According to DCI reports, unknown individuals had trailed the priest and demanded a share of the funds he reportedly received during a church event on April 27, which Gachagua and several politicians attended.

Fr. Maina had allegedly expressed concern for his safety before his death, although he never filed a formal police complaint.

Fr. Maina was being trailed by individuals demanding a portion of the money allegedly given to him after the Silver Jubilee Anniversary Ceremony attended by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the DCI stated.

Further, detectives are investigating reports that Fr. Maina had claimed his life was in danger, though he had not reported the same at any police station.

Abduction Claims and Sudden Death

Contrary to early media reports claiming Fr. Maina had been murdered and dumped on the NakuruNairobi highway, the DCI clarified that he died while receiving treatment at St. Josephs Mission Hospital in Gilgil.

On May 15, 2025, a motorcycle rider found Fr. Maina near the Diotomite stage, visibly injured and bleeding from the left side of his head. The priest allegedly told the rider that he had been abducted in Nyahururu.

The rider rushed him to St. Josephs, where medical staff attempted to save his life. Sadly, Fr. Maina died just minutes after being admitted.

Autopsy Sparks More Questions

Following his death, fellow worshippers requested that his body be moved to the Nyahururu Sub-County morgue for preservation and a postmortem examination.

On May 19, government pathologist Dr. Titus Ngulungu performed the autopsy. Surprisingly, the report ruled out the head injuries as the direct cause of death, prompting DCI officers to order further toxicological tests.

As the investigation widens, the DCI confirmed that officers have recorded several witness statements and continue to follow multiple leads.

They called on the public to avoid speculation and allow investigators to complete their work.
The Communist Party Marxist Kenya (CPM-K) will on Friday, May 23 hold the 4th International Theoretical Conference at Nairobis United Kenya Club.

The conference, dubbed Theocon, will bring together 59 international delegates from radical movements across the world as well as 53 local revolutionary delegates to deliberate on the theme: Bureaucratic and Comprador Capitalist in the Neocolonies.

The organisers will also hold a press conference on the sidelines of the event, whose purpose will be to provide insights into the objectives of the Theocon, the role of internationalist solidarity, and the revolutionary significance of the event in the context of contemporary class struggle in Kenya and globally.

Speakers at the historic gathering will include the CPM-K Chairperson Mwaivu Kaluka, the partys Secretary General Booker Omole, a representative from the Communist Party of the Philippines and delegates from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. Local movement leaders from Kenya, too, will speak.

Ahead of his maiden speech, Chairman Mwaivu Kaluka spoke on the absolute importance of the conference, reminding participants of the struggles past comrades endured in their quest for a fairer world  struggles that included rough terrains, sleppless nights, imprisonment and even death.

We envision that by the conclusion of this conference, Nairobi will resound with the pulse of the world communist movement. The harmonisation of revolutionary voices gathered here will refine our doctrine, shape our strategies, and forge policies to sharpen the ideological and organisational blade of each participating movement, he stated.

Communists never shy from the battle of ideas, we wage it without compromise, carrying the struggle through to its revolutionary conclusion. When theory guides practice, and practice transforms and advances theory; can we truly chart a revolutionary path toward the liberation of humanity.

Kaluka went on to rail against imperialism and what he described as the comprador bourgeoisie; agents who work to exploit the working masses and who manage the affairs of the imperialist order.

He said: The principal enemy remains imperialism. But to defeat it, we must first confront its local agents; the comprador-bureaucratic bourgeoisie; These are the ones who guard the gates of underdevelopment, who misappropriate state instruments for the benefit of foreign capital, and who betray the aspirations of the working masses.

Booker Omole, CPM-Ks General Secretary also shared a few insights on the ongoing conference, stating that party adherents needed to be aware of the many ills which plague the common mwananchi, while also calling for action.

The compradorbureaucrat class has bitten the Kenyan masses for too long. But to heal, we must name the disease. To strike, we must see the enemy clearly. That is why we gather, to sharpen our swords of theory, to clean our guns of ideology, and to prepare for political battle,  he said in a statement.

Omole also cautioned on the activities of the so-called compradors, who he maintained that while they may not be seen walking in the corridors of power, they still existed and thrived in various powerful circles in the country.

These compradors may not always be seen in Parliament. But they rule nonetheless, from boardrooms, investment conferences, and chambers of commerce. Their task is singular: to extract surplus and channel it to their imperialist masters. They do not build factories. They build bank accounts. They do not invest in the nation. They traffic in its ruin, he said.

The conference comes just a day before the 62nd African Liberation Day (ALD) commemoration, a fete comprising workers, peasants, youth, women and international delegates and whose objective is to sharpen the continental struggle against imperialism and neocolonial exploitation.
Starting a business is an exciting and ambitious journey, and it is especially important for young entrepreneurs in Kenya, where the entrepreneurial spirit is thriving. In todays digital age, with the world becoming more interconnected, young entrepreneurs have unprecedented opportunities to launch global businesses.

However, one of the first steps in launching a successful business is establishing a proper legal structure.

For many aspiring business owners, the process of registering an LLC (Limited Liability Company) can seem daunting due to high costs and complex procedures.

Fortunately, free LLC registration tools are now available to make the process smoother, helping entrepreneurs save money and focus on growing their businesses.

Why Form an LLC?

Before diving into the tools available to help young Kenyan entrepreneurs, its important to understand the benefits of forming an LLC. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is one of the most popular business structures globally, offering numerous advantages for young entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves in the marketplace:

Personal Asset Protection : Forming an LLC separates the owners personal assets from business liabilities, protecting your property and finances in case of legal issues.

Tax Flexibility : LLCs often provide more flexible tax options, which can be advantageous to small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Credibility : Operating as an LLC adds a layer of professionalism and credibility to your business, which can help attract customers, partners, and investors.



While the benefits are clear, the costs associated with registering an LLC can be a barrier for many entrepreneurs. This is where free LLC registration tools come in, offering an affordable and easy way to establish a business without breaking the bank.

How Namecheaps Business Starter Kit Helps Young Kenyan Entrepreneurs

One of the most powerful tools available for young Kenyan entrepreneurs is Namecheaps Business Starter Kit. This comprehensive package offers free LLC registration services, along with a variety of other tools designed to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses.

Lets break down how the free LLC registration and other features of the kit can benefit young entrepreneurs in Kenya:

1. Free LLC Registration

With the Namecheap Business Starter Kit, young entrepreneurs can register their LLC at no cost. Through a partnership with Tailor Brands, Namecheap offers a streamlined process that allows entrepreneurs to form an LLC and receive all the necessary documentation for a fully legitimate business structure.

By saving on LLC registration fees, entrepreneurs can allocate their funds towards other important aspects of business growth.

2. Professional Domain and Website Hosting

Every global business needs an online presence. The Namecheap Business Starter Kit offers a free .COM domain for one year, which is essential for building a credible online brand. A professional domain is the first step in establishing trust with customers and partners, especially when targeting international markets.

Additionally, the kit includes one year of web hosting, allowing entrepreneurs to easily launch their website and start showcasing their products or services.

3. Email Services for Credibility

With the Business Starter Kit, young entrepreneurs also receive one year of private email services. A professional email address (e.g., [email protected]) is crucial for establishing credibility, especially when reaching out to global clients or partners.

A branded email address not only promotes professionalism but also ensures that communications are more likely to be trusted and opened.

4. Marketing Tools to Promote Your Business

Starting a business is only the first step; promoting it is key to success. Namecheaps Business Starter Kit includes one year of marketing tools, such as SEO optimization tools and social media management features.

These tools are designed to help entrepreneurs effectively promote their businesses, attract customers, and grow their brand.

According to Search Engine Journal, SEO is crucial for reaching a wider audience and increasing traffic to your website, ultimately contributing to business growth.

5. Comprehensive Support and Resources

Namecheaps Business Starter Kit offers continuous support to ensure entrepreneurs have all the resources they need to succeed. Young Kenyan entrepreneurs can benefit from Namecheaps reliable customer service, tutorials, and guides, all designed to help them navigate the challenges of starting a business.

From technical support to marketing advice, Namecheap provides comprehensive assistance at every stage of business growth.

Real-World Examples of Kenyan Entrepreneurs Who Have Benefited from Free LLC Tools

Lets take a look at a few real-world examples of how young Kenyan entrepreneurs have used free LLC registration tools to launch successful global businesses:

Isaac Wanjiru  Tech Startup

Isaac Wanjiru, a 28-year-old entrepreneur from Nairobi, used free LLC registration tools to start his tech company. He explains, Starting my business would have been incredibly difficult without the free LLC registration. It saved me a lot of money, and I was able to reinvest that into building my website and marketing my products internationally. Now, we have clients in three different countries.

Sarah Njoroge  E-commerce Store

Sarah Njoroge, a 24-year-old entrepreneur, launched her e-commerce store that focuses on selling locally made fashion items globally. With the Namecheap Business Starter Kit, I got my LLC registered and my domain set up within a few hours. It was a game-changer for my business because it made me feel more professional when approaching international buyers, says Sarah.

These examples show how free LLC registration can empower young Kenyan entrepreneurs, giving them the resources they need to succeed in a competitive global market.

The Process of Registering Your LLC with Namecheaps Business Starter Kit

Starting your own LLC with Namecheaps Business Starter Kit is simple and easy. Heres a step-by-step guide to help young Kenyan entrepreneurs get started:

Sign Up for Namecheaps Business Starter Kit : Visit Namecheaps Business Starter Kit and sign up for the free LLC registration service. Complete the LLC Formation Process : Namecheaps platform, in partnership with Tailor Brands, will guide you through the LLC formation process, making sure all legal requirements are met. Claim Your Free Domain and Hosting : Once your LLC is registered, youll receive a free .COM domain and one year of web hosting. Set Up Your Email and Marketing Tools : Claim your free email services and explore the marketing tools provided to start promoting your business. Launch Your Global Business : With everything set up, you can now focus on growing your business, attracting international customers, and expanding your brand.



Why Free LLC Registration is a Game-Changer for Young Kenyan Entrepreneurs

The opportunity to register an LLC for free through Namecheaps Business Starter Kit is a game-changer for young entrepreneurs in Kenya. It removes a significant barrier to entry, allowing them to focus their resources on building their brand, marketing, and expanding globally.

With a professional domain, email services, hosting, and marketing tools included, entrepreneurs are set up for success from the very beginning.

Kenya is home to a growing entrepreneurial ecosystem, with many young people eager to tap into the global market. By taking advantage of free LLC registration tools, they can establish a legitimate business structure without the financial burden, enabling them to compete on the global stage.

Conclusion

For young Kenyan entrepreneurs, the dream of launching a global business is more achievable than ever before.

With free LLC registration tools provided by Namecheaps Business Starter Kit, they can easily form a legal business entity, set up a professional online presence, and access the resources needed to grow and succeed.

If youre a young entrepreneur in Kenya looking to turn your business idea into a global success, take the first step today by using Namecheaps Business Starter Kit.

With all the essential tools at your fingertips, you can confidently navigate the path to success and build a thriving international business.
Nairobi County Government has seized control of a private parking lot behind the Kencom building on Taifa Road to recover more than Ksh 41 million in unpaid land rates and county fees.

County officials moved in to take over the busy parking facilityused daily by hundreds of motoristsand announced that City Hall will manage its operations until the owners settle the outstanding debt.

The County Revenue Office revealed that the facilitys owners also failed to renew their Unified Business Permit, which expired in March, adding Ksh 200,000 in penalties to the already hefty debt.

This Kencom private parking lot owes the county Ksh 41 million, said Tiras Njoroge, the County Receiver of Revenue. Starting today, we are taking over its operations to recover the money until the debt is fully paid.

Njoroge emphasized that the county will not tolerate non-compliance from property owners.

We are committed to ensuring that every property owner pays their duties. Revenue from land rates and business permits is essential for delivering services to Nairobi residents, she added.

The Taifa Road parking lot is one of several high-value properties Nairobi County has targeted in its ongoing debt recovery drive.

Other properties affected in the recent crackdown include: Freemasons Hall on Nyerere Road, which owes Ksh 19 million in unpaid rates, a petrol station along Haile Selassie Avenue, and a commercial building on Koinange Streetboth with arrears of over Ksh 10 million.

This aggressive enforcement campaign comes as Nairobi County ramps up efforts to boost revenue collection and compel compliance among landlords and commercial property owners.
The High Court has temporarily stopped the expulsion of nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba from the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), throwing a wrench into the partys latest disciplinary actions.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi granted the conservatory orders on Wednesday after reviewing Orwobas Notice of Motion and her supporting affidavit filed on May 20. The court also blocked her removal from the Senate, where she represents special interest groups.

Pending hearing and determination of this application, a conservatory order is hereby issued suspending the implementation of the decision of the UDA Party Disciplinary Committee dated 16/05/2025 expelling the petitioner herein as a member of the UDA Party and/or a nominated senator, the ruling stated.

The courts decision came hours after Senate Speaker Amason Kingi published a gazette notice declaring Orwobas seat vacant, marking a dramatic twist in the unfolding political and legal showdown.

The public is hereby notified that, pursuant to Article 101(2) of the Constitution of Kenya, the Senate seat held by Senator Gloria Orwobaelected under Article 98(1)(b)became vacant as of May 21, 2025, read the notice dated May 21, 2025.

The declaration followed an earlier attempt by Orwoba to block her expulsion through an urgent court application. However, Justice Mugambi dismissed the application, citing procedural errors.

I have read the Notice of Motion application dated May 19, 2025 It is clear that the applicant introduced new parties who were not included in the original petition. She did so without seeking the courts permission The application is therefore incompetent and is rejected, Justice Mugambi ruled.

In her initial petition, Orwoba named the United Democratic Alliance and the Registrar of Political Parties as respondents. The matter will return to court on June 3, 2025, for further directions.

UDA Expelled Orwoba Over Disloyalty

Just days before the legal back-and-forth, UDA expelled Orwoba over what it described as gross misconduct and disloyalty to the party. The party took issue with her attendance at a homecoming event for former Interior Cabinet Secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi.

UDA officials also accused Orwoba of publicly criticizing government policiesactions they said violated the partys code of conduct and signaled political betrayal.

What Lies Ahead for Orwoba?

Although the High Court has given her temporary relief, many political observers believe Orwoba is fighting a losing battle.

Still, Orwoba has not backed down. In a defiant post on her official Facebook page yesterday, she made it clear shes far from done with politics.

Worry not; some of us didnt join politics to make money. Those characters are the ones conning Kenyans Chap Chap with fake diaspora jobs. I joined politics to be a positive change makerand so far, so good, she wrote.

Orwoba has also confirmed her political ambitions are far from over, declaring her intent to run for the Bobasi parliamentary seat in 2027.
Audi, the German luxury automotive brand, launched 'Drive Sure', a strategic driving training program. Aimed at empowering performance-oriented car owners and drivers to be safe, skilled and responsible behind the wheel. Audi Drive Sure will equip drivers with advanced technical expertise and safety awareness. Audi Driving Program is curated for luxury car owners to equip them with confidence to drive responsibly on all terrains and driving situations. The program will involve a comprehensive workshop, which will help prepare the participants to handle the responsibility that comes with driving performance-oriented vehicles. The program addresses India's road safety agenda by aiming to bridge the gap between modern vehicle technologies and driver readiness. Audi Drive Sure addresses these gaps through a dual curriculum for young drivers and chauffeurs. The program builds on Audi's two-decade-long presence in India, where it has delivered over 100,000 vehicles. Customer loyalty has been a crucial factor; today, every fourth car sold in India is to an existing customer. Balbir Singh Dhillon, Head of Audi India, said, "At Audi, 'Vorsprung durch Technik' is more than just an engineering principle, it is a commitment to societal progress. Audi Drive Sure embodies this ethos by addressing a critical gap in India's mobility landscape: the intersection of performance-oriented technology and human readiness." Dhillon added that Audi India intends to train young drivers to be able to drive in difficult terrains and under various driving situations. "We intend to create a generation of drivers who respect power as much as they master it. By training young adults to navigate various terrains and driving situations, this program aims to elevate all Audi owners and chauffeurs to become brand ambassadors of safety-first driving behaviors." Audi also mentioned that, for chauffeurs, a special training program has been curated, imparting knowledge about elite grooming & professional conduct, safe driving behavior and Audi Technology, in a bid to ensure chauffeurs reflect the brand's luxury image. According to government data around 180,000 people died in road accidents in India during the year 2024. A large number of accidents happened in India because of over speeding, drunken driving, driving on wrong side and Jumping red light. (ANI)
PRNewswire Jakarta [Indonesia], May 22: JEC Eye Hospitals and Clinics, Indonesia's leading eye care providerwith more than four decades of clinical excellence, hosts the fifth edition of JEC International Meeting (JECIM) 2025 and launches the nation's first AI-powered digital eye health encyclopedia, Matapedia. * Global eye experts reunite in Jakarta for JECIM 2025, after five-year hiatus * JEC showcases 41 years of ophthalmology leadership and innovation * Launch of Matapedia marks new chapter in eye health education The return of JECIM, after its last edition in 2020, marks a significant moment for global eye care collaboration. Under the theme "Shaping the Future of Vision," the three-day scientific forum features pioneering discussions on AI-assisted retinal diagnostics, semi-robotic surgical tools, hospital management for practitioners managing hospitals and eye clinics to meet global standards, a 3D surgery experience--the first of its kind in Indonesia--which allows participants to feel as if they are directly involved in an eye surgery through special glasses, and innovative approaches to combat vision impairment in high-prevalence regions. The forum attracts over 1,200 eye care professionals from 17 countries for groundbreaking discussions on cutting-edge diagnostic tools, surgical innovations, and global strategies to improve vision care. The participants include ophthalmologists--among them young ophthalmologists and members of the ophthalmology community--eye care nurses, optometrists/refractionists-opticians, and other eye health industry practitioners. DR. Dr. Johan Hutauruk, Sp.M(K), CEO of JEC Corporation said, "At JEC, our mission is rooted in the belief that a clear vision is fundamental to a better quality of life. Every step we take is driven by a commitment to help people see better--because when people see better, they live better. That belief drives everything we do--especially through platforms like the JEC International Meeting, which we are proud to host as part of our commitment to elevating eye care in Indonesia and beyond. JECIM is more than just a medical symposium--it is a vital convergence of knowledge, innovation, and collaboration. We bring together world-class ophthalmologists, researchers, and professionals to exchange ideas, share the latest breakthroughs, and empower one another." JEC International Meeting (JECIM) 2025 is the most comprehensive ophthalmology scientific forum in Indonesia, initiated by JEC and held every two years. JECIM has become the most comprehensive ophthalmology scientific forum in Indonesia-- reinforcing JEC's ongoing contribution to advancing eye health not only domestically but also internationally. Founded in 1984, JEC's legacy as Indonesia's most advanced and comprehensive eye hospital network is well-established, both nationally and internationally. In terms of reach, JEC now operates five state-of-the-art eye hospitals: JEC @ Menteng, JEC @ Kedoya, JEC PRIMASANA @Tj. Priok, JEC CANDI @Semarang, and JEC ORBITA @Makassar. It also runs eleven leading eye clinics in major Indonesian cities, including JEC @ Cibubur, JEC @ Tambora, JEC @ Cinere, JEC @ Bekasi, Candi Eye Center @ Semarang, JEC ANWARI @Purwokerto, JEC JAVA @Surabaya, JEC ORBITA @Makassar, JEC BALI @Denpasar, JEC JAVA @Pasuruan, and the newly opened JEC ORBITA @Kendari. Later this year, JEC will add a few other branches to bring access to trusted, international-standard eye care services closer to not only for local communities, but also for international visitors and even residents of neighboring countries. Its flagship facility, JEC @ Kedoya, has earned four consecutive accreditations from the Joint Commission International (JCI)--in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023--cementing its status as a global-standard institution in patient safety and clinical excellence. This achievement serves as a benchmark for the standardization of JEC's services across all its branches. A pioneer in vision correction, JEC made history by being the first hospital in Indonesia to introduce LASIK surgery and launch the country's first Laser Vision Correction Center (LVC). For this groundbreaking achievement, JEC was awarded a record by the Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI) for its contributions to LASIK services. Domestically, JEC has achieved the highest level of accreditation from the Hospital Accreditation Commission (KARS) and received numerous accolades, including the title of Most Brand Reputable Eye Hospital in Greater Jakarta and seven other major cities across Indonesia by SWA Magazine, as well as Best in Building and Managing Corporate Image in the Eye Hospital category from the Corporate Image Award. In addition, JEC was recognized for its excellence in Omnichannel Branding in 2023 and as the winner of the Digital Customer Engagement category at the 2024 Marketeers OMNI Awards. On the international stage, JEC is a founding member of the ASEAN Association of Eye Hospitals (AAEH) and an active member of the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH), further reinforcing its role as a regional leader in ophthalmic care. As the most complete eye care provider in Indonesia, JEC offers a full spectrum of advanced treatments, including cataract surgery (Phacoemulsification and FLACS), refractive procedures like SMILE PRO, SMILE, and LASIK, as well as specialized care for corneal diseases, vitreoretinal disorders, glaucoma, and neuro-ophthalmology. JEC also leads in oculoplasty (eye plastic surgery and ocular tumors), ocular infections and immunology, and provides services, namely general eye exams, tele-ophthalmology, dry eye care, contact lens services, and myopia control. For pediatric and specific cases, JEC offers specialized clinics including the Children's Eye & Strabismus Center, Low Vision Care, and the Thyroid Eye Center for thyroid-related vision conditions. In a groundbreaking move at JECIM 2025, JEC unveiled Matapedia -- a comprehensive and accessible digital platform dedicated to eye health. Matapedia serves as a trusted source of accurate, easy-to-understand information about eye conditions, treatments, and preventive care, aiming to empower the public and support medical professionals in enhancing vision and quality of life. All of this information can be accessed free of charge by the general public through the website www.matapedia.id. Dr. Referano Agustiawan, SpM(K), Director of JEC @ Menteng and Chair of JECIM 2025, said the high-profile gathering has become the ideal stage to introduce this groundbreaking digital solution. "JECIM has always been about pushing boundaries in eye care. Matapedia, on the other hand, represents a vital bridge between cutting-edge ophthalmology and public accessibility. While JECIM advances professional knowledge sharing, this digital platform extends our expertise directly to communities facing critical eye care shortages." Developed in response to Indonesia's severe ophthalmologist shortage - with just 3,000 specialists serving 275 million people - Matapedia combats an equally urgent crisis: medical misinformation. Findings from Indonesia's Communications and Digital Ministry (KOMDIGI), which identified 163 health misinformation cases among 1,923 hoaxes circulating in 2024 are concerning. Given that 27.79% of Indonesians look for health information online, Indonesia's 2024 Digital Literacy Index, however, shows a score of 43,34, indicating that while the public is fairly skilled in using digital devices, they tend to buy the information blindly. The platform's "Ask AI" feature provides instant symptom guidance in multiple languages. JEC is also developing a mobile application with full accessibility features for the visually impaired, including screen readers and interactive audio guides. All content undergoes rigorous review by JEC's specialist network, presenting complex medical information through text, audio, and video formats. DR. Dr. Johan Hutauruk, Sp.M(K), added, "Matapedia represents the culmination of our 41-year commitment to advancing eye care. This platform bridges our clinical expertise with digital innovation to address critical gaps in eye health education and literacy. From rural health workers to urban families, Matapedia delivers trustworthy knowledge exactly when and where it's needed." Initial content covers hundreds of conditions and procedures, with plans to expand to 1,000+ articles by 2026. The forthcoming mobile app will incorporate screen reader technology and interactive audio guides, furthering JEC's commitment to inclusive care. With a powerful combination of extensive clinical capacity, decades of experience, and the integration of cutting-edge digital technology, JEC continues to strengthen its position as a leader in eye care services in Southeast Asia. Through JECIM and Matapedia, JEC not only advances professional development in the medical field but also creates a meaningful social impact by expanding public access to accurate, high-quality eye health information. About JEC With 41 years of experience since its establishment in 1984, JEC's contribution to eye care services has been widely recognized through numerous prestigious awards and achievements. These include four consecutive accreditations from the Joint Commission International (JCI), awarded to JEC @ Kedoya in 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023; recognition as the first LASIK pioneer in Indonesia, granted to "JEC LASIK Center" by MURI (Indonesian World Records Museum) in 2007; and Full Paripurna Accreditation from the Indonesian Ministry of Health. JEC has also received accolades such as "Indonesia Healthcare Most Reputable Brand" in 2014 and 2015 for the eye hospital category in Greater Jakarta and seven major cities in Indonesia from SWA Magazine, and "Best Corporate Image" from 2015 to 2019. JEC is a pioneer in establishing the ASEAN Association of Eye Hospitals (AAEH) and remains an active member, alongside its involvement in the World Association of Eye Hospitals (WAEH). To date, JEC operates five eye hospitals and eleven main eye clinics across major Indonesian cities, including JEC @ Menteng, JEC @ Kedoya, JEC PRIMASANA @Tj. Priok, JEC CANDI @ Semarang, and JEC ORBITA @ Makassar. The clinics include JEC @ Cibubur, JEC @ Tambora, JEC @ Cinere, JEC @ Bekasi, Candi Eye Center @ Semarang, JEC ANWARI @ Purwokerto, JEC JAVA @ Surabaya, JEC ORBITA @ Makassar, JEC BALI @ Denpasar, JEC JAVA @ Pasuruan, and JEC ORBITA @ Kendari. For more information, please visit www.jec.co.id Phone: (021) 2922 1000 / Fax: (021) 390 4601 / www.jec.co.id (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PRNewswire Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 22: At the helm of this creative vision is Thomas Abraham, a designer celebrated for harmonizing tradition with innovation. While already an established name in Indian fashion, his international showcases have further elevated his global stature. As the founder of IDeA World College in Bangalore, Abraham also nurtures the next generation of designers through a curriculum centered on sustainability, inclusivity, and creative reinvention. Thomas Abraham for IDeA Design House has unveiled a couture line that's captivating the international fashion scene--Enigmatic Elegance. Rooted in cultural heritage and elevated by a modern aesthetic, the collection features fluid silhouettes, delicate detailing, and a color story that speaks to both strength and serenity. Among its most striking recent appearances was on Jyothsana Venkatesh, WBFF Pro champion and Indian fashion and fitness icon, who wore one of the collection's standout pieces--bringing elegance and power to the forefront in a way that perfectly embodied the line's spirit. The collection first caught global attention following its critically acclaimed showcase at Paris Fashion Week, where it was praised for its seamless fusion of couture finesse and cultural soul. That momentum carried onto the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, where Miss Universe Bahrain Lujane Yacoub and international supermodel Anna Bubloba appeared in custom Enigmatic Elegance creations. Their looks, like Venkatesh's, reflected the collection's core message: modern femininity rooted in identity and grace. From Paris to Cannes--and now worn by celebrated figures like Jyothsana Venkatesh--Enigmatic Elegance is not just a collection. It's a movement redefining what modern couture can be on the global stage. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2693998/Enigmatic_Elegance_couture_line.jpg (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], May 22: Microsoft conducted its first AI Bootcamp at the newly established campus of Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh, with an objective to impart industry-oriented skills. More than 300 students of different streams, including Engineering, Business and Commerce, Computer Applications, etc, participated in the AI Bootcamp organized by Global Tech Giant Microsoft, in which practical hands-on training using AI tools and technologies was conducted for the first batch of Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh. Global IT company Microsoft has signed MoU with Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh to offer industry collaborative programmes in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to nurture a futuristic workforce. This collaboration will offer technical courses that integrate AI early in students' education. The students will get training in using the tools in the latest AI and emerging technologies, which will boost their skill sets and enhance their scope of job. By leveraging AI in learning, students will gain real-world skills, including Python programming and AI integration, which are essential for their future careers. As part of these efforts, Chandigarh University Unnao successfully hosted the Microsoft AI Bootcamp today under the 'Unnati AI' initiative in partnership with FITT IIT Delhi, Microsoft, with CU-TBI serving as a strategic implementation partner. Unnati AI Accelerator initiative is a joint programme launched by FITT IIT Delhi, Microsoft, and Chandigarh University, with CU-TBI serving as a strategic implementation partner. Keeping women's empowerment in focus, Microsoft has made it mandatory to ensure 50% participation of women in the Unnati AI program. The program aims to deliver AI skilling, institutional partnerships, and funding opportunities to student innovators and early-stage founders, particularly from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Member of Parliament (MP) and Chancellor of Chandigarh University Satnam Singh Sandhu said, "Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh, has always focused on imparting industry and employment-oriented education for the students. Chandigarh University has a legacy of more than twelve years. It has established its second campus in Uttar Pradesh with an objective to offer industry collaborative programmes in the futuristic and emerging fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Science, Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Fintech and Cyber Security. Moreover, majority of these programs will be offered for the first time in UP in collaboration with these global and Indian industry giants. The students of Uttar Pradesh stand benefitted as Chandigarh University, in its first year itself, has collaborated with 23 top Indian and Global industry giants to offer industry-oriented programmes which will boost the employability of students." Nikhil Aggarwal, MD of FITT at IIT Delhi, said, "After visiting Chandigarh University, I must say I'm truly impressed by its world-class infrastructure and though process. Viksit Bharat can happen with skilled manpower, new-age institutions like Chandigarh University can combine skilling and technology and make it happen. Chandigarh University's commitment to technological transformation and quality skill development is commendable. In his recent meeting with Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was urged to expand his already significant contributions to India in innovative and impactful ways. That very idea gave birth to the 'Unnati AI' programme -- which stands for 'AI for Good'. The objective is not to develop artificial intelligence in isolation, but to teach people how to use it effectively -- especially students, and for the nation's progress." "A lot like Google, AI is becoming an integral part of our lives. Its use is not limited to generating code or documents; AI can be applied in multiple ways and across sectors. It entirely depends on how you choose to use it -- whether in healthcare, student welfare, or any other domain. This is a tremendous opportunity for all of you, as you are studying at the country's first AI-augmented multidisciplinary university. Make full use of the technology and infrastructure available here. We hope that the next Sundar Pichai or Satya Nadella will emerge from this very place," he added. Abhishek Tiwari, Founder and Chief Mentor at Venture Mozart, speaking on the theme of AI and startups, said, "The campus of Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh, is expansive, and I truly admire its architecture. What sets the university apart is its bold and timely initiative of embedding AI into the curriculum. This will greatly benefit students from Uttar Pradesh and beyond, as they gain hands-on exposure to cutting-edge technologies in the classroom -- something that was earlier limited to industry use." "AI has already become a powerful productivity tool, significantly impacting the job market and transforming industries. In fields like content creation, for instance, it is beginning to replace traditional roles. Going forward, it will be crucial for individuals to convert their skills into monetisable models, as thriving without AI may become increasingly difficult. To succeed, one needs an entrepreneurial mindset and a strong grasp of the right tools. Chandigarh University's approach to integrating AI education is truly transformative -- empowering students not just to consume technology, but to create it," he added. "While many universities are still exploring how to make India's youth industry-ready in Artificial Intelligence, Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh has taken a pioneering step by establishing the country's first AI-supported campus," said Lipika Sharma from Microsoft. "This is a commendable initiative. AI is not here to replace humans, but those who stay updated and skilled in AI will thrive in this era of technological transformation. Chandigarh University's collaboration with industry will provide students with valuable exposure, and Microsoft is proud to support this vision by helping students upskill with the latest technologies," said Lipika Sharma, Microsoft. Jai Inder Singh Sandhu, Managing Director, Chandigarh University said, "Chandigarh University Lucknow is set to play a key role in upskilling Indian youth, preparing them to become the next generation of global technology and business leaders. The state-of-the-art campus of Chandigarh University Uttar Pradesh, built at a cost of over Rs 2500 Crore on the Kanpur-Lucknow highway, is setting new standards by partnering with industries in its first year. Five Centres of Excellence (2 in the first phase and 3 in the second phase) will be established in Chandigarh University UP, focusing on research in various fields. Additionally, the University will offer Rs 3 crore 'CV Raman Scholarship' to support students pursuing careers in scientific research." Envisioned to foster a culture of sustainability and empower future global leaders, Chandigarh University, Uttar Pradesh, immerses 21st-century learners in a personalised and experiential learning experience, integrating an AI-powered academic model and a multidimensional, futuristic perspective on education. Our Uttar Pradesh campus carries forward the venerable legacy of more than a decade of Chandigarh University, Punjab, which has established itself as India's No. 1 Private University and a torchbearer of groundbreaking pedagogy and research-driven innovation. The AI-augmented new campus offers a broad spectrum of industry-driven futuristic academic programs encompassing data-driven insights, virtual reality experiences, real-world simulations, corporate mentorship, international perspective, interdisciplinary research, cultivation of entrepreneurial spirit, and professional competencies. For more information, please visit www.culko.in. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
This step is likely to raise the annual production by 650,000 units, which will bring the total capacity of the fourth plant to 2.61 million units and will be operational by 2027.

"HMSI currently has four production plants in India with a total annual production capacity of 6.14 million units. In addition, the cumulative production volume reached 70 million units in April of this year, after 25 years since start of production in 2001," Honda said in a release.

Honda set up its fourth plant in February 2016 and during that time annual production capacity was at 600,000 units. However, subsequently Honda added two more lines to its fourth pant, which brought annual production capacity to 1.96 million units.

Honda is committed to invest approximately 9.2 billion rupees, for the construction of its fourth line, which likely to add 1800 new jobs.

"Honda has long been investing and expanding its production capacity in India, the world's largest motorcycle market, to bring joy to its customers. 25 years on, with much support, HMSI has reached the milestone of 70 million units of cumulative production," said Tsutsumu Otani, President & CEO, HMSI

Honda expects to increase its total annual production capacity from the current 6.14 million units to approximately 7 million units in 2027 through further expansion of production capacity planned for other plants in India.

On the other hand, Honda's cumulative global production of engine/motor-powered motorcycles has reached 500 million units, 76 years after the company began mass production of motorcycles in 1949 with the Dream D-Type.

Honda has an annual production capacity of more than 20 million units in 23 countries and regions and 37 production entities. The company deliver products and services to customers worldwide through a network of more than 30,000 Honda dealers. (ANI)
A huge surge in retail investor participation has been witnessed in Indian capital markets over the past several years, and much of it could be attributed to the growing middle class coupled with rising financial literacy. Mutual funds and systematic investment plans (SIPs) have become increasingly popular investment vehicles among Indians, particularly for the retail investors, a joint report by industry body ASSOCHAM and rating agency ICRA said. Indian capital market stands at a cusp of a transformative era, driven by digital advancements, regulatory reforms, and its huge investor base. Retail investors currently hold about 18 per cent of the total market capitalisation of NSE-listed companies, up from around 11 a decade ago. Regulatory reforms spearheaded by the market regulator SEBI also have played a pivotal role in fortifying market integrity and transparency. Initiatives such as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code have bolstered the financial ecosystem, fostering a more robust and resilient market environment. However, despite the substantial increase in retail participation in domestic equities, India's equity market penetration remains low at approximately 8 per cent, compared to 15-20 per cent in China, 45-50 per cent in the US, and 55-60 per cent in Japan. A relative low capital market penetration in India indicates a significant growth potential, the ASSOCHAM-ICRA joint report said. The number of domestic investors in mutual funds is about 50 per cent of those directly investing in equities, further highlighting the potential for expansion. "The availability of diverse investment products, such as mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), portfolio management services (PMS), REITs, InVITs, AIFs, plain vanilla debentures, market linked debentures, etc, allows investors to build diversified portfolios that align with their risk tolerance and investment goals," the report read. As India's financial markets deepen, financial institutions, including banks, asset management companies, and brokerage firms, stand to benefit from the growth and diversification of the capital market. All said, the market is, however, not without its challenges. As the Indian capital market is deeply interconnected with the global economy, certain sectors in the Indian economy are particularly more vulnerable to global and domestic shocks. For instance, the joint report asserted that the IT sector, which relies heavily on exports to the US and Europe, can be significantly impacted by global economic slowdowns. (ANI)
NewsVoir Chandigarh [India], May 22: In a strategic move to accelerate entrepreneurship and innovation on campus, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) at Chitkara University has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ludhiana Angels Network. The agreement was formalised in the presence of Mr Shibananda Dash, CEO of Ludhiana Angels Network, reaffirming a shared commitment to nurturing high-impact, investor-ready startups. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Madhu Chitkara, Pro Chancellor, Chitkara University, said, "At Chitkara University, we believe that innovation and entrepreneurship are essential pillars of education. This partnership with Ludhiana Angels Network will enable our students to translate their ideas into viable ventures by giving them the right mentorship and access to funding. It is yet another step towards our vision of developing entrepreneurial leaders who can shape the future." The MoU was signed between Ludhiana Angels Network and the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) at Chitkara University. The event highlighted the University's ongoing efforts to build a robust innovation ecosystem, driven by visionary leadership and collaborative engagement. Mr Piyush Garg, representing Ludhiana Angels Network, added, "This collaboration marks a pivotal milestone in our efforts to empower student entrepreneurs through structured mentorship, strategic networking, and access to angel investment networks. We aim to transform bold ideas into scalable, real-world solutions." Through this partnership, student-led ventures at Chitkara University will gain access to tailored guidance, domain-specific expertise, and growth capital. The MoU represents a concerted effort to bridge academia and industry, ensuring that startups emerging from the university ecosystem are equipped to meet market demands and attract investor interest. Chitkara University remains steadfast in its mission to shape the next generation of changemakers--young innovators equipped with the skills, knowledge, and mindset to lead with impact in a rapidly evolving world. The Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED) is the cornerstone of Chitkara University's entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is dedicated to encouraging innovation and empowering startups through capacity building, mentoring, and incubation support. For more information, please visit www.chitkara.edu.in. Ludhiana Angels Network is an active community of angel investors focused on supporting early-stage startups with capital, mentorship, and market access. The network is committed to advancing innovation and driving economic growth across the region. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PNN New Delhi [India], May 22: For any business owner, every financial decision matters. When margins are tight and operations are dynamic, even where you park your working capital becomes a strategic choice. So, it's natural to wonder why most businesses continue to prefer current accounts even when they offer no interest. Let's take a look at why. Unrestricted transactions For any business, big or small, daily transactions are a must. Payments to vendors, collections from clients, utility bills, taxes and salaries--it all adds up. A current account offers unlimited transaction capability without any cap or penalties. So whether you're transferring funds multiple times a day or settling accounts across branches, you don't have to second guess how often you can access your own money. Smooth cash flow without interruptions Managing inflows and outflows without disruption is key to running a business smoothly. That's exactly where a current account makes a difference. There's no waiting period, no restriction on withdrawal amounts and no lock-in on funds. That means you can pay your suppliers, restock inventory or handle last minute expenses without worrying about liquidity. Access to short term funds when you need a cushion Many current accounts come with an overdraft facility, a handy tool when cash flows get tight. It acts like a pre-approved buffer you can dip into when needed. For example, if your receivables are delayed but your payouts are due then an overdraft helps you bridge that gap. It saves you from having to apply for a loan or dip into personal funds. Better visibility and record keeping for business transactions Tracking your financials becomes easier when all your business transactions run through a dedicated account. A current account gives you a clear separation between business and personal expenses and simplifies bookkeeping. Regular statements, GST-ready reports and easy data downloads help you stay audit ready without having to chase paperwork. Tailored features that align with business needs Banks today offer customised current accounts based on the nature of your business. You'll find options like: * Cash deposit facilities across multiple branches * Bulk payment handling for payrolls or vendor payouts * Integration with accounting tools or ERP systems * Auto-sweep options where idle funds get moved to fixed deposits for short-term interest earnings These added features help business owners run operations more efficiently, even if the core account doesn't offer direct interest. Flexibility to scale as your business grows What works for a small retail outlet today may not work for a growing e-commerce brand tomorrow. A current account provides the kind of flexibility that evolves with your business. From multi-city cheque collections to digital transaction support and payment gateways, most banks offer account variants that scale with your needs. You don't even need to switch account types. While savings accounts focus on returns, current accounts are designed to support the way businesses operate. In the context of business banking, returns are often measured in efficiency, convenience and access rather than interest alone. A current account enables smoother daily operations which is far more essential for businesses managing regular inflows and outflows. Also, check current account fees and charges. This gives you better control over your costs and helps you choose an option that works for your business. FAQs 1. Can I earn any return from a current account if it doesn't offer interest? While traditional current accounts don't offer interest, some banks provide auto sweep features that shift surplus funds into short term fixed deposits. These deposits can generate limited interest without compromising liquidity to help you make the most of idle balances. 2. Is a current account mandatory for every type of business? It is not mandatory; however, it is recommended. Operating a business through a savings account can raise compliance issues and limit transaction capacity. A current account aligns better with commercial usage and is more acceptable for GST registrations and vendor dealings. 3. Can one use a savings account instead of a current account for business? For very small or early-stage freelancers or businesses with low monthly transactions, a savings account may temporarily suffice. But once transactions grow or GST registration is required then a current account becomes the appropriate and sustainable choice. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
HT Syndication Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 22: Bajaj Markets, a leading digital financial marketplace, now makes shopping simpler with the Bajaj Finserv Insta EMI Card. The card is accepted at over 1.5 lakh partner stores across India. Users can buy electronics, clothes, or home items and pay later in easy monthly instalments. No need to make a full payment at once. The card offers a pre-qualified card loan amount of up to Rs3 Lakhs, making it easy to handle large purchases. It is accepted in over 4,000 cities, giving more freedom to shop. This card helps save money, manage spending better, and enjoy more choices--all with less effort. Why Choose the Bajaj Finserv Insta EMI Card Available on Bajaj Markets Here are some key benefits of the card that make shopping simpler and smarter: Quick Digital Application Complete the entire application process online, within minutes Instant Approval Get an approval without a long waiting time or extra paperwork Zero Down Payment Shop now and pay nothing upfront with zero down payment options on a wide range of products No Annual Charges Enjoy lifetime access to the card without paying any annual or renewal fees Flexible Repayment Tenors Choose repayment plans that suit any budget with tenors from 1 to 60 months 1.5 Lakh+ Partner Stores Use the card at over 1.5 lakh partner stores spread across more than 4,000 cities Access to 1 Million+ Products Use the card to buy from a wide range of products across categories and brands The process is quick, and the steps are simple--making access to easy EMIs just a few clicks away. Bajaj Markets goes beyond the EMI card, presenting users with a comprehensive suite of financial products, including loans, credit cards, insurance policies, and investment options, all designed to offer unparalleled choice for holistic financial management. Head to the website or app to know more. About Bajaj Finserv Direct Bajaj Finserv Direct, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in India. It has two primary arms, Bajaj Markets, a financial marketplace, and Bajaj Technology Services, a techfin service provider. Bajaj Markets is a marketplace that offers multiple financial products across all categories - Loans, Cards, Insurance, Investments, Payments, Pocket Insurance, and VAS. Bajaj Markets has partnered with trusted financial brands to offer "India ka Financial Supermarket". A one-stop destination where its customers can explore a host of products that can help them achieve their financial life goals. Having started its journey as a fintech, Bajaj Finserv Direct has also built a very strong business as a techfin. Through Bajaj Technology Services it offers a wide gamut of digital technology services which span Custom Applications, Enterprise Applications, Data & Analytics, Gen AI, Cloud Services and Digital Agency. Visit the Bajaj Markets website or download the Bajaj Markets' app from the Play Store or App Store to experience "India ka Financial Supermarket". (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by HT Syndication. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
VMPL T. Begur (Karnataka) [India], May 22: Every Sunday, without fail for the past 50 years, the quiet village of T. Begur in Karnataka has witnessed a remarkable sight: thousands of people arriving from across the state, some traveling overnight, to receive free medical treatment at a clinic that has become a beacon of rural healthcare in India. Operating since 1974, this weekly free medical clinic has served over two million patients to date. What began as a modest initiative has evolved into a large-scale rural healthcare movement. On average, over 1,000 patients are treated every Sunday -- all receiving free consultations, medications, and even nutritious meals before heading back home. The clinic caters to people of all ages and backgrounds, especially those who have limited or no access to conventional healthcare. Patients begin queuing on Saturday evenings, reflecting the trust and reliability the clinic has built over five decades. Beyond treatment, the clinic also fosters a sense of dignity and equality for every individual who walks through its gates. At the heart of this extraordinary initiative is Dr Ramana Rao, a Padma Shri awardee and noted physician, who has never missed a single Sunday of service in 50 years. Alongside him, his wife and two sons - both medical specialists - contribute their time and expertise, making it a family-driven mission rooted in service to humanity. Dr. Rao's humility and tireless commitment have earned him admiration not only from his patients but from across the country. The clinic's ripple effect can be seen in the stories of patients-turned-volunteers, like Baba Jan, an auto-rickshaw driver who now manages the Sunday queues after first coming for his mother's treatment years ago. Elderly patients like 72-year-old Lakshmi Devi describe the clinic as their only hope, sharing how life-saving treatments and free medicines sustained them when no other help was available. Going beyond medical aid, the clinic also provides hot meals to all patients post-consultation -- a gesture many say is as crucial as the medicine itself. Farmers and laborers who travel long distances especially benefit from this act of nourishment and care. In addition to healthcare, the clinic has contributed to community development across rural Karnataka. More than 700 toilets have been constructed, and over 50 government schools have received support in the form of clean drinking water, uniforms, and notebooks. These parallel efforts reflect the clinic's wider mission of improving rural well-being through integrated support. Even as healthcare costs soar across the country, the clinic remains free and accessible -- sustained through private donations, volunteerism, and the unwavering commitment of the Rao family. For many, it stands not only as a medical facility but as a symbol of compassion, continuity, and hope. In a time where healthcare inequality is a pressing concern, this rural initiative proves that impactful change begins with consistent, community-focused care. The T. Begur clinic continues to serve as a model for grassroots healthcare in India -- a legacy built not on profit, but on purpose. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PRNewswire Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) [India], May 22: In a ground-breaking development that marks a proud moment for India, especially for Odisha, a premier research institute at the City University of New York (CUNY) has been named after renowned educationist and social reformer Dr. Achyuta Samanta (Founder of KIIT and KISS). The newly established 'Achyuta Samanta India Initiative CUNY Crest Institute' (ASIICCI) was inaugurated on Tuesday in the presence of distinguished academics and dignitaries from across the United States. This historic move is the first time a research centre in the United States has been named after an Indian, making it a moment of immense pride not only for Dr. Samanta but also for the people of Odisha and the global KIIT and KISS community. The newly established institute will provide American students with opportunities to research on Odisha's rich art and heritage. It will also focus on Dr. Samanta's contribution to the socio-economic development of tribal communities and his achievements in the field of education. Adding to this prestigious recognition, Dr. Samanta was conferred the highest honour of CUNY -- the Presidential Medal -- during the event. Reserved for individuals of exceptional global impact, the medal acknowledges Dr. Samanta's transformative contributions to education, tribal upliftment, and humanitarian service. His grassroots work through KIIT and KISS has positively impacted over 80,000 tribal children, offering them quality education, dignity, and opportunity. The idea for the research institute originated during the recent visit of Dr. Milton Santiago, President of Bronx Community College under CUNY, to KIIT and KISS in Bhubaneswar. Deeply inspired by Dr. Samanta's journey and vision, Dr. Santiago proposed naming a research institute after him, a suggestion that received unanimous approval from the university board. At the inauguration, Dr. Santiago remarked, "The Achyuta Samanta India Initiative will help American students from diverse backgrounds understand and engage with India's tribal communities, cultural roots, and one of the world's most impactful educational models." Dr. Samanta, who attended the event as the guest of honour, expressed profound gratitude and humility, stating that it is a moment of great pride and honour for him as an Odia and Indian to have a U.S. research institute named after him. He noted that it was not only a personal recognition but also a matter of pride for Odisha, KIIT, and KISS. He hoped that the institute would encourage greater research and understanding of Odisha's art, literature, and culture, as well as his own work. Founded 175 years ago, CUNY is a prestigious U.S. public university system encompassing 25 colleges and over 300,000 students from 122 countries. The establishment of ASIICCI under its umbrella demonstrates the global relevance of Dr. Samanta's vision and Odisha's intellectual heritage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyXrdNyLR_g Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694054/Achyuta_Samanta_Institute.jpgLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2234144/5333484/KIIT_Logo.jpg (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
NewsVoir New Delhi [India], May 22: The second edition of the HR and L&D Conclave, hosted by Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, brought together over 75 senior professionals from HR and L&D functions. Centered on the theme "Workforce 4.0 - Human Capital Strategies in a Digital-First World," the conclave served as a high-impact platform for leaders to explore the evolving intersection of technology, talent, and transformation. With participation from nearly 40 top organizations across various sectors, the event saw prominent CHROs and L&D heads from across India's business hubs -- Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore -- reinforcing its stature as a premier forum for strategic HR dialogue. The event was graced by the presence of Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing Director of Nestle India. It featured senior HR leaders and CHROs from organizations such as Adani Enterprises, KPMG, Schneider Electric, UnitedHealth Group, Bayer, Cigniti Technologies, Nestle, Epsilon, Air Liquide, CVENT, Material, Thomson Reuters, Landis+Gyr, Niva Bupa, HFFC, Inbrew Beverages, HCL Tech, Grant Thorton, and Altimetrik. The highlight was a fireside chat with Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and MD of Nestle India. With over 45 years in the FMCG industry, he offered powerful insights on leadership in the digital age. Emphasizing purpose, values, empowerment, and resilience, he noted, "The essentials of leadership should not change. These are: 1. Purpose for what you do and why you do it, 2. Values that you enshrine and demonstrate, 3. The capacity you have brought to orchestrate and empower, and 4. The ability to withstand challenges and still achieve success. The role of technology is to help humans be humans, not machines. The more we make humans become machines, the less we will be embedding technology as an assistant and aid." His grounded philosophy of leadership--rooted in character and compassion--offered a refreshing perspective in today's fast-paced, tech-driven business environment. The event was divided into three panel discussions. Three panels tackled critical themes -- AI in Talent Management, Personalized Learning Systems, and Leadership in the Digital Era -- each offering actionable insights for building future-ready teams. The first panel shed light on AI and the Future of Talent Management, exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping recruitment, workforce planning, and employee development. The second panel focused on the transformation of learning and development practices. Experts shared insights on adopting AI-powered, personalized learning systems that foster continuous development and adaptability. The third panel addressed the evolving role of leadership in the digital era. Panelists discussed strategies to build agile leaders who can drive change, lead multi-generational teams, and sustain high performance. Dr. Jones Mathew, Principal and Head of the Institute, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, said, "The 2nd Great Lakes Gurgaon CHRO and L&D Conclave 2025 was conceived as a national platform for discussions and ideation on the workforce of the future. Over 75 accomplished CHROs and L&D leaders from across the country made the event a vibrant source of practical insights and takeaways. The leadership lessons by Suresh Narayanan, CMD of Nestle India, were a beacon of light for business leaders. Great Lakes Institute of Management Gurgaon, is committed to shaping the workforce of the future by partnering with HR leaders and their organizations for talent recruitment as well as for their learning & development goals through customized Management Development Programs (MDPs)." Reflecting on the discussion, Nidhi Vinod, Senior Director, Learning Organisation Development, Epsilon, said, "It was absolutely amazing to learn from fellow fraternity members and hear about best practices shared by other organisations on the integration of AI in HR. The quality of the event was not surprising, considering it was hosted by Great Lakes. I'm truly amazed by the work Great Lakes is doing, particularly in the space of executive education." As digital transformation continues to reshape the world of work, the World Economic Forum estimates that nearly 60% of employees will require upskilling or reskilling by 2027. Workforce 4.0 reflects this new reality, where agility, adaptability, and the seamless integration of human intelligence with technology are crucial for building future-ready teams. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PNN New Delhi [India], May 22: Imagine starting your own food outlet -- your name on the board, your food making people smile, and your dreams finally turning real. Sounds big, right? But what if we told you that you don't need crores to do this? Not even 10 lakhs. In fact, you can launch your own fast-food franchise in just Rs5 to Rs6 lakhs. Sounds unbelievable? Say hello to Donito - India's first affordable food brand. Here's why this brand is stealing the spotlight and how it can be the perfect first step for young dreamers who want to be their own boss. 1. Big Dreams, Small Budget - Just Rs5 to Rs6 Lakhs! Donito isn't like those huge food chains that ask you to invest your entire life savings. Nope. This one's super pocket-friendly. With just Rs5-6 lakhs, you can become a Donito - Affordable Food Franchise owner and run your own outlet. That's less than the cost of a new car! It's perfect for students, fresh graduates, or even families looking to start a small business together. No royalty fees. That's right. You don't need to pay any percentage of your profit to the company. Every rupee you earn is yours. 2. No Chef? No Problem! Here's something super cool -- you don't need any fancy chef skills or trained cooks. Donito uses frozen, pre-cooked items that are just assembled at the outlet. So even if someone has never worked in a kitchen before, they can learn the ropes in just a few days. That means lower staff salaries, less stress, and easy training. Even a fresher who's just out of school or college can run a Donito outlet with confidence. 3. Tastes Like Home - Made for Indian Taste Buds Unlike many international food chains that don't really "get" Indian flavours, Donito is proudly Swadeshi. It understands our spicy, tangy, and chatpata taste buds. So whether it's students from Delhi or foodies in Chennai, Donito knows exactly what to serve. Plus, their team works with the best Indian spice makers and sauce suppliers, ensuring that every bite is bursting with flavour. 4. After-Sales Service That Actually Cares A lot of other food brands are already in the market who have been giving franchises for so long, but where they are lacking is after sales service. At Donito, we have a super strong after-sales support team made up of experienced professionals who have worked with Renowned brands. Whether it's staff support, kitchen setup, or logistics - we've got your back. We even sent an F&B (Food and Beverage) manager during the store's launch to help set everything up. You're never alone with Donito. We believe in growing together. 5. Everything Is Included - No Hidden Costs When you sign up as a franchisee, you get so many things already included in the franchise fees: - 2D & 3D outlet designs - Menu and hoarding designs - Pamphlets and banners - Raw material setup - On-site survey and handover It's like getting a full package deal. No surprise charges. No last-minute headaches. 6. New Menu Every 3 Months - So Customers Never Get Bored Who doesn't love variety? Donito adds new dishes every three months, keeping your menu fresh and exciting. But don't worry -- they'll help you introduce those items in your store too, without extra costs. That way, your customers always have something new to try, and your sales keep growing. 7. Super Fast Break-Even - Just 6 to 9 Months Worried about making your money back? Don't be. Donito says you can break even (recover your investment) in just 6 to 9 months. That's way faster than most other food businesses. And once that happens, it's profit time! With its pocket-friendly menu (tea from Rs15 and burgers from Rs31), Donito is a hit with school and college students -- meaning steady footfall and great daily sales. 8. Strong Logistics - Even in Small Towns Donito doesn't just focus on metro cities. They have a PAN India logistics network, which means they can supply raw materials on time to any franchise outlet -- even in smaller towns and cities. No more worrying about running out of ingredients or waiting forever for deliveries. 9. Easy to Manage Inventory Wastage is a big issue in food businesses. But Donito has a smart solution. They've built a custom inventory software to help you keep track of supplies, reduce waste, and save money. Less waste = more profit! 10. You're Never Alone - Real People, Real Support Starting a business can feel scary. But with Donito, you're never alone. From helping you design your shop, to sending experts during the launch, and guiding you even after the opening - they stand by you. They believe that when you grow, they grow too. It's not just about money -- it's about building a dream together. Final Scoop In a world where franchises can cost 20-50 lakhs or more, Donito is a total game changer. It's affordable, Indian, easy to manage, super supportive, and most importantly, a profitable food franchise under 5 lakhs. So if you (or someone in your family) ever dreamed of opening a food outlet, Donito could be your chance to shine. With a low investment, no royalty, full support, and an easy-to-run model, this might just be the coolest way to say: "I'm my own boss now!" (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
PRNewswire Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 22: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, one of India's leading business schools, hosted its Annual Convocation 2025 at its Mumbai campus on Saturday, 17 May. The event celebrated the achievements of over 800 graduating participants from across the Institute's full-time and modular postgraduate programmes, including two (2) Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) scholars. The Convocation was graced by Nitin Paranjpe, Non-Executive Chairman of Hindustan Unilever, as Chief Guest. Also, present were Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chair of SPJIMR's Governing Council; Dr. Varun Nagaraj, Dean, SPJIMR; faculty and staff; and family members of the graduating participants. Delivering the Convocation Address, Nitin Paranjpe drew upon his decades of global business experience to urge the graduating cohort to lead with purpose, resilience, and a commitment to continuous growth. Speaking of India's bold aspiration to become a Viksit Bharat by 2047, he highlighted the need for a new kind of leadership--one that is ethical, compassionate, and driven by the common good. Paranjpe shared three powerful life lessons drawn from his personal and professional journey: "There's no such thing as a good job or a bad one -- it's the mindset you bring that shapes your experience. The real joy, and the foundation for excellence, lies in loving what you do. Don't chase being the best in the world -- strive to be the best version of yourself. Continuous self-improvement is your right, your responsibility, and your greatest opportunity. Purpose is that inner force that fuels your energy and passion. When you find what truly drives you, hold on to it -- it's the most precious gift you'll ever have." In his address, Dean Dr. Varun Nagaraj shared a candid reflection on the challenges graduates face in an uncertain world--geopolitical tensionsand the dual promise and peril of AI. He urged them to enter this complex landscape with confidence, guided by SPJIMR's mission of value-based growth and wise innovation. He reaffirmed SPJIMR's commitment to nurturing leaders who combine knowledge with empathyand impact with purpose: "Tomorrow you will be a different and better person than today. Embrace a growth mindset--remember, you are a work in progress, not a finished product. The world offers no ready-made answers; solutions come only through hard work and wise innovation." Sixteen (16) top achievers across programmes were presented with Scholastic Medals by Chief Guest Mr. Nitin Paranjape, and 50 recipients from the Dean's Honour List received their commendation certificates from the Dean. Diplomas were conferred across the Institute's full-time and modular programmes, including the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM), Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGPM), PGDM (Business Management), Post Graduate Executive Management Programme (PGEMP), Post Graduate Programme in Development Management (PGPDM), Post Graduate Programme in General Management (PGPGM), and Post Graduate Programme in Marketing & Business Management (PGPMBM). The Convocation ceremony concluded with the traditional hat throw, celebrating the graduates' journey and the beginning of their next chapter as responsible, value-based leaders. About SPJIMR Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) is a leading postgraduate management institute, recognised by the Financial Times MiM Global Rankings as India's #1 business school, by Business Today as one of the country's top five business schools, and by the Positive Impact Rating as one of the top five business schools worldwide for societal impact. Known for its innovative and socially conscious approach to management education, research, and community engagement, SPJIMR aims to influence managerial practice and promote the value-based growth of its students, alumni, organisations and their leaders, and society. SPJIMR holds the international 'triple crown' of accreditations from EQUIS, AACSB, and AMBA. Visit SPJIMR.org for more information. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2694116/SPJIMR_Guest_Nitin_Paranjape.jpg (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
VMPL New Delhi [India], May 22: Innefu Labs, a leading AI-driven company providing cutting edge Data Analytics and Information Security solutions to National Security agencies, today announced the appointment of Amir Sela, former Sales Director at NSO Group, the company behind the Pegasus spyware, as its new Head of International Sales. With over 15+ years of experience across the defence and cyber security sectors, Amir brings deep domain expertise in Sales and Business development. His previous tenures include roles at the Israel Ministry of Defence, Aeronautics, Seraphim Optronics, and most notably, NSO Group, developers of the Pegasus spyware platform. At Innefu Labs, Amir will lead the company's international sales strategy, focusing on expanding its global footprint. His appointment aligns with Innefu's aggressive global growth plans and the increasing demand for integrated intelligence, cyber defence, and public safety solutions worldwide. "Amir's deep understanding of the cyber intelligence landscape, coupled with his proven track record in strategic sales, makes him the ideal leader to scale our international presence," said Tarun Wig, Co-founder & CEO, Innefu Labs. "We are thrilled to welcome him to the leadership team at a time when our solutions are gaining strong traction across global markets." Commenting on his new role, Amir said: "I'm excited to join Innefu Labs, a company at the forefront of innovation in AI-led cybersecurity and intelligence. I look forward to building strong partnerships and helping clients worldwide to enhance their operational readiness and national security posture." To learn more about Innefu Labs, please visit: https://www.innefu.com/ About Innefu Labs Founded in 2010, Innefu is an AI-driven company providing cutting edge Data Analytics and Information Security solutions to National Security agencies. The company was started with a clear focus to carry out Deep Tech innovation and develop products which can capture the global market and be the cornerstone of the economy of the country. With more than 100+ installations across Indian Subcontinent, Middle East and South East Asia, the company is today a de-facto leader in developing and deploying AI for National and Cyber Security. The company with its own range of products serves a diverse client base including Defense and Intelligence organizations, Law Enforcement Agencies, Financial Intelligence Units, BFSI as well as top Fortune 500 companies. Having worked with some of the most sensitive organizations the company has a deep understanding of handling sensitive and critical installations. The company has a clear focus on developing state of the art products oriented towards solving real world problems of our clients with exemplary support to ensure 100% customer satisfaction. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
VMPL Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 22: The Internet offers a great many platforms and AI tools in the current age of self discovery and analysis yet for a student the journey can be overwhelming and full of confusion to say the least. CollegeWollege wants to change that with a AI-native, dynamic and data driven platform designed to simplify and empower the journey of students navigating higher education choices. Many in the industry have tried to solve this with a variety of products and services to help students in their dream college journey and become a go-to resource for aspiring college students and their families but majorly miss the authentication process for the information provided. CollegeWollege, built with a clean user interface avoids complicating the process, aims to provide real insights, clear comparisons, and authentic student guidance without jargons with its strong Reviewed by and Fact-Checked features. A Clear Vision for Students and their Parent Empowerment CollegeWollege.com aims to bridge the information gap by offering students and parents an easy-to-use website that breaks down critical data ranging from admissions info and academic programs to campus life and affordability and even how to reach the campus across thousands of colleges and universities in India. "The college search process can be overwhelming, confusing, and often stressful," said Nadeem Patel, Sales Head of CollegeWollege. "We used to get our news from X (formally twitter) as Millennials which quickly became a paid verify-mark platform and now there is no authenticity for any news, a similar problem stands in Indian education institute listing platforms, nobody knows if the data / content is being authenticated or not or is just being added for search engines, missing out on its key purpose of helping students and parents." he added. Extensive Database information for students on the Platform CollegeWollege offers comprehensive higher education databases, making it a one-stop destination for students and parents seeking reliable academic insights: 500+ Job & College Entrance Exams Detailed information on competitive exams like CAT, JEE, CUET, etc. written and reviewed by the top subject matter experts including in depth information on application deadlines, patterns, and eligibility. 1300+ Courses, Diplomas & Certificates Vast range of undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma, and certification programs across diverse streams with data driven insights and future outlooks for them considering major changes that have taken place as a result of AI. 16,000+ Universities & Colleges Verified and updated data from thousands of accredited and top institutions across India in future planning for abroad also, all in one place with a comparison and analytical data on academic programs, admission criteria, placement stats with comparison, scholarships details, infrastructure, campus etc. to make an informed choice. News & Notification Updates Helping students with timely news and updates on curriculum, industry trends and Exam notifications updates with direct news from colleges / universities through their first of the kind college-side panel to help connect with the audience. Gamification of the College Discovery Process The last thing a student wants is another listing / publisher platform and hence the approach is to gamify the process for a gen-alpha generation by making it a distressed journey of discovery. Key Features and Services CollegeWollege.com brings a unique blend of technology and editorial expertise to serve as a comprehensive higher education decision-making platform. Some of the core services include: * Smart Search and Comparison Tools - Student friendly UI/UX with easy search and filter options for better navigation experience, well structured and fact checked college comparison, college and exam score predictor, student profile dashboard with personalised recommendations based on their interest. * Fact-Checked Content and Resources - Honest, in-depth articles and resources written and reviewed by education experts, covering admissions, top entrance exams, placements stats, and trending courses information. Also extensive resources available on the top competitive exams pages for students who are preparing for CAT, JEE and other exams. * Detailed Top listings with clear criteria and ranking factors- Find top colleges by course and city at CollegeWollege.com. Explore detailed listings, compare options, and choose the best-fit college with updated data, rankings, and admission insights--all in one place. * Virtual Campus Life Tours & Video Reviews- Dedicated section for campus virtual tours with updated media coverage including student video testimonials, faculty introductions, and hostel walkthroughs. Enhances transparency and improves engagement, especially for outstation and international students. About CollegeWollege CollegeWollege is an independent educational platform committed to helping students make informed decisions about higher education. By blending expert guidance with relatable, student-first content, CollegeWollege is redefining how students explore college opportunities in a digital world. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by VMPL. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same)
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has floated the tender for the much-awaited Jorhat-Majuli Bridge over the river Brahmaputra on Thursday. The 6.81 km long two-lane bridge is being built at an estimated cost of Rs 600.51 crore. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has all along been persuading the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to expedite the tender process in right earnest. The Chief Minister thanked Union Minister Gadkari for turning the dream project into a reality. Later, taking to X, the Chief Minister wrote, "Great news for Assam. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has today floated the tender for the much-awaited Jorhat-Majuli Bridge--a 6.81 km, 2-lane bridge with an estimated cost of Rs. 600.51 crore. My heartfelt gratitude to Hon'ble Union Minister @nitin_gadkari Ji for making this effort into a reality." The foundation stone for this bridge was laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 18, 2021. This bridge will provide easy and all time access to the people living in Majuli, a district-sized island and the world's largest river island. In 2016, Majuli became the first island to be made a district in India. The construction work for the bridge had to be stalled in late 2024 after the contractor withdrew from the project. A new tender has been floated today. Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Sarma met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here in the national capital. "We had a good discussion on Assam's growth trajectory, how it has emerged among the country's fastest growing States and on our plans to build a Rs 10 lakh crore GSDP by 2027-2028," the CM wrote after meeting the finance minister. The Assam chief minister also met Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. They discussed timelines to operationalise the new IIM campus in Guwahati. "Guwahati will soon be one of the few cities in India that is home to IIT, AIIMS and now IIM," the chief minister wrote on X. (ANI)
Among those, actress Kajol took to social media on Thursday to celebrate the milestone and offer words of encouragement for Khan's year ahead.

Sharing a cheerful photo of Suhana on her Instagram story, Kajol wrote, "Happy Happy birthday @suhanakhan2... I know this year is gonna be a big one for you."

Kajol shares a long-standing friendship with Suhana's father, superstar Shah Rukh Khan.

Having starred together in numerous Bollywood classics such as 'Baazigar', 'Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', and 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham', the two have shared one of the industry's most iconic on-screen pairings.

Their camaraderie extends beyond the screen, with Kajol maintaining a warm and affectionate bond with the Khan family.

Meanwhile, Suhana's close friends Ananya Panday and Shanaya Kapoor also marked the occasion with nostalgic throwbacks and heartfelt captions on social media.

Ananya Panday shared a joyful photo from last year's IPL victory celebration, featuring Suhana embracing her younger brother AbRam, surrounded by friends donning Kolkata Knight Riders' "Champions" T-shirts.

Ananya captioned the post: "Happy birthday, my sweet little Suzie Pie!! There's no one like you... ilysm forever Suhaf @suhanakhan2."

Meanwhile, Shanaya Kapoor posted a beautiful image of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant's pre-wedding festivities in Portofino.

Alongside a radiant photo of herself and Suhana, she wrote, "Happy birthday, sister."

Navya Naveli Nanda also wished Suhana Khan on her big day. Taking to her Instagram stories, Navya shared a picture of herself embracing Suhana.

Alongside the picture, she wrote, "Happy birthday to the best."

Suhana made her acting debut with Netflix's film 'The Archies' last year. It was directed by Zoya Akhtar. (ANI)
The movie, directed by Susanne Bier, is set to be released on September 18, 2026, and will feature Bullock and Kidman reprising their roles as witch sisters Sally and Gillian Owens.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, King will reportedly play one of Bullock's daughters, who discovers the dark family secrets and her own dark powers, plunging the family into a crisis.

The film is based on Alice Hoffman's novel and will explore themes of sisterhood, female empowerment, and domestic abuse with a touch of supernatural fun.

Susanne Bier is directing the film, which Bullock, Kidman, and Denise Di Novi are producing.

The script is co-written by Akiva Goldman and Georgia Pritchett.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is set to shoot in London later this summer.

Meanwhile, if Joey King joins the project, the film will mark her second collaboration with Nicole Kidman.

The two have worked together in the film 'The Family Affair', which also starred Zac Efron in the lead.

King has become a household name thanks to her roles in the 'Kissing Booth' trilogy, 'The Act', 'The Princess', and 'Bullet Train'.

Her performance in 'The Act' earned her an Emmy nomination. (ANI)
Former Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu was all praise for Anupam Kher's directorial 'Tanvi The Great' after attending the premiere of the film in London on Thursday. Taking to his X handle, former VP congratulated the actor Kher for presenting a "compelling" and "enjoyable" story through his film 'Tanvi The Great'. "Attended the premiere of Tanvi the Great in London this evening. My heartfelt congratulations to the director of the film, legendary actor Anupam Kher, for presenting a compelling & thoroughly enjoyable film. It is a movie about goodness & innocence, which, as its director Anupam Kher aptly put it, "we seem to have lost," wrote former VP M Venkaiah Naidu. Former VP Naidu also lauded the performance of debutant Shubhangi Dutt, who plays the role of Tanvi in the movie. "It is this lost innocence which Tanvi, the protagonist, brilliantly essayed by Shubhangi Dutt, symbolises & strives to regain in this pathbreaking movie. Mentored by the iconic actor & director, Anupam Kher, Dutt also portrays Tanvi as a strong character of immense strength & resilience," wrote Naidu. He described 'Tanvi The Great' as a "powerful" movie which invokes the viewer in the sense of "patriotism" and "nationalistic fervour". "The film has powerful entertaining & musical elements. Another powerful feeling the movie evokes in the viewer is the sense of patriotism and nationalistic fervour," wrote former VP Naidu. https://x.com/mvenkaiahnaidu/status/1925304111093911644? 'Tanvi the Great' follows 21-year-old Tanvi Raina, a woman with autism who discovers her late Indian Army officer father's unfulfilled dream -- to stand at Siachen, the world's highest battlefield, and salute the Indian flag. Despite societal pushback and institutional barriers against autistic recruits in the military, she becomes determined to fulfil this mission, according to Variety. Apart from Anupam Kher and Shubhangi Dutt, the film also stars Khaki: The Bihar Chapter actor Karan Tacker, who is set to make his big-screen debut after years of working in television and on streaming platforms. Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, and Arvind Swami play crucial roles, and Game of Thrones actor Iain Glen is also part of the film. 'Tanvi The Great' features sound design by Resul Pookutty, the Academy Award-winning sound designer known for Slumdog Millionaire. It is produced by Anupam Kher Studios in collaboration with NFDC. The film is set to release on July 18. (ANI)
A woman was taken into custody by Mumbai Police on Thursday morning after she allegedly attempted to illegally enter the residence of Bollywood actor Salman Khan at Galaxy Apartments in Bandra. According to police officials, the woman tried to breach the security of the high-profile building but was intercepted before she could reach the actor's residence. She is currently being interrogated, and authorities are verifying her identity and place of origin. It is not yet confirmed whether she is a local resident or has travelled from another city. The incident follows closely on the heels of a similar security breach earlier this week. On May 20, a man was apprehended after he was found attempting to enter Galaxy Apartments stealthily. Security personnel on duty caught him in time and handed him over to the police. According to police officials, a preliminary investigation revealed that the man hailed from Chhattisgarh. On the professional front, Salman Khan was last seen in action drama 'Sikandar', where he starred alongside Rashmika Mandanna. While speaking to ANI, Salman recalled how the project came to him and also shared that it was Murugadoss who first narrated the script to producer Sajid Nadiadwala, who reached out to him with the script. "Actually, ye Murugadoss ki script thi aur Murugadoss ne Sajid Nadiadwala ko sunayi. Agle hi din Sajid ka mujhe phone aaya ki sun lena aur shayad tumhe pasand aaye," he added. "Toh maine suna... maine bola, 'Isme pasand na aane wali kya cheez hai? Kab start karoge?' Toh is prakar se ye film bani hai," Salman said. The actor also shared how his father, veteran screenwriter Salim Khan, surprised everyone at home by deciding to attend the trailer launch event. "The love and respect he has earned are still intact. When I was leaving home to attend the trailer launch, he told me he would join me too. Every member of our family looked at Dad and asked, 'What has happened to you?' When he came there, he climbed more than 8-10 steps to sit behind. He wanted to see the reaction of the press," Khan said. (ANI)
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says US export control on AI chips to China were 'a failure': report

Global Times) 09:48, May 22, 2025

The US' export control on artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China were "a failure," Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

"All in all, the export control was a failure," Huang was quoted by Reuters as saying, adding that "the fundamental assumptions that led to the AI diffusion rule in the beginning, in the first place, has been proven to be fundamentally flawed.

Despite the US export controls on AI chips, the US chipmaker is seeking to build a research and development center in Shanghai that would help it to stay competitive in China, where its sales have slumped due to tightening US export controls, Financial Times reported on May 16.

In response to an inquiry from the Global Times, the company responded on Tuesday in an email that "we are leasing a new space for existing employees and this is a continuation of our longstanding presence there," claiming that the company is not sending any GPU designs or core IP to China to be modified to comply with export controls.

In response to Global Times' inquiry on Sunday to confirm whether NVIDIA can still sell the H20 chip to the Chinese market, a spokesperson from the company told the Global Times on Monday that "while we continue to evaluate our options, the H20 ban ended our Hopper datacenter series line in China  we are not able to change the Hopper design to sell to China. With the ban on H20, our competitors in China are now largely shielded from US competition and free to leverage that entire $50B market to build a strong AI ecosystem."

The Nvidia CEO has repeatedly said that China is critical to the company's growth. China generated $17 billion in revenue for Nvidia in the fiscal year ending January 26, accounting for 13 percent of the company's total sales, according to the Reuters.

Huang said on May 6 that China's artificial intelligence market will likely reach about $50 billion in the next two to three years, and that missing out on it would be a "tremendous loss," reported CNBC on May 6.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Michelle Williams has opened up about her experience living with co-star Ryan Gosling during the filming of the 2010 romantic drama 'Blue Valentine'. The Oscar nominee revealed that the unconventional approach to preparing for their roles was "horrible" but ultimately helped them tap into the complexities of their characters, as per The Hollywood Reporter. Williams and Gosling played a couple whose relationship deteriorates over time. To get into character, director Derek Cianfrance encouraged them to live together and improvise ways to annoy each other, with the goal of "destroying" the romantic feelings they had developed during the early stages of filming. "We took a break in filming, and [then] we lived together, office hours [style], like 9 to 5," Williams recalled in an interview, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. Williams admitted that she didn't "want to give [Gosling] reasons to hate me" during the exercise, and the experience was "horrible". However, it helped them tap into the emotional depth of their characters. "Derek was like, 'We got to mess this up, and we need to burn it down,'" Williams said, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. The pair even performed a ceremonial exercise, burning their wedding photo to mark the transition. While Williams acknowledges that this approach was effective for their characters, she doubts whether it could be replicated in modern filmmaking. "I don't know if anyone could work like that again," she said, citing the logistical challenges and costs of taking a break in filming. (ANI)
Star couple Jason Momoa and Adria Arjona grabbed all the eyeballs as they posed for the camera on the red carpet at Cannes 2025. Recently, Arjona shared multiple photos and videos to Instagram showing herself and boyfriend Momoa, 45, posing on the red carpet in Cannes, France for the premiere of her new movie with Dakota Johnson, 'Splitsville'. "SPLITSVILLE premiere at @festivaldecannes ! The most special night with the most special people. @macovino you brilliant man thank you for making me your Ashley," Arjona, who also shared photos of her and costar Johnson, 35, holding hands on the carpet, wrote in a caption to her post. "So grateful to you @kylemarvin @dakotajohnson and Emily. So proud of this film and everyone in it. I'll never forget it," reported People. "I love that I got to share such a special moment with my love and my forever favorite date @prideofgypsies..," Arjona added of Momoa, whom she has been dating publicly since May 2024. Momoa responded to Arjona's post in a comment, where he wrote, "..so proud of you and so happy to be by your side..." Momoa and Arjona announced their relationship in May 2024, after the Minecraft Movie star hinted that he had "been in a relationship for a while" but was enjoying his solitude during an appearance at a Comic Con event in the United Kingdom. Since then, the couple has been going strong; they routinely connect on Instagram and made their red carpet debut together when attending events for Saturday Night Live's February 50th anniversary special in New York City. "I'll never forget this weekend. I got to launch my perfume with @moroccanoil. Celebrated 50 years of the greatest show on TV @nbcsnl. Saw friends and family. All while holding my partners hand," Arjona wrote in a caption on Instagram after attending SNL50. "What more can a girl ask for," reported People. Arjona, who stars in the Disney+ Star Wars prequel series Andor alongside her recent movies like Blink Twice and Hit Man, also attended the premiere for Momoa's A Minecraft Movie in the U.K. in March along with his mother Coni. Arjona stars in Splitsville as a woman who asks for a divorce from her husband Carey (Kyle Marvin). "Splitsville picks up with Ashley asking for a divorce, watching as the good-natured Carey runs to his friends, Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (Michael Covino), for support," a Cannes synopsis for the movie reads. "He's shocked to discover that the secret to their happiness is an open marriage; that is, until Carey crosses the line and throws all of their relationships into chaos," reported People. 'Splitsville' will release in theaters August 22. (ANI)
Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna lauded the central government and the armed forces for Operation Sindoor and said that "India is answering very well". In a conversation with ANI, he said, "Operation Sindoor bahut a makul naam se chalaya gaya hai.. kyunki kayi logon ke sindoor ujad gaye hai..dekhiye ye ghatna bhi aesi hai ki isne ek parampara shuru ki hai ki hum ghus kar marenge.. aaj tak hum ghusne ki baat nahi karte the..." India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the elimination of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. He added, "Whatever happened in Pahalgam, beautiful place, I have been there 6 times in my childhood. I am surprised that we used to roam so peacefully, used to sit by the river, tourists used to come on horses... Today, at the same place, I am surprised... I don't know how many are there, came and attacked... India is answering very well. " On talking about the Instagram accounts of Pakistani actors being blocked in the country, he shared, "Actors have no religion, we have to follow every religion..Hindus and Muslims work together. ...Actors can come from Hollywood to work, so why not from Pakistan? But if that actor from Pakistan does not understand the principles of the actor, to uska virodh hona chahiye.." Operation Sindoor, initiated on May 7, showcased a calibrated, tri-services response that embodied precision, professionalism, and purpose.Operation Sindoor was conceived as a punitive and targeted campaign to dismantle the terror infrastructure across the Line of Control and deeper inside Pakistan, as per the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting press release. Multi-agency intelligence provided confirmation of nine major camps that were eventually targeted in the operation. India's retaliatory action was based on meticulous planning and an intelligence-led approach, which ensured that the operations were conducted with minimal collateral damage. Operational ethics were central to the mission, and restraint was exercised to avoid civilian harm, as per the press release. In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, Pakistan initiated a series of retaliatory drone and UCAV attacks targeting key Indian airbases and logistics infrastructure. These attempts, however, were effectively neutralised by India's comprehensive and multi-layered air defence architecture. Central to this success was the Integrated Command and Control Strategy (ICCS), which facilitated real-time threat identification, assessment, and interception across multiple domains. (ANI)
Simpson, who is returning to acting with a guest appearance on the show, described filming with Kardashian as "incredible" and "natural," as quoted by Deadline.

Simpson praised the prosthetics team that worked on her character, saying she had "the most patience of anyone they've ever worked with".

She also teased her role in the series, saying she "really embody[s] someone that I am not, so I was definitely acting".

When asked about working with Kardashian, Simpson joked, "She did all the lawyer talk, I did all the whining," as quoted by Deadline.

'All's Fair' follows a team of female divorce attorneys who leave a male-dominated firm to open their own practice.

The series boasts an impressive cast, including Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash-Betts, Teyana Taylor, and Matthew Noszka.

Simpson's appearance on 'All's Fair' marks her return to acting, and she is clearly excited about the project.

"Filming All's Fair was incredible. I had a blast," she said. (ANI)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday participated in a dialogue program with the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the topic "One Nation, One Election" at a hotel on Mussoorie Road. On this occasion, he welcomed and greeted the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, PP Chaudhary and all the committee members. The Chief Minister said that 'One Nation One Election' is an important initiative towards making our democracy more strong, effective and inclusive. He said that our election system has been effective and strong despite its diversity. However, because elections are held at different times, the code of conduct is imposed repeatedly, which is why all the work of the states comes to a standstill. Whenever elections come, many personnel must be removed from their original work and put on election duty. The Chief Minister said that in the last three years, due to the code of conduct of the Assembly, Lok Sabha and Municipal elections in the state, the administrative machinery of the state was deprived of the process of taking policy decisions for 175 days. For a small and limited resource state, these 175 days are important from the point of view of governance. The Chief Minister said that the state government bears the entire expenditure burden of the assembly elections, and the central government bears the expenditure burden of the Lok Sabha elections. If both polls are held together, the expenditure burden on the state and the central government will be equally halved. By holding both the elections together, there will be a saving of about 30 to 35 per cent in the total expenditure. This can be used in many areas of the state, such as health, education, road, water, agriculture, and women's empowerment. The Chief Minister said that in Uttarakhand, the period from June to September is the time of rain along with the Chardham Yatra; in such a situation, many problems must be faced due to the election program. Apart from this, the election process should not be scheduled during the last quarter of the financial year, from January to March. Due to the high school and intermediate board examinations in February-March, administrative resources are under additional pressure. He said that "one nation, one election" is important in hilly and difficult geographical conditions states like Uttarakhand. The Chief Minister said that it is difficult to reach polling booths in remote areas of Uttarakhand, which is why the election process takes more time and resources. It is also challenging for voters in mountainous areas to participate in elections, due to frequent elections, people's inclination towards voting decreases, and the voting percentage also decreases. (ANI)
"IndiGo flight 6E 2142 operating from Delhi to Srinagar encountered sudden hailstorm en route. The flight and cabin crew followed established protocol and the aircraft landed safely in Srinagar. The airport team attended to the customers after arrival of the aircraft, prioritizing their wellbeing and comfort. The aircraft will be released post necessary inspection and maintenance", the press statement read.

On Wednesday, rain and hailstorms lashed parts of the national capital. many domestic and international flights to Delhi airport were put on halt or diverted due to inclement weather conditions.

"Many domestic and international flights to Delhi airport from various airports have been put on halt or diverted due to weather conditions," said airport sources.

In a post on X earlier on Wednesday, Air India and Delhi Aiport issued an advisory for passengers stating that rain and thunderstorms may disrupt flights to and from Delhi this evening.

"Rain and thunderstorms may disrupt flights to/from Delhi this evening," said Air India.

"Due to inclement weather conditions and thunderstorms, flight operations may be impacted at Delhi airport.

Our on-ground teams are diligently working with all the stakeholders to ensure a seamless and efficient passenger experience. Passengers are requested to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information," Delhi Airport said on X.

After several days of scorching heat, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius, several part of Delhi-NCR experienced a sudden change in weather on Wednesday evening.

Heavy rains and hailstorms accompanied by gusty winds hit several parts of the national capital and surrounding areas, bringing much-needed relief from the intense heat.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), a cloud mass entered North Delhi and moved south-southeastwards, triggering a dust storm and strong winds.

The winds blew at speeds of 50-60 kmph, gusting up to 70 kmph, along with light rainfall. (ANI)
The women troops of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Akhnoor stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts during the Operation Sindoor. According to BSF DIG Varinder Dutta, the BSF was ready for everything, and as soon as the enemy attacked the Indian posts, the BSF retaliated with indiscriminate fire. He further asserted that the woman proved that they are the epitome of "shakti". "We were ready for everything. As soon as the enemy started attacking our posts, we retaliated with indiscriminate fire, destroying eight of their forward posts... We destroyed their aerial surveillance system also, in addition to one launching pad. Women soldiers in the force stood shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. They proved that women are the epitome of 'shakti'. Our female company commander completely destroyed one enemy post", Varinder Dutta told ANI. In Samba, a BSF officer said that they need to get rid of the word "women trooper." He asserted that women are "no less" than men in uniform and revealed that when the cross-border firing increased, the women officers were given the option to shift to the Battalion headquarters, but they continued their duties. "We need to get done with the word 'woman trooper'; women have fought like true soldiers. They are no less than men in uniform. They executed all responsibilities effectively. When the cross-border firing increased, they were given an option to shift to the Battalion headquarters and continue with their duties there, but I am happy that no woman trooper backed away. They all were determined to perform their duties here and prove their worth", the BSF officer said. The Border Security Force (BSF) foiled a major infiltration bid by 45-50 terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district on May 8, using heavy mortar fire to destroy enemy posts after Pakistan attempted to facilitate the infiltration along the International Border (IB) under the cover of ceasefire violations, BSF officials confirmed to ANI. According to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) SS Mand, the BSF effectively responded to the shelling, destroyed enemy posts, and prevented the terrorists from entering Indian territory. The BSF official also added that the forces were well prepared and responded with heavy bombardment to stop the infiltration facilitated by Pakistan. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Wednesday asked Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan to fix a time with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to discuss the Tungabhadra water utilisation issue. Speaking to reporters after handing over six elephants to the Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister at Vidhana Soudha, he said, "I appeal to the DCM to fix a time with the Andhra Pradesh CM to discuss the use of Tungabhadra water. We need to discuss the use of 24 TMC of water." "Karnataka is blessed with natural resources and wildlife. We can send more elephants to Andhra Pradesh. It is difficult to train wild elephants, hence we are sending trained elephants to Andhra Pradesh," he said. "In order to conserve wild life and prevent man-animal conflict, we have fenced the forest areas with railway tracks. We have also ensured that only government run resorts have permission for safari. I had gone to Kabini with family for my birthday. When Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi had come down for Mysuru Dasara, I had made arrangements for them to stay in a resort in Kodagu," he added. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar hit out at the BJP for not doing anything to fix Bengaluru's flooding issues and said that the state government was working towards a permanent solution for the city's rain woes. "The Opposition is busy criticising, let them do. We are working towards achieving a permanent solution for rain woes in Bengaluru. Ultimately, criticisms die and only good work lives on," he said while addressing a press conference after inspecting flood relief works in the city, along with CM Siddaramaiah, in several areas of Bengaluru. "The BJP is criticising today. What did they do when they were in power? I have instructed officials to remove encroachments, but some have got stays from the Court. The BJP did nothing about these encroachments. We had identified 211 areas prone to floods, of which we have fixed 166 issues. Works are pending in 44 others places and we are taking them as well. The number of flood-affected areas has come down in Bengaluru. We are trying to give Bengaluru a new shape and we will do it," he explained. "Most of the areas which witnessed floods are the ones represented by BJP MLAs. It shows what the BJP MLAs have done. Congress MLAs have addressed most of the flooding issues in their constituencies," he added. "We inspected Arvind Limbavali's constituency as well. He has brought up the issue of road widening. I have asked him to submit a detailed report of all spots where land acquisition obstructs road widening work. He also discussed a 150 feet road and we will look into his demand. The BMRDA has issued a notification for two roads, 150-feet road and a 150-meter road. I have brought this to the attention of the CM and the matter will be discussed in the Cabinet meeting soon. We will discuss with the CM and officials of local planning authorities to come out with a rule to prohibit basements in low lying and flood-prone areas," he added. Replying to a question on removal of encroachments, he said, "70% of the work is done and we are working on the rest," he further said. (ANI)
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the party strongly condemned the raids by the Directorate of Enforcement on Karnataka Home Minister and senior political leader G Parameshwara on Wednesday. Ramesh accused the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi-led centre, of politics of "harassment, vendetta, and intimidation." In a post on X, Jairam Ramesh posted, "The INC condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the ED raids on the Home Minister of Karnataka. Dr G Parameshwara is one of the country's senior-most political leaders who has made great contributions to the cause of education, particularly in the weaker sections of society." "The ED actions undertaken at the behest of the PM himself reflect the politics of harassment, vendetta, and intimidation of which he is the master. The BJP is clearly nervous and worried by the achievements of the Karnataka government over the past two years. We will not be silenced. We will continue to hold the PM to account for his multiple failures on multiple fronts," he said. After media reports emerged about the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at several locations allegedly linked to Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala criticised the Karnataka government's recent decision to grant ownership rights to one lakh SC-ST families. In a social media post on X, Surjewala wrote, "The ED raids on the Educational Institutions of Karnataka's Home Minister, Dr G Parameshwara, one of the tallest SC Leaders, are a frustrated reaction of the BJP and Modi Government to giving ownership rights to 1 Lakh SC-ST families yesterday at Hospet." The Congress leader termed this development as a "constant assault" on the Constitution and leaders of SC-ST-OBC communities across the country, adding that the "revenge seeking against G Parameshwara is part of a sinister design." Aiming at the BJP, Surjewala said that the ED raids are "a desperate attempt to cover up the corruption of previous BJP governments." Earlier, denying the involvement of Home Minister G Parameshwara in any case, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said that the leader is a very "decent" and "simple" man. Speaking to media persons, Shivakumar said, "I am sure that in no way my Home Minister is involved in any case. He is a very decent and simple man. No way G Parameshwara is involved in such a type of case." (ANI)
BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, who is a member of an all-party delegation led by Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha, said that the delegation will hold a series of meetings with different officials from the Japanese government and expressed confidence that the meetings will be very "fruitful." Sraangi and the delegation arrived in Toky on Thursday and were briefed at the Indian Embassy by Ambassador Sibi George. Speaking to ANI, Sarangi said that the delegation came to the Embassy of India in Japan and had a "good discussion" with India's Ambassador Sibi George and his team, as they wanted to understand Japan's viewpoint regarding the recent terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. On the delegation's visit to Japan, she said, "You are aware of the fact that one of the delegation has come to Japan, nine of us are here. and we have just started our visit in Japan and the first thing that we did was we came to the Embassy of India and we had a very good dialogue discussion with the ambassador and his team. We wanted to understand many things about Japan and about their viewpoint about the Pahalgam attack that occurred in Pahalgam in Srinagar on April 22nd." "So, I think he made a presentation, the ambassador and we all actually understood different aspects of this entire country's demeanor, texture, nature towards India and towards the Pahalgam massacre. So that was it. So after learning, after understanding, we are on the move and we will be going to different offices. We will be meeting the foreign minister. It's likely that we'll be meeting him or his deputy and then there is a series of meetings with different officials from the government and I'm sure it's going to be very fruitful. I'm very optimistic and confident," she added. A delegation of Members of Parliament led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha held a meeting with India's ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, at the Embassy of India in Tokyo. Sibi George briefed the MPs during the meeting. In a post on X, Indian Embassy in Japan stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was briefed by Ambassador @AmbSibiGeorge on Japan- specific approach to engagements, setting the context for a strong messaging of India's fight against terrorism." https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925377313598017815 The delegation is on a five-nation visit for Operation Sindoor global outreach. The delegation, led by Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Dr Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. Prior to his departure, Sanjay Jha said the purpose of the visit is to tell the whole world the truth about Pakistan's policy of patronising terrorism and the action taken by India in response under Operation Sindoor. "The biggest issue is that terrorism is Pakistan's state policy. It is the job of the entire delegation to reveal Pakistan's face to the entire world. The whole state of Pakistan sponsors terrorism, and the terrorism thrives completely with the support of the state," Jha told ANI. "We want to tell this matter to the whole world, and the other thing is about the nuclear bluff. We want to convey that we will not tolerate the terrorist activities perpetrated by Pakistan. We want to convey the message that enough is enough now," he added. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that took place on April 22. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoJK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
An exchange of fire was reported between Security forces and terrorists in the Singhpora area of Chatroo in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district on Thursday morning, the police said. "Exchange of fire started between Security Forces and terrorists in the Singhpora area of Chatroo in Kishtwar," Jammu and Kashmir Police said. Further details are awaited. Earlier on May 16, VK Birdi, Inspector General of Police for Kashmir Zone, said that six terrorists were neutralised in Jammu and Kashmir under two separate operations in Kelar, Shopian and Tral conducted by the Indian Army in coordination with Jammu and Kashmir Police and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). "In the wake of heightened terror activities in Kashmir Valley, all the security forces deployed here reviewed their strategies. Following this review, there was an intensified focus on operations. On the basis of this intensified focus and coordination, we conducted two successful operations in the last 48 hours during which we had significant achievement. These two operations were conducted in the Kelar in Shopian and Tral areas, which resulted in the neutralisation of a total of six terrorists. We are committed to finish the terror ecosystem in Kashmir Valley," the IGP Kashmir said. Major General Dhananjay Joshi, GOC Victor Force, elaborated on the anti-terror operations in the Kelar and Tral areas and said that the challenge they faced was "rescuing" the civilian villagers. "On May 12, we got information on the possible presence of a terrorist group in the higher reaches in Kelar. On the morning of May 13, on detection of some movement, our parties challenged the terrorists, who retaliated with fire. Our parties neutralised them. The second operation in Tral area was conducted in a border village. As we were laying a cordon at this village, the terrorists positioned themselves in different houses and fired at us. At this time, the challenge we faced was rescuing the civilian villagers. After this, three terrorists were neutralised," Major General Joshi said. Following the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, including a Nepali national, were killed, the Indian forces have intensified their operation against terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. In retaliation for the terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, in which precision strikes destroyed terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) and eliminated nearly 100 terror operatives at key bases in Pakistan. Among the targets were Bhawalpur, the headquarters of Jaish, and Muridke, a key training base of Lashkar. (ANI)
Congress leader Pawan Khera on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" over US President Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering the understanding of hostilities between India and Pakistan. Referring to Donald Trump's recent claim for credit during a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House, Khera said that this is 8th time Trump claimed that he got Operation Sindoor stopped, and questioned PM Modi for not rejecting these repeated claims. "This is the 8th time President Trump has made this claim that he got Operation Sindoor stopped. He claims to have used trade to get India to end Operation Sindoor. Prime Minister Modi has not rejected this claim even once. What does this silence mean?" Pawan Khera wrote on X. https://x.com/Pawankhera/status/1925383620195492228 Earlier, the US President again said that he facilitated the understanding through trade negotiations that de-escalate tensions between the two nations. Trump highlighted his personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while noting the challenges faced during the process. "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India, we settled that whole thing, and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan... You know somebody had to be the last one to shoot, but the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the country. We spoke to them and...we got it settled, and then two days later something happened, and they said it was Trump's fault, but Pakistan has some excellent people and some really good leaders and India is my friend... Modi, he's a great guy," Trump remarked during meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa. The cessation of hostilities between the two nations came after India's 'Operation Sindoor', launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. India has refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. "As you are aware, we have a long-standing national position that any issues pertaining to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian Territory by Pakistan," the Ministry of External Affairs stated. The MEA further stated that the "issue of trade" did not come up between Indian and US leaders since the commencement of 'Operation Sindoor' and the cessation of hostilities. "From the time OPERATION SINDOOR commenced on 7th May till the understanding on cessation of firing and military action on 10th May, there were conversations between Indian and U.S. leaders on the evolving military situation. The issue of trade did not come up in any of these discussions," MEA further stated. (ANI)
The accident took place on Wednesday night near the Sengkippatti bridge on the Thanjavur- Tiruchirapalli national highway, as per the Thanjavur District Collector Priyanka Balasubramanian.

Further details are awaited.

Earlier on May 20, in another accident in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu, five workers lost their lives while one was left seriously injured in a rockslide at a stone quarry operated by Mega Blue Metal in Mallakottai near SS Kottai.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin expressed deep sorrow over the tragic incident and extended his condolences to the families of the deceased.

In an official statement, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's Office said, "Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin extended his heartfelt condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased. He also announced financial aid of Rs. 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to the injured worker from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund."

The Chief Minister further directed authorities to ensure the injured worker, identified as Michael, receives top-quality medical attention." (ANI)
The Inspector General (IG) of Bastar Range in Chhattisgarh, P Sundarraj, on Thursday said CPI (Maoist) general secretary Basavaraju, who was killed in an encounter on Wedenesday, had an active role in the planning of many Naxalite attacks on security forces and people's representatives, and termed his killing a great achievement in the anti-Naxal operation. "CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, who was killed in the encounter, was active in Naxalite activities for the last 40-45 years...He was involved in more than 200 Naxalite activities," Sundarraj told ANI. Sundarraj said that Basavaraju had a direct or indirect role in all the attacks of the Naxalites in the Left-Wing Extremism-affected States in the last few years, as he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Maoists. "In the last two to three years, he had been the general secretary of CPI (Maoist). In many attacks against the members of the security forces and elected representatives, he had an active role in the conspiracy and planning. He hails from Andhra Pradesh, Srikakulam district, and was around 70 years old. He was a B.Tech graduate. We are collecting more information on him and other Maoists killed in the operation," Sundarraj said. The officer said that the search operation is still going on in the encounter area. "A total of 27 bodies of Naxalites, including CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju, have been recovered in an encounter between security forces and Naxalites in the forest area of Abujhmad in Narayanpur... Ammunition and weapons have also been recovered from the encounter site. The search operation is underway," he said. "The security forces carried out this operation very tactically, which resulted in the death of CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju... This is a great achievement for the security forces... Peace and normalcy will be restored in the area, and the people of the country hope that Naxalism will be eradicated. Peace and normalcy will prevail in the area," he added. Basavaraju was among the 27 Naxals killed in the joint operation of the security forces in the Abujmarh forests of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district. AK-47 rifles, SLR-INSAS carbines, and other arms and ammunition in heavy numbers were recovered. One DRG jawan was martyred and several others were injured in the operation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised the efforts of India's security forces after 27 Maoists, including top CPI-Maoist leader Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, were killed in a major operation in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district. In a post on X, Prime Minister Modi said, "Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people." Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that this is the first time in three decades of India's battle against Naxalism that a General Secretary-ranked leader has been neutralised by the security forces. Noting that Basavaraju was the backbone of the Naxal movement, Amit Shah said that 54 Naxalites have been arrested and that 84 Naxalites have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, after the completion of Operation Black Forest. (ANI)
Assam Health Minister Ashok Singhal conducted a virtual meeting with all District Commissioners and Co-District Commissioners on Wednesday to assess their readiness for the upcoming International Day of Yoga. Dr. P. Ashok Babu, Commissioner and Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, and Ms. Indranoshi Das, Director, AYUSH, Assam, attended the meeting. In his address, the Minister emphasised that yoga is not only for June 21, but should be practised daily throughout the year. He urged all district officials to conduct awareness activities and promote yoga as an essential part of daily life. He added that the celebration of IDY should be transformed from a routine event into a vibrant public festival that involves every section of society. The International Day of Yoga is celebrated globally on June 21 every year. The date was chosen because it marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. According to the release, this year, the 11th International Day of Yoga will be observed with the theme "Yoga for One Earth, One Health," which underlines the deep connection between personal well-being and the planet's health. The state-level central celebration of IDY 2025 in Assam will be held in Salbari, Baksa district. The venue was jointly reviewed by the Director of AYUSH and the Deputy Commissioner of Baksa. As stated in the release, the Chief Minister later approved it for the main celebration on June 21. All district administrations have been directed to extend full support and ensure wide public participation and visibility for the event. Alongside the central celebration, district and co-district level programs will be organised across all 35 districts of Assam. These include yoga demonstrations, awareness drives, cultural programs, and competitions. Schools, colleges, panchayats, and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs will be crucial in engaging people at the grassroots level. As part of the grand celebration of International Day of Yoga (IDY) 2025, the Ministry of AYUSH is launching several transformative initiatives to deepen public engagement and global outreach. A synchronised mass yoga demonstration called Yoga Sangama will take place at 1,00,000 locations across the globe, aiming to set a new world record. Strengthening international collaboration, Yoga Bandhan will see partnerships with 10 countries to host yoga sessions at iconic global landmarks. To promote long-term community engagement, 1,000 Yoga Parks will be developed nationwide. Inclusivity will be a key focus through Yoga Samavesh, offering special yoga programs for Divyangjan, senior citizens, children, and marginalised groups. A long-term impact review titled Yoga Prabhava will assess the role of yoga in public health over the past decade. The Yoga Connect Virtual Global Summit will bring together leading yoga experts and healthcare professionals worldwide. Harit Yoga will promote sustainability, combining yoga sessions with tree-planting and cleanliness drives. To attract younger generations, Yoga Unplugged will host engaging, youth-focused events and challenges. A large-scale Yoga Maha Kumbh celebration will unfold as a week-long festival at 10 locations, culminating in a central event led by the Prime Minister. The Samyogam initiative will also run for 100 days, integrating yoga practices with modern healthcare to promote holistic wellness across communities. A select number of these events will also be carried out in various parts of Assam to encourage community participation, focusing on youth and public involvement. Special countdown programs will be organised in the lead-up to June 21. A Yoga Asana Competition based on the Common Yoga Protocol will be conducted in four age groups in all districts. The District Commissioner will supervise the program and coordinate with the District Nodal Officer (AYUSH), with support from AYUSH officials and NGOs. All participants will receive certificates, and the winners will be awarded on the day of the celebration in the presence of local dignitaries. The Health Minister urged all officials to collaborate actively with educational institutions, the Armed Forces, NCC, NSS, local bodies, NGOs, and yoga organisations to ensure inclusive participation from all age groups and communities. A full-fledged media campaign will be launched soon using print, digital, and outdoor platforms to raise awareness and encourage regular yoga practice among citizens. (ANI)
Dr. Sonali Ghosh, APCCF and Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNP&TR), chaired the meeting on Wednesday.

Senior officials from the District Administrations of Golaghat, Karbi Anglong, and Nagaon, the Assam Police Department, the Forest Department, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), the District Transport Authorities, and other key government agencies attended the meeting.

Representatives from various NGOs, local organisations including the Jeep Safari Association, Hotel Owners' Association, and members of the media also participated in the meeting, bringing the total number of attendees to around 80.

The meeting focused on reviewing the landscape's flood preparedness scenario and emphasised the need for coordinated efforts among all stakeholders.

The critical importance of timely intervention to ensure the safety and well-being of wildlife during floods was highlighted. All agencies and community representatives were asked to cooperate and actively participate in managing the flood situation effectively.

An open discussion was held, and all participants were invited to give their opinions and suggestions. Various stakeholders shared their experiences and recommendations based on past flood events.

Emphasis was laid on improving animal rescue efforts, regulating vehicular traffic during floods, and enhancing inter-agency coordination.

All participants unanimously acknowledged and appreciated the effective coordination and prompt response by various departments during the last flood season, which resulted in a significant reduction in animal mortality and improved rescue operations.

Additionally, the cooperation of local communities, Jeep Safari operators, resort/ homestay associations, and local media in facilitating the smooth movement of rescue personnel and providing temporary shelter to evacuated animals and support staff was highlighted as a key factor in reducing animal mortality.

The successful regulation of National Highway traffic to allow safe passage for migrating wildlife during floods was also commended. (ANI)
Schools located in the Line of Control (LoC) areas of Gagrian and Sawjian villages of Poonch district suffered from structural damage due to heavy wind and storms on Thursday. Schools in the Mandi zone, located close to the LoC, have suffered extreme damage after their roofs were blown away by the storms. "Schools in our Mandi zone have suffered a lot due to the storms here... The high school here suffered the most, and is located very close to the LoC. The roofs of the schools have completely blown away which has created a lot of problems for our students and staff," said a school staff member speaking to ANI. He thanked the Indian Army for sending assistance for the repair of the school and also requested concerned authorities to raise funds for reconstruction. "The Indian Army has helped us a lot, they cleared the debris which fell here... I would like to request concerned authorities to raise funds for the reconstruction..." he added. Mohammed Amin, Head Master of Government High School, Gagrian, said the debris of the school has blocked roads and grounds. "These schools are at zero point. The winds here ruined the roof of the school, and have also blocked the road and the ground of our school. The Army has helped us a lot during this...." Amin told ANI. Meanwhile, on May 17, in another act of service towards the public, the Indian Army carried out a door-to-door outreach in villages located near Loc in Poonch, which were severely affected due to shelling. As part of the relief efforts, Army jawans distributed essential supplies, including medicines and rations, to the residents, while also interacting with them to understand their needs. A local resident said, "Our areas were affected by the shelling. The Indian Army has played a very important role on the borders, and they are providing us with relief material. We thank the Indian Army. We stand in support of the Indian Army." "They are providing us with rations. I pray to God for the long life of these Army personnel. We are with them. Just as they are bravely guarding the borders, we too stand in solidarity with them here in Poonch," stated another resident. Intense shelling by Pakistan during the recent conflict with India has left a trail of destruction in the border villages and districts across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir with locals suffering damages to their houses and livelihood. (ANI)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) appointed Former Timarpur MLA Dilip Pandey as the party's Overseas Coordinator. The main Opposition party in Delhi had on Wednesday released a list of new office bearers. Jitender Singh Tomar was appointed as Madhya Pradesh's Prabhari. Rajesh Gupta, Rituraj Govind and Mahendra Yadav were appointed as Prabhari of Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, respectively. Dheeraj Tokas has been made the Prabhari of Rajasthan. Prakash Jarwal was appointed as the Prabhari of Maharashtra. Ghanendra Bhardwaj and Vijay Phulara were appointed as Sah Prabhari of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, respectively. Four leaders were appointed as the Sah Prabhari of Uttar Pradesh: Dilip Pandey, Vishesh Ravi, Anil Jha and Ch. Surendra Kumar. On Friday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal announced a 'Nasha Mukti Yatra' amid the ongoing "War Against Drugs" in Punjab, which has been initiated by the administration to eliminate drug abuse in the state. He will be accompanied by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann in this endeavour to curb drug abuse in Punjab. He said that the 'Nasha Multi Yatra' would reach each village and ward in Punjab to strengthen people's resolve against drug abuse and the selling of drugs. It would also focus on convincing people to provide treatment to drug addicts to ensure their well-being. "From today, the Nasha Mukti Yatra is starting in Punjab. This Yatra will go to every village and every ward of Punjab. Through this Yatra, people will now be connected with the Nasha Mukti Abhiyan. In every village and every ward, people will take an oath that they will not consume drugs themselves, will not let anyone sell drugs in their area and will get the drug addicts treated and get them out of addiction," Kejriwal, former Chief Minister of Delhi, posted on X. He stated that the Punjab government has made arrangements for the treatment of drug addicts. "The Punjab government has made arrangements on a large scale for the treatment of drug addicts. Three crore members of the Punjab family will now ensure that they eliminate drug addiction from Punjab," Kejriwal said. "In the last two and a half months, Punjab Police and Punjab Government have started a war against drugs. For the first time, action is being taken against drug smugglers on such a large scale," he added. (ANI)
In line with its commitment to clean the Yamuna river, the BJP-led Delhi government will install 32 real-time water quality monitoring stations to monitor the river water and the drains flowing into it. A senior official said ten stations will be set up on the Yamuna River and 22 on major drains. Some of the Yamuna river sites where Monitoring Stations will be set up include Palla, ISBT Bridge, ITO Bridge, Nizamuddin Bridge, Okhla Barrage, etc. The major drains that will be included are Najafgarh, Metcalfe House, Khyber Pass, Sweeper Colony, along with some border drains that include Singhu Border (DD6, Sonepat), Bahadurgarh, Shahdara, Sahibabad and Banthia. These Monitoring Stations will monitor the river along with drains flowing into it and record the date of the cleaning procedure. All the monitoring stations are expected to be operational by the end of this year. The tender process has already been initiated. These stations will monitor water quality in real time and transmit the data directly to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) server. These stations will monitor key pollutants, for instance, BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), TSS (Total Suspended Solids), along with Levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Ammonia. The Yamuna cleaning project is already underway, where the treatement of sewage has begun. Delhi LG VK Saxena, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, and Minister Parvesh Verma are monitoring the procedure. The trio has regularly inspected major drains that also fall into the river. Yamuna cleaning has been a significant issue in the state, where the previous government promised to clean it but failed to do so. The BJP government, led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, has also promised and plans to clean it within its first tenure. In the Delhi budget 2025- 26, Delhi CM Gupta allocated 500 crore specifically for Yamuna cleaning, where funding will be designated for the construction of 40 decentralised sewage treatment plants (STPs). The aim is to treat the water before it enters the river, thereby addressing pollution at its source. A 1500 cr budget has also been allocated to rejuvenate Yamuna and improve the state's sewage infrastructure. (ANI)
Fire tenders are present at the spot. Badaun Chief Fire Officer, Ram Raja Yadav, told ANI that due to strong winds yesterday, the boiler of the factory fell, and due to sparks, the factory caught fire.

"The fire has been controlled... Yesterday, due to strong winds, the boiler fell, and due to the sparks, the factory caught fire," Raja Yadav said.

More information is awaited.

In another accident, a fire broke out at the Kotla Seva Nagar market in Delhi in the early hours of Wednesday, damaging six shops, officials said.

Speaking to ANI, Fire Officer Manoj Kumar from Delhi Fire Services had said, "We received a call around 4 AM. When we reached the spot, we saw that all six shops were on fire. These included shops selling tarpaulins, cosmetics, and clothes. No casualties have been reported in the incident. We immediately began efforts to control the fire."

"Eight fire engines were deployed, and the fire is now under control," he added.

In a separate fire incident, a fire broke out at a private school in Delhi's Nirman Vihar Colony, under the Preet Vihar Police Station area in the late hours of Tuesday.

According to officials, one car parked near the school was charred in the fire. (ANI)
The Outer North District Police have recovered 10 high-end stolen motorcycles, including six Royal Enfield Bullets, worth approximately Rs 13 lakh. The successful operation was carried out under the ongoing special drive 'Operation Bullet' and led to the arrest of two repeat offenders involved in a string of motorcycle thefts across Delhi and adjoining areas. Among the recovered vehicles are six Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycles, one Yamaha R15, one Bajaj Pulsar and two Hero Honda Splendor bikes. The recovery has helped the police crack at least ten cases registered in Swaroop Nagar, Narela, Burari, Model Town, and Gannaur (Sonipat, Haryana). These include e-FIRs registered from January 2024 to May 2025 under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and BNSS. Speaking on the operation, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Outer North, Nidhin Valsan, stated that, acting on specific intelligence received by the Head Constable from a confidential source, a trap was laid near Bhalswa Lake in Mukundpur on the evening of May 20. "At around 6:00 PM, two suspects were intercepted while riding a Royal Enfield Bullet. The vehicle was confirmed to have been stolen and linked to an E-FIR registered on May 12 at Police Station Swaroop Nagar," the DCP said. "During questioning, the suspects disclosed the locations of several hideouts where other stolen motorcycles were stashed. Following their leads, the police conducted a series of field operations and raids across Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh. This led to the recovery of nine additional motorcycles, including other premium models," he said. As per DCP Valsan, the arrested individuals have been identified as Pankaj (24) resident of Swaroop Nagar Extension, Bhalswa Dairy, Delhi, and Taslim (22), a resident of Rajiv Nagar, Bhalswa Dairy. "Pankaj is a known 'Bad Character' with eight previous cases registered against him, while Taslim has two prior involvements. During sustained interrogation, both confessed to multiple thefts and revealed their method of operation. They would typically break handle locks and bypass ignition systems to steal motorcycles without keys. In one incident, they also attempted to break into a residence after stealing a bike from a house compound, though the break-in attempt was unsuccessful," DCP Valsan said. The operation was carried out by a joint team from the Anti-Auto Theft Squad (AATS), the Anti-Burglary and Snatching Cell, and Police Station Swaroop Nagar. Further investigation is underway. (ANI)
The All-Party delegation bound for Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Latvia and Spain arrived at the New Delhi airport to begin their visit. The delegation is led by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi and is part of the multi-country deleagtion visiting key partner countries as an outreach initiative aimed at fostering international solidarity against terrorism after Operation Sindoor. Speaking to ANI ahead of her departure, Kanimozhi, said the primary objective of the visit is to communicate India's unified stand on terrorism and counter misinformation being spread globally. "Our objective is to take the message of India to different countries, to explain what has happened here, and to make the world understand the truth. We have to resolve this problem, and the world has to stand together against terrorism," she said. Highlighting the need to present India's stance clearly, Kanimozhi added, "We lost 26 lives to terrorism, and we want to talk about what happened and what is happening in this country because of terrorism. We want to put a stop to that. There are vested interests trying to create different stories, so the truth has to be told." Kanimozhi underscored the bipartisan nature of the initiative, saying, "The most important thing is that all of us stand together when it comes to the security and sovereignty of this country. I think there is no difference of opinion on that." She further stated that India's position has been clear and consistent: "India has already spoken about what has happened. There are no two stands. We have openly said how we were attacked, how we responded, and how we want to find a solution. We are only going to repeat what we have already said." AAP MP Dr Ashok Kumar Mittal, who is part of the all-party delegation led by Kanimozhi, saiad that he is confident that the World community would show solidarity with India's stand. "We want to tell the world about Pakistan's false propaganda. India fights only for its own security, and we have never intended to cause injustice to the people of any country. We are confident that the world community will come together with us. AAP's stand is clear: we stand with the government in this matter," Mittal said RJD MP Prem Chand Gupta, also part of the all-party delegation said, "The agenda is clear: We have to expose Pakistan's false propaganda." Another delegate Samajwadi Party MP Rajeev Rai, said that the aim was to isolate Pakistan as it is a supporter of terror acts against India "It is very important to isolate the country which takes money from financial institutions and gives shelter to terrorists. We will also raise the point that it is wrong to think that if it happens in their country, then it is terrorism, but if it happens in India, then it is a matter between India and Pakistan. We will tell the world about all the incidents from the Pahalgam terrorist attack to Operation Sindoor," Rajeev Rai said, Former Diplomat Manjeev Singh Puri, who is accompanying the MP delegation said it was important to ensure the world is foucssed on the source of terrorism in India's neighbourhood/ "I am honoured to be a part of a national effort and to reach out to friendly countries to explain our position and perspectives on the matter and ensure that the world's eyes remain focussed on terrorism and the source of terrorism which is in our neighbourhood," Ambassador Puri said. The Global Outreach on Operation Sindoor aims to convey India's strong and united message of zero tolerance for terrorism, as the delegations engage with governments and civil society in partner nations to build understanding and support for India's fight against cross-border terrorism. (ANI)
As per Delhi Police officials, the operation was conducted in cordination with central agencies.

Police recovered classified documents related to the forces from the accused Nepali origin Ansarul Mian Ansari,

The operation went on from January to March 2025, in which two people were arrested. Delhi Police filed the chargesheet in May and both were lodged in Tihar Jail.

As per the police, Ansari was caught in Delhi when he was attempting to go to Pakistan.

Sources said that Ansari had arrived in the national capital city at the behest of ISI. The ISI had asked Ansarul to make a CD of the confidential documents and send it to Pakistan. After his interrogation, another person was also arrested in Ranchi

As per sources, Ansari revealed that he used to drive a cab in Qatar, where he met an ISI handler.

Later, Ansarul was taken to Pakistan, where he was trained by top ISI officials for several days, and then sent to Delhi via Nepal.

In the past few days, several people, including YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, a resident of Hisar, Haryana, were arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen. (ANI)
The suspected individual who was apprehended on May 21 was moving in a truck from Imphal to Jiribam, along National Highway 37.

After receiving input from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence about the likely trafficking of narcotics, Assam Rifles personnel became vigilant and stopped a vehicle matching the description at a check post in Noney.

During the search operation, 50 soap cases of Heroin, weighing 569.24 grams, costing approximately Rs 4 Crores, and 49 sachets, containing Amphetamine/Methamphetamine tablets, costing approximately Rs 1 crores, were seized.

Over the past few months, Assam Rifles has been actively involved in dismantling the illegal drug trade in Manipur. The apprehension of drug traffickers and seizing of drugs is a significant step towards achieving stability in the region. Assam Rifles remains committed towards disrupting the supply chain of illegal drugs and apprehending drug smugglers.

Earlier on May 21, a joint operation by a team of the Assam Rifles and Manipur Police apprehended two individuals with a large quantity of illegal foreign cigarettes worth Rs 2 crore in Jiribam district on May 20-25.

According to an official release, "Based on specific intelligence, a joint operation was launched by a team of Assam Rifles and Manipur Police at Savomphai in Jiribam district, resulting in apprehension of two individuals along with the recovery of a large quantity of illegal foreign cigarettes on May 20-25."

"The recovered contraband items included 98 bags of foreign cigarettes, with each bag containing 1,000 cigarette packets and having an overall estimated value of Rs 2 crore," it said.

Further investigation revealed that the contraband was brought on a boat and was further meant to be smuggled into Bangladesh.

As per the release, the successful operation and recovery of such large amounts of contraband in the hinterland reconfirm the unwavering commitment of Assam Rifles to enforcing anti-smuggling measures and disrupting the supply chains for such illicit activities. (ANI)
Fishermen from Seruthur village in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu have alleged that they have been harassed by the Sri Lankan Navy personnel when they were fishing southeast of Kodiakkarai in a fibre boat. During the incident, Sri Lankan Navy personnel reportedly rammed their vessel into the Indian fishing boat and seized fishing nets worth Rs2.6 lakh, a GPS device, a walkie-talkie, and other equipment. The fishermen alleged that the Sri Lankan naval patrol ship also cut their fishing nets, seized the fuel from their boat, and engaged in a clear act of harassment. Fishermen Shanmugam, Jayaraman, Sakthimayil, and Manimar, who lost their fishing gear and equipment, have since returned to the shore in fear. Tamil Nadu fishermen getting arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy is a recurring instance, for which the State leadership has sought a permanent solution from the Centre, even by retrieving Katchatheevu island, located in Palk Bay, from Sri Lanka. In April this year, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, urging the Union government to take steps to retrieve the Katchatheevu island. The resolution moved by Chief Minister MK Stalin said, "Retrieval of Katchatheevu island is the only permanent solution to protect the traditional fishing rights of Tamil Nadu fishermen and to mitigate the sufferings faced by them due to the Sri Lankan Navy." On March 27 this year, the Sri Lankan Navy apprehended 11 Tamil Nadu fishermen and took them to Kangesanthurai Naval camp for investigation, officials said. Earlier on March 20, 13 Tamil Nadu fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing outside the approved boundaries returned home to India after being handed over by the Indian Embassy in Colombo. The group of fishermen were arrested on February 26 and was produced in Mallakam court in Sri Lanka, kept imprisoned for nearly a month. Additionally, three fishermen were also admitted to a government hospital in Sri Lanka due to sustaining injuries. The Sri Lankan court reportedly released 13 fishermen on March 12 after talks between the two sides. On February 23, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed concern over the increase in the capture of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, urging the Centre to convene a Joint Working Group (JWG) to find a permanent solution to the issue. (ANI)
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not refuting US President Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering the understanding of hostilities between India and Pakistan. Speaking with ANI, Jairam said that Trump has made these claims eight times in the last eleven days, questioning PM Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and others' 'silence'. "In the last 11 days, US President Trump has repeated 8 times that he convinced India and enabled the ceasefire... But his friend, PM Modi, is quiet. Our foreign minister is quiet. The American Foreign Minister says that it is because of America's mediation that the ceasefire happened. PM Modi doesn't condemn this, NSA doesn't condemn it, Foreign Minister doesn't condemn it. Everyone is quiet," Jairam Ramesh said. "Donald Trump praises both PM Modi and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif. This means India and Pakistan are in the same boat. India and Pakistan are on the same level. This should be unacceptable to us. Why is the PM silent?" he added. The Congress MP further urged PM Modi to respond to Donald Trump's claims instead of "diverting attention" by sending delegations to other countries. "PM Modi used to call him my friend, now my friend says that Operation Sindoor was stopped because of him. The entire country was shocked that why Operation Sindoor was stopped. PM Modi should answer these questions. However, he is diverting attention from these issues. Now, he says that they are sending delegations," Jairam Ramesh said. Earlier, the US President again said that he facilitated the understanding through trade negotiations that de-escalate tensions between the two nations. Trump highlighted his personal rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while noting the challenges faced during the process. "If you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India, we settled that whole thing, and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan... You know somebody had to be the last one to shoot, but the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the country. We spoke to them and...we got it settled, and then two days later something happened, and they said it was Trump's fault, but Pakistan has some excellent people and some really good leaders and India is my friend... Modi, he's a great guy," Trump remarked during meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa. The cessation of hostilities between the two nations came after India's 'Operation Sindoor', launched on May 7, in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. India has refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. "As you are aware, we have a long-standing national position that any issues pertaining to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir have to be addressed by India and Pakistan bilaterally. That stated policy has not changed. As you are aware, the outstanding matter is the vacation of illegally occupied Indian Territory by Pakistan," the Ministry of External Affairs stated. The MEA further stated that the "issue of trade" did not come up between Indian and US leaders since the commencement of 'Operation Sindoor' and the cessation of hostilities. (ANI)
This event stands out as a landmark in the national rollout of the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme (ABSS), as Haibargaon becomes the first railway station in Assam, among 50 stations identified in the state, inaugurated under this ambitious scheme.

The inauguration is part of a nationwide event covering 103 redeveloped stations, where Haibargaon's inclusion, constructed at a project cost of approximately Rs. 15.85 crore, signals the beginning of a new chapter for rail infrastructure in the region.

Unlike other inaugurations, this day carries special significance as it showcases the PM's unwavering focus on transforming grassroots infrastructure and bridging regional gaps through modern connectivity.

The redevelopment of Haibargaon station is symbolic not only of technological and architectural upliftment but also of the government's intent to bring Northeast India into the fold of rapid national development.

It is a proud moment for Northeast Frontier Railway as well as Assam, as it leads the state's participation in one of the Indian Railways' most ambitious station redevelopment initiatives.

The selection of Haibargaon as the first station to be inaugurated under ABSS in Assam reflects its strategic importance and the successful execution of the project with a clear vision for passenger-centric modernisation.

With its upgraded amenities, improved accessibility and cultural aesthetics, the station sets a benchmark for the 49 other stations in Assam lined up for redevelopment.

As the Prime Minister inaugurates this gateway to a modern rail experience, Haibargaon emerges not just as a station but as a symbol of progress, pride and promise for the people of Assam and the Northeast. (ANI)
Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge on Thursday called Enforcement Directorate's (ED) raids on the educational institutions linked to state's Home Minister G Parameshwara a "political vendetta." Speaking to the media about the raids, Priyank Kharge said this is another "intimidation tactic" by central government. "This is political targeting. There is nothing new in what the IT and ED have been doing...This is just another intimidation tactic by the central government...This is a political vendetta," he said. Karnataka Minister Ramalinga Reddy accused central government of using the probe agencies like ED and CBI for "political reasons." "ED, IT, CBI are being used for political reasons to destabilise governments of other parties," he said. In addition, Congress leader said, "Whether it is ED or IT, we have seen that they are in a mood to take vengeance against our leaders." Earlier in the day, G Parameshwara asserted that he is "prepared to cooperate" with whatever the outcome of the probe. "Yesterday, ED officers visited our institutions--Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Siddhartha Medical College at Tumkur, Siddhartha Medical College at Begur and Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education. I instructed my staff to cooperate with them and give whatever information they asked for...They questioned our accounts section. The search is still going on," G Parameshwara said. "Being a person who believes in the law of the country, whatever comes out of the verification or search, I am prepared to cooperate," he said. Parameshwara refused to comment when asked about the reports linking these searches to the Actor Ranya Rao gold smuggling case. "I don't what to comment at this point of time. Let the investigation be completed," he said. Ranya Rao was arrested on March 3 at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport after officials from the DRI found her carrying gold. On Tuesday, the Economic Offences Court granted conditional bail to the Kannada actor in the smuggling case. (ANI)
The protesters, including farmers and their family members, raised slogans, urging Chief Minister MK Stalin to provide relief for crops such as maize, banana and small onions that were severely damaged due to recent heavy rains.

They also pressed for the implementation of schemes announced in the agricultural budget, loan waivers for distressed farmers, and a rollback of the proposed installation of digital electricity meters.

Vishwanathan, President of the Tamil Nadu River and Tank Irrigation Farmers Association, expressed the protesters' grievances, stating, "Today, we are holding this half-nude protest to highlight our demands. The Tamil Nadu government announced an agricultural budget but has not released funds for the schemes. We demand that the government ensure the budget is implemented and funds are released by June end."

The farmers also opposed the state's plan to install smart meters, fearing it would threaten the free electricity scheme for agriculture. "The union government's new electricity law should not be implemented in Tamil Nadu. The state must drop the idea of fixing smart meters," Vishwanathan added.

Another major demand was compensation for crops damaged in the recent rains. "Corn, banana, and small onion cultivations have been severely affected. We demand the government intervene with insurance companies to ensure farmers receive fair compensation," he said.

The protestors also highlighted their long-pending demand for a minimum support price (MSP) guarantee.

"We have been protesting continuously to fix the minimum wages for crops, but it has not been implemented yet. The union government must announce this soon," Vishwanathan stressed. (ANI)
Haryana's Hisar District Court sent YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra to a four-day police remand on Thursday. The YouTuber was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive information and being in continuous contact with a Pakistani citizen. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) CID Crime Branch, Sarthak Sarangi, said that facts are being verified. "We have just received information that YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra visited Puri's Jagannath temple and posted a video regarding it on Instagram. She also visited Chilika and Konark. She was in touch with a YouTuber from Odisha. We are verifying all the facts. We are in touch with our counterparts in Haryana regarding Jyoti Malhotra," the police official said. SP Agrawal said, "Puri Police is investigating. We are in touch with Haryana and several state and central agencies." According to Shashank Kumar Sawan, Superintendent of Police (SP) Hisar, Malhotra was being developed as an asset and had maintained ties with other YouTube influencers and Pakistani nationals Sawan stated, "She was in touch with other YouTube influencers, and they were also in contact with the Pakistan Information Officers (PIOs). She used to go to Pakistan, like on sponsored trips. She was in Pakistan before the Pahalgam attack, and the investigation is ongoing to establish any possible linkages." Jyoti Malhotra was interrogated for allegedly passing information to Pakistan. She allegedly met a Pakistani officer, Ahsan-ur-Rahim, in Delhi, travelled to Pakistan twice, and shared sensitive information. During the preliminary investigation, the woman told the police that she went to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi in 2023 to apply for a visa and met a man named Ahsan-ur-Rahim, alias Danish. Haris Malhotra, father of the woman arrested by Haryana Police on charges of spying, has said that his daughter made YouTube videos and had visited Pakistan. He demanded the return of the phones taken by the police. (ANI)
In his first public rally after the success of Operation Sindoor, PM Modi on Thursday highlighted the Indian Armed Forces bravery during the operation. The PM also reiterated his 2019 promise, saying, "Saugandh mujhe iss Desh ki mitti ki, mein desh nahi mitne dunga, mein desh nahi Jhukne dunga." Addressing a public rally in Rajasthan's Bikaner, PM Modi said, "When I came after the airstrikes, I said, Saugandh mujhe iss Desh ki mitti ki, m desh nhi mitne dunga, mein desh nhi Jhukne dunga,"Those who came to erase Sindoor, we have demolished them." PM Modi in his first public rally after Operation Sindoor recalled his visit to Rajasthan after balakot airstrikes: "This brave land of Rajasthan teaches us that nothing is greater than the country and its citizens. On April 22nd, terrorists destroyed the vermilion from the foreheads of our sisters by asking about their religion. Those bullets were fired in Pahalgam, but those bullets pierced the hearts of 140 crore countrymen. After this, every citizen of the country united and resolved that they would wipe out the terrorists. We will punish them more than they can imagine." "It is a coincidence that after the country carried out air strikes in Balakot 5 years ago, my first public meeting was held on the border in Rajasthan itself. It is due to the penance of Veerbhoomi that such a coincidence takes place. Now this time when Operation Sindoor happened, then after that my first public meeting is again taking place here in Bikaner on the border of Veerbhoomi Rajasthan among all of you," he added. PM Modi said the country's forces destroyed 9 of the biggest hideouts of terrorists in 22 minutes. "Today, with your blessings and the valour of the country's army, we have all lived up to that pledge. Our government gave a free hand to all three forces... Together, the three forces created such a Chakravyuh that Pakistan was forced to kneel down. In response to the attack on the 22nd, we destroyed 9 of the biggest hideouts of terrorists in 22 minutes. The world and the enemies of the country have also seen what happens when Sindoor turns into gunpowder," PM Modi said in reference to the name of the operation "Sindoor". "Rajasthan teaches us that nothing is more important than the nation. On 22nd April, terrorists targeted our people, asking their religion and wiping the sindoor of our sisters. The bullets fired in Pahalgam wounded the hearts of 140 crore Indians. In response, the entire nation vowed to punish the terrorists in a way they could never imagine. With the valour of our armed forces, Pakistan was forced to bow. In reply to the 22nd April attack, within just 22 minutes, terrorist camps were destroyed. The country witnessed that when the sindoor of our sisters is targeted, the response can shake the enemy to its core," he further added. Highlighting the government's efforts to modernise the country's infrastructure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that there is a sixfold increase in spending on infrastructure in India in recent years. "Today, I have come among you after seeking blessings from Karni Mata. By Her grace, our resolution of creating Viksit Bharat becomes even stronger. Today a mahayagyan is going on to make modern infrastructure in the country to make Vikshit Bharat, Remarkable efforts have been put in the last 11 years to make our roads, airports and railway stations modern. There is a six times increase in money on infrastructures than earlier times,' PM Modi said. (ANI)
Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar called for focus on alternative medicine and for evidence-based validation of our ancient texts to make them accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges on Thursday, as per a release. Speaking at an event in Raj Bhavan, Goa, the Vice President said, "We are a nation with a difference.... We are rediscovering our roots, and we will get rooted in our roots. I strongly focus on alternative medicine because India is the home of alternative medicine. It is being practised now very extensively.... Let us not confine our ancient texts to libraries. They are not meant for the shelf of a library. They are meant to be widely disseminated. Let us bring timeless ideas to life through research, innovation, and reinterpretation using modern scientific tools. Let us pursue evidence-based validation, digitisation, translations, and cross-disciplinary studies to make these treasures accessible and applicable to contemporary challenges..... am extremely happy that the World Health Organisation has recognised it by establishing a global centre for traditional medicine in Jamnagar, Gujarat. What a powerful recognition of the universal relevance of our systems like Ayurveda." "Time for us to look back in our Vedas, in our Upanishads, in our Puranas, in our history and time to tell our children from birth about our civilizational depth of knowledge", he added. Addressing the gathering after commissioning the statutes, Dhankhar stated, "We are celebrating today, those who epitomize knowledge -- Charak. Charak was a royal physician in Kushan Kingdom. Charak is known as father of medicine and Charak author Charak Samhita, it is a foundational text for Ayurveda. The other one, Sushrut, father of Surgery, then. I had to see what you had put in your paintings. Surgical instruments during those days, so forward looking and we must always remember. Sushrut was a disciple of Dhanvantari, another celebrated name. Let the lives and works of Charaka and Sushruta be a source of inspiration and motivation for all, particularly our impressionable minds." Reflecting on the need to take pride in our ancient knowledge, Dhankhar underscored, "I wish to also focus on, also highlight a particular cultural trait. It is our cultural trait. Within sections of our society, there is a belief. Anything Indic or ancient is regressive. This trait has no place in modern India. This trait has no place in our times. The world has realised our importance. Time for us also to realise it. We cannot afford a situation to believe West is modern and progressive. Look at the current scenario, and you will find it is far from it. India is the centre. The International Monetary Fund was not wrong and must have said with great difficulty, we are a centre of excellence. We are a hot spot of golden opportunities, an investment opportunity. That being the situation, let us believe in Indic situations. West is far behind us. In their mind, they are learning from us." Underlining the ancient civilizational knowledge, the Vice-President said, " The entire West will be stunned if we learn more about our treasure of knowledge.... Charaka, Sushruta, Dhanvantri, Jivaka, a renowned Ayurvedic physician, and he was Buddha's doctor.....When it comes to mathematics and astronomy, Aryabhatta, we have named our satellites after him, a great name, and during those times we had Bodhayan, a great mathematician, and we have Varahamihira.... He was there when Chandragupta Vikramaditya's court was there.....he was one of those. He was having an observatory at Ujjain during those times." "We are a unique civilisation....Long before we came to be abreast of the modern surgical situations, 300 surgical procedures, plastic surgery, fracture management, and even caesarean delivery. Just imagine. We need to take great pride in it. Then, what we call super-speciality hospitals. The things they transact in medical science, we already have them. And it is not only that. They put it in writing for academicians. Sushruta's writings reflect not just merely anatomical knowledge, but a profound scientific spirit emphasising accuracy, training, hygiene and patient care", he added. (ANI)
Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary D Raja on Thursday reiterated his demand for a special session of Parliament to discuss the developments surrounding Operation Sindoor. He raised concerns over the lack of transparency regarding briefings by Indian delegations, stating that political parties remain unaware of what is being communicated to other countries. Speaking with ANI, Raja said, "The government has decided to send all-party delegations to some countries, but CPI has been asking that the government convene a special session of the Parliament. What is the assessment of the current emerging situation? What is the future course of action that the government is contemplating? The government has not consulted anything with political parties, and the government decided to send delegations." "Parties agreed, they are going, but what will they brief? The government should give them certain briefs that are not known to political parties in the country," D Raja said. The Global Outreach on Operation Sindoor aims to convey India's strong and united message of zero tolerance for terrorism, as the delegations engage with governments and civil society in partner nations to build understanding and support for India's fight against cross-border terrorism. The delegations are led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad and Baijayant Panda, JD(U)'s Sanjay Kumar Jha, DMK's Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule and Shiv Sena's Eknath Shrikant Shinde. Earlier in the day, a Shrikant Shinde-led delegation met with UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi as part of India's global outreach against terrorism after Operation Sindoor. Another delegation from India met with Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan, reiterating India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms. The Japanese Foreign Minister expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by India, urging strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts. Delgation leader, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said," We presented India's stand strongly. He appreciated it and said that action should be taken against terrorism. He also appreciated the restraint India had shown. He supported India's stand against terrorism. He said that terrorism should be eliminated. He added that EAM Dr S Jaishankar had briefed him on this. He offered his condolences on the Pahalgam attack and said that they (terrorists) should be punished." (ANI)
Earlier on Wednesday, in one of the smuggling cases, the Police busted an international narco trafficking cartel and arrested one accused person with 5 kg of Heroin.

Punjab police said the accused, identified as Shiva (alias Sodhi), was in touch with foreign smugglers for the past 2 years, and his arrest led to the dismantling of a key smuggling network.

Officials have registered an FIR under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) at Jalandhar.

Punjab's Director General of Police (DGP) highlighted the Punjab Police's commitment to dismantling drug syndicates, disrupting cross-border narco routes, and ensuring a drug-free Punjab.

On May 21, in a major crackdown on cross-border drug smuggling, Commissionerate Police Jalandhar busted an international narco trafficking cartel and arrested one accused with 5 Kg Heroin.

Preliminary investigation revealed that accused Shivam @ Sodhi remained in touch with foriegn based smugglers from across the border for the past 2 years. His arrest has led to the dismantling of a key smuggling network. FIR under the NDPS Act was registered at PS Div No. 8 Jalandhar

On May 20, in a significant crackdown on drug trafficking, Ferozepur Police arrested 2 drug smugglers and recovered 2.20 kg of heroin and one motorcycle used in smuggling operations. An FIR under the NDPS Act was registered at PS Sadar Ferozepur.

On Monday, the Border Security Force at the Punjab border seized pistol parts, two drones and two packets of heroin in multiple places along the Punjab border.

"Today, acting on credible information of the BSF intelligence wing, 02 drones, pistol parts and 02 packets of heroin were seized by the BSF troops in multiple incidents on the Punjab border. An extensive search by the BSF troops today culminated in the recovery of one DJI Mavic 3 Classic drone along with one packet of suspected heroin with a gross weight of 506 grams at about from a farming field adjacent to Noorwala village of Tarn Taran district," the BSF said in a statement.

Later in the afternoon hours, the BSF troops recovered one DJI Air 3 drone in burnt condition from a farming field adjacent to Wan village in Tarn Taran. (ANI)
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday raised questions on the deployment of CISF by the Centre at the Bhakra Nangal dam, further stating that Haryana would only receive the water belonging to them. "Yesterday, as per routine, their (Haryana's) water supply started. We will give them whatever their annual quota amounts to..." Mann said, addressing a press conference. The CM questioned the silence of the opposition at the deployment of CISF at the Bhakra Nangal Dam, further stating that this would be an added expense for Punjab. "The BJP people probably never miss a chance to strike a blow at Punjab. Yesterday, they issued a notice dated the 19th, stating that 296 CISF security guards of various ranks will now be deployed at the Bhakra Dam. For this, the cost per person for one year is Rs 2,90,100.This adds up to Rs 8,58,96,000 -- an amount that BBMB (Bhakra Beas Management Board) or Punjab will have to bear," Mann said. He also questioned the need of the CISF forces when the Punjab Police was doing their role properly. "Punjab Police has been doing this job for free -- so why was there a need for this? Punjab Police is already guarding the dam without any charges. Why should we pay? Why has CISF been deployed? There is no water issue this year, and CISF doesn't even know how to operate the gates ('fatta'), so does this mean they're preparing for theft next year? All this is being done to put more financial burden on us," he further added. Earlier on May 11, Mann had accused the Central government of using Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) officials to seize Punjab's water, pledging to stop the move during his visit to Nangal. In a post on X, Mann said, "BBMB is not stopping its dirty deeds at the behest of the BJP government at the centre. While Punjab is firmly standing against Pakistan on its border, the BJP government at the Centre is once again going to rob Punjab's water through BBMB officials." He added, "I will not let this happen. I will reach Nangal in a short while and stop their conspiracy from being completed." Mann accused the central authorities of exploiting administrative mechanisms like BBMB to bypass state control and infringe upon Punjab's water rights. (ANI)
Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the current TDP-led government in the State, accusing Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of failing to deliver on pre-election promises and engaging in financial mismanagement. The former chief minister also took aim at what he called the "yellow media" for biased reporting in favour of the ruling party. "I am not only fighting against Chandrababu Naidu but also against the 'yellow media'," Reddy said in a press conference. "Before the elections, Naidu promised development, welfare, and income generation. He even claimed that Andhra Pradesh was turned into Sri Lanka during my regime. But now, let us examine what he has actually done in the last 11 months. He did not implement welfare schemes to the beneficiaries," he added. He claimed that his government successfully managed the state even during the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic. "Despite the crisis, both investments and GDP increased during that time and throughout our (YSRCP) tenure," the YSRCP chief said. He said that in just 11 months, the state's revenue saw a growth rate of 3.08%. This is an important figure the public should be aware of, he said. "The gross tax and non-tax revenues of the central government in FY 2024-25 (up to February 2025) amounted to Rs36,97,545 crore. In FY 2023-24 (up to February 2024), it was Rs32,50,181 crore. This reflects a total growth rate of 13.76% at the central level," he said. Reddy said that under the coalition government led by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, additional borrowings of Rs30,100 crore were made. "Capital expenditure declined by 17.80%, and most of the budgetary expenditure is being funnelled into the pockets of CM Chandrababu Naidu's associates," he said. "During the YSRCP government, even when accounting for all forms of liabilities, the total increase amounted to Rs3,32,671 crore over five years. In comparison, the liabilities in just the first year of the TDP government have risen by Rs1,37,546 crore, which is 41% of the total borrowings made during the entire five-year YSRCP term," he added. He said that borrowings secured specifically for Amaravati amount to Rs3,10,000 crore. "Chandrababu Naidu has been involved in a financial deal amounting to Rs11,000 crore with Access Energy India Pvt. Ltd. This agreement is for 400 megawatts of power at an annual cost of Rs210 crore, with a tariff of Rs4.60 per kWh," he alleged. The YSRCP chief said that on 31st July 2024, SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) invited tenders for the procurement of power with an assured four-hour daily supply during peak hours. The tariff discovered and the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) executed were at Rs3.53 per kWh. "During our (YSRCP) regime, the Andhra Pradesh Government executed a Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with SECI for power supply at Rs2.49 per kWh, with a complete ISTS (Inter-State Transmission System) waiver," he said. (ANI)
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami held a meeting at his official residence on Thursday. According to an official statement in the meeting, CM Pushkar directed officials to conduct the campaign against corruption more effectively and submit a detailed report of the actions taken so far in cases related to conversion. Further, CM Dhami directed the officials to continue the verification campaign. He also said that immediate and strict action should be taken upon receiving information about any suspicious activity or person. The Chief Minister also pointed out that while making the Aadhar card and other government documents, it should be ensured that no document is issued without proper verification. Meanwhile, regarding property encroachment, the Chief Minister directed the officials to continue the ongoing campaign against it and ensured that land that has been made encroachment-free does not recur. Dhami has further directed officials to conduct a detailed assessment of enemy property encroachment and submit a comprehensive report. During a review meeting, the CM emphasised prioritising local workers for construction work on government buildings while incorporating the state's cultural identity and traditional mountain architecture in their design. Additionally, CM Dhami instructed officials to bolster security arrangements in border areas and launch intensive checking campaigns to ensure safety and vigilance. Meanwhile, in a separate event today, CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, accompanied by Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd.), offered prayers at Gurudwara Shri Hemkunt Sahib in Rishikesh. The duo will flag off the first batch of pilgrims for Shri Hemkunt Sahib Gurudwara in Chamoli district, marking the start of the annual pilgrimage season. Hemkund Sahib is considered to be Uttarakhand's fifth Dham. This Gurudwara is one of the most revered Sikh pilgrimage sites. Hemkunt Sahib (also known as Hemkund Sahib) is visited by thousands of devotees from all over the globe every summer. The Gurudwara is situated beside a lake, and it is believed that the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, had meditated at the site. (ANI)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to will hold a series of meetings with Union Ministers of Defence, Finance, Jal Shakti, and Electronics and IT in Delhi from May 23 to May 24. According to a statement, Naidu will hold a series of strategic meetings with Union Ministers to present the State's development priorities and mobilize central support across critical sectors. Naidu will meet Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, New and Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Venkatesh Josh, Union Jal Sakti CR. Patil, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Ministry of Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on May 23. He will also participate in a key review meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the Implementation of New Criminal Laws across States, according to the statement. On Saturday, the Chief Minister will attend the 10th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog at the Convention Centre, Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. "In this high-level policy forum, he will articulate Andhra Pradesh's reform-oriented governance model, highlight key development initiatives, and seek strategic cooperation from the Centre and States to advance inclusive and sustainable growth," Naidu said. Earlier, Chandrababu Naidu said the state government is committed to creating 100 per cent reservation for local tribals in Agency areas in government jobs, according to an official statement. Discussing with the officials, during a review meeting on Tribal Welfare, on the steps to be taken to restore the GO No 3 which was cancelled during the judicial review, the Chief Minister recalled that the GO was issued in the combined Andhra Pradesh in the year 2000 to provide 100 per cent reservation for the local tribals in government jobs. In 2020, the Chief Minister directed the officials to study the possibilities to restore the GO by following the guidelines and norms set by the Supreme Court, as stated in a press release Pointing out that through the GO issued in 1986, the Girijans were provided with a 100 per cent quota in Agency areas for teacher posts, Chandrababu Naidu said that following some legal tangles, GO No. 3 was issued in the year 2000, taking women's reservation into consideration. After its implementation, Girijans got 4,626 teacher posts in Agency areas, he added. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday highlighted the destruction that happened to Pakistan's Rahim Yar Khan airbase due to India's strikes during Operation Sindoor and said that the airbase is in "ICU". Addressing his first public rally after Operation Sindoor in Rajasthan's Bikaner, PM Modi said, "When I came from Delhi to here, I landed in Bikaner's Nal Airport. Pakistan has also tried to make this a target but they failed to damage this airbase. There is a Rahim Yar Khan airbase situated on the other side of the border. It is in ICU. Don't know when it will open? India's forces have destroyed this air base." PM Modi also recalled his statement in Churu, reaffirming his commitment to the nation: "Swear by this soil, I will not let the country fall, I will not let the country bow." He declared from Rajasthan that those who attempted to erase the sacred sindoor have been reduced to dust, and those who spilled India's blood have now paid the price in full. The Prime Minister stated that those who assumed India would remain silent are now in hiding, while those who boasted about their weapons now lie buried beneath rubble. Emphasizing that Operation Sindoor was not an act of revenge, but a new form of justice, he remarked that it was not just an expression of outrage but a display of India's unwavering strength and determination. He asserted that the nation has adopted a bold approach, striking the enemy directly and decisively. "Crushing terrorism is not just a strategy but a principle, this is India, this is the new India", stressed PM Modi. "Pakistan has forgotten one thing: that now Modi, the servant of Mother India, is standing here with his head held high. Modi's mind is cool; it stays cool, but Modi's blood is hot. Now there is no blood flowing in Modi's veins, but hot Sindoor. Now there will be neither trade nor talk with Pakistan. If there will be talk, it will only be about Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)," PM Modi said at a public rally in Bikaner. "Now India has made it clear... Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack. And this price... will be paid by Pakistan's army... will be paid by Pakistan's economy... Ye shodh pratishodh ka khel nahin, ye nyay ka naya swaroop hai, ye Operation Sindoor hai. This is not just an agitation; this is the 'Raudra Roop' of a strong India. Ye Bharat ka naya swaroop hai. Pehle ghar mein ghus ke kiya the vaar, ab seene pe kiya prahar hai. (First, we entered their house and attacked; now we have attacked them on their chests)... This is the policy and the strategy to destroy the fangs of terrorism... This is new India," PM Modi added. In reference to the abeyance of the Indus Water Treaty following the Pahalgam terror attack, PM Modi said, "India has made it unequivocally clear that Pakistan will bear a heavy cost for every terrorist attack. This cost will be paid by Pakistan's military and its economy. If Pakistan persists in exporting terrorism, it will find itself begging for every last penny. Pakistan will not receive a single drop of water from India's share. The days of playing with the blood of Indians are over - it will now come at a steep price. This is the policy; this is the method to crush terrorism. This is India, the new India," he added. (ANI)
Railways play a major role in making India a developed nation, and recognising this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been commendably focusing on the development of railways and roads, said former Chief Minister and Member of Parliament Basavaraj Bommai. Participating via video conference in the inauguration ceremony of the renovated Gadag Railway Station under the Amrit Bharat Scheme, organised by the South Western Railway Hubballi Division on Thursday, he expressed that over Rs. 23 crore has been spent on the development of the historic Gadag railway station, which brings great joy and pride. Gadag is a historically significant land, known for its religious heritage, as the land of Kumara Vyasa, and as a hub for printing. Betageri is famous for its handlooms. Giving a major boost to industry, commerce, and tourism has been prioritised, and for that, he extended his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The first train from Gadag to Hubballi was launched in 1884. This station has seen a long journey since then. More than 5,000 passengers travel daily through this station. Under the Amrit Bharat Scheme, facilities like escalators, lifts, overbridges, foot overbridges, toilets, and all essential amenities for passengers have been provided," he said. Bommai said the Gadag-Wadi railway line project is underway, and once completed, it will facilitate direct connectivity to Hyderabad. Another new route from Gadag to Yalavigi has been approved thanks to the efforts of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi and Prime Minister Modi. Once this connection is established, it will ease travel to Hyderabad via Haveri and Gadag, he said. The MP said the Narendra Modi government has modernised the railways through broad gauge expansion, double gauge lines, electrification, and advanced signalling systems. With over 500 Vande Bharat trains operating at high speed across the country, a major revolution is taking place in Indian Railways. Enhancing public utility and boosting commerce, railways play a crucial role in transforming India into a developed nation. Acknowledging this, the development of rail and road infrastructure by the Modi government is praiseworthy, he said. (ANI)
"We received a bomb threat. The lawyers and staff were asked to vacate the High Court. The court's work has been suspended until 2 pm," the Secretary of the Punjab & Haryana High Court Bar Association, Gagandeep Jammu, told ANI.

Chandigarh Police are carrying out checks at the High Court premises after they were informed of the bomb threat. More information is awaited. (ANI)
Kerala BJP President Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accelerating Kerala's railway development under the Amrit Bharat Scheme and said that the PM has been very supportive of the state. Speaking with ANI, Chandrasekhar said, "PM Modi has been very kind and supportive of Kerala even though there's only one MP that Kerala has sent to the Lok Sabha. Highways, ports, Railway Stations. If there is any development happening in Kerala it is simply because of Narendra Modi ji. There is no other development happening because of the state government and we are deeply grateful that he has taken these two stations and modernised it under the Amri Bharat Station Scheme," Earlier in the day, Chandrasekhar, in his post on X, highlighted that the Modi government is transforming Kerala's rail network, from the launch of Vande Bharat trains to the construction of overbridges. "Grateful to PM Narendra Modi ji for fast-tracking Kerala's railway development. Through the Amrit Bharat Scheme, 35 railway stations across the state are being upgraded with world-class amenities at a cost of Rs 2,560 crore. Additionally, the Centre allocated Rs 3,042 crore for Kerala's railway projects in the latest Union Budget," he said. "From the launch of Vande Bharat trains to construction of overbridges and doubling of tracks, the Modi Government is driving a holistic transformation of Kerala's rail network, bringing the vision of a #VikasitaKeralam closer to reality," Chandrasekhar said. Prime Minister Modi inaugurated 103 redeveloped Amrit stations across 86 districts in 18 states and Union Territories today. These projects have been developed at a cost of over Rs 1,100 crore. A statement from the PMO said the redeveloped Amrit stations across India integrate modern infrastructure with cultural heritage, passenger-centric amenities, including those for Divyangjan, and sustainable practices to enhance the travel experience. The redevelopment of these stations aims to enhance the travel experience for passengers while advancing the broader vision of transforming Indian Railways into a world-class transportation service. The redeveloped Amrit stations across India integrate modern infrastructure with cultural heritage, passenger-centric amenities including those for Divyangjan and sustainable practices to enhance the travel experience. (ANI)
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Thursday strongly criticised the state government for failing to implement the OBC reservation order issued by a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court. "The State Government getting under the scanner is now a routine affair," Adhikari wrote on microblogging platform X. "Today, the Hon'ble Justice Kausik Chanda has directed immediate implementation of the OBC reservation order passed by the Hon'ble Division Bench." He stated that the court rejected the state government's plea for a deferral, which cited ongoing proceedings in the Supreme Court. "The plea of the State regarding the issue pending before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has been thwarted, stating that the State has failed to obtain any stay on the Hon'ble Division Bench order," Adhikari added. Referring to the order's implementation, Adhikari wrote, "Henceforth, if the caste of the candidate is included in the O.B.C. list, introduced by the Backward Class Department of the State prior to 2010, they shall receive the benefit of O.B.C. Reservation." He concluded the post by stating, "Bad days ahead for the corrupt, pseudo-secular State Government." Meanwhile, the directive from Justice Chanda also addressed confusion surrounding post-2010 OBC certification, noting that certificates issued after that period often mention only categories (A) or (B) without listing the specific caste. A screenshot of the court order shared by Adhikari states, "There should not, however, be any difficulty in identifying candidates deserving of O.B.C. reservation following the Division Bench judgment. The O.B.S. certificates that have been issued even after 2010 indicate the caste of the candidates." "In view of the matter and as suggested by the different parties before this Court, the Court passes the following order to complete the admission process," the order continues. It reads, "(a) The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board shall publish a notification on its web portal inviting all O.B.C. (A) and O.B.S. (B) candidates to disclose their caste identity by uploading a copy of their O.B.C. caste certificates. Additionally, the candidates shall be notified by SMS sent to their disclosed mobile numbers in this regard." The Calcutta High Court's ruling came after the State's plea for deferral was dismissed, as it failed to secure a stay from the Supreme Court. This development comes amid increasing scrutiny of the West Bengal Government's handling of reservation policies and administrative compliance. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu met Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss key water resource projects concerning the state. The chief minister advocated for the protection of state's rights in the Kishau Hydro Electric Project and emphasised the need for a favourable funding pattern. He said that the financial burden of the Kishau Project should be borne entirely either by the Government of India or by the major beneficiary states such as Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. During the meeting, CM Sukhu also raised critical issues concerning the Renuka Dam project. He called for due consideration of the Local Area Development Fund and the free power component. He said that while hydro projects are essential for national development, the environmental and social impacts must also be addressed and the affected states should be fairly compensated. Apart from this, the Chief Minister requested the early release of the pending amount under the Jal Jeevan Mission for the state. Union Minister CR Patil assured CM Sukhu of all possible assistance and cooperation from the central government. Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena; Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister, Ram Subhag Singh; Resident Commissioner, Meera Mohanty and Secretary to the Chief Minister Rakesh Kanwar were also present during the meeting. Earlier on Wednesday, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the import duty on apples from 50 per cent to at least 100 per cent to discourage the import of apples from Turkey and to safeguard the interests of the apple growers of the state. He also urged that quantitative restrictions should be imposed on imported apples, an official release said. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh is known as the country's 'Apple Bowl' and is famous for producing delicious varieties of apples. The apple is the prime cash crop of the State and generates an income of about Rs. 4500 crores annually. He said that about 10 lakh man-days are generated due to the apple crop, thereby providing direct and indirect employment to more than 2.50 lakh families. (ANI)
Lok Sabha's Leader of Opposition (LoP), Rahul Gandhi, is likely to visit Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, which was affected by Pakistan's ruthless cross-border shelling that damaged several structures, including government schools, according to sources. The region also witnessed heavy winds and storms, causing significant damage to schools and other buildings on May 21 Earlier, the Indian Army stepped in to help with emergency assistance in storm-hit areas. Schools located close to the Line of Control (LoC), especially in Gagrian and Sawjian villages, suffered serious structural damage. Schools in the Mandi zone also had their roofs blown away due to the strong winds. "Schools in our Mandi zone have suffered a lot due to the storms here... The high school here suffered the most, and is located very close to the LoC. The roofs of the schools have completely blown away, which has created a lot of problems for our students and staff," a school staff member told ANI. The school staff member also expressed gratitude to the Indian Army for helping with the cleanup and repairs. He urged the authorities to provide financial help for rebuilding the damaged schools. "The Indian Army has helped us a lot, they cleared the debris which fell here... I would like to request concerned authorities to raise funds for the reconstruction..." he added. Apart from Poonch, several other districts in Jammu and Kashmir, including Rajouri, have also been affected. Locals have suffered damage to homes and loss of livelihood following Operation Sindoor, which was launched by India earlier this month. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has visited victims of the shelling in both Poonch and Rajouri. He has assured full support from the government, including help with rehabilitation. Sinha also held meetings with civil administration officials, police, and local residents. He announced that the next of kin of the victims will be given government jobs, and compensation will be provided to those who lost property. He also said a rehabilitation package for the affected will be approved by the Government of India, adding, "A necessity for bunkers is being felt. New bunkers will be built so that people of J&K can stay safe." India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, post Pahalgan terror attack on April 22, which claimed the lives of 26 people, including a Nepali national. In response to the operation, Pakistan attempted to launch a series of drone and missile attacks targeting Indian military sites. However, India's Integrated Counter-UAS Grid and Air Defence systems effectively neutralised these threats, preventing any significant damage. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has expressed deep condolences on the demise of senior Congress leader Sunder Singh Jaswal from the Sayari area of Solan district. Jaswal was 83 and passed away on Thursday morning at his native place. In a post on X, CM Sukhu wrote, "The news of the demise of Sunder Singh Jaswal, former Vice Chairman of Khadi Board, former member of Zila Parishad and resident of Sayri village of Solan Assembly constituency, is extremely sad. Sunder Singh Jaswal's contribution to the organisation of the Congress was very important. He will always be missed." The Chief Minister prayed for peace for the departed soul and strength for the bereaved family to bear the loss. He further shared, "I pray to God to give place to the departed soul in his feet and provide patience and strength to the bereaved family in this hour of grief. My condolences are with the bereaved family and their supporters." Chief Minister Sukhu also highlighted that Sunder Singh Jaswal had dedicated his life to public service. He served as vice chairman of the Khadi Board, Member of the Zila Parishad and Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Sayari and played a vital role in the development of the region. Meanwhile, earlier on Wednesday, CM Sukhu had also expressed profound grief over the death of Agniveer Naveen Kumar, who lost his life in a landslide incident in the Kargil area of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. He belonged to the Thural area of the Sulah assembly constituency in Kangra district. The Chief Minister prayed to the Almighty to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the bereaved family members. In a post on X, CM Sukhu wrote, "The news of martyrdom of Agniveer Naveen Kumar ji, a resident of Halun village of Kangra district, after being caught in a landslide while on duty in Drass Sector of Kargil is extremely sad. His unforgettable contribution to the country's service will always be remembered." "I pray to God to give place to the departed soul in his feet and provide patience and strength to the bereaved family in this hour of grief. My condolences are with the bereaved family," he added. (ANI)
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman Dr Samir V Kamat visited Solar Industries in Nagpur on Thursday. Solar Industries is a leading indigenous defence manufacturing company contributing to India's self-reliance in defence production. During his visit, Dr Kamat reviewed the manufacturing processes of various defence products being developed by Solar Industries. In an exclusive interaction with ANI, Dr Kamat emphasised the growing role of private industry in strengthening India's defence capabilities. "The private sector is playing a crucial role in the defence sector. To achieve the goals of 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and to enhance our combat strength, it is essential to promote indigenous defence manufacturing," Kamat said. Referring to the recent conflict with Pakistan, Dr Kamat expressed satisfaction over the performance of DRDO-developed weapons systems, which were reportedly deployed during the operations. "Based on media reports and feedback from the armed forces, I am satisfied with the performance of our systems. However, we must also learn lessons from this conflict to improve our systems further and introduce newer technologies to meet the emerging challenges of modern warfare," he noted. Dr Kamat added that DRDO is currently working on several advanced systems, including missiles, air-based weapons, naval systems, and various sensors, particularly those designed for drone detection and neutralisation. "I am confident these systems will be inducted into service within six months to one year. They will significantly enhance the capabilities of our armed forces to fight future wars," he said. He also mentioned upcoming projects like the Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPA-TGM), the Vertically Launched--Short-Range Surface-To-Air Missile (VLR-SAM), heavy-weight torpedoes, precision-guided munitions, and a range of advanced land and sea mines, which are in advanced stages of development or trials. Satyanarayan Nuwal, Chairman, Solar Industries India Ltd, spoke on the role of solar industries and told ANI, "The war pattern is changing if we look at Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Ukraine. Recently, we manufactured five types of Nagastra (drones). Nagastra-1 was used (in the India-Pakistan conflict). Three variants of Nagastra-1, which are Nagastra-2 and Nagastra-3, are in the trial phase. I believe it will play a significant role in the current conflict... All the variants of Pinaka have been tested... Pinaka weapon, which is indigenous, is a game changer and cost-effective... In the coming time, we will contribute whatever we can to the nation. Whenever we have been called upon to fulfil a need, we are ready to invest even if we do not have any assurances." (ANI)
India on Thursday reiterated its resolve to fight terrorism and called on the world to hold Pakistan accountable for the terror attacks that they have carried out against India. In the weekly media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reminded the world about the need to "come together to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Replying to a query on the multi-party delegation, Randhir Jaiswal said, "There are seven delegations. Three delegations have departed...This is a political mission. We want to make a stronger outreach to the world to convey our resolve to fight terrorism. We want the world to come together to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. We want to exhort the world to hold those responsible for cross-border terrorism accountable. Those have been practising it for the last 40 years against India, that is, Pakistan. Their actions need to be called out. They have to be held accountable for the terror attacks that they have carried out against India..." "So, that is the larger message. The unity of India, the purpose of India," the MEA Spokesperson said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. After this, on May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced. An All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah, reached Tokyo today. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. (ANI)
Kerala Education Minister V. Sivankutty announced the state's HSE or Class 12th result also known as Plus Two on Thursday. Addressing a press briefing he said that this year 77.81 per cent of students had passed the examinations. The second year Higher Secondary Examination (HSE) was held in March 2025 where a total of 3,70,642 candidates from 2002 schools appeared for the regular category examination. Among the participants, 2,88,394 candidates qualified for higher studies in the examination. The pass percentage was 77.81 per cent. It was a decrease from the last year when the pass per cent was 78.69. The difference between the two years stands at 0.88 per cent. In the category of regular school-going students, a total of 3,70,642 children appeared for the examination this year, compared to 3,74,755 last year. Among them, 1,79,952 were boys, with 1,23,160 passed, resulting in a pass percentage of 68.44 per centage. This shows a slight decrease from last year's figures, where 1,81,466 boys appeared and 1,26,327 passed, with a pass percentage of 69.61 per cent. On the other hand, 1,90,690 girls appeared this year, with 1,65,234 passing, yielding a higher pass percentage of 86.65%. This, too, marks a slight decline from the previous year, where 1,93,289 girls appeared and 1,68,561 passed, with a pass percentage of 87.21%. Ernakulam district recorded the highest pass percentage at 83.09%, while Kasargod reported the lowest at 71.09 per cent. A total of 57 schools achieved a 100% pass rate, including 6 government schools, 19 aided schools, 22 unaided schools, and 10 special schools. Malappuram had the highest number of students appearing for the examination at 64,426, whereas Wayanad had the fewest with 9,440 students. This year, 41 students scored full marks (1200 out of 1200), comprising 7 boys and 34 girls. Additionally, 30,145 students secured A+ in all subjects. Additionally, Minister V. Sivankutty announced special orientation classes for higher secondary students for helping the students to reach new opportunities after plus two. "Focus Point to Point Zero" is a career guidance program conducted by the Career Guidance and Adolescent Counseling Cell of the Higher Secondary Section of the General Education Department with the aim of helping the students to reach these opportunities. This is also a program that discusses in detail all the courses available in India, entrance exams, scholarships, and areas including foreign studies. "For this, an orientation program has been organized by the Career Guidance and Adolescent Counseling Cell of the Higher Secondary Section on May 26, 2025 from 10 am to 1 pm for students who have passed the 12th class in all the higher secondary schools in the state", the minister informed. (ANI)
The Rouse Avenue court on Thursday reserved order on the bail plea of Ex AAP MLA Naresh Balyan in a case under MCOCA. Delhi police opposed the bail and said that there are serious Allegations against the accused and a supplementary charge sheet under sections 3 and 4 of MCOCA has been filed against him. Balyan has been in custody since December last year in a case linked to an organised crime syndicate allegedly run by gangster Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu. He was arrested on December 4, 2025, in this case. Special judge Dig Vinay Singh reserved the order till May 27 after hearing the submissions made by the counsel for the accused and the special public prosecutor (SPP) for the Delhi police. SPP Akhand Pratap Singh appeared for Delhi Police and vehemently opposed the bail application. It was submitted that the defence counsel's submissions had been addressed by the predecessor court while deciding the accused's earlier bail application. There is no new ground for seeking bail. His earlier bail application was dismissed by the trial court. He withdrew the appeal against the order from the High Court. On the other hand, counsel for Naresh Balyan questioned the basis of the case, submitting that the approval for registration of FIR under MCOCA was not valid. Therefore, the entire proceedings emanating from the FIR are invalid. Advocate M S Khan, along with Advocates Rohit Kumar Dalal and Rahul Sahani, appeared for Naresh Balyan. It was submitted by the counsel for the accused that Balyan has been in custody since December 4, 2024, in this case, even though the approval for registration of FIR under MCOCA granted by the competent authority was not a valid one. Therefore, the entire proceedings emanating from the FIR are also not valid. Apart from that, the investigation into the alleged offences has been completed, and a supplementary charge sheet has been filed. In this situation, advocate M S Khan submitted that the accused deserved to be released on bail. It was also submitted that Balyan was arrested in another case on November 30, 2024. He was granted bail in that case. Therefore, he was arrested in the present case by the court the moment he was granted bail. Counsel for the accused also submitted that the sole basis of connectivity is one audio clip allegedly having the voices of Kapil Sangwan and Naresh Balyan, which the police had known about for more than a year. However, the police misled the court by submitting that the clip came to the attention of the Investigation Officer (IO) after the registration of an FIR under MCOCA on August 28, 2024. A notice was sent by the IO to a news channel on July 1, 2023, in connection with the audio clip. There is no new criminal activity on the part of Balyan for making him accused under MCOCA, counsel added. Earlier, on May 7, the bail application of Naresh Balyan was withdrawn from the High Court. The Rouse Avenue court on May 5 accepted the supplementary charge sheet filed against Ex MLA Naresh Balyan and three other accused. This supplementary charge sheet has been filed against Naresh Balyan, Sahil alias Poli, Vijay Gahlot alias Kalu and Jyoti Prakash. Meanwhile, today, the court has extended the judicial custody of all accused persons till the next date. The court has already taken cognisance of the main charge sheet. The Supplementary charge sheet has been filed under sections 3, 4 of MCOCA against Naresh Balyan. Section 3 of MCOCA has been invoked against three accused, he added. On May 1, Delhi Police filed a charge sheet against Former MLA Naresh Balyan and three other accused persons, namely Sahil alias Poli, Vijay alias Kalu, and Jyoti Prakash alias Baba, in an MCOCA case. All these accused persons have been arrested in an MCOCA case related to an investigation against an organised crime syndicate allegedly run by gangster Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu. This is the second supplementary charge sheet in this case, but the first charge sheet against Naresh Balyan. Earlier, a main charge sheet was filed against Ritik alias Peter. The first supplementary charge sheet was filed against Rohit alias Anna and Sachin Chikara. (ANI)
Union Minister for Communications and Development of the North Eastern Region (MDoNER), Jyotiraditya M Scindia, on Thursday highlighted major economic and infrastructure progress in the Northeast under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, ahead of the Rising Northeast Investors Summit 2025. The two-day maiden 'Rising Northeast: The Investors' Summit 2025' is being held at Bharat Mandapam in the national capital to showcase the investment and trade potential of the Northeast Region on May 23 and 24, said a release. Speaking in the national capital, Scindia said, "Prime Minister's resolve and strong will have enabled all eight states of the North East region to be fully prepared to contribute to the story of the world's development and progress." Citing the 10% gross budgetary support allocated to the region, the minister said, "An investment of Rs 6 lakh crore was made there. Apart from this, an additional Rs 5 lakh 25 thousand crore was given to the states through the tax devolution programme, which brought an all-around change in this region under the leadership of PM Modi." Scindia noted a shift in investor sentiment towards the Northeast. "Investors are excited to invest in the North-East because they recognise that the North Eastern states have emerged as a new growth paradigm. So today, if our thirty-six states and union territories are one train, the North-East have become the engine of that train." The minister further announced plans for future investment. "Tomorrow, investments worth Rs 4 lakh 22 thousand crore have been outlined for these eight states," he stated. Referring to the upcoming Rising Northeast Investors Summit 2025, Scindia said, "This summit is not our first or second experiment; it is the third experiment by the DoNER Ministry for the North-East." Organised by the Ministry of DoNER in partnerships with FICCI and Invest India, the summit, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to highlight the region's geostrategic advantage, abundant natural resources, skilled workforce, and access to captive markets in the Northeast and neighbouring countries. "The Northeast Region is an emerging frontier for businesses, and the summit offers an ideal platform for forging alliances, partnerships, and acquiring a clear vision of the opportunities available for expanding businesses, making new investments, setting up green field manufacturing projects and associated activities," said an official of DoNER. (ANI)
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu met Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda in New Delhi on Thursday and sought central support for strengthening health infrastructure in the state. The Chief Minister apprised the Union Minister about the state's requirements in implementing schemes such as Ayushman Bharat and the National Health Mission. He said that there was a need for strengthening health facilities across the state. He specifically requested the establishment of a dedicated cancer care centre in the state and the introduction of advanced medical technologies and modern equipment in government hospitals to ensure better healthcare for the patients. CM Sukhu also urged for relaxation in eligibility criteria for various central schemes and sought early release of pending funds. Union Health Minister J P Nadda assured the Chief Minister that the interests of Himachal Pradesh would be fully safeguarded and that all necessary cooperation would be extended by the Centre. Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Principal Advisor to the Chief Minister Ram Subhag Singh, Resident Commissioner Meera Mohanty and Secretary to the Chief Minister Rakesh Kanwar accompanied the Chief Minister during the meeting. Earlier, CM Sukhu on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the import duty on apples from 50 per cent to at least 100 per cent to discourage the import of apples from Turkey and to safeguard the interests of the apple growers of the state. He also urged that quantitative restrictions should be imposed on imported apples, an official release said. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister said that Himachal Pradesh is known as the country's 'Apple Bowl' and is famous for producing delicious varieties of apples. The apple is the prime cash crop of the State and generates an income of about Rs. 4500 crore annually. He said that about 10 lakh man-days are generated due to the apple crop, thereby providing direct and indirect employment to more than 2.50 lakh families. Sukhu also said that he would personally discuss the issue of enhancing the import duty on apples procured from Turkey with the Prime Minister during his upcoming visit to Delhi. Meanwhile, apple farmers in Himachal Pradesh have demanded a complete ban on the import of Turkish apples into India, citing Turkey's political stance during heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. Turkey had backed Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, in which India carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. Turkey has also provided military equipment to Islamabad. (ANI)
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) MP Surpriya Sule, who is to lead an all-party delegation to put forward India's stance against terrorism, emphasised that all participating members will be speaking "as responsible Indians" when going to various world capitals, underlining the huge responsibility which has been given to the MPs. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Sule said the remaining delegations would depart on Saturday, May 24, following a scheduled briefing by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). "We will discuss only after the MEA briefs us. This is a huge responsibility. Whatever we say during our outreach, we will say it as responsible Indians," Sule said. Talking about the MEA briefing of the remaining 4 delegations, she added, "Briefing of the remaining four groups has been scheduled for tomorrow, and we will leave for our visit the day after tomorrow." Meanwhile, Sule will be leading the group, which will go to Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Eight other members, including BJP's Rajiv Pratap Ruddy, Anurag Singh Thakur, and V Muraleedharan, along with Congress' Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma, TDP's Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu, AAP's Vikramjeet Singh Sahney, and former permanent representative of India to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, are part of the group. The All-Party Delegations will project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all forms and manifestations. They would carry forth to the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance against terrorism. Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde led a delegation met with UAE's Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan and UAE parliamentarian Ali Rashid Al-Nuaimi in Abu Dhabi as part of India's global outreach against terrorism post Operation Sindoor. After the meeting, UAE parliamentarian Al-Nuaimi affirmed his support for India in its fight against terrorism. "Terrorism has no religion, no nationality. It is an evil for all humanity," Nuaimi said, adding that "Terrorism is an enemy of humanity.... Wise people should rise and speak against terrorism," he told reporters. Another delegation, which went to Japan met with their foreign minister, Takeshi Iwaya, reiterating India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms. The Japanese Foreign Minister expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by India, urging strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts. A total of 7 groups consisting of 8-9 members from various political parties have been selected by India to represent its stance of zero tolerance against terror and brief the representatives of other countries on Operation Sindoor. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After the operation, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. On May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between the countries was announced. (ANI)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a chargesheet against Satyapal Malik, former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir and six others in connection with the Kiru Hydro Electric Project of Jammu and Kashmir. The chargesheet was filed against Satyapal Malik, his two private secretaries and four others. Malik served as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir between August 23, 2018 and October 30, 2019. The case relates to alleged corruption in awarding a contract for the civil work for the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) worth Rs 2,200 crore in Kishtwar in 2019. In Feb 2024, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids at more than 30 places, including the premises linked to former Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik, as part of its investigation into alleged corruption in the awarding of a contract for a hydel project in the Union territory. The case relates to alleged corruption in awarding contract for the civil work for the Kiru Hydro Electric Power Project (HEP) worth Rs 2,200 crore in Kishtwar in 2019. On 29 January 2024, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted searches at around 8 locations in Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir in the on-going investigations of a case related to alleged irregularities in the award of tender for civil works of the Kiru Hydroelectric Project being executed by Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited, the agency said. The searches led to recovery of digital devices, computers, property documents, and "incriminating" documents, in addition to cash of over Rs 21 lakhs (approximately), it said. The CBI statement added that it was alleged that in the award of civil works relating to the Kiru Hydroelectric Project, guidelines regarding e-tendering were not followed. (ANI)
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on the issue of interim relief in a batch of pleas challenging the Constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. A bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih heard the arguments of petitioners, challenging the Centre and the Act on the interim order for three days. During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, argued regarding the provision barring non-Muslims from creating Waqfs. Mehta said that only in the 2013 amendment, non-Muslims were given such rights but in the 1923 law, they were not allowed to create Waqfs, as there were concerns that this could be used as a device to defraud creditors. He defended the five-year practice condition to be eligible for creation of Waqf. "Creating a Waqf is different than donating to a Waqf, this is why a five-year practice requirement for Muslims so that Waqf is not used for defrauding someone. Suppose I am a Hindu and I want to donate for a Waqf, then the donation can be made to a Waqf. How can a non-Muslim be allowed to create a Waqf? He can always donate to a Waqf," said the Solicitor General. Mehta further argued that Section 3E of the Act, which bars the creation of Waqf over lands falling under Scheduled Areas, was created for the protection of Scheduled Tribes. He added that the creation of Waqf is irreversible and this might prejudice the rights of the vulnerable tribal population. He said that tribal lands are being grabbed under the garb of Waqf. "There are pleas by tribal organisations saying that they are being victimised and that there lands are being grabbed as Waqf," he contended. Senior advocate Ranjeet Kumar appearing for Haryana government and a tribal organisation supporting the 2025 Waqf amendments, said in that Rajasthan a Waqf claim was made over a 500-acre land given for mining purposes. CJI Gavai orally observed that the requirement of registration of Waqfs has been there under the previous laws of 1923 and 1954. A batch of petitions challenging the Act was filed before the apex court, contending that it was discriminatory towards the Muslim community and violated their fundamental rights. Six Bhartiya Janta Party-ruled states had also moved the apex court in the matter, in support of the amendment. President Droupadi Murmu on April 5 gave her assent to the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which was earlier passed by Parliament after heated debates in both Houses. Central government had filed its preliminary affidavit in the Supreme Court while seeking dismissal of petitions challenging constitutional validity of Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 as it said law was not violative of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The Centre in its affidavit had said the amendments are only for the regulation of the secular aspect regarding the management of the properties and hence, there was no violation of the religious freedoms guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution. The Central government had urged the court not to stay any provisions of the Act, saying that it is a settled position in law that constitutional courts would not stay a statutory provision, either directly or indirectly, and will decide the matter finally. (ANI)
The ongoing heatwave in Rajasthan is expected to continue for the next three to four days, with Sri Ganganagar recording the highest temperature in the state at 47.6 degrees Celsius, as per the Jaipur Meteorological Centre. Radheshyam Sharma, Director of the center, stated that heatwave conditions are currently prevailing in northwestern Rajasthan, especially in Sri Ganganagar, and are likely to continue in Bikaner, Jodhpur, Phalodi, Jaisalmer, and the Shekhawati region over the next two to three days. However, there is a possibility of thunderstorms and light rain with strong winds in Kota, Bharatpur, and Jaipur regions over the next 48 hours. In western Rajasthan, specifically in Jodhpur and Bikaner, there is a likelihood of strong winds and rain on May 23 and 24. The heat wave conditions are expected to continue in northwestern Rajasthan for the next three to four days. Meanwhile, the country is expecting the monsoon to arrive before its time. The monsoon is likely to reach the coast of Kerala in the next two to three days and will gradually cover southern and eastern India. A survey is being conducted to determine when the monsoon will reach Rajasthan. Earlier on Tuesday, IMD informed that Rajasthan faced severe heatwave conditions with temperatures soaring between 44 degree Celsius to 47 degree Celsius in several regions. Several areas like Bikaner, Jaipur, and Bharatpur divisions witnessed intense heat and warm nights, while Udaipur and Kota divisions saw relief in the form of dust storms and light to moderate rainfall. "Today, in some parts of Bikaner, Jaipur, Bharatpur divisions, the maximum temperature remained between 44 C to 47C along with heatwave and warm night conditions. In Udaipur and Kota divisions, there were chances of thunderstorms, strong winds (40-50 kmph), and light to moderate rainfall post noon," IMD said. Temperatures across Rajasthan were expected to rise further by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius over the next 48 hours.Several parts of Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Bharatpur divisions were predicted to face maximum temperatures of 45 degree Celsius to 47 degree Celsius along with severe heatwave and warm night conditions between May 21 and 23.The weather office also warned, "In border areas, strong dusty winds at a speed of 30-40 kmph are likely." For the next 4 to 5 days, parts of Udaipur and Kota divisions were expected to experience intense thunderstorms, winds (40-50 kmph), and scattered rainfall, especially during late afternoons. The IMD further stated, "There is a strong possibility of continued thunderstorms, dust storms (40-50 kmph), and light to moderate rain in the southern districts."The forecast also included a warning for Jaipur, Bharatpur, and Bikaner divisions for May 22 and 23, stating, "In these divisions, there are chances of thunderstorms and dust storms (40-50 kmph) post noon." The Meteorological Centre in Jaipur urged citizens to stay cautious during the extreme heat and sudden weather changes. People were advised to stay hydrated, avoid direct sunlight during peak hours, and secure loose outdoor items due to gusty winds. (ANI)
After the first batch of pilgrims departed for Hemkund Sahib on Thursday, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami welcomed the devotees from across the country and world for the pilgrimage to the revered Sikh shrine near Joshimath in Chamoli district. The portals of Hemkund Sahib, situated at a height of over 15,000 feet above sea level, will open on May 25. The shrine is visited by lakhs of devotees every summer. While speaking with media personnel as the first batch departed for the pilgrimage, CM Dhami said, "The doors of Shri Hemkund Sahib will open on May 25. All the arrangements have been made for the devotees." "I thank PM Modi as the Government of India has approved the ropeway for Kedarnath and Shri Hemkund Sahib... The difficult journey will become very easy in the coming time... We welcome all the devotees coming from across the country and the world...," the chief minister added. Uttarakhand Governor, Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd), also welcomed the devotees and expressed gratitude to the Chief Minister and other administration for preparing the arrangements. "We see it as 'Atithi Devo Bhava'. I thank the Chief Minister, the administration, and the Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee for working so hard to make every devotee's visit successful...," the Governor said. Singh also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for prioritising the Hemkund Sahib and Kedarnath ropeway projects. Earlier today, CM Dhami urged the people to offer respect and salute Army personnel while on their way to the Char Dham Yatra and Hemkund Sahib. He highlighted that over 11 lakh devotees have participated in the Char Dham Yatra so far. He shared this during the flag-off ceremony of the first group of pilgrims embarking on the Hemkund Sahib Yatra from Rishikesh. Speaking on the occasion, Dhami said, "So far, more than 11 lakh devotees have completed their Darshan... The area of Shri Hemkund Sahib has a rich ecosystem. It is our pledge to protect the environment here. We have pledged to make this Yatra plastic-free. You are requested to follow the rules made by the ancestors during the Yatra." Dhami also highlighted the amenities provided by the government for the devotees' convenience. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a nationwide target to achieve net zero by 2070, and Gujarat has made remarkable progress toward this goal by becoming the top state in India for renewable energy installation. As of April 30, 2025, Gujarat's total installed renewable energy capacity stands at 35.16 GW, according to data from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). This milestone reflects the state's strong commitment to sustainability and green growth. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat ranks first in several RE segments: 1st in Total Installed Renewable Energy Capacity (35.16 GW); 1st in Installed Wind Power Capacity (13.51 GW); 2nd in Installed Solar Power Capacity (19.42 GW); 1st in Rooftop Solar Installation (5.31 GW); also, Gujarat contributes 15.72 per cent to India's total installed RE capacity. Gujarat's diverse RE mix includes wind, solar, small and large hydropower, and bioenergy. Of the total 35.16 GW capacity, 13,514.68 MW comes from wind, 19,421.8 MW from solar, 106.64 MW from small hydro, 1,990 MW from large hydro, and 129.85 MW from bio power sources. Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) is playing a pivotal role in advancing energy storage solutions and promoting seamless integration of renewable energy into the grid. GUVNL has already secured agreements for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) with a cumulative capacity of 1,192 MW / 4,777 MWh. The state is also exploring Pumped Storage Projects with an estimated potential of over 32 GW. A key innovation under this strategy is the 35 MW Solar PV project with 57 MWh BESS at Kutch Lignite Thermal Power Station (KLTPS). This co-located project optimizes existing evacuation infrastructure and land availability to improve solar deployment and grid reliability--representing Gujarat's forward-looking approach to clean energy. During FY 2024-25, Gujarat generated nearly 32,790 million units (MU) of power through renewable sources--accounting for more than 22% of the state's total power consumption of 1,46,467 MU. This contribution underscores the state's accelerating clean energy transition and its impact on sustainable power availability. The state added over 5.9 GW of new RE capacity during the same period, increasing from 27.46 GW to 33.39 GW. This includes 4.95 GW from solar and 954.76 MW from wind, strengthening Gujarat's energy diversification. GUVNL's forward-thinking initiatives are also making renewable energy accessible and cost-effective for Gujarat's industrial hubs and GIDC estates--boosting industrial efficiency without compromising sustainability goals. With visionary leadership, stable policies, and strong infrastructure, Gujarat continues to lead the nation in building a clean, resilient, and future-ready energy ecosystem. With clear policy direction from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and on-ground execution led by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat has firmly established itself as the growth engine of India's renewable energy journey. By combining scale, innovation, and inclusivity, the state is not only powering its industries and communities but also contributing meaningfully to the nation's clean energy vision and the larger goal of Viksit Bharat. As Gujarat accelerates its clean energy transition, it continues to inspire other states to adopt bold, future-ready energy strategies. (ANI)
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, is likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Saturday (May 24) to meet the families of civilians who were killed in recent cross-border shelling by Pakistan, sources told ANI. Earlier, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had visited the victims of the shelling in both Poonch and Rajouri, stressing that the proper rehabilitation of affected families is his top priority. According to an official statement from Raj Bhavan, the closest kin of the victims will be offered government jobs, and assistance will be provided to the families from the Central government. "The proper rehabilitation of affected families is my top priority. The J&K administration, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, is committed to ensuring proper rehabilitation, enhanced border infrastructure, and security for the residents of border areas. We are significantly expanding our efforts to construct individual and community bunkers across Jammu and Kashmir, under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE)," said the Lieutenant Governor.Apart from Poonch, Rajouri district has also been affected. Locals have suffered damage to their homes and lost their sources of livelihood due to the shelling. The Jammu and Kashmir government has announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh for the next of kin of those killed. Lieutenant Governor Sinha has held several meetings with civil administration officials, police, and local residents to assess the situation. He added that a rehabilitation package for the victims will soon be approved by the Central government. "A necessity for bunkers is being felt. New bunkers will be built so that people of J&K can stay safe," Sinha said. On May 9, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) strongly condemned Pakistan for deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, including schools and places of worship. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri criticised Pakistan for attacking religious sites along the Line of Control (LoC), calling the strikes "a new low even for Pakistan." According to the MEA, one shell fired by Pakistan hit the home of two students from the Christ School in Poonch. Bhai Surender Singh, Head Granthi of Sahab Mahant Saab Ji Gurudwara, also confirmed the damage to religious places. Speaking to ANI, Bhai Surender Singh said, "It wasn't done by the Indian Army; it was actually firing from Pakistan. There was damage to gurdwaras, mosques, and temples, and we also had casualties. A teacher who was teaching children was killed. Pakistan fired on our city, on people's homes, and even our gurdwaras were hit." India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, post the "Barbaric" Pahalgan terror attack on April 22, which claimed the lives of 26 people, including a Nepali national. Following the launch of the operation, Pakistan attempted to carry out a series of drone and missile attacks targeting Indian military sites. However, India's Integrated Counter-UAS Grid and Air Defence systems successfully neutralised all incoming threats, preventing any major damage. (ANI)
Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel attended the celebrations of Honda Motorcycle Company's milestone of producing 50 crore motorcycles globally and 7 crore in India, held in Vithalapur of Ahmedabad district. According to an official release, Chief Minister Patel said that the Honda Motorcycle Company's accomplishment of producing 50 crore two-wheelers globally and 7 crore in India is a proud achievement and deserves recognition. CM Patel said that around two and a half decades ago, the automobile sector in Gujarat was scarcely discussed and that only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office as Chief Minister in 2001 did the state foster a robust ecosystem in the automobile industry, alongside progress in other sectors. "What was once an underdeveloped Mandal-Becharaji-Vitthalapur region has now emerged as a thriving automobile hub, driven by the visionary leadership of the Prime Minister. PM Modi's 'Make in India, Made for the World' mantra has earned India strong recognition in today's global economy. The industries in the Mandal-Becharaji-Vitthalapur auto hub are successfully realising this vision," said CM Patel. Referring to the Prime Minister's words, the Chief Minister emphasised that, alongside Gross Domestic Product (GDP), development focused on Gross Empowerment of People (GEP) is crucial, and the state government is consistently working towards this objective. He said Gujarat is now emerging as a key hub for growing sectors like manufacturing, semiconductors, green hydrogen, and e-mobility. This advancement will drive job creation and foster the growth of both small and large industries, enabling GEP to surpass its goals. The Chief Minister stated that Japan has been a significant partner in Gujarat's growth since the inaugural Vibrant Gujarat Summit. He announced that with the launch of Honda's fourth plant in Vithalapur, it will become the largest automobile manufacturing facility in the world, generating approximately 1,800 new jobs. Furthermore, this plant is set to become a major exporter. Highlighting the importance of sustainable development amid evolving environmental challenges, the Chief Minister called upon everyone to support the Prime Minister's pledge to achieve zero carbon emissions. On this occasion, Tsutsumu Otani, President and CEO of Honda, announced the launch of the fourth production line at the Honda Motorcycle plant in Vithalapur. He said that this new production line, with a capacity of 6.50 lakh units, will be fully operational by 2027. As a result, the total capacity of the Vithalapur plant will reach 26.10 lakh units, making it the highest-producing plant in the world. Furthermore, this expansion will generate around 1,800 new jobs. He also mentioned that the company is actively working on technologies to increase carbon neutrality and reduce the number of accidents. Minoru Kato, Executive Officer of Honda Motorcycle, shared insights about the company's journey since its inception. He noted that Honda, which began operations in 1948, now manufactures in 23 countries worldwide. Since commencing operations in India in 1984, the company has established four major plants across the country. He highlighted the vital contribution of Indian consumers in achieving the global milestone of producing 50 crore motorcycles. In the presence of the Chief Minister, Honda Company also presented 50 CB-350 model QRT motorcycles to the Gujarat Police as part of its social responsibility initiative. The event was attended by senior officials, including Mamta Verma, Principal Secretary of the Industries Department; P Swaroop, Industries Commissioner; Om Prakash Jat, Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad district; and numerous senior company executives and employees. (ANI)
TECHNOVATE-2025, the prestigious Annual Engineering Project & Poster Presentation "Technovate-2025", organized by Amity School of Engineering and Technology (ASET), Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida Campus, on 21st- 22 May 2025, concluded with a Valedictory Session and Award Distribution Ceremony. Over 350 Projects and Posters were displayed during the two-day event, showcasing engineering students' creativity, technical skills and innovative ideas. Lauding the innovations developed by the students, Dr Ashok K Chauhan Founder President, Amity Education Group stated, "We are extremely proud of our students who have shown their incredible talent and creativity through their projects. Research and innovation are the focus areas at Amity, and start-ups are getting a lot of support from the government. We are certain that many of our brilliant students' projects will be converted into start-ups and get patented, thereby contributing to the country's start-up ecosystem." Dr Gurinder Singh, Group Vice Chancellor of Amity Universities, said that students must be provided with global exposure. Amity's Three Continent Program, Study Abroad Program, and Global Study Programs aim to expand the students' horizons on a global platform. Dr Manoj Kumar Pandey, Director of Amity School of Engineering & Technology, stated, "This year, not only the final-year students but engineering students of all years have been provided with the opportunity to showcase their projects. Industry leaders have judged their projects, and the winners will be awarded trophies and certificates." The "Best Innovative Idea Project Award" was presented to Charvi Bagga and Akshit Verma, students of Computer Science Engineering for their Project, "Integrated Framework of Digital Twin and BIM Enhanced Infrastructure Monitoring", "Best Technical Implementation Project Award" was given to Dhruv Singh Rathore and Saksham Arora, students of Electrical and Electronic Engineering for their innovation "AI and ML based Portable Ventilator", the "Best Start up Potential Project Award" was given to Shah Naveed Nisar and E. Krishnaraj, students of Mechanical Engineering, for their Project, "Building a Modular GPS tracking System", amongst many other awards presented during the Valedictory Ceremony. (ANI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited and offered prayers at the Karni Mata Temple in Rajasthan's Bikaner, seeking the prosperity and well-being of the people of the country. In a post on social media platform X, PM Modi wrote in Hindi, "I had the good fortune of visiting and worshipping at the Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok, Bikaner. I prayed to the goddess for the happiness, prosperity, health and well-being of the countrymen". Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth Rs 26,000 crore in Rajasthan's Bikaner. Addressing the occasion, PM Modi welcomed the large gathering at the event, acknowledging the significant participation of people from 18 states and union territories who joined online. He highlighted the presence of several governors, chief ministers, lieutenant governors, and other public representatives. The Prime Minister extended his greetings to all esteemed dignitaries and citizens connected from across the country, according to a release from the Prime Minister's Office. PM Modi stated that he arrived at the event after seeking the blessings of Karni Mata, emphasising that these blessings further strengthen the nation's resolve to build a developed India. Mentioning the inauguration and foundation stone laying of development projects worth Rs 26,000 crore, he underscored their significance in advancing the country's growth. He extended his congratulations to the citizens for these transformative initiatives, according to the release. The Prime Minister highlighted the ongoing transformation of India's infrastructure, emphasising the nation's commitment to modernisation, and pointed to the rapid advancements in roads, airports, railways, and railway stations over the past 11 years. "India is now investing six times more in infrastructure development compared to previous years, a progress that has captured global attention", remarked the Prime Minister, pointing out iconic infrastructure projects across the country, citing the remarkable Chenab Bridge in the north, the Sela Tunnel in Arunachal Pradesh, and the Bogibeel Bridge in Assam in the east. In western India, he noted the Atal Setu in Mumbai, while in the south, he highlighted the Pamban Bridge, India's first of its kind. Emphasising India's continuous efforts to modernise its railway network, PM Modi underlined the introduction of Vande Bharat, Amrit Bharat, and Namo Bharat trains as symbols of the country's new speed and progress. He remarked that nearly 70 routes now operate Vande Bharat trains, bringing modern rail connectivity to remote regions. He further pointed out the significant infrastructure advancements over the past 11 years, including the construction of hundreds of road overbridges and underbridges, as well as the laying of over 34,000 kilometres of new railway tracks. He noted that unmanned level crossings on broad-gauge lines have been eliminated, enhancing safety. The Prime Minister also highlighted the swift development of dedicated freight corridors to streamline cargo transportation and the ongoing construction of India's first bullet train project. Alongside these efforts, more than 1,300 railway stations are being modernised to improve the passenger experience. Prime Minister Modi stressed that the modernised railway stations have been named Amrit Bharat Stations and that over 100 such stations have been completed. He noted that social media users have witnessed the striking transformation of these stations, which serve as showcases of local art and history. He pointed out significant examples, including Rajasthan's Mandalgarh station, reflecting the grandeur of Rajput traditions, and Bihar's Thawe station, depicting the sacred presence of Maa Thawewali along with Madhubani artwork. The Orchha railway station in Madhya Pradesh exudes the divine essence of Lord Ram, while the design of Srirangam station draws inspiration from the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple. Gujarat's Dakor station pays homage to Ranchhodrai ji, Tiruvannamalai station follows Dravidian architectural principles, and Begumpet station embodies the architectural legacy of the Kakatiya dynasty. Underlining that government investments in infrastructure not only drive development but also create employment opportunities and boost business activities, PM Modi emphasised that the thousands of crores being spent are directly benefiting workers, shopkeepers, factory employees, and those involved in transport sectors such as truck and tempo operators. He noted that once infrastructure projects are completed, the benefits multiply. Farmers can transport their produce to markets at lower costs, reducing wastage. Well-developed roads and expanded railway networks attract new industries and significantly boost tourism. He underscored that infrastructure spending ultimately benefits every household, with young people gaining the most from emerging economic opportunities, the release added. PM Modi highlighted the substantial benefits Rajasthan is gaining from ongoing infrastructure development. He noted that high-quality roads are being constructed across villages and even in border areas. Over the past 11 years, approximately Rs 70,000 crore has been invested in Rajasthan's road infrastructure alone. He stated that the central government is set to spend nearly Rs 10,000 crore on railway development in the state this year, marking a 15-fold increase compared to pre-2014 levels. He remarked on the flagging off of a new train connecting Bikaner to Mumbai, further enhancing connectivity. Additionally, he emphasised the launch and foundation stone laying of various health, water, and electricity projects in multiple regions. The release said that these initiatives aim to accelerate the progress of both urban and rural areas of Rajasthan, ensuring that young people find promising opportunities within their own cities and towns. Underlining the accelerated industrial development in Rajasthan under the Union and State governments, the Prime Minister noted that Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma's administration has introduced new industrial policies across various sectors, which will benefit regions like Bikaner. He also underscored the significance of the six-lane economic corridor from Amritsar to Jamnagar, passing through Shri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Barmer, and Jalore. Additionally, he highlighted the near-completion of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan, stating that these connectivity projects will elevate the state's industrial growth to new heights. PM Modi highlighted the rapid progress of the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana in Rajasthan, noting that over 40,000 people in the state have already benefited from this initiative, which has eliminated their electricity bills and provided them an opportunity to generate income through solar power. He remarked on the inauguration and foundation stone laying of several power-related projects, emphasising that these developments will further enhance Rajasthan's electricity supply. He underscored that the increasing power generation in the state is playing a crucial role in accelerating industrial growth. Underlining the historical significance of Rajasthan's land, PM Modi recalled the visionary efforts of Maharaja Ganga Singh in transforming desert terrain into fertile landscapes. He highlighted the critical importance of water for the region and its role in advancing the development of areas such as Bikaner, Shri Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, and western Rajasthan. He stated that the government is actively working on completing irrigation projects while simultaneously implementing river-linking initiatives. He underscored the impact of the Parvati-Kalisindh-Chambal Link Project, which will benefit multiple districts across Rajasthan, ensuring better agricultural prospects for farmers and enhancing the region's sustainability, according to the release. (ANI)
A five-member Trinamool Congress delegation on Thursday met with the families affected by Pakistani shelling in Poonch district, expressing solidarity with the families and reaffirming their commitment to humanity and peace. After meeting the families and seeing the damage, TMC MP Derek O' Brien underlined how he has been "deeply moved" by meeting the affected families. "We are deeply moved...One has to be mentally ready. What we have seen in the last 2 hours has been deeply moving. We can imagine how you (locals) are feeling, as this happened in Poonch, it is not eay in public life to come and share thoughts with people who are grieving. Mamata di (Bengal CM) has sent us here, we are here only tell these families that we are with you," O' Brien told reporters. Earlier the party said in a post on X that the delegation also met with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who told them extensively about the problems people at the border villages are facing. "A five-member delegation from our party travelled to Jammu & Kashmir to express solidarity with those affected by cross-border violence. After a meaningful meeting with Hon'ble CM Omar Abdullah, the team visited Poonch, where they stood beside grieving families, offering condolences and reaffirming our commitment to humanity and peace," TMC's post read. https://x.com/AITCofficial/status/1925522687788511522 The five-member delegation, consisting of MP Derek O'Brien, MP Md. Nadimul Haque, West Bengal Minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia, MP Sagarika Ghose and MP Mamata Bala Thakur arrived in Srinagar on May 21. One of the TMC MP highlighted how the shelling has affected the people, in a video released by the party on X. "We just arrived in Srinagar yesterday, and witnessed the aftermath of gunfire from across the border by Pakistan in the regions of Poonch and Rajouri. These attacks have caused significant harm to several people," TMC's Manas Bhunia said in the video. "We offer our deepest sympathy, respect and solidarity to the affected families. This is why, we as representatives of the AITC are here," he added. Further in the video, Sagarika Ghosh said that the party's delegation met with J-K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, and afterwards offered their condolences to the family and reaffirmed their commitment to humanity and peace. "Had a meeting with Omar Abdullah, the CM told us extensively what problems and difficulties the people in the border villages are facing. How people have died and how we can help in the area. We believe that every life is precious and important," Ghosh said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan. According to the Ministry of External Affairs,16 people have been killed due to Pakistani shelling and 59 others have been injured. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said during a press briefing, "The retaliatory action that Pakistan has taken in fact is impacting civilians...There are other civilians who were killed and injured in these attacks. In fact, since yesterday morning, a total of 16 civilians have been killed, and 59 others have been injured in the attacks by Pakistan." (ANI)
Chief Minister Sarma outlined Assam's growth trajectory and the plans on the anvil to build a Rs. 10 lakh crore Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) by 2027-2028.

The Chief Minister also apprised the Union Finance Minister the rapid strides made by Assam on the economic front following a slew of initiatives by the State Government to mobilise resources and generate revenue, resulting in Assam emerging as one of the country's fastest growing States.

Union Finance Minister Sitharaman appreciated the initiatives taken by the State Government to bolster the economy of the State and the country as a whole and assured to extend all possible help and support in the days ahead.

Later, taking to X (formerly Twitter), Chief Minister Sarma posted, "It was a privilege to call upon Hon'ble Finance Minister Smt @nsitharaman Ji today in New Delhi.

We had a good discussion on Assam's growth trajectory, how it has emerged among the country's fastest growing States and on our plans to build a Rs10 lakh cr GSDP by 2027-2028."

Senior officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Government of Assam were present during the discussion. (ANI)
Tufail is a resident of Doshipura, Jaitpura, District in Varanasi.

It was also reported that the individual was sharing important internal security-related information with Pakistani phone numbers.

According to the release, upon developing this intelligence, the ATS field unit in Varanasi confirmed that the accused, Tufail, was in contact with multiple individuals in Pakistan. Tufail was sharing videos of Maulana Shad Rizvi, a leader of the terrorist organisation Tehreek-e-Labbaik in Pakistan, on WhatsApp groups. He was also sharing messages calling for "Ghazwa-e-Hind," avenging the Babri Masjid incident, and implementing Sharia law in India.

Tufail had shared images and information related to several key Indian locations, including Rajghat, Namoghat, Gyanvapi, the railway station, Jama Masjid, Red Fort, and Nizamuddin Auliya, with Pakistani numbers.

He also circulated the link to these Pakistan-run groups among many other people in Varanasi. Tufail was reportedly in contact with over 600 Pakistani numbers.

He was also in contact via Facebook with a woman named Nafeesa, a resident of Faisalabad, Pakistan, whose husband is reportedly in the Pakistani army.

On May 22, 2025, Tufail was arrested from Adampur, Varanasi under FIR No. 05/25, Sections 148/152 of the BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita) at ATS Police Station, Lucknow. The accused will be presented before the Honourable Court as per legal procedure for further judicial action.

His mobile phone and SIM cards were also seized. (ANI)
Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and posed a series of questions about terrorism, Pakistan's statement, and US President Donald Trump's claims of mediation between India and Pakistan. In a post targeting the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi posted, "Modiji, stop giving hollow speeches. Just tell me, why did you believe Pakistan's statement on terrorism? Why did you sacrifice India's interests by bowing to Trump? Why does your blood boil only in front of cameras? You have compromised the honour of India!" Earlier in the day, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his public rally in Rajasthan on Thursday and said that instead of delivering "grand-sounding but hollow film-style" dialogues to the public, he should answer the questions being raised at him. The senior Congress leader reiterated the questions in connection with the Pahalgam terrorist attack and posted on his social media handle on X. Jairam Ramesh posted, "Instead of throwing out grand-sounding but hollow filmi dialogues in public rallies as he has done in Bikaner today, the Prime Minister should answer serious questions that are being asked of him." "Why are the brutal killers of Pahalgam still free--according to some reports, they had been responsible for three earlier terror attacks in Poonch, Gagangir, and Gulmarg over the past 18 months. Why have you not chaired any all-party meeting and taken the opposition parties into confidence?" he said. Adding further, he questioned, "Why have you not called a special session of Parliament to reiterate the unanimously passed resolution of Feb 22, 1994 and update it, given the deep China-Pakistan nexus evident during Operation Sindoor? Why have you stubbornly remained silent on the repeated claims being made by President Trump and US Secretary of State Rubio on the US role over the past two weeks, especially?" Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his first public rally in Rajasthan after Operation Sindoor on Thursday. He highlighted the Indian Armed Forces' bravery during the operation and reiterated his 2019 promise, saying, "Saugandh mujhe iss desh ki mitti ki, mein desh nahi mitne dunga, mein desh nahi jhukne dunga." The Prime Minister recalled his visit to Rajasthan after Balakot airstrikes and said, "This brave land of Rajasthan teaches us that nothing is greater than the country and its citizens. On April 22nd, terrorists destroyed the vermilion from the foreheads of our sisters by asking about their religion. Those bullets were fired in Pahalgam, but those bullets pierced the hearts of 140 crore countrymen. After this, every citizen of the country united and resolved that they would wipe out the terrorists. We will punish them more than they can imagine." He asserted that India, after Operation Sndoor, made it clear that Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack and said that "there is no blood flowing in Modi's veins, but hot Sindoor." Congress has repeatedly raised questions about the Pahalgam terror attack to the Prime Minister. Earlier in the day, Ramesh had questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not refuted US President Donald Trump's repeated claims of brokering the understanding of hostilities between India and Pakistan. Speaking with ANI, Jairam said that Trump has made these claims eight times in the last eleven days and questioned the 'silence' of PM Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and others. The Congress MP further urged PM Modi to respond to Donald Trump's claims instead of "diverting attention" by sending delegations to other countries. This comes after US President Donald Trump said that he facilitated the understanding through trade negotiations that de-escalate tensions between the two nations. Trump highlighted his rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while noting the challenges faced during the process. The cessation of hostilities between the two nations came after India's 'Operation Sindoor', launched on May 7, in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. India has refuted the claims made by the US President, reiterating its policy that India and Pakistan bilaterally address any matter related to the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. India's All Party Parliamentary Delegation on Thursday met Takashi Endo, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on National Security, Japan. The delegation also met Yoshihide Suga, Former Prime Minister of Japan, Vice President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Chairman of the Japan-India Association. The all-party delegation of MPs led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde called on the Chairman of Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs Committee, Federal National Council of UAE in Abu Dhabi today. UAE parliamentarian Ali Rashid Al-Nuaimi, who met with an all-party delegation of MPs on Thursday, affirmed his support for India in its fight against terrorism. (ANI)
Expressing his views on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first public rally after the success of Operation Sindoor, BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh said that the entire world has realised the strength of the country and the valour of Indian Armed forces. Tarun Chugh said, "PM Narendra Modi showed the world and our country's enemies that when Sindoor turns to gun powder, it can avenge the 22 April incident in 22 minutes by demolishing Pakistan's air bases and terror hubs. The entire world is realising the strength of the country and the valour of Indian Armed forces can be seen clearly. India has made it clear that we will not differentiate between terrorists, their masters, and their masters' government in responding with strict action." He further hit out at the Congress and said that they were insulting the Armed forces by calling the speech of Prime Minister inspired from films. "Congress leaders are insulting India's brave army by calling their valour filmy dialogues. If you want to listen to India's vigour, listen to it resounding in every street and market of Pakistan. To become the star boy of Pakistani media, to become their blue-eyed boy, Congress leaders have resorted to cheap politics," he added. Earlier PM Modi on Thursday asserted that India, after Operation Sindoor, made it clear that Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack and said that "there is no blood flowing in Modi's veins, but hot Sindoor." "Pakistan has forgotten one thing: that now Modi, the servant of Mother India, is standing here with his head held high. Modi's mind is cool; it stays cool, but Modi's blood is hot. Now there is no blood flowing in Modi's veins, but hot Sindoor. Now there will be neither trade nor talk with Pakistan. If there will be talk, it will only be about Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK)," PM Modi said at a public rally in Bikaner. "Now India has made it clear... Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack. And this price... will be paid by Pakistan's army... will be paid by Pakistan's economy... Ye shodh pratishodh ka khel nahin, ye nyay ka naya swaroop hai, ye Operation Sindoor hai. This is not just an agitation; this is the 'Raudra Roop' of a strong India. Ye Bharat ka naya swaroop hai. Pehle ghar mein ghus ke kiya the vaar, ab seene pe kiya prahar hai. (First, we entered their house and attacked; now we have attacked them on their chests)... This is the policy and the strategy to destroy the fangs of terrorism... This is new India," PM Modi added. The PM said that those who had shed the blood of innocent Indians had now been accounted for. "Today, with your blessings and the valour of the country's army, we have all lived up to that pledge. Our government gave a free hand to all three forces... Together, the three forces created such a Chakravyuh that Pakistan was forced to kneel down. Today, from the land of Rajasthan, I want to humbly tell the countrymen that those who had set out to wipe off the Sindoor have been reduced to dust. Those who shed the blood of India have been accounted for every drop. Those who had thought that India would remain silent are hiding in their homes today. Those who were proud of their weapons are buried under a pile of rubble," he said. Operation Sindoor was launched on May 7 in response to a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives. (ANI)
According to a statement from the Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff, CDS Chauhan visited the Headquarters of Western Air Command in the national capital, discussing operations with Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, Air Officer Commanding in Chief (AOC-in-C). The visit reaffirmed the Indian Armed Forces' commitment to joint preparedness and synergised air operations.

Earlier on May 14, CDS Chauhan, along with Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of Navy Staff Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi and Air Chief Marshal AP Singh provided a a direct perspective from the leadership of the Armed Forces into the successful conduct of Operation Sindoor.

During the deliberations, insights into the Tri-Services synergy achieved during the operation were deliberated upon

Insights on the TriServices synergy achieved through clearly stated Strategic guidance, and the successful execution of new-age multi-domain operations, with an exceptional degree of Jointness and Integration, deliberated with Veterans and Think Tanks," read a statement from HQ IDS.

India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Indian Armed Forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of over 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.

After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases in Pakistan.

After this, on May 10, an understanding of the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan was announced. (ANI)
the University of Delhi alleged on Thursday that the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, came to the campus without informing the authorities and expressed hope that this does not happen in future. Delhi University in its official statement, further alleged that Rahul Gandhi has done this for the second time for coming to the University without any prior intimation and information to the University of Delhi. "Today Shri Rahul Gandhi came to University of Delhi without any information to the authorities. He stayed in the DUSU Office for almost one hour. During this time, the DUSU was cordoned by security cover. Shri Rahul Gandhi has done this for the second time for coming to the University without any intimation and information to University of Delhi," a statement said on Thursday. "There were some students inside the DUSU Secretary's room who were locked in her room and later were misbehaved by NSUI members. The DUSU Secretary was outside. She was not allowed to enter in her office and was not let in by NSUI students. The University condemns such action and hopes that this does not happen in future. Strict action will be taken against students who were involved in this," it added. The official social media account of the Congress also shared a video of Rahul Gandhi's visit to the Campus. (ANI)
President Droupadi Murmu conferred six Kirti Chakras, including four posthumous, and 33 Shaurya Chakras, including seven posthumous, to the personnel of the Armed Forces, Central Armed Police Forces and State/Union Territory Police during Phase-I of Defence Investiture Ceremony 2025 at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi on Thursday, according to an official statement from the Ministry of Defence. The Gallantry awards were given to the personnel for displaying raw courage, unparalleled bravery and total disregard to personal safety in the line of duty, as per the ministry. The bravery, which has been awarded, was displayed during various operations related to counter-terror/counter-insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir and North-East. "Dreaded terrorists were neutralised & apprehended during these operations, and arms & ammunition were recovered," it added. The Indian Navy officers led anti-piracy operations, resulting in the surrender of pirates and the rescue of hostages, while also demonstrating bravery during fire-fighting operations on a burning oil tanker, the statement added. The statement added that the awardees from the Indian Air Force showed utmost courage in life-threatening circumstances during rescue of aircraft while maneuvering away from civilian areas to avoid any loss of life/property. The gallant act of CRPF officers were performed in various operations in areas affected by Left-Wing Extremism. Maoist insurgents were apprehended and weapons recovered, it added. (ANI)
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday announced that Ramanagara district will be renamed as 'Bengaluru South' for all administrative purposes. While speaking to the reporters after a cabinet meeting, DK Shivakumar stated, "From today, it has been announced in the cabinet that Ramanagara will be renamed Bangaluru South. All the headquarters will be in Ramanagara". "Today, the entire cabinet had a discussion. I am very happy to announce that Ramanagara district was a part of Bangaluru district, the headquarters will remain in Ramanagara, but the district will be called Bangaluru South for all administrative purposes..." Meanwhile, on his earlier reported statement regarding "wedding gift" by State's Home Minister G Parameshwara to gold smuggling case accused, actor Ranya Rao, Shivakumar said, "It is not a controversy. Why should it be a controversy? I just checked with Dr G Parameshwara. He said that there were some weddings and he gave it at the time of those weddings. That is what I know...She may be an accused, it is a crores of Rupees scandal. We don't want to interfere with or support anyone. G Parameshwara never supported anyone at any point in time. She is known to an officer who was working with him, I think he might have helped her on the occasion of the wedding, in the form of giving her a gift or something. That is what I asked him. As the party president, I had to ask him that..." Earlier in the day, G Parameshwara asserted that he is "prepared to cooperate" with whatever the outcome of the probe. "Yesterday, ED officers visited our institutions--Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Siddhartha Medical College at Tumkur, Siddhartha Medical College at Begur and Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education. I instructed my staff to cooperate with them and give whatever information they asked for...They questioned our accounts section. The search is still going on," G Parameshwara said. "Being a person who believes in the law of the country, whatever comes out of the verification or search, I am prepared to cooperate," he said. Parameshwara refused to comment when asked about the reports linking these searches to the Actor Ranya Rao gold smuggling case."I don't want to comment at this point in time. Let the investigation be completed," he said. Ranya Rao was arrested on March 3 at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport after officials from the DRI found her carrying gold. On Tuesday, the Economic Offences Court granted conditional bail to the Kannada actor in the smuggling case. (ANI)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a key associate of two Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) linked terror operatives who had carried out a grenade attack on a temple in Punjab's Amritsar in March this year, the agency said on Thursday. Absconder Bhagwant Singh alias Manna Bhatti was nabbed on Wednesday from Akalgarh village in Amritsar, taking the total arrests in the case to four. The attack was carried out by Gursidak Singh and Vishal alias Chuchi, who had hurled a hand grenade at Thakur Dwara Sanatan Mandir in Amritsar, the NIA investigation reveals. The proscribed terror organisation KLF has claimed responsibility for the attack. While Gursidak Singh was killed in a shootout with police following the temple attack, Vishal was arrested. Two other men, identified as Diwan Singh alias Sunny and Sahib Singh alias Saba, were also arrested in the case. As per NIA investigation, Bhagwant, who was absconding since the incident, had knowingly provided shelter to Gursidak and Vishal. "The duo had stayed with Bhagwant during the planning of the terror attack and also thereafter. The grenade used in the attack was also concealed behind Bhagwan's house with his knowledge." NIA's investigations in the case further reveal that Bhagwant Singh had even received terror funds in his bank account. NIA is continuing its investigation in the case as part of its crackdown against KLF associates in India and the terror outfit's foreign-based nodes. (ANI)
The accused, Assistant Sub-Inspector Vijay Kumar and Head Constable Surender, were caught red-handed while taking money from a complainant in exchange for illegal protection to commercial vehicles from traffic challans in the area, as per the Delhi police.

According to Delhi police, the complainant approached the Vigilance Unit on May 21, reporting that the traffic officers were demanding money to allow commercial vehicles to operate without being penalised. Taking swift action, a trap was laid by a dedicated Vigilance team.

Around 5:30 PM, ASI Vijay Kumar contacted the complainant and asked him to come to Mahadev Chowk. The complainant was then taken in a private car driven by HC Surender, with ASI Vijay Kumar also present. The vehicle proceeded to a secluded spot in Sector-30, Rohini, where the exchange was to take place.

Acting on a pre-determined signal from the complainant, the Vigilance team intercepted the vehicle. A search led to the recovery of the bribe amount from ASI Vijay Kumar.

A case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, at Police Station Vigilance. Both accused officers have been arrested and are currently in police custody for further investigation.

Delhi Police has reiterated its commitment to uphold transparency and has urged citizens to report any misuse of authority by police personnel. (ANI)
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has taken suo motu cognisance of the reported gang rape of a 14-year-old Dalit girl in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. NCW informed on Thursday that the Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar has written to the DGP of the Uttar Pradesh and seeked a fair and time-bound investigation of the crime. It further requested an immediate support in terms of medical and psychological for the victim. NCW demanded compensation as per to the relevant section of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Act and detailed report on the action taken within three days. In a post on X, NCW said, "NCW has taken suo motu cognisance of the reported gang rape of a 14-year-old Dalit girl in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, as per a media report. Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar has written to the DGP, Uttar Pradesh, seeking a fair and time-bound investigation, immediate medical and psychological support for the survivor, and compensation under Section 396 of the BNSS Act. A detailed action-taken report has been sought within 3 days." A minor girl was allegedly gangraped in broad daylight in Sultanpur on May 17 by three youths, including a minor, when she was on her way to school. The police arrested two accused and detained the third. The arrested accused were sent to judicial custody for 14 days and the minor was sent to juvenile home, Police officials said. (ANI)
Mayor of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) Pushyamitra Bhargava has ordered a probe against a Turkish company working with Indore BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) for ticketing and revenue collection, suspecting its relation with the company that supplied drones to Pakistan that were used during recent conflict. Mayor Bhargva emphasised that if any direct-indirect link or sister concerns are discovered with the said company, then it would be stopped from operating in the city. Speaking to ANI on Thursday, the mayor said, "It was brought to my notice that a Turkey based company is working with Indore BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) in relation to ticketing and revenue collection since 2019. This company has direct or indirect relation to a company that supplied drones to Pakistan, which was used during recent tension. Taking immediate cognizance into the matter, I ordered my department and AiCTSL (Atal Indore City Transport Services Limited) to investigate the issue. If any direct-indirect link or sister concerns is found, then this company should be stopped operating in the city." He further highlighted that when Indian citizens are hindering themselves from visiting Turkey in national interest, then it is better that such companies should not work here. "I have also issued another order that since it has been announced to end BRTS from the city then there is no need for such company's work anymore. Therefore, all such works should be closed as soon as possible," Bhargva added. Earlier, state cabinet minister Kailash Vijayvargiya expressed concern that a Turkish Company "Asisguard", which is reportedly manufacturer of drones used by Pakistan against India during the recent tension, has a contract for the work of digital systems in Bhopal and Indore Metro projects. In a post on social media platform X, Vijayvargiya wrote, "Nation is supreme ... .No place for anti-India mentality. For us, national duty is paramount. Anyone who stands against India's sovereignty, no matter who he is, any kind of sympathy or cooperation with him is intolerable." "Turkish company "Asisguard", which is engaged in drone manufacturing, is accused that the drones prepared by it were recently used in anti-India activities. The serious matter is that the same company "Asis" is currently contracted for the work of digital systems in Bhopal and Indore Metro projects. Instructions have been given to the officials to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation of the facts in this regard. If it is found that the company has direct or indirect links with anti-India elements or its products have been used against India's security, then the company's contract will be terminated. We will not compromise with the nation's honour, security and self-respect," he further added in the post. (ANI)
Congress MP Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not involving opposition parties in key decisions regarding the multi-party delegation. Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy said that Prime Minister Modi should have met with the leaders of opposition parties or other political parties to discuss the steps regarding the delegation. "He should have discussed the names with the parties and finalised them. This would have shown that all the political parties are together on this stand," said Reddy. "We are with the government from day one after the Pahalgam attack. We want to be united to fight against terrorism. However, the political parties have their own ways of functioning," he said while speaking to ANI. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have sat with the leaders of opposition parties or other political party leaders and discussed with them about the further action regarding this delegation," he said. Adding further, he said, "Political parties gave the names they were asked for. They gave their consensus to the government in a positive manner, so the government should have also responded positively. Why should they disrespect them? They should have discussed with the parties and finalised the names. This would have given the feeling to the people of the country that all the political parties are together on this stand." Earlier, the Congress party had accused the Central government of not including all the names recommended by the Opposition for the all-party parliamentary delegation. Congress General Secretary in charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, had accused the central government of playing "cheap politics" and indulging in "politicisation." Jairam Ramesh alleged that despite formally submitting four names on request, the government ignored most of them, undermining parliamentary conventions and trust between the Opposition and the ruling party. Earlier today, a high-level all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde arrived in Abu Dhabi and held meetings with the UAE leadership on the significance of Operation Sindoor and reaffirmed India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism. UAE is the first stop of the broader four-nation diplomatic outreach by the all-party delegation. "The delegations held meetings with UAE leadership and media to brief on the significance of Operation Sindoor and reaffirm India's firm stance against cross-border terrorism," the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi, said in a press release. The delegation highlighted the perpetration of cross-border terrorism and efforts to cause social disharmony in India by Pakistan. The day concluded with an interaction with the Indian community based in the UAE, recognising their vital contributions and reaffirming India's commitment to its diaspora. The delegation addressed and commended the diaspora for upholding the values of tolerance, pluralism, and unity, and for resisting divisive efforts aimed at destabilising India's social fabric. On Friday, the delegation is scheduled to participate in closed-door strategic dialogues with leading think tanks and thought leaders based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. India had launched Operation Sindoor and carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoJK in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. India also responded effectively to subsequent Pakistan aggression. (ANI)
CM instructed the officials to address long-pending farmers' grievances raised during the State SWAGAT program swiftly and within a set timeframe.

In the state-level SWAGAT (State Wide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology) program for May 2025, held on the fourth Thursday of the month, the CM addressed 11 complaints and offered relevant suggestions for their resolution.

Most grievances were related to the Revenue Department, specifically land measurement, acquisition, exemption from acquisition, and stamp duty on building construction. Issues concerning protection walls under the Irrigation Department were also raised, along with concerns from the Police and Panchayat departments.

Approximately 90 complainants presented grievances in the state-level SWAGAT. Public Relations officials were instructed to coordinate with the concerned authorities for their resolution.

District-level SWAGAT programs are regularly held across the state under the chairmanship of the Collector. In May 2025, 1,103 citizen representations were heard in person at the district level, with appropriate instructions issued for their resolution. At the taluka level, 3,617 grievances were addressed in person, including 2,503 at the taluka SWAGAT, with nearly 52% resolved on the spot. (ANI)
After experiencing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms late Wednesday night, the national capital is likely to experience similar weather for the next two days. While speaking with ANI, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) scientist, Akhil Srivastava, said, "Delhi may witness thunderstorms and light to very light rain in the next 2 days." "The maximum temperature will be between 38C to 40C," he further added, noting that Wednesday's thunderstorm activity was the result of "a cyclonic circulation". Meanwhile, the IMD has issued a red alert for heatwave conditions in western Rajasthan for the next three days. Eastern Rajasthan may also experience heatwave conditions during this period. Parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Haryana could also see heat waves over the next two days. A low-pressure area has formed over South Konkan, near the coast of Goa and the East Central Arabian Sea, Srivastava told ANI. Srivastava said that this weather system may turn into a depression within the next 36 hours. "It can intensify and move northwards," he said, adding that the system is expected to affect the weather along the West Coast in the coming days. Due to this, the IMD has issued a red alert for extremely heavy rainfall in the Konkan region for the next three days. "Heavy to very heavy rain may also occur in the adjoining areas of Central Maharashtra and the West Coast," Srivastava said. Earlier in the day, the weather department reported heavy rainfall across several states from 8:30 AM IST on Thursday to 5:30 AM IST on Friday. The data highlights heavy rainfall in regions including Gangetic West Bengal, Konkan and Goa, coastal Andhra Pradesh, and parts of Northeast India. The IMD has forecast continued heavy to very heavy rainfall in parts of the west coast, including Konkan and Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala, over the next few days. (ANI)
The Delhi High Court on Thursday modified the bail conditions for British national Christian Michel in the money laundering case connected to the AgustaWestland helicopter deal. Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma's bench ruled that, given the overall circumstances, including Michel's extended incarceration, his status as a foreign national with no ties to India, and his inability to secure a local surety, the court found it appropriate to amend the earlier bail conditions. Instead of requiring both a personal bond and a surety bond of Rs 5,00,000 each, Michel must now submit a personal bond of Rs 5,00,000 along with an increased cash surety of Rs 10,00,000. To ensure the applicant does not abscond while respecting his right to bail, the Court mandates that he deposit his passport with the Trial Court, attend the Directorate of Enforcement or report to the investigating officer every 15 days, and provide his residential address for verification. Any change in address must be promptly reported. These conditions ensure his presence throughout the trial, said the court. Advocate Aljo K Joseph appeared for Christian James and stated that Christian James cannot meet the bail surety requirement since he lacks family or friends in India. He requests modifications to secure James' release, stating it's nearly impossible to find an Indian surety. James also seeks to change the conditions requiring him to surrender his passport. Joseph explains that obtaining a UK passport from abroad takes 8 to 12 weeks, making immediate submission impossible. He urges both conditions to be modified for James' bail. Christian James Michel, through a plea, requested the waiver of the bail condition mandating a surety of Rs 5 lakh. As a foreign national with no familial ties or significant connections in India, he has sought either a modification or removal of the requirement to provide an Indian surety. The same bench on March 4, 2025, granted bail to Christian James Michel in the money laundering case. While granting bail, the high court directed him to provide a personal bond and a surety of Rs 5 lakh each, in addition to surrendering his passport to the trial court. Through a plea, James further requested the revocation of the passport surrender condition, stating that his passport has expired and obtaining a new one would take an estimated 4 to 8 weeks. On February 18, the Supreme Court granted bail to Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, stating that "the trial may not be completed in the next 25 years at this pace." Michel was arrested and extradited on December 4, 2018, while the FIR was registered in 2013. The Rs 3,600-crore scam involves the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland. James was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 and subsequently arrested by the CBI and the ED. He is one of the three alleged middlemen under investigation in the case, alongside Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. According to the CBI's chargesheet, the deal signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP helicopters worth 556.262 million euros caused an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (approximately Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer. The ED's chargesheet filed against James in June 2016 alleged that he received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AugustaWestland. The AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, during the Congress-led UPA Government and refers to a multimillion-dollar corruption case where money was allegedly paid to middlemen and Indian officials in 2006 and 2007 to purchase helicopters for high-level politicians. Following significant controversy and allegations of corruption, the Government of India ordered an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 12, 2013. Subsequently, the ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2014. (ANI)
The police complaint copy provided by the BJP leader Veerender Babu stated that the couple used forged identity documents to get married. Babu demaned the state government to inquire and take strict action. He also alleged that Rohingyas, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani nationals are allegedly trapping Indian girls and marrying them.

In the complaint, Babu stated, "We demand that the Telangana state government conduct an inquiry into the matter. Following the Pahalgam terror attack, the government decided to identify illegal immigrants. However, Rohingyas, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis are allegedly trapping Indian girls and marrying them. We demand that the state government take action against those providing fake Aadhaar cards to illegal immigrants. Recently, four people were held in the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate for fake Aadhaar cards."

Responding to the complaint, Inspector of IS Sadan Police station said, "BJP leaders filed a compliant about the matter, we are verifying."

Further investigation into the case is ongoing. (ANI)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Vikramjit Singh, who is part of a multi-nation parliamentary delegation, on Thursday said that India will not allow Pakistan to succeed in its alleged attempts to divide the country or give terrorism a "religious colour". Vikramjit Singh is among the members of Delegation 7, which will visit Egypt, Qatar, Ethiopia and South Africa as part of India's diplomatic outreach to present its stance on cross-border terrorism after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. "It is an honour that I am also a part of this official delegation. The government, the Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister Dr Jaishankar worked with foresight to send MPs, irrespective of their political ideology or party, to these important countries. Our neighbouring country tried to give it a religious colour. India is a secular country... It is very wrong to associate terrorists with any religion. Terrorists have no religion," Singh told ANI. "They (terrorists) made a disgusting attempt to give it a religious colour by killing innocent people in Pahalgam by asking their religion... All minorities in India have equal rights and equal opportunities. We will never let them (Pakistan) succeed in their designs...," he added. The comments came in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 in response to the "Barbaric|" Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people. The Indian Armed Forces carried out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), resulting in the deaths of over 100 terrorists from outfits such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen. Following this, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling and attempted drone strikes along the Line of Control and border regions in Jammu and Kashmir. India responded with coordinated attacks targeting radar installations, communication hubs, and airfields across 11 Pakistani airbases. On May 10, both countries announced an understanding to cease hostilities. Meanwhile, another All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha and including Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MPs Hemang Joshi, Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal and Pradan Baruah, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, reached Tokyo today. This delegation will visit Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore as part of India's four-nation diplomatic effort to brief international partners on India's response to the terror attack and its broader campaign against cross-border terrorism. (ANI)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday (local time) expressed his gratitude for the European Union's adoption of its 17th sanctions package against Russia while advocating for even stronger measures to pressure Moscow into ceasing hostilities in the war. During a conversation with European Council President Antonio Costa, Zelenskyy touched on Ukraine's EU membership aspirations and the need for a robust international response to Russia's actions. "As always, I had a very substantive conversation with the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa. I informed him of our diplomatic efforts, and we discussed possible next steps. I thanked him for the adoption of the EU's 17th sanctions package against Russia. The preparation of the next one is already underway, and it is crucial that it be even stronger," the Ukrainian President stated, taking to X. He specified that the sanctions should target Russia's energy and banking sectors, as well as its shadow fleet, including both vessels and their crews. "It should include the energy sector, banking sector, and the shadow fleet -- not only the vessels themselves, but also the crews operating them. Antonio confirmed that if Russia refuses to cease fire, such sanctions will be applied," Zelenskyy stated. "We also discussed the opening of negotiation clusters for Ukraine's EU membership. It is important to find a solution that will allow the process to be unblocked. I thank for all the efforts towards this goal," he added. https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1925242000514633824 Earlier on Tuesday, Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude towards UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer following the UK's new sanctions on Russia, as Zelenskyy believes it would help pressure Moscow toward peace. Zelenskyy, during a call with the UK PM, emphasised the need for a coordinated international response, urging the US also to take stronger action against Russia to support the ongoing diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine. The UK and the European Union (EU) unveiled new sanctions targeting Russia's economy, shadow oil fleet, and military supply chains. The EU adopted its 17th and most extensive sanctions package, while the UK imposed 100 fresh sanctions, including on financial institutions and military suppliers. The European Council adopted the 17th package of economic and individual restrictive measures, cutting off Russia's access to key military technology. "Today's 17th package is part of an even broader set of EU measures also targeting Russia's hybrid activities, domestic violations of human rights and the use of riot control agents by Russian forces in Ukraine, under three other sanctions regimes," the European Council said in a press release. In addition, the EU also imposed individual sanctions (asset freeze and prohibition to make funds available) targeting the shadow fleet ecosystem, namely on actors enabling the operation of the shadow fleet. These measures cover shipping companies responsible for the transportation of crude oil and oil products by sea and engaging in dangerous practices at sea while transporting Russian oil, including entities from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Hong Kong. (ANI)
One group of the all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde arrived in Abu Dhabi in UAE early Thursday as part of India's global outreach to showcase India's resolve against terrorism through 'Operation Sindoor'. This delegation, which includes figures from various political parties, aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against terrorism while engaging with leaders in the UAE, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone. The delegation, led by Shinde, featured BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj, Indian Union Muslim League (IMUL) MP ET Mohammed Basheer, BJP MP Atul Garg, Biju Janta Dal (BJD) MP Sasmit Patra, BJP's Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, BJP leader SS Ahluwalia, and Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. Earlier on Wednesday, two of the seven all-party delegations left the national capital and embarked on their destinations. The delegations were led by JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha and Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde. Seven all-party delegations are visiting key partner countries, including members of the UN Security Council. Prior to their departure, Shinde said it is a great opportunity for whole team to put forward the India's message. "I am fortunate to lead a group going to UAE and West Africa... I think its very much important to give a message to the entire world what India is facing since many years. A message what Pakistan is doing what all years, how Pakistan is supporting terrorism, funding terrorism. This is a great opportunity for entire team... India and Pakistan gained independence at the same time, but India has been progressing in their economy while Pakistan has been progressing only in terrorism," he said. Ahluwalia said India will give a befitting reply to the false news spread by Pakistan's propaganda machinery. "We are going to tell the world the reality of what happened on April 22 and what has been happening even before that because Pakistan is spreading false propaganda all over the world. We will give a correct answer to the false news spread by their propaganda machinery," he stated. Meanwhile, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said Indian Armed Forces gave a befitting reply to the Pahalgam terror attack. "The terrorist attack in Pahalgam was a blow to the soul of India. PM Modi and our armed forces have given a befitting reply to this, through Operation Sindoor. Operation Sindoor is a new pledge of justice. PM has made it very clear that terror and talks can't go together, blood and water won't flow together, trade and terror will not happen together; whenever India would hold talks, it will be over PoK. With the sense of Nation First, cutting across party lines, this all-party delegation is going... We will present India's position before these nations," she said. The all-party delegations will project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. They will convey to the world the country's strong message of zero tolerance for terrorism. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
According to Taiwan's MND, 16 out of the 23 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern, southwestern and eastern Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).

"23 PLA aircraft, 8 PLAN vessels and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 16 out of 23 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern, southwestern and eastern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded," the MND stated on X.

https://x.com/MoNDefense/status/1925355935620350290

This incident follows a recent pattern of escalated manoeuvres by China around Taiwan, sparking concerns over regional stability.

Taiwan has been governed independently since 1949. However, China considers Taiwan part of its territory and insists on eventual reunification, by force if necessary.

Earlier on Wednesday, the MND had detected 15 PLA aircraft, eight PLAN vessels and one official ship operating around Taiwan until 6 am (local time).

According to the MND, 15 out of the 15 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. In response to Chinese action, Taiwan's armed forces deployed aircraft, naval ships, and coastal missile systems to monitor the situation.

"15 sorties of PLA aircraft, 8 PLAN vessels and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 15 out of 15 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded accordingly," the MND stated on X.

Earlier on May 13, Taiwan conducted a series of test firings of several Land Sword II and HIMARS systems to bolster air defence preparedness.

As per the MND, Land Sword II possesses the capability of countering varied aerial threats, thereby significantly enhancing the protection of the force.

"Land Sword II makes its live fire debut. This SAM system is capable of countering diverse aerial threats and significantly enhances force protection for #ROCArmy," MND wrote in a post on X. (ANI)
US President Donald Trump, during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday (local time), confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with unsubstantiated claims that white South Africans--particularly Afrikaner farmers--are being systematically murdered, as reported by The Hill. According to The Hill, Trump's administration has recently allowed Afrikaner farmers expedited access to refugee status and US citizenship, despite limited evidence supporting claims of targeted violence. This policy shift contrasts with the administration's generally strict stance on immigration. Ramaphosa, a former anti-apartheid activist and freedom fighter, had responded to the claims diplomatically, countering Trump's assertions. As per The Hill, at the meeting, Trump played a nearly four-minute video, reportedly shared by Afrikaner advocacy groups, which included inflammatory clips of Julius Malema, leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party and cited him as a major threat and suggested Ramaphosa should have him arrested for inciting violence. However, Malema was expelled from the African National Congress years ago. Trump claimed that white farmers are having their land seized and are being killed, presenting news clippings he said proved escalating violence. He also referred to a memorial of white crosses in South Africa--known as the Witkruis Monument--as a mass burial site for murdered white farmers, though the site is symbolic and commemorates victims of farm attacks regardless of race. "It's more than just a little movement -- it's a pretty big movement in South Africa," Trump said of Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters as quoted by The Hill. "Their land is being confiscated and, in many cases, they're being killed," Trump added. Ramaphosa refuted the genocide narrative, noting that Malema leads a small opposition party and is allowed to express his views under South Africa's constitution. He emphasised that while crime is a problem in the country, it does not disproportionately affect white farmers. "Our government policy is completely, completely against what you were saying, even in the Parliament," the South African President said as quoted by The Hill. "They're a small minority party which is allowed to exist, in terms of our constitution." As per The Hill, Afrikaners--descendants of Dutch settlers--make up under 7 per cent of South Africa's population but ruled the country during apartheid until 1994. Ramaphosa, who served under Nelson Mandela, became president in 2018 after a career in business and labour leadership. South Africa's Parliament recently passed legislation to address historical injustices from apartheid, including land inequality. Though no land has been seized under the law, critics such as Elon Musk, who was present at the meeting, have used the reform to claim white South Africans are under threat. Musk has also said his company, Starlink, cannot operate in South Africa due to Black Economic Empowerment laws, as reported by The Hill. As per The Hill, no international body has recognised the situation in South Africa as genocide. The country's 2024 crime statistics show 6,032 murders, with only 44 occurring on farms and just one involving a farmer. The data does not specify victims' race. (ANI)
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) requested the acting chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to expedite hearings on petitions requesting the suspension of sentences that have been awarded to PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the 190 million pound corruption case, Dawn reported. Dozens of PTI workers and assembly members held a protest to demand the release of Imran Khan. PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, along with Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Barrister Ali Zafar, Latif Khosa, Shibli Faraz, Aliya Hamza, and others, demanded an end to what he termed Imran Khan's unjust incarceration. The PTI leaders ended their protest after Aleema Khan reached there, vowing to return next week when the hearing is expected to be scheduled. PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen said the acting chief justice had assured them that the case would be scheduled next week, Dawn reported. Meanwhile, the investigation team came to Adiala Jail from Lahore to carry out a polygraph test of Imran Khan, linked to nine cases lodged against him on May 9, 2023. However, he did not undergo the test, citing a constitutional provision under which one cannot be compelled to testify. Earlier on May 15, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan denied any deal over former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's case, saying that political issues must be settled through talks instead of clandestine pacts, The Express Tribune reported. Speaking outside Parliament House, Gohar Ali Khan said that "no deal has been made" with any quarter regarding Imran Khan's case. He further said that all negotiations should remain confidential and constitutional. When asked about reports that Imran Khan had agreed to hold talks with the government, the PTI chairman said he had relayed the Pakistan Prime Minister's invitation but would not share details regarding the discussions held at Adiala jail. He emphasised that genuine progress in national politics relied on discretion and sincerity and warned against media sensationalism. He said, "Political matters must be resolved through talks." (ANI)
Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George on Thursday briefed the All-Party delegation led by JD(U) MP Sanjay Jha, where he noted that after the dastardly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Japan was the first country to respond. The briefing aimed at setting the context for a strong message of India's fight against terrorism. "On the terror attack happened, cross-border terrorism happened, Japan was one of the first countries [to respond]. The all-party delegation [is here], so that we can discuss how we approach our Japanese interlocutory. Our parliamentary delegation is led by honourable Member of Parliament Sanjay Jha," he said. Indian embassy in Tokyo stated that India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements. In a post on X, the Embassy stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was briefed by Ambassador Sibi George on Japan- specific approach to engagements, setting the context for a strong messaging of India's fight against terrorism." https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925377313598017815 "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Hon'ble MP Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha arrives in Tokyo, welcomed by Ambassador Sibi George. India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Op. Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements," the Embassy had said. https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925339067157483738 The nine-member delegation is on a five-nation visit for Operation Sindoor global outreach. The delegation, led by Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Dr Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that took place on April 22. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoJK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
On May 12, China's State Council Information Office released a Chinese-language white paper discussing the nation's security direction. In this National Security in the New Era document, Beijing describes the current geopolitical scene as "volatile and stable". However, reading between the lines, what it cares about most is the stability and longevity of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although this document must have been in the making for months, its release coincides with heightened regional and global uncertainty due to the unpredictability of President Donald Trump. However, the State Council's assertion that the paper "represents a major theoretical contribution from contemporary China to the global community" is best seen as a hubristic exaggeration. Nonetheless, the white paper is important since it is China's first such national security document. As the State Council explained, "The move aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the innovative concepts, practices and achievements in China's national security efforts, and enhance the international community's understanding of China's national security." However, if the white paper was designed to reassure, then it failed. Beijing is attempting to paint itself as a source of stability in Asia-Pacific, but the white paper's sections on sovereignty, systemic risk management and ideological resilience show that China's national security is more about the survival of the CCP and its ideology. Its concept of holistic security encompasses diverse domains like politics, the economy, military, science and technology, and societal domains, all of which fall under the direct authority of the CCP. The concept also spans nontraditional threats such as cyberspace, artificial intelligence, biosecurity and public health. Interestingly, it claims the "people's security" is the ultimate goal. Yet the People's Republic of China has never been about the people,instead, it exists to glorify and solidify the preeminence of the CCP. This is confirmed when the document states political security is "the fundamental task". Furthermore, the CCP organ said national security "firmly fulfills the major responsibilities entrusted by the party and the people, upholds the party's position as the governing party and the socialist system, improves the people's sense of fulfillment, happiness and security..."The document has a preface, six sections and a conclusion. Giving an idea of the contents, the six chapters cover the following topics: China injecting certainty and stability into the world of change and disorder; the holistic approach to national security guiding national security efforts in the new era; providing solid support for the steady and continued progress of Chinese modernization; reinforcing security in development and pursuing development in security; implementing the Global Security Initiative and promoting the common security of the world; and advancing the modernization of the national security system and capacity through deepening reforms. It is unclear how national security "supports further expansion of high-level opening up," for China is now more closed under Xi, nor how it "operates under the rule of law," as asserted in the white paper. Yes, China has recently introduced new laws covering cybersecurity, data protection and counterterrorism, for example, but China uses laws to assert control over the population. This is rule "by" the law, not the rule"of" law. Mathieu Duchatel, Resident Senior Fellow and Director of International Studies of the French-based Institut Montaigne think-tank, highlighted four key concepts contained within the National Security in the New Era White Paper. The first is the centrality of Chairman Xi Jinping's comprehensive national security concept, which he first aired in April 2014. Its sweeping scope covers politics, military, territory, economy, finance, culture, society, science and technology, cyberspace, food, ecology, resources, nuclear issues, overseas interests, outer space,deep sea, polar regions, biology, AI and data. A second concept is the elevation of political security as the lifeline of national security in the new era. In other words, the CCP system must be preserved at all costs. Thirdly, Duchatel highlights the framing of national security policy as support for Chinese-style modernization. For instance, it lists a homicide rate of 0.44 per 100,000, which suggests China is the third-safest nation in the world. Although China trumpets its crime rate and social harmony as evidence of effective governance, it better reflects the tight controls implemented in an Orwellian police state where dissent is strictly outlawed. The fourth concept, according to Duchatel, is the search for balance between national security goals and development. If higher-level development of the nation is to occur, greater national security is required, or so the CCP's argument goes. It thus sees high-quality development and high-level security as two sides of the same coin. One cannot exist without the other, and so economic resilience is integral to national stability. China is also prioritizing technological self-reliance to protect itself and minimize exposure to foreign sanctions or disruptions to global supply chains. The white paper harks back to China's 5,000-year history, which endowed the "Chinese nation with a profound and rich strategic culture on national security". This is supposed to legitimize Xi's comprehensive national security concept, and to suggest his continuity as though he is building on past foundations. In fact, much of this white paper is the CCP asserting the moral high ground. As Trump turns his back on longstanding American and human principles, Duchatel stated, "In this context, China can be expected to achieve some soft-power gains, even though its actual behavior does not always align with its policy statements, and sometimes contradicts them." China majors on its responsible position in world affairs in this report. Its Global Security Initiative (GSI), proposed by Xi in 2022, imagines "building a community with a shared future for humanity, and brings a global outlook to the holistic approach to national security". The GSI trumpets shared security and multilateralism, whilst opposing bloc confrontations. In other words, the GSI seeks to set up China as the lead security partner as an alternative to Western blocs. From this position, China can dominate others. The white paper stated, "China ensures both its own security and common security, advocates strengthening global security governance, practices the global governance concept of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, upholds true multilateralism, and works to make global security governance system fairer and more equitable." However, Chinese national security will always be at odds with the security of other nations, and the GSI does not provide solutions to this conundrum for an authoritarian regime, despite the flowery words. Experience has proven that China prefers coercive actions when it feels threatened. China declares its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and development interests are non-negotiable, especially when it comes to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet and maritime rights. The paper asserts the CCP's "sincerity" in pursuing peaceful unification of Taiwan, and Duchatel commented that the paper's tone "clearly favors United Front tactics over military coercion. There is no indication that Beijing is losing patience." The fear is that China's "national security" efforts will simply tighten controls over home territory, as well as expanding its power and influence overseas. After all, whenever China exerts its power over others, it can claim it is simply exercising reasonable national security. As another example of the paradoxes contained in this white paper, the document promotes a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, despite China steadfastly supporting Vladimir Putin's invasion. Duchatel noted, "While China has acted as a critical enabler of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the document portrays a posture ofbenevolent neutrality, repeating, for instance, the line that 'the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be respected'. The disconnect between narrative and policy remains a major weakness of China's foreign policy, even though many countries are blind to it, for different reasons, such as anti-American ideology, whataboutism or lack of expertise on China." The same paradox could be applied to China's treatment of India and Pakistan. Although it paid lip service by condemning the Pahalgam terrorist attack, it arms and supports Pakistan, with its weapons being used in a short but sharp cross-border clash. Ryan Hass, an American foreign policy analyst who serves as director of the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center, recently spent ten days traveling in China. Some of his observations reinforced what the white paper implies. Hass noted: "I feel China's plan for the US-China trade war is coming into focus around three central planks: maintain composure and resolve; avoid being isolated; hit America where it hurts." Concerning the first point of maintaining composure, he elaborated that the Chinese leadership is presenting itself as calm and confident, yet also conditioning the Chinese public for economic turbulence. This involves diverting the populace's frustration towards the USA as the source of their problems, and stoking nationalism by invoking China's history of holding firm against external bullying.Beijing is working hard to avoid being isolated, including finding common causes with Asian and other nations. As Hass concluded, "PRC leaders don't expect near-term resolution to the trade war. They view it as a symptom of a broader US strategy to suppress China's rise. They believe PRC concessions now would only invite further US pressure. They're treating the moment as strategic challenge, not an economic crisis." Hass claimed, "Rightly or not, Beijing believes its political system is more unified, hardened and disciplined than the US government to withstand trade war pressure. They're signaling they will hold firm and wait for Trump to shift course." This is the same kind of message that this national security white paper was trying to make - China is presenting a facade of confidence, and turning whole-of-society issues intomatters of national security. (ANI)
Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed on Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, officials said, according to local media. "Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC," US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X social media platform. Law enforcement sources told CNN that two people were shot as they exited an event at the museum. The shooting occurred at around 9:15 p.m. local time near an FBI office building on F Street, according to the news outlet. The Israeli ambassador was not involved in the incident and was not at the location when the shooting happened, an embassy spokesperson told CNN. US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on social media that she and acting US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro have arrived at the scene of the shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum. According to CBS News, two people familiar with the investigation said a suspect believed to be the shooter is in custody. Two sources said the shooter yelled "free Palestine" prior to the shooting. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took to X to post, "Horrific act of terror that the people of Israel are waking up to this morning. AG Pam Bondi called to let me know and was at the scene. 2 dead in shooting targeting Israeli embassy staffers outside Jewish Museum in Washington DC," Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, also wrote in a social media post that the shooting occurred "outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum." Danon wrote that two other Israeli Embassy employees were wounded in the shooting, but that number has not been confirmed by authorities. "The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives - everywhere in the world," Danon posted on X. Ben Williamson, an FBI spokesperson, posted to X that FBI personnel were responding to assist the Metropolitan Police Department with the situation. "There is no ongoing threat to public safety," the FBI Washington Field Office wrote on X. Spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington Tal Naim Cohen posted, "Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC. We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel's representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States." More details awaited. (ANI)
The All-party delegation led by JDU MP Sanjay Jha in in Tokyo today as part of the global outreach post Operation Sindorr, After being briefed by the Indian ambassador to Japan Sibi George the nine meber delegation paid floral tributes at Mahatma Gandhi's bust inTokyo. The members were seen offering floral tributes as a children's choir sang "Vaishnava Jana To", a favourite bhajan of the Mahatma. Delegation lead MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said that they aim to present India's stand on the new normal in context of Pakistan sponsored cross border terrorism. "We just offered flowers at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The children also sang the 'Vaishnav Jan' song. After this, our delegation will visit the foreign minister, parliamentarians and think tanks. We will present the central government and PM Modi's stand on the new normal and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. After the Pahalgam attack, India's stand is that the world has to come together to end the source of terrorism. We dismantled nine terror camps without causing any harm to the military infrastructure or civilians... The world knows that Pakistan promotes terrorism, as all the terrorists are found there, including Osama Bin Laden. Terrorism is their state policy... Our purpose is to sensitise the world about this, tell them about Operation Sindoor and let them know about the new normal that India will give a befitting reply to cross-border terrorism," Sanjay Jha said. CPI-M MP John Brittas, said they will send a message of India being against terror and how countries like Japan need to stand by India in this fight. "We had a discussion with the Ambassador of India to Japan and prepared the contours of the discussion that needs to take place with stakeholders, including the Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, think tanks, members of Parliament and the media. Before the beginning of the discussions, the delegation paid floral tributes ot Mahatma Gandhi ji here. A lot of people are waiting for the outcome of the discussions we are going to hold. I think we can send across a message of the country which is against terror and how Japan needs to be with us in our fight against terror," Brittas said. Earlier in the day, Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George briefed the All-Party delegation. where he noted that after the dastardly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Japan was the first country to respond. The briefing aimed at setting the context for a strong message of India's fight against terrorism. "On the terror attack happened, cross-border terrorism happened, Japan was one of the first countries to respond. The all-party delegation is here, so that we can discuss how we approach our Japanese interlocutory. Our parliamentary delegation is led by honourable Member of Parliament Sanjay Jha," he said. Indian embassy in Tokyo stated that India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements. In a post on X, the Embassy stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was briefed by Ambassador Sibi George on Japan- specific approach to engagements, setting the context for a strong messaging of India's fight against terrorism." "India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Op. Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements," the Embassy said in another post. The delegation is on a five-nation visit for Operation Sindoor global outreach. The delegation, led by Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Dr Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah. The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. India had launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that took place on April 22. India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoJK). The Indian Armed Forces responded effectively to subsequent Pakistani aggression and pounded its airbases. The two countries have reached an understanding to stop military action following a call made by Pakistan's DGMO to his Indian counterpart. (ANI)
North Korea fired multiple unidentified cruise missiles, according to a report in South Korean state media on Thursday morning. The multiple cruise missiles were fired toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea's JCS, the Yonhap news outlet reported. The Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the launches at about 9 am from the Sondok area in South Hamgyong Province, noting that South Korean and US intelligence authorities are conducting a detailed analysis. Pyongyang had on May 8 fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea as per Yonhap. Meanwhile, North Korean state-run media reported a major accident at a launch ceremony for a new North Korean naval destroyer. North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, termed the mishap a "criminal act". The incident occured at a shipyard in the port of Chongjin, the 5,000-ton destroyer lost balance while on a flatcar, crushing some lower sections and preventing it from leaving the shipway, the official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday, as cited by Yonhap Kim who was present at the launch said the accident caused by "absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism which is out of the bounds of possibility" led "the dignity and self-respect of our state to a collapse in a moment," KCNA reported. According to the South Korean military, the destroyer remains partially capsized. Kim has also ordered the ship be restored before a key party meeting in June In late April, Kim attended a ceremony for the launch of another new 5,000-ton warship at a shipyard in Nampho on its western coast and lauded the event as a "breakthrough in modernization" of the country's naval forces. At the ship's launching event, Kim urged the construction of more destroyers of the Choe Hyon class, along with larger cruisers and various support vessels, next year. He also reiterated the country's ambition to develop nuclear-powered submarines. In March this year, the North unveiled what appears to be a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, with its leader warning that his country's maritime defense capability will be "fully" projected "in any necessary waters without limitation," Yonhap reported. (ANI)
Janata Dal (United) MP Sanjay Jha who is leading an All-Party Delegation to Japan ahs appealed to all world leaders to side with India against Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism. Jha, who along with his delegation members arrived in the Japanese capital of Tokyo on Thursday while talking to ANI said that they aimed to present India's stand on the new normal in context of Pakistan-sponsored cross border terrorism. "Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism. One must differentiate between terrorists and the terrorist sponsor, which is the state that promotes them, funds it, gives them training. This is known, but we must make it clear that after the Pahalgam terror attack, India's stance is to wipe off the terror sponsors. Now people from all over the world should gather to eliminate this source from which terrorists are located," he said. The JD(U) leader said that the delegation aimed to tell people about the stand adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is the "new normal." "Today our delegation is in Tokyo and we offered floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. School children sung 'Vaishnav Jan To' and in a way, the journey of our delegation began here. We are now going to meet the think tanks, the ministers here, and present the stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi- especially the stand of the 'new normal' or the opinions on Pakistan. India has endured a lot and we have dismantled the nine terrorist camps from where training was conducted. The biggest achievement of the Indian army was that neither did any civilian die in this operation, nor was any military infrastructure harmed. We went to the terrorist camp we had, to help them and there were many terrorists in it," he said. Jha said the delegation aimed to sensitize people on Pakistan's state sponsorship of terrorism. "Normally everyone is aware that Pakistan promotes terrorism because all the wanted terrorists are found there in the same way as Osama Bin Laden was found. After the manhunt conducted around the world, he was found in Pakistan. Everyone knows about the state policy of terrorism there, so we are here to sensitize people about it and explain Operation Sindoor. We are also here to tell people about the new normal and that when India faces cross-border terrorism, we will respond to it on our own way," he said. Jha said that the world has shown overwhelming support against terrorism, and agrees with India's zero tolerance for terrorism. "We held talks with the Indian Ambassador here in the embassy and discussed our agenda for the next three days. People support India's stance on terrorism and everyone believes in zero tolerance against terrorism," he said. Jha expressed dismay at how Pakistan's Army Chief was promoted to a Field Marshal even after he spoke about the 'Two Nation Theory'. Jha said that it showed Pakistan's attitude towards terrorism. "Pakistan's Army Chief is promoted to a Field Marshal. The language they used in the week before. The way being an Army Chief he spoke on the Two-Nation Theory, so imagine what kind of society they have, what kind of government is sponsoring the entire army there, so I think it is a very good move to sensitize the world," he said. After their arrival, the all-member delegation paid floral tributes to the Mahatma Gandhi's bust in Tokyo. The members were seen offering floral tributes as a children's choir sung "Vaishnava Jana To", a Hindu prayer or bhajan. Earlier in the day, Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George briefed the All-Party delegation, where he noted that after the dastardly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Japan was the first country to respond. The briefing aimed at setting the context for a strong message of India's fight against terrorism. Indian embassy in Tokyo stated that India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements. https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925377313598017815 https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925339067157483738 In a post on X, the Embassy stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was briefed by Ambassador Sibi George on Japan- specific approach to engagements, setting the context for a strong messaging of India's fight against terrorism." (ANI)
US President Donald Trump on Thursday condemned the "horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism". In a post on the Truth Social social media platform, Trump said, "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA." Israeli state media TPS-IL reported that two Israeli embassy staff members were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night in what Israeli and US officials are calling a targeted act of antisemitic violence. According to Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy, the two staffers were a young couple about to become engaged. They were "shot at close range" while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said America and Israel "will stand united in defence of our people and our shared values" following the attack. In a statement on X, Herzog stated, "I am devastated by the scenes in Washington DC," Herzog wrote in a statement on X. "This is a despicable act of hatred, of antisemitism, which has claimed the lives of two young employees of the Israeli embassy." "Our hearts are with the loved ones of those murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured. I send my full support to the Ambassador and all the embassy staff. We stand with the Jewish community in DC and across the US," the Israeli president's statement read. US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a post on X said, "We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share," adding, "We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice." Washington, DC, Police Chief Pamela Smith in a press conference late Wednesday, said, "Despite all life-saving efforts, both victims succumbed to their injuries," Smith said. "The attack occurred as the victims were exiting the museum. A suspect had been seen pacing outside shortly beforehand." Smith identified the shooter as 30-year-old Elias Rodriquez of Chicago, Illinois. "The suspect opened fire on a group of four, killing a man and a woman. While in custody, he chanted, 'Free, free Palestine.'" After the shooting, the gunman entered the museum and was detained by event security, Smith said. Once handcuffed, he told security where he had discarded the weapon, which was recovered by authorities. Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter was cited by The Press Service of Israel as saying that the male victim had recently purchased an engagement ring and was planning to propose next week in Jerusalem. "The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of 'Free Palestine' was a couple about to be engaged," Leiter said. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also denounced the attack as "a depraved act of antisemitic terrorism." "Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line," Danon said. "We are confident US authorities will act decisively." The fatal shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday occurred on the same night as the American Jewish Committee was holding an event for young professionals, CNN reported. The man accused of killing the young couple "pretended to be a witness" and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming he "did it for Gaza," eyewitness Sara Marinuzzi told CNN. (ANI)
CPI(M) leader and member of the all-party delegation, John Brittas, stated on Thursday that the delegation had an extensive discussion with the Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, during which they were briefed on their itinerary. Speaking with ANI, Brittas highlighted that their meeting aimed to send India's message across as a terror-opposing nation and how Japan needs to be with India. "We had a comprehensive discussion with the Indian Ambassador, and we prepared the points as per the discussion that need to take place with stakeholders, the foreign minister, the Defence Minister, the members of parliament, and the media, so there are lots of meetings lined up," he said. "We have a hectic schedule. We also discussed with the Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George. The delegation members also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. And a lot of people are waiting for the outcome of the discussion we are going to have, and we feel that we can send across the message of a country which is against terror and how Japan needs to be with us in a fight against terror," he said. Brittas is a part of an MPs' delegation going to Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, Japan, and Singapore to showcase India's continued fight against terrorism. Earlier in the day, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Sanjay Kumar Jha paid floral tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Edogawa, Tokyo. https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925403965027754087 JD(U) MP and the leader of the All-Party Delegation in Japan, Sanjay Jha, appealed to all world leaders to side with India against Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism. Jha, while talking to ANI, said that the delegation is there to raise awareness of Operation Sindoor. "Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism. One must differentiate between terrorists and the terrorist sponsor, which is the state that promotes them, funds it, gives them training. This is known, but we must make it clear that after the Pahalgam terror attack, India's stance is to wipe off the terror sponsors. Now people from all over the world should gather to eliminate this source from which terrorists are located," he said. Earlier in the day, Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, briefed the All-Party delegation, where he noted that after the dastardly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Japan was the first country to respond. The Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated that India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements. https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925377313598017815 https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925339067157483738 In a post on X, the Embassy stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation was briefed by Ambassador Sibi George on Japan- specific approach to engagements, setting the context for a strong messaging of India's fight against terrorism." (ANI)
An all-party delegation led by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde met UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi as part of India's global outreach against terrorism post Operation Sindoor. The delegation included BJP MPs Bansuri Swaraj and Atul Garg, Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra, BJP leader SS Ahluwalia, IUML MP ET Mohammed Basheer, BJD MP Sasmit Patra, and Ambassador Sujan Chinoy. Speaking on the reachout efforts External Affair Minister S Jaishankar said,"A nation united sends a strong message on combating terrorism." Highlighting the significance of the visit and the diversity of political voices in the group, delegation leader Shrikant Shinde said it was crucial to present India's position to the world. "I am fortunate to lead a group going to UAE and West Africa. It is very important to give a message to the world about what India has been facing for many years, including Pakistan's support and funding of terrorism," he said, adding, "India and Pakistan gained independence at the same time, but India has progressed economically, while Pakistan has progressed only in terrorism." Echoing the sentiment, BJP leader SS Ahluwalia said the delegation aims to expose Pakistan's disinformation campaign globally. "We are going to tell the world the reality of what happened on April 22 and counter the false news spread by Pakistan's propaganda machinery," he stated. Supporting this, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj highlighted India's firm and decisive response to terrorism, stating, "The terrorist attack in Pahalgam was a blow to the soul of India. PM Modi and our armed forces have given a befitting reply through Operation Sindoor. The PM has made it clear that terror and talks cannot go together. With a sense of 'Nation First,' this all-party delegation will present India's position to the nations we visit." Their statements underline the delegation's united commitment to exposing Pakistan's false narratives and reaffirming India's strong stance against terrorism on the global stage. This delegation is one of seven all-party groups visiting key partner countries, including members of the UN Security Council, aiming to project India's national consensus and resolute approach to combating terrorism in all its forms. Following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, India launched precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Indian Armed Forces responded strongly to subsequent Pakistani aggression and targeted its airbases. A ceasefire understanding was reached after a DGMO-level call between the two countries. (ANI)
An All-Party Parliamentary Delegation from India met with Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan, reiterating India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms. The Japanese Foreign Minister expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by India, urging strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts. Delgation lead, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said," We presented India's stand strongly. He appreciated it and said that action should be taken against terrorism. He also appreciated the restraint India had shown. He supported India's stand against terrorism. He said that terrorism should be eliminated. He added that EAM Dr S Jaishankar had briefed him on this. He offered his condolences on the Pahalgam attack and said that they (terrorists) should be punished." Earlier in the day, members of the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation led by Sanjay Kumar Jha paid floral tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Edogawa, Tokyo. Sanjay Jha, appealed to all world leaders to side with India against Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism.Jha, while talking to ANI, said that the delegation is there to raise awareness of Operation Sindoor. "Pakistan is a state sponsor of terrorism. One must differentiate between terrorists and the terrorist sponsor, which is the state that promotes them, funds it, gives them training. This is known, but we must make it clear that after the Pahalgam terror attack, India's stance is to wipe off the terror sponsors. Now people from all over the world should gather to eliminate this source from which terrorists are located," he said. Prior to this, Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, briefed the All-Party delegation, where he noted that after the dastardly April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Japan was the first country to respond.The Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated that India's unwavering stand against cross-border terrorism, as seen in Operation Sindoor, will be highlighted in all engagements. In a separate key meeting, foreign secretary Vikram Misri met Takehiro Funakoshi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue in Tokyo. Their iscussions covered advancing the India Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and conveying India's message on zero tolerance for terror. Misri also met Hiroyuki Namazu, Senior Deputy Foreign Minister, Government of Japan. They exchanged views on India-Japan cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region & other issues of common interest. The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation, led by Sanjay Kumar Jha, includes Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MP Dr Hemang Joshi, CPI(M) MP John Brittas, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, BJP MP Brij Lal, and BJP MP Pradan Baruah.The delegation aims to brief international partners on India's response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack and its broader fight against cross-border terrorism while engaging with leaders in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore. The delegation's visit and engagements underline India's proactive diplomacy and efforts to strengthen strategic ties while rallying international support against terrorism. (ANI)
As per India's Embassy in Tokyo, the participants supported India's fight against terrorism.

In a post on X, India's embassy to Japan stated, "All-Party Parliamentary Delegation interacted with leading Japanese think tanks in Tokyo and briefed them on India's zero tolerance to terrorism. Regional security challenges including state backed terrorism was discussed during the interactive session. Participants expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism."

https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925448338998202830

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri held talks with Takehiro Funakoshi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue in Tokyo.

Misri conveyed India's zero tolerance for terrorism during the talks.

In a post on X, Indian Embassy in Tokyo stated, "H.E. Mr Vikram Misri, Hon'ble Foreign Secretary, joins H.E. Mr Takehiro Funakoshi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue in Tokyo. Discussions covered advancing the India Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and conveying India's message on zero tolerance for terror."

https://x.com/IndianEmbTokyo/status/1925443214812881043

Earlier in the day, an All-Party Parliamentary Delegation from India met with Takeshi Iwaya, Foreign Minister of Japan, reiterating India's unwavering national consensus and firm commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms.

The Japanese Foreign Minister expressed strong support for India's fight against terrorism and lauded the restraint shown by India, urging strict punishment for perpetrators of terror acts.

Delegation lead, JD(U) MP Sanjay Kumar Jha said," We presented India's stand strongly. He appreciated it and said that action should be taken against terrorism. He also appreciated the restraint India had shown. He supported India's stand against terrorism. He said that terrorism should be eliminated. He added that EAM S Jaishankar had briefed him on this. He offered his condolences on the Pahalgam attack and said that they (terrorists) should be punished." (ANI)
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met with Hiroyuki Namazu, Senior Deputy Foreign Minister of Japan, to discuss India-Japan cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region and other shared interests. The Indian Embassy in Japan shared the update on social media with the hashtag #ConnectingHimalayaswithMountFuji. Misri also met Takehiro Funakoshi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan for the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister Dialogue in Tokyo. Discussions covered advancing the India Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, and conveying India's message on zero tolerance for terror. Meanwhile, an All-Party Parliamentary Delegation from India met with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Tokyo, reaffirming India's firm national consensus and resolute commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms. During the meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya expressed strong support for India's counter-terrorism stance, praised the restraint shown by New Delhi, and called for strict action against the perpetrators of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. He emphasized that "terrorism must be eliminated" and noted that he had been briefed on the matter by External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar. Echoing this, JD(U) MP and delegation leader Sanjay Kumar Jha told ANI that India's position was conveyed firmly and received strong support from the Japanese side. "The Minister appreciated our stand and clearly stated that those behind such acts must be punished. He supported India's position and acknowledged the seriousness of the Pahalgam incident," Jha said. Earlier in the day, the delegation paid floral tributes at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Edogawa, Tokyo. This gesture symbolised India's enduring commitment to peace and principled stand in global affairs, setting the tone for the delegation's broader message of non-violence and justice. Building on this, Jha addressed the media with a strong appeal to world leaders to unite in isolating Pakistan for its role in sponsoring terrorism. "After the Pahalgam terror attack, it's clear that Pakistan continues to fund, train, and harbour terrorists. Our aim is to highlight this through Operation Sindoor and urge global unity against such state-backed terror," he stated. Prior to the diplomatic meetings, the Indian Ambassador to Japan, Sibi George, briefed the All-Party Delegation. He noted that Japan was the first country to respond with solidarity after the Pahalgam attack. The Indian Embassy in Tokyo also shared that India's zero-tolerance stance on cross-border terrorism--central to Operation Sindoor--would be strongly emphasized in all international engagements. The All-Party Parliamentary Delegation comprises Ambassador Mohan Kumar, BJP MPs Dr. Hemang Joshi, Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, and Pradan Baruah; CPI(M) MP John Brittas; and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee. The team will continue its outreach in Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore to build consensus on India's counter-terrorism efforts and rally global support post-Pahalgam. The series of diplomatic engagements in Tokyo mark India's proactive global outreach and underline its determination to strengthen strategic ties and lead an international campaign against terrorism. (ANI)
South Africa has reduced the status of Taiwan's liaison office in the nation, further limiting the island's diplomatic presence, reflecting China's growing influence internationally, as reported by Radio Free Asia (RFA). In 1997, South Africa cut official diplomatic ties with Taiwan and acknowledged Beijing as China's legitimate government. However, for the last thirty years, it has maintained unofficial relations with Taipei as well as a trading partnership, as indicated by RFA. The Department of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa has now reclassified the Taiwan Liaison Office, which operates like a de facto embassy without official diplomatic recognition, as a "Taipei Commercial Office" on its website, and has removed Taiwanese Representative Oliver Liao's name from the listing. On Friday, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung alleged that China had pressured South Africa to implement these changes. He mentioned that the liaison office had asked to negotiate with the South African government regarding this matter. China asserts that Taiwan is part of its territory and argues that the self-governing island has no right to independent diplomatic relations. Currently, Taiwan has formal diplomatic relations with only about a dozen countries, primarily smaller and less developed nations. As a major diplomatic player and the largest economy in Africa, South Africa is important in a continent where China has established economic and security connections over the past two decades. Additionally, South Africa is set to host the upcoming Group of 20 (G-20) summit this year, as highlighted by RFA. Relations between China and South Africa have significantly strengthened since they formalised their relationship in 1998. Currently, China is South Africa's largest trade partner, with their bilateral trade reaching USD 52.4 billion in 2024, compared to Taiwan-South Africa trade, which averages around USD 2 billion annually. As a BRICS member, South Africa also partners with China on economic, political, and developmental projects, aligning with Beijing on reforms in global governance, as stated by RFA. (ANI)